This is Us ... the show, the mystery, the legend

This is Us is a great show, but they almost sent me down the Walking Dead path … almost.

**Note, this blog may contain spoilers**

It started with a promo trailer six months or so before the premiere date. And I, like many others waited for This is Us. I needed something to fill the weekly cry fest hole that was left in my being after Parenthood left the air. Suffice to say, I was not disappointed.  At first to me, it was no Parenthood, nothing could be. Come on, Zeke Braverman was the man. While I love, love Jack, indulged and sobbed that first season, there was one thing, in my opinion, that stopped the show from snatching the golden crown from Parenthood .. relatability.

Other than Kate, I couldn’t relate nor could I relate anyone I knew to the characters. They were good and enjoyable to watch. Kate’s struggle with weight loss and self esteem issues struck home with a lot of people. But Kevin and Randall. Nope. When we are first introduced, Randall was searching for his biological father. Yes, people do search for biological parents, but not many are well to do enough to have a private investigator handle it., and he was a Weather Trader, whatever that is. Kevin is a famous television star who has everything, good looks and a body. So unless you’re Chris Pratt sitting on the couch, watching This is Us and saying, “Yes, Kev, Yes. Nailed it.” Relatability out the window.

Combine that with the fact that not only did they keep us in a shroud of mystery over Jack’s death, they tossed out clues that were totally misleading. Making the ever guessing fans look like weirdos. I went from watching it live, to watching it on Wednesday and when Season 2 started, I was like, “Eh, I'll DVR it and watch it when I can.”

**SPOILERS**

Then somewhere, Kevin became an addict, Randall quit his job, needed to find himself and Rebecca became human. (Notice I left  out Kate, she’s perfect). Suddenly this family, struggling to live up to their father, became broken and not perfect. The second half of season 2 fires into the writers focusing more on them as a family, over their individual storylines. The Jack mystery death …. UG, they reeled us in the with mystery when it was actually a sniper attack. I suddenly didn’t want to know. The latest episode had me reaching for the bourbon, pausing the show because I didn’t want to see more, examining my crock pot and running around checking and double checking every smoke detector in my house. Thank you for that, by the way, This is Us became a PSA and because of that episode, someone out there was saved.

They hooked us with Jack, kept us coming back for Jack and as the season progresses I find myself ready to face the series without Jack. Like the characters do, reflecting on the man’s life, instead of obsessing over his death.

As I pen this, we haven’t gotten to episode 14, the one after the super bowl. I’m not ready for it. Not at all. My only grip now is the misleading they have done. Since the first episode of Season two, we’ve known about the fire. Yet, the cast and producers kept saying., “The viewers will be shocked when they find out how Jack dies.” Showing his unburned personal effects, had viewers scrambling for a reason for Jack’s death and the fire. “none of the fans have guessed it,” They’d say. Of course not, we’re not gonna guess a freaking crock pot. We weren’t looking for the cause of fire, we were looking at the death. And if he burned in the fire, why were all his things unharmed.

None of the kids looked like they were in a fire. After seeing the promo, it looks more like he does die saving his family. I got news for the writers, we’re not going to be shocked. Even if he runs back in for Scrappy the dog, no shock there. If he dies in the fire we have known since Episode 1. Crock pot or not.

If I was the writer, Jack would have been hit by a car while chasing the dog that ran into the street, the house fire was caused by the crockpot and only because Rebecca was in the hospital watching Jack die.

That’s just me, that’s why I’ll stick to writing end of the world stuff instead of dramas.

How Jack ends up passing still remains to be seen and I will be watching.

This is Us went from being a great show to a fantastic show, and it’s mighty close in my book to catching up to Parenthood.

Nuclear War Myths

My infatuation with nuclear war began long before my twelfth grade English class when we read the novel, Alas Babylon. I remember thinking that it was pretty spot on with information I had learned.

Then again, I had the advantage of growing up in a time when the threat of nuclear war was high.

When I was a child, even at ten years old, I set up my own shelter in the basement of my home, complete with food I stole from the kitchen.

Even though I was a Reagan era kid, I still was not the norm when it came to obsession and education about surviving a potential nuclear war. People in the fifties learned because they were made to learn it, it was part of their everyday lives. As time moved on, people fell into the ignorance is bliss category.

While I am not wanting this to be a strict survival blog, for the time being, it seems to be a focus.

With the recent Hawaii alert scare, scanning social media posts showed me a lot of people have some misconceptions.  So I thought I would do a blog about some myths I have read on Facebook.

I’m going to try to avoid being overly scientific, simply because that can get boring.

