The Patchwork Knight (Chapter 1)

     I was born in a small outlying village of the Targan realm. It was a rocky and mountainous region. My father was a blacksmith in a village that had little use for one. He made his fair share of pick axes and hammers, but there was little need for anything else, and he was forbidden by law to make arms. That was left to the court smithy. The kingdom had strict rules on arming the peasantry. It kept revolts at a low, not that there was enough interest in a revolt as far from the castle as we were.

     Our village was left alone except for the once a year pilgrimage to the castle to pay homage to the king on his birthday. It was on one of these trips that I saw them for the first time. When I was a lad, there was only one thing that I wanted, and that was to be a knight. It was on this trip that I saw the court knights coming back from a campaign on the borderlands. Their armor was scarred but still gleamed in the sunlight, in all it's splendor. The rode through the outer market with a pride that I'd never seen in anyone before. My father noticed me starring at them. "Those are the Calvary Knights of Targan. Did I ever tell you about the time I fought beside them in the Blind War?"

      "You fought beside knights?"

      "Yes, boy. I wasn't always a village blacksmith."

      "Are you a knight father?"

      "No lad, I was a soldier in the infantry. We would follow the cavalry into battle. They would run through the lines, and we would swarm in and clean up what was left."

      The Blind War was named thusly, because it was said that it was the war to end all wars, and that no one could turn a blind eye to it. I'll tell you more about the Blind War later.

      "Come now boy, there is someone I want you to meet." We walked through the market until we were near the wall of the outer castle. Against the wall was a large stall with weapons adorning every post. This was the market stall of the court smithy. "Here boy, this is my old friend Galdren. He thought me everything I know about smithing."

      "Yes, but I didn't teach you everything I know." The man said with a grin. "How have you been you ol' badger?"

      "Not as good as you, from the looks of that belly you got there." The man was excessively large, and he laughed at my fathers words. "This is my son Galdren. He is here in the kingdoms outer walls for the first time. Say hello to Galdren, Pitre."

      "Hello sir. It's very nice to meet you." He grabbed a hold of my hand with a mighty grip. My fathers grip was similar, so I was used to the squeezing that I was now getting.

       "Pitre, how are you my boy? Are you sure this is your father? You are too handsome of a young man to come from this mud gump." Another burst of laughter came from him. My father joined in. "Did your father tell you where we met?"

       "No sir."

       "We met back in the Blind War. Your dad was a no good infantry man, wanting to learn a trade. He would hang around my forge trailer during every march. I was always surprised whenever he would come back after each battle. He was a skinny lad back in those days, could barely hold his shield up."

       "Now Galdren, If my memory serves me, you were a bit more svelte yourself." Another fit of laughter from the both of them.

       "Sir? Did you make the armor for the calvary knights?"

       "Did you see them lad? Aye, I made their armor. Well, I oversaw the making of their armor. I don't swing the hammer much anymore, except for very special occasions, and of course the king's own armor."

       "Their armor was magnificent sir."

       "Ah, your boy has a discerning eye for good taste, unlike his father."

       "Now now Galdren, I always said that you were the best smithy in the ranks."

       "That you did, but I never believed that you meant it. Your father was always quick with a compliment. It was his way of getting out of trouble with his superiors."

       "And it worked every time. I wanted to show the boy what you could do with a hammer and anvil. I don't get to make anything like this back at the village."

       "For you, anything. Truth on the table boy. Your father saved my life on more than one occasion during the war."

       "You did." I looked at my father and saw him in a whole new light. I always loved my father, but I never knew him to be a fighter in any sense. He was always quiet but jovial, and he treated everyone with respect.

       "Don't believe the ramblings of an old fool. He would say anything to make a sale."

      "It's true boy. The first time was when the raiders of the mudwood snuck into our camp one night. Your father in his typical fashion, would come to my trailer and sleep underneath so that he could learn how to forge steel. This one night, the raiders came into camp and were slaughtering the support caravan for the army. Your father woke up, just as they were barging into my trailer. He killed 3 of them on his own before sounding the alarm. We lost a lot of people that night, but if it weren't for him, we would have probably lost the entire caravan. That was the day I decided that I would finally teach him how to really forge. Up until that point, I only had him sharpening blades."

      "I thought you said that was part of being an apprentice?"

      "That was the only way to get you off my back, so that I could do my job. The king expects weapons to be made in a timely manner during war."

      "If you saved the whole caravan, why weren't  you a knight."

      "I was low born boy. We don't get to be knights. The best hope for us, is to be a good soldier and not die in battle. Then we get to go home after the war and learn the family trade. Since I was an orphan, I had no family to learn a trade from, so I latched on to this old lump of coal here."

       I couldn't believe what I was hearing. My father was a hero of the Blind War. I decided at that moment, that I was going to make him proud and become a knight.

