Remaking History
The Celt, Brandubh Niall
Zhu Zhanji was born in 1398. He was the son of Zhu Gaozhi, and grandson of Zhu Di, the Emperor Chengzu (Yongle Emperor), the first year of his reign. Yongle was the force behind the strengthening of the Chinese navy and instituted major reforms in the empire. It was in 1421 that Yongle sent the famous fleet led by Zheng He, that was said to have discovered the new world. Yongle died in 1424, and his son, who became the Emperor Ren (Hongze Emperor), only reigned a year before he died, but long enough to allow the fleet to fall into lethargy. Zhu Zhanji was then proclaimed the Emperor Xuan (or XuanZong), the Xuande Emperor in 1426. Xuande reformed management of the empire, and reinforced the great wall. He seemed to be more focused on strengthening the interior rather than the fleet, and although the final voyage took place prior to Xuande's death, the deconstruction of the fleet had already begun. Xuande died in 1435, to be succeeded by his son, Zhu Qizhen, or the Zhengtong Emperor.Step one is determining where in that incredibly boring sequence of events was the point of departure. Now remember, there are many other mitigating factors as well. The Chinese pulled back because they felt as if the Mongols inland posed a great enough threat to recall their ships and concentrate their efforts in that direction. Are you falling asleep yet? Once we build up the setting, we have to decide who we want the characters to be and begin linking to websites and building an information store. It is not until then that we begin the activity of Role Writing. Someone will post something to start us off, like:
“The Empress Dowager Zheng woke with a start. It took her a moment to realize she was actually lying in bed, and that she had been the victim of a nightmare. ‘Wi!’ she cried out for her handmaiden. The child must have been sleeping, for Zheng had to call out a second time before she emerged from the screen behind Zheng’s bed. ‘Fetch me my augur! I must put this memory to paper before it escapes me!’”Each participant has chosen a character or several characters to whose point of view they must remain attached. A post could follow this up from Zhu Zhanji, the emperor, one of his sons or his consorts, or someone else in Beijing such as a court artist, the captain of the guard, even the handmaiden herself. The next post doesn’t have to even relate to Zheng’s post, it can be someone somewhere else, entirely different. We keep it on a high level. Only decent writers are allowed to post. The story can take many twists and turns, and through it all, we may change the course of history. AncientWorlds can be found at www.ancientworlds.net.
What's the secret ingredient?
I came across this wegsite while visiting my control panel on 
The kindest thing I can do at this point is not review this show at all. What did I like about it? Alfred Lewis as Bette Davis was original and hysterical. I've seen Bette Davis drag queens, honey, and heard all the lame jokes before. He was actually pretty good, and had us rolling.
We left soon after, and before the intermission. What's this misconception that gay people are universally talented? Come visit Fort Lauderdale, baby!
In 2001, Ford began leasing the all-electric, super efficient "TH!NK City" cars in order to meet its obligation under the California Zero Emissions Vehicle (ZEV) mandate. The first year they only had 350, but the following year there were thousands on the road, leased to satisfied drivers, mainly in California, because the state offered incentive allowed people to recharge them using their own solar power.
Then in 2003, California postponed its vehicle requirements of the ZEV Mandate until the end of the decade. Ford began taking them back, refusing to allow any of the owners to purchase the cars, and have already begun to confiscate them in order to destroy them.
The Ford Motor Company has been the leader in gas-guzzlers for years. In fact, the Model T automobile got better gas mileage than Ford cars do today. It's obvious that this company, who is ideally poised to usher in a new era of energy conservation, has no interest in the future of the children of today. I'm always shocked that machines on the road are still being sold that have mileage of less than 10 mpg.
Why are they doing it? Because the automotive industry and the petrolium industry are closely tied, and to put vehicles on the road with a self-sustaining (solar) feul source would end our dependance on petroleum. The auto industry is ensuring we maintain that dependence by removing any possibility of non-petroleum energy source coming to the forefront.
What they want to do is make sure that the next energy source is something that can be controlled by a conglomerate. I believe these people are fossils, and ultimately, cannot pull the wool over everyone's eyes for much longer. The president does everything he can to twist things around and shield these industries so that what they're doing is not as apparent as it is.
With respect to bowing to corporate interests, I believe that John Kerry will do virtually no better as president, as he is as much a corporate crony as the worst of the Senate. Fortunately for him, George W. Bush has done such a terrible job in his four years; John Kerry will likely be a shoo-in.
People are getting angrier with the establishment. The raping of our resources and lower and middle classes is becoming more obvious to a greater amount of people with each passing day. This is the information age, and no matter how many ties the petroleum and auto and pharmaceutical industries have to the Fox Network or MSNBC or AOL/Time Warner; we, the people are getting more and more of the truth through other sources.
Bear in mind, all of the automotive industry, domestic and imported, has some guilt. Ford is only the worst of the offenders. But the Ford Motor Company has an opportunity to earn the goodwill of generations to come, to become a harbinger of the future. But these men already bow their wills to their own greed, and destroy their children's future. Ford will be a name relegated to history as a failure of disastrous proportions, having lost and unable to reclaim the public trust.
