Tag: mirror

Too Fat for a Hat?

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

wearing a hat before and after

I wore baseball caps throughout my childhood and teen years, I even wore a hat when I worked in the fast food industry as a teenager and in my early 20’s. When I started to go bald, I wore a hat for two reasons, one because my skin burns easily and two because I didn’t want anyone to see that I was bald lol. I mean, I wasn’t hiding it because it’s a fact of life, but I just didn’t like it, so I would hide it.

I stopped wearing hats right after I got this hat for Christmas one year. When I saw the picture of me wearing my Christmas present and how fat I was, I resigned myself to the fact that I didn’t look good in hats anymore. Some people can pull certain looks off, and I was always able to pull off wearing a baseball cap, but I was convinced those days were gone. I would look at myself in the mirror with this and my other hats, and I just didn’t like the way I looked in them.

Today I was preparing myself to go on a walk and regretting it because it is supposed to be 102°F today. I wanted to see if I looked okay in a hat, so naturally this being the nicest and the least beat up hat that I had, I tried it on and was surprised at how loose it was. I had to adjust the velcro so it would be tighter on my thinner head. I had no idea that my head had actually shrunk that much. I looked in the mirror and I wasn’t very happy until I put on the Noom sunglasses. That’s when it all came together.

So I’m going to start wearing a hat again when I go for my walks because I am very concerned about skin cancer, especially since I burn so easily. I actually don’t think I look bad at all anymore in a hat. Even without the sunglasses, I think I look okay.

My Weight Loss Journey Collage

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet, Noom, WeightLeave a comment

my weight loss journey

Pictures are a great motivational tool when losing weight.  You want to take a before picture for obvious reasons, but you also want to take many pictures throughout your journey so you can compare your current picture with your before picture.  If you have something to compare how you look now versus how you looked before, then you have your motivation to keep losing weight so you can see how thin you will be in the future compared to how you are now.

These are the pictures that I have taken on my journey.

  • The top left is obviously my before picture.  I say it was taken on January 1st 2013, but I think it was the day before.  It doesn’t really matter though.  I weighed 264lbs in that picture.  We were at a Denny’s restaurant having breakfast.
  • The bottom right is the picture that I took halfway through when I had lost 28lbs.  I had gotten a white Noom t-shirt and I wanted to show it off.
  • The top right I took because I wanted to get a picture of how my dog Flower was laying on me.  I was pleasantly surprised at how skinny my face was getting.
  • The top middle is the picture I took when I realized that I had lost so much weight that I was finally able to wear that dress shirt buttoned all the way to the top.
  • Then finally the bottom left picture is my most recent picture with my Noom swag.  I weighed 206lbs in that picture.

It’s important to me that I see my before and after pictures to remind me how skinny I am actually getting because sometimes I look at myself in the mirror and can’t see anything different and I get discouraged.  When I look at the pictures and see how skinny I am actually getting, it gives me hope and helps me to keep going.  It’s funny how the mirror really effects how we see ourselves compared to how a picture shows us how we really look.  I know that a reflection is the same exact thing as a picture, but it’s different, I don’t know how to explain it.  It’s the same thing, only different LOL.

Anyway, I am very pleased with my progress of losing 57lbs and I will keep eating healthy so I can continue losing this fat until it is finally all gone.

My New Virgin Mobile Cell Phone

On By Michel McDonaldIn Cell Phone, Gadgets, TechLeave a comment

Well I finally did it, I bought a new Android based cell phone from Virgin Mobile.  Well, I bought it from Amazon, but it is a Virgin Mobile phone.

We were at the mall today and they have a Best Buy mobile store where you can buy cell phones from all the different mobile companies, and they had the Virgin Mobile phones, but they were more than they are at the Virgin Mobile website.

Like take this phone, the HTC One V that I just bought on Amazon for example.  At the Best Buy store they were selling it for $149.99.  It’s on the Virgin Mobile website on sale for $99.99 and I told the clerk that.  He scanned the barcodes and he said nope, it’s $149.99.  I told him to check the Virgin Mobile website and he said it’s $149.99.  I knew it was a bad investment to buy it from there because I could have saved $50 by buying it online.  When we came home I checked and sure enough I was right, it was on sale for $99.99.

