I got a small break today. It was a short one, but it felt so good. With the stress of this week and everything that is going on in the country right now, it was so freeing to ride Saki again. I finally broke down and got a battery. The bad part is, that it was the wrong size, that's what I get for going cheap. I had to cut up my seat and a rearrange a few things to be able to get it in, and have my seat so that it wouldn't fly off while riding. It took some work, but I was able to finally get it in place with all the wires tucked in and ride it today for about an hour. It was probably less time, but it seemed like an hour.
Of course I snapped a couple of pictures while I was out. The other great part was riding while not being fat. Let me tell you how much more comfortable a ride was without my gut pinching my belt and stuffing myself into my jacket. The jacket was actually loose and might actually be too big for me now. I did take it easy, since it's been a year or maybe longer since I actually rode last. I didn't take the turns as fast as I would have liked, but by the end of the ride, my comfort level was going up. I few more rides and I'll be back to the old swing of things. I'm expecting that I'll only be able to ride once a week, unless I take a very early ride in the mornings after my meditation. That is if I manage to get up at 4. I might get a few of those rides in. It will give me a good reason to put the running lights on.
Huh, it turns out that that's all I have to say tonight. I'm a bit frazzled right now, so I'm going to keep it short. I can't guarantee that I'll have a Tuesday night post this week, but if I have something to say, I'll surely post. I'll make sure that I have something to say by Thursday for sure. Peace in and goodnight.
It has been a really bad week, which is mostly the reason I didn't write on Tuesday night. That and the fact that I didn't feel like I had anything to say, which goes hand in hand with the bad week. The moms has been increasingly erratic this week, and has been staying up most nights yelling and arguing with herself. That has led to me not getting much sleep at all. Last night for example. I attempted to go to bed at 10, but was kept up by her constantly entering and exiting her room and loudly talking about how dark it was. I can remember her waking me at 12:30, so I must have fallen asleep for maybe an hour. I was woken again by her arguing loudly in the hallway at 3:30, which I just laid in bed until I couldn't take it anymore and just got up at 4:10. I did my cardio and then just zoned out for a while before my meditation at 5. This has all led to some not so great eating decisions, which are mostly eating multiple times a day, and I tried adding oranges into the diet, and I think that was a bad idea. No adverse effects other than putting on weight, and it's not the good kind. I will be eliminating the oranges as soon as they are done, cause I don't want to waste food. Monday starts up back to the old way of eating. Oh and when I say weight gain, I did weigh myself this morning at 158. That's the highest I've been since last December, I believe. I don't mind being this high in weight as long as the body fat is at the right percentage, which according to the calipers has gone up 1%. I will get this all in order and back to my goal of 10%. It's just going to take a little more time. Stress eating is bad you all.
I don't usually get political on here, but you know of my dislike of Facebook, so you won't be surprise when you read what this is about. It's been reported that Mark Zuckerburg has made 34 billion dollars during this pandemic. That is atrocious, in any form. Then it came out yesterday that he believes that it isn't Facebooks responsibility to fact check prominent figures posts for accuracy. That brought me to today. Unfortunately I'm tied in to the point that I have to have a minimal presence on their, but the doesn't mean I can't take action. Today whenever I've been on there, I've blocked any sponsored add, even if I support the business. Those adds are one of the ways that Facebook makes money. The more I block, the financial presence they have on my timeline. I'm asking you to do the same. Hit them where it counts. Since they only see money, the lack of it coming in, is the only way to get back at them for their inaction.
Now for something fun. As you know, I'm a huge Harry Potter fan, which in turn makes me a JK Rowling fan, despite some of the terrible things she has said about transgender people. Yeah, you can look that up. I'm not proud of my continued support of her, but here I am. Anyway, a few years or so ago, she wrote a book that she was considering publishing, but then she went a different route with her adult themed books. She instead read the book to her children at night and they loved it, it went in the attic and that was that, but when the pandemic hit, she decided she wanted to try something different, and she dug the manuscript out, and made some changes, read it to her children again, and they asked for some changes to be returned to the original and she has decided to post it online for free. She has been posting a single chapter each day, and also instructions for a art contest based on each chapter, where winners could have their artwork published in the print copy which will be available later this year or next. The story is called The Ickabog. I will give you no details other than that, but I will give you the link so that you can read it if you so choose. This is the homepage which explains the story behind the story read that as well, and then dive into a new fantastic tale. https://www.theickabog.com/home/ I'm just going to leave it as the straight link so you can easily see it.
I could fill you up with a bunch of garden pics, but I'm choosing not to tonight. I do want to share my dinner with you from Monday. It was just cheese burgers and asparagus, but the burgers had some more reaper on them, and that reaper is truly next level heat. This was the second to last pod that I had and it was maybe the size of a nickel. I diced it up and split it between the two burgers, and the heat level was insane. I honestly don't know if I can take a raw one at this point, but I might try. I have one more pod on the plant ripening right now and I may do a video with it raw. It's a decent sized one, so it would the the proper one for a video. I can't do a video with a small pod, that just seems wrong. Here are those burgers.
Oh, that's jalapeño pimento cheese on top. It's kind of dirty keto, but still within the perameters, only 1 net carb per serving, it just has some not so good ingredients in it. That gives you a good look at that reaper, and it does really live up to its name.
