Here Be Dragons

When I got married, I thought it would be everything I wanted it to be...all the sex I wanted, affection, attentiveness, loyalty, dedication, etc...My ideas were a little extreme but I knew that at the time but I thought I'd be relatively close.  Unfortunately I was wrong.  First, a little back story...my wife and I met in church and our courtship lasted for about a year.  This was awesome because our common love for the Lord, I thought, would translate nicely into our marriage.  Here's the downside of that, courtship in the church allows for many of the guarantees you'd expect in marriage to go untested.  We had the conversations and she promptly and consistently said all the things I wanted to hear.  I was convinced she was being genuine and I went along with all of it. Things began to unravel almost immediately after we got married.  She didn't want to try this or do that...she would almost immediately tell me that I was her first serious relations...

I remember the first time I saw two men kiss out in public.  It was many years ago before LGBT became more socially acceptable.  I was at the airport and there were these 2 guy with their arms around each other...I thought they were brothers.  But it did seem a little strange how close they were and how long they stood there with their arm around each other.  Compounding it was the fact that one guy was dressed like a business man, I thought at the time he looked like Captain America.  The other guy had on a leather jacket and looked like he'd just gotten off a motorcycle.  These looked like men with beautiful wives or girlfriends embracing after time apart...or that's what my stereotypical mind could perceive at that moment. Then it happened...they laughed....turned toward each other...looked in to each others eyes....and kissed. And we're not talking about your run of the mill peck, I'm talking day time soap opera kiss...and that moment was forever seared...

I'm sure there have been and there will be plenty of material, post, blogs, etc. about our new president, some people need an outlet to express how they feel.  I guess I'm no different but while other have outrage, despair, distress, and all those other feelings, I have hope.  I don't have hope in Trump, that's going to be a garbage can fire if ever there was one.  I have hope that American citizens learn their lesson, a lesson I'd thought they learned from 8 years of G.W. Bush.  Here are a few areas where my hope lies: 1. Americans began to realize they share their country with racist, bigots, elitist, and the like   When a man references almost all the characteristics that we say are un-american and he still gets 49 million votes, you have to start looking at the people who voted for him.  We hear about racial strife, treatment of women, social inequality, etc. but we treat it like it exist in other parts of the world.  These people have a complet...

So I'm a bit of a nerd in that I like what most people deem "nerdy things".  One of the things on that list would be superheroes, more accurately, comic book superheroes.  It's a form of escapism I've indulged in for many years.  But now, superheroes and comic books are more socially and commercially accepted as ever.  To me, that's good and bad...good because it makes it less "nerdy" and also because when you get smart directors and actors behind the right project, it can take the genre to a whole new level.  Then there's the bad, as it becomes more socially acceptable, you can have any hack make a show or movie, slap a good actor on it, and make some straight up trash (I'm looking at you Batman vs. Superman).  We have definitely had some missteps but I still love and appreciate the genre.  Enter Luke Cage...a follow up to the highly successful "Daredevil" series on Netflix and less successful but still good "Jessica Jones...

So my family and I had the pleasure of travelling to another major city this weekend.  It was a fun time had by all but something strange kept happening.  Whenever we told anyone we were from Chicago, their faces became downtrodden like we had just returned from a war torn country or something.  "How to you survive out there?" or "How to you cope with all the killing happening all the time?"  I understand that Chicago is getting a pretty bad national identity and most of it is naturally deserved but people need to understand some fundamentals about the city.  This may help them to understand why the problems exist and more importantly, why the problem continues. Chicago is a segregated city and I mean that in the most brutal way possible.  You have the Caucasians, African Americans, Latinos, Asians, Russians, Middle Easterners, and Polish all occupying a defined area in the city with very little commingling.  Couple this with financial segregation wh...

Let's be clear...anyone who votes for Trump is a maniac...but he does bring to light the quiet negativity of the American people.  You know, the things we don't talk about but generally accept as true.  Racism, Sexism, Elitism, and ignorance just to name a few.  This is what I truly appreciate about Donald Trump....almost every time he speaks, he brings up one or two or five of those unspoken negative qualities embedded in the American culture.  Even better, there are then people who go behind him and try to spin or redefine or justify what he just said....it's very interesting to watch.  These "interactions" highlight some of the problems we have in the world today with popularity and anger and hate.  I hate that guy so much that I'll vote for this other guy (or gal) with all of my heart.  That's politics today...all Trump has said is that I will be better than Obama because we all hate him...but he never provides the "how".  People believe in h...

I'm a fan of Batman....the Dark Knight....he makes us believe in the power of human will and desire. There are pretty much 4 versions of him in tv and film.  The detective combing over evidence and using his intelligence and wits to dissect crimes....think CSI: Gotham.  Then you have to warrior, the guy who punches people in the face and strikes fear in the hearts of criminals without killing anyone...Then there's the tortured son of Gotham..., "My parents died and I will struggle with that forever ad it will drive me to punch people in the face and detect things....These 3 were displayed well in the Gotham Knights series.  Then you have the fourth one...the humanitarian, I'm not sure how else to describe it...the guy who cares and makes out with his protege and gets caught off guard and works with the police like he's on the payroll.  I hate that guy.  Batman has to be the most skewed superhero in our era because they try to use him is so many ways simultaneous...

So I'll keep this first one short and sweet.  I have a lot of things to say and I want to say...uh right them down.  It's like a blog journal if you will...the topics will be wide ranging so there will be no consistency whatsoever.  I'm passionate but pessimistic but faithful but cynical but humorous but kind but...I don't know where I was going with this....anyway, let's begin....