Before I made the commitment to buy it, I wanted to check with Amazon first to make sure I could get a better deal and it was on sale for $93.41.  So not only did I save money by buying it at home, but I saved nearly $60.  That’s good because I still have to buy the phone card to activate it which is another $35.

This isn’t the phone that I wanted, but it was the phone that I could afford to buy and sometimes we have to make sacrifices like this.  The reason I didn’t want this one was because it doesn’t have a front facing camera which means I can never video chat with it, but that’s why I have a webcam on my Netbook and my Desktop computer.  But it would have been nice to have the front facing camera for those times when I don’t have a mirror and I need to check to make sure I don’t have food on my face when I’m eating.  I know, I’m strange, but that does come in handy lol.  I’m sure the front facing camera wouldn’t be great for taking self pictures anyway since it is probably a 1MP camera and the regular camera on it is a 5MP.

Besides the front facing camera issue, I did like this phone in the reviews that I saw.  It doesn’t perform as great as the most expensive phones, but it does perform well, from what I’ve seen.  I will have to find out for myself.

I didn’t opt for the 1-day shipping for $18, instead I got the 2-day shipping for $10 which means I will get it on Monday, December 24th which means I will get it just in time for Christmas lol.  If I had gotten the free 5-day shipping, I’d have to wait until the end of next week.  I guess that would be ok to wait, but I don’t want to wait lol.

So yay, welcome to the year 2012/13 lol.  I have been using an old type of phone for such a long time that I won’t know what to do with myself.  I’ve never had an android phone so I’ve never known the joys of apps like the rest of the world does.

I will be giving my phone away to someone who needs it which means I will be getting a new phone number.  That kinda sucks but I wasn’t married to the one I have now anyway, I still don’t remember what the number is lol.

So until Monday…

Skin Tags

On By Michel McDonaldIn HealthLeave a comment

I know, it’s not a pretty picture, or an awesome thing to talk about, but let’s face it, we all either have one or a few, or we know someone who has them.

I had my first skin tag when I was 23 years old.  I was living with my ex-boyfriend in Los Angeles and all of a sudden out of nowhere, these long skinny skin growths started appearing under my bottom lip.  Every time I shaved I would end up shaving them off and I’d have to hold toilet paper on them until the bleeding stopped.  Every time I cut them, more would grow, in fact it would multiply until I had so many it looked like a soul patch, but with skin tags instead of hair.  I don’t know what made me think of it but I shaved them all off one day and then put hydrogen peroxide on a cotton ball and held it against my bottom lip until it stopped bleeding, and they never came back.

Over the last three or four years I have noticed skin tags growing on my neck and my back.  I had one next to my eye but it disappeared for some reason.  But the ones on my neck and back have gotten bigger and there are more now than there ever were before.  I talked to my doctor about them many months ago and he told me that they could treat them there, but they never did.

Yesterday when we went to the doctor’s office I asked him about the skin tags and he had the nurse bring him a little cup with some liquid nitrogen with some Q-tips.  He had me take off my shirt and he proceeded to press the liquid nitrogen against each and every skin tag on my back and neck.  I thought there were only a few, but I think he must have burned about 20 or 30 of them.  He told me that they would take 7-10 days to fall off by themselves.

As we got in the car to leave, I looked at the skin tags on my neck in the mirror and they were red and puffy.  They were definitely swollen.  He told me that it probably wouldn’t work on the larger ones and that those would need to be cut off at a dermatologists office, but he pressed the liquid nitrogen against them anyway.  I couldn’t believe how they blew up like a balloon lol.

Today, the skin tags have shrunk down to more than half their original size.  They are like little tiny dots all over my neck and back.  The bigger ones are still big, but they are smaller than they were before the liquid nitrogen.  I really hope that they do fall off and that there aren’t any scars.  Although, to be honest I would rather have scars than to still have skin tags.

I thought I was getting them because of my weight issue, but he told me that weight has nothing to do with it and that you can be skinny and get them.  Well, I guess he’s right because I was skinny when I had them on my lower lip.  I Googled “Skin Tags” and looked at images (which is where I got the image above) and found pictures of newborn babies with skin tags, so it’s not just adults who have them.

