Tag: job

Week 33 – Weigh In Day with @Noom

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet, Doctor, Exercise, Health, Noom, WeightLeave a comment

week 33

I haven’t been doing too well with my diet lately.  I had hit a plateau that I couldn’t get out of, then last week I weighed in at 194, 2lbs more than I was the previous week.  This week after my last weigh in I had actually gone up to 199 and that was my aha moment.  I was gaining too much weight and realized that I wasn’t doing very well and in order to get back on track, I was going to have to go back to my healthy diet.

We went to Food Maxx and I bought 14 Weight Watchers Smart Ones frozen dinners and I also bought some Malt-O Meal Original for my breakfast.  I had been eating Cheerio’s since January with a banana, but I needed a change.  I actually wasn’t sure if Malt-O Meal was going to be good for me, but it shows up as green in the Noom app so I guess it is.

Today was weigh in day and I am happy to say that I am back down to 192.8 which is what I was 2 weeks ago.  I think that I just needed to go off track for a couple of weeks so that I could gain a new perspective and a new momentum and refocus all of my energy again into losing more weight to hopefully get me back on track so I can get down to my ultimate goal weight of 170lbs.

The doctor told me that I didn’t need to lose any more weight, but I still have a fat stomach and I don’t want to have that anymore.  I really want to lose as much fat as I possibly can.  I know I can lose the rest of this weight in only a couple of months if I keep going the same way I did to get to this point.  I just need to have the same determination to get the job done and I will accomplish my goals with complete success.

I haven’t been riding my bicycle because of my back pain, also because of how hot it is.  I am also having issues with not just my back tire going flat, but now my front tire too.  I honestly don’t know what is wrong with my tires, why they keep going flat.  It’s mind boggling to me.  Neither tire have a hole in the tube and there isn’t a thorn or sticker in the tire.  I don’t understand how they can both go from being fully inflated at 60PSI one day, to being around 20PSI the next.  It’s supposed to hold it’s pressure for a long time, especially since my bike hasn’t moved an inch in a month.

When it cools down I will start riding it again.  I would much rather ride my bike before the sun comes out to not only avoid the heat, but also avoid the sun because I burn easily.  Because I broke my arm at night, my partner doesn’t want me to ride when the sun isn’t out because he thinks I will break my arm again.  It was an isolated incident and it had nothing to do with the sun and everything to do with me not paying attention.  I’m sure it would have happened no matter what time of day it was.

At any rate, I am hoping to be at my goal by at least Halloween if not sooner.  That would be awesome.  Not that I have a reason to be at my goal by Halloween, I just want to be that’s all lol.

Anyway, until next weigh in…

Nashbar Bib Shorts

On By Michel McDonaldIn Bike, Cycling, Diet, Exercise, HealthLeave a comment

nashbar bibs

I have been scouring the internet trying to find a good quality, but inexpensive pair of bib cycling shorts.  I already had a pair picked out from Bike Nashbar.com that were on sale for $30.  They were black with red at the bottom, which perfectly matched my red and black theme, but when I had the money to buy them yesterday, they shot up in price to $45.  I was back to the drawing board.

My hunt for a good quality pair of bib shorts at a reasonable price started over from scratch and I had to scour the internet again.  Unfortunately, bib shorts are expensive.  I have seen them go for as low as $100 and as high as $300.  They are just too expensive for my budget, so naturally my only option was to go back to Nashbar and see what they had and read the reviews before making a final decision.

The shorts (image above) that I bought have the padding in the back, which is what I need for my ergo bicycle seat.  Although I’m sure it’s not enough padding, but that’s the only padding I’ve seen so far for bike shorts so it will have to do.  If it doesn’t work out then I’ll try a new bicycle seat, preferably a beach cruiser seat.  I’d like to keep my $70 ergo bicycle seat because it won’t make me impotent like a regular bike seat would (which it was doing and why I had to buy an ergo bike seat).

The shorts that I bought are called Nashbar Gel Ride Bib Shorts and they were $40.  I know, I could have spent $5 more on the ones that I wanted with the red, but I figured with shipping and tax, it would end up being much more, and it was $50 with shipping and tax.  I guess $5 still wouldn’t have mattered, and in retrospect I’m starting to wish I spent the extra $5, but that’s fine.  I really don’t care what color they are as long as they do the job I need them to do.

Of course I will update this post when I get the bib shorts with my findings of the fit and feel and the feel of the gel on my ergo bicycle seat.