Before I leave for the night, I do have to tell you about the dream I had on Tuesday morning. Since my moms hasn't been sleeping during normal hours, when I wake up for good around 4 or so, I have that time to myself. After meditating I have put on audible books to listen to, and on a few days, I've fallen back asleep, but the weird thing is that I don't seem to miss any of the book I'm listening to. In the case of this dream, I was listening to the book during the dream, anyway, this dream was intense. Out of nowhere, I came to on a plane, it pitched upwards into a loop, and then dove towards the ground. I could see the ground growing closer out the window as the plane accelerated towards the ground. I heard the screams and gasps of the other passengers, and felt myself brace and push into the seat. My breath ran short and caught in my throat as I knew the plane was going down, then a strange calm came over me as I accepted my fate and relaxed as I waited for the inevitable to happen. That's when the dream broke, and I didn't even bother to open my eyes. I felt my pulse slow down in a matter of seconds, and I continued listening to the book. It was truly unusual, and I've never had a dream like that before. The panic was real, because my heart was beating out of my chest when I woke, but just like that it was all gone. I don't know if the dream broke because I gave into the outcome, or because by doing that I knew I was in a dream, but the plane never reached the ground. I looked up what plane crash dreams meant and the mostly focus on a manifestation of anxiety, which could be a result of what has been going on this week. It was an experience to be sure.
That's all I have for tonight. Have a safe weekend, and wear a mask. Peace in and goodnight.
There are very few days that I've ever marked. I don't care about birthdays, I don't remember the exact day I started keto. The only day I can remember marking was the day I stopped drinking, January 7th 2017. I have no idea why that stuck in my head, but it has. Another date I failed to mark was the day I came out as pansexual. I know, that I could go back and find the post and look at the date, but it really doesn't matter, just like the date I stopped drinking, and that is simply because the past is just that, the past. It's the here and now that is most important. I'm brining all of this up, today is pansexual visibility day. I don't announce my sexuality except for when I came out, and of course today. The only reason I'm doing it today was some of the posts that I saw and the comments that were on them today.
Before I get into all that, let's have a little fun at the pans expense. As you all know that the pride flag consists of the rainbow. The original flag consisted of 8 colors, those being; pink, red, orange, yellow, green turquoise, indigo, and violet. What you may not know is that each one of those colors represents something. In the order of colors above, they are; sex, life, healing, sunlight, nature, magic/art, serenity and spirit. That flag was created in 1978 by Gilbert Baker. We can all agree that the rainbow is pretty cool, whether you support the lgbtqiap+ community or not. Yeah I went for the full alphabet today. The bi flag makes a lot of sense, because it is pink, blue on either side of violet, which is those two colors coming together. The transgender flag is a stripe of white with two stripes of pink and blue on either side, once again makes a ton of sense. What about the pan flag then. Basically we have the worst flag ever. Are you ready for it?
There you have it. Magenta, yellow and cyan. It looks like a hideous version of Neapolitan ice cream. I will run down the colors and what each one means, but that only leads to the confusion about pansexuals, and the comments I saw regarding the, and the need I have to clear things up. Magenta symbolizes women and those of the female spectrum, yellow symbolizes non binary, and cyan symbolizes males and male spectrum. Ok what does female and male spectrum mean? The spectrum is those that identify themselves as that gender; transgender women and men. Let's get to non binary. That is those that don't identify within the norms of societal genders; asexual, gender fluid, bigender, androgynous. Are you thoroughly confused now? Yeah, I figured you were, and I'm sure there are some questions. That's what I'm here for, I'm going to try to explain what all the means, to me. I can't speak for every pan person, but I think I speak for most.
A few of the comments on the posts I saw were asking the difference between bi and pan. In a general perspective you could see why someone would ask that. They only see men and women. It's understandable. That didn't bother me, what did bother me was the people commenting that the difference was as simple as, bi people like only men and women, and pan people want to sleep with everyone. I am paraphrasing there, but that is the sentiment of those comments. I can tell you, that I don't want to sleep with everyone. There are only a few people that I would consider sleeping with, but not all at one time. Despite what that comment would imply. I am very monogamous. So what is the difference? The short and simple answer is that a pan person looks for personality of sexuality. Bisexuals have a preference for men or women, and will sometimes lean towards one more than the other. Pansexuals don't consider gender and look more for other traits in someone. That can range from personality, physical appearance, and intelligence. If all of that is in the right package, it doesn't matter what the gender is.
I may be over simplifying the bisexual experience with that very limited definition, and that is because I'm not bisexual and can't truly define their experience, so I implore you to talk to a bi person if you truly want to know their definition of who they are. Like I said early on, I can only speak truly for myself. Now, I do have a gender leaning despite identifying as pan. The reason could be that I've only experienced dating women, but where I differ and why I identify as pan, is because I don't rule out the possibility that a different gender could attract me. When the right person comes along, I will greet them with an open heart. I must reiterate, that I do not want to sleep with anyone and everyone. I do have standards and ideals of who I want to be with, so when you see a pan shirt that says "All the butts", that may be funny, but it's nonsense and garbage.
