FUCK DR. OZ........HARD

I have no respect for Dr. Oz and I never will. I'm not a Dr. but I am the son of a Physician that was the very embodiment of the Hippocratic oath. As a child I remember my father looking upon diet foods and crash weight loss products in a less than favorable manner. This idiot recommends every available product that's willing to pay him a hefty fee for valuable real estate in his show. He was grilled on the floor of congress and basically engaged in self contradictory statements and made himself look like a fool. Fuck you Oz you are not the wizard you want people to think you are.

If you want advice go to a Doctor that's willing to tell you the good and the bad in several areas. Stay away from the Physician featured in  The Canterbury Tales.

WHY WE ARE FASCINATED BY JACK THE RIPPER

The story of Jack the Ripper is one that continues to fascinate us to this day. Some people may ask "why?" I think the fascinating thing about Jack the Ripper is the fact that no one was ever found out. There was a list of suspects and plenty to talk about in England's circles of high society but nothing else. You fast forward over 100 years and all we still know is who the victims were, the fact that the victims were all women, the location and so on.

The speculation has run rampant without clear answers, unless you are author Patricia Cornwell, who decidedly fingered Walter Sickert as the killer in one of her books. The book stated that one of Sickert's motivations was the fistula in his penis. If we move away from Sickert we will see that there were other suspects as well, all with different motives. Even with a fair list the fact remains that this case went unsolved and it was really the first notorious case that led to dead end after dead end.

The Jack case was something different not just because the police did not find anything conclusive enough on anyone. The murderer  did a great job of making the police look like total idiots. The book What Alice Knew also points at Sickert but it does so on a fictional setting. I see the Jack the Ripper case as the first case where the criminal had a sort of superstar status, due in part to his uncanny ability to stay anonymous through the whole thing.

We will never know, but the Ripperologist inside us will always remain curious and fascinated.

IF YOU CAN SELF PROMOTE YOU ARE OKAY

I love the term shameless self promoter because it's kind of a contradiction. When a person says you are shameless they almost mean it in a derogatory manner. I am shameless but it's because I have nothing to be ashamed of. The fact is that when you are starting out no one will promote you so you have to do it yourself. If you are a writer this means multiple things outside of putting pen to paper on a daily basis.

Oh my blog! let's all get on the blog train to blog city. When you are a writer looking to get attention it's a great idea to go ahead and start a blog with opinions on relevant topics. The more outrageous your view the more attention you can draw to yourself. It's not about shocking people so much as it is about getting a little attention from different places. Of course there is a secondary option outside of blog city and that is self publishing.

The chances of you writing a best seller without any proper backing are very rare but if you have that little book to demonstrate what you can do as well as that sense of esthetics that's ever so important you definitely have an opportunity to draw some much needed attention to yourself. The point is to make yourself as visible as possible in order to show potential backers who you are and what you can do.

Always remember that no one ever paid attention to a person with little to say.

THE TORTURE THAT IS WRITING

I must have read enough about writing to teach a small village. I spent countless hours working on an MFA with the focus on Creative Writing and one thing never changes, writing is pure torture. Some people love torture and I guess writing is that type that drives you insane but you just can't get enough of. There are so many dimensions to writing that just seem so wrong.

The first thing about writing that bothers everyone is subjectivity. You can write something that you hate and everyone else loves and something you believe to be your best and everyone thinks is absolute crap. No matter what you do or don't do you always have that nagging "I want to be liked" feeling when crafting a story. There's that desire for perfection that you end up having to cut out in order to do what's right for the story.

It doesn't really matter what you do you will always find a flaw with what you write and when someone else point's it out you will be infuriated but the fact is that fresh eyes see far better than a tired mind. Writing is a passion and like all passions it can be unhealthy in multiple ways. Ultimately writing is that ex girlfriend that you loved but drove you insane, that parent you idolized but could not stand and ultimately it's that one fantasy that will be as painful as it is joyful once it becomes reality.

I JUST WANT TO CARRY YOUR BOOKS HOME

I want to take this particular opportunity to write about how romance seems to be a dying art. As I walked through a mall the other day I saw this one teenager with his girlfriend. The kid clearly thought he was some sort of rap star which was funny considering he made me think of Vanilla Ice in the Ninja Turtles movie. That having been said let me get to the point of this rant.

The kid was a vulgar point with no manners and no class whatsoever. What annoyed me was that the girl was equally ignorant and encouraged his boorish attitude. I wonder how exactly their interaction went. I can imagine it was something like:

BOY: Yo baby let's chill at the mall.

Girl: Like IDK  sure whatever!

BOY: Yo boo come on girl

Girl: My boyfriend like totally gets me you know.

The point is the kid was a jackass and he made me so angry I wanted to kick his ass. When I was younger and dating I had to work for a hello and really try everything from carrying a girls books to discreet hand holding at the regular places like the movies. While these were fifth grade tactics the fact that you no longer see them reminds you of societal decline in general. You have little kids talking about swag and how they want to be like Kim Kardashian instead of being individuals.

If all that kids are exposed to is overly rehearsed pop culture their ideas of relationships are going to be pathetic at best. This is why men no longer open the door for ladies. Wait there are no men just punks and morons. This is why there are no boys carrying girls books because they are too busy trying to be "players."

I think the problem lies with the idea that people need to be 100% free to explore from an early age. Yes I understand we all need to be individuals but if all you do is watch television and mimic garbage then you will pretty much end up like garbage.

 So how about it? Can I carry your books home?