Interview with a Game Geek

I sent this out hoping to complete a class project, but I never got a response or finished the class. I was hoping to be impressive, but I must have been repulsive.

What can you do with a no reply situation? Just move on I suppose.

25^th February, 2009

Dear Blizzard,

I have a college project that requires me to interview a sound designer, and my first thought was someone from the Blizzard team. I have to say, no other game company has given me more hours of enjoyment then Blizzard, and clearly a lot of audio production goes into making one of your games. Thinking about it, you expect someone to listen to your sounds over and over again, because that’s what playing a game is all about, and you use sounds to make events in the game like the dropping of a gem in Diablo II.

I'm a double major, Theater Arts and Psychology, and my primary interest is the impact of sound on the mind. For example, Diablo II employs superliminal and liminal sounds in game design depending on the importance of the events that they depict. I'd also speculate that the vocals in your games have been processed to increase their fidelity and give them a more crisp sound.

These are all things I'd like to ask your sound designers about if you will give me the chance. I know that everyone working for Blizzard has a lot to do and that your time is very valuable so I understand that my request is untimely. Let me say that my report will be given to my sound design class and will provide valuable information and insight to both student and teacher helping to shape the education of future sound designers like myself.

En Taro Tassadar,

Richard Leland Neal

Talk About Food

I don’t know what was running through my head when I wrote this, but I was in a dark place.

27^th October, 2007  

Dear (Soldier on deployment in Iraq),

As I had dinner this evening you and (your wife) popped into my head. (My brother) is not good company when it comes to dinner conversation. He starves himself all day then shoves food in his mouth until he is about to burst. 

I had venison with green onion and red jalapeno. Squash with dill then the starch was peas and rice with green jalapeno smothered in cream of golden mushroom soup. We had enough for three, I can tell you, even if (my brother) eats enough for two. The extra stake is kind of what did it to me, you know, gave me the blues.

We had Alaskan cod not too long ago that (the person who caught it) declared inedible because of freezer burn. I had to cut half of it away, but I still got a good meal out of it. Cod is a big fish. If I had made anything else with it I would have been able to feed four easily, and at a whopping four bucks for beer to soak the fish in that the most expansive meal I’ve cooked in some time. I haven’t had to buy meat for months.

Funny thing is that I feel home sick for a home that I’m still at. I don’t know, foo, I want back the home I had before my father put it all to ruin. I keep thinking “two years, two years,” but it’s just not that simple.

I hope you are doing well,

Richard Leland Neal

Graduate On Time

Let me make the point that I intended to get out of college in 2009 and I made it in 2011. The professors had no problem with this as they had no concern for the well being of their students.

The geranial lack of transparency in the modern college setting leads to abuses of the student and the tax payer. I’m not sure what we can do about it but I just know something must be done.

9^th August, 2007

Dear (Lighting and Sound Instructor),

This mail was first to you and (other Lighting Instructor), but long story short I need to get into THTR 386 section 17601 this semester or I don’t graduate on time. I’m already in (other Lighting Instructor’s) class. The following is a lengthy explanation of how I’m screwing up my life this semester intended for my advisor who is (other Lighting Instructor), or you. We can’t be sure. I just want to graduate. I’m leaving the rest of the letter, but you may stop reading now if I have convinced you. There is the part about sound that I’m going to have to talk over with (other Lighting Instructor), but again I still just need in your class.   

I’m writing the two of you because I could not add your classes. THTR 279 section 17553 and THTR 386 section 17601. Despite trying to add them on the first day I couldn’t as they were full. As (the Supervisor of Undergraduate Studies) appears to be confused on which of you is my faculty adviser, I’ve already said I have no problem with (other Lighting Instructor), let me say that these sections of these classes are essential for a Spring 09 graduation.

I need sixty units or fifteen degree applicable units per semester for four semesters to graduate in the Spring of 09 with a degree in light and sound. I’m taking a total of seventeen units this semester three of which are not degree applicable. These three units are THTR 364 Playwriting. I take them at the request of both (other Lighting Instructor), and (the Supervisor of Undergraduate Studies).

This leaves me one unit short for the semester and I can make that up. If you allow me to add your two classes I can make my graduation date, and if you don’t there will be no possibility of graduating at that time. 

The only major problem with this graduation semester is that it is Spring 09 that I will take advanced sound. This is presently unavoidable and if you feel that I need to spend more time a (the State College) then I would like to have the maximum number of units completed so that additional semester may be dedicated to minors or productions.

