Month: October 2022

Stephen King: #35 – Blaze

On By Luke FlorenceIn Books, Lists, Stephen King, Uncategorized, WritingLeave a comment

#35 – Blaze

Plot

Blaze is the story of Clayton Blaisdell, Jr. — of the crimes committed against him and the crimes he commits, including his last, the kidnapping of a baby heir worth millions.

Blaze has been a slow thinker since childhood, when his father threw him down the stairs — and then threw him down again. After escaping an abusive institution for boys when he was a teenager, Blaze hooks up with George, a seasoned criminal who thinks he has all the answers. But then George is killed, and Blaze, though haunted by his partner, is on his own.

Review

I’ve previously talked about how I structured the order in which I read these Stephen King books. After some back-and-forth, I ultimately landed on reading the older books first (while also reading any new King release). At the end of the day, it led to Blaze being the last book I needed to read to finish my 13-year pilgrimage.

Blaze was published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, but by now everyone knew that this was a Stephen King novel. He originally wrote it back in the 1970s, before he wrote Carrie. Very quickly it became a “trunk novel” and it wasn’t until 2007 that he re-wrote this story and offered it for publishing. Thank goodness this novel didn’t stay in that trunk, because it’s a well-told story that clearly drew inspiration from Of Mice and Men.

One of the many things I enjoy about King is his ability to write flawed – and special – characters. When he writes from the perspective of a dog, or a child, or someone suffering from a stutter, he’s able to bring the reader into their world. He does this with Blaze, who is our main character but is limited in his mental capacity. King expertly allows us to view the world from Blaze’s eyes and by doing so invokes a plethora of feelings – empathy, sorrow, and humor among many others.

Details

Pages: 320

Dates Read: July 2 – July 6, 2022

Quote: “Memories are contrary things; if you quit chasing them and turn your back, they often return on their own.”

Best Part: Blaze returning to the convenient store a second time had me absolutely rolling with laughter.

Hint for #34: Arguably one of Stephen King’s most famous novels. It’s hard to look at clowns and not think of this story.

 

Until next time, peace be the journey.

 

Stephen King: #36 – Firestarter

On By Luke FlorenceIn Books, Lists, Stephen King, Uncategorized, WritingLeave a comment

#36 – Firestarter

Plot

Andy McGee and Vicky Tomlinson were once college students looking to make some extra cash, volunteering as test subjects for an experiment orchestrated by the clandestine government organization known as The Shop. But the outcome unlocked exceptional latent psychic talents for the two of them—manifesting in even more terrifying ways when they fell in love and had a child.

Review

Firestarter does everything right. It builds plot effectively, involves a couple of massive twists, has characters the reader will be invested in, and includes a well-developed main antagonist. Throw in some supernatural abilities, a family torn apart and an epic climax. Firestarter has very few flaws and instead is just a well-paced, interest-holding novel.

I’ve often thought about what book I would recommend for someone who has never read Stephen King. We discussed this briefly when recapping The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, but Firestarter would be the ultimate choice. It efficiently showcases King’s ability to write plot, build suspense and isn’t massively long.

One day I may rank my favorite Stephen King antagonists. If that list ever comes to fruition, expect to see John Rainbird somewhere near the top. He’s a smart, creative and incredibly manipulative villain who has the upper hand throughout – until he doesn’t.

Details

Pages: 564

Dates Read: September – October 2019

Quote: “Life is short and pain is long and we were all put on this earth to help each other.”

Best Part: Everything that happens at the barn – including some Keanu Reeves Matrix bullet sequences.

Hint for #35: One of Jack’s favorite TV shows as a three-year old, involved Monster Machines and this title character.

 

Until next time, peace be the journey.

 

What Happened This Weekend? Vol. 105

On By Luke FlorenceIn Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Guardians, NFL, Notre Dame, Uncategorized, Weekend ThoughtsLeave a comment

A brief recap of the last 72 hours on a variety of topics including sports, news and personal events.

3 Runs … 2 Homers … 1 Series Win

The Wild Card Series was brand new this year and of course I thought my team was screwed by this renovated format.  As you’re about to see, this thinking is deep rooted in personal experience. 

For instance – in 1995 (the first year of the Wild Card), the Indians had won a major-league leading 100 games.  However, MLB instituted a ridiculous rule that included a home-field advantage rotation amongst divisions.  Because of this, the Indians never had home-field advantage once during the 1995 postseason.

