Fixing the Rift

How do we fix this? I think that’s a question we all need to ask at this point.

We all know what happened this week. A man was elected president that half of the country is celebrating and the other half is condemning. I fall into the latter category. I suppose for the conservatives reading this, that was your exit sign. I hope not. I hope you listen to what I have to say if you’ve made it this far and are interested. Because I don’t want to disqualify someone because of a label or who they picked as a political candidate. But that seems to be where this all is heading. And what’s the answer here?

First and foremost, as a man who has voted Democrat since the age of 18, I think it’s important to address what I feel the Democratic Party did wrong here. Hillary Clinton was a bad choice as our Party’s major political candidate. Okay? Admitted. Yes, she has been a steadfast and hardworking civil servant. But she is not a personality that captures the minds and hearts of the populace. She does not now, nor has she ever had the “wow” factor to become a major face in our celebrity culture. While the logical part of our brains say this should not matter, in our society it does. It absolutely matters. Let’s also address the fact that the DNC seriously screwed up in the way they handled Bernie Sanders. The man was representative of real political change and the party moved away from that to embrace establishment politics and employed some seriously shady tactics. Then, with Hilary, there are the “scandals”. I believe the email issue is completely overblown and that too much has been made of it. But, it was there. It was an active investigation going on during a Presidential political campaign that was too fresh in the public eye to be viewed objectively and the media and the right wing were allowed to nail her with it every chance they got. So, she was viewed as predominantly untrustworthy. Hilary Clinton was always a flawed candidate for President and no amount of celebrity endorsements or rationalization was going to help that. So, she lost. She focused her campaign on how horrible her opponent was and failed to connect with the American People in the states that matter.

Okay, that was the broad forest view. Now, to address the ugly orange elephant in the room. Donald Trump ran on a platform that is scarily similar to other fascists in history. If you do not believe me, please read up on it yourself. I don’t want to add to the empty accusations of the internet, so I’m encouraging anyone who doubts this to do their own research. The Germany that led to the rise of Nazism sounds eerily similar to the state of American society right now. And Donald Trump tapped into the fear, anger, and yes, racism in our society to get what he wanted. I’ve been very upset with educated friends of mine this past week who voted for Trump, ignoring all he has said and done and the arguments for why fall back on three prongs.

1.       He won’t be that Bad/The President doesn’t do that much anyway

2.       He’s better than Hilary

3.       He’ll deal with all of the immigrants and Muslims by “Making America Great Again”

So, the first two reasons while understandable are arguably the scariest to me. They suggest a willing ignorance on the importance of the office President and the blatant racism, misogyny, and ignorance Trump ran with. It means that you’re ignoring not the things implied about him, but the actual things that he said. The things he did. The violence he is on film embracing and encouraging at his rallies. The hours of tapes of him openly acting like a pig in regards to women. The ignorance and mismanagement of so many of his financial endeavours. All of that ignored out of a sense of… what? This is where I get confused. What feeling did he instill in my friends and family members that led them to vote for him not just with chagrin or even doubt but with glee? That is what is so disturbing here. I’m not seeing Trump supporters saying, “Well, what the hell else was I supposed to do? I hate Hilary.” I can at least understand that if not agree with it. But it’s the willful, laughing celebration of hate speech and fascist policies I can’t understand.

And this is where that last one is so scary. The people who laughingly, openly embrace his racism and sexism truly frighten me. And look, I get it. I know that there are videos and interviews with Trump from even 5 years ago where he was talking about being open in regards to Homosexuals and minorities. But that’s not what he ran his Presidential campaign on. He was out of the gate embracing a racist bullying dogma. He was mocking political and ideological enemies because they questioned his views.

And if you’re a conservative or a Republican who has read this far, I just have to ask, is this what you wanted to represent you? How is this the Party of Lincoln? Lincoln who said:

“It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Or Reagan:

“And that's about all I have to say tonight, except for one thing. The past few days when I've been at that window upstairs, I've thought a bit of the 'shining city upon a hill.' The phrase comes from John Winthrop, who wrote it to describe the America he imagined. What he imagined was important because he was an early Pilgrim, an early freedom man. He journeyed here on what today we'd call a little wooden boat; and like the other Pilgrims, he was looking for a home that would be free. I've spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don't know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, windswept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That's how I saw it, and see it still.”

What happened to that Party? What happened to those ideals? I don’t agree with a lot of the policies of Reagan, but I can respect the man and respect the way he treated the office of president. I can appreciate the discourse he had with the American people and understand the comfort and leadership he provided. And Lincoln obviously speaks for himself. I want that in American politics again. That is how we became the great country that we ARE. And that’s how we can be great again.

