The truth we can't admit out loud about labyrinth..

First let me state I loved Labyrinth as a kid. In fact its a very girl positive movie. Female hero..nobody rushes in and saves her..that kind of thing. Yes preteen girls in the 80s LOVE them some Labyrinth. I have heard all kinds of theories about this movie..relating it to a girls sexual awakening to just growing up in general. Why are there so many theories on this film..because to take it at face value is just to hard for us to do...because the lead male character is almost 40 while the lead female is only about 14. SO LET ME BE BLUNT. We don't need crazy theories the film is self explanatory...

David Bowie was great in this movie and I'm not saying the character should have been played by another person (it probably wouldn't be a cult favorite if it was) but uh...Bowie was WAY to old to play the character of the goblin king for out brains to accept the story...as is. So adults...most particular male adults it seems...feel as if they have to come up with some alternate explanation for the film. You can do that all you want but it doesn't change the story.

Sara is a really pretty 14(ish) year old girl who is fascinated with a book about the goblin king. The real goblin king takes note of her and falls in love with her. (now this can even be her imagination, but if it is..she is totally into older dudes) He loves her so much that he would do anything for her...and when she finally asks for something he is given the opportunity to be a part of her life. She then rejects his gift and his declaration of love ( I ask for so little. Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave.) and asks for him to return her brother to her. She has no desire to give up her life with her family to be with him. Devastated he tells her fine her brother is in my castle and if you can get him back..he is yours. He does this as an attempt to manipulate her and win her love. ( I have reordered time. I have turned the world upside down, and I have done it all for *you*!) She however gets her bother back..tells him basically she has no feelings for him (you have no power over me) and sets everything right. For us to admit that this is a story about unrequited love means we are ok with pedophilia...but I mean the story is what it is. Maybe it would make more sense if the goblin king was played by a teen and we could just say what the story is without making up fake theories. ..but I can't deny David Bowie was great in the film, and its quite funny to think of Bowie in a children's flick.

Lose 5 five pounds with jumping jacks....

Yes I know all kinds of horrible ways you can drop five, ten and even fifteen pounds in a month...this however is by far the easiest AND its probably really good for your cardiovascular health.  Also this isn't like a magic pill or spell, it isn't easy-but it is kinda fun to challenge yourself every once and a while. I am not making wild promises to you. If you do this you will lose about a pound and a half a week. THAT'S IT. Anyone who promises you can lose more than that a week (without training like crazy and starving yourself..is lying) Also I am not a doctor, trainer or anything. I have a social work degree...we can talk about how you feel about your body if you like...but that's about all I am actually trained to do...lol. HOWEVER..from personal experience I know this works and its far easier than an hour in the gym every night or eating some crazy restrictive diet. It also isn't going to shape you up...you need weights for that or maybe squats, I don't know. I am not a trainer, remember.

1. Eat sensibly- weight loss is based primarily on what you eat. so don't eat like a whole pizza or drink a bottle of wine. Don't go nuts and deny yourself all the time either because you wont last 30 days.

2. Eat a-lot of cabbage. If you don't think you can stomach it..then skip this..but I firmly believe cabbage is good for digestion. Again I'm not a doctor, but it worked for me. Seriously I am a big cabbage advocate... or lettuce or kale if you like..whatever..eat a salad people.

3. So here is the main part. This is the part you have to do that you aren't going to like. Are you ready? You are going to need to do 1,000 jumping jacks every day. EVERY DAY. Well I actually did circuit training on Sundays and normally skipped Saturdays but I would think EVERYDAY would be best. Basically that is burning approximately 500 calories daily. I accomplished this by doing 75 of them 15x a day..which actually put me just a tiny bit over the 1000 mark.

I guess I am going to start my 1000 jumping jacks a day next Monday and I'll be 5 to 7 pounds thinner by mid February. :) If you decide to do it too..let me know in 30 days how it all turned out!!

