The Sleep-Deprived Epiphany

Yes, dear Readers, an Epiphany. I was driving along this morning and on my way to work (there was a load of Arizona Iced Tea needing a good home and I was on a mission) when I suddenly felt an overwhelming burst of sudden knowledge pervade my being. It turns out my condition is not, I repeat, NOT, merely cluster headaches and a misaligned spine, but the result of years of disturbed and deprived sleep combined with several acute moments of blunt-force head trauma.

I gasped. I felt as though there was a great veil lifted.

I have been rather exasperated by the series of headaches I have been experiencing as of late. Please allow me to explain- Sometime back in or around 2008 I began suffering mind-bending headaches, but only after falling asleep. I would not suffer this during any waking hours and I noticed no hint the suffering would soon commence. But shortly after falling asleep (usually within two hours) I would be alarmed with a soul-shattering pain throughout my skull. I was eating pain relievers like a teen geek at a Star Trek movie (by the large handfuls for those not so gauche) to no avail. Eventually, I was eating these pills like this before falling asleep, but again, in a futile effort.

I quickly became uncomfortable and then eventually fearful of sleep.

Realizing this was a situation unable to stand, I went to the doctor. To illustrate, please understand I am not one to see the good doctor every time I get a sniffle or hangnail. No, if I can get the bone back in place myself and a Red Streamline Stapler will assist in stopping the blood flow, then the $20 copayment would be a monumental waste of funds. But I went to the doctor for this.

I explained my situation. “That’s right, doctor. It happens when I fall asleep and only then. But what’s worse is this situation is increasing in severity. It’s been about two weeks with no signs of anything but getting worse.”

He did a brief examination and then took hold of my tense shoulders. He then said, “To be honest, I think this is in your neck, not in your head.”

He wrote out two prescriptions and said, “Okay, I want you to take these. Don’t just take them when you feel like it, but do it as prescribed.”

People, these drugs were the shazam of the big, bad headache world. I mean, they stopped entirely. Well, not entirely.

A few months after experiencing headache free nights, the problem resumed. But my solution was simple in that I merely renewed the prescriptions and did what I had done before. Voila.

Yes, voila. The situation was resolved for years. But then fast forward to the present day, January of 2013.

A bit more than two weeks prior to the time of this writing, the headaches resumed. Now, at first they weren’t a major deal at all. I could beat them with a couple acetaminophen tablets and forget about it. During those first few days I found if I laid a certain way the headache would diminish on their own. Now, that’s awesome.

But it wasn’t to last. After a few more days, the old concerns of fearing the notion of lying down to sleep shivered me timbers. To go further, this was aggravated by the fact that I am now driving big truck again, and in a team truck with another. Just this past weekend saw a Friday morning miserable as all Hell while I tried to rest in order to work that night. I decided a visit to the doctor would be in order, and during the Saturday morning after driving through the night I cinched the decision in with a call. They could see me the next afternoon.

I attended this appointment yesterday, after a night of experiencing a full night of sleep sans the pain from Saturday to Sunday morning. No headache. No issues.

No bouncing, noisy Freightliner. There’s a point to that.

I explained to the good doctor what I had been going through recently and what I had endured some years ago.

Her diagnosis? Cluster headaches. For those not in the know, these are headaches that come and go in clusters of time, sometimes returning for a while before disappearing for an amount of time. She utilized a few words that got by me and then I was eventually confused to silence, but she had me covered. While I was relatively unsure of the origin of my pain, we now had two doctors with two different diagnoses. Now, the first one might have been wrong in his diagnosis, but not about the treatment. The medications prescribed (none of which were pain killers) did the truck wonderfully.

Our present doctor is approaching this differently. We’re going to seek the cause of the headache while treating the existing condition. There are two minor prescription pills (one known for high blood pressure but also known to assist with headaches) and another for issues like inflammation. A third prescription is for the pain when experiencing the headache at the moment it occurs.

I return in two weeks for a follow-up to see how we’re doing.

But I had an epiphany. If you recall, that is what this is all about. While driving in, I was still reeling from one of the irritable headaches from the night prior (only one night of relief from this demon, it seems) and then it occurred to me:

These things have been occurring during times of great unrest and when rest was difficult to obtain. Years ago, I endured the issue during my time working a third-shift position and when there were domestic crises afoot. Sleep was often something of a luxury at times, and I recall numerous moments when the lack of sleep along with being kept awake for often more than 24 hours was nearly as trying as the continual moments of being wakened when I was finally asleep.