In 2020, the Indians won the Wild Card in the pandemic-shortened season, but MLB allowed 8 teams from each league to make the playoffs.  This meant that instead of playing the White Sox in a winner-take-all game, the Indians had to play the Yankees (and were immediately bounced).  

This year – with another silly MLB change (at least I initially thought) – we now added another Wild Card team and introduced the Wild Card Series.  So, instead of the division-winning Guardians automatically advancing to the ALDS (as they would have every year since 1995), they were forced to play a best-of-three against the Tampa Bay Rays.

You can imagine my speculation when Jose Siri hit a homerun in the top of the 6th in Game One to give the Rays a 1-0 lead.  My head immediately went spinning with some of these absurd rule changes and how my team always got the short end of the stick.  How I was to know that the Rays would not score another run in the series?!? 

Jose Ramirez hit a two-run homer in Game One and then Oscar Gonzalez blasted a solo shot in the bottom of the 15th to win Game Two and the series.  As expected, both games were extremely close and full of drama despite the low scores (2-1, 1-0).  Game Two was historic on multiple levels as it was the first postseason game in MLB history to be scoreless after 13 innings.  My son Jack’s favorite player is Oscar Gonzalez because of his Spongebob Squarepants walk-up song.  Every time he comes up to bat my son starts singing along.  As I told him when he approached the plate for the sixth time, “He could end it with one swing.” 

And then he did. 

We went crazy.  We blasted Spongebob on the speakers.  We danced.  It was awesome.  Jack had recently learned what the word “chaos” meant, so it was only appropriate that after everything settled down, he said, “Dad, that was chaos.”

Welcome to postseason baseball Jack.  

Browns Lose … To Themselves … Again

Last week the Cleveland Browns dropped a three-point game to the Atlanta Falcons by having a swiss-cheese defense and continuing to shoot themselves in the foot on offense.  Yesterday, the Cleveland Browns dropped a two-point game to the Los Angeles Chargers by having a swiss-cheese defense and continuing to shoot themselves in the foot on offense.  They are nothing if not consistent.  Let me correct that, they are nothing if not soul-crushing.  

Last week I also talked about leaving Nick Chubb – who is clearly, and unmistakably, the best player on the Cleveland Browns – on the bench in game-winning drives.  And yet again, Coach Stefanski made the same decision against the Chargers.  This one was even more egregious as they were gifted a short-field with 90 seconds left and were still in position to run the ball. 

On a macro level, only running Chubb 17 times is mind-boggling.  If the goal of these games is to win, I would think that number could have been easily increased.

I’m just going to leave this picture of an unhappy Nick Chubb up until I feel Stefanski understands what he’s doing wrong.   Last week I talked about some questionable decision making by Kevin Stefanski, and yesterday he did it again – this time coming on a crucial 4th down decision in the 2nd half.  

After the Chargers scored to take a 24-21 lead, the Browns faced a 4th and 1 from their own 34.  Stefanski went for it (right decision) but called a very suspicious play that included multiple pulling lineman (wrong decision).  And what do you know, it was blown up.  Jacoby Brissett is clearly limited in both his arm strength and mobility, but he is elite at one thing, the QB sneak.

Coming into this season, he was hitting at a 95% success-rate when he’s been asked to execute the QB sneak.  Coming into this game against the Chargers, he’s been perfect on the season.  And yet, I get the feeling that Stefanski wants to try and “outsmart” other coaches with some of these 4th down play-calls.  It doesn’t have to be rocket science.  Brissett can get one yard just laying down.  In fact, historically, teams have brought him off the bench in these exact situations.  I don’t know why Stefanski avoids it as much as he does.    

I know this looks like nit-picking, but when you don’t have a defense that can continually get stops, it makes every possession crucial.  You win by holding on to the ball and scoring – every time.  The Browns only had four 2nd half possessions in the Chargers game.  They scored on just one of them.  If they can get one more score, the game changes dramatically.  

I’m not sure the defense can be helped at this point.  The Browns did trade for Deion Jones, a linebacker from the Atlanta Falcons, but who knows how healthy and able he will be.  I guess anything will be better than Jacob Phillips, who is not a starting middle-linebacker in this league.  Cleveland brought a little of this on themselves by not investing anything in the LB or DT positions this offseason.  As a result, teams are having no issue just running the ball straight ahead.  

Like I mentioned last week, the goal should be at least 5-6 during Watson’s 11-game suspension but things don’t get any easier next week when the 2-3 New England Patriots come into town.  They may be short on talent, but they are well-coached and execute at a high level.  They spanked the Browns 45-7 last year and may be positioned to do the exact same in 2022.  