Let’s start

Myth 1  - I will have to stay underground for years

Not true. Radiation decreases with time. There is the 7:10 Rule and you remember it, it could save your life. There is an exact science to it, for every seven fold increase in time, there is a ten fold decrease. But I have found an easy reliable formula is every seven hours radiation levels will drop 7 x 10% of the reading. EX: 1000 Rads of radiation, seven ours later will be 300. Or even easier 14 hours later radiation levels are 1/10 of what they were. That is why staying underground, not exposed the first 24 hours are crucial.

The human body can endure up to 100 Rads of radiation per hour before getting sick. 350 can be fatal. The body will process and get rid of it, unless you have Prussia Blue you will have to rely on your thyroid and time to expel it. There is no radiation reset.

So how will you know when it’s safe, especially if you don’t have a dosimeter … play it safe. Assume it’s high for at least 3-5 days. That does mean go frolicking in the apocalypse, it means play it safe. Keep exposure to a minimum.

MYTH 2 – Nowhere is safe.

Radiation carries west to east with the winds. This handy map from the cold war, shows you how radiation will flow.

Also, this SUPER COOL tool, will give you a look at how a nuclear explosion will impact your city. Play with it. Test it out. NUKE IT MAP

MYTH 3 – We will get hit with thousands of bombs if nuclear war starts

Okay, if it was 1983 then I’d say yes. There were 70k nuclear weapons then. But now there are 15k worldwide. The US and Russia make up for 13k of them. Of Russians 6600 nuclear weapons, 1500 are ICBMs ready and Deployable. Over half of the 6600 are stockpiled. Meaning they aren’t ready. Should they release their bay and the US release theirs. They won’t have resources left to prepare the remaining bombs. The US would intercept 40% of all missiles.

Let’s be real. If there is a nuclear exchange it will be limited, because it won’t take any more than a few nukes to bring society to a halt.

MYTH 4 – If a nuke goes off we’re screwed, the EMP will destroy everything.

A perfectly placed high altitude nuclear explosion could indeed shut down all electronics THAT are running, plugged in or have a receptor source like an antenna. But a ground burst would only cause a localized EMP. The higher the explosion the further the electronic damage.

Business Insider did a nice article about it this summer. You can read it HERE.

MYTH 5 – The pope says we’re on the brink of nuclear war

For as long as I can remember, there has only been a few times that we weren’t on the brink. The pope is trying to be a peacemaker, perhaps if he says it, the leaders that are pissing around might think he has some sort of divine information. Truth is, we will never know, when we are truly on the brink. We just have to be ready and prepared.

There are so many more, but it would have made for a really long blog. Check out tomorrow, when I blog, ‘The Poor Man’s Tips for Survival’

If you have anything or topic you want me to discuss, please feel free to let me know.

Hawaii Missile Alert - Conspiracy Theories

So if you are like my daughter, and you haven’t heard, apparently an alert went out in residents in Hawaii via their phones that a ballistic missile was on its way, take cover, not a drill. Not long after, there was a huge … Whoops, our bad, we didn’t mean it.

Really? Come on. While I believe, more than likely it was an accident, (Clears throat - there are two people that have to activate that system) I have a couple theories about it. Please don’t pick on me or tell me to remove my tin foil hat. It’s the writer in me theorizing.

Before I get to them, I want to note that since that happened, I have been seeing posts pop up on social media. Everyone is suddenly talking about my favorite subject … nuclear war. Not that I want it to happen, I just happened to absorb all information about it. Always have. Thirty years of research. Heck, I remember the days when the world’s arsenal was 70k nuclear warheads compared to roughly 15K now. I read, went to seminars, etc. … As some of my readers know, I have fictional novels about it.

What I am also seeing it a lot of crazy talk. Things being tossed out there that aren’t scientifically based. Since Trump became president everyone talks about it, but no one knows about it. Why? It was a thing of the past.  And the only information that people tend to get is what they see on drastically over done movies. It’s insane, tomorrow I will post a blog on Nuclear War Myths. Is there such a thing … yes. But onward now to my crazy theories about that alert.

THEORY ONE – HIT ME BABY

The CDC did it. Nothing screams success and press like getting lots of website hits. Some of you may or may not know but on January 16^th, the CDC plans to hold a briefing on surviving nuclear war. Suddenly they feel the need to do this. The public needs educated, um, yeah, I agree. That alone is scary. What on earth does nuclear war have to do with the CDC? Still, they are holding their briefing. What better way to draw attention, to get ‘hits’ than to have a little nuclear war scare and people searching YouTube for ‘Duck and Cover’.

