A Timeline of Half A Million Words

Time for the final day, and the wrap up. But, let’s hit one last topic: my ADHD, and how it’s affected. ‘Cause that’s one of the really big things I struggle with in life. Basically, anything I do that changes diet or exercise routines affects my ADHD. That’s just a part of being ADHD. Which means one of my big questions was: how does a vegetarian diet affect it? The answer is pretty difficult, really. ADHD is pretty subjective – sure, there are various attempts at scales you can use, but it’s not as consistent as one would hope. Plus, ever asked someone with ADHD what their Top 10 Favorite Songs are? There’s a good chance that changes from day to day, since we have object permanence and short term memory issues 🙂 The only gauge ends up being “Well, I feel like…” The other part is that there is a correlation between protein intake and exercise -vs- ADHD symptoms, which complicates things: are any improvements vegetarian diet, or the increase in protein and exercise? And, does it matter, since the diet improves my stamina for exercise? Yes, there is a change to my ADHD. It’s a bit better, and miraculously I’m beginning to do some organizational tasks I’ve always wanted to get done. Doing most things I don’t wanna do is less like pulling teeth (trying to get an ADHD person to do something they don’t wanna do it is a hell of a task.) I’m a bit moreRead the rest of this...

Every diet or workout makes extraordinary health claims about what it can do for you. It’s all about the money – they either want your views, or they want you to buy a product (be it supplements or books, or maybe just a subscription to their channel.) That means I’m skeptical as hell of everyone’s claims. Hell, even if they say there’s a study backing it up, I gotta go look and see more about the study (since many are paid for by interests in a specific conclusion.) The Game Changers made a lot of claims, and some of them made sense, or were backed by either science or information I had already gotten from health care professionals. For example: eating a vegetarian diet can improve your blood sugar as long as your not using no meat as an excuse to go nuts on carbohydrates. But I was more doubtful about it the statements on endurance and recovery times. Let’s start with endurance. Has it affected anything? Yes. My fat, 50 year old body has no problems with 30 minutes of cardio – I’m not in the least tired by it. Not 45 minutes at 120 BPM. Or an hour. In fact, 15 minutes of weights, an hour of cardio in my target range, then another 15 of weights had little affect – I could have kept going. In fact, on cardio alone, I have no idea what the upper limit is at this point. This resonates with a coupleRead the rest of this...

So, here’s my first big observation about going on a vegetarian diet: faux meat is not really a substitute. It’s not that hard to go without meat at the moment – but, I’m only 3 days into it. There’s no ‘Cheeseburger In Paradise’ moment where I’m dreaming about meat. Part of that is probably ‘cause I already minimize my intake of red meat, so moving forward without any meat is more like an extension of my existing eating plan than a radical departure. But, back to the main point: if you buy a meatless hamburger expecting a hamburger, more often than not you’ll be disappointed. Out of 3 suppers so far, the most successful was meatless tacos – those were done using vegetarian refried beans and avocados as the base. If your mouth is primed by the appearance of something that looks like and has the shape of meat, but it tastes and feels nothing like to, it’s disappointing. (All of the following are not paid endorsements, blah lab blah). I’ve had Boca burgers, and they’re pretty good: they just don’t taste like meat. Impossible burgers and Beyond stuff is pretty damned close to burgers (Beyond’s chicken is questionable), close enough that it passes the “is that meat?” Test when you put it in your mouth. I’m not saying it’s amazing, but good enough. When I cooked hamburgers yesterday, it was disappointing. The burgers weren’t bad, just… they didn’t pass that test. I would have been better thinking of themRead the rest of this...

So The Plumber told me the other day I should take a look at The Game Changers on Netflix. The TL;DR version is: professional athletes that switched to vegetarian or vegan diets and had good success. Yeah, I’ve seen plenty of those sort of folk before – they’re usually things like cyclists or runners that go for an optimized muscle to weight ratio (and there’s nothing wrong with that). Usually they’re a thing sort of muscular. If you’re going for muscle, though, you’ll wanna pack in that meat. Right? I mean, that’s pretty much every bit of conventional wisdom. Except that’s not what The Game Changers covers. One of these folks is a world record holder in a couple heaviest carry categories. He’s huge. Football players in the mix, along with others. The stuff they talked about is backed by studies and meta analysis for all the topics – it’s not a nutritionist saying “oh, see, if you eat this, it’s good for you…” (no offense to any of my nutritionist friends – there are ones who know e what they are doing, then there’s the TikTok nutritionists that know exactly jack shit.) Ok, so, in reality it doesn’t look nearly as hard to be healthy as I’ve always heard. Hm. And so here I am: giving it a shot. This is a week long test to see how it goes. These posts are delayed – I’m writing this one on Day 2, and I’m not sure when I’ll startRead the rest of this...

