brent evans

morning babble / Sunday 05-16-21

I slept in! Hit the 8 hour mark, too! I’m trying to get better with that.

Books!

• First up – I finally finished this one from Emmanuel Acho – Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man. Initially, I had planned on doing a deep dive into this, but personally I don’t feel comfortable enough with the topics laid out in this book. I don’t want to mess up. I don’t want to hurt anyone if I say something ignorantly. I have nothing bad to say about the book, but just because I read it and have some of my closest friends who are black, it doesn’t mean I can really do a legit talk on some of these topics. I do believe that every one should give it a read and this part, I will state loudly: White people – you especially – give it a read. All of us need to keep learning, keep listening, and keep talking to one another.

• Whew – every one still with me? Let’s keep going.

• This past week, I was talking about the use of “Great Caesar’s Ghost” and other kid friendly F-bomb usage. Someone then commented on a video of mine from the other day via YouTube (click here for that) about how they use the Sun God from Watership Down by Richard Adams. Frith is the rabbit’s Sun God. So, if you stub that toe – “Oh, Frith!” I like that. It also made me dig up my copy of Watership Down which I read back in 7th or 8th grade. My signature from back in the day is up front in the book. About 20 years as a grown man, I read it all over again. I don’t think I’m starting it up again today, but the book has been pulled. We shall see.

• I follow Ali Abdaal with his YouTube channel as well as Instagram. The other day, he explained how he has on his desk the book from Austin Kleon – Steal Like an Artist. This is his go-to book to help kick him in the butt or push himself along. I have on my desk the Steven Pressfield book – The War of Art – as well as Jocko Willink’s Discipline Equals Freedom Field Manual. I’m anxious to dig into Steal Like an Artist since it’s been on my wish list for awhile and I want to see if it also joins my other go-to books on my desk.

Current books that I’m reading:

• This is Marketing by Seth Godin
• Leadership in Turbulent Times by Doris Kearns Goodwin
• Eat A Peach – A Memoir by David Chang
• The Boys – Omnibus Volume 4 by Garth Ennis and others
• Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins (listening to this one)

QUOTE OF THE DAY:
“Change your thoughts and change your world.” – by Norman Vincent Peale

morning babble / Saturday 05-15-21

Breaking News – this just in from the Morning Babble desk. The original Gummi Bears from the Haribo company have 5 flavors: Yellow = Lemon / Orange = Orange / Red = Raspberry / White = Pineapple / Green = Strawberry? What? I had no idea. My daughter finished off the bag and I read the print on the back, so this is how I know about it – never noticed it in the past. The problem I have is that my daughter finished off the bag and now I need to go get some. Specifically, I need to pick out the green bear and mentally think “strawberry” while tasting it. This is all to be continued . . .

AMA Saturday:

• Question #1 – Did you get a whipper? Yes. I got my milk frother aka “whipper”. Now, I can enjoy my MUD drink while adding in Coconut Milk Powder again. Without my whip, I would try stirring this powder into the mix as best as I could, but there would always be powder-filled balls floating in my beverage. AND THEN – when I would take a sip of the beverage, one of those balls would slip in and – boom – explode out the powder within my mouth. All very negative. I’m so glad I got another whipper (frother) again.

• Question #2 – Do you really run every day? Yes. 5k every day. I just passed 450 miles for the year. The treadmill – I go by how far it says that I went. In turn, it claims that I’m doing 10 minute miles on the treadmill. Meanwhile, my Garmin watch says “you SO ran more than that.” I stick with what the mill says because I don’t want to cheat anywhere. As for outside, my runs average 7.5 minute miles. Also, my new shoes from Brooks – they just reached 100 miles. Apparently, once I hit 500 miles on them, I need new “tires.” Nevertheless, we are at 135 days in a row of 5k runs. The goal is to do it every day of the year, but just in case I run into that one person who accomplished the same feat but points out that he/she did it during a leap year, I will keep it going through January 1st to make it 366 days in a row. Who’s competitive?