Odds and Ends

Congratulations to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish for their 28-20 win over #16 BYU on Saturday.  I’ve always been a fan of the Shamrock Series (although not with all of their uniform selections), and it was pretty cool to see them play a good team on a big stage out in Las Vegas.  No other team gets that opportunity, and it’s one of the main reasons Notre Dame loves their independence.  

Oh, and Michael Mayer might end up being the best TE in Notre Dame history.  That dude is amazing.  A lot of noise was directed at Marcus Freeman – and deservedly so – after his 0-2 start to the season, but I haven’t heard much on a national stage about Oklahoma’s new coach, Brent Venables.  The Sooners have been blown out in their last two games, including a 49-0 shutout courtesy of the Texas Longhorns.  They will ride a three-game losing streak into their contest against Kansas next week.  Rock Chalk Jayhawk.  Whatever that means.   

How has What We Do In The Shadows not won a single Emmy?  It’s been nominated 17 times, but has yet to take home any hardware.  It’s without question one of the funniest TV shows I’ve seen in the last decade.  Maybe I’m a couple years late to this, but could the Emmy’s make themselves irrelevant by continually picking the same small group of shows as winners?   

Until next time, peace be the journey.

2022 NFL ATS: Week Five

On By Luke FlorenceIn Cleveland Browns, NFL, NFL Picks, Sports, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Last Saturday was a bro-party at the Florence household.  Mom was out on a spa day with friends which left Jack and Dad to their own accord.  As a father, I always enjoy and relish these opportunities, especially since Jack has gotten a little older.  His personality has started to shine through – for better or worse – and I can’t help but see some of myself in him.

As the day was winding down, I asked Jack if he wanted to play one more game.  He went to his playroom and came back with an unexpected surprise – a 755 piece, 3-D Tiger Lego Set.  Jack had received this toy during his 5th birthday party last fall (even though the box clearly states it is designed for those who are 9+) and I immediately feared for my own sanity.However, I had a plan – one that I thought was foolproof.  I would take this poorly chosen present and bury it with a bunch of Jack’s baby/less-used toys.  He’d never take the time to even glance at that bin, let alone sort through all of it to find this tiger set at the bottom.  My assumption was right for nearly six months … until it wasn’t.

You can imagine my shock when after a couple minutes of searching, Jack came back with said Lego set in hand.  “Dad, look what I found!  I’ve been looking for this!  Can we put it together, pleeeeease?”

The universe remains undefeated.

Last week I talked about making mistakes, and I made a couple here.  It wasn’t saying yes despite having less than 90 minutes to Jack’s bedtime.  It was choosing to put together this massive set on the basement carpet and not at a table.  I never thought that some of these Lego pieces would be so small that they could actually get lost in the carpet.  The other mistake was letting Jack open some of the bags.  He made it through the first two with no issue, but the third was giving him some pushback, so he used those newly-developed muscles of his and yanked with all of his might.  The bag gave and the pieces exploded in the sky like a 4th of July Fireworks show.  100+ pieces smaller than my pinky-nail were sent sprawling on our basement carpet.

To Jack’s credit, he immediately went for a flashlight and searched under the furniture and “cleared” them all, one-by-one.  Once we cleaned up to the best of our abilities, I proceeded to Step One (out of 290) and away we went.  The process was slow – made even slower by Jack’s desire to hand me every single piece, but slow motion is better than no motion.

As we reached Step 230, I thought we actually may be able to finish with Jack only being 60 minutes late for bed.  It was bro-day, and as long as we got him to bed before Mom came home, I’d be in the clear.  We had all four legs done, the body and the tail.  All we needed was the tiger’s face and we’d be all done after just a couple of short hours.  But along came Step 276 and the missing piece.  Everything came to a standstill.

We searched and searched but could not locate one small piece that essentially acts as a springboard to the entire face.  Without this piece there would be no eyes and no nose.  Finally, I made the executive decision to stop (my back was entirely grateful for that choice) and to call it a night.  Jack could play with the headless Tiger tomorrow and I’d try to find the piece online.  While we were both disappointed with the result, I tried to take the opportunity to pass along some fatherly advice.

“Everything in it’s own time Jack.  And besides, I bet a lot of kids have a full Tiger, but you might be the only one in the world with a headless Tiger, that’s kind of cool right?”

“Dad, when do you think that piece will get here?”

As any father knows, you win some and you lose the rest.

