Is VR cool yet?

So I'll be honest, I jumped in without ever having tried VR in the past, even as a test. I had no idea if I would like it, or if it would make me sick (I do get motion sickness in cars and on boats, so it was definitely a possibility). But it has been in the back of my mind for a year or two, since I began watching Linus Tech Tips and listening to Luke give his praises to the technology. I'd looked into it a little bit in the past, but was put off by all the extra you need in order to use a VR headset. 

#1 is (obviously) a powerful enough computer in order to run the headset. I haven't had a decently specced system able to run something like that since all this new Ryzen stuff came out and I was able to afford a pretty decent upgrade just recently. #2 are satellites. Generally, VR headsets require A. space and B. physical sensors that you place around the room you intend to play VR in, so that the headset knows where you are in relation to everything around you. The satellites don't come with the headset and cost extra - as if the price of a VR headset wasn't enough. For reference:

HTC Vive w/ satellites: $899

Valve Index: $999

I also live in a small apartment so everything was working against me. I don't have a lot of room to play virtual reality and I definitely didn't want a bunch of black boxes all over my ceiling with black wires they I couldn't hide and would be hard to find plug ins for. I was waiting for the day when VR headsets would become self-sufficient. Being tethered to your PC is not immersive-feeling, and I just can't be bothered with placing satellites in my living room. I needed something that would check all the boxes.

Oculus Quest 2 enters the ring. 

[I want to point out, this is not going to be a review]

Not cost prohibitive ($299 and up): CHECK

Inside-out tracking (is what it's called when there are cameras on the headset instead of needing satellites around your room): CHECK

Guardian System (with 3 options: a circle around your seat, a circle around you standing, and allowing you to draw out your space so that you can walk around in your environment with however much room you happen to have): CHECK

90hz refresh rate (the faster the better, to avoid becoming sick): CHECK

Stand-alone (no PC needed): CHECK

but also

A (sold separately) USB-C cable that allows you to plug your headset into a powerful PC to allow you to play games that would require more graphical power than what the headset itself can provide: CHECK?!

It not only checked the boxes, but even checked an extra box that I didn't know I needed.

Now, I don't have anything to compare this system to. I never tried the original Quest or it's PCVR sister, the Oculus Rift. And it's most definitely not the best thing on the market; not by a long shot. They certainly had to cut corners in order to allow the price to fall into almost impulse-buy territory. But, as a lot of reviewers of the Quest 2 already stated, if you've been hesitant to jump into VR in the past due to any of the reasons I stated above, now is a good time to do it.

[Side note and caveat: you do have to have a Facebook account in order to use your Oculus Quest 2. If you have issue with that, then this headset may not be for you. But that is one way they were able to keep the price so low: by data mining your personal information. It's what Facebook does. I've gotten over it.]

But is VR worth it yet? My thing is, is that I am not super into the games that are most popular with VR headsets these days, like Star Wars, Superhot, or The Climb. But what I do like to use it for is exploring space or using Google Earth to visit places I could never afford to see IRL. I've used it as a meditation tool by enjoying beautiful vistas and listening to calming music. I've used it to watch 3D movies like Jurassic World and Spiderman: Homecoming. And I do really enjoy playing Beatsaber and trying to use it for exercise. 

The Climb

This game is not indicative of what VR looks like these days. This is a stylized game to look like that on purpose. 

But I also don't see that VR has "arrived" yet, meaning that it's all it can be. What I see is a TON of potential. You can use it as a virtual meeting space, which during a Pandemic, has become pretty useful if not critical. You can use it as a monitor if you like, which is an interesting concept but a bit cumbersome (after all, you have a 1.10lb hunk of plastic strapped to your face). I've used it as a big TV, which is a really cool idea. You can watch youtube videos, or hook it up to your Plex server to watch whatever files you have. But the fidelity isn't all there, yet. If you like a crisp, clean picture with accurate colors, a VR headset is not the way to go. However, it would work well if your family only has one TV and they fight over what to watch all the time. This way two people can watch two different things at the same time - in the same space!

