Yoga, a sore knee, and self-spanking

The other day, I did a relaxing yoga session online. I had tightness on the left side of my neck going in, but the session eliminated it.

Last night, I ended up with soreness in my right knee. I can't tell whether it was due to doing yoga or if I overexerted it in some fashion after that. It was uncomfortable trying to sleep and walking first thing in the morning was tough.

My knee is much better now. Perhaps walking out the pain and joint throughout the day has helped.

I am looking forward to the a long weekend. I got a wonderful suggestion to self-spank this weekend. I like this idea.

Anti-blue light-blocking computer glasses

I ordered a pair of blue light-blocking computer eyeglasses. They are non-prescription ones. I am wearing them right now. They are comfortable! We'll see whether they reduce my eye strain.

This week, I have been taking more breaks away from my laptop, which has helped a lot. Luckily, I have two more workdays before a long weekend, so that should help me recover.

Since I have changed my blog's comments access to members-only, the spam messages have ceased. I will keep it on for a bit before I test out going back to the original setting. Exciting!

An update on getting spam as comments

Currently, if you are a follower of my blog, you can leave comments. Even if you have a Blogger account, you must be following my blog to post comments on here. I just did a test and can confirm.

I am sorry about this change. My intent since I started my blog was to have anyone who doesn't have anything offensive to say comment on my posts. Since these spam messages are numerous, I had no choice but to change my settings. Otherwise, I would have removed the comments section altogether, which would have made me miserable.

So, if you have a Blogger account and want to post messages here, please follow my blog. The Follow button is at the bottom right of my page.

Ever since I made this change, the spamming is gone. It's nice that things are quiet again.

Down the road, I'll give changing my settings back and see how things go.

Comments for followers

Hello,

I am receiving a flood of spam comments on my blog. My comments are open to everyone, including anonymous people who do not have a Blogger or Google account. Sadly, spambots are abusing this inclusivity.

If you can please become a follower of my account, you will be able to submit comments. I will change my settings to allow comments from Blogger followers. I reckon that if you're a Blogger member, you should be fine leaving comments, too. I wish that I didn't have to change my settings, but the spamming is excessive.

I'll see if I can get a comments plugin that may be more flexible and lock out spamming programs.

Thanks!

Taking it easy and looking forward to a long weekend

I spent Monday taking it easy. I needed a break from work.

I watched touching videos about Regis Philbin and reminisced about how much I loved watching him on television. He was a sweet, decent man. I am sad about his passing.

This weekend is a long one, with Civic Holiday on Monday. I look forward to taking a break. I would normally do a road trip and stay at a hotel somewhere, but I don't feel right about doing one during a pandemic. Instead, I will continue going out to visit a new business or restaurant, and keep things local and low key.

Telling the ex that he's an insensitive jerk

Last night, I had a texting conversation with my ex-guy. He is indeed an insensitive jerk.

He wanted to know how I was doing. I said that he didn't need to check up on me. He said okay and wished me goodnight.

That's when I called him an insensitive jerk. He never asked me how I was doing after he had dumped me. He told me to take a pill when I was experiencing anxiety after he broke the news. Why is he so concerned now? It's a facade that he cares. It's a joke.

To make a long story short, he wants our friendship to continue. He doesn't want a relationship. He does want fun and sex. I told him no back in April. It's still no now. If he wants sex without a relationship, perhaps he needs a prostitute. I know that he wouldn't because he's too cheap to pay for this service.

What nerve!

I told him that I hated him. Hate is a strong word, but I do for the pain, anxiety, and sadness that he has caused. I also said that he confirmed last night that he is an insensitive person who only cares about his hard cock, which is where his brain is.

It felt good to say that it was his loss for dumping me -- that he didn't know how good he had it. I also gave him advice to read books on relationships and friendships. He needs all the help he can get. He can post reviews on his YouTube channel and refer back to them, because he sucks at friendships and relationships.

I basically said that I didn't want what little was left of our friendship and told him not to contact me again.

I slept well. It's quite the change from April where I was so upset. I know that I deserve better. It's just sad that I dated a jerk.

