Various Tips

I've rethought parts of my plan to tame Henry.  First and foremost being to eradicate my family's access to him.  And, if they must interact then they'll only do so under the closest observation.  Why?  Because they don't listen to the simplest guidelines and half the the time don't even remember his name.  Their negative attitude isn't helping matters in the slightest.  Henry is much smarter than he lets most people see and takes advantage of their gullibility.  While it may have been amusing to watch (and still is) I shouldn't let it happen. Shame.  Secondly, I gave Henry treats every time I saw him in the hopes that he'd equate me to good things.  Since then I've realized that I should use them more sparingly so they have greater worth.  Also, if he acts out then the treats are going away for 15 minutes (or more) because "no" doesn't mean anything to some people.

On a different topic, my German is coming along pretty good considering I've studied it sparingly.  I know about 30 words/phrases so far and even how to spell the majority of them.  Still, I've figured that it takes me at least two sessions on the babble app before I remember all the words given.  However, I was trying to learn 15 words then move on to the next lesson with 15 more immediately.  Well, that tired me out too quickly.  In the future I'll go over a lesson, wait an hour or so before moving on, completing at least three lessons a day on various topics.

New Cat Food

Fairly recently I have been researching cat food.  Boring, I know, but necessary.  I should start with my reasoning I suppose.  Sweetheart (one of my cats)  has a sensitive digestive system and was on a special diet.  However, I wondered just what was so special about it.  The main issue I had was all of the additives/by-products/preservatives/grains it had.  Those things are found in so many store bought brands it's unreal.  Long story short, I ended up choosing PureVita dry cat food and NutriSource wet food.  Both are all natural and grain free.  On the negative side, they're expensive.  Lucky that my cats eat less on this diet.

Now, there is much controversy on whether dry or wet food is better.  Most say wet, personally I like to mix it up a bit, as no one cat food is perfect.  Fun fact: people say that dry food is better for your cats teeth, the truth of the matter is cats swallow their kibbles.

I'm not quite brave enough to try an all raw diet, but maybe one day.  And, it's too much of a hassle to cook up a homemade diet, not to mention extremely hard to get all of the necessary vitamins and minerals.  I think I'll try baking some cat treats though. That should be fun.

Wings of Chaos

Sometimes a fan fiction writer will add a  poem or book excerpt to the beginning of a chapter which is where I found this one.  This poem is by Tracey Davis, whom I couldn't find in a cursory search anywhere else.  Regardless, it's a very powerful piece I think should be known.

The wings of chaos beat to the pulse of the world,

Can you hear it?  Can you feel it?

Can you see the darkening horizon?

A storm has been born,

And all before it shall be swept away and remade.

Hope you enjoyed that!

Frozen - Movie Review

Frozen is a pretty good movie with brilliant animation and some really genius ideas with the ice that looked beautiful.  Jack Frost should learn a few of those tricks.   Erroneously, I though that this wasn't a musical, so you can imagine my shock once people started breaking out in song.  Even then, the first two (three if you count the intro music) songs I actually liked.  Everything after that was grating.  Still, the humor managed to offset the damage done more often than not so, this still makes my top ten favorite animations list.

Side notes/minor spoilers:  I had hoped Elsa would get together with Kristoff and I still can't imagine why that didn't happen.  Oh well.  I also strongly dislike how wolves were portrayed in this film.  Wolves do not go around attacking people.  They just don't, nor do they need any more bad publicity while they're an endangered species.

Cat Claws

Yesterday was a bit odd.  While I was petting my adorable cat, Sweetheart, she FREAKED OUT.  For a minute there everything was fine, then I moved my hand over half an inch to the right to scratch in the spot between her left shoulder blade and ear when it happened.   Her whole body twisted, claws digging viciously into my arm, while slamming into the ground and her back leg twitching like a dogs.  I had to then carefully extract each claw.  Apparently, she had had an itch there for a while.  Still, I don't think that situation is what anyone would call "normal" but, whatever.

Music - Frida Gold

As promised, here's another of my favorite German singers...

Now while this isn't my usual cup of creme soda, Frida Gold is an amazing artist with many brilliant songs, too many to name on this post but I urge you gorgeously beautiful handsome readers to check out more of her songs whenever you have the time.

Quotes and Things

• My mind works like lightning...one brilliant flash and it's gone.
• You cry, I cry.  You laugh, I laugh.  You jump off a cliff...I laugh again.

Wesley was my favorite character in the Buffy/Angel shows.  That is until he went all stuffy and depressing. 

Anyways, on yet another unrelated topic, I've decided to hunt for awesome German bands.  Actually, I've already found a bunch, weeks ago to be exact.  However, I thought I'd start posting about a "new" band every week or so.

Philipp Poisel ~

 

Scribbles

I have had the most minuscule attention span for the past couple of weeks.  It's a wonder I got anything done.  You do not want to know how long I've been working on my most recent sketch.  Which is not to say that there haven't been ten or so other works half finished now laying forlorn somewhere in the abyss that is my room.  It isn't that much of a mess really which makes the disappearances all the more mystifying.  I think I'll blame the hobgoblin.  There's bound to be one or two knocking about, it would certainly explain why Sweetheart spends half the day staring at the wall.

Anyways, I came across the most particular German phase today.  "Wo sich Fuchs und Hase gute Nacht sagen" which literally translates to "where the fox and the hare say good night to one another" and actually means, "the middle of nowhere".  I really love the ingenuity of German phrases.  English phrases seem so bland in comparison.

Thor The Dark World - Movie Review

Thor 2 is brilliant absolutely brilliant.  The action scenes alone (of which there were many) make the movie.  There's also a healthy dose of humor to balance out the more somber bits.  Darcy's character in particular played a big role along with intern-what's-his-name in making the movie so light.  On the flip-side, I wanted to cry for Loki.  There were a few parts in which he almost died and I had minor panic attacks.  Not fun I tell you, not fun at all.  That loony, Erik, didn't help matters by being so joyful about it either.  I am especially happy with the ending although I worry a little because I missed the extra bit after the credits.  I really feel like I missed out on something of importance.

 

Now I've have a few comments/complaints to make, the first being Loki's happy and more than a little mischievous attitude once he's out of prison.  Does anyone else notice the drastic change from the Avengers movie?  You may argue that Loki wasn't the happiest camper in the first Thor movie but there were extenuating circumstances there (i.e. finding out he had been lied to his entire life).  There's so many more discrepancies but I'll save them for a later date.  The second thing I wanted to make note of is the complete lack of respect and disregard of life Asgardians have against any realm but their own.  I largely suspect that the only reason they haven't killed Earth/Midgard is because they think of humans an children, idiotic children.  Just how many worlds have the Asgardians destroyed?  How many lives were lost?

 

 

Die Toten Hosen

As you know, I've decided to learn German.  Already it has proven to be much easier to learn than Japanese or Gaelic and the written word's actually look much "saner" than any English word once you get the pronunciation down.  How we ever devolved into this backwards country I don't know.  America is just weird sometimes. 

Anyways, I've come across this band in my search of fantastic music called Die Toten Hosen A.K.A. The Dead Pants.  I love them!  Here are a few samples....