I went Cold Turkey
and ran out of gas
6 days without coffee
gave me quite the headache.
( Why ) was I torturing myself once again?
I have been ignoring my favorite dino lately, cheating on hypersensitivosaurus with another terrible lizard since the start of this week.
In case you didn't know
which is likely. We haven't all had Ancient Greek in high school like this nerd
the word dinosaur comes from two Greek words, Deinos and Sauros, that literally translate to 'Terrible/ Horrible' ( and ) 'Lizard'
I even swapped some Lions, I mean Cubs, for the latter.
To talk a little bit less in riddles:
Although I have hardly been able to pet my hypersensitive dino - focus on my hypersensitive book and its illustrations - in the last week and a half or so, I have been giving attention and investing time and money in a dino platform and coin on the blockchain, called Dinoswap. The crypto coin itself is actually abbreviated to DINO.
How could I resist this, having been focused on dinos - almost daily - in the last two years or so?
'DinoSwap' is a DeFi platform built on the Matic blockchain. As I was already active on Matic for a month and a half or so, farming a tiny bit of FIRE daily on 'Polydragon', I already knew the ropes ( hardly a learning curve ). This helped a lot.
As the crypto market has mainly been going down in the last couple of months, I had to be creative, do some exploring and Dino might just make the difference. Let's see where it will lead to.
I set up a ( more or less ) passive income stream on Dinoswap that might be able to cover my daily/ weekly / monthly expenses. I realize I had similar thought about other coins before but things are moving so fast on the blockchain that it can change almost over night. Luckily I'm a creative as well as a quick learner ( if stuff interests me ) and I keep adapting.
On a side note and to refer to my upcoming book, I went 'Cold Turkey' 6 days ago ( on coffee that is. My twin sister needed the camping stove back, that I had borrowed in the last 2.5 months, as she was about to receive paying guests in her guest house. Suddenly I was left with a gas stove / oven that I had semi cleaned ( see posts of two months ago ) and wasn't able to attach my gas bottle, that I had been using previously, too.
6 days without coffee and a day on my own, combined with the world wide pandemic, made my head spin and hurt today.
It's fair to say that I wasn't really feeling it today ( and that is an understatement ). Or perhaps it's a lie, I was feeling a lot and mainly over thinking things that didn't make me feel better.
After spending a couple of hours practicing escapism ( It's impossible to escape from my mind ) by watching some shows, including brainless stuff on Netflix, I decided I needed to do stuff that would actually get me out of the rut.
I wanted to go on a walk in nature.
Vegetables and fruits were needed, as well as exercise.
I also felt like talking to my parents, so I reached out and asked whether we could call in the early evening.
I reached out to some friends too, to ask how they were doing and to tell them how I felt/ was doing.
FYI: there have been some updates on the health of my dad recently ( and not all of it positive ) and it increased the urge I have been feeling for quite some time to visit The Netherlands, where I haven't been for exactly a year and a month now. My twin sister, who is living nearby me, in Portugal, is having similar feelings. She hasn't seen my parents, brother, sister and our two Dutch nephews for about two years now.
One friend, the awesome 
Another friend, in The Netherlands, who I have known for over 25 years, replied fast and in an awesome way, too, after learning that I might come his way soonish.
I then went for a walk / hike in the warm but not too hot Summer heat, got some groceries, got myself water ice on a stick, for the way back and reached out to some more people, including my brother.
Talking about the latter, he and I spoke on the phone extensively, days ago and are slowly but steadily getting back to the 'old way', after Covid and opposing views seemingly increased the gap between us in the last year and a half. It feels good!
Chatting with my parents on the phone also helped loads, as did a cold shower, some cleaning, music, podcasts and, right now, typing this ramble of a post. And, if I'm honest, the tiniest portion of Ben and Jerry's ice cream that I'm eating right now.
I think I'm gonna end it here. I mainly wanted to show you all that I'm still alive and kicking ( and sometimes screaming ). All is well, most of the time and if it isn't I am pretty good, these days, to turn things around.
One thing I definitely learnt is that not expressing yourself when you don't feel well is the worst thing you can do. Believe me, I've been there and done that for way too long...
Sending you loads of positive energy from a Summery Portugal,
Vincent
sometimes known as Hypersensitivosaurus, recently known as Cold Turkey
P.S. I almost forgot to mention that I got myself a small coffee with loads of ( soy ) milk today, to break the 6 day coffee break. It did not necessarily make me feel better but I believe my headache disappeared.
I aim to drink coffee every now and then, from now on, and will try my best to not make it a daily habit, once again. I really wanna get rid of feeling like crap when I don't drink it. And, some days, especially when I'm not at my best, coffee just isn't the best drink of choice ( being a hypersensitivosaurus and all ).
P.P.S. If you have any questions about Dinoswap, feel free to reach out to me. More info can be found here Dinoswap Exchange
The image above this post shows a cropped screenshot of the dinoswap main page plus a racing Cold Turkey ( as described in my previous write up Fast Food - An Illustration for my Upcoming Book
Let me leave you with this view from one of my windows, less than an hour ago: