LadyCrimson

I didn't hate Waterworld, or The Postman. But I didn't particularly like them either. They both had decent or funny moments but overall I found them both in the realm of "they're ok for passing some time." My top Kevin Costner movies would probably be: No Way Out, Field of Dreams, A Perfect World, Open Range (Duvall) and The Highwaymen (w/Woody Harrelson). Most of the rest of his films, if I liked them a lot, it wasn't because of the specific presence of Costner. eg, Thirteen Days (Bruce Greenwood and Steven Culp), Silverado (basically I love the entire ensemble cast), Untouchables (Sean Connery, Andy Garcia etc) and so on. I think Coster tends to fare better in quieter/less showboat-y or ensemble cast roles vs. being the "big star" of the film, if that makes sense. I used to think that way of Tom Cruise too - he worked well within star-studded ensembles initially. Took a while for me to feel like he really held up a movie on his own.

3 thin slices of uncured bacon Small bits of thinly sliced beef Chopped dinosaur kale Several large chunks of sliced yellow onion Couple handfuls of "baby greens" salad mix and some jalapeno peppers Stir fry it in a skillet for little while. Stuff face.

Bought myself a small power recliner. Randomly saw it in some furniture outlet store. The kind that actually also lifts a fair distance up to help you get out of the thing, too. But that's not why I bought it. It's tiny, firm/cloth (vs. over-cushy) and fits me super well - it sits low/my feet actually touch the floor and it's not so wide that I feel like two of me could sit side by side in it - making armrests way too far apart for me, like most recliners/couch sections these days where I'm always slouched way over to one side... It's hard to find furniture that fits and I'm of the age now that if I find something that fits me really well, I'm buying it. eg, that loveseat recliner is outta here. Hubby has to find something now.

@Keyrock Are you liking that game? I looked at it for a long while yesterday debating whether I'd want to try it. Also cyberpunk The Ascent. Haven't made up my mind quite yet on either.

Pics plz.

--Glad you're ok/guy wasn't even crazier or something and it wasn't worse - hope you find/catch the dude, Azdeus. --hummingbirds: we have a large bush near the patio and some other fence-trees they like and they visit fairly regularly in summer. Sometimes they just sorta hover in the middle of the (empty air) yard staring at our house for what reason I do not know. My mother had potted fuchsia's hanging from the eaves and they loved those. They're fun to watch. --Been feeling great, keeping busy in my own little ways. Nothing exciting/report worthy, just ... not feeling bored. I think my attention span has gotten better again too. Life feels a little brighter, is all.

And what appears to be cowboy/heeled boots. They don't look like tight jeans at least. Needed a belt to keep them up, even.

Has anyone here tried one of those home blood test strip-based triglyceride meters? They're a lot more costly than the glucose meters (and the test strips long-term pricey). Don't really care about super accuracy vs. true lab work - my worry is consistency of readings - eg, if you used them several times immediately in a row and the numbers are crazy different each time, that'd be of no use for checking for a rise or fall pattern. Health blog: my glucose remains fine and getting a bit lower already. So yeah, for now at least, insulin seems not needed as long as I stay mega low net carb. My hunger/appetite remains low, to the point the evening meal is sometimes like forcing myself to eat. I might try OMAD (one meal a day) before long....

Reading the current posts, I realize I got the title of that Willis movie wrong, earlier. It's actually Cosmic Sin, not Cosmic String. Not that it's important or anything. I just hate it when I type-brain-fart like that. TV wise, I've been sifting through some various K-drama's that have been in my list a long time, watching a few episodes to decide if it should remain in my list. And a lot of documentary series/films, mostly environment/food-diet and ... uh ... cat ones. Of course cat ones.

^ More Ghostbusters movies? Well, at least this one has Paul Rudd in it. Although I assume it's a smallish role since I'd guess it'll mostly be those kids. Still ... Paul Rudd. Might be all right.

