I survived another Christmas. Did I mention that this is my least favorite holiday. I never feel more alone than this time of the year, and it down right sucks, but enough of that. I have a few television recommendations for you. The first two are on Disney +, so I'm hoping you have that so that you can see these two animated movies. The first one is Ron's Gone Wrong. Without giving anything away it's about a boy and his robot, but it's more than that of course. It's real fun and heartwarming which is exactly what I needed to get through this week.
The second is more of that fun and heartwarming feeling, but has a cultural aspect that I really enjoyed. I like seeing the world through a different lens. It kind of took me back to when I visited New Mexico for the first time and was able to look around and see that no one looked like me. It was refreshing and so is this movie. What's the movie? Well it's Encanto and it's really fun with great animation. I did make the mistake of reading comments on a Disney post about the film and it was exactly what I expected. Please don't be like those people and look at cultural diversity with an open mind and heart. We can only learn from each other, and that is a gift.
Last film recommendation comes from Netflix and it's a new movie that stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence, although it's really an all star cast. They just happen to be the leads. It's called Don't Look Up, and yes it is an analogy for the climate crisis but you can also correlate it to something else that just happens to be going on right now. It's a dark comedy, but is pretty poignant and quite terrifying in it's accuracy of the current human mentality. Once again without giving anything away this kind of falls in my belief that if there was a god and he had a son, and he sent him back for the second coming, there is a certain faction of people that would absolutely dismiss him as lunacy based on their fundamentally misguided beliefs. This isn't me saying religion is wrong, this is me saying that certain people within religion would simply denounce their own savior because they simply believe they are right and can't be wrong. Anyway, watch all three of those movies if you can. You will enjoy them.
There really isn't a whole lot for me to talk about this week, hence the starting out with some recommendations. I have decided on a couple of things to do when my mom goes for her visit to that hospice house. I of course am having work done on my car, it's just maintenance stuff, but important, so I can get that out of the way. I'm also planning a long and perusing visit to the record store. I've always been constrained to someone else's time so I don't really get the chance to truly appreciate what is there. Although I broke my eating yesterday with a few sweet treats, I'm extending the 4 weeks until the 7th of January, so I can enjoy that time to myself. This coming week would be week 4 and I would be on my off week on Jan.3rd, so I'm just extending the clean eating for 4 more days. I plan on having another latte, Yeah I know I'm going crazy.
The 7th is also a pretty big day for me in general. That will be the fifth year anniversary of my last drink. I've had several thoughts on this, all from maybe I should break the streak and have a drink, just to see what it would do to me, or to actually celebrate the fact that I've successfully gone 5 years without a drink. The having a drink thing would be more of a science experiment to me, but I don't think it's a necessary one. I've never tested the drinking on keto thing. Keto supposedly drastically weakens your tolerance, which was something I had a plethora of before I quit. I doubt I could drink now what I did then regardless. What this brings me to, is that I'm not going to do that test and simply do something a rarely do and acknowledge a pretty lofty accomplishment and that is 5 years of sobriety.
Ok, Favorite Song of the Week comes from a pretty iconic band that I recently became more enamored with thanks to my buddy, and this song oddly enough I first heard as a sort of cover in a video game. The band is none other than Pearl Jam and the song which I heard first on the video game The Last of Us 2, is "Future Days". It's beautiful yet haunting. I find it sad, but I'm sure most other people will get a different emotion from it. I'm just coming from a different place than most people. I'm hoping you will go search out Joel's version from the game, but I'm going to share with you the original PJ version, so here is Pearl Jam with "Future Days".
My current goal is to learn that song on guitar. I've been lacking in anything creative and that includes picking up the guitar or ukulele. I miss it very much but whenever I try to get the urge to pick either of them up, something stops me. This has created a pretty dark existence for myself and I'm hoping this song and the gifts that my buddy gave me will spark something. I still want to write and draw and create, but I'm struggling with actually doing it right now. I've always liked a challenge, so my new challenge is to break this dark cycle. I'll let you know how that goes. Peace in and goodnight.
I thought I'd start off with a coffee update. I'm currently having a cup while I write this. Still Dunkin but this was a different' flavor. Mind you these are the pods. This one is Caramel Me Crazy, while the other I got was French Vanilla. This one is not my favorite. It smells nice, but it tastes burnt, which is a bummer. There is very little caramel flavor in it, so I'm going to stick with the French Vanilla for now on, but I have to use up all the caramel pods first which kind of sucks. Oh well, maybe I'll develop a taste for it by the time I'm done.
Got some pretty rad news this week, when the social worker from Hospice called me. This was a temporary SW (not sex worker but social worker, yeah I saw the mistake right after typing it) and she filled me in on a few of the things that they offer clients. One of which was a respite at their Hospice House. They are staffed 4-1 nurses to patients and each patient has their own room for up to 5 days a week. They say this is for my benefit so that I can get a break, but I see it as more as a benefit for my mom since she will be in a protective environment and get to meet and see new people. I honestly don't know what I'll do with myself with all that free time. I've planned her visit to coincide with a service appointment with my car. I was struggling with a way to figure out how to get this done and the answer was gifted to me. Maybe I'll see a movie or something. I'm hoping to maybe do a review or two with The Pepperoni Report, but who knows. By the way, if anyone wants to hang out between Jan.7th-Jan.11th, hit me up. I'll have free time, but expect to see me in a mask.
Speaking of mask, new cases are on a rise again, especially here in Florida where our Governor has chosen the let's let everyone get it approach. I can't find a testing site anymore, but there's a monoclonal antibody site right outside my neighborhood. They are calling it the treatment approach, this is of course opposed to the preventative approach. This is my main problem with most doctors, they are reactive as opposed to proactive. I was floored when my partner in TPR told me his doctor wanted him to change his eating habits as a preventative measure to avoid problems that were very much on the horizon for me. To me, that is a great doctor. One that truly cares about their patients and not their bottomline, and that is exactly what the treatment method is with the state of Florida. They are taking care of the bottomline and not the citizens of the state. Ok, that's my political rant for the month.
I have a bit of a quandary. As you know, I go out very early in the morning and drive around and spin Pokestops. It's the easiest way for me to get that done since it's 3-4 in the morning and there is no way my mom will be awake. Well, this Friday/Saturday was where the quandary arose. I go to the little downtown area where there are a lot of Pokestops. That way I can fill up my item bag and then go home and not really have to worry about needing balls, berries, or potions for the rest of the day. I'll explain all of those some other time, but trust me they are necessary to play the game. While I spin the stops I'm also looking for grunts to battle. In the game a grunt is a member of Team Rocket. If you ever watched the animated series you know Jessie & James along with their Pokemon Meowth. Well in Pokemon Go, Team Rocket has them, but also consists of a big boss, Giovani, three leaders, Sierra, Arlo, and Cliff, as well as the grunts or foot soldiers if you will. You can find the grunts at random Pokestops and when you fight them, you get to catch something known as a shadow Pokemon, another thing I will talk about at another time, and you get a piece of a Rocket Radar. The Rocket Radar is how you find the leaders to fight them to get better shadow Pokemon. Giovani is a whole other thing. Anyway I had stopped on the side of the road to fight a grunt I had come across, and as I was sitting there, I noticed a person walking up the road about a quarter of a mile off. They were zigzagging from side of the road to side of the road so I figured it was the random drunk that had somehow found a nice place to pass out for a while. As they got a bit closer I noticed that it was a woman, and I began to wonder if maybe something had happened to her. There are a lot of things that can happen to a woman in an area that is known for it's night time environment. I finished up with the grunt and caught my shadow Pokemon and started the car and began driving towards her. Several thoughts crossed my mind, should I see if she needs help, should I see if she needs a ride. Instead I just drove passed her, with the thought of, what if I give her help and my face is the only one she remembers and I get the blame for what happened to her. I drove by out of my own selfishness, and I can't quite get passed that. I will say that Morty was also in the car which really wound't have been a problem because he would only want the pets. You see this is how I'm trying to defend my lack of courage in helping someone that could have been in need. Do you think I did the right thing, or did I complete fail that woman? I really want to know, just leave a comment below, the comment section is fixed now and I can comment back. I'm really torn over this whole event and even if I'm reassured that I did what was best I won't see it that way.
