Happy New Year: 2019 to 2020

GOODBYE 2019 HELLO 2020

Yes it is the very end of the year post. Scheduled to post on the very last minute of the year. This year as we turn the calendar page we enter a new decade. The THIRD decade of the century. WOW where did the 21st century go? We have gone through a fifth of the century already. The last children born in the 20th century are no longer children, some are not quite legal adults but will be soon.

I will make my annual "State of the Blog" post to publish at Noon on New Year's Day. 2019 was yet again one of those bare minimum one post per month years. It looks to be the below record loser with this being only post number 12 of the year. The absolute lowest I will allow myself.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The Jury Experience 2019 Edition

On Monday 04 November 2019 I did my civic duty by serving Jury Duty. It was not my first round in the law abiding citizen rodeo and might not be my last. As with my previous experiences there were some differences.

Now if I recall correctly I had been called about 5 times previously. The first time I was called was when I was still away at College so I had to explain I was away at school That was when I was 18 or 19. Then round 2 came a few years later sometime in my early 20s? I actually got picked to be on a jury. I think it was 3 days spent. I don't recall exact details but it was a civil case that involved a traffic accident and the plaintiffs were seeking damages for some personal injuries. I seem to recall we the jury decided that the injuries were not directly caused by the accident, or were not as severe as claimed so no compensation was given. My 3rd round was shortly after the time I served and was within the grace period at the time. I think back then around late 1980s? The grace period allowing to be excused due to recent previous service, was within 7 years and it had only been 3 or 4 years from when I had served. Currently I thought it is down to 3 years or if our orientation dude was correct only down to one year now. Then time 4 my jury selection call number was higher than the jury numbers they were calling to report that particular day. My last call number 5, prior to this recently passed one, I reported and we waited and waited in the juror's lounge and waited for an hour and a half to two or three hours. They gave us a briefing that there were 3 trials awaiting juries and they were in the negotiation stage and getting close to the time for jury selection. Then about an hour or two later they came back and reported that all 3 trials had come to some kind of agreement/plea bargain and a jury was not required. We were released to go home and that was around lunch time or shortly after.

Now on to 04 NOV 19:
First before I reported I was going to do a dry run to the court house as it had been several years since I had last been there. We know how cities can change around in very short periods of time. I had a vague idea where to go but not exact. For several reasons I didn't do my dry run. On Sunday the night before my day to report I checked the directions using Map Quest and got more familiar with the exact details. Good thing I did that, because I was going to use my old portable GPS (my 2016 Ford Fusion non-hybrid version unfortunately doesn't have built in GPS) but the battery charge was very low and it wasn't staying on. It would start to power up then just power down and off. Fortunately the bulk of my route was one road, that changes names near the courthouse. I also knew the street names where the juror's parking area was and of course my summons had the courthouse address. One of the final turns I missed but was aware that I should have taken it so I made the next turn and got back on track. Also on Sunday night as required I called in the check-in number my summons instructed to call to see if my assigned juror's number was being called the next day. The recording for that had a very long instructions for how to get to the courthouse and more details of some generalities before it actually mentioned which numbers were being called in to report.

The smallish juror's parking lot was pretty much the way I had remembered it from years ago, except everything around it seemed to be different. There was also a parking garage across the street for alternate overflow parking. My call time was 8:30 AM I reached the parking lot at about a quarter of 8:00. When I checked in at the courthouse it was about 9 or 10 minutes of 8. To pass the time, I had brought with me a book (George Orwell's "1984" which I have been currently reading for a couple of months now. I read some here and there a few pages at at time) a word search book and pen to work it, a bottle of water and a single 2 piece pack of Pop-Tarts (the Orchard Apple Cinnamon flavor I blogged about last month, from a new second box) OH and some cough drops. It seems that coughing in the juror's lounge is a bit contagious Hehehe. Also the juror's lounge had been remodeled/renovated since my last term of service. The seats were in rows lengthwise down the room where previously it had been across the width of the room. Along the 'back" length wall was a series of about a dozen desktop computers that were wifi compatible, last time there were about 6 desktops during the early days of the internet so back then they were basically just for checking email. Now they can surf the internet heavy duty. Also previously they were in a sort of mini-room alcove now they line part of a wall.

