The Power to Believe

Tonight's unnerving music brought to you by King Crimson. What I love about the album art work is that despite the dystopian scenario, there is still a baby there. The soldiers seem like guards. There's something akin to a nativity scene, as well.

Musically, The Power To Believe is one of the heaviest albums Crimson ever released, rivaling Red. Unlike that album, Believe does have some moments that are much more lighter including "Eyes Wide Open," which proves once again how underrated Adrian Belew is as a songwriter. His guitar playing always overshadows it, but his melodic sense and songwriting is as genius as anything else.

It was hard not to think about dystopia today. It took three grocery store visits before I found eggs. Thankfully, Angelenos are so pedestrian with their protein tastes that there was plenty of duck and quail to be had. So I know we will eat well for the next few weeks.

I didn't bother looking for toilet paper or paper towels. There were none. It was a strange sight to see row upon row of empty aisles. Target was the same. It was as if preppers invaded Southern California. The difference of course is that preppers have been prepped since Y2K and the last place they'd come is here, unless it was to stock up on bullets.

I've since put a moratorium on news shows to keep the stress levels low. It's bad enough sitting at home as if we're waiting for a hurricane ten days in advance, without listening to Chicken Little Tonight.

For the past year I've been taking vitamin supplements that were formulated specifically for my metabolic rate. The company, Paragon, is groundbreaking.

You send them a sample of your hair, they analyze it, and what comes back is a thorough test. You find out your metabolic rate, and your nutrient levels to see what you are lacking, and what you have to much of. Sometimes what you have too much of isn't because you're taking the wrong vitamins but because your body isn't processing the nutrients correctly due to age, stress, vices, etc. In addition, they also give you a thorough breakdown of what foods you should increase, decrease, and avoid all together. They also test you for heavy metals. What I like is that it's not a one-size-fits all approach. The vitamins you get are formulated only for you. My entire family has been taking them with equal results. The hardest part at first was sticking to the Venn diagram of foods we can all eat. But even that isn't all that hard. hell, I can eat goat yogurt while making a strawberry smoothie for the baby girl and a spinach omelet for my wife at the same time. I've got it down to a science.

Since I started this new regimen last July that I have tons more energy, sleep like a baby, and have gotten fitter and happier to paraphrase Radiohead.

In the wake of coronavirus, Paragon has put out an important blog post showing the correlation between an increase in Vitamin D3 intake during flu season and the decrease in the chances of your getting sick. It's backed by tons of research, too.

I am a lot less worried than I was just a few days ago when everything was closing left and right. Things'll be all right.

Also considering I have extra time not commuting to San Francisco due to mandatory work from home policies, I put up a linkedin post with words of encouragement for ad students who must be in a state of panic that the industry will collapse before they even send out their portfolios. I offered to critique portfolios, too. I had one person ask me and I'm happy to say theirs was pretty good.

All that thinking about portfolio school reminded me of my time at the one i went to in Atlanta. It seems like yesterday and it seems like eighteen years ago, too. Time is as weird as life.