Wednesday Night Blog #8
10/22/14
Tom DiCaprio
Ten more days for National Novel Writer's Month and eight more days until my vacation commences!!! What a way to begin my latest Wednesday night blog. Well after a few days of my back pain taking a turn for the worse, I'm hanging tough right now. The pain has twice shot down my leg and now been shooting across my back. All this due to the Laborum injury suffered in my crash two months ago. Well I will be seeing the doctor at 3pm tomorrow so there will be some civilized venting that will take place.
Well if you're a parent and you get a call from your child's school saying that your son or daughter has not showed up. You then call your child and they tell you that they are running late. Well you think everything's alright. Then they don't come home that night and now you're concerned. You start panicking and call the police. Later on there is an alert placed on your son or daughter. Well next thing you know you get a call from the German authorities a day later saying that they were boarding a plane to Turkey. What are your thoughts then? It would at least be an OMG and WTF moment if you have any sort of competency as a parent. This only gets more dramatic from here. Well it was three teenage girls who were "Schemin' like DeNiro in Casino" in trying to join ISIS. Yes you read it right ISIS. They are now accepting female members. Talk about progress especially in Puritan Islam. Well if the USA wasn't on the brink of falling behind in the War on Terror, well guess what...we have and then some. If we don't begin to think like the enemy then we are deep trouble.
The gunman who killed a soldier at the Candian War Memorial in Ottawa was identified as Michael Zehaf-Bibeau a convert to Islam. Well Canada has had a growing Islamic population (Does anyone recall the plot to take over the Canadian Parliament Building?) and it looks like Islamic extermism is being pushed back to being front and center in Canada and rightfully so. Bad enough that USA is on the brink of someday becoming an Islamic state but Canada too?!?!?!? Well leave it to the Islamists to take advantage of the laws of the USA and Canada and infiltrate both nations while using the the laws to their advantage in order to achieve their diabolical goals. Goals that Paul Sperry and Pamela Geller have discussed in the their books and my novel Deception that was published in August.
A couple of my friends brought up an interesting point in their respective Facebook posts yesterday. They posted that more Americans have married Kim Kardashian than have died of Ebola. I shared
the post and added "What are we coming to?" However I think there will be a lot more Ebola victims
in the USA in the coming months. I hope that I'm wrong though.
Enough on that. Another weekend and another subpar performance by Jay "Baby" Cutler. This time his buddy Brandon Marshall went off on Cutler, Kyle Long and Robbie "Good as" Gould. Players were being dragged out of the locker room during Marshall's epic reset of Eddie Murphy's "I have been having a very bad day" speech from Another 48 Hours. Even the Buffalo Bills won to go to 4-3 on the year. How 'bout them Cowboys going 6-1. Even the Seahawks have now lost two in a row while the Rams are proving to be a team on the rise. They were leading the Niners 14-0 on Monday Night Football two Monday's ago but lost 31-17. Well they throttled the defending Super Bowl Champions on Sunday. Need I say more.
The Kansas City Royals have now fallen back to earth. They lost their first postseason game since 1985 last night. That would usually be considered to be very impressive but their last postseason appearance took place back in 1985. There will be more baseball hot stove takes in the months to come. Meanwhile I will be standing by my prediction that the Royals will win the World Series this year.
I'm afraid that this will be it for this post. Have a great week and weekend everyone!
Tom
Wednesday, October 22, 2014
Wednesday, October 15, 2014
Wednesday Night Blog #9
Wednesday Night Blog #9
10/15/14
By
Tom DiCaprio
Well this is now going to be my ninth Wednesday Night Blog. Only three more until National Novel Writer's Month begins and tonight is one of the three more blogs. I may continue on with this come November. Stay tuned everyone. I'm now struggle no to figure out how to begin tonight's blog or was until the writers group who I'm hanging out with write now are now presently discussing the Ebola scare. We are discussing how one gets Ebola which can be transmitted by touch or by oral means or even airborne. Looks like it can be a topic for my NaNoWriMo project Gladio. I just got the Kindle version of NATO's Secret Armies. It's an in depth look at Operation Gladio. Gladio is about stand alone armies who would be activated in case of a Soviet Invasion during the Cold War. They stored weapons and other supplies in hidden areas where they could be quickly accessed should there be a need to. Gladio later evolved into terrorist attacks where the people would turn to the state for protection. One diabolical part of Gladio was the order to assassinate 40 politicians from the West German Social Democratic Party.
Anyways two nurses who treated the patient in Texas who died of Ebola have now caught the disease. I'm hoping that there aren't others out there who have Ebola as well. Between that and Enterovirus epidemic we could be in for quite a winter.
The research for Gladio is continuing to make progress. I'm presently researching the period from August 1994 through November1995 in order to capture the mood and trends of the era. Part of Gladio will take place during this time. The other aspect of Gladio is that Rochester, New York will be a setting for Gladio as well. Enough on Gladio. Seventeen days before I begin to write my next novel and end my hiatus in the process. Been counting down the days since late July. All is know is that once November 1 is here it's showtime!
Meanwhile I'm watching game four of the American League Championship Series and all I can say is that I haven't enjoyed playoff baseball this much since the 2004 ALCS when th Red Sox came back from a 3 game deficit to knock off theYankees four games to three. I'm not counting the 2006 National League Divisional Series where the Mets beat the Mets beat the Dodgers. I refuse to discuss the tragedy of the 2006 NLCS. I'm still traumatized by it and need I mention how the Mets have been affected by it ever since...okay enough on that. I'm not sure who will win the NLCS this year. St. Louis would be a cool choice but if this even year trend this decade holds then the Giants will win it all.
The Dallas Cowboys are now 5-1. Who saw it coming? I didn't and neither did all of the non
Cowboys fans for that matter. I'm still living and dying along with the Chicago Bears with the arm and consistency of lack there of with Jay Gutless aka Jay Quitter who is also known as Jay Baby Cutler since he's a crybaby.
Sorry to interrupt this blog to congratulate the Kansas City Royals for winning the American League pennant. They are definitely going to win it all! Hopefully the Mets will win it all next year. Sounds like a 1985 and 1986 redux going on here.
Well enough said for the blog this week. Take care everyone and I will write again soon.
10/15/14
By
Tom DiCaprio
Well this is now going to be my ninth Wednesday Night Blog. Only three more until National Novel Writer's Month begins and tonight is one of the three more blogs. I may continue on with this come November. Stay tuned everyone. I'm now struggle no to figure out how to begin tonight's blog or was until the writers group who I'm hanging out with write now are now presently discussing the Ebola scare. We are discussing how one gets Ebola which can be transmitted by touch or by oral means or even airborne. Looks like it can be a topic for my NaNoWriMo project Gladio. I just got the Kindle version of NATO's Secret Armies. It's an in depth look at Operation Gladio. Gladio is about stand alone armies who would be activated in case of a Soviet Invasion during the Cold War. They stored weapons and other supplies in hidden areas where they could be quickly accessed should there be a need to. Gladio later evolved into terrorist attacks where the people would turn to the state for protection. One diabolical part of Gladio was the order to assassinate 40 politicians from the West German Social Democratic Party.
Anyways two nurses who treated the patient in Texas who died of Ebola have now caught the disease. I'm hoping that there aren't others out there who have Ebola as well. Between that and Enterovirus epidemic we could be in for quite a winter.
The research for Gladio is continuing to make progress. I'm presently researching the period from August 1994 through November1995 in order to capture the mood and trends of the era. Part of Gladio will take place during this time. The other aspect of Gladio is that Rochester, New York will be a setting for Gladio as well. Enough on Gladio. Seventeen days before I begin to write my next novel and end my hiatus in the process. Been counting down the days since late July. All is know is that once November 1 is here it's showtime!
Meanwhile I'm watching game four of the American League Championship Series and all I can say is that I haven't enjoyed playoff baseball this much since the 2004 ALCS when th Red Sox came back from a 3 game deficit to knock off theYankees four games to three. I'm not counting the 2006 National League Divisional Series where the Mets beat the Mets beat the Dodgers. I refuse to discuss the tragedy of the 2006 NLCS. I'm still traumatized by it and need I mention how the Mets have been affected by it ever since...okay enough on that. I'm not sure who will win the NLCS this year. St. Louis would be a cool choice but if this even year trend this decade holds then the Giants will win it all.
The Dallas Cowboys are now 5-1. Who saw it coming? I didn't and neither did all of the non
Cowboys fans for that matter. I'm still living and dying along with the Chicago Bears with the arm and consistency of lack there of with Jay Gutless aka Jay Quitter who is also known as Jay Baby Cutler since he's a crybaby.
Sorry to interrupt this blog to congratulate the Kansas City Royals for winning the American League pennant. They are definitely going to win it all! Hopefully the Mets will win it all next year. Sounds like a 1985 and 1986 redux going on here.
Well enough said for the blog this week. Take care everyone and I will write again soon.
Friday, October 10, 2014
I can't afford to sit on the sidelines anymore...
