Why I Write

HAPPY HALLOWEEN, WORLD!!! Smokkee here. I figured since I haven't abandon blogging. I just haven't screened any movies lately and I'm getting closer to finishing my first book of short stories, Is There A Third Option. In the spirit of Halloween, I figured I'd let you guys in on why I wanted to start writing in the first place. It all started because of my love for everything horror, something I had to inherit from Jeanette. 

   One thing is I don't get scared from books easily. Even as a kid horror movies had a better chance of scaring me than books did. But even the conventional horror movies didn't scare me. I would get scared by certain episodes of The Twilight Zone, Tales From The Darkside, etc. Not by the gore; by what the endings implied. Let me give you an example. I did get scared by the ending of MALICE starring Nicole Kidman, Bill Pullman and Alec Baldwin. If you've seen that movie, you know it's not a horror movie. It's a thriller that does a complete 360 half way through the movie because you think it's about a serial rapist until he gets caught then the real meat of the story kicks in. It's still one of my favorite movies of all time. Early on in the movie, while the rapist is still running around, husband Bill and wife Nicole are laying in bed about to get a lil freaky. She's on top and is about to really get into it until she notices the kid next door staring at them through the window. Kinda creepily I might add. Fast forward to the end and Nicole is about to get into the police car and she looks up and sees the lil boy from next door, I mean really sees him for the first time. That look on her face tho..... What it implies.... You gotta see this movie if you haven't already.

 

But there was this one story that spooked me when I was like 9-12 years old. It was in an anthology. I only read short stories up until that then. I was even reading Stephen King back then but only the short stories of NIGHT SHIFT and SKELETON CREW. The movie CREEPSHOW 2 led me to read the latter book, since my moms had said "I got the story of [Creepshow's second story] 'The Raft' at home." We went home after the movie and I grabbed SC off of the massive bookcase my moms had and it was on from that point on. While I'm talking about Stephen King, I might as well tell you about when I graduated to his full length novels. It started with IT. It can be argued that the 2 scariest books he's ever wrote are THE SHINING and

The cover to my moms version of IT.

IT. I didn't read The Shining until recently, well into my 30s, because it was one of the few books of his that my moms didn't own. IT on the other hand almost knocked me out. Literally. My mom read had that book in her hand from the time she bought until the time she got to the end of it. Near the end, I should say. I'm not sure she ever finished IT. I was just walking into Jeanette's room when my mother yelled 'THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT?!?!?" before she threw the book so hard at the wall that it left a dent. She had just narrowly missed my head. I asked what happened and she said "All of that and it wasn't shit but a spider? A spider?? I can't fucking believe it!!!" Yeah, Jeanette had a mouth like a sailor, lol. Anyway, that's when I graduated to reading novels. I had to see what she was so pissed about, you see. If you haven't read IT, stop, head to a library or eBooks and get yourself a copy ASAP. It's a very freaky read.

That one story I read back then that I can't forget, that really spooked me was a short story called 'Orange is For Anguish, Blue is For Insanity' by David Morrell, the guy who wrote the book 'First Blood' (yeah, THAT First Blood. It's totally different from the movie tho, BTW).  The story was about a college student whose artist friend commits suicide almost exactly like how the artist's idol did after having retraced the last 2 years of that artist's life. While cleaning up his friend's apartment he looks at some of his late friend's paintings, noting they're brilliantly painted. Then he notices how similiar they are to the original artist's paintings. Then he gets the brilliant idea of retracing their steps as well. I never saw the ending coming and to this day I read just so I can get that feeling back. I can't describe it, really. I guess that's why I write as well. To give people that exact same feeling. 

Or to help me describe that feeling. 

Have a safe Halloween!!!!! Later, WORLD!

