Tag: travel

Spring, Health, Weight


      Spring has sprung and families and couples will be going to Fairs, Flea Markets and The Big E in Mass. as well as  Amusement Parks like Lake Compounds and Quassapog. Amusement parks with rides and games to play outdoors and picnic areas and more.  What I say is enjoy if you can, including swimming when it starts, just be careful and watchful of your own and others and play safe.

       Spring brings flowers and blooms,it brings gardening and picnicking and rides and fishing and camping and yes even hiking. For some it is just a good time to play ball in the park and have fun that way, or run your mile or two to stay in shape. Whatever you do, do it safely is all I say.

       People run or play ball in the heat without having water to drink or salt if the sweat. They get symptoms of heat exhaustion, and stress and bam they go down with heart conditions, please be careful folks, spring, summer and fall is play time, but all in moderation is what we say and do.

      Health is a factor in all we can do, if you can’t run, swim, play ball, hike or fish, try walking. Walking will keep you breathing well, your muscles toned and help you maintain that big problem of weight gain. Walk a little at a time and build it up over time. do a block one day and add a block each day if ya can. But do it slowly and you will get the benefits of it, do it too fast and you can hurt yourself. It’s all in how it is done.

       Our diets change in the spring and summer too. We all tend to go for the hamburger and fries bit or hot dogs and chips and milkshakes and sodas. Try to stop or keep these down to once a week or better yet once a month. The more sugar you put in the better the chance of diabetes or weight gain, and the burgers and fries bit raises your carbohydrate levels adding to your weight problems. Go fruit, vegetables, juices and water  as much as possible, stay hydrated, eat fresh and then have fun.

      Way a person hurts their body is simply by not exercising at all, not eating right and the third thing is not moving at all. Sadly, people become over weight and lazy, playing computer games, console games, and staring at TVs all day and night. When I was growing up my parents said no tv till after supper and homework. We had no X-box. Playstation 3, Atari or computers, we were given a bat, a ball, a doll carriage,and outdoor things like bikes. As my Parents said eat in moderation, eat as healthy as you can, stay as active as you can and leave the guilty pleasures for the moments when all work is done.

A Short Story for Today


Video Ending !

It is ancient history so to say now, as to when the first video game appeared on the world market and the electronics craze really began. The 1980s is now decades ago when companies like Atari, and Commodore Computers came about. All hooked to a TV antenna on the back of your television and or with a monitor of its own and keyboard and silly joysticks. It now seems so long ago after all the inventions and progress since, doesn’t it. Pong, Table Tennis and then graphics came about as children and adults got fascinated by Intellivision and then PlayStations and X-Boxes and personal computers. Lap Top computers became the craze and now Tablets and E-readers abound, everywhere a person goes is someone reading, or playing or working on an electronic device. Amazing isn’t it folks we have become total and unashamed electronic geeks who love having video games to play and watch.

As a kid born in the fifties and raised in the sixties and seventies, we never had game consoles, computers, e-readers or video games. We had erector sets, microscopes, dolls, rings, jacks, jump ropes and balls. We had puzzles and paperback books and hard covers, and a little TV if we were good. Today’s children live and die with electronics and it is sad when you removed it from the kids they get lost and don’t know what to do anymore.

Such is the preamble to what happened to a child born in 1982, little Gerald McLaney. A young boy who by the age of fibe years old was given a controller to an Atari Console and got lost in simple games like pong and table tennis and grew from there. His parents didn’t think anything of it, it calmed Gerald down when he was upset, it made him quiet and happy and they could hear him in the next room each day, laughing and making fun sounds as he played for hours.

His days were spent staring at a Television screen full of pixels and shapes and laughing and yelling and sometimes crying when he failed to beat the games. Never though would Gerald ever give up no

matter how many times he was beaten by a game he always went back to play again, to prove it was beatable to him. Usually Gerald would figure it out even at five years old, a small boy who’s brain sped as fast as light pixels across the screen. He mastered games like pong in no time, tennis in no time, Mario Brothers by 7, and was on to games of Champion Tetris and puzzles and more.

