Category Archives: Ramblings

Aviation, Off Grid, Projects, Ramblings, School, Sustainable, Tools

Is a blog just a blog?

Sorry about yesterdays disjointed post. I’m really not sure what happened, other than distraction and a somewhat confused general state of mind after spending the day in the shop cleaning up.

This morning I am gonna’ do a little house cleaning here on the blog.

I had set up a blog for Off Grid stuff. If you know me IRL you know I want to live ether next to, or near by a small airport away from “the city.” Hey, I am a small town kind of guy. I also want to be living as self-sufficiently as possible. The Off Grid blog had a few entries that I wanted to keep so I moved them her to FBJ and closed down that blog. If you are interested, they are in the Off Grid category on this site and I will be posting any new stuff here.

It seems like the FBJ site has always been somewhat enigmatic to me. Maybe it’s my OCD that gets in the way of just posting when the mood strikes. I like to have things compartmentalized into there own little categories separate from each other. Having an idea for a post is one thing, I have them all the time, what usually keeps me from posting is where to post it. This gets messy when you have so many interests, and worse when you have a bunch of topic specific blogs. So here we are again, It all comes back to FBJ. I am going to try and post when the ideas strike rather than saying to myself that it should be posted somewhere specific to that interest.

I will continue posting to Lumber Jocks because I am participating in the woodworking community there and that interaction is important to me.

The Vintage Aero Works site and blog are still in the planning stages, but that site will most definitely be reserved for aircraft restoration projects and related topics. it will be my commercial/professional website.

So what will be posted here on FBJ? A little bit of everything. A lot of aviation, some school related posts, woodworking adventures which will mostly be tool and aircraft related along with skill builders and cabinetry work, and any progress in moving off grid and all of its related topics. All of this along with an occasional soapbox post on politics, religion, philosophy, the economy, or anything else that pops up.

One of my goals for this year is to be more engaged with the FBJ site. We shall see how it goes.

Until next time. Peace, Love and Airplanes.
~FlyBoyJon

Ramblings

If it’s any consolation…

March 22. My first post for 2012 is on March 22.

Vintage Aero WorksDidn’t do so good on the plan to write regularly did I. Lots of contributing factors I suppose, the biggest being that I have been slammed with school work ever since I started the AMT program at Gavilan. Other contributing factors include the hesitation to post about anything not “business” enough on this site. I solved this one by dividing stuff into two sites, FBJ is the personal site and Vintage Aero Works as the business site. Right now the VAW site doesn’t have much of anything on it beyond the spiffty logo. 😉

Another contributing factor is pure just-too-damn-tired syndrome. This is one I am still working on. There is a huge list of things I need to get rolling but school has to come first over just about everything else. In the category of exceptions to the rule we had one of those rare items come up last week. On March 13th my father-in-law passed away. The first decade of Tammy and my life together we spent a lot of time with the in-laws and I have grown to love them as my natural parents. Dad was the only father I have ever known and I miss him a great deal, far more than I can express.

After they moved back to Massachusetts we kept in touch of course, but not as often as we should have. Being less than wealthy, we were not able to go back and visit with them much at all. They came out here a couple of times and my wife went back there when dad was really sick with his first cancer battle. He kicked cancer’s ass twice but he was in a weakened state and a series of smaller health issues stacked the deck against him. After a six week period of in-and-out hospitalization he was ready to move on to the next life.  “Mac” Veloza was with us 82 years, 20 of which made me a better person. I’ll miss you dad.

Americo F Veloza
Americo F. Veloza (December 28 1929 - March 13, 2012)
Aviation, Health & Fitness, Ramblings, School

Fitness – Mind, Body, & Soul

In my quest to be one of those old guys working from a nearly forgotten airfield out in the middle of nowhere, restoring aircraft thought lost forever to the ravages of time, I have been restoring myself, bring the old crate up to date.

We Can Do ItOf course there is school, and degrees are important after a fashion, but the real meat and potatoes education was from flight school, soon from AMT school, and there will be other schools too as I move forward eventually earning some sheepskin. If only one thing were true about aviation it would be that you are never really “out of school”, it’s a lifelong commitment to learning, maybe not in the classroom, but still a lot of learning.

This post is not so much about the continuous pursuit of knowledge in all things aeronautical, no this post is about personal growth, and like the never ending commitment of aviation, personal growth is a lifelong exploration as well.

