A Sad Start to June (Blog 521)

I’ve been sorting through emails for one of the Metal Rules members of staff for a good 7 or 8 years now (on and off, I mean), but for an unexplained reason, the email site has been closed by her, as has her Facebook page. There will be no more starring of important emails, resulting in a cool animation of stars appearing and then fading away; there will be no more lighthearted conversations on the social media site about how annoying the email service can be; and there will be no more special events where I put a large number of messages in a row in just one folder. By that I mean there were folders for interviews, album reviews, news, book reviews, etc., and if I were to put 4 or more messages in a row into the album review folder, with no news, etc. I would get very excited. I think the largest amount in a row I ever did was 7 or 8!! I also used to love it if I got a message at say 1:34 PM or whatever and I speedily put the message in a folder in that exact same minute. Well, now that’s all gone. :( Not only that, I broke my Metallica mug. On the plus side I’m still reviewing for the site, I’d go mad if I didn’t get a break from Wiedemanncomedy.com. I was a little bit cheeky in one of the June reviews, I basically made fun of the rushed promo package I received and was worried I’d have to redo my writing, but my creative freedom was respected and I was indeed allowed to mock the band. On the plus side I gave the album a high score, putting things right.

It was a very frustrating if not scary experience when I tried to download an album that had been sent to me via Dropbox, and the sharing site said my email address wasn’t valid, even though the site makes it very clear that the address I entered was in fact the right one. WHAT ARE YOU ON ABOUT?? Not only that, there were error messages when I tried to download the files. Oh no. I can’t work out how to use Dropbox. That’s embarrassing, it’s not exactly complicated task, it probably doesn’t even qualify as a skill. Not to worry though, I tried again the day after and the download worked! Great, right? No, because I got sent another album through Dropbox and the experience was so horrible I decided to review the album by visiting the band’s Bandcamp page and listening to it, there. Another blow to my self-esteem. It could be an issue with Dropbox, it could be an issue with me not really caring about technology in general and my attitude I’ve had since secondary school which is ‘screw it’. No, no! I’ve tried downloading the problematic Dropbox file again, and it’s worked! Maybe the site was just going through some kind of phase! Wow, I’m SO relieved. For the 1st of July, I will be reviewing Culak again! I said the artist released the best album I reviewed in 2023, and I said his 2nd album was the 7th or 8th or whatever best album of 2024. I clearly have the numbers 7 and 8 on my mind a lot and rightly so, one symbolises luck the other symbolises prosperity!

Changing the subject massively, I’ve had a patch of dry skin on my arm for about 3 years now because I keep sleeping on a bit of drool. Why? Because of the pesky side effects of the medication I’ve been on since I was 15. The dribbling is now at least partially treated with anti-drooling meds, but there is still a problem. Well, today I finally decided to do something about it and visited a pharmacist. I asked for some moisturiser and was hoping for no follow up questions as I thought it was embarrassing. I was asked if I could show my arm and… phew! No cries of horror! However, I was asked how long I’ve had the dry skin for. No, she couldn’t know, so I changed the subject by saying I got the dryness from sleeping on my drool and that worked. Then again, maybe it was for the best if I was being honest. Doesn’t matter though, as I got the cream I wanted. Win! I’ve had the cream on me for about 2 and a half hours now, I took it off to see things were going and I’m very happy to say it’s made a noticeable difference already! All those years of having dry arm anxiety and it was nothing to worry about at all! I’m not sure what I’m going with a whole tub of the medicine that looks like it will last at least 10 years, but at least it wasn’t expensive! What a rollercoaster of a day! Bye!