Sadly dear readers, this will be my last post here for DaTechGuy. Unfortunately, it’s been a struggle to keep revenue coming in, and when Peter said he would have to start cutting writers, rather than let others deliberate over the decision, I made the choice to step down.
It’s not all a loss though. I recently retired from the military (hence the lack of “This post doesn’t represent the DoD…), so I’m starting a fresh new phase of life as a self-employed person. I started working for Peter when my daughter was in Yale’s Children Hospital. It was a good distraction from an otherwise depressing situation. She passed away right as we were house hunting, and that experience prompted me to write “To Build A House.” Had I not been regularly blogging on DaTechGuy, I don’t think I would have had the writing skills needed to finish the book, let alone the audiobook.
My last years in the military were busy, so although I have two books I want to write, I haven’t had the time to do so. Any writer out there knows that if you don’t keep writing, your skills diminish, so sometimes my weekend blogging for DaTechGuy was the only real writing exercise I could get. Peter gave me the freedom to write about whatever I wanted to, and often it was my escape from an increasingly oppressive military culture hell bent on DEI initiatives, white supremacist witch hunts, and anything else that would distract from its lack of warfighting ability.
As I leave DaTechGuy, I don’t get any less busy. I’m now working with a team of folks at Walk The Talk Foundation to try and bring some accountability to the military, particularly the flag and general officers that have run our services into the dirt. The media has missed the big story on the decline in military recruiting. It’s less about DEI and a lot more about the poor treatment of service members. Every person I know getting out has said they won’t recommend the service to their family members. Given that a large percentage of military members serve because mom/dad/grandpa did, that by far has been the biggest depressor of military recruiting. Since the GOFOs can’t bring themselves to apologize for losing Afghanistan, poorly managing our shipyards and not fixing military pay, people like me have responded in “Atlas Shrugged” fashion by shrugging off the expectation that we keep supplying the military with our sons and daughters. At some point it’ll break, and hopefully like in Atlas Shrugged, something better will rise from the ashes.
So between helping Walk the Talk, writing two more books, teaching travel classes and helping churches and non-profit organizations with their computer networks, plus raising 5 kids….yeah, I’ll be busy.
If you’ve made it this far, I’d like to ask that you consider either donating to DaTechGuy or buying one of his books on Amazon. Leftist extremists’ pour money into their fake news organizations and make it hard for those of us willing to write and publish to make a living. Buying what we write and engaging with us online helps build that support community that we need. It’s not enough to not watch CNN or stop buying coffee from Starbucks…you have to take that money and put it to good use elsewhere. Think of it as you’re helping to prop up the folks punching back against the mainstream narrative…you may not be able to do the punching yourself, but you can support those that do, and it’ll make a difference. Even better, more money for the smaller groups of individuals forces Republican lawmakers to take them more seriously. It’s a slow and imperfect process, but its far better than donating to the Republican general fund and praying for results.
My only other ask is you get out and vote this year, and seriously consider volunteering as a poll watcher. I assisted on Governor Youngkin’s campaign in a small way, and it was because many of us went door-to-door and supervised voting booths that he swept in and kept Virginia from going overboard on blue policies. Yes, it requires you to get off your couch, stop commenting on social media and start doing something useful. Your opponents are doing this in droves, and our institutions will crumble unless good people stand up to take them back.
And if you think “I’m in a red state, it can’t happen to me,” remember that your opponents aren’t content to leave you alone…they will come after you until you bend the knee…just look at the Jewish students being hunted on college campuses if you need an example.
Take care, fight the good fight, and always punch back twice as hard!