That'll do it. Ah. Deforestation is a problem even outside of farming aspects, imo. Not sure what "we're" going to do about it, if anything (lasting).

full 72 hours or so without any insulin. Before meal: 120. Couple hours after eating: 140. Hope rekindled! So far even on insulin I've never had upon-wakening blood sugar under 110. If I can get it to be 80 and 120 after a meal (say 2-3 months from now), far as I'm concerned I'm golden. The docs/nutritionists at the hospital were telling me to fill/eat "1/4 of your (9") plate with whole grains and/or starchy carbs." At least for me, that's apparently 1/4 plate too much.

Are you particularly sensitive to soy or something? I kept hearing "avoid soy" and even after reading about it I'm not sure what the really negative thing is about, outside of maybe infants, or huge over-intake. Is the negative press meant more for the processed soy? I could understand that, like with any over processed stuff. Or GMO reasons? Edit: outside of using soy sauce in some of my sauces (and some processed goods, before, ofc), I don't really eat it myself much - just not into it taste wise is all.

Cosmic String via Netflix - well, I tried to watch it. Didn't get too far. At this point I'm rather convinced that I could - based on my super-extensive years of of "experience" watching such films - write some low budget sci-fi or action-y/crime script and still get Bruce Willis to agree to sleepwalk through it.

That's what I remember from California. Learners at 15.5, license at 16, I don't recall any drivers courses/hours being a *requirement*, although I do recall there being a brief driver's ed in highschool - a single afternoon of lecture, including one of those "Red Asphalt" short films, and cramming 3 kids in a car each taking a brief turn behind the wheel - I have no idea if that somehow fulfilled a "DMV required", but I never had to do anything outside of that to get a license besides age. Edit: you could get private extra driving lessons if your parents wanted to pay for it, ofc, but most people didn't. I think CA also moved it up to 17.5 and 18 at some point, with more requirements on top maybe? But that's all I know about that.

Indeed. If I just wanted no-meat veggies on some bread w/condiments, myself I'd probably just grill some eggplant or a huge mushroom, bell pepper and yellow onions and slap a huge slice of tomato/pickle on top. Something like that. Impossible beef is interesting to me since I can seriously see some distant future with a lot of sci-fi lab foodstuff being the norm for not-super-rich people (lack of water, farmable land, environment etc). I'll hopefully be dead by then tho.

I still find myself very unexcited by the new Dune. The trailer has pretty/nice visual stuff, like almost all blockbuster films do these days, but it doesn't really excite me as a trailer. Plus I remember how excited I was for that original movie version way way back. Jurgen Prochnow seemed perfectly cast, for example. Could it all eventually be a case of finally filming the impossible (ala LotR)? Sure. But I refuse to get excited until I've seen the last frame of this new Dune. Unrelated to the above: did someone post this already at some point? At any rate, I'm going to post it now. It was a pretty good edit of the '84 trailer to try to "compare"/match the first '21 trailer.

... ... ... ...

Saw videos on the Impossible burger meat (Burger King has an Impossible Whopper apparently, and you can get it as ground "beef" at a store). Plant based, frankenstein lab food or something. "Everyone" saying it tastes just like, or almost just like, real beef. Unlike real meat, it has a bit of carbs but not too bad. It is not low-fat and currently costs more than real hamburger. Was curious, so I bought two pre-formed burger patties made of the stuff. Pan fried them. Used olive oil in the pan. They stuck like crazy, to the point I took them out, washed the pan, then put them back in. Once already browned a bit they don't stick as much. They smelled ... maybe like 80% real cooking beef. I ate one as patty only, hubby made a sandwich/burger out of his. As (pan fried) patty alone, no weird taste, aftertaste, or texture, and the flavor was kind of like ... well, a much less spiced/less flavorful breakfast sausage maybe. eg, not really like beef, but tastes enough like meat I'd eat it. With condiments/bread I'd imagine it'd be quite fine. Far better than those other plant burger things I've ever tried. Still - as my husband says ... "You know what else tastes just like beef? Beef." But I guess if you're really concerned about cows and the environment, or a vegan really jonesing for meat flavor, it'd work, if you don't mind the frankenstein lab aspect. Getting closer to Asimov's Caves of Steel fake yeast-based meat/protein reference ... I forget what he called it ... zyvomeal? ... that Earth humans were eating because of resource shortages.

