1st book review of the year

The novel that I am reading now is The Stand by Stephen King. I know, I know Mrs. Gillmore, I was reading this book last year but, I quit reading it early January and only finished about half of the book. The book is in 3 parts and I have no idea approximately where I quit in the book. So I have decided to merely re-read the book in its entirety rather than mindlessly wander around within the pages. Now back to the book review itself. The style in which Stephen King wrote this book details the stories of multiple characters instead of picking one single person and sticking to them. He usually bounces around from person to person just about every chapter. The prologue begins with a man named Chapion along with his wife and child. Based in some sort of military outpost within America, Champion unknowingly opens Pandora's Box after he was able to defy the lock down fail safe of the base in case of an emergency. Champion contracts a strain of military grade 'super flu' being designed by the government as an agent of biological warfare presumably. Of course the super flu was not intentionally released but that to is unknown. (I was just wondering about that myself since the book gives no correlation of foul play but i suppose that that does not matter now.) The super flu itself consists of a staggering 99.7% mortality rate and since it is the constantly adapting and highly contagious flu, I can assure you that we are in for a fun ride. Chapion contracts the flu to his famliy. They escape in a vehicle and stumble on into a gas station outside of a bustling metropolis. Chapion is already dead so the gas station attendees call for medical assistance. The flu jumps from Chapion to the gas station employees and the medical professionals. They take Chapion's carcass to the hospital and you can add one and one together. King is now focusing in on about 4 different characters, 4 in which I can tell you will be a part of the .3% survivor club. One being a mute-deaf kid who miraculously learned how to read and write. He awoke in an one horse town and inside an Arkansan jail house. Another is a young lady who just broke the news of being preggers to her father. Third being a young man who finds himself locked up in a government experimentation lab and that probably has something to do to his ability to resist the flu. *wink wink* ;) Last but not least, a young man who recently put out a hit single and is living the good life of partying, drugs, alcohol and loose women until he finds out that he has spent himself into debt. That's all for now.

Current Connection thingamabob

As I am quite certain that you have most likely heard of the recent NFL replacement referee fiasco involving the Seattle Seahawks and the Green Bay Packers from some sort of news outlet. The most recent and cataclysmic fiasco was the result of miniature Hail Mary pass from Seattle's Russell Wilson intended for his 3rd year wide receiver, Golden Tate. The pass was broken up in the left corner of the Packer endzone and subsequently intercepted by M.D. Jennings, one of the many Packers in the vicinity. The play ,one of the worst decisions by the NFL since they allowed the Black Eyed Peas to perform in the Super Bowl (Have you seen that? It was harder to watch than the Colts last year... haha bad football humor), was ruled a simultaneous catch by both Jennings and Tate. NFL rules state that if a simultaneous catch were to occur between an offensive and defensive player, the ball would be awarded to the offense. According to the rules, Golden Tate should have a touchdown, and referees used this rule as an excuse for the horrid display by the men in stripes. There was no simultaneous catch. The pass was clearly picked off by M.D. Jennings, which would have ended the game at 12-7 Green Bay, but instead, consequently handed last year's 15-1 Packer's their second loss of the season in week 3 (Packer's dropped to 1-2). What makes this even worse is that the play was sent into the booth to be reviewed if that the play was or was not a touchdown. The booth confirmed after further examination that there was no credible evidence that the ball was indeed intercepted, although the interception was clear to the millions watching the game from home, including me. Hopefully this embarrassment will bring an end to the current NFL referee lockout and bring forth quality football back into the lives of the sport's loyal fans.

*Side note: I am extremely happy that the referees handed the win to the Seattle Seahawks. I made a bet that they would win the game against the Packers and against all odds. Fortunately for my sake, the poor refereeing handed the game to Seattle and twenty bucks into my pocket, even though I completely thought the play was horrible and that the Packers should have won. But I'm not complaining :).

Dirty Dan's Bucket List...

1. The Stand - Stephen King: This book happens to be one of Stephen King's more memorable and praised works of literature. I began reading it last year but only made it about half way and I lost my place... So I'm starting over. It is a book in that details the the beginning of a pathogenic apocalypse and the rise of a charismatic dark entity who is bent on bringing misery to all who oppose him.

2. It's a Book - Lane Smith: This epic is dictates the struggle that the children of Generation X cannot seem to understand what the devil a book is. The main story revolves around an elephant who is deep into an interesting novel while some numb skull keeps pestering him with a relentless barrage of idiotic questions that only an imbecile could possibly propose.

3. The Dark Tower I - Stephen King: One of Stephen King's many Dark Tower works and is the first of 8 in the set. From what I have heard and read about the series, it possesses many  deeper messages within the texts, some of what people say are biblical messages pertaining to the rise of the anti-christ and so forth.

4. The Dark Tower II - Stephen King: