JOURNAL ARCHIVE: August 18, 2006
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I have thought again several times about that memory of getting my red Ford stuck in the mud. It was on that underground pipeline near where I shot that 9-point. I can almost picture my pickup sitting there up to the fenders in the mud. That is the time I had to walk out of the woods to find someone to pull me out. It was pitch black that night and I only knew I was on the road by the sound of the gravel crunching under my boots. I had to walk several miles like that. I have been wondering if that actually represents something about the flight back from Osirak in 1981. I'm wondering if I ran out of fuel, landed, found more fuel, and then took off again to return to the Israeli base. I remember how Michael told me that mom thought I was dead out there somewhere. I told them I was going to a different place to hunt so when they decided I was missing, they were searching the wrong area. They had a lot of people out looking for me. I remember mom was crying. I was expecting to be grounded, as that happened a lot, but they let me hunt the next day. I guessed they had really believed I was dead and was too relieved to punish me for being late as they were quite strict about me returning when they wanted me back.
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Interesting that the NASA administrator from 1971 to 1977 was named Fletcher. It would be more interesting he was in charge in 1969, but who knows what kind of influence he would have had that short time before. And who knows if this means anything, but the grandfather I remember was named Joseph Fletcher Burgess. When I first looked at this photo of him, I thought he even resembled Fletcher Burgess, then I decided there was no relevant resemblance, then I decided there was a noticable resemblance. It is that thought process that tells me this may mean something. I started looking at these NASA Administrators as I search for other possible clues about RR and DD, which may have been also expressed in Star Wars as "R2-D2." Also, I had thoughts the other day that, as a child, similar to Anakin Skywalker, I was building my own android that I named "Master Chief."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_C._Fletcher
James Chipman Fletcher (June 5, 1919 - December 22, 1991) served as the 4th and 7th Administrator of NASA, first from April 27, 1971, to May 1, 1977
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_race
The Space Race was an informal competition between the United States and the Soviet Union that lasted roughly from 1957 to 1975. It involved the parallel efforts by each of those countries to explore outer space with artificial satellites, to send humans into space, and to land people on the Moon.
Though its roots lie in early rocket technology and in the international tensions following World War II, the Space Race effectively began after the Soviet launch of Sputnik 1 on 4 October 1957.
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Now this brings back some memories. As a kid, probably 7th grade, I remember wrapping aluminum foil around a matchhead and using another match to ignite it, which then acted as a rocket. I used a paperclip as a launch stand.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paperclip
Operation Paperclip was the codename under which the US intelligence and military services extricated scientists from Germany, during and after the final stages of World War II. The project was originally called Operation Overcast, and is sometimes also known as Project Paperclip.
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I started trying to remember anything that could represent being on Mars. My first thought was of the Painted Desert. I forget which southwestern state that is located in. My mom mentioned it when the three of us were traveling in her VW "bug" from California back to Oklahoma. Then I remembered something about school in De Queen. Then I thought again about details from 4th grade. I remember thinking several times recently that I was being prompted to think of the 4th grade. My teacher was Mrs. Duggan and I think her daughter was in our clas too. There was Brenda Gartrell, Tim Reed (?), Chris Pulliam. I started remembering a gully in some red dirt that I like to dig in during recess. It was some form of crumbly red clay that was very interesting. I couldn't remember when that was though although I could remember the school. THEN I narrowed it down: that memory of digging in the crumbly red clay was in 1976. For the first part of 1976, I was in 4th grade, then the second part I was in 5th grade. 5th grade was in a new building that was well outside town, as 4th grade was just outside the central "Hill Valley" type of downtown which was De Queen. The 5th grade building seemed like it was a very long ways outside, although, if I mapped it out, it probably would not be that far. But I think that distance is symbolic. It is symbolic of a long trip to someplace new.
By the way, that teacher I referred to earlier, my 5th grade wasn't named Mrs. Gibson as I wrote earlier. As I was thinking about all this, I remembered that her name was Mrs. Godwin.
I wonder if it was around July 20th this year I felt I was being prompted to remember 4th grade. 4th grade probably represents the journey to Mars and memories of early 5th grade have some elements of gathering rock samples on Mars. Need to think more about this.
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I can still picture myself sitting there in that trailer in De Queen seeing the color images from Mars on TV. I am wondering if in reality, that was a memory of me standing on Mars looking out at the landscape through my helmet visor.
Among other reasons and other crimes against me over almost the past decade, and probably before that as Thomas Ray, this is why I caught those bastards going into my apartment at Limestone:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14417451/
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Most of the items on auction are models and miniatures, costumes and props and, with price estimates as low as $100, fans can at least dream of scoring an item.
But prices at memorabilia auctions can soar, and Elkies said the value of objects with such devoted fan bases is notoriously difficult to gauge.
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August 20, 2006
I started thinking that I discovered life on Mars. Some kind of sandbugs. And that explains a lot too. Something about sandkings or sand devils. Something about holes bored into the walls of a gully or cliff, as though by creatures. They would have wanted me to examine the gullies to see if they were created by water or some other force of erosion. I have severeal memories of something like that. There was also that large gully behind my dad's house on that ranch in the plains of nothern Oklahoma. As I was thinking about all this, I remember riding a go-cart around through those fields and I wonder if that represents driving some kind of vehicle that was sent down to the Mars surface with me in 1976. There was also that scene in the last TNG movie where Patrick Stewart's character was driving some kind of dune buggy, although I started wondering if that is also something SEAL related.
