Yes, it's true.... I'm sad to say, that even I, although appearing as strong as a rock, can fall.... Yes, us superheroes can be weak... and it's happened to me... I never thought it would.. I always tried to stay away from these things... I've seen how addiction can ruin lives....
I really should know better.... BUT, the start to recovery begins with admitting you have an addiction and I do.. And... I'm going to throw the blame squarely onto Gord & Crystal!
These things are sooo fuckin addictive!! Mu....st... sto...p... eating.... Sour Patch kids
Someone call Dr. Drew!!
Walk On:
Fredericton becomes a skating rink tonight! Ice everywhere, a really super mild day... Yep, be careful on the roads peeps!
When I first heard 'Walk On' in 1994, I thought I had fallen into a time machine and gone back to 1978.... But no, this album came out in '94. Mind you the band had major legal battles with labels and who knows we else... So sounding a bit dated, but Boston, well you just cannot deny them the kudos on the song writing and power vocals... Should be an inspiration for any singer
Yes, yes my friends, 2019 is soon upon us, what will it bring for our planet Earth? Only one way to find out and that is to stick around!
Had a great Christmas with Gordie, Crystal & the family. Always a blast at Gordie with plenty of food, drink and games and not to forget... Santa Claus!
Each year after the kids are asleep, there's a 'present parade' from Gordie's place to Crystal's (They live right beside each other)....
So on Christmas eve, we begin the 'parade'... I leave Gordie's and am outside alone... I hear what sounds like a big dog parking and look behind me to see in the field next to the trailer park the form of a rather large dog that is running towards my direction... Not wanting to stick around, with an armload of presents, I hobble a little faster towards Crystal's place and just as I'm reaching her driveway I glance back again and see the dog is just coming up over this berm and is quite large and still barking...
So I race for Crystal's front door, juggling the presents as I turn the handle and look once again to the street in time to see....
A very large dog, barking, but not looking at me, it races by Crystal's wearing .... A Santa Claus suit... I know, I know.. Yes, I smoke pot, but I swear to all that's not holy, that I saw this.. A large dog with a Santa hat and it had a coat on... Fucking weird!
Christmas eve morning, I am up very early and see the planet Venus blazing in the sky.
A few years ago Crystal, Gord and the kids rescued some little itty bitty Kitties that one of the parks free-range cats gave birth to under her trailer.
The kitties, Echo and Sox, are growing quite well and it used to be that Sox was out everywhere, kinda brave enough to see who was around and Echo was very shy and skittish.
After they got 'fixed', apparently this all changed and Sox was now super skittish and quite scared of any strange voice in the house... But, I'm not strange to them. I have a bond with kitties. People don't believe me, but I do. I respect the cats young and old. I love cats, they kick ass with their air of independence and sometimes mysterious nature...
I don't know if anyone there realizes I've bonded so close with both the cats, when everyone was sleeping, they'd come and visit.
You can see from this video that 'Sox' is not frightened nor skittish with me at all. Such great kitties. Made me miss Elsa.
On Christmas morning, Venus was so brilliant that it was still glimmering brightly in the morning sky.
Christmas morning with the gang:
The kitties stop by to say goodbye on Boxing day...
So, before Christmas I was pretty bummed... I had written a couple weeks before Christmas that Terry and Joanne Daly were coming up for Christmas, but we were going to miss each other, completely... I was heading to SJ as they arrived in Fredericton and they were heading back to Chester, Nova Scotia as I was coming back from SJ... Every year since I'd come home I'd spent some time with them at Christmas.
Terry and I go way back... Way back to 1990 and Dreamkick's very first show at the Oromocto rec center.
We had hired 'Ace Productions' a lighting and sound company out of Fredericton to give us a kick ass light show and hopefully made us sound great at our 'coming out' show. We hit the stage with a roar!
Terry Daly & David Campbell ran Ace productions and being a singer, not having much to do, I asked if I could do anything to help them and they put me to work laying down power cables, mic cables, setting up stands...And from there I kinda ended up 'apprenticing' with Dave and Terry, we had many crazy adventures together, a couple of life or death situations and Terry and I remain close friends to this day. When I moved back and the day that Alita went to sleep, Terry and his wife and her family were there for me. Joanne's daughter Jessy Wyman (formerly Jessy Ashfield) is a local musician and Joanne also has two other daughters. Her Daughter Sammie after bringing up two huskies ended up in a rough relationship and at one point I was her only candidate for taking in the dogs should she need someone to, lol, and this I was told! But I would have obliged.
When I had my oral surgery, Terry picked me up after and took me to stay with them for a few days as I recovered. They like the Fields and the Browns are my 'second family' and I love them dearly.
On the day before Christmas eve, I had got a message from Terry saying that they were going to stay Boxing day, so we could get some time to hang out (I mean, not just to see me, but other people too)... But, that was a great present. I hung out with Terry and Jessy's husband Peter, plus a couple of his buds and Terry and I's friend Karl Dunnett (who is a local drummer).
Anyhow! Back to Christmas at Gordie's!