While preparing for this career path, I committed to making some changes in my life. I am a big guy, always have been always will be, but there is a lot of room for improvement. Over in the sidebar you may notice a Health and Fitness tab and under that tab a box, today that box reads 37 pounds lost. At 323 pounds, I am at my lowest weight in nearly two decades, but there is a long way still to go. Ultimately I am shooting for 200, which by the way would be my lowest weight since elementary school. I wrestled when I was in Jr. High in the 280+ weight class.

A big part of this has been altering my way of thinking. I have had to replace an ill conceived thought process about what “waste” and “saving” are. This old, mental attitude invoked hording and stockpiling impulses making me think that a filled plate or a filled garage was was a good thing. This thought process could have been applied to nearly anything. “If I don’t take it all now, I might not have the chance later” it’s just wrong headed. One step in the process has been learning to let go of perfectly good clothing that just doesn’t fit, too big or too small, it doesn’t matter. With the frequent changes in size, most of my clothes come from a second-hand store these days anyway so even if I rotated my entire wardrobe annually it would be at a pretty low cost and I donate cloths back when they no longer fit.

While I’m on the subject of clothes; anyone who has known me since high school can tell you I very rarely went out without some sort of loose over-shirt, sweater or jacket of some kind. It could have been 120 in the shade and I would most likely have had a jacket on. This was totally a body image thing that I have struggled with my whole life. I am still a big guy and still have those body image moments once in a while. Since the beginning of 2011 when I started this weight loss plan I have been going out in t-shirts, in public, with lots of people around! For most of you this may not sound like a big deal but this was a huge mental shift for me. I am not planning on running around in a speedo any time… well… ever, and I apologize for the image, but being free from the self imposed torment of jackets and flannel during the summer swelter is very liberating.

All of this freedom to go out into the world makes it much easier to get out and exercise which is of course helping shift my body chemistry along with the dietary changes. Lower blood pressure, faster pulse recovery, longer endurance, less pain, no insomnia, no depression, the list of quality-of-life improvements seems to grow longer every day.

With AMT school starting in 51 days (yes, I am counting) I’m looking forward to seeing how this new healthier me does in the study department.

There are always more things to do and ways to improve. In my case, the slow and steady application of change works well and I look forward to a regular cycle of New & Improved editions of me.

Until next time, blue skies and tail winds,

~FlyBoyJon

Aviation, Ramblings, School

10 days since my last confession

Ack! I had hoped to get something posted by now. Well here we go, this post will cover a lot of ground, aviation and otherwise.

In the other category… A lot of stuff has been going in my world over the last few years. I started an AS in Aviation Operations degree program at Mountain State University in 2006. With my aviation experience credit and classes completed, I have 50 units out of 60 for my degree. Before I could finish the program my mother passed away. I had to drop out in the middle of the semester so my grades took a nose drive. All of my aviation credits are pass/no pass so thy don’t affect my GPA. My Presidents List earning 4.0 was now a pathetic 1.8. To keep my financial aid I need to maintain a minimum of 2.0 which presents a problem for me.

To get my GPA back in order I decided to go to San Jose City College and take some classes. I made this decision a while ago but recently I had a bit of an epiphany. It became clear that I needed to do more than I had planed back in 2006. I decided to pursue an Aeronautical Engineering Degree which means I need to cover all of my GEs. Very few units at MSU are transferable to San Jose State so I need to fulfill them at SJCC, hence a complete over-haul of my education plan. I still want to finish my AS at MSU, but that will have to be part time while I work on my AA at SJCC. I’m guessing you can see why I have been busy. I start classes again on Monday.

Now for some of that airplane stuff. Today I worked on the firewall bulkhead and the stern post. I started by marking out everything I wanted to cut. The Doug Fir I am using for the core of the stern post was laid out on a piece of 1″ x 6″ board and the skins for the stern post were laid out on a piece ⅛” ply. With the wood for the stern post cut out I turned my attention to the firewall bulkhead.

   

The work operations for the firewall bulkhead included cutting out the block shape and drilling the holes to attach the stiffeners. Once the stiffeners are in place the beveled edges on the sides and top can be cut as well the curves in the upper corners and drilling all of the holes. I cut the rough shape and drilled the stiffeners. Then I bolted it all up.

