I muddled through the day yesterday with my aching lower back. I still went to the gym although there were certain things I just could not do. Of course my IT band issue still remains so the combination of these two things had me pretty miserable.

When I got home I got the idea to use my heating pad that also has a vibration function. I laid on it for at least a half hour with both the heat and vibration on the max setting. When I tried to get up afterwards it was awful. Instead of feeling better my back felt worse, way worse. I had to struggle mightily to just get myself upright to walk. The pain turned to anger. I was angry at my body for failing me.

A little later I got the idea to try my oversized ice bag on the area. It seemed like that was more effective than the heat/vibration. Maybe it’s just because everything felt numb afterward. I took three Advil before bed as well as a Unisom, hoping I would wake up magically feeling better.

I am marginally better and am at least functioning at a base level. I obviously am not going to attempt a yoga class today although I may still slowly walk over to the gym and find things I can do that don’t aggravate my lower back. I currently have four or five parts of my body that are consistently problematic right now. As always I will keep hammering away until I I can hammer no more.

Yesterday was yoga day which has been one of the ways I have been trying to work on my IT band as it incorporates both stretching and strengthening of the hip/ass muscles that are involved. However yesterday was the first time I figured out a way to also use yoga to hurt myself. I’m not quite sure what movement did it but I walked out of class with some bad pain in my lower back that steadily worsened during the afternoon.

I was going to the movies last night. When I got home to shower and change it was an absolute shit show. Removing and putting on socks was on the verge of mission impossible status. I popped three Advil and headed to the movies anyway.

I picked a really bad time to attend my first ever movie in 4DX. It is basically like watching a movie while sitting in one of those theme park simulator rides. Not only do the seats move, very violently at times, there is also water sprayed on you, air blown on you and other sensory triggers. The activity is supposed to mimic the action on the screen I guess. The film is also displayed in 3D so glasses are required. It took very little time until I found the experience annoying.

To be fair the fact that my back already hurt going in did not help but generally speaking I did not feel like getting thrown around did anything to add to my enjoyment of the movie. If anything it detracted from it. I found myself almost waiting for action sequences to end so the endless rocking and shaking of the seats would calm down. I mean it’s good that I experienced 4DX so that I now know I have no need to do so ever again I guess.

The movie itself was weird. As I saw in reviews it was as much a movie that continued the story line of the last Incredible Hulk movie as much as it being about Captain America. When Marvel decided to hand the Captain America role over to Falcon I was not a big fan. I still am not one. Despite never being injected with super soldier serum he seems at times to have similar attributes which just doesn’t make sense. They may as well give him the shot. I’d give the movie a B overall which is pretty low on my Marvel scale. I could have watched it at home and been just as happy while not being shaken like a bad martini.

I had a good but seemingly fast four day weekend fly by. On Saturday morning I played pickleball with Sue. I had some discomfort in my leg/hip/knee but we still managed to win every game but one. I took three advil prior to playing to help. Well evidently they started to wear off around the time I took the truck to go get groceries. I had this consistent pain in the hip that I just could not get to subside. I spent the entire drive to and from the grocery store shifting my position while driving to try to escape the discomfort. It was very annoying. Later in the day it relaxed but man, I am so tired of it.

Over the weekend I consumed the final 5 episodes of Cobra Kai a show I have always been fond of. I thought they did a real nice job of bringing the story full circle. If you ever enjoyed the Karate Kid movies you really should check the series out.

Over the weekend my YouTube channel hit a milestone reaching 15,000 subscribers. It has been a goal of mine for a little while. I even did a couple channel promotion campaigns with Google to help get me there a little faster. In the big picture a 15K YouTube channel is small potatoes compared to big creators however to me it’s a nice little feather in the hat. It’s a weird feeling knowing that there have been close to 8 million views on my channel in total. 20K, here we come.

With no football to watch anymore I had some extra time to get out and ride. I took my Veteran Patton out for a ride Sunday afternoon and enjoyed it. This was only my third riding video of 2025. Once my F22 Pro arrives I expect that pace to accelerate.