SO, on freaking Christmas day night, I'm walking from Crystal's to Gordie's, once more I find myself alone and as I walk to Gord's, as I come around the corner from Crystal's, there's two deer, pretty close to me in the field... Now the deer thing, that's a whole other story... Saint John and a few other cities are having real problems, as the cities encroach further into nature, nature reciprocates by encroaching more into urban areas... The deer in large numbers... BUT, I've seen in my whole time(s) staying at Gord's like 6 live deer and not together, some stays I wouldn't see any, for a full couple years i didn't see any... So that evening I was surprised to see them so close and I said, "HI deer!" and this fucking deer, turns and looks at me and then starts to charge at me LOL... So, once again I beat the feet and make it to Gordie's door in the nick of time! Not a good Xmas for me with weird animals!
So, what did I get? I got some awesome clothes and hats, Winter gear, a crazy glass zombie decanter and I got a new bookshelf and the 'big' present a 4 week astronomy course at UNB!
I'll begin that in mid April (so HOPEFULLY), Winter is done by then lol... But I'm excited for that and to have the money to get a new tripod for my DSLR and the camera adapter for my telescope, so I can show ya's video and photo's of our solar system from my eyes!
Neat huh?
No plans for New Years eve... I DO want to get the Marvel graphic novel for the Infinite Gauntlet series... It's basically the Marvel 'movie' series we've been seeing in theaters over the last like decade all wrapped up into a graphic novel, this 'Infinite stone' plot was written back in the 1990's and unlike most Marvel comics, it's pretty dark and brutal. So I hope to get that in the next day or two... There's an alleged "storm" coming tomorrow into Saturday night, so I'm hoping I can pick up the graphic novel tomorrow and be able to cozy up with it as the 'storm' rages, If it manifests itself at all.....
Season's Greetings and Merry Christmas from all of us here at 'There's No Way Back From Here'... Please enjoy my favorite Christmas time film: 'Scrooge' the 1970 version with Albert Finney and Alec Guinness.
Today as I'm walking home, heading up Regent Street, there, they are constructing some new apartment complex and it has this, actually really nice wooden fence put up to stop people from getting into the construction site... As I'm approaching the section of sidewalk that is parallel to this fence, there's a young lady, who is walking towards me, but she's looking at the wooden fence, she then stops and places her hand on the fence and closes her eyes.. standing there, with her eyes closed, the palm of her hand pressed firmly against the fence.... Was she communing with the wood? The fence? Was it some sort of Vulcan mind meld:
I dunno, but it was certainly a weird moment.. After pausing in this position, she then began to move along the fence, eyes still closed and hand still firmly against the fencing... She then opened her eyes to notice me looking at her and she smiled as we passed each other.... Maybe she just likes wood.....
Speaking of walking, I saw a story on CNN.com the other night about walking and mental fitness. It would seem that not only is walking good for the heart, and body, legs, muscles etc... But also good for the brain. A study has shown that 6 months of walking (Not continuously) is most excellent for reversing cognitive decline... lol So the less walking you do, the stupider you get? LOL. That doesn't seem totally right, but walking is great. I love walking, I've been a walker all of my life, well except for the months i was in the wheelchair, but I was a roller then! Walk&Roll!
But I find it really helps me. Walking has always given me time to think about problems, deal with worry and stress and just help me to have the general peace of mind that I have today
From the article:
""Our operating model was that by improving cardiovascular risk, you're also improving neurocognitive functioning," said lead study author James Blumenthal, a clinical psychologist at Duke University. "You're improving brain health at the same time as improving heart health."
When it comes to living longer through exercise, is more better?
When it comes to living longer through exercise, is more better?
Many experts "are already convinced about the benefits of lifestyle interventions to reduce risk of Alzheimer's and cardiovascular dementia," said Dr. Richard Isaacson, who directs the Alzheimer's Prevention Clinic at Weill Cornell Medicine. "But for those who are not, this study is a randomized, clinical trial that illustrates the benefits.
"You can do something today for a better brain tomorrow," said Isaacson, who was not involved in the research."
Get out there and walk!
It's over, done shopping for the 'kids'... Will be a good Christmas this year. I tried as best as I could to buy all presents from downtown... I do have a great respect for local businesses and try as much as i can to give as much of my business to downtown... I rarely go to the mall... In fact, having bloodwork at the hospital about every month or two I've been popping into the mall to get some stuff... And I knew that I'd probably have to end up there at some point ramping up to the holidays, yesterday was it and I was there early enough that it was absolute stupid huemahn chaos... I must say I do love going to Walmart, it's got some of the most awesome looking people that go there lol... It's like an ark of inbred huemahns ended up smashing into the Walmart and they got shipwrecked there haha
Ahh the people of Walmart!
Don't be insulted if you shop there my friends, for you are apart of the Beautiful People!
Oh! Just in time for Christmas! A new music video from 'Ghost'
Don't take long... People always ask, "is it warmer with or without a beard?" - I don't know haha.... I can tell you, you get a lot more 'snot' on your upper lip in the cold!
The house next door.... Not salvageable... I ran into one of the guys who lived there at the mall today and had asked him if the place was a write-off or if he thought it might be saved and he looked at me, pulled out his phone and show me... That place is NOT salvageable in the least... The inside was a horror show... So scary and one of my bigger 'fears'... I try to make sure everything I can is off or at a safe point, but with old houses, you sometimes just don't have any control over what MAY happen.... Fingers crossed....
