I am currently working on Chapter 5 of my story. I have been pretty busy the last couple of days so I have not had a lot of time to work on it. I really enjoy writing though and the words are coming fast and furious and I like what I have so far on Chapter 5. Like I said earlier, the first four chapters would be like the beginning of the movie before the credits begin. From here the story really branches out.
There is so many places they have yet to visit. So many characters, even main ones, they have yet to meet. Dynamics of the story change things dramatically. Mysteries deepen while new ones develop. Things have been quite action oriented, although a lot of character development has also happened in a short span. That is the way life goes though.
I have said multiple times that I have already fleshed the entire story out in my head, almost like it plays out in my head like a movie. This is true, but that is not to say that what is in my head is going to be the final product. Sure it will be the same basic story, but once you start writing things down you see things that might work that you didn't see before. You also see things that look great in your head but you can scarcely describe them in print without bogging the story down.
Here is a good example. In the second chapter the characters have an encounter with an old hermit. The thing is that he was never in my original story I had planned in my head. As I was typing the story I started describing people around the characters. There was an ex soldier, a deserter, for instance. I debated taking that aspect some where but simply left him as a background character. Since then I have fully fleshed out a back ground to that character. He will most likely play no further part in the story but I have an idea of where he has been and where he is going.
The old hermit began simply as a description of an old man walking towards the characters wearing dusty old rags for clothes. As I typed out his description in the story, I had no idea just why the hell he was approaching the characters. For a few minutes I debated on what his intentions were before I decided to take him in a direction that would have implications for the rest of the story. His character does not survive, but it added an entirely new dynamic to the story. Now there is an entire group of assassins running around, maybe. Or maybe it is some religious cult. Maybe one of the main characters is on the run from said cult. Maybe it is none of those things (Most likely but you'll have to read the story when it is finished to know for sure- and by that point I will have probably changed my mind anyways). I have a good idea but that is all, an idea that I know will go some where.
Will it affect the outcome of the story? Absolutely not. It is simply a nice little subplot. And the old hermit was not the only addition to the story. Just in the last chapter I used a real life injury of someone I know to afflict a character. In the story it is a minor foot note but it does play a critical role in showing character development, as the character makes a bold choice to help her companion rather than herself. To that point she had been antagonistic to the other character.
I knew at some point I had to switch from an antagonistic relationship to one of working closely together but I had no idea how I was going to do it. This was just an example of how I used something in the real world to push the story along in a minor way.
That is one thing I love about writing. I surprise myself. In the first 4 chapters there are at least two major encounters that were not in the original story. I find it helps to keep a story exciting, especially early on. That is why I write in blocks of 6-8 pages at a time. Keeps a quick pace to the story. While I love stories like Lord of the Rings I do not want to tie down endless pages upon pages of the characters walking around smoking pipes and eating cakes.
Also since I based one character largely on the traits of a real life person I know, I had to alter some of the other characters in minor ways. It fits better with the real life person and hence makes writing it that much easier. Now a major character, who simply served as an almost third dynamic to the main two characters relationship with one another, has changed dramatically to be a thorn in their sides. Well thorn might be a harsh word but rather his character was altered enough that he serves as more than a mere distraction to them. To fit in with this change I had to alter where the character came from in the setting.
Now he does not change though other than that. Still the same character with the same traits. Just changed his relationship to another one of the characters (where as before he had none) and where he was from. To accommodate this, I had to change where the characters meet him. In doing this I had to find another character to take his place where the characters were originally going to meet him. Again just a minor shuffle and no major impact on the story.
That is how things like this develop.
Deadlifter14
I'm a Dork
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Training Tonight
Because my training became jumbled last week tonight's training session was a bit altered from normal. I actually liked the change as it gave me a chance to do some lifts I normally don't get a chance to do. Since I did heavy benching yesterday I did not start with the normal light bench pressing.
Instead I performed 3 sets of 10 reps of light close grip bench pressing. I performed these with a 3 second pause when the bar was at my chest. This placed the load on the triceps and served to warm them up for further training while sparing my shoulders.
I then went into doing skullcrushers with an ez curl bar. I did 4 sets of 10 reps ramping the weight up. Actually the last set I only got 6 reps but that was all I was shooting for with that weight.
Then I did tricep extensions with dumbells while lying on my back. I performed 4 sets of 10 reps, again ramping up in weight.
I then went on to tricep pressdowns performing 3 sets of 15 reps.
Then I moved on to bicep work. My first lift was "21s" with dumbells. These are done by performing 7 reps performing the bottom half of the curl, then 7 reps of the top half of the curl, then 7 reps of full range of motion curls. This really pumps a lot of blood into the biceps. We did 3 sets of these.
Then I peformed 3 sets of 12 reps of Hammer curls.
Then I did 4 sets of 10 reps of bent over dumbell rows to hit the lats, traps, and upper back all at once.
This was it. I think this lasted about an hour and a half and that was with my training partner and I keeping a quick pace. Now I am starving and thinking of something to eat. Hell to devour. Hungry as fuck.
Instead I performed 3 sets of 10 reps of light close grip bench pressing. I performed these with a 3 second pause when the bar was at my chest. This placed the load on the triceps and served to warm them up for further training while sparing my shoulders.
I then went into doing skullcrushers with an ez curl bar. I did 4 sets of 10 reps ramping the weight up. Actually the last set I only got 6 reps but that was all I was shooting for with that weight.
Then I did tricep extensions with dumbells while lying on my back. I performed 4 sets of 10 reps, again ramping up in weight.
I then went on to tricep pressdowns performing 3 sets of 15 reps.
Then I moved on to bicep work. My first lift was "21s" with dumbells. These are done by performing 7 reps performing the bottom half of the curl, then 7 reps of the top half of the curl, then 7 reps of full range of motion curls. This really pumps a lot of blood into the biceps. We did 3 sets of these.
Then I peformed 3 sets of 12 reps of Hammer curls.
Then I did 4 sets of 10 reps of bent over dumbell rows to hit the lats, traps, and upper back all at once.
This was it. I think this lasted about an hour and a half and that was with my training partner and I keeping a quick pace. Now I am starving and thinking of something to eat. Hell to devour. Hungry as fuck.
Ted Strickland
I noticed the ad company who puts ads on my blog has thrown up a bunch of Ted Strickland ads. Let me say right now I could give a shit less about most politicians. I firmly believe the whole lot is corrupt to the core and have been selling us out for years. If our founding fathers would be transplanted to modern America and seen the corrupt bloated festering cesspool of the US Government they would go back and just give up. Seriously how in the fuck can anyone justify what is said in the constitution and the bill of rights with what this American system has become. It is not any parties blame, they have both allowed or encouraged this to happen.
That being said, I do sometimes make a choice between the lesser of two evils. For instance if you put me in a room with a murderer and a child molester, the child molester will lose out every time. Politics is pretty much the same way. While I am no fan of either party I will support the conservative candidate anytime over the liberal. Why? Because at least the conservative will pretend to uphold some sense of American Ideology. The liberals have no problem pushing a socialist agenda completely in opposition to the core values of this country.
So whatever you do, do not click on any goddamn ads featuring that Ted Strickland. In fact if you are reading this make sure to place your vote in anyone but Ted Strickland. That is how much I do not support them using my blog to promote his bullshit agenda. Hell I would rather you write in Mickey Mouse than that lame fuck.
I know some people in my family are hard core democrats. For years we have constantly heard the bullshit drivel they are for the working people. If you really believe any politician is for the working people you need to educate yourself on where this country started and what it has become. Every time you vote a democrat into office the federal government becomes even more bloated and disgusting.
That being said, I do sometimes make a choice between the lesser of two evils. For instance if you put me in a room with a murderer and a child molester, the child molester will lose out every time. Politics is pretty much the same way. While I am no fan of either party I will support the conservative candidate anytime over the liberal. Why? Because at least the conservative will pretend to uphold some sense of American Ideology. The liberals have no problem pushing a socialist agenda completely in opposition to the core values of this country.
So whatever you do, do not click on any goddamn ads featuring that Ted Strickland. In fact if you are reading this make sure to place your vote in anyone but Ted Strickland. That is how much I do not support them using my blog to promote his bullshit agenda. Hell I would rather you write in Mickey Mouse than that lame fuck.
I know some people in my family are hard core democrats. For years we have constantly heard the bullshit drivel they are for the working people. If you really believe any politician is for the working people you need to educate yourself on where this country started and what it has become. Every time you vote a democrat into office the federal government becomes even more bloated and disgusting.
Lawn Care
Haha. Sorry I had to laugh at this entry as it is an inside joke. But yes it is in fact about lawn care. In you travel back through time to right around 2001 I was 21 years old on the verge of 22. It was summer time and I was going to college for engineering part time and also on unemployment at the time because the whole sale lumber yard I was working at closed down its Columbus location. This actually came as quite a surprise as they had assured us for months and months that they would not be closing the location down.
Like any corporate business they didn't really give a shit about telling us the truth and just fed us a bunch of bullshit to keep us from looking for another job before they ripped ours out from under us. Since I was going to school at the time this was a rather big deal since I was paying for whatever my loans did not cover. I was a bit pissed off so when I got laid off I decided I was not going to make a priority of finding a job quickly. This was good in a way, I was 21 years old, it was summer time, and going to school for a few hours then getting paid to look for jobs at all the local pubs and bars was a great time.
I remember one time I had a calculus test at 6 PM. I met one of my bro's down at the VIP lounge at 4 PM. It was happy hour and drafts of beer were a dollar a piece. I had 10 dollars in my pocket when I started drinking and when I stopped I had no dollars. I then made a bee line to campus, and strolled into my class at the nick of time to start the test. As I sat there looking at the test I felt the strongest urge in my life of having to piss. Nothing like trying to take a test while having a beer piss trying to squeeze out. So I did the only thing I knew how to do, I burned through the test, finished it in 15 minutes, turned it in, then had one of the greatest pisses of all time.
I beat out everyone else by 45 minutes. Yes I am dead serious the next person to finish the test was 45 minutes after me. Now this really doesn't mean shit because you can finish a test in 1 minute and just miss every fucking question. But here is the kicker, not only did I get the highest score in the class, i got the highest score by such a large margin I threw the curve wildly off. This Professor had never taught calculus before and he really was not that good at it so he always had to grade on a curve because otherwise 3/4 of the class would fail. I was not going to school with retards so obviously he was failing somewhere. But yes I threw off the curve by ending up out scoring the rest of the class by 20 points. Am I bragging now? Maybe I am, but then again it is also the truth. There is a difference between being cocky and confident. I am often self depreciating and humble so why not occasionally also point out when I do something really well.
So that was the environment I was living in at the time. Going to a couple hours of classes a day then getting drunk and living it up the rest of the time. The problem with this is that living the life of a man of leisure can be quite expensive and unemployment does not go that far. So what I really needed was some kind of under the table job to supplement my unemployment benefits.
At around this same time I had a good friend I had grown up with that was playing semi-pro football but broke his ankle during a game. This sidelined him from his job as a waiter. He had a younger brother who was also unemployed. Into this mix we somehow put our alcohol infused brains together and came up with a brilliant plan. We were going to start our own lawn care business.
Our first order of business was we bought some used piece of shit lawn mower from a garage sale. We also procured a broom and borrowed a weed whacker. From this humble beginnings we decided to score a few jobs around our neighborhoods and use the money made to buy better equipment. So we fanned out through the neighborhood to find customers. After about an hour of going door to door we found a guy who paid us 45 dollars to mow his lawn 3 times over the next three weeks. If we did a good job he would extend it. Sweet our first customer. Rejoicing we went down to the bar and drank all 45 dollars away in a breeze.
Seriously we stopped after finding one sucker to pay us and then blew through the money like it wasn't even there. Since we spent all the guys money within an hour of receiving it we now how to at least make sure we took care of him as we couldn't afford to refund his money. So a day later the three of us show up at his place to get started.
So there is my buddies younger brother mowing his back yard. About half way through doing this rather smallish yard the mower makes a funny sound and then bing the spark plug shoots out of the mower with such force it actually dents the guys aluminum siding. This was enough of a dampener that we gave up. We left the poor guys back yard half mowed and his siding damaged. We wrote out a note and left it on his door that we had technical difficulties and would return. Well a week later we had still not returned. My buddy and his bro went on vacation and he gave me 20 dollars to do that job myself.
Fast forward a week and I had still not done the guys yard. I drove past it and it was god awful. Half his yard was so high it looked like a damn jungle. So my buddy was coming back and I really did not feel like mowing this guys yard, especially since I didn't even have a mower. I could of borrowed one but that required just a bit too much effort for me to accomplish.
Then I get a call from a bro down in Texas saying that some European film crew was shooting a documentary down there about a group I was with at the time. So I told him why the hell not, I will jump on a greyhound and go down there and be in the film. So right before I left I went to my buddy's and left a envelope on his porch saying "I ain't mowing that fucking yard, here's your fucking money- sorry" and shoved a 10 dollar bill in there.
By time I got back into town it had been 3 or 4 weeks at this point and all we had down was mowed half the guys yard one time. We ended up rounding up 45 dollars and gave the guy his money back and apologized to him. He was actually cool about it surprisingly. That ended our lawn care business.
Who knows maybe we will revive it one day.
Like any corporate business they didn't really give a shit about telling us the truth and just fed us a bunch of bullshit to keep us from looking for another job before they ripped ours out from under us. Since I was going to school at the time this was a rather big deal since I was paying for whatever my loans did not cover. I was a bit pissed off so when I got laid off I decided I was not going to make a priority of finding a job quickly. This was good in a way, I was 21 years old, it was summer time, and going to school for a few hours then getting paid to look for jobs at all the local pubs and bars was a great time.
I remember one time I had a calculus test at 6 PM. I met one of my bro's down at the VIP lounge at 4 PM. It was happy hour and drafts of beer were a dollar a piece. I had 10 dollars in my pocket when I started drinking and when I stopped I had no dollars. I then made a bee line to campus, and strolled into my class at the nick of time to start the test. As I sat there looking at the test I felt the strongest urge in my life of having to piss. Nothing like trying to take a test while having a beer piss trying to squeeze out. So I did the only thing I knew how to do, I burned through the test, finished it in 15 minutes, turned it in, then had one of the greatest pisses of all time.
