Where Do I Live?

 In years past I felt like my fellow citizens were all a cohesive set of Americans. Increasingly, let's say since Y2K, we have become two America's. I used to have differences with my friends on the nuances of certain policies or politicians. Now it seems the differences are on the very foundation of America and our way of life. It's as if an infection has spread throughout the country. An infection of socialist thought.

I would directly blame our educational institutions for this infection. Initially, I would say there is low-level subversion (or at least lower) in the elementary, middle, and high schools. Colleges and Universities are the metastasizing force behind this cancer. Children's minds are prepped for this infection in their early education and then fully indoctrinated at the upper levels. These institutions have instilled a foundation of cynical denial of the truth as it has been rewritten to conform to the socialist's version of events. There is no longer any objective truth. What disturbs me is when I hear someone utter the catchphrase, "my truth". Truth has now become relative. Men and women are not necessarily what they appear to be. We all can be "gender-fluid", or non-binary, or whatever we want to call ourselves because truth is no longer objective. Historical truths have been twisted to be something else. 

Secondarily, the media is the most in-your-face conspirator in today's world. The days of old where news outlets provided information so the people could come to their own conclusions are long gone. Corporate media is now actively distributing false information as well as lying by omission. One of the most harmful lies of omission recently has been the misrepresentation of Donald Trump's words after the ill-fated Charlottesville, VA rally where a person was killed. This misrepresentation has been regurgitated so many times by dishonest media outlets that a casual political media viewer (ie: the vast majority of Americans) believe it to be factual. In 1943 the Communist Party issued a book of directives to Communist Party members in the United States. One directive was the use of misinformation. This is where the phrase "a lie repeated often enough becomes the truth" is derived from. The media has taken that advice and run with it. They erroneously tout themselves as "speaking truth to power". A laughable notion if you see what they are actually doing. Most of the public is still somehow lulled into believing that news organizations are presenting factual truths. There is nothing farther from the truth. The only way to find the actual truth of a "news" story is to spend inordinate amounts of time hunting for the actual truth. It IS out there but it is getting more difficult to find as both sides of the political spectrum are injecting themselves with desperation into media. Both sides vying for eyeballs and clicks and the almighty dollar.

Lifestyle Changes!

 The end of October 2019 my wife decided to go on Weight Watchers (now called WW). After about a week and a half, she asked me if I would join as well. Admittedly, I wasn't totally on board with the idea. It was, however, difficult for her to do the program with me NOT being on it. I decided that I would compromise with her. She had a huge Starbucks habit. I figured if I could offset the cost of going to Starbucks nearly every day with paying a monthly plan fee for WW, I would come out ahead. Never would I have believed that I would become a huge WW proponent.

I initially didn't think I would be thrilled to be doing the program with her. We attended the in-person meetings (pre-COVID). My first weigh-in I was down 2.4 pounds! I started November 1st and was thinking that the upcoming holidays would be a bust. Well, at the November 22nd weigh-in I was down 5.6 pounds! I was floored. I wasn't working out, or walking, or doing cardio. All I had done the previous three weeks was change what I ate.

By this point I was wholly on-board with what we were doing. I wasn't going overboard and probably "cheated" more than I should have on the weekends. Yet, I was still losing weight. I was pretty amazed at that point. After the holidays I began doing some workouts. I did ten minutes or so on the elliptical every day for a while. That kind of trailed off as I began to start using dumbbells for an upper body workout. I would alternate dumbbells one day and bodyweight exercises the next.

Fast forward nine months. I'm down forty three pounds! I've been at somewhat of a plateau for a couple of months. I'm hovering around the 180 pound mark. Having started off at 221 pounds, I am still in awe at the progress I achieved. I never could have imagined that I would have lost this much weight in this amount of time. Having someone to share the journey with definitely helps! I think trying to do it alone would have been much more difficult. 

I'm ten pounds from what WW says is my goal weight. I think I can make it. I may need to focus on some cardio. Not my favorite thought but I am certainly willing to try. This has been a life changing experience and I am very grateful that I chose to participate with my wife! 

Life is Never a Done Deal

Embarrassingly, I admit it has been fifteen months since my last post. I had been doing some record keeping in a journal style app and also became busier with the transitions that were occurring in my life.

Since my last post I have had more life changes than I care to list. Some of my own making, others I was at the mercy of. I retired from my job of twenty eight years in April 2015. Some training I received there set me up for my next job in May of 2015. I took a three day weekend after I retired and started the new job the following Monday. Life cruised along quite nicely for three months until my father in law passed away. The home we were living in was owned by him. We had previously lived in another house owned by him in another city in the Bay Area. We seized upon an opportunity to move a year earlier when my sister in law and her husband bought a house on the other side of town in their smallish, somewhat rural community. We moved from the urban sprawl to a quiet street in that small town that was far enough from the city to feel small but close enough to make the trip if necessary. Our son remained at the house in the city and was able to get a couple of roommates so he could afford the rent.

