It Was A Fun Weekend.

     I just ordered an adaptor that should help out with my wifi problem with my MacBook. It is an adaptor that will connect my ethernet cable to the MacBook, and I won't have to use wifi for it so much. That will hopefully cut down on my upload times, and also stop holding me up in posting these blogs. It's been weird that it happened whenever I upload video clips form the GoPro that it happens, but it is happening and I need to find a work around, and I think I just found it.

     With that out of the way, let's talk about some good stuff. First thing is that I made the video about Wayback Burgers yesterday. A few things came out of this. I did an Instagram Story along with it, and I felt way more comfortable in front of the camera. I can only assume it is because of my time doing the PR. It felt really good to be doing it, and it even felt better making the video.

     Before we get to the video, I want to give my review. The Cheeeesy, was pretty fantastic, and much better than I thought it would be. They use hand formed patties that are made from fresh beef. As far as it being a cheeseburger, it had all the elements of one, but it was more like the best patty melt I have ever had. If you don't know what a patty melt is, it is generally ground beef formed in a longer than usual patty, fried up, then put between two slices of rye bread, with several slices of cheese, and sometimes sautéed onions, which is then fried like a grilled cheese sandwich. They are truly one of my favorite food. That used to be my one birthday celebration. I would have a patty melt for my birthday every year. I haven't done it in years though, so this sandwich brought back some memories for me. I also got the O-fries with it, I misnamed them O-rings when I was talking about hem before. The fries are pretty common, nothing special about them, but they are good. The extra kick of the onion rings though, makes this a staple for me when I visit them again, and I will be visiting them again. The onion rings are fantastic. Fried to perfection with that little pop of grease when you bite into them. I could even see myself just getting onion rings the next time I go, but that just isn't as fun as the O-fries. I added the Jungle Crumble shake with this. It is a rich thick chocolate shake with gummy worms and crumbled oreos on top. It is exactly as you think it would be. Decadent as all get out, and a joy to have. I have pictures of all this, but I'll share those after the video. It's a short one this time, so please enjoy it.



     That was a really fun video to make, and I kept the time way down. I like the way these short videos are turning out. I have the pictures for you right here. Enjoy the foodiness of this food porn.

     Now that all that is out of the way, I guess I should mention that I did stop by and get the photo that I needed for the last place the PR reviewed. I don't think I talked about the failure of my partner to get the shot that we need for the blog post. I like to start the entire thing with a photo of either the restaurant or the sign. It's like an introduction to we are at that day. It is his only job when we are on location other than eating pizza, and his last two photos, haven't really been up to par. The Purple Rain Cafe was off center, and this most recent one was chopped. The work around on this one, was that I had to go by and get the shot myself. It worked out, since I was going there for Wayback, which was on my way home from there. I've been help up by this, so I will actually be writing the blog post tomorrow so that it will be ready for it's Friday release. That obliterated my whole sitting back and forgetting about the whole thing for a week or so. We don't have to post another review for three weeks at this point, but we do need to find time to go to the next place to get our review done. I'm hoping for doing it next week, so that I have time to get everything together.

     I should mention that the Purple Rain Cafe has closed it's doors. The loss of their pizza chef was too much for them to overcome. I don't know the story of how he left, since in the post I read about the doors closing, sounded more like he left rather than got fired. My partner told me he was fired. He really needs to work on his confirmation skills.

     On to other fun things. I finished watching season two of A Series of Unfortunate Events. It stars Neil Patrick Harris, and it is quite fantastic. I highly recommend watching this series on Netflix. It is very good, and family friendly. It is based on the Lemony Snicket books of the same name written by Daniel Handler. It appears based on something they actually say during the show, that there is only one more season, that will wrap this whole series up. I still have the Santa Clarita Diet to watch. That stars Drew Berrymore. She plays a zombie in a humorous way. Her and her husband played by Timothy Olyphant, go around and kill people Dexter style (bad people that probably deserve to die) so that she can eat. They released season two a couple of weeks ago, so I got some TV viewing in front of me.

     I think I should wrap this up while the getting is good. With the wifi trouble I'm having it makes it problematic when it comes to posting this up. I keep getting warnings that the auto save is not working, so while it is working right now. I'm going to close this out. Not before I mention that the finale of The Walking Dead is tonight, and they are pairing it with the premier of Fear the Walking Dead. I'm going to be so tired tomorrow. Peace in and goodnight.
   