Guess which candidate has the best social media campaign

QUICK NUMBERS:
Cruz: Total Followers-2,601,303/Total Engagement: .15%
Rubio: Total Followers-2,786,963/Total Engagement .04%
Sanders: Total Followers: 4428200/Total Engagement .14%
Clinton:Total Followers: 7,474,837/ Total Engagement: .08%
Trump: Total Followers: 10,905,948/ Total Engagement .28%


SO what candidate has the strongest social media presence. Who is getting the most people to engage with them? The answer may surprise you, it surprised me. How did I get interested in this? What would possess me to compile this information and cross it?  I have this odd habit of becoming fascinated by, um..interesting people. For instance Mike Tyson. I'm obsessed. I watch his cartoon, any YouTube videos that pop up..basically anything Mike Tyson related.....I find him fascinating. Like wise I find Trump fascinating and that's how this all started. I began following him just to see what he would post. I noticed his social media engagement (as he has lots of it) and wondered..how did the other top candidates compare and I decided to do a basic cross study comparing Trump, Clinton, Sanders, Rubio and Cruz across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

 Let me explain just a few things to those who are't quite as savvy on social media basics. First Facebook is still the most important platform. People are basically on Facebook..all of the time. Everyone is on Facebook 18-60..everyone uses Facebook. The demographics are good too. The average age of Facebook users is 40. I bet you didn't expect that did you? Also 75% of people use Facebook. These are the people who vote, so when you see the information I'm going to give you, consider that. . Next is Twitter. The average age of a Twitter user is 37 and about 25% of people use Twitter. Lastly is Instagram. This is primarily a tool for young people. The age range is primarily 18-29. While one may say this isn't the age group that votes, I would say if someone in that age bracket interacts with you on Instagram, they are probably very interested in what you have to say and probably the type of person more likely to vote.

*DISCLAIMER:
First, this was no scientific study, obviously. I compared followers, likes, shares, re-tweets and positive vs negative posts. I used Facebook posts from Dec. 14th to Dec 17th, the last twenty-five Twitter posts, and the last ten Instagram posts. Then I averaged the numbers to get an engagement score for each candidate because it's fine and dandy to get followers, but its another thing entirely if they are engaged in your campaigning. Re-tweets and shares weigh double as this widens the candidates reach to new voters and causes discussion. I did not consider things such as comments because those could be people expressing dislike in the candidates views. This is not in any way to give a complete take on social media engagement as many other things would have to be taken into account and since I'm not getting paid..I didn't go to deep with this. I'd also think a really good study would include YouTube. I am not endorsing any candidate. I will give my take on their social media campaign though. Math is not my strong point, so take my stats with a grain of salt or you know..do it yourself.
Formula is likes+shares+shares divided by followers =engagement number
Total engagement is all likes+all shares+all shares divided by the total number of followers.

*No the Facebook posts aren't the same amount..those candidates not posting enough have themselves to blame for not using free advertising. Of course there are those candidates who prefer to get much engagement on a well thought out post rather than just posting multiple times.


TED CRUZ
FACEBOOK: Followers-1,764,303 (Posts-35) Likes-273073 Shares-47756 Engagement: .02%
TWITTER:  Followers-660000 (Posts 25) Likes-10082 Re-tweets-6857 Engagement:.03%
INSTAGRAM: Followers-177000 (Posts 10) Likes 27303 Engagement:1.5
Total Followers-2,601,303 Likes-310458 Shares/Re-tweets-109226 TOTAL ENGAGEMENT: .15%

Notes:From What I looked at Cruz was running a mostly positive campaign. He takes his social media campaign seriously and I believe he has purchased likes and possibly followers on Facebook. (many of his posts had no engagement on them, which is odd) He didn't seem to know what to post on Instagram though, however he had the highest engagement on Instagram. His feed seemed to be full of endorsements, places he can be seen, and things he wants to do in office. Cruze is trying hard, but maybe he should follow Trump or Sanders for idea on how to do social media correctly.

MARCO RUBIO
FACEBOOK: Followers-1,167963 (Posts 18)  Likes-42881 Shares-4069 Engagement:.04%
TWITTER: Followers-1,020,000 (Posts 25) Likes-13855 Re-tweets-6746 Engagement: .02%
INSTAGRAM; Followers 599000 (Posts 10)  Likes 24358 Engagement:.40%
Total Followers-2,786,963 Likes 81094 Share/Re-tweets-21630 TOTAL ENGAGEMENT .04%

Notes: Rubio's social media is focused on things he wants to change, such as repealing Obamacare and other things he dislikes about the current administration. While not exactly positive, he isn't cutting down other politicians running so I would say he is running a positive campaign that is clearly focused on the message he wants to get out. His Twitter the day I viewed it however, was mostly re-tweets of other people's messages. At first I didn't think he even had an Instagram account he was using because @marcorubio has 3 posts and 600 followers. I decided that just couldn't be correct and found the account he is using, it's under @marcorubiofla or .marcorubio16. It is confusing. I was however able to get a clear view of the things he wants to tackle in office. It is important to remember though, that isn't all your social media should be about. 