To be continued…

I wanted to buy a shirt to go with the bib shorts, but couldn’t afford to spend any more at Nashbar.com.  We went to Sears to pay the bill and to buy a new scale and they had EverLast sport shirts on sale for $10 each.  They are the kind that wick to keep you dry, which is what I needed.  Here they are.  Red and black.

2 everlast shirts Red everlast logo

Pre-Lit Christmas Tree Lights

On By Michel McDonaldIn ChristmasLeave a comment

Darrin bought a Christmas tree at Sears in 2007.  We never celebrated Christmas with a tree before that because it was Chips job was to decorate Trees every year at department stores, so he just didn’t like the thought of having to decorate trees anymore.  He didn’t think I would want to so we just never had a tree.  I was so happy that he bought this one because I just love to decorate it every year.  It was a tradition throughout my childhood to have a tree and I never got that as an adult until the last few years.

Unfortunately, when you buy a pre-lit tree, you have complications with the light sets.  This one light set in the front went out last year and I could never figure out how to fix it.  I tried pulling out the fuses and replacing them but that didn’t work.  I tried pulling out every light from the whole set, but that didn’t work.  I was at my wits end with this tree because it wasn’t just this T shape in the front, most of the lights in the back were out too.

I finally found the problem today.  The tree is still up because I didn’t want to take it down until I found the issue, and I did.  Here is the issue.  The first light in each light set has a white plastic … what are those things called?

The white one is a different shape from the green one, so you can’t just put the green one in it’s place; and the bulbs in the white ones are glued in.  I was afraid if I tried to pull the white one out, the bulb would break and cut my fingers.  I did eventually get it out though and was able to take the bulb from a green one and put it in its place and replace the bulb which lit the whole set back up.

I am down to 4 replacement bulbs and there are still at least 3 sets that are out so I’m going to fix them today.  I tried looking for these bulbs to buy a new replacement pack, but nobody has them.  It’s just my bad luck isn’t it?  I did find that they have them at NewEgg, but they are out of stock.  I clicked the “AUTO-NOTIFY” button and left a note saying “I need these in about 11 months LOL” so when they get them in, hopefully I can buy them for $14.99.  I don’t need the set, just the bulbs.  If I can find the replacement bulbs at the hardware store in a little pack of like 10 or 20 then I’ll buy that.  I don’t care how I get the bulbs, I just want them because they don’t last very long; I have already gone through the entire package of replacement bulbs that came with the tree.

So if anyone else has had the same issue, now you know how to fix it.  It’s the white one…

CastleVille

On By Michel McDonaldIn Games2 Comments

I don’t know what it is about these Zynga games that is so addictive, but I just cannot stop playing CastleVille.  I don’t want to play it, yet I am compelled to for some reason.

I can remember how fun YoVille was because you were able to chat with your friends.  We would go hang out at the club (in the game of course) and chat and buy drinks; it was a fun time.  But then people stopped talking in chat because suddenly they were too busy with all of the mini games and with the job, that they just didn’t have time to talk anymore.  All of a sudden it became a job to play.

Then I started playing another Zynga game where you have a farm, oh what was it called?  Oh yeah, FarmVille… they seem to like the Ville titles, don’t they?  I was into it, and you used to be able to chat at the beginning, but then they took that away too.  You could go to someones farm and do chores and then go back to your farm and “work.”  That seems to be a common theme.

Then there was Chef World, Pioneer Trailer, Treasure Isle… the list literally goes on and on.  I had to stop playing these games because they took over my life.  I had people TELLING me to get on these games and send them crap that they need and I’m just thinking excuse me but I am busy with my own stuff here lol.  “Oh alright, what do you need?”

I had to quit playing all of those games so it’s very curious why all of a sudden I’m playing CastleVille.  I guess because it’s one game and I only play it for 5 minutes here, 5 minutes there.  This game requires hours of your life everyday, otherwise you miss out on quests.  Like, you have to build these wood planks or stone blocks to build other buildings and sometimes you have a time limit like 3 days or whatever.  I am going to miss out on a quest today because they want me to build 15 planks, 15 stone bricks and I don’t know what else in 2 hours.  Well, it takes 1 hour to build each of everything.  I refuse to beg anyone for help so I’m just going to let that one expire.

I want to say enough with this stupid game because I have better things to do with my day, but in a strange way I don’t want to; I like it lol.  I have a love hate relationship.  I love it because it’s cute, but I hate it because it’s work.  But then again aren’t all games work?  I play Lord of the Rings Online, which I haven’t been playing because of my book, and everything that you have to do seems like a job.  Maybe I’m getting too old for games.

