A Simple Letter

Up and Down

2012-01-29T14:42:00.005-04:00

These days are the worst. I mean, weather-wise at least. The temperatures are always up and down, and no one is sure if it's spring just yet. Winter still wants to keep going, but spring is right around the corner. I hate these days. I can never figure out if I should turn the AC or the heat on. I'm pretty sure I've done both in my car one day.

And today isn't much better, but the positive is that it's at least warm outside. Today sucks for other reasons though. Today a year ago I was left at the altar. It's a funny story, actually.

You see my fiance- or should I say ex-fiance? I'm never really sure- had been diagnosed with cancer. This is way before we met, years in fact. But during that treatment, her boyfriend at the time left her. And no- he didn't come back and she wasn't having an affair with the doctor.

She had been going through a lot and wound up meeting another man who also had cancer at the hospital, and wound up smoking weed with him to help get by. When she got better, she continued smoking. Then started dealing on the side a bit. Marijuana is expensive.

Then during all of this, I met her at a friend's party. No drugs, it wasn't my thing. She actually hid it from me up until the wedding day. I still have yet to figure out how, but she was still using and selling. And the cops actually say she used the money to pay for the wedding, which explains so much more than you know.

Well, she got busted for selling some hours before. Unfortunately, no one knew because of her being very strict about who could talk to her or see her- so somehow no one was smart enough to piece together she wasn't even in the church before we started. Not even the worst part though. The worst part is that her dealer paid for her bond, then they skipped town together. On the day of our wedding. Well, the police said it was day or two after she was out- but she's a wanted fugitive now. Would not have seen that coming.

And what's even worse? I didn't see her parents suddenly showing up at my work. Shopping in my store.

"Rick? Oh my goodness, Rick!" Her mother always called me Rick even though my name was Richard and most people called me Rich or Dick. I guess Rick was her combination of the two.

"Betty? Devon? Hey how are you guys?"

"We're doing good, c'mere give me a hug." It was the most awkward hug I had ever given an older woman.

"You lose weight there, champ?" Devon- her father- always had teased me about my weight. "Ah of course ya did, c'mere and give the old man a hug too." This was the most awkward hug I had ever given someone.

"So what are you guys in here for?"

"Well, you know Pat's sister Ashley? She's engaged to her boyfriend Allen now, and we wanted to get them a nice new bed for their apartment. She's still using her futon from her college apartment days," she said with a laugh.

"Wow- Ashley and Allen are engaged? Good for them. I haven't seen either of them since uh. Well."

"Oh right, right." They said it in unison, an awkward fog now surrounding them for realizing how we came to know each other. It was funny, because they didn't even know it when saying the name Pat. My ex-fiance.

"Well, it was good seeing you guys. Hey, when you guys check out tell them to call me I'll make sure to give you the family discount."

"Oh well thank you."

"Yeah thank you, champ. You don't have to do that."

"Consider it something to help you help those two. Take care guys."

I walked away. I was surprised at myself, almost proud. I had successfully spoken to my ex-fiance's parents. But by the time I sat in my office later, it had sunk in. A year later, I was in the same place I had been before. I was the manager of a store that I hated. I had plans to go to school, but without Pat and her supporting me financially I couldn't. And everyone I had known at one point, had continued on without me. Everyone that was friends with both of us, her family. All just gone from my life. It feels eerie to say that.

One year ago they sat and watched the worst moment of my life. I held back the tears I had. There was nothing I could do to bring her back, and even if I could she had changed into something I didn't want.

What puzzled me more is all the people who were good friends with us and not with me. I hadn't seen Peter in forever. Curtis and Hope said they would still like to hang out, and that didn't happen. Rachel and Derek suddenly disappeared from my life. I got on Facebook and looked them all up, went through their pictures and saw them all hanging out. My invite lost in the back of their heads.

I picked up the phone to call my friend Trisha, only to realize she was living with her boyfriend Earl now. They wouldn't have time to hang out or do anything.

I sat in my office for hours, the store quiet and being shut down without my guidance. I reminisced, I longed for the past, and I admittedly cried a little. An entire year, and for me not much felt like it had changed for the better.

Then in the minutes before the last person was getting ready to leave the store, it hit me. It was like some crazy TV show where you watch the main character. And at some point, an actor gets tired and leaves the show. Sometimes they kill the character off, sometimes they get on a bus somewhere. Just like life, characters come and go. Today I am a main character in certain people's lives at the furniture store. In a year, I might not be.

What fascinated me was how quickly time moved. Because before I knew it, it was time to go.

"Hey Rich, everything is good to go. You need me to lock up or are you planning to?"

"I can lock up. Was just about to grab my coat. Thanks."

"It's actually not too bad outside, you probably won't need your coat."

"I hate days like these. You never know what the weather is like."

"That's life for ya."

It sure is.

SOPA/PIPA and why we're joining the blackout

2012-01-17T12:29:00.003-04:00

If you have been under a rock, or just don't pay attention to politics, there are new bills sitting in Congress that are going to potentially hurt the Internet if signed into law. Those bills are known as SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (PROTECT IP Act).

I am not going to write an article on what these are and why they are bad, that has been done to death all over the Internet. You can read up on Wikipedia's reasons here. To put it simple: SOPA/PIPA is bad legislation that could be used poorly if implemented. It would hurt the Internet, and we don't want to hurt the Internet. What has it ever done to us?

OK OK, it did Rick Roll us but- c'mon. Who doesn't leave that song in a way you love that annoying kid next door?

What's more concerning isn't that this bill is being debated. It's that, in a time when the economy is in the crapper, our millionaire Congress is talking legislation that helps big businesses. Don't you guys have more important things you should be working on, like- oh I don't know- creating jobs or getting people back to work? Fixing our tax system, healthcare system, job market, and yeah let's throw in elections as well. Instead, we the people have to fight to keep our Internet- the last place we have left open- from being managed.

The Internet can't be managed. Proxy servers exist, and banning those sites hurts our first amendment rights. You will simply be creating a black market Internet, where people who want to surf the web freely will find a way. It's like banning alcohol, people drank anyways. You put giant warning labels on cigarettes, people smoke anyways and some pick the habit up. You tell kids Just Say No to drugs, and they try them anyways. And with the Internet, you better believe a lot more people will start to get pissed off about SOPA/PIPA if they can't go to a certain website because of it.

We will be joining the blackout at midnight for 24 hours. Wikipedia, the Cheezburger Network, Reddit, Mozilla, and BoingBoing will also be joining. Those are the big names so far. Other opponents include (from Wikipedia:) Google, Yahoo!, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, AOL, LinkedIn, eBay, Roblox, Reporters Without Borders, Electronic Frontier Foundation, the ACLU and Human Rights Watch. We are hoping more of them join the blackout.

Until then dear visitors and readers, I will see you on Thursday.

Holes

2012-01-13T23:21:00.002-04:00

I feel empty, as if something is missing.
Not to seem stupid, or like I'm all pissy.
It's not like hunger- that's empty with pain.
And yeah it's painful- it's just not the same.
And it's not that I'm sad, more disappointed.
And I'm not mad, I just feel annoyed and distorted.

I don't want to seem emo, or be pessimistic.
But this is my life, gotta be realistic.
I admit I have issues, up in my head
Make me think things are real that I've said
I resort to my fantasies, few times I write them.
But with this empty feeling, I've lost total sight then.

There's no easy way to fill this thing in.
I try finding jobs, but the market is thin.
I make my own projects, but then they get stopped
And all I had worked on winds up being dropped.
Friends are great to have on your side
But some are too busy, and hanging subsides.
Family is nice, but it too is like friends,
Life just keeps going and never really ends.

I know what this hole is, but I'd rather not say
It's hard to explain it, might take all day.
I won't fill it for probably some time,
but if it matters- it's always on my mind.
I can work towards making everything else better,
but I hope this hole doesn't go unfilled forever.

In Response: A Ghost Hunter Review, Kings Island

2012-01-12T01:42:00.005-04:00

My fellow blogger/colleague/etc. John Stegeman wrote over on his blog about Ghost Hunters coming to Kings Island and his review of the show. I decided to respond here, in part because there's not much written on the site this year (hey, I'm writing a movie- give me some slack!).

A little background: John and me worked in the shops at Kings Island together in summer of '08. Thanks to the Internet, we have kept in contact since that time finding we both have a love of journalism and writing. I unfortunately never got another chance to work at Kings Island, but my one summer there was definitely an eye opening experience.

A little more background: if you haven't read my past article about my paranormal experiences, I have ghost hunted before. In high school I co-founded a ghost hunting team, and tried numerous places. I have always been interested in the paranormal- and ghosts are some of the most interesting things to come out of my experiences.

Now down to business. I have to agree with John on one thing: the show was not that great. The reactions, the timing, it was just typical Ghost Hunters crap. I get the idea: seven days and that's all they got? But we tend to forget a lot of things about reality TV shows.

First, this is a TV show. They might be interested in trying to find evidence of ghosts - but their first priority is to make an interesting TV show. And honestly, a lot of things they claim to see I think is bunk due to a now infamous live Halloween show. If they are going as far as they do for a Halloween show, I don't see why they wouldn't for recording a show.

This would easily explain why it took them seven whole days to shoot. The seven days was not an investigation necessarily, as most of the investigation seemed to all take place on one night as it was always storming. The crew likely stayed for a total of seven days, shot a bunch of footage, and then used very little of it. This footage would probably include the splices you see between the teams "hunting" and a lot of footage from the intro.

John also claims he believes the claim that an old cartridge factory sat on the land is false, and it sat next to the land. I cannot disprove his assumption, but I can give more details into the history.

The Peters Cartridge Factory (not the Kings Powder Company, or any other name used) was founded just north east of the park across the Little Miami River. The area surrounding the factory, Kings Mill, was actually a town founded solely for the workers. Kings Island is a part of Kings Mill- meaning it was built upon that same ground. One thing I can't find information on though is the story of the explosion that killed 11 people. The story is that in 1890 a train car collided with two load cars full of gun powder- creating a massive explosion. This explosion could be heard for miles around the town, destroyed the original building and some of the buildings around it, and killed 11 people.

What you find interesting is that the building now has no sign of train tracks near it. This could mean one of two things: the story was fabricated, as no reliable sources are currently found on it or the explosion didn't occur near the building that stands now. If the latter is true, the explosion very well could have taken place somewhere in the Kings Mill vicinity- including land that the park now sits on.

Finally, John has issues with ignoring several of the other stories in the park. If you have ever read up on all of the stories- you probably have missed some. Even I just came to learn about Black Sunday- in which was the day in which three people died in the park in two separate occasions back in 1991. He also felt Tower Johnny- a kid who in 1983 was killed near/on the Eiffel Tower after hours, was left out. They seemed to focus mostly on the girl in the blue dress, and ignored that (from what I have read) she mostly shows up in the water park. John claims this is likely limitations by Kings Island. I would beg to differ, to an extent.

The water park limitation would be obvious- as they are currently rebuilding the water park and wouldn't want anyone to see anything too big before it's done. They also ignored all of the stories of who died while at the park. The little girl is the only big story and she died before the park was built.

Tower Johnny was killed while climbing the Eiffel Tower and either being cut by wire cables or falling to his death. Black Sunday was three different deaths at the fault of the park. Racer Boy was supposedly a death from one of the carts on the Racer back at Coney Island, in which he fell out. There are tons of deaths at the park, and tons of spirits- but do you want to scare people into going into the park if the rides have killed people? No. That's likely why they first stuck to these stories.

What I have to disagree on is that it probably wasn't just Kings Island PR that did this. The show needs to have a focus, and with less than 30 minutes to show they had to pick and choose what stories to do. If they chased after every story of a ghost, the show would turn into a movie long marathon. Most likely they asked to stick to one or two stories, and PR went with the best ones to showcase the park and not make anyone fear them. I'd be interested in seeing them come back for another show, or inviting another team in to do an investigation that lasts the entire show and not just part of it.

One thing I want to say though, John, is this: you have to realize that with all the stories you've heard over the time you were there- there might not be anything substantial to them. My summer there I had nothing abnormal happen to me. I remember I was there one night until 1 AM, one of the last people to leave the park. Before I worked there, in high school I was given a tour by PR for an article in our high school newspaper. I got to go around and take pictures during the day when the park was totally empty. I never saw anything strange then either, and we walked through the woods behind the Racer and Flight of Fear. Never once did I see anything strange or paranormal (and back then I was looking for it hard).