To paraphrase a favorite book of mine "This is the week where the waves have come crashing in." Too much has happened this week for me not to say something/ By this I mean that I'm not declaring my candidacy for public office such announcing that I'm entering the 2016 Presidential race. I wouldn't even know which political party to be a presidential candidate for. Until 2008 I was sure of my political ideology, but since then I've been struggling with that. Anyways I will save that for a whole another blog. What I have decided to do is to be a voice. By that I mean sharing my take on things by writing on this blog. Well we are going to be in for quite a ride together and no that was not part of the farewell speech that former President Bill Clinton gave to his female interns. Enough said there. Let's get this started (As sounds of Let's Get it Started by The Black Eyed Peas is now playing in my mind and on You Tube that I have playing on low since I refuse to wake up my tenant at 5:40 am.
Here we go...The score was 17-3. I will give you four quick hints...It wasn't the score of last night's Colts-Texans game at halftime...that was the first hint...it definitely wasn't the score of last night's MLB playoff game (No games were played by the way)...two more hints...It wasn't the score of Thursday hockey game which would have made news on CNN, FOX News, MSNBC (By the way al-Jazzera America doesn't even count as a news outlet. It's just a way for the Wahhabists from Saudi Arabia to pimp their own brand of Islam on the rest of us. Just ask poor Megyn Kelly who they CAIR (Council of American-Islamic Relations aka the al-Qaeda subsidiary who is using CAIR as an excuse in order to pimp their own brand of radical Islam on us while infiltrating American society by using our laws in order to turn this nation into an Islamic state) has declared Jihad on all because she took a stand against their diabolical agenda which in part inspired me to write my now published novel Deception. Well if there was a hockey score that was 17-3 it would have been Team Russia playing Team Zimbabwe in Olympic Hockey. Here's my last hint it wasn't the score of an Oklahoma City Thunder-Charlotte Hornets NBA Exhibition game (Yes the Charlotte Hornets are back). Well 17-3 is the score of the latest racial incident that will change Ferguson from Ferguson, Missouri to Fallujah, Iraq. Yes you are reading right...there has been a second racial incident in Ferguson involving a white police officer and an African-American. This time the African-American male fired three shots at a white police officer unlike Michael Brown who fired none. The white police officer proceeded to fire the next seventeen shots killing the shooter in the process. Seventeen shots?!?!?!? Well I can see a few shots like two to the torso and one to the head, but seventeen?!?!?!? Looks like the officer's face was as red as his neck. Not for anything but this isn't the pre-Civil Rights Jim Crow South anymore. Looks like the U.S. military will now have another conflict that they will have to involve themselves with. Bad enough our military has been spread thin as it is, but this could give ISIS, al-Qaeda and al-Shabbab the opening that they have been looking for to strike at the American heartland. Oh wait the three aforementioned groups are actually one group in order to bring confusion to Americans and the American military. Oh wait they have already struck us recently in the form of the Dallas Ebola patient who passed away Wednesday afternoon. It looks another Ebola infected person is now being treated in Dallas because he was in contact with the patient while treating him. Looks like my Mom God rest her soul was right once again about one thing "No good deed goes unpunished." With that I will be ending this post on that note since I'm expecting some serious backlash because of this latest post but someone has to tell it as it is around here so why not the person be me.
Have a good Friday everyone,
Tom
Here we go...The score was 17-3. I will give you four quick hints...It wasn't the score of last night's Colts-Texans game at halftime...that was the first hint...it definitely wasn't the score of last night's MLB playoff game (No games were played by the way)...two more hints...It wasn't the score of Thursday hockey game which would have made news on CNN, FOX News, MSNBC (By the way al-Jazzera America doesn't even count as a news outlet. It's just a way for the Wahhabists from Saudi Arabia to pimp their own brand of Islam on the rest of us. Just ask poor Megyn Kelly who they CAIR (Council of American-Islamic Relations aka the al-Qaeda subsidiary who is using CAIR as an excuse in order to pimp their own brand of radical Islam on us while infiltrating American society by using our laws in order to turn this nation into an Islamic state) has declared Jihad on all because she took a stand against their diabolical agenda which in part inspired me to write my now published novel Deception. Well if there was a hockey score that was 17-3 it would have been Team Russia playing Team Zimbabwe in Olympic Hockey. Here's my last hint it wasn't the score of an Oklahoma City Thunder-Charlotte Hornets NBA Exhibition game (Yes the Charlotte Hornets are back). Well 17-3 is the score of the latest racial incident that will change Ferguson from Ferguson, Missouri to Fallujah, Iraq. Yes you are reading right...there has been a second racial incident in Ferguson involving a white police officer and an African-American. This time the African-American male fired three shots at a white police officer unlike Michael Brown who fired none. The white police officer proceeded to fire the next seventeen shots killing the shooter in the process. Seventeen shots?!?!?!? Well I can see a few shots like two to the torso and one to the head, but seventeen?!?!?!? Looks like the officer's face was as red as his neck. Not for anything but this isn't the pre-Civil Rights Jim Crow South anymore. Looks like the U.S. military will now have another conflict that they will have to involve themselves with. Bad enough our military has been spread thin as it is, but this could give ISIS, al-Qaeda and al-Shabbab the opening that they have been looking for to strike at the American heartland. Oh wait the three aforementioned groups are actually one group in order to bring confusion to Americans and the American military. Oh wait they have already struck us recently in the form of the Dallas Ebola patient who passed away Wednesday afternoon. It looks another Ebola infected person is now being treated in Dallas because he was in contact with the patient while treating him. Looks like my Mom God rest her soul was right once again about one thing "No good deed goes unpunished." With that I will be ending this post on that note since I'm expecting some serious backlash because of this latest post but someone has to tell it as it is around here so why not the person be me.
Have a good Friday everyone,
Tom
Wednesday, October 8, 2014
Wednesday Night Blog #8
Wednesday Night Blog #8
October 8, 2014
By
Tom DiCaprio
Today the Ebola victim from Dallas has passed away. Also a dog has been euthanized in Europe as a result of Enola as well. Right now my Wednesday night writer's club and I are discussing Ebola. It looks like the Pandemic of 2014 err one of the two Pandemics of 2014 could very well be under way. The other would be Enterovirus aka EV-D68. ISIS has come out said that they will infect someone with Ebola and would have them come here and infect Americans. If this isn't an obvious threat then I don't know what would be one...imagine if they come up with a plot to infect us with EV-D68...it looks like a future novel could discuss this...stay tuned. I hope that this doesn't materialize in real life. Now five US airports will be screening people for symptoms of Ebola. This could be a sign of what will come. With the second blood moon in the books, this concern could be elevated to a whole new level. The third blood moon will come Saturday April 4, 2015. According to historical tradition Saturday June 4, 33AD was the day after the Crucifixion of Jesus. Since the Jewish Sabbath falls from a Friday night at sunset to Saturday night at the same time, then with this alignment of events I have no question that things could get very dicey very quick. Another note about Friday April 3 through Sunday April 5 would be that just like 33 AD where the Crucifixion fell on April 3 and the Ressurection fell on Sunday April 5 well Good Friday will fall on Friday April 3, 2015 and I'm sure that everyone knows that two days later will be Easter. I hope that I don't have to give anyone a similar lecture like the one I gave a coworker yesterday when he said that he thought Thomas Jefferson invented the light bulb and that Thomas Edison and Benjamin Franklin were U.S. presidents. You don't want to be "that person" trust me. Anyways if this isn't a cause for potential
concern then I don't know what would be.
Last night I hung out with a friend of mine at a local bar where he was bartending. He was talking to another patron and they were discussing ISIS. I then discussed a previous post where I made concerning the fact that al-Qaeda, al-Shabbab and ISIS were actually one group and that this split up into three groups was a ruse in order to confuse us and our military. If that is so then we could be in some serious trouble in the near future. The patron then discussed how he fought in Desert Storm back in 1991. He fells that ISIS must be bombed off the map. Well it looks like I now have a new friend. We proceeded to have a very lively conversation where we agreed tha ISIS was like Nazi Germany in 1938. This is yet another great cause for concern. We all know what happened after 1938 and it has even evolved into this crisis. Well the end of World War I with The Treaty of Versailles was actually the opening shots of World War II. Therefore this trend continues on to this day just 100 years after WWI began.
Twenty four days until National Novel Writer's Month begins. Still amped up for it to begin. Research for Gladio is well underway. This could be quite an interesting November to remember. I'm still coming up with ideas for Gladio. I just won't be discussing them in this blog at this time for obvious reasons.
On to something different. The MLB playoffs have taken a very interesting turn. Looks like the Kansas City Royals are becoming the sleeper team this year. They've managed to knock off both the Oakland A's and the Los Angeles Angels. Now they are going to play the Baltimore Orioles in the American League Championship Series. They've knocked off two powerhouse teams why not go for the trifecta. I think they could pull it off. In the National League Chapionship Series, the San Francisco Giants will be playing the St. Louis Cardinals. Looks like a rematch of the 1985 World Series could soon be taking place, but yet the Giants could continue what has been a trend this decade of winning the World Series in the even numbered years in the 2010's decade.