The waiting began for the opening remarks/orientation. At about 8:40 we got an orientation introduction and were shown a video about the jury experience. That all took about 10 minutes maybe, then the real waiting began. The time of waiting around for your juror's number to be called to report to a courtroom for the selection process. So we waited and waited and waited. I switched back and forth from reading a few pages of my book to working a couple of word searches. The occasional sip of water, I couldn't eat the Pop-Tarts yet because you weren't allowed to eat in the Juror's Lounge, you could drink water, but you are not supposed to eat anything. They have a small break room off of one corner that has snack machines and a drink machine that seemed to only take quarters or credit card. I don't think it even gave change. So we wait and wait. By about 10:30 or so I was starting to think that they would tell us that all the cases had made non-jury deals and we would be dismissed early. No such luck. At about 11:20 or so they informed us that they were late with some of the morning breaks and were about to begin. It was around this time that they called us by number to receive our financial compensation ($15 Yippee). There was an option when we checked in (and at this time when they were calling us) to donate to a Juror's fund of some kind which basically meant instead of getting paid for the day, you donated what you would have gotten paid to this support fund thing. I opted for the cash out.

Ten minutes or so later sometime around 11:30 or 11:40 they started calling us for selections to the cases on that morning's docket. They started with a very large pool. They mentioned they were going to call a large number of us 125 (out of about 400 some called for the day) for a criminal case. About halfway through that calling my number was called. So I was in the lottery to sit for a criminal case. What fun (/sarcasm) My previous Jury serving was a civil case as I had mentioned way way up above somewhere. First thing they did when we got to the courtroom was to do a roll call to make sure no potential jurors were lost between the juror's lounge floor and the court room floor which was one floor up for this particular trial. The Judge introduced the cast members (Himself, the lawyers, court clerk, the bailiff and I think even the other two police officers that were in the room. Oh and also the defendant). The Judge then started talking about how the process was going to be handled and mentioned it was going to be a long day due to the vast number of potential juror's to sort through. I think it was shortly after this that we had a brief break.

When we returned we were then given some of the general details of the case. As I said it was a criminal case, an attempted murder with a firearm. There were 3 or 4 charges total If I recall. Then the judge asked some general questions we had to respond to by raising our hands and when recognized (which was sometimes hard to tell when it was you or someone behind you) give our juror number of course. These were some of the same general questions the summons survey had on it, which was supposed to help narrow down the bigger scope of things like English as a second language, if there is any physical disability that might make you ineligible to serve like poor hearing or very restricted mobility. Then around 12:25 it was lunch time and break time til 1:00 pm.

Then there were some more detailed questions and philosophical type questions and questions like if you had a personal connection to anyone in the case or potential witnesses and law officials who were mentioned as being connected to the case. For the more detailed questions the judge had to bring each individual potential juror up to the bench to ask why they had answered the question and if it would effect their ability to serve on the jury. During this process they used a sound blocking/white noise producing device that allows private conversations at the bench to be conducted without the entire courtroom hearing through the sound system. I forget the name they gave it but in short it is a white noise making device.

After that Q&A was done they got down to the nitty gritty of calling jurors up to the jury box and allowing the lawyers to see everyone. The process is fairly simple but with such a large number of potential jurors the process takes a lot of time. More so than a civil trial selection does, partly due to more detailed questioning. So they would call a few jurors up to start filling the jury box and the lawyers would then have to decide to either keep the juror or to excuse them. NO reason is needed for dismissal. Either they would say something like "keep the juror", "seat and swear in the juror", or "thank and excuse the juror" or similar sayings. Each side was usually consistent with their phrasing of the two "commands".

After a few minutes of excusing some of the jurors that were brought into the jury box and the defense dismissing quite a few of them a jury of 12 jurors plus 2 alternate jurors were picked. I was not called to the box. The final jury was mostly women I think there might have been one or two men on the jury I think the alternates were women. Of the women most were non-white. Even though middle-aged white males were usually excused immediately there was a guy who looked like Jerry Garcia who I think made the final jury as the one or two males on the jury.

They released those of us who were not picked and it was somewhere between 5 to 10 before 5:00 pm. I then made my way to the juror's parking lot where I had been parked all day. The juror's lot is free the garage across the street is paid parking, but juror's could get a validation pass if they had to park there. Anyway I sat in my car for a good 10 to 15 minutes before I even turned on my car to wait from the traffic from the parking lot to disperse so I wouldn't waste time sitting idol with the engine running and not moving at all.

