Solid Gold

Can somebody explain this Golden Girls thing to me?

I was around when the Golden Girls was on TV, and it wasn't a big deal. It wasn't M*A*S*H or The Cosby Show or Seinfeld or Friends or Happy Days or even Gilligan's Island. It was a middling sitcom in an age when sitcoms were the dominant form of TV show, so there were tons of them...in fact, there were even tonnes of them...that's right, I spelled it the Canadian way for emphasis.

Yet, here we are years later, and every one of those old shows has diminished to a level of appreciation that is far below what the Golden Girls gets now. What the hell is going on?

I think it's got to do with Millennials. They seem to be the ones that are driving this phenomena, but, then again, I could be wrong about that. Why is there so much talk about a show that went off the air 30 years ago and was never really all that popular when it was around?

They've made action figures of them, both crappy throwback style ReAction figures:

And fancy, highly detailed Neca figures with actual soft goods cloths:

They've made bobbleheads of them:

The guy who did BoJack Horseman did a version of one of the episodes where he set the show in 3033, and did a cartoon with the actual sound from an old Golden Girls episode.

And it just keeps coming. The other day at work, I had to edit a kicker story about how a Golden Girls themed pop-up restaurant has opened in Beverly Hills, themed to look like the kitchen from the show.

And that stuff in no means makes an exhaustive list of the love for this show that has poured out over the last five years or so. Is it just because Betty White lived so long and kept making appearances despite her advanced age? And if that is why, then why has it continued so long after her death? 

Or is it just the ironic thing that Millennials foisted upon the world? Is it an ironic thing that they started way back when, acting like they loved the Golden Girls even though they knew it was a show about women living in a retirement home from the eighties and kids in their twenties shouldn't ever for a second think it was cool, but then it grew out of control, and now everybody doesn't know it's just supposed to be ironic anymore?

Yesterday, I was walking through the store, and I found the ultimate expression of this Golden Girls craziness.

That's right, those are Fisher Price Little People versions of the Golden Girls. Yes, those are toys that are meant for children under five. They're big around and chunky like that so that kids can't choke on them, because the kids who play with them are still young enough that they might stuff them down their throat and choke on them.

Little People started branching out into branded figures a while back, making characters of things that the children who played with their toys were likely to know about like Superman and Disney Princesses. But who are these for? Kids under five DO NOT KNOW THE GOLDEN GIRLS! Even if they did, they wouldn't understand them at all. It's the kind of show you put on to get the child under five to want to leave the room, not one that they want their own toys of to play with.

Somebody please explain this Golden Girls craze to me. I just don't understand.

New Style Updates - Day 22 - BBBE Challenge, Marshal & Big ADF & Carnivore Travel & Restaurants

I decided to switch it up to daily updates instead of weekly, because the weekly ones were getting so unbelievably long. I didn't want to lose any of the good information that we've been presenting, so I decided we'd just divide the videos up into smaller chunks. In today's video, Marshal talks about his travel strategies and his visit to a Brazilian barbecue restaurant. I was jealous. All I had to talk about was fasting, eating a whole lot of nothing. There's no place in the world I'd prefer to a churrascaria Brasileira. Ai, que bom, cara.

Teflon. Kevlar. Titanium.

About four and a half months ago, I was completely out of control. I was eating everything that was bad for me, and rapidly riding the downhill slope toward something like diabetes induced blindness, or even foot amputation.

Then I got together with Marshal Latham, and we challenged each other to eat a carnivore diet. Because of that, I built up a backbone, and now I feel like I'm Teflon. Nothing sticks. I'm Kevlar, titanium, frigging bulletproof.

I feel like I can stand up to any challenge that comes my way. For example, yesterday this showed up at work.

That was delivered from a bakery, and it was free for the taking. Worse, it didn't arrive until after the day shift had left for home, so very few people were left in the building to eat it, only us lowly night shift slobs.

I don't know if you can see exactly what that stuff is, but it's pastries...

Filled with cream and fruit.

Donut holes...

Red velvet, white cake, and...I'm not sure what the brown ones in the middle are.

