Papa Pat Tiny Devotionals

The denominational church I grew up in is Protestant, and we didn't follow the church year celebrated by our more liturgical brethren. We observed Christmas and Easter (including Palm Sunday) with decorations and special programs, including a living Nativity scene, an Easter egg hunt, and special music.  The MOST special music programs I recall were those which featured the little kids. Not only were they utterly charming, with their sweet little voices singing 'Silent Night' and 'Away In A Manger', but it gave us older kids a chance to act goofy, by making faces at whatever small siblings were in the program. It was nearly-free monkeyshines, too; the little ones were so cute, even as they waved back in the middle of a song, that our parents never snatched a knot in us, as they were wont to do on other occasions. Secular holidays, like the 4th of July, were observed, as was the semi-secular Thanksgiving. The other days and seasons in the church year. we ignored.  We...

Kenneth turns 10, and gets a .22 rifle Recently, YouTube was in the news because a number of channels featuring firearms info were given warnings, and even suspended, without just cause. After a short amount of squabbling, they said it was because they had recently put a bunch of people on screening duties who weren't familiar with community guidelines. And, they removed the strikes against the affected channels. No sooner than THAT was over, and I'm talking about a period of a week, maybe, they posted some regulations regarding firearms content that they would no longer permit. Gun channels became upset, even the calm people.  I THINK some of the problem was just that the policy was poorly written; there were enough ambiguities that it could mean whatever they wanted it to mean. However, other aspects were clear, and ridiculous. Yes, there were some common sense items, too, but they were overwhelmed in the garbage. The following is the post I made on the YouTube Help Forum. I ...

                I reviewed "Assassin" on Amazon, and you can read it and vote on it HERE . The same review is also on Goodreads, but Amazon reviews need votes, because books need to be sold, so authors get paid. (In the interest of supplying all references, you can read my review of "A Fistful of Credits" HERE , and my review of "The Good, the Bad, and the Merc" HERE .) Developing a Character I loved "Assassin" (loved them all, really), and you really need to read the review to know why. In my review, however, there were some things I left out, or only hinted at, and I'm gonna try to make those explicit here. And I'm ALSO going to try to avoid spoilers. However, I'm going to consider as fair game the three prequels; I'm not going to TOTALLY give away all of the plot points on purpose, but if I have to in order to get my point across, I'll let you know in advance. With respect to "Assassin," however, I will strive to ...

Do they not hear and see, or just not talk? Would those of you who have lively blogs explain blogging success to me? This is almost a request I would feel comfortable posting at Mad Genius Club , except it's not concerning income-producing writing. I started blogging FIVE years ago, today. My first post had 18 hits. (They dropped off after that, but I was sporadic about posting for quite a while.) Some devoted friends have subscribed to my posts. I can usually count on at least 50 hits.  Usually, if my post is interesting or amusing or relevant, I'll get 100+ hits. Anything above that is rare; my top five, without any undue promotion, were in the 500+ hit range. I am utterly cool with this, although I do think my posts are mostly brilliant and more people would enjoy them if they read them. However: It is RARE that anybody ever comments on a blog post! This was brought home to me in startling fashion after the hits started coming in for my blog post about my workable solution ...

After it's over, massive services are available. Unless we were lucky, we went to bed on Valentine's Day 2018 with another mass shooting on our hearts, instead of  images of flowers and candy.  After I heard the news around 6 PM, I did enough research to get the basic facts straight, and then stopped reading and listening. The rumors and allegations were already starting to fly, and there wasn't going to be any more substantial and accurate information out there for some time. What I got was that a 19 year-old former student had killed 17 and wounded others; that he had been expelled from the school for disciplinary issues; that he had been banned from carrying a backpack on campus after making threats to other students; that he had numerous social media posts of himself with guns and knives, some of which included threatening language. Since then, the only relevant information that has come forth is that he and a younger brother were adopted by a couple from New York when ...

          Dearest internet friends: Despite giving you TWO clickable links, this blog post will contain no book reviews in the body of the post, although the review links are provided;  you may read (and vote for) my Amazon review of 'The Many Deaths of Joe Buckley' here , and read (and vote for) my Amazon review of 'One Jump Ahead' here. Instead of including sections of my book reviews, what follows is my entry in a some-time-ago Baen Contest, which they run on a regular basis because they are delightful people. The current one allows you to make your case before the Council of Aliens about why we should be allowed to the stars. Alas, I must give the BRIEFEST of background information, or this story will not amuse. First, the literary hobby called Killing Joe Buckley.  Joe Buckley is a real person with many skills and delightful characteristics. One of those skills was his ability to proof-read manuscripts for authors. The way I understand the story, then-unpublished a...

Dear friends, I had something else planned, but I ran into obstacles. Rather than not post at all today, I thought I would share this short bit. It's something I wrote a few years ago, when a friend and I both had pneumonia at the same time. These are games to be played in a group setting, where the actors are afflicted with more-or-less awful cases of upper respiratory infections. The contestants are friends and family members. And now, here are the games! "What's On My Mind." We start a sentence, and the audience has to guess what we are trying to say, based on the first few words we are able to utter. "Name that Praise Chorus." Same basic idea, but with music. We sing all we can of a chorus, and they have to guess what the chorus is. "The Rainbow Disconnection." Each of us is given the care of an active two or three year old, and the audience identifies the colors we turn as we chase them around the room. Extra points are awarded for guessing ...