To view this content, you must be a member of Davis's's Patreon at $4 or more Unlock with PatreonAlready a qualifying Patreon member? Refresh to access this content.

This content is password protected. To view it please enter your password below: Password:

This content is password protected. To view it please enter your password below: Password:

OK, this is a pretty simple one – crushed cucumber isn’t anything fancy, but it’s tasty! 1 Lb. Persian Cucumbers or English Cucumbers, crushed2 tbsp. cilantro1 tbsp. salt1/4 cup green onions2 tbsp. rice wine vinegar (or, whatever you have on hand)2 tsp sesame oil2 tbsp. finely chopped garlic1 tbsp. sesame seeds3 tsp soy sauce1/2 tsp sugar Take your cucumbers and smash them – not super hard, just hard enough to crush them a bit. They don’t need to be pulverized, just in to bite-sized chunks (I use my pestle) Once they’re crushed up a bit, sprinkle the salt over them in a bowl, mix them up, and let them set for 20 minutes. The salt will draw off part of the moisture from the cucumbers. Drain the cucumbers, add the cilantro and green onions. Mix up the rest of the ingredients in a separate bowl, then pour over the crushed cucumbers. Let ’em sit a bit, and serve cold.

A really nice Chinese Noodle Salad Jay gave me – give plenty of prep time, though! The Salad It’s Self: 1 Can of Pin Mushrooms1 Napa Cabbage5 or 6 rehydrated black mushrooms2 or 3 carrotsRice Vermicelli noodles The Sauce 2 tbsp of chopped garlic3 tbsp oyster sauce2 tbsp of chicken base3 tbsp white vinegar1 tsp sugar2 tbsp sesame oilChili oil with black beans (optional) Preparing the Salad The Black Mushrooms If you’ve got dehydrated black mushrooms, put them in warm water and let them rehydrate basically most of a day. Noodles: Bring water to boil, then turn it off. Drop the noodles in the water, and let them remain there for a good 15 minutes or so – doing it this way makes them less mushy. Carrots and cabbage: Bring water to boil, drop both in the water and let cook for 3 minutes, then take out. Chop up and combine all the salad stuffs, and let chill in the fridge for an hour or so. Store the salad and the dressing separate. Preparing the Sauce Add all the ingredients together, and let it sit in the fridge a bit. If you want some spice to it, add the chili oil in there.

1 cup all-purpose flour 1 cup yellow cornmeal ½ cup white sugar 1 teaspoon salt 3 teaspoons baking powder 1 egg 1 cup milk 1/3 cup vegetable oil Preheat the over to 400 – put a medium cast-iron pan in while it’s preheating. Put everything into a bowl, and mix it well. Once the oven’s preheated, pull the cast iron out, and spray some oil in there to keep the cornbread from sticking. Pour in cornbread mix, and cook for 10 – 12 minutes (toothpick test it – stick it in the center, and when it comes back clean, you know the cornbread is done.)

Our current New Years tradition is for me to fix a prime rib dinner with all the goodies. Here’s it, and aju, and potatoes, and what to do with it a couple days later. Herb Butter Prime Rib 4-ish pounds bone-in prime rib1 cup butter, softened4 – 10 cloves garlic, minced1 Tablespoon thyme, finely chopped1 Tablespoon oregano, finely chopped1 Tablespoon rosemary, finely chopped1 Tablespoon salt1 teaspoon pepper Take the prime rib out of the freezer, and let it warm for at least 30 minutes. Warm up the butter so it’s a liquid, then add everything to it minus the prime rib it’s self. Stir it all up. Place the prime rib fat side up in an appropriately sized pan (or, even larger pan if you want do some potatoes, too), and pour all the butter sauce on it. Let it sit and soak for about 30 more minutes on the counter or somewhere safe. Once the butter has rehardened, use your hands to get the butter and herb combo out of the bottom of the pan and pack it all over the surface of the prime rib, so it’s completely covered in butter, garlic, and herbs. Preheat the oven to 450. Once it’s done pre-heating, cook it for 15 minutes. Then, reduce the temperature to 325, and continue cooking. It’s about 15 minutes per pound of prime rib – use a meat thermometer to wait for the internal temperature to get up to 110 degrees (at this point, I splitRead the rest of this...

