Easy Mark

Easy Mark
By: John V. Wood

Mark placed the barrel of his 9MM handgun into the slide, making sure the barrel hood was flush. He then replaced the recoil spring, seating it securely into the weapon’s lower semi-circular notch. Beaded with sweat, he pulled the slide to the rear of the receiver and heard a familiar click. A sigh pursed his lips and he released the slide, resetting the trigger mechanism. Mark pointed the freshly cleaned gun at his own reflection, and pulled the trigger. “Oh, how I love that sound,” he said, as he popped in a fully loaded magazine. “Now, let’s go kill somebody.”

 

Copyright ©2006 Out of the Woods Publishing

Word of the Day 7/23/06

cruciverbalist \kroo-ci-VUHR-buh-list\, noun:
A crossword puzzle designer or enthusiast.

Example: “Sherry woke up every morning and rushed out to get the newspaper crossword puzzle. Boy, was she an obsessed cruciverbalist.”

Look at the roots to this word. “Cruci” is Latin for stem of cross. “Verbalist” comes from the Latin word “verbum,” which means one who is skilled in the use of words.

Makes sense, eh? Plus, if you could put this word on a double-letter score for the V, and have it touch at least one triple word score, you’d never be challenged to play Scrabble again.

Quote of the Day 7/23/06

“When one door closes, another opens. But we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we don’t see the one that has opened for us.”

— Helen Keller

This advice is something I still have problems following.  If something bad happens to me, or if that proverbial door gets slammed onto my foot, I focus on that particular door. Why did this door close on me?  Why Lord, why?  The whole time, a door had opened up for me right next to it, surrounded by neon arrows and a blinking “Enter Here” sign. Someday…

Word of the Day 7/22/06

uvarovite \yoo-VAR-uh-vyt\, noun:
An emerald-green mineral; a variety of garnet.

Example: “Uvarovite is the rarest of all the garnets, and is the only consistently green garnet, with a beautiful emerald-green color.”

This is a GREAT Scrabble word, if you’re holding all vowels. Notice this word contains the vowels A, E, I, O and U. My wife wants one now…

Quote of the Day 7/22/06

“I think computer viruses should count as life. I think it says something about human nature that the only form of life we have created so far is purely destructive. We’ve created life in our own image.”

— Stephen Hawking

I think this is a very true statement. Mankind, or at least a few talented hackers, have created a way to wreak havoc on the one thing we have grown dependent on in the Age of Technology. Without computers, we’d be back in the Stone Age as far as efficiency is concerned. Created destruction in our own image. Yep. Sounds about right.

Quote of the Day 7/21/06

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.”

–Albert Einstein

Eureka, my good man! So true, so true…

Word of the Day 7/21/06

pusillanimous \pyoo-suh-LAN-uh-muhs\, adjective:
Lacking in courage and resolution; contemptibly fearful; cowardly.

Example: “By vetoing the stem cell research bill, President Bush showed he was too weak, too afraid, too pusillanimous to handle the scientific needs of our future.”

Just a thought…

Quote of the Day 7/20/06

“You don’t make history by following the rules, you make it by seizing the moment.”

 

–Sebastian Caine (Kevin Bacon), from “Hollow Man”

This quote is absolutely perfect. We all should “seize” the moment, carpe diem, EVERY day. Missed opportunities are wasted opportunities. If we are going to buck the system, blaze our own trails and make a place in history for the NEW generation, then we cannot afford to waste our chances. Let’s do this, people. Let’s take on the old, stodgy, ethnocentristic psychology of today, and Shift the Paradigm to where it SHOULD be!

What is a paradigm?

The definition of “paradigm” (pronounced pear-ah-dime)

1. A set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitutes a way of viewing reality for the community that shares them, especially in an intellectual discipline.

This, my friends, is the reason for this blog. We must stand up for what WE believe. The collective consciousness must rise up together and destroy the “old way of thinking.” We are changing as a country, as a people. We must acknowledge this shift in common psychology, embrace it and be disciplined enough to understand it.

Let’s destroy the assumptions together.

Economic Sense…

For more information about this wonderful short film we just finished, visit http://www.zoningmedia.org/portfolio/EconomicSense

John