RIP, MY CABLE TV BILL

Hello, WORLD!! Smokkee here again. Living in Chicago, you see how most utility options are limited because there's a monopoly running almost every major utility here. For example, Commonwealth Edison doesn't have much competition. I'm trying to figure out if there is another option for electricity in Chicago. For the life of me, I can't think of another supplier. Ditto People's Gas. At least when I stayed in Hammond, Indiana there was also a company called NIPSCO for natural gas. It's no joy for a consumer to have to buy something or get service from a company because it's the only game in town. That's why the CTA is able to do whatever it wants to with bus fare prices, which is typically raise them every year or so. 
For a long time, the phone companies were this way too. Thanks to cell phone technology, this is no longer the case.

I just wanted to throw my 2 cents out there again on this subject before I moved on to the true purpose of this post. I've given up on Comcast, both cable and internet. For some reason, each and every time I've went with Comcast as my provider and I got quoted a set monthly price, I have always had to pay more than that said set price. Ditto AT&T, and that goes all the way back to when they were Ameritech and then to when they were Illinois Bell before that.

I've been hearing about WOW Internet for about 5 years now but they never were in my area before. Since I've recently moved and was thoroughly fed up with Comcast after this last go round ended up being close to $300 a month, I decided to push my luck and try them. Lo and behold, I finally lived in an area that they serviced. I'm sorry I forgot the sales reps name. He was great at this customer service thing, and that's from another great customer service agent - me, LBVS. How good was he? Well, not only did I get internet, I wound up getting cable TV even though I won't use it. I still wouldn't miss a show even without the 250 channels the basic cable package includes because of my next purchase: a stream TV player. 

I call myself trying to stay in the loop about a lot of news but it's an impossible task; there's always a next big thing, always somebody working on something new.  Stream TV players aren't exactly a new thing. I do remember hearing about one, Apple TV, and was not impressed by it at all. For the uninitiated, these players stream internet feed like YouTube and World Star Hip Hop directly to your TV.  Yeah, turns your TV into a phone, lol. Seriously, YouTube is good for what, maybe 15 minutes before you're bored of it, right? When it first came out it was a different story. Now, it's just ho-hum. 

So forgive me for not seeing the bigger picture at first. That didn't happen until this year when this internet only show, Orange Is The New Black, became so popular that I had to see what the hubbub was about myself. You can only watch OITNB on Netflix for now so that meant I had to try it again. Mind you, the first time I tried Netflix was on my Android phone a few years ago. I thought it was cool having all these movies at my disposal...until my phone had to buffer every other minute or so. So I uninstalled it. 

This year, I have switched back to an iPhone, infuriating all of my fellow Android users who think I jumped ship in the process (LOL), and I've barely had to wait for buffering on it at all. (SN: I haven't jumped ship, Droid world. It's a best of both worlds type deal since I still love my Galaxy Tab. Forgive me for not wanting to carry it everywhere when my phone works does basically the same thing on a smaller scale.) So I was able to watch maybe 3-4 episodes a month ago before Verizon sent me a text about I'm almost me almost used all of the data I'm allotted per month....I pay for 10 gigs though! I contacted Verizon and they say that each movie you watch uses about a gig itself. So 10 movies for 10 gigs? Thanks but no thanks. 

So I had to find an alternative means to watch this series, which led me to inquire about how can I watch internet on the TV, which led me back to Apple TV, and finally seeing the big picture to it, as well as learning more about it's biggest competitor, Roku. Now my assignment for this week is figuring out which of the 2 I should buy sometime this week. From what I've read so far I should roll with Apple TV if I want the most out of my Apple experience because of the easy interaction between Apple products, and let me just add that if it works the way it claims to work then Airdrop will be that shiznit! I hear that if you don't own any Apple products, then Roku may be your best option.

Now I hear I have another major option from Google called Chromecast. I'll just assume that it comes packed with Android app capabilities. Again, this is just an assumption for now. Well, that's it for now, WORLD. I got reviews to read.

 

1 OFFICER'S REQUEST, GRANTED

Hello, WORLD!! Smokkee, still alive and kickin. I've been saying that this blog is most personal blog. It really is though, I just don't open up easy. I'm working on that.