I can definitely see what VR can become, and that's really exciting. Do I regret my purchase? Not at all. I don't use it as much as I thought I would, but virtual reality is still young, and the best thing about the Quest 2 is that it brings VR into the realm of possibility for a lot of people on the fence about it, which means that developers of VR games are going to want to get in on all that potential revenue. Within the next year I bet there will be an explosion of new content to explore, and I'm ready to jump in on that! 

Potato Diet

I forget how I heard about the Potato Diet. I knew that potatoes were an all-around nutritious food and held many of the vitamins and nutrients that our bodies required to survive. This is why Matt Damon did so well on Mars ;)

I also knew that my Idealshake products use a proprietary blend to help control hunger called Slendesta, which is made from a "potato protein extract". Potatoes are known to help with hunger.

I decided first, to challenge Patrick to eat nothing but potatoes (free of butter, sour cream, cheese, and whatever else yummy things you would normally put on potatoes) for a whole week. He accepted the challenge because he loves potatoes. Or, does he just love yummy potatoes?

Things that were allowed: Salt, pepper, all spices and herbs, and just the barest amount of oil. The last one was my add in, and not a part of the official diet, because potatoes have most everything sans protein and fat. Fat is crucial in any diet, your body needs it and it helps digest food (I mean, so is protein, but having a small spritz of olive oil spray on a potato to help it cook won't hurt much).

After the 7 days, which was more difficult than he anticipated, he lost 7 lbs. That's a crazy amount. So now I was really excited to try it myself.

Generally, I think of potatoes as the enemy and avoid them at all costs. Carbs do nothing but make me feel tired and lethargic it seems. Every time I try to add carbs to my plate it doesn't seem to help reduce my hunger and only adds calories to my meal. And now, I would be eating nothing but potatoes for an entire week.

I decided to make things simple. I love to batch prepare my foods, so I did this: I made a huge batch of chicken stock ahead of time so that I could use it to boil the 10 potatoes I would use to make mash for my lunch every day. And I decided for breakfast that I would cube a bunch of

potatoes and make "jo-jos" using spices like paprika and garlic. For dinner, I generally just made baked potatoes. We both cheated slightly by using nutritional yeast on our baked potatoes for a little extra flavor, but we avoided anything with sugar. (believe it or not, a lot of commercialized "spice blends" have sugar in them).

I started the process on a Saturday, and all weekend I was horribly tired and lethargic. I thought maybe it was the potatoes, but it turns out that if you're addicted to caffeine, one of the side-effects of not having any is horrible lethargy. I decided that I had to add caffeine to the diet because I couldn't afford to be like this at work. But, I kept it simple by using Stevia instead of splenda, and only 4 tsp of non-dairy creamer. (I usually add collagen to my coffee for a protein boost, but not this week!)

By Monday I was doing much better. I found it pretty easy at first to keep my calories around 1500 (which for me is my cut off for weight gain) but because each russett is roughly 350-400, that meant only eating 5 or so a day. I ended up increasing that amount by the end of the week in order to stave off the hunger, and I was basically eating 2 potatoes a meal.

In the end, I lost 4.5 lbs without changing anything else (including being sedentary). Now even though 6 potatoes equals roughly 2400 calories, and even though I was retaining water like a b*tch (I mean, damn. Those carbs were holding onto every ounce I drank, I swear), I still ended up losing weight, which is crazy.

This was more of an experiment than anything else. It's definitely not a sustainable thing to do, and you will get tired of plain potatoes pretty quickly, but it was nice to know that my body doesn't completely reject all form of carbs and maybe I shouldn't be so stringent about not adding them as a healthy side dish to a meal. Eating them plain is certainly not a deal breaker for me. Pros are that it's definitely cheap, and super easy when you ask "whats for dinner? oh yeah, potatoes." Takes the stress right out of that decision! lol

[Oh and one other thing: I urge everybody to try making mashed potatoes using chicken stock. It is actually quiet delicious even without adding milk, cream, or mayonnaise to the final product]

What do you guys think? Would you ever try this diet?1 Let me know in the comments!

