Once Upon A Time, I Wasn't a Complete Freak of Nature.

Still in debt from financial student aide, I'm about 30 units away from acquiring two college degrees; one in child development and the other in journalism.

The reality of the situation is that I'd need about 50 units of higher education to get the required 30 or so units of classes that count toward a degree. Psychology and history are the only two general education classes I've completed toward a degree.

I failed beginning writing in 2011, but my awesome professor gave me a C plus, which makes me eligible to take the next two English classes toward a degree. I've taken more than a 100 units in college, mostly child development and media classes.

Journalism was easy for me, but English, which I also flunked in high school my junior year and had to repeat my senior year has been difficult enough, and I'm even worse in math. By today's standards I'd put myself at a fourth grade math level, so that's about 12 or 14 math classes I'd need to complete just to take the one or two classes that count toward a degree, hence, I'm regretting not gone to college right out of high school.

Many moons ago, I often daydreamed of success, having a wife and kids, but those dead dreams have faded into a new pursuit of happiness. While my social ineptness has pulverized the chances of marriage and a relationship, one thing is clear, I love getting old. As my dad used to say, dying young is worse than getting old.

When I was young, I at least tried to date and work with children, and realized how pathetic I was at doing both, so currently, I have no regrets about not being married or having children. The few, and I emphasize few women I have gone out with, and even lived with two different ones during separate chapters in my life, I've concluded being alone is awesome.

Children making play dough when I taught preschool. 

I answer to no one, except work, and my lack of success has its depressing moments I admit, but having a pound of wisdom as opposed to an ounce of one, I embrace a steady job and income as opposed to killing myself or being homeless.

When all you needed to work with preschoolers was Early Childhood Education units and of course passing a background check, I got to work with children professionally for about six years. Four of those years where at the YWCA, A Children's Place. Working at a Children's Place was the best. For most of my time there I was living with Debby and her three children. Most of the parents really liked me, because I was quote unquote normal. Back then I was living with Debby, and practically a step father for her three children including Alondra who was in my group, the Brown Bears. The harsh reality and grieving details about Alondra, aka Ali bear are detailed in my Jan. 27, 2014 blog, "Farewell Ali..."

2001 staff at A Children's Place

On a cheery note, my life experience with Debby and her three children, especially her youngest Ali bear, taught me the wonderfulness of being alone. Had I gotten married and fathered children of my own, they would have been insatiable brats. Children don't listen to a word I have to say, at least if it's about something their supposed to do or not do. Because I was with Debby and worked as preschool teacher, I learned what a horrible dad I would have been, hence no regrets about being a sole entity now.  

"The Last Time I Saw Her," A Marvelous Mystery Romance or A Misery Romance?

The 47th book by New York Times and USA Today best selling author Karen Robards is exactly one month old tonight, and the third book of hers I've read and reviewed.

Robards penchant for originality shines once again in "The Last Time I saw Her." All of her books, the three I've read at least have the same romantic quest for ultimate love, both cerebrally and physically. Her books are also suspenseful while sagaciously illustrating the realities of the sheer evil in people, yet the infinite presence of the truly good folk persistently prevail.

"The Last Time I Saw Her" is a very unique love tale indeed. Dr. Charlotte Stone, aka Charlie works in a prison and studies the minds of vicious serial killers. One particular killer she interviews on a regular basis prided himself on raping and torturing young teen-aged girls before he killed them is just one of the five or six regulars she studies on a 9-5 basis.

Aside from her cheery job, Charlie, on her off time is trying to prove the innocence of convicted serial killer Michael Garland who was sent to prison for brutally raping and killing several women, six if I remember my reading accurately. Garland, although he was killed while incarcerated was once Charlie's tall, handsome buffed lover. Though Garland is dead, Charlie wants to prove his innocence, even thought she's not 100 percent sure of it, just her natural instincts feeding her emotional frenzy.

It may sound like I'm giving away the whole story, but you have no clue, unless of course you've read the book. The suspense starts to rev up when Charlie meets Rick Hughes, Garlands identical twin. The only way she knows it's not Garland on their first meeting is because Garland, her former lover is dead. The eye color is the only difference in looks between Garland and Hughes.

Convinced Hughes framed Garland and is now free chills her spine to put it mildly. The case is closed, Hughes isn't even a suspect in the eyes of the law, so life must go on. It also turns out Garland is a spirit in the afterlife whom Charlie can see and communicate with. Both yearning for each others touch and passionate love making, yet the physics of being a ghost make it impossible for tangible touch.