At my core, I suppose that I am a liberal. I believe more in liberal ideologies than I do conservative. But that does not mean I want conservatives to fail or the conservative party to evaporate. I want the evangelicals out of our government and I want people to be open minded. But when it comes to domestic policy, foreign policy, trade, and the rules of governance, I want to hear both sides. I want informed, responsible, dedicated people who are genuinely trying to lead. Not spoiled billionaires arguing over who’s right. Not politicians so caught up in who’s funding them that they’ll shill their ideals to the highest bidder. And not a textbook narcissist so desperate for attention that he’ll promise anything he can and incite whatever unrest he can to gain attention.

One more thing before I close this up for the night. The media. I believe the media played a massive role in what has happened. I believe our news media is truly broken. I think that they failed the American people at every stage in this election. There was great investigative journalism done in newspaper and print media, but we saw very little of that. The 24 hour news networks instead played Rock’em Sock’em Robots 24 hours a day. The turned our political system into Itchy and Scratchy with 2 commentators on the left and 2 on the “right”. Only in this case, to get commentators on the right in support of Trump, they had to reach further and further on the shelf to get the most out there, abrasive, reprehensible human beings they could. And they normalized them. By putting these people, who openly lied, denied facts, and spread conspiracy theories on air all hours the day, they condoned their words. They silently validated their view points. They let them speak on and on. Because it was good for ratings. Because it was good for business. And that’s where our Fourth Estate is. They got it all wrong. And they, just like those that thought Trump was a fool but voted for him anyway, they condoned his message of hate and ignorance.

And now, here we are.

I am truly, deeply disturbed by the things I’m seeing in the world around me. Those that voted for Trump won. And yet, they are not acting with class or dignity. They’re calling the people who are shocked and saddened by this turn of events “Dems” “Cucks” “Crybaby’s””Libtards”. They’re attacking anyone who is critical of the president elect, despite that same man screaming for eight years to see the birth certificate of the sitting president. They’re railing against overwhelmingly peaceful protests against a broken system. I’m okay disagreeing with people and I prefer not to fight, but I feel like it’s headed that way. Because as a man who thinks of himself as a Liberal, I’m pissed. I’m furious over what I see happening to my country. I’m the product of a single mother family. I grew up in Fayetteville, Arkansas. I worked cattle farms in my teen years. And now I work 50 + hours a week providing for my daughters. I have earned the right to vote, disagree, and speak my mind. Not that I had to earn it in the first place because it’s one we were born with in this country.

Now, Right wingers who may have made it this far, you might not like the next part.

Liberals, I think it’s time we got angry. And I hope it is finally happening. For too long Right Wing conservatives have painted the Left as the “weak/intellectual” side. When the hell did this happen and how does that make us weak? I think I know the answer but it’s equally frustrating. I know in my case, it’s that I’d rather get along and go along. I don’t want to think about politics. I don’t want to be angry about my government or a presidential election. Disappointed maybe, interested definitely. But not rattled to my core. And I think that’s the key. I grew up with a mother who loved John Lennon, who played “Imagine” in the house a lot. And that’s a hopeful message. But, it’s also a part of the hippy culture that as so long painted liberals as week. Long haired, frightened, un-motivated slackers that want to live off the government and smoke weed. Well, that’s not me. And I damned sure am not living off of the government. I just don’t see the point in restricting gay people’s rights, controlling a woman’s body, or allowing deadly weapons to be wantonly sold. So, I think it’s time we got angry, I think it’s time we stayed angry. Because if I’m representative of the millennial liberal, then I know I am not weak. I know I am not letting anyone do my fighting for me. I know I don’t want my country to go the way so many strong countries have before us. I’m not going to be exclusionary, I’m not going to use simplistic terms to describe my ideological opponents, and I’m not going to abrasively mock anyone who disagrees with me. But that’s not the same thing as just rolling over. I’m also not going to remain quiet, I’m not going to simply accept that my new President Elect chooses a known White Supremacist for his cabinet.

So, in closing, I want to fix what’s broken here. I want the country to heal. But, that can only happen when people open their eyes and see things for what they are. Liberals, Hilary Clinton and the Democratic Party bungled this thing from the word go. We have to own that. And learn from it. Conservatives… Seriously? Trump? I mean, I’m sorry, I was trying to keep it balanced but, come on. That man represents nothing about the ideals so many conservatives have touted for years. And I’m really afraid that in a year, most of us will know that for a fact. But you know what, I don’t want to say, “I told you so.” Because that fixes nothing. If you’re a conservative that voted for Trump, and you see things that are wrong, all I’m asking is that you confront it. That you admit what you’re seeing is not okay, and that you stand up for it. I don’t want to have a political fight with you on Facebook. If you see Trump not owning up to his promise to “Drain the Swamp” I want you to vote for a conservative leader that will stand up to him and push back for what YOU want. And liberals, the Facebook shares of John Oliver videos and Vox articles are all well and good, but it’s time to get up and do something. We need to find our voices, our representatives. People who understand our struggles with school, jobs, and society. Because the establishment that’s in place, the Baby Boomer Left and Evangelical right, they don’t get it. This is our country and I want us all to fight for what’s right about it. To do any less is a failure to live up to the ideals this country was founded upon.

