The Patchwork Knight (Chapter 60)

     I rode for three days straight, only resting long enough for the horse to rebuild it's strength. I stopped by streams as often as I could so that it could water while it rested. I rode at a good pace but not a full gallop, I wanted to gain ground and I wouldn't have done that in a full out run. It would have tired the horse too much.

     My hope was to reach the Kingdom by the nightfall. I would see for myself what the Mudwood looked like in all of it's glory. I would see the enemy for what it is, before I would slowly take it down, one piece at a time.

     ***

     The walls of the Kingdom weren't as I remembered them. Bright and alive with color. These walls were dark and charred by burning and death. People were hustling around from one place to another like in the days that I visited, but most of them hung their heads low to avoid eye contact with any of the Raiders that paroled the streets. The streets were full of mud and filth, the once clean and beautiful city that surrounded the castle was a cesspool of waste. The arena where I myself once fought to gain a spot in the Knights Academy had fallen to ruins. I sat in what was left of the old waiting area under the seats of the arena until nearly sunrise.

     I snuck out of the Kingdom the same way I had gotten in, through a drainage sewer on the eastern side of the walls. I slowly made my way back to the thicket where I had left my horse and supplies. I was distraught by what I had seen inside the walls, but my fire was renewed. I would see the Mudwood fall. I stayed in that thicket for the remainder of the day, and rode out at sunset. I simply chose a direction and went straight. I would start in the outlands and fight my way back to the Kingdom. I would thin the hourde as I went.

***

     It was a matter of days before I came across the first destroyed village. It had been burnt to the ground as so many others had. This would be the starting point for my war on the Mudwood. It was near the Western desert, and more than likely one of the first villages attacked by the Mudwood. They  had not returned to this area for a very long time. It was evident in the dust and sand that had built up on the remains of the huts. A small stream ran past the village. It had fresh water, and plentiful vegetation along its bank. I would not need for food. 

     Every day, I would ride out in the morning and search for villagers or Raiders along the trails near by. When I would come across villagers, I would tell them of the Crystal palace and how to get near it. I wouldn't give them the exact location for fear that if they were captured they would give the information to the Raiders. When I found Raiders, I would follow them to their camps, where I would wait just out of sight of them until night fall. When the sky was full of black I would walk into the camp and began my path of destruction. I cut down every man that tried to stand before me. When their camps were destroyed, I would gather all their horses and supplies and train them behind me. I would never have to go to far before I would find more villagers in hiding and give the horses and food to them and tell them the direction they should go. I gave the men that vowed that they could fight any weapons I had scavenged from the camps. so that they would have a chance if they came across any Raiders along the way. 

     I never heard if they had made it or not, but I would get whispers along my travels. I would hear from other villagers that would say they have heard of The Patchwork Knight, and how he was guiding villagers to safety. I would tell them all the same thing. I was only giving them a chance to make it there. I was no guide, my purpose was to destroy the Mudwood, and I would stop at nothing less. I would ask them from time to time, to take a message to Rolf and the other Targen Knights. I would tell them to let them now that I am doing well, and that I hope to see them when this is all over. The looks would always be strange from those who I would ask to relay this message, but they all said they would get the message to it's destination. 

     After a few years, I would come across fewer and fewer villagers, and see more and more Raiders. My objectives change appropriately, and I began focusing on scouting battalions and war bands, and then wiping them from the dirt they stood on.

     I became more bold in attacking the Raiders. I would no longer wait until late in the night when they were all asleep. I would stroll into their camp as soon as they had finished lighting their campfires. I need more of a challenge each time I engaged them. It had become to easy to finish them off each time. 

    I would walk in, announce who I was, and then let my swords slash through the air until they tasted blood. I would no longer gather their supplies. I would burn it all in the fires they had made, and release all the horses to run free across the land. 

     It was time to begin my march back to the Kingdom. 

I Changed The Temperature

     I went out and was given some more photos yesterday. It was another sunset, but I was armed with new knowledge on how to get different type of shots with the camera and it worked like a charm.

