Horror movie stabbing

This being reported by a CBS news dispatch this morning:

SANTA ROSA – A man watching a horror movie was stabbed repeatedly at a Santa Rosa movie theater Wednesday afternoon, CBS San Francisco reports.

Santa Rosa police said the man was watching the movie when someone came up behind him and stabbed him. The victim, a 21-year-old man, remains in critical condition.

Police said the attack appears to be random and unprovoked.

The Santa Rosa Press Democrat newspaper reported that the man was watching the movie “The Shallows” when he was attacked.

Santa Rosa police responded to a stabbing at about 4 p.m. inside the Roxy Theater, located at 85 Santa Rosa Ave.

Police said the suspect, identified as a 23-year-old man, stabbed the victim several times and then ran out of the theater toward the Prince Memorial Greenway.

Some witnesses called 911 while other witnesses assisted the victim until emergency crews arrived. The victim was taken to a hospital with multiple life-threatening stab wounds, police said.

Santa Rosa police said witnesses were able to provide officers with a physical description of the suspect and the direction that he fled. officers located the suspect at Prince Memorial Greenway and A Street. He was taken into into custody but his identity has not yet been released.

Police recovered a weapon at the theater.

BLOODY MOVIES THAT ARE ABOUT POLITICS.I swear the Washington...

BLOODY MOVIES THAT ARE ABOUT POLITICS.

I swear the Washington Post has been reading my material.. This is what they wrote about the new PURGE film and its societal meaning:

Flash-forward to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and another uptick in extreme horror films, led by two franchises, “Saw” and “Hostel,” that reflected a darkening mood. In the wake of the 2003 Abu Ghraib scandal, mainstream entertainment passed on dealing with the morals and efficacy of torture, aside from the ticking-time-bomb fantasies of “24.” But the “Saw” series, beginning in 2004, steered right into the curve. Over seven straight Halloween weekends, young audiences turned up in large numbers to watch like-aged victims wriggle under elaborate torture devices. And as post-9/11 goodwill eroded into hostility toward U.S. foreign policy overseas, 2005’s “Hostel” imagined the grimmest possible fate for American backpackers in Europe.

All that said, the newest PURGE movie still looks ridiculous.

Dhaka cafe siege: All 20 hostages killed are foreigners

Dhaka cafe siege: All 20 hostages killed are foreigners:

Gunmen seized a bakery in Dhaka overnight, killing 20 hostages and two officers in a standoff that ended Saturday morning, the Bangladeshi military said.

All the hostages killed were foreigners, the military said.

The attackers used guns, explosive devices and “a lot of sharp domestic weapons,” said Brig. Gen. Naeem Ashfaq Chowdhury of the Bangladesh army. The hostages’ bodies were found after the standoff ended more than 10 hours later.Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said 13 hostages were rescued"We were able to save 13 people, we weren’t able to save a few,“ Hasina said at a news conference. Six terrorists were killed and one was captured alive, she said.One Japanese national and two Sri Lankans were among the hostages rescued, officials from both nations said.The rescued Japanese national was having dinner with seven other colleagues from Japan, who are missing, said Koichii Hagiuda, the deputy chief Cabinet secretary.

Terrible to see this.. Art Bell is back in the hospital again.....

Terrible to see this.. Art Bell is back in the hospital again..
Hope the radio legend recovers from whatever may be afflicting him..

This isn’t the first time this year..

THE UNCIVIL SOCIETY THAT PRETENDS IT'S CIVIL

There is this notion around the world as of late: WE lack civility..

We are told by countless social observers that the death of civility has come and gone.. that we are worse off now because of social media and the internet than ever before .. that our rudeness has been peaking and not stopping.

But is any of that true?

Quite honestly, it would appear that the world is less civil than ever before. The headlines of fishwrappers prove that to us daily, right? The talking heads on the soon to be extinct TEE VEE set bloviate until their red-faced sweaty necks can’t take anymore .. And online? Oh online. Where comment threads on news articles feature insults and anonymous hateful tirades from one person to the next.. Basements across America!! Alive with keyboard bullies hiding behind screens.

