Hungry for something

Palm Drive Palm Springs, CA

I’m Driving down North Palm Canyon at night and my eyes are drawn to the city’s holiday light display. Every light post is decorated with shooting stars that launch towards the road. Both sides of the street have these decorations leading down the main drag of Palm Springs. Every shop is glowing with holiday celebrations and activity. The world around me is celebrating because tomorrow is new years eve and the weekend is here for them. There are a few shooting stars that aren’t working. Among the festivities these stand empty and broken with no light. I can’t help feeling the same, empty and broken with no light. My stomach growls and I just want to be away from all of this.

When the doctor starts describing the diagnosis of my father’s cancer he goes the long way around. I can tell this is the part of the job he doesn’t want to do. He’s very uncomfortable and stammers a lot to get through our questions and explain everything to us. My mom is already crying for her ex-husband but my sister and I are very matter of fact with this. We’ve been preparing all day in this hospital room for the next phase of our life with no father so I’m just numb. I want to know the details faster and this doctor’s inability to spit it out just frustrates me. It’s not polite to say “Hurry the fuck up already,” when it’s hard enough for everyone in the room to be there, but I’m thinking it.

I couldn’t leave my dad tonight until I knew he was fed. Three times they brought meat to a vegetarian and we needed to sort this out permanently. If he is going to live his remaining days in this bed then he better get the right food. After he was fed we all left to find food for ourselves. He told us all dinner was on him and to “Spend it all up because that’s what it’s for.” I’ve found us a place to eat but to get there we have to drive down celebration lane. Passing block after block of people happy and drinking to the new year I slowly make my way to dinner, hoping that I picked the right place that will have something for everyone. I can’t focus on food and I stare at the menu waiting for everyone to arrive. In and out of glazing over and choosing what I want for dinner my mind is swimming and I can’t seem to reach the shore.

Leaving the restaurant I thank everyone for coming to visit my dad in the hospital and for being there today. Hugs for everyone and the surface of my emotional pool ripples. It hasn’t hit me yet but it’s there and the embrace of my mom and sister in this parking lot stir me up a little more. I want to drive to my dad’s house without having to pass through celebration town again. Luckily the main drag of Palm Springs is one way and the back side is far less festive.

Driving through the desert at night is surreal when you’re alone. The contrast of light from the city is abrupt. There are lights out here in the dirt but they are dwindling. The black surrounds you like a blanket of cold and it tries to get into your car as you pass through it. The instrument panel on this old truck is faint in comparison to newer vehicles. It barely displays how fast I’m going and does nothing to light up the cab. The stars are very pretty out here away from the intrusive light. Humming engine noise and the occasional bump in the long road home are the only thing I hear. This old thing doesn’t have blue tooth so my phone provides directions from the speakerphone and I turn on Google’s voice to tell me how to get back to my dad’s house. “Continue for 14 miles,” she tells me.

I made that drive for 3 weeks before we moved my dad to hospice in my mom’s house. The cancer had eaten all of our resolve and the majority of my dad’s body. We stopped all treatment and moved him to his ex-wife’s house where he was able to be with us for the last three days of his life. I’m grateful for the time I was able to be there when he needed me. The only true way to honor your loved ones is to be there in the shit, when you want to run, when you don’t want to eat, when you have to hold on so someone can answer when the nurse needs confirmation. Honor is signing the forms, watching them wrap him up, and holding your sister as she sobs in the kitchen. Strength is picking a restaurant when you’re not hungry and eating anyway. Love is what you feel when he’s gone.

I miss you Dad.

In Loving Memory of my Dad

Greetings From the Forgotten System – A No Man’s Sky Story

I arrive on “The Nothing” and am met by no one

I’ve been playing No Man’s Sky since day one. I’ve explored, gotten bored, and then revitalized with each new patch. I’ve never made it to the center or owned a freighter because all the time I’ve spent in the game have been making my own path and that never included the rat race. I’ve wanted to find the unexplored, the bizarre, or the challenge and make the game the experience I wanted to have. Never have I had such an amazing, and somewhat disturbing, experience like I’ve had today.

I’m sitting in the airport waiting for my flight home from a business trip. I boot up No Man’s Sky to get some of the base building quests done and make progress before the boarding starts. I need to find a Vy’keen weapon’s handler. I can’t find any Vy’keen at the space station so I figure I need to go to a Vy’keen system. I pop into the galaxy map and free explore the systems near my home. While browsing I come across a new system, undiscovered, that shows no race there. There is nothing listed for this system. It stands out among the others in the area and draws my attention. The thought of my new weapon’s handler lost; I need to go see what the hell this is.