With that said, I was planning a few post more personal posts on here anyway, such as will I still be able to quit my day job on December 1st as I planned, why I feel comic book writer Dan Slott is the Vince Gilligan of the comic book world, etc. And this post too, which was just begging to be written. In fact I almost wrote it last Tuesday night, right after I wound up doing something real stupid. I didn't because I didn't want to seem like I was boasting or bragging about my, um, "good fortune". Then last Thursday night it happened again, lucky me. I wanted to write about it for sure now, but then the officer I was talking to requested I write it! So.....

Before I get into the details of what events led to this post, let me give you a lil gist of what I do and how that lead to this. I work from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm Monday thru Friday in the West Loop/Fulton Market area for a job that is more than a little frustrating on various levels. I do customer service for at least 40 different companies and I'm sure a lot of yall know how that goes without me going into detail. Well when the work day is done, I'm either heading to the movies for a screening or checking out some sports on 75th and Eggleston (aka Da Egg) before I head home to the family. 

Here I gotta confess that most nights when I leave I'm drunk as a skunk. Yes, I'm still trying to quit drinking and I'm not anywhere near the alcoholic I used to be but here we are. It's still what I do. 

Now when I head back to the home-front near 63rd and Western, it's late, I'm drunk, and the CTA buses are running on that slow night owl schedule. One night I sat at the bus stop damn near an hour before it realized it might not be coming.. Drunk people stuff. Anyway if I don't see one I start to walk. Yep, I know it sounds like a nice hike but I'm drunk. Only time a drunk stays still is if he's sleep. Whatever the case, a lot of nights I walk it's the entire 4.4 mile trek. Lots of interesting things happen as you'd expect. 

Now for what happened last Tuesday (this part is a lil embarrassing...).

I was heading home about sometime around 11pm - 1am. Yes, I was a little intoxicated. OK, a lot of intoxicated to tell the truth. So right on 68 and Halsted I felt nature calling. Nature calls a lot when you're drunk, like how drunk people call their exes. With no bathroom around (my drunk state didn't remind me that White Castle is about a block away), I did what most men would do: find the nearest alley. DONT JUDGE ME! Right when I was doing the finishing wiggle (again, DJM!), a blue and white cruiser pull up 3 officers deep. 

Of course, they started asking what are you doing back here, do you have anything, etc. For the most part, I was completely legal. I did have a little bit of marijuana, about 3 dime bags, like always but the officers were unconcerned with those for the most part. They took the weed out of my pockets and continued their search. After my name came back clean the gave me a ticket. Not for the marijuana; for the public urination. Then to my surprise, they gave me my weed back! After I looked at the ticket to make sure I didn't just imagine the whole incident, checked to make sure that what I had in my pocket again was in fact my weed, and looked around to see if I could spot a hidden camera somewhere (I just knew I was getting PUNK'D), I continued along my way home, a lil confused but no worse for wear. 

Then Thursday night after the PATRIOTS v JETS game, I headed home again, this time nowhere near as intoxicated as I was the Tuesday before. This time, I got all the way to 63rd around Morgan St when 2 detective cars and a blue n white squad car rolled up on me.

"Where's the gun?" the detective closest to me asked. "Gun? I don't need one. I aint got no enemies out here." I replied. "Yeah? We got a report that a man with his hood on in a black jacket got off the train and was walking around brandishing a pistol. Got anything on you?" "Nothing illegal. I got a little bit of weed in my right pocket though." "Where you just coming from?" "Oh you watched the game? Who won?" "Yeah, I just heard that on the radio." All of that was happening as one detective checked my pockets and not only found the 2 dime bags I was referring to but a couple of SWP Blog post drafts that I was gonna finish writing when I got home. I blog from my phone when I'm off work and it's much easier for me to look up what I've already wrote from a printed copy of the draft than to keep scrolling the page on my phone. "What's this?" he asked then I explained what I just explained to you guys. 

