JohnDB

Yeah... I'm not really liking either candidate. Both seem to have the morals of an alley cat. The question is "Do we go with the devil we know or the devil we don't?"

Be somewhat careful with your book. Russian publishers have been stealing online books and reselling them with no royalties whatsoever paid to the author. One claims a million dollars per year income from selling stolen books. Amazon is a great place to sell your book... until someone else gets a copy and then reports you for plagerism because again they are selling your book. It will take a year to straighten out that mess too. One of the best things to do when it's finished is to send it off for professional editing...where the grammar is likely correct, there's usually a better way to write it so it reads more profoundly. Then once it's completed with good editing you will need a cover... graphic artist. Don't get in trouble here...make sure your graphic artist is selling you an original work with out selling it a dozen times again later. You want to completely own your cover without anyone else owning it. Endorsements actually work...pay for them...the good ones will cost money. (And will give you some idea as to how well your book fits the genre you are placing it in) Don't get the genre wrong... Science Fiction love stories full of romance and very little shooting up bad creatures with proton lasers only works in the writers mind. A little romance in a Sci-fi novel isn't bad...nor is a little bit of sci-fi in a romance novel a bad thing...but in a historical fiction piece? Then be generous with the completed work. You have no other work out there to be known by. (Publishers want an established writer with an established fan base before they will pick you up) Post a few chapters free...but then charge minimal sums for remaining chapters. You might (considering the acceptance level) having it translated... spanish, french, and portuguese will greatly increase your market size. (And fan base) and again this will cost money. By the time the sales of your book finally wane (market saturation) and you are absolutely sick of it (as is those who have read it 5x now) it will be time for the sequel. (got to have at least two of these) But you will need to spend a few thousand dollars in advertising for your book so people know it's out there before you can even claim market saturation. You can again use the same graphic art work with the new book title. And go through the process again. Eventually if you get enough of a fan base...have good work...and a marketable brand you can finally contact an agent to sell your next trilogy for you. Then come the book signing tours and your personal website is going to pay off here... you want to have it look like you are a rock star when you show up. Not the geeky dork we all feel like. Have your fan base notified that you are going to be somewhere and that you will sign their previous hard copies...get them to show up for freebies and mentions... But first.... Finish the first book... only completed works get sold. And the ending is important.

Boundaries, Boundaries Boundaries. Something that you can do TODAY is tell her the line that she must not cross. That means that where she is the grandmother, she isn't the kids mother...your husband didn't marry her to have these children... you did. You can be a mother bear about this...you got every right to be one. Have absolutely no conscience about it. You don't need to be rude but her belittling of you especially in front of the children is outrageous and absolutely not to be stood for. If she does it explain to the children that "Grandma is getting ugly and senile and we need to get away from her until she comes to her senses again" and immediately leave her to go play outside or anywhere she is not. If the kids act up based upon something"Granny" has said that usually is grounds for corporal punishment... willful defiance always and instantly got that in my house. It wasn't ever a problem. Yes, listening and encouraging to speak your mind was done but willful defiance was the spanking line. Other infractions were time outs and loss of privileges. But also good behavior was rewarded. It's a cat fight for sure...but that you haven't recognized it yet is the real problem here. Hey, it's great that you want to get along and all...but your MIL doesn't want to. Hubby? He's a guy who is just a bit clueless and is more concerned about providing than domestic issues and just wants everyone to get along. He won't get it...it's his mom being evil...he is used to her being a loving mom. The other side of her he can't/won't see. Get used to that idea. But remind him that you are his wife and best friend... you are the number one woman in his life and he married you to look out for the things he doesn't/can't understand that can destroy your home. And that he needs to have some faith in you about this. Go get her!

Well, There's some things that you can do like most people do... Safeguard the important things: Keep a savings account for when trouble comes. Cars break down, babies get sick, and unexpected expenses come in threes... usually right after you have to find another job. Keep an eye on your car...its issues don't get better...they get worse. You can probably change an air filter and pcb valve without much of an issue but oil changes and other issues can't really be done unless you decide you want to buy tools and do them yourself. Your job that provides the income... don't play games with it whatsoever. Don't be late to work. Do your best and try to go the extra step. But also don't let them get "freebies" of work off the clock or work that someone else claims credit for. Then.... Make friends with your neighbors...get to know them as you move in. Men and women and couples. The older single ladies can really have a good read on the neighborhood...but be careful with those who are a bit nuts too. Friends of yours from the neighborhood can really keep an eye out for you. To have a friend you must first be a friend... maybe bake some cookies or always have a pitcher of iced tea to hand out a glass of. Friendly and kind draws goodwill from most people.