Old Friends And Eye Exams.

     I know that it is only Tuesday night, but it has been a week of Mondays at work. It's one of those, everything that can go wrong, goes wrong sort of weeks. Fortunately we have gotten through it with little turmoil. It's so ridiculous how bad it is, that we are left laughing about it. Every turn leads to another problem, and we troubleshoot and solve that one, just to have another one pop up. When I left work today, everything was under control. It took a lot of work, but we got things in line. Now, will it stay that way through the night shift? I really don't know, but I'm hoping it does. I' guess I'll find out in the morning.

     It's going to be a fun weekend for me. The new season of Stranger Things is going to be released on Friday, and I have an eye exam scheduled for Saturday afternoon. I know, does the excitement every stop? Actually, I'm looking forward to the eye exam for a couple of reasons. The first being that I am in need of new glasses. I've been living with a scratched lens on them for a good while now, and It is annoying the bejeezus out of me. It will probably take a couple of weeks before the new ones come in, but it's something to look forward to. Another reason is, that a very old friend of mine works there, and it will be very good to see her again. I grew up with her in my neighborhood. I found out from another old neighborhood kid, that she is in the middle of a divorce right now. Not saying that is a good reason to see her, just that I would love to hear what happened. I've been told that her husband was a real controlling jerk, and if that is the case, I'm shocked that she didn't get away sooner. She was always a strong women, to see her in a controlling relationship seems very foreign to me. I'll let you know all about it in the Sunday post.

     I have had a hard time trying to get decent shots of Morty. He is a high energy dog. That is natural in a terrier breed, and he doesn't like to stay still for very long. When I see the opportunity for a good shot, Morty takes notice of me trying to get my phone out to get a picture of him, and he starts to go fro my hand so that I'll leave the camera alone. It's a never-ending battle. Yesterday though, Morty was standing with his back to me, and I got two really cool shots of him. It doesn't show that baby boy face of his, but it shows that proud stance that he has. Here they are.

     Until I can figure out a way to get him to sit still for a photoshoot, this is the best I'll be able to do. My favorite of the two, is the top one. He looks so regal looking over his domain. One day, I'll get that perfect shot, but until then, these will do.

     This is going to be another short one tonight. Don't forget that The Patchwork Knight starts on Thursday. I still haven't figured out exactly how I'm going to start it, but I'll know for sure when I sit down to start typing it. 

     This brings us to Favorite Song of the Week, and we are going old school with this one. This is back in the early days of hip hop, and it takes me back to when I was in high school and me and my friends would do the douchiest thing ever. We would ride around all night in a car, trying to hit on other girls in cars at stop lights. It never worked, but we kept trying it week after week. Anyway, enough of that, this song was part of the soundtrack for those nights. It comes from a duo out of Harlem, and this was their biggest song. It was so big in fact, that it relegated them to "one hit wonder" status, despite the fact that they had a few other hits after this one. Trust me, it doesn't matter who you are, and what type of music you are in to, you have heard this song, and you've liked it. It is just way to catchy not to. It's not a cheesy catchy either, it is a real good, make you want to dance catchy, and those are the best kind of catchy tunes. Sadly, in 2014 we lost on of the duo, and that was the end of the act. Rob Base is the surviving member of Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock. They took the world by storm in 1988, and really destroyed the mold of what you were used to hearing from the hip hop world at that time. They gave it a real good Harlem flavor, that just wasn't there before. Here is Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock with "It Takes Two".

     Oh yeah, I've done a few karaoke sessions with this song, and had a great time doing it. This song always gets a crowd going. Guaranteed to get everyone on the floor. If you are every at a wedding where no one is dancing, play this song, and then follow it up with Sir Mix A Lot's Apache. Thedance floor will be full in no time.

     There you have it, a great song to get your day started. Yeah, I know that you don't get to see this until the morning after I post it. Well morning at the earliest. Peace in and goodnight.

Morty Makes A Friend.

     I found a mistake in my review for the AGV K5-S Helmet. If you watched the video, I mentioned that the one downside was the Pinlock shield that was on the helmet. I found out today, that there was a thin removable layer that was causing that cloudy affect on it. I took that off today when I cleaned of that shield, and viola, it is as clear as a bell. I did mention that it was probably a mistake on my part that was causing that cloudiness, and I was right. I'll have to put that shield back on at some point and see how well it really works. I think once it gets cooler, and I have need of a fog free view.

     I was planning on having a video to post on here tonight, but everything went haywire when I tried to record it on Friday afternoon. I had to do an update on the GoPro, and I'm not sure that that had something to do with the problems. I've used the voice command on it this entire time, but for some reason, on Friday, it kept cutting off on me. It could have misheard something I said and thought that I told it to stop recording, or it just cut off. I'll play around with it this week and see if it was user error or something in the new software update.

