Tuesday, May 31, 2016

You Talk Too Much - By Carroll Bryant

YOU TALK TOO MUCH - By Carroll Bryant



You're deadly glamorous with a nefarious smile
You get around girl, all of the while
Your attitude reflects your ineptitude 
You remind me of this girl that I once knew 

You live in circles that long for the lunch 
Where the chitter-chatter is way out of touch

You talk too much 
Secrets get exposed
Relationships become toast 
You talk too much
Girl, you can't control the words that you say
You know it's wrong, but you say them anyway
You won't shut up
You talk too much 

You're silly indolent and off you went 
You find a way to get your money spent 
Your desperate cries reveal your alibis 
You remind me of this time love said goodbye 

You live where reason doesn't even have a clue 
You're always walking around with one missing shoe 

You talk too much 
Secrets get exposed
Relationships become toast 
You talk too much
Girl, you can't control the words that you say
You know it's wrong, but you say them anyway
You won't shut up
You talk too much

How is that you can keep a friend? 
One day your perfect world has to come to an end
You're always so sorry when something gets out 
Always acting like you don't know what anything is ever about 

Where is it coming from?

You live where decency doesn't exist 
You're always sinking ships with those loose lips  

You talk too much 
Secrets get exposed
Relationships become toast 
You talk too much
Girl, you can't control the words that you say
You know it's wrong, but you say them anyway
You won't shut up
You talk too much
You talk too much 
Even in your sleep those secrets you can't keep
You won't shut up
You talk too much 
You talk too much
You talk too much



Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Fantasy Football: The 2016 Fifteen

It's that time of year again where we look back at the NFL draft and look ahead to the new FF season. And what a draft it was too. I couldn't be happier about my Dallas Cowboys picking a BUCKEYE in the first round. I'm sure Elliott will do well for them. I was a little disappointed in my Tampa Bay Buccaneers though. I thought they should have taken WR Treadwell - after maybe trading down a little in the first round. Hargreaves is okay, but I felt there were just as good CB's in the later rounds and we really need someone to compliment Mike Evans.


Anyhow, I have completed drafting my fantasy football teams for this year and what a wild two days it was.

First, I discovered that ESPN has expanded their number of free teams you can play from 10 to 25. That's a lot of teams. For everyone who knows me, I only play ten teams. I used to play 12 teams back when I played on Yahoo! and CBS leagues. I quit though to focus on just one league and the league that won out was ESPN.

I consolidated my teams down from 12 to 10. (Yahoo! - 4, CBS - 3, and I played only 5 teams in ESPN before I dropped the other two leagues a few years ago.) But now, since the number of free teams have been greatly expanded, I decided to bring my other 2 teams from out of retirement and I decided to add 3 new teams to the mix. This year, I play 15 teams.


 My primary teams are: 1) Piketon Red Streaks, 2) Chillicothe Paints, 3) Ohio Wildcats, 4) Waverly Thrashers, 5) Ross County Warriors, 6) Triple X, 7) New Mexico Scorpions, 8) Roswell Aliens, 9) Columbus Bandits, and 10) Kingston Kings.

The two teams I brought back from retirement are: 1) Santa Fe Eagles, and 2) Quebec Knights.

The three new teams I am adding for this year are: 1) Tampa Bay Lightning, 2) London Tigers, and 3) Utah Cougars.

I drafted my teams inside of two days and for the most part, I thought I did a pretty good job. For anyone keeping up, the past four years I have been on fire in FF. I have gotten 90 % of my teams in the playoffs and 75 % of those teams into the championship game of their respective leagues. I have won 16 championships over the past four years.


  While I believe I have done another good job of drafting, I did want to talk about a few of my teams, starting with Piketon.

Piketon is my original team. They started out as the Pike City Pokes for a few years before I changed them to Piketon Red Streaks, which is the name of our high school team here. But my FF season kicks off with drafting this team first. I got some really solid players too and some amazing depth.

A lot of my teams have many of the same players on them but I do try to mix things up here and there. And every year I have my 3 - 5 players that I call my "golden boys". This year, it is QB Blake Bortles, and Derek Carr, RB's David Johnson, Thomas Rawls, and Jeremy Langford, and WR's A.J. Green, Jarvis Landry and Willie Snead. I also favored K's Justin Tucker, and the rookie, Roberto Aguayo from Buccaneers. My top D's for this year are, Cardinals, Texans, Bengals, and Jets.

Of course, the whole idea behind my strategy for drafting is getting value from each pick in each of the sixteens rounds.

Interestingly enough, my team, Waverly Thrashers, features the number 1 RB from last year, Devonta Freeman of the Falcons, and the number 6 and 7 ranked RB's from last season, Lamar Miller of the Dolphins (now with Texans) and David Johnson of the Cardinals, who was a rookie last year. So basically, I got in this draft of 2016, three of the top 7 RB's from 2015. Not too shabby.