I have to bow to the greater judgment of you two advisors, but I favor an aggressive plan. I most comment that writing as a replacement for sound is not much of an option. I want a degree that is going to make money, as best as a theatre degree can, light and sound appear to be a good combination.

I must confess I’m fighting for Spring 09 more because I want to end my career as a security guard, but the point is to move on to something better not something else.

Please let me in your classes,

Richard Leland Neal

Storm

Here we have an example of why I should post these in order. They relate to each other in the most interesting way.

One day I should have these all together into one volume that presently would run about three hundred pages all told. Slowly the files in my old letters folder dwindle down, but the road gets harder going as I walk along.

30^th July, 2007

Dear (Soldier on deployment in Iraq),

The shit storm of my life never stops thundering I had another nice little incident on Friday:

“Upon arriving on duty on the 27^th of July of 2007 at twenty-three hundred hours (11:00 p.m.) I was approached by Officer (Pipes) who stated “I’m getting tired of you running your mouth.” He remarked that I told (the Area Manager) about guards throwing seals around and about a toy monkey. I stated that I reported what I thought was stolen freight, and that I didn’t want to get fired for stealing.  (Officer Pipes) then said “so out of all the guards out here they’re going to single out you. No one was going to see it.” Security Officer (Mango) then said, “no one likes a snitch”. (Pipes) also stated that the seals could be picked up, and I said that had he picked them up I would not have made an issue of it.”

People just don’t get it, you pick up a snake and it bights you, that’s life. They want to blame me because they started this, and they don’t think I should have the right to get them back for demanding to do less work then me.

This excerpt is from a report to the client who will be investigating destruction of property and theft. It’s not a good idea to go pissing people off and then steal something in front of them, but these people thing that they should make me suffer with immunity. 

Now here’s a new one, (the Supervisor) told (one of the guards) that he thinks I’m going to go to the front gate. I already told (the Area Manager) that the answer was no and they still insist that it’s going to happen. I think the thing to do is simply look for another job. It is clear that things aren’t going to get better for me here. It’s just one more pile of shit I have to deal with. If it didn’t suck I wouldn’t have to drudge.

At least my first children’s book is done with its writing. I still need to look it over one last time and find someone to send it to, but then again I may have that done by Friday. Not having the books on this subject in my hands there is no telling if someone has used this idea before so I’m going to start on the more complicated book next as its more likely a new idea. Can’t say that I can keep it to the right page length, but that’s something I’ll have to hammer out. Children’s books are a big field and I have lots of competition, but then as the pay is low for righting then the publications must be many. I don’t know, it’s possible that I’m overly optimistic, (Can I be optimistic!) but when you got bullets and night you may as well take a shot in the dark.    

I finally came up with a new scene for “A Mind Bending” and it’s one of those that may have very little to do with the rest of the play, but given that is going to end up as another five pages and one more bit to be connected it’s a good thing to have. If I were still working on plays four hours a day like back at my last job then I’d be finished with it by now, but I just got to keep working until it’s done.

The scene is a dream that David, the main character, is having. When he dreams he is in Aurum’s world. He is the cloned tactician Twenty-Seven and he is defending his space station from a boarding party when he orders an air lock closed to prepare for a separation. He is ordered to hold his position regardless of its being a death sentence by an over confident admiral who, like a fool, is standing in the fight. Twenty-Seven gets hit in the arm and curls up shooting the admiral. He then realizes he has played right into enemy hands, but he is of no interest to them.   

The scene is of plot twists foreshadowing the twists to come as the play unfolds. Only problem is that I’m not adding anything to the coherent sections of the play and that makes it harder for me to show it to the class. Well, two weeks to go and I’m still on page twenty five. Work, work, work.

Stay safe out there,

Richard Leland Neal

Reset My Brain

21^th May 2012

Dear Cassi,

One of the funny thoughts that ran through my head today was that there was a time when people thought that cold could reset the human brain. This was something done to the mentally ill when they could not be controlled. I believe the practice is Russian, but don’t hold me to that as fact.

       

I’m told that what one did was have a tub full of ice that the patient or victim could be zipped into forcing them to feel the intense cold. This was supposed to work like pulling the plug on your computer when it is miss behaving.

       

This came to mind because of my own malfunctioning brain that the fact the heat has always been my off switch. On the hottest days I can do nothing but sit with the fan drying my perspiration.

