Circles

Running in circles in my mind
Silence eats away at patience
Time heals nothing
If scabs never form
Pressure remains constant
Soul crushing pain
Heart wrenching
All consuming
Back to the begining

It was odd that the miracle started with a plague. Nobody was sure what was coming but they knew it wasn’t good. It seemed like only a few years but the future was not looking so bright. On that cold Chicago day, the prison cells were overcrowded and full of criminals. What was amazing that it hadn’t happened before. All those bodies close together, fighting for food, space, and dominance. A plague in the middle of the prison cells.

The CDC stepped in right away to see what could be made of the situation. There were no marks on the bodies. There were no indicators that they had anything more than a common flu. One doctor suggested heart failure, but as a guard laughingly said,“ these brutes don’t have hearts!“.   That was where it started, with the dangerous cases, the criminally insane. At first it was only one or two prisoners, the most threatening sorts. Death row got hit very hard the first two weeks. Then the lesser criminal population started to fall out. Those wanted for crimes of rape, passion, and strangely enough usury.

Then it seemed to migrate into the regular populations. It moved into the ghettos, the slums, the back alleys were no one would go. It seemed targeted but no one could find out how it was moving. It wasn’t transmitted by the air. Then the mob bosses started to fall. It wasn’t transmitted by hand contact, although heaven knows those types of people were in frequent contact with each other.  It went through all major families. It went to the Communists, Islamic extremists and the child raperers. Finally, it seemed like no one was dying anymore, if only because there was no one left to die.

Over all about a third of the world population was dropped. It seemed like everyone noticed for a while and then they all just got on with life.  It wasn’t something they could stop or look into.  The CDC investigated for awhile.  They told us to wash our hands carefully. Yeah, like that would have helped anything. People believed because they wanted to believe they still had control.  It was bad but in a good way.  If someone had to go, it was the undesirables.  The ones no one would miss.  If a few politicians and entertainers had disappeared, well, nobody wanted to ask any questions.

After a few months the whole thing died down.  People stopped being cautious and started being lazy again.  By six months out anyone would have thought the whole thing was a mass hallucination.  Of course there’s always one or two that will spout crazy nonsense about the end of days and alien invasions.  I wonder now that they stopped coming forward.  Was it their choice, or were they eliminated in the plague?

People started letting their guard down.  We went back to our normal lives. My normal life was a little harder to go back to then most.  I was a P. I., Private investigator.  Believe it or not, a lot of my work came from cops looking for tips.  With a large percentage of the criminal population down, I was hurting for money.  I still got occasional work from lovelorn wives and husbands, the more rare “I think someone is trying to cover up my dear departed” murders, and a few missing pets.  I admit it. I was bored shitless.

I started looking in to some odd occurrences that began to pop up.  It wasn’t mentioned on the news because good news never is.  It seemed that overnight the dirtier parts of town began to clean themselves up.  The graffiti was missing, sidewalks straightened themselves, and parks bloomed like a master gardener had planted them. No one was reporting this but no one was complaining either. I decided to do a little digging to see what I could find.

I walked into the station in good spirits with a smile on my face.  It never hurt to sweet talk my contacts at the precinct. “Yo, Johnny, what’s the good word?”

“That you’re go out with me Saturday, sweetness.”  He had no doubt in his voice. “I know the most out the way little Italian restaurant.  We could have vermillcelli and get wasted.”  Johnny was also not eloquent.

“ I don’t think so buddy boy. But what’s the word on the rapturists?  I heard they struck again in china town and the residents weren’t too happy.  In fact, some of the locals set fire bombs to the gardens.  Any way I could get a look a the crime scenes?”

“What crime scenes? As far as the chief is concerned, the residents were redecorating and removing weeds that grew up overnight, but the mayor has recommended a voluntary evacuation of the effected area if anyone wants to leave.”

“Why? I mean it’s not like there is radiation or something, right? It’s just someone improving the curb appeal.” I had a wicked sense of humor.
“You’re kidding me right! You haven’t heard the latest one? Everyone in the projects that had cancer overnight has no traces of it. Poof! Not even a drop.”

“ No, Shit. Really?!” This was looking interesting. “ Are the house prices skyrocketing?”

“No there’re keeping it quiet for now, but what kind of chemical or radiation would do that? I mean I wouldn’t want to find out six months later that you gonna die horribly or something, you know” He did have point.

