The Realm

Bad stuff first. I'm hurting again. I hurt my elbow pretty bad working in the pumpkin patch. I haven't worked out there for days now. I can't, but damage is done. It's been hurting for like four days now. I hope it will be ok. And today is a bad day as far as fibro and pain goes. It started yesterday with the storms. Seems I react to weather changes at times. And my leg is hurting. I guess I sat at my desk too long. No more than usual and I've done that for years so it's annoying it decided to act up. I changed chairs and it's helped a bit. So please pray for my health to improve. I've got too much stuff I need to be doing to be down because of health issues.

But despite that things are great. Minion is talking right now and he's saying some funny things. One day he said, "Not again chickain." He made up a word to rhyme. So funny. I've been reinforcing that so it's becoming a new phrase. I've made a cute little custom mic stand for Minion. So far he hasn't used it. But it goes with the T stand when he was talking in the last video.

So the organizing and decluttering of the house continues. Chris is very happy with how I made a custom drawer insert for him and how I fixed up his spice cabinet. I'm so glad he's liked that. Things are looking better but still not what I would really like. I hope we can get there. I cleaned up my desk which is how I manged to make room for Minion's Mic stand. Chris's birthday is the 29th. I'm very happy about that. Well in a way one thing I got for both of us that can be like a Bday gift (it is coming on his birthday) is a new bed frame. Remember a few years back I bought new mattresses for us and set up our Jurassic Park bed. But the frame I got from my mom's house though it's nice I've never liked. It's too big. The head rest is too far from the wall. We can't reach the outlet back there. I don't like the dark color. It's heavy. And no room under the bed. The new one is metal, white and has a 12 inch clearance for underbed storage. That will be great. Yesterday on our day off we got back to work on the art in the master bathroom. The bamboo wallpaper fell apart in there because of the humidity and the horrible orange peel texture of the walls. But I'm going to be painting the bamboo on the walls. I'm drawing the black spaces first. But I can't do it myself. I could not hold up the level and trace at the same time while standing on a ladder. So Chris helped me with that. We can only work on it on his days off. But now we've figured out how to make perfect straight lines down an 8 foot wall. YAY. Then I will paint those black and start to shade and form the bamboo itself. I need to finish two sections of wall so we can put our sink back in. So I'm working hard to get that done before the end of the year. Then I can take my timing drawing on all the other walls. Once that bathroom is done I can start to work on the bedroom and make that into JP. I'll start with the ceiling and try to draw a sky. I've also organized a bunch of small tool boxes in the garage. I'm very proud of that. The garage is looking so good. I can't wait to finish it. I want one more plastic closet in there and I think we'll be good on the storage in there.

Speaking of Jurassic Park. I'm having quite a fun time playing with my new Mattel toys. So I searched up the scale of toys. The Legacy Collection is 3.75 inch and that's 1:18 scale. The Amber collection is 6 inches or 1:10 scale. I love my Mr. Arnold and the desk I got him from the wrestling toys which is 1:18 toys too. The wrestling toys are great because you can buy all kinds of accessories in scale for Amber collection. And I found out that there is a 1:12 scale for doll houses that can work with the 3.75 inch Legacy toys. I've been having a blast adding props to my JP Amazon list that I hope to use with my toys. I think all of you have seen the movie so you can see how a lot of these thing will work as scenes from the movie. I also found out there a military toy called Click N Play that their props will work for this. Here is the list. I don't think I ever posted my review of Mr. Arnold. Well here it is.


https://youtu.be/2XASVhXlmoM

And here is a funny scene I made in Chris's room.


The garbage can is the wrong scale, but close. Chris found that at a Dollar Tree. I removed the logo that was on it. It's meant to hold pencils. He wanted trash bags so I made these and then added my Toxic Waste candy barrels. It's so funny. I think the simple DIY bags are what make this scene. It's so mundane and everyday and that's what makes it funny. I'd love to make more things like this and make some play sets and backgrounds.

I also want to make some custom figures by modifying others. I hope to make a jacketed Malcolm. I need to get a Nick Fury doll and take his jacket. Plus I have some other ideas. I saw how to make a Genaro figure. Well that's what the toilets will be for.

I've been thinking about RipTalon a lot. I need to finish his drawing and also make some new art. With the way the world is going I think he'd be a big hit with his origin story of him trying to resist a world that forces you to be a cyborg. I can relate to him so much now than ever before. Ok so lots of stuff in the works.

EDIT: I forgot to mention. I ordered a SDCC Final Scene Ray Arnold figure on Ebay. The guy said in the description Same Day Shipping. I ordered on the 20th. I sent him a PM and haven't heard back. I gave him the weekend thinking he'd ship today, Monday. Nothing yet. I PMed again and nothing still. He's supposed to be here in Florida which is why I ordered from him thinking it would be fast within the state. Well not if he doesn't actually do anything to start. I'm already quite mad and ready to leave negative feedback and file a complaint to get my money back so I can order from someone else. Last year it was Nedry I had issues with. Seems like each year the SDCC figure gives me a hard time.

