Every Day Is Halloween

      It's the most wonderful time of the year. Happy Halloween everybody. Yes, Halloween is my favorite holiday, all the rest can just shove off. Normally, well as of the last few years or so (once I stopped drinking) Halloween meant a week long binge of spooky, scary, and slasher shows and movies. This year has been some of that, but since my moms sleep schedule is currently off the tracks, that's just not possible for the most part, so it's been more family friendly spooky shows, like Just Beyond and The Secrets of Sulphur Springs on Disney+. Those have been fun, but its not the same as getting a good slasher film or two in there. I will be watching Fear The Walking Dead tonight, so that's something, and for the last two days I've had Minstry's song Every Day Is Halloween on loop, in all it's mixes. I know what you are thinking, "I know what this weeks FSOTW is.". Well, you would be wrong, and you're going to have to wait and see just how wrong you are. Honestly, until Friday evening that was the plan, but something popped up that removed it from it's top tier spot.

     Good news, no Pokemon content this week, instead I have something I've been wanting to talk about for a long time, but have simply forgotten to bring it up. I really had to make a mental note to do it this week, and even though I know you love the Pokemon content, this should make you feel very awkward. Since tomorrow is the first day of November which has become sort of a men's health type of month, like May is for women's health awareness, I have something to discuss in that matter. It is something I've experienced so I know that it is reversible and disproves a lot of the old myths. This is also going to come into connections within the body which does apply to every person, but maybe not in all the same ways. I'm going to focus on one specific issue and that is about ejaculation and how it connects with heart health. Trust me I'm going to even tie this in with my most recent fast as well.

     Let's start with the myth. It is a long standing believe that as a man gets older his ejaculation gets less potent. To an extent that is true, volume and expel does become less. When I say expel I mean the thrust with which it shoots out. I can remember a kid in high school making the claim that he could hit the ceiling, not sure he is still doing just that especially if he isn't heart healthy. Here is the thing, I listened to a doctor several years ago who mentioned the heart connection when it comes to ejaculation and he said that if your ejaculate is coming out like a toothpaste tube, then you should really get your heart checked. One of the easiest signs of heart disease is your ejaculate. Now there are other things that could cause that, like infection and STDs, but once those are out of the equation heart disease is the most likely culprit. Now for my own experience with this. As you may remember, a few years ago I mentioned that I was having some heart issues. One of the most telling symptoms for me was my over elevated heart rate. My resting pulse was anywhere form the mid to upper 90's and that is not good. That's part of the reason why I began trying to lose weight. Of course it wasn't until keto that I had any success in that. The thing about losing weight is that you have to get healthy to lose weight, it's not the other way around. Most people thing that you have to lose weight to get healthy.

      During those years when I was at my highest weight, I started noticing my ejaculate going down in both volume and expel. I chalked this up to that age old myth, but always had that doctors words in the back of my head, so one of the things I always paid attention to was how it expelled, did it ever get to that toothpaste tube analogy? It came really close, and there was a lag effect from my health turning around and the weight loss, but once everything was back in order, my ejaculate was back with just as much volume and expel as it ever had. This goes for men an their partners, pay attention to the ejaculation and if it is just drooling out ( yeah I know how gross that sounds ), at the very least start making some life changes better yet, go see a doctor about what could potentially be wrong and get your heart checked. I'm proof that it can change and go back to the way it was, you just have to put in the work. And just cause you were asking, I will be participating in No Nut November. Once again, I know how gross that sounds but since I already have a beard, I can't to No Shave. Please really think about getting things checked so you can live a long and happy life with whoever you choose to.

      This brings me to pronouns. Yeah I know I said I was going to tie that all into the latest fast and I'm getting there, but this needs to come first. I've been seeing a bunch of posts lately talking about how people can't keep up with this whole new way of speaking when it comes to pronouns for someone. Here is a little story to explain just how simple it is to use pronouns that are the new norm. I recently got some very good news from a friend of mine that they had a major improvement in their health. I am really happy for them, but since I am who I am ( and becoming more of me than I'd like to admit ) I couldn't reach out to them to tell them how happy I was for them. I kept getting it into my head that I would be bothering them at an inappropriate time and that is the last thing I want to do considering all that they have been through lately. I want them to have their happy time with the people around them and since I'm so far away I'm really unnecessary to that. I know that they told me that I would be no bother to them, but in my head that is them just being kind and understanding of just how mental I am. Long story short, this is my way of telling them just how happy I am for their news.