“ I be careful, I promise but this is too juicy to stay out of now.  What is those nut cases are right and this is only the beginning?” If only I knew how right I was.  {END OF SAMPLE}c2012 Jamie M Zalot

#T-Mobile #Samsung Phone sucks

I am a consumer and I buy things.  When I find a company that makes good products I stick with that company.  I have been getting good products from #Samsung for quite a few years.  However recently, my #SamsungGalaxy phone started having problems.  I know the models is a few years old so I went to #T-Mobile to talk about my options.  Since my contract was not up, I could not get a new phone without paying full price.  I could not get a free replacement phone because I did not have insurance (I take care of my electronics).   My only option without out spending hundreds of dollars on a new phone was to pay twenty bucks for a replacement phone. They couldn‘t possibly send me a replacement that was exactly my phone because it isn‘t made anymore apparently, even though I only bought it 6 moths ago.  The phone that #T-Mobile sent me is the #Samsung #Nexus.  It can’t find a Wi-Fi signal, can’t access my e-mail, have the time it can’t upload what it’s trying to upload and took almost two days to download all the apps I use.  I am surprised the #Samsung made such an inferior product.

N.B. I went back to T-Mobile. They refunded my twenty dollars and they let me keep my #Samsung Galaxy.  Real rich of them.  The guy reset my phone and said don't put so many apps on it. Funny. Real funny.

Be Grateful For The Time And Place We Are Living In

We often complain about thing and don’t often stop to take time to be grateful for the time and place we are living in.  It hit me as I was watching The Tudors and reading The Postmortal by Drew Magary how lucky I am to live when and where I am.
For starters as I woman, in this day and age I am free have the ability to vote and not chattel of my father or husband.  I can hold a job (if I had the ability).  I do not have to get married and have children until I die in childbirth.  I can own property.  I am not property.
We have freedom of speech.  I can write this blog expressing my opinion within fear of losing my head.  I can say things about the people in charge or the laws without fear of prosecution as long as I do not lie about them.(libel)
We have freedom of religion in this country.  We can choose which Church we wish to attend.  People tend to forget this.  In The Tudors, people were forced to give up the religion of their forefathers simply on the will of a King.  If they disagreed with this position they were hung, stabbed or beheaded.  Yes, this still happens in some countries but I thankfully live in America.
We are in a age of electronic splendor.  We can instantly communicate with others all over the world.  We can access information instantly.  We have the world at our fingers.  We can hear the words or see images of someone long dead or worlds away.  These images and sounds are preserved forever.
If you get sick today, it is relativity easy to find out what is wrong.  Very few women die in childbirth compared to the middle ages.  When is the last time you heard of someone dieing from the flu, or having a foot amputated for a splinter?  These things happened even as little as 100 years ago.
Right at this moment we have not overcrowded the planet or run out of natural resources, yet.  At some point in the future, most scientists agree, we will.  There will be fights over food, water, fuel and all the resources will be scarce.
If there is to be a point to be taken from all this, it is that yes bad things are always happening.  But I would rather have the bad things that happen now then the bad things that have happened or that will happen. After every rain comes the rainbow.

So today is True Blood day as usual. Great Episode. But I was afterwards I finished watching a Doctor Who episode called State of Decay.  For those of you who don’t know, this is an old Doctor Who episode.  It is Tom Baker era and part of a trilogy called the e-space trilogy.  (If that is all goobly-gook, go to wiki-pedia and learn something.)  The important part was that it is about vampires.  The thing I like most about watch old Doctor Who episodes is the documentaries and interviews on the end.  The ones on the end of this video were great.  Especially enlightening, was the documentary concerning vampire literature.  (I must note that this video was taped and release prior to True Blood.)   The people in the video were contemplating what would be the next big thing in vampires.  They were pretty spot on.  Also cool 9or disgusting depending on your point of view) was the piece on blood itself, complete with the guy saying he wanted to eat blood pudding made with his own blood.  Just sharing!

Doctor Who and the Companions

Your name whispers back to me on an infinite wind.
My mind recalls feelings of bliss.
I longingly reach in fascination for nirvana,
Wanting to give you one precious kiss.

No longer a tactile sensation is this,
Bound to the earth in a golden mist.
My mind has grasped infinite dimensions.
This is no longer a simple, sensual tryst.

Together we soar, souls bound as one.
They fly fleetly over blue skies.
Our minds are so brilliant they blind the Sun.
We burn quickly and fade as love dies.

