Last night I installed a memory upgrade in my PC. Despite having 32GB I was running into issues when doing video editing and playing WoW where I was pushing the limit. I bought 64GB to upgrade it. If you know anything about tech you know that RAM prices have been going through the roof because of the insatiable demand created by AI infrastructure. The two DIMM modules cost $500, geezus. They installed cleanly and within 5 minutes I had doubled my available RAM which should alleviate my issue. I hope to offset the memory upgrade cost by selling the 32GB of memory I pulled on FB Marketplace.

I believe I mentioned in the blog that I threw a $50 reservation on the new Slate electric truck awhile back. When it was announced the EV tax credit was still in place so it was advertised as being a sub 20K new vehicle which is unheard of nowadays. Since then the Trump administration has killed that incentive the starting price which was just announced has bumped up to $25K, still about half the average price for a new car nowadays.

Their approach is unique where every single truck that comes off the assembly line is identical, initially. If you want a different color they offer wraps for a reasonable number. However the customization options after that are crazy. You can tweak this truck a million ways including changing it into a SUV by adding seats and an enclosed top. It has manual windows and a bare bones interior that supposedly has enough head and leg room for someone my size. It has about 200 miles of range and ample power. Initial driving reports have been positive.

They opened up preliminary orders yesterday which requires you to commit another $250. Doing this supposedly gets you in line to get your Slate somewhere between January and March 2027. You aren’t actually picking out any options at this point, just committing more seriously to purchasing one as this deposit is non-refundable. I am not ready to commit yet.

When I laid down the initial $50 it was the idea that potentially the Slate could replace my Tacoma which is now 10 years old. Of course it is much smaller and would not have nearly the capabilities of the Toyota. However at this point I think I will continue rolling forward with my two vehicle household. Although I don’t see myself ever buying another gas powered vehicle there is a part of me that likes having my bases covered having the Tacoma in the collection. If I got into a scenario where charging the Tesla was problem as in a wide scale and long lasting power outage after a hurricane an ICE vehicle would be more viable.

I also have hesitancy about jumping in with two feet with a brand new car company. Who knows if the Slate will launch without major issues. How do they get fixed if something breaks? I think I would rather other people serve as guinea pigs to see if the Slate is indeed a good vehicle longer term.

One of my co-workers just picked up a low mileage Chevy Silverado EV, trading in his Model Y to do it. You may recall that was another vehicle I was considering. In that scenario I would trade/sell both my Tesla and Tacoma to replace them with one vehicle which would save in registration and insurance costs. I got to ride in it. It’s very nice and huge with space for days. On the downside it is the LT model which is missing a few bells and whistles including no self driving capability. To get that you need the pricier RST model. If I got one it would need be the RST but it just makes no financial sense right now. As much as I dislike Elon nowadays I do love my Tesla.

I started off my three day weekend with a nearly three hour pickleball session in the high heat and humidity. I used my new paddle for the entire time and it felt good. Brian, my buddy that I played my first tournament with came to play the first four games with me. It was a good session, I have been slowly improving my fundamentals.

Saturday afternoon, despite feeling a bit wiped out from playing I got a few things done. The drain in my one sink in the master bathroom has been slow to drain for awhile. I have been unable to twist the drain stopper to remove it, making it hard to clean properly. I finally realized why when I took off the arm that controls opening and closing the stopper. You can’t twist it out, the rod goes through a hole in the stopper which makes it impossible to remove unless you remove this arm/rod. After removing it I was able to use a good dose of Drano and hot water to get things moving again. I am not sure if I ever have cleaned that drain since I moved into the house and the cabinets were redone. It was gross as you can imagine.

I also got around to installing the auxiliary seat for my V12S. This mostly 3D printed seat is pretty high. I was hoping high enough to allow me to ride seated. Installation had a few challenges along the way that I was able to overcome. It is a very well engineered design, I wish I had the 3D modeling skills this guy must have. After installation I took it out front and was very pleased to find I could now ride this wheel seated. The V12S has a sweet suspension so riding it while sitting down will be great.