Also a side note, my team Ohio Wildcats features the last two number one RB's in FF. last years number one, Devonta Freeman, and the 2014 number one RB, Le'Veon Bell of the Steelers.  Le'Veon got hurt early in the season last year and missed the last 14 games. I am hoping he comes back at full strength and becomes the dominate RB he was two years ago, while pinning my hopes that Freeman repeats last season. If this works out, I could have one hell of a 1-2 punch in my backfield.

I can't wait for the season to begin even though last year, I was hit with more injuries than any season before. I hope for a bit easier road in 2016. And while last year was probably the best year I had in FF, I hope to repeat that great success this season.

Wish me luck!


Friday, May 20, 2016

Simplicity - By Carroll Bryant

SIMPLICITY - By Carroll Bryant


There is a universe of time waiting
For me
This is my world of simplicity 

You can't make up my mind 
For me
You can't take away my simplicity 

Everything!
I break it all down!
Everything you see is .....
Everyday! 
I break it all down!
Everyday I break it all down
To be

Simplicity

Sometimes you have to fight for territory 
Everyone gets challenged eventually 
You can choose to close your eyes if you like 
But that won't save you from the beast 

When everything is alive
Nobody dies
That's why I live my life 
In simplicity 

When everybody cries 
I know I'll survive
That's why I live my life
In simplicity 

There is a universe of light shining 
On me
This is my world, my galaxy 

You can't make up my mind
For me
You can't break away from my simplicity 

When everything is alive
Nobody dies
That's why I live my life 
In simplicity 

When everybody cries 
I know I'll survive
That's why I live my life
In simplicity

Everything!
I break it all down!
Everything you see is .....
Everyday! 
I break it all down!
Everyday I break it all down
To be

Simplicity 

This is my life

Simplicity



Sunday, May 15, 2016

Sitcom Review: "2 Broke Girls"

This falls in line with my DVD Reviews segment, but with a twist. Obviously, I am now adding sitcoms into my reviewing. My first review is that of a comedy that you can watch on CBS, and syndicated on TBS, and probably a few other networks.

It stars Kat Dennings, Beth Behrs, Garrett Morris, Jennifer Coolidge, Jonathan Kite, and Matthew Moy.

It's about two girls who work at some little diner while they try and start their own little business of baking / selling cupcakes. One of the girls comes from a wealthy family, and her father got arrested for embezzling or something and she loses her money and goes to work for this diner and .... (Insert yawn here ---> ____)

Let me just get straight to my review. It's not funny. Stale jokes at best. I know when they're coming and I'm always squinting my eyes and saying, "Don't say it, don't say it, don't ... oh, shit, you said it." - And it still isn't funny.

I only tried to watch it about five to seven times, lasting only around ten minutes each time before searching out the remote and turning it to something else.

No one on this show seems to be able to deliver the jokes. The jokes themselves are really bad and expected. I figure only a jobbernowl could watch this show. Bad writing, bad acting, bad directing. If I was given the choice of watching every minute of every episode in season one or eat ten feet of rusted barbed-wire, then grab the BBQ and some water to wash it down.

Hey, I tried to like it. I gave this sitcom more chances than I did 'Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman' from back in the day. It just doesn't cut the mustard for me. (And my mustard is normally easy to cut, too).

In a world where reality shows dominate, and I sorely despise reality shows, I hate to say I would rather watch 'Big Brother' (kill me now) as opposed to trying to watch one more minute of '2 Broke Girls'. 

My rating - 1 1/2 stars (out of ten)



Tuesday, May 10, 2016

My Salvation (Hopeless) - By Carroll Bryant

MY SALVATION (HOPELESS) - By Carroll Bryant 



You can't see what's on the inside 
I protect myself by being shy 

You can't feel the angry anxiety 
I take my pills and lay down to cry 

I'm flying away
So far away
Lead me not into temptation 
This is my salvation 

Talk is cheap when there's no philosophy 
Just stupid kids playing ring around the rosy 

You roll your eyes and I begged you to treat me sweet
I can't believe that I even begged you 

I'm flying away
So far away
Lead me not into temptation 
This is my salvation 

I know I'm nothing to you
I'm just a throw-away
Neurotic to the point that I drive you crazy
I got no money to offer your insecurities 
Nothing here for you to respect 

You can't see what's on the inside 
I protect myself by being shy 

You can't feel the angry anxiety 
I take my pills and lay down to die

I'm flying away
So far away
Lead me not into temptation 

I'm flying away
So far away
Lead me not into temptation 
This is my salvation




Thursday, May 5, 2016

Self Healing: The Power Of The Mind: "Capture" By Dr. David Kessler

There's a book out there titled, "Capture: Unraveling The Mystery Of Mental Suffering" by Dr. David Kessler. This book addresses mental health and considers some of the most profound questions we face as human beings in regards to addiction. Dr. Kessler looks into the possibilities of the brain healing itself from addictions. It's a theory that the mind can actually be powerful enough to overcome many, if not all and any, addiction.

