I don’t even know how to properly start this post other than, it would seem that I am not allowed to get too comfortable at what I do.

Every time I feel like I’ve reached a level of confidence, a level of “I’m doing good”, something, out of nowhere, will come around and bring my confidence down again.

It’s as if, it’s never enough, not good enough. I want to believe that with experience things will get much better but seems like I’m not quite there yet.

I’m not allowed to feel comfortable yet.

Today I have learned to never make changes to my site, based on what I see at my work computer, and furthermore, using Chrome. Chrome is great for inspecting but what I see after making the changes, what I see in Chrome, does not exactly represents what I like to see. If that makes any sense. Everything is better looking on Safari.

That being said, dressing up and fixing your site it is mostly for yourself as most people, if they even read my stuff, would do so — most likely — from an RSS reader.

But using the inspector and fixing things here and there is fun sometimes, I learn a lot by picking things and see what they do.

I shall stop now. Back to the writing. If anything.

🦥💨

In my quest for a healthy mindset/lifestyle, I have made some changes. I am not doing my full workout routine and such yet but I have made small changes. For now, I have changed some of my eating habits, eating leaner, eating more fruits and vegetables and less processed stuff, or at least as little as I can. Also and most definitely, cutting down my ale consumption. I have to say, I do feel the difference like my body seems, happier in a way. I like how it feels. Now, I need to up my activity. It is getting warm out so it is time for outdoor workouts or at least to try to go for runs if I can. Last week I did some Apple Fitness and that helped a bit. Even my back pain has gone away, which is interesting. Sometimes I want to change a lot in no time and then I get both overwhelmed and frustrated.

I like where this is going, just need to keep it up.

Today was hairdo day. The Wife got her hair done, Marley and Luna got theirs, and I finally got my long-awaited haircut. I’ve been living in Boise Idaho since 2008, and since then, my lady and I have gone to the same hairdresser, Tia. At this point, she’s not only our favorite hairdresser but also a very close friend, we have a lot of history, and she knows us better than many people.

Anyway, today was like every other appointment, we talk, we catch up and listen to each other. It’s almost like therapy in a way. As I was getting my haircut she asked about how I was doing and all that jazz. I expressed to her my current frustrations on being healthy and active, telling her the changes I’ve been making but most of all whether I wanted to get back into a gym membership or not. Her response/advice was quite the realization and took me by surprise a bit.

She said;

The most in shape I have ever seen you was when you were doing everything on your own, without a gym.

And you know what, thinking about it, she’s right. Yes, it is nice I guess to have a place where you can go and tune the world out, but maybe it’s not absolutely necessary. I enjoy my outdoor workouts far more than in a gym. All I need is a few kettlebells and a decent area, like my backyard. Also, I have been meaning to get back into running, and I rather run out and about over on a treadmill.

It is good to get reminded by people that probably know you better than you know yourself. People that know the best version of you.

Thank you, Tia

Something I am passionate about is photography. I am no pro photographer by any means, but I enjoy taking my camera out and snap a few pictures of anything and everything that caught my eyes.

I feel like I haven’t done much of it in a long while. Besides family gatherings and my girls, I haven’t taken a good photo in a quite some time. Maybe because I don’t go out much these days?

Perhaps I need a Gaby’s day out.

I don’t like spiders, at all, they make me uncomfortable for whatever reason. Last night I dreamt about spiders. I was in a room, I believe it was one of the girl’s. I remember laying in bed looking at the sealing to what it looked like water accumulated in the sealing paint. The paint started to make like pockets, or bubbles. Someone broke one to see if it was water when in fact these pockets were full of spiders, and they were crawling all over the walls. I remember thinking about burning the room or something 😅

I am always curious about the significance of dreams. So, this morning, I went to the internets, as you do, and found some interesting things.

