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  • october fifteenth

    Scientists Discover Cure for Male Loneliness Epidemic

    In a breakthrough for modern medicine, the male scientists at the Huberman Labs Research Institute for Men and Boys have announced they have discovered a cure for the male loneliness epidemic.

    The male loneliness epidemic is characterized by a difficultly for men to make and maintain friendships and a pressure to embody a version of masculinity defined by social media influencers, comedians, and podcasters. This masculinity paradigm helps to support their goal of selling products like skincare and cosmetics, exercise equipment, supplements, and even plastic surgery.

    Scientists from the lab celebrated the breakthrough at an event in Austin, Texas, attended by a number of male entrepreneurs working in the tech and medical spaces. Lead researcher, Dr. Tanner Dongle, led the event.

    What’s most exciting about the discovery, Dr. Dongle announced, is that the cure can be easily liquified into a “juice” and consumed via vaporizer, or as it’s commonly known “vaped.”

    Participants in the final phase of clinical trials have reported that this delivery method has not only cured their loneliness, but has allowed for them to blow “sick clouds.” Participants also reacted positively to the numerous flavours available, including cotton candy, key lime pie, and tobacco.

    Critics, however, argue that the drug is simply a placebo, and that the lab has not made their research public. They also claim that there are a number of risks associated with breathing the vaporized liquid, including lung damage and increased risk of heart problems.

    In a statement sent by email, the American Psychological Association, also pointed out that the corporation that owns the lab that developed the male loneliness vape is planning to go public, and that stock price speculation has shot up since the announcement. In their statement, they said

    We haven’t seen data on this drug, the clinical research has not been made public, and while pharmaceutical solutions to mental health issues have their place, the potential widespread use of over the counter medicine to treat a social problem is a serious over reaction. The connection between the announcement of the drug and the huge spike in related stock market speculation should also be of grave concern.

    A number of high profile psychologists have signed an open letter to the Department of Health to slow down development and release of the drug while further studies are conducted.

    However, the pushback has not stopped several popular men’s podcasts from endorsing the product and inking out sponsorship agreements, despite the fact that it has not yet been introduced to the market.

    Dr. Dongle finished his announcement by saying that he is hopeful that the drug will be approved shortly, and that once approved it will be available as an over-the-counter option across the country. He added

    Men are lonely. Lonelier than ever. And it’s an epidemic. But look, men also love vaping. Soon, you’ll be able to see our loneliness curing vapes in pharmacies, supermarkets, gas stations, and sneaker stores across the country. I have no doubt about it.

    Despite the fact that the White House traditionally has not weighed in on drug approvals, sources close to the administration have suggested that the approval timeline will be short.

    How the drug works is yet to be demonstrated and requests for an interview with someone from the lab were not answered by publication time.

    This is just the beginning, sources have said on condition of anonymity, with more products to come to market soon. Ads for loneliness-curing mouth tape, athletic wear, and mushroom pills have also begun appearing across social media.

  • october fourteenth

    Look at that hair!

    I sometimes wonder if anyone’s reading these. I haven’t advertised anywhere and no one, besides my partner, knows that I’m doing this.

    I could’ve easily put five hundred words a day into a .docx or a notebook, and it would’ve likely had the same effect right? I’m just shaking out the cobwebs after all. But I like the fact that these are online because they set up sort of a boundary on what I can put down.

    You can google my name and find this website, so I have to be okay with the words on these little posts being reflective of who I am.

    However, because there’s so much stuff out here, there’s very little chance anyone is going to stumble into my little corner of the internet. So there’s some privacy here I guess. It’s like being on the second floor of an apartment building with big windows. I know that people can see in, but I know that generally no one is. And if they are, they probably don’t know me.

    So am I writing for the voyeurs? You’ll have to tell me. Maybe there is a sense of excitement reading posts like these that are really not meant for anyone, but sit there, just a couple clicks away.

    I don’t know.

    I’ve had these awful headaches all weekend. Sunday was the worst, and yesterday they sort of came and went. I woke up this morning at around four am feeling terrible. Stuffed nose, piercing headache. I took a pill and came out to sleep on the couch, but didn’t fall asleep for a while. Felt better when I woke up though, and my partner made me drink a neocitran, even though I’m not sick! It’s just a headache.