Whatever, I like it and I will continue to play it at 5 minute increments like I am doing now.  It is time-consuming, but I am not allowing it to be on my screen for 16 hours a day and that is all that matters.

I’m sorry, were you expecting me to make a point about something?  LOL

Merry Christmas

On By Michel McDonaldIn Christmas1 Comment

Can you believe that it’s finally Christmas?  Neither can I,  I mean, it seems like it was just summer like a week ago, and now it’s Christmas, and it will be a whole new year in a week.

We didn’t go out of town like we usually do because Darrin thought he was going to work on Monday, and he didn’t want to drive for 6 hours just to have to drive back home tonight.  So instead, we stayed home to enjoy the peace and quiet.

Presents…  Darrin has the job, so he makes the money and buys everything.  I can’t even afford to buy underwear, which by the way I asked for and got lol.

He really needed good cell phone service instead of his crappy Net10 service, so we went to Verizon and he bought himself an iPhone 4S.  He wanted to buy the iPhone 4 because it was $99, and at first he did, but then they added $45 tax and sold him a package of accessories and it all came to $199.  I told him to buy the 4S because I knew he would kick himself in the ass if he didn’t, but he didn’t think he could afford it.  When he realized that the 4 didn’t do what the 4S did (Siri and voice recognition instead of typing), he changed his mind and switched a couple of days later.  He had to pay the tax on the first one, plus the $35 restocking fee, but he’s really happy with it and that’s all that matters.

He asked me what I wanted, and he bought me the underwear that I mentioned before.  2 packages of boxer briefs which had 4 pairs per package for $32 each, but it was buy 1, get 1 half off, so it was $48 total before tax.  See why I can’t afford to buy underwear?  It’s expensive as hell lol.

We went to Kmart yesterday to buy presents for other people and he decided that he wanted to buy me something else, so he bought me a lava lamp.  I’ve always wanted one, but could never afford one.  It looks cool when it is working, but it’s mostly a blob on the bottom.  I don’t know why it isn’t doing what it’s supposed to, but then again isn’t that just my luck?  I finally get a lava lamp and it doesn’t go up and down.  But I still love it and I’m sure it will eventually get the hang of it.

Chips high school girlfriend gave him a tetris game, no not the video game, this is a physical game with plastic pieces.  It’s called Tetris Link.  I think that I love it more than he does because I’m a gamer and he isn’t.  He said he wanted to give it a try, but if he doesn’t like it then the only way I will be able to play it is if I can get people to play it with me via Google+ Hangouts.

I made some pumpkin pies yesterday and gave one of them with a container of Cool Whip to our tenant.  I don’t know if they really wanted one or not, but I made it for them so I hope they like it.  I love pumpkin pie, I don’t think you can have a Christmas without pumpkin pie, but that’s just me.

My final present will be the Christmas episode of Doctor Who.  If we had gone to San Diego today, I would have missed it because I don’t have a DVR.  I would have had to wait until it repeated, which I’m not sure when it will.  So I’m very happy that we didn’t go for that reason.

We had lunch at China Town Buffet.  We were going to go to either the Golden Corral or Hometown Buffet, but neither of them were open, so we ate Chinese food instead.  It was good, I mostly ate all chicken, which is all I ever eat there, but it was very good and filling.

Well, I hope you all have a great Christmas and get lots of presents that you were hoping for.  Happy Holidays.

Pictures – click to see it bigger.

‎30-40% of Homeless Youth Identify as LGBT

On By Michel McDonaldIn Anti-Gay1 Comment

I saw this link on the Bakersfield Gay and Lesbian Center Facebook page this morning.

Young, Gay And Homeless: Fighting For Resources – NPR

I was a homeless gay teen.  I was kicked out of the house when I was 15 years old for not wanting to visit my mother in the hospital.  I was homeless for 6 months wondering day-to-day when I was going to get my next meal.

I was homeless again when I was 17 years old because my mother rejected me for being gay.  She confronted me about being gay then 2 weeks later kicked me out of the house.  She made me choose between being gay and being her son.

I know what it’s like to be homeless so I understand this story more than anyone in the world.

This article says that there are 3,800 homeless teens in New York City and only 250 beds.  I have a solution if anyone will hear me out.  Anyone who identifies as Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual or Transgendered or even a PFLAG member can invite them into their home to stay with them for a short time.  Help them get their GED (if they didn’t get to graduate high school) and help them find a job.  After 3 months they will have enough money saved up to get their own apartment and it will all be because you helped them.