If you have gotten this far in reading this, then I thank you. The pansexual community is vastly underrepresented. You probably didn't even know there was a pan flag, even if you are in the lgbtqiap+ community. Even the Human Rights Campaign only recognizes us on this day. I can't give them too much flack though, because they barely acknowledge the bi community either. So we will all rest easy under the umbrella of the pride flag, mostly because our flag sucks. I do hope this brings some understanding to you, and a little knowledge to help you navigate this very alphabetic world the I am a part of. Peace in and goodnight.
It's update and picture time. Which as the title denotes, it is also accountability time. That is the real reason I do these posts that could seem more like a vanity post of "look at me". As long as I have this in writing and pictures, I can't fall back on myself, or at least I hope I won't.
With that in mind, here are the numbers. I weighed in yesterday morning which is technically day 31, but I wanted a full 30 days on this one, so thats why I went for a Wednesday weigh in. That came in at 130, which was jut a touch less than when I started, and as you remember, this is no longer about weight loss, but fat loss. My waist to height measurement remained exactly the same, and the body fat calipers ticked in at slight less, but it was such a small amount I'm reading it as staying the same. That means that although I really had no changes, I have found two ways of eating that are good for maintenance. One ideal (the one I'm doing now), and one that is not exactly ideal, but can work (the carb cycling).
One big difference I've noticed is my strength level, or at least my perceived strength level. Pull-ups have been increasingly easy, as well as the new push-ups I've been doing. They aren't your standard pushups. I've been using paralettes, so that I get an insane stretch at the bottom which makes them quite a bit harder. I feel that this has also been improving my shoulder pain. Yeah it's still there.
It's picture time now. There is some difference from the last time, that could be from lighting or actually body change. I did take these picture early in the morning when the house is better lit than at night like I usually do. Anyway, here comes the vanity part.
The top picture is from yesterday while the bottom one is from right before starting my current way of eating. You can definitely see more definition, but there are also still those glaring flaws. There is also the issue of my quarantine sweats. I do feel that I'm on the right path, and I will hit my new goal of 10% body fat. It's just going to take some time.
I forgot to post a back photo last time, so this one is going back a few months, and maybe the beginning of the year. I think better lighting is definitely making the difference on this one, but there is signs of better definition. Now for the glamor shots, The first one will be the proof that I'm not flexing or "sucking it in" on the other photos.
I see those shots, and I'm happy, but not at all satisfied. I have such a long way to go, but I can't lose sight of how much further along this path that I have come. That is what you always have to look at when you are trying to lose weight or improve your physical appearance. You have a bad day and eat terribly, it's not the end of the world. It's one day. It took you years to get to the point that made you change your eating habits. After that bad day you have a decision to make, was it worth it to put all that time to get you where you are now, or do you want to give up and go back to how you were? For me, the answer is clear. I have put far too much time in this to fall to the bottom.
On a vastly different subject, I received a surprise in the mail today. Quite some time ago, I wrote about the time I went on a kind of date with a friend of mine, but it was all in an effort to set her up with a friend of mine. It wasn't until after that date when I was driving home, that I had the best date I've ever had, and that maybe I made a mistake. I won't go into all the details on why it could or couldn't have been, if you want to know more you can look for it, and no I don't remember the title of that post. Anyway, I got a handmade postcard in the mail from her today, and it put a huge smile on my face.
Also in the mail was the prequel to the Hunger Games, which I devoured. It seems fitting that the post card came on the same day as that book, since she is a huge fan of reading. The postcard is not going to be the bookmark for the new book. Not only will I smile while reading, but I'll smile because of the postcard. It was truly a special thing for her to do and I greatly appreciate it.
I could do a series of garden photos, but there really isn't anything new, except for the new seedlings that sprouted this week. It was a shock since I planted them on Sunday. It only took them a few days to sprout. It's all herbs that sprouted, so no new peppers yet. I expect them to take another week at the very least. All these herbs are more of the flowering variety, so they are mostly for appearance. I need to up the beauty factor of the garden and bring just a little more biodiversity into my life.
That's all I got for you tonight. Peace in and goodnight.
Let's get back to the mundane. I had two more red reapers ripen and I picked them for breakfast on Sunday. They were small, but I still had my worries. I went against all my instincts of survival and I diced them up and put them both in my eggs. The heat level was insane. As you may know that when you cook peppers you take some of the heat away, and then with having other food items around them, a little more heat gets sapped off. When I took my first bite of eggs, which had no peppers what so ever in them, I got hit with some high level heat. I went in for a bite with actually pepper pieces, and was astonished at the heat level. It was like eating a ghost pepper raw, which is listed at 1 million on the scoville heat units scale. What that means is, that it takes 1 million parts of water to one part of capsaicin to delete it to a level that it doesn't effect you. Ghost was the world champion for heat about 10 years ago, so you can see how far peppers have gone in that time. Since I feel my tolerance is still very low, I was worried about eating one raw. I just don't know if I'm ready, but I have to hit it at some point. I have been eating more raw peppers lately, and the heat has been manageable. These are peppers that most people would lose their minds over, so I'm feeling pretty good, but not quite there. Here are those reapers so you can see just how small they were.