    I hate headaches. They shut me right down. I have a colleague who gets migraines and I have no idea how she gets through each day. The worst part is these lingering low-level ones, where everything is just really annoying to do, but not enough to take off work, or cancel plans. Sunday was definitely a cancel plans day. Today isn’t.

    Anyway, no more complaining! The fresh air of the picket line is going to do me good, I’m sure. We’re into week four on the picket line (though others are entering week seven) and it’s a beautiful sunny day. To my knowledge, there is no sign of this letting up anytime soon and some of my colleagues are expecting this to potentially extend into November.

    I hope not.

    Being on strike does make you think about how much you actually like your job though. And, to be honest, while I have a great team and we often do interesting work, I’m kind of enjoying the half days right now. We only picket four hours a day, and that means I have a lot more time for me. It’s part of the reason why I can do these little posts.

    When the strike finally is resolved, it’s going to be hard to go back to work for a government that put us through this. I think there’s going to be a lot of animosity towards the NDP and towards managers who lied to or mistreated their staff while they were striking. That’s thankfully not a concern of mine though.

    One day longer, one day stronger.

  • october thirteenth

    There’s a small building in the desert. It’s two floors with a little rooftop patio. There’s a small convenience store on the ground floor, and a few offices on the second floor.

    Outside there’s a small parking lot, but no cars. The parking lot isn’t actually even connected to a road. Surrounding the building, in all directions, are dunes. They’re a short distance away. Walking distance certainly, but no one I know has tested that.

    I first arrived as anyone does, walking the aisles of the convenience store, looking for something I couldn’t quite remember. I was shy when the shopkeeper asked me what I was looking for and told them I was just browsing. They smiled and disappeared behind the counter.

    I read every box of cereal, investigated the caloric contents of every sleeve of cookies, sniffed the scents of each dish soap, laundry detergent, deodorant and shampoo bottle, and pondered the flavours of all the energy drinks in the fridge. I was trying to remember why I was there, how I had got there, and what I’d been doing before I was wandering those aisles. I couldn’t remember.

    I bought a drink and decided to look around. With a little bit of difficulty, I pushed open the front door. It was being held back by a strong breeze. I got outside and a gust of wind blew sand into my eyes. With one hand, I tried to rub the grains out. The sound of a windchime startled me and I dropped my drink.

    There was still a little left when I picked up the can, but it didn’t taste very good anymore.

    I sat down at a dusty plastic table, on a dusty plastic chair, and tried to remember why I was there. The soft song of the windchime accompanied the wind as it whistled past my face. I watched patterns move in the sand on the pavement. They looked like hieroglyphics telling stories of ancient civilizations.

    As I sat there, staring into the distance, two paramedics dragged a man through the doorway and outside. He was shouting, “I know what this place is! I know what this place really is!”

    I watched them drag him outside and around the corner, but when I got up to see where they had gone, no one was there. It would’ve been nice to know what he meant. I looked around a bit and then walked back to my table. There was a woman sitting across from where I’d just been sitting all alone. She beckoned me to sit back down.

    “Don’t worry, he’ll be back,” she said, “we’ll see him in the store soon enough.”

    I nodded, unsure what to say and certain that I shouldn’t say anything.

    “You’re new though,” she said after a minute of looking me up and down. “Check out upstairs when you’re tired of being here. There’s a nice little patio up on the roof I think you’ll like.”

    I said thank you and asked where the washroom was, then said I’d see her later.

    The washroom had one of those old air dryers, no paper towel. The water pressure at the sink was good, but the soap smelled like a cologne a teenager might wear to a night club.

    After that I went up onto the roof. There was a man there sitting at the same type of plastic patio set that was out front of the shop. He was humming to himself as he sliced into a pile of ground meat in front of him. He kept cutting it into strips and then folding it back into itself. I sat across from him and watched.

    “It’s my dad,” he said to himself after a while, “he passed away recently and this was his dying wish.”

    I shrugged.

    “Who am I to say no to my dad’s dying wish?” he said.

  • october twelfth

    I have an awful headache today. It’s paralyzing. I’ve had to cancel plans and lie on the couch watching Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Smallville and Gilmore Girls on the TV all day.

    Yesterday one of my oldest friends got married, so I was up a little uncharacteristically late. Now, the following day, like a detective, I’m trying to figure out what happened to cause this headache!