I have removed him as a contact on Skype. It felt good getting rid of baggage.

Regis Philbin

I learned yesterday evening that Regis Philbin had passed away. He was 88 years old, roughly a month shy of being 89 years of age.

May he rest in peace.

Photo courtesy of gettyimages

I grew up watching Regis on Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee. I must have been in either grade 10 or 11. I loved them. It was to the point where I recorded their one-hour morning show on my VCR and watched it after school.

I watched the show when Kathie Lee left and it was Live! with Regis for a bit. Then, it became Live! with Regis and Kelly. I also watched him on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire while I lived in the States. It was great. Is that your final answer? Yes!

I continued to watch it until Regis retired. It was nice seeing him occasionally on Rachael Ray's show as a guest.

Regis was a wonderful storyteller. I loved his sense of humour. He was the best.

The insensitive jerk called, but didn't leave a lasting impression

The insensitive jerk, also known as my ex-guy, called me just after 21:00 last night. I looked at the number displayed on my phone and let it ring.

As expected, it went to voicemail. He didn't leave a message.

I didn't call him back. I was getting reacquainted with my old mini laptop that has Windows 7 loaded. I haven't booted it up in years. Yes, this old laptop took precedence.

I figure that he has second thoughts about his decision last year to end our relationship. The problem is that he thinks that we can pick up from where we left off. We can't. I can't.

Working with colleagues who annoy me

At work, I seem to work with people who have interesting personalities, issues and, quirks. I wish that I didn't have to collaborate with them. Luckily, I don't that often with most of them.

Well, there's Diva. She enjoys texting me on our messaging app. I, on the other hand, cringe when she contacts me. We spent forty minutes texting. Why? First, she types slowly. I end up moving onto other work and getting back to her messages. She should consider writing an e-mail instead, as her issues are never urgent. Second, she isn't clear about what she is conveying in her texts. They are confusing for me because she doesn't consider whether her audience will get what she is saying. Third, the reason why I didn't understand her was because she messed up performing a procedure, which caused my work to appear somewhere it shouldn't have been. It was nice pointing that mistake out to her again.

As mentioned a while back, she and another colleague have taken on roughly half my old workload. I always felt that they took what I did for granted. I did and still continue to do a lot. She, in particular, is paying the price for being sloppy.

There is a software tester that I worked with several years ago. He moved on to another position within the company, which was great. I didn't like working with him. Sadly, he's back. He hasn't changed a bit. He has bugged me unnecessarily three times. I finally had it, even after giving him an example of asking a software developer technical questions instead of me. I had to explicitly tell him to copy that developer and me together. Ugh! He, too, enjoys texting. It's not my preferred method. Nothing is that urgent.

Finally, I have been working with a female software developer in a focus group. She was nominated to lead it. Sadly, she talks a ton. She does not let people speak. She seems to thoroughly enjoy hearing herself speak in circles. She talks up such a storm that I just tune out. A meeting that she had set up for thirty minutes yesterday with a group of twenty people got extended to an hour because she took up 37 minutes of it with her gibberish.

Thank goodness it's Friday. Here's hoping that it's a quiet day without dealing with these characters.

Dakota Johnson's beautiful backside

I have watched all three Fifty Shades movies. I liked them a lot. Dakota Johnson played Ana.

She has a lovely backside. The photo on the right is Dakota modelling a long-sleeved thong bodysuit by Kit Undergarments. This photo was released yesterday.

I remember seeing the photo on the left, but I don't know the back (ha!) story.

Photo: elegantdakotaj on Instagram

This photo made my day.

My manager on vacation gives my inbox a rest

My manager is on vacation for three days. He took three days smack in the middle of the week. He didn't bother making his vacation a longer weekend for some reason.

For me and my e-mail inbox, we feel like it's a vacation, too. I don't get as many e-mails when he isn't around.

I am also more productive without a ton of interruptions. It's nice.

My ex and his YouTube channel

I feel that I need to get rid of my ex-guy as a connection on LinkedIn. It's good that he was never interested in social media, so distancing myself from him on those platforms after he broke my heart has been easy.