Lately, the issues have been considerably different, but many of the problems parallel those days of old. Today, I have no set schedule in the truck; I drive when my partner is out of time and he does so when I am out of time. The truck is forever on the go up to twelve hundred miles daily, with a suspension system designed to clack your teeth together should a tire roll over a quarter. One must continually endure trying to sleep while the truck is at a constant 9.3 on the Richter scale, and this sleep could be demanded at five in the morning or five in the afternoon, or anywhere in between. There are stops, rushes ahead to stop fast, wide turns and the various endless maneuvers known in these big trucks.

Sleeping in these conditions is both an art and skill. One usually does so eventually, as exhaustion will take over at any time. But the problem is that once the exhaustion is dealt with via some sleep, one often wakes well before desired. Then there is the fact there must be some law preventing the bunk in these trunks to be comfortable whatsoever. I have been driving team with this good fellow since sometime in October, and for the most part I have grown accustomed to it.

But lately some of the days and nights have been so odd as we’ve often had to wait for a bit of time to resume from a specific stop. Any semblance of a predictable schedule was given up some time ago. It isn’t uncommon to fight the fatigue at a time when one wants to stop, and just as common to just lie there, ready to go, during the limited time available to recuperate. And then, wham.

Now, I understand the phenomenon of sleep to be a rather complex and mysterious process despite the common nature of the phenomenon. The body goes through some significant processes in order to sleep, and then the processes taking place during this time are equally significant. Not only does the body rest and consciousness subside, but this is actually an increased anabolic state.

I believe my body is reacting to a significant amount of sleep deprivation and disturbance. While I am trying to sleep when I can, environmental conditions and other factors are disturbing and therefore modifying the sleep process, causing errors in the system. While chemical, anabolic and other biological processes are in full swing, external forces are impinging on proper progression, leading to a malformed conclusion. The errors, now increasingly consistent yet changing in their methods, are taking hold.

The common transformational processes are being afflicted with anomalous occurrences so continually that the appropriate process is being replaced with an askew version. This is leading to stresses in the process, so rather than achieving rest, a condition of marked unrest is occurring. The symptoms resulting from this is severe stress combined with subconscious defense mechanisms not unlike common factors known with PTSD, or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

In short, I think my sleeping process has falsely determined it is under attack, or at least living in chaotic conditions, and as a result is responding with abrupt measures not much different from a high fever.

The one night I slept fine, just two nights ago, I was home and quite relaxed. I was in the kitchen and enjoyed a couple beers while watching a movie alone. Then, once I was quite tired and had to try to sleep despite my misgivings about enduring the expected headache, I got into a bed that was quite comfortable and not moving at all.

I slept almost continuously for nearly eight hours. I was up just once for the restroom.

My sleeping processes are assuming they’re under attack. That is the knowledge I have gained during this epiphany.

I should add some of the side effects of these drugs include dizziness, mania, euphoria and anxiety. Further, some of my common stresses combined with some of these drugs can significantly increase Cortisol, which can lead to even more stressful issues and body breakdown.

Hey, I’m just saying. I’m just fine to drive. 

Alphabet v. Wheel- Which is the Greater Invention?

Some simple thought prompts certain things as food for thought, and historical consideration of the basic inventions we enjoy everyday often have people reminiscing on what it might have been like without this or before that. What was life like before our electronic age? Can you imagine what a computer would have been like before the transistor or the microchip? How about before the vacuum tube? What was it like before plastic?

What was it like before iron or bronze?

There are a handful of basic inventions and discoveries that made a fundamental difference for the humanity following ever since and these are contemplated now and then. For example, the discovery of fire is often considered the finest of humanity’s early discoveries since so much rapidly occurred thereafter, and the wheel is often considered humanity’s first primary stroke of genius.

I cannot doubt this grand invention was one of humanity’s first master wonder thoughts of historical proportion. Evidence of the invention of the wheel goes back nearly ten thousand years and we’re still using the hell out of it (can you imagine the difference of our world if one particular family name held a patent on that thing all this time? Hey, a story unfolds…), but is it still the finest of human inventions? Has anything surpassed it in importance? Just because it happened first, does that make it the forever number one?