There was only one incident that happened there that even today seems strange. I never really thought about it much since then, but all the talk got my mind back to that day. I had gone for Fearfest back in high school, about a year or two before the tour of the park. At the end of the day, we were looking around the candy store (ironic, since John ran that shop when I worked there) when numerous times my friend Eric and me saw this little girl walking by the doors. She was probably around 8-10 years old, in an older looking outfit, with what I at the time thought was white makeup. After seeing her constantly, he talked me into following her to see what she was up to. Now, at this time there was no kid's area for Halloween and it was blocked off. They asked you to not dress up in the park either. And I don't believe the park hires child actors (John would have to back me up on that one though). So why would a little girl, in a strange outfit, be at the park? And why was she walking past where we were so many times? And why did she have such an expressionless face?

Following her we watched her go towards the kid area, a darkened pathway that was quiet. My friend claimed he saw her disappear, but I saw her walk into the first aid area near there. The thing is, I don't remember seeing her open the door- only walk towards it and up to the door. It wasn't the girl in the blue dress, but thinking about it now raises questions in my mind. The obvious answer is: it was Halloween. But hey- with all of the spirits there who really knows?

What we do know is that Ghost Hunters didn't do a very good job at the park. I would personally like to offer my own ghost hunting abilities to the park, and I gladly will assemble a team to do so. I'm sure John would be more than willing.

Goodbye 2011, Hello 2012

2012-01-01T04:38:00.002-04:00

I'm going to be a little self-involved here. A reflection on 2011. A reflection on life.

Coming into 2011 I had my eyes set on the world. I had just graduated from college. I had a fantastic and beautiful girl by my side. I had a- soon to be- full time job to pay for bills. And my friends were there for me like another family.

I remembered in January I met my then girlfriend's parents- an honest first for me. I spent the day with her and her family- and at the end of the day I was looking forward to the rest of the year. The irony is that day was meant to be the worst of the year by some strange superstition. And little did I come to find out, for me it was both good and bad.

About a week or so later, I was single. I had put a lot of trust into her and it broke me up pretty bad. I didn't know who to trust anymore. She had broken my heart, and even longtime friends couldn't convince me everything would be OK. I hit one of the darkest parts of my life- every day felt like hell. I wanted to die. I trusted no one, not even myself.

I had held onto things for years that made me this way. Friends that had done me wrong, I had never let go of those times. I didn't let go of what I had done to some of them either. I felt like a liar, a person who treated them two different ways. It didn't help that I was depressed, not trusting, and weary of what everyone told me.

People had, at this point, become awful. I wanted humanity to burn. Instead, I decided I wasn't going to let the world control me. I burnt myself instead. Instead of letting everyone's secrets out, I let my own. And many were grievances I held for years that I apologized for wholeheartedly. And I came to doing this more often. My actions need to be accounted for, and if I feel as though they haven't I will try my best to account for them. To forgive myself for my mistakes, and forgive others for theirs.

Life didn't go well for me because of this. A fire burns hot and quick. It leaves destruction in it's path. People claimed I was burning bridges. I claimed I was strengthening them by no longer lying to myself or to them. I saw a lot of people for who they really were. And I watched as they walked away from me, abandoned our friendship. The fire burned bridges I never intended to burn, but a part of me is glad they did. Some of the people who I cared for deeply walked away from me in a time of need, and for that I see no reason to keep them around.

This eventually ended in April of 2011. I finished my apologies, and let go of other's wrongdoings on me, and I lived life. I made amends with a few people who figured out what it really was I was doing. And I watched as people took sides in a war with no real battles. When a ship capsizes, everyone takes a side.

In April I was also able to release my second book of short story collections. It was a great compilation and I'm glad to have it out and on Amazon. It was soon after I also launched this site officially- giving it a .com name.

The summer months brought me the joy of the outdoors again. The joy of taking photos. And the start of new paths. I began to freelance, eventually starting my freelance network later in the year. I began my two plus month project of Smash Board, eventually gaining over 10,000 hits on YouTube.

That was in August. I laid low for a bit working on various projects until in September I found the King of the Nerds audition. I thought: a reality TV show? Why not give a shot? It can't hurt much. An initial email turned into a video that everyone claims is hilarious (and true nonetheless). And I (hopefully) am still in the running for the show and look forward to hearing more about it this year.

In October I began preparing for Halloween- and the invention of my first horror character: Dr. Mendall. Weaving him into the stories of other pop culture, he worked well- despite the story in the end being a flop in the number of hits it garnered (sorry Doc).

November I began working on what I am currently working on: a movie script. Inspired by the movie 50/50, I got ideas flowing through my head. I got friends involved. And now more and more people want to be involved in it as they find out about it.

This was a brief synopsis of how my year has gone. From project to project, story to story- I will do my best to update my fans. And I will always answer an email if anyone ever is interested in wondering what I'm up to and doesn't really know me.

But what I have learned from this past year is that you can't stop trying. No matter what you do, don't stop trying. If you need a reboot, then reboot. I have more reboots than you could imagine. I have gone from seeing the American dream as rubbish to moving towards that dream again.

People have always told me they expected something big out of me. Family, friends, acquaintances. They know I dream big.

Discovering your dreams before you wake up is just the hard part.

It's Still Fall, But Winter is Near

2011-12-06T02:05:00.005-04:00

I plan to try to go to a park tomorrow and take more pictures like this. I didn't realize how fantastic a picture could look taken on a phone, but I find it a beautiful moment. Maybe you'll see this on a future book cover.

It has the potential.

Click here for full-sized photo.

Preview: A Brief Portion of my screenplay 'Alone'

2011-12-02T15:00:00.001-04:00

Hello readers. As you may know, I've been writing a screenplay. Well, I'm putting a piece of it on here because I am nowhere near this scene and I'd like to seriously put it down on paper before I lose it. I decided I'd share it with the world, and maybe get some feedback.

To set up the scene: Kyle, our protagonist, has recently been released from a 9 month stay in a mental hospital after attempting to kill himself. His family died in a tragic accident, and in the wake his friends left him- including his girlfriend of two years named Angie. He decides that he misses her, and is going to get her back no matter the fight. Not wanting to do it alone, he asks his friend Shawn to tag along but to stay in the car. Enjoy and please leave your thoughts. As a work in progress I love to hear people's thoughts for improvement.

EXT. ANGIE'S HOUSE

KYLE walks up to the door and rings the doorbell. ANGIE opens the door in awe.

ANGIE
Kyle? What are you-

KYLE
Can we talk? Inside?

ANGIE
Um...sure.

Cut to: Shawn's profile in the car watching as the two enter the house. He sighs deeply and shakes his head.

Angie and Kyle walk into the living room, and Angie takes a seat.

ANGIE
You look like you're doing well.

KYLE
Please don't try to be nice. I won't be long.

ANGIE
OK. That's fine.

KYLE
I've been missing you, and by now you probably know that. I got out of that mental hospital and you were still the first thing on my mind. And it kills me because you left me when you shouldn't have. My family dies and you call me selfish, even though the whole time I was making sure you were OK.

ANGIE
Kyle I'm-

KYLE
I'm not done. (pause) But I forgave you for all of that. As I sat in that mental institution, away from my friends. Away from everyone I cared because they fucking left me. And I thought this whole time you and me were something because you said we were.

ANGIE
We were-

KYLE
(Angry) Don't lie to me. We may not have always been the best, but half the time you wouldn't even listen to me. And when I needed you the most, you left me because you couldn't take it? You blocked me on Facebook and changed your phone number?

ANGIE
Did you just come here to bitch at me?

KYLE
No. I came here to get you back. But now that I'm here standing in front of you, about to tell you that I love you and care about you more than anything else in this world. I realize I already told you that and you called me an idiot. You said I was dumb for caring that much about you. (long pause). Well congrats. You fucked up big time.

ANGIE
It wasn't what you think it was, Kyle. I didn't want to leave you. I never wanted to leave you. You were the only guy who I've felt this comfortable around. But I was really stressed out from school. And my mom...she's never liked you. She thought you weren't good enough for me.

KYLE
Did you think I was good enough for you?

ANGIE
crying Yes. I loved you. (long pause)

KYLE
You know there's a saying everyone is familiar with. “If you love somebody let them go.” But they don't ever know the whole quote. “If you love somebody let them go. If they return they were always yours. If not, they never were.” Well here I am returning. I'll forever be yours. It's just a shame you'll never be mine again.

ANGIE
(crying) I'm sorry, Kyle.

KYLE
I am too. Goodbye Angie.

Cut to: EXT HOUSE.

Kyle walks out of the front door and gets into the car with Shawn.

SHAWN
Everything OK, buddy?

KYLE
No.

SHAWN
You want me to drive?

Kyle shakes his head yes and they get out to change seats. Fade to black.

Stand Up: The Real 99%

2011-12-01T16:16:00.004-04:00

By James Gabbard

Occupy Everything: A Brief History

Occupy Wall Street has been going on for months now. In July, the site AdBusters.org called for people to flood into lower Manhattan, set up tents, kitchens and peaceful barricades in order to protest like the people of Egypt. The call then for change was simple: “we demand that Barack Obama ordain a Presidential Commission tasked with ending the influence money has over our representatives in Washington “ said the site.

From there the organization moved to it's own site and created its own press releases. It urged people to come to meetings before the protest began to discuss an opposition to budget cuts. The first use of the 99% showing up on August 4, 2011.

On August 12, AdBusters released another statement. Suggestions of what the movement could demand: “the reinstatement of the Glass-Steagall Act … or a 1% tax on financial transactions … or an independent investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice into the corporate corruption of our representatives in Washington … or another equally creative but downright practical demand that will emerge from the people's assemblies held during the occupation.” The release was riddled with statements implying not to seem too far-left, and urging people of the left to do something.

On August 24, the online group Anonymous released a video supporting Occupy Wall Street. The group is known for cyberattacks and has threatened banks. Recently they claimed they would be hacking into banks, using people's credit cards and giving the money to charity.

September 1 a test run protest on a sidewalk had 9 people arrested. A week later, the 99% Project launched with people sending in photos of their financial situations.

September 12, a statement titled “Why?” explained the reasons behind what they are doing, coming down to a single line: “The people coming to Wall Street on September 17 come for a variety of reasons, but what unites them all is the opposition to the principle that has come to dominate not only our economic lives but our entire lives: profit over and above all else.”

And on September 17, Occupy Wall Street began- once more changing the tune of its horn and calling for what appeared to be a change in society and democracy itself.

Who Is AdBusters?

The company- yes, company- that started this movement is known as AdBusters- a Canadian based anti-consumerism magazine started by Kalle Lasn. Lasn's history might speak for itself: after spending childhood in German refugee camps in World War II his family, originally from Estonia, fled to Australia. In the 1960s he moved to Japan and started his own market research company until moving to Canada in 1970 and working on documentaries for PBS. He has published numerous books and won a handful of awards for his documentaries.

The company claims not-for-profit, but non-profits in Canada cannot deal with politics and if the company is truly not-for-profit the money would need to go to a charitable organization (yet you can also donate money to the magazine). The company has no information on its site for any charities it donates to. The magazine itself is ad-free and is supported by readers.

The website is registered under Lasn's name, but the Occupy Wall Street site- occupywallst.org has registration hidden. The only information given is the street address and phone number- both with do not coincide with each other in location (the address is in the 310 area code of Los Angeles while the phone number is the nearby 661 area code). While many companies are listed on the address, only one has a listing for Suite 200: A Divorce Center of Los Angeles. What makes this even stranger is the website for this company, divorceSOS.com, has no registrant data besides being owned by ALW Enterprises. With no information other than the name, it is unknown which ALW owns the site- as two exist: one in California and one in Birmingham, Alabama. Numerous other companies use the ALW name as well, making it difficult to pinpoint.

Why a website needs such hidden information is questionable, but the site was immediately created a day after AdBusters called forth for people to Occupy Wall Street.

This becomes an ironic twist in the face of Occupy: the entirety of the movement was created by a company that sells anti-consumerism products just like consumer products. A quick look at the site under subscribe, and you'll find products for sale: shoes, a calendar, back issues, media empowerment kit for teachers, a set of 1200 photos and illustrations of what's called 'design anarchy', corporate American flag, DVDs, t-shirts, and even a keychain tool to turn the TV off so you're not brainwashed by the media (or as the site calls it “mental pollution”).

This is No Revolution

AdBusters promotes culture jamming- the idea of taking societal mainstream expectations and disrupting them. The Occupy movement is a culture jam- the idea that people seeing someone standing out and up for something will inspire them to do the same like in Tahrir in Egypt, pushing out the government that was there and replacing it with one that isn't oppressive. But the situation in Egypt is far different from the one in the United States and other parts of the Western world the Occupy movement has captured and begun to influence.

