GlymyreScape Dice

I planned to post the illustrations of the book I’m currently working on, but that would have caused some problems with registering its copyright. So I’m posting some illustrations for a book I’ve already published, and applied for copyright register. When my current book is finished, published and applied for copyright register, I’ll begin posting its illustrations. For now, these illustrations for the next few weeks are from “The GlymyreScape Player’s Manual.

RG2Cents' Gallery

This is the first illustration in my book The GlymyreScape Player’s Manual!

All the illustrations in The GlymyreScape Player’s Manual are in black and white, so I decided to show the original color versions here in my gallery. If you’re interested tabletop role playing games and want to buy the book on Amazon, just click on this link!

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About “The Life You Save”

I’ve recently read an article about an episode of the television show, M*A*S*H. It was entitled,”The Life you Save”, and seems to be a good example of something I’ve been telling my family. See, I’ve been finding unintentional Christian messages in secular media for quite some time now. In this particular case, John Rappaport and Alan Alda tried to employ a story telling technique called ‘the shaggy dog story’. As I understand it; ‘a shaggy dog story’ is a long winded yarn with an anticlimactic and pointless ending. The M*A*S*H episode they wrote was about Charles Winchester’s near death experience. It prompts him to lose his normal composure and become obsessed with what happens when a person dies. After a series of events where he demonstrates uncharacteristic behavior, he finally comes upon a dying soldier he cannot save. In the young man’s last moments, Charles asks him, “What’s happening to you?” Alan and John tried to come up with the most meaningless and absurd answer possible. The soldier answered, “I smell bread.” Perhaps to the secular world, this sounds like a pointless ending, but to a Christian it’s a whole different matter. Upon hearing that line, I thought it to be extremely familiar; like a Verse of Scripture I was trying to remember. I found the Verse to be John 6:35, where Christ says,”I am The Bread of Life. He who comes to Me will never go hungry, and he who believes in Me will never be thirsty.” So, when the soldier says, “I smell bread”, to the Christian, it is full of meaning. It is an indication that the soldier was a believer, and he went to a happy ending. The character Charles didn’t understand it. Even John and Alan (the writers), didn’t understand it. Yet, I think we can hear The Voice of God in places we never expect. Even from the pen of nonbelievers who never intended to relay such a message.

My History with Pro Life

Just when I figured our main stream media had all but forgotten about us pro lifers, here we are in the focus of reporters again. Oh, not spot lighted, mind you; just examined in an effort to discredit us as usual. Yes, I’ve listened to the main arguments for abortion on demand, and remain unconvinced. Those points really only have surface value. On closer examination, they simply fall apart. But then, I lived through the time that Roe vs Wade was argued and saw it passed when I was a teenager. Hence, I know pro choicers get pro lifers all wrong. First, this idea of pro lifers being about men controlling women’s bodies and denying their right to choice clashes so much with my personal experience that it’s hard to take that as a serious point. Back before Roe vs Wade had been settled, I got very little input from adult males on the subject. On the other hand, the strong women of authority in my life had very powerful feelings on the issue. They called it outright murder. All the adult women I was related to, were pro life in no uncertain terms. And these were women with careers outside the homes. My own mother worked in finance and later became an officer in a bank. Every adult woman I was related to had the same convictions, and I don’t think any of them expected Roe vs Wade to pass. And abortion as a form of birth control? Every one of them agreed to a better suggestion; keep your pants up! That was their words, not mine. Yet, I can’t say that I didn’t get any input from pro abortionists (that’s what they were called back then). No, as I said, it wasn’t from adult males, nor was it from young women or girls. It seemed the teenage boys were all for it. Well, maybe not all of them; just the ones whose motto was sex, drugs, and rock and roll. And I usually would hear this during periods of peer pressure when they would be pushing their lifestyle. When asked what if they got a girl pregnant, the quick and easy answer was abortion. If pushed farther since abortions could be expensive; well, that’s what you get a job for. The amazing thing was that they didn’t have an inkling of an idea about how immoral an attitude they were taking. And no, I can’t judge them because I was a lot different when I was a teenager, myself. Still, look at who was for abortion on demand in my experience back then; teenage boys who wanted to abuse whatever drug they could get away with, and prove they were men by having their way with as many girls as they could. On the other hand, the pro lifers were strong established women who lived responsible lives and had the wisdom of years backing them up. Yes, I am a follower of Christ, as were all those other pro lifers in my teenage years. You can’t change a sin by giving it a different name. Denying another human the right to take their first breath is murder.

Sarcoidosis Aint No Fun

Well, it’s been awhile so I’ll start by saying what’s been happening since the first of the year. To recap a little; late last year I was diagnosed with sarcoidosis and early this year started steroid treatments. Apparently, I have an unusual sensitivity to prednisone, because on the fourth week of treatment, we discovered I had been developing muscle weakness to the point of needing hospitalization. At the hospital, they decided to try to wean me from the prednisone early. When they lowered the dosage however, my blood pressure dropped to 88 over 44. So, everybody got worried about that and kept me in the hospital to bring my bp up. While that was going on, they put me on physical and occupational therapy to bring my muscle strength and stamina up. (I should point out that I could barely move when I went in). So, I spent April and May in the hospital and a rehab center. The rest of the time was at home doing the same exercises trying to complete my recovery.

Now that I’m doing better, I give God all the Glory, and thank Him for being with me the whole time. I’m still on a small dosage of prednisone, but should be done taking it in about a week from now.

Good Lord willing, I’m resuming work on volume 1 of the Glymyresongs series and drawing some illustrations for the first chapters. Hopefully, I’ll post some in my gallery soon.

Thanks for reading.

Introducing Duke

Practicing the rigging of the piano player for “The 2 Penny Band”!