Pseudonym

Daily writing prompt

If you had to change your name, what would your new name be?

Back in high school my band played at the annual Greek Festival in Lowell, MA. This would have been 1988, I think. One of the guys in the band was Greek and he set it up for us. He told us that, for appearances sake, we should all pretend to be Greek. We decided to each come up with a fake, Greek sounding last name. We then proceeded to argue over which of us got to use the name Papadopoulos. Our drummer won out. That is the only time I’ve ever even thought about using a different name.

Years later I went through a period of obsession with playing EA Sports NHL games on my Playstation 2. When the game introduced the ability to build your own players I made one with my name and put him on the Bruins. At some point I made a bunch of players for various teams (all very tall and very overweight with red hair, wearing number 71 (because I was born in 1971, get it?)) and used my first, last, middle, and confirmation names in various order to give them all unique names… because I am the king of friggin’ nerds.

I’ve never even thought about a different name. I am named after my father. That’s the only name I’d ever want to use. If I were forced to use a different name? How about Luke Skywalker? That’s a good name. How about James Eric Beck (as in Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, and Jeff Beck, get it?). How about Alex Neil Lee (as in Alex Lifeson, Neil Peart, Geddy Lee, get it?). How about Robert Papadopoulos? I bet that name would get me a gig someday.

Is the Search Over?

I think my band’s search for a new singer might be over. I am hoping we’ll know for sure this coming Sunday.

Who might our new singer be?

Our new singer might be our old singer.

He told us he moved back to the (Merrimack) Valley from Maine and he has the itch to play in a band again. Is that itch to come back to the band permanently or is it to just jam around for fun?

I just asked our group chat if anyone was up for some Rock and Roll at an absurd volume on Sunday evening. So far I have one positive response. If we get two more… then Sunday will be the day we find out what’s what.

It would be really cool if we could put the singer search away and just get back to playing regularly again. I haven’t played a gig since February 1, 2020. I really, really want to play a gig again. I want to play my new Les Paul through my new Vox amp in a public place in front of a crowd of happy (re: drunk) people. I want to know what it feels like to be up on stage for four hours without being 200+ pounds overweight. Will I have the strength and the stamina? Who knows. Let’s find out.

Cautious optimism, folks. Cautious optimism.

Unplanned Month 25 Weigh In

I thought about doing this yesterday but I didn’t, and then I did it today because why not?

Yesterday was the two year and one month monthiversary of my gastric bypass surgery. I said I wasn’t going to weigh in monthly anymore, and for the most part I haven’t. The last time I stepped on the scale was the day of my two year check up with the surgeon. That was May 16th (wasn’t it?). After spending a week between Disney World and the road I was pretty sure my weight would be down, so why not step on the scale and find out?

Yup, I was down. Way down. Six pounds, to be exact. I am now 203.4 pounds. That puts me below the magic BMI number of 205 which is the weight that puts my BMI at 25, which is the border between overweight and not overweight. My new BMI is 24.8. Welcome back to the healthy weight range, Robert. Pat yourself on the back, bro.

Total lost since surgery is 228 pounds. Total lost since the first weigh in at the clinic is 248.6. I am 100% positive that it will creep back up to the 215ish range soon enough, but let’s just enjoy this for now. Maybe if my head cold persists I might drop below 200 again. That happened after we came back from Disney with Covid-19 back in September. I’d like to be back in OneDerland again, but I sure as hell don’t want to catch Covid to make it happen. Screw that noise.

Busy and Stressful

Today has been a super busy and stressful day. Yesterday was too, starting in the middle of my lunch break. Today calmed down a little, just long enough for me to sneak in some food, but it’s likely going to get crazy again.

Add to all of the work stuff the fact that the squirrels outside have been chasing each other around and fighting and making all sorts of noise. The cats have been monitoring the situation and will let me know if anything weird happens. Thanks, cats.

