Tell us what's happening in your life

Had a bit of a wake-up call this week. Last year I was feeling generally unwell and went to the doctor and they said I had very high blood pressure. I was resistant to being put on medication, so I changed my diet and increased exercise. I don't use gyms or anything organised, I have always had manually demanding jobs and walked a lot, so am reasonably fit for my age. Anyway, I shed over 20 lbs, improved my diet and felt a lot better. 

This week I went for a six-month check so they could see how I was doing. Annoyingly my blood pressure had gone up. The nurse took it four times to make sure then said it was worryingly high and she needed to speak to the doctor about it. She came back and said he had prescribed meds for me and I needed to take them straight away as I was now at very high risk of heart attack or stroke. I asked how this could be when I had done all that they told me to and she said that sometimes it is just genetics. 

So here I am stuck taking blood pressure meds and the cold reality that I am now officially old has slapped me in the face. I think it is that that pisses me off more than the actual health implications themselves. Hopefully the meds will work and I will still be here posting bollocks for a few more years yet!

Firstly, sorry to hear this Sonny.  Losing weight and improving your diet should have at least helped I would have thought, like you said.  The thing that annoys me about the response from the health care professional is that they appear to have done absolutely no investigation.  The culture in our health industry of “just take these pills” without looking to the root cause of the issue is just so frustrating.

I had a similar conversation last year when I had been unwell with some breathing difficulties and had been for some blood tests.  THREE MONTHS later the doctor’s surgery phoned me to say they had found some marginally high markers on my kidney function and that my cholesterol was higher than it should be.  Within 2 mins of the call the advanced nurse practitioner was talking about putting me on Statins.  I politely told him to Foxtrot Oscar.

I know they are trained professionals but they are only lapping up what big pharma funded studies tell them, or worse when it comes to diet they are just using data from research funded by food companies to justify their “healthly” products.  Just look up Ansell Keys and his “research” into how fat was bad for us all and so he undertook a study (paid for by Mr Kellogg and friends if memory serves me correctly) to show that meat, lard, butter and high fat content foods were bad for you.  He studied 22 countries.  15 of them disproved the theory as those with predominantly carbohydrate based diets all had similar health markers in their populations.  What did he do?  He kicked those 15 out of the study and therefore two thirds of his research base was just dismissed because it would not meet the criteria that his investors were looking for to justify pushing their branded diets.

Thanks, Vinny. I completely agree that corporate manipulation and influence has completely undermined faith in not only medical professionalism, but any kind of public service, whether it is food production, news reporting, even car emissions ratings. Is it any wonder that there is such a proliferation of mistrust nowadays when the system has proved itself time and again to be untrustworthy, working to benefit the corporate world and perpetuate the status quo that suits the rich and powerful rather than working in the public interest.

 I grew up on a farm. We were whipped daily, from 5am until dusk. They would make us eat moldy old cabbage soup,  while reciting the lords prayer. Sometimes old Mr striklin would look at my sister in dirty ways, (he was the the local vicar). 

For birthdays, we each got an old turnip and some dried horse manure formed into animal shapes. They were the good old days if I'm honest though, not like now. I kind of miss them. They would also tie us up to a horse & kart, drag us around the fields for the fun of it.  Then when we were exhausted, they would make us roll around with the pigs. Until I was 10 years old, for the longest time I was actually convinced I was in fact a pig, until I discovered the 'power of speech'. Of course speaking was discouraged and if we made any noise, other than a grunt or a snort, we would often get the belt or some apple cider vinegar rubbed into our cuts and grazes. I'll freely admit I was forced to ride cows... and I'm not taking about friendly Galloway's either, I'm talking aggressive Holstein Milkers. 

Now no matter what people think or say,  cows are actually more aggressive than sharks. More farm hands die from cow attacks than from great white attacks annually. That is a fact! It's actually a wonder I survived but what did not kill me made me the strong individual I am today. Thanks for reading my thoughts.

Good morning all.

I was in an accident a while back and I’ve been figuring out how to repair my beloved GatorMobile.I was also working a long term position for an English teacher which concluded yesterday. 

I’ve resolved to get my Florida Teaching Certification-no such avenue existed for me in MI. I continue to practice guitar and I am trying to gather a group to run Vampire the Masquerade TTRPG.

Im a busy fella these days that’s what’s up.

Figured I'd finally throw an update in here since it's been a very busy few years.

I try to be a very busy guy with a bunch of varied hobbies, so the time commitments caught up to me when my career started to further in a way that I both wasn't and was prepared for. It was a good problem to have for a little while, since I was getting some serious experience and carving my own little niche into the projects I worked on, but after a while it became concerning that things weren't getting easier. I'm a young-ish civil engineer who became my office's most senior design guy just by trying to do a good job and keep all the younger designers on track, not necessarily because I wanted any sort of title. That turned into way more stress than I figured, since I began to have to manage our managers to keep projects running in a way that made sense and didn't have us younger guys staring down missed deadlines or shoddy coordination. A lot of the work I did with music, whether that was listening or review writing, happened in-between stuff at work and I just couldn't keep up after a certain point. I still kept listening, but in a much less critical or focused way than I had done in the past. 

