Mad Squid art, Cinema, Filmmaking, Uncategorized

“Walt’s Reel,” Saved From Deep Storage By Disney Staff, Is The Reason I Got To See Grandpa At Work!

All my life I’ve heard stories about my Grandpa Ron’s escapades. Yes, he was a drinker, and that put a wall between himself and his children. But as my Grandpa, that was never a factor. He didn’t show me that side. Not once. So, I grew up remember the brighter bits of his story. He was a WWII veteran. He had “money in all the banks” in Santa Anna, California (see Episode 1 of Finding Ronald for more info on this). He helped build Disneyland.

I cherished these tales of bravery, humor, and skilled talent. Grandpa taught me how to do a dove call with just my two hands. He showed me how he grew strawberries in little mounds, rather than in rows. He built a TV (or was it just a repair?) from a Radio Shack kit. He traveled the world. It’s one thing to imagine such endeavors, to flesh them out in the mind in wonderment. It’s another thing entirely to actually get to see it happening.

Not once growing up had I considered that there might be photographic evidence of my grandfather building Disneyland. A few years ago, when I truly started making headway on the “Finding Ronald” docuseries, the most unlikely example of–call it coincidence; call it fate; call it a miracle–manifested itself into my life (into Mom’s life, actually) in the form of one Gloria Pedersen. Gloria had photographs!

You see, there were two (or three?) crane operators working for A. E. Fowler & Sons on the Dinsneyland project, my Grandpa Ron, Bonie “Bonebreak,” and a man named Ivan Myrick, who was Gloria’s father. My Mom, not too long before my stepfather Harry passed away from FTD, was on vacation in Santa Anna, CA when she just happened (???) to run into Gloria, who overheard my mother telling the story of Grandpa Ron placing the spires on Sleeping Beauty’s Castle. One thing led to another, and that’s how these wonderful still photos came into my life:

Crane operator Ivan Myrick sits at the controlls of his A.E. Fowler & Sons crane near Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland during it’s construction in 1955. Myrick worked a crane team that operated around the clock in the year leading up to Disneyland’s grand opening, July 17, 1955, including opening day. ///ADDITIONAL INFO: 1955CraneScans.DLR – 6/3/15 – PHOTO BY JOSHUA SUDOCK, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER – Photo courtesy of Gloria Myrick Pedersen, daughter of Ivan Myrick (crane operator who participated in the construction of Disneyland between 1954 and 1955). He was an employee of A.E. Fowler & Sons. Picture made at Disneyland in Anaheim DATE UNKNOWN 1955.
Crane operators “Bonie” Bonebreak, left, Ron Vasey, and Ivan Myrick stand atop their crane near Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland during it’s construction in 1955. Bonebreak, Vasey and Myrick worked together on a crane team that operated around the clock in the year leading up to Disneyland’s grand opening, July 17, 1955. ///ADDITIONAL INFO: 1955CraneScans.DLR – 6/3/15 – PHOTO BY JOSHUA SUDOCK, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER – Photo courtesy of Gloria Myrick Pedersen, daughter of Ivan Myrick (crane operator who participated in the construction of Disneyland between 1954 and 1955). He was an employee of A.E. Fowler & Sons. Picture made at Disneyland in Anaheim DATE UNKNOWN 1955.

Now, this was already an unexpected infusion of visual verification for my Grandpa Ron’s involvement in the project. I’ve truly cherished these images. In fact, I even used these images to create a 3D model of Grandpa Ron’s crane rig for use in the titles of “Finding Ronald.” I told myself that this was the crown jewel of photographic evidence, and that I was incredibly lucky to even have these.

And then I found the “Disneyland Secrets, Stories, & Magic” series. When I watched Episode 9, “Building Walt’s Dream,” my jaw dropped to the floor and I almost stepped on my own tongue! Here, before my eyes, was actual footage of my grandpa Ron at work. Here was actual footage of his crane placing the spires on the top of Sleeping Beauty’s castle. I wept. Sorry, but I did.

Episode 1 – “Meet Ronald,” which premieres live on YouTube on March 16th 2023, 7 PM Mountain, will look at both his life and work, as well as his disappearance. The going theory, which local authorities and media outlets immediately latched onto, was suicide. But evidence was left behind to suggest that the story may not be so black and white. I have two other, evidence-based theories, which have Grandpa Ron meeting his end at the hands of someone else. Grandpa himself warned that this might happen.

