Have you looked at the police log in the papers this past week? Robberies, breaking and enterting, theft, car theft ... it reads like something out of Norristown.

What's happening to our town? People can't walk out of a business they own without getting robbed? A man can't take his BINGO proceeds home because a black man robbed them from him outside St. Stan's church? Outside a church!!

Bikes taken from schools, vehicles taken from performance and car shops ... what, now we have chop shops in our town? Not even your car is safe at a business anymore. And is the business responsible for your stolen car?

I fear that we may not be able to walk the streets of our town safely anymore. Have the demons and trash from Philly and Norristown permeated our sanctity known as Lansdale? Maybe we do need cops ... tell them to quit wasting time parking in yellow-striped areas between lanes on Broad Street during rush hour and use that time later in the evening to patrol the towns. Hell, I could do a better job with the amount of time wasted driving around town because there's nothing to do around here?

I also fear that soon we'll have to band together as a community and take back our streets. We don't have a Batman or signalized spotlights to shine in the sky. We don't have surveillance cameras at every corner. All we have is our own eyes and courage, and hopefully that will be enough. We don't want Lansdale to become the next Norristown, but Norristown is becoming the next Philly.

Will our community be here in five years?

Well, they've finally done it this year. They've finally taken childhood fantasies and turned them into multimillion dollar blockbusters.
It's something you wished could've been done when you were a kid and the movie was the one playing in your head.
Who would've thought a movie like Transformers would create a universal sensation? It's perhaps the first celluloid feature to be adapted from a line of action figures.
But it isn't going to be the only one.
Hollywood has dug into my childhood and it now sees dollar signs in the flashy, bright cartoons of the three-year period starting in 1984.
With the success of Transformers, producers and screenwriters are no longer dipping their toes into the pool - they're doing cannonballs into it.
Comic books, yet another childhood hobby, has already proven successful thanks to the masses who rushed to the cinaplexes for the Spider-Man movies, the X-Men features and any other Marvel or DC Comics superhero. At long last, nerdy was all-embracing.
Michael Bay, the director of Transformers, has already said there'll be no sequel. He knows something we don't know - he's become the trendsetter.
There's talk of bringing Thundercats and G.I. Joe to the silver screen, and even IMDB (an ubermovie fan Eden) lists both coming out in 2010.
Plus, mega-producer Joel Silver (The Matrix) announced an interest in remaking Masters of The Universe. He-Man! Too bad Dolph Lundgren is too busy these days.
In thinking about it, it's almost too good to be true, yet I remain both jealous and skeptical at the same time.
If only I were a Hollywood player, then I could develop a kick-ass Thundercats, He-Man and G.I. Joe film. Hell, I just watched the animated G.I. Joe movie the other day, and yeah, I still have my action figures (Hey, a mint-condition He-Man figure garners upwards of $300).
But does Hollywood really know these cartoons like the fans really do? The fans that sat down in front of the TV in footie pajamas with a bowl of Frankenberry and tousled hair, the ones that literally bought into the marketing of these cartoons and wasted their grandparents' money on plastic-molded toys, the ones who role-played these characters in backyards with friends. Hell, I was known to just shout "By the Power of Greyskull" at any given moment, and even hold my sister's Barbies hostage in the G.I. Joe fort (but she always got powerbombed by Cobra anyway).
The thing is, bringing a cartoon to life on the screen, CGI or live-action, is going to first attract the people who were there from the start. Then it'll be a worldwide phenomena, and I'm just not ready for it. I was pissed when I saw Optimus Prime cameo in a Pontiac commercial. He must have needed the money.
Yet the people who know the adapations will surely judge, probably because they want it as perfect as it was in their head when they were a kid. I know that's my biggest qualm.
So here's some suggestions Hollywood, before you go and ruin what mornings as a kid was all about. Keep true to the original cartoon, villains, warts and all. Yeah, you may not like that villain's origin or the hero's back story, but don't change it because you think something more modern would be cooler.
Don't make up some characters and throw them in for effect. It's confusing.
Please don't sell out to car companies, fast food joints and other conglomerates. I don't need Cobra Commander to entice me into buying a supersize Big Mac meal. Even worse, I dont need actors in commercials pretending to care about a new He-Man Edition Jeep. Poseurs.
Here's hoping that Hollywood big wigs with deep pockets and dollar sign eyes know exactly what to do.
And if you need some advice, talk to the source. I dont remember much, but I sure can recall the greatest battle I ever had on a blue carpet in a second-floor Towamencin bedroom.
Now they know, and that's half the battle.