New Years Resolutions

Alright, it's time for the generic end of year and/or next year resolution's post. But you know what? Yes, I'm going to have a list of things I want to get done by the end of next year. But I'm going to be different by actually posting updates to my progress at the beginning of each month. That way I can keep on track.

And you guys can laugh at me if I should fail due to laziness.

A big problem for a lot of people with these things is that they set vague or unrealistic goals. I know I've been pretty bad for vague goals myself. Thus, let's fix that right now.

Goal #1:

I'm a skinny guy, really skinny. Like, I'm borderline anorexic skinny. My girlfriend Theresa saw me without my shirt once and she told me I looked like one of those starving Africans you see from National Geographic.

Now I know it's unrealistic to become a bodybuilder and if I say "I'm going become healthier next year" nothing's going to happen. So let's try this instead. The link I provided is a site that claims by the end of 6 weeks you should be able to do 100 push ups. At the moment, I can do 20 so let's see what happens.

 

 And maybe you'll see some meat on me.

Goal #2:

I am in need of money. A part time job just isn't going to pay for tuition or spoil Theresa. I'm going to need to find an additional source. Whether that's through an internship, this blog, or some crazy idea I find online I need to try it.

The goal here is to try a new thing each month and report on its success and/or failings. Yes I did mention I was making some profit with this blog but unless I'm making more than minimum wage it's not something to boast about.

EDIT:

Added requirement of trying to pay back debt of $5500 to parents.

Goal #3:

Too often I tell myself "That looks neat, I should really try it" and then I never get around to doing it. This include recipes, small projects, and places to go to. The goal here is to try at least one new thing each month and post about it. I need to learn how to cook, I want to make that hollow book and take Theresa out to that restaurant.

Actually for the longest time I've wanted to start a blog so I guess yay for me?

Woohoo!

Goal #4:

I have an obsession with the number 4. So I need a 4th goal if it kills me. Uhhh...

Uhhh....

. . . .

You have no idea how long I spent in this pose.

You know what? You guys decide for me. Long time readers will have a better idea of what to chose but I'm good with whatever. I'll pick the best one from the comments and hopefully it won't be something like eat 100 endangered species or set yourself on fire for a minute.

And that's it from me. I'll see you guys in the New Year!

Edit: Thanks to D4 and Heddin for their combined suggestion of completing a game from my backlog and/or reading a new book each month!

Holiday Aftermath

If you've read the comments I've left on most of your blogs you probably know by now that my Christmas weekend was pretty uneventful. No really, all I did was spend a few quiet days with family and many hours with my computer.

Come towards the light Damian...

Theresa was busy all weekend so I wasn't able to see her. Luckily I anticipated this and gave her her gifts early which included a hoodie, some TF2 cellphone charms, various games from the Steam Holiday sale and the third volume of popular webcomic.

Myself? I don't expect to receive anything big. Friends got me a lot of games and a foam Minecraft pickaxe, I don't expect anything from my siblings until February (April if I'm unlucky), parents gave me cash and I treated myself to more games.

Thank you Dear for this one.

So, what am I going to do for the rest of the break? Hopefully see as many old friends as possible and take Theresa out on as many dates as I possibly can. Let's hope her boss doesn't keep scheduling her to work for ENTIRE WEEKS. Seriously, she's busy all the time during the school year, give her a break when she has a break.

In the meantime I have more research stuff to do. That paper isn't going to edit itself and neither is that experiment. Gah, I'm so sick of technical errors at this point. Hopefully I'll get things figured out before the term starts again.

Really want to do this to some of the computers at the lab.

I know the rest of you had a relatively more exciting Christmas holiday than me. If all goes well maybe I can get to work on some other things this break and not be a complete waste of waste. There are some recipes I need to try as well as a DIY project I've been eying.

But the computer games, they beckon.

Probably what I'll end up doing.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Seriously? I hope no one is checking my blog this weekend. All of you should be taking the day off away from your computers and enjoying the company of friends and family.

No Youtube video despite this being a short post. Get away from the computer.

