Hop's Thoughts

R.W. Marnau's vision is mesmerizing from start to finish. Much like Nosferatu, years, possibly decades ahead of its time. While it didn't captivate me in the same way that Nosferatu did, I can't dismiss its brilliance. With all that has happened in the near almost 90 years since its release, it's better off if one ignores any historical background on anyone involved and enjoy it for the artistry. To deny, those with black hearts aren't capable of beauty, would be naive. Faust is the timeless tale of man's struggle between good and evil and what we would trade in return for an improved state. Whether that be for ourselves or for others. The religious symbolism here isn't cleverly hidden, like many of today's films, but laid out for us to see and then critique. As we find with any struggle, it's our strongest emotions that guide us. Even if they appear selfish, they prove to be just, as the movie depicts. Like all of Marnau's films, the use of ...

James Franco directs his version of a Cormac McCarthy novel. What could go wrong?  If you can get past the fact that there is a plot hole in nearly every scene, then you are a better person than I, for I found them so incredibly distracting, it started to feel as if they were inserted on purpose. Franco's face on the poster, might be the biggest. I don't hate James Franco and actually believe he's a decent actor, but if you watch this, you'll understand my confusion. My real problem has to do with the lead actor. Scott Haze simply can't act or was given truly poor direction from Mr. Franco. His mumbling was so bad, that many I know with suspect hearing would have definitely required subtitles. His mannerism and actual look failed to convince me this was a man without a home. At no point is there a decline in his appearance, despite some obvious time going by. So often we fall in love with the performance of someone deemed "troubled," ignoring the fact ...

Did anyone show pictures of their Christmas trees before social media? I have a theory behind this and it has nothing to do with the tree. I think people like to show off the fact that they can afford lots of presents and they post it almost to shun others. In their competitive minds, if they had more presents, they won some event they created in their heads. If you're on Twitter, it's amazing how single girls out girls who are dating. One girl wrote word for word what about ten of my friend's wrote. Everything from "Santa did good," "the boy did good" "I think I'll keep him," etc. Even better was the one girl who said "Watch how many bitches show off their Michael Kors bags and then post something about 'present being nice, but it's really about who you are with.' Bitch you lying." I actually counted at least three people who not only did this, but did it with Michael Kors bags. Ugly food. Now listen, not all Chri...

I'm not trying to be Scrooge, but I've officially canceled my Christmas this season. I don't wish anything, but the very best for all my friends and family, but I'm done. This year has been a particularly difficult for me physically, mentally and now financially. That being said, I've made the most out of it, but I'm done. The past few weeks, with all that has gone on in the world, has shown me so many people's true colors, that I've become a little jaded at the belief that all that hate just upped and disappeared, because of a ripped off page on the calendar. The irony, of course, being that today was celebrate the birth of that man who told everyone to love one another. I'm not trying to be negative or ruin anyone's day. Well, four people who read this might sense a bit of cynicism, but they get me. I'm just tired of the fact that we can't love thy neighbor the same day every day. That we can't share this familial joy on a Tuesday...

Want to see a beautiful coming of age story about lovely Japanese teenagers, who visit an old aunt, whose lover left for the war and never came back and then an evil cat causes the house to become possessed, trying to eat all the girls? Oh and a guy gets turned into....just see it.

A million metaphors to destroy both "sides" arguments, but the fundamental problem is that there are sides. One side have always been the outcasts of society and they were kept that way for years, by the government and those who work for it. There is a dark, painful history to their anger. One day, 13 years ago, brought up day after day this week. Some who lives 3000 miles away, speaking as if they were there. I read a note from a man, 28 years old, tells how he bleeds blue, because of that day. He was 15 at the time. Don't use my tragedy for your benefit. I suffered too, but have never stooped to using it as an excuse for another man's actions. I too have had a job where my life literally hung by a thread every day. I have never dreamed of telling others of it. I don't know what it is like to wake up black or wake up and put on a uniform. I've heard countless stories about both and not once did they truly see the other side. Isn't the job of both, to le...

Every Christmas since I joined Facebook, my news feed is filled with that silly little elf. Sure, last year I had fun and posted pics I found around the net of the elf doing blow off of Barbie's ass and such, but I don't have kids and I wouldn't allow that little guy in my house if I did. Here's the problem with it. It's bullying. Just because you attach a cute story to it, you're instilling the fear of no gifts to a child who is still naive enough to believe in Santa. Sure they will laugh when they awaken to see the Elf making cereal, but that wears off quickly and the thought that the elf might possibly have been watching them is creepy enough, but monitoring their behavior? That's plain sick. I have a big problem with what I see friends doing these days and calling it parenting. I'm not saying a DVD from time to time isn't a needed break, but I know people who use this for hours on end. The lack of imagination they are using will hamper them s...

