See the Part 1, below this entry.
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There is a belief that when the "second coming" comes, when we cross the galactic plane, when we enter the age of Aquarius, something historic and metaphysical occurrence will be thrust onto humanity, like Rapture or a dimensional split, separating souls into different dimensions.

Now on a personal level, I will say this; (some of my friends know this) but I swear on the life of my cat that this is true; I have a memory of Nelson Mandela dieing in prison years ago. Between 1986 and 1989. I was still a kid then, but I remember it. There were demonstrations and riots all over Africa. I remember watching the news on it. I remember it vividly, because the protesters were so mad and I thought it was sad because he never got out of jail. There was a big funeral and everything. It was as big and media hot, as Diana's death.
But I know your saying, “no, he’s alive”.
Now, I would discount it maybe as a dream-BUT there are other people who have the same memory as me. They are only a few, but I have found at least one other person. And read it from others.

So what I’m saying is, at some point, me in another timeline, joined with me, in this dimension. (And I’m certain it wasn’t a dream.) Physicists say that dimensions could resemble bubbles. Maybe then two bubbles merged, and here I am.

In my book, I have two dimensions where the souls with enlightened karmic levels reside, and those with less than admirable qualities reside and souls are not shared. Of course the (old) Elite reside in the Lower Dimension, and the more evolved sentient Fathis Elite, reside in the Upper Dimension.

Personally, I do believe that some agreement was made with Aliens during the Eisenhower’s era (stated during an earlier blog under "president") and it truly ticks me off. Allowing extraterrestrials access to us human beings is not the kind of thing one man on earth can represent. If anything, it was a mistake the E.T.s made believing, the US as the technologically predominate society on earth and that we elected Eisenhower, meant he idolizes and encompasses everything we earthlings believe and represent. This is an egregious mistake on their part. We are an individualistic society. Just like we could not choose one person to represent all religions on our planet, we could not choose one man to represent our interactions and understanding of an extraterrestrial species. It is up to the individual. It may seem chaotic but that’s the facts of humanity. The contract Eisenhower made with them, should have died with him. For the contract to be legal, it should be presented to the entire population-not to one man. Then again, it did work out to the E.T.s advantage and landing the US government's balls in a vice. Our government is now powerless against the extraterrestrial technological might, and can’t tell us, for fear of utter anarchy aimed at them. Talk about screwing up...

Weather occurrences and their strengths, seem to be scaling up a notch every rotation the earth takes around the sun. This we can easily say is happening before our eyes. Many call it global warming...I personally, do not think this can all be accounted to one thing.
So far we’re dealing with it. Many sort-of raise their eyebrows to the events going on around us. But otherwise, unless a person is personally confronted with the event, people are just cataloging it in their mind as a surprising anomaly.
You could even categorize stronger than normal earthquakes in this field. But I believe earthquakes and volcanoes belong in the “Natural Space Events”.

Natural Space Events
Seismology and volcanologists study the earth and its crusts, but I believe they need to look up. If the moon is strong enough to pull zillions of tons of water into waves around the planet, then it is strong enough to manipulate the earth’s crust. And the sun’s gravitational field would also be able to shift the crust on our planet, as well. If things heated up and there was a sudden pull from both, how would our planet handle it? How would the people of earth handle worldwide seismic calamities? Like what happened in Haiti or Japan or Indonesia, with tsunamis and fires, and the breakdown of nuclear power plants? No one would be able to help anyone, because they would be dealing with their own problems.

In space there is a multitude of events and near misses that happen every day around us.

Sun flares are a typical occurrence. If a flare was strong enough, and blew by the earth, it would create an all-consuming electronic wipe-out. This EMP pulse would burn-out everything from defense satellites to your iPod, sending the civilization to a standstill. The only electronics that would be safe, would be the things deep underground.

How would we survive without our electronics? What if there was nothing to clean or pump water to our home? Or a way to travel out of a city because all the vehicles, run by computers chips, have stopped working. It would be chaos and mass hysteria. And worldwide. Ironically, the less civilized societies on our planet would be impacted the least. To them it would still be business as usual.