Tamsyn Green, a smoking hot 35-year-old woman is the daughter of a voodoo priestess, Charlie's friend and is the one link Charlie and Garland can use in sorting out life as they presently know it, and life in the realms of the outer world.

As the story progresses, Charlie and Garland manage to satisfy their lascivious desires for each other in the shower, and now Charlie has two main goals in her current life, help the police capture escaped serial killers who've got two teen aged girls captive and be with her soul mate for eternity. Want more details? Read the book.

Easily a four and half star read. I got this book exactly a month ago, but didn't start reading it till yesterday. It's a gripping page turner. One of the many reason I give this book such a high rating is the cool usage of French words and phrases. Lieu Du La Mort; The place of death.  

"Shiver," the first book of Robards, acquired at the local library, I read and reviewed in Feb. 2013, and her book "Hush" I read and reviewed on Aug. 4.

Bleacher Babble, Professional Football and Pro Baseball Jabber

What a difference a week makes, after last weeks debacle against the Cincinnati Bengals, the Oakland Raiders rebounded marvelously in Sundays dramatic 37-33 win over the Baltimore Ravens.

Both Michael Crabtree and Alabama rookie wide receiver Amari Cooper shined in Sundays win, each amassing a TD pass and both getting more than a 100 yards on the day.  Quarterback Derek Carr was sloppy at times, but made plays when he had too, including a 68 TD strike to Cooper, and when the Raiders were down 33-30 with 30 seconds remaining, Carr threaded the needle with a bullet down the middle TD pass to WR Seth Roberts  for the winning score.

That's what you get with the Raiders for the last 12 or so years, a fantastic looking team or a pathetic team that would struggle against a third rate high school team. Despite only two games being played in this young NFL season, only eight teams out of 32 remain undefeated.

It's much to early to separate the contenders from the pretenders, but the 2-0 Arizona Cardinals are in the contender category for Super Bowl 50 as are the Denver Bronco's. The Green Bay Packers and New England Patriots are both 2-0 as are the Dallas Cowboys. The Cowboys will be without their number one quarterback Tony Romo and number one wide receiver Dez Bryant till at least week 10, ouch. http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/2015/9/22/9364297/tony-romo-dez-bryant-injury-return-cowboys-brandon-weeden

A 150 or a 151 of the 162 regular season games have been played in this years Major League Baseball season and only one of the 30 baseball teams, the St. Louis Cardinals have clinched a playoff spot. Baring a colossal collapse by the Los Angeles Dodgers, last years World Series champions will miss this years playoffs. If the playoffs started today, the Chicago Cubs would be in the post season. The Cubs have not won a world series since 1908. http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/CHC/1908.shtml

Last years AL champions, the Kansas City Royals lead the American League Central division by three games.

The quest for the 111th World Series begins on Oct. 6. http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/page/playoffs2015_schedule/2015-mlb-playoff-schedule  

I'd be happy with a Cubs New York Yankees World Series. The Yankees are in the drivers seat in the American League wild card chase, up by four games, and down by 2.5 to the American League East division leading Toronto Blue Jays after a dramatic 10 inning win tonight. Maybe a bay bridge series between east coast rivals, the New York Mets and Yankees. The Mets have a commanding 6 game lead in the National League East.

"Black Mass," Another Over Hyped Fiasco of Big Names, A Gangsta Classic or Anything In between?

Playing in theaters since Friday, "Black Mass" staring Johnny Depp is a tale of the real life south Boston mobster James Whitey Bulger who in the 1970s, 80s and early 90s was a focal force in organized crime.

Screen writers Mark Mallouk and Jez Butterworth transformed Dick Lehr and Gerard  O' Neill's book into a delicious dialog of deceitful deception.

If your anticipating an action packed gangster movie riddled with gratuitous violence, "Black Mass" is not for your eyes. If you crave story over excessive special effects, "Black Mass" is right up your alley.

This movie illustrates the realities of organized crime being married to the law, primarily the FBI due to large amounts of money. Big money blinds the greedy on both sides of the law to overlook vicious murders and leading children 12-years-old and younger into drugs.

"Black Mass" makes it clear that 70s, 80s and 90s  FBI agent John Connolly (Joel Edgerton) grew up with Bulger in Boston and remained friends with him while working for the FBI.

