Category Archives: Uncategorized

City of Heroes is back…so it seems

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The protest is getting out of hand

One of the greatest MMOs in history (at least according to my beliefs), City of Heroes, was shut down by NCsoft in November of 2012. It was probably one of the saddest days of MMO history because it was such a wonderful game, regardless of the little nuances that needed to be fixed (but isn’t that the way it is with most computer games?). But Paragon Studios (the development house that maintained the game) was a part of NCsoft, and NCsoft had a history of closing down beloved games (it was only a few years before in February of 2009 that they shut down Richard Garriott’s ground-breaking Tabula Rasa). So, it shouldn’t have been much of a surprise that NCsoft was going to be closing down yet another.

The funny thing is that a year or so ago before they closed City of Heroes, I had just gotten back into the game, joined a guild (or whatever they were called in that game) and was playing on an almost daily basis. And then they announced the servers were going to be closing. I was devastated.

City of Heroes was a really unique game. On the surface, you created a custom-made superhero with all sorts of interesting skills, and then you went into the game to stop bad guys all over the city. There were “dungeons” or operations where you went into specific scenarios and fought bad guys. And as simple as it sounds like it was, it was a lot of fun.

A couple of games tried to capture that same kind of spirit (or concurrently attempted to do so), such as DC Universe, Champions Online and Marvel Heroes (remade as Marvel Heroes 2016). A number of superheroes MMOs came along later, but so far, none have matched the fun and complexity of City of Heroes.

One of the things that made City of Heroes (and then City of Villains that came later before it was collapsed back into City of Heroes) so unique was the different levels of play built within the game itself. I don’t mean “easy” or “hard”, but the levels of play designed within the game as in when you’d be playing the game, you might start to discover that there was more under the surface than what you were playing. I discovered this the last time around (I’d quit and restarted in that game a number of times). It’s like the old Everquest where you’d be playing an area for months, constantly grinding the content, only to discover that there was a secret door hidden in a wall you’d been walking by so many times before. And that would open up a whole new way of playing that you didn’t even realize was right there in front of you all along.

City of Heroes felt like that from time to time. You’d be playing along and then suddenly realize there might be more under the surface, and once you found it, your whole concept of the game became that much deeper.

So, for years, we all felt sad as this game was lost to us. NCsoft still makes numerous games that are well played today (I still play Guild Wars 2, another of their titles). So many times I remember reading an essay about how someone wished the game would be remade so we could all play it again.

And then a recent report (see the embedded link) indicated that a pirate server of City of Heroes has been active for years. Keep in mind, this isn’t an official version of the game, but an unauthorized version of the game, maintained by someone who may or may not have been profiting off the game (I don’t know enough about the situation to say one way or the other). And if that’s the case, then there’s a really strong chance that NCsoft is going to crack down on them like Disney going after a company sporting a mascot of a mouse with big black ears or Star Wars after anything involving, well, anything Star Wars-related. Companies aren’t really fond of anyone else using their intellectual property.

So the hope is that NCsoft doesn’t crack down, or even better, realizes that there’s still a strong interest in this game and goes out of their way to give us an updated version of this beautiful vision. But they’re much better at shutting things down, so I’m not holding out a lot of hope.

So, the story is relatively new, which means anything can happen. Which also means that something good can come out of this, and even though the chances are slim, perhaps something wonderful can happen from this.

24 Hour News Has Ruined Us

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During the last century, one of the great “innovations” on the horizon was that we would move from a news model that reports twice at night to one of 24 hour, nonstop coverage. This brought about the advent of CNN, which ushered in this new era.

Fast-forward to today, and our news is somewhat worthless. Part of the advantage of the previous model was that our news took time to vet, so that reporters could check through stories and we knew we were most likely getting the real story. The new model doesn’t have time for that, so that instead of vetting the news, we print it, televise it, and then just hope that’s the truth. Otherwise, we print or air a retraction. Sometimes.

News agencies are doing that less and less these days because admitting mistakes is akin to guilt, so quite often, unless there’s outcry, you often hear nothing.