    So, here are the potential culprits:

    • Skipped lunch on Saturday because of poor time management
    • Drank two cokes and two san pellegrinos at the wedding
    • Spent time inside the Cambie (though didn’t drink anything)
    • Fell asleep on the couch at two am
    • Danced like nobody was watching

    Anyway, who knows what’s going on.

    The wedding was beautiful though. My friends are just starting to get married now, and this is the first of what I’m expecting to be a bit of a slew of weddings in this friend group over the next couple years.

    Parallel conversations seem to happen at weddings. Friends asked my partner when I was finally going to propose and I imagine a lot of other girlfriends were dealing with the same. At the same time, the other boyfriends and I shared notes about the expectations, the hints, and the pressure to pop the question.

    But anyway, the wedding was perfect, and I’m looking forward to many more!

    I’m still very frustrated that I had to cancel plans today though.

    who watches the whale watchers by me on thirty-five millimetre

    This is another film shot from the trip my partner and I took to Tofino and Ucluelet earlier this year. Have you tried the Harman Phoenix rolls yet? It’s the new colour film brand from Ilford. I can’t remember exactly why, but for some reason Ilford isn’t able to sell colour rolls under the main brand. This photo was taken on one of their new(ish) phoenix two-hundred ISO rolls.

    Looking at the whole roll, I found that they were a little darker than photos tend to turn out when I take them on fuji or kodak rolls. I’ll have to keep that in mind next time. But phoenix film is apparently known for it’s graininess and that certainly comes through.

    Same roll, on the same trip. This one, a classic mirror selfie, is another good example of the graininess of the roll.

    I love reflection photos. I don’t know why. Is it because it’s kind of like a two for one? Or could it be because of the unique perspective? Does something ordinary become more interesting because it’s reflected in a window, clear water, or a mirror?

    It’s also nice, because it’s an easy way to include myself in the composition. I do love that.

    Some days I struggle to hit the word count in my quest for the daily five hundred. Some days it’s a breeze. The muse sits by my side feeding me inspiration.

    Now the muse is absent. Maybe they’re taking thanksgiving weekend off. Or maybe they’re here hanging out watching me struggle. There is only one thing I know for certain though.

    Today my head hurts, and I’m hungry, and it is not a breeze.

  • october eleventh

    It’s Saturday, it’s eleven thirty, and it’s a little wet outside. I’m eating oatmeal with frozen berries and a little maple syrup and drinking a medium roast coffee prepared in my aeropress. I’m drinking the coffee black, listening to the song Waves by Bahamas.

    I’m trying to decide if I want to italicize song titles when I write about them. When I did my post about Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino I remember noting that the markdunn.ca style guide requires albums to be italicized but not songs.

    Actually, on review it was photos in black and white that references the style guide. Potential archivists looking for work, looks like I may need some help here.

    Last month I had lunch with a friend and had a coffee. I normally don’t have coffee with lunch, or in the afternoon at all unless it’s decaf, but I felt like one. And it was amazing. I was awake all afternoon, including that three to four pm time where I’m usually fighting to stay awake.

    Anyway, I remember texting my partner something like

    I think lunchtime coffee might have saved my life

    which is a little dramatic, don’t you think?

    So I went out that day and bought myself an aeropress. I really wanted one anyway, so it wasn’t going to take much to push me over the line. I rode my bike to the Gourmet Warehouse at Hastings and Clark after work that day and picked it up. A guy complimented me on the BC Lions hoodie my partner bought me too. Out of all my hoodies, for some reason that’s the one that gets all the compliments.

    Well, the aeropress is amazing. There are all these “recipes” online which are basically just different ways to make coffee with it. The way it works normally is you put in the little aeropress filter into the filter tray and screw that on to the main piece, and then put that on top of a sturdy mug, scoop in fine ground coffee with the scoop they give you, add hot water, stir with the stir stick they give you, add the plunger, and then wait a couple minutes and plunge it. Easy.

    But then I learned that there’s an inverted method (haven’t tried it yet) to get better espresso-style coffee. There’s also the Hoffman method, which I quite like, that involves no stirring, but a little gentle sort of swirl instead.

    What I learned from the Hoffman method was that you’ve got to control the temperature. I started sticking my partner’s meat thermometer into the kettle so I knew to stop it at around ninety degrees. And that way I get an excellent cup of coffee. Almost every time.

