Avatar of Gunther

Status

Recent Statuses

1 yr ago
Current The dot over a lowercase i and j has a name! It's called a tittle, which is a noun meaning "a tiny amount or part of something". Like the dot over an i or a j.
6 likes
1 yr ago
Cows don't leave the slaughterhouse, steaks do.
1 like
3 yrs ago
Empty your mind. Be formless, shapeless, like water Put water into a cup, becomes the cup Put water into a teapot, becomes the teapot Water can flow or drip or crash Be water, my friend --Bruce Lee
6 likes
3 yrs ago
The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don’t.
1 like
3 yrs ago
Mr. Clark, your daughter is a very good kisser.
2 likes

Bio

I am a veteran of the United States Army and the US Army National Guard. I spent three years on Active Duty serving in the 4th Infantry Division (Mechanized) at Ft. Carson, CO and 3rd Armor Division at Kirch Göns, West Germany. I spent 18 years in the Army National Guard with the 26th Infantry Division "Yankee" and 29th Infantry Division (Light), "The Blue and the Gray". I was deployed to Bosnia-Herzegovina with the 29th ID (L) in 2001 - 2002. I have also been reading military history articles and books for over 48 years. I do prefer Military Role Plays over all other genres, primarily because I have a vast knowledge on the subject to include personal experiences. At the very least, my characters are always veterans.

I have been writing for pleasure for at least 34+ years, but only got into forum-based Role Playing about fourteen years ago. I do enjoy Nation Role Plays and get into minute detail when designing my military. The only reason I enjoy excruciating detail in my militaries is because for me, it is fun. My education and experience on this subject afford me the insight to see the depth of the structure. It is not just a General and a large pile of soldiers. If someone wants assistance in designing an army, navy, or air force, please send me a PM. I will help. Please specify what level (echelon) or depth you would like me to go. When I say echelon, I mean Army, Corps, Division, Brigade/Regiment, Battalion/Squadron, Company/Troop/Battery, Platoon, and Squad/Section.

When I was a student in High School, I used to play Dungeons & Dragons (Edition 1 & 2). Later editions came out after I quit that game. I do have an interest in Tolkien-esque fantasy-styled Role Plays as well. Time travel has always been a fun genre for me, but to do it well, one must have a firm grasp of historical facts. I love doing this form of role play, especially since I have a solid foundation on the past.

There are only a few fanfictions I will participate in; Star Wars and Star Trek are two of them. I want to do an exclusively Klingon RP one of these days. I also avoid Canon characters.

I have real-world martial arts experience. I would love to write an RP about hand-to-hand combat, no fantasy magic chit, just hands elbows, knees, and feet. Maybe the occasional head butt thrown in to mix things up. I trained in Krav Maga for six and a half years. I earned a first-degree black belt in Krav Maga on 3 June 2017.

Krav Maga is an Israeli martial art form that employs practical self-defense techniques drawing forms & techniques from Muay Thai, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and Taekwando. It is very brutal, demanding, and aggressive. During the seven years I trained, I have bruised two ribs, sustained several muscle pulls, and various lacerations and bruises over my body. I have received a sprained ankle and a fractured wrist. Before the first black belt test, I received a bone bruise to my right shin; where my roundhouse kicks impact. Yet, I am stupid enough to continue training. [Regardless of the physical pain, it is more fun than any other physical activity I have engaged in. Fortunately, the bone bruise healed up prior to the third and final test. EDIT: I did leave the sport three years ago. :(]

In July, I completed my first novel, a science fiction set in the 24th century. It focuses on a Private Military Corporation solely employed by the earth government.

Send me a PM for a Role Play.

--Gunther (AKA: Old School)



Gunthers Cast of Hooligans

Most Recent Posts

Look at us all trying to guess what Briza's Thing is. If she wanted us to know, she would have told us. I'm thinking it is something personal and has absolutely nothing to do with movies or American holidays.
I love this quote. How many people have vowed to never be like their parents and then wind up being exactly like them? It is fate or kizmit. We do have no control over that. It is our destiny. We each have one parent who we are like. For me, I have traits from both.
In the end, we become everything we swore we wouldn't be.
I identified traits in my father I wanted to avoid and was successful. For me, as a parent, I have been successful in not being a parent like my father. My mother on the other hand was always kind, patient and compassionate. I have been more like her than him.