QUOTE OF THE DAY:
“I do not believe that one grows older. I think what happens early on in life is that at a certain age, one stands still and stagnates.” – by T.S. Eliot via Mark Manson

morning babble / Friday 05-14-21

Dogfish Head broke the fast like 6:48pm? Sunday Feels. I had the pasta, marinara sauce, spicy sausage, garlic bread, and red wine still. I was food coma afterwards, but it was worth it. No dessert though. I was done.But – Dogfish Head did it. Oh, I tried the cucumber floating in the water yesterday – loved it.

I ran 134 runs of 5k / 134 vlogs

This week was rough and I was teetering. Trying to avoid the downward spiral. So, I turned to music. That new AJR album – OK Orchestra – it’s just really, really great. I mean, if it’s not your thing, I get it. I’ve heard from some people – I’m not listening to that junk. Now, it’s not junk, but I think it’s definitely fun music to hear and it really got me through the day. Here are some of the lyrics of different songs that make me smile:

“Bummerland” –

This month
I got seven haircuts
And now my hair is all gone
It’s sad but
I’ve been alone for too long
So I keep getting haircuts

“3 o’clock Things” –

If I keep on talking politics, my friends’ll dip, they’re over it
If I keep on talking politics, I’m Hamilton (Without the hits)

“Ordinaryish People” –

“Your pretty friends, they call you ugly
Your ugly friends, they call you vain
No, you’re not stupid, you’re just special
Well, that’s what all your smart friends say”

That last one is on my Morning Babble Wake-up playlist – it’s on Spotify. Click here!

New Music Friday:

• AJR and Weezer joined up to redo the Weezer song – “All My Favorite Songs” – just a single, but the Weezer original is on their OK Human album

• Fellow P.K. – Katy Perry – we’re both preacher kids. She has a new video out, which is never a bad thing. The video is for her new song “Electric.” The track appears on upcoming compilation Pokémon 25: The Album, which will arrive this fall via Capitol Records. Did you know “I Kissed a Girl” came out back in 2008 – 13 years ago – what?

• Mark your calendar for May 21st, the highly anticipated debut album from Ayron Jones called Child Of The State comes out and we’re getting 12 songs on it. Last week, we got “Spinning Circles” but today we got “Take Your Time.” If you didn’t know the song’s name before it was played out, you would definitely know it when the song ended. It’s kind of like Phil Collins with One More Night. Hmmm – I think that one should be called One More Night, Phil. Anyway, his guitar does a lot of the singing in this song and can’t wait to hear the rest of the album.

• New full albums from J. Cole and The Black Keys. Also, a whole new album from country star, Alan Jackson – his first new album in 6 years. It’s got like 21 tracks.

QUOTE OF THE DAY:
“When Humpty Dumpty went down. He said, “Screw it, I’m a smile right through it And I’ll scream when no one’s around” – by AJR “Humpty Dumpty”

morning babble / Thursday 05-13-21

Whew – I didn’t have any scribble written out this morning! Watch that babble!

3rd day of 3 day fast / 5:55pm – pasta w/ spicy sausage / red wine

I did cut up some cucumbers for my water today.

No headaches! Normally, I have one during the fast – nothing yet.

Stay busy!!

My daughter sings her own theme songs whether it’s scootering down the street, attempting to climb a tree, or running up the slide on the playground.
Hold my doll story – watch the video!

QUOTE OF THE DAY:
“Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.” – by William Penn

Day 2 of the 3 day fast – it’s the toughest one.

To the people who have reached out and said to me . . . “boy, you look like junk.” Thanks. I realize allergies have been rough for me. Puffy eyes / Red eyes / Nasally – I’m always nasally though. Last week, I really felt it coming on and kind of wish I did the fast when I originally planned it, but too late now. One of the reasons that I held off was weight. I wanted to see if there was a bump in weight after the April Alcohol Drought. There wasn’t.

My grandfather – we called him Pop or Pop-pop. I always remembered him doing that and then exclaiming “Great Caesar’s Ghost”. I looked that up. Allusion to the play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, in which Roman emperor Julius Caesar’s ghost appears to Brutus. So instead of saying – some sort of profanity – you say, Great Caesar’s Ghost. great googly-moogly, / I’ve always thought Crab Apple was a good one. You do this as a parent.