    I can see how things like an aeropress can be a gateway to fancier coffee equipment though. I already want to get a hand grinder. We use an electric one, but apparently the burr grinders are better? And a gooseneck kettle with temperature control, plus maybe a chemex to go with the kettle.

    And maybe after that I could start sourcing fresh coffee beans and roasting them on the stove. Woah.

  • october tenth

    So, it looks like I missed a couple days. You’re probably not waiting for me to start making excuses, but I have some! Wednesday was especially busy for me. I had to picket my workplace in the morning, pick up my partner from a procedure at the hospital in the afternoon, attend a Green Party meeting in the evening, and then later in the evening head over to a local French restaurant to celebrate the birthday of a dear friend. Evidently, a full day.

    And yesterday—I had all this work to catch up on in the morning, picketing in the afternoon, and then I made dinner and had to polish my dress shoes for today. Hopefully that’s enough to satisfy you!

    But the sad thing is, this means I only made it a week before failing in my blog-a-day goal for October.

    The good thing is it doesn’t matter!

    Today was a weird day. I attended the memorial of a colleague in Victoria. I woke up extra early, got myself ready, ironed my shirt and pants, and walked over to the home of one of the directors in my division so she could drive us to the ferry and then to the church. I’m on strike and she’s in management, so I hadn’t seen the her in a minute, but it was nice, despite the reason, to spend some time together. We picked up another colleague on the ferry.

    The service was beautiful. I’m not religious, but it was held in a church so there was Christian music and some praying, and to finish the day, the pastor of the church gave a lengthy sermon-like talk that I’m sure is common for these kinds of things. He did start by saying “I’m not going to keep you long,” which often seems to be a lie, no matter who’s saying it. 

    It was moving listening to my former-colleague’s husband talk about her. I realized that I don’t know my coworkers all that well at the end of the day. She left four kids. Her oldest, only a teenager, gave a really moving tribute to her mum.

    A number of my colleagues are based in Victoria or elsewhere on the island, so I got to see some old friends too. It’s perhaps the only positive aspect of a funeral—getting to spend time with friends and family that you might not see often otherwise. Sometimes the food is really good too.

    I’ve been to three services this year, all for people who I knew and wanted to honour, but who also lived in my periphery. It makes me realize how lucky I am that my family is healthy. But also, it makes me think about how fragile we all are. It doesn’t take much more than a moment to change your life forever. And then, once it’s all done, there’s nothing you can do. Nothing you can take back, or contextualize, or add nuance to. Nothing you can apologize for.

    No more opportunities to say I love you, you matter to me, I care about you.

    I guess it’s the kind of thing that everyone knows, but it’s important to be reminded now and again about what really matters. 

  • october seventh

    This photo is from a trip my partner and I took to Cortes Island, but it made me think of one of my favourite little things in Germany, fritz-kola.

    Fritz-kola, as the name suggests, is a German soda brand. They make a regular cola, a “super zero,” which is effectively a zero sugar cola with extra caffeine, and other flavours (including mischmasch, which is a delicious combination of kola, orange drink, and lemonade).

    Growing up, I was a big soda fan. We never really had it in the house, but I’ve got a wicked sweet tooth, so I’d drink as much of it as I could get my hands on. Sugar, as we know, is the devil, so I had to try to cut it out or at least find alternatives. Diet Coke is okay, but I never really liked the taste that much, so when Coke Zero came out and I found that it tasted pretty similar to the real thing, I was already primed to be hooked.

    Anyway, fritz-kola is way better! And it comes in glass bottles, which is cool. I mean, it’s better than plastic, that’s for sure.

    But anyway, one of the things that it made me realize is that if a savvy entrepreneur in Vancouver were to develop their own zero sugar cola alternative that:

    • tasted as good as Coke Zero
    • costed roughly the same amount
    • had simple but elegant branding

    then they could potentially do decent business, right?

    I think there are two types of small businesses these days. First, are the businesses started by someone who doesn’t just want to be an entrepreneur, but wants to run that type of business. Think restaurant owners who work as either the General Manager or Head Chef, breweries that are owned by their brewers, or book stores where the owner works the cash and stocks the shelves.