The history of the Alphabet does not go back quite so far, but this thinker will make the claim that the wheel was dethroned by this one amazing invention. Because, sure, Grog and the other cavemen of the time could have passed on the methods to create another wheel without really having to write it down, but the potential implications of this invention and the potential future that could be created required some serious thought. The point is that the possibility to write down information and then pass it on to others in order to regain that information from what was written down has made a difference in human history unlike anything else.

So, why does the wheel take all the credit as being humanity’s finest invention? Beyond that, was the wheel an actual invention or does it also fall under the category of discovery? Those who first used the wheel for practical purposes may not have just worked out the wheel thinking they need something that rolls, but may have come across something round and found it rolls. Grog or Bill or whoever looked at that and had some dazzling thoughts about what could be done with it, but did he truly invent the thing?

Look, we’ll never know that for sure, but we can be certain that the development of the alphabet wasn’t something so easily stumbled upon. Sure, certain aspects of symbolic drawing likely led to simplifying those symbols in order to ease the time spent (they didn’t have writing tools then, one must suppose) creating them, and eventually a standardization took place. Today’s Phoenician Alphabet is considered the standard by which other alphabets were based on and has been since it was first created so long ago, and it exists with only one other primary alphabetical system, which is the Chinese writing. Sure, there are Hebrew and other forms, but the alphabet we use along with the system still employed by the Chinese are now the mainstays while others just hang on within certain cliques. And the alphabet wins out over that Chinese method as the standard to consider around the globe.

The Alphabet we know of today truly changed the way humanity functions on just about every level. Now, the wheel was a basic invention that changed human history forever, and another standardized invention helped along the way, which was the development of language. The use of language was likely one of the first capabilities placing humanity on the road to sentience and civilization, but the written language allowed humanity to travel so much faster and to so many more people. Writing down how to make a certain wheel and then disseminating that information far and wide would have been better than Grog rolling his one wheel along and having people behold firsthand.

Language was certainly one of humanity’s greatest thresholds of grand importance, but the invention of the written language allowed human thought and discovery to spread just about everywhere. This is why we still consider the library as a location of incredible human wisdom, history and the accumulation of what we know, all in one convenient spot. That is made possible because of the alphabet.

And wow, but is it so simple. Clearly, I am employing this awesome invention at this moment simply to pass on these thoughts to you, and the alphabet ensures these thoughts are passed on far and wide. By using the alphabet in the way it was prescribed (this symbol sounds like this, while this one sounds like that, and you put them together to obtain this sound, or more importantly, this word…) we’ve been able to reach a point where we can fly, discover so many secrets of the universe, see places once thought not to exist, and, well, on and on and on.

As a writer, I am so grateful to have this marvelous invention as a part of my life. In fact, such things as writers would not be here; we would still be mere hunters and gatherers, and maybe doing some farming. At the time of this writing, I have been making my living as a truck driver (all 18 wheels of it), so it isn’t as though I am someone dissing the wheel. Those eighteen wheels have made a positive difference in my life, as well as everyone else’s. Today’s Transportation Industry makes all the difference in the way society and the economy operates, so if trucks were to stop rolling, so wouldn’t everything else.

While it wasn’t something I thought of consciously on a daily basis, but I have to consider how these two primary and ever-important inventions have made a particular difference in my life. Further, while I do find the alphabet the better of the two inventions for several reasons, the wheel does me more in terms of economic potential than the alphabet.

After all, innumerable people benefit from what I do via the wheel, but how many people will ever make it through to reading this particular sentence? 

Science & Faith- As Above, So Below

After giving this some thought, I have found I cannot help but to support the faith and theories behind religious and spiritual isms. But my reasoning doesn't have to do with the Bible or people’s firm assertions of what is right and wrong. Rather, my spiritual beliefs and faith in the place of God is based on the very things many people find turning them from these beliefs.

It’s funny how so many people have looked towards science and rational discovery as a vehicle to dismiss the existence of God and, therefore, the value of religion. I find this strange since the more I learn about how the universe and the world works, and how all things great and small work together on a precarious balance, the more it seems the notion that it is somehow an accumulation of random occurrences just appears naïve at best.

