I'm not sure I understand what elite schools have to offer students anymore.

People in America live in a world that is dominated by a pretty merciless and unforgiving form of capitalism. By the way, this isn't another post from me to begrudge capitalism and its many faults. On the contrary, I'm just stating my opinion of how things are. In my own particular city, the homeless population has tripled in just five years from what it was. This seems to be a real-world example of how brutal the capitalist system is and how money is really the most important commodity in today's world (at least the one in America).

So that being said, the reason I always thought one would want to attend an elite university, school, or college or whatever was because it affected your bottom line. It turned into real world money. It was an investment in a person's future. However, times have changed. I don't think it's an investment anymore. Here's my story of how I came to that conclusion.

I have a friend who is sending her son to one of these to get really good at music, and I wonder what the end game is. I don't think he's enjoying it as much as "she" thinks he is, being away from family, and having difficulty making friends and social connections (at least ones that last longer than a year). If it were me, I'd be pretty unhappy with an identical situation. I'd be afraid to tell my mom who has been whipping this dream for a long time now (is it my dream or is it hers?). Furthermore, I'd be in competition with any friends I'd make along the way for a job at a symphony. That fate has gotta be awful. Imagine walking in and seeing your friend (for example) from school and knowing that they are only hiring one viola player and that you need to compete with them for the job and that one of you is going to walk away a loser.

In addition to that, I looked up the salaries of professional orchestra players, because I'm curious. They make about $110,000 a year. I myself make about $90,000 a year. That's only a $10.00 per hour difference over a 40-hour work week than myself (before taxes take a bite), which could easily be made up by renting out a room or doing some Doordash. I graduated from the University of Idaho with a Bachelor's degree in English and live in a middle-class home in good old South Salt Lake City. I drive 24-year old vehicles that I maintain well, and I live paycheck to paycheck due to mortgage payments, insurance payments, and everything else that's inflated. So, a person that maybe gets into an elite school...gonna pick on Julliard for a second...and graduates with all that music training after spending hundreds of thousands of dollars for that education gets what? A gateway into the middle-class lifestyle that I already live at? How does any of that make sense?

I see this stuff all the time. People blowing hundreds of thousands of dollars on educations only to just get a job that doesn't pay much more than a Master's degree would that you could get in a community college. There is also trade school, which is far cheaper than Julliard. People who are HVAC certified or who are electricians around here are making 100K plus a year instantly. Oh and that middle class home that I live in? It is now valued at $750,000. In order to take on a $750,000 mortgage, you need to bring in about $250,000 to $300,000 per year as a household. That means that if you are a couple that MANAGES to stay together (and that's a tough one), both of you need to work and have salaries in the $150,000 range. Graduates from elite schools are not getting these kinds of jobs unless they are the exception rather than the rule. And let's just say you do somehow manage to be the exception. Well congratulations! You can now afford to live in the same middle-class home that Mike (me) lives in and you too have won the right to drive 24-year-old cars.

None of this makes any sense anymore. Maybe it used to back in the 70's and 80's. The average wage for Americans was $40,000 a year, and you were considered "well-to-do" at $60,000. Now, $100,000 a year is average. I think I read on Business Week that in many parts of the country, making $60,000 is considered low income now. But the thing is, I think industries are really struggling with paying people more than $100,000 a year in the same manner as they always used to. Only inflation has taken a lot out of the value out of those wages. "I make six figures now" is now "congratulations, you still can't afford a home and will probably rent all of your life."

So, why do people still send their kids to these schools? Is it ego? Is it low self-esteem? Is it narcissism, because they get a credential that allows them to feel good about themselves? They still end up in a middle-class home driving vehicles they can't afford to replace because new cars are topping $60,000. I suppose they could buy a cheap Hyundai, but that doesn't seem to fit the graduate of Harvard or Yale now does it? One of these things is not like the other. And what people can afford versus the costs of their educations (and the other price of said education) is breaking the logic circuits of my brain. And what's more is that these people who attend these elite schools and who indeed end up in the Middle Class look down on their neighbors, because they feel that they "shouldn't" be mixing with the commoners. But that's the Catch-22. They themselves ended up a "commoner" and the elite school didn't do what they thought it was going to do for them. This causes mental illness as they get anxiety and depression, because no one around them is good enough for them, and they secretly know that it all doesn't make sense. "Because I accomplished this and this...I should have different neighbors? Why am I not neighbors with Steven Spielberg? Why am I not friends with Timothee Chalamet?"

