28 January 2026

Cold weather continues down in the American South. There is a video game called Don’t Starve, the title implies the gameplay. The game had seasons like real life and Winter was a accurate depiction of real life Winter. In the game, you’re left counting the days until Winter ends because productivity stops and it becomes about survival. Food won’t grow, the cold will cause physical damage, and the long dark nights can cause the character insanity. A feature I liked in the game was if you shaved it would lower insanity. Personal hygiene and care for individual needs has a larger effect on health. I played that game about 10 years ago and I probably think about it ever Winter. Not much else is going on because nothing can go on. These are survival days and I’m surviving, feeling like Obi Wan in the Phantom Menace stuck behind the energy door waiting to fight. Soon it will be warm and we get a glance at warmth during the day. Maybe I should shave, and do some push ups.

27 January 2026

We braved the ice storm. Our location was safe from any damage and we’re only suffering freezing temperatures. Yesterday, daycare was cancelled due to the expected cold weather. In typical real life fashion, the kids are back today and the temperatures are actually colder. It was was good for us to be sheltering in place this weekend as last Friday I was grabbing something out of the garage and fell on the brick steps. Nothing broke, besides my pride, I twisted my ankle and cut up my leg. The whole thing woke me up to my complacency. I’ve only been in one car accident and the lesson I learned was it happened because I wasn’t paying attention. The same with my fall, as in a car, walking on stairs can be dangerous and should be the focus of attention when operating them. My injuries are doing much better now and I’d like to get back to exercising. I’ve been working on some vanity projects in my gym like a gold barbell and soon to be gold weights. It seems that lifting heavy things is good for mental health, the body feels strong. Having the environment look pretty or inspiring adds to that help and motivates me to do more. Even if I’m not lifting weights, I see the poster of Tom Platz’s massive legs and will do some body weight squats right then. The purpose for my exercise is health, I focus on legs a lot because I’m tall and legs are often neglected. My intention is to strengthen the fibrous connections to my knees to keep me walking as long as possible.

Jesus Battles the Devil

Crusader delves into the profound themes of temptation and divine purpose as illustrated in Matthew Chapter 4. The discussion begins with Jesus being led into the wilderness, where he fasts for 40 days and faces three temptations from the devil. Each temptation is met with Jesus’ unwavering faith and scriptural rebuttals, emphasizing the importance of spiritual sustenance over physical needs. The Crusader highlights the significance of these encounters, illustrating how they set the stage for Jesus’ ministry and the fulfillment of prophecies regarding the Messiah.

As the conversation progresses, the Crusader explores the calling of the first disciples, emphasizing the transformative power of Jesus’ message. The episode culminates in a reflection on Jesus’ mission to bring light to those in darkness, particularly the Gentiles, and the revolutionary nature of his teachings. The Crusader’s insights provide listeners with a deeper understanding of the biblical narrative and its implications for faith and discipleship today.

23 January 2025

Since I’m no longer a farmer I got a bucket full of rice to continue strengthening my hand. Lately I felt that my hands were hurting because grabbing barbells is a small grip for me. One product I got was a large rubber grip to put on the barbell. My thinking is the rice bucket exercise will build up smaller inner muscles that are the root of pain. All a person does with the rice bucket is submerge a hand and continuously squeeze. A couple squeezes later and the muscles are exhausted. Last night, as I tried to sleep my mind was running about everything health related I need to be doing. The holidays are over and life is normalizing, so it’s time to introduce new challenges. I’ve still got the little princess with me, so everything is difficult. Today has enough of it’s own worries to stay focused on. Change is pain. My first hurdle is change, dealing with the pain of doing something different. This is before attempting new healthy habits, just being in a new environment will hurt and my body will do everything to convince me to go back to comfort. Sugar and sweets discipline has to be taken care of. With kids I’ll never get candy out of the house, so I have to be able to face the evil and say no. 

21 January 2026

Taking care of the girls is going well. Last night, the elder princess struggled to fall asleep and I watched her run across the dark house to go potty. She didn’t know I was hiding in the shadowing. I’m happy to see her being able to move around in the dark. It’s one good thing for her to not start crying in the dark, but being able to walk and even see in the dark becomes a useful skill. An important lesson to traveling at night is how our eyes work. The two types of photoreceptor cells in the eye are rods and cones, that means cells that react to light and send that signal to the brain. Rod shaped cells specialize in low light and cone shaped cells are better adapted to see in bright light and colors. The anatomy of the eye has more cones in the center and more rods on the peripheral, so when walking at night don’t look at where you’re going. Using peripheral vision at night will make everything appear brighter.