The Return of Apple Pop-Tarts?

"When I was younger just a bad little kid..."

Original Frosted Pop-Tarts Flavors

OK forget those "Little Shop of Horrors" lyrics. I'm reaching back to when I was a kid and a favorite snack food. Not really a "junk food" snack but one of those sort of good for you things. I'm talking about Kellogg's Pop-Tarts. When I was little just about all the flavors they made had two versions the plain "good for you" unfrosted version and then the frosted version of that same flavor. 

Original box design for Frosted Dutch Apple Flavor (1968-1970something?)

Many of the same flavors available today were around back then; Strawberry, Cherry, Blueberry, Brown Sugar Cinnamon, Chocolate Fudge, and a few others. My favorite of all time was one that is discontinued for whatever reason I don't know the Frosted Dutch Apple.

Newer box design for Frosted Dutch Apple Flavor (1970something to 1980something?)

I recall it had a deep rich flavor with plenty of cinnamon flavor. Also back then when they said FROSTED they meant FROSTED. Good tasty frosting as well. Now the frosting is just a light glaze sometimes not even that and has barely any taste to it. Of course any sweet food stuff made before the mid 1980s was sugar ladened with real sugar not some chemical substitute. The newer sugar substitutes and lower fat sugars have ruined the sweetness flavor of many things. The pastry part of modern Pop Tarts sometimes is a bit dry, or too floured flavored, or possibly unsalted?

I don't recall when they pulled the Dutch Apple flavor (early 1980s?). I didn't notice it right away it may have been at least a year or two before I realized it was gone. Isn't that the way it always goes? Then for many years there was no such thing as Apple flavored Pop-Tarts or for that matter much of  anything apple flavored. Maybe there was an Apple Flavor scare like in the late 70s Red Dye #3 or 6 or whatever red dye was supposedly bad for you.

Recently while doing a Target Run I noticed an Apple flavored Pop-Tart box, it was a true Kellogg's Pop-Tarts not some off brand or the Target house brand. The flavor "Orchard Apple Cinnamon", um OK not DUTCH APPLE but hey it was frosted so I had to get a box and give it a try.

NEW Orchard Apple Cinnamon Pop-Tarts

IT is OK, not great, and I was a bit bummed when I saw the green apples on the box design. This flavor is a bit tart, thus the green apples instead of red ones I guess. I hope someday they do bring back the Dutch Apple flavor as close to the same recipe as possible.

Note: All images except for the new Orchard Apple Cinnamon image were found from a Google search for "Kellogg's pop tarts frosted dutch apple". Orchard Apple Cinnamon image scanned from my test box.

Twizzling Dr Pepper Licorice

OK so I had seen this some time ago at my local dollar store (Dollar Tree) and wondered about it. Dr. Pepper flavored Licorice. Dr. Pepper Twizzlers? What The? Eventually I decided to get a package and try it.

Not bad. Not great either.

It does sort of have the flavor of Dr. Pepper upon the first bite or two, then it just becomes a jaw battle against a stick of licorice. I'm not sure if the DP flavor is mixed in with the licorice while it's being made or whether it is in the glossy and sticky sugar glaze on the sticks. I suspect the latter.

Overall it is a nice little piece of just edible nostalgia for a 120-some year old soda/pop/cola/soft drink.

I scanned the package a few weeks after opening and eating most of the contents so that is why in the front image the bag isn't full.

Random Thoughts And Stuff

Here I go the end of another month and I have to scramble to find something to rant, chat, talk or ramble on about. Not sure where this will take me. Maybe I will delete this before posting it because I found something else to yak about. So yeah I didn't have anything planned. Well that isn't entirely true I do have a few posts planned. A couple have been gathering so much dust they are now buried under several feet of peat moss.

I can't help but wonder if I have used the same post title before. Have I? Don't know. Maybe. It is sort of generic and does mention its randomness.