Maybe you can help make the future different. Send a letter to Ford here: 
When my tolerance levels drop, I tend to become more agitated with people more often, because the window of behavior I will accept from them closes. I had an incident recently where a very close friend of mine, a key person in my emotional support system, came to the conclusion that I was acting on strange behaviors, and that I should check myself, talk to my psychiatrist about changing my medications. I was aware that some of my ADHD behaviors were on the rise, but well within acceptable levels, because my doctor and I decided that the side effects from Adderall greatly outweighed the benefits.
But I became defensive toward this person, and my voice rose on the telephone, decreasing his level of absorption of what I was trying to say. The discomfort lasted nearly six days, and erupted into a telephone call in which I was angry and resentful of things that were said. We made up, but the damage had been done.
Ultimately, the relationship had to change, his reasons that are his, and mine, which involve a breaking of a trust. I could never turn to him in a crisis, because I could no longer trust that he would not question my belief or my sanity.
It’s hard for me to get people who understand me. When I met my very good friend, 
Often I’ll leave one room and try to go back, and can’t find my way back to it. I have gotten on elevators that had broken floors and were rickety and dangerous. I’ve found myself trying to move up stairwells that end in precipices, the only way to go further are slim footholds along the wall. Or they simply end in walls. It always happens when I decide I need to go somewhere specific.
Recently, I found out my mother and her sisters were moving my grandmother out of her house and into a townhouse. I dreamed soon thereafter that a strange woman was organizing things in the house. I went into the front bedroom and found a bunch of women there, who were going through my grandmother’s things and pricing them for auction on Ebay. I was very upset. I told Mom about the dream and she said that a strange woman was cleaning the house and was bringing my grandmother’s things to flea market, but not Ebay. I think it was a coincidence, but wasn’t that remarkable?
I love the dreams where I’m able to fly. I soar up high, watching the distant ground pass beneath me. Funny thing about flying dreams, though, I inevitably know I’m dreaming, and that usually ends the dream, sometimes in a free fall that never finishes.
I hear in dreams and see in dreams. I imagine I use my sense of touch, too, but I don’t remember that specifically. I don’t recall smelling or tasting, but next time I’m in a dream and think about it, I’ll certainly try to experiment!
Some dream analysis would certainly turn up something important about it all this, I'm certain. But I'll enjoy the increased vividness of my dreams for now.
I am a member of the FADP (Floridians for Alternative to the Death Penalty) email list and I recieved the following email this morning:
I love coming up with programming solutions and new design ideas, but this kind of work really taxes me. I hyperfocus, or enter a mode of concentration so intense that I have no idea how long I’ve been working, or, for that matter, what is happening in the world around me. Someone can be telling me something and I’ll nod my head, hearing them but not absorbing them. If they continue, I’ll shoo them away, without even realizing what I am doing.
Afterward, I feel tremendously let down, like I’ve been wasting an enormous amount of time. Although I may have accomplished a great deal, I’ve taken way too much time to do it.
At one point today, I had to pull myself away and work out. I hadn’t mowed the lawn, washed the dog or my laundry. Will was most appreciative and supportive, of course. It was his site I was working on, and he considered the job I did entirely satisfactory.
Myself, I am not happy, because I spent about ten to twelve hours on Flash and I should have at least devoted some of my creative energy to writing—there area in which I have been most blessed.
And I do apologize if this topic seems tedious or self-effacing; but it is the act of my hand, and this is what I must set my letters to, this evening. It is my penance for sending my creativity elsewhere, twelve Hail Mary’s and an Act of Contrition.
So if this post is dull, then it must be so. I have done my very least duty and my hand is still in the word at the end of the day.
I was hungry and ready to go to my noon meeting on Tuesday, and couldn’t figure out what I wanted for lunch. I didn’t have any cash on hand and found out Checker’s didn’t take debit cards, so I drove up the road to Arby’s. The perfect lunch was on their menu, and for only $5.35 (with tax), I could enjoy a low carb turkey-bacon caesar wrap delight. This of course, is a few bucks higher than their other sandwiches, but I’ve been working so hard on maintaining a 32-inch waistline, I wasn’t going to lose a whole week’s worth of exercise by taking on a big roast beef cheddar sandwich.
The curve ball, however, was the unexpected. My debit card was declined. Desperately hungry, I spent the next fifteen minutes combing my truck to come up with the correct amount of money. Poverty is not going to make me compromise.
Inevitably, I knew what had occurred; and it all stems from not having enough money. My electric bill is unreasonably high, because I can’t afford to get my air conditioner replaced or check the ductwork, and the price of fuel has skyrocketed recently. The $300 was automatically deducted from my bank account, along with some other deductions, reducing my account to a sub-zero balance, and earning me a $35 NSF fee.
Poverty is expensive. When I look at friends who have had to reinstate their insurance so they could reinstate their tags so they could reinstate their driver’s license, you discover that people with less money pay more than people with more.
