Marty Essen's Blog, page 262

Fox Dog strikes again!

Marty’s photo of the day #2736: “Okay, Dad! I have carefully applied this great-smelling black stuff, and I’m ready to get back into the truck now.”

(Photographed in Alberta, Canada)

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Mourning our country’s screwed up priorities

Today is a National Day of Mourning for President George H.W. Bush. The US Postal Service is closed, federal offices are closed, some banks are closed, and even some schools are closed. This may get me in trouble, but I just can’t mourn the death of someone who lived to be 94, had an estimated net worth of 23 million, and had the best healthcare in the world free of charge—actually the best of everything. As a president, George H.W. Bush was certainly better than his son, who was the worst president in U.S. history until Donald Trump came along, so this post is not about degrading his legacy. Obviously, many people loved him.


 


My point is that the United States needs to reprioritize its values. Today our government is shut down and our mail will not be delivered in honor of a man who lived longer than most of us ever will live and for the vast majority of his life had enough wealth that he could have practically everything he desired.


 


Why do we shut down the country for one of the most fortunate men in U.S. history, yet argue over whether or not enough people died in the latest mass shooting to warrant lowering the flags to half-staff on government buildings?


 


Why do we give tax breaks and cut regulations for dirty fossil fuels corporations, yet never have enough money to do what needs to be done to save our planet from the devastation of global warming?


 


Why do we spend more on our military than the next nine highest-military-spending countries combined, yet plead poverty when the subject of health care for all comes up?


 


So while the United States has its day of mourning, I will mourn too. Only instead of mourning for a multimillionaire politician who died of old age, I will mourn the fact that the United States has its priorities screwed up. How many kids will die of gunshot wounds today and be lucky to get a few column inches in their local newspaper? Why are their lives worth any less than George H.W. Bush’s?


 


We need to reprioritize!

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From my favorite spot in the United States

Marty’s photo of the day #2735: Here’s a photo from the Everglades that doubles as both an animal shot and a scenic shot. This is a little blue heron, photographed at a little-known location, which is just about my favorite spot in the United States. I wish I was there now.

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Choosing the correct words

As an author and a public speaker, I’m careful to use accurate words in professional situations. In casual situations, I’m much more prone to language misuse. Here are two recent casual examples:

On the subject of humor: I mentioned, how for me, I’m most successful getting people to laugh when I use self-depreciating humor. (I should have said “self-deprecating humor.”)

On the subject of Donald Trump: I mentioned how each day he gets excrementally worse. (I should have said “incrementally worse.” Hmm. . . . Now that I think about it. Perhaps my original words were correct too.)

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Photographing a leopard after sunset

Marty’s photo of the day #2734: I tried every photo processing trick I know to make this photo clearer, but it was quite dark when I took it. Still, the photo is worth posting because unless you work for National Geographic, and can hang around for days behind a blind with incredibly expensive equipment, it’s just not that easy to capture a clear leopard shot. Camera limitations aside: what a beautiful animal!

(Photographed in Zimbabwe)

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Antarctica’s shag carpeting

Marty’s photo of the day #2733: No, this is not shag carpeting—it’s moss growing on Aitcho Island, 75 miles north of the Antarctic Peninsula. I never expected to see plant life this far south.

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The bison sparring match

Marty’s photo of the day #2732: Two bison spar, while the big bull checks out the action.

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Sequel to Time Is Irreverent set for February!

Yay! Last night—after thousands of hours of writing, entering editing, and proofing, proofing, proofing—I finished the sequel to my Amazon #1 Best Seller, Time Is Irreverent. The aptly named, Time Is Irreverent 2: Jesus Christ, Not Again! is scheduled for publication in February 2019.

In Jesus Christ, Not Again! the timeline change Marty Mann and Nellie Dixon made in book #1 is reversed, forcing our heroes to take a Chromosphere Cruiser back to AD 31. When their first century visit doesn’t go as planned, they reluctantly return to the present. But they have a stowaway—Jesus Christ!

Can Marty Mann and Nellie Dixon save the world with snark being their only superpower? Can a dark-skinned Jesus with a fondness for profanity and a disdain for evangelical Christians thrive in the twenty-first century? And who are the Soldiers of the White Jesus, and what will they have to do with any of this? Those questions and more will be answered this February!

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Deep in the Amazon Rainforest

Marty’s photo of the day #2731: Sometimes, deep in the Amazon Rainforest can feel like a lonely place. But if you stop, look, and listen—you are most definitely not alone. How easy would it be to walk right past this leaf-mimic katydid?

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Name that tree frog!

Marty’s photo of the day #2730: This large frog, that I photographed in Peru, has many different names: gladiator tree frog, giant tree frog, giant gladiator tree frog, Hypsiboas boans, and Joe.

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