I guess I can post about this idea that I was going to post on Facebook at one time but decided not to. I live in a pretty typical suburban neighborhood that has it's share of crime but is far from a high risk high crime area. I live in a garden style apartment. You know the kind that has a handful of apartments per floor and the stairwell is exposed to the outside elements. The front "porch" landing area has our building's bank of mailboxes and then the stairs leading up to the units and some stairs leading to the first floor/ground floor apartments. My apartment is along the same side as the mailboxes on the second floor which if I have a large box or package waiting at my front door can be seen from the mailboxes. I am certain that in the last 3 or 4 years I have had 4 or 5 packages or boxes stolen from the front door. When the post office or UPS tracking says your package was delivered and there is nothing by your front door, then yep some low-life scumbag stole your package. You can't blame the person who shipped your order they kept their end of the agreement by shipping the package. You can't blame the delivery service, unless there were specific orders to not leave the package unattended. The only person to blame is the low-life scum bucket that nicked the package. I hope they enjoyed the worthless books, or beat up comics, creased trading cards, or the oversized t-shirt or whatever was in the package. One of the more recent packages stolen from my front door was a book about the Collyer Brothers, Homer and Langley who were among the first recorded Hoarders in the US. I find that almost ironic someone taking a book about hoarders, but it still pissed me off since the book is a little hard to find, not very hard, but difficult to find at a decent low price. But I digress somewhat.

So my thought about my neighborhood is this. In theory I could close the front door to my apartment and leave it unlocked, leave for the day and return without anyone ever attempting to open the door. I could probably leave it unlocked for several days and nobody would ever know. However, I'm sure if I left the door slightly ajar, or completely wide open and was gone for more than a minimum half an hour the chances of someone coming by and being curious about this completely vulnerable apartment would increase and I'd come home to having many items missing. The longer I was gone the more stuff that would be missing. Of course there is also the likelihood that nobody would disturb anything (depending on the day of the week I guess)  but that is less probable. I wouldn't expect anyone to be kind and close the door. I would never test this open door theory.

I also recall a few years back that after a yearly or biannual exterminator visit, I noticed a nice pocket knife was missing from my kitchen that I usually kept in a kitchen drawer but might have left it out on the counter that day. I can't prove it was taken. I don't recall enough details of the make of it to describe it well enough except it was all silver. I don't recall what exterminator service was used during that time or which year it was. Now days my apartment management company uses a different extermination service that comes twice a year at least, and they require that all kitchen and bathroom cabinets are emptied to make spraying easier and that all counters are clear. Plus no dishes in the sink. The time the pocket knife was taken the only prerequisite was that the counters were clear, oh and the no dishes in the sink. This totally empty and clear requirement also puts your apartment in more of a disarray than it normally is. I haven't recovered from the last round of spraying. Heck I never really recovered from moving into the apartment 11 years ago.

Wow this post turned out to be a bit of a bummer. I didn't think it would go to the dark side.

Adding To The Name Mix

Time for another installment of the order taker mishearing my name and coming up with something completely different. This time actually it isn't too bad if I were giving a last name I guess.

The misspelling this time was:

 C-O-O-K

Captain James Cook image from:

https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/work-of-art/portrait-of-captain-james-cook

Yep cook. Guess I'm using my last name now huh?

Previous ways my first name Kirk has been misspelled.

Previous Misspellings:
Akirk *
Cark
Cirk *
Cork
Cruk
Curck
Curk *
Curt *
Herk
Kart
Kick *
Kirl
Kirt *
Kurk *
Kurt *
Kurth
Rick *
Turk

* Links to an older post with multiple misspellings.

Theories of Death

Death Tarot Card from The Rider-Waite Tarot deck

I was going to attempt to write something for this post some months back, but I kept procrastinating and then when I needed to have something ready to post I didn't have enough time to work on it. I also try to avoid controversy here on my own blog. The subject of death often leads to deep philosophical or religious discussions.

I was planning on using the images below from the Family Guy trading cards for the heading of the post but decided not to. They are too funny cartoony not serious philosophy.

 2006 Inkworks Family Guy: Season 2: Autographs: A8 Adam Carolla Voice of Death

Still I wanted something that wasn't too morbid. Ha good luck with that. Oooh yeah Tarot cards.

So the subject of death scares many people. In fact most people are scared of it even though it is a natural part of the cycle of life. There are those Negative Nellies that say death is the end and that is that. The old "fade to black" theory embraced by many an atheist. It is the most negative and most scary of the theories of what happens to us after we die, or what we experience at the moment of death and beyond.