I beat out everyone else by 45 minutes. Yes I am dead serious the next person to finish the test was 45 minutes after me. Now this really doesn't mean shit because you can finish a test in 1 minute and just miss every fucking question. But here is the kicker, not only did I get the highest score in the class, i got the highest score by such a large margin I threw the curve wildly off. This Professor had never taught calculus before and he really was not that good at it so he always had to grade on a curve because otherwise 3/4 of the class would fail. I was not going to school with retards so obviously he was failing somewhere. But yes I threw off the curve by ending up out scoring the rest of the class by 20 points. Am I bragging now? Maybe I am, but then again it is also the truth. There is a difference between being cocky and confident. I am often self depreciating and humble so why not occasionally also point out when I do something really well.
So that was the environment I was living in at the time. Going to a couple hours of classes a day then getting drunk and living it up the rest of the time. The problem with this is that living the life of a man of leisure can be quite expensive and unemployment does not go that far. So what I really needed was some kind of under the table job to supplement my unemployment benefits.
At around this same time I had a good friend I had grown up with that was playing semi-pro football but broke his ankle during a game. This sidelined him from his job as a waiter. He had a younger brother who was also unemployed. Into this mix we somehow put our alcohol infused brains together and came up with a brilliant plan. We were going to start our own lawn care business.
Our first order of business was we bought some used piece of shit lawn mower from a garage sale. We also procured a broom and borrowed a weed whacker. From this humble beginnings we decided to score a few jobs around our neighborhoods and use the money made to buy better equipment. So we fanned out through the neighborhood to find customers. After about an hour of going door to door we found a guy who paid us 45 dollars to mow his lawn 3 times over the next three weeks. If we did a good job he would extend it. Sweet our first customer. Rejoicing we went down to the bar and drank all 45 dollars away in a breeze.
Seriously we stopped after finding one sucker to pay us and then blew through the money like it wasn't even there. Since we spent all the guys money within an hour of receiving it we now how to at least make sure we took care of him as we couldn't afford to refund his money. So a day later the three of us show up at his place to get started.
So there is my buddies younger brother mowing his back yard. About half way through doing this rather smallish yard the mower makes a funny sound and then bing the spark plug shoots out of the mower with such force it actually dents the guys aluminum siding. This was enough of a dampener that we gave up. We left the poor guys back yard half mowed and his siding damaged. We wrote out a note and left it on his door that we had technical difficulties and would return. Well a week later we had still not returned. My buddy and his bro went on vacation and he gave me 20 dollars to do that job myself.
Fast forward a week and I had still not done the guys yard. I drove past it and it was god awful. Half his yard was so high it looked like a damn jungle. So my buddy was coming back and I really did not feel like mowing this guys yard, especially since I didn't even have a mower. I could of borrowed one but that required just a bit too much effort for me to accomplish.
Then I get a call from a bro down in Texas saying that some European film crew was shooting a documentary down there about a group I was with at the time. So I told him why the hell not, I will jump on a greyhound and go down there and be in the film. So right before I left I went to my buddy's and left a envelope on his porch saying "I ain't mowing that fucking yard, here's your fucking money- sorry" and shoved a 10 dollar bill in there.
By time I got back into town it had been 3 or 4 weeks at this point and all we had down was mowed half the guys yard one time. We ended up rounding up 45 dollars and gave the guy his money back and apologized to him. He was actually cool about it surprisingly. That ended our lawn care business.
Who knows maybe we will revive it one day.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Bench Press Training
Okay so my training this week was all screwed up due to various factors. I ended up doing my heavy bench press day that is normally done on Wednesday, today on Saturday. I have been sick going on two weeks now. It started the Monday before this past Monday and is still going on. Right now it is a lingering intense cough. Really driving me crazy. I know I am still not 100%, not even close. But I am nearing the end of this current training cycle and no way I am letting it get in my way.
So this week is the week to drop the 2 working sets done to one working set, but just on the regular bench press. Close grip and incline bench presses are still done 2 sets of 2 reps.
So today on the regular bench press I performed 1 working set of 3 reps. This makes it basically a 3 rep max. I set a 3 rep pr meaning today I did the most weight I have ever done while performing three reps. This is of course being done while sick and not 100% so I was quite happy with it. The last rep I barely got. The bar went up to within about 5 inches of locking it out and was completely stuck. it did not move for what seemed like an eternity but in reality was probably 5 seconds (which is an enormous amount of time when lifting very heavy weights for the bar to not be moving at all). Somehow, some way, I was able to deep down deep into some hidden reserve and next thing you know the bar started moving again and locked out. This was a huge deal. I have rarely if ever seen a bar come to a complete stop and sit there unmoving for several agonizing seconds and then moving and locking out again. Most of the time the bar will start to sink back down after several seconds. Especially with 5 or so inches left to lockout.
After this we went to close grip bench presses. I did 10 more pounds than last week and did the same 2 sets of 2 reps.
Then I went to inclines and did 1 set of 2 reps with 10 more pounds than last week. This set was very rough though I ended up having to lift my ass off the bench which took the stress of the target muscles. In a competition bench press (obviously not done on an incline) your butt has to remain in contact with the bench. Since this was so tough I decided on the next set to drop 20 pounds off the bar and do the 2nd set of 2 reps. This was obviously substantially easier than the 1st set but still felt heavy.
I finished up with 3 sets of 15 reps with dumbell bench presses. Nothing specially here. Had a lot more in me but so many damn things were swirling in my head I decided to call it a day. I try to not let personal things get in the way of my training but this was not bad things so I don't see it as a hindrance. This training session was already later than I normally have them and combine that with being sick and coughing up a lung you have a recipe for mediocrity. All the same I set a new personal best which is normally a huge deal. Haven't had a chance to even savor it yet. More interesting things on my mind I think. Wednesday I start in on going for max singles. That will be fun and when I really get a chance to see where I am at. Since I have smashed a few rep records lately I have no doubt I will beat my previous bench press max, the only question right now is by how much. Should be interesting. Maybe I can get a video of some of the lifts.
So this week is the week to drop the 2 working sets done to one working set, but just on the regular bench press. Close grip and incline bench presses are still done 2 sets of 2 reps.
So today on the regular bench press I performed 1 working set of 3 reps. This makes it basically a 3 rep max. I set a 3 rep pr meaning today I did the most weight I have ever done while performing three reps. This is of course being done while sick and not 100% so I was quite happy with it. The last rep I barely got. The bar went up to within about 5 inches of locking it out and was completely stuck. it did not move for what seemed like an eternity but in reality was probably 5 seconds (which is an enormous amount of time when lifting very heavy weights for the bar to not be moving at all). Somehow, some way, I was able to deep down deep into some hidden reserve and next thing you know the bar started moving again and locked out. This was a huge deal. I have rarely if ever seen a bar come to a complete stop and sit there unmoving for several agonizing seconds and then moving and locking out again. Most of the time the bar will start to sink back down after several seconds. Especially with 5 or so inches left to lockout.
After this we went to close grip bench presses. I did 10 more pounds than last week and did the same 2 sets of 2 reps.
Then I went to inclines and did 1 set of 2 reps with 10 more pounds than last week. This set was very rough though I ended up having to lift my ass off the bench which took the stress of the target muscles. In a competition bench press (obviously not done on an incline) your butt has to remain in contact with the bench. Since this was so tough I decided on the next set to drop 20 pounds off the bar and do the 2nd set of 2 reps. This was obviously substantially easier than the 1st set but still felt heavy.
I finished up with 3 sets of 15 reps with dumbell bench presses. Nothing specially here. Had a lot more in me but so many damn things were swirling in my head I decided to call it a day. I try to not let personal things get in the way of my training but this was not bad things so I don't see it as a hindrance. This training session was already later than I normally have them and combine that with being sick and coughing up a lung you have a recipe for mediocrity. All the same I set a new personal best which is normally a huge deal. Haven't had a chance to even savor it yet. More interesting things on my mind I think. Wednesday I start in on going for max singles. That will be fun and when I really get a chance to see where I am at. Since I have smashed a few rep records lately I have no doubt I will beat my previous bench press max, the only question right now is by how much. Should be interesting. Maybe I can get a video of some of the lifts.
Bye Bye Neighbors
Well the mullet tribe moved away today. I saw them driving off while the guy's mullet flapped in the autumn wind. Sadly they actually had enough help that they were able to get everything that needed to loaded up in a timely fashion. I was unable to get any pictures of them during their move as I spent a good portion of the morning... well now that I think about it I didn't do much of anything this morning but I still didn't get any pictures.
But all was not lost. See they left behind "treasures". Treasures are things a renter leaves behind when they move. They are treasures because people often times leave behind some pretty cool things. I have a family member that owns 50 + rental units and you would be surprised how many new in the box things can be up for grabs after the tenant moves out.
So I decided since I could not get any pictures of the family while they were moving I would be able to get pictures of the stuff they left behind, as they put everything in the front of the property. Keep in mind, all these items were inside the apartment before they moved out today. Without further adieu here we go...
As you can see they kindly left behind their porch furniture (the cinder block) a compaq computer monitor (I am pretty sure that used to be mine and I put it out to the trash several months back). A couple of random trash bags of items and some cardboard boxes.
Here we have some further treasures left on the other side of their porch. An electronic keyboard, cooler, some type of ottoman, a few full trash cans, and some boxes. The box front and center with fragile written on it is actually full of coat hangers.
Here is another angle of the previous picture. I guess I didn't need to tell you that the front and center box was full of coat hangers because they are clearly visible in this picture. Just what the fuck is with that piece of furniture. Is it some kind of white trash ottoman or was it a chair that had the back of it snapped off. I might end up using it as a toilet later tonight, not quite sure. I am sober tonight (drinking just isn't that fun for me anymore) so I probably won't. Not that I need alcohol to do wild things, but pissing on a piece of fur..... alright there is no chance I am going to piss on this. At first I thought it might sound funny if I said I would but then I realized it sounds pretty fucking retarded. The thing is one of the neighbors actually would do that. Of course it is in my front yard (however pathetic that yard is) so if someone does I promise you I will choke them out in that front yard and rub their nose in the piss.
This is a chair that left in the front yard. Yes this was actually inside their place up until this point. I mean I know that sometimes you don't have a lot of money and might have some hand me down furniture but this is down right disgusting. And what the fuck are the two slits in the front? Is that where they hide this marijuana cigarettes?
This is a close of said chair. You can get a better idea of how fucking dirty this piece of shit was. Seriously everyday on craigslist advertise furniture for free in better shape than this bullshit. This is fucking hideous. This is so bad I wouldn't just not fuck it, I wouldn't even rub one out on it. Godawful.
This is my mustang. It has nothing to do with the neighbors moving but I took the picture and decided to put it on here. It is my blog so I am allowed to do it.
These are two pictures of my back acne. No real reason to even post these here but likewise they were on my digital camera so I threw them up. Thank god that they didn't show my fattyness lol.
But all was not lost. See they left behind "treasures". Treasures are things a renter leaves behind when they move. They are treasures because people often times leave behind some pretty cool things. I have a family member that owns 50 + rental units and you would be surprised how many new in the box things can be up for grabs after the tenant moves out.
So I decided since I could not get any pictures of the family while they were moving I would be able to get pictures of the stuff they left behind, as they put everything in the front of the property. Keep in mind, all these items were inside the apartment before they moved out today. Without further adieu here we go...
That Damn Song
I am sitting here just wishing that damn song would play on the radio. I have heard it several times before but do not know the name of the song. I do know that the first time I really listened to the song it struck me in a way that no other songs had.
There are many people who turn on the radio hoping to hear a particular song. They might have to sit through 10 songs to hear the one they want to hear, hell maybe even a 100. They don't really care. Even if it is not the song they want to hear they can still listen to it.
I am not like that. When I want to hear a particular song, only that song will do. Anything else is an annoyance and in my way of hearing it. Maybe it is the mild case of OCD I suffer from, or maybe it is because the damn song is that fucking good.
Now if I knew the name of the song, or maybe even better yet owned the fucking song, I wouldn't have to sit here thinking about wanting to hear it. I could relax and not wonder if I did something wrong to piss the song off and that is the reason the song isn't coming on the radio. Of course that is absurd (though no more absurd then anything else I write). The song can obviously not be playing all the time. Maybe some time soon I can figure out the name of it, and gasp even own it one day, until then I have to rely on the radio.
Now you have to ask yourself... is this post really about a song?
There are many people who turn on the radio hoping to hear a particular song. They might have to sit through 10 songs to hear the one they want to hear, hell maybe even a 100. They don't really care. Even if it is not the song they want to hear they can still listen to it.
I am not like that. When I want to hear a particular song, only that song will do. Anything else is an annoyance and in my way of hearing it. Maybe it is the mild case of OCD I suffer from, or maybe it is because the damn song is that fucking good.
Now if I knew the name of the song, or maybe even better yet owned the fucking song, I wouldn't have to sit here thinking about wanting to hear it. I could relax and not wonder if I did something wrong to piss the song off and that is the reason the song isn't coming on the radio. Of course that is absurd (though no more absurd then anything else I write). The song can obviously not be playing all the time. Maybe some time soon I can figure out the name of it, and gasp even own it one day, until then I have to rely on the radio.
Now you have to ask yourself... is this post really about a song?
Today is Moving Day
So the toothless mullet tribe is moving out today. I am a bit giddy over this like a little child as I am thinking of the excellent pictures I can take of the move. The problem is though I have a lot of stuff to do today. I need to squeeze in a really tough training session, I need to con JC into driving out to my grandma's to get a new table (he has a truck I don't). I also need to finish the caulking around the bathtub. Add in trying to finish chapter 5 of my book and I have a semi busy off day. Nothing I cannot handle.
Friday, October 29, 2010
That's Impossible
Sometimes when you look at choices in life things can seem quite impossible. It's weird how we can sit there and analyze a decision and think "that will never work out" or "that will never happen." You might really want to take that path but the odds seem so stacked against it that you dismiss it as a pipe dream.
However if you were to go back in time to say 5 or 10 years ago would you guess you'd be where you are at in you life right now? I can guarantee that if 10 years ago someone approached me and said I would be where I am today that I would think that is impossible. The odds would be stacked against it too greatly. But I sit here typing this right now and am doing what I may have once thought as impossible.