Episode 2 – “Ronald’s War,” will discuss theory number two. This theory relates to and couples together Grandpa’s WWII veteran status, his mechanical ingenuity, his world travels to known war criminal hotspots as well as to sensitive allied nations, such as Russia, and some oddities which I inherited from him after he disappeared. It also pulls in 1st hand accounts, told by my Mom, of the condition Ronald would sometimes return home in after his travels, as well as the fact that he wasn’t telling his family about all of the countries he was visiting. Only a select few made it into the “family history.” But his own handheld film reel (not sure if it’s 16mm or super 8), as well as a collection of currency from around the world, proves that he was definitely in many, many more countries than he was telling the family about.

Episode 3 – “Ronald’s Magnetic Motor,” is, for me, the most likely of the alternative theories for what happened to my grandfather. The idea here is that “Big Oil” may have killed my grandfather in order to suppress a magnetic motor that he invented, and was working to prototype. This theory has a sound historical basis when considered in the context of other independent inventors who met an unexplained, or untimely end shortly after making a technological breakthrough. People such as Rudolph Diesel, Louis Le Prince, and Stanley Meyer. Even more disturbing are contextual cases which prove that murder for “Big Oil” also has a historical precedent in stories such as that of William King Hale.

Grandpa was so worried that the oil industry might try to hurt him–or his family–that he sent semi-shredded bits of the plans for his invention to ten people around the world, who were supposed to release the invention in the event that anything happened to Grandpa. Two additional people had a list of all ten names to assist in the triggering of said release. Needless to say, they did not release anything. A childhood call to Australia, where Grandpa was having the motor prototyped, basically ended in a “we didn’t get it working” claim from an elderly Australian gentleman. But I have the letter from grandpa detailing the entire system that he dreamed up, and set in place, and warning of possible threat to him or to family members in order to kill the invention.

Episode 4 – “Finding Ronald,” will show the arduous, and somewhat dangerous process of trying to locate grandpa’s wreckage. I will attempt to interview MCSO to ascertain why grandpa’s letter was ignored during the original investigation, why they were hesitant in releasing his information to us (and still left some redacted). Finally, I will melt down spent brass shell casings, and make a poured brass plaque to memorialize Ronald’s life and final resting place. I will permanently affix the plaque to Grandpa’s car, which MCSO has deemed too difficult to remove from the site. It will be a permanent part of John Brown Canyon, at least until development creeps up there into the canyon, which will probably be long after I, too, am taking the “longest nap.”

“Stand by to stand by.” –Mad Squid

Mad Squid Communications, News, Politics, Twitter, Uncategorized

So, What Got Me Suspended By Twitter, Anyway?

My last post celebrated an event that I was beginning to think would never come: the re-activation of my “permanently suspended” @realMadSquid Twitter account. As only one such reactivation out of four Mad Squid Productions® accounts that Twitter has surreptitiously suspended for vague reasons, it’s not a complete victory. But it is a major battle won. So, I wrote about it.

But now I want to take a closer look at the three tweets that Twitter claims were the cause of my suspension in in the first place. How do I know that these tweets were the offending tweets? Because Twitter told me so. When I stumbled back into my newly reactivated account, quite by accident, they cited these three tweets as my offending posts, and required that I delete them before I would be returned to full functionality.

I obliged, begrudgingly, because if anything is made clear by these three tweets, it’s just exactly how biased Twitter was being against the LEFT when applying suspensions, and therefore also when addressing appeals. My @realMadSquid account was suspended for over two years for the following three tweets. Have a look at them, and then I’ll see you again on the other side of the images for some further analysis:

As you can clearly see from tweet 1 of 3, I was replying to someone who was being hateful and targeting abuse against me! Notice that they ignored @donrondel berating me and hounding me about how I’m supposedly a Socialist, and that I don’t understand my military service or my government. So, I got a little bit snippy, and pointed out my education, and my belief in the lack of education on the part of my debate opponent.

His violations of the Twitter TOS apparently didn’t matter. Like, at all. Because this was enough for Twitter to silence my veteran owned small business. The right wing radical gets a pass, and the left wing, college educated, decorated veteran just goes away.

It’s also worth noting that when I did finally receive my reactivation, I was missing at least 2,000 followers who were following my count at the time of my suspension.

Stand by to stand by. –Mad Squid

Mad Squid News, Politics, products, Shirts, T-Shirts, Uncategorized

Amazon Fulfillment Damaged My Products, Cost My Colorado Small Business over $1,000!