I was born into a Christian family, United Methodist to be exact. I'm not sure if the church I grew up with was typical Methodist or not. Methodists tend to be sort of Baptist Lite. At an early age I was indoctrinated into the Heaven and Hell belief so it is sort of hard to shake off. As a kid at first it was you went to Heaven, unless you killed someone. To me it was never about sitting on clouds and playing a golden harp, maybe at the very first until around age 7 or 8 then it was more just about being with God and Jesus but in spirit form. Similar to our current bodies, but not physical. That is until The Rapture and Jesus' Return new bodies etc. Then in my pre-teens, teens and early 20s I backslid a bit, but still the basic Christian beliefs were there.  I looked into New Age during my 20s but didn't embrace it or take it too seriously. It seemed to be sort of a modern variant of Christianity for the versions that believed in a Christ figure anyway with a bunch of ETs added for good measure.

Over the years arguments from atheists that were not the silly "Who created God?" type questions made me question some religious things and think harder in some areas. Especially when it comes to the whole eternal Hell thing. I have never been what I consider "religious" and often just more spiritual than religious. Organized religion always bored me.

In recent years due to reading up on Near Death Experiences (NDEs) and other afterlife books I tend to lean toward some kind of reincarnation or eternal spiritual existence in peaceful settings. With God being more a spiritual force rather than an actual "person". I also read a book that studied spiritual encounters people have had that are similar to NDEs but the person having the encounter was NOT dead. Sometimes they were even wide awake. They called them After Death Communication (ADC). They usually take place anytime from when a loved one dies to a few weeks or even sometimes months or years later. That book leaned more toward Christian religion and the survival of the soul after death. After a while all the encounters started sounding alike and the Christianity forced into them.

Onward, in my opinion here, in no particular order, are the main theories of what happens to us after the moment of death:

1. Fade To Black: Cease To Exist:
2. Reincarnation:
3. Heaven Or Hell:
4. Other:

These next sections I will go into further detail about a specific theory.

Fade To Black: Cease To Exist:

I mentioned at the beginning of this post that perhaps the scariest theory of death is the one held by many atheists. It is the fade to black and cease to exist. OK so clinically and biologically when the human body shuts down; the heart stops pumping blood, the lungs stop circulating air and the electrical synapses stop transmitting signals to the brain, the human consciousness stops and shuts down as well.

When we sleep we go into a sort of shut-down mode. Our consciousness rests and we shut out the outside world. We relax, close our eyes and eventually "fall asleep". During our sleep we are unaware of the outside, our thoughts are not focused on one tiny thing like when we are awake and conscious. During this time since we are ignoring (for lack of a better word) the outside we don't see anything, our eyes are closed. We might hear things until our focused consciousness totally relaxes. It is only when we awake the next day, or a few minutes to hours later that we are aware that we had even been asleep and often only remember blackness or an emptiness. Apparently people who are blind from birth have no true concept of colors so their "blackness" is just more non-images. Some describe blindness by asking you to imagine trying to see out of your elbow, or the back of your head. Well you can't see out your elbow of even imagine how that works. It isn't "blackness" it is just no image what-so-ever. Occasionally upon awakening we remember our dreams (aka visions) from our sleep. It is said that we always "dream" but we don't always remember having them.

The fade to black death belief often says that death is like sleeping except we don't have dreams. Our vision shuts down, our hearing (which is said to be the last sense that goes) stops, and eventually brain function (thoughts) stop as well. So the idea of total shutdown equals non-existence.

For this theory the scary thing is the non-existence. After having existed, the thought of no longer existing is extremely creepy. For me much like falling from a great height. I discovered it isn't the falling that scares me it is the sudden hard impact of stopping and splattering the scares me. So I am no longer afraid of falling just the sudden stop at the end. I am also no longer totally scared of death, it is the actual transitioning from life to death that scares me, and the pain that is felt during that transition.

Reincarnation:

Many of the older Eastern religions have some kind of reincarnation belief. That is that we are spiritual beings that travel from life time to life time. The concept that we have an eternal spirit or soul that is separate from our physical body, but is also a major part of who and what we are. The Judeo-Christian religions also have an eternal spirit/soul belief, but not the reincarnation bit. Most religions or belief systems that do believe in the soul-spirit believe that the ultimate goal is to reunite with the main source or god and that during our lifetime we are trying to raise our awareness to a higher level or frequency to reach that highest frequency the creator source. Each lifetime is expected to get us that much closer to our eternal goal.