       Now in that story above I gave you no inclination of who they were, what sex they were, or anything about them, just be using certain pronouns. One of the post I saw was specifically about they/them/their and how it is improper grammar to use them in the singular term. As you just saw, it can be done, and as history proves out, those terms were used in the singular long before the singular "you". That's right "you" was used in the plural for the first part of it's existence, it was the term used when one person was addressing a large crowd. Example: It's great to see you here today, I can't wait to get this assembly started. I mentioned a long time ago that language is an ever evolving thing. You could even argue that it is living.  Because of that it is always moving forward, and if you can't keep up and refuse to use terms especially those terms that properly address someone's sexuality, then you will be simply left behind. It is not hard to refer to someone right in front of you as they or them, it may seem strange at first, but give it a little timed it will feel just as normal as looking someone in the eye and saying "you".

     Ok, that's my pedestal hopping for the day, now to that whole body connection thing. I finished my fast this week at just a little over the 72 hour mark, and although I lost weight, which wasn't really why I was doing it, I felt better in general. The whole reason other than it was at the time of my quarterly fast, was that I started noticing some bad things happening with me. I started getting occasionally heartburn again and well you know my mental state lately. The gut ties to all those things. Your gut bacteria affects your brain and I desperately needed this reset. I've told you before that a 72 hour fast is like a full body reset. Your body goes through and gets back to or as near as it can to zero. Your younger cells feed off the old and dead cells having a recycling type effect that essentially turns back the clock at the cellular level. This also resets your gut biome. That is why for the first 3 days I was very careful what I ate. It was all natural food and things that would feed the good gut bacteria that would also in turn help my mental state. You know how I love my asparagus, but I couldn't have that for the first 2 days because I had to pump up the good stuff in my gut first, that meant fermented foods and vegetables that fed the good gut bacteria to grow. Asparagus is a probiotic vegetable, which means that it really supercharges gut bacteria., the only problem is that it doesn't distinguish between good or bad, so you have to get that good up first to get the best affects of asparagus. Once the good bacteria is up the asparagus lifts that one up. See it always takes the winner in the fight, so if the bad bacteria was stronger it would lift that up instead. Now this doesn't meant that I'm out of the woods mentally at all. I still need to watch what I eat, and grains and sugars are the real culprits for me. Yesterday and today I have eaten some sugars, for the simple fact that I have to get them out of the house, but this latest fast gave me back something that I had been missing for a while and that was self control. Today will be the last day for sugar for 28 days. I'm going back on my 28 days on 7 days off keto schedule. Those 7 days will be still pretty healthy just a little relaxed, and I can have a pint of ice cream for the week or something like that.

      I can't tell you just how much better I feel mentally and physically right now, and after going through the last few months as I was, I really don't want to go back there so I'm all eyes on the prize again.

     Now it's time for Favorite Song of the Week. I've featured Stevie T before. I love his sense of humor and his unbelievable talent on the guitar, and this video puts all of that together. He did a remake of Rockwell's one hit song from the late 80's and did his thing to it. I really hope you enjoy this video which dropped this past Friday. Here is Steve T f Anthony Vincent with their version of "Somebody's Watching Me".

      I must remind you that he does all the music, filming and editing in these videos. He had a video editor but I think he parted ways with them so this film was shot by him and his mom. I really hope you enjoyed that and have a Happy Halloween. Peace in and goodnight.

The Tipping Point

     My plan to get no readers last week didn't work, nearly worked, but I still got some. Ok for real, the whole concept behind that was to be punk rock. I think it worked to a degree so I'm happy with it. 

     I don't really have much to write about this week. It was a rather uneventful week with the exception of a lot of great music dropping this past Friday. I won't get into all of it, because what is great to me probably isn't to you so I won't bore you with it all, except the song of the week.

