Cats..... Plus: Fire & Ice - Some more music to check out!

I get a snack ready and have a cup of milk and since Elsa usually will hop up on me and want some and I always give, so I fill the cup and set it down beside her... Does she drink it? Nope... Nice cold glass of milk.... She's hotter than hades... So I go and sit down, set the cup down on my stand and she of course hops up and wants some now that she's seen me having it.

Speaking of cats, I was lucky to run into one of the three cats that live at a house at the very end of Aberdeen street. Don't know their names, but the gray and white long haired one wasn't too hot to come greet me today. I think if cats know you respect them, they'll come to you. Almost every cat that friends have that say, "Oh she won't come to you, she doesn't like people", usually come right to me.
I got my respect for cats as a teen when I read a story by H.P. Lovecraft. The story, called 'The Cats Of Ulthar' is a great short tale.
It's about this ancient town and one day some mysterious strangers show up, in colorful wagons, painted with all kinds of odd and mystical symbols. The strangers arrive and make camp with their wagons.
Among the strangers is a child and the child spend his days playing and toying around with a playful kitten.
Now in this town, there lived in an overgrown property with a dilapidated house an elderly couple who despised the locals as much as the locals despised them... This crotchety old couple had been known around town to kill any pet that might wander aimlessly, innocently onto their property, but since they were such mean people, none of the townsfolk ever tried to stand up to them for this horrible act.
Night came and in the morning, when the town woke up, they were greeted by the strangers, who were very angry. That night, the boy had gone to bed and in the morning his kitten was gone. The strangers had looked all morning for the kitten and it was not found. The towns people were to blame the strangers said and then a robbed stranger came forth and uttered some words aloud as he waved his hands about, the clouds took to weird formations and the World grew dark... Then, in a flash, the strangers, the boy and the colorful wagons with weird and mystical symbols were gone.

That evening as the town prepared for sleep, no one could find their cats, they'd all disappeared, the small and large, all gone! The townsfolk figured this must be a curse that the strangers had cast upon the town as revenge for the young boy who was so distraught at the loss of his pet and companion....
And as for that kitten, many folk suspected that the young kitten had got out that evening and wandered into the yard of those mean and ignorant folk that were known to kill people's pets that wandered into their yard.

That night, under a full Moon, the town slept.....

In the morning, everyone was astonished to see that all of their cats had returned, but there was something odd, the cats were lazy and fat and had the look of a full meal upon them.... It was a mystery of how they vanished and then returned...

A few townsfolk had come forward to say that that night, after the strangers left, they could have sworn they saw a huge furry gang of felines sitting around the old decrepit folks home..

Keeping an eye on the place all day, they were surprised to see no signs of life in the house of the old spiteful ones... By the next day, still no movement, no sign of life, not even the night before were there any candles seen lit in the place... So some of the stronger men, gathering their courage for once... Went to call upon the old mean folk... They pounded on the door, no reply, they rapped again and again, checked the door and it came ajar... So they ventured in, cautiously... But no living soul was to be found, but in the center of the house, near the hearth they found the bones of the old couple... cleaned to the bone, not an ounce of flesh remained and they then knew why the towns cats had disappeared and then returned looking so fat and content....

That's pretty much the end and it's a 'Reader's Digest' condensed version I give here. For the full story, check out H.P. Lovecraft's 'The Cats of Ulthar'...

Man, I had the end of this blog post all ready in my mind. I had been listening on my walk to GWAR's 'Nitro Burning Funny Bong' and I had always thought that the song was a parody of an old '70's/'80's kids toy commercial for the 'Nitro Burning Funny Cars', I thought for sure they were the bigger toys that had like a 'rip-cord' that you slid through a bunch of gears, then when you 'ripped' it out the car would take off powered by that zipper system... But I put in Google, 'Nitro burning funny car commercial and got nothing, so I tried, Nitro funny cars, toys, Mattel... and still nothing.. Was it all a dream???

 Nitro Burning Funny Bong

Gwar

[Verse 1]

Ah, sweet youth

The joys of becoming a teenage prostitute

Or, in my case, a blood-crazed gladiator

'Til I got stuck on this planet and got hooked on the weed

And the crack and the booze and the pills and the speed

And the sex and the mud and the blood and the shit

Let's all go and hit

[Chorus]

I'm talkin' 'bout the

Nitro-burnin' funny bong

Just one hit, your life goes wrong

Nitro-burnin' funny bong

Another stupid stoner song

[Verse 2]

Fat and lame

The claws have been clipped and the tiger's been tamed

By a bong and a schlong

Yes, now we have all seen how games can go wrong

Now my brain's filled with bees, my cock is diseased

Laden with pus, it hangs well past my knees

A swarm of narcotics could get me through this

My manager's gonna be pissed

[Chorus]

I'm talkin' 'bout the

Nitro-burnin' funny bong

Nitro-burnin' funny bong

Nitro-burnin' funny bong

Nitro-burnin' funny bong

Ohhh

Can you take it?

Ohhh

Do a monster

Ohhh

Can you feel it?

We won't respect you unless you get high with the boys

[Verse 3]

Now I'm old

Strapped in my cell as I cultivate mold

In the twilight of my years, I am still a drug addict

I'm sucking all night long on a ten foot bong

Moistened with lotion, wrapped in a sarong

You know I live like a king, but I act like a maggot

You know

Once was a warrior, now just a sponge

High all the time, I got a dick like a muskellunge

My glorious destiny, it turned to shit

Can I get another hit?

[Chorus]

Nitro-burnin' funny bong

Nitro-burnin' funny bong

Nitro-burnin' funny bong

Nitro-burnin' funny bong

Ohhh

Can you take it?

Ohhh

Do a monster

Ohhh

Can you feel it?

We won't respect you unless you get high with the

Nitro-burnin' funny bong

Nitro-burnin' funny bong

Nitro-burnin' funny bong

Nitro-burnin' funny bong

(Nitro-burnin' funny bong

Nitro-burnin' funny bong

Nitro-burnin' funny bong

Nitro-burnin' funny bong)

Ohhh

Can you take it?

Ohhh

Do a monster hit

Copyright GWAR The Orchard Music (on behalf of Metal Blade Records); CMRRA, and 2 Music Rights Societies - 1999

For those sweatin' it out in the heat, here's a nice 'frosty' song from 'High On Fire'

Frost Hammer

High On Fire

Dream being thrown down aloft between from the icy sky

Careful what to seek for inside the frozen mind

Permaglaze reflects this world distant to the thawed life

Frost clan blows the war horn without a fear or guise

Messiah of the glacian heir cold born to rise

Sullen boots impact upon deep the tundra ice

Glorify your greatness, sealed deal cold compromise

Catch the sun to melt these forborne galactic eyes

Plateau of Leng

Winter in veins Hammers arise

To melt through the ice

Dream being thrown down aloft from the icy sky

Careful what to seek for inside the frozen mind

Permaglaze reflects this world distant to the thawed life

Frost clan blows the war horn without a fear or guise

Messiah of the glacian heir cold born to rise

Sullen boots impact upon deep the tundra ice

Glorify your greatness, sealed deal cold compromise

Catch the sun to melt these forborne galactic eyes

Plateau of Leng

Winter in veins

Hammers arise

To melt through the ice

Sail the seas of endless night

Despotic warlord casts his blight

Sons of the north abide

Frost child of abhorrent line

Feed the serpent, drink the wine

Granite heart, unrepentant

Frost hammer

Frost hammer

Frost hammer

Frost hammer

Plateau of Leng

Winter in veins

Hammers arise

To melt through the ice

Frost hammer

Copyright High On Fire 2010 - Koch Entertainment, SME (on behalf of E1 Music); UBEM, ole (Publishing), ASCAP, and 1 Music Rights Societies

HA!~ Check this out! 'Buddy' the chipmunk begging for food.

