#edit: i put the quotation mark in the wrong place. i hate it here

[advisortotheadvisor]

love how canis is low-key the "came back wrong" trope but only specifically for Howard Hatchett

like Hatchett very much believed that Tobias Clay was gone, like turned into a monster, no hope of ever seeing him again gone. as dead as he can be with still technically being alive with a magic wolf piloting his corpse

so finding out the man he thought was dead and whose nonexistence forms the basis for the life he's built? who Hatchett could've possibly helped if he'd told a single magic-user in a town full of them that the Big Bad Wolf used to be a human, so there might be a way to change him back? Terrifying. Absolute worst case scenario.

But then...nothing happens. Nobody seems to care that his fairytale is full of lies. Cue the creeping realization that it's not that nobody cares; nobody knows. Tobias hasn't told anyone, can't tell anyone because as far as he knows, Tobias doesn't exist. There's only Canis, who lives with the Grimms and has always been a monster and who looks Hatchett in the eyes without a shred of recognition

Canis is a dead man who came back wrong and for twenty years, Howard Hatchett is the only person knows

[you-did-well-my-love]

Drama Review: Introverted Boss

I don’t think I have ever been so satisfied with the ending of the drama.

Rating: 4.5/5 I was going to rate it a four, but that last episode was absolutely amazing.

OST: Most of the ost is pretty typical but like I have had B1A4 Sandeul’s song on repeat since it ended like shit it’s so good. 

Genre: Romantic Comedy, Business

Synopsis: Eun Hwan-Ki is the CEO of a public relations company, but he is extremely shy. Due to his personality, even his employees do not know him well. Chae Ro-Woon begins work at Eun Hwan-Ki’s company. She is very energetic and receives recognition for her work, but her only interest is in CEO Eun Hwan-Ki. She plans to reveal who Eun Hwan-Ki really is. (source: asianwiki)

Trigger Warning: This drama deals heavily with mental health. The opening scene is a woman committing suicide. (I was honestly surprised at how graphic it was. Obviously it’s nowhere near 13 Reasons Why, but they showed more than I’ve ever seen in a drama outside of Let’s Fight Ghost which was about dead people.) The main lead has social anxiety. A character has depression. Visual self harm. etc.

Thoughts/Review: (no spoilers)

It’s been so long since this drama ended so this review is going to be scattered, but my GOD did I love this drama.

I wasn’t even going to watch this drama. I had it on my list, but the initial response to it was so negative, I took it off. But then I saw this one gifset of the male lead stroking the girl’s face while lying in a bed and I felt so much tension just from those gifs, I was immediately taken.

And honestly, Hwarang was so dry I was like dying of thirst and when I saw that gifset just drenched in chemistry I was sold.

I could see where the negative reviews came from. The editing was very jumpy - jumping back and forth to the various different things going on but, like, I couldn’t tell what was going on.

The transitions were really weird. The writers were awkward with introducing the characters. And then the drama started out with a woman jumping off of a building, and it takes you forever to find out who she was. JUST FYI that scene took place three years before the rest of the drama. They should have put “Three Years Later” at the bottom of the screen, no clue why they didn’t.

They could have used a bit more depth in setting up the characters. Whereas most dramas take two to three episodes to set up the plot, this drama just dived right in. Pretty much “everything” was set up in episode one. And I say that in quotation marks because of the episode 5 situation (explained below).

BUT once everything started to make sense, I was really intrigued. They had a really good story, it was just a rocky start. Get past the rocky start!

Much of the controversy was surrounding the female lead Park Hye Soo’s acting. I can’t argue with it. She wasn’t awful, but it seemed like it was her first lead role. She seemed like the type that can act well in minor roles, but something felt off with her line delivery... it felt almost forced. I think part of it was the weird script, because it got better after episode 4. Obviously it didn’t bother me enough to stop watching the drama, I stopped noticing it much the later I got into the drama. I guess the experience did well for her.