What Does It Mean If You Dream About Spiders? It Doesn’t Symbolize What You’d Think

If you’re afraid of it or repelled by it, it may mean you’re repressing feminine energy of some sort in your waking life — whether that means within yourself or from another person. If it’s a nonthreatening presence, it could symbolize a spirit animal or totem that’s bringing feminine energy your way.

I am afraid of them and repelled by them for sure, so maybe something to do with that?

That could be a substance that’s being used in excess, or “that a relationship, career, or person has turned bad,” explained Richmond to Huffington Post. As for spiders crawling on you, Hack To Sleep explained the symbolism: “In this instance, the spider represents negative influences in your life that are difficult to rid yourself of, such as addictions, habits, or people that give negative emotional, mental, or physical impacts on your life.”

This one struck a cord, there are certain habits and negative things that I feel like I’ve been dealing with lately.

“In your dream, if the spider is crawling up a wall, it means that you are moving forward in your personal and professional life, and succeeding in a goal you are pursuing,” wrote Hack To Sleep. “If the spider struggles on the way up, it could mean that you are hitting roadblocks along the way and need to persist or try new tactics.” Take a dream like this as a sign that you should make like a spider and keep on truckin’ when it comes to your IRL dreams.

I like this point better, I can relate, specially in my professional life.

I’m certain that I could go down the rabbit hole with this one. Maybe it’s nothing, just a dream, like many others. Like your teeth falling or being naked in public. I can’t help myself though, I am always intrigued and fascinated by the things I can’t explain.

Okay, hear me out. As it stands, I have three blogging spaces. I’ve got Micro.blog (😘), Hey World and Blot which is currently used for pictures only, although I haven’t been updating it. Micro.blog and Hey, are definitely sticking around, I have paid an annual subscription on both. Blot, well, it’s coming up for review in the next week or so, and I am debating if I should keep it. Of all three platforms, Blot.im is by far the cheapest which is why I keep renewing every year even if I don’t quite use it. But now I have three spaces and that’s too much for me to handle or find a use for.

I got a couple of days to think about it. Part of me just want to keep it, a big part of it is to support Dave and what he’s doing, and again, it’s cheap. I’m sure I’ll find an use for it, eventually.

This should probably be a commuting tales post, but I haven’t been too consistent with that so…

Anyhow, this morning like every damned morning I am taking my regular commute to work. I know I am a few minutes behind schedule, but I know I’ll be arriving mostly on time. As I am getting closer to the site, I noticed most cars are turning left on a street instead of going straight. Well, turns out coops had one block of the highway blocked. And guess where my work-site is?

Just like every other driver I turned left then tried to find another way to sneak into work. I could have cut through the field, which there’s nothing planted at the moment, but I didn’t. Later I realized that cops would let you go through as long as you let them know you worked here.

Obviously, there was a car accident going on, but what freaked me out a bit was that the accident was right by my work-site. Once I have made it to work and got into me morning check-in meeting, my first question was. Was it someone we know? The answer was, yes. Every time I see local news about an accident or something bad, I always think the same thing, “I hope this is not someone I know. Well, in this case, it was someone I knew. They are okay though, apparently the accident involved three cars, and I only got to see one of them been taken away.

Now, this whole, unfortunate event, made me realize how much of a creature of habit I am. This event took me out of my routine, and now I am not only worried about my co-workers but out off wack!

I am not sure if I am the only one that gets this one.

Every once in a while, out of nowhere, a very embarrassing memory will come up in my head and I will get all sorts of feelings about it. Many times I beat myself up for a memory of when I was 19 years old or something. “Why did you say that?’ or “Why did you do that? That was stupid”, you get the idea. But what I always fail is to also — or try to — recognize is that for every embarrassing memory, there’s also, sometimes, a good lesson.

So, instead of beating myself over it, I should ask myself. What did I learn from it? And focus on that instead of asking myself. Why was I so stupid?

After reflecting — and posting — about my current state of health, I’m still not entirely sure what I am going to do exactly. I need to come up with a plan and I need to get my motivation back.