Thus, the moniker of fake news, which only makes the news that much weaker than it used to be before.

But one of the more recent problems our news has started to show is with the news itself. Because of the immediacy of the news these days, we often don’t have time to investigate and just print. Forward just a bit further to where we are, and we’re now literally regurgitating prominent Twitter feeds as actual news stories.

Here’s an example. CNBC reports on president’s Twitter story.

Think about that for a moment. Basically, what has happened is that we’re no longer going after stories, but we’re becoming the agents of anyone with a press release disguised as a Twitter feed. If you read the nightly news these evenings, they’re essentially just showing little graphics of tweets and then waxing philosophically about something really stupid someone might have said.

Today, we have a president announcing government policy by Twitter. Think about that now. And then when someone calls him on his promises he makes in Twitter, he denies ever having said it in the first place, literally calling everyone else liars.

That’s where we are. Welcome to 2019.

Ever Since I Abandoned Facebook

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A month or so ago, I indicated my frustration with Facebook and its many, many anti-customer approaches to business (you know, the ones that have been reported in the media where Facebook sees us as their product rather than treats us as if Facebook is the product). At the time, I decided to drop Facebook and see if I could move on. A couple of things happened that made that really difficult. So, I thought I would talk about my experiences and just kind of let you know what sort of things kind of happen.

  • First, I didn’t drop them outright or completely. I discovered that was going to be difficult. Not because I really liked it, or that I wanted to sign in and see how Aunt Myrtle’s Frozen Fish collection is going, but because of simple logistics. Facebook has just gotten too involved in my life. My writing business has a presence on Facebook and because of that, even my mailing list is kind of tied into the service. And there are peripherals I use that want Facebook, like my Oculus Go VR headset. Turns out, the company that makes it is owned by Facebook. Yeah, I could go through a process of trying to detach it from Facebook, but honestly, why? And there is no end to the apps and sites I’ve gone onto over the years that allowed a Facebook login instead of signing up directly. So, ending Facebook wasn’t as beneficial to me as I thought it might be.
  • Abandoning Facebook seemed the better alternative. Granted, it still gives them access to my data, and I know they’re constantly trying to track what I’m doing, but I don’t sign in. I went through and removed any type of thing that gives them access to my data, my location or anything else. I suspect they’re tracking my Oculus Go stuff, but I figure that unless they’re overly interested in my fascination with Hello Kitty, they’re going to get really bored, really fast. Over a month now, I’ve not signed onto Facebook once, and I kind of like that.
  • Because I don’t sign on, I’m not seeing endless updates from people telling me about their kids, their pets, their dinner, their trip to the corner store, and how many times they’ve had a bowel movement. It’s amazing how much drivel comes across Facebook. Even from me. I originally signed up to Facebook, overjoyed to be able to keep up with friends over the years, but let’s be honest: They weren’t trying all that hard to keep up with me even after I found them. There’s a reason they disappeared from my life before Facebook. We parted ways for a reason. No matter how hard I tried to get their back, they weren’t coming back. Ever.
  • Facebook has now turned into one of those clingy ex-girlfriends. Yesterday, I got 4 emails from Facebook, telling me that one of my “friends” has posted something, or included a photo, or had a bowel movement. And to play the whole bait and switch game, Facebook doesn’t give you enough information to even indicate if the post is worth signing onto them to read. It’s like: “Your hot supermodel friend Rebecca posted…” Yeah, you get the idea. Click bait from the gods of click bait. I also have 85 unread messages. 85. Oh noes.
  • My real conclusion is that I’m not missing anything. I tried MeWe (another social networking site) to replace Facebook because it had better privacy policies, but I don’t even sign onto it either. Leaving Facebook showed me how little value Facebook has as a service. It was a nice little gimmick, but that was so 2000s. This is 2019. I have better things to do.
  • This isn’t some kind of advocacy thing either. I don’t care if you do or do not use Facebook. I just know that I’m not going to be doing it. I suspect that eventually people are going to realize this as well, and if not, then you can all be as mindless as I was and continue to give it all of our data and information. Besides, there’s always Twitter, Instagram (also owned by Facebook) and Youtube. We’re never going to run out of things to steal…um, I mean, occupy our time.

