End of November.
Beginning of December.
Holiday Season.

Where did the year go?
Seriously. Why's it gone?
Vanished to thin air.

Bring out all the lights.
Lights are super exciting.
Drive to see to lights.

Yes, I see the lights.
Here, there, also anywhere.
It's the Holidays.

I want a taco.
While driving around town,
Just to see the lights.

It's Saturday, guys! You know that this means.

Well, actually, nothing is really going on today. Except for the grand opening of the park in downtown Valpo. My little little sister and I went down for a while to check it out, and we saw some great ice skaters. We also got free s'mores, so what could go wrong with that?

You guessed it. Absolutely nothing.

Before we go to a Christmas parade and get Indian food, I would like to give you a few facts about Brett Ingram, from Rockybado. He is the second oldest of the Ingram's, and he is very prominent in his band, The Hawaiian Geeks.

1. Brett's favorite sport is tennis, but he does not play.
2. Although Brett likes to pull wake-up pranks on Brody, his younger brother, he does not pull wake-up pranks on his housemates.
3. Brett looks most like the Ingram's dad, while Dawson, David, and Brody look more like their mom. Toby is adopted.
4. He likes to cook and can make very good garlic bread with artichoke spread inside the garlic bread.
5. Brett has always liked numbers, so that is why he chose Finance as his major.
6. Brett likes to play video games, but not as much as David, Brody, and Toby.
7. He is flat-footed.
8. Brett's favorite holidays are Thanksgiving and Christmas because they can never be too predictable.
9. His biggest dream in life is to play in a rock band and eventually perform in front of thousands.
10. One of Brett's housemates is the brother of Brody's past love interest.

Speaking of Rockybado, the first and second novels are FREE on Amazon for Kindle on Friday December 4th and Saturday December 5th! Please check them out by reading the summaries below!

Rockybado: Robot King of the Island: "It is June 2006, and, after school lets out for the summer in Crown Point, Indiana, five boys find out about a robot in Texamilio, a fictitious island due west of the eight Hawaii Islands. When they meet Rockybado and his two close Bobino comrades, they are all confronted by Susan and Claude McSmith, who are both out to steal Rockybado's position as King of Texamilio, after a sour debate regarding physics in high school."

Rockybado 2: A Run in the Game: "It is the summer of 2006 in Crown Point, Indiana, and Brody Ingram and Andrew McCalsky make it on the Watsons baseball team, and the team must try hard to defeat the Pratts team, their opponent, from Hebron, Indiana, that plays rough. In the meantime, Brody's older brother, Brett, must come out of his shell in order to communicate effectively with his love interest, as does David. Dawson, the oldest, and Toby, the youngest, also try to figure out who they are and who they want to be. Everyone is faced with different challenges throughout the summer."

Have a great rest of the weekend!

You Know Who

Hello everyone, and Happy Thanksgiving!

Today is the day where many people have their extended family over at their house for a huge meal, which typically consists of turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce, stuffing, and pumpkin pie. Afterwards, they may either watch sports on TV, play video games and/or board games, or do absolutely nothing else.

But that is not the case with my family. We are staying at our house today, since we don't have much family from around the area. And, although we are having the typical Thanksgiving dinner, we are most likely doing nothing else other than that.

Since it is Thanksgiving, you might be wondering how David Ingram's family (Rockybado), Andrew Grzedek's family (The Jazzy Island of Dinosaurs), and Levi Cranston's family (The Magic Video Game) celebrate Thanksgiving. Although they all celebrate Thanksgiving much differently, I'm more than certain that they still have a great time.

David Ingram comes from a small family. He only has four cousins on his mom's side. The Ingram's extended family is all from Northwest Indiana, so they all celebrate Thanksgiving together. Every year, the family goes to a different house to celebrate Thanksgiving, meaning that one year the Ingram's host, and another year, the Ingram's cousins' family hosts. Both sets of grandparents have also hosted. The Ingram's do not have a typical Thanksgiving. The Ingram's dad always cooks Italian food, including his very own homemade mostaccioli and tiramisu, to name a few things. David and Brody also help cook the Italian food. This has always been a tradition with the Ingram's and their extended family. After their feast, they all watch good and bad Christmas movies together.