For those of you who don’t know or don’t remember when the news broke, the drama skipped a week to rewrite the script. This happened after episode 4. If you are watching and you’re not really feeling it, my advice is to wait and watch episodes 5 and 6 because that’s where a lot of things are fixed, everything gets explained, and the plot picks up.

NOTE: From what I gathered when watching, the writers changed the central conflict. There are a few continuity errors, but it’s understandable considering they film these dramas while they’re airing.

It was really quirky. The bright colors, the tone, the dialogue. It reminded me a bit of the extra-ness of jdramas. It had that lighthearted, fun feeling like Sassy Go Go, Surplus Princess, Marriage Not Dating (from what I’ve heard), Cinderella and Four Knights, Shopping King Louis, etc.

However, the deeper you get into the show, the more things appear to be not what they seem. So while “everything” is explained in episode 5, aside from the personal conflicts and episodic conflicts, there was this mystery brewing. A sort of underlying sketchyness that kept growing until the end.

I absolutely adored this drama. From the comedy (which was golden btw) to the use of irony to the characters to the romance. It is up on my list of top dramas for 2017.

The comedy: there was a lot of witty dialogue and utilization of each of the characters’ little quirks. The actors did amazing, a lot of it was expressions and motions tied in with dialogue that wouldn’t have been nearly as entertaining if the actors delivered it badly.

Yeon Woo Jin did such an amazing job as Eun Hwan Gi. He made this character come to life in such a raw and realistic way, I am truly impressed. I’m looking forward to seeing him in his next drama. I, someone with a social anxiety disorder, relate to Eun Hwan Gi so much it’s frightening. But that’s what made me love the drama even more. It made me feel a deeper connection to any kdrama character I have ever felt, and his thought process was so much like mine (always overthinking things) it made me root for him that much more. 

I felt so much for him seeing him make the efforts because I know from personal experience how hard it was for him. He was unable to do the mean thing despite it being the right thing because it was mean. He was so not the typical male kdrama lead, and he broke a lot of gender stereotypes. Plus he was freaking adorable. He had all these charms; his drunk habit for one lol, + he was caring, he watched over everyone, and when he did succeed in conquering his fear step by step as a viewer it fills you with so much warmth.

He’s just such a wonderful person and it brings you unbelievable joy as a viewer to see the rest of the characters slowly realize this too.

ALSO HE WAS LIKE HEALER’S BONG SOO ALIAS EXCEPT IN REAL PERSON FORM AND I LOVED IT.

And then when we finally got to see his frustration. Social anxiety is not this cute introvert nerd, it’s a pain in the ass and I am so glad/proud/thankful that the writers showed this side of it.

I want to take a second to mention the symbolism. I adored the symbolism behind his hood and what it meant for him to take it off/put it on. It was just one more key to understanding the character + it made you feel all the things when he was comfortable enough to take it off.

Chae Ro Woon... It was hard to judge her change because it was so sudden, but I thought her change was for the better. Yet there were still some things that annoyed me. A lot of time the writers used her inappropriate(?) behavior to move the plot along, but there were still instances I thought she was way over the line. However in my opinion, a lot of the hate towards her was out of line because her main goal was revenge and it seemed like people kept forgetting that. Especially later on, I thought Chae Ro Woon was just absolutely amazing. She was so understanding of Hwan Gi, even though it took her some time (which is realistic), and she was accepting of him. She didn’t push him too hard to change, she gave him space, and did what she could to make him comfortable. I loved it.

I was also a little disappointed with what the writers did with Hyo Sung’s character, specifically the way she treated Hwan Gi, but I’m going to attribute that to the story change and that if the writers could they would go back and take out that one scene from episode 2(?) to make her character understandable.

I’m not going to mention how I feel about Kang Woo Il, or Eun Yi Soo for that matter, because everything surrounding them is a spoiler. They’re complicated, especially Yi Soo. While I may not have been fond of them, I understood them. Especially Yi Soo. Which is what I believe is the most important when it comes to a character.

I LOVED YOO HEE. I don’t know if either of you have seen the Taiwanese drama Refresh Man, but it was another office romance and there was this older woman who saw the main character’s feelings for the girl and tried to set them up. I loved it. And the same thing pretty much happened here. It was hilarious.