       

Today, however, I couldn’t tell you why I’ve felt so useless, but my body just felt like it was fevered. What time I didn’t spend in bed I spent in front of the computer goofing off. With the overwhelming workload that still looms ahead of me I need to focus.

       

I’m doing better, true, but the bits of my home only peak out from the trash and misused equipment. There are times that I sit with the fans passing air over me hoping that the cold I feel from them will reset my brain. It never happens that way but you know what happens if you hope in one hand.

Live every day, little sister

Richard Leland Neal

The Bandage Came Off

I am making an effort to get this set of letters out in the order in which they were mailed. Until two years ago 2007 had been the most documented time in my life because of the need to correspond with who I thought was a friend.

I have to admit these letters are painful for me to read now, but I have to read them. It feels to me as if I’m cutting open an infected wound to let the sickness run. The stench of it makes me turn my head, but I feel better once the deed is done.

26^th July, 2007

Dear (Soldier on deployment in Iraq),

Well, the bandage came off and the wound has sealed itself. Like I said I’m ugly, but that’s nothing new. Still can’t go to the gym for fear of opening the wound again, but at least it stopped oozing. It’s really very funny to think that the feeling of your own blood running over your skin is less bothersome then the clear ooze to come after, but that’s the truth. I never was in much pain and that might have something to do with my feelings.

On the subject of feelings, there have been many a thing over the past year that you have done to piss me off this business with the e-mail I had honestly thought had become a private joke.  Needless to say I have forgiven you for everything even those few events that still sting. I can tell you that they are not your fault and that you simply can’t understand me on those subjects. I would ask you to remember that your father made promises that he did not keep, but in the end you were little worse off then you started. On the other hand, my father lied and stole then made it clear that he felt neither to be a crime.

In other news work is still the same, and I’m loving almost every minute.  Not having to deal with those ass monkeys is a blessing words will never describe. I feel confident that the chief activity of my working hours will remain reading, and now no one has the power to say anything to me about this activity. After the incident I took two six day weeks, and they all shook in their boots I find that a six day week puts me at a take home of around eight hundred and fifty dollars and that’s enough for me. Granted my tuition this semester came to eighteen hundred dollars and if I want to do any summer course work I’ll be making payments that big about three times a year, but in life we must sacrifice.

The only real problem I’m having is the dirt that gets on my hands getting on my books. This is mostly just annoying, and I probably should pay it no attention. I’ll have gloves for the school year. Keeping my nose stuck in a book keeps me out of trouble, and you know how I get into trouble.   

On trouble, I’m having it with my writing. Can’t get the ball rolling with “A Mind Bending” at all. I got this far buy writing the events I knew I wanted to happen but connecting them is going to be a bitch. If good story writing was easy no one would pay you for your work. 

I also picked up a book for the second time on writing for children and found the answer to my questions on the subject. Picture books or books for very young children are generally twenty-four or thirty-two pages in length. Four pages are used for stuff other then story ending the author with twenty to twenty-eight pages of written text. In other word, I almost have a completed children’s book. I will now look up and order every children’s book on the subject of homonyms and end the book with a definition of the word homonym. I’ve written exactly the book I would have wanted as a child and hence exactly the book I would buy for children.

The end result should be no less than three books “Homonyms for Her and Him,” “A Hand Full of Homonyms,” and “To, Too, and Two, for My Grandson Andrew.”  I intend to hammer on these works until the books I order get in, and I will order them on Saturday. If I encounter no problems I should be sending my books for publication out before the school year begins. I should then be turned down before its end. Pessimism is not the enemy of works but only the firm promise that no matter what the outcome with the new day comes new effort.

I finally got a hold of (our mutual friend), but I still haven’t talked to him. He will be able to help me take my car into the mechanic on the first or there about.  The thirty first is his last day of summer classes or something like that, it’s hard to tell with (our mutual friend), but none the less the issue will be resolves soon.

Life is shit, burn the methane,

Richard Leland Neal

Goes the Clock

27^th August 2012

Dear Cassi,

         

The clock has nearly found its way to eleven in the morning and the workmen have not come to finish the job. I have made for them all the preparations I can in draping and in cooling my home.

         

So I take this moment to point to anther bit of my life that has turned so ill: grad school. It started two weeks ago when I turned in a paper. No, it started some time ago when I learned what a mental health consoler makes, but I digress.