And suppose a large meteorite hit the earth. It would send us into a mini ice age, at the least. It would likely set off earthquakes worldwide. Volcanoes would blow from the pressure, and new ones would emerge from the crust, sending ash high into the stratosphere.

Scary stuff, but it all happened in the past, in my book.

Manmade Events

How about that civil unrest? Already it plagues the population as the ones “who have” get more, and the ones “who have not” get even less. It will only get worse the larger the divide becomes. And when a person has no home, no food, and no hope, the reason to stay civil becomes blurred. Then there are the people “trying” to run the show, also known as the Industrial Military Complex, or Illuminati, or the Elite, who become bolder as 12/21/12 approaches.

In order to write believable characters it is always good to have pieces of you, in each character. To people who know me, it is easy to see what parts are me and what parts are contrived. It is good to have characters that vastly differ from one another, gives the story texture. But no one I know is safe really, I’ll take pieces of people I know and incorporate them into characters throughout.

*Each position on the team is associated with a color and a gem stone that is applied to a team’s mascot pin.

Na’tan is the typical controlling personality with a bit of an anxiety disorder. Everyone knows someone like this. Either a parent, a spouse, or sibling that takes on the role of a leader trying to protect everyone and stressing out on “what could happen”. This makes Na’tan a perfect Captain for the Peregrine Falcons.

I guess I do have a bit (LOL) of a controlling attribute but not the anxiety. Na’tan also has a superiority complex, an arrogance that I know I appear to have sometimes. And the feeling that I must always be in control and try to imagine every possible scenario-yeah that’s me.

Na'tan not only has a keen understanding of the smaller parts to a bigger picture, but can see how the bigger picture can influence the universe, which again, makes him an excellent Captain. Over time Na’tan had to learn, and still struggles with, letting go of controlling others. He has a tendency to blame himself if anything goes wrong, and internally beats himself up, until it is almost considered an mental disorder. Thankfully everyone on the team can hear his internal thoughts and can stop him before he goes too far.

Kealin is a girly girl, which I am not. But she is also driven to never being nailed down to anything, which is me to the hilt.

Freedom in all things is beyond important to me, freedom of belief, thoughts, even being tied physically to a place or title.

Yet, Kealin’s avoidance of anything new, is a friend of mine. Kealin will change drastically over the series of the books. Right now, she lacks confidence in everything, especially herself. In her teenage passive aggressive way, she does fight against the concept of being a part of this team because of her trust issues. Again, being forced to be on the Peregrine Falcons goes against her personality, so trusting a group of people and their abilities is currently a bit of a reach for her. But in time, she will come to trust them, and even rely on them. She is also naive and believes that everyone has a loftier goal at heart.

Cornac is that guy that knows he’s gorgeous and has no problem flaunting it and using it to influence people. Everyone knows a guy like this, the hot quarterback, the confident guy who has no problem swaggering into a room full of people, because he thinks everyone in the room either wants to be him or know him. His charisma can be construed as conceit, but let’s face it, guys like that usually get what they want. Cornac and his crude thoughts are without a doubt me. But he enjoys pushing the boundaries and finds life to be amusing. He’s very relaxed and doesn’t stress because he believes life is short. When you gotta go, then it’s time to go, so might as well try everything full throttle until then.

I suppose that is my belief as well. If you don’t try things and push your boundaries then what’s the point of living this life. But I have to say, a part of Cornac is my cat. He knows he's gorgeous, and that he can get whatever he wants with one look.

One of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do was write for Nicholas. He is considered the most intelligent and manipulative on the team. Being an Intelligence Information Officer makes it his prerogative to be this way, though I do not get into his craftiness in this book. He has to be able to subtly, psychologically, manipulate alien societies/beings to complete his team’s objective. Nicholas is required to know all the players and their culture. He appears to be the quiet contemplative type who tries to discover all sides to a theory, or person, or situation. Generally IIO are the most intelligent and use more of the brain power than the rest of their teammates. Their memory capacity is beyond measure and for good reason.

I suppose my characteristic that I add to Nicholas is I do know how to manipulate people and situations. Like I said, I didn’t get into the manipulative aspect of Nicholas in this book, I only get into his intelligence and drive for knowledge. But it is difficult writing about a person smarter than yourself. Very difficult. I know what he does-thinks-sees, yet to get it down in words that are a fair representation of Nicholas, is difficult to say the least.