Yeon Jung, usually I hate characters like her, but she was so amazing. She was annoying as a love interest but necessary as a friend, and I am actually glad a character like her was in the drama.

The romance. The sexual tension between Eun Hwan Gi and Chae Ro Woon was tangible. I loved how he slowly opened up to her, and it was symbolic in his hood and the way his voice became louder the more comfortable he became. Spoiler: they kiss a shit ton of times. I loved every second. 

The drama did a lot of things I didn’t expect. There were really straightforward conversations (the how-far-have-you-gone one), admissions of wrongful actions, actual apologies from multiple characters (all the characters that needed to imo) that I didn’t expect to happen, girls telling people off and breaking every drama stereotype.

A little thing I really liked was how, you know when dramas are like “we’ve wrapped up the plot but still have two episodes” so they create a conflict which is usually super random and off topic? This one tied back to the original roots of the plot and it fit so well with the theme of the whole drama. There was a huge presence of family in the drama, both Ro Woon’s and Hwan Gi’s, and I was very appreciative of how they wrapped up.

And, hun, while I stumbled over the time jump in the last episode, that ending was FANTASTIC. I don’t need to say anything else. Just that it was so damn satisfying.

Someone get me an Eun Hwan Gi please and thank you.

~~~

Finished 3/14/17

[kaoarika]

I was writing a long vent post about why I haven’t been as active as I am around here, but at the same time I can resume it in a few points.

I got a job (well, two actually, but that’s exactly part of the problem), and OH MAN, DO I HATE IT.

It’s been just 5 days and I really, REALLY regret applying for this one. And mostly because the other person who I was applying a job for took a long time to respond me, I sent my CV to this place.

I was expecting for something better, but my Graphic Design abilities are wasted in doing “graphic ads” for facebook, being a “community manager”, publishing online ads on classified ads websites, and doing errands for the boss that, I must imagine, doesn’t have a sense of what a pedestrian is, when a bank is two squares away/across from the local (plus a pedestrian bridge), in a walk that takes almost 20 minutes all the way around, in the middle of a very sunny day. Take note of my quotation marks.

Guys, this is not what I was applying for. 

I’m seriously wasting almost half day of my life going here, and my productivity is dramatically reduced to less than 50% by the time I’m at home. Not even high school/college was like this, and I could even do all-nighters working on projects for an average grade. Sure, I know errands aren’t uncommon all along when working, but I have acquaintances that have better luck than me regard these? Especially when there are a lot more employees around, and not only two (besides me). 

My boss doesn’t even know what they really want about publicity, and they communicate me what they really want when I finished the thing. I don’t even feel motivated about this, and going from scratch (without instructions) and with a less intuitive program to work on (last time I worked with GIMP was like... 4 and smth years ago, SUPER LESS INTUITIVE than Illustrator, my way to go program... but HEAVENS FORBID to have a proper Adobe license, if they are willing to give attention to their customers about it -for my understandings- but NOT TO THEIR EMPLOYEES. Same with Office -and don’t take me wrong, I don’t have anything against OpenOffice... but... really...), is definitely not worth my time.

I’m trapped in a place like this for almost 10 hours. I could go to take a rest to the very close-nearby mall, but that it’s out of the question because I don’t even feel motivated to go (and the only area available to me from there in less of a hour is the old area, not the “lobby/main entrance” that is in the OTHER side of the mall), and doing the same 20 minutes walk round is tiring.

It also feels lonely. There is a huge gap between my boss and me, and the techinician (I am working in a business that offers computer maintenance service... definitely a no-no), not only on the AGE (I think my boss is older than my parents, who are already in their 50s, to put an example), but also in the position side. I cannot talk to them, or complain to them due to obvious reasons. But, even if I’m very less talkative on person, and someone who has a frequent lack of human face to face interaction since I graduated from college... I was expecting having a less hostile and lonely experience through this. I only talk to my mom when I have my lunch break, through my cellphone.

(Bonus plus is that, I’m sure that there is a regulation about smoking inside of a commercial office, but come the FUCK ON, this shouldn’t be broken... even if YOU ARE THE FREAKING BOSS OF THIS OFFICE, when there is only a small room that connects to the outside. UGH. The smell stinks the place! NO MATTER HOW YOU TRY TO HIDE IT.)