This morning after I had got ready to head up to the DECH for bloodwork, I was looking out my big picture window that faces towards the house that caught fire..... While looking outside I noticed something, something ... odd....
We had fresh snow the last 24 hours and in the snow were foot tracks that came from the sidewalk out front and went down the driveway and ended at the door to the garage/barn.... So, the odd part? There were NO returning footprints... There were tracks going to the door and that was it..... So, was someone inside?
I put my boots and jacket on and made my way over to the house... I walked down the driveway, noting, that yeah, these footprints went to the door and went inside. The door was shut, but the lock, well the lock was intact BUT, someone had unscrewed the screws that held the components to the lock on the door, so it looked like someone had walked in the place and never left... They could very well be still inside....
I came back in and called 911. The guy said, "Well, did you go inside and check?" ... LOL... I said, 'No, no I didn't because IF there's someone in there, I don't want to confront them and it's not my property"... They said they send some one over right away.
As my neighbor and I were pulling out of the driveway the first police car pulled up, so we waited and I got out and went and spoke to the officer... As i was speaking to her another two police officers pulled up and I told them about what I'd seen and the only 'other' tracks there were mine... So they went down the driveway and into the garage/barn... I don't think they were in there but 5 minutes and came out, no stranger in tow... So they kinda brushed off the whole idea that someone broke in and was in there... I mean ok, you took less than 5 minutes to check the place out, I don't believe they checked the upstairs at all and they just felt that maybe one of the students had come back to get something...
Well, there's a couple problems here. I know, to see, all of the students who rented that place and YES, I'd seen them come by, use a KEY to open the door and get stuff leave, bla bla bla... So, WHY would one of them need to take apart the lock to get in AND, the biggest fucking unanswered question by ANYONE, WHY did the footprints GO in... but NOTHING came out??? Did whomever it was fucking sprout wings and floated out? Is there a tunnel out that I don't know of??
So, someone could still be in there for all I know.. Albeit once I'd returned from my day out of bloodwork and doing some Xmas shopping for my Bro's fiancee's kids, there were all kind of tracks coming in and out of the place, the lock is still as it was.... So who knows... But something fishy is going on....
Don't know how or why, but 'Rise Against' landed in my brain today....
I totally forgot to post about this crazy seal dream that I had.
Sadly I have forgotten most, ok all of the dream, except for this 'segment' where it didn't appear to be that the dream was taking place on a boat, but.... I recall climbing down some steps, almost like a ladder, in fact it was like the steps on the houseboat I spent a few days on last Summer.
As I'm coming down the steps, at the bottom off to the side a bit, there's a hatch in the floor and coming up through the hatch is a seal, and I think that the damn squirrels that have been stalking me (Please note, I'm not being serious here) have infiltrated into my psyche and that's what the seals represented and I was saying, 'No!' to the seal just like I do with Jerkface the wonder squirrel!
So I'm saying, 'No! Get down you can't come up here !' But unlike the squirrel the seal comes up and of course is 'barking' as they are known to do and it's passing me on the steps going up to where ever that was I came down from and I vaguely remember someone up there was freaking out and saying, "No, no stop the seal from getting up here, we'll never get it out again!!"
And that's really all I can remember.
Thanks for coming!
Not the seal from my dream but a reasonably hand drawn facsimile
I can't believe I just spelled 'facsimile' right
I've got a buddy online, he's on of the few members of a group of people from all over the World who meet up in a private chat room to discuss science, physics, history, conspiracy, technology and space ventures, and he's just got a book deal for a non-fiction series called 'Book of Man'. You can find a video series of his works on Vimeo. The guy is fucking brilliant and while I do not subscribe to much of his beliefs and what he's uncovered doing his own research, I do admire the guys discipline to go after a subject and chase it down where ever it has led him. I'm hoping some day soon, to collate all of these blogs that have my 'life stories' in them and write my biography... I dunno if anyone would buy it... I don't know what I could teach anyone from my life... Don't stay in school if you think you can survive the World without graduation? Maybe that's a good lesson... For some people... Anyhow..
'The Book of Man' deals with huemahn history and how it 'sprung' up on this planet. What I do like about Brian's work is that once it gets into familiar ground for me, as in pre-history of huemahnity before the end of the last ice age, history during the Younger Dryas period (The time when after the last ice age, all of a sudden the Earth was thrown back into a "mini-ice age" and during this period it is believed either an asteroid hit the North American ice sheet as well as other parts of the Northern hemisphere or there was some kind of plasma event, either from our Sun or an extra-solar source) and after the Younger Dryas ended and OUR history began (which is pretty much where christian folk think history began because of the global coastal inundation of water ('Noah's Flood), due to the quick melt of ice sheets DUE to the possible asteroid that hit them!).
This last Friday Brian said that he'd stumbled upon a whole well of new information about our ancient history.
I've spoken about Gobekli Tepe before and how it's some 11,000 years old and pre -dates Stonehenge and the Giza Pyramids by thousands of years. Some historians and archaeologists are dubbing it the birth place of civilization.
