the modern gen x diet
"Hey man, when you're over 50, you're gonna eat kale, spinach, and yogurt, and you're going to like it."
"No way."
Way.
Every Generation X person is middle aged and has been for a while now since the youngest X is 45 years old at the time I write this.
There have been a few times recently where I ate trash like I did in my 20s, and it did not go well. And by that I mean I would get sick soon after eating whatever garbage I did.
When I say sick, that doesn't mean I threw up. Rather, my stomach would complain and I'd have indigestion of some kind. It would either be not-the-funny-kind gas or other rumblings that didn't feel right. This would happen within minutes after eating the trash. Indigestion would happen for a few minutes, then subside, then I realized yeah, I really shouldn't be eating that stuff anymore.
These days, I am giving much more attention to what my body is telling me. If my body complains after eating certain stuff, it's off the menu. I don't try to find alternatives or eat less of the same trash. If my body says, "that's trash and I don't like that", I just stop eating it.
What is trash food? You already know. It's all the fast food, all the hi-carb stuff, all the sugary drinks, all the "put cheese on everything" stuff, all the prepackaged candies, cakes, and so on.
It would not surprise me at all if Gen X survivors become hardcore vegans
"Gen X survivor" means any X who loses the weight and cleans up their diet, such as I did. The rest will all be overweight, be sick all the time and live out miserable lives.
Millions of X's grew up on nothing but fast food, macaroni and cheese, soda, and pizza. I ate ungodly amounts of that stuff in my younger years. I've already come to the point where my body is warning me, "Don't eat that, because if you do, I will complain." This makes me wonder how many other X's have encountered the same.
On the (safe) assumption millions of other X's have encountered the same, it's almost a certainty that many will become hardcore vegans just to stop feeling sick. All the meat, out. All the soda, out. All the sugary stuff, out. All the processed foods, out.
From experience, I can say yes, that does stop one from feeling sick all the time. But I'll also say I don't think I could ever go full hardcore vegan (I do like eggs). However, I do believe other X's will fully commit to a vegan diet and stay there just to feel well again.
Don't worry, I'm not saying "go vegan" as that's not for everybody. But I am saying that if you're an X that's sick of feeling sick, fix your diet. And don't feel bad if you can't eat the trash you used to since it was never good for you anyway.
hot topic proves the rock machine is dead
Yesterday I went to the mall with friends, of which two of them were in their 20s. We're walking around, and one of them wants to go into a Hot Topic store. I had never been in one of these in my life. Instead of waiting outside, I said screw it, I'll go in here and see what this not-for-middle-age-dudes-whatsoever store is all about.
Hot Topic is the kind of store that supposedly sells "edgy" stuff.
Imagine my surprise when I look up at the wall that shows all the t-shirt designs for sale, and the overwhelming majority of what I see is bands from 30 to 40 years ago, with some even older.
It was like I stepped back in time to when I was a teen at the mall. Not that I went to the mall that often, but if there was a store selling a bunch of rock band t-shirts, yep, this is EXACTLY what it looked like. Except back when I was a teen, this stuff was CURRENT.
Then I thought hang on, let's try searching band t-shirt to see what comes up...
...and oh my God it's the same thing. Bands from 30 to 40 years ago.
I think I know what happened
New bands these days, rock or not, aren't promoted at all. Where there is no promo there is no brand establishment and no recognition.
Bands from the '80s and '90s? Yeah, they promoted heavily. Over time, the band's artwork for their album covers effectively made them a brand. And you'd recognize that brand if somebody drew it on their notebook in high school, wore the band t-shirt, or wore it as a patch on a jacket or some such. I got surprised yet again to find yes, they still make those patches.
The rock machine (at least where promo is concerned) is totally dead, so "edgy" these days means flashing logos of bands from 30 to 40 years ago. Those are the established rock band brands, and since nothing truly new ever came around to replace them, yep, just keep selling the old stuff.
Do kids who shop at Hot Topic have any idea who these bands are? I doubt it.
ridiculous dean usa razorback dimebag darrel model
This guitar is ridiculous, but I'm actually glad it exists.
The Dean USA Dime Razorback[ exists in a color called Dime Slime. It is, in all honesty, the ultimate Razorback because it has all the best stuff. Liquid-like paint with real flame maple in the middle that has that "moving" thing going on that plays with light really nicely, 3-piece mahogany set-in neck with ebony fingerboard, dual action truss rod, "pearl razors" fret inlays, Seymour Duncan premium pickups, a highfalutin Floyd-Rose Original tremolo system (yes, the best one), open gear high ratio tuners. And, of course, a custom fit case.
Yes, this is one of those guitars that comes with a Certificate of Authenticity; it is that special.
Why am I glad this ridiculous guitar exists?
Because it's not just another Fender Custom Shop Heavy Relic.
Yes, FCS Heavy Relics are nice. Obviously. But everything on the Dean is modernized, new and so clean you could eat off it.
Since I know some would ask, "Is there anything Fender Custom Shop makes that's clean and not a Relic job?" Yes. See Artisan for fancy woods and Vintage Custom for the super-clean FCS stuff. Those exist.
But I'm also glad the USA Dime Razorback exists too. Not my kind of guitar, but I recognize that from stem to stern, it's the best of everything Dean could put into it.
having a go with platinum safety razor blades
For my most recent shaving adventures, I decided to try a different type of safety razor blade, the platinum type.
The results have actually been pretty good.
Any safety razor blade labeled as "platinum" to the best of my knowledge refers to a platinum coating. The purpose of a platinum coating is primarily for corrosion resistance (as in to prevent rusting). But, supposedly, platinum has hypoallergenic properties, which I take to mean "won't do anything weird to your skin".
My reason for trying a platinum blade was to see if the blade out-of-the-box resulted in a smoother shave or not.
Before getting into that, a few notes about Lord blades.
Lord is a blade made in Egypt. Generally speaking, the lowest cost platinum blade (at least in the US) is Lord Platinum.
In addition, Lord also has some of the lowest cost chrome safety razor blades on the market, the Shark Super Chrome. Yes, Shark is a Lord brand.
I have both of these blades, and no, they are not the same thing in different packaging.
To the best of my understanding, chrome blades dirty up quicker (and show up fingerprints very easily), scratch more easily and do not last as long as a platinum blade does. And yes, I'd have to agree with that assessment.
But does a platinum blade shave more smoothly?
In my limited test from a few shaves, yes.
I do believe the platinum coating actually matters for both smoothness and blade longevity. But then again, that's just with Lord Platinum. Would Astra Superior Platinum be the same or different? Or Gillette Platinum? Or Gillette 7 O'Clock Super Platinum blades for that matter? They all have platinum coatings too.
There is another reason I went with Lord blades specifically, other than price.
Some manufacturers use too much wax in the packaging.
Every new safety razor blade is wrapped in paper. In order to keep the blade in the paper without shifting around and ruining its sharpness, most manufacturers use little wax dots to hold the blade in place.
When you take a new blade out of its paper wrapper, some of that wax is left behind. That wax must be scraped off (usually with the old blade you're about to discard). If you don't do that, the blade won't fit correctly in the razor.
With some blades, sometimes you deal with four large wax dots on the removal of any new blade from its wrapper. Two on one side, two on the other. Sure, the blade is new and sharp, but the extra step of removing all that wax is involved. That gets annoying real quick.
Lord blades (including Shark) thankfully only result in having two very small wax dots left behind on one side of the blade when a new one taken out of the wrapper. The wax is easy to remove and just takes a few seconds.
I guarantee there are some DE shavers out there who sometimes mistake a new blade as a bad just because of all that wax that resulted in a poor fit in their razor.
What happens if wax is left on the blade? The next time you load a blade into your safety razor, watch it as you tighten the head into place. You'll notice the blade is being purposely bent by design. If wax is on the blade, that means a fit flush to the head isn't possible. The middle of the blade will be at a different position compared to the sides.
Clean the wax off first, and then the blade will be properly fitted into the razor.
Have you tried different blades? You probably have. It's probably true other blades you thought were bad actually aren't, and the problem was the wax left on the blade, causing an improper fit.
You don't have to be super-precise about wax removal. Just get the stuff off so there's nothing to unintentionally add height to any part of the blade, and you're good.
Back to the Lord blades, yes, Shark Platinum exists, but the Lord brand was slightly cheaper, so I went with that. I do not know if Shark Platinum is a copy of Lord Platinum or not.
For my face, Lord Platinum seemed to be smoother compared to other blades I have. This may mean I'll try out more platinum coated blades in the future.
the quest for just-right, parker 92r razor
I bought another safety razor. This is getting ridiculous.
But as ridiculous as this is, I had to do it and I'll explain why.
Okay, Parker 92R safety razor. Let's talk about this.
Actually, before I do that, the four razors I have are the Parker 78R, Parker 60R, Parker 92R, and King C Gillette.
The 78R, a 3-piece style razor, is 2.9oz. The 60R, a TTO (twist-to-open) style razor, is 2.75oz. The 92R, a TTO, is 3.2oz. The King C Gillette, a 3-piece, is 3.5oz.
Opening the head on both the 60R and 92R is the same. Grab the upper portion of the handle, twist the lower portion, head opens. Easy enough.
I wanted the 92R for two reasons. Grip and weight. It is easier to grip the 92R when compared to the 60R. And from what I can tell so far (I've only had it a short time), the 92R's aggressiveness is the same as the 60R, which is mild. I'll talk about the weight more in a moment.
Of the 4 razors I have now, the King C is the mildest of the lot, while the 78R is the most aggressive. This is not to say the 78R is an aggressive razor since it's not open comb, but of this set it is. If you don't know what open comb is, see Parker 68S and 24C. Those are (or at least should be) truly aggressive razors.
The 78R also has the best grip by far of the 4. No question. Second best is the 92R, then the 60R, then the King C. While the King C looks like it has decent grip on the upper portion of the handle, it doesn't.
What I wanted in addition to a TTO with better grip was also slightly more overall weight but not too much. The 92R satisfies that requirement.
As I've said before, with DE shaving, you're supposed to "let the blade do the work". In order for that to happen, you need two things. A decent blade, and a razor with an aggressiveness and weight that agrees with your face.
What I mean by "decent blade" is something sharp that doesn't wreck your face. That may be a Shark Super Chrome, or maybe Astra Superior Platinum, Feather, Kai, BiC Chrome Platinum, Personna, whatever.
The 92R has the grip I was looking for and is roughly a half-ounce heavier than the 60R. Its weight is as physically heavy as I'd want from a safety razor. Any heavier than that would bother me, which is one reason I don't use my King C anymore.
However, I wish it had grip as good as the 78R. If the 92R had a handle like the 78R, wow that would be near-perfection. But that doesn't exist.
What does exist however is the 82R. Same weight and length as the 92R, different handle with straight-line style machining...
...but I'm not getting that unless I feel I need to. I just got the 92R and need to use it for a while before deciding to get anything else. The 92R might be the one I stay with for the long haul. Or not. Time will tell.