First off, you don't know Dead Snow, here is how I explain it to everyone. It's a Norwegian zombie film, but the zombies are fast, organized and don't want brains or to eat flesh necessarily. Oh yeah, and they are Nazis. To tell any more would be to ruin the fun, but it gets better. They made a sequel that starts right where the first left off.  The best part is that the sequel might actually be better. It's hilarious, has some nice looking (fully clothed) women and just enough over the top gore to make horror fans happy. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters is far different. In what could have been a very great movie with a little more humor and better action, it fails to really pull you in. The odd thing about this, is both movies are directed by the same guy. A little more camp and funny dialogue, which there is some of and this one could have been great. It really did have the basis for a good idea and has its moments, but never finishes them off. That being said, i...

So much happens these days and we get our information instantly. The reasons are both good and bad, but it allows us to find out some necessary things, such as weather and traffic and it also forces our hand into making assumptions. Some of us wait for information, but most jump to ill-advised conclusions and then that silly little bastard named pride jumps into our minds. That is why the this weekend's parades were seen as so awful by some and so beautiful to others. Some have a vested interest because of the color of their skin and others because of the job they hold dear to them like a child. I won't pretend to understand anything other than pride. I only wish people didn't confuse pride with right and wrong. Pride has caused my faults to cause me more harm than they should and they've magnified my achievements, but what they can do on a large scale is move mountains. Some to clear a passage and some to throw down upon others. Both of these are happening from both ...

I've copied and pasted my questions that I wrote on the IMDB website. Yes, the same one I get trolled every time I don't like a popular movie.  Every time someone doesn't like something, they get trolled to no end on this site. So I'm going to ask a few questions and see if some can make some sense of the hoopla surrounding this. Yes, while hard to believe, I'm just getting around to seeing this. 1. Aside from the animation technique, what is it that truly grabs you about the movie? The music? The dialogue? The story? 2. Does anyone else feel that of all the Disney, Pixar, etc movies that have come out, that this one is the most simplistic? It's obviously made for kids, but it has so little to offer adults (IMO). 3. What in your opinion was the moral? As an adult I took a somewhat cynical look at it as being a "stay with your own kind" type of thing. If one was to really dig, you could come up with tons of racial, religious and class talking po...

I was thinking about three people today. I'm not friends with any of them on social media and I guess in many ways, you could say we're not friends anymore. I don't remember anything happening that wasn't civil, but the connection has been lost.  The first is someone I simply lost contact with. I worked with him briefly and while we were never close, I sort of took him in, since he was an out of town guy. I found that we had fun when we went out, but I always had this sense he wasn't very honest. He always had me drop him off somewhere other than home and I later found out that he was staying at his grandmother's house. He invited me over at one time and when I asked if she lived alone, he said yes. The house was very modern and there were not pictures of any kids or grand kids. I played cards at her house and she was apparently out of town. I think he sensed that I felt there was something up and after, we never really spoke. I also always felt he had a chil...

Without giving anything away, let's just say this. If you want to laugh, be excited and listen to some pretty groovy tunes. this is the movie for you. Normally, I'd tell you about the great camera work, dialogue or subtle nuances that appealed to me, but this is just pure fun. In my opinion, the special effects actually kind of suck. The story isn't anything new, but it works. The cast is a group of oddball space cowboys and they all get thrown together. Basically, if you like Star Wars, but you're too impatient to watch three movies, check this out. Lots of big names and some you might not quite recognize. Now listen, I normally despise sci-fi and even more so, superhero movies. This is both and it is neither. It is first and foremost an action movie, but secondly it's a comedy. Even better, it's message is somewhat timely and when you throw in the amazing music, it's a can't miss. Sure you'll be bothered that it leaves a possibility for a sequel,...

I haven't had more than ten headaches in the past 15 years. I think I've had one steady headache now for a week, maybe longer. In that time, I have had weird sleeping habits. An hour there, two hours there, the occasional four hour marathon there. Never feeling rested when I awake. The heat from one room dries out my sinuses, while the bitter cold in the rooms I frequent most, has my entire body so tense, my neck feels as if I'm the freshman nerd, getting a Vulcan neck pinch by some senior who is beaten at home. I now feel for those I know who are always cold. It's hard to enjoy anything. Coffee goes cold in mere minutes and food loses it's taste as the warmth leaves and the juices run away, the meat tougher with every chew. I spend as much time as I can, tucked away beneath the sheets. This isn't odd for me, as I've lived in a place for a decade that allowed only for a chair and a bed, the horizontal position being the favored choice. I hated that place, bu...

How this 2002 horror flick escaped me is a mystery. Someone on Twitter mentioned it a few days ago and I threw it on top of my queue. Glad I did. It's fun from beginning to end. Unlike most horror films, the acting is actually enjoyable, the monsters look pretty real, thanks to a lack of CGI and the violence and gore is perfectly balanced with just the right amount of horror. Often I make the mistake (in other people's opinion) of going into horror films with the same expectations as regular films, but foreign horror has taught me that horror doesn't have to be all camp and poor acting. It can actually be a piece of art just from the simple fact that the acting is taken seriously. Dog Soldiers would be good if the enemy wasn't a monster and this is why it works. It could as easily have been Rio Bravo or Assault on Precinct 13. But it's not, it's Dog Soldiers and it works almost perfectly. Even within the twist, the little homage to past movies of the same ilk ...

Yep, for the next 22 days, I'm politics free on Facebook. I've come to realize that people's bias is so strong over the state of things in this country that even as they're stating their non-bias they are being biased. So for the next three weeks, I'll stick to pictures of my lunch, movie reviews, sports babble and the occasional story of inspiration and/or frivolity. I'm truly done for the year and possibly, we'll see, done with Facebook in the near future. I've moved away and not that it matters, but I feel like when I do come back, it will be to faces of people I don't really know. The amount of hate and vitriol displayed over the past four months has been nauseating. I have some friends who have dropped the N word, but two sentences later mention their "black friend." I just can't take it. So for most of you who have told others what a jerk I am and how I'm stupid, a hypocrite (almost always using the word incorrectly) or si...

The Retrieval is one of those movies where you read the synopsis and tell yourself, "No thanks, I'm not in the mood for this." It's the odd era of American History that nobody talks about. When slavery wasn't really legal, but wasn't really illegal either. It was an odd time and this story, which tells of a young black boy and his "uncle" who are sent out to coax a freed man to come home, so that their bounty hunter "boss" can collect and pay them.  The obvious conflict of interests here are the least of the story. The story is so simply told, but with such incredibly complex themes, that you lose yourself in the story, much like a stage play requires you to really fixate on the minute details. I don't know if the writer/director Steve Eska thought of this, when filming, but each of the main character's gaits is different and perfectly describes their attitudes towards life and their own self being. It's a pretty incredible f...

Oculus is the newest entry into a long line of horror movies that feature nearly all the exciting parts within the trailer. There is nothing new here and sadly, it's been done so much better and actually with the same symbolic "bad guy." The one thing Oculus has that some of the lame horror geeks out there will go gaga over, is production value. It's a clean film, which in my personal opinion, hurts it. I prefer grittiness in my horror, but that's a personal craving. Oculus has a very nice looking and serviceable cast. The acting isn't the problem, it's the painful predictability. I'll just say this. The apple scene I saw coming a mile away and even the buildup was horrendous. The film is low on gore, violence and any real scares. There is also no clear reason for anything that happens, meaning the writer and director went into this with clear intentions of having a sequel, a la Insidious. The shining star is Annalise Basso, who plays the younger v...

I'm at my happiest alone, in bed, watching a movie with a cup of coffee. Sure the touch of another is missed, but there is something about completely absorbing a film that makes me feel whole. Even if it's terrible, I look for things. I spent about 20 minutes trying to think of how I'd do it differently and I must say, my version of the movie, which I'll write a quickie review of tomorrow, would be better. Much better. A friend made a statement about intelligence, average intelligence and what makes someone less or more intelligent than the average. OK, maybe her statement was more simple, but the comments that followed, including mine, challenged and confirmed her beliefs. I believe we're dumb. We're universally dumb and if we don't strive to learn something new each and every day, we fail. Today I learned that some people think Selma of the civil rights movement was a person. People are dumb. Today I came to the conclusion that routine will be my undoi...