Saturday night I went to go see Toy Story 5. I think I have seen all the prior films. As always it was entertaining and well done. I did not realize that the first Toy Story came out in 1996, that’s insane. The plot of this movie revolved around how kids have replaced toys and conventional play with endless time in front of screens, which is not a good thing. Kids today don’t know any other reality but for those of us that do, we realize just how handicapping it is to a kid’s development to allow them to exist primarily in a digital world where their self worth is manipulated by social media.

I am not sure how you put that genie back in the bottle. When I was a kid I did tons of conventional playing with my brother. We would use our imagination with toys, explore outside, ride bikes and play sports regularly. Ironically at that time video games were seen by some as having the same brain rotting capability of phones and digital devices today. I was a big video game player much to the dislike of my dad. Hell I remember at one point him being negative about just watching TV. I guess my point is each generation thinks the ones that came after them is deficient in some way. Even with that being the case I still have a hard time imagining the majority of the screen addicted kids of today becoming fully functional adults in the future. Oh, I give the movie a B+ by the way.

On Fathers Day Sunday I did something I haven’t done in forever, went to the beach in the middle of the day to hang out. My girlfriend and I have done early morning walks and sunset watching there but we never had a “beach day”. Now I would hardly call this a day as we were only there a couple hours but it was still nice. I kept under the umbrella and had my big sun hat on as well. We did go into the ocean a couple times which was nice and warm, no adjustment period was required. Those couple hours was enough to make the tops of my feet and exposed upper arms rosy red. I would like to work beach time more into the regular rotation. Sunday I also gave my dad a call to wish him happy Father’s Day. He caught me up in the latest and greatest in his neck of the woods.

My day off started with a gym session that I concluded with another 15 minutes on the rower. I need to keep working decent cardio into my routine. I got out on another ride during the day, this time on the V14. I need to do a couple long rides on the wheel, a range test and an extended swamp run. I have to figure out the time and motivation to get those done.

So since Elsa had her GI issues two weekends ago she has been in an unsettled state. Getting her to eat consistently has been a problem. The food I have been giving her she is turning her nose up at now. We have rotated a few different types of food to try to spark interest. Even the appetite stimulant we have been giving her every day or two has not had the same effect it has for the last 6 months.

Of course I am worried that her kidney issues are the root cause. I have been holding back on taking her back to the vet just because I know the potential rabbit hole that becomes. She ate pretty well last night and more this morning so I am holding out hope she can rebound on her own but it is a constant grey cloud hanging over my head. Her health also could impact the planned road trip next month. If she isn’t stable I can’t leave her with someone for nine days. I just want her to be “normal” again.

I did my first extended print on the new Creator 5 Pro last night. In total the job ran just under 10 hours. It went perfectly with prints that matched the quality of my other printers. I also got to finish up my unbox/first impressions video on the printer.

I stayed up watching the Mexico World Cup match last night with my girlfriend. They came away with a 1-0 win. Despite the low score there was a lot of entertaining play throughout. Prior to that we watched some of the Canada/Guana game. I never understood the whole yellow card red card thing. A yellow card is a warning, if you get a second one in the same match it becomes a red card. A red card is an ejection from both the game and the player is banned from playing the next game. I was shocked at how severe a red card penalty is.

So knowing this, Guana had not one but two red cards in their match. I thought hockey was tough with their penalties where a penalized player is forced to sit in a box for a couple minutes, requiring his team to play short handed. In soccer the team is required to play the rest of the game short handed if a player gets a red card, wow. So with two of them Guana was playing 9 players against 11 Canada players most of the game. As a result Canada destroyed them 6-0. I had thought a red card meant a player was ejected but he could be replaced like in American football. Instead it can mean your team is at a permanent disadvantage the rest of the game.

I am taking Monday off to give me some extra time to get some things done. I have to get some rides in on the new V14 as well as shooting content on both it and the new 3D printer. I also have a few maintenance things to get done around the house. Having an extra 24 hours in the weekend will make that easier.