In Egypt the people demanded change from an oppressive government: one that was known for police brutality, unfair laws, corruption and many more issues- specifically affecting the people being low wages and high food prices.

In America, we don't have such an issue. The Occupy Movement has suggested numerous ideas of what to demand, but none are as important to the well-being of Americans like that of the people in Egypt. Considering the country was demanding free elections at the same time, comparing ourselves to them seems a bit farfetched.

The Occupy Movement is not a revolution. The anti-consumer statements is not what the 99% are about. People do not want to live in a nation that, as Lasn once described, spends $100,000 on a car and $250 to fill it up with gas. We simply want to live in a nation that has jobs, is growing, and we feel is truly representing us.

The Call for True Change

The issue is that Occupy Wall Street is actually doing what it intended to do: piss people off. Many who are caught up in this are wanting true change, but have no idea what to do or how to fix it. And for the first time, they can see a group similar to themselves- people standing up and saying enough is enough. They are tired of struggling and tired of the economy, the politics and much more.

But we need true change. This movement is not going to give the people true change. We need to actively ask for something more than what these protestors are asking for. This is politics, not capitalism.

The Steps We Must Take

Our first step is Justice. We need to urge the government to investigate the fraud of the banks and charge people with the crimes they committed that lead to where we now are. We should investigate companies that have falsified documents in order for market share or cash and charge the people responsible with committing these crimes. This justice will help solidify the people's trust once again in banks and companies, assisting with financial aspects of the stock market and eventually creating a sustainable and profitable level once more.

Our second step is Tax Reform. We need to reform the tax code first and foremost, from a completely difficult and convoluted mess of loopholes to something simple and straightforward. Corporations should no longer be allowed to pay less than an average American, and Americans from all walks of life shouldn't be exempt. Our infrastructure works on taxes, and when people stop paying them- we cannot keep the infrastructure going without going into debt. At the same time, we should not expect the government to continue taxing us beyond reason. It is not in our interest to spend tax payer dollars on programs that are inefficient and waste the money of the people.

Our third step is Regulation Reform. Regulations were put into place for companies in order to protect consumers. Many of these regulations are now gone, and either reinstating them or implementing new ones that aim to protect consumers are necessary. Companies have proven that they are not able to govern themselves respectfully and in consumers' interests. Not only that, but current regulations that are being broken need to be more enforced. A company that spent billions of tax payer dollars only having to pay millions in fines does not seem logical.

That leads us to step four: Government Reform. The Occupy Movement has one thing correct- there is a lot of money involved in politics today from companies. The recent judicial decision, allowing companies to donate as they are seen as a person, is getting hate even from President Obama. But even before that, lobbyists and special interest groups have campaigned to elect people in order to get laws passed that benefit them. And many times politicians, who have friends or have made money in certain industries, will act to assist those friends or themselves in order to make more money. Getting this kind of money out of politics won't solve much, people can still donate personally and make under the table deals. But we need to do more as voters. We need to put people who could actually do well in the position to seats in the government. Campaigns are now riddled with lies and misinformation. Changing the way the game is played and actually standing for issues instead of who cheated on their wife with whom is where politics needs to go.

What About [Insert Issue Here]?

There are hundreds of issues that should not be issues in this day and age. A government that is meant to be separate from church and state constantly is using religious ideologies to give reason for a law- but I won't go into that now. I understand that things from healthcare to homosexual rights to abortion are hot topics and need solutions. But I don't think anyone can disagree that in this time we need to really sit down and figure out what is working in our government and what isn't, and fix the major issues that plague the nation.

These four steps I mentioned would get us back on track, more than we are now. Every day consumers continue to see worse conditions, job seekers aren't finding much to do but pray, and people are no longer seeing the American dream.

I myself have given up on the American dream. I don't feel like what was possible only 4-5 years ago when I started college is now possible today. I'm part of the real 99%. The part that has applied to over 1000 jobs and gotten nowhere. The part that has time and time again pushed to be the best and always worked our asses off. We don't have a name like Occupy Wall Street or the Tea Party. We don't all have the ability to put our lives on hold and stand up for something. But we want change, and we are going to find it somehow in our lives. I know that I plan to change my life, and I urge everyone else to do the same. Maybe someone who can put their life on hold can take the reigns and start a movement that actually pushes forth what we all have wanted for so long: change. I know I will support that movement more than I ever will support Occupy Wall Street again.

Dr. Mendall: Behind the Scenes

2011-11-11T14:10:00.001-04:00

Our video is now live from Halloween night. Check it out below. Stay tuned for more- I'm working on a script for a movie to hopefully be shot in the Spring and I'm currently in talks to do a weekly YouTube show soon.

Dr. Mendall

2011-10-29T13:40:00.000-04:00

Christopher Jay Mendall was an exceptional student. Throughout high school he was at the top of his class, always with honors and straight As. Everyone thought so highly of him.

His college years were no different. Professors loved him as their most favorite student, and his grades were always at the top of his class. He made his way through his years at college and was on his way to being a doctor.

But financial issues pegged him, as his scholarships dried up. Instead of going to the top medical school like he wanted, he was forced into a school that was barely eligible to give him a degree. They began teaching him strange techniques. Showed him how to kill patients without anyone knowing. How to operate with nothing but a box knife. How to use every day tools to fix up a patient.

They taught him old techniques that weren't used any more: leeches, cutting off the skull to let demons out, or taking someone out of their misery by putting a nail through their nose and hitting their brain.

But it wasn't until he met Dr. Frankenstein that things changed for the worse.

"I'm not sure this is going to work, Dr. Frankenstein. It seems illogical for a body to come to life after the parts have been dead. The blood can't circulate, it's been coagulated and-"

"Nonsense, Christopher. I just need to do everything just right. We can and will create a human from this."

He watched as Frankenstein assembled a body, slowly helping him stitch each part together. Every vein, artery and nerve ending- carefully placed to connect to one another. To finally piece together a human with no organs.

"Now we have to be quick about this, Christopher. I have a body coming- a fresh one- and we must quickly place all the organs in before they become useless."

"But doctor, you need a heart and if the heart has stopped beating-"

"It's why I built a mechanical heart, Mr. Mendall."

"But the blood-"

"Do you want to graduate, Mr. Mendall? Do as I say. Your research project must come to a completion and I have to sign off on it for you to graduate. Do not question my authority, or all that hard work you've done will have been useless."

He did just as Dr. Frankenstein told him after that. He waited for the fresh body to come in, brought by a shady ambulance. He brought the body in- a young adult male as he recalled, and placed it on a slab next to the creature. He reluctantly helped put the new organs in, and watched as they came to life inside the new body.

But as the last organ was put in, nothing was working.

"I told you it was impossible."

"Nothing is impossible, I just need one more element. I will return in a moment, I must crunch some numbers. My assistant will bring out the brain. You must insert it into this being."

Christopher thought it was strange that an assistant he had never heard of was there in the lab, and wondered to himself why he was there if the doctor had an assistant in the first place. But it was too soon that a small man, only around four feet tall, wheeled a cart out with a human brain on it.

Christopher did just as he was told. He put the brain into the creature. But again, nothing happened. He decided to sew the creature up and wait for something to happen. There was a pulse, indicated by machines. The stats were fine. The monitors beat with a melodic rhythm.

The lights flickered, just as Christopher was falling asleep waiting for Dr. Frankenstein to come back. To his surprise, as he opened his eyes again- the creature was sitting up on the slab. It took a deep breath, and blinked heavily. He watched as it closed and opened it's eyes numerous times.

"Hello?"

The creature looked at Christopher, but was blinded by the lights in the room like a newborn child. He watched as the monster stumbled to its feet, unable to figure out what was going on. It fell on the floor, not too hard, but hard enough for a man that was over six feet tall.

But as though its brain kicked in, the creature was on its feet and moving around blindly. It ran into machines, it knocked over the organ donor body, and made its way to a glass door to the outside that it broke through. Christopher watched as it ran off into the nearby woods.

"Dr. Frankenstein! It worked but the monster escaped!" He ran to his office, only to find a signed piece of paper that allowed Christopher to graduate. He had put in enough clinical work and was now finally a true doctor.

But Frankenstein was no where to be found and they had set loose a monster. Christopher needed to fix what it was he started. He felt the need to fix whatever it was that made this monster run off.

He chased after it, roaming the woods, obsessed with fixing what he had done. Obsessed with finding the creature.

"I must fix this. Have to fix everything." He would mumble to himself.

Days turned into weeks, and weeks into months. He grew tired and weary, feeding and living in the wild. It was only after months of search that he gave up, and stumbled into a small town. They told him they had heard of such a monster, and that people had found him and killed him soon after he was first spotted.

"You're a doctor?" a man in white asked him.

"Yes. Right before I went into the wilderness I officially became one. Dr. Mendall."

"My name is Dr. Moreau. I have a job for you if you would like it, Mr. Mendall."

"Of course, of course. I would be very welcome to living here in this small town."

"We would not live here. I am simply visiting for the moment. But I have an island I work on, and you might be of some expertise of mine."

"What am I fixing?"

"Fixing? You'll be working on turning a man into a leopard."

"He wants to be a leopard?"

Dr. Moreau paused. "Yes, yes he does. A human half-breed."

"I will help him then. I can fix him." Dr. Mendall rocked back and forth in a chair, his grizzly beard a reminder of what he had done for months.

He was flown to this strange island and began working with this man. For years he did research, experimentation on his body, and eventually created this half-man half-leopard.

"You have done well, doctor. Might I interested you in doing some more work?"

"I have fixed this man. I have to fix the world and I cannot do so here. There are people who are sick out there and that's why I came to be a doctor. People who are sick and needing me."

"Very well, I have a place I can send you to then. It's a nice city, plenty of people who can come to you for a fix up."

Dr. Mendall was flown to a city he had never heard of in a place he could never recognize. Towers loomed above, and people claimed to see people who were human-bats. He set up a shop in the cheapest place he could find, and before he even opened up shop- a customer walked in.

"Can I help you?"

"I need fixing." The man said, his hand over his mouth, "A man-bat attacked me and my mouth is in so much pain. Can you fix me, doc?"

Dr. Mendall looked at the man, his hair crazy, his mouth bleeding, and his skin so pale it looked like white make-up. His outfit screamed he was a butler of some kind, with purple and green that no sane man would wear.

"Sure, I can help you." He told the man. "Everyone needs fixing."

He put the man in a chair, and let him uncover his mouth. His mouth had been slit on both sides, and had bled a lot.

"You got black eyes from this guy too?"

"No, I was going for a raccoon look," the man said laughing and making his mouth bleed. "I'm sorry- I'm a bit of a joker."

Dr. Mendall carefully began work on the man, but without knocking him unconscious he screamed in agony making the cuts bigger. It was only until the man had fell unconscious that he could attempt to sew his mouth up. But by then it was too late. The slits had gotten too big to fix. He could not be fixed.

His first patient a failure, he left his unopened office and began walking the streets mumbling to himself that he must fix everyone. Every person he looked at had a problem. Every person that walked by could be fixed.

"Fix everything." He mumbled over and over again. "Fix everything...fix everything..."

He collapsed in a pile of garbage hours later, exhausted and unable to move. When he awoke, he found himself in a small town. He began walking around, finding himself face to face with a man who kept coughing.

"I could fix you," he said to the man.

"You a doctor?"

"Dr. Mendall. I fix everything."

"Sorry, I can't go to a doctor. I have no insurance."

"It's free. I'll fix you for free. I must fix everything."

"You got yourself a deal, doc. Where's your office?"

"In this alley here..."

He took the man down the small alley behind a shopping center. There he found steps he told the man to sit on.

"Your office is a some steps?"

"For now. I should have a tent. I should have a tent to fix everything. I must fix that problem."

Dr. Mendall bent down and told the man to open his mouth. He peered in and saw his throat was red from being sore. "I know how to fix this," he said.

"What are you going to prescribe? I think it's just a cold."

"Close your eyes, this might hurt a little."

The man did as he was told. Dr. Mendall reached in his pocket and pulled a box cutter out. With it he cut the man's throat, blood going everywhere. He continued to cut through the throat, trying to cut out the area that was sore. As he did so, he saw the man had died and threw part of the throat in the trash. Looking at the man, he realized his own clothing was inappropriate. It was dirty. He took the man's white shirt and jeans, now stained with blood, and put it on himself. The naked man, his throat cut wide open, was dead. He took the man and threw him in the same nearby dumpster, walking away and down the street.

"I fixed him. He has no problems now because he's dead." He mumbled to himself. "Must fix everything. Must set up a tent. Must fix patients."

He walked into the night, looking for more people to fix- his box cutter in hand.