The Patchwork Knight (Chapter 23)

          Sir Wallace and his men made camp at the base of the forest for a six weeks. During that time, they would trek out on scouting missions to the outlying trails that crossed the mountains, in search of Raiders. Sir Wallace also asked to train with me on the mornings when he was at the camp. My father had given me explicit instructions not to do anything more than the 5th movement when I trained with him. According to my father the Targen Knights only knew 8 of the movements. When I asked him why, he said that, "it was for the safety of the Realm."  I didn't understand that until much much later in my life, but we will get to that in good time. I did as my father told me, and only trained  to the 5th movement whenever I was with Sir Wallace.

    "You are greatly improved Pitre. You showed great potential at the tournament and nearly beat Princess Alma. I don't think she would stand a chance now though."

     "Thank you Sir Wallace. I have trained every day since my return form the Kingdom. I want to make the King proud when I return ."

     "I don't think you will have to worry about that. The King took a liking to you at the tournament. He wouldn't have given you the offer of entrance to the Academy otherwise. Besides, I do think you will be the top student the day you arrive, based on what I've seen. Has your father showed you any more than the 5th movement?"

     "No Sir, I only just learned the 5th movement a week before you arrived." My father also told me not to reveal that I had known more.

     "A week before you say? You are a quick study then. When you father showed me the 5th movement, it took me a month to master it. I imagine that by the time you return to the Kingdom, you will know all 8 of the movements."

     "My father told me that it wouldn't be fair to the other students if I knew all 8, so I am to focus on the first 5 and master them to the best of my ability." My father told me to maintain that charade as well. I am never to reveal that I know more than 5, and let the Targen Knights appear to teach me the final 3, and under no circumstances to ever reveal that I know that the actual number of movements is 13, nor that I know them as well. I was only to use the latter of the movements when I was in dire straights, and that was defined as me seeing no other way out of the situation that I was in beyond the first 8 movements. I swore to my father that I would do as he asked.

     "Your father was always the wisest of us. You will still be further along than all of the students of your year, and even the students a year ahead of you."

     "Can I ask you about my father Sir Wallace?"

     "What do you mean? I'm sure your father can give you much better answers about himself than I can."

     "I'm sure that is true, but he won't tell me much about his time during the Blind War. He only said that he was an infantry soldier until the King recognized him at the tournament."

     "I see, your father was always a very quiet man. He did his job as a Knight, but he never relished in it. As a matter of fact, he seemed to despise it. That is probably why he told you that he was only an infantry soldier."

     "Do you know why he left the Targen Knights?"

     "I only know what he told me. He said that the fighting was done, and so was he. He wanted to raise a family and live a simple life. The King wasn't happy about it. He was losing his best swordsman, but the King honored your father's wishes, because he was the reason we won the war."

     "How so?"

     "Until your father came along, we were struggling to hold a single village. We were nothing more than bumbling fools with sharp pointy pieces of metal. We were better at collecting crops then we were at fighting. The Raiders skill wasn't much better than ours was, but they had numbers. Numbers that overwhelmed us. They had 20 men for every one of ours. When your father taught us how to swing our swords, one of our men was worth 50 of theirs. It turned the tide of the war, and allowed us to keep our land. That is all that we wanted, to just live in peace in our little parcel known as the Realm."

     "The 8 movements made that much of a difference?"

     "8? Your father had only taught us 3 at that point. He stayed in the Kingdom just long enough to teach us the remaining 5 movements, and said that that was all that we would need to maintain our protection of the Realm. Then he left and came to this village, and we didn't see him again until that day underneath the arena."

     "Thank you for telling me this Sir Wallace. I need to cut my trees and head to the forge now."

     I ran off to get my trees. I wondered why my father truly stopped at 8 movements. If 8 could do that, why wouldn't he allow them to have all 13. They would have no fear of Raiders coming into the Realm. Although it appeared that they already had no fear of them.

     Sir Wallace and his band of men left after those six weeks. They said they had to check on more location on the border before they headed back to the Kingdom, but they would send out random patrols that would stop by from time to time, to be sure that there was no other encroachment by the Raiders. That was the last time I saw Sir Wallace.

The List Goes On.

     Ok, there were a few more things I wanted to talk about on Sunday night, but I figured that I put you through enough torture for one night. It's a whole new night though, and I got a list. The first and most important thing I wanted to talk about is the new ice cream find that I made. Good Humor is making these new ice cream bars for Reese's. Yes, that Reese's, and they tase incredible. No they don't taste anything like a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, but they do have a real nice peanut butter flavor that doesn't come off as that fake flavor you get from most peanut butter ice cream. The outside of the bar is coated with this cookie crumble that seems to be made up of chocolate and peanut flavored crumbles. I really shouldn't buy any more of them, because I want to eat an entire box in one sitting. I really think I could do it too.  There are six bars per box and they go down real easy.

