What Happened To Me?!: Volume 1, Chapter 3

WHAT’S UP WITH MY HEALTH

I lost 2.8 pounds. I’m assuming I retained water during last week’s weigh in for that to happen. I did not work out this past week, but I did yard work twice. Yesterday’s session lasted about ninety minutes so I slept well last night.

WHAT I ATE

Later today I’ll do some experimentation in the kitchen. I’ll talk about that next week.

WHAT I BOUGHT

A wicker fruit basket. It’s small enough to put in the center of my dining table and I can store up to three to four days worth of apples and roma tomatoes inside it. At least one of us finds that exciting.

WHAT I LISTENED TO

None of the recent guests on Smartless piqued my interest. Moving on…

WHAT I READ ON MY PAPERWHITE

The Girl I Saved On The Train Turned Out To Be My Childhood Friend, Volume 5. I really enjoy reading this Japanese light novel series even if the writing style would never see the light of day with a traditional American publisher. 

WHAT I WATCHED

Football. Even though most of the remaining teams are in the “Fuck yo’ team!” category, I’m still watching bits and pieces of playoff games involving them. Unless they’re on that nearly flightless bird network.

WHAT MADE ME SMILE 

Las Vegas Raiders Head Coach Antonio Pierce. Notice the word interim is missing from that sentence?

WHAT MADE ME SAD

Nissan broke up the factory team. For the first time in about a decade, Ronnie Quintarelli and Tsugio Matsuda will not be teammates in the 23 car this upcoming Super GT season. 

While I mainly root for Team Impul I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for Matsuda, who owns one of the most enviable collections of Nissan Skyline GT-Rs in the world. They’re not stored in his garage as collector’s items. He drives them and often at high speed on a track, the way they were meant to be enjoyed.

WHO DESERVES TO BE SLAPPED

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon. Will someone please get him to shut the fuck up about his Tang Satan fetish and his negative thoughts about the economy?

WHO DESERVES A FIST BUMP

Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis. When faced with the task of hiring a permanent head coach after the interim one proved they were worthy of consideration, he didn’t make the same mistake twice.

WHAT I ACCOMPLISHED IN MY GAMING

I overcame my greatest failure in GTA Online. Two years ago, The Cayo Perico Heist was the latest and greatest DLC content available, and I was an abysmal failure at the Gather Intel mission. I didn’t understand the concept of staying out of a guard’s cone of vision, so I kept getting caught by them. 

I quit in frustration but last weekend I gave it another go. As of this writing I’ve now separated Juan “El Rubio” Strickler from his prized possessions multiple times since my first success. One time I earned the elite bonus for finishing the heist within 15 minutes, sneaking in and out of the compound without getting detected by the guards, and for not blowing the puzzle game to break into the basement through El Rubio’s office. 

The Cayo Perico Heist, as well as the gather intel and prep missions are a great way for my character to earn $1 million or more in two hours or less, and during that time her businesses are generating passive income or accruing inventory to sell afterward. Win-win!

WHAT’S UP WITH MY WRITING

I’m well into Act II of the manuscript and I’d estimate I’m at the one-third mark with the edits. It’s a lot of work to rewrite almost everything, but it’s neither boring or tedious. I’m estimating I’ll be done with this round of edits by the end of February, and then after I take a short break I’ll read the manuscript to see what else needs changing.