Safe Haven

  I think I may have hit upon a solid reason from my upbringing that could explain why I love zombie stories so much.  When I was in the 2nd grade, my dad was stationed on an army base in Taegu, South Korea.  A TV station for English-speaking people was put out by the military called Armed Forces Korea Network (AFKN).
  Instead of commercials for products like we're used to here in America, AFKN had public service announcements about such things as Operational Security (OPSEC) and fire safety.  One of the fire safety announcements advised families to have an escape bag, which would be a bag full of important things to have should you have to flee your burning house.  Being seven years old, my important things were my toys so I had a bag that I kept under my bed, containing my favorite toys.
  Over the years growing up, I kept that bag updated with things as they became important to me with my changing ideals.  Also, over the years, my parents became more and more disappointed in me as a failure at school.  When I couldn't take the yelling anymore, I opted to stay in my room more and more.  I started to bring secret stashes of food and beverages into my bedroom.  It had become my safe haven.  I was eventually able to stay in there from as soon as I got back from school until dinner time and then until the next morning when it was time to go back to school.  I had music, books, magazines, toys and food, plus my escape bag.
  When I saw George Romero's 'Dawn of the Dead' for the first time, it connected with me in some deep way that I didn't understand at the time.  Looking back on it now, I realize that the people in that movie and in most zombie movies are stuck in a confined space and struggle to make sure that they have everything they need to survive in their safe haven isolated against overwhelming opposition.  In other words, it's the story of my life.

Il Mare

  Years ago I hopped on a plane to visit my parents in Korea.  One of the in-flight movies was a little Korean production called Il Mare (The Sea).  I fell in love with that movie and its soundtrack.  Back then stuff was mostly still on VHS and audio cassette (ask your grandpa what those are).  Anyway, I bought both while I was in Korea.  There's a song on there called 'Must Say Goodbye'.  Awesome tune!  That movie is honestly one of my favorites of all time.
  Anyway, flash forward several years.  A movie called The Lake House comes out with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock.  It purported to be a remake of Il Mare.  I was so excited to see it!  Boy was I disappointed to stand witness to that watered down drivel.  If my frown became any more pronounced, a leprechaun might have put a pot of gold under it.
  Flash forward again to just recently.  I did a search for Il Mare on Netflix and lo and behold they had it!  The clouds opened up and little cherubs descended playing tiny harps.  If my smile was any more pronounced, a dyslexic leprechaun. . . Anyway, if you want to see the inspiration for The Lake House, I highly recommend the Korean original.  Please, tell me what you think!

Aliens

  I've got some Bible passages I've found that in my mind, talk about aliens:
-Mark 13:27 "And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens."
-Matthew 24:31 "And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other."
-John 10:16 "I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen.  I must bring them also.  They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd."
  In my stories, I have all kinds of aliens.  In one, I talk about USOs (unidentified submerged objects) as being in our oceans for malicious purposes.  I've read that water is a good conductor for spirits.  In my story, the USOs are harvesting spirits from the ocean to put into a massive clone army in order to attack Earth.  The clones develop without souls so they are just bodies.  With the spirits harvested from the ocean, they can be brought to life.
  When I was about ten years old, my sister and I saw a group of maybe five or six lights in the night sky in Texas.  They came together, converged, then flew away as one.  We think it was a fleet of UFOs.  When I told that story to my English class in high school, my English teacher asked me, "Your sister, was she younger than you at the time?"  I replied, "Yeah, she still is."
  One night in Arizona, I was just gazing into the night sky.  I saw what seemed to be a flaming serpent swimming in the sky.  I looked it up online and sure enough, that's a documented phenomenon.  Many people claim to have seen flaming space snakes.  The website I was on even had an artist's rendition which depicted almost exactly what I saw.
  This isn't exactly on topic, but I've also seen daytime shooting stars twice in my life.  Once was in Korea when I was in the third grade.  The other time was in my college years in Arizona.  The difference between them and the nighttime variety is that during the day, they appear orange in color.  There's still a smoke trail, but it's gray during the day as opposed to white at night.  Not quite aliens, but fascinating nonetheless!
  By the way, hello, Canada!  Thank you for reading.  Hope you like what you see and continue to read my posts.  Please check out my other blogs, as well as my wife's blog!  I just published chapter 9 of the Nocent.  Hope you enjoy it.

Touched By Death

  We just got an email yesterday from my dad in Korea.  My mother's not doing well and her time may be soon.  I don't know if any my readers out there are much for praying, but if you are, please pray for her that she can know that she's loved and be as pain-free and comfortable as possible in her time here.
  I haven't been touched by death very often in my short 34 years.  My grandparents have all died within my lifetime, but I wasn't really close to any of them.  I've known several other people who have died.  Ironically, it has been mostly animals whose deaths have affected me the most.
  I had a fish named Poly.  When he was close to the end, he would lay on his side and kinda swim around weakly.  I wanted to end his misery so I scooped him out of the tank with a net and dropped him in the toilet.  Right before I flushed, the last thing I saw was him looking straight at me.  We locked eyes and could feel love just radiating from him.  I pulled the handle and immediately broke down in tears.
  I had an animal whose name I won't mention for reasons of my own, who I had to have put down.  I'm deliberately being vague about a lot of the details.  The whole ride to the Humane Society, he was so excited.  When we got there, I had to fill out some papers.  Iwas giving him nothing but praise.  He was so happy as one of the attendants led him down the hall to the killing chamber.  That was my last picture of him.  When I got back to the car, I couldn't keep it together anymore.  I crumbled.
  Feel free to share any thoughts you have on the subject.  How have you been affected by loss?

Costumes and Masks

  When I was in the 2nd grade, I was in a school Christmas production of the Night Before Christmas.  I played one of the reindeer.  I remember that deer costume.  It itched like a mofo.  One of the little numbers we did was to sing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer so we had to learn the entire song.  I thought it was the funniest thing in the world that the song starts with the words, "You know Dasher and Dancer. . ." as if they take for granted that we know all the reindeer names.  Most people mumble their way through that part and make up names like Jazzer and Nixon.  Then it goes on to question, "But do you recall the most famous reindeer of all?"  Ironically, it's only at that part that everyone confidently jumps in with "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer!"  I used to laugh my head off at that.  I was a weird kid.  A lot has changed about me since then: my height, shoe size and nose hair count.
  I've been fascinated by masks throughout my childhood.  It started with Star Wars.  The stormtroopers, Boba Fett and Darth Vader were the coolest thing!  My aunt brought me to see Episode 4 in the theatres in 1977 when I was a 1 year old.  My parents brought me to see the Empire Strikes Back when I was 4.  The same year of that Christmas play, I went by myself to the theatre on the US Army base in Taegu, Korea to watch Return of the Jedi.  For each of the new Star Wars movies (Episodes 1, 2 and 3), I went to see them in the theatre wherever I happened to be living at the time.  I've watched every single one when it first came out in theatres.
  But I was talking about masks.  When I was in the 4th grade, living in Fort Benning (Columbus), Georgia, there was a cartoon I watched religiously, called Mask.  There were these armed agents who rode around in armored attack vehicles which were disguised as regular cars and trucks.  They also, true to the name of the show, wore masks with visual enhancing eye gear and whatever.  I still have a lot of my Star Wars and Mask toys.  Somehow, the concept of masks always fascinated me (don't tell my shrink).
  Skip ahead to high school and bands like Green Jello and GWAR were big.  Sykotik Sinfoney were not so big, but I liked them.  Anyway, they're all masked bands.  Then in college, Slipknot, Mushroomhead and the Berserker came out.  I began to get the idea that I could make my own masks.  I don't even remember how many I've made so far, but I'm getting better and better at it.  You can see one that I made in Chief Loh's music video for our song, "Equilibrium".
  I will be showcasing my newest creation in the video I'm making for Shadow Puppet's song, "Scar Chasm". A little background on the mew mask: part of it is a respirator.  When I was a member of the crew of the USS Wyoming, SSBN 742, I was part of the paint crew.  Whenever we would come into port, we would chip off rusty areas of the submarine and repaint it.  We had to use a respirator for safety.  I incorporated mine into the mask cuz I think it looks cool.  I'll tell you when I've completed the video so you can watch it and judge for yourself whether or not you like it.