         

The assignment came with more than a hundred pages of reading for the week and I, feeling much heat and exposition, did my best to hurry. Little of what I read at the beginning was of any facts and little at the end. I took what words I knew and expanded on them hoping to make something passable.

         

I was not so lucky and the teacher pulled the assignment off the on line forum and I had to do it again. This went along with a call from the president of the institute telling me that I needed to improve but that an LPCC makes around forty five to sixty thousand a year.

         

I don’t believe him, but what can I do. I started this mess and I guess I should finish it but the quality of education I’ve been dealing with his worse than I imagined. In the class I’m taking I have read from the text book twice. The paper in question was on a hundred and thirty page article that I had a good amount of trouble with and even the Dean was surprised it had been assigned.

         

This is the modern world where the teachers run as much and the students pay for the short coming. What do we do to better ourselves in a world for of folks who have no right to call themselves better? The modern age has given us a lack of regulation and respect.

Find your truth, little sister,

Richard Leland Neal

A Shot In the Dark

So this is the second of two letters I wrote Mel Brooks in the hope of getting into one of his films. I posted the first to this blog on the 27^th of May, 2011.

Reading it over and correcting the spelling errors I am not surprised he never responded.  Well, no. I’m sure he has better things to do than deal with fan mail.

How crazy was I?

22^nd July 2007

Dear Mr. Brooks,

This morning as I worked the employee gate at (a loading dock) I made a not so funny joke about the “brother hood of brown”. One of the workers asked “who are you, John Candy?” as I scanned him with my metal detector.

There’s that name again. It has followed me since the age of eleven when they called me “Uncle Buck”. I don’t see the resemblance but no less than three people have commented on it in the last year. I’m also told that I have a striking resemblance to my maternal grandfather, and I don’t see that either. I never met the old Jew, but I’ve seen him in photographs. 

Well, to the point, I wondered if you might be looking for the next John Candy. I realize that this is a long shot, but let’s look at it another way. I could buy a ticket and win the lottery and still never get to see Mel Brooks in person. If I lost I’d be out a few dollars. If this letter is another gamble I’m out a stamp, an envelope, and a few sheets of paper. To win I’d merely need a letter of reply, and would have been worth my effort, and how could I price the experience. If I didn’t send you a letter I’d regret it for the rest of my life.

I have experience as an actor, but I stopped acting, because my fellow actors had no dedication. It’s a funny thing, Mr. Brooks, you can prepare your lines perfectly, and have your delivery down to second nature. Then it all gets lost, because the other actors just don’t have it down. College theatre is like that for the most part. Too little attention is paid to the future of the student, and professionalism is not a recognized goal. They actually took me aside and explained this to me. Frankly, I feel that, like anything worth doing, a good performance is about hard work and dedication, but enough about my feelings.

Let me try you another way. What do people want? World peace, health care, good burritos, etc. Well, we could help them with the burritos. What do people want from a “Space Balls” movie? Lots of things but you can deliver all of them except for John Candy. That is where I come in, because with modern makeup it would not be difficult to make me look like John, and as an actor I have portrayed many people with different physicality. In my last play I only had one line, but when I commented on that people were surprised to hear it because of my movements on stage. I told a story without speaking. 

Yet, there is one other thing I can give the audience: hope. Sounds silly, I know, but hear me out. Everyone wants to be up there on the big screen and a “who is that guy?” could be great advertising especially if they can’t recognize me and we don’t tell any of my friends and relatives. Most people are no names, and seeing a man come from nowhere into a role like John would play is inspiring.  

They could punch my name into the internet and come up with all kinds of crazy people. There is an ex pro football player and a senator with my name so questions will be asked about me and there are so many Richard Neals in the world that finding me would be like finding the right needle in a sowing shop.

Okay, this is totally hair brained, and even I don’t know why people think I look like John Candy but why not? You got bullets and night you take a shot in the dark. What is there to lose? I’m a walking cliché. I’m a white guy with two first names going to college at twenty-seven who is also a fat security guard. If that isn’t funny then you don’t know how to laugh.

Look I’m putting a picture of me and a picture of John with this letter. Our faces are similar now that I look at them. That is an old photo of me, ten years, but people say I still look that way. Between you and I there just being nice. My chin is more ridiculous now and it has a dancing partner. I can only hope to hear from you.

Always yours,

Richard Leland Neal 

Issue 426 Friend Bolts

Want to see more of my comic? Then go to http://randomstreet.blogspot.com/

Not Sure

I think I’ve posted this before but I found the fine and in having to delete it decided to post it again as I am not entirely certain.