When we consider what science has learned of how the galaxies function and hold together, and how the methods operating our home galaxy foster the possibility of life here on Earth, and then how complex and sophisticated life is and has been for more than three billion years, and then how the function of the planet itself allows for life, and then how the solar system’s construction allows for life here (did you the know the gas giants help suck up a lot of meteoric debris through their extraordinary gravitational pull?), and then how our position within the galaxy allows our solar system to operate in its fashion, and the magnetic field of our world along with the atmospheric density of the planet fosters great protection for the life below…and then we must consider how science must only be scratching the surface of what can be known.

I do understand how difficult it is for some to give blind faith to religion; I am one of these people and I find religion a difficult subject. But I cannot help but to believe with absolute conviction there is a Universal Consciousness operating within, throughout, and above all of this. To assume it came together randomly as opposed to Intelligent Design is so hard for me to grasp.

Now, the Biblical teachings of what and who God truly is can be hard for me. It is difficult for me to believe in some invisible man in the sky. But, if my assumptions are correct in there is a Universal Consciousness, then I must concede that this God has placed a method of us understanding Him in a way He has chosen. But, one might ask, how do we explain the various religious dogmas, beliefs, philosophies, and pursuits? There is Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism, and on and on. They’re obviously different, and within each there are different sects.

Look, once upon a time, mankind was not so united on a global front. Getting from here to there was a significant undertaking for a long time. So, might have this Universal Consciousness reached out to those according to their cultural specifics? Or, did they reach out to it, feeling innately to be a part of it? Beyond this, why do people who look at the Bible and other religious texts as having missing parts (explain the dinosaurs, Jesus) demonstrating a sure-fire clue that they’re just plain making it all up? It is so difficult for me to accept the atheistic notion that there are only the three physical dimensions and that we’re just meat come together as a result of various random effects. The clues signifying this is radical denial are just too voluminous.

It could be that religion and spirituality is evolving and growing in sophistication as we do. That is a bitter pill for the faithful, but my purpose in this treatise is to explore a mystery. So then, how does one explain the corruption of faith, such as is being suffered in the Muslim faiths? How they assume Allah looks at the infidels as something to be destroyed (when He made them like they are) yet assume this same Creator supremely fucked up in placing a clitoris on the female so it is their job to lop all of them off? There are questions just not presenting their answers, but they do point out there isn’t anyone with a firm enough grasp of the actual truth.

I assume (I cannot state this with conviction and faith) that the Universe somehow developed a self awareness of a sort and a consciousness. There is a plane somewhere there that developed a form of sentience. But I assume it may not have always been like this and that this Consciousness does not have all the answers, but is working it out as time moves along. Perhaps God is not omniscient like we want to assume, but He needs to figure things out as He goes along. Maybe, just maybe, God is evolving, too.

As for Evolution, why do the religious want to doubt it? I bite my lip when people arrogantly state evolution says we just came from monkeys so it’s just bullshit. Well, first, it doesn’t say that whatsoever. We have to eat, sleep, bathe, eliminate, and do other things specific to the mundane, physical world, so why must we think God didn’t adopt evolution as a means of creating His Creation? He might have very well started with simple life way back in the Cambrian or whatever it was and then came up with bright improvements along the way (and that’s just here).

Have you asked why we are sentient and self aware (we’re not as much as we like to think) and why we’ve developed our minds and command of our world like we have? Could our intelligence and ability to create technology be a consequence of evolution resulting from the last great extinction? Might the Universal Consciousness assume that since this world could be struck out and somehow destroyed that there should be a species capable of achieving migration from the world, or saving it entirely? Geese fly south for the winter, but we cannot fly into outer space the same way. We must have technology. Ergo, our technology is a natural consequence of evolution and nature because the Universal Consciousness worked it out that way. It is fair to say the neon lights of Vegas are just as natural as the stars or the bellies of fireflies.

In one simple sentence: There is nothing supernatural or unnatural, ever. There is only the natural, and if it exists or will, or has, it is natural. Our space exploration is as natural as the migration of whales.

But this Universal Consciousness doesn’t seem to favor many species. More than 99% of all life that we have ever known to exist has long died out. I believe it is fair to state that if we do not get our shit together and work out our troubles, the Universal Consciousness just might decide to try again with someone else.