He isn't on LinkedIn much. Neither am I. I go on there once every month or two. Well, in my feed wiht twenty notifications was a post from him. He invited people to look at his YouTube channel where he does book reviews.

My eyes rolled. They rolled hard. I checked one video out. I stopped after a minute.

He isn't the guy I fell in love with. All I see is an insensitive jerk who only contacts me these days when he's horny. He looks sincere in the video. I know better. It's a facade.

It took him a year to post these videos. He actually posted these videos in August 2019. I don't know why it took him a year to promote his channel.

I'm glad that he has a hobby. I simply don't want to hear about it.

Watermelon juice and a Vitamix

Another weekend is over. Weekends fly by too quickly.

We are still experiencing a heatwave. I have been into making watermelon juice at home. It's pretty simple and is refreshing on a hot summer day. It's just a question of cutting it into cubes and blending it in my Vitamix. Done!

I got my Vitamix a few years ago. My first blender lasted 19 years before I replaced it with my Vitamix. I am fortunate that my small appliances last longer than I anticipate.

I'm off to bed. Have a great week ahead!

Wear a mask! An older couple were amazing enforcers

As of Friday, July 17, it's a bylaw where I live to wear a mask in public indoor areas. I realize that it's tough switching over, but it depends on the store and whether wearing a mask is being reinforced.

At Shoppers Drug Mart, a man asked me if I was in the lineup for the self-checkout. Nope, I was in the human checkout instead.

He had no mask. I wanted to say something. Obviously, everyone else was masked. He didn't get the hint. Shoppers Drug Mart wasn't spending time enforcing the bylaw.

An older woman behind me said loudly, "Isn't it a bylaw to wear a mask?" I turned around and said yes. She thanked me for answering back. Her husband joined her in the lineup and they both went on about it.

Another man came in and clearly was not wear a mask. These two folks gave him quite the talk that he went out to his truck, got his mask, wore it, and came back into the store.

I loved this couple. Great job!

Computer eyeglasses - do they work?

I am contemplating getting computer eyeglasses to reduce eye strain. I've noticed it more since I came back from vacation and have been back to the grind.

Do these computer eyeglasses help? Is it better to get something similar, but as a screen protector for a computer monitor or laptop screen?

I need to do some research. I haven't got a clue. I do know that I'm much happier not looking at a computer screen for hours.

Speaking to a crowd and not being as petrified as I was in grade 7

Yesterday, I did a presentation online with an audience of twenty people who are my peers, including my manager's boss. I originally thought of creating a PowerPoint set of slides. One member on our team of four just said to present my points that I had summarized as my meeting minutes last week.

Well, I did. He decided to create a PowerPoint for his other group that he was leading. Geez, thanks!

On a good note, my presentation went so well that I have been asked to present it to my entire department. Yes, I will need to create PowerPoint slides. My minimalistic approach wasn't bad at all.

When I was in grade 7 and throughout most of my academic life, I was extremely nervous talking in front of roughly thirty people. I would rehearse a ton before doing any presentation. It helped.

I supposed that my work and life experiences talking within my team, training others, and hanging out with friends pre-pandemic have made me comfortable speaking in public. For yesterday's presentation, I didn't do much rehearsing or preparation work.

It's interesting how things change as you get older.

Debt reduction is going well

I like the idea of providing a monthly update on reducing my debt. It is going extremely well.

July is a good month this year. I get paid three times, so I feel that I can pay off more debt.

I paid off my line of credit last month. It felt good. Luckily, the limit isn't huge. However, it took me a year to pay it off.

I still have two credit cards that are mine. I have one corporate card that sits there.

I use a MasterCard for daily purchases, such as groceries and takeout. I typically do debit, which has been helpful in reducing my debt and credit card usage. The other is an American Express card that I detest using. There is a backstory associated with my disgust for this company. The reason why I still have it is that I've been a customer since 2005 and it helps my credit rating.

As of late, I don't like these automated e-mails from American Express, stating in the subject line, "Future transactions may be declined." I am trying to figure out when this automated message disappears. It feels like Amex is being so kind to approve a transaction when my credit card isn't maxed out or close to its credit limit.