Now, of course this isn't make believe Adam and Eve stuff here, before Gobekli Tepe there were tribes and gangs of nomadic and semi nomadic hunter gatherers, but Gobekli Tepe is said to be the First organized structure building in huemahnity and MAYBE that's where our civilization began... But what if there's some place older...
Enter Aratta.
If you query online about Aratta you will or may find a small wikipedia entry that indicates 'Aratta' as a mythical Sumerian land.... But what if Aratta is not a myth? There's been many so called 'myths' that have become true history and for as much as I bash it, SOME of those 'mythical' and 'legendary' places and times have been found to have existed...
Likewise this could happen with Aratta.
Archaeological digs in the Ukraine for decades have unearthed a culture that it would seem pre-dates Gobekli Tepe and has elaborate neolithic structures, mounds, burial practices AND a writing that seems to be proto Sumerian and of course the Sumerian's are said to be the one's who invented language..
Example's of Arattan art and writing/symbols
This Aratta culture put out such fantastic pottery that Picasso himself was moved and stunned that such an ancient culture could make such elaborate and intricate art...If I'm not wrong, but I think I remember from one of the videos I watched, it said that some of Picasso's later works were influenced by what he had seen in the Ukraine.
So this is what Brian laid out for us... Did those who taught their 'technology' of carving, art, religious practices, medicine and farming come from Aratta's people, who may, because of the changing climate, water inundating lands move South into the 'fertile crescent', teach their ways to the hunter gatherer's there and thus our civilization had it's fuse lit.... It's very interesting and possibly history changing information.
Such exciting times we live in, sometimes lol... I just hope huemahnity makes it long enough for us to learn some real truths of our past and our future.
Mari Mason really has nothing to do with this entry, I was just listening to him while writing.
I don't remember where I probably first heard 'Foreplay' and 'Longtime'.... Maybe on CHSR.... Or while traveling when I was young. But I DO remember finding out who played that insane piece of astounding Rock!
Listen to 'Foreplay/Longtime' while you read this entry!
In 1988 it was just my Father and I who drove out West for our, what had become, annual Summer time journey to Victoria BC by car. The consecutive Summer's since 1986, my Brother's and I had got in Dad's car and drove across the continent and it was all 3 of us in '86, just Gordie and I in '87 and just myself in '88 and then in '89 I moved out by myself... But that's another story.
Each and every time I was stoked to go... Are you kidding? Stuck in a car with all your Brother's... It was hard, but we lived through it, there ain't no place to go on a 7/8 hour a day car drive haha.
What we got to see, I can never ever thank my Father enough for those trips. Mind expanding shit.
So, 1988 Dad and I roll into Victoria BC, by then I was a Victoria and surrounding area pro, each Summer we had stayed in a different place, different part of town... 1987 was my favorite, Dad, got his two teen Son's and him a place on a street that led to 'Willow's' beach, like THE beach in Oak Bay an affluent suburb of Victoria.. That Summer was crazy fun.. Ask Gordie sometime about the beach party he passed out at and they propped him up against a Stop sign and tied his hair in a knot behind his around, trapping him to the 'Stop' sign .... I wasn't there for that, but you can count I laughed my fuckin ass off...
In '88, we had another place in Oak Bay, the place is kinda like Fredericton, but on the Pacific ocean , beautiful town. Amazing homes, beautiful parks, the ocean... So it was another bit of paradise.
I can't recall, how it came about, but Dad had given me a bag of cassettes that I THINK, came from my Cousin Greg Waddell.... But I'm not sure, it doesn't make sense as to why Dad gave me them when we got to Victoria, unless he'd given them to me before but I had only a Walkman as a cassette player....
One one of these tapes was Boston's self titled album... When I heard 'Foreplay/Longtime'... Mind melted, brain was hooked... Outstanding harmonies, so many hooks per song that's almost unbelievable.
Thom Sholtz, is not only a genuine gifted guitarist and song writer, but he's also an inventor.. The man built most of his own gear, including custom pedals and keyboards... The guys a freakin' genius!
Then to have a singer like Brad Delp, rest his soul... His vocal range was just about unsurpassed in Rock. I mean there's a plethora of mind blowing Rock singers, but Delp's power and range sent shivers down my spine, they still do. I don' think I give this album enough credit.
Now, this is a mega clash, a massive musical pile-up, because through the year of 87/88 I had become completely immersed in Hardcore Punk, Crossover (of Hardcore & Metal) and still loads of new Heavy Metal bands... I did 'hide' a lot of stuff that I listened to to friends, because Boston and the like, they were what caused the Punk scene to rebel. They hated these highly produced, super long in length songs, mega guitar solos... That's what birthed the Punk Rock scene, kids were sick of these over-bloated Rock song's their parents were 'grooving to man'!
But I"m a sucker for harmonies and Boston's bleeding with them.. They are a crazy looking band, mostly because their drummer at one time, who looks like he's about 7/1 had this massive afro... The bassist in each video looked like he'd snorted the coke table in the blue room all to himself... But, even though people will and do, you can't deny the Rock... Goddamn,, I see bands like the Foo Fighter's and Queens of the Stone Age as the Boston and ELO of our time now.