     I had never played around with the white balance before. I knew about it, and what it's there for, but I never thought to adjust it in order to get different effects in shots. I read an article about shooting christmas lights, and they mentioned it in there, but I thought why not use that for other shots, and so I put it to use. I also used another technique where you pump up the ISO and speed up the shutter speed, and that also worked out great. Playing around with the white balance allowed me to get different colors in the picture. It basically changed the temperature and tint of the image. Temperature refers to the warmth or coolness of a photo. The warmer the photo is, the more reds and oranges you are going to see in it. If it's cooler than you will see more blues and greens. Just by changing one thing, you can get a wildly different photo.

     The first picture is a preview of one that will go up on the CSP Instagram next week, the second one went up today. These were both shot with the same settings with the one difference being the white balance. The top is more likely what you will get when the camera is set for natural day light. The second one is what you will get when you set it for indoor tungsten lighting. Quite a difference right? Yes, both of these have been processed and I have tweaked the colors and what not, but the basic foundation of each photo is there. I didn't alter these all that much.

     I did play around with the Lensball while I was out there, and I even tried out a new thing in Photoshop, but I have to work on it, to really get it right, but in the mean time, here is what I got just playing around.

     I used a stand to hold that Lensball up in the air, but I haven't quite mastered getting it completely out of the shot yet, so this is really a work in progress. I do like the idea of this photo, but it isn't quite there yet, and I really need to work in Photoshop more so that I can get better with it. Elie helped me out, and I watched a video tutorial as well. There is a ton of information out there if you just look for it. The problem is, that there is a ton of information, and you really need to watch those videos two or three times to really get all the information to stick. Once it sticks, I'll be able to really get rid of that stand and get the photo that I really want. In the meantime, I tried my best to make it look like a shadow, but I pretty much failed at that as well.

     News on the job front. I received a call this evening from the head of HR that gave me the interview on Tuesday. He left a voicemail asking me to call him for a follow up, but when I called him back he had already left work for the day, so I'll have to try again in the morning. I'm taking this as a pretty good sign. I'm actually getting a follow up call. That at the very least means that I am in the running still. I'll take it. It's better than anything that has happened in this area so far. Now if I could only get the TPR to start paying off. That is one of those, "all the hard work will pay of eventually" type of things. If it is supposed to, it will come.

     Oh, I started on a prototype of the new wand stand that I'm making for Elie. I cut the piece out, and shaped it. All that went well. I worked on cutting out a design in the piece, and that is where things went wrong. I got a little carried away, and eliminated too much wood from and area and ruined the whole thing. The good news is, that I leaned quite a lot from that screw up. Deep down I knew that was going to be a test piece and wouldn't end up a part of the final piece. This was only to see if I could do that things I wanted to do, for it to look really cool. Although I failed on this attempt, it told me that I will be able to do what I need to do, and it will be much better the next time I do it. Even the screw up isn't that bad looking, but it is a failure. I don't have picture of it, but I will get one for Sunday, so that you can see what it is I was trying to do. I will use this piece as a template for all the other pieces I need to cut out, so it has a dual purpose, and is still good for something. I'm really excited to know, that I can truly pull this off. I had my doubts, because what I want to do, isn't easy, and I really don't have the right tools to do it, so trial and error or going to teach me how to do it without those tools. This is going to be a lot of fun, and I can't wait to get it almost done. I say almost, because I'm going to need both the wands before I can fully finish it, and those won't be around for some time. I can get the base done, and get it all assembled without the wands, but the key element of the actually small stands that the wands will be propped up on, will need to be fitted. I can't just use my wand to do it. Although one of the wands is going to be one exactly like mine, but the other is quite a bit different and will need it's own unique way of sitting on the platform and leaning on the stand. So, I can get the bulk of the work done and then fine tune it once the wands are purchased and in my hands for fitting. Who knew, I would be able to make some decorative wand stand. It sure wasn't me.

     Any way, it's getting late and there is a lot in this little post for you to digest. Peace in and goodnight.

