All posts by Eric Robert Nolan

Eric Robert Nolan graduated from Mary Washington College in 1994 with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology. He spent several years a news reporter and editorial writer for the Culpeper Star Exponent in Culpeper, Virginia. His work has also appeared on the front pages of numerous newspapers in Virginia, including The Free Lance – Star and The Daily Progress. Eric entered the field of philanthropy in 1996, as a grant writer for nonprofit healthcare organizations. Eric’s poetry has been featured by Dead Beats Literary Blog, Dagda Publishing, The International War Veterans’ Poetry Archive, and elsewhere. His poetry will also be published by Illumen Magazine in its Spring 2014 issue.

Yeesh. Lotta nightmares last night.

Rescue a helpless little girl lying unconscious in the street during the vampire apocalypse?  The tiny one with golden braids and porcelain skin?  There’s a reason you couldn’t feel her heartbeat.  Her skin is porcelain because she’s undead.  Have fun watching her rise, slowly and ceremoniously, in the makeshift fortress of your living room.  For added fun, the lock on your bedroom door won’t work!  Ha!  The moral of the story?  No good deed goes unpunished.

Thrilled to see your childhood dog again?  She’s NOT thrilled to see you. Because she’d been buried in “Pet Sematary” or something, and she’s biting your fingers because she remembers all those times you pulled her tail when you were three.  (Mom TOLD you to stop, but you couldn’t resist.)  The moral of the story?  [In best Fred Gwynne voice:] “Sometimes dead is better.” Also: be kind to animals!

That wicked cool GIGANTIC snake you keep snapping pictures of when it drinks from the backyard birdbath?  The one with a head the width of a shovel?  It’s actually NOT harmless merely because you cannot see any fangs.  It all fun and games until it wraps its coils around you, and you realize it’s a python.  For added fun, your Mom can’t hear you in the kitchen and cannot respond to your pleas for her to throw you a butcher knife, and then shut the open back door to protect herself.  For added confusion, your childhood home NEVER HAD A F***ING BIRDBATH.  (We WERE the 99 percent.)  The moral of the story?  [IN best MST3K voice:] “Watch out for snakes!”  Also: if clothes don’t make the man, then fangs don’t make the snake.

Christ!  What did I EAT last night?

 

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“KEEP YOUR SCHOOL *ALL AMERICAN!*”

That awkward moment when an alien acts more American than many Americans …

The poster is from the 1950’s.

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“Language was invented for one reason, boys — to woo women …”

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“To keep them in control was not difficult.”

“So long as they (the Proles) continued to work and breed, their other activities were without importance. Left to themselves, like cattle turned loose upon the plains of Argentina, they had reverted to a style of life that appeared to be natural to them, a sort of ancestral pattern…Heavy physical work, the care of home and children, petty quarrels with neighbors, films, football, beer and above all, gambling filled up the horizon of their minds. To keep them in control was not difficult.”

—  from George Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty-Four”

 

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Photo credit:  By Michael Vadon (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons.

Donald Trump calls for a database and surveillance of all Muslims.

Americans, please consider voting for me.

The first priority of my administration will be establishing a database and surveillance of rich assholes.

Also?  A free copy of George Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty-Four” to any American citizen who requests one.  A copy of the United States Constitution will be tucked inside.

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The Six-word Fantasy Story Challenge

Here’s what I came up with:

1)  “The kingdom is burning.  Hold me.”

2)  Frigid giants arise from enchanted ice.

3)  Within that crystal, endless worlds turned.

4)  Magic wrens rescued her from nightmare.

5)  Six elves, six dragons?  Good odds.

6)  The statutes were men, magically doomed.

7)  Prophecies foretold invasion.  But … by fairies?!

8)  My third wish?  Infinite wishes.  (Duh.)

9)  With this ring, I thee RULE.

 

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“Paris is a moveable feast.”

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“Berlin Undead” is playing for free over at Hulu.

There’s a German zombie movie over at Hulu that I highly recommend.  Its name is “Rammbock” (2011); the somewhat unimaginative Americanized title is “Berlin Undead.”  (And that’s also inaccurate, because the baddies chasing us are infected people, a la “28 Days Later.”  A Hulu membership isn’t required.  The film is in German, with English subtitles.

I’m surprised I don’t hear more praise for this movie among zombie horror fans.  It’s nicely made, and it’s scary in parts.  Its lovelorn, likeable oaf of a protagonist (Michael Fuith) is such an everyman that he’s easy to identify with.  And his cunning high school-age companion (Theo Trebs) seems like he would be the coolest foreign exchange student ever.

Check it out:

http://www.hulu.com/watch/398201

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http://www.hulu.com/watch/398201

Folio 8 from the Aberdeen Bestiary (the tiger)

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Pete’s Perspective: “Fuck all the bullshit!”

Here is a guest post from Blog Correspondent Pete Harrison.  As you might recall, Pete is a veteran of Afghanistan, where he served as an intelligence specialist for the United States Air Force 55th Expeditionary Rescue Squadron.  I believe he knows a thing or two about fighting terrorism.  Based on his message below, I think he also knows a thing or two about common sense.

Pete’s Perspective:

I want to make something clear. I would like to see everyone affiliated with the cowardly terrorist organization ISIS wiped off the face of the Earth. Every last one.

They have proven that they value no human life at all. Not even their own.

They are like bad dogs who will do nothing but attack and maim and kill any and all other dogs.

So they need to be put down. Everywhere they are.

Now to my POINT. If they all CLAIM to be a certain religion, that doesn’t matter to me at all.

They need killing BAD.

If they were all Catholic, Jewish, Buddhist, Mormon, Protestant, Lutheran, I don’t care what faith they CLAIM to be, I don’t care if they’re all atheists or if they worship canned sardines.

They’re just animals who need to be put down.

So to everyone out there starting up the bullshit argument that saying you want to see all these scum dead equals saying you want to see all Muslims dead, please, give me a break.

Not the same thing at all.

So don’t try to muddy the issue.

Thanks.

 

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