This isn't just applicable to one area in life. Say a job for instance. I work with people who have been doing the same thing for the past 30 years. They hate it with a passion. They complain every day about what they are doing. Then I sit and wonder, did they ever have dreams of doing something that they'd love to do? Like for instance I love to write and would love nothing more than to make a living writing books. Does that mean I am going to quit my job and to write full time? Of course not. Does that mean I won't spend my free time writing in hopes of someday making that happen, of course I will. Even if it doesn't work out I would hate myself for not trying.
That goes for everything in life. No matter how much the odds might be against it, never dismiss it out right. How could you live with yourself if you didn't even try. The guilt of inaction will always be greater than dealing with trying and failing. Besides, you might just be surprised at how easy the impossible is to achieve.
---Edit--- This was written at what could best be described as a turning point in my life. At the time it seemed like what I wanted out of life could not possibly happen. I seriously cannot think of a situation that would seem more hopeless. But much as I wrote about in this entry, what seemed to be impossible did in fact happen. A year and a half later, the life that I dreamed about having I now have. Kind of amazing looking back but for once the bullshit words I was uttering were very true.
However if you were to go back in time to say 5 or 10 years ago would you guess you'd be where you are at in you life right now? I can guarantee that if 10 years ago someone approached me and said I would be where I am today that I would think that is impossible. The odds would be stacked against it too greatly. But I sit here typing this right now and am doing what I may have once thought as impossible.
This isn't just applicable to one area in life. Say a job for instance. I work with people who have been doing the same thing for the past 30 years. They hate it with a passion. They complain every day about what they are doing. Then I sit and wonder, did they ever have dreams of doing something that they'd love to do? Like for instance I love to write and would love nothing more than to make a living writing books. Does that mean I am going to quit my job and to write full time? Of course not. Does that mean I won't spend my free time writing in hopes of someday making that happen, of course I will. Even if it doesn't work out I would hate myself for not trying.
That goes for everything in life. No matter how much the odds might be against it, never dismiss it out right. How could you live with yourself if you didn't even try. The guilt of inaction will always be greater than dealing with trying and failing. Besides, you might just be surprised at how easy the impossible is to achieve.
---Edit--- This was written at what could best be described as a turning point in my life. At the time it seemed like what I wanted out of life could not possibly happen. I seriously cannot think of a situation that would seem more hopeless. But much as I wrote about in this entry, what seemed to be impossible did in fact happen. A year and a half later, the life that I dreamed about having I now have. Kind of amazing looking back but for once the bullshit words I was uttering were very true.
Training Log
Things have been a bit hectic the last couple days to say the least. I ended up having to put in some early morning work projects which has put a damper on my training schedule. Not a big deal, just means I have to sandwich some of my normal training I do during the week for on the weekend. I am tired as all get out right now, but at the same time I cannot sleep. I hope to get a decent nights rest tonight and will hit the weights hard tomorrow.
My diet has been all over the place. Haven't had much of appetite the last couple of days. It happens sometimes, no big deal.
My diet has been all over the place. Haven't had much of appetite the last couple of days. It happens sometimes, no big deal.
Finished Chapter 4
Been busy for the past couple of days. Haven't slept much but I don't mind. Things are going well. I finished chapter 4 of my book tonight. Have a couple pages of Chapter 5 done. Things in the book have been contained to a fairly small setting but starting in chapter 5 the adventure is going to spread out to a pretty vast area. New main characters will be added along the way, although the focus of the story will remain the two main characters of the first 5 chapters.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Why we call him JC
Mr. Screen Your calls and then later swear he didn't aka JC aka Jean-Claude is known as Jean Claude because he shares a passing resemblance to the legendary gay porn star Jean Claude Van Damme (hey he is credited in the 1984 Movie Monaco Forever as "Gay Karate Man"-- seriously look it up).
So just how much does he look like Jean Claude Van Damme, I will let you, my humble readers, decide. I am going to post a picture of Jean Claude Van Damme (above) and then a picture of JC (below) in the same pose that we took last night.
So just how much does he look like Jean Claude Van Damme, I will let you, my humble readers, decide. I am going to post a picture of Jean Claude Van Damme (above) and then a picture of JC (below) in the same pose that we took last night.
Tip for people with cell phones
As I am sitting here at work on a lunch break I want to remind people with cell phones of one thing.
If I call you and the phone rings one time and goes to voice mail I assume your phone is turned off or you are in a bad area for service.
If I call you and your phone rings four times and then goes to voice mail, I assume that you are asleep, away from your phone, or unable to answer at that time.
If say the phone rings twice then goes to voice mail, I assume you are just a fucking asshole. You picked your phone up, saw who was calling, and then you clicked no when it asked you if you wanted to answer it. 2 rings then voice mail means you screened my damn call you douche! See if you were so busy that you could not answer the phone you would not bother looking down at the screen and hitting the no button. But you took the time to check and make sure it was not someone you actually wanted to talk to, then denied it. Yes I know what you are doing and I think you suck because of it.
Remember if you can hit no on the first ring you are okay, but after that and before the normal 4 I know you screened me and now we have an issue. That issue will obviously not cause us any further problems because I am not a butt hurt little bitch about things, but just know that when you see the screen and hit no, know that I know. Know that I know that you know that I know. Know that I know that you know that I know that you know that I know. Wait that doesn't make any sense, knows cannot go on forever. They're not an infinite time loop or the tellurium drive of a warp 3 polarity reverser (ha! You probably wonder what sci fi tv show that is from but I made it the fuck up! Tellurium is a real element though, a metal primarily used in alloys such as steel and copper- number 52 on the periodic table with an electron configuration of 4d10 5s2 5p4 and a solid state density of 6.24 g·cm−3 ).
And no, nobody screened my call today. This rant is directed at no one in particular. Specifically not a friend of mine who might live two doors down. Definitely not anyone who shares a passing resemblance with Jean-Claude Van Damme.
But if it was directed at anyone, that person should be warned, I am watching you.
If I call you and the phone rings one time and goes to voice mail I assume your phone is turned off or you are in a bad area for service.
If I call you and your phone rings four times and then goes to voice mail, I assume that you are asleep, away from your phone, or unable to answer at that time.
If say the phone rings twice then goes to voice mail, I assume you are just a fucking asshole. You picked your phone up, saw who was calling, and then you clicked no when it asked you if you wanted to answer it. 2 rings then voice mail means you screened my damn call you douche! See if you were so busy that you could not answer the phone you would not bother looking down at the screen and hitting the no button. But you took the time to check and make sure it was not someone you actually wanted to talk to, then denied it. Yes I know what you are doing and I think you suck because of it.
Remember if you can hit no on the first ring you are okay, but after that and before the normal 4 I know you screened me and now we have an issue. That issue will obviously not cause us any further problems because I am not a butt hurt little bitch about things, but just know that when you see the screen and hit no, know that I know. Know that I know that you know that I know. Know that I know that you know that I know that you know that I know. Wait that doesn't make any sense, knows cannot go on forever. They're not an infinite time loop or the tellurium drive of a warp 3 polarity reverser (ha! You probably wonder what sci fi tv show that is from but I made it the fuck up! Tellurium is a real element though, a metal primarily used in alloys such as steel and copper- number 52 on the periodic table with an electron configuration of 4d10 5s2 5p4 and a solid state density of 6.24 g·cm−3 ).
And no, nobody screened my call today. This rant is directed at no one in particular. Specifically not a friend of mine who might live two doors down. Definitely not anyone who shares a passing resemblance with Jean-Claude Van Damme.
But if it was directed at anyone, that person should be warned, I am watching you.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Funny incident at work
So today I had to ride along with another tech while my work truck was finally being repaired. I guess telling my boss that I had to drive home in the pouring rain with my windows down and my head sticking out of the window just to be able to see was enough to spur him into action.
As we worked through the day we ended up having a job at some ghetto ass apartments. A line was broken which meant we had to take down the service of three buildings to repair it. This is always fun at ghetto ass apartments since people are always late on their damn bills they assume when the service goes out they are being disconnected. So anytime we take it down we will have several people come out wondering if we are cutting them off.
So today it was my turn to cut the service while the other tech made the repairs. So I opened the can and pulled some things viola service out. As I stood there waiting for the repairs to be done I started to hear some man in a nearby apartment start screaming at someone. The person then opened the door and stormed out. This was the greatest site I had seen in awhile. It was some pudgy white guy with long ass dreadlocked multi-colored hair. He looked like a great big ball of doucheness. He took one look at me then went back in.
I assume he wanted to storm outside and bitch out the people disconnecting his service. When he saw me standing their he lost his impetus and sheepishly went back in. Once back inside he started screaming again. He was yelling at his girlfriend/wife. He was screaming at the top of his lungs why she was such a dumb bitch to not pay the bill.
This most of went on for damn near five minutes he was belittling her. Apparently he spent enough time inside that he worked up the courage to come back outside. He again stormed out, took another look at me then went back inside demanding to use her cell phone. I am not sure if he was trying to call some back up or the police or what (people do some bizarre things). After another five minutes of yelling back and forth he came out a third time.
This time he did not storm out but rather sheepishly walked outside and in a calm mild mannered voice he asked if I worked for the utility company. I said that yes I did. He then politely asked me if we were disconnecting his service. I responded that no we were not we were making repairs to the service. He said how sorry he was that I must of heard him yelling inside. I told him it was okay (I was at work after all and couldn't tell him what I really thought- hell if it had not been a work setting there would of been no talking at all).
So damn funny how he lost all heart but could still yell at his whatever she was. Part of me felt bad for her for a second, then I realized anyone with a douchebag like that deserves what she gets.
As we worked through the day we ended up having a job at some ghetto ass apartments. A line was broken which meant we had to take down the service of three buildings to repair it. This is always fun at ghetto ass apartments since people are always late on their damn bills they assume when the service goes out they are being disconnected. So anytime we take it down we will have several people come out wondering if we are cutting them off.
So today it was my turn to cut the service while the other tech made the repairs. So I opened the can and pulled some things viola service out. As I stood there waiting for the repairs to be done I started to hear some man in a nearby apartment start screaming at someone. The person then opened the door and stormed out. This was the greatest site I had seen in awhile. It was some pudgy white guy with long ass dreadlocked multi-colored hair. He looked like a great big ball of doucheness. He took one look at me then went back in.
I assume he wanted to storm outside and bitch out the people disconnecting his service. When he saw me standing their he lost his impetus and sheepishly went back in. Once back inside he started screaming again. He was yelling at his girlfriend/wife. He was screaming at the top of his lungs why she was such a dumb bitch to not pay the bill.
This most of went on for damn near five minutes he was belittling her. Apparently he spent enough time inside that he worked up the courage to come back outside. He again stormed out, took another look at me then went back inside demanding to use her cell phone. I am not sure if he was trying to call some back up or the police or what (people do some bizarre things). After another five minutes of yelling back and forth he came out a third time.
This time he did not storm out but rather sheepishly walked outside and in a calm mild mannered voice he asked if I worked for the utility company. I said that yes I did. He then politely asked me if we were disconnecting his service. I responded that no we were not we were making repairs to the service. He said how sorry he was that I must of heard him yelling inside. I told him it was okay (I was at work after all and couldn't tell him what I really thought- hell if it had not been a work setting there would of been no talking at all).
So damn funny how he lost all heart but could still yell at his whatever she was. Part of me felt bad for her for a second, then I realized anyone with a douchebag like that deserves what she gets.
Mullet Neighbors
As I got home today I saw that the toothless mullet family was still going strong in their resistance. Having talked with Non-Megan I finally found out that Saturday they are in fact planning on moving out. This is a week after they were supposed to be out.
Due to the lack of police presence I am guessing the landlords decided it was probably easier to just let them stay another week rather than forcibly eject them. Either that or maybe they are planning a middle of the night police raid complete with flash bang grenades and jack booted thugs storming the house. Though a part of me would be greatly amused by such a turn of events I doubt it will happen.
I did notice that they are packing their things to move. When I got home today I saw what I thought was their trash by the curb. As I approached closer I realized that had put their stuff in trash bags and were loading it in the family truckster. Normal people use plastic totes and cardboard boxes, toothless mullets use trash bags. Hell it was not even easy being able to tell the difference between their trash and their possessions. When you live like shit most of your stuff looks like trash.
Here is how I could tell the difference. No fucking empty natty light cans in the bags. Dead give away. There is no humanly way possible they could fill 4 trash bags with no one visible natty light can.
I am kind of sad about one thing. We had high winds yesterday but I was out working. I would of loved nothing more than to see the mullet flapping in the wind being so carefree.
Perhaps on Sunday I will buy a "double-deuce" of natty light and pour it out on the small strip of grass in front of their former place to honor their memory.
Due to the lack of police presence I am guessing the landlords decided it was probably easier to just let them stay another week rather than forcibly eject them. Either that or maybe they are planning a middle of the night police raid complete with flash bang grenades and jack booted thugs storming the house. Though a part of me would be greatly amused by such a turn of events I doubt it will happen.
I did notice that they are packing their things to move. When I got home today I saw what I thought was their trash by the curb. As I approached closer I realized that had put their stuff in trash bags and were loading it in the family truckster. Normal people use plastic totes and cardboard boxes, toothless mullets use trash bags. Hell it was not even easy being able to tell the difference between their trash and their possessions. When you live like shit most of your stuff looks like trash.
Here is how I could tell the difference. No fucking empty natty light cans in the bags. Dead give away. There is no humanly way possible they could fill 4 trash bags with no one visible natty light can.
I am kind of sad about one thing. We had high winds yesterday but I was out working. I would of loved nothing more than to see the mullet flapping in the wind being so carefree.
Perhaps on Sunday I will buy a "double-deuce" of natty light and pour it out on the small strip of grass in front of their former place to honor their memory.
Chapter 3 is Done
I completed Chapter 3 of my book. Things are going better than I think they ever have before. I can't remember a time when I have been so excited while working on a story. I had the whole thing fleshed out in my head, but I find that as I am typing the words out it is coming to life in ways I had never imagined before. I find myself engrossed in my own story. I feel like as I am writing it I am also living it.
