Category Archives: Social

Stephen King Book Review- Salem’s Lot

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My next Stephen King book review is Salem’s Lot. The first Stephen King novel that leans more to the supernatural then what was presented in Carrie. While Carrie did have an element of telekinesis, Salem’s Lot had a more deep supernatural emphasis on it. What supernatural element did this story have? Well there are two which are that a place can be a beacon of evil and also there are vampires in the story. 

The story is about a writer name Ben Mears who is returning to a small town called Jerusalem’s Lot (Salem’s Lot for short) in which he lived for a while as a kid. The town is a small town out in rural Maine and people passing by would probably not notice it. I would like to point out that a character being a write and the setting being in Maine would become a common occurrence in future Stephen King stories. Ben has come to his old town to write a novel with inspiration from an experience he had at a house known as the Marsten House. It was there as a kid he thought he saw the ghost of the mob boss who lived there that killed his wife and hung himself. 

While there he meets a young lady by the name of Susan Norton who meets by chance while she was reading one of his previous novels. They begin a romantic relationship even though her controlling mother does not approve but her dad does. Ben also runs into a high school teacher who has been there for years named Matt Burke. He also wanted to try and stay at the Marsten House but was denied when it was found out that two foreign strangers have bought the house that plan to open up a shop in town. Straker and Kurt Barlow are the two strangers who arrived at around the same time Ben did and only Straker has been seen by the public. 

The story continues with the disappearance of a young boy named Ralphie Glick and the eventual death of his brother Danny. As strange deaths and sickness starts happening in the town Ben Mears, Susan, Matt, a young boy that is into monsters named Mark Petrie, a doctor by the name of Jimmy Cody and priest named Father Callahan soon discover the secret of what is happening to the small town and the secret of the mysterious strangers (especially Kurt Barlow). Vampires run amok in the town and it is up to the small group to stop them. I will not spoil the book as I find it very intriguing and captivating.  

This novel is written in more of the Stephen King style that people are used to unlike the jumping back and forth of Carrie. The story starts off nice with a little curiosity thrown in there and you get sucked into the story not wanting to put the book down. You get engaged into all the characters and even feel that you are part of this community. 

That is what I feel is the greatest strength of the novel. Stephen King does not just focus on a few main characters, he writes about a lot of the citizens of the town. As you know I grew up in a small town and I feel he has captured the small town feel and mentality in this book through his characters. For example when these strange deaths start happening, the town people feel it has to do with Ben or the two strangers in town because they are new to town. Like some small towns in America if something changed when new people arrive then it must because of them. 

A big narrative in the story is that even people in small towns have secrets and ways about them. You have a character that beats her 10 month old baby. You have a controlling parent. You have a woman having an affair that probably the whole town knows about except for her husband. You have a town drunk, the town gossip and everything you can probably find in any small town in America. I feel Stephen King wrote about small town life real well and that engages a small town person like me. 

The book also explains that evil can be anywhere and it can manifest itself even in a small town. In this case the beacon of the evil is not exactly the vampires or the head vampire itself. The beacon seemed to be the house itself which has saw horrors like no others. It draws evil to it. This is also shown through the faith of the characters, especially of that in the alcoholic priest Father Callahan. 

I recommend this book to everyone. It is a good story and keeps you interested. The character development is amazing. It is your common vampire story that you would see today but back in 1975 this was rare to see a vampire in your backyard. So if you are interested in an engaging book, you like Stephen King, or you are interested in vampire stories then I would recommend picking this up. You can see how the proclaimed “master of Horror” deals with vampires. 

Moral of the story: Evil can manifest anywhere, even in the backyard of a small town. Every small town has secrets.   

I have three movies to review based on the book. Look for those coming soon. It is the original movie (miniseries), a sequel loosely based on the original movie and a remake of the movie which is also a miniseries. It should be interesting to see how the movies come off based off the book.  I give the book three and half stars out of five. 