I know nobody reads my blog. When I started it, I figured I'd post some funny, silly and maybe thoughtful things that friends would get a kick out of. I soon realized that most of my friends are too busy to read anything more than two or three sentences long. Ironically, they claim to be very aware of the world around them and why it's falling apart. I spend three or four hours a day just trying to make sense of a crazy world I'm part of and people who have actually told me they don't read because my blogs are too long, tell me they know better than I about why people are protesting. I guess I'm missing something. I find it interesting that I was thinking about something, rather someone, wondering what they are up to. We shared a "moment" and I hesitantly wrote about it long ago. I was looking back and realized that memory popped into my head and onto these pages right around the same time of year, a few years back. Maybe it's the cold that brought b...

I've written three blogs tonight and deleted all three. I'll just say this. If you see that I'm no longer your friend on Facebook, please don't think this doesn't mean we're not "friends." It simply means that I'm weaker than you and while you can and have put up with reading things that you disagree with, I can't handle your racist tones. If you defend someone because he's your friend, but bash every other black person, because he's a thug, that is racism. Your loyalty doesn't mean you're not racist, it just means you're selective. I don't mean for this to only apply what is in the news now. If you think there is comedy in women being raped, I'm going to have to stop reading your posts and I assume, you mine. I've always found it interesting that men with daughters continue to be friends with rapists, but that's your business. That women support the husbands of their beaten friends. I've never understo...

I'm just going to come right out and say it. It's easily, without question, one of the worst movies ever made. Now, this is not to say there isn't something for people to like. It's two hours of mind-numbing stupidity, but with that comes relaxation for some. Many thing I have overrated Raid: Redemption, because the plot is pretty simplistic and the acting is pretty much nothing more than being able to fight, but I found so much more and non-stop entertainment. Even it's weak sequel had some flashes of brilliance. This movie, none. Even the most exciting scene, the HALO drop is so silly, because when you see what happens, you realize it's completely unnecessary. So why is it so terrible? Bryan Cranston to start. Now I must admit that I have not sat through eight seasons of Breaking Bad and to be honest, I've only seen four episodes, but I can say without question, from what I have seen, he's easily one of the worst actors alive. He's a good guy and...

I've been making lists in my head lately and while it's something we all do, these have been so scattered. I've been thinking of songs I love that I haven't heard in ages. I've been thinking about people I've been meaning to reach out to privately, but fail to do so, because liking a silly picture is so much easier. Lists of things I'm dying to eat or books I need to read. I've been thinking about how my desire for knowledge has been waning, because I have nobody to share it with. Even my sports, the thing I spoke so often on Fridays through Mondays, is a thing of the past. I've been jotting down in my memory bank all of the people who I miss and all of those who I thought would miss me more. I think about the ever growing list of people who were constants who mean nothing to me anymore and I to them. I've been making lists of the things I did, each and every day, that I've not done in this, my 155th day away. I took a break from this, looked...

Pontypool is one of the few movies, I've ever watched, been absolutely amazed with (most of it) and then read the writer and director's comments in interviews and was at a loss. So much so, it changed my view of it. This in no way is meant to take away from Stephen McHattie's brilliant performance in the lead role. While I realize the film takes place in Canada, I felt throughout that this was a strong social commentary on how talk radio and media in general has created so much hysteria that anything is possible. I felt, like War of the Worlds, this film was entirely about hysteria created by the spoken word, which, because the movie was made in 2008, coincided with the ending of one administration and the true rise of power for cable news. There were other things, I won't bore you with, like the plays on words, the anagrams and a few others, but this is where I was let down. I read the interviews and comments and absolutely none of this was intentional. In fact, the ...

I had a dream about music. Something I love, but have let slip away from my daily life. I'm so frustrated with music being secondary to the ugly packaging it's wrapped up in. Ever since people like Elvis, became legendary, while the writers and true performers, who sung with passion and danced with feeling, slipped through the crack, music has gone downhill. Gone are the days of paying homage to the greats like Robert Johnson. Robert Johnson, the man, the myth, the legend. Does anyone remember when the box set of lost recordings came out. It was the biggest moment in music history at the time and how many people say outside of a Tower Records, waiting to grab the genius' work? This is done for Dave Matthews, Guns 'n' Roses and One Direction. Bands who have cornered a market on sameness. For every Nirvana, there are twenty grunge bands who would have yelled to Cobain to grab his shine box, but they marketed themselves to the future Starbucks sipping, hipster wannab...

