2011: Another year gone down

  What can we say about the year 2011? Was it another one of those knock off years or was it, one of those really silly crabby cake years, where the beefcake went wild and rampant? Perhaps, its just another one of those dull moments in time, where things are just rampant as they can be?

Politics for sure, was a strange player in 2011. The Republican Party seems to have taken their fight from the Democrats and tore into America along the way – dragging it on its heals verge of collapse. They held a President at bay and cooked up bully tactics to sway the Democrats off course and held a nation hostage.

The Bank and Mortgage crisis took America by storm and failed – before, going overboard in crisis. In the end, nobody won a damn thing in the battle against the big banks and the mortgage companies, they falsified everyone’s documents for their own financial gain and profit & recourse, ultimately – they failed to return America their money that was loaned to them.

Even though, the United States Government had to bail them out on money loans and now, America is finding out they stole taxpayer dollars to finance their own agendas in the long run and still profited from the loan as well – their own executives racked up high paying salaries that outraged not only the consumer, but, also the government, congress and watchdog groups around the world.

They became the greedy, scrooges and “Mr. Potter types” (a character from, the Jimmy Stewart movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life”).

I never really understood 2011 to begin with, but toward the end, when American troops were called home from war, America was brighter, than, she could shine, during the Christmas holidays – just in the nick of time, I must say.

So? What was one of the craziest things to happen in 2011? For starters, I’ll say this – The “Occupy” protests have opened an lot of eyes and ears, but their tactics is just unruly called for and their actions are unjustified. A friend had joined them and he found out they were complete idiots – I sensed the same thing myself.

Eugene’s Occupy group was nothing, but, a core model group, that never really never really went tactical with police, it somehow got the city government involved to support their movement and give them leeway and space. They bitterly or should, I say – the city literally kissed their fanny bottom dollar into stupidity of letting them camp illegally, until one man was killed in a fight at the Washington and Jefferson Street Bridge Park.

The encampment, has since been torn down and the mess is in process of being cleaned up – but, the large formation of protestors hasn’t been seen, since the city stumped down its foot and declared “eviction” from the WJSBP campsite.

Where have they gone? I don’t know? Rumor has it they’ve been taken in by those who support the movement, others say, they moved on to more important things, like join their foes in larger cities with larger movements and more critical tactics.

Several Occupy protestors here recently, stormed a city councilman’s home during the Christmas holiday’s to protest their stupidity of his vote to not let the movement stay at the WSJBP encampment – the police ultimately came in force and took them to jail on a variety of charges.

They were released from jail and have all since plead not guilty, meaning crapoon tactics could hit the courts as well…, swell, if they go to trial over their actions of free speech and whatever else, it could spell a headache for the court and the presiding judge on the case.

The Occupy movement certainly was a strange and brittle movement of 2011 – I’m hoping, it doesn’t continue into 2012 and the protestors move onward to something beneficial and practical in nature, than causing collateral damage to city and state government economies around the country and locally.

It was a banner year for disasters in the Midwest with the tornado outbreaks that shattered many lives along the way and made headlines across the country as well. The state of Texas was in a severe drought year once again and was on the verge of becoming a dust bowl of sorts – a good super soaker from a hurricane could solve the problem in a variety of ways and dredge the state in better times.

The Pac-10 Football Conference ultimately became the Pac-12 Football Conference and added two more schools to the conference of sports as the Oregon Ducks finally make it back to Pasadena and the Rose Bowl with the Big-12 Champs, the Wisconsin Badgers. Who wins the honor of the Rose Bowl is yet to be seen in 2012 on Rose Bowl Game Day.

Guess, I can safely say, “go ducks!” – that’s the spirit of the supporting your local University team.

In closing – I guess after ten years since, September 11th, 2001, America has shined her armor and braved her sacrifice to her military troops, who protected America for what she stood for and what this country built upon among those who created the United States from the British Rule of the 1700’s.