Season 2, Episode 1 of Star Trek Discovery: My review

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So, Discovery has come out with its second season, and it definitely appears to be coming in swinging. But before I start talking about Season 2’s first episode, it’s probably important to talk a bit about season one.

Season one was controversial, to say the least. Here are a couple of issues that fans have brought up.

  1. The Klingons don’t look like Klingons. This is what happens when you hire makeup artists who watch episodes of Survivor instead of shell out the money for Netflix account where they could have watched episodes of the previous iterations of Star Trek.
  2. The star isn’t the captain. That’s just kind of blasphemy, the sort of obnoxious oversight that would cause Kirk to leap at an enemy with both feet and then fall down on his behind, commonly referred to as the Kirk Maneuver, or Kirk Fu.
  3. Technology that surpasses all previous LATER IN THE TIMELINE Treks. Spore drive? The ships? Actor’s wigs that actually look like their own hair?
  4. Did I mention Klingons?
  5. A misleading plot that was going somewhere but took time to get there. I’ll talk about that later.
  6. (spoiler, so don’t read this part if you haven’t seen the show) Michelle Yeoh dies almost as soon as the show starts. Michelle Yeoh. The best actor and most enjoyable character dies almost as soon as the show starts. And then we get her again, which is great, but this wasn’t until long after the parametics revived me and helped me back to my remote.
  7. (spoiler, so don’t read this part either) The Mirror Universe showing up almost as “hey, oh yeah, we’re doing this now, and we’re going to be doing this for the rest of the season”).
  8. The main character (and possibly its the actress herself) is not very engaging. Just there. And she’s the sister of Spock. Okay, we need another number.
  9. Sister of Spock? Really? This is the one they mention in Episode 14, right? Oh wait, they never mentioned her. She’s kind of unknown to everyone. And she’s a human. Not a Vulcan. Um, okay. I guess we’ll have to wait for Season Two to figure out her deal with Spock. I just hope we don’t focus the entire season trying to figure out her deal with Spock. Oops, spoke too soon.

That being said, the first season was actually pretty good. Most people who hated Star Trek Discovery didn’t give it more than the first three episodes, which dragged on so badly. Once the season picked up, it never let go, and that’s what made it completely worth it. But you had to actually buy into that and stick it out. Fortunately, I was still being revived by the paramedics at that time, so I was stuck in front of the TV. (Aside, I am only joking. No need to send condolences, unless it’s in the form of money, then I’m feeling better and could end up keeling over any day now, so send LOTS of money).

Which brings me into Episode 1 of the new season. It’s filled with a lot of wow factors in this episode, so much that I ended up watching it a second time.

And that’s when I started to see the problems. Let me mention a few:

  1. Is this season really The Search For Spock? I kind of remember another movie with that title before.
  2. We waited until the second season to start fleshing out the main character. This isn’t a slice of an onion being presented. This is backstory that should have been in the first two episodes.
  3. Spock as a mean-spirited, anti-sister brother right off the bat just seems odd. Sure, Spock might have grown since then, but not sure I like this version of Spock’s child.
  4. Captain Christopher Pike. It really feels like they just read a lexicon of Star Trek characters and then add one of them to the mix. But it makes no sense. Think about it. He’s the captain of the U.S.S. Starship Enterprise, which is broken, so he’s going to go galavanting on Discovery for a season (or however many episodes he’s cast) before going back to his own ship. Navies don’t generally do that. I assume Starfleet doesn’t either, as everything else seems to show the future navy as very much like the present navies. He’s going to stay with his ship as it’s being repaired. I always hate the badly written plot device of trying to figure a way of squeezing someone into a story where they surely just don’t belong. Pike has his own adventures. If you want to see them, make a show called Star Trek: Enterprise: The Pike Adventures.
  5. Ensign Silly. Tilly? The running gag on Discovery. Her naivete is cute at times, but they’re trying way too hard to oversell a very minor character. She’s starting to become Wesley Crusher, and that’s when people are going to start throwing things at her. Or at least hope the strange aliens who call themselves Klingon might throw something at her, like a batliff.
  6. Section 31. Seems that Michelle Yeoh’s doppler double from the mirror universe is going to involved somehow. I could imagine her starting it, or at least being quite instrumental in getting it going. My one complaint is that we’re already hearing “Section 31” in the trailer for the second episode. The agency is supposed to be extremely secret, almost so secret that the agents themselves wouldn’t often talk about it to others, and even to themselves. A good series of writers would have developed her character within a shadowy organization and not even mention who they were. EVERY Star Trek fan would know who they were, and that would have been good enough. Never revealing it would have brought that cloud of their mystery into the mix and would have made it awesome. If they really wanted to reveal it, it should have been a final moment revelation AT THE END OF THE SEASON.