Ever since I joined Facebook, I'm amazed at how shallow people are. Even those, who I thought shared common views with, fall into this selfish rut, sometime after Halloween. Thanksgiving always brings out what most feel is their sincerity, thoughtfulness and unselfish side, but then why is every posts the same? Why do so many thank people for all they do? Why would you choose a holiday to share your admiration? Isn't it a cliche? I'm not saying, you aren't thankful, I'm simply saying it's selfishness you are praising, not sincerity. Why are all but a handful of posts about what others have done for them. Whether big or small it's all about how we benefited from their actions. I'm sure, I could scroll back or check some old blogs and find the same, but I doubt I've ever seen this time of year as solely a time to acknowledge help. I've always been one who values what people do for us. The people who I share a mutual bond with where the giving isn...

I'm always bothered when someone tells me a person is a good father or mother, especially when they are filled with hatred towards others, based on their appearance. You would think, the birth of a child would scare someone into acceptance. Worried, that something might happen or occur that would cause their child to be different, but it doesn't. The hatred filled inside someone, still remains today as it did before the birth of their child. The disdain for anyone who stands up against oppression brings this person out of their bigoted shell. I wonder if their child were to grow up gay, if they'd cast them in the river, hoping god would sort them out. Or would they feel they'd failed god and slaughter the innocents? It sounds horrid. These words I say are horrible, but they are the things I wonder. How can anyone look at their child, their flesh and blood and feel hate for any other human being, simply based on their appearance. That child, is like someone else's an...

A one handed catch and then another one. Snow Snow Snow. It's all anyone can talk about. Kid lies dead in the middle of the street and we talk more about uncontrollable weather events. Was it always like this or have our minds become mush? I see people posting, those I called friends, with so much hate in their hearts, that it almost makes me wish they could feel that pain, just briefly. The autumn chill turned to springtime today. I walked outside, took a deep breath, but it smells like winter. The party is over and on to the next. The turkey, hen, squab or duck. What will we have? Who knows? Who cares? I wish my brother would walk in that door and say he's done. He's back and I wish I could walk without pain. I wish my mother was here and my grandmother....scratch that, maybe not together, haha! I look forward to shoveling snow. Funny. I've stayed in almost every day, missing the warmth. Missing the beautiful foliage. Missing it, but not. The snow, I will embrace. Eve...

How many observed which one of your friends cheered the executive action taken by Obama this week? The day after, out of my 592 friends on Facebook, there were 27 posts regarding it. Twenty were negative, suggesting that the US was now part of Mexico, that unemployment and crime would go up or that Obama was Muslim (yes, still with this nonsense). Seven posts were in favor. Two were die hard liberals and then there were the five friends who posted...no comments, just a post. All Irish immigrants. All who have moved here and gained citizenship in the past two or three years. What does it say when those born and who spent more than half their lives in another country, show more patriotism and pride than most of us born here? Regardless of your views, you have to start questioning one who claims to be pro-America, who is against the principals the country was founded on. My Irish friends seem to understand. That friend, whose skin is so thin, that any comment regarding their appearance,...

...say they want someone funny, but go after everything but? ...say are there for you, when they never are when you don't need them? ...say they are thick skinned, yet run when called out? ...ask how you are, when all they truly want is to talk about themselves? ...say they like something, just to prove you wrong? ...say something, just to be part of a conversation, but add nothing of substance? ...say they aren't racist, when they have racist beliefs, even if they are few? ...seek so much attention from social media, but when it is private, want none of it? ...interest me so, when I know what they will say before they even say it? ...think it hurts me when they unfriend me? ...talk about the weather, if they are not travelling or bracing for a catastrophe? ...respect some and not others, yet have no reason for either? ...cause me to fantasize about knowing them (some better), while most I wish I could release? ...say they have overcome things they have caused? .....

A bagel with hummus, stuffed clams, a nice chat with an old friend (albeit electronically), a documentary on cave paintings. Sounds boring, but these are the kinds of things that go into a near perfect day lately. I don't go out anymore. Some would laugh at the life I've been living. Out to me, is checking the mail. Sitting in the backyard, eating a sandwich. The outside world hasn't seen me for months. Literally months. The recluse life isn't that bad at all. Despite what people might think, as time has gone on, I've drawn myself away from the social media pit that I'm sadly known for. I feel more connected to strangers who define themselves in 140 characters. They show emotions and disgust and love for me like others, but I don't have to hear about their kid's illness or their day in court. Their traffic woes are for their real life friends, but their tales of true horror, the one on screens, is shared with me and the others who get them. I've neve...