Monday morning I got over to the gym in the government center. I wanted to make sure I got my chest day in. In addition I got on the cross trainer and did a solid 20 minutes of cardio keeping my heart rate between 140-150 BPM the entire time. This is the one aspect of my fitness regime that has been lost in the shuffle.

For a long time I was doing significant cardio via running. I then switched to the road bike once a week. Since I moved regular cardio was dropped and sort of replaced with all of the pickleball and volleyball I was playing. Since I am not playing volleyball and my pickleball court time has been cut in half I feel that I need to put more focus on keeping my cardio fitness at at least a decent level. It may require me to add some after work hours sessions at the gym to do so.

Yesterday was also Elsa’s 10th birthday, a big one of course. It was celebrated with balloons, a hat, presents and a birthday cupcake. Elsa was a good sport about it all. It’s very difficult for me to wrap my head around that fact that the little scared dog that was adopted from under a table at Rural King is now 10 years old. The speed of the passing of time nowadays is sort of terrifying. Anyway Elsa seemed to enjoy the attention.

It was a good four days.

Sometimes I have a hard time coming up with something to put into words. Maybe it’s the full moon that crested yesterday, maybe it’s a lack of motivation, or maybe it’s something else. I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing. If anything I feel like my head is in a calmer and more peaceful place than it has been for quite awhile. I’m hoping that is a trend that continues.

I am taking tomorrow off and we also have Monday off for President’s Day so I have a nice four days ahead of me. Elsa’s 10th birthday is on Monday which seems hard to believe. It feels like the day she was adopted as a scared little 9 month old that was hiding under a table in Rural King was not so long ago.

Last night after work I had to run to the local gun dealer that I had the AR pistol sent to. I had to once again fill out the clearance form and be submitted for yet another background check, something that has to be done for each gun purchase, even if you bought one recently. Since I do not have a concealed weapons permit I also have to again wait three business days to pick it up so I guess it will be a Valentines Day present for myself. I also bought myself ammo for both the 1911 and the AR Pistol to be used at the range. Ammo is not cheap, to get 200 rounds for each weapon cost well over $200.

After completing my mini-workout and eating dinner I ran over to the local Walmart to pick up a few things. This Walmart is old and has never been updated. When I walked in the door I saw two massive lines of people waiting to check out. I’m talking at least 20 people in each line. For some reason they only had two registers out of a dozen open.

As I was walking down one aisle I stopped in my tracks when I saw what looked like urine at the base of a pole. Did someone really take a piss in the store?? The likely answer is yes. When it was my time to checkout they finally figured out that they needed to open an additional register.

Even with doing so the line was long and slow. I found myself getting very annoyed with the cashier that seemed to move at a snails pace. Hell I even felt annoyed with the people in front of me that had more items than they should have in the “speedy” check out line. It was at that moment that I realized that the full moon was almost here.

My mood the last couple days has been on the dark side. My patience has been limited and my ability to interact with other human beings is strained. Some months I cruise right past this cycle but most of them there is a discernible change in my demeanor and outlook. Right now is one of those times.

When I got home I didn’t feel like doing anything else so I just binged a couple more episodes of Battlestar Galactica. I was a huge fan of the series back in the day. Enough time has passed that I don’t recall much detail of the series so it’s almost like seeing it all over again. I have been enjoying it a lot. It’s a good way to set my brain on cruise control until calmer water is under me.

Saturday morning I got up early to play pickleball with Sue, the first time we had done that in nearly two months. Sue had a foot injury while I was staying away because of my persistent IT band issues. We played a couple hours and had mixed results as I would expect. It was fun regardless. This was the longest I played in awhile and I could feel it in my right leg afterward.

I made a quick video describing the process to make one of the cool multicolor prints on the A1, just because.