Yeah, from the sound of it, your general activity level would need a lot more calories, or at least periodically, which could be hard to get into a single meal without feeling overstuffed for several hours or something. I remember one time trying that "lemon/pepper/honey drink" fast. Hubby thought he was dyin' after 20 hours (felt weak/fainter) and after 24 he quit. I lasted closer to 48. Since there was still a few calories in that drink, I didn't feel weak/faint or anything like that at all, just wanted to eat solid food. Not to mention, that drink didn't taste all that great.

@majestic I don't think I'd call it euphoria. It's just ... once I even noticed it ... interesting. I've always had long periods where I'll hardly eat anything, or only one meal a day, no snacking etc. I've never found going 12-16+ hours without eating stressful physically (lack of hunger pangs most of the time). To me a "fast" is defined as at least 24 hrs. That boredom eating problem cropped up a lot tho, in short phases. Lately I'm still bored, but food isn't entertainment anymore, is all, therefore it's just not crossing my mind because it's no longer a boredom solution. It's not that I don't still think pizza or ice cream sounds/tastes good. I'm sure I'll have a slice, or a couple street tacos, or a few BBQ (sugar...) ribs, now and then. I'm not really aiming for hardcore "ketosis" and I don't particularly watch calories, outside of taking my lack of activity into account (2000 a day would be way more than I need - I'm more like 1500 or lower); my weight is fine. Oh and as far as "ice cream" goes - a while back I found Arctic Zero, Purely Chocolate, non-dairy. 50 cal., 0 fat, 8 net carbs per 83g (about 2/3 cup). I keep a couple in the freezer and over a month or so just have a few tablespoons right after a meal sometimes. It's not Haagen Daz or real ice cream, but it's actually pretty good tasting - that said it does freeze like a brick so I just nuke the pint for 20 seconds. It's kept me from desiring anything else sugary for a long time now tho, at any rate.

I tried for the first time not taking insulin this morning at all (I've still been skipping the evening shot, btw). Ate a large-ish round of food. 45 minutes later, blood sugar reading was no different than what it has been after a meal *with* insulin, for ages now (goes up 50-80pts). So ... hmm. There might be something to this keto/two meals/don't eat for 16 hours in a row stuff after all. At least for me. A lot of brain fog has lifted already, I feel less draggy. Was already on pretty low-carb so it's not simply that I think. Not hungry at all, mental/physical munchie urges have largely gone away. This is interesting.

Pan-cooked a small salmon fillet for my 1st meal of the day. Was trying to vary my meat vs. all-beef. It was fairly tasty I suppose, but now the house stinks and for three hours I have had doors/windows/ fans going to try to make it not stink. And changed my clothes. Man that lingers forever and ever. I have three more fillets. I''ll be pulling the outdoor gas grill out of mothballs for them, and likely going to stick with just beef. Of course ... I'm sure there are those who think cooking beef just smells terrible - do such people spend hours trying to get the smell out of their house too? It's all relative, right?

The Empty Man, via HBO (it's on HBOMax too I think) Has a long drawn out history that in short = bigger studio not knowing what to do with an experimental movie and kind of tossing it to the side (not even a DVD/blu-ray release given). The trailer makes it look like another Slender Man/Candy Man or some such type horror movie, and parts of it do kind of feel like that in a way. But the trailer is also very misleading ... I'm going to say I liked it quite a bit more than expected and while it's really long for its genre (2 hrs. 17 minutes) I wasn't annoyed by that. I don't think I'd cut very much out, maybe 5-8 minutes at most. There are criticisms: may not be enough typical "horror" for those wanting such, could be seen as too slow/boring, and it's rather bleak in a mental way (vs. visceral horror) the film is split into three sections, with a very long past-prologue that is very different styled from the other two, and an ambiguous, multi-possible explanation ending (on purpose) that might leave some feeling confused/annoyed, or unsatisfied/burned (edit: or one could take it simply at face value I suppose). That said, from the very start I found myself unable to stop watching. Maybe it's because of the way most of the shots were framed, and the pacing of the camera work, I found it visually interesting/hypnotic wanted to see more. The last few minutes did annoy me just a little bit, but then again, I kept thinking/analyzing the film long after. It's kind of a mild mind-you-know-what. Could definitely see it becoming a cult horror/supernatural/psychological film.