I feel the sense of amazement that the characters feel. Their doubts are my doubts while when they act decisively I am right there with them. A few times I have just typed out something off the top of my head and it fit it so perfectly. While the basic story was always there, a simply thing like starting to describe someone they see leads into an entire new avenue for the story to explore. I know exactly where I am going but the trip is definitely exciting.
There are still so many characters who have yet to surfaced. So many places it is going. Hell I had to remind myself that a full day has scarcely passed in the story.
I feel the sense of amazement that the characters feel. Their doubts are my doubts while when they act decisively I am right there with them. A few times I have just typed out something off the top of my head and it fit it so perfectly. While the basic story was always there, a simply thing like starting to describe someone they see leads into an entire new avenue for the story to explore. I know exactly where I am going but the trip is definitely exciting.
There are still so many characters who have yet to surfaced. So many places it is going. Hell I had to remind myself that a full day has scarcely passed in the story.
Conceptual Drawings
I finally was able to upload my conceptual drawings with good enough quality that you can actually see the pictures. It will become readily apparent upon viewing them the amount of time and effort I put into each one. They each play a key role in formulating a visual aspect of the book I am writing. This will be a series of four pictures.
The first one is of Balimor who is one of the lead characters in the story.
I am glad the shading done in pencil on this picture was not lost when it was relined with a pen to better show up in the crappy lighting conditions the digital pictures were taken under.
The next picture is Neys the leading female character.
The first one is of Balimor who is one of the lead characters in the story.
The next picture is Neys the leading female character.
I feel I was a bit "uneven" drawing this picture but you still get the general concept.
Here is the main "big bad guy" character so to speak.
Not much to say other than he freaks me the hell out.
And here is a map of the Kingdom of Pelador with some surrounding areas of note.
Beware of the southern region and areas to the northeast.
Big weight off my shoulder getting these completed.
Driving Home Last Night
So there I was driving home last night in the pouring rain, no defroster, both windows rolled down as well as all the holes in the roof of the truck. The wind shield kept frosting over to where I couldn't see shit so i had to lean my head out the driver's side window while getting pelted with rain to be able to drive. I am fairly certain this is breaking some kind of work related driving laws.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
For the life of god
Someone, anyone, smack me in the head if I ever write a message to someone again while listening to Chris Isaaks Wicked Game. I wasn't even paying attention to the fact that it was playing on the radio and started writing a message and it got all depressing by the end and I wondered what the fuck happened and then realized it's that goddamn Chris Isaak again. Alright I need to something heavy and hard to pump me up, and that is not a homosexual reference.
This Damn Truck
Alright so I am sitting here in my work truck wondering just how much more of a piece of shit this thing could be. Let me give you a bit of history on this thing. First off it is a bucket truck, for those unfamiliar when you see utility workers on the road up in "buckets" working on cable or power lines those are bucket trucks. I can almost assure you though mine is no where as nice as theirs though.
These things get super hot inside of them. Part of the engine sits right under the driver's seat and there is a power inverter between the driver and passenger seat that gets very warm. My A/C went out last year during the hottest part of the summer. My boss refused at the time to pay to have it fixed. I was the only person in our department without air conditioning. No big deal right? Well I checked one time and it was getting about 20 degrees hotter in my cab then the outside temperature on warm sunny days. I would literally sweat so bad just driving between jobs that I had to use old work orders to wipe the sweat from my eyes.
So finally in the middle of the summer they pay to have it fixed. Perfect. Then it goes out again a week later. Not so perfect. Still under warranty, perfect again! The repair shop saying there is no hope for fixing it, not perfect again!
Fast forward a few months. Now nothing works. If I just turn the vent on the engine starts grinding. Don't ask me what the fuck that means. That also means no defrost. Right now I am sitting in a truck with the windows steamed up and no idea how the fuck I am going to drive home. I tried rolling down my windows but it doesn't seem to be helping that much. Maybe if I hold my breath?
This morning another interesting development happened. I was trucking along the freeway to work blasting out whatever shitty band the radio was playing. I forget which but it was a band I heard before. Next thing I hear some poping and cracking and thought "damn this must be a remix." LOL nope that was the engine to my truck. Next thing I know the fucker starts shacking like one of those battery operated boyfriends. Seriously have you ever sat in one of those massage chairs at the mall that vibrates the fuck out of your back, well this is what my truck does.
Now anytime I get to about 50 mph the whole truck just starts violently shaking. Both beacons on top of the arm that lifts my bucket have fallen off (you know they are used to alert people driving at night that you are up in the air and don't hit my truck!). There is so many wholes in the goddamn roof that it is literally flooded in here from the rain we got today. And to add insult to injury it just sprung a leak right above the drivers seat with keeps pelting rain drops on my right shoulder.
I do have some good news though, I just saved a bundle of money switching to Geico.
These things get super hot inside of them. Part of the engine sits right under the driver's seat and there is a power inverter between the driver and passenger seat that gets very warm. My A/C went out last year during the hottest part of the summer. My boss refused at the time to pay to have it fixed. I was the only person in our department without air conditioning. No big deal right? Well I checked one time and it was getting about 20 degrees hotter in my cab then the outside temperature on warm sunny days. I would literally sweat so bad just driving between jobs that I had to use old work orders to wipe the sweat from my eyes.
So finally in the middle of the summer they pay to have it fixed. Perfect. Then it goes out again a week later. Not so perfect. Still under warranty, perfect again! The repair shop saying there is no hope for fixing it, not perfect again!
Fast forward a few months. Now nothing works. If I just turn the vent on the engine starts grinding. Don't ask me what the fuck that means. That also means no defrost. Right now I am sitting in a truck with the windows steamed up and no idea how the fuck I am going to drive home. I tried rolling down my windows but it doesn't seem to be helping that much. Maybe if I hold my breath?
This morning another interesting development happened. I was trucking along the freeway to work blasting out whatever shitty band the radio was playing. I forget which but it was a band I heard before. Next thing I hear some poping and cracking and thought "damn this must be a remix." LOL nope that was the engine to my truck. Next thing I know the fucker starts shacking like one of those battery operated boyfriends. Seriously have you ever sat in one of those massage chairs at the mall that vibrates the fuck out of your back, well this is what my truck does.
Now anytime I get to about 50 mph the whole truck just starts violently shaking. Both beacons on top of the arm that lifts my bucket have fallen off (you know they are used to alert people driving at night that you are up in the air and don't hit my truck!). There is so many wholes in the goddamn roof that it is literally flooded in here from the rain we got today. And to add insult to injury it just sprung a leak right above the drivers seat with keeps pelting rain drops on my right shoulder.
I do have some good news though, I just saved a bundle of money switching to Geico.
Alrighty
Chapter 2 is now officially done. The best part is I added a pretty kick ass encounter in it not originally planned. Just started writing about a person they see and took it from there. That is one thing I really love about writing the twists and turns it can take even in your own head.
Also it is amazing how little the story has progressed. Where it is at right now is so far away from where it is going it is not even funny. I am really excited to keep chugging along and getting there though. Next chapter takes us one step closer.
Also I may end up condensing the chapters. The first two are 6 pages each on a standard PDF. Right now I just like writing in those chunks of blocks. Figure out the rest later.
Also it is amazing how little the story has progressed. Where it is at right now is so far away from where it is going it is not even funny. I am really excited to keep chugging along and getting there though. Next chapter takes us one step closer.
Also I may end up condensing the chapters. The first two are 6 pages each on a standard PDF. Right now I just like writing in those chunks of blocks. Figure out the rest later.
White Trash Mating Call
So after hammering my legs with squats and other painful shit I went to my family room and plopped down on the sofa to catch a re-run of EastBound and Down. As I sat there watching the great Kenny Powers I heard one of my white trash neighbors hitting on some chick. He proceeded to do "wooooh!!" like Ric Flair after everything he said. I joke about Ric Flair quite a bit but this dude was serious. "We should goto **** (couldn't make it out) WoooohhH!!!!" "Girl you are so fine.. woooooh!!". It was great. Just another small example of the weird shit I see on a daily basis.
Seriously I can't even goto the Gas Station
So yesterday I was fighting my way through an uneventful work day when I noticed that my gas gauge was getting near empty. Actually it wasn't near empty I am just a little OCD and since I don't pay for the gas I always try to have at least over half a tank. I headed to a speedway to get some gas.
So there I was pumping some gas when I started hearing this loud belligerent old drunk man. Like a good loud old drunk man he was talking to some teenage girl making her feel like a would be rape victim. He was telling some kind of joke I assume since he was laughing hysterically. She was laughing slightly at his jokes but you could see her discomfort. He then jumped into a big molester looking van and started to back out of a parking space. As he pulled perpendicular to me I noticed the sign on the side of his van advertising the church he worked for. Yes that is right (and oh so typical) this was a church employee drunk as fuck middle of the day hitting on a girl about 40 years his junior at least maybe more. Another funny thing, he was blaring mariachi music while driving off. That just completed the scene. Too bad he didn't also wear a sombrero.
I finished pumping my gas and made my way into the gas stations mini-mart store. Now this is always an interesting moment. Since I have a set work area I tend to always go to this same gas station. For the past year this same girl has worked there. Although she looks normal I really think she is mildly retarded. She always says really inappropriate things to me that I don't know how to respond to. One time I walked in and she was putting out the "speedway pizza" and had a hair net on. She looked at me and said "Does my hairnet make me sexy." and after throwing up a bit in my mouth (not based on her looks but on her child like retard voice) I just kind of half nodded my head and mumbled an indecipherable answer.
I also remember another time I was buying an energy drink and a protein bar and of course she was in there and she was eating while working the register. Shoveling a piece of pizza in her mouth she actually licked her fingers then grabbed my stuff and scanned them. I swear to god I am too damn nice for my own good sometimes. I really just wanted to tell her that she should not lick her fingers before grabbing stuff I place on consuming but instead I just kept mum. I went out to my truck and like a little kid who had someone else play with his toys I threw a fit and threw the stuff away.
So as I walked in yesterday I saw that of course she was working the register along with two other clerks working other registers. I prayed to myself that my place in line would lead to me being served by one of the other two. In fact I even tried to time it so that I would end up with one of them. But as the line then stalled then moved it dawned on me, no matter what happened, I would end up at her register. I don't care if 50 people were there working registers I would get her's. The forces of the universe always line up against me.
Nothing too eventful with this encounter. I was just buying a couple of energy drinks to fuel my trip to the gym later. Just her mere presence is enough to creep me out any more. Perhaps it is the child like voice. There is something disorienting about a normal look person that sounds semi-retarded. Usually they look retarded before even sounding retarded.
As I walked out of the gas station I had an encounter with another retard. There was nothing mild about this retard, yep you guessed it, this one went full retard. She had a handler who was supposed to be watching her but she broke free and started flailing her arms wildly as she ran towards me (well probably towards the door behind me). Nothing beats having a profoundly retarded person doing a windmill of death coming straight for you like a buzz saw.
This wasn't my first go around with this shit though. As I said previously I always attract the weirdo freaks out there no matter what. The only benefit to that is that I know how to deal with them when there is an encounter. So as tardy came storming after me I simply started to move to my right and as she moved to her left to counter I did a reverse spin move and darted to my left getting past her.
Actually she didn't try to counter my move. In fact I looked like an idiot because I did this fancy move thinking i was being attacked by a profoundly retarded girl but in reality she just really wanted in the store. Either way I was a smooth operator. Not really. I am sure people pumping there gas thought I was equally as retarded as her.
So that was my trip to the gas station. Nothing major but simply serves as an example of the kind of weird motherfuckers that gravitate towards me. I think I don't belong in normal society. I am going to go live on a deserted island.
So there I was pumping some gas when I started hearing this loud belligerent old drunk man. Like a good loud old drunk man he was talking to some teenage girl making her feel like a would be rape victim. He was telling some kind of joke I assume since he was laughing hysterically. She was laughing slightly at his jokes but you could see her discomfort. He then jumped into a big molester looking van and started to back out of a parking space. As he pulled perpendicular to me I noticed the sign on the side of his van advertising the church he worked for. Yes that is right (and oh so typical) this was a church employee drunk as fuck middle of the day hitting on a girl about 40 years his junior at least maybe more. Another funny thing, he was blaring mariachi music while driving off. That just completed the scene. Too bad he didn't also wear a sombrero.
I finished pumping my gas and made my way into the gas stations mini-mart store. Now this is always an interesting moment. Since I have a set work area I tend to always go to this same gas station. For the past year this same girl has worked there. Although she looks normal I really think she is mildly retarded. She always says really inappropriate things to me that I don't know how to respond to. One time I walked in and she was putting out the "speedway pizza" and had a hair net on. She looked at me and said "Does my hairnet make me sexy." and after throwing up a bit in my mouth (not based on her looks but on her child like retard voice) I just kind of half nodded my head and mumbled an indecipherable answer.
I also remember another time I was buying an energy drink and a protein bar and of course she was in there and she was eating while working the register. Shoveling a piece of pizza in her mouth she actually licked her fingers then grabbed my stuff and scanned them. I swear to god I am too damn nice for my own good sometimes. I really just wanted to tell her that she should not lick her fingers before grabbing stuff I place on consuming but instead I just kept mum. I went out to my truck and like a little kid who had someone else play with his toys I threw a fit and threw the stuff away.
So as I walked in yesterday I saw that of course she was working the register along with two other clerks working other registers. I prayed to myself that my place in line would lead to me being served by one of the other two. In fact I even tried to time it so that I would end up with one of them. But as the line then stalled then moved it dawned on me, no matter what happened, I would end up at her register. I don't care if 50 people were there working registers I would get her's. The forces of the universe always line up against me.
Nothing too eventful with this encounter. I was just buying a couple of energy drinks to fuel my trip to the gym later. Just her mere presence is enough to creep me out any more. Perhaps it is the child like voice. There is something disorienting about a normal look person that sounds semi-retarded. Usually they look retarded before even sounding retarded.
As I walked out of the gas station I had an encounter with another retard. There was nothing mild about this retard, yep you guessed it, this one went full retard. She had a handler who was supposed to be watching her but she broke free and started flailing her arms wildly as she ran towards me (well probably towards the door behind me). Nothing beats having a profoundly retarded person doing a windmill of death coming straight for you like a buzz saw.
