This post marks the first time I write for my new, LIVE Jekyll/GitHub powered website—though CLEARLY an asterisk attached with some underlying italicized words ought to be squirreled away somewhere as this isn't the first time I've done this sort of thing as it was a feature of 2020—a really GREAT year for me, incidentally.

I feel good to have made a break from that heavy-footed behemoth that we know as WordPress, that bloated juggernaut that stomps through sentences, pressing on to become everything to everyone. There's some things I'll never need, like right-to-left language support and a myriad of scripts in the background that I never feigned an interest in what they exactly did for me. And was I further propelled in life by its WYSIWYG editor, Gutenberg? There was a time in my life when I disabled it's embedded editor entirely and just tagged things up!

Clearly, I'm more of a markdown audience. And while the setup was longer than I would take in WordPress for I'd just download a theme, point a child and setup critical plugins that would soon be abandoned by their authors making them broken in the next WP rollout, this time around, I just made my own theme and just "include" the thing together.

I initially began to adopt the evolution of my 3-year-old retrowave schema. I spent a day retrofitting it to my new structure and updating the look with a reduced color palette as things got a little busy over the years. As I finished, I realized I wanted something...minimal...clean. So, I made this schema involving three colors: 1) text; 2) canvas; and 3) accent.

I wanted less sizzle and more RIBEYE.

As far as content, I opened up the warehouse and pulled everything out. I realized that this is a personal blog—why not? I'm not peddling anything, but just stand here somewhere near the intersection of self-expression and goal motivation. Plus, with the way my hands are a sieve to my content, it would be good to find another way to hold on to stuff. It always makes me wince when I look back and realize all of the posts I lost from that 2005-2012 era—including my first visit to Europe daily journal, due to that hard drive crash in 2014. I'm then reminded of my loss of all of my 2019 posts because of a misplaced WordPress export. My move to this text file format preserves my words while making them accessible with ease.

And yes, this is ALL static which means a couple of things: it's time to "shake and bake" as this thing is FAST and two, I no longer have to bare my teeth at those Russian and Chinese Cylons scouring my place for a crack in my firewall! I won't lie: potential attacks EVERY day does not invoke a focused mind.

Of course, I'm far from done with this rollout. I've gotta do some cosmetic things and make it a better conduit of achievement, but it's good to get something out on the table. It'll serve to hewn my efforts to win 2021. It's why this thing is here.

On this day in history, my parents eloped to Vegas in 1970. In 2001, I graduated with a bachelor's degree. I eloped to Vegas in 2005. In 2012, I graduated with a master's degree.

NOW on THIS day in history, I weigh in under 200 lbs. At 197.5, I am the lightest I have been in 16 years! And five of those years had me well above the 300 lb mark!

It's surreal to finally return to this place—it's like I hitched a ride on the DeLorean. I pulled it off by achieving the largest Expeditionary weightloss by percentage (5.95%) since the initial, keto kickoff back with The 13th (8.3%). To put things in perspective, the pounds I lost in the last six weeks is about the same as the last three Expeditions COMBINED, spanning back from January.

How did I do it? I continued with carnivore, but I was more sensitive to hunger / satiety signals as I avoided overconsumption—food isn't a party to attend! I backed off the chicken wings via the air fryer for this very reason. My day-to-day for the last six weeks have basically been an iced coffee 30 oz tumbler with 2 tbsps of kerrygold butter, 1 lb beef and a second tumbler. Some days, I substituted one of the tumblers with an iced hibiscus or black tea. Some days had eggs, but it really depended on what my body asked for. Some days I couldn't even finish a lb of meat! When I recently bungled through krill oil supplements, there was a day I ate nothing with the exception of a handful of the protein sparing bread! Yes, my progenitors CLEARLY did not consume much krill!

Of course, all of that is about the past. I love it and celebrate it, but this whole Expeditionary thrust is about reaching toward the expansion of the horizon in becoming the best version of me. It's time to move on to the next Expedition: 23: The 90s Are Back!

And yes, my BMI now officially lists me as "overweight." It's been a long road from that class III morbid obesity BMI marker of 48.9! But, the night beckons and I gotta ride...

I hearken back to the time of 2020, when I spent countless hours at earning better gains, a pursuit that was far greater than the sweat equity invested at the gym, but expanded the palisades of my consciousness, that is, all that I know the world to be. Admittedly, we are remarkably finite creatures with limited knowledge of what goes around us and the myriad of interpersonal, concurrent connections at present state, the history thereof and its totality influence on the age that lies ahead.

I read books. A whole lot of of 'em. I organized my approach with three routes of identity as I tracked them via Goodreads, a context I maintained throughout the prior year and one I'm bringing back to 2021:

• Blade Runner - A tech and science-futurism focus along with the players' application that shape their use for power aggregation shaping the world toward a dystopian future.
• Fitness Guru - That which contributes toward superior versions of mind, body and soul. Because "we just want to pump...(clap)...you up!"
• Entrepreneur - The pursuit of value-added creations that (hopefully) doesn't tap to Puttin' on the Ritz.

I'm also adopting this schema as I make use of the free version of Feedly as I bring more knowledge silos onto my farm. And while I continue to avoid news and sports medias, I'm still acquiring more information, even while present-day hysterics trickle down into my feed.

I've returned to my usage of Todoist. It's neither as fun as Habitica nor as community-driven as the MMORPG task app. Todoist functions as intended, a place to jot a note or two, adding things into my workflow.

That said, for all of my expansion, I've been reeling! I've been caught on the hook with krill oil supplements. While I first began taking 500 mg for joint pain, in recent days, I upped it to 1000 mg after reading a study. In the days that followed, I have been rendered to a state of apathy with never-ending nausea and a complete loss of appetite. The great thing about a carnivore diet is that it's pretty easy to run down issues when there's a change. It didn't take me long to suspect krill oil, though I shudder at stopping. I do want to get back to my daily training!

Nevertheless, what to do when I barely eat one day and dislike my Kerrygold coffee the next? I have no interest in fasting yet I have an extreme prejudice against ALL food! Of course, I don't have full knowledge of what ails me—perhaps, I am among The Walking Dead. As for now, I'm on the fence as to whether I'll completely cut out krill or if I'll return to the original 500 mg.