Holy Shit!!!

I’m going to be off work for two straight weeks, as our second child is being born on Tuesday (the 26th).  Aside from welcoming our newest addition and having quality family time, I was hoping to be able to get some writing done as well.  Tonight (or this morning…actually), I decided to get started, working on my latest work of fiction.  I wanted to throw in a horror DVD or something while I wrote, hoping to watch something interesting.  The DVDs are pretty much buried, and I’m too lazy to move stuff out of the way to get to them.  I flip through the stations to see if anything is on TV.  Can’t find anything except for Freddy vs. Jason on Sci-Fi Channel, but that’s edited, and I have the DVD, so that seemed pointless.  Instead, I scan the On Demand list and find a film called Tokyo Gore Police.  Samurais and gore.  Okay.  I’ll give it a shot.

Finally, I have seen a film that has knocked me on my ass.  It’s so difficult anymore, especially in the horror genre, to find something that I don’t want to just fast forward through.  Recently, I watched the Friday the 13th remake/reinvention/whatever they want to call it and was thoroughly disappointed.  I’d rather watch Jason take over Manhattan again.  Anyway, I often look for that next great film that’s amazing to see, and Tokyo Gore Police is that film.  It’s just absolutely crazy.  The smallest cut causes geysers of blood.  Mutants galore.

The story is Japan in the future.  Police force has been privatized.  A woman’s dad had been killed many years ago (he was a policeman during the non-privatized days), and she is a part of the new force.  She is an “engineer” hunter.  Engineers are these mutant killing machines.  Lots of twists and turns, crazy visuals, nonstop entertainment.  I thought it would be difficult to write and watch the film (in Japanese with subtitles), but it all worked out.  If you get a chance, add this one to the list – an absolute gem.

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A long time ago, I was in a band.  The bassist, who lives a couple hours away, is going to be in town tomorrow to play a show.  Depending on how Christine is feeling, we’re hoping on catching a little of the show.  Haven’t seen him in many years, so it will be nice if we can make it.  I can’t remember the name of who he is playing with – but it’s at the Symposium in Lakewood.

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The Indians lost again tonight – having a horrible start to the year.  At least it was a good loss in that they didn’t beat themselves with stupid play – they just ran into some good pitching.  Bad note is that two different Indians pitchers left the game injured – and they can’t afford that right now.

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3 days + 5 1/2 hours away from bringing our second child into the world.  Will he be as weird as Ethan?  We can only hope.  I think Ethan should handle the extra baby just fine – he’s always been fine around other kids (sharing toys, trying to help out, etc.).  We’ll see how everything goes.  Can’t wait for the family to all be home.

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My plan to post at least once per month isn’t happening.  Doubt it will start to happen either.  Thanks for checking me out, though.  Catch you on the flip side.

20 Years and Counting…

I know – it is 50 year anniversary of the 14th Dalai Lama’s exile from Tibet.  Being a big fan of His Holiness, you might be asking yourself why I’m not in a more somber mood…

Well, today also marks the 20 year anniversary of my first ever Dead Milkmen show.  It’s the only show where I remember the date -  March 10, 1989 at the Phantasy Theater in Lakewood, Ohio.  Starvation Army and Government Issue opened the show.  I just remember that one band came out saying they were the overlords of the universe or something like that.  Eventually, a sick Dead Milkmen (they were all battling the flu) came on stage.  At that time, they were supporting what was probably their biggest album (Beelzebubba).  I can’t remember if the show was before or after “Punk Rock Girl” started getting MTV play.  I would see them many more times over the years – ending with one of the Dave Blood Memorial shows in Philadelphia a couple years ago.

After all this time, they are still my favourite band – very influential in my own music (along with Robyn Hitchcock) when I have a chance to write any.  Great proof that humour more than belongs in music.  My plan was to listen to nothing but Milkmen today at work, but I didn’t listen to anything (I listened to them on my train ride to and from work).  Even with songs 25 years old, they still sound great – either shows how well their music ages or shows that I haven’t aged well.  I’d like to think it’s the former.

