Beauty and the Beast — a Modern Version is coming! New fiction release
Book Launch — September 27, 2022
Talk About Trying Something Different! As most of you know, I am a technical proposal writer who dabbles in fiction in my spare time. (LOL! WHAT Spare time?)
I currently have three fiction projects in work.
In one, I am really putting myself out on a limb — trying new things for me
– A “clean” romance,
– First person narrative, and
– Psychological self — defeated young man (AKA the “beast).”
Looking for a September 27, 2022 book launch release.
This is Part Eight of a Ten Part series on how to overcome the depressing “Dark Night of the Soul” that people experience
You can do it!
In this world, there’s only one true source that we can rely on to make our lives better and to achieve our fullest potential: ourselves. Yes, we may have parents, spouses/significant others, children, grandchildren, other family members, friends, and colleagues who can help us out from time to time, but the only real control over what we do and what we achieve is over ourselves. We can and need to rely on ourselves to achieve our greatest potential; no one else can go ahead and force us to achieve greatness or do the things that we are capable of. We need to convince and motivate ourselves to do it continuously, which means we must rely on ourselves to help us grow as individuals and achieve the great things we can do.
If we know we have a skill that can help to make a positive impact on our world, others may encourage us to use that skill, but only we have the power to actually use that skill. Therefore, it is vital that we rely on ourselves to get things done, take control of situations, improve ourselves as individuals, and really work to achieve our greatness. No one else can do that for us; they can only control their own inner greatness and bringing it out into the world. We must do that for ourselves to truly make an impact on our world in the best way we can.
Therefore, it is vital that you attempt to do things for yourselves and learn from your mistakes. It is also vital to broaden your activities and tasks so that you learn new skills and abilities that can help you to grow as an individual and be more confident in various situations. Again, no one can really force you to take on these new challenges and tasks except for you.
It’s also important that you don’t always look to someone else to handle a situation or an unexpected challenge that arises. Achieving your own greatness means being able to handle unexpected situations and challenges, and there won’t always be someone else there to handle such a situation or challenges; at times, you will be the only one who can make a real difference, which means you must be able to rely on yourself and your abilities to make that difference. Being able to do so can help you to grow as an individual and enable you to reach your greatest potential and impact your world in the most powerful way possible.
When it comes to playing it safe in the wilderness or anywhere, your best survival tool would have to be preparation. In the long run, knowing the perfect way to track game, move silently, and forage for food may help you, but not so much as always having the right supplies with you. Here are a few ways having the right kits with you can do wonders for improving your camping trip, hiking trip, or hunting expedition.
Food is a common issue when it comes to roughing it in the wilderness. Oftentimes inexperienced campers end up packing too much to too little. However, by investing in various canned, dehydrated, and freeze-dried meals, you can have plenty of food without taking up too much space. Another advantage to these meals is that they take minimal preparation and have a naturally lengthy shelf life, making them ideal for longer trips. For shorter trips, foods such as jerky, dried fruit, trail mix, and granola are all good snacks to carry. Be sure to have extra water with you on all times as well. Should you decide to forage for greens, berries, or mushrooms, be sure to consult a field guide before making any big decisions. Caution is one of the most important survival tool skills, after all, and it wouldn’t do to accidentally ingest anything poisonous.
Having been stranded for a period during an ice storm, I have been thinking about what I would need to do if it happened again. So I invested in a three-month supply of survival foods. Recently, I checked Amazon to see what else was available in freeze dried foods. I found more variety and better prIces. You may want to check these out. I am ordering more. Since I am living on a limited retirement income, I think I arranged this list, so I am an affiliate. It will not cost you anymore but it you check it out and decide to order from here, I might get a few pennies or two. Here is the link to the Amazon freeze dried foods list.
Knowing how to use a survival tool first aid kit is also an important survival tool. Whether you’re planning a short camping trip or a lengthy expedition, it’s essential that you have at least a basic kit on hand. After all, it only takes one slip up to result in a nasty burn, a sprained ankle, or a broken leg. Basic first aid kits often include bandages, disinfectant, antibiotics, and painkillers among other supplies. Larger kits may also have sewing needles, splints, rash creams, vitamin supplements, and other supplies. If you have any medication, be sure to bring a few extra day’s worth of dosages with you in case you need them.