So I'm getting ready to head out when I hear the distinct sounds of a chipmunk 'chirping' and it sounds like it's coming from right outside my big picture window in my living room, so I go over and lo and behold, there's the little chipmunk who's been taking peanuts from my hand... Does it smell me? Can it hear me? How the heck does it know that I'm 'inside' that window??? Somehow it does....

War Of The Religious Cults!

While out for my walk this evening, As I approached the gallery on the Green, I usually cross at the cross-walk on Queen just before the 'Haunted Hike' office.... I noticed two ladies crossing the street. by their long hair and skirts I assumed that they were pentecostals, but I saw them approach a random dude and begin conversation with him... The freaking 'morons'.. I mean mormons!! Only they'd approach random people for conversations in public.. I mean, sure people say a polite "Hello" or "great evening!" Or "What the fuck are you looking at???"....
I made it clear by throwing them two young ladies the 'devil horns' that I was in no mood for chat about what the mythical 'lord' can do for me...

Then as I approached the cross-walk, the man and woman who have been haunting the Green, the jehovah witness couple were coming right at me, I slipped off a headphone and said to them as I walked by, 'Looks like you'll be working with the mormons tonight!'... To which the man gave a scowl at me and the woman actually burst out laughing... I almost wanted to stick around to see if they'd get into a fight, a real physical altercation! Fists flyin' for jesus! Freakin idiots...

It's because of religions like these cults and the 'Mother's' of all cults, christianity and the other two... that wars have broke out for millennia.....  People in these cults argue that without their belief systems there's no reason for morality, which is about the most stupid argument out there... You're even more pathetic if you can't discern wrong from right....


There's another 'heat wave' going on. With a brief respite over the weekend, the temps in the next few days, today included will and have hit into the high '30's. with the humidity. So drink loads of water, not beer or juice, coffee or tea... Water or if you're a bit dehydrated a sport drink, and I'm not saying 'energy drink'.. I'm talking about just water with some flavor and minerals in it. Stay hydrated!
And if ya can't stand the heat... Get out of the Sun!

It is noticeable over past Summers that it is getting hotter for longer and more frequently. We used to just have a few steamy hot days in July, a few in August.. The past is done and change is here... The Earth, with the help of us huemahns are punishing us and I think it looks good on us. Massive fires, flooding, quakes, typhoons.... We're all a part of it, it's our bed and we'll have to sleep in it...

Good job huemahnity....

We're on 'The Brink of Extinction'

On The Brink Of Extinction

Napalm Death

Born between chaos and hatred - a lottery of fate

We sit on the brink of extinction

The world lies in wait

Just a scratch on the surface

Of time that will wash away

We delude ourselves with the notion

That we are here to stay

As life starts to shrink

An impending state of neurosis

Will we awake from this negligent narcosis?

On the brink, the brink of extinction

We're on the brink, the brink of extinction

Locked together in a mindless campaign

It's only now we see

Appreciation is the one redemption

For all that lives and breathes

Like a virus it's conscious - impure

We have farmed disease

It's time now to step back

And find an inner peace

As life starts to shrink

An impending state of neurosis

Will we awake from this negligent narcosis?

Composition by Shane Embury Barney Greenway 2009

Surprise||!

Had a great dinner with my Brother Gordy and his fiances family. I swear, no family does 'surprise' gigs like this bunch... Even the kids had NO clue at all they were going to Cuba until we got to the airport in March.. or April, when the Hell did we go to |Cuba? ... Anyhow, they are good.

So Crystal's Ma was up here in Fredericton at Crystal's Sister's place, and they had no idea that Her Father, Brother and his wife were coming up and we all met at the Chinese buffet on the North Side.

Crystal's sister and her boyfriend, while out earlier with their Mom had said, "Oh shoot, we forgot to take something out for supper, so guess we'll have to eat out tonight!"... And thus they made their way to the buffet where we were all waiting, balloons and cheers.
Fun to be part of this. Out West, while I did some things and I regret it now, of course as we always do, should have done more with my Aunt and Uncle there. And every once in a while Mike would have me over for stuff, but most holidays I was alone, I know, the smallest violin in the World is playing for me right now... But yeah, when ya get older, being alone on holidays ain't so grand ya know... When I was young, fit and able, I worked through every holiday I could, good and great money...
This was why I moved back. Was to spend time with family and I've done a lot of that and I'm happier for it.
I do miss my friends out West. Today is Jay Wysocki's birthday and we spent a lot of birthdays together, lol, though we didn't know we were both in Vancouver until the dawning of FB...

Well, we got deeked out for storms. I knew it wouldn't happen.. They rarely come through here now. Don't know if the wind has changed or what... Pisses me off!

I did however see some astounding clouds on the way home. It was/is storming North West of here.
Huge anvil head clouds and dark, beautiful billowing clouds.

Check this out.. My crappy homemade 'panorama' shot:

And this one I outlined this ginormous cloud.. I love the sheer magnitude of clouds sometimes. They are awesome structures that can bring soothing rains or deadly tornado's or hurricanes...

Clouds RULE!

So does Queen!

Hammer To Fall

Queen

Yeah

Here we stand or here we fall

History won't care at all

Make the bed, light the light

Lady Mercy won't be home tonight

You don't waste no time at all

Don't hear the bell but you answer the call

It comes to you as to us all

Yeah, we're just waiting for the hammer to fall, yeah

Oh every night, and every day

A little piece of you is falling away

But lift your face the Western way

Build your muscles as your body decays, yeah

Tow the line and play their game

Yeah, let the anesthetic cover it all

'Til one day they call your name

You know it's time for the hammer to fall

Rich or poor or famous 

For your truth it's all the same

(Oh no, oh no)

Oh, lock your door but rain is pouring

Through your window pane

(Oh no)

Hey yeah, baby, now your struggle's all in vain, yeah

For who grew up tall and proud

In the shadow of the Mushroom Cloud

Convinced our voices can't be heard

We just wanna scream it louder and louder and louder

What the hell are we fighting for?

Ah, just surrender and it won't hurt at all

You just got time to say your prayers

Yeah, while you're waiting for the hammer to, hammer to fall

Hey, yes

Let's get on the floor, yeah

Hammer

You know

Hammer to fall

Yeah

Hey, woo hoo

Ha ha, ha ha

I've been waiting for the hammer to fall

Give it to me one more time

Songwriters: Brian May

Hammer To Fall lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

'No Way Back From Here.....'