Ok, on to more fun things. Ri Ri has had some issues that last few nights with not being able to sleep and pacing around the house. I think it may have something to do with the full moon, but she has never acted this way before so I can't be at all sure. I tried giving her the calming medication that the vet gave me and it kind of worked, but not as effect as in previous uses of it. Anyway, as I was making my coffee this morning this is how she was looking at me. Mind you part of her anxiety appears to be me not being near her. She has to be near or in proximity of me at all times and when I sleep I'm in a whole different room from her.
I'm telling you, she is the sweetest girl, you just wouldn't know if it you ever met her cause she would try to chew your face off. This is also part of the overprotective thing with me. I do think with all the nurses coming in the house the past week she is beginning to mellow on that, but not enough that I could just leave her inside when they come.
I think there was something else I wanted to talk about but right now I can't remember what it was. I should really jot stuff like this down during the week and then read the notes when I write this. Oh well, lets just get to Favorite Song of the Week. I had several that I could choose from this week. I even shelved this one at one point for another one, but I'm going back to this one for the very reason I chose it. One it's really good, and two it highlights the talent of someone that I think you will very soon know a great deal about. This goes back to Kurstin and Grohl and their Hannukah series. This performance was from night 5 and I know you are already going, "but I know who Dave Grohl is". I know you do and I even featured this performer once before with Dave. The reason I chose this one is not Dave but his daughter Violet. She not only is an incredible singer (Dave has said that he wants to be in her band), but she is an amazing mimic. The first performance I shared was their version of X's Nausea, and she did perfect punk style vocals. I've also seen video of her doing Adele and Nirvana covers and with the Nirvana one especially she sounds exactly like Kurt Cobain. I'm telling you, she is going to be the next big thing at some point, so you may as well get to know her and her talent now. Her is Night Five featuring Violet Grohl performing Amy Winehouse's, "Take The Box".
The shear joy and the conclusion just puts it over the top for me. Get ready, because she will get a record deal at some point, and based on Dave's book The Storyteller, he may get kicked out of the band for his daughter Harper on drums. I guess he could still be on guitar but it would be very Dave if Harper got the gig and he didn't. By the way, that is a great book and it just reaffirms my option of him as a rad dude. A friend once did a post asking if you could talk to anyone alive or dead who would it be. My reply was Dave Grohl cause he just seems rad. That was a few years ago when I commented that, and each year proves me more and more right.
So I woke up at midnight and a whole bunch of thoughts crept into my head and now I can't get back to sleep. So, instead of just laying there waiting for nothing to happen, I thought I would just write about what's going on. It is currently 1:53 AM and this is how it all began.
For some reason my misery in dating is stuck in my head and it goes back quite a ways since I haven't' gone on an actual date in I believe 6 years. It may be more, I just can't remember, but lets go back to the beginning of this current end, and where the thoughts crept into my head.
I've always struggled with dating, I mean take a good look at me. The disadvantage is obvious. Getting someone over the hurdle of my looks is quite the obstacle, but when I finally get a date I have to work like mad to get a second date. The beginning of this takes me back to my last real relationship. When we went on our first date, we were found out by some friends of mine, and they decided to lightheartedly sabotage the date. Once again I'm already at maybe the middle of the ladder, when this happens and they knock me down a few rungs I'm near the bottom. This time I somehow managed to claw my way back up and got that second date. I honestly thought that was the relationship that would end all relationships for me, but it wasn't the case. To this day, if she somehow reached out to me and said she wanted to give it another try, I wouldn't hesitate. I won't get into all the details on what happened and why that would probably be wrong for me, cause that's for another time. This is all about dating.
The second most recent date, and when I say most recent I mean like 13 years ago, maybe more. The same thing happened again, but this one broke me. I actually saw the point in my dates face when she made the decision that "this" wasn't going to happen. I was furious and I lashed out at the ones that did the sabotaging and they did the "well you did it to me", which wasn't exactly true. When I engaged in that lighthearted ribbing, they were all in established relationships that were set in stone which is evident by the fact that they are all married (one of them was married, and the other two married each other soon after) to this day. I didn't mess up their first dates. I understand what they were trying to do, but it still hurt, and apparently I'm still having aftershocks to this day, hence the reason I'm up at 2 in the morning writing this trying to decide if I'll actually publish it or if it will sit in my drafts folder for the remainder of time. (side note, I'm already leaning towards publishing just because of the whole honesty in writing commitment I made when I started this blog).
The last first date I went on went somewhat but unorthodoxly well. I mean she did get in a car accident right behind be on our way home. We did date for a short while and it seemed things were heading in a good direction, that was until I went on vacation to see some friends. Unbeknownst to be, it turns out she was dating at least one other person at the time, and when I was out of the area, that was her chance to check me off the list. The thing that hurt about that one was that she just stopped communicating, the proverbial ghosting if you will. It sucked, I would have been ok with her telling me, "hey, it's just not working out, and I've been seeing someone else and I think they are the one." but that option wasn't on the table.
That was the last real date, or series of dates I was on. That was probably 6 years ago like I said, but I really don't have any way of verifying the exact time frame. I did have a sort of one night stand 5 years ago, that I tried to turn into a relationship, but that clearly didn't workout at all. I thought we were out on a date after, but for her it was just two friends out to dinner and a concert.
Since then, there has only really been a handful of opportunities for dates. I documented the one that I met on a dating app and after she read this blog decided to cancel the date. I've learned not to give out link to this blog for potential dates since then, but in all honesty, there haven't been any that have really gotten that close. The last potential date would have been this woman I knew from a bar that I frequented. The only problem with that one was that my buddy, (and I know this is rather archaic thinking) called dibs and asked her out first, so my ridiculous bro code came into play. At the last minute she cancelled the date with him, and he and I went out to drown his sorrows. In the process of said drowning we ran into her at one of the bars. I guess you could say she was caught red handed, but I didn't make anything of it. He tried his best, or maybe it was his worst to coax her into going back to his place that night. His whole goal was to just have sex with her, not build any type of relationship. I on the other hand was interested in her friend which was another woman that I knew from the bar, so I spent most of my time talking with her. No, I didn't want to just sleep with her, and maybe that is part of my problem. I really want a relationship, not a one night stand. Any way, the night went on and we decided to head out since he wasn't getting anywhere, and when I hugged his (yeah I see it and hate that I wrote it that way) woman goodnight she whispered in my eat that she loved me. I responded in kind, because I do, but I wan't thinking in that way at all, and we went our merry ways.
This is where the bro code (really not fond of that term so lets go with active morals instead) came into play. Since he had asked her out, she was off limits to me. I also chalked up her declaration of love as just drunken loose lips, since we never had any discussion of those events since that night. It was weird but I think that if my sense of active morals didn't overrule my feelings I would have spoken to her and possibly gone on a date with her. That is clearly my own failing.
I've tried the online dating thing, but I think my active morals or some kind of weird code that I have always gets in the way. I have this weird thing about conversations and how they should go. One person starts by asking a question to get to learn something about the person. The other person responds with and answer, and then follows with a question of their own, or some sort of talking point to further the conversation, but with online dating it seems that no one really wants to get to know anyone and if in the first couple of correspondence if you don't ask for a number or to meet up, the conversation just dies. I'm clearly not made for online dating, and with my current situation, I can't go out and meet people, so what it basically boils down to, I truly don't think love is for me. I have Morty and Ri Ri, and I guess that is enough. They give me unconditional love as long as I feed them, which I have no plans of not doing.