That's my mini salt shaker which is about an inch and a half tall, so those were probably the size of a quarter. They still packed a ton of heat for such a small pepper. I have 4 more pods on the plant, and 3 are smaller than those, and the first one, is almost ripe. It has been taking it's time which is a little scary. It is double the size of those. I could wimp out and just put it in food to enjoy it, but what's the fun in that. I'll leave it up to you. If you want to see a video of me in pain, let me know. If enough people want a good laugh, I'll make a pod review video it, even though I don't think I'm ready to take on the challenge. Do be honest, I don't think you can ever be ready for that level of heat.
Did you know basil flowered? I didn't but it was a wonderful surprise when I found out. I walked out over the weekend and noticed something strange going on with my purple opal basil, as I got closer, I noticed that it was tiny snap dragon like flowers. They are really cool, and I hope the plant fills out more so there will be more of these tiny flowers.
By the way, the smell of that leaf is outstanding. I haven't tasted it yet, but I'm assuming that it tastes pretty good too.
I picked up more soil today, and transplanted a few more peppers into bags. Oh yeah, I did manage to finally get some bags. I found a 20 pack of 5 gallon bags at a tremendous price. The soil however, is never at a great price, so I have to buy limited amounts at a time. The 3 bags I got today were able to transplant 10 plants, 9 in bags, and one in a 1 gallon pot. I still have some soil left over, but it would only fill half a bag, so I'll hang on to it for now, because my buddy has some different varieties of bonnets coming my way, is I'll save the soil for putting them in some 1 gallon pots. This is what that large area of 1 gallon pots looks like now. I'm slowly widdeling it down.
All that dark area was where pots were, so you can see how much I've cut it down so far. I do have the plants spaced a little more than before so they take up more room then their number would before, but its still a pretty big dent.
One last garden pic and this one is a bit of a miracle. I don't know if you remember the turmeric that I was so excited about. It died off. I mean dead and gone with no signs what so ever of it. I even planted those large Chinese red meat turnips in the area where it was. About a week ago I was weeding the garden and noticed a sprout coming through. I knew immediately that it wasn't a weed, just because of how thick it was. It was strong and healthy looking. I took a pic and texted my buddy to see if he might have known what it was. He asked what had been there in the past, and I told him that's where the turmeric was. His guess was that was it. I couldn't believe it. It had died about 6 months ago, but here it was back from the grave. This is the Phoenix of plants for sure, so that is it's name. I give you the impossible plant named Phoenix.
How incredible is that? I don't know what I did to kill it last time, so I have no idea how to take care of it this time, but I'm just going to keep doing what I've been doing in that area and hope that it works. I really want some turmeric from the garden, and it has a cool looking flower.
It's that time again, Favorite Song of the Week. This one comes from a band I learned about last Friday. My buddy texted me and said, let's trade albums to listen to tonight. I sent him the self titled album from Towers of Power and he sent me Eidola's album Degeneterra. I'd never heard of them and this was one of their older albums. I instantly loved this album. It is such a great blend of sounds and genres. Since this isn't a current album I just went with the first song I could find, and it's a good one. I give you Eidola with their song "Omni: First Temple".
I hope you have a great evening, peace in and goodnight.
I really don't like Facebook. It is truly the biggest cesspool of social media. I've been muting people left and right for just stupid posts that are full of lies and misinformation. Most of them became unmuted today, and it was like everyone of their posts from the past 30 days ended up in my timeline. Then I looked and saw that they were all from today. Is this the product of the isolation, where people literally have nothing else to do either then post garbage constantly throughout the day? Go read a freaking book, or workout, make a meal, do something creative, plant a garden, there are so many things you can do besides be on social media. Yeah it's a fun escape, but you should spend all your time there. This could be the dawning of a new renaissance, but instead people choose to divide and ridicule one another. This is a time to put aside petty arguments and reach out to find the things that we have in common. This is the time to come together to help each other through this pandemic, but instead, it's; I need a haircut, I'm not wearing a mask, I need to see people. Before I lost my hair, I used to cut my own hair since high school. I figured it out, it wasn't all that hard. Any one tells me not to wear a mask they will get an ear full, and there are all kinds of apps to see people if you really want to. This is a technological age that is made for this type of global event. You can keep in touch over long distances and even see each other.
That's it for my rant, and I'm done for tonight. I'm logging off and won't be back on until Tuesday. Peace in and goodnight.
I came up with this really great idea, and it all revolves about this new found joy of make up. I won't tell you all the details, because I want it to be a surprise, but it will involve a photo shoot or series of photo shoots. A lot has to happen first though. I have to get in even better shape. I have to perfect a certain iconic look, and I have to get much better at self portrait photography. I have no trouble setting up a shot of someone else but when it comes to myself, It is beyond difficult. I can't just look through the view finder and make the adjustments. I have to use the app and my phone to take a shot, look at it, and then make an adjustment based on that shot. After all of that, it's possible to screw the next shot up even more because I over or under adjusted. I'm also going to have to find the right locations for these shots. An empty hallway would be great, abandoned building even better, and even a flat white wall would do. This is going to require that total transformation that I've been working towards. I figure to get it right, I have to increase muscle volume and decrease body fat. The body fat needs to drop by about 5% I think, and that is going to be some hard work, but I'm up for the challenge.
Next Wednesday will be the end of this 30 days, that I've been working on, and my weight has been all over the place, but body fat and waist measurements have remained the same. I'll have a better understanding of the numbers on Monday. That should tell me exactly what has been going on, and then Wednesday will be picture day for the end of the 30 days. I need to start going overboard, and I'm kind of looking forward to it.
