2023 on Jackson Taylor

December Update 2023

jackson@jacksontaylor.xyz (Jackson Taylor) — Tue, 26 Dec 2023 10:38:49 -0500

It’s getting close to the end of the year and I want this blog post to go out so I keep my streak, but I feel a pretty bad cold coming on so I’m going to shorten this pretty significantly compared to my other end of year posts. I’m happy I was able to put out 1 blog post every month. This new year I might try to do more, but I will for sure try to stick with the 1 post a month at least.

Looking at 2023

Merry Christmas everyone! I’m writing this the day after a really good few days of Christmas celebrations. I hope all of you were able to spend time with your family and have a wonderful holiday.

This year has been incredibly hard and full of challenges, but I think it’s been good for me. While I’ve been dealing with my back I’ve realized what’s most important in my life, and things that don’t matter have stopped bothering me as much. I wish I hadn’t hurt my back, but it’s happened so I have to deal with it and with all the consequences from it. Life goes on. “You’re gonna carry that weight.”

I also started reading One Piece which has taken over my life in a very fun way, I love theories and reading into the depth that it has.

I unfortunately did NOT get a YouTube Music recap this year. I’m not sure why, but I’ll try to give some recommendations next month maybe in case it does eventually generate mine.

Plans for 2024

I think my biggest goal right now for 2024 is to go on a trip somewhere. I missed out on some really cool trips in 2023 and I have some vacation that’s going to roll over. This year I already have semi-solid plans to go to Minnesota in April and I was invited to Iceland (though I think I’m gonna skip that one). My biggest fear with trips is paying all this money and using vacation time to go somewhere, and then once I get there I push too hard and end up not being able to do anything for the rest of the trip. Or worse, having to go to the emergency room because I’ve developed Cauda Equinas. But, I think Minnesota I’ll have the best chance of being ok throughout it.

One Piece Chapters 1095 - 1102

Kuma’s flashback is over and I loved every bit of it. This has far surpassed everything I thought a flashback about Kuma would include and how it would make me feel. The depth of these characters and their sufferings is immense and you could sit for hours debating the questions that arise during it.

Kuma is the best dad ever, and honestly one of the best stoic people in fiction. He had every reason to drop everything and hate his life and become the tyrant he was made out to be. From losing his family, to being a slave, to losing his best friend, to being the government’s dog and slave for a 2nd time, he just kept going all with the best attitude.

This is my favorite One Piece flashback, I think Robin’s is still super iconic and provided a major shiift of our understanding of the One Piece world, but Kuma’s is so deep and sad.

I might try to make a post dedicated to my interpretation of the flashback soon. But for now, just go read it for yourself! (Or if you haven’t read any One Piece, go start for the new year!)

November Update 2023

jackson@jacksontaylor.xyz (Jackson Taylor) — Wed, 29 Nov 2023 17:47:26 -0400

General Updates

My kindle is actually making me read a little bit more, like I had hoped. I finished up David Goggin’s first book “Can’t Hurt Me” after having started it a few months ago. It’s incredibly interesting and full of good motivation and advice. His life as a whole has been filled with hardships and pain and he doesn’t sugar coat it at all. His dad beat him, he was bullied, he went through a lot of physical pain during his 3 hell weeks, etc. It’s a really good mix of biography and self help, because it’s not just “look at what all I’ve done and what’s happened to me” and he’s also not just preaching lessons at you. He’s using those experiences and taking you through his thought process during them, where he failed and what he learned and how he’s applied it moving forward. I highly recommend it. I will be reading his 2nd book “Never Finished” at some point.

Right now, I’m reading “Clean Architecture” by Robert (Uncle Bob) Martin for work. I’ve read most of “Clean Coder” before, and have followed his advice and teachings for a while. I don’t totally practice TDD like I should, but I’m getting better at it. I’m already able to put some of the things I’ve learned into practice which is awesome.

I’m also trying to finish “Crime and Punishment” by Dostoevsky. I got through about 2/3rds of it earlier this year, but fell off reading it. Now I’m about caught back up to where I was originally, where Raskolnikov is talking with Sonya in her apartment.

Back Update

I beat 2 of my goals for this year and I am very ecstatic and excited to share them. I went to work every day for a week, one of those days was also a whole day. The McGill big 3 has been so incredibly helpful and I am so grateful for the progress I’ve been making. I feel so much better, my leg doesn’t hurt all of the time now (and when it does hurt it’s much more minor), I sleep much better. My quality of life has improved so much. Mentally I’m doing a lot better now too. I still struggle sometimes where I think of all the time I lost because of the stupid mistakes that caused this problem, and I still have that fear where one day I’ll wake up and be in the same shape I was a year ago. There’s nothing I can do about the time lost, but I know I can rehab myself much easier out of it if it happens again and I hope I’m smart enough not to do anything stupid again. So, I’m doing much, much better.

I’m even planning a trip for the spring to go visit my friend in Minnesota. I missed out on our “boys trip” to Dallas this year, and also a trip to Hawaii. This will be my 3rd trip to Minnesota, but I’ll be meeting some new people and will be out of my town for a while so I’m incredibly excited.

One Piece Chapters 1096 - 1099

Now for the weeb stuff. Spoilers are imminent.

1096

These chapters are still going incredibly strong with Kuma’s backstory, like we’ve expected. This chapter, however, did not show as much of the Rocks’ pirates or the incident at God Valley as I would’ve hoped, but it was a strong chapter regardless.

We got to see all of the Rocks’ members, except for Rocks (bummer). We even got knowledge of a character who we met ~600 chapters ago being on the Rocks’ crew, Gloriosa. She is the former empress of Amazon Lily, 3rd empresses before Boa Hancock, 2nd before Shakky. I’m not sure how much this really effects the story, but it’s a nice inclusion and leads to some cool theories. If Gloriosa was with the Rocks’ pirates during this time, who was taking care of Amazon Lily? Was there no empress at this time, or was the unknown empress there? Stuff like that.

