Children...

Upon shifting through my Dead Poems, poems I wrote decades ago, and some just a few weeks back, I simply just like to dream. Dream I'm incredibly rich, rich enough to end world hunger, wars, political injustice and reality TV. Since the world will never be a place where everyone is safe and filled with only love and laughter, I sometimes wish I had the money to adopt five baby girls, have the time and money to raise them with wisdom, soul, heart and basketball prowess. Crazy dream of coaching five girls to a WNBA championship, or even a high school championship.
Regardless of ones aspirations for children, one thing is clear to me, innocence, truth and joy are the ideal experiences with children.

Back in the Day

        Cops and robbers, cowboys and Indians. Toy soldiers

   and deathless wars. Putting frogs in her lunch box, 

kindergarten delights. Recess and gram crackers.

blue horses and green skies-coloring books. Short

        pants and cowboy boots. Big wheels and happy meals.

    Innocence untarnished. Mud pies and summer skies,

                      my how time flies.                         Izzy Schurr, aka Mark Schurr

    Children

   Innocent eyes breed love and laughter. They

harness wisdom and dispense imagination.

      Youth’s unfiltered emotions dwell in the Adams

               of eternity.     Izzy Schurr

Children IV

Write state of mind. Young and kind. Eyes

wide open, hearts undefended, innocence

untarnished. Captured enlightenment escapes

 via their thoughts. The sheer virtue harnessed

in their souls is the resurrection of harmony.    

                                      Izzy Schurr / Geddy Lee

Nonsense

Razzle dazzle, pies in the castle. Where is Ms.

Frazzle? Under da castle? Perhaps causing a

hassle? Why no, she’s eating sassle. What is

sassle? Sometimes it’s sweet, bright, and

light. Other times it’s sour, dark, and heavy.

Sassle is often like dark chocolate, and some

times it’s like white chocolate. It’s never like

hot chocolate. Mostly it’s Wokalit. Wokalit pie,

chocolate pie, sapple pie, apple pie. Scary pie,

cherry pie, pickle pie, chicken pot pie. Never eat

a mud pie like a Burf or a Wurf. Instead why not

surf. Perhaps walk with a Wurf.

                                               Izzy Schurr

Once Upon a Time I Dwelled in The Land of The Loving and Peer Expectations in The World of Adulthood.

In the very early years of the 21rt century I worked full time as a preschool teacher and was living with Debby and her three children.

Her youngest child, Ali is how Debby  and I met in the first place. Just a few months before Ali was 3-years-old she was one of the children at my school while I was teaching at A Children's Place, a preschool founded by the YWCA, yes, the YWCA. The YWCA was originally founded as the Young Women's Christian Association.

Since Ali's tragic passing in January, 2014, while only in high school, I still cling to my fantastic memories. Seems like only yesterday when I watched the Power Puff girls with Ali. Listening to Oakland Athletics games on my little blue AM / FM radio  while she laughed and swam in the apartment complex swimming pool with her two friends Randi and Michaela was definitely one of my favorite summer activities for two summers.

All I've got is a photograph, and I realize your not coming back...Extremely positive energy is forever in the cosmos now. Miss you Ali Bear...

Debby and I remain friends to this day, and I cannot even try to imagine the emotional pain she has to experience everyday as a mother. Ali was only in my life full time for a little over two years, from the time she was 3-5-years-old, and that little time will forever cast a permanent shadow upon my heart.
Ali's death is much more painful to me than that of my parents. My reasoning was that my parents actually lived life, they got to see all their children grow up, at least myself physically, and even some of their great grand children go to college.

When I was living with Debby in the Cedarwood apartment homes in Santa Rosa, I worked Monday-Friday, days at A Children's Place. Every Saturday morning started out the same, Ali bear climbing into our bed with her baggy pajamas and turning on the cartoon network just moments after the sun rise.

To this day, I enjoy watching the Power Puff girl cartoons. I even have a DVD which now makes me cry and laugh at the same time.

My relationship with Debby was the last time I was truly an adult, and working as a preschool teacher was fun. As you get old, like myself and you have no children and are not dating, nor have a soul-mate, people, a lot of them anyway view you as freak of nature and don't want you around their children. Sad for me, but janitorial work pays more then being a preschool teacher.