Go.

LIMBO: This Game is Depressing

If it wasn't obvious enough that I'm a gamer (and that I would give internal organs to Valve if they asked) I'm not sure what else I need to do. However, I know a lot of you aren't like this and can't understand the appeal. That's fine, but whenever I do make comments on a game I will do my best to make the commentary more accessible to non-gamers.

Preemptive apologies to Beth because this isn't a book review.

Thanks to finals being done I can actually enjoy myself. So today we'll be talking about LIMBO, a game about a boy who wakes up in a forest and needs to go find his missing sister. It's a 2D platformer with physics puzzles, in layman's terms you run and jump around and manipulate the properties of the environment to move to the next stage. Sounds pretty standard so far.

And now why LIMBO is horrifying and how only a serial killer could smile during a playthrough.

This is not a happy game.

The entire game is set in black and white environments. Utilizing that grainy film effect and clever lighting it creates a ominous, dark and unwelcoming world. To further help this, the only sound effects in the game are faint background noises such as the sound of flies and soft crunching of questionable objects.

The puzzles generally take a bit of thinking and timing to figure out. Most of them consist of some variation of timed jumps, operating switches and machines as well as pulling and moving objects to help you advance. The game particularly enjoys having you desecrate the bodies of the dead.

Oh and did I mention? The entire world hates you. Everything, anything and everyone can and will kill you at a whim. Whether it be like falling from too high, drowning, cut into pieces by a sawblade.

Being eviscerated by massive spider.

And the boy dies in the saddest ways possible. You feel bad every time you watch his tiny body go limp or fly in all directions of the wind. Afterall, it is your fault he missed that jump or electrocuted himself. That being said, you do come back in a safe and reasonable location in respect to where you died. You're not going to have to redo every puzzle upon your death.

The story is sparse and is left almost entirely to the player to figure out. Some people think this is a problem but I personally found it added to the unnerving atmosphere of the game. You don't really have a sense of what's going on or why. Some people question if the boy and his sister are even alive.

It's a mystery!

That being said, it is a very solid puzzle game and has won many awards. I love supporting the independent developers because they don't produce bland and repetitive games. These guys are willing to take steps in new and unique ways and they should be rewarded for it. Unlike companies such as Electronic Arts.

(By the way, I will take as many opportunities as possible to bash EA because I hate them with every fiber of my being).

This is technically my first review of ANYTHING ever. Any comments or suggestions would be great whether it be about the post or potential future reviews. I'm really open to anything, as long as I can make it entertaining.

You can pick up LIMBO on Steam for $9.99 or try the demo for free. HOWEVER, Steam is currently having their 2011 Holiday sale so LIMBO is $4.99 until January 2nd.

Finals Week Post 2

Ok, this is coming a bit late. Posting is kind of odd for some reason so I'm doing this live. I'M DOING IT LIVE LIKE BILL O'REILLY.

I really need to get back to studying Developmental Psychology.

So to start today's videos, Yorkies are trained killers:

Derpiest assassins ever.

And now something for the sports fans:

Such grace.

And this last video is long. This is easily the longest video I've ever shared and I doubt I'll ever share anything this long again. It explains what SOPA and PIPA are and if you aren't informed I beg you to watch it because it affects you no matter where in the world you live.

It pertains to internet censorship in the most insane proportions. If either of those acts pass it would give giant companies the ability to shut down any site they want if they feel like it. An example would be if a user on a site such a Youtube has a video they don't like, all of Youtube can be shut off immediately. Or if a blog on Blogger has a picture they don't like all of Blogger is now offline.

This isn't crazy, things like this have already happened but with other sites such as Megaupload. And it will only get worse unless people stop these insane bills that Congress is pushing for. The guy in this video explains things in greater depth than I can though so listen to him.

EA supports SOPA, another reason to hate EA.

I'm Canadian, I can't do anything about this. But I like my internet freedom as much as the next guy. To all my American followers, I ask that you help the rest of us out, and help to stop either of these insane things from going through.