Another HUGE event in my eyes is finding out how Kuma got his devil fruit. Ivankov and Kuma rushed the prizes for the human cleansing event that was happening on the island, and they seemingly grabbed their fruits at random. Ivankov grabbed the Fish-Fish fruit model Azure Dragon and Kuma grabbed the Paw-Paw fruit. Ivankov was not able to eat his before Big Mom stole it, and we know that later on Big Mom would feed this fruit to Kaido to save his life, but Kuma was able to eat his. This opens up a lot of really fun ideas to wonder “what if”. Since Ivankov and Kuma grabbed the fruits at random, they could’ve easily been switched. Which means that Kuma could’ve had the Azure Dragon fruit and Kaido could’ve had the Paw-Paw fruit. There’s also the scenario that Kuma was the one attacked by Big Mom instead of Ivankov in which case Ivankov could’ve had the Paw-Paw fruit or the Azure Dragon fruit. Or perhaps they both were able to eat the fruits before Big Mom got to either one of them, then 2 of the top Revolutionary Army members would’ve had the most broken fruits (provided they went on to join the Revolutionary Army) and Kaido possibly would’ve died. This was only a few panels, but it was so much fun thinking about these possibilities.

Like I said before we don’t get to see much of what happened at God Valley. But, we do find out that Kuma, at only 9 years old, was the GOAT and resolved to save as many people as he could so he could be like Nika. He saved over 500 in total, but still prayed and regretted not being able to save more. This really shows off Kuma’s selflessness and sense of duty as a child. Looking back it makes me tear up a bit, for a kid who already had been through so much he still just wanted to help people. Kuma and Ginny then continued living together in a church in Kuma’s home of Sorbet Kingdom.

1097

Overall I’ve been incredibly fortunate about the spoilers I saw while reading One Piece. I generally knew about the arcs to come, the time skip and some of the villains that we already met. This trend has continued pretty well while I’ve been reading weekly. Except for 1097, I got totally spoiled for 1097, like the entire plot and the “big” reveal. I thought I was reading a theory on why Dragon could’ve been in the navy, but it was actually just a 1097 summary and Dragon explicitly said he was in the navy in the chapter. So that was a bummer.

That’s been a theory for a long long time, and it’s always made perfect sense. The one thing we’re still not sure of when it comes to Dragon being in the navy is what he saw that made him want to quit. In 1096 we thought it was going to be the God Valley incident, but we still haven’t gotten confirmation on if he was there or not.

Back to the start of the chapter though, because Dragon’s navy reveal was the 2nd to last page. This chapter shows off a lot of Kuma’s life after God Valley and makes you love him even more.

Kuma and Ginny are shown to have aged and become really influential within their community. Kuma’s been taking the pain from everyone and then secretly taking it on himself, so that way he can see everyone in his village happy. This is another show of Kuma’s selfless nature and how much he sacrifices for others.

Kuma and Ginny’s relationship also gets furthered. Ginny is obviously in love with Kuma, they’ve been living together for almost 15 years at this point and they both understand the struggles the other has been through. Kuma is afraid of imposing the burden of his bloodline on anyone though. He doesn’t want more of his loved ones to be enslaved or killed because of their relationship to him. He’s seen this happen first hand because it happened to him and his family in chapter 1095. Kuma still holds a lot of baggage from his time as a slave, but he still holds his virtues and ideals close to his heart.

The rest of the chapter is showing how Sorbet Kingdom was changed by the current King Bekori and people from the southern part of the island are able to be enslaved. Kuma, Ginny and their friends fight back but are jailed for their crimes. Ivankov and Dragon then arrive to break them out, and that’s how they join the Revolutionary Army. During their time in the Revolutionary Army, perhaps right after they got out of prison, King Bekori was overthrown and removed from power.

The last few pages of the chapter show how Kuma and Ginny are doing as Revolutionary Army members. Then the chapter ends with Ginny being captured by an unknown person. At the time of reading this there were many theories floating in my head about who it could be. I thought perhaps it was a famous pirate or the navy. There wasn’t much to go off of so the time between this chapter and the next were agonizing. In the current time (on Egghead island) we hadn’t heard anything about Ginny so we could assume the worst and that she was already dead during the timeline of the story.

1098

When I tell you that this chapter is tough to read, I mean it. This is absolutely the saddest I’ve ever been while reading anything. This chapter already had high expectations going in because we were going to find out who kidnapped Ginny. There was also disappointment and fear because this is supposedly the first chapter that Oda was unable to finish by the deadline (I haven’t confirmed that, however). People thought Oda was losing his touch, that he was getting old or getting bored with One Piece. After reading the chapter this is totally understandable, because Oda was probably crying his eyes out drawing it. He has answered in SBSs that he does occasionally cry while drawing emotion heavy chapters (Robin’s “I WANT TO LIVE!” I’m pretty sure was one he’s said he cried at).

Ginny was captured by a Celestial Dragon, which was not in my mind at all of who would’ve taken her but it totally makes sense. Many people of Sorbet Kingdom had a crush on her, and she’s known as one of the prettiest women any of them have ever seen. She was taken to be the Celestial Dragon’s wife.

A lot of people were angry with Dragon immediately with this chapter because there’s been a 2 year time skip and Ginny is still captured. People see this as Dragon failing to keep his people safe and being lazy or not a good leader by not going after her. This has had a lot of talk in the community since this chapter’s debut, and one take I really like is that people are incorrectly comparing the Revolutionary Army to that of a pirate crew and being upset that they don’t act the same. I’m not going to spend too much time on this because there’s more to talk about in this chapter, but revolutions are much different than a family/crew in that they’re all working towards a goal and that’s the end all be all of the army. Doing things that directly jeopardize the goal of the army, like attacking a Celestial Dragon or Marijoa too early, is a great way to ruin everything they’ve been working towards. Dragon loves Kuma and Ginny, but he knows the things that are at stake by going after her and chose not to. Kuma is upset at her kidnapping, but it’s been shown to me that he understands and trusts Dragon and doesn’t run gungho after her.