Leaping Into The New Year With A Roar

     It’s a brand new year. My grandmother used to say, "Whatever you do on the first day of the new year, is what you will be doing all year.". I made sure I did all the things that I hope to do in this year. I wrote, I took some photos, and processed a few of those photos, I did a little woodwork, I rode Saki,  and I rode my skateboard. Those are all things I hope to be doing quite a lot of in this coming year.

     I also had a job interview today. I don't want to be doing that all year though. I thought the interview went very well, but I wasn't offered the job right away. The gentleman interviewing me, said that he had more interviews to go, and would let me know next week sometime. The pessimist in me says that was just a polite way to tell me that I didn't get the job, and he would let me know in a week. This would only be a part time job, and wouldn't pay my bills, but it would be the start of something coming in instead of everything just going out. It would also only be on the weekends. I'm fine with that, for right now, but as I said, I'm thinking that I don't have the job, so the search will continue. It is exhausting though. This is the first company that I applied to that actually called me in for an interview. The one that was almost a done deal, has yet to get in touch with me, so I'm counting at as a no go as well. I can only wait and see right now.

     Let's get to those pictures, I took them of my favorite subject, Saki. I rode to that empty abandoned parking light by the Space Center, so I could get that nice background of the river. I am going to share one photo with you and it's the one I posted on Instagram on my normal account, not the photography one. The reason is, that I took this photo with my phone, and then when I got home I went to a lot of trouble to process it in Lightroom, to get an even better image. I played around with the tint, and the exposure, and I even isolated Saki, so that I could make it more pronounced in the photo. Basically I over exposed Saki, so that it would be highlighted against the rest of the surroundings. It was a lot of effort into a photo that I'm not even highlighting as one of my best, but in the end, it came out really well, and I also learned a few things about processing a different image other than my camera. This is when I was really hit by the limitations of a JPEG versus RAW image. I knew that JPEGs had limitations built into them, but I had never seen this limitations until today, and it was a little mind blowing. Here is the image so you can see what I finally came up with.

     If I didn't tell you that there were limitations with that photo, you wouldn't know, and it is really hard to explain them, but once I got in and started moving things around, I noticed how the colors moved. I noticed how the shadows and lines weren't as crisp. I know that part of that is that it was my phone versus a camera, but it is also those built in parameters that JPEGs have. It was a truly eye opening experience, and one that tells me just how lucky I am that I get to take these photos, and get to play around with them in this way.

     Elie told me about a series that is on Netflix, called Tales by Light, and it is about photographers and how they chase shots and tell stories with them. I was watching one of them today, and he said something very interesting, and I really liked his view on this. He said that he doesn't take photos, he is given them. It all comes down to what the subject will give you, and I really liked that, so I no longer take photos, I'm given them, and I will appreciate everyone with a little more zeal than I may have done before.

     This reacquaintance with photography, has opened up so much more within me. The one thing I wanted most to do in photography, was to be able to take a landscape photo that was worth a damn, and I finally did that by taking a new approach at it. That new approach allowed me to see things through new eyes, and by doing that, I look at the world with new eyes. I see things that I didn't necessarily see before. I look at angles and say,  "if I had my camera, I could get this shot.". I plan on going to a bunch of those places, and getting that shot. I would love to do this for a living, but I know, I have to get a whole lot better before that will be even close to happening, and I have a long way to go. Every single shot that I take now, and love, I know can be better with more experience and knowledge. I can always improve, and that is what this year is all about. Not just in photography, but in everything else. I made a big change last year, by leaving a job that was security, and I chased some dreams. I'm still working on those, and I'm not letting them go, but I have a solid foundation to build on with them. I will see those dreams come true, and with those dreams coming together, more dreams will pop up, but the definite consistent things in my life that will always make me happy are, Morty, Saki, and my camera. The next time you see me in person, don't be surprised if I ask to take your photo. Yes I said take, but I also said ask. I want permission to be given that photo. If I do get that shot, I promise you, it will be one of the best ones you have ever given to a photographer, and I will share it with you freely. Peace in and goodnight.

Oh The Projects

     It's been a fun weekend. A little exhausting, but fun. I have to get to the skateboard mount first. I had a catastrophic failure when I went to mount it to the wall.