I don't know, I think this was a good exercise for me, but it definitely doesn't solve my problem of being awake at now 2:26 in the morning. I think I'm just going to stay up for now and preview this before I hit publish (told you I was leaning towards publishing this). I do have to go to the grocery store for my Monday task in 4 and a half hours, so this is just my early start to the day. I do think I'll get Morty and drive out to hit my Pokestops. Yeah Pokemon made it's way into this post. Until Sunday, unless I have another sleepless night, peace in and goodnight.
I completely forgot to mention the coffee experiment last week. On that first Monday of off eating I stopped by Dunkin Donuts to give a latte a try. I had no idea what I was ordering and opted for the fancy schmancy whipped cream topped peppermint latte. The big problem with having no idea of what I was ordering, I ordered it all wrong, which turned out to be a pleasant mistake. What I got was a plain latte with a peppermint swirl, and I have to say, that was the absolute right way to go. I really enjoyed it, and went out later in the week for another's except this time I had an idea what I was doing so I went with a caramel latte which was even better. These are only available to me when I'm in my off week, there are far too many carbs in one for my normal keto eating, so I decided to get some Dunkin Donut pods and give their straight coffee a try. It's not the same enjoyable drink as the latte, but it's tolerable and way to get in that good ECGC effect from coffee that is what I really want from it. ECGC is kind of a catalytic effect from coffee and green tea which helps in reducing inflammation and aids in weight loss. There's also a belief that it aids in knocking down some chronic diseases. I'm not too sure on that last one, but the other two are the reason I wanted to give coffee a fair shot. So far so good. I've had a cup a day this week, and things are going well.
This week has been unusual because of the influx of nurses and social workers that have come in for the hospice care. They even mentioned that they could send someone to sit with my mom so that I could have a break, but in all honesty, I have no idea how to ask for that. I've been doing this so long with little help, that I don't know any other way of doing things right now. Getting a few hours for myself seems like a luxury that I shouldn't have. This kind of goes along with my reasons that I don't like Christmas or my birthday. I simply feel undeserving of gifts. I always have. There is always and awkward feeling the envelopes me when I open a gift from anyone. The thought that they could have given this to someone else more deserving than me, or that I really don't need anything. I know how weird that sounds, but those are my exact feelings any time I receive a gift. I simply don't deserve it. This also the reason I hated competing at martial arts tournaments. Even if I worked hard and won based on my skill and merit, I felt like it was the wrong choice. The only time I felt accomplished in winning at a tournament was the time I won a partners medal with my friend. Even then it was more out the pride a felt for her and that she was the reason we did so well. I know this is some deep psychological stuff that I haven't found a way around, but it's how I've always felt, even as a kid. When Christmas day came, I was always excited for the presents, but more for the gifts that others received, that and watching the pets play in the ravaged wrapping paper. Yeah, I'm very broken.
I wanted to share one picture from Friday Night Vinyl because this record is super cool. It's a repressing of The White Stripes album White Blood Cells done in peppermint swirl. Interesting fact and the reason the did this particular style with this record is that they originally considered calling themselves The Peppermints due to the love of peppermint from Meg White. Ok, history lesson behind us, here is the photo of the record. Oh, this is the best side. Side B doesn't show as much red.
A quick recommendation for your viewing pleasure. On Disney + is a new documentary about the Beatles. It's called Get Back and it was originally filmed to be one of their famed album related movies, but was never released for many reasons. Peter Jackson directed this old footage from when the laid down tracks that were on Abbey Road and Let it Be. The most intriguing part of the whole thing is watching them go through the writing process. It was so fantastic to see that creative side of things that you never really see. You always see the end product and miss out on what truly goes on with the writing of an album. The whole documentary peaks with the very well known rooftop performance that they did above the Apple Studio which is of course the Famed Abbey Road. That final part alone makes the documentary worth watching, but don't skip out on the process that they go through. There is also some drama when George Harrison quits the band for about a week right in the middle, which delays a whole slue of things they had planned. Give it a watch you might just learn something you didn't know and possibly enjoy it.
Ok, a little self promotion with Favorite Thing of the Week. My buddy decided several weeks ago to put out an update video for The Pepperoni Report, and after getting over myself and my lack of desire to do anything that I'm passionate about, I got off my tail and filmed my part of the video. I couldn't do what I wanted to so I just filmed it straight. There's reason I couldn't do what I had initially intended to do one of which was that I couldn't find my window mount of ray GoPro but also that lack of desire to actually be creative. This lack is one thing that is truly killing me right now. I don't understand it and I can't get around it. I've tried to sit down and write, but can't do it. I want to pick up a pencil and pad and draw, but can't manage to actually do it. It's beyond frustrating at this point and simply proves that I'm even more broken than I want to admit. Setting that aside for another time, here is the video for an update on what is going on with The Pepperoni Report.
By the way, if you want a good book to read or even listen to, pick up The Storyteller by Dave Grohl. It's Dave telling his story. Right now I'm on the part where he was at the Kennedy Center Honors. Just a heads up, when he discusses the death of Kurt Cobain, it's as heartbreaking as you would expect it to be. So far it's really really good, and he has some really funny stories to tell.
Writing a little later this morning. I did wake up at 3 like is normal for me now, but I actually laid back down and made it all the way to 7:30. It was kind of nice for a change to sleep in, kind of.
I have to put together a short video for The Pepperoni Report, so keep an eye out for that on Thursday at noon. I had planned to try something a little fun for it, but I got lazy and then when I got over that I couldn't find things that I needed so I just shot my part as a straight video. I'm still hoping it will be somewhat fun with the content involved, but I'll just have to wait and see.
I did get some news regarding my mom this week. She has finally met the standards to be admitted to hospice care. As for what that entails I don't fully know, but from what I can gather it means that a nurse will come from time to time to document how she is doing and hopefully bath her. I'm still planning on doing the bathing but I asked them if they would send someone for that so that she will feel more comfortable rather than having me do it. It does seem that things will follow the status quo for now but the only difference other than the bathing is that I will have them on call for anything that might come up at any time of the day. This relieves a little stress but heightens the stress of it all coming to it's eventual end which seems a little closer now.
I just wanted to share with you the pork loin I made last week because I was kind of proud of it. Nothing special in the cooking of it, it just came out perfect, so here it is.
You can't believe just how good that was. I managed to make 3 meals out of it. I cut down my normal portions because I was eating carbs this week. I won't know the effects weight wise until tomorrow morning, but I feel fine and nothing really changed. I will start a fast tonight until Tuesday morning to kick off another 28 day cycle.
Last year Dave Grohl and Greg Kurstin sat down and did cover songs of jewish artists for Hanukkah. This year they are doing it again, the only difference is that I've slacked on watching them so we are going to watch the first one together as Favorite Thing of the Week. They do a song or two for each night of Hanukkah so let's just enjoy.
Ok, that was clearly Stay by Lisa Loeb. I was not expecting Dave dressed as Lisa, nor did I expect the death metal growl, which made the whole thing pretty epic. I of course recommend you go through and watch each night which I'm about to do now. I think they are on night 6 which leaves 2 more videos to come out from this years series. Ok, there was no delay for you, but I just watched a few more of the nights and you have to get to the Barry Manilow cover. It's exactly what I didn't know I needed in my life and I'm pretty sure you need it as well. It's night 3 so don't skip ahead, but enjoy the ride to what will be a version that truly amazes you.
I think that is all I have this week. I'm sure I thought about more than this during the week, but it's just not hitting me right now, so I'm going to call it a post. Peace in and goodnight.
