A Sudden Loss of Sanity and Weight

The Josh Wells Weekly, Episode 297

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I have no good pics of me doing comedy this past week. I did some cool comedy stuff, just no photo evidence of it. So, here’s a pic of Jinx in her newest box from Amazon.

Random Thought

I recently stepped on the scale and realized that I’ve lost a bunch of weight since fracturing my elbow. Maybe almost too much weight. I get it. In the beginning, I couldn’t move my arms that well so eating sucked and I was sad and bummed so I didn’t have much of an appetite. And once I did get moving, I started to run, and I haven’t been able to lift which I think used to slow down some of the calorie burn that I’m experiencing now.

I’m not trying to complain. I’m okay. I wish I were a little heavier. I’m gonna tweak some things in my workout and eating habits to try and counteract the sudden weight loss. I’ll be fine. But it was kinda surprising. I lost about 15 lbs in a little under two months. I didn’t plan for that. It just happened. I suddenly felt like I was out of control of my own body.

One of my favorite things about working out, and especially lifting, is it feels like I’m in control of my body. Whatever the universe is doing outside of my skin is almost all chaos and beyond my control. But lifting is control. It’s a way to declare what I want from my body and in most cases, the body follows suit.

The world outside though, I got no control over that. And maybe in a way lifting helped keep me sane. I don’t know if outside of my own body I didn’t realize things were crazy all along or maybe things are getting crazier, and I can’t help but acknowledge it now. Maybe it’s a perfect storm.

For four years of Biden, I was able to tune out more. His detractors called him “Sleepy Joe” and I thought, well, that’s a good thing. Sleepy means boring. Sleepy means I can put my guard down. That’s what Biden allowed for me personally. I was able to tune out from the news and most days I felt like things would be mostly okay. But also, I don’t know if maybe all along things weren’t okay because I had a consistent lifting regimen and that was maybe helping me to feel safe in an insane world.

This Trump stuff seems bad. But then again, the news and social media makes everything seem bad all the time so I never know when I should be on high alert anymore. If we’re in crisis mode all the time, then crisis mode becomes the norm and then it’s hard to determine what’s bad and what’s worse. It’s like the boy who cried wolf but also maybe there is actually a wolf present at all times and maybe sometimes it’s a little wolf and maybe sometimes it’s a big wolf but no matter the circumstances, we always gotta be wary about a goddamn wolf.

The outside world is an insane place. Lifting was helping to keep me sane. Maybe the break from that sanity is also a good thing. It’s probably not good to know there’s a wolf outside and I’m just all like, “I don’t care,” while I toss dumbbells around and listen to a playlist that takes me back to the 1990s.

A thing I know for certain is I don’t wanna be as light as I am now. It’s not too bad. It’s not a crisis. I’m gonna be okay. I’ll throw a few lbs back on this body and be feeling okay about my weight. And maybe that’s where America is right now. We’re injured and we’re taking more Ls than anticipated but with a little determination maybe it’s not too late to turn this thing around and pack on a few pounds to get us back in the right direction.

Or maybe not. Maybe things will continue to get worse and there’ll never be an end to it but with some luck, this elbow will heal, and I’ll start lifting again and I’ll think, “yea, it’s bad out there, but have you seen how my chest looks in the mirror lately?”

I ran 9.7 miles in March. Huge increase in mileage.

Movie I Watched Recently

Woman of the Hour

(Netflix)

This was a decent movie based on a true story. It’s one of those movies that leaves me more interested in the real story it’s based on and sends me on a bit of a google deep dive after the fact.

A serial killer in the 70s is doing his thing and killing a bunch of women after romancing them and getting them alone. He decides to up his game and somehow gets on The Dating Game and wins a date on national television. Luckily, the contestant’s intuition tells her something’s wrong with this dude and they never date.

I can’t imagine how wild it would’ve been if he somehow went through with murdering the contestant though. That would’ve been some crazy shit. It’s already crazy that he got on the show (questionable vetting process on the show’s part) and then had the charm to win the damn thing.

A truly crazy story. If that’s your sorta thing, give it a watch.

This is how dating worked before the apps.

TV show I’m currently watching

Jeopardy!

I have one more episode of Black Mirror to go and I didn’t get to it this week so instead I will give you a quick update on Jeopardy.

This youthful looking dude was cleaning up on Jeopardy this week.

Liam won six games in a row before being eliminated in a game where he dominated for most of it but came up short in Final Jeopardy. I really enjoyed his run. I started to call him Boy Wonder and I was thinking he might’ve been dominant enough for us to watch him grow up before our eyes on TV.

See ya at the Tournament of Champions, Liam.

Album of the Week

viagr aboys / Viagra Boys

I enjoy this band a lot. I first heard the Viagra Boys during the pandemic and for whatever reason, music I picked up on at that time sticks to me in a certain way. This is their third album since then. I was a big fan of the first album of theirs I heard, Welfare Jazz. Their last album was decent, but I wasn’t crazy about it.

This album falls somewhere in between. Welfare Jazz is still the king, but this was a very enjoyable listen. Viagra Boys are weird but they’re just the right amount of weird where the music they make is listenable and enjoyable and I don’t feel like I’m being challenged.