@madsquidproductions

@amazon not only discriminated against this #veteran owned business, but damaged its products and cost Mad Squid Productions over $1,000! #JeffBezos #usnavy #Amazon #SellOnAmazon #fraud #crime #mesacounty #colorado

♬ 10 minutes ver beat & electric bass stride(1117152) – Aruma

Stand by to stand by! –Mad Squid

Mad Squid art, Cinema, Uncategorized

“All Things, Everywhere, All At Once” Basically Used My Idea, But Left Some Things Out

Last night my wife Carolyn and I finally got around to renting All Things Everywhere All At Once after mentioning that we should do so several times as a result of the trailer popping up in our queue. The movie was very entertaining, and we love Michelle Yeoh as Captain Philippa Georgiou in Star Trek Discovery, so this film was a good fit for us right out of the box.

With that said, I couldn’t escape the sneaking suspicion that not only had I been aware of the subject matter of this movie for years, but that I actually wrote a logical “proof” for an infinite universe one night while bored on the mid watch at JICPAC. I showed that proof to an Air Force Officer who worked on the watch floor with me and had previously worked at Nellis AFB. His response was only, “you mistake congruent points for equal points.” Which is true, but only in a finite universe. In an infinite universe, they are one and the same. But I’ll get to that…

Congruent or Equal Points?

Shortly after showing that AF officer my proof, two things happened. First, he quietly told me to do a Boolean search for “Bell Laboratories + Roswell + new technologies.” Essentially, many “new age” technologies can be traced to BL over a very compressed period of time, shortly after the alleged UFO crash in that famous New Mexico town. His search string did not disappoint. Titanium. Lasers. Microchips. New alloys. And more. The second thing that happened was that my hard drive was “accidentally” wiped by the system administrators downstairs in our IT department.

But I have a surviving hard copy, and have recreated it digitally for safe keeping. My proof was a 4-5 page (I’d have to dig it out to be sure) bulleted list of logical progression from a single point out to an infinite multiverse. I would later learn, by watching a video by one of my favorite thinkers, Rob Bryanton, about the concept of Humans as more than a single strand of time-bound frames. A string of “nows,” essentially adding up to a movie (frame upon frame) of our lives.

Instead, we look much more like a root structure, with many branches and, eventually, an end to each branch. We are not able to see our whole selves at any given time, because we are locked into experiencing these “nows” as the illusion of a persistent flow of time, one frame at a time. Beings from a higher dimension (5th, 6th, etc., would see us all at once).

We look like a root structure to higher dimensional beings. Who knows what grows on top?

These roots branch out into their own universes, or iterations, if you will. This is what people refer to when they use the term “multiverse.” There is a potential for infinite iterations, but you could never, ever, ever experience them all in a single human lifetime, and many of them die out (end, like the roots mentioned above) while others go on. We branch out like that until we can do so no further. And then, essentially, we die.

I’m not smart enough to tell you what that means, to die. But I can tell you that I have much less fear of it now that I have a larger field of view on this amazing and beautiful existence that we happen to be sharing right now.

A multiverse is filled with iterations upon iterations of the same things, with slight differences.

Anyway, back to the movie! Everything, Everywhere, All At Once did a fantastic job of explaining this, and demonstrating how each of them might interact with each other. This is an important facet of this theory, for me, because it means that nothing is pre-determined. We can interact with other “strands” or “roots” of ourselves, or others, and perhaps even cause change by doing so. Who really knows?

Much of what takes place in this brilliantly written, heroically acted, and masterfully filmed piece of cinema history (and perhaps Human, too) fits very well into my own theory, which you will recall that I first wrote in the Navy (I discharged honorably in 2003.) But there is much that they left out!

Cookie cutter people save “the system” resources.

For one thing, they never hit on the idea of cookie cutter people. These would be different from the other iterations of us that exist down different offshoots of our larger selves. These would be people who look alike because they are literally rendered from the same code (DNA). You may know them as doppelgängers. I call them cookie cutter people. The problem is that they exist because of some unseen barrier or limitation to the confines within which we live. If this is a simulation, it may be low on memory, for instance. You may have encountered a similar thing in the very popular GTA game universe. People show up over and over because it saves the system processing power. Something to ponder.

Narrowing to an end, from inside.

Another thing, which is incredibly important, but completely missing from the film is the concept of the narrowing. This is akin to the cause/effect of cookie cutter people, except that it isn’t an intentional distribution of resources. Rather, the narrowing only rears its head when something is amiss. It’s not so much a matter of low memory as it is a matter of a character file suddenly gone missing. When there isn’t enough information to properly render a scene, you begin to be forced down a narrowing.