"Black Mass" illustrates how Bulger hornswoggled the FBI into helping him fight his north Boston  enemies legally while he escaped justice despite being a cold blooded murder and aiding young children into drug addiction. Bulger made his money mostly by racketeering and extortion. He personally killed more then ten people because they were cutting into his share of illegal money or he was afraid they would rat him out.

I give "Black Mass" a solid three star rating. Personally, I would have liked to see more violence and action in this movie, simply because of its nature, but I clearly understood the writers intentions of shying away from screen violence and focusing on a gripping story-line and I applaud that. "Black Mass" is not a must see on the big screen, but a definite watch when it comes to Netflix, DVD and other multi-media networks.

The Road to The 2016 Super Bowl is Officially Under Construction

Last years Super Bowl  champs, the New England Patriots hosted the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 2015 NFL  season opener, which officially begins the quest for Super Bowl 50 to be played  on Sunday, Feb. 7, 2016.

No NFL team has repeated as champions in the last 11 seasons broadcaster Al Michaels said. An alluring quality the NFL has because with the exception of five or six teams out of the 32, who knows which two teams will battle it out in Super Bowl  50?  

NBC sports Pro Football Talk, has six different writers predicting eight different teams playing in Super Bowl 50 and five different teams winning it. http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/07/25/jack-del-rio-i-dont-see-why-raiders-wont-win-the-afc-west/ 

My NFL team, the Oakland Raiders have not won their division since 2002 and their head coach Jack Del Rio said; goal number one was to win their division and doesn't see why not. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Oakland_Raiders_seasons On paper the Raiders can stuff any teams ability to run the ball and second year quarterback Derek Carr  and rookie wide receiver, Amari Cooper are the most exciting, if not the most potent quarterback to wide receiver passing tandem in the NFL, and that's my non biased opinion!

For fantasy footballers, having Tom Brady and tight end  Rob Gronkowski as your starters was an excellent call last night. Gronkowski had a hat trick, three touchdowns  and Brady had four TD passes.

The Steelers moved the ball well, both running and passing, but their kicker Josh Scobee flat out missed his first two field goal kicks of 44 and 46 yards retrospectively, Something no Steeler kicker has done since 1970, Michaels said.

The Patriots never trailed in last nights game and had a 14-3 halftime lead. Although the final score was 28-21, it was all Patriots. Ben Roethlisberger darted a very late TD pass to fantasy star wide receiver Antonio Brown with two seconds remaining in the game, but it was too little too late.

The Patriots did what they had to do, win of course, but more importantly, the key for any team to win their division, which ensures a playoff  birth is to win its home games and defeat their division rivals. The Steelers lost an affordable game, a road game against a non divisional foe.

On paper the Dallas Cowboys will win the NFC East, Green Bay Packers, the NFC North, Carolina Panthers the NFC South and the Seattle Seahawks winning the West.

In the AFC, the Patriots seizing the eastern conference, the Cincinnati Bengals, the north, Indianapolis Colts the south and the Denver Broncos taking the west. My dark horse teams to be in the half century Super Bowl  are the Atlanta Falcons and the Oakland Raiders. Laugh it up, but realistically I see the Colts playing the Packers for the 50th NFL coveted trophy.

Humans, the Only Species on The Planet That Kill for Fun or Sport

If your an avid George Carlin fan, and I am, you understand his off the wall humor and hard hitting news facts, the real facts mainstream media shrouds. 

In one of Carlin's stand-up routines he made a very interesting point; human beings are the only species on the planet that kill for fun or sport. If I'm unarmed and in the middle of nowhere and I come across, say a full grown lion, most likely the lion would leave me alone, unless it was hungry, thought I was a threat to kill him or her, or its young. If the lion had a satisfied belly, convinced I wasn't a threat, 100 percent of the time in such a circumstance, I'm safe. If anyone goes out in public amongst other humans, you're never 100 percent safe. 

F-word Walter Palmer and everyone like him. He channels thousands of dollars, if not 10's of thousands, or even more money to kill animals for absolutely no reason. If I had his wealth, I'd channel huge chunks of cash into education for starters; education for preschool, grade school, middle school, high school and college. I definitely would not spends insane amounts of money to kill rare animals. 