     I ended up at my bank tellers window again. She wasn't feeling well. Just getting over a sinus infection. I know how annoying those are. I get them all the time. She has the similar problem of a constant cough after the infection has cleared up. I offered a get well soon, and then went on my merry way to not record a video. Oh yeah, the video wasn't anything new for you, it was just talking about the new and improved Thursday Knight Post. I rehashed everything I mentioned in the blog on Thursday. I could have done it this morning, but Morty kept me up most of the night. He decided to sleep in bed with me, and took up the whole bed, which meant I spent the whole night awake and not sleeping with a headache building.

     Speaking of Morty, we went on a little road trip yesterday, so that he could meet Elie and her dog Gandolph the White. Gandi is what I like to refer to as a Teacup Polar Bear. In reality, he is a Great Pyrenees, and is rather large. They got along smashingly. I was worried about how Morty would act around a dog that was bigger than he was, but my worries were for naught. Within a couple of seconds, I took the leash off, and let them get familiar with each other. Gandi is an older dog at this point, so I was mostly worried about Morty's high energy, but Gandi was the one that wanted to play, and Morty just stood there looking at Gandi like he was nuts. I was so happy to see them getting along. I'll be able to take Morty over from time to time, to visit. I did get a picture of them together. It's funny because I put it with the picture of Morty and The Truff, and the contrast of each of them standing next to one another.

     You can see that, The Truff standing next to Morty is almost like Morty standing next to Gandi. Morty looks like a tiny actual lapdog, instead of the lapdog he thinks he is. We figured that Gandi has about 80 lbs. on Morty, so he is a big boy. Two fun things that happened during the visit, was that at one point, Gandi got stuck trying to hop up on the deck like Morty. I had to go in behind him and give him a boost up. The other thing was a little scary at first. I was sitting on the deck looking out over the lake, when I saw out of the corner of my eye, Morty running down the brick wall that separates Elie's property from the lake. I knew what was coming next. Morty fan right off the wall and disappeared in the brush below. I ran around to the wall, to see if he was ok, and he was hopping from spot to spot. The brush was too high for him to walk through. Then he made a big mistake. One hop took him right into the lake. That changed his mind about being down there. I was able to coax him over the low side of the wall, and he hopped up and over. His punishment was that he had to stay outside until he mostly dried off. This was a punishment, because he wanted to go directly inside after his little excursion.

     Beside that little incident, Morty was real good. I was worried that he would jump up on Elie's lap and injure her healing pelvis, but he stayed real polite and sat beside her. i could tell that he liked her a bunch, and I'm sure that the feeling was mutual from her. Morty was also pretty good in the car, but we have a few things to work on. He insisted on being in the front seat alongside of me, which isn't the best place for him to be. One reason is, that there isn't a lot of stability up there like on the floor in the back, but he wouldn't stay back there. Another reason was that he kept sitting up, and I couldn't see the side mirror to make lane changes. I had to turn around and look out the side and rear windows, so it was manageable. The last thing that is the real problem, is that he kept wanting to crawl over onto my lap. That was a big fat no. I had to push him back several times, and keep him from stepping on the shifter. If he could just sit still in the passenger seat, it wouldn't be so bad, but with all that energy he has, it's going to be a work in progress.

     The Walking Dead returns tonight, and I'm ready for it. I'm watching a couple of recorded episodes of Z Nation to prepare for it. It's not as good as The Walking Dead, but it's fun. It's a SyFy original series. It kind of parodies TWD, but has it's own original take on things, and because of that, it's more serious than you usual parody. If you are ever bored, give it a chance. It comes on Friday nights on the SyFy channel. I'm sure that it's available on Netflix. Hold on a sec, and I will look. Yep, the first 3 seasons are available there. I missed most of season 1, so I might have to go back and give it a watch on Netflix. 

     That's all I have for tonight, I hope this week finds you well, and don't forget that the first chapter or prologue for The Patchwork Knight will be up on Thursday. I still haven't decided if I want to go Chapter of Prologue yet. I'll figure it out when I sit down to write it. Peace in and goodnight.

What's Going To Happen On Thursday Knights?

     We have a lot to get to tonight, and not a lot of time to fit it all in, so let's dive right in. I promised you a picture of the Rick & Morty socks, so here they are.

     Pretty sweet socks right? They are in two pairs, but I could really switch it up, and wear one of each when I put them on. I haven't decided yet. Maybe I'll just go with the designated pairs first, and then switch it up after. I think that would be the best approach. Rick is on tap for tomorrow, and then I'll smack the Morty's on for Saturday.

