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C. Rodney James

Goodreads Author

Born

in Columbus, OH, The United States

Website

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001KIL8XO

Genre

Fiction, History, Crime

Member Since

November 2013

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/crodneyembarqmailcom

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I was born to an academic family in Columbus, Ohio. Nothing important happened until age 15. I was into explosives. One June afternoon, I assembled a pipe bomb. I'd done this before but failed to clean the threads of spilled explosive. The last good grip I had on anything was on the pipe cap as I gave it a final twist. A yard-wide ball of orange fire, my right hand was gone the left shredded.
Three weeks in hospital then home recovery. I was fitted with a back harness connected to a set of prosthetic arms each fitted with a two-piece "split-hook." The crudity of this arrangement was stunning. I’ve tried various mechanical hands. They can do about 15% of the hook functions.
This was lesson 1. In becoming an upper-extremity amputee.
Lesson 2. I was born to an academic family in Columbus, Ohio. Nothing important happened until age 15. I was into explosives. One June afternoon, I assembled a pipe bomb. I'd done this before but failed to clean the threads of spilled explosive. The last good grip I had on anything was on the pipe cap as I gave it a final twist. A yard-wide ball of orange fire, my right hand was gone the left shredded.
Three weeks in hospital then home recovery. I was fitted with a back harness connected to a set of prosthetic arms each fitted with a two-piece "split-hook." The crudity of this arrangement was stunning. I’ve tried various mechanical hands. They can do about 15% of the hook functions.
This was lesson 1. In becoming an upper-extremity amputee.
Lesson 2. Came with my return to school. Every kid was at a window for a look. I got lots of attention. Walking a neighborhood street as a car passed a kid within yelled "meat hook!" out the window. I realized I had become a sort of spokesperson for "my kind." I prepared a speech -- how things worked and took audience questions. My peers seemed to think I should aim for a career dealing with the disabled. This seemed odd as I'd never had any interest in such work and was damned if I was going to let my life and identity be determined by a disability.
My senior teachers stated: We do not believe Rodney to be collage material. My father taught economics at The Ohio State University (47 years). That's where I was headed. It was an unspoken understanding I was to become an academic. Both parents had been on the debate team, were friends with the Prof who coached the team. I was in his class. We got along fine. That's why I tried out for the O.S.U. fencing team. I'd fenced in Junior- high and I was damned if...
Considering the lengths it took to convince the NCAA it was safe for me and my potential opponents to compete in this sport I was almost certainly the first double-hand amputee to do so. I designed a grip that fit a Dorrance hook. Photos of everything were submitted, even motion-picture footage of myself fencing Coach Kaplan. I finished 5th in the Big Ten (in epee), was awarded a Varsity "O". The best thing I took away was competing on an equal footing with "normal" people.
I Love shooting and pretty guns. I made a gun holder of leather and seat-belt Nylon. To use a camera I found a rubber "pistol grip" which screws into the tripod hole. I had a gun-stock unit made to use a motion- picture camera.
I wanted to make films, but O.S.U. didn't provide enough training. After a few student films and work on a university film, I exchanged my dream for becoming a film scholar in hope there might be opportunities with a university film unit combined with teaching. I finished a Ph.D. in mass-media studies with a dissertation on the work of THE NATIONAL FILM BOARD of CANADA.
I moved to Montreal to continue research. I was hired to teach film/TV courses at Concordia U. I liked teaching, loved Montreal (except for the winters) and got married. Three years later the bottom dropped out of higher education, shrinking it by one third. I joined tens of thousands of other untenured Ph.D.'s.
Following 590 applications to schools on both sides of the border, I landed a job back in Columbus at The National Center on Educational Media and Materials for the Handicapped - a government sub-contractor. I had a Ph.D. in media and I was handicapped. My title was: Media Specialist. My function was as a stock boy, trotting out prototype educational materials for review by special educators. I was called a "crypto-anarchist" by the director, possibly because when (terrible) morning coffee was served for meetings I would say "No thanks, it keeps me awake." ...more

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C. Rodney James’s books

Average rating: 4.11 · 207 ratings · 5 reviews · 8 distinct works

	The ABCs of Reloading: The Definitive Guide for Novice to Expert 4.14 avg rating — 94 ratings — published 2011 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The ABCs of Reloading: The Definitive Guide for Novice to Expert 4.02 avg rating — 90 ratings — published 2010 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Gun Digest Book of the .22 Rifle 3.94 avg rating — 16 ratings — published 2010 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	ABC's of Reloading by C. Rodney James (Goodreads Author), Handloader's Digest (Editor) 4.67 avg rating — 6 ratings — published 1997 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Small-Bore Rifles: A Guide for Rimfire Users by C. Rodney James (Goodreads Author), IV, Mark A. Keefe (Foreword) really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 4 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	ORIGINAL CYN really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 2010	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Film As a National Art (Diss on Film Series) it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 1977	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Persuasive Evidence 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2013	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Quotes by C. Rodney James (?)

“Life is full of surprises, most of them unpleasant.”
― C. Rodney James

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C.’s Quotes

“Prose books are the show dogs I breed and sell to support my cat”
― Robert Graves

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“Hitler is a monster of wickedness, insatiable in his lust for blood and plunder. Not content with having all Europe under his heel, or else terrorized into various forms of abject submission, he must now carry his work of butchery and desolation among the vast multitudes of Russia and of Asia. The terrible military machine, which we and the rest of the civilized world so foolishly, so supinely, so insensately allowed the Nazi gangsters to build up year by year from almost nothing, cannot stand idle lest it rust or fall to pieces. It must be in continual motion, grinding up human lives and trampling down the homes and the rights of hundreds of millions of men. Moreover it must be fed, not only with flesh but with oil.”
― Sir Winston Churchill

tags: psychopath

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