I had a bad VW car, so I’ll say Fahrvergnügen as my “profanity.” I use “crab apple” too. Later on, it’s funny getting around friends and dropping the kid friendly f-bomb – fuuuuuudge.

I ran – 132 runs / 132 vlogs

Fasting Tips – Use the Zero app / Stay busy

Zero app – love it / check ins on you throughout the day

QUOTE OF THE DAY:
“It’s not about what it is. It’s about what it can become.” – by Dr. Seuss

This is the scribble that helps with the babble. Sometimes I have time to tidy it up, sometimes I just need to get my butt to work.

3 day fast is underway – as I always say, today is the easiest day. You don’t really notice anything until dinner time. That’s when you’re like – wow – 2 more days? Also, what did I eat? two hot dogs and a blueberry muffin. Finished that muffin around 5:55pm. They suggest typically, the night before to have a low carb dinner in order to deplete your glycogen (glai kuh jn) storage. This will help your body enter into ketosis faster.

Bit the inside of my cheek yesterday like several times. So, that’s gonna easily clear up by Thursday. I’ll be so mad if my first bite on Thursday – crunch. My grandfather – we called him Pop or Pop-pop. I always remembered him doing that and then exclaiming “Great Caesar’s Ghost” instead of profanity.

Fasting tip – Liven up your water. Lemon juice / slices of cucumbers – don’t eat them at the end / sparkling water is fine as well. Mix it up. / No sugar and no sweeteners

QUOTE OF THE DAY:
“More effort is wasted doing things that don’t matter than is wasted doing things inefficiently. Elimination is the highest form of optimization.” – by James Clear. Taken from his weekly newsletter, go sign up for it here.

Back at it on a Monday! A little slower, but back at it!

3 Day Fast begins tonight. It’s what you would call a Non-Caloric Liquid Fast. I still have water, tea, and coffee – no sugar (or milk/cream) in any of them. NCLF can be practiced for anywhere between 24 hours and several days. Typically, the longer you engage in this type of fast, the deeper the body gets into cellular cleansing. I do it because of how it “resets the body” and it then fights off my allergies better. Less pill popping of Claritin, Benadryl, etc.

“Fasting Decoded” is a good short breakdown of fasting. You’ll have to do some signing up, but click here to get your own copy via Kion. Ben Greenfield also has a good podcast and breakdown of fasting – click here for that.

130 runs / 130 vlogs

I got new soap from Happy Nuts. AND – it’s scent is called No Blue Balls. The competitor soap is from Dr. Bronner and his 6 pack of flavors should be arriving soon.

QUOTE OF THE DAY:
“Failure is success training.” by Kevin Smith

Happy Mother’s Day! The smell of flowers is in the air and kicking my allergies into high gear – Yeah!! Seriously though – go love those mamas out there. Wives, sisters, moms, grandmothers . . . it goes on & on. Whatever they want – do it. That’s why I’m blitzing through all of this stuff.

I ran – 129 runs / 129 vlogs

FYI – 3 Day Fast begins Monday

Books!

• On the serious side – I did finish Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man by Emmanuel Acho. A little too serious to go deep on for this particular day, so I’ll save it.

• On the fun side – I did get my comic books. Issue #2 of BRZRKR (with Keanu Reeves) along with the very first issue of Marjorie Finnegan. Garth Ennis is a part of this one. He’s done the series – Preacher – along with – The Boys. Both naughty, but oh so fun to read. Very dark humor – big warnings everyone!

• Lastly, the other day I read the day’s entry from The Daily Stoic. It states on 5/7 that “Here is how to guarantee you have a good day: do good things.” This is something that I had started years ago with my son when he was very little. Whenever I would leave for work, I would first state, “Make it a good day” but then would add, “and how do you make it a good day?” He would respond with, “By doing good things.” It’s as simple as that. Do good things today and make it a good one . . . especially for those mamas!

QUOTE OF THE DAY:
““It’s not easy being a mother. If it were, fathers would do it.” — The Golden Girls via Dorothy (Bea Arthur)

It’s broke, but as you’ll see in the video . . . maybe it’s not? I use this frother to whip up the coconut milk powder that I put in my MUD\WTR drink. It froths it up like a latte and it’s delightful. More importantly – no chunky powder balls.

