A new beginning, a new morning, a new sun ...

... I forgot where I was going with that.
And by the way, I know it is the same old sun that every morning comes up from behind the horizon. Apollo does not have the money to buy another one to chariot around the sky everyday. I wonder what his chariot is made of if it can hold the sun.
Don't tell me you did not know that Apollo is the one that every morning wakes up early, get the horses ready, lugs the sun on the chariot and runs across the sky so you can get a nice tan. Oh well, your loss.
While we are on this subject, YO 'POLLO, wake up and start "charioting" earlier so I do not have a laser beam in my eyes driving to work in the morning. It gets annoying. It was getting better and what happened? Time change ...  BAM!!! Laser back in your eyes when driving Eastward in the morning. We just screw up everything we touch are we? <-- I mean humans in general. Well, if it was all perfect and jolly we would not know that it was perfect and jolly as we would not have anything different to compare to.

Ok, back to subject ... oh wait, I do not have one.

Let's see ...
New York trip pictures... too lazy right now... too many pictures to choose from.

Christmas Spirit: 

Never got it!
You will have to excuse me there, but as I spent most of my long Christmas weekend in bed or sitting down due to a kidney stone induced pain and high fever, you will understand why I was not in a cheerful Christmas mood. Add to that my cousin (the same I met in New York) sending me articles about kidney stones and I should not have fever and that if I have fever I have an infection and I risk to loose a kidney and ... THE END OF THE WORLD!!!  And telling me that if I do not go to a doctor she will not talk to me anymore at which I replied "If I die you will not have to worry about it" ...  :-) not quite the right answer, was it? She was a little pissed at that answer ... don't worry ... I did not die (duh!), my cousin is still talking to me, the fever is gone and the stone is still in there somewhere, ready to move again, probably Thursday New Year's Day to f@$# up also that long weekend. That would be ironic, but at least consistent.
But it was not all that bad as I had some loving and lovable people taking care or thinking about me.


What's new in Vindi? New friends, some old friends, some very good friends ... still missing one ...
New character Sylas. How to describe him... 14 maybe 15 year old wizard-wanna-be but stuck with a phantom dagger. You can make him as tall as you can, he will still be shorter than everyone else except Evie, if the Evie is not made tall. His emotes are way over ... over ... over the top. His dance is from a drunk Justin Bieber ... I am just guessing there...not a fan, I assure you. As most Vindi characters he has two positions when sitting on the ground. In one he looks like L from Death Note. I should post a picture. Meh, easier to find one of L. Here we go. Yes, like that... he looks like he is squatting to relieve himself. GAHH ... now I hate Sylas.

A very good friend of mine has mentioned that there is another female character that will come out in Vindi called Delia. She is sporting a huge long sword similar to Hurk. If you look at the Youtube videos related to her emotes and character creation you can get your own idea, but here is my impression: Delia is a blonde cheerleader, always happy, legs taller than you (yeah, you Sylas) and her Victory emote will cause a LOT of ... mmm ... lets say inappropriate comments. Now, she does curtsies like a Lady of days past, but her dance is ... no, go see for yourself; I can't stop staring at her. Just search for "Vindictus Delia Dance". SO CUTE!

What else happened lately? Oh yes! We had 4 seasons in 48 hours. Friday, December 25th, 71 degrees Fahrenheit. Saturday, December 26th... I have no idea, I was in a fever induced stupor. Sunday, December 27th, 19 degrees Fahrenheit with ice and a little snow. Somebody would comment "OMG, than in Texas everything must be shutdown!" to be sarcastic, or probably more like "Big deal, so what, we get 6 feet of snow and we still go to school and all that".
Snow is not the problem. It's the sheet of ice on the road.



Here is the driveway just outside the garage. Awesome for skating.   --------------->

<----- Front Yard with just a covering of snow

 <------- Road covered in ice, not snow ------->

The very good friend of mine that told me about Delia also sent me a gift for Christmas: a Takeya Hot Tea Infuser, so I used some of the SPECIAL GUNPOWDER GREEN TEA that I bought in New York in Chinatown and made some hot tea. As a picture is worth a thousand words, please see below. 

By the way, I got plenty of that tea. I did not have anymore space in the cabinets at home considering the other teas I purchased, so I brought some at work. I think I will be ok for a while considering it does not take much of the POW! tea.