I was a lousy preschool teacher anyway. When I was teaching at A Children's Place, I was barred from the nap room because I kept falling asleep. In my defense, it was dark and the music was soft. My most wonderful sight director quickly put me in charge of the children who simple would not fall asleep. One particular time I was outside with a pleasantly spirited 4-year-old girl, Yalin who was at the time getting frequently reprimanded for hitting other child.

While I was alone with Yalin, I taught her how to make a fist, i.e., keep your thumbs outside your clinched fingers. I even taught her how to occasionally crisscross her punches; not just punch my right palm with her left hand, but use the right from time to time and vice versa. I even showed her how to step into her punches. About a week or so later, Yalin got in trouble for hitting again and one of the other teachers said;

"Someone taught her how to box."

I was proud that Yalin remembered my sagacious teaching skills, but my sight director was not to pleased with me. My twisted philosophy, she hits other children, so I figured, I'd teach how to hit properly.

Another reason I shouldn't teach children was my lame spelling skills. While teaching at the YWCA, each teacher alternated group circle times. One of the requirements for running circle was teaching a particular letter of the week. One week, my letter was 'K.' So I showed the children a picture of a kitten, a kite etc, and then I showed them a picture of a shopping cart which I spelled 'Kart.' I think the other teachers are still laughing at me on that one, I still laugh at myself. What can I say, as recently as 2011 I flunked beginning writing at Dixie State College, now DSU.

My most wonderful professor gave me a C plus in beginning writing which means I can now take the required English classes necessary for attaining a college degree. About three weeks before Beginning Writing was over, my professor had me meet with her in her office, and I was at a 58 percent for the class. She said, even if I aced the final there was no way I could pass the class, but since I never missed a class and turned in all my assignments on time she passed me. In two years of journalism classes at DSC, my lowest grade was a B plus and I was the only journalist for the Dixie Sun to receive the overall story of the week for a sports story.

Honestly, I have no idea where I'm going with this journalism memoir. Bottom line, I miss working with the little ones, but when your a head-case lunatic, even a harmless one such as myself, people want a married man with his own children working with their kids when your an old foggy like myself. So I went the simple route; a full time janitor whose brain is unchallenged.

Various endeavors working with children which I'll forever miss.

For more details on Ali bear you can read my previous blogs from March 16; "Always in My Heart." "Death;" January, 13, 2014 and "Farewell Ali, Revised From January 27, 2014.

"Hush," A Sexy Romantic Thriller or Just a Hum-Drum Novel?

First available the the general public on July 21, New York Times and USA Today best selling author Karen Robards latest novel "Hush" is a suspenseful love story which is Robards signature theme for her more than 40 books.

Riley Cowan, a gorgeous natural red-head is the focal female who sometimes deceives the FBI and CIA when it comes to information leading to unaccounted billions of dollars tucked away in 137 different bank accounts by her ex father-in law. Cowan also has the hots for the main male in "Hush," FBI agent Finn Bradley who also gains immediate lust for Cowan upon their first meeting. Despite the intense sexual tension between Riley and Finn, they control their primitive instincts due to police and client professionalism well past the half way point of the book.

Jeff Cowan, Riley's ex husband is found hanged to death and Riley takes his cell phone which is vital to the FBI, CIA and other nefarious characters in the maze of "Hush." George Cowan, the father of Jeff is in jail for business fraud and the police and criminals alike are having a hard time believing that the billions of dollars was simply lost or entirely spent.

The story in "Hush" covers a lot of territory and really gets going when it's found out there is a book existing with all the banks and account numbers for the billions of dollars George has stolen from his business clients. The people who hung his son Jeff also kidnapped his 17-year-old daughter Emma Cowan, who Riley is very close with. Before all is revealed and Riley and Finn finally consummate their adult relationship a lot of questions arise.

The billion dollar question is whether or not the FBI and CIA only want the billions of dollars and don't even try and save the life of innocent Emma.

Riley and Finn first meet after Riley is attacked while taking a bath. "Hush" is an R-rated book because of violence, profanity and sexuality. Agent Finn first saw Riley naked and his eyes like what he calls a world class ass and that she's a natural red-head in the bikini area. Riley likes his tallness and obviously gym fit body. Riley and Finn also possessed depth in character.

"Hush" is a three and a half star page turner. Every chapter continues exactly where the last one left off, and page after page leaves the reader wanting more, until the very end.

Interleague Play is Stupid and Not Good for Baseball

No, I'm not just writing this because I'm an Oakland Athletics fan as opposed to being a San Francisco Giants fan.