Some reincarnation beliefs state that our spirit can inhabit any physical body be it plant, animal, or human. What we do during our physical lifetime determines what type of body we will inhabit in our next life. You live a nice decent life you return as a human, you do some bad things you return as some kind of animal for a few lives. Conversely there are reincarnation beliefs that state we only inhabit (I prefer the word embody) human bodies, not animals or plants, or rocks even.

Reincarnation beliefs often include some kind of Karma system. Again it is what you do in your life time determines your future life or lives. If you tend to do good decent things you will have good karma and your next life will be fruitful and rewarding. On the other hand if you are a heartless scum of the Earth you will have hard dark black bad karma and you will suffer greatly in your next life.

Many modern NDEs indicate there is a reincarnation system of some kind in place. One that includes a sort of paradise or a world, or rather existence where whatever we desire or wish for will appear or come to us. Again there is the idea of some kind of desire to connect with the creation source and though our various lives we get closer and closer to that source.

Heaven Or Hell:

Several of the religions that believe in an afterlife or continued existence after physical death believe that based on what one does in one's life determines one's eternal destination. It is a one or the other belief. Either you live in eternal peace with the creator, or you suffer eternal torment in Hell. There is no in-between and once you arrive at your destination there is no going back no switching to the other place.

So the concept of Heaven is eternal Peace. Often in the company of the eternal father the creator god.  This destination is for those who lived the perfect good life according to the tenets of faith and what the holy god says. Hollywood has incorrectly implanted a vision of sitting on clouds in long white robes and sandals with wings on our backs and playing handheld harps. Oh and a golden ringed halo magically held above our heads. About the only thing of that vision that many of the religions do believe is wearing the comfy white robes with the sandals.

Depending on the religion what paradise is will be whatever one desires.  You "think" it and it is or appears. Everyone you have ever cared about or for is with you or can be with you. Provided they had the same faith and also lived a super perfect life according to what the creator god demands of his followers.

Hell on the other hand is very dark very hot and smells of burning and rotting flesh. This is reserved for evil people and those who did nothing but bad things in their life (some even believe those who only thought about sex will be there as well). Some even believe if you didn't believe in god or the right god Hell is your eternal home. Mean Ugly monsters and demons poke, skewer, cut, burn, eat, smash, crush and do all other sorts of mean and nasty things to the people in eternal damnation.

Once a tortured soul has been burned, mutilated, pulverized or whatever they magically "heal" only to be burned, mutilated and pulverized all over again, and again, and again, and again.

The concept of an "eternal" hell to me doesn't make much sense if there is a truly "loving" god. Being punished for all eternity for a very finite thought or action. That is like being sentenced to prison for 1 Million years for stealing a candy bar as a nine year old. Punishment overkill.

Other:

I don't know how many other theories there actually are. There might be several that don't fit into what I have mentioned above. Some people separate Heaven and Hell into two separate theories since they are two different destinations and there are some that believe one way or the other not both. Plus some divide the various Reincarnation theories into 2 or 3 separate ones but I kept them together since the basic core belief was the same. In this "Other" category I have heard about this Simulation theory I give below.

Computer Simulation AKA: The Matrix: 

One of the more bizarre and fairly recent death theories is that we are actually living in a computer simulation and that what we think of and call "reality" is actually a computerized matrix. I just think this one is really hokey and tend to dismiss it as a pure fantasy. I have only heard about it being a theory I can't imagine what sort of details have been thought up about it. OK so where exactly is this computer that is creating the matrix and has our code data? Who made the computer and programmed it? Are they still monitoring their program? Why even bother making it in the first place? So are we just memory data in the computer and when we "die" our data is lost or used up? Do we "wake up" in whatever is outside this computer that runs this matrix? I still don't fully understand this particular theory.

The Cruk of The Name

So just when I think I've seen and heard them all... Yep another misspelling of my name pops up when I place an order at a food place that asks for your name for your order (early March of this year). Well this time I get to the crux of the problem of the Crock of... OK so this time my name was spelled:

C-R-U-K

Now what does that have to do with me?
Hey I'm a cancer research center in the UK.

Cancer Reserach UK

Cool cruk your hands together, well now we have reached a real cruk of s...

For these name posts I don't mention where I went to, or scan the receipt. I don't think that really matters. Plus some of the places I go others might not like and may think there food is worse than a cruk of crap. Sometimes I even think their food is worse than that.