Not a whole bunch, but a few that could easily bog down the rest of the season. I hope they figure out how to get around those.

What they are doing is setting up a nice mystery that I hope they do something stellar with. Stellar. See what I did there? Stellar? Like stars as in Star Trek. Oh, I’m so funny.

But yeah, they could so something amazing with this and as they proved in season one, they do have awesome writers that once they’re given some space really know how to do something with it.

I’m on the fence with the whole Section 31 thing. One thing I thought would make it awesome (even with their revelation already) is for the whole series to be leading to reveal that Discovery is the instrument that causes Section 31 to come to life because everything about Discovery so far has been “it’s a secret ship that even Starfleet knows little about”. They kind of set that tone right from the very first episode when the main character is recruited into their ranks from her prison cell. Part of the problem with the first season (and even in a few moments of the first episode of the second season) is that they kind of forget about that. The writers treat Discovery as just another ship when before it was pretty secretive in what it was doing and even how it was built. It’s sad if they just ignore that and try to make it a happy, Starfleet vessel.

So far, I’m interested in continuing. Not a fan of CBS All Access crap. I’ll be honest. I don’t watch a single show OTHER than Discovery on there. I don’t really like ANY of CBS’s shows that I’ve seen. If they’d put more intriguing science fiction on there, I would, but even their few selections they do have are either badly written or designed by people who think we want shoot em ups in future settings. But what do I know? Maybe that IS what people wants these days. Look at some of our leaders we choose. But that’s another story.

The ASMR Report

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I’m not sure how long I’ll keep doing this, but I thought I would start reporting on ASMR videos and their creators as a part of my blog. I know that eventually I would like it to it on my Youtube page, but for now, I thought it might also be interesting to have some text on some of these artists, as I mostly started out as a blogger way back in the day.

For those who haven’t followed some of my earlier ramblings, I’ve been talking about ASMR for some time now. About a year or so ago, I was having trouble sleeping one night, and then I was on Youtube looking for videos to help you sleep. What I came across as a “solution” was this phenomenon known as ASMR.

At the time, it was kind of new, but basically what it consists of is men or women talking softly and offering up “triggers”. These triggers are supposed to stimulate people (not in that way) so that you feel triggered, although that sensation has largely gone not discussed in the whole process completely. What I suspect is that it causes you to feel a sensation of “wow, that was awesome” and each person reacts to different things.

For me, it’s slow whispering and positive affirmations (“You got this!”), and every now and then something called “mike scratching” where the artist basically runs fingers or items against a microphone that is directly linked to the intake volume.

So, what I thought I would do is spend a little time each post talking about specific artists and the whole phenomenon as well. Now, a lot of people are becoming a lot more familiar with this activity these days because it’s becoming more and more popular. Famous people, like Gal Godot and Cardi B have done their variations of ASMR (because it was becoming popular and famous people like to be seen doing relevant things…still waiting for Kim Kardashian to do her own ASMR video). But there are some very talented artists out there doing this activity, so I thought I would point them out to you.

If this isn’t your thing, I assure you that I will be pontificating about politics eventually in another post, so don’t think you have to stop following me because I’ve gone native.

Anyway, like I said, I got my taste of ASMR some years back by watching who for the longest time I considered one of the best ASMR artists out there. I even supported her on Patreon when I first came across her, and I probably would have continued if she would have continued communicating, but one of the problems with people you start to support is that they become big fast, and then they leave their fans behind. But that’s another story.