The NFL well do I really need to discuss this...okay then I will. Looks like another weekend and another arrest in the NFL. Derrick Shelby of the Miami Dolphins was arrested for groping women at a club and refusing to drive out of the club afterwards. He proceeded to be charged with resisting arrest among things. The Chicago Bears are playing with no heart. Once again their defense stood around as opposing wide receivers caught balls for touchdowns. Considering that the Carolina Panthers failed to field an entire team and beat the Bears in the process well this doesn't bode well. However the Buffalo Bills switched starting quarterbacks and won while remaining in first place. Since my iPad has been freezing all night I'm afraid that I will be ending this blog for the week at this time.
October 8, 2014
By
Tom DiCaprio
Today the Ebola victim from Dallas has passed away. Also a dog has been euthanized in Europe as a result of Enola as well. Right now my Wednesday night writer's club and I are discussing Ebola. It looks like the Pandemic of 2014 err one of the two Pandemics of 2014 could very well be under way. The other would be Enterovirus aka EV-D68. ISIS has come out said that they will infect someone with Ebola and would have them come here and infect Americans. If this isn't an obvious threat then I don't know what would be one...imagine if they come up with a plot to infect us with EV-D68...it looks like a future novel could discuss this...stay tuned. I hope that this doesn't materialize in real life. Now five US airports will be screening people for symptoms of Ebola. This could be a sign of what will come. With the second blood moon in the books, this concern could be elevated to a whole new level. The third blood moon will come Saturday April 4, 2015. According to historical tradition Saturday June 4, 33AD was the day after the Crucifixion of Jesus. Since the Jewish Sabbath falls from a Friday night at sunset to Saturday night at the same time, then with this alignment of events I have no question that things could get very dicey very quick. Another note about Friday April 3 through Sunday April 5 would be that just like 33 AD where the Crucifixion fell on April 3 and the Ressurection fell on Sunday April 5 well Good Friday will fall on Friday April 3, 2015 and I'm sure that everyone knows that two days later will be Easter. I hope that I don't have to give anyone a similar lecture like the one I gave a coworker yesterday when he said that he thought Thomas Jefferson invented the light bulb and that Thomas Edison and Benjamin Franklin were U.S. presidents. You don't want to be "that person" trust me. Anyways if this isn't a cause for potential
concern then I don't know what would be.
Last night I hung out with a friend of mine at a local bar where he was bartending. He was talking to another patron and they were discussing ISIS. I then discussed a previous post where I made concerning the fact that al-Qaeda, al-Shabbab and ISIS were actually one group and that this split up into three groups was a ruse in order to confuse us and our military. If that is so then we could be in some serious trouble in the near future. The patron then discussed how he fought in Desert Storm back in 1991. He fells that ISIS must be bombed off the map. Well it looks like I now have a new friend. We proceeded to have a very lively conversation where we agreed tha ISIS was like Nazi Germany in 1938. This is yet another great cause for concern. We all know what happened after 1938 and it has even evolved into this crisis. Well the end of World War I with The Treaty of Versailles was actually the opening shots of World War II. Therefore this trend continues on to this day just 100 years after WWI began.
Twenty four days until National Novel Writer's Month begins. Still amped up for it to begin. Research for Gladio is well underway. This could be quite an interesting November to remember. I'm still coming up with ideas for Gladio. I just won't be discussing them in this blog at this time for obvious reasons.
On to something different. The MLB playoffs have taken a very interesting turn. Looks like the Kansas City Royals are becoming the sleeper team this year. They've managed to knock off both the Oakland A's and the Los Angeles Angels. Now they are going to play the Baltimore Orioles in the American League Championship Series. They've knocked off two powerhouse teams why not go for the trifecta. I think they could pull it off. In the National League Chapionship Series, the San Francisco Giants will be playing the St. Louis Cardinals. Looks like a rematch of the 1985 World Series could soon be taking place, but yet the Giants could continue what has been a trend this decade of winning the World Series in the even numbered years in the 2010's decade.
The NFL well do I really need to discuss this...okay then I will. Looks like another weekend and another arrest in the NFL. Derrick Shelby of the Miami Dolphins was arrested for groping women at a club and refusing to drive out of the club afterwards. He proceeded to be charged with resisting arrest among things. The Chicago Bears are playing with no heart. Once again their defense stood around as opposing wide receivers caught balls for touchdowns. Considering that the Carolina Panthers failed to field an entire team and beat the Bears in the process well this doesn't bode well. However the Buffalo Bills switched starting quarterbacks and won while remaining in first place. Since my iPad has been freezing all night I'm afraid that I will be ending this blog for the week at this time.
Wednesday, October 1, 2014
Wednesday Night Blog #7
Wednesday Night Blog # 7
By
Tom DiCaprio
10/1/14
It's definitely good to be back blogging. I was house sitting for a friend in Pultneyville from September 9 to the 27. I definitely enjoyed the lakefront property for sure. However the back injury made me alter some plans. My friend has four beds in his home. The one that he wanted me to sleep in did not do wonders for my back for the first hour that I tried to sleep. After playing a round of musical beds, I slept in the master bedroom despite his wishes for me not to. It was the best available bed that was conducive for my back issues. It was awesome waking up every morning while I was in Pultneyville and looking out the window and seeing Lake Ontario. What a wonderful feeling that was. The nineteen days flew by very fast although the daily commutes from Pultneyville to Rochester and back seemed to drag on like the Kansas City Royals-Oakland A's game from last night. That said its good to be back in Rochester.
I've been getting mentally ready for my National Novel Writers Month Project that begins a month from today. I'm going to pick up Gladio by Ganser Daniele and read it this month. It should give me quite a premise for my novel "Gladio" that will be written starting November 1. I'm so amped up for it and I have to wait another 31 days before I begin to write it. I'm working on an elevator pitch for it right now. John Grisham said that if you cannot explain your novel in one or two sentences then you shouldn't write it. Well here's my elevator pitch for Gladio which is a work in progress as I write this. "A CIA agent who is framed by a rogue agent must clear his name while confronting his past in order to prevent a terrorist attack."
Well it's been an interesting NFL season. Who would have thought that the cowboys would be 3-1 and the Bills would start the season 2-0. Even the NFC Central is still wide open. The MLB playoffs are underway. I can't think of a team to root against this year. I would prefer that the Angels or Royals win it all. I think it will be a combination of the Angels or Orioles playing the Dodgers or Nationals. Let Rocktoberfest commence.
On to the news front. Ebola has arrived in the USA. Texas has reported the first case. The sad part is that I'm not surprised about this. I'm just surprised that it took this long for it to occur. Looks like there will be a sudden demand for DVD copies of Pandora's Clock, Outbreak and Contagion. Definitely not a good sign for what could come. Imagine if this outbreak of Ebola was in fact an act of biological terrorism? I don't even want to picture how this would be handled.
The Secret Service has had one mishap after another recently. Now there is a rumor that a convicted felon carried a gun into the White House elevator and was standing next to President Obama. What are they trying to do? Deliberately screw up and allow an incident to take place that would be tragic. That would be inexcusable. The Secret Service who had been so vigilant to protect not only the president from assassination, but the nation from a race war in the process has now been lax in their duties. Do they know something that we don't? There are other ways to handle it. Allowing an assassination to occur is unacceptable.
I may have briefly mentioned a possibility of al-Qaeda, al-Shabbab and ISIS being one and the same group, but flying different flags in order to confuse the USA and our allies in the War on Terror. I still feel that it is a possibility that can never be ignored. If this strategy of spreading our military too thin and then engaging in an all out full scale strike against us occurs, then this nation as well as our allies may be in some very serious trouble. There has also been an en masse immigration of Moslems from the Middle East to European nations such as Great Britain, France and Germany as well as other western nations such as the United States and Canada. This was also a topic that was a storyline in my latest novel Deception.
Even the Rochester area is still having a rough run of controversial news stories. After the controversial parole of Thomas Johnson III which resulted in the killing of RPD Officer Daryl Pierson, the news of Monroe County has shifted west to Brockport which has experienced a couple of high profile incidents in the past ten days. First SUNY Brockport defeated St. John Fisher College in football. Then the Brockport students proceeded to party after the upset and a riot took place. I'm now picturing how many times DJ Snake and Lil John's hit song Turn Down For What was played during the partying that took place in the hours that preceded the riots. This week a SUNY Brockport soccer player was stabbed by an acquaintance who was stalking him. The acquaintance who was not a student at Brockport was able to enter the campus undetected and then stab the student who according to some was a love interest of his assailant. The victim did not feel the same way towards his future assailant. Looks like crashing into events and places has become a common theme. A local radio station sent someone to slip his way into a local high school and college undetected this morning.
Unfortunately this trick is not limited to spies and government agents. Also this is not only the unfortunate recoccuing common theme these days. The NFL has had the floodgates open when it comes to domestic violence. This has since extended into other sports. I think this was the first weekend where a NFL player has not been arrested. This is definitely a first in quite some time.
Well I have run our of things to write about this week. With that said I wish everyone a great week!