First things first, congrats to all Giant fans and their team for recently sweeping the A's. The Giants are the team to beat for sure, the best team in baseball right now. You can argue all you want, but there is no better Major League team then the Giants right now, they've won three out of the last five World Series, including last years World Series victory over the Kansas City Royals.

Interleague play was first introduced to professional baseball in 1997, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interleague_play) and it's still incredibly lame. Yes, I understand certain fans and maybe players liking cross town / city rivalries, but those fans opinions are lame to me. I still understand their misguided reasoning for liking interleague play, but once I heard the late great Bill King criticizing Interleague play, I immediately agreed with his thoughts and infinite wisdom on the subject. Bill King, rest his soul, was the greatest Oakland sports announcer, if not the greatest sports broadcaster of all time.

King, like myself because of his opinions hates interleague play.  Interleague play is for the World Series King said, and I agree. To give an example, the Giants just whooped the Athletics; great fun for the team and their fans, but If I were a Giant fan, especially now, I would have rather seen a series between them and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

As of today, the Dodgers have a half game lead in the Nation Leagues West, and the Giants could have taken the division lead or perhaps gotten swept, and be down by four and a half games, maybe have swept the Dodgers and been up by four and a half games?

Stupid interleague play cuts into real baseball and blinds the minds of some fans. King would not even announce A's games when it was interleague play time. King's whole point was that it's not real baseball and seriously; what real Giant's fan in their right mind wants to see them playing the last place American League Milwaukee Brewers the next three games. If it weren't for interleague play, the Giants might be playing their current set against the Dodgers, or perhaps the first place team in the National League East , the Washington Nationals (conference rivals).

While the Giants are currently playing a meaningless series against the Brewers, they could  be playing the first place NL central leaders, a team in their conference, the St. Louis Cardinals, which would make for much better baseball.

What if you're a New York Yankee fan, the winiest team (currently leading AL East) in the history of baseball and had to suffer through them playing the hapless Philadelphia Phillies in June, a team more than 20 games under .500 and not even in the Yankees league; in essence, a preseason game nearly midway into the season, pointless.

While the Yankee's cross town rivals, the New York Mets are making noise and only two games out of first in their division; what pure baseball fan in their right mind wants to see the Mets vs. Yankees in the regular season?

This year in particular, the Mets instead of playing the Yankees at home and away could be playing a three or four game set against their first place division foes, the Nationals who lead them by 2 games. Think about it, the Mets and Nationals vying for first place in their division or playing meaningless games against AL teams in the regular season, again, ridiculous.

Granted the first place AL West  leaders, the Los Angeles Angels have a three game set with the NL Dodgers starting on the 31st of this month, a potential look at this years World Series rivals, but that's just blind luck on the morons who created interleague play, but if I was one of those morons now, I'd be promoting the upcoming three game series between the Dodgers and Angles like there is no tomorrow. I still hate interleague play.    

Before My Bloodline is Gone Forever, I'll Bask in Rock 'N' Roll

Since venturing back to my roots, into "The Last Record Store," I have have a constant stream of CD's I can acquire at will to blast while driving.

Recently I just purchased the 23-year-old CD "Countdown to Extinction," a Megadeth masterpiece. Seventy percent of the songs are gripping, both musically and lyrically. Lead vocalist, lyricist and guitarist Dave Mustaine illustrates profound and simple facts about a vast array of human endeavors.

If you're not a hard rock music fan, "Countdown to Extinction" is certainly not for you, but if you are, the words are equally as vital to the songs as the music itself, just like music of Rush.
The song "Architecture of Aggression" is a powerful anti-war / world power song.

'To eliminate your enemy, hit them in their them in their sleep and when all is won and lost the spoils of wars are yours to keep'...

If our president and the other world leaders had a conscience, the above lyrics might make them think twice about committing mass murder. How President Obama can sleep at night is a mystery to me, but then again, world leaders are soulless and greedy. Why should our president  care? He's getting laid and paid. His two daughters are safe while he sends other peoples children to die in the deserts in the Middle East.

The above lyrics also make me think about the true evils of combat in the thick of any war. I'm talking about soldiers in every part of the world who are physically OK after coming back to civilization from the exposure of real combat. Combat in which brutal death is a common as corruption in politics.