Misheard Lyrics: Diana Ross Edition

On April Fools day I heard part of a song that I hadn't heard in a long time and thought the title and words were something else.

The Song: Diana Ross "I'm Coming Out"

from the album "Diana"

For years and years I thought this song was titled "I'm Coming UP". I Never really thought about it I Used to avoid the song for 15 years or more. Not because I don't like Diana Ross, but because I didn't like the song during that time.

As I said I never spent too much time actually thinking about the song. When I don't like a song I rarely think about it. (so why do many atheists spend so much time talking about God?) The song has apparently been used by many in the LGBQT Community as an anthem. What with the "coming out" and all. Again never really thought that much about. Nor do I care too much about it.

The Masked Binging ER Singer

The Masked Singer Logo

Some weekends ago (mid February) I binge watched a show about 2 weeks before their season finale. Then for the final two weeks since the show aired on a night I wasn't able to watch I on demanded those episodes, but had to wait a few days (like 5 days) for Crumcrust to list the episode. The show was on Fox. One of those music competition shows, that I normally don't watch or like, but this one I did. I was pleasantly surprised. The show was The Masked Singer hosted by Nick Cannon. It is a singing competition with a twist. The "contestants" are celebrities of every kind except their identities are hidden behind fancy costumes with full head masks. On The Voice the contestants identities are hidden because the judges have their chairs facing away from them while they are singing and they turn their chair around if they are interested in who is behind the voice. This one the judges are face forward but the contestants are hiding behind full head masks. When they speak in their "normal" voice their voice is electronically altered so it is only when they are singing that the judges hear their real voices.

A Celeb contestant being escorted by security.

Interesting I noticed that this show seems to be based on a Korean show called "King of Mask Singer" looks to be from 2017. UGH. Oh of course if I had bothered to do more research before getting hooked on the show I would have known it was based on a popular South Korean TV show.

Celeb Contestants: Rabbit, Alien, Lion, Bee, Peacock and Monster

The competition started with 12 Cosplaying Celebrities who were only identified by their costumes: Peacock, Bee, Monster, Poodle, Alien, Deer, Hippo, Raven, Pineapple (yeah a sort of SpongeBob SquarePants vibe), Lion, Unicorn and Rabbit. Some of them took on the persona of their costume. The panel of Judges: Robin Thicke, Ken Jeong, Jenny McCarthy and Nicole Scherzinger (with guest judges for 1 or 2 episodes each: Joel McHale, J.B. Smoove and Keenan Thompson) had to try to guess who was behind the mask.

The Regular Judges: Robin Thicke, Jenny McCarthy, Ken Jeong and Nicole Scherzinger

 Each week the celeb who got the least amount of votes from the panel of judges and from the audience were unmasked. When the characters were introduced before each performance some clues were given about the identity of the celeb. For most of the celebs the panel was way off but there were a few one or two of the judges got right. I only got one completely right (I had an alternate idea, but I was right and the judges were also on that one), and a couple were among the celebs that I had thought were that character but either didn't know or was going for someone else. For the most part I think I had at least heard of each celeb (a couple just barely), many I already was aware of. I was disappointed with who actually won. The way celebs are now days I almost thought there would be a few times when I had no idea who the hell they were, a couple were close. It would be pretty funny yet also sad if a celeb was unmasked and then they had to explain to everyone who they really were. I thought there were one or two that almost needed that.

Celeb Contestants: Poodle, Deer and Pineapple

I won't match up which character was which celeb you can find that out for yourself if you are interested. I will list the competing celebs below somewhere. Before I decided to watch the show I had heard about who one of the characters was and wanted to hear what they sounded like singing since they were not known for their singing. Then after I had watched a few episodes I went to IMDb to check off that I had seen the show for my watch list and I accidentally saw the identities of two of the characters that I hadn't seen unmasked yet. One of them was unmasked the next episode I watched. The cast list there also lists the security guards, who escorted the masked celebs around during the filming process, and the non-celeb supporting performers: the backup singers and dancers during each performance.

Celeb Contestant Raven

As with any singing competition, there were the two extremes of voices, the pleasant sounding angelic type voices and the blackboard screeching "stop that damn noise" type. I was surprised by a few of the non-singer/musician celebs who had nice voices.

Celeb Contestant Hippo

Here in no particular order are the competing  celebs: Ricki Lake, Margaret Cho, Rumer Willis, Gladys Knight, Terry Bradshaw, T-Pain, Tori Spelling, Donny Osmond, Joey Fatone, Antonio Brown, La Toya Jackson and Tommy Chong.