Tom
By
Tom DiCaprio
10/1/14
It's definitely good to be back blogging. I was house sitting for a friend in Pultneyville from September 9 to the 27. I definitely enjoyed the lakefront property for sure. However the back injury made me alter some plans. My friend has four beds in his home. The one that he wanted me to sleep in did not do wonders for my back for the first hour that I tried to sleep. After playing a round of musical beds, I slept in the master bedroom despite his wishes for me not to. It was the best available bed that was conducive for my back issues. It was awesome waking up every morning while I was in Pultneyville and looking out the window and seeing Lake Ontario. What a wonderful feeling that was. The nineteen days flew by very fast although the daily commutes from Pultneyville to Rochester and back seemed to drag on like the Kansas City Royals-Oakland A's game from last night. That said its good to be back in Rochester.
I've been getting mentally ready for my National Novel Writers Month Project that begins a month from today. I'm going to pick up Gladio by Ganser Daniele and read it this month. It should give me quite a premise for my novel "Gladio" that will be written starting November 1. I'm so amped up for it and I have to wait another 31 days before I begin to write it. I'm working on an elevator pitch for it right now. John Grisham said that if you cannot explain your novel in one or two sentences then you shouldn't write it. Well here's my elevator pitch for Gladio which is a work in progress as I write this. "A CIA agent who is framed by a rogue agent must clear his name while confronting his past in order to prevent a terrorist attack."
Well it's been an interesting NFL season. Who would have thought that the cowboys would be 3-1 and the Bills would start the season 2-0. Even the NFC Central is still wide open. The MLB playoffs are underway. I can't think of a team to root against this year. I would prefer that the Angels or Royals win it all. I think it will be a combination of the Angels or Orioles playing the Dodgers or Nationals. Let Rocktoberfest commence.
On to the news front. Ebola has arrived in the USA. Texas has reported the first case. The sad part is that I'm not surprised about this. I'm just surprised that it took this long for it to occur. Looks like there will be a sudden demand for DVD copies of Pandora's Clock, Outbreak and Contagion. Definitely not a good sign for what could come. Imagine if this outbreak of Ebola was in fact an act of biological terrorism? I don't even want to picture how this would be handled.
The Secret Service has had one mishap after another recently. Now there is a rumor that a convicted felon carried a gun into the White House elevator and was standing next to President Obama. What are they trying to do? Deliberately screw up and allow an incident to take place that would be tragic. That would be inexcusable. The Secret Service who had been so vigilant to protect not only the president from assassination, but the nation from a race war in the process has now been lax in their duties. Do they know something that we don't? There are other ways to handle it. Allowing an assassination to occur is unacceptable.
I may have briefly mentioned a possibility of al-Qaeda, al-Shabbab and ISIS being one and the same group, but flying different flags in order to confuse the USA and our allies in the War on Terror. I still feel that it is a possibility that can never be ignored. If this strategy of spreading our military too thin and then engaging in an all out full scale strike against us occurs, then this nation as well as our allies may be in some very serious trouble. There has also been an en masse immigration of Moslems from the Middle East to European nations such as Great Britain, France and Germany as well as other western nations such as the United States and Canada. This was also a topic that was a storyline in my latest novel Deception.
Even the Rochester area is still having a rough run of controversial news stories. After the controversial parole of Thomas Johnson III which resulted in the killing of RPD Officer Daryl Pierson, the news of Monroe County has shifted west to Brockport which has experienced a couple of high profile incidents in the past ten days. First SUNY Brockport defeated St. John Fisher College in football. Then the Brockport students proceeded to party after the upset and a riot took place. I'm now picturing how many times DJ Snake and Lil John's hit song Turn Down For What was played during the partying that took place in the hours that preceded the riots. This week a SUNY Brockport soccer player was stabbed by an acquaintance who was stalking him. The acquaintance who was not a student at Brockport was able to enter the campus undetected and then stab the student who according to some was a love interest of his assailant. The victim did not feel the same way towards his future assailant. Looks like crashing into events and places has become a common theme. A local radio station sent someone to slip his way into a local high school and college undetected this morning.
Unfortunately this trick is not limited to spies and government agents. Also this is not only the unfortunate recoccuing common theme these days. The NFL has had the floodgates open when it comes to domestic violence. This has since extended into other sports. I think this was the first weekend where a NFL player has not been arrested. This is definitely a first in quite some time.
Well I have run our of things to write about this week. With that said I wish everyone a great week!
Tom
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Wednesday Night Blog #6
Wednesday
Night Blog #6
September
10, 2014
By
Tom
DiCaprio
I am
going to begin this blog by getting the obvious out of the way. Tomorrow is the thirteenth anniversary of the
September 11, 2001 attacks. Yes, the
world changed forever as a result of the attacks that resulted in the War on
Terror. Until then such an attack would
only occur in a novel that authors such as Tom Clancy would write. He wrote about a hijacked plane that was used
as a missile that would crash into a building in his 1994 novel Debt of Honor. Since then countless authors, myself
included would write about the next catastrophic terrorist attack. Hopefully such an attack will never occur,
however with the rise of ISIS we cannot afford to put down our guard especially
now. That alone would be a grave
mistake. ISIS is the biggest threat
facing the United States along with al-Qaeda when it comes to terrorism. Despite this, Fareed Zakaria brought up
something the other day in which Osama bin Laden said before his death that he
ordered al-Qaeda members to create fake terror groups that were actually al-Qaeda
itself in order to throw off the United States and our allies. Oliver North mentioned in a Facebook post
that I read where he mentioned various terrorist groups and their leaders
fighting the U.S. and our allies whether it be together or separately. Well all I have to say is that we cannot rule
out the possibility that they are in fact working together as one al-Qaeda
unit, but are pretending to be separate terrorist groups in order to throw us
off and then they would come together and the War on Terror proceeds to take a
disasterous turn for the worse since they played us like a game of chess (yes a
Fugees lyric reworded and paraphrased in the process).
As for
9/11, it began the road that would result in my transition from an aspiring
mystery novelist who dreamed of writing a spy novel but didn’t think I could do
it to a three time published spy/political thriller novelist. After Wolf Blitzer discussed a scenario of a
dirty bomb attack at a presidential inaugural in January 2005, I began to believe
that I could actually write a Tom Clancy-esque spy novel after all. The rest is now history.
A week
ago tonight I read a Facebook post by a friend of mine which said that a Rochester,
NY police officer was shot. Little did I
know how monumental the story would become in the Rochester, New York area
where I live. The next morning I was
listening to the radio when it was announced that the officer who was shot was
the first Rochester Police Department officer to be killed while on duty since
1959 and that the suspect who killed the officer was shot as well as an
innocent bystander. That alone is very
sad, but it was what happened next that would give this an even greater
meaning. The officer had left behind a
wife and two children. The suspect in
the shooting had been recently paroled and for the second time in as many weeks
that a slip up in the parole check in system resulted in a very violent
crime. The first crime as a result in
the incompetence of the parole system was the rape of a teenage girl. If the Rochester community was already
outraged as it was, then more communities especially nearby East Rochester, New
York (where I live) became further outraged when the name of the officer was
released. A friend of mine mentioned on
Facebook that her cousin was the officer who was killed without releasing his
name. The moment I read on Facebook that
the officer who was killed was Daryl Pierson, it hit home for me. I knew Daryl and his family. His mom and my mom were very close friends
when they were co-workers at Wegmans Food Markets. I had been among a group of friends who attended
a gathering at Daryl’s home a couple of years earlier. He was working that evening. Why do these kind of tragedies happen to good
people. Daryl had returned to work a day
earlier after being on medical leave for eight months and his son’s first day of
kindergarten took place on the day that he was killed. Thousands of people attended the wake as well
as the funeral. I had never been to a
police or military wake and I hope that such a tragedy never grips Rochester,
New York or its surrounding communities.
I gained a greater appreciation of law enforcement and what they have to
endure on a daily basis. I was even more
amazed by how the Rochester area came together.
This gives community a whole new meaning.
With that
I will be closing this blog until next week.
Until then take care.
Wednesday, September 3, 2014
Wednesday Night Blog #5 September 3, 2014
Well everyone Summer 2014 is now in the books. What a summer it was. Between the ball games and crash I was in not to mention getting my third novel "Deception" published it was a memorable one to put it mildly. Did I mention the writing hiatus that I am taking until November 1? *laughs* well it led me to writing "The Wednesday Night Blogs" that you will be reading right here. This the fifth "Wednesday Night Blog" although it would have been the sixth if the accident didn't take place three weeks ago today. With that here's the latest:
I've been questioning whether the hiatus from novel writing that began on July 25 was such a great idea or not. Since last Wednesday I have been thinking about ending the hiatus/sabbatical and resume writing novels once more. At the same time thoughts about my National Novel Writers Month project Gladio has been on my mind a lot. After some thought, I will be beginning to conduct research for Gladio while continuing on with my hiatus/sabbatical. With NaNoWriMo being 59 days away and I've survived the first 40 days without writing a novel, it looks like I will be at the half way point by next Saturday there is hope for me! A fun part of NaNoWriMo will be the kickoff party that begins at 11pm Halloween evening and ends six hours later a local all night diner. I feel that this will be an amazing experience for sure. I cannot think of a better way to resume writing novels.