And Masterclasses? What a joke those things are. In short, Masterclass consists largely of handsomely compensated celebrities who are exceptional within their fields because of innate talent or even genius, innate drive, and plenty of resources to succeed so that they can try to pass on what they know to others who have none of those qualities. Mozart is famous for responding to a person who asked him how to write a symphony when he suggested that they start with something much simpler, like a concerto. The person said to Mozart, "But you write many symphonies." And Mozart replied, "Yes, but I didn't have to ask how to do it." It's not a slam, but just truth. People somehow get it into their heads that just because they observe one person doing an incredible thing that it is somehow repeatable by them. But it usually isn't, and people would be much better off knowing what their limitations are, because every person is different.

Anyway, it may sound that I'm anti-education. I'm not. I love education. But what I don't understand is the incredible costs of some education. It's almost like people don't plot out their endgame. Or they think that their rugrat is a prince or princess (they are not) and no matter what the cost...THEY ARE WORTH IT! The Last of Us just this week had an excellent example of what I'm saying in the characters of Henry and Sam (Spoiler alert).

Henry threw a really good man and a solid leader under the bus (he was murdered) so that he could get his little brother Sam the leukemia treatment he needed to live. This led to extreme anger and revenge from the survivors of the good man that was murdered. These survivors literally tore post-apocalyptic Kansas City apart looking for Henry and Sam to punish them for what they did. This led to hundreds of deaths from bullets and violence, because they awoke a huge hive of zombies that killed them all. And then Sam got bit anyway, ended up a zombie that his brother had to put down. And then his brother was so filled with guilt and depression that he committed suicide. It was a spectacular example of, "I'm going to do everything I can for a brat and I don't care what it costs!!!" And then it ends up costing hundreds and hundreds of lives, and it is just spectacularly stupid and awful.

Anyway, it's like we now have a society of unhinged parents who think that their darlings are worth everything. No price is too high. Parents no longer ask the important question: what is the final thing that I expect from educating myself in this way? Is the endgame to get a middle class lifestyle? If that is the case, then there are easier and cheaper ways to go about doing this. If the endgame is to be rich and famous, then you are going to need more than education. You probably need good looks, luck, and honestly...probably a willingness to allow yourself to be exploited by rich and powerful people in ways you may not be comfortable with. And that's just the truth as I see it. I wish someone could make sense of elite schools for me. I'd sure be willing to listen. I'd like to believe that they aren't completely useless, at least as far as capitalism is concerned. The world has changed significantly in the last fifty years and what elite schools offer compared to what you can just get with a vocational education has narrowed to the point where the actual things you can buy with the money you get from your job aren't all that different unless you can make millions of dollars a year. But the jobs for people who make millions of dollars a year will always belong to the people (like Mozart) who never needed the education to begin with, because they could just "do it."

The movie 65 looks like a simple dinosaur movie which may mean it's gonna be great.

Yesterday, the movie 65 dropped a trailer during the Superbowl time slot. It honestly looks pretty interesting, and I think the reason why is it appears to be so basic. It foregoes trying to get dinosaurs into our time through cloning and just unwinds a time travel story, placing Adam Driver in the past some 65-million years ago, where he can see the Earth as it used to be.

Honestly, this looks awesome. As a kid, I always wanted to time travel to see the Earth as it was described in scientific books in that time period. Although where I would go in time and what I would want to see (were I to have a time travel device) has changed, the fantasy idea of seeing a Jurassic Earth is still really appealing. And in case you're wondering, I'd probably use my time machine to go and see Mozart live (or something like that) rather than journey to a prehistoric world full of creatures that want to eat me.

I do wonder what kind of dinosaurs we are going to see in this movie, but I guess I'll need to wait until March to view it.

We are less than one month out from Mel Brooks' History of the World Part 2.

When I was a kid, my parents let me watch (and they watched with me) Mel Brooks' History of the World, Part One. I remember the both of them laughing out loud. And my dad explained jokes to me that I didn't quite get. But overall, I remember the experience fondly. It was funny, but I never really understood until I was much older why there was no follow-up that promised "Hitler on Ice," among other things. If you don't know, the original title is a call out of sorts to History of the World Volume 1 by Sir Walter Raleigh, which was planned as 5 volumes, but only the first was ever completed.