     Over the weekend I came across an advertisement for two guys that are successful YouTubers. They wanted you to check out a video series that they did, that tells you how to be successful yourself. I decided I had nothing to lose, so I went ahead and signed up. I watched the first video on Saturday, and the mention right off the bat, that this may not work for everyone, but this is what brought them success. I thought for sure, that this video would lead to signing up and paying for more information, but it hasn't, yet. I say yet, because there is still a possibility that they may try to do that, but they have already given out some pretty good and reasonable information. There are 4 videos in the series and they are only going to be online for a limited time. They said they are doing that because they don't want to reward procrastinators. They have been releasing the videos over the course of a week, maybe less. The final video is tomorrow, and that is supposed to be the one that breaks your mind. The video they released today, did open my eyes to a new way to do things, and I'm going to start focusing on implementing those things in my videos, especially the PR. I'm writing the review tomorrow, and then I'm not going to think any more about that until it is time for our next review. Back to these videos though. What they are claiming that if you can do these methods correctly, you can potentially earn a six figure income from your efforts. Here's to hoping. A six figure income would be pretty nice. I could do exactly what I want to do, which is make videos, and I could also help out worthy charities, like I've said I wanted to do all along. I'm going to really make an effort to implement these techniques, and see how it plays out. Worst case scenario, nothing comes of it, and I still make videos because I enjoy it.

     Ok, now a little talk about the PR. I mentioned that I'm writing the review tomorrow, and then leaving it until I post. One good thing came out of my huge mistake with launching the video and then having to take it Private. I can write the whole review, embed the video and be completely done with it. I don't have to copy and paste from Pages or do anything like that. I just write it all at one time, and then hit publish on launch day. I'm going to get my break. I want to spend one week where I don't put any thought into it. No plan for a review, no editing videos for it, no nothing. It is going to be glorious.

      Since tomorrow will be the last day I put any thought into the PR for a week, I should post the latest video that we do have live for you. This is the one I had to put the disclaimer on, because the restaurant let their pizza chef go. I do like the way the video turned out despite the fact that it took about 9 takes to get the opening. Oh, that is nothing compared to the 19 takes we did on the restaurant that we didn't even get to go to on Saturday. Anyway, here is our latest review in video form.



     That does remind me. We are going to be looking for guest reviewers, for places that we have already been to, but haven't reviewed yet. We want to get people that haven't been to those places, to get a fresh perspective on the place. If you want to do it, get in touch with me and I will share a list of upcoming places that we may be going to. If you haven't been to them, then you could be our guest reviewer. I can promise you that you will get a free meal, and you will be featured on our YouTube channel.  Lots of fun.

     As of right now, the weather forecast looks good for me to do my Wayback Burger review/video on either Friday or Saturday. I'm not sure if I'll be working Friday or not, so I have to plan for a Saturday, but if I do have it off, I will be in there for the burger I want on Friday. I'm going to give you a sneak peak at what I'm going to have. There is one burger on the menu that looks fat kidtastic. Here is a link to the menu Wayback It's the first one on the menu. the Cheeeesy. I know that it looks ridiculous, but that is what I want. If you click on their Sides menu items, they have something called O'rings, which is what you hope for when you go to a fast food place that sells both fries and onion rings. It is a container of fries and onion rings together. I'm seriously not going to have to eat for the rest of the weekend after having both of those, and I didn't even mention the shake that I'm getting that. I'll leave that for the video, although, I may do a Insta Story that shows it. I haven't decided about that yet. Oh, one last thing, I'm not going to lie, I'm going to try to get bacon on that burger.

     You know what time it is, Favorite Song of the Week time. I found out about this artist just last week, and she is one of those artist that has been around for quite some time, and I am heartbroken that I haven't heard about her until now. She grew up in Washington state and only wanted to be a singer, so that is what she became, and with her voice, I don't know if there is anything else she could be. Her voice begs to be used, and she uses it to it's full potential. Her voice opens up and fills you with every bit of emotion that she is trying to relay through her lyrics. The song I'm going to share with you, is one that she wrote about a little boy that she knows. He is that awkward kid that is shy and gets picked on, but she is telling him to try your best to ignore all of that, because he is going to win the long game on this one. It's not that much different from her own life, except she wasn't really picked on, she was just that weird kid, that was different. This is Brandi Carlile with her song "The Joke".