So at this point I've been up for 5 hours already and it's only 7:30. There's a reason for that and I'll get to it in just a second. Twice this week I felt ill. The first time was right in the middle of my fast. On Monday soon after hitting the 24 hour mark I got a massive headache and started feeling nauseous. The nausea got so bad that I kept feeling like I was going to throw up, so I broke my normal protocol and decided to drink a zero sugar cherry Dr. Pepper. Technically nothing in it will break a fast, but there is the possibility of a sympathetic response to the taste of sweet that will spike insulin and thus shutting down autophagy which is the main reason I do the longer fasts. Well, that worked to an extent in the fact that when I finally threw up I had something in my stomach to come out. I had only drank half at that point but it did the trick in making sure it wasn't a bunch of bile. It was real violent too. I have no idea why I got so sick. After I laid on the bathroom floor for a while I got up and took an ibuprofen which also technically won't stop a fast, but does do some nasty things to your gut biome. Basically I got the most out of my fast that I could, but it wasn't everything I wanted. The ibuprofen took care of the headache and I began feeling better the rest of the day. The second time was yesterday. I got my Moderna booster shot on Friday and on Saturday it just made me feel meh. I had some slight chills, body aches and a small area of pain at the injection site. All of this together wiped me out and I was in bed at 7 PM. That is the reason I was up at 2:30 in the morning. I did make the most of it, but I was thwarted at the same time. I decided to drive out to the area where I spin all my Pokestops in the morning, that when I got a raid invite from Australia and got this little gem.
That is a shiny legendary Registeel. I was a little surprised to get that on my first Registeel raid this time around. Just so you know why that is shiny here is what the normal one looks like.
I got that invite on my way to the area I spin the stops so I pulled over in a parking lot and battled it out. This is where the thwarting starts. After that I took off and began my normal drive only to see road cones blocking the road. I forgot that today is the day they have the marathon and parade, so they had my area blocked off. I had to drive all over the place hitting enough Pokestops to fill up my items bag with stuff I need for the day. I know, first world problems and all. That was my morning so far though.
Ok, I took the accountability photos this week. I think it was Wednesday, but I really can't remember for sure. I really didn't put much effort into them. It was very early in the morning so the lighting was bad and instead of putting my light up I used the flash which created overexposure and some blurriness. I admit that I did alter these only in the contrast and shadow points, to get it closer to what mu actual skin tone looks like, so these aren't untouched photos, but I didn't do anything to make myself look better at all. I'm not at all happy with my appearance, but I feel that I'm going back in the right direction, so here they are.
Next time I'll get better photos, and hopefully I'll be in a state of appearance that makes me happy. This is the week that I have down, and will have some more carbs. Like I said before this just means I will add in some popcorn, maybe some potatoes, and a pint of ice cream. Also I will have a bag of jelly babies if I can find them. My grocery store hasn't had them for weeks, which has been good for not veering off the path, but has me bummed that they might not have them for this week. I will still be eating within calorie limits and of course my eating will be timed to small windows or just OMAD. That way the carbs that I add in should have little impact on my body other than what they do internally with inflammation and what not.
I can say that Black Friday Record Store Day was a success. I didn't get everything I wanted, mostly because those releases where pushed back, but I did get the most important ones to me. Those were At Home With The Munsters, and Weird Al Yankovik, Beat On The Brat. I did find some other cool stuff but if you want to see those you will have to follow my Instagram where they will all eventually show up on Friday Night Vinyl.
I guess that brings us to Favorite Song of the Week. This one comes from the Foo Fighters because, well they are awesome and this past week was the week they were officially inducted in the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame. This is there latest single and the video is in true Foo fashion. A lot of tongue and cheek humor with some great music. See if you get the small movie reference in the video. Here is the Foo Fighters with "Love Dies Young".
Did you get the reference and to what movie? If so leave a comment below with your answer. First correct answer wins the privilege of knowing that you got the correct answer.
That's really all I have this week. Oh, just so you know for the booster. CDC is recommending that if you are 6 months from your 2nd shot of either Pfizer or Moderna, and the single shot of J&J you are eligible for the booster. This was knocked down form an original 8 month time frame. The shot is simple, yes it could have some minor effects but it's safe. I am a little bit upset that I still don't have superpowers or magnetic skin. I mean I could have got the horns. How cool would that be to have horns. Fun aside, if you can get the booster go out and get it, it is just another layer of protection for you and the people around you. Peace in and goodnight.
It's 5:50 am and I'm currently waiting patiently for a raid to pop up in Pokemon Go, so I thought I'd just write a little. I'll probably take a break before I finish this and get it posted a few hours from now, but while I'm waiting let's do this.
My mom took another fall this week. There was no real damage, just some bumps and bruises, but right now it seems like it caused her dementia to get exponentially worse. This is kind of what happens when she takes a good tumble. She needs help sitting up and walking now, as well as using the bathroom. That's nothing to difficult, but her appetite has spiraled downward. Last night it took all I had to convince her to eat just half of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I'm hoping this goes the usual course and in a couple of days her appetite comes back, but this time it seems a bit different. I'll just have to wait and see.
You didn't really think I would go to long without giving out some Pokemon info did you. I'm going to talk about raids a bit. Since I'm waiting for one right now. In the game you have these locations called gyms and in the gyms you can do a few things. The first is place a Pokemon in that gym to train and earn coins. The second is to fight other Pokemon in rival gyms to take those gyms over, place in a Pokemon and earn coins. The last thing you can do is a raid. A raid is when the game places a particular Pokemon in that gym for people to battle. Theres a few levels so that everyone has a chance to win a raid. The level 1 raids are the easiest and even a very low level player can beat it and have a chance to catch that pokemon. Level 3 raids are a bit more difficult and you should have at the very least 2 people if you are low level. Higher level players can easily solo those raids. Level 5 raids are the legendary raids. These are some of the toughest raids and usually require a minimum of 4 people, but it's always better to have more. Last is the Mega raids, which are very special Pokemon that you can mega evolve. These like the level 5 require a minimum of 4 people. Now if you are a very high level and have powered up all you Pokemon there is a chance you can even solo these more difficult raids. I'm not there yet.
Lately there has been this thing where I get into a raid, go through my first group of Pokemon and then get kicked out of the gym. That happened again this morning and the reason I needed that raid is that I had a research task to win 1 raid. That getting booted cost me that win, and was the reason I had to go searching for a raid on Facebook (probably the only good thing about Facebook for me at this point. While in the middle of writing this I did get that raid invite, it was from Belgium. I was going after a Legendary in hopes that I would finally get the shiny but sadly I did not. This was the prize for winning that raid, a chance to catch this Pokemon.
The little icons at the bottom are on the left your berry supply, and the right the number of balls you have left. I began that with 12 balls. I did finally catch it but I knew it would be only a 2 star because of the CP. Hundo CP is 1633 for non weather boosted. The boosting is a whole other thing I'll get into at some other time. I did finally catch this with my very last ball, and this is the stats for this one.
That is the appraisal of it and as you can see, the attack is 10, the defense is a 10 and the hit points are a full bar 15, that all adds up to 35, in order for it to be a 3 star the stats have to add up to 37 as a minimum, the hundo is of course all full bars for 45.
I actually do research for these raids so I can see what Pokemon will be the best against each one that I fight. This is my current team for the Cresselia which is the legendary in raids right now.
