Non-Tech

Terrified of Clowns? We got up at 5:30 AM and were on the road to Detroit before 6:30 AM. We needed to get to Screamer’s Costumes before they opened, so we could meet David Howard Thornton (Art the Clown) from the Terrifier film series. We arrived just before 9:00 AM, and it was good that we did. There were probably 200 people in line in front of us by then. We finally got to meet him and Amelie McLain (the Little Pale Girl) just before 1:00 PM. It was a long day of standing in line, but it was made tolerable by a few cosplayers who entertained the crowd and took photos. It was also a great day weather-wise: sunny and 80 degrees. Luckily the line was outdoors but under an overhang that prevented us from standing in the sun for hours. ...

I don’t buy this theory that simply writing things down somehow reduces stress. All it means is that those things are now on a piece of paper or some kind of digital list, usually in our pocket at all hours of the day, mocking us for not being able to finish them. Maybe instead of optimizing our means of capturing ideas, we need to optimize our brain’s spam filter. Good ideas and important reminders will rise to the top, and if we think about them once we’ll think about them again. Matt Wood - The Important Stuff Will Come Back ...

My (first) diagnosis with bladder cancer

I’m no bibliophile, but I’ve read a lot of books and recently while discussing the “book was better” trope of horror movies, we talked about how it is pretty common knowledge that Stephen King hated Stanley Kubrick’s take on his story of “The Shining”. Not because it was better, but because Kubrick fundamentally changed the story. I was asked if I’d ever heard about Stephen King being upset over other screen-versions of his books, and I admitted that I don’t know. I’ve read a lot of Stephen King, but not everything. It’s rare that the movie duplicates the flow of the book, and in some cases there are elements of a book that just do not translate to film and have to be either forced via creative effects and bad CGI or eliminated altogether. ...

I’ve taken a keen interest in note-taking in general and recently I’ve been obsessed with how other people do it. I’ve always taken a keen interest in note-taking in general, and recently I’ve been obsessed with how other people do it. There tends to be a push toward avoiding information silos while at the same time making your content available or at least putting it online where it can be found, (even if you specifically aren’t writing for mass consumption). ...

The new version is better.

That’s 100 pounds!

I have had exactly one drink in the last three months since starting my liver-healthy diet. I had an especially bad day yesterday. Not really bad in the grand scheme of things, but bad in my own head. Too many unplanned things happened in too quick succession which left me feeling under attack and over-whelmed. A few hours later things looked much better and I was able to process everything. ...

I’ve made it below 300 pounds! Yesterday I weighed in at 295 pounds. I am officially lighter than my driver’s license (which was a big fat lie for the last 8 years, anyway) Carrie lost 5 pounds and Ashley lost another pound last week. The three of us have not had bread, sugar or pop for almost a month. We spend our evenings talking about non-scale victories like fitting into old clothes or no longer having the after-dinner bloat. We’re saving money by not buying high-carb, high-sugar snacks at the movies (or anywhere else). ...

Those 5 dreaded words - I’ve decided to lose weight.