I don’t know exactly what changed or what happened. For the past month or so I have been having this occurrence where, sometimes, by the en of the day I would end up with 200% or more of my exercise ring. The watch was counting/registering workout time when I wasn’t really working out. Most days I workout an average of 30 to 40 minutes. Whether that is running or kettlebell exercises, sometimes even both. I do have watchOS 7.0 beta but this was happening even before it. I was thinking that maybe I had gotten so out of shape since the pandemic that the watch was registering almost anything as a workout? I mean I certainly have no idea how this works, I always assumed it’s related to hart rate and such. Today, I have so far 47:08 minutes of workout, that’s exactly the time of my run/walk/sprinting sesh today. Not a single minute more, not a single minute less.

¯_(ツ)_/¯

Yesterday I had posted this picture on my Instagram as a tbt, as kids call it. Then I started thinking a lot about this picture, about those times. This had to be back in 2002-03 , somewhere around there, in Aibonito Puerto Rico. This was my second year of college I think. A simple kind of men (or kids rather) back then, different and much simpler times those were. I even remember I had just broken up with my girlfriend of three years at the time, or was it two years? Eh, it doesn’t matter. Ugh we were drinking Budweiser and smoking cigarettes 🚬

I cannot remember the reason for the “party” though there was a lot of beer and strong alcohol and even a “punk-rock” band. I remember we all, well most of us had a good time. I remember I met a nice girl too, don’t remember her name though.

I miss my friends, haven’t seen any of them in years. Certainly, don’t miss the Budweiser neither the cigarettes 😅

Bonus Points if you can tell which one is me. 😜

I ❤️ pixels and video games and these two always go hand in hand. And as I have expressed before I love playing on my Nintendo Switch and even though it has its Mario games, The Zeldas, the Witcher’s, all the good big games, the ones I get drawn to the most are the games with beautiful pixel art. Octopath traveler, Aegis Defenders, Katana Zero, Celeste, Blasphemous just to mention a few. Most of them are considered indie-games which to me is the best part of it. It’s been one of those things that as I get older, I appreciate mora and more. And the Nintendo Switch, to me, is the perfect platform for these games or at least is where I enjoy them the most.

This is what’s very frustrating about this pandemic. Most of us are being responsible. We wash our hands, we avoid unnecessary crowded places, and if we go out we wear our masks. And then you have the idiots, yes idiots and I think I am being nice. My wife works in the medical field. She works at a local hospital, in a place I’m gonna call a shoebox. She keeps social distance when she can, she washes her hands constantly and wears her mak. Unfortunately for her, and consequently for me as well, some idiots think wearing a mask is too much of an inconvenience. They don’t see it as being courteous to others by keeping others safe as well as themselves. In other words, they are just not idiots, they are assholes.

Last week, someone that I’ll call idiot B, shows up at the shoebox sick, moreover, Idiot B doesn’t wear a mask. Why he doesn’t? Well, he’s an idiot. What’s even more baffling is the shoebox’s owners that don’t call people out when this happens. Idiot B worked, sick the entire week and it wasn’t until Monday that he was sent home and get tested for COVID-19.

My wife had been having a little bit of a cold, but because she had been working closely with idiot B, she got sent home and to get tested.

I had been cleared to come back to the office a week or so ago, after receiving a call from my wife about her been tested and sent home, I had to report this to my manager. My company’s guidelines and protocols about this are very strict. After talking to the appropriate people and lots of questioning I was deemed high risk. Therefore I am not able to return to the office until August 14th. The worst part of all of this for me was the wait for the results. I wake up every morning with a stuffy nose, allergies are normal for me. However knowing that the possibility of something is something, it terrifying. I doubt myself. “Is this just allergies or do I actually have COVID?” “I am feeling hot, I should check my temperature.” In my mind, I was sick and imagining the worse.

My wife’s test results came back yesterday and she is negative for COVID-19. She is cleared to come back to work by Friday. Me on the other hand, I was told, “According to the guidelines, she tested too early. She will have to test again so we can clear you to come back to the site”

This is just one example of why this whole thing is so frustrating, you do all you can to protect yourself ad others but you can’t count on others to do the same. At this point, I feel like it is inevitable and we will get sick at one point unless we all take this seriously. Especially in my state were cases are rising up every day.

Anyway, if you read this, all I ask of you is, please, don’t be an asshole and wear your ducking mask!

Neon Abyss

Neon Abyss is a frantic, roguelike action-platformer where you run ‘n’ gun your way into the Abyss as part of the Hades formed ‘Grim Squad’.

I don't know how many hours I got on this game but there must be quite a lot. I haven't put down this game since I bought it. At first I played it on the Xbox One, as it is free-to-play with GamePass and I immediately, I fell for it. The music is great, the pixel art it's beautiful, although, I am a sucker for pixel art so Im might be a little biased here. The story its very simple, you start having a drink with Hades and he request that you help destroy some Titan group while you seek revenge for the destruction of your family.There are other characters and there's not so much story about their background but no one cares, or at least I don't. The Switch version comes with 2 extra characters, unless there was something I was supposed to download on the Xbox version that I didn't. The reason I paid for it on the Switch is because these games, or almost every game rather, I prefer to play it on the Switch.

The game it's pretty straight forward, you go down a dungeon and you shoot at things. As you progress in the dungeon you collect items that will enhance your abilities, all these items do stack on top of each other pretty much unlimintles. Also you collect eggs, these eggs eventually hatch and become your pets. These pets also enhanced your abilities and you can end up with a long stack of them. After a while your character can look very Crazy-Town Banana-Pants with all the item you collect.

Since I am not looking for a challenge, I am playing on easy, and still some dungeons/areas and bosses can be a little difficult. Every run of one level or boss is never the same as everything randomly generated. Every time you die you lose all your abilities and enhancements, however you collect some crystals that will let you buy other skills before you get back at it. When you die you get "seed" a code which you can use to repeatedly play the same run or even share it. There is some disadvantage to use these, you can unlock achievements and get Faith Gems. I am guessing the Faith Gems. Again, I haven't tried to use any of my own "seeds" to see what happens but I do have a few saved. Reminds me of the old Mega Man X days.

Every time I die I just start all over, it sucks at the beginning, especially when you're used to be overpowered for a few levels. I think the game it's worth checking it out, its 19.99 USDs at the eShop with a downloadable demo or, again, free-to-play on the xbox one with GamePass.

I have a thing in my chest, feelings, concerns, and fears. I have many thoughts, things to say, things to be sad and or angry about but can’t sort them out. I want to stay positive, happy, and active but it’s hard. It is very hard some days. I wish I could go by not worrying about the state of our country, social issues, the pandemic, the politics. Also, wish I could do more, wish I could fix things by snapping my fingers. To close my eyes, snap my heals and repeat, “There’s no place like home” and bibbidi-bobbidi-boo", all is well in the world.

In many ways, it has been a rough couple of months, or year, and for everyone. It’s okay to not feel okay, as they say.

Why do we fall, sir? So that we can learn to pick ourselves up.

Alfred Pennyworth