Removing Homeless Encampments

19th August 2024

Dear Governor Newsom,

In relation to the policy of aggressively removing homeless encampments I feel that my insight on the subject may be of help. The homeless need to be somewhere but finding the right place is key and getting them to move there is a goal that has proven harder than expected.

In an ideal world we would bring the homeless back into society as full members. We want them to enjoy their rights, vote, pay taxes, and contribute to the economy. In that vein, building tiny homes and homeless shelters will do little but cement the idea that this is a permanent problem and not one we can move past as a society.

In the great depression homeless encampments were tolerated because there was little option. Again, the ideal solution would be to resolve the homeless situation and see the encampments shrink of their own accord. This is unrealistic but this does not change the fact that we need to work with not against the homeless.

Where the problem lies is that homeless shelters are places of high theft, little freedom or privacy, and to move to one the homeless are asked to toss away all that they own or a good amount of what little they have. Living in a dorm may look better than living in a tent, but they have a tent and can come and go as they please.

Why not designate tent encampment sites where food, sanitation, and civil services are rendered? Let them keep their tent or motor home, but place these things in an old parking lot or the like and provide them with bathroom and laundry services. This would likely be less of a burden on the taxpayer.

They need to be somewhere and so we should give them a place to live where they can live as they please out of the way of the industrial and commercial engines that will pay for their water and power.

Much as I understand that there will be no easy solutions to this problem I recognize that we need to give these people the stability to vote and pay taxes. We want them to participate in our society rather than live on the fringe.

Give it a thought,



Richard Leland Neal

In House Work

17th August 2024

Dear Movie People,

If I read your ad correctly you’re looking for a writer to come and do some in house work in Culver City. That’s a drive for me but manageable. It would more depend on how long you need me there and how many days a week. Do you have a finished script or just an idea? That sort of thing will be important.

Back in my college days I took a writing class at the CSU. The professor said he would send my work to a production company, and like a fool I believed him. Hollywood, am I right? Anyway, I turned in my first draft in three weeks. I had started from scratch when he told me that a horror movie was easy to get made.

After that we would have half hour meetings where he would give me notes. I’d have the next draft on his desk by morning. I’d wait a week or two for him to give me more notes then have the next draft on his desk the next morning. By the time finals rolled around I had an A in the class and would have already had a B in his second class “Rewriting the Screenplay” but he never sent anyone’s work to a production company.

I’ve had a few short films produced and I did comedy news for a YouTube channel but the director is still dragging his tail on giving me IMDB credit for all my work. I think we made something like three hundred videos together, but I got credit for twelve.

Most of my writing training is in live theater so I have a strong grasp of dialogue. My degree is in Psychology because writing is about human emotion and I wanted a strong understanding of it. In college I once took a theater class and a Psychology class in the same semester and for most of the time both covered the same topics.

As for your statement about not being someone looking for a quick paycheck, well, I’m looking to make a mark. This job would hopefully be the key to the next job, and I’d hope that if asked you’d speak well of me. They say that every work of art is a portrait of the artist.

How will we paint ourselves?


Richard Leland Neal

Tuition Control

6th December 2023

My dear Senator Padilla,

In the modern American zeitgeist a college education has truly changed. It was once a four-year proposition that was a bridge to a better life. It made sense to borrow money to get there and it made sense to invest the time and energy.

Now the expense is dropping from the national focus with the degree having little value and taking far longer than it once did. There is no one solution to these problems, but if I may make a point, colleges charge more and more every year so the longer a student takes to get out of college the better for the college.

In the modern college system failure is an auger for profit, and success is not the goal of the institution. One way of changing this would be ‘tuition control’. You have no doubt heard of rent control, and this would be much the same thing. It would mean legislation that would prevent a college from razing the tuition of any existing student.

This would mean that the longer a student took to graduate the more space they would take for more profitable students. The college would be incentivized to get students out of college faster to make room for students they can charge more. It would give them a reason to want you to graduate and leave campus.

I can tell you, it took me far too long to get through school, and were as I had my reasons, good and bad, I would focus more on finishing and graduation were I to do it again. This will not resolve the problem but it will help.

Just a thought,


Richard Leland Neal

Yellowstone - Old Faithful

A jaunt along the Biscuit Basin Trail led me to the mesmerising Sapphire Pool. The sapphire colour is almost magical and the water is so crystal-clear, I could see to the very depths of the pool. The hot pool was once placid, until an earthquake in 1959 caused it to start erupting every two hours reaching 150ft (46m) in height. The force of the eruption doubled the size of the crater and the water became murky until it settled down again and by 1971 it returned to its once clear blue colour. 

