Gaming and Guilt

I don't think it's a surprise to anybody here that I have a gaming computer.  It's something that I've always wanted, it's something that I strove after, and it's something that I've not only attained, but that I've maintained.  In August of last year I was trouble shooting a problem and went ahead and upgraded most of it.  I even scratched at an itch that I've had for awhile and went with a micro ATX build instead of a standard sized one.  And it hasn't ended there.  Since then I've upgraded the mouse (three times?), the game pad, and the speakers.  In case you don't want to go through and read about my system stats in the old post, lemme catch you up:

Glasses and Such

Last Monday I had a visit with my Optometrist.  Funny story, my optometrist is a local independent owner operator.  He's not a part of a chain.  So it's not Pearl Vision or even an association with a store like Sears or Sam's Club.  They have great customer service and I have no problem giving them personal information so that they can keep in contact with me.  The email address I give them in a variation on my real name, but they kind of screwed it up... I didn't realize they screwed it up and just assumed they didn't really use it.  That is until a year later I get an email from someone with a similar email address asking me to kindly correct the optometrist and ask them to stop sending them reminders to come back and get an eye exam.  Anywho...

Guns are an American problem

(As I mentioned in the previous post, I've been dealing with some pain issues lately, so this post was written over the course of a week while I was in a lot of pain.  Forgive me if it's a less than clear.)

You know, I could have sworn I'd talked about guns on this blog before.  Maybe I'd intended to but never got around to it, or maybe I've buried it in some post with other subjects.  But it's in the news again and therefore in the forefront of my mind and I'm in the middle of several facebook debates so I figured I'd put my thoughts into order here.

Root Canal and an Escape

I wanted to catch up a few subjects.  Both my last posts have been left 'open' recently and they deserve some resolution.   So I'm going to talk about Mom's car, and my current dental issue.  If I have time and the wherewithall, I may come back and discuss my migraines, stress at work, my brother, my shoulder, and my aunt.  I may even add some more things, but those are all items that are on my mind a lot these days.

Migraines and more

It feels like 2018 is going to be another health related year.  Not that many years have been non-health related recently, but I seem to keep making appointments for health related issues.  I just had an appointment with my doctor last week and an appointment with my new neurologist this week.  I've had my first dental cleaning and have an upcoming appointment for my optometrist.  All in the first few months of the year.

Mom's New Ride

First thing's first.  Yes, this is a new header image style.  I just got a little tired of the square format with the title at the bottom and a text box around it.  I think this style will be a nice change of pace without taking too much time away from actually posting.

Okay, on to business.  No, I have not purchased my mother a new car.  Yet.  She's being stubborn about it.  I could say that this started a week or so ago when she had a complaint about her current car, but honestly this started back when I helped her pick out her current car in 2014.  I never intended for this to be the end all car for her.  Cars age.  Cars get better each and every year.  Car payments go away.  Put those together and I just figured that after 5 years I'd look and see what her current car payment could purchase at that time.  Now I didn't share that sentiment with Mom as she's like me... stubborn.  She doesn't like things being given to her and would rather 'do without' so that she can give to others.  The fact that I'm taking my money and spending it on her is a sore spot with her.

A year in review

I skipped over doing this last year, so sadly there isn't a '2016 year in review).  But this is something I've done for 2013, 2014, and 2015 and will hopefully continue on with in the future.  If for no other reason than it will be fun to look back and see what I was going through at these times.

Anywho, this is an idea I got from Joanna on her Happiness blog.  I hate to say that I haven't visited her blog in a long long time.  It's one of the things that I've just given up on... keeping up with all my blogging friends.  Anyway, on to the year.

Where I look back at most years (since 2013) as good, I can't say the same about 2017.  It started off on the wrong foot.... I was sick.  I mean damn, I was sick from late December 2016 until around March of 2017.  I finally went to the doctor, got some antibiotics and some allergy pills and kicked it but three months of sickness really gets to you.

I traveled.  I visited Detroit for the car show in January.  I drove down to Dallas to visit my friends there.  I flew down to New Orleans in September to hang with my friends.  I made some cool purchases from a new 55 inch OLED television, a new refrigerator, a new grill, a new computer, and a new car.  But that traveling and those purchases put a big stress on my finances.  For the past few years I found it easy to keep around $2000 in my savings.  That was without trying to do so... I'd buy what I want, when I want, and I'd still find myself with an extra two grand to blow on something.  Well... this year I didn't have that.  One of the first decisions I made in 2017 was to go down to Mardi Gras with a friend in 2018.  He booked us a hotel and a train ride down and I owed him $1000.  Oops.  It took me most of the year to pay him off.  Everything else just kept getting in the way.  And now, almost a year later, it looks like I might not have much cash to go down with.