1/21/2013

To be fully honest, Christine, I far more often absorb energy from a violent case than redirect it physically. I tend to calm them down before they try to hit me if that makes sense. Aggression is a feedback loop that needs to be broken so how I talk to clients is more important most of the time.

Most of my coworkers prefer to try and be the bigger dog in the fight but I would rather keep folks in line by cooperation.  There will always be situations where violence is the only answer but most of my clients operate with respect for me because I use mutual respect in dealing with them.

Greetings Richard

   Thank you for submitting this paper. I twas an interesting approach of introducing your experience with Aikido and then applying that to a larger picture. You talked about testing the validity of healing methods. From that I gather that you look at therapy with a skeptical/analytical eye, a good way to go about it.

                                                           

 Walter Charley,PhD.

One of the things we learn in physics, Dr. Charley, is that often the same event can be viewed and described more than one way and that both descriptions can be rather accurate.  You are right in calling me a skeptic only if you mean it in the classic sense. I question for the sake of questioning facts long held so that in doing so I will understand them.

From my studies in psychology I have learned that the good parent does not simply tell their children how to act but explains the reason behind those actions. I have learned this to also be the case with a good supervisor or anyone so placed to lead others. As I have worked with those who have anger problems I have found it quite helpful to explained the biological mechanisms for anger management and in doing so I have given my clients more freedom with which to help themselves.  The engineer need know the how and why of his workings and so the mechanic to do their work well.

In the world of mental health I prefer not to tell clients what to do but rather help them come to a conclusion they can live with comfortably.  Were I to be so overbearing as to tell clients how to live their lives there future problems would fall on my head and not theirs. Thus we permit them to move in what way they will and give them the skills with which to decide for themselves.

In my passing, I have worked with many true believers and found them to be a hard to help bunch. The true believer who believes in god is often no more of good folk than the one who is a true believer in no god. Further, I am no Christian but have explained Christianity to good Christian folk who hungrily wanted to know and found their faith affirmed by my words.

An examination of history, the history of science most clearly, will yield a point that even the most ridiculous ideas often should be discounted not off hand but by the same logic we deduce any other thing as right and wrong. Did we not at one time thing the sun revolved around the earth and now see it differently? History is littered with fact becoming fiction and fiction becoming fact. By looking deeper I believe I get more out of my studies, and by reading my work you can tell me if this is true.

Troll Away

This was a comment and my response left on my video ‘Why do People Troll on the Internet?’ I found it funny and I hope you do was well.

3/1/2013

Dan Miller 9 hours ago

you suck bro.people troll on the internet because of retarded people like you who completely make shit up like dumb mustard stories and waste my time by acting like the story eventually has a solid point when in fact your whole video was an opinion.

your the kid in the class that tried to finish every teachers sentence and act like you know what ur talkin about.you act like you know everything when its all opinion based with no fact to back up your accusations.

My reply:

Or I’m a man with a degree in psychology who read the research and knows what he is talking about.  You can dream all you want, dude, but I’m into chicks so no go on the sucking. Thanks for expressing your opinion in so colorful a way. I always laugh at the angry responses I get to this video. You’ve truly made my day. ;) 

On Culture and Time

I found these two blurbs from grad school on one of my flash drives and had to delete them. I can’t tell when they were from but know they date back to 2012. They come from a class on psychology and culture and sorely should be developed more clearly. A funny thing about grad school was that I had my way of doing things down when I finally decided that it wasn’t for me.

As it is true, Dr. Metrick, that the Medicine Wheel and this example fits aboriginal peoples of much of North America I do believe that the God’s Eye of Mexico is another version of the same concept. I will grant that the conquest of Latin America by Spain has left most of the Latinos Catholic. Still, there are many echoes of their native culture.

I intend to use the example of the Medicine Wheel to explain to clients why they need to curb their drug abuse citing that the spirit and emotion aspect of the wheel come into play.

Unfortunately, more often than I learn about my client’s culture I find myself teaching them about who their people are and how they can benefit from the knowing. This helps them feel as if they have gained something from our time together and instills confidence in their treatment.

I do recall some time ago, Robert, reading an article about culture and time and how some cultures view time as until an activity is completed. That would be in the way of our time model goes as “I need to be at work at nine” but their time model would be “I go to work when I finish eating.” The larger issue however is that modern life depents to some extent on how we view time so those cultures with the second modle has been looking to change things.