Halloween: Prepare to See A Show

2011-10-25T12:41:00.001-04:00

Hello fans- and those who scanned our QR code or looked us up on Halloween night. I'm glad you've stopped by, have a look around (*cough* buy my book *cough*), read some stories.

For Halloween I have a tradition at home- every year I come up with some insane little act I put on for trick-or-treaters. I started by just pretending to be a dummy and scaring kids, to being a pet zombie, to having a horde of zombies in the front yard. Some have scared kids, others have simply entertained them.

For the last two years people have asked my family "No show again this year?"...well, we're back. And this year, we're going for gold and not just scaring these kids- but making them remember us for a month. (I exaggerate here, but I apologize if your child does in fact get THAT scared.)

I created a character tentatively called "Dr. Fixit". He's obsessed with fixing everything that's wrong with you...even if there's nothing wrong. Because there's always something wrong...and he's a doctor and must fix it.

Check back in here soon for a video from Halloween night of the terrifying show and the whole process of making the scene (or follow us on Facebook, yeah? Link on the side there). Whether we pull something like this off again next year? We'll see. But two years off has left the desire for more blood than you'd imagine. I'd do an evil laugh here, but in text it just looks dumb- so just imagine it.

I Auditioned for King of the Nerds

2011-09-16T01:02:00.000-04:00

Fall is here. It's colder than a...well, it's getting cold. Pretty cold out.

Anyways, I decided to try out for this reality TV show called King of the Nerds. Ever heard of it? Yeah, it's new or something. I don't even know what it consists of, and you can't really google it and find anything worthwhile (that's not even a joke, forreal...at least at the time of this writing.)

Check it out though if you'd like to see me make a giant nerdy fool of myself. Which, since this is the Internet (or should I say, Internetz?) you gladly will do such a thing.

Ladies, single file please.

A Sudden Pit Stop

2011-09-13T01:15:00.000-04:00

The all-night diner, famous for it's apple pie made with "real" apples and a favorite for truckers, was quiet at 3 in the morning. Only a few people, your stereotypical older blonde waitress, your slightly overweight greased up cook always with a toothpick in his mouth, and Ted- the only customer in the place who had just sat down by himself.

"Hey honey, what can I get ya?"

"Oh um, coffee. Black," he rubbed his forehead, tired and stressed out. "And um, I don't know- a cheeseburger. Nothing on it."

"You want fries with that?"

"Sure. You guys take credit cards?"

"Uh huh."

"Yeah, fries is good."

"You just come from a wedding or something? You're too old to be coming from a high school dance, and ain't nobody 'round here comes dressed all nice like that."

"Um, yeah. Wedding. Yeah."

The waitress nervously watched him, saw how stressed out he was. She walked behind the counter, over to the coffee- still using an old drip machine with glass pitchers. Grabbing the brown topped one, she began to walk back to stop at the order window.

"Hey John," she yelled to the cook, "We got an order for a naked cow with cheese and tater fingers."

John quickly walked over to her.

"That's all? Usually I get a much bigger order than that."

"This guy ain't a trucker. Look at 'im. He's got a suit jacket sittin' next to him. Drove up in a nice car."

"Probably just came from a wedding. I think they got that place down the road for weddin's."

"True. I asked him about it, must be somethin' to do with a weddin'. He's so uneasy, though."

"Give him some coffee, I'm sure he'll wake up a little bit."

She walked back over to the table, Ted now holding his head in his two hands, eyes closed, breathing steadily. Julie picked up the coffee mug, waking Ted from whatever he was in.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you. You didn't want decaf, did you?"

"Oh uh, no. No. Thank you."

"You need sugar or anything?"

"No thank you."

"Is everything OK, honey? You seem stressed."

"Am I that obvious?"

"If you were any more you'd be an ox in heat."

"Long day," Ted nodded, "That's all."

"All that dancin' at the weddin' huh? Who was it that got married?"

Ted swallowed hard. "My uh..." he struggled to answer, "My friend."

"Best friend? College roommate?"

"Best friend. Definitely."

"Well, you must've been the best man then- no wonder you're so tired."

"I wasn't." Ted sipped his coffee.

"Oh, that's strange. Why wouldn't you be the best man? You think he'd pick you."

"She didn't really have a choice."

It was like a light bulb clicked in her head. She knew exactly what happened. He couldn't look at her, and just sipped his coffee. The only noise the sizzling of the burger in the kitchen.

"Listen kid," she said breaking the silence, "There's plenty of fish in the sea."

"No. Just don't. Please don't."

"You'll find a girl and be happy-"

"Miss, I don't know you. But you're not helping me any."

"Honey if she didn't feel that way towards you-"

"She does. Well, she did." Ted swallowed hard, "I fucked it up. Years ago. And now we're just friends. But there's never been a girl like her since. I thought I could find someone, but I never did."

"You will."

"No. Because she was the one. I know it sounds crazy, but...when I was younger I had this dream. I was about five years old and I had this recurring dream. It was this girl, beautiful girl, and she was running through a field. This girl was about ten years old, and I had this dream so many times when I was five. Just her running through this field, telling me to come on. Come on, Ted."

He could see the ten year old girl again, looking back at him. The images flashed in his head, her beckoning him to run with her.

"I thought at five years old, this girl is beautiful. I didn't even know what beautiful was, I just knew. I had this dream for months, and then just stopped. I had a few more times after that. Then one day I met Aysha. I was ten. I felt like I had met her so many times before, but I couldn't figure it out."

He sipped his coffee, still remembering the pictures.

"We were best friends and I just remember going to her grandparents house. They had this really big field, and she want to run through it- but I was afraid. My mom told me to be careful, you never know what's out in the country. But she loved it. And she beckoned me. Come on, Ted. Come on. And I realized that I had been dreaming about her. And I ran through that field with her."

His eyes stared straight ahead. He could see his past flash before him.

"She was my first kiss when we were twelve. She was my first date to the dance. She was my first girlfriend. Hell, she was...my first everything. Before her I was a shy little kid, afraid of the world. With her, I wasn't afraid of anything."

Julie stood there, waiting for more. Silence.

"So what happened?" she asked, too eager to wait for Ted to snap out of his gaze.

"We um, graduated. Stayed together during college, but were at different colleges. So it was hard. But I could never give her up. I never wanted to. But I went one time and I saw how hard it was for her. It was killing her to be away from me, more than it was me from her. And I thought, maybe if I let her go she'll be a little better. She won't stress out as much, she'll focus on her classes and then when we're out of college we can be together again."

"She found another guy..."

"Nicolas. Yeah."

"And she fell in love with him."

"Yeah. I mean, I gave her space. But I never wanted anyone but her. My buddies tried really hard, but I always thought I'd be with her again. Then she got a boyfriend, and I thought it was just to try to move on. Then the next thing I know, she's marrying some jackass who couldn't care about her like I do."

"How old are you, honey?"

"I'm 26. They got engaged two years ago. And tonight they finally got married. For the last two years, I've lived through hell. And tonight, I told her I still loved her. And she said she loved me too, but we weren't meant to be. Because she found Nicolas and loves him too."

"You've got a nice car, I'm assuming you must have a nice job then."

"Actually, that car is a rental. Bad economy has actually left me jobless. Got laid off."

"You've got family. Your brothers, sisters, cousins-"

"My parents aren't so understanding. My mom made me fear everything as a child, and my father is an alcoholic who likes to disappear to the bars most the time."

"Friends are-"

"No. Aysha is the only friend I have left. My college buddies made some choice remarks about her after we broke up, and I went off on them. They came to conclusion it was my fault, and don't speak to me now."

"Order up!"

"I'll be back with your order."

Ted was silent as Julie walked over and grabbed the hot plate.

"Is there anything else I can get you, honey?"

Ted thought for a second. "No." He paused. "Thank you."

"You're welcome. And it's on the house."

"Thank you. I appreciate it."

Julie walked to the back kitchen, stressed out from the conversation.

"So what's his case? Is he psycho?"

"Another lovestruck kid."

"Let me guess, best friend was his girlfriend he knew since he was ten and she married some douchebag. Now he's jobless and alone."

"Bingo."

"You give him food on the house?"

"Always do."

"You ever think people are gonna wander back here wondering where this place is again?"

"Wouldn't be the first time. Let's just hope his burger suits him well enough. I'm just surprised no one wonders why they're always the only one in here."

"You'd think they'd find Angel's Diner to be somewhat of an ironic name?"

"John, you know they don't read the signs. Otherwise you'd think someone would have us figured out by now."

"As long as they aren't killing themselves, I don't care if they figure us out any."

John and Julie smiled at each other, looking over at Ted. He took a bite of his burger and smiled, thinking everything was going to be OK again.

Why Nintendo is on the Brink: And How to Solve Their Problems

2011-09-02T16:16:00.000-04:00

By James Gabbard

Nintendo has made millions off of this generation's hardware, selling over 41 million Wii consoles in America alone- an estimated profit of $246 million. And that's just from console sales. The Wii and DS, as the Internet saying goes, have been printing money for Nintendo. But now everyone is questioning what's been going wrong: how can the 3DS be doing so poorly? Will the Wii U catch on? Is Nintendo on the brink of self-destruction? With all the rumors going on, I decided to look into all the talk myself.

Nintendo is losing money, fast

The first claim is that Nintendo, with their stocks plummeting from a high, are on the brink of closure and going the way of Sega. Nintendo has lost millions in the quarter, and they will have no other choice than to go third party and make games on other platforms.

Apparently the people who are making these claims don't follow the stock market very well.

Nintendo has had a huge growth since December 2005, after showing the Wii controller and the idea of motion gaming. But before that? Nintendo stock actually was at a low during the Gamecube/Game Boy Advance era. Despite the fact the Game Boy Advance had little to no competition and sold millions worldwide, we see Nintendo's stock at average lows of $8. It was only until after the DS was released in 2004 that we begin to see stock prices rise, and only after the announcement of the Wii controller that we really begin to see the company rise to it's highest point of $76 in December 2007 before beginning its drop.

The company has actually stayed fairly steady, trading around $30, and seeing positive growth in March 2010, the same month the 3DS was announced. But since the 3DS launch, stock has continued to fall, now currently on the rise and selling around $20 a share. Does this spell doom and gloom for Nintendo?

Not really, considering Nintendo existed in their profitable GBA days trading at only $8. On top of that, the top 3 selling titles for 2011 so far are all in Nintendo's name: Pokemon Black/White, Wii Sports, and Wii Sports Resort. Could Nintendo even go the way of Sega?

Sega is a bit different, as they had a lot more problems. In 1997, they began to have losses for the next five years. It was only after two years of losses that the company launched the Dreamcast, to have sales not reach expectations and developers abandon it for the PlayStation 2- riding off of Sony's success with the PlayStation. Their stock, which only goes back to 2000, saw a huge dip before the merger- down to almost $4 trading. With substantial loss in the market, and nowhere to go with their Dreamcast console- Sega was forced to go third party. But would Nintendo?

Is Nintendo in a similar position?

Sega went third party after a total of four years of losses in the market, and two years after the launch of the Dreamcast failed to bring publishers on board. Nintendo is in somewhat of a similar problem: companies are not sure they want to touch the 3DS and- as EA has openly stated- think the PlayStation Vita will do better in the marketplace. Sales figures of the 3DS were not as high as Nintendo had hoped for the launch, and despite selling millions quickly took to a price cut in order to get more people to buy the system. So far, the strategy seems to have at least brought their stock up some- but with no one talking about games being released- the 3DS has few killer titles for people to purchase- similar again to problems Sega had with the Dreamcast.

But Nintendo is in a different position than Sega: they have money they can use with the success of the Wii and DS to take more chances and still remain profitable. The question is if Nintendo can compete on the same level with Sony and Microsoft as the next round of consoles heats up- including rumors about a new Xbox shown at next year's E3. Add the fact that systems like the DS continue to sell and 3D isn't as much of a selling point to people as Nintendo thought- and you have a lot of business tactics Nintendo needs to take into consideration.

Nintendo's Overhaul: Part One

The first thing Nintendo needs to do is overhaul their entire system. First start with third parties- which they are somewhat doing now. As they finally have money to throw around, they're doing so. But let's not stop there.
Help out with marketing the games too, and not just working with third parties to make the games but to sell them to people. Nintendo makes great family games, but it doesn't do so well with M-rated titles. They are going to need third parties to work on those, and not just create another Geist game.