The Acolyte Episodes 1 and 2 Mini-Review

It’s always a good day when there is new Star Wars content to devour. Am I right, or am I right?

Being sick in the springtime absolutely sucks, and last night I went from feeling like I might be getting better to feeling like I was definitely getting worse. I was exhausted after a long and stressful afternoon at work and when I tried to watch the two new episodes of the new show I found myself nodding off. That is not a review of the quality of the episodes, but a comment on the poor quality of my brain last night.

I made it through the first episode and about half of the second when I gave up and went to sleep. This morning while doing my morning exercise silliness I started over and watched both episodes all the way through.

My spoiler free review is that I am intrigued. I like it so far. I am looking forward to seeing what comes next. Is the dude with the red lightsaber a Sith or is he something else? Who is he? We haven’t even seen his face yet (and we saw him in the trailer so his existence is not a spoiler). Also, what did the victims of the crimes being investigated do to earn what they’ve gotten? What’s the back story? They gave us a tiny bit of motivation but there has to be a lot more.

I’m really looking forward to seeing more of this show. I needs to know what’s going on, and I needs to see some lightsaber fighting. Use the Force, folks!

I like that we’re seeing a period in Star Wars history that we’ve never touched on before. We saw the Jedi and the Republic in the prequels, but the wheels were already coming off the wagon by the time those stories start. This new show takes place about a century earlier, when the Jedi were at the top of their game and the Republic wasn’t a political mess yet. I want to see more.

Okay this part is going to get a little spoilery, so if you are being cautious about such things and haven’t watched the first two episodes yet you might want to stop reading now.

I will be as vague as I can, but there will be spoilers after this point.

You have been warned.

My one issue is not with the show, it’s with the fandom. I have watched some youtube videos and listened to some podcasts in prep for this. There is a book series and some comics and some other extended universe things dealing with the High Republic period, and many of the preview things I read/saw/listened to reference those stories extensively. One common thread was how the Jedi were different than they were in the prequels, and many referenced characters that we knew were crossing from books to the show.

One frequent comment from one youtube source kept harping on how the Jedi aren’t as hung up on attachments being bad during this period. Then in the first episode there were 3-4 moments when one Jedi says to another, what’s up with you being so attached to this person/place/thing. Don’t you know that’s bad and will lead to problems? Heh. I guess they are has hung up on attachments after all, eh? Another talked about how one character was this amazing warrior and how we were all going to love getting to see that character do some kick ass Jedi-Fu and how awesome it would be… then six minutes into episode one that character is gone. HA! I guess we won’t be getting much excitement watching that particular Jedi kick ass, eh?

My point being is that expectations are silly. It’s a new show, a new time period, and I don’t care how many novels or comics you’ve read, it’s a new setting and new characters. Unfortunately there will now be a significant chunk of what is already a super toxic, asshole fanbase who are going to HATE this show because it isn’t exactly what they expected after reading the books. That sucks, but we all know it’s going to happen. My hope is that I can avoid such negativity and just enjoy the show for what it is. Something 100% brand spanking new.

Can’t wait to get episode three next week. Bring it on, Disney+.

Chocolatey Goodness

Daily writing prompt

Describe your dream chocolate bar.

View all responses

Like all food related questions this one has two answers. One from before weight loss surgery and one from after.

Before the surgery I weighed 450 pounds. It shouldn’t take any difficult math to prove that chocolate was a huge part of my life. My love for chocolate was deep and passionate and a little weird. I just loved me some chocolate. I am also a very picky eater so I can’t say I devoured all chocolate bars, but I did eat massive quantities of those that I liked… and there were a lot of them.

Snickers, Milky Way, Nestle Crunch, 100 Grand, Fast Break, Reeses Peanut Butter Cups, plain old ordinary Hershey Bars, and many, many more. I could eat them by the truck load and I had the waist line to prove it.

Post surgery things are different. My gutted, rewired digestive tract can no longer process more than the smallest amount of sugar. That means my chocolate bar devouring days are pretty much over.

