=== Mind Over Matter ===

I've come to realize that everything I do is a matter off the mind. For some time now I've been searching for ways to improve my productivity. As it turns out, that answer has been under my nose this whole time. Or should I say... behind it.

There are all sorts of things online claiming they can improve your mental focus and clarity. Do any of them work? Maybe... but are they really worth the money? I don't think so. See, there's an alternative which I think many people forget about; including myself. That option is quite simply.... doing it.

I sort of had this epiphany a couple nights ago when I forced myself to go to my computer late at night rather than laying down on the couch and falling asleep. I ended up staying up all night streaming on twitch and felt great after that I had done something fun and productive. In fact, I felt so great about it that I then enthusiastically cleaned up the kitchen and prepared for the day. This was accomplished because I made a decision to do something.

It can be quite difficult to tell your body to do these things when it is do exhausted, but it can be done if you put your mind to it... As long as your brain isn't out of juice as well. Yes, things like caffeine can help; I prefer to avoid needing any though if I can help it. Although... there is a real spectacular boost when you're able to effectively combine both caffeine and brain power.

I've seen people shut down no matter how much they want to keep going... including myself. The biggest hurdle really is resisting what the body is asking for and instead doing what YOU want to do.

So what do you say? Will you join me in putting your mind over matter?

~ Kyle Welykholowa

=== Late Night Streaming ===

     Alright, yes, I know it's quite late to be doing this right now, but sometimes I just want to spend some time doing some late night streaming. Tonight I'll be playing some Stardew Valley if you want to join me at my stream at www.twitch.tv/DaemonVirus1. I don't have a plan for how long I'll be streaming tonight; however, I may also switch to some StarCraft II later on if I'm feeling up for it. I played some recently with my friend and now I'm totally feeling it once again. It's wonderful shaking the rust out of my system. ^_^

~ Kyle Welykholowa

=== Bumps And Bruises ===

     I don't often post about my baby, but lately there have been a lot of bumps and bruises around the house. Isabelle has started pulling herself up on things to a stand. For the most part, this is very cute as she stands there and reaches for things and then gets to a point where she's not really sure what she wants to do. Then she has to think about it and figure out how to get down without hurting herself. This is great that she's learning to do things! Unfortunately this also means she has to go through the process of figuring out how to get down properly which has resulted in a few tears from collisions.

     Silly me, I had thought for a moment that we were past the hitting of heads on inanimate objects, but apparently I was TOTALLY wrong about that; it has only gotten worse than before. Thankfully she takes these things quite well most times. She seems like a pretty tough kid, though I suppose we won't know for sure until she gets a bit older and can communicate better. If there's one thing that will always make her laugh even when she's absolutely bawling... it's tossing her in the air; she LOVES being tossed in the air. I'm confident she's going to be a thrill-rider when she gets older.

     In other family news, Carley has managed to find a way to get back to the gym again during my working days even with the cold weather killing the use of her car. She's so excited about going to the gym that's she'll be going again today even though she's woken up sore this morning. I think it's great for her to get out of the house and spend time doing other things. It's kind of nice having some time around the house alone. Well.... obviously the child will be here as well, but seriously, Carley needs to get more fresh air outside the house. I worry about her when she's cooped up for so long. Everybody needs to get outside every once in a while... even this nerd here.

     As for myself... not much interesting going on other than a renewed vigor for making blog posts and doing productive things. I almost wiped out and had some bruises of my own, but thankfully I started wearing my ice cleats after the freezing rain this us this past week. As uncomfortable as they are to wear with them not staying sitting right on my shoe.... they really help with grip on ice so much more than you realize. The only think I don't like about them is taking them off and putting them on again all the time. If you don't take them off, then you basically have no grip when it comes to tile and things like that. I suppose safety is more important than convenience though.

Anyways, that's all for today! Have a great day everybody! ^_^

~ Kyle Welykholowa

=== I've been Slacking ===

     First thing's first, I have to apologize to everybody for slacking in the past month. I haven't really posted anything for nearly a month now. Ever since the holiday preparation started, I haven't been doing much of anything useful at all. With work being so busy since there's only four of us rather than five in the office, Isabelle starting to stand up on everything, and everything else going on these days... I just haven't taken the time to post anything recently.

