Chopping the bully judges from Chopped - Geoffrey Zakarian

Chopped, seen weekly on Food Network, is energetic and entertaining and a Tuesday habit in this house.  However, Chopped dropped the ball of responsibility and the entire  ‘Anti Bully push’ that this nation has embraced, went out the window with Judge Geoffrey Zakarian.  

Chopped demonstrated that it’s ok for men to push women around and get away with it. Tonight I saw a rerun from a couple years back, had I saw this on first run … I probably never would have watched another episode.

Honestly? What were the producer’s thinking? It’s bad enough that every judge comes on the show in a bad mood or extremely pre menstrual. But Geoffrey Zakarian epitomized the worst of the worst giving every chef a bad name.

The episode was Flower Power, the victim,  Lola Garand. First round, Lola is having fun. Apparently having fun is a no-no, because judge Marc Murphy stated, “If she was in my kitchen I’d have to tell her to shut up.”

It was apparent from the get go, these two male judges did not like Lola. But Geoffrey took that a step further acting like a school yard bully and humiliating her like I have never seen … on national TV. Fire him. He spoke about how he thought her house was probably a mess and he wanted no part of it. Hey, uh, Geoffrey, its not your place to judge her home. Judge her food.

I searched for over an hour on the net for the clip. I couldn’t find it.

“You’re disrespectful,” He told her.

“I’m sorry, I was having fun with this game.” Lola is from the UK.
“Game? Game? You think this is a game.”
(Well, yeah, Geoffrey, it is a game, they are competing)
But when Lola tried to defend herself, he held up a hand, told her to be quiet he wasn’t finished and bashed her further. Not her food. He bashed Lola.

I’m a writer and I can’t even begin to describe how unacceptable this was.

It was apparent that the other judges were embarrassed by his behavior, but Lola remained classy.

Fire him.

Somewhere in the whole scheme of things, someone forgot to tell Geoffrey that he is there to judge the food not tear up, tear apart and humiliate a contestant.

My God, it was a complete demonstration of a mentally abusive spouse. Seriously. He humiliates Lola, she cries, and when she returns, she aims to please, Then SHE apologizes to HIM, and he gets away with it. Sound familiar to anyone whose been in an abusive relationship? I waited for an apology. Maybe he apologized off camera, but the damage was done to the viewer, at least to me.

I worked in restaurants my entire life, and know the temperaments of cooks.  Bash her cooking, I have no problem with the judges being harsh on cooking, but leave the personalities out of it.

Food Network producers allowed this man to degrade a human being on national TV without any repercussion. They all but said it is ok to treat another human being like that. He scolded her like a child, degraded her as if she were beneath him. I don’t give a rat’s ass who he is, what he is or has accomplished, he had no right to get away with that. Fire him.

Hey Food Network, it’s not entertainment. You sent a message to every bully, mentally abusive spouse. Not only the message that you can unwarrantedly chastise someone, but you can do so and not have to atone.

Why don’t you show the episode a few more times so the newbie abusers can learn how to get it right?

Time for the producers to put Geoffrey Zakarian in a basket and CHOP him.

It won’t do much, but it’s my stand and my petition. Feel free to be one of the few who sign in. By signing it you stating that bullying behavior on national television will not be tolerated no matter who the bully should be.

 

PLEASE SIGN MY PETITION TO FOOD NETWORK

Real Life 'Red dawn' Invasion?

On the eve of what I am calling the ‘North Korean Missile Crisis’, the People’s Republic of China are planning a massive invasion of the United States.

The reason, like any creditor who is tired of waiting on their money, they are repossessing, foreclosing on America.

I found out, you know, by accident, when they accessed my computer and gave me the information. By accident.

Or so I thought. (Notice I cunningly did screenshots)

Living with me the last 36 hours has probably made my family a bit nuts. The other night I opened my computer to do research and Google was gone. Replaced with a site that said ‘Google’ but was in Chinese.

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What the hell?

Immediately I think ‘weird’ virus and I run a scan, no wait, I run several scans. I even attempt to go to a restore point. Nothing. Every browser, when on Google went to this site. It said Google. So I decided to type my name in my Google search toolbar and it went to this angel on a dragon. Long blonde hair. She says new world, and a button that looks like ‘enter’ is there. I immediately clicked out, because I’m thinking my computer is now possessed.

I did everything, a DNS change, even updated my IP which oddly was now ;;1.

It didn’t work.  I quit for the night, but the next day, I was obsessed with it. So I put my name in the page’s actual search bar. This came up.