Saturday night I did a two and a half hour live stream, my 109th, where I talked about the new wheel I purchased, a Kingsong F22. As always the stream had a lot of side topics. I was tired from a poor night of sleep on Friday so I didn’t go as long as I sometimes can.

The weekend itself was on the slow side. I wasn’t feeling overly energetic or motivated for whatever reason. Thank goodness the Eagles did not suffer from any lethargy.

Ever since the team utterly collapsed at the end of last season I became very skeptical and cautious about their ability to win it all again. This entire season I felt like I was waiting for the other shoe to drop, waiting for the collapse to ensue, it never did. Instead they saved their best performance of the year for the Super Bowl, obliterating the Chiefs. Even when the Eagles were up four scores in the 3rd quarter I still did not feel secure in the idea that they would win. Once the score reached 40-6 I finally felt the outcome was secured.

The defense was ruthless, pressuring Mahomes the entire game, sacking him more times than he ever was previously. Despite KC focusing on shutting down Barkley the Eagles still found ways to move the ball, relying on Hurts arm and legs more than normal. Even Jake Elliot shook off the inconsistency that he suffered from this year and hit a bunch of field goals as well as extra points without a miss.

It was an unexpected yet amazing win that I was happy to be able to witness. It’s hard to believe that seven years have passed since their last win. When I thought back to what my reality was at that time it was so, so different.

What a game……

Thanks to the short video I posted regarding my issues with mounting filament refills I now know what the core issue was. The filament spools have a small plastic notch in it. The cardboard center of refills of filament have a notch in them as well, but only on one side. I did not realize this so I suspect I was trying to jam the refill onto the no notch side, causing it to not seat fully. Yes I will need to do another video on this telling on myself. I rarely have an issue with admitting I did something stupid or made a mistake as is the case here, once again.

Last night I got some more WoW time in after making dinner. This time I was on my shaman who was just frying things left and right. I gained 8 levels in the roughly 90 minutes I played. I had not streamed leveling my mage on Twitch but I did fire up the stream once again last night. I had a lot of people watching me play last night, I believe the count was two, lol.

This upcoming weekend will likely include a Saturday night live stream but the main focus of course will be the Super Bowl Sunday evening. The Eagles will be trying to dethrone the Chiefs for the second time in three years. I have not felt confident this entire season with the Eagles yet here they are. I will be glued to the tv hoping for what seems like an improbable outcome.

It’s hard to believe we have already clocked over a month into 2025 already. I came into this year with a renewed desire to put more effort into doing things that make me happy and I think an important part of that is a shift in my attitude. I’m trying to embrace more of a give what you get approach in my life.

If you are giving of yourself at a high level and not getting similar back in your direction it creates a constant leak that drains you until little remains. The path to happiness for me is existing in a dynamic where people I care about want to give to and receive from me willingly, happily and without reservation. That is my sweet spot that I am targeting. Go Eagles!

So I have had my A1 busy cranking out cool multi-color prints. I have been giving these away, some of which at work. Unfortunately what happens is one person gets a print, others see it and then they all want one as well. Then we have people that not only want one but they want me to make it a certain size or color, as if they were paying me to do so which is somewhat irritating. Those people are given low priority. With one printer and each print taking between 10 and 20 hours it is not a fast production line. There is something fun about waking up each morning to a new creation on the build plate for sure. Yes I am certain a second Bambu printer will be coming sometime during this calendar year.

Yesterday I did a short video outlining yet another mistake I made trying to install a filament refill on a spool. The mistake wound up making the refill basically worthless which was frustrating as you can imagine.

So I have been an Amazon Prime member forever. The free fast shipping on many products was worth it to me, even after several iterations of price increases. Another benefit is Amazon Prime Video, their streaming service which was included in your membership. Well sometime last year Amazon changed things up and started putting forced ads into their streaming content which I found annoying. You could still get an ad free experience IF you paid an additional monthly fee. It was a minuscule $3 a month but the principal of it bothered me.