Overhaul: Online

People like having a username, being able to redownload their software easily, and really like online gaming. I'd love to be able to sign on, see my friend is online and send him a quick message to play some Smash Bros. U- and I'm sure others would do the same thing. Especially if I can sit there and talk to him while we're playing the game too without the entire room hearing our conversation. While Nintendo is incredibly worried about children being abducted, they should know it's very rare for this to happen- and Microsoft and Sony have never had a problem with child abductors due to parental controls implemented into the system.
And while overhauling the online experience, add a better store than what we have now. The store seems cluttered on the TV screen, and doesn't flow as well as it could. And let's be honest, we can tone down that music to be something smoother and not feel like we're trying to shop at a weird circus.

Nintendo doesn't want to copy competitors, but it needs an overhaul on what works. For once Nintendo, get your act together and do something similar. There's a reason why iTunes is popular, because it is easy to navigate- same with Xbox LIVE. Easier to navigate, easier to use, more profitable.

Overhaul: Games

Not that Nintendo doesn't have awesome games, it just isn't selling any of them. The 3DS is "failing" not because of hardware, but because of games and the price point of them. Sure, the PSP did OK with selling games at $40 a pop- but you're Nintendo, you're supposed to be selling games at a cheaper price point.

But the main issue is getting games on the console. It's understandable, third parties were meant to supply games for the system but backed off and now you're scrambling to do something. You now have to convince everyone that the 3DS is worth developing for. How do you do that?

Indie developers. You're the first device that has 3D implemented without the need for glasses, let indie developers create games for it like iOS and Android. Let them port games from those devices if they want. You're making it easy to port Xbox 360 games to the Wii U, now make it easy to port iOS and Android based games to the 3DS. And have them sell for 99 cents. You get Angry Birds 3D on the device, and you'll make a killing Nintendo. Enough money grubbing, you've got competition to worry about and if you can release a PC tool to make portable games- every Nintendo fan around is going to try to make the next best title.

And if you're really inclined to, take those titles and work with them. Take good ideas and make them better. Add some Nintendo magic. Yeah, you'll have to do a pretty good job at quickly approving games- but if you're so worried about it then team up with Apple or Google. I'm sure one of them would love to have their market available on the 3DS and make money off of it even more.

And where are my Wii U titles? You haven't announced much for the Wii, might as well start showing off some things for the Wii U.

Overhaul: Marketing

This one is more for the current strategies. The 3DS marketing isn't great. It doesn't show 3D, it doesn't get the point of the 3DS across to consumers. And honestly, parents probably are thinking it's just another small upgrade. You need a nice, catchy way to get people to know about the 3DS much like the "Wii would like to play" commercials that go to be so popular. The current Apple-esque way of presenting things isn't working, you need to do a little better than that. And when you release the Wii U, you might wanna do an even better marketing campaign to garner in both the casual and hardcore market.

Just, refine everything else before you start marketing.

Conclusion

Nintendo is in somewhat of a similar position that Sega was back in the late 90s, but only with the position of their newest console. If Nintendo can get third party developers to jump on board and start releasing games that take advantage of the hardware, the train will be unstoppable. Both casual and hardcore gamers will eventually have to upgrade to play the newest games, and though we'll unlikely see the success of the Wii again- we'll see a lot more people interested in gaming in years to come. Nintendo can prepare for this by creating competitive pricing and games to go along with their own, or team up with companies like Apple or Google- and creating a joint venture into the future of gaming.

With potentially new information coming in only 2 weeks, Nintendo's stocks are at their whim and the right choices need to be made now in order to truly garner an experience people want in the entertainment industry.

James Gabbard is a journalist and owner of A Simple Letter, if interested in contacting him about writing articles, check out the contact us tabs at the top of the web page.

Project SSBB: How to Play/Intro

2011-08-29T00:10:00.000-04:00

I want to start this post off by thanking all my new fans and followers. I got a lot of positive feedback from Project SSBB when I uploaded the video, and it continues to get hits and grow every day. After our initial posting on GoNintendo, the video has spread to Nintendo Life, The Speed Gamers, Le Journal du Gamer, Game Set Watch, IGN Smash Bros, and more. The video is slowly approaching over 10,000 views and 100 likes. I honestly never thought a simple art project would get this popular.

But with popularity, you have to keep delivering.

So the last few days I shot and edited an intro and how to play video. I was originally only going to do the how to play vid, but it felt like it needed a little more and created a remake of the 64 intro- but with the board game in mind. Without further ado, you can watch it below.

I hope you enjoyed my recreation. Because with this, I am giving Project SSBB to the community to fully work on. What that means is that I am moving onto other projects in my Prove It! series, and I hope fans will stick around. I will still post and update Project SSBB as fans send me submissions- but I do not have any current plans to add any of my own touch to it.

Instead, my plans are to move to other projects. Do some music work, some comedy work, and more. And with me being such a video game freak, maybe you'll see my own game eventually coming out (if I can find a good crew, trust me- it would already be done by now).

And most importantly, I'll be working on getting an awesome job. So if anyone needs someone to do an awesome job...just hit the contact us tab.

Please Give Me an Awesome Job: Prove It! Announcing Super Smash Bros. Board!

2011-08-20T02:19:00.003-04:00

About a month ago I uploaded a video asking for an awesome job, just to see what I could get from that. People loved it, said it was hilarious. And after 86 views...I never heard from anyone wanting to give me an awesome job that I spoke of.

So I decided I was going to prove myself. And that's what I did, by spending the last month of my time creating the board game Super Smash Bros. Board! It was a grueling month, filled with having to see how much I could actually spend on the project and attempting to find ways to reduce costs. Luckily, with a freelance project helping me pay for this, I was able to complete it. Check it out a little bit below in the video.

What I Did

There was a lot of work to do in order to make this come to life. First thing I did was figure out how the game plays, and how I could relate the video game into a board game. It turned out to be incredibly easier than I thought.

The whole idea of fighting is to get your opponent to the edge based on the roll of a die. With your 4 special moves, you move back and forth in a battle of who moves where. Once you make it to the last tile (the 5th one) you get a safety roll and try to save yourself. Otherwise you just lost the battle. It gets more complicated when you start adding in items, which force players to use them strategically if at all.

With that in place, I had to research materials and how to make the game. I found some tutorials on building your own game, spoke with a few shop owners, and admittedly even attempted to work with some companies that never got back to me (and I didn't really think they would). In the end I used the entirety of a Monopoly game (minus cards, money and the metal figures), a lot of printing at Kinko's, an oversized poster for the board, and tons of cutting. I spent more than I am willing to admit on this project, just to make it see the light of day. And the light of day it sees for you all to now take on the challenge of making it better than I can.

Smash to the Core

The game is Smash Bros. at it's core. It is fun, crazy, zany and can change in the blink of an eye. It also crams more Nintendo history than the games ever have. I use references to pop culture and memes- as well as jokes Nintendo fans know about. This is the kind of stuff Nintendo fans love, but Nintendo is afraid to use usually (exception: Super Paper Mario).

It's also meant to be more fun with more people. The player cap is at 4, only because of materials needed. If you really wanted you could probably have all 12 players on the field at once. Think of how crazy that would be.

100% Customizable

One thing fans of Super Smash love arguing about more than what should be legal in tournaments (or how tournament players are ruining the game) is easy: characters. But the best thing about this game? You can add anyone, and anything. And it's easy to keep balance, because everyone has the exact same stats.

Brings you to the Core of Playing

Sure, you can change it so this game is more strategic and much less about chance. But what this is meant to do is get rid of a lot of the worries some fans have- and instead just focus on fun. There's no need for tier systems, hacking, or watching videos of your dice roll (I really hope no one does that). This is board gaming at it's finest: fun, easy, and pisses a lot of people off at some point. And honestly, that's what the original Smash was all about.

My Inspiration

The entirety of this actually came from a Kotaku Photoshop Contest. I had won the week before for a video entry, and was going to take it to the next level the next week- as the challenge was to photoshop a board game based on a video game. This made me think of how Smash Bros. would work- and a month later, we have Board!

If you look at our photos on Facebook you should see inspiration from a lot of places for design. The back of Item cards is based on the menu from the original Smash, as the back of Challenger! cards throw it to the Melee Challenger Approaches screens. Even the back of the Character cards you should recognize from Melee.

The player pieces are the original 12, in their original art form, colored in with colored pencil. This design is meant to bring more of the puppet-like feel the original game gave off- compared to the trophies in the later versions.

And you'll see a ton of the Smash logo, the circle with the lines through it. It's all over the box, manual, and is the design of the battle coins.

If you look at the board, you'll also notice something. Each of the background pieces as it is going around are big moments in Nintendo's history- in chronological order. You actually are traveling through Nintendo History.

You should also look right behind the tiles. Notice something? It's Final Destination. And if you look at it right, you'll notice that the 5th tile is off the stage, so you would fall just like in the game.

I think my favorite thing about design has to be the "Only for" on the front- harking back to the days when Nintendo put that on all of their boxes (it's designed after the Gamecube of course...I hope that doesn't mean this game will fail for some reason...)

My Only Warning

I have one warning and really it's this: don't spend too much money on this. I spent a buttload more than I would had Nintendo actually made this- and it still isn't as beautiful. I think it looks fantastic, as I am in no way an artist of this kind, but you do not want to spend the kind of money I have for this if you do plan to make it.

Oh, also- if you go to Kinko's realize that they shrink a lot of file sizes when they print. I'm not sure why, my guess is the fact I was working with an 8.5X11 photo and they have cut offs automatically. It did change some things because the proportions were off, but it still looked good.

And Yes, I am for Hire

Just remember Nintendo/Hasbro/Any Other Impressed Company I am Likely Willing to Work for, I am available for your awesome job. So don't hesitate to email me. I'd love to come make some more board games or video games.

Or if you need someone to be your official fan spokesperson, Nintendo. I could totally do that.

Check out the Project SSBB (double S, double B) tab to download, and find pictures galore.

A Simple Letter Welcomes: John Stegeman

2011-08-10T01:18:00.001-04:00

Hello readers! I'd like to let everyone know about our new freelance network, where businesses and anyone else interested that needs something done can contact us. I plan to grow this network out more, but I can guarantee these people are hard workers and skilled in their craft. I want to welcome one now, Mr. John Stegeman. I worked with John back in 2008 for a summer, and he's definitely one of the best managers I've met in my years of working. I'm glad to now be working with him again, and I present some of his previous work below to let everyone know just what he can do. Check out John's past work in sports writing with the Portsmouth Daily Times, and make sure to contact us if interested in hiring him for freelance work.

Trojans fall to Logan
John Stegeman
PDT Sports Editor
Published: October 23, 2010

With hopes for a .500 season and slim playoff dreams hanging in the balance, Portsmouth hosted Logan on Friday night. With about one more minute of time on the clock, the Trojans may have been able to win.

Portsmouth trailed Logan 31-14 with 6:49 to play in the game but rallied with two fourth-quarter touchdowns before the comeback fell short for a final score of 31-28 in favor of the Chieftains. With 13.3 seconds left in the game and no timeouts remaining, Portsmouth received a Logan punt on the Chieftains 42-yard line. The Trojans managed to run three plays but the first two resulted in incomplete passes and with.6 seconds left the final play resulted in only a two-yard gain to end the game.

Despite the loss, the Trojans put on a strong fourth quarter performance. After going down 31-14, Portsmouth engineered a five-play, 68-yard drive in 53 seconds to cut the deficit to 31-21 when quarterback Mason Jordan ran the ball 15-yards for the score. Four plays later, Logan punted, and nine plays after that the Trojans were in the end zone again when Jordan hit Wayne Evans for an 11-yard strike. A squib kick preceded Logan's next possession and the Portsmouth defense held, setting up the final three plays.

"We had a great effort out there," Portsmouth coach Curt Clifford said. "When we got down 31-14 we could have rolled over, and we have before. We came back swinging tonight and we got it to within 31-28. I can't fault our effort. I thought our kids played until they couldn't play anymore."

Portsmouth's weakest area of the game was the rush defense. Logan sophomore Cory McCarty ran the ball 35 times for 216 yards and four touchdowns, often breaking for big games after being hit at the line of scrimmage. Quarterback Jordan Jurgensmier ran 14 times for 46 yards and threw for 47 yards.

"Horrible tackling," Clifford said. "We spend a good amount of time on that and that's depressing. We're hitting. The thing that's disappointing is that we are putting hits on people, but we're not tackling. We're not wrapping our arms and driving through It seems like we've had a lot of backs gain a lot of yards on us this year. He's a good back."

The Trojan defense did hold strong on Logan's last two drives, holding the Chieftains to just five yards.