新单词 著名的民间传说传说传奇权威发布准确完整的故事。怀来沙城行会图例图例图例图例。强传奇制造的激情的水平。良好做法图例。国内到达设备图例。遵循所有该图例以遗憾的失败 新单词 著名的民间传说传说传奇权威发布准确完整的故事。怀来沙城行会图例图例图例图例。强传奇制造的激情的水平。良好做法图例。国内到达设备图例。遵循所有该图例以遗憾的失败

Translate it is this.

Popular legends legend legendary folklore Authority published the full story accurate. Guild legend legend legend legend of shacheng. strong legendary made passion of levels. good practice legend. domestically arrive legend legend to equipment. follow to  fail that legend all to regret

Doesn’t look like much right? Bunch of words.  Until you remove all instances of the word 'legend'.

Popular legends legend legendary folklore Authority published the full story accurate. Guild legend legend legend legend of shacheng. strong legendary made passion of levels. good practice legend. domestically arrive legend legend to equipment. follow to  fail that legend all to regret

Read the first sentence.

Upon that, I freaked. The last couple lines do not make sense. But wait. Read them right to left from the end. Freaky huh?

At that point, the ‘new world title’ the ‘new world’ angel with blonde hair, I’m thinking, They’re coming. How ironic that I get this message when I seem to blame a lot on the Chinese in my PA books (No offense to my Asian American friends).
My son, thinking I have totally lost it, checks it out. Puts my name in the Google search bar and the Angel comes up. He wants to click on ‘Enter’, I’m freaking out.
“No, no, no!” I yelled. “Stop!”
“Why?”
“You don’t know. What if that is a secret coded message for a general and you press that button, you inadvertently launch some sort of massive nuclear strike. Shut it down. Shut it down now!”

He laughed. I did not. I had tech guy come over. Nothing worked, and with each passing hour, I grew more paranoid. Suddenly, I turned into my mother back in 1965 when she swore the Russians were invading and locked herself in a basement for weeks.

Then I took a break and tried the advice I got on facebook. I found an embedded virus in my hard drive. And my browser is back to normal. Google has returned. I on the other hand, still am not convinced that I didn’t stumble upon something.

Sense a book in this experience? Please, how can there not be for me? I’m a writer.

The Rigors and Rewards of Making Audiobooks

I can’t tell you how many times I hear from another author, “Wow, your books are in audio, I wish I could have that.” Or actors say to me, “Wow, audio books, I wish I could do that.”

I tell them, ‘you can’, and I wave my magic fairy wand and direct them in the direction of ACX. If you don’t know who they are, time to do some homework. Because all those wishes and wants start with them. They make it easy for the Indy and small publisher to get their works out in audio books.

It’s this simple. Check this out. You register. You click ‘add a title’, you fill in a few blanks, upload an audition script and post. That’s it. Then wait for auditions. Narrators, it’s the same way.

As of now, I have 15 live audio books titles out there. Here are a few things I have learned.

Pick a good, but not long audition sample. Tell the narrator if it’s in the middle of the book or the beginning. If your book has a lot of dialogue, pick a part with dialogue.

Fill in the section ‘Audition notes’ tell the narrator why they should audition. And for God’s sake, look for narrators if you don’t get auditions. You never know.

There are some downsides. One being, I still feel Audible treats the ACX titles like the red headed step child. But ACX is still in infancy and I think its time will come.

It’s a gamble for narrators who pick the 50/50 split. A book can be doing great on Amazon and tank on Audible (There’s where the failure of the red headed step child comes in). Audible needs to recognize these sellers on Amazon and maybe spotlight them. For example, I have one title that did fantastic on Amazon, was featured on the History Channel just last month, the narrator did a superb job, yet, it’s one of my lowest selling titles.

Authors, do not treat your narrator auditions like online dating. These are real people who took time to audition. Acknowledge their audition or send a nice note if you aren’t using them.

Think you want to narrate your own book? You can, but I wouldn’t recommend it. Leave it to the professionals. I did one and I only did the reading, my producer did all the other stuff and still. Even with a sound room, it was impossible. I hated my writing, I heard every noise and I realized my house is haunted because I picked up EVPs.