"So you're a blogger? I want you to blog this for me." the first detective said as I was presented with my marijuana back from the police for the 2nd time in 3 days!! "Tell your readers and the people that we're the good guys out here. We're not trying to make nobodies life harder. We ain't out here fucking with law abiding citizens. We're just out here doing our jobs. You don't break the law, we won't break your balls. You give us hassle, you're gonna get a hassle. Don't go spreading no stories about how we roughed you up now, you hear? Enjoy your smoke." With a laugh I told him I would do just that. Gotta keep your word; sometimes it's the only thing you have. I haven't made the walk since then though and I haven't had as much to drink since then, well,  until yesterday.

Which reminds me. Let me try to find something to eat. I'm still trying to sober up from the Monday Night Football drinking. Later, WORLD!

     

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Hello, WORLD!! Smokkee here again. I know, I know ♫It's been a long time....♪, LOL. Yeah it has. If you'll recall, I told you in one of the last post I wrote, I got this goal to be in position to quit my job on December 1st 2013 which is rapidly approaching. Too quick for my taste but hey, it is what it is. I gotta be honest now: I'm no closer to that goal then when I wrote that post. Why? Well, the truth is I've been distracted by my arch nemesis, pop culture!!

It's no secret that I'm a movie buff (BTW: Thanks for making SmokkeScreenings + my most read blog!!) but I used to be equally hooked on video games, music, and TV shows, especially the longest running TV sitcom in history, The Simpsons. I've made it a habit to not be around video games for any real period of time because of my competitive nature even going as far as not installing games on my phone but c'mon man, who doesn't like The Simpsons? Right. So when I heard they had a game app I downloaded it and been playing it religiously every since. Which reminds me....sorry, I had to check on my Springfield.


What was I saying? Oh yeah. Since I started playing that app, called The Simpsons: Tapped Out, my pop culture defenses went down quick. That led to me catching up on all the episodes I missed and

My biggest distraction this year just got this Krustyland update.

all the ones I've seen 100 times, nevermind the fact that there's over 500 episodes. And that led to me looking for other great shows on TV which, thanks to all the ado on Twitter and FB, wound up getting me hooked one of AMC's fantastic shows, Breaking Bad. Yes I know it's at The End. Still, I'm hooked. Add CBS' Under The Dome and FX's The Bridge to list of new current faves too. And let's not talk about video games. My no-game-app rule is a thing of the past too. I gave in to Candy Crush lust and now I'm sitting here drooling at the thought of getting that new PS4 as soon as it comes out!

 Then a habit that I thought I kicked a long time ago reared it's ugly head again. I was a comic book head like mofo, LOL. I thought I'd never pick up another comic book but then Marvel decided to kill off my favorite superhero of all time, Spider-Man. Not just kill him: his body is still going but Dr Otto Octavius aka Dr Octopus switched bodies with Peter Parker...right while his body was dying. I know it sounds dark but I'll be damned if it ain't the most interesting thing I've read all year even though I FINALLY read 50 Shades Of Grey this year too. Oh, BTW: I dont get all the ado over 50SoG now that I ready it. Sorry. Christian was just an extreme control freak. Who doesn't know one of them?

And my rap radar went into overdrive for the first time in years!! New Kanye AND new Hov?? I had to get 'em! I'm still bumping J Cole's 1st album too and here he comes with another album! Still hooked on Childish Gambino's playful verses from his album 'Camp' and his 'Royalty' mixtape. And Kendrick Lamar just maqde

Pretty much what just happened.

sure I'mma gonna go into Hip Hop overload when he just threw down the gauntlet against, well, EVERY rapper out right now on Big Sean's single Control, which for some reason did NOT make his next album Hall Of Fame. My guess is he would hated to be outshined the whole album based upon K Dot's lone verse. I bet I'm right too.    

But as we near September and my deadline gets closer and closer, I gotta try to get the best of pop culture by not letting it distract me from what I know needs to be done. I know what I must do and I'm so on it right now. Won't nothing else distract me from finishin... Holy Shit!! I almost forgot my NFL Fantasy League's Draft night is today!! Let me get on that real quick. Later WORLD!