Yeah... Don't feel alone in your questions.

From a famous piece.... Trouble... Trouble right here in River City That starts with "T" which rhymes with "P" Which starts the word "Pool". Always grab that low hanging fruit!

A successful vaccine is unlikely for this virus... Just too much that can go wrong and no where near enough time to test it. This is our new normal for a while yet. I miss the old life. Wish it wasn't gone. Here's an article by a scientist that has a broad look at what these vaccines are shaping up to be like. https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2020/08/25/preparing-for-the-vaccine-results It isn't good news. Expect another round of depression when the full truth breaks out. I wish....oh HOW I WISH it wasn't true...I wish I didn't know ahead of time that this was never going to work. I wish how I was going to have a wonderful Christmas like last year's was with lots of parties and children playing with gingerbread houses I baked. It's not happening this year. There is still hope for the Antiviral I've mentioned before... it's in clinical trials. https://selvarx.com/selva/news/

I personally tend to shy away from those Mongering the fear... From political rhetoric to conspiracy theories. Why are they trying to tell us this stuff? What can be gained by knowing about a conspiracy theory?

A fish monger used to sell his wares by shouting "fresh fish" all day long. Today we seem to have an overwhelming amount of fear being "mongered" in the same way. We have BLM selling racial inequality when to the rest of us it seems more of class profiling. The resulting riots trying to sell fear of cities collapsing into chaos. We have the federal election this year with both parties selling fear of the other guy getting elected. (Quite a bit of frothing at the mouth over it too) Then finally we have a TON of fear being sold over the current pandemic. Fear of wearing a mask will destroy your rights and fear over someone unmasked. Fear of dying if you catch the virus, fear of disability if you catch the virus and fear of conspiracy theories over anything and everything associated with this virus. There used to be a thing called Prudence. Christian men and women used to pride themselves of a relationship with Christ that precludes being fearful. Not with reckless abandon do we behave but we are supposed to be modest in dress and speech and actions. So... The first time I've actually had a sitting President affect my life was with the Gubberment check that showed up a few months ago. They are in Washington DC...I'm in TN. Al Gore was annoying because he kept having the roads closed when he came. I've been harassed by police when I've been in poor neighborhoods looking trashy...but when I explained that I was there on legitimate business and wore scruffy work clothes and am nervous about a ticket I can't afford...they let me go...no ticket. That's their job. If I don't give them a reason to do it on me they won't. We wear a mask, we isolate only from in-person meetings and groups, and trust God's grand design and plan for the rest of it. We don't have faith in vaccines but will take them when prudent to do so. We know that if we get sick we won't die...but probably won't be exactly physically whole afterwards either. People get scars, arthritis, and other ailments that slow them down. Nothing new there...but we can still overcome these things as we always have. We can choose to live in prudence or live in fear...they look somewhat similar at times but are vastly different. Just like it isn't prudent to purposefully take unnecessary risks or put ourselves in unreasonable situations we protect ourselves...prudence...it isn't fear...it's prudence. Meaning we don't join in riots or go without masks on a beach vacation because of the tan lines or 3 week fishing excursions with 100+ other people...we use prudence. We don't need to over tempt God by playing Russian Roulette...I can do that easily enough just by living.

Good study... One thing about visuals... Ever been fishing and had to clean a mess of fish afterwards? Looked at the finger you had down the mouth of all those fish after you were done? Mine turned white. (Reaction to all the fish digestive juices) Jonah and the Assyrians were all olive complected. Jonah likely turned white too for a while after being inside of a fish for a while. He must have been a sight amongst the people... easy to pick out for sure.