Ok, the new mask is just ok. I don't feel fully comfortable in it, since I can feel air escaping. The masks my friend made are much more comfortable, and seem to fit tighter than this new one. Looks wise, it is fantastic, and everything I wanted. I think the comfort and fit is because it is one that ties behind the head, and maybe I haven't gotten that quite figured out yet. Anyway here is the picture of Monday's grocery getter look.
Yeah, I went full Hufflepuff, and it felt really good to fanboy out for a few hours. Oh, and I did do the eyes, and I think I nailed the look for sure. I had a plan and learned a few new things from this show on Netflix. It's called Glow Up, and it's a make up artist reality contest show from the UK. They don't go into a lot of detail on how to do things, but from time to time, they do have some good explanations of techniques to use, and this one was a called a cut crease, which works really well for hooded brows, which I have. Yeah I didn't know what that was a couple of days ago either. Anyway, this is sans mask and sunglasses so you can see the eye details.
The only thing missing from the cut crease was the glitter, which I don't have, but I'm also not against wearing. I just have to find a way to do it right for me. The eye shadow does have very feint hints of glitter in it. I was hoping for gold, but my pallet only has a coppery and silvery color that has that shimmer to it, so that's what I used. By the way, that isn't the look I need to perfect. Like I said, it's an iconic look that will be very recognizable when I do finally post pictures of it, but those will be the finished photos, no practice reveals will be coming. I need to keep you guessing on this one, and trust me, I do think you will be very surprised at what comes out of these shots. I'm really excited about this whole thing. I have lots of work to do to pull this off. Did I mention that earlier?
Ok, A few garden photos before I leave, and no I didn't forget about FSOTW. First up is a picture of some new tomatoes. These aren't ripe yet, but I had to pick them because the branch they were on was dying off, since it fell under the weight of the tomatoes on it. These are called Black Vernisssage. When they are ripe they are supposed to be a purply black three that green is, so I think the one has a couple more days, and the others have about a week to go. There are still pretty unique looking even not ripe.
I'll just put those in contrast to the Sunrise Bumblebees that I picked for tacos today, and they were ripe.
That is such a great tasting tomato. I mean you can eat it right off the plant with nothing on it, and it will blow your mind. It has a sweet and tart taste the just fills your mouth with flavor.
Last picture and this is of a pepper flower. This is one of the prettiest pepper flowers that I've seen and I've heard really good things about this pepper, so I'm really excited about this one.
I mean, just look at that. It's called a Red Rocoto, and is supposed to be a wonderfully flavorful pepper. I've gotten some real winners lately with the bonnets, which seem to be much hotter than they are supposed to be, the orange habaneros that I picked yesterday which were right on point despite their diminutive size, and of course the Sugar Rush Peach which are finally fully ripening and are maybe the must deceptive pepper there is. When you bite into it, you get a rush of orange like citrus flavor, and only the slightest hints of heat, but after you've gotten it down, the heat slowly builds to somewhere around habanero level. I can't decide if it is above or below, since the build is so slow, that it kind of lulls you into really enjoying the burn from it. Ok, I'll share a shot of the pepper I ate tonight which is the SRP I'm talking about.
Ok, time for Favorite Song of the Week, and this one goes way back to the first Muppet movie. I recently watched an interview with Paul Williams who was a co writer on the song. You may remember him as Little Enis in the Smokey and the Bandit Movies. In case you didn't know, he is a super talented musician and song writer, and is a remarkable producer that is behind some of the biggest songs of the last few decades. Anyway this is Kermit the Frog and his song "Rainbow Connection", and this was reshot and redone as if it was just him out in the swamp during the quarantine. I especially like the little touch of having Kermit turn the camera on and off at the beginning and end of the video. This will always be one of my favorite songs, and I hope you enjoy this new version of it.
This week has seemed more difficult than others, so that is why it has been more important for me to focus on self care. That means pampering myself in ways that are unorthodox. I've told you about how I've delved into eye makeup. I'm saying that as lack of a better term, since I'm all new to it. That means that I've been getting a little more bold in my choices as well. Once again, this is all in a laissez faire attitude towards what anyone thinks. I have to say, that it does make me feel much better than I ever imagined that it would. It could all be the freeing myself of the general perception of how I'm supposed to look and act has opened up some creative outlet that I didn't know that I needed. This also plays into my desire to create a whole fashion ideal around wearing masks. If my eyes are the only thing that's going to be visible, I may as well make a statement with them, and if that means it causes some people pause, to think or even be disturbed by it, then even better. This was my look today, since I had to go out to the bank to withdraw a little and I decided to risk a trip to the good ol' 7-11 for a keto friendly snack (Quest bar and diet soda).
As you can see, my eyes do stand out, but I still have a lot more to learn about how to do it all properly and get much better at it. I don't think it's too bad for a raw beginner with no teaching what so ever. I've watched a few tutorials on YouTube, but it you can watch all of those you want, and without practical knowledge of actually doing it, you will end up like that picture above. The more I do it though, the better I get, and I can take the knowledge I learn and put it to use, since I'm getting a little better feel for it with each time. This has all led me to wanting to expand from just the eyes and doing more. I have no idea which way to go from here, but I'll figure it out, and if you have any pointers, I'd be glad to hear them.
