Baiting the Phisherman

It’s happened to all of us. That email from a friend that is out of town and lost their wallet and needs you to help get home. It leaves me to wonder if anyone really buys that. Anyhow I got an email this morning, only this one was from David Huffstetler, the awesome writer of the Jack Harden series. The subject heading was ‘Sad News’. Being an author myself, I thought, oh, he’s reaching out to me. To me, something must have been going on with Amazon. Then I opened the email. Ah, gees, …. Poor David is stranded after a successful tour and needs me to Western Union him money because the hotel is keeping his luggage hostage. Forget that hotels get your credit card information when you check in.

Obviously, we all know it to be a scam. BUT… but … what if this scam actually hurt David. We can laugh about it, but seriously, this person is using his name. What if some of his fans didn’t know and really wanted to help out their favorite author? I can see a few of my fans doing that. Wanting to help me. not 1,950 worth of help but still.

So I decided I was gonna get this guy. He was phishing and I was going to bait him. Now I know I am not the first nor will I be the last person to mess with a phisher, honestly, I thought I would be the one to catch him.

Maybe not. Anyhow, here is our exchange. (Click on the image to enlarge)

Obviously this guy is serious. He didn’t even read my email. So I replied,

Then when he didn’t respond to Baby Roo…. I tried one more time.

Suffice to say I haven’t heard back … yet. But if you get a chance, check out the real David’s books.

Baiting the Phisherman

It’s happened to all of us. That email from a friend that is out of town and lost their wallet and needs you to help get home. It leaves me to wonder if anyone really buys that. Anyhow I got an email this morning, only this one was from David Huffstetler, the awesome writer of the Jack Harden series. The subject heading was ‘Sad News’. Being an author myself, I thought, oh, he’s reaching out to me. To me, something must have been going on with Amazon. Then I opened the email. Ah, gees, …. Poor David is stranded after a successful tour and needs me to Western Union him money because the hotel is keeping his luggage hostage. Forget that hotels get your credit card information when you check in.

Obviously, we all know it to be a scam. BUT… but … what if this scam actually hurt David. We can laugh about it, but seriously, this person is using his name. What if some of his fans didn’t know and really wanted to help out their favorite author? I can see a few of my fans doing that. Wanting to help me. not 1,950 worth of help but still.

So I decided I was gonna get this guy. He was phishing and I was going to bait him. Now I know I am not the first nor will I be the last person to mess with a phisher, honestly, I thought I would be the one to catch him.

Maybe not. Anyhow, here is our exchange. (Click on the image to enlarge)

Obviously this guy is serious. He didn’t even read my email. So I replied,

Then when he didn’t respond to Baby Roo…. I tried one more time.

Suffice to say I haven’t heard back … yet. But if you get a chance, check out the real David’s books.

Who Negan Smashed - My Theory

I hate Negan. Not for the reasons you probably think. I’ll  get into that, but first …

Spoilers ahead

If you are not caught up on Walking Dead, stop reading.

You were warned.

Back to … I hate Negan. For Graphic Novel readers you were familiar with him, but for those who didn’t read, Walking Dead spent the second half of season six teasing this ‘Negan’ guy, trying to shove down our throats how horrible he is. When we see him, what did we get? A guy in designer jeans, an expensive made to fit leather jacket and the quintessential bad guy slicked back greasy hair. Oh, yeah, he carries a barbed wire bat that he bludgeons people with.

That’s his call to villain fame? He beats people? I hate Negan because he is being sold to us as this ruthless villain. He is not, by the true definition of the word, a villain. A good villain has some good qualities, for the most part, those around them aren’t convinced he or she is a villain and they don’t boast, like Dr. Evil how bad they are. Albeit selfish, there are good motives. The Governor was a great villain and Walking Dead has been cutting up the cardboard ever since to try to match him.

By the trailers we hear Negan brag about his strength. He uses phrases like Pee-pee pants  city. Pee pant city? What? Is he trying to scare first graders. Is he a bad guy? Yes. A villain? No. He’s a brute, and that won’t last long.

Speaking of the brute … Season Six of Walking Dead ended with a cliffhanger that got people in an uproar. How dare they do this to us, viewers cried out and cried foul. Admittedly it was one humdinger of a cliffhanger. Kudos to AMC.

Apparently Pee Pant City Man smashed someone in the head. Ironically, the same one screaming about the cliffhanger are the same ones that are convinced that Glenn got the bat. Just because it went that way in the GN. Seriously, people on spoiler and fan boards are downright belligerent about it being Glenn and anyone else who thinks otherwise is an idiot. Don’t believe me, go on one of those boards and post it isn’t Glenn. They smash you like the current bat wielding cardboard cut out villain.

When simple common sense would tell you that it isn’t Glenn. Would AMC risk losing viewers, go to all that trouble to build up a ‘who is it?’ cliffhanger if they were gonna stick to the comic books?