The new printer was waiting for me at the front door last night. I spent a good portion of the evening unboxing, assembling, shooting video and doing my first test print. Assembly had one annoying snafu that I was able to work around using more brute force than was probably necessary. The printer has a large top cover, one of the features of the Pro model. In retrospect I really have no need for the cover.

Enclosing the build area allows you to print higher temperature filaments which I rarely/never do. If I would need to, both of my Bambu printers are fully enclosed and would be able to handle it. Because of the way this printer feeds filament in a manual way you need to remove the cover any time you are inserting or removing filament so it is a bit of a pain in the ass. The stand I built appears to be a good fit. There is plenty of room while remaining sturdy. The test benchy boat I printed turned out well too. I need to finish up my initial impressions video and then I will continue to dig into the pros and cons of the CP5 Pro.

Yesterday I got to play with my first new pickleball paddle I have bought in awhile, the Enhance Pickleball MPP Turbo. This $100 paddle surprised me, it felt really, good. So good in fact that it make become my primary paddle, nudging my Bread and Butter Loco out of that spot which costs double the amount.

Last night I played some WoW briefly, long enough for me to get my eighth character to level 90, the current maximum in the game. I rotated playing 4 characters in this block to maximumize my efficiency. I have three more to go on this account (I have two). I plan to use the same strategy.

After waiting nearly two months my new 3D printer is due to arrive today. It is about a month later than originally promised. The printer has had a whirlwind last 24 hours. In that timespan it has gone from Hong Kong to Taiwan to Anchorage, to Louisville and finally Fort Myers early this morning. I hope to get it up and running tonight. From what I have seen, set up on this printers is significantly easier than my other multi-toolhead printer, the Snapmaker U1.

My girlfriend is a soccer fan and loves the World Cup. I have never been into soccer. I never played it and always found it almost unwatchable as my brain was conditioned for American football. I have however been watching a decent amount of games with her since the World Cup started and it honestly hasn’t been that bad.

I think the low amount of scoring is what turned me off but when you watch the game a little more you appreciate the incredible athleticism and endurance these guys have. I saw the Argentina game last night where Messi scored all three goals. It was genuinely entertaining.

No I haven’t made much political commentary lately just because it is like screaming into the middle of deep space. Every single day there is something insane being said or done in the Whitehouse and despite “outrage” everywhere these things continue, unabated. I mean the Iran war circus with what sounds to be an absolute lose/lose “peace agreement”, the Lincoln reflecting pool mess, ripping down and erecting buildings without proper authorization, a UFC octagon on the White House lawn and the man trying to get his name and scowling visage on airports, entertainment centers and even US currency are all things that I would have envisioned as pure fiction 15 years ago. Unfortunately it is our own awful version of Idiocracy being acted out in front of our eyes.

Saturday morning I played rec play pickleball since I couldn’t find someone to play in the tournament with. I had another round of solid play, winning all 6 games while sweating my ass off. The heat index felt oppressive. I got chores done Saturday afternoon before we headed to the movies Saturday night.

It was my second trip to a theater in less than a week as I just saw Mandalorian last Tuesday. This time we saw Disclosure Day, a movie about when the existence of Aliens is finally fully released and confirmed. I heard both positive and negative things about the film. I would say my overall feeling was positive. The movie was a little slow in the beginning but got better as it went on IMO. I have no issue giving it a B+. I personally feel it is mathematically impossible for there not to be other forms of life in our massive universe.

I got out on my new Inmotion V14 Pro this weekend. The wheel feels very solid and well built. Without really trying I crossed 35MPH on it. The suspension is firmer than I would prefer but that is because the wheel was designed with an off-road first mindset which requires the suspension to not bottom out in big drops. I am looking forward to running the new wheel through a number of scenarios. It handled my DD coffee ride without issue.

So when I took my required blood tests a couple Fridays ago I had my results in a couple days. I thought the numbers looked pretty good but I discovered over the weekend they were not what I thought. The confusion came from my having two Quest accounts, the company that drew the blood. The results I saw at first were from 2015. However I realized my mistake over the weekend and logged into the other account which had my recent results.

