Lunch Break Notes

   It has been quite a while since I last wrote anything. Life has been crazy and time has been.. well, there's just not enough of it. Since my last note a lot has happened. For starters, I now live in Toms River, a place I never fathomed living. I've been a Monmouth county resident my whole life and anything else seemed... not right. But oh how right it is! Living in Toms River is really something else. We have been greeted by almost every neighbor within 2 weeks of living here. Our next door neighbor gave us a pie on our anniversary, Mealz actually has a nickname for her, RoRo. People approach us to just talk. It is an incredible change of pace from where we were.  Now one thing I never imagined about Toms River is their love and devotion for my favorite holiday. Not Christmas, we lived in that town and it was a bit creepy, yeah I'm looking at you Ocean Grove. This town loves Halloween so much that they actually celebrate the Trick or Treat part of it a day early s...

As the old saying goes... Tonight i went to visit my mothers grave. Something that I do with my step dad about twice a month. My mother was the first one to be put into the new plot at the cemetery when she was buried. Since then, there have been quite a few additions to her surroundings. She has new neighbours if you will. One of those new neighbours happens to be a friend of myself and Lex. Our friend Wes is now buried in line with my mother in a far off plot in a beautiful cemetery. As soon as i got out of the car tonight and saw his headstone something inside of me just went click and then the cloud came over me. It could have been any other Wes but something told me it was the crazy fun Wes that we knew. The same Wes that my wife worked with at two jobs. The same Wes that only a couple months before invited me into his Dungeons and Dragons group. Boy, do I wish i took him up on that invite. I could not believe that a friend of ours lies just at my mothers feet so now when I vi...

   Don't get me wrong here, I know that there is a lot of underrated television out there today but man oh man!!! Last man on earth was truly something different. A story about the "supposed" last man on earth is a storyline that could go stale quicker  than a sourdough left out, yet they kept it fresh!  Even though this show was written as a comedy with some bits of drama, actually there is quite a bit of drama in it, making it a drama-dy. It touches on aspects of the end of the world like no other show. Such topics that are brought up are what to do when gasoline goes bad or what happens to the people in space and the nuclear plants. These are topics that no other show touches. The Walking Dead has been on for YEARS but not once did they consider what to do with all the vehicles once fuel runs out or goes bad. It gave the show a very bleak and serious touch when dropping "turds" or "oh fart" lines. The final episode was and is ...

I am a huge Star Wars fan so when I heard there was a film coming out about Han Solo I was pumped. Only thing was, I had to go alone due to there being a one year old involved. I can't just leave her in the crib alone while I go see the movie. Luckily though, my wonderful wife agreed to let me have the night so I may indulge myself in my inner child...geek..whatever you may want to call it. That's enough of the how now lets get to the what. The what, of course, being the film. Solo was incredible. It was absolutely everything and nothing at all what you would expect in a Star Wars film. I agree with many when I say that it was nice to not see the Skywalker story play out. It was gritty, not at all magical and that was quite nice for a change. Going into a movie alone is... weird. With that being said, I quickly forgot how weird it was once the movie began. No opening crawl like past films and right into the action, just like past films. I loved the sewer- setting of Ha...

   Me and my wife finally got around to watching the season finale of The Walking Dead the other night. Along with that we watched the season premiere of Fear the Walking Dead. As of lately, past few seasons to be more exact, my interest in the franchise has grown limp. With storylines falling flat or not moving AT ALL!! The premiere of FtWD just changed all that with the intro of what should be a lasting gem of a character. John Dorie, like the fish as he says but an "ie" rather than a "y". From the instant I heard his voice I knew the writers had made a great choice by casting Garrett Dillahunt to play the role of the offbeat sharpshooter with a sweet tooth and a story, yet to be fully revealed except for his love is wandering the wasteland with a matching antique pistol.    Within moments you love the character. Walking Dead has introduced and gotten rid of, a long list of likable characters but none of them had the u...

So I just finished the series finale of star wars rebels and i have to say... that was a great show stopper, literally. I have watched the series since its premier and have enjoyed the story that it gave to star wars fans like myself. And yeah, I know it's a Disney cartoon but they took this project very seriously and you could tell. As a fanboy of the franchise, I loved seeing how this series was not just creating a new band of extended universe characters that would never see the light of day off the TV circuit. The characters were pulled from novels that were written up to 20 years ago even included them in the mainstream saga such as Captain Sendula, my apologies if I mispelt, and the Ghost were a part of the major space battle in Rogue One that was hatched to obtain and deliver the Death Stars plans that launched the first main trilogy story. Sendula would also go on to battle in the fight for Endor, it is noted even though we don't see it. Characters fr...

The choice of title for this note could not be ore accurate. I am a geeky gamer with an ambitious need to travel alongside a storyline that fully envelopes you into its .... being? (Don't take the use of that term the wrong way.) Skyrim is one of the first game that I have played as a means to forget the stresses.of my long days. Most people drink to achieve this goal but in the beginning, wine was still an uncleared cavern. Now that me and wine are friends, Skyrim has only gotten better. There is nothing more satisfying than being able to sit down with a bag of mini donuts, usually provided by my lovely wife, and claim the soul of a dragon after battling with it in the Nordic country of Skyrim. Only those who have played the game will understand when i say that i have played through the civil war about six times. Each time as a different race and character. Only once of those six times have i decided to go into battle on the side of the Imperials. Only once have i decided to f...

Just the other day, Thanksgiving to be exact, I was feeling nostalgic and was wanting to recreate the joy that I found during the holiday season. When I was a kid I would hide away and watch my favorite movies and enjoyed every second of it. One movie in particular was Gremlins. Some do not believe that this is a Christmas classic but it is indeed. A father gets his son the gift of all gifts and with gifts of this sort, there are rules. The rules are broken and hell is unleashed in the cutest way. Gremlins start wreaking havoc on a quiet little town during Christmas. The Mogwai tune still sits in my head as a holiday prompt. After watching it this Thanksgiving, I noticed that Kathleen Kennedy, current queen of Star Wars, was one of the producers. Also, there are tons of little things that I never noticed quite before. I do have one negative thing to say about the film… New Yorks China Town looks NOTHING like it does in the film. I wish it did. via Daily Prompt...

My wife has taken quite a trip down the rabbit hole that is the nerdy world that i live in. Ever since she wished me a happy star wars day a couple years back, she has been slowly immersing herself deeper and deeper into geek fandom. Since that time she has watched Star Wars with me and for this i could not be happier. We even watched Doctor Who together. She prefers the Matt Smith version where i am torn betwixt Smith and Tenant. I love that i get to share my love of these things with her. More recently, her new favourite show is The Big Bang. The show is hilarious, of course, but the constant plugs of scifi terms and references are what makes the show funny to me and she gets them too... i think. If not, who cares. Its still her favourite show. The very night that i write this was the night that we watched the episode where they ar celebrating Star Wars day. My wife turned to me to remind me of the time that she wished me a happy May 4th. I was floored on this day and she just sm...

   When bad times get you down, it is extremely hard not to fall into.... a funk, it's natural. Major loss has a way of screwing with your head and how you see the rest of the world. I have had the pleasure of marrying into a family that has no place for hard times. I'm not saying that I married rich, which is how it sounds when I say it back to myself in my head. My wife's family is headed by one hell of a matriarch. Not only has she been on her own since... I don't know how long it's been but its a really long time, running  her own career and blazing her own trails. My wife's grandmother, better known as Nanny, has taught and practiced the family-ish tradition of celebrating misfortune. This is foreign to me and most likely many others, but it is a trait passed down. When times get tough,  when jobs are lost and accidents fall upon us, it is said that we must celebrate. Don't let them get to you. Things always get worse before they get better and a ...

As some of you know, I had the pleasure of being laid off on Halloween. This was not foreseen but could have been avoided by the company. This is the second firm that I was let go from in two years.  The first instance was a great startup digital marketing firm. The product was great but the company was still in the pocket of its investors. When the investors weren't getting their return as quickly as they liked, the department was shut down and a skeleton crew remained. The company again was great and I get how this could not be avoided.  The second time this could have been avoided completely. I was brought in during a time where there was rapid growth and the company was expanding, this is what I was told. No investors to impress and feed. Just a great software to push and people actually needed it. Perfect set up... almost. Turns out there was no true plan to the expansion. So it ended up just being me. Just me pushing the service, managing the sales and bringing ...

This morning was quite a pleasant one , to say the least. I woke up to vomit and diarrhea all over my dining room. No, I did not host  one hell of a party last night, nor would I ever. Especially one where the guests poop and throw up everywhere. Our 19 year old Jack Russell Terrier, Levi the Jewish Rye, (Note: we are  not Jewish.) must not have enjoyed his Pot- roast last night. So that was a nice bit to clean up this morning. On to the good part. Walking Dead is back. The story that is Fear the Walking Dead is good but just doesn't capture the same interest. I have been watching the series since it first aired back in...umm..  damn! This show has been on forever! Me and my wife are huge fans of the show, my wife more-so. Weird, right? She got hooked back in season one. She was sitting at our desk and I was on the couch watching Rick walk through the hospital while there was dead scattered all around. She could not help but to keep peeking over her sho...

This is my first note discussing video games of any sort. I am not your usual video game enthusiast or "gamer", I play games to release and escape. I play them to release frustrations that come home with me from work and escape to a place where i can develop elsewhere. I do not enjoy the shoot em up games like i used to, instead i play games where there is a story to be told. A plot to be revealed or just a world to exist in. I will of course be talking about others but first, one storyline has stood out above all others and you should know which storyline it is if you have seen the title. Bioshock Infinite. For those that have played through this tale of racism, reform and repent you know how the story ends. For those that have not...Spoilers. SPOILERS. SPOILERS!! So you get the whole picture, this is a story, of which takes place in 1912, of a man, Booker Dewitt, who is assigned to find a girl. He is promised a clean slate from debt collectors back in New York city as ...

So the time has finally come... i have finished my journey through the trials and tribulations of the saga that is , or was, Repairman Jack. Please note: there may be some spoilers ahead. As you may already know from a previous post, i have been following the Repairman Jack storyline for a very long time. His saga is the largest in my personal library, Harry Potter is second. F. Paul Wilson's Nightworld is the conclusion of the tale. Not only Jacks ending tale but the end point for the Adversary Cycle as well. The end begins shortly after the events of Dark at the End with large holes opening up around the world. First one in Central Park. With the Lady wiped out from the last novel, Rasalom is now free to begin his reign of terror on our existing sphere in place as a direct champion chosen by the Otherness. Rasalom crawls down into the hole and fixes himself into a position so he can begin his transformation into a true nightmare of a being. Day after day the ...

The affair began almost 12 years ago. Not the sort that you were thinkinhg... I had to write a paper for my creative writing course regarding a local...something or other, I cant really remember the reason. What i DO remember was the book i chose to write about... or the person who wrote the book. It was titled "Midnight Mass" written by New Jerseys own F. Paul Wilson. Local author writing a story about vampires taking over our local area and wreaking havoc and obliterating the remaining human race. PERFECT! I did not find out til later, just how local he was. Living on the other side of town that I grew up in. This book opened up my world that I was currently being introduced to. The science fiction world. Albeit he is not solely sci-fi but the elements are there. After reading Midnight Mass I was hooked. Wilson's writing, themes and style were too good to let go. So i moved on to his other novel, The Keep. In this novel I was introduced to Rasalom and Glaeken. Two ...

Naming your kid can be one of the most stressful time in a parent's life. You are giving another human a title that could make their life incredible or you can ruin simply by giving them a name. Name your kid Adolf and you'll see how quickly your cute kid is painted to be a racist psychopath. Parents give names for lots of different reasons. They give them because they sound good. Not a very wise thing to do. A lot of people carry a given name from another, more revered family member. That name in both my family as well as my wifes in Charles. Naming your kid in this sense is much more common and understood. Names have meaning as well. My name for instance is Christopher which means "bearer of Christ". I am not the religious sort but my name was originally slated to be Michael. That would not have been good considering the name you see connected with my first. My father was a huge Chicago Bulls fan. Then there are the people who name their kids after a fictional ...