Some say he hasn’t been on set. Some say he’s been spotted. AMC is not gonna let this secret out. They will resort to having the character who died on set and hide others. All the Glenn Slayers will be crying in their Wheaties. He’s not dead. Forget the graphic novels, they wouldn’t pull a cliffhanger of this magnitude if they were following the books. They’d leave us crying at the end.

So who do I say got the bat? Maggie.

Why? It’s heart wrenching, it’s bold, it’s unexpected, it will motivate the characters and story. Game of Thrones slaughtered a pregnant woman brutally. Their viewers didn’t stop watching.

Book readers argue, ‘it’s not a woman. Negan doesn’t brutalize women. Especially pregnant ones.’ Correct me if I’m wrong, but unless Negan is a psychic or has xray vision, he hasn’t a clue she’s pregnant. And … remember she cut her hair, really short. It wasn’t the actress who wanted It done,  it was for storyline purposes. Short hair, dark lighting, pale from being sick … Negan thinks she’s a dude.

Smash.

AMC wants you to comeback to see who got it, they aren’t luring you back to see the predictable. That’s my take, opinion, a few more weeks and we’ll know.

Independence Day: Resurgence - A Non Spoiler Review

I remember that moment as if it was yesterday. That feeling of being enamored and falling in love … not in the traditional sense. It happened when I was just a child, I think I still believed in Santa. Not sure. But there I was seeing my destiny as I sat in Sensurround falling instantly in love with my future hero husband, Charlton Heston (Who cares if there was an age difference) and realizing I had an obsession and passion for all things apocalypse. 

Fast forward twenty-two years. Anyone that knows me knows I was obsessed with Independence Day. Absolutely loved that film, more to the point it was an abnormal obsession. “Yes,” I thought, “Why can’t there be more movies like this!” The movie jumped started my desire to create novels where worlds ended for various reasons. There have been movies since, I loved them, but they never hit that Independence Day threshold in my heart.

Fast forward … again … twenty years. The long awaited day arrived. I had been waiting for the sequel since it was announced in 2012, back when Will Smith was in his, “I’m in, nah, I’m out, nah I’m in’ Phase.  I spent the entire week leading up to it watching the first movie over and over again. Despite warnings from my son to not get my hopes up, I got tickets to the preview showing.

Here is my non spoiler review. Anything I mention that you think is a spoiler was in the trailer or on the website …

From a writer’s perspective I can see where they originally had Will Smith’s character, after he bailed you can also tell, that Rolland Emerich put (Not so subtly) screw you references to Smith.

Granted I am a little pissed that Smith declined the movie. To me he bit the hand that fed him. He was in bankruptcy when he starred in ID. It made him a superstar. I don’t want to hear he was filming Suicide Squad. Early interviews with Smith said he didn’t want to take a chance on a sequel or another science fiction movie. Personally, I think, because originally it was supposed to be a father/son story line, Smith dropped because they wouldn’t cast his kid.

The movie starts out as they prepare to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of defeating the aliens. The world is united and we swiped their technology creating a super cool high tech civilization. Old favorites return, President Whitmore is a well respected loon, Dr. Levinson is now a commander of the space technology and Julius Levinson’s reintroduction scene is priceless.

We also meet new characters. I especially like the addition of Deobia  Oparei

The first act sets up the story and doesn’t move as fast as you would hope. The movie is not what you think. It is not a reboot, it is not the same story line. It has depth, so pay attention to things that are said. Sometimes you’ll get caught up in the nostalgia of it, ‘Oh look there he is” sort of thing or the funny one liners and quips and miss the fact that are being given. Especially with the Africa scene give it your attention. So much is said that that comes into play later. There are two lines in that scene, spoken once. That two line exchange explains a lot.

And you may get teary eyed during the anniversary celebration, at least I did.

The movie isn’t all about destruction. They did that in the first one. This movie actually sets up the next one. (Not a spoiler they already announced a part 3). To say anymore about the movie would be spoiling it so I’ll leave you with this.

Was I disappointed ... no.

Did I like it …. Yes, really liked it, no I loved it. But I haven’t fallen IN love with it yet. I need to see it two more times.

Was it what I expected …. No. The trailers are misleading to the storyline.

The movie is a fun ride, often silly, but solid and a good sequel to a classic. Yes, I called it a classic.

It didn’t need Will Smith and he wouldn’t have made a difference. I would have missed Judd Hirsh more. If you plan on seeing it, you should. You won’t be disappointed and I hope it is such a huge success that Will Smith cries in his Wheaties.

Sandy Hook: Are Gun Makers Responsible?

Let me start by saying that that the tragedy and shooting at Sandy Hook was a tragedy. It was horrible, gut wrenching, heartbreaking and the pain it caused for those families is unimaginable. As a parent, and grandmother of a first grader, just hearing about that day again is … gut twisting. Those poor babies. Those families.

I understand the need to want justice, to see someone pay for the tragedy. I would want that too. I’d be screaming out with every ounce of my agony.  After all, Adam Lanza is dead, he won’t pay the price. Somebody must … pay, but the gun manufacturer? That’s not the one. It just doesn’t make sense that a) A lawsuit was filed against them, and b) a judge is allowing it to go forward.