So today Oct 26 the guy canceled my order without a word. At least I got my money back but still here's what I wrote him.

Why did you cancel my order? Did you not even have the item on hand? You have lousy customer service to not even respond to my questions in a timely manner. I know you got my last messages, and no you cancel without an explanation. You place false information by saying you ship on the same day. And apparently you also send used goods. At least you gave my money back. I shell find a more reputable seller.

You guys know I hate lack of communication more than anything and I let people have it for that. The one thing I hate about canceled orders is I can no longer leave feedback. I would definitely have left negative feedback. I just ordered another figure. Wish me luck this one makes it to me.
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Ok guys, so I made it back from my trip and had a very nice time. Took me the usual three days to get physically better after being stressed from driving half way up the country and back. I can't believe I did it again but I'm glad. I need to drive more. I'm hoping I can make videos showing what I did so I'll post details with that. It's been hard getting back into the swing of things. Some packages came in while I was gone. Chris did a great job taking care of all the plants and birds for me. I dropped off Nitro my budgie at ACTipton's. Well it's her budgie now. I also took Minion with me and he was a decent travel budgie. Bullet was an excellent travel budgie. Minion did not like my aunt's house in Georgia and got grumpy on me both times we were there. He did like ACTipton's house which made me happy.

Before I had left Chris bought me an exo terra terrarium for some greenhouse frogs we'd caught. Here is a video about that.


https://youtu.be/nktzlXofcIk

That little red male has quickly become a fave of mine. He's the pretties greenhouse frog I have ever seen. Mostly they come in ugly brown. But there are natural color mutations. I found this photo which is neat.



I have B. A and E are the most common. Chris caught me a female that looks like E with reddish stripes on her back. I'm thinking females have those stripes. Not much is known about these frogs as far as color and care goes. The reason I wanted them was because they have the most awesome relaxing sound. You can listen to it here.
https://youtu.be/7OyAFglwN28

You wouldn't know those are frogs. They sound like crickets (but way less annoying) or birds. These are tiny frogs too. The "big" females don't get bigger than maybe an inch or 3/4 inch. The little red male (he needs a name. I'm open to suggestions.) is adorable. He was always popping out in my greenhouse and fairly brave. Most frogs hide or jump away. Unfortunately the other males Chris caught me died or escaped except for one. And it's the boring brown one. But the one good thing is this gives higher chance my red male will mate with the female. One thing I also love about this species is they are more like toads. They prefer more terrestrial habitats in gardens and greenhouses hence the name. They don't need water to reproduce. Females lay eggs in moist soil or plants. And the coolest thing is the eggs hatch as frogs. No difficult tadpole stage so I don't need to set up aquariums for babies which I have always sucked at. The only cons to this species are they are not pretty frogs unless you find a red one, and they are nocturnal and shy so you won't see them. Luckily, I got them for their songs not their looks.

Well my frogs did have babies. I found some a few days after I came back. Then it was the challenge of how to catch, house and feed such itty bitty delicate frogs.



Here's the set up that has had the plants rearranged and has been moved to my room now. The reason was that I kept going out each night with a flashlight into the greenhouse. Or I'd sit in the dark and play that video to get them to sing. Not fun or comfortable. The point was to have frogs singing so Chris helped bring the whole tank into the bedroom. The red male is not the dad. The babies look like the mom and were probably sired by one of the ugly brown ones. Actually when I first put them in it was one of the brown ones that was with her. Hopefully now with just one other male in there my red boy will get a chance. I'd love to breed for color.



Here is what I came up with for the babies. I circled one of the babies. They are that small. This is a box for 4x6 cards. I drilled tiny holes for air. I have since taken out the water bowl because the flies drown in it. I'll add it back once they are bigger. Keeping moist sphagnum is enough for them to get water and I spray it every morning which lasts 24 hours. It might be TOO moist but don't want to risk them drying out. Drying out has been the biggest issue now that the tank is inside. I used to mist in the morning and at night. Actually it wasn't too necessary. I think one mist a day would have worked and watered the plants. But now inside the room I have to mist three times a day. The small baby box holds more humidity longer of course. I also put springtails in there for the babies. They are tiny insects that break down wastes. The froglets are about the size of a Drosophilla fruit fly. I do give them flies but don't know if they can eat them yet. The adults like them. And because of that I've had to culture fruit flies too.

