Love this painting.

I thought I would share this painting, as I have always found it fascinating. It is called "The Persistence of Memory" by Salvador Dali. I like most of his paintings as they all seem to come from the dreaming world. 

Year of Travel

         This year has really turned into a year of travel for me and my wife. After returning from my deployment my wife and I have been going on one trip after another. In fact I my have been home a total of about 1 week in July. My trips have included Vegas, St.George, Cape Cod, Boston, and a week long family trip with my in-laws to their beloved Moon Lake. That is only what my travels have been in the last two months.
         The crazy thing is that I am not done traveling yet. I still have two more trips for the army planed, one to Tennessee, and the other to Chicago. But then my wife and I have also been planning a trip with two of our best friends for three weeks to travel Ireland, Scotland, and parts of England.
        So ya we have some busy times ahead for us. I am happy that we are getting so much of this traveling done though. this year combined with next year will get the bulk of our planned adventures out of the way and get us one step closer to preparing to have kids. 

Final Days

In the first couple months the world seemed to be in denial. Everyone was seeking second third and fourth opinions, however once they all came back with the same “we’re screwed” answer, that’s when suicide rates went off the charts, as well as humans really began to show their true colors.

And it all began when those Scientists who made the world wide announcement that life on earth was about to come to an end because our closest astral neighbor went Super Nova. Alpha Centauri, a name that was once only talked about by high school teachers and the Star Trek nerds was now spoken with fear, hate, aw, and even by the dooms day fanatics with excitement. I can remember when you asked the average person on the street what a Super Nova was they would respond “Is it a show on PBS?”

In the months that followed, people raided the stores for food, weapons, and building supplies. You suddenly had millions of people planning on building fortified bunkers, all hoping to outlive the apocalypse, but the problem was even if bunkers could save us from our looming death, most people didn’t know how to build them. Those who did weren’t for hire as they were focusing on their own time left. Like me. Money was useless as what would you do with it in a few months anyways. Not that I was wanting to build myself a bunker, I just didn’t want to spend what time I had left on a useless endeavor. Who would want to live the rest of their lives in a little bunker anyways?

No, I left for my family’s cabin once the raiding and pillaging began. I loaded what supplies I had at home into coolers and boxes in the bed of my truck and made for my dad’s cabin that he had left me before died. My only company was my best pal, Winston, a big white American Bulldog.

 On my way out of the city people were literally rioting in the streets. I had to fire my 9mm pistol into the sky on multiple occasions to clear the path in front of me. Once I even had to return fire at a man trying to shoot my tires out as I drove past.

What should have been a three hour drive to my cabin had turned into a 15 hour trip. I was beginning to put the different people I came across into one of three main groups, Religious Fanatics, Final Day Adventurers, and those who I and Candice, a woman I had helped one day, justly called Savages.

            As you can imagine, the Religious Fanatics were praying to whatever divine being they worshipped for help, aid, forgiveness, and peace. They gathered in massive prayer groups in churches, parks, and even city centers. In fact, churches, temples and mosques had become fortresses for their religious followers, make shift walls and fences were being erected from old vehicles and other random debris lying around. And debris was the only supply in abundance. These encampments were actually some of the safest places to be, as they were almost all very well armed, and had the safety in numbers thing working for them.

            The Final Day Adventurers were the people that wanted to go out with a bang. They traveled, mostly by foot and boat, as most other transportation had shut down and as there was no one to man or maintain the buses and airplanes. They were the people that I envied, as they seemed to really be enjoying themselves. Travel and adventure seemed to do their hearts good, as they were living life impulsively, like they had always wanted to, yet things like responsibility and duty held them to their schedules. But who needs schedules when the world is ending? And I am still amazed at how many people actually began to really live when faced with the last year of life.

The Savages, men and women that threw “The Golden Rule” out the window, and moved so far past what had been accepted as morally right, that they were being viewed as inhuman by everyone else.  They looted, and raided everything that they could, and rape and murder was their favorite past time. The strange thing was, it wasn’t only the criminals and ruffians that you would have expected, but many of them had been respectable members of society like soccer moms, or fire fighters. I had considered this for a time, wondering how normal mundane people could regress into such vicious and brutal behavior. I finally settled on a few reasons, one would be that maybe they had experienced that treatment and was feeling that in order to no longer be a victim they had to victimize. The other thought was, maybe it was a power thing, and by taking and doing whatever they can before the world ends, gives them some sense of control over their lives. Regardless of why, they were scary, and after about month four, there was almost no military or law enforcement agency that remained intact, as no one wanted to spend their last days away from family and friends. This left the world up to total anarchy, and open for the Savages to torment. 