It would be like suing Lanza’s father for creating him. Even that makes much more sense of the gun manufacturer.

 For the life of me, and I wish someone would explain the legal logic, how is the gun manufacturer responsible. Please. I’m not being sarcastic, I need to know how.

The gun shop owner, I can sort of see the logic, (I believe there is a suit there) But the manufacturer, the ones that make the guns. How are they libel for the person who shoots it.

Now someone said to be that guns are manufactured with the knowledge that they kill. So are hunting knives.

If the families want justice, what about going after Yale Mental Health for not reporting the mother to the state when she refused help for her son. Help, Yale states was needed, years before the murders. Their repeated recommendation went ignored. Yet, if a pediatrician tells a mother that she is harming her child by over feeding, he is within his rights to turn her over to authorities. Why didn’t this apply with Lanza?

While I realize it is a privacy issue, revealing mental illness and all, but unfortunately it needs to be done. Remember guns may be licensed to an individual, but they ultimately go to a household where anyone in that house has access.

The horror of Sandy Hook built to its explosive and horrific end. The child with mental problems so severe, institutionalization was recommended, the mother who ignored that advice, the medical officials who didn’t follow through, the mother that purchased the guns knowing damn well her kid had issues, and the kid who committed such an incomprehensible crime, it makes you sick to think about it.

All of it played a part in that fateful December day. There are so many pieces to blame, but in my opinion, not one of them is the gun manufacturer. Maybe it’s my ignorance, or I am missing something, I don’t know. Perhaps someone can explain.

Where's Donald Trump: Quitting or regrouping

I opened up the CNN page today, and it wasn’t what I saw, it was what I did not see. For the first time and I could not tell you in how long, Donald Trump did not dominate the page. In fact, I was greeted with the murder story. That was the headline not Donald Trump.

Huh?

Since the Wisconsin primary pretty much Donald Trump has not been on the front pages. We’ve heard about him. Speculation. But after his weird and tantrum like concession tweet following a Wisconsin loss, Donald Trump has disappeared.

Now, he’s out there. And he’s in New York. That makes zero sense. He pretty much has New York locked up and in a bag. So why would he leave the trail, cancel California and Colorado, and just go home? In fact, news reports that his first rally in his home state was lackluster. Not the crowds, but Donald himself.

Gone are the ranting tweets at 2 AM, gone are the retweets. It’s almost as if someone said to him, “Stop. You really want this?  Just stop. “

There’s speculation that he’s regrouping. Amongst people I know, even Donald supporters, there is concern he’s going to drop out. There’s talk of that. I don’t buy it.

He has gotten himself a new, as he calls it, convention manager. A veteran on campaigns. It could be that this veteran is whispering in Donald’s ear.

Let's face it, the Donald has had some missteps recently. A lot of them. Including the Corey Lewandowski deal.  No matter how much Donald wants to stand beside him it’s not looking good. He boasted that he would not fire Cory, he didn’t, he just hired somebody to kind of take over and push Corey to the background.

Again I don’t think it’s regrouping, or rethinking. To me, it’s business.

It is odd for me to write a pro Trump blog. But in actuality it’s not pro Trump it’s reality check to all those who are second-guessing. To the never Trump people that are hoping he really is dropping out.

Reality is Donald Trump is a businessman. He runs his businesses. He is top-of-the-line. And then he goes on this campaign trail. All well and fine, he can run his businesses from the trail, but is not going to do it the way he did before. Increasingly with the schedules, rallies, inundated news coverage. Trump cannot do his business the way he did it before. He entrusts others, and anyone that has ran their own business knows, there’s only so much trust you can give someone whether they are related to or not.

No one will run your own business the way you will.

Donald is finding that out.

Anyone that is stepping  back or taking time off or lax on their work of their own business, knows it tallies up. There’s stuff that people don’t do or don’t do correctly.

Things begin to slip, revenues drop, it gets to a crisis and if you don’t do it yourself, you won’t have it when you’re done with whatever is distracting you.

Trump has entrusted his children. These are the same children whose father is running for president, and didn’t register to vote. If they couldn’t do something so simple as registering to vote for their father, how are they running his business. One of them just had a baby. It’s not getting done.

So Trump, seeing his businesses fail, not that they are, but they need his attention. Decided this was the best time ever. He hit a sacrifice fly with Colorado, and went home. Trump could actually retreat and not even step out his front door for the next couple weeks. He has New York wrapped up. Barring some unforeseen circumstances, where he blunders big time, or commits some heinous crime, he’s going to win New York. That is where Trump is. Fixing his business. We will not hear much from Trump until after the New York primary. A rally here and there, but nothing non stop like before. And then he will go back on the trail full force.

My question is, people like winners, will it be a little too late,. Will Trump step back too much that  this will be detrimental to him. If Trump emerges after New York he will not emerge the same, he is going to have a new manager, and he will present a different persona. Quite, less ranting tweets, nothing over the top. Will that last, we don’t know. A new presidential Trump will, and can absorb into the masses,  with nothing to make him stand out. Truth be told his brash nature  and antics put him in the notable lane. Without them is he Trump? Under the new improved circumstances, would Trump be able to ride this train at the same speed he has done before.

