Life in the City of Rain

So I started work the other day. I got an emergency text from Emz's Mom saying that she needed extra hands to help set up. That was my time to shine! I got there as quickly as I could and work began. We started upstairs and set up a load of seats and then went downstairs to a car park. There were already a team assembling a floor or some sort and laying it down and we started putting down chairs and tables. By the end, it looked like it did in the picture. It was pretty awesome. I already got more work for later today and now that I have my foot in the door, more work is sure to follow! Beyond that, things are pretty quiet. I think Emz is seeing her friend Jenny later, but I'll be in a mini-coma from work. I'll do my usual. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Facebook, play a game, Facebook, watch TV.

All I see is chairs. That car park behind all those chairs is the same car park from the photo above. Just a lot emptier.

Stone Sour's new album dropped yesterday. It is so good! All That Remains have a new album soon too. Great time for music! I've been so fortunate to meet so many of my idols in the past few years, and see so many more of them live. I've had a beer with Oli Herbert from All That Remains, I've discussed boxing with Phil Anselmo from Pantera and Down, I've met Alexi Laiho from Children of Bodom but he was a douche-sack. I've got so many autographs at home, too. I've met Ozzy Osbourne, Black Stone Cherry, Down, Amon Amarth, Moonspell, Sabaton and loads more. I caught plecs at so many concerts, too. Stone Sour, All That Remains, Moonspell's guitarist gave me a plec and I have more too.

This is my autograph frame, but it's gotten much more in it now but it's the only photo I have and it's back in Ireland right now. For some reason I'm pretty lucky on twitter, too. I've been tweeted by Tommy Lee (Motley Crue, Methods of Mayhem and his solo stuff) 4 times (Emz say's we're friends now), Mark Tremonti (Tremonti, Alter Bridge), Kevin Smith favourited one of my tweets, Jason Mewes (Jay from Jay & Silent Bob) has sent me a private message with his Xbox gamertag on it, and I met him last year with Emz. I have a tonne more experiences than that, but those stand out the most. I've been incredibly lucky when it comes to my favourite bands and people. I've had a lot of great experiences. I've gotten to see so many of my favourite bands live too, but I won't rattle off that list too. It'd take weeks!

That's Oli Herbert, my Friend Chrissi and I! What a great night! Chrissi must be one of the coolest people I have ever met. This stands in even higher regard since one of my favourite guitarists is actually in that picture, too!

This week has been hectic. I've been working every day except today (Saturday). So far I've made a lot of money and done a lot of work. My body is in pain, but it's so awesome. It's good to be active again! I love the work, too. It's good. The people are cool and the work is extremely gratifying. It's so awesome to see everything when it's finished. I've developed "Working Hands" as you can see in the picture below. That's more dirt than dark haha. It was a busy day, though.

I have work again tomorrow, and then the future is as dark as my hands. But, if current work situations continue the way they have been, I'll have plenty of work! Here's hoping, anyway!

I've been listening to a lot of random music lately. Obviously Stone Sour since I JUST got their album, but I've been listening to a YouTube band called "Sea of Trees". They're good. A metal band with 2 people in it. They're recording a full length now, I think. If you like metal, check them out. They're good! YamiRyan is the youtube channel, I think.

Beyond that, nothing of major value is going on. It's Ole's (Emz Dad) Birthday on Monday. We got him some cool stuff. We replaced his broken picture uploader for his iPad. We also got him something else WAY more awesome, but it's not here yet so I cannot say what. I'll tell you next blog, if I remember!

I was absolutely starving in work the other day. I brought two pieces of bread, because I was only SUPPOSED to work 4 hours. I had skipped breakfast because it was early. I was 7 hours in to work and Emz shows up with Burger King. BURGER KING! She is one in a million.

Today was a nice easy day in work. We set up a few hundred seats and tables for a buffet and we had to remove all the stuff that was there first. That whole area in the back that looks like a stripped wall is actually a whole section with SO many seats. There are 20 seats per row and there are maybe 10 rows. Could be 8. So we had to take that down. It took 2 hours to get all that done. I've worked 17 hours already. It's not so much, but the pay is awesome so I'm happy with it! Drinks on me come payday!

Emz is currently about to bake cupcakes for Ole for his birthday (which is tomorrow). We have to be up early to get things done so it'll be sort of a long day, but hopefully a good one! We are going to try pick him up a Daim Bar cake. It is apparently tradition for him to have this on his birthday.

Norway has been busy! This was the tram this morning at around 10 when we were heading in to town. It was actually crazy! There are seats for SO many people on this thing, and the whole thing was full from front to back and it seemed like people were only getting on.

The weather here is amazing. It's so sunny but all the trees are orange, red and yellow. It's incredible to walk down the street when there are hundreds of trees everywhere.

Today we discussed fear. What do we fear, why do we fear it and how do we overcome it. Emily is afraid of anything. Spiders, Moths, Things hanging in the dark that might resemble a person. She screamed at a bucket of crabs yesterday. Not like the "old man yells at cloud" kind of scream, but she got a fright and just screamed.

I'm not sure what I'm afraid of. Emz literally spent an hour asking me about all these things whilst trying to figure out my fears. Beyond the obvious one (Death) there wasn't really anything else. I read somewhere that there is a phobia of kneecaps. I think when I read this, all my fears just went away. A crippling fear of kneecaps just seems so stupid to me, that nothing else seems scary.

Horror films never had much of an effect on me. I find them to be more like something I could identify with. People always have a darkness inside them, and if put under enough pressure they can snap. I'm always so fascinated by the crazy, insane and villainous in movies, comics, games and even reality.  I don't know what it is about the crazy, but at most times they make the most sense. There are ones that are just out of their minds, but they just fascinate me more. I always want to understand the things I just don't understand, especially about the human mind.

The nature is incredible here at the moment. However, I spent all day today just laying around and sorting out my clothing and unpacking. I've also spent ages working on KJBcast. I'm trying to get the daily hits back up. My month away from the internet lost the page about 100 views a day, which is terrifying and irritating. Building up a following isn't easy. It's fun, though. I'm also working on an app for the page, but I haven't done anything with that in a while. When iOS 6 came in to the equation I just stopped because it was so much hassle trying to reconfigure everything, and the advertisements were so irritating. I use Xcode, which is a fantastic way to code and program. It's the easiest way I've come across so far.

Emz made some awesome cupcakes for her Dad for his birthday and now they're all gone. It's so sad! They were amazing.

I'm not really sure what we're doing for halloween this year. I'm probably going to give it a miss. Funding isn't optimal until payday and I'm not really a social creature as it is. I think this'll be the first halloween that I don't dress up! I don't think it's celebrated here much anyway. I haven't actually heard anyone mention it yet. I guess I'll see what's happening when it's closer! Next post is the day before Halloween, perhaps everything will change by then! Anyway, time to log off. Have a good week! Thanks for reading!

The minute I stopped caring what other people thought and started doing what I wanted 

was the minute I felt free

- Phil Dunphy

Modern Family