That woman I mentioned earlier, Candice, I came across her and her two children as Savages captured and robbed them. Candice herself was actually being forced to the ground by a particularly disgusting Savage trying to have his way with her, right there in front of her two crying kids. I shot the man and forced his two buddies to back with my weapon, Winston helped by barking and growling at them menacingly as I ushered Candice and her two kids into my truck. I dropped the three of them off at a nearby settlement of Religious Fanatics, with a “good luck” and “live well.” Winston left them with streaks of slobber on their faces.

            And now I come to my own situation and the roughly five days until the radiation and gravitational disruption actually ends all life on earth. I say “end” rather than “destroy”, because after witnessing the past year of behavior from my fellow humans, I see that we were more than capable of destroying ourselves, as it was us that burnt and destroyed our buildings, and turned our world into a brutal place to live. Apparently we didn’t want to wait for the apocalypse.

            So I have hunkered down in my Rocky Mountain cabin. It has no electricity as it relied on a generator that has long since run out of fuel. I have managed to live by hunting and foraging the little garden that we had planted. I am, and have been the only person in this cabin, with the exception of Winston. Together he and I have hunted, and defended our little piece of temporary real-estate until now we are alone. Sometimes we walk up the trail behind my cabin that leads to a ledge that overlooks the Salt Lake City Valley. A city that I had learned from my travels was one of the cleanest and well maintained in the U.S., however looking at it now one could never tell that. The valley is filled with columns of smoke from fires and burning buildings, and at night the once vibrant city lights are almost all non-existent, save for the handful of colonies set up by the Savages and Religious Fanatics.

            I have spent most of my time documenting this past year in my journals, as well as writing everything that I can remember about our history and achievements. I have built a stone memorial from the rocks and concrete that I had stored up here, originally hoping to build a stone hunting shed. I am preparing to load all of these journals and even some flash drives and my laptop that’s battery died months ago in a time capsule that I have sealed from the weather with some old roofing plastic.  My hope is that if another intelligent race exists and every stumbles across this planet, that is soon to lay in waste, that they can learn more about us than this year of self-destruction. Like poetry, painting, architecture, music, and some of our scientific achievements.

            So I bid whoever reads this to learn from our mistakes, and to remember me and my dog Winston.

Jacob Daniel Adams

Born September 1984, Died November 2014

and

Winston Adams

Born June 2006, Died November 2014

Badges of Clan Mackenzie

        Above are the two Mackenzie Clan Badges. The one on the right is the most common, and the oldest one, depicting rocks on fire and the phrase "Luceo Non Uro" which means "I shine not burn". The left badge depicts a stags head and the phrase "Ciudic'N Righ" meaning "Help the King".
        The second badge motto and stag's head come from the heroic rescue of King Alexander III by Colin MacCoinneach in 1263 who saved the king from a charging stag by shooting it dead with an arrow. For this deed and for his victory at the battle of Largs against the Danes in 1263, he was awarded the lands of Kintail, the free Barony of Kintail, the arms of a golden stag's head with a trickle of blood from between its eyes on a blue background and the right to be the hereditary Royal body guard (a tradition that was upheld until the battle of Pinkie in 1547).

Clan Mackenzie

      Above is Eilean Donan Castle, former seat of the Clan Mackenzie/ McKinney in Scotland. Having spent much of my free time in the past year working on my families genealogy I was able to find that my great great grandmother on my fathers mothers side was of the McKinney Clan.
       Her name was Angeline McKinney, born in the state of Virginia in 1855. She was the third generation born in the U.S. and I have been able to trace their coming over from Ulster Ireland. Upon further research of the clan history I was able to see that it originated in the Highlands of Scotland.
        The reason I have found this all interesting and wanted to share it on my blog is because I will be traveling on a trip to Ireland, Scotland and England with my wife and two of my best friends. We will be visiting this castle and many more like them. We had decided to go visit it before I had managed to track my family history back to it. I am all the more excited to see it and the surrounding lands, and get a real feel for where some of my family came from.
        I will be adding more about my family history and genealogy, as well as some pictures of the sites related to them. Don't be surprised if you see a lot about Clan Mackenzie being posted over the next few months.