Anyway, they’ve been playing shows here and there (I think they have a show in New York soon), and, still, no one compares. 

Constipation

• Well, work had decided a while ago to block WordPress (as well as most blog sites), so I am no longer able to blog during my lunch hour.  Can’t really blame them for locking down websites.  I mean, they’re paying us to work.  Still, the only real time I had to come here was during my lunch hour, so it made my sporadic writing even more so.  My plan for 2009 was to write at least once a month but already missed January – oh well.
• Let’s see – read Jonathan Lethem’s Fortress of Solitude during 2008.  Very good book – makes me want to check out some more, especially Motherless Brooklyn, which sounds really good.
• Was also getting into Goethe’s Faust.  Even inspired me to start writing my own play/poem in the style of Goethe/Shakespeare.  You know, I figured no one wrote plays in rhyme anymore, and I thought it would be fun to start writing one.  I haven’t gotten too far into writing it yet, but I’ve found it funny so far (one of the four projects I’m not really working on right now).  I don’t know what happened, though, with the reading of the book.  Just kind of stopped after I forgot my book for a couple days and eventually started reading World War Z by Max Brooks.  Less than 20 pages into it, though.
• I think the stress at work has made me want to relax my brain on the way home, so I’ve stopped wanting to read on the train to and from work.  Feel like my brain is going to mush outside of work.  Haven’t been reading or writing, which usually starts putting me in a “down” mood. 
• George Carlin is currently on  HBO.  The man can never be replaced.
• Last movie I rented was Return to Sleepaway Camp.  Not even worth linking.  Horrible.  Couple actors from the original film made this intriguing, but it was horrible – and not even in a good way.  Not even the badly disguised killer was really that amusing.
• My wife wants to see He’s Just Not That Into You, which is opening this weekend.  Looks like it could be good.  In linking the film, I see that Fan Boys is also coming out this weekend.  Wasn’t that supposed to be out, like, 15 years ago?
• Next week sees the release of the Friday the 13th remake/revisioning – whatever you want to call it.  I started writing my own remake a couple years ago.  Don’t know why, but I really do like most of those films.  There’s a documentary called His Name Was Jason, which is out very soon if not already.  Figure I’ll pick that up. 
• Haven’t heard much good music lately – except I am enjoying some of the music that my 2  year old comes across on some of his tv shows – especially Jack’s Big Music Show on Noggin.  For Christmas and Birthday #35, Christine got me a new iPod.  Started going to iTunes store and picking out some music – trying to be diverse, getting Tchaikovsky, Sugarhill Gang, Motorhead, Bob Dylan, Sonic Youth, you get the idea.  Enjoying the idea of having music at the ready again.  Also just received notice that the latest Robyn Hitchcock & the Venus 3 album, Goodnight Oslo, has been shipped – Feb 17 is the actual street date - so I’m looking forward to receiving that in the mail.
• I have four projects I’m currently not writing…my little joke to myself.  Working on a project at work, and it’s rare for me to take a break during my workday now, so I haven’t written any of my fiction in a while.  Like I mentioned above, I thought I’d write  a poem/play in the style of Goethe’s Faust.  I’ve also been working on a couple novels – a tribute to my wife and a “horror” novel.  Also, I started writing a screenplay or stage play – not sure which.  Would like to get back to that.  I decided I would take some old short stories and try entering some contests in the meantime – to make me feel active.  Submitted one and have been lax ever since.
• Watching Ethan grow up has been wonderful, as more and more words escape his lips and he continues to be the little weirdo you’d expect from parents like us.  It’s awesome.
• Number Two (Drew) is due to arrive in late May/early June.  It will be great for Ethan to have a playmate cuz he loves being around kids his own age, but we can’t really afford daycare, so those days are few and far between.
• I’m going to try to get some thoughts down and try to publish every couple weeks or so, but we’ll see how that goes.  It’s almost 2:30am, and I really should go to bed cuz, once Ethan is up, I will be up.  I liked how things were going before my blogging lull with the format, so I will try to make this more visually appealing as well, but, for now, you get words.
• Take care – feel free to drop me a line.

