My Goals, Dreams and Desires - Not Necessarily Hits From The Bong

BY: CHRISTIAN HOLMES (@HOLMESYWRITES)

Yours truly, Christian Holmes.
Goal #1: Get into college doing a university program
Status for goal #1: Complete!

Just for clarification, the "not necessarily hits from the bong" line is in reference to Cypress Hill's song Hits From The Bong. In other words, its a sarcastic way of saying, "No, I'm not high!" Well maybe I'm high on life, but life isn't an illegal substance.

Everybody has pipe dreams. Hopefully you don't smoke the rock. Hopefully you stick with that green leaf that everyone seems to like. Anyways, enough about drugs. It doesn't hurt to have dreams, goals and/or desires. They make life worth living and give you something to stride for as you slip on through the sands of time!

Now as you know I love to preach about having these things like goals and such. But I know what some of you guys and gals are thinking… “He's probably preaching all of this stuff about having goals because he has none of his own!” Well, you are sadly mistaken, my friend! So this blog is going to talk about my dreams, goals, and desires! Bare with me, I might get super nerdy when I talk about certain goals.

I won't lie… Normally, I'm not a big fan about talking and/or writing about my dreams and desires. I always liked to keep things like these to myself, because I felt a lot of people would look at my goals, dreams and desires, and laugh at them. Also, I thought most people wouldn't really care, because they have goals of their own and who has time to look at another person’s aspirations for life?

Now I realize that many people have taken a strong interest in my life, and they'd probably wanted to hear about this. But before that happened, I thought that, you know, I'm just another person out of seven-billion people on this planet… who has time for me? No, I wasn't depressed or anything like that, I was just being real. As time has rolled on, I have grown to learn that people actually find this stuff to be interesting. Especially when reading about someone with my background and life story. So I thought, let's give ‘er a go! (For the record, I know some of these are pipe dreams, but every dream starts somewhere, right?). I'm paragraphing these dreams, goals, and desires, from least likely to happen to most likely to happen. So, let's get this show on the road!

Ever since I could remember, I was always into sports. Some would call me a “sports nerd”, well the gamblers would call me an “expert”. I grew up a huge hockey fan. As most of you know, I grew up a big Toronto Maple Leafs fan. I always liked the Toronto Maple Leafs. Yeah, they may not have had the most success that I could remember besides them kicking Ottawa’s asses in the playoffs and going far in the playoffs in the 2005-2006 season, but I still liked them and didn't give up on them when times were bad. As I started to become more knowledgeable on how teams were built and how they were coached, I started to become more critical and developed my own theories on how I would run the teams. And as time passed by, I started to understand the concept of how the salary cap in the NHL controlled how you could add and subtract to your team. As I became more and more in tune with that stuff, I started to find it quite interesting. And that is where my first goal (more like pipe dream) comes from. I want to one day be an NHL General Manager. I know that's far fetched and it's a long way to the top, but I still have a small glimpse of hope that this goal is attainable. My hockey IQ is through the roof, at least that's what I've been told. If I was ever to become a GM, my goal would be to draft well, and keep the team as young as possible. I would want to build a big and tough team, that has skill and agility. My ideal player would be someone who has class, a strong sense of character, someone who is willing to be coached, and someone who would remember my motto, “You're not playing for the name on the back of your sweater, you're playing for the name of the front!” I would always try to have skilled grinders that would ensure that my team’s star players did not get pushed around by the weasels are the opposing teams. I would constantly advocate to keep fighting in the game and advocate for the removal of the instigator rule, so the tough guys could find a place in the game again. My goal would be to win a Stanley Cup and with any lucky, one day get inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame!

Another pipe dream of mine is to become a music producer. Obviously, being tone deaf isn't really going to help my dream out, but that's why they're called dreams. Anyways, I'm an avid music fan. I'm a big fan of punk, rock, and heavy metal. I was basically brought up on that stuff! AC/DC, Pink Floyd, Metallica, Stone Temple Pilots, Guns N’ Roses, Def Leppard, Slayer, Blink 182, Billy Talent, Three Days Grace and many more. As much as I love these bands, I'd like to say that I have respect for all the music that rock and metal took their roots from. I like classic country artists like Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Stompin’ Tom Connors, and Conway Twitty. I love blues music, B.B. King is my personal favourite blues musician. Honestly, The Thrill Is Gone is one of my favourite pieces of music. I've always liked folk music. My favourite folk song has to be Where Did You Sleep Last Night? (which was made famous by Lead Belly). It's a great piece of music, and it seems like you can never go to the island (Prince Edward Island) without hearing it sang on karaoke night. Not to mention, Kurt Cobain’s cover of the tune on Nirvana’s Unplugged album was chillingly brilliant and brought a whole new life to the song. So raw and emotional. Anyways, my goal if I ever became a producer would be to create an album that would combine all these genres and make something ‘out of this world’. I'd love to create a new genre. I'd love to get a Fugazi 13 Songs sound out of the record. To me, it would be cool just to help a band find their sound and create an album that could truly revitalize the rock genre. I always thought that would be cool. Just to add to that, I'd personally like to create a concept album that when you listen to it, it's like, “WOW!”

Now enough with the pipe dreams, let's focus on stuff that actually is attainable. After I get my bachelors in journalism, I'd love to be a disc jockey for a good radio station like 97.7 HTZ FM. Have an awesome show like 'Iron' Mike In The Morning had (rest in peace, Mike. Cancer is a bitch). Make some good playlists. Go see some good concerts. That'd be wicked, to be honest! And getting paid for it would be icing on the top! Plus, it wouldn't be a crime to spend my whole day listening to music and talking about interesting stuff.

Another goal I would love to try and achieve is to become a part-time stand up comedian. I feel that I could really succeed in that field. I have a great back story. From a promotional standpoint, it'd be easy to promote a guy like me. Not to mention, I'm relatively funny and I have a habit of coming up with things on the fly. My sarcasm is on point. I can be intelligently funny, it doesn't always have to be dick jokes and cuss words. I can impersonate people well, and I could be a good puppeteer because my mouth doesn't move. I don't mind public speaking. I enjoy making people laugh. And I'm smart enough to write my own material. Personally, if I were a comedian, I could see myself being compared to guys like Jim Jefferies, Bill Burr, and maybe if I'm good enough, George Carlin (I know that's a big push, but you gotta have confidence? Am I right?). Anyways, the goal would be to get a special or two on Netflix and maybe be on a couple Comedy Central Roasts (especially if they ever roasted Tony Romo). The plan is to do a couple performances during open mic night at the comedy clubs in Toronto and go from there!