These aren't the actual best, but these are the best that I have. My Mega Gengar I have in the first spot, because it's my absolute best for these raids. I do have to power it up to mega status each day in order to use it in raids. That gives it a boost of power for 8 hours. The cool thing about using Megas in raids is that it gives other fighters in the raid a boost to certain attacks. Since Gengar is a ghost type Pokemon anyone using ghost type attacks while my Gengar is active gets a boost which helps out a lot in these raids. This brings me back to the frustration of this morning. It was raid in Taiwan ( I do these with remote raid passes) and it was 4 of us with really strong Pokemon. We were defeating it in a really quick manner which was surprising to me. I finished with that group of Pokemon above, when that happens you get put into the lobby of the gym and can bring more Pokemon in to rejoin the fight. When my first round was done it kicked me all the way out of the gym and didn't give me a chance to get back in. That means I lost my remote raid pass, as well as the resources it takes to replenish my feinted Pokemon, and I didn't get the win or a chance to catch that legend. In as few words as possible, it sucked, but I did get the win I needed and a crappy 2 star legend. If anyone out there wants some legendary Pokemon, hit your boy up. I have a lot of them and you will get the distance bonus from the trade, since most of mine are from all over the world. The New Zealand ones get you the most distance. I think it's around 15,000 kilometers in distance. You can get that trade distance badge pretty quick with those.
Ok, this is where I'm going to stop for now and then pick this back up in a couple of hours. See you in the next paragraph,
Alright, lets get back into this. It is now 7:54 am and I'm currently listening to Joy Division's Closer. great album and yes, look forward to a song from that being FSOTW.
With everything going on with my mom this week I didn't get accountability photos, but I will get them this week. This will be my last week of the 28 day cycle, and then I'm taking 7 days for a little, so called normal eating. All that means is that I will have a few more carbs added to my diet. Like popcorn, a pint of actual ice cream, and maybe some soda. Not sure on the soda right now, but the popcorn and ice cream are a go. I do plan on that first monday doing something I've never done before, and that will be stopping on my way home from the grocery store and getting a flavored coffee. One of those really decadent ones. I'm not a coffee drinker, I've never liked it, but maybe my tastes have changed and I'll give this a try for once. I'm sure the flavored coffee will be a drastic difference from regular coffee, so it might be a good way to introduce myself to it. Also this will be a very limited thing if I like it. Coffee has some great qualities to it for health purposes, but I can't get passed the taste, and going with flavored will not be appropriate for most of my diet, only on the off weeks. I'll let you know how that all goes in two weeks.
I did weigh myself at some point in the week and I'm at 165. Not real sure where that stands right now, maybe a little lower, maybe the same. I didn't do any long term fasting this week and it went well, but I will be starting this week out with a good ol 40 hour or so fast. I've been mostly OMAD (one meal a day) all week, which kept things in check. I'll eat my one meal in a few hours then start a fast until Tuesday morning some time. That should put me around the 42-44 hour mark. That will be a good way to start this final week.
This week is Black Friday, and I'm going to celebrate it and Small Business Saturday on Friday, by going to the record store for the Black Friday releases. My goal is to get the re-release of The Munsters album and a Weird Al record. I will be there dark and early with hopes of being first in line. I'm hoping to see some of the early people that were there last time. They were a fun and interesting group. I'll let you know if I scored those two records next week.
Had to share these pictures of Ri Ri. She's been doing a new thing this week where she climbs up in my chair with me. She has been abnormal clingy lately, which I'm not upset about. I've always wanted a snuggle dog, Baby Girl was the closest, since she didn't squirm. Morty and Ri Ri are squirmers, but she has been a little less lately.
You might notice that she got a new collar. Yes that is a David Bowie Space Oddity collar. She is my goofy girl which makes her an oddity and she is also a bit spacey, so that makes her my little Space Oddity. Morty has his Madolorian The Child collar and now Ri Ri has her Space Oddity collar. I'm going to go with she loves it, but she's a dog so she will love just about anything.
Oh, speaking of records before, I was blown away to find out that one of my records is worth over $400 dollars. It's my Twenty One Pilots Blurryface live album. I just happened to be going through my collection on Discogs and saw that. I have no desire to sell it, because it's a great album, and reminds me of when I could go to concerts, man I miss concerts. I still have to go through and add all my records to my Discogs collection, but I have a good number of them in. The thing about Discogs is that they put the value next to your record once you put it in. They have 3 levels of value. Low, mid and high, so when I say $400, that is the high value, I don't know the likelyhood that I would actually get that price for the record, but as I said, I have no desire to sell it, it's just fun to know the value.
I guess it's time for Favorite Song of the Week. You already know it's going to be Joy Division, but what song will it be. I really don't know yet. I have and idea, but when I go searching will determine the song. Let's go searching now. Well, you won't see any time difference but trust me it will take a few minutes. Ok I lied, I actually did have an idea and this was the first song I searched for. If you don't know Joy Division, their name is the antithesis of how they sound, which was by design, it was a product of lead singer Ian Curtis's personal problems which ended in suicide. If you believe the rumors of how he did it, it's rather morbid and very much a committed way of going. I'll forgo the story I've heard and just let you enjoy his singing and their music. Here is Joy Division with their song "Twenty Four Hours".
If you are interested the rest of the band went on to form New Order, which is also an amazing band so give them a listen as well.
Ok, with that I'm going to call it a day. I could talk about a few more things, but I'll sit on them for a week to see if they are still worth writing about. Some odd personal stuff, so that's why I need to see if I really want to share it or not. Peace in and goodnight.
I'm currently trying to make two decisions. The first is when I should eat today. I'm hungry, but I can do w ithout for a while longer for sure. The second is if I should fast through Monday again. I only made it just under 43 hours this last week, and inadvertently through in a 20 hour fast later in the week. This is all my body adapting to not eating as much and as often, which is a good and a bad thing. Good that I'm back in the swing of things, bad in that my body is adapting so fast. That means I should probably not fast this week, just to throw a wrench in the works. When I so no fast, that means nothing over 20 hours. Even when I was at my worst lately, I still pretty much did a 16-8 schedule. That is more than likely why I didn't really pack on the weight. Speaking of weight I did weigh myself this week and I am down 5 pounds from where I started, not that that really matters. Yes, my goal is to be back in the mid to low 150's but it's more about how I feel this time, and I'm feeling really good right now. I also feel that I look pretty good too. I'll try and get some accountability photos this week.
Photos, I promised some this week, but I ran into a bit of a problem. For one thing the dye is having trouble sticking this time. I think it may be the lighter color and I believe that my beard has gotten less grey. I know that sounds impossible but it really seems true. The other one is the light. I did assemble the blacklight ring light, but it's not as bright as I hoped so I need to make a reflective background for it. I've decided to make it out of wood so that it's durable, and then wrap it in tinfoil and attack the tube with the light to it, but it's been raining this week so I haven't been able to cut the ring out of wood yet. That means those glow in the dark pictures will be delayed. I have a plan for the light and the dye so I'm hoping it will all work out. I've also had another little project I've been working on that I haven't mentioned. My TV sits at a bit of an angle because the space for it is so big and I have the cable box under the TV on one side. It's just high enough to pitch the TV up on one side, so I built a little stand to put under the TV to lift it off the cable box. I've put several weeks into this to get it right, but I've only gotten it close enough, and I'm at that point where I feel if I do any more I'll only ruin it and have to start all over again, so close enough will have to do. The goal was to make it look like it was made out of any other material other than wood. I primed it and painted it black then put polyurethane on it, and that is where the problem has arisen. The sides have drips that I haven't been able to sand down properly and it looks a little odd, and not smooth and flat like I wanted. I've already sanded the sides down a few times and it's getting close to getting into the paint, which would mean that I would have to repaint the entire thing for only a half inch of area along the side, so I'm calling it a day on that and waiting for help to get it under my TV. I might be able to do it on my own, but it's risky at best, so I'm just going to wait. No I don't have a picture, but the top surface looks like black glass. I'm proud of that part.
Quick garden update. I do believe these are the last roses of the season, so I had to get a shot of them. I'm hoping to save that bush and get it to thrive next spring, but only time will tell with that.