My dad was absent from most of my life. He worked all the time. If he wasn't working, he was sleeping or getting drunk. There have been fewer than ten days in my children's life when they haven't seen me. My father was an alcoholic. He drank every day and was inebriated frequently. I bought a 12-pack of beer before Thanksgiving one year. Those 12 bottles lasted ~24 months. My father spanked me until I was twelve years old. When he did it, it was out of frustration. His spankings were what psychologists refer to as adult temper tantrums. I chose to include spankings in my parenting because I know it works. I found that with four children, some needed it and some did not. Not every child behaves the same way.

When I used that parenting tool, I sent the misbehaving child to his or her room to give both the child and me a time to cool off in the event tempers rose. Then, I would go to their room and have a conversation. I would ask them three questions:
What did you do wrong?

How can you correct your behavior in the future?

What sort of punishment should you receive?

Most of the time, when they answered the third question, I went with their suggestion. I might modify it slightly, but I like the child to have some say in the matter. If I believed the suggested punishment did not fit the offense, I would go with my idea which may or may not include spanking. Once the child reached a certain age, spanking was removed from the parenting tool kit. This was between ages 3 and 6. After a while I found that the benefit of spanking no longer existed.

Once I stopped this form of punishment, then the threat of spanking became an effective tool. You cannot threaten something you have never done. There is no teeth in the threat without it.

When my father spanked me it was an adult tantrum. When I did it, it was a calm professional conversation. There was not a lot of emotion involved and it was always done away from the other children. They may have known what was going on, which lends itself to helping with the fear of the punishment.

Today, my children who are between the ages of 8 and 14 are very well behaved. I frequently receive compliments on their behavior. Many adults will not use spanking as a tool; mistakenly believing it is child abuse. This was considered true in the courtroom in the 1980s and 1990s. Children raised in those decades were not spanked and often times grew into spoiled entitled brats who have no comprehension of consequences. They deserve the best and will not settle for less. They have grown into parents believing the same. By the late 1990s, the courts overruled a previous court case that said any parent who spanks their child is committing child abuse. As a result of the later court case, if a child suffers permanent injury or excessive bruising, trauma or lacerations occur, then yes the act of spanking would be considered child abuse in the eyes of the law. It was never a case of child abuse for me either as the child or the parent. Even in his inebriated state, I was never permanently injured or scarred by his punishments.

Spanking teaches a child humility. In the absence of humility, a child can grow to become arrogant. Arrogance and humility are two sides of the same coin. You can counter too much of one, with an extra dose of the other. The way you counter excessive humiliation is with extra heapings of praise and encouragement; things that will increase confidence. Humble confidence is the desired behavior for a child in the eyes of his/her parent.
@Liv I started working on a post. Jim is going over the basic four punch combinations with Jenna; focusing on technique and form. I will also include a bit on one form of handgun defense. Do you mind if I write things like, "Jenna put on her gloves" or "she punched the pad"? I'm not writing things like, "She took to it like a natural" or she couldn't throw six punches before running out of breath." It just makes it easier if I can state the simple things without being subjective.
Do you like teaching?

Yes. But as a substitute, it is more "babysitting" or having an adult in the room while the students do a worksheet. At the High School level, I can read about 60 pages of whatever book I am reading. The subject matter is very technical and if you don't have a degree in that particular subject, you really can't instruct anything. The teachers realize this and schedule a worksheet or a test on a day when they know they will be out just to give the students something to do. At Middle School, most of the curriculum is pretty basic and simple to understand. I spend most of my time at the Middle School. At the Elementary school level, you actually teach classes; stuck with the same students all day. I have taught at 1st and 2nd grade level, but I prefer 3rd grade and up. The 3-5 grade levels are a lot of fun. The 6-8 grade levels, the students are really curious and they know what they are doing. The HS students just want to be left alone; quiet and avoid eye contact.