Since the tank is bioactive, self cleaning, The soil needed spring tails and isopods. I bought some beautifiul powder orange isopods at a local store. You see me add them in the video. Unfortunately they all got eaten. I thought they'd burrow. I kept half and put half in so I still had some. But I wasn't going to lose my last ones so I kept them for myself as pets.

And that is how I got hooked on isopods as pets and now am trying to keep colonies. Yes some will be for bioactive tanks, but I used to play with rolly pollys (that's what we called them here in FL growing up) in the school yards. I loved them so yes I want to raise some and there are so many cool species and color mutations. I have been learning a lot. All this is new to me so I'm trying to keep species straight and colors straight since sometimes it's hard to tell what's a species name and what's a color name. My collection so far I have.

Porcellio scaber lottery mix
Porcellio dillatatus Giant Canyons Copper
Armadillidium maculatum zebra
Armadillidium peraccae

None of these are ready to be put into bioactive tanks because when you buy you get low numbers. I hope they'll breed for me. Also some are too fancy to risk in bioactive tanks unless they are an herbivore tank or a snake that doesn't care about bugs.

And to top things off as if I don't have enough things to do in my zoo/botanical garden I've started playing Conan Exiles on PS4. Chris was playing and got me into it. The graphics on the game are terrible, but it's a survival game like Subnautica. We like the building aspect of the game. Neither of us have beaten the game or even care about beating the game or the story. We've just been collecting resources for base building, plant keeping and pet keeping. But more on that some other time.

So I posted this year's birthday wishlist. And lots of stuff has to do with plants and pet care stuff. I want to buy more isopods on Ebay so a general card is good for that as well as Jurassic Park stuff. I'm quite excited to have ordered two very rare high end figures of John Hammond and Dr. Grant made by Iron Studios. It has broke me so birthday is coming at a good time. I must rebuild my funds now. And I'll talk more about those at some other time too. Need to get to work now.
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So today I mostly did plant chores. Many of the seeds I started back in May I translpanted into better soil. They were drying out in their little baby starting trays. I'm going to be transfering seedlings that are at least 3 months old. The soil I had used to start them in was not the best. I'm amazed so much stuff sprouted. As I mentioned in one of my videos, I need to start focusing on supplies now. It has been a great fun year for buying plants. But now I need dry goods like pots, soil, lights, fertilizer and a few other things. Since winter many plants will go dormant I can focus on stocking up supplies for next year.

Tomorrow is a day off and another anniversary. 24 years 9 months. Wow. I'm disapointed we can't do our dreaming of going to Hawaii for our 25th anniversary and remarry dressed as Grant and Ellie. Oh no speaking of Jurassic Park. A minor disaster happened to me. I filmed some videos with my new JP figures. One of them was John Hammond with his cane. I got ready to film a new one and when I looked for his cane it was gone. Oh no!! I had originally kept all the props for the characters in the back of the toy jeep that's on my art table. Well, the jeep has rolled backwards and hit the wall a few times. I think the cane fell out and landed under my table. And the floor got vacuumed. The vacuum got emptied and the cane is gone. I felt terrible about it because that was the exclusive Hammond from 2019. They have released him into Target this year with Ellie and two raptors in the Isla Nublar Escape set. I have that so I have an extra cane as I have two Hammonds. BUT this was the one that came with the special one. Now the character is numbered but not the cane. Still I want just the cane. I have been checking Ebay daily. People do put up toy parts after all. But it's too new for there have been a kid that lost the figure but not the cane. And a disturbing trend I'm seeing is people are buying the Isla Nublar Escape and separating the components and ransoming the Hammond figures. The set costs $29.99 in stores for the two humans, the two raptors and the banner "When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth". Well just the Hammond is going for $25 or more. That's totally messed up he costs as much as the whole play set. But yeah, not happy I lost the cane when I'm so good about taking care of my stuff.

Chris and I have been on a diet for over a month now. We started Sept 2nd. Thought we'd be done by Sept 16 but this time it hasn't worked. Took forever to see results. We're finally seeing them. This has been the hardest one. I can tell each time we start this diet it will be harder and harder to get on it again. The first time we did it it was hard because it was our first time but we did finish in 2 weeks and we reached our weight. We're both thin but because we're thin we can't afford to put on weight because it has nowhere to go so we have to stay on top of it. I have no doubt I can reach high school weight when this is all over. I did it last time.
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Hey everyone. So things are going pretty well. Wow had lots of comments to catch up on here and on YT. I'm happy to see you guys posting again. We need to get this place more active. Do tell your friends about this place in real life. I will promote it again soon on my youtube and hope some of my good commenters there will join. We need to new good recruits. Speaking of youtube after YEARS of being glitched I think they've finally done something right and fixed the comments. About three years ago I had someone leave a nice comment on one of my chicken videos. I went to approve it and it would not go through. The comment was stuck and that's when the problems started. I could never get rid of it. I tried approving, deleting, blocking, marking as spam etc. But nothing worked. And then when the new youtube got installed I'm sure it is related that that stuck comment would not let new comments show up. And I was not the only one. Lots of my watchers told me they were not getting comments until way later. I reply to everyone as you guys know so I hated it that it made my look like I was ignoring everyone. But a few days ago I noticed comments were finally showing up on time and going through. I found the old chicken comment and approved it and it finally went through. FINALLY. It's been smooth sailing since then. I'm surprised as I'm used to all sites only doing what's wrong and changes being made for the worse and bugs never getting fixed. I still don't trust or like youtube though but I can say this one good thing at least.