Bernie Sanders
FACEBOOK: Followers-2,655200 (Posts 26) Likes-758641 Shares-292901 Engagement: .50%
TWITTER: Followers-1,300,000 (Posts 25) Likes 35,483 Re-tweets-20336 Engagement: .05%
INSTAGRAM: Followers-473000 (Posts 10) Likes 305000 Engagement: .64%
Total Followers: 4428200 Likes-1099124 Shares/Re-tweets-626474 TOTAL ENGAGEMENT: .14%

Notes: Sanders is running a positive campaign. While yes, he remarks on the GOP, he is mostly focused on things he wants to change and not running other politicians down. His social media game is on point. It is handled very well. Although I would say he is posting on Facebook through two accounts.  To get enough posts in the specific time I had to use posts from each page. I am not sure if this is a social media technique or not..but I feel he should focus on one main page for his campaign. He has great Instagram pictures, an informative Facebook and a fun Twitter feed. I give his social media game a B+.

Hillary Clinton
FACEBOOK: Followers- 1,989837 (Posts 29) Likes 314305 Shares-35879 Engagement:.19%
TWITTER: Followers- 4,910,000 (Posts 25) Likes 28184 Re-tweets-19781 Engagement; .01%
INSTAGRAM: Followers-575000 (Posts 10) Likes 191200 Engagement:.33%
Total Followers: 7,474,837 Likes 533689 Shares/Re-tweets:113320 TOTAL ENGAGEMENT: .08%

Notes: Hillary has the most negative campaign of all of the candidates. It is disappointingly negative. As I looked through her posts it really stood out and was the main thing I remember from her social media. So, Hilary..you don't like conservatives..got it. Quite a few of her posts had NO shares or re-tweets, this leaves me to believe..much as I thought about Cruz, that she is purchasing likes. I'm sorry but if you have that many followers and your engagement is THAT low..something is up. I didn't feel looking at her pages were at all encouraging.

Donald Trump
FACEBOOK: Followers-4,863,948 (Posts 29) Likes-2131419 Shares-222795 Engagement: .52%
TWITTER: Followers-5,320,000 Likes-111402 Re-tweet-71045 Engagement:..04%
INSTAGRAM: Followers-722000 Likes-235700 Engagement: .32%
Total Followers: 10,905,948 Likes-2478521 Shares/Re-tweets-587680 TOTAL ENGAGEMENT.28%

Notes: Trump has by far the highest number of followers and a decent engagement with them. His campaign is surprisingly positive. He is focusing on the fact he is ahead in the polls and places you can catch him. However I believe he could increase his engagement by focusing on exactly WHAT he plans on doing in office. According to these numbers though, I'd say if the campaign was between Hilary and Trump..I'd bet my money on Trump right now.


Follow up notes: I'm really curious as to how well social media and the engagement of people who follow politicians on social media will do so far as determining who people will vote for in the election. I'll do this again once we have our candidates selected and get closer to election day. Of course the reason these numbers aren't compiled by a paid professional with the time to do all of it correctly is we have no idea how social media will effect the election. There is a huge difference between social media usage now as what it was at our last election. The time the average person spends daily on social media is now almost TWO HOURS and 40 minutes of that time is Facebook. Its fairly obvious that Facebook is a great way to engage with voters, however my view is that people first like you and then engage with you on social media, so television is still a very important media.

How to get rid of Telemarketers.

I have been in sales and marketing for quite sometime now. I specialize in calling business over the phone and social media. I'd like to help business people who seem to have no idea how to handle a sales call to their organization...because really i speak to some people who really have no clue. I imagine this would also work for people who telemarket your home.

Do not say anything else say this EXACTLY:
I am not interested, put me on the Do not call list.
THEN HANG UP.


