"My name is George Henry and I'm a Television Addict...

It’s the post-season – pre-season nothing good on TV blues…

My wife asked me ‘why have you been in such a funk lately?’

I have had the chance to think about it and I have successfully eliminated the minutia surrounding the real reason.  It’s not that I have been almost a month without sugar.  It’s not that I am starting a new chapter in my career today, and it’s not the weather.

It’s the Television!

Sweet addiction, why have you left me lonely?

In the past couple of weeks I have seen the end of the season to some of my favorite shows on the boob tube.  I have also seen the cancellation of shows that were good and now I will never have closure on those stories.  And the next chapter of good television is almost three weeks out. 

I am in Television Purgatory!

I have a long list of shows that I watch with passionate intent.  Castle, Blue Bloods, Hawaii Five-O, and a long list of others.  Each one is on hiatus as they write new episodes.  In the meantime my favorite “off” season shows have yet to begin.  I am impatiently waiting for Suits, Rizolli and Isles, Royal Pains, and assorted others to give me some evening relaxation.

It is not a completely dry spell because a popular book trilogy by Blake Crouch was made into a series (Wayward Pines) and is showing once a week for ten weeks.  But HEY, it’s one hour a week!  I simply cannot survive on one hour of good television a week.

Now I know that you probably think I need to get a life outside of television, but the truth is I have one.  I work around the house, I go daily to the beach, I sometimes write ‘stuff,’ and I trim my toenails.

Last night, though, I found myself glued to American Ninja Warrior and that is when it was confirmed in my head that I am an addict.  How could anyone sit through 2 hours of that stuff and not be totally numbed to the real world.

I have decided to seek some counseling.  The trouble is that there are no shows on television that feature psychotherapy in their story lines.  So I guess until they do an hour drama on the life of Sigmund Freud, I have to continue to self-medicate with Alaskan Bush People!  God help me!

#Suits, #Elementary, #Castle, #Wayward Pines

Caveat emptor! (but then it's free...so...)

What is it about comedy?

I don’t think a day goes by when my wife doesn’t tell me that she thinks I am funny.  Not funny in the sense that I maker her laugh, but in the sense that she believes I have the ability to make others laugh.  Now I kind of get what she’s saying.  There are times when I can be incredibly funny, but when it comes to broadcasting on the radio I don’t feel the same way about comedy as she does.  I cannot try to be funny.  I either am or I am not.  And often it’s that I am not.

When I am on the air, behind the computer writing, or in a room full of truly funny people I can’t tell a joke to save my life, but give me the most inopportune moment: a serious event, a funeral, a board meeting, a doctor’s office, or a room filled with a diverse ethnic population and I am hilarious.

Recently, at my mother’s funeral – god rest her soul – I was in the back of the church with my nephews, their wives, and my oldest sister and her husband and you would have thought I was the headliner at the Comedy Store.  My poor mother was up at the front of the chapel, as she always was, serious as can be, not saying a word and me in the back getting a laugh a minute.  Sometimes even at her expense.  And the sick, indecent, disrespectful part of the whole situation was that I couldn’t stop…nor did I want to.  But in that moment, when tears were flowing from many of the visiting guests, I was killing it.

Now that was likely the most serious offense that I can remember committing, but certainly it was not an isolated circumstance.  My youngest sister, Joanne, passed 6 months prior and a similar thing occurred.  And I am thinking that this could be a new career for me.  Funeral Comedian.  Why not.  They say the more you laugh the longer you live…so I show up a little late for one of the guests, but the rest benefit greatly.

I am always the first to crack jokes immediately after a tragedy and either people will look at me in shock or they will fall over laughing.  Of course I learned that any such joke is completely admissible as long as you follow it with the obligatory “too soon?”  but seriously, do I have a responsibility to mourn?  Is it our culture that requires it of us?  Or are some people just too uptight?

Okay, so I will never be a standup comedian, but as long as somebody in the crowd is laying down…I think I can get a laugh…or two.

Vaccines do not cause Autism!

 Okay, I have your attention.

The truth of the matter is that I have no idea if vaccines do or do not cause Autism.  I know that there is a lot of research that would seem to support the claim that they do, and consequently there is a lot of government and pharmaceutical back lash against that research.

But let me tell you my twisted logic.  Or you can stop reading now and keep your mind in the state that it is in.  REMEMBER, I am not saying that I know which side is correct.  I am only making a personal statement from my experience.

I woke up the other morning and had this horrendous allergy attack.  Which for me is generally unheard of.  So I went to the ‘box of last resort’ and grabbed a Wal-dry from the foil encased plastic and placed it in my hand.

Now this is an amazing capsule.  It has a pharmaceutical in it that will shut down my allergic reactions in about 20 minutes.  What is really amazing is that it is smaller than the dosage in a standard round of vaccines for babies.  So even though I don’t like to take any pharmaceuticals, I put the tiny gel casing in my mouth and swallowed it.  20 minutes later the allergic reaction subsided.  10 minutes after that I felt completely lethargic.  My energy had disappeared and I felt as though I had been hit by a train.  This lasted for the entire day.

Now let me put this in perspective.  I am 6’3” and weigh 220 pounds and this tiny little pill kicked my ass.

Right there is an argument for anti-vaxers.  And for the Pro-vaxers, well, pretty much nothing will change your mind.  Yes we have eradicated polio.  Awesome!   Measles, mumps, and rubella?  Gone.  Awesome!  But here is the rub.  For every childhood disease that has been discovered they have included a pharmaceutical into a vaccine.  Currently the recommendation for vaccines from birth to 15 months (that’s months not years) is 26.

