Re: Whew! pretty long dry spell here is ASA

[Bob La Londe <none@none.com99>]

On 9/24/2020 3:33 PM, ABLE1 wrote:
> On 9/24/2020 1:44 PM, Bob La Londe wrote:
>> On 9/24/2020 8:43 AM, Bob La Londe wrote:
>>> On 9/23/2020 10:39 AM, Jim Davis wrote:
>>>> On Tuesday, September 22, 2020 at 9:05:01 PM UTC-4, Bob La Londe wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> So that's the end of my fishing story. Yours obviously is still in
>>>>>> progress. Cherish it.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Best wishes for your wife's recovery
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> You aren't to bad a story teller yourself.  Maybe break things up a
>>>>> little to make it easier to read.  I bet using the spoken word in
>>>>> person
>>>>> you would be tell it pretty well.
>>>>
>>>> Yeah, I just started typing and kept going. When I got done I saw it
>>>> all bunched together but it was late and I was beginning to nod off
>>>> so I just left it. Sorry.
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Why I am not an outdoor writer
>>>
>>> I may simpley not be that good.  I've only ever submitted a couple
>>> things for publication and they have all been published, so maybe
>>> with practice I could be, but I had some experiences that made me
>>> quit trying.
>>>
>>> This is a little bit of a rant so feel free to skip it if you want
>>>
>>> I took a shot at outdoor writing a number of years ago.  One article
>>> was submitted to a regional rag, and they published it.  After I
>>> rewrote the article a dozen times, and butchered it removing most of
>>> the useful content to fit their idea of how short an article should
>>> be.  The agreement was I would do that in exchange for so many months
>>> free advertisement of my fishing website in their rag.  I spent a lot
>>> of time on the article, and when it was done it was useless, but my
>>> goal was to get my name out there and show some writing credits to
>>> show other rags. They might have known how to publish a magazine, but
>>> they didn't know shit about a useful and helpful fishing article.
>>>
>>> I expected to get a copy of the magazines that carried my
>>> advertisement.   I didn't.  When I asked about it I was told if I
>>> wanted a subscription I could buy one.  I asked that if they do that
>>> to all their advertisers. Â Â Make them pay to see their ad was
>>> published.  Then I was told I was not an advertisers and if I wanted
>>> a subscription I could buy one.  I reminded them of the deal and
>>> mentioned I still had all the original emails.  The chief editor then
>>> claimed that my emails were forwarded to them with out that
>>> information.  I finally told them that under fair use I could publish
>>> expose' articles on outdoors websites showing their magazine if it
>>> was for the purpose of supporting an argument.  That I had proof they
>>> whelched on a deal.  They could sue me, and I could counter sue, and
>>> in the end they would lose, but I would rather they just honor the
>>> agreement.  Especially since I had reworked the article at their
>>> direction more like an employee than a free lance writer. Finally
>>> they capitulated and the next month I received a copy of their rag.
>>> In the classified section about 1/2 an inch tall was a badly
>>> pixilated url for my website.  Just YumaBassMan.com stretched and
>>> distorted so badly it was barely readable
>>>
>>> That magazine didn't last another year.  They went to an online
>>> presence that was so disorganized and chaotic as to make it less
>>> useful than the article they made me butcher.
>>>
>>> I was so disheartened by the whole process I never submitted another
>>> article to another rag.  Not even the local newspaper who had in the
>>> past published some of my short essays unedited.
>>>
>>> I was smart enough to retain ownership of my work so that I could
>>> republish it if I wanted to.  They had limited rights to publish it
>>> in their magazine and I agreed not to publish it elsewhere for a
>>> limited period.  Here it is.  (my version) Back then I thought it was
>>> the Opus, but now I see it was just another so so article as I reread
>>> it.
>>>
>>> The Stick Worm Phenomenon
>>> http://yumabassman.com/forums-new/index.php/page,page3691.html
>>>
>>> After all of that I still wrote and published a few articles on my
>>> website.  Then one day I got a heads up that a commercial bass
>>> fishing website had stolen one of my articles word for word including
>>> typos. I contacted them and said they either needed to remove my
>>> article or give me credit with a by line of my name and website url.
>>> They responded by telling me it was a shitty article, and they were
>>> in the business of building a website and they weren't going to let
>>> me steal web traffic from them or profit off their works so they were
>>> going to remove my crappy article.  I was a little shocked.  Those
>>> thieving bastards stole from me, and then accused me of trying to
>>> steal from them?
>>>
>>> I thought that was the end of it.  Until many years later a friend of
>>> mine qualified to fish the Classic.  He did it through the Federation
>>> structure.  Its quite an ordeal to make it up to the classic that
>>> way. I posted a congratulatory message on his Facebook page.  A
>>> simple short sentence like, "Congratulations on qualifying Steve."Â  I
>>> received a nasty message from somebody I didn't know demanding to
>>> know why I didn't give them credit for saying that sentence first.  I
>>> didn't even know who they were.  It took me a while to figure out who
>>> they were and why they were being a jackass over me congratulating my
>>> friend on his accomplishment.  Yeah he was one of those guys from the
>>> paragraph above. Â Â It turns out he had posted that sentence on a web
>>> forum I hadn't even seen, but now he thought because I also
>>> congratulated Steve it was the same as being a POS thief willfully
>>> and blatantly stealing other people's work.
>>>
>>> I think this was the article they stole.  I could be wrong.  It was a
>>> long time ago.
>>>
>>> Getting Started On Popper Fishing
>>> http://yumabassman.com/forums-new/index.php/page,page290.html
>>>
>>> I can't see trying to be in the writing business again.  It think it
>>> would totally ruin my enjoyment of writing.
>>>
>>> Special credit to Sarah Sneed who was the only English professor who
>>> ever TAUGHT me anything about actually writing.  English 102 Writing
>>> Research Papers.
>>>
>>> Now I just hack out something when I feel like it.  I often don't
>>> bother to proofread or edit anything.
>>
>>
>> I should add that through out the 1990s I was very active in the local
>> motorcycling community.  I am a life member of ABATE of Arizona, HOG,
>> and the American Motorcycle Association.  I had begun assembling a
>> list of "motorcycle games" and various other short articles on a
>> subdomain website on the old GeoCities site.
>> www.geocities.com/onebikenut.  Last tiem I checked about 30-40% of my
>> work was still available on The Way Back Machine.
>>
>> I was approached by White Horse Press with the messages, "Please let
>> us know when you are ready to write your book."Â  I didn't have the
>> confidence to commit to something like that back then.  I also didn't
>> have the time as I was working long days often 7 days a week building
>> up The Security Consultant as a business.  Still, it was in the back
>> of my mind that a real (if small) publisher recognized my work.
>
> Bob,
>
> Good story telling.  I can't imagine the frustration you were having
> trying to get someone with that attitude to do the right thing.
> Would certainly poo poo my thoughts about going down that path
> as well.  I am guessing you have no regrets in going another way??