     See those cracks? Those aren't supposed to be there. I was bummed. I had hours of work into that piece, and it was a failure. The most important thing about failure though, is that you learn from it, and so I did. I decided to tear it apart, and redo the piece that mounts directly to the wall. I wouldn't just replace it, and make sure that I wouldn't crack it again, but I would make it better, than it was. I had a few things that I didn't get exactly right, because, I really don't have the right tools for the job, but I would find a way, and I did.

     The biggest problem, other than the cracks, was the notch that I had in both pieces so that they would fit together. They weren't right, and the angles were a little off. I created a plan of attack this time, and worked at if form a different view. The easy and right way to create those notches, would be to have a drill press that I could set at height, and pass the pieces back and forth under it getting the desired notch and spacing. I don't have a drill press, so it was files, the Dremel, and a whole lot of delicate touches. It worked, I had both notches squared off and fitting tight this time around.

     The next problem was working away so that I would avoid cracking the wood when I mounted to the wall. Part of that was making that piece a couple of inches longer, and adding an additional screw to it. That way I wouldn't have to get it so tight. The other part was creating inset holes for the screw to embed into, and then make a slightly bigger guide hole for the screw to go into. With that bigger hole, there was less material to get trapped inside the hole, and pressing outward from the center. That means less of a chance of cracking. Here is what it ended up as.

     Just to prove that it works, I put the skateboard in it, where it now has a home.

     It's looking really good. I also took pictures of it before I mounted it, so you can see the detail I put into the actual claw. It was a few days of hand sanding, and quite a few coats of stain to get it just the way I wanted. Oh, the wall mount part, is natural stain and yellow dye. I wanted to go with yellow, but I didn't want to paint it with spray paint of anything like that. I think it came out great.

     With that done and out of the way. I have a new project in the works. It is another wand stand, and this time it is going to be for two wands. It is also, not for me. Elie and I went to Universal Studios yesterday, and she is going to get two wands of her own, and wants to display them. in her house. This one is going to be tricky, and I have to draw up some designs, as soon as I'm done writing this. She wants the wands to cross one another, and I know exactly how I'm going to do that. The other request is that it has to be tall enough to rise above the screen of her lap top, so we have to have a 10 in. rise height. I have an idea, but I need to get it down on paper, so that I can see it rather than visualize it. The idea is a big one, and I'm not completely sure I can pull it off. I'm going to do some etching and artistic cutting as well as the normal sanding and all of that other stuff. Of course we will decide between stain or paint, and what color or colors will be involved. It's going to be a big project, but I'm excited for it. This is going to be a whole lot of fun.

     I got some pictures from Universal. Not with the camera though. I had it with me, but I never took it out. There were just too many people there, to get the shots that I would have liked to get. it was packed more than I have ever seen it before. It seems everyone vacationed in Florida for the holidays and decided to head to Universal on the last weekend before they had to go back. It was insane, but I did get some fun pictures of the dragon on Gringotts, and a nice picture of Elie and me on Hagrid's motorcycle. This is technically the fist motorcycle she has been on, since her accident over a year ago, and she looked like she belonged there. I know another bike is in her future, it's just a matter of time.

 
     We had a really fun day, just walking around the park and seeing the sights. We went to Margaritaville for lunch, and it was the first time I really wanted to have a drink with my meal. I didn't of course, but Margaritaville is a location that I had a lot of good times, that involved drinking, so it was a natural feeling to sit there and want to have a boat drink while eating a Cheeseburger in Paradise, and watching the Margarita volcano erupt and listen to Jimmy Buffet songs over the speakers. In less than two weeks, it will be my two year anniversary of my last drink, and I'm going to make it there. That will be one more year down and a life time to go. Peace in and goodnight.

The Patchwork Knight (Chapter 59)

      It had been long overdue, but I finally sat down for a dinner with Galdren. He made a stew in the fires of his forge.

     "Is there anything that you can't do in a forge?"

     "I don't believe so, but if I find something, I will tell you as soon as I do."

     "That may be difficult."

     "Why is that my boy?"

     "I'm going to leave the palace and travel the Realm on my own."

     "Why would you ever do that? The Mudwood has the Kingdom fully occupied, and they are spreading out as far as they can. This may be the only safe place left in the Realm."

     "That is exactly why I must set out on my own. I want to push the Mudwood back, I want to drive them from the Realm for good."

     "I can understand that, I want nothing more than to see them leave this land forever, but why do you want to go alone?"

     "I can't watch anyone die because of me anymore. I will be better on my own anyway. I will be able to move freely and quickly. I can attack without notice and dwindle their numbers, so that when the final battle comes, the Target Knights and the King can ride in and finish this war once and for all."

     "Those are bold statements. Have you ever heard what they say about bold knights."

     "No."

     "You can meet a bold knight, and you can meet an old knight, but you will never meet and bold, old knight. Pitre, I want you to be an old knight, and this isn't the course that one takes. I have heard of your deeds, and I do believe that no one man can stand against you, maybe even no ten men can stand against you, but you can't take on the entirety of the Mudwood on your own."

     "I won't be Galdren. I will take them one scouting party, or one battalion, or one war party at a time. I will use caution, and take them when they least expect it, and I will send as many captured villagers this way as I can. Please tell the King to send out scouting parties to find villagers that I free, so that they can travel here in safety."

     "You're not going to tell the King that you are leaving?"

     "Would you? You know exactly what he would say, and he would forbid me from doing what I need to do, in order to keep everyone I care about safe."

     "You are right. He would no want you to do. I don't want you to go, but I won't try to talk you out of it. That is one more thing you and your father have in common. You are more stubborn than I mule going up hill. I will wait a day to tell the King of your plans, so you can get all enough ahead of any troop that he sends out to search for you. Will I see you again Pitre?"

     "I hope too, but I can't make any promises."

     "Then this is not goodbye. I don't want to say that to you. I will see you when you return."

     "And we will have a dinner of this fine stew again."

     "That we will."

      We ate the rest of the meal talking about my father. Galdren would tell me more stories about his accomplishments in battle, and the many times that he had saved Galdren's life. We drained the entire pot of it's contents, and I helped clean the bowls and pot before taking my leave. I already had my pack ready and had left it in the stable with my horse. I hid it under some hey so that no one would be wiser, and I went there directly after leaving Galdren. I wanted to get a head start on my journey and there was no better time that late evening. Everyone would be tucked away finishing off meals or laying down for their nightly slumber. The guards that would be on duty wouldn't bother to question what I was doing, because I was always running up and down the mountain, in training. I would simply tell them that I wanted to ride out to a different terrain to train for a few hours and would be back before the morning light.

     When I went the the gate at the base of the mountain pass I began my gallop for the Kingdom. I had to get us much ground between me and the palace before Galdren would tell the King of my plan.

We're Going Dark, Without Stars

     I hope everyone had a good holiday. Before you ask, mine was marginal, which is how I like it. Yes, I know this is coming to you late tonight, but I have a very good reason. I finally began watching Riverdale, and it is fantastic. If you don't know. Riverdale is a new take on Archie, the old comic book. The very big difference is that this one is very dark, and absolutely captivating. If you remember, I mentioned that Riverdale are the neighbors to Glendale, which is where the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina takes place. The set Riverdale in that same weird out of time era. It's the 6t0's meets modern day. I really do believe it is a style choice of the creators. The set in it's own universe in a way.

     If you ever wanted to know what happened to Luke Perry from 90210, he landed as Fred Andrew, the father of Archie Andrew in Riverdale. The characters are great, and all from the original Archie comics, with a few side characters thrown in for good measure. My favorite character is by far Jughead Jones. Still one of the coolest names ever created. In this world he isn't the bumbling goof ball of the comics, he is an investigative journalist type, that is actually narrating the story. yep, that's his voice you hear that is filling in details from the beginning.

     This first season is engulfed in the murder of a student over the summer, and the police are trying to find out who the killer is, but things aren't easy, and Betty and Jughead are tracking down leads. Well, I assume they are, I'm only 3 episodes in, and they just reopened the Blue & Gold, which is the formally defunct school news paper. Yes. it's over the top with the idea that teenagers are going to track down a killer that is eluding the police, but it's how it's down that makes it so fun.

