Category: Blog – Personal

How I meditate

There is a lot out there about meditation and how you’re supposed to clear your mind, breathe in and out, and finally relax your body. Most people find it almost impossible to clear their minds and keep them clear. Because I am one of those people I have changed it to something else. See the goal of mediation is to relax you and have your mind focus away from things outside your mind.

So, I use my imagination. I usually do different stories or a what if on my life. Not a regrets type of thing but more of a if I was born in the right body from the start but knew about my old life, etc. Doing this makes me think of finite details. The point of this way of doing it is to take something that you love to think about or do that isn’t linked to something stressful or going on in your current events. I sometimes also think about the decor that my future home might have. I go room to room and focus on color scheme, furniture, etc.

I hope that this concept helps other people. I use it the most in getting myself to sleep since I have an issue in getting myself to calm down.

What I want for my future

So this is going to be part day dream and part reality. I will get the down to earth stuff done first.

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I would like to go to my local community college and learn how to 3D model, Animation, and texturing so that I can make my own short films, in game merch for Second Life, and ideas for toys and/or collectables. The goal is to have something to do and maybe a small income stream to help pay for my hobbies like video games and computer parts. If I do very well I will expand that to helping me get a condo somewhere outside of California where I could afford to live even on limited income.

That is the realistic goals one. Here comes the fun one.

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I’d like to win Publishers Clearing House so that I can move out of California to somewhere like Colorado Springs in a condo. I would like to get an AMC Rambler American as my daily driver. I want to get a computer from Cyberpower that would kick ass and take names for the next five years or so with a hybrid all in one gpu and cpu setup. Even though it isn’t very privacy savvy I’d like to setup my condo so that everything can be done through voice commands if I want to. it’s the Star Trek geek in me.

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Anyway, I know this wasn’t very long or detailed. I am having a late dinner after having to put off plans to get a haircut due to the battery in my car dying. Thank goodness my Aunt was able to come run me over to Walmart to get a new one and that my hernia was fixed so that I was able to safely do the switch out myself.

General Update – September 2nd, 2020

Okay, things have been going on behind the scenes in my life that I would like to share. Nothing that seems super personal to me since I would tell people if they ask anyway.

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I recently went and had x-rays done on my full spine from tip of base of my skull to the end of the ladder as it were. I also had ones done of my hips. They found that the natural curve in my neck is almost if not completely gone. I also have bone spurs in my neck and upper back. The ones in my upper back are starting to bridge (fuse). There is also compression in my neck, upper back, and of course lower back. The lower back isn’t surprising as I am a big guy and most fat people have compression in their lower back. The L5 disc in my lower back has fused or is fusing on the left side to another bone that I forget the name of. They also found degradation all over my spine and hips. I am not worried for about things since I am on my way to losing weight and putting on muscle which will help support the bones better as well as lessen the compression in my lower back. The degradation is most likely a combination of age (I am 40 after all), weight, cancer treatments, and the lack of hormones that I have had before the beginning of the year.

I spent a year during the cancer treatments without hormones. Chemo on top of early rapid menopause. It was fantastic. *rolls eyes* Then I had to fight repeatedly to get my hormone shots and stay on them steadily. Then for all of 2019 and the beginning of 2020 I was back to no hormones at all because my insurance and doctor at the time kept dicking me around. Once I was on disability and given Medicare I switched to a new clinic and have been steady with my hormones since.

The more I am seen and we dive into the aches, pains, etc. that I have been having the more I learn that I am not fit enough to be working. Heck, even as much as I have typed now has started my hands to hurt a little. It is annoying, but, my shrink is helping me work through that.

I hope everyone else is having a wonderful week!

So Awesome – Turkey Gravy and Rice

So, growing up my mom used to make this really awesome homemade gravy using hamburger meat. Then she would put it on instant potatoes and that was what we would eat for dinner. My mom was a full time florist so she usually would cook something quick and easy when she got home to feed us. I didn’t start really learning how to cook, my mom did try to teach me, until I moved out to take care of my grandparents. Last night before bed I was inspired to ask her to teach me the recipe except using ground turkey meat and white rice. A healthier alternative than the old way she used to do it.

Tonight she told me the recipe which is basically brown the meat, put a little (I did 1/4 cup) of flour, stir, add a little milk, stir, and then add water until it is as thick as you want it to be as well as spices like pepper, and seasoning salt all while stirring. When I was browning the meat I added about a tablespoon of canola oil since turkey doesn’t have a lot of fat. I then used a rice cooker to do the rice so that isn’t a huge deal. No more burnt rice for me since we got the thing. LOL

The meal turned out really well. In my opinion it tastes just as good as the stuff my mom made when I was growing up. I would add veggies to the mix but usually it is already a pretty big meal so I will just have them later or some apple sauce as dessert.

Zevia – Review

I love to drink diet soda and I am super picky when it comes to taste. I’ve tried a lot of different brands over the years. So, when I heard about Zevia I decided to try it.

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First is the price. Personally I think that the cost of the soda is too steep. It seems to be price targeted towards the people that can afford to shop at places like Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods. You can sometimes find it cheaper but generally it is about a dollar a can. Then again I think that the main brands like Coca Cola and Pepsi charge too much too most of the time.