     I really hope that you like that song as much as I do. She is a tremendous talent that deserves more attention. Despite being relatively unknown, she sold out three shows at the Berkley Center in New York. She has a pretty rabid fanbase, which I now consider myself one of. Peace in and goodnight.

I'm Fed Up.

     I can't believe that I'm saying this, because we are only a few months in, but I need a break from the PR.  I was once again stressed out about the latest post that went up, and then I had to do an immediate turnaround and do another one on Saturday, which started out as a total train wreck.

     We were finally going to go to the place that we originally were supposed to do when we went to Titusville the first time. We got there, and they are being renovated. I wanted to strangle my partner for not checking into something like that. When I got to his house, he was so happy because he found an article about them in the local paper that was three years old. I asked him if he checked to see if they had a Facebook page that would have announced this, and he said no. We had to find a place in a hurry. I wanted to stay closer to the downtown area, because when we went before, we were in the Southern end of Titusville.  I finally gave in and we went to place that was probably about 2 miles from the last location we did in Titusville. I see that as a bit of a problem, but he was free of any such thought.

     I need to back up a little here. It took us most of the drive to get the intro to the first place. It seems some old issues started coming back, and we need to stop those habits right away. Then there was the fact that he seemed to want it to be more of a, me introduce him, and then he take over the whole thing. Once again, I acquiesced. I need to relinquish responsibility to him so he can see what it actually takes to make this successful. We succeed or fail based on the work we put into it, and right now, it seems like I am the one doing all the work. Since I didn't remind him to promote the last two reviews, the numbers show what is going on. I put all my effort into making sure the YouTube channel was doing good, and it is on par, for the most part, with what we have posted in the past. The blog is a different story though. The last two reviews are struggling for air. The analytics don't lie. They are complete failures compared to the other posts.

     With that being said, the place we went to on Saturday was in a word, amazing. It is one of the best pizzas I've ever had. The place was impeccable. Clean with an upscale feel, and the pizza (we did a Sicilian style) was top notch. Here is a picture I took for the review which will be coming up on the 20th.

     As we were leaving, we ran into the owner. I had given our card to our server, and he passed it on. Once again, the charmer fell short, and I had to step up. I mentioned that the review would be coming up on the 20th, and that he could look for it then. As soon as we were out the door, I started getting notifications that the owners had begun following some of our social media. I think we are going to get a bump from them when we do post. Speaking of posting, that was another bout of anxiety. I edited the video last night, and this morning, decided that I was going to upload it and set the release date and time. I had it all in there. I had it fully uploaded, and then there was some problem with processing. I was trying to figure out what it was when I noticed that I had uploaded it to the wrong channel. That's right, I uploaded it to the CS channel. I had to see if it was in my videos and sure enough, despite the processing problems, it was there, I had to delete it from there, and then start the whole process over again. I reset the release date and time, and while I was waiting for it to upload, I went out and ran my errands. I got back to see that it was having trouble with the processing again. I was losing my mind.

     I finally broke down, and left that page and tried to see if it was in my video list. It was, once again despite the processing problems. Only thing was, that all the description information including the release time and date, didn't save. It had gone live with no description or anything. I quickly got to work editing the description and filling in everything that had disappeared. About the time I was finishing up with that, I got a text from my partner telling me that the video was up, and that he had already shared a link to it. I was beside myself. He then told me that he quickly wrote a blog post for it as well. The anger was growing. I didn't want a post written to go live yet, much less the video. I went back into editing for the YouTube video page, and quickly made the video Private. That means that only I can see it. I will let it go public when it was supposed to on the 20th, when I am ready for the blog to go live as well.

     I told my partner what I had done, and he said he was going to take down the link. I then told him that he could always promote are last two posts, so that they wouldn't drown anymore. He said he would, but I'll have to wait and see if that is true. I will know by the analytics, they'll tell me if any traffic comes from Facebook. Everything for the past week has either been Instagram, or YouTube, which believe me, I am happy about. Those two weren't brining anyone in from our first few videos, but now it seems that they are actually brining in readers. Maybe when those two are established enough I can just completely forget about telling him to post on Facebook, because we won't need it anymore, and that is something I would really like to do. I have no love for Facebook and would prefer to leave it far behind.

     Ok, that is out of the way. Two things did come out of this weekend that should be a nice change of pace. While I was looking for music for the PR, I came across a few songs that I want to use for CS videos. I have some grandiose ideas. Real artsy type of videos that will take quite a bit of filming. They are only going to be a few minutes long, but what I have planned will require filming in multiple locations, using the helmet mount, the drone, the tripod, the session mounted on the bike again, and possibly getting help from someone for handheld shots while I'm riding or other things. I really think these are going to be real fun, and I can't wait to see the vision in my head come together for you on the screen you are looking at now.