You guys that have been with me a long time know that I love the video game Skyrim. Well Chris picked it up again recently. We have had many play throughs as many characters. We've always played it and beaten it honestly so this time Chris decided to try playing with mod. The Mods will cause trophies/achievements to be disabled. We didn't care because we've already played the game so much and put tons of hours into building our characters. Well we found the single most awesome mod in the game. Someone made an exploding chicken follower. In skyrim there are chickens. Like in almost every open world video game. They are small background elements you usually can't interact with. Here is what they look like in the game.



Kind of like a red star chicken. Well someone made it so that you can have one as a follower and she has all the most powerful spells. She has lightning, fire, explosion and the Fus Ro Da shout. She can knock down even giants. She has tons of health. She can carry your stuff. She doesn't die. She gives you free eggs. Her name is Breakfast. The only thing I don't like that keeps this from being the perfect mod is they gave her a male voice. I can tell it's one of the voices from one of the other followers but I can't quite place it. But it is funny to hear her say "FOR SOVENGARD! Is that all you've got?" She is brave and charges into battle. And she can't be killed. If only she had the voice of a female warrior it would be perfect. But I LOVE her. I will post a video eventually. Really I should not be gaming right now with so much to do.

The other thing I have been doing in Skyrim is I have remade Scary Fear. With mods I was able to get the cloak from the Gray Beards which is perfect for Fear. I can't have his normal outfit in this game of course. The blue shirt with dark green sleeves. It's such a unique shirt it's hard to make in any game really. BUT the Gray Beards cloak looks like Fear's alternate clothing in my story. And I also found a mod for skin color on the dark elves. Kinda stupid that dark elves aren't dark. So now I have him with his black skin. He looks awesome. So yes videos will be coming eventually. I'm leveling right now and have to design the perfect enchantments for his outfit. I'm adding his stats like he is in my story. Strong powers but low health. I kind of want high stamina though because Fear in my stories can run and is very fast. Fear IS fast. Yesterday was a day off and Chris helped me level him.

So art wise. I have finished this bad arse drawing. I've made it to look like an album cover. I'm going to draw the back soon that will have the list of songs. If this were a real CD it would be galactic power metal like GammaRay.



So far this is one of my fave Fear drawings ever. I must arrange a top five of my faves some day. I'm still over hauling some of the older art. One day I will finish Dawn of Fear. This is the drawing I made for the Ace of Spades. But so much of the lovely art was covered up I had to use it for something else. I'm also going to be making a mouse pad out of this but will without the texts. Oh gosh those stupid texts where the hardest thing about this as styles have never worked right for me on Photoshop. So annoying.

So I am still waiting for my Dennis Nedrys to arrive. Notice it's plural. The Ebay one should be arriving today. It's the race of the fat guys. Who will win? As for the one coming from Entertainment Earth, the tracking says it's in Atlanta but once again no update in days. It could be anywhere.

My budgies are all doing well. Whitey has turned out to be a surprise. She is my first talking female. But don't think she's like Minion or any of my previous good talkers. Still I'm surprised she talks. She says in a bad robot voice, "Hi Whitey." And possibly "Pretty girl." I don't expect her vocabulary to get better than that or her pronounciation, but it's a talking female!! That alone and four words is just super rare and amazing. This line from Emma II has been full of surprised. I had a crested and now a talking female. Sadly Whitey has become a coward. I think the siblings have picked on her and she's afraid of other budgies. She's also afraid of my hands but comes to my face if I talk to her. Pretty much all my birds are imprinted on my face but not my hands. Sigh. You have to be careful because the friendly ones will jump on your face because of this even if they aren't in the cage. Face huger budgies and their nails hurt. Whitey also seems to have taken an interest in Minion. She's curious about him. Always has been despite him having acted like a jerk when she was a baby. I didn't want to breed any of the spangled babies because of Emma having been a bad mom and possibly passing on being bad parents. I lost so many eggs and babies this year. And also the bad crested gene as well ANd the spangle diluting lacewing. But if Whitey talks and Minion is a champion talker the talking gene would be increased. After all these generations Whitey got the talking gene from the original ancestor and founder of the line: Phage. But with Whitey being unfriendly that's more bad traits passing on than good ones. Not sure what to do. She's too young anyway to breed.

