Ron-Tweedie

[DEVIATION] Well, I'm getting a handle on my book, and hopefully it will finally be finished by the end of the year. Since it's predominantly an autobiographical work, all the major players in my life are mentioned. I'm making the most honest record I can, but since I got a pretty raw deal this incarnation, as is expected considering my circumstances, I'm not overly impressed with much of anybody in my life, at least if I judge them according to their honesty and sincerity toward me. Still, I'm not really bitter about it, and I want to be fair. I know I can't really judge them too harshly considering I don't have a full understanding of all that's been going on. Since my father hasn't made a terribly positive impression on me, I wanted to give him a fair opportunity to answer for himself, explain things I may not be understanding correctly, and put things in perspective for me before I finish my book and leave my record for posterity. I sent the following message off to him a few

[DEVIATION] A friend of mine once insisted that I visit a certain website and, well, I did. And I suppose I’m glad I did, because I got to witness an interesting phenomenon. It wasn’t a new phenomenon to me, in fact, it was a phenomenon that I was already all too familiar with, but observing the activity on this website finally gave me the chance to watch it from the other side for a change. This was a particularly weird website, as its main focus was to observe, speculate about, and criticize one particular person. Not a remarkable person, and not even a well‑known person, at least not well-known to anyone outside the membership of this website. Sure, the site offered a small number of different forums; for instance, they had a section for current events, another where you could post links to videos, another for jokes, you get the idea, pretty standard stuff for any website. But all those other sections were obviously just add‑ons, filler to occupy the leftover space, because the

[DEVIATION] Braunfeld’ is the name I’ve given to the producer of that evil TV show supposedly about me that’s been running since I was a kid. She, of course, wasn't the original producer, but took it over sometime during the late '80s, and it was her heavy-handed approach that inspired me to to move out of the Bay Area at the time. Braunfeld is not her real name, of course, but I changed it out of common courtesy, even though no such consideration has ever been extended to me by these people. Those who say I changed it because I’m afraid of getting sued are full of baloney, because you can’t get blood from a stone, and anyway, learning her real name should present no challenge to anyone determined to find it out. Hint: her real name is very similar to the pseudonym I’ve assigned her. I guess a lot of people must think I’m pretty stupid, since the actual producer of a show that did nothing but continuously slander me for decades was able to successfully pose as one of my friends for 30

[DEVIATION] Looking out the window while riding the BART train through certain parts of Oakland, one frequently notices that some of the houses are painted in unusual colors. Sometimes the color choices are so garish and obnoxious that calling them “inappropriate” doesn’t seem too extreme. In fact, adjectives like “unsuitable” or “unacceptable” might not be considered outrageous at all and could easily be worthy of consideration in the context we’re discussing. Maybe it’s a cultural thing, but I think most of us are used to houses and buildings being painted in more conservative, subdued colors. After all, although architecture is considered an art and buildings are meant to be aesthetically pleasing, they’re still largely environmental, they’re supposed to fade into the surrounding scenery and function as part of the backdrop of our lives. This is especially true of contemporary architecture, where city planners seem to take pride in making sure their buildings don’t stand out or

[DEVIATION] From what I understand, they are phasing out junior high school in favor of middle school, but back when I was that age in the ’70s, out here on the West Coast, junior high came after elementary school and covered grades 7 through 9, while middle school encompasses grades 6–8. I won’t go into the reasons for this change; obviously it’s supposedly based on a more enlightened understanding of child development, and I guess it makes sense. I remember that when I was in 7th grade, I was much more childish mentally than I was a year later in the 8th, but I always attributed that to social conditioning, though according to contemporary child psychologists, I’m mistaken about that. Ninth graders (15‑year‑olds) do seem a bit more mature than 8th graders and seem more compatible with the high‑school crowd, so I can’t think of any obvious complaints about the new setup. I remember that starting junior high school was a really big deal, not just for me but for all the kids. Not as