The Real Work

Well, huzzah and hooray for me, I’ve finally managed to put my nearly 500 hundred page first novel up in the Kindle Store. Any new authors out there who are like me and thought of this as the finish line, well, as I have found out this week, we were dead wrong. In the last week since I have uploaded my book, after sharing a bottle of champagne with my wife at 3 a.m., I have put in every hour of free time either in promoting it, or reposting it.

Let me explain, see, the first thing newbies like me will probably notice when you do your first obsessive check on the way the novel looks after uploading, is that somewhere, something went wrong. How and why it went wrong is what you’ll get to spend the next two days going over. If you’re like me you probably looked at it around ten times before actually uploading it in the previewer that the Kindle Store offers free of charge (you really have to admire their business sense). After all of that looking, where everything appeared normal, you most likely uploaded it... and then found out that it looked very different in real form.

For me, it was the tabs. Yep, that natural motion you learned in eighth grade typing and that you’ve continued throughout your entire amateur writing career is the very thing that has led to your book looking like a fifth grader formatted it. See, apparently the Kindle engine plays merry hell with tab and indents. It makes the code go haywire and you end up with a very odd looking book.

The first thing you notice is that the 0.5” format in Word Tab is WAAAAAY too much for the small screen Kindle format. Reading a few of the blogs and message boards that never crossed my mind to search before publishing (oh, I read them for content, page number, header, and other tips, just didn’t think of indentation) I found out that what Kindle readers like best is a 0.2” indent. The way that you accomplish this is fun to figure out as well. First, (depending on your version of word) you go to Page Layout, Paragraph format tab. Once there, you go to the Indentation section, find the Special drop down box, click First Line, and then finally, go to the By drop down box and set your indent. Got it? Because it took me a while to find.

After that, what I had to do because I could not figure out how to apply it to the entire document in one sweeping move, I had to go to the beginning of every paragraph and press Backspace. This would then automatically make every paragraph begin at the preferred 0.2” indent without a tab space being involved. After spending two days going through the entire document, I re-uploaded it. Side note: this is another awesome and well thought out move by the Kindle Store, while you are fiddling with and re-uploading the newly formatted copy of your book, the first one remains active and downloadable until the new one is approved.

So, that done, I was able to start the real fun. Want to guess what it is? I and my wife have been slowly working our way through the Amazon Top Reviewers list reading profiles and checking for the following criteria: do they accept Kindle Book review requests? Do they have an email address? Does the genre they review match mine? Are they currently accepting review requests? After making a list so far of fifty reviewers and checking over three hundred profiles, I sent out emails to over forty. So far, three people have responded and one has been open to reading and reviewing the book. The end goal is to send out three hundred email requests, offering the book for free and getting hopefully over ten positive reviews.

Everyone with me so far? That means after spending hours and hours searching, emailing, and asking, I’ll get one in thirty people to actually review the book I’m offering for free. And this is the norm. It makes sense when you think about it. These people are being asked non-stop to read and review every single fiction book being pumped out week after week by the people like me who want to try and make a living off the crazy things that are dreamed up inside my head. In addition to all of this, there’s blogging, social networking, and marketing.

In short, all of the things that socially introverted dreamers try to avoid and… so what? This is what I want to do for the rest of my life so in addition to continuing to write the stories that play out in my head (I’m about two weeks away from finishing the first draft of my second one) I need to force myself to do all of the tedious marketing and social promotion that goes along with making an Ebook successful. I have the encouragement of thinking that I happened to write a pretty damned great first novel that I’m very proud of but that doesn’t mean anything unless I get people to read it. I’m hoping that soon the reviews will start to come in and that people start finding the book on their own. But, just as it was my job to bring the story into the world, it’s also my job to make sure that it shines through enough to catch peoples eye in the massive slush pile that is the Amazon Kindle store.

