IT’S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE ‘16

THE BILE ON THE LAST DAY OF THE YEAR

My son got sick this morning, right before his final day of day care for the year..

As I write this, he’s watching Netflix on the couch and relaxing. I am home from work and blogging in between worried looks each time he makes a move, just in case I have to rush back to couchside to ensure the garbage can is secure while his body’s natural state does its deed to rid itself of whatever virus is running its course.

It somehow seems fitting. Ending the year with a few projectile dispatches.

Think about it..
New years is about cleaning out the mind, body, and soul. While a four and a half year old may not get the ramifications and meaning of calendar changes or balls dropping in Times Square, it’s almost like his little body decided to take part in a ritualistic cleanse..

Yes, maybe I am being over dramatic.
But my over-drama has improved since my son was born.
I fondly–sarcasm there–recall the very first time my son had a flu. He was about 2, and the vomit started occurring around 3am. And a lot of it.. in the midst of the cleaning, it almost immediately began happening to me. It was gruesome, actually. A mixture of awfulness. My wife got sick, too.. but not to the extent of dad and son.  The air was so bad we wanted to just move out.

Each time he got sick since, I was calmer each time.
That calmness may not last forever, but the years of training my mind to accept sickness as a part of life, and a part of the body’s actual defense mechanism to heal, has culminated with amazing senses.
Like this….
This morning when my son sat up, he looked funny. I was sitting next to him and saw something in his expression.. I knew. I said, “You okay?” A nod ‘yes’ occurred.. I didn’t believe it. I immediately held up the garbage can and, like an amazing 1990s Michael Jordan basketball shot, he projected refuse into the can. 3 points!
Live action dad hero.
Maybe the one time only in life that will happen.. but moms and dads get to be keenly aware of what each expression on their child’s face means.
I knew this morning what the worried look meant. “It” was coming..

My wife and I have dinner plans tonight with friends for new years eve. That may be called off now due to unforeseen bodily circumstances.  The first mission of the day is to effectively utilize Febreeze and Lysol where it needs it most. Already, every door handle was disinfected. Waiting on the current room until the dust settles..
The Twilight Zone marathon is on, too.
Not sure if my son will give a break from Netflix, or fall asleep for a bit, in time for me to tune in to a few amazing Twilight Zones on SYFY, but that’s life.
Life happens when you least expect it.

When you have dinner plans..
When the calendar changes..

So in the spirit of my son at this moment: Cleanse yourself of the trials, tribulations, and pains of 2015.  Sixteen is a brand new chance to get something right that has been going wrong for some time.  Only YOU know what is wrong. Or your body. And if it’s internal, get ready with a garbage can and some Gatorade.

May your travels be safe and your new years eve be the last day you to worry about the things you worried about in 2015.

2015 TURNS INTO 16: The predictions from last year reviewed and new ones made.

2016: The year of the anti-tech movement

There is anti-GMO. Anti chemicals..
And in 2016, the next phase of the tech future will be the anti-techs, those who embrace a 1980s MAC and love fax machines… those who disobey the powers that be and want a washing machine WITHOUT WI-FI ..

They keep a little paper over top of their laptop camera just in case big brother or an advertiser is watching..

Deep down they make sense to you.
And in 2016, you may just join in the chorus of rebellion against gadgets..

The year you’ll dread all forms of media.

Politics is on the way.
Donald Trump is coming.
Hillary’s arrow is going to be dancing on your night time TV ads..
All forms of media are going be hit hard with political advertising.. there is no stopping it. Pop culture will be transformed into a nightmare of debate and endless punditry. It’s coming.

The predictions from last year. Now to be judged.

I wrote the following ‘predictions’ in my 2014 review.. 

The campaign for the White House 2016 will become very annoying. Straw polls, debates.. early PR disasters. Jeb Bush . Hillary Clinton .. we will be dreading 2015. A dark horse will emerge and, even more importantly, perhaps third party candidates will start becoming more acceptable to Americans. It better happen soon. 

Sort of right! Donald Trump was the 'dark horse’ who emerged.  Trump may not be the dark horse you wanted but he certainly has shaken things up.

President Obama will look very good by Christmas 2016. The economic turnaround will be slow to start by steamroll by spring, with GDP edging higher by the third quarter. Construction will rebound, at least in some sectors, and Americans will be hopeful again. 

Somewhat right. There still seem to be some issues. Interest rates.. weak jobs but more of them.. a shaky economy that may actually be in recession in 2016.

There are a few events that will make us fearful. They will come from other nations. They may be terror related, or perhaps just the wrap of daily headlines of murder and mayhem on other continents will make us tremble … 

This was general, perhaps. But there were things that made us fear. Name terrorism in Paris and then San Bernardino.

Ebola is not over. 

It never will be. I was too general. This can be considered insignificant. 

The weather will be calmer than predicted. But large storms will strike when least expected in places not used to them. Global warming has caused chaos.. we have become used to the chaos but areas not accustomed to it will be hurt. 

Not really. It was warmer than expected. But there were lots of weird storms and freak incidents. 

People will continue to stop going to theaters for movies. SONY’s release of the INTERVIEW will set a trend.. people will stream. It’s the future. 

STAR WARS, THE MARTIAN, JURASSIC WORLD all blew this prediction out of the water. I was dead wrong. And funny enough, this was the year I went to the movies the most in the last five. If I could go back and revise, I would and say “2015 will be the year people turn back to theaters”.. 

There will be a number of earthquakes in the Midwest. Some will be sizable, others barely that. But each one will make us wonder if the New Madrid fault line is waking up.. 

Oklahoma. 

The typhoon season in the Pacific will be dangerous in 2015. 

Some of the strongest storms ever. The strongest storm ever. This was a year for wild typhoon drama. 

THE PREDICTIONS FOR 2016

1. Donald Trump will be the nominee for Republicans. He will choose Marco Rubio. Hillary will be for the Dems.. her choice as a running mate: Charlie Crist.


2. Terrorism will be the top story by the end of 2016. As will the fear it generates.


3. There will be a medical development with cancer that will give hope to millions who are afflicted.


4. There will be a bigger emphasis on open-source artificial intelligence. It will be 'power to the people,’ with the dawn of the drones. Get ready. They are coming.


5. GMO-free food will gain in popularity. But there will be increasingly and creative ways to mask GMO from consumers. It’s the year you’ll be deceived even more by fancy packages. Be smart and buy after research.


6. There will be less tech addiction in 2016. People have had enough. Phone free Sundays may turn into phone free weeks. People may give up on Facebook, except for the emergency chats..


7. Health–real health–will be en vogue in 2016. Not fad diets or fraud get thin quick schemes. But real long term health. This is the beginning of a new age of fitting in jeans and having a healthy heart.


8. The Olympics will not be without incident. Massive rains–flooding rains actually–may hit just in time in Brazil.


9. The economy that will matter in 2016: India. China will matter a lot less.


10. It will be hot. All year.. some of the hottest weather on the planet earth in centuries is on the way.

Those are my predictions. Sealed in HTML for a year.
Maybe next year if we’re all still here we’ll see how I did.

 

The most ‘wrong’ video of the year.. has to be a girl farting the sounds of Chewbacca.. 

Just wrong.

2016: The year of the anti-tech movement

There is anti-GMO. Anti chemicals.. 
And in 2016, the next phase of the tech future will be the anti-techs, those who embrace a 1980s MAC and love fax machines… those who disobey the powers that be and want a washing machine WITHOUT WI-FI .. 

They keep a little paper over top of their laptop camera just in case big brother or an advertiser is watching.. 

Deep down they make sense to you.
And in 2016, you may just join in the chorus of rebellion against gadgets..

