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I’m about to do something I’ve been dreading for years. Just thinking about it makes my heart race like a Lamborghini, turns my knees to jelly, sets my eyelids fluttering like a hummingbird, makes me gibber like a lunatic … you get the picture. I’ve tried to do it before but have always retreated from the challenge at the earliest opportunity, fleeing like a frightened puppy with its tail between its legs.

However, I’ve spent the weeks since November 8 digging deep within my soul, and I believe I’ve found the courage to face an uncertain future at the hands of the Trumpster. If I can face that, I can face anything. So, the time has come for me to enter the maelstrom.

So, what is this ominous, fear-inducing, paralyzing maelstrom? None other than the WORLD OF SOCIAL MEDIA!!!

One might ask the question: if it’s so frightening, why do it at all? The answer is simple: I have no choice. As explained elsewhere on this website, I’ve decided to embrace my longtime dream of becoming a writer. I’ve quit my day job and will soon release my third novel. Early on, I concluded that I’d never make a go of it through the traditional publishing model. I made a few half-hearted attempts at contacting publishers and agents, but soon realized I had neither the personality nor the perseverance for that route. I’m a hermit – I love writing, and I’d enjoy earning a few pennies for my work, but I just want to do it quietly, in the shadows. So, I went the way of web publishing. I have no agent, no editor, no collaborators of any sort. I just do it all myself.

There’s just one problem with my chosen approach – approximately 4.329 billion other people are doing the same thing, and my books are simply lost in the shuffle. Without an agent and a publisher, there’s only one way to market books in the twenty-first century – through Social Media.

So, off I go, to open accounts on Twitter and Facebook. If my head doesn’t explode, I’ll be back in a few days to post a progress report.

Once again this election season, many candidates for office are TRUMPeting the alarm over the tremendous “crime wave” sweeping the country, most specifically regarding the murder rate. Since these politicians rarely, if ever, provide any actual data or, more importantly, perspective to accompany these dire warnings, I decided to look up some actual figures.

The chart above shows the “murder and nonnegligent manslaughter rate” per 100,000 US population for the past twenty years as reported by the FBI (FBI Crime Statistics). The chart shows a steady decline in the rate, followed by an uptick in 2015. Despite this uptick, the 2015 rate is still 34% lower than the rate reported in 1996. While I would certainly agree that any increase in the rate is a bad thing, I would hardly describe the situation as apocalyptic.

For a bit of perspective, the chart also shows the rate of US traffic fatalities over the same period, as reported by Wikipedia (Traffic Fatalities). Interestingly, the traffic fatality data show a very similar pattern of general decline and a slight uptick in 2015. The rate of traffic fatalities has remained between 2.1 and 2.7 times greater than the murder/manslaughter rate over the entire 20-year period. The uptick in traffic fatalities in 2015 amounted to an increase of 2417 deaths, whereas the uptick in murder/manslaughter amounted to an increase of 1532 deaths. Yet, I have seen very few reports of politicians invoking an urgent need for crackdowns on speeding, drunk driving, or other causes of the traffic fatality increase.

This interesting comparison naturally triggers one of those mysterious musings I am prone to: “I wonder why people are so much more frightened of murder than of traffic fatalities?” I don’t feel qualified to answer the question, but I certainly find it interesting.

Like so many others, I love to read mysteries. I’m even trying my hand at writing some (see Books). In the vast majority of the mystery books I have read, as well as in the books I have written, at least one person is murdered, leading the protagonists to try to solve the associated mystery. I doubt that I would find it as interesting to read books about forensic car crash investigators. And, with so many new mystery books coming out each year, many featuring multiple homicides, many featuring lovable protagonists who routinely solve murder after murder after murder in every conceivable locale and under every conceivable circumstance, there really is a crime wave out there! But let’s all remember, it’s a fictional crime wave. I can only hope our politicians and their followers are able to tell the difference between fiction and reality.

First of all, I am NOT Admiral James Stockdale, Ross Perot’s tongue-tied running mate who famously uttered these words at the Vice Presidential debate in 1992. Instead, I’m plagiarizing his opening words by way of an introductory blog post. (After all, they worked so well for Stockdale – they are the only thing most people remember about him, despite his stellar military career.)

So, who am I?

I am a 66-year-old, happily married man, the proud father of three outstanding young men, and I live along the North Shore of Lake Superior, truly one of the most beautiful places on our planet. I recently retired from a 40-year career as an Aerospace Engineer designing wind tunnels and other aerodynamic research facilities. All of these things combine to make me among the most fortunate people to inhabit the earth, and I thank my lucky stars every day for that fact.

All right then, why am I here?

I could answer this with some existential musings about the meaning and purpose of life, but that can wait for some future post. Instead, I’ll answer the question of why I am here, on the Internet. I’m here because I like to write, and I like to muse about mysteries. See more on that topic on the About page. Naturally, in today’s world, the Internet is the place to do it.

One final note. One could say I was reasonably well-prepared and qualified for my career as an engineer. I studied hard and earned some college degrees before I entered the field. On the other hand, I have no training at all on how to write a mysterious musings blog or mystery novels – I’m just going to make it up as I go. I think it’s going to be tremendous fun for me. I hope a few of you might also get something out of my musings and books. Time will tell!