I'll see you guys Wednesday.

Hello Dear

When I'm offline I generally don't enjoy talking about myself or sharing information. When asked even the smallest personal question I try to be as vague as possible or distract from said question. I guess this is partially why almost no one I know in real life knows about this blog.

Note that I said almost. There are things you can hide from people for so long and all it took was a glance over my shoulder and the following question:

She probably had this expression on her face too.

So I'd like to say hello to my girlfriend Theresa, who you may or may not have heard about already. I don't know when she'll get around to reading this post, and I hope she weren't serious when she said she was going to read all the posts. My blog reads like a poorly written fanfiction.

Yes Dear, I whine about everything and everything. And yes I call my girlfriend Dear. I know it makes me sound like an old man but I think calling your significant other something like "BABEE GURL" is condescending.

I LUV U 5EVA CUZ 5 IS MOAR THEN 4.

Does this mean a change in my way of posting? Not really, I'm still going to be the same derpy Damian you've come to know and love. If anything, I can't ask you guys about gift suggestions for Theresa anymore. Can't risk having her spoil the surprise.

Oh, I guess there'll be more pictures of cute things. You guys love koalas, corgis and cats right?

Seriously, if this doesn't distract her from the rest of my blog, nothing will.

You know what, to be safe, here's another:

Puppy!

Love you Dear, hope I haven't embarrassed you too much in front of all the internet strangers.

Finals Week Post 1

Finals are consuming all my time meaning I haven't been able to visit as many blogs as I'd like OR make quality posts. Which means it's time for more Youtube videos. Yay! Don't worry, I try and keep these videos around a minute to 2 minutes, I know you're all busy and who watches 10 minute long videos anyways?

Exception are made for Bersercules however...

Animals are always popular so let's start with one of those:

Adorable.

And now something painful:

You can hear it...

Is this child abuse or animal abuse? I can't tell:

Let's see how many Soviet Russia jokes I get in the comments...

Who's still with me? This last video is only NSFW is you have a dirty mind. Do you have a dirty mind? I know I do:

Is there anything he can't do?

That's it for now. I think I have this post set to publish on Monday meaning I'm writing my Abnormal Psychology midterm soon. Wish me luck, and I'll see you guys on Thursday.

Volunteering Woes

I don't know about the rest of you but volunteering has been ingrained in my mind as something that is vital. That's what they taught me in school and all the "amazing" students were doing it. Well, it's vital if you want to contribute to your community and look like a good person.

Or buffer your resume with....

This term I was asked by a friend to join an administrative part of student group that helped with giving English lessons on Saturdays. Generally foreigners and international students sign up for classes of various levels so they can learn to better read, speak and write English.

Yeah, I had to up early on a Saturday morning but I usually didn't mind. It means I get another opportunity to see old classmates who are in completely different programs from myself. And I do try to keep in touch with people.

They tell me that things are usually hectic, especially for the admins. But due to some problems with Student Services we weren't able to operate at full capacity in the Fall. Things were kind of dead a lot of the times. I'll be honest, most days I'd only have 1 or 2 things to do then I'd derp around.

Actually next term, we won't be allowed to operate at all.

 

Wat.

Yeah, Student Services doesn't consider us a student group anymore despite the group being over 30 years old. I think some obscure line in the Terms of Service applies to us and now they have to put us on hiatus until further notice.

Until things are fixed I'll most likely be volunteering with the local Humane Society next term. Not that I mind, most of the animals seem to really appreciate being let out of their kennels for some fresh air and be able to run around for a bit.

When your home is this big at best, I'm not surprised.

And of course, Theresa has wanted a dog for a while. If any Yorkies or Corgis are found, maybe I can work something out.

End of Term!

It's a bit hard to believe but the end of the Fall semester is finally coming to an end as of tomorrow. Are you excited? I'm excited. Remember when I said I could be a massive waste of space? Well what better way to accomplish that then during the Christmas break.

Video games forever!