After 2 years Ginny is finally “freed” and comes back to Sorbet Kingdom with her child, Bonney. She was let go as a slave because she was incredibly sick and pregnant, she served no purpose for them anymore. Once she made it back to Sorbet Kingdom she called the revolutionaries to say her final goodbye. Kuma knows exactly where she is, so with his powers he immediately rushes back to see her, but in doing this he misses her final words to him which were “I’ll always love you”. When he gets to the church he finds that she’s covered in these blue sapphire stones and he finds little Bonney and resolves to raise her for Ginny.

This entire sequence is horribly sad, and I cannot wait until it’s animated, it’s gonna be so great. This entire backstory is one of the most tragic stories of any character in One Piece, and in fact all of the fiction I have read or seen myself. Kuma has been through so much in his life, he’s been a slave, he lost his family, now he’s lost his best friend and we still aren’t even to where he gets turned into a cyborg and then becomes a slave again. I can only imagine the feelings of regret he has that he wasn’t able to help Ginny and how he never got to truly say goodbye.

For the first 5 years of Bonney’s life they live a normal life and she does normal kid things. Kuma is reminded of Ginny because of Bonney’s large appetite which is really sweet. They do normal dad/daughter things. Bonney has to sleep in an iron cage while in Kuma’s bed so he doesn’t squish her which is a nice touch and made me giggle a little. Then tragedy strikes again and Bonney is found to have the same disease that killed Ginny. Kuma quits the revolutionaries and begins his search for a doctor to be able to identify and cure the disease. During this time Bonney has to live a life of seclusion from the outside world. She’s allowed to see people, but a lot of her peers bully her for being a “vampire”. Kuma is really protective of her for obvious reasons.

During these panels we get a few callbacks to certain things. Kuma asks Bonney “If we went on a trip where would you want to go”, which is what he asked Perona before he swatted her away in the Thriller Bark arc. Kuma also learns about Sky islands from Bonney, and she says that maybe Nika is on one. Bonney would obviously know about Nika since Kuma is a pastor for a church that is, presumably, for the religion Nika is the figurehead.

This chapter ends off with King Bekori making his return to take the crown back in a non-peaceful manner.

1099

Overall Kuma’s backstory has rocketed Kuma to being one of my top 10 favorite characters. The sorrow that Oda has made me feel for this character on a page is nearly unforgivable. But I’m going to keep reading week to week because I’m addicted. This chapter was a little disappointing at first read, but that’s because it was following 1098. Overall it’s a really strong chapter, and much lighter in tone which is a nice break from the melancholy.

This chapter starts out showing Kuma at his most badass yet (in my opinion) by fighting through the flames that were started in Sorbet Kingdom by Bekori, a technique that was inspired by what happened with the Grey Terminal in Goa Kingdom (where Luffy grew up). Kuma enacted his own solo revolution of Sorbet Kingdom and overthrew Bekori for the 2nd time. I’m getting goosebumps re-reading this chapter. Kuma is “elected” as king of Sorbet, although he doesn’t want the title and the king before Bekori is really the one in power.

Bonney is then shown using the powers of her Age-Age fruit, not knowing that she’s even using them. This has caused a bunch of discussion on where she got her powers. Could it be that she unknowingly ate a fruit? Was she fed one as a baby while she was with the Celestial Dragons? Is this somehow Saturn’s doing? One theory that I’m not sure I 100% agree with yet, but is worth discussing is the idea that fruits have their own wills and they choose their users more than we think. Randy Troy is better at explaining it, so here is the video for that idea. I think my favorite theory is that she was fed her fruit as a baby by Celestial Dragons, but I see issues with that. Surely Ginny would’ve told someone if she had known/seen it happen, but maybe she didn’t. Bonney wouldn’t do well in baths because of the water, but that could have just been missed. I’m not sure if we will learn where she got her fruit, I’m not sure how much it really matters.

Kuma’s epithet from his first introduction is the “Tyrant King”, and now we know that this was just a hit piece from Bekori lying and trying to regain control of Sorbet Kingdom. This dude will NOT accept defeat, so Kuma decides to sink his and the navy’s ships that are coming to attack Kuma. This is where he gets his bounty of 296 million berries.

Apparently Kuma’s fruit powers were foreshadowed via his bounty amount because the numbers 2 and 9 can be read as “ni” and “kyu” in Japanese, and his fruit’s name in Japanese is the “Nikyu-Nikyu”. I haven’t confirmed if it was foreshadowing, or if it’s just a pun. I think maybe his bounty was revealed in one of the data books, because his bounty was not revealed when he first debuted in 233 or on Thriller Bark in 472/473. Oda likes playing with numbers though, so I’m pretty sure that this is not a coincidence.

Another mystery finally solved is how Kuma knew about the islands that he sent the Straw Hats to during the Sabaody arc. In this chapter Kuma goes to all of those islands in an attempt to find a doctor who could cure Bonney. I’m not 100% sure/convinced that based on what Kuma knew about the islands he could accurately pick where the Straw Hats should go. I don’t think he would’ve known enough about each of the crew members to make that decision. Maybe it was fate, maybe he knew more than I think he did, maybe it was a total accident (doubt that though).

While traveling, Kuma happens to come across Dragon and Dragon tells him about Vegapunk and how he could potentially cure Bonney. During this conversation we also learn that Ivankov and Inazuma were imprisoned in Impel Down during this time (that’s where they still were in the Impel Down arc). Belo Betty also reveals that Dragon has not yet reassigned Ginny’s old position and will only do so once Kuma approves it. This, I think, is Dragon trying to show that he did care about Ginny in case there were any doubts in Kuma’s mind. I’m not personally a Dragon-hater, and never thought he just forgot about Ginny like many people probably think, so this is kind of nice to confirm that Dragon does care about those closest to him, even if he’s not the best at showing it. Though, he is also shown drinking and talking about the new recruits, which is also nice to see because he’s opening up a bit.

Once Kuma reaches Egghead, Vegapunk explains that he can cure Bonney by a process using stem cells. However, since the process is so expensive, in exchange Kuma will have to allow Vegapunk to clone him. Kuma is somewhat apprehensive to begin with, but ultimately is willing to do anything to ensure Bonney is cured.