A few quick reviews for you now. The first is the new ABBA album. It's good, but it lacks that signature song. It's a nice album but has no bang to it. The second to last song "No Doubt About It" comes so close, but it's just missing something, which is how I feel about the whole album. It won't go down as a favorite for me, but others may like it. I'll listen from time to time, but I'll stick with the old stuff for the most part.
This weekend started Disney + day which is the anniversary of when they began the service, and they dropped a ton of new movies and shows. I of course watched Shang Chi, which was fantastic. Great story with a surprising amount of comedy. Really good comedy too. The other movie I watched was Jungle Cruise, which is a movie based on the ride at Disney, and I really enjoyed it. Once again really funny and went in a surprising direction that I didn't expect. Honestly I can't tell you what I expected for the story, but this wasn't it, and it was a pleasant surprise.
Last quick review, is Taylor Swifts version of her Red album. If you didn't know she is redoing all her old albums how she would have done it without pressure from the label and producers, and this one is really good. I have to say I like it better than Fearless which was the previous album that the remade. She also made a short film to go with her song "All Too Well" which I recommend checking out. It's on YouTube and it's 15 minutes long. I thought about making it FSOTW, but I doubt you will sit and watch a 15 minute video so I'm going with an old song, but one that is a sonic masterpiece.
Time for FSOTW. Like I said a sonic masterpiece and it is one that you really should wear headphones for when you watch the video to get the full affect. You should be listening to this band anyway, cause frankly they are cooler than you and me. I give you Incubus with "Megalomaniac".
I really and truly hope you enjoy your week and I'll see you back her next Sunday. Peace in and goodnight.
It seems that Monday's have become my unofficial fasting day. I did the 72 hour fast a couple of weeks ago, and last week I did a 42 hour. I may as well keep the trend going and starting this afternoon I'll begin a 48 hour fast. The fasting has been working for me even better than expected from an overall health and mental state. I threw in an extra 24 hours about mid week. I simply forgot how much I loved that empty feeling. Now don't get empty confused with starving. There is a huge difference, and with eating strict this last week and for the next 21 days, that empty feeling is a constant right now. What I mean by empty is a non bloated feeling or sense that my stomach has contents in it. That full feeling comes when I eat grains and sugars. Even though I was "off the rails" (that's really an overexaggeration) I still ate much fewer grains and sugar that most people. It was mostly starchy carbs, which don't seem teo give me that bloated feeling on their own, it's always the grains and sugars that do me in. I haven't weighed myself so I have no idea about weight loss, but I feel that I look leaner. That could also be from that empty feeling. No bloating, no bulging belly. I'll keep you up to date on all of this as it continues.
I wanted to share my Friday Night Vinyl pics out of sheer pettiness. A very good friend of mine has been negligent in returning text messages. Now I know they are busy and I'm not a big part of their life, but I always enjoyed our conversations even if they were short, so these pics are for you.
This is a mini album by They Might Be Giants. This is another epic record store find and bonus that it's colored vinyl. On my Instagram post I added a short video with a little clip of one of the songs. I also add that clip to my story so that people can see it there as well. Yep, it's petty and a plee to get them to maybe shoot me a text, but I'm ok with them having a busy life. I'm actually happy for them that they have that.
Ok, quick garden update. Fall has fallen and a few plants are thinning or dying out. The meteor shower has already complete died, and the turmeric is well on its way (I'm sure it will be back next year, it has become the zombie plant that won't die, but also won't produce a flower). This year the turmeric was bigger than ever, so maybe next season I'll finally get a bloom. Anyway, here is where the garden currently stands.
It still looks really strong and green. The rose bush is producing some buds for what I'm assuming is it's finally bloom of the year. From my experience, the tibuchina which is the deep purple flower in the back, will be back, as for the rest, I have no idea. All of them are new to me so it's a big wait and see what will be there in the spring and what won't. I'll just enjoy it for what it is as long as I can for now.
I haven't dyed my beard in a quite a while, but this morning a threw some dye in. It's a new dye that I'm hoping will make for some fun pictures. I shot a quick picture right after putting in the dye (which is currently in the setting process while I write this). This dye is UV reactive, so it will glow under a black light. I have such a light, but for my pictures I'm going to build a black ring light which should be fun. Here is the picture right after putting the dye on.
Please excuse the scraggly look of the beard, and the one-sided glow. I'm using a direct light from a flashlight so I couldn't get the whole beard in the light, but I am happy that it glowed. Once I rinse the excess out it might be a different story though. I may have to dye it a few days in a row to really get an overall coverage for the glow. What ever the case is, I will be taking a few headshots this week with the ring light and some interesting contact lenses in for an added effect.
It's time for Favorite Thing of the Week. That's right no song this week, but it does have to musicians in it. Uber Eats has been putting out some really fun commercials. It began with Mark Hamill and Sir Patrick Stewart, but these new ones with Sir Elton John and Lil Nas X are even better. At least to me they are. Every time one of the commercials with them in it comes on, I get a chuckle. I almost want a buddy movie with them as stars, maybe a make of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels with them as the leads. Could be epic. Anyway, this is my favorite of the 3 that I know are out. I hope you get as much of a chuckle as I do.
One last thing before I call it a week. I'm still unable to write, but I did get an urge this week. I told you about the story that was inspired by the new Halsey album and her short film. I thought I was losing the imagery in my head which meant the story would just simply slip away, but I put her album on again this week and it all flooded back into my head. This is a good sign, for me at least. I'm still struggling with the whole getting started. Being creative has eluded me due to laziness or lack of desire, but I'm going to sit myself down this week for sure, put the album on and see where it takes me in writing. If it works out, I'm going to delay releasing anything until I've completed it, and if things go the way I hope I should have some drawing to go with it. That is the plan anyway. Until then peace in and goodnight.
It's the most wonderful time of the year. Happy Halloween everybody. Yes, Halloween is my favorite holiday, all the rest can just shove off. Normally, well as of the last few years or so (once I stopped drinking) Halloween meant a week long binge of spooky, scary, and slasher shows and movies. This year has been some of that, but since my moms sleep schedule is currently off the tracks, that's just not possible for the most part, so it's been more family friendly spooky shows, like Just Beyond and The Secrets of Sulphur Springs on Disney+. Those have been fun, but its not the same as getting a good slasher film or two in there. I will be watching Fear The Walking Dead tonight, so that's something, and for the last two days I've had Minstry's song Every Day Is Halloween on loop, in all it's mixes. I know what you are thinking, "I know what this weeks FSOTW is.". Well, you would be wrong, and you're going to have to wait and see just how wrong you are. Honestly, until Friday evening that was the plan, but something popped up that removed it from it's top tier spot.
Good news, no Pokemon content this week, instead I have something I've been wanting to talk about for a long time, but have simply forgotten to bring it up. I really had to make a mental note to do it this week, and even though I know you love the Pokemon content, this should make you feel very awkward. Since tomorrow is the first day of November which has become sort of a men's health type of month, like May is for women's health awareness, I have something to discuss in that matter. It is something I've experienced so I know that it is reversible and disproves a lot of the old myths. This is also going to come into connections within the body which does apply to every person, but maybe not in all the same ways. I'm going to focus on one specific issue and that is about ejaculation and how it connects with heart health. Trust me I'm going to even tie this in with my most recent fast as well.
Let's start with the myth. It is a long standing believe that as a man gets older his ejaculation gets less potent. To an extent that is true, volume and expel does become less. When I say expel I mean the thrust with which it shoots out. I can remember a kid in high school making the claim that he could hit the ceiling, not sure he is still doing just that especially if he isn't heart healthy. Here is the thing, I listened to a doctor several years ago who mentioned the heart connection when it comes to ejaculation and he said that if your ejaculate is coming out like a toothpaste tube, then you should really get your heart checked. One of the easiest signs of heart disease is your ejaculate. Now there are other things that could cause that, like infection and STDs, but once those are out of the equation heart disease is the most likely culprit. Now for my own experience with this. As you may remember, a few years ago I mentioned that I was having some heart issues. One of the most telling symptoms for me was my over elevated heart rate. My resting pulse was anywhere form the mid to upper 90's and that is not good. That's part of the reason why I began trying to lose weight. Of course it wasn't until keto that I had any success in that. The thing about losing weight is that you have to get healthy to lose weight, it's not the other way around. Most people thing that you have to lose weight to get healthy.