THEORY TWO – THE BOY WHO CRIED WOLF

North Korea did it. The hacked us before they can hack us again. What if it is all an elaborate  scheme and part of their grand war plan. Don’t kid yourself, Hawaii is in range of their nuclear weapons.  They can only cause the most damage if they pull a Pearl Harbor. The element of a North Korea surprise is slim, but if they played on our ignorance, they stand a chance. Hack the system, send out a warning or two, people won’t panic as much the next time, after that they’ll ignore it. What better what to cover an attack, than to have people not believe you when it actually happens.

THREE – THIS IS MAJOR TOM

It really happened.

Why is that message even in the automated emergency alert message system? It’s not. It was written.

Image for a moment you are a worker in the IT department of information. (Disclosure – I’m guessing that’s what it’s called) You’re sitting there, enjoying your cinnamon bun, when all of the sudden you are told, prepare a warning, a submarine located 300 miles West of Hawaii accidentally launched an SLBM (Submarine launched Ballistic missile) in fifteen minutes it will land. You know all stops are out to halt it, but as the minutes tick down and ground zero is close, your supervisor says, ‘heck with it, send the warning’ – just in case. The bomb was intercepted, all is fine …but then … the text was sent. How do you cover … um accident.
+++EDIT - Just to be clear, I am not saying this was NK, I am saying it may have been an accident from out own or someone else.

Those are my theories.

Little note to segue into tomorrow’s blog. It won’t take 1,000 warheads to begin the downfall of civilization. All it will take is one. If this country took a nosedive financially after September 11, imagine what one nuclear warhead detonated on American Soil would do to the economy. Economy halts, infrastructure crumbles …

More tomorrow … hope you check back.

Geostorm: An Apocalypse Author's Review

If ever there was a disaster movie that I would say starred the Slagel Characters from my Beginnings series, it is GeoStorm. BTW the movie poster is misleading.

For a movie I couldn’t wait to see, it took me long enough to watch it. Mainly because it was in and out of my local theaters faster than Gerard Butler solves a problem in his movies. I was worried you know, because I wrote my book 10:37 about geo engineering gone wrong, but this is nothing like my book.

Geostorm follows the typical disaster, end of the world formula. Faulted hero, lurking doom, disaster begins, only one person (team) can stop it, complete with predictable twists and turns.

And Gerard Butler

Call me crazy but I liked it, I liked it a lot. Not once did I pause or fast-forward. Although I didn’t rewind, and that is my tell tale sign that I love a movie.

I did however really, really, really have to push suspension of disbelief when it came to ‘buying’ that Gerard Butler was a scientist, come on, the guy is rough around the edges and I’d say his favorite reading is the beer selection menu at a local pub.

A scientist? No way. Then I had to push it again to believe he not only was Gerard, our loveable, rough around the edges, beer loving actor, this brilliant scientist, but he designed this super complicated, intelligent weather control system, that encompassed the entire planet like a shell made from an erector set. All of that, plus Gerard Butler is so Frank Slagel like its probably why I had a hard time buying it.

In fact the film focuses on two brothers, and the writer in me couldn’t help but think of Robbie and Frank. If you’re reading this blog and saying, “Who the hell are Robbie and Frank. And what do they have to do with this movie?”

Nothing if you aren’t a reader of my books. But if you are, you know. They are part of my Beginnings Series, I’ll be happy to give you a free book so you can see.

Back to Geostorm

If you haven’t seen it, your feelings on the movie will all depend on what you go into it expecting. If you rent/buy it hoping for some deep science flick with detailed explanations, you won’t like it very much. But if you go into it knowing it’s an action, disaster film, you’ll enjoy it.

I knew what to expect and I wasn’t disappointed. Still trying to find where I put my suspension of disbelief, I suspended it so much … I’m thinking Big Mac’s are now healthy.

A New Year and New Resolutions

So here we are, another year and I have to say that 2017 wasn’t a good blogging year. I remember the days when I never went without blogging, it’s a great writing tool and I haven’t a clue why I don’t keep it up. Once again, like I do every year (Since the days of daily blogging) I am going to resolve to blog more. Thanks to my writing friend, Kate. I think my problem is I put too much of an unattainable goal on myself. So I will keep it achievable. I vow to blog at least once a week. Kate suggested maybe a writers’ tip blog once and a while. I’m thinking a peak into my life as well.

Those of you who read this, I promise future posts won’t be so boring. This one is my kick off.

One of the things I used to do is make a list of resolutions. Then I’d visit back and see how many I kept.

My resolutions for 2018

Blog more (Yep, already starting that)

Maintain my healthy eating and keep my weight in check

Write eight books this year (4 stand alones, 3 series books, 1 due to my new publisher)

Write at least one piece that will positively make a difference in someone else’s life.

Take time for myself once and a while.

And that’s it. Hey, I did it. I blogged. Happy New Year to anyone who has read this.