Has anyone read Salem’s Lot before? If you lived in a small town what do you think about it? Do you think there are dark secrets being kept? Do you think there is a manifestation of evil in your small town? If you never lived in a small town what do you perceive the small town life? Just some questions I would like to hear from my readers and for you to think about. Comment below so I can hear from you.

Like I said in the past I will have a tracker of the final ratings of each book or movie I reviewed to show what I liked or didn’t like. It is a rating based out of five stars. For previous reviews if you missed it you can click on the title and it will link to that review for you to read.

Books Reviewed:
Carrie ***
Salem’s Lot ***1/2
 

Movies Reviewed:
 Carrie (1976) ****
The Rage: Carrie 2 ***
Carrie (2002) ½* (Yes a half of a star out of five) 

Love and Marriage

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What does love and marriage mean these days? Too many times I see relationships not working and it appears a lot of times it stems from either cheating or the people not truly committing to each other and still “living” their single life. I always hear a married person tell me that they went partying a lot the other night and saw this hot chick and had strippers or something of that nature. I mean is this really what love and marriage has come to? 

Love and marriage to me is a lifetime commitment where you spend the rest of your time with the one who love. It is not where you get married and in a year or two get bored and want to mess around and say you need your space. You are married and this should be a commitment that should not be taken lightly. It takes both people involved to make it work and it isn’t easy. If it was easy then the divorce rate would be so low. The two people should know what they want out of the marriage and stick to it. 

I will tell you what love and marriage means to me. This way of thinking and believing may not work for everyone but it has worked so well for me with almost six years of marriage of my wife.  

After a rough couple of relationships before meeting my wife, I knew I had to get serious and find someone I was compatible with. I dated a few different people and they were just not for me. Trust was a major factor at the time for obvious reasons. Again as I mentioned in my Decision blog that you can read here, I was upset with my job and was looking to just get out of Reno. I called in a favor to see if I can get a job interview in southern California. I did and looked at myspace profiles of people that lived down there to start making friends and meeting people.  

One of the first people to pop up on my search was my wife. I thought she was cute and sounded cool so I messaged her. She actually just put a myspace profile up just recently and wasn’t ever going to do one until her friend set one up for her. See what I mean when I say things happen for a reason. Well we were talking and got to know each other. I finally got the interview and went down her and met her in person weeks before the interview so I can see the town and meet her. 

I remember that day like it was yesterday. It was amazing and I felt this girl was something special already. She was not like any person I have met before. When I left I wanted to start being with her even though I lived six hours away and didn’t even know I was going to get the job. She even told her family about me (which is a big deal) and told them that I will be the guy she would be married to. 

There was so much chemistry and feeling that we could feel something special. The job eventually said they did not have a position for my field of work. I was hurt (but it ended up being the best thing which is a story for another time) but I continued traveling six hours when I could to see my wife on the weekends and such. I emailed her, myspaced her and called her whenever I could (and I hate talking on the phone). Eventually we got married. 

Now after that backstory you ask well what does love and marriage mean to me? I wake up in the morning and the first thing I think of is happy I am married to such a beautiful wife. The next thing I think of is what I can do to make sure my wife is happy. I look at her every day and know she is the most beautiful person I have ever saw and tell her that and mean it. On special days I make sure it is very special (get her the gift she always wanted, show her the time of her life, be romantic, write poems etc). Even on days that are just normal days I try to make her feel special because seeing her smile is the highlight of my day. Feeling that I made my wife and best friend have a great time is the best feeling in the world. 

I am always there for my wife when she is down or having a problem and always try to help it through it the best way I can. We try to find common things we like to do and do them together even if we don’t really like doing it because we love each other. We give and take. We don’t need to go out and party all the time and be apart because why would you want to be apart from someone so great. I want to be with my wife and enjoy being around her because she makes me happy. Even when we make each other upset we always make up and resolve the issues and are our happy self again. 