There’s a lot of really nice little small things and “easter eggs” you can find throughout the chapter. It’s getting really close to the end of the month though, so I’ll leave this as what it is. Chapter 1100 came out today, and there is not going to be a break next week, so I will write more about the flashback as a whole in my next blog post. Chapter 1101 is supposedly going to be very big.

Happy belated Thanksgiving!

October Update 2023

jackson@jacksontaylor.xyz (Jackson Taylor) — Mon, 23 Oct 2023 17:47:26 -0400

My internet is down at the time of writing this (Saturday), so I figured I’d go ahead and try to knock out this month’s blog post.

General Updates

Not too much going on with my back. I’ve been back to work once, I kinda want to start going back a more frequently. I’ve been pushing myself to sit up more at home. It’s rough at the end of the day, but it’s not too bad while I’m doing it. The “McGill Big 3” is really helping, if you are having any sort of back issues I would highly recommend trying it if you can.

I started reading “Atomic Habits” by James Clear, which talks about making good habits and getting rid of bad ones, and reading consistently is one that I want to start. I had set a timer to read for about 5-15 minutes every night at 7pm so that way I would get used to reading at a specific time, instead of doom-scrolling on social media. It was going well until I got sick, I’m not sure if it was Covid or what but it was rough. I had been going about a week or 2 strong, but I felt so bad I stopped. Which isn’t really a good reason, but what’re you gonna do. I bought a kindle and loaded it with a bunch of books so I will hopefully start reading more on it.

One Piece Chapter 1094 and 1095

This is the part of the blog post where I start talking about One Piece, so if you’re not caught up with the manga I’d stop reading. Some major things are happening right now.

Egghead is very quickly rising to become one of my favorite arcs in One Piece.

A real quick note about the terms I use. I sometimes switch between the official translations and the versions that are more common in the online communities. So in case you don’t know what I’m talking about and I use one word or the other this is what I mean:

Official	Alternate	Example sentence
Five Elders	Gorosei	“Jay-Garcia Saturn is one of the Five Elders” or “Jay-Garcia Saturn is one of the Gorosei”
Emperor of the Sea	Yonko	“Shanks is an Emperor” or “Shanks is a Yonko”
Marijoa	Mary-Geoise	“Marijoa is on top of the Red Line” or “Mary-Geoise is on top of the Red Line”
Supreme King Haki	Conquerer’s Haki	“He has Supreme King Haki” or “He has Conquerer’s Haki”

If you’re caught up to 1094 or 1095 you probably already know these words and their variations, but sometimes I use them interchangeably. I will typically use the alternate versions because they’re shorter. Except for “Mary-Geoise”, I do use “Marijoa”.

I also use the following names for the (former) Navy Admirals: “Akainu”, “Kizaru”, “Aokiji”, “Fujitora” “Greenbull”. I think that’s pretty common, except for maybe Aokiji also being known as Kuzan. Greenbull’s real name (Ryokugu) is hard to remember how to spell and say, so “Greenbull” is how I’ll mention him.

Anyway, on to the discussions.

Chapter 1094

This chapter was INSANE. We finally got shown in detail one of the Gorosei’s alternate forms, and got to see Luffy WHOOP Kizaru. We’ve known for a while that the Gorosei all had alternate forms (since Sabo went up against them when Cobra was killed), and for even longer I think we’ve all questioned if they had devil fruits or haki. This chapter doesn’t really answer if this transformation is devil fruit powers, or something new entirely, which is what makes it so interesting.

One theory a lot of people have is that it’s a mythical/ancient zoan devil fruit transformation, because he matches a certain demon (that I can’t think of the name of) from Japanese folklore. I think this is entirely plausible and probably closest to the truth. From what we know, the Gorosei seem to be immortal/eternally young based on flashbacks from many years ago and their appearances looking identical, so it’s entirely possible all the Gorosei have insanely powerful mythical/ancient zoan fruits.

Another theory that I like is that he himself is 100% a demon. He shows off a fraction of his power by killing a low rank Navy man by just looking at him. This could potentially be haki and his skills with haki are at a level we haven’t seen before, it could be a part of his devil fruit abilities and specific to Saturn, or it could be a new form of demon power entirely. During the time skip when Brook was sent away by Kuma, he was sent to an island that happened to be holding a satanic summoning event where they then believed Brook to be king of the demons. So, we know that demons exist in at least folklore of the One Piece world. I personally like the idea that he’s a demon, but I think it’s more probable that all of the Gorosei are devil fruit users with the eternal youth surgery having been performed on them by the previous Op-Op fruit users.

Kizaru getting punched was really satisfying to me. I don’t dislike Kizaru, but he got a good beat down from Luffy. It was a little touch and go, but Luffy punched him so hard he made him see stars and that was really awesome. I don’t know if Kizaru will walk away from this fight like he’s done before. Right now he’s knocked pretty much cold for a little bit.

Chapter 1095

It’s very possible that I don’t finish this blog post before chapter 1096 comes out, or I see spoilers. So this section is written as though I haven’t seen chapter 1096 (because as I’m writing it, I haven’t).

Chapter 1094 was already insane with the reveal of Jay-Garcia Saturn’s transformation. Now in chapter 1095 we got some of Kuma’s backstory, and he was someone who was on God Valley 38 years ago. Which matches up with the God Valley incident. These next probably 5-10 chapters are going to be so incredibly important and show off the history of the modern era in the One Piece world, and I am so hyped for it.

Originally it was thought that God Valley was where the celestial dragons lived, given the name. We know now that God Valley was the island that they chose to host their “native cleansing” game that year. It seems similar to other popular stories, think Squid Games except there’s probably no monetary prize for the ones being hunted.

There’s so many theories this is going to prove/disprove, this may go down as the most important flashback apart from any Void Century reveals. The God Valley incident has so much mystery surrounding it. It’s only been known about for 4 IRL years, and we’re already getting more information on it. We’re most likely going to see the following:

Rocks D. Xebec in full (for the first time).
The Rocks pirates’ motives and goals for being on God Valley.
Garp in his prime.
A rookie Roger.
Shanks’ relation to Figarland Garling and the other celestial dragons on the island.
How Shanks came into Roger’s care.
Ivankov’s backstory.
More about the Buccaneer race.