I doubt it. We will find out.

This is been the best election season ever.

When Parents need you

Our entire lives, especially when we are young, we hear stories about people that have to take care of their aging parents. We express our sympathy, but there's no way we could feel empathetic about it until we are in that position.

When we were in our 20s we may have even have witnessed our parents taking care of their own parents. Worrying about them, finding medical care, back and forth to the hospital. We understand it, we care, but really, we didn't get it.

See, the thing that no one ever tells you when you're 25 years old is, the older you get, yeah your parents get older, but they don't seem as old to you as it did when you were 20. The older I got the younger my mother seemed. She seems vital more different than my own grandmother at 75 years old. Of course my own grandmother didn't live to see 75 and her mother didn't live to see 70. I remember my great-grandmother at 65 she had severe dementia.

My own grandmother was in control of her mental faculties up until the day she died.

My mother in her 70s is strong or rather was strong. One day she was complaining that my brother was nothing but a whore while cooking a big dinner, and the next, she's hours from death. A flip a coin. That fast. Reality check.

We see it, but we have a hard time believing it. After all, the parent struggling for their life and that bed was just fine the day before, so there os no reason to believe they won't bounce back. And do so rather quickly. Again, they were healthy 24 hours earlier.

Something happens when were older, something breaks and it's not easily repaired. Like that  old trusty washing machine that you've had for 25 years. You know you keep replacing belts, or fixing this and that, eventually it will go. That is the human body. No matter how hard we wish for it to stay good, it starts to fail. Another reality we must face.

Because we do not want to accept that our parents cannot be 100% where they were, we optimistically visit them. Hoping that each day we walk in that they are better. While they do get better it's not at the pace we want. Days turn into weeks and soon weeks later, we find out that parent needs a little more help than we expected.

It has got to be the most frustrating thing for my mother. I feel for her. It took a while for her to get back to her mental state, almost 3 weeks. Her body just isn't catching up. There are six of us siblings. Each of us trying to cover 24 hour period or as much as we can so she's not alone. It wears us down. Those of us to have the luxury of working from home are those of us who bear the responsibility of taking more shifts. I suppose it's just as difficult on those who working 9-to-5 job. They get up, to go to work, they can go home, change their clothes, go to the hospital, go to bed, repeat. But they go to work. For us that work at home, like me, we go back and forth, deal with things during our work time. Work piles up, when we get home we don't feel like working. Therefore placing us under a hunugnsou pile that we have no idea of how that we cannot dig ourselves out .

I suppose this blog isn't about solutions, not yet, it is about frustration and hardship. If I would offer solutions anyone facing a parent in a hospital waiting for them to get well I'm moving to the next step before they come home, it would be to work together. Keep yourself strong so they can be strong

The last thing you want is for your parents to see that you are struggling. Either physically or emotionally.

My mother is getting out of the hospital after weeks, but she has to go to a skilled care for a few more weeks. After that, she will come to my house, which will begin a whole new way of life for me.

Nine Reasons Why Walking Dead Jumped the Shark in S6

While many may disagree with me, I am going to go on record as saying Walking Dead jumped the shark in Season six. Gimble is Richie Cunningham and Kirkman is the Fonz. Jumped the shark.  Instead of my ranting in a big opening paragraph, I decided to make the list. Here it is. My nine reasons and moments I believe contributed to Walking Dead jumping the shark in Season Six.

WARNING CONTAINS SPOILERS

The Glen Dead Fake Out

So Glen gets blasted with the blood of Nick, falls off the dumpster and we watch as it looks like he’s torn apart by zombies. Was there anyone who actually bought that? If they did, surely after we saw nothing for three episodes they knew he wasn’t dead. What was the point in that?

Bound by the comics and limited in imagination

It is no secret that for some unknown reasons they cater to the graphic novel fans, inadvertently isolating those who do not read the comics. They cater so much, that any deviation is so slight, there is no surprise. Hell, who needs to watch the show when there’s a big fat bunch of books telling you exactly what happens. Kirkman has his chance to right his wrong, to make up for things he regretted in the books. But he backs off, I think because they won’t let him. Hey AMC, they are graphic novels, not storyboards, no need to follow frame by frame.

Traded Shock and ‘awwww’ for Shock and ‘oh, ok’

Remember the good old days when we didn’t see it coming? Dale died and we cried? Hershel got it and we screamed. The won with the first fake out (Judith) and never went back. Now they follow a formula. Introduce a character, feature them in an episode and kill them at the end of the episode. Or kill them in a way we squirm, like having a kids head bit off. They won’t kill main characters anymore. Main cast is safe.  More than likely the Lucille killing will either be a lesser grade character. The brutal beating is the ‘shock’, no sad ‘awww’

Fire them all

The writing is sub par. It’s lazy and relies on a prewritten outline in the form of graphic novels. Been there done that. They are all so full of themselves, they need fired. I REFUSE to believe someone as talented as Kirkman has a say so in the writing. And Greg Nictero. Seriously, Dude, cut the hair.

They haven’t killed Daryl Physically

Why is Norman Reedus so protected. I understood in Seasons one and two, possibly parts of three. But the last few seasons he has become nothing but an aging man, who needs a haircut and a bath. He has no purpose in the show. His character is no longer fun to watch. Might as well kill him off since his character died long ago.

Season Six Finale

It was ninety minutes of watching “Wheels on the RV go round and round’. A game of cat and mouse interlaced with okay scenes of Morgan and Carol. I would have rather of watched them more. But instead it was the same stupid story, take this road, blocked. They had other story lines. I mean, Daryl’s blood splattered on the scene at the end of Fifteen for goodness sakes. Yet, we see nothing, hear nothing until the end of the nine minutes. What happened to him? Where was he shot.  Let’s face it AMC let those spoilers out early (Something they never do) because they knew the finale would be a bust.

The Cliffhanger Ending

I’m not talking about it being a cliffhanger, I am talking about the way they did it. Good god, if they want to keep us in suspense about who gets the bat, can they at least make it look decent. What was up with those bad, Microsoft Paint blood rolls on the screen layover. Did they run out of money?

They have no idea who gets the bat

The packing of the RV was lame. All to what? Give us more people to guess about for six months? Adding more credence to the fact they will bat off a lesser known. Everyone had a reason for being in the RV. Abe and Sasha, I get it. Aaron? He said, “I owe her”, what did I miss. And why in the world would Rick have Carl in the RV? Knowing the Saviors were out there? Fr. Gabe has proven himself chump more than champ. I’d trust Carl with the Judith. If they do get balls and kill of Glen or Daryl, they’ll open Season seven with Daryl getting shot. Doing their time lapse thing there. But they don’t know. Not yet.

Negan

The Graphic Novels fans have been waiting for him. Salivating over his arrival. He is supposed to be the worst, the worst of the worst. Someone so evil he made cocky Rick into a trembling fool. I didn’t get it. Yeah, Rick was scared, but of what? So, that was Negan? I saw a skinny, pretty boy, over acting in designer pants. Yeah, he was skinny, the bulky coat was an illusion. He carried a bat. He said, “Pee Pee City.” For real? Oooooh, thems scary words. What the hell kind of villain says, “Pee Pee City.” And it makes the hero tremble. I got so damn annoyed with the nine minute, over the top monologue, I was shouting at the screen, “Hit someone already.” Again, trying to stay true to the comic was a fail here. The Novel readers may have loved Pee Pee City, but some of us thought it was ridiculous. Nine minutes. Enough.

And that’s it. Jumped the Shark. If they want to take it all back, toss out the comics and start fresh. New ideas.  Surprise the viewers instead of giving them a visual of what they read.

10 Cloverfield Lane: A Review

Let me start by saying, “I love John Goodman.” That alone will tell you my mindset going into this film.

So, as I usually do, I give warning.

WARNING. May contain Spoilers.

You’ve been warned. Here we go.

Being a late night movie goer it is tough to get a viewing companion so I went to this one alone. I really didn’t know what to expect, except that I heard it had something to do with the movie Cloverfield and it had John Goodman. That was all I knew. I went to seek reviews, and when I saw a review title, ‘Go to the movie first, don’t spoil it by reviews.’ I paid attention.

Now … that reviewer was wrong. He insinuated that by reading a review it would ruin this HUGE surprise ending that no one is supposed to see coming. Okay, unless you lived under a movie rock, you’ll know the ending to this one. Although the teenagers I spoke to after the movie lived under a rock. They came out saying, “Dude, I didn’t see it coming.”

Really? Really.

“Did you see the movie Cloverfield?”

“Yes.”

“Then how did you not see it coming? Notice the movie title?”

“Ooooooh.”

But rest assured the movie is not about what is happening to the world, it is about human nature, trust and what happens in this really cool decked out bomb shelter.

Howard is a navy veteran. A survivalist with a keen sense of seeing what is coming. He’s divorced and we learn that his wife took off with his daughter whom he adored. Howard is played by Goodman.

Michelle is running from her relationship problems, in a dick move she packs up and leaves her boyfriend. While on the run, she is in an automobile accident and is rescued by Howard. When she wakes up, he tells her the world has ended.

She of course, doesn’t believe him. Which sets the tone for the movie. Is Howard lying and just a kidnapper or did the world really end. Now any attempt by JJ Abrams to confuse the audience, keep them guessing, is tossed out the window about thirty minutes into the movie. Unless you’re thick, dense or in the bathroom, the ‘I never seen it coming’ ending is pretty much given away there. Hell, it’s given away in the preview.

What you see in the preview is what you get in the movie. Although it has some good comedy moments, tense moments and ultra cool monologues with great music.

Did I like it? Yes.

It’s The Divide meets Misery. No kidding. It is.

Should you go see it at the movies? Yes for the visual effects. But don’t go alone. It is one of those movies you really want to discuss with someone afterward.

