It's 7:52 AM, I've been up for a little bit. Everyone is planning for a potential snowstorm, my mom has been recounting stories of the past blizzards and storms she has encountered in her and my life. I do not feel confident in my recounting abilities so I will just link some articles and some relevant information. My mom remembers the 1993 blizzard, which is often referred to as the Storm of the Century. She says that that storm in particular had caused some of my family from Abraham to come up to my mom's trailer for an ungodly amount of time in a sort of situation akin to Eddie's in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. Here is the Wikipedia article for the 1993 Storm of the Century. My mom mentions that my grandfather was picked up by the State Road (his employer) because he was legendary in his skills with a Grader Operator during the 93' storm. My mom also remembers the January 1998 North American ice storm. There is some reports about there being a snow storm in 1995-96 however my mom does not remember this. The next major snow storm was in 2009, often referred to the Turnpike Trapper¹. This event was the most detailed of my mom's recollections, she recounts this great story about her and my dad getting stuck at a park and having this terrible time making it home in their 2009 Dodge Journey, which was a little SUV. This storm occurred just before Christmas and I remember my parents got me this toy Grinch that might still be in my basement but it could've very well have gotten lost in the divorce. Christmas break lasted for about a month that year. One last note about the 2009 storm, I found this rather bizarre article from hurherald.com about a woman named Emma Metz who was a Calhoun Recluse whose funeral was postponed due to the 2009 storm. I've linked the article here. Lastly, my mom recounted the 2012 Frankenstorm, which gets it's name from its' proximity to Halloween alongside the fact that the Frankenstorm itself was a hybrid storm system that occurred when the tropical hurricane of Hurricane Sandy merged with the East Coast's cold temperatures and caused a blizzard in October². This storm itself brought me and my family to my grandparent's (Dad's side) house. In a rather sentimental anecdote, my mom remembers me bringing my hermit crabs in a cage referred to as "The Hermit Crab Hotel," to my grandparent's so they could be in a semiwarm condition - however during the actual transport, these crabs were cold and did not move to conserve energy - my mom told me I was saying things like "it's going to be okay little buddy" and "just a few more minutes little buddies." My mom also mentions use bringing our dog Abbie, who was our puppy before Tazia. Abbie's story is rather sad, and I've detailed it here. We stayed at my grandparents for quite a while during the storm, I remember listening to MrCreepyPasta's Narration of the Ed, Edd, and Eddy Lost Episode Creepypasta for the first time. I've linked that narration here. There was also the Derecho Storm which had occurred in the summer of that year³, which I remember being an almost apocalyptic event that scared 10 year old me.

This week has honestly not been that interesting. I have mostly been doing schoolwork, reading, and working.

On Monday I saw K. Both our weeks were rather busy so we planned to see each other early this week. Me and her watched some IShowSpeed streams which were rather entertaining. I see what Harmony Korine meant by IShowSpeed being the new Tarkovsky (I've never seen a Tarkovsky movie). She also mentioned watching XboxAddictionz when she was younger, which I also did. Me and her ended up watching some YouTube Prank videos and she fell asleep on me, which was really sweet. I left at approximately 7PM.

On Tuesday, I worked and then went home and did some schoolwork. Whilst doing schoolwork, I listened and semiwatched XboxAddictionz' Minecraft Trolling Series. As mentioned last week, I've been watching ZexyZek's Minecraft Trolling Series - this series is very wholesome for the most part. Zek was 14 or so when those videos were recorded and he mostly does not cuss in his videos - which provides a layer of wholesomeness to those recordings. I remember growing up around kids like him and also I watched a majority of his trolling videos when I was a kid which provides a quality layer of nostalgia. XboxAddictionz' Minecraft Trolling do not do this. I was approximately 11 to 12 when the XboxAddictionz Minecraft Trolling series was in its' prime. These videos often follow our protagonist Xbox playing Minecraft with what often was an 11 to 14 year old socially maladjusted "squeaker," which is a derogatory term for a child with a high-pitched voice that constantly swears and says other similar obscenities⁴. These trolling videos were published around the time I was the same age as the kids being trolled, and all of the kids being trolled sound like kids I would have grown up with. These videos essentially provide a look into generalized imitation, which is imitation that goes beyond what has been reinforced⁵. Such behavior such as cursing at an early age, is certainly concerning - however, it is not rare. I won't go so far to say these videos are evil or anything, however often times one gets a certain sadness from seeing these squeakers try to impress Xbox, an older peer. There is also the issue that some videos (such as, "THE MEANEST MOM ON MINECRAFT" and "THE CRAZIEST FAMILY ON MINECRAFT! (MINECRAFT TROLLING)") are more concerning than others and unintentionally shed light on unhealthy family dynamics in the same way that an Ibsen play would. These issues are most likely outside my expertise and would take far too long to analyze with applied behavior analysis (which I am not qualified for), but I think these observations are important and should not go unnoticed when looking back on the content a lot of people my age consumed in their adolescence. It should be noted that XboxAddictionz' original YouTube channel was taken down due to terms of service violations relating to bullying on December 5th, 2019 and his original content has been reuploaded under the channel XboxPlayz, however he maintains he does not own this channel - in a similar move of ban evasion that Keemstar of DramaAlert fame would do a few years before. He has also since claimed that all the videos were staged - however, I raise significant doubt against this claim, especially for his earlier uploads.