The theories surrounding the next chapter are so much fun to think about. There was a break this past week so lots of people have had time to discuss their ideas. Most of them surround what the prize of the native cleansing was going to be. We saw there were 6 small chests, so a lot of people think this is where many of the characters, who are confirmed to be on God Valley at the time, got their fruits.

From Boa’s time as a slave for the celestial dragons we know they like to feed their slaves devil fruits for fun (I think that’s really odd to give slaves powerful abilities, but to each their own), so this could be where they got the fruits to feed their slaves. We also already know from a conversation between Big Mom and Kaido that she gave him the Fish-Fish Model Azure Dragon devil fruit on that day, so that could’ve been 1 of the prizes. Kuma did not have his bear ears or paw pads (from what I could see) so he probably didn’t have his fruit that day, which means that could’ve been another. Ivankov was on God Valley but we don’t have any confirmation on if he had his fruit or not, so his Hormone-Hormone fruit may have been one. Whitebeard’s Tremor-Tremor fruit, Marco’s Bird-Bird Model Phoenix fruit, Dragon’s unknown fruit, the list goes on. I think that devil fruits being the prizes is the most probable theory as of right now, but I doubt that certain people got their fruits that day (Whitebeard specifically).

Since Kuma and Ivankov, 2 of the 3 founding members of the Revolutionary Army, have been shown to be on God Valley, another prominent theory is that Dragon will also show up in some capacity. The treatment that Kuma has experienced (and Ivankov has probably experienced) is surely the driving forces behind their decision to revolt against the government and celestial dragons. Surely the leader of the army also has seen terrible incidents involving the celestial dragons to make him want to go against them too, this would be an incredible time to expose that. One of the biggest theories right now, that I don’t disagree with, is that Dragon was at one point a part of the Navy and after serving for some time became a revolutionary. There’s at least a few pieces of evidence to support that idea. But there’s a few bits of information we still don’t know. Dragon created the Revolutionary army after the Ohara incident, but before that he was a part of a team called the “freedom fighters” for an undisclosed length of time, so we have no idea when he left the Navy (if he was a part of it).

It’s now Monday morning as I write this, so sometime this week we’ll see 1096 drop and hopefully some of this will be answered. I’m so incredibly excited and I hope it keeps going up from here. Egghead is amazing, and One Piece is one of the greatest stories around.

September Update 2023

jackson@jacksontaylor.xyz (Jackson Taylor) — Thu, 28 Sep 2023 10:27:23 -0400

This blog is cutting it a little close to the end of the month.

Back Update

Ok, I know I said I wouldn’t make any more updates about my back until something big happened, and this isn’t huge, but I’m feeling a lot better. God bless Danny Blakely, my friend and 3 of my good friends’ father. He’s been telling me since I hurt my back that I should go to yin-yoga with him and how it’s changed his life and he’s feeling great. He’s been suffering with a bad back since he was 19, so he knows what kinda stuff I’m going through. I went over for his wife’s (my friends’ mom) birthday and we got to talking about the McGill big 3 and how he does them twice a week during his gym sessions and how we should start doing them together. I went over a week later not expecting much, and pushed it as hard as I could without hurting myself. I woke up thinking “Man I haven’t done anything that intense with my arms in so long, they’re sore.” then I thought a little bit more and said “Wait, my leg doesn’t hurt”. I was in 0 sciatica pain. We’ve done 3 sessions so far, and slightly tweaked them each time, but I’m getting better. Some days are still harder, but overall I feel a lot better. I even went to Walmart with my family for the first time in a year, which used to be a weekly event.

One Piece Live Action

The Netflix One Piece live action adaptation came out on August 30th, and it’s actually pretty good. There are minor spoilers in this section up until the end of Arlong Park in the original story, so if you aren’t caught up to then with the manga or the anime I just wouldn’t read the rest of this post at all (lol). I discuss some important changes that effect things all to the chapters in the 400s.

Overall it was enjoyable and it’s leagues well above other adaptations that I have seen. If you’re hesitant about watching/reading One Piece and haven’t seen it before, I recommend it as an introduction. If you have seen One Piece before, I still think it’s worth to watch.

I’m not the biggest fan of some of the changes that the live action included, but the creators have ok reasons for why they did what they did. Oda was pretty close to the project, and Matt Owens (the showrunner and executive producer) is a huge One Piece fan so I think that’s a big reason why it was so successful. One Piece’s story is very calculated, it’s not something that you can mess with for the most part. Small things add up later on.

The casting was really good, I think everyone who played the straw hats did well. There were certain aspects about the characters traits I didn’t like; like how Luffy was a little too smart and “aware” of certain situations instead, and how Zoro was too edgy and not as arrogant (at least in my estimation). I’m certain this is just how they were directed as the show seemed very well put together and intentional with the direction they wanted to go. I’ve never watched the anime, so my understanding of the characters might be different than others anyway.

The side characters were probably my favorite part about the casting. Mihawk and Buggy are some of my favorites; these were also the 2 that I thought could’ve been messed up the easiest too. The Mihawk/Zoro fight on the Baratie was my favorite part. Buggy was a little more vulgar and Joker-esque than I had hoped, but it was still a really good performance. His chop-chop fruit powers were some of the best CGI in the show for sure, they did him a lot of justice (Buggy stays falling upwards).

My 2 least favorite casting choices were probably Arlong and Shanks, unfortunately. I think Arlong wasn’t built up enough as a character, and overall seemed more bark than bite, which in part was due to his size. He was a lot smaller than in the manga. I don’t expect someone to actually be 8’ tall, but he was like the same height as Luffy (who’s canonically 5'8", Iñaki Godoy is a little shorter at 5’ 6" according to IMDB). All the fishmen were a little janky overall though, so that might’ve compounded the issue. Shanks wasn’t quite as disappointing, but he still just didn’t seem right. Part of it, in my mind, was that he looked like someone cosplaying Shanks more than someone playing him. Shanks is a character that can be very kind and goofy, but will get super serious when he needs. I don’t think Peter Gadiot hit that mark quite right.