     One of the albums that dropped on Friday was the new Duran Duran album, no they aren't Favorite Song of the Week, but they are the reason I found FSOTW. Believe me I could choose a song from the Future Past album and it would fit in, but while watching their latest video I got a recommendation for a band that I didn't even know was making music, much less new music. I quickly clicked on the thumbnail and thoroughly enjoyed myself by seeing the future of what is to come from this band and remembering the past. The band is none other than Tears for Fears, and if you don't remember them, you clearly hit your head really really hard. They had one of the biggest albums of the 80's with a number of hits from it. Last I heard they had broken up and went on to solo careers. It wasn't an anger thing, it was just wanting to go in different directions, or at least that's how I remember it. After watching the video that I'm going to share with you I went and found out that their album is in pre-order right now and if you add it to your library you will get this song which is available now. Still not exactly sure when the whole album drops but I'm as excited about this as I was the new Duran Duran, did I mention that album is great? Really it goes back to when Duran Duran was doing the title track to the Bond film. View to a Kill is still my favorite Bond song by the way, and there is a song that seems to take a little from that song on the album, greatness I tell you, but I digress, we were talking about Tears for Fears. Oh, quick interlude of digression again. If you have been following my Friday Night Vinyl, Songs from the Big Chair will be featured soon. You didn't really think I didn't have that album did you? Ok, back to the new song. This is the title track from the new album and it is pure unadulterated Tears for Fears. Yes, they look a lot older Roland Orzabel looks a bit Gandalfy, and Curt Smith just looks like a much older version of himself, but they still have the same vocal range and sound. It's always lovely when something new is also something familiar. I happily give to you the new single from Tears for Fears, "The Tipping Point".

     Ok, I did a little investigating and the album drops on February 25th. You got some time people. By the way, not for nothing, but check out the new Duran Duran album, it really is great.

    A little plant life update for you. I hadn't taken a picture of the Desert Rose lately, but I visited a friend last week and they have two of them that look a little meager, so I had to snap a shot of mine to share with them to show them how it's done. Actually I hadn't really taken much of a look at it lately since it is such an easy plant to manage. Since I've replanted it in it's bigger pot I've watered it maybe twice. It doesn't need much attention at all. Anyway, here it is, try to remember how it originally looked.

 

     There are some buds forming on it again, so it should bloom soon. I'll get another shot of it then to share with you.

     A little pokemon news today, so you can probably skip until just after the photo to avoid this part. Remember when I said I figured out a little hack to get kms without actually walking? I wasn't lying about that. My mom's sleep schedule has changed a little and I can't get out for those walks in the morning right now. She is starting to revert to her old pattern, so maybe soon. That being said, I'm getting more kms in the game now then I ever did by just walking. Here are my weekly totals to prove it.

     Yes, that says 200.6 kms with over 200,000 steps. Each week on Monday after 9am you get this reward prompt. If you hit certain levels you get certain things. For 25 and 50 km marks you get action synch eggs. These are of the 5 and 10km type. What that means is that you need to walk those distances in order to hatch those eggs, and action synch eggs have very specific pokemon that can be hatched from them. They choose more sought after pokémon for those eggs, so it's kind of a big deal to get them. I've heard rumors that there are some unseen rewards that you receive when you hit 100km. I have no idea what they are, but it's possible that you attract better pokemon to you. I can't verify this at all, but I have noticed over the past few weeks where I've broken the 100km plateau that I have seen an increase in 3 star pokemon. I still won't say what my secret is for getting my distance requirements in on here, but if you message me I will gladly share the information with you. You can literally do this while sitting and watching tv of if you are riding in a car as a passenger.

      Ok for those of you that skipped to under the picture, you found out that I tricked you into reading some pokemon news. My bad, I really didn't mean to do that, it just sort of worked out that way, and I didn't feel like going back and editing the sentence to give you a more definitive spot to pick this back up. On a slightly good note I guess. I have noticed that my body is appearing to me much better than usual which is more than likely a trick of my eyes. I'm currently sitting at 170lbs, so I don't understand it at all. I'm not going to take photos, out of fear that it will just trigger reality and depression will be deep, so I'm going to start my quarterly 3 day fast later today and see how it all goes and how I look in the mirror after all that. I still feel like I need to be in the 150's, really the mid to low 150's but we will see how it all goes. I'm really lost right now in all of this and getting into my head, so I need to do this fast, which is planned (really planned for last week, but something came up) and get my head straight. These 3 day fasts always get me thinking clearer, so I'm really looking forward to it. My last meal today will be cheeseburger patties with asparagus, and I'm thinking brussel sprouts with some cottage cheese on the side. That should set me up nicely for the first 24 hours, then it's Liquid Death and salt water for the next 3 days. Oh yeah, I have certain minerals I'll take as well to help with mostly sleep since my energy levels will be through the roof. I'll let you know how it all goes next Sunday. Peace in and goodnight. I'm really not sure why I still say goodnight even though I'm now writing this very early in the morning now, but it is what it is. Peace in and goodnight.