My cholesterol is now high, clocking in around 220. My hematocrit is just above the advised range as well as my blood pressure but those can be attributed to being dehydrated and nervous. My BP is always a little high when taken as I have a reflex reaction whenever I have someone taking my BP or drawing blood. But there is no hiding from the cholesterol number.

Since my mom died of a heart attack and my younger brother had a mild one last year I am very sensitive to my potential cardiac weaknesses. I live a healthier lifestyle than either of them but that does not make me immune. The last time I had a full blood workup was in 2024 so when I analyzed any significant changes it did not take me long to find some culprits.

The biggest change has been in my diet. For roughly a decade I ate a pescatarian diet where my only protein was seafood. Sometime in mid-2024 I switched back to a “normal” diet where I now eat any type of meat product. So it’s very easy for me to make a correlation as to that being the main culprit in my numbers swinging the wrong way.

I also don’t do structured extended cardio as I once did. For awhile that meant running and cardio machines at the gym. I was also doing half hour high effort road biking sessions for awhile but those stopped once I moved. Instead my primary cardio is pickleball. Now don’t get me wrong, when I play, especially in the heat my heart rate can get into the 150s which is good but you are supposed to hold that rate. Pickleball by nature has times of high exertion and mild so it really is not ideal to be your primary cardio.

By definition the goal to shoot for is 150 minutes of mild cardio per week. I am also getting to the gym three times on a typical week but all of that time is spent doing calisthenics, stretching and strength work. I just don’t have time during those limited lunch hour sessions to get decent cardio in. So what is the plan you ask?

Well first off I need to modify my diet. Although my weight is still in the same vicinity it has been for close to 10 years I think being closer to 180 pounds instead of 190 pounds would be good for me so if I lost 5 pounds I would be right there. I can do that by doing more mindful eating. It isn’t that hard, it’s just keeping yourself accountable for what goes in your mouth. Second I need to find ways to get more sustained cardio into my routine. Cardio isn’t much fun and can be downright boring at times but exercise is a foundation for lowering cholesterol. I am hoping these lifestyle changes will be enough to get those numbers back in the green zone. Those results were definitely a wake up call.

Last night was a rough one. Early in the evening Elsa had a round of severe diarrhea and throwing up that was reminiscent of when she had her incident that required all of the vet visits in January. However in that case she was throwing up several times throughout the weekend and she had partially eaten a sock. Yesterday we were not aware of her consuming anything foreign, of course that doesn’t mean necessarily that she didn’t.

She had a another round of throwing up after drinking too much water. When she does it reveals just how terrible she is at chewing her food. There are untouched treats and dog food that come up. She just swallows most of it like a pill for some reason. So after letting her rest in bed I started giving her smaller amounts of water at a time and then waiting 15-30 minutes to make sure she kept it down, which she did. I repeated the process 4-5 times stretching to 1AM. After the last drink she seemed like she just wanted to sleep so I let her do so.

I had a difficult time falling back asleep, despite feeling exhausted just because I was keeping an eye on her and was obviously worried. I may have gotten two hours of sleep last night, three if I was lucky. This morning she was tired but eventually got up and moving. She ate some food, drank some more and kept it down which was good. I have been monitoring her remotely via my Ring cameras and she seems to be doing ok. I am hoping that this was just an isolated incident that was caused by something she ate. We have had five months of the new normal which hasn’t been bad. Changing dog diapers isn’t as big of a deal as I once thought it was.

Yesterday I had a surprise FedEx delivery. It was the wheel Inmotion sent me to review, the V14 Pro. I knew it was coming I just was not following the tracking information. Like all Inmotion wheels I have experienced the last few years, the V14 exudes quality. It is designed to be a powerful and durable off road wheel. More than likely the only off road use it will see with me is the swamp. Most of my testing will be on hard surfaces.

