My name is Josh and I’m 15 years old. In my free time I volunteer, go to metal concerts, and play video games. This blog is meant to be a record of things I experience, enjoy, and learn. This could be from concerts to personal projects. For the most part it’s just something for future me to look back on.
People who know me well often describe me as curious, analytical, and all over the place. The MBTI types me as INTP-T. I’m a split between The Loyalist (Type 6) and The Investigator (Type 5) according to the Enneagram. My CliftonStrengths top 5 are analytical, strategic, restorative, developer, and context. I score highest in Extraversion, Neuroticism, and Conscientiousness on the SPI-27. My top trait in the Big Five is Openness.
Below are my socials and my blog
I don’t really post on social media much but here are my socials
- How I almost killed my Dracena plant (Update)
Context
For anyone who doesn’t know, last week my Dracena plant got a fungal infection, and I made a post about it. In summary, the post said that I gave my Dracena plant a fungal infection due to overwatering and inadequate airflow. I’ve been nursing it and this post is going to be about my new care plan and how I fixed it. For anyone who doesn’t know a Dracena plant is a part of the Dracaena family. Photo of a Dracena plant below.
Source: BHG / Phoebe Cheong How I nursed my Dracena plant to health
My Dracena plant has recovered, but the recovery process was a little worrying. I first had to cut off all the infected leaves totaling about 6 leaves. However, the guide I used said if a leaf only had a little bit of rot that it did not need to be cut. That turned out to be bad advice and allowed the infection to spread further. This led to me cutting off all of the infected leaves no matter the amount of rot. Anyways, after that whole ordeal I learned that watering with distilled water would be better than using my hard city water, especially due to the infection. I also bought a little usb fan for it to improve airflow. In the meantime of waiting for shipping, I’m just pointing my box fan at it.
By day 5 of the infection there were nearly no signs of infection and I could see new growth on the leaves I cut. This fungal infection has taught me a lot about how to treat my plant better. I’ve attached a photo of the new growth below.
My Dracena’s new growth New Dracena plant care plan
I plan on watering it with distilled water every time the soil dries out. Watering only until a couple of drops come out through the drainage hole. However, can’t leave my window fully open due to bats flying in, so I’m just leaving it open about an inch and pointing a fan at the plant 24/7. One problem still remains in that I don’t really know how I’m going to give my plant fresh air during the summer, but I’ll probably figure something out.
What I’ve learned from this
- Neutralize infections early no matter how small
- Watering with distilled water is better for plant health than hard tap water
- Overwatering is very harmful to plants
- Metal Concert at The Inkwell For Ann’s Birthday
Yesterday, I attended a metal concert at The Inkwell. For context, The Inkwell is a venue in Allentown, PA, and honestly one of the best spots for live music in the city. Last night they hosted a concert celebrating Ann Schlottman’s birthday. The bands that played were So Much Hope, Buried., Heartbent, Watersdeep, and Dead Within Days. I personally enjoyed Dead Within Days the most but the other ones were really good aswell.
So Much Hope, Buried.
So Much Hope, Buried. is a post-hardcore band from Wilkes-Barre, PA with a vocalist who plays the piano. You may be wondering, “A metal band that plays piano?” Yes, you heard that right, their lead vocalist Derek Nowak sings while playing the piano and it’s pretty awesome. Their guitarist is Andrew Blank and their bassist is Gavin Jacobs. Their drummer, Eric Novroski, is their producer aswell. This is because they are independent in order to allow them to go in whatever direction they want to without a label controlling them and that’s really cool.
So Much Hope, Buried. performing at The Inkwell Heartbent
Heartbent from North Carolina is an emo band, but they mostly focus on the aspect of vampires. More specifically the dark romance aspect. It’s not what I typically see at The Inkwell. It was a strange but nice change of pace. Their lead singer is Alex Folmer and he’s an especially interesting character. Elle Boyd, their bassist, was not there so I have no comment. The rhythm guitarist is Nate Crespo. However, he played bass this time around and did great. Neel Massey, their lead guitarist, was a pretty chill guy judging from our conversation after their set. Austin Collins was their drummer and was awesome.
