All the people who died, died

This is just a quick list of some people who died this year. The title of this post is from a song Jim Carroll wrote and sang. He also wrote the Basketball Diaries that help launch Leonardo DiCaprio’s career into the stratosphere. Carroll also died, died, this year.

1. Michael Jackson—love’em or hate’em he was about as influential as they get.

2. Les Paul—indirectly the most influential person in music recording history. His guitar and multi-track recording will live on forever.

3. Farrah Fawchett—created a hairdo of a decade and her poster helped young boys more than she ever intended.

4. Patrick Swayze—Forget Ghost and Dirty Dancing, Road House was a bad-ass movie.

5. Brittany Murphy—definitely doable in Clueless and 8 mile.

6. John Hughes—shout out for the 80’s movies, mainly Breakfast Club and 16 Candles.

7. Bea Arthur—only because I used to watch Golden Girls, but her career span five decades and if you’re in showbiz that long, you deserve a shout-out.

8. David Carradine—Every UFC fighter were influenced by this man whether they admit it or not. Respect that Grasshopper.

9. Ed McMahon—“Heeerrreee’s Johnny”

10. Dom DeLuise—Blazing Saddles anyone?

11. Walter Cronkite—America’s most trusted man.

12. Mary Travers—from Peter, Paul and Mary. She’ll have little kids singing the drug-referenced Puff the Magic Dragon song for years to come.

13. Billy Mays—The World’s Best Pitchman, “Billy Mays here!”

14. Frank McCort—Pulitzer Prize winner, wrote Angela’s Ashes, Teacher Man and Tis.

15. John Updike—two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner.

16./17. Billy Powell and Donald Evans, both members of Lynyrd Skynyrd, died this year. I can guarantee rednecks all over America will still be yelling out, “Freeeeebiiiird!” at concerts that aren’t even remotely related to Skynyrd.

18. Roy Disney—credited with resurrecting Disney in the 90’s.
There were other celebrity deaths, but I’m not old enough to know who they were. If you want to find out more you can look them up yourself at:

http://wonderwall.msn.com/movies/year-in-review-in-memoriam-5251.gallery?GT1=28134#wallState=1__/movies/year-in-review-year-in-celebrity-4908.gallery

A Decade in Reflection

I read many online newsletters. One of my favorite’s is from a man named Yanik Silver. I will say in advance that I don’t buy any of his products, but I do find him interesting.

In his last post, Yanik talked about the fact that most of the times people don’t take stock of what they’ve accomplished. He basically said, “We look to the horizon, not realizing we’ll never get there.” And when we do this, we constantly stay disappointed even when we have minor victories.

I have always been a New Year’s Resolution kinda guy. I rarely remember what they were by the end of the year, but still, I try and think of something I’m going to do next year that I wasn’t able to do this year. I’ve already decided that next year I want to get published at least twelve times. It doesn’t matter if it’s in books, magazines or even someone else's ezine. I’m putting myself and my work out there this year.

But in the spirit of Yanik’s idea of looking back to take stock in my accomplishments, here is a list of what I’ve done in the last 10 years:

12/00 Graduated from UM-St. Louis with a B.S. in Criminology and Criminal Justice, one of the top 5 CJ schools in the country.

7/01 After 10+ years of working I got my first job with benefits, Mon-Fri, weekends and holidays off.

2002—I bought my first house at age 26 and started dating Tejal

2003 Tejal and I got engaged and started working at the jail. Bought my car in cash, then again I’ve bought every car in cash except one.

2004 Got married.

2005 I received my Masters in Communications with a 4.0 GPA from Lindenwood.

1/07 Went to five cities in India and saw the Taj Mahal.

02/2007 Starting writing India book.

2006-2008 Took tons of writers workshops through Community College, Washington Univ. in St. Louis and Writers Guild.

5/09 Became the training coordinator for 120 Officers and 20+ support staff. Tejal and I celebrated our fifth anniversary.

9-19-09 My daughter was born.

10-09 We bought a new house and have a rental, although that was not really wanted.

Since my wife and I have been married we’ve averaged 2-3 trips a year together. We’ve been to Memphis, The Ozarks, Chicago twice, Roanoke VA, Mexico/Mayan Rivera/Cozumel twice, five cites in India, San Francisco, a Cruise to Key West and Cozumel—which should have been the Bahamas but there was a hurricane, Texas, Arizona, Colorado, Las Vegas and the airports in London and Frankfurt—which I know don’t count as a trip but I can say, “Been there!” when it comes up in conversation.

Looking back, this decade was pretty good to me. I have met tons of new friends. I tried tons of new things and some bad things too. But luckily I made it through alive, I know a couple of people who didn’t.

I also know the next decade will be the big one for me career wise. It’s on to bigger and better things. And although I’ve had a pretty good career, satisfaction wise, I’m ready for the next piece of the puzzle to fall into place.

I want an Avatar

I finally watched Avatar last night. The plot line is the age old story of imperialists come to conquer the indigenous people because they are sitting on something the imperialists want.
This time the mineral the imperialists want is called Unatainium—good play on words James Cameron. Of course this mineral is directly below the indigenous people’s most holy tree. The imperialists don’t care. Let the ass-kicking begin.
If you haven’t watched it, you have to see it in 3D. It costs a few bucks more to see the 3D version. This is not the time to be a tight wad. If you can’t afford the three extra dollars, then go next week when you can.
Here’s the trailer:

Geeks and Nerds vs. Jocks

I wasn't a Nerd or Geek in high school. I wasn't a considered a Jock either since I didn't play sports. I think I was more of a Slacker, but I totally consider myself a Geek now and John Hodgman is my hero. This is his roast of President Obama.

126

My most embarrassing short story is the very first thing of mine being published in print. The Criminal Class Review has decided to print my short-story entitled 126. It’s about my experience with a lovely girl when I first moved back to St. Louis; and how after we were done making love, she told me I was her 126th lover. Sulking ensues.

Here is a link to CCR’s website: http://www.criminalclasspress.com/

Moses the Holy Cow

If you haven’t heard, this week a Connecticut dairy farmer named Brad Davis found one of his newborn calves had a cross in the middle of his forehead. This someone caused a media blitz about “Moses-the Holy Cow.”
If you happened to have seen a picture of Moses, you’ll notice that it’s not even that a good cross. I mean, if it were a tattoo on my shoulder, I’d be kicking the shit out of the tattoo artist.
I’m always amazed that people claim to see things that are there, but only kind of, and then actually call the news media to come look at it. Then when them media gets out there, instead of saying, “That shit doesn’t look like a cross,” they actually air the story. “Well we’re already here,” the reporter says, “might as well get some footage of this piece of French toast that looks like Jesus.”
What I want to know is, would anyone drive out to film that same piece of image-burned French toast if the person calling said, “Quick! You gotta get out here. I’ve got a picture of the Zig Zag Man burned into my bread.”?

Here's a link if you need more,
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/34352408/ns/today-today_pets_and_animals/

Tiger Woods Cheated On His Wife For That?!

With all the chatter on TV and the Internet about Tiger Woods crashing his car and possibly cheating on his wife, I felt obligated to write something about it. But since I could care less about that than a monkey flinging poop at someone, I’m going to let Phillip DeFranco from The New Phillip DeFranco Show tell you all about it.