     Remember when I talked about that show that fails to utilize the Oxford comma? Me, Myself and I? This week they did a Star Wars episode, and it was once again, great. I just looked it up, and you can watch all the episodes on the CBS website. If you are so inclined to watch a really good show, then just click on this link, Me, Myself and I and you can check them out for yourself. I promise you, that they are good, and you will feel emotion. Yeah, I know, how dare I make you feel things, but sometimes we have to.

     Ever hear of a guy named Robert Plant? Wait, are you kidding me? You haven't heard of him? Ok, let me throw this name out there, Led Zeppelin? Ah, there we go, I knew you would know who it is. Robert Plant is of course the former lead singer of Led Zeppelin. Well I guess technically he is the current lead singer of Led Zeppelin, but they haven't played or toured together for years. Anyway, the point I'm getting at, is that he was on The Howard Stern Show this week, and the topic came up, of which is the best Led Zeppelin album. Everyone started throwing out album titles, and there was no definitive choice, so I had to do a little research. I am what you would call a casual Led Zeppelin fan. I've heard most of the songs, because they are all over the radio and other listening devices, so I've never had to buy an album. I decided this week, that I would listen to each album and then make my pick for best Led Zeppelin album. I made my choice, and it is. Led Zeppelin II. That's right, their second album is the best one. There are a couple of reasons. One is that the album is jam packed with hit after hit. Even if you don't like Led Zeppelin, I can almost assuredly guarantee you, that you have heard every song on that album. If you had to find out just who and what Led Zeppelin are, that would be the album that you would listen to. The first one I'm sure was groundbreaking when it came out, but they were still trying to find themselves with that one. Of course this is entirely my opinion on things, and I have no facts to back this up. Led Zeppelin III seemed to be the "we are victims of our own success" album. It is that 70's rock sound, but it seems like it is a little cliche with what was going on sonically at that time. Led Zeppelin IV gets them back to that sound that they created, it is also the album with the second most songs that you've probably heard. Now, I'm going to put Houses of the Holy, and Physical Graffiti together, and here is the reason for that. From what I was told, they created so many songs for HOTH, that they made Physical Graffiti as an outtake album. Both really good, but clearly this is when they went experimental. Trying new sounds. That being said, I will make a little separation in the two, because I put Physical Graffiti as their second best album, and not just because my favorite LZ song, "Kashmir" is on there. It is just a really great album. Here is my list of their albums in order from best to least best.

Led Zeppelin II

Physical Graffiti

Led Zeppelin IV

Houses of the Holy

Led Zeppelin 

Led Zeppelin III

     There you have it, not that you really asked for it, but if you ever wanted to know how you should listen to Led Zeppelin, there it is.

     Since I had been listening to LZ all week, I decided that we should do a little LZ song in my guitar class. I chose "The Rain Song". Not the easiest song in the world. There is a lot going on with it, and there is a unique tuning for it. All the strings expect one are tuned down a full step, but the second string is tuned up a half step. Trust me, that is a pretty strange way to tune a guitar, but it really works for this song. It gives the strings this really odd and beautiful tone to them. It had my teacher excited to go through it, and since we delved into new tunings, he waist Kashmir is up next. It has a unique tuning as well. Then he mentioned some other songs, that is really unique, so the next three weeks are covered in class.

     Ok. I'm almost near the end of what I wanted to say tonight. Just two more things. I can't believe I'm going to get it all in without forgetting anything. Second to last but not least. I got that little handle/tripod for the GoPro, and I think it is going to work out great. It's a little smaller than I had expected, but that works for convenience of storage. I took a couple of pictures of it in the tripod set up. Here is what it looks like with the GoPro in it.

    That is in it's compact and extended mode. I'm going to have some fun playing around with it like that. I got some ideas, and you will see them in the future.

     Final thing on the agenda. I have an idea, and I think I'm going to give it a try. This will change the CS Blog a little bit, because I will be doing something a bit different on Thursday nights, starting next week. What is this mad and crazy idea? I've had this idea for a story in my head for a long time now. It stems from a single idea based on the sleeve on my arm. Tattoo sleeve that is. I call it The Patchwork Knight. I've had thoughts about it, but never anything with any umph behind it. Here was my problem, I had a general idea, but nowhere to go with it. I originally thought of it as a potential children's book, but this week I came up with an opening line and a place for it to go, and I don't think it could be a children's book anymore. With all of that in mind, I'm going to take Thursday nights, and write a chapter each week for it. I will write it free flowing as it comes into my head, and we can see if I can take this anywhere. I've always wanted to write a story about Knights and battles back in the dark Medieval times. This is either going to be really fun, or a tragic disaster, either way, you will get to witness the whole thing right here every Thursday night. Actually, let's change that to Thursday Knight. See what I did there. I think I just came up with the title for tonights post. You can look forward to either a Prologue or the First Chapter next week. I haven't really decided if I want to do a prologue with some foreshadowing in it, or just start with the beginning and take it from there. you will find out next Thursday Knight though. Ha, I like that. Ok I have to go to bed, so peace in and goodKnight.