Give someone a chance. Say you hear a narrator. You like them, but they don’t have any books out. Instead of waiting for ‘the next best thing’ like most online daters, discover a gem. I use ABW Voiceovers a lot. Why? My first audiobook was his first. He did a great job. But now, Andrew Wehrlen is freaking amazing. I love Andy, he knows me and my writing now. He’s in my head, I hear him when I write. DavidDietz, an actor I have known for years wanted to try ACX. I gave him Peacekeeper. He did a fantastic job. He’s on a second one for me and it’s blowing Peacekeeper out of the water. He’s magnificent.

A good narrator can make a good book great. They bring it to life. I like ‘1^st’ book narrators. They listen to what I suggest, are so eager, and sure they make errors, but they’re all fixable. If you work with them, you not only help them, they help you and it’s a great experience.

Listen to the files the narrators send you or post. Download them, burn them on a CD, take a drive. You can pick up things they may miss.

Be realistic narrators. Don’t take on a project you cannot do. I have two titles in the queue that are overdue and I haven’t heard back from the narrators. Drop a line to the author. I hesitate to contact ACX because I don’t want to get these narrators in trouble.

Join Audible club, use that book credit each month as a promo. There are some good audio book reviewers, too. Contact them, gift your book to them.

Authors – push your audiobooks as much as you do your Kindles. We are not Gods and our books are not the Holy Grail. Not everyone is going to want to buy it, remember, especially if you picked the 50/50 split, try your hardest to make sales. The narrator counts on it. Trust me it is not easy to be a narrator.

Marketing Tip - Join groups and discussions relevant to your books topic. Do it as a PERSON, not narrator or author. Nothing more annoying than someone interjecting with ‘Buy my Book’. If people like your posts and you, they’ll find out what you do. It’s a arduous process but it pays off.

Another and final ‘be realistic’. Your book, despite our best efforts and promoting may not sell. The narrator, you, put a lot of hours and hard work and you can’t catch a bite. It happens. BUT, remember, today’s flop can be tomorrow’s great seller. New Readers emerge daily. My book, Dust is proof of that. For years, maybe five sales? All it took was one person to start talking about it … and Dust rose from the ashes.

Hope to see you on ACX with us!

Where's Sleepers 3? Blame ... CM Punk.

Against the advice of my son, I am going to explain what is going on with Sleepers 3. The question I get asked all the time. My son, though, tells me that while my friends, family and closest readers understand my insanity, others may not.

But to the devoted Sleepers readers, I give you my explanation of its delay.

Warning, it’s twisted. I also promise to mark ‘spoilers’ when needed.

Many of you may know this, some may not, but I cast my books. I find actors, sports figures, wrestlers, musicians, and I craft my characters by what I think they portray or are like. Many times, my characters are nothing like those they are modeled after.

When I first embarked on Sleepers, the character of Alex Sans blasted on the pages and immediately took over, as if I had no say so at all in the writing. The character of Alex Sans was inspired by pro wrestler, CM Punk. Man, every Monday, every chance, I listened to CM talk, walk, act. Soon, within weeks, my kids were yelling at me because I was calling CM “Alex”. That’s ok, it helps my dementia.

Then came Sleepers 2. I flew through that one. Again, Alex ruled. CM Punk was WWE champion and man, I was able to really utilize the inspiration.

Hence Sleepers 3. Something happened. CM Punk turned into well … a punk. A bad guy and he wasn’t even a good bad guy, he was a tool. A cardboard bad guy that irritated me to watch. Honestly, someone needs to send CM Punk to wrestling persona school.

All the sudden, with the switch of CM Punk, I couldn't breed Alex the way I wanted. Middle of Sleepers 3, I had to stop. I tried, I really tried, I even wrote around him. It has been suggested, to watch ‘old’ videos of Punk. But the problem is, the good guy to bad guy stint (For me) was stealth and I didn't see it coming until he flipped such a bad switch, I was like, ‘oh God, no!” He cut his hair, just ….UH! He’s not my Alex!

I have used wrestling bad guys before as good guy characters in my books, but CM Punk’s bad guy is so badly done, it makes my stomach twist.

Now ...I wanna kill off Alex. But it’s not because of Alex, it’s because I don’t like CM Punk’s persona anymore. I can’t make him gay, I did that to Henry in Beginnings, because of the actor that inspired him. SLEEPERS 2 SPOILER ALERT: In Sleepers 2, it was a literal flip of coin to see who died, seriously I flipped coin, Alex or Beck. Beck lost. He died. Now I wish it were Alex. Because the inspiration behind Alex is gone.

Maybe … I’ll make him into a bad guy in Sleepers 3. But how, I love Alex. And what if I manage to successfully make him bad and CM Punk returns to being a good guy, then I’d have the task of redeeming Alex and that’s not easy. Then again, how many times did I redeem Frank?