Punk Invasion

     My goal this week is to get no one to read this at all, since last week was an underwhelming success, no, I'm not going to talk about Pokemon this week. Can't have fun every week. Today we are going to talk a lot about punk. I've been listening to a lot of old school punk rock this week. It reminded me of so many things from my high school days. I listened to punk, but wasn't really involved in the scene. The reason for that is, that at that time in the punk rock era was when skinheads started taking over the scene. Maybe I should give you a little history of the punk scene to explain why this was a big deal.

     Ok, as you may or may not know, punk rock began as a protest of the excess of mainstream and particularly glam rock. Although a lot of people perceived it as a hatred of all things, it was just antiestablishment. Punk stood up for the nobody. It was a diverse scene that accepted all, but it did have some requirements, like going against the status quo. I mean you wouldn't wear a disco shirt to a punk show. Punk soon picked up where protest rock left off. They weren't just going against mainstream music, but mainstream in general, and that meant question the government and what it stood for. That was all mid 70's into the early 80's. Around the mid 80's when I was in high school, the dude bros got a liking for the aggressive style of punk and took the antiestablishment message and corrupted into hate. That is when the skinheads came into the picture. They had a specific look with rolled up jeans, suspenders, white t-shirt, shaved head, and last but not least, Dr. Martins with red or white laces. To this day I will never wear red or white laces in my Docs. Those laces signified just how involved in racist beliefs they were. White was for white supremacy and red was for pure nazi fetishization. 

     When I was in school there was a small faction of skinheads. For the most part they just wanted to stand out in a crowd and really had no idea what skinheads were all about. They liked punk rock and the growing trend at that time was being a skinhead to show your loyalty to punk. That all changed one day when one of them, who knew what the skinhead movement was about decided to post little signs all over the school. I won't say what it said, but it had a cartoon image representing a skinhead performing a racist act with verbiage to put emphasis on what was going on. My school was very diverse at that time, I'm pretty sure it still is. I grew up on a diverse community. Well, word spread fast of what was going on, and a large group of people got together to protest the skinheads, who were really few in number ( I think there were 5 of them in all ) and basically surrounded them at their lockers ( I'm talking around 100 students ) and shouted "we are here you want to spit on us". Sorry couldn't leave that part out since that was the proclamation on that day. This went on between periods, and I was already in my classroom that had a window to the area they were. Teachers eventually came out and dispersed everyone. One skinhead that happened to be a friend of mine finally came into class and I asked him what was happening. He told me about the crowd and how they all (the skinheads) all claimed their innocence and how someone was setting them up. He then told me that it really was one of them that posted the signs. I asked him if he believed all that garbage, and he just said he was scared. Yeah dude, you just tried to start a race riot, you should be scared. Shortly after that whole incident, he grew his hair out and stopped wearing suspenders. He didn't stop wearing his Dead Kennedys t-shirt though.

     That brings us to the Dead Kennedys which is where all this was going in the first place. The Dead Kennedys were one of the front runners in the punk scene. Maybe even the original antiestablishment bands. They would not have approved of the local skinheads attempt at racism, and probably would have beaten the shot out of him for wearing their shirt. They were very much about diversity and treating all people with respect (to a point. Gotta throw fists when necessary). They even made shirts with their logo and the word "Nazi Punks Fuck Off". As you can see they wanted no part of skinheads. 

     There were a few bands that capitalized on the whole racist agenda, and those bands didn't last. The Dead Kennedys are still playing live shows, not with the original line up though, and let's face it the godfathers of punk The Ramones are still one of the most iconic bands of all time. I'm not even getting into the whole British punk invasion. I mean the Sex Pistons come on. 

      There was a resurgence of punk in the late 90's early 00's with bands like Green Day, Sum 41, Ocean Ave, so on and so on. This was that punk style but lacked the antiestablishment message. The vibe was there but it wasn't the same. They were more party punk or punk light if you will. Eventually Green Day began doing more protest songs and albums which is probably why they are the most successful of that punk era.

     Anyway, all of this punk got me nostalgic and remembering all that punk gave us. You may think it's simplistic riffs with angry lyrics, but they gave us critical thinking in music, slam dancing and the mosh pit. Now, you can see a mosh pit at the oddest of shows. Back when the pits started happening, it was a healthy way to get aggression out. It was fun and full of energy, then came the nazis and it became about trying to hurt as many people as possible. The retaliation of that was enforcers that would hunt down the nazis and take them out. The pit was never about hurting people intentionally, sure you would get hurt, but when you did there was always someone there to pick you up and get you out of the pit so that you could rest up and get back in. Punk also gave us one of the most iconic voices in music and that belongs to the original lead singer of the Dead Kennedys, Jello Bialfa (no that's not his real name). Jellos voice is truly unique and the only way to describe it if you haven't heard it, is to think of Fred Schneider of the B-52s with much more aggression. If you don't' know the B-52s then I really can't help what is wrong with you.