(see: http://www.vaccines.gov/who_and_when/infants_to_teens/index.html)

What may seem normal to many folks is not normal to me.  This seems outrageous.  A baby at 15 months averages between 19 and 24 pounds.  Forget about Autism, forget about ADHD.  What would make any sane person believe that this would not have a negative effect on the human body?  Has anyone seen the research that says for “20 years we tested this vaccine before putting into a human baby.”  NO…because there isn’t any.

So again, I have no idea what causes Autism in children…but I do have suspicions.

I quit...

I quit.

Sugar that is.  It has only been 4 days (on the 5^th now), but I realized something important.  Things are only difficult to do if you tell yourself they are difficult to do.  I made a decision to give it up.  I didn’t question it.  I didn’t go back and forth and wonder if it was a good decision, or if I could actually accomplish it, I just did.

Granted it has only been 4+ days, but I expected there to be more of a hunger/craving for sugar.  It’s like my body said “hey, he’s serious, let’s get on board.”

What I will tell you is something that you probably already know (because the majority of people that I know are pretty smart) is that sugar is in almost everything that comes in a box.  Even things that you don’t expect to have it, have it in one form or another.  It may not say “sugar,” but some hidden word on the box will translate to sugar.  Isomalt, erythritol, pentos, to name a few.

According to the Department of Health and Human Services there are almost 100 different words that mean sugar on a label.  If you are cautious about sugar you would help yourself greatly by learning those words.

For someone like myself, who wants to eradicate all sugar from my diet, boxed foods are pretty much out.  Fresh, home cooked meals are the surest way to do that.  Those who just want to limit the amount can be very choosy about processed foods.

Again, I may be preaching to the choir, but did you know that the position an ingredient falls within the label is in direct proportion to how much of it is in the recipe?  Of course you did.  But just to recap, the farther down the list something is, the less of it is in the box.  So again, refer to the HHS list of sugar names in determining how much you are eating.  And beware…there can be several sources of sugar in one box.

What it all comes down to though is just being picky.  As it is in every other decision in life, the more educated we are on a topic, the more likely we will make the right decision.  Unless of course you are one of those who likes to preach, but not practice.  I HAVE met a few people like that.

Mrs. Escamilla.

This is the one person in my life that I will always cherish and always give credit to when I write something.  Even though the last time I saw her was in 1974.

She passed on many years ago, but her memory is still strong and the effect she had on my life is the single greatest influence to my passion for writing.

In sixth grade, Mrs. Escamilla would come to our school and help facilitate our learning by either reading to students (individually), or listen to us read to her.  She had two daughters that attended the school, Sonia and Marina, but she spent most of the time with other students.  And the way I remember it…mostly me.

The books and stories that she would read would inspire me to write.  Not that any of the books were inspirational, but the fact that she would give of her time to fill my imagination with stories of adventure gave me inspiration.

I would go home at night and begin to formulate stories.  In fact between the summer of 6^th and 7^th grade I wrote a complete science fiction story complete with Heinleinian culture.  Which for a 7^th grader might have been a little unsettling for most.  But not for Mrs. Escamilla.  She embraced it.  She encouraged it and, as I remember, very rarely blushed.

Mrs. Escamilla was my muse.  It was her enjoyment of my story telling (I would read to her each time I had the opportunity to sit with her at school) that made me want to write more.  And even read more.

I never got to properly thank her for the gift that she gave me, although I have had the opportunity to share it with her daughters. 

I have drafted two novels since then, countless short stories, and many songs.  Now?  I just have to do something with them.   And there my friends is the rub.  But I continue to write, create, and imagine what is would be like to see my stories on the Big (or Little) screen.  I envy you Blake Crouch!  Perhaps in time someone will also envy me.

...about writing

Write every day.  That’s what every accomplished writer says is the key to overcoming the obstacles associated with the process.  Even when you don’t feel like it or you feel you have nothing ‘in the tank’ keep writing.

I know that it is the ‘write’ thing to do, but sometimes the personal obstacles are just too present to be able to clear away the minutia long enough to express a coherent thought.  When that happens I find myself writing about writing.

It has been a passion of mine for as long as I can remember.  When I first learned the art of spelling and sentence structure (does anyone really understand sentence structure) I can remember writing.  Poetry, songs, and short stories were the first to come to light and then the attempt at a novel.  This was all before the beginning of 8^th grade.  I remember writing a sci-fi story about babies being born with an expiration date of 35 years old and one man’s struggle to find a way to remove the chip that would ultimately spell the end of his existence.  I also remember writing a complete Hardy Boys book about an adventure they had in Hawaii.  The sad thing is that this was long before dongles and auto save.  It was in the age of pen and paper.

What I learned most about the art of writing and the creative process is that the less distractions that one has in life the more prolific a writer can be.  The more it is necessary to work to pay the bills, or raise children, or have a social calendar, the less likely it is that you will find quality time to write. 

When you read some of the greats (contemporary) you can see why they are so prolific.  Churning out 1 or two books a year that have great story lines.  They had a moment when that first success allowed them to have that second, third, and so on.

When writing pays the bills, and it becomes the “job,” some writers excel.  I believe that is because they are (one) truly talented, and (two) don’t have the outside noise that keeps telling them that some bill is delinquent.

Of course that is an oversimplification. ALL writers have blocks.  They, we, all meet that wall at the end of a dark alley and have to find a way to scale it.  But in the long run, persistence and tenacity will have the victory.  The ones that crumble before the wall…they have ‘non-writing’ jobs.