Stupid Firewalls

• There’s a Firewall that was put in place at work, so I can no longer blog during my lunch hour at work, so I don’t know how often I’ll be blogging now (it also means when I log in from home on my laptop that I’m blocked).  So, anyway, here’s a quick bit of what’s happening.
• Reading Fortress of Solitude by Johnathan Lethem.  I was turned on to him by Hutch, when he let me know that he was speaking at the Cleveland Institute of Art.  Very interesting guy to listen to.  The book is very good so far.  Thinking of picking up some of his others when I finish.
• Haven’t watched it yet, but I finally recorded 200 Motels off TCM.  Looking forward to seeing the Mothers film.
• My iPod is finally destroyed, so I’ve been basically music-less at work (and on the way to work).  Listening to CDs at home with Ethan (he was jamming to Talking Heads while eating dinner – made me so pround).  I had a couple albums on Windows Media Player (stop snickering), so I at least had DJ Shadow, Dead Milkmen, and the Kids in the Hall Brain Candy soundtrack to listen to.
• Speaking of, heard the Kids in the Hall are working on a new film.  Sweet.
• Haven’t written much in the past couple of weeks, but the writing had been going well – really enjoying what’s been tapping on the keyboard for both the books I’m trying to write now.
• It was fun watching Penguin Ethan walk door to door on Halloween.  Can’t eat majority of the candy he received due to his Milk issue, but I think he had a good time anyway.
• That’s it for now.  HOpefully, I will log back in again before the year is out.

Tropic Thunder

My wife and I saw Tropic Thunder this last weekend.  We haven’t been to a movie theatre in I don’t know how long, but we finally made it there again to see this film.  Our first choice was to see Hamlet 2, but it was only in select cities until its wide release this coming weekend.

I’m not necessarily a huge fan of a lot of the actors in the film – many being hit or miss with me, depending on the role.  Robert Downey, Jr. was just amazing in this film.  Aside from Chaplin, I can’t really even remember another film role he has done that I’ve absolutely loved.  I’m sure there had to be one.  Derreck from Back to School?  Ben Stiller was as expected – very solid, and he did a great job directing the film.  Jack Black was excellent.  Although sometimes it may have been a little over the top, Tom Fuckin’ Cruise may have stolen a lot of the movie in his role as the Film Company Head.  Freakin’ hilarious.

Anyway, mostly I wanted to talk about the hub-bub regarding “Simple Jack” and the use of the word retard.  People may or may not get offended by its use during the film (they did provide some hilarious scenes), but I have an issue with some of the people protesting the film – like Maureen “Marcia Brady” McCormick.  I understand that she has a handicapped brother that she cares for and feels strongly about, and I don’t have a problem with that.  When people say, I’m not going to see the film.  I’m basing this decision off what I heard.  I have an issue with that.  Why not make your own decision based on what you yourself see?  Seems like no one wants to make their own decisions anymore about things – quick to complain about something or threaten to boycott and sue.  But, god forbid anyone takes something upon themselves to make an informed decision.  I have more respect for someone who would say, I saw this film and it offended me.  Kind of like when Last Temptation of Christ came out whenever.  Religious folk were all up in arms about it, refusing to see it because it depicted Jebus in a bad way.  If I was a Christian, the film would have just strengthened my beliefs, showing everything this man supposedly gave up.  Try watching it first.

Anyway, enough about that. 

Film rating:  3.5/4

More Shit

El Orfanato

Taking full advantage of my 50% off rental fees at Hollywood Video while they last.  I watched the Spanish horror film, El Orfanato – in Spanish with English sub-titles.  I believe the film was Produced in some way by Guillermo Del Toro (”Pan’s Labrynth”).  If you watch the film, I think it looks like something Del Toro could have made himself instead of just being a producer.

The story follows Laura (Belen Rueda), who returns to the orphanage where she lived prior to being adopted.  She and her husband (Fernando Cayo) have bought the place and plan to use it as a house for special needs.  Their adopted son, Simon (Roger Princep), starts to behave strange, after playing with some ghosts that are haunting the premises.