     I think they have 3 seasons currently on Netflix, and the latest season is ongoing on the CW right now. Great thing about CW shows. When they finish a season, the season is released on Netflix 8 days later. You read that right, 8 days after the finale it is up on Netflix, not like a ton of other shows that wait until after the news season is on for a couple of weeks, and then you can try and catch up while you record the new episodes. I'm looking at you NBC and The Good Place. Yes, I did do that in order to get caught up on The Good Place. Anyway, give Riverdale a try, and see if you dislike Betty's mother as much as I do.

     That brings up something I learned in the last episode I watched. I had never put this together, and it was mind blowing, considering that I have and Aunt Betty. Turns out, Betty is the shortened version of Elizabeth. I was floored, and now I need to know what my Aunt's full name was. I never put those two together, I simply thought Betty was a name, with no longer version. Kind of like Holly or Cheryl. You learn something new every day.

     I got a video for you. It's the latest from TPR. Yep, today was release day of our latest review, and it was doing rather well when I last looked at it. Nothing groundbreaking, but well. Here is our latest review of another cheese steak place that does pizza.



     This is the first video where we have no audio problems what so ever. I finally figured it out. For now at least. This really was a terrific pizza. A different style than I have ever had, and I loved it.

     Back to Sabrina for a second. They released and extra episode which was a winter solstice special (aka christmas special). It was really good, and I do love that series. So, if you have watched it based on my recommendation, then you have a new episode to enjoy.

     Another thing that I watched on Netflix this week was Watership Down. I loved that book as a child. I loved the animated movie even more. To this day, I have never read a more violent book than that one, and I'm a huge fan of Stephen King, and if you are reading The Patchwork Knight, you know I don't shy away from my own share of violence. This little story about rabbits is still the most violent book I have ever read. The Netflix series, which is 5 episodes I think, tones down that violence. They don't show much blood, and the fighting is more paw slaps then teeth tearing out necks. That was in the book and the original animated film. It has a slew of British actors as voice talent, with my favorite going to Peter Capaldi who is voicing the seagull Kehaar. He is quite good as an over confident buffoon with competence. Yeah, I know, that is a hard sentence to write with all that contrast in it, but that is the best way to describe him, and once you watch it you will see that I'm right. You have a ton to watch now, so you better get to it.

     I hit Universal this Saturday with the camera. Elie and I are going full photographer mode at the park and hoping to get some wonderful picture of Diagon Alley and maybe a few more things. I'll keep my eyes open for photographic possibilities. I'll share a few of them here. I do have a picture of Saki to share with you. I think this is the first photo where you can really see how it looks with the new mirrors on it, so enjoy the awesomeness that is Saki.

     That's all I got for you tonight. I'm hoping that maybe Sunday I will have a picture of the skateboard mount to share with you. I have all the basic shape done, and am down to the hand sanding, which should take a couple of days in the least. After that, it will be ready for stain, and I have a plan, so look forward to that. Peace in and goodnight.

Could This Weekend Get Any Worse

     It has been an absolutely horrible weekend. Today was the worst of it. I would like to just throw today away, and start over again, but I fear it would be no different. Let's start with Friday which was blah. I applied for a few more jobs, since I have not heard back from the one that told me they would be planning an interview. Not one single word, so the job hunt continues.

     That was pretty much Friday. I did have one win on Friday. I was able to work on my skateboard mount. I did of course have to stop because of weather, but I got the bulk of the material removal done. The basic shape is there, I just have to fine tune it all now. I went out on Saturday to buy files specifically for that purpose, so that was my win for Saturday. Well, I had another small victory as well, but it was marred by a giant bummer in the process. I'll tell you about the victory first and then the let down. The victory is that I scouted a few locations for the skateboard shoot. Have a talked about the skateboard shoot? I'm planning on a skateboard shoot with Snow who was the model on the dock at sunset. I have three with a possible fourth location picked out. If everything goes right, these could be some really nice shots. I took into consideration the backdrop and the conditions of where we would be, and they all line up with shots that I want to get, so that is a win.