I actually subscribe to this belief, but mostly because I have used this power of 'mind over matter' before on a few occasions. Most recently, quitting smoking after my heart attack. From my last day in the hospital to the first few visits to my doctor, the question was always asked, "Do you want me to hook you up with some nicotine patches? Gum?" And my reply was always the same, "No. No thanks. I got this."

People always talked about how difficult it is to quit smoking. I look back now and shake my head. I always thought about quitting, but never really tried to quit. The truth is, I didn't want to quit. And quite frankly, I believed, and still believe, that if you do not wish to quit anything, you're probably not going to quit. I'm talking about that inner drive deep inside. If you do not have that deep desire to stop, then you will never be able to stop.

My belief is, if there is something you are doing that you no longer want to do, you can stop with my proven method. Just stop. That's how I quit smoking. I just stopped. I figured, if I don't ever smoke another cigarette, then I would stop smoking. So far, that method has proved to be successful.

What about the cravings? Well, I actually didn't have any cravings that first month. (My last cigarette was September 2, 2014.) But when that second month came rolling in (October) those cravings kicked in big time. I went through a lot of regular gum, Life Savers candy, lollipops, and such but I kept telling myself, "If you smoke even one cigarette, you can't claim to have quit smoking". Just smoking one cigarette would have been cheating and I wasn't gonna cheat on myself.

Then right around the first of November, the start of month three, I drove a friend around in my car and he lit up a smoke and puffed away. That second hand smoke smelled so good and felt so good when I breathed it in that it actually took those mad cravings away. And even to this day, when I get around someone who is smoking, I savor the flavor. Even the slightest craving that may pop up goes away with the smell of second hand smoke.

But I really do miss smoking. When I am ready to die, which might be closer than we think, I will probably light back up again because - I really enjoyed it and I really miss it. You're not going to live forever so I think everyone should light them if you got them. I completely endorse it if you don't have heart disease. 

The point is, the only way to break a habit or addiction is to just stop. Period.

Easier said than done, you say? Maybe, but quitting smoking wasn't the only time I had to break an addiction. I also did it when I was in the Navy where my addiction was alcohol. (Or so they told me). I was sent to see the alcohol counselor by my Master Chief. When I showed up in the ship office, they gave me a test. I filled out about half of it before I began criticizing the process. The "alcohol" counselor and I wasn't hitting it off so well. I ended up walking out and turning down the option of AA because within their recovery process, there was a step that included "god" or turning yourself over to "god" as part of the healing. (Give me a break).

I ended up taking a few days of leave that coincided with a three day holiday weekend and with the help of a friend, I just decided not to drink so much anymore. PRESTO! I was cured.

I slipped into a few segments of binge drinking stages afterwards like when I went back to Ohio. A few years after my discharge I went through about a six month splurge of hanging out in the bars. Then again a few years later which lasted for about another 6 or 8 months of constant partying. Then another in and around 2003 to 2005. That was my "goth girl" period. I was dating a lot of goth girls. I was meeting them online and at a few goth bars. I went through my last drinking stage about 2 and a half years before my heart attack (that lasted for about 6-8 months) but had stopping drinking for about 12-18 months before my heart attack. However, for the most part, I kept my drinking in check with the power of the mind.

My other addiction of which I was diagnosed with twice, in 2001 and as recent as 2015, is something they call "sex addiction"? Now, I'm not sure I completely believe such a thing, but let's say this is true, well, they say it breaks up a lot of marriages but I'm not married so .... oh, well.

They also call it a "porn" addiction too, or something. Well gee, I'm a single guy, of course I'm going to look at porn. A lot of porn.

A lot of porn! lol

The last doctor who informed me that I have this "sex" or "porn" addiction I responded by saying, "I promise you doc, I'll take care of it just as soon as I take care of this 'oxygen' addiction I have. And this 'food and water' addiction."

But do I believe in the power of the mind when it comes to healing ones self? Absolutely, I do. If you really want to quit smoking, or drinking (which I do not classify drinking as a disease) or any addiction you might have, if you honestly really want to quit, you can. All you have to do is stop doing what you're doing. That's it. That's all. And substitute it with something else. Maybe another addiction? LMAO Sure, why not?

So maybe Dr. David Kessler is onto something here. Mind over matter. I think it can be done because I am living proof that it has happened and can be done. And if I can do it then anyone can do it. But first, you have to really want to do it. You have to want to quit deep, deep inside. There just comes a time when your body says it has had enough. Listen to that. Listen to your body. And if you want to quit an addiction, just stop doing whatever it is you're doing. Then - and only then - will you be able to quit.

And not a moment sooner.