The taste is… unique. I got the cola because that is what we drink the most in my house. It barely tastes like cola. The Stevia Leaf extract overpowers the rest of the flavors and makes it taste like overly sweet carbonated water with a hint of cola in the aftertaste. Over all the soda is not for me and truthfully seems way too sweet to me. This is coming from someone that drinks diet Pepsi when I can afford it which is way sweeter than a lot of diet cola brands.

I will stick to my diet Shasta cola for now. I can get it for a dollar per 2.5 liter bottle at my local Dollar Tree. I am glad that I tried the Zevia and I will help finish the six pack so that it isn’t wasted but just totally not for me.

Heat waves

I really, really, dislike heat waves especially because of where I live both my location and the home I live in. I live in Sacramento, California. This is in the Central Valley. So… generally this time of year the temperature is in the nineties and I can kind of handle that, but, for the next week it is going to be in the hundreds. We are talking normal Arizona temperatures here. Today it got to 109. The forecast says it’s going to be even hotter than that for the next three days! I already have issues with being heat sensitive. I get heat stroke very easy and in fact will get headaches as my warning that I am getting too hot. Today in order to stave off the headache that I could feel coming on as the heat climbed I started putting a wet flour cloth towel over my head, neck and upper shoulders. Just about every hour to hour and one half I have to get u p and resoak the towel.

This heat means that I can’t play video games at all. My computer sits in the 30c range as it is most of the time. When it gets this hot the living room gets horrid and the computer sits in the low 40c ranges. This means playing anything makes it so that my computer starts to throttle almost right away because even though my CPU has an all in one system on it my GPU does not.

Why does it get that hot? I live in a big metal box with an older A/C unit and little to no insulation. A 1978 single wide mobile home that has seen better days. Don’t get me wrong I am grateful that I have a home when so many don’t in California. I am not taking that for granted at all. I just wish I could be cooler with lower energy bills.

I enter into Publisher’s Clearing House everyday for anything that is a weekly pay out or 1 mil and above. When I do I find myself dreaming of a day when I can be in a nicer place in Washington or Oregon. I have my eye on Olympia, Lake Goodwin, Forks, Redmond, Bend, basically anywhere that is semi small or tiny. I don’t want to live somewhere big like Seattle or god forbid Portland. My views on life wouldn’t be welcome there and they are just too big to me. Heat waves for them is hitting the mid to lower nineties. I could so deal with that compared to what I deal with normally here. Though you would probably hear me bitching about the super cold instead every year since I’ve never lived in snow country and only visited it for a day or two in my life. LOL.

I know! Two posts today… but like I said in the post. No video games and I felt like bitching. 😛

What’s a Gungan? By: mjimeyg

Just like most kids that grew up in the 70’s and 80’s I love Star Wars. I could care less for anything than the original trilogy however. There was/is blatant disregard for established storylines, the fictional science behind the Force was retconned, and they boiled Anakin Skywalker down to a bratty child that turned into an bratty emo young adult that literally caused his own misery, but, somehow we are supposed to still have sympathy for him because you know… he was manipulated by the dark side? *scof* Please. I wish Lucas had just stuck to the books he authorized originally as canon instead of trying to reboot the franchise before selling it off to Disney. Don’t even get me started with the Disney stuff. Walt would be livid to see what his company has become. Moving on….

The story today is a Harry Potter crossover with Star Wars if you hadn’t already guessed by the rant above. LOL. I starts with episode one and then severely diverts from there. It’s great though! Jar Jar is killed right off and Anakin is put in is place right quick for his attitude problem. It is a fix it fiction with Harry has the focus and semi-accidently overpowered hero.

Check it out. I am currently re-reading it myself. This will the last of the stories by mjimeyg that I talk about for now and it is the most current one that they have posted. They wait to post until they have completely written a story before they start putting it online so it might be weeks to months before a new one comes up, but, the wait is well worth it to me.

Link: What’s a Gungan? By: mjimeyg

Pack by mjimeyg

This story is a Harry Potter crossover with Jurassic Park. It’s actually a little confusing if you haven’t seen the Jurassic Park movie or read the book in awhile because the character names are used but the descriptions aren’t very good because the author assumes that you know what they are supposed to look like. That is the only bad thing I can think of. Other than that the story is fantastic! It is of course a rewrite of the Jurassic Park storyline where Harry drops in and fixes it either on purpose or by accident.

Head on over to the link below and give it a read. It is a lot of fun!

Link: Pack by mjimeyg

Harry Five-0 by mjimeyg

This is going to be short. I have had a long day of PT and then mental therapy, plus the heat got into the 101-106 range depending on where I was in town or in Auburn. I don’t handle heat well and this is the first day of a week long heat wave. UGH!

I have never watched Hawaii Five-0. Not the older one nor the modern one. Though I do know the hottest guy from Varsity Blues plays a cop on the modern one. The reason that I am talking about this is because it is the major crossover for this Harry Potter fan fiction! This story also crosses with Lilo and Stitch, as well as with N.C.I.S. Los Angeles. Any other ones I didn’t recognize them to catch it.

The story is awesome. It has a lot of comedy in it! It also fixes a lot of what I assume are things that went wrong in Hawaii Five-0.

I would suggest reading it even if you haven’t watched any of the shows as it will walk you through things so you don’t feel lost at all!

Link: Harry Five-0 by mjimeyg