MOST CONVINCING GENDER BENDING OF THE YEAR

This belongs to Justin Bieber.  The same Beebs who was nude this year online.. the same Beebs who did anything Beebs does. In 2015 he 

became a sensation online for his impression of Ozzy singing CRAZY TRAIN on the Lip Sync Battle..

And in my opinion, had a striking likeness to Monica Lewinsky..

BEST SHORT LIVED PARANORMAL RADIO OF THE YEAR

Again the prize goes to Art Bell for his show MIDNIGHT IN THE DESERT.

He also won this category in 2013 when he was on SIRIUS for 6 weeks. This year’s RADIO beat the record set in 13 but not by much. He quickly quit almost as fast as he started..
Will a return occur in ‘16? Maybe. But there may also be less of a desire for fans to listen with each quitting..

HORROR MOVIE OF THE YEAR

It almost was KRAMPUS. KRAMPUS was fun.. but the movie of this year is a dual pick. Because this is the first year I watched last year’s movie BABADOOK, I am going to have to choose that along with IT FOLLOWS..

Both movies gave a burst of creativity.. both movies had strange and sinister background stories.. both movies relied on a storyline more than a blood soaked script. And both movies gave hope to horror fans that new inspiration may be coming to a genre that is desperately in need of it.

Of course Rob Zombie is coming out with 31 soon.
So any progress made in horror could crash with that.
For now, though, both movies are great. See them. Even in 2016.

DUMBEST POP CULTURE OF THE YEAR

You know you took part in it.. you know you debated it. What color was this dress? Around February of 2015, it was the hottest argument in the world of pop culture.. The image was posted online, and people were seeing a blue dress. Others white. It was dividing marriages, ruining friendships, causing hostile and vitriolic rage on the internet. Pop culture at its finest, weirdest, and strangest. 

Most unfair conviction of the year

Sheila Kearns was sentenced for showing the horror movie THE ABCs OF DEATH to a class in Ohio.

CREEPIEST PICTURE OF THE YEAR

It comes from a beautiful blanket someone gave my son when he was one.. years later, black and white, and just a little morphed, it scares me..

THE RIPs OF THE YEAR

A lot of amazing people lost to time in 2015.. They have gone on to the next realm.. wherever and whatever that may be.

The faces of those are left..

Scott Weiland, Stone Temple Pilots founding lead singer, dead at 48

Actress Maureen O’Hara dead at 95..

The horror world shocked. Wes Craven dead this year after a battle with brain cancer.. He was 76.

Anne Streiber, the creator of UNKNOWNCOUNTRY.COM and Whitley Streiber’s wife

RIP RODDY PIPER..

RIP DICK VAN PATTON, DEAD AT 86

Virgil Runnels, aka “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes — WWE Hall of Famer, three-time NWA Champion and one of the most captivating and charismatic figures in sports entertainment history — passed away at the age of 69.

Actor and icon, Sir Christopher Lee, dead at 93..

BETSY PALMER, “JASON’S MOM,” DEAD AT 88..

She became the famous player in horror only because she wanted enough money to buy a car…

No one could play a tune like BB KING..

A legend gone at 89..

The world is sorely missing the ‘rockin granny’ from WEDDING CRASHERS.

Ellen Albertini Dow  was 101 when she passed away..

May Vince Kalochie rest in peace On…’The Other Side.’

RIP Sam Simon, the co-creator of the Simpsons..

LEONARD NIMOY.

DEAD AT 83..

DOWNFALL OF THE YEAR

No, not Ben Carson. Not Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices.. this prize belongs to Brian Williams, who was accused of ‘tall tales’ and skewered by the media officials who once loved him. He either lied or just simply enjoyed making stories up and believing them.. by the time the scandal was in full swing, he lost his prized anchor position on the NIGHTLY NEWS on NBC.

He’s back on MSNBC now.
And perhaps that’s the finest eternal punishment someone can get after a downfall..

The Adele of the year goes to….

ADELE.

2015 AND WHERE IT GOT US