How are you doing?

Time for a vlog style blog post, spring 2019 style. I like to write these every now and then, talk about real life, as opposed to sharing memes, tweets, and Facebook posts via social media. That stuff is so blah.

First off, I quit soda and energy drinks cold turkey. I've noticed a big difference in my stamina and stress levels. In addition, I'm starting to lose weight again, albeit very slowly, about a pound or two a day. At this rate, I'll lose twenty pounds in twenty days. This might be the way I lose weight and keep it off forever, in shallah. [as the Muslims say] 

I really needed to do something drastic because I don't want to get diabetes. I was drinking soda and energy drinks every day at work. I'm glad I'm not buying and drinking that crap anymore. 

My body is detoxing. My stress levels are down and my stamina is up. I still get tired after one am shifts at the job, however, without the sugar chemicals messing with my system, I don't get as tired as I used to. It's quite a change. 

Speaking of changes, I've been taking things slower with my reading. I'm spending more time reading the news during the day before work and reading physical books at night before bed. I'm letting all the readings ruminate more. Rather than say, reading a book in three days and then starting another one on the same day. I'm guilty of that. 

I'm also guilty of being completely obsessed with classical music. I've always liked it but now its pretty much my favorite thing to listen to. Saying since most modern straight-ahead jazz is pretty clean cut, not many interesting things going on, I mostly listen to classical music, usually while reading. 

My favorites lately have been baroque composers within the last couple months-Bach in particular right now. Coincidentally it was his birthday the other day. I'm getting into piano prodigy Glen Gould's Bach interpretations. I've also been listening to Handel, Telemann, Vivaldi, Mozart, Chopin, Corelli, Marcello, there are tons of composers from 1600-1700s that display beautiful music, composed of functional harmony. I've become a huge fan of harpsichord and clavichord. So much to the point that I'm planning on playing keyboard more seriously and possibly having my dad put together our harpsichord one day [yes I have a harpsichord]. I have the time, I just need to put in the effort. "Or so it goes."

Work is work and I'm glad to get the hours. My jazz trio is coming along nicely, although I need a bass player asap to complete the sound I want, a chamber jazz sort of sound, with bass playing the role of percussion. The plan is still to record at a studio [and release an album on bandcamp], and apparently, the saxophonist can get us free recording time at the studio because he's done session work for the studio, ie they owe him. I'm still working on my memoir, and I've got thirty-four pages to work with so far. I'm at a crossroads with the text at this point, but I'm getting ideas on how to make it flow more thematically now that I've covered all the facts, exposition and lots of dialogue between characters. Lastly, I've been doing well making new friends, of the female variety. As that Ramones song goes, "I don't wanna be a pinhead no more, I just met a nurse that I can go for." 

April will bring hot temperatures and soon summer will be among us Californians. Bring on the one-hundred-degree heat. I love it when its over one-hundred degrees in the Valley.

Not! 

April Fools     :D 

My decision to quit gaming

So I finally took a big boy leap and decided to quit gaming for good. It was a difficult decision. I tried to quit many times before (like cancelling and re-subbing to WoW a lot, and playing Overwatch every season) but I always ended up crawling back, turning on my computer in the morning, and booting up some games. Now I know I'm quitting for good. 

You see, I realized that for me gaming is just a distraction. A distraction from reality, a fantasy where I can escape. The longer I gamed, the longer I was able to live out the fantasy and not worry about work, politics, my music dream, and intellectual curiosity. Coincidentally the day I realized this the World Health Organization announced that addictive video gaming is actually a mental disorder. That's just sad that American males have become so lame. 

Then there's the things I've been ignoring. There's my weight, I'm still way too pudgy. I need to get out and exercise more and be away from the computer. There's my music dream. I want to be a famous guitar player one day and playing games isn't going to do that for me. There's my education and intellectual curiosity. I have to become a smarter man, worthy of my own aspirations and be able to talk to a room of intelligent people. I don't want to only talk to gamers my whole life, who would rather play games and talk gamer bro-lingo instead of reading a book. 

Now you're probably thinking who's not to say that I can't be a gamer and do all of this stuff? I would simply answer that yes that is possible but not for me. I have to quit cold turkey and move on to a better chapter, verse, sonnet, if you will. 

I do acknowledge that gaming is fun and that its been a fun ride but I'm moving onto greener pastures.  

Now that the illuminated veil has been lifted I feel at peace. I went through the dark portal and finally left Azeroth.