His days were spent going to school, coming home rushing through homework, finishing it and on went the Television and the game console and Gerald would be lost once more to the world, in an electronic wasteland staring at a screen of colored pixels now that moved at the same rate as his brain cells fascinated by the games invented to play with. Gerald never worried about making friends or going out to play and his parents saw no problem letting him do as he wanted and what made him happy. After all Gerald was happy as he was and no one cared if it was the video games and Television screen keeping him company, all they knew is Gerald was a happy kid and never caused trouble.

His life went on and on as the video games grew, he went from Atari, to Intellivision, from Intellivision he graduated to X-Box and Play Stations. The games went from simple games like pong and table tennis to games of more violent natures now, war games, battles, battleships and planes and then the shooters. Yes the all-time favorites for Gerald, his shooters games of war now allowed to be played across the internet now, as servers sprang up and blood and gore and sounds of explosions and fights and yells of death filled the room Gerald played in. Gerald staring at the screen to see a dot move and shoot and duck as a player’s pixeled characters head exploded 300 feet away in the game and the scores rang up and awards He joyed in being able to kill as many opponents as possible and being the best on the score boards around the world now. Yet behind the screen as others were being beaten and seeing Gerald’s pixel character in the game come up victorious and win, no one knew the real Gerald who was now home alone always with no

one to watch him. He was snacking on so many things over time that between the age of 7 to 17, Gerald had somehow grown to 300 pounds and could barely move. Yet he refused to put down his controller and stop his game playing for it was all he knew. He ate whatever he wished, no his parents didn’t pay attention, nor stop him as long as Gerald didn’t bother anyone and was happy.

The video game sounds could be heard in the halls with Gerald’s door shut as he played on and on seldom stopping except for bathroom breaks and to get snacks. He would rush as fast as he could across the hall to the bathroom to go and then wait when no one was looking and get food and drinks and run back in and play more. He lived for the video games each day, looking online for new ones to play, buying and downloading what he could on a credit card. Each game was more complicated to win, each shooter more violent and gore filled as Zombies died, and Soldiers and Hit Men and Mobsters all at Gerald’s hands. As Gerald sat back in his chair in his room his eyes filled with the colors and pixels of the screen his thumbs and fingers gliding effortlessly across the controllers, smiling and never caring about anything else.

The pressure from the weight and his lack of physical exertion began to get to Gerald each day, slowing his heartbeat down and causing bladder and bowel problems, but Gerald didn’t care much, he wanted to just sit in the dark stare at the screen his fingers and thumbs sliding over the smooth buttons on the controllers and watch pixeled characters on a screen bleed and die left and right as he worked through each map and screen. It was after all Gerald’s whole life now, he knew he couldn’t run and play with the other kids now. Gerald could barely make it to the bathroom 100 feet away and the refrigerator 200 feet away downstairs once a day. He would sneak down when no one was looking with a tray and climb slowly back up the stairs, with the try loaded with drinks and snacks and junk food.

Once a week Gerald would get up and empty the trash when no one was home from his bedroom. Bags of trash he stored like a rabbit storing food, until no one was around and then disposed of them. No one knew Gerald existed except for the fact they kept feeding him food and drink and hearing the sounds of the games in the hallway and down the stairs throughout the house. This went on for a good 5 years and at times only visitors would wonder how Gerald was to his parents, but when they asked to see him, Gerald would tell his parents, he was too busy doing things and the game sounds would get louder. Slowly but surely over the next two years the gaming sounds from Gerald’s room would fade a little at a time. Becoming less and less to be heard from Gerald’s room daily. His own family tended to believe Gerald was fine, because the sounds did keep coming and going on and off and he never ever complained of anything.

Finally, after five long years, Gerald’s family began to wonder how come they didn’t see or hear from Gerald much anymore, what was he doing now a days. Was he really ok in that bedroom of his and  why didn’t he come out  or answer anymore?

One day, they decided it was time to see Gerald again and make sure he was alive and ok. As they pounded on his door there was only video games sounds inside and no verbal response from him.  They knocked harder and harder but no response still. So they tried to open the door to Gerald’s room, and failed not once but three times. Now worried frantically, they dialed 911 for help.