Her name is Lucy, goes by the name Creative Calm, and she’s an ASMR artist who hails from England. I guess at the time, I was kind of intrigued by the whole English accent thing (still am), and it just made it better. But here’s one of her videos to give you an idea of her talent. One thing that’s interesting with a lot of ASMR artists is that they tend to do a lot of roleplay stuff because after time they end up releasing the exact same content over and over, so roleplay stuff helps them mix up the experience so the journey appears to be different and unique.

Anyway, just thought I’d start by introducing the first ASMR artist I was interested in. I’ll be introducing quite a few more here in the near future.

What’s Happening With Duane?

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So, it’s been a little while since I’ve updated the page, but that doesn’t mean that I haven’t been busy. Since the last times I was posting, I found myself getting involved in a lot of things that aren’t exactly blog related, but just seem to be a little more significant to what’s going on with my life right now.

First, I’ve been getting involved with Youtube. And I mean, a lot of Youtube. I don’t just mean watching it either. I’ve also been producing content as well. I’ve been doing, well, what you’d expect, and that’s Youtubing all about writing. Yes, I’ve been offering tips on how to become a writer. You can see one of those here:

I’ve also been producing content on politics, as you’d probably expect. Here’s one of my selections on the Kavanaugh hearings:

And then, of course, where would be without the constant bad humor of Duane?

The beauty of my channel is that it covers all sorts of thoughts on the spectrum. If you want to subscribe to my channel, just go here.

Speaking of Youtube, I’ve discovered it’s turning out to be a lot more interesting than anything that’s being produced on television. Over the Winter break, I found myself more interesting in Youtube content than anything that was on television. Never thought I’d say that before. The one problem with that is that you can easily be sucked into rabbit hole content. By which, I mean all sorts of conspiracy theories and ridiculous content that has no basis in reality whatsoever.

One of my favorite recent diversions has been all things ASMR. In case you’re not aware of what this is, it’s a technical term (you can look it up) for content that consists of people whispering and making sounds. It’s supposed to trigger responses from certain people, and it can be very soothing. I found it while looking for videos to help me sleep some time back, and now I’ve been down the rabbit hole numerous times and in various ways. Some better than others….

The content can be fun, interesting and sometimes just outright bizarre. In some cases, the content can be a bit risque.

Another diversion has been partisan types of behavior. Now, most people know I’m a bit of a fiscal conservative but politically I’m more of an anarchist. And I’m also an avid gamer. So, I found myself attracted to content that I thought was about removing political content in computer games, only to discover a whole new rabbit hole of rabid conservatives who hate anything that might be construed as liberal. And rather than be turned off by it, I’ve found myself completely fascinated by it. One of my favorites is a site called The Quartering, which is basically a game news site that tends to be geared against partisan behavior in gaming, but quite often goes off the deep end and becomes partisan in his own way, even though I don’t think he even realizes he’s doing it (or he’d deny it because he’s fallen into that grey area of where a partisan person thinks everyone who disagrees with him is partisan (although he’s usually a lot better than that and can put forth some fascinating content)). Here’s one of his recent ones. Again, it’s one of those things that is better to watch with an open mind.

One of the problems of a lot of this content (and the previous one is usually absent of this problem, which is why I watch it so often), is that the content creators often start to fall into dangerous territory that is quite negative, and quite often you don’t realize it’s gone there until it just has. An example: I was watching one feed of some guy that was railing against liberal women who hate men (which, for bizarre reasons I had been fine with up until that point), and then he started going off on George Soros and “their desire to control everything”, and you might just get the point that sometimes they go too far, and you have to stop watching videos from that sort of content creator.

But one of the more interesting fascinations I’ve had is with a whole movement I’d never heard of before that seems a lot more popular than I’d ever realized, and that’s the MGTOW movement. For several videos, I kept seeing those letters and had no idea what they meant. And then one content creator explained: Men Going Their Own Way. It appears that in this movement, men have gotten frustrated with women and their liberal ways, and their desires to control both men and their interactions with them, to the point of creating all sorts of horrible processes in the dating community. So, mean have just decided to give up on the whole thing and go their own way and ONLY date women not like that.