All that to say, I finally hit the point where I'm swapping jobs, hence why I'm back in action a bit more around here. I've been taking a month off between positions to reset a bit and catch up on some much needed stuff with friends, around the house, and with life in general. I'm headed to a company where everyone has only had good things to say about their management team, so I'm pretty confident that my day to day will open up a lot more and allow me to go back to being a bit creative here and there with less worries swirling around everywhere. I miss actually giving a shit and really diving into music, albums, and the scene in general, and I think I'm setting myself up well to be able to do that again. 

I even got back to my first show in over a year, seeing Callous Daoboys with one of the weirdest show billings ever. It was a blast, considering I Don't Want To See You In Heaven turned out to be my 2026 AOTY. Looking forward to being back in action!

Figured I'd finally throw an update in here since it's been a very busy few years.

I try to be a very busy guy with a bunch of varied hobbies, so the time commitments caught up to me when my career started to further in a way that I both wasn't and was prepared for. It was a good problem to have for a little while, since I was getting some serious experience and carving my own little niche into the projects I worked on, but after a while it became concerning that things weren't getting easier. I'm a young-ish civil engineer who became my office's most senior design guy just by trying to do a good job and keep all the younger designers on track, not necessarily because I wanted any sort of title. That turned into way more stress than I figured, since I began to have to manage our managers to keep projects running in a way that made sense and didn't have us younger guys staring down missed deadlines or shoddy coordination. A lot of the work I did with music, whether that was listening or review writing, happened in-between stuff at work and I just couldn't keep up after a certain point. I still kept listening, but in a much less critical or focused way than I had done in the past. 

All that to say, I finally hit the point where I'm swapping jobs, hence why I'm back in action a bit more around here. I've been taking a month off between positions to reset a bit and catch up on some much needed stuff with friends, around the house, and with life in general. I'm headed to a company where everyone has only had good things to say about their management team, so I'm pretty confident that my day to day will open up a lot more and allow me to go back to being a bit creative here and there with less worries swirling around everywhere. I miss actually giving a shit and really diving into music, albums, and the scene in general, and I think I'm setting myself up well to be able to do that again. 

I even got back to my first show in over a year, seeing Callous Daoboys with one of the weirdest show billings ever. It was a blast, considering I Don't Want To See You In Heaven turned out to be my 2026 AOTY. Looking forward to being back in action!

Hey Xephyr, it is good to see you back.  Sorry to hear work became a drag for you.  I have been there, acting out of my pay grade and my comfort zone and it is not pleasant.  It is good to hear you have found somewhere that will appreciate you more and allow you to have some quality work/life balance which is so key.  I am typing this whilst sat in a hotel a few hundred miles from home as I am meeting clients up in Scotland.  I have gotten to a point job wise where I am more or less my own boss and I am therefore often pushing multiple people or departments to get things done.  The plus side is that I do feel the salary reflects the effort - for the first time in over 30 years of working - so the hit I take on my personal time is dampened somewhat.  

Looking forward to seeing some more reviews from you as you get to enjoy your free time more.

Hey, Xephyr, I am so glad to see you have been able to get a more balanced position. Hope things work out just great for you. I understand what its like to work under more pressure than you signed up for and that is why I took my retirement early. The money wasn't worth the time and the damage to my mental well-being, so I took the plunge.

Your old company's loss is our gain and it is great to see you active on here again.

I really hope this new management team works out for you, and we're all glad to have you back in the game with us!

Hey Xephyr, it is good to see you back.  Sorry to hear work became a drag for you.  I have been there, acting out of my pay grade and my comfort zone and it is not pleasant.  It is good to hear you have found somewhere that will appreciate you more and allow you to have some quality work/life balance which is so key.  I am typing this whilst sat in a hotel a few hundred miles from home as I am meeting clients up in Scotland.  I have gotten to a point job wise where I am more or less my own boss and I am therefore often pushing multiple people or departments to get things done.  The plus side is that I do feel the salary reflects the effort - for the first time in over 30 years of working - so the hit I take on my personal time is dampened somewhat.  

Looking forward to seeing some more reviews from you as you get to enjoy your free time more.

Thanks Vinny, from watching my old office's principals/partial owners I know what it looks like to be abhorrently busy so I'm glad you at least have some solace in the pay. Travelling for work always seems like an awesome deal to us newer, 9-to-5 office guys at first, until it just becomes an annoying and uprooting part of the job. 

Hey, Xephyr, I am so glad to see you have been able to get a more balanced position. Hope things work out just great for you. I understand what its like to work under more pressure than you signed up for and that is why I took my retirement early. The money wasn't worth the time and the damage to my mental well-being, so I took the plunge.

Your old company's loss is our gain and it is great to see you active on here again.

Thanks Sonny, thankfully my position wasn't filled with overtime or other ridiculous office culture horror stories you sometimes see online, but it was enough that I felt like nothing positive was happening. With all your reviews I've been seeing pop up on RYM recently I'd say you're enjoying the music portion of your retirement time pretty well!

I really hope this new management team works out for you, and we're all glad to have you back in the game with us!

Thank you Rex, I'm pretty confident it will considering every single person I've talked to has had good things to say. It'd be impressive if all 5 or 6 people were lying straight to my face!