ANECDOTE: I was stopped at airport security in New York as I was carrying a few of these little boxes in my backpack. I wonder what they thought...

Middle of December and I do not feel the Christmas Spirit yet. Oh I did my shopping (thank you Amazon, I love you), but I still lack that little kid spirit that is telling me "IT'S CHRISTMAS YOU MORON!!! NOW MOVE YOUR CAR OUT OF THE WAY!!!". 

There is a joke among my colleagues, that I get in my Christmas Spirit when I start driving like an Italian (well, duh, I am Italian) and cuss at other drivers for being stupid and on my way. There are plenty of those everywhere.

The other day I was home alone and I tried Christmas Music, turned on the lights on Christmas tree, lit one of those candles that are supposed to "smell like Christmas" (cinnamon, mint, pine... something like that) ... NOTHING!

Maybe it is still too warm outside.

Yeah, I know. Shut up Red. Nothing new there.

So, what's new in my world ... 

• Screwed up an online / "in real life" friendship (enough on that... I am trying not to think about it ... unsuccessfully)
• Made new friends in Vindictus (MMORPG that I mentioned before)
• Trip to New York - Met my cousin from Italy and I had a blast. I need to post some pictures, so that is all I am going to say about it for now

Done with the gate too.

Redneck trashy corner is gone.

The privacy fence is not containing the two puppies (they can climb it and jump over), but it looks better.

This is what I am working on. I never finished the privacy fence in the backyard so, in an attempt to contain my two puppies, I started working on this project. And it does not matter that the puppies can climb the privacy fence, I still need to finish it and clean up a "Redneck trashy" corner.

I know the picture is not perfectly clear, stop complaining. Mosquitoes were trying to carry me away.
All that ... junky gates, chain link pieces ... they will all be removed. And yes, there is a piece of fencing that I close behind that little 4 foot metal gate. And yes, I will have a new gate as part of the privacy fence there.
And yes, the braces on the section on the left are on the inside as the vertical slats will be screwed on that side as there is no way for me to put them on the outside with that metal "den" and the dog runs. I could pre-build the section and then just lifted there. Screw it, it is easier my way.

I still do not know what I am going to do with the North West side of the dog runs, but i am leaning toward removing the whole thing and just leave the North East dog run. It will look much nicer and clean.
I will have to rent one of those huge construction dumpsters to remove all the material and finish throwing away a bunch of old wooden fences left by the previous owner. When we moved into this house we threw away 3 full construction dumpsters of junk left by the previous "pack rat" owner.

AHAH ... I just remembered ... I am laughing about it now, but I wasn't at the time when I spent a couple of hours digging in hard clay. I guess the boys of the previous owner had a worm farm project or something similar, so they had buried completely (not halfway, all the way flushed with the ground) a dryer on its back so the opening was pointing up, and filled it with dirt (<-- clay).
I had to dig all the dirt out of the tub and then dig all around the dryer as with the passing of the years the clay in the ground compressed against the freaking dryer. For two solid hours I think I never stopped cussing.

Digging holes and filling them back up. AHAH ... no I am not digging foxholes like when I was in the Army to just filled them back up next day. I am finally continuing (it will take me a while to finish) to build the privacy fence on my backyard. The idea was to help keeping my two new puppies (well, full grown, just a year old) contained, but I saw Maya (one of the puppies) jump, grab the top of the privacy fence pull herself up and reach freedom. I have not seen Sophie doing the same, but she is out just a minute afterwards, normally, so I know she can do it. I am surprised my Golden Retriever doesn't just bust through the wood fence to get out too as he is notorious for it.

Today I have to dig one more hole, set one more metal post and then I can start building the actual wood fence. I do not purchase pre-made panels for a couple or 3 reasons: 1) they use smaller cross braces (I use actual 2x4 treated wood); 2) They use nails for the actual slats, even if they are ridged nails (I use decking screws); 3) in certain areas (like the corner I am working on) I would have to cut down the 8 foot pre-made sections to fit my needs.

mmm ... I guess I should take a picture of the actual area I am fencing in as before and after. I will make a mental note of it ... which means I will probably forget about it. AHAH

This came close but never formed completely, at least by my house. It was strange to see it on the local TV stations and over there just south of my house. Our little town has been spared three times now in a week with storms that have produced tornadoes before or after passing by. They say that because of some unmarked Native American burial ground in the vicinity our town will never get hit by a tornado ... or so the "legend" says.
At least I did check my BOBs (Bug Out Bags) and other supplies I keep in the storm shelter just a couple of weeks ago. Yep, I am ready for whatever comes my way.