Over the weekend I was watching some content on Prime and an ad popped up. I guess I was in some sort of mood and I quickly hit the button to sign me up for ad free. It took 6 months or more but they finally broke me down. I have been chain watching Battlestar Galactica lately and it has been nice being able to do so without two or three ad breaks per episode.

I have my second yoga session of the week today. I played pickleball yesterday at lunch and did so without feeling significant consequences afterward. I definitely am less aggressive when playing now. Balls that I would charge forward for in the past in the hope I could make the play I just let go now. It’s not worth it to go all out if I am not feeling 100%.

Last night after work I was sitting in my office eating my dinner when I heard the noise, the noise of Elsa preparing to throw up. By the time I moved she had already begun the process, dumping a pile in front of the 3d printers. I tried to move her out onto the hard surface in the main living area which I did but all that accomplished was making the disaster area larger. I was not happy and Elsa knew it.

She will do this occasionally but I think it’s because of how she eats. She basically does not chew her food, at all. I was cleaning up food that looked like it came right out of the can, completely intact. In addition I think she drank a ton of water after eating which filled her stomach to the point where it revolted. It took me over a half hour to clean it all up. Of course it’s hard for me to stay mad at her when she is staring at me with the most pathetic expression you can imagine. It did reinforce my desire to have all of the remaining carpeted areas of the house redone with vinyl plank flooring to make these scenarios less impactful and stain producing.

I completed leveling all of the characters on my first account to level 70 in WoW last night, with the druid being my last class to get there. I immediately logged into my second account to complete the process with my remaining three characters, a mage, shaman and another druid, yes ANOTHER druid. I have a weird affinity to that druid that I really should not have all things considered.

Early in the relationship Cindy was trying to do some gaming with me, including World of Warcraft and Overwatch. This druid was actually her character. The game was too confusing for her so she did not play it long but I took over that character and have maintained it ever since, even after Cindy and I dissolved. I play this druid as a different class than my other one so it feels totally different. If I utilized the same cut and burn strategy I have used with most anything Cindy related I would just delete the character and erase that memory yet for some reason I resist doing so in this situation. It’s odd. Anyway, by the end of the week I may have these three characters to 70 meaning I can start the next expansion for real, after that.

I printed a new articulated model off of STLFlix last night. It is very similar to the manta model except this one is a starfish. It’s a quicker print but still came out great with no flaws to be seen anywhere.

Over the weekend which I described as pretty uneventful I was thinking about just how different my state of mind and reality is. I thought back to what my existence was like during my time living on a house on nearly three acres of land with seemingly endless needs/projects. To stay on top of it all required a certain type of momentum to my energy and motivation. There was no wiggle room if I needed to do something, if it had to be done I would do it only to move on to the next must do. I never gave myself much time to even think about it, I was too busy doing.

Being outside of that world now for almost two years has of course given me different perspective. I now have the ability to pick and choose what I feel like doing to a ridiculous degree compared to how my life was for well over two decades. However this change also has reduced that momentum, that power to just keep plowing forward where the scene out the window is just one constant blur of getting things done. So what is the point of all of this? I guess that non-stop momentum or lack there of are both situations that can become problematic in their own way. Too much and you never get to slow down to really appreciate what you have, too little and you risk stagnating, not pushing yourself enough to continue growth and progress. As is the case with so many things in life, finding that sweet balance between the two is the secret sauce.

I printed a lot of articulated mantas over the weekend. Some were oversized, some were smaller but they all came out really well. The A1 is pretty amazing in what it can create. I am trying to print one of my EUC stands on it right now as a test even though it probably makes more sense to keep printing those on my Prusa’s. I would rather use the A1 to make really cool things.

I didn’t to play pickleball because of some tournament they were running at the park. I didn’t get out to ride a wheel. I didn’t live stream. I didn’t make any videos. Sure I played some WoW, went to the Miromar Outlets and made a trip to Home Depot but it was one of those weekends where getting the required chores done was the most work I felt like doing. My motivation reserves were definitely low.