Android App Reviews: Mood Trackers

 So, since I have bipolar disorder it seems only appropriate that I review some mood tracker apps and see how they compare. I have an obsession with finding the best apps for things, so this ought to be fun.

First, we will start with the obvious one.

Daylio: This is probably the most popular mood app. But not only does it track your mood, it tracks your habits, activities, goals, let's you add text and a picture, and has a lot of stats and interesting insights into your moods. It can help determine patterns based on your mood + activities. This app pretty much has everything you need in the free version, but the paid version (subscription) gives you extra features you might like, such as No ads, auto-backup, unlimited goals, export your entries, etc. I have used this app for years as my main tracker. 

 

Bearable: This one has so many things to track it actually became overwhelming, however it is fortunate you can change your home screen to only show you certain things that you want to track. It lets you rate your mood many times throughout the day, mark your symptoms, rate energy levels, productivity, social live, and even, yes, your bowel movements. This is the most comprehensive app you can get for mood tracking. The user interface is very pleasing to use and look at. I have used this app for a while in the past but then I found I didn't have time to track all the things that I wanted to, and didn't want any inconsistencies in my reporting. But overall a "beary" good app. See what I did there?

 

Pixels: This app shows your stats in colored pixels. You can explore the pixels using score, tags, text. You can therefore find patterns in your moods. You can change the colors of your pixels. The opening screen is a plea for a cup of coffee (a donation) but don't let that confuse you, you can still access the app by the icons on the bottom. 

 

Moodflow: This app has a beautiful interface as well. You can track your mood and activities, and it has a calendar view that will show you your patterns. You can find personal insights such as relationships, and "correlations" with social interactions. This app gives you a lot of information but I didn't find it difficult to find time to track. You can lock it with a PIN too, in case you need privacy. I like this app, I feel it is very well done. 

 

eMoods: This one says it is for Bipolar, but I bet you could use it for any mental health purposes. You can choose your amount of sleep, your moods and extremes, anxiety, map your psychosis, and register if you had talk therapy in that day. There is a helpful calendar view, and a whole shit ton of graphs and charts to show you your patterns. This one would be most helpful for you to share with your doctor, I would think. In terms of UI, it is ok nothing special. Not a complicated app by any means, but helpful.

 

 The winner is a tie! Daylio and Moodflow were the best ones out of these 5 that were sampled. Give them a try and see how they work for you!

I also use one on my Android phone called EvenMind which is a simple graph/scale that you drag to indicate your mood and energy. It however, don't seem to exist on the Playstore anymore, and I haven't had any updates to it in about a year so I guess it doesn't exist.

Android Note Taking Apps

 I enjoy doing mini reviews and I enjoy android apps. So why not combine the two? Here is part one of my note taking app reviews. At the end of the series I will dub a winner. Please note not all images are MY screenshots.

- Joplin : Constantly on Reddit I am seeing recommendations for this app. It has a desktop and mobile version and there's a web clipper on the desktop version. The app allows you to attach photos and files, and tag your notes. The interface was a bit too simple for me. It needs more "pizazz". I tried to change the theme in settings, but nothing happened. This app has a lot of features and settings, not all of them were explored.

- Obsidian: Something about vaults? I... I don't know. This app was too weird.

Bundled Notes: Ok I have the most to say about this one. The intro splash screen is something to behold. What a fantastic user interface. Loads of features like tasks, lists, kanban boards, idea boards, etc. Notebooks are sorted into "bundles" and you can add attachments like photos in them. You can use tags and rich text. You can also choose the style and layout of each bundle. You can also use templates. You can bold and italicize notes and add pictures. Adding a photo attached it to the bottom but didn't embed it into the body of the note. It appears to have a 150mb storage limit for the free version which is kind of small. I couldn't figure out how to change the color of my notes, they were all orange. Overall I really liked this app. It was a different way to do notes, but not difficult to learn at all. Unlike Obsidian which I just started at for a good 30 seconds before uninstalling. Bundled notes has a good UI. It doesn't have password protection on any notes though which is a big important feature for me. There is also a 6 bundle limit on the free version and sadly, it's a dreaded subscription model for premium.