Heartbent performing at The Inkwell minus guitarist Watersdeep
Watersdeep coming from Washington D.C. is a emo/post-hardcore band much like So Much Hope, Buried. but including elements of metalcore. Gabe Jaar is their lead vocalist and the guy really likes rubber ducks. So much that he sells signed ones at his merch stand. They also have a giant one that they typically would throw into the crowd but they didn’t this time around due to concerns about damaging the paintings on the walls of The Inkwell. Photo of the duck below.
Ducky Moving on, their guitarist is Tanner Campos, Ize Ryan is their bassist, and their drummer is Rohan Enamandra. The lead singer also mentioned that this was his first time in Allentown, and that he was a little nervous.
Watersdeep performing at The Inkwell Dead Within Days
My favorite band at the venue by far was Dead Within Days. From New York, their lead singer is blind. They play mostly hardcore punk and metalcore. Their lead, Joel Sofia, as I mentioned is blind and he kept mentioning that he was nervous to fall off the stage due to being unable to see the edge. Robert Pepe, their guitarist, is genuinly chill based on our conversation after the set and before. The secondary guitarist is Matt Chinkel, with their bassist being Tom Bove, and their drummer being Anthony Latorre. I also may be a little biased due to them giving me a free shirt.
Dead Within Days performing at The Inkwell Free shirt from Dead Within Days
The reason they gave me a free shirt was because while I was checking their social media I saw that they made a post about being able to get a free shirt if you’re one of the first 5 people to use their new song The Cutting Edge on any Instagram post. I made a post and thought for sure that I wouldn’t get anything but then they messaged me saying that I won and they asked for my address to send the shirt in the mail but when I mentioned that I would be at their concert tonight and that they could just give it to me there they said that would be fine.
Then, when I got there I showed the guy at the merch stand the DMs and he seemed confused. He said I was probably talking to Robert their guitarist. When he brought him over we talked for a bit and I told him how I was just checking the bands out before I came, stumbled upon their social media post, and so on. We talked for a bit and then he gave me the shirt. It’s a really cool shirt and I’ll include a photo below of what it looks like. Overall, it was an awesome concert.
Free shirt from Dead Within Days Shows like this are a real reminder of how strong the local scene really is. Every band brought a different style, and the crowd made the night unforgettable. If you’re in the Allentown area and haven’t checked out The Inkwell yet, you’re missing out. Happy birthday Ann, it was nice meeting you
- How I Almost Killed My First Dracena Plant
Context
I got a Dracena plant for Valentines day, and within weeks I thought I killed it. The Dracena plant apart of the Dracaena family is a green colored, wavy leaved, and poisonous plant. Below is an image that shows what it looks like
Source: BHG / Phoebe Cheong Care
As you can see the Dracena plant is very pretty. However, the photo has more wavy leaves as opposed to my plants more spiny leaves. To add on to the beauty of the plant the care isn’t that difficult. It’s supposed to be kept it in moderate sunlight and watered whenever the soil dries out.
Fungal infection
I did this, but I may have been overwatered which likely lead to the infection that caused some of my leaves began showing brown spots with yellow outlines. Worried, I searched up what this meant, and apparently it is a fungal infection from either a lack of airflow or overwatering. This would make sense due to it being in my bedroom. In order to solve this problem I first cut off the infected leaves and have started leaving my window open and watering more moderately. I also plan on getting a usb fan for my plant and maybe starting to water with distilled water.
What I learned so far
- Airflow matters heavily for indoor plants
- Removing infected leaves early is important for minimizing damage
- Overwatering can cause fungal problems
The problem with leaving my window open
This however opens a new can of worms and by that I mean when I leave my window open, particularly at night, bats fly into my room. I know this from experience because one night I woke up to a bat flying around my ceiling. The reason that they can get in my window is due to the fact that about a year ago my screen fell out and broke. I couldn’t figure out how to get it back in my window so what I’m probably going to do is nail it into my window. Anyways, This was my first blog and I hope my plant gets better. I’ll update this post in a week to see if the fungal infection gets any better. Photo of my Dracena plant below for anyone who wants to see it.