   

The aft side of the bulkhead looks good, the forward side however, didn’t come out the way I was hoping it would. The countersinks are a little too deep, so the screw heads that are supposed to be flush are a bit deeper that they should be. The only solution for this predicament is to cut out a new firewall. While I’m not happy about it, I would rather hold myself to a higher standard than let something slide.

I didn’t feel like pulling out the table saw again so I decided to wait until tomorrow to redo the firewall. I still had some time to keep working so I bonded the Doug Fir lumber for the stern post core. Another to-do for tomorrow will be to bond the skins to the core.

   

Since I don’t have any bar-clamps *hint, hint* I had to come up with another solution to keeping the wood firmly in place. This is where my improvised cord clamp comes it. It is just some nylon cord with the ends tied together. Take a piece of scrap wood, put in between the work piece and the cord and start twisting. Simple but effective. The T-88 structural adhesive does not need a lot of pressure to hold the joint together, in fact you need to be sure not to apply too much pressure or the adhesive will squeeze out of the joint, so the cord clamp works well.

That wraps it up for today. Tomorrow is another day in the shop so we’ll see how much gets done.

Until next time, blue skies and tail winds,
~FlyBoyJon

Ramblings

Here we go again…

Howdy all,

All things being in balance, which they rarely are, I have been really busy with this that and the other thing over the last two months. The sad part is that somehow I have managed to get damn near nothing done; well, nothing completed anyway.

In the Universal sense, the end of the seasonal year is when things come to a close. The leaves are falling from the trees. Small animals are retreating to their winter homes and the natural world rolls up the welcome mat and packs it in for the winter. It’s a time of endings in the cycle. The past few years have been the closing end of another larger cycle, and an even greater cycle. Much like our calendar year, winter does not end as we begin a new year. Winter holds on for a couple months before yielding to spring. As centuries turn it takes a decade, sometimes two, before it can move on. Likewise, a decade does not fully begin its spring as the calendar’s page turns. With all of this cyclic winter going on at the same time, it’s no wonder things have been tough the last couple of years.

For me, winter is the time to go over all of the projects of the past year(s) and to see what has worked and what has not, what I have completed, what needs to be completed and what changes need to be made in the paths I have chosen. Its a time to review, revise, and recommit.

There are several paths I have been traveling since the turn of the twenty first century, some have been interesting and informative but bearing little to no fruit. Some are absolutely worth following but for one reason or another obstacles along the way have diverted my attention. For some reason, it seems that the most important paths are the ones that I have been diverted from. Finishing my degree and aviation are the two paths that I need to pursue.

Over the last year I started several projects including a couple of new blogs which have done little more than take up way too much time. Once again I have merged other blogs with this one, keeping my posts, but killing off the other blogs. Cutting back on non-essential interests is a step in recommitting to the paths. I have been cutting my online time back a lot over the last few weeks which is another. There are a few more things to do to completely recommitted to my education. As for aviation, I am going to keep moving down that path with the aircraft build that I have been writing about.

What this means for the blog is there will be a few posts now and then that have nothing at all to do with aviation or the build process. Hopefully this also mean that I will be writing more regularly here, when I am not too focused on on school or work.

~Jon

Ramblings

Predatory Lending

I just couldn’t let this one slide by. After getting home from running some some errands I went down to the mail box and found a bill (the only paper bill we still get), from our only remaining credit account, Fingerhut. I think I will let you read the letter for yourself before I make any comments.

***** Begin Letter *****

Great News!
Your Credit Line has
been increased to
$1,267.00
 
Limited Time Only
 
Customer Number: xxxxxxxxxx

Dear Xxxxxx Xxxxxx

Congratulations! You are being recognized with a well deserved Credit Line Increase on your Fingerhut Credit Account issued by MetaBank. This increase has been approved exclusively for you and is good for a limited time only:

Your new increase brings your Credit Limit up to $1,267.00 for use until January, 15, 2011. Your AVAILABLE CREDIT* is now $1,062.05.

Only select account holders like you qualify for this privilege.

Fingerhut reserves credit line increases like this to reward special customers like you, Xxxxxx Xxxxxx. It expands your buying power so you can get the things you want and need for you and your family. Use its convenience to shop the latest Fingerhut catalog – or order from the expanded product selection available online at fingerhut.com.

BONUS: The more increased credit you use, the more you keep.

