History Dorron / Family / Inquisition || Career History / Objective || Interests
Ideas || Life Observations / Outlooks || HOME
Interests
Some people write for personal relief. Others write because it is a job. I write because it is a challenge I do well with. The greatest satisfaction is producing the target results in the reader. Making the point and knowing the reader agrees with it is an unequaled achievement. With so many people from so many different cultures, how do you know who the reader will be?
Technical
Safes - Physical High Security (Published)
Military Aircraft Flight manuals
Engineering guide for Reliability and Maintainability (Submitted for publishing)
Advertising literature
Instruction manuals for software & hardwired programs
Maintenance guides for multi-discipline platform systems
Business plans
Contracts
Proposals for work, sales, and pre-negotiations
Fiction (Samples below)
Ianide
Garage Sale (Published)
Disasters can be enlightening (Submitted for publishing)
Where heels may lead (May have a publisher)
Give me Life, Let me Live (In the works)
Novels (science fiction) and technical literature present the greatest challenges to me. Novels let me enter a world that may not exist yet allows me the freedom to explore my own humanity by relating to some component of the story line. Most times it is the morality issues that intrigue me. They provide alternative and justified approaches to dealing with situations I have or will come across.
Technical literature is made up of trade journals, newspapers, manuals and on-line materials. It is interesting to note that the future can be predicted by assimilating the information from various sources. Unfortunately the future is sometimes a day and sometimes many years. But most of my predictions, based on this style of reading have come to pass.
Music, dance, poetry, theater etc. fall into this category. I enjoy them all. I like listening to various music styles as well as watching foreign films or TV. Each one exhibits their unique view of and on the world.
As far back as I can remember I have had a natural instinct for mechanical things. When I was very young this included items I could physically touch. In college I was introduced to untouchable concepts like electricity, chemistry and physics. One professor equated electricity through wires to water through pipes. Thereafter I did not have to "touch" something to understand it.
It is the ability to logically understand and control the situation that so intrigues me. Computers, as complex as they get, are essentially adding machines of "0"s and "1"s. The next greatest challenge is translating their potential into usable functions for the mass of people who are not so logically inclined.
If the body is the temple of your mind, what choice is there? So I swim a lot, jog and lift weights. On a regular basis I fast walk instead of taking public transportation.
The children, wife, parents and in-laws, grand-parents and more.
FIRST
NIGHT
There
were two blips on the radar screen. They
were not very big and didn't move. They went undetected except that the radar
man had nothing to do. When he tried to clean dirt off the screen, he realized
something was not right.
Calling
for the supervisor the radar operator surmised that the equipment was
malfunctioning. The supervisor had
maintenance check the system and found nothing wrong.
It was decided to leave the problem unattended until a more thorough
weekly check could be performed.
The
evening would have resumed its quite routine except that other radar units began
reporting two blips on their screens. The
two blips were becoming a serious matter when numerous other Jaken military
radar installations all reported the same odd phenomenon.
The
Jaken High Military Command decided to contact the US Navy in the region and
confirm if they too were seeing two blips on their radar screens.
The US Navy confirmed that they saw two unidentified blips on their radar
screens that were not moving.
The
blips were over Ianide (Jaken enemy) territory. Neither the original Jaken army
radar sightings nor the US Navy would be able to make visual observations.
During
the night as all the radar units watched, the blips did not move. Everyone
considered that there was some natural or unnatural phenomenon taking place
which would not be repeated the following night.
Later, it would/could be explained.
What
made the blip sightings so unusual was that they remained motionless high in the
sky. A helicopter might remain
motionless in the sky for a short period of time, but nothing approaching 6+
hours.
As
dawn approached the blips seemed to drop out of the sky.
The
US was friendly with Jaken and Ianide as well as other countries in the area,
although many of the parties were warring against each other. The US Navy was in
the area as a neutral force helping to stabilize the region.
During
the day there were discussions between all the parties that reported the
non-moving blips. Only Ianide radar
units did not report any non moving radar blips, the same blips that appeared
over Ianide territory.
Visual
sightings across the border during the day revealed nothing. US personal within
Ianide drove to areas beneath the sittings but found nothing. The US asked
Ianide for an explanation of the blips. Ianide responded that if there was
anything, it was only military radar balloons.
It didn't make sense. The blips were too low for balloons. No additional
explanation was forthcoming from Ianide, except to explain that Jaken and the US
might be a little paranoid.
SECOND
NIGHT
The
same radar operator who originally noticed the first two blips now saw three.
This was soon confirmed by other regional radar stations and the US Navy.
Slowly other blips began to rise from the ground. Soon there were 15. The Jaken army was on full alert. The US Navy was on full alert.
"How
much does this cost?" I asked.
"$20!"
I
stood there thinking. She looked at
me, trying to decide if I would really buy.
"I
don't know. What if it is not the
right size?"
"If
you take it now and it's not the right size, bring it back today and I'll return
your money."
"I'm
not sure she's coming home before about seven this evening. Let me just look
around. Maybe I'll get the courage
to decide."
She
left me alone to take care of other potential customers.
I
walked up and down the row of clothing. I
told her that it was for my girlfriend. She didn't normally wear suites but
needed one for a special occasion. I was taking a chance trying to save money.
The
owner of the house, and manager of the garage sale seemed to accept the story or
else, not care. It was slow most of
the time and I was left to walk alone. Occasionally
people came by, looked, then disappeared. I
stood there more then my fair share of time.
Finally, Jill, the owner, came
back and asked if I made up my mind.
"No, just can't decide.”
After walking about a mile from the bus stop I saw a lot of commotion coming from the direction of my house. Probably a false alarm of some type. I was more curious then concerned about what was going on. As I got closer and closer to my home it became apparent that whatever the commotion was about it was very near to my house. Turning the corner onto my street it became apparent that the commotion was either coming from my house or my immediate neighbors.