Andrew Grzedek comes from a large family. He has many cousins on both sides of the family, most of whom are from Northwest Indiana. The family who does not live in Northwest Indiana is from around Chicago. The family members have a race to create a social media event page first to determine who is hosting the Thanksgiving party that year. Since Andrew moved to downtown Valparaiso in June 2014, he, two cousins, and a mutual friend from college have done a pre-Thanksgiving party. This consists of going out to eat at a restaurant on the square and then going to one or two bars. Then, for actual Thanksgiving, Andrew and the two cousins spend Thanksgiving with the family, and their mutual friend goes to his family's house (who also live in Valpo). The family has the typical Thanksgiving dinner, consisting of turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie. Then, after the actual feast, some family members watch football, some play video games, some read, and others converse. The family celebrates Thanksgiving from Wednesday to Sunday.

Levi Cranston comes from a medium-sized family. He and his immediate family typically stay at home and celebrate Thanksgiving together, with the kids' grandparents and two half sisters and their family joining them. The Cranston's have family in either Northwest Indiana or Rhode Island. Sometimes, they have gone to other houses for Thanksgiving, but they normally like to stay at home. Levi celebrates Thanksgiving with his family on the actual day. On the day after, he goes out with his best friends and girlfriend and go bowling and explore downtown Valparaiso. Instead of having a turkey for Thanksgiving, the family has rotisserie chicken. The Cranston's grandma, on their dad's side, does not like turkey, so they have always liked the idea of replacing the turkey with rotisserie chicken. However, the rest of the Thanksgiving dinner is typical. After the feast, the family doesn't make many plans.

However YOU are celebrating Thanksgiving, enjoy the rest of it.

I'll be blogging again some time during the weekend.

From,

You Know Who

It is Thanksgiving.
As in, it's Thanksgiving Week.
Bring out the turkey.

I prefer chicken.
Rotisserie style, bro!
Glazed with barbeque.

Confusing myself.
It's not the Fourth of July.
It's Thanksgiving Week.

I have four days off.
I'll know what to do with them,
​When pigs learn to fly.

Hello everyone, and Happy Sunday!

It is that time of the semester again, for a lot of us especially. We are all scrambling to get our 15-20 pages written before next month. We are all studying for long periods of time to make sure that we can ace our exams. And we are all trying to set aside time to hang out with our friends. Balancing all of that can be a bit of a struggle.

I have been doing all of that, as well as trying to find time to write. And I'm sure you all know that I've come up with a new strategy with writing. It works.

Now, I am going to talk to you all about the Ingram family (Rockybado). This week, I am going to talk about Dawson Ingram, the oldest kid in that family.

* Dawson was once a Spanish Education major and then switched to Marketing and Spanish when he found out that Education wasn't for him.
* He has been sporting his mustache for a long time.
* His favorite music genre is R&B/Soul, but he has never played a musical instrument.
* Dawson was thinking about playing baseball in high school, but he never tried out for the team.
* He met his wife, Daniela, in college.
* Daniela is from Matteson, Illinois.
* Dawson has dated three other people before meeting Daniela: Pauline Anderson, Jennifer Newman, and Nancy Hudson, all from high school.
* Dawson is the only kid in the family who has a mustache. His other siblings are clean-shaven.
* He does not enjoy pulling pranks on David and Brody as much as Brett does.
* Dawson once tried the piano, but then realized it wasn't for him.

Ladies and gents, here is Dawson Ingram.

Stay tuned for tomorrow, Monday, mañana. I have yet another impromptu haiku for you guys (I hope you guys know that all of my haikus are made up on the spot. I don't write them before putting them out on my website). Congratulations. You learned something new today.

Have a great day friends,

The One Who Knows Jack

Today is Friday.
At least it is not Monday.
Today is Friday.

Whoops. This is so weird.
Forgot to blog on Wednesday.
College kid status.

Yummy fast food, yeah.
I don't know how I would live.
If there's no fast food.

I am just kidding.
I can live without fast food.
I eat it sometimes.

It is the weekend.
Time to order some pizza.
Or gyros instead.​

I like cantaloupe.
Don't know why I'm saying this.
I guess it's random.

Cappuccino's good.
Makes me feel much like a pro.
I'm a pro at life.

Hello. It's Monday.
It is another new day.
It better be good.

I am so random.
Random thoughts go through my head.
Taco and taco.

Is this a taco?
No. It's a quesadilla.
Oh well. Whatever.

Hello everyone! Happy Sundae!