That being said, today’s weight, 212 lbs. The goal is… I don’t know. I know I feel good at 190-195, and even better at 180-185. That’s a lot, but I’ve done it before. I’ve gone from 225 down to 190.

All I need is a bit of motivation and a lot of discipline, I seemed to have misplaced them both. So, if you see them, tell them I miss them. 😅

A few weeks ago I had my annual physical examination with also included some blood work. Upon visiting my primary physician it turned out that I am not quite dying — yet. Still and most definitely far from perfect but still, I’ll live. There was one thing that he found abnormal, something related to my cholesterol not the kind of problem that would necessarily cause a heart attack, but it can still be an issue.

He asked me to get a second round of blood work just to make sure. There’s always the possibility of a bad lab work. But if it was indeed high thenI would have to be under medication. Which, truthfully, I don’t want to do, I already have to medicate myself once a day and I don’t want to add yet another pill to my day. I know, like my dad, he takes like six different medications a day for various reasons, so one pill is nothing. Still, I don’t like pills.

I asked what could I to remedy the problem or prevent it from getting worse? In the back of my head I already knew the answer, though. He said, exercise and diet. Carbs and complex sugars are my biggest enemies. In my case, this means beer 😅

Today I got a called, regarding my second round, and it came back, not perfect, but I won’t need medication. The Doctor advised to up my exercise and work on my diet.

Ever since the pandemic, I have gone out of control. To make it even worse, I have barely been keeping up with my exercise routine. I haven’t been to a gym in a year or so. I have stopped working out at home or going for walks/runs.

I need to get serious and make serious changes. I am not as heavy as I’ve ever been, but I am getting there. Lower back problems are coming back too. I need to figure something out, need to incorporate some kind of routine with many new work schedule and cut out the breed (read beer).

• M: Too many free radicals. That’s your problem.
• James Bond: “Free radicals”, sir?
• M: Yes. They’re toxins that destroy the body and the brain, caused by eating too much red meat and white bread. Too many dry martinis!
• James Bond: Then I shall cut out the white bread, sir.

EDWARD FOX — M

SIR SEAN CONNERY — James Bond

“Never Say Never Again”

I love my HomePod, I really do, when it works. There are a few times though, when….

Today for example.

Me: Hey, Siri! Put a timer for 35 minutes.

Siri: …

Siri: hm….

Siri: I’m having trouble connecting to the internet. For more information, go to the home app.

Me (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

Unplugged the HomePod, asked the watch for the timer.

Hey Siri, you’re in timeout 😤

The perfect email app or system, is the one you use. How do you know? Well, use it, use it how you will, with whatever client or application you will. Whatever service you will or not pay for. Just use it and do whatever the fuck. The rest, are just minor intricacies.

IN OTHER NEWS:

I got two more desk buddies.

Today we had a very Puerto Rican menu.

Rice and beans (with olives)

Bistec encebollado

With, tostones 😍, not fried though, oven baked, gotta keep it as healthy as possible 😅

Just missing some Puerto Rican beer and a flan 🍮

inessential: The Perfect To-Do System Is Not Just Around the Corner

There’s no getting out of this fact: these apps are all going to take more constant input from you than you’d wish for. They don’t take away the need for some amount of self-discipline to use them effectively.

Wondering if this the reason why I always fail at these systems. 😉

Vaccine administration in the US achieved a new daily record last week with over 4 million shots in one day. In addition, the US has fully vaccinated more than 61.4 million individuals (18.5% of the total US population) and 32.4% of the population has received at least one dose of the vaccine.

61.4 million, to me, sounds like a big number but that represents only 18.5% of the total US population, eighteen point five percent of the total!! I guess I have failed to grasp the magnitude of the US’s population if that makes any sense. It is a number I think very little about. Perhaps because I used to live on a little island for more than half of my entire life. The current population of Puerto Rico is 2.8 million, according to the latest United Nations data. So, yeah 61.4 million does seem like a lot but it really isn’t in the grand scheme of things.

Still though, over 4 million shots in one day, that’s two Puerto Rico’s 🙃 and then some.

Monday, also, first day back at pre-pandemic eight hours work on-site.

In case you’re wondering, before I’d be on-site from 5:00am to 12:15pm (first shift). Then, at 1:00pm to 8:00pm would be the second shift on-site. Now we are back to just one shift, 7:00am to 3:30pm.

So, now there’s 5 of us in our office space/ trailer. Three of them are in their offices and two of us in our cubicles. The two of us in cubicles need to wear masks 😷 at all times. There’s only 6 people allowed in the break room at a time even if it’s to just reheat your food. So, we all had to sign up for time slots. And since we are supposed to wear masks at all times, we can’t eat at our desks anymore. Which sucks because I really don’t like using the break room. Luckily, we do have a small meetings room in the trailer that we turned into our personal break room, we just take turns.

Commute. I had forgotten how bad traffic is at 6:30am — I don’t like it. Oh, also how bad it is getting out of work at 3:30pm.

I got spoiled for sure 😅

After a whole year, I feel like I need to adjust again. Now I need to make sure I bring breakfast, snacks, and lunch with me. Before I just worried about coffee, breakfast, and a snack. Just needed to survive until to lunch which I’d have here at home.

The good things? I get to sleep more, I get to see people I haven’t seen in over a year. I definitely have more time to do my on-site duties and having most of the managers present is always a good thing as well.

Oh! And birthday treats at my desk are outstanding too. 🙌🏼😎

When it comes to my unprofessional personal blog, my problem is not what to use it for or what to write about. I write about anything and everything. I would never run out of things to say, believe me. If anything, it’s been whether the content be appropriate for all audiences or not, yes a self-censure me a lot, and you’re welcome!!

Having thoughts and senseless things to say are not my problem, my problem is how my site is themed 😅

I am the worst, the absolute worst when it comes to this. I think the longest I have ever gone without making changes to my website or changing the theme in general has been two weeks. At first, I was okay with it because it gave me a chance to poke around, explore, and practice the little CSS I know now. Again, it was fun, but sometimes, I think is better when you know shit. When you don’t have many options to pick from or there’s little to tinker around with.

About two years ago, I posted;

Some functionalities can always be added if desired but is not as easy as turning a switch on and off kind of thing. It involves some programming-CSS-coding-witchcraft that I somewhat understand but don’t know much about. It’s like if I wanted my site to behave and feel the way I would like, I need to be some quasi-programmer-wizard of sorts. Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo, now you’ve got pagination good Sir!

— Not a Wizard.

Making me realize how much I have learned since then, in my not humble opinion. I don’t consider myself a wizard but at least and apprentice. Every so often I’d activate a theme and see how much I can change of it, how far can I take it. @Manton gave us a way to play with themes without affecting the active one, but I rather just play with the “production version” a supposed to the “developer/test version” 😉

And thus, I am not sure what will end up being my default, if ever. Those of you who have found your setup and are happy with it, you all have my admirations.

I usually default to the same two, Marfa or Kiko, to me, they are the most functional for my needs and lately Arabica. In fact, I had stopped using Arabica because it had a few things here and there that I didn’t like how they behaved. Until recently that I tried to see how far I could change around until I’d satisfied with and Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo

🧙🏼‍♂️

Tomorrow we start back again at our pre-pandemic work schedule. Instead of two separate shifts, we’ll be back at one shift, everyone on-site. We’re still maintaining “social distance” and wearing masks at all times. No more 5:00am to 12:15pm shift for me.

On top of it, I have been off for 5 days now, and for whatever reason I feel anxious about coming back to work tomorrow, Monday. It almost feels like I am starting anew on the job. I am anxious about all the catching up on email 😩

However, it’ll be nice not having to wake up at 4:00 am and get ready to go to work.