I've also learned a little more about taking better care of my skin, which I thought I always did a pretty good job of it, but turns out, I wasn't. Still, the old epidermis doesn't look to bad for a geezer. I'm also giving myself a manicure after doing this tonight. I've gotten pretty good at that, but I have been doing it longer, I only wish I had a spoonbilled cuticle pusher. Yeah I said that. I have a ceramic one, but that is more of a finishing tool as opposed to a workhorse like a spoonbill.
Oh, I did get a new mask in. Its good and fun, but it isn't as good as the ones my friend made. She really did do a good job on those masks, and I may have to beg her for some more of them soon. That is on top of all the other masks I have coming from preorder and what not. I will be wearing the new mask for a complete look tomorrow when I go grocery shopping, so make sure to check out the old Instagram for that look. Part of my manicure will be me painting my nails to make the look a little more over the top. Maybe that is what I like most about all of this makeup and manicures, is that it is a little over the top. I've always been one of those people that was unique but wanted to blend in, so that I could avoid people, and since this quarantine started, I've noticed that I've wanted to be more sociable. That goes to putting myself out there a little more to leave comments to peoples post. Even celebrities that I just admire, and it is a thrill when the reply back or just simply like the comment you leave.
I guess what I've learned from all of this, is that I want to be more sociable after all of this, and that still goes along with my believe that we should all learn to be better people form all of this, and to be more excepting of others. That could also be why I'm exploring a different creative side of myself by painting myself and wanting to take it further, to stand out even more.
To change the subject. I have a new show for you to binge watch. It's on Amazon Prime and it's really fun. It's called Upload, and it is set in the future, and people have developed a way to cheat death in a sense. The have found out how to upload your memories and consciousness to a database, where you can live indefinitely while still staying connected to your friends and family. It stars Robbie Amell, who is the cousin to Stephen Amell of Arrow fame. I've always liked the guy. He was in a short lived series where people had powers, and then he played the original Firestorm on The Flash. He also has s movie out on Netflix with his cousins called Code 8, which you may want to give a watch too. It also stars a newcomer (at least to me) Andy Allo. She is fantastic in her role as More (angel). She is Robbie's (Nathan) main connection to the real worlds as she is the tech support person that is assigned to him. I have to say that I'm quite taken with her, and am happy to announce that they have been given the go ahead for a season 2. I'll be looking forward to when they start filming since I follow both Robbie and Andy on Instagram, and I'm sure they will post something when they are back on set. It's a real fun show with the twist of a mystery added into it. That is all that I will say about it, you have to watch it to find out just how good it is, and what it's about.
Alright, I'm out of here. These nails aren't going to take care of themselves. Peace in and goodnight.
Today has been the day of constant chatter. I'm having my first moment of peace since the moms woke up this morning. It has been non stop bickering with herself, and it is both frustrating and mind numbing.
This is the new twist. She has the normal back and forth conversations, but at some point, she gets annoyed by herself and begins arguing and raising her voice to herself, and then it becomes a tempest of insults to each other. That's when I get dragged into it, and when I refuse to take a side and try to stay out of it, then the vitriol comes my way. It is truly maddening. I was hoping that a car ride would calm things down, but it was for not. It stirred up a conversation about the car ride and then an argument about who was on the car ride, and then them telling each other to shut up and stop taking credit for what the other was doing.
The good news today, is that I was up at 4:30. Managed to get everything I wanted to do in those morning hours and even fell back to sleep after my meditation. I got a good hour and half extra nap time in during that time. After rising from that nap, I had about another hour before she rambled out of her bedroom talking to herself about getting food.
That gets to the new old thing she is doing. She is back to trying to feed the other person and putting the food on a ledge where I normally don't find it until hours later, but I've been on top of it this time, and went over and put it back on her plate. She did mange to finish breakfast, as well as lunch, but dinner remains a massive struggle. I have her bowl of pork fried rice (cauliflower) sitting on the stove right now, waiting for her to come back out complaining that she hasn't eaten all day. I will then reheat that and give it to her, and she will complain about it being already eaten. It's an endless cycle.
Ok, enough of that, It's garden time. I got a picture of a Sunrise Bumblebee on the plant, but that tomato is no longer there, because Morty ate it and pulled half the plant down getting it. I wanted to strangle him.
I was going to wait until those others around it ripened up, but it is not to be. I'm going to have to start keeping a close eye on him again. He hasn't raided the other plants lately, but it's only a matter of time. I have several of them with good sized tomatoes on them, and they are going to be ready soon, which means Morty will think they are his snack aisle of the grocery store that is my backyard. I worry incessantly about the Atomic Grapes which are very low to the ground, and look like they are starting to ripen up. If he eats those, I may have to disown him. Not really, but I will put him in the house without dinner that day.
It's pepper time now, and this is all about the beauty of these little demons. The first is the Purple UFO. It's in the early stages of turning red, and although the deep purple is really pretty, this is when that pepper really starts to shine.
The next is the Yellow Fever, which is getting downright scary. It is a very big pod, and the heat level is supposed to be up with some of the hottest in the world. I've promised to make a video and do a pod review for this one when it's ready, so I really need to get my heat game back up, cause this one is going to bring it.
