So, I guess i'll just dive right in. A lot has happened since I wrote on this blog the last time. The biggest thing that happened was that my grandma (step-grandmother if we're speaking in the strictest of terms), passed away. She had ovarian cancer, and apparently she had the cyst since 2011 but refused treatment for it. So, the majority of my winter was spent going out to the nursing home to see her, helping mom clean out her house and have an estate sale, and then the funeral. I'm not a stranger to losing family, but this is my first time being so close the entire process, and actually being cognitive of what was going on the whole time. When my biological grandmother passed away 13 years ago, mom shielded me from a lot of because she knew I wouldn't be able to handle it, and for that I am now aware of just how much of a good thing that was for me at the time. I am so thankful that I got to spend a little more time this time with my Grandma before she passed on, and that we were here in town to take care of her. I will say that however, selling the house has been an absolute nightmare. The people mom sold to were being real and utter shits. They were grandma's neighbors across the street, and members of my parents' congregation, and people they considered friends. Apparently they had mom sign a paper when she was a) on some medication that affected her judgement and b) when we were trying to deal with grandma's funeral arrangements and the like. So they got mom when she was at her most vulnerable and took advantage of it. I wasn't expecting this to happen, because they always seemed like reasonable people. But, it's pretty much all over and done with as of today, and maybe mom can finally get some closure, and some real relief from the stress that mom puts on herself by worrying so much about everything.

So, the last time I wrote an entry here, it was about the swath of drama that caused me to fuck off from my guild in World of Warcraft of 3 years. I took a bit of time off from the game, and played Hearthstone heavily, and dealt with real life shit that was going on. A few weeks ago, Blizz announced that Siege of Orgrimmar normal / heroic modes were available to be raided cross-realm immediately following the announcement. So, I saw my opportunity to hunt for new guilds, or at least progression for the moment. I queued into a 25m pug that night, and got lucky, seeing a good guild that was looking to do shit but that didn't take itself too seriously, and most importantly recognizes that hey sometimes real life shit happens. I only have my one toon in the guild over there atm cause i'm not paying to server transfer all of my toons over cause that's just way too damn expensive, but I have my main, my death knight, and I have since continued to kick asses and take names with him. I've also as previously mentioned been playing Hearthstone. I got to rank 14 last season before the ranks reset, and am currently at rank 15. Last season I was playing a lot of control pally, and now I'm playing ramp druid. I have been lucky as hell, getting 3 legendaries in the last month. Ysera, Rag, and Leeroy (I just got Leeroy today!!). I am so excite about the Naxxramas adventure mode they are putting in the game soon, and it can't come fast enough!

Other than that I haven't really been doing a whole hell of a lot, except for watching tv/movies on netflix and other places online. I've watched a lot of random shit (sabrina, ax men, etc). But, it is fucking game of thrones season again hooray for that. Season 4 has been absolutely nuts and i'm loving every minute of it. I have been driving a lot more, but just around the park here to get mail, but still it's getting me more comfortable behind the wheel. One of my best friends might come visit me in July. It's something we've been wanting to do for a number of years right now but as you all know situations don't leave me in a good position to be away from here for more than a week. I also took a trip to the casino for funsies with mom a week and a half ago, and that royally fucked my sleep schedule, but I think have that remedied now, hopefully. I'm sure getting drunk for the Game of Thrones premiere didn't help in that regard but fuck it was Jack Daniels and i'm weak when it comes to Jack. It just tastes so good. The hangover was a shitlord, though.

I also did something I never thought i'd do software wise. I switched my music playing software. When I was out at the casino with mom, my skullcandy's finally went out. I had made a comment a week earlier when we were at target (where I bought them), that they'd lasted a long time. Well, fucking jinx man. So, I purchased a new pair. JVCs, a great set of headphones as long as you have a decent equalizer to soften the bass a bit cause the bass in these headphones is powerful as shit, okay. I was using winamp, but now i'm using AIMP3. Overall it seems to be a tiny bit less memory intensive, and as I said the EQ definitely does the trick w/ these new headphones. While we're on the subject of music, things are going to be exciting here in music land for me. The new Lacuna Coil album is out (which I haven't listened to yet because I forgot). Angela Gossow stepped down as the vocalist from Arch Enemy, and was replaced by former The Agonist vocalist Alyssa white-gluzman (sp?). I didn't mind the new single I heard, but i'm really gonna miss Angela. Sure the last couple albums could've been a little better, but she still had an awesome warface and a bestial fucking growl. The new Opeth is coming out in June, I think. I have come around on the "Heritage" record, and I love it now, but i'm still not a giant fan of the guitar tone on it. It's just a little too "warm". The clean vocals don't bother me as i'm a fan of Mikael's cleans just as much as his growls. Seeing them last year was still one of the most amazing experiences of my life, and it really made Katatonia grow on me by leaps and bounds. They have made a spot in my permanent rotation of tunes. Also there are new Tool and Testament albums in production, so we'll have to see if those materialize at all this year or not. Still dreaming about a new Dimmu record, if it's been this long either it's not coming or it's going to fucking steamroll us by how brutal it is.

I think I will go ahead and end this here, but with the intent to blog a bit more regularly. Possibly even once a day. I really do want to write on here more though. For now though, here's the first contribution to that end.