The videos I’ve seen from a lot of the guys tend to be really negative and angry. But what’s really caught my interest is the number of videos from women who have been responding to this, creating a whole bizarre conversation back and forth that just seems like bad French poetry. And then, recently, I’ve come across a lot of response videos from women who appear to actually support the movement, and that slowly led to the realization that it’s yet another ultra-conservative movement because the majority of these people tend to be right-wing, angry people who see the attempts by liberals to force social customs upon everyone else. Of course, I’m painting this with a very wide brush, so not everyone falls into just those categories, but enough do to make the movement very hard to watch without that constraint.

This caused me to find an off shoot of that movement that is basically a response to a lot of the parameters set in today’s dating society that seems more focused on science-based understanding, showing that both socially and biologically that women and men are on the same trajectories but with different time periods, based on a belief that both are approaching what’s called The Wall (women at a younger age and men at an age approaching the 40s). A good explanation of this comes from a video by a person who goes by the studio of Entrepreneurs in Cars.

Anyway, there are all sorts of rabbit holes you can find yourself going into with this type of stuff. Thankfully, I’m here for you doing that sort of work so you don’t have to. Or at least that’s what I’m telling myself.

CV

Uncategorized

Duane Gundrum

 

Education

Master’s degree, communication                                         graduated December 2008

University of the Pacific                                                                             Stockton, California

Master’s degree, political science                                       graduated December 2001

Western Michigan University                                                                   Kalamazoo, Michigan

Bachelor of Arts, political science                                           Graduated APRIL 1999

San Francisco State University                                                          San Francisco, California

Associate degree of science, computer science                           Graduated MAY 1995

City College of San Francisco                                                            San Francisco, California

 

 

Honors and Awards

 

“Best of…” Fiction Award in honor of Charles Clerc from Artifact, May 2009

Stockton Arts Commission Short Story Contest, Second Place, March 2008

Stockton Arts Commission Short Story Contest, First Place, March 2007

Top Speaker Award, American Forensics Association, NCFA National Tournament, April 1999.

Top Speaker Award, Parliamentary Debate, Governor’s Cup, September 1998.

Top Speaker Award, American Forensics Association, Roadrunner Classic Tournament, October 1998.

Top Speaker Award, American Forensics Association, Roadrunner Classic Tournament, October 1997.

San Francisco State University Deans List, Fall 1997, Spring 1998, Fall 1998, Spring 1999

Merit Scholarship from American Legion, 1983.

Merit Scholarship from Bank of America for recognition in science achievement, 1983.

 

Academic and Professional Organizations

 

National Communication Association, since 2008

American Statistical Association, since 2005

American Political Science Association, since 2000

Political Science Graduate Student Association WMU, 1999-2006

publications & conferences

 

The Deck Const: Shadows & Rumors, Novel, 2014

 

A Season of Kings: Book 1 of the Tales of Reagul, Novel, 2014

 

Absent Without Leave, Novel, 2013

 

The Teddy Bear Conspiracy, Novel, 2013

 

Leader of the Losers, Novel, 2013

 

The Ameriad: The Untold Founding of America by the Survivors of Troy, Novel, 2013

 

Darkened Passages: A Collection of Dark Fantasy, Book of Short Stories, 2013

 

License to Quill, Book of Published Poetry, 2013

 

Neo-Revolutionary Messages: Russia’s August 1991 Coup, Nonfiction Book, 2011

 

“The Friendship Over Time (FOT) Model: A paradigmatic shift into a new theory of cooperation,” first author, coauthored with Kathleen Bruce, National Communications Association Peace and Conflict Division, November, 2008, San Diego, California.

 

Deadly Deceptions: A Steve Darwood Army Counterintelligence Novel, Novel, 2008

 

“(Neo) Revolutionary Messages: An analysis of the impact of counter-narratives versus state narratives during the 1991 coup d’etat in the former Soviet Union,” Thesis for master’s degree, University of the Pacific, 2008.