This is why we have a space program and a nuclear weapons program. Whichever one works better is the one who gets to stay. Why would God care? Just allow the insect world to develop a sentient species and try again. I believe the one fatal and all-consuming error of religion (forgive me) is that God does not single us out any more than he does any other creature. We assume we’ve had some favor because of our place in the scheme of things, but then, we can only assume. The difference between arrogance and ignorance is minuscule, and we know so precious little. Just imagine how our place in the eyes of God will change should we discover there is really life elsewhere. But life on other planets, particularly intelligent life, would not shake my faith in the Universal Consciousness; it would cinch it down unlike anything else ever could. But those guys in your randomizer and smoke it.

The point is that Nature and God come together so well that I cannot understand how people look to science and dismiss God, or how the faithful look to science and dismiss the assumptions and theories? If there is a God, and then Bigfoot and Martians, ghosts and mermaids, then they are of a Natural consequence. If there were truly dinosaurs, they were a creature of God, too. One does not cancel out the other.

I believe that one of the great challenges humanity faces now is the acceptance of the culmination of these isms. If we cannot do this and we must continue with the notion that they’re separate, then our place in the scheme of things might suffer. This is why I loathe radical political Islam; it could be the very last straw for our existence at all. If it flourishes over us, we will flourish no more.

So, could this final challenge be what has been predicted in the End Times and by the various celebrity prophets? What could justify any attention given to prophecies?

If the Universe works as I theorize and that this Universal Consciousness pervades it completely, then it surely could see these events taking us one way or another. If I see you reaching for a salt shaker and then you ask me, what am I doing right now, I can suppose you’re reaching for the salt shaker. If you grasp it and state I was correct, I would have accurately prophesied a future event. But this one would be so mundane because it is so obviously based on empirical evidence that one’s incited to yawn. But how does one suppose Nostradamus and his vision is based on wacky superstition and not an actual empirical view unseen by us, as he might have a greater touch on universal empiricism. How do we do this to any of the prophets not allowed by our personal faiths?

I believe the missing link between our spiritual faiths and our empirical knowledge is the key to our survival. We must recognize this link if we are to truly succeed and not go extinct. Only time will tell, but the Mayans predicted this time was a new era (those who thought this was the end were incorrect; it doesn't take much faith to recognize that) and this new era sees these two polarities clashing in a way unlike any other time we know of in all of history. We now live in a time when these two will either cancel one another out or come together, united as a One species greater than the one prior.

As above, so below.

My Kindle- Wow, but I Love It So Much!

Now, it may seem I am behind the times. Here I am, now well into 2013, and just now I intend on writing down my thoughts on my eReader. Well, I suppose I have been behind, since I have only had my Kindle (the first generation one, at that) since late September of last year and it is my first. Before that, I endured reading via that hard print, hard copy, weighty book format. 

Relax, everyone. I survived it. 

Now, it wasn't as though I was one of the hold-outs who refused to join the new world and give the eReader a try. I didn't harbor the attitude that these newfangled corntraptions would kill the world of books and reading (although the bookstores felt the grind) and that they'll never get me, no sirree bobcat tail. No, I simply couldn't justify the purchase until several other financial issues (such as avoiding foreclosure) were given their due. 

Then, my lovely wife found a deal on one and gave it to me for an anniversary present. Dear God, but what a present it is. 

I imagined I would like it since I do enjoy reading and, no, I don't like lugging around piles of books. I do enjoy a beautiful, leather-bound edition and all that, but mostly I just want the work contained within. My Kindle offers so much of that and more, since I can carry with me more books than I'll ever read in my lifetime, all in one tidy little package. Technology is awesome.

But my bigger reason for enjoying this is because I like to scour the obscure and little-known sources for reading; particularly those locations containing work so many people find beneath their contempt. This is wonderful for me, since most people find me beneath their contempt. 

The sources for cheap e-reading, such as Smashwords, Amazon, Kobo and on and on, offer vast amounts of cheap and free reading. So, rather than see an eReader as a significant expense, it's actually a marvelous way to save quite a bit of money. While the mainstream offers eBooks for a ridiculous amount of money (fifteen to twenty dollars for a download? Really?), the eBook sources such a Smashwords and Kobo offer decades of reading for a few bucks at the very most. 