Saying anything else means the sales person has to rebut you. Literally anything else you say and they have to argue back with you. People listen in on the calls. Sometimes we get text messages from people listening telling us not to let you off the phone.
No one wants to talk to you, no one is disparately trying to make a sale. Believe me you are one of hundreds of calls ill make in a day. For the love of God if you are not interested let us off the line. Don't explain why you are not interested..i do no care.(yep even you just bought the same thing from someone else, youre in a contract, whatever..say none of this as I HAVE TO REBUT IT)  Do not tell me your boss will never do it..I do not care. Don't tell me you are all set..I still have to argue with you. If you just say you aren't interested we have to call back. If you don't speak English, people call back, If you put them on hold, they call back. If you say something mean, we call back. IF you play a prank, we call back. If you say this is the wrong number, we call back. If you say this is the douche bag registry, may I have your fist name..WE CALL BACK. There is seriously nothing else to say except what i told you to say. Something may get you put off for a month or even six..but yeah-you will get called back.
  Don't SAY ANYTHING BUT: 
I am not interested, put me on the Do not call list.
THEN HANG UP

Do not play games with me..I have all of your personal information. Address, name, ect. Yeah even at businesses trust I have most of the names of the employees even if I don't ask for someone by name. Pissing a telemarketer is a pretty bad idea. At the very least we will make sure you get more phone calls because honestly..we have nothing better to do than call people.

In addition, as hard as I try to make sure I'm calling the right kind of organization perfect for the product, sometimes I mess up. Your business just isn't big enough for me to sell to. Let me find out if 'i can help you. Im not asking you questions because I'm super nosy and believe it or not..most of that information is probably public somewhere. Yep even who your phone company is, how many employees you have and what insurer you offer your employees. All of it..available. I'm just asking to save us both time. Now this is less likely with what I'd call a true telemarketer as their leads are purchased, but then again maybe they have even more information.

Lastly, Half of the time we are on autopilot, no I have no clue what you were even saying..do you want my crap or not. Just to let you know however, you shouldn't always say no. Getting the best rate on things DOES occasionally mean talking to a sales person and letting two companies fight for or to keep your service.In the past I have been authorized to give stuff away and offer a minimum of  a 20% discount on top of whatever you are paying now. At one point I was even giving doctors coupons to give their patients free drugs at no cost to them, so yes occasionally you absolutely should talk to those pesky phone operators.

Now I say this to help people. Sometimes I am on the phone and I'd like to help them. I so badly want to tell them what to say, but I can't. So use this information! lol USE IT!

...AND again I have the answer if you REALLY don't want too talk to anyone:
I am not interested, put me on the Do not call list.
THEN HANG UP.

Crimson Peak

I was fooled. I saw the trailer for months for Crimson Peak and it just looked so delicious, so beautifully scary, that I couldn't wait to watch it. Also Steven King said it scared him, so there was that. I waited for months to watch this film....oh the disappointment.... (there are very light spoilers below if you are not the very intuitive sort, so warning.)

First I should have known because Guillermo del Toro wrote this, anything he writes is boring. Yeah he knows how to make things so visually unique it usually saves him but his writing skills are just lacking. He takes what starts out as a good idea and somehow makes it boring.  Everything I have every watched the he wrote himself with his own original material ( Hellboy doesn't quite count because it was not his original creation) Is just boring. The same thing happens again in Crimson Peak. 

The film is just..tedious...and not very well told. Why does Mia fall in love with the baronet??? The only real reason we are given is because he can waltz really well. Seriously, that's it. There is nothing to back it up what so ever. He doesn't do anything dashing like save her life or overly romantic such as talk to her about he too is missing a parent and understands the pain of losing his mother tragically (which would have fit in the story). The love story part was very obviously written by a man. The fact that the romantic parts are quite lacking hurts the entire film. Even the doctor who is also in love with her, their scenes are just lacking. Why does he love her. why does he go to such extreme lengths for her? 

Then there are the ghosts. Yeah they are visually interesting to look at, but I am in no way afraid. Were there not enough of them? I don't know. Stephen King, I am so calling you out right now. You are going to tell me this frightened you when you wrote one of the best ghost stories ever written. Um, Crimson Peak is no Shining Stephen and shame on you for letting me think the ghosts who live there could in anyway live up to the ghosts who live in The Stanly. There is no suspense with the ghosts in this film. All of the suspense come from trying to figure out what is going on between the brother and the sister. Yeah, it's pretty horrid in a flowers in the attic kind of way but it isn't enough to push the entire story. I was there to see murderous ghosts, not whatever that was.

Final thoughts: The movie felt like it was to long because not enough was happening. If you are going to write a romantic movie, spend a little time learning about freaking romance. Watch a few damn chick flicks or at least turn on the lifetime movie network for a few days. Ultimately Del Toro needs to learn how to make monsters not just amazing to look at but actually frightening...and tell me again WHY this film was rated R? This movie would have worked better for the Twilighters with just a few adjustments, trust me on this. 