You can make your credit line increase permanent! Just use the credit available on your account by January, 15, 2011, and your credit line will stay increased by the amount of your purchase(s) up to the Total Credit Limit listed above.

Take advantage of your new credit privilege now, Xxxxxx Xxxxxx. It’s your reward for being such a valued customer, so order today.

Best regards,
Brian Smith
Chairman, President and CEO

***** End Letter *****

On the surface you might be saying to yourself “Wow, what a nice company. A thousand dollar credit increase right before Christmas? Awesome!” Not on my Aunt Bippy’s bunions buddy! There is nothing awesome about this at all.

I have made it abundantly clear on numerous occasions via telephone that not only were we not going to buy merchandise from them any more, but that we would be closing our account as soon as it was paid off. I am reasonably sure that none of that has been added to any record the marketing and promotions people would see, if a human was even looking at any of this before it was sent out anyway. It just yanked my chain enough to post about it.

First off you get the butter-up about how special you are, then they tell you how much buying power they are giving you (at 24.9% APR of course.) The kicker here is the part about your ability to make the limit increase permanent. All you have to do is spend a thousand dollars on your account, the account you can’t afford as it is. How empowering of them! SCHMUCKS!

Fingerhut’s primary client base is below or near the poverty level. They pray on people with low incomes by sucking them in around the holidays every year. Exorcise your buying power and buy the things you and your family want. How magnanimous. This year’s you’re so special increase is considerably more than usual. I am not sure what that means overall, but it indicates that they are looking to accumulate a lot of customer debt. Did you catch the part where they are practically begging you to push your credit to the limit? That’s where they make most of their money you know, late and over-the-limit fees.

We are just about payed off on our Fingerhut card from Christmas last year. Credit experts say you shouldn’t be in debt for a whole year from the Christmas season. I recall hearing somewhere that you should be back to normal finances by the end of March. From a forecasting and budgeting perspective, you should be able to pay off all of the holiday debt using your income tax return. From a purely pragmatic point of view, you should be saving money and making purchases for the holidays throughout the year so there is no added holiday debt. I know it doesn’t really work out that way very often, but we are making an effort to that end result anyway.

I am hear to spread the Gospel of Pragmatism! Just say no to holiday credit increases! Live and buy within your means. Believe it or not, the more you stay within those means the sooner debt will decrease and you will see more disposable income and be a hell of a lot happier in the process.

I’m just saying…

*** Due to the overwhelming volume of SPAM commenting on this page comments have been turned off. Since there is a Captcha field to ensure that a real person is inputting comments, that means that there are a bunch of douchebags spamming my site. I do not appreciate the total and complete lack of class or netiquette the spammers have exhibited. ***

Ramblings

getting stuff done…

I wanted the “Of Scouts and Scouting Pt. 2” post to be the next in line but there has been a lot going on and my brain has just not allowed it. It is in the works though, so if your waiting with baited breath, go brush your teeth. That post is coming soon.

There has been a lot of wide and varied thoughts rolling around in my head and I begin writing, in my head, at the most inopportune times, usually while I am trying to get to sleep. The discipline of getting to a keyboard or paper when the muse strikes is one that has eluded me. I am trying to get better about it, hence this short post about posting. I have several outlets for different parts of my life, this one for miscellanea about life liberty and the pursuit of happiness, one for aviation, one for archival and preservations related stuff, and yesterday I added one for the ecclesiastical side.

My goal for the rest of the year is to post at least one article per week in each of the blogs I have set up. All but the last have been around for two years or better so there is no reason not to try harder. Some things might seem forced at times but I think that is part of a writers growth. Another part of this is that I am going to set some standards about the posting…

Number One: Posts must be a minimum of 250 words with an optimum of 500. I know word count is not the be-all-end-all as far as writing goes, but it goes a long way in building the creative stamina needed by a writer.

Number Two: I need to dramatically improve my typing, grammatical, spelling, and editing skills. I think this will come with the territory of writing regularly, but it is worth being part of the goal.

Number Three: Work on improving my writing style. This one is kind of a broad desire to develop a ‘flare’, that distinctive style that is my own. It is more of an aesthetic than substance thing, but the window dressing is what brings the customers in.

Number Four: Start marketing my writing. I have been very lacks in promoting my blogs, in part because I doubt myself and my abilities. Who knows, I may be a crappy writer, but deep inside I think I have the skills. Only time and perseverance will tell.