Ergo, you can load up with gobs and gobs of marvelous books for very little money. 

I also like the option of downloading library books on the Kindle. Now, I know they say the borrowed download will only remain for a couple of weeks, but if you power off the WIFI connector of the eReader, you can have the borrowed book for as long as you need. 

Also, since the gizmo will read anything PDF, the possibilities of having a vast amount of reading and reference material on there are virtually endless. 

Just wait- in a few years I might be able to get some sort of tablet. Imagine what I'll think of that! Coming soon, a review of the Tamagatchi! 

No, not really. 

Human Trafficking- Reinvigorate Your Vigilance

Ask yourself a simple question- What do you believe is the single most evil aspect of the world today? 

Might it be political corruption? That would be a good one, what with the influence possessed by corrupt politicians. Because they have the capacity to do so much good, they have even more capacity to do wrong and perpetuate wrong. 

But we have to ask ourselves just what is the nature of evil and what does it affect. In the way the world is right now, I must state that I believe the world's most pressing evil is Human Trafficking and this is why.

Only the evil would believe the act of rape is a good thing. Only the evil would support kidnapping or slavery. Only the evil would support the act of cannibalism. Only the evil would support murdering the disposed. Ergo, since Human Trafficking is all of these rolled up into one, Human Trafficking is our greatest evil.

This crime is more prevalent than ever before, despite the so-called efforts on the part of the government. You know what? To Hell with the supposed efforts on the part of government and law enforcement. This writer will, right here and right now, state that these organizations are directly responsible for the success and proliferation of these crimes, so it would be a supreme act of evil to believe they are in the fight to combat it. 

Now, why would I say they are in on it? Look, the statistics show there are more than 27 million people directly victimized by Human Trafficking around the globe. The crime affects people literally everywhere people exist. The reason it exists is because so many common, everyday people feed it with their patronage. Young girls and children are sold, easily, on the internet. Pimps are thought to be cool and funny. With the resources available to government and law enforcement, is one going to try to convince me they're stumped when the average Joe feeds this problem with a minimum of difficulty? That is just pure BS and there's no defense for it. 

It is obvious the government and law enforcement are perpetuating and supporting Human Trafficking and this is why. This crime exists everywhere with virtually no fear of being persecuted mainly because it feeds and stimulates the economy better than just about anything else out there. How widespread and rampant is the act of counterfeiting currency? Yeah, go ahead and get caught trying to buy some gas with a fake twenty. You'll be in a hot seat with a bright light in your face while surrounded by eighty secret service agents. 

But if you want to spend a few twenties on an hour with a nine year old little girl, just to know what it's like, you won't have to make much effort at all. 

If anyone wants to argue these points, please come at it. Be prepared to spend some time, because the information and statistics are overwhelming in volume. 

On a positive point, I still think that this crime is very much akin to a vampire. If the people of society have greater knowledge of what this crime truly is and knows what to look for, effectively exposing it to the light, then we can put a major dent into it. 

But we also have to recognize this crime is so prolific and widespread because this is what humanity is. Humanity is a predatory scavenger, speaking from a purely natural position, so there is no surprise humanity would cling to such a crime like wet plastic wrap. There is a defenseless victim to prey and scavenge on, so our natural instincts, along with our tendency to attract to wealth and power, all combine together to create the perfect recipe for human evil. Little girls are a cliche' of defenselessness, and they sell better than half-price pizza. 

It would be a better idea to perceive Human Trafficking like a classic human failure rather than a crime. Because Human Trafficking feeds our natural instincts so well, and apparently our natural instincts have it thriving, we must recognize how sentient and civilized we are NOT. Because we are so turned by these ancient instincts, we cannot look at ourselves and one another and state we are a smart and civilized creature. No, until Human Trafficking is broken, we can only claim to be the same knuckle-dragging freak we've always been. 

If you don't believe yourself to be a knuckle-dragging freak, then help to combat this. Get involved with Human Trafficking battling efforts through seeking as much educational information as you can find, and then pass that information to all you know. It boggles my mind how so many people hear about this more today than in the past, yet dismiss it largely as a non-issue. Is it because the little girls being raped forty times a day (just to meet the quota demanded by their owner) isn't directly related to them, then she just doesn't matter? Is that seven year old girl just a slut who asked for it? 