Laura and Carlos (her husband) host a party to show off the house, and she and Simon have a little fight, leading to his disappearance.  The film uncovers the ghosts of the past and Laura’s desperate attempts to find her son.  It is a very interesting story, and I was very involved from beginning to end (trying to do some writing of my own at the time, but I was glued to the screen – of course, having to read the subtitles helped that as well).  Very well acted.  Looked beautiful  Without there being any graphic horror (except for a woman being hit by a vehicle), the movie plays up the creepy suspense perfectly, and it’s much more horrific than any of the graphic films that I’ve seen.  Despite the ghosts, there is still enough of a realism to the story to make it that much creepier, and I highly recommend checking this one out.

3.5/4

Super High Me

We also watched Super High Me, which is kind of a spoof on Super Size Me.  Comedian Doug Benson (I guess a noted stoner – didn’t know that til getting this movie) sees what happens when he’s stoned all the time for thirty straight days.  Aside from the stand-up routines interspersed throughout the film while he is on this 30 day experiment, it shows Doug’s visits to doctors, psychics, and marijuana-themed churches.  Mostly, the film seems to be focusing on the issue of medical marijuana use, and the problems being felt in California, where marijuana stores are open to the public (you have to have a card to be allowed to buy anything).  From the looks of it, Doug was able to get a card pretty easily, but I don’t remember too much being made of that.  Anyway, although California law permits medical marijuana use and the existence of these stores to supply the medicine, Federal Law does not recognize it, so the FDA keeps swooping in and closing the places down.  Really weird scenario.  My thought was that the FDA closed these legal places down just to try to pad their numbers to pretend like they are winning the war on drugs.

I’m not a druggie, and I’m square enough to admit that I’ve never tried smokin’ dope, but I found this film still to be very entertaining and enjoyable and had me siding with users and wondering just what the fuck our Government is doing.

3/4

Naked Lunch

I’ve tried before and failed, so I’m going to try again to read the William S. Burroughs novel, Naked Lunch.  Having never been a junkie or experimented with drugs, I’m thinking the ramblings may be more difficult to follow, but I seem to be following along better than I had in past attempts to get through the book.  It is not set up like a typical story, where a character coherently moves from place to place and has this and that happen to him.  It seems like it’s there, but you have to be looking for it to figure out any sort of storyline.  I think I’m only in the forties, as far as page count, but I’m going to try to stick it out this time.

Escribir

I’m trying to figure out what I’m doing with my writing.  I pretty much know the path that I’m taking with my book, My Wife and My Dead Wife – it’s just a matter of making time for myself, which, if things in my head work in reality, I should be making time soon.  I like having two projects at once so that I can work on one if the other has a block or whatever.  So, I’m trying to decide on my “horror” project to work on, so that I can be focused on the two.  Both choices are novels I’ve mostly written in the past but have never been happy with, so I’m looking to focus on them.

Healthy?

Trying to get healthy as well – lose weight, eat right, exercise.  I took a little walk today and was thinking about what I’d like to do, as far as getting healthy, and I felt really good about my little plan.  Exercising in the morning, planning my “work” menu.  I’m looking forward to putting all that in place because I think it will be a money saver as well.

Watching and Reading

Movies

I just watched Marjane Satrapi’s adaptation of Persepolis, which was adapted from her own graphic novels, which Christine and I borrowed from our friends, Linda y Dante (in fact, we might still have them…sorry).  Anyway, I really enjoyed the “comics” and the film is just…I don’t know how to explain it.  So many times, you watch something, and it may be entertaining, but you can forget about it later.  This film is a perfect adaptation of the comics (which makes sense, as they have the same author).  It is entertaining, funny, compelling.  So much going on in this film.  I don’t want to be one of those high all-mighty types when speaking about film, but this is one of the few movies that you will watch and think that it is an important film. 