Number Five: Effort. This one is the most difficult. This goes along with stamina in Number One, I need to stick with it, even when I slip, I need to jump back on the wagon and keep plugging away.

After all is said and done, writing is the one thing I can do regardless of financial situation. Other projects require resources of one kind or another while writing requires only my time and energy, with some incite and creativity I hope. This post is fitting for the title of the blog and it has reached 500 words, so I guess this completes the first entry of my goal for the rest of 2010. Go Me!!

~Jon

Ramblings

Cadet or Barnstormer?

FlyBoyJon.comThere seems to be two classifications of aviator, the Cadets and the Barnstormers.

I am not referring to any specifics with these names. It has nothing to do with where they trained, what certificates they hold, where they fly, or what they plan on doing with there flying career, nothing to do with age or upbringing, nothing to do with socioeconomics, nothing to do with any specific reference point at all really. It’s all about personality.

Looking at the aviation community as a whole, it seems that there are two primary personality types that emerge. First off there are the Cadets; Cadets are cocky, sometimes pretentious aviators, most often aspiring to be an airline captain who do whatever they have to to reach their goals, as long as they can look good doing it. They are usually precise, well educated in the trade they have chosen and when it comes to anything about flying the “big iron”, but often they dismiss anything that doesn’t relate directly to the goals they have set for themselves. This group is not exclusive to wannabe 787 pilots, they can be found anywhere, and not just in transport aviation.

They are not bad pilots, quite the contrary, they are usually very skilled flyers and navigators. The down side to this persona is the cliquish nature, that high-school or college jock “you don’t count if your not one of us” vibe they often put out. It doesn’t seem to be intentional, it’s just that personality type.

Then there is the Barnstormer. I chose to use this term mainly because it seemed to be in opposition to the Academy Cadet perception. In this sense I am not referring to the Barnstormers of years past or the few Flying Circus aviators of today, I am thinking more of the spirit of the Barnstormer. This personality type may have been an aviator long before they ever took the controls of an aircraft. Steeped in the culture of flying, hanging out at airports, chatting with other pilots, absorbing anything and everything about aviation as a whole and sharing with anyone who will listen.

There are a lot of Barnstormers in transport aviation, you might even say that some of the best Captains and trainers are Barnstormers. The Barnstormer is welcoming to any and all who wish to share in the love of aviation; more concerned with getting from point A to point B safely and having fun along the way rather than making it “on time”, it is the journey rather than the destination that counts.

Both the Cadet and the Barnstormer understand safety, preflight planning, weather and there importance, there is just a different attitude. One is not better than the other, they are simply different. As an aviation instructor, now recognizing what I should have been looking for as a student, I can better inform students about their own path. Being able to guide students down a path that is more suited to their own personalities and career goals.

I started out learning from Cadets, in an Academy no less, learning quickly that I was not suited to the cliquish social structure of the Academy environment. Later I was fortunate to learn a lot from Cadets and Barnstormers alike teaching at another school side by side. I was privileged to work with both in the same side by side environment. In the Fundamentals of Instruction (FOI) one of the basic principals of teaching is understanding a students motivation for learning; along with motivation, understanding their personality will help the instructor and student make some important informed decisions.

All to often, instructors go for the “sale” rather than playing their role as a mentor by giving a beginning or perspective student the heads up that they may be better served by another instructor or school with a matching personality. I have seen this more often in Academy programs than smaller schools and individual instructors but it does happen in both.

I have committed myself to being an aviation evangelist to the general public and only teaching students who fall into a specific category. I am best suited for primary and continuing students looking to build a career in non-transport aviation; not airline pilots, and not recreational flyers. This narrows the field considerably for perspective students and I don’t see that as a problem. There are a lot of really good career instructors out there that thrive teaching primary students with recreational goals and Academy programs to teach future 787 captains.

One aviation area I would very much like to see expanded is the community of career instructors. Organizations like the National Association of Flight Instructors (NAFI) are a good start. My concern is that there doesn’t seem to be a lot of at-large interaction between instructors beyond the geographically local training areas, and instructor forums online are more frequently visited by students looking for tips-n-tricks rather than instructors talking about instruction or instructor gatherings. If you are an instructor, join NAFI and become more active in the instructor community, communicate beyond your instructional geographic boundaries, reach out, this is the best way for us to support each other and our profession.

