Bart "J.B." Hopkins's Blog, page 32
July 25, 2013
26 Days
When is a door not a door? When it’s ajar.
Wow, so we moved from Waldmohr into a house on base and we’re really loving it. Screens on the windows and a nice little neighborhood where the kids can ride their bikes. Perla has a whopping 3-minute drive to work and the commissary is so close, so close. We miss the bakery and the Penny Markt and some awesome neighbors, but the house and the convenience rock.
But, wait a minute and hold the phones…we had to go through some pretty tough times during this move. Stuff you can’t even imagine.
What?
Here it comes…wait for it…
We didn’t have Internet in our house for 26 days!!
First world problems, I know, and we aren’t even packing smart phones like most of the universe.
So anyway, we’re back in the 21st century. Okay, that’s not totally true. We still don’t have air conditioning, but if you didn’t know it, that’s the standard in Germany. Most of the year it works pretty well, but there are 2-4 weeks each year where I feel like I’m going to lose it because of the heat.
26 Days–Good night.
“I’m a fair guy, but this ****** heat is making me absolutely crazy.”
- Col Jessep, A Few Good Men
June 22, 2013
Cat’s Eye
This is NOT a review.
I watched Cat’s Eye recently…the flick based off of some earlier Stephen King works.
King also wrote the screenplay.
The movie is okay. Maybe even good.
It was made in 1985 and you can tell it was made in 1985. So there’s a certain cheese you can’t avoid.
And on a side note, it’s mostly harmless for kids to watch except for the minor scare factor in Story #3.
But that’s not what I’m thinking about.
What I really focused on were the creative ways in which Mr. Stephen King had his characters deal with the challenges they faced: smoking and adultery.
I would like to applaud King’s clever solutions; he certainly went outside of the box. Very inventive indeed.
Could we take solutions like this and apply them to other problems, right here and now, and meet the same success? Or maybe we’d have more problems? Hard to say, but I think it’s worth a look.
I would like to recommend that Stephen King lead a gigantic think-tank and come up with some more of these creative answers for societal questions and issues.
What do you think? Good idea?
PS
I neglected to mention the third challenge faced in the movie: small trolls that live inside our walls and threaten to steal the breath from our children at night.
I think dogs would work equally well to protect us from the trolls.
The end.
June 19, 2013
Fame and Fortune
Sometimes people ask me what it’s like to be a world famous author.
My answer: I haven’t changed at all. I’m still just this normal guy, you know? I still shop at the grocery store and I pay regular price for gasoline.
Fame and fortune haven’t changed me: I keep it real.
I roar like a lion.
I take manly pictures at the beach…
…and I contemplate mankind.
I am also an aging alien life form (ALF) – Way to go, Willie!
So, don’t be overwhelmed or nervous or afraid to say hi to me when you see me on the streets. I’m down to earth. I’m not too good to speak. I’m still the same guy!
Hope you all are having a fantastic day!
June 15, 2013
The Foo
The Foo Fighters are one of my favorite bands. I love those guys. Well, you know, in a completely masculine sort of way…
I remember listening to their 2nd album, The Colour and The Shape, approximately a gajillion times in 1997/1998 while I was in Korea. I enjoy all of their music, but the album remains my favorite.
I just stumbled upon Dave Grohl’s speech from the 2013 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame when he and Taylor Hawkins inducted RUSH into the Hall of Fame. I like RUSH, too, but I wouldn’t call myself a huge fan.
The SPEECH was awesome though! Check it out on YouTube: HERE.
That is all. Ciao – rock on!
June 12, 2013
A look at The Casual Vacancy
The Casual Vacancy
by J.K. Rowling
With nearly 4,000 reviews on Amazon, and 15,000 reviews on Goodreads, I won’t bore you with a summary of what the book is about.
I bought The Casual Vacancy for my wife when it came out. My daughter LOVES the Harry Potter series and is on her 3rd journey through that series of books right now and I was very interested in what her first “adult” book would be like.
That’s probably the first, and most important, thing: this book is for adults. I’m not prudish about life, and I’m completely open to literature of all sorts…from Dickens to Bret Easton Ellis to any Oprah Book Club selection, I will read it.
But there is periodic content in this book that would rob a child of innocence that they should be allowed to keep until they become adults. My advice…don’t let anyone under 18 near it. But that decision is yours as a parent…it’s only my opinion, and you know what they say about opinions and such.
The book was okay. The topics didn’t appeal to me, but the writing was decent, good in parts, but nothing really reached out and grabbed me about it. The main topics were sex, drugs, and a variety of struggling relationships. Some characters were VERY unbelievable to me.