In time, I forgot about this show until I was reminded earlier this week of its existence, because the long awaited sequel is coming to Hulu. Of course, I had to click on the commercial and watch it. I'm so happy that this thing is happening and that so many comedic geniuses of the modern era are involved. From Jack Black to Taika Waititi to Wanda Sykes, this thing looks awesome.

If you too are excited, the first two episodes premiere on March 6, 2023, followed then by two new episodes daily through March 9, 2023. Here's a list of the cast (it may not be a full list):

Mel Brooks, Wanda Sykes, Nick Kroll, Ike Barinholtz, Pamela Adlon, Tim Baltz, Zazie Beetz, Jillian Bell, Jack Black, Quinta Brunson, Dove Cameron, D’Arcy Carden, Ronny Chieng, Rob Corddry, Danny DeVito, David Duchovny, Hannah Einbinder, Jay Ellis, Josh Gad, Kimiko Glenn, Brandon Kyle Goodman, Jake Johnson, Richard Kind, Johnny Knoxville, Lauren Lapkus, Jenifer Lewis, Poppy Liu, Joe Lo Truglio, Jason Mantzoukas, Ken Marino, Jack McBrayer, Zahn McClarnon, Charles Melton, Kumail Nanjiani and Brock O’Hurn, Andrew Rannells, Emily Ratajkowski, Sam Richardson, Nick Robinson, Seth Rogen, Sarah Silverman, Timothy Simons, J.B. Smoove, David Wain, Taika Waititi, Reggie Watts and Tyler James Williams.

It looks to me like the producers yelled, "96-year-old Mel Brooks is making History of the World Part 2, so who wants in?" And then a giant ball of comedy people rolled on in, which is how it should be. I'm wondering if Trump will figure into it at all, but maybe that's too current. Checkout the trailer below if you haven't seen it yet.

Here are a dozen things I've observed that show the world of my experiences is getting weirder.

The world I know and live in is getting really weird. I don't think it resembles anything of what I thought I'd see when I was much younger. Here are my latest observations:

1) My professor friend who teaches a class at the University of Utah says that his third-year students no longer have the ability to use punctuation correctly in the construction of English sentences. And these are people who are born in the United States, for the most part white, and who are pursuing bachelor's degrees and taking his class as an elective.

2) There are a ton of people dumping animals at animal shelters. They literally cannot take anymore and there are feral cats and dogs roaming the streets. It's rare to see a dog owner who actually leashes their dog. Most of them keep them unleashed and the dogs harass people walking or even attack them, and the owner doesn't care. I had to help my neighbor who was attacked and bleeding from one such incident (she was screaming in the street for help).

3) Everything is expensive. A lot of the time the things you want are no longer in stock.

4) Road rage is everywhere. In Utah alone there were 6,300 people driving over 100 mph on our roads in 2022. This is double just a few years before that. What the f*ck?

5) There are shootings every night. 

6) Today's young people are fragile as hell. I'd say up to about age 36, I'm finding people who just crumble and cannot cope with anything. They are still living at home, they don't want to go out, and they cancel social engagements with others.

7) People suing other people is flooding the courts. I was actually advised to raise my liability insurance on my car to half a million because if I let a friend borrow my car and they get in an accident, I will need the extra insurance to protect myself against desperate people who want to make money from a lawsuit. Like seriously...this is becoming that common.

8) People are more obsessed with youth than ever before. Madonna (for example) was unrecognizable at the Grammy's. Shania Twain doesn't even look like Shania anymore. And it isn't just celebrities. I have friends who have undergone a hundred thousand dollars or more in plastic surgery and who are extremely lonely because gatekeeping behaviors and ageism is so rampant. I have another friend who is my age who can't bring himself to watch Picard because he doesn't want to watch a "feeble old man." It's weird to watch sixty-year-old men try to chat up teens and twenty somethings by expressing how much they like Taylor Swift. I don't even know what's going on there. I also read about some guy who is obsessed with staying 18 forever. What's wrong with aging?

9) Poor people are using Doordash and Grubhub like crazy. I have a friend/acquaintance who is going to be homeless in less than a month. After telling me her sob story, she used Doordash to order sushi for herself and her son (who is trans) and the bill came to seventy dollars. I didn't say anything, but I was stunned.