Also, there were three of the WORLD'S LARGEST CINNAMON BUNS. Look at those freaking things!

I hed my hand out to give you a little bit of reference. One of those things is probably the equivalent of about thirty normal sized cinnamon buns.

In March, I would have been sunk if this came into the station. Especially under these circumstances, because no one else would have been eating them, so they would have remained for me each time I went past another time.

I would have eaten one of each of those pastry creations, dozens of those donut holes, and possibly half of one of those giant cinnamon rolls. The blood sugar rise would have torn me up inside, but no need to worry anymore. I'm Teflon, it all just slides right off me. Kevlar. I'm bulletproof. I just walked on past and didn't eat a bite.

I'm bulletproof, and I'm going to keep on saying that to make sure it keeps on being true.

I'm not a fan of this song, or this kind of music at all, but I'm going to post it here anyway because it goes with the post too well not to.

A Quirky Collection Focus - The Skull Face Squad

Sometimes, as a toy collector, I get a weirdly narrow focus in my collection. I'll buy a toy from a line that I would never have bought before, but because it fits a small category that I decided I want, I'll get it. That's what happened to me a while back when I started up a collection of action figures who have faces of skulls, or faces painted like skulls, or helmets or masks that look like skulls. Basically, it's the skull face squad, or Skull Team Six as I like to call them, or even more affectionately, the skullies.

BBBE Week Three - Big Does ADF and Marshal Invents Recipes

We've made it through week three, and we're cruising along. I did several rounds of alternate day fasting, ADF, and Marshal is coming up with all sorts of creative ways to combine beef, butter, bacon, and eggs. There were some pitfalls and some victories...including some victory meals. Check it out, folks!

Is It That Time Again?

 I was at Ross yesterday, when I saw this:

It's July 29th...is it time for Halloween now? Aren't we a little bit early? I suppose this weekend I'll find the Halloween costumes out for purchase at Costco as well. They're always one of the earliest adopters each year too. The holiday creep is a little annoying every time it happens. I'm sure I'm not the only one.

Activating

It's been almost three weeks since I got all excited about running and went out and started doing it out of the blue. I surprised myself both for having the motivation and for how little it affected my lungs. 

My muscles did get sore, however. I wonder if they were surprised too, because the day after I went running, my back gave out on me while we were removing the old granite countertop from our kitchen. Was it purely the effort of moving a giant slab of rock? Or did the unexpected running cause some of the issue too?

I hadn't run in years, and the main reason why was because my back was always hurting when I run, and it was just too much to bear. I figured that I was too fat to be out there pounding the pavement. If I wanted to run, I had to lose weight first so that my body could bear the force of the footfalls.

It took longer than usual for my back to feel better, though. Normally it takes only about a week before I'm all the way back to normal, but this time it was aching for heavily for a whole week, and I didn't feel back to normal until just the other day. Part of that might have been due to the fact that there was constantly more work to do with the renovation of the kitchen, and my wife had me picking up and carrying heavy things plenty even though my back was not 100%.

With my back feeling better, I decided I should get some exercise again, and I went out and walked the trail that I ran a few weeks ago. I didn't want my back to go out on me again, so I thought I'd take it slow.

My back felt stiff the whole time, and I paused to do toe touches and hopefully stretch out my quads and lower back enough that it wasn't a problem. I wasn't very fast as my Runkeeper stats prove.

More than twenty minutes per mile, but it's okay, I'm not out to get a good time, I'm just trying to get into the groove again. Hopefully I can get it going on again soon.

Here's a question for y'all. What kind of a doctor would I go to if I had issues with posture and muscle aches? Is it a physical therapist? Or is there something else? I feel like a lot of my issues stem from bad posture and also possibly from past injuries that I have been compensating for in ways that have caused all new aches and pains.  For example, my back pain is not on my spine. Anytime I get back problems, it's over on the right side of my lower back down in the muscles there.

Don't they have doctors that can help people straighten out and get rid of pain just by changing the way they walk or by doing certain exercises to strengthen muscle groups that should be bearing a large portion of the load but aren't because they're too weak? Just curious. Have you ever done something like this?