My credit score has increased by 16 points from the last score back in May. I am pleased. It has been hard work improving my credit score. I hope that it gets to a satisfactory level in twelve months. At this rate, I have a decent shot at it.

I am working from home for the rest of the year. I will continue to save more money, thanks to not commuting and fuelling my car with gas as often.

Pillow talk

I bought two new king pillows. They have gel in them. It felt good putting my head on one of them.

The problem is that I don't have king pillowcases! I currently have a standard cover on it, which works, except for the part of the pillow that juts out.

I have a reason to get pillowcases now. Fun!

I have had my old pillow for probably five years. It's time for a change, as it takes me longer to fall asleep these days.

A break in the heatwave and a decision to not attend a work picnic

We've been in a heatwave for a while. We finally got a break on Monday.

It was nice to turn off the air conditioning, open the windows, and invite the cool breeze in. The humidity went away. It was great.

It's only for a brief period, though. It's supposed to heat up again later this week.

In Ontario, roughly 24 regions will go into phase 3 of reopening businesses during this pandemic. It means that 99% of the economy will be up and running.

Since my area went into phase 2 later than these regions, but ahead of Toronto by a week, we'll stay in this phase for a bit. I'm okay with it.

The other week, my manager wanted to have a picnic with our team We would be a group of eight people. I declined. I don't feel like driving an hour to see a few people in this group that I truly want to see. I also don't think it's exciting to get my own food, sit there, and eat it two metres away from everyone. It doesn't sound thrilling.

I am also not comfortable to congregate with a group. It's too soon. Frankly, I'd rather do it with close friends first before trying it out with colleagues.

Changing my profile photo on Instagram and attracting an interesting demographic

I have probably mentioned this detail in the past, but it is related to what I am about to write.

Back in late December, I changed my profile photo on Instagram. I was on vacation in Minnesota and decided to take a rare selfie, which turned out nicely. 

Well, ever since I changed my profile photo, more men tend to send me direct messages (DMs) on that platform. Sadly, 90% of them started with them saying hi. That was it. There wasn't any mention of why they were contacting me or anything else.

The guy that I was virtually dating for nearly two months was different. He said that he liked my profile and wanted to get to know me. It was a good start, which sparked a conversation. Sadly, this guy didn't take no for an answer and was bad news. I have blocked him on Instagram and on my phone apps.

The other day, I decided to reply to another guy. What intrigued me was his profile. He had both Canadian and American flags as emoji.

He wasn't a good conversationalist. I already knew that I needed to ask him probing, intelligent questions to make him open up.

I don't necessarily enjoy when folks need to say that they are intelligent and handsome right off the bat. Some would say that it's confidence. I actually think it's has the opposite effect. I never mention those qualities when I introduce myself to others. I know that my qualities will shine through and others will see me for who I am. I feel that folks needed to state such qualities aren't as confident as they truly are.

What turned me off was his unnecessary capitalization of words and run-on sentences. He had one huge paragraph about what he wanted in a woman. My eyes glazed over. He needed to break his paragraph down to four smaller ones. I am a writer by trade. I can't see myself being with someone who claims to be educated, but writes like he's in grade 8. To me, it's a huge turnoff.

So, I told him all of these details in a nicer fashion, said that it was me and that and it won't work. I wished him all the best. He proceeded to ask me to answer his questions, to get to know me better. Um, no. What part of "it won't work" isn't clear? I stated that I wouldn't respond to his questions, that it won't work between us, and said goodbye. I then blocked him.

The qualities of these men who have been sending me DMs are as follows:

• The man is either divorced, separated, or a widow, has a child, and is seeking a partner to both be with and raise said child together
• He serves the US in some capacity (army, navy, and so on), in construction, or an offshore engineer
• If not in these fields, he is a medical doctor of some sort
• The man is American and hasn't looked at my profile to figure out that I'm not

I'm not interested. I would rather have an honest man who can communicate and start a decent conversation. I would like an intelligent, fun, optimistic, loving person in my life. If he would like to spank me, it would be a nice bonus.