Oh hey, my name is Levi.

We went with our friends Alan and Bridget on a quick 24-hour road trip to see one of my favorite bands when I was in college, Hot Water Music. It's honestly been years since I listened to them regularly. I think they've put out more albums since I stopped listening to them than had back when I was super into them, but the concert was a blast and it's always good to get some hang time with good friends.

Quicksand was one of the openers and they were the real highlight for me. It made me wish I'd listen to them more when I was younger. They'll definitely be in my rotation for the foreseeable future. Also the bass player played a sick Fender Bass VI that made me want to buy one. I did a bit of research online yesterday and it turns out they make a Squire version that super affordable! I'm very much considering picking one up.

Here are a couple quick snaps from the show. I was standing far away, so they're not great quality.

We also ate at a pretty great restaurant called Kitchen Social. I would definitely recommend. The cheddar and scallion biscuits were diabolically good. All in all a really great, but short getaway. Looking forward to doing something similar again soon.

I've been overweight most of my life. It's a constant struggle for me to not gain weight. I went to the doctor earlier this year and I'm the heaviest I've ever been in my life. I joined a gym with a personal trainer this Spring to finally try and get myself in shape and so far it's going much better than I anticipated. I'm getting in three pretty intense workouts per week, mostly staying away from alcohol, and I'm doing surprisingly well on following a nutrition plan.

I say surprisingly well because food has always been my downfall when trying to get in shape. I fucking love food. I plan whole days around it. I reward myself with food when I've had a good day. I also reward myself with food when I've had a bad day. But, something about the nutrition plan I'm following just works for me.

My trainer loosely refers to it as the Palm, Fist, Thumb method. For breakfast and lunch I eat a palm-sized protein, and a fist-sized portion of both carbohydrates and vegetables. For dinner I have a palm-sized protein, a fist full of veggies, and a thumb-sized portion of healthy fats. I have a list of a dozen or so foods in each category that allows me to assemble easy healthy meals. It's It's nothing revolutionary, but it follows a loose system of modular components that let's me pick and choose how I design my meals. That appeals to my design and systems nerd sensibilities.

Looking back, it's easy to see how I end up where I am health-wise. Things really got away from me during the pandemic. I developed a lot of bad habits, both physically and socially, and haven't really been able to recover as of yet. But, today marks a moth since my first workout and Monday will be a month on the nutrition plan. As of my last weigh in I've lost a little over 10 pounds, but more importantly, I feel so much better physically and mentally.

There will be a total solar eclipse today and my home town of Bloomington, Indiana is in the path of totality. The eclipse will start at 1:49pm EST and will peak at 3:04pm. We are situated in the best viewing area in the state with maximum coverage at 100% for a total of just over four minutes. William Shatner is in town to speak at an event IU's Memorial Stadium that also includes a performance by Janelle Monáe. The population of Bloomington was expected to increase from around 100,000 to almost 300,000 for the event.

We have a perfect view of the eclipse from our front yard. Our neighbors are coming over to watch and then we're going to have dinner together after. Being in the path of totality is a once in a lifetime event that won't happen in the US for another 21 years on August 12, 2045. I'll be 54 by then and our son will be 38.

I worked the first half of the day, had one meeting, started prepping some food for dinner. All in all a pretty leisurely day so far. I'm Feeling excited and lucky I get to watch the eclipse with my family and have a nice dinner with friends.

I never knew there was an official term for the language phenomenon where people substitute words in common phrases because they don't know the real words. Apparently, this is a relatively new term. Language is so fascinating. Here are a few eggcorn examples.

• Eggcorns → Acorns
• All intensive purposes → All intents and purposes
• Doggy dog world → Dog eat dog world

I first heard about eggcorns via a new YouTube channel I recently discovered called RobWords and highly recommend checking it out if you have any interest in language and etymology. I've been slowly working my way through all of their videos this week. There is also an online eggcorn database if you really want to dig in.

I keep this note in my Obsidian vault called Things I can't remember anymore. This is probably not of interest to most people, but some of these things brought up a lot of feelings when I realized I couldn't remember them anymore. Some of it made me think about how I might work to experience some of these things again one day. These are several things I can't remember anymore.

1. What I did with all my free time before I owned a smart phone
2. What I did with all my free time before I had a kid—mine is almost 17 and has friends that drive and mostly does his own thing. What do I do with all this new free time after 16 years?
3. My childhood best friend's phone number—I mean like, his family landline phone that was stationery and hung on the wall
4. What it's like to watch a whole entire movie without getting distracted (see 1. above)
5. The feeling you get from staying up all night doing nothing
6. The pure joy of loading up in a van with your best friends and driving five hours to play a show in a basement for no money
7. How loud, sweaty, smelly, and wonderful those basement shows were
8. How fun it is to sit on a roof and smoke cigarettes
9. How good it feels to drink a cold beer in a hot shower after working on your feet and with your hands all day
10. What it's like to be bored
11. My Grandma's voice
12. The names of my elementary school teachers
13. How to dub a mix tape—like an actual cassette tape
14. What it's like to go to a video rental store and just browse until you find something to take home and watch
15. The feeling of brushing your teeth with your finger when you forgot to pack a toothbrush