I think I may post that question by itself over on Facebook to see if I get some actual answers since not a lot of people are willing to comment on these blog posts.

It's A Different World Than Where You Come From

Most places, people who have cats can expect the cat to leave dead mice out for you as little presents to gross you out every now and then. But in Houston...

...In Houston, the cat brings you dead lizards instead. Thank you for the present. Thank you for caring, Jupiter.

New Insta

A little while back, I resurrected my old toy channel on YouTube.

I figured it was the best way to go. I've been posting about my toy collecting here on the blog, but I get the sense that in most cases, it's not particularly appreciated. 

Most people, I assume, follow me because of the podcasts that I do and my writing which kind of goes hand in hand with the podcast. Not many of them are toy collectors as well, and probably get a little irked each time I post something that deals with toys, and I've been doing that a lot.

So, I decided that what I needed to do was stop irking people. Nobody likes to be irked. Irk is a funny word, isn't it? Anyway, I started my toy channel to peel off those endless toy posts over to their own area where people who like toy collecting can congregate with me, and those that don't, need not be irked about it (yeah, had to get one more in, just to irk you).

Continuing with this effort, I decided I needed to do the same with my Instagram. I started my Instagram up as a way to augment the reach of my YouTube channel, but many people who just like the podcast followed it anyway, I assume because it was my only Instagram to be had. Well, no longer!

I just partitioned off a second Instagram that will be for more regular Big Anklevich writing and podcast material and won't deal with toys at all. I renamed my original channel to @biganklevichtoys and started a new one called @biganklevichauthor.

So, if you use Instagram, and follow me, but aren't particularly interested in toys, you can feel free to drop the channel that looks like this:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Bigg Anklevich (@biganklevichtoys)

And subscribe to the channel that looks like this:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Big Anklevich (@biganklevichauthor)

I guess that's all.

It Suddenly Feels Real

I made a goal to have my Christmas story collection published by November 1st of this year...I think I said that in a previous post, but I'm not certain, so that may be my announcement of it right now. Hopefully, I can get it out even earlier, but certainly by November 1st. That way you'll have the whole holiday season to buy yourself a copy.

I have the manuscript put together for the most part, but it will certainly require some tweaks to make it appear the way it's supposed to. I made an account on Amazon to publish it with, and was looking at the various file formats I could export the manuscript in to give to Amazon, and tried some of them out. One of them was an EPUB, and I exported a test file in that format.

When I clicked the file, it opened in the Mac app called Books. It opened up for me to read, and I felt like I had grown a foot taller immediately. This was my book, but suddenly it actually looked like a book. Instead of that word processor one-page-after-another format that I am used to looking at my work with, it looked like a book. It was as if they took a book off my shelf, and made a flattened digital rendition of it...except this was my book, not one off the shelf.

Here's a screen cap of what it looked like.

I know, it's my book not yours, so it surely doesn't get you excited like me, but this makes it feel real. I've never seen my manuscript in this form, but holy crap it looks amazing!

Now I can't wait to get it posted for sale. I'm sure there will be dozens of issues getting it ready to go. For example, this is what my title page looked like on the EPUB.

That's supposed to be the title page, the copyright page, and the table of contents page, which should all be separate pages, but instead the program crushed them all together like that. I don't even know if that's something I need to fix or not. EPUB is not the only file type that I can use. I could just export it as a Word DOC file, and use that, which may be the easier and better way to go. So, we'll see just how painful or painless this can be.

The hardest part of my goal will be getting the audio version ready in time. It is still just July, so I've definitely got time.

Dont Worry About It Bob GIFfrom Dont Worry About It GIFs

But I have many stories to read and edit before November. I plan on having it available in all the options that Amazon offers, eBook, audiobook, and paperback...I think I might even be able to offer hardback (which is my own preferred format. I'll have to get one of my own of those).

Then, once I get that one all finished, I'll move on to the next collection that is also basically ready to go, my first regular (non-Christmas) short story collection.

The Fount Of Ideas

I think I might be a bit of a weirdo when it comes to where I get some of my ideas for stories. Then again, maybe not. I guess any writer gets their ideas from things that he comes in contact with, and I suppose I do too.