What Am I Going To Do?

     I had something that I wanted to mention tonight, but I've totally forgotten it. It was something that I was going to mention on Thursday night, but that idea went out the window with the rant that I had. Oh wait, I just remembered it. I downloaded a new dating app. Have I used it yet? Nope. Why is that? Well, you have to have a Facebook account to use it, and since I got rid of Facebook, I can't use it at all. It won't let you sign up any other way. The app is called Bumble and the unique thing about Bumble is that once you match with someone, only the woman can message at first. It's all in their hands.

     I have a question for you. Would it be worth it for me to reactivate my Facebook account in order to use this app? You have to consider something along with that question. I have had little to no luck with any dating sites or apps, and Facebook was poisoning my soul. I had to get rid of it, or I was going to lose myself. I know that sounds dramatic, but it was very true at the time. It was leading me to suicidal thoughts. It came down to the point where it was either it, or me, and I chose me. I know people didn't really understand that at the time, but I couldn't take all the negative output on there. I can't tell you how much happier I have been without it. Sure I've lost out on some things, and a few friends went awol when I left, but here is the way I look at the latter. If they were meant to stay in my life, they would have found a way. I did my part by reaching out at times, but had little response from them. It is what it is.. That is everything you need to know, to answer the above question.

     I got a new Rick & Morty Funko Pop Vinyl figure this week. This one is Snowball the canine overlord. It's from an episode where Rick made a device that would allow Snowball the family dog to speak. Snowball then became smart and figured out how to make more of the device and build robot bodies for themselves and they took over the world to become canine overlords. Great and funny episode, but which episode isn't. here is Snowball.

    Pretty cure right? Oh, I also got a couple pair of Rick & Morty socks. I'll have to get a picture of those for you on Thursday. 

     It's going to be a short one tonight. I only have one more thing before I get to Favorite Song of the Week. There was Morty incident this morning. Morty went after The Truff. I had to grab him and yank him away. It wan't pretty. After I analyzed what happened, I realized that he really wasn't going after her. it was just a series of unfortunate events, and no, Limney Snicket was not involved. Here is what happened. I just fed Morty and The Truff. They both finished rather fast, and Morty was a little more high energy than normal. He always gets excited when he eats, and gets into that food frenzy. It takes some time to calm down from that, but today he was up a little higher than usual. He got excited and was wanting to play, but I had to make my lunch for work. The Truff was also acting abnormal, and wandering out to see what I was doing, and follow Morty around. I was going out after I finished making mu lunch to get Morty to say goodbye, when it all happened. He was excited when I came around the corner, and being in that playful food frenzy mode. He went for his new alligator toy. The Truff was standing right next to it, and she got caught up in the steamroller that is Morty in that frenzy. I think he got his mouth around her for a split second, but that was enough for her. She squealed and tried to run but he was still going after the gator and she was still in the way. After about 3 feet of pushing both of them, I was able to get to Morty and grab his collar and pull him back over to his bed. I yelled at him for going after her, but soon realized that it was the gator that he wanted and she just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I went out to the TV room to check on her, and she was in an adrenaline panic and was running around not letting me get to close to her. I finally got a hold of her and checked her out, and other than a little Morty slobber on her, she was ok. I closed her off in that room and separated her from Morty so that she could regain her comfort level. That is when I saw the gator on the floor where I had separated them. I picked up that gator and took it over to Morty and apologized for yelling at him, but told him that he has to be aware of The Truff. They were all fine seconds after it all happened, and I felt bad for yelling at Morty.

     On to Favorite Song of the Week. This one is a throw back, and it all came about because this band or artist, depending on how you look at it, just put out a new album that I was listing to yesterday. Listening to that new album made me remember the first album that they did, and I had to listen to that as well. That brought up an old memory about this band that is a pretty fun one. The band is Marilyn Manson, and around the time that they were being signed to Nothing Records which was Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails label. It was a sub-section of Interscope Records. Anyway, around the time they were getting signed to that label, they were doing a headlining tour of Florida, where they had formed. Believe it or not, but Marilyn Manson is a Miami band. Anyways, be and a few friends were big fans, and they were coming to a small club in Melbourne. We had our tickets and were ready to go. Here is how big of fans we were. The song I'm going to play for you inspired what we had planned to do at the show. The song is "My Monkey", and that inspired us to go out and buy this little monkey that would clip on things. The original idea, was that we were going to give it to Marylin at some point during the show, but that plan changed. The show was small. There were five bands in the lineup that night, but the crowd was only about 50 people or so. Marilyn Manson had a small loyal fan base, but it hadn't grown at all yet. The nation didn't know about them yet. Finally Manson hit the stage. I was up close but there was about a five foot gap between me and anyone else. All of a sudden some guy started crowd surfing and was coming my way. He was going to take a header into the ground if I didn't do something., so I reached up with my left hand and grabbed his collar, and as he was pushed forward over me, I reached my right hand up and grabbed lower, and just threw him across the gap so that he would hit the rest of the crowd. I heard the guy screaming bloody murder as he was flying across the gap, and that is when I realized where I had grabbed with my right hand. If you guessed his crotch, you would be right. I was just trying to make sure the guy didn't go head first into the ground. He was ok, as far as I could tell.