The lesson – as it applies to these NFL Supercontest picks – is to try and build piece-by-piece throughout the season.  Slow and steady wins this race.  If you go 3-2 every week you’ll eventually be up towards the top.  But that consistency is very hard to come by and you have to be careful not to have a couple negative weeks with missing pieces.

My 3-2 week four mark has me tied for 689th (out of 1598 entries), so another slight drop despite hitting 60% the past three weeks.  Since I’m failing miserably on non-Sunday games this year (2-4), I’m hitting the pause button on Thursday and Monday night games moving forward.

If I had only picked Sunday games this year I would be sitting in 250th place.  But if my aunt had balls, she’d be my uncle.  So much for ifs.

Let’s see if I can continue to build without losing any key pieces during my week five picks.

WEEK FIVE PICKS

Atlanta @ Tampa Bay (-8.5)

Even though there’s been a ton of close games over the year and even though the Falcons have been one of the best ATS teams through four weeks, I’ll ride with the home favorites.

(Insert Tom Brady divorce joke here)

The Pick: TB (-8.5)

Tennessee @ Washington (+2.5) – Los Angeles Chargers @ Cleveland (+2.5)

Home dogs can often be looked at as easy selections, especially in rivalry games.  However, these teams hardly ever play each other, and the road teams have a substantial talent advantage that should be enough to cover the small spreads.

I’ll give the points and take the better squads.

The Picks: TEN (-2.5) – LAC (-2.5)

Philadelphia @ Arizona (+5.5)

The Eagles are the only undefeated team in the NFL, but that won’t last too much longer.  My crystal ball sees it ending here on the road to an under-rated Arizona Cardinal team.

Besides, what’s the chance two different Philadelphia teams defeat a “Cardinal” in the same weekend (Phillies over St. Louis)?  I doubt that’s ever happened and I like having history on my side.

The Pick: ARI (+5.5)

Cincinnati @ Baltimore (-3)

Before the season I was all-in on Baltimore.  I thought they had the best coach, the best QB, and the best defense in the AFC North.  Four weeks in, despite their 2-2 record, I still hold all of those beliefs.  Had Baltimore managed to beat both the Bills and the Dolphins, this spread would be around a touchdown.

I’ll take those completely made-up extra points Vegas wants to give and ride with the team who stole the Browns from Cleveland.

The Pick: BAL (-3)

Peace Be The Journey.

Stephen King: #37 – Finders Keepers

On By Luke FlorenceIn Books, Lists, Stephen King, Uncategorized, WritingLeave a comment

#37 – Finders Keepers

Plot

As a deadly cat-and-mouse game begins, private detective Bill Hodges, the man who brought down the murderous Mr. Mercedes, is gradually drawn into the mystery of the unknown benefactor who helped the Sauberses through their rough patch. He knows young Pete is hiding something, but he doesn’t know that the missing piece of the puzzle is the answer to the decades-old cold case – John Rothstein’s murder.

Review

Finders Keepers is the sequel to Mr. Mercedes (yet to make an appearance) and the prequel to End of Watch (yet to make an appearance). The second book in a three-piece series is often tough to get right. Usually, they are crafted due to the success of the original and to bridge the gap to the finale. It’s difficult to write a complete story that builds upon the first and sets up the foundation for the second.

Finders Keepers plays in that space and despite a lot working against it, holds its own – for the most part. We are reacquainted with Bill Hodges, Holly Gibney and Jerome Robinson, as they have set up a private detective business. They are effectively roped into the mystery, but never really develop much as characters. Essentially, they serve as window dressing to the rest of the narrative. But that narrative is a good one that keeps your attention throughout.

The opening sequence from the 1970s is a work of art and will have Constant Readers thinking about Misery. The time jump to the present is effective and works because of how well King set everything up.

Once the case is closed we get a sneak peek into the third book as Bill Hodges pays a visit to the Mr. Mercedes main antagonist. And in perfect King fashion, a trilogy grounded in reality gets just a small taste of the supernatural.

Details

Pages: 434

Dates Read: June – July 2015

Quote: “No. I was going to say his work changed my life, but that’s not right. I don’t think a teenager has much of a life to change. I just turned eighteen last month. I guess what I mean is his work changed my heart.”

Best Part: The opening scene – set in 1978 – was absolutely perfect.

Hint for #36: Ryan from The Office never wanted a nickname, but tragically was branded as one of “these” due a toaster-oven incident.

 

Until next time, peace be the journey.