For example …. My big question still is, what the hell did the daughter have to do with the story line.

10 Cloverfield is certainly one I will own on digital Download. I’d say DVD, but does anyone really buy them anymore?

How Marco Rubio Could Get Back in the Race and Win

On Super Tuesday, Marco Rubio looked into the eye of the camera and directly into the hearts of his supporters and stated firmly, "I will not drop out. If I have to get in my pickup truck and drive from state to state, I will."

Fast forward. Marco has dropped out.

My heart broke. Not because someone I believe in dropped out of the race, but more so he became another victim of the anger and hate. Proving once again nice guys finish last. I literally cried over the fact that his home state let him down. I also believe that early voting had a lot to do with that.

So why did Marco drop out? Does he not want to be the president? I firmly believe with my heart that he wants to be the president of United States and he is missing the perfect opportunity to be one.

Marco needs to make good on his promise to the American people and supporters, when he said he would get in his pick up truck, he should.

What? Are you insane? you ask. No. I am not. I know that sounds like a lot but I have a game plan for Marco. It's foolproof. It would work. And he would ‘trump’ Trump in his own free advertisement game.

The logistics of it all can be worked out and it’s a strategy that can be brilliant for him. The tough part is done, He's on the ballot in each state. 

Hopefully Marco's pick up truck can make a good road trip putting on 10,000 miles. Because that's what he would need to do. Double check his truck is in road worthy order. Then he needs to reach out to his supporters. Reach out to people and sign up five people in every state. People will. Five people across the state. These will be a Rubio reps. This person will provide lunch,and  if need be a place to lay his head, and a voice in the community. Even if Marco gets in the back of his pickup truck while somebody drives and he speaks on a megaphone yelling, "Here I am. Vote for me for president." Imagine what would happen.

The media would explode. Here is a man who believes in what he's doing so much that he follows his heart instead of following a superpac. We the people, the new superpac. A man who is putting it all on the line to be president and isn’t afraid to show how bad he wants it. This isn't just some man, this is Marco freaking Rubio. He already has a name. The news will eat him up in a good way. So much so, Trump will wallow in jealousy. They will show every move he makes.

From every Starbucks coffee shop stop to the local deli. "Looks like Marco is at it again," they would say. "Hittin it hard in Cleveland this week, Marco visited a local nursing home."

Yeah. Do you see it? I do.

He can do this. We can help him. Each person in each city picks five to ten places for Marco to visit. Then they send a press release out to news outlets letting them know where Marco will be. They won't be rallies, they don't need to be rallies, they need him reaching out to people. Put on a pair of jeans, a tee shirt and go!

His message, I am a man of the people, for the people. Hit the ground.

Grassroots is a powerful tool. Five to ten places in each city. From George's hardware store  to Sam’s Pizza, to Caraboo. It can be done. He will have an impact. He doesn't need to buy ads, his presence and fortitude will be advertisements. He doesn't need anything but spirit. And I'm willing to bet that this could work so much so that not only would I do all press releases, I would pay for his gas in his truck to make this road trip. I won’t need to though because he will gather momentum again. The good guy. We the supporters will rally all the way to the convention.  He needs back in this race if only to say somebody with heart  and soul still cares enough about this country to put it all on the line and lead.

It gave me 'Goosebumps'

Let's establish first and foremost that I am not a huge fan of kid movies or family movies. Such as animated features like Toy Story or anything like that. I cave in once in a while and take my grandchildren to a kid movie. But they're not my thing. Hence, why I have them enjoying horror flicks such as zombie and end of the world movies.

I escaped having to go see Goosebumps the movie at the theater. That now in hindsight was my error. I missed out on that experience.

When my grandson who is six suggested that we rent the movie on Amazon, I agreed. Seeing that I could just simply get up and walk away. I got a pizza, some popcorn, set up the living room, pressed the button and… Ugh! I bought it instead of renting it.

I believe I made that noise, too.

“No, Nennie, see.” My grandson said. “You are going to love this. I swear.”

Okay.

Before you think, why not just hit return? Let me explain. I do not believe in returns for creative projects. Call me biased. But somebody put their labor of love into that and whether I like it or not I purchased it. Anyhow…

I sat down next to my grandson and granddaughter and away we went watching the movie. I pulled out my phone, expecting to catch up on emails when suddenly I was thrust not into boredom but into the pleasant memories of the movies I enjoyed in my late teen, early twenties. Goonies, Monster Squad, Teen Wolf, Silver Bullet … Goosebumps delivered that same feel. Funny, exposing the naiveté of our youth while scaring us.

Wait. Stop. Back up. I restarted the movie because I wanted to give it my full attention. It was entertaining and as a writer, I found it dementedly enjoyable on another level.

The basic premise of the movie is RL Stine has hidden away because he protects a secret. The manuscript versions of his published books are magic and if opened, the manuscripts release the monsters from the pages.

Something almost every writer dreams about. “Oh, if my characters were just real.”