After my father in laws passing, the sister in laws decided to sell those two houses I just mentioned. As this was just beginning to proceed, I nearly lost my wife to a triple brain hemorrhage. She was in a coma in the hospital as the sale plans on the houses continued. I ended up quitting my new job to care for her. With the exception of one Saturday afternoon when my pastor and two others came to help me move the heavy items out of the house and into the PODS storage containers I had rented and a few days where my brother was in town, I had to move out of our house by myself.

As I mentioned, I quit the new job to care for my wife. While she was in good hands during her forty six days in the hospital, she needed and advocate because she was unable to communicate for the majority of that time. It wasn't until just a couple of weeks before she was transferred to a rehabilitation facility that she was able to converse in any significant fashion.

[fast forward three years]

The beginning of this post was written shortly after my wife's strokes. It's now three years later in May of 2019. We bought a home outside of Cincinnati, Ohio about half an hour from our daughter and the grandsons. It's in an amazing neighborhood that we couldn't touch if it was in California. Our neighbors are awesome and my commute is less than ten minutes. At this moment, life is good and we've been incredibly blessed by God to have had truly miraculous recovery from strokes.

Since I Have Too Much Free Time

Well, actually I don't. However this link came up while browsing quickly through Digg's news app. I am not sure what category of news this page would be filed under but I am glad someone, somewhere actually had too much free time and took advantage of it. Thank you interwebs for stimulating my cortex.

Scroll Slow. Have Fun. http://www.scrollslowhavefun.com/

Trampoline Time

I put together a trampoline for the grandson's that their great Uncle Mike gave them for Christmas. They really have a good time on it.



My kids had one without the safety "cage". Big thanks to the lawyers for ruining everything fun.

And, They're Off....

I have a priceless package coming in the mail. Yesterday I initiated the process of applying for my pension benefits. While it is still a number of months away, it made me a bit giddy to know the ball is rolling and the paperwork to apply for benefits is in route.

I also received a phone call from the HR department of Fuel Delivery Services. Several days ago I had filled out an employment inquiry form on their website. Just basic information about myself and expressing interest in working with them.

Two instances on the same day cementing the reality that retirement and job change is truly on the way.

Every Noise at Once

The Every Noise at Once webpage was mentioned on the Armstrong and Getty radio show. Joe Getty has mentioned it several times over the last few weeks but I had never taken the opportunity to check it out. It is truly a unique resource.

If you've ever heard a journalist, talking head, hipster or even a friend mention a particular music style, this is the place to go to find out what the heck they are talking about. The conversation would go something like this;

"Dude! Have you listened to 'Killing Amnesty'? They're a new post grunge alt. country band."

You think to yourself, "Post-grunge? Alt country? I don't have a clue as to what they are talking about. Can somebody please tell me what those music genres sound like?"

Well, here you go. Every Noise at Once is just what you were asking for. There are clips of every music genre under the sun that also includes links to band listings.

Be sure you clear a spot on your calendar. This may require a commitment of time.

Advancing Into The Future

That's a really grand title for something rather mundane. I purchased a domain name for myself. A whopping $2.98 on Namecheap.com. Not that having a blogger address is a bad thing, but having a personal address seems to give my ego a sense of  "special". Now all I need to do is get the word out. Unfortunately .com and .net were spoken for but I think a .us address is a reasonable one to remember.

Anyhoo, you can now find me at toddevans.us

Cheers!

1/9/2015 Edit 

I've let the toddevans.us domain expire so we're back here to blogger now.

Having Fun

Make your own slideshow with music at Animoto.

A New Frontier

I received in the mail today a new gadget. An Acer Iconia A700 tablet.I must admit I am more impressed than I thought I would be. I knew a tablet would be a larger venue than my phone but I didn't realize how much easier it would be to use.

 My wife has been trying to get me to blog more. I always say I don't have anything to write about. Well, maybe now I will get my butt in gear and try to write less sporadically. Notice I didn't say write more, I said less sporadically. I wouldn't want to paint myself into a corner, you know.

Experimental Post

Testing a new IFTTT recipe. When I post a new blog entry it also sends to my Twitter account and tweets to my followers.

DIY See Saw

DIY See Saw
Originally uploaded by sharkzƒan

A Band Named Brolly

Stumbled across the indie band, Brolly and their album Hollow Home Rd. on Noisetrade. It's a gem of a free download. They have a very memorable sound. I think it's a bit of shoegaze pop with some soft melancholy electro and acoustic tossed in. It's mellow and reflective at times, almost ethereal. Nice arrangements with strings included on several tracks.

They have a show coming up in Mountain View, Ca. on August 31st at Red Rock Coffee. They open for a Bay Area artist named Danielle Young. I recommend checking both of them out.

You can find Brolly on Facebook, Twitter, ReverbNation, BandCamp, iTunes and a bunch of other places.

"Now I am breaking up sand castles under my feet because nothing I build ever made me complete" - Brolly: Dragon Eyes

Tried ifttt.com?

I have begun using ifttt as of late. It's an acronym for "If This Then That". It puts the internet to work for you. What you do is create triggers and actions. You automate things to make portions of your technological life a bit simpler. Some of those tasks that you try to do occasionally or even daily can be done for you.

