Re: Story

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

On 11/8/2022 8:38 PM, Jim Davis wrote:
>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Bob, as I read your posts, Iâ??m reminded of the Movie â?? A Bronx Taleâ??
>>>> .
>>>> Chazz Palminerri â??Sonnyâ?? = Gangster
>>>> Robert De Nero â??Lorenzoâ?? = Father
>>>> Lillo Brancato, Jr.â??Calogero â?? = Son
>>>> .
>>>> About a young man Calogero (or â??Câ?? ) who is torn between the values of
>>>> his father and the gangster.
>>>> .
>>>> There are two things I always remember from this movie: ( that I think
>>>> are apropos to THIS conversation )
>>>> .
>>>> Lorenzo tells his son:
>>>> â??You want to see a real hero? Look at a guy who gets up in the morning
>>>> and goes off to work and supports his family. That's heroism.â??
>>>> .
>>>> And, what in real life turns out to be the most ironic.
>>>> .
>>>>    In the movie, Lorenzo says to C,
>>>>     "Nothing is more tragic than a wasted talent."
>>>> .
>>>> This is said a number of times through the movie.
>>>> .
>>>> The actor, Lillo Brancato was an untrained actor who ( I think) did a
>>>> fantastic job in the movie. A natural and at the time was being
>>>> mentored and promoted by both De Nero and Palminerri. Could have gone
>>>> on to do great things.
>>>> .
>>>> The movie wasnâ??t a great hit but what is striking about it is this
>>>> follow up real life ironic story. :
>>>> .
>>>> Brancato was arrested on December 10, 2005, in the Bronx for the
>>>> murder of police officer Daniel Enchautegui, who was at home and
>>>> off-duty at the time of his death, during a botched burglary. Brancato
>>>> was charged with second-degree murder, and his trial began on November
>>>> 17, 2008. On December 22, 2008, a jury found him not guilty of murder,
>>>> but found him guilty of first-degree attempted burglary. On January 9,
>>>> 2009, a judge sentenced him to 10 years in prison. On December 31,
>>>> 2013, he was released on parole.
>>>> .
>>>> Talk about wasted talent. Afterwards, I think he played a bit part in
>>>> the â??Sopranosâ?? and thatâ??s it.
>>>> .
>>>> If you havenâ??t seen the movie, give it a try. Iâ??ve watched it a bunch
>>>> of times.
>>>> .
>>>> So Bob, Iâ??m not suggesting that you would or wouldnâ??t shoot anyone.
>>>> Just the part about
>>>> .
>>>>    "Nothing is more tragic than a wasted talent."
>>>> .
>>>
>>>
>>> Ok Jim,
>>>
>>> You have peaked my interest.
>>>
>>> I am on the search for "A Bronx Tale".
>>>
>>> Sounds a bit familiar.
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>>
>>> Les
>>>
>>>
>> Well it is playing on AMC on Friday and Saturday this week.
>>
>> Set the recorder!!!
>
> I think it's a great movie even though the critics didn't rate it all that well. But, I kind of relate to the era the movie takes place in.


Okay, here is pure arrogance coming.  I believe I can do ALMOST
anything.  Most of it well if I put in the work or at least if I had put
in the work when I was younger.  The limitation is I can't do
EVERYTHING.  I suspect many of you feel similarly about yourselves, but
are not so arrogant as to say so.

I can write.  If I put in the work I can do it well, but my abilities
probably do not approach greatness.  I'm not actually a fan of Hemingway
by the way, and I despise the genre called, "The Great American Novel."
If I wanted to read a never end spiral into meaninglessness and oblivion
I'd read the newspaper.

I can do communications work, and perhaps is the one are where I might
approached greatness in some small areas.  I could do jobs, cheaper,
faster, with fewer mistakes, and make more money for my time than nearly
all if not all of my competitors and my net results had customers asking
me how they could spec their jobs to make sure I got the bids.  I could
put all of huge cabling jobs in my head at once and picture the
operation and installation of the whole system at once.  This allowed me
to work much more efficiently by a significant factor.  I didn't
hesitate to throw away a hundred dollars worth of wire abuse a tool if
it would save me a day's labor.

I am learning to be a decent CNC machinist, and someday I may be a
competent manual machinist. As part of that I learned to be probably a
better than average 3D CAD designer.

As part of being a contractor, machinist, growing up in a country store,
and building out my own shop(s) I am a competent electrician
(unlicensed) and a competent plumber (unlicensed).

I can paint and draw, and if I had put in the effort I might be be to do
it commercially.  Art not houses, although I can certainly paint a
house.  I have the equipment.  LOL.  My grand mother was a commercial
artist.  If you ever see a picture with a simple ML stacked and
connected that's her work.  Marge La Londe.

I can install and trouble shoot refrigeration systems.  Commercial
industrial, and central air.  A refrigerator is a little more complex
these days.  I took my refrigeration course when I was 12 or 13 I think.
  Maybe 14.  I know I was troubleshooting the systems in our store
before I could drive.  It was long before all the EPA and ASE
certs/rules and dead end race to eliminate refrigerants from refrigeration.

At one time I thought I was going to be a great programmer.   I could
write rather large multiple subroutine/program systems and keep the
entire project in my head while working on part of it.  My problem was I
could not also simultaneously document my code.  My style was to pull an
all nighter (or an all weekender) troubleshooting as I went running on
Coca Cola and pizza early and coffee and Snickers bars later into the
night until it was done and worked.  In college I had three PCs at my
place with different BIOS and different CPUs so I could bullet proof my
code.

I can (or could) do any of those things (and more), but I can't do ALL
of those things.  I can't be a plumber and an electrician and a
machinist while also being a "real" commercial writer and refining my
skills to become a commercial artists.

As I said I do plan to write a little more of this story, but it needs a
transition, and I already burned up the easy ones.  We have done a lot
of background and discovery, but I need to reveal the underlying premise
without using a cheesy solution like over voice narration.  It  needs to
be better than a simple segue like "he woke up,' "AGAIN!"  A time skip
of a few days would work, but 4 pages of dialogue to explain everything
is going to be tedious write and more tedious to read.



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