Teen Girl Talk- Red Rose(Episodes 3-5)
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Let me introduce him to you all
It’s been a big weekend. Besides everything Halloween, my book coming out and everything. I also got a cat.
His name is Monsieur Alphonse Pierre LeChat though I have called him “Snuggles”, “my little handsome man”, “Quesadilla”, “Waffles”, “Pretty boy” and a number of other things since I’ve gotten him last Thursday. I have no idea how old he is.
I knew that I wanted to get cats, in fact it was one of the biggest reasons I moved out on my own. I noticed that people were putting out food for these cats. I had thought about going to the pound and getting other cats but charity begins at home people say in a way to avoid doing charity. I couldn’t stand the idea of seeing cold cats outside so I chose to ask my landlord about them.
He’s younger than the other one named Rambler. He came to me having been neutered and thus super high. He spent the first day in his cage in the bathroom. I gave him food and checked up on him. I opened the door that first night and he had emerged from the bathroom to sit on the window sill. When I saw him, he fled into the closet. Never while I was looking. I’ve barely seen him move. He’s basically a Weeping Angel from Doctor Who.
Obviously I haven’t touched him. I get near and he backs away and that’s more distressing than most things out there. I know that I have to give him time and let him come to me.
Still, it’s going better than I thought it would. I thought that he was going to go nuts and destroy my apartment. I thought that he was going to try and get out at every opportunity. Instead, he’s just kind of hidden away and watched. He also hasn’t made any noise, which I think is part of his stray heritage. Why would he need to make noise? I hope that he does start making noises. I hope he has a cute little meow.
No matter what and from the moment I saw I loved him. I’m looking forward to meeting Rambler and having the two of them run around my house. To finish, here’s a bunch more pics of him.
Just Released: A Heartbeat in the Darkness
Just released my first book on a variety of places. You can find it here: https://books2read.com/u/3nJPzP
I have to say that releasing it was terrifying and not just because it’s a book of horror short stories. But releasing it in the crucible of public opinion. You hope that everyone will love it. But even if they don’t live it that it will be fantastically bad. I would rather it be one way or the other instead of just bland.
Still, I’m excited. I’m looking forward to writing and releasing more. I want to really put it on the line. See what I’m made of and improve.
Also check out that cover art. The guy who made this is:
https://gaparaujjo.artstation.com/
He sent me a bunch of other designs but they didn’t fit the vibe. Then I saw this one and I was blown away. He’s very talented and if you’re looking for illustrations, check him out.
Anyway, A Heartbeat in the Darkness is on sale where most ebooks can be found for 2 bucks. The price of a Costco hot dog.
Goal Achieved: 100 Albums
So, in earlier posts on this blog, I was talking about how I wanted to listen to 100 albums in a year that I had never listened to before. Over the weekend, I achieved it. I’ve made screenshots of the albums that I’ve listened to.
Okay, so my main takeaway looking at them from a distance is that I only have one rap/hip-hop album on here that I don’t really think counts, which is Gorillaz’ Humanz. I think I’m going to spend the next few months rectifying that.
I was going to say I don’t know why I didn’t listen to more rap but it’s because I admittedly get stuck staring at cement blocks without knowing how to start chipping away. This isn’t just rap, there are other things in my life that I look at and I’m like “I’m too old and too tired to start learning about that.” That’s a defeatist attitude and I don’t want to let that keep me out of things.
Two of those things are League of Legends and Fortnite. They got started and I have no idea what’s going on in those games and I don’t want to figure them out. They seem like time sucks that I can’t deal with.
I’m getting off topic. But it’s kind of the same thing with rap. The main thing is that rap is such a diverse and wide spreading genre that it’s hard to know who I’m going to click with. And maybe I’m not being adventurous but I kind of want to find things that I’m going to have at least an inkling of liking them. I love Dessa, Epic Beard Men, Doomtree, Jay-Z, Notorious B.I.G., Missy Elliot, Black Star(and it’s two actual stars Talib Kweli and Mos Def), the Yah Mos Def, Common, N.W.A, the Fugees and others. I’ve been thinking about getting into De La Soul, but was worried about how they eventually started going mostly sketch on their albums. Still, they have classic albums. Along with them, I want to listen to the Roots and see what I’ve been missing.
Speaking of seeing what I’m missing, HOW THE FUCK DID I NOT LISTEN TO LEMONADE UNTIL THIS YEAR. THAT ALBUM RIPPED.
I tried to make sure I listened to smaller artists but as you can see there is a lot of Taylor Swift on there. So I’m a hypocrite. I don’t regret listening to Man’s Best Friend by Sabrina Carpenter. What was I supposed to do? Not listen to a 70s disco infused album that’s really good?
