Glory Days USA - Journal Entry 7

Today’s date is November 8, 2016. Today the United States of America is electing a new president. Just a few more hours and we’ll know who our new President is. This is especially a crucial time since the ongoing war that has been happening since this past April. North Korea declared war on Japan when one it’s vessels was sunk within the Korean Peninsula. However, this alleged allegation could not be proven. America, being an ally to Japan, joined the war effort against North Korea (the UK as well). At first, this looked like it was going to be a short lived war. However, with vast amounts of Japanese ground- troops penetrating North Korea things quickly began to overflow into China’s southern border. This put pressure on China and they quickly became an ally of North Korea for its own self-interest.

At the same time, Russia has been bombing parts of Syria and other parts of the Middle East to eliminate Daesh (ISIS) and other terrorists groups. Russia did not want to go to war until President of the United States self-appointed himself as the “interim” President of the United Nations (earlier in the year the United Nations Headquarters “caught fire” and a majority of its members died due to smoke inhalation).

Well now you know how the war started. In the meantime let me tell you a little bit about myself. My name is Kirk Shalanaya. I have been living in Coudersport, Pennsylvania for the past 15 years.  I have been working here as an emergency medical technician (EMT) since I came to this county. I live alone and do not have much of a social life outside of work. I stand at 6’ 2’’, have the build of runner, blue eyes, and blonde hair. I normally wear a gray baseball cap that has the Red Cross logo on it. It was a gift. I look like I’m about 24 years old. In my spare time I like to cook, read, exercise, stargaze, and have an interest in electronics.

With all the crazy things happening in the world, I think it may be best for me to get further away from the East Coast. I always wanted to go to Denver. 

Train 666

As I was coming home from work last night, later than usual, it was quite the spectacle on the subway. Coming from the El (Market-Frankford Line) I was on my way to the City Hall stop to catch the southbound train. After waiting for about five minutes the train slowly approached. As the door opened, I saw an older lady pouring salt all over the floor on the second train car. The salt almost covered about half of the car. I wasn’t sure what happened prior, but it appeared as though two younger kids may have been harassing her (it could have easily been the other way around though, but probably not). The lady continued to pour salt as into her shopping bags.

As I got on the train car this lady was mumbling things to herself. The doors closed. Before the train began to move, those meddling kids punched through the window of the car. Crack! Luckily no one was hurt. At the next stop (Walnut-Locust) everyone had to get off the train due to this cracked window. However, before the people started to exit the train car, this lady started to scream, “Train 666! 666! It was those kids!”  I thought this lady was possibly religious or spiritual.

When I finally got off the train, the actual train car number was 666. This can’t be good. Right. Fortunately, no one was hurt and the next train was delayed for close to 15 minutes. This is just another SEPTA Story.

Cucumber Vodka Martini

Ingredients:

2 oz. vodka

.75 oz. simple syrup

.75 oz. lemon juice

Tabasco sauce

Cucumber

Instructions:

-In a shaker, muddle 3 regular slices of cucumber, .75 oz. of simple syrup, and .75 oz. of lemon juice

-Add ice and 2 oz. of vodka

-Shake it!

-Strain into a chilled martini glass

-Add 1-2 drops of red Tabasco sauce

Put That Cookie Down, Now!

Cookies! Who doesn't love a good ol' cookie? Preferably anything with chocolate is my favorite. Oreo is by far my favorite (with a glass of milk of course) followed by Chips Ahoy. Homemade cookies are great too! Well after that being said, I try not to keep any in the house or buy them. You must be asking, "If you love them so much, why not have them"? The answer is simple, I can not control myself around a good cookie. I was having this conversation with a friend not to long ago, and he agrees. You start out by opening the pack promising yourself you'll only have one or two, maybe three. Well a few minutes later, you've just eaten an entire row. WTF! This is why you need to put that cookie down, now!

Conspiracies

For those of you that know me, I’m a bit of a conspiracy guy. Now, I don’t believe everything I hear or see, but you do have it take with a grain of salt. I’m going to try and post more on conspiracies and try to make the discussions as informative as possible. I remember being a little kid and asking my father many questions about the unknown as he was always into science-fiction as I am today. From watching television shows like the Twilight Zone, Ancient Aliens, and the X-Files… The Truth is Out There.

Aliens, UFO’s, big foot, the Loch Ness Monster, men in black, Area 51, MK Ultra, the Illuminati, etc. are just some things that come to mind when people bring up a conspiracy or the unknown. Below are some pictures of things I enjoyed growing up and still do.

    

   

           

Amendment II - Right to Bear Arms

The amendment was adopted so that Congress could not disarm a state militia. More so, that we the people of the United States can not and will not be disarmed by our government or any other government for that matter. I’m all for the second amendment and also support freedom of speech, press, assembly, petition, religion, and right to marry.

