Thursday, July 21, 2016

How Not to Choose an Occupation



Ray Bradbury’s Illustrated Man has many interesting stories into which you can sink your teeth and rile your imagination. The Long Rain strands astronauts on Venus and the persistent rains that drove you mad.  The Veldt has murderous children kill their parents with virtual reality lions, and The Rocket Man, which prompted the desire in me to become an astronaut traveling the solar system.

The imagery did it to this ten year old who loved to daydream. In the story, dad read stereo-newspapers, the family rushed to town in a helicopter, and they had mechanical book readers. (He wrote it in 1951.) As I read I could feel the astronaut’s compulsion to go back into space. It made me feel as if that would be my career path. I craved an occupation that didn’t exist.

There was a cautionary line, “Don't ever be a Rocket Man… Don't let it get hold of you.” Nevertheless, the story created a yearning in me. Even when the astronaut’s ship fell into the sun, I felt that Rocket Man was the job for me.

One day I discovered that it just doesn’t happen as the story portrays. There are no Martian sunflowers. Rocket men just don’t get into spacecraft and return three months later. Alas, my dream fell to pieces.
What remained was my love of science fiction.


NASA IMAGE OF SATURN'S RINGS


Monday, July 18, 2016

Makes You Wonder



Social media shows that too many people are wrapped too tightly, have no sense of humor, and don’t know how to have fun. They make judgments that boggle the mind. It makes you wonder what type of pathetic lives they lead. 


Did they grow up in deprived environments? 

Did they learn intolerance early or late in their lives? 

Why do they lack the ability to express their thoughts in a reasonable manner with normal, non-offensive language? 

Do they lack intelligence? 

What if the entire world were like them?

    UFO Entering Earth's Atmosphere?

    What do you think?


    Attention Swimmers



    You jump in the ocean and see this. 




    What do you do?

    Monday, July 11, 2016