Another goal of mine is to take a hockey scouting course, so I could become a “scout” in a sense. I'd love to have that on my resumé moving forward, because it would help me on my way to becoming a hockey analyst. Plus, it would move me one step closer to becoming an NHL GM. I could build my reputation through my journalistic work and network with executives, scouts, and players alike. The more connections I gather and the better reputation I build, the more doors I could realistically open up for myself. Which is my goal… to keep my options open and become a ‘hockey guy’. That's why I'm going through all this trouble to get my education. This is the true goal.

Finally, my main goal (at the moment) is to get an education. Getting a college education is the key to making any of these dreams/goals possible. Although, it's not going to be easy, it'll be worth it in the end. From that I hope to find a good job as a sports journalist. Worst case Ontario, I end up working a social media job for CNN. I plan to cover hockey and baseball. Personally, I'd also like to cover mixed martial arts. I like the idea of being of breaking down the fights.

Speaking of sports, I one day aspire to have my own sports radio show. Kind of like Tim & Sid but maybe a bit different. I hope to be able to speak my mind and entertain people. Kind of like what Bob McCown does on Prime Time Sports. With time, hopefully I can achieve that goal, and put my bachelors degree to good use.

But as we speak, I'm just taking things on a day to day basis. I know the future is coming but I can't think too far ahead. I'm just going to focus on my schooling and winning my NFL Pick ‘Em league. Maybe lose a bit of weight. And with any hope, get this blog into the green, if you know what I mean?

Anyways, those are my goals, dreams, and desires, in a bigger than life nutshell. If I'm lucky, maybe I can be a 'jack of all trades' just like one of my favourite people on the planet, Joe Rogan. Maybe I can become the 'hockey guy'? Who knows? All I know what ever I do in life, I sure as hell ain't going to half ass it!

Hope you enjoyed the read! Just remember children, don't give up on your dreams! Life is too short to last long. Live life to the fullest! The sky is your limit. Thanks for reading. Love you peeps! :)

But What If The World Ended Tomorrow?

BY: CHRISTIAN HOLMES (@HOLMESYWRITES)

Red alert: the world is ending tomorrow. You're dying! You can't do anything to stop it, and even if you try, you'll fail miserably. Death is coming when the clock strikes twelve and now you're left to think about your life. What a crock, eh? Your life is over. So is everybody else's too, if that makes you feel better. All is fair if it ends well, right? But here's the thing… there's no guarantee that there is an afterlife. There's no guarantee that you will reincarnate into a new life form. So, in other words, what you did on this Earth will define your overall legacy.

So my question to you is, what is the legacy you will leave behind? A good one? A bad one? Or no legacy at all? When you start to think about your life, how do you feel? Do you feel happy? Did you accomplish everything you wanted to do? Did you set goals for yourself? Did you battle the things you had to battle in your life? Did you fight for what was right? Did you live your life? Did you find a purpose? Did you spend your time doing something that makes you happy? When you look back on your life as a whole, how do you think people will remember you… or will you even be remembered at all?

If you're one of those people that answered no to the vast majority of the questions asked above, why is it that you answered no? Is it because you felt that life was tough? Were you always finding it hard to survive? If you didn't set goals for yourself in the past, would you set goals for yourself now? If so, what would those goals be? What would you want to accomplish with your last day on Earth? Would you want to reach out to all the ones that loved you all throughout your life and tell them thank you? Would you want to climb a mountain? Would you want to go and explore the places in your area that you never explored before? Would you want to listen to new music? Would you want to read a new book? Would you want to talk to people you never talked to before? What would you do to make your last day on Earth special? What would you do to make you say to yourself, “it wasn't all that bad”?

You see, from my experience, often we don't really value the meaning of our time on Earth. We think the next day is a given. We think that life should come to us, we shouldn't have to come to it. Sometimes we think giving minimal effort will result in getting a maximum return. Maybe for some that is true, but for the other eighty percent of us, that is the farthest thing from the truth. You see, your life won't wait for you to take control and start living it to its fullest. Life WILL pass you by. Before you know it, all the stuff you wanted to do when you were younger, you never did, and for the most part, it might be too late to do it now. You'll have so many ‘what ifs’ to live with? What if I asked that girl out? What if I took this job? What if I went on this trip? What if I started going out on Saturdays when I was younger? What if I went to college? What if I lived my life?

Trust me, you don't want to live the later half of your life with regrets. You don't want to be traipsing through the utter dark, walking underneath the dead moonlight with great concern for what you have missed or how many bridges you have burned. You don't want go six feet under with a ‘what if’ legacy. Or maybe you do? Honestly, we were all born and raised to live beyond the heft and the weight of a world undone. Facing the world is not a challenge that only you have to amass. So what's your excuse? You get where I'm coming from here? Life is a precious thing! So why not live it? Why not face everything head on and make something of your life? I'm in the process of doing it. Bob from All In The Suit You Wear did it. Why can't you?

So as you sit thinking about your life and contemplating what you will do on your last day on Earth... Perhaps you'll do something worthwhile, perhaps you might not. But let's say you did and it turns out to be the best experience of your life. One of those experiences where if you died tomorrow, you could die happy. And than you realize it's time. It's time to say goodbye to all the things you once known. The clock strikes twelve. Everyone is dead. You start to cry. You start to regret all the things you didn't do. You say to yourself all the things you should've done, but now you realize it's too late. As you start to become obsolete, you start to hear a voice in the distance. Not once were you scared. The voice is calming and the voice is pure. The voice says to you, “I heard your regrets. I heard them all. You may be dead, but that doesn't mean hope is lost. With the snap of my fingers, I am going to give you a second chance. A new life. A revival. A rebirth! I want you to do everything you didn't do in your first life. I want you to pass on into the next life with no regrets and nothing but good memories.”