Notally: Very simple. The UI is very rudimentary and there weren't many features other than archiving and tagging. No text formatting or inserting photos or files. I was not impressed.

 

 

 

Notesnook: This one says it's a 100% encrypted end to end app. You can sync to unlimited devices, add images, videos, tables, and edit markdown. I'm still not too sure what markdown is or why that's important. Tags and colors help you organize your notes. Signing up makes you enter into a free 7 day trial with all of the full features. Inserting a picture was easy. You can pin notes and archive notes. There are other features but no password lock on the notes. I like it but it's missing that important feature, for me.

Notion: This app makes you login with Google or Apple which I don't like. You can choose a collaborative experience or just for yourself. You can download Notion for Windows, and sync, too. It has a task list. The interface overall is a little clunky. I couldn't figure out rich text editing. Doesn't seem to be available, correct me if I am wrong. I like this app but it's either missing some important features or it's hard to find them. I couldn't find a password lock either.

Standard Notes: Pretty standard. I mean, a very, very basic notes app. Not feature-rich. You can pin note but that's about it. I wasn't impressed. 

D Notes: A good alternative if you like the Google Keep aesthetic. It has the most features that I like and need. Categories/tags, pin to notifications, favorite notes, add files, lock private notes with a pin. But there's no way to format the text. You CAN change the height but no rich text editing right now. That is really the only feature I find to be missing from D Notes. I don't need syncing to my computer but it would be a nice feature to have.

 

Nimbus Note:  You can sync across devices and it has nice widgets. You can embed video and photos, as well as pdf files. I didn't see how to edit text like bold or italicize though. Looks like there are extra features in the paid version. I was not as impressed at this app like I thought I would be.

Simpan: A good looking app. I've used it long ago, as my go-to notes app. It has password lock, as well as you can save your passwords securely which is neat. It can do notifications and backup your data. The UX is easy to use and understand. 

Bublup: Now this app isn't specifically for notes but it has note-taking abilities, as well as many other things. You can save things from the internet, recipes, whatever you need.  It's like a bulletin board or Pinterest type of thing. I enjoy using this app for many things, not just notes or important things to save, such as screenshots. 

The winner/personal favorite out of all of these apps was D Notes, with Bundled notes a close 2nd. Check these out if you need a good notes app.

How Hard is it To Do?

 It's very hard to do. That is - find a To-Do Task app that has all the features I want and need. I have scoured the Google Playstore looking for the right app. The features I need are: Ability to put both habits and tasks, have a pomodoro timer, notifications in my notification panel AND pop up with a sound, and most importantly, ability to snooze the item for any length I want or need.

I am currently giving Tick Tick a chance, as well as Microsoft's To Do, as well as Loop Habit Tracker and HabitNow. 

Habit now seems the best but it is extremely limited unless you pay for it which is only $5.99 and I earn google rewards for the playstore so that one might be do-able. But Tick Tick seems promising. I like the simplicity of Microsoft though, so time will tell.

Tick Tick

Loop Habit Tracker

Microsoft ToDo

Habit Now

I am going to give an update when I decide which one is going to work best for me.

UPDATE: 1/19

I chose Tick Tick. It pops up with a reminder at the bottom of my screen at the time I planned for, and I can complete the task, snooze it, or dismiss it. I can snooze for a custom time or pre-determined times that it comes up with. The pomodoro timer was cool, except that it made my watch buzz every single second as the time counted down, so I had to fix that. 

The others just weren't as feature rich without having to pay (Except for Microsoft's To Do app) . So the winner is Tick Tick. 

You can even sync it cross-platform if that is something that you need. And no I don't get paid to do app reviews. I simply enjoy doing them. 

From The Archives: Goa Trance Makes You Dance

 I wrote this on my previous blog, but it was a good one so I wanted to share it here.

Feb 3, 2020

I’ve been listening this week, and last week really, to a lot of Goa Trance. It hit me today: No one knows about it in the mainstream music world. So here is some enlightenment.