If you have skin tags, ask your doctor about burning them off with liquid nitrogen.  It only stung just a little, it actually felt like bee stings, but helpful bee stings.  Not that I know what bee stings feel like, but I’m just guessing.  But I would look into it rather than doing it yourself.

Gmail Video Chat with CR-48

On By Michel McDonaldIn CR-48Leave a comment

I got my CR-48 in December the first week they were shipping them and I didn’t really mess with the video chat until Christmas day when a friend of mine got a webcam for Christmas.  We tried it but my mic didn’t work so she couldn’t hear me.  When we came home from San Diego after Christmas we tried it again but my mic still didn’t work.

I’ve been so frustrated that the mic didn’t work and that I had no volume control but realizing I wasn’t testing the laptop but the operating system I started to come to the realization that it might never work.

Whenever Google would do an update on the Chrome OS I would check the mic settings and it never worked, that is until yesterday when they did their update.  I immediately checked the mic settings and not only did the mic work but so does my volume control.  Finally!

I emailed that same friend about trying again and she finally got on Gmail today so I sent her an IM directly from the Gmail site using Gmail chat.  I started the video chat but her video didn’t work at all.  I thought, well let’s go to Facebook using the Social Plus extension.  That didn’t work either so we went back to Gmail but I waited for her to engage me this time.  I don’t know what she did but it worked and we talked for about 45 minutes I would say.

It was a success!  It was as good if not better than using Skype.  Since I’m on a cloud based computer I can’t install Skype so Gmail chat is the next best thing.

The only strange thing about it was that when she held something up to her webcam it looked like a mirrored image to her but it looked normal to me.  I held up a package of something and it was a mirrored image to me but she saw it normal.  It was a little strange but if you think about it, we’re sort of like looking in a mirror, she can see me as if I were on the other side of the glass and vice versa.  A bit weird but that’s fine, I’ll take what I can get.

I’m just really excited that I can video chat lol.

My Leg Is In Good Shape Considering

On By Michel McDonaldIn HealthLeave a comment

I am a quick healer. I don’t know what it is about me but when I get a bump or a bruise you wouldn’t know I got it by how fast it disappears. That’s one thing that is in my book is how my step-dad was able to get away with child abuse because within half an hour of giving me a bruise, it was already gone so there was no evidence of it which was very difficult to claim that I was being abused with no marks to show for.

I hurt my leg on Sunday and here it is Friday night, Saturday morning, not quite a week but we’re almost there and I’m already walking on both legs.

To recap what happened; I was running for the ice cream truck on Sunday, saw he wasn’t looking in his mirror and since he was driving at the same speed I was running I decided to pick up the pace and that’s when I heard and felt my calf pop. It feels like a constant charlie horse. Imagine having a charlie horse for a week straight.

Ok the first couple of days I was on 2 crutches but the 3rd day I nixed the 2nd crutch because I was doing fine on 1. Then day 4 I’m able to walk with a limp without the assistance of a crutch, although I take it when I go outside and when we went to the store just in case. Although I didn’t need it, I felt it necessary so I wouldn’t have to explain a limp. Although, I was asked what happened, why I was using a crutch lol.

Today I’ve been walking directly on my left foot instead of limping and even though the calf is still tight, or what’s the word, taut? Even though it’s still taut and has some pain I feel I should give it some exercise.  Anyway, occasionally I’ll get a stinging pain then I have to limp for a minute then go back to my foot flat on the ground.

The doctor gave me an estimated down time of 4-6 weeks and I overestimated that to 6-8 weeks just in case, you never know. And I guess my overestimation was a good call because I figured if I overestimate it will be way less and it’s turning out to be way less.

I can’t say it’s over because it’s still like a constant charlie horse but not as painful as one would normally be and I still have to limp when I rest my leg for too long. You can’t just start walking normal after you’ve been sitting or laying down for a few hours.

