Robert

Bloganuary writing prompt
Write about your first name: its meaning, significance, etymology, etc.

I’m American and I speak English. We generally don’t name our children based on the literal meaning of the word. It is more often based on how the name sounds when combined with the family name, and family history. My name is Robert because my father’s name is Robert and my parents wanted to name me after him. That’s it. My brother was named after our grandfather. My sister isn’t named after anyone directly, at least not that I know of, she got her name because my parents liked it. That’s it.

Having said all of that, I figured in the spirit of the daily prompt game I would Google the origin of the word Robert. What does it actually mean?

Robert is an old German name that means “bright fame.” It’s taken from the old German name Hrodebert. The name is made up of two elements: “Hrod” which means fame and “Beraht” which means bright. The name was introduced to the people of England by the Normans in the middle ages.

https://www.verywellfamily.com/robert-name-meaning-origin-popularity-5181543#:~:text=People%20Named%20Robert-,What%20Does%20Robert%20Mean%3F,Normans%20in%20the%20middle%20ages.

Bright Fame, eh? Okay. I guess. There’s no fame here, and there’s certainly no bright fame. It’s interesting to know, I guess. It may be what my name means, but it certainly doesn’t relate to me at all. Maybe if I had known the meaning when I was little I would have changed my life’s path a little. Of course I am not serious at all. I wouldn’t have changed a thing. I didn’t know it when I was young, but Jennifer (which The Google tells me means “fair one” which I will absolutely buy) was in my future and I wouldn’t change anything out of risk of not making that myspace.com appointment back in 2006, you know?

For All Mankind

Now that the epic Star Trek: Deep Space Nine rewatch is over I need a new show to binge. Jen and I are going to watch Star Trek: Voyager together. I had started an X-Files rewatch at the same time as Deep Space Nine and I intend to get back to it. I also started For All Mankind the other day. I am on season one episode six right now. There are four, 10 episode season. It’s pretty good, so far at least. 

I also thought about giving Peaky Blinders another try. Jen and I watched the first couple of episodes a long time ago but stopped for some reason. Maybe it’s time to try again. Unfortunately it’s only available on the ad-free tier of Netflix. Figures. Jerks.

Anyway, here is a picture of Robin the cat. Just because.

More Playing

I played guitar again this morning! Two days in a row!

I put rhythm guitars on a Quarantine tune, and lead guitar on another song. It was my first recorded lead on the new frets and the first recorded lead in months, meaning I have no calluses, meaning ouch town, population: me.

142/265
142/365

In other guitar playing news, the new pick journey officially began today as well.

I started with a Dunlop grippy model and amazingly dropped it within seconds of starting to play. WhatWhatWhat??

The Do-Not-Eat List

At most of my weight loss clinic check ins, they ask me if I’ve found any foods that I cannot tolerate. There generally hasn’t been anything other than sugar, and I have never tested eating sugar, I just know that I can’t eat it without getting sick.

My answer to that question is that there are things I’ve had trouble with, but I can usually pin the trouble down on something I did (ate too fast, ate too much, didn’t chew enough) that caused the problem rather than the actual food itself.

There was one item that I was unsure of though. Quinoa. I freakin’ love me some quinoa, but most if not all of the few times I’ve had it in the 1.5 years since the surgery have resulted in nausea and problems with my redesigned stomach. I still wasn’t sure if it was the food or something I did.

Tonight we had quinoa. I only had a couple of little fork-fulls. It didn’t go well. Damn it. I think I officially have one food on the do-not-eat list. There is one food that I think I am unable to tolerate. Quinoa. Shit.

Oh well. We live and we learn and we move on to the next challenge.

Two Years Ago Today

Two years ago today I went to the weight loss clinic for the first time. It was not for an actual appointment of any kind, it was just so they could take my vitals and then have the first appointment later via Zoom.

The vitals they took included my weight. It stands as the heaviest I’ve ever been. Well… I may have gained a little weight between that day and the first actual appointment, which was when they told me to make some dietary changes in order to lose a little weight ahead of my actual weight loss surgery, but it is the heaviest weight I’ve ever actually recorded.

On January 19, 2022 I weighed 452 pounds.

Today? Two years and one gastric bypass surgery later? I stepped on the scale this morning and weighed 213.2 pounds. That’s a difference of 238.8 pounds.

Holy shit.

Granted, I stepped on the scale three days ago and I weighed 209 pounds, so it’s like the theme from The Facts of Life: You take the good, you take the bad. Dig? Just kidding. This is freakin’ amazing. 238 pounds in two years. The last time I actually posted a weigh in was a couple of months ago (November 4, 2023) and I am down about two and a half pounds since then. I call that maintaining, which at this point in the process is very much my goal.

Happy Two-Years-Since-The-First-Check-In day. Celebrate good times, come on!