Persepolis is a look through the eyes of an Iranian girl, as she grows up in Iran, dealing with government changes, causing constant war and forcing loved ones into captivity and (sometimes) execution.  Marjane’s parents eventually ship her out of the country, and we follow her journey out of Iran, back to Iran, and then out again.  It’s a great story – unfortunate – but a wonderfully told life up until this point.

The animation is just like looking at the comic brought to life.  The film is in French with english subtitles.  At the end of the film, I was thinking of the words that the Dalai Lama said when Christine and I went to hear him speak in Madison.  He said that he doesn’t hate the Chinese people, but he doesn’t like their government.  Looks like the same philosophy can apply here.  In America, people have the tendency to look at people from Iraq and Iran as terrorists and all that jazz, and this film (and the comics) is a great view into this philosophy.  You don’t have to like their government (hell, a lot of the Iranians didn’t like their government), but it’s no reason to act out against its people.  I know I don’t people judging me based on the US Government and George Bush… 

With money being tight, I’m not buying films anymore.  This a film I’m considering to buy to be a part of my collection.

Rating:  4/4

It is probably unfair to Lost Boys: The Tribe to follow up after Persepolis, but, it’s not really going to change the opinion of this film.

How do you follow up a classic film like The Lost Boys, which has lots of fans all around the place?  Especially 20 years later?  I read that they were trying to go in a different direction but still remain true to the original to give fans something to enjoy.  I’m not really sure what the different direction is, as the basic storyline is very similar to the original film.  Different direction might be a little more blood, some nudity, more swearing…and an older Corey Feldman returning as Edgar Frog.

The big talk about this film was reuniting the Coreys, as well as original Frog Brother, Jamison Newlander.  Both Corey Haim and Jamison Newlander were pretty much cut from the film – Corey survives in a brief scene during the closing credits, while both Haim and Newlander have bigger parts in the Alternate Endings that also appear on the disc.  The Alternate Endings seem to be setting up the rumoured third film. 

Not much to really say about the film.  If it wasn’t a Lost Boys film, it would’ve been an okay movie.  It really isn’t that bad.  It isn’t the best, but it’s 90 minutes of entertainment.  In the beginning, we were pausing the film when we left the room but stopped doing that as the film played on.  Maybe that says something.  This movie obviously had a lot lower of a budget and threw in a lot of cheesy humour, which just elevated the fact that the film was a direct-to-DVD, low budget film.

All that being said, the opening scene of the movie was done really well, with a great appearance by Tom Savini – offered up a lot of hope for the film.  The film was good enough to make me interested in seeing a third, but it wasn’t so good that I’d be depressed if the series stopped.

Rating:  2.5/4

Books

I just finished reading Ira Levin’s Rosemary’s Baby, which was made into a popular film by Roman Polanski.  I have the film on DVD – found it on sale for very cheap, and I know I had watched it once many years ago, but I either wasn’t paying attention or was in and out or something.  can’t remember, but I know I never really saw the film in any detail.  My thought about the book is that I often wish I could be living in the time when the book was written or maybe get some sort of sense of the common thoughts of the day so that I can read the book more in context with the times.  Was this a shocking book in the mid-sixties?  Knowing enough about the story, did that make it easier to figure out everything that was going on?  Or, were you intended to know and be frustrated with Rosemary?  “How can you not see what’s going on?”

In any case, it was an excellent book and a great story.  Had me looking forward to my train rides into and from work, when I’d pull out the book to read (have to go to Half Price Books to find a new book to read now or go through the ones at home to see if anything looks interesting).  I think you are rooting for Rosemary, which is a good quality to instill in your lead character, and everyone else poses the underlying menace that, maybe if you were actually living the life and not reading about it in print, maybe you’d miss it because you wouldn’t expect the story to unfold as it did.  So, maybe Rosemary is forgivable there.  Knowing the premise, you can tell the creepy characters from the start and can piece just about everything together, while Rosemary struggles to do so.  So, I also wonder.  If you were one of the first to read the book, not having a film adaptation to go off of or maybe not really hearing much about the book, is it a shocker to read? 