I notice there’s a lot of sad guitars from the guys and girls, Azure Ray, Iron and Wine and First Aid Kit. Maybe that’s just where I was this year. Also four of five albums were old school R&B, Al Green, Tammi Tyrell, Marvin Gaye and Minnie Riperton. I should have listened to more.
There is a lot of K-pop on here, which does have some R&B and rap elements but I still think that’s a genre all its own. That was mostly influenced by my buddy, Chris. Chris, you put me on some good stuff.
I’ve already made a post about how I was surprised by the sadness of Jimmy Buffett.
Alice Sara Ott’s two albums of beautiful piano music were what I listened to while studying for my Server+ exam.
Choosing 69 Love Songs as my last album was insane. That album is nearly three hours long. It’s good but finishing your race like that is like running back four miles before heading to the finish line.
I could keep talking about these albums and I probably will. But I want to talk about what this whole thing meant to me. First, it fell good to finish something. Secondly, it made me listen to more music. A lot of times I’ve found myself listening to debaters and reddit story read videos exclusively. This has made me choose music more often. Not just new stuff but falling back in love with old stuff. Like coming back to meet an old friend.
So, yeah, this was a fun time and positive experience. Next year, I want to challenge myself by listening to an album from an artist from every country in the world. Those penguins in Antartica probably have some sick beats.
Paperboy 2: Temptation Awaits
I played Paperboy 2 for the SNES when I was a kid. I was playing it again through totally legal means and thought about how excellently, this game tempts you with things to whip newspapers at.
Look at that, a baby and a suckling pig. If you hit that pig it goes running off and might kill you. That’s a death worth having by my estimations. You save the pig and he gets revenge on you. It’s actually good if you hit the baby because it stops flying down the street out of control. There are like half a dozen you have to avoid. Is there someone at the top of the street just whipping her sextuplets down the street.
Then you have this old folks having a precious moment. Just asking for you to hit them with a newspaper so that they kick their legs up. What’s one subscriber out of ten for that street when you get to do that? You can get them to sign up through word of mouth if you aren’t a shit to the other subscribers.
Then there’s this dude. Just one little hit to that jack… and boom. He dies. No one would know. This game might be turning me into a psychopath.
To be fair to the paperboy/girl you have to deal with this bullshit.
Look at a man just whipping tires into the open street. I would be on the other side of his house catching those tires to resell them.
Then there’s this bullshit of gargoyles that are constantly shooting fireballs. What is this neighborhood? But then again, maybe that house makes sense when we have…
Active hauntings!
And a fortress that’s opening fire I guess on the people across the street. What did the local zoning board have to say about the moat? And the cannons?
I couldn’t find a screenshot of it but there’s also a convenience store that’s getting robbed every day and the only one there to stop it is the paperboy/girl.
The fact of the matter is that this town should have a great deal of news regarding these weird neighborhoods. But I guess news is so slow in this town that the local hiring and firing of paperboys/girls makes front page news.
Anyway, to get to the point. This game fucking rules.
The insanity of the early anime years
The introduction to anime for many of us came on the deck of the Absolution, the flagship of Toonami and it’s robot pilot Tom. That was what came next. Certain channels had already bought the licensing rights to things like Sailor Moon and Ronin Warriors. You could watch them at five a.m. right before they switched over to the news or something else.
Of course, we know where it ended with anime infiltrating everything and Demon Slayer’s movie rocketing to the top of the charts. It’s just about everywhere now but I still remember those early days. Join me in my reminiscence.
First off, there were no streaming services. If you wanted anime that wasn’t one of the few that were licensed by the various television stations you had to buy it on DVD. That’s where the trick came in. Because they were foreign exports, dealers would charge an arm and a leg. Each disc of six episodes was about 20 bucks each. However, if you wanted the two episode finale you had to buy it for about 60 bucks. Extortion of the highest level.
Secondly, was the pointless censorship. For some reason, 4Kids, thought that we needed to not know what a rice ball was. Thus, we have this famous line:
Because it was the early 00’s, they had to protect us from the horrors of… lesbians! The stupidity of that is well documented. However, they did this by turning them into… cousins. You know how cousins act?
Not like that. So, yeah, they made it far worse because now it’s not just harmless lesbians it’s horrifying incest.
Then came the fact that we were being brought into a world that we hadn’t seen before. They started showing Dragonball Z without ever making mention that there was an entire other series, Dragonball before that. That there were nearly two hundred episodes introducing these characters to the world. That this was a continuation. No, we just thought it was just Dragonball Z and nothing else.