"Please to meet you take my hand... There's no way back from here"

We Like the Moon:

Hilarious that these animators were approached by 'Quiznos' and did a few ads with these weird fucking critters... Ahh the internet, stardom can be an inch away...

Now, an important message on Self Defense!

Have a great Saturday everyone! Fredericton locals, watch out for thunderstorms this afternoon and evening!

Just a Minor Sandstorm

Mars is currently, enveloped

(nasa.com) - - Storm chasing takes luck and patience on Earth -- and even more so on Mars.

For scientists watching the Red Planet from data gathered by NASA's orbiters, the past month has been a windfall. "Global" dust storms, where a runaway series of storms creates a dust cloud so large it envelops the planet, only appear every six to eight years (that's three to four Mars years). Scientists still don't understand why or how exactly these storms form and evolve.

In June, one of these dust events rapidly engulfed the planet. Scientists first observed a smaller-scale dust storm on May 30. By June 20, it had gone global.

For the Opportunity rover, that meant a sudden drop in visibility from a clear, sunny day to that of an overcast one. Because Opportunity runs on solar energy, scientists had to suspend science activities to preserve the rover's batteries. As of July 18th, no response has been received from the rover.

Luckily, all that dust acts as an atmospheric insulator, keeping nighttime temperatures from dropping down to lower than what Opportunity can handle. But the nearly 15-year-old rover isn't out of the woods yet: it could take weeks, or even months, for the dust to start settling. Based on the longevity of a 2001 global storm, NASA scientists estimate it may be early September before the haze has cleared enough for Opportunity to power up and call home.

When the skies begin to clear, Opportunity's solar panels may be covered by a fine film of dust. That could delay a recovery of the rover as it gathers energy to recharge its batteries. A gust of wind would help, but isn't a requirement for a full recovery.

While the Opportunity team waits in earnest to hear from the rover, scientists on other Mars missions have gotten a rare chance to study this head-scratching phenomenon.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Mars Odyssey, and Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) orbiters are all tailoring their observations of the Red Planet to study this global storm and learn more about Mars' weather patterns. Meanwhile, the Curiosity rover is studying the dust storm from the Martian surface.

Source: https://mars.nasa.gov/news/8354/storm-chasers-on-mars-searching-for-dusty-secrets/

Now I beleive, and as far as |I trust NASA's imagery, that there are them there rovers on Mars. But like 'flatearthers', there are people who do not believe there are rovers there, much less ANY probe in our solar system, nor has there been any... I don'\t subscribe to such lunacy (Ha! Lune-acy!)

So people who do NOT believe in the rovers having landed on Mars always have these "proofs", like there's a photo, totally out of context that's like a 'shadow' of the rover and people say that it shows a technician working on the rover. They believe the rovers are right here on Earth in a desert somewhere and then the photo's are all touched up to make it look like they are on Mars.

So, an actual mystery on Mars is that in photos NASA takes to check out the condition of the rovers NASA scientists were shocked to see that the solar panels, which only days before had quite a bit of sand on them, are now, wiped clean!!
it took them a bit, but they now know there is wind on Mars, it does have a thin atmosphere, so these winds, which can obviously whip up a global sandstorm, in some places create dustdevils. So NASA believes that these dustdevils are what inadvertently keeps the solar panels pretty dust free and thus helping to give the rovers the longevity they've enjoyed.

So, given this global sandstorm. even I was wondering, how the hell is this rover going to come out of this? I mean, isn't it gonna be buried? Do they just 'rev 'er up' and dry to shake off all the Martian sand?  Has this happened before? What did they do then? Why does Elsa speak in tongues at me?

This is currently the 'atmospheric opacity' or how well you can see on Mars currently:

That ain't tooo good ya know...

But they are the 'Little Rovers That Could' so hopefully we'll get some more years out of them anyhow.
There are new rovers headed to Mars shortly and in a few years I believe the UK has another rover heading to Mars. Hopefully this one lands correctly as the last one more or less splattered itself on the Martian surface instead of landing.

On my nightly walks, I usually cut across the front of the Legislature building.. It kinda gives me pride to know I've done some pretty crazy shit in there.
When I worked for Modern Building Cleaning, because I was young and rarin' to go to work, they'd get me to do all kindsa odd jobs, from washing all the indoor windows in Carleton place to stripping the wax off the floor of the Christ Church Cathedral (I looked like I had been working in an abattoir because the tile was this ceramic and it mixed with the chemical to strip the wax and turned blood red, my co-worker and I were covered in head to toe with this stuff, we wore full, like painter suits)..

At the Legislature another worker, who's name was Billy, we had the task of swapping out the dead lightbulbs, fluorescent tubes for fresh ones. In the massive rooms, they all have massive chandeliers.

So yeah, we had to clean and change the lightbulbs on these puppies

So it meant being on pretty much the top rung of 30ft ladders.

But the BIG job was the main hallways huge chandelier, that hung some 70ft up from the floor and of course I cannot find a picture of the damn room or chandelier!

Now the hallway that this light hangs in is quite something. This photo below, you see a rail around a hole in the floor. When you stand at this rail, and look downwards, there is the New Brunswick coat of arms on the floor in the main room, and as you walk around it, it kinda is like an optical illusions.. Of course there not a photo I could find of the damn thing... Anyhow, the story revolves around this rail and upwards...

So, when standing at the rail and looking straight up, some 40 ft in the air from here is a massive chandelier AND the only way to get at those lightbulbs, at least at that time (circa 1992/'93) was to put a fucking ladder on those rails and then climb said ladder to the bulbs...
When I heard this plan, I was thinking in my head like, 'No fucking way....'
Our boss Randy, Billy and I, strapped down a couple of planks across that oval, then a 30ft ladder was put on it... Now, we didn't even draw straws and Billy was about as tall as I am, maaaybe even a fraction of an inch shorter, but there was NO way on earth I was going up on that contraption... With the ladder being on the rails and Billy being on the top step, the 'THIS IS NOT A STEP" step... on his tiptoes, could just get the lightbulbs out...

My job became pretty neat. I got to go up the back stairwell, which is closed to public and go all the way up it's winding steps into the very top of the Legislature.

So, at the top of this winding stairwell, there was a trap door, I popped that open and I was at the top of the building, THE very top.. Amazing view, lots of graffiti... I didn't have a pen or pencil to add my name.. In the center of this octagonal room, there was a trap door in the floor, opening this, I was looking straight down at Billy on top of the ladder, below the chandelier... And it was straight down from there....
So I would lower a bucket to Billy and he'd put in some of the fixture to clean and any burnt lightbulbs... Certainly I had the safer of the jobs.
Even my Dad's proud of me for this story as there are few people, I'm the only one he knows, that have been up there.
Like I said before, working in Janitorial, at least for me, was one of the best jobs I ever had. I've never worked directly for the public, like no store front cash or restaurant... Janitorial for the most part, I was on my own  and MOST of co-workers when I did have them were pretty decent.

