Tag: Cool

Cool, Daily Life, Lists

A Winter Of Illness And Death

The actual text of an official Whitehouse press release: “For the unvaccinated, you’re looking at a winter of severe illness and death for yourselves, your families, and the hospitals you may soon overwhelm.” Seriously? Merry Christmas, bitches. Reading this first thing in the morning made me angry. The more I went through my news and Twitter feeds, the angrier I got. Then I realized – this is not a healthy way to start my day. My typical (non-workday) pattern upon waking is to drink a large glass of water while the coffee is brewing, then head to the computer to consume the news. And that news is overwhelmingly negative. Looking back on the vast majority of my rantings on this site, they’re mostly the byproduct of an hour-plus of getting angry about the state of the world and then writing about it. Not a great way to start the day. I think it’s time to break the pattern. I don’t know what that means yet. Workout as soon as I wake, à la Jocko? Meditate for an hour? Read a book? Walk downtown to a coffee shop and buy an actual newspaper and drink something other than crappy Keurig coffee? Wake and go to the computer but only work on something creative? I don’t know what the new pattern is going to be, but anything has to be healthier than starting my day reading an avalanche of negativity. So as a morning palate cleanser, some things that made me smile this morning…

  • One of the best news reports ever.

  • Yesterday at work one of my patients was a 90-year-old gentleman who had advanced dementia. He was in the hospital because he scaled the fence at his memory care facility and fell (yes, you read that right. A 90-year-old scaling a fence). I went into his room at one point, and he seemed very upset. I asked what was wrong and he said, “This hotel is terrible. They’re very irresponsible. They lost all my clothes and wallet.”

  • After non-stop kvetching about the lack of winter… it showed up big time this week. Got three days of cross-country skiing in. We got another 8 inches overnight, with more to come. There will be downhill skiing this week!

  • Speaking of cold, the hound loves snow and winter much more than summer. Which is odd because he has no fur. Anyway, he treated me to “resting bitch face” when I forced him to stop for a photo while skiing.

  • I’m impressed at the effort it took to make this. Shit keeps escalating.

  • Father and Son

  • Not sure why this made me smile, but it did. Headline: “California pot companies warn of impending industry collapse” Why? Taxes, regulation, and limits on retail stores. People are turning to cheaper, illegal pot.

  • John Daly and his son won the PNC championship, edging out Tiger and his son. I’m convinced the pants are the secret weapon. If you’ve got the gumption to wear multi-colored day of the dead pants to a PGA tournament, you just know you’re going to play well. I’m currently shopping for a pair now.

  • And finally, Elon Musk trolling Sen. Warren is always good for a smile. He’s an underrated comedian.

Song of the day: Matisyahu – King Without A Crown (Live from Stubb’s)

Cool, Government, Politics

Are You A Badass?

Cool things, random thoughts, advice, and independent thinking from someone who’s been around the sun a few times.

  • I stumbled on this clip and it made me smile. I see this a lot with my elderly patients. Talk to them for a bit and you’ll often realize they did some badass shit in their day. Makes our current generation of kids look pretty weak. When your family looks back at your life are they going to say, wow my grandma/grandpa/aunt/uncle was really cool or a badass? Why not? You’re only here once, may as well make the most of it.
  • I don’t care if you’re left or right leaning, take a moment to watch this monologue from Tucker Carlson. I’ve said it many times before, what the media did to this country is disgusting. The fact that your entire worldview is dependent upon what channel you watch should be frightening. The Hunter Biden laptop story is the perfect example. Actual proof that the next president at minimum lied about his involvement with his son’s business dealing with China and may have financially benefited. Maybe it was all innocent, but certainly serious enough it should have been vetted by the press. When the story came out I started checking the The Hill, Politico, CNN, and MSNBC each day leading up to the election. The story did not appear on any of their sites. Not once. The deliberate spiking of a legitimate story by “journalists” because it might harm their candidate of choice. Twitter actually censored and blocked the NY Post over it. That should frighten you.
  • Speaking of elections, it certainly looks like Trump’s goose is cooked. All the hand waving, tweets, and bad press conferences… and nothing. We have yet to see anything resembling evidence of fraud. Could we see something still? Sure, I suppose. Not going to hold my breath. Was there significant fraud? I personally think so. Unfortunately like the mythical Durham report, it’ll be three years before some report gets released to a senate committee we’ve never heard of. At the rate we’re going, the next presidential election will be via a twitter poll. What could possibly go wrong?
  • I’m terribly impressed by this short little clip of a close inspection. I can’t imagine how much practice it takes. Then again, I’ll manage to drop a fork, spill my drink, and trip over the dog just walking to the dinner table.
  • I made a silly little video about my paralyzing indecision regarding what motorcycle to buy. I literally flip flop every week. Last week I’d decided the little dual sport was the right choice. This week after seeing some travel web sites and thinking about badassery, I’m back to the big adventure bike and getting out to travel and explore. At least I have the rest of the winter to agonize over the decision.

Song of the day: Jimi Hendrix “Voodoo Child”

Cool, Lists, Motivation

The Perfect Weight Loss Hack

Cool things, shower thoughts, advice, and independent thinking from someone who’s been around the sun a few times.