Here is what I know off the top of my head about Goa trance.

In the 1980’s, acid music was starting to become very popular. That was a style characterized by strong Tb-303 synth basslines originating in England. A lot of people who enjoyed that style either went on holiday in Goa, India, or they moved there completely. A lot of them were hippies, like Goa Gil, who was one of the very first DJ’s of the goa trance style of electronic trance music.

A lot of small parties formed on the beaches during the early 1990’s, and by 1992 electronic music had become a thing. I think they played music on casette or DAT, or something like that, first, because they didn’t have turn tables. But they would chop & splice acid house/trance and make it into something more psychedelic. And there you have the birth of goa trance.

Acts would soon spring up from all over the world by the mid to late 1990’s. Some of them were Astral Projection, Koxbox, Etnica, Pleiadians (who were also Etnica), Man With No Name, and Prana, to name a few. Goa trance is mostly characterized by rolling arpeggiated basslines and often times with a sort of ‘indian’ or ‘middle eastern’ melody. At least it was back in the old days, now the ‘neo goa’ has been made with modern instruments/software, so the style has changed a little bit. It still rolls heav on the acid sounds though, which is a definitive difference between Goa and regular psytrance. Sometimes Nitzhonot/Nitzhogoa can sound very similar to Goa trance, as well.

In 2001 I went to a goa party and had so much fun, so I went out and purchased a Various Artists album. The World of Goa vol. 2 and soon I purchased Vol 3 right after that. Instant fan.

My favorite track in this style of all time is Astral Projection’s “Kabbalah”, but it is also tied with Man With No Name’s “Teleport” (the original mix). These 2 tracks are amazing, and both came about in the mid 1990’s.

Apparently around this time in goa acid was free or next to free, so everyone was on acid which made the psychedelic sounds and visual accompaniments so much more visceral.

I wrote this blog entry merely to pimp my latest DJ mix, a goa trance delight.

https://www.mixcloud.com/aliennavelcord/goa-01/

If you like the mix, drop me a comment on mixcloud or on here and let me know what you like, or what I could do better for the next one!

 

An example of a Goa party from India circa 1992:

 

And an image of a new-skool style (neogoa) Goa party (psytrance party now):

If I missed anything please let me know, drop a comment about it.

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How I Became Addicted... to Electronic Music

 Before I was born, my mom met my dad at a lounge near the SeaTac airport. My dad was a DJ there, and after they got married, he started working as a DJ for a mobile music company where he'd be hired to do weddings and other events. So I was around music from the day I was born. My favorite band at age 3 was Three Dog Night. I also really enjoyed Olivia Newton John's "Let's Get Physical". 

I was given a tiny electric organ that I thought was really cool. I didn't ever learn to play piano or know the notes, I was ahem... 3 years old... (I guess some people learn at that age and then go on to be Mensa members)...but I enjoyed playing with the sounds.

 

Growing up as a young pre-teen I was into New Kids on The Block. Of course, who wasn't? And I enjoyed radio hits including pop and rock. As I got a little older i enjoyed rap and hip-hop until it all changed one day, in April of 1994. Kurt Cobain shot himself in the head and died. This was in Seattle, near where I lived. And then all the local radio stations started playing alternative rock, including the rap & r&b hip-hop station. (Radio stations were still a big thing in the 90s). I soon grew accustomed to listening to alternative, and less focused on hip-hop to the point I no longer enjoyed rap and hip-hop music. So when the hip-hop station started playing actual hip-hop again, I tuned into the alternative music station.

 

That is where I first heard EDM. They would play the Chemical Brothers and the Crystal Method, as well as many others, like Prodigy. I was very impressed with how this music could make sounds traditional instruments could not. It was calling me, and I was ready. This was circa 1995.

Cut to 2000. I have a computer and-dial up internet. Somehow I came across a copy of Sonic Foundry's Acid Pro software. I found loops on the internet or made them myself, and would stick 'em all together to create my own music. When this felt like it was going to be something more than just playing around, I got a copy of FL Studio, back then it was called Fruity Loops. I made my own sounds and then would piece them together in Acid.

My first track was something called "Foreign Moon" and I still have a recording of it somewhere to this day. My last track I ever made was 1 month ago, called "Project999". My styles have changed over the years so I no longer use the "Redgloam" moniker, instead opted for a much more jovial artist name of ManiK Fox. 

https://soundcloud.com/manikfox

 

And that is pretty much my journey. I went to raves and parties a lot in the early 00's as well, which gave me the appreciation for multiple styles of electronic such as Drum & Bass, Techno, House, and Trance.

 

Then I got into psychedelic trance, or Psytrance for short. My favorite music has always been chillout though, and when I discovered Psychill (sometimes called Psybient) I fell in love. It has all the elements I like. I enjoy a good beat, either a hip hop beat or something that just punches hard, and twisted psychedelic sounds or soothing ambient tones. It all is so good and I love it. 

Feel free to have a listen to my ManiK Fox stuff and drop a comment here or on SoundCloud to tell me what you think.

Don't Listen To Him, He's Lying.

 I had a random memory I wanted to share. It all began one winter, I think 2013, when my mate and I decided to check out snowboarding lessons at Mt. Spokane. The first time we went, we rented the gear but after that we purchased our own helmets, gloves, jackets, etc. And looked mighty fine. Our classes consisted of 'training' how to get on the snowboard, which foot is your lead foot, how to ride the chair, etc. But then they would turn us loose after the class.

That's where the fun begins. It was the 2nd class I believe, that we had done, and we would go up the mountain (the bunny hill) and fall on our butts. My mate had snowboarded before so she caught on prett quick. I however, was really struggling. 

At one point, suddenly I fell while halfway down the mountain, and twisted my neck in a painful way. I needed to ice it. I could've just used the snow, come to think of it, instead of walking to the emergency hut down at the bottom of the hill to ask for an ice pack. When they heard "hurt my neck" they sounded the fucking alarm.

 

They said they couldn't let me leave without the paramedics taking a look at me. I told them I was fine, I just needed ice and they said sorry, this is protocol when someone injures their neck. So we waited for the paramedics who immediately tried to say I had to go to the hospital. My neck didn't hurt that bad. It was maybe a 4 on the pain scale. Nothing serious. But they kept trying to convince me I had to go to the hospital. My mate kept telling me we are NOT going to the hospital no matter what. You are fine, and it's too expensive.

At some point though, they made her wait elsewhere while the paramedics looked at my neck, and then one of them tells me they talked to my mate and she had finally said yes, she'd follow me behind the ambulance.

When I heard that I thought, oh, she thinks I should go now, well ok if SHE says so. (He had told a bold faced lie). I get strapped in to this neck brace thing on a gurney and put into the back of the ambulance. We drove off, the hospital being about a 40 minute drive. There was a little screw that was put behind the back of my head to secure me so I wouldn't move, and every time we went over a bump or one of Spokane's many potholes my head would slam into that screw. It was painful. THAT is what hurt me the most.

So finally at the hospital they take X-Rays and everything is fine, the doctor just says I have Spondylosis, which is what I had already self-diagnosed myself with months earlier. He recommended ice and heat and tylenol. Jesus H.

So even after insurance, that bill came and it was upwards of $2000. I was so dismayed, and my mate was FURIOUS with me for believing the lie that the EMT told me about going to the hospital.

We finally paid it off years later, but still to this day I am angry with myself for having listened to the lies of someone that was not in my situation (broke/poor) and didn't heed the advice of the person that knew me best. I guess I was naive. 

Long story short, if you feel fine, don't let an EMT tell you that your significant other says you need to go to the hospital. Chances are, she never fucking said that.

Psybass in Your Face

 

A new obsession of mine in the music world is Psybass. It is a cross between psychedelic chillout and bass music. It layers funky, psychedelic sounds with some fresh bass elements that bring a sort of "foresty" vibe. Like you're being playful in a forest or something. You know what I mean.

My favorite track is by Symbolico:

The simple use of a vocal track cut and then repeated "I'm Free" is great.