I know this, Sleepers 3: Rise of Keller is nearly complete, but is on pause. I promise to have it out no later than May 1st. April 1^st if I’m lucky. I’ll post a peek in a couple weeks. Until then, this is where it’s at. Suggestions?

Would Blake Shelton Survive in an Apocalyptic World?

Life is a series of paths. At least for me. I can be on Youtube looking up an music video and end up watching alien autopsy videos, I haven’t a clue how I got there, I just did. Same thing happened tonight. Not gonna say the path, but it started with a taco salad and ended up with fictitious conversation between Blake Shelton and one of my sci fi characters.

Then I got to thinking, after, of course, wondering if Blake had a nose job, I wondered (Because you know I’m always in the apocalypse mindset) How would Blake do in the apocalypse? Fiction or real? How would any celebrity do? Aside from Charlton Heston who would rock the apocalypse. What would Blake’s survivor chances be?

Taking a look at Blake, remove the guitar and the glitz of The Voice, he seems pretty much a regular guy. A country boy. Give him a natural catastrophic event, a plague, that would be his best chance of survival scenario. I foresee him with a boat load of weaponry, hunting his own food, after he hit up the Jack Daniels distillery for a life time supply. He’d be locked on self sufficient property and be quite content on his own.  Then again, if it were nuclear war, I don’t see him doing that well. He’s not a stock and supply sort of guy, more of a live for the moment. This puts him at a disadvantage because he wouldn’t comprehend the invisible horrors.

So in my opinion Natural disaster, plague (if he beats the germ) Blake lives. Nuclear war … he might be toast.

But what about the dreaded zombie apocalypse. Blake Shelton running amuck with the living dead. I think his biggest obstacle would be believing it were real. After that, he’d live a Herschel life. Herschel. What if Blake, ‘the actual Blake’ showed up on the Walking Dead? Not talking cast on the show, I mean reality crosses into fiction. I think he’d get along great with Herschel, they have that drinking thing in common. He’d tease the hell out of Carl, get annoyed with Glen, fool around with Andrea (Doesn’t everyone) and tell Rick, “Dude, really, lighten the hell up.’. In the end the Macho and hotness clash would be too much between him and Darryl and eventually, because he likes to bathe, Blake would hang out with the governor. He would survive in the fictional Walking Dead world.

In one of my novels, I’d think he’d do well in my fictional worlds, they’re mostly plague. He’s whacked out enough to fit in Beginnings, and as far as my other books, my people are pretty much small town country, my characters love to drink and listen to country music.

But put him in a Craig Dilouie world, I don’t think he’d do all that well. Hell, no one would do well in Craig DiLouie Post Apocalypse world. Craig creates some harsh obstacles in some screwed up, scary worlds. Stay away Craig’s apocalypse, Blake and you’ll do just fine.

Hmm. Wonder what celebrity I can imagine next in an apocalypse..

Sneak Peak of Sealed In

Thought I'd give you a special sneak peak. This is a small section taken from my next release, Sealed In. A fictional pandemic story dealing with the accidental release of the soviet biological weapon, Ebolapox.  Just a tease. This is the story I had written before the History Channel special and I supplied them with information from the book for their segment on Ebolapox. Enjoy ...

<><><><>

FLASH FORWARD

Ground Zero – 4

December 23^rd

Hartworth, Montana

            For the first time in his career, Edward had to pause to throw up and then he downed a drink. His examination of Vivian Morris went about as far as it could go before he got sick. It wasn't just the sight and smell of her, it was the thought of what had occurred.

            “I need a investigative team,” Edward told Dr. Lange, head of the Centers for Disease control in his first telephone conversation back to headquarters. “Body removal and another team of virologist. We have to trace this thing. We need to find out exactly what it is.”

            “ You've only been there three hours, Ed. What in the hell …”

            “Over eight hundred bodies. One just thawed enough for me to examine … my God, Bill.” Edward grabbed his flask. “This woman … these people … this … thing. I’m scared to death.”

            At first his soft laugh carried over the line, then Dr. Bill Lange, breathed outward. “You’re very serious.”

            “Yes. Yes, I am. Bill.” Edward paused to take a sip. “I don’t even know if I’ll end up with it, for as much precaution as I’ve taken. This thing is like nothing I have ever seen. Nothing. And it’s fast, my God, is it fast. Last phone call out of this town was placed a few days ago, that’s when I guess the town died.”