Finally, it’s a good idea to bring a few precautionary devices with you that will be useful if you get lost. The point of this survival tool isn’t just to help you reach civilization, but also to help others reach you in the event of an emergency. Some basic tools for this kit include compasses, GPS navigators, flashlights, and emergency flares. Some GPS devices also come with emergency buttons that allow you to alert authorities of an emergency. Learn more about the importance of a survival tool kit today!
And when I checked Amazon, I found thousands of items on a Survival tools list. (Another affiliate list). So much stuff out there, so little money.
Gaining confidence in your own abilities and instincts is key to achieving your best potential and the greatness that lies within you. You need to be able to trust yourself and your skill set to handle life’s challenges well and be seen as someone who can make a positive difference and/or impact in people’s lives. If you don’t have confidence in your own abilities and instincts, others won’t either, and you will always hold yourself to reaching your best potential and ability in life. Therefore, it is vital you gain confidence in your own abilities and instincts to reach your greatest potential; learn how to gain that confidence below.
To gain more confidence in your own abilities and instincts, first, look back upon the successes you’ve had in your life. This can be doing well in a course, getting your first job, being hired in the working world for the first time as a professional, etc. Look back at all these successes and realize that you have the ability to achieve great successes and accomplishments, and you have already achieved several, even if you don’t think about them often. This can increase your confidence that you have what it takes to succeed in this world and need to trust those skills and instincts more.
Second, you need to be willing to try new tasks and activities. This will increase your skill set and enable you to gain confidence in you handling a wide variety of situations and challenges. By experiencing the feeling of handling a new task or activity well, you will gain confidence in your abilities and instincts to handle various situation.
Third, talk with family, friends, and/or colleagues about what you have done. You could mention that you are having some doubts or difficulties about your own abilities and are wondering if you can handle the situation you need to handle. Chances are high that these people can remind you of your skills and abilities to handle challenges and that you are up to the current task you are taking on. Sometimes, it can benefit us to hear from other people how much confidence they have in us and our abilities because you’re hearing it from an outside source who has seen you perform in various situations, which will give you the confidence and belief that you have the abilities and instincts to handle various situations you will encounter in life.
In February of 2021, I found out the hard way that my state, Texas, was the only the only state in the country with its own power grid. Then I found out again in February of 2022.
Sometimes it seems like we lose power whenever the weather turns.
A blackout is a power outage caused by a sudden disruption in electric service. There are several different types of blackouts, including those that are planned and those that occur unexpectedly.
If you find yourself in the middle of a blackout, there are some things that you can do to stay safe and help others. If it is daytime, try to stay inside as much as possible to avoid heat exhaustion. If it is nighttime, be sure to have a flashlight handy so that you can see your way around.
If you are using candles for light, be sure to blow them out before you go to sleep. And, if you have a battery-operated radio, listen for updates from local officials about the status of the power outage.
Most importantly, stay calm and help others who may be panicking. Blackouts may be disruptive, but they do not have to be dangerous. Just follow these simple tips and you’ll weather the storm just fine.
· Types of Blackouts
There are several different types of blackouts that can affect your home or business. The most common type is a planned outage, which occurs when power has to be shut off temporarily in order to make repairs or upgrades to the electric grid. Planned outages typically last for several hours and are announced in advance.
An unplanned blackout, on the other hand, occurs without warning and usually lasts longer than planned outages. Earthquakes, hurricanes, and wildfires can all lead to unexpected power outages by disrupting substations or transmission lines. Other causes of unplanned power interruptions include accidents involving utility poles and transformers, wildlife interfering with electrical equipment, lightning strikes, and fallen trees or limbs breaking power lines.
· How to Stay Safe During a Blackout
Whether it is planned or unplanned, a blackout can be disruptive and even dangerous. That’s why it’s important to know what to do before, during, and after an interruption in service.
· Before a Blackout:
Charge your cell phone and other electronic devices.
Make sure you have fresh batteries for your flashlight.
Know where your gas shut-off valve is located and how to turn it off.
If you rely on electrically powered medical equipment, talk to your doctor about what to do in the event of a power outage.
· During a Blackout:
If possible, stay inside in a cool, well-ventilated place.
Drink plenty of fluids, even if you do not feel thirsty.
Avoid using candles or other open flames for light.
Do not use your gas stove for heating or cooking.
Listen to a battery-operated radio for updates from local officials.