During those years when I was at my highest weight, I started noticing my ejaculate going down in both volume and expel. I chalked this up to that age old myth, but always had that doctors words in the back of my head, so one of the things I always paid attention to was how it expelled, did it ever get to that toothpaste tube analogy? It came really close, and there was a lag effect from my health turning around and the weight loss, but once everything was back in order, my ejaculate was back with just as much volume and expel as it ever had. This goes for men an their partners, pay attention to the ejaculation and if it is just drooling out ( yeah I know how gross that sounds ), at the very least start making some life changes better yet, go see a doctor about what could potentially be wrong and get your heart checked. I'm proof that it can change and go back to the way it was, you just have to put in the work. And just cause you were asking, I will be participating in No Nut November. Once again, I know how gross that sounds but since I already have a beard, I can't to No Shave. Please really think about getting things checked so you can live a long and happy life with whoever you choose to.
This brings me to pronouns. Yeah I know I said I was going to tie that all into the latest fast and I'm getting there, but this needs to come first. I've been seeing a bunch of posts lately talking about how people can't keep up with this whole new way of speaking when it comes to pronouns for someone. Here is a little story to explain just how simple it is to use pronouns that are the new norm. I recently got some very good news from a friend of mine that they had a major improvement in their health. I am really happy for them, but since I am who I am ( and becoming more of me than I'd like to admit ) I couldn't reach out to them to tell them how happy I was for them. I kept getting it into my head that I would be bothering them at an inappropriate time and that is the last thing I want to do considering all that they have been through lately. I want them to have their happy time with the people around them and since I'm so far away I'm really unnecessary to that. I know that they told me that I would be no bother to them, but in my head that is them just being kind and understanding of just how mental I am. Long story short, this is my way of telling them just how happy I am for their news.
Now in that story above I gave you no inclination of who they were, what sex they were, or anything about them, just be using certain pronouns. One of the post I saw was specifically about they/them/their and how it is improper grammar to use them in the singular term. As you just saw, it can be done, and as history proves out, those terms were used in the singular long before the singular "you". That's right "you" was used in the plural for the first part of it's existence, it was the term used when one person was addressing a large crowd. Example: It's great to see you here today, I can't wait to get this assembly started. I mentioned a long time ago that language is an ever evolving thing. You could even argue that it is living. Because of that it is always moving forward, and if you can't keep up and refuse to use terms especially those terms that properly address someone's sexuality, then you will be simply left behind. It is not hard to refer to someone right in front of you as they or them, it may seem strange at first, but give it a little timed it will feel just as normal as looking someone in the eye and saying "you".
Ok, that's my pedestal hopping for the day, now to that whole body connection thing. I finished my fast this week at just a little over the 72 hour mark, and although I lost weight, which wasn't really why I was doing it, I felt better in general. The whole reason other than it was at the time of my quarterly fast, was that I started noticing some bad things happening with me. I started getting occasionally heartburn again and well you know my mental state lately. The gut ties to all those things. Your gut bacteria affects your brain and I desperately needed this reset. I've told you before that a 72 hour fast is like a full body reset. Your body goes through and gets back to or as near as it can to zero. Your younger cells feed off the old and dead cells having a recycling type effect that essentially turns back the clock at the cellular level. This also resets your gut biome. That is why for the first 3 days I was very careful what I ate. It was all natural food and things that would feed the good gut bacteria that would also in turn help my mental state. You know how I love my asparagus, but I couldn't have that for the first 2 days because I had to pump up the good stuff in my gut first, that meant fermented foods and vegetables that fed the good gut bacteria to grow. Asparagus is a probiotic vegetable, which means that it really supercharges gut bacteria., the only problem is that it doesn't distinguish between good or bad, so you have to get that good up first to get the best affects of asparagus. Once the good bacteria is up the asparagus lifts that one up. See it always takes the winner in the fight, so if the bad bacteria was stronger it would lift that up instead. Now this doesn't meant that I'm out of the woods mentally at all. I still need to watch what I eat, and grains and sugars are the real culprits for me. Yesterday and today I have eaten some sugars, for the simple fact that I have to get them out of the house, but this latest fast gave me back something that I had been missing for a while and that was self control. Today will be the last day for sugar for 28 days. I'm going back on my 28 days on 7 days off keto schedule. Those 7 days will be still pretty healthy just a little relaxed, and I can have a pint of ice cream for the week or something like that.
I can't tell you just how much better I feel mentally and physically right now, and after going through the last few months as I was, I really don't want to go back there so I'm all eyes on the prize again.
Now it's time for Favorite Song of the Week. I've featured Stevie T before. I love his sense of humor and his unbelievable talent on the guitar, and this video puts all of that together. He did a remake of Rockwell's one hit song from the late 80's and did his thing to it. I really hope you enjoy this video which dropped this past Friday. Here is Steve T f Anthony Vincent with their version of "Somebody's Watching Me".
I must remind you that he does all the music, filming and editing in these videos. He had a video editor but I think he parted ways with them so this film was shot by him and his mom. I really hope you enjoyed that and have a Happy Halloween. Peace in and goodnight.
My plan to get no readers last week didn't work, nearly worked, but I still got some. Ok for real, the whole concept behind that was to be punk rock. I think it worked to a degree so I'm happy with it.
I don't really have much to write about this week. It was a rather uneventful week with the exception of a lot of great music dropping this past Friday. I won't get into all of it, because what is great to me probably isn't to you so I won't bore you with it all, except the song of the week.
One of the albums that dropped on Friday was the new Duran Duran album, no they aren't Favorite Song of the Week, but they are the reason I found FSOTW. Believe me I could choose a song from the Future Past album and it would fit in, but while watching their latest video I got a recommendation for a band that I didn't even know was making music, much less new music. I quickly clicked on the thumbnail and thoroughly enjoyed myself by seeing the future of what is to come from this band and remembering the past. The band is none other than Tears for Fears, and if you don't remember them, you clearly hit your head really really hard. They had one of the biggest albums of the 80's with a number of hits from it. Last I heard they had broken up and went on to solo careers. It wasn't an anger thing, it was just wanting to go in different directions, or at least that's how I remember it. After watching the video that I'm going to share with you I went and found out that their album is in pre-order right now and if you add it to your library you will get this song which is available now. Still not exactly sure when the whole album drops but I'm as excited about this as I was the new Duran Duran, did I mention that album is great? Really it goes back to when Duran Duran was doing the title track to the Bond film. View to a Kill is still my favorite Bond song by the way, and there is a song that seems to take a little from that song on the album, greatness I tell you, but I digress, we were talking about Tears for Fears. Oh, quick interlude of digression again. If you have been following my Friday Night Vinyl, Songs from the Big Chair will be featured soon. You didn't really think I didn't have that album did you? Ok, back to the new song. This is the title track from the new album and it is pure unadulterated Tears for Fears. Yes, they look a lot older Roland Orzabel looks a bit Gandalfy, and Curt Smith just looks like a much older version of himself, but they still have the same vocal range and sound. It's always lovely when something new is also something familiar. I happily give to you the new single from Tears for Fears, "The Tipping Point".
Ok, I did a little investigating and the album drops on February 25th. You got some time people. By the way, not for nothing, but check out the new Duran Duran album, it really is great.