      What is all this talk about anyway, well it's a way to get to my Favorite Song of the Week, and yes I'm picking an old classic from the Dead Kennedys. This is probably their best knowns song, for the sole reason is that it is the only one that got any airplay and only on college radio stations. I think it gets some cult attention no a days whenever some station wants to do a retro night or something like that. It may also be the most mainstream like song. Yes that is very much a stretch in using mainstream but it's the closest to a for everyone palatable song. For just a few moments live on the fringe of mainstream and enjoy a little punk. I proudly present to you the Dead Kennedys with "Holiday in Cambodia".

     I really hope got up and pogo'd to that. I sure as hell did. Every once in a while you need a little punk in your life. Peace in and goodnight.

I'm looking California, But Feeling Minnesota

      Well, I'm going to start off on a low note, but I promise it won't be all doom and gloom. I actually do have some fun stuff in store for you. It seems like the switch inside me that controls desire is perpetually off at this point. I wasn't able to write this week at all. I want to write that new story, but I just can't get it together to actually have the desire to do it. Following your passion should be a good thing, but right now it seems exhausting an overwhelming. I don't know why I'm broken like this, but I'm hoping to figure it out. I'm going to sit down and force myself to write this week. Didn't I say something like that last week? I also took some pictures. The concept was good and fun, but I haven't even bothered to look at them, because in my head, they are all garbage. This is another thing I'm going to have to force myself to do this week. I'll get there. 

     Now for the fun stuff. Ok this is the part where you can choose to opt out of the next paragraph or two. I haven't figured out in my head how long this Pokemon part will be, so I'm going to come back and edit this and in the next sentence I will tell you just how much you can skip if you want. You can skip the next 4 paragraphs if you want to skip the Pokemon discussion, but you really don't know what you are missing out on.

     Ok, I said last week that I wanted to explain the buddy levels and hearts better, so here goes.

 

     This is what your buddy page looks like when you open it up. The top left tells the level of your buddy, In this case the buddy is a great buddy with two full hearts. Now each one of those hearts takes all those empty hearts to fill up, and each progressive heart takes more and more. For instance, the first heart takes only for you to give your buddy 3 berries to get them to show up on the map. That is equal to one heart in the list. The list is what you need in order to get 12 hearts, but you can get more. There are a couple ways to do that. The first is to feed your buddy a poffin. This is a special fruit that automatically doubles your heart output. Now, if you feed your buddy one of those to start, you will still only have to walk 6km in order to fill up the hearts. Even though the hearts are doubled you get double hearts for each activity. Battles can be anything from putting your buddy into a raid lineup (I'll explain the best way to do this next week), battle a Team Rocket grunt, boss, or Jessie and James (if you know you know), Go Battle League battle (this depends on your buddies CP and qualification for the current league), or lastly in the training battles (this the easiest and best way to get those battle hearts). I'll let you figure out the rest, now for the, how to get double hearts without a poffin.

      I have kind of figured this method out. I haven't mastered it yet though. From what I've figured, you need to get a certain amount of hearts in a certain amount of time, when you do that you will get your buddy excited and the hearts double. I can do this on any given day, I just don't know exactly how many hearts and in what length of time is really necessary for this. The difference form a poffin excitement and a true excitement is the color of the hearts. When you use a poffin, the hearts will be an orangish color, but when you get that true excitement, the hearts will be red.