The golfball is there for size comparison, and because the description said that they normally get to be golfball size. As you can see, these are bigger, and with that blistering on the skin, they are obsoletely evil looking. No, the blistering has nothing to do with the capsaicin being extremely hot, it's just the way the pepper was bred to look. It would be neat though, and there really is a correlation to what the outer skin looks like for hotter peppers. That being said, I have some Aji Fantasies that aren't the hot, but have a very wrinkly texture to them.
I finally have some small but decent looking habaneros. It only took the whole fall, winter and spring for them to finally show their tasty little heads. I should be picking these this weekend and enjoying them. I hope they have some good heat.
Last of the pepper pictures for the night are the Sugar Rush Peach. I finally have some that are living up to their names. I picked the others just a little too soon, so it's going to be fun to see how they taste versus the others that I've had. You can really see the peach color in the ones that are ripe too.
When these are ripe, they are supposed to be some of the most flavorful peppers there are. I already liked the ones that I had, but I might not even had the full extent of that flavor, so I'm pretty excited about these.
One more garden picture, then I will leave you to your time. I also got some series TV viewing to get in before I go to bed. This is some garlic that I planted from a clove that I got at the grocery store. I had another one sprout on me and I got it to form some roots by soaking it in water for a few days, but when I planted it in a pot with some soil, Morty found it and ate the entire thing. I got a little more wise this time, and put the pot on the windowsill where he can't get to it, and when it's ready for a new home, it will go in the front yard were Morty's dare not tread.
It doesn't look like much now, but with some TLC I'm going to have fresh garden grown garlic in the near future. Alright, I'm out of here. I hope you have a restful weekend, I know I won't, but I'll make the most of it. Peace in and goodnight.
It's Cinco de Mayo, and we are all at home, or at least we should be. Instead of the usual taco tuesday I went with stuffed poblanos, and let me tell you, they were fantastic.
I've been working on perfecting these bad boys, and I think I may finally have it. I went with pork instead of beef this time, and I prepped everything and did the bulk of the cooking a couple hours before dinner. I let everything cool down, and then put it all together. I used aged cheddar crumbles and put some on the bottom layer, and then topped everything with the rest. Baked them for 20 minutes at 350 degrees, and went to town. I put fresh Scotch Bonnets on mine, to give it a little extra kick, and they were amazing. Last time I bacon wrapped them, and I would have this time, but I didn't have any bacon thawed out, since I used it all up for breakfast. Oh, breakfast was pretty epic as well.
No peppers in that, but I have discovered a game changer when it comes to eggs and omelets. I use fresh mozzarella. I tried it on a whim a couple of weeks ago, just to use up the mozzarella before it went bad, and it was out of this world good. This is another crumble method. It works great in scrambled eggs too. Right after pouring the eggs in the skillet, I crumble up the mozzarella. With this omelet, I put the cheese and a little bacon right down the middle, and gave it that nice double fold. I was going to go with a french omelet, but I got lazy, and just went with the good old double fold. Still fancy, just not as fancy. Yeah, I know how to make a French omelet. I'm a boss like that.
Oh, if you didn't guess, I picked half the Scotch Bonnets on the plant, and they have been on fire. I think they are hotter than the last time the plant produced them. I'm loving it, even though my tolerance still seems to be low. Which reminds me, I need to tell you about another symptom I remembered this week that I had during my illness. First the Bonnets.
I still have one more left, with two more that are almost ripe on the plant. There are about a half dozen more growing, and a few flowers right now. There is also this one, which has the classic Bonnet shape, and I will be saving seeds from it.
Look how cool that looks. That is what they are supposed to look like, but this is the first true shape the plant has produced. I"m going to really enjoy that one.
Ok, now for that other symptom I remembered. I had written off having shortness of breath, because I didn't notice it. That was until I returned to doing the two small exercises I do in the morning. I took last week off, since I was having trouble getting up before 6. One of the exercises I do is right in the beginning of my meditation practice. It's a very small but effective ab exercise that hits the transverse abdominals. You basically expel all the air in your lungs and hold that while pulling your bellybutton towards your spine. You are supposed to hold for a few sets of 20 seconds or so equalling out to one minute total. I had gotten to a point where I could hold for a full 25-30 seconds with very little effort, but during my illness I struggled to hold for 15. I didn't even think about that until yesterday morning when I was doing that exercise. It blew my mind that I didn't even consider that was a shortness of breath. It could have been attributed to my overall weakened state, but it's just one more thing that makes me believe that I actually had Covid-19. There is a testing center close by now, and they have the antibody test, but I have been hearing that they are very unreliable, so they could say that I test positive for the antibodies and not really have them. It has been one giant failure after another with all this testing, which is why I will continue wearing masks for a very long time. I should have a new one arriving on Friday, which I may debut next week. Well, see how I'm feeling when it's time to head out to grocery shop
Oh, I can tell you that the grocery store was almost empty this week, which I loved. I wish it was like that all the time, but since the state has reopened, maybe people are feeling that they can get back to their normal schedules, or perhaps they were at work. Either way works for me.