    The second type are businesses like the first, but the owner doesn’t want to be involved in the day-to-day. I’ve worked for a couple businesses where the owner really wants to treat it almost as a sort of passive income stream, and wants little to do with the day to day. Or, they hire managers to run the business so that they can take on a more “strategic” role, and end up getting in the way more than anything else.

    What I’m trying to say, is that I don’t think you’d do very well starting a soda brand in Vancouver if your goal was to not have to work, or to eventually compete with Coca-Cola and Pepsi Co. I do think you could make a good living, create some good local jobs, and provide a valuable product that I would be so grateful for. I hate giving Coca-Cola my money!

    It can’t be that hard either, right? Maybe you could rent out some space in a local brewery, because they’d have similar equipment I think. I know Calister was doing soft drinks for a bit, and Phillips does sodas too. So you find some space, get your recipe figured out and really dial it in. And then put some decent thought into the the branding. But don’t spend too much time on that. Get a nice logo and font, and maybe a website so that people can contact you for orders once you start to gain steam?

    And then what, bottle a few palettes and try to sell them? It can’t be that hard!

    Think about it!

  • october sixth

    Yes, you are correct, this absolutely sick custom toyota pickup has been raised and a hot tub has been added to the bed.

    I’m not sure if it’s still for sale. Anyone in Tofino may be able to confirm it by heading to Tofino Brewing Co., going up the hill past the Tofino Distillery, and looking for a parking lot on the left side of the road.

    Or maybe, if you have some digital forensic skills, you can enhance the phone number in the photo and try that.

    Either way, whoever snaps this thing up is an incredibly lucky person. Not only is it an early toyota pickup, so it was built back when cars were designed to be easier to repair, but it’s also got a manual transmission.

    I tried to convince my partner that we could buy it. Imagine having not only a sick truck, but also being able to hot tub wherever you are. Ferry line ups? No more sitting in the car on your phone. Now you can sit in your truck bed hot tub!

    Take it to Spanish Banks and park it beside the mobile sauna that hangs out there. You can go sauna to ocean to hot tub to ocean as many times as you’d like. You could even rent it out for parties.

    If you wanted, you could sanitize the hell out of it and then fill it with jello. And then people could just scoop jello out of the hot tub.

    Needless to say, there are a ton of potential applications for the hot tub truck bed.

    But I didn’t get it. I don’t really know where I’d park it. It certainly wouldn’t fit in the underground parking. I guess I could get a permit for street parking, and then I could share the hot tub with the neighbourhood. It would be a nice way to make new friends, wouldn’t it?

    No, I guess I’m pretty happy without a car these days. My partner has a jetta that I borrow once in a while, but most of the time I get around on my bike, or on public transit. Sometimes I take evos.

    In the next couple years we’ll also have a skytrain station nearby! We’re not a long walk from the future terminus of the millenium line at Arbutus. That’s going to be great.

    If I did have a car though, I’d want to have a pickup with a hot tub on the back. Or a sauna.

    Have I written about the Tofino trip yet? My partner and I went over the May long weekend this year and it was fantastic. We did all of the regular touristy things, like the boat ride to Hot Spring Cove and a surf lesson at Cox Bay Beach.

    We stayed at a perfect little cabin in Ucluelet where we saw a bunch of wildlife. Actually, you know what? I’ve got a bunch of photos from that trip, I think I’ll just do up a whole post on that. We’re still on strike at work, so I’ve got some extra time.

    Stay tuned!

  • october fifth

    This photo was taken in Germany last summer when I had beautiful long hair. And though my hair was beautiful, I’m happy to be wearing it shorter these days. I think my partner is too. Even a colleague mentioned it the other day; he called the long hair

    so gross

    which, though a statement generally too brief for a quote, merits it’s own distinction.

    Germany is very cool. We visited Hamburg, Berlin, Munich, and Schwangau (to visit the castles, of course).

    I was quite shy at first. We started our trip in Hamburg and I didn’t want anyone to know that I couldn’t speak German. On our second day, we stopped in at a lovely little gluten free bakery/cafe. I ordered a decaf coffee, my partner ordered a regular one, but when the guy brought them out he didn’t say which was which.