What is it about this, the most evil aspect of all of humanity, that is so easily dismissed as not important. 

The answer is easy. Because Human Trafficking slips so well into the realm of human instincts to prey and scavenge, its act seems as natural and obvious as enjoying a warm, sunny day. 

Shed your natural instincts and join civilization. Because until humanity rids itself of this scourge, no other scourge affecting our kind could ever be touched. This is a good place to start.

When I first wrote my novel, The Egocentric Predicament, I, being naive, thought I could prompt people into taking notice of the issue of Human Trafficking. But I literally could not motivate people to read it even when I freely placed it into their hands. The amount of people on this planet who have read that book likely are less than five. Maybe, through some stretch of the imagination, there might be ten. The effort fell flat. But if I can remain vigilant and spread the word via options such as this blog and by sharing information on FB, then maybe, just maybe, I can help make some difference. 

I ask you do the same. Never assume your law enforcement and government are doing anything other than feeding the monster. The best way to fight this monster is to expose it to the light. Click here for Florida information in order to have a better idea of what's going on right in your neighborhood (for those who know me personally here) and click here for New York information for those in NY who know me. Look, I am finding this information with a search engine search taking but seconds. The information is everywhere because the crime is everywhere. 

To start, all you have to do is care. 

Today's Literary Market- The Free, Easy and Wonderful

For those of you who enjoy a good read, today's reading market offers so much for you to choose from. While most people still believe that the way to find good reading material is to visit the bookstore or library, the fact is that this is simply woefully incomplete. 

Today's mainstream (or Lamestream) still offers the plethora of reading from those who have made the publishing grade and those who harbor the celebrity status, but there is simply so much more to choose from. Now, I don't want to knock or criticize those who have achieved success in writing and publication; I applaud their success and wish them more of it.  The purpose of this writing is to point towards the other choices that are equally worthy of the ardent reader's attention. Not just that, but I want to point towards places where one can find writing that went beyond what the mainstream claims the public desires, often without the public's permission. 

Today, technology has opened doors to readers hitherto never seen before. The eReader such as Kindle has opened doors never before imagined, particularly for the writer. The writers out there who vied for publishing success (I feel your pain) but have yet to get there have options available. Places such as PublishAmerica and Smashwords, Kobo and Diesel, and Amazon offer places for today's aspiring writers to offer their work for the public to explore. 

Now, there are critics stating these avenues open the door to less than ideal work as well as offering publishing without standards, and they're absolutely correct. There are people out there cranking out work utterly hopeless and just plain bad. Many of these people have fallen into the realm of bad self indulgence, thinking they can publish a book just like anyone else, regardless of the so-called quality as defined by others. There are those who need to look up the following words in the dictionary- punctuation, grammar, standard, editing, shame, shamelessness, and cheesy. There are more, but this will suffice for now. The pages and pages of available publications are filled with poorly written work created by people who didn't give one damn. 

But they are not the only ones there. There are so many people who are extraordinarily good writers who, for whatever reason, have yet to achieve success or simply never will. Look, there are just too many at this for all of them to make it. But because these choices are filled with both good and bad writing, it makes this even more fun for those seeking the better work. 

I have found several books and stories in places such as PublishAmerica and Smashwords that have been downright remarkable in how impressive they are. Not only are they good reads, but excellent in their writing standards. The truth is that, should one desire to write and want to be recognized as a writer, the pathway is so, so daunting. For those of you who know me, you know I have pursued these things with very little commercial success. But what I have found is the writer can achieve a certain level of readership without the permission of literary agents, publishing houses, and critics. 

Lately, I have been on a mission of finding quality work among the obscure rank and file and passing on the findings via reviews written on Yahoo! through my page there. So, keep watch of my articles; you'll be seeing reviews for books and anthologies that are available for cheap or free but are virtually priceless in their literary value. 

At the moment, I can tell you to go to www.lancemanion.com, should you be a fan of bizarre humor. I recently wrote a review for The Ball Washer and I am waiting to see it published. It's just that Yahoo! keeps rejecting it. The fuckers. But this clever and fun writer is someone I stumbled onto via Smashwords. 

If you check him out, let him know you discovered him through right here.