     The other thing is, I saw a new place in Titusville for burgers. As you know, I am constantly on the search for the perfect cheeseburger, and whenever I can find a new place, I have to check it out. I'm going to do a video about going there. It seems to be a small chain called Wayback Burgers, and the pictures on their website look pretty tasty. I'm going to let the inner fat kid in me come out for this one, and go all out on a burger, fries and, an over the top milkshake. I don't know if I'll be able to ride home, but it will be fun trying. I want to try and do that one next week, so look for it in the next week and a half or so. I want to try and up my game on the edit for that video as well. We will see what I come up with.

     I almost forgot to mention this. I got that new desk chair and it is fantastic. It's a gamer chair, so it is a little more than your common desk chair. It will tilt back all the way flat if I want, and it has a little pad that slides out from under it to rest my legs on. I could sleep on this thing. The best part is, that it wasn't much more than a decent desk chair. I made the right choice on this one. I think that when I get Saki's Lounge ready for TV viewing and extra seating, I will get a few of these instead of a couch. That way people can wheel them around.

     Speaking of the Lounge, I've been looking at a motorcycle lift that is pretty cool. I had always pictured getting the lift that Harbor Freight always has on sale. The cheapest I've seen it, is $279, but it is big. It takes up a lot of floor space, because it is a traditional lift. A large flat surface area that the motorcycle sits on. This new lift takes up a lot less room, but because of that, it is great deal more costly.

     Isn't that cool looking. That is just two of the ways it will lift the motorcycle so that you can work on it. You can also lift the back tire only to work on it from different angles. It leaves you easy access to all areas of the bike, without a big bulky lift platform. One other thing about it. You can wheel the bike around while it is on the stand. That alone makes it worth the money. If I'm not getting good lighting to do something, I can simply wheel it to a different position so that I do get the lighting I want. I really want this stand, but I need to be patient. I still need to clear more things out of the lounge to make room for it to be the way I want, but this is on the top of my list of things to get for the lounge. I guess I should tell you the name of that lift. It's called the Abba Skylift. Yep, like the 70's band from Sweden, at least I think they are form Sweden. The Dancing Queen disco band. Great stuff, by the way. I think I may have to play ABBA when I'm woking on Saki if I have that stand. It would only seem right.

     It seems like the more I write, the more things I remember to tell you about. I don't know that I've mentioned it here, but I know I wrote about Tommy John many times on the 365. I have good news. They just began making underwear for women. I am exclusively Tommy John, they are the most comfortable underwear that I've worn. I even like their socks and shirts. Before you wonder. I am not being paid to say this. I have no sponsorship deal with Tommy John, however, if anyone from Tommy John is reading this, I would take a deal in a heartbeat. I really like this underwear, and if the women's underwear is as comfortable as the men's, you should really give it a try. They are pricey. I think they give all new costumers a 20% discount on you first purchase. Do it like I do, buy two pairs whenever you have the extra money to spend on them, but I know this is going to seem a little crazy considering that you are kind of wasting that 20% discount, but buy one pair, and just try them out. I'm sure you are going to like them, in fact, I believe that you will love them. If you do, just create a new email account and sign up under that new email, and you will get that 20% again, easy peasy. It's a win win. Now, I haven't done that, but I may in the future, I do have two email addresses now, so I could conceivably sign up for a new account and get that discount again, but I'm good for now. Buying a couple of pair when I have the extra money for it, I have a few extra pair still unworn and ready when the ones I have finally wear out, which is taking a really long time. I can tell you that I don't like their AIR line. They are way too thin, and they have worn down rather fast. I like the Second Skin and their Cool Cotton. I don't know why I didn't think of this before, but I'll make it easy for you to find. The following link will take you directly to the introduction to the women's line, Tommy John Women Seriously, click on that link and check them out. You have nothing to lose by looking at them online.

     Alright, I better go before I think of something more to tell you. Actually I do, but I'll save it for Tuesday night. Peace in and goodnight.

The Patchwork Knight (Chapter 22)

     As we were clearing the tree line of the forest, we could see that there was a commotion at the village. A large group of people were standing around. All of us took off in a sprint to see what was going on. As we got closer we began to see a half dozen horses with the emblazoned with the symbol of the Targen Knights.

     "Sir Wallace, what do we owe the pleasure of your company in our fair village?"

     "Falren, it is good to see you again."

     "I hand't expected to see you so soon, the King's birthday isn't for another 7 months."