Overall the good far outweigh the bad, and the bad is mostly me being picky. I definitely recommend the show. Even if only to see the lovely Emily Rudd who is my new celebrity crush (email me if you like nerdy guys with bad backs Emily 😘). They’ve recently been greenlit for a second season, and they have plans for up to 6 seasons right now. I think this is a really good project to get people into One Piece, I have seen a lot of people already starting the anime after the live action which is awesome.

Spoilers About Significant Changes in the Live Action

If you don’t know the story of One Piece up until around chapter 480 of the manga (~421 of the anime) then I would skip this. Some of this is revealed in the live action, but not all of it.

Marines and Garp

There were a bunch of changes overall to the story, some pacing changed, trivial characters removed, etc. Nothing to make it totally unrecognizable, it’s mostly the same story. The BIG change that I was confused about, and a lot of other One Piece fans were too, was the inclusion of the B plot for Garp’s crew with Koby and Helmeppo; and also the reveal that Garp is Luffy’s Grandpa. The live action only covers to the end of Arlong Park, but Garp isn’t shown in full until after Enies lobby in the original. From several interviews, this was included because a lot of western television shows include a B plot that creates a feeling of tension for the main characters, so the marines coming after Luffy is meant to create that tension.

On one hand, this story with Garp was happening off screen (in cover stories in the manga, I’m not sure about the anime) at the same time as the arcs from Baratie all the way until Enies Lobby. If they had included it but never let Luffy and Garp clash or interact it would’ve seemed incredibly pointless and confused a lot of people. So the fight between them in the final episode had to happen.

On the other hand, I think they could’ve done much more with Arlong. He felt really underdeveloped to me and nowhere near as menacing or powerful as he did in the manga. In the manga, as with many of the villains during their respective arcs, Arlong seemed unbeatable. There was just so much going on in the live action that he didn’t get enough buildup to make the stakes high. We see him capture Buggy, and we do see what happened with Nami’s village but that’s it. With the theme of fishman discrimination being huge throughout One Piece, they could’ve replaced most of the marine stuff to include new examples of that. It was a good chance to introduce that form of racism early and make you see more of the world.

Revealing Garp is Luffy’s grandpa so early is kind of crazy. They might clash again at some point, but Garp is one of the only people who know that Dragon is Luffy’s father (before Marineford). The start of the next season should include Dragon, so I’m not sure if they’ll reveal that at Loguetown or not. Dragon and Luffy still have not directly interacted at all during the entire story, so having that happen first in the Live Action sounds like a huge gamble.

Very Important Missing Character

For some reason, they totally removed Hachi from the Arlong Pirates. Hachi is the only one (that I can remember right this instant) who appears later on in an important way. He’s the one who introduces the straw hats to Rayleigh and Kamie, and directs them around in Sabaody.

I’m really not sure what this means for that part of the story, I feel like if they didn’t want to use him later then they could’ve had him not reappear. It’s better to have him and not need him, than to need him and not have him is where my head is at basically. I’ve heard a few times that the CGI in the show was already hard to do and costly, so it could’ve been that Hachi was just too tough to pull off, but the fishmen were mostly practical effects anyway. Or perhaps they didn’t want to cast him too far ahead, and promise a part like that so early on. I’m not sure, I just didn’t like the implications of what happens by not including him for the story.

August Update 2023

jackson@jacksontaylor.xyz (Jackson Taylor) — Mon, 28 Aug 2023 00:00:00 -0400

Back update

I think from here on out I’ll stop doing back updates as often unless something major happens like a surgery, a procedure, or I go back to work consistently. I’m finally working into a routine and good habits so there probably won’t be much change from month to month to be interesting enough to blog about. I have started doing the McGill big 3 slowly, which are a set of 3 core exercises that are commonly recommended for low back pain. Personally, the McGill crunch has seemed to be more helpful to temporarily relieve pain than a cobra push/press up has. That might be due to my genetics. I didn’t know that genetics and the actual shape of your vertebrae are factors in what cause herniated discs and what can aid/restrict healing.

I’ve also been trying to limit my caffeine intake, and that has seemed to help a fair bit. So far it’s helped with having less anxious feelings and mood swings, better sleep, and I am staying hydrated better. Drinking 300-400mg of caffeine a day was average for me, which is not quite lethal but really not good for you. I went cold turkey 0mg for about 3 weeks before I “fell off the wagon” again, and have been drinking 1 energy drink (about 180-200mg for the brands I drink) every other day and I am really starting to feel the negatives again.

Moderate caffeine intake is not harmful or negative, there’s a lot of research on the nootropic effects of it. But because of how much caffeine I would have and when I would drink it it’s a negative experience for me. While off of caffeine I have much better sleep which leads to better recovery. Better sleep also leads to more regulated energy levels and better mood. Caffeine is a slight diet suppressant and diuretic so I’m eating a little more and also hydrating better by drinking water, which is good for your discs (as well as your mental health and general feelings).

I’m making better choices than I have been, so we’ll see how it goes.

One Piece

MINOR SPOILERS UNTIL THE CURRENT CHAPTER 1090 OF ONE PIECE

I think I caught up to the story the day after my last post. I read like crazy for about the last 30 chapters, which is sort of a bad thing because there’s going to be some stuff that I missed. To be totally honest I’ve forgotten the last 10 chapters at least. Overall One Piece is starting to ramp up really quickly with Egghead. I’m incredibly excited for Elbaf, another island that has been in talks since around chapter 115, it’s the one island Usopp really wants to go to, I’m just so hyped.

I’m so glad I finally decided to read it, it’s been such an awesome story. I was never sold on One Piece, I thought an anime that was about pirates that lasted for so long was stupid. I thought “why do they need 1000 episodes, that’s gratuitous, there’s no way all of that is important”, but I was SO wrong. Everything is important, even when you don’t think it’s important, it’ll come up again later. I want to eventually go back and read it and catch up again (if it’s still not finished). I’m incredibly proud that I stuck with it and caught up before it was finished. One Piece will go down in history as one of the most complex and intricate pieces of art ever made.