But we still have a few obstacles to overcome before that can happen. First, we have research related things. I've got two papers to finish up. One is simply a review of everything that I've done this term. Nothing too difficult. It's half typed up, just needs some cleaning and I think I'll be good.

The other paper is much more important. My prof believes that we have enough data and believable results so we can publish. My name will be on that paper and that would go a long ways in impressing people in the future I think. Not something a lot of undergrads can say they have.

And now she won't be the only one!

I also need to finalize some details on the next experiment that we'll be running next term. Unfortunately I've been running into a lot of technical problems so wish me luck as I work on that.

And then we have the finals for my Psychology courses. They're spread pretty far apart so I think I'll be ok. It'll give me plenty of time to study and review. And best of all, I don't have multiple exams on the same day.

I'm going to keep this post short, I really should get started with studying. I don't know what to think of this video. It's not animal abuse but I'm not sure why the cat likes it so much.

Terraria, why do you hate us?

For those of you who are not aware Steam is celebrating the holiday season with their Daily Wishlist giveaway. Simply have a Steam account with 10 items in your wishlist and then view the daily special to be entered.

What does Terraria have to do with this? Well, to celebrate version 1.1 coming out it was Thursday's daily special at 75% off. A lot of people call it a Minecraft clone but there are enough big differences between the two games so that really isn't an issue.

Diggy diggy hole hole.

Anyways my girlfriend Theresa prefers Terraria to Minecraft because 2D games don't make her nauseous. We don't understand why Minecraft makes her motionsick, we disabled headbobbing, fiddled with mouse sensitivity, etc. etc. but still she feels ill some days.

But for whatever reason, Terraria did not want to cooperate with either of us that day.

Maybe we should have stuck with Minecraft...

There are new features out for Terraria and because I want to try them out with my girlfriend I begin setting up a server. I'm not the most techy guy around but I at least I know how to go onto Youtube and research these things. Follow step by step instructions. I may be derpy but I'm not that derpy.

But no amount of research would get my router to port forward correctly. In other words, no one was able to connect to the server I was hosting. I struggled for several hours before finally giving up. Maybe it's an issue with my router, I'm tempted to reset it and try again.

Or maybe I can just stare at it until it fixes itself.

Meanwhile, Theresa was dealing with in-game issues. The game has new challenges and hazards including new monsters and traps littered around the dungeons. Our current armor isn't up to par and it became quickly apparent. BUT, there is a new NPC that exists who can help enhance your armor. Theresa set forth on a quest to find him.

The new NPCs spawn randomly in dungeons and needs to be "rescued" by you. After that they spawn where ever you've built a home allowing you to access their services more easily.

Surprisingly, my girlfriend managed to find the guy with no trouble at all. She goes up to talk to him and then....

A bug occurred that caused the NPC to glitch and disappear.

 

I imagine her expression was something like this.  

While my girlfriend goes to find where the NPC has respawned I'm tempted to just pay a bit of cash and just rent a server for as long as Theresa wants to play. It'll be easier to manage and maybe we can get other friends to join.

And if that works, maybe I can get that Minecraft server going too.

Me Not Healthy: Always Tired (Part 4)

This is a continuation of my quest to figure out why I've been constantly tired for the last few years. If you're new and not sure what's going on, here's part 1, part 2 and part 3.

This must be a pain to read from the beginning.

So I finally get to see this specialist. I fill out a few forms and as the guy is looking through the papers he stops and goes, "That's interesting, you grind your teeth at night? That might explain a few things".

Remember how I mentioned how one of the potential causes for my sleep apnea could be my jaw causing my throat to close up? Turns out, grinding your teeth at night is sometimes your body's way of forcing your jaw off so you can breathe again.

I get to chose between breathing or maintaining my awesome smile.

I've had the teeth grinding problem for (surprise surprise) years as well. I got a mouth guard to wear at night so I don't destroy my teeth in my sleep. So the next step is to go get a specially made mouth guard that not only prevents the teeth grinding BUT also stops my jaw from crushing things.