AMA Saturday:

• Question #1 – Relates to Kid Country who I was deemed during my 6 month midday tenure in Atlantic City on a country station. They emailed in and proclaimed – “I remember you!” To that I say – “I don’t believe you.” I mean, it was a long time ago. It did remind me of time when my friend Bob (now business partner) and I hit Klondike Kate’s in Newark. We had actually gotten a booth and he went to the bathroom or to get drinks – whatever. He left. Two girls slid into the booth across from me and proclaimed they knew who I was and that I was Kid Country. At first, I almost bought in because at the time I was at that radio station. Anyway – Bob set them up to do that to me. However, I have to admit country listeners were some of the most loyal and avid fans that I ever experienced in radio. It didn’t matter what I said – they all heard it, knew it, and thought it was great. I wasn’t great. In fact, one of my program directors (Top 40 & Rock) said that on country station you could fart between the records and they would still love you.

• Question #2 – When’s the new Blue Card? To that I say – I’m not sure. I first started the blue card because I would do videos and forget to say that I ran. In turn, I put out a blue card that simply stated “I ran.” But then after I mangled some words, I created additional blue cards or flash cards for Smorgasbord, Charcuterie, Moqueca, and, of course, Worcestershire. I’ve been a “good talker” lately, so nothing has really jumped out. I was looking and found a website with the 20 most difficult words. Worcestershire is #2!

I ran. 128 runs of 5k / 128 morning babbling vlogs

QUOTE OF THE DAY:
“Resistance has no strength of its own. Every ounce of juice it possesses comes from us. We feed it with power by our fear of it. Master that fear and we conquer Resistance.” – via Steven Pressfield in his book – the War of Art (page 16)

ATTENTION – Please be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel. I got a scare today with Instagram. They initially didn’t like my video and flagged it. I still don’t understand why. I reworded things slightly within the post and simply re-downloaded the video – the 2nd time everything worked just fine. BUT – it was scary and felt like Facebook all over again. Hopefully, all is well, but still . . . SUBSCRIBE!

Reminiscing blink-182: Yesterday, I was reading about Travis Barker – more on that later, but then it got me listening to blink-182 all day and I forgot how much I liked their 2001 album, Take Off Your Pants and Jacket. That one includes the trio Mark Hoppus / Tom DeLonge / Travis Barker. Matt Skiba of Alkaline Trio has since replaced Tom DeLonge.

Heard Robert Smith (of the Cure) singing with the Blink boys on the song “All of This” – very random. It reminded me of the time that Ray Charles sang with INXS on “Please – You got that”. Remember – Sexy Tough? Click here for that scribble and babble link.

New Music Friday:

• Van Weezer Day! I’ve talked about it enough, but it is finally here – the whole album. I think we’ve already heard 4 songs already off of it, but the whole sha-bang is here. 10 songs, just over 30 minutes. Great Weezer sound. Guitars are obviously back for this album after taking a hiatus on their OK Human album.

• New Coldplay – who’s excited! Well, their song “Higher Power” was actually played aboard the International Space Station before a satellite beamed the track to Earth, at which time it was released officially on streaming services. As promised, click here for the rant by Chuck Klosterman about Coldplay.

• New album – Better Mistakes – is out from Bebe Rexha. She had the big hit Meant To Be with Florida Georgia Line. The video for the song – “Break My Heart Myself” – is out today too. She’s not difficult to watch. Travis Barker of Blink 182 – he drums this tune.

• Black Keys released another song off their upcoming album Delta Kream. Due out May 14th. Again, it’s all blues covers. This song is called “Going Down South”

• J. Cole announced that his new album The Off-Season will be available everywhere next Friday (5/14). But today, we get the single, Interlude.

• Finally – Reissue of an Elbow album, which was first released back 2001 in the UK. So, twenty years later – we get Asleep in the Back again. I’m going to be looking for the vinyl of it. True Elbow fans will point out this was NOT the bands first recording . . . but it was their first released album.

QUOTE OF THE DAY:
“With each step I take, I see that my ability to perform gets a little better. So until it starts getting worse, I’m going to keep moving forward.” – by Rivers Cuomo