Is It Real or Is It Memorex?

Decades ago Memorex came out with a tape that was so good it was almost impossible to determine whether you were listening to a recording or a live performance.  The modern equivalent of that is this: is it real human work or is it an AI generated alternative?  Artificial intelligence is exploding in popularity and use.  “Everybody and their brother” are using AI to create electronic music and videos and stories.  They are even making money from work created by a computer. Every form of writing has been invaded by AI, from fiction stories to legal documents.  It’s all very exciting, but very frightening.  READ MORE

In May of 1993 I rode my bicycle up Highway 103, to Curry’s Grocery, not far from my home. I asked for a job. They hired me for $.75 an hour. A month later I got a raise to $1.00 an hour. Wow! I did everything that could be done there, from cashier and stocking to meat market and cleaning the laundromat. That was the first of so many jobs I’ve had through the years. I worked as a cashier, cook, radio announcer, delivery driver, truck driver, caseworker, air conditioning tech, electrician, maintenance worker, auto rental agent and a few other things. I was a foster-parent and home parent for over a decade. March 2020 I drove up from Houston after being an Uber/Lyft driver for two and a half years. That was my last job. Through the years I attended two tech schools and four colleges. I got a BA in History in 1689. I took many classes including government, pre-law and counseling. I learned a lot, changed my mind several times, chased a few dreams and on occasion just worked to make a buck or two. This section is all about my working life.

From the time I was a young teen there was something in my head that told me to “go into all the world” and get people “saved.” Only those who were raised an American Protestant, an evangelical, and a Baptist will fully understand what I mean. I did not move along the path smoothly. No, I had fits and spurts, periods of intense belief and action with periods of being a “backslider.” I was baptized when I was nine after my parents asked me the absurd question of whether or not I believed Jesus was my savior. Duh. That was drilled into my head already. But it wasn’t until I became a teen and later that I really did a few things “for Christ.” This was especially true during the Jesus Movement days when it was hip to be Christian. I had ups and downs while in the Air Force. Then a stupid request I’d made in November of 1995 got me a discharge in March of 1996. I really jumped into things with both feet. I built a coffee house to “reach the lost.” After I got married I gave that a second shake. In 1981 my wife and I moved to Crane, Texas (Texas desert!) so I could be a program director at a Christian station. Alas, that didn’t work out for me either. I went to college, moved to Corpus Christi, and wound myself up in a little Assemblies of God church, doing all kinds of “ministry” things for a few years. Then it blew up in my face. Boom. I sort’of put the “calling” off a bit after that. But of course I was not through. My wife and I became foster parents and I jumped in trying to build a group foster home and for some odd reason thought the Christians in town would give a shit. But nope. They didn’t. After that I soured on the whole idea and chucked it all out the window. This section is about that convoluted drive to “save the world.”

I had a really shitty childhood, at home and at school. Back then there weren’t video games or smart phones, just books. I read books. I read many, many books. From reading came my love for writing. I dabbled around thinking of being a news writer, wrote stories and essays and whatever else came along. Some of my writing was just for myself, some for work, and some–most–pieces I wanted the whole world to read. Computers showed up in the late 1980s and I was so hooked on them! I bought an IBM clone, an 8088, with an amber monitor. (amber is better for text.) The machine had 5.5 inch floppy disks. I added a 20 meg hard drive. I also added a printer. I spent several thousand bucks on all that stuff!

I still have that old 8088 and amber monitor, though they are much worse for ware and not likely to work at all if they were rewired. I also have over half a dozen lap-tops, machines out dated or damaged (Coffee kills computers!) Through the years I’ve had maybe two dozen machines, desk tops and laptops and a couple of tablets. The hard drives of all of them had lots of stories and almost-novels and other stuff.

I’m sure when my kids thing of me they imagine me sitting at a keyboard. That’s where I always was. And still am. I have had a career. It is and has been writing. I’ved completed several books and who knows how many short stories and essays. Check out the work I’ve done so far:

LIFE is what happens to you when you’re not looking. My life has been like a row of bumper-cars banging into each other. There’s been work and school and preaching and writing and preaching and work and moving and traveling and well, a lot. None of it really makes any sense.

I grew up in the sixties. My family life deteriorated as things went along. My sister got pregnant and had a “shotgun wedding.” My brother started drinking. By the early seventies they were elsewhere.

I was the nerd in school, before nerds were cool. I caught hell for the stupidest things. By 1994 my life sucked badly. I quit school. Not long after that I signed up with the Air Force. I went to Basic in March of 1995. Trade school in April, assignment in October, discharge the following year.

I found the love of my life and got married in 1998. From there the story really goes wacky. This section is where you learn about all the things that have made up my life for the past sixty-plus years.