"I told the kids you can never be satisfied with a loss, but you can be satisfied with your effort," Clifford said. "We played hard enough to win, we just didn't play well enough to win." The brightest spot for Portsmouth was the play of Jordan. Jordan completed 10 of 25 passes for 239 yards and three touchdowns. He also ran for 29 yards and a score. The junior quarterback took over the offense after starting QB and reigning SEOAL South Player of the Year Josh Myers went down with an injury after week three and had impressed the coaching staff.

"Mason is getting better every game he plays," Clifford said. "You saw the same thing with Myers last year. You know from about the fifth or sixth game on it started clicking. He started seeing things the way we wanted him to see things. The same thing is happening with Mason. The difference is Mason didn't have that sophomore year of 10 games."

Portsmouth's leading receiver was L.J. Adams with three catches for 125 yards and a score. Evans had three catches for 30 yards and a score and Jonathon Royster had two catches for 52 yards and a touchdown. Kyle Simpson had two catches for 32 yards. Andrew Gulley was the leading rusher for Portsmouth with 41 yards. Logan hosts Chillicothe next week while Portsmouth's finale is a home game with rival Ironton.

The Portsmouth-Ironton rivalry is among the best known in the state and while a.500 season is no longer an option for Portsmouth, Clifford agreed that beating Ironton could bring a happy end to a challenging season.

"I think they can salvage the season if they can come in and knock those guys off," Clifford said.

NOTES: Logan's win ties the Chieftains-Trojans all-time series at 3-3. The last time Logan had a 200-yard rusher before Friday, was in 2007 when Logan's Justin Frye ran for 216 yards, also against Portsmouth. Portsmouth freshman Andrew Johnson, who died this week after a battle with liver cancer, was honored before the game with a moment of silence and again at half time and the Portsmouth marching band spelled out his initials during the final song of their performance.

Schmidt headed back to D.C.
John Stegeman
PDT Staff Writer
Published: November 3, 2010

Voters in the second district of Ohio voted Tuesday to send Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio) back to Washington for her third full term.

With 99 percent of precincts reporting at the Daily Times' deadline, Schmidt garnered 134,361 votes to Democratic challenger Surya Yalamanchili's 79,149 to earn reelection to the House of Representatives. Schmidt thanked the voters for re-electing her and said her win, and that of other Republicans statewide, show what Americans are looking for.

"I'm very honored and humbled by the fact that the voters have placed their hope and trust in me," Schmidt said. "I'm going to work very hard to turn around America. "(The people) want an America that doesn't spend its way into poverty and an America that understands that jobs and the economy should always be our priority What the American public is saying is enough is enough."

Schmidt said that among her goals in the coming term are to repeal the health care bill and to secure the loan guarantee for USEC. She said the USEC guarantee was important not just to this region, but to the nation.

"I think particularly for the folks in the Portsmouth area, they're looking at it in a very personal way with USEC," she said." My folks and myself in Portsmouth are fighting to make sure a loan guarantee goes to USEC."

As for health care, Schmidt said the bill must be repealed, not changed. "I truly believe we need to and that we need to start over," she said. "To think you can tweak it, it is not going to work. I don't think you can tweak that bill."

SSU's Powell Dies At 52
John Stegeman
PDT Staff Writer
Published: July 11, 2010

Michael Powell, Ph.D. chairman of the English Humanities Department at Shawnee State University and published author, died Saturday at SOMC hospice at the age of 52.
Powell was a 1976 graduate of Northwest High School and received his B.A. from Shawnee State and his Ph.D. from Ohio University.

Shawnee Slate President Dr. Rita Rice Morris expressed the university's sentiment in a statement to the Times via the SSU Office of Communications.

"Our campus community is deeply saddened by the news of Michael's passing," Morris said. "Our hearts and prayers go to his wife and their entire family."

The statement went on to say that Powell greatly impacted the Communications program of the university's English department and that his leadership will be missed.

The University will hold its traditional memorial service in Powell's memory in the SSU Memorial Rose Garden at a future date.

The statement did not specify a cause of death, but Powell's Facebook account lists that he had battled cancer. By 4:30 p.m. on Saturday several people had commented on Powell's Facebook page, calling him a "great mentor" and praising the difference he made in the lives of his students.
Graveside services will be conducted at 11 a.m. Wednesday in Oswego Cemetery. Visitation will be at McKinley Funeral Home in Lucasville on Tuesday from 5 to 8 p.m.

Reds season ends in loss
By JOHN STEGEMAN
PDT Sports Editor

CINCINNATI -- The Reds 2-0 season-ending loss to the Phillies in the third and final game of the National League Division Series at Great American Ballpark wasn’t the fairy tale Reds fans were hoping for but it was something -- progress.

Sure the defense committed too many errors, the starting pitching was mediocre and the offense batted somewhere around .120, but the Reds were there, competing in a playoff game.
A crowd of 44,599 came to witness the first playoff game ever at Great American Ballpark but the quiet post game celebration belonged to Philadelphia.

“This moment right here is another stepping stone toward trying to win a World Series,” said Cole Hamels, the Phillies No. 3 pitcher who threw a complete-game, five-hit, shutout against the Reds on Sunday.

Phillies manager Charlie Manuel was asked if Hamels was his guy for the ninth inning regardless even after Brandon Phillips led off with a single.

“Not really,” Manuel half joked. “But he finished it didn’t he? I had a plan. I didn’t have to use it, all right?”

The Phillies scored first in the first inning. Placido Polanco singled to center field with one out and one out later advanced to third on a Ryan Howard single. Jayson Werth then reached on a throwing error by Orlando Cabrerra that allowed Polanco to score the only run the Phillies would need.

The error was one of two for the Reds in the game and one of seven in the series.

“I can’t explain it,” Reds manager Dusty Baker said of the errors. “If I could explain it, it wouldn’t happen and it wouldn’t happen again. I guess it was just baseball. That’s all I can say.”

The Phillies only other run came on a solo home run by Chase Utley in the top of the fifth inning. The play was reviewed by the umpired but stood as called. Utley was the target of much of the Reds fans anger throughout the night.

“You try not to let that affect you,” Utley said. “I think we as a team do a good job of that.”

It was the fourth time in Reds postseason history the team has been swept.

Local swimmer has Olympic hopes
By John Stegeman
For the Community Press

It’s a long way from the Gamble-Nippert YMCA to Beijing, China but even a swim of a thousand miles begins with a single stroke.

Olympic hopeful Jacqueline Fessel, 23, of Knoxville, Tenn. hopes to traverse that distance after a stop in Omaha, Neb. this month for the U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Swimming June 29 to July 6.

Fessel, a graduate of St. Ursula High School, will participate in three events; the 100 backstroke, 200 backstroke and 100 fly. Fessel’s journey to become an Olympic hopeful started at age five. Fessel and her mother, Vernice, arrived early to swim lessons at the Oak Hills Racquet and Swim Club. While waiting, Jacqueline watched an older cousin’s swim practice and saw what she wanted to do. The coach said Fessel could be on the team if she could swim one lap without stopping. She swam three.

Her early career included a national title with the Gamble-Nippert YMCA and a stint with the Cincinnati Marlins.

Fessel’s college career includes multiple All American selections and two University of Tennessee records in the 100 and 200 backstrokes. In 2007, she won a U.S. National Championship in the 100 backstroke. She even has a corporate sponsor, TYR Sport Inc., a swimwear manufacturer. Now, Fessel’s attention if focused on making it to the highest level of sports, the Olympics.

“It’s really exciting,” Fessel said. “I took a little time off after senior year and thought I was done with swimming. I’m old in the swim world…I love the sport way to much to leave it and wonder 10 years down the road what would have happened if I tried for the Olympics.”

Reaching the Olympics, however, requires a daunting schedule.

“I tried to have a job last year,” Fessel said. “It doesn’t quite work because the training is very intense.”

At Omaha, Fessel and all the swimmers, get three chances to swim each event for which they qualified. Everyone swims in the preliminary, the top 16 advance to the semifinals and the top eight from that group compete for the two available spots on the team.

“I’ve heard that I’m considered the dark horse,” Fessel said of her chances to make the roster. “(I’m the) one that you may not think can do it but might do it."

“I’ve been swimming unbelievably at practice lately,” she added. “And I have no intention of swimming anything but my best ever.”

You can check out John on our freelance section for your sports reporting needs, and check out more of our freelancers while you're there.

His Death

2011-07-19T00:37:00.001-04:00

I always had a ritual when someone died. I'd pop in a CD I had made, and hit repeat on number ten- and just sing along. Track ten was always I Will Follow You Into the Dark by Death Cab for Cutie. I'd just listen to it over and over again.

I hated gearing up for the funeral. This one in particular. I wasn't sure if I should even go, but I made my own choice. I put my suit on, all black with a little white. I combed my short hair. Put my sunglasses on that I had always put on. My nicer shoes I had gotten to wear for interviews.

I drove to the cemetery, the middle of fall there were leaves everywhere. The sun shone bright above the graves. A line of cars marked the drive, as chairs sat in front of a podium and a casket. It was like something out of a movie.

I sat in my car, watching. I was late, never could be on time for anything he put on. I saw people who wanted nothing to do with me, crying. I saw people I hadn't spoken to in months. Everything changes in the blink of an eye.

I got out and walked across the lawn, crunching leaves. I quickly took a seat behind a few I still spoke with. I couldn't listen to the man preaching something about God as I sat there. I could only play the song over and over in my head.

"At this time we ask friends and family to come forth to say a few things about Vincent."

I listened to his family and friends remembering the good times. Saying he would be missed. One saying they wished his death could've been avoided.

"Does anyone else want to speak at this time?"

"I would," I said loudly- the song still playing in my head. The man nodded and gave me the podium.

I walked up slowly, everyone's eyes on me. My sunglasses covering my eyes, and how I truly felt. As I got closer I could see his lifeless body for the first time in the casket. Nothing seemed real.

"Hello everyone. Some of you may not know me. I was Vincent's friend during college. To many of you, I was a friend too. I was told I shouldn't come here today, because people would think I was dancing on his grave due to our falling out. That's not why I'm here.

"I'm here because life is fickle. One day you're eight years old and carefree. The next you're thirteen and wondering what's going on with your body. And the next thing you know, you're married with your own eight year old. People change, and we all change with them.

"For Vince and me, life was fickle. We had our ups and downs. We grew apart. And we had a bad falling out. But I changed just as he did. I'm a forgiving man, now. That's why I'm here. Not to just forgive, but to forget those downs. I'll forget the disagreements, him and I acting like assholes to each other. I'll forget the hate, because life is too fickle to remember that.

"Instead I'll remember him as a friend," I nodded. "I'll remember him as someone who was willing to help someone who was dealing with more issues than anyone could know. I'll remember him for bringing together the friends we had, instead of separating us. I'll remember every laugh, and every smile. Because that's all that matters.

"I have a ritual when someone in my life dies. I'll play this song over and over again. I Will Follow You into the Dark. So, Vince- despite all the bad we had at the end, if there's no one beside you- I'll follow you into the dark. I'll follow you into the dark."

I stepped down. I couldn't tell what people were doing. I didn't care. All I could hear was the song playing in my head. The man stood there, preaching his last words. I watched as the casket was closed and the coffin lowered into the ground.

Everyone else went to throw a bit of dirt on top, as I disappeared to the back of the cemetery. I breathed in the new fall air. I watched and listened to the birds and saw squirrels playing on the graves.

No one said anything to me as I stood there. No one said hello or goodbye to me. The cars slowly left. I looked back at the scene and nodded.

"I hope the dark isn't too bad, old friend."

The wind picked up like a movie. I got into my car and turned it on. The radio turned on, track ten still on repeat. I drove off, listening to the song one more time.

Push

2011-06-29T20:32:00.002-04:00

I can't keep doing this. I can't keep pushing for success to only fail.

"What do you mean I still owe you a thousand dollars? I paid that off last month. No, I did. I even wrote a check and everything. Well, the cash is no longer in my bank account so of course it was cashed. You know, why don't you go see what's going on with your computers messing up and get back to me."

I couldn't keep lying. It wasn't going to last. The debt was filing in and there was nothing I could do. They say 90% of new businesses failed, but I had a surefire plan. I knew how business worked. I had the best people, I pushed and worked harder than anyone else. How could I fail?

"Mr. Delaney, your father is on the phone."

"My father?"

"There's a Benjamin on the phone for you."

"Benjamin isn't my father. He's my step father."

"I'm sorry Mr. Delaney, should I take a message?"

"No, I'll answer it. Thank you Pat."

I hated this man. He married my mother when I was 20 and in college. My mom had kept my room exactly the way it was while I was away, and he took out everything valuable, sold it, and told me nothing in life was free and that I had to earn everything. I then told him I had earned many of what was in my room from working odds jobs since I was 13. He didn't relent.

"Andy, it's your father."
"You're not my father, Ben."
"And you're not my asshole son of a bitch son who promised me a giant return if I invested in his company. What is going on with you?"

Debt. I had pushed myself to deal with the bullying of high school to graduate at the top of my class, so I could go to any college I wanted to. Wasn't smart enough to get any of the scholarships I wanted though, and was forced to pay for college myself. $100,000 for 4 1/2 years and I learned little that I could use. When they wanted money back for all those loans, I was pushing myself working two jobs dealing with idiots that probably didn't have their GEDs calling me a rude bastard for not caring about their days and not wanting to fake caring, especially when the companies I worked for pushed me to the edge of exhaustion and still wanted more.

Then I took to doing anything I could for money so I could pay for food. I was starving most the time when working, because I just couldn't afford anything. Days would go by with no sleep. In my free time I would apply for jobs. Having to work through college, you don't get internships and experience. And everyone wants experience.

So I pushed harder. I found investors. I found people that liked my ideas. I got enough money to make way into opening up my own business. I hired the best team around. And then everything started falling apart.

"Hello? Andy are you there?"
"Yes Ben, I'm here. Sorry. I just. Things aren't going to well in my life."
"Don't tell me it's because Laura left you."
"No. It's been awhile, I'm sure I've moved on from her breaking off the engagement."
"Listen, I don't know what it is and I'm sure I'm the last one you want to tell- but if you need someone always know Pastor Thomas is there."
"Thanks Ben. I have some work to do, I'll call you back tonight."

If only I believed in God any more after all the bad things that happened. Laura had been my dream girl for two years after I graduated college. We worked together, and she understood my situation better than anyone I had ever dreamed of. She was supportive in everything, but one day it was just over. Some say we were too young. Others say she was cheating on me with other guys. I simply say, it is what it is.

I fell into a bad place, but pushed myself to move on. Nothing was bringing her back, and nothing ever would. I threw myself into work, unfortunately ignoring many of my friends from before. I find a few had been bad mouthing me behind my back, and told them off for it. Close friends I had known for years walked away from me. I threw myself into work.

A piece of paper sat on my desk. The pen was in my hand, waiting.

I found some of the best graduates around, and hired them. I had the investor's money to do it. I had the time now. I had everything I needed to do what I needed to get the business of the ground. Then as we were about to launch our website, our Internet went out. Checking into it, the entire internal network had a virus. It took us a month for us to get back to where we were.

Money was lost. I had to pay employees, costs of repair. The entire advertising campaign had to be scrapped due to timing, and I wasn't sure where to go from there.

The pen was heavy in my hand. I could feel it tilting back and forth.

More friends left me. I had to push myself, and nothing was going to stop me. Nothing except life. I needed more money from investors, and no one was giving me the time to even talk to them. A few places, schemes mostly, wanted me to basically borrow money from them. I took the bait on one, and wound up in more debt than I could afford. My business was basically in ruin. When I fired one of the guys who was getting paid too much, everyone knew what was going on. Others began to leave from finding other jobs. I brought in lower paid kids who didn't know what they were doing. Everything began to fail no matter how long I stared at the figures.

"Dear Loved Ones," I wrote, finally moving the pen to the paper.

I began drinking a lot. Tried to go back to school to get another degree, but didn't go further than looking into it. Too expensive for a guy my age. I applied to jobs, posted videos, posted everything I could to try to get someone to help. And nothing. I was simply waiting for it all to fail.

"I cannot live this life any more. I am depressed. I push harder and harder hoping for something and nothing comes of it. Nothing works out for me. No matter how hard I push, I keep pushing harder and no one seems to understand that. It was my fault many things happened between some of us, the bad things. I'll take that blame, even if it wasn't my fault. We have to blame someone."

I looked at the paper and took a deep breath. I twirled the pen around in my fingers. I took the paper and crumbled it up, throwing it in the trash can. I packed up my things and left the office.

I drove home and changed out of my suit. I left the house again and just drove. For hours I drove around the city, around the suburbs, around the country we had. I saw everything. As I was driving, I found where I used to live as a child. Down the street was a park I hadn't been to in years, despite not living more than 15 minutes away. I parked and saw the basketball court, where my friends at the time and I played.

I popped my trunk, took out the deflated basketball I had in there from college, and walked over. Each shot felt good, even if I missed. I had no cares in the world. My phone wasn't going off, as I had shut it off. No one was bugging me about the debt I owed them. I was relaxed with each shot.

It was a better shot than the liquor I had every night. And it was better than what I had planned to do that evening.

I waited until darkness to leave, then sweaty from the small exercise I had been doing. I drove home, happier than I had been. Not thinking about the stress I was going to face, because I knew that I had to just keep pushing.

I knew that I had to keep that drawer in my desk locked. The only shooting I would be doing was basketballs, and for the stars.

Please Give Me an Awesome Job

2011-06-28T13:06:00.002-04:00

I decided to make another video. Sorry about the quality, something happened after post-production...I'm assuming it had something to do with gnomes that made it output so low.

Oh, and now that you've watched my video of me asking (pleading) for a job you should also post it on your Craigstwitterbookspace. Otherwise you'll die or something. It says so right in the description!

A Short Trip to Winton Woods

2011-06-24T00:42:00.004-04:00

Check out our first video. It's so nice and pretty in HD.

The video consists of pictures and video of a handful of different trips to Winton Woods Park, located a bit north of Cincinnati. The pictures are all during a flooding of the lake there, which you'll find all the pictures from the flood on the Facebook page.

Sorry about the shakiness in some parts, it's a bit hard to lug around a tripod in the middle of the forest and set it up to get video footage of moving animals...just a bit hard. Expect other videos to be much more stable and not give you that awful motion sickness from moving the camera around too much.

The Quest for the Best Burger: Culver's

2011-06-22T15:00:00.001-04:00

I decided to venture out today in search of the best burger in Cincinnati. Today brought me to Culver's, a small fast food chain around the midwest.

They specialize in butter burgers- burgers with buns that taste a bit like butter. They also have frozen custard, and a side menu reminiscent of KFC.

The rules of the search are simple: only rating the taste of the burger, which can only have bacon and cheese.

The first thing you'll notice is the burger's similarity to Steak 'n Shake in size. It's a thin grill burger. The first bite tastes like a bit of butter. The bacon is like something my grandma used to make: thin slices with a chewy texture. I noticed nothing abnormal about the cheese. Tasted like good Wisconsin cheese.

The issue I had is about halfway through I had fat leaking from the burger. Add the overall taste being mediocre, I was disappointed.

I didn't try the custard, but I did have some fries which weren't even as good as frozen ones I make at home. Overall Culver's left something to be desired, and isn't the top burger. Maybe next place will do better.

If you have a restaurant suggestion send an email to asimpleletterwriting@gmail.com

The Burning: Part II

2011-06-13T03:13:00.000-04:00

I turned the radio's dial down to a mere 3, as I watched her walk up to her front door. It had been months since I had seen her. Months.

"Thanks, love you too!" she said to her new boyfriend. At least, I could only make out that it was a guy I hadn't ever seen before. And there she stood, looking at her door, keys in hand, confused.

I put my hand, covered in a black glove, on the door to my car. I stepped out, body covered in a large coat, my face with a scarf over it, and sunglasses and hat to top it all off. I closed the door and slowly walked towards her.

She got her cell phone out and began dialing. "Daniel, weirdest thing my front door's lock is melted shut. I can't even get a key in and the door is still locked."

I walked slowly, my head down. My boots made little noise as they clacked on the sidewalk.

"Alright, I'll try to break the door down. Yes, please come back I'm a little scared now."

She hung the phone up and started to beat on the door with her whole body.

"Need some help?" I asked.

"No, I-" she looked up and saw me. She didn't recognize me. She was scared, because my outfit didn't fit the weather. Not that I would notice. "I'm good. Thank you."

"Here, let me lend you a hand." I said, taking my glove off and walking up to the door.

"No, really, it's OK."

I put my bare hand on the door to watch it melt off. The metal was putty in my hands.

"You did that to my door?"

"I did, Claire. We should talk."

"Daryl?"

I motioned her inside, as I pushed the door open. She wasn't sure what to make of me, but was visibly less scared than before.

"Daryl, what are you doing here?"

"My experiment. I figured out how to splice genes."

"Why are you wearing such a ridiculous outfit?"

I looked at the ground. I felt like crying. Like a tear was stuck. I took the hat off first, then the sunglasses and scarf. I slowly took my jacket off.

"Oh my...what have you done?"

My body had become infused with diamonds. My hair had fallen off as a side effect, all of my hair. There was none anywhere on my body. Instead my body was encased, mostly, in a crystal like substance. My face was the worst, with my eyes looking like glass. My nose at one point since the transformation had gotten hit, and cracked. The body didn't regenerate and the crystal was not as strong as diamond.

"This is who I am now. My research. I did this because of you."

"Because of me? Why would you do something so stupid?"

"Why would you?"

She knew what I meant when I said it. She knew I meant leaving me, finding another guy. Finding Daniel.

"Listen, Daniel is nothing like you. He's a great guy but-"

"I don't want to hear it. You fucked up, and yeah...I thought this was change things but instead it just made it worse. I thought I could change the world, and now look at me. I'm an outcast."

"Can't you just change back?"

"That's not how it works, Claire. This is how people see me, and will always see me. Even if we try to go back, this is what we've done. You fucked up my life."

"I still love you."

"I don't care. I just don't fucking care."

I moved out a chair, forgetting I had the glove off, and felt my hand collapse through as the chair caught on fire. I quickly put it out, putting my glove back on and attempting to sit down in a different chair.

"When I started I told myself I would make things better for both of us. That no body would destroy me, not even you. I could build myself up to levels you couldn't touch. Superhuman strength, heat levels that created fire, electricity running through me. Diamond tough skin. None of it worked. No one cared about me and just left me. You know what I've done to them?"

"What have you done?"

"I killed them all. I held them by their throats with this bare hand of mine and felt as their blood splattered over my hand. I watched as I tried to make everything better, and instead all I did was kill all of those people that left us. That left me."

"You're a murderer, Daryl?"

"I killed them, Claire. I fucking killed all of them. Then I burnt them to nothing with my bare hands."

"Please, just realize I love you Daryl. Even now with you in whatever state you are, it's taking everything in me to not hug you right now."

"You can't. The crystal is somewhat sharp and sometimes can be hot."

She looked at me with a tearful eye. "You know I love you, right?"

"Of course I do. You know why I came here, right?"

"To tell me how I ruined your life? How you killed all those people and plan to kill me?"

"No. To say I loved you too. And to say goodbye one last time."

"Goodbye? Daryl, please don't go. We can talk. Like I said, Daniel means-"

"Nothing. Nothing can stop me."

"Please, just- wait. You need to at least be in a hospital. Something."

"They couldn't do anything to help me."

"What do you mean?"

"The crystal is slowly taking over my entire body. Once it encases it, I'm fairly certain the heat will reach such heights that my body cannot take it. Once that heat builds up my internal organs will burst. That is, if the crystal doesn't get to my blood or organs first."

"You're dying."

"That I am."

"But there's so much to do, so much to see with you."

"I'm going to be dead soon. Let's just focus on the good times. Like every time I was with you." My breathing felt somewhat heavy. I found it harder and harder to breathe.

"You're so sweet." She smiled. "I wish I hadn't chosen the path I had."

"We all make mistakes. Just like I did with this experiment. But hey, you're in a better place I'm sure. You have Daniel. I'm sure he's not a douchebag."

"Actually, he is kind of a douchebag."

"Dump him, you could do better. You could always do better than me, and you settled. You were the hot one."

"Now you're the hot one." She said, giggling.

"Heh, funny."

We sat for an hour, just talking until Daniel showed up and knocked on the door.

"Fuck off." I told him. Claire went and got rid of him. It was another hour before my breathing got heavier. I became sleepy.

"I'm going to lay down on the floor here, Claire."

"OK. Keep talking to me though." She had tears running down her face.

"I will. Always. I just need a nap right now."

"Well, I'll be here when you wake up."

I didn't know where I was going when I woke up. I had traveled hundreds of miles to see her- killing people for months on end and hiding from cops. Hiding from everyone. And now all I could think of, was her voice.

"Oh hey, I brought you something. You left this in my car. I want you to still have it." I handed her the diamond bracelet I had given to her the night we broke up. She read the engraved quote, her favorite from Farenheit 451 "It is a pleasure to burn."

"I liked that quote because it has so many connotations. You could use it to mean the books. You could use it as an ironic statement. You could use it as a parody of what they really want you to do. Or you could use it as a literal statement, taking pleasure in the act of burning. Or you could even say, the idea of burning things into our memories. A burning desire for love or lust. So many questions of what it is a pleasure to burn."

"I'd burn for you." I said out loud. "But after I wake up."

"After you wake up," she said putting the bracelet on and watching me fall into the deepest sleep she'd ever see someone go into. "After you wake up."

Yes, I'm Still Alive

2011-05-31T02:43:00.001-04:00

Good news: my computer is back up and running. A whole month after I was going to throw a huge ad campaign (surprise) at the Internet for Death in Disguise. Unfortunately, I'm no longer doing that ad campaign- but I hope you readers will still let all of your friends know about us. Or you yourself can like us on Facebook!

What I'm working on: A ton of things. Sadly, unless people start sending me things, I may only update the site occasionally. Once I work some kinks out, though, I'll be getting a lot of things done. Here's what I'm working on behind the scenes:

1. Soft news reports: I'm a journalist at heart, and once I find a good freeware program for editing video I'll be working on getting some news out there on the YouTube. I was in talks with some people before the computer crash, and hopefully they'll still be interested.

2. Hilarious videos: I also like to humor myself by making videos I find hilarious. What might that be? I have an idea up my sleeve I'm not going to talk about JUST yet, until this cough of mine that is killing me goes away (and I find that dag nabit editing program). Other than that I was in talks about doing a sitcom series, another mockumentary, or even something along the lines of...Glee.

3. Freelance!: Yes, that's right. I'm working freelance now, or going to attempt to work freelance. You can see my first column over at Unexplained Mysteries from the other day when the world was ending. I'm working on getting my work in other places as well- and if anyone would like to use my work or is looking for freelance, feel free to contact me via our contact page.

4. The new novel: Yes sir, yes sir. I am working on a new novel- and it'll be coming to you via Amazon Kindle. The novel is going to be an expansion of the short story "The Connection" which you can find in my book. Remember, I have a book!

5. A video game: I am working slowly on a video game on top of all of this as well. 5 projects is nothing to me, kids. The video game I'm not really allowed to talk about due to agreements signed, and I'm not sure where it is at the moment- but I'm attempting to learn how to use this program called Blender. Once I do, I'll actually attempt to create a video for the site first. See if I can tell one of my stories in 3D animation...ooo, ahh.

As always, look for more writing (and art!) here and in the future. And feel free to send your artwork, poetry, short stories, or anything (you can send your amateur porn, but I can't promise it'll be posted. Viruses I would prefer not to have though, you can keep all of those to yourselves- both human and computer). Send them to asimpleletterwriting@gmail.com

Revelations

2011-05-11T12:30:00.002-04:00

The doctor's office was always cold and though clean, felt dirty. Maybe it was because I had to take my pants off for my check up. And they always asked me to take my shoes off. This time I was in a gown, forced to have all my vital organs checked. Something was wrong with me, and I didn't know what it was.

"So Mr. Drab, what seems to be the problem?"

"I'm not sure. I have a lot of weird symptoms."

"The nurse wrote on your chart that you're constipated, you have frequent headaches, you haven't been eating properly."

"I'm just not hungry."

I watched as he looked over the words the nurse left him. He swallowed hard, rubbed his left eye and then sniffled.

"Not to be too personal, but how are you feeling?"

"Bad."

"How long have you felt...bad?"

"Awhile I guess."

"Do you have any problems with your mood?"

"What do you mean?"

"Are you happy?"

"No."

"Did something happen to make you that way?"

Two years ago...

I stood on the carpet of the room and watched as they all came in. One by one, the new freshmen we had to welcome to our dorm. It was tradition, but I was getting tired of it. And it was only just then the first time we had a group meeting with them all.

I wouldn't see many of their faces again, but I noticed one of them.

"Hey, I'm Jim."

"Hi."

Megan was shy at first, but within minutes was talking.

"Yeah, I love that show. With the vampires and all, and none of that bullshit new sparkle shit."

She was beautiful. I had so much in common with her- we were both Catholic, we both watched the same TV shows, we both were interested in painting. She was spontaneous and such a free spirit. But she was taken.

"Yeah, my boyfriend is such a dork."

"He looks like one."

"Oh, shut up."

I backed away. It was only my place to be a friend, as much as I could at least. But I was only comfortable as a distant friend, a colleague. Even though I told myself I had moved on I hadn't.

Months later, everything began to fall apart. Megan and her boyfriend fell apart, our friendship was changing as she began to move away from our group of friends. And that final night was so much fun. As I left she grabbed my hand, held onto it tight and I realized I still felt strongly about her.

"I don't know what to do."

"She's not your type, why are you doing this?"

"But she is. I've never met a girl like her."

"Jim, she's not worth it. Stop worrying about her."

"I'm sorry Carol, I just can't."

Friends advice was thrown aside. I became impulsive, speaking with her and the guy she was flirting with.

"No, dude- come on Jerry, she has a boyfriend. We gotta get out there and find girls who are single."

"Yeah, you're right."

And then I felt bad. Guilt fell in. They were happy. How could I stop happiness?

"Just go out with him, will you?"

"Why do you care so much about my dating life?"

"I'd rather not say."

"Why not? You get all up in my business and then won't tell me why? Did he put you up to this?"

"No."

"Then why are you acting this way?"

"Because I've had a crush on you for months and I just want you to be happy, OK?"

I freaked out. I did the only thing I knew how to, and wrote. I wrote every stinging emotion I felt, that had no reason to be felt. I gave into all of it. I made them out to be the bad guy, when there was no good or bad guy. It was the only way I knew how to write. It hurt them, but more hurt her than anything else. And no matter what I did, she would never accept my apology.

"Two years ago? You've been feeling this way for two years?"

"No. That was just the start of it all."

"What do you mean?"

"After that..."

I had a year still left in college, but I had enough credits to graduate early. I moved on quick, stopped caring about girls and focused on getting the right credits. Even when she walked in, I wanted nothing to really do with her. It was just another year of new freshmen.

"And you are?"

"Eliza."

"Hi, I'm Jim. You new here?"

"Yeah, freshmen."

"Cool."

She seemed shy. I stopped trying after that. She was cute, but I had to focus on myself. I had to focus on me. It didn't matter anyways, because she was always on her computer whenever I saw her out of her dorm. Always keeping to herself.

Then, of course, I found out the same thing I did with every girl. She had a boyfriend.

I studied. I focused. I met this other girl, Mariah, in a class of mine. I thought about asking her out, but never got up the courage to. I didn't have time anyways, I had to focus on me and we only had fun working on a project together. We'd never get along outside of class.

Then Eliza was single. I thought nothing of it, and I was simply friends with her. Not even friends, colleagues. I wanted nothing to really do with her, because I was completely content with life. I just started a new job, I was still toying with asking Mariah out. Then we started talking.

I thought from the get go that she was flirting with me, and I didn't want that. I had to focus on me. But it's hard to do that when you feel alone as much as I do. I gave her time I shouldn't have, spent more hours working on papers than I should have. But I liked talking with her, even if it was only online as I sat in the library and her in her dorm room.

I didn't want a relationship though, and I had to nip it all in the bud before it got there. I confronted her.

"Eliza, are you flirting with me? Because I feel like you're flirting with me."

"Well, I mean- I can't say I am because it all just depends on whether or not I think it's flirting."

"So is this flirting?"

"Let's just say it's getting to know you better."

"OK. I can do that."

I asked her out the next time I saw her. As friends. Just to get some dinner. I didn't really think anything of it, I just went with the flow and I had a lot of fun with her. She then asked to hang out with me again, and we went shopping for the holidays.

"I like to make my presents instead of buying them. I feel like it's more personal if you do that"

"I don't have time to do that. Or the talent."

The entire day was amazing. I spent it with her, finding most my gifts for friends and family. And instead of my usual feeling of tiredness from shopping, I was just so happy with everything. Then it was all just...like a fairytale.

"It's so easy."

"What's so easy?"

"I can't tell you."

"C'mon, what's so easy?"

She kept quiet as I drove her home- a back and forth flirtation.

"Fine, you want to know?" she asked as we sat in her driveway. "Come here."

We grew closer, and she kissed me. I was lost. I didn't want a relationship, what was I doing? I pulled away, scared. "I'm not that easy." I said with a hint of flirtation. She got out of my car and walked up to her door.

I drove off, around her block and headed home. I smiled. Did that just happen? I asked myself the question again and again. I called my friend, who was supposed to meet me for dinner, and she didn't answer. When my phone rang I didn't bother looking.

"Hey Deb- I just dropped Eliza off I'm driving back now."

"Oh uh, it's Eliza."

"Oh, hey sorry." I had a smile on my face hearing her voice.

"I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for what happened. If that made things awkward or anything."

"No, don't worry about it. It wasn't awkward."

"Oh. OK. Well, I'll let you get back to driving then. Bye."

I knew then and there she was amazing, but I didn't want a relationship. I had doubts. As I sat down to dinner with my friends, I told them nothing of what happened. Told them we had fun. I paid little attention to the conversation, as my brain threw around the idea of letting go of so much. I was graduating college soon, the holidays were around the corner. I wanted to apply to places out of state, out of the country. I wanted to live free. But she was different. I could give up some of that, because she made me happier than I had been in a long time.

I couldn't understand it, but though I had my fears I knew I wanted to be with her. The next thing I knew, we sat in the back of my car in freezing weather.

"So what are we doing here?"

"What do you mean?"

"Like us. Are we just friends or...do you want to be more?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"You're going to make me say it, aren't you?"

"Say what?"

"Ugh, will you go out with me?"

"Well I've already been going out with you-"

"Shut up, you know what I mean." I smiled. So did she.

"Yes. I will."

"You don't think it's too soon do you?"

"No. I want to."

"Cool."

Nothing really changed. It was slow going. Which I liked. She was so understanding, and I didn't have to tell her anything. She just knew. We just worked so well. Then our ideologies got in the way. We began arguing over things we couldn't control. We were happy, but there were problems we had to work through and neither of us wanted to budge. We couldn't compromise, even though we wanted to.

Then she just snapped on me one day. I was making sure she was OK, asked her what the problem was and she said I was the problem. That I was being self-centered and idiotic because I was worried about her well being. It hurt. She had been pushing me away, and I knew it. She didn't even want to look at me the time before we hung out. She was done with me, and that was that.

I tried to talk her through our problems, but I broke down. Maybe because I had let go of so much for her. I had let go of my fears, I had let go of my plans for my future. Maybe it was my mistake. Maybe I should never had met her parents the week before. Maybe I should have waited to ask her to be with me, but I knew she was special and I didn't want her to leave me.

And then that was it. It was over. And I lost it. Because at that moment I realized Eliza was the only thing I had that was keeping me happy. And she walked away. Just like that.

"Mr. Drab, it seems like you might have some issues with depression."

"And then..."

I couldn't get over her. I saw her in everything. A measly less than two months with her, and I was more broken than I had ever been. I couldn't explain my behavior. I wanted nothing to do with anything. Nothing made me happy. All I wanted was her again. All I wanted was to make things better.

She wanted to be friends, so I tried that. She said close friends, but she still pushed away. And my own friends, they were only sort of there. Only a few talked to me about it, the rest acted as though it was a joke. But it's how they always acted.

Then I started telling them the truth. I had an impulsive desire to just come out and tell every single person who I had something to say to the truth. Every jackass that ever pissed me off, every motherfucker who crossed me. All the awful things I had done and held on to. I bitched, I laughed, I apologized.

"Mr. Drab, I'm not a psychologist. You need to speak with one, I believe. You have a lot of the symptoms of-"

"And then they started walking away..."

They didn't understand what I was doing. It wasn't normal for me to stand up for myself nor was it normal for me to apologize for all the little things I was apologizing for. No one understood but a handful of people. A very close friend then decided to walk away because I bitched out some girl he kept around in case he needed a picture of her tits. Because the people I hung out with were judgmental and hated being called out on it. And he was one of the worst.

"Seriously, Mr. Drab-"

It all came down on me. I wanted to die. I wanted to slit my wrists. I stood at work, in the kitchen washing dishes...I held the knife to my wrists. It took everything in me to not let the knife slice through. Everything.

"Mr. Drab, I-"

"And now I'm here. Because I can't understand why I feel so sick."

"I think you should definitely see a psychologist. I can recommend one. It doesn't seem like this is an issue I can deal with. It sounds like you're dealing with clinical depression. Might even be something else that makes you act this way."

"Are you saying I'll have to take pills?"

"Maybe."

"I don't want to take pills. I don't want to go to some crazy doctor. I just want my life to be better again."

"Here. You'll be fine, Jim. You'll be fine."

I hope so. I hope so.