I was born with glass bones and paper skin. Every morning I break my legs. And every afternoon I break my arms. At night, I lie awak in agony until my heart attacks put me to sleep.

In the waining hours of 2023 I want take a look back at this year. In terms of Newgrounds, I was very active. My acitvity mostly composed of reviews. I also dipped my toes into art. I have no artistic skill what so ever so I just toyed around with the shapes tool and various brushes in MS Paint. Despit my postings being very crude and unrefined, I do have a soft sport for them. They were my first foreays into art in about 10 years and I liked how NG affored me a platform to express myself creatively. I disocvered a lot of really cool art, really cool artists, and even made some fans along they way. Granted, I think the people following me did so mainly because they thought my reviews and responses to news posts amusing rather than my artistic skill. My favorite piece was "MS Paint Robot" because I like the grays I used and the white highlight I added to the robot's eye. My least favorite was "Suprised Alien." I like the detail I put into the alien's mouth, but I made it way too small and it's off center and it just looks so weird. My entire artistic output took place from early November to ealry December, and I really haven't quite felt that drive to draw again this year.

Outside of Newgrounds, my life was the same old same old. I contiuned in my current postion I'm in at work. I became eligible to seek a new job internally this year, but nothing I'm interest in or qualified for has opened up. My personal ambitions went unfulfilled. I want to be a writer, but only wrote like two first drafts of short stories. I have a bunch of ideas and amibitons, but they aren't doing anyone any good by staying in there. I keep wanting to write, but I just waste they time and let it slip through my fingers. There was also a lot of stuff I wanted to do. I wanted to read more, listen to mire albums, watch tv shows and movies I've never watched before, etc., but all just piles up and I put it off by vegetating out on Youtube. These unfulfilled ambitions and dearth of time maangement skills lead into my New Year's Resolution.

My New Year's Resolution is to keep a weekly journal about things like writing, art, exercise, programming, media, learning music, etc. A problem with New Year's resolutions is that they are often grand things people burn out in like 2-3 weeks and abandon because there's no real accountability for them no doing it. And my issue with time is if I have a big chunk of it I waste it, because I feel as though I have time to burn. My aim with this journal is to head off both issues. Posting these jounrals as news posts to NG will make me accountable to anyone who happens to read them. Keeping it weekly will break-up the amount of time I have to do things. Setting deadlines for myself with make me realize time is not just some giant morass I can burn away, but something precious I need to use wisely if I acutally want to move on from square on as opposed to just unproductively wishing I could move on from square one. I don't know the exact format of this journal, but it will at the least have the primary goals of logging my writting progress and progress at getting promoted at work/or finding at better job with a different company along with secondary goals. I'll post in the coming days the format of how my journal will look and I'll post these journals on Saturdays, usually in the evening. I'm really looking forward to this because this journal will provide me with the accountability and motivation I need to make my dreams a reality. I'm looking forward to it. Stay golden and have a happy New Year!

The beatings will contiune untill morale improves.

Merry Christmas, God bless you all, and have a wonderful New Year! I love Newgrounds!

Everyday on the way home from work I listen to the radio station 94.1 WIP. It's station dedicated to Philadelphia sports talk. On my commute home, the afternoon show is on. It was co-hosted by Jon Marks and Ike Reese. On the way home this evening I learned the Jon is leaving the show so he can spend more time with his kids. That is a decision I respect a whole ton, but I am bummed out that he's leaving. Jon Marks had a great presence on the show and he always stuck to his guns. Even when a bunch of people who called into the show who would rag on him for having the unpopular sports take, he wouldn't just cave into public pressure. He was always very down to earth, very grounded, and very realistic in his commentary. I think leaving a position to spend more time with your children is as good of a reason as any to leave, but I'll still miss him. Jon helped to make WIP's afternoon show must-listen radio. My evening commutes won't be the same. Good bye, Jon, and thanks a million for making such a great show.

How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

Anybody know how to access a gmail account without a password or phone number? I completely forget my gmail password and my phone that Google would send the code to to reaccess the account is dead. It's and old Iphone 6s that just stopped taking charge about 2-3 weeks ago. I've tried plugging it in to charge overnight without any luck. I've ever tried letting it be charged by a wireless charger for a while, but that hasn't work either. Any ideas? Also, the new phone I got can't function unless I get a code from the phone company that was sent to me old phone. Any ideas for someone as tech illiterate as he is desperate? Please?

On the 7th of December 1941, the Empire of Japan attacked the U.S. naval base Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The attack began at 7:55am local time and resulted in the deaths of over 2400 U.S. servicemen. It was day that brought American into WWII. When making a speech before Congress requesting a declaration of war against Japan, President Franklin D. Roosevelt described that day as "a date which will live in infamy."

Today marks the 82nd anniversary of that infamous date. Most of those who have survived the attack on Pearl Harbor have passed away. Living memory of that day passes with them. But it doesn't have to pass from memeory entirely. We can look back and remember those who were there that day.

Released in 1989, Cosmic Thing is the 5th album by The B-52's and is one of my favorite albums ever. In the evening I like to read a book while listening to a record. I put on Cosmic Thing tonight, and I feel in love with it all over again. I got it from a local record a while back on an whim. I was like "The B-52's I know about them. I know Rock Lobster and Love Shack." It's easily the greates impluse buy I even made. While this album doesn't have Rock Lobster on it, it does have Love Shack along with 9 other phenomenal songs.