I figure, if I did go to Mars, I traveled 6 months to get there. I might have stayed on the surface for one month to explore and then I traveled for 6 months on my return.
According to my calculations, if I, as Thomas Ray, did go to Mars, I would have been about 17 years 4.5 months old at the time of the landing. As Kerry Burgess, I was about that same age when I joined the Navy Delayed Elistment Program, which I was in for about 11.5 months.
I do have a memory of a 1976 Ford pickup. It was one that Denzil bought and I thought it was the greatest pickup. It resembled that 1978 Ford Explorer I had but the 1976 was much better. Not sure if that 1976 was also an explorer model but I'm pretty sure it was. I remember that Denzil had my tires on the back. That must have been after I crashed the 1967 Ford and sold it but I kept the tires and let Denzil use them until I got another vehicle.
There must be a reason why I remember one of my 5th grade teachers taking away my book, "THX-1138." Can't remember his name.
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Viking One launched on 8/20/75. That means it traveled for 11 months before it landing on Mars.
I need some astronomy software.
I wonder if they could have launched the support equipment on a longer approach trip while I would take a quicker route, primarily because there wasn't as much weight to my space craft.
Mars also has that moon named Phobos, which seems similar to that girlfriend I had named Phoebe.
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I have found myself thinking more about those columns of smoke rising from the back of 1967 blue Chevrolet. But I feel as though I am trying to remember a moment of flashback in my reality. I think of myself sitting in a car, it is a Mustang, and there is a woman in the passenger seat. Out of the corner of my eye, I see smoke rising behind us and I have a strong flashback, thinking they are incoming missiles and I need to react quickly without thinking. I have these thoughts that I tore off the gear shift thinking it was the stick in my aircraft. And I think I twisted the steering wheel to evade but then I think I probably grabbed the door handle or something on the door thinking it was the throttle. Then I think about that scene from "Unbreakable" and I wonder if I crashed the car in the midst of my flashback. I want to say I was in Hawaii at the time, home on leave after perhaps being in Lebanon in the early 80's. There was something else I wanted to note about this but it just slipped my mind. That seems to be happening more often. It drives me crazy not having access to a computer at any hour of the day.
Oh yeah, now I remember that other detail. It was one morning when Denzil was driving mom's Bonneville. I think it was a Sunday morning, maybe a Saturday, he and I were going into Ashdown to have breakfast at a place called Mac's Diner. After he pulled out of our driveway, I heard his foot slap the floorboard about the same time he pulled down on the gearshift on the steering wheel column. He told me sheepishly that he thought he was driving his pickup which also had the gear shift on the column, but the pickup was a standard transmission.
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This means something to me but I don't know precisely what it is.
http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/photographs/large/c39908-8.jpg
President Reagan talking on the telephone about the Highway bill. 4/1/87.
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August 21, 2006
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http://apps.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=9A.44.115
RCW 9A.44.115
Voyeurism.
(c) "Place where he or she would have a reasonable expectation of privacy" means:
(i) A place where a reasonable person would believe that he or she could disrobe in privacy, without being concerned that his or her undressing was being photographed or filmed by another; or
(ii) A place where one may reasonably expect to be safe from casual or hostile intrusion or surveillance;
(d) "Surveillance" means secret observation of the activities of another person for the purpose of spying upon and invading the privacy of the person;
(e) "Views" means the intentional looking upon of another person for more than a brief period of time, in other than a casual or cursory manner, with the unaided eye or with a device designed or intended to improve visual acuity.
(2) A person commits the crime of voyeurism if, for the purpose of arousing or gratifying the sexual desire of any person, he or she knowingly views, photographs, or films:
(a) Another person without that person's knowledge and consent while the person being viewed, photographed, or filmed is in a place where he or she would have a reasonable expectation of privacy; or
(b) The intimate areas of another person without that person's knowledge and consent and under circumstances where the person has a reasonable expectation of privacy, whether in a public or private place.
(3) Voyeurism is a class C felony.
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At a minimum, I should have about 10 years back pay coming. Cohen's speech put me back on the payroll, if I had been taken off it, that is. Plus, I am thinking that my compensation is Federal tax exempt, so all that tax Microsoft withheld from my salary as I worked my technical role there should be coming back to me. That would be enough to get me out of this stinking place. As I wrote earlier, I think Thomas Ray was awarded the Medal Of Honor at one point. The MH brings with a $400 a month pension. I wonder if you get $400 a month for multiple MH's.
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And as I write all this, I remember very clearly what I wrote about Nelson about two years ago.
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Where's my back-pay check?
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110ap_peace_mom.html
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"Pat, did you get her check before she left?" Rove quipped to the GOP group's executive director, Pat Robbins, as the crowd of 300 laughed, the newspaper reported.
"I don't question the patriotism of our critics. Many are hardworking public servants who are doing the best they can. Some of them are people looking for a free meal," Rove said, drawing more laughs.
