We soak the hours from each box of Everyday into the sludge of the Internet. Perhaps, it would be befitting to call the better known buggers as TheyTube, Crowdface and Instasham.

I wonder how this consumption affects me. Am I really me or am I decent approximation of Just Another Netizen? I see people falling down the tunnel of their phones—is that me? I wonder what I would do, how would I think if all of those other voices were silent? My current jean size is from a time when they were.

I'm going to go find out.

Kicking off today at sundown, I've got a 50-day countdown that'll end on New Year's Eve for this exploration. I'll be cutting my daily Internet usage to ten minutes a day, just long enough to pay bills and kick off any website updates via a SSH shell.

What does this apply to? Basically, EVERYTHING that I do online: anything in a browser that's not localhost, webmail clients, streaming TV/audio—it's important to keep the spirit of what I want to achieve as opposed to queuing up content for offline usage. And again, I'm uploading to my site, though this whole thing is about the inputs.

However, I do have a whitelist:

• Family messaging;
• Cricut functionality for my own designs;
• System updates and other automated events like weather and Garmin.

I'm not going without a computer entirely—maybe I'll shelve my hardware for a month in 2022! Rather, I'm just shooing all of the gnomes that have climbed onto my computers so I can think clearly! These voices from the little speakers are far too loud. When I emerge from the wilderness on New Year's Eve, I can choose as to whether I want to go all-in on things like Facebook or seek something else.

(Though they make no reference to my approach, I was inspired to do all of this after watching a podcast episode that was right in my wheelhouse: Jase Won’t Stop Interrupting HIMSELF & the Misery of Zuck's Creepy, Dystopian Metaverse.)

A mile-marker day for me: I've built a 200-day beard and hit 350 days on my carnivore diet—just 15 more days to hit the year achievement! Now, if I want to pull out the yardstick, 350 days isn't particularly mind-blowing, ESPECIALLY when compared to others in the carnivore tribe. It's really not unlike my 5K times compared to the running community. However, they're both big to me: 1) I have demonstrated to myself that meat has all the nutrition I need and my body reflects this as I'm on the welcome mat to returning to the weight I was in high school; 2) I go the distance.

Basically, my mindset is aligned to the following from the Rocky series:

Every champion was once a contender who refused to give up.

~

All I wanna do is go the distance.

~

The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It is a very mean and nasty place and it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is going to hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard you hit; it's about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward. How much you can take, and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done. Now, if you know what you're worth, then go out and get what you're worth. But you got to be willing to take the hit, and not pointing fingers saying you ain't where you are because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that and that ain't you. You're better than that.

~

To beat me, he's going to have to kill me. He's gonna have to have the heart to stand in front of me and to do that, he's got to be willing to die himself.

~

Going in one more round when you don't think you can. That's what makes all the difference in your life.

~

The toughest opponent you're ever going to have to face (is in the mirror).

~

Because if you're willing to go through all the battling you got to go through to get where you want to get, who's got the right to stop you? I mean, maybe some of you guys got something you never finished, something you really want to do, something you never said to someone, something…and you're told no, even after you paid your dues? Who's got the right to tell you that, who? Nobody! It's your right to listen to your gut, it ain't nobody's right to say no after you earned the right to be where you want to be and do what you want to do!

~

One step at a time. One punch at a time. One round at a time.

~

The only difference between the hero and the coward, is the hero is willing to go for it...willing to take the shot.

~

Apollo: Dammit Rock, come on…what's the matter with you!?
Rocky: Tomorrow, let's do it tomorrow.
Apollo: THERE IS NO TOMORROW!

~

Ain't nothing over till it's over.

Ground Beef

The Costco ground beef looked so good today raw that infused by a spark of Bear Grylls, I took a couple of bites. Immediately, I turned toward my cameraman to say how it was packed with protein and loaded with all sorts of /ˈvɪt.ə.mɪn/ that my body needs. YES, that is the FIRST time I've EVER eaten raw ground beef. My takeaway was its absence of strong flavor—I can see why it's all about the seasoning when it comes to tartare.

Culinary exploration aside, I missed the flavor and texture of my typical approach, so I mixed in with the rest of that lb a couple of eggs and a tablespoon of egg white powder. I then massaged it all together and flattened it onto the bottom of my air fryer for 22 minutes, but not before a LIBERAL sprinkling of black pepper, a smattering of No Salt and two pinches of kosher salt. Halfway through, I flipped and repeated with the salt and pepper.

And I eat every bit of what comes out of that air fryer!

Ol' George Foreman would shake his head toward me if he got a load of me. The thing with my diet is that I GOTTA have my fat—it really does regulate hunger! I can feel the difference a fattier day vs. a leaner one, or even leaner ground beef compared with a fatter one—I can't finish a lb of the higher % variety in one sitting, but leaner? Sure! It's funny because we were SO OBSESSIVELY against fat back in the '90s. Ahh, this amuses me—such is life! If I may borrow from Cars, sometimes to turn left, we gotta turn right.

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I finished the rest of 2021's T-shirts today. While the design I least liked was the above because of the "back to school" theme, I did think it was fun to place on a baseball T-shirt. That said, there are a few finer points that I dislike about my t-shirt production itself for it requires a skill set that remains in development—I dislike mistakes. The shirts still work, so they're ready to go.

This race was initially conceived to commemorate a 200-day beard on tomorrow—profound stuff I know! Instead, it was a literal run down memory lane as I circled my 4-8th grade school and swung by K-3. It's funny the flood of feelings that come from a time when one is really just a kid, not that the events of high school and college didn't make a stronger impact, of course, but I wouldn't have thought that even as a kid, there's stuff in my head still...and there was once a journal from that time that is Just Another Thing Lost Forever on that damned flight down from Alaska. There's some rich symbolism there somewhere...

For all that I thought I would simply CRUSH Race 1, this second race came up empty by EIGHT SECONDS, hitting 0:56:45. As I was running, I felt like I had all the time in the world, but it simply got away from me. I just figured my switch to sandals would slash my time. But like my first race, I'm still developing my muscles as a midfoot-forefoot-ish runner, doing my best to run like a ninja!

But for now, my sandals slap.

I should have won. I made a pit stop, one that lasted about 5-10 seconds alone! I peered inside a window to a room I haven't seen since 1990: my 6th grade homeroom, Mr. Lunsford's class. CLEARLY, nothing was the same except for the walls, but I was taken back to the layout of the desks that I knew and how everything today seems just a little bit smaller. I considered it all for about 5-10 seconds and hit the path again. It all seemed smaller including the line of sidewalk where we boarded our bus home or the path out the door into the night air from the Valentine's Dance after I finally gave in to Kari's crush to the sound of Don't Cry, a mood that foreshadowed our sophomore year. Sometimes we run with things heavier than legs that skipped a warm-up.

I had a problem with the finish line: there wasn't one for me to burn out to reach! In my last run, I just had to pass the Chemistry/Geology building on campus and I was finished. Today, I got off the route and despite my attempt at compensating for it, I was left to finish the race directionless in the parking lot. If I had something to aim for beyond my watch face, I would have dug deep. So, the first race gets the win here. This has been a lesson of focus!

I now have a record of 1-1. Well, "We're on to Cincinnati:" The One-Year Carnivore 5K on November 23. I actually have time to train for it, assuming my recovery from this one bounces back as fast as I suspect I will. Pass the eggshells, please.