March 27, 2017

Good Morning Readers!

I hope your day, week, and month are going great!

I wanted to get on the peck box this morning and let you all

know that my first Science Fiction novel is out!

"The Plight of Lord Colbrette" is the first in the 10th Millennium

series of novels, and tells the story of a secret agent that performs

clandestine missions near and far, and his struggles with

life, his friends and family, and his career.

It's a fast paced drama that will keep you on the

edge of your seat, and open up a whole new universe that

you never thought existed...in the past.

Have a read, it's on Amazon.com for Kindle!!

Printed editions are on the way soon!

Bye for now,

Jim

"LIES" by Jim Culp, 2017

Our government is currently enacting new laws, provisions for laws, and appointing officials to cabinet vacancies.

Going forward, I suggest trying out these simple ideals:

1. Stop lying.

2. Stop lying to each other.

3. Stop lying to the people you are supposed to be serving.

4. Stop lying to other countries.

5. Stop  defending someone who lied.

6. Stop lying about someone that identified your lies.

7. Stop lying to cover up your lies; that just creates more lies.

8. Stop lying to cover up someone else's lies; that just creates more lies and makes you look like a jackass who is also lying.

9. Stop lying to yourself.

10. You say you believe in an omnipotent God. Stop lying; if that God is up there, don't you think he knows you're lying?

"Bear ye not false witness against thy neighbor without cause; and deceive not with thy lips."

Solomon, the King of Israel, 970-931 BC

"I have not uttered Lies"

"I am not a man of deceit"

"I have not shut my ears to the words of Truth"

The Papyrus of Ani, 1250 BC

"The End"

February 10, 2017

-by Jim Culp

{this is a partial excerpt from my autobiography, To Three Hells and Back, publishing this fall....}

This month marks the end of an era, or in my words, an age.

The most famous of all Heavy Metal bands, and the original lineup

being the godfathers of that genre, Rock and Roll's stepchild, Heavy Metal.

On February 4th, at Genting Arena in Birmingham, England, the legendary

Black Sabbath played their final concert.

This day was long dreaded by Black Sabbath fans, but the event was legendary and the fans gave them the finest send off in decades.

Black Sabbath started all the way back in 1968. I was the ripe old age of two.

I heard KISS when I was about seven, and they scared the hell out of me.

Three days a week, I was taught that Rock and Roll was the invention of the devil, and those that listened to it were doomed to a fiery hell that burned for eternity.

I never heard, or at least didn't know I heard, Black Sabbath until I was in the 6th grade, and a car next us at the Snappy Mart in Silver City was blasting out an old cut of "Iron Man" on an 8-track deck. I thought the song was magical. The haunting drag of the Gibson SG played by Tony Iommi was highly interesting to me, and I wanted to hear more. Time, continual church quickening, and other things in life delayed that quest. It would be many years later, in 1985, when I was a young soldier in Korea, I bought a copy of Black Sabbath's first record with Ronnie James Dio as the lead singer. It was called Heaven and Hell, and was released in 1980. While I was in high school, I had seen their second Dio-led record, The Mob Rules, on LP in K-Mart, and had ignored it.

"Heaven and Hell" was an incredible album, it had songs like "Children of the Sea" and the title track. Dio was my hero a month later, and I officially became a Black Sabbath fan. There was no internet in those days, and library on our base in Korea had as much Rock and Roll literature as my parent's church did.

Once I was back in the world, though, in June of 1986, I started listening to the old stuff. It was mesmerizing, and the haunting lyrics of their debut album were as surreal as going to a funeral. It would be many years later, and I would achieve one of my lifetime goals; seeing Black Sabbath in Phoenix in August of 2013. They had their original lineup back (except for Bill Ward), and the show was the best concert I ever saw (the only one even close being Rush: Moving Pictures). Tommy Clufetos was on drums, and gave an awesome show. Black Sabbath had just released their 19th record, 13; earlier that year. I had acquired it in Tacoma while doing a job for my old company. It wasn't like some band's later recordings though, it was easily on of their best records ever.