“But, Kao... if you hate the place, why haven’t you quit yet?”

To be honest, I was going to bear working there for two months, when my expectations were REALLY high. Then by the second day, I went “Nevermind, one month”, by the third day I was already crying on the phone with my mom and decided that only two weeks more would be it. Also, I was unaware that you can quit the thing in less time. I was checking online about measures about this whole thing and be completely sure that a working period of less than a month was also okay to quit. And, from what I have found, it’s plausible with a number of factors considered.

I cannot lay my productivity in a job that is very uncomfortable and that has been making me hate it. It’s not worthy. I know other places MAY be similar, but I expect maybe a bit better from digital printing places, where I could use my abilities and face more customers than talking them to the phone, and face them (if they ever come, though... I have seen like... what? three of them in FIVE DAYS).

I should have listened to my insticts when the technician told me that he has been the only one constant worker there for a year already, and that many more like me have passed through there. Or that the boss has very little trust to them, too, when I also realized today that they were being REALLY hostile with me about the whereabouts of the technician as he has a part-time thing of his own, too (but in all honesty, I don’t even pay attention if he has something else as the only time I have seen him talking over the cellphone was on Saturday?). HUGE YELLOW FLAGS RIGHT THERE.

Did I mention that the boss is expecting me to work there in a long-term? Well, the joke’s on them, because I really don’t want to be there any longer. But here is also my thing: pay day. More specifically, biweekly pay day. Technically, today HAS to be the day that I am paid... although I will see if that’s even going to happen, becaue I have only worked there for five days. Nonetheless, the next payment day is until March 15th. AND... well... 

Part of the problem that is also leading me to unsatisfaction and lack of productivity, is how this is potentially going to affect my other “freelance” job (not even mentioning the book that I’m editing, which has a due date on April, because, DID I have time to check that as well this week? LOL, NO. ). This other person seems more understanding than my boss. This is a gig that I got due to contacts. Due to VERY bad timing of her part and my own, I applied to that other job. I didn’t think that much about schedules and such, but finding out that I SHOULD work 8.5-10 hours long a day, that was potentially screaming danger. I internally screamed when I realized in the huge mess I was getting myself into.

This person is understanding enough when I see her e-mails, and I am trying to lessen further damage... but she is also asking for my time to work on graphic design projects, and coming back home after a long and tiring day (not even mentioning the freaking bus ride back) is definitely not going to work on my favor. Also, because I don’t want to let her down and my contact.

I really resent how my productivity has reduced to “I really just want to go home, relax a bit and sleep”. I know sacrifices are made, but I also want a time to do my stuff like writing or drawing, especially drawing. And this isn’t something that I wanted to sacrifice for two month period, or even a month. I really don’t have to detail how this also is related to my jealousy issues over my acquaintances, do I?

*SIGH* If it was from me, I would definitely quit at the moment, but I’m also intimidated by my boss. I know it takes a lot of courage to say that I’m not comfortable there, that I’m not satisfied, and that my abilities are VERY wasted on there, and that this isn’t definitely something that will develop them any further. But I still have to word it accurrately... and pay day...

I know I could survive, but everyday I spend a long time staring at the front window questioning about my existence, and when it finally tells me that it’s already 6 PM, I just think on hurling on my bed and sleep. It’s unbelievable how it drains my energy.

[willow-salix]

Perfect Punctuation : Sentence Endings.

Perfect Punctuation: the full stop, the question mark and the exclamation mark.

Hi, and welcome back to my channel. If you don’t know me or haven’t watched any of my videos before, my name is Willow and I am a pagan witch, medium and paranormal romance author. And I started this channel as a way of helping people as much as I can, both on a creative level with instructional videos for writing but also on spiritual matters.