Another favorite of mine is Cosmic Touch (I can't find the exact track I like on YouTube so here's an EP that is good):

https://cosmictouch.bandcamp.com/

If you enjoyed this sampling of good Psybass music check out the new releases at http://psybient.org. 

Such a Pessimist

 Ok. So I am taking Google Certificate courses in UX Design. I am on Course 6 out of 7. It requires me to install Adobe XD on this computer and... it doesn't look like that's happening. The computer I am running has 2G of RAM and a 320G hard drive. That is not enough, apparently, to run the program. I can't even get it installed. 

So I rebooted the computer which took 10 minutes or so, and then it took another 10 for it to stop doing whatever it does at startup, so that I could actually open programs. I started the installer again and tried to open Firefox to write while the installer downloaded the files it needed.

Firefox was updating, which took another 5 minutes, and then it wouldn't open, so I had to troubleshoot that and figure out what was wrong, finally got that situated.

I'm tired of this shitty little computer that I got as a present in 2018 as a temporary replacement for an actual laptop (this is an 11.6 inch tiny ass thing), but so far I have been unable to procure a new laptop.

My mate just got a new one because both of the ones that she had crashed on her, then she had nothing. We wanted to get her a good one that was durable and tough and would not crash so easily (Might have had something to do with the hard drive, I bet the ones that crashed didn't have SSD). So she has a really good one that is working out great. But unfortunately I might have to borrow hers or something to use Adobe XD, I am not sure how to get it working on this piece of shit.

I asked for a new laptop for CHristmas but was told we had to save money. So then I asked for a new one for my birthday in June, but now that looks like it won't happen because our rent is increasing in February. 

Might have to cancel my plans for a UX Design career. I don't see any way around this.

EDIT: I don't want to jinx it, but it might just yet install! I tried one more time, time #5 appears to be maybe working!

EDIT 2: It worked! I got it installed after about an hour of trying to figure out what was happening.

Can't Stop

 So when I was a two year old, I was a perfect (well, almost) little angel. This should've eluded to anyone paying attention that my teenage years would be full of mischief, and they were. I was angsty and hormonal, and just trying to figure myself out, as all teenagers are, with the added pressure of being a  gay girl. So it was no wonder I got in a physical altercation in school, wrote a suicide poem that spawned psychological counseling, and had an unrelenting crush on a girl in my P.E. class. Sigh.

But what they don't tell you, is that years later, there's one sure way to tell if you'll have a mid-life crisis. And that is - did you go wild and crazy in your 20's? No? Then when you turn 40 you're going to have a wild ride.

I was wild in my 20's. A little too wild. I'm surprised I'm still alive. I went to raves and parties, did some substances, and was friends with all sorts of strange characters. Those strange characters all have wives/husbands and a house now. We did our craziness in our 20's.

My mate, on the other hand, was busy in her 20's working and studying at a big University. She had no time for parties, raves, and sketchy people. 

So that means... when she turns 40 in just 2 short years, I am in for a wild ride.

This is a calculated fact. 

 

I have no idea how it will manifest itself. Will she buy a red mustang and try and race kids at the stop light? Doubtful. Will she have an affair behind my back? Doubtful. Will she impulsively spend all the money? Again, doubtful. I really don't know how this is going to play out, but I'm sure it will. 

Hopefully I'm wrong and she won't go berserk. I mean, she is a very VERY level-headed individual. She is the most responsible and reasonable person that I know. I really can't imagine any shenanigans with her. Not like the kind I'm always pulling as a result of my bipolar. So we will see.

I'm going to add a tangential side note here: I have been in the throws of a manic episode these days, and I notice that time is acting weird again for me. I typed this whole thing in a matter or 1-2 minutes somehow. I have been taking an upped dosage of my Abilify medication, hopefully it will kick in quite soon. It is fairly small, I'm not having symptoms of psychosis or anything like that. Hypomania, they call it. Except I have type 1, so it's really just my medications doing their job.

Side note ended.