For those who haven’t seen this series, let me paint you a picture. You meet this guy named Goku and his crew having a reunion on an island with a turtle and an old man. Who are these people? Don’t know. They’re just here. We also saw this asshole meet and he nearly fights a green man.
Are there more green people? Is he a special case? Doesn’t matter. Keep it pushing. We find out that big hair is the main character’s brother. They’re saiyans! What’re those? Keep it pushing don’t stop. We know Goku is the main character. Him and the green man start fighting the big haired guy. They’re losing bad. But they’re the heroes! They have to win! That’s how these things work. Well, guess what, episode 5 they do win! And the main character is killed. What the fuck?
It was startling to watch. But for all of us, it was so interesting to watch. We hadn’t seen anything like that before. I think it’s what drove us into it. That strangeness, that weirdness. That just kept growing with every series they threw at us. Gundam Wing, Big O, Naruto and Bleach. We just kept going. I wonder what’s going to happen next. I wonder what the next revolution is going to be.
Ranking the White Stripes’ Albums
The White Stripes broke up in February of 2011, happy birthday to me, I guess. They left behind a legacy of amazing music. I’ve seen them live about five or six times throughout my life. One time with Loretta Lynn opening for them. So, because this is my blog and I can do whatever I want. I’m going to rank their albums.
6. Get Behind Me Satan
I really wanted to love this album. It’s more piano centric than some of the others. It has some great tracks on it like “My Doorbell”, “Blue Orchid”, “Take, Take, Take” but it has the most tracks that I just don’t like “White Moon”, “Instinct Blues”, “Ugly As I Seem”, “The Nurse”. They’re not bad songs but they just don’t excite me. I come to a White Stripes album to get pumped and these just don’t get me there. This is kind of like a bad Beck album situation, where it’s not that great for the artist but for anyone else it would be an amazing album.
5. De Stijl
Once again, not a bad album. It’s a really great album but I just don’t revisit that often. I think what holds it back from being higher on the list is that certain songs are better live than they are on the album. “Let’s Build a Home” when it’s live is part of an amazing compilation where Jack White is driving it with solos and slides. “Death Letter” is another fun song live and what’s interesting is that my dad owned the same guitar that Jack uses on it. But like Get Behind Me Satan, there are just some songs on here that just aren’t my favorite. “Why Can’t You Be Nicer to Me” and “Jumble, Jumble” are just kind of there.
4. The White Stripes
The self titled album was a great preview for what was to come. There are some classics on this like “The Big Three Killed My Baby”, “Sugar Never Tasted So Good” and “Screwdriver”. They also throw down some great covers like “Stop Breaking Down” by Robert Johnson, where unlike the Rolling Stones, they actually give the original artist credit! Also a definitive version of “One More Cup of Coffee” by Bob Dylan. It’s them at their earliest and wildest. It also has a strange claustrophobic feeling to it because it was just Jack and Meg and an 8 track recording device. Also, I would say it’s their bluesiest album. There’s so much slide on the solos and tracks. Once again, not a bad album. It just dwarfs in comparison to…
3. White Blood Cells
The breakout hit and for a reason. It has their first hit “Fell in Love With a Girl” along with “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground”, which is a tremendous song. I loved Citizen Kane as a kid so the “Union Forever” a song made up only of Citizen Kane lyrics is astounding. Also, the cute “We’re Gonna Be Friends”, which speaks to the fact that Jack White wanted the band to have an almost childlike nature to it. Then there’s the quick meditation on creativity, which I’m sure is the way the White Stripes feel “Little Room”.
“When you’re sitting in your little room/Working on something good/But if it’s really good/You’re gonna need a bigger room/And when you’re in the bigger room/You might not know what to do/So you’re going to have to think of how you got started/Sitting in your little room”
However what holds this back is clunkers like “Offend in Every Way”, “Finding it Harder to Be a Gentleman” and the confusing noise storm that is “Aluminum”.
God, writing this list just makes me want to listen to all of these albums straigh through again.
2. Icky Thump
This is another giant of an album. The only thing that holds this back is that I think the duo of “Prickly Thorn, But Sweetly Worn” and “St. Andrew(The Battle is in the Air)” are just not that great. But this is their final album and they are at the height of their power and abilities. Every song is like putting your tongue in the electric outlet. Jack White is letting loose on this album in a way that he hasn’t before like against the crackdowns on illegal immigration
“White Americans, what nothing better to do?/Why don’t you kick yourself out, you’re an immigrant too/Who’s using who? What should we do?/Well you can’t be a pimp and prostitute too”
If you listen to no other albums on this list, this one and the number one spot are the ones to check out. It’s just such a fun album.