     What did that have to do with the little monkey? Nothing really, but I just remember that as being a pretty funny part of the night. Back to the monkey though. Even though the crowd was small, they started getting rowdy. The venue didn't put a lot of forethought into selling drinks, and were selling beer in the bottle. Bad idea for a small place like that. People started rushing and climbing up on the stage, and Marilyn lost it. He yelled over the mic between songs, "The next motherfucker that comes up on this stage, is going to get his ass kicked." My friend came over to me, and said he was going to climb on stage. I looked at him as if he was insane. Didn't you just hear Marylin, dude, you can't go up on stage. "I'm going to do it.", and off he ran. He started climbing up on the stage a few feet to the right of Marilyn. Right in front of Marilyn was another guy climbing up on stage. Fortunately for my friend, Marilyn saw him, and swung the microphone around, and slammed it on the top of the other guys head. My friend slowly slunk down from the stage and ran over to me. That is when I saw the bottle flying through the air, and hit Twiggy Ramirez in the head. That ended the show, and we hadn't gotten the monkey to Marilyn. 

     They were clearing everyone out, and the band was behind a barricade on the side of the stage. I asked my friend if he had the monkey, and told him to give it to me, I had an idea. I grabbed him and we ran over to the barricade. Daisy Berkowitz was right next to the barricade, and Twiggy was standing a few feet away with a rag full of ice on his head. I tapped Daisy on the shoulder and said, "Hey Daisy, can you give this to Twiggy? We are sorry that happened, and you guys were great tonight." Daisy looked at the money, and said,"Ok". He then called over to Twiggy and tossed the monkey to him, "These guys wanted you to have this." Twiggy caught it, looked at it, smiled and laughed and then said, "Thank you". Then we went of into the night with the story of how we gave Twiggy Ramirez a little clip on monkey. Hey, it was a fun story to me, and it was a fun night despite the fact that some putz ruined the rest of the night by tossing a beer bottle on stage. Anyway, here is the song. It's maybe the weirdest song that Marilyn Manson ever did, and I don't know where it really fits in with their sound, but we loved that song, and that is what inspired us to get that little monkey. here is Marilyn Manson with "My Monkey".

     I hope you enjoyed that fun little song. There is a background story to that song that I know, but it's late, and it's probably not all that interesting to you. I happened to know a girl that grew up with Daisy Berkowitz, and she told me about the little girl that is also in the song. It was the child of a mutual friend. Told you it wasn't all that interesting. Peace in and goodnight.

Back To Frivolity.

     Ok, back to the frivolity. Oh oh oh, remember when I said that it would be just perfectly awkward if I ended up at my bank tellers window when I went in to deposit my check on Friday? Guess what happened? Wait, did you guess it, I can't read your mind through the blog. Ok, yes, I ended up at her window. It wan't awkward. I guess I could have made it so, but I had no desire to do so. We talked about the fact that it was Friday, but she had to work on Saturday, so Friday wasn't that great of a thing. I mentioned that she wouldn't miss out on anything because it was supposed to rain. She said that is when everyone comes in, and made a joke about yelling at everyone to stay home. That's when one of the other tellers asked if I had any fun plans for the weekend, and I said the I was just staying home with the dog. I guess I could have said that I was going to try to work on a video for YouTube, but I don't know if that holds any value to anyone other than me, so I left it as it was. I told them both to have a nice weekend, and then wandered back out into the rain.

     Staying home with the dogs is all I pretty much did this weekend. I did get to finish that video for YouTube, and posted it this morning. I had a hell of a time editing it last night. I was having trouble with things loading in iMovie, and I had to shut it down a couple of times. It took me a little longer than usual because of this, and also, because I was doing a few new things with it. I really like the way it came out. I still have a few more tricks that I want to try and figure out, but they wouldn't have made any sense in this video. I need to just get some footage and play around a bit, with no intentions of uploading it. Practice makes perfect. Instead of making a little promo for Instagram, I used the sneak peak video I sent to Elie. I think it worked out great. It was exactly a minute long, and I even had that in the video, to show the helmet in action. I thought I would be able to get the video in at under 10 minutes, but I seem to not be able to shut up once I start talking and it ended up just over 12 minutes. 12:39 to be exact. Check it out, I even added a fun clip of Morty when I got home.