I've stood on the rooftop of Kings Place and looked down at the drunkards stumbling about in the snow, drank beers with my bud Jim Boucher on top of the Centennial building, walked through the tunnels beneath the downtown core (Centennial and some other building downtown used to have pretty accessible entries to the tunnels, if you were inside the building and had access to the basements...
Did 12 hour shifts at the NB Power warehouse way out in Marysville and used the buildings PA system to blast Metal throughout the entire complex. Was locked in the Fredericton library for 8 hour shifts with about 4 hours of available work, so for the rest of the time, I'd go to the music section of the library and blast out tunes.
It was a fun time. wouldn't change my past for anything.

Oh, heads up Fredericton, it's already creeping in..... Found this snow on my walk tonight JULY 25th...

Tomorrow, rain, pain, feel it coming already and they are forecast, so hopefully some thunderstorms!

KEEP YOUR DOGS AWAY FROM THE WATER!!

This is horrifying! Imagine, you take your pup to cool off by the river, your dog, as usual goes for swim, looks happy, vibrant... Then three days later, it dies....

I'd keep your pets away from the SJ river AND any possible tributaries, streams, that may lead to it. Who knows where the source of whatever is killing the dogs is coming from....

I always forget ya'll are on Facebook, so this news is maybe even old news, but still.. Share it!

3 dogs die suspiciously just days apart after swimming in St. John River

(cbcnews.ca) - - Dog owners are being warned to keep their animals away from the St. John River after three dogs died immediately after visiting the water's edge over the weekend in Fredericton.

Two of the dogs died in Carleton Park on Sunday evening. Another dog died Friday at Hartt Island RV Resort, 14 kilometres west on the St. John River.

"As a pet owner, you kind of expect you outlive your pets, but you don't expect two of them [to die] in a very short period of time in the same event," said Jeff Wilhelm.

A provincial veterinarian suspects blue green algae killed the dogs, and said owners should be wary of letting their pets near any discoloured areas of the St. John River.

A walk on a hot day
Wilhelm said he and his girlfriend, Angie, took their four dogs for a walk in Carleton Park, between the boat launch and Picaroons Traditional Ales on the city's north side, on a hot Sunday evening. 

The couple, who often visit the park with their dogs, let them off leash because there was no one around. The dogs swam and played in the area for about an hour.

Two of the dogs, Sookie, a 10-year-old papillon, and Peekaboo, a 12-year-old shih-tzu, were drawn to one spot near the water, and Wilhelm said he kept shooing them away.


The couple and their dogs left the area around 7:30 p.m. and walked toward their house, about five minutes away.

But before they got there, Sookie got sick and died.

Dogs stopped breathing
"We got to the base of our street and Sookie started coughing, she fell over and then she stood up and then she was sick," Wilhelm said.

"Then she fell over again. I could see she wasn't really breathing."

Wilhelm thought she was choking, so he tried putting his fingers in her throat to see if he could remove the obstruction.

"She totally stopped breathing, so we ran home and called the vet."

The vet didn't think the dog would make it. The dog died at home.

Then the couple noticed Peekaboo was acting strange. Her eyes were rolling around and she couldn't stand up straight. 

The couple took the dog to the Douglas Animal Hospital but it was too late.

"Within one minute they were there playing on the beach and less than 10 minutes or so [Sookie] was gone,
 Wilhelm said. "And then less than half an hour after that, Peekaboo was gone."

Site contained 'nothing obvious'


Now the couple are waiting for answers from a necropsy being done this week to determine the cause of the dogs' deaths. The examination will cost about $200.

"The only avenue we had was what the vet offered," he said.

Wilhelm said he'll forward the results to the city and police, who have already visited the area where the dogs were playing and did not find anything.

"People need to know if there's something they need to be aware of," he said.

Wilhelm said he's worried for other dogs in Fredericton.

"If it would be awful for it to happen to somebody else, especially since who knows what it was?" he said. "There was nothing obvious there."

Blue green algae a possibility
Provincial veterinarian Dr. Jim Goltz said there's no definitive answer, but given the time of year, he suspects blue green algae as the cause of death.

"We're pursuing that angle as our first investigation into the potential for toxins," he said.

He said blue green algae grows in warm conditions, when water levels are low and produce different toxins that can affect the brain.

"These can kill animals within half an hour of exposure and after the toxin has been ingested," he said. 

They can also produce toxins that damage the liver.

"This usually takes longer to produce the effects," he said.

If people are walking along the river and notice a greenish discolouration in the water, Goltz said, they should keep their dogs away from that area.

"That's the kind of condition where these kinds of issues could be problematic," he said.

Instead of letting pets swim in the St. John River, he advised letting them cool off in a backyard swimming pool.

City aware of dog deaths
Jaime Watson, a spokesperson for the City of Fredericton, said the city has been made aware of the three deaths.

But she wanted people to know the drinking water in Fredericton is safe because it comes from deep wells around Wilmot Park and the Queen's Square.

"Once treated it is then distributed to our customers throughout the city. As an extra precaution, the treated water has a chlorine residual to protect against any contaminants which it could encounter in the distribution system."

Watson said the city was told the Department of Health is looking into the matter involving the dogs.

"Any advisories or signage, if required, come from the province but in the meantime we have asked the public to use caution and their own discretion with their pets around the river," she said.

Full Article: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/dead-dogs-fredericton-park-1.4760765

Hmmm.... Surrey & Vancouver Transit Have Signed Up...

 Surrey & Vancouver Transit have signed up to my YouTube™ account....

This is odd and it led me to think, There's only one reason they'd have signed up to my YouTube™ account and that my friends is due to the 'Incident'....

So, it was January 8th 2011 and I was in my room at the house I was renting in Burnaby, British Columbia, and, as I had heard many times before, the distinct sounds of a vehicle crash at the intersection, just meters from my doorstep. In fact, there was a bus stop practically in front of my house.
So, unlike usual, this time I grabbed my video camera. I had always thought 'safety first' and usually didn't grab the camera for all the past accidents I got out to see.

So, I walked down my front steps and well, let's let the video do the talking:

Kinda crazy eh? Like NO one was around, none of my other neighbors came out to see what had happened... Why was this bus driver laying on the floor? Did not have his seatbelt on? Then I had heard that they, whoever, lawyers, insurance companies, tried to frame the old guy for the accident, but apparently another bus, the one that the bus driver had come to where I was and 'took over the scene', had seen the bus not stop and plow into the old guy (who was for all intense and purposes, as far as I could see, shook up, but unhurt.

I think, that I did get a call about this accident. I can't remember really, because I was out there for quite a few accidents at that corner.
Several I only saw the aftermath, including, a nurse who "fell asleep" at the wheel when she got to the corner and this caused her to 'floor it' and run smack dab into the ass end of my room mates car, sending it up a car space.
Walking out one morning to go to work and heard this smash, as the bus was driving by the house and this guy at the bus stop says to me, "Did you see that?" And I said, 'No, what happened??' and the guy tells me the bus went along the side of my roomies car, taking off his mirror in the process... That one he could do nothing about because we didn't get which bus it was and some other reasons they gave him.

Then there was the night the bus drove into the basement of my neighbors house. He got my message after he came out of the movies with his girlfriend...

A block down I was waiting for a bus and a car accident happened right in front of my eyes, with the car being flung in my direction, glass and bits of car hitting me in the face and chest (they were minute fragments)....