This wasn't my first go around with this shit though. As I said previously I always attract the weirdo freaks out there no matter what. The only benefit to that is that I know how to deal with them when there is an encounter. So as tardy came storming after me I simply started to move to my right and as she moved to her left to counter I did a reverse spin move and darted to my left getting past her.
Actually she didn't try to counter my move. In fact I looked like an idiot because I did this fancy move thinking i was being attacked by a profoundly retarded girl but in reality she just really wanted in the store. Either way I was a smooth operator. Not really. I am sure people pumping there gas thought I was equally as retarded as her.
So that was my trip to the gas station. Nothing major but simply serves as an example of the kind of weird motherfuckers that gravitate towards me. I think I don't belong in normal society. I am going to go live on a deserted island.
Monday, October 25, 2010
Concept Drawings and Neighbor Update
Concept Drawings-
I am starting to sound like a broken record here but they will have to wait another day. Yesterday the drawings were too light and did not show up well when photographed so I lined them in with a pen today (they were initially done with pencil). I tried to retain as much of the shading as I could. Problem is some dumbass (me) left the digital camera switched on last night so the batteries are dead. So I am recharging them tonight so I can photograph them tomorrow.
Neighbors-
Well eviction day was yesterday and today they are ... wait for it.... wait for it.... wait for it.... still smoking cigarettes and drinking natty light on the porch. They definitely get an "A" for consistency. I am waiting for Not-Megan to get home because she is friends with them so I can find out just what the fuck is going on. Last night I didn't care but I have to admit tonight I am intrigued. I want to know what is going on in their little beer fueled brains.
I am fucking beat but in the morning I have a nice story about a trip to the gas station today. These people were all fucked up....
I am starting to sound like a broken record here but they will have to wait another day. Yesterday the drawings were too light and did not show up well when photographed so I lined them in with a pen today (they were initially done with pencil). I tried to retain as much of the shading as I could. Problem is some dumbass (me) left the digital camera switched on last night so the batteries are dead. So I am recharging them tonight so I can photograph them tomorrow.
Neighbors-
Well eviction day was yesterday and today they are ... wait for it.... wait for it.... wait for it.... still smoking cigarettes and drinking natty light on the porch. They definitely get an "A" for consistency. I am waiting for Not-Megan to get home because she is friends with them so I can find out just what the fuck is going on. Last night I didn't care but I have to admit tonight I am intrigued. I want to know what is going on in their little beer fueled brains.
I am fucking beat but in the morning I have a nice story about a trip to the gas station today. These people were all fucked up....
Training Sat. Sun. and Mon.
I should switch the name of my blog to Deadlifter's not training log haha. Truth is I never really figured I would do much with this but add in some training articles and what not but now the blog has taken a mind of its own. And truth is how many times can I list the same shit over and over again unless something significant happens. All the same I will still try to check in with my training from time to time.
Sat. was my shoulders and overhead press day. JC called me shortly before I started training and asked me if I wanted to go down to campus with him so I said why the hell not as I had not been there in about 3 years or so. The only problem was it meant I'd have to cut my workout short but this didn't bother me too much as I had been sick all week and it was tough recovering from it. So to that end I hit my main lifts for the day (Working up to a heavy double on presses behind the neck). Not the best day as I only hit a single and could not bust out two reps but it was still more than I had ever done even for a single so I wasn't unhappy. After that I hit the showers and prepared to some downtown adventures.
Sun- I spent a good portion of the morning recovering from the previous night. I don't even think I begun training until around 9 pm. This was a light bench press day and assistance work like triceps, biceps, forarms and grips, etc. This was a good workout, done everything I set out to do.
Today is Monday and I did my squat training today. This cold is still plaguing me with a terrible cough and a hard time holding my breath so lifting is still not back to 100% but I did hit a nice 3 rep personal record so I was pretty fucking happy. After I did the heavy triples I dropped back to just the bar and 45's on each side (135) and did 3 sets of 30 reps. That about killed me. Seriously my legs feel like someone injected them with Novocaine right now. I am going to be hobbling around tomorrow barely able to walk I am sure. I followed that up with some leg ext, leg curls, then some calf raises.
I really hope this fucking cough goes away soon. It is driving me nuts.
Sat. was my shoulders and overhead press day. JC called me shortly before I started training and asked me if I wanted to go down to campus with him so I said why the hell not as I had not been there in about 3 years or so. The only problem was it meant I'd have to cut my workout short but this didn't bother me too much as I had been sick all week and it was tough recovering from it. So to that end I hit my main lifts for the day (Working up to a heavy double on presses behind the neck). Not the best day as I only hit a single and could not bust out two reps but it was still more than I had ever done even for a single so I wasn't unhappy. After that I hit the showers and prepared to some downtown adventures.
Sun- I spent a good portion of the morning recovering from the previous night. I don't even think I begun training until around 9 pm. This was a light bench press day and assistance work like triceps, biceps, forarms and grips, etc. This was a good workout, done everything I set out to do.
Today is Monday and I did my squat training today. This cold is still plaguing me with a terrible cough and a hard time holding my breath so lifting is still not back to 100% but I did hit a nice 3 rep personal record so I was pretty fucking happy. After I did the heavy triples I dropped back to just the bar and 45's on each side (135) and did 3 sets of 30 reps. That about killed me. Seriously my legs feel like someone injected them with Novocaine right now. I am going to be hobbling around tomorrow barely able to walk I am sure. I followed that up with some leg ext, leg curls, then some calf raises.
I really hope this fucking cough goes away soon. It is driving me nuts.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Concept Drawings
I am working on some concept drawings for the fantasy book I am writing. They will be used to help set a scene. Although none of you will be reading my book until it hits the shelves I will post up the drawings here in about an hour though to enjoy. Just have to add some finishing touches too them.
Edit-- Will have to wait for tomorrow. Pics just not turning out right need more time. Chapter 2 though is rocking out.
Edit-- Will have to wait for tomorrow. Pics just not turning out right need more time. Chapter 2 though is rocking out.
Moving Day
Toothless Mullet Man and Toothlessette and the whole toothless clan had until today to move out of the apartment the share in between JC and I. They were given an eviction notice 30 days ago to vacate the premise for reasons I have detailed in the past. So I have anxiously awaited to see the moving trucks and them shucking and jiving in and out of their apartment.
They not moving. Ha! They are just acting as normal. Still smoking cigarettes and drinking Natty light on the front porch. Fatty is still sitting on the cinder block and mullet man is still serenely sipping his natty light. No moving trucks in sight.
Well played my non-beautiful white trash neighborly people. I am not sure what exit strategy if any you have, but defiantly making a stand on your porch with natty light can in hand lets me know LONG LIVE THE REVOLUTION!!!
I seriously hope this does not turn into a cop stand off situation. While it would be humorous knowing the redneck cops out here they'd shoot up the entire building and plant guns on everyone later. Not that I mind a good shoot out, wait yes actually I do mind a good shoot out-- I love guns, I love shooting guns, I don't love being shot at though. Shit happens and I am man but I have no delusions of waiting to go out Young Guns style with guns a blazing. So please my dear little toothless neighbors please do something other than nothing. You have been evicted you kind of have to move you know. Bye, Adios, See you later. I don't wish you unwell, nor do I wish you well. In fact I don't really think of you at all. A minor foot note in a bizarre 3/4 of a year I have spent in the nearest threshold to hell I could find. No not really it is not that bad I am being melodramatic.
I catch myself doing that sometimes. Sure they fight on the front porch because they live with her mom so that can be annoying. In fact sleeping on my sofa I have been woke up a time or two by it. I tend to be a restless sleeper so shit happens. Other than those incidents and when someone stole the guys chili dog things haven't been that bad. Maybe I have been stuck in one two many stop and chats but really mostly harmless things.
Oh one last thing. I keep my trash can around back but have to bring it out front on trash day. The trash man has a real fetish for emptying the can and just randomly throwing it into the lawn area in front of the apartment. My neighbors also have a fetish for in the time between the trash man emptying it and I get home and put it around back they like to throw their trash in my can. So when I got home this trash day I noticed empty Natty Light cans in it. So I calmly walked over to my neighbors porch and dumped the cans on their porch before putting the can around back. Funny thing is 3 days later the cans are still sitting on their porch.
They not moving. Ha! They are just acting as normal. Still smoking cigarettes and drinking Natty light on the front porch. Fatty is still sitting on the cinder block and mullet man is still serenely sipping his natty light. No moving trucks in sight.
Well played my non-beautiful white trash neighborly people. I am not sure what exit strategy if any you have, but defiantly making a stand on your porch with natty light can in hand lets me know LONG LIVE THE REVOLUTION!!!
I seriously hope this does not turn into a cop stand off situation. While it would be humorous knowing the redneck cops out here they'd shoot up the entire building and plant guns on everyone later. Not that I mind a good shoot out, wait yes actually I do mind a good shoot out-- I love guns, I love shooting guns, I don't love being shot at though. Shit happens and I am man but I have no delusions of waiting to go out Young Guns style with guns a blazing. So please my dear little toothless neighbors please do something other than nothing. You have been evicted you kind of have to move you know. Bye, Adios, See you later. I don't wish you unwell, nor do I wish you well. In fact I don't really think of you at all. A minor foot note in a bizarre 3/4 of a year I have spent in the nearest threshold to hell I could find. No not really it is not that bad I am being melodramatic.
I catch myself doing that sometimes. Sure they fight on the front porch because they live with her mom so that can be annoying. In fact sleeping on my sofa I have been woke up a time or two by it. I tend to be a restless sleeper so shit happens. Other than those incidents and when someone stole the guys chili dog things haven't been that bad. Maybe I have been stuck in one two many stop and chats but really mostly harmless things.
Oh one last thing. I keep my trash can around back but have to bring it out front on trash day. The trash man has a real fetish for emptying the can and just randomly throwing it into the lawn area in front of the apartment. My neighbors also have a fetish for in the time between the trash man emptying it and I get home and put it around back they like to throw their trash in my can. So when I got home this trash day I noticed empty Natty Light cans in it. So I calmly walked over to my neighbors porch and dumped the cans on their porch before putting the can around back. Funny thing is 3 days later the cans are still sitting on their porch.
Chapter 1 is Done
Wow it feels good to say that. This current story I have been working on has been brewing in my head for close to 4 years. Really I almost feel like it takes exactly that long to flesh out a story. For me the way that I write is that I come up with a few random scenes that play out in my head then form a story around those scenes. In a sense I am constantly making movies in my head. My brain acts as the director, set designer, special effects supervisor, producer, casting agent, etc.
So there is no hiding the fact that I have not really felt inspired to write in several years. That does not mean I stopped working on any of my stories, if anything I have been consistently refining them in my head. It just means that I have not transferred the mental storage to actual words. Writing what I feel is quality work takes quite a bit of effort and that is hard to accomplish with constant distractions.
Around four years ago I had decided I wanted to make a foray into writing fantasy. The truth is I have a very strong passion for history and one of my favorite historical eras is the late middle ages specifically the time ranging from the Hundred Years Wars to the War of the Roses. It is such a fascinating time period when chivalry saw both its height and downfall. I must have read over hundred books just on this period of time.
While it is quite tempting for me to just write a historical fiction book I find that even with a wealth of knowledge I would inevitable get certain elements of history wrong. To a trained eye deviations from history would simply kill any sense of disbelief they had while reading the story. Rather than have to worry about every minute detail I wanted to focus instead on telling an exciting story that is both serious and humorous.
Fantasy I felt was the best outlet for doing this. A large amount of fantasy is based loosely around the middle ages. This provides the perfect setting for indulging in my love for history while still having the free reins to write a good story. While some people dismiss fantasy as wizards and unicorns and kids stuff, is not all European Mythology in a sense fantasy stories? How can one love their culture and heritage and not embrace the mythology of their culture.
By writing fantasy it allows me in a sense to almost write a new mythology. I would never be presumptuous enough to place my stories in with the great stories of our ancestors but I do hope that I can one day be published and breath some new life into the genre. Of course to do this I have to take it in a direction that is not simply a carbon copy of Lord of the Rings which is pretty much the definitive standard of modern fantasy.
I have a deep love for all things Tolkien. He put in so much love and passion into the entire setting of Lord of the Rings that I have the utmost respect for him. In a sense before I even read any of his work I had been doing the same. When I write about a fictional setting I create an entire world in my head. Different lands and people, their cultures and customs and their histories going back sometimes thousands of years. I detail military and economic conflicts throughout their histories. Probably 95% or more of this material will never make it into my stories but I have a personal need to know everything about the people I am writing about.
That is one reason why I find it so difficult to write. I have to sit back and actually buy into the bullshit I am typing out. Balimor, Squire to the Great Knight Sir John the Stout isn't just anyone to me. In fact Sir John is not just anyone. I know who Sir John's father was, and his father, and so on. I know their family estate holdings, what Sir John gave up to become a member of the Order of the Great Knights. Of course in my story Sir John is briefly mentioned a few times. That does not matter to me I have to know everything about him.
About 1 year ago I typed up the first page of the first chapter of the book. At that point I became completely stumped as to how to proceed. I made it to the point that Balimor was to meet a mysterious woman who played into the remainder of the story. I must have fleshed out so many different ways of them meeting in my head that simply did not work. I tried to apply so many personalities and character traits to the woman but everything came up short.
It got so bad that at one point I considered her having a foursome with a dwarf included. What the fuck right? Writers block tends to make me think of some really bad fucking ideas. Thank god I scraped that idea fast. Another bad idea was making her character a mute. I mean I wanted her to be mysterious but a mute? So basically she started to not factor into the story at all even though in a sense she was the focal point. More so the conflict Balimor finds himself in, in regards to her. I am not going to spoil anything, but sometimes things can become so complicated you can become hopelessly lost inwardly.
So as I wrote in past blogs I finally found someone whose personality and demeanor completely fit the character I wanted her to be. And like that, the character came alive and the first chapter is done. It is like a big weight off my shoulders personally. I generally find the hardest parts to write the first couple of chapters. If I cannot draw a reader in on those first couple of chapters than I have lost them. Now I have something down and I am remotely happy with it I will continue to blast out the pages until I am done.
So there is no hiding the fact that I have not really felt inspired to write in several years. That does not mean I stopped working on any of my stories, if anything I have been consistently refining them in my head. It just means that I have not transferred the mental storage to actual words. Writing what I feel is quality work takes quite a bit of effort and that is hard to accomplish with constant distractions.
