It is 9:16 AM on Saturday morning May 15th, 2021. Time is a blur during this pandemic and a month slips by as quickly as a week. It is another day inside the house, but for me I am never short of amusements or activities. I have my books and have read the old Time Life Serie’s books The Spanish West, The Great Chiefs and will soon finish The Trailblazers. I have my gym and as sculpted as I was after senior year in high school. I have my games and enjoy Fortnite and Minecraft with my sons as well as participate in my wife’s world of Animal Crossing. I have virtual reality where I can watch shows and movies in my own personal movie theater. And finally, I have the internet where I’ve found a new hobby in crypto currencies/blockchain.
On this particular morning it is gray with a very heavy fog that has dampened everything. I’m sitting in my reading nook with my headphones in to drown out the noise from Saturday Japanese zoom class. I haven’t written a post in quite a while so thought it was due.
Gout
Unfortunately, for the past three weeks I have had the worst case of gout in my life. My body may be in great shape but something has caused my uric acid levels to spike. The main suspects are the Johnson and Johnson vaccine combined with movie popcorn with too much butter, Reese’s Pieces and a big soda. The reason I ate that junk is because we were invited to a private showing at the theater for one of my son’s friends on his birthday. Anyway, the gout has been awful and has caused me to make some changes.
The first is to finally get a primary physician. Our previous one yearned for a more peaceful life away from the Bay area and absconded to Oregon. I had looked for a new doctor but finding one in the Bay is a nightmare. You have to find one that is “in network” isn’t too far away, is accepting new patients and isn’t going through some massive change like a lot of the healthcare industry is right now. I got discouraged so many times that I eventually just gave up. I even used a service through work but I was adamant that I didn’t want any recommendations for doctors in San Francisco as I’d rather just not go than have to drive to San Francisco for an appointment. We’ll due to this episode of gout, I finally sat down, found a doctor and have an appointment in a few weeks.
The second thing is I’ve dropped 10 pounds. I’ve decided to eat only at dinnertime for the present. I doubt I’ll stick with this in the future but will set a maximum weight limit that is a good 15 pounds lighter than my previous average weight. I do not mind not eating and in fact enjoy it. Until now I had looked forward to those endorphins from eating or used mealtime as part of my breaks in the day. Well, I’ve discovered I enjoy the feeling of being lighter and getting to that first hole in my belt to be even more enjoyable than eating. So, I’m going to use diet as a way to control gout in the future as well as ask for a prescription only to stop any future onsets. I will not do daily medication as I strongly prefer changes in lifestyle over the “easy pill” our society so readily accepts.
The silver lining to gout is it is a VERY effective warning system to get a diet under control. I look at it as my body’s way of making me even more healthy. Thanks to my in-house gym and being home everyday due to COVID my body is looking really good! I’m also enjoying seeing a six-pack starting to appear with the weight loss. I wouldn’t have started to lose weight if it wasn’t for gout. Time for a lifestyle change.
Cryptocurrency
I love cryptocurrency and blockchain. I’ve always been an internet nerd but my enthusiasm comes and goes. All this new technology reminds me of my excitement when building my very first websites on Geocities back in the ’90s. The internet is changing and I’m all in!
I’ve missed the very beginnings unfortunately and am kicking myself for not paying more attention six years ago. However, I’m still in early and got in back in January before a big spike in prices. It went from just investing to a full on hobby and now find myself using the Brave browser, have a website on Ethereum, joined the Internet Computer social network, and am learning more everyday. Right now reminds me of when only nerds were using e-mail and “surfing the net” pre-AOL. Yes, it made the news but very few were actually doing it and not many saw the usefulness. Well, the same is with crypto and blockchain, this is the future and it is as clear to me as the morning sun. So I’ll buy and I’ll hold for a decade.
Trumpism
Even though Trump isn’t the President anymore his movement continues to wreak havoc on America. His supporters overran the capital building and Republicans have been increasingly denying the truth, preferring spin and outright lies. What is happening is American democracy is fracturing and at a quicker pace everyday. I don’t think many realize our nation is crumbling and we’re now in real danger of civil war. Most people cannot see danger until it is right in front of their face. The open gasoline can is there, a lit match is getting closer yet they do not understand until it ignites. We walk outside and do not yet see carnage in the streets but the tension is there. Political leaders believe they can push outrage to the brink without (mass) violence. Well, just a few years ago I was under the impression half of America was not bat-shit crazy. Times change.
We have a President who just tried to overthrow democracy. The capital building was overrun. Republicans outright lie about the legitimacy of an election and the Republican party itself is losing its moderates thus concentrating into an even more extreme form. We are in for some very dark days as a nation.
And on the upside America is a business and I intend to fully participate! The stock market is up and investments going very well. Money is king in America and I expect corporations will get stronger. In an apocalyptic scenario, even if the economy were to tank, inflation run rampant and so on, I have crypto! The beauty of crypto is its decentralization and so cannot be censured by a government. I am very concerned about the future and here is my prediction in a nutshell.
Due to the fascism known as Trumpism the American government will continue to weaken. You have half the country hating the other half. The military is still the best in the world but is under the control of the government and half of the government is fucking crazy. Also, China is getting stronger. China will take Taiwan and Russia will take Ukraine. They’ll be able to do this as American democracy starts to falter. I certainly hope by some miracle things improve, but given our current trajectory Republicans are playing with fire and seem willing to burn the whole house down. When they make their moves we’ll see if war will ensue. Nobody wants an all out war and so Russia and China are calculating when, not if, to make moves and what the reactions might be. This is a tense time but the reality is being ignored.
And oh yea, Israel is at war with Palestine. American media spins the information to always be pro Israel and anti-Palestine. They say Israeli “security” or “military” and then Palestinian “militant. They say Palestine fires rockets at Israel and not that Israel has held Palestine in what is pretty much just a big concentration camp for decades. Trumpist politicans call Palestinians “terrorists,” but are silent when Israel commits an atrocity such as destroying the news building in Gaza just today. This is bad.
UFO
In this surreal world we’re living in we might as well throw in UFOs! People are generally stupid and chuckle when the subject is brought up. Well, how about the US Navy releasing actual UFO footage of a craft vastly superior and well beyond any of our own technological advancements? How about the US Navy releasing the fact one of our aircraft carriers were swarmed by “drones.” Shouldn’t this be on the news everyday all day?
No, of course not. Look here is some sports, wow, just look at that player he is sportsing so hard! Look, here is a desperate housewife gone wild! Look, here is some insurrection that isn’t insurrection but actually Antifa dressed as Trump supporters peacefully visiting the Capital Building as tourists!
Humanity isn’t functioning right now, come back tomorrow.
And so I’ve turned inward. Until three months ago, I was very social on the internet and kept connections with seemingly everyone I ever met. Trumpism has made me do an about face. No more Facebook, no more keeping in contact with anyone except family. I’ve turned inward and much now prefer a quiet, peaceful life without all of the noise. I have my blog, I have the internet (minus social media) and I am happy.
