Man walks around town

29 March 2020 – Tacoma, WA – Day 4

I want to apologize in advance, we have been inundated with these “writer on location in a crisis” reports and they are often quite boring. My report will be no different.

Bullshit redux

Before I talk about how I went for a walk, I was thinking about a few more bits relating to yesterday’s “Bullshit Jobs” post. I don’t want to accuse anyone of having a useless job but I was thinking about a lot of sports writers and how so many jobs in the sports-news industry seem bullshitty. Or it might be more accurate to describe some of the products as bullshit, rather than the jobs themselves.

For example, if a writer produces a shock-piece just to generate clicks I wonder if that would be a box-ticker job? It’s not generating useful content. It’s generating clicks which generate revenue.

Or maybe it’s a Goon job? I think that any sports-writer who writes a piece which simply serves as PR for a club, agent, or player is playing a Goon role for sure.

But I think that part of the reason why Trump’s “Fake News” epithet sticks is because there are a lot of bullshit jobs in modern news media. In fact, it’s rampant. I would even go so far as to say that part of the reason why news is so expensive/struggling to make profits is because there are so many people on payroll who do bullshit jobs. This doesn’t make “the news” unique, it just makes it modern.

This isn’t a criticism of news. We need reporters. We need people producing quality content! We need people exposing corruption, graft, greed, and informing the public about what corporations and government are really doing. But we don’t need people producing click-bait, slam pieces, and a lot of the content that seems to drive most modern newspapers.

Man takes walk: pretends it’s important

I walked around the neighborhood yesterday (every day) and discovered that most people are, in fact, staying home.

There were no “pieces of paper blowing down empty streets” and it didn’t remind me of a “post-apocalyptic movie where I’m the last man alive.” There are people – we see folks jogging, walking their dogs, and exercising – they just aren’t doing it in groups like they were just last week.

I haven’t been to the grocery store in a while but friends have reported that people are largely staying home and the stores are even somewhat empty (of people) and full (of food).

Yay.

I haven’t gone exploring around town. I’m just staying in my neighborhood which is largely a residential neighborhood – houses on lots. I suppose if I wanted to “report” on Tacoma, I would have to drive around town and check things out. Maybe I’ll do that.

On a personal level, I’m not even slightly bored or effected by the stay at home order. I have finally gotten a chance to relax this weekend after a hell of a week at work – attending online meetings. And even though my daughter was at home with me (single dad), I could hardly spend any time with her. So, by Friday at 1600 I was ready and looking forward to the weekend.

No football means no #content to produce. Instead of my normal 8-10 hours of football we have watched classic cartoons (He-Man, X-Men, Animaniacs, Power Puff Girls, and Transformers) and laughed at the silly production values of these pieces of nostalgia. I should make her watch some Flintstones*. I feel like that cartoon was on every Saturday/Sunday for my entire life.

Diet

In some more personal/boring news my low-sodium/high-fiber diet is going amazingly well. I have now lost 8 pounds in one month and for the first time in two years (since I had to quit playing soccer) I’m below 199lbs. I haven’t been able to check my blood pressure but that’s ok! I’ll wait a few more weeks. It’s not like I was going to die imminently from high blood pressure – I was only 140/99 – more like it was a really good time to start to make changes before things got out of control.

Before you comment on what I should eat please keep in mind the following things:

1. I will never eat “low gluten” because I don’t have celiac or a “gluten allergy”.
2. I am morally opposed to the “all meat” diets and in fact eat 90% vegan with one meat meal a week (this week I had a hamburger on a home-made bun!) because I care about the planet and try not to live a life of abusive luxury.
3. The only reason the all meat diets work is because people eat fewer calories: the only reason Tim’s high fiber diet works is because he eats fewer calories.
4. The diet I am eating makes me feel incredibly full because I eat 40g of fiber a day. I double-dog dare you to eat 40g of fiber (from food – you know, ingredients -, not from a pill, nor from “fiber added” foods) in a day. Pro tips:
   1. Avocados are high in fiber. I use them instead of cheese. And they don’t rot if you just wrap them with the seed and put them in the fridge.
   2. Oats are nice, overnight oats are better, and dried fruit is great in overnight oats. Also frozen berries are amazing in overnight oats.
   3. If you’re hungry for a snack eat a pear, apple, banana, or orange.
   4. Drink a lot of water!
   5. Keep some low-sodium (not no-sodium) nuts around the house for a super snack, learn the portion size for nuts (it’s smaller than you think, probably half what you think it is, maybe even less).
   6. Eat beans for dinner. Dried beans are easy to make and there are a ton of ways to make tasty beans.
   7. Anything you could make with chicken you can make with tofu or beans.
5. I am eating an incredibly well balanced diet full of fresh fruit, vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds, whole grains, with the occasional piece of meat, egg, and cheese.
6. I didn’t ask you for advice (probably the most important thing to remember) and I’m not telling you what to do, though I do think more people should consider eating high fiber as a way to feel full rather than all meat.
7. I LIKE EATING THIS WAY BECAUSE FOOD TASTES INCREDIBLY GOOD!
8. Avoid alcohol, sugary drinks, but still treat yourself every once in a while!

Enough preaching for one day.

Please feel free to unsubscribe. LOL. Blogs aren’t bullshit jobs (because this isn’t a job!) but this post was 100% hogwash.

Qq

*Turns out a lot of classic cartoons are hidden behind various paywalls. The ones I listed I have because of my Starz subscription (don’t judge) but if I wanted to watch Flintstones or Scooby Doo I’d have to subscribe to another channel. I really love the fact that we broke up the cable companies…