Month: January 2019

Friday Quote – John ‘Shrek’ McPhee

If you ever have to use a firearm for your own safety, this will be one of the worst situations you will ever face. This is humanity at its worst. Before, during, and after this situation, the skills need to save you will not just come to you. These skills have to be learned before that moment. Training has to begin before, and you need to know this cold and on demand. Training is for life and can only be achieved through perfect practice and repetition. There are no short cuts here. Refuse to be a victim.

Policing Our Own

Greg Ellifritz has gotten sick and tired of bloggers stealing his words. He doesn’t have the resources to sue, so he’s going to use the tried and true method of shaming. I’m good with that.

I re-blog a lot of content. Either because the author is more knowledgeable, succinct, and/or funnier than me. I make damn sure that if I’m quoting, I let my readers know I’m doing so. I have felt the pain of crafting a paragraph (or even a sentence) when on a deadline and the brain won’t cough up something coherent.

I’m going to let Greg have the final words on this post.

We in the gun community need to hold each other accountable. That’s why I’m sharing this with all of you. Do you think this guy [the thief] is a trustworthy source of information? Why would you rely on advice from a thief to keep you safe?

Goals for 2019

I’m not big into resolutions, as most fall by the wayside within the first two months. Just look at exercise machine sales in January and used exercise machine availability in March. I am setting some goals:

Writing

  1. I’m going to finish my rewrite of Badmoon Rising.
  2. I’m going to finish the next installment in the Irregulars series.
  3. I’m going to start fresh on my fantasy novel. That needs a pull down to brass tacks and rebuild.
  4. I’m going to read a new book at least every quarter. One of those needs to be nonfiction.

General Health

  1. I’m going to hit my goal weight of 200 and maintain that through the year.
  2. I’m going to get some regular physical activity.

Social Media

  1. I’m going to a three-time-a-day for Facebook, and no more than fifteen minutes total. Once in the morning to post the blog link, once at lunch, and once in the evening. My stretch goal is to get to a twice-a-day check.

There are some others that relate to my finances that I’m not willing to share on this forum. But these are the ones I’m going to work towards.

2018 Top Albums

Editor’s Comments:

For this week’s Metal Tuesday, The Brother asked if he could write up his favorite albums of 2018. Although his tastes run a bit differently than mine, he knows his music.

I have so much music for y’all. This year I decided to do two versions of my Top Albums list; one without any death metal and one with the heavy stuff. I’m considerate like that. For each album, I list the general genre and links to Apple Music, Spotify, or YouTube (some sources more official than others on YouTube).

I also call out a couple of EPs that I really liked and at the end are a list of honorable mentions (in no particular order).

The Heavy Stuff

  1. Rivers of Nihil – Where Owls Know My Name — Technical Death Metal: or or
  2. Omnium Gatherum – The Burning Cold — Melodic Death Metal: or or
  3. Psycroptic – As the Kingdom Drowns — Technical Death Metal: or or
  4. Amorphis – Queen of Time — Metal: or or
  5. Slugdge – Esoteric Malacology — Death Metal: or or

No Death!

Now, I also understand that a lot of people are not, shall we say, fans of death metal. This is for y’all.

  1. Clutch – Book of Bad Decisions — Rock: or or
  2. Good Tiger – We Will All Be Gone — Rock: or or
  3. Andy James – Arrival — Instrumental Rock: or or
  4. Paul Wardingham – Electromancer — Instrumental Rock: or or
  5. Set and Setting – Tabula Rasa — Post Rock: or or

The EPs

I also want to call out a couple of EPs that came out this year that I though were really good.

  • Hespera – In Absence — Melodic Death Metal: or or
  • Plini – Sunhead — Instrumental Rock: or or

Honorable Mentions

These are the albums that were in the running for the other lists but did not make it. These are still really good albums, but the lists have to be capped somewhere.

  • Alkaloid – Liquid Anatomy — Death Metal: or or
  • Beyond Creation – Algorythm — Technical Death Metal: or or
  • Harakiri for the Sky – Arson — Metal: or or
  • Moonshade – Sun Dethroned — Melodic Death Metal: or or
  • Nita Strauss – Controlled Chaos — Instrumental Rock: or or
  • The Ocean – Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic — Post Rock: or or
  • The Ocean – Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic (Instrumental Version) — Post Rock: or or
  • Parasite, Inc. – Dead and Alive — Metal: or or
  • Zeal & Ardor – Stranger Fruit — Metal/Soul/Experimental: or or