Enough on the discussion about my writing. It's time for the fun stuff. I am on the minor league baseball withdrawal patch *laughs again* due to the season being completed for both the Rochester Red Wings and the Batavia Muckdogs. I managed to get 144 autographs this season which is a personal best! The interesting part was that I got 100 of the autographs since August 11. I plan on shattering my personal best next year! In fact I'm beginning to get ready to shatter the record by scoring out some of my baseball cards of minor leaguers who will be passing through both Rochester and Batavia next year. The scenery that I checked out during my three trips to Batavia last month was breathtaking. The open country with farm houses had a classic American heartland feel to it. I felt relaxed each time that I saw the views. I think it would be cool to make a fall drive to Batavia and see how the area would look in autumn. I have no question that it would look even more breathtaking than it is right now.
While I am on the subject of fall, it is an awesome time of the year. Although I could never put a finger on exactly why I feel this way it is the aura of fall that is special in itself. As I am sitting here typing tonight's blog I'm enjoying my first pumpkin spice latte of the season. Hopefully there will be many more in the next few months. Football begins tomorrow night and I consider it to be more than a sport. To me it has become a national holiday that begins on the first Thursday in September and ends on the first Sunday in February. Last night was the first of two fantasy football drafts for me. The next one is tonight at 8pm which means that I will be wrapping this blog up. Be safe everyone and enjoy the football games if you are a football fan. I will be checking out a First Friday Gallery night in a couple of days and the last art festival of 2014 on Saturday aka Chlothesline Festival at the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester, NY. Ah yes I forgot to Rochester Antiquarian Book Fair which is near the Memorial Art Gallery on Saturday too. All this will be in between the football and baseball games that I will be watching. With that take care everyone.
Tom
I've been questioning whether the hiatus from novel writing that began on July 25 was such a great idea or not. Since last Wednesday I have been thinking about ending the hiatus/sabbatical and resume writing novels once more. At the same time thoughts about my National Novel Writers Month project Gladio has been on my mind a lot. After some thought, I will be beginning to conduct research for Gladio while continuing on with my hiatus/sabbatical. With NaNoWriMo being 59 days away and I've survived the first 40 days without writing a novel, it looks like I will be at the half way point by next Saturday there is hope for me! A fun part of NaNoWriMo will be the kickoff party that begins at 11pm Halloween evening and ends six hours later a local all night diner. I feel that this will be an amazing experience for sure. I cannot think of a better way to resume writing novels.
Enough on the discussion about my writing. It's time for the fun stuff. I am on the minor league baseball withdrawal patch *laughs again* due to the season being completed for both the Rochester Red Wings and the Batavia Muckdogs. I managed to get 144 autographs this season which is a personal best! The interesting part was that I got 100 of the autographs since August 11. I plan on shattering my personal best next year! In fact I'm beginning to get ready to shatter the record by scoring out some of my baseball cards of minor leaguers who will be passing through both Rochester and Batavia next year. The scenery that I checked out during my three trips to Batavia last month was breathtaking. The open country with farm houses had a classic American heartland feel to it. I felt relaxed each time that I saw the views. I think it would be cool to make a fall drive to Batavia and see how the area would look in autumn. I have no question that it would look even more breathtaking than it is right now.
While I am on the subject of fall, it is an awesome time of the year. Although I could never put a finger on exactly why I feel this way it is the aura of fall that is special in itself. As I am sitting here typing tonight's blog I'm enjoying my first pumpkin spice latte of the season. Hopefully there will be many more in the next few months. Football begins tomorrow night and I consider it to be more than a sport. To me it has become a national holiday that begins on the first Thursday in September and ends on the first Sunday in February. Last night was the first of two fantasy football drafts for me. The next one is tonight at 8pm which means that I will be wrapping this blog up. Be safe everyone and enjoy the football games if you are a football fan. I will be checking out a First Friday Gallery night in a couple of days and the last art festival of 2014 on Saturday aka Chlothesline Festival at the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester, NY. Ah yes I forgot to Rochester Antiquarian Book Fair which is near the Memorial Art Gallery on Saturday too. All this will be in between the football and baseball games that I will be watching. With that take care everyone.
Tom
Wednesday Night Blog #4
Wednesday
Night Blog #4
August
27, 2014
By
Tom
DiCaprio
Note: This
blog although written on August 27 was not published until tonight due to a
series of events that sidetracked me.
Here it is.
The
other day, I was on Facebook and I saw a post from a friend of mine which I
immediately decided to share. In a lot
of ways it hit home with me because I went through or am still going through
some of the rules that it mentioned.
With that I will now be sharing the post here too.
7
Rules of Life
1.
Make
peace with your past so it won’t screw up your present.
2.
What
others think of you is none of your business.
3.
Time
heals almost everything, give it time.
4.
Don’t
compare your life to others and don’t judge them. You have no idea what their journey is all
about.
5.
Stop
thinking too much, it’s alright not to know the answers. They will come to you when you least expect
it.
6.
No
one is in charge of your happiness, except you.
7.
Smile. You don’t own all the problems in the world.
Whisper of the Heart
I
decided to open this week’s Wednesday Night Blog with “7 Rules of Life” because
it has applied not only to my life’s journey especially the past twenty years
which has culiminated in the past two weeks, but also since it will be a theme
in my National Novel Writer’s Month project Gladio
that will be started on November 1 as well as most of all I feel that everyone
can benefit and learn from the “7 Rules of Life.” Twenty years ago, I was a college student who
had transferred to a college that I have always dreamed of attending. In the Fall of 1994, everything seemed to be
going right in my life. Then I was
involved in a crash in which I had to more or less put everything on hold for a
few months. The “dream” then became a
nightmare. I then endured a series of
personal problems among which was regret.
There was also anger along the way.
I felt why did my life come to a standstill? Why does everything become a disaster every
time that things are going perfect for me.
This was not the first time that I felt this way. Things were going perfect on three other occasions
when it came completely undone. Death
(the loss of my father, grandmother and fiancée) were the first three times
that this has occurred. Over the next few months I made the decision that if I
had a chance to do something that I would just do it. At times those decisions were not the best,
but I wasn’t feeling regret for the most part.
Yet I was battling my past where I knew that it could all come undone
yet again.
Then slowly things began to change. I was yet living that “perfect” life working
at a job which I was completely happy with when I lost my Mom. However this time although things were coming
undone, my friends were there for me and it made a difference. They did not come completely undone. In fact things gradually began to come
together for me. I realized that I have
a lot of friends who are family to me. I
began to reconcile with my past while exploring my dream of writing in
earnest. I have since self published
three novels. Then came the crash two
weeks ago where my car was damaged and I injured my back. I was really beginning to live that “perfect”
life again when there seemed to be yet another setback. Everything seemed to playing out like the
events of the months leading up to and including the crash. Well this time it did not come undone. I decided to atone for the past and redeem
myself for it. This time it is working
out well. I’m doing the things that I
enjoy doing although I had to modify it somewhat, but I’m happy because of it. I feel that I have become stronger because of
everything.
1.
I’m
not allowing the past to keep me down while I have made peace with it.
2.
I
no longer pay attention to what others think of me.
3.
Time
is now healing wounds. I chose to give
it time unlike the past.
4.
I’m
no longer comparing my life to others.
5.
I’m
now allowing the answers to come to me.
6.
I’m
learned to be in charge of my own happiness and I’m happy because of it.
7.
I’m
now smiling while accepting the fact that I don’t own all of the world’s
problems.
I know
that it took quite a while for me to accept it all, now I want to share this
with everyone knowing that if I can help out even one person with this then
I’ve done my duty.
With
that the fun part of the blog now commences.
I did some more autographing at the ballparks this week. Between the trips to Frontier Field in
Rochester, NY and Dwyer Park in Batavia, NY in the past ten days, I now have
set a personal best with 122 autographed baseball cards in a year. There’s still some more baseball to go so the
number will likely climb. The Rochester
Red Wings are in the thick of the International League Wild Card Race. We are a game and a half out of the wildcard
and I like our chances of clinching it.
I feel that I’m more into baseball than I have been in recent years
(Which is saying a lot). I feel that
I’ve been 67% into it since 2010 until now which would be the equivalent to a
lot of people being 110% into baseball.
The MLB Waiver Trade Deadline is Sunday.
Which MLB team would like Bartolo Colon?
Mets could use a solid prospect or two.
Just saying. Well it is now September 3, 2014 and Colon is still
a Met. Anyways as for those series of
events that sidetracked me, well they were unexpected but nothing major. Next blog will be published within the next
few hours.
Take
care.
Wednesday, August 20, 2014
Wednesday Night Blog #3 August 20, 2014
Everyone it's good to be back blogging this week. I apologize for not posting a blog a week ago. I was in a vehicle crash where I suffered a back injury and $6200 worth of damages to my car. My back is still hurting since I have a lumbar strain and a fractured disk/vertebrae (I was not a good science student so my terminology is not at its best) as well as arthritis in my lower back. After a weeks worth of exercises, doctor's appointments and PT, I'm beginning to get used to what is now the new normal for the time being. I definitely miss running with Fleet Feet Sports Rochester. They have become like a sort of family to me. The people at Fleet Feet as well as my running crew have been very encouraging. This was definitely a pick me up for sure. My buddy Ray who is also my boss at work has been very encouraging as well while giving me timely advice regarding back injuries since he had a back issue a year ago. The injury couple with the writing sabbatical that I'm going to be on until November has turned into a "Wake up and smell the roses moment" for me. It seems that I haven't been enjoying life like I should and am now starting to do so once again.
