I'm There Now

I'm moving to Tumblr.  Feel free to join me.  Updates here will cease from this point forward.  

http://pdchronicles.tumblr.com/ 

The past week was a little weird.  The punctuation on the whole thing was Friday, when I was operating on less than two hours of sleep from the previous night.  The entire day, I felt like I was floating around rather than walking.  I assume that to some degree, that's how people strung out on drugs tend to feel all the time.  I remember the entire day with surprising clarity, however.  I also remember how I felt.  I barely had enough energy to physically function, let alone control my own thoughts.  As a result, I let things bother me more than they usually would.  With the Boston Marathon Bombings fresh in my mind, a rather depressing book I was reading, a sore neck, along with a few other items falling into the category of Kick-You-While-You're-Down, Friday ended up being a lesson in timing and perspective.

But now it's Monday, and I feel fine.  Things have worked themselves out, or I have worked them out for myself.  The two men who bombed the Boston Marathon have been identified.  One of them is dead and the other one is captured.  I finished the book I was reading and found out it wasn't really that bad after all.  Things are better now.  And I'm awake.

I hear you asking about the book I was reading?  It's a dark-fantasy novel by Joe Hill, called Horns.  To put it most simply, it explores the idea of the devil being an anti-hero, rather than purely evil.  The book was fascinating while at the same time depressing.  It left me with the feeling that there were no good people in the story, and that everyone has an ugly side to them.  My thought on the matter is that I already realize that everyone has a dark side.  I don't need to be reminded of the fact in a work of fiction.  Still, the storytelling in the book was fantastic.  I can see why it's being made into a movie coming out this year.

Let's see.  What's new?  It was rather cold as balls this weekend, so I didn't get outside to do anything.  However, the seeds in the back room have mostly sprouted.  I'm not sure yet if I'm going to manage to avoid having gnarly seedlings or not.  It's a bit too early to tell.  I think I'm doing the lighting correctly, but who knows.  

Dead Island: Riptide comes out tomorrow.  I didn't pre-purchase it, nor do I plan on getting it unless the reviews are favorable.  I will say that I -enjoyed- the first game, but it didn't leave enough of an impression upon me to warrant getting exciting for a sequel.  I'll play the wait-and-see game on that one.  The only thing it has going for it is that right this moment, I wouldn't mind having a new shooter to play.  And I do like killing zombies.

Seed Starting Supplies

I got my stuff in the mail the other day.  It's still too early to do anything with them, but I figured I'd share.  Keep in mind that my camera isn't the best, so the images will be blurry.  Also, there seems to be a cat in most of them.

First off, the six packages of seeds.  I mentioned already how I went about picking them.  (Hint:  I went with the EASIEST.)



Now, obviously I need containers in which to plant them.  So I got some round, biodegradable planters that you can put right into the ground, plus a flat with smaller compartments (for the flowers, since they are smaller).







And finally, I'll also need SOIL.




One last thing is the lighting.  I had a bit of a problem last year with the seedlings getting a little spindly.  By that, I mean that they got unnaturally tall.  I think this was due to two things:  One, I may have had the light up too high, which caused the seedlings to stretch up to reach it.  Second, I think perhaps I didn't have a very good schedule with when I had the light on.  I can adjust the height of the lighting with no problem.  In order to get a good schedule down, I purchased a cat...er...I mean I purchased a TIMER that will control when the light is on, which you can see below.  

It's almost the time of year for gardening.  Though, being outside this morning, you wouldn't have thought so, given the fact that it was fifteen fucking degrees.  But despite the fact that winter refuses to fuck right off, it is quickly becoming time to consider what seedlings I would like to start indoors.  Last year, my attempts were, admittedly, only mildly successful in that regard.  I got a pumpkin.  A few of the flowers also bloomed.  I think we may have gotten some green beans as well.

So this year, I did a little bit of research first and I picked some things based upon two known facts:  That they are -supposed- to be started indoors first, and that they are relatively easy to grow.  I don't have the set-up to try anything challenging indoors.  I would like a green house.  But as Elizabeth from Bioshock Infinite says, "I want a puppy, too, but that doesn't mean I'm going to get one."

I purchased six different kinds of seeds.  Three vegetables, and three flowers.  The vegetables you will undoubtedly recognize:  Broccoli, Cauliflower, and Cabbage.  With regards to the flowers, I'll be quite surprised and and impressed if you have heard of any of these:  Cleome, Celosia, and Nasturtium.  Don't worry, I had no idea what these were, either.  But, they are supposedly rather easy to grow, and they look very nice.  So I'm going to give them a try.  Seeds are cheap, so I've really nothing to lose.