How does it feel to be in the shadow of elimination?

I engage my hyper drive and fly across space at ludicrous speed. As soon as I enter the system I look for that familiar yellow polygon space station icon and find nothing. I figure I must be missing it and spin in all directions finding nothing. “Ok, this is a first,” I think and run a scan on the large planet in front of me. The scan comes back with Erased Planet. Whoa, hold on a second, Erased? What the hell does that mean? I fly down to find broken shapes shattered with dull slightly glowing orange at the cracks. Everything on the planet when mined gives only dust. Except for a single wandering sentinel there is nothing but dust on this planet, nothing. No buried tech, no broken machinery, not a single building. It’s pretty disturbing to be this alone and surrounded by virtual abandonment.

You can just make me out standing in the shadow of the monolith

I fly away a little shaken and scan the planet with one moon. Tropical planet, now this is where I will find something worth coming to this system for. I fly down and skim the ground in my ship scanning for structures and nothing comes back. Sometimes this happens when you first arrive on a planet but usually I can find something in the first few minutes. I circle this planet, a little concerned to land, for 10 minutes finding nothing on my scans. Curiosity gets the better of me and I put my ship down in a small field of yellowing grass surrounded by tall red capped trees. There is life here but things move slowly. I scan some of the local wildlife and get back disturbing facts about them. They do not fear death and they eat rotten meat, or I find that they’re unpredictable and eat removed hearts. Ok, this is not a paradise planet this is a trap. I look around for anything I can grab and again nothing. No knowledge stones, no tech, nothing but plants, minerals, and animals.

Leaving the Paradise 4 the Dammed I see a blip on the radar. Behind the erased planet is an orb that is hard to see unless you check your radar on your ship (this is the reason I always fly in first person). I have to fly past another planet to scan it but it comes up Crimson Planet. Ok, red planet or something; maybe it’s hell? I fly for over 2 minutes on pulse engines to get there and find another planet with no scan-able structures. If alien life were ever in this system they left it long ago. I land surrounded by towering purple and grey glowing jacks and piles of gravitino balls. My suit tells me I’ve landed on an Extreme Sentinel planet, oh goodie! I use my multi tool to look around and not surprisingly find zero tech or alien life evidence at all. Because I can’t resist, and I love the challenge, I grab some loot, get three stars immediately, and run for my life.

Nothing but jacks and balls

If the sentinels weren’t so annoying I may want to stay

The last planet in the system is now calling to me. I have to see how this story ends. This planet, which I named Shadow World, scans as an Empty World. From space it looks like a giant blue ball and upon entering the atmosphere you can see why. The planet is covered in water with small patches of land peeking out here and there. At first, in the upper atmosphere the water appears blue but as I descend things start to gain a muddy brown hue and the color drops out of my gauges. As I did with all the other planets I scan to find nothing and then land on a small patch of land with tall bulbous trees sporadically placed throughout the muck.

On approach the color fades away from everything

Getting out I noticed I too have lost most of my color. I approach a tree and try to scan it but nothing comes back. I think because it is too big to scan (see the picture for scale. I could not reach the top of the tree in photo mode as I hit the ceiling of allowed height). This empty planet had more on it than the erased planet did but not by much. The tree’s scale and the pure bizarre color pallet being forced upon me rub me wrong again, as with all the planets in this system.

The red tries it’s best to come through but fails in the oppressive atmosphere

I am the little white spec and the base of the trees

Well at least oxygen is easy to find

Good bye Shadow World

As I am naming these discoveries I realize I have forgotten the moon that orbits the Paradise 4 the Dammed so I head that way last to see if maybe something is hidden there on this tiny moon that would give anyone hope.

Here I come tiny moon

The planet scans as a low atmosphere moon and it looks very similar to the planet below in color pallet but exiting my ship I am warned in red that this planet has unclouded skies. Without my SPF 1000 I decide to scan some creatures, look for tech, and leave. Animals here do not fear death,  are unafraid, or are old and nervous. I’m nervous too. I have found nothing but weirdness and empty planets in this system and I crave the familiar squawk of the Gek or grunt of the Vy’keen.

I name the moon We Fear Nothing and log my remaining discoveries with the galactic network. I think “My God this update is amazing,” and pack up my laptop to board my flight home.