It has been quite a weekend for sure. My friends and I went to Aurora last night and saw one of my friends' cousins! It was a great night, but everything happened so spontaneously. Instead of going to our favorite restaurant and playing card games, we ended up getting ice cream in Lombard. It was a pretty successful night to say the least. 

Today is still going to be fun. A few more of my friends and I are hanging out, so that will definitely be fun! 

And then, tomorrow is Monday.

On the weekends, I usually talk about the people. However, I am going to do something completely different and unheard of on the weekend. I am going to do another Weird Wednesday, but I am going to do Strange Sunday instead. Not that it's really strange, but it starts with the letter "S."

​Q: How is the daily five paragraph challenge going for you?
A: It is going very well, actually. I have stuck to my plan of texting five paragraphs a day to my email, and I have been able to finish at least one chapter this week because of it. I think I'm going to stick to texting myself five paragraphs from now on, since I'm so busy.

Q: How are your up-and-coming novels going so far?
A: I have one chapter left in Rockybado 4, fourteen chapters in The Jazzy Island of Dinosaurs 4, and eight or nine chapters left in The Magic Video Game 4.

Q: What are Levi Cranston's (The Magic Video Game) best two voice impressions?
A: One is from the main character in a boxing series, and the other one is from one of the lead singers in a British rock band in the 60's.

Q: What is Andrew Grzedek's (The Jazzy Island of Dinosaurs) best voice impression?
A: He is very good at the British accent.

Q: What is David Ingram's (Rockybado) best voice impression?
A: He is also very good at the British accent.

Q: Is that all the three boys can do?
A: Absolutely not.

Be on the lookout for some potential free book promotions in the near future. And, in the meantime, stay cool.

See you all tomorrow for you know what. Oh, and enjoy your Sundae.

That One Kid

Aloha. Hello.

As we all know, it is Wednesday. For some, Wednesday is a glorious day. For others, Wednesday is a bit of a drag. Those of us who think Wednesday is glorious realizes that we are halfway through the week and that the weekend is just around the corner. And those of us who think Wednesday is a bit of a drag realizes that we still have two days to go before we can officially claim the weekend.

In other words, it's all about perspective.

As we all know as well, today is Weird Wednesday. Why is it weird? Don't ask. It's just weird. Because every Wednesday is weird. Please....just keep Wednesday weird.

I am not doing any free promotions this weekend, so I am going to answer a few questions that you might all be wondering about, so here we go.

Q: This is an extremely busy semester. How will you find time to write?
A: Two words. I don't. Instead of waiting for some free time to write, I have decided to make a goal. What this goal entails is writing five paragraphs a day. I have been doing this since Sunday, and I have gotten pretty far with at least one chapter. Bring out the noisemakers.

Q: What is your favorite video game?
A: Too many to count. I also don't have a lot of time to play all of my favorite CLASSIC video games, but I did have a blast with my little little sister this weekend. We played one of my most favorite classic video games that dates as far back as 1988.

Q: Scratch that. Not a relevant question. How is your writing going so far?
A: I have been focusing mainly on The Magic Video Game 4 because I have so many ideas for it. Not that I don't have any ideas for The Jazzy Island of Dinosaurs 4 or Rockybado 4. It's just that I'm in that phase where all I want to write about is The Magic Video Game.

Q: Have you finally come up with your own deadline?
A: Actually, I have. My goal is to get the fourth novels from each series on Amazon for Kindle by April 30, 2016.

Q: How will you achieve that goal if you have a crazy semester?
A: I will do what I have been doing since Sunday. Make a goal and habit of writing five paragraphs per day. That should do the trick. 

Q: What is your favorite Halloween memory this year?
A: My most favorite Halloween memory this year includes a gorilla chasing a banana. No joke. I saw it live. I even said hi to the banana.

Q: Enough with the ridiculous and irrelevant questions! So....now, tell me this. What does 30 times 130 equal?
A: Taco.

Welp, that is all I have for tonight. I must continue on with my marketing research project, so I will sign off. For now.

See you this weekend!

That One Kid

I almost forgot.
To write a haiku today.
I almost forgot.

Tomorrow I'll go.
To Chicago with my friend.
Explore the city.

I wrote a chapter.
On Saturday. It was fun.
It was very cute.

Really, was it now?
Or am I just thinking things?
​I think of bacon.