It was a normal day in the old internet world yesterday. My game was working and I was happy. I walked at 15% incline and hit a blazing walking speed of 3.8 miles per hour. Didn't even have to take a break. I'm feeling pretty good. 

I think that I'm finally over the hump, so to speak, of this exercise thing. I've found a sustainable daily exercise routine that I look forward to doing, and even enjoy. I'm also at the point where the pain is quite low overall. Which is great because I assumed getting older meant everything would just hurt more and more forever.

This week off will likely have quite an impact on me, but it doesn't have to. It can be good to take a break. Some actual muscle recovery, you say? Could be cool...

I've been having interesting conversations on the Twitch stream sessions. I've was called "wholesome", which I found very amusing. I prefer to think of myself as sort of half-Zen. I try to be aware of my own thoughts, state of mind, and even strive for a certain level of emotional self-control. I also get fussy and grumpy and righteous and yell about things. The difference now is that I have a context for what I used to consider "negative" emotions. I don't feel bad for having them, or even acting on them, as long as I don't rely on them as the primary source. I want to be able to do what I want to do, as well as feel however I feel. I'd say balance but they're not opposites; more like different propellers on a boat. You can some pretty cool stuff with two independent propellers.

Yesterday was wild on the old internet video games scene. I spent two and half hours attempting to play Titan Fall 2. In the meantime, I was streaming the whole thing on Twitch. I think because so many of the usual players weren't able to play combined with natural curiosity about the situation, I had 57 people stop by and watch. Lots of people to talk to while I constantly got booted out of the game. Allegedly, the person responsible for the Denial of Service attack was even in the chat. They were accusing others of being the hacker too. 

It was wild, and a lot of fun. I have no aspirations to monetize my Twitch channel (same with my YouTube channel, and this very blog) although I am not sure what option I have exactly with Twitch because I think they'll start running ads on my stuff based on viewers. I'm not really sure. I may look into it.

The chaos was enough to keep me interested in walking, so that was good. I walked the entire time. 

I'm not sure what challenges will be like today, but we shall see. I joked on the stream that this right here, trying to log in and staring at a loading screen, this is the game now. This is how I play it. 

Maybe it will become true. We shall see.

Yesterday was an exciting day in the world of Titan Fall 2. There appear to be ongoing Denial of Service attacks on players. Many, many, players. Very interesting times indeed.

That's not what was originally on my mind. There is more to my life than video games. Isn't there? I have been interacting with more people...through video games. Wait...

Shoot I need to get ready for this wedding. Pack up whatever I can ahead of time. Get ready for the flight out. Put my Twitch stream on Vacation Mode. Should I take my laptop? Pretend to "get some work done" when really I'm working on a novel about a haunted house?

Definitely something I should be planning now. Or at least this weekend.

I did spend time on Monday cleaning up the house. Dusting and vacuuming and dishes and stuff. My beloved Mabel dog, with her soft fur, is shedding quite a bit. 

I think I've been sleeping okay. What's my blood pressure again? 137 over 78. It was anyway. I've lost a bit of weight so I'll check it again tonight. Oh yeah I need to call my pharmacy also. Better do that now. Here I go!

I feel really stupid. Over the weekend, I asked my nephews to bring their dog, Stark, over to play with the puppies. She gets along with the puppies just fine, but our older dog, Marceline, is kind of a jerk. They've been in the same house for hours at a time before, but of course when dogs are seeing each other after a time apart, they are in a high-energy state and it's the most likely time for something to go wrong. 

I feel stupid because I was on Twitch talking to some new people who were really funny and we were just cracking each other up. I told my nephews to just let the dogs run it out in the backyard (and I put a cone on Marceline because dogs don't feel tough when they're wearing the cone of shame.) But I didn't monitor them. Marceline ended up biting Stark on the front leg, pretty significantly. Stark didn't hurt Marceline, which is kind of surprising because Marcie is about 40 pounds and Stark is almost twice that, at 75 pounds. Stark was just running around playing like normal with her leg bleeding. I felt anger at myself, and shame that I put playing with online people I don't even know over monitoring the interaction of the dogs. Compounding of mistakes. If I was smart and lazy, I could have just put Marceline in the bedroom and let Stark play with the puppies for a bit and avoided having any introduction issues.

My sister took Stark to the vet and they gave her a few stitches. Said she'll be fine. 

In a way, I feel like a parent who wants all their kids to get along. Be one big happy family. But what I want has no bearing on what is. Now that Marceline has bit Stark hard enough to need stitches, it's more likely that the next interaction will be a negative one because of this experience.  Marceline is willing to bite hard enough to break skin, and if Stark feels like enough is enough, she could easily mop the floor with Marceline. 

Maybe I can get a giant hamster ball and put Marceline in that, or I guess a muzzle if I want to be practical about it.  Dang dogs. Dang me.