Pressure and Vacation

So my Dad asked me an interesting question, Why are you sleeping so much on vacation?   See I have been resting a lot at home and I do tend to narcolepsy but not catalepsy. But this vacation was different.  I had been taking two to four hour naps in the middle of the day.  I thought it over.  Was I eating differently?  Had I largely changed my sleeping patterns?  Was over/under doing it on caffeine?  No.  I realized that I was able to relax completely.  I didn’t have to watch every single word I said.  No one knew me here.  There was no chance of the small town grape vine analyzing every move I made, every thing I eat, even where I shopped.( always local of course) It had been such a relief of pressure that my body simply took that time to sleep, which is the body’s healing state.  I wonder how much stress all of us are under in this face book oriented world of ours.  We all have every move judged.  We have every picture critiqued.  We are told what is best for us and expected to do it through the sheer pressure of peers alone.  No one tells the children to behave anymore, their friends pressure them to behave within the norm.  If no one complains that someone cuts in line than that makes it okay.  We should start using this system to our advantage to fix our society before it rots to it core.  When someone’s child runs in the mall, all the adults should help the parent discipline that child.  When a person with 40 items is in the express check out lane, everyone should help the clerk move them to another line.  Peer Pressure works both ways and I’m glad to be rid of some of mine.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter or Abraham Lincoln History Destroyer

I went to see Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.  It was made by Tim Burton and he always makes a great movie, graphically speaking.  I wasn’t familiar with the book series the movie was based on, but that wasn’t necessarily a prerequisite. I have seen other movies based on books without reading the books and it worked fine.(every book I didn’t want to read in school) 

I happened to have a lot of background knowledge on Abraham Lincoln, though, and was interested to see how much historical accuracy there would be. I was shocked that either the person writing the book or the person writing the screenplay was unconcerned for historical accuracy. Many things caught my eyes. Some may just be nit picking but they deserve to be mentioned.

First, Mary Todd Lincoln was not Lincoln’s first love and she was not as beautiful as depicted. Pictures exist, take a look.  Second, they had four sons, several of which lived to adulthood.  Third, Mary was considered mad as a hatter.  She was committed to an asylum for a time.

Now to the pure historical inaccuracies. There was furniture out of period.  There was a piece of paper that was obviously printed off a computer.  They skipped spots in the Gettysburg Address.  They didn’t mention that the Emancipation Proclamation only freed the slaves in the rebelling states, which was important to the plot because in the plot they were the vampires food supply.

As to the fiction part of the story, it was good.  It was gory.  It had a good plot and an interesting concept.  I understood the paralleling of the freeing of the slaves and the vampires trying to take over the country.  It was a thought out concept but the inaccuracy made it hard to fall completely in love with.

My Rating 3 ½ out of 5

TV in DR waiting Room

I happen to sit in a lot of doctor’s waiting rooms, a lot.  I’ve noticed a pattern.  The majority of the television stations are set to ABC, our local channel 6.  This means I’ve seen WAY more of The View and Regis and Kelly then anyone should ever have to put up with.  I don’t mind Rachel Ray, in fact I watch her of my own free will, but then comes the *insert curse words of choice* soap operas.  WHY???!!!  It’s not just doctor’s offices that have adopted this practice of showing “non-threatening” television in public places.  I’ve seen this scheduling take place in pizza parlors, dentists(as if that isn’t torture enough), nail salons, and even car service stations.  Now some place do have some variations.  I have seen news channels, usual Fox News( Don’t even get me started), once or twice children’s programming, and CBS, which is game shows in the morning and more bloody soap operas in the afternoons.  I did see food network once or twice in a doctor’s office, which is just wrong unless they are running programs teaching you how to eat healthy.( It was Paula Dean) So what kind of compromise is there?  I’m sure that the programming I am maligning is someone favorite and that they are reading this and screaming at their screen and calling me an idiot.  I know there are programs I like that most people dislike immensely(not many), but there has to be a middle ground.  One average says we spend about five years of our life waiting, FIVE YEARS!!  I know I’ve had doctor’s visits that seemed like I was waiting that long.J  How about something like Bugs Bunny? Everyone likes Bugs Bunny, right….

Driving with the Family Pet

New Jersey has implemented a new law regarding your pets and seat belts. Yes, seat belts.  Fido, Fluffy and Fifi must now be strapped in to head to the shore, the park or grandmas house.  Now, I’m all for responsible pet ownership.  Sandi tells me how to take care of her all the time.  I have often stuck my nose into others business when I feel a pet is in danger.  I once saw a German Sheppard hanging half way out of a convertible window.  The lady was bringing him into the pet store and I asked her what happens if you have to stop?  However, dogs are not children, no matter much we love them.  They can not be told to sit still, at least, not all of them.  Some will chew through leashes, harnesses and yes, seat belts.  Dogs do have to take car rides to the vets, to the groomers, and to doggie day care.  As long as the dog is safe in the car and not a distraction to the driver, what is the problem?  It seems to me that insisting on seat belts specifically, is the equivalent of demanding a specific child restraint.  Sandi sits on my lap, quietly.  Why should that be a $250 fine?  If I am not wearing my seat belt that is a $25 fine. Yes, Sandi is precious but the law is saying a dog is worth more then a person.  Just saying…