10 minutes later the fire department and police arrived to find out what this was all about, Amazed they listened to how someone wa sin this room and had been for so long no one knew what was happening, with him. They knocked first looking for response like everyone else did, but nothing. They asked for a key to the door but no one had one to let them in. The Police decided to try to break the door down by their shoulders yet it did not budge.

The Fire Department brought in a saw and they cut thru the door to Gerald’s room. They found Gerald who was now 400 pounds and leaning against the door as the door gave the rest of the way under his weight. Gerald died 400 pounds, happy with a tray of snacks, sodas and his video game controller in his hand! Sadly Gerald never bothered with anyone but the gamers online and ate like he did to do so, but he never interacted with real people in the outside world either.

Three days later they buried Gerald McLaney in a piano box, to hold his 400 pound body and before they tossed the dirt over his casket, they threw in his X-Box 360 and a controller!. He could now play video games forever more!

 

Election 2012


       This election cycle in the USA has been one comedy show after another by the Republicans and continues to be the worse mess I have ever seen a political party run out. Why, do this to yourselves and know in the end who ever is the nominee will never beat President Obama. You gave up way too much time and effort killing one another off, it’s stupid childish and ignorant.

       This  Republican Primary is not an election cycle it is indeed a circus of clowns throwing pies in each others faces, to make themselves look better is all. It does indeed and will forever in my book, remind me of old Three Stooges shorts, attached to movies. When will these Stooges get their act together and all work together to beat one opponent, well maybe never, making President Obama’s second term a great possibility and likely outcome.

         As the calendar flies by and the days and months count down to November, it is highly getting more realistic that President Obama will indeed get his second term and chance to straighten out the economy in full. Will it be good for America or bad? That folks is yet to come, for only time can tell what shall happen next.

      So, as the circus of the Republican Stooges continues to entertain Americans and the world, I wonder when Moe=Mitt Romney, will finally stand up and bang Larry=Santorum, Curley=Gingrich, Shemp=Paul’s heads together and tell them to get the hell out-of-the-way!. If not soon then, there is no real sense in running a General Election for President, the outcome is now a foreseen conclusion. 

 

■Loneliness


  • Loneliness
  • By: William McCurrach 
    Loneliness comes in many forms for many different people,
    Some get so lonely and think of ending it all,
    Then, they stop to think, is it all worth it,
    But don’t ask anyone else, because the reply,
    Will bring a tear,
    And that in and of itself; is a scare.

 
Many times the solitude and quiet can get to the mind,
It can make one think, they have no hope,
It can make one feel stupid and like a dope.

 
So when you think it is not all worth living,
And you are so depressed,
And you get tired of always giving,
Don’t give up; remember always, that someone,
Somewhere out there,
Does care, so pull your self up, stand proud,
Join the world, join humanity and the crowd.

Sunday, a Slow Day for Relaxing


While many across America and the world look at Sunday as religious day and get up get dressed and washed and eat quickly and run off to church, I find it a day of relaxation, not church. I guess I am not a religious person at heart and stopped going to church as soon as I was old enough to determine for myself.

       Anyway, since today is Sunday and a day of rest and relaxation for me, I am going to post a poem for this day. I hope all enjoy!

       

Sleepless Nights  William M. McCurrach

 

I awake in a cold sweat,

Remembering the nightmares I have still and yet.

 

Each night dreamless and restless,

Because I know I have lost, the best part of me,

I dream no more, each night a black deep hole,

Dreams have vanished, thoughts are dead,

There is, a blackness in my head.

 

What happened to my dreams?

What happened to my wishes, my wants, my needs,

I have no more of these,

So it seems.

 

Each night brings pain in my back, my stomach and my heart,

The pain I can live with, if need be,

But the dreams were once a central part of me.

 

Sleepless nights,

Full of darkness ,

Full of fright!.

 

How I hate when the sun goes down,

Knowing when it rises again,

I may not be around!.

 

The sleepless nights, bring to me my tears,

My mind and heart remembers the hurt of the past years.

 

So I suffer each night, without any dreams,

Sleepless nights are mine for now and ever more,

So it seems.

        

Events/ Family-Form Person


Events form our destiny they say, or is it Destiny the forms our life?  Could it be another thing, like we are the accumulation of the events and our base family‘s reaction to them? Many ideas come to subject on this point, but I have grown to believe, we are all, what we are taught to be, plus, what events  we live through you see. Each Generation is different because each has its own events they live through and we have the cultural, moral and ethical bringing up of the base family.

