Let’s start today’s journal entry, as I prepare to spend more time clearing the boilerplate out of this blog.
My weight is fairly constant right now, varying between 149-150lbs. I continue to eat less per day than I did before I got sick on the Colorado camping trip, and am mostly comfortable with that. But sometimes I get in my mind that I want to eat a bit more. Usually I check back in with my stomach and see that I am not really hungry, just bored and in the mood for tastiness. The urge to eat is not very strong, but sometimes I give in to it. Yesterday I ate the remaining three zero-carb tortillas with butter, with enjoyment and only a trace of guilt. This morning after the usual two cups of coffee I wasn’t really hungry at all, but cheese sticks were on my mind, so I went ahead and heated and ate two just to see what that was like. They tasted much better than they had at the end of my long stretch of eating them before giving them up. But not so good that I thought “Hey, I need to get back to eating these regularly!” Need to continue monitoring my responses and attitudes as I vary (or don’t vary) my routine.
I ran across a content farm article (on Forbes, I think) which was actually encouraging! The guy was saying how “content creator” was very unlikely to be a viable income source much longer … and this after having celebrated the possibility just six months ago. His assessment wasn’t the encouraging part, though. It was the thing that led him to change his mind. After a few months (?) of watching through YouTube videos he found valuable, the stream of goodness quickly dried up, and now there is nothing left he cares to watch. I find that pretty similar to my own experience, and encouraging because if the discovery led him to change his mind so completely, maybe it will also (eventually) change my own viewing habits, i.e. boredom and disgust will motivate me to find something else to do. It may already be happening, I don’t watch near as much as I used to, and I don’t spend near as much time looking for something new to watch. Instead I seem to be narrowing things down to just checking on a few things, often skimming through transcripts rather than taking the time to watch. I still think YouTube hosts some very valuable how-to content, and will go back to it when I need to know how to do something specific. But there’s not much anymore I find entertaining, much less edifying.
Close to done cleaning out boilerplate content from blog. I’ve written an initial site description for the home page plus some text for the About page. There is an RSS button, which I moved to the navigation row. I need to do descriptions for the two most recent journal entries, plus come up with a mental template for how to describe future entries (the description is what gets displayed under the post title on an index page, and right now I title the journal posts with “Journal:
Good old Wirecutter! Today they talked about compression socks, and I wondered if those might help with night cramps. Googling turns up lots of suggestions that they do. So I ordered a pair, which will be here Sunday. $30, sigh, but perhaps I will only need one pair, at a time anyway. If they help at home, I’ll definitely take them camping to see what they do there.
Only six days left (including today) to get ready for the camping trip to Mount Pisgah. Shouldn’t be difficult, but since this is prep for the mid-October trip to Texas I should be deliberate about it. Maybe I’ll putter a bit this afternoon, after rowing or after supper, to put myself in the mood. One big question: what will my menu be this time around? Later: didn’t get around to starting in on my camping gear, decided instead to chop down weeds along the fenceline, half an hour of that was enough to sap my energy. Tomorrow for sure!
Finished The Dark Knight Rises. Perhaps not the best of the three, but I think it’s my favorite. I love so many things about it — the weirdness of the story, Tom Hardy’s turn as Bane, Christian Bale’s weariness, Anne Hathaway’s selfishness … plus coming after the other two it has the pleasure of the surprise return of an old friend. Who knew Batman would come out of retirement? He certainly didn’t want to. Except he kind of did …
Started Lost Highway. Think I’ll need to revisit all the David Lynch films (except Dune!), maybe even finally watch Eraserhead and Inland Empire. There’s so little new stuff worth watching, and repeat watching of very good old stuff has many rewards, most of them assured.
I think (and hope) that starting this website project may have re-energized me, at least a bit. I think about it quite a bit, and keep coming back to the keyboard to add stuff. Let’s see if it lasts. One challenge will be the camping trip, where the only related thing I could do would be to write, using Obsidian on the Boox. But that may be a good thing. One step up from journaling, which I will be able to do even then of course, would be to write some pieces. Too early for actual essays, probably, but assuming I can get comfortable I will definitely have the time and opportunity to do some focused writing.