· After a Blackout:
Throw away any food that has been exposed to heat or spoiled as a result of the power outage.
Do not use your home’s generator indoors, as it can emit harmful fumes.
Report any downed power lines to your local utility company.
Inspect your home for damage before turning on any appliances or lights.
Blackouts can be annoying, but by following these simple tips, you can stay safe and help others do the same. And, if it is a truly unexpected outage, remember that these tips may minimize damage to your home or business as well.
With so much riding on the power grid, blackouts are an inevitable part of life in modern society. However, by taking simple precautions before and after an interruption in service, you can be sure that you’ll weather any storm with ease!
I am slowly but surely deleting some of my fiction on my Medium blog profile page and submitting it to a publication on Medium called Total Fiction, a publication dedicated to showcasing fiction.
I have started with a book entitled
The Mission, A Story of the Unusual –
Alien Abduction involving UFOs, Conspiring Governments, and with a Romantic Black Comedy Twist by Ed Benjamin
Hello, Can I hitch a ride?
Imagine an alien abduction gone terribly wrong — from the alien’s point of view.
People abducted and returned to the wrong place.
People abducted and returned with the wrong clothes on.
Also there’s a novella about an Air Force fighter pilot — Harry Miles — facing seven Iranian fighters in air combat.
This what Death Feels Like by Ed Benjamin.
Harry Miles
What does it feel like to die?
Have you ever imagined what would happen if a fighter pilot undergoes a Near Death Experience in the throes of one of the most intense air battles the world has ever seen.
Almost everyone gets a sense of nervousness when they take on a new activity or challenge; some may see it as more a sense of excitement, while others see it as more a sense of anxiety or dread. This latter group may attempt to avoid new activities or challenges as much as possible but doing that will hinder this group in its ability to achieve the greatness they can truly achieve because it prevents them from attaining new skills, new experiences, and a new sense of self-esteem and self-confidence from taking on that activity or challenge. Therefore, if you are part of that latter group and try to avoid taking on new activities or challenges, how do you encourage yourself to do so so that you can grow as an individual and achieve your greatest potential?
One thing you can do is to take a deep breath and relax. Don’t fret over the new activity or challenge and think that you must do it perfectly or else something bad is going to happen. Most mistakes are forgivable, especially when you are trying something new and have never done such an activity before. Mistakes can and should be considered as “learning tools” that enable you to learn more about yourself, gain new skills and experience, and essentially help you move closer to achieving your best potential possible.
The second thing you can do is to look upon the new activity or challenge as something fun to test yourself, sort of like a competition. See how well you do the activity or challenge, then reward yourself afterward for the effort you put in, even if you didn’t do the activity or challenge perfectly or as well as you expected. By going through the experience, you will grow as an individual and enable yourself to reach your greatest potential possible.
The third thing you can do is to see the new activity or challenge as a “break” from the norm. You know you can do specific things in your field/industry well; now, you get to see what you can do with tasks or activities that are not in your everyday activities. See the new activity or challenge as a “vacation” from the ordinary, everyday activities and enjoy the experience. By seeing this new activity or challenge as a “vacation” or respite from the usual, you’ll enjoy the experience more, want to take on more activities or challenges more often, and be able to grow more as an individual and reach your best potential and greatness.
Keeping a positive frame of mind is key to doing your best work and overcoming life’s difficult periods when things don’t go as well as planned or some unexpected challenge pops up during our lives. However, it’s not always easy to keep that positive frame of mind in the most difficult of times. Learn how you can keep a positive frame of mind below.
Keeping a positive frame of mind means thinking positively, even when things don’t go as planned or when things seem to be at their worst possible outcome. It’s the “glass half-full” versus “glass half-empty” that many people seem to look at when it comes to various aspects of life. For instance, a person with a positive frame of mind may look upon losing his/her house to a fire as where he/she and his/her family were fortunate because they all survived and can rebuild. A person with a negative frame of mind may look upon losing his/her house to a fire as an unrecoverable disaster because all his/her possessions are gone and that starting over is “too hard.”
It’s really one’s frame of mind that influences one’s outlook of events, as the example above shows. However, even the most positive person can suffer periods where he/she is in despair because everything in a situation turns out for the worst and/or a bunch of negative circumstances occur repeatedly right after another.