Fashionable Girl Dancing Silhouette With Monitors Shows Energetic Party

Most likely, a narrowing represents a spacial experience of arriving at the end of a “root” that has no where else to grow. An extreme example would be, suddenly, without warning, all channels on your TV are the same show, and it’s all gibberish. As such, when one realizes that they are experiencing it, the narrowing can cause much anxiety and fear. Hopelessness may ensue. This is the end, well, ending. It is conceivable, however, that a similar effect of “narrowing” could happen in the event that two roots fuse together. The shape would be less symmetrical and spiraling, more hour-glass-ish. Who knows what that would look or feel like.

The film addressed the question of how to jump from one branch to another in a very creative way that allowed for some comedic relief at various points throughout the movie. Finding one’s “jump path” involves doing some anomalous, and often very weird, thing and then pressing “the green button.” I won’t spoil everything for you, but the plot device is very well employed. In my view it’s more about tuning in to a resonant frequency and then isolating all other noise, but hey, who’s keeping track?

But I suppose that what is truly eating at me is the way that they changed my overall description so drastically by altering only a few words! In my logical proof, I conclude that “in an infinite Universe (i.e. multiverse), all things exist everywhere at all times.” This is an important distinction from “Everything, Everywhere, All At Once.” My language allows for access to all points from all points. Theirs suggest an overwhelming experience that is not useful but actually debilitating, if not deadly.

Anyway, there it is. I’ve said my piece. If you’re still reading, may The Gods bless you with wealth and incredible sex!

Stand by to stand by! –Mad Squid

Mad Squid Communications, News, Politics, Twitter, Uncategorized

Twitter Violates Religious, Speech Rights Under Guise Of Protecting Religious, Speech Freedoms

Laura Ingraham, a Fox News reporter known for her dishonesty and lack of integrity being carefully rolled up into a pseudo-Christian mess of commandments-smashing behaviors, has managed to get Twitter to discriminate against liberal veterans who dare to mention that her character profile isn’t compatible with the teachings of Jesus. This is further proof that Twitter is biased against The Left, practices inconsistent application of its own rules, and willfully and blatantly violates the rights of U.S. veterans. Anyone who doesn’t agree with Laura or Twitter, is silenced. Case in point:

I was baptized and confirmed in the United Methodist Church (a Christian church that worships Jesus) here in Grand Junction, Colorado, in middle school. Laura Ingraham does not have a unique claim to Christianity. She cannot claim harassment along religious lines, simply because another Christian mentions Jesus to her. PERIOD.

As a decorated veteran who served during two Republican wars to protect the Constitutional rights of all Americans (even hateful, brainless cads like Laura), I take exceptional offense to this unequal application of “rights” which allows a hateful shrew to enjoy her speech, while a decorated veteran is shut up. Repeatedly.

The simple truth is that most of what Lauren vomits up on Faux News is decidedly UN-Christian. As is pretty much the entire platform of the Republican Party. They have opened their arms and welcomed NAZIs, violent extremists, murderers, wife beaters, truth deniers, and the lot. You can fill out an entire ream of paper with the list of evil-doers to whom they have made their party a home.

But stand up to them on Twitter, and Elon Musk will have you suspended. So much for free speech.

Stand by to stand by. –MadSquid

Mad Squid News, Politics, Uncategorized

Colorado GOP & Mesa County GOP Tighten Criminal Grip On Western Colorado

If half the country and the federal government are calling you “domestic terrorists” it’s probably because you are. Take it from me, a former U.S. Navy intelligence analyst, and former member of Pearl Harbor ASF, a reserve police and counterterrorism/civil rioting rapid response force. Republicans have thrown off the freedoms of American Democracy in exchange for the yolk of a new King.

What they call “Socialism” is merely educated society making good on the SOCIAL CONTRACT. If you’ve never heard of it, you should do some reading. Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau–and others–dedicated their lives to the study of political theory. Each arrived at the Social Contract by different means, and with different intent. But they all got there, nonetheless.

Why? Because the Social Contract is nothing more than forcing government to care for the PEOPLE as much, or more than, the “KING.” To Hobbes, life was “nasty, brutish, and short.” People were generally self-absorbed, and therefore “bad” for and to each other. The social contract allowed an authority to be raised to counterbalance the worst aspects of Man’s nature, whilst also providing for them a leveling of the playing field, not so much with respect to each other, but to the overwhelmingly thuggish nature of the world around them.