     "This is true, and I wish I could say that our visit was purely for pleasure, but it is not. The Realm has been receiving unwanted visitors. The Raider that you killed was only the first of them. Since you were in the Kingdom, Raiders have attacked several of the border towns and villages. We are going from village to village to warn everyone that Raiders could be coming."

     "I was worried about that when we saw that fellow on the trail. How many have been attacked, and how many hurt?"

     "So far, 5 towns and villages have been attacked, with 35 dead, and 70 wounded. Each time they were quick strikes. They would attack in the early morning, do as much damage as they could and then leave. Only one village was able to fend off an attack. They killed 10 of the attackers, and said that another 10 ran before they could get to them."

     "Were there any reports of how many attackers were in the other villages?"

     "From what we could learn, it seemed that all the attacks were similar. Early morning with a relatively small strike force."

     "How was the one village prepared?"

     "It was more luck that preparation. They had a hunting party ready to go out at first light. When the Raiders arrived, they were met with 40 hunters, well armed with bows."

     "This village isn't ready for something like that. We have a handful of hunters. We are a goat herding village."

     "That is why we are here. We are to warn you and then patrol the area for possible Raiders. They won't get anywhere near this village. After all, the King expects to see Pitre for his birthday."

     Everyone that was standing around turned and looked at me at the mention of the King expecting to see me. Only a few people knew of my wish to become a Knight. My father said it was best to not mention it. From the looks on everyone's face, it became apparent why he wanted to keep it unspoken. Their mouths had all fallen open, and their eyes had widened. Even Arial looked shocked.

     "Why are you looking at me like that? You knew about all of this."

     "I know, but I didn't believe you?"

     "What do you mean, you didn't believe me? I have never lied to you, or anyone for that matter."

     "You may not have lied, but you didn't always keep a promise?"

     "Those aren't the same at all, and the only time I didn't keep a promise, was when I forgot to come looking for you as soon as I got back from the Kingdom."

     The crowd of onlookers began chuckling, and my father just dropped his head shaking it as he stared at the ground. Sir Wallace and the rest of the Targen Knights all had smiles on their faces as well, and began shifting uncomfortably to try and hide them.

     "Pitre, I hope your training is going well?" Sir Wallace said with a bit of humor in his voice.

     "Yes, sir. Training is going very well."

     "It has only been a few months since I last saw you, do you think you can defeat the Princess now?"

     I thought it not possible, but the crowds jaws dropped even lower.

     "I don't know sir, the tournament taught me a valuable lesson. Do not underestimate your opponent."

     "Smart you are lad. I can tell you this though. The Princess hasn't grown nearly as much as you have in these few months. You look to be a foot taller than you were when I last saw ya."

     "I have had to get new britches and a tunic, but I don't think I've grown that much Sir Wallace."

     "Maybe my eyes are deceiving me then. Falren, can we have a word? Without a crowd?"

     "Yes, Sir Wallace. Alright everybody, nothing more to see here, get back to your own business."

     With that, Sir Wallace and my father walked off to our cottage. The rest of the Knights gathered up the horses and made their way to the barn to water and feed them.

     "You really did fight the Princess, and she beat you."

     "I told you all of that already."

     "Once again, I know Pitre, but it is nice to hear it from someone else. It's not that I didn't believe you, but it does seem like a spun tale, don't you think?"

     "I guess if I was as brooding as you are, it would be."

     "Are you looking to get beat by another girl Pitre?"

     "No, I filled my quota for the year, besides you aren't ready to fight with a sword yet."

     "What have I been swinging around out there, if it wasn't a sword?"

     "I mean a real sword. That sword is heavy and blunted. It is to build up your strength and stamina, so that when you get a real sword, it will seem effortless."

     "Ok. Can I ask you something Pitre?"

     "Sure, but why are you asking if you can ask me?"

     "Don't worry about that. How did it feel when you touched the aether in the Swordsman's Euphoria?"

     "It was different, than any other time. It felt like I was a part of everything around me. I wasn't pulling the energy to me, it was just there, because I had become the energy."

     "That is different than how I felt. When I enter the aether, I can feel the energy around me, but I definitely have to pull it to me. When I used that to enter the euphoria, It was the same, except I could feel my senses sharpen."

     "I wonder why it was so different?"

     "The scrolls did mention that it isn't the same feeling for everyone, maybe that is the reason. It is just how we interact with the aether."

     "Your guess is as good as mine. You are after all, the scholar here, I'm just a lad looking to be a Knight."

     "You better go practice some more than. You have a Princess to beat after all."

The Truff Is In The Ether.