For even the most positive person to overcome such difficult periods in life, he/she needs to step back from the situation, take a deep breath, and recall earlier instances in his/her life where everything seems to turn out wrong or for the worst. Then he/she needs to recall that things did eventually turn around and that he/she survived that hard period. Recalling that sequence of events can calm the person and show that that same pattern will occur again, that this current hard period of events will also turn around for the positive; the person just needs to be strong enough to “weather the storm” and work toward a more positive period of events.
Therefore, it’s important to always keep a positive frame of mind, but that can be difficult for even the most positive person when many negative events occur at one time in a person’s life. It’s important for a person to step back, take a deep breath, realize that even these dark periods in life turn around for the better, then work toward bringing around that happier period as soon as possible.
To achieve greatness, you must be willing to grow as an individual and improve yourself. To grow as an individual and improve yourself, you must be willing to expand your skill set and be willing to have many experiences that can improve this skill set. This means that you cannot be afraid to challenge yourself, take reasonable risks, and stepping outside of your “comfort zone.” If you are fearful, you will not reach the greatness you can achieve.
Many people are fearful and hesitant to step outside of their “comfort zones,” preferring to do things that they are familiar with. They prefer to do activities and stay in fields that they are comfortable in, that they know they do well in. Few people prefer to step outside of those zones to try something new, handle new, etc. for a few reasons. One reason is because they fear they will not do well with the new activity or challenge. A second reason is fear of embarrassment because other people may see them struggle with this new activity or challenge. A third reason is that they fear ridicule from people because they struggle with this new activity or challenge.
Fearing taking on new challenges or activities for any of the above reasons or any similar reasons only keeps you from achieving the greatness you can achieve. By not challenging yourself with new tasks and challenges, you will be unable to grow as an individual because you will not learn any new skills to add your skill set. You will continue to excel and be productive in the skills you know, but you won’t expand your skill set to grow as an individual and possibly be even more productive and capable than you currently realize. This is a key reason why you won’t achieve the greatness you are capable of; you won’t even know if you’ll find a better skill you can use to achieve greater goals and accomplishments if you don’t take on new tasks and challenges.
Therefore, fear can stop you from achieving greatness because it hinders your growth as an individual and prevents you from learning more about yourself and increasing your skill set and abilities to handle various tasks and challenges. By being willing to overcome that fear and challenging yourself with new tasks and challenges that get you out of your “comfort zone,” you can grow as an individual and be able to achieve the greatness you can achieve.
I used to pooh-pooh the statement that disaster is everywhere. I read with a great deal of skepticism that disaster was in the streets, inside campuses, and even inside your home. The question is not whether we are safe (because no one is really THAT secure anymore) but whether we can do something to lessen the odds of ever becoming a victim.
I used to laugh at preppers.
We were very happy in our little ranchette in South Central Texas and even laughed in February of 2021 when the weather forecasters predicted a polar freeze coming.
Zap! We were without power for over a week and without water for seven weeks and only got water restored because my son flew in and spent 24 hours repairing the twenty-plus breaks in our line from the well to our house. It took over three months until the plumbers could get to us and inspect his work.
We did not freeze because we had a propane heater in our living area and our bathroom and a propane stove. They operated continuously for three weeks until we could count on electricity again.
We thought it can’t happen again then in Feb 2022, it happened again with a severe ice storm. Although it did not last as long, it still caused significant damage tom our property.
It got me to thinking.
What is a disaster, anyway? By definition, a disaster is any catastrophe or tragedy that occurs (can also be identified as a destruction or calamity). That doesn’t sound good at all, does it? We should be alarmed at the mere mention of this term, and we have good reasons to be because there are so many kinds of disaster.
Name it and it has it. Think of the natural disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes, flood, tornadoes, tsunamis, cyclones, or even fire and, you wouldn’t want this last one, aggression.
So, now, I am starting to invest in some books we found on Amazon to help us survive in case we get involved in another situation. So I am slowly but surely ordering books from this list so we are better prepared. (Full disclosure – have placed this list in an affiliate link where I might get a few pennies if you to order any book from this list.)
We also ordered and received a 90-day supply of emergency food with a 25-year shelf life like the ones on this list (also another affiliate link). I am also looking at ordering more from this list.
I am also looking into putting in a whole house emergency backup power generation system to ensure if the electrical grid goes down again, we will have power.
In conclusion, things are changing and after being the victim of unforeseen circumstances, I am starting to prepare a little at a time.