"The Fallen Angel"

This is a picture of my favorite sculpture. It is called "The Fallen Angel". The actual sculpture sits upon a tall pillar in a park in Spain. It is positioned in such a way that as long as the sun is in the sky, it always appears that the light is shining down directly on the sculpture, giving the illusion of a heavenly light above.
I often find myself looking at pictures of this sculpture and admiring its beauty, loosing myself in its various pieces of symbolism. Because of this I wanted to share it on my blog.

"Do you see that Little Girl?"

Do you see that little girl?


Do you see that little girl there on the street?

She is walking around in her bare feet.

Do you see how she smiles and how she frolics around?

The sadness in the world she has not yet found.



Do you see this little girl without a care in the land?

How she sits there and plays content in the sand.

Do you watch her with love and hope in your eyes?

Or is it that you watch with tears and sighs?



Do you see that little girl sitting all alone?

Crying to her self next to her mothers stone.

Why should this girl have gone through so much pain?

Even most adults would have been driven insane.



Do you see that little girl standing by the grave?

"Why did mommy die, why wasn't she saved?"

What do you say when you see innocents die?

How do you prove that faith isn't a lie?



Do you see that little girl looking for strength?

Who will explain to her, life in great length?

She cry's and she weakens, her foundation starts to crumble.

Our explanations we give her we always seem to fumble.



Do you see that little girl who has become a young lady?

Standing by the grave of the mysterious lady.



"Mother you left me when I was so young...

....and I have forgotten that song that you sung...

Why oh why mother did you leave me this way?

I am lost and confused, and I can't find my way.

Please oh please mother come home, come to me.

Your little girl needs you. Mommy oh please!"



As the tears fall down her cheeks as she turns to walk away,

She hears a voice that prompts her to stay.



"Daughter oh daughter I've never left your side.

I have been with you throughout your emotional ride.

I left when I did because it was my time,

there were others who's need for me was greater than thine.

Do not be sad, and have nothing to fear.

I will continue to walk with you until your last year."



The girl stood there choked up from tears.

She felt like she'd keep crying for years.

"Thank you mother" she managed to say.

It wasn't until she later that she thought of more to say.



Do you see that little girl, there on the street?



-By Matthew Johnson

Heart of Ice

     I thought that I would share a few of my older poems that I had received the most feedback from when last I posted them on an older website years ago. They were from a time when I was going through some emotionally turbulent issues with my family. I do feel that many of these poems capture the emotions of that time of my life. I hope you all like them, and here is the first of them:


Heart of Ice

It takes years to earn trust, but moments to break it.

But what if the trust was never there?

What if all that ever existed was the lies and deception taught me?

What if through those lies and deception a voice cried out "Don't listen, I'm hear!"

What do you think now that I broke free of those chains you placed me in while I was young?

Now that my heart beats in the way that I choose it to.

Now that my eyes are on a place you denied me.

My destiny, my fate.

Not the one you thought would be better, but one that I wove for myself.

You judge me for choosing a path with my heart and soul, but how will you be judged for keeping me a prisoner on the close minded path?

Many see me as an associate of you, on your path.

So I am guilty by association.

You say that the path I am on is one to "evil and emptiness."

Those cowards who fear what they don't understand call the things beyond them evil, or dark.

As for the emptiness, my heart only grows more and more empty towards you.

How dare you judge me! How dare you tell lies to my brothers!

It is true, the past few months my heart has been growing cold, till now it is ice!

Can you see me through the blizzard that you helped me wonder into?

When you look in my eyes, you will see that emptiness, and you will feel a coldness that could freeze the very ocean it self!

Your disappointment is clear on your face, but how is the disappointment that I wear for you?

Does it show?

Do you even know?

Do you even see the fact that you have let me down?

Of course not, you are blind, I give you too much credit by asking you these things!

Do you see your son? Do you see how cold his heart has become?

Maybe one day you will see.

But if or when that day comes will my heart have dethawed?

We'll see... we'll see.


By Matt Johnson

Welcome!

     This will be the first of many posts to come. I will be using this blog to discuss a variety of topics that interest me. They will be far ranging from outdoors activities, such as boat building, boating, scuba diving, backpacking, and shooting, to movies, T.V. shows, poetry, and creative writing.

I chose a rat theme for most of my online life because I respect a rat's ability to endure and survive, as well as their environmental adaptability. These are all traits that I admire and try to emulate in my own life.