Posing with a Sniper Rifle

The main reason I’m a big supporter of the 2^nd is for self-defense. Especially if you have a family! You should do anything to defend your own grounds. I’m a tax paying, peaceful citizen and do not condone violence in any shape or form, but self-defense and preservation is a must.  

In this day and age you must be an informed citizen, unfortunately most people are not. So not to go too far off topic I wanted to talk about my first experience using a fire-arm. Guns can be a scary thing if you are not an informed person and if you do not know how to properly use them. So, as far as home defense goes, in my opinion, and you want to own a gun, I suggest to start with something small and manageable. I think a glock or a beretta is the way to go. I haven’t had a chance to use the glock, but I was happy with the use of the beretta. It is light weight and easy to handle. I’ll try to have more updates on this once I become knowledgeable and get more use of safely handling a hand gun.

Feeling the Kick Back from the .44 Magnum

Showing Off with the Boys

The Heel

[In professional wrestling, a heel (also known as a rudo in lucha libre) is a wrestler who is villainous or a "bad guy", who is booked (scripted) by the promotion to be in the position of being an antagonist. They are typically opposed by their polar opposites, faces, who are heroic or "good guy" characters.] -Wikipedia

Image:

Heelbook

Being a heel for me is the fun part of wrestling. Everyone wants to boo the bad guy and cheer for the good guy. Without the bad guy there wouldn't be a good guy to cheer for. Heels make wrestling entertaining and in today’s PG era WWE it’s hard to root for the heel. The reasons being are that wrestling (WWE) is so corporate today, the writers are clueless, and the fans are not determining who succeeds at being the heel (or Face) in my opinion.

In today’s WWE you really do not see a bad guy do things that make you want to hate them. What happened to the eye raking when the ref wasn’t looking or taking off the top turn buckle? What about giving a low blow? Basically doing everything in your power to win by not following the rules! This does not happen in main stream wrestling. For example, at this year’s past WrestleMania (30), Batista was brought back in the main event as a face. Batista will always be a heel. Fans do not want to cheer for him and it is not believable.  Wrestling used to have magic!

Yes, we know that wrestling is staged (I’m not saying it’s fake). Yes, I know they are really not punching/kicking each other, but the sport takes a toll on the body. These guys do not get enough credit for the art they do. Anyway, here is my top 10 list of heels. I’m sure this can be argued, but based on my upbringing, this works.

1. Ted DiaBiase "The Million Dollar Man"
As a kid in the 80’s I hated The Million Dollar Man. He used to put money in his opponents mouth after he won a match when they were down and out. DiaBiase even purchased the championship belt from Andre the Giant. DiaBiase always claimed that “Everybody’s got a price for the Million Dollar Man.” One moment that always stood out was when he offered money to a kid to bounce a basketball 15 times. When the kid almost got to 15, DiaBiase kicked the ball away. WEBSITE

2. Sgt. Slaughter
In reality, Sgt. Slaughter is an American Hero. He served as drill sergeant for the marines. But back in the early 90’s when America was at war in the Middle East Slaughter was supporting the Iraqi cause and turned his back on his county. He began to wear Arab attire and perform the camel clutch on his opponents. His feuds with Hulk Hogan were always memorable as I  remember my father taking me to watch house shows at the Spectrum and I remember we would make Hogan bleed and I certainly did not like that as child. Especially since Hogan would say "To all my little Hulkamaniacs, say your prayers, take your vitamins and you will never go wrong." WEBSITE

3. The Iron Sheik
Here is another guy I remember from back at the Spectrum with my father and another rival of Hulk Hogan. The Iron Sheik was originally from Iran and played the part of the heel great. He also used the camel clutch as a move and tried to break the backs of his opponents. One quote from the Sheik was "Iran number 1, Russia number 1, USA (then he would spit on the ground)." I think I still have his action figure some where. WEBSITE

4. Mr. Perfect
Mr. Perfect was the perfect ego maniac. He believed that he was better than everyone else. His signature move was called the Perfectplex. One of his funniest promos I remember was when he threw a football the length of a football field and caught his own pass.

5. Hollywood Hogan (Hulk Hogan)
Not Hulk Hogan! One of my childhood hero’s! This was big news back than when wrestling still had some mystery to it. I remember this being a story on the news and the papers. Hulk Hogan turned on the fans! There isn’t much more to say. I remember watching this at home, very memorable. WEBSITE

Honorable Mention: William Regal

Regal is by far one of the most under-rated wrestlers and heels in the business by far. He played an English snob and hi a pair of brass knuckles in his trucks. A cocky foreigner with a weapon, I mean what else do you need to play the heel?! He would use the brass knuckles often to win matches. I also remember when he also played the character of  the "Real Man's Man" builder/lumberjack style looking gimmick that was based on the image of The Brawny Man. Vignettes for the character showed him doing "manly" things like chopping wood, shaving with a straight razor, and squeezing his own orange juice.” I thought that was a riot!