Around four years ago I had decided I wanted to make a foray into writing fantasy. The truth is I have a very strong passion for history and one of my favorite historical eras is the late middle ages specifically the time ranging from the Hundred Years Wars to the War of the Roses. It is such a fascinating time period when chivalry saw both its height and downfall. I must have read over hundred books just on this period of time.
While it is quite tempting for me to just write a historical fiction book I find that even with a wealth of knowledge I would inevitable get certain elements of history wrong. To a trained eye deviations from history would simply kill any sense of disbelief they had while reading the story. Rather than have to worry about every minute detail I wanted to focus instead on telling an exciting story that is both serious and humorous.
Fantasy I felt was the best outlet for doing this. A large amount of fantasy is based loosely around the middle ages. This provides the perfect setting for indulging in my love for history while still having the free reins to write a good story. While some people dismiss fantasy as wizards and unicorns and kids stuff, is not all European Mythology in a sense fantasy stories? How can one love their culture and heritage and not embrace the mythology of their culture.
By writing fantasy it allows me in a sense to almost write a new mythology. I would never be presumptuous enough to place my stories in with the great stories of our ancestors but I do hope that I can one day be published and breath some new life into the genre. Of course to do this I have to take it in a direction that is not simply a carbon copy of Lord of the Rings which is pretty much the definitive standard of modern fantasy.
I have a deep love for all things Tolkien. He put in so much love and passion into the entire setting of Lord of the Rings that I have the utmost respect for him. In a sense before I even read any of his work I had been doing the same. When I write about a fictional setting I create an entire world in my head. Different lands and people, their cultures and customs and their histories going back sometimes thousands of years. I detail military and economic conflicts throughout their histories. Probably 95% or more of this material will never make it into my stories but I have a personal need to know everything about the people I am writing about.
That is one reason why I find it so difficult to write. I have to sit back and actually buy into the bullshit I am typing out. Balimor, Squire to the Great Knight Sir John the Stout isn't just anyone to me. In fact Sir John is not just anyone. I know who Sir John's father was, and his father, and so on. I know their family estate holdings, what Sir John gave up to become a member of the Order of the Great Knights. Of course in my story Sir John is briefly mentioned a few times. That does not matter to me I have to know everything about him.
About 1 year ago I typed up the first page of the first chapter of the book. At that point I became completely stumped as to how to proceed. I made it to the point that Balimor was to meet a mysterious woman who played into the remainder of the story. I must have fleshed out so many different ways of them meeting in my head that simply did not work. I tried to apply so many personalities and character traits to the woman but everything came up short.
It got so bad that at one point I considered her having a foursome with a dwarf included. What the fuck right? Writers block tends to make me think of some really bad fucking ideas. Thank god I scraped that idea fast. Another bad idea was making her character a mute. I mean I wanted her to be mysterious but a mute? So basically she started to not factor into the story at all even though in a sense she was the focal point. More so the conflict Balimor finds himself in, in regards to her. I am not going to spoil anything, but sometimes things can become so complicated you can become hopelessly lost inwardly.
So as I wrote in past blogs I finally found someone whose personality and demeanor completely fit the character I wanted her to be. And like that, the character came alive and the first chapter is done. It is like a big weight off my shoulders personally. I generally find the hardest parts to write the first couple of chapters. If I cannot draw a reader in on those first couple of chapters than I have lost them. Now I have something down and I am remotely happy with it I will continue to blast out the pages until I am done.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
I always attract the freaks
No I am not talking about crazy women. Hell any of my brothers could honestly say they always attract crazy women because they do! I am talking about in general, if there is a weirdo any where near me, he will find me. Honestly it never fails, the creeps always find me and want to talk to me.
Have you ever walked into a room full of over a hundred people and off in the distance you see some dumbass that immediately notices you? You see then look over everyone's head staring at you. Silently you pray that the person will not start walking over towards you. Out of the corner of your eye you see that person walking through the crowd all the while staring at you. In your mind you try to convince yourself that he is probably looking past you or going to someone else.
Nope not at all. The weirdest fucker in the room will without a doubt always come right up to me. It is like they have a sixth sense or something. They know that I want nothing more than for them to NOT approach me and they always will.
One time when I was around 12 I had to go down to the local greyhound bus station with my mom to pick up my sister. She was going to a college 3 hours away to be some super doctor or whatever the fuck she does. So we sat there waiting on her because her bus was late, so much for her being perfect otherwise her damn bus wouldn't of been late.
So while waiting around for Capt. Kiss-Ass this older black guy was walking by the chairs when he stopped and looked at me. Now if you know anything about bus stations you know that the weirdos out number the "normies". This was perfect, sitting in the middle of throbbing fuck hole and some weirdo has already got a missile lock on me.
"I can beat you," He says from across the way. I have no idea what the fuck he is on about so I just sit there looking at him. He then clarifies, "I can beat you in a foot race." Oh my fucking god. Sitting in the middle of a bus station waiting for Captainess America and I am being challenged to a foot race. Excellent. I really can't remember the rest of the exchange. After that summer of working for my uncle most of my earlier memories have been distorted and forgotten.
I have to be honest, while I am a very competitive person but a foot race is one thing I will not win. I cannot run fast for the life of me. Oh yeah, sorry Teresa I don't really think you are Capt. Kiss-Ass.
Now this is fucking ironic. After the last sentence I decided I wanted to go pick up some food to fuel me for my trip to the gym later. So I hobbled out towards the old Stang and I heard someone down the street yell out "hey".
What I saw was a real piece of work. Some mentally retarded man hobbling around pushing a bicycle towards me. I thought oh fuck.... Maybe I just imagined that hey and he was not coming towards me. So I started to open my car door and climb inside my car when I had to face the fact that he was in fact talking to me.
"Dew yous know vhat ss wong width bek" (Translated- Do you know what is wrong with my bike). He had some kind of mountain bike with multiple gears and the chain was off of it. To be honest I haven't had a bike since I was about 14 years old and could not for the life of me remember how the hell the chain-gear system was supposed to look. I said to him, "No I am sorry I am not sure how that is supposed to go."
So he just stood there holding the bike. So I said again "I am sorry I wish I could help." Still he stood there like a statue. At this point I said "Okay I am just going to get into my car and pull forward, have a nice day." I got in my car and drove off and all the while he still just stood there stoic and unflinching.
So it is a nice day out, I have the windows turned down and Fortress is blaring from my 500 watt car stereo system. I slam down the gas pedal and smoke the tires. Life is definitely looking better for me. I pull into a local eatery and try to order a couple of the better choices on the menu which is quite frankly not that easy (I'll take a nice steak or pork chop over this crap anytime but I suck at cocking-- I meant cooking but decided to leave that typo in lol). So I grabbed a few things and pull back out putting the wind to the water.
As I come pulling back on my street there is Mongo still standing in the fucking street where I left him holding that goddamn bike. What the flying fuck??? (What the hell is a flying fuck by the way) So I parked my car, exited the door looked at Mongo McGee and nodded at him and just walked past him to my porch. As I fumbled with my keys to unlock the door I could feel his presence walking towards me. This fucking guy was trying to come in after me! I quickly un did the lock, glanced back and waved at him walking up my porch steps and said see you later pal and closed the door. He stood on my porch for about five minutes (felt like an hour). Finally he is gone now and I can breath a little easier.
I was going to tell another story but since that one literally happened in the middle of typing this blog I thought it was too good not to put it in.
My Stang and me using JC's retro mower. Mongo was standing on the front driver's side corner about 7 feet into the road and was in the exact same spot when I returned 15 minutes later.
Have you ever walked into a room full of over a hundred people and off in the distance you see some dumbass that immediately notices you? You see then look over everyone's head staring at you. Silently you pray that the person will not start walking over towards you. Out of the corner of your eye you see that person walking through the crowd all the while staring at you. In your mind you try to convince yourself that he is probably looking past you or going to someone else.
Nope not at all. The weirdest fucker in the room will without a doubt always come right up to me. It is like they have a sixth sense or something. They know that I want nothing more than for them to NOT approach me and they always will.
One time when I was around 12 I had to go down to the local greyhound bus station with my mom to pick up my sister. She was going to a college 3 hours away to be some super doctor or whatever the fuck she does. So we sat there waiting on her because her bus was late, so much for her being perfect otherwise her damn bus wouldn't of been late.
So while waiting around for Capt. Kiss-Ass this older black guy was walking by the chairs when he stopped and looked at me. Now if you know anything about bus stations you know that the weirdos out number the "normies". This was perfect, sitting in the middle of throbbing fuck hole and some weirdo has already got a missile lock on me.
"I can beat you," He says from across the way. I have no idea what the fuck he is on about so I just sit there looking at him. He then clarifies, "I can beat you in a foot race." Oh my fucking god. Sitting in the middle of a bus station waiting for Captainess America and I am being challenged to a foot race. Excellent. I really can't remember the rest of the exchange. After that summer of working for my uncle most of my earlier memories have been distorted and forgotten.
I have to be honest, while I am a very competitive person but a foot race is one thing I will not win. I cannot run fast for the life of me. Oh yeah, sorry Teresa I don't really think you are Capt. Kiss-Ass.
Now this is fucking ironic. After the last sentence I decided I wanted to go pick up some food to fuel me for my trip to the gym later. So I hobbled out towards the old Stang and I heard someone down the street yell out "hey".
What I saw was a real piece of work. Some mentally retarded man hobbling around pushing a bicycle towards me. I thought oh fuck.... Maybe I just imagined that hey and he was not coming towards me. So I started to open my car door and climb inside my car when I had to face the fact that he was in fact talking to me.
"Dew yous know vhat ss wong width bek" (Translated- Do you know what is wrong with my bike). He had some kind of mountain bike with multiple gears and the chain was off of it. To be honest I haven't had a bike since I was about 14 years old and could not for the life of me remember how the hell the chain-gear system was supposed to look. I said to him, "No I am sorry I am not sure how that is supposed to go."
So he just stood there holding the bike. So I said again "I am sorry I wish I could help." Still he stood there like a statue. At this point I said "Okay I am just going to get into my car and pull forward, have a nice day." I got in my car and drove off and all the while he still just stood there stoic and unflinching.
So it is a nice day out, I have the windows turned down and Fortress is blaring from my 500 watt car stereo system. I slam down the gas pedal and smoke the tires. Life is definitely looking better for me. I pull into a local eatery and try to order a couple of the better choices on the menu which is quite frankly not that easy (I'll take a nice steak or pork chop over this crap anytime but I suck at cocking-- I meant cooking but decided to leave that typo in lol). So I grabbed a few things and pull back out putting the wind to the water.
As I come pulling back on my street there is Mongo still standing in the fucking street where I left him holding that goddamn bike. What the flying fuck??? (What the hell is a flying fuck by the way) So I parked my car, exited the door looked at Mongo McGee and nodded at him and just walked past him to my porch. As I fumbled with my keys to unlock the door I could feel his presence walking towards me. This fucking guy was trying to come in after me! I quickly un did the lock, glanced back and waved at him walking up my porch steps and said see you later pal and closed the door. He stood on my porch for about five minutes (felt like an hour). Finally he is gone now and I can breath a little easier.
I was going to tell another story but since that one literally happened in the middle of typing this blog I thought it was too good not to put it in.
Never Enough
What does Never Enough mean? It is fairly straight forward. One time one of my bro's asked me how strong do I want to be. He stated that he wanted to be able to bench press 405 lbs. and that would be good enough for him. My reply to him...
Never Enough. Never enough weight on the bar. Never Enough size. Never Enough sweat and hard work in the gym. Never Enough strain. Never Enough.
I will never be content. I was not blessed with great genetics (who the hell really is outside of a very select few). I might not ever have the ability to hold the world record like I am shooting for. I started later in life and was not a naturally strong person. That doesn't mean I will be content with reaching a certain mark. I may not be the strongest person there is, but it damn sure won't be due to a lack of effort in the gym and outside of it. There is nothing I won't put myself through to reach my goals.
That means separating a dozen egg whites from the yolks then scrambling them up at 5 am when I can barely open my eyes. That means constantly analyzing my training methods throughout the day. That means when I drag my ass home from work that I don't just plop down and play some video game but rather get myself back up and hit the gym. That means busting my ass once in the gym. That means whether it means throwing up, passing out, or bloodying your nose that you are going to get those lifts in.
There is a difference between those who have it and those who don't. You can see if quite apparent in the gym. Those people who go in day after day yet get no where. They talk about what they used to do. They might throw around some decent weights but when the going gets tough they crumble and go home. Compare that to the freaks in the corner.
Chalk on their hands, smacking each other in the face, a big behemoth walks up to the bar and tries to yank it off the ground. The bar goes up 5 inches but stops dead and eventually the man drops the bar to the ground. He storms away swearing at himself. He takes a small breather. Silently psyching himself up. He then clears his mind of all thoughts. He walks over to the bowel of chalk and re does his hands. Now in a zone nothing else matters to him. He see's nothing but the bar on the floor. No thoughts enter his head. He then explodes out of his shell. He begins swearing and cursing and yelling it is go time. He smacks himself so hard in the face his nose squirts out blood. He storms over to the bar and tightly grips it in his hand. Without even a seconds pause he yanks up tightening his stomach, back, and ass. The bar goes up 5 inches and starts to slow down. Instead of stopping this time though he grunts and squeezes with everything he has and keeps the bar moving. His veins are now bulging out of his neck, his eyes blood shot and trying to jump out of his skull. Finally with the last of his strength he locks out his back with the bar at the end of his arms. He just deadlifted more weight than he ever has in his life. He stands there with the bar where it is at for a second and gives a couple of cocky nods and then lets the bar go as it slams into the floor. As he walks away he stumbles for a second. He is light headed and about to pass out. He sits down for a second thinking he is about to keel over and die. As he sits there in so much pain he cannot even describe it he has never been happier. He didn't set any world or even state records, but he set his own personal record and that is all that matters.
That comes from one of my old training journals. After I finished training I wrote down how I felt through the whole thing. I really thought I was going to die at that moment and I was never so happy. I knew right then I had "it". You can't learn that or be taught that. You either have it or you don't.