     There you have it. I have to say, the funnest part about it (man I hate using words like funnest, but most fun didn't seem appropriate) is using the music from Epidemic Sound. Just searching around and listening to all the music they have, gives me tons of ideas for videos and scenes. I've been stock piling songs for future videos, that will utilize the new cameras I'm looking at getting. That is the handheld and the drone. I especially get ideas involving drone footage, so when I finally do get one, you will see some of these ideas come to life.

     I ordered an extension pole and tripod for the GoPro today. This should help me out quite a bit with footage off the bike until I get that handheld camera. Plus, I can even set the GoPro up and do some ride bys with it. I could get some of the shots I've been dying to get of me going around corners, an see exactly how low I am getting at this point. That should be fun. Oh, I forgot to mention, that I accidentally shot the above video in a different setting. The GoPro has several film settings for the view. I had set this to Narrow for the on bike stuff of me in the helmet. I forgot to return it to Superview or Wide for the POV stuff. I don't think it affected the view as much as I thought it would, but it does leave a little of the sides out of it. The view you see is more roadside to roadside, when it would normally go about 10 to 20 feet beyond that. Let me know if you like that better than what I normally have it at. Your feedback will help me out greatly in getting the most pleasing visuals for you.

     Morty actually let me sleep in today. It wasn't without a lot of coaxing on my part, but he finally just crawled into bed with me and slept down near my feet. I was able to sleep until 8. It was fantastic. I of course was awoken several times from 4 AM on, before he finally just dozed off with me. I took him for a walk in his new no pull harness, and he still managed to pull. We have a lot of work to do.. I did take him for a ride yesterday so that I could get some Taco Bell. I know, it's not the healthiest of food, but I didn't want to cook anything, and I really wanted to try that Crispy Chicken Quesadilla. It's not bad, but it's not great either. I don't know if I would get it again. The chicken is good, but it is anything but crispy. After you get it in there with the cheese and the spicy sauce that they add to it, it sucks up so much moisture that all the crispiness is gone. It's worth a try, maybe you will get luckier with the crispiness than I did. Anyway, Morty did really well in the car, and didn't do anything odd when I rolled the window down to pay or when I got my order. He just hungout in the backseat and looked around.

     On a Morty side note. We have been working on his commands, and he has gotten really good at sit and stay. He still needs some work on staying when I walk around a corner out of sight, but he did surprisingly well up to that point. His lay down has gotten really good as well. I'm scheduling his wellness exam for this Saturday , and afterwards, we are going to take a drive to Orlando to visit Elie and Gandi. This will be Morty's first time meeting another dog other than The Truff. Well, with me anyway, and I'm not entirely sure how it will go. I know Gandi's temperament, and he should be fine, but he hasn't had another large dog in the house since Ani died, so it's hard to tell if he will have some sort of reaction. Morty on the other hand hasn't had any bad reaction when he sees large dogs in the neighborhood, but I have kept him on the other side of the street. I have no idea exactly how he will be face to face with another large dog, actually an extra large dog. Gandi is big. I confident that if anything does go awry, that I can keep Morty separated. I may have to drag him off a bit, but that's the whole reason I got the harness. Pulling him away with that won't do him any harm like it would if it was just a collar. I'm hoping for the best, but expecting the worst.

     I'm trying to decide whether I want to stay up and watch the season finale of Fear the Walking Dead. It's a two hour episode tonight, which would have it ending at 11. I'm thinking I'm just going to skip it since I record it anyway. I'll watch it tomorrow. There decision is made. Despite Morty letting me sleep in today, he didn't let me do that on Saturday, so I'm still tired.

     That's it for me. I have to dry my clothes still, and then fold them, so my night should be adventurous. Peace in and goodnight.

The War On Women Is Real. Maybe It's Time For Men To Retreat.

     Let's just get into this. There has been a lot going on in the news lately, and I always try my best to keep politics out of this, but sometimes you just have to speak up when you see or hear something that is wrong.

     One of the biggest stories in the news the past week has been the sexual harassment claims made by women about Harvey Weinstein. I say claims because there is liability when you say something about someone without it being proven in a court of law, and although in some cases, it has been proven, not all of them are sorted out yet. Now that that is taken care of, I believe every one of those women that made the claim. One in particular is standing out, because she has been making the claims for years, and it clearly affected her career. That is Rose McGowan. She settled her lawsuit with Weinstein for the simple reason that it offered her some closure. In the eyes of many, myself included in that many, a settlement is an admission of guilt. It's taken years for her to get her point across about what he did to her, and no one would listen, because of the power he held. You may say, "She settled, why didn't she fight it all the way to the end if she knew she was right?" Here is the very simple reason. If she fought all the way to the bitter end, she would end up with nothing. It was either fight a powerful and wealthy company with it's team of lawyers, or settle and get that veiled admission of guilt. There really isn't a choice in the matter. The settlement was the best option that she was going to have.