And this was still a time when every single song on a band's album was killer, no filler! From start to stop, flip the side and play it over and over again. Boston is amazing... I'm not a big Kansas, Styxx or
Journey fan.... Boston just happened at a special time in my life and it hooked me. Delp was a big inspiration for me, I mean, c'mon, you can't deny the man could sing. Like you're just being a dick if you think he 'sucked' or 'couldn't sing'.... Too bad he struggled with deep depression for most of his life.
Stellar track after track from More Than A Feeling, Peace of Mind, which I think we did a cover of in the Wasteland Zombies, I know we did a Boston tune, but I don't think for long, if you can't sing like someone like Brad Delp, you probably shouldn't be covering his songs lol... I didn't mangle it, but it wasn't a strong cover for us.
Rockin'Roll Band, Smokin' Hitchin' a Ride...ON and on and on and on.. And then the follow up, 'Don't Look Back' was equally as astounding as Boston's debut release.
I saw Jack Black talking about how certain bands have like this bottle of fizz and they can shake it up and that magic fizz pours out and out, album after album.... But bands like Boston, Toto, Triumph, Styxx, their time was coming to an end as the 80's Pop single, the New Wave of British ..erm New Wave, synth Pop and Rock for radio had come, then soon after M.tv... People didn't have time for th long played out, but ridiculously amazing, song's of the '70's, this was the '80's cocaine and speed man, you got shit to do!
Me, I laid there with headphones on, laying on a floor of a house in Victoria BC.... Blastin' Boston, smelling the sea air... The Summer of 'JJ' was just beginning.
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This cat! damn it. Maybe it's because she's a woman.. I dunno.... But I buy wet and dry food for her. So most of the time, she doesn't want either... She doesn't eat a lot.. Until she does... The wet food, she wants it, but most of the time like a bit on a small spoon is enough for her and I can barely keep cans from going rotten because she's just not eating it...And then, all of a sudden. she's breezing through cans... This morning I opened a can and it's almost done already and while a lot of food for a cat is normal for some, not so for her... I had asked my vet when we spoke last about how long a can should last... And he was saying like day or two and I laughed because Elsa can stretch a single can out for like almost a week lol... and I got her two flavors and kinda switch back and forth... Finicky bitch!
Found this on my phone... I dunno when I took that hahah... Winter beard coming in
Years ago, all of a sudden I began to see the numbers '606' everywhere... Mostly it seemed I'd look to see what time it was and it would be 6:06.... from there it seemed to blossom and '606' turned up all the time... I'd be out walking and
Or I'd be at the station, pop in a CD to play and the song length....
Cooking dinner, look up at the clock....
Crossing the street and would see a parked car...
On YouTube one day and this Metallica video had...
Even one time when I was signing up to a website and they wanted people to properly put in the Captcha:
Watching a movie... 'Mission Impossible'
And then tonight, again, watching one of my favorites 'The Sasquatch Gang'
It's everywhere!!!!
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It's so very hard to catch Elsa when she's doing her weird fucking shit... I mean it's spontaneous... I've talked about how when sometime's I'll just walk in the room and Elsa will jump up, back arched, hair bristling... She's acting all tough! It'really funny when she does it... and it tells me that she's ready to play fight!:
Hey, ya'll remember back in the late 60's (early 70's for me).... The super awesome Spiderman cartoon? It was that cartoon that brought on a life long fondness for the characters, well some of them...
Dang that cartoon was so awesome! AND! Do you all remember the Marvel Superhero's cartoon?
With Hulk, Captain America, Submariner and Thor (Although the early Captain America cartoon has him join up with Thor, Iron Man, Wasp & "Tall man - who can become 'Ant Man'...
I've managed to collect all of these cartoons.. So camp now, I watched a Captain America episode last night that left me in stitches, it was fuckin hilarious how they sewed that shit together!
So for the Spiderman cartoon, the voice work was done right here in Canuckia, while the animation was done stateside...
BUT, even more of a Canadian connection is that 'ol favorite of faves....
Rocket Robinhood!
Even 'The Mighty Hercules' cartoon was another joint Canadian / American production! I had no idea!
These can be kinda hard to watch these days!
Ok, have to start settling in to watching my annual Christmas movies... I did watch 'Die Hard I' the other night and last night, I watched for the first time 'The Man Who Invented Christmas'. which is a kinda biographical story on Charles Dickens writing 'A Christmas Carol' (aka Scrooge).
I love the story, I mean, essentially it's a ghost story... I think the best film version is the 1970 'A Christmas Carol' with Albert Finney as Scrooge.
This telling has an 'added' part a lot of the other films leave out, which is at the end, Scrooge ends up in Hell and his business partner Jacob Marley (No relation to Bob) gives Scrooge a small tour of Hell and is then taken to his new 'office', where he'll spend an eternity in the cold, doing Satan's finances, all the while his massive chain of life weighs him down... It's when Satan's henchmen are draping this ginormous chain on Scrooge he wakes up, safe in his bed, his heart changed and he's all eager to be a great man for the remainder of his days...
Ya'll gettin in the Christmas spirit yet?
Just spoke to the previous owners of the house that caught fire. I knew they had owned the place for some time, but jeez, Mike and his parents moved in 1959, just after the house was built, then the family owned it until Mike took it over himself and they had it right up until about 3 years ago, when they got tired of horrible partying student tenants and sold it. Of course they were shocked and saddened to hear it caught fire... Was good to talk to them, they are really great people.
No word on what will become of the place.
I always feel I need to explain it whenever I write about my 'neighbors', I have my neighbors that live in the front of the house we rent and then I have THE neighbors whom are those around me.
That being said, THE neighbors house caught fire today, in case you didn't know and well, it was chaos, as all emergencies like these are.. Still vibrating with adrenaline.
The students who rent the place were not home and that was luck on their part.. Anyhow, watch the video it has a full and detailed explanation as only I can.
Here's an 'After' picture...
Um don't ask me why I don't video while the action is going on and actually capture the 'action' lol... It took me multiple car crashes at the house in Burnaby before I actually remembered a camera and to video it... But I guess it's better I'm not thinking of grabbing my cam, because i'm thinking about the safety of my neighbors and those around me.
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December 8-9th 2018: There's a launch tonight just after midnight for us. A Delta IV Heavy Lift rocket is taking a 'mysterious' cargo to orbit .... Some friends and I have been looking at photo's and whatever they are putting up there is no 'little' satellite..
I mean, lookit this photo, look at the bottom left hand corner and how tiny the people are compared to this 'capsule'. Given some room for boosters on whatever the satellite is the remaining area is still pretty huge... Something big is going up...
Somewhere in my head I did know that John Garcia, former singer of KYUSS, Unida, Slo Burn and Vista Chino has a new album coming out in January.
I know I say this a lot, but... If you know me, you know I'm a HUGE KYUSS fan... At my instances for most of the time that The Wasteland Zombies were together we played KYUSS' 'Green Machine' at the end of just about every show we played.. Except towards the end here as we wanted to close with our new original, one I'm so very proud and fond of 'Anubis Rising'... Yet I digress... John Garcia was another major influence for me, along with Mike Patton - Faith No More and Bruce Dickinson - Iron Maiden.
Garcia's got a great gritty vocal that's easily recognized when you hear it and it blends in with the 'Stoner/Desert Rock' sound so well, like rum & Coke.
I had heard the first and second singles some time ago as Blabbermouth has been posting them in news articles as they've been released. The first single was recorded with The Doors Robby Kreiger and the second single 'Chicken Wing' was a quirky groovy song.
Then today, just checking in on Blabber... BAM there it was another single, but I was super blown away with it. The first two totally convinced me I was going to buy the album when it comes out on January 9th on Napalm Records... Which is where I'll be pre-ordering it from in the not too distant future. I may even splurge for some kind of courier.. Because though the mail is flowing now, it's still severely backed up,,, Holy shit! Did you know that UPS charges $25. to mail... a Christmas card??? I get they are a specialized service, but that card better be AT it's destination when I walk out the door after paying them... I had called, because I wasn't sure, for some reason i thought they and UPS were in league somehow... Maybe that's Puralator.. Anyhow, I had some cards to mail and it was actually a surprise, it was warmer than forecast outside, so I went for a walk until I found a fucking mail box!!
I mean I know I can mail them from Shoppers downtown or Superstore, but it's a long walk, long than I wanted to go today and I found one outside of government building not too far from me...
Holy shit! That was a tanget!
Check out 'Jim's Whisker's' by John Garcia & The Band of Gold
I've been watching it over and over! I love that my favorite musicians are STILL putting out entrancing, kick ass music this much later in their careers.
So this morning, I'm, I dunno, getting ready, to get ready to go do some errands and as I'm walking in the kitchen, my eye catches the window on my front door and outside of it, 'Weird', I thought, 'That looked like squirrel color 'gray''....
I walk over to the door and see this:
Fucking tree rat! OK, I know from having owned a dog and cats, been around pets and have watched animals all my life, they are a LOT smarter than people give them credit, they are, sure yes, there's dumbass dogs, not so much cats, I've met some crazy cats, but not really ever a stupid one... Anyhow, these rodents, the squirrels, watched me all Summer and learned, not through me taking the patience I did with 6 chipmunks to get them to accept me and come to me for food... No, the squirrels, they jumped through that hoop and went right for the "Here I am, give me fuckin food asshole"... and one has the gaul to insult our species by walking on it's hind legs like a fucking monkey!
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If ya don't know, Dollarama has pop like Pepsi, cheap and I do use the place to buy things like lint rollers, garbage bags, you know, things that'll fall apart easy ad you throw out right away, because that's what they sell... Things that'll fall apart easy...
The other week, all of a sudden the wire baskets are gone and they just have the shopping carts with a great big long pole sticking up straight up out of it...
I've never wanted to steer one of those carts with that damn pole on it.. Looks like you're going into a jousting competition or something...
So today, I lamented to a worker, that said I was purposely trying to mow down a security guard from the mall (Furthest thing from my mind, I was looking for Cap'n Crunch), but I told her. "This sucks... Stupid carts". And she said, "Look, write to the office, I hear they are good at listening to their customers, give it a try because you're not the only person who wants them back" and she would give me no reason for why they took them, she didn't know she said.
Maybe people are stealing them? I dunno, they are a lot more convenient than the shopping carts with the jousting pole or the green bin with wheels, which even the healthiest old person would probably have a hard time trying to dig say a couple of small items out of the bottom of the thing..