SO, when Gord and I were out a few years back to visit my Aunt in the Burnaby hospital low and behold at some point they'd actually put in traffic lights! Brilliant.... The accident in which the car went into the neighbors place, I had pleaded with the officer to get something done and he had told me my report and calling the city would help but the accidents were stacking up.

So, wonder if that's why.. I mean, it's not like I've posted any Vancouver transit videos since after my rant about the buses taking off on disabled people.... LoL, maybe they found THAT video....

Was a soupy walk! Holy! The trail that runs parallel to University avenue was still wet from last night/this morning's rain...

The Jehovah Witness were out again, but they had snag some dubass into talking to them, so they didn't say boo to me....

Well, it can't be the most comfy place to sleep, but at least she's keeping cool.... She loves that box, it' her snack bar for treats, it's a part of our nightly fight before bed and it's a bed!

Pro Memoria

Ghost 

Lucifer, whispering

Silently into your mind

Who walks behind

Who walks behind

Standing tall, invincible

But do not forget your knives

To save your lives

To save your lives

Don't you forget about dying

Don't you forget about your friend death

Don't you forget that you will die

Don't you vomit savage slurs

Spewed up wickedly

To hide from me

To hide from me

Navigate all alone

On this tempestuous sea

To ride with me

To ride with me

Don't you forget about dying

Don't you forget about your friend death

Don't you forget that you will die

Don't you forget about dying

Don't you forget about your friend death

Don't you forget that you will die

Lucifer, whispering

Silently into your mind

Who walks behind

Who walks behind

Had you had the chance today

You would've sold out too

Ain't that right

Sweet Saint Peter?

Don't you forget about dying

Don't you forget about your friend death

Don't you forget that you will die

Don't you forget about dying

Don't you forget about your friend death

Don't you forget that you will die

Don't you forget about dying

Don't you forget about your friend death

Don't you forget that you will die

Don't you forget about dying

Don't you forget about your friend death

Don't you forget that you will die

Songwriters: Niclas Frisk / Jesse St John Geller / Sarah Hudson

Pro Memoria lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, BMG Rights Management

It's Kinda 'Soupy' Out There

HAHA! I just thought of this joke! Totally made up by me! Copyright ©2018:

What do you call an 'Acadien' roasting in this heat? A French Fry! HAha! Damn I'm so funny... Lookin'!

Now, first, let's get this straight here, I'm not complaining about the heat. I LOVE the heat, it's the humidity. It's so humid out there, "How humid is it?", it's so humid that I was dryer before I took my shower. After, I don't think I ever really dried off again.

According to the Weather Network currently it "feels like" it's 37°C out there. They've issued a "Extreme Heat Warning", probably until Wednesday evening. Tomorrow we're supposed to hit humidex values of 40°C or so.

I had felt pretty crappy all day yesterday, and I had errands to run today, so I was out. Tomorrow I have little to do so I think it'll be a day of rest inside. I've got the R2 A/C unit running now, normally I don't have it running until after supper. What's the sense of turning on A/C if the oven or stove is just going to eat that cooler air? But I got left-over steak and veggies from last night's BBQ, much thanks again to my neighbors, so the nuker won't put out to much heat while I warm that up...

Stay frosty my friends. Try to be thankful for these hot days because Winter is coming!! 

Be careful Of What You Wish For!

So, the little chipmunk has no fear. We had some more feeding encounters last evening before the lil one packed it in for the night. There's two little munks, one I've discovered isn't all that fond of me and although came quite close, had no interest in the peanuts and just took off around the front of the house.
The other bold one, today, I fed it a couple times, I'd give it one peanut, it would take it, then turn around and come back for another one, but I only had the one. So, I told it, 'That's it buddy, scurry off' and it's weird how it listens to me, my neighbors were both witness to this behavior this evening, which I'll get to... So, the little one goes away from me and I start to walk to my stairs and the little one, nut still in it's mouth... erm.... anyhow, goes right up my stairs... So I'm like, 'No no, get off there' and it 'listens' to me and goes off. I look out a little later and it's on my stoop and then goes off.

So this evening, my neighbors had a BBQ, which I always thank them profusely for, and I'm telling them about this more than brave little munk... All a sudden, the devil appears, coming right over to the picnic table and I'm like, 'No no, get out of here'... I didn't even raise my voice or make any sudden movements, but no sooner had I said it, the little bugger scoots off... My neighbor Haley said, "Jeez, it obeys you just like a little dog"....
It is a little odd, but the little rodent does seem to 'listen' to me.
Anyhow, I think it'll be smart enough to stay away from my door. Apparently the little rascals don't carry rabies or anything like that and it's 'bite' is just but a nip... It seems too young to get aggressive... But it is after all a wild rodent, so I'm trying to be as careful as I can.

I had forgot to mention that after months and months of referrals and waiting, I think it was Wednesday or maybe Thursday, just days after I saw my 'nurse/practitioner', my neighbor hands me a "confidential" letter from Doctor Eckers office. I actually have an appointment... In November lol... But at least I'll get to see a rheumatologist. Ecker and I didn't get off to a good start... He had pretty much thrown me out of his office my first visit and I marched right back in.

So I had seen him on and off for a few years, he actually did the last cortisone shots into my knees and ankles, which have lasted a good while.
I swear, in all my life of doctors, surgeons and specialists, I've never encountered a medical practitioner that has absolutely no bedside manner, doesn't seem to have an ounce of empathy. I've literally seen him tear a strip off his wife, whom I've guessed is his assistant for the sole reason that no one else will work with him or maybe he doesn't pay her.. Who knows, but he treats her like shit, much as he does his patients. I've never met another patient who's had anything good to say about him and even two doctor's I've spoken to about him have directly called him an "Asshole".... But it's my only choice other than going to SJ and that's gonna be costly.. I had thought maybe I could make it into a visit to see Gord and Crystal... But now I've got Ecker, so it's a moot point.

Hopefully this week I'll get my x-ray appointment and once i get to see Ecker, he'll get me on methotrexate and then the real 'fun' begins... Who knows, maybe I'll have a better reaction to it this time, mind you, any and every medication I've taken that's directly supposed to work at my arthritis has made me quite ill.. So it could turn out to be a really, really shitty Winter.

International Space Station Passing Over Fredericton

So yeah, this just happened. Went outside for a puff and looked up and saw this very bright object passing overhead.
At first I thought it was the 'Humanity Star', which is:
"Visible with the naked eye, the Humanity Star was a highly reflective satellite that blinked brightly across the night sky to create a shared experience for everyone on the planet.
Created by Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck, the Humanity Star was a geodesic sphere made from carbon fibre with 76 highly reflective panels. It spun rapidly, reflecting the sun’s rays back to Earth, creating a flashing light that could be seen against a backdrop of stars.
Orbiting the Earth every 90 minutes and visible from anywhere on the globe, the Humanity Star was designed to be a bright symbol and reminder to all on Earth about our fragile place in the universe."
Learn more here

But once I got inside and check the satellite tracking page, I found that Humanity Star was at that time over Pakistan... So I changed my query to the ISS and sure enough, that's what it was!

I've seen the ISS pass over a few times, but it seemed considerably more bright this evening. Maybe it was the atmosphere. Always cool to catch these moments!