Well I'm following baseball in full throttle mode while picking up some autos in stadium and in person and making trades/purchases of sports cards on line and in person. I'm now working on 2014 Allen & Ginter Baseball, 2014 Upper Deck Goodwin Champs and 2014 Panini Golden Age sets. They have an awesome historical feel to them. I'm also in the process of trying to complete insert sets for Topps Series I & II baseball. The inserts are limited print cards that are issued in Topps packs. Also the 2014 Bowman Baseball both base and prospects as well as 2014 Topps Pro Debut are on my list of sets that I am trying to complete. I have a couple of baseball card shows in my area to check out this weekend as long as my back is able to hold up. They will be the first ones since June. I even made a killer find at a flea market Sunday. I picked up four small boxes of cards and a bag of 100 nine pocket sleeves. Needless to say that a Ken Griffey Bowman rookie from 1989 and a racing autograph were my top finds. Today I bought a few packs of 2014 Topps Football. I'm going to collect only the rookies and trade the rest of the cards. Well once again card collecting has helped me keep my head on straight during trying times. It is a therapeutic activity for me along the lines of FDR and his stamp collecting that helped him forestall a nervous breakdown.
As for my writing, I have seventy three days left on my writing sabbatical. When it ends on November 1 at 12:00 am, I will immediately begin to write Gladio for my National Novel Writer's Month project. As NaNoWriMo approaches I will discuss Gladio more. It has been nine days since Deception has been published and Trafford Publishing has approached me about doing a book to screen event in Los Angeles at the end of September. They would like me to go there and pitch both Black Friday and Deception to Hollywood producers. I tried that route with Black Friday last year and although I had a great time in New York, the attempt to turn Black Friday into a movie was a failed one. The prices for Pitch Fest as it is properly called are outrageous and I refuse to do it again at this time. Some of the story lines for Deception are actually being played out in the news these days. Between the mass immigration of Mexicans (Arabs in Deception), rioting (See Ferguson, MO) and the Caliphate (ISIS) it's hard to ignore what has been transpiring in the news as of late.
With the mass immigration of Mexicans, it's hard not to ignore the fact that there is a possibility that al-Qaeda or some other terrorist group had its members enter the United States through the Mexican border while blending in with the immigrants or even Mexican citizens converting to Islam and then crossing the border into the USA. That's one diabolical way of carrying out a terror plot.
The events in Ferguson, MO are disturbing to put it mildly. With the different accounts of what occurred, if Michael Brown was in fact rushing for the officer's gun, the officer should have fired bullets into Michael Brown's leg or arm or even both. With the two bullet wounds in his head and four in his arm, it was a Marine style shooting according to a friend of mine who served in the Marines. One shot to the head and then two to the body. The fact that the Ferguson Police Department has been very slow in releasing the details and key information regarding the investigation and what occurred that day makes me question what really happened to Michael Brown. Although there was audio/video about the shooting, if it was audio I would question it and if it was video I would accept it. It's frightening that the protests and rioting could spread nationally. I'm convinced that we need to brace ourselves for the possibility.
With ISIS, they desire to convert the USA to Islam and put a black flag on the White House while establishing a Caliphate. The methods that are being employed by ISIS have outraged a lot of people. One Syrian Christian was kidnapped and tortured to the point that he rejected Christianity and converted to Islam. After he said an Islamic prayer, he was beheaded! What a humiliation to be stripped of your faith, your salvation and then get beheaded! That was ISIS' plan with him all along. They have also kidnapped Christian women and are using them as sex slaves. If this is the future of Islamic terrorism, then we need to go all out and fight ISIS until they are no more. I think that they are the grave threat these days.
Enough on this blood boiling issue. These issues have been swept aside by the deaths of both Robin Williams and Lauren Bacall as well as he ALS ice bucket challenge. We have lost two movie icons a week ago. They were tremendous talents who have left an unforgettable impression on us. The ALS ice bucket challenge has swept the nation by storm. With my back injury, I know that I would make one awkward movement and make the injury worse. That is why I will donate from my heart and not be told how much to donate. I videotaped my neighbor doing the ice bucket challenge last week. I think that it's very admirable, the tactics could use a little fine tuning. How about donating what one can afford. I think that would put more people at ease about the whole thing. Enough said about that.
It's hard to believe that another summer is about come to an end. Time flies these days especially as everyone gets older. I have no question that we all must take advantage of what the waning days of summer has to offer. That is what we must do especially in the next week. With that it is time for me to close this blog for the week and take advantage of what summer has left to offer!
Take Care,
Tom
Well I'm following baseball in full throttle mode while picking up some autos in stadium and in person and making trades/purchases of sports cards on line and in person. I'm now working on 2014 Allen & Ginter Baseball, 2014 Upper Deck Goodwin Champs and 2014 Panini Golden Age sets. They have an awesome historical feel to them. I'm also in the process of trying to complete insert sets for Topps Series I & II baseball. The inserts are limited print cards that are issued in Topps packs. Also the 2014 Bowman Baseball both base and prospects as well as 2014 Topps Pro Debut are on my list of sets that I am trying to complete. I have a couple of baseball card shows in my area to check out this weekend as long as my back is able to hold up. They will be the first ones since June. I even made a killer find at a flea market Sunday. I picked up four small boxes of cards and a bag of 100 nine pocket sleeves. Needless to say that a Ken Griffey Bowman rookie from 1989 and a racing autograph were my top finds. Today I bought a few packs of 2014 Topps Football. I'm going to collect only the rookies and trade the rest of the cards. Well once again card collecting has helped me keep my head on straight during trying times. It is a therapeutic activity for me along the lines of FDR and his stamp collecting that helped him forestall a nervous breakdown.
As for my writing, I have seventy three days left on my writing sabbatical. When it ends on November 1 at 12:00 am, I will immediately begin to write Gladio for my National Novel Writer's Month project. As NaNoWriMo approaches I will discuss Gladio more. It has been nine days since Deception has been published and Trafford Publishing has approached me about doing a book to screen event in Los Angeles at the end of September. They would like me to go there and pitch both Black Friday and Deception to Hollywood producers. I tried that route with Black Friday last year and although I had a great time in New York, the attempt to turn Black Friday into a movie was a failed one. The prices for Pitch Fest as it is properly called are outrageous and I refuse to do it again at this time. Some of the story lines for Deception are actually being played out in the news these days. Between the mass immigration of Mexicans (Arabs in Deception), rioting (See Ferguson, MO) and the Caliphate (ISIS) it's hard to ignore what has been transpiring in the news as of late.
With the mass immigration of Mexicans, it's hard not to ignore the fact that there is a possibility that al-Qaeda or some other terrorist group had its members enter the United States through the Mexican border while blending in with the immigrants or even Mexican citizens converting to Islam and then crossing the border into the USA. That's one diabolical way of carrying out a terror plot.
The events in Ferguson, MO are disturbing to put it mildly. With the different accounts of what occurred, if Michael Brown was in fact rushing for the officer's gun, the officer should have fired bullets into Michael Brown's leg or arm or even both. With the two bullet wounds in his head and four in his arm, it was a Marine style shooting according to a friend of mine who served in the Marines. One shot to the head and then two to the body. The fact that the Ferguson Police Department has been very slow in releasing the details and key information regarding the investigation and what occurred that day makes me question what really happened to Michael Brown. Although there was audio/video about the shooting, if it was audio I would question it and if it was video I would accept it. It's frightening that the protests and rioting could spread nationally. I'm convinced that we need to brace ourselves for the possibility.
With ISIS, they desire to convert the USA to Islam and put a black flag on the White House while establishing a Caliphate. The methods that are being employed by ISIS have outraged a lot of people. One Syrian Christian was kidnapped and tortured to the point that he rejected Christianity and converted to Islam. After he said an Islamic prayer, he was beheaded! What a humiliation to be stripped of your faith, your salvation and then get beheaded! That was ISIS' plan with him all along. They have also kidnapped Christian women and are using them as sex slaves. If this is the future of Islamic terrorism, then we need to go all out and fight ISIS until they are no more. I think that they are the grave threat these days.
Enough on this blood boiling issue. These issues have been swept aside by the deaths of both Robin Williams and Lauren Bacall as well as he ALS ice bucket challenge. We have lost two movie icons a week ago. They were tremendous talents who have left an unforgettable impression on us. The ALS ice bucket challenge has swept the nation by storm. With my back injury, I know that I would make one awkward movement and make the injury worse. That is why I will donate from my heart and not be told how much to donate. I videotaped my neighbor doing the ice bucket challenge last week. I think that it's very admirable, the tactics could use a little fine tuning. How about donating what one can afford. I think that would put more people at ease about the whole thing. Enough said about that.