It’s truly ironic how I heard this Republican in Congress declaring that we should have an across-the-board national sales tax, which would be fair for everyone. Not so. Sales taxes, notably those on grocery products, are known as “regressive taxes”, meaning that they impact the poor far more than they do the wealthy. Because these taxes are included on the basic necessities, food, gasoline, clothing, as well as other items. For instance:
A working class man who earns $15,000 a year pays 5% sales tax on a $10,000 used car, is paying about 3.33% of his income.
An upper class man who earns $150,000 a year pays 5% sales tax on a $60,000 luxury car is only paying about 1.12% of his income.
These figures translate pretty much across the board. In essence, the congressman is advocating taxing the working class more than the rich. And the American people persist in putting idiots like these back in congress.
It just gets harder and harder to be poor these days, and yet once you’re there, it’s a slippery slope staying there. Late fees, reinstatement fees, penalties, fines…these are not things that you suffer often if you have a lot a lot of money.
I've always contended that those big guzzlers were much more trouble than they were worth. As soon as gas prices skyrocketed, I started to plan. Forget that silly "don't pump your gas on such-and-such date" email. That's a proven failure. Ignore the "Don't buy gasoline from companies that do business in the middle east" email. Frankly, there's a limited supply of gasoline anyway, so it won't make any difference.
My solution is this. Find out what the five biggest gas guzzlers are: The Hummer series qualify as number 1 and 2. Send the kind of email that self-perpetuates out to as many people as possible saying something to the effect that the solution to the crisis would be to go out and spraypaint the windows of any of those five guzzlers that you see out in public, with, oh...pink spray paint. Don't get caught, of course!
If the vandalism spread out, it would result in the the owners becoming less and less willing to drive those vehicles, eventually selling them some more economic and less susceptible model. Why should they be so arrogant to drive those enormous tanks; because they can afford the gasoline?
I've never implemented this, because sure as shit I'd have federal agents find out it was me and arrest me on sedition or something like that. I wouldn't even be able to join 
I went to three high schools. Four if you count my month in the ninth grade at Mark Twain school for the emotionally handicapped in Rockville, Maryland, before my mother moved us to South Carolina. Ninth grade found me at Airport High School in West Columbia. I got their notice for twenty-year reunion early this year. I can’t even remember anyone with whom I went to school there. Much of twelfth grade found me (after another of mother’s moves) at Batesburg-Leesville High School, graduating class of 1984 numbered in the double digits and were primarily hick-towners. I got their notice last year, but I blocked that year of my life out, so I didn’t go to that one either.
Most of my high school time, however, was spent at Brookland-Cayce High School in Cayce, South Carolina. This was the high school I remember. These were the people about whom I wanted to find. These were the people in front of whom I wanted to show off how wonderful I am today. But there was no reunion notice last year. No reunion notice this winter. No reunion this spring.
Thank heavens that I registered at classmates.com many moons ago. Yesterday, I receive an email, subject line, “Brookland-Cayce High School Class of 1984 Reunion” from a woman whose name I did not know. I found out her maiden name and realized that she was the girl that wound up sitting behind me in several classes because her name started “B-A-U.” I was delighted! I changed my Thanksgiving plans to spend with my family because the reunion is taking place October 23.
I know it’s strange, but I’ve waited my entire life to attend a high school reunion. I remember how excited my mother used to get about them while we were growing up; that is, now that I am no longer resentful about her moving me from high school to high school and possibly having denied me the same opportunity. But here it is, Brookland-Cayce 1984’s twentieth reunion, and I’ll be in attendance. Never mind that I didn’t ultimately graduate from there, these people will remember me as much as I remember them.
I’ve been projecting like crazy. I want to get my teeth done. I want to work out like crazy. I want to bust Michael out of prison and take him with me. I want to be out and proud and kick anyone’s ass that has a problem with it.
And the timing couldn’t be better. I’m traveling to the middle of South Carolina only ten days before the presidential election. I have to remember one thing: South Carolina is not a swing state. I’m not going to make a dent in the vote there.
This entire topic is bound to influence my life for the next couple months, so be sure to check in from time to time for updates.
Let me state clearly right now, that although I am quite fond of Will, I don’t believe I am terribly biased when I am saying his are the highest of quality works from talented and capable hands. Others have said the same thing over and over again, and I’ve seen some of his pieces go for some pretty heavy prices. I know the evidence of my own eyes, as well. Will has an eye and a hand for works of art.
About William Wagenaar:
He was the Visual Merchandise Manager at Marshall Fields from 1971 to 1978. He graduated the Harrington Institute of Interior Design in 1980, with a degree in Commercial Interior Design. Thereafter, he co-founded the Miller-Wagenaar Studio and Miller-Wagenaar School of Decorative Arts. The work of Miller-Wagenaar Studio was published in numerous magazines, and clients included World Book Encyclopedia, Firestone, First Boston, and Apple Computers. He was involved with both the Studio and School both ran until 1990.
He owned Wagenaar Studio on Lincoln Road in Miami Beach in the early 1990's and Salvare in the Miami Design district in the late 1990's. He was involved with the revival of Art Deco on South Beach and was a present in the Design District during its infancy.
He has created numerous murals and architectural finishes in Chicago, New York and Miami.
His website (created by none other than me) is here: