The Last Piece of Paper On Earth

  I don't remember if I've told you about this yet.  I was searching through my blog archives and I couldn't find it so here it is.  This has to do with a religion in one of my stories.  It's a story which revolves around a group of survivors of an outbreak of a zombie-like creature.  Three people had escaped the mainland in a helicopter and flown to a remote island.
  This story takes place years later when they've populated the island with many offspring.  As far as remnants of the old world, they only have what was on the helicopter when they escaped.  There happened to only be one blank sheet of paper.  No one wrote on it because everyone had something they could write and there was only the one sheet.
  The religion started as people meditated on what they would write on the last piece of paper on earth.  The sheet itself now sits on a shrine in a temple.  People go there to gaze upon it and contemplate their deepest thoughts, desires and wisdom.  Some would write about their love for their family and friends.  Some might choose to write poetry of any subject, spiritual or otherwise.  Some people write their questions to God about why the world is the way it is.  Most people find their deepest inner selves while focusing on what are the most important things to them really.  They concentrate on truth, shedding all the nonsense that one might write if there was an infinite supply of paper.  What would you write on the last piece of paper on earth?

Acronyms

  The other day I noticed two or three Border Patrol vehicles on I-95 on my way down to Jacksonville.  Apparently, they just sit there, day after day, looking ominous.  In my mind, that's borderline harassment!
  The military is crazy with acronyms!  I made one up to describe my mental capacity: RETARDS, which stands for RETention And Recall Deficiency Syndrome.  Anyway, here's a quick lesson in Navy acronyms as related to you in a personal story.
  When I was taken off the Wyoming, I was put into the Transient Personnel Unit (TPU) in Jacksonville.  That meant that I had to drive down to Florida to muster with them.  I voiced my concern with this set up so they cut me Temporarily Assigned Duty (TAD) orders to the Naval Submarine Support Command (NSSC).  Even so, I still had to drive down every Thursday to attend a General Military Training (GMT) on the Navy base in Jacksonville.  That continued until the Personnel Support Detachment (PSD) gave me Permanent Change of Station (PCS) orders to the Trident Refit Facility (TRF) on the King's Bay Submarine Base in Georgia.  In other words, I had to go to GMT with TPU even though I was TAD to NSSC until PSD gave me a PCS to TRF.  Got that?  Sadly enough, Kayla's been around all this shit for so long that she actually understands what all that meant.  I'm sorry, Kayla.

PC Games vs Un-PC Games

  This is probably the oldest concept in the books, but to me it's something humorous I thought up.  I'm never sure if I made something up originally or if someone else did without my knowing about it.  For instance, the URL for this blog contains the word necrolepsy, which I thought I made up.  When I googled it, I found that it already exists.  Dern you young whipper snappers!  I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for these darn kids!  I shake my cane at you.
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  Anyway, my 18 year old daughter loves her PC games.  She plays them all the time.  I, on the other hand, would probably have more fun with some un-PC games.  How about, Weakest Chink or Pin the Tail on the Dumbass?  Gary Larson had some of his own in his Far Side cartoon like Tether Cat and Bobbing for Poodles.  I remember in childhood there was Smear the Queer, not to mention Cowboys and Indians.  One I didn't like was Kick Paul.  That was a popular one at my middle school.
  Oh, and by the way, I am absolutely joking about all this (except for the Kick Paul, that was for real).  I would never single out a particular group of people for ridicule or harm.  Hate crimes are nothing to joke about.  This was for entertainment purposes only.  In other words, "Don't try this at home!"  My lawyers made me say that.  They're still trying to settle out of court with the class action suit against me launched by the Japanese ham sammiches.  Their lawyer, Mr. Sosumi is relentless.  What a nightmare that's been!

Pastor of Muppets

  When I was in high school, I used to fall asleep with my earphones on blasting Metallica.  I deliberately did that because it would give me the most wicked dreams.  It is from those dreams that a lot of my writing comes.  I couldn't tell you how many scenes from the Nocent are just straight transcriptions of nightmares of mine.  That's how I know it's good shit cuz it scared the shit out of me.
  During high school, music was my stability.  I was an Army brat as you might know.  That, coupled with the fact that I'm bipolar gave me a deep-rooted desire to have any semblance of stability in my life.  That came in the form of my Star Wars toys, which always moved around with me anywhere my father was stationed.  Later in life, movies, books and music became foundations of stability for me.  No matter where I went, they were a constant.  Also as important, they were reliable, dependable, trustworthy and they never yelled at me or made me feel stupid.  They never told me, "It's easy!" when I couldn't do something.
  One of my favorite albums of all time is Blind Melon's eponymous first album.  I think Blind Melon is one of the most under-appreciated bands ever.  Most people would only be able to name 'No Rain' by them.  That is a good song, but it is one of my least favorite simply because the rest of their body of work is so strong.  Probably my favorite song of all time by anyone is 'Change'.  It has the same message of encouragement echoed by such bands as Hatebreed, Pearl Jam and Soulfly and preceded by Buddha and the Christ: "When life is hard, you have to change."  You can't change what the world is gonna do to you, you can only strengthen yourself so that you can overcome it.

She'll Be Comin' 'Round The Mountain

  Kayla and I have been talking on the phone this last week or two.  Ever since I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, she has expressed a desire to come home to be with me.  All our past struggles have a new light shed on them.  She knows me from the inside, out and knows that if I had the power to manifest into reality the man I intend to be on the inside, our lives will be so much better.  That's the problem with me now is that I have no idea what is going to come out of me in any situation.  My intended effect rarely comes to fruition.
  When I am having a manic episode, I don't have access to my prefrontal lobe which manages my conscience, my judgment and my ability to see the big picture.  In other words, I'm not aware of the possible consequences of my words or actions.  In the past, Kayla was under the impression that I did bad things because I don't care about her or my family.  We're both coming to find out that I do care, I just don't always know how to put my good intentions into action.
  Looking back on my life, I think my mom is bipolar, as well as my grandmother before she died (I'll let that one slide this time, Captain Obvious.  Just stay on your meds!).  The doc says that this shit is congenital or whatever word means that it runs in the family.  I think that since they are both Korean, their parents didn't have it diagnosed because it would bring shame to the family.
  I think the same might have happened to me.  Evidence of that would be the fact that I was raised right-handed even though I was born left-handed.  In turn, I've become neither-handed or quasi-dexterous if you will.  A side-effect of that is that you can always tell what activities my parents taught me and which ones I taught myself.  If I do it with my right hand, it's because they made me.  If I do it with my left hand, I discovered it on my own.  The most obvious example being my Rosy left Palm.
  Also, my dad deliberately didn't teach me Chinese growing up because he didn't want me to have a Chinese accent.  I remember going to a speech therapist as a child.  I guess I developed the ability to talk later than my parents would have liked.  To avoid embarrassment in front of their friends, they had to nip that little problem in the bud by shelling out what ever cash it took.  They've always told me I'm a late bloomer.  They never had me diagnosed with anything.  I think I might have been helped out immensely in a Special Needs classroom or, at least, with proper therapy and/or medication growing up.  As it is, I just grew up thinking everyone else was smarter and better than I am.
  To this day, I still feel that way, but I'm at least able to start on the road to healing since I've been diagnosed.  I'm not stupid, just chemically imbalanced.  Growing up, my two least favorite words were, "It's easy!"  That's all I ever heard from my parents when faced with the challenge of being unable to perform whatever task was at hand.  Math problems, riding a bike, driving a car, being in school, etc.  I would watch everyone else breeze through like it was nothing while I struggled just to stay behind.  All for the sake of my parent's dignity in front of friends they don't even really care about.
  Friends to them are just someone to boast to when your kid goes to MIT.  Friends are someone you have to send a Christmas card to so they'll keep paying attention to you.  Friends are someone you tell that your son went to Harvard to hide the fact that he only went to the University of Arizona.  It took me four and a half years to graduate with a double major, but I was chastised because it should have only taken me four years.  Of course, to them it was a waste of time because I didn't become a doctor or a lawyer.
  Shit, this blog was supposed to be about the good news that Kayla is coming home and it somehow devolved into this rant about my childhood.  You see, I'm never sure what's going to come out of me.  'Live Deliberately' is gonna be my new motto.  That's how you build trust.  When you say you're gonna do something, you do it.  I've had the right intentions all along, now is the time for my actions to reflect that.

Night of the Creeps

  This is one of my favorite movies of all time.  I think you can see the influence from it in the Nocent book with aliens being the cause for a zombie outbreak.  But this movie is so much more.  It's humorous, intelligent, the protagonist is a nerd and the characters are well thought out.  Everyone has a back story just like in Star Wars.  All the stories fit together and lead to this one night of terror.
  Other gory movies with a humorous edge include: Evil Dead 2, Return of the Living Dead, Darkman, Killer Klowns From Outer Space, The Pit and the Pendulum (Full Moon), Netherbeast Incorporated, Army of Darkness, the Lost Boys trilogy, Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland and the Chucky sequels.  All of these are some of my favorite movies.  I always like movies where the characters are real and the dialog isn't stupid.  Smart people being killed by even smarter bad guys.  That's the stuff!  I mean, if I had the Terminator, an Alien or the Predator after me, I would have just as much, if not more trouble than the heroes and heroines did.  I wouldn't be an idiot like most horror movie characters, but I just might not be able to outsmart the baddies.
  Writing the Nocent stories, I'm trying to write something that, if I read it or saw it in the theaters, I wouldn't be telling the characters that they made a stupid choice.  They might make the wrong choice, but at least it would be an intelligent one.  That's what I find scary, making a good choice that ends up being the wrong choice anyway because the bad guy is one step ahead of you.  Night of the Creeps has some badass characters who know how to kick ass.  Did you notice the guy who ran the armory was the same guy who ran the gun shop in the Terminator and met pretty much the same fate.  Anyway, if the Nocent could be half as cool as Night of the Creeps, I will be happy.

The Nocent In Space

  You ever notice how, when a series has gone on for a while they either end up in New York (or some other big city) or in space?  Leprechaun in Space, Hellraiser in Space, Jason Takes Manhattan, Muppets Take Manhattan, Jason X (in space), Star Trek 4 (in San Francisco, I think), Babe: Pig In The City, Muppets in Space.  I wonder why that is?  I'm sure you can think of dozens of other examples of this phenomenon.  This was just what I could come up with on the top of my head.
  Anyway, I was watching a documentary called, 'His Name Was Jason' on Netflix and something struck me as an interesting (to me anyway) point.  The original Friday the 13th movie is almost the exact opposite story from Alfred Hitchcock's 'Psycho'.  In one, you have a son who channels his dead mother and kills people.  In the other, you have a mother who channels her dead son and kills people.  This point has probably been made a million times before, but it hit me for the first time today.