She stood tall and braved her right to be free and what she stood to mean to those looking to start a new life and journey in America. I’ve always admired her bravery and her strength, but, it doesn’t stop me from believing America is always wrong, but, there is a right as well. And, we’re free to say as we wish without restriction and censorship – but, when politics come into play, America has to dwell on her right to free speech for all and who have a say in their own voices and opinions.

This is America and a nation of rejoice. And I still believe in a place called home and a journey called hope – this was the beginning to the end of 2011, we’ll remember her words and the legacy she left behind in the new century.

When you run out of ideas

  You sit at a blank screen, you stare out the picture window and watch life go by day and night, by the time you get back to the keyboard your – mighty eighty years old and wheeling it in a tri-fold lawn chair by day and worn out wheelchair by  night, that is losing its bearings by the minute – and there’s no mechanic in town, that’ll fix the ole cherry picker once its towed to the garage of shame!

Now – you know why we writers go through the stupid grain elevator, when we run out of ideas to work with! Well, here’s my problem, I was out of ideas over eight hours or so ago, when I ran out of brain fuel to pen something for the upcoming weekend or my next blog post.

Even though the Rose Bowl between the Oregon Ducks and the Wisconsin Badgers are just around the corner – it didn’t have anything to do with college football to begin with either! Now, that’s good news, finally. “That’ll be five cents please,” says Charlie Brown’s sister Lucy sitting at her famous, “The Doctor is in booth.”

Now, that, I’ve refueled and recharged my mind into thinking what to pen next is kind of a challenging feat, while adjusting the cockpit controls of a mini netbook and a tectonic workaholic restaurant staff gone wild at my girlfriends place of work!

“Go figures, Simon!” – you’ve been a customary idiot in the middle of nowhere with a Gnome! Figure….

So, I guess, the headline says, “When you run out of ideas!” – so, tell me, if you had one idea or a slew of ideas, what would it be? Tearfully, I already know about “Joe Fox and Kathleen Kelly” of “You’ve Got Mail” hitching up in New York’s Central Park with Fox’s dog Brinkley – So, nice try Charlie!

…, Next.

I guess – it’s one of those borderline days, when things are not going as you planned? But, your still staring at a blank computer screen, “shit!” – what’s the moi here, dimwit? Okay, you can plead the 5th amendment, if you like, but, I’d still insist, “I’m stuck in this hell hole”, not necessarily a fox hole in a war zone, but, a hole of sorts! If you know, what I mean? Writer-wise?

“Shut up, Jim, no, not you Patterson, the other one!”

Ok – than, you can blame the case on the cashew case of Writer’s Block! “Pfft", what in the moi is the world coming too? “Forget it, Castle, I’m stuck, plain stuck, just ask Jimmy boy Patterson, he should know?” Alright, here’s a booty, “I’m stuck, plain jane and simple, America! – happy now?”

Rainy day blogging becomes windy day blogging!

  When it comes to be a rainy day in the heart of the Willamette Valley of Oregon – the writing never stops and the blogging keeps going and the midnight oil just keeps on burning under the twilight zone.

Now? where have I heard that before? Must be from the howling winds in the Hamptons?

I, once told a fellow writer, “if you blog regularly – you will get followers and readers to your material,” I said, bluntly and point blank with a stare of seriousness. But, many fear, they don’t have the time to write?

I’m sitting here thinking? “Goodness gracious Louise! – Haven’t you heard a word, I just said, about writing regularly?” And, the laws Simon tell me? – not a saint of speculation went through their mind! I didn’t think so, either.

As a full time blogger and writer, I always find the time to write and the time to spend with family and friends, including the new better half in my life.

Reflections

  You look at yourself in the mirror each day and you see a completely different person – actually, the same person you saw yesterday and the day before, but there is only one problem? We see differently before we look at ourselves in the mirror.

What we see through our own eyes is a completely different image, than, the images we see in the mirror daily. The stories are different, the colors of one’s skin is different, than, yours and mine. The beauty is honed differently, we may be a man, women or child, when we look in the mirror.