I was an English teacher this week. It was fun. Next week, I go back to Math.
I can run eight (8) miles in less than one (1) hour. Eight is also a five letter word. Yay.

That is outstanding! ...a 7:30 mile for 8 miles.

My youngest daughter has hazel eyes.

I rarely concern myself with what others think about me. Apathy runs supreme in that regard

miles also has five (5) letters.

I finally found time to read your last post. This was awesome. I pulled out three quotes I wanted to comment on.

The Plashi controller, a strategist that established objectives on a limited level to their hired mercenary units, was indicating other anomalies in the area, but seemed to still think that it was a new variation of automated systems, some sort of leap forward in computing.


This is pure genius. Yes, it is different and the Salvesh can tell it is different. When you encounter something different, isn’t it traditionally an Anomaly? Sure. Say it is a glitch with the system and drive on! Love it!

This felt like something different, Sahati grumbled to himself as the rounds hit. It was cruder than the typical Grathik technology, and his gut said that this was not the expected unexpected that they were reasonably prepared for.


Love it. The Salvesh can’t have it their way every time. Poor Sahati and Rysch are in trouble.

How large of an element was at that more distant ambush site? The one we struck with sniper fire and indirect fire? Would this be a squad? ~10 soldiers…or a platoon? ~40 soldiers.

"Sahati, I am sending coordinates," Rysch radioed, "and I want you to engage the location with fire very carefully. I think I have located a new enemy. I want to see their reaction."


What sort of fire should we expect in response from the Salvesh? Is this gunpowder indirect fire or energy-based weapons? Who is targeted? The Observation Post (OP) our squad is on or the lead elements of TF Cox moving toward the Salvesh forces?
Hopefully, it won't take 20 days to write another post again. I do like this RP and want to continue. I started writing about two weeks ago and then added to it last week. I finally found time this morning to complete and revise it.

For Christmas this year, we got an Xbox 1X as well as an assortment of games. I have been getting into the latest Assassin's Creed version "Odyssey". Alexios is a Mercenary or "Mythios" living in 5th Century B.C. Greece during the First Peloponnesian War. He is hired by either the Athenians or the Spartans to carry out some deed or assassination. It is a lot of fun and I have become addicted because it is a quest-based level grind and I love level grinds. You can play the game as either Alexios or his sister, Kassandra. There are so many historical Easter eggs in this game. I am a student of history and love how the designers peppered this game with characters from antiquity.

I work as a Substitute teacher and signed on to cover a teacher who is out with an injury from 13 December to some time in February. What's nice about being a sub, is I can take a day off when I want. Covering this position for two months means I can't take days off like I did before. I tend to get some writing done during this time off. Between work, driving the kids to their activities and time spent playing Odyssey, I've slackened up on my writing. I will try to be more diligent.
Gabriel


Gabriel left the house after their discussion regarding Allison’s part in their father’s death. He walked around south Boston for several hours thinking about it. Eventually, he came to the conclusion that she did the right thing. He was no longer upset with his sister. He did wish she had told him while he was away but then no one wrote him letters or sent him emails. He couldn’t blame her for the faux pas. He resolved to forgive her and move on. After all, she was his support system. He needed her.

Gabe decided to buy lunch for him and Allison. He stopped into a Subway shop to buy a pair of grinders. He knew what she liked and bought her favorite sandwich and then he got one for himself. He bought two bags of chips and two tonics. For those not from the Boston area, a tonic would be referred to as a soda, a pop or a coke depending on where a person was from. He paid for the meal out of the money they took the night before and walked back to the house. Technically, they lived in an apartment in a three-story building. Their apartment was half of the third floor of what is called a Dorchester Triple decker.

As he crossed E street, he noticed a Boston Police Cruiser. He didn’t know if they knew who he was, if they were looking for him or what. Gabe attempted to hide his face from the Police. He was sure no one knew who he was, and no one was looking for him. But he didn’t want to be known, especially by BPD. Within a few blocks, he made it back to the house. He climbed the stairs to the third floor and walked in, it just after noon. He looked for his sister, calling out, “Allison, I brought lunch!”