I guess that’s a good thing

I came across an article this morning, Do you turn off 5G to preserve your iPhone 12’s battery life? by iDB.

Last year, Apple introduced the iPhone 12 lineup. At the same time, the company also confirmed the handsets would feature 5G connectivity for faster cellular service. They did that alongside Verizon, with the carrier touting its network coverage and speeds. What they did not do, though, is tell folks that keeping 5G on would noticeably impact battery life on your new phone.

I haven’t worried about battery life at all for years now, specially with the iPhone 11, that thing was rock-solid when it came to battery life. Now that I have an iPhone 12 mini, I find myself thinking about battery life, but just a little. Then I read the article, and about 5G making an impact on battery life. Furthermore, I had no idea, you could even turn 5G off, so today I’ve learned a new thing. Then I went to compare speeds between LTE and 5G in my area. And this is what I got,

(Keep in mind, this is Idaho 😅)

There is a noticeable difference, not crazy but a difference. But also makes me think, is it worth it? I mean, keeping 5G on all the time? Does it really make a difference when it comes to day-to-day use?

Also, I don’t know how much turning 5G off would help with battery life, if at all. I guess I’ll find out today.

I think, I have found a use case for my Hey World, I have even added a New Page on my blog called Hey, to access them specific posts.

The idea will be specific posts about something I have liked on any given week or games. This is not entirely new since it’s something I’ve already been doing. I have a category for Something I Liked, which is up to volume 31 — damn! Also, one for A Game I Liked. So far, and for now, the idea is to publish these two topics on Hey World, obviously linked to my main blog.

This will definitely change my blogging workflow a little, but these two topics are not as frequent as my regular posts.

I don’t know, it seems like a cool experiment.

Stay tuned…

It doesn’t matter what app you use, what system, or where you host your site. Whether you use a static site or not. It doesn’t matter if you have images in all your blog posts or not, how big or how small. What syntax, language, cheat code or pen you use.

Just blog, it’s that’s all you want to do.

I don’t care, and it shouldn’t matter how you go about it.

Just blog.

P.S.

Twitter, does not count as blogging 😜

I believe I am not the only one that dislikes going to the dentist. I’m not sure about you all, but to me feels like a chore I am doing against my will 😅. I don’t enjoy it, I know why I must and the good that it does for me and my overall hygiene. And is always the same question that I feel like I fail to give an acceptable answer for. Have you been flossing?

😩

I loathe flossing, the sensation of a string rubbing back and forth in my gums is the worst sensation ever. I am not a fan, not at all. I know there are options out there, and I am exploring some of them. But no, no, thank you, not the typical floss.

The thing is, every time I fail to answer the question, satisfactorily to the assistant, its like I am being judged in a bad way. And they always have this whole speech of why I need to be flossing consistently. I come out of the office with the fear that I may die if I don’t floss. That my dentist, when I die, will show up at my funeral and yell,

He died because he did not floss!!!!!

Yesterday, like every Tuesday, was trash day. And thus, like every Tuesday pre-evening, I got to put the trash bins back “inside”.

I’m not sure why, but I always have the habit of looking inside the trash bin. I guess to make sure it’s empty or that it is my trash bin . Specially in days like yesterday when it gets _really _windy and every, so often the bins go down for a stroll 😅

When I looked inside, there was a small bag, like the ones used to pick up dog poop. Well, we don’t have a dog, and thus, that ain’t my poop!

Neighbors walk their dogs around the neighborhood all the time, I guess picking up the poop and throwing it in my bin it’s better than let the poop on my lawn, I guess. Which I appreciate.

🐕 💩

In Puerto Rico, it is customary to grab your shoes and give them a shake before putting them on. Why, you may ask? Well, there are little native frogs, cockroaches and other insects that might get in your shoes.

Here in the Idaho’s…

It’s a whole different animal.

😑