I started reading the book earlier than I thought I would because my wife didn’t finish it. She’s less tolerant of the edgy topics.
I think 3 stars is fair. I don’t believe in insulting authors and/or their writing…it’s like insulting a mother or father for their parenting style…I think it indicates poor character to attack and insult an author or their writing. Authors spend months and years creating their babies, their books, and they deserve credit for their effort. I think all we, as readers, can legitimately do is say that a book wasn’t for us and move on.
And so: this book was okay, but it wasn’t for me. Maybe it’s for you.
Cheers!
June 9, 2013
More FREE books
Free through June 9th (Sunday), two anthologies packed with fun stories. Test them out and find your next favorite author…
Paranormal stories, each with a twist:
Apocalypse action:
June 5, 2013
May 26, 2013
Affirmation
When someone who reads quite a bit identifies your book as the best they’ve read so far in 2013, that’s what I call awesome; it’s also pleasant affirmation that you’ve created something worthwhile.
I wasn’t too charged up about writing lately, so I appreciate this even more than usual…
Thanks, Terri!
May 25, 2013
A Confession
In August 2010 I did something I’m not proud of.
What can I say? We all have moments of weakness, times we aren’t thinking so clearly, when we do things we normally wouldn’t.
Okay, here it is.
I’m so ashamed it’s hard to even type this part.
I’ll just have to rip the bandaid off this one…
I confess: I saw Justin Bieber in concert.
You can see my ladies below, waiting for JB…
Before you pass judgment, consider this–we won the tickets from Kidd Kraddick–so really we were just taking advantage of an opportunity. A free show. Free is always good, right?
And, think about how selfless it was to take my daughters to see their favorite singer, no matter what my feelings were. Now THAT is sacrifice! (Note Bieber in the background, in a floating steel heart.)
Okay…all that being said, I’ll grudgingly admit that the show was okay. And Justin must be doing something right…there were about 20,000 people there and I have never, never heard anything so loud as all those girls screaming. Their voices converged into the highest, most piercing note you can imagine.
I was incredibly impressed with my son, who fell asleep, and didn’t budge even when I thought my eardrums would burst. You are the man, Ryan.
And now, just three years later, my daughters no longer like the BIEB. At least that is what they claim. They say they never really liked him that much, but I have pictures and video that prove otherwise, which I’m keeping tucked away to show future friends.
Take care, world…and Rock On, BIEB!
May 16, 2013
Good-byes
In the fall of 2011 I went to have lunch with my son at school.
My son, Ryan, is allergic to peanuts. At Ramstein schools, through second grade, kids with allergies sit at their own table in the lunch room. It’s an extra safeguard for the little people; I think it’s smart.
So I popped into Ryan’s school that day and went to meet him at his lunchroom. I discovered that day that the allergy kids can have a friend sit with them at their allergy-kids table.
There was a young lady eating with Ryan. I introduced myself; I learned that her name was Juliette.
Juliette was outspoken and friendly. I noticed and commented to both of them about what a wonderful vocabulary Ryan’s friend Juliette had.
During that year, Ryan and Juliette were the best of friends. Good kids. And during many class visits, and a few play dates, my wife and I met Juliette’s parents. Even though we weren’t–couldn’t be–close buddies like Juliette and Ryan, we came to know and enjoy their whole family. They are, simply, really good people: the kind of family it’s impossible not to like.
Well, we enjoyed some food and conversation with Juliette’s family last night until almost 10pm–pretty late for the Hopkins on a school night–but it was worth it.
You see, Juliette’s family is in the military, like we are, and it’s their time to move on to another assignment. They aren’t moving across town; they are moving halfway around the world.
They aren’t the first friends we’ve watched go; they won’t be the last. You might think that we would get used to it, and maybe some people do, but I don’t. For me, it’s tough every single time, which is pretty much every year.
The worst part is watching my children go through it. Many tears fall in my house when we tell people good-bye, as they leave, or as we leave. My kids hug friends and they promise to keep in touch. And sometimes they do, even though it’s so hard to maintain those childhood friendships over immense distances when you’re just a little kid.
So I find myself in a strange mood thinking about it all. My oldest daughter has friends moving away next month. Several kids from my youngest daughter’s class won’t be back next year. It’s part of being a military child and it’s not easy.
To all you military families out there…thank you. Thanks for what you do every day, defending our beliefs, of course. But thank you also for living such a crazy nomadic life…thank you for enduring too many good-byes.
Juliette and Family – Thanks for being a special part of our lives!
