Steven Helmer Publications

I once again set up one of my trail cameras in my back yard last night and found myself rewarded with quite a few videos this morning. This included multiple visits from the local opossums and as a pleasant surprise, the return of one of the masked bandits that occasionally visit.  Here are some of the videos:

 I love vampire movies and while most of my favorites were made before I was born, two of them were from my 1980s childhood, Fright Night (1985) and The Lost Boys (1987). Today, for reasons I can’t even begin to explain, I asked myself “which is the better of the two?” So, I decided to do an analysis based on five categories:   Category 1 – The cast. I think the thing that stands out for me most when I think of The Lost Boys is the list of actors that could be considered who’s who of the 80s and 90s. There are the “two Coreys” Corey Haim and Corey Feldman . Joining them are Kiefer Sutherland and Alex Winter with Jason Patric and Dianne Wiest having significant roles. Fright Night also has some recognizable names, like Chris Sarandon , Roddy McDowall and William Ragsdale . However, as far as star power goes, I think they are simply outnumbered. Winner: The Lost Boys Category 2 – The main protagonist. While I get why people loved Haim (rest in peace) and I ...

Synopsis: Smalltown Nebraska 17-year-old Scott Howard is an awkward high school student who is trying to find himself while pining after the popular Pamela Wells. If things weren't bad enough for Scott, he inadvertently learns he has inherited a family curse and, like his father, is a werewolf. However, when his werewolf abilities help his basketball team win its first game in three years, Scott suddenly becomes the most popular kid in school. There's just one problem; people seem to like the wolf version of Scott more than the human version. Who's in it? The movie stars Michael J. Fox , James Hampton , Susan Ursitti , Lorie Griffin and Jerry Levine. Review: My wife was working on a sewing project yesterday evening and since I had time before I needed to start our dinner, I wound up watching Teen Wolf , which I came across on one of our movie channels. It had been ages since I last saw this film in its entirety, I may have even still been a teenager, and I didn't re...

 I skipped a day because of the weather but put one of my trail cameras out yesterday evening, just to see what it caught on video last night and early this morning. I had fairly decent selection of the usual suspects (including two separate stray cats). Here are some of them:

  I have pretty much accepted the fact I am not going to be able to keep the squirrels out of the birdfeeders. However, there is swiping the food because they are hungry and then there is this mess I came home to today. Based on the spread, I honestly think it was intentional. One (or more) of them must have purposely flung it all over the patio table for no other reason than to fling it. It's like that time when they dug up the potatoes in my garden then just left them on the ground. I wonder if there is a way for me to attract more hawks to my yard, as a way of discouraging this behavior.

Synopsis: Like thousands of women, Diane Evans served as a nurse during the Vietnam War, patching up wounded straight from the front lines and often being the last face a soldier saw before he died. In 1983, 14 years after returning home, Diane found a new mission, making sure she and the women volunteers she served with received the same recognition as the men. While doing so, she was forced to do the one thing she had been avoiding, talk about what she had experienced.  Review: One of my mom's friends had given her a copy of Healing Wounds and it looked intriguing enough for me to ask her for an opportunity to read it when she was finished. I managed to read through the book in a fairly quick amount of time and can only describe it as inspirational. One thing I learned when studying history is women's accomplishments are often diminished or even forgotten when the end result favors men. This is especially true when it comes to the history of war, when women are barely ment...