I'm Essential

I've been waffling about starting this post for a while. It only makes sense to write about COVID-19, but it also feels like it's compounded information that seems redundant and unnecessary. Although I am considered an "essential employee" and figuratively on the "front line", it almost feels like camouflage because I'm not a nurse, and I'm not working in ICU or the ER.  I'll take advantage of some of the offerings that companies give for healthcare employees because my badge says that I work at __________, but it almost feels fraudulent. (To keep from getting in trouble, if you know where I work, great. If not, then I can't share that information).

Here in Gynecologic Oncology, our practice hasn't stopped. We're the epitome of needing to be seen, either because you have cancer and it's serious, or because we can't do a pelvic exam over the phone. We've only slowed our practice by pushing out 6 month follow ups by a couple of months, and doing chemo check ups over the phone, but our doctor is still seeing new patients in person, and is still doing surgeries.

We're always lumped into all the other practices when it comes to new rules and regulations, especially regarding COVID-19, which seems to change daily. While other practices can reduce the number of patients coming into the office to practically zero, we can not do that. So when they implement rules like "give every patient and visitor a mask" even when we are running low on PPE and our supplier keeps cancelling our mask orders (in addition to telling us to wear the same mask daily until it gets soiled), it's frustrating. We are going to run out of masks. We saw 18 patients yesterday between two providers, and 11 patients today with the Physician alone. Granted, some people come in with cloth masks, and thank goodness because otherwise we'd be out already, but we're still dangerously low.

Some of the rules that employees have to go through regarding screening seems ridiculous. We have to fill out an online form daily that says we don't have COVID symptoms, and yet we still have to get our temperature checked every day as if the "do you have a fever over 100.0?" wasn't even asked. Where does this online form even go? Why are we filling it out if it doesn't get stored somewhere accessible? But come on - we're healthcare workers. We're not stupid. We're literally living inside COVID every day working here. Do you really think we'd just waltz into work coughing, aching and feverish? Giving zero cares about patients or co-workers? Give us a little credit.

We were informed a few weeks ago that a patient of ours had tested positive for COVID-19. It happened very interestingly - she had been here for a post op check, had no symptoms what so ever, and had gone to the ED the next day and was (for some reason) tested for COVID, and ended up being positive. The most irritating part of all of this was the lack of testing available for the provider who was locked in a room, all up in her biz for well over 10 minutes, and for the nurse who checked her in. Our provider was sick with at least 2 of the 3 main symptoms, and was refused testing by our facility. Instead, she had to go outside of it. She tested negative, however false negatives are always a possibility and I assume this is the case with her due to the circumstances. How does a patient presenting with no obvious symptoms of COVID get a test, but the provider treating her does not?

For the record, my task, due to being "moderately at risk" having been the one checking her in, had to report my temperature twice a day to a stupid recording, for 2 weeks straight. Again, like we need to be babied. As if we can't check our temperature ourselves because we're responsible adults WORKING AROUND COVID, and we might know when we feel out of sorts or feverish.

wish I could look this good while feeling sick

For a couple of weeks, we had a screening system going for our building. When COVID was first introduced, they cut off access to the hospital from our building - the doors to the skybridge have been closed for a while. They then implemented a screening station on each floor where patients were re-directed to check in prior to coming to the clinic they were scheduled at.

I often joked that our door handle was the most dangerous spot in the building, because patients either refused to see, ignored, or got confused over the copious RED SIGNS that pointed to the screening station around the corner, and would attempt to walk in without being screened. 

There were many things wrong with the set up for screening.
1. It was in an enclosed hallway and it was internal, meaning patients had to park, use the elevator, and then get screened. 
2. It needed to be manned by two nurses at all times due to someone having to stay if a nurse needed to report to the clinic about patient symptoms. This also presented a problem because we didn't have nurses just lying around doing nothing, so it was hard to get coverage.
3. They had to take temperatures up close with an in-ear thermometer but were provided no face shields; only surgical masks, while patients were wearing nothing.
4. The in-ear thermometer was wildly inaccurate, to the point where it was giving almost everyone a low grade fever.
5. They had to fill out a form and hand it to the patient, who then in turn had to hand it to me (and I had to hand it to a nurse), which is a point of contact/failure.

They then ended the practice only 2 weeks into it because we were too low on PPE to continue.

Can I get a -_- ?

We were supposed to be getting cloth masks. This whole thing was announced almost a month ago. While we waited, and reused the same surgical masks day in and day out, they stated that the other hospitals were getting them first. The smaller, less busy, non triage site, hospitals. Okay, whatever... two weeks later, "we're in the process of delivering masks". And now, complete radio silence. What happened to our cloth masks? What the hell? Our manager is also attempting to get unused masks from clinics who have completely shut down for the time being but can't seem to get those either.


I am under no delusions that cloth masks are better than surgical masks. But at least cloth masks are reusable. And we can save the surgical masks for the ED, ICU, or urgent care clinics.

I'm to the point where I don't even care if I get sick or not. I mean, I care, but not enough to be in a panic over it. I'm more worried about Patrick getting sick, as his lungs are slightly compromised. Patrick and I were already homebodies. Our routines haven't changed much. Mine basically hasn't changed at all, as I still work 8 hours a day 5 days a week. He got laid off from the casino, but it is kind of a blessing in disguise because he wanted out anyway, and now he has a chance to go back to school and do something else.

I am just stressed over all of this crap - as of course I'm sure every one is; and also not nearly as stressed as the healthcare workers on the actual front line. Or as stressed as the people who are without a job and unable to get unemployment for whatever reason. I'm blessed to have a job during this time that is for sure. I am not complaining about that in the slightest. But can I be jealous for a moment about all these articles I'm reading with various headlines akin to "What to do with all your spare time!" "Start a new habit with all this spare time!" "Get Free this, that, or the other for all of that extra time!" Wish I could take advantage of that stuff!

Anyway, I just finally wanted to write about this stuff and get it out there, for the people who have been wondering what it's like "on the other side". Wish me luck!

What a Trip Part #2

TAKE TWO!

Okay, now that we were properly on our way to Oregon for real (the first part was just a test, you know!!) we weren't going to have any time to do much of anything that day. It turned out to be a good thing because Saturday was gonna be kind of rainy, gross day and Sunday was supposed to turn out nice. We got to the Crown Plaza hotel in Oswego at 4pm and checked in. The lobby and hotel itself was very nice, and I only paid $90 for the night. Not bad at all!

So, to kill some time, we decided to check out the Fry's in Wilsonville. I had heard that all the Fry's locations in California were barebones (I have not driven up to Renton to check out our only store in the state). There are videos from Bitwit and The Apptrepeneur about how empty the stores are. Patrick asked an employee who gave the same spiel to us as to Bitwit about how they are "securing a new vendor" etc. It's been a while... I think those poor employees are being pulled and aren't being told the truth. This is a picture of the most interesting item in the store:

Aren't translations fun? 

After we killed a bunch of time at Fry's, we drove back up to Portland to eat dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. We decided to splurge since we had a $50 gift card left over from Christmas. Neither of us were very hungry at the moment, which was good because even at almost 7pm the wait was going to be almost an hour. The crowds were insane. Nobody here was worried about any virus, that was for sure. We decided to check out the mall it was attached to and didn't get very far at all. The very first store was called Lovesac (horrible name for an awesome product) that sells modular couch pieces. The very next store was an indoor Tesla shop. A couple stores down from that was a See's Candy, where I got a piece of Marzipan because it's amazing, and then close to that was the only Nespresso store around. After I was done buying some Nespresso pods, it was time to head back to the restaurant. Pengi had to help us eat all the food. That night we went to bed completely stuffed. 