Oh! And you know what else the specialist told me? "You might have a special case for sleep apnea. We only see this kind of thing in tall and thin Asian males".

TALL, THIN, ASIAN MALES.

I WONDER WHAT OTHER HEALTH PROBLEMS THESE GUYS GET.

I also wonder what other surprises my genes have in store for me.

Unfortunately, I guess the earliest I can see the orthodontics guy is in February. Which means there won't be an update to this until then.

In the meantime, I'll be using my Abnormal Psychology's professor's audio lectures to help me fall asleep.

If his voice can make me sleep in class, it can make me fall asleep anywhere.

Link here to Part 5.

Blogging Tips

A lot of people were surprised in my last post that I have managed to make any form of profit off my blog, especially seeing how my blog is still relatively new. I mean, this thing isn't even 4 months old and I've already made enough in that time span to cash out. I must be doing something right.

I deserve a gold star!

So here are four things that I've done that I think have helped my blog be marginally successful, maybe they'll help some of you too?

Regular posting schedules

This is probably one of the biggest issues I've seen with a lot of blogs. Inconsistent posting and giant unannounced hiatuses. People generally don't like that and are less likely to visit. Find a schedule that works for you, and stick with it. If you can post everyday like Mark, good for you. If you can only post once a week, that's good too, just be consistent.

And don't feel bad if you think you need to tweek things. I used to post every other day but when I realized I couldn't keep it up I changed to every third day. No big deal. And when things get hectic I'm prepared. I have posts made in advanced (usually things like Youtube videos)

Like so.

Content of Posts

Ok, so you're posting regularly, that's good. Content of your posts is important too. And by that I mean watch what you say.

Nothing offensive, try to be as neutral as possible, pretend that you're in front of a bunch of impressionable 5 year olds or this is the first time meeting the parents of your significant other. This isn't because "Oh no, a follower might get offended and stop reading my blog" this is because the banhammer of certain privileges strikes hard and fast.

And the Google Overlords are always watching...

Better safe than sorry.

Followers

Unless your blog is amazing and goes viral in a few days you're going to have to work at getting followers and comments. People visiting your blog is key to making any financial gains and often the fastest way to do this for a new blog is other bloggers.

The easiest way is to find a blog that's already successful and then comment on their blog. And then you go down the list and comment on everyone that's commented on that blog. And then you keep going until you think you've hit enough blogs. I started out with D4's blog actually and eventually that led to all of your blogs.

Small world.

Afterwards I only come back if you return the favor. This helps me determine whose blog is still alive and if you actually read my comment. Because I do try my best to say something that isn't "LOLOL GOOD POST".

New Followers

Alright, so now you have your following. You get a fair number of comments on your blog but eventually you notice that your view counts are dropping and you're getting less comments despite commenting back on all the blogs you've found above.

People are going to stop blogging for whatever reason and that means less views for you. You're going to need new followers if you want to keep people coming to your blog. It's a simple but vital step I've seen a lot of people neglect.

It's as simple as going to a recent post, going through the comments, and commenting on all the blogs that have commented on your commenters. I generally like to clear my history and cookies before I do this, allows me to start fresh and as I go along, the blogs I've visited will be marked.

I've come across a lot of "interesting" blogs in the past.

Hope this helps. This is what I've done and it's worked for me. Hope it answers some questions but if it didn't, ask in a comment and I'll respond as soon as possible.

Early Christmas Shopping

With about a month left until Christmas most people begin to start shopping (and panicking) right about now if not later. Me? I started shopping back in October. Thanks to the glory of being able to order things online I can just buy and forget, receiving a package in the mail a few weeks later.

Makes me wonder why more people don't do this.

For my girlfriend I've got things still on their way. There are rumors that Problem Sleuth Volume 3 and Homestuck Volume 1 are coming out near the end of the month so I'm hoping to order both for my sister. Anyone else read the Inheritance series? The 4th book came out so I grabbed that for my Mom and my brother wants computer parts so I'll get those whenever.