   

     It's been a miserable few days, and it culminated last night. I lost the dearest of the dear, my little Truffle. The Truff may have not been the most affectionate dogs, because she was very timid around people, but she could always bring a smile to my face. She suffered from seizures, and that is finally what took her from me. She had a couple of seizures starting in the evening, and I could just tell, that there was something different about them. The second one was just too much for her. After each seizure she would always get up and just walk around in circles, it was more of an instinct thing. She was doing that after the second seizure, and she was having more trouble than usually standing up. Her back legs kept buckling, and I had to help her more than once. She walked by the chair I was sitting in, and she just stopped and began to sink. I watched her tail droop, and I knew what was coming. I sat down on the floor, and pet her until she took her last breath. She is done with the seizures now, and has joined her sister in the ether. The Truff was a year younger than Lily was, and she lived one year after Lily died. They were sisters from different litters, and the lived to the same age. 

     The rest of the miserable few days, pales in comparison to the passing of The Truff, but I will fill you in. I failed to mention this on Sunday, but my desk chair broke, and I have been using the roller chair from Saki's Lounge. It is rather uncomfortable, but I only need it for one more day. I had to order a new desk chair, and it should arrive tomorrow.

     Next on the misery tour, is what I'm going to do with the PR. I found out late Sunday night, that the place we had gone for our last review, fired their pizza chef over the weekend. Normally that wouldn't be a problem, but in this case, it is a huge problem. He told us, that he was the one who created the recipe for both the sauce and the dough. That means, that if he is gone, and he took his recipe with him, our review means absolutely nothing. It is scheduled to go live on Friday, so I asked my partner what we should do about it, and I gave him some options. Should we scrap the review all together, write a disclaimer on it, or leave it as is. He chose the wrong one. He was saying to just leave it alone. I only gave that option to see what he would say. Leaving it as is, is a terrible idea, because it destroys our credibility. If we put up a review, knowing that there is a great possibility that what we reviewed is no longer there, than we are doing  great disservice to our viewers and readers. I was all for scraping it, but I knew that I put a lot of work into this, and there is an easy way to fix it. The disclaimer.

     This of course creates more work for me. I'm going to have to add a disclaimer to the blog saying that what you get there may not be what we got there. I'm also going to have to film a short disclaimer for the video, which I will in turn have to edit into the beginning of the video, and then re-upload the video to YouTube and then delete the video that I have up ready to go. I only have a couple of days to do that. The writing is the easy part. I can do that as I'm posting the blog. The video though is a whole other matter. I have to figure out what to say, find a way to make it interesting and compelling enough that people still watch the entire review, and then I have to film that, edit it in, render, the video, and upload it to YouTube. Then I have to rewrite the description and everything that goes with it. I think I found a way around most of the description problem. I'm going to copy and paste most of it to the new video. I will still have to write the tags and a couple other things, but that could simplify things. 

     I'm racking my brain over what I want to say as the disclaimer, and there is also the fact that my partner won't be in that part of it. I have no idea how he is going to take that, but it has to be done, and the only way I can think of it, is to just film me doing the disclaimer. I just thought of another way. I could just write the disclaimer on a title screen to start the video, but that leads us back to the interesting and compelling thing. I need to figure it all out by tomorrow though. If I don't get it done by then, I may run out of time to get it ready for the Friday release, because it looks like I'm working on Friday.

     I nearly forgot that we are supposed to meet up with our brand manager, but that may be cancelled as well. It appears that he may be in Miami, and all our plans are out the window. We are rushing another review which is scheduled for the same day as the meeting. I honestly need a weekend to just rest and not worry about this, but that is going to have to wait. We have our next 3 places planned out, and what the release dates will be, but we have to find a way to work with my partners schedule to get the review done. We may end up doing something that I really don't want to do, and that is visit a place during the dinner hour. More people mean that there will be people asking us what we are doing. That could lead to people getting upset that we are doing it, and then we are being told to leave. Once again, I will have to figure it all out. My partner froze up last time someone asked us why we were filming things. He was supposed to be the charmer between the two of us, but I of course took over and soothed things. I am doing way too much work for this, and it is becoming work, and not just something fun.

     Through all this irritation and sadness, I have to look to things that make me happy, and one of those things, is Favorite Song of the Week. If you didn't see this one coming, you haven't been paying attention. It is of course a song by FKA Twigs. I became infatuated with her ever since I first saw her in that Apple HomePod add. The bonus was when I stumbled upon who she actually was. I found out after looking up her songs, that I really like her music. I had heard one song before, but that isn't the song for FSOTW. This song is actually the most recent song she has released, which is two years old at this point, and it kind of fits the somber tone of the last two days. Here is FKA Twigs with "Good To Love".