There are always regrets.  Women I didn't think were in my class (and
they weren't) until I found out years later they liked me.
Opportunities I didn't take advantage of.  Moments of clarity that came
long after the opportunity to apply them.  Angry moments that have kept
a stronger place in my memory than I would like.  Sometimes I obsess
over things long gone like an 8th grade teacher who had it out for me,
and I promised myself one day I would break his knees.  (It was pretty
bad.)  Then sometimes I can let it go.  If I run into Billy Gilmore in a
dark alley today he will be perfectly safe from me.  I'll just walk
away. A decision I made in my early 20s after I whupped a guy in a bar
fight probably saved his life... or at least his knee caps.

Often things I've done have been reactionary rather than directed.  I
got in the contracting business primarily because Jack Houchin tried to
stiff me.  A customer came to me and told me they wanted me to run their
job.  I actually refused several times, but they insisted.  Then I
thought why not.  It will cost them more than they are stiffing me for.

I got into machining for fun, but I started mold making because another
mold maker went on a rant on one of the forums I read about how much it
takes to do.  I walked out in my shop and didn't go back in the house
until I had made a useful and successful mold or three.

Ultimately though I have a good life.  Nice house, great workshop, cars,
truck, jeep, motorcycles, boats.  A fantastic wife.  Good kids.  More
debt than I would like, but money is always coming in.  Regrets?  Sure
if I think about it.  Happy most days anyway?  You bet.  Regrets about
that magazine publisher?  No not really.  Anger if I think about it, but
no regrets.  If I was serious I would have written more articles and
submitted them to more magazines.  I just don't like getting ripped off.
  Nobody does.