To the Marriage of True Minds

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So, I was at one of those parties today and I met a bunch of nice folks and spent time with some old friends too.  And one of my friends was telling a story about a relative of his who had a job that involved a lot of international travel including Europe where he met his future wife.  And because of his desire to build up some equity in a home he bought a house in a town where he did not necessarily want to eventually settle down when he returned permanently to the US.

So, when he and his new wife took up residence in this home, he had his eyes open for his dream house which would include a huge garage that would accommodate his hobby of rebuilding classic old cars.  And one day he found it.  It had everything he wanted and was in the part of town he liked best.  So, he informed his wife of his find and that they should get ready to sell their house and move to the new location.  What he didn’t realize was that since moving back his wife had put down roots in the neighborhood and made friends and after moving to a new continent she would be devastated if she had to pull up roots again and start from scratch.

So, he stayed and had to forego the dream garage.  And my friend finished by saying that he had always been extremely shocked that his relative hadn’t insisted that they move in order to get the garage he really wanted.  So, I said to him, “But aren’t they still happily married?”  And he said “Yeah.”  “Well,” I said, “what’s harder to find, a good wife or a good garage?  And what are the chances of finding a second wife as good as the first?”  He chuckled and said, “I see your point.”

Now mostly this is just an amusing story.  The whole reason that his relative didn’t demand a move is that in any halfway decent marriage there is always a whole continuum of tradeoffs and negotiations that go on between a husband and wife.  We all have our “garage” that we want badly and also a laundry list of things that come ahead of it in the calculus of family life.  The kids’ braces come before that man cave you lust after.  A minivan has to be financed before the fishing boat you’ve always wanted.  Sometimes by the time it’s your turn to buy your heart’s desire, your heart no longer desires it.  Or you’re too old to put it to good use.

But managing to raise a family in today’s society and still being married to someone you like at the end is something of an accomplishment and I guess that was what I was trying to say.  It’s a trite saying, “Happy wife, happy life.”  But if you’ve had a happy marriage, it rings true.  Now before I get too sappy, I’ll append the classic answer that Art (Deputy Marshal in “Justified”) gave to the criminal when asked if he loved his wife, “Well, most of the time!”  But even that limitation admits to the fact that (mostly) happily married men recognize that even if a marriage is fraught with feminine annoyances the alternative is much sadder and lonelier.

Parties and Stories

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Tomorrow Camera Girl and I are double booked for parties.  We have a graduation party and a friend’s family party.  And they’re both at about the same time.  So, I suggested that we go to the graduation party for an hour or so and then head to the second one.  Camera Girl spent a couple of days telling me why that was a stupid idea.  And then she told me that we would split up and each go to only one party.

So, then I suggested we start off going to separate parties but then I would come back and pick her up and both of us would go to the friend’s party.  I think she wanted to hit me.  She shook her head and walked away.  I don’t think she understands optimization.

You see if I show up at a party by myself everyone is going to want to know where she is and why I showed up without her.  I’m not the draw.  She’s much more interesting because she’s telling stories about all the stupid things I do.  And when she tells them they’re funny.  Now I can’t tell stories about myself.  It would sound stupid.  I need a straight man to tell the story and then let me weave my defense.  It would be like Costello asking “who’s on first” without Abbott.  It’s just not the same without the cross-talking.

So today I checked my stats on Amazon.  So far, “The Sniper” has sold a total of 303 books (65 paperback copies and 238 e-books) and 3,657 pages on Kindle Unlimited.  On Kindle Unlimited my book is about 210 pages long so 3,657 pages is about 17 copies.  Not bad for about a month on Kindle Unlimited.  But I may have to cancel the yacht.

But the lack of fabulous wealth from my book sales has not dampened my enthusiasm for writing.  In fact, I’ve become much more excited about the sequel.  And what has me most intrigued is not so much the plot or even the new and old characters.  What I’m interested in is injecting more dialog.  Specifically, I want to get some of the characters to tell their stories.  And I know that this is backward.  The author is supposed to show the reader the story and not tell it. But storytelling within a story is an interesting technique that I’d like to try.  And I’d like to introduce dialog between characters about politics, economic policy, religion, traditional family, artificial intelligence, the war between the sexes, energy policy, the future of the human race, space exploration and a million other things.

Of course, I’ll have to be careful I don’t drown out the action under such a heavy soaking of blather but I think it’s time for my world to start exhibiting brains and not just marksmanship.  One thing I haven’t worked out yet is whether I get Connors and Grace to go out on a date.  I’ve been bouncing some stuff off of Camera Girl but I still don’t know whether any of it makes sense.  Oh well, the only way to find out is to start writing and see where it goes.

Antifa in the News, Finally

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So last night I wrote about the crazies who are practicing to be the next Lee Harvey Oswald.

In a related vein, Antifa has been in the news a few times lately.  The first major headline a few months ago was that a group of Antifa who attacked ICE in Texas were successfully prosecuted and sentenced to serious prison time.

Then this week up in Minnesota about a dozen more were arrested for both obstruction of law enforcement but also threats of violence against officers.

So, what we’re seeing is the Trump administration’s decision to brand Antifa a domestic terrorism organization and prosecute its members as co-conspirators is bearing fruit.  If one member has a gun or a knife but the rest of the gang funnel victims his way, he’ll get the lion’s share of the sentence, but they all get to enjoy a part of the jail term.  Nice!

But the latest fun news item came from James O’Keefe.  You remember that intrepid undercover reporter from his hilarious expose on Anthony Wiener and his wiener.  But also, for the work he did exposing ACORN as an NGO scam.  But in his most interesting new work his organization managed to crack into a New Jersey Antifa group called NJ BURN.  They got access to the Signal chat group used by this Antifa cell and managed to identify a large number of the Antifa members.  They were a mix of the usual students and dirtbags but also professors, computer scientists and even politicians.

Well, that’s got to feel like a kick in the head for these guys.  When law enforcement and the general public know that you’ve been supporting Antifa and a whole year of your communications including information on tactics and resources have been exposed, that can’t be helpful for a terrorist organization.  And it’s also kind of embarrassing to get outsmarted by a tiny media company that doesn’t have the resources or scope of the FBI or the Justice Department.

Anyway, my takeaway is that these guys are going to start feeling a lot more heat than they used to and the less radical members with actual lives may decide that going to prison for a few years is more of a commitment than a computer programmer cares to invest into social justice.  But the real breakthrough has been identifying the NGOs that have been supporting the “activists” who wander from city to city acting as the shock troops for these operations.  These organizations pay the rent, food bills, gas, transportation, legal fees and medical costs for the protestors and probably various supplies that they use in their riots.

I hope that in the near future we’ll hear of additional prosecutions and eventually this should put a real damper on the anti-ICE movement and if done correctly might eventually depopulate Portland, Oregon.  But seriously, I once again have to give Trump high marks for working his Justice Department through the maze of left-wing allies that have protected Antifa up till now and prevented these disgusting people from being locked away where they belong, in prison.