There are always ups and downs in a marriage and nothing is perfect. However there are always more ups then downs in our marriage and we always work through them. The biggest down right now is I am gone a lot because of my job and we don’t get to see each other every day like we used to. However that was a sacrifice we made and decided together for the better of the family and our plans for the future. We communicate everything together and support each other’s decisions. That makes a strong marriage. Finally every night before I go to sleep I think how lucky I am to find someone so special. That completes every aspect of me. How I could not imagine my life without her with me and that I can’t wait to wake up and be with her again. 

That is what I feel love and marriage means to me. It is the biggest commitment of your life and you must be strong and know that is what you really want. You can’t destroy it by not fully committing to it. You can’t do things that will destroy the marriage and hurt the one you supposedly love more than anything on this planet. Comment below and tell me what the meaning of love and marriage is to you? Is there anything I missed above? Am I completely wrong and if so why? I want to hear from you. 

On a side note I actually am almost done reading Salem’s Lot and will hopefully be doing some reviews on that and the movies in the next couple of weeks. So watch out for those. Thanks for reading.   

Stephen King Movie Review: The Rage Carrie 2

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My next movie review in the Carrie saga is The Rage: Carrie 2. A movie released in 1999 and one of the many Stephen King sequels that really did not involve Stephen King’s work or even involvement. As we go along this will be a trend we will see especially when we get to Children of the Corn. 

What does this movie has in store for us as an opening scene? Do we get another girl getting her period for the first time? Nope my loyal readers, this movie opens up with a scene where a mother is painting the walls red. She is speaking religious things which bring back memories of Carrie’s mother in the original. We also see she has a little daughter who is the reason why the mother is freaking out.  The cops eventually come and take the mother to a psychiatric hospital. The little girl freaks out and runs to her room with her puppy while doors are mysteriously slamming on their own. I bet she has the same power as Carrie. 

We cut to a few years later and the girl who is named Rachel Lang (Emily Bergl) is in foster care with parents that only have her for the extra money they get.  She also still has her dog. She goes to high school now and is basically an outcast with one real close friend. Now after a great opening this is when the movie turns to into American Pie meets Carrie. Which is funny since American Pie came out the same year and also features two actors from the movie. One is Lisa (Mena Suvari) who is Rachel’s best friend and the other is Arnie (Eddie Kaye Thomas) which I guess is also a friend of Rachel’s.  

Anyway basically the story follows a bunch of high school football players who is sleeping with high school girls and they are keeping points for what type of girl they sleep with. In this group is Jesse Ryan (Jason London) who participates in the game but does not really seem to like it. He also seems to have an eye for Rachel. We find out that Rachel’s friend Lisa was a victim of the game (and lost her virginity to one of the guys) and she basically gets told she is nothing to the guy. She ends jumping off the school roof and killing herself. This of course devastates Rachel and we see signs of her telekinetic powers.  

Rachel is comforted by the school counselor who is Sue Snell (Amy Irving which is the same actress who played her in the original). On a side note it looks like Sue Snell spent some time in the mental hospital also after the events of the first movie. Sue speaks with Rachel and starts to notice she has the same abilities as Carrie did. 

Rachel finally gets to talk to Jesse. Unfortunately it was at the expense of her dog getting hit by a car. Don’t worry about it the dog lived. Jesse appears to be falling in love with Rachel which all his friends and the popular kids do not like. They eventually have sex and this also takes Rachel’s virginity. Let’s just say the friends and popular kids film it and forge the points in their point book and all hell breaks loose when Rachel attends a party with them. I will let you watch the ending to see what happens to everyone. 

I will be one of the few reviewers that liked this movie. While the acting wasn’t great and reminded me of typical late 90s and early 2000s high school movies I thought it was good in the vein of Stephen King. Some call it a remake with a different story. I think it was a good continuation of the story. Now you ask how is it even linked to the original Carrie? Besides it being in the same town  (you see the old high school burnt down from the first movie) and Sue Snell being in the movie we find out that ***minor spoiler*** Carrie’s dad also impregnated Rachel’s mom which is why she has the same powers as Carrie ***End minor spoiler***.  

While I liked the movie it wasn’t great and it wasn’t bad. It was entertaining and I enjoyed it for what it was. I really did not see the extreme bullying I did with Carrie. I mean Rachel at least had a friend. I just saw that the popular kids did not like an “outsider” dating one of their friends. It was basically crossing the line over social cliques. There was a little abuse by the foster parents but not on the level of Carrie’s mom.  

That is another thing in society and especially in high school is there is always cliques. Like a jock won’t associate with the nerd or because they are fat or something like that and make fun of them. It is more prominent in high school but I have seen it in the workplace and everyday life. Do people fear what is different from them? Is it human nature? It is crazy when you look at society from a bird’s eye view. 

Anyway have any of you seen the movie? If so what did you think of it? Did you know people who played games with girl’s emotions or did a sex game like the one in the movie? Tell me what you thought of the review and comment on it or about the movie. Here is the trailer for the movie to maybe see if you would want to see it. 

Like I said in the past I will have a tracker of the final ratings of each book or movie I reviewed to show what I liked or didn’t like. It is a rating based out of five stars. For previous reviews if you missed it you can click on the title and it will link to that review for you to read.

Books Reviewed:

Carrie ***

Movies Reviewed:

Carrie (1976) ****

The Rage: Carrie 2 *** 

Decisions

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Have you ever wondered might have been if you made a different decision in your life? I always look back and examine the decisions and choices I made in life. From minor ones like I should have turned left instead of right to major ones like quitting your job to pursue a dream. We all have made some decisions in our life that changed the course of our life. Everyone has regrets on decisions they have made. However looking back in my life I am happy with every decision I made. Even the bad decisions because they made me the person I am today. It has brought me to where I am today. I have been married for five and a half years to a wonderful wife. I have a great four year old son. I have an awesome family. I have a job that I actually enjoy and love. I am living where my wife and I has wanted to live since we were married. All of this because of the decisions I have made in my life both good and bad.  I am under the impression that everything happens for a reason and I can see that looking back at the decisions I have made in the past. It seems like every decision has lead me making another decision that lead me to where I am now. Let’s take a bird’s eye view of decisions that lead me to my current career. This is very top level stuff and not specific but it will illustrate what I mean about how decisions lead you to where you are. 

As you know I am currently a DBA (Database Administrator) for the company I work for which of course is in the computer field. Ever since I was a kid I enjoyed computers. My dad would always get computers and let me use them. Computers like the Commodore 64, Amiga 2000 to modern computers of today. I decided at a young age that computers were definitely the future. I mean after seeing the original Terminator there was something up with these crazy machines. I always kept up with the latest computer technology and even school officials at both middle school and high school would ask me questions about computers when there is something wrong with them.  My love of computers leads me to apply at UNR for a Computer Science degree. I decided to stay in the dorms for my first year of college. Now this leads me to meet a college friend of mine. By meeting him we decided to live off campus with other roommates the following year. He got a job at a store. I decided I needed a job and he got me a job at the store while he left the store to work somewhere else. I decided to work hard at the job and it got me promoted to a senior position. Later I decided I wanted a higher paying job so because of my experience at this store I got hired at a different retail store. I decided to work hard there and once again I was promoted to a senior position at the store.  