For me, aviation is about the journey, and sharing that journey.

Ramblings

wasn’t that fun

Well, yesterdays tirade was fun. This whole lack of sleep thing is taking its toll on me. While I didn’t manage to get up at 5:30 as planned, I did get up and in the shower before 07:00. It’s 08:30 now and I am up, fed and caffeinated, and in the office typing after getting some organizing done in here. So, a bit of a late start but back on schedule.

Yay me!

After expressing myself yesterday I managed to get started on building a business plan for FlyBoyJon, or as the working title FBJ Aviation. Later I will be working on that again. I haven’t gotten much farther than the summary, product offering, and market yet but it is moving forward.

FBJ is beginning to pick up some speed. Once I have a basic business plan put together I am going to work on a pitch letter for commercial sponsorship and build a contact list and start hitting the phone/email. One way or another I’m gonna make this happen.

I had some awesome visualizations of the short format episodic and some show openings and closings. Now all I need to do is get them down in my notes. That’s what I am working on this morning.

That’s all for now.

Ramblings

working on a new daily ritual

First off I need to get up at a reasonable hour. I used to get up at dark:thirty to great the day and face the commute or open shop. The last couple of years though, I have been a huge slacker when it comes to getting up in the AM. Getting up when I need too for appointments and the like is not a problem, it’s not that I am a sloth or something, I just havent felt the NEED to be up and running that early.

I tried setting a routine schedule a while back but that didn’t work out to well. This time I think I will start with just getting up and having a basic start time for stuff that needs to get done. Oh, that reminds me, I need to figure out what that is. What do I NEED to get done. This is a large contribution to the funk-factor as of late. That, and the huge lack of restful sleep.

It has been a long time since I could sleep well. The current residents in the complex seem to be much less respectful of others peace and quiet and in general. It’s not unusual for me to be woken up up 10 or more times between midnight and four in the morning. For some reason people have no clue that there voices are loud. I really don’t want to hear peoples cell phone conversations at three in the morning! Take it inside please! Oh, and the door slamming is getting ridiculous. Car doors, apartment doors, stomping up the stairs and down the walkways, driving in at two or three in the morning with your car stereo blasting, seriously, didn’t your parents teach you any manners? I feel like I have become the cranky old fart screaming “Get off my lawn, ya damn kids!”

Between the neighborhood punks vandalizing stuff, idiot drivers, people without basic common sense, a grasp of courtesy, or the apparent ability to rub a couple of brain cells together to get a spark, I am ready for a change.

There is so much I want to get done, I just cant seem to pull it together to make any of it happen.

Getting off the arse:

  • Start getting up at 05:30
  • First on the To Do list is go for a walk
  • Be ready to rock by 08:00

Now that I am up and moving at a good hour, its time to actually get some stuff done. When I have work to do here around the complex I don’t like starting it before 10:00. Residents are still getting out as late as 09:30 so 10:00 is a safe bet almost every day. Much of the stuff on my list has been on hold due to the weather. Now that it is clearing up I can get back to the list.

Along with the work here at the complex I have my own projects I am trying to get going. One of the difficulties has been making the time to get my projects moving forward and making time for the day job as it were. Now I need to get the ball rolling.

Rolling the ball:

  • Between 08:00 and 10:00 and go down to the office and work
    • blog(s)
    • paper(s)
    • book(s)
    • business plan(s)
    • media
    • social media
  • From 10:00 to 16:00 Tuesday through Friday do the “day job”
  • Mondays are work on my own project days
    (the gardeners are on property)
  • After 16:00 things are open

The other part of this is to bring my focus in tight. As a person who is constantly thinking and organizing in my head, it is a difficult to do. This is one of the reasons I do very well in projects that have a lot of diversity and complexity, I can see the over-all and how each smaller part relates to the whole. The difficulty with this is that it can be hard to work on the smallest segments. It can also make it difficult to describe the entire project to some one else when it is in the early stages.

As an exercise I need to limit my projects which means I need to shut some down and back burner several others. I need to limit myself to two projects that are already underway; Grave Mistake and FlyBoyJon everything else needs to get shelved for now. Genealogy and archive projects are shut down for now, including two related book projects and a blog. My screenplay and other book projects are also on the back-burner.

Let’s see how it goes.