So it would then appear that civility, is dead, right?
Not so fast, muchacho..

There may be a number of factors at play … The first, and foremost point: The NET is an open forum of things that already existed in real life. It is a continuation of what people act like, just in a net version. Before online criminals were found and prosecuted (easier with the NET now don’t forget) there was still crime. Cyber crime has made identity theft and human trafficking simplier – but it has also given officials a better avenue to catch it. Yes, I know, there is a dark net… Whole other story.

I would argue that civility was never alive.

I would venture to say that if we were truly civil people throughout history, very civil things would have happened.
Women were oppressed. Large portions of society were enslaved.. and even up until the latter half of the 20th century, people who were free from bondage were still being hung and tortured in towns across America. Civil for some .. very uncivil for others.

Sometimes civility is not needed.
There are fans of Donald Trump who like his for a brashness that has not been seen in American politics in generations. Some equate him to Teddy Roosevelt. Others may say he is Eugene McCarthy with worse hair. Either way, his lack of civility caught on enough to be recognized and now, in fact, his insults have become sport. His Twitter is followed by millions of people anxiously awaiting his next insult and who he will choose to hear his wrath. And for all of those who say they take the high road, if THEIR candidate fought back against Trump in typical Trump style, they would be applauded for taking the stand. After all, how do you deal with someone who lacks civility? Join them.

Around the time of then Al Qaida beheadings being uplaoded and broadcast to the world online (long before ISIS), we were hit with relentless footage. The snooze media didn’t show the most revulting aspects. For that, you were able to just trek online. The information age suddenly turned gruesome and disgusting… footage of various hostages deaths made its way around the net in 2004 and beyond. Nick Berg was the first and most famous, but there were certainly many more after him. Along with that, the news that the American government approved what some term torture made its way to front pages… And then the perverbial excrement hit the fan when we found out soldiers were systmatically invovled with sexual and mental torture of Guantameno detainees. Around the same time, the horror movie SAW franchise became popular and other torture porn flicks made their way onto the cinema.. the first being HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES by Rob Zombie .. The 2000s have featured a cultural array of uncivil media.. Obviously, we would be told, a sign that we are uncivil.

Hold on a minute…

Those alive in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s, may recall a video set that made its way around the world in the underground called FACES OF DEATH. The most famous scene probably is one where a group of wealthy elites slowly torture a monkey and eat its brain. But included with the series were other horrid and tragic featurettes that should go unspoken about on this forum. The 1960s and 70s also featured a series of films with depravity. Torture was in then. The TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE may have been mostly bloodless, but the idea of torture and uncivil behavior was included.

Congress can’t get along now. But in the past would have fist fights.

There have even been presidents—presidents who are currently on legal tender!!—that killed others in duals.
There have been labor unions that used violence to carve a better path to the future.. some of them, like the Molly Maguires of Pennsylvania, were hung without due justice and killed without true reason.

If you want to talk uncivil, imagine a world where a “Civil” (really an oxymoron) War is taking place and brother is murdering brother in battlefields across the Eastern seaboard of the United States…

Imagine a system of torture devised to convince you to be a Christian. Or even the most Christian person of all, Jesus himself, being tortured by Roman guards and forced to die on a cross. Even if you don’t buy into Jesus, you can at least acknowledge that the very essence of punishment for years has been horribly uncivil.

Yes, I know the argument. The internet makes it easy to be anonymous. That is true. 4Chan and others have perfected the rapid speed of the net to get their social ways.
But more and more people online are using their real names on sign ups for forums. Even Facebook commenting leaves it all ‘out there.’

Oh selfies, too.. that makes us uncivil, right?

Look back in history… people loved when cameras were invented and, while it may have taken 18 minutes to take a photo (no wonder people looked so miserable) people still clearly enjoyed having their photos taken for posterity.
Every new generation growing up will judge their parents for the sins they commit. But then they’ll judge the new generation that comes after them just as much as they judged their elders. Judging .. judging… judging.. No solutions are rendered, but instead criticisms are hurled. Nothing changes.

Nothing is civil.
And quite frankly. Nothing ever was.