Henry and his blinded belief that everyone has good intentions, has a hard time understanding those who are evil. He is compassionate almost to a fault. Henry cares deeply for everyone, not just his teammates. The only time Henry loses his temper is when a teammate willfully jeopardizes their health. But he continually tries to placate opposing personalities with his gentle disposition. He is a nurturer but finds being on a Fathis team invigorating and a testament of testing his limits as a healer. Henry is the Falcon’s moral compass and is the loving father figure everyone can rely on.

Henry is possibly the character that is least like me, but I know several people that emulate him.

Hands down my favorite character is Ray-cause he’s such an ass. In the first book he hates Kealin. In the second, he does a 180 and becomes overprotective of her. You get a feel for his extreme personality. Ray is always misinterpreted and appears to look at things in a black and white manner. He blatantly speaks his mind (his “filter button is broken”). “Tactless” would be a good word for Ray. And he fully embraces  his OCD’s. Everything in his life/world must be perfectly in-order, and anything that seems chaotic and unpredictable (Kealin), he shies away from. His ego is ridiculously enormous.  You may love him, you may hate him, but he is who he is, and Ray’s changing for no one. He would share similar characteristics with Sheldon Cooper from Big Bang Theory on CBS, except Ray knows how to physically fight. All his pent-up frustrations and anger, is funneled into his fighting skills, making him as lethal as a martial arts expert.

Being misunderstood is something I can relate to. Many times something comes out of my mouth is misinterpreted completely. So many times...  And people always seem to believe there is an ulterior motive, but 98% of the time it’s just their suspicious mind over-thinking what I’ve said. Matter of fact, if I say something and you don’t “feel” you’re being misled, is when I am misleading a person :) (That is where my "Nicholas characteristics" comes out) And again people do seem to believe I am tactless at times (I'm just being truthful). And when I was young I used to think Sesame Street was demeaning. I couldn’t stand watching it. Of course, I didn’t know the word “demeaning” at the time, but there ya go. That is a very "Ray observation".

Thatcher is a loner with an eccentric disposition. In the past he struggled with being different, but came to the healthy conclusion that he is who he is, and he shouldn’t care if he fit-in with his fellow Engineers. Soon, he learned to embrace his differences, making him more confident yet more reclusive. Thatcher is very relaxed and has a certain boyish charm, though can appear strange to people outside his team because of his habit of saying incomplete thoughts. Thatcher could spend days absorbed in a piece of equipment and not even realize days have gone by. Usually his emotions are so strong that they affect him physically. And he shows little interest in anything beyond his technical universe, making him appear lazy.

I can be a bit of a loner. I could spend days without talking to anyone, and it doesn’t bother me one bit. And I have gotten tunnel vision where time, doesn’t seem to exist.

Many of these characters is an extension of me but there are also pieces of people that I know. Who do I relate to the most, would be a toss-up between Na’tan and Ray.
For example:
Say I place a food order, I want this food to be “just so” (Na’tan). I like to eat one item on my plate at a time (Ray), but every so often I like to mix things up just to screw with myself (Cornac). My construed splitting of my personality makes the characters come alive in Fathis: Birth of a Falcon.

1 can of 15oz tomato sauce
(some times I add a small can of diced stewed tomatoes to make it chunky)
2 large minced garlic cloves
dash of onion flakes
dash of Oregano
dash of crushed Rosemary
pinch of Basil
a little salt and pepper

Mix all this together and let it simmer.

either buy real pizza dough from your grocer
or
Buy Fleischmann's Pizza Crust Yeast
(check yeast packet for ingredients needed to make dough)

Put oven at 425 degrees
Follow instructions on Yeast packet
After dough is prepared and spread out on either pizza stone or cookie sheet, let it bake in the oven before you put any toppings on, just until the dough starts to bubble, then pull it out.

Add sauce and toppings
cover in 2 cups mozzarella

Place on center rack in oven, watch for the cheese to brown a little and bubble. (Approx. 15 min)
mmmmm, pizza