Well once again we are already half way through the month and I have not even started September's Bullet Journal. I will try to and will take ACTipton's advice to draw cactuses because they are easy. This should in theory get me ahead. I bought a regular planner so that I can still write my plans and chores for when my BJ is not ready. Then I transfer it over. Here is a pic. I love how pretty this planner is.



So yes this will be a very helpful thing.



A late B Day gift from Peregrine. Thank you. It looks like Minion and he was curious about it. Ok I think I will stop here. It's late in the morning and I got to get to work.
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Hey guys. Things have been going very well. July was a great month. Yesterday I went out to Treasure Island and went shelling on the beach. I found some neat stuff but not too many shells. It was mostly a bivalve (claims, oysters, scallops) beach. I don't find those very interesting. I am most interested in gastropod or marine snails. I found only two. I will make a video because I had a very good time and I went back to the shell store and bought some gastropods that are native here to make up for the lack of ones I could find. I'm hoping Chris and I can take a few days off to got to Sanibel Island which is supposed to be the best place in Florida for shells.

Minion my budgie is doing great. He's not a coward anymore and has become very friendly and bonded towards me. He's a talking budgie now too. I'm thrilled. So funny because I bought him to be a breeder but ended up keeping him in my room. He became a pet and I never expected to have him become a talking budgie either. Two bonuses. I don't know if I'll breed him. His second beard dot has come in and I hope he gets a pretty dot necklace once all four dots are in. Here's what he's learned to say so far

Budgie
I love you
Come 'ere
I can talk can you fly?
Gimme a kiss
baby
MUWA! (kiss sound)
Ahoy there
Beware

Beware is part of a phrase. I was trying to teach him "Beware of the black hole". Phage used to say that, but Minion doesn't get the rest of it. We're also working on "Welcome to Jurassic Park." So far he's learned to say Jurassic but pronounces it badly so still working on that. I'm also teaching him "Fear is here!" I think I've heard him say Fear once but also poorly pronounce. So we shall keep at it.
Unfortunately there's been a role reversal. Nautica has become scared and runs from me. I have no idea why as I have treated both the same, give them treats and attention and out time. I don't know if this first molt is affecting her but she's not so nice right now. I don't get it, but I knew parrotlets are a difficult species.

Today I am waiting on a new entertainment set to come for my room. We've been using folding tables for my game systems and other electronics and there's not much room. This will help things look much nicer, be better organized and I'll have more room to display things like shells or planets.

And here are two videos of my John Hammond things I got this week. I love these.


https://youtu.be/PYNbrTs2qT4


https://youtu.be/9DOdRoGwhR0

I'm so happy with how my Jurassic collection is coming along. Just wish the cane wasn't so stinky. Stinky things have been a problem lately. I will post more on that later. Time to get the day starts.

Oh lastly the subject of this post. Today is a black moon. That's like a blue moon but with new moons. Two new moons in the same month. Can only work if there are 31 days in the month. Too bad I can't get to a beach as new moons and full moons have the highest high tides and lowest low tides. But that's why I went yesterday. Close enough to a new moon.
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Hey everyone. Happy June and happy summer. It sure is hot already. Hurricane season has officially started for us now. Starts on June 1st. Well Chris and I have been busy working on the house and mostly I have been working on the Jurassic bathroom. It's basically done now so I want to share the before and after photos.



Boring ugly door. This has not changed. It will eventually so no bathroom sign on it yet. I have to have that laminated anyway. And on the back there will be a T-rex so when you wash your hands with the doors closed looks like he's coming through the door like in the movie. But that won't happen til I save up for a new door. All the doors in the house need to be replaced because they look like this and suck. This is the smallest one being 24 inches wide. The rest I think are 30 inches.



And with the door opened. This is how it looked before. Old toilet. I'm so glad we replaced the toilets. It's so much nicer.



All wallpapered up. The sink was fixed so the leak stopped. Minimal damage to the cabinet so I think I won't buy a new one. I just have to change the faucet. Love this wall paper though being peel and stick it doesn't stay well and I had to buy regular wall paper glue to hold it all in place. It's starting to look like the JP outhouse now.



This is the look we're going for.