He plopped the sub down on the kitchen table alongside the bag of chips and the tonic. Gabe took a seat and pulled the Italian sub out. He began chewing his food and sipping his Coca-Cola before his sister entered the room.

After she sat down, he thought about apologizing. It was the right thing to do, but he felt weird about it. It was not something his father ever told him to do. No one in his life ever taught him how to have what other people call polite manners. It just wasn’t their way. He assumed his sister would know he felt sorry about what he said to her that morning by his gesture. He felt she would realize buying lunch was his way of apologizing for yelling at her this morning.

“Maybe we could go hang out at the club tonight?” Gabriel offered.



Detective James Graham


The following Saturday, Jimmy woke up and ate breakfast with the family. He didn’t have to work, but he still woke up at six in the morning. By family, he really fed the baby, Charlene while Leo ate his cereal and drank a glass of milk. Jim also had a bowl of cereal while Charlene sat in her high chair, talking to her dad and her brother. Leo talked back to her. He played with his baby sister as their dad ate his meal. The infant babbled primarily but could say about twelve words including; mommy, daddy, Weo, Addy and no! No, was indeed her favorite word even when she meant yes.

“Leo are you going to karate this morning?” Jim asked his son.

“yup,” the 8-year old responded curtly while playing with his sister.

“I’ll put Charlie in with mom. Get your Gi on. We’ll leave at 7:35.

“k’ dad,” Leo gave his father a brief salute with his right hand. He cleared his own bowl and glass from the kitchen table and marched up to his room to get dressed for karate. Jim cleared his dishes and Charlene’s plate and baby spoon. He wiped her off and cleaned off the tray to her high chair. He then hefted her up into the air, talked to her and carried her upstairs to his room. The doting dad placed the baby in her mother’s arms who roused, smiled and gave her little daughter a kiss on the head.

“I’m going to check on Addy,” Jim told Diane.

“OK,” she said sleepily.

Jim walked down the hall to his oldest daughter’s room. Addy had beautiful blonde hair that was all matted and knotted. It would take Diane the better part of a half hour to get her hair straightened out. “Morning princess!” Jim stated to his daughter with glee. The girl lay in her bed with removable side rails. “How are you feeling?”

“Good, daddy!” She giggled at her father.

“Would you like me to bring you downstairs or do you want to go lay with mommy?”

“Mommy!” Adelaide exclaimed cheerfully to Jim.

“Ok sweetums, I’ll carry you down to lay with mommy and Charlene.”

Adelaide threw out her pouty lip. “No Charlie!”

Jim worked at changing his five-year-old daughter’s clothing. “Charlie is your baby sister, Addy. I’m afraid she will be your sister for the rest of your life. You better get used to her. I expect you to take care of her.”

“OK daddy. Can Charlie be my baby?” Adelaide giggled. She liked the idea of having a baby of her own. She did have Miss Tally, her American Girl Doll, but it wasn’t the same as a real baby.

“Ok, Charlie can be your baby. Talk to mommy about it.”

Later that morning, Jimmy and Leo went to the martial arts school in Waltham. Jimmy’s class was from 8-9. The class worked on gun defense techniques. After class, Mr. Arujo, the head instructor called a handful of students over to him. Jim received a letter stating that he was invited to the school’s boot camp program, intended to prepare the student for the Black Belt tests. It was a 16-week program of intense training 2-3 hours every Friday night starting at 7PM. After the first 6 weeks, they would take the first of three black belt tests. Once the third test was complete, the school held a graduation a week later at a venue to be determined. Leo was working on his green belt and still had a few more years before he would test for black belt.

They got home around 10:30. Leo ran off to his room. Jim took a shower and changed into more work out clothes, planning to work with Jenna after lunch. He figured going over gun and knife defense would be perfect given their line of work. Although knives are used more frequently in the commission of crimes than guns, guns seem to grab the headlines more frequently. Knives are just way more accessible, especially in Massachusetts where some of the strictest gun laws in the country exist.
I am going to do the Thing! However, I have to wait eleven (11) days to do the Thing! I am pretty excited but also anxious about it.


Thing has five (5) letters.
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