Since I'm a toy collector, I have now, more than once, gotten ideas from toys that I purchased. Not on purpose, but it happened. I mentioned one of them, the Skeleton Crew, in an old post about Halloween decorations that I'd put up.

I picked up these guys, and then they fired up my imagination. I don't know why, but the idea of mercenary soldiers dressed in skeleton outfits like this made me want to explore their story. I started putting together a story about them in my mind. 

I thought it would be fun to add a few more members to the crew, and tried to get a female member for the crew. I made the mistake of buying a Jyn Erso figure from Star Wars Black Series to fill that role. The McFarlane Fortnite figures are seven inch scale. The Black Series are on the short side of six inch scale, so when I put Jyn Erso beside the Skeleton Crew, she looked like a child...and that added a new element to the story.

I tried adding a different armored figure to the group, using a clone trooper from the Black Series. He didn't work either, but the idea of a shorter guy crept in. Then I melded the character with a guy I work with, and the next member of the Skeleton Crew, Murray, was born. 

Interestingly, a little while later I got an Abomination figure (he's a villain of the Incredible Hulk in case you're unaware), and I decided that I wanted him to be in the story too.

So, I invented a way to include it. It further deepened the story.

Okay, so I've gone on and on about the Skeleton Crew, but I'm actually here to talk about Ankletown Station, which is the book I'm working on right now. I've talked exhaustively here on this blog about how I decided that I wanted to make a similar playset to Empire Toy Works' creation called Rotgut Station. My version is presently called Ankletown Station, but will eventually get a different, more legitimate sounding name.

Since making the goal of creating Ankletown Station, I again came up with a story that could be set in this world. Certain characters started taking the appearance of some of the toys that I had or that I wanted. One of the main characters, who is called Dawn right now but that may change, first appeared looking like a Joy Toy figure that I'd like to add to Ankletown Station but probably never will because of how expensive Joy Toy figures are.

Then, the inciting incident occurred, and Dawn revealed a little more about herself. The next thing you know, she was wearing the outfit of a different toy that I had on my shelf.

Yesterday, just for the hell of it, I took a version of that figure that I created the other day by adding the head of Fennec Shand to the body of this armored space warrior and put it on my desk in front of me. It sat there in front of me as I wrote the escape sequence of Dawn and Seth (the other main character), and it inspired me a little bit.

I suppose I'll leave her standing there for a while, and see if that inspiration keeps up. For this post, I thought it would be fun to try to create a picture where it looked like that figure was in the setting of the early chapters, so I searched a background picture and created this.

I need some kind of light to shine on the figure though, because the flash made a reflection you can see in the background. Still a fun picture though.

Anyway, that's all I've got for today.

I Went On A Toyhunt To An Ollie's Grand Opening. What Did I Find?

An Ollie's opened up near me. I've heard almost mythical things about Ollie's stores, the kind of things you can get for amazingly cheap prices. I had to go see for myself. Did it live up to my expectations? Is there any possible way that it could with expectations that high? Is it true that you should never meet your heroes?

Putting The First Priority First

I wrote a post yesterday about how I almost blew it and forgot to write. I got really bogged down in editing on Big Anklevich on Toys videos, ran into problems with clips that were corrupted, pulled my hair out for a while, and left the writing to the very last thing. I wasn't messing around, picking my nose, loafing on the couch, and doing nothing. I was working hard the whole day, but I wasn't working hard on writing.

That's a problem though. It's a misappropriation of my time. I have a lot of things that I'd like to do, a lot of things that bring me joy, and that I like to share with others, but there is one thing that stands above all of those, and that's writing. 

Writing is the thing that I've wanted to do my whole life. I've let many, many other things get in the way of that, and so I didn't finish writing my first book until I was 42 years old in 2017. I started writing in earnest when I was 24, but it took me 18 years to get enough discipline to get beyond producing a few scattered short stories here and there.

Even that wasn't foolproof, though. I let that discipline lapse, and strayed away from writing again. Then I struggled to regain it, let it lapse, and strayed away again. Then again. I've had some pretty amazing highs, but I always make sure to follow them up with a big ol' trough.