I graduated college after four years and with my degree I wanted a higher paying job (and some other reasons but that is story for another time) so I got my first Software Engineering track with a casino company in Reno. I continued up the software engineering rank getting promotions until I actually got upset with some things in the company. I even started looking for other jobs (which is how I met my wife from southern California which is also another story for another time, see how those decisions affect your life) in other places. Finally I decided to change departments in the company which was ok at first but found out was not a good decision because I could never move back up (However as you will find out it ended up being a good decision).  Finally I had enough of the company and the way they treated me that I decided to pursue another dream of mine which was to be an officer in the Navy. I was accepted and went to OCS for training. This also caused me to get debt free which is another story for another time. I had to get surgery while at OCS and eventually had to drop from the program. It was a hard decision but I had to do it for my health. I went back jobless and me being one that wants to work to support my family I searched for a job quickly in a market that was not good at the time. I even tried to go back to my old company but they decided against it. After three weeks of being out of work I found a database job in Las Vegas where I never saw myself ever living.  

I worked hard at the Vegas job but the company environment was not for me. I decided again to look for another job and I found it. It was with the casino company I am current working with right now. I got it because of my extensive database knowledge and because of my experience working in that second department for the first casino company. This job is great because I do stuff I know very well and I get to travel which is what I love. This also allowed me to live in Goldfield and make a lot of money and more opportunities.  This is just a small snippet of what lead me to where I am now with my career. You can see stuff from just meeting someone in college or getting mad at something at work can change your whole life. It is amazing when you go back and think about it. I will take all the good and bad decisions because they made me the person I am today. Do I wish I could change the mistakes I made in the past? I wish I could say that I do but I don’t. Who knows where I would be now if I did? Sometimes you have to fall hard and crash to bring yourself up. I have had bad times and made wrong decisions where I thought life would be bad. However sometimes you have to fall to come back stronger. 

For the future I plan to work harder on my writing which I have been and it is starting to pick up. Also I still have those plans for the Goldfield area so stayed tuned for that. See more decisions I am making. Let’s see where they bring me.    I want everyone to think about some aspect of their life and think of the decisions that lead you to where you are. It could be a career, your love life or where you are right now. Do you see major decisions that lead you to where you are even the bad ones? Do you wish you could change your decisions or are you like me and am happy for the decisions I made whether good or bad? Comment below and tell me some things you decided that lead you to where you are. I want to hear from you. Thanks for reading and hopefully next week I will have the Stephen King Carrie movie reviews up. My copy of Carrie broke because of the great care the airlines take when handling your bags. Stay tuned for those and any other blog posts.

Do Not Live at The Pines Apartments in Henderson, NV

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This may sound like a bitter rant and I apologize for it but I have to warn anyone about my previous apartment complex I lived in which is The Pines in Henderson, NV. This complex has to be the worst apartment complex I have ever lived in and I have lived in pretty bad places. This rant does not have to do with the community as it appeared to be safe and quiet. However, after analyzing the whole picture this place was actually a not so great place to live. Here are some points about the place that I will warn you about if you decide to move to Henderson: 

–They have the strictest rules that if you don’t follow you will be harassed. If you have a visitor you better make sure they know the rules or they will be really harassed also. Now my family and I never had a problem with the rules and followed them. You can never back up to your parking spot, you can’t have anything on your balcony that isn’t approved by the managers, and you can’t have any pets. My family and I witnessed someone who parked a little over the line where there was no other cars around and in the visitor’s parking and they were harassed by the managers. My three year old son at the time was present and they were cussing and threating police action just for being parked a little over the line. The managers always drive around the complex at night checking to make sure no one is breaking the rules. 

–Now it is one thing to have strict rules but it is different when they choose who to enforce the rules to. There was a no pet policy at this apartment complex yet some had cats and even dogs. People who talk to them regularly in the office got away with breaking the rules whether it is their car or pets. They have a no soliciting rule with signs even posted and yet they allow fellow residents to put flyers on my door soliciting. It they want to have these strict rules then they need to enforce it for everyone. 

–The deposit you pay when you move in is not a security deposit, it is a cleaning deposit. This means before you move in as it was explained by the office that you pay them to clean the apartment for you before you move in. This is not a security deposit so if you have issues with the apartment you will pay full price for anything that may go wrong. If three rooms of carpet are messed up they will charge you carpet for the whole apartment. This comes to around $1400 you will have to pay. I am all for paying for the carpet that is messed up but not for rooms that did not have an issue. I even have proof of the rooms that were not touched but I truly do not have the time and patience to fight it. 