 

“Seen But Not Heard: An analysis of failed gender expectations observed during the August 1991 Soviet Coup,” first author, coauthored with Kathleen Bruce, Gender and Science Research Conference, Stockton, CA, 2008.

 

Destiny, Novel, 2007

 

“Why Poverty Exists,” World Issues: 360, August 2007.

 

“The Impact of Emotional Intelligence, Self-concepts on Romantic Communication over MySpace,” coauthored with Qingwen Dong and Mark Urista in CyberPsychology and Behavior, 2007.

 

“The Impact of Emotional Intelligence, Self-concepts on Romantic Communication over MySpace,” coauthored with Qingwen Dong and Mark Urista at the Midwinter Conference of AEJMC, Reno, NV, February 2007.

 

“Changing the Paradigm: Intelligence gathering and strategic/tactical level conflict,” Averting Future Security Threats Panel, MPSA Annual Conference, Chicago, IL, April 2005.

 

Thompson’s Bounty, Novel, 2005.

 

Innocent Until Proven Guilty, Novel, 2001.

 

“Credit Limits of the Gods,” Just A Moment Magazine, Winter 1993-1994.

 

“Cosmic Delusions”, Barrelhouse Magazine, Winter Issue 1992.

 

“Held Hostage by the Computer Revolution”, ComputorEdge Magazine, October 20, 1989.

 

classes taught

Speech 1315, Public Speaking, Del Mar College, Spr 18

Speech 1315, Public Speaking, Del Mar College, Spr 18 (2nd section)

Speech 1315, Public Speaking, Del Mar College, Fall 17

Speech 1315, Public Speaking, Del Mar College, Summer 17

Speech 1315, Public Speaking, Del Mar Community College, S 17

Freshman Seminar (2 sections), Wiley College, S 16

Freshman Seminar (4 sections), Wiley College, F 15

Freshman Seminar (3 sections), Wiley College, S 15

Freshman Seminar (4 sections), Wiley College, F14

Communication 135, Interpersonal Communication, Grand Rapids Community College, Summer 14

Communication 135, Interpersonal Communication, Grand Rapids Community College, S14

Political Science 110, American Government, Grand Rapids Community College, S14

Communication 135, Interpersonal Communication, Grand Rapids Community College, F13

Political Science 110, American Government, Grand Rapids Community College, F13

Communication 131, Public Speaking, Grand Rapids Community College, S13

Communication 135, Interpersonal Communication, Grand Rapids Community College, F12

Communication 135, Interpersonal Communication, Grand Rapids Community College, Summer 12

Communication 135, Interpersonal Communication, Grand Rapids Community College, S12

Political Science 110, American Government, Grand Rapids Community College, F 11

Communication 135, Interpersonal Communication, Grand Rapids Community College, F 11

Political Science 110, American Government, Grand Rapids Community College, S 11

Communication 135, Interpersonal Communication, Grand Rapids Community College, S 11

Communication 135, Interpersonal Communication, Grand Rapids Community College, F 10

Debate Instruction, Delta Academy, Seoul, South Korea, 08-09 (numerous courses)

English as a Second Language, Delta Academy, Seoul, South Korea, 08-09 (numerous courses)

English as a Second Language, EFS Institute, Fairfield, California, Sum 08

Inspector & Field Inspector Training, Registrar of Voters, Stockton, California, Sum 08

Poll Worker Training, Registrar of Voters, Stockton, California, Sum 08

Communication 27, Public Speaking, University of the Pacific, Sp 08

Communication 43, Interpersonal Communication, University of the Pacific, F 07

Communication 27, Public Speaking, University of the Pacific, Sp 07

Communication 43, Interpersonal Communication, University of the Pacific, F 06

Communication 27, Public Speaking, University of the Pacific, F 06

Communication 27, Public Speaking, University of the Pacific, F 06 (2nd section)

Political Science 100, Introduction to Political Science, Kalamazoo Valley Community College, F 05

Political Science 101, American Government, Kalamazoo Valley Community College, F 05