     Great, mellow, and somber song right? I have been waking up to it for the last few days. I usually just stop the song as soon as I'm awake, but with this one, I just lay there and let it play through. I have to go and spend as much time with Morty as I can. Peace in and goodnight.

I Got Everything Done, Somehow.

     It has been somewhat of a hectic weekend, but I managed to get everything in. As you know, I had to delay the latest chapter of The Patchwork Knight, because I was so exhausted on Thursday night. I forgot that I had to do a review for the PR on Friday, so Friday was taken up completely with doing the review, editing the video, and writing the blogpost. All of it is done, and I just have to sit back and wait to post it all. The video is scheduled to go live on Friday the 6th at 3 PM New York time. Once that is live, I can finish the blog and publish it. I did it differently this time. I wrote the entire review in Pages on my MacBook. I just simply have to copy and paste it in as needed, so that I can add pictures and the embedded video as I go. It should be easy peasy this time. I'm hoping to avoid all that stress from the last time.

     That was all done between Friday and Saturday. I did all of the writing on Saturday. My partner managed to get his part done in a timely manner, so that I could just add it all in where it needed to go. With that done, I could finally sit back and concentrate on The Patchwork Knight. I have to tell you, I'm a little surprised at where it went. I had a plan, but once I started writing, it took over on it's own, and I just followed. My plan will still work out, it will just be a chapter later, than I had originally intended, and this doesn't affect the overall outcome of the story. Actually, it helps it out, quite a bit. There was one thing I was having trouble trying to figure out, but that chapter did the hard work for me. I like the way it is going, but it really isn't up to me is it? It is up to you the reader on whether you like where it is going. I haven't had any complaints yet, so I must be on the right track. Either that, or everyone is being very polite.

     All that done, and I was still feeling the exhaustion, so I ended up going to be at 9PM on Saturday night. I know, I'm living a wild life. I did have a goal this weekend, and that was to get out and fly the drone again, but the weather wasn't exactly cooperating. Saturday was miserable. Raining quite a bit, and when it wasn't raining, it was just spitting, so I didn't want to risk the rain doing anything to the drone. I was grounded. The whole weekend was calling for rain and storms, so I thought for sure, I wouldn't get any flight time in. The clouds parted this morning, and I immediately hopped on Saki with the drone, and rode off in search of a location near the water. It only took me two spots to find one that I could fly without any onlookers. It was actually the place I was planning on going, but while doing the PR I came across another location that could have been good. It was packed with people though. I didn't need an audience for me to screw everything up, so I ended up in the right place.

     I got the video filmed, edited and uploaded in record time. It took me a while to get a decent edit on it. This isn't my best. I didn't have a whole lot to work with, because I forgot to record when I first launched the drone. That left me with limited time to fly and get some footage. I think I made it work though, so let me know what you think.



     This one is super short. It came in at 3:34, so it should be an easy watch. I'm going to try and make shorter videos for the meantime, since it looks like I can only hold people attention for about 2 minutes. If I keep it short, I might retain an audience, and maybe get some subscribers. I'm stuck at 18 or 19 I don't even remember. I'd like to get to 100 just for a start, I'm not asking for much. Expect more drone footage in the future. I really want to get the edits and the flying down.

     While I was out there, I tried another function of the camera, and took a drone selfie. I was trying my best to look cool, but I'm sure I failed miserably.

     Pretty suave looking with that giant controller in my hand right? Like I said, I'm making the best of a bad situation. 

     Even though it is Easter Sunday and nothing is open, I still have to do laundry. Oh but wait, I have an update for you. I am fully at 1 inch with my gauges. I am a week ahead of schedule. I have a certain pair of plugs that I want to wear next Sunday. I will definitely be able to wear them now, and I couldn't be happier. When I finally got my right ear to handle that 1 inch tunnel, it felt like everything was right the way it was. I think I am finally happy with the size that it is, so that means I may not need to go up anymore. I'll get a picture next week so you can see how they look. I failed to get the picture with the locks in my ears, so I can do 1 of two things. I can either forget about it all together, or I can put them back in for a picture, so you can get an idea of how stupid I looked. No, it won't be an idea, you will actually know how stupid I looked. Let me know if you want that picture. If you do, I will get it for you on Tuesday, but I have to hear from you before then, otherwise no picture will be forth coming.

     I hope you had a wonderful Easter or Passover, or whatever holiday you may be celebrating, Peace in and goodnight.