Ozzy was back in raw form, and Tony and Geezer traded bad ass riffs and thundering Metal sounds that make the cat run to the back bedroom.

Brad Wilk, the amazing drummer of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave, filled in on drums, and did an amazing job. He was highly praised and recognized by the band.

But that time is over. Black Sabbath has decided to call it quits, and enjoy retirement.

Ozzy will keep touring; that crazy bastard will most likely die on a stage, and he'd love it if he did. Tony and Geezer will likely do more stuff, but they are ready to spend more time at the house, and at restaurants. You can hardly blame them for that. After 49 years of giving the world their music, and creating a genre that is loved by millions, they deserve it. Bill is starting a new band, and will no doubt play for a while longer.

No matter what the members do, I salute them. They gave me hours of enjoyment, and taught me musical skills that I still work to perfect to this day.

(I still know a guitar is in perfect tune if opening riffs of "Children of the Sea" and "Rainbow in the Dark" sound right).

Thanks Black Sabbath; we love you always.

And last but not least, RIP Ronnie James Dio. You will never be forgotten.

Today's news, as well as the past year, has been full of what the

new President, his cabinet, and what our nation will start, stop,

and keep putting up with.

I have my opinions about everything, as I am sure you do.

Conversations can be about war, peace, government, and religion.

The person I will not get into a conversation about anything with is an absolutist;

a person that believes that he knows everything, and that he is right about

everything, and his conversational "opponent" is someone that wants to watch him rile his anger, and deliver a sermon for two hours.

That, dear friends, is not a conversation. It is a the narcissistic diatribe of a lunatic, a religious zealot, and a fool.

I have no problem if you support Donald Trump for president.

I have no problem with you loving Jesus and believing that he will save you

from a doomed planet.

I have every problem in the universe with you when you think I am ignorant, or consider me beneath you.

-Jim Culp, 2017

Sorry Ronda

- By Jim Culp

UFC 207 was very built up in the media as the ideal time for Ronda Rousey, a lovely girl of just 29 years, to come back and regain her lost title of Bantam Weight Champion of the UFC.

From 2004 to 2008, she on several Olympic medals in Judo, and was ready for the big rings. We all watched her advance with staggering defeats of opponents (some under a minute), and grew to love her cute smile, her bad-ass moves, and domination of a field that most men cant handle.

In 2015, Ronda was defeated by Holly Holm in Melbourne, Australia at UFC 193.

In my opinion, and as I stated at the time, she was unprepared for that fight.

I know she trained and worked out, but she wasn't ready for Holly's reach, and definitely not ready to get roundhouse kicked in the head (I've been there; it's no fun).

Last night, Ronda faced Amanda Nunes, a badass Brazilian fighter with a 69 inch arm reach. Again, Ronda trained, but she wasn't ready for a constant deluge of solid punches.

In previous fights, Ronda avoided this by successful grapples that resulted in hard take-downs, and quick submissions by arm-bar.

Amanda Nunes, trained in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu by none other than Ryan Franco, was prepared for Ronda, though. She evaded every attempt by Rousey to grapple her, and subsequently landed blow after blow to Ronda's head and face.

48 seconds into the fight, it was stopped because Ronda was barely able to stand, and was visibly hurt.

I always loved and favored Ronda Rousey, but this second ass whipping tells me that she needs to take some time off, then get back in the dojo; and get back to the basics that made her famous in the first place. If she wants to retire, she has many avenues that would keep her well paid for twenty years. Either way, we love you Ronda, and hope you get over this and return if you can. If you cant, we still love you.

Tonight the music seems so loud
I wish that we could lose this crowd

December 16th, 2016

The Rite of Ignorance

-By Jim Culp

It's that time of year again. The holiday season is upon us, and there is widespread gift purchasing, decorating of houses and trees, and food for mile.

