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.