–The facilities are outdated and old. They even require you to change the filter of your heating and cooler system and if you don’t and it breaks it is all on you. That is how old their system is. There were even some infestations of roaches a few times while living there and that is never good. If you could afford it I would pay for a newer apartment complex. Going along with that if you have an injured bird that defecates everywhere and you ask them to handle it and clean it they will refuse to do so. Not only is this unsanitary but it also can cause sickness and disease. 

–The managers always came off and unfriendly and rude. That of course is just a personal opinion and may not reflect their true character but that was what I felt talking with them. My wife especially did not feel comfortable talking with them. They also were hardly ever in the office. This should have been a sign to me when my wife and I were first looking for apartments and their stated hours were 8am-5pm and they were not in until 9:30am.  

 –The thing scares me the most about the management is they do not give receipts for rent payments. Their philosophy is that when you write the check that the bank statement will be your receipt. I have never had an apartment complex that did not deal with receipts. What if they got really mad at you one month and decided to not cash your check and then blame you for not paying rent? I can see that happening and I read a review on the internet stating that did happen to someone. To me that is unsafe and unprofessional.  

I can go on and on about this place but I don’t want to turn this into a thesis paper. I touched on some major points and hope you make the right decision and not move to the complex. I would recommend spending your money on a newer more professional facility that has a better management staff. That is my opinion of the complex and you can take it for what it is worth. Thanks for reading my rant. 

Cheating

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Yes this post is about cheaters and I am not talking about the ones that cheat at poker or on their taxes. I am talking about those who cheat on their spouses, boyfriend/girlfriend and any other close relationship. Why does someone choose to cheat on their significant other? It has had me wondering for years. As some of you know I have had been in a couple major relationships that the person decided to cheat on me. To this day I always wondered why as I never had a reason or closure to it.  Was it something I did or did not do? Is it because of my looks or lack of looks? Is it because the other person was intoxicated that they just did the deed? Did it only happen once that I knew about or did it happen multiple times? These are the questions that plague someone who was cheated on and sometimes you get the answers you seek but a lot of times you don’t. 

It is hard to be cheated on as you put so much faith into someone and love and care and they just take it all away in one fail swoop when the truth is known. Some people take it hard and never recover and have issues the rest of their life never trusting someone or giving their heart to anyone again. Others just shrug it off and move on with their lives. Then there are those that can forgive the person and take them back into their lives which could lead to them cheating on them again or they might actually have changed. Whatever the category you fall into above if you have been cheated on it will feel horrible. I don’t care how strong a person is it is the most horrible feeling in the world. As sad as this is cheating is everywhere. It could be your neighbor down the street, it is all over the tv whether it be a tv show or the new stating another celebrity or politician has cheated on their spouse, to yourself. Sometimes it is even glamorized which I personally find sad. However, that is the world we live in. It has been probably been like that throughout time but it is only more known now with the mass communications system we have now whether it be a social network, a blog, the twenty-four news channels or whatever it may be. 

How does one get over cheating? It is different for everyone and some never get over it. One of the ways I got over someone cheating on me was write a whole book. I always loved writing and always wanted to write a book but when I was so hurt I regressed and wrote a book. You can see that as a theme in my book and hear my pain. However, the hero of my book overcame everything and ended up happy. You can check out this book if you are interested by clicking here.   I actually gave a book to a friend of mine who was cheated on. She read it and saw the theme of the book that there is always hope and always a bright light and the end of the dark tunnel of your life. I believed that while writing the book that I wrote it through my eyes in my life. I was in such a dark place when I was cheated on but had hoped and knew that there was light at the end of the tunnel. It turned out there was a light and I haven’t been happier. That light was my wife who showed me happiness and love. Right now my life is great and will only get greater. There will always be rough patches in your life but you will find a way and find your path. You will find your light at the end of the tunnel. Being cheated on is not the end but it is a new beginning. You will see a new day in your life has come. Please leave some comments and feedback. Share some stories if you have been cheated on and if things ended up good in your life or worse after. I would love to hear from my readers. Just remember a new day will come even if you feel stuck in darkness. I know this may be girly of me but see the song below to illustrate a new day will come. Hope to hear from everyone and thanks for reading.

