28 Days Later: "The Autumn Winds Blow Chilly and Cold"
Monday, August 14, 2023
Listen up you absolute peasants. The time for fun and games has come to a close. Daddy's home...and he's hungry.
Viva La Dirt League, Who's the Best Manager?
When have I not kicked off a new fitness paradigm without a few restarts? At this point these past few years, it is an ABSOLUTE requirement. It has been 28 days since—WAIT, it has been 28 DAYS LATER since my carnivore diet.
For these upcoming mornings, this Bill's Groundhog Day will have a Daily Affirmation of "I am not as fat as I was yesterday; this is the fattest I'll ever be for the rest of my life." (Sure, we can add that "people like me, too.") I'm given to my excesses, and I've got a pile of discarded Twinkie packages to prove it. But, I cannot make food the actor of that escape.
This time, things will be different. From 2018-2023, I maintained a competitive approach; I found value in being open, providing my results. This time, it is a state of being. There is not a future date for which to drive toward the horizon; there is not an achievement to unlock. In time, my body's optimization will line up with my arbitrary expectations.
I do not expect to write much further on weightloss. Clearly, the most effective approach to this head-scratching problem is a high-fat carnivore diet. You are welcome, society, I have cracked the code. OK, to be fair, that 200/75 approach is not mine to claim authorship as I grabbed it from someone else who in turn recognized it as our ancestral diet. OK, I have verified the methodology by replicating the research. Better?
And thus, after years of discovery, I'll wrap it up: a high-fat carnivore diet is how we can best achieve the best physical versions of ourselves; it is the fuel for how we can max out our talents.
Moving On
Where will I take these entries? I want to further enhance my abilities.
Computers? With my recent viewership of Scammer Payback and Kitboda, I have been pulled toward my Management Information Systems background and I've even thought about returning to Linux again while obliterating my dependence on Google. I really like the idea of a migration to an end-to-end encryption cloud backup service. I also have a push in me to make widgets for the house which would involve Raspberry Pi tech. I would like to have a dumb phone. That Nokia 5150 was the best phone ever! Hey, I would have even liked it more than if Nokia released a OU812!
Music? My heart is tugged toward picking up the guitar again. There's just something special about getting caught up in a chord, a meditative quality with a guitar in my arms....well, really it is the emotional resonance:
Academics? Woodworking? Landscaping? Buidling a model train set in a diorama? There are just so many things in my head. So many passions.
Onward to the Third Carniversary: "Looking for Fun and Feeling Groovy"
Friday, August 4, 2023
I have a 111-day headstart on my next adventure. Around past Thanksgivings, I kicked off a 637-day Carnivore ride and followed it up with another 237-day streak around that food-focused holiday.
This time, I begin again. 111 days early. On an August 4.
Things are different this time. There are no neatly packaged Expeditions. I'm not even curious as to my weight. I'll weigh myself on my Third Carniversary which happens to fall on Thanksgiving this year. What I do after that, I don't know, for The Expeditions, with its weightloss target, ultimately failed as a winning paradigm. These lyrics are apt , an anthem of my hard-hitting bag workouts in my country garage of 2020 from The 16th Expedition: 20⚡25:
Well, I never saw it coming
I should've started running a long, long time ago
And I never thought I'd doubt you
I'm better off without you
More than you, more than you know
I've written about it in years past, but weight is not something we can control. Sure, we can indirectly engage in methodologies that are consistent with gaining or losing, though it appears that hormones determine where we land on the scale. That said, the construct of a number only has value in our heads.
More importantly, I know what I feel like when I am firing on all cylinders; I am a champion. I do added chores; I bake bread that I do not eat; I work from Schwarzenegger's text to create my own bodybuilding plan at 45.
But, I faltered. I wrote of that recently. I thought I could bounce back! But after my Gordon's tromp through a box of Twinkies, a platter of cheesecake and a tub of freshly-popped-on-site, caramelized like Cracker Jacks popcorn, what can better describe my experience than these words from Elvis regarding sugar?
I thought that I was in heaven
But I was sure surprised
Heaven help me, I didn't see
The devil in your eyesYou look like an angel (look like an angel)
Walk like an angel (walk like an angel)
Talk like an angel
But I got wise
You're the devil in disguise
Sure, there is an addictive quality to sugar. But, how our emotions are wrapped into it is bewildering. The collapses of the streaks were derived out of emotion: I had reached a place of an existential threat that ultimately snapped that 237-day journey; the 637-day was an intense injury that alcohol mitigated. Curious enough, my current inflammation of carbs has flared it up, near its own August anniversary coming up in a couple of weeks.
AI of the Day: Replica Game Demo
This video is fascinating to me for a game demo you can download for free. In the past, a conversation with an NPC has been...a lot of "Mornin', nice day for fishin', ain't it?" Things are changing as demonstrated below:
This makes me think that since we anthropomorphize our dogs, how much more will we do the same for our computers? In time, I honestly can see a "friendship" form with something like this assuming data persistence is in place so that the relationship evolves.
I already have text-based conversations with ChatGPT to tear apart subjects. Add audio I/O and I would find it more helpful than most folks. Add Scarlett Johansson's voice like Her (2013):
The singularity is here.