Time for Favorite Song of the Week. This one comes from a band that my buddy introduced me to about a year ago, and they are pretty awesome. The recently released a new album and in my opinion, this is the best song on the whole album. The video is weird, which is kind of one of the things they are known for. Don't get thrown off by that and listen closely to the lyrics, cause they are very important in this current climate. When you have time to adjust to a new way of thinking and a new way of life, it is also a good time to reevaluate the people around you and what you think about yourself with them. I give you Dance Gavin Dance with one of their newest songs "Strawberry's Wake".
There's a self enlightenment little ditty for you to enjoy. Seriously, give that band a chance, cause they are really good and truly care about their fans. They only released this album digitally, cause they didn't want people going out and getting sick to get the physical copy, and this was going to be their groundbreaking album. It was tracking to be their biggest album yet, and possibly the one that gets them some mainstream recognition. They gave all that up to keep people from getting sick. Lady Gaga is another one that has done that. She pushed back her album Chromatica as well as a new line from her makeup company Haus Laboratories. Theses are people that you need to support. Talented well meaning people. Give them a listen and enjoy the artistry of the music. Peace in and goodnight.
It's been a very up and down weekend. Last night the moms was up talking at the top of her voice arguing with herself about who was where and why did they lose to girls from the group. This is all part of the madness of dementia. She believes she is part of a group of women that live here now, and lately she has been losing them. Today was a bit different, in that she got mad at one of them for mimicking her, and taking credit for things she did. She told me before she went to bed (we'll see how long that lasts) to keep an eye out for her and not to believe anything she says, and that she is trying to make her look bad. It's very strange.
Yeah, I'm getting into the garden pictures early. These are Yellow Fever peppers, and they are supposed to be super hots. The look of them alone should be enough to scare you. These are some of the gnarliest peppers that I've grown so far, and they still have to ripen before they are ready. They are big too. They are somewhere between a golfball and a handball. Anyone remembers handballs. They are slightly smaller than a racquet ball. It's going to be one mean pod.
The bonnets are coming along nicely and I expect to be eating some of them this week on burgers. I may just snack on one or two of them by themselves. I'm feeling the need for heat. I had to scurry around looking for some hot ones yesterday when I got three way too mild ones when I wanted that burn. The red starfish didn't let me down though. I spared the bonnets.
These are Puerto Rican Yellows. How cool are they? They look like arrowheads, and they have that wonderful brown to green coloring on them. I'm really hoping this is a good pepper, cause this plant is loaded with them. I'd say there are around 50 pods on the plant. They better be good.
Final garden shot. I finally planted the Kew Blue in the ground, and it seems to be thriving. I just love this flower, and there are so many buds coming up behind theses flowers that it's insane. I'm kind of hoping that this plant will take over the flower garden. The plant next to it (which I can't remember what it is, but it has pretty pink flowers) is thinning out because of the heat, so if it goes, I want the Kew to take over it's area. Not a bad replacement.
This is how I spent a good portion of my morning, and I must say Pittie snuggles are the best way to start a morning.
Two show alerts. First Netflix, where there is a wonderful show created by Mindy Kaling called Never Have I Ever. It follows an young Indian woman navigating her way through life, and kind of failing in a funny way. It is wildly entertaining and I watched the whole series in a day, minus the first episode which I watched a couple of nights earlier. It's narrated by John McEnroe, which makes it ever funnier, because it makes no sense that he is the narrator for a teen girl. I'm telling you, it's funny.
The second is a show coming to Quibi. I did tell you about Quibi right. If I didn't I'm sorry, cause you missed out on the 90 day free trial, but if you sign up for the app now, you get a two week trial, and they have Reno 911 coming to that service. It looks like the entire cast came back for this, so you Goldberg's fans, Wendi Maclendon Covey is reprising her role. That will be the first show I watch tomorrow morning. They also have a reboot of Punk'd and a Sam Raimi horror show called 50 States of Fear, and yes the Oldsmobile is in the show. It did take me a couple of days, but you can watch it in landscape on your phone, but if you don't, they have some sort of algorithm or something that when you are watching in portrait mode, it changes the focus of the view, so that what is the main image in the frame is what you are supposed to be looking at. It's rather impressive, but since I stumbled onto the fact that it was shot in landscape and not with a phone, I turn my phone sideways now. Either way you do it, it's a fun app with quick bits of 10 minutes or less. Yes Quick bits is where the name came from.
Last photo. This was my Covid look today. Pepper mask, sunglasses and Bowie. I was speaking with a one of the greatest people in the world on Friday, who just happened to call me out of the blue to check in on me, and we were talking about how the mask is going to be a main part of our going out wardrobe for the foreseeable future. I plan on making it a fashion statement, and I have a hoard of masks coming, and looking at getting even more. Listen, my goal is that I don't have to wear a mask all the time, but I will from now on, whenever I'm sick, to not spread anything, but for the time being, the Covid virus is still out there, and whether I've had it or not, I'm still acting like I could spread it ro it could spread to me. The sad thing is, that the vast majority of people aren't doing the same, so this virus is going to last a very long time, which means I will be sporting mask and not going anywhere to stay with large groups until it is truly safe. Follow my Instagram @counterfeitsquirrel for my Covid Casual looks. Whenever I have to go out, I will be posting a picture of what I'm wearing. It's a fun way of dealing with a crappy situation. Wear your masks people, the more people that do, the sooner this virus will run itself out. Peace in and goodnight.
