Update. Iโve been with Harley-Davidson for a little over a year now and I love it. Never wouldโve thought Iโd land here but hey if you need to buy/sell/trade your motorcycle in the DMV area I got you homie ๐ค๐ฝ
New guitar! Been wanting a 7 string for quite sometime and have unfortunately come to outgrow Vera. Introducing a new to me ESP LTD EC-407! Incredible feel, sets up and plays really well, monstrous tone. All thatโs left it to name it
This lady is about 30ish minutes from me. No surprise thereโs flooding in her tunnel. We just had 2-3 straight days of rain, not to mention dc and some surrounding areas are built on top of whatโs really swampland. Fuckin idiot
hereโs a random opinion I remember my granddad had and a fun story I tell almost everyone. ๐งต๐ต
to summarise, my grandfather thinks that more people should stand their ground and beat up monkeysโฆ. yup
context: in the last half century my grandparents told us that they saw in real time the behavioural changes in monkeys in their area of Thailand.
how before monkeys used to be timid scaredy cats who will merely scream and charge at you as a test on their worst days (usually during the dry summer when food was scarce)
before tourism monkeys would learn that locals WILL whack them on the head, throw things at them and scare them away etc but now they test their luck bc tourists are easily intimidated.
this is why monkeys often attack tourists and they scout for backpacks/approach humans they think have food.
the reward is just way too high and the risk is low for them.
my grandad hypothesised decades ago that the solution isnโt to just stop giving them food (they are intelligent and will rob you)
he made a suggestion to his local council way back in the 80s for the government to deploy guards in tourist heavy areas whose job will be to scare and by extension control monkeys behaviour. call it human x monkey relations if you will
however, this โsolutionโ might put tourists (especially children and the elderly) in more danger as over time the monkeys will be able to distinguish guards from regular tourists and go after the vulnerable groups.
so with that being said my fondest memory of my grandad was listening to his righteous and often comical stance on this super niche subject. I think he may have been autistic.
he would chuckle to himself while saying โyou only need to punch them in the face once and they will be scared of you forever I promiseโ
when me and my brother were 2 and 6 my grandad took us to a national park to prove his theory.
We stopped in the middle of the road beside a large hill face. this exact area is famous for this one particularly massive troop of macaques.
there mustโve been 100 individuals there at least. it was the largest monkey troop Iโd ever seen in my life.
my grandad got out of the car and walked up to a group of macaques with a bag of snacks filled with nuts and sweets.
almost immediately the standout largest male with fangs so long they looked like fingers approached him with aggression.
It was then I saw my little 76 year old grandfather punched an animal half his size in its face.
the monkey looked spooked and let out a huge screeched then fled into the dense forest as my grandfather turned around smiling proudly while 30+ onlooking tourists took photos.
My whole family was shook as the entire monkey troop fled and for the remainder of the trip non of the monkeys dared to approach our family and non were aggressive.
even when some individuals approached us for food (we were in our car) they would quickly run back into the dense forest at the sight of my grandfather.
For the rest of the trip my grandfather spoke proudly of his action and told everyone โsee, I was rightโ and till this day I still die of laughter.
so if you get anything from this story it should be that monkeys are more scared of us than we are of them. if it comes down to it, you should probably punch one in the face.
this album took years to make. i truly believe this record to be timeless. metal with no sub genre. no skip aggression. thank you to everyone that has listened.
Ian Watkins (ex-Lostprophets) has been brutally stabbed in prison and is currently in critical condition.
He is currently serving 35 years as a convicted child sex offender.