Adult

12^th August 2012

My dear Cassi,

This time is spent in procrastination for as I look at my half finished letter to you from the day before I finish it not to put down this fresh thought before it toddles off. Once again there is much I should be doing at this moment including other letters, my comics, my wash, my schoolwork, and any host of other bits I will not name.

       

I have left things so neglect mostly because of the heat which placed me in poor slumber for the most of the proceeding day. From this faint coma I woke with sick gut and pained back. My eyes were blurred for some hours, but still the vivid dreams of scaly things marched across my mind.

       

It was in not yesterday that Pickles asked if he should do the dishes as I had been too overheated to work much on them. This comment drew my anger as I had told him before and now told him again “you are and adult and should know when to do dishes”.

Tell me it isn’t true

Richard Leland Neal

Old Fans

8^th August 2012

Dear Cassi,

It should come as no surprise to me that the ventilator fans in my addict had seized and that they were original to the home. After all the arguments we had about that business back in the day I was told that it was taken care of, but I guess wherever there is doubt there is no doubt.

         

The electrician worked on my roof and took out the old fans. The bolts that held them to my home cracked when removed as if old stone pillars giving out after the untold years. So far as I can see those bolts were in place for the whole of my life. They had rusted away and only through some hard will had held this long.

The fan motors had the old brown paint used when folks still thought wood trim made things fancy. These things had been made during the Cold War when the sleek black electronics of today would have reminded folks of Russian missals.  

When the new motors were in the electrician said that he would wait until the cool of the next day to replace the fan covers as he needed new bolts. This let me see the fans moving as if they were happy to be on after so long a time still. Even as I left for work that night they still ran humming along with a marry sound.

There have been many days of miserable heat for me, and now I find another reason as to why that happened. Sometimes it feels like my life was custom made for suffering. The pointless little misstep that should be handled easily never gets seen to in any real way.

I recall that Ken, who lives across the street, had told me to have the ventilator fans replaced when the roof was done and Alan had found some contractor form his church to do the work. He was a man obsessed with getting work done cheaply as this was a home inhabited by his children and he had no concern for their well being.

At this time I was in my late teens because I was still working for burns security.  Further I had to be working out of the branches local to my area because of the posts I was working at the time and so I believe I was nineteen. In any case I believe some money had come down a generation or two and so hand landed in Alan’s lap. He put it to putting a new substandard roof on my house.

I’ve been told that I should be thankful he did anything for me, but it was his responsibility to see to my needs until the age of eighteen and having failed that I feel he owed me something.  I’m of the opinion that things should be looked after. I find myself alone in that but my opinion is unchanged.

Pony Girl asked to have the fans replaced but there was an issue with communication. She had asked for ceiling fans to be replaced rather than asking for ventilator fans and so an argument had come along for some days until I talked to the workers and cleared things up. Lot of good that did me.

Never let the mistakes of others run your life,

Richard Leland Neal

The Eater

30^th July 2012

Dear Cassi,

Today I learned that one of Pickles’’ favorite foods is burritos. He told me that burritos are his top pick among all my cooking. This was some shock to me as I had thought it was pizza as it has been for most of his life. This came up because I had placed six burritos in his freezer to serve as meals for him in the coming days and he ate them all by noon. When I asked him he hit himself on the forehead for being a hog. 

       

As I’m sure I have said, pickles loves food in general, and eating is one of his most loved pastimes. I recall the time Pickles was given a few bags of brownies and, even saying they were hard and ill flavored, kept eating them until he asked me to get them out of the house. He made himself sick over those three days having eaten almost nothing but brownies. I gave most of them away. I knew more than a few hungry folks back then. Now, I have to keep most of the burritos in the front freezers so that he keeps from eating them all.  

       

Pickles has a name for things he will not stop eating. He calls them trigger foods. From what I gather this is a technical term for things that cause a person to eat past fullness. Pickles keeps saying that he tries to keep those foods out of his refrigerator, but is it that he cannot control himself or that he will not control himself?

       

I’m not one to talk but I still believe in willpower. The last time I had a twenty four pack of soda Pickles was surprised that I hadn’t drank it all inside a week. Who drinks that much soda in a week? I think that ‘I couldn’t resist’ is just a group of words he hides behind.

Be the person you wish to meet, little sister

Richard Leland Neal