It's hard to believe that another summer is about come to an end. Time flies these days especially as everyone gets older. I have no question that we all must take advantage of what the waning days of summer has to offer. That is what we must do especially in the next week. With that it is time for me to close this blog for the week and take advantage of what summer has left to offer!
Take Care,
Tom
Wednesday, August 6, 2014
Wednesday Night Blog #2
Wednesday
Night Blog #2
August
6, 2014
By
Tom
DiCaprio
Everyone,
since the first blog worked out well; I thought that I would do this again
tonight. Deception has been published as of yesterday. Deception
is about a Saudi plot to take over the United States and Western Europe and
convert them into Islamic nations.
Mohammad abd Ibrahim grew up resenting the Western nations splitting up
the Ottoman Empire while making false promises to the Arabs. Ibrahim was further incensed over the setting
up of a Jewish State in Palestine. After
the Islamic Revolution in Iran in which it became in Shi’a Islamic State, Saudi
Arabia was now feeling threatened over the possibility of the fact that the Islamic
Revolution will spread there as well.
Mohammad abd Ibrahim then began a chain of events that would lead to disenfranchised
citizens of five different nations who would be on the brink of becoming their
leaders while the reestablishing of a Caliphate in Saudi Arabia would
occur. Ibrahim would pay for the college
educations of the disenfranchised citizens while choosing five of the students
whose college educations that he paid for and groom them to become leaders in
the process. A condition for accepting
the scholarship was that the person who accepted must convert to Islam.
One
candidate is Darryl Jeremiah Gant who was repeatedly denied a scholarship to
pay for his college education. Gant who
resented the Caucasian race for their racism towards minorities was befriended
by Ibrahim who paid for his scholarship and is now being groomed to someday
become President of the United States.
Gant meanwhile continued on with his resentment of the Caucasian race
which results in a series of violent encounters through the years.
CIA Agent
J.T. Vincent proceeds to discover bits and pieces of Ibrahim’s plot in the
weeks leading up to the 9/11 attacks while investigating another crime involving
a bodyguard for now-Congressman Gant.
When Gant and his bodyguard Quinn Sanders are questioned, the Attorney
General’s office proceeds to stop it and Agent Vincent is transferred to
Washington, D.C. where his superiors would keep a close eye on him.
Years
later, Congressman Gant becomes the Vice President while Agent Vincent
continued on with his investigation of Gant and his ties to radical Islam. Mohammad abd Ibrahim gives the approval for
the final stages of his plan to be carried out.
Can Agent Vincent stop it in time?
Read Deception to find out. Deception
is told in the tradition of both The
Manchurian Candidate and The Da Vinci
Code. You can purchase it at www.trafford.com.
Week two
of my novel writing hiatus is going well.
I am actually learning that there is more to life these days than
writing novels. For example last night I
went out on a group run, but I tweaked my knee to the extent where I had to end
my run. The knee is feeling better today
but still a tad sore. I may try again
this weekend should it improve even more.
I saw Edge of Tomorrow Monday
night and the movie played out like a video game that would be very
addicting. I highly recommend it, just
put your preconceived notions about Tom Cruise aside before you enter the
theater. This was one of his better
performances as an actor.
Insomnia
has become a key part of my life once again.
It came back Saturday night and is now an every other night thing. We shall see tonight if the trend continues or
not.
The MLB
Trade Deadline may have ushered in a new trend.
It looks like the trade deadline has went from trading fading star
players to trading free agents to be while a team can get something in return
for them to now trading players for established MLB players in the hopes of
jump starting their team in the near future.
You can thank the Boston Red Sox for this new tradition. I personally think that it’s a good idea
since most of the players that Boston received are solid MLB players. The Red Sox will likely make a splash in the
free agent market this winter and it looks like they will be a 2015 playoff
team. One of the players who Boston
traded Jon Lester has bolstered a solid Oakland rotation and they will likely face
Detroit in the American League Championship Series. The Detroit Tigers counted and were the
UNLIKELY winners of the David Price sweepstakes. It looks like the Price was right for the
Tigers to make the trade.
Well
this is going to be a short blog this week.
Everyone have an awesome week and remember to purchase your copy of Deception.
Tom
Wednesday, July 30, 2014
Wednesday Night Blog #1
Wednesday
Night Blog #1
July
30, 2014
By
Tom
DiCaprio
Here we
go everyone the first of a series of Wednesday Night Blogs that I promised that
I would write starting tonight. I’m
going to get this started by talking about how I first got into writing. It began in August 1994 when I read Debt of Honor by Tom Clancy when it was
first published. I was so impressed with
Debt of Honor especially with its
ending that I first became interested in writing. It was also a great way to while away the
waning days of the summer of 1994. Fast
forward to 2005. This was when I saw a
segment on CNN’s Wolf Blitzer
Presents. He discussed the
likelihood of a plot for a dirty bomb attack at the upcoming second inaugural of
George W. Bush. Now I had an idea for a
novel. For the next several years I did
so much writing that I ended up with bits and pieces of six different novels
with the first one Entebbe completed
on August 23, 2012. I think it was the ten year anniversary of Dan Brown
completing The Da Vinci Code. It was an amazing read. Anyways, the editing of Entebbe has since become a long and drawn out process. In fact it’s now rivaling production of a run
of the mill Stanley Kubrick movie. At
least the editors convinced me to cut down on the 500+ page novel. Since I’m on my novel writing sabbatical until
November 1 when National Novel Writer’s Month begins, Entebbe will be put on hold for a little while more. Since then I have written Black Friday in November 2012 and it was
published on October 2, 2013 aka the day that it was announced that my favorite
author/literary idol Tom Clancy had passed away; Cyber Monday which was completed a year ago, but has yet to be
published; Ruthless which was written
during National Novel Writer’s Month back in November 2013 and has since been
published on March 14 of this year aka my birthday (Best birthday present by
the way!!!) and Deception which was
finished this past April and it will be published on August 8. Recently I have been suffering from writer’s
block as well as a lack of focus when it comes to writing hence my hiatus from
it. So far I’m having a lot of fun while
getting some housework caught up.
This
section for the next two weeks will be a discussion about a novel that I have published.
The fun part will be what to replace
this section with on August 13. This should
get very interesting to say the least, but I will start thinking about it on
August 7. As for Black Friday, I came up with the idea after watching a news segment
about the chances of a terrorist attack at the malls. On Halloween 2012, I had a very rough day and
I needed to come up with something to do for fun. I discovered National Novel Writer’s Month (NaNoWriMo)
by accident when I was checking out the First Friday’s Rochester website to get
some ideas about which galleries to check out.
Needless to say that I stayed up until midnight and began writing immediately
when NaNoWriMo immediately began. From
midnight to 1:30am I began writing Black Friday while playing the Interview with
the Vampire soundtrack for the Umpteenth time that evening. Great movie by the way and I highly recommend
it. Well it commenced a fourteen day run
where I finished writing Black Friday. The weather was so bad that I wasn’t working a
lot and therefore had a lot of time on my hands. I spent most of the time at Dark Horse Coffee
writing Black Friday. Dark Horse
Coffee is very author friendly and I became sort of a celebrity there during
that time. Black Friday is about a plot for a terrorist attack at the malls on
the day after Thanksgiving. Its main
character Ian Daley was haunted by the death of his wife on 9/11. He joined the Department of Homeland Security
in an effort to prevent another attack from taking place. Now with a presidential recount and a series
of chatter along the lines of the events leading up to the September 11th
Attacks, Daley becomes suspicious that another attack is about to take place
and the intelligence community is once again failing to connect the dots. Meanwhile Daley is worried that his twin
daughters who are shopping at the malls may become victims of the attacks
should they occur. Daley then goes on a
mission to try to prevent the attacks from taking place. It has since been published and I went to New
York City for Pitch Fest in October of last year to talk to some Hollywood
producers about turning Black Friday into
a movie. I had a great time but there
won’t be a movie in the foreseeable future. *Sigh*
The
following November, I began to write Ruthless. It was in part inspired by two conspiracy
theories about the JFK assassination which I thought made sense to me. With the 50th Anniversary of the
Kennedy Assassination taking place last November, I decided to write a modern
day version about the 1960 Democratic Presidential Primaries with explosive
results. The two main characters New
York Governor James Frederick Curry and Texas Senator Zeke Roy Jackman are the
two front runners for the Democratic Presidential Nomination. Jackman was the presumptive favorite to win
the nomination until the Iowa Primary.
This evokes memories of Lyndon Baines Johnson being the front runner
back in 1960 only to lose the nomination to John F. Kennedy and Hillary Clinton
going from the favorite to winning the nomination in 2008 to losing the
nomination to Barrack Obama. Meanwhile one
of the characters in Ruthless blackmails
the other which sets off a chain reaction that lasts for the next twenty five
years. The ending of Ruthless promises to captivate the
reader while making them think in the process.
I highly
recommend that you check out both novels.
They are memorable reads to put it mildly.
Now that
I’ve discussed my writing for the week, the blog will now become an interesting
one. I promised that it would be writing
and more. Here’s where the more comes
in. This week is a favorite time of the
year for me. Thursday August 31 is the
MLB Trade Deadline. This deadline is set
so teams can trade players without waivers.