You see, I think everyday is a second chance. A rebirth. Every day we wake up in the morning with the chance to create new memories. To make new goals. To accomplish new things. Each new day is a gift. Yes, not every day is going to be amazing. Not every day is going to have a fairy tale ending. You're going to have your ups and downs. The world is going to throw you some curveballs, but it's not like you have to have the mentality that you're going to strike out every time. Have you ever thought about adjusting your approach? Have you ever thought of slowing your swing down? Isn't that what separates the all stars from the average joes? Their ability to adjust to how pitchers are going to approach them at the plate? All you have to do is get your timing down, time up the curveball and before you know it, you'll be hitting the ball on the barrel!

Nothing is ever easy in life, but that doesn't really give us the right to fold. Each and every day is a chance to do something special! Each and every day is a new chance to live your life to the absolute fullest. And if you're not doing that, you only have yourself to blame. So don't have a lifelong pitty party. Get up and face the world! Be that confident motherfucker you always wanted to be! Don't hold back! Make the world your bitch!

Now going back to the start, to all those questions you may have answered no to… with your ‘second chance at life’... do me and yourself a favour. Make some goals. Try to reach them. Accomplish the unaccomplishable. And live everyday like it'll be your last. ‘Cause, honestly, you never know when it will be your last. So when you do die, you can go into the grave happy. The legacy you left behind was a good one. You lived your life to the fullest and if you had to live your life again, you would not change a thing!

And for the ones that have goals. For the ones that are working hard to accomplish them. For the ones that already got the message… Keep it up! You're a real motherfucker! And trust me when I say this, you're going to go far in this life with that attitude and demeanour! Do me a favour and encourage those who may not think like you to gain a new perspective on life, because after all, life is too short to last long. Not everyone has the same background that you have, and that’s okay. It’s your job to teach them that new perspective! It’s your job to preach the ‘word’, if you will.

To finish this off, enjoy your second chance at life! Be who you always wanted to be! Don’t let this world overcome you! Good riddance to the bullshit! I hope you have the time of your life.

Until next time…

Look Out 'Cause The New World Order is Taking Over, Brother!

BY: CHRISTIAN HOLMES (@HOLMESYWRITES)

DISCLAIMER: This is an editorial I wrote in my creative writing class. This isn't 100% my opinion. I am writing it in the voice of Alex Jones. If you don't know who he is, check him out here. The goal was to make this editorial as in-depth as possible. Due to time restrictions I didn't get to cover as many things as I wanted to. Either way, I thought you guys and gals would find it to be rather interesting. So that's why I'm posting this. By the way, if this sounds like a rant, I did my job right, because I was trying to replicate Alex Jones' ranting talents to the best of my abilities. As always, I encourage my readers to seek the truth for themselves. Hope you enjoy this circus of an editorial! Oh yeah, don't worry, you won't have to put up with Super Male Vitality Nutrients ads. :)

...

What makes a person human? Is it their will to fight for what is right? Is it having dreams about the future? Having hopes for their future selves? Is it their individuality? Is it their free will? Is it their ability to be able to tell right from wrong? To have a consciousness; something only humans have? Is it their ability to create art, music, and literature? I’m pretty sure a dummy would say, ‘if it can live freely, think freely, and act freely, it definitely must be human’. So I guess, in a nutshell, that is what makes a person human. The next question would probably be something like, isn’t being a human so great? To that I’d probably answer, you're damn right it is!
But what if I told you that there is a small group of rich, elite people called globalists, mostly made of bankers and politicians, that want to get rid of human free will, human individuality, and at some point, create a human-robot hybrid? What if I told you that these globalist elites want to depopulate you, that they want to get rid of the middle-class, and create a global society, in which there is only two classes; a very poor, dependent lower class, and a very elite, rich, and powerful higher class? This so called ‘society’ would be ruled by one government, one leader, have one currency, and one religion. And what if I told you that, as of now, these globalist elites are already putting the pieces of the puzzle together to create a One World Government, a New World Order?
No, you left wing knuckleheads that think the New World Order is just a conspiracy theory made up by some nut job that has too much time on his hands, we are not talking about the wrestling faction, and we are most certainly not talking about THE WRESTLER TURNED SEX TAPE STAR HULK HOGAN! The problem is the general populous, yes you, are brainwashed to the point that you would not know the truth if it stared you right in the eyes! You see, government institutions aren’t actually meant to 'help the people'. Yes, for the most part they're billed to do just that, but that's nonsense, it's doublethink. What is doublethink, you ask? The Oxford Dictionary defines it as, “the acceptance of or mental capacity to accept contrary opinions or beliefs at the same time, especially as a result of political indoctrination.” The New World Order wants nothing to do with the general public, they want nothing to do with you.
As a society our core rights are based on that of the US Constitution! Now the government wants to take away your rights! The government wants to take away your guns, the government wants to take away your right to privacy with legislation like The Patriots Act (we’ll get into that later), and the government wants to take away your freedom of speech with ‘political correctness’! People, the New World Order is real and they are not joking around! As the famous quote from George Orwell's masterpiece of a book states, "He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past." That is why I'm here to tell you why the New World Order is real. I'm here to tell you how they operate on lies and deceptions. I'm here to tell you how they use false flag terror attacks to start foreign and domestic wars. I'm here to tell you how you are a slave to the major corporations and the Federal Reserve. I'm the whistle blower! I'm the patriot! I'm the libertarian! I want freedom and I want to take these globalists down! I want to awaken the public! I want to open up the public’s eyes! We are bigger than you, New World Order! We can beat you, New World Order! And I’m here to tell you that!
But first, we oughta look at the opposite side of the argument, so shall we? You might ask why would our elected government officials want to do such a thing to their voters? Honestly, that is a real good question, if you think about it. It's not like the general public is guilty of some vicious war crime or defrauding the government or something of that nature. For the vast majority of society, the people are good, law abiding citizens that want nothing more than to see their country and the people within it prosper. The public wants to see their country be the best it can be. Another argument against the New World Order is that there is no proof of the organization. Its paranoia, nothing more than that! Left wingers will make the case that 'Oh globalism is so good, and there’s no way it can be bad. The war on drugs is necessary. There are no GMOs (genetically modified organisms) in our food. Chemtrails are a host, get over it all ready. The Earth is flat! The CIA does not help radicalize men to go fight for ISIS and Al-Qaeda in the Jihad! The federal reserve was needed. And there’s most certainly nothing going on at Area 51. It's all lies and deceptions made to create a false narrative. Nothing. More. To. It.' The globalists brainwash us into believing this nonsense. We rather know who Khloe Kardashian is dating rather than the state of our own government! 'But oh the New World Order isn't real! You're just crazy! Stop while you're ahead! You’re fake news. You have no credibility! You’re just a lost cause!’ I got news for you, globalists! We’re here and we’re winning this fight! You know that and you can’t stand itt! That is why you ridicule us. That is why you constantly try to spin our narratives to make us look like the ignorant, racist, sexist, insensitive bigots to the ones that are still brainwashed by your bull crap lies and deceptions!
Okay, just to make sure we're all on the same page here - the New World Order is real. Alright now that we're on the same page, let's talk about its origins. In a nutshell, the New World Order was started by members from various secret societies including the Skull and Bones, various Luciferian worship groups, and the Illuminati. Most of these guys like the Rockefeller and Rothschild families are powerful bankers that want to centralize banks in every country, so they can generate interest off every dollar printed. By doing so, they are basically putting that country in debt, and forcing them to tax the people, and in turn, put the people in debt. A prime example of that would be The Federal Reserve Act in the United States of America. In a nutshell, what the Federal Reserve is a central bank to the US. The Federal Reserve basically makes it so everyone and every bank in America gets their money through that centralized bank. For every dollar they take, a certain amount of interest is generated on the dollar and is usually paid off via a federal tax or something along those lines. Since the government is in debt to people like the Rothschilds and the Rockefellers, who fund the Federal Reserve, these nut jobs that believe in creating a New World Order, get a lot of say in the country’s political affairs. These guys own the mainstream media, and they control society in more ways than you could possibly imagine. They control the narrative. They tell you what they want you to think is real and what they want you to think is fake. These people are often referred to as the Shadow Government. They meet in secrecy, they act in secrecy, and they rule in secrecy - until now.

