The following are fun facts about me:
Number (1)
May 11th 1983, I played a little league baseball game at the White house. At exactly 11:02 you can see me sitting next to President Reagan Second to the right leaning on my glove watching as he signed memorabilia.
In the below video you again see me sitting at (14:15.) And again at 16:56 I walk from the left across and past the President, reaching out to give a high five to a fellow player on the right.
My original ball glove with President Ronald Reagan’s signature as well as five of the 1983 world series Baltimore Orioles players. Cal Ripken Jr., Scott McGregor, Ken Singleton, Jim Palmer and Joe Nolan.
Note-Never in America’s history since 1776 has the White House ever had the insane barrier’s in place between the “people” and the White House. It is a disturbing reality in our modern time and Democracy!
Number 2
You may have seen Animal Planets Fatal Attractions (“Reptiles”), In Season 1, Episode 1 the show highlights the tragic story of Ronald Huff, a Delaware man who was partially consumed by his seven pet Nile monitor lizards after passing away from natural causes, likely a heart attack, in his apartment. The lizards, which ranged from 2 to 6 feet long, were kept in his home and began eating his face and chest due to hunger after being left without food. I was the original zookeeper who picked up these monitors from the Delaware SPCA and took care of them for over a year at a small road side zoo. For the exception of one Nile Monitor, the monitors were all docile including a second larger Nile monitor which is why the lone cat in the bunch was healthy and unharmed.
It is at this point I need to make you understand why the below video is concerning and tied to capitalism. Yes, I’m going to make the connection. The first clue comes from Animal Planets own title in the below YouTube Video. They use “venomous,” in the profession of REPTILES and AMPHIBIANS, venomous is used almost extensively by animals such as boomslangs, pit vipers, cobras ect. that have an evolved toxin that they use to subdue their prey or for defense and is usually injected. In Ronald Huffs case, he was likely bitten by the aggressive Nile monitor that harbored salmonella a typical zoonotic pathogen found in many reptiles and other animals. However, like humans pathogens, you can have one Nile monitor that is infected and another Nile monitor that is not. I might as well make the herpetology’s distinction of poison, which is a toxin that is ingested, as seen in dart frogs, cane toads and others. Many decades ago when I was turning my love of reptiles into a profession, I would occasionally go on YouTube to view videos. This is is when I first really became aware of the severe problem and association of capitalism with YouTube and social media via misinformation and disinformation. For example, most of all the large python and constrictors such as African Rock Pythons, Burmese Pythons, Reticulated Pythons, Green Anacondas all generally grow between twelve (12) and eighteen (18) feet. With twenty (20) being a maximum. Yet, there are dozens possibly hundreds of videos depicting thirty and forty foot snakes and is completely false and destructive to society. The fact is so many of these stories like the one below boast false statements and sensationalism to get you the viewer to click! Clicks turn into revenue! It is simply not surprising we humans are living in a time of complete chaos; it is self inflicted!
Number 3
On 1997, I went to Ocean City, MD with a bunch of friends. Early the next morning I went to do some diving towards a Nitrox specialty dive course certification I was obtaining. My friends had planned on going to the beach and I would meet up with them there afterwards. After the dive the boat was returning to shore. I was on the bow relaxing when all of a sudden a plane crashed about a quarter of a mile in front of us. We were the only ones in the area to arrive. Plane debris was floating everywhere but no plane. The captain took coordinates and contacted Coast Guard. I noticed and mentioned right away the debris was all floating north. Only four of us had air left to dive. After a lengthy debate between the coast guard and MD state police about jurisdiction, we were given the go-ahead to search for survivors. My instructor and I were the first to enter the water. The water was coated in an eerie black film of fuel/oil that you could smell and taste thru the regulator. The water was also unnaturally dark. As we descended to the 30ft depth, I mentally prepared myself for finding survivors. Almost immediately upon reaching the ocean floor we found the engine and cowling cover, bent and jagged props, but the rest of the plane was gone. The second team found nothing. I believe they found the cockpit area nine or eleven days later about 120′ north of the location of the engine.
Here is the irony of the story! Four of my friends decided they wanted to fly in that very plane earlier on the day. Two of them was already sitting in the plane and bumped their seats to wait for the arrival of two other friends. The girls that took the flight was the one’s who died. Now think about it. I had no idea that was on their agenda that day. I was the first one to dive on that plane, not knowing it could have been my friends on it. Below is the picture of my friends sitting in the plane. This is the only picture I got. My ole friends have the pictures of the girls in it as it was taxing out.
Four months later the movie Titanic was released. I briefly met Robert Ballard the finder of the titanic about a year before the movie. It truly was an odd time for me.
Number 4
In 2010-2012 I worked at Living Color Enterprise as an aquarium biologist soon after newly moving to the state of Florida. Between LC and another aquarium company, I took care of aquariums for dozens of wealthy and many times famous people including Tigerwood’s mom’s pond in Jupiter, Johan Santana (New York Mets) and several others around south Florida. This was also a time when I was introduced to Florida’s prevalent fraud and corruption that flows throughout the state. Two notable clients were John Mattera and Nevin Shapiro. On both these occasions I saw tremendous flagrant parties and other outlandish behavior. Prior to me moving to FL my experience with ultra wealthy individuals was very limited. Working in this field gave me my first deep impressions of not only how the wealthy lived, but how the behavior can sometimes be seriously different than a “normal” person.
In 2012 Living Color Enterprise wanted to expand into the pool maintenance industry which is is fine, but they wanted us the biologist/aquarists to perform these jobs at least initially. All of us rebelled since the insanity of having and using these volatile pool chemicals in the same van as our aquarium products was a disaster about to unfold. Many of us left. A year later we found out they some how got the gig to do Fish Tank Kings. The company completely dissolved soon after the show ended.
Number 5
My unannounced trip to Cuba en-route to Mexico in 2023. I was lucky Trump wasn’t in office at the time!
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