The passage of time.. On a dirt path somewhere near an abandoned...

The passage of time.. On a dirt path somewhere near an abandoned coal mine in Pennsylvania, my wife and I climbed this.. It was when we first met. There were no trees then. Circa 2004. The earth takes over quickly when the toils of man focus on other absurd things.

Facebook announced on Wednesday that it has once again changed the secret recipe that decides what to show its users in their Newsfeeds.

Here is what you need to know based off of the few things people actually know: Newsfeeds are going to feature less click bait links.. less “you will never believe what she said” nonsense.. less politics and less divisive uncivil nonsense that clutters the otherwise cluttered newsfeed of the day.

Facebook wants to make it personal. Go back to the roots–family, friends, baby pictures, endless vacation shots from the mountains… You know the drill. 2008 stuff.

I am good with it. I check Facebook much less than before. But when I do, I get annoyed with the stream of news nonsense that is already known.

But there could be an ulterior motive at play here too..

Don’t forget the controversy that Mark Zuckerberg recently found himself in.. The site was stearing readers away from conservative content. But not only that media sin exposed, the bigger was how Facebook’s internal agorithms actually invent news stories and change new cycles–making less important things bigger. Think of it.. how can Chewbacca Mom, for as fun as she was, receive 70 million hits in a few minutes. It’s all in the code, baby. Make it look natural but behind the scenes know it’s not.

I am fine with friends and their status updates.

But what Facebook may have done wrong is wait this long. Maybe after all this time of being force-fed manipulated nonsense-content, people have moved on. Moved on to other platforms.. or just back to reality again? Time will tell.

Friends and families unite!!Facebook won’t bite.
But Zuckerberg? He still has that tape overtop of his MIC..

Stealth Black Holes Detected Throughout Milky Way --"Closer to Earth Than We Thought"

Stealth Black Holes Detected Throughout Milky Way --"Closer to Earth Than We Thought" :

Cool.
Scary.
Freaky.

I have always thought of stories like these as those that can make you feel awfully small. Those that could put it all into perspective.

For as advanced as our space and research programs have become, we don’t know much of even 1% of what lurks out there among the stars…

Feel small.

Inside A Secret Government Warehouse Prepped For Health Catastrophes

Inside A Secret Government Warehouse Prepped For Health Catastrophes :

Places like this DO exist.. Some may be alarmed by it becuse, to them, it means the government KNOWS something we don’t. Others may be calmed since we don’t know what the government knows, they are ready. All in your point of view.

But I was amazed that their let this NPR reporter in and that such an in depth report was conducted..

From the NPR story:

A big American flag hangs from the ceiling, and shelves packed with stuff stand so tall that looking up makes me dizzy.

“We have the capability, if something bad happens, that we can intervene in a positive way, but then we don’t ever want to have to do that. So it’s kind of a strange place,” says Burel. “But we would be foolish not to prepare for those events that we could predict might happen.”

The Strategic National Stockpile got its start back in 1999, with a budget of about $50 million. Since then, even though the details aren’t public, it’s clear that it has amassed an incredible array of countermeasures against possible security threats.

The inventory includes millions of doses of vaccines against bioterrorism agents like smallpox, antivirals in case of a deadly flu pandemic, medicines used to treat radiation sickness and burns, chemical agent antidotes, wound care supplies, IV fluids and antibiotics.

That is sort of what would have envisioned .. makes sense to me.. Glad it’s there. Hope we won’t need it.

But … if “we” need it, sufficed to say, not “everyone” will get it.

How Not To Have a High-Class Hamptons Sex Orgy

How Not To Have a High-Class Hamptons Sex Orgy :

This article comes from the DAILY BEAST.. It’s weird. The lifestyles of the rich and famous and sex obsessed and just EYES WIDE SHUT kind of creepy..

From the BEAST:

Tickets for most New York parties cost $300 for couples who are Killing Kittens members, a private community for “the world’s discerning sexual elite,” according to its website. The standard entry fee for “single” women is $150, but tickets for festivities in the Hamptons cost $100 more ($400 for couples and $250 for single women)—and with good reason, Lee told me.