I kind of hate to say it, but I’m getting a little excited for the live action that’s coming out in a few days. I HATE live actions, and see almost zero point in them. A lot of them are horribly done and are just trying to make money off of a medium that does not translate well to human emotions, and I thought that was especially going to be true for One Piece. One piece is very cartoony (for lack of a better word), there’s a lot of ways the characters exhibit emotions that don’t translate well into normal human reactions if you were to see someone do them in real life (take for example Ed’s personality in the Cowboy Bebop live action). I think this will still be slightly cringe, and I think reading the manga or watching the anime first would be the smarter choice. A video came out a few days ago with Oda telling Iñaki (the actor playing as Luffy) that he was the person closest to Luffy he’s seen. Time and time again I have questioned Oda and been unfaithful, and have always been proven wrong, so I’m going to sit back and trust him this time. I’ll be watching at least the first season of the show and maybe reviewing it. There’s a lot of stuff I want to review, but never make time for.

Vinland Saga

SPOILERS UNTIL HALFWAY THROUGH THE SECOND SEASON OF THE VINLAND SAGA ANIME

I also started watching the Vinland Saga anime again. I watched the first season 2-3 years ago, and I thought it was ok. I didn’t understand/care for the politics stuff of what was going on between Denmark and England, which is what the first season is mostly about. Keeping track of all these places and their motives was boring to me. I finally decided to rewatch it, and I paid a lot more attention and enjoyed it much more. The politics are actually stupid simple, I was just being dense.

I’m almost done with the second season which I think is really good too. I’ve heard that people don’t like it as much as the first season, but I’m not sure if they mean the animation or the story. It’s animated by Mappa, so it’s up there in quality in my opinion. The story is definitely a tone shift compared to season 1, but that kind of tone shift is what made me want to rewatch it. I knew that it started centering around Thorfinn becoming a pacifist and more of the ideas presented in the bible. I think having Thorfinn really sit down and wondering what he’s going to do after Askeladd died is an amazing side of the story, and one that doesn’t get explored enough in other anime/manga. Berserk for example, Guts is after Griffith and is basically all hate and fear. He’s spent his entire life fighting in one way or another, so what’s he gonna do if and when he gets him? I don’t know, I really like Thorfinn’s progression and growth. Thorfinn is struggling to be a pacifist and to find the “first solution” instead of violence, which is much better than him never putting his hands up again, it shows he’s human and still makes mistakes. I think I like it better than season 1. I miss Askeladd, but it has Snake who is really interesting.

I might buy the deluxe editions of the manga that are coming out later this year and early next year. I’ll probably try to read it before then, but One Piece still has me in a weird spot with reading manga right now.

Zach Bryan - Zach Bryan

On August 25th, Zach Bryan released his self titled album and it’s pretty good. I haven’t given it a thorough enough listen, I’ve been slacking a little. My favorite songs right now are “Hey Driver” and “East Side of Sorrow”. It’s still Zach so it’s good and definitely worth a listen.

I cut the blog pretty close to the end of August this time, I’m gonna try to be earlier next month.

July Update 2023

jackson@jacksontaylor.xyz (Jackson Taylor) — Sat, 29 Jul 2023 12:47:19 -0400

Back Update

The probability of me avoiding surgery for my herniated disc were already slim, but now they’re pretty much non-existent. I started going to acupuncture to try to help with the pain, thinking maybe if I could get the pain to subside that I could start walking more and it would start to heal on its own. On the very first visit, even before I got on the table, the acupuncturist was saying how I was probably going to need the surgery. Based on where the pain is in my leg, how intense it is, and how long it’s been there, he wasn’t expecting much out of my visits.

Acupuncture has been a cool experience overall. I’m not afraid of needles, but this was a little scary since they’re sticking needles into your nerves based on things they feel in your skin and muscles. After the first visit, all of that fear was pretty much gone. The needles still hurt and make you jerk a little bit when they go in, but it’s more like “Ugh, I gotta go get poked” feeling than fear. My acupuncturist is really nice and explains what he’s doing and why, and is overall a really cool dude.

On my first visit he put about 10-12 needles in my leg and low back for about 30 minutes, then he stretched my legs out and cracked my hips/back a little bit. When I got home I was sore, but not in too much pain. Since it was on my back and leg I couldn’t tell if there was much bleeding. My second visit was significantly worse. That time, he hooked the needles up to a machine so they would have electricity pulse through my back and leg. I drove myself to and from that visit, and I almost intentionally drove over a bridge on the way home. There’s no doubt that’s been the most pain I’ve ever been in, and hope to ever experience. The pain shot down my whole leg and stayed there, it made it so difficult to focus. It’s not the acupuncturist’s fault at all, I just didn’t realize how strong the electricity really was, and should have told him to back it off a little. Driving myself was also a bad idea and I haven’t done that since. I’ve been 2 other times and those were much better.

I had some pretty good days after going to some of the appointments. There was one day I had like 0 pain, I was standing straight and only felt a little pressure in my leg which was really nice. I still hurt pretty bad some days though. Even with the good days it’s probably weird to say to people who haven’t had this issue, but I can feel that something is wrong with my spine. It’s an odd, almost hollow feeling when you’re sitting or walking around. It messes with your brain to have a weakness like this. Even if I do get the surgery, my back will always be weaker than it was. There’s a lot of feelings of despair that come and go. Some weeks are better mentally than others, it’s kind of dependent on how I’m feeling and what else is going on (how un-stoic of me).

I’m trying a few last things to hopefully avoid it, I’m doing more exercises, being way more aware of my movements and changing how I sleep (I removed some pillows). I’m also looking into a peptide called BPC-157 which is a chain of amino acids that are produced naturally in your gut and promotes healing. Athletes and bodybuilders use it to help out with their workouts, and I think the NFL banned it not too long ago (maybe because it works so well). I’ve read in several places that it doesn’t help with herniated discs, but if it can help nerve damage or nerve pain I’m in.