So, I'm back at it again. Developing the discipline to write all the time and actually finish things. Developing the discipline needed to write a long form novel. I've been on it for 20 days, and I feel like I'm getting there again. Yesterday, I almost blew it, though. Why?

Well, like I said above, I let lesser priorities take precedence over the number one thing. I let a hobby take center stage over my number one priority. That taught me a good lesson, however, and I'm going to learn from it.

If I want true discipline, then I have to put priority number one first. I need to take care of the writing before I mess around with videos or podcasts or entertainment or anything else.

Yesterday, I did that. I repented of my error, and fixed it. I did the writing early, then spent time on the other stuff later. What happened? Well, instead of topping out at my lowest total of the month, 225 words, I landed on my second highest word count of this whole time, 1017.

I need to get that going on, because it won't be long until 1017 is barely enough to pass my goal for the day. Time to make priority one first. The other things can come in their time. It'll all work out, and soon enough, I'll have Ankletown Station ready for y'all to read and enjoy.

Week Two of Beef, Butter, Bacon, & Eggs - Marshal Is Losing Weight, and Big Does a Long Fast

We're two weeks into the BBBE Challenge, and I think we're both doing really well. Neither of us have had any slip ups, and we're all feeling confident and secure in our ability to keep to the diet. There are some tough parts, and some easy parts. I decided to try a 72 hour fast this week, though I must admit I didn't plan it very well. Marshal has a graph to display his progress on the carnivore diet, and I thought that was pretty interesting and informative.

Almost Blew It

That was a close one. I was working hard all day trying to get two Big Anklevich on Toys videos done. They gave me a few problems, so I wasn't able to get them done early like I wanted, and they used up the time that I have normally been using to write. I was going to have to write late at night after coming home from work, but I forgot.

I was five steps from bed when I was thinking about the day, and how content I was that I'd gotten two videos done in the space of one day, even though it was hard and I'd had to use up all my normal writing time...

Writing? Writing! I forgot to write! If I hadn't had that passing thought before jumping in bed, I might have completely missed it.

It was 1:00 AM now, but I still needed to do it. I couldn't go to bed now that I'd remembered. So, I went back to the computer, and mustered the least possible words. I only made it to 225, but, since I don't have a daily goal yet, that was enough. 

My daily goal is just to do it. I have to get in the habit. Next month it'll be 500 words, and then I'll have to keep going on a night like last night.

So, by luck and happenstance, I'm still perfect. I've written every day for 20 days in a row now. I'm at 10,048 words (which is pretty piddly for 20 days, but again, it's the doing not the how much I'm doing that matters right now. I've got to keep telling myself that).

Here's my progress toward my overall goal:

10048 / 304475 (3.30%)

I've got to get myself a monthly goal, so that this thing doesn't look so that this thing doesn't look so piddly and sad. At least I'm above one percent now, though. I think I was still below that the last time I posted about this.

I figured I'd include one more thing. I always like to include some kind of simple symbol on the top of the page of each chapter in books that I write. I think it gives it some nice style. So, I had to find myself one for Ankletown Station. Since I'm now in chapter three, it was important that I find it. Well, I decided to go with this one:

You're blown away, aren't you? I knew it. It's pretty great. So, when it's finished, and published, the first page should look something like this.

That makes you want to buy it, doesn't it? I knew it. So great. Well, I can't wait to make it available for you. See you then...and hopefully some more before then, because that's probably a long way off.

The Loneliest Number

My wife sent me to buy pierogies for dinner the other night, and as I wandered the aisles of the freezer section, I came across this aisle, marked with this sign.

Meals for one. There's something just so sad about such a thing existing. It made me feel down just looking at it, and I don't even fit the demographic. I can't imagine how sad someone who shops in the aisle must feel each time they get there and see that sign staring back at them.

Then again, maybe it's by choice, and every time they see the sign, they feel a little more empowered. I don't need nobody to make me feel validated! I am my own person! I can do what I want! I sleep in a racing car!

I don't know. I guess it seems like they could have chosen better phrasing for the aisle name so that people don't get sad when they see it like I did.

