Blog Assignment #7 - Chicken Used To Be My Favorite Food...

Have you ever heard a sound that was so horrifying that it would not leave your brain? Something that just tugged at you; gave you nightmares even. I never really experienced that before now.

In my English class, we're watching a documentary called "Food Inc." and if you work in the food service industry, I recommend never watching it. I have found myself in a rut because of it.

Imagine being asked how the Maple Glazed Chicken is, and finding yourself paralyzed. The sound of a chicken that is scared, and knows it's about to die, starts to ring in your ears. Never heard that sound, well watch the video below, and your will hear what I'm talking about. I warn you, it's not something that is that easy to watch.

As I watched the video, I could hear the chickens screaming "Ow" just like a human would, and it made me look at a few things I would've never thought about before seeing this video. I watched as they killed these birds in front of the others, and wondered what was going on in the spectating chicken's head? Were they reacting to the inevitable, because they had been watching all along? How horrible would it be to watch a friend die, and then see the murderer come to me next?

Am I saying that killing chickens is murder? No. I'm not and activist. But I did see some parallels with humans and how they would respond. And because of that, I can't eat chicken anymore. At least not until I get that sound out of my ears.

Even still, I guess it was better than the way the chickens in the industrialized facilities were being treated. They had no quality of life. It was cruel. The pumped these chickens full of hormones and steroids so they would grow so big that their legs can't even hold their own weight, then slaughter them. Engineering the food to maximize profit, it's as disgusting as some of the fallout from their practices. The diseases and outbreaks. All because they wanted to make more money.

So even though this video was from so many years ago, I'm too grossed out to eat chicken now. And it's sad too. Because I used to love the Spicy McChicken Sandwich.

Blog Assignment #10 - Blocked

I write a lot of different things; poetry, flash fiction, short stories, novels, screenplays. It's generally a fun escape for me. I create a world, and let my mind enjoy all the possibilities. But lately, I've been dealing with a bit of writer's block.

It's not uncommon; but, unless I know the cause it's not easy to over come.  So what tends to cause me to get writer's block.

#1 - Not the work that wants to be worked on. 

So I found that with a million and one pieces of writing in my head, I can't choose which on t work on, so I stop all together. Or I'll pick up a short story, and put it down to work on my novel. But I need to add lines of dialogue to my screenplay. And don't get me started on when my loved ones piss me off, and poetry wants to spill from my finger tips. Starting and stopping will always bring me to a point of not starting again.

#2 - Lack of a proper story. 

Sometimes I have these epic scenes in my head, and believe that they are apart of this great story. So I write them down, and try to add to them. But I comes to a point where everything is so forced, and there is nowhere to go with it. So I stop, and can't restart.

I saw an interview with Stephen King, where he talks about this occurrence.

#3 - Wrong Format

This goes hand in hand with the previous cause. There are times when I'm feeling grumpy, and feel a poem flowing out (Yes I only write poetry when I'm grumpy). But as it flows, I find myself adding random dialogue. Oops. Wait. Random dialogue in a poem. Not right. So I go back and take out the dialogue, and everything is ruined and I stop writing. But had I been writing a flash fiction or short story, everything would've been fine.  Same goes with writing a short story, that is bigger than the word count permits, or a novel that has incredible visual aspects that can't be successfully conveyed in the written format. Knowing the true format of the piece could be the difference between a completed piece or a blocked writer.

In the end, the only way I've beat writers' block is just writing. The semantics can work themselves out, but I need to write. Sometimes, I just start writing nonsense. Eventually my brain decides that it wants to join the process and make everything make sense. And I'm unblocked.

Blog Assignment #9 - Where's the beef?

Growing up, I wasn't allowed to eat much fast food. My parents would go to McDonald's once a week and get the $0.25 hamburgers. And that was meant to be a treat. And boy was it.

Then as I got older, and had a little more freedom in my daily life, I started frequenting Wendy's and Carl's Junior. Why? Because of the quality, or at least that's what I told myself. And back then, it probably was better quality. Little did I know back then, the quality was diminishing.

Corporations were looking for short cuts that could help to increase profits. So they started using "filler" products. Funny how nobody ever had to specify what the word "filler" actually meant.  Then Jamie Oliver did his "Food Revolution" show, and put the issue on Prime Time television.

In this one particular episode, he dramatically demonstrates how "Pink Slime" is made. Most people had no clue what "Pink Slime" was. But because of Jamie Oliver's show, McDonald's outed themselves and told the world that they would no longer be using it in their burgers.

ABC News reported this back in 2012, and McDonald's made this statement.

“At McDonald’s, the quality and safety of the food we serve our customers is  a top priority,” the company wrote. “At the beginning of 2011, we made a decision to discontinue the use of ammonia-treated beef in our hamburgers.  This product has been out of our supply chain since August of last year. This decision was a result of our efforts to align our global standards for how we source beef around the world.”

It was also reported that Burger King and Taco Bell stopped using it too. And that's just some of the fast food chains. What about the supermarkets and school. This meat filler could be anywhere, and we'd never know it. But thanks to people like Jamie Oliver, we know it exists, and knowing is half the battle.

If you want to read more about McDonald's announcement, click the following link:

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2012/02/01/mcdonalds-announces-end-to-pink-slime-in-burgers/

Blog Assignment #8 - Breaking The Rules

As I write my screenplay "Morning Star Rises", I have discovered something important about myself. I don't care about the "rules" and want "Happily Ever After" for a murderer.

I guess I should start from the beginning...

(SPOILER ALERT) A woman is killing men in Sterling County. As they have sex, she reaches into their chest, and pulls their heart out of their body. She enjoys what she does, and I find it fun to write.

So when I come to the point where her identity is revealed, and she "must be stopped", I stop writing. I find it almost impossible to write anything worth reading. Would you like to know why? Because the rules state that she can't have a Happily Ever After. But I'm not one to follow rules.

So I wrote an ending, where she defeats those who would stop her, and found a powerful ally to have her back. And all I could think as I read it was, "Oh my god. I can't believe I wrote this crap."

That's right, I called it crap. And it was. Such a feel good moment, when the Killer and her Ally go off into the sunset to find their next victim. Wait, "their next victim". There is the problem.

The killer acts alone, and the ally is one of the good guys. And there are rules about stuff like that. But I don't want to follow the rules. So what do I do?

I'm thinking that the killer must die. But maybe she could die a hero. That would be breaking some rules, while not compromising any of my other characters' morals.

That's right, my cursed angels, sex demons, vampires and werewolves have morals. And I need to make sure that they keep them intact. Otherwise nobody is safe.