Going into 2018, I would have said this would be the year I finally get over the financial hump – I came into it in a relatively good position. The contract gig I was doing was going strong, though it was supposed to be coming to an end – the budget for it ran out, but the project wasn’t complete. That’s a bit of a problem, but how much longer would the project last? I’ve got a few possibles to chase down after I get it done. That project lasted me for all of 2018. Now, probably never mentioned it, but in 2017 I set out to repair my credit, and bring in enough lines of credit to carry my ass through hard times – I was so damned tired of times when it all went to hell, and I had no fallback. There are three months in 2018 where I made less than $200. In fact, in 2018, I’ve made a little more than $2k LESS than I did in 2017. If you asked me how the year was going mid-year, I would have said it sucked pretty bad. Ask the same question this month, and my answer would be a little different – I thought 2018 was going to get me set right, and while it was hard as hell, it actually did set me up for 2019. And, most importantly, I survived 2018. There were a lot of changes along the way – for instance, I’m veryRead the rest of this...

I posted on Facebook about it, but I’ll repeat it here as an intro – I was on the phone with someone I’ve known since before I had my own company, and he’s been a customer of mine for basically as long as his company has existed.  Bill Wiley & Associates is 15 years old.  Wow.  But, I had to do the math in my head real quick, and I realized:  Midnight Ryder Technologies turns 20 years old next year.  Holy crap.  I’ll do an “official” post on the Midnight Ryder Technologies website after the first of the year, along with a new logo for it incorporating 20 years.  But this sort of pulls together some of the personal side of it, and stuff I won’t be putting in the official one.  Well, and some of it that will end up in the official one. In The Beginning… I usually credit the end of 1999 as the beginning of Midnight Ryder Technologies, but that’s a simplification of things.  It’s always gotta be just a little convoluted, and there’s multiple dates you could use as the start date for the company.  The one I picked was… well, kind of arbitrary, to be honest. In 1999, I decided it was time to realize my dream:  I wanted to write video games.  I was already a software developer for a living, making a pretty decent wage, seeing the world, and getting paid to do cool stuff with big ass machines (I was doingRead the rest of this...

So, it’s the beginning of a new year, so it’s that time of year to say that I’ll be writing more in my blog.  Seriously. 😉 . As with previous years, time will tell if I actually do it – though, I actually did write a number of things that were never published in 2017 (that I’ll publish later in 2017 – more on that later), along with the tail end of the abusive relationship stuff.  Here’s to vowing to write more. But, for now, here’s a look back at 2017, and a look forward at some new projects. The End of Selfie a Day For two years straight I’ve done #SelfieADay – a picture of me, me with cats, me with Kelly, me with friends, me with customers, etc., on a nearly every day basis (I broke 300 both years, but didn’t actually accomplish 365 postings.)  Just like the year before, I took A TON more than 365 pictures, though a lot of them are alternates, getting the right lighting, things like that.  Plus, when I finish stitching them together for my year end wrap videos, the way I did it will add quite a bit of “stop motion” style of effect to it. The biggest thing that comes with doing SelfieADay is the question: “Why?” I’ve answered a ton of variants of that question. There isn’t really an answer to that beyond “Because I can.”  There’s a lot of reasons I kept doing it, along with the idea ofRead the rest of this...

When in Rome, right?  People who know me know I’m not a pot head – it’s just never been my thing.  But, since I was going to be in Colorado, I had multiple reasons why I wanted to do a little marijuana tourism.  At the same time I’m writing this, I’ve already written an article on Advanced Mobile Healthcare‘s site that looks at effects of legalization of marijuana over in Colorado.  I’m not going to say it’s dry and boring, but it’s centered around the facts of the change.  This post, on the other hand, is centered around my observations of the environment, the process of buying product there, and well, even the product it’s self.  And, something new:  Kelly will also be contributing (I’m pretty certain I’ve never allowed someone to have input on my blog posts before.)  All her stuff is in italics so it’s a little easier to see who’s saying what 🙂 Strangers in a Strange Land I’m from Kansas.  You know what’s not legal here?  Anything with THC.  Now, funny story:  I know a lot about marijuana, THC, and cannabinoids.  For instance, bits of trivia like: THCa is the precursor to THC.  Apply enough heat, make it dry enough, or add the right acid, and THCa becomes THC.  THCa isn’t psychoactive, but THC is.  Why do I know this?  Because the very first set of articles I wrote for my friends and customer over at AMH was a 3 part series on cannabinoids, and IRead the rest of this...