These powerful bankers and so on align themselves with powerful politicians to maintain control of the state. Since they do that, elections are usually ‘rigged’ in sense that a winner has already been predetermined and the government just lets the public vote so they feel like they are free and living in a democratic society. In other words, to give the public false hope, and a false reality. Sometimes things don’t always go according to plan for the New World Order. That can be shown in the 2000 US Presidential Election between Democratic nominee Al Gore and Republican nominee George W. Bush. The election was the closes one in history, and both nominees ordered the recounting of votes in key counties in Southern Florida. Long story short, Bush won Florida and won the election, but since there were rumblings that if the government used a different legal vote recounting method, Al Gore could have won the election. This sparked up many conspiracies, and of course, some of the woken people figured out that George W. Bush was nothing more than the New World Order’s new henchman. Of course, this election raised the question, ‘Who really is calling the shots?’ Helping shine new light on the NWO’s plans for a One World Government.

One of the biggest things about the New World Order is their love for war. It is a well known fact that wars make people money. Many of the higher up business men and women in our society make plenty of money off the war, selling guns, weapons, and supplies. The longer a war goes on, the more money these globalists make. Since the vast majority of the American public and abroad, are not for war and are against it at all costs, the government has a hard time convincing the public and Congress to get involved in wars. As anyone that has been in a history class knows, for a country like the United States to get involved in a war, there has to be some sort of spark. That is where a ‘false flag operation’ also known as ‘false flag terrorism’, comes into the equation. According to wanttoknow.info, “‘False flag operations are covert operations conducted by governments, corporations, or other organizations, which are designed to deceive the public in such a way that the operations appear as if they are being carried out by other entities. The name is derived from the military concept of flying false colors; that is, flying the flag of a country other than one's own. False flag operations are not limited to war and counterinsurgency operations, and have been used in peacetime; for example, during Italy's strategy of tension.” There are many false flag operations and let me name two. The 1993 World Trade Center Bombing. Criminal elements of the US government planned these attacks. In the case of the 1993 World Trade Centre bombings, the CIA actually helped fund the bombing! US Intelligence knew that Ramzi Yousef wanted some sort of revenge against the US government for their role in aiding the Israelis against the Palestinians. So the US government gave him and his six other accomplices the ‘know how’ on how to build explosive devices, and on top of all of that, the US government also gave them the tools to pull off this bombing successfully. The evidence does not lie, folks.

Now let's talk about 9/11. A false flag terror attack carried out by the US government with the help of the Saudi Arabians to gain more access to oil in the Middle East (mainly Afghanistan). It also helped to create a Police State in the US, where Congress can bring in such legislation like The Patriot Act, which basically declares martial law, gives the State a right to search you or your home WITHOUT a probable cause or warrant, to detain you WITHOUT a probable cause, and allows the government to tap into your phone conversations, your banking records and more, without a warrant, just because of the fear of another terror attack. Now those in the know have to believe something was up on September 11, 2001. First off, the US Army was doing a drill that focused on what to do during and after a terror attack, so in a way, when things were starting to go down, the Army and first responders thought it was a drill. For the longest time these first responders did not know there was an actual terror attack about to happen, so there was no way of them stopping it. When the first plane hit the Twin Towers, that’s when these first responders knew it was the real thing. Isn’t that a coincidence? Some may ask, where was the President George W. Bush during this time? At a preschool reading children’s books to the kids, just having a jolly ole time! When his Secret Service agent tells him of the first plane hitting the Twin Towers, what does George W. Bush do? Keeps reading books to the children! No, no, he doesn’t have to go back to the White House to go to the command room to try to put a stop to these attacks. ‘He was too far away from the White House’. How convenient that has to be for the domestic terrorists, the US government? ‘Oh no big deal, just a couple of planes hitting the Twin Towers’, said no one ever, but yet that’s how George W. Bush played it. How ironic? Than to add insult to injury, The 9/11 Commission Report tried to say that jet fuel melted the steel metal beams in the Twin Towers, causing them to collapse. Well, I have news for you, globalists! Jet fuel doesn’t melt steel metal beams. It’s more like it was a planned demolition, but the establishment can’t afford to let the public know that. Oh they’ll call me crazy, but the facts are there, folks! 9/11 was an inside job!

