Saturday, December 24, 2016

Untitled Unblog Unpost #3

There will not be a blog post from me for the next two weeks (I know, I know: Isn't THIS a blog post?!?) Holidays and all. I'm not alone. Most of the podcasts I listen to are either off as well, or they have something in the can they will play ("Best of 2016" shows).

Thanks once again for all of you. As you are aware, this blog is therapy for me. It's kept the late-night demon from waking me up at night screaming. I so appreciate you being the couch I can pour my brain out on; the therapist that listens and allows me to talk my way to healing. 

May you have a restful, peaceful, and joyful holiday season. Don't focus too much on the calendar change. After all, it's just measuring yet another trip around the sun. Your life is one continuous trip. Make the most of the journey. You'll get to the final destination soon enough.

God bless you!

-j.p.

©Emittravel 2016

Sunday, December 18, 2016

Rest Assured

I dropped my wife off at the Cleveland Hopkins Airport this morning around 04:30. She is spending a week with her parents in Ft. Myers. It's my birthday gift to her. 

For the rest of the week I'll be on my own. It didn't take too long for me to start reflecting on how much I'm going to miss her. 

Even though I'm confident in our love, and have been for a long time, I felt it right to share that confidence with her. The following was written for Sweetest Day a few years ago. It's rather appropriate I share it here. You may want to take a moment to share the confidence of love you have with that someone special in your life too. Nothing like it. -j.p. ©Emittravel 2016

Rest Assured


Sometimes I tell you how much I love you
Sometimes I don’t
But rest assured
At all times
I do love you

Sometimes I hold you close to me
Sometimes I don’t
But rest assured
At all times
I long to hold you

Sometimes I share what is in my heart with you
Sometimes I don’t
But rest assured
At all times
Every heartbeat cries out to tell you what is inside

I love you
I long to hold you
My heart cries out for you
Each and every day

Sometimes I show you how important you are to me
Sometimes I don’t
But rest assured
At all times
I would never want to live without you

Rest assured


J.P. Wiegand
©Emittravel 2007

Sunday, December 11, 2016

Do You Swear to Tell the Truth . . .

A lot of what I write about comes from what seems to overflow from my brain. Currently, it seems that my social media is overcome with something called “fake news", and my brain has just about had enough of it.

Heard of it? It’s a phrase that came about shortly after Hillary Clinton conceded the election (due to the Electoral College - which, to the dismay of those crying over her winning the “popular vote", she actually acknowledges). I’m not exactly sure of the origin of the phrase. Please feel free to comment and give me your suggestions as to where you think the phrase came from. I post all comments - even those I disagree with - as long as they are not spam.

What spurred this post is a movie. Normally, my wife and I go by a list of movies we want to see; made up of movies we own, along with movies that we want to see that were covered on a podcast called “Film Sack", which I call IMDB on steroids and laughing gas. My wife suggested that we go through our movie list alphabetically. Unfortunately, along with the TV shows we are watching, it is taking us quite a bit of time to get through our list. It has been a few years and we’ve only just finally finished the “D"s.

Anywho, the movie that inspired this blog was a movie my wife wanted to watch that was not on our list: “Zootopia". Yeah, and even if it was on the list, can you imagine how far into our retirement it would take to finally get to the “Z"s?

(Note:  We just finished the “D"s of a list of movies over 500 titles long.)

Zootopia". Have you seen it? If you haven’t, you should. It is not only a fun story, the visuals are so amazing that you’ll sometimes forget that they were done with a computer.

However, about halfway through the film I paused the movie and stated that I was very annoyed with all of the propaganda being shoved down our throats, even in a kids/family movie.

For those of you who’ve watched a lot of Disney films, you are aware that there is usually some type of messaging taking place in the films. And this is not new. Ever watch “Mary Poppins"? (another GREAT film, by the way)

Now, I’m not going to complain about “Zootopia", as it was only the push for this blog article. So, if you haven’t seen it yet, don’t worry: no spoilers from me! (But you should see it! It is really good!)

Getting back to “fake news".

I’ve seen all kinds of crying over Donald Trump winning the election due to “fake news" and that places like Facebook and Twitter need to crack down on “fake news".

Part of the issue is the so-called mainstream media (MSM), and the fact that their integrity, as viewed by the general public, is quickly swirling down the drain of the commode of history. “Real" journalists are actually scared that people don’t think they are trustworthy. And I agree with them. I don’t trust them either.

Some of you will stop reading right after that last statement. I hope you don’t. Let me explain.

I don’t think that your local news at 6 is doing that bad a job. The problem I have is the “talking heads" on the MSM news outlets, especially those on cable. And I think it those outlets that are the issue.

As this is getting a bit longer than I had desired, let me get straight to the point: FOX News, CNN, MSNBC, and the like are NOT news channels. They are ENTERTAINMENT channels. They are all owned by entertainment companies. And what do entertainment companies focus on? They focus on ratings and ad revenue. Period. And that is what drives their “news" channels.

To be honest, they are not without news. Each day they give us about 15 minutes of actual news. The rest of the 23 hours and 45 minutes are made up of advertisements and OPINION shows. That’s right. When you are watching Megyn Kelly, Anderson Cooper, Rachel Maddow, or any of those other morons, you are NOT getting news. You are getting opinion.

Or, more accurately, “fake news".

You see, the MSM is against “fake news" unless THEY are the ones delivering it. As a matter of fact, they are against ANY kind of news, unless they are the ones delivering it. And that not only goes for the cable news outlets, but also places like the New York Times, Washington Post, and NPR.

So what IS “fake news"? It is any message not preferred by those with the loudest agenda. And that message is repeated over and over and over until people BELIEVE it to be the truth.

Unless it is delivered by the MSM it is “fake news”. Even shtuff from us bloggers.

But again, I don’t claim this to be news. It is just my humble but accurate opinion.

©Emittravel 2016

Sunday, December 4, 2016

Stuff My Brain Says #79

Maybe what the American people are lacking is not confidence in the electoral process, but confidence in the way the polls were reported. The major discrepancies between what the polls said and what the final election results were are what are driving the recount campaign. It has little to nothing to do with who got the majority of the popular vote.

Besides, even Hillary Clinton accepts the Electoral College, since she conceded the election to Donald Trump based on the results.

©Emittravel 2016