The soldiers who come back from war zones with Shell Shock. F-word the current gently euphemism term for Shell Shock; post-traumatic stress disorder. PTSD, Shell Shock is when the nervous system has already snapped or is on the cusp of snapping. PTSD from combat zones may happen to soldiers who witness gang rapes and the killing of innocents on a daily basis across the seas, or from the actual sites and sounds of war, complete with visible brain and other fresh and rotting flesh from the aftermath of bombings and combat fire.

Might makes right is the theme of "Architecture of Aggression." The U.S. like any other world power was founded on mass murder, genocide and thrusting its beliefs and lifestyles on the weaker people. With each drone strike, the U.S. is creating more and more enemies. Drone strikes created ISIS. When you start killing other peoples children, they tend to retaliate.

'Great nations  built from the bones of the dead,' another verse from "Architecture of Aggression."

Even the Bible condones war and genocide;

Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, man, woman, infant... Exact words from the Bible's Old Testament, Samuel 1, chapter 15; 3.

How nice, Jesus Himself condones war and the mass murder of children and infants;

"For Nation shall rise against nation," Jesus said. Matthew 24;7.

Not all of Mustaine's words provoke such deep thoughts, the song "High Speed Dirt" is about dying from parachuting because the chute does not open.

Do it if you dare, leaping from the sky...exhilarating high...energy of the God's, adrenaline surge...taste the high speed dirt.

"Captive Honour" is about the harsh realities of prison rape. If I was a criminal or potential one, the words to "Captive Honour" would certainly make me think twice before committing a federal crime;

About prison life; 'Where evil lives and evil rules...before he got there, his man-pussy was sold, black blanket welcome, this tough guys now a bitch...

Many people say metal music is angry music, and the metal I listen to is anger toward war and too many things wrong in the world. The human race has advanced so much technology wise, but our hearts and minds are barley above the primitives from thousands of years ago.

"Countdown to Extinction" are three words that suit me well. I'm the youngest direct spawn of my deceased father. My sister Linda and brother Eddie are the other two, and like myself neither one of them has children. At most our immediate family is just a few short decades away from being extinct. Farewell everyone and enjoy your music.

Which Generation Will Be the Last to Destroy Civilization?

For those of you who don't me, I'm not a republican and pride myself on the timeless quote;

"He's a nice guy until you talk about politics, religion or work."

Again, from the achieves of my "Dead Poems."

         Government

  Liquid lunacy fills the goblet of greed and wets

  the lips of the unethical which bleeds across the

  world. World leaders are the  harbingers of havoc,

apprentices of apathy, creators of chaos, and

distributors of destruction.

Soul destroyers and mindless material builders.

Thrust into their lies and bred to consume.

I completely understand why many people  are in an uproar of the killing of the four Marines killed in Chattanooga, Tenn. on Thursday. Twenty-four-year-old Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez was shot and killed by police after his murders.  (http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/17/us/tennessee-shooter-mohammad-youssuf-abdulazeez/index.html) The war in Afghanistan has officially hit home, the U.S.

Years before this tragic event, Abdulazeez was an American citizen who was popular and well received in high school according to the article; "Chattanooga Shooter Changed After Mideast Visit, Friend Says," from the above website.

Maybe  Abdulazeez personally saw and heard first hand what American news is trying so hard to cover up. Yes, the Middle Eastern government is just as evil as any government. One of the Middle Eastern evils is the way men dominate women on that side of the sea. Some women get acid thrown in their face for acquiring an education.( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_genital_mutilation)

Middle Eastern women also have their clitoris forcefully removed which is aptly named Female genital mutilation.  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_genital_mutilation)

George Carlin said the primary reason for this is that women will be less likely to cheat on their husbands.

The U.S. government is just as evil in a different way.  Our government is motivated solely on money and power. Much like the mighty Roman empire back in the day, the U.S. wants to be  world police to every country and have them channel their money into our pockets.  

British Petroleum and its employees have given more than $3.5 million to federal candidates over the past 20 years, with the largest chunk of their money going to President Obama. (http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0510/36783.html#ixzz3gJXlUj5t)

The current Afghanistan War, or so gently called "Operation Enduring Freedom," is all about oil. It's a greedy war; "Operation Enduring Freedom" is a euphemism used to mask the realities of war.
While I most certainly don't condone the Abdulazeez killings of the four marines, I do understand his reasoning, I think? It's war, remember. "Operation Enduring Freedom," what joke of name, it's war.

War; armed hostilities esp. between nations according to the Oxford dictionary.