19 January 2026

Today is a holiday and the elder princess is home from daycare. My queen is also going to congress to rewrite some laws, I’ll have the kids to myself for a couple of days. Over the weekend I was able to get my new flag hung all alone. It was a fun adventure that happened with few misshapes. Sharing a photo of the wall I hanging on with AI, it told me about hangers that would work for the type of siding the wall is made of. There are little metal hooks that go under the siding material, on the other side is a hook with a screw. First, I tightened the screws along the top of the flag and went about installing them. I had to stand on the tippy top of my ladder to reach high enough, technically that piece isn’t for standing and more technically the max weight on that cheap ladder is less than I weigh. Nevertheless I didn’t fall and the ladder didn’t break. Having a couple of tall items like the punching bag stand and white board were helpful to rest the excess flag on while I worked. My other accomplishment this weekend was another episode recorded and posted. For the episode that will be published at the end of this week, I was pleased with the research I did, it’s exhausting though and I won’t be able to do that much every week. My situation is that I constantly want to be better and it’s possible to succeed in part. After growth, rest is required to rebuild, the problem is time off feels like failure. I don’t have the solution, only that I have to be aware of my behavior to know I’m not actually failing.

The Prophetic Voice of John the Baptist WAR ep 78

Crusader delves into the biblical narrative surrounding John the Baptist, his call for repentance, and the significance of Jesus’ baptism. It explores the dynamics between different Jewish sects, particularly the Pharisees and Sadducees, and highlights the challenges posed by John to the religious leaders of his time. The discussion emphasizes the themes of righteousness, repentance, and the prophetic role of John in preparing the way for Jesus.

16 January 2026

My exercise has been going well. The main focus is still push ups, trying to raise my comfort zone, so I can speak while pushing. My claim is I’m still the strongest I’ve ever been, mostly because I weigh more than ever before. The other reason is doing clean and jerk with more weight than before. I like C&J as a total body exercise and am always telling myself to do more squats. Realistically my goal should be weight lose, but being big and strong is more fun than hours of cycling. Squats engage the largest muscles of the body and will burn more calories than any other weight lifting I can do. Thankfully I can still do pull ups, and at over 250 pounds that’s a serious lift. Recently, I’ve begun adding dips too. I hadn’t done dips in awhile because I didn’t think I was strong enough to dip at this weight. Thankfully, a couple years ago I figure out how to do this movements in an efficient way I’ve never done before. Almost 10 years after my military career ended and after a degree in exercise science, I figured out how to do a proper push up. It’s all about angles, muscles only pull so pulling in a straight line is the lowest difficulty. Taking push ups for example people dead hang then try to go up, they need to rotate their body to be as close to parallel as physically possible, then pull. I’ve even been working on my wide grip pull ups now for a wide back. Gotta love that V taper. 

15 January 2025

If you’re reading this, thank you. It’s reassuring to know I’m not alone. Yesterday, I was exhausted and didn’t even finish my goal of writing length. Some people were nice to throw me a like when I was stuck in my own world. The reaction was enough to spark the fire in me. I like that image, it felt like my car was rolling to a stop and now I’ve got the engine roaring again. Progress not perfection. My new flag was delivered, it’s 10 feet by 15 and I plan to cover a wall with it. Another decoration I ordered yesterday was an aluminum sign cut in the shape of the 10th mountain logo. The purchase was through the individual and I don’t know the last time I’ve done something like that. Meaning I had to speak to a person to order the product, no one click purchase. I had seen the guy’s work before and knew I wanted it, so I endured the process. Sending money through Venmo is more convenient than mailing a check, then he messaged me an image of the shipping label. We’ll see if it work, at least I don’t think I’m exposed to lose anything more than the purchase price. Outside of raising kids I’m been on my Bible study trying to understand the lay of the land 2,000 years ago and older. There’s a lot of names mentioned in the book and in the past I’ve never looked to see where the paces are. The story relies on going to different places and usually spreading the gospel, sometimes just to flee. My point is the travel has a role to understand what the people were going through. To know if someone walked 40 miles to be baptized or sailed hundreds to preach. 

14 January 2026

Yesterday was tricky, I’m still waiting to stabilize in 2026, though maybe the whole world is in that boat. The elder princess went back to daycare last week, but not on Monday like I assumed. This change left me struggling to get on the ball, then yesterday I dropped the princess and an hour later they asked me to pick her up because she had a coughing fit. During the day I feel too tired to be productive and at night feel jittery with pent up energy. This is giving my life to my kids, they deserve it. The nights have been wild now that elder princess is sleeping in a real bed instead of a crib. She can wake up at 5 AM and walk into our room. Keep pushing until some rest comes.