If you have it then you know exactly what the fuck NEVER ENOUGH means.
Never Enough. Never enough weight on the bar. Never Enough size. Never Enough sweat and hard work in the gym. Never Enough strain. Never Enough.
I will never be content. I was not blessed with great genetics (who the hell really is outside of a very select few). I might not ever have the ability to hold the world record like I am shooting for. I started later in life and was not a naturally strong person. That doesn't mean I will be content with reaching a certain mark. I may not be the strongest person there is, but it damn sure won't be due to a lack of effort in the gym and outside of it. There is nothing I won't put myself through to reach my goals.
That means separating a dozen egg whites from the yolks then scrambling them up at 5 am when I can barely open my eyes. That means constantly analyzing my training methods throughout the day. That means when I drag my ass home from work that I don't just plop down and play some video game but rather get myself back up and hit the gym. That means busting my ass once in the gym. That means whether it means throwing up, passing out, or bloodying your nose that you are going to get those lifts in.
There is a difference between those who have it and those who don't. You can see if quite apparent in the gym. Those people who go in day after day yet get no where. They talk about what they used to do. They might throw around some decent weights but when the going gets tough they crumble and go home. Compare that to the freaks in the corner.
Chalk on their hands, smacking each other in the face, a big behemoth walks up to the bar and tries to yank it off the ground. The bar goes up 5 inches but stops dead and eventually the man drops the bar to the ground. He storms away swearing at himself. He takes a small breather. Silently psyching himself up. He then clears his mind of all thoughts. He walks over to the bowel of chalk and re does his hands. Now in a zone nothing else matters to him. He see's nothing but the bar on the floor. No thoughts enter his head. He then explodes out of his shell. He begins swearing and cursing and yelling it is go time. He smacks himself so hard in the face his nose squirts out blood. He storms over to the bar and tightly grips it in his hand. Without even a seconds pause he yanks up tightening his stomach, back, and ass. The bar goes up 5 inches and starts to slow down. Instead of stopping this time though he grunts and squeezes with everything he has and keeps the bar moving. His veins are now bulging out of his neck, his eyes blood shot and trying to jump out of his skull. Finally with the last of his strength he locks out his back with the bar at the end of his arms. He just deadlifted more weight than he ever has in his life. He stands there with the bar where it is at for a second and gives a couple of cocky nods and then lets the bar go as it slams into the floor. As he walks away he stumbles for a second. He is light headed and about to pass out. He sits down for a second thinking he is about to keel over and die. As he sits there in so much pain he cannot even describe it he has never been happier. He didn't set any world or even state records, but he set his own personal record and that is all that matters.
That comes from one of my old training journals. After I finished training I wrote down how I felt through the whole thing. I really thought I was going to die at that moment and I was never so happy. I knew right then I had "it". You can't learn that or be taught that. You either have it or you don't.
If you have it then you know exactly what the fuck NEVER ENOUGH means.
Friday, October 22, 2010
What the Fuck is Wrong With People???
You may have a vague idea of what is in this picture but I will go ahead and explain it to you, it is a picture of a green fleshlight (aka pocket pussy) stuffed between a mattress and boxspring, and a picture of a female yoda on top of the mattress. No this is not my picture. I actually found it simply by doing a google image search of the word "yoda." Now I have to admit this picture made me laugh in a shake my head sort of way. I mean seriously what the fuck is wrong with the person who took this photo. I am going to go out on a limb and say that the person is probably fairly intelligent, with a decent sense of humor, and a massive love for star wars. Those are all okay qualities (my inner geek loves the star wars films as well as lord of the rings, big deal, so what, want to fight about it?) Although I found it humorous I also wonder did 5 million years of evolution really lead us to this path? Where exactly did we go wrong?
In my previous position with my company I was exposed to a lot of customers in their own home. This led to some rather bizarre encounters in the three years that I did in house work. I am going to go over some of the more memorable shake your head kind of moments. Some of this are going to be rather brief and some will require a bit more to get the story across.
I remember one time I was running a service call to a guy's apartment. He was an older guy, mid 50s, and flamboyantly gay. If gayness was a liquid it would of been dripping off of him by the gallon. He seemed a bit hyped up too like he either drank too many cups of coffee or smoked too much meth before his last buttfuck orgy. As I got started on my work I kind of noticed behind me that he was sitting in a chair watching me. As I looked a bit closer he had a gun in his hand. He was just sitting there watching me work with what looked to be a sig sauer 9mm. The gun was not pointed at me, rather it was pointed towards the ground but all the same it did raise a flag or two. He never said one word to me, just watched me work, then when I finished he got up, placed the gun on his coffee table, signed the paper work, then I left the apartment. I am not sure why the fuck he felt the need to hold a gun while I was working and I didn't really care to stick around and ask. Had he pointed the gun at me we would of had a problem but he made sure to keep it pointed at the ground the whole time.
Another gun incident happened not long after that. I was working in a very wealthy part of town this time. The house I was in had what could of been a couple other houses stuffed inside of it. One such house with in a house was the domain of the home owners teenage son. He had some type of issue in one of his rooms. I asked to see a certain thing and the homeowner began looking for it. He started going through a gym bag on his son's sofa. Suddenly I heard "What the fuck?!" and glanced over to see the homeowner holding a Desert Eagle .50 caliber handgun he had pulled from the bag. I imagine this was not something he saw on a regular basis, especially his lack of checking to see if the gun was loaded or if a round was chambered. Lucky for him he did not blow his own dick off. I still wish I could of been in that household when the son got home. It is bad enough when parents find condoms or pornos in your room, but a goddamn desert eagle? How the fuck do you explain that.
One time I knocked on a customers door and as they opened I did my usual mr. polite guy speech. Never mind the fact that I could give a shit less about the customer or their problems, I have to be honest I do my job because it pays me. I find other things in life much more meaningful than listening to them whine about a luxury item when there are people out there with real problems. I know that when you pay for something you want it to work, I understand and respect that. But for the love of my taint do not act like it is the end of the world if you miss an episode of American Idol.
Well being the polite man servant that I am I called the customer sir. The customer looked at me oddly for a second then I realized that ugly man was really an ugly dyke. Honestly though if you are going to look like a man do not be offend when someone addresses you as a man. Hell I would of thought "it" would of been happy she was playing the part so well it confused me. To rub a little salt in the wound I unintentionally referred to her as sir at least 3 more times. I wish I could say I was doing this to be a dick but honestly I just kept slipping up. I was almost positive the she beast was going to call in and make a formal complaint but she never did.
Now this next person did make a formal complaint. There are these apartments on the north side of Columbus that lets just say seeing someone shooting up heroin on their front porch was not uncommon. They were fucking shitholes let me tell you. The complex was probably 99.999999% black. You know in those cases the one or two white people who live there are usually fucking insane. Not like tough insane but like needs to be in a mental hospital insane. This customer was an older white woman and batshit crazy. She swore to me that her cable box had cockroaches coming out of it. This was not the first time she claimed this. I actually remembered being at her apartment about 3 months before replacing her box for what she claimed was the exact same reason. Now in these circumstances I am not one to argue with a head case, just change the fuckiing thing and get out of there for another 3 months.
Now to give you an idea of this apartment, you walk in the door, go back 10 feet walk in the bedroom and that is it. No nooks and crannies or any place to duck off to. I walked right in, looked at the box and walked back out. I got another box from my truck and walked back in, replaced the box, had her sign the paper work, and walked back out. Quick and easy and I was off to my next job.
If this was a movie you would cut forward to two hours later. I was up on a utility pole when my two way went off. It was one of my dispatchers and she broke out with this.. "Now Jason of course I don't believe this but your customer at ********** is claiming that you stole 72 dollars from her and her drivers lincense." I was dumbfounded. I knew she was batshit crazy but why the fuck would she claim this.
At first I thought it was a ploy to get some kind of credit for her bill. Customers will say weird shit to get out of paying a bill. This wasn't the case though she really thought I stole her money. She went as far as to make a police report. The police showed up to my office and had to question my boss. They knew she was crazy but procedure is procedure. The thing that sucks about a situation like this is that even though people say they don't believe it I am sure some people in the back of their minds wonder. Another funny thing is that a couple days later I got issued another call to her apartment and it said right on the work order to not send me, and they still issued it to me. I traded with another tech to avoid any incidents. He told me she had people in and out of her apartment. Chances are one of those people stole her money but it was easier to blame the worker.
My next story is a rather funny one. I was sitting in a customer's family room explaining our service to him. He was in a chair and I was sitting on his sofa kind of L shaped from him. As I finished explaining everything to him I kind of glanced back and I saw it.... He was sitting in his chair wearing short shorts and his left ball was bulging out of his left short leg. It was old, wrinkly, and just kind of "hanging out". I quickly turned my head and wondered to myself if I had really seen that or just imagined it. So I slowly craned my head around and took another quick glance and sure enough there was ballsey mcgee. By this point I wanted to burst out laughing so bad I couldn't hardly contain myself. I sat there face turning bright red and held it in long enough to have him sign the paper work and slip out the door. Once outside I burst out in laughter all the way back to my truck. I wondered if I would ever reach an age where I wouldn't notice something like a ball falling out of my shorts.
The next story happened shortly before I switched departments. One of our dispatchers, Jerome, decided he wanted to stop hanging out with the ladies answering phones and work in the field. So his first day in the field he had to ride with me to learn the ropes. The first part of the day was very normal and mundane. Then in the afternoon we end up having a service call at what was an overweight obviously gay older man's condo. As I sat there working on the problem the gay man was standing next to jerome making small talk. Next thing you know out of the corner of my eye I see the gay mens pants fall down around his ankles. He looks over to an in shock Jerome and says "Opps my pants fell down." Jerome looks like a deer caught in the headlights. Not having any idea how to respond he simply says "You'll have that sometimes." What goes on is an awkward 5 minute period before the man bends over and pulls his pants up. At this time I am faced away from the man and Jerome and barely holding back laughter. At this point the man starts telling some unfunny jokes and I use that as an excuse to burst out laughing.
Of course he thinks I am laughing at his jokes so he keeps telling them. I am laughing at the absurdness of it all. The whole scene was surreal. Pants down around the ankles just standing there. As we finished up and walked outside I wanted to fuck with Jerome and act like shit like that happened all the time but I couldn't. I had to tell him the truth that nothing quite that blatant had ever happened to me before.
One time someone's place was filthy. They had dirty clothes all over the floor including shit stained underwear. Now if you are going to make an appointment for someone to come inside your house you should make sure it is remotely clean. Just plain tired of all the crap I had been dealing with I wrote on the work order, "work not completed due to dirty clothes, trash, and fecal matter on the floor" and made the customer sign the work order. I mean seriously what is he going to do call in and complain that I didn't want to move his soiled underwears?
Yeah i guess people are pretty fucked up!
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Neighbors on the end
Up to this point I have rarely discussed the neighbors on the end unit of our building. There is a good reason for this and I will explain why. For the first 6 months or so a single woman lived on the end unit with her two young children. She seemed normal (relative to the neighborhood that is) enough, if maybe she yelled at her kids a bit much. At least this implies she actually paid attention to what her kids were doing which is a rarity in this place.
She liked to feed the stray cats which I really thought was a good thing. One thing about this neighborhood is the number of stray cats running around is so high. There are times I will open my front door and 4 cats have been laying on my porch. It surprises a lot of people seeing how I am a big scary guy with a lot of tattoos but I am a cat person so to speak. I have three cats and really enjoy their company. I guess when you are big and strong like me you don't need a dog to protect you (Ha! That's to all my bro's who say I should have a dog!).
Nothing annoys me more than when people take in a pet they lose interest in and even more irresponsibly allow to get pregnant then just dump the pet(s) outside. If you are going to get a pet be responsible for that pet. Recently there were two stray kittens that were very young running around outside. They had been born to a stray mother and possibly the stray cat we refer to as Oscar. Any ways I took the female since my other two cats were female and JC took the male to give to his daughter. At least now these kittens will have a chance at a decent life.
Okay I am getting side tracked now ranting about all these stray cats that people don't take care of! The single woman and her kids moved out about 4 months ago. I think she hooked up with some swinging dick captain who rescued her from her life of poverty or some shit like that.
The apartment was being renovated right around the time that Kenny backed into my neighbors car because the guy doing the work saw the whole thing. I remember that the apartment may have sat empty for around a month. After a month we saw a black woman with a litter of four kids looking at the apartment. Now generally speaking the few black people that come from Columbus to Lancaster to live are drug dealers. Since tend to stick out like a sore thumb around a bunch of hillbillies about every 4 months you here about a house being raided. Seeing as how this was a woman and her four kids I kind of ruled out that she was a drug dealer.
I thought the most likely scenario was she was trying to make it on her own and the rent was cheap in Lancaster. I figured the babies (or each baby) daddy was probably doing some time in one of the counties finer facilities. This tends to be the case in situations like this. After a couple months one of the baby daddies gets out of jail and needs a place to stay and next thing you know you've got another neighbor.
Naturally you move to a small town to get away from things like this so it seemed like kind of a smack in the face to have it thrown right back on us. Really though there is nothing you can do about that kind of situation it is just something you have to accept. Living in a building next to two Vinlanders, with multiple Vinlanders coming and going all the time will probably convince said resident to move quickly anyhow. At least in my experience that has generally been the case. I refer to it as reverse-white flight.
So she moves in. JC and I saw her moving stuff in so we know she did. Here is the odd thing though, since then we have not seen her or her kids one time. Not one time. No sign of life at all in the apartment. One of the upstairs bedrooms is missing a window and has a rug hanging over it, that has been like that for four months. One bedroom has the lights turned on that you can see every night. That is about it though. Never once have I see one person go into or out of the apartment. I am up at all sorts of weird hours too. Not once have I seen a car parked in front of the apartment. No kids have been seen playing, not even one sound has come from it.
So what in the fuck is going on? It kind of beats me although I have had a few wild guesses. One obvious one that came to mind was that it was some type of law enforcement set up to monitor JC and I. Set up listening and surveillance equipment. They could move things in and out once a week at an obscure hour and we'd probably never notice. It sounds plausible enough but I ruled that out rather quickly. I guess it could be the case but it'd be one of the most obvious operations of all time. Not to mention after this long they'd have to come to the realization that besides the occasional attack of bad gas we don't do anything wrong. We go to work then train at the gym then usually sit in front of the tv until we fall asleep.