So I'm going to write to the Dollarama HQ and ask for our baskets back! Are you with me?
I SAID, ARE YOU WITH ME?????
Save our baskets! Write to: Damn it, there's no 'email' address.... So go here and write them! http://www.dollarama.com/about_us/contact-us/ Also, I suggest people go down to the store with placards and chant: 'What do we want! OUR BASKETS BACK! When do we want them: NOW!' (But let me know ahead of time so I can sneak down and video you, because that'd be pretty funny!)
Phantom Lord
Metallica
Sound is ripping through your ears
The deafening sound of metal nears
Your bodies waiting for his whips
The taste of leather on your lips
Hear the cry of war louder than before
With his sword in hand to control the land
Crushing metal strikes on this frightening night
Fall onto your knees for the phantom lord
Victims falling under chains you hear them crying death pains
The fists of terrors breaking through now there's nothing you can do
Hear the cry of war louder than before
With his sword in hand to control the land
Crushing metal strikes on this frightening night
Fall onto your knees for the phantom lord
The leather armies have prevailed the phantom lord has never failed
Smoke is lifting from the ground the rising volume metal sound
Hear the cry of war louder than before
With his sword in hand to control the land
Crushing metal strikes on this frightening night
Fall onto your knees for the phantom lord
Fall to your knees
And bow to the phantom lord
Songwriters: Dave Mustaine / James Alan Hetfield / Lars Ulrich
So couple of celestial 'events' going on. There's a 'green' comet that should be visible in the evening sky. Just after Sunset, look to the East lol.. There you MIGHT be able to see with the nekid eye a 'greenish' hued comet, this is 46P/Wirtanen and it's been making it's way through our inner solar system.
It's closest approach is mid December and already it's 'hue', the glow around it, is almost as big as the full Moon looks to us... NOT to say it's as visible as the full Moon, just it's glow around it is big.
According to USA Today:
"Wirtanen’s closest approach to the sun will be Wednesday, Dec. 12, and its closest approach to Earth will be Sunday, Dec. 16, EarthSky said. On that day, the comet will be "only" 7.1 million miles from Earth, which is rather close in cosmic terms. (The sun, for instance, is about 93 million miles away.)
The comet should be visible with the naked eye, but the best views will probably be through binoculars and small telescopes, especially away from city lights. "Be sure to seek out dark skies in your quest for Comet 46P Wirtanen," said David Dickenson of Universe Today.
One nuisance will be brightness from the increasingly full moon next week.
The comet and its coma (the fuzzy-looking area around the comet) will be rather large – two to three times the diameter of the moon, Sky & Telescope reported."
A photo of 46P and it's glow compared to the Moon.
Photo credit: spaceweather.com
|I'm usually up each morning around 5am to 6am and this morning this super bright object in the Eastern sky caught my eye!
No it didn't make me cry or want to eat an apple pie!
It did however make me wonder what I was looking at... It didn't have Mars' color.. So I figured was Venus and pin an award on my chest, because I guess right! I mean it couldn't be too many other things...
Super brilliantly bright! You won't miss it, it'll be the brightest thing in the East until the Sun creeps over the horizon and don't state at the Sun....
So I took a lil vid and also two pix.
Venus at 6:03AM AST
Venus & light flares at 6:05am AST - And don't you mind about the 'UFOs' in this photo!
I dunno about other people... But some videos or films in front of HUGE audiences gives my tummy butterflies, my heart swells with emotion, I seem to empathize with the musicians, the thought of being front of so many people, your fans, overwhelms me with emotion.... One of the first times I really felt this was when I saw Metallica playing in front of 100's of thousands of people (to rumor has it close to a million people)... The immense and intense energy is palpable.... Blows my mind....
Metallica... 1991... Moscow....
Harvester of Sorrow
Metallica
[Verse 1]
My life suffocates
Planting seeds of hate
I've loved, turned to hate
Trapped far beyond my fate
I give, you take
This life that I forsake
Been cheated of my youth
You've turned this lie to truth
[Chorus]
Anger, misery
You'll suffer unto me
Harvester of sorrow (language of the mad)
Harvester of sorrow
[Verse 2]
Pure black looking clear
My work is done soon here
Try getting back to me
Get back which used to be
Drink up, shoot in
Let the beatings begin
Distributor of pain
Your loss becomes my gain
[Chorus]
Anger, misery
You'll suffer unto me
Harvester of sorrow (language of the mad)
Harvester of sorrow
[Verse 3]
All have said their prayers
Invade their nightmares
To see into my eyes
You'll find where murder lies
Infanticide
[Outro]
Harvester of sorrow (language of the mad)
Harvester of sorrow (language of the mad)
Harvester of sorrow
Harvester of sorrow
Harvester of sorrow
Harvester of sorrow
Harvester of sorrow
Harvester of sorrow
Copyright (c) 1988 – Metallica Written by: Hetfield & Ulrich
Leave it to Elsa to try and ruin a good thing. Scott & Andrea were kind enough to give us the auto-litter box and last night I go down to check on it and to make sure she's actually using it... And I find the mat that's affixed to the ramp up to the litter tray is flipped over.... So I fix that and then today I check on it again (because once she's figured out how to fuck with it once...).. And she had the mat flipped over AND the lid that covers where the 'droppings' receptacle is flipped up.... WHY??? lol... Damn cat!
