Hi.

I’m back from my Facebook hiatus. Not because I missed it, but because I’m a writer who needs to promote his writing. I am not, and never have been, opposed to social media as I feel it is not Chaotic Evil (Lawful Evil at worst, Lawful Neutral at best). I don’t spend much time on it but I am active on Threads these days and Instagram is still my favorite social media platform. I get really irritated, however, when people refuse to acknowledge that Facebook isn’t real life. The more I thought about it, the more it irritated me and I just wanted to disappear for a bit, so I did.

Do you know what happened? I still stayed in contact with family, I checked in with my close(ish) friends, I stayed up-to-date on current events (I subscribe to daily emails from NPR, the Skimm and Digg) and I spent, on average, 1-2 hours less looking at my screen each day. I got a lot more reading done and spent much more time writing. I’ll admit that I did miss looking into upcoming events in our area, piddling around on Marketplace and hated that I didn’t have the platform readily available when I wanted to look someone up. Otherwise, avoiding Facebook for 30 days had an overwhelmingly positive impact on my life.

No, I am not holier than thou and no, I don’t look down on you for loving Facebook because I waste time in my own ways, too. If you’re reading this, however, please understand that Facebook is not real life. And the social media algorithm does an expert job of creating an echo chamber so you’re less likely to see any views that oppose your own. Many sources cited as “news” are hardly vetted or fact-checked and most viral photos are misleading. 

Statistically speaking, we live in the safest, most peaceful time on this planet, but saying so doesn’t garner many clicks. If you choose to live in a bubble where the world is going to hell more so now than ever before, where the “left” is coming to get your guns and the “right” is implementing fascist policy, and where every other city, state and country is violently dangerous and your hometown is the only place that’s secure, then I implore you: please continue to do so. Click those links so Facebook will continue telling you you’re right with more and more one-sided rhetoric.

And by all means, keep posting your good side on Facebook so you can feel like the world gives a shit about you. Keep comparing yourself to other people you don’t actually care about. And whatever you do, don’t ever take your eyes off that little scrolling screen.

I’ll do the same. 

Anyway, here’s where we are this month:

Goals I’ve Kept Up With:

Clean Eating & Tithemi

I am almost all the way through this program. I have about two weeks left as-written, which will leave me around the second week of December. My plan is to pop into the gym 3-5 times per week for the rest of the year to get in some work where I can between Christmas travel but then I have a new bodybuilding-style program written and ready to rock for the new year. I have a goal to be the most fit 40 year old you’ve ever seen so that mission is going to be in full force.

Continue Learning Italian

I fell off earlier in the year but I’ve been blasting through my Duolingo programming. My streak is nearing the 30-days mark and I have no intention of stopping! Over the course of November, any time I felt like I was about to hop on Facebook, I’d pull up my Duolingo instead. Typically I do 2-3 lessons in Italian every day, followed by 2-3 music lessons and then a few math lessons just for fun.

Saturday Night Grindhouse Project

My foreword is written, my introduction is written, my epilogue has been written and I have completed my first round of edits. I hope to have my manuscript submitted to the editor once more for another pass and while they’re looking over it, I’ll be assembling some photos to include inside and working with a designer to put together a rad book cover. I can’t believe we’re this close!

3-Month Goal – Read 3 New Books (15 Books: 12 Month Goal)

Done and DONE! Last month I finished The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty, the Compound Effect by Darren Hardy and Angela’s Ashes: A Memoir by Frank McCourt. The Exorcist was really good but about as scary as the movie (read: not scary at all). The Compound Effect was a colossal waste of time. Angela’s Ashes kept me locked in and I flew through its 400+ pages! One of the best books I’ve read this year. That brings my total for the year to 16 books. I’m now reading Myths and Tales of the American Indians by Ed J. Bierhorst.

Goals that Need Revision:

220 Pounds by 39

So my goal was to show that you can still lose weight and get absolutely SHREDDED during the holidays. And while I’m still very happy with the 10 pounds I’ve lost, I’m a few pounds short of my goal. The Halloween, Anniversary and Thanksgiving holidays didn’t really hurt me so much – it was mostly the four weeks of depression and stress eating that did me in. My new goal for 39 (eight days away) is to be as close to 225 as possible (within two pounds in either direction).

New Goals:

New Goals!

How very meta of me, am I right? As the year comes to a close, Katie and I always spend time thinking about what our goals for the new year will be so I’ll be busy scratching out a list of the things I want to accomplish in the year 2024, my 40th year and beyond. I already have a few plans but I’ll wait to share those in January.

Goals I’m Letting Go:

None this month.

Rad Things From November:

In November, we celebrated our first year as a beautiful married couple and “discovered” a fun little dive down the road from us called Mind Yer P’s and Q’s that was way cooler than we expected it to be. I had a fun photo shoot in the backyard with Ozzy, balanced a cup on Brüe’s head, made a baller venison roast for my in-laws and accidentally got rum-drunk at a college football tailgate party. I got most of my Christmas shopping done, spent some time with my parents while enjoying some awesome Thanksgiving food and Katie learned how to make a classic Carver family recipe. I may have gotten slightly margarita buzzed before grocery shopping at Costco (HIGHLY recommend), scored tickets to see Green Day next year and was stood up by KISS when they canceled their Knoxville concert at the last minute. Since we didn’t have a show to go to, we took my father-in-law out for a killer oysters and crab cakes dinner. It maybe wasn’t AS fun but the seafood was better, we could hear each other all night and my neck didn’t hurt the next day. Suck it, Paul Stanley!

Not many photos this month, which is weird but what can you do? December is about to get buck wild with a few road trips planned, birthdays and possibly a NYE party we said we’d host but maybe forgot about (I don’t know). I also have a whopping SEVEN new blog posts saved as drafts so brace yourself for those to come spewing out any day now.

Ever onward,

-JS