 

I'm really not worried that my mate is going to have a mid-life crisis. If she does, we will weather the storm together. That's why we're together. We balance each other out.  And that's one of the best things of being her romantic partner.

Belly Full

 Once again, not sure what I am writing about today. Everyday we do these 10-minute intervals that we call "Creative Intervals". We start reading a book for 10 minutes. Then we draw & color for 10 minutes, then we write for 10 minutes. I'm reading a spy book by Rob Sinclair. I drew and am in the process of coloring a fire breathing dragon. But writing? You'd think I'd have a lot to say! I'm just hungry and we already ate a huge meal at 9am so no more food for me apparently. It is literally all I can fucking think about.

How am I going to make it this week just eating nothing but soup?! I really don't know. We have this motivatonal poster we made, up in the kitchen to remind us of all the things we can do to meet our weight and inches goals. Today we weighed ourselves. I was 146 today. That is almost 150!! Holy shit.

 

So I really really need to go onto the soup, without the half sandwich. I really need to do all the running, weight lifting, Piyo, etc. 

It's just so damn hard when you're as hungry as I am. I'm hangry, too. Not just hungry. But I get really irritable. l honestly don't mean nor want to be irritable. I just seem to get that way when I feel like I am starving.

I'm going to have to live with it though - there's nothing I can do about it.

Maybe I'll just drink enough water all at once that my stomach feels ill. Then I won't want to eat right?

 

COVID19

 So, I had been meaning, for about a year now, to write about my experience living in a world of COVID19. My experience, I realize, is quite different from most people's, so I wanted to share. 

It all started as you know, in around December of 2019. I remember hearing about this new illness on the news, but no one took it seriously at that time because it was originating in China. It wasn't until after the new year it began to be spread here in the United States. We went to a festival to see Dave Matthews Band play a concert on February 29, 2020 and I remember feeling apprehensive because supposedly the virus had reached Arizona where we are. But there were no masks or anything at that time.

On March 15 2020, my workplace said we were going to start an "A" week and "B" week of working from home. Now, our CEO was this old fuddy duddy who really didn't want anyone working from home if he could help it, so we knew it was about to get real bad. Me and my mate were on "A" week, but as soon as we got home and got the computers running with the work software, we were told EVERYONE would be working from home until further notice. *We've been working from home since then.

 

That is when my mate and I settled in for the long run. There really wasn't much of a "quarantine" in Arizona, our douche bag Governor only cared about the economy so it lasted 2 weeks officially, before he opened everything up again in April. 

Around March was when you couldn't find toilet paper. People were fear-hording items like TP, paper towels, and hand sanitizer. We luckily had about a 2 or 3 months supply of TP otherwise we would've had to use leaves from the Orange tree outside. 

It was at that time that we began utilizing delivery as our only option for food and items. Doordash, Grubhub, Uber Eats, Postmates. WalMart delivered, so does Safeway and Fry's (Smiths/Ralphs/FredMeyer for all you elsewhere living people). So that is what we did. And still do!

Then as time went on and masks became a thing, you had idiot people refusing to wear them, or arguing against them. These are called "COVIDIOTS" - an apt name. Mostly republicans and conservatives, who listen to incorrect information, were these anti maskers. Wait till I talk about vaccines!

 

So we literally went to no single place other than the vet, where we set the carrier on the hood of the car whilst some underpaid "essential worker" came and got the cat, did their thing, and then brought him back to the hood of the car. We had no contact with people. We would take walks around the neighborhood, but that is it. We would drive the car around the block and air up the tires to make sure it would still run properly. 

In April and May of 2022 we finally could get our vaccines. Later, in October, we got our boosters. In June there was FINALLY a lull in the virus, so me and my mate met up with a co-worker friend of ours at a bar for some drinks, maskless. It felt super weird - and then just a few days later, the Delta variant emerged. Goddamit. So back in our house we went. And then the Omicron variant hit later in the year making it even more important that we stay in. 

