I am in love with Nikkialiah!!! She made me cry! I am not sure if she goes by Nikki or Aliah, but she has caught my attention in a big way!

This song showed up in my youtube recommendations, and you know me, I love songs with odd lyrics, and this title alone spoke to me.

So… click.

Played it on a loop for a while, an underlying sadness mixed with joy over the lyrics, then wanted to see if she had any others that would speak to me. This next one had me actually crying. Not with laughter, but with joy of hearing not only her voice, but my own thoughts coming through her.

I immediately wanted to help her, so I went and bought one of the T Shirts that read “Earth is ghetto, I wanna leave” from her shop.

I will buy both of these songs when they come out. She reminds me of a time when I was writing music with only two tape recorders and a tiny casio keyboard. Get that idea down on tape before it leaves!

I read a quote that said, “If you don’t show it, it can be erased.”

Immediately, that struck a chord with me. I have been holding on to invention ideas, game ideas and songs, poetry and philosophies for years, thinking that I didn’t want them to get “stolen” on the internet. A few years back, I released some of the songs and tried to get some of the inventions started on kickstarter-type sites. But I am not really a social media-type individual, so they didn’t go anywhere.

I have been considering posting the stuff here to at least have the waybackmachine index them for posterity, since we never know when the end is going to come. Covid has changed how a lot of people view life in general. I guess it has changed my perception as well.

So, I am going to trot down memory lane through my ideas and “stuff” and try to put them here as posts. Some of these things are inventions that I want to see made because I *want* them, myself, and couldn’t find them on the market.

Posts to come soon, hopefully.

During an interview recently, someone asked if anyone ever approached and said “you are a role model”, and if you should feel any pressure with that kind of responsibility thrust upon you.

Here’s the answer that should be given.

People should not look to one person as a role model and mimick them. They should take the best from all people and emulate each of those things that someone got “right” and blend them into a new role “representation”. In other words, your role model shouldn’t be a person, it should be only certain best actions from everyone. That way, you can become the best of everyone, and that will inspire others to also take the best of you and keep blending.

People are not perfect, so you might end up being disappointed when the one role model you chose fails at something.

I have been a fan of CocoRosie for quite some time. The minute I heard Gravediggress, I was hooked. I am always up for finding something unusual, and they fit that niche. When I found out that they used children’s toys and odd items for instruments, I appreciated their music even more.

They haven’t released much in the past couple of years, and now that Put The Shine On is out, I think it was well worth the wait.

To all my fellow Neneh Cherry fans, this album feels like it belongs right in between Raw Like Sushi and Homebrew. It has the raw rappy feel in spots like RLS, and the melancholy haunting music of Homebrew. For that Homebrew feel, listen to Slow Down Sun Down.

In Lamb and the Wolf, you can hear the gravel knocking around in her throat in the “always the same” repeats. It invokes a Kim Carnes overtone.

There are only a few albums that can be listened to intently for message and nuance, while still being able to be put on in the background for ambiance. This is one of them.

Since people are quarantined and have to “entertain themselves” at home, I predict that in 9 months (Dec 2020-Jan2021), you are going to see a huge baby boom. Good luck!

So, even though this is titled “..dogs..”, this is for any pet that you have to clean up after.

When thinking about your home’s value and keeping it up, you have to refrain from getting a dog. Dogs decrease your home’s value immensely. Imagine you are the buyer, looking for a home. You walk in and it has a smell that the owner has gotten used to. Immediately, you have a negative reaction.

People only get dogs for one (or more) of three reasons. BDL is the term I use and it stands for Bored, Desperate, Lonely. Any reason that you have for getting a dog falls under one of these categories.

Bored:
“Awww… they are so cute!”
“They help me get exercise.”

Desperate:
“They will alert me to an intruder” (desperate for security)
“They will help me meet someone”
“It is for the kids” (to entertain them, and then you inherit the animal)
“People will love this animal and stop me so they can pet it” (attention)

Lonely:
“It is a companion”
“Since my children left…”

Here are the ways owning dogs decreases the value:

1. Your lawn. If the dog is outside, it will urinate and/or poop on your lawn. If you have a home and take your dog to a neighbor’s property to let them poop, even if you “clean it up”, you are being a bad neighbor.
2. Your dog stinks. You have gotten used to it, but anyone else will smell it. It pees. It poops. It doesn’t clean itself like a cat.
3. Allergens. More and more people are becoming sensitive to allergens and when viewing a home, you are bombarding them with your dog’s dander.
4. Noise. Your neighborhood’s value decreases when your dog barks. No one wants to hear it.
5. Racist. Your ugly dog breed may be cute to you, but there are breeds that people don’t want to be associated with. The next owners will be asked about your toothless, barking, vicious dog.
6. Lazy. One day, you will get tired or sick and your dog won’t be able to hold it until you can accommodate. They will mess up your carpet or hardwood floors.
7. Jumping. Is your dog jumping on people’s legs? Not cute.
8. Urination. Are you letting your dog pee on neighborhood plants/bushes/hydrants/lampposts? Ass.

UNlike the lemming who jumped off the cliff behind the others, you don’t have to have a dog. Find something else to occupy your time and money!

By chance, Netflix presented me the option of watching Rilakkuma and Kaoru. I wanted something light and I love stop motion animation, so this seemed like a great way to spend a few hours. After finishing the last episode, I had to question who the target audience was for this. It’s far too dark in places for little kids, far too slow for older kids, depressing, funny, weird and spell-binding. I loved it because the entire time the thing that got me was the unexpected darkness. “Kick him!” and “I am garbage” being the two incidents that really made me question the target audience. The main character’s mother calls her one day and tells her that she is worthless. I truly enjoyed this as I am always looking for something new and unusual. Did I mention she was horny and fantasizing about guys-manipulating one so that he would show up at her door? Oh, and the neighbor’s son kidnaps one of the bears. Truly a masterpiece in the unexpected!