Poetry: "It's Time For Dread"

Poetry: "It's Time For Dread"

It's time for dread.

Our Constitution has been shred.

The American Dream has long been dead.

Better dream when you go to bed,

Ere you can no longer afford your daily bread...

Poetry: "Turnng 42"

Poetry: "Turning 42"

As I turned forty I was quite portly

But I lost the weight and I'm feeling great.

Forty-one I had some fun

And tried to do everything under the sun.

I'm now forty-two and not feeling blue.

I'm starting to age, but the next year is just another page.

Some things I've done I really rue.

I'm getting old but it's nowhere near the time to fold.

How the next 364 days will go I haven't a clue.

Hopefully my time is due...

Sci-Fi Bri's Movies: "Pandorum", etc.

Sci-Fi Bri's Movies: "Pandorum", etc.

"Pandorum" The last vestiges of humanity aboard the spaceship Elyseum, many who have just awoken from cryogenic sleep, must contend with an outerspace psychosis called 'Pandorum' and dangerous, fast-moving, flesh-eating cannibals who have infested the ship. Science-fiction and horror fans will love this movie, but others may not. The special effects were excellent and the space vampires were truly scary. The movie starred Dennis Quaid and several other semi-familiar actors.

"Food Inc." Fascinating documentary about where the food we eat comes from. It focuses on factory farming, to grain, to "Genetically Modified Organisms" or "GMOs". It was especially interesting how many products are derived from corn, some of which are non-food. It was scary how, according to the movie, corn-fed livestock may harbor harmful bacteria; which has caused many illnesses and some deaths. Well worth seeing.

"9" An animated movie for adults with the voice talents of Elijah Wood ("Lord of the Rings"), Martin Landau, Crispin Glover ("Back to the Future"), Christopher Plummer, Jennifer Connelly, etc. A cartoon in which the human race is annihilated by man-made machines and in our place are man-made burlap machines with human qualities, who are hunted by these evil war machines. Some of the evil, killing machines resemble machines from "The Matrix" and the walking spaceships from "Star Wars" and "The War of the Worlds" movie, and of course "The Terminator". Not very original, but is visually intriguing.

"Knowing" (2008?) (On home video)

In 1959 at a Lexington, Massachusetts elementary school a time capsule is buried underground. While most other students draw pictures as part of the capsule one odd little girl writes a sequence of numbers on a sheet of paper and when the teacher takes the paper from her she runs off and uses her fingernails on a door to continue, until her hands are all bloody. Fifty years later, Caleb Kessler, a young boy, gets ahold of this paper when the time capsule is unearthed. Caleb's father, played by Nicolas Cage, is a recent widower and M.I.T. professor. He is shown in class discussing "determinism" vs. randomness in the universe. When Cage's character glances at the paper with numbers he inputs the numbers into his computer and comes to the conclusion that the numerals seem to prophecy many of the major dates, casualties and possibly locations of many disasters over the last fifty years. Professor Kessler (Cage) comes to believe that the little girl even predicted the end of the world. Meanwhile, strange men start following Kessler and his son and the daughter and granddaughter of the little girl from fifty years before. Suspenseful, interesting and with dazzling special effects.

Sci-Fi Bri's Books: "Skulduggery Pleasant"

Sci-Fi Bri's Books: "Skulduggery Pleasant" by Derek Landy

Deceased horror writer Gordon Edgley bequeaths his estate to his favorite niece, twelve year old Stephanie Edgley. It turns out Gordan's stories were based on fact, and he may have been murdered. Soon after staying alone at the estate, which she will gain ownership of at the age of eighteen; Stephanie is saved from certain death by a strange individual named Skulduggery Pleasant. Skulduggery is not actually alive. He was a "mage" or sorceror while alive, but now he is a skeleton who is also a detective of the supernatural variety. Stephanie is bored with her ordinary existence, and when Pleasant comes into her life she isn't afraid of him or his strangeness. She insists on going on adventures with him in spite of the possible danger of dangerous trolls, evil "mages" [sorcerors], so-called "Hollow Men", vampires, etc. and a deadly magical weapon called "the Scepter of the Ancients." She goes through all this peril to find out how her dear uncle died and out of boredom. This is a children's book perhaps aimed at Harry Potter fans, but is just as enjoyable a read for adults. By the way, this book is one of several in a series of "Skulduggery Pleasant" books, and I plan to read every book in the series ASAP.

Poetry: "I Barged Right In"

Poetry: "I Barged Right In"

I knocked on the door

But nobody heard

So I barged right in

Like a raptor bird

When I saw their sin

I was at a loss for words

In such a situation you cannot win.

Poetry: "Addiction and Subtraction"

Poetry: "Addiction and Subtraction"

Addiction and Subtraction

Your money's been spent

You might have to steal just to cover your rent.

Addiction and Subtraction

Your money's all gone

The grass you use doesn't grow in your lawn.

Addiction and Subtraction

Your money's been spent

And you have very little idea where it all went.

Addiction and Subtraction

Your money's all gone

You don't much care that what your doing is wrong... (to be cont'd?)

Essay: "900 Numbers", Part 4 of 4

Essay: "900 Numbers", Part 4 of 4

Especially puzzling to me is why certain people call those so-called party lines. First of all, the people on the other end may be actors trained to keep you talking. Second of all, there are at least six billion people in the world. If you really want to talk to someone, there is bound to be a real person around, locally or not too far away, to talk to or get to know.

Finally, even if the people on the other end of a party line are just there to talk and not actors, rather than to just make money off your loneliness, why take the chance of perhaps meeting a Jeffrey Dahmer, an ax murderer or murderess, a fatal attraction type, a criminal, swindler, rapist, or other undesirable dreg(s) of humanity?

[Note: the original version of this essay first appeared in Eastern Connecticut State University's Campus Lantern student newspaper in 1992 and was later part of my unpublished manuscript "In Mediocrity We Trust... In Debt We Die" And Other Essays.]