I have been getting dizzy though which is unusual. I’m very dizzy right now but that’s because I took the medicine. The muscle relaxer. I think it’s relaxing my brain which is why I’m getting dizzy. I also took an ambien so maybe that’s what’s causing the dizzy, it doesn’t usually though so I think it’s a combo. But that means I gotta cut this short.

HA you’re thinking SHORT? Yeah, too late for that pal.

No but seriously, I will continue with the updates again soon.

Is Bakersfield A Safe Place To Ride A Bicycle?

On By Michel McDonaldIn Bike, CyclingLeave a comment

Is Bakersfield a safe place to ride a bicycle?

This article was in today’s Bakersfield Californian newspaper.

In my opinion it is only safe to ride a bicycle if you are a defensive rider.  If you are watching where you are going, looking both left and right, never crossing the street unless you have the green light (or in some cases walk signal).  Never riding on the wrong side of the road then crossing while a car is turning left (which happened to me).

This one time I was leaving the bike path and I was crossing the street and this pickup truck was pulling out in front of me while he was looking right at me.  He nearly ran me over.  This was about 10am in the morning too so it’s not like he was drinking and driving… that I know of at least.

I have a little mirror that is attached to my helmet and I’m constantly looking at it to see the traffic behind me so I know what is coming at me.

Now I cannot say that it is 100% safe to ride as early as I do because even at 4:30am there are probably still some drunk drivers out there but usually when I ride that early there are maybe 1 or 2 cars every 10 minutes so it’s pretty safe where and when I ride.

You also have to consider the fact that I’m not riding in the busy streets along with traffic.  I start out in a neighborhood and I’m pretty much only in neighborhoods until I get to the bike path so there is not that much danger of getting hit.  And I know a route that gets me to the mall and to Target where it’s through neighborhoods and I never have to drive with traffic.

So is Bakersfield a safe place to ride a bicycle?  I think it is during the morning or during the daytime IF you aren’t driving in traffic where there are no bike paths or where cars are parked right in the bike path.  If you try to ride through neighborhoods then you are safe.  But if you drive alongside cars then there is never a guarantee that you are ever safe.  Even if you are crossing the street you aren’t ever safe because there are always reports of people getting killed while crossing the street.  Is it safe for me to ride here?  Yes, because I am a defensive rider and I pick the best safest routes.

If you live in a city that you aren’t sure where the safest routes are, why not just go to your favorite map website, I go to google maps and I map out my route then I adjust the route so I am going through neighborhoods then I print it out and hold it while riding through that neighborhood so I learn it so the next time I have to go that way I will remember.  And if I don’t remember then I print it out again (if I threw the old map out that is).

Bike Trail Home?

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

Now before I get nasty comments on this I would just like to say that at age 17 I was homeless for 10 months, 1.5 months after my 17th birthday all the way until about 1.5 months before my 18th birthday so I know what it’s like being homeless.  That being said here you go…

So I’m riding on the bike path last week and I stop at the Manor St. rest stop which has about 4 cement benches, 1 of them has like a bus stop roof so if it’s raining you can sit in there out of the rain.  2 of them have no cover and those 3 are all in like a half circle (see my bike cam video at the end).  Then the 4th bench is separate from that little half circle, more like across the “street” hehe.

Anyway, so I’m riding the bike path last week (as I said lol) and I go to the stop and it’s dark because the sun hasn’t come up and I see this darkness over by one of the benches.  So I don’t go around the half circle and sit in the middle like I normally would, instead I just pull in on the other side and sit on the bench at the end.  I look over and see a face staring at me.  It’s a homeless guy in a sleeping bag next to the bench but on the ground.  I sat there for my 10-15 minute break and then leave.

Next day he’s not there and then the next time I go there he isn’t there but the sun has already come up and it was the day after Michael Jackson had passed away.  So I go sit down on the bench and as I’m taking off my helmet I can see in my helmet mirror this guy all of a sudden standing like 15 feet away from me, staring at me.  This kinda freaks me out because he wasn’t there when I stopped and when I sat down, almost as if he teleported there lol.