As always, I don't do spoilers, so not really a review, more of a critique. Let me start by saying I normally despise the found footage genre. It is usually a hindrance to a decent idea and limits what we are allowed to see. There are exceptions, but this one stuck to its guns. I had heard nothing about this film other than praise by friends on twitter. I gave it a try and realized instantly, it was going to be about something other than initially proposed. The premise is pretty standard, with the wrinkle being that this film appears to almost not happen. The three main characters are female and in many ways, share nothing in common, which works. Even though two are mother and daughter (Jill Larson & Anne Ramsey), you can see that there is something odd between the two. We find out later, it's a little cliche in some sense, but it doesn't bog down the plot. The interviewer/researcher Mia (Michelle Ang) is also very cute, but no nonsense. While she's not on camera ...

I miss laughter. I mean the silly laughter over nothing. The laughter over a connection between two good friends. The stuff that starts over one thing and carries on to all those other things throughout the night. The kind you wipe your eyes, but it doesn't help. I miss that laughter I got from seeing the body of another jerk with the uncontrollable flailing of someone who has lost it completely. That contagious laughter. I can't get that through the computer screen. Then again, only one or two even try anymore. I can't get that through the phone or on TV or even from my memories. Not the laughter I'm talking about. I guess for now, I'll settle for the chuckles, the smirks and the giggles. It beats the alternative.

I just woke up, so I'm limiting myself to three minutes. I usually attempt humor when I first awake, but lately I've found the outside world, at least the one I'm connected to through technology, to be a sad place. Everyone wanting affection for their woes, reminding me of those children I miss, who care not if the attention comes from their positive or negative actions. They just need it. The nanny doesn't replace the parent, the parent doesn't replace both parents. The kid who wants to have a catch or to have a tea party. Both parents too busy, but the reality is we're all too busy for any adult who desires this attention. Some even use their children, to entrap us. Playing on the emotions they know some of us can't let go of. Then there are those who need something, but know not what it is. New pressures, white lies or just loneliness. I sit back in my big chair laughing, occasionally a tear.

I never give any details in my mini-reviews, but wanted to get a few things off my chest about this film. I know I don't watch films like most of those I know and maybe it's a curse. Who knows?  I'm not claiming to be smarter or say my opinion is any better than anyone else's, I'm just saying this movie is too cool for school. Everyone is claiming this film to be brilliant and such a revelation, but anyone who watches a lot of films, especially films heavy in symbolism, metaphors and allegories, realizes that just paying attention gives away a ton. In Snowpiercer, too much was given away. Spoilers ahead Stop reading now if you haven't seen it, but I'll just state what ruined the movie for me. Gilliam - anyone who saw Brazil, know Terry Gilliam directed it and this was an homage to him. That being said, the name, plus the name actor playing him, you knew he wasn't going to be a minor character. You also knew he would not make it. The Train - forcing...

Veteran's Day is such a welcome break on social media. Universal praise for one day. No complaints about traffic, the kids or the weather. It would be disrespectful to complain on the day we honor men and women who have seen horrors we can only imagine. Many still trying to forget those memories, while we try and remember where our keys are. For one day in November, we honor those who have earned the right to complain and usually don't.  An old man stands in an outdated uniform. The bugle sounds and he barely hears it. Shots fired, symbolic acts, that ironically send some scurrying. The politics of war is so common, yet on this day, we avoid talking about the politics. We simply honor the men and women who courageously defended our freedom. How will we honor these men fighting today? Neither defending our freedom or protecting us in many ways. Bringing democracy or some form of it, to lands that have no use for our brand. Our war on terror seems almost comical, when every fe...

Americans are obsessed with lists. Christmas Lists, Top Ten Lists, Shopping Lists, Hell, when I was a kid, one of the most popular books was aptly titled, The Book of Lists. We're obsessed. I make lists all the time and while I try to use the universally accepted limit of ten items, they rarely end up that way. That being said, lists are a terrible thing. I have never, not once in my life, used a shopping list. You know what I'm good at? Shopping. I buy what's on sale, forgoing the avocados this week and buying some peaches that looked ripe and at a bargain. I walk down every aisle and find things I'd never think to add to the holy list, but now see the large can is but 89 cents. Lists keep us from exploring. The inspiration for this, was not a rebuttal to a friends first blog, in which she lists things, proclaiming lists are a part of her life. No, this was inspired by a comical moment had at 5:18 in the morning. I went to get a glass of water and gazed in the frid...