On top of all this mayhem, one of the biggest weapons the New World Order has in their disposal is the mainstream media. It’s fair to say that the mainstream media has a big influence on the majority of the US public. With a lot of influence, means a lot of power. The mainstream media controls the narrative, which means they control the public’s perception of any type of event. It’s important to note that the entire mainstream media is owned by the people that basically own the central banks of the world, like the Rothchilds and the Rockefellers. Which means the mainstream media HAS AN AGENDA! The mainstream media has created false narratives and will continue to create them. You don’t have to look far to find that one out. For example, a young ‘nurse’ tells the media about the war crimes Saddam Hussein is committing in Iraq, killing babies in incubators. The mainstream media used this testimony and other ‘intelligence’ and said to the general public, ‘Saddam has weapons of mass destruction! We got to take him out!’ What happened there? Turns out number one, that ‘nurse’ was the daughter of a powerful Saudi Arabian, her testimony was written by a PR firm and she was coached on how to properly read the speech, and guess what, Saddam didn’t have WMDs and all was for not. Basically everything was staged. This type of plot line keeps playing out over time. ‘Obama Care won’t raise insurance premiums’, ‘Hillary Clinton isn’t a war criminal’, ‘Donald Trump won’t be president’, ‘could Donald Trump be a Russian agent’, and on and on it goes. Thought control is real. The mainstream media is either doing one of these two things, avoiding the topic or bending the truth. The mainstream media is so arrogant and they know the public will buy it, or at least that’s what they think. But with the rise of the independent media, the public is starting to embrace different perspectives, and starting to rid themselves of the thought controlling mainstream media. That is why it is important to acknowledge there is a war on information. It is the ‘infowars’.

Folks, the New World Order is real! That can be shown through their lies and manipulations of the public. The way they tie you down by making you a corporate slave. Their false flag terror attacks. The way the inform the public via the corrupt mainstream media, yeah the media that has started many of the world’s biggest wars. Folks, not all things are bad. There are still great people in this world that believe in the Constitution, that want prosperity for all, that are libertarians, and truth seekers. Call me crazy, but I don’t want my children and grandchildren to live in a society where they are corporate slaves and are brainwashed by the mainstream media. Ladies and gentlemen, the republic is not lost! Yes, 1984 is here, but we are the resistance! It doesn’t take much to bring these evil globalists tyrants down! Spread the message about the New World Order, don’t buy into the mainstream media’s lies and deceptions, make your voice heard, and good God almighty, speak against political correctness! We can take the power back! As Malcolm X once said, “The future belongs to those who prepare for it today!” Just remember, folks… hope is not lost… YOU ARE THE RESISTANCE!      

Bob and Salvation

BY: CHRISTIAN HOLMES (@HOLMESYWRITES)

Just to give you guys and gals a quick heads up, this is the follow up blog to the short story I posted on Wednesday. If you have not read it yet please click on the link here - All In The Suit That You Wear - this blog will make a lot more sense to you after you read the story.

So, without further ado, let's get this party started right!

Alright, here's the scoop. Really the whole point of life, for the vast majority of spiritual people, is to find salvation. Reach a nirvana. Everyone wants to find peace. It's almost like everyone wants to find the meaning of life. Of course, finding such a thing is truly rare. Not to mention, it's hard as hell to do such a thing. And in Bob’s case, that truth was no different.

The thing that made Bob unique was that he never truly grew up, mentally and spiritually, in the story. He was stuck with the mindset of a teenager. He knew his drinking was bad for him. Bob knew that it was ruining his relationships with others in his life. But yet he still did drink until he was drunk as a skunk day after day. His parents were enablers of his behaviour because they never truly allowed him to grow up and go out and face the world in which he lived. Since they never helped his development mentally, Bob had the mentality that he could do whatever he want because he had his parents to fall back on if something went wrong.  

As the story develops, Bob quits drinking moreso because he was forced to, rather than wanting to actually stop. When he stop drinking his life lost purpose because since he was basically cradled by his parents his entire life, he never actually figured out who he was. At least that's the picture I was trying to paint.

In my eyes, in order to find a deeper meaning to your life, at some point you gotta become independent and break away from your caregivers. There are some situations where that is not possible and that's alright, it's nobody's fault. But for the people that have the ability to live on their own, it can be a big key to finding their purpose, because for the first time in your life, you have full control of what goes on. It's your money (most of the time) that you're using to pay for your cost of living. You call the shots, you dictate what you're doing with your life. Bob, never got that type of control, since a vast majority of his life was controlled by his parents since he was living under their roof. Bob never had that ability to make life altering decisions. Yeah, I guess his decision to keep drinking at the end of the story was life altering, but there's only so much say his parents could have on something like that.

So when Bob became a punk, it was almost like he was finding that meaning to his life that he yearned for. Yes, maybe it wasn't the meaning that others wanted him to find in life, but it was forcing him to start doing things for himself. It was forcing him to call the shots for once. Was Bob still doing bad shit in his life? Of course, he was, but he is trying to change for the better. Even though, his version and your version of changing for the better might be two completely different things.

When I first wrote this short story, the way it ended was Bob turned back to drinking and gave up on salvation because he did not believe it would ever be at hand. Bob thought that his death was imminent and if he was going to die one day, he may as well die happy doing what he loves. The two main reasons why I ended it that way was, number one - it got the reader to think of Bob’s life decisions and how it altered his life experiences, and number two - I hoped that it got the reader to think is giving up on deliverance from sin/evil was actually a good idea. And then, as time went on I added that letter to the end, because I wanted to make a statement that hope for finding salvation was never truly lost for Bob. He just needed to realize that. And that what I plan to tell in the sequel to this short story. Hopefully I'll have that written before I take off to college, if I don't I apologize in advance.

Now this might get a little preachy, so if you're not a big fan of the Christian viewpoint… don't worry it's Christian’s philosophy - pun intended. If you don't get the pun, read the first name of the author for this post. ;)

You see, the way I see it, salvation can truly be at hand. We just have to take time to realize it. Trust me, sometimes that can be hard. Especially considering the society we live in. We're too quick to point fingers at others for their wrongdoings, rather than trying to help them out.

You see, my biggest problem with people from ‘the church’ is that they think just because they go to church, pray twice a day, and obey the Ten Commandments, that they're automatically better than those who do not. Now not all Catholics/Christians are that way. Believe it or not, there are plenty of good religious people within those communities. But there are too many people that are lost in their self-righteousness and totally miss the idea of the New Testament and what Jesus came to preach in his ministry.