10) People with a net worth of over a million dollars are telling me that they feel poor, and they are depressed. I can't understand this mentality, but it feels very strange to listen to a millionaire complain about their money woes.

11) Billionaires who fly to Switzerland on private jets to meet about climate change are eating steak and want the rest of us to cut back on our emissions and learn to eat insects. Like...what the hell?

12) There are homeless people everywhere. I've never seen so many. And the only kind of apartment that seems to be getting built are the luxury ones. And these so-called luxury units are made with cheap materials, and they have cheap appliances in them.

Anyone have any idea what is happening? Anyone else notice how weird things are getting?

Having fascinating characters is the most important thing in any story whether it's fiction or nonfiction.

These are two very interesting characters.

In watching the trailers for The Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, a simple truth emerged that seems obvious. But it took me writing it down before I absorbed it. It reminds me of a story I heard about naming things. Sure, the color "blue" existed before it was named. But somehow adding a name to the color gave it new dimension and allowed our brains to comprehend it in a way that was useful. So, what was this simple truth? A story, and I mean any story, is nothing without good characters.

I don't know when this became true. History is replete with narratives that don't have good characters. And of all of those that I've read without good characters, they are all boring. Few people like to read historical accounts if they don't have colorful characters. Chaucer's Canterbury Tales wouldn't have struck a tone in the people of its age if the characters within it didn't have splashes of interest to them. A story about dinosaurs is nothing if you don't have good characters that exist in and around the dinosaurs to give them interest. A galaxy far far away is uninteresting until you give us the characters from far far away who behave like spoiled and dramatic teens and who do horrible things to other people until they are redeemed by an estranged son.

 The Japanese anime Gundam would be unwatchable without main characters like Amuro and Char Aznable. The same is true for the Marvel stories. The characters are everything. So as storytellers, when writers like you and me sit down to create our tales, we should be spending a ton of time on the characters. World-building (yes) is important, but it's not the most important thing. Characters first and foremost make a thing fun. They make a thing interesting, and it's the hook that brings audiences back. It's what we like to see. It's why I keep going to Marvel movies to see Paul Rudd as Ant-Man and Jonathan Majors in the role of Kang. It's why I keep going to see Thor movies. I find Chris Hemsworth to be extremely funny and entertaining in that role, and I'll keep opening my wallet to get more of that.

It's taken me half a lifetime to understand this simple concept. My friend Brad said it to me in fewer words many years ago in a conversation about his night time activities. He said in response to me asking why he liked population density so much, "Mike, people make everything fun." As a person that frequently has bad interactions with people, I didn't truly comprehend what he was saying. But between then and now, I've had quite a few positive interactions with people and my mind kind of opened. I would reframe his words today. Rather than saying that people make everything fun, I'd probably say that lots of people can make a thing fun. But it can also go the other way, and it frequently does. But if you're going to have any chance at this elusive phenomenon called fun, you're going to have to do the activity with more than just yourself. And that's because characters (at the end of the day) are the only thing that makes anything interesting for us humans.

A few years ago, I thought that Disney had (maybe) reached peak comic book with Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. But they haven't. The reason? Characters. It's always been about characters. What made Avengers: Endgame so good were the characters we were all invested in. And the villain, Thanos, was a fantastic character who was on this disturbing mission to wipe out half of all life so that the rest could flourish. Well, they don't actually need to "outdo" that. They don't need to go bigger. The key to telling good stories is always "good characters" and something tells me that this is the direction that they are building toward in Phase 4. We'll definitely know more in a week or so when the next Ant-Man movie drops, but I suspect the characters, the villains, and everyone's motivations is the vehicle that will propel us into a spectacular Avengers movie where all of the characters once again get to shine, because they are just so damned interesting.

For my IWSG post I'm answering a question about how I manage to get any book covers I may need.

On Wednesday, Alex wrote a comment on the blog saying (more or less), "Did Insecure Writer's Support Group sneak up on you?" Yes, yes it did. I had a lot on my mind this week. Most of it is the colonoscopy I had on Thursday. But with that behind me (pun intended), and getting an all clear from the doctor, my stress level is going back down to normal. I don't like doctors, medical procedures, etc., and this is/was my first colonoscopy, so it was taking up a lot of brain space. My co-workers told me, "Think of it as a spa day..." But...I never could get there mentally. It was a miserable experience.