I decided to make this series of videos on punctuation as a way of helping others who may not understand how to use these tricky little buggers, or may find the explanations available out there are too complicated to understand. Now I’m not going to go into massive details or teach you enough to get a degree in English, but I am going to teach you all the punctuation you are likely to need if you wish to become a writer. Everything here is with writing fiction books, short stories or general creative writing in mind. I’m aiming to keep this as simple and easy to understand as possible and will be including lots of examples to show how to use the symbols correctly, but I’m always willing to answer questions if you are unsure.

Proper punctuation is very important for your writing, it will help the flow of your sentences and will make sure that your meaning is perfectly clear. That’s their job, to make sure that your writing is clear and concise, to make sure that your meaning is never misunderstood.

So, I’m starting off this new series of videos with the simplest of punctuation symbols, and the ones that we use to finish off a sentence. Now, obviously I’m English, so we say it’s a full stop, not a period. This makes perfect sense to me as it is the stopping point of a sentence once its done, although other people may call it the period. For the purpose of this video I’m going to stick with what is natural for me and call it the full stop.

This little guy is placed at the end of a sentence to indicate that it has come to an end. When reading him aloud there should be a very firm feeling to it. Every sentence must end with either the full stop, a question mark or an exclamation mark. There is no other option.

For example: When he died it was the end of an era. Everyone would remember him.

A sentence must always have an ending to it, and the full stop is the most common one to use. If your sentence is not a question or is not expressing a very heightened emotion, then use a full stop. There is no need to try to get over creative with this or to find complicated ways of finishing off a sentence, nothing else works or is correct in regards to punctuation, you’ll just end up looking silly, and believe me, punctuation and grammar are one of the first things you will be judged on when someone is reading your writing. It’s very important to get it as right as you possibly can.

The question mark:

The clue is in the name and it’s pretty self-explanatory, the question mark is used in place of a full stop when the sentence takes the form of a question. This is for both narration and dialogue in fiction writing.

Here’s an example of a question that is written wrong, using a full stop instead of the needed question mark.

Example: “How do you work this toaster.”

See, it makes no sense. You can tell that is probably supposed to be a question, but there is nothing to indicate that. Therefore, for a reader, it is rather confusing. One simple change can make your meaning so clear.

Example: “How do you work this toaster?”

There, perfect. Now you can tell exactly what the sentence is. Obviously in this example I used a piece of dialogue. The principle is exactly the same for narration.

Example: She didn’t know where she was going, where was the bloody house.

Now, as you can see, just like before, this sentence feels like a question. It feels like the narrator is talking for the character, which is what narrators do, but it isn’t clear what is going on.

Again, the simple change makes all the difference.

Example: She didn’t know where she was going, where was the bloody house?

This makes the narration much clearer. You can tell that she is searching for a house, but can’t find it. As anyone would do, she is asking an internal question, which is shown with the use of a question mark. When writing we don’t want to bog our readers down with endless dialogue and have to write internal monologues or thoughts. Writing rules with regards to punctuation and grammar are exactly the same for all types of writing unless clearly stated otherwise.

Now, on to our last little symbol, the exclamation point.

Now this one is seen as a little trickier than our first two, but really that is just a case of writers and people in general over complicating things and overusing the symbol.

If you look anywhere online or on social media you will see people that over use the question mark and the exclamation mark, they will sometime use it three or four times in one go. Like this:

“ OMG I can’t believe it !!!!”

Or “What did you do????”

This is unneeded and completely wrong from a punctuation point of view, although I do understand why some people do it, and I myself have been guilty of this. But what people need to remember is that social media posts are not real writing, they are not something that you are putting out in the world and most likely, at some point, charging people to read if you are writing a book. Please, please, please, I can not beg you enough, do not look to social media as a way of discovering how to write or how to punctuate your work. It is almost always wrong.