You see, Jesus was a righteous man. He did not look down on those who were considered sinners, he welcomed them into his ministry with open arms. He did not care of their past sins. His simple request was for these followers to sell all their belongings, give the money to the needing, and follow him during His preaching of ‘The Good News’. If there was one thing Jesus came to preach against, it was self-righteousness. Why do you think Jesus disliked The Pharisees so much? Jesus disliked The Pharisees because they were self-righteous, and for that he called them fools.

If there's one thing that Catholics and most Christian denominations live their lives by its The Word of The Lord. And where does that come from? Scripture! I'd like to know where in Scripture is self-righteousness encouraged? Doesn't God punish the self-righteous? For the most part yes, but what does he usually offer the self-righteous? A chance to be righteous. A chance to rewrite their wrongs. You don't have to look much farther in Scripture then the story of Saul to prove such a thing. I'm not going to explain. I'm going to simply encourage you to do that for yourself and let you believe what you want to believe.

To finish this off, the way I was brought up in the faith was to reach out to those who needed to be reached out to. I wasn't brought up to look down at those who have lost their way. Christ says to help those people. The Scripture says to help those people. It's not to tell them that they'll never find salvation because they're a sinner. Isn't that why Jesus died on the cross? So we could find salvation?

Look at it this way; I'm not a Bible scholar (although I've read a pretty good amount of the Bible and I've studied it extensively since I was brought up in the Catholic School Board System), I'm just an 18 year old blogger going off to college in a few weeks. But please let me clarify—I love the Church, I love the Bible, and yes, I believe in sin. But the question I always like to ask myself, if Jesus showed up to a church full of self-righteous Christians, would they actually let him in? See, remember He was called a glutton and a drunkard by religious men. But the Son of God never supports self-righteousness—not now, not then.

This is why I think the story of Bob is so important. When I originally wrote this I missed the opportunity to make a powerful statement. But now, I didn't. You see, Bob represents a lot of people in this world that are lost, but just need a helping hand. Yeah, in this case he didn't find God, but he found the morals that all Christians should possess. Bob is another example that salvation is truly at hand when the man discovers His plan.

And for those who say otherwise… just remember. Just because you call some people blind, doesn't automatically give you vision.

All In The Suit That You Wear

BY: CHRISTIAN HOLMES (@HOLMESYWRITES)

DISCLAIMER: I wrote this short story in my creative writing class. Since then I have edited it quite a bit. I received one of the highest marks I have ever gotten in my high school career on this piece. The story was inspired by the song “Bob” by NOFX. I won’t ruin the plot line but I will say this… The original idea with this short story was to paint a picture that sometimes life flat outright sucks and because of that, we as humans make shitty decisions that alter the courses of our lives forever. Originally the way I ended the story was rather sad, because everybody in the class was ending their stories with a “they lived happily ever after” vibe and I just wanted to go against the norm, well encouraging the reader to contemplate the protagonist’s overall decisions. But as time has progressed I have changed the ending to a “feel good” one. I also changed it so if I ever got bored one day, I could write a sequel. The whole point of posting this short story is to lead up to a blog that I will release on Friday, August 10.

So if you like the story, please let me know and if you would be interested in reading a sequel, please give me a heads up!

I hope you enjoy the circus, that is, All In The Suit That You Wear

...

This is an ideal picture of Bob. 

It was a cold lonesome day in West Hollywood, California in Los Angeles County. The streets were noisy and cluttered as usual. It was not hard to tell who were townies and who were tourists. The townies knew all the streets and where to go if they were looking to have a fun night out. The tourists, not so much. The westside of Hollywood was quite the place to walk around for a person visiting for the first time. Big and vast and full of cultural diversity and filled with endless possibilities. The bars were nice, but the drinks were expensive. The best bar in West Hollywood, The Whisky a Go Go, was a must visit for any tourist and for any towny that loved to listen. Bob would probably have to agree.

Bob had lived with his parents in Los Angeles, not to far away from West Hollywood, on Sherman Oaks in a small but luxurious home with three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a nice living room, and an amazing kitchen for his entire twenty-nine year life. He had a few good meals in that kitchen. Maybe that would explain why he got gout later on in his life?

Bob always liked his parents’ house on Sherman Oaks. The neighbourhood was big and filled with many kids his age that, when they got older, loved to party, and live the life of O’Riley. Bob enjoyed the green grass, and the safe nature of his life long whereabouts. He knew the world was a dark and scary place, so he could not live with the thought of moving from his home. So it never happened, and his parents gave him a hard time on the situation, but they knew Bob had a problem with drinking and they feared for him, so they never kicked him out of the house. Bob would never last on his own, even if they did.

Actually, Bob’s Mom dreamt eventually about Bob dying from alcohol poisoning and his Dad had way too many dreams about being the pallbearer at his funeral. Bob’s alcoholism was a major burden on his family, to say the least. If there was ever an elephant in the room, Bob’s drinking was it.  

Bob was never the best kid in school. In fact, he did not really care about it at all. In high school, Bob discovered girls, ‘Jack The Bottle’, Budweiser, and glam metal music. Four things that his life would revolved around for many years to come. Bob always liked the way ‘Jack’ tasted. “Strong, sweet, and damn well good,” as Bob would always say. Bob drank ‘Jack’ like a fish drinks water. He was often drunk, but luckily not obnoxious.

Bob’s friends would always tell him that he was stuck in the eighties. He would always have long blonde hair like Vince Neil in his heyday. Bob rocked the denim jeans and the bad boy leather jacket. He tried hard to have that ‘bad boy’ persona, but everyone knew Bob was too polite for that. The girls did not seem to care, either way they were all over him. Bob was always looking for ‘nothing but a good time’. He had no worries in life. His parents were loaded, his bank account was full and he was trenched in an endless sea of women. What else could the lucky bastard want? Tax exemptions? Give me a break.  

Since Bob’s glory days in high school, a lot of things have changed in his world. All of his friends have gotten their education and have grown up, unlike his privileged ass. Some of his friends are starting families and some of their families are starting to grow. Bob, on the other hand, really has not done much with his life. He currently works at Permanent Records on York Blvd. He has no love life once so ever, if only dreams counted. On his spare time, he likes to watch John Wayne movies and get drunk. Maybe jerk off on the odd day when his parents weren’t home. Nothing too spectacular.   