    You can see from this image (wow I sound so formal) that I visited a new place before I got the double hearts and wasn't able to hit a new one. The other thing that happens when you get it excited is that walking distance for candy is cut in half. Candy is a whole other thing that I'll go over at a later time. Basically what I've found out is that if you get your buddy not the map with the first 3 berries, then get all your distance hearts, and battle hearts right around the same time, you can play with your buddy and take a snapshot right after and that will usually give you the bonus, oh there are bonus hearts as well, but those only happen once you are great buddies. I should quickly explain buddy levels, there is Buddy, Great Buddy, Ultra Buddy, and Best Buddy. Best Buddy gets you all the perks of gifts and a CP bonus when your buddy is actually your active buddy. You all so get a sweet Best Buddy badge like my Snorlax in the image above. It's the little red and yellow badge on his chest. Gifts that you receive depend on level, Great Buddies give you things you can use, like potions, berries, revives (I'll explain those later as well). When you become Ultra Buddies, your buddy will bring you the most useless things. It's funny really, you will get thins like a torn ticket, springs, marbles, as well as other things. I really don't think I've seen all of them yet, those are just the most odd ball of them that I've gotten. For each gift you receive in a day, you will get a bonus heart. I've only ever gotten 2 and they can't be doubled, but there is space for a third on, so I don't think I've reached that level, or it doesn't exist. I'm sure I could look it all up, but I'd rather just discover that on my own. I'm at a point where I can fill hearts (with the exception of visit a new place) for 2 and sometimes 3 buddies a day. For example it's 8:24 in the morning as I write this and I only need to give my current buddy 3 berries for it's last heart. This buddy which is a Gengar, gave me a extra boost that I didn't know about. The game has certain Pokemon that can Mega evolve, but in order to do this, you need special candy called Mega Candy so that you can evolve them. You eat them up fast when you start doing the mega evolve, an I've been trying to find out how to get more, and I stumbled upon this when I accidentally made Gengar my buddy. They have a distance requirement for your buddy to find candy. Megas get mega candy as well. This is a game changer for me. For every 3km I travel, I get 1 Gengar candy (they can also find XL candy, once again I'll explain candy a different day) and 15 mega candy. That is a big deal for me. Megas a great in raid battles especially in Legendary or Mega raids. Yes, a raid discussion will come up down the line as well. I ran out of parentheses for that one. I'm hoping this explains the buddy hearts and how to get them, now we can pick everyone else back up.

     Time for a Prince appreciation post. I came across the picture this week and just wanted to share. It's pretty fantastic, and reminds me how much I miss him. I still have the music and the estate is putting out previously unreleased music and doing it in a very nice and respectful way. Remember it was said that Prince had enough music archived that they could release an album a year for the next 50 years and still not reveal it all (actually I think it was 500 years, but I'm not 100% sure on that). Anyway, enjoy this picture.

     Ok, I want to recommend a few shows to watch. The first one you've probably heard about, since it is really big in the news and social media right now, and that is Squid Game. This is a Netflix show from I think Korea (they have been putting out impressive shows) and it's a little like the Saw movies, with a very unique twist. I don't want to give anything away, but if you don't mind a little gore and some suspense, give this show a try, you will not regret it.

     The Next one is a Disney + show and it's based on an old show from, I want to say the 90's, but it may be late 80's. The show is Doogie Kamealoha M.D. and it is of course based on Doogie Howzer M.D. It's a really fun and funny show, they even reference the original show in the first episode, which is how she gets the nickname. It follows a young prodigy doctor in Hawai'i. One of the really fun things for me was seeing Jason Scott Lee as the father doing a comedic role. He's fantastic. They release episodes every Wednesday and I think they are on episode 6 at this point. Ok, another quick Disney + show you should check out is Turner & Hooch. This one is based on the well known movie starring Tom Hanks. This one is kind of a continuation of the movie except you are following along with his son who is a US Marshall and his adventures with the son or maybe it's the grandson of the original Hooch. This is another fun show and they just finished the whole season so you can do a binge in a weekend and watch the whole first season.

     Ok the last show on the list is a fun movie that was just released on Disney + for halloween. It's the Muppets Haunted Mansion. Its a fun little movie with the muppets based on the famed Disney ride, The Haunted Mansion. It has a ton of stars and cameos. My favorite is Danny Trejo. that dude is just awesome. That is a fun one for the kids although both the other Disney ones are as well. I would hold off on letting them watch Squid Game though. Ok, that's all my TV recommendations for you.

 

     What is that a picture of you ask? Well those are beans or seed pods from the Moringa tree. I'm not sure if they were ready to be picked but they were so big that they were weighing the tree down and making it bend over too far. I had another one that I picked earlier because I saw it drying out at the tip. I ripped it open and tried the meat inside and it was similar tasting to a raw potato, but it had the texture of celery. It's really weird. I'm going to harvest the seeds from these two, or at least try to, and see if I can plant them to get a few more trees going.