We ate breakfast at the hotel and again got way too full and didn't check out until 11am. We drove down to Salem and made our way to Riverfront Park to find out how to buy tickets for the Steamboat since the website wasn't very clear. We could see the boat from the shore. Patrick called the number but they were doing some kind of fundraiser and weren't doing excursions that day. Darn. We decided to go check out another mall while we waited for the weather to get nicer, and then did our wine tasting at Honeywood. They were only $1 a taste, so I had 6 and Patrick had 4. He liked Gooseberry the best and I loved the Elderberry. Luckily for us, both of those were being sold at our local Tacoma Boys so we will never run out ;)

After that, we checked out Riverfront Park properly as it was super nice out that afternoon. I got some great pictures of the place. Finally, we were hungry enough to head out to Kaizer and get my first "experience" with In-N-Out. Yeah... the line isn't any better than when they first opened. We sat in the drive thru line for 45 minutes. It was a little nuts. I got the classic experience: Cheeseburger, fries, and a chocolate shake. It was good, but 45 minutes in line good? Not so much.

It was now time to make our way home. We stopped at a market that sold the Spirited Ice Cream and grabbed a Mocha and a Vanilla for $11 a pop. Then we stood in line at Voodoo for a dozen big ones. By the time we headed out of Portland the sun was beginning to set. I got a decent shot with my phone.

We were both really lucky that we were still able to do our trip and get just about everything we wanted done. By the way, the car has a bad coil, so that's getting repaired and I should be up and running by Wednesday!

What a Trip part #1

It was supposed to have been a fun, short, overnight trip for our 1 year anniversary. And boy, did it turn out interesting. The plan was to drive down to Salem, eat at In-N-Out burger in Keizer (Patrick is a Cali boy), do a wine tasting at one of my favorite Wineries, Honeywood (they make a lot of wine from other fruits. Very sweet stuff), and possibly ride a steamboat on the river. We were going to have dinner at The Cheesecake Factory, then spend the night near Portland, and grab some alcoholic ice cream (Spirited Ice Cream) and donuts from Voodoo on the drive home.

Instead, my car started to jerk and stutter and felt like it was not shifting properly. We were currently in Chehalis, about 60 miles south of Tacoma on our way down to Portland. Patrick was driving because I was using my bionicgym at the time, and I wasn't really feeling how the car was reacting. We ended up in a rural area off of I-5 because Patrick needed to make a deposit at a BECU branch or ATM, and the website pointed google maps to this back-asswards location that ended up being a house. And that's when my car really started acting up. Good timing, G. I had him pull over, and I opened the hood with the full intention of checking the transmission fluid level because of how the car was acting like it was shifting funny (like it was trying to shift and having a hard time doing it).

Turns out, after searching  for the dipstick for several minutes - the 2015 Chevy Sonic doesn't even have a transmission level dipstick. You can't even check the level unless you lift the car. Like, wat. So, that being the only thing I know, I was like well, let me try driving it, since I hadn't really felt what Patrick was dealing with (the bionicgym creates vibrations in my leg muscles so that's pretty much all I was feeling). We're driving back to the freeway, the car is really struggling, and I am freaking out because we're in hodunk nowheresville. I manage to make it within eyesight of the overpass back to I-5 when the check engine light finally comes on and I pull off to the side. I pull out my OBD-II reader, and it gives me a "cylinder 3 misfire" code. Was told it was dangerous to drive it in this condition and further driving could cause damage to the catalytic converter. So, I called a tow truck. Unfortunately, State Farm only covers me for 13 miles, so to tow it back to my Midas on 6th Ave in Tacoma would cost me another $160 bucks. Great.

The tow ride was certainly interesting. He came in a flatbead, and told us that there wasn't enough room for both of us in the cabin and that we could stay in the car on the drive up. We had to look it up, just to make sure it was legal. Legal yes - safe? - not 100%! But, what choice did we have? If it hadn't been raining it would have been more fun, but the windows were fogging up and we didn't really get a decent outside view. About 30 miles in I was feeling a tad carsick because I couldn't see outside. We made the best of it though by waving at all the Semis we drove past because we were at their eye level.

We knew that we could still salvage this trip. We got dropped off at my Midas at 12:30 and still had plenty of time to walk home and drive Patrick's car down to Oregon. We would just have to reschedule all the Saturday plans and do them on Sunday instead!