When I was homeless the second time around, the Salvation Army church helped me but they weren’t allowed to know that I was gay because if they found out, they would have kicked me out.  Being rejected once by your family is one thing but then to be rejected by the church is devastating.  If we are going to tell them that it gets better, we need to prove it by showing them that it gets better by helping them.

Think of it as adopting a child, because they are still children after all.  These children are teenagers but they are still children whose childhood was taken away from them.  Give it back to them by helping them get off the streets.

And you parents, you should be ashamed of yourselves.  Waiting until their 18th birthday to kick out your own child just because they are gay.  Especially around the holidays.  SHAME SHAME SHAME!  You kick them out of the house because your religion says that it’s wrong.  So abandoning them is right?  You think they are going to hell?  So you think that God will approve of how you treated your child?  Think again.

I Finished Writing My Book

On By Michel McDonaldIn BooksLeave a comment

I am happy to report that I finally finished writing my book.  I have edited the hell out of it about 20 or 30 times but it’s finally done.

I sent the file to 2 friends to proof read and send me bug reports if you will lol.  Basically, they are beta testing my book for the lack of a better term lol.

The book in doc format is only 181 pages but in epub format it is 289 pages.  I don’t know why there is a huge difference but there you have it.

I have learned a boatload of stuff about myself while writing this autobiography.  For example, I remembered things that I had blocked because they were too painful.  I don’t know how I remembered them but I’m glad I did.

The timeline of some memories were wrong in my head and it took writing it for me to remember when everything happened.

Well, I am just exhausted from writing.  My eyes are killing me from staring into a white screen for 6 to 8 hours a day.  I can’t even imagine this being my regular job.  I mean blogging is my job but I’m not doing it for 6 to 8 hours non stop day after day.  Some weeks I’m lucky if I have 2 posts written.

To celebrate my victory today I decided to play Lord of the Rings Online.  I finally did an epic quest so I can check that off of the list of things I have to do in the game.

The book won’t be published until my beta testers have read through the whole thing and given me their input.  When they do then I will have to read it one or two more times before I send it out just to make sure it’s right.  Who knows, I may even have more editing lol.

I’m pretty sure that it is finished so I do plan on getting it copyrighted this or next week so that I can sell it through Amazon and Barnes & Noble as ebooks.  If they sell enough copies then I will have it printed for those who don’t have a Kindle or a Nook.

Wish me luck!

Allen Gregory

On By Michel McDonaldIn TVLeave a comment

This new show on Fox called Allen Gregory has been so hyped up because it was co-created by Jonah Hill.  I saw him in an interview on Attack of the Show a couple of weeks ago talking about how awesome this show was going to be.

I have seen previews for movies that he was in but they never interested me enough to go see them.  Since I haven’t really seen him in anything, I didn’t really know him well enough to judge whether I would like the show or not.  I figured that because he was so popular that I was sure it would have to be hilarious.

Tonight was the series premiere and I was so beyond mortified.

From what I could tell, Allen Gregory who was adopted by a gay man voiced by French Stewart has been home schooled by his adopted fathers “boyfriend” who turns out to really be straight.

His adopted father is going broke so he was forced to send Allen Gregory to public school with his adopted sister who nobody really likes and comedy is supposed to ensue.

Because his father is going broke, he is forcing his “boyfriend” to get a job but he doesn’t want to get a job.

Allen Gregory and his adopted father treat everyone like they are second class citizens while they are the superior beings.  They brings bullying to a whole new low.

I thought it was going to be so great that TV would finally have a gay couple who were raising children but it turns out that it was all a big fat lie.  Only one of the two in the couple are gay, the other one is being forced to be gay against his will and I am feeling sick to my stomach thinking about how wrong that plot is.

Dear Jonah Hill, don’t bring gay people down in your sick twisted show by making them out to be these horrible people who are forcing straight people to be gay so that you can get a laugh out of it.  It isn’t funny at all.  And you are not helping anyone’s causing with all of the bullying in your cartoon either.

I won’t even go into how disturbed I was that a so-called 7-year-old child was sexually attracted to his principal who was in her 60’s.  What was that?  Reverse pedophilia?

Come on Jonah Hill, I don’t know you but I know you are better than that.  Oh and you French Stewart, I can’t believe that you would be involved in this garbage.

I won’t be watching this show next week, I can’t wait for Bob’s Burgers to come back on.