Music Conversion

I've gone and done it... I'm changing the way I listen to music.

This actually started a couple years ago.  In 2015 I wrote about me dipping my toes into the streaming music system.  A quick summary of that post is that I had heard a podcast with some techy guys talking about streaming music services... specifically spotify.  I mused a bit about some of the services I knew and even mentioned the new elephant in the room; Apple Music.

My conclusion was that I couldn't justify the cost.  Most of those services go for $10 a month and I don't spend $10 a month on new music.  Fast forward to about a year go (late 2016) and I bought my Google Pixel XL.  Google in it's infinite AI wisdom included a 3 month subscription to Google Music.  I am quite the sucker for free trials and I signed up for it.  It only took me a few days to realize I don't like it.  For one, on the computer Google Music only plays through a web browser.  I actually like things being more portable like that, but not my music.  I'm so accustomed to having iTunes be my music world that the replacement would have to at least START with a stand alone desktop app.   Plus iTunes integrates well within windows.  I had it set so that whenever I minimized it, it wouldn't go down to the task bar like any other program.  Instead, it would minimize as a toolbar with the play/fast-forward/rewind/ect buttons.

The Best Time Of The Year!

I've had quite a few depressing or at least non-happy posts, so I really just wanted to post something that makes me happy.

Football.

Specifically, College Football.  Between early September and early January my attentions turn distinctly to watching and enjoying college football.  I'm specifically a fan of the University of Michigan, but that's equally paired with a simple love of the game.  Sure, I root against Michigan State and Ohio State when they play the Wolverines, but I root FOR those same teams when they are playing other people.

Let's specify first that I don't like professional football.  I don't watch the NFL, I don't root for the Detroit Lions, and I only watch the Super Bowl for the commercials.  I've asked myself on many occasions why that is, and I think I've come down to two specific reasons.  Amateurism, and the temporary nature of any good team in College.  For amateurism, I just love the fact that these guys aren't getting paid millions of dollars to go out and play a game.  If they don't make a particular play, there's no part of me wondering if they pulled back because of the possible loss of money.  Let's face it, if a player gets injured in the pros it might cost him millions of dollars on his next contract negotiation.  At the college level, these guys are putting everything on the line every time the play for the possibility of joining that millionaire's club. If they don't take that risk and make that play, they might not get drafted.  And most of the players at this level know they won't be professional athletes.  They're going to be business men, journalists, car salesmen, doctors.  They're playing more for the love of the game than for even the possibility of money.

Health Update

This is just a short post (I started with the intent of this being short... but I got wordy and it's not short any longer... sorry) to update on some of my ongoing health issues.  My two main problems since I first saw my doc in 2014 has been diabetes and migraines.

At the time I knew I had diabetes.  I had the classic symptoms.  I was thirsty and hungry all the time and I was constantly having to urinate due to me drinking so much (and I was drinking to quench the thirst that couldn't be quenched).  The doc did a blood test and my A1C came back firmly into the uncontrolled diabetes level.  Since then I've been taking daily blood sugars to track my diabetes while he put me on metformin, increased the metformin twice, put me on byetta, and then increased the byetta.

Outside of medication I made some changes to my life.  First and foremost I just simply tried to limit how many carbs I ate.  If there was a choice of bread or meat, I'd take the meat. If it was potatoes or beans, I'd take the beans.  Cookies or fruit?  Go for the fruit.  I didn't fully take the carbs out as I knew that would be near impossible for me.  I just love bread and potatoes and corn.  I was already self limiting sweets, but I never ever fully stopped eating them.  The next step was to pick my battles.  Everybody here should know by now that I live with my mother and am trying to help her out as much as I can.  Well one of her loves is cooking and baking.  I didn't even want to try and take that way from her or change her habits.  So I just ate whatever she put on the table for dinner.  As a wife and mother who came to age in the 70s, her cooking habits are firmly in the 'meat and potatoes' area.  She also had to fight cholesterol for my father in the 80s and 90s and beyond, so she limited the meat and focused on the potatoes and pastas.  So... yeah.  I get quite a bit of carbs from mom.  I still limit it... I eat less or no bread at dinner, I take extra helpings of the meat and less of the potatoes, but the menu is just not diabetes friendly.  So my battle would be where I could make the most impact.