BionicGym

It started as an Indiegogo campaign more than three years ago. It was a novel idea... this doctor in Ireland wondered whether or not we could use electrical impulses to mimic shivering. Shivering, or muscle quivering, turns out to burn a decent amount of calories. Without going into too much detail here, after a ton of research and development, BionicGym was born. Now it is similar to those Ab machines that shock your muscles into convulsing. However, BG uses wraps around your thighs and stimulates the hamstrings, quads, and to an extent, the glutes, which are the largest muscles in your body. BG does not claim to build muscle. But when I started reading about the campaign back in May of 2017, the science seemed completely sound. Your muscles constantly twitching involuntarily due to electrical impulses (which is similar to TENS if you place it in an area that contracts your muscle) will burn calories, plain and simple.

I invested.

They touted that you could "run a marathon on your couch". Now, it was not purported to be easy. In fact, when you watch videos of BionicGym in action from Dr. Crowe himself, he was twitching, sweating and out of breath, just as you would be doing real cardio. His heart rate was elevated, and he was able to maintain it for long periods of time. He did DEXA scans, which are a lot more accurate at showing fat loss than any other method, and how the BionicGym was in fact, burning the most dangerous kind of fat - the visceral kind found around your organs.

I can't embed Vimeo videos into my blog, but here is a link to a user's experience with BionicGym

I was really excited for this technology. It was perfect for someone like me; someone that just can't be convinced to do any kind of exercise outside of walking and the occasional hike. It is also great for those that have injuries or conditions that prevent them from doing regular exercise. Also great for busy people always on the go or are at the office all the time. Super perfect for people like me who are stuck at a desk they can't leave because they're checking patients in and out all day. It might even be something that is viable for people in space to help maintain their muscle mass.

It took 3+ years for the product to start shipping. There were a lot of bumps and hurdles, including people getting theirs outside of the USA first because US backers had to wait for FDA approval. But this also meant that US backers were able to watch Beta testers of the product and see if it actually worked. They had to build a facility in California for US backers so they could ship from there. And finally, last month, I received my BionicGym.

Now, it's certainly not a miracle cure. There is a weight limit on the device (which I can't remember off hand, but I think it might be 20 stone - or 280 lbs) if you carry a lot of your weight in your thighs, because the electrical impulses need to travel through that fat layer to your muscles, and it's just not as effective otherwise. (They are, however, working on a version that can accomplish this.) But I can tell you, it definitely works. I'm wearing it right now in fact, at work. You can kinda tell it's on me, as my pants are not super baggy, but it's not ostentatious. I'm running it at a lower setting because otherwise I'd be visibly shaking. So, in the case of wearing it around the office, it's a low-intensity, long duration type of situation just to help you burn a bit while sitting at your desk. 

The benefits are pretty obvious, but there are also some drawbacks. The wraps have to go as high up the leg as you can possibly get them, so depending on how many fat rolls you have, this can be a tad uncomfortable. It also makes it hard for us females to use the restroom (obviously while not on!! You can pause the program), which can be an issue if you run the BG for more than 2 hours. The battery will last for probably 6-7 hours total, and it's totally do-able as long as you're reasonably comfortable. Walking is awkward. Although the wraps aren't super bulky, the controller unit is nestled on the inside leg, which I think is an odd choice for placement. The wraps also stop you from bending your legs properly, so this isn't something you should really be walking around town with (you also shouldn't be driving with them on, for obvious reasons). Also, peeling off the electrodes when you're done can be kind of painful, especially on the underside of your legs.

It's something you have to build up tolerance for. You can't just shoot it up to the highest setting on your first go, even if you're already fit. The electrical impulses can be uncomfortable, and when the setting gets high enough you'll have to stand, and can't do much else. It might even take time for your heart rate to increase. Last Sunday, I ran the program at level 49 for probably 20 minutes (out of a high of 100), I was shaking pretty good, standing the whole time, and my heart rate never got above 90. Yet, I got DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness), which to me is a great indication that it's doing something.

I'm hoping that when I include this along with my generally healthy eating habits, I can finally get some weight loss. Also hoping for a V02 max increase eventually to help with hiking. A lot of the time, I stop to rest not because my muscles need a break, but because I need to catch my breath! I've only been using it for a month so we'll certainly see!