I have a hard time describing what they sound like. It’s some kind of alternative rock. They’re slightly more serious than the Dead Milkmen but still pretty silly most of the time. I was kinda surprised by the few slower tracks on this album. I’m not sure if I completely dig it but I feel like that’s them as a band trying to stretch their wings a bit.

A pretty consistent theme with this band is that they keep it loose. The ‘LOS’ tattoo on this cover is the same tattoo that the lead singer of the VB has on his forehead and it’s Swedish for, ‘loose.’ That’s some commitment to the keeping it loose philosophy.

Book I’m Currently Reading

Junkie / William S. Burroughs

I’m barely reading this book. I’m only one chapter in. I’m hoping maybe there’ll be more downtime to read next week. We’ll see.

A funny thing about that though… I was reading the introduction to this book, and I don’t enjoy most introductions to works of fiction. I find that most of them make too many references to a book you’re about to read but know nothing about yet. I don’t mind an introduction if it’s gonna try to get me hyped up on the book I’m about to jump into, but I don’t need a scholarly breakdown on a story I haven’t consumed yet. So, I convinced myself to skip the introduction and instead of using that shortcut to get a deeper start on the book, I only found the time to read one chapter.

Still, with introductions… I say keep it brief and get me hyped. Don’t bore me before I even make it to the pages with numbers on them.

The quote on the front of this cover is probably the correct amount of introduction a book needs.

Random sports thought of the week

It’s my favorite time of the sports year, the NBA playoffs. Here are some NBA playoff thoughts:

-The Timberwolves beat the Lakers and I was very wrong about the Lakers and the Timberwolves and in hindsight I feel dumb about it. I got caught up in the LeBron/Luka hype but here’s the thing, I’ve written in this newsletter before that the Super Team is dead, and we live in a post-super team era. Why did I fall for it here? I’m not completely sure why but I’d be a fool to keep underestimating Anthony Edwards.

-I think the Warriors got what it takes to beat the Houston Rockets, but I think the Rockets are not gonna make it easy. The Rockets feel like a star player away from true greatness.

-Last week I said the Clippers/Nuggets series is a coin flip, but I ultimately went with the Clippers. We are now heading into a Game 7 in Denver and although I feel like Denver is probably going to win that game and this series, I’m holding strong to my original pick of the Clippers.

-The Knicks/Pistons series was a lot more fun than I thought it was going to be. It might’ve been my favorite series of the first round. Both teams played hard and gave each game a throwback feel to a time when the game seemed to be a little rougher than it is now. The Knicks won and that’s great but it’s unfortunate that no matter who won this series, they were pretty much playing for the honor to lose to the Celtics in the next round (I say this begrudgingly btw. I’m no Celtics fan but they’re just that good).

-The Pacers are better than I thought they were and also maybe the Bucks are not as good as I thought they were. I love the idea of the Pacers and the Fever both being great teams for the next several years, making Indianapolis a basketball hotspot. As for the Bucks, something’s gotta give in the offseason. Giannis needs help.

-This has been a very exciting first round so far. The first-round schedule is insane. It feels like there’s games on all the time. I’ve stayed up till 1am watching basketball three times in the past week and a half.

If Anthony Edwards isn’t the best player in the playoffs (he might be though), he’s at least the most exciting player.

Random pro wrestling thought of the week

It’s so bizarre that I’m finding myself invested in the current Cena/Orton story. For years, these two were at the top of the WWE during what I think might’ve been WWE’s most boring era during my lifetime. I almost resented them both for it. They fought each other numerous times and every time they went back to the well, I greeted it with a yawn.

But something’s changed. I think the biggest factor is that neither of them feels stale. I felt like for years neither of them budged from their characters. There was never much development. Just the two same dudes doing the same thing over and over again. But now Cena is a douchebag and very good at it and somehow RKO is likable.

I don’t know exactly how Orton became likable, but I think it began when he started teaming with Matt Riddle. It was like he knew things had changed. He’s the vet. Other wrestlers looked up to him. And I’m not sure why, but it just seemed like he got his passion back. He was fun to watch. I can’t put my finger on it or provide any more specifics than that.

And they both stand for different things. Cena is what you can do with WWE beyond the scope of pro wrestling. But RKO is what you can do when you’re all about WWE and that’s it. It’s like the biggest star of an era (Cena) vs the most talented star of that same era (Orton). The stakes feel bigger, especially considering Cena is the champ, retiring at the end of the year, and threatening to take the title with him.

The match is also in St. Louis, RKO’s home city, so the crowd is gonna be bonkers. I can’t believe I’m gonna type this out, but I’m excited to catch this match.

Moments before Orton snuck up on Cena and hit him with an RKO. The RKO is possibly the coolest finisher of these modern times. It should be boring by now, but it isn’t. It defies aging.

Top 5 NBA Teams Still in the NBA Playoffs

1- Boston Celtics

2- Oklahoma City Thunder

3- Cleveland Cavaliers

4- Minnesota Timberwolves

5- Golden State Warriors

Weekly Quote

-Dan Ozzi

This quote is from his newsletter, ‘ZERO CRED.’ Ozzi is one of the best and coolest music journalists/writers in the game right now. I highly recommend giving his newsletter a follow:

danozzi.substack.com

Thanks for reading!

I am now on BlueSky. You can now follow me there as well as Instagram and Twitter at:

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https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRg2MM2mOOvh1JKnDatFiBQ

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