I’m A Gardening Moron

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

Sit me at a desk and I can not only build you a computer but I can also make a slow computer fast again.  Put a lawn mower in front of me and I’m completely clueless.

Darrin bought this lawn mower from the local family owned hardware store maybe 6 years ago because we just couldn’t afford to keep paying a gardener to mow our lawn every week so the job fell into my lap.  Well, that sucks for me because I have really bad allergies.  When the gardeners came and I could smell the fresh cut grass, my eyes would start to water and burn and my nose would get stuffed up and I’d start sneezing.  So it wasn’t good that I had to start mowing, for me anyway.

So every year we have to bring this lawn mower back to that hardware store to have them service it before summer comes because all of a sudden it wouldn’t start up again for me.  We usually have them change the oil and spark plug and clean the filter, you know, the usual maintenance.

So Darrin has been paying them up the nose to do all of this work every year and I get 3, maybe 4 mows out of it then that’s it for the rest of the year and we have to have someone mow our lawn for us because our lawn mower doesn’t work.  We can only afford to have the hardware store service it for us once a year.

Our lawn has gotten so out of control with the high grass and weeds that Darrin decided to ask our neighbors across the street if they could mow it and he paid them $30 (for 2 houses, our lawn is HUGE) and also paid him $20 to look at ours to find out what’s wrong with it and fix it.

He said that the filter really needed to be cleaned so he cleaned it.  Well, I’m so stupid, I didn’t even know how to access the filter to clean it.  Darrin kept telling me it was the filter but I didn’t believe him and I had no idea that that’s what was wrong with it.  All these years he could have saved $60 every time they serviced it because all I had to do was clean the filter.  And, they would keep it for 2 weeks.

And you know, I’ve asked that hardware store to tell me what was wrong with it and they wouldn’t tell me.  Why wouldn’t they tell me?  Because if they told me what was wrong with it then we wouldn’t keep bringing it back to them to have them clean the filter out.  We’d continue paying them every year.  So telling me how to fix it isn’t good for their business.

So, I’m feeling stupid right now but at least now I know for future reference so I can clean it after every use so I never have to worry about it giving me problems starting up again.

You know, I had an issue with our weed whacker.  Every time the line would get small I’d have to unscrew the thing that had the spring in it and pull out some of the line.  Edging with the weed whacker took forever.  I had no idea that all I had to do was smack it on the sidewalk so the spring action would pull out more line lol.  I didn’t even know why it had a spring until I saw a video on YouTube.

Look, I’m not a gardener.  I am so stupid when it comes to that.  Well, knowledge is power and it saves $60 every year.  So screw you hardware store for not telling me how to find the filter lol.

My Twittascope For Today is Laughable

On By Michel McDonaldIn Blog1 Comment

Here is my horoscope today from Twittascope:

“Someone may come to your rescue today, whether you need the assistance or not. But in any case, accepting help is wise because it can deepen the bond of friendship. Don’t worry if another person’s involvement actually reduces your efficiency. Ultimately, it’s not about increasing your production; it’s about improving your relationships.”

I think it’s hilarious because what could I possibly need anyone to help me with? I mean seriously. Does someone think they can help me copy my blog posts over to my blog? It’s not happening. Even if someone did help me, they wouldn’t be as emotionally invested in or as passionate about my blog as I am. So they would do a half ass job at best.

No amount of help is going to truly help me because this is something that will probably take months to do even with help. I’ve already copied over 200 posts from YouSayToo and have over 400 more to copy. Then I have my Blogspot site that has all of my posts from my earlier days when I first started blogging and I’ve already started pulling posts from there last night.

I can import from Blogspot and I already tried but only 60 out of 901 imported so I ended up deleting what was imported because nothing was right. Everything was double spaced with no titles, descriptions, tags or categories and there were errors in some of the posts because I didn’t use spell check at the beginning.

But I could be wrong, maybe the horoscope meant some other job like helping me clean the lawn or something. Who knows what it really means. Even then, I really don’t care enough about the lawn right now since the grass isn’t growing. It’s fine until April when I start watering.

Then again, when has my horoscope ever been right? I just don’t think it applies to me today. But it is funny that anyone would want to help me with anything. Especially where it says that accepting help will deepen the bond of friendship because I really don’t have that many friends outside of the computer. Unless it means a computer friend wants to help me with something? Hmmmm, what could they help me with? Hmm let’s see… Nothing lol.

Stupid horoscopes…

Wait, just wait for an update, I’ll probably be coming back in a few hours or maybe later tonight saying “OMG it happened, someone asked to help me” lol.