Imagine people shopping this aisle on Valentine's Day. Grim. Come on, HEB, you can come up with a better name for it than that.

BAoT: My Obsession With Rotgut Station, And How I Want To Make My Own Version

A few months ago, I discovered Empire Toy Works' Instagram channel and fell in love with the world and the pictures that he created, specifically all the stuff from his massive playset called Rotgut Station. I was mesmerized, and it wasn't long before I realized that I wanted to try to create something similar myself.

If you don't already know Empire Toy Works, here is the link to his Instagram, and here is the link to his YouTube channel, and here is the link to his Facebook. I don't know if he has other channels, but I will link to them too, if you tell me about them.

More Flower Time

The other day, I went past the flower bush my wife planted and couldn't help but stop and get more pictures. I think I only did one or two from the bush in my last post. Since I'm a weirdo and love taking and sharing pictures of flowers, here's the new ones.

I really like how they turned out. I used the portrait mode to try to get it to blur the backgrounds out, and it did okay. I guess the portrait mode is specifically made for portraits. The phone looks for a face to focus on and blur the rest, but since there are no faces, it just did it's best. I think it came out all right though. I particularly love the texture of that final picture. It's perty.

Floors Are In

The floors are finished now. My wife came home, and called me at work just so that she could gush euphorically about how beautiful they were. Unfortunately, I'm not a very good audience for such things. I don't really get excited about home improvements or decorations. If something is serviceable, that's probably enough for me.

She was in love, though. She couldn't stop talking about them. She sent me this picture, which was the one place in the house where things looked complete.

They had another day of work to do, however. There was still a few spots they hadn't made it to on the first day, and they were supposed to come and install quarter round on the baseboards to connect them in with the floors.

That turned out pretty well, but now we have to go through and caulk and paint all of the baseboards. There's always more work for us somehow.

We discovered one big problem on the final day of the flooring install. When the guys went to put our toilets back on, they found that the flanges that they are supposed to attach to were broken. They said they couldn't put our toilets back, because they either wouldn't attach properly, or they would rock back and forth and probably leak from the bottom...and that's the worst spot for a toilet to leak if you ask me.

So our bathroom was just a hole in the ground, and that wasn't changing quickly.

They told us we needed to call a plumber to come and install new flanges, so I called around and the best I could find was one that was unable to come that day or the next day. Not until Friday could they arrive to fix it. So, we were going to be without toilets on the main floor for a little bit.

My wife was not pleased about that, or the fact that we were going to have to caulk the quarter rounds ourselves. She assumed that they would be doing that, but they did not.

That night, my wife had to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, and had to walk all the way up the stairs to do so. By the time you make that big of a trip in the middle of the night, it's hard to get back to sleep afterwards.

I suppose it's a first world problem, right? Wait, or maybe not. Not having indoor plumbing isn't a first world problem...though we did have the one toilet, so that's not an honest assessment. Not having multiple toilets is a first world problem, so I guess I should quit moaning about it.

On Friday, they fixed our flanges, and wanted hundreds more to install the toilets. My wife is all about DIY, and we've installed toilets before, so she said no thanks, and the two of us put them on the next morning. It was pretty exciting to have our own thrones to sit on again when we were done.

Huzzah!

After we'd finished there, my wife got right to work assembling kitchen cabinets. We've had a crap ton of Ikea cabinets in our garage for months waiting for this day.

So, we're on to the next phase. I can't wait until we have a kitchen back and I can use some dishes again. At least we have toilets though. That's a big improvement. And I'm very excited to be able to walk indoors without shoes if I want to.

The Cat Is Looking Better

In my last cat post, I mentioned that we were taking Juno to the vet, because it was acting really sick, and I was a little afraid that it might be curtains for the old cat, who is now 14 years old.

The vet ran tests, and they, of course, came up inconclusive. Could be this, could be that. It was looking bad. The vet was talking a lot about trying to make Juno comfortable. I'm sure she would have done whatever we were willing to pay for to keep the cat alive, but we couldn't afford to break the bank to string a very old cat along if it's reached the end of its ability to stay alive on its own.