Every nations leaders dupe its people into war by brainwashing them in the early years of grade school. When I was in grade school back in the early 70s, Russia was evil, now it's the Iraqis and North Koreans who are evil, or so our government says. Winston Churchill and our then president, FDR duped the American youth into World War II.  Do the research and not just listen or read what's on the main stream media.

All wars are about money for the few running the world, wake up people!

To see how evil the North Koreans are, just go to YouTube and type in; 5-year-old North Korean girl playing the guitar, and if your still comfortable with bombing and killing every last North Korean, than you love the fact that war is for ever.

"It's all bull shit folks," George Carlin said, and I agree.

 U.S. drones are killing Middle Eastern children all the time, so yes, I understand Abdulazeez reasoning for his killing of the marines in Tennessee. War is about death and destruction and the making of big money for the one or five percent of the way too rich soulless who are ruling the world. Abdulazeez may have over reacted to the U.S. murdering of innocent children in the Middle East just as Geronimo and his tribe killing white women and children, but both had their arguable reasons for doing so.

Imagine if a 176 U.S. children were killed in the blink of an eye by a missile strike on an elementary school by another country's leaders orders. Controlled  by Big Oil, President Obama  and his soulless comrades are doing this to Middle Eastern children on a regular basis, so yes, I get it, they (Middle Easterns) hate America. (http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/nov/24/-sp-us-drone-strikes-kill-1147)

Myself, like other dreamers of the world would love to see U.S. and Afghanistan soldiers, laughing together on the battle field and telling its world leaders to Fuck off! The same could be said for the others fighting in the worlds 50 or more wars. Yes, there are at least 50 wars currently happening, only there not called wars, there called "Conflict in the Congo," or "Operation Inherent Resolve," the lame name for the war against ISIS. For every U.S. drone strike, our country is creating more enemies for itself. The U.S. with its drone strikes created ISIS, now it's a war against them, what a sadistic joke.   (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/23/yemen-drones_n_4152159.html )

The Movies "Ex Machina" and "It Follows" Were Double Disasters

"It Follows" is advertised as a horror movie, but a horrible movie is more accurate and "It Flops" is a much better title.

High school teenagers engaging in sex and getting viciously killed by a never explained entity is the premises for "It Follows." The thing that kills the teens comes in the shape of friends and strangers, and it's creepy slow walk toward its victim immediately alerts them  to do their best track star imitation.

The strange being does not cease until it kills it's prey. One way to get rid of the thing that is chasing you is to pass it on to another person. The focal character Jay, (Maika Monroe) a 19-year-old female who has consensual sex with Hugh / Jeff (Jake Weary) and shortly after their coitus encounter, Jeff renders her unconscious, ties her to a wheel chair and takes her to an abandoned building in the outskirts of nowhere to pass on the murderous deity to her.

After untying her and letting her go, Jeff says to Jay that she can pass it on to someone else to get rid of it, and kindly tells her not to get killed or it will come after him again. Jay doesn't even get mad at this guy, nor do her group of friends which include a couple of young men. Personally I wanted to see Jay's two guy friends beat Jeff to a pulp. Maybe it's just me, but if someone thrust an evil demon upon someone close to me, I'd at least be mad at the person.

Even when the lame thing shows itself from time to time with its slow walk, its just like watching a bad zombie movie. Zero stars for this waste of a thing called a movie.

"Ex Machina" was a snooze fest which really took me three times to watch, thank the powers that be for scene selections on DVDs.

At least the writers and directors of "Ex Machina" tried to make a good science-fiction movie, they just failed miserably. I did like the fact that story-line steered away from bombastic special effects, but there was no action at all, none noteworthy anyway, nor was there any intensity.

As a heterosexual man flesh and blood I give this movie two stars, because Alicia Vikander who was the AI being in this movie has a perfect gluteus max. The movie is on it's last few minutes by the time her bear butt appears, but it was well worth the stare.

Ava, the AI (Vikander) was created by Nathan (Oscar Isaac) who is the CEO of the world's largest Internet company. Nathan who lives in a beautiful secluded place abundant with beautiful water falls has one of his employees spend some time at his place to question and observe Ava.
Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson), the employee comes up with a plan to escape with Ava once he learns Nathan is going to erase her memory for an upgraded AI AP. The story is too slow and it's lack of intensity when it does start to take shape is as intriguing as looking at dead weeds in a debris box.

The ending was senseless and there was no rhyme or reason to its conclussion.