Dr's appointment went well... I'm taking a low dose of Methotrexate and when I saw my rheumatologist last he said he was going to add Arava to the mix, along with what my dermatologist (who's prescribed the methotrexate)... So, at the dermatologist, I tell her about Ecker's 'addition' to the mix, the Arava and... She doesn't know a thing about and doesn't even prescribe Arava... She said "Dr. Ecker prescribe that".... So I'm pretty confused at this point, as Ecker gave me no prescription for anything when I left his office... His last words were, "Call us in 6 months and Happy Holidays".. Which is surprising because I didn't think the word "Happy" was in that man's vocabulary... Maybe he got whacked on the head lately or something...
So I called Ecker's and left a message... Good thing my bloodwork is going to all these doctors and they are all coordinating together...
After that appointment I went up to 'Brilliant Glass' to exchange my dry vape mouth piece.
This exchange went ok.. The young man 'managing' the store seemed a bit.... pissy to see me... I had been in before just after I bought the vape with a small issue and he seemed a bit perturbed then... Anyhow, so I sez, 'Logan at the Northside store said that you guys would exchange this for me'...
he kinda looks at me, looks at the mouth piece.... "I don't know what I'm supposed to do here".... So, I sez, 'Well Logan said this has been an ongoing issue with the I-Shred and that you'd exchange the piece for me, he said other's have had to do this too"..... So he looks at me again, then turns and walks to the back of the store where the dry vapes are, takes one out of the display case and takes the mouth piece off of it come back up front to me and says, "Don't run the vape too hot, it expands the cap and causes this"... So, as kinda rude and a bit smug as this guy was, I was and am thankful they did make this replacement. I ain't asking much, it's cool they did it and I thanked the guys again when I left the store...
I'm not going to 'rotate' the mouth piece, even though it's advertised that one can do so and it's made to do so. I really like the vape and aside from that issue it's worked well.
I've said before, I'm a big The Punisher fan (not of the current TV series)... As a kid, brought up on the savagery of Conan the Barbarian and Blade Runner... The regular Marvel comics just seemed a bit bland to me (and to many others, which is why Todd McFarlane did us all the favor of creating Image and all of his ultra violent characters because Marvel was a "family" company... No one 'died' in Marvel comics (not that i wanted to see people killed) and they were not very violent... Then came 'The Punisher'... A man hellbent on death of all criminals, but mostly those involved in the underground gangs and mafias... Drug pushers and violent thugs.. Frank Castle AKA The Punisher took them all out... and I don't mean 'out' for dinner... Around 1987/'88 I found The Punisher comics and was hooked... Due to smoking some hashish laced with angel dust, which was NOT what we paid for... After having a very very bad trip. I wouldn't touch 'drugs' again until 1994. My Brother did some 'punishing' of his own, tracking down the scumbag who sold us the hash laced with dust and gave him a little tuning.... Because of my anti-drug stance, the Punisher became even more heroic for me... So in 1988 when I got my first tattoo The Punisher was it...
This was the image used for my tattoo done by Dave Long at Skinetic Tattoo studios, which used to be on the Restigouche rd in Oromocto, New Brunswick...
It's much faded now and has this 'cut' in it where Peter Gillies closed a door on me while I was following him and the coat hook... hook, actually cut into my arm!
in 1989, "The Punisher" movie came out with Dolph Lundgren....The big Russian dude in Rocky 4.
It was HORRIBLE. In fact I don't recall it even having the 'Punisher skull emblem on his chest... I mean THAT's what makes him The Punisher!! He's just some crazy jackass in swat gear shooting criminals in the face for revenge of the death by the mob of his wife and children because they witnessed a mob hit..... It's like making a Superman movie and Christopher Reeves suit doesn't have the 'S' on the chest.... I felt like crap.. I mean, the tattoo isn't huge, so the face detail isn't altogether clear... But I just felt, 'Fucking great! Now every time someone see's it they'll associate it with that crap fucking movie...'
It never came up that I can remember.... Fast forward to 2004.... Thomas Jane becomes 'The Punisher'... This wasn't too bad of a movie, pretty violent.. OH, somehow they got John Travolta to play the lead villain role.. I dunno if this one made me feel better about people associating the tattoo with any of the movies.... But then in 2008, Ray Stevenson, you might have seen him as Volstagg in the 'Thor' movies, he took on 'The Punisher' and this one I think nailed it... Some of the acting is a bit stiff, but overall, it's uber violent, Stevenson has the best comic to reality 'look' of the Punisher yet, he's massive, looks mean and with the training he got he pulls off an angry tired Frank Castle.
I've got a few Punisher comics left over these days, including a crazy cross-over comic of 'Archie Meets The Punisher'.
Pretty funny stuff.
Ahhh man, December! Fuck.. Christmas shopping.... ugh Christmas music... Although I'm good at blocking shit out with the entertainment constantly unfolding in my head...
These things are sooo fuckin addictive!! Mu....st... sto...p... eating.... Sour Patch kids
