Massive post

So after almost a year, I've finally finished the saved draft of my tour diary for the "Bamboozle Road Show" tour. It's quite a read.

If you wanna check it out, go to my first post in this blog, or if you're REALLY lazy, simply click here.

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Meow

This is my brother's cat literally climbing up me and sitting on my shoulders while I'm on the computer (taken with my camera phone)

In other news, I'm on the last day of my "no corn" kick and it's still just as hard as it was on the first day but I'm still going strong. We leave for recording with Mike Green in LA in like 3 days. We'll be there February 1-21.

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Corn fed nation

I was talking to my friend Kramer at a friend's BBQ last week about high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), government subsidizing of the corn industry in America, and how it has dominated the makeup of American food and negatively affects the health of Americans as a whole. It got me thinking... 

HFCS has been generating some negative publicity for some time now and subsequently many American food and beverage companies have had to replace it with another form of sweetener in order to avoid decreased sales. This is public knowledge at this point and I'd say avoiding HFCS has even become a trend in American dieting as of late, but what about corn in general? Is too much a bad thing? This was what I set out to learn.

Now I know it's healthy to have a balanced diet and that excessive amounts of anything (even corn) in one's diet can't be good for you which was one of the things that concerned me about my conversation with Kramer; the human digestive system probably isn't adjusted to breaking down as much corn as the average American is eating. So I decided to do a little bit of research when I got home to see just how much corn that really is. The results of my little research project were shocking. Not only did corn exist in my diet in high amounts, corn was in literally almost EVERY SINGLE ONE OF MY GROCERIES in one form or another! Exceptions included water, cheese, and an avocado. My pasta, Tofurky slices, candy, iced tea, cereal, waffles, and whole wheat bread all contained corn-derived products. Even the almonds had hydrolyzed corn protein in the ingredients! Needless to say I was a little taken aback by all of this.

I did some more research and read up about it on the internet. It took some time but what I found was this: when we eat corn, we're essentially eating the seed of the corn plant, which is what the kernels are. Seeds are designed to remain intact as they pass through the digestive system of whatever eats them in order to be capable of germination once they reach the soil. The human digestive system isn't built to break down cellulose (which is what the outside of the kernel is made of), which is why it shows up in our stools after we eat it. The inside of the kernel is mostly made up of starch, sugar, and oil. Can you see now why Americans are so fat? This stuff clearly isn't helping. HFCS is especially hard for the body to break down and lives in the fatty tissue longer than other sweeteners (as if starch, sugar, and oil weren't fattening enough).

At this point you're either as shocked as I was, or this is already common knowledge to you; in which case you're probably saying to yourself, "that's really fascinating and all, Matt, but get to the damn point already!" The point is I've decided to abstain from all corn and corn derivatives for one week. Just to see if I can do it and what effects it will have on my lifestyle. Right now I'm finishing up day 2 and I have to say: this is HARD! I almost didn't make it through the first day because this stuff really is in everything! I had to end up buying all new groceries and spent hours reading ingredients at the grocery store, but here I am $80 later with more than enough food to finish out the week corn free. So far I've learned that by eliminating all corn from my diet I am forcing myself to eat healthier by default. I found myself having to buy many more whole foods and items from the health food aisle in order to avoid corn. And while I don't think anyone should go as extreme as to eliminate corn from their diet entirely, eliminating all processed food products containing corn is probably a step in the right direction.

So that's my update for now. Kind of a long post and probably boring for some but I am intrigued by learning new things like this and in all honesty I am kind of a nerd (I'm choosing to blog about this on a Friday night after all), so there you have it. Take that for what it is. 

Until next time, a slightly more self-educated Matt Wilson saying goodnight and thanks for reading.

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Dunzo

The past week has been somewhat eventful. I'm pretty sure nobody reads this because I've only told a handful of people that it even exists but I'll preface the recap of my week with an explanation of the current state of my life regardless: SYG did 4 shows with Four Year Strong on the East Coast starting the day after Christmas. I found out right before going over for those that we had to move out of the apartment I was sharing with Morgan & Monica a month sooner than expected, so when I got back I had like 2 days to move everything out. I hadn't figured out where I was going to stay for the month of January so I asked my Brother and he said I could stay at his place. He also offered me a job working with the catering company he works for so for the past 2 and a half weeks I've been staying with jason and waking up at 5 AM Monday-Friday to work this catering sales job. This job sucks. I've been averaging $40-50/day for 7 hours of work and it's just not worth it for me. Jason hates it too I don't know how he works there and then goes straight to another job for 6 hours. Anyway last week I told the boss I'm quitting so tomorrow will be my last day. I must say, I'm stoked to be done! The only thing I'll miss will be the convenience of buying $1 menu items at the end of my shift. Well, that and talking to all the hot secretaries in all the business offices on my route haha

My birthday ended up being a lot of fun. Went to P.F. Chang's and got to spend time with people I don't get to see enough of anymore so that was nice. After that some of us went bowling and I gave out my Christmas presents I had made for everyone who contributes and/or enjoys the "Daily Donalds" blog. Check 'em out, 

we even got the star himself to pose in the photo! If you are reading this and you have no idea what I'm talking about, head over to http://dailydonalds.blogspot.com and check it out. It may not be as funny if you don't know Donald, but it's still pretty good.

After bowling we went to Artie's in P. Hill and at first we thought they were closed because the door wasn't open and there were no cars out front but after Noah knocked on the door the guy came and let us in and said we could come and hang until close so we had the bar all to ourselves. We listened to Pantera and R. Kelly and played pool for an hour or so before everyone headed home for the night. Duncan and I saw "Benjamin Button" and "Defiance" this week, both good movies. For my birthday Morgan bought tickets to go see Tim & Eric live in SF which was hilarious. They came out in yellow spandex suits singing "Diarrhea!" ...Definitely the best birthday present I received this year. 

In other news, I got these little devils as my birthday present to myself: 

Today I went to my Uncle John's house and hung out with him and my Cousins Ben and Nick for a few hours which is always fun. They're 5 & 7 so they were super stoked to have someone to play with for the day. We shot the BB gun and played wiffle ball and Wii then got pizza. Not much else to report so I guess that's all for now. Time to get some rest, gotta wake up in 6 hours!

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26

Tomorrow is my 26th birthday. How depressing. I've felt old since my 17th birthday and have always awaited the death of my youth with an awful feeling in my gut. I still feel (and act) pretty youthful for my age in my opinion and when you're in your mid 20's I don't think that's considered a good thing by society. Yet I don't want to let it go. I can't. Once my youth is 100% dead and gone, what do I really have to look forward to in life?
Children? ...Marriage? ...Homeownership?
Ugh.
Just the thought of assimilating myself into the "adult" world and allowing myself become completely absorbed in it makes my stomach turn. I already don't enjoy most of the things my peers do like going to bars/clubs, watching sports, cars, etc. It's a world I've never fully understood, and undoubtedly one that has never understood me. I don't want to take part in it and not to be dramatic but I really don't see a purpose in continuing to go on living once I reach the precipice of my youth. It doesn't seem like you're even really living your own life after a certain point. The thought of fully "growing up" makes me cringe. Maybe I'm delusional and that time has already passed me by ages ago. I mean, legally I was no longer a child at 18 but I sure felt old at the time. Have I been living in denial, perpetuating a fantasy for the past 8 years? It's possible but I still feel the lust for life within me. I know it's there because I feel it gradually slipping away as the days pass like fleeting moments... Every day doors close for me, and every day I take a step closer to becoming one of the lifeless husks of the once beautiful people that I see walking all around me; the walking dead.
I haven't updated this thing in ages so I'm making regular updates part of my new year's resolution. This blog is so disorganized that I don't even know where I last left off so I won't bother getting up to date with a recap of the 2nd half of last year. I'm still caught up in all the old posts that I've saved, just sitting there unfinished and unpublished in my "edit posts" box. I'll get around to those eventually too but since my main purpose in keeping this thing is to remember what goes on in my life and my corresponding thoughts, I'm probably going to have a lot of incomplete posts when they do finally surface because I can't remember shit even 5 minutes after it happens. C'est la vie.

No more hope just closed doors
and as we walk into oblivion
every step is a reminder of passing hours
of passing days
of passing lives
of passing away

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