In the past the MLB trade deadline was about veteran superstars who had
seen better days are traded to a contending team in order to provide leadership
while giving the team a spark. Usually
players in the minor leagues are traded for the aging veteran players. The Philadelphia Athletics (Now known as the
Oakland Athletics) of the late 1920’s and early 1930’s began the tradition by
trading for aging superstars in an attempt to win the World Series. They were successful during that period
winning the World Series in 1929 and 1930.
Ty Cobb was traded from the Detroit Tigers to the Philadelphia Athletics
during that time. These days although
some aging star players/veteran players are traded, the non-waiver MLB Trade
Deadline is used exclusively for trading free agents to be so that the team who
would be trading the players gets something for the traded player instead of
getting nothing should they become free agents and sign with another team. Minor leaguers and young players on MLB
rosters are traded for the players who have seen better days as well as free
agents. Today Justin Masterson was
traded from the Cleveland Indians to the St. Louis Cardinals for a young minor
league outfielder who seemed to be lost in the shuffle due to Oscar Tavares who
is the Cardinals top minor league outfielder/top prospect overall in St. Louis
as well as being among the top prospects in the minor leagues. Maybe Jon Lester and John Lackey will be
traded from the Red Sox in a similar Jeff Samardija and Jason Hammel like
trade. Trading two top pitchers from the
same team to another team may be the trend this year. Who knows the Mets may trade Bartolo Colon
and either Jon Niese or Dillon Gee (Maybe all three since their pitching in the
minor leagues evokes memories of the great Mets pitchers/prospects of the 1980’s. What a golden age for the Mets!!!). David Price could be traded from the Rays and
the Phillies could trade Cole Hamels, Cliff Lee, Jimmy (J-Smooth) Rollins and
Chase Utley or even Marlon Byrd. The
deadline ends at 4pm tomorrow so I will be following it like a NHL fan
especially in Canada follows the NHL trade deadline. It’s like a religion in Canada although it’s
the second favorite sport. That honor
belongs to lacrosse which was originated by the Native Americans. Lacrosse was first played to decide conflicts
while the losing team gets executed.
These days the losing team gets an “L” in the loss column. Lacrosse has come a very long way! I admit I’m a lacrosse fanatic. I first started following the sport ten
winters ago when the NHL lockout resulted in the 2004-05 NHL season being
scrapped. Rochester has three Lacrosse
teams. The Rochester Knighthawks which
have won the past three National Lacrosse League championships, the Rochester
Rattlers of Major League Lacrosse and the Rochester Greywolves of the CanAm
league. Since my first lacrosse game in
2005, lacrosse has become sport 1B.
Baseball will always be my favorite sport although it has been given a
1A designation. Hockey has now been
demoted in the favorite sport pecking order.
Although I enjoy basketball, golf is growing on me and football is more
that a sport, it’s become an event it itself.
One that rivals the Christmas Season, but doesn’t surpass it of course.
Enough
on sports for the time being although it segues into my next subject. When I was six I received trading cards as
party favors. I remember receiving Rocky
II cards, Star Wars and some football cards.
I briefly collected Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back cards. It was a come and go phase until 1982 when I
first became a baseball fan. I became a
baseball card/card collection addict.
Now that my collecting has entered its 33rd year, my enthusiasm
for it is greater than when it was when I first bought rack packs of 1982 Topps
baseball cards. The hobby has provided
me with some income along the way while building a good collection. The 1980’s was a boom for baseball cards in
which they rivaled stocks as an investment.
I often think about the players who I collected back then. Besides completing my sets, I collected Mets
cards especially Dwight Gooden, Gregg Jefferies, Mookie Wilson, Lenny Dysktra,
Howard Johnson, Kevin Mitchell and Kevin McReynolds, Jose Canseco, Wally
Joyner, Mark McGwire, Will Clark, Ruben Sierra, Pete Incaviglia, Rafael Palmeiro,
Cory Snyder, B.J. Surhoff, Kevin Seitzer, Roberto Alomar, Ken Griffey Jr, Gary
Sheffield, Sandy Alomar Jr, and Mark Grace just to name a few. It has also been a therapeutic hobby for me
in which my sanity was saved during some very harsh times in my life. In short card collecting is an outlet for
me. I now collect baseball sets, Mets
cards, Miguel Cabrera, minor leaguers/top prospects/rookies and game used
jersey cards, autos and bat cards in baseball while I collect
rookies/game-used/auto cards for all sports.
I even go to Rochester Red Wings game to score autographs from the
players before and after the games (I would be stuck in traffic if I left right
after the game). The Red Wings are the
Minnesota Twins AAA minor league team. I’m
planning on checking out the Batavia Muckdogs a couple of weekends from
now. They are the Miami Marlins Class A
Short Season team. The Marlins have been
known to have one good player after another come up only to be traded since
they can’t afford to keep the players and sign them to long term
contracts. On August 9-11 the Brooklyn Cyclones
(Mets Class A team) will be heading up to Batavia. It looks like I will be neutral during the
series. Looks like I will be doing some
autographing during that time.
It looks
like that it’s time to change the direction to current events. I can’t believe that Ebola is back in the
news. An outbreak in Western Africa has
resulted in Peace Corps workers moving to another area in order to avoid being
infected. As of tonight there have been
800-1200 cases with 456 people dying of the virus and another 216 people being
infected. I hope that the virus doesn’t
spread here. Doctors Without Borders
Director Bart Janssens announced that the virus may be a lot worse than
previously reported given the fact that there are many places in which the
infection has spread, but no one may know about it until it’s too late. This time the epidemic is unprecedented with
concerns that it may spread beyond Western Africa.
The
House of Representatives have approved of Speak John Boehner suing President
Obama by a 225-201 vote. Boehner claims
that the president has abused his executive authority which was done at the
expense of both Congress as well as the United States Constitution. This could lead to impeachment proceeding according
to the Democrats. This has to be the
first time that a sitting president has been sued. If anything I thought that there would be an
effort to sue George W. Bush while he was president. This makes me wonder what would have happened
in a hypothetical presidential election matchup of George W. Bush and Barrack
Obama. Just saying though. This makes me wonder the outcome. I could easily see a third party candidate entering
the race and quite possibly winning the election given the mood of the American
people for this hypothetical presidential election and I stress HYPOTHETICAL.
If the situation
in the Ukraine isn’t bad enough, well the fact that the Ukraine has now claimed
that the rebels have planted mines near Malaysian Airlines Flight 17. This makes an already murky situation even
murkier to put it mildly. Bad enough
Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 hasn’t been found and no one what happened to the
plane as well as where it may be, but the unanswered questions of MH 17? This makes one wonder what is really going on
out there. Could the Soviet Empire be
waking up from a long slumber? All I
know is that this news story should go on for quite a while at the very least.
Enough
on my musings for the week. I just
wanted to take time and just write in general.
I wanted to use this blog to be seen as more than an author. With the fact that I’m taking a break from
writing novels until November, I just thought I’d use this time to keep writing
fun and not turn it into a chore. In a
closing note for the week, one of my friends asked me why I decided to take a
break from writing novels. She thought
that I was having fun doing it. I told
her that I wanted to keep having fun with it.
This is why I made this turn to writing weekly blogs instead of novels
for the next few months.
Saturday, July 26, 2014
Update
It has been a while since I posted my last blog. I just thought I would make a few announcements.
1. Ruthless has been published. Pick up your copy at www.trafford.com and Yesterday's Muse in Webster, NY. Also contact me at tomdicaprioauthor@gmail.com to order a copy. At this time I will only be accepting checks, cash and money orders until further notice.
2. My third novel Deception has been submitted to Trafford Publishing. If all goes well, it should be published sometime in August.
3. I will be taking a break from writing novels until November 1 when National Novel Writer's Month resumes. I have been suffering from writer's block among things so I thought I would take a breather before writing is no longer considered to be fun for me.
4. Starting this Wednesday night, I will be kicking off a series of Wednesday Night Blogs just for fun. I don't want to be completely out of writing shape since inactivity is not the best thing in the world especially when it comes to writing. They will be published here. The Wednesday Night Blogs will consist of me talking about my writing, current events and some of my favorite sports, activities and hobbies. I wanted to have something for everyone on it.
Until Then Take Care,
Tom
1. Ruthless has been published. Pick up your copy at www.trafford.com and Yesterday's Muse in Webster, NY. Also contact me at tomdicaprioauthor@gmail.com to order a copy. At this time I will only be accepting checks, cash and money orders until further notice.
2. My third novel Deception has been submitted to Trafford Publishing. If all goes well, it should be published sometime in August.
3. I will be taking a break from writing novels until November 1 when National Novel Writer's Month resumes. I have been suffering from writer's block among things so I thought I would take a breather before writing is no longer considered to be fun for me.
4. Starting this Wednesday night, I will be kicking off a series of Wednesday Night Blogs just for fun. I don't want to be completely out of writing shape since inactivity is not the best thing in the world especially when it comes to writing. They will be published here. The Wednesday Night Blogs will consist of me talking about my writing, current events and some of my favorite sports, activities and hobbies. I wanted to have something for everyone on it.
Until Then Take Care,
Tom
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