On Wednesday, I worked and also finished up most of my schoolwork. I listened to a Call of Duty youtuber named MinnesotaBurns, who similar to XboxAddictionz would also troll squeakers but on various First Person Shooters instead of Minecraft. MinnesotaBurns' videos are a lot more entertaining and less concerning as well, as often MinnesotaBurns focuses on pissing off a specific parent of a squeaker (mostly claiming that the squeaker in question was hacking or vice versa) before ultimately revealing to be messing with the parent - which often further frustrates said parent, mostly due to the fact that reveal is duh through various COD inside jokes that the parent does not understand. What is important to note, is that often the parent adamantly defends their child against MB's allegation of hacking and the parents comes often as competent and present in said child's life -- which is certainly a breath of fresh air compared to the Absentee parenting that is seen in some XboxAddictionz videos. From here, I read a little and then I went to bed.

Thursday was a very good day. I worked and did a little schoolwork and read a little. Thursday, I had an oil change. My 2024 Honda HR-V takes synthetic oil which is very costly - my total charge was about 72 dollars. From here, I worked for a little bit and then I had Deaththreads band practice. I arrived at Silverdale Studios around 4:40 PM and I set up the equipment, I was able to probably set up the PA for my vocals and I was really proud of myself. I also tried to string an acoustic bass that Seth has laying around - however the truss rod needs adjusting. Caleb arrived around 5PM, and it was good to see him. He's doing really good with the deaththreads songs and I think me and Dave both are both very excited to work on these songs with him. He's very good at articulating ideas on the drums and he's really creative. Dave has real passion for teaching and collaboration so working with Caleb on how to structure some of the drumbeats and teaching me how to properly lead a band is something that I'm sure Dave enjoys - I'm also eternally grateful for both Dave and Caleb. We practiced until 7PM when we finished, Dave bought a whammy pedal from me for 175 dollars and sent me 75 dollars which I was pumped for because I am currently low on funds but not really. Me and Dave left at about 7:45 PM and then I facetimed K. I went home and went to bed.

Yesterday was Friday. I woke up at 6:45 AM, and had difficultly getting out of bed. I have an awful time waking up on weekdays, I got too invested in my phone and it takes too much to fully get out of bed. I got out of bed at 7:30 AM, put the garbage cans out for the garbage men, and rushed to work.

I was in no real hurry once I started driving to work. On Thursday, Dave released an album he'd been working on the past year. The album is called "Amigos... or (the empty pint of ben & jerry's blues)." The album's first song and first title, Amigos - which translates to Friends, which is an important thing to note when discussing this album. I believe Dave provides two approaches to this album - the first interpretation being simply these songs are fun songs about and for friends, whilst the second interpretation or "the empty pint of ben & jerry's blues" is very easy to miss but it's much more sentimental - these blues in question come off as the empty feeling you get when eating an entire pint of ice cream, or when your friends have to go home, or when you finish your new favorite game, or a whole host of other analogies. The primary emotion that a listener can find within the sentimental tones and lyrics and individual lines and individual references is that of uncertainty. That uncertainty is built upon a number of things, such as the uncertainty of a pet getting old, the uncertainty and/or of your own mental struggles, and the uncertainty of the people in your life. No one knows what the future holds and no one knows when we will see someone, we just have brief uncertain hope. Dave in these whimsical songs provides colorful songs filled with pop culture references, odes to friends and families, but also reminiscences of these topics and the uncertainty and the persistent worry that these things that mean so much and make us worry so much are simply just overthinking and it makes you feel like a little dork. A key example of this is the song "Harper's Magazine," which is about petting your cat who is your best friend and is getting old. This song is also about having OCD, and being afraid that you may or may not have OCD. Other songs such as Wednesday Night and Golf with Bob and Ray sound like consuming the pint of ice-cream in how fun and joyous the songs sound whilst songs like Ed Wood and Like...Nathan Burnt the Forest provide a mellow acceptance of life and the uncertainties that it brings. The songs Amigos and The Bard are songs of acceptance about both uncertainty and acknowledging how things change. The closing track "Let's Know Each Other," is a beautiful song that I believe concludes the narrative that Dave is expressing in the album - that we should accept the facts. The metaphorical facts Dave is expressing is that although that with all the fear and loathing within our world there is an equal amount of love and compassion to be found. For every bad day, there is a beautiful movie or book or song waiting for you to hear. For every sad death, there was a beautiful life that preceded it. For every breakdown and overwhelming emotion, there is calm afterward. I pulled into work right as the overwhelming noise at the end of "Let's Know Each Other," I thought the album was absolutely beautiful and I'm so grateful Dave made it. My interpretation could be completely wrong because I am not Dave. I have linked the album here.

After work, I played Minecraft and drank a little, I worked on my mob farm in my beta 1.7.3. I became tired very quickly and I soon went to bed.

It is now 2:22 PM on Saturday, I went to China One - which is a Chinese restaurant that exists and is good with my mom. I planned on reading a little bit and finishing my book up this evening and then I am going to play Minecraft. The snowstorm is supposed to start tomorrow morning, I will probably work on some drawings with my oil pastels and my mob farm. I think the next book I'm going to read is Game Change which is about the 2008 presidential campaign, but I am unsure. I also want to work on some music this weekend as well. Goodbye.



Sources:

¹ HARLOW, D. (2024, December 21). A look back at the at the 2009 “Turnpike Trapper” snow event. WCHS. https://wchstv.com/weather/blog/turnpike-trapper-snowstorm-retrospective

² It was... the “Frankenstorm.” (2022). Spectrumlocalnews.com. https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nc/charlotte/weather/2022/10/25/it-was----the--frankenstorm-

³ US Department of Commerce, N. (n.d.). Derecho Event of June 29th, 2012. Www.weather.gov. https://www.weather.gov/rlx/SVR062912

⁴ Tell me yours first. (2008, January 24th). Squeaker Definition. Urban Dictionary. http://squeaker.urbanup.com/2811165

⁵ What is Generalized Imitation in ABA. (2026). Behaviorprep.com. https://behaviorprep.com/glossary/generalized-imitation/