I feel I would be remiss at this point if I did not share the link for my book here:  http://www.amazon.com/The-Unfound-ebook/dp/B00F1TCTW2/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1379268456&sr=1-1&keywords=the+unfound

Crisis on Infinite Films

            I like movies. I've said it before and it will probably be a repeated subject on this blog. So, the current state of film, especially this summer is pretty depressing. On the one hand, I, a confessed comic book super nerd, live in a time that nearly every major comic book character is getting their own headlining film. And most of these films take the source material seriously. There are obvious exceptions to that claim but before I decry the entire era of films being produced I do want to say that it is incredible that a film of the Avengers was ever even made, let alone made into a film as amazing as what Marvel produced. It is incredible that an actor was nominated for and won an Academy Award for playing the Joker in a "comic book film".

            That being said, what is going on with major Hollywood pictures this year? If you're like me and wait to see what the review aggregate is going to be on Rottentomatoes.com and Metacritic.com, you know that nearly every major summer release this year has come out to a resounding... huh. I'm not saying all of the films released this summer have been stinkers or that a group of critics best judges a films merits but I have learned through trial and error that if a film has an aggregate score below 50% on Rottentomatoes.com, then it is best to avoid them. I learned this the hard way with films like the Hangover 2.

            This summer there were some huge movies coming out that looked truly promising. Iron Man 3, Star Trek: Into Darkness, Man of Steel, The Lone Ranger, World War Z, Pacific Rim, and several other second tier actioners. Some of the films above lived up to expectations but most were met with a reaction of "good... but not great". Of those films listed above only the Star Trek sequel met with a universal "wow". The Lone Ranger of course is the biggest disappointment out of that group (I'll dig into that one another time) but beside these big films there have been multiple others that were huge disappointments.

            As this is a blog primarily focused on writing I think it's important to note that the problems with nearly all of these big films that have been lackluster began with the writing. Man of Steel, which I very much enjoyed, had some serious script issues. The flashback scenes were completely unnecessary and could have been cut from the film. In fact, I hold that if the film simply left the opening in tact with the fall of Krypton and jumped straight to Lois tracking Superman or Clark, around the world as he saved people on the sly, it would have been a much stronger narrative. But that is the issue with all of these big blockbuster films, they lack screenplays with narrative focus, character development, or even a through plotline. This is screenplay 101 stuff.

            My wife and I this week, along with another couple went and checked out Pacific Rim. It was arguably one of the most enjoyable experiences I've had in a theater this summer. The film, put simply is fun, the battles between the Jaegers and the Kaiju (which I was sure would get old very quickly) were consistently dynamic and exciting. The film was visually amazing and Guillermo del Toro crafted a film with incredible scope and visual flair. That is not to say that it was a perfect film.

            The acting was all over the map, Charlie Hunnam being the worst offender. I'm not a big Hunnam supporter, I've watched a lot of Sons of Anarchy and find his acting to be pretty one note, but in this film it got ridiculously bad. One scene stood out as so laughably awkward that both my wife and I noted it during the film separately and talked with other later about it, completely unable to tell what he was trying to express. On the other end of the spectrum was the always fantastic Idris Elba who could apparently make insurance forms sound like Hamlet. A big shout out too to Charlie Day. I've been a member of the Always Sunny tribe for years and seeing this guy go to the big leagues is truly gratifying and he does not disappoint.

            The biggest issues in the film were narrative. The human element of the story was always a little out of focus, the story itself meandering, and a lot of the scenes oddly chosen. One scene with Ron Perlman as a Kaiju black market dealer feels like it belongs in a different film and I think it was a case of a director giving in to their passions too much. In Del Toro's case it would be Perlman being weird and strange Lovecraftian specimens in jars. All of this led to a film that kept its pace, had amazing visuals, some very flat performances, and some questionable logic.

            The overall thing that frustrates me about this summer slate of films with serious flatlines like Grown-ups 2, After Earth, R.I.P.D., and Lone Ranger, is that studios are spending millions upon millions of dollars on these films that get released to almost universal booing. Except for Grown-ups 2, all I can say is if you paid money to see that and enjoyed it, you're probably reading the wrong blog... and why? Studios keep hiring the same eight screenwriters to produce scripts with truly lacking narratives. Not just this year either, it's been a growing trend in the summer blockbuster season that each big tent-pole film is written by screenwriters that apparently have forgotten everything about writing a story.

            I don't know how to stop that trend. What has to happen is that people have to completely stop going to the poorly written event films and that's not likely to happen any time soon. I know I'm guilty of contributing to it myself. I went to see a lot of those big films this summer. I make room for mindless entertainment and can enjoy it but despite its flaws Pacific Rim had a leg up on a lot of the films that were thrashed by the critics this summer and left us all wanting. It had a through plot-line. It knew where it was going even if it stumbled getting there. That made it a winning experience, something that I didn't regret seeing in theaters, how many people who paid to see the Lone Ranger can say that?