     So, my first New Year's resolution this year is to start talking to more people and try to actually get to know some people whom I can spend some time with either playing games or going out for coffee with. As another sort of resolution thinger... I'm wanting to put more effort into the things I want to succeed at. There are many things I want to succeed at including my blog which is why I'm making this post. You can expect to see many more posts about random life, game reviews, and current events. I'm also hoping I might be able to start doing food or movie reviews or something else.

     Here's hoping for a great new year with much to talk about. I'm looking forward to having much success at many things this year. I'm hoping you'll all join me as well on this fantastic journey and share this with all your friends.

~ Kyle Welykholowa

=== Net Neutrality ===

     I don't have a clever title to start off this talk about net neutrality. Rather here we are jumping right into the thick of things. For those of us who don't know anything about net neutrality, it was a set of rules which were put into place in 2015 which stopped internet providers from promoting their own things over others by offering faster speeds to their own services and slower speeds or even entirely blocking other services they don't want their consumers to see. This can even go as far as promoting one brand over another in a way which would mean anything new to the market could fail completely because it's not promoted by any of the service providers.

     Basically these rules were put into place to make the internet a more even playing field for everybody, thus making it more fair no matter the size of your company or your popularity. Essentially what this means is that something small like myself and this blog COULD fade into existence because it's not promoted by anybody but myself. That means when searching for something similar to this here, instead of finding a fair assortment of search results which may hold this blog in a reasonable place, there may be so many unfairly promoted results in front that you never get down far enough to find me.

     I don't really enjoy or understand a lot of politics; most things I just don't really care for all that much. But this is actually quite crazy to me to learn about this. From all the news that I've read, apparently the people in charge of making this decision only cared about legal arguments and largely disregarded the record 22 million feedback comments.

     It's difficult to say what exactly is going to happen due to this ruling; whether they go back on their decision or put something new in place... or if everything stays like this. I guess at this point we can only wait to see what comes about in the future. We likely won't see many huge changes right away as there would be much ruling and other things the various companies would have to put into place. I'm all for equality, so I can only hope things still work out well in the end.

~ Kyle Welykholowa

=== Caught Red-Pawed ===

     Alright, so Isabelle is down for a nap and I'm sitting on the couch playing Dying Light on the Xbox and into the living room from the kitchen runs Furgle and he immediately picks up the doll I had left on the floor for Isabelle to play with. I looked at him and said "What do you think you're doing?" He immediately sits and looks at me, but doesn't put down the doll. 

     So here I am thinking he's adorable and waiting for him to put the toy down, but no... he keep holding onto the toy as though it's his own to play with now.

     I got up and slowly took the toy from him by pulling gently and he let go very gingerly in the cutest way possible. I don't know what we did with this dog, but wow is he ever adorable with pretty much everything he does. Him doing things like this is why I can never stay mad at him no matter what trouble he gets into.

~ Kyle Welykholowa

=== What A Good Doctor ===

     So we've been watching this awesome show recently which has just been an absolutely amazing watch called The Good Doctor. is show follows some surgical residents including one by the name of Sean Murphy who has Autism. So far throughout the show, there have been a lot of cases of both patients and doctors who don't think he's capable of doing things the same as a regular person, but he continues to prove people wrong in many of the episodes.

     One of my favourite things about watching this show (usually with Kylie) is how much I learn about people with autism... and about my dear Carley. I won't go into super detail about it, but it turns out that Carley shares a lot of the characteristics as the main character in the show. For the most part, Carley is a pretty normal person and I love her very much. There are a few things which seem to make a little bit more sense to me as I realize she could be described as a high-functioning person with some level of autism.

     I don't know if I've explained this idea very well at all, but it certainly makes sense to me. Knowing more about our situation certainly makes things much easier for me to understand how Carley works and helps me to be much more calm in situations I wouldn't normally understand. Basically, this show is not only a fantastic show to watch, but it has also helped to change my life and my understanding of things in it.

     Now would be a wonderful time to go into great detail about how awesome the Fall finale was for the show, but I don't want to ruin anything for anybody who may be watching or may be interested in watching the show. So... I think I'll just leave you all to go look into it with the recommendation that you should all watch this series as it seems to have been accepted as the number 1 show at this time and I can personally say that it's the best show I've watched in a while. For anybody who used to watch House, this show was made by the same creators... so you can imagine this one is pretty awesome as well.

~ Kyle Welykholowa