Political Science 100, Introduction to Political Science, Kalamazoo Valley Community College, Sum 05

Political Science 101, American Government, Kalamazoo Valley Community College, Sum 05

Political Science 250, International Relations, Western Michigan University, Sp 05

Political Science 100, Introduction to Political Science, Kalamazoo Valley Community College, Sp 05

Political Science 101, American Government, Kalamazoo Valley Community College, Sp 05

Political Science 101, American Government, Kalamazoo Valley Community College, Sp 05 (2nd section)

Political Science 100, Introduction to Political Science, Kalamazoo Valley Community College, F 04

Political Science 3200, American Judicial Process (TA for course), Western Michigan University, Sum 04

Political Science 3200, American Judicial Process (TA for course), Western Michigan University, Sp 04

Political Science 100, Introduction to Political Science, Kalamazoo Valley Community College, Sp 04

Political Science 3200, American Judicial Process (TA for course), Western Michigan University, F 03

 

Work Experience

Assistant Instructor of Speech                                                                           august 2016 – Present

Del Mar College                                                                                                             Corpus Christi, Texas

 

assistant director of qep                                                                               august 2014 – August 2016

Wiley College                                                                                                                            Marshall, Texas

 

Communication and political science instructor                                  August 2010 – august 2014

Grand Rapids Community College                                                                         Grand Rapids, Michigan

 

Education analyst & E-Learning designer                                    September 2009 – december 2013

Spectrum Health Hospitals                                                                                      Grand Rapids, Michigan

 

English as second language instructor                                              August 2008 – september 2009

Delta Academy                                                                                                                    Seoul, South Korea

 

English as second language instructor                                                         July 2008 – August 2008

EFS Institute                                                                                                                      Fairfield, California

 

Election training specialist                                                                                   June 2008 – July 2008

Registrar of Voters                                                                                                           Stockton, California

 

graduate assistant/instructor                                                                           august 2006 – may 2008

University of the Pacific                                                                                                  Stockton, California

 

database coordinator/data analyst                                                                 july 2005 – august 2006

Spectrum Health Hospitals                                                                                      Grand Rapids, Michigan

 

Political science instructor                                                                       august 2004 – january 2006

Kalamazoo Valley Community College                                                                      Kalamazoo, Michigan

 

opinion editor                                                                                                                july 2004 – july 2005

The Western Herald                                                                                                       Kalamazoo, Michigan

 

Graduate Associate                                                                                                 July 2003 – JULY 2004

Western Michigan University                                                                                      Kalamazoo, Michigan

 

Graduate Assistant/instructor                                                                             July 1999 – July 2003

Western Michigan University                                                                                      Kalamazoo, Michigan

 

QA Tester                                                                                                           september 1996 – July 1998

Electronic Arts                                                                                                         Redwood City, California

 

computer repair technician                                                               september 1994 – september 1996

San Francisco State University                                                                            San Francisco, California

 

Hotel investigator                                                                                  october 1988 – september 1994

San Francisco Hilton Hotel                                                                                  San Francisco, California

 

counterintelligence agent & demolitions specialist                          july 1983 – september 1988

Department of Defense                                                                                                         Washington, D.C.

 

Workshops, Training and Seminars

 

Leadership Training, US Army                                                                 July 1983 THROUGH June 1987

Specialty officer training courses throughout military career on leadership

 

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

 

  • Assistant coach of top 10 nationally ranked speech and debate team
  • Director of a university team of 35 individuals in speech and debate
  • Experienced coaching with all types of debate and individual events
  • Created and maintained numerous types of databases, including one of the first to categorize data for the S. military in South Korea
  • Individualized training and counseling of students
  • Personal responsibility of up to 300 individuals at one time while in military environment

Stickman has returned and has been updated

Uncategorized

For those of you who follow The Adventures of Stickman & the Unemployed Legospaceman, the page has been updated and imported into the site (the old link had been defunct since the page had changed its domain server and name).

The new location for Stickman can be found here, or you can reach it from the top navigation bar of the main page itself (the one with the British lady who introduces the page).