Everyone is looking for a sign... And usually the wrong ones. The "Great Tribulation" as spoken of in scripture doesn't necessarily mean "severe"...it also could be "long"...as in almost 2,000 years now without Jesus walking and talking with us. I like to look at how everyone totally missed the signs of Jesus' first visit as a baby growing into a man. Those signs were glaring and obvious...but went completely dismissed by all of the biblical scholars of the day. Josephus even mentions how many scholars went about in sackcloth and ashes because "Rome made God wrong". Will we learn from past mistakes? The answer is disheartening at best. While we focus on what the Biblical scholars focus on we are probably missing the signs we should be paying attention to. There's many "Winds of Doctrine". I tend to dismiss all of them. One of those "Winds" does catch my attention...the setting of a place for Elijah at the Passover dinner. Silly little thing to do but still was a tradition concerning scripture. And John the Baptist would have never gone to anyone's house for a Seder. He was busy eating locusts and wild honey. But everyone who ate at a Passover dinner seen the empty place setting set for him. So... While everyone focuses on parsing out the minutia of a few verses which are likely the exact wrong ones to focus on I'm going to look at the things glossed over and dismissed or overlooked. Those are likely the key verses to focus upon.

I began my language studies over a New Testament verse in the first chapter of John's Gospel. I was doing inductive Bible study in English. This is a type of study where you read the same passages over and over again and then begin outlining paragraphs and diagramming the sentences so that you truly understand exactly what is said. Oh it's very obvious that many can't seem to read and know what the Bible says in English much less Hebrew or Greek. Anthropology and History studies really help a lot with understanding why something is said the way it is said. None of that helped me when it came time for John 1:12. For those who received him, for those that believed in his name, he gave the right to be called sons of God. And I had a hard time getting past this one verse because of the past tense of all the verbs. And eventually after years of studying Greek and Early Latin (which many mistake for Greek) the truth is that the perfect aortist tense is one that signifies past, present, and future all at the same time. And when Wycliffe or Erasmus (not sure which of the two) came across situations like this he had to pick a tense...so he picked past. Everyone has followed this tradition since. Then it became apparent during my studies that many many New Testament verses and letters referenced the Old Testament in a strange fashion. None of the quotes matched up correctly. This was because they were referencing the Septuagint...a Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures common in the time period of the apostles. Some were more allusions to scriptures than direct quotes. Hebrews and Jude reference many writings other than scriptures. A whole library's worth. Westcott and Hort got those covered. But Hebrew is where the truth really comes out. And it's difficult because of the reading backwards and the metaphoric nature of the language. But a lot of anthropology and understanding comes out from the clarity. "Torah tohorah." The scriptures will clean you and make you acceptable to God is what that means. It's where Paul says "wash her with the water of the Word" but in a short pithy way that was rife in Jewish society. And that two word quote isn't really in the scriptures...but you learn it to get the accent and breathing's right...a tongue twister for your esophagus. Greek is hard Hebrew is harder You can't go back...the studies will forever change you. And at some point you will understand that action is better than knowledge. Being able to just talk to people and slowly infect them with your relationship with God is more powerful than knowing any language. You ain't gotta preach at them in Hebrew or Greek...just you being you unashamed of your relationship with God speaks louder than anything else you could ever do in a world lost for salvation.

Look, I'm totally uninterested in arguing/debating with you. I am interested in discussing things but considering this reply which has made your true feelings known vx your earlier post which I erroneously took to being interested in discussion. My mistake. I won't let it happen again.

What I find facinating about the whole deal is that somehow that one prophecy turned into a tradition of setting a place for Elijah at the Seder. (Passover meal) (Today it's just a cup) But how that tradition got started is a bit of a mystery to me. And that's why the Apostles were asking Jesus if they should set a place for Elijah. (He was recognized as the Messiah by all the apostles) And everyone was familiar with the prophecy, tradition, and was a little confused. Passover ceremonies are a over a whole week in preparation. The meal is the last bit... almost a let down. Removing the yeast and products containing them... selling them off for money you donate to charities. Getting rid of the luxury items for relaxation like popcorn poppers. (A Jewish Rabbi I knew bemoaned losing his favorite popcorn popper) Hiding of the matzahs... hunting the bread down...all kinds of activities. It's a long process with activities. I'm sure that setting a place for Elijah also had traditional routines to follow.

Ummm You really shouldn't go beyond what is written. Unless you can truly understand the Hebrew, Aramaic, Early Latin and Greek languages that the scriptures were written in... don't do it. Usually those of us who have studied these languages and original language don't lightly change what the translators have done. We do so only when there's no English equivalent or a double entendre is intended and not going to translate. Every word, line, and nuance is precious as it is a gift from God.