“So we’ll see” - Theo Von

One Piece Update

On a lighter note, on to One Piece! I forgot to add a spoiler warning last time, but I don’t think there were any spoilers besides maybe the progression of islands. This time I’ll include the warning.

POTENTIAL SPOILERS UNTIL CHAPTER 1060

I’ve been reading A LOT of One Piece since last month, it has been getting so good. Last time I posted I was almost done with the Dressrosa arc, I’m not sure where I was exactly. Now, I’ve just finished the Wano arc and am currently on chapter 1060. There’s been several days where I read from the time I got off work, 5pm, until about 12am (10-20 chapters). I finished a good hunk, like maybe 30 or 40 chapters, of Whole Cake in a single Saturday.

Since Dressrosa we’ve been to Zou, then Whole Cake, and then there was a cutaway to the much hyped Reverie, and then Wano. I’ve been excited for Wano since maybe Baratie because my friend was telling me about it and how stuff was getting intense (it gets so intense).

I have been loving the lore drops and chapters that follow what’s going on in the world. Sanji’s character development was great, I loved hearing about his family. My friend had kind of hinted to me that Sanji had some major stuff going on later on in the series, and pointed out that to get from the North Blue to the East Blue he had to have crossed the Red Line. So I thought as a kid he’d crossed this desert, but what ended up being the real thing was much cooler.

The Reverie was really cool because in IRL time it’s been maybe 10+ years since it was first mentioned. Seeing all of the world powers come together and revisiting older characters like Wapol and those from Alabasta was really nice (not for long though).

The stuff about Rocks’ Pirates was insane too, 956 and 957 were amazing and right now are my 2 favorite chapters. 957 specifically because of the stuff about Rocks and Garp being a badass. I really hope Oda draws out the God Valley incident, I will go feral if it’s not. I think that’d be a really cool idea for one of the One Piece movies.

I have only been reading for about 7 months and I cannot imagine what I would have done when reading it weekly. My friend got caught up towards the end of Dressrosa, so he’s been reading for 8 years. I’m really excited to get caught up, and I will probably finish before August is here. Then I can really start getting into the theories and I can finally watch One Piece content without being spoiled.

I swear, anytime I watched anything I would get spoiled. I had to be really careful on the wiki, I inadvertently got Ace’s death spoiled for me because he didn’t have a post-time skip image. I also got spoiled about Whitebeard being a part of Rocks because it was the first sentence on the page.

Anyway, back machine broke, One Piece is great. See you guys next month!

June Update 2023

jackson@jacksontaylor.xyz (Jackson Taylor) — Mon, 19 Jun 2023 13:05:59 -0400

Last month I said I was going to try to keep up with my blog this year with at least one post, so I figured I’d go ahead and knock it out early-ish this month.

I haven’t done too much with the site since last month. I’m still working on the Red Dead Redemption review. I started playing Red Dead Revolver because I wanted more information on a theory of mine. But it’s way different than both of the Red Dead Redemption games and kinda boring, so I’ve been playing Silent Hill instead. Since it’s hard to record with my back issues I’m just scrapping the series on YouTube and will eventually private the first video. Maybe I can come back to that in a few years.

I’m almost done with the Dressrosa arc in One Piece, I hope to have that done with in the next week or so. It’s a pretty good arc, I think it’s my favorite so far, but Water Seven/Enies Lobby was pretty good too. It’s kind of a toss up. I guess it really depends on how this arc ends. I’m only about 300 chapters behind until I’m caught up and can start reading it as new chapters come out. Something I keep thinking about while I’m reading it is how it must have been for those who were reading as it came out this whole time. People who were reading through things like Alabasta or the Paramount War and waiting each week to read it (or whenever they could). This series is older than I am, and it’s still going. I know people who were born and died during its run. I can pick out certain dates of my life and see what was going on in One Piece as it came out. An odd way to think about it, but that’s how I’ve situated the series in my head. It’s a large story that will go down in history, no doubt.

The friend I mentioned who has read One Piece before decided to read Berserk at my recommendation finally, and it took him 1 week to read it. It took me a few months. I don’t think I’m a slow reader, but I don’t sit down to read as much as him. He’s got way better comprehension though. I can read something a few times and it’s hard to retain it.

I have done a lot more with my vim setup. Most notable is more work with LSPs and the keybinds for that. I understand better what all of the pieces do, so when stuff breaks or I get an error I can diagnose it. Using it more and more during work has been better, because I fix issues as they arise instead of pushing it off. I have all the updates pushed to my repo so far at https://git.jacksontaylor.xyz/nvim-setup.git . If you want to go learn from it, steal some code, or use it in its entirety be my guest.

That’s half the year done, see you guys next month probably.

May Update 2023

jackson@jacksontaylor.xyz (Jackson Taylor) — Fri, 26 May 2023 00:02:21 -0400

Back Update

If you aren’t aware, I herniated a disc at my L4 and L5 vertebrates. This came about mostly from my negligence, and not going to the doctor when I should’ve. So if you have back pain or sciatica that doesn’t go away after a few days to a few weeks, don’t wait a whole year until one morning you can’t walk (shakes finger). That’s very dumb.

I’m still in a good bit of pain sometimes, but I’ve gotten a lot better at managing it without medications. Exercises don’t totally help still, but I have found positions to stretch in which seem to help with decompression, and cold showers seem to help. I got a steroid shot back in March that helped straightened out my contralateral shift, so I stand much straighter and have a lot less really bad days because of it. I used to not be able to sit for more than 5-10 minutes, which caused me to work from home (My company has been very awesome about the whole situation). About 2 weeks ago I actually went in to work for 3/5 days of that week for half the day. It’s not much, but it helped my mental state a lot to see different rooms and faces. I thought I was going to develop agoraphobia.

I did cancel my trip to Texas, which was upsetting, but I think it was for the best. The people I was going with were going to be very accommodating, but there were a lot of variables to plan for. I also didn’t want to slow them down from having fun while I’m irritable or unable to focus. There’s also the risk of the herniation getting so bad I have to have emergency surgery, so I really want to avoid that.

The probability of me having surgery to correct this is growing and shrinking, if that makes sense. On one