Or are they?

I thought so when I agreed to the surgery, but since then I have found a lot of sugar free chocolate options. There are all sorts of no-sugar protein bars that I eat happily. Atkins makes some, Quest makes some, there are a couple of others as well. That’s cool. Possibly even sanity or (dare I say it) life savingly cool. Did you know, however, that both Hershey and Reeces make sugar free bite sized candy? Oh yes they do, and Robbie has made very good use of them. Oh yes, he has. If I had to pick one as a favorite it would probably be the plain old sugar free Hershey Bites, but the Reeces Peanut Butter Cup Bites are pretty amazing too. Do they taste like the real thing? Maybe. Is it close enough to not matter if they really don’t. Yup. Close enough for me at least.

So there you have it. Before surgery I ate chocolate like my life depended on it. Since? I still dig mme some sugar free chocolate. Life is good.

Correction… Already

Hey, remember that post from earlier today when I said we were planning the next two vacations already?

We’ve already scrapped one of them. California in the fall has been eliminated. We might do a staycation at that time, or maybe something short that’s close to home. The reason? The second planned trip, Florida early in the new year, is morphing into a major deal. We’re going to take the budget for Cali in the fall and roll it in to Florida in the winter. We have buy in from one of the kids. The other one will still be in school but might be able to come along for part of the time. That would be awesome. Awesome, I tells ya!

In other news that is also related to that same post from earlier today, I feel sick! My head cold was much better yesterday, then a little worse throughout the day today but not too bad. Around the time I sat down to dinner it decided to kick me in the balls and it got so much worse. I can’t breath through my nose anymore. It feels like my nasal passages have been completely bricked up. This sucks. Even worse, dinner went bad on me tonight… twice. Twice? WTF, bypassed stomach? Two bouts of the foamies complete with portions of dinner coming back for a return visit? (TMI, I know) All while being unable to breath through my nose? WTF, body?

The good news is, the first episode (or is it episodes?) of the brand new Star Wars show The Acolyte was supposed to be released on Disney+ about 23 minutes ago. I’m off to get my Jedi Knight fix on, kids! May the Force Be With Us, and our vacation plans, and my nose! Ah-Choo!

Baby Turkeys!!!

OMG OMG OMG

Sick Travel

Our trip to Florida last week was sick, both literally and figuratively. It was figuratively sick in that it was a great time. It was literally sick in that Jen and I both came home with head colds. No Covid this time. We did that on a Florida trip back in September 2023. This time it is just a persistent, annoying, bad cold.

That’s two Disney World trips in a row where we were sick on the drive home. Well, last time I got sick on the day we got home. I was okay for the rest of the drive. Jen was really sick the whole way home.

I have to pause to acknowledge the fact that a Red Tail Hawk just attacked something at our bird feeder. I don’t think it got anything, but it swooped out of the sky and landed on our little patio. I saw it there for a second before it bolted into the woods. Hawks are freaking cool.

Okay, back to the subject at hand. Travel. Now that we are home from Florida it is time to tentatively plan not only the next vacation, but the next two vacations.

Tentatively, we’re looking at Southern California in the fall. Maybe September. If we do it, we will split the time between San Diego and Disneyland in Anaheim. After that it will be Orlando again at some time around Jen’s birthday. She has a milestone birthday in 2025 so we are going to want to do something epic. We’ll see if the kids can join us for this one. Maybe Jen’s mother and step father too. It’s all hypothetical at this point. For us though, half the fun of a big vacation is planning the big vacation. We’re well into that process already.

In closing, here are a few pics from our drive down to Florida. We stopped at Castillo de San Marcos in St Augustine, FL and just spent a few minutes wandering around the fort and the neighborhood around it.

That’s way more pictures than I was planning to use for this post. It doesn’t include any of the film shots either. I still need to send those out for developing. Woah!