Seriously, if you call this Socialism, you simply don’t understand cause and effect. You don’t understand where we’ve come from as a species, nor where we are going! The act of caring for the People IS NOT EVIL. Only one ‘person’ can believe that, and they are THE KING.

The modern Republican Party, at Federal, State, and Local levels, is faced with becoming irrelevant. They have watched the data as closely as anyone else, and they know that party identification has been waning for years. This is most likely why they have clung to “The Big Lie” so vehemently, because they are out of sync with the nation, and rather than reevaluate their positions, they resort to theft. Or, as one evil Republican once so eloquently put it, try to drown [Democracy] as an infant in a bathtub.

Vote Blue. Veterans stand against Republican TYRANNY!

Stand by to stand by! –Mad Squid

Mad Squid art, projects, Uncategorized, video

Time-Lapse: Building a Laser Etched, Basswood Butcher Block with Black Pipe Legs from Scratch.

SO MUCH FUN!

This was a really fun project! It took me a week to complete rather than the single day (ha!) that I had planned for. My wife really wants to redo our kitchen cupboards and top them off with butcher block counter tops, so this was a bit of a practice run for me. Boy am I glad for having it, too! I learned many lessons!

MATERIALS

First, I ordered basswood blanks from Bell Forest Products. I have to confess that I did not research the company before hand (no excuse) so I have no idea about sustainability practices or fair trade policies, or anything like that. I literally just googled “basswood blanks” and voila, up they popped!

Why basswood? I lucked into working with basswood a couple of years back when I built a chest for my daughter for Christmas. It was one of the few choices for “hobby lumber” that I was able to purchase locally, in person. It’s a fairly light stock, not as light as balsa wood, but not too much heavier, either. It sands quickly and effortlessly, takes stain like a sponge, has enough structural integrity to build sizable (though not huge) projects with, and just has a damn cool name.

(Full disclosure, I’m a long-time bass player, so I may be biased.)

You don’t have to go with Bell, but at $55 the price was right for me! Here are a couple of other options, though:

Of course, I like to build with as few fasteners (nails and screws) as possible. So, you’ll need a good wood glue, and lots of it!

For this table I used a polyurethane spray around the edges (3 heavy coats) and a glaze coat epoxy kit for the work surface.

Last, but not least, I fastened the whole thing to a set of black pipe table legs. These come in many shapes, sizes, and styles. Here are some of my favorites:

PROCESS

First, I laid out the pieces of basswood as they would be arranged in the finished project. I then snapped a photo, and began planning out all of my laser etchings:

The laser etcher that I used was by LaserPecker. I ordered the deluxe version (thanks to the S.B.A.), but it comes in many different configurations. Here are a couple of them:

I then glued together only the 3- and 4-piece blocks that would have to be glued together prior to etching. This was primarily necessary for the 4 portraits, but also for the H.S.T. Gonzo emblem and the ship’s seal for the USS Reuben James, etcetera. From there each individually etched piece was processed through the LaserPecker and assembled, piece by piece, to form the entire surface of the table.

I stained the surface and edges of the desk, then flipped it over and glued four 1 x 4 furring strips cut to match the depth of the tabletop. This may or may not have been necessary, but it gave me piece of mind in the sense that it shores up potential structural integrity issues with the butcher block pieces by adding cross supports that bridge most, if not all, of the basswood blanks with the others.

Next, I flipped the whole thing back over and created a basin for the epoxy resin (glaze coat) using several layers of tightly pulled painter’s tape. Glaze coat pours out pretty thick, and maintains a high viscosity all the way through to curing (hardening). This gives it what the manufacturer calls a “self-leveling” quality, which is probably just marketing hype, but it’s also not untrue. You have to work the liquid around a bit to make sure that it gets into all areas, but once it has contact with the entire area, thicknesses pretty much level out on their own thanks to gravity and time.

The key is to have a heat gun or flame available to work out as many of the bubbles that you will inevitably find trapped in the goo–once it is spread evenly–as possible. If you miss this step, you will get dimples and holes where the bubbles remained during curing. They are actually pretty easy to coax up through the gelatinous epoxy, so long as you warm the goop from a proper distance and don’t overheat or boil it. I found that a heat gun was also good for fine tuning the spread of the resin, as it was able to move the material without leaving behind a depression in the surface like the mixing paddle did.

Anyway, the rest is pretty much self-explanatory. Please do watch the time-lapse above of me building this project as described in this blog post.

Thanks for reading!

Stand by to stand by! –Mad Squid