     It's time for Favorite Song of the Week. This is from a band that I consider one of the three big bands that erupted form the Seattle grunge scene. Those bands were Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden. You can argue Alice and Chains, STP, Sonic Youth, Smashing Pumpkins, but in my opinion they were secondary to those first three. Soundgarden was formed in the mid 80's but didn't have any big success until the 90's, They erupted huge with their 4th album Superunknown that had the ever popular hit Black Hole Sun. I'm not choosing a song from that album though. I'm going back to their 3rd album for this one, and this was the song I first heard from them. I should also point out that when Johnny Cash released his album American II: Unchained, he covered this song. He could have easily chose Black Hole Sun, or even Spoonman which were wildly well known at the time he made that album, but he went back to the 3rd album as well, for this very song. I give to you Soundgarden with I would argue, their best song "Rusty Cage".

     For me, this is the epitome of what Chris Cornell's vocals are. He was truly one of the best voices in rock n roll, and he is another one that I miss. I'll be honest with you, I was thinking about picking Spoonman, for the very reason of how divisive that song is. People hate that song for some reason, and I think I know why. Hear me out on this. The song itself is psychopathic. Matt Cameron's drums do the perfect job of mimicking the chaotic rage of someone playing the spoons, and lets face it, anyone that plays spoons is a sociopath. I truly believe that spoon players are closeted serial killers and that is exactly what that song portrays. It may not be in the lyrics, but it is the whole of that song, and for that reason, I believe people hear that in it and instantly hate it.

   

    Ok, I know that was a lot, but that is all I have for you today. Peace in and goodnight.

Never Gonna Give You Up

     I've had enough time to talk myself out of the piece I was going to write today. Although I still think I should write it, I'm not. Why? Only because I don't want to give it any more life than it already has. Oh, and I'm not going to say it anymore, so just assume it was a crappy week unless otherwise stated.

     My mom's health has been declining at what seems to be an accelerated pace lately. She goes into these somewhat catatonic states from time to time, and this week was full of them. The first time it happened which was a few weeks ago, I was going to call an ambulance, because I just didn't know what to do. With the pandemic going on, I realized that since she wasn't really distressed, I would call her doctor instead  to see what he thinks. He got back to me very quickly and stated it was actually a normal process in the decline of dementia, or should be the escalation of dementia, either way you know what I'm saying. The last two days in particular have been rough. Friday she was wanting to leave the house and go home, which she really has no concept of anymore of where that actually is, since she is home. She also kept asking about her family and I had to tell her that her husband had died. This is always a hard one to tackle especially when she is in an argumentative state. No matter what I say, she deems it  a lie, and I just have to roll with it and gently convince her that it is the truth. When the truth finally sets in, she goes through all the emotion of losing a love all over again. It's heartwrenching to observe all over again, since I already lived through this the first time. Since she was argumentative it was exceptionally tough to get her to eat, she also hadn't slept the night before, which made it exponentially worse. I was finally able to calm her down later in the evening and get her to sleep, that was after a very small meal of what I could finally get her to eat.

     The next morning I woke her up and she seemed in much better spirit, but at some point in the middle of her shower, she went into a light version of that catatonic state. I was able to bath her and get her to stand up and help her out of the shower to get her dried off and dressed, but it was very difficult to do. Her responses were only physical and they were, well I can't even explain how they were. I guess this is the best way. When she goes into the catatonic state, you can see that she is there, but it's as if her very essence draws within itself and hides at the back of her mind. Now, when it's bad, there is no response what so ever, but on this day, there was minimal physical response. Normally her limbs go stiff in this state, but this time she would lift a leg a little and loosen it up so I could do the rest. I was able to get her back in bed after that, and brought her shakes and water with her pills. I'm guessing with the lack of sleep from the day before and the impact of those emotions she felt all over again, that she needed time to process it all. I left her to her bed and would poke in every once in a while to give her more water an coax her into eating small items. At about 2 in the afternoon I was able to get a decent response out of her, and managed to get her to the living room for some food. She was still tired but was more back to being herself. All of these experiences are very new to me. Everything with dealing with this is a first time event, so I've asked for help form some people, and some have helped out. Her doctor has been the most helpful and I appreciate that greatly. He calmed me down about these episodes, so that I have been able to deal with them for the most part. It's hard though. I truly hope none of you ever have to experience someone close to you having dementia. It is life altering.

     After she was up and about, I was able to follow through on the plan I had for us, which was postponed because of the morning events. I wanted to get her out of the house, for a little while, which is getting tougher and tougher, and I also wanted to see something that I had put in place a few weeks ago. Get ready, this is going to be about Pokemon, so you can skip to below the nest pictures if you want to just avoid the nerd talk. 