The cast was funny and engaging and made you care about the characters. Jack Black was just awesome and I hope his kids loved this movie.  I found myself laughing out loud and waiting anxiously to see what was next. It was so well done, that I couldn’t wait to watch it again and purchased a ventriloquist doll from ebay right away. I loved this movie and watched it three times already. I have placed this as a staple movie right along with Goonies.

It’s a family movie. Although I had to explain to my grandkids a few things. My 5 year old granddaughter asked, “What’s a manuscript?” I told her what they were and she asked if I had any.

“Oh, sure,” I told her. “Dozens in the bins in my closet.”

“Are they magical? Can we open them?”

“Um, yeah, but you may want to be careful considering I write about the apocalypse. You can release Frank (my hero from my sci fi series). But watch out for Iso Stasis, it has a big foot like monster.”

The questions didn’t end. Luckily I divide my manuscripts. End of the world, non end of the world. And I showed her and my grandson the bins. I left them staring with marked curiosity and went to my office. Telling them, “Remember, only open that bin,” I pointed to the non Armageddon ones.

A few minutes later I hear Violet scream, “Great! Oh, just great Boo. Now you released the Apocalypse!”

I laughed at how she freaked out and then it hit me. Goosebumps not only entertained us during the movie, it stayed with us after and that is what a good movie is supposed to do.

Healthy School Lunch VS Filling School Lunch

I’m probably gonna get slammed for this, but I have to ask. Is it more important that our kids eat in school or what they eat? In a perfect world, they would eat healthy, fresh food and toss out only the empty plate. But that’s not the case.

Admittedly, before this school year, my attention to Mrs. Obama’s healthy school lunch initiative was, ‘oh, okay, that may suck’. But really … it does suck. Maybe not for the privileged schools who don’t rely on government funding. But for those who do … lunch time is bogus.

The guidelines are strict, if you don’t follow them, you don’t get funding. Sure there are creative ways and tasty ways around the lunches, but a small school or low income school doesn’t have the funds or resources to get creative.

What they are left with are lunches that follow the guide lines. The lunch lady’s hands are tied.

Some kids get one good meal a day. They rely heavily on the school lunch.. One … and now, that one healthy lunch, their only meal, ends up in the garbage. We waste.

While the well funded, privately funded schools can tastefully dart their way around, low budgets are stuck with what they can afford. And it isn’t great. Whole grain pasta … is gummy. Kids won’t eat it. Whole grain pizza … really? Whole grain bread … dry.

Try as they may, the lunch ladies can only do so much with the guidelines and funding. Take a look at some of these lunches.

I have seen it first hand, volunteering in the cafeteria, I watch kids throw away more than they eat. The ones that eat all their lunches are the ones that pack. And I’ll tell you, the parents don’t follow guidelines, they follow instincts on what their children will eat.

I understand the need for healthy. And yes, let’s make sure lunch is balanced. The five food groups offered at every meal. But if a child will eat a plate of pizza and have a fully belly, to me it is better than a full plate going in the trash. A hungry child will not have a good day in school.

Kids have been eating school lunches for decades without issues.

The government can push healthy lunches on a kid, but if he or she doesn’t eat it, you can bet when they get home from school, they’ll chow down on junk. So what’s the alternative.

What a child eats should be a parent’s choice. Let the lunch ladies do what they do and make a good lunch, if a prent doesn’t think that lunch is healthy, let the parent PACK the healthy lunch.

Lots of pictures of Mrs. Obama eating at a school cafeteria, but I can bet if she had to eat the inner city, low income school lunches, she’d have a different attitude.

She doesn’t eat school lunches every day, our kids do.

By the way, I’m still convinced her healthy eating is a front. Bet me she has Oreos in her closet, Ben and Jerry’s in the white House Freezer and Dominoes on Speed dial. We just don’t know it.

400 Days (Movie) - Review and Ending theory

If you are like me, after watching the movie 400 Days, you immediately went on line to google the ending. You probably screamed at the screen and or just scratched your head. After watching the movie for an hour and a half, I decided to go back and watch it in pieces, breaking down the movie so I could rest easy about it.

Yes, I’m not kidding, the movie will drive you nuts because you think there just aren’t enough clues. But there are. It's well written and well acted.

If you haven’t seen 400 Days … STOP.  Watch it and come back. This entire review/explanation is full of spoilers. You have been warned. SPOILERS AHEAD.

400 days deals with a psychological experiment to test the effects of astronauts in space for long periods of time. It's a solid movie that will keep you entertained and guessing.

Hint one – Psychological experiment. That alone tells you it all. But they want you to believe, is it? Is it all an experiment or did the apocalypse really happen while they were tucked 100 feet underground in a simulated ship?

The film gave plenty of clues to explain the ending of the film.

SPOILERS

In the beginning, it is painfully obvious that the Doctor is a part of it. “Remember our deal,” the director says. Although, she explains later that he was reminding her to stay estranged from her boyfriend the captain.

Doctor chick, Emily, gives injections to the men. Not herself, she takes pills. In every experiment there has to be a constant. She is the constant. The pills help her keep clarity, while the injections cause hallucinations in the men. Hence why she keeps testing them.