     Even with that settlement, her career was damaged. She was blacklisted and considered a troublemaker. It kept her out of the mainstream high paying jobs that she was getting before all of this began. She has stated that she never did anything for money. She was an actress because it was what she loved to do. She still worked, but all those big name projects were gone.

     She is now standing up and being heard for the first time in a long time, and part of that is because of numbers. There are more women standing up and saying what had happened to them, With numbers comes power. In this case, it is the power to be heard. Harvey is the first to topple, and there will be more before this is all over.

     Those women standing up isn't everything though. That gets the ball rolling. It starts a dialogue that is long overdue, and that dialogue should include how we raise our male children. For far too long we have raised them to see women as the weaker sex. That just isn't the case. I know you can argue that "no woman is stronger than a man". I got news for you. There are many women that are stronger than men. There are many women that are smarter than men. We need to start teaching our boys at a young age that women are equals. This divide that is instilled in young boys and girls is pointless. There is no reason for it at all. We are different in a lot of ways: physically, emotionally, mentally, but ask yourself this. If you were standing next to someone of the same gender as you, would you be exactly like that person? The answer, no. You would be different: physically, emotionally, mentally. The same differences apply in any situation. It's time we stop focusing on those differences, and start looking at what we have in common. The most important thing we have in common, is that we are alive at this time, and we have a chance to do something that hasn't been done in a long time, and in some instances has never been done at all. We can look to the person next to us as a complete equal.

     Earlier today, Rose McGowan's twitter account was suspended. They are saying that it was because she revealed a person's phone number, but if you have been on twitter for any period of time, you would see that that particular thing runs rampant on there. This is all speculation on my part, but I think she was suspended for a more nefarious reason. She was calling out men of power. She has had her account restored, and I believe that was because of a tremendous uproar from people calling out twitters hypocrisy. They drew a proverbial line in the sand, and a whole lot of people crossed it.

     While all this was going on, our government has seen fit to take away a few rights from women. They have put a bill to a vote that will limit abortions and they are rolling back a mandate that had employers insurance pay for birth control. Can't have an abortion, nor can you have a pill to avoid having to have an abortion. That is pure genius there, and yes that is dripping with sarcasm. Women's rights are human rights, it's plain and simple. So simple in fact that the brilliant minds in D.C. seem to overlook that at every possible point.

     Speaking of the brilliant minds in D.C. There has been another big story for the past few weeks, and that is the whole kneeling during the anthem thing. Here is the bottom line on taking a knee during the anthem. It is not a disrespect to the; flag, veterans, military personnel, or the country. What it is, is a quiet protest of police violence towards black men, but it even goes deeper than that. It goes to the whole point of racism in this country. Yes, it is alive, and I hate to say it, well in this country. I don't want it to be well, I want it to be floundering and withering on the floor of history, but sadly it isn't. I support all the players that are protesting in whatever peaceful way that they are doing it. As a matter of fact, this all started when Colin Kaepernick sat down during the national anthem at a San Francisco 49'ers game a year ago. He later had a conversation with former Green Beret Nate Boyer,  who simply asked him to take a knee, rather than sit. Taking that knee was more respectful than just sitting. It showed that there was a reason you were not taking part in the anthem.

     Some pretty high powered figures have tried to turn these peaceful protests into an anti-American agenda, and that just isn't the case. It is what it is, and what it is, is a peaceful protest to spark a dialogue about what is going on with racism in this country. Since we are talking about political figures and respect for the flag, I want you to watch the two videos I'm going to post below. They show very similar situations, and the different reactions to those situations. One was yesterday, and the other was 10 years ago. After you watch them, I'm going to have a question for you, and I want you to think long and hard about the answer.






     Now that you have watched both of those, I'm going to give you a little bit of information about what was going on, and then I'll ask that question. In both videos, the events were both interrupted by the 5PM bugle call, which is known as "Retreat". It is then followed by "To The Colors". This signals the end of the daily duty, and the flag is lowered. When "Retreat" begins, all personnel are to stop what they are doing and turn towards the flag with their right hadn't over their heart, or in the direction that the music is coming from if a flag is not visible. Once "Retreat" is over, "To The Colors" begins, and all military personnel are to stand at attention and salute. It is asked that civilians in the presence of this, stand quietly and show respect for the flag. Now for that question. In which video did you see a display of respect for the flag? Was it the highest ranking official in the military as the Commander in Chief, or was it the comedian performing for the troops in Kandahar?

     I'm sorry I had to lay all this out there, but it felt important to do. I'll get back to the nonsense that is my life on Sunday. Peace in and goodnight.