DINO'S YEAR OF JUBILEE!!!! In 12 days on September 4th I will be turning 50 years young. In the ancient Hebrew tradition of the Year of Jubilee (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jubilee_(Christianity)) I will be celebrating my 50th year of life by sharing the people, place, and things that have been part of these last 50 years. So for 50 weeks beginning September 4th, I will be posting something special to share about the life I have been given. Stay posted for more....
WILL IT NEVER END?! http://news.google.com/news/url?sr=1&ct2=us%2F0_0_s_4_1_a&sa=t&usg=AFQjCNFpeIXrHe1xBu1wpMeLCiMhQTgSMw&cid=52778848123835&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reuters.com%2Farticle%2F2015%2F05%2F20%2Fus-banks-forex-settlementa-usa-idUSKBN0O51PY20150520&ei=paxcVZjODeThmALqhIHAAQ&rt=HOMEPAGE&vm=STANDARD&bvm=section&did=3733716568439259614&ssid=b&at=dt0 Will it never end? I wrote a post in my blog in December 2008 that was mindblowing regarding the filthy greediness and corruption of banks:
[This letter was sent by email today to my Senators and Congressman. I urge others to do something similar.]
Dear Congress Person,
This is a news story from Dec 22, 2008 by the Associated Press discussing how no accountability has been given to date on the bailout money already disbursed to the nations top banks. The article details the AP's contact with 21 of the banks receiving more than $1 billion in bailout funds. Not one bank was able to give an accounting, nor did any offer plans to implement or provide any accounting of these funds in the future. Several banks specifically stated they would not offer any accounting to the public.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MELTDOWN_SECRETS?SITE=ALMON&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Is this for real? How can these banks get away with not accounting for our tax dollars? The article also states that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is devising plans to require accounting for the remaining $350 billion to be disbursed. On the surface, this seems like too little too late. Can you comment about this situation? Can't Congress force some reasonable and ethical form of accounting for what's been given already? Why was the bailout enacted without some accountability? I appreciate any attention you can give this matter as I know there are many pressing issues facing our nation at this time.
Thank you,
Dino R. Federico
To the Praise and Celebration of Heroes
By Dino R. Federico, June 2006
he·ro [hrō]
(plural he·roes)
n. 1. mythology legendary man with superhuman powers: in classical mythology, a man, especially the son of a god and a mortal, who is famous for possessing some extraordinary gift, for example, superhuman strength
2. remarkably brave person: somebody who commits an act of remarkable bravery or who has shown great courage, strength of character, or another admirable quality
Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1998-2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
cour·age [kúrrij]
n . quality of being brave: the ability to face danger, difficulty, uncertainty, or pain without being overcome by fear or being deflected from a chosen course of action
Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1998-2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
You ARE a hero
When you are faced with a decision of wrong or right,
And you choose to do right.
You ARE a hero
When you are challenged with a decision to be responsible, or not,
And you choose not to shirk, avoid, or escape.
If you have learned the depths of your fears,
And have learned to replace your fears with YOUR courage,
Then you are heroic.
If you have been assaulted by the fears of others,
And have learned to shield yourself with faith, hope, and courage,
Then you are heroic.
When you realize you ARE your own lighthouse,
shining brightly in the midst of dark and angry skies,
And when you experience others around you responding to your light
by glowing a little brighter themselves,
Then you will have no more need of the word hero.
And then you may come to realize that as you dwell upon, within yourself,
the praise of your courage, this in turn will fuel the never ending celebration of YOU, (The Hero).
by Dino R. Federico, BNN Reviewer
Comic Book Creator(TM)(c) by Planetwide Games is hot, easy to use, and a must for anyone who ever wanted to make a comic strip or even a comic book. This is not just for professional artists, this is for ANYONE! There are easy-to-navigate windows and toolboxes; there's the desired drag-and-drop ability, and much more features. Read on for more details, and check your Spidey sense which should be tingling.
On May 5, 2007, I had the opportunity to interview the maker of this great software, Mark Politi, from Planetwide Games. Now before the interview, I had already downloaded a free trial version at
http://www.mycomicbookcreator.com/download/hypercomics/
I was able to create a simple comic strip based on ideas I've had for awhile. Being computer saavy, I found it easy to navigate and create a comic strip in less than 30 minutes.
When I began the interview with Mark, he walked me through all the toolboxes and menu screens. I got even more excited as he showed me options and functions I hadn't discovered yet. One of my favorite is when you publish the comic strip (at hypercomics.com), the screen acts as a real comic book where you hover your mouse over the top right corner of the page and the page peels back and actually "turns" to the next page. This is a great function to share with your fans when you share your work.
Another function that had me itching to make more comics: the easy drag-and-drop feature. Now the software comes with a basic set of images, backgrounds, text fonts, etc., but you can also open any web page, find your favorite graphic, and drag it into your comic strip. (Yes you should respect all copyrighted material, so get permission on logos and such.) Any graphic is available from photos to animated graphics. Speaking of copyright, there is NO ability for anyone to copy or steal your comic book, it can only be viewed.
Other functions include audio clip insertions, rotatable text balloons, rotatable images, and resizable backgrounds and overlays. The future versions will include embedded avi clips.
When you want to publish your final work, the licensed copy of Comic Book CreatorÓ gives you unlimited publishing ability at hypercomics.com. When you include a link to your comic book to anyone in an email or on your web site, it automatically opens up the cover of your comic book! Yes it's a pop-up, but a wanted one :) Also, you can copy your comic strip/book to a DVD to play for any of your fans.
Now what about ideas for a comic strip? Maybe you would like to try making your own story line on a current comic strip. That's right! Planetwide has acquired licenses for Speed Racer, Charlotte's Web, Nacho Libre, and many more. You can obtain add-on packs which include all the graphics, fonts, and character sets for your favorite comic. Currently there are about 10 comic strips available with more to come.
In my working with this comic book software, I have to say it's also definitely for the professional artist. If you create your own characters and graphics, they are easy to import. Think of this like presentation software, but designed specifically to create and publish YOUR comics.
I want to thank Mark Politi from Planetwide Games for the time and information for this article. Keep up the great work!