When I said the exclamation mark is overused, I didn’t mean just in the number of times it appears at the end of a sentence, I meant in general. Especially in writing done by a novice writer. It is the most commonly abused punctuation mark, apart from maybe the comma, in almost every book I read.

An exclamation mark should be used sparingly, and only when it will have maximum impact. I edited a story for a friend, the story was just under 30,000 words, and when I searched out how many times she had used the exclamation mark I found it over 400 times. That is literally crazy for a piece that in fiction terms is relatively short. She also used it incorrectly, using it when it made little literary sense. in short it was a mess.

An exclamation mark is used to pack a punch to your narration or dialogue. That’s why they are best used sparingly. Think of a friend that is constantly excited, or constantly dramatic, it gets old very fast and you begin to dread hearing that person talk. Do you want that for your writing? The answer should be no.

They are most often used in fiction to show emotions.

Such as surprise: “I can’t believe you just did that!”

Anger: “I hate you!” “How dare you?”

Joy: “Oh wow, I love it!”

Excitement: “I did it!”

Or to ask for help, get attention, to issue a command or convey a sense of urgency. “Stop!” “Please, someone help me!”

If you overuse this little guy, you will take away the impact that he has. So, before you think about using him, ask yourself the following questions.

Is it hugely important?

Is it super exciting?

Is it an actual emergency?

If you said this out loud would you shout it?

If you were in this situation would you be very angry, excited, scared or happy?

All of these will help you learn to use your exclamation mark as sparingly as possible and when it will have the most impact.

As with the question mark, an exclamation mark takes the place of a full stop.

Now I will be going into this next point in more detail in another video, but I’ll just touch on it now. With any punctuation like this, it must always be within your speech or quotation marks. The punctuation must never be outside of them. There also must never be a gap or a blank space between the last letter of the sentence and the punctuation, be it a full stop, question mark or explanation mark.

That’s all for today, keep popping back to watch the rest of this series. Thanks for watching, as always, blessed be and happy writing.

[tommyh303]

2016 Year end review: 5 years running (and better late than never).

Celebrating 5 years of the end of the year!!!

WOW, this is my 5th annual end of the year because Facebook’s end of the year thingy sucks so much it’s just better if I write my own and choose my own photos blog (working title). Seriously though, this is the 5th one I’m writing after starting in 2012.  Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate that Facebook attempts to make us feel connected to our memories; I mean FB really is just one giant diary/scrapbook anyhow. While their attempts do get a little better each year, the end of the year never really full encompasses and includes all the memories I want it to. Well, that lead to me writing these in which I can kind of sum up my year as I want, group together some photos and tales from the last 12 months. I’ll mention as I always do, these are more for me than anyone else, but I do enjoy sharing it with all of you, my dear readers. As always, you can find the prior year end reviews here: 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015. I hope you guys enjoy. Oh and if you don’t make the photo cut down below, don’t take it personal, I simply can’t squeeze everything and everyone in, it’s not meant to be a slight I just may not have a photo of you and I (it happens).

Now I know a lot of people had a rough year for one reason or another and cursed the number 2016 and because of that I feel bad saying the following:

I myself actually had a pretty good year.

I mean I went to more weddings than funerals for the first time in a few years, I never got below the “buffer” in my bank account. I was creative in a few different ways, I made some great new friends, traveled, and at the risk of taunting the universe, I personally had no great drama or issue or anything overly negative arise this past year, which I humbly thank God and Karma and existence in general for that fact. I hope we can keep that trend in 2017. By no means is anywhere near my 2012 declaration of not caring what happens next. Believe me, I CARE what happens next (trust me folks, don’t taunt the universe on that one). That said; let me share with you some of the highlights of my 2016.

First off is work. I just love working where I do and with the people I work with. Things are good, I’m happy. I make enough to enjoy my life the way I want too, they give me more than ample time off, it’s really close to home (I don’t even have to get on a highway and I can come home for lunch), my job is just good. I’m very comfortable here. This fall will be my fourth year here and I’m planning on staying with this company for a long time. Don’t get me wrong, I’m saying everyone should love your job, that’s just not going to happen, but if you don’t dread the alarm clock every morning, it creeps over in a positive way to the rest of your life.  