     Several weeks ago, while I was at the record store, I nominated it for a Pokestop. If you don't play and you are still reading this, when you hit level 38 in the game you are able to nominate locations for Pokestops. Those are locations where you can spin a disc in order to get more balls ( to catch Pokemon ) or berries ( they make catching Pokemon easier ) or even stickers ( which you can attach to gifts for friends ) and revives (when you battle with your Pokemon the feint and you need these to revive them to health ), oh and also potions ( they give your Pokemon energy after the feint ). I had heard that this whole process of approval can take a year or even longer, so I was shocked to receive an email only a few days after nominating it saying that it had been approved. I had my first official Pokestop, but I couldn't go to see it until yesterday. I looked around the shop while I was there and told the owners about it. They were really excited and said they had asked a friend to do it ages ago. Here's the thing about Niantic and the Pokestops. Their idea behind them is to get people to actually visit these places, and that creates traffic to the area. You have to bee within 80 meters of the location (used to be 40) in order so spin the stop. My hope, and I'm sure it was theirs as well, that that stop will bring in more costumers that didn't even know that place existed. Ok, finally here are the picture so we can get back to other stuff. I have to mention that the one of the map shows several stops and gyms (gyms are locations where you can battle other Pokemon to clear the gym and place your own Pokemon inside in order to earn coins based on how long you defend it). The blue location icons are the stops, and the one near the top with the white ring around it, is a brand new stop. By the way if you didn't know, that white ring signifies a unique and new location, so if you play and see that you can get your buddy a new location heart. Remind me next week to explain buddy hearts. I think I did a poor job of that the other week. Anyway, that new stop on the map is the record store and my stop. The second picture is the picture disc at the location.

     Ok, now for normal stuff. If you skipped to this point, you missed out on so much good information. Ok, I got a picture of Ri Ri Popcorn Face, which is officially her new full name. She was looking at me with her little snuggle tooth hanging out and I couldn't resist a picture. She has a bit of an underbite so this happens from time to time when her top lip gets tucked under and it's always adorable.

     How could I not fall for that goofy girl? Morty and her get along great now. They finally started playing together in the yard. The rough housed a little inside, which really isn't ideal, but when they went outside they would kind of ignore each other, but this week saw the first time they actually played together outside, it made me happy. I have gotten them to stop the inside stuff though, so I'm very happy about that as well.

     I had an idea for a new story come to me. This was inspired by Halsey. She released a short movie along with her album and I finally got to watch it this week. The movie is based on the album, but the album was written with this movie in mind, if that makes any sense. Basically they go together and the music works for the most part as a narrator. The movie gave me an idea to tell that story a little more and put my own spin on it while expanding beyond where it ended. I've only written a few notes so far, but I'm hoping to sit down this week and knock a few chapters out. I have the basis of the story in my head, and have the idea of the ending, but it's still in a fog. It's there, but it only hints of what it actually is. Normally as I've told you the ending hits me first. The idea of having a beginning with no clear end isn't new to me, but usually when that happens I can't always find my way to any ending. Well not one that seems truly right to me. I know I can get there, but when I feel like it isn't right to me, it feels like it's pointless to put it out there. Anyway, I'm going to start this week and it will maybe come to me, if it does and I feel that things are going in the right direction I may post a chapter. I have no idea if this is going to be short or long form yet. I'm sensing long form, so to me that means at least 15 chapters. We will see. I'm excited about it, and this is the first time in a long time I've been excited about anything.

     There is so much more I could write about this week, but it's time for Favorite Thing of the Week, which happens to be a song, but it's more that just that which is why it is FTOTW instead of FSOTW. This happened not too long ago, maybe a week or so, and of course it involves Dave Grohl, the person who is better than any of us, an we don't deserve him and his talent. The Foo Fighters were doing a festival in Japan and there was another artist on the bill, so they learned a song, and at the very last minute asked that artist if they would perform this song to them, and they did. This is where I would normally tell you the title of the whole thing, but I think the video should speak for itself, so here it is.

    Yes, that was Rick Astley and you just got rickroll'd. I love everything about that video. If you want, and this is just a suggestion, there is another video that has more of them talking to each other right before the song. You can see there is an edit there when Dave announces him and it cuts to when the song starts. Look up the other video and watch that banter, there is some good funny stuff there.

    Ok, I can't top that even though I have more to talk about, I'll save it till next week. Peace in and goodnight.