Crossing Firehole River, I took the Artemisia Trailhead and trekked along a wooded trail until it opened up to Grotto Geyser, which is part of a group of five geysers that erupt in a particular sequence. The Grotto has an odd shape as the sinter (solid mass that formed during heat without melting) most likely accumulated over dead tree stumps. Erupting every six hours up to 15ft (5m) high, the Grotto often erupts in tandem with the nearby Rocket Geyser. When the Grotto erupts, Rocket is usually splashing. A couple of hours after the eruption, the energy may shift to Rocket erupting and Grotto splashing. Rocket’s eruption may reach as high as 50ft (15m).

Whilst there are many geysers in this area and I could spend several days exploring each one of them, the main attraction here is Old Faithful. Discovered in 1870, it was the first geyser to be named. Exploding every 90 minutes to a height of 106-185ft (32-56m), Old Faithful has a record 1,000,000+ eruptions. A predictable geothermal feature, its eruptions can be predicted within a ten-minute variation. During these eruptions, Old Faithful expels anywhere from 3,700-8,400 gallons (14,000-32,000 litres) of water.

One quirky story is from the late 1800s when Old Faithful was used as a laundry. During its quiet time, garments would be placed in the crater. When Old Faithful would erupt, the clothes would be ejected, washed, clean as a whistle. However, that depended on whether the clothes were made of cotton or linen, which would survive the ‘wash and hurl’, but if it was wool, chances are the clothes would end up torn to shreds.

Wrapping it up, I retired for the day at the luxurious Old Faithful Inn. A log structure, the hotel was built with locally sourced lodgepole pine and rhyolite stone. The first stage was built between 1903-04 and has since been expanded and renovated many times. The centrepiece is a stone fireplace that weighs 450-metric-tonnes with an 85ft (26m) diameter. It is the largest log hotel in the world. Designated a National Historic Landmark, the hotel and the geyser are part of the Old Faithful Historic District.



PS. Experience our virtual challenges in real life - The Conqueror Adventures



The team at The Conqueror Challenges
https://www.theconqueror.events

Convicts on the Outside

This is clearly an old cover letter responding to a job ad but without the ad something of context is missing. This is poor writing on my part. I should have written this so that anyone could pick it up and read it and then understand.

 

25th October 2023

Hi (HR),

I’m a security officer with more than ten years experience working with convicts on the outside. (Pickle) is a convicted felon and there is a woman doing thirty years after she broke a time clock over my face. You could say that I have an interesting relationship with the convicted felons of Southern California.


To add another layer to that I have a BA in Psychology, and I’ve spent six years working with the homeless. To say that another way, I’ve seen the felon at work, at their home, and in the streets. I’ve examined them, I helped them deal with their anger, and I’ve helped them look for jobs.

I’ve looked a real person in the face as I gave the testimony that would put them away knowing that they would just become a hardened criminal and likely spend the rest of their life in and out of jail.

Best,


Richard Leland Neal

In Regards to Monetization

29th July 2024

Hey (YouTuber),

In regards to monetization and your making six dollars for a video you spent hours on there are a few things you could be doing. Keep in mind that I’m not famous and a good day on YouTube for me is over a dollar. These don’t work for me because I don’t have the numbers, but they could work for you.

The first point would be channel memberships. If you go into YouTube studio you will find it under monetization. It took me less than an hour to set up channel membership, and I set up one level at the lowest price. If I had any members I would get ninety nine cents a month from them, but you can make more levels where you get more.

The question here, as you would put it, would be “is the juice worth the squeeze?” The answer would be “most likely”. This is something you’re going to do once and then it will have little more impact on your work. You could upload members only videos that you know will be demonetized but for the most part the work is negligible and the reward looks worth it. You do it once and it has lasting benefits.

Another point would be to start a free blog with Blogger/Blogspot. These are one and the same and they are already owned by Google. It should be no trouble for you to link your adsense account. Go to any video on YouTube and in the share tab you should find a white B in an orange background. Click this and it will take the video to Blogger.

By posting your videos in this manner you would get page ad revenue which will be far less than YouTube but will not impact your YouTube ad money and be harder for YouTube to take away. You would still get the same ad money from folks watching the video and more ad money from page views.

Is it worth it? I would give it a fifty/fifty shot. You’d need to set up the blog. You’d also need to make every post which could take some time. The coding is already done for you and the system is user friendly but it takes some getting used to. On the one hand, people make their living on blogger, on the other, most people using the platform don’t make much. 

 

There are any number of “it could be worth it” things that I could bring up but these are the best options from where I’m sitting. Maybe they work and maybe they don’t, but at least they’re something to think about.

Best,


Richard Leland Neal