It wasn’t long before I realized that the police and fire brigade were attending my house. I began running until I could see everything. My house, there was no house! I started thinking if there was anything I did or didn’t do that my parent would later blame me for.
I couldn’t see anyone from my family. They had all gone to the shopping mall and probably not returned yet. As I got closer to the house the police tried keeping me away. As soon as I explained that I lived there, they let me past the barrier. The only thing left of the house was a pile of rubble. Neighbors got very quite when I approached them. All I could say was, “what happened here?” Their response, “sorry we don’t know.”
Everyone was working feverishly to dowse what little fire remained. Someone, I guess from the police came up to me saying that they wanted to ask me some questions, would I please come with them. I followed them to a van waiting off to the side. As I entered I saw Uncle Ned.
“Hi Ned, good to see someone from the family. Boy I know my parent are going to be real upset at this.”
Everyone else in the Van became very quite.
“Something wrong?”
Ned came up to me and said, “let’s take a walk and talk a little.”
“Yeh, sure.”
As we walked away from the commotion Ned began talking. “Remember the gas tanks your father insisted on keeping in the garage.”
“Yeh.”
“They exploded.”
“So that is what caused this?”
“Yes.”
“Well, I’m glad they found out what caused this. Otherwise dad would sure certainly think I had something to do with this.”
“There are a few other problems.”
“Like what?”
“What caused the tanks to rupture and burst was that a car ran into them.”
“Serves them right. Nobody should have been in the garage when my parents were not there.”
Ned took my shoulders and looked straight into my eyes. “It was your parents.”
“Your mean my parents caused all this? Dad is going to have a hard time living this down!”
“Actually nobody lived through it!”
We stood there looking at each other. Ned’s eyes were telling me more then his words had communicated.
CHAP1 – OUR APARTMENT BUILDING
We lived in an apartment complex on the upper West Side. We needed a large apartment for a family of seven that included my parents, grandparents, and siblings. Most apartments were originally built for families that required at least 3 bedrooms. The building had been built for the “upper class” during a more prosperous era. Apartments had two, three or sometimes four entrances. The main entrance, a private entrance, a servant’s entrance, and a private emergency/fire escape exit. These were apartments the rich or very well off had occupied in a previous generation. They were left to those who were not that well off but were willing to scrap together the money to be in apartments such as these. My family was one of them.
Our apartment only had the main entrance, a servants entrance and the emergency /fire exit. We used the servant’s entrance mostly to take out the garbage. The Emergency/fire exit was never used. In addition to the many entrances there were many rooms in these apartments. There were the servant’s quarters, dining and shower areas. There was an anteroom, reception, formal dining room, kitchen dining area, living room, den area, etc. Needless to say, many of the rooms were converted to makeshift bedrooms for our family. The apartment was big, big enough so that as a child I had many places to “investigate.”
We were told that there were still tenants that used their apartments as originally intended. Meaning, they were very well off. I suppose most of them were on the upper floors, because in the main hallway of the lower floors there were always lots of people. On the upper floors it was rare to see people coming and going.
At a young age living in this environment I was very curious. The emergency/fire escape was always a point of intrigue. It was the door that was never opened. God only knew what really existed on the other side of that door. Sometimes I would listen quietly at the door hoping to hear recognizable sounds. In all the years we lived there I only opened that door two or three times. The first time I did so for about two minutes. It was so dark and frightening that I did not venture into the stairwell. There were small light bulbs that gave a little light, but I was not going to take any chances.
The second time I opened that door I ventured into the stairwell and walked up and down two flights of stairs. There was nothing but locked doors to other apartments. But the fear of what might lay beyond that kept me from going any further. The third time I opened that door was to try a new persona, but that is a different story.
The main entrance opened into the middle of the apartment. The servant’s entrance opened into the kitchen and from the common area abutted the common staircase and was not too far from the garbage chute. Because it was a servants entrance it was not lit properly and that in itself provided an element of intrigue and apprehension. It allowed a person to access the stairway without being seen. There were other servant doorways clustered around the same area. But they were doorways that rarely opened. Since the area was not frequented, one never knew if someone was waiting in the shadows.
Although I told my parents of my fears they never took them seriously. They felt that since the building had a doorman, elevator man and security, there was nothing to worry about. Servants and small children were never in a position to complain. I also think that my parents wouldn’t complain because it would indicate they took the garbage out on their own.
The main entrance faced many other main entrances on that floor. It was well lit with people coming, going and waiting for the elevator. There was a peephole in the door so that one could see outside the door before opening it. The Servant entrance did not have a peephole.
I was designated to take out the garbage. Therefore I felt more exposed to coming and leaving by the servant’s entrance. The garbage chute was down the hall and required leaving the apartment for about 50 feet before emptying and throwing the garbage away. My parents mandated that I lock the door when leaving the apartment, even for short a time.
One day with garbage in hand and after closing the servant’s door, another door, not far from me opened. The slight shadow emanating from the light inside caused me to stand in place. I was not sure who or what it was. I had never seen another person in that area, certainly not from that door. There was fear in my heart and I was not sure what to do about it.
Suddenly from the shadow a bright chipper voice rang out, “are you the boy who lives next door?”
“Yes,” I stammered.
“Are you throwing out garbage?”
“Yes.”
“Would you be so kind to take mine also, I am really not dressed to go out like this.”
I was not sure what to make of it. Maybe it was some kind of a trick. How could I get out of it?
“I’ll give you a quarter if you help me out!”
“OK, sure I’ll do it.”
History Dorron / Family / Inquisition || Career History / Objective || Interests
Ideas || Life Observations / Outlooks || HOME