Also a hot topic of the orgy conference? Brexit. And how it is effecting their bottom line.

After the hot tub fun, of course.

Strange times we live in.

How Not To Have a High-Class Hamptons Sex Orgy

How Not To Have a High-Class Hamptons Sex Orgy :

This article comes from the DAILY BEAST.. It’s weird. The lifestyles of the rich and famous and sex obsessed and just EYES WIDE SHUT kind of creepy..

From the BEAST:

Tickets for most New York parties cost $300 for couples who are Killing Kittens members, a private community for “the world’s discerning sexual elite,” according to its website. The standard entry fee for “single” women is $150, but tickets for festivities in the Hamptons cost $100 more ($400 for couples and $250 for single women)—and with good reason, Lee told me.

Also a hot topic of the orgy conference? Brexit. And how it is effecting their bottom line.

After the hot tub fun, of course.

Strange times we live in.

Soccer scares abound: The next phase of parenting begins. I am now Coach Coalspeaker

Call me a soccer dad. Actually my wife and Iare both soccer parents now. We don’t have the mini van.. we don’t really yet know what we have gotten ourselves into .. we are awash in fundraiser tickets and rule books about coaching.. but we did it. We made the leap.

WE WILL COACH A SOCCER TEAM.

While we are told by all that it’s the pre-K and K level, and that scoring does not matter and don’t even keep it, we know parents will. We know there will be trials and tribulations that come with the game… parents yelling a bit too much, getting a bit too involved in a game that should just be fun for people at a lower level of knowledge. We know that.

And even with the acknowledgement that sometimes it will not be easy to quell our own nerves, it is worth it. Worth it because my son is very enthusiastic knowing mom and dad will be a whistle away..

My wife and I have long believed that it was a good thing to be involved with our son’s education life as much as possible. As he gets older and makes his way through the strange twisted world of Pink Floyd style education at the hands of paid professionals, we will be as involved as we can. PTO meetings.. teacher conferences.. all of that stuff. And yes, soccer.

So we dive deep, head first, into the world of post-5-year-old parenting. There will be scary moments. Last night’s initial soccer meeting was scary for me – but moments that will come with joys and laughter. And memories to last.
Don’t get me wrong, though, I will not over romanticize the fact that, at times, we will become tired with 7pm weeknight practices and all day events on Saturdays…

But, dear Watson, this is just the beginning. Along road to hoe indeed.

I started writing a book about parenting four years ago. I wanted to chronicle the first five years of life and how it hits a parent. I did not finish the book–life went so fast I stopped having time to write it. But I am considering finishing it up and making it finalized …

After soccer season I, though… .if Idid not have time before I don’t think I’ve seen anything yet!

The road begins with a tiny soccer jersey and a group of fun kids who have the world ahead of them. The best thing as a coach of such an age group we can do? Encourage them to be kind, laugh, and just enjoy every moment of life.

You know, the things adult forget to get as they age.

Ex-Centralia residents to celebrate birth of dying town

Ex-Centralia residents to celebrate birth of dying town :

150 years later–after the town was formed–a celebration will take place in a nearby town. Centralia does not have a location to house hunderds of people for an event.. Centralia is gone. Wiped off the map by a mine fire that started decades ago. It has become a tourist site, Graffiti Highway is seemingly known worldwide, and horror movies have been based off of the goings on.

And those who have read this website for any given time will know: I was born and raised in the little town that died until my family moved due to the mine fire issue in the 1980s..

This weekend, the town is set to come together once more–the last time for many people in their 70s and 80s to see friends. I expect for a lot of people who I know deep down never got over the death of their town, this will be a nostalgic mix of sadness and laughter..

Happy 150th Centralia. The town that was.

I caught this meme tonight on my Facebook news feed..I have had...

I caught this meme tonight on my Facebook news feed..

I have had sleep paralysis before–never this thankfully.

The old hag syndrome, or whatever you’d call it, is something I never want to go through.. never want to experience.

I know people who have, however.

You may think it’s fiction … until it happens to you.