Sorry 'bout the footage, my cell camera isn't the greatest, but, it did the job, as there were other 'stars' out there and the ISS is so bright the camera picked it up!

Contact!

[Updated]

OK, I can not, not write about this. The 'Duck Boat' accident in the US.

This rolling/motoring deathtrap had 33 people on board, killing 17, including 9 members of ONE family....
All I can think of, each time i go to a news site and see the headlines is, 'This company is DEAD. They are gonna be sued into the Earth, no matter what waivers, IF, any'

I mean WHY the FUCK would the operators go out? One answer... M O N E Y.... They got the 33, or maybe less if some were crew, people's money.... Albeit, many witness' say it was "calm" when that death trap went into the water, apparently there were major weather reports that a storm was coming. I mean, you look at the video they have around of  "the last seconds before disaster struck" and it's fuckin' chaos on the water. NO one in their right mind would have continued on, turn that shit trap around and get those people back to safety, run the emergency up the poll and get those guests in life jackets, I mean christ, the kids must've been frightened to ... well.... Sad, sad, I'm reading reports that the governments been saying for years these are death traps, but they were still out there.

Some figures say that 33 people have died in the last 10/20 years in those things, whether on dry land or in the water and because of those deaths, those companies died.

Pretty fucked up situation and a lot of peoples lives have just changed and again, all for the love of money....

This afternoon, while coming out of my neighbours with some laundry, one of the little chipmunks was quite close to my stairs, since yesterday, it's been getting closer and closer. Even closer than I got with Chippy, who've I've not seen since I called him a 'fat ass' the other day... Maybe he's hooked up on a Jenny Craig program or at the gym....
Anyhow, so, this little one, got super close, took a peanut I had on the ground and then I shook the other peanut that I had in hand and it came right over, cautiously, it took the peanut right from my hand! Success!
Was such a cute moment. I turned around to see that a random dude was walking past our driveway at the time this happened, he had a big grin on his face, as he must have just seen what went down.

So, once I do this a few more times, then I'll bring in the camera. I figured it would take a lot of patience and time for this sort of thing to happen. It's paid off.

One of my favorite areas of 'research' is in consciousness, the brain, neurons and how it all works. A lot of it, is beyond my brain, but I try. I still read and get the words in MY brain, in hopes I'll understand at some point.
Yesterday there was a fantastic article on Science Alert.com... The Huemahn brain can creeate structures in up to "11 dimensions".

Read on brave friends!

The Human Brain Can Create Structures in Up to 11 Dimensions
"We found a world that we had never imagined." 

SIGNE DEAN 21 APR 2018
(Sciencealert.com) - - Last year, neuroscientists used a classic branch of maths in a totally new way to peer into the structure of our brains.

What they discovered is that the brain is full of multi-dimensional geometrical structures operating in as many as 11 dimensions.

We're used to thinking of the world from a 3-D perspective, so this may sound a bit tricky, but the results of this study could be the next major step in understanding the fabric of the human brain - the most complex structure we know of.

This brain model was produced by a team of researchers from the Blue Brain Project, a Swiss research initiative devoted to building a supercomputer-powered reconstruction of the human brain.

The team used algebraic topology, a branch of mathematics used to describe the properties of objects and spaces regardless of how they change shape.

They found that groups of neurons connect into 'cliques', and that the number of neurons in a clique would lead to its size as a high-dimensional geometric object (a mathematical dimensional concept, not a space-time one).

"We found a world that we had never imagined," said lead researcher, neuroscientist Henry Markram from the EPFL institute in Switzerland.

"There are tens of millions of these objects even in a small speck of the brain, up through seven dimensions. In some networks, we even found structures with up to 11 dimensions."

Just to be clear - this isn't how you'd think of spatial dimensions (our Universe has three spatial dimensions plus one time dimension), instead it refers to how the researchers have looked at the neuron cliques to determine how connected they are.

"Networks are often analysed in terms of groups of nodes that are all-to-all connected, known as cliques. The number of neurons in a clique determines its size, or more formally, its dimension," the researchers explained in the paper.

Human brains are estimated to have a staggering 86 billion neurons, with multiple connections from each cell webbing in every possible direction, forming the vast cellular network that somehow makes us capable of thought and consciousness.

With such a huge number of connections to work with, it's no wonder we still don't have a thorough understanding of how the brain's neural network operates.

But the mathematical framework built by the team takes us one step closer to one day having a digital brain model.

To perform the mathematical tests, the team used a detailed model of the neocortex the Blue Brain Project team published back in 2015.

The neocortex is thought to be the most recently evolved part of our brains, and the one involved in some of our higher-order functions like cognition and sensory perception.

After developing their mathematical framework and testing it on some virtual stimuli, the team also confirmed their results on real brain tissue in rats.

According to the researchers, algebraic topology provides mathematical tools for discerning details of the neural network both in a close-up view at the level of individual neurons, and a grander scale of the brain structure as a whole.

By connecting these two levels, the researchers could discern high-dimensional geometric structures in the brain, formed by collections of tightly connected neurons (cliques) and the empty spaces (cavities) between them.

"We found a remarkably high number and variety of high-dimensional directed cliques and cavities, which had not been seen before in neural networks, either biological or artificial," the team wrote in the study.

"Algebraic topology is like a telescope and microscope at the same time," said one of the team, mathematician Kathryn Hess from EPFL.

"It can zoom into networks to find hidden structures, the trees in the forest, and see the empty spaces, the clearings, all at the same time."

Those clearings or cavities seem to be critically important for brain function. When researchers gave their virtual brain tissue a stimulus, they saw that neurons were reacting to it in a highly organised manner.

"It is as if the brain reacts to a stimulus by building [and] then razing a tower of multi-dimensional blocks, starting with rods (1D), then planks (2D), then cubes (3D), and then more complex geometries with 4D, 5D, etc," said one of the team, mathematician Ran Levi from Aberdeen University in Scotland.

"The progression of activity through the brain resembles a multi-dimensional sandcastle that materialises out of the sand and then disintegrates."

These findings provide a tantalising new picture of how the brain processes information, but the researchers point out that it's not yet clear what makes the cliques and cavities form in their highly specific ways.

And more work will be needed to determine how the complexity of these multi-dimensional geometric shapes formed by our neurons correlates with the complexity of various cognitive tasks.

But this is definitely not the last we'll be hearing of insights that algebraic topology can give us on this most mysterious of human organs - the brain.

The study was published in Frontiers of Computational Neuroscience.

Source

I Saved The World Yesterday!

So, I'm walking out of Sobeys on Regent yesterday, and this SUV pulls across in front of me and as it's going by, I see some smoke and think, oh, it's just exhaust', but as I walk towards the sidewalk that leads out of the parking lot, I see more smoke and it's coming from the mulch they've put down in one of the vegetation beds, I go over and it looks like someone tossed a cigar into the mulch and well it's caused, like a peat fire, the mulch has caught fire and it's burning, smoldering, if you will and spreading, I try to put it out with my foot and as I over turn the mulch, more smoke pours out... So I turn and walk into the smoke shop (Ha! 'Smoke shop... Smoke...)... The lady there asks, "Can I help you" and I turn and point out the window and say, 'Well, you got a small fire in the parking lot' and she goes "Oh dear", picks up the phone and asks for someone.. So I just say, 'Well I saw that and it looks like it's getting bigger by the second'... It really probably couldn't have harmed much as it's got a concrete barrier around it... But who knows, maybe some kid or old person mighta tripped, fallen into and got lit on fire. Old people and children burn rather quickly... I mean, not that I know from experience or anything...