 

My mate says 2021 was worse than 2020 because at least in 20, everyone was stuck inside, the world stopped. But then in 21, the world went on like normal again, but we didn't. We stayed in. I don't care if we're vaccinated. I don't want to get COVID because mostly due to long-haulers. They just don't know what will happen to your body in the long run. You could get the 'VID and just have a headache for a couple days, but then 4 months later you've got kidney disease or diabetes. Yikes, no thank you.

So inside, we still are. Inside as in, inside our own world. We still take walks and such. But delivery is the way to go. We do make a few excursions every so often to the Total Wine & More store for beverages, fully masked of course. But that's like once every 3 months or so to stock up.

I don't mind it one bit. I thought I'd have a serious problem with it. Being a Gemini, and all. But I am an introvert. Being around people makes me tired! I love staying at home all the time. All the extroverts in the world were like "wahhhh I am sad" when they were stuck working from home, indoors, staying away from places. Me and my mate, introverts, were like YAY WE CAN ALL STAY HOME!!!

And, that is kind of where we are now. Home. Staying. With a few excursions once in a long while. I wouldn't travel on a plane (Mostly because I'm scared I'll be next to the passenger that refuses to wear a mask and beats up the flight attendant). I wouldn't go anywhere without a mask. I refuse to go to any restaurant or bar or anywhere that makes you put on a mask but then you have to lower it to drink or take a bite of food - I mean, how stupid is that? That's just optics.

And this shit isn't going to be over anytime soon. Only 70% of the country is fully vaccinated because people are stupid. There is soooo much misinformation, mostly spread by right-leaning conservative douche bags, about the vaccines. So until people can get their shit together, it's going to be another year or two before COVID dies out.

Well, that's my story. Let me know if I forgot anything. Ha.

If I did, I'll edit and add more later.

Writing

 I am supposed to write but I really don't have anything to say currently.

I would like to be mastering my songs and then getting them uploaded to Spotify. That would be a much more productive use of my time, I'd think... but I am supposed to write.

So um. Let's see. I hurt my back on New Year's day and it's gotten better, it had been excruciating and I had to ice it and take lots of Tylenol. It was a 6 on the pain scale. Real ouchy. Now it is a 3. So much better, I can ignore it mostly.

We were supposed to be having nothing but soup starting yesterday but we had low blood sugar issues, so we ended up today having a half sandwhich with our soup. l think it might be working better that way.

I really wish the coffee table, where my laptop is, was closer to the couch. My back is starting to ache just by leaning forward to where I am almost having my chest touch my knees. I am getting old! 42 doesn't sound old to me but when I think about how my body is not where it was 12 years ago... I am old.

Speaking of old, I still want to go to Churchill MB when I turn 50. I saw on a show called "I was Prey" though that a girl almost got et by a polar bear. I'll have to be super careful. I love polar bears but not enough to want to be their meal.

My computer is freaking out .. dont know what is wrong. I am not doing it, but it is doing stuff on it's own.. wtf! I gotta go fix this...

Day by Day

One of the things I decided to do this year was start a video diary. Nothing fancy, nothing major, just a one minute-ish video of how I am doing. How life is going, how I am feeling, etc.  I started it on the 1st. It's going well so far. I just need to set a reminder every day to do it.

Tomorrow is back-to-work for us. We had an excellent 4-day mini vacay from work but tomorrow is back to real life again. It's also the day that we start our Soup Extravaganza. See, we're starting with soup for 4 days, then going into intermittent fasting again, which really worked for both of us with losing weight and such.

I hurt my back on New Years day. I was using bad form, apparently, when doing chest exercises with weights and felt excruciating pain. I can losen it up with running and then it feels better but after a time it goes back to hurting again. I've been taking tylenol and icing it. Not sure what else to do. My mate's been having me do bridges on the floor to try and help, but it hurts and I can't lift my hips more than 1-2 inches off the floor.

I'm going to try this year also to get my music up on Spotify, so we will see about that. I have to research mastering and such. EDIT: I just found that Soundcloud will master for you, for a fee. That may be the way to go, if I can also then take the finished product OFF of Soundcloud. I will have to find out.

I think that is all I really needed to say today. Hope everyone had happy holidays. Catch ya later!