Here are several of my recipes:

• If I post a tweet to my Twitter account, that tweet gets archived in my Evernote. 
• When I upload a picture to Facebook it also gets posted to my Flickr account. 
• When @eMusic tweets their free #DailyDownload, I receive a text message. 
• When a new album is added to Amazon's Top Free MP3 Albums, I receive an email. 

I have a number of these different recipe's automating various routines that previously would have required me to take some very specific action (if I remembered to!) My latest recipe is the reason for this particular blog post. When I publish a new blog post, a link to it will also be posted on my Facebook timeline. It takes a bit of tinkering to make some of your recipes work but it's worth the effort.

Trackside with Trains

I entered another "Trackside with Trains" reader favorites poll from Trains magazine. The theme for this installment was Trains Along the Water. I took this picture in Alviso, a small formerly unincorporated area of San Jose. It was a cool, still, March morning. The water was undisturbed except for the faint steps of a few waterfowl. Their mirrored reflections can be seen in the lower left corner of the picture. Last time I submitted a picture to "Trackside with Trains" back in March it garnered enough votes for a respectable third place showing. I'm crossing my fingers for a slightly better showing this time. I'll update and link when I hear the results.

It's been quite some time since I've been out anywhere taking pictures of trains (or anything other than grand kids). I will have to remedy that situation very soon. I need some ferroequinology paparazzo therapy. Update - 6/1/2012 Well this is rather disappointing. I didn't even make the cut. There were three reader submissions, none of which were mine. There's always the next one!

Trains Magazine Contribution

Recently I submitted one of my pictures to Trains Magazine for their "Trackside with Trains" feature. It's a 'vote for your favorite' kind of feature. The theme was titled "Yellow". The idea is to submit a rail related photo that has something to do with the color yellow. I went through my portfolio and narrowed it down to a couple of pictures. After agonizing over the decision (well, not really) I chose a picture I took in Alviso. My entry tallied enough votes for a respectable third place.

Back in the mid to late 1800's Alviso was destined to be a port city. Shipping from San Francisco and beyond would arrive in Alviso for distribution throughout the south San Francisco bay area. At the time the area was a large agricultural region. However, the hopes of it becoming a booming port city were dashed when the San Francisco and San Jose Railroad bypassed Alviso. The growth in transporting commodities by rail was the death knell for Alviso. The building captured in the image is the former Laine's Grocery in the late 1800's. The building was in use up until major flooding caused severe damage in 1983.

Listening to music is hard work

Ethan was listening to his favorite music along with displaying the iTunes visualizer. He was worn out from the days activities and passed out somewhere between the office chair and the futon.

March In California

Brrr....to be cursed to live in California in March. It may be the whacked out People's Republic of California but there are a few perks to offset the madness. Seventy degrees and not a cloud in the sky would be one of them.

In the Android App Market

I created an Android application for access on the go to my blog. Now that means all three of you that read my blog will need to be sure to pick up an Android phone so I won't be the only one to have downloaded my own app. For thse of you already clamoring to the market, here is the link. Looking forward to having at least ONE download and maybe a decent review thrown in for good measure.

Future Tense

Here we are gently creeping into 2012. The year that will inevitably be the end of the world. According to the Mayan's, or even Harold Camping. I used to listen to Art Bell a number of years ago when my shift work made his overnight radio program easily accessible. He used to talk about what he called "the quickening". It was his impression that technology, world events, political change, etc. were changing faster than ever. Whether this was actual or perceived was difficult to quantify but none the less interesting. I find that my perception of the world is changing as well. I'm not going to give it a moniker like "the quickening" but it does seem that events are moving at a more rapid pace. That may be due to the increased access to information and information delivery. The twenty four hour news cycle and all news cable channels give the impression of constant "breaking news" and "alerts". Natural disasters can be viewed in real-time like the Japanese tsunami. 9/11 was essentially a live event. I recall getting ready to leave for work as the second plane plowed into the towers live on Fox News. News headlines are fed to our phones and displayed on monitors in coffee shops, restaurants and gas pumps. Twenty five years ago I had no thoughts of retiring from my current job. It was just the next best job that came along. I'm now three short years away from being eligible to retire. My frustration is mounting daily with the economic situation of this job. The feeling of being "trapped" here until I retire. I could actually leave now and have the same pension benefit that I would in four years. The reason for staying is the dang retirement medical coverage. That in itself is a HUGE reason for staying. My actual wage has diminished to where I am earning a mere fifteen cents an hour more than I did when I got hired twenty five years ago. I am tempted to forego the retirement medical coverage and get a job with a wage I can survive on. Working overtime is not the way I want to increase my income stream. I treasure my days off. Having a job with lousy hours and ridiculous days off used to be offset by a decent wage that made it worth the sacrifice. No longer do I see it being "worth" anything. The company has stripped us of our hard earned benefits under the guise of keeping the doors open. Yes, this is an industry in it's death throes. I hope it can cling to existence for just a few short years.