When reading books or watching film, I know it is good when it has me thinking of my own fiction (in a good way) – when I want to incorporate something that I’m reading (the style maybe) into my own work, already thinking of ways to twist it.  There were a couple points in this book, where I was thinking it was clever the way it was being written and would love to update the style into some modern tale.  We’ll see. 

I heard the film is a pretty close adaptation to the book, so, if you like the film, go ahead and check out the book.  I’m looking forward to dusting off my DVD and finally seeing the film.

Movies

Movie Review:  Brutal Massacre

Brutal Massacre is the new mockumentary about schlockmeister Harry Penderecki’s attempt to make another hit film after some success in the eighties.  Harry is joined by his group of workers that have stuck with him through the lean years because he has always been such a joy to be around.  His latest attempt at making a film is the balls-out horror film Brutal Massacre.

The great thing about the mockumentary is that you can have a low budget, but it plays right in with the theme – as you’re not really making a movie but chronicling someone else’s.  Although there are the horror elements throughout, this is a comedy, and I found myself laughing quite a few times during this film, especially at the quick clips of Harry’s past films (the Nursing Home and the Killer Koala being my two favorites).  Not surprising, with it being a comedy, Harry’s features have always had something go wrong, and this film is no different – with the gullible, naive Harry pretty likable in his optimistic view of a life in shambles.

The film stars David (Midnight Madness, An American Wearwolf in London) Naughton as Harry – unrecognizable from his 80s films, along with a supporting cast including Ken (Devil’s Rejects, Dawn of the Dead) Foree, Brian (Clerks) O’Halloran, Gerry (40 Year Old Virgin) Bednob, Gunnar (Texas Chainsaw Massacre) Hansen (in an absolutely hilarious role as a Vietnam vet – muthafucker), and not one, not two, but all three of the original ladies of the first Evil Dead film (with Ellen Sandweiss getting a starring role).

The humour may not be for everyone – definitely on the silly side.  But, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

3.5/5

Midnight Meat Train Railroaded?

A couple weeks ago, I was checking some local cinemas and saw that the latest Clive Barker adapted film (the first I remember being on the big screen for quite some time – was Lord of Illusions the last one?), The Midnight Meat Train, would be playing at Tower City Cinemas in downtown Cleveland.  I even thought it would be fun to take an extended meeting with myself during work to catch the feature, as I know Christine would not want to see it.  Here I am, thinking it’s a big release.  I come in to work on Monday (8/4) and check imdb to see the ranking of the week’s movies, wondering if Midnight Meat Train at least made the Top 5.  It didn’t.  Didn’t even make the Top 10.  Damn.  Then, I find out that the movie company (Lionsgate) decided to pull it out and dump it in tiny theatres in the middle of nowhere (many being dollar theatres and in undesirable locations) instead of opening it in bigger cities and in better theatres.

I’m not sure why the sudden change of heart (I think it has reviewed well at some festivals – although Fangoria gave it a 2/4).  I had been searching for reasons but haven’t found anything yet.  Maybe they had a contract for theatrical play and decided to dump it in some shit theatres to meet their obligations before they throw it on DVD a month later or something.  Not sure.  Haven’t found out anything yet.  Just thought that was kinda strange.

Friday the 13th Part 3 – In 3D

The Cedar Lee Theatre in Cleveland will be showing Friday 3 in 3D on Saturday Sept 13.  Not sure if I’ll be attending yet, but that sounds like fun, as I’ve only been able to catch the film on video – and, the 3D gags are extremely hokey on 2D – curious if it’s any better in its true 3D form.

Verbal Diarrhea

I was reading my wife’s blog, and I started to wonder – what do I think these days?  Do I have any major thoughts or convictions?  I wonder how they would compare to when I was in high school (I’m more of a shredder and get rid of lots of stuff – sorry about the notes).  So many things seem so common place – so easy to figure out – that I don’t understand why people think the way they do.  It’s ok.  I just don’t understand it.  Everyone is different.  Each individual’s experiences has lead them to whatever it is that they may believe in or however it is that they act.  No offense to anyone out there, but these are my beliefs.  I accept that you have your own way and do/think things that make sense to you.  I’m not saying anything against that….