For a lot of friends it's as easy as going onto Steam during a Steam sale and buying things to gift to them later. No seriously, I just bought Portal 1 and 2 for less than $12 yesterday and I'm just waiting for other games to go on sale for other friends. I also bought a ton of Minecraft giftcodes to give away just before the game came out of Beta.

That was easy.

But there are two people I'm having trouble thinking of gifts for. My Dad and my cousin. Mom should be on this list too but I lucked out this year with the book. Dad is hard to buy for because I sadly don't know my Dad that well. We're both usually busy, we don't have a lot in common, etc. etc..

I know he likes chocolates and I've heard that some of the best places to get chocolates are from online stores. Unfortunately, I have no idea where that particular issue of Consumer Reports has disappeared to so I'll keep hunting.

The cousin is also someone I don't really talk to as much. I guess I could just get him a random PS3 game or One Piece related (are there any One Piece games for the PS3?). I already have something in mind for his brother so that makes me look bad if I don't get both of them gifts.

Why couldn't he have a Steam account instead of a PS3...

But I still have one month left so I'm not panicking too hard. This blog is actually helping to pay for some of the gifts so I'm grateful for that. Never thought I could ever successfully make money off what is largely considered online leisure activity.

Never been more glad to be wrong.

Where I'm at Now

Long time readers will know I started this blog way back in August because I had no idea what I was doing with myself or my degree. And to be honest, I still don't really have a clear idea of what I'm going to do.

Remember when I tried to get a job? Yeah, that didn't work out too well. So much for delaying things for another year to buy me more time to figure out what to do. So, clearly the smart thing to do would be to try and find another job right away at the first opportunity.

What?

Hear me out. See, there's a Psychology Internship program that my University offers that would be awesome if I could get in. For one year, you'd work with other psychologists, get valuable field experience AND get paid at the same time.

Plus it be a really good break after so many non-stop years of classes. Jobs range anywhere from research to medical to judicial. Each year the co-coordinator contacts a ton of interested organizations and then students contact them and arrange for interviews.

What could possibly go wrong?

Brilliant.

Well for starters, I'm a 4th year student, this is a program for 3rd year people. No problem, no problem, they make exceptions.

To people who have not exceeded the course credit limit.

I exceeded that limit last term.

BUT if you can make a compelling case they sometimes will even make an exception for people in this category as well. I talked to a few people and thanks to my multiple interview failures I am now "more experienced in interviews" and I've done more research so more "research experience" is also a good thing to tell them.

If only it were like this.

Sadly, I won't be able to know the department will make an exception for me or not until January. Also, if I decide to do the internship I can't graduate in April. Also, also, I need to start talking with other co-coordinators to figure out my Winter schedule to improve my chances.

If I can get this internship I have a chance at getting a job somewhere that I've always dreamed of. But no comment on that yet, don't want to jinx myself. Let's see if I can even get accepted for the internship program to start with.

Research Symposiums are Time Consuming

Some of you may have noticed my lack of comments this week and I apologize for that. I've been busy preparing for a research symposium that was held today. Basically, I had to polish and refine a poster that boils down all the research I've done and present it to anyone interested.

And pray I won't be like this the entire time.

I won't go into the details of my research. It's not the most amazing or interesting stuff in the world. Just investigation into how a particular memory technique might work. What is more interesting (in my mind) is the work that went into the poster.

I ran into a few complications such as graphs that didn't work properly, Powerpoint being a pain in the butt and not working properly, being tired and my brain not working properly, you get the idea. All this leads to me being forced to submit my poster for printing on the night before and then having to run out in freezing weather to pick it up.

Had I sent the poster even one day earlier, I could have saved my hands and face from our harsh Canadian winters.

Forgive me exposed flesh.

And then when I get around to setting up my poster, there are a few graphical errors. Not sure how my prof, supervisors and myself missed that, I suspect it may have been due to a cropping issue when they printed my poster but no time to fix it.

Did I mention that there would be judges? Yeah, judges came around to talk to you about your posters, assign you a grade so hopefully you'd win an award later that afternoon. 15 minutes after I notice the poster errors I get my first judge.