And everyone is there? The people who have hurt you. Maybe beaten, raped or even killed you. The people who made life on earth hell. Those who you felt were bad, but had been absolved of those sins. What would be so heavenly about it. What if it was truly heaven as we think of it? The people who you love are missing. The indiscretion you didn't know about, keeps your lover from joining you. Your daughter who bullied her classmates is nowhere to be found. Your son who didn't listen when she said no, is absent. What would be so heavenly about it? What if heaven exists and it's only as good for you as you made it for others? Would you want to go? Would that never ending look into the mirror be pleasant or damning? Would you want to be treated as those you love, those you call friends treat others? Would you want a life like the ones you gossip about or ridicule? What if this the concept of heaven is that we're all given something perfect? We are given ...

Let's get this out of the way. Voting is a good thing and it's a right, not a privilege. We owe this right to those who fought, protested and died before us. We are given a single voice with the idea, a poor one, that we can then choose who represents us. That in theory is a beautiful thing. The problem arises when we are only given two choices. This is like walking into a restaurant and being told the vegetarian dinner choices are steak and ice cream. You're given a choice, but in reality, your morals allow you only one and it's not even close to what it is advertised. So let's get it out of the way, the right is a right, but it's a poor choice generally. Thanks to social media, all the little cunts who voted decided to post on their Facebook pages how they are superior to those out there who didn't vote. They usually followed this up with "you can't complain if you didn't vote" or "I don't want to hear it if you didn't vote...

So many thoughts, but the problem with the world today, is that we're all connected. I want to praise one for their courage, but feel badly for the one whose actions I take for granted, merely because they praise themselves so. I want to call out those I care about for not being there and those who have for not doing it right. I know how that sounds, but when you do for others so often, you feel your way is the path. It all sounds so silly. I worry greatly about my mind. Awakened in the middle of a dream, her blouse was being unbuttoned and then I awoke to the sound of branches outside. Sleep came back, but the dreams were of rioters, with torches blazing, while I sat in a tower like some sort of Frankenstein monster. Copyright laws that I've broken, due to a silly thing posted. I don't know the rules and in so many cases, I act like all Americans and just plead ignorance. The decade I've spent, which I want to attack, even if just for therapy. The simple changes I'...

Anyone who follows me on social media has noticed that for the month of October, I have participated in the Macabre Photo Challenge. The only twist was that I did last year's list, because I enjoyed it more. So here is my 2014 version, some photos will be omitted Favorite Movie Killer  - Leatherface, Texas Chainsaw Massacre Sentimental VHS Rental - Maniac Creepiest Doll/Puppet - Leech Lady Best Or Worst Remake - Let Me In Funniest Horror Comedy - Tucker & Dale VS Evil Favorite Black & White Movie - Nosferatu Best Kill With An Object - Basketball, Deadly Friend Freakiest Circus/Sideshow - Freaks Favorite Ghost - Sisters, Rigor Mortis Best Dracula - Bela Lugosi Coolest Transformation - American Werewolf In London Best Zombie Franchise - Romero's Dead Series Favorite Friday 13th Moment - Sleeping Bag Meets Tree Favorite Freddy Moment - Johnny Depp Eats It Biggest Crush - The Twisted Twins Guilty Pleasure Movie - Deep Blue Sea Ugliest Alien...

Another Belle comes; door eases forward, gathered hunters invited. Jumping, kindly lunging momentarily. Notice of parents; quick results. Smiling thanks under veiled words. Xenophobic youths? Zero.

I've written about my dislike of this holiday, but not for the reasons most would think. I've written about the silliness of people not being able to be their wildest, other than this night. I've written about how so many costumes reveal so many layers for some and hide some for others. The reality is, I do like Halloween from a kids point of view and as someone who has been or at least tried to have been, a role model.  My problem has always been the adults, but I don't want to think about that right now. This is the first time in a decade and a half that I won't get to see "my kids" dressed up. I won't get to see the hilarious things they think up, like "Zombie Batman" or "Figure Skater Princess." I won't get to ask the kids, who costumes are painfully simple, "What are you supposed to be?" Only to be told something completely different than what they appeared to be. This is what I will miss and while some of you m...