If you want to find OddNext1 you find with the others in… The Twilight Zone

Slayer – Repentless – New Album Review

Slayer – Repentless Out Sep 2015

Slayer is back with another hard hitting finger melting album. A ton has changed in the band since just the last album. They’ve lost their co-founding guitarist Jeff Hanneman, Dave Lombardo has once again left the band which he says is for good this time, and they’ve picked up a new permanent replacement on guitar in Gary Holt from Exodus. So this album has a lot of weight on it from us Slayer fans hoping that it will live up to what we expect from a Slayer album.

The opening track Delusions of Saviour is a Metalica-esc intro that is a little weak and could have easily been left out. I will probably be skipping the track when I listen to the album and if it came on in a shuffle it’s pointless and a little sophomoric at best. That song leads directly in to Repentless which has been on the internet for sometime as a teaser for what’s to come.

The song is Slayer for sure but feels like some of their older material from World Painted Blood and Christ Illusion with new lyrics. I don’t dislike the song, but it doesn’t feel fresh enough for a new album. This track feels very much like the Punk cover album they released years ago. The next song Take Control has that same punk feel to it and Tom sounds great on vocals.

Slayer has always been my favorite metal band and the impetus of this has been the drumming of Dave Lombardo. When I heard that Paul was back and Dave out for good I was pretty bummed. Paul’s style, while fitting Slayer well, was still not exactly what I wanted to hear. With the next song Vices you get to hear just what Paul is great at which is hard pounding quick fills and double bass slamming. This album, in my opinion, is the best technically sounding album that Paul has been on. The recording and the mix are great and and even though it’s not my favorite drummer of all time, it’s a great second for this album.

For me what really shines on this album are the slower grinding songs. Slayer can do fast and hard hitting mosh pit music even though they could be considered grandparents to the Metal age, but on this album the slower hard crunching music like Cast the First Stone and When the Stillness Comes (the next two tracks) are what make this offering stand out. I don’t know if it’s a maturing of my tastes or that these tracks feel like a new album but I loved them.

LEFT TO RIGHT: Tom Araya, Gary Holt, Paul Bostaph, Kerry King

The new sounding tracks continue from here with Chasing Death and Implode. I really wish they had put these tracks in the first part of the album, but I understand people want that hard hitting slam you in the face metal first and foremost. Implode is a great mix of the slower hard song style mixed with the old speed metal riffs and so is Piano Wire.

The next track Atrocity Vendor seems out of place in the mix. All the sudden this song, which to me sounds like teenagers in a garage trying to make metal, interrupts the grove of the album. The riffs just don’t make sense on why they were included in the album. It’s Slayer, but it sounds to me like Slayer playing some kid’s song or something they never released from the 80’s (but I can see why).

You Against You is a decent song but fairly generic filler Slayer. It doesn’t stand out like some of the early tracks and it’s obvious why they stuck it towards the end of the album. It’s not bad but it’s not great either. Some of the solo work in it is on point though and it’s worth a listen a few times.

And we come to the sad end of my review and this album with Pride in Prejudice. This track should have been the opening track in my opinion. It brings the slower heavy guitar I’ve been talking about and some unforgettable riffs. I can see slow mosh pits circling in my head and when I listen to it I get the chills. I wish the whole album was this stuff. The filler fast riffs just feel like that after a few listens through this weekend. I downloaded first chance I could and I love it as I do all of their albums. I have my good and bad from them all, so it’s not me being nit picky. Pick it up and head bang away metal heads!

Post your comments on my review and this album below and we’ll continue this discussion on the greatest metal band in the world SLAYER!!!

Public Letter To My Wife – What I Won’t Do For You

My Family Spreading Cheer During the Holidays

Everyone always declares what their willing to do for their significant other. I would like my beautiful wife to know some of things I won’t do for her. I hope you enjoy.

“Honey” Carny Val,

I won’t ever lay hands on you in anger. I may tweak your nipple if you tweaked mine first but know that I do this out of love for your nipples and defense of mine. I won’t ever stop wanting you, in fact… get over here and give me some sugar. I won’t stop trying to improve for you because you deserve the best and I will always try to hit the mark even if I fall short most of the time. I won’t stop trying to make you laugh at least once during every 24 hour period (it might not always work but I keep trying). I won’t say no to sex if you ask for it, not gonna happen, seriously if you don’t believe me ask right now. I won’t talk about you to other people in a negative way. You are too special and I believe in spreading the word until the whole world knows what a lucky man I am. I won’t stop being a complete dork that likes to goof around and be silly. I won’t say no to getting you something else to eat when I make a dud dinner, sometimes banana curry just wasn’t the dish to try out and In-N-Out may just save the night. I won’t stop writing you letters. I won’t stop doing your hair if you need to save money (just take it easy on me when I frustrate you in the process). I won’t stop making your friends jealous of your husband. I won’t stop trying to make you feel better when you’re sick, cold, hungry, sore, achy, on your period, in a bad mood, sad, or upset because I was stupid again. I won’t stop forgetting that one guy that was in that one show with that other guy in it from that one movie, you know the one. I won’t stop having the same birthday as you and being 4 hours older. I won’t stop asking you what do you want to do for dinner. I won’t stop being excited to share news with you. I won’t stop wanting to give you your gift early, it’s just so hard and I really love to see your happy face smile. I won’t stop laughing when you snore at night (seriously it’s way too cute). I won’t get tired of seeing movies with you. I won’t stop holding your hand in public. And most important, I won’t stop loving you. You are everything I want in a woman:

• Creative
• Strong
• Funny
• Smart
• Smokin Hot
• Good Mom
• Great with Money
• Vegetarian
• And a nice ass

Thank You,

“Honey” The Great Odd Dustin

Video Editing Mondays

It’s Monday and I’m back to my schedule of working on videos with my daughter after dinner. We haven’t been working on anything in some time due to summer laziness and then October since we focused on Haunted Houses and me getting better from being sick. We both sat down together last week and should finish our video this week on the latest installment of our My Little Pony Heavy Metal Videos.

 

Heavy Metal Ponies

I love Heavy Metal and my daughter loves My Little Pony so we thought why not combine them. We have a lot of fun making these ridiculous videos and laughing at how they turn out. Check out of few of the videos at http://www.youtube.com/metalpmv .

We’ve also started doing our CLOGS (Car Logs, a.k.a. Car Video Logging). When I drive my kid to school she says some stuff that cracks me up so I like to video our conversations and post them on our other youtube page. We try to get a couple in per week and also post other funny videos from our life on our site as well. We don’t do a ton of editing on these, since they are just a voyeuristic view on our life together. You can view those at http://www.youtube.com/metaldadanimegirl .

Hopefully this week I will also help my wife get her first video online. She took us all to a prop rock show by the almighty Rosemary’s Billygoat and we shot footage of the show and got an interview afterwards with Mike Odd. That will be up hopefully this week and I will make sure and post a link as soon as we’re finished editing it and making it pretty.

What kind of video do you like to work with?

 

Helping Dad With Technology

I am helping my Dad this coming weekend with a new phone. He’s been talking to me for some time about getting a working smart phone and decided on the iPhone 5.  I will be making the trek to his house (2 hour drive) and trying my best to teach him how to use it. He has had issues with his portable phone at his house so this could be a challenge. He is up for it though and I know he’ll like the phone and all of its features.

iPhone5

 

I don’t get out much to see him but we talk on the phone about once a week or so. Since he lives so far away and I have such a busy schedule it makes it hard for me to stop by for quick visits and I have to plan full day trips. I try my best to get as much done for him while I’m out there since he won’t see me for a few months once I leave. He is technologically challenged though and will have lots of questions once I’m gone so hopefully the iPhone is simple enough for him to deal with on his own and not make him feel like he is wasting the 40 a month he is paying for it through my plan.

The one bummer about going up there this weekend is that the gallery I have written about in the past, the Walking Gallery, is being filmed by a local documentarian that night and I will miss it. I am ok with missing it due to the reason, helping my dad, but it’s still a bummer. Hopefully she will also be out the next month to witness what I have to offer. Until then I will be showing a 60 year old what an App is and how to reboot the phone if it freezes. Se la vie. I hope your weekend is good and thanks for stopping by.

Haunted Helpers

This weekend was the official preview weekend of the Odd Family Haunted House. We usually run on the weekend before Halloween to test out all the scares and make sure everything is working properly. This weekend was pretty dead but we were able to get about 20-30 people through and it worked pretty good. We should be able to take what we learned and fix it up to perfection for the big night on Wednesday.

The thing we were missing the most was help. Our family which is always there were either busy, sick, or just plain MIA. The friend of ours that has been jazzed since last year to come back and help was 30 minutes late, and the people who did show up on time we’re fresh meat so I had a little trepidation about their being left alone in their spot to scare unsupervised. People were starting to line up, I was eating dinner and had yet to even get clothes on, typical crazy preview night. Eventually we got some people in some places and let through a group or two. Luckily we were dead and it was ok to be short handed, but it was hard to tell how things were functioning. Everyone involved still had fun scaring people and we’re looking forward to the big show. One cool thing happened though while we were trying to get things working. Some of the neighbors were hanging out and decided to dawn some clown outfits and scare with us. It was great to have the help but also good to have happy neighbors helping out.

