A Wedding a Bouquet and a Second Marriage

My sister caught the weathered bouquet at my fathers second wedding. 

She smiled with glee as she proudly won the assortment of red and white

roses. The laughing sunlight perfectly reflected the ridiculous nature of the occasion.

My Dad was head over heels at the ripe old age of sixty-three. It was funny to see

him tumbling down and falling in love again and again.Thank god he had recovered

from his grief of losing our mother. His loving heart had found another to satisfy

his real need to be loved, he was unhappy otherwise.

On the other side of the dance floor I saw my younger sister fawning over her new

boyfriend. She was staring deep into this eyes, her head a buzz of serotonin and 

dopamine. Of all the men she had brought home to meet the family this one took

the cake by a country mile. He reeked of garlic had a stupid crooked nose and worked

at some random sewage plant. In many ways he wasn't dissimilar to Homer Simpson

except infinitely more unlikeable. Thankfully he was slightly more intelligent than the Simpson patriarch, a lesser intellect than Homer in the family would be very hard to stomach. If you could imagine a skunk run over and served up on a plate of garlic 

your almost halfway toward realising what the new boyfriend smelt like. 

I despised the man but accepted him purely for my sisters sake. I couldn't bear

to see any of my family members unhappy so I always tried my best not to judge

what made them happy. 

Even Dad's new bimbo of a wife had her good points all you had to do was block

out her gargantuan plastic tits. Dad sure was happy bless the old sod. In stark contrast

I was feeling a bit flat so I got up and stretched my rusty limbs out. Then I haphazardly

wandered over to the green punch bowl in my new pinstripe pants that coiled too tightly

around my legs like black snakes. I still couldn't quite bring myself to join a gym. 

Mildly irritated and half-drunk the raucous sounds of the wedding really started

to grate on my nerves. Next thing you know the bloody folk band starts up, God I hated

Dad's taste in music. I imagined getting a mega-phone out and screaming at the

top of the lungs to play anything but what they were currently playing. 

Somehow I managed to withhold the urge to kick the lead singer in the balls. 

To steady my nerves I had a gulp of the formally non-alcoholic punch from an unused tumbler. I was glad I had spiked the punch even if it was a sin. A strong hint of white rum rippled through the fruit juice like a dangerous crocodile. I wanted to spice up the place and 

get people feeling a bit naughty. I felt slightly bad for all the unwitting alcoholics who would unknowingly be drinking away their sobriety, but I couldn't please myself and everyone too. As fast as the guilt appeared it dissolved. I raced off to the dance-floor my spirits refreshed ready to dance with the rest of the family. 

Pangs of a Poetess

Pangs of a poetess
Afraid to love
With broken words
and fragmented sentences
She hated herself 

Always choosing a simile
Over a smile
How all her words came out wrong
In a rebellious rage
She aimed to dominate
all her ideas upon a page 

But it was useless
To no avail
How could a true poet
Give up on the quest for love? 

For somewhere
Out there
In treacherous lands
A future beloved
could be heard
singing her name 

Travelling miles
dreaming of little else
carrying only
A passionate desire
to love her
some how

Bob Marley the Forklift Driver

Crashing around Rotovegas

I went down the luge in Rotovegas earlier in the week. I had a real need for speed in the 3 wheel gravity propelled go-kart. But I took one turn too sharp at break neck speed and crashed into the barrier. My whole body jolted to the side and it felt like I was going to be thrown out of the humble vehicle with its wheels wailing. My friend Si was upahead going blatt out. He turned around at about a million miles an hour when heard the jarring crash. He thought we had a man down, but I was totally fine. Although my ego was severely deflated like a hot air ballon haha I coasted down the track for the remainder of the run 😂 Thankfully I recovered and was back to breaking the sound barrier in the next race 🏁 👌

The Burning Pits by Joseph Hickman (2016) - How Trash Poisoned U.S Troops in Iraq

Sad state of affairs. Military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan were built on contaminated ground. Remnants of mustard gas and chemical weapons poisoned civilians in Iraq and American troops. KBR a subsidiary of Halliburton a U.S company who was paid billions by the U.S government courtesy of the tax-payer caused mass fatalities. KBR operated 'the burn pits' that burnt all the U.S armies trash in open fire dug out holes. The trash pits burnt 24/7 and the poisonous plume started causing severe respiratory problems. Soldiers and civilians lungs were all irrevocably and unnecessarily damaged leading to mass cancer outbreaks and disability. This all happened because KBR and Halliburton operated the "the burn pits" with no regard for any form of regulations or testing. 

The plume smoke and the ground dug up for the trash pits was never monitored or tested for carcinogens or adverse health affects. One particular sad story is about a very young soldier who was posted in Iraq. He complained to his commanding officers about the smoke affecting his battalion form the burning of U.S trash and was rubbished. He stood in a guard post tower for 365 days 12 hours a day. He never saw any rebels. But the poisonous smoke from the burning trash pits would cause him great distress everyday. His lungs would splutter and his throat would become inflamed and feel like it was on fire. After ending his monotonous tour of duty 2 years later he died of brain cancer with full blown respiratory problems. He had never had any bad health until shipping out to Iraq. He is one of thousands of soldiers termed 'delayed casualties' who die after going to war. He received no help or financial aid from the U.S government and the VA who help veterans with health problems. 

The U.S government has not yet acknowledged how it killed and maimed its own soldiers by allowing KBR to win the trash disposal contract without any competition. Meanwhile in Iraq the cancer tolls increased by 15% due to the invasion and war on terror killing thousands due to magnesium and dangerous chemicals burnt in the pits and breathed in by citizens. Iraqi nationals are to scared to have children now due to birth defects on a scale dwarfing Japan's problems from the fallout from the atomic bombs. Good read. Had no idea about this problem. War is never just in my opinion. Especially when the ones signing the bills into law do not fight in the wars they create. Currently only a 5th of the U.S senate have any military experience, and only 1% of U.S politicians children are fighting in American wars currently.

Mixing and making records!!

Mixed a song today - got the thumbs up when I played it to Volita. Excited to see I'm getting better at mixing after being severely humbled 😂 Learning to be more subtle with e.q. Also starting to slowly start using compression again. I really enjoy the interplay with the kick and bass line when mixing. Getting the vocals to sound the best they can be is also important. De-cluttering all the middle spectrum audio that builds up in the mix is great. Thinning out guitars and percussion kick ass too. Working with the brass instruments has also been a real learning curve on the record in working on. Gonna be finishing this record soon. Happy days 😄🙌🎤🎼