He slowly creeps towards me and is now in front of me and I know that he’s the guy sleeping in the sleeping bag over by the bench and I’m not quite sure I trust him.  He has this scar on his neck from having his throat slashed.  I’m not sure what that was all about but I’m going to give him the benefit of a doubt.  He comes up to me and starts talking about Michael Jackson and I sat there talking to him about all the recent deaths and about how MJ is getting all the attention while Caradine, McMahon and Fawcett get no attention.

So anyway, after about 10-15 minutes I’m ready to go so I said well breaks over and start getting my gear back on, camelbak, gloves, skull cap, helmet, earbud’s and I look in my helmet mirror and he’s back where he was when I first spotted him.  Standing 15 feet away from me, arms folded, staring at me.

The last 2 days (yesterday and today) I could see him in his sleeping bag, I’m leaving really early and so I get there before the sun even has a chance to come up.  But I’ve decided I’m not going to take any chances.  Instead of stopping there and sitting down I’m just gonna go through that tunnel and go about maybe 1/4 of a mile away and rest there.  I’m having to rest standing up now which kinda bites but that’s fine, I’d rather have to stand then worry about having my throat slashed.

Now, as I said above about being homeless, I know what it’s like and not everyone should be judged based on their scars and I don’t want to judge “the content of his character” as Martin Luther King Jr. would say but at the same time I really don’t know this guy and I’m not taking any chances.

Pedals, Mirrors and Shorts

On By Michel McDonaldIn Bike, Daily BlogLeave a comment

Well I just came home from Snider’s Cyclry.  I bought brand new pedals that are metal, not the cheap metal ones either that cost $7.  No these were $20 and they are a lot heavier than the cheap ones.  Weight on a bike is a huge issue but when it comes to something like that you need them to be as sturdy as possible for standing up on.  That’s why the pedals that came with the bike are breaking, from having 230lbs of weight standing on them.

I also bought a helmet mirror.  When I was trying to put it on, I was having a hell of a time finding a good spot because the mirror isn’t that adjustable that I can just put it anywhere I want to.  I wanted it to stick to the plastic on the outside but the arm on it is so tiny that it had to be on the Styrofoam part in front of my face.  I finally found the perfect spot for it and stuck it on.  I had to go stand outside on the sidewalk, or more in the street, more the gutter really to be sure it was right.  It was so I stuck it on and then looked again without my arm being in the way.  The only problem is I have to look up with my eyes to see it.  That kinda hurts my eyes lol.  So for tomorrow mornings ride (at 4:30am that is) I’m going to bring both mirrors so I can see which one is better.  Who knows, I might need both.

I went to the thrift store before I went to the bus stop to look for shorts and to see if they had any bike shirts at all which they didn’t.  I picked out 2 pairs of shorts but they were so big and I went to hold them up to myself to see if they would fit but wasn’t quite sure.  They don’t have any dressing rooms there so you have to look at sizes and hold them up to yourself lol.  So annoying.  Anyway, I just took them to the register and figured if it’s too tight, it will fit me eventually lol.  One of them was $7 but the tag says $2 and I said well forget it then.  I know they have to charge the lower price, well, I know that applies to everywhere else you go lol but apparently not there.  I said forget it because I didn’t really like them anyway.  So I got 1 pair of shorts with a Hawaiian print on it.  It was only $2.  It’s a bit tight but… it will fit me eventually lol.

Don’t Text and Drive

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

As of January 1st 2009 it is illegal to text while driving.  Ok, who does this?  Seriously.  I have trouble picking up a drink while driving then trying to find the place to put it back.  I can’t even eat an ice cream cone while driving without worrying I’m going to end up in a ditch if ice cream drips and falls on my leg when I’m wearing shorts. (This was my experience while doing a driving lesson, Darrin insisted on buying me a soda and ice cream on my first lesson… nice eh?  lol)

Well, now that you can’t text and drive anymore you have much more time to watch tv or play Daxter on your new PSP-3000.  Just make sure you look over the PSP every once in a while to make sure you see the road but of course pause your game first if you think about it.  And while you’re at it, shave while driving or if you are a woman,  put on your eye liner in the mirror.  Don’t forget to make sure you have a lot of sloppy food while you eat.

Seriously though, it’s so dangerous, keep your eyes on the road and don’t get ME killed because you have to text something to someone.  It’s so stupid.