Another day, another post. Unlike the past, my intent isn't to hit that post-a-day mark—I've asked myself time and again, why do I write? What is my intent? Why do I confront this blinking cursor, time and time again? It's no different today than it was twenty years ago in 2002...yes, so much has changed in that span—but, have they? Yes, I have many lines penned in this diary of mine, but has anything truly changed?

And...I don't know why I write. I mean, I look out there and browse sites across the Internet and wade through Twitter and I know I don't want to be like any of them. I don't want to shadowbox...or monetize things...

I think about shutting this thing down, just flip the circuit breaker and walk out, but then—I know this sounds silly—but, if I power things down, it's like it never happened. A diary captures the thoughts of that moment. Yes, I have the memories, but could I ever express all of those emotions that I once did?

And does my audience really want to know that I'm currently wearing my Captain Kirk crew socks from Dollar Tree while being enamored by the selection of Astral Chill by Virtual Mage. Most of life is seemingly crew socks...and yes, I prefer my Picard ones with that age-old debate, but I would TOTALLY be aboard for some Sisco ones because I could do EVERYTHING wearing those! Janeway, you ask? Those socks would just get me lost.

(Like that Picard vs. Kirk entanglement, at 19 in an Oral Comm class, I gave a persuasive speech on Sammy Hagar over David Lee Roth. In the age of the CD and the waning cassette, I brought SO MUCH vinyl into class that day!)

In my last post, I referenced the 77s' 1984 Ba-Ba-Ba-Ba, a band I was introduced to by my friend Nic sometime in 2001 or 2002. I just thought they had a cool, resonating vibe, I've never taken a dive into the lyrics of this specific song. When I read its words, I recall how the world thinks this is a new age of identity and a celebration of freedom, far evolved from this song of '84. And yet:

Welcome to the truth custom-made
Come in and have some lemonade
Reality will readjust while we evade
The issues that are pressing us
And getting so depressing, but
Undressing and unstressing makes them go away, yeah
...
The heat will never find us 'cause we've learned to run
No absolutes to spoil our time
So we don't have to change our mind
Just hope that we don't die while we’re still in our prime

Indeed, the Preacher speaks truth:

What has been is what will be,
and what has been done is what will be done,
and there is nothing new under the sun.

Is there a thing of which it is said,
"See, this is new"?
It has been already
in the ages before us.

There is no remembrance of former things,
nor will there be any remembrance
of later things yet to be
among those who come after.

Ecclesiastes 1:9–11, ESV

Let those words sink in...

And what have I done before and will be done again? Weightloss!

I'm past the half-way mark of The 28th Expedition. I feel slimmer, but I'd be absolutely thunder-floored if I hadn't for these kickoff Expeditions represent a consider water drop when carbs are yanked out of the system:

• 1st Expedition: 40 ½ lb loss
• 4th Expedition: 43 lb loss
• 7th Expedition: 43 lb loss
• 11th Expedition: 40 lb loss
• 13th Expedition: 24 ¼ lb loss

Yes, one of these is not like the other. The 13th was also not about calorie restriction as I went keto and had consistent weight drop for the next year-and-a-half with the emergence of The Carnivore. Curiously, I am now on a "restricted" diet in that I'm counting proteins, but at 75-100 per day, it still exceeds the global average of 68. Fat, however, has its throttle thrown WIDE open, something I celebrate every morning as I ram down 7 tablespoons of grass-fed butter for my 3 cups of coffee.

I look back at that time when I fasted from food in the Czech Republic. I dropped something like 40 lbs in 3 weeks and then gained 20 in a week once I began refeeding. Geez, sign me up to a UFC contract already, I can cut weight! And yes, I didn't have a slow ramp up back to normal eating. I literally just wolfed down some fried lemongrass tofu on that ride back from the airport!

People get too cute with things. I really doubt in the backdrop of scarcity our ancestors slowly sucked on a piece of mastodon meat after the kill. Or a T-rex for that matter. (I liked this writeup Why Don’t We Find Human & Dinosaur Fossils Together?)