The summer stopped being fun lately.. Lots of strange roller...

The summer stopped being fun lately.. Lots of strange roller coaster moments of potential disaster..

Firefighters rescued eight people who got stuck on a roller coaster 100 feet above the ground in Oklahoma city. Rescue is complete at Frontier City with no injuries.

MORE HERE

Man Marries His Smartphone at Las Vegas Chapel

Man Marries His Smartphone at Las Vegas Chapel:

Last month, artist Aaron Chervenak drove from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, Nevada to finally take the love for his smartphone to the next level by marrying it at a small wedding chapel. 

The future is coming fast. This may be laughed at.. but in ten years we will be marrying robots .. and a whole new non human rights campaign will be waged..

This was an alley with houses in Centralia in 1986 when we moved...

This was an alley with houses in Centralia in 1986 when we moved out. The alley as it exists today looks very different. (at Centralia Coal Fire)

The Matrix Moment

The Matrix moment..
Ever have one?
I did yesterday..

Let me begin by saying this: I recently had a chance to view ‘virtual reality’ in my friend’s headset. It was amazing. I was traveling in a car with Lebron James… I even played basketball with him. The footage inside the headset is unbelievable.. when you take the piece off, your brain so convinced that what it was seeing was real, actually feels a bit bad about being back in the ‘reality’ of this world—you know, the real one?

Yesterday while walking in a hallway at work in the basement level of my building—a location I have seen and traveled to countless times through the years, I had a moment.

A weird moment.. What was floating through my mind was already interesting.. I wondered, as I looked at the monotone colors of the floor and walls, if a retired person I knew came back for a day, how startled she’d be that everything was the same as it was when she left almost a decade ago. And that is when it hit me.. For a brief moment—very brief—the hallway walls became very 3D looking.. the floor looked very, very real. For a moment in time, I felt like I was walking in a virtual reality world, like everything that was “real” was only real virtually..

Yes, indeed. For that brief time—literally seconds of my life—everything was so real and vibrant. Like for the first time in years, my mind noticed I was alive. That things were around me. That or, perhaps, I felt like Truman Burbank from the Truman Show when he discovered that his entire life had been a prop and set for some multiseason television program watched by billions around the world. Of course, I have no delusion of grandeur, I am fully aware that my life has little importance in the big picture scheme of things. But then again, many other reality ‘stars’ lives don’t either but they just don’t realize it.

Anyway, all of that said, it was startling for that time. The Matrix moment, when you finally realize the computer program you’re within … you see the controls, almost.
The takeaway, after seeing the virtual reality headset scene, is that the reality of what was in front of me looked so similar and felt the same.

I snapped out of it as quick as I snapped into it. For that moment, that brief time, I was alarmed with how vibrant and almost fake looking the scene in front of me.. And then everything immediatley become dull and flat again. Everything lost that edge, and the portal of awareness I entered in came back to the lifeless walls of depression that office environments to many times exhibit.
So now what do I strive for? Another Matrix moment. Perhaps one that lasts longer—the staying power could help me search out more ‘reality’ than what I had just witnessed.

Yes, now, I will be searching for reality.
Whatever reality is anyway.

U.S. Adults Consume an Entire Hour More of Media Per Day Than They Did Just Last Year

U.S. Adults Consume an Entire Hour More of Media Per Day Than They Did Just Last Year :

It indeed is a sea change.. Who could have predicted this about 10 years ago.. or heck even five years ago:

U.S. adults spent 10 hours, 39 minutes a day consuming media in the first quarter of 2016. That’s up a full hour from the first quarter of 2015, and it’s thanks to a substantial increase in smartphone and tablet usage, according to Nielsen’s Q1 2016 Total Audience Report.

But for all of these changes, all of this ‘progress,’ are we smarter? More informed? Better off?

You can decide that one.

We just know this: TEEVEEis dead .. long live TEE VEE

Reading this amazing book about autism allied NEOTRIBES by Steve...

Reading this amazing book about autism allied NEOTRIBES by Steve Silberman.. This is my favorite page his far.. I have family with autism who exemplify the descriptions to a tee ..