( More JP bathroom pics )

So that's just some of what's been going on. Oh also bathroom cabinet pulls will be changed out for green bubble knobs. I'll have to patch the second hole. I think I can do that. So next will be the guest bath which might take a very long time as it will be my first paint job of a mural. And once I get used to how to do that start on the first wall in the master bedroom with the JP theme. Just a few minor details to go like toilet dispenser so the paper isn't also on the sink. Can't wait to be done with this.
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Well it has been crazy here in a good way. Since Chris works in the plumbing business he asked one of his plumber friends if he could help us fix stuff that needed lots of work. He came over last Saturday. I had bought two toilets to fix both bathrooms. But only one fit in my jeep. He helped me off load it. Luckily the people at Lowes said it was ok to pick it up later. The plumber helped me get it out of my jeep and put it in the garage. Then we drove to lowes and he loaded the second one on my jeep and I took it home while he picked up some parts for the jobs. He installed the toilets and fixed some problems the previous owner had done "fixing" the bathroom. I hate how the last guy thought he was a handyman but we've just had to fix everything he's screwed up. So we got a new toilet, new shower and valves. The plumber had to cut a hole in the wall but we didn't mind. So long as it fixes it. He installed a panel so in the future we can easily access it if it needs to be repaired. He said it can be painted which is great. I will definitely paint it. I finished the first wall in the master bathroom with the bamboo wallpaper. It is looking great! It will definitely look like Jurassic Park once done. I think the hardest thing now will be replacing the door. But I'm looking forward to painting the door and putting the custom sign I bought for it.



Here is a screen cap of the JP bathroom. It's all bamboo. The door has a sign and two sections of Bamboo.



Here you can see a close up as Donald Genaro shuts the door. What's nice is my bathroom has white tiles like that already so just adding the Bamboo wallpaper will make it look just like this. I can't wait to get that sign.

Ok so next is my couch.



My budgie couch! I got these budgie pillows a few years ago. I had to cover the couch because the fake leather was peeling. I might cut those sheets and make them into custom pillow cases so it will be cleaner and easier to sit on. This also folds out into a small bed for one person. So our house is guest ready.

( New Closet and my room on a dark rainy day )
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I have two dreams I have to log down before I forget them. A few days ago this week I dreamt about Thagirion for the first time in ages! I was him but walking through a city in human form. I could feel my incredible powers within me. But some stupid old woman was following me and kept coming up behind me and poking me in the arm. I was getting very pissed off. When she did it one more time I turned on her, took true form and grabbed her by the throat with both hands. I slammed her against a wall and watched her struggle for a second. Black smoke came out of me and went into her. Long black strands began to come out of her neck. I was giving her throat cancer. I dropped her and then went on my way.

This dream was very powerful and I liked it for a short time. I'm surprised Thag wanted my attention. He rarely intrudes on my dreams the way Owen and Ophidius do. They are my attention hogs. But I suspect it was because he was glad I had given him attention since I had just drawn him with Fear in No Hard Feelings. As for the strands of black rope in the dream I have no doubt that was influenced by the craft project I'm currently working on that involve paracords.

Ok and just last night I had a very fun Jurassic Park dream. So much happened I hope I can remember it all. This dream was focus on meeting the actors, but was unrealistic in that they hadn't aged and all still looked like they did in the movie. It was so wonderful to see everyone from Jurassic park there at this indoor museum like place. I think there were props from the movie on display in cases. My mind focused on Hammond (Richard Attenborough) and Genaro. Sadly Hammond has passed away and part of me knew this in the dream but I still didn't realize I was dreaming. The guy that was Genaro was very nice. I think I dreamt about him because I had seen that fan made video he was recently in. I thought it was great he did that since he'll never bee in a Jurassic movie again. Oddly enough when he was looking at the props he reached for one and some kind of venomous bug bit him in the hand. I didn't see what it was, if it was a spider or something else but he had to leave. That sucked and we were all worried. Eventually he came back and everything was fine. I told him about some of my ideas I had for my stories and art and showed him some drawing. I also told him how I thought an action figure of him would have been one of the greatest ideas ever and he thought it was funny. I'll go into that later.

Then the scene changed and we were all getting into a Jurassic Park jeep. Of course I knew we wouldn't fit. But I had an idea of how it would work as one of the jeeps was an automatic and had a center console like my modern JK. Grant had gotten in the back seat and I told him no he was the driver and had to get in the front. He's kind of a big guy compared to the others so I wanted him in the front. It's only two people up front and maybe three in the back but I knew I could get more in the back by having the two kids go there, one adult and then myself facing backwards sitting on the center console. That worked and no one was cramped. Ellie was in the passenger seat. I forget who else was in the back. Possibly Muldoon. But the weird thing was that in the "trunk", a small storage space in the back that's open, was a raptor. She was an actress too. She only played the role of an evil dinosaur but was actually very nice and friendly. And she could talk a little like a parrot but had a limited vocabulary. She understood and could use words in context. She started talking and said, "Raptor want weapon. Humans all have weapon." She was talking about all the props used in the movies. I was looking right at her since I was facing backwards and she was more on the driver back side of the jeep. "What do you want?" I asked her. Her eyes lit up all happy as she thought about it. "Want magic staff." Oh boy. How do I explain to a talking raptor that magic isn't real and fantasy weapons aren't part of Jurassic Park which is science fiction. She can't have a magic staff. HAha, but luckily I didn't have to explain anything since the dream ended there and I woke up.

