A speculative mind

  What is the best designed animal? Obviously not a legitimate question because one could argue that all species are well designed for the life and habitat where they live. It is also entirely subjective. So, in my entirely subjective and unscientific assessment, I am going to cast my vote for the otter as the best designed animal. Just look at the way they move. They are like self-powered slinkies. They are comfortable on land or water. Cold does not bother them. They are sleek and streamlined. I mean come on. They are just darn cute. You might think that the soft furry otters would be easy prey for large predators, but they are so well adapted for swimming that if they are near a body of water they can often escape. And they are not faint-hearted. I recently saw a nature program where a group of four otters scared off a large tiger from their watering hole. I think my affection for otters started with a Disney nature program I saw as a kid. Otters were playing and sliding dow...

  Have you ever had one of those moments when you are going along with your life and suddenly something happens that throws your life into reverse? Sure you have. Everybody has. You lose your job, or you get a bad medical diagnosis, or the unexpected death of a family member. You go from everything is fine, to everything seems broken. Books, movies, plays and songs are written about just such events. Young Hamlet must have been having a great life, he was the prince and would one day become king. He was living the college life away in foreign country. He was on top of the world. But then he gets news that his father is dead. By the time he makes it back home to Elsinore, his uncle has married his mother and has been named king. What a turn of events. Then his father’s ghost tells him that the uncle killed him. It’s enough to drive one mad, or to drive one to pretend to be mad. Sometimes the event that changes our world is a collective one. Everyone who was alive in 1963 knows w...

  I have discovered that I have become obsessed with a Finnish metal band. If you don’t have the patience to listen to a middle age man gush about a rock band, then you had better move on, because that is the kind of blog this is going to be. First, I should state that there are many different flavors of metal music. Alternative metal, death metal, funk metal, black metal, Christian metal and more. The band that I am talking about is Nightwish, and they fall under the heading of “symphonic metal.” Most of the songs are written by the leader and keyboard player, Tuomas Holopainen who has proven himself a masterful composer. Whether he wants to take you on a rocket ride or plumb the depth of his soul, you will feel it. It doesn’t hurt that they often have the London Philharmonic Orchestra backing them up. Nightwish can rock out with the best of them or they can play beautiful lyrical productions that sound like they belong in a movie score. The band was started in 1996. That is a...

  I have had my share of rejection. Anyone who wants to pursue writing will become well acquainted with it. It is part of the game. You don’t let it get to you, or you will give up; one or the other. Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling was rejected twelve times before a publisher finally accepted it. What if she had given up after eleven tries? I have a couple of novels that I tried and tried and tried to get published with no luck. But then I had one that was accepted on the first try. Was it better than the other two? I don’t think so. It’s a mystery. Either way, you learn to make rejection, if not a friend, at least something to be tolerated. Some authors get creative with their rejection letters. I heard of one who built a waste basket out of theirs. Now that’s creativity for you. A writer can take rejection very personally. If I get rejected, I need to remember that it is not me they are rejecting. It is not even my writing they are rejecting. It is only one sample of my writing t...