So, the lady in the smoke shop thanks me and I say, 'no problemO'... I shop at this Sobeys almost exclusively and like my neighbourhood I protect my area! I mean, if I hadn't done it somehow else would have... But that's how I 'saved the World' yesterday!

President Of The International Internet Cult Of The Weird

The internet is filled with weirdness... When I die and my family goes through my computer, they are going to be like, "What the fuck????" ... Because of all the random weird photo's, memes and photoshopped junk I've created over a decade now.

I found years ago a virtual treasure trove of utter weirdness, crazy, incomprehensible whacky insane and sometimes disturbing videos.... FEAST your brain on these... Some may be familiar, some, I hope the are not.... Alot of these were originally 'Flash' animated video, which thank the Gods of Weirdness they are now on YouTube:

You all probably know this one:

Classic 'School bus' - "I want to feel your Mother's Hips"....

Hyakugojyuuichi!!! by Neil Cicierega

Gollum Rap!

Uber Internets Classic: All Your Base Are Belong To Us!

And the one, the only, the original... Radiskull & Devil Doll - Dediccated to my Stinky Leanne P

Maybe I'll make Friday's into The International Internet Cult Of The Weird videos day.....

Some weird photo's from my PC

Music & Walking

Ok, so I get on band kicks. Where I'll just listen to only one band, perhaps even just one album for like a month, usually not more. It's not always new music, but much older material.

While house sitting my bro's I watched several documentary's, The Rolling Stones 'Cross Fire Hurricane' 'It's So Easy & Other Lies which is Duff McKagan doc/auto bio and not really a documentary, but it kinda is, the Live Aid concert from 1985.
Now during that concert, every single musician and band does an outstanding job, except Led Zeppelin, in fact, they sucked so bad that THEY requested their footage not be archived or ever shown/made available again, but it got out...
But that day, Queen stole the show, Elton John even told them so. Bob Geldof said they did unequivocally.
By the time I was really intaking what was coing out of the radio, Queen were not too much of a blip on my radar. Being the early  '80's, to around '84 Pop and a bit of Rock ruled my world. Duran Duran, Nik Kershaw and ton's of the 'One Hit Wonders' of that period. I do remember heating 'Under Pressure' on the radio and since this was all AM radio as Fredericton at that time only really had CHSR to turn to and there they were not allowed to play hits, so what's now called 'Classic Rock' was played alot of course all the emerging new genres in Punk, Metal, alternative and World music.

I do remember all of us watching Live Aid in our living room and I do remember watching the Freddie Mercury Tribute concert in 1992.

I've never had the chance to see them, as it wasn't until 1994 that I moved to Vancouver and the gates opened to huge arena acts that wouldn't have come within a 1000km of Fredericton, I mean Moncton and early in my life Fredericton had them, but you'd not get like The Rolling Stones or the Who, or KISS (Although there's Fredericton stories of both KISS and Van Halen walking through the Fredericton Mall)

In Dreamkick we did play 'Tie Your Mother Down' as well as We Will Rock You' - as I mentioned last night.

So, seeing the Live Aid show put them in my head, as I've always loved 'One Vision, Radio Gaga and Hammer to Fall'... Sure Bohemian Rhapsody and Under Pressure and many others but the latter are my favorites.
These guys played Prague and made no money, expected it, because it was under communism... But just do it, as Mercury said, to conquer it and they did. Like 100,000 people. Brilliant.
So when I get into an album, I digest it and really some of my faves don't all come from the same album. But I'll consume the songs. I'll listen to it on repeat to get the vocals and lyrics then I'll listen for the guitar, bass and drums, each in their own time. I can still remember just about every Iron Maiden lick, lyric and bass line AND drums. I listened the shit outa those albums. Faith No More the same way, actually I can't start that because I'd have a list several pages long of all the albums I've played the shit out of.

The song 'Flash Gordon' by Queen I think is an epic-ally insane piece of writing. It has everything that an Action movie has. Hard hitting action, romance, a bit of humor and it's probably the least sung song by Mercury as it's got no real verses per se it's like the whole song is a chorus.
And to think Roger Taylor sings all those insane high falsetto notes. Mind blowing. Funny enough that the song 'Flash Gordon' is more entertaining than the movie.


So this morning I'm out for a puff, standing in the 'alley' way that goes to my backyard and I spot something on the ground coming up from behind me.... I'm used to the chipmunks doing it, the odd cat has done it and even one day a freakin' groundhog came jogging past. But this morning, it was ... The damn Tree Rat! This creature has balls, make or female.... It didn't even run by me, it just came along, looking at me the whole way and went into the backyard and made for a tree, it probably hadn't planned on me being around. The nerve!

Music: And when you listen to it, listen to it a few times and to really listen to it, put on some headphones, listen to all the writing, the vocals, harmonies... Exceptional

"Flash"

Queen

(from "Flash Gordon" soundtrack)

Flash a-ah

Savior of the Universe

Flash a-ah

He'll save every one of us

(Seemingly there is no reason for these extraordinary intergalactical upsets)

(Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha)

(What's happening Flash?)

(Only Doctor Hans Zarkhov, formerly at NASA, has provided any explanation)

Flash a-ah

He's a miracle

(This morning's unprecedented solar eclipse is no cause for alarm)

Flash a-ah

King of the impossible

He's for every one of us

Stand for every one of us

He save with a mighty hand

Every man, every woman

Every child, with a mighty

Flash

(General Kala, Flash Gordon approaching.)

(What do you mean Flash Gordon approaching? Open fire! All weapons! Dispatch war rocket Ajax to bring back his body)

Flash a-ah

(Gordon's alive!)

Flash a-ah

He'll save every one of us

Just a man

With a man's courage

You know he's

Nothing but a man

And he can never fail

No one but the pure at heart

May find the Golden Grail

...Oh..Oh........Oh..Oh....

(Flash, Flash, I love you, but we only have fourteen hours to save the Earth!)

Flash

Written by Brian May, Freddie Mercury, Howard Blake, John Deacon, Lorenzo Semple Jr., Richard Wagner & Roger Taylor
UMG, Believe Music (on behalf of Audio Fingerprint); UBEM, SOLAR Music Rights Management, EMI Music Publishing, PEDL, Warner Chappell, CMRRA, and 9 Music Rights Societies

Tree Rat!

Fuckin' tree rat, the nerve of the little shit.

This little jerk has been around since the Spring. It's obviously not had much interaction with huemahns as it isn't timid at all. After I got the bird feeder up, once the weather was nicer, this twerp was taking food. Now, some might question why I care that a squirrel is taking food when chipmunks are of the same fam. But tree rats are just dirty thieves, while chipmunks are a wild equivalent to a hamster (obviously a rodent as well). The bird feeder is for birds and only a few use it. Like the chipmunks, the squirrels will suck that feeder dry. So having two rodents at it isn't my intent. If I wanted to feed the damn tree rats I'd go to a park with a bag of peanuts.