Oh man I loved that a lot! I was definitely in a happy place last night.

Here's the video I was talking about that had Genaro's actor. I totally respect he did this for the fans.


https://youtu.be/LHGvdI1jizI

Ok now about my toy ideas. Jurassic World released the Legacy collection which had Dr. Grant, Ellie, Muldoon and the jeep. The figure are smaller than the original Kenner figures but so nicely made. They are movie accurate when the others were not. I hope they'll make a series too and release all the JP figures. But what the characters I REALLY wish they'd release are these four, John Hammond, Donald Genaro, Mr. Arnold and Dennis Nedry. Nedry already had a figure but it was terrible! It wasn't fat and looked nothing like him. He was too skinny and looked more like Doc Oc from Spiderman. What's worse Kenner had a chance to redeem themselves and when series two came out they released another Nedry but it was the same only painted his clothes different. NOOO WTF? Hammon never had a figure. He needs one. Genaro and Mr. Arnold never had a figure either but these two would be so fun from an action figure point of view. Mr. Arnold could come with "Arm ripping action!" since his arm was taken off in the movie and all that was ever found of him. The Nedry figure has arms that rip off. I didn't even find this out until recently and I've had it for years. They could do the same thing. But I think the Genaro figure would be the most fun as an action figure. He could come with a toilet. That would be so funny then you could recreate the scene when the T-rex eats him. And there's a new T-rex out now that's big enough to eat figures so it would work. So those are my ideas and the two dreams I had this week that were a lot of fun.
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Even though I've been kind of sick the last few days things have actually been going great. I have a lot to catch up on here so we'll see if I remember everything. Chris and I went to see Jurassic World 2 on opening night. The movie itself was ok and a bit of a disappointment. I won't go into details yet since it's a new movie and don't want to spoil it but I'll post a review later on with spoilers behind a cut. Unfortunately many things were't a surprise for me since I'd gotten so many spoilers myself. I really tried to avoid it but it was impossible with youtube "recommending" videos where the thumbnail and the title showed me stuff I didn't mean to read and with "friends" telling me about it because they know I like Jurassic Park. Very annoying. Oh and even walking into the stores was a spoiler because I couldn't look at the toys but well I saw them all. But more on that in another post.

Chris and I built a fire pit out of cinder blocks. We had a fun time going back and forth from Lowe's and buying all the blocks and caps. I enjoyed painting them with spray cans. We have a lot of debris to burn so it will be very helpful. Unfortunately it rained and all the wood is too wet to catch fire now. We finally got around to buying some cheap outdoor folding chairs so we can set and enjoy the fire. We plan to clean out the old pumpkin patch garden and add some outdoor concrete couches and concrete raised beds. Get rid of all the grass and just have gravel or stone walk ways. It will be a slow process but it will be nice when we finish it up.

My plants are all doing great. Many of my nepenthes are pitchering. I've also built a very nice three tiered shelf that I painted pretty tropical colors. I will get a pic of that soon. I think all the amorphophallus have come up now too. No flowers this year. I was bad last year and neglected them so my biggest ones actually shrank and were set back. But this year I will take good care of them, fertilize them once a week and hopefully next year I'll get my first flower because of that. I don't remember if I talked about this or not but I also built my first trellis for dragon fruits. I hope to plant another set of dragon fruits so it will be nice to make another set.

Bullet is doing well despite her illness. She's been very happy and screaming happily. I'm so glad of that. She flies around and plays with her toys. I hope this tumor won't affect her too much.

And I have been playing Jurassic World Evolution PS4 which is way better than the movie. I've unlocked Isla Nublar now which is my 4th island. I'm very happy about that. That's a sandbox version. Not sure what all that means yet. I know what sandbox games are but perhaps that's the actual Jurassic Park with everything already built for you and you can just explore and manage. I need to review this game too though I haven't finished it. I got my first T-rex on my first island which I think is Isla Matanceros. I was so happy about that last night, but it was late and I had to call it quits. Time flies when you play this game. You don't realize you've spent hours in it because it's not a fast game. I am enjoying managing ever little detail of all my islands. Though I'm getting annoyed at my big herbivore cage how often feeders go empty. Man those trikes, and duck bills are gluttons.
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First off Bullet is back in her normal cage and doing "good". I'm keeping an eye on her but I'm still very worried. We all know birds hide illnesses and that they feel bad until they can't fake it anymore.