Pretense Puppeteers: "I Have Squandered My Resistance"
Wednesday, July 26, 2023
Straight Outta 1914-17, What I'm Listening To:
I heard Braveheart in Jupiter and I already knew of John Williams' direct pulls and heard the Gladiator influence.
This is what ChatGPT adds:
Star Wars series - John Williams' score takes inspiration from various movements, with the Imperial March drawing from Mars, the Bringer of War, and other pieces echoing the grandeur found throughout the suite.
Flash Gordon (1980) - Composer Howard Blake's score is influenced by Mars, the Bringer of War from The Planets, particularly in capturing the intensity and action-packed sequences of the film.
Prometheus (2012) - Composer Marc Streitenfeld drew inspiration from Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age for certain scenes in the film, to evoke a sense of ancient and mysterious themes.
Superman (1978) - John Williams' score shares thematic elements akin to Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity from The Planets, capturing the heroic and soaring spirit of the film's protagonist.
Starship Troopers (1997) - Basil Poledouris' soundtrack is influenced by Mars, the Bringer of War from The Planets, reflecting the militaristic and intense nature of the film.
Interstellar (2014) - Hans Zimmer's score shares epic and space-themed elements, possibly drawing inspiration from various movements in The Planets, including the profound and expansive sounds found in Neptune, the Mystic.
The Incredibles (2004) - Michael Giacchino's score incorporates elements reminiscent of Mars, the Bringer of War, particularly in action-packed sequences that mirror the intensity of the movement.
The Lord of the Rings trilogy - While not directly from The Planets, Howard Shore's score has a similar grandiose quality, akin to Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity, capturing the epic journey and heroic themes of the films.
Braveheart (1995) - James Horner's score for Braveheart shares emotional and stirring elements found in Venus, the Bringer of Peace, and Neptune, the Mystic, as it evokes a sense of triumph and struggle. The Love Theme for Braveheart is influenced by Venus, the Bringer of Peace.
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) - John Williams' score for E.T. shares thematic elements akin to Neptune, the Mystic from The Planets, capturing the sense of wonder, mystery, and otherworldly themes present in the film.
Nine Days
I can do a lot in nine days.
In nine days, I gained approximately 30+ lbs without carnivore. I am the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man! I have been absolutely miserable. Life feels like it has been 9 MONTHS—not days—since I have been carnivore!
In nine days, I have been watching Pierogi and Kitboga. OK, so I have been watching a LOT of those two! For Pierogi alone, I have already watched his last two years of videos, some 80+ videos. I have yet to dive into Jim Browning's work.
It's fascinating stuff.
And sometimes, it is hilarious:
I have never thought Indian call center scammers to be much of a threat; I am surprised at how massively successful they are—it is not sophisticated. Of course, they pick off the weakest members of our societal herd. Especially for a shame-honor culture, it is SHAMEFUL!
The Indian scammers literally just claim to be someone, tell the user to install a remote console on their PC and fire up Chrome's developer's tools to change the HTML on the mark's bank account page. What I find silly is they pawn off Google Forms as something as a corporate webform. What I find ridiculous is that they convince users to fill in a terminal/CMD prompt. Then off they send the victim to purchase gift cards or pull out cash to ship.
I honestly don't know why the con works as well as it does. Maybe because we give more credence to tech? As if phones imbue station and expertise? Computer hardware infuse credibility? Honestly, I view everything on the Internet as just a text file that someone typed whatever in....because that's what I'm doing right now via Visual Studio Code.
But people do that all the time. They submit to people who claim authority.
Life Beyond The Expeditions
Why did I get off carnivore in the first place? Wasn't it successful? Of course it was! Some nine days ago, I was in the pool with my clipboard, planning out both my week and the months that lay ahead for 2023. Out of nowhere, I had this dagger thrust into my soul: what's the point of it all? The focus here is long-term. Why plan to listen to N number of audiobooks? Drop W amount of weight? Learn this or that. In terms of my existence, they are about as instrumental as my Fallout 4 build for EoY '23. By extension, does anything I do matter?
This was unsettling. So, I set aside my clipboard and just...punted. Instead of having a litany of things to do, I just binged on hackers, that crossroads between tech and humanity that I'm invariably drawn toward. And ate copious amount of ice cream. Shout out to Blue Bell's Pecan Pralines 'n' Cream.
As stated, I was and am miserable. That is a problem. Perhaps what I do does not matter long-term, but sometimes we do things to avoid problems as opposed to acquiring gains. Actually, that is the essence of the carnivore diet: its intent to remove all that manufactured gunk and natural poisons so that I am what I am supposed to be.
A carnivore diet is not a superhuman exlihir. But, when "normal" foodstuffs wreck us, it feels like I'm downing something that turns me into Popeye the Sailor Man! Interestingly enough, Popeye was utilized by the USDA to promote the consumption of spinach because of the excess production in the 1930s and as an alternative to meat in the war effort of the 1940s—oxalates aside, not quite as nefarious as Ancel Keys:
No, this return to dietary cool kids normalization just won't do. In the upcoming days, I'll be defining, applying and refining a lyric from an influential song that regularly reverberated in my high school truck's cab:
Life's a journey, not a destination
And I just can't tell just what tomorrow brings-Aerosmith, Amazing