     The bummer is when I went out to get on Saki so that I could ride around for this scouting session, the battery was dead. I haven't rode Saki since my last video, so it has been a few weeks, and with the cold weather, it put some stress on the battery, so it was dead, so dead that it wouldn't even slightly light up the gauges. Fortunately I have a trickle charge that Saki has been on since I found out on Saturday afternoon that it was dead. When I just went out to throw out the trash it was finally lit up green saying the battery was charged. I decided to just leave it on until I take Saki out tomorrow for a little photo expedition. I got a place that I want to take some strange landscape photos. I'm keeping it all secret for right now, but I hope to share them with you soon. And yeah, it takes 24 hours for a battery to charge on that trickle charger, so I was without Saki for all of yesterday and today, but it is now back, so that is another small victory.

      Oh, I forgot, I did finish watching Bodyguard, and it was really good. I also watched Birdbox which stars Sandra Bullock. It was good, but the ending was a bit, meh. I need more information, and maybe that is a good thing. The old saying being, "leave them wanting more". Well that ending definitely leaves me wanting more.

     Today was the torture of all tortures. I believe I have told you about my mother and how she is suffering from dementia. Well, it is getting much worse, and lately she has fits of memory loss that are so bad that she doesn't even know who I am, and that is a rough thing to deal with. She gets very paranoid and thinks people are stealing from her, or that she is surrounded by people that simply aren't there. Fortunately it doesn't last much longer than a few hours, but this is a woman that had one of the sharpest minds that I have known. To see her like this is beyond sad. She doesn't eat much unless I convince her that she is hungry, and even then it isn't much more than a small piece of toast and maybe some sort of protein. I honestly don't know how she hasn't starved from hunger yet, with how little she eats. She does have shakes from Ensure that she likes to drink, so that lifts her caloric intake, but it still isn't really enough to sustain a person.

     I despise this time of year, and with the addition of my mothers mental stability on top of that, it is the worst ever. Fortunately because of that, I haven't had time to think of how much I dislike Christmas and everything that comes along with it, so I haven't been as depressed or suicidal as I have been in the past, so I guess I should take that as a victory as well. I don't really know if I should be happy or deeply saddened by that little fact. Christmas is on Tuesday, and as you know that would normally be a posting day for me, but I'm going to take that day off. You aren't going to want to read anything from me that night anyway, so I'll give you your piece. I have had thoughts of taking a couple weeks off like I have done in the past, but still haven't done this year, but I really don't see any reason for it. I don't have the same social networking anxiety that I have in the past. I guess I have just grown to use it so little now, that I don't notice all the negativity that comes with it. Trust me, it isn't that the negativity has lessened. It's still there and even more than before, but I stay away from it. I basically go on Facebook to post what I need to post, and I'm gone. I don't have the app on my phone, so I'm not distracted by that. Instagram is more of the same. I post, and I'm gone, but I do take a couple of extra minutes and scroll through to see what is what. Not much negativity when it is only a picture. I rarely if ever read comments on there, so it is al about visual pleasure. Twitter, well I use that for a news source any more, so there is a ton of negativity, but once again, I rarely read the comments. It's been an ok year for me on social networks, so I will take that small victory as well.

     I do have one thing that was a highlight this weekend. I found a rather remarkable channel on YouTube. It is called The Try Channel, and it is Irish people doing different things, and it is hilarious, and fun. The first one I watched was called Irish people try Reese's peanut butter candy. I love Reese's so I gave it a watch, and loved it. I began watching as many of them as I could. I haven't seen them all yet, but I know I am well into double digits on how many I have watched. I'm going to share that Reese's one with you, not because it is the best one, but because I just wanted to introduce it to you the way I was introduced to it. One of the people featured in it is, Dermot Ward, who might look familiar to you. He played the assistant to young King Tommin in Game of Thrones, and he hates peanut butter, so it makes him trying Reeses's anything a hilarious event. Here is the video.



     I really hope that you got as much of a laugh out of that that I got. It really picked me up on this intensely crappy weekend. Have a wonderful Christmas day and peace in and goodnight.