 Creatively, I spread myself thin on several projects as I always seem to do, even toyed with the idea of doing my own youtube channel show but then realized this exactly why I seem to never get anything done. So the top priority was my movie, which I’d say I got more done on it this year than any other year which is a major plus. We’re so close, I promise it’ll all end up being worth the ridiculous wait once it’s done. I did write a little more in the blog early in the year and re-read my book. Yup, long ago I wrote a novel but have never really done anything with it. So late in the year, I started re-reading it. It’s at the top of my list of things to work on in 2017. It needs some editing and to be flushed out a bit here and there, but it’s something that has been on the back burner and needs some attention. Heck, Stan Lee was in his 40 when he started all the Marvel characters we know and love and dominate the box office today. So why not me? I have also returned to working on my photography a little bit more often, which lead to meeting some nice new people along the way, which is always a plus. 

Getting out seeing live music as much as I can is always important to me and this year was a pretty good year for it. I went to my fair share of concerts this year, both locally grown talent and more main stream. In the spring for my birthday I went and saw Nathaniel Ratcliff and the NightSweats with my gal pal Jenn M at the Paladium Ball room or Southside or whatever the hell its called now, over in Dallas. Such a great night, these guys put on a hell of a show. If you’re not familiar with their work, or even if you are but only the S.O.B. song, I recommend you give them a listen too. It was great to be in a crowd that was so into the show, everyone singing and dancing along with the songs, the age of the crowd was wonderful too, ranging from kids who couldn’t drink to people who could be my grandparent. The call for the band to come out for an encore was just fantastic, as the whole crowd chanting the course from SOB over and over for what seemed like forever before Mr. Ratcliff and his band gave in to our request (which I am sure they planned on doing regardless). They even brought out Fort Worth’s own Leon Bridges for the encore. That was a show and then some. I’d say it was the best show I saw this year, but I can’t because so many of them were so good! I caught Weezer and Panic at the Disco with my pals Britt and John in the summertime and well, it’s Weezer. Do I need say anything more? I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked Panic at the Disco and equally surprised at how many younger people left after Panic choosing not to stay for Weezer. Stupid fools, if they only knew. A big highlight of the whole year was taking my mom and sister to see “country” artist and native from the land down under Keith Urban this fall. I was familiar with some of Mr. Nicole Kidman’s works, but this was really all for my mom. HE’s her favorite. Never the less, I had a great time. The open act was a young women name Moren McMorick, Arlington’s own who’s clearly heading for big things. Wish I’d caught her at the Grease Monkey or Levitt when I would have had the chance. The main man of the night, Keith Urban, puts on a hell of a show. I earlier used quotations to describe him as a country artist, but that’s just not accurate to me. This guy is a bona-fide rock star. His music, his stage presence, his interaction with his fan, it was a fantastic show that I can’t simply narrow down as one genre. This dude is as cross genre as cross genre comes. OR maybe I just don’t have any idea what country music is since my childhood or listen to Alabama and Barbra Mandrel in my mother’s car. Again, truly a star of his craft. It was awesome to get to do something for my mom and share a concert with her. Strictly from a enjoying the musician point of view, my personal favorite show of the year was probably getting to see Glen Hansard at the Majestic in September. I’ve waiting 3 years for this guy to come thru town and there’s never been a show I had higher expectations for than this one . Man oh man he did not disappoint. My good friend MacKenzie took a night off from her family to join me and we both walked away floored by the Irish folk singer. He did 3 encores! Three! He played favorites of mine I’ve heard since I was introduced to him 3 years ago, stuff I had never heard of and the must hears from the film ONCE. He was fantastic engaging the crowd, sharing tales thru that thick Irish accent before or after each song, the Majestic was such a great setting to mark seeing off my bucket list. That’s not even half the shows I enjoyed this year. I saw Deep Blue Something for the first time in 20 years at Arlington’s Levitt Pavillion. Luke Wade also visited us again during the Day of Giving concert here in Arlington. I saw local favorites of mine Auntie Rissa and the Colonel, the Criminal Birds, my buddy KGs bands Henry the Archer and the always sweet styling of Standard Gazette. I was also introduced to the gothy good styling of Jessie Frye this year and lastly,  I can’t even begin to explain how happy I was to see favorite One Red Martian pay us a visit down here in the Lone Star State. You guys were severely missed.  Live music was oh so good for me in 2016, without question, the best it’s been in years.