Anyway, as such, I missed my IWSG Wednesday post. So, I'm posting on Friday instead. This way it will stay up all weekend. But before I get around to answering the question, here is a little bit about the IWSG from the sign-up page, which you can join HERE.

What is the purpose of the IWSG?: It is to share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds.

When does the IWSG post:? The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. Post your thoughts on your own blog. Talk about your doubts and the fears you have conquered. Discuss your struggles and triumphs. Offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling. Visit others in the group and connect with your fellow writer - aim for a dozen new people each time - and return comments.

The Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and the hashtag everyone uses is #IWSG.

The awesome co-hosts for the February 1 posting of the IWSG are Jacqui Murray, Ronel Janse van Vuuren, Pat Garcia, and Gwen Gardner!

Every month, the IWSG announces a question that members can answer in their IWSG post. These questions may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience or story. Include your answer to the question in your IWSG post or let it inspire your post if you are struggling with something to say.

Remember, the question is optional!

February 1 question - If you are an Indie author, do you make your own covers or purchase them? If you publish traditionally, how much input do you have about what goes on your cover?

So, I'm an independent author. And I'd rather make my own cover than I would in paying for another person to make it for me. Additionally, I'm pretty solid at photoshop, which has allowed me to make some really great illustrations as of late. When combined with what A.I. art is doing these days, I think I could make an entirely original art piece that fit exactly what I needed without too much trouble. And that's essentially what I will do in the future if I get around to publishing anything. It's a weird time to be alive, because doing things creatively has never been easier.

Thanks for visiting my blog and have a good weekend.

I am astonished by the Last of Us.

There are spoilers for The Last of Us, but they will be "light." I just need to talk about this thing.

So, as most of you who read my blog may know, I've been watching The Last of Us on HBO. We are only three episodes into this thing, and yet I'm astonished at how good this show is. Episode 3 titled Long Long Time took me on a journey that I was not expecting. Of course, Joel and Ellie were there (they are the main protagonists in this story), but only for about fifteen minutes in the very beginning. Then the whole thing switched to two new characters named Bill and Frank, and it spent an hour with them recounting their lives in this "zombie apocalypse," and their love story which (quite frankly) had me in tears. These were not tears of horror. Rather, they were tears shed over something so beautiful that it took me off guard.

In a way, when watching these zombie apocalypse shows, we are kind of taught to expect that all of the survivors will be terrible people. This seems perfectly natural given that outside of an apocalypse, we witness people being awful to other people every single day. However, this isn't the story of Bill and Frank. These two people chose to save each other during the end of the world, against all odds and all the things that were flying against them on this journey. Bill was a survivalist, and he created a safe world where the both of them could live and where their love could flourish. And perhaps in the most telling part of this thing, Frank's illness that eventually forced his hand was not caused by anything related to this apocalypse. It was simply a thing that had always existed and plagued humans and to which there was no cure. And the way Bill chose his own path by loving Frank in the way that he wanted to be loved, and then saying, "I am old, and I am fulfilled," was the most heartbreaking and romantic thing I've seen in a very long time.

Oh boy, just writing those words brings all the feels rushing back about this episode. I can't believe I'm still thinking about it like two days after it aired. I think the most incredible thing in this whole narrative of mine is that the actor that created Bill was none other than Nick Offerman. I've followed his career for years. Sure, he was a decent actor who was an incredible wood worker and who has good comedic timing. He certainly fits the stereotype of what I'd expect an end-of-the-world survivalist to be like. But I had no idea that his performance could haunt me so. Like...what the hell? I now have levels of respect for Nick Offerman that I never thought I would have. He's seriously one of the greatest actors alive...like on Meryl Streep's level.

Never before could I have imagined that a "Don't tread on me!" type person (such as Bill), who strikes me as the kind of person I would have hastily avoided and lived in fear from in real life, was capable of the levels of compassion and caring that he showed. I am so grateful that I got to see this episode. It not only surprised me on multiple levels, but it made me invested in this world in a way that few television shows can. And I guess, if anything, its because of beauty like this that the world of The Last of Us needs to be saved. I hope it does, because the fight is worth it no matter what it takes to make that happen in the war against the cordyceps fungus. The showrunners of this thing have created a masterpiece, whether or not that was what they intended. And again, I can't believe I'm writing this especially since I know that the source material is a video game.