Horror Fans don't waste your time on this, go out and watch the much better Tales of Halloween. I loved this anthology film. It's not quite up to par with Trick R Treat but pretty close, I plan on making this film part of my Halloween tradition.

The Ultimate Halloween Horror Movie Play list

Looking for a film to cuddle up with? I have made a horror movie play list for each week this month. In general(but not completely) I tried to steer away from well known films (that you would think of on your own) until the week of Halloween. Each week has a theme and the films play off each other, just as a play list should. Have fun finding how each film connects. (the first week is easy as they are all anthologies;),   ENJOY!!!

Week of October 1st through the 4th

Trick 'R Treat

The Vault of Horror

The Monster Club

Tales from the Crypt 1972

Ghost Story

Cat's Eye

Wax Work and Wax Work 2 

CreepShow  (there are three if you are interested)

Tales from the Darkside the Movie

V/H/S

Black Sabbath

Week of October 5th through the 11th

House

Haunted Honeymoon

Doghouse
Juan of the Dead
Big Ass Spider
Bubba-Ho tep
Critters
Fido

Dance of the Dead

Cemetery Man

Dead before Dawn

April Fools Day

Week of October 12th through 18th

What Lies Beneath

Here Comes the Devil

Hide and Seek

Hard Candy

Copy Cat

Chasing Sleep

Videodrone

Brainscan

Basket Case

Identity

Vacancy

The House of the Dead

Week of October 19th through the 25th

Fair Haired Child (A short from Masters of horror, available for rental)

Pet Cemetery

Storm Of The Century

Frailty

The Gate

The Rite

Lost Souls

Stir of Echos

Mirrors/Mirrors 2

The Lady in White

Dark Water (2005)

Book of Blood

Salvage (2006)

Circle of Eight

Dead End

Haunter

Week of October 26th through 30th

Arachnophobia

8 Legged Freaks

The Company of Wolves

Silver Bullet

Cursed

Cujo

Nightbreed

The Hunger

A Return to Salem's Lot

Sometimes They Come Back

Night of the Comet

The Invasion

Signs

HALLOWEEN

(These films aren't related other than all being awesome)

The Blob (1988)

Sleepy Hollow

The Shining

The Howling

Psycho

Evil Dead

Army of Darkness

10 Things about Black Mass

1. Depp gives one of his best performances. I forgot many times I was looking at Depp up there on the screen, partially because of his make-up (more on that later) partially because he isn't making a character more like him, he made himself like the character. That isn't something Depp normally gives us.

2. The make up was horrible. Seriously who did the make up? I could visibly see the contour work on Depp. It's called blending. Also what was up with the contacts..it looked like he didnt have pupils. Jesse Plemons looked..odd, his face with bumps and bulges in all of the wrong places.

3. Joel Edergton looks just like Conan O'brian in this movie..so much so I found it distracting.

4. Apparently in the 70's and 80's you could just shoot people in public, including restaurants, and get away with it.

5. There never is much of any connection made about Whitey's brother being a senator and how that happened...exactly. You are going to tell me your brother is a mobster and you were just elected as a senator? Ok then.

6. You are also going to tell me it just so happened that his friend Connely just happened to get into the FBI and just happened to end up back in the neighborhood and just happened to come up with the idea they should "work together". ...Why not..

7. Whitey Bulger has his own IMDB page due to being featured in several shows about crime.

8. Whitey is actually a boring character in this film. We never really get to know about him or what makes him tick, just about the things he does. Sure he is a complete ass you would never want to cross, but WHY is such an ass? Inquiring minds want to know. This is a pretty big flaw in the film.

9. Seriously did they go out of their way to make everyone look HORRIBLE in this film?

10. My actual review. Everyone is going to tell you this film is great, because it is the kind of film people want to say is great. It is the kind of film that wins Oscars, but the film just wasn't that good. i didn't care about any of the characters and i certainly didn't care about Whitey and a film needs someone to root for. Someone you feel is the hero (even if that someone is a bad guy) and someone to be the villain. there was nothing terribly shocking that happened on camera, other than no one ever apparently reporting the various shootings in public. Let's not even get started on the horrible make up..honestly inexcusable on a film with a budget like that. The film wasn't horrible. It is a rental, a movie to watch on Friday night over pizza. All in all I give it a 6. A film that is slightly better than average but in no way a wow film. yes the acting is GREAT, but it just wasnt enough to save a poor script and bad styling.