Work To Do (Deadline)

"Sometimes it may seem girl I'm neglecting you,
I'd love to spend more time.
But I got so many things to do" - The Isley Brothers

Hello, WORLD! Smokke Singleton here and I should be celebrating because I just turned 38 yesterday. But I'm not. Why? For one, I'm battling a nasty flu bug and I'm kinda twisted off this medication.  As soon as I recover though, I'm gonna party for at least for a few days. Hell, maybe a week.

Then for the most part my partying in 2013 will be done.

Everything for me can go back to normal 12/01/13. Maybe. Depends really on what I have accomplished at that point.

I won't drag this post out. Like I said in my previous post Happiness, 12/01/13 is a very important date to me. It will be 10 years to the day that my mother, Jeanette Singleton-Thomas, passed. For me to say that I'm not living for anybody's approval is the absolute truth these days but to say nobody's approval ever mattered to me would be an out right lie. Her approval mattered. Still does. I live my life with no regrets whatsoever but there's tons of stuff that I wish I could go back and change. My mom at one point was so proud of me. I messed all of that up being a typical young black male/knucklehead/dumbass growing up in Chicago. I made mistakes, no doubt. Too be honest, I didn't really see how messed up I was until after she had passed. So I made a point to make a better me. For the most part, I'm somebody my mother would be proud of again.

But she can't see that now, can she? (Religious people may beg to differ but blow it out yall asses!) So, what can I do now that she's not here? Well, my thinking is if I made a real success story of myself by 12/01/13 maybe I can atone for what I wasn't able to do when she was alive. I sound kinda stupid right? I'm human, I'm allowed to have some stupid beliefs. Nevertheless, I have to strive to be a success by that time or I'm gonna feel like I let her down for a 2nd time.

That's basically the thing. It's what's gonna push me to make this my best year ever. And really, that's all we can do, right WORLD? Catch yall later. I got work to do.

Funny (2/10/12)

"And it's funny you should call today..." - Gerald LeVert
 
Hello WORLD!!! Smokkee Singleton here. I gotta tell you about the dumbest security system I've ever encountered. This past Sunday, I was chilling at home with my family before the NBA games come on when suddenly my phone rings and I don't recognize the number but it's a local number so I answer. It's one of my coworkers Chucky, he's a little older but still a pretty cool white boy.

But why's he calling me out the blue though?

He goes "Ay Smokke. You're something like one of those mechanical geniuses right?" I go "Something like that. Yeah. Why? Waddup." He says "I just found an brand spanking new iPhone!"

Now he got my attention.

"You found a who?", just to make sure I heard him right.

 "I found a brand new iPhone. Not a scratch on it."

"You gotta cut that thing off man. If it cuts back on by itself, the owner had something set up so that he/she can get back ASAP."

"Oh, OK." He said he cut it off and it stayed off. That's one good sign.

 "OK So what are you trying to do with it?"

"Thats the problem! I can't do nothing with it. It's asking for a security code."

"Oh well, nothing you can do with it. Might as well try to find the owner. Who knows, you may get a reward for that." I reply with waning interest.

"That's the thing! I don't know how to figure out who's phone it is. Listen man, you're the techie. Can't you hack into or something?"

"Sure. I can do that for ya. No problem. You'll bring it to the job tomorrow, yeah?"

"I got one better. I'll be at your house in 20 minutes."

I guessed my relaxation period was quickly coming to an end. "..........OK. See you in 20."

Sure enough, Chuckie 's on the Southside of Chicago where I'm at about 20 minutes after that. He hands me the iPhone, and it's a beaut, alright. I'm assuming it's an iPhone 4 or 5, one of the ones I'm not to familiar with but no biggie. Can't be THAT different from the earlier models, I assumed. I hit the standby button and the first thing it's asking for is the security code, sure enough. I go ahead and try to gain entry with 2 quick default numbers, 4321 then when that didn't work 0000. No luck. I woulda tried another set of numbers but it might have locked the phone so I thought it might be best if I didn't try.

"So what are we gonna do, Smokke?"

For some reason, I don't know why I did it, I just held the button on the bottom of the phone. Guess who decides to speak up.