  • Clickbait titles amuse me and I couldn’t resist. Anyway, I’ll reveal the hack over the next few posts. Here’s the first part. Go find a BMR calculator that includes activity level. This one seems to work well. Enter in the data and see what your number is. Now here’s the crazy part – go eat less than that number. I guarantee you’ll loose weight. Boom! Mind blown. More to come.
  • I was fascinated by this article. I had no idea that there was such a thing as the Open Skies Treaty and we actually let other countries conduct surveillance flights over our military installations. I can’t decide if it’s no big deal, or our openness will come back to bite us some day.
  • I haven’t been very good lately at keeping up with friendships. The older you get the harder it is. It’s certainly a perishable skill that I need to work on. Been thinking about it, so I contacted a couple of buddies I hadn’t seen in a while and made arrangements to meet for lunch and a couple of beers. It felt good. Go do the same.
  • Watched “The Dawn Wall” last night. Well worth a watch but not as well done as “Free Solo”. The “rules” for big wall free climbing are unclear and the movie never explains it, so there are parts that may leave you wondering why they’re doing some of the things they do. At any rate, I may have to go dig out the climbing shoes. What could go wrong?
  • I’ve never been a huge fan of Lindsey Vonn. Her persona always seemed very cold. I was more of a Julia Mancuso fan. Lindsey recently launched a YouTube channel. She’s much warmer than I thought and has a dry sense of humor you don’t normally see.
  • I made a huge step in my street photographs. I actually went up to someone as asked if I could take their picture. If you’re not an extrovert this is a very weird and intimidating thing to do with a stranger. Wasn’t a great picture, but I crossed that hurdle.
  • Data tampering? But, they’re scientists how could this be? In related news, U.S. Oct-March temps were the third coldest recorded. But whatever.
  • Both political parties are full campaign mode trying to inflame their bases. Independent of the realties of each sides message, the left has gone full negative by devoting all its time to attacking the president. Traditionally people want to vote for something, not against something. It will be interesting to see what happens this go-round.
  • The Insta360 looks extremely cool. Inspiring enough I may have to dig out the GoPro and film something.

Song of the day: Florence + The Machine “Kiss with a fist”

Cool, Daily Life, Lists

Notions Of Cool V.003

A random list of things and shower thoughts that an old guy (who still thinks he’s 20) finds cool or worth pondering.

  • Socialism and open borders vs build the wall. It’s going to be an interesting 2020. Who can scare their base enough to turn out?
  • I fucking hate drama. Don’t have time for that. I deal with real drama every day at work – new paraplegics, brain tumors, spinal surgeries, etc… if you don’t fall into one of those type of categories, then your drama is bullshit. Life shouldn’t be that complicated. Pet your dog, work hard, go for a run, eat more salads, try to be a good person. If someone or something is causing things to be difficult – cut it out of your life.
  • I’ve been wanting to post to Instagram stories for several weeks now, but have been too chicken. As the saying goes, I have a face for radio. Tomorrow. Definitely going to do it tomorrow.
  • I love watching the media flail around and eat their own. It’s still shocking to me that so many of them can’t see the bias. Every day you need to be exposing yourself to different opinions or you’ll be stuck in an echo chamber.
  • I ordered a ketone monitor today. Need to decide if I should be worried about my blood lipids.
  • If you haven’t seen it, watch Idiocracy. We’re moving closer and closer to it every day.

Song of the day: Alice Merton, Funny Business

Cool, Daily Life, Lists

Notions Of Cool V.002

A random list of things and shower thoughts that an old guy (who still thinks he’s 20) finds cool or worth pondering.

  • Listened to a fantastic podcast about twitter and general journalism group think. The interviewee is a journalist I wasn’t familiar with, Tim Pool. Following him now.
  • Our debt is now $22 trillion. The debt service alone is greater than the federal budget of Canada and Mexico.
  • I find it odd we’re willing to dump billions of dollars in aid to foreign countries… but not do the same for failing cities like Detroit.
  • There’s a guy who walks a three legged dog through my alleyway every morning. There must be some deep meaning there.
  • We had a bonfire in the snow last night with my nephew. I was kinda grumpy about it because the temp was in the teens. We ended up having a lot of fun. Sometimes the simplest things are the best.
  • For the aforementioned bonfire, we used a Solo stove. Can’t speak highly enough about these. Great product.
  • This is now the third patient I’ve had that decided to kill themselves via a gun… and ended up paralyzed instead. I can’t imagine mentally making the first decision, let alone the emotional weight of waking up and finding yourself even worse off. That’s heavy.
  • It’s hard to describe how happy it makes me to spend time cross country skiing with my dog. Putting the little skis on him is a pain though.

Song of the day: You know why – Trent Cantrelle

Cool, Lists

Notions Of Cool V.001

A random list of things and shower thoughts that an old guy (who still thinks he’s 20) finds cool or worth pondering.

  • YouTube has ruined my attention span. 3-5 minutes max. Beyond that and I’m fast forwarding or moving on.
  • Filed under toxic masculinity, the Kelly Turnbull series by Kurt Schlichter is worth a read. An almost comical parody of the left that’s too much at times, but Turnbull is a good modern day Dirty Harry.
  • Biolayne is a meathead, bodybuilder, powerlifter who has a PhD. Great channel for breaking down the science behind diets, etc…
  • I just re-watched the Matrix trilogy. The first one… amazing. The next two, meh.
  • Greta Van Susteren is a journalist that never connected with me back when she had her own big time show. Stumbled on her Twitter and she’s surprisingly balanced.
  • I went skiing yesterday and was scared to go down through a new route in the trees because it was foggy and I couldn’t see. I’m still mad at myself for being such a sissy boy. What was the worst that could happen?
  • Ann Coulter is correct. Trump signing the spending bill was the death blow to his presidency. He just gave Pelosi all the power.
  • I wasted an hour debating to buy a small carry-on wheelie or a minimalist travel backpack. I’m still paralyzed. I rarely travel.

Song of the day: Legalize The Herb (no, I don’t smoke other than the occasional cigar)