So I pre-ordered Jurassic World Evolution Deluxe edition a few days ago. I've decided I'm getting both the digital download and the hard copy when it comes out in July. I just couldn't wait til July with the game coming out before the movie. Also it's not fair the disk version doesn't have a deluxe edition. Disk buyers are getting ripped off. The disk should have come out at the same time with a regular and deluxe version too. That's really stupid what they did.

So I am very much enjoying the game. Once you get past the learning curve of how to control the game and where everything is in the menus it is a lot of fun. My first dinosaur was a Struthiomimus. And he almost died because I didn't know I had to feed him. He was starving and Claire got on my case about it. Ooops. So I put a cute little bush in there for him to eat and that fixed the problem. I made more dinos but my strutio died anyway. I don't know why. It bugged me. He had food and water and he didn't have a disease so I don't know what happened. Poor thing. My worst peskiest dino is my ceratosaurus. He keeps escaping and he's eaten a few guests. The good thing is I build his cage next to the security station so as soon as I hear a fence broke the helicopter goes out and tranquilizes him, fence is fixed then he's flown back in. But this is happening way too much. I'm just going to have to rebuild his cage completely. I hate that I'm not allowed to buy better fences yet. They aren't unlocked and I don't know what you have to do to unlock them. I also have goats running around free all over the park because the creatosaur has broken the fence so much all his food has escaped. I think it's funny since the goats don't hurt people no one cares they are free. One of the things you get with this game is extra skins for the vehicles. There's a blue helicopter and a blue "jeep". I didn't care too much at first since the jeeps look terrible but then I found where the other skins where and I was floored. Of course they have the original 1993 jeep we all love. But what really surprised me is the new 2018 JL is in the game. There's a blue one and a red one. But guess what? You have to unlock them. You can't just buy them. I had not idea how you do it so it's the one time I cheated and I went online to look it up. Or you can see the names of the trophies. So for the blue JL I found out you have to do a few fast hand break turns. Super easy. I got that one. I'm loving it. I'm amazed it's a real JL even says Jeep and Rubicon on it. But the 1993 one is very hard because you have to make a jump where you are in the air for 5 total seconds within a 20 second time frame. The trophy for that is appropriately called "Hold on to your butts." It is the hardest vehicle to unlock. I think I have to build a series of hills. One guy on youtube built a small hill and then a big hole but that hasn't worked for it. Ok and my biggest complaint about the game is that you can't stop time. Time should not keep going when I'm reading a mission, making an expedition to a dig site or reading info on dinosaurs and characters. The pause screen stops time but you can't do anything in it game related. I was reading about the character when I got a notification about busted fence. WTF? Why is the park still running? I hate this and that's really not fair and I'm a very slow reader and there's tons of text to read. There is neat history about the dig sites that exist in real life and when they were discovered, by whom and what bones they yielded. When will I get to read about that without stuff happening? Anyway back to the jeeps. I'm very surprised about the JL's and I wonder if the new movie will have a new JL Jeep in it. I have been wondering this ever since I found out about the commercial with Malcolm and the T-rex.
https://youtu.be/oMOljrWUUXc

If it's canon in the movie that means it would be real easy to build a new JP jeep by just buying one. Yes I'm considering selling mine. Bad thing is I'm half way done paying mine off and would have to start over again. What to do? What to do? Such hard decisions. I should go test drive one. The fact they made a commercial with Jeff Goldblum and it's in the game makes me think it will be in the movie and that would make it official.

So yes I am having great fun with the game. Some things are vague and I don't know what to do yet. I'm still on the first island. I may scrap my game and just start over since I can fix the beginner mistakes I made the first time around. Yes I will have screen caps and videos soon. I just got to get them off the playstation which takes time.

EDIT: Forgot to mention I LOVE the attention to detail this game has. It really is made for the fans. Not only are the trophies quotes you would get if you're a hardcore fan but even things in the back ground like the music are hints. When you drive the jeeps or you listen to someone's radio they play Mexican music. And they do play the one song called Que Milagro Chaparita. Which was the song playing in the background of the famous "We've got Dodgson here." scene with Dennis Nedry.
Dodgson scene https://youtu.be/e6FXdloCUOM
Que Milagro Chaparita https://youtu.be/tStlQN_2Cl4

Another little detail is when you build a gift shop you can sell either Lunch Boxes, Barbasol or night vision goggles. It's that kind of thing true fans love. Malcolm was complaining that Hamond was slapping things on a plastic lunch box and selling them. Yep. Barbasol is a reference to the cryocan which is also so iconic to Jurassic Park. And night vision goggle are also a prop made by fans like the ones Tim had during the T rex attack. They were found in Jurassic World in the ruined visitor center. So yes this kind of detail just makes the game so fun.
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