       Take a look back in time, for me i have only lived 56 years and I don’t know how long I have left. But I do not my parents didn’t hand us things on a platter, they didn’t give us cars, electronics, money or fancy clothes. We didn’t get our music through them or anything else, what we got pure and simple was discipline, work hard, go to school and stay the hell out of trouble or we will beat your ass. If you dropped out of school in my family’s world you went to work and paid for your rent and for food, you learned earlier than later, you had to earn your way.

        Each family, no matter how many children they have, has favorites, the ones who can’t do nothing wrong and everything goes right for. In our family we ran into that problem not once but twice. My elder brother was mom’s favorite, she would help him through everything and he  was attached hard and strong to her apron strings. He was Mr. Perfect. the one who could do it all right and play sports and be the hero.  As we grew older he disappeared into his sports and the family, ran as hard as he could, to find his freedom and escape the step-father we had. Violence was indeed a way our parents controlled him and none of the five of us were ever immune.

       Many have asked me what my first memory of life was, and how far back can I remember. Well Doctors, I go back to the year, 1961, I was five years old. It was the day after Labor Day, the first day of school for me, I was awaken and told to get up at 6 am, like my elder brother. I was washed and  cleaned by mom and then told to get dressed. I put on the clothes given to me like a good little man and then came the tie. The 1960’s school system had dress codes, the Elementary School code was ties that year. Mom pull ed me close and wrapped the tie around my collar and started to tie it. I was five years old I fidgeting and moved, that was it for her, the next thing I knew I was smacked across the face, crying and told hold still or I would get it again. Hows that for a first memory in one’s mind and head?

      Families have their black sheep and I was it for mine I think. My real father, had divorced my mother and moved back home, I would not meet him until I turned 18 years old and took a bus to another state on my own. As my mother would say, I looked like him and I talk like him, so I suffered for that all my young life living at home. Nothing I could say, do, or try to do, would ever make my mother and I get along well, till the day she died.

        The third child was one of my younger brothers. He was the first one mom had from our step-father.  I watched as he grew older and more anger came out of him year by year, from being beat upon by our father. The beatings were crazy and at night or anytime he decided we did something wrong. This kid got so angry as he grew older, he stole all of his father’s tools and belongings he could and sold them on the streets to make money. He wiped his own father out in that way and then they had the confrontation in the basement. By now my younger brother had grown to almost a full-sized man, he stood his ground against his father in that basement. As his father beat him he fought back finally, and took a pipe to dad’s head. As Dad stood there bleeding across his skull, he looked at his first full son and told him get out or I will kill you, leave. The kid packed up at 16 and left the home never to return, he died at age 32 in California, under an assumed name from Aids from drugs. Sad huh!

       The next was my baby sister, God Bless her for coming along when she did. She took some of the sting and violence out of her dad and mom. They loved having a little girl for a change. Dad would never hurt his little girl physically, but mom well she would and did, and beat her down mentally too. As our dad would say till the day he died, and he told her many times to her face, woman you have no motherly instinct at all. It was true and us kids knew it too, we really did all our lives.

       The final piece to the puzzle that was our family, is one last boy. A boy we all loved as he was small, smart and funny. He would laugh well the little guy back then and he  loved life. Before I left home I would babysit the two younger boys and my sister daily thru my high school years as our parents worked each day.  The third child would beat upon his younger sister and brother daily unless I stopped him. Anyway the youngest was given everything like my elder brother was as the eldest one, the baby of the family thing set in. But for him the  bad part was he also got the worst of his father’s habits and ways, he picked up over the years. I remember when he was small teaching him how to draw from the Sunday Paper Comic Strips. Today he has a talent for drawing that is immense and I hope he is using it somewhere.  But like I said he got things from his dad too, paranoia and at times anger issues hit this child on and off. He is suspicious of everything and anything around him, sadly for him. My understanding is early in his life after I left for military service he was hit by a car and it changed him. Sadly that is the family puzzle that was us, in our house.

       So like I say, events in history, family teachings and what we learned young became all of us and becomes all of us through out the World!.