And already I'm stuttering and explaining things in a confusing manner.

Seriously, this isn't the first time I've discussed this material, it shouldn't be this difficult. Fortunately, things get better and I'm somewhat more coherent with my other two judges.

Unfortunately however, I didn't win anything (I blame this on the first judge). My friend Adrian however got $250 for having the best poster in physics for his work on string theory. Ah well, at least I presented something. These types of events are always good to tack onto a resume.

Scrambled Eggs and Microwave Brownies

I like cooking, I just never get around to doing it as often as I can and when I do it usually results in disaster. Such as the carbonara that became like fried rice or setting butter on fire in the microwave.

Nothing to see here, move along.

But I found two things that I wanted to try out. Gordon Ramsey's way of cooking scrambled eggs, and 3 minute brownies made from scratch. Don't worry Lizzy, I made proper brownies too, my experience with those will go in another post.

I was always taught to make scrambled eggs by first, whisking eggs together in a small bowl, pouring the mixture into a frying pan, folding the mixture and viola, dry and crumbly eggs. So then I decided to follow this video.

I'm just going to say this now, I love Ramsey.

He cooks it in a pot, breaks the eggs in said pot and the eggs look moist. Completely different from how I've been taught to make scrambled eggs. My turn, I don't go all fancy with the mascarpone cheese, chives or smoked salmon. My eggs look like this:

Ok, certainly not as visually appealing as Ramsey's (I suck at plating) but my eggs were nice and moist this time. Maybe too moist? Next time I think I'll cook them for a bit longer. I didn't get food poisoning so that's always a plus.

Ok, that's one success, let's be adventurous and try this next:

I've seen this and variations all over the place. I've heard inconsistent reports of decent brownies and goopy monstrosities. It's my turn to try it out. and here's what I got:

Yeah... It kind of deflated but tastewise it was a bit bland. My suggestion to anyone else wanting to try the above recipe to throw in things like chocolate chips to make it taste better. Other than that, it was easy, extremely moist and it actually worked. Keep in mind that not all microwaves are the same.

I'm actually kind of proud of myself. Maybe there is some hope for me in the kitchen after all.

Me Not Healthy: Always Tired (Part 3)

It's been a while but I've finally been able to go see my doctor and discuss a few things with him. Anyone who isn't sure what I'm talking about can catch up by reading Part 2 and/or Part 1.

First things first, we go over the data that was given with the new CPAP mask. The good news was that I had a significant reduction in apneas. I was waking up maybe like, 3 times a night or something at the very best which is a huge improvement over 15 times at worst.

The bad news was that even with the apnea reductions I was still waking up tired.

Sometimes even too tired to finish a blog post.

So my doctor recommends that I stop using it. I'm not seeing any visible improvements, I haven't got used to the thing even after a month of trying it, it's just not working out. I mean, the most sleep I ever get with the thing is maybe 5 hours? And it's usually because I wake up and tear it off my face so I can sleep more comfortably.

The CPAP was helping to reduce apneas but wasn't addressing the actual cause of them. The next logical thing was to check the most likely offenders; my thyroid, my tonsils, or my jaw. If my thyroid was enlarged it could be pressing down on my windpipe, causing me to choke and wake up in my sleep. Same thing applies to my tonsils except if they could be closing off my throat. Lastly, my jaw could be falling back and crushing something.

It's like my own body wants to kill me.

So, Doctor touches the side of my neck. Nope. No enlarged thyroids.

Doctor looks down my throat with a light. Nope. No enlarged tonsils.

And then he tells me that I'd need to see my dentist to verify if there are any jaw problems.

So, we still don't know what's wrong with me.

Back where we started...

It's not all bad though. He booked an appointment for me to go see a sleep specialist in a few weeks and we got more x-rays because I think there might be something wrong with my lungs again. But we'll see, I don't think I'll be falling over dead any time soon.

Unless it turns out I have gastrointestinal problems too...

Link to Part 4.