It's quite obvious that Bob’s job does not pay much and to be honest, Bob feels no fulfillment from the job. And Bob knows that knowing how many times Ronnie James Dio says’ “OH YEAH” in his records does not qualify as a ‘workplace skill’. Bob does not care what people think of him living with his parents. He says, “Living with my parents is a smart economic decision!” What Bob really cares about (and works for) is the weekend. The weekend is when Bob can ditch work and go get drunk as a skunk on Sunset Boulevard and forget about his life for a few hours. Something he had been doing for as long as he could remember.     

One Saturday in September of nineteen-ninety-one, nightfall was coming and with that Sunset Boulevard was starting to fill up with people looking to have a good night going bar hopping. Bob was back up to his old tricks. He wanted to have a good time after he had a big argument with his ‘dear ol’ Dad’ on his lifestyle choices, and how his Dad disapproved of him. Well, not him, more so Bob's choices that led him down this path to being the ‘deadbeat son’.

This argument got heated quick and things were said drunkenly on the fly. Bob kept remembering what his Dad said to him earlier, “Take a long look at yourself, son. You have so much potential. You could have went to college and gotten a nice job. You could have met your special someone and had kids by now. You are twenty-nine, Bob! You do not have to keep feeding off your Mom and I. But no, Bob can’t stop doing that,  you gotta keep drinking and chasing after women that want a real relationship with a mature man. That’s not you, Bob! And at this rate, it’ll never be you! No grown ass woman is going want a man whom’s favourite hobby is jerking off and drinking Jack Daniels! Honestly, Bob, you just better start sniffin your own rank subjugation jack, cause it's just you against your tattered libido, the bottle and, the mortician, forever man. And it wouldn't be luck if you could get out of life alive!”

Bob, without thinking of what he was going to say and how he was going to say it, said to his Dad in a frustrated manner, “I could be a rocket scientist, making millions of dollars, and raising a healthy and happy family and you still wouldn’t be proud of me! I know my life has not turned out the way you and Mom would of hoped it did. I know that. I don’t have to be reminded of it each and every single fucking day! Do you honestly think I want to get up in the morning and go and work at that record store? Listening to the same old crap everyday. Dealing with customers that get pissed off because we do not have the deluxe edition of Back In Black?”

With rage Bob kept on talking, “And than to come home and be told, day and day again, that I’m basically a ‘disappointment’. So what, I have a couple of drinks on the weekend? It’s no worse than smoking your ‘medical’ marijuana and sitting on the couch all day listening to your old Beatles records and talking about how good the sixties were when you could still get high on LSD without having an epileptic seizure and still stick it up without a blue pill!”

Taking a deep breath, Bob continues, “You see, Dad? You and I are a lot alike and I’m not talking about the shared DNA. You have always wanted to be something big, who knows maybe you could have been, and the same thing goes for me. And than along came Mom and ‘wala’ here comes, Bob! The kid you never wanted, but boy oh boy, you got him! Man did I ever put a wrench into your plans of world domination. The next thing you know, it’s ‘Bob this’ and ‘Bob that’. And for an egocentric guy like you that was absolute fucking torture! You could not wait for the day that I grew up and left the house so you could ‘get your life back on track’.”

Bob started to think about the past and how his Dad always seemed to blame him for things that he had no control of. “So than I become the scapegoat to all your problems. Mom got mad at you, blame Bob! Had a bad day, let's take it out on Bob! Your car won't start, complain about Bob! Well guess what, Dad? It's not my fault that you turned your life into what it is today! It's not my fault your life is miserable! You say I'm not that far from going six feet under, but have you ever taken a moment to look at yourself in the mirror? Have you? The fact that you take more time to complain about your problems rather than trying to solve them is pathetic! Not only do I know that, but deep, deep down you know that as well! They say, ‘everyone learns faster on fire’, but man things have really taken a turn for you, Dad. You lost all your desires and now you live and you burn. So, it's not ‘Bob’ that's the problem, it's your own pathetic, hypocritical, deadbeat self!”

With the argument still stuck in Bob's mind, Bob decided to continue his journey to Sunset Boulevard. Bob wanted to get wasted. He did not want to feel the guilt he was feeling anymore. He was sick of his life and all the stuff he had to put up with on a daily basis. He really, really needed a release, an escape. If it had to be a bottle of Jack and a drunken conversation about life with a woman who goes through spouses faster than Bob goes through booze, so let it be. Bob just made it into the ‘dirt bar’, The Gift of Alcohol: Drink It In Man for happy hour.

Bob said to the young transgender woman manning the bar, “Bring me a new beer and a shot of Jack every ten minutes please.” Much to Bob’s delight [s]he did, and Bob was starting to get that buzz in which he longed for. He started to feel like he was at Woodstock. He was fucked up.

A couple hours start to go by. Six drinks start to turn into twelve, twelve drinks start to turn into sixteen. Finally the bartender tells Bob that he has had enough. As the bartender walks over to Bob, he seems to be passed out… But The bartender noticed something unusual with Bob. His face was pale and his eyes were dimmed. His pupils had dilated and his lips were starting to lose colour. Without hesitation, the bartender called 9-1-1.

When the paramedics got to Bob, they realized that he was suffering from the ill-effects of alcohol poisoning, and began to give him medication that would attempt to help save his life, until they could get him to the hospital to pump out his stomach. Luckily, the medication did its job and Bob started to regain consciousness on the way to the hospital. At the hospital, the doctors examined Bob thoroughly. What they would discover about Bob’s health was something that would change his life forever. The doctors told Bob that his ‘liver was on the verge of exploding’ and if he did not stop consuming alcohol his ‘days on this Earth were numbered’.

Startled by the news, Bob had a serious reality check. You what have thought he found God or some shit… But luckily, Bob’s the kinda guy he knows just what to do... Bob knew he had to stop his drinking. So Bob went to rehab and tried to get rid of his lifelong addiction. Which to his delight, it seems he did. It was hard, but Bob did it. The problem was though that Bob got depressed. The only thing he enjoyed doing was being taken away from him, although he made that choice. Day after day, month after month, it was the same story; another shitty day in Bob’s life. Just living the ‘same damn life’ as his parents would say. Until one day at his weekly Alcoholics Anonymous meeting…

At the meeting, there was a new face which Bob did not know. This gentleman was short and fat with blonde hair and bits of red hair. This man looks like he skipped out on shaving for a few days, and it looks like he hadn’t changed his clothes in a week. When it came time for this gentleman to speak, he stood up half drunk looking and prepared to introduced himself. He said, “Hi my name is Fat Mike and I am a punk. I like to get drunk on the weekends.  I’m only here because of my parole officer. Keep drinking kids! This shit never gets old.”

The lead counselor then said to Fat Mike, “That was very insightful. Now please take a seat, ‘Fat Mike’.” Mocking Mike’s nickname.

Intrigued by Fat Mike, Bob went up and asked him if he would like to hangout one day and talk about life and being a ‘punk’. Fat Mike agreed, and they met up the next day outside of Paramount Records where Bob was still working. The two started talking about life and their love for ‘the bottle’. Fat Mike accepted the fact that Bob had quit drinking, but the more and more they talked, Fat Mike got the feeling that since Bob stopped drinking his whole life went to shit, which for the most part was true.

Bob was curious about being punk and simply asked Fat Mike, “What does it mean to be a punk, Fat Mike?”

Fat Mike said without hesitation, “Well, it means that you go against the mainstream beliefs that you have grown accustomed to. It means that you stop trying to be like everyone else, and just be yourself. Screw it, if you want to shave your head, do it! Punk isn’t just a genre of music or form of expression, it’s a lifestyle!” Fat Mike looks walks towards a garbage can and kicks it over and then says, “That’s punk!”

Bob than runs to the garbage can and kicks it again and asks, “Is that punk?”

“No, Bob, that’s trendy.” Thinking of an easy way to put it, “It’s basically everything punk is against. Kids nowadays become punks because it's the ‘trendy’ thing to do. Not really knowing what being a punk is truly about, which is individuality and challenging the societal norms that we have been grown to accept by the government and the powers that be. Punk is the new hipster. Possessions and appearance don’t mean anything when you are punk. Be who you wanna be. Fuck the rest.”

Over time, Bob and Fat Mike became great friends. Fat Mike eased Bob into the punk lifestyle. To pass the time, Bob had somebody shave his head, and help him develop a new sense of identity. He fell in love with socialism and wore red suspenders daily to symbolize his socialistic beliefs. Bob traded in his glam metal records for punk rock and ska records, and his laziness for political activism. Bob learned that sometimes it is best to do his own thing. And with that got him to think about drinking again.

When talking to Fat Mike, Bob asked, “Is it okay to do something that will kill you, knowing by doing it, it’ll make you happy?”

“Bob, it’s all in the suit that you wear, my man! Don’t hide away from things because of fear. Do what makes YOU happy! Society will say you shouldn’t. Your parents will say you should not. But let’s be real man, death is imminent. We all going to die someday.” Pausing for a moment, “The question is, though, do you want to go six feet under miserable with a life full of regret or do you want to go six feet under happy as hell, having no regrets in life and only found memories of good times? If so, do what makes you happy and drink it in man! Forget about your Dad for once. It’s obvious the old bugger will never approve of you. Move on, live YOUR life!”  

With that being said, Bob, who was wearing a white muscle shirt, red suspenders, and sixty-two hole air cushioned Doc Morton boots, cracked open a can of Budweiser and poured himself a glass of Jack. For once in his life, Bob actually felt a sense of happiness. Not that happiness he felt when he could go out on a Friday night and get wasted. It was a sense of happiness much greater than that. Bob felt a sense of fulfillment in his life. Bob’s Dad’s self-righteous demeanor could finally, for once in his life, take a hike. Finally, Bob had found himself. Finally Bob did not care about what others said. The counterculture was his culture. That is when Bob knew he was a punk. Now Bob could finally, for the first time in his life, could boast in his weakness.

Thirty Six years later when Bob is on his deathbed....

To my loving family and friends who made this life worth living

All is fair. It starts off shitty and it ends well. If you’re reading this, I’m more than likely dead. I have lost my battle to cancer and now I’m going six feet under! Shit, eh? I guess I’ll finally get to know what the rent is like up in Heaven! Maybe well I’m at it I can finally figure out where the river goes!

So if you’re reading this and you’re crying, don’t shed a tear. I lived my life. I learned a lot. I’ve learned from my mistakes and I have made immense with those whom I have forsaken. Yeah, maybe I wasn’t exactly the greatest person at times, but nobody is perfect, and I’m no goddamn exception! In my younger days, I was lost in my own selfish ways. But as I have grown old, I learned to love life, and to treasure every breath I take. And because of that I finally quit drinking. Fully and completely. For the record, I am twenty five years sober, and those have been the best twenty five years of my life!

I’m not going to the grave cold and alone, like everybody thought I was. I figured shit out and got my act together. I found the love of my life and I married her. We had two beautiful children named, Charles and Sadie. I patched things up with my father, and I stuck around to take care of my mother. I realised that life is too short to last long and I shouldn’t hold grudges against the people that loved me and supported me when nobody else did. Maybe we didn’t see eye-to-eye, but at the end of the day, they still loved me. And for that I owed it to them to make peace.

So slap my tits and call me Sally, because I’m not going to the grave with any regrets. No, I didn’t find God, I just found some common fucking sense and put it into forward motion. I learned a valuable lesson and that lesson is: don’t get lost in your own pride. I’m glad I learnt that lesson because otherwise, I’d probably wouldn’t have been able to make it to 65 years young. Honestly, there’s no glory in your pride. It’s just that simple. Take it from me and don’t let anybody tell you otherwise. It’s all in the suit you wear, kid.

So if there’s any advice I could give to the next generation, it would be. For fucks sakes mate, live your life to the absolute fullest! Be innovative! Don’t sit on your ass all day! Do what you love and fuck the rest before it fucks you. Find your one and only  and start a family. Just greet the world with arms wide open!

Finally, I just want you all to know that I love yous all to pieces. You all gave me hope and for that is something I can never repay you for. This isn’t goodbye, it’s see you later! So have a drink for me and sing Bro Hymn! Live your life in peace and harmony. ‘Cause this old motherfucker is going in the ground one happy son of a bitch!

Love yours truly,

Bob

The End