Halloween we will have the opposite problem. So far we have all of our friends who want to be involved slated for the 31st so we will have tons of people and not enough scare spots. If you fill the haunted house with people the scaring is less than if you hide and pop out. I am thinking about some special fun outside for the line that is usually non stop all night long. Hopefully it all works out, but really the more the merrier when it comes to screaming and terrorizing the neighborhood. I hope everyone plans for some fun of their own and I’m truly sad for the kids that are on the East coast dealing with the Franken Storm. Stay safe and get candy.

A Haunting We Will Go

This is my favorite time of year. The weather starts being palatable, spooky decorations come out, and the chocolate is abundant at every turn. Every year my family and I run a haunted house in the garage. It’s a month long ordeal decorating and building the garage into a scary maze for all the locals in my town to visit. We get a solid stream of people coming through from 7pm to 10pm ever year.

This year we’re going back to our staple, clowns. We have a bunch of clown stuff and all of our helpers have shown a lot of excitement to be a part of the circus of freaks this year. As always it’s less than a week from opening night and I am behind on the build. I hope to have a functioning house by our preview night this Saturday. We will be fully functional for sure on Halloween. I got sick in the middle of the month as well which hasn’t sped anything up. Hacking and climbing ladders doesn’t go together very well.

 

We do up the garage pretty good for a local non-profit haunted house. We always get tons of praise. If you would like to check out pictures of some of our previous years or follow our house’s progress and get directions check out our Facebook page. This will be our 15th year doing a haunted house and third doing clowns. More photos to come once we get the sign up, and hopefully the clown mouth entrance completed, this weekend. Hope you and yours have a great holiday.

Mini Odd Weekend Fun

Mini Me gave Dr. Evil a cute little side kick to hatch his evil plans. He could sit on his lap and they would laugh together, but no one ever saw the behind the scenes where Dr. Evil’s leg would cramp from having that little guy perched there for so long.

The Great Odd Handheld

As some of you may or may not know I moonlight as The Great Odd. I answer questions and generally act silly while sitting in a giant gold box identical to the small one in the picture above. I have also had one other incarnation of The Great Odd with my Gold painted suit and Box on my head. This month for the Walking Gallery in Pomona the theme was Muppets so I had to make a puppet. (Not that it was required of the gallery but being that puppets are so interactive I had to.) I made the puppet and tested out my sound system that morning and was pretty proud of my work. I never know how well things will go on the streets but as usual it went very well. People love to ask the The Great Odd questions. By the end of the night things got more raunchy, also as usual for Pomona, but for the most part it was all just good fun with no feelings hurt.

I find it “Odd”, no pun intended, that my Great Odd persona and gimmick keep shrinking. My wife jokingly said the next thing will be finger puppets and now I have to do that. The only thing will be where do I mount the speakers? Maybe I could mount them on my shoulders like little amplified shoulder pads. I’ll figure it out and of course post info on how it went. As for this weekend’s puppet Odd things went great. I covered my face as well to keep the mystery alive with the fans of The Great Odd and answered all the standards like “What’s the meaning of life?” and “Will I get laid soon?” but also some other good ones like “Am I male or female?” At the end of the night this was not one of my favorite ways to present the Odd due to the nature of the puppet. My arm and shoulder were killing me from holding it up all night and waving it in people’s faces yelling “Ask me a question!” I’m not sure if I would do this one again, but it was fun to try it out. If you would like the Great Odd to show up for one of your parties just message me.

Mini Odd Next To Big Odd

For video of this weekend check my Facebook. For past videos check my Youtube.

Festival Of Art

This weekend my wife and I shared a booth at the local college for their art festival. There were quite a few cool artists running booths but not so much crowd. Colleges on a weekend are pretty quiet and there isn’t much thorough-fair or street traffic in that area. We did have a ton of family show up to hang out and talk but that ended up filling the booth so that I couldn’t get in and I got my head burnt standing in the sun all day 😦 Oh well, it was a good exercise to get the stuff out and put up a booth to see the process so I know what to expect if we want to do another one some day in the future. Also we got some prints made while we were hanging out!

After the festival from Saturday afternoon to Sunday night I worked on my haunted house. This will be our 15th year doing them! We chose clowns as this year’s theme which will be the third time we’ve done them. They are always a hit with the performers. The name of this year’s house is Circus Freaks. I got the whole garage emptied out (which is no small feat) and half the walls up. Once I start making some progress I’ll probably post some pictures. If you live in the area you can find out all the info on the Haunted House Facebook Page.