Celeb Contestant Unicorn

All in all I'd give The Masked Singer 3 or 4 stars out of 5. It was enjoyable but I am not a huge fan of voice contest shows. Oh I just recalled a show from a few years back (early 2000s maybe? Possibly Pre-American Idol) that I had liked where contestants dressed up like their music idol and performed their song. I forget what it was called. Some of the contestants nailed the look, but sounded nothing like who they were performing as, and of course there were a few the other way around sounded like them but even with heavy makeup looked nothing like the idol. I think I found it Your Big Break (1999-2001) Hmm it was syndicated.

My favorite performers based solely on their performances were Peacock, Bee and Alien. Rabbit was an overall good performer and was one of the characters that really got into his masked persona. He had a crazy head twitch thing going on.

End The Month

It is the end of the month again. This month of February went by very quickly. Well "Duh" it is the shortest month of the year and this year is not a leap year so it only had 28 days. As usual I have procrastinated in my blogging and making a post for the month. I have had a bit of writer's block or rather blogger's block I guess.

I was originally going to try to finish out a draft that I started who knows when about some childhood writing of mine. That project is still on the back burners for now. As the month grew closer to the end I determined I didn't have enough time left for some of the prep work for that post. That draft will grow some more dust. A day or two ago I thought that since it was the end of a month that maybe I would tackle the topic of the end of life aka: Death. I was going to discuss the most common theories of what it is and what we will experience on the other side (if we do experience things in that state of being). Sadly though I think that will take more time to prepare than I have given myself in these last few hours of the month of February.

Another topic I could discuss could be some of the Television shows I enjoy or have watched. I am a bit surprised that I have not mentioned The Blacklist or The Orville on this blog. Shame on me I love both those shows. James Spader as Raymond "Red" Reddington the lead role of Blacklist is fantastic. The writing is superb and his delivery is exquisite. The ensemble for the most part is excellent. I am a bit disappointed with Megan Boone who plays Elizabeth Keen. I should devote some blog posts to that show. Ditto with The Orville which many say is more Star Trek like than the recent Star Trek Series Discovery. It definitely has a Next Generation vibe to it. The main thing keeping me from "discovering" Discovery is it being only available from the CBS All Access pay-per-stream or pay yearly service or whatever the heck it is. I did see the pilot episode that was on regular broadcast CBS. It is the only Star Trek show I couldn't get much into. Maybe it was they only showed the first hour of the series and it takes time to get into.

There are some shows that I occasionally watch or will binge watch some. Those have included: TNT's Wrecked, Fox's The Masked Singer, as well as bizarre type comedies BrainDead and Ghosted.

I also have some book reviews in my drafts queue. Most need either a cover scan or I need to come up with a quote from them or both.

State Of The Blog: 2018 Recap

STATE O THE BLOG

2018 Edition

2018 maintains the failing Red years in my annual State of The Blog tally. 

Here are the monthlies from 2018:

January: 1
February: 1
March: 1
April: 1
May: 3
June: 2
July: 1
August: 1
September: 2
October: 1
November: 1
December: 3

TOTAL: 18
Monthly Average: 1.5

No real surprise I FAILED my yearly goal of 32 posts per year. That is three four years in a row now.
Now lets look at how the 2018 blogging matches up with past years:

2006 - 32
2007 - 43
2008 - 36
2009 - 34
2010 - 18
2011 - 20
2012 - 38
2013 - 93
2014 - 57
2015 - 24
2016 - 29
2017 - 16
2018 - 18
Yearly Average: 35.23

Yet again I am barely keeping up with my bare bones minimum of one post per month. My first year of blogging 2006 met and set my self-appointed blogging quota of 32 posts per year. My all-time high was in 2013 with 93 posts. That was in part due to some semi-regular post series FryDay Fourtoon and Myka Monday. I somehow managed to keep up with posting and had more motivation to blog that year. I need to recapture that motivation. At one point I felt that I was going to reach 100 posts that year. Some year maybe. This year was almost my all-time low, but that was last year 2017 with a lowly 16 posts. This year is tied with 2010 at 18. The fourth year in a row for underachieving and tied at second worst out of six failing years. The yearly average is slowly getting worse and worse.