Most folks here in Kansas celebrate the Christian version of the holiday we have come to commonly call Christmas. Christians believe that Jesus the Christ was born on December 25th, and it all goes on from there. That's cool. You have the right to believe what you want, and as a soldier, I have laid my life on the line twice for your right to do so. I wont go into a diatribe about my non-belief of that faith; I've already done that in another blog, and my readers have told me that they hate repetition; they get enough of that from CNN or FOX.

In January, the holidays will be over, and a controversial businessman will become the 45th President of the United States of America. I wish him well; he's got one hell of a task to take on. On that note, I've heard very intelligent comments on his candidacy, and some pretty damn ignorant ones.

But yesterday, a very ignorant person made three statements that I feel the need to comment on.

Statement One: "Mexicans rape their babies."

My first question was, "what Mexicans?"

She said "all Mexicans; and all Muslims."

I truly was not fully aware that blatant ignorance like that existed in 2016, but I stand corrected. Some people are simply ignorant, and that ignorance breeds inherent stupidity when it is not cured by research and fact finding.

Statement Two: "Don't let them people out of Syria; they're all ISIS."

I replied with two answers. "Are you really that frickin' stupid?" and... "Really, though. Are you that frickin' stupid?"

Statement Three: "We need to get back to Christmas being about Jesus."

I replied with one statement.

"Enter the word "Yule" into Wikipedia or Dictionary.com."

Lastly, this is the United States of America, but there are literally millions of people walking around saying that "Bob can't say that," or "Mary needs to understand that we don't need any more immigrants."

Again, ignorance. I advise anyone that thinks like that to read the Constitution and Bill of Rights of the USA. Then I advise them to study their family tree and see where their family came from. I assure you, unless you are a Native North American Indian, your family didn't come form "Merca."

Educate yourself.

Merry Yule. May your drink be strong and your love stronger.

Today's Visit at Walmart

-By Jim Culp

11/23/2016

Today I went to the Walmart located at Legends Kansas City (that's about 435 North and Parallel Parkway).

I gathered a few simple items, and headed up to the self check out, because as with any Wednesday before the Thanksgiving Holiday, there are four checkers for the sixty five people with loaded carts trying to get out of the store.

I scanned my items, and prior to moving to the "select payment" screens, I double checked my sub total, which the machine indicated was $49.72.

"Wait a minute, I thought. "That doesn't look right, even to my superior third grade arithmetic."

Then I remembered that I had my smart phone with me, and whipped that little doo-dad out and opened the calculator application.

I added up the items, and they totaled up at $36.62.

"Hmmm...." I thought, let's do that again. Of course, being the OCD guy that I am (life has taught me some hard lessons), I did it three more times. $36.62 each time, no error.

I called the self check attendant over.

"Um, Ma'am, look at this." I showed her my findings.

She said, without a breath, "oh, you're not counting the tax."

I informed her that even with the taxes, it would only be ( I was guessing) about $40.00 or so. (I also couldn't remember whether the machine adds the taxes at that point, or after you select a payment option.)

She stated "well, I ain't sure, but let me get a manager."

The manager came over a few minutes later.

She immediately took out her calculator, and added the items up, which gave her $36.62 as well.

She then stated that since something was wrong, they'd just ring my items up at HER register, meaning the one the attendant uses at the self checkout area.

They both proceeded to re-scan my items, and this time, they came up with $49.79.

She then said, "yep, that's right. With .09% tax, that comes out right.

I asked her what she was smoking, and why the amount came out different.

She said "that's what we came up with Sir, and that's what we're going to do."

I left the cart sitting at her station, and walked out of the store without another word spoken, or the waste of another minute of my precious time off from work.

I also would not engage in a battle of wits with two unarmed cave women.

I reached my car, and sat there thinking, "I wonder how many thousands of people a day that happens to, and it's never caught?" That could easily translate to millions per day in Walmarts' pockets.

I guess the reason I wrote this is A) it was therapeutic, and B) check your figures at Walmart.