I decided to do a live stream to announce the new addition. The stream went roughly two hours but it was hard for me to keep things flowing as there were not a lot of people in the broadcast. I typically rely heavily on answering questions and comments in the chat. When those are few and far between it becomes heavy lifting to have something to keep talking about. I wrote it off to people watching World Cup soccer and YouTube not sending out notifications about the stream for some reason.

I finally received a ship notice on the Flashforge Creator 5 Pro printer. Originally it was supposed to be shipping in mid-May. I have the newly elevated bench all ready for it’s arrival which should be next week some time.

I think we have our greatly revised road trip sort of set. Instead of doing a stupid long trip to Yellowstone in about half the amount of days you should we instead are going to drive up to the Blue Ridge Parkway, something I have never done before. It is supposed to be beautiful and more importantly much closer, allowing us to take time to smell and see the roses.

This weekend is looking to be more or less normal although I need to get out on the V14 so I can start my content creation process. I had hoped to play in another pickleball tournament on Saturday but the four potential partners I asked could not play for various reasons, or, they just don’t like me. 😉

Ever since I moved into the new house this corner has bothered me. I had an old wooden half bookshelf thrown in there that I had pictures haphazardly displayed on. It was too small to use them all and just looked bad.

When I was at Ikea over the weekend I saw these cool wall mounted shelf units. I didn’t have room in the Tesla so I just ordered it online instead through the Ikea app. I was pleased/surprised it arrived in a couple days.

Assembly of the unit was straightforward and easy. The most difficult part is making sure I got it centered on the wall and straight. Once mounted I placed a bunch of pictures on it as well as additional pictures on the wall. I think the end result is much more pleasing visually. It only took me three years to get to it…..

I finally got out to see the new Mandalorian movie which has been out for a couple weeks. I lacked urgency to see it because I read a number of lukewarm reviews on the movie. The only time slot that worked to see it last night was at the local IMAX theater which I had never stepped into before. It is small compared to some IMAX theaters I have been in but the biggest issue was it was like an ice box. Thank goodness we brought a blanket.

The movie met my expectations based on prior word of mouth. It’s basically a supersized Mandalorian episode from the series except it is missing any significant connection to the series story. It was clearly made to be a stand alone film that didn’t require you to watch the three prior seasons of the show. The plot which would have been more enjoyable in a long format tv season was condensed to fit the two hours it was allocated. Was the movie bad? No, not at all, I found it entertaining. The problem was when you are coming off a series that gave you near movie like effects every episode, simply shifting that to a big screen makes things feel a bit underwhelming. I’d give it a B.

I started off my Saturday with another pickleball session. It was my third day in a row so I was a little hesitant to push it. I seemed to get through play without a major issue however. I was undefeated in the six games I played with different sets of people including one “let’s play it back” scenario which I enjoyed. I was hoping to play in another mini-tournament this upcoming weekend but the three people I asked to play were unavailable for various reasons so I might just take a pass on it.

Saturday afternoon I went over to the east coast to do some shopping with my girlfriend, taking the Tesla to minimize fuel costs. Both malls we visited during the trip were absolutely slammed with people. I thought malls were supposed to be dying? I went and charged the Tesla during one of the sessions. The supercharger I went to had terrible speed of only 50kw because most if not all of the chargers were occupied. I sat there for over an hour. I am used to a big charge taking 20-30 minutes, this was like watching paint dry. By the time we got home it was after 9PM, a very long day of driving and walking. My knees and hips were not happy with me but I held up better than expected. I figured it was good training for our potential upcoming road trip.

Sunday was a very low energy day, perhaps because Saturday was a long grind. I got the necessary tasks handled as well as modifying my bench I originally built for my Bambu Lab A1. It was built to reside under one of my other workbenches however now I wanted it to be at near normal bench height to make it easier to work with my incoming Flashforge Creator 5 Pro printer.

Modifying the stand involved simply adding some 4×4″ legs to it. While I was at it I added a shelf to store filament as well as a front brace to increase overall rigidity. The bench weighs a ton as I used 2×6″ for most of it. I think it will work out well. All I need is the printer to verify it.