A little plant life update for you. I hadn't taken a picture of the Desert Rose lately, but I visited a friend last week and they have two of them that look a little meager, so I had to snap a shot of mine to share with them to show them how it's done. Actually I hadn't really taken much of a look at it lately since it is such an easy plant to manage. Since I've replanted it in it's bigger pot I've watered it maybe twice. It doesn't need much attention at all. Anyway, here it is, try to remember how it originally looked.
There are some buds forming on it again, so it should bloom soon. I'll get another shot of it then to share with you.
A little pokemon news today, so you can probably skip until just after the photo to avoid this part. Remember when I said I figured out a little hack to get kms without actually walking? I wasn't lying about that. My mom's sleep schedule has changed a little and I can't get out for those walks in the morning right now. She is starting to revert to her old pattern, so maybe soon. That being said, I'm getting more kms in the game now then I ever did by just walking. Here are my weekly totals to prove it.
Ok for those of you that skipped to under the picture, you found out that I tricked you into reading some pokemon news. My bad, I really didn't mean to do that, it just sort of worked out that way, and I didn't feel like going back and editing the sentence to give you a more definitive spot to pick this back up. On a slightly good note I guess. I have noticed that my body is appearing to me much better than usual which is more than likely a trick of my eyes. I'm currently sitting at 170lbs, so I don't understand it at all. I'm not going to take photos, out of fear that it will just trigger reality and depression will be deep, so I'm going to start my quarterly 3 day fast later today and see how it all goes and how I look in the mirror after all that. I still feel like I need to be in the 150's, really the mid to low 150's but we will see how it all goes. I'm really lost right now in all of this and getting into my head, so I need to do this fast, which is planned (really planned for last week, but something came up) and get my head straight. These 3 day fasts always get me thinking clearer, so I'm really looking forward to it. My last meal today will be cheeseburger patties with asparagus, and I'm thinking brussel sprouts with some cottage cheese on the side. That should set me up nicely for the first 24 hours, then it's Liquid Death and salt water for the next 3 days. Oh yeah, I have certain minerals I'll take as well to help with mostly sleep since my energy levels will be through the roof. I'll let you know how it all goes next Sunday. Peace in and goodnight. I'm really not sure why I still say goodnight even though I'm now writing this very early in the morning now, but it is what it is. Peace in and goodnight.
My goal this week is to get no one to read this at all, since last week was an underwhelming success, no, I'm not going to talk about Pokemon this week. Can't have fun every week. Today we are going to talk a lot about punk. I've been listening to a lot of old school punk rock this week. It reminded me of so many things from my high school days. I listened to punk, but wasn't really involved in the scene. The reason for that is, that at that time in the punk rock era was when skinheads started taking over the scene. Maybe I should give you a little history of the punk scene to explain why this was a big deal.
Ok, as you may or may not know, punk rock began as a protest of the excess of mainstream and particularly glam rock. Although a lot of people perceived it as a hatred of all things, it was just antiestablishment. Punk stood up for the nobody. It was a diverse scene that accepted all, but it did have some requirements, like going against the status quo. I mean you wouldn't wear a disco shirt to a punk show. Punk soon picked up where protest rock left off. They weren't just going against mainstream music, but mainstream in general, and that meant question the government and what it stood for. That was all mid 70's into the early 80's. Around the mid 80's when I was in high school, the dude bros got a liking for the aggressive style of punk and took the antiestablishment message and corrupted into hate. That is when the skinheads came into the picture. They had a specific look with rolled up jeans, suspenders, white t-shirt, shaved head, and last but not least, Dr. Martins with red or white laces. To this day I will never wear red or white laces in my Docs. Those laces signified just how involved in racist beliefs they were. White was for white supremacy and red was for pure nazi fetishization.
When I was in school there was a small faction of skinheads. For the most part they just wanted to stand out in a crowd and really had no idea what skinheads were all about. They liked punk rock and the growing trend at that time was being a skinhead to show your loyalty to punk. That all changed one day when one of them, who knew what the skinhead movement was about decided to post little signs all over the school. I won't say what it said, but it had a cartoon image representing a skinhead performing a racist act with verbiage to put emphasis on what was going on. My school was very diverse at that time, I'm pretty sure it still is. I grew up on a diverse community. Well, word spread fast of what was going on, and a large group of people got together to protest the skinheads, who were really few in number ( I think there were 5 of them in all ) and basically surrounded them at their lockers ( I'm talking around 100 students ) and shouted "we are here you want to spit on us". Sorry couldn't leave that part out since that was the proclamation on that day. This went on between periods, and I was already in my classroom that had a window to the area they were. Teachers eventually came out and dispersed everyone. One skinhead that happened to be a friend of mine finally came into class and I asked him what was happening. He told me about the crowd and how they all (the skinheads) all claimed their innocence and how someone was setting them up. He then told me that it really was one of them that posted the signs. I asked him if he believed all that garbage, and he just said he was scared. Yeah dude, you just tried to start a race riot, you should be scared. Shortly after that whole incident, he grew his hair out and stopped wearing suspenders. He didn't stop wearing his Dead Kennedys t-shirt though.
That brings us to the Dead Kennedys which is where all this was going in the first place. The Dead Kennedys were one of the front runners in the punk scene. Maybe even the original antiestablishment bands. They would not have approved of the local skinheads attempt at racism, and probably would have beaten the shot out of him for wearing their shirt. They were very much about diversity and treating all people with respect (to a point. Gotta throw fists when necessary). They even made shirts with their logo and the word "Nazi Punks Fuck Off". As you can see they wanted no part of skinheads.
There were a few bands that capitalized on the whole racist agenda, and those bands didn't last. The Dead Kennedys are still playing live shows, not with the original line up though, and let's face it the godfathers of punk The Ramones are still one of the most iconic bands of all time. I'm not even getting into the whole British punk invasion. I mean the Sex Pistons come on.
There was a resurgence of punk in the late 90's early 00's with bands like Green Day, Sum 41, Ocean Ave, so on and so on. This was that punk style but lacked the antiestablishment message. The vibe was there but it wasn't the same. They were more party punk or punk light if you will. Eventually Green Day began doing more protest songs and albums which is probably why they are the most successful of that punk era.
Anyway, all of this punk got me nostalgic and remembering all that punk gave us. You may think it's simplistic riffs with angry lyrics, but they gave us critical thinking in music, slam dancing and the mosh pit. Now, you can see a mosh pit at the oddest of shows. Back when the pits started happening, it was a healthy way to get aggression out. It was fun and full of energy, then came the nazis and it became about trying to hurt as many people as possible. The retaliation of that was enforcers that would hunt down the nazis and take them out. The pit was never about hurting people intentionally, sure you would get hurt, but when you did there was always someone there to pick you up and get you out of the pit so that you could rest up and get back in. Punk also gave us one of the most iconic voices in music and that belongs to the original lead singer of the Dead Kennedys, Jello Bialfa (no that's not his real name). Jellos voice is truly unique and the only way to describe it if you haven't heard it, is to think of Fred Schneider of the B-52s with much more aggression. If you don't' know the B-52s then I really can't help what is wrong with you.
What is all this talk about anyway, well it's a way to get to my Favorite Song of the Week, and yes I'm picking an old classic from the Dead Kennedys. This is probably their best knowns song, for the sole reason is that it is the only one that got any airplay and only on college radio stations. I think it gets some cult attention no a days whenever some station wants to do a retro night or something like that. It may also be the most mainstream like song. Yes that is very much a stretch in using mainstream but it's the closest to a for everyone palatable song. For just a few moments live on the fringe of mainstream and enjoy a little punk. I proudly present to you the Dead Kennedys with "Holiday in Cambodia".
I really hope got up and pogo'd to that. I sure as hell did. Every once in a while you need a little punk in your life. Peace in and goodnight.