"Hello. I'm Siri." Yeah? I say "Siri, what's my passcode?" She says "I don't know you. Please..." yada yada yada something. I gotta try another route. I say "Siri, what's my name?" & she repeated that IDKY message. I then say "What's my mom's number, Siri?" and she reply's "Mom's number is..". WTF?!?!? I couldn't believe it was that simply to extract personal information from a locked phone just by talking to this CPU chick and it took all of 5 minutes to do this. Before I gave Chuckie back the phone, I go "Siri, I think I love you." She says "All you need is love. And iPhone!" In the end, Chuckie wound up turning it in and got a reward. And I wound up learning some new stuff.

Like never trust Siri. She'll turn on you in a minute if the right man sweet talks her.

 

ZOOM

"I'd like to fly far away from here. Where my mind can be fresh and clear....." Commodores

          Hello, WORLD!!! Happy 2013 to all of y'all. I haven't said too much in the blog universe & I feel like maybe an explanation is due. Maybe not but any excuse to blog is a good one, right. I had all kinda good excuses to blog last year but last year was probably my quietest year, blog-wise. 


         Why is that, you ask? Last year was probably one the best years I've had in a long time. I reconnected with my family on my maternal side who I never should have lost contact with. I caught up with a lot of my cousins in July for a family barbecue and then again at my first Thanksgiving with my family in 10+ years. Some of whom met my some of my children for the first time ever while I met some of my newest cousins who I didn't know existed either. I can try to explain why I felt I didn't want to be bothered with them but I'd be lying my ass off. It was only after I reconciled that I realized the reason I stayed away from them so long is that I felt like I didn't want them to see me when I wasn't a success. Pride is a mother.... So, I stayed away until I felt like I was good enough to come back home. Of course, using that logic, I guess I feel like a success now. When I think about it, I realize I'm not but I am right there though. I'm so close, so so close though. And even if I do become the success that I want to be, it will still be 10 years to late for reasons I'll get into real soon. 

My children (from left to right) Peyton 3, Nathan 4, Adria 6, & Thonequea 21 (taken at my Aunt Betty's house, July 2012).

.

 

Thanksgiving 2012 with my cousin's April (clockwise from top), Vanessa, Cindy, and Aunt Darlene.

         Going back to the biz of this post, another thing about 2012 that made it so great for me is it also was the year a lot of things just clicked for me. While I already knew what I wanted to do, it didn't really sink in til last year how I could go about get everything accomplished. The blogs have been my main focus over the past few years but I never wanted to be identified as just a blogger. Couple that fact with the fact that my blogs weren't going in the direction that I wanted them to plus the fact that I was happily doing other projects and bam, there's the reason for the long absence. I'm re-energized again and ready to guide my blogs into the right direction. Which means changes, of course. And there's one (or maybe I should say 12) big changes in store for the SWBs that I didn't even realize I had to make.


        The blogs themselves have been more therapeutic than profitable up to this point and while I'm grateful for that too, I've always had much more in mind for them and myself than just that. For instance, I'd also love to be recognized as an author as well. My book of short stories, IS THERE A THIRD OPTION has also been a long time coming and in all honesty is nowhere near completion. I have only three of the 13 stories I want to put out with this book complete so far and have not started working on the others as of yet. I was busy compiling information for my first non fiction book, THEY SAY CHI CITY. What is this book about? It's a history of my beloved city's rise, fall, and rise again in one of the most misunderstood businesses out there. That's about all of the info I'm willing to give up on that subhect for now but trust when I say I'll give you the full scoop on this within the next few months, maybe this one. 


              Now that I think about it, I do have a lot more to fill you guys in on so I can't spend too much time dwelling on 2012, can I? Not while 2013 is in full swing plus if you read the last post, you already know I got a deadline to beat and why I'm racing to beat it. In fact, my next SWP post is aptly titled "Deadline' & I promise it will shed a light on why some of the stuff I'm doing now is so important and why I the success that I become really doesn't even mean as much as it could. Since time keeps zooming, I need to be too. Later, WORLD!