When you are growing up, adults never mention how hard it is. They tell you to enjoy life as a kid while you can, and remember the good times in high school. They don't mention how sometimes your closest friends fade away over the years or how bills start to dictate how you live your life. I admit, the time I grew up in was a time of weirdness and people throwing money around like drops of water. I thought that when I finally became an adult, things would be similar if not the same.

Boy was I way wrong....

Today, people now have to work up to 3 jobs just to get enough to eat. Health care has become a luxury item and illness that were once gone are coming back. Political views have gone from "lets help everyone" to "that's my money and why should I help you...you need to work harder". Depression is on the rise and people spend more time looking at their phones than actually talking to each other. In America, we test kids on repeated ideas instead of encouraging free thinking. We have  trigger warnings for people who are scared of the world instead of those who have been harmed and safe rooms where they get to complain how their feelings are hurt. We let white criminals go and punish other people for the color of their skin or their religious views. We have lost kindness and empathy and gained dishonesty and greed. We no longer look upon the poor and bleeding and think "How can I help?" but instead think "What is this going to cost me"

I see good people try to live and fall time and time again, not because they are not trying, but because they are not being bad. They are following the rules and being punished. The ones who lie and cheat and steal are the ones being rewarded with more wealth and more power. And in turn we are taught that good people will always lose, so why be good?

Why is the writing so hard? I can hear the whispers of the story in my head but when I sit to write it down my mind goes as quiet as an empty house. Nope, Nothing here but us no sounds. And then I sit and stare at the screen of the computer hoping that what I heard earlier comes back....and nope, nothing...So I pack up the computer and try not to overthink things and the second I see the computer turn off...BOOM! the sound in my head comes back and the characters are chatting up a storm. I can see who is talking and where they are having the conversation.. So I think that maybe I should use a notebook because electricity seems to slow the creative flow...but no. I open the notebook and I swear i could hear crickets.
No one ever seems to give writers much credit when it comes to creating stuff. I write comic books and that is a huge effort. Not only do I have to write to portray a story, but I have top do so in a way that the artist can understand what I want to illustrate. I don't write in script form and that's on me. I write in short story form and honestly my first artist got me so well, he turned a page and a half story into a 6 page comic with no problems and it was as if he saw it in my head. So I know that my stories are telling the images I want.

The hard part is getting the damn thing written down in the first place.

Today was a horrible day.

I didn't know  anyone at the club in Orlando, but having a gay son put this tragic event in the front of my mind. He is old enough to go to clubs and to dance the night away and I am afraid that I will someday be one of those parents that hears about a shooting or something and wonder if my son will be answering the phone when I call him or if I will leave a message that will never reach him. Or maybe one day I send my kids to school and then I get a phone call or hear the news that something has happened and my kids are now gone.
And that is wrong.

No Parent should wonder if their kid goes out, are they going to even come home? It isn't just clubs and alleyways...It is schools, movie theaters and malls. It's where people gather that someone comes along and feels slighted or bothered by something that they feel is a slight to them personally.

And it's not just what they use, but how they think they are using it. They think they are making a just and true statement of how things are. But the reality is that they have no idea how the world is functioning outside their closed off minds. And that is the scariest thing of all.

Because they just don't care.....

So yes I am for tougher rules for obtaining guns. People have proven that most cannot be trusted. So please stop giving them the chance to prove that. Stop making parents wonder if they will ever hear from loved ones again. Stop having people live in a state of fear from everyone around them just to make a few extras bucks. I don't care if you have guns as long as you have followed the rules and most gun owners who know the rules should be the first people in line to support the idea of holding others that don't care, responsible for their actions.

I just want to badness in peoples hearts to stop. We are all  different and instead of fearing or hating those differences, we really should be learning from them.

A little adventure coming soon

Looks like I am heading back down to San Diego this year for Comicon.  I was able to go last year due to a wonderful friend and this year he is helping out again...Con Buddies are the best! I enjoy my little adventures away from family simply because I can be a little crazy with people who are just a little bit crazy as well.
I think that's one thing I regret that I didn't do when I was younger...going on adventures. We moved around a bit when I was a kid and I found that I really enjoyed new things. I had plans when I finished school to travel the world and just enjoy different cultures and lands...but life had other plans. I ended up having a wonderful son and then married with 3 more kids. I finally made it to England before my 30th birthday and had hoped to make it to Paris before my 40th, but no such luck on the Paris trip.
So instead I try to do little mini trips, sometimes with family and sometimes without. We haven't had a good family trip in a while, but that has to do with lack of funds. I want to try to take the kids out and do things around the town and various other areas. I might even try to introduce some easy hiking trips with different destinations...forest, falls, or lakes.
 And I really have to work on writing a little bit more everyday.

Why am I doing this?

So, here I am. Once again trying to jump-start my brain into getting back into the more creative aspects of my life. I have used every excuse that I can think of or borrow from people I know as to why I simply don't have time to write...or take photos. But the reality is...I am afraid that the stories I thought of years ago simply won't be bothered by my coming back to them because I did give up on them. So here i am, with the tv playing in the background and starting something new. This is more  for me than anything else, but if I write something then I am improving my brain in what I want to do.