So, encounters with jerkface the wonder squirrel have led to me throwing pinecones at it, to which this dumb ass just looks at me then chases after the pinecone..It's too stupid to know I'm not playing fetch, I'm trying to hit the damn thing.
So I walk around the corner this evening and there it is, at the bird feeder, so I begin to berate it and it slowly hops off but is still waiting and thinking about just coming back once I'm gone. So, I pick up some pinecones and start to throw it at it... Now a pinecone is gonna hurt it about as much as shooting it with a NERF™ dart... Plus I never seem to hit the fucker!
So I begin to chase it off and it heads to the few trees in our backyard, it's doing some great parkour moves, bouncing from one tree to the next. It climbs up only a short way and then turns to eyeball me.
I grab some more pinecones, cursing as I throw them, still never hitting it. Then as I'm getting ready to pack it in, it moves to a higher dead branch (wish it would have snapped, but that never happens either) and turns and looks at me and starts making it's 'kucking' sound, a rapid noise I'm sure everyone's familiar with AND it's whipping it's tail about, sounding the alarm that I'm some kind of threat! Pfft. Just leave the bird feeder alone and I won't be a "threat".. Jerkface....

When I was out for a walk the other day, like last week, afterwards when I did a post, I was thinking, 'Man there's something from my walk I wanted to write about', but for whatever reason it wasn't coming too me.
Then it hit me the other night, hehe, so I'm writing about it tonight, while I'm 'ranting' about things...

So, I'm out for a nice walk, got my tunes blasting. I was walking along the section of the green, heading towards the art gallery.. Along and just off the paved trail there's a man and a woman and I can see there's some sort of signage or some kind of stand by them. I can also see them looking directly at me, then looking away, then back at me, repeat... As I get closer I'm thinking, 'Hmm, this religious folk?.... 'Hmm wonder if it's maybe some people talking to the local citizens about the proposed Officer square changes, but odd they are far from that park'... Then, just as I'm getting up to them, I see a bunch of pamphlets on the rack they've got beside them, possibly says something about 'trees'... So I'm thinking, well, maybe they are just educating people on these beautiful aged elm trees by the walkway, I mean, the Officer square trees they want to cut down are 100 year old elms.. But no, it's the fucking jehovah witness'.... I really despise them and the fuking mormons. You don't see the catholics or baptists or anglicans, buddhists, muslims or for that matter the wiccans or Satanists out there pimping their beliefs on people...
Now most of the time these people have nothing to say to me. They ain't looking to convert people who look like me, as they know there's a snowballs chance in hell that I'm going to 'convert'... The mormons are a little more bold, they'll try to convert a fucking German Shepard if they think they can get another soul to their list.
But the lady is 'kind' enough to say, "Beautiful evening out" to which I replied, "Yes, yes it is" ... It's always hindsight, but I mean to go back and take them to task on being there, are they allowed to stand there with this stupid rack of pamphlets and try to 'talk to people'.. I mean, you end up in every religion giving them money, so are they not 'selling' something? So do they have a business license? How would they feel if I stood there with some wiccan or Satanic material and asked people, 'Excuse me M'am, Sir, can I talk to you today about our Lord and Savior Satan? And what the Apocalypse can mean for you sinners...' I'd do this even though I subscribe to no religion...
Hope somebody was more on the ball to give 'em a piece of their mind.... I'm supposed to tell them that I'm 'Shunned' as we had past family members in that cult and apparently you're not supposed to talk to or associate with anyone who's not in that cult, even if it's family.
Maybe with any luck I'll meet up with them again sometime soon.

I'm very sorry to hear/see that the Penobstock Punk festival got axed. I'm not entirely too sure why, I'm hearing bit and pieces of info here and there, but nothing outright conclusive as to the reason.

I had not attended the festival myself, but I think it was in it's 4th or 5th year. An extremely agreeable cover, always awesome bands playing it, I should have gone.
It's just sad to see a festival like this get the ax, the Punk and Metal 'fest are rare enough and struggle in this East Coast music economy... It's hard enough to get to see shows let alone whole festivals and they are a great way for all these bands to not only market themselves to potentially new fans, but for the bands to meet each other, make connections and great friendships which can turn into gig swapping, we play your city, you play ours and get to help all the bands to further extend their music and fan base.
So, yeah, it's a real blow to the scene. Plus it takes away something for these Punks and Metalheads to do, so then they are just up to no good, instead of being up to no good in one spot over a weekend...

I was watching a Queen documentary earlier and it was during 'News of the World' tour, well then end part of the production of the album into the tour, They had done 'We Will Rock You' as an opener to their shows. They said that coming off the last tour that the audiences had begun to sing along with every song the band played. So they wanted to embrace this new level of fan appreciation by involving the crowd somehow and 'We Will Rock You' is what came about. But they felt it needed something else to go into live, so they opened with just Freddie and the drums, as the song does on the album, then into the guitar and bass, but when they 'finished' the song, they played it again, but did it faster. It sounded totally awesome and it made me think, 'damn it, wish I had seen/known about that in Dreamkick, because we used to play that song and it would have been cool to incorporate that into our set.
It's only happened rarely with The Wasteland Zombies, but happened a lot with Dreamkick where we had total crowd participation. It's an amazing feeling when the band is just smoking and the crowd is in the palm of your hand.
My favorite Dreamkick show we played was for the Westray's Miner benefit, after the horrible accident there in 1992. It was kinda a phenomenal day as we had got a spot opening for 'Frozen Ghost' formerly known as 'Sheriff'.
Poorly timed, the 'Sheriff' show was on the Canadian Forces Base Gagetown at the Maritime Club, a club we were not strangers to playing, but because of the benefit just down the road, which I think started at noon, well everyone was at the benefit. Though I'm guessing 'Sheriff' had tickets pre sold, but it wasn't many.
We played a great opening set and I remember it as having the BEST monitor mix we'd ever had (because they used and forced our guys to do a sidewash), so instead of the guys having their amps facing the crowd and our backs, blasting out into the audience, our guys' amps faced across the sides of the stage left and right. Really, for professional bands this is the way to go. Stage volume is sooo much better and can be controlled much easier as well.

Dreamkick had the honor to close out the benefit that was going on at Oromocto's 'The Oak Room', also a bar we were no strangers to. Most of the guys in Dreamkick were from Oromocto or the area, so it was a homebase of sorts and we had a lot of our core fans there.
By the time we got there... Well people had been there since noon drinking... By the time we took to the stage the placed was packed to the rafters and the crowd was thoroughly sauced. We also had a fair amount of time to catch up and most of the band was pretty lit too.
I recall fondly of that crazy crowd that night, I remember looking out across the room and it looked like on the Muppet show, whenever they showed the audience it would be like a chaos of weird creatures, people swinging from the ceiling and it looked like a zoo!

Damn it, was hoping to find an animated.gif of the Muppet show with them all going bananas... Oh well, it was mental

 It was pure drunken mayhem and we blasted through our set. probably one of our best shows we ever did.

Backs killin' me, I'm out.