When we shower day and night, we are naked. When we look in the mirror, we are naked – men and women see themselves naked differently, unless they are together and see themselves naked upon each other.

The reflections of life provides a unique opportunity to reflect on the life we lived and the stories behind them. From the old west to the days of Wyatt Earp to Elvis Presley, there is always something to be told behind the names and faces of life.

Wyatt Earp was frontiersman, bounty hunter and lawman in the 1800s, while Elvis Presley was an entertainer known as the King of Rock and Roll from the 1950’s to the early 1970’s – both men provided images behind their legendary lives. Both of their stories were told separately from beginning to end and became legends of their own time and place.

As a writer, we tell the story of the lives that affected us from past to present, but – the future hasn’t been written yet, as it was in the past. The past is a legacy, the future is primarily a legend to be told or discovered. How we got there, all depends on how we write history in the coming year and the years ahead.

The reflections of life can be easy or difficult, all depends on how you tend to write your own story and future.

So, ask yourself – when you look in the mirror, “how will my future be written from this day onward toward end of my own time and will?” It’s hard to say, but, the choice is actually yours to make. We writer’s only create the characters of life and the stories behind them to be read by future generations and more, including those during the course of our own lifetimes.

The reflection you saw in the mirror was that of your lifetime and our legacy.

From fictional novelist to novelist

  Every Monday night at 10 p.m., you switch the dials on your television and your remote control to the American Broadcasting Company’s Television Network (ABC-TV) as you cuddle up with your favorite blanket, your fireplace is crackling with firewood as its pops the dry wood into mini orange sparks against the fire screen. You sequester the indulging fact to catch up with your favorite crime fighting dual of  NYPD’s Detective Kate Beckett and Mystery Writer, Richard Castle in the ABC Drama Series – “CASTLE.”

Now in its forth season on ABC, Castle has become a mystery fan favorite according to its Facebook page and the show’s website on ABC.COM. With a fictional mystery writer and a real life novelist hawking the works of our hero, “Richard Castle” and his novels character “Nikki Heat,” which is based on his exploits with Detective Beckett and her detectives in her NYPD Detective Squad.

The combination and chemistry between Beckett and Castle has fans talking about a possibly relationship between the two characters.

Last season in the season finale, Detective Beckett was gunned down in a cemetery, while delivering an eulogy of a fellow officer that was killed in the line of duty. Has Beckett lay on the ground gasping for air, Castle rushes to her aid, after spotting the sniper that shot Beckett and said, “I love you Kate, I love you,” as the final frame of the shooting scene faded out into the twilight during the season finale. 

ABC Television has crafted the concept of fictional writer and novelist to screen with a public novelist offering has other television networks trying to attempt the same immerging concept, but, CBS did away with the same concept with the “Jessica Fletcher” series of “Murder She Wrote,” with Actress Angela Lansbury as an embroiled mystery writer who gets caught up in some kind of mystery case each week in the fictional town of “Cabot Cove” or during her trips elsewhere during her book tours.

  The writer-novelist to television genre has capitulated the publishing world into publishing a series of novels by the show’s fictional and  lead character, Richard Castle. Castle’s books are available at you local bookstores and from online retailers. Castle’s first novel “Nikki Heat” debuted as #26 on the New York Times Best Seller list, his second novel “Naked Heat” debuted at #26, four weeks later, it went to the top 10 on the New York Times Best Sellers list as #6 in 2010.

With 2011 still in the swing, his third novel, “Heat Rises” ranked number #1 on the New York Times Best Sellers List.

 

 

 

Has Castle’s popularity continues to grow, the show’s fan base will continue to follow his exploits with Detective Beckett and her squad of case cracking detective as they solve New Yorks most disturbing and sometimes strangest murder cases involving the city of New York.

The show is likely to survive the cutting block as long as the storytelling is fresh and concise, the fans will continue to come as they have since the series debuted in March 2009.