If happiness had a sound, it would sound like Cosmic Thing. This album has such an infectiously joyful energy throughout the whole thing. I listen to any of the songs on this album and I'm instantly put in a good mood. The muscianship on the album is great, but I want to take a moment to highlight the singing. The lead female vocalists on this album, Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson, just totally crush it. They just belt it out so beatifully and with such enthusiasm that I'm blown away everytime I listen to them sing. Their singing is gorgeous.

This album means a lot to me. 5 out of my top 10 in my Spotify in 2022 were songs of this album, including the song Bushfire at #1. For my job, I had to take a test called the Series 7. It is notoriosuly difficult and I failed it the first time around, scoring a 58% when I needed a 72% to pass. If I didn't pass the second go around, I would not get the position I wanted withing the company I worked for. When I proceesed the shock of passing, I went home and played the song Deadbet Club for the rest of the day. I was really happy I wouldn't be joining that club. (I also listened to the album Wild Planet also by The B-52's the morning before the test, but that's neither here nor there.)

I take it most of you have at least heard Love Shack once. It's one of the band's most popular songs and for good reason. The songs Junebug and Roam have Pierson and Wilson just slaying it with their soaring vocals. Roam just has this energy that makes you want to go on an adventure. Dry County is such a fun lazy-day anthem. Channel Z has such a fun drive to it.

All of the songs are fantastic, but I want to really highlight the song Topaz. I consider the mark of a great album is that you can listen to it a bunch of times and still discover a new favorite song. This time around, that song was Topaz. It's a song that I can only really describe it as "romantic." Not in the lovey-dovey type of way, but in just how beautiful it is. The upbeat guitar riffs and the dreamy lyrics just make my heart swell. If I can select the song that plays when credits roll on my life, I'm choosing Topaz. It's a gorgeous song.

I just wanted to make a blog post about this album while my most recent run-through it is fresh in my mind. The B-52's are one of my favorite bands and this is my favorite album from them. I have a lot of fond memories of this album and I'm sure I'm going to make a few more. I just feel so happy when I listen to it, and I bet you'll feel the same when you listen to it.

I just finished reading the Cormac MccArthy novel Blood Meridian. This post is about my inital thoughts and will contain spoilers. For those who want to avoid spoilers or a TL;DR I do recommend the book, but it's not for the faint of heart. It's a captivating story overflowing with bloodshed and evil.

(Spoilers Ahead)

Blood Meridian is fantastic. The story follows a charatcer named the kid. In the late 1840's, a 14-year old kid goes on an expedition in Mexico with a band of mercenaries on a mission to kill Apaches and take their scalps. The novel is unflinching in it's portral of violence. One instance has the mercinaries slaughter and entire village, with one memeber taking an infant by the ankles in each of his hands and smashing their skulls against rocks. That moment sickened me and made me put the book down... for all of five minutes. The novel's content is horrific and bloody, put it's used for artistics purpose and not just being edgy and violent for the sake of it. The journey the kid takes through Mexico is so surreal and horrendous. A moment that stuck with me was when the kid is seeking warmth underneath a burning tree at night along with a bunch of other creepy-crawley desert creatures. Another part the sticks out to me is when the mercs came across a dried lava flow with hoove marks in it. The book talks about how places like these are where vile sinners manged to escape Hell and demons with their hooved feet walk the Earth to bring them back. McCarthy's descriptions of the landscape and time of day makes it feel like some sort of dream that is equal parts horrific and gripping. The novel depicts grave evils and the darkest parts of the human condition. Speaking of evil, I want to focus on Judge Holden. The Judge is an omnipresent force in the story. From the begining when the judge sends a tent revival the kid is attending into a riotous frenzy, to the entirety of the expedition, to the end when the kid is now the man, Judge Holden is always there. He's this hairless pale thing. As I was reading, I was wondering what exactly the Judge was. There are plenty of vile people in this story, like Glanton, the judge's right-hand-man on the expeiditon. But none quite like the Judge. Is he merely human? Is he some sort of demon? The novel doesn't say but the judge's actions, mentality, and physical description makes me wonder who or what exaclty he is. At one point in the book, the Judge speak of war as this holy thing. During the expedition, he's making sketches in his note book of everything he comes across, and he says "Whatever exists without my knowledge exists without my consent." Something about that quote speaks to me as to how the Judge's evil goes down to depths that can only be described as abyssal. While the kid is the protagonist, there's an argument Judge Holden is the main character. He casts such a wide shadown over the whole story. He's a phenomenal villian. And swining back to the kid, the bulk of the horror and violence he experiences and participates in occurs when he's 14-16 years old. It's a little tragic to me that the kid is twisted by this violence, because he's so young. I remember being that age and not going through the bleak and evil he did. He's not entirely just a sweet child who stumbles into this ordeal. The novel starts out with saying the kid was born of violence when his mother dies giving birth to him. He also is described as to getting into fist fights before the meat of the story kicks off. Before he embarks on the expedition, he kills a man by stabbing him in the eye with a broken bottle. In conclusion, if your stomach can take it, you owe it to yourself to read this book. Blood Meridian in an unflinching depiciton of the absolute worst of the human condition and broods on the nature of evil. It's grisly and dark, but it's deeply compelling because of how McCarthy wields those aspects of the story so deftly as to seem effortless. I finished it up about an hour ago, and I have a small itch to read it again right here right now. If that's not a testament to the book's quality, I don't know what else to tell you. Except that you should read it.