I am emotionally drained. And at the same time I feel as tense and tight as a string on a violin ... or I should say cello as I am listening to the new Apocalyptica "Shadowmaker". Strange timing ... I would also say bad timing. A couple of the songs seems to be talking straight at me. Nice coincidence, if I would believe in coincidences. I guess I do sometimes if the things or actions that make up the coincidence are isolated, as an isolated instance. But when a bunch of the new songs I stumbled upon (Apocalyptica, 10 Years, Theory of a Deadman, Of Mice and Men ...) in 2 days time seems to be talking to me directly, it has freakingly passed the "coincidence level".

It must be pretty darn obvious if a person online has sensed that I am very tense and I have not said anything other than very casual conversation ... or so I thought.

"Tense, no not at all, just tired maybe"
"Liar. I can feel that something is deeply bothering you"
"oooo... look at the time. Sorry, I have to leave now" 
"You think running away will resolve what causes you to be so tense?"
"Ok, psychoanalyst lady. You are getting a little creepy"
"That is what I do. Are you really going to sleep?"
"Let's say I have to go to bed so I can get some rest before going back to work tomorrow. Sleep? Not so much lately"
"What bothers you will not go away like that"
"Oh, I am aware of that. This is something that will never leave me. I really have no choice in the matter."
"Oooooh ... you are in love with someone ...how cute. Is this your first love? Is she in school with you?"
 Good night Creepy Lady"

Does anyone have some good new Anime (series or movie) to recommend other than the ones I have listed in the January 15, 2014 post?

Almost one year...
Almost one year that I have not written anything ... no random thoughts, no zombies, prepper or video games related subjects.

I am listening to songs from Zack Hemsey. You may have not heard of him, but you probably could recognize some of his game or movie scores. mmm ... let's see... "Mind Heist" from Inception. That was Zack Hemsey, not Hans Zimmer, even if Zimmer did the soundtrack for the movie.
I am stuck on listening over and over ... and over... the song "Vengeance". The music is haunting. We all have different likes and dislikes in music, so I really am not interested in what you think. My blog, my thoughts... HAHA ... no, I am not trying to be a jackass, just stating the truth.
This makes me think of  a joke.
An old man is at an interview for a job and the interviewer asks "What do you think would be one of your weaknesses?".
The old man answers "Honesty".
Interviewer: "I would not consider that a weakness".
Old man: "I don't give a shit what you think"...  LOL  ... oh come on... it's funny!

Ok. That was one my "going for a tangent" moments. Back to the song "Vengeance".
Starts slow, with an undercurrent that promises you to take you somewhere. First slow than it starts hitting you with more drums and the current drags you faster... wait ... what is this ... a calm area ... whats is going on ... OH CRAP ... last part takes you faster in a rush.
You have to listen to the music loud, and please not through your cheesy smartphone tiny little speakers that can only distort the sound. Look for "Zack Hemsey, Vengeance (with vocals).
Close your eyes. Relax. You can't just hear the music.  Fell the music. Experience the music. Make it a full mind experience by imagining you are at water level in a river and the music is the strength and speed of the current.

Do you want a completely different kind of music style. Try Zack Hemsey "Don't Get in My Way". Careful... it is rap (kinda), but there are no bad words and the rhythm is quite catchy. Just listen to it. It is over 6 minutes, but what are 6 minutes in your life and if you like the song... well ... you are welcome.

What other songs am I listening lately?
Amaranthe "The Nexus", "Drop Dead Cynical" and "Electroheart". Last one is a little more ... how can I say ... commercial??? ... but a very good beat and rythm.
Halestorm: "Love Bites (so do I)", "I Miss the Misery", "Mz. Hide"
Lorde: "Everyone Wants to Rule the World". I heard this one on the Dracula Untold movie trailer. <--- good movie by the way. I liked it. For any of your negative comments see above the old man joke.
Marylin Manson: "Third Day of a Seven Day Binge"
Seether: "Words as Weapons"
But mainly a lot of Epic Music and Symphonic Metal.