            “When did it hit there? Any guesses?”

            “No more than a week.”

            “Jesus.”

            “Tell me about it,” Edward said. “I just did my first examination and I got sick. Sick, Bill, Underneath what was left of her skin … and I say what was left because the victim either scratched her skin away or it tore from within. And what was beneath it … it was like tar, looked like tar and smelled like bile. Everything inside was desecrated. Internal organs barely recognizable. They were mush. If there was any blood left in the victim’s body, it was too thick to pass through the veins, and just seeped through any bodily orifice it could find.”

            “Where … where did it start?” Dr. Lange asked. “Any idea.”

            “I’d be guessing,” Edward replied. “But I’d say it was inhaled. Maybe it started as a respiratory ailment, who knows, but it hit the digestive system and ate through it like acid.”

            “Septicemia?”

            Edward laughed. “We need a new word for it. Trust me. Septicemia is a walk in a park compared to this. And you know what the worst part is?”

            “There’s worse?” Dr. Lange asked.

            “Oh, yeah. The brain. Barely touched. That tells me the victim knew every single thing that was happening to them. This woman, felt every single ounce of pain and sickness and my guess is she went through an agony that was inhumane.”

            “I’m disbursing as many units as I can to you. They’ll be there by the end of the day,” Dr. Lange said. “Have you tried the neighboring communities?”

            “I am keeping the State police at bay and out of those towns just in case. I’m scared. There’s a town thirty miles north of here, one forty miles east. The last phone call went to Lincoln. Those are small towns. But Billings … it’s only seventy miles away.”

            “This hit fast, do you think it broke boundaries?” Dr. Lange asked.

            “It should have under normal circumstances,” Edward said. “But these aren’t normal. You have every day folks, dead cowboys in pickup trucks with shotguns on every single road leading in and out of town. This makes me wonder if there is a BSL-4 lab around here. Maybe a resident here brought in the germ, knew it was released and they shut down and sealed in the town. Set up an aid station, prepared for it. Kept it down until everyone died.”

            “Someone knew it was this bad?”

            “Without a doubt. My only hope is they shut down this town fast enough.” At that instant, Edward’s eye lifted to the opening of the lab door. “My team just returned. Let me call you back.”

            Dr. Lange told him he was assembling more teams and the conversation ended.

            Using the intercom, Edward told Harold to double disinfect, then waited for him to walk into the office portion.

            He knew by the look on Harold’s face, he had more information.

            “We found a whole bunch of bodies,” Harold said. “Maybe a hundred or more.”

            “There’s eight hundred plus people in this town, of …”

            “No.” Harold stopped him. “Let me finish. We found a bunch of bodies. Apparently infected  … but they didn’t die of our sickness. They were shot.”

            Edward as barreled over by the news. “It can’t be.”

            “Single shot to the head. Men, women, children.”

            “Someone finished off the town.”

            Harold shook his head. “Nope.. Someone killed the people who weren’t going to die from the illness.”

            Edward ran his hand down his face with a hard sigh. “What the hell? Why?”

            With his question came a ‘thump’ on his desk. Harold tossed a sealed bag, and in it, what looked like a journal.”

            “What is it?” Edward asked.

            “You’re answers,” Harold replied. “Someone documented everything. I only skimmed through, but I’m pretty certain,” He pointed to the journal. “That right there, solves the mystery of what happened to this town.”

No worries, the world could still end in 2013

I’m still stuck on the 2012 end of the world prediction thing. While 2012 has come and gone, I can’t help but think of all those preppers who adamantly insisted and prepped for the end of the world. They invested everything into the one date.

While I haven’t invested my every dollar, I have had stock on hand since 1998 and rotated it for freshness. In 1998, the company I worked for started testing for Y2K and everything failed. Since then it has just been a habit and a hobby.

The 2012 predictions was based on theory and the Mayan calendar. It picked up momentum out of obsession and commercialization. It was not fact based like Y2K. But have no fear, if you have invested in the Apocalypse or felt let down that nothing happened, no worries, the world could still end in 2013 and by some fact based events.

To make your day, I've compiled a short list.

Solar Flare

It is a well known fact that scientists at NASA have been predicting a solar flare of record size to hit earth between January and March of 2013. Not that it will scorch us into oblivion but according to Nasa ..

 it could damage everything from aircraft and ground controls, emergency services’ systems, emergency hospital equipment, banks and traffic controls, through to everyday items that we all take for granted such as home computers, tvs and the driver’s friend – the Sat Nav. Power grids could overheat and bring counties to their knees whilst electronic items, navigation devices and even satellites could stop working after the Sun reaches its maximum power sometime in 2013. The effect of such a ‘storm’ could be felt for days, weeks or even months as we try to bring the World back on line with electricity, communications and vital services.