Her supposed death, was a fake, if you recall she took extra pills, got dizzy and went to sleep. A set up.

Hallucinogenics cause a projection of fear or something in your subconscious, hence why Botany boy, Bug, kept seeing his dead son.— He wasn’t going crazy, seeing a ghost, he was hallucinating.  When he figures it out, the experiment snatches him away. Actually …. Emily helps with that. That’s why she disappeared briefly. Being part of the experiment, she had to step back so Theo could discover the blood bath. She had to get Bug out of the way.

Now for some things you may have missed or not thought of. When they have the explosions, the ship rocks. Dane Cook's character (My favorite and most well rounded) asks, “Are we moving?”

I believe they were moved to the stage.  Where everything was set up. The crew said the town wasn’t there before the experiment. So in the apocalypse the town appears with power?

Moon dust? Okay, serious, if the moon fell apart, there’d be a lot more damage than  rocks falling from the sky. How about tsunami’s? The computer read outs could have been duped by the experiment.

As a writer, we place the truth in a character. A glossary guy. But sometimes you may miss that the character is giving away the truth. We think he’s nuts or unbelievable. Dane Cook is that character.

He continually states it’s all part of the experiment, reminding the viewer that none of it is real. He does so passionately. Like shouting. "Dudes, listen to me. It 's not real." But we don’t pay attention, we’re too busy hoping it is not.

He states that all the towns’ people were familiar and were the reporters. He is correct. The reporters are credited in the movie credits as reporter 1, 2, 3 etc. But none of the townspeople get a credit. Because they would confirm they were also reporters.

The  big one, and the reason Cook disappears is he figured it out and recognized the town hottie as Miss February. She indeed was one in the same. The mag with her picture was done on purpose to see if he would remember, he did, he called them on it, he was taken out.

The final death scene, well, to be honest, maybe they were real, maybe not. One thing is for sure, it was nothing but an experiment, The surveillance camera view at the end along with the hatch opening and the sunlight coming in were, in my opinion, final confirmation.

I’m not saying I’m right, and you can double check what I put here, but I’m pretty darn sure the filmmakers left enough hints to let us turn off the movie with the certainty that it was all a big experiment. I liked the movie, I liked it more once I figured it out completely … at least to my satisfaction.

Bite Your Tongue: Trump is NO Reagan

I posted a simple question on my Facebook page – Why Trump? I wanted to know what people thought. One person responded that she believed (Not felt) That people saw him as another Reagan. What! No, she had to be wrong. Just reading those words sent me into a tizzy. Trump like Reagan … uh, can we say ‘Blasphemy’?

Believing that there was no way people thought that, at least the masses. I googled ‘Trump like Reagan’ and lo and behold, not to my surprise, the first thing that popped up was Trump comparing his campaign to Reagan.

Seriously?

Maybe I am taking it too much to heart. As a diehard Reagan fan, there was only one Reagan. And my fandom comes from the man he was, not even so much his politics. He was charming and funny. Trump is rude and obnoxious. Reagan had class, Trump needs to take one on manners. Reagan was strong, Trump is a mean bully. It’s like Prince Charming VS Archie Bunker, apples to Oranges. Sweet pickles to olives. There is no comparison.

Admittedly, I am not a Trump fan. I disliked him when the world disliked him. Remember when he was a joke? To me, he still is.

Any comparison to Reagan is blasphemous.

People talk about how Reagan wasn’t a politician. Really? Wasn’t he a Governor first?

Hey, Trump? You wanna ban Muslims? Kick out all undocumented immigrants, build a freaking wall? Conservatives like to forget that Reagan gave amnesty to 3 million undocumented immigrants. Yeah, he did.

To further educate Trump. Foreign Policy isn’t a policy that is foreign to people and they don’t ‘get’.

Our Nuclear triad is not a spicy new gum.

Granted there are a few similarities between Reagan and Trump and I begrudgingly mention.  They both had more than one wife, both are 69 running for office, they both worried about their hair. But could you see Ronald Reagan saying, “Yeah, my daughter Patty, I’d date her if we weren’t related.”? No! But Trump said that about his own kid. That’s wrong on so many levels.

But then again, his daughter is female. Trump loves women only if they look a certain way.

Reagan would never publically call or even admit to calling another woman a ‘fat pig’, like Trump. Let’s see, Trump claimed all women on The Apprentice flirted with him, blames Hillary for Bill cheating (So freaking male), dissed Carly Fiorina’s looks, called a female reporter a dog, said Meagan Kelly Bleeds from ‘wherever’ said a breastfeeding mother was disgusting for needing to pump her milk, and since ‘disgusting’ is his favorite word, let’s not forget Hillary using the restroom was disgusting. Like he never had to take a dump or a piss. What is he Kim jong un?

To twist-a-quote from Lloyd Benson, “I loved Ronald Reagan, I studied Ronald Reagan, you Trump are no Ronald Reagan.”

I feel much better now that I wrote this. I’ll step off my soapbox now.