    So, I mumbled out a question about which was the decaf and I guess he didn’t hear me, so he asked me to repeat myself, and again, being self-conscious about speaking English in the land of German, I mumbled the question. He figured it out that time though, and after pointing out the decaf, said,

    “To be clear, I actually speak English very well. I just couldn’t hear you.”

    And then we all became best friends.

    Hamburg was really cool. Everyone told us to visit Miniature World. We thought it was a bit of a joke, but enough people told us to visit that we decided to go. You have to book in advance, and the earliest spot we could get while we were there was nine pm one night, but it was well worth it. They close at midnight, and we heard that you needed to budget at least two or three hours. We ended up getting kicked out as they were closing.

    It is well worth it!

    They have tiny models of entire cities! Little cars and trains that move on highways and tracks. They have a big remote control ship that moves around in actual water, but the best part is the airport.

    The airport is so cool. They have planes that land and take off, and they have a little simulation where a plane catches on “fire” and then these little fire trucks race over from the other end of the airport to “put it out.”

    After we’d spent a couple days in Berlin, I felt a little more settled. I think I could live in Berlin. It’s such an interesting city. Big and busy and cosmopolitan. Really great vegan food. Lots of cool non-alcoholic drinks. I had a fantastic non-alc rose and some delicious dumplings at a market there.

    The twentieth century history is probably the most interesting part of Berlin. You can’t miss the ways the wall shaped the city. As an outsider, it’s fascinating.

    Munich is different again. We were there as they were setting up for Oktoberfest. It seemed like dozens of huge structures were being built up to facilitate the celebration.

    I don’t really know what Oktoberfest is about, to be honest.

    Schwangau was one of my favourites though. A really small town that you can stay in while you’re visiting the Neuschwanstien and Hohenschwangau castles.

    Also, I should take a second to shout out Asia Food Place where, as they could accommodate my vegan lifestyle and my partner’s gluten intolerance, we ate several times.

    My castle photos didn’t really turn out unfortunately. Oh well. Well worth the visit.

  • october fourth

    When I was twenty three I “moved” to Australia. I didn’t have much of a plan beyond wanting to get out of Vancouver and do something different. I’d spent most of my life up until then living in and around Vancouver, and so I figured I’d take a shot at living in the countryside.

    My mum’s side of the family is Australian, and from the early nineteen eighties up until she passed, my grandmother lived in a small house just outside of a town called Yarrawonga. When I moved in, it had been fairly quiet for a while. The bore water was undrinkable and the place was crawling with mice. There was no wifi, no cable, and if I wanted to get service on my cellphone I had to sit outside. The rabbit ear antenna meant I could watch the occasional rugby league or aussie rules game, and Gilmore Girls was on quite a bit too actually. These days my partner has me on the annual Gilmore Girls cycle – we watch it every fall – but back then I’d just watch whatever was on.

    Another part of the reason I moved to Yarrawonga was because I wanted to be a writer.

    I’ve always really enjoyed writing. It’s funny though, because it still feels like such a chore to sit down and actually do it. I just reread The War of Art by Steven Pressfield, and it made me feel a lot better about how lazy I’ve been about it. I won’t spoil the book, it’s a great read.

    It’s part of the reason why I’m doing this daily writing test, shaking out the cobwebs a little.

    Next, I think I’m going to revisit The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. I never got through the whole program, but morning pages have been a part of my daily routine on and off (mostly off) for the last few years.

    When I was in Australia I read a lot. I was in a big Haruki Murakami phase, so I read Kafka on the Shore, Norwegian Wood, Sputnik Sweetheart, and my favourite, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. I keep meaning to pick up a copy of 1Q84, but I’m afraid I’m past my Murakami era.

    That was also when I read Hemmingway for the first time! For Whom the Bell Tolls and A Farewell to Arms.

    Simpler times! That was ten years ago and now I’m an old man, rapidly creeping up on thirty three. I still want to write though.

    It’s kind of scary trying to pull something from nothing, isn’t it? Writing is daunting when so many great stories already exist. The greats that stood before us set standards so high that it feels like it would be arrogant to even try to join them.

    But then, is that sense of self-doubt part of the process? Pressfield calls it Resistance, and he argues that we have to fight Resistance every day.

    I don’t know. And I only ended up spending about seven months in Australia before getting bored and moving home.

    But I’ll keep doing these short little journal entries I guess, and leaving them on the blog. Hopefully the practice is good. This is four days now.