She gave us a few medications that we had to give Juno, and hopefully that could help her to stabilize. One was an anti-nausea medicine. The second was an antibiotic. The last was a pain reliever. One came in pills that we had to hide in her food. The other two were liquid that we had to get down the cat's throat somehow.

We were not looking forward to that. The vet had barely been able to examine Juno, because she's so cantankerous that she wouldn't allow her even close without hissing and slashing at her. 

My daughter had paid attention, though, and noticed how they'd used a blanket to shield themselves from danger, and adapted that strategy. Since the cat trusts her much better than a stranger, she was able to pick up the cat and wrap her in a blanket, immobilizing the threat before any of us could suffer any grievous bodily harm.

Pinned down, we were able to get that medicine in, though she did foil us a time or two by thrashing her head at just the right moment. She has her share of cat medicine stuck in her fur now, but most of it got in her mouth.

The very night after we left the vet, the cat started eating again. She didn't puke for once. She ate again, and again. She was getting her strength back and quickly. And now, the cat is looking much, much better.

I don't know if it's just the medicine, though. Has she stopped puking constantly because she's on anti-nausea medication, and as soon as that stops, she'll go back to it? Or was she just sick, and because she's 14 years old she doesn't have the immune system to fight it off by herself? It's up in the air. I guess we'll see. But for now, she's doing much better, and has lived to fight another day.

Mac 'N' Cheese Day

They brought us pizza to work for a meeting that we were required to attend on Thursday. I didn't have any, because I'm done with carbs, but also it definitely doesn't jive with my Beef, Butter, Bacon, and Eggs Challenge I'm doing with Marshal.

One of my coworkers dished up a plate and sat down next to me, though, and I was surprised to see what he had.

That is macaroni and cheese pizza. I have to admit that I'm a little disgusted by it. Mac and cheese is probably one of the worst things out there to eat these days. It's a load of carbs and some chemical-laden nastiness of a sauce that should never find its way into a human body.

But now they've taken it up a notch. Now they've added a pizza crust, in case there weren't enough carbs. Or, you could say it the worse way, they've removed anything of value that pizza has, and replaced it with carbs that are going to quickly earn you a membership card in the Wilford Brimley club along we me and millions of other Americans.

Word Count of the Beast

Last night, I managed to get in writing for my fifteenth day in a row. It's a good start, for sure. The fact that I made it that far in the first month without missing a day is pretty exciting. In the first fifteen days in 2019, on my way to my first 300,000 words in a year, I missed writing 3 times.

This time around, I haven't missed a day.

Not only that, but on midpoint day on the first month of this journey, I managed to land right on Rish Outfield's favorite number. Not kidding, I took a picture of it to prove it.

I checked my word counts from 2019, and I never landed on that number at the end of any day. I do remember checking where I was at one day, and having it come up at that number, and being tempted to stop just to say that I'd written that many words, but I couldn't, because my goal was a minimum of 1,000 words.

This time around, I'm still allowed to stop there if I wanted to. This month, the only goal is to write as frequently as possible, to get in the habit of writing every day. I'll only have two months that I can get away with a total like this.

This month and next month I can stop at 666. This month it's get into the habit, no specific word count. Next month it will be a minimum of 500 words a day. But then that's it. After that it's 1,000 words a day from there on out, or I might not make it to my final goal.

So, it's fun that I landed there, and can joke about it once while it's still possible.

90-Day BBBE Challenge-Marshal vs Big, Who Will Win? In This Game, We All Win By Restoring Our Health

Marshal was in need of some motivation, so he challenged me to do a 90-Day Beef, Butter, Bacon, and Eggs Challenge in which we can only eat, you guessed it, beef, butter, bacon, and eggs. I wasn't doing amazing myself, so I gladly accepted the challenge. In week one, Marshal gets back on the horse and performs admirably. I was also able to get myself in gear.

Ross Is Always Saving Me Money

They did it again. This is like the fourth or fifth time in the past couple of months that Ross has saved me money like this. It's probably not the way that they want to brag about saving me money, though. They convinced me not to spend money that I was completely ready to part with.