• I don’t understand fighting violence with violence.  I understand the need to defend yourself if being attacked.  I’m not saying that.  But, if a parent hits his/her child because the child hit them, it’s re-enforcing the idea that violence is the correct form of expression.  If we, as a country, violently remove a leader of another country, it is again stating that the strongest country will win so go ahead and try to be violent to build up your own strength.  Fighting solves nothing.
• I don’t believe in God – at least, not any Christian God.  I’m sure it’s just human nature, but I don’t understand how so many christians can act as contrary to their own beliefs as they do.  I don’t understand how they think their magical Jesus makes perfect sense, while Hindu gods are laughable and Buddha is to be ignored (when Buddha has been real people!).  Organized Religion, to me, seems to do more harm than good – at least, Organized Christian Religion.
• I don’t understand why poor people smoke.  I don’t have the money to buy cigarettes or the possible ensuing medical bills.  I’d rather spend the money on a DVD or a toy for my son.  I don’t want to hear complaints about having no money, while you smoke a pack per day – that’s a meal or two you could be buying per day.
• I don’t believe that anything in the entertainment industry forces people to do things.  If I kill someone in the style of Freddy Krueger, the movie didn’t make me do it – it may have influenced how I did it, but I would’ve killed someone anyway.
• It doesn’t matter what other people think.  You have to live with yourself.  To say or do things to appease others (I think that’s what most celebrities do) is foolish.  You know the truth and have to live with that, so why not tell the truth?  If you’re in an argument, you may have differing opinions on something, but, if you start lying about whatever, deep down, you know the truth.  Why put on the show?  Does it really make you feel better?
• America is FAT!!!!  Maybe it’s everyone on this planet, but I only have one country to go by.  I come in on the train everyday.  I take the stairs up to my floor from the station.  People line up and wait for the escalator while the stairs are nearly deserted.  I understand if you have issues walking, but, if you have working legs, use them.  Not that you’d have to walk everyday, but c’mon.
• Americans have no taste in entertainment.
• Ryan Seacrest should be unemployed.
• Whether or not Angelina Jolie is going to adopt another kid IS NOT NEWS!
• Sports contracts just make no sense to me.  I can’t imagine walking into my boss’ office – demanding a five year contract or “holding out” until I get it.  Once it’s done, I underperform, keep my job, and continue making more money than my entire floor combined. 
• Professional Sports is just entertainment – nothing more.  No need to jump off the bridge when your team isn’t doing well (I know this is an attitude change for me – Christine could always tell by my mood if the Indians won or lost).  I think I’ve gotten better.
• There’s nothing better than spending time with my family.
• Hearing Ethan’s laugh when I’m running and pushing him while he sits in his little car makes me run a little further than what my old, out-of-shape legs are normally willing to go.
• It’s amazing to me how kind Christine is.
• Christine still melts my heart with the simplest of smiles.
• I still want to write for a living and have no one to blame but myself for not doing it more often.
• The past is the past.  Leave it there.
• I have an empty soul (dark soul?  black soul?  what was it?).
• I don’t feel as though an animal should have to die just so I can eat.  I really don’t think an animal should be treated so cruelly on its way to the slaughter.  You’re already killing it (that’s one thing).  Why make it suffer?

That’s good enough.  Don’t know if I got out what I intended but whatever.

Little Veggie

Ethan is allergic to dairy, so he is limited on what he can eat.  Christine and I are vegetarian, so we do not stock meat at home – making ethan a couple eggs away from being vegan (I don’t know of anything else he eats that would be animal-related, although I think he had some jell-o last week).  Anyway, when we were on our way home from Chicago, it was lunch time, and I thought the rest area might have a microwave for us to warm up some of his food, but there wasn’t one.  Christine bought him some chicken nuggets and fries at Burger King, and he wasn’t interested.  It warmed our hearts.  We’re not forcing him to become a vegetarian – it’s his choice, but it’s nice that he hasn’t wanted any of the meat we’ve offered him.