1. Elephant
All killer, no filler. I could end it right there. This album is amazing. The first time Meg gets to take center stage on a song with “In the Cold, Cold Night” singing so softly that it’s a wonder that the mic picked her up. The obvious giant hit “Seven Nation Army”, which was meant to be a James Bond song but… well, I don’t really know why it wasn’t used. Then there’s “I Wanna Be the Boy to Warm Your Mother’s Heart”, with its buttery guitar solos. The mighty “Ball and Biscuit” where Jack says a few lines here and there before ripping into some amazing solos. I’ve seen this song performed live and it’s amazing. The fact that this album was made without computer equipment is also amazing. Especially when you consider the all Jack chorus of “There’s No Home For You Here” where his voice is layered several times over to sound both angelic and demonic.
There’s a reason this album cemented them as rock and rollers for the ages. Listen to this album and have yourself a good day.
A lil update about my life
I’ve been nesting lately. I’m looking forward to achieving one of the reasons that I chose to live alone, getting cats. There are two living in the parking lot of my apartment complex and I’m going to work with my landlord to bring them into my home. I have bought litter boxes, food, and dishes. They’re all ready for them. I hope that they aren’t too feral and I can bring them inside.
One of them looks like my childhood cat. I might have become too emotionally involved. I don’t care. There’s no point in living if you’re not willing to throw your heart out there. You can be safe and alone or you can step into the danger of caring and find yourself love.
Teen Girl Talk: Wednesday Season 2 Episodes 4-6
Hey everyone, here’s an episode from mine and my sister’s podcast.
Random Word Generator Storytime: Reduction
(I learned this from Paul Robalino on the behind the scenes of Game Changer on Dropout.TV. He talks about using a random word generator and then writing from that word. This time we’re shrinking things with the word: Reduction).
Patricia looked at herself in the mirror. She was a pretty woman with a round face and full cheeks but most of the people that she dated didn’t focus on her face. They focused on what was going on below her neck.
Her breasts had started growing when she was fifteen and hadn’t stopped until they were so far down the alphabet that it made her uncomfortable. Her back ached daily and nearly nothing fit. She sighed as she stuffed herself into her bra. The ugly thing that she had bought because it was too expensive to get nice things in her size.
She thought again about getting a breast reduction. She had thought about this and brought it up with other boyfriends she had and they had all thrown tantrums about it. One of them had told her it was like slicing up the Mona Lisa. That if he she did it he would break up with her. She saved him the trouble and broke up with him.
She had the money for it that wasn’t the problem. She was dating a guy now and she saw a future with him. She wondered if he would stick around if she were to do this thing. Then she kicked herself for taking his opinion into account. Who cares what he thought. On a whim, she thought about calling him and asking him. Might as well get it over with and find out what he would say. If he was against it, she would be able to not waste her time anymore.
He picked up on the third ring.
“Hey, sweetums, what’s up?” he answered.
“Nothing, Joshy, I just had a question about something.”
“Hit me with it.”
“I’m thinking about getting a breast reduction.”
“Okay, cool. Just let me know when you’re thinking about it and I’ll take the time off, okay? I want to make sure I’m around to take care of you while you recover.”
Patricia was taken aback. Not in a bad way but more surprised.
“That’s it?”
“Uh, I guess is there something else you want me to do? Do you want me to come with you to the consultation?”
“No, I… you don’t have any objections to it?”
There was a long pause on the other end. She wondered if he was thinking about it for the first time.
“Why would I get a say in what you do to your body?” he asked.
“I mean, I was worried that this might make you less attracted to me,” she said.
“Honey, I love you, I don’t love a pair of tits. If I did I’d buy a pair at the Pleasure Shack and play with those. Probably save me a lot of money and having to smell your taco farts when we get Taco Bell and pass out on the couch.”
She snorted laughter at that.
“Besides,” he continued. “I know how they irk you. I care more about your comfort than some boobs.”
“Hm, I love you, honey,” she said.
“I love you too, give them a call and we can sort it out.”
“Am I going to see you later?”
“Wild horses couldn’t keep me away.”
“Love you.”
“Love you too.”
She hung up and googled the name of a plastic surgeon. She held the phone to her ear while it rang.
“I’m going to marry that man,” she said.
“Hello, Dr. Patel’s office,” a voice said on the other end. “How can I help you?”
“Hi, my name is Patricia Allman, I’d like to make an appointment for a consultation.”
Franklin Cota, an author and podcaster 