Personally I wouldn't be intimidated, offended, nor be afraid if exotic animals could kill and frame the heads of rich pricks like Palmer. How would cowards like Palmer liked to be put in and small cage naked as the day they were born with no weapons what so ever, not even a small rock, and deal with a very hungry lion. That's pretty much what Palmer did to Cecil the lion. 

Pricks like Palmer pay insane amounts of money to kill defenseless rare animals. When Palmer killed the lion named Cecil from Africa's acclaimed national park in  Hwange National Park, he got away completely free because he's  rich. The lyrics from Megadeth's song "Countdown to Extinction" explains everything.  

Megadeth's 1992 song sums up people like Palmer in a nutshell. The following lyrics by vocalist / guitarist Dave Mustaine, drummer Nick Menza and bassist David Ellefson wrote the following words for their song "Countdown to Extinction."

'Endangered species caged in fright, shot in cold blood no chance to fight, the stage is set, now pay the price, an ego boost, don't think twice. Technology, the battles unfair you pull the hammer without a care, squeeze the trigger that makes you 'Man.' Pseudo-safari, the hunt is canned. Tell the truth, you wouldn't dare, the skin and trophy oh so rare, silence speaks louder than words, ignore the guilt and take your turn...Man you were never even there, killed a few feet from the cages point blank, your so courages'...

Metal music is defiantly hate music which turns away a lot of people, but the metal I listen to hates the right things.  

The Associated Press and the Minneapolis Star Tribune interviewed Palmer about his murdering of Cecil the lion. No videotaping or photographing of the interview was allowed. Palmer fiddled with his hands and turned to an adviser, Joe Friedberg, to field questions about the fallout and his legal situation. (http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/hunter-tied-to-cecil-killing-headed-back-to-work/ar-AAe1tOa?ocid=spartandhp)   

Cecil was a fixture at Hwange National Park and was fitted with a GPS collar for lion research by Oxford University, and now Cecil's head is a sadistic trophy for another invidious rich person.   

  

Donald Trump; A Racist Political Clown Who Might Even Have the Hots for His Own Daughter

On August 26, 2016, Donald Trump could not handle real questions from journalist Jorge Ramos and had him forcibly removed from one of his debates. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-jorge-ramos_55ddc41ce4b04ae497051923)

Once Ramos was in the outside halls, a Trump supporter told Ramos to get out of my country. Ramos is a U.S. citizen incidentally. Trump and his crew are racist and stupid. Ramos was allowed back to ask questions, only Trump kept interrupting Ramos, so really, he didn't get his question answered as to how Trump is going to built 'the wall,' and deport more than 11 million people back to Mexico which is a lame plan to begin with.

I do agree with Trump, that criminals who are illegal immigrants should not be in the U.S., but their are millions of illegals who are beneficiary to the U.S. If you think they are taking away jobs, forget about it, if you really need and want to work you'll find a steady job, I'm living proof of that.

If your like me and don't want milk and other dairy products which are already soaring in price to go up another 61 percent, you might want to rethink your views on getting rid of all the illegal Mexican immigrants. The U.S. Department of Agriculture states that about half of the hired workers employed in U.S. crop agriculture were unauthorized, with the overwhelming majority of these workers coming from Mexico. The USDA has also warned that any potential immigration reform could have significant impacts on the U.S. fruit and vegetable industry. (http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/foreign-policy/203984-illegal-immigrants-benefit-the-us-economy)

Illegal immigrants are also paying about $15 billion dollars a year into social security which they won't receive. (http://money.cnn.com/2014/11/20/news/economy/immigration-myths/)

The U.S. spent almost $18 billion dollars in 2012 for immigration enforcement. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/07/immigration-enforcement-cost_n_2425647.html) If the world had open borders, which it should, there would be less wars and more diversity and acceptance of others. John Lennon believed in open borders and that's one of the many reasons I believe in them. World peace and harmony for all, I know it's just a dream, but it's an awesome dream.

One billion dollars would allow about 79,847 people to acquire a four-year college degree for free. Over the course of four years, approximately 1,437,246 people every four-years would get a free college degree. (https://www.reddit.com/r/theydidthemath/comments/2uc8b7/request_1_billion_dollars_would_pay_for_how_many/)  

Everything Trump says is crazy to me, and even scary. In July, he suggested he has lascivious desires for his own daughter.

"She (his daughter) does have a very nice figure. I’ve said if Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps I’d be dating her,” Trump said. (http://m.snopes.com/donald-trump-date-daughter/)