I'd found a few toys on their shelf that I thought would be cool to have, and they had them at a great price. So, I went over to get into the line. I went to the spot where the line usually begins, it was pretty long and wasn't moving quickly, but I had some extra time, so I could probably handle the wait. I had to get on the road to work, but I'd left early today.

Then I realized, that I wasn't in the back of the line. I looked to the right, and saw about a dozen more people waiting. They'd left a little gap so that customers passing through the aisle could get past without everyone having to move.

I had to go around and find the actual back of the line. I did leave early, though, so I could probably handle it, as long as the line moved at a reasonable pace.

I found the back, and joined the line. I waited for about fifteen minutes, then started getting antsy. My extra time had evaporated.

This keeps happening to me at Ross. It didn't use to be part of the experience, but it has become typical. They either have a way higher demand on their products or a way lower supply of workers. Probably a little of both. The line was gargantuan, getting near the back of the store, but there were only two cashiers, and that was not changing.

This was what was in front of me:

And I'd already waited through this part that was behind me:

I had begun this all the way back where that woman you can barely see is at the very back of the line.

I realized that this wasn't going to work. I wouldn't make it to the front until I was already supposed to be at work at this rate, and I had a 45 minute commute still to make. So, for about the fifth time in recent weeks, I went back to the toy section and put the figures I was going to buy back, and left the store with my money still in my pocket.

Thanks, Ross. You really know how to save people money--making the process of spending it at your store too arduous to endure.

It keeps happening, so I wonder what the deal is. My guess is that it is two fold. Now that inflation is so out of control, people are looking for a place with low prices to buy things from, so there's probably a lot more folks in the store. 

Then the other half is that with inflation, wages need to rise to keep workers in their jobs. I'm guessing that Ross is unwilling to raise the wage for their cashiers, and so they can't find people who are willing to work there.

I guess they have to keep their costs low to keep their prices low. It's a trade off, though. How many others like me are out there, who keep finding that their time is worth more than the stupid bargain crap they're wasting their money on at Ross? How much money are they losing? Probably not enough, or this wouldn't keep happening to me over and over.

Maybe I need to stop going there...

Not

Somebody in a Facebook group I frequent posted this picture.

While I would never consume this product, I at least find it admirable that they are honest about what it is...or better said, what it is not.

I've long thought it was strange that there are so many products that call themselves milk yet are not milk at all. Almond milk, soy milk, oat milk...none of those are milk. They can't be milk. They come from plants. Plants make juice not milk. Heck, there can't even be lizard milk or lobster milk. Mammals make milk.

I hear so many people talk about how powerful the dairy lobby is, but all of those products prove that statement to be incorrect. If they were powerful, they would have lobbied to make sure that products that aren't milk cannot be allowed to call themselves milk on their labeling. Instead, the plant milks do whatever they want. I guess we know who actually has the powerful lobby.

Then, of course, there's this recent story about how scientists want us to drink cockroach milk. Good God, somebody kill me now. If that's our future, I'd prefer to just say goodbye now.

I'd hate to work at the cockroach milk dairy, though. How do they get a hold of those tiny udders to squeeze out the few drops of milk, and how many cockroaches do you have to milk to be able to have a bowl of cereal?

Happy Harrison Ford's Birthday

I know, most everybody is all excited about Prime Day right now, it's like Christmas--all the other winter holidays get a little overshadowed by it. But there's another important holiday going on today that can't pass us by without mention. It's Harrison Ford's birthday!

Oh, whoops, wrong picture. There we go, that's Harrison Ford.

It's a big one for him this year. Apparently he's 49 years old. So cool. It's nice that he's lived so long and been able to bless the lives of all of us that know him for that long. Keep it up, buddy.

Sorry, I'm being told that Harrison Ford is actually 80 years old. I must have been confusing him with someone else. Not sure who. 80 years old is an even bigger deal. Super exciting. That's a really ripe old age. So, hopefully he keeps on keeping on for a while still, and never meets the fate of his character Han Solo who was stabbed in the gut by his cheesy emo son.

Long live Harrson Ford.