 I of course traveled. After my 2014 hiatus from traveling, I got back into it and 2015 and continued on in 2016. I really only took two legit vacations. The first being a week with my Godkids, which involved driving out to west Texas to get them and then bringing them back to Arlington for the week. They’re both practically teenagers now and I fear in the not so distant future I won’t be cool enough to hang out with them.  So trying to be cool Godfather that I like to think of myself as, we went to the National Video game museum up in Frisco. I highly recommend if you’re a video game nerd to check this out. It’s not really big, but it covers just about everything video game related ever made. Plus they had a Sega Dreamcast hooker up with Powerstone 2 in it which was a big plus for me.  Due to the kindness of some of my dear friends, we went swimming in pools not belonging to me. We took a train ride out to Dallas to visit the Perot museum and the Dallas Aquarium, both places I had never been so it was a treat for me too, went to downtown Fort Worth to see fireworks (as it was fourth of July week), went to the movies and one night just hung out and played board games and watched movies. Pretend parenting is so much fun. It’s the only time of the year that rivaled the Vegas trip. I do love those silly kiddos and I had such a great time with them, I hated having to let them go back home. I should also point out I acquired a third Godkid this year, but since she’s brand new I didn’t bring her along for the week, but she’s adorable! Photos are of course below.

I did leave the state too, FINALLY making it out to Vegas with my pals Keith, Scott, Woo and Kevin. Las Vegas did not disappoint in the least bit! I’d tell you more about it, but the whole “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas…” just kidding. I didn’t get to see everything I wanted to and got sick one night, but still had a wonderful time! The plane ride over was memorable, though that story needs to stay quiet, but I will say the film “Me Earl and the Dying Girl” lies to you. Just know that it lies to you. We stayed at the New York, New York on the strip and personally love the place and our room. We went to multiple casinos and ate lots of breakfast buffets. Went to the shark reef at Mandalay Bay, which for me was a bucket list stop. I learned how to play baccarat at the Venetian and made some money (and that it’s perfectly acceptable to drink and gable at 9am on a Saturday) and then lost said money at black jack in the Luxor. We took a limo ride out to see the Hoover dam and asked to see Megatron (yes we were those guys). The food was fantastic, had a fantastic steak with shrimp and grits, a great deli in our hotel, and some fish and chips with Irish carbombs at an Irish restaurant. We instituted a roulette tradition, played in a small poker tourney, meet a wonderful group of UNLV grads, and had a drink in a bar that was -5 degrees. I absolutely loved Las Vegas and can’t wait to go again.

There were some sad moments too, but the it seemed like an unusually high number of unexpected celebrity passings. I can’t touch them all, but let me say the world seemed less magical once David Bowie left us and a little less funny now that Gene Wilder is gone. I was literally stunned and in disbelief when I learned Prince no longer walked among us. I openly wept before bed the day the great Carrie Fisher became one with the Force (no disrespect meant with that comment). Her passing was literally part of my childhood dying.

I can’t leave this blog on a down note though, so in case you didn’t notice, the Rangers has a pretty good season (happy note), and the Cowboys bounced back from the 4-12 disaster of last season. I can’t wait to see how deep this playoff run goes (happy note). Then a more personal high point, I met freaking Karen Gilliam! Amy Pond! A legit Dr. Who companion! That’s the first time I’ve gone to a convention like that and paid for a celebrity photo, but man it was so worth it (BIG happy note).

All in all, 2016 was a good year for me. I enjoyed and cherished all the people who were a part of it. I hope we all see a happy and healthy 2017. Here’s to another 5 years of end of the year blogs and God bless each and everyone one of you.

Much Love,

Big T