So ruling out law enforcement then what the fuck could it be. my next guess was that the apartment is being used to make meth. Lancaster certainly has a huge meth (and heroin) problem. They could be keeping a low profile cooking the stuff up. I guess this could be plausible but again I see a lot of holes in this theory. Although I am sure if they were cooking meth they'd want to keep a low profile we should still see someone coming and going. You'd have to get a constant stream of supplies in I'd assume so when the fuck would they be doing that.
Ruling out theories 1 and 2 I am left with drawing a blank. Nothing about this makes any sense. This confuses me even more than the man-child. I am left rather confused about these proceedings.
Neighbor on the end
With your mysterious ways
I cannot comprehend
leaving me confused for days
She liked to feed the stray cats which I really thought was a good thing. One thing about this neighborhood is the number of stray cats running around is so high. There are times I will open my front door and 4 cats have been laying on my porch. It surprises a lot of people seeing how I am a big scary guy with a lot of tattoos but I am a cat person so to speak. I have three cats and really enjoy their company. I guess when you are big and strong like me you don't need a dog to protect you (Ha! That's to all my bro's who say I should have a dog!).
Nothing annoys me more than when people take in a pet they lose interest in and even more irresponsibly allow to get pregnant then just dump the pet(s) outside. If you are going to get a pet be responsible for that pet. Recently there were two stray kittens that were very young running around outside. They had been born to a stray mother and possibly the stray cat we refer to as Oscar. Any ways I took the female since my other two cats were female and JC took the male to give to his daughter. At least now these kittens will have a chance at a decent life.
Okay I am getting side tracked now ranting about all these stray cats that people don't take care of! The single woman and her kids moved out about 4 months ago. I think she hooked up with some swinging dick captain who rescued her from her life of poverty or some shit like that.
The apartment was being renovated right around the time that Kenny backed into my neighbors car because the guy doing the work saw the whole thing. I remember that the apartment may have sat empty for around a month. After a month we saw a black woman with a litter of four kids looking at the apartment. Now generally speaking the few black people that come from Columbus to Lancaster to live are drug dealers. Since tend to stick out like a sore thumb around a bunch of hillbillies about every 4 months you here about a house being raided. Seeing as how this was a woman and her four kids I kind of ruled out that she was a drug dealer.
I thought the most likely scenario was she was trying to make it on her own and the rent was cheap in Lancaster. I figured the babies (or each baby) daddy was probably doing some time in one of the counties finer facilities. This tends to be the case in situations like this. After a couple months one of the baby daddies gets out of jail and needs a place to stay and next thing you know you've got another neighbor.
Naturally you move to a small town to get away from things like this so it seemed like kind of a smack in the face to have it thrown right back on us. Really though there is nothing you can do about that kind of situation it is just something you have to accept. Living in a building next to two Vinlanders, with multiple Vinlanders coming and going all the time will probably convince said resident to move quickly anyhow. At least in my experience that has generally been the case. I refer to it as reverse-white flight.
So she moves in. JC and I saw her moving stuff in so we know she did. Here is the odd thing though, since then we have not seen her or her kids one time. Not one time. No sign of life at all in the apartment. One of the upstairs bedrooms is missing a window and has a rug hanging over it, that has been like that for four months. One bedroom has the lights turned on that you can see every night. That is about it though. Never once have I see one person go into or out of the apartment. I am up at all sorts of weird hours too. Not once have I seen a car parked in front of the apartment. No kids have been seen playing, not even one sound has come from it.
So what in the fuck is going on? It kind of beats me although I have had a few wild guesses. One obvious one that came to mind was that it was some type of law enforcement set up to monitor JC and I. Set up listening and surveillance equipment. They could move things in and out once a week at an obscure hour and we'd probably never notice. It sounds plausible enough but I ruled that out rather quickly. I guess it could be the case but it'd be one of the most obvious operations of all time. Not to mention after this long they'd have to come to the realization that besides the occasional attack of bad gas we don't do anything wrong. We go to work then train at the gym then usually sit in front of the tv until we fall asleep.
So ruling out law enforcement then what the fuck could it be. my next guess was that the apartment is being used to make meth. Lancaster certainly has a huge meth (and heroin) problem. They could be keeping a low profile cooking the stuff up. I guess this could be plausible but again I see a lot of holes in this theory. Although I am sure if they were cooking meth they'd want to keep a low profile we should still see someone coming and going. You'd have to get a constant stream of supplies in I'd assume so when the fuck would they be doing that.
Ruling out theories 1 and 2 I am left with drawing a blank. Nothing about this makes any sense. This confuses me even more than the man-child. I am left rather confused about these proceedings.
Neighbor on the end
With your mysterious ways
I cannot comprehend
leaving me confused for days
The sky
I was driving home from work today and noticed something I had not noticed in a very long time. Maybe because I spend a good portion of my days dangling from telephone poles, or maybe because I live around a bunch of trash, but for the first time in ages I actually noticed the sky. The sky was a deep blue and the clouds were perfect. To my left I looked and saw an ocean of grass that stretched all the way to the rolling hills that obscured the rest of the view. Off to my right was a multitude of reds, yellows, oranges, and greens of the fall tree canopies.
It looked something like this picture which was taken in Carrol County Ohio. The trees stretched to the horizon. I saw small farmhouses littering the side of the highways. It feels like it has been years since I really just took in a scene like this. I am not sure why I noticed it today, I have taken this way home a hundred times yet I never looked at the landscape like I did today.
As I started to pull into town I noticed that this small town had a certain Norman Rockwell-esq style to it. An Americana of time that has long since past. Sure there is a section of town with your walmarts and best buy, but this part of town was all mom and pop storefronts and old victorian style houses. Maybe this city isn't that bad after all. I mean how many places can you find an independently owned pharmacy in a day and age when there is a walgreens on every corner.
This is Main St. in Lancaster. If you took away the cars you would assume you had been transported to some street back in the 50s. A time in this country when everything seemed possible. A time before liberals and drug use took a hold in this country and tore apart its foundation.
Here is a picture of Lancaster from Mount Pleasant I believe. From here in the distance it looks like a beautiful small town. I am not sure where my neighborhood is in relation to this picture but I cannot pick it out from looking at a zoomed in version of the picture.
As I drove down the streets of this small town I saw things I had not appreciated before. Ironic it is, how something so simple as a different outlook can alter your perception of what is around you. Maybe you get so used to being unhappy that it just surprises you when you are happy, if even for a moment.
Then I pull onto my street. I see all the litter and trash that people just carelessly drop. I see the unsupervised kids running around. I look across the street and see people coming out of the drug dealers house. To my right sight the toothlessette and toothless mullet enjoy cigarettes and Old Milwaukee's Best beer. I quickly snap back to the reality of things. It was nice though for a few minutes to remember what it was like to see something beautiful.
It looked something like this picture which was taken in Carrol County Ohio. The trees stretched to the horizon. I saw small farmhouses littering the side of the highways. It feels like it has been years since I really just took in a scene like this. I am not sure why I noticed it today, I have taken this way home a hundred times yet I never looked at the landscape like I did today.
As I started to pull into town I noticed that this small town had a certain Norman Rockwell-esq style to it. An Americana of time that has long since past. Sure there is a section of town with your walmarts and best buy, but this part of town was all mom and pop storefronts and old victorian style houses. Maybe this city isn't that bad after all. I mean how many places can you find an independently owned pharmacy in a day and age when there is a walgreens on every corner.
As I drove down the streets of this small town I saw things I had not appreciated before. Ironic it is, how something so simple as a different outlook can alter your perception of what is around you. Maybe you get so used to being unhappy that it just surprises you when you are happy, if even for a moment.
Then I pull onto my street. I see all the litter and trash that people just carelessly drop. I see the unsupervised kids running around. I look across the street and see people coming out of the drug dealers house. To my right sight the toothlessette and toothless mullet enjoy cigarettes and Old Milwaukee's Best beer. I quickly snap back to the reality of things. It was nice though for a few minutes to remember what it was like to see something beautiful.
Updated Agenda
My well thought out agenda went straight to Hell. Monday night I noticed my throat started feeling a little scratchy. At first I tried to deny what I really deep down new was coming on. I tried to clear my throat several times and even did a nice teeth brushing and flossing job hoping I had just aggravated the back of my throat. It was no use as that uncomfortable feeling got worse and worse. I finally broke down and put a cough drop in. I know once I put in a cough drop all is lost and I am going to have one hell of a cold.
This was Monday night though and I had squat training to do some with a cough drop wedged between my cheek and gums I prepared to get physical. Squatting went pretty well. I have decided this training cycle to completely fore go wearing any powerlifting gear. The fact is I am making great gains training raw and my few attempts to put on gear has thrown my grove off and I do not like it. This time I did not even use a lifting belt which actually went great until I got up there in weight.
On my last set as I sat back into the bottom of the squat position I felt my low back start to round and I started to lean forward. Knowing that I was about to lose the bar over the top (which can very well knock you the fuck out with enough weight on it- See Lee Moran's 1000 pound squat attempts though I am no where near a 1000 pounds I am sure it is still not fun no matter how much is on the bar), I just exploded up with everything I had and good morning my way out of the lift. Lucky for me I have a super strong good morning lift as that probably saved me from at the least a nasty bump on my head. Would a lifting belt have stopped that? I am not sure to be honest, I think it honestly came down to fatigue and getting sloppy with the lift due to said fatigue. If I hadn't of been tired I would of kept my lower back tight and not rounded over. Shit happens and lifting is not always a safe thing to do. I have seen one guy going for a 405 bench lose his grip and the weight slammed down on his upper chest/neck region. If he had been a little higher he could of died or been permanently maimed. Anything worth doing is going to have risks involved. Sometimes you just have to hope for the best and go for it. I can lead the safest life in the world and walk outside and get hit by a drunk driver for all I know. I might as well do something I love in life.
Tuesday i woke up feeling an intense sore throat. Throughout the day it got worse and went from simply a sore throat to a full on cold. Wednesday was not much better as things got worse and my whole body ached. I had to make a judgment call then whether or not I was going to train Wednesday night. It is typically my heavy bench press day. It is always a tough call deciding whether to train when sick. Your immune system actually gets weaker during vigorous exercise so you can make your recovery even longer trying to push yourself. On the other hand I will not skip a workout just to take it easy and avoid working hard. If I miss a workout it is only because it is the best thing to do. It takes a long time to know the difference. A week or two ago I postponed my deadlift training one day because my CNS was fried. In the end I decided it was better to postpone my bench press training a day or two rather than set myself back.
I think I made the right decision. I woke up this morning (Thursday) feeling like the ass end of a mule but throughout the day I started to feel somewhat better. I am certainly not 100% but definitely better off than the last two days. I did my bench press training tonight. Nothing special, I was still somewhat weak from the cold, hit a small personal record, could of done more but left it as is. Really happy with how things played out.
Now onto other things. Right now I am working on the untitled fantasy book mostly. Since I am the most happy with how that story is fleshed out I am going to work on that first. I have been held up on the character I could not write for but that problem is now fixed. Right now I just plan on plowing through the story and getting everything down. I will be unhappy with the final result but if I try and make sure every page is perfect I will never get past page 10. I will fly through it and re-edit it after it is finished. The real trick will be keeping the story from getting too silly and out there.
This was Monday night though and I had squat training to do some with a cough drop wedged between my cheek and gums I prepared to get physical. Squatting went pretty well. I have decided this training cycle to completely fore go wearing any powerlifting gear. The fact is I am making great gains training raw and my few attempts to put on gear has thrown my grove off and I do not like it. This time I did not even use a lifting belt which actually went great until I got up there in weight.
On my last set as I sat back into the bottom of the squat position I felt my low back start to round and I started to lean forward. Knowing that I was about to lose the bar over the top (which can very well knock you the fuck out with enough weight on it- See Lee Moran's 1000 pound squat attempts though I am no where near a 1000 pounds I am sure it is still not fun no matter how much is on the bar), I just exploded up with everything I had and good morning my way out of the lift. Lucky for me I have a super strong good morning lift as that probably saved me from at the least a nasty bump on my head. Would a lifting belt have stopped that? I am not sure to be honest, I think it honestly came down to fatigue and getting sloppy with the lift due to said fatigue. If I hadn't of been tired I would of kept my lower back tight and not rounded over. Shit happens and lifting is not always a safe thing to do. I have seen one guy going for a 405 bench lose his grip and the weight slammed down on his upper chest/neck region. If he had been a little higher he could of died or been permanently maimed. Anything worth doing is going to have risks involved. Sometimes you just have to hope for the best and go for it. I can lead the safest life in the world and walk outside and get hit by a drunk driver for all I know. I might as well do something I love in life.
Tuesday i woke up feeling an intense sore throat. Throughout the day it got worse and went from simply a sore throat to a full on cold. Wednesday was not much better as things got worse and my whole body ached. I had to make a judgment call then whether or not I was going to train Wednesday night. It is typically my heavy bench press day. It is always a tough call deciding whether to train when sick. Your immune system actually gets weaker during vigorous exercise so you can make your recovery even longer trying to push yourself. On the other hand I will not skip a workout just to take it easy and avoid working hard. If I miss a workout it is only because it is the best thing to do. It takes a long time to know the difference. A week or two ago I postponed my deadlift training one day because my CNS was fried. In the end I decided it was better to postpone my bench press training a day or two rather than set myself back.
I think I made the right decision. I woke up this morning (Thursday) feeling like the ass end of a mule but throughout the day I started to feel somewhat better. I am certainly not 100% but definitely better off than the last two days. I did my bench press training tonight. Nothing special, I was still somewhat weak from the cold, hit a small personal record, could of done more but left it as is. Really happy with how things played out.
Now onto other things. Right now I am working on the untitled fantasy book mostly. Since I am the most happy with how that story is fleshed out I am going to work on that first. I have been held up on the character I could not write for but that problem is now fixed. Right now I just plan on plowing through the story and getting everything down. I will be unhappy with the final result but if I try and make sure every page is perfect I will never get past page 10. I will fly through it and re-edit it after it is finished. The real trick will be keeping the story from getting too silly and out there.
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