So in an essence, total society breakdown because the sun burps.

100 meter Asteroid DA14

Yep, we can go the way of the dinosaurs … sort of.

The asteroid, known as DA14, will pass by our planet in February 2013 at a distance of under 27,000 km (16,700 miles). This is closer than the geosynchronous orbit of some satellites.

There is a possibility the asteroid will collide with Earth, but further calculation is required to estimate the potential threat and work out how to avert possible disaster, NASA expert Dr. David Dunham told students at Russia’s University of Electronics and Mathematics.

Yellowstone Caldera or … Siberian traps

Oh, yeah, these ‘Super Volcanoes’ are ready to blow. Increased seismic activity, if one of these two bad boys blow, we are looking at the next ice age. Man’s extinction. These two calderas are often ignored, but they are scary facts of life. They are like puberty pimples. They can swell up at any time, erupt and make our lives miserable.

EV-71 – The New Hand Foot and Mouth disease.

How freaking scary is this one? Ever heard of it? Sure you heard of HFM disease, a very common child hood ailment, but EV-71 is a lethal strain. Get a fever, cold symptoms, cold sore … die. It is an antibiotic resistant strain that has a fatality rate of 90%. No kidding, look it up. In Cambodia. 59 children were infect, 52 died.

Incidentally …. 1990’s, Russian was working on a deadly strain of hand foot and mouth disease.  Specially in a weapons plant located near the China border. When the bio weapons project was banned in 1992. This particular strain went missing. Also, photos show that the plant, near China, is till operational.

While I have scratched off Mayan Apocalypse from my list, these remain. Thought I'd feed your apocalypse visions some more, I know you missed it.

To Resolve or not to Resolve?

It’s that time of the year again, the ‘end of the year’ blog.

Impressively, I blogged a lot more in 2012  than I did in 2011, but I want to keep on blogging. I will eventually get better at it.

So looking back on my last year’s resolution, I did pretty good. One of them was to get 7 books out and have 2 of them be non PA … check.

Actually, 2012 wasn't a bad year at all.  I welcomed my granddaughter Amelia in a whirlwind birthing experience. I didn't get married again. And for the second year in a row, I made it through without any utilities being shut off.

I made it beyond my 48^th birthday as well. Have to tell you, for years I worried that I was going to die the same age as my father. My older brother had the same fear too, and when he beat the mark he passed the torch to me. It was a neurotic torch to carry. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone, so I passed it to my brother Mike.

Every year for ten years I have posted my New Year’s resolutions. I do this so I can go back at the end of the year and see how well I did. Here they are.

In 2013 …

Write 7 books.

Finish off my trilogies (America Demise, Sleepers, Last Mile) and Zombie Battle. Hmm, that’s four.  It would probably not surprise most of you to know some of these are pretty much written, they need to be finished.

Finish the audio parts for Sleepers 2 by March 1^st.

Dedicate one hour a day to Promoting and being out there.

Get a job at Walmart portrait studios. Seriously, I want to be that person that takes family and baby pictures and sell the packages. I can meet so many new and interesting people that way. Imagine the new characters that emerge.

Become a Pescatarian. This is a vegetarian that eats fish. Why? I don’t know, it sounds cool, and if doesn't work for me, I’ll become a flexitarian (Real word) and that’s a person who is a vegetarian but sometimes isn't.

Update my website more often

Build the coolest app ever for my Beginnings series.

Forgive one person from my past and let it go. Typically, I don’t hold on to anything, but there are a few …. No, it won’t be frozen meat woman, I almost forgave her but she reignited that with them burgers.

Demand respect in my house. I realize I have a big home but it’s not the Comfort Inn, hell if it was, people would pay to sleep here. I am not a church organization or homeless shelter, you don’t get free room and board here. Time to be Thor and drop the hammer

Notice how there isn’t yet anything about relationships and love here. There won’t be.

Be more realistically based. I live off royalties and those are basically sales. Like other sales jobs there are ups and downs and I need to learn to deal with those. Not mope when things are bad, not want to quit, but find a way to make it better.

And finally …. Have something I write or do, bring about world peace and that garnishes me the Nobel Peace Prize …. Okay, I can be ambitious.

Have a safe and Happy New Year!