It ain’t about how hard ya hit…

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As the great Rocky Balboa said in his last movie, “But it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.”

Such a true statement especially in times where people are getting beat down, whether people are losing their jobs, houses, relationships or just trying to live paycheck by paycheck. The state of affairs out there is tough and I don’t see it changing in the near future.

However, it is up to you to decide whether to stand up and keep moving forward. You are the only person that can keep yourself going forward and rise from being beat down. I am not saying you need to do it alone and not have support from friends and family but to truly rise from being beat down, one would need to accomplish it on their own without relying on someone to take care of them.

To quote J.F.K (Yes I am quoting Rocky and J.F.K in the same blog), “And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” Again the idea of the individual trying to help a situation is there. Many problems in this country would be solved if people tried to help themselves and not expect handouts. If you have a dream or goal in life do everything you can to make that dream to come true. You will never accomplish anything unless you try. Don’t expect your dream to be handled to you on a silver platter, unless you win the lottery or something, it takes hard work to make things happen.

Since I started this with Rocky lets use this fictional character as a case study. This will have movie spoilers and if you haven’t seen the Rocky movies (and if you haven’t please crawl out of the rock you are under and watch them) then please don’t read any further as I don’t want to ruin these great movies for you. Anyway, Rocky started out as a low-life, uneducated boxer (ok hired thug) who barely made it by until an opportunity was given him to fight the heavyweight champ. Everyone expected him to lose in the first round of the boxing match. He felt he could not win but he just wanted to go the distance at least. Cue the famous Rocky montage. Rocky trained hard. He didn’t sit around eating twinkies all day or his pet turtles (he did drink raw eggs though which I don’t recommend), he worked very hard and went the distance.

The second movie saw Rocky riding the success of the fight which included doing commercials and not wanting to have a rematch against Apollo. Unfortunately, he could not read. This lead to the boxer working at the meat factory and eventually getting laid off from that. Rocky tried to do everything he could do for his family (including to learn to read) but realized he needed to go back to what he was good at and that was boxing. This lead to him being the champ. He accomplished a dream of his and again did it by hard work. He did what he had to do to for himself and his family (including a new born son).

The next two movies dealt with the success of Rocky and the struggles he dealt with while having money. Even when you are on top you still get dealt with the blows of life. In one situation Rocky is getting handed opponents that were not championship calibur and it got to Rocky’s head. He took less pride in his training and was not working as hard. Finally, a tough opponent challenged Rocky and beat him handily (Of course it was Mr. T). To regain his championship, Rocky would have to train hard again like he used to and find the eye of the tiger (I bet you are singing that catchy tune). He regained his championship because of working hard.

Are you seeing a trend here or do I have to continue any further? The point here is that you can’t expect everything to be handed to you. If you want something badly that you can’t get right now whether it being a job, some new item, a girlfriend, a robot for your drunk brother in-law on his birthday (see Rocky IV) or whatever it may be you have to work hard at it. Life will always try to knock you down and it probably won’t get easier anytime soon. However, it is up to you to pick yourself up and decide to keep moving forward. If the people of this country would just pick themselves up and work hard at attaining their goals then this country would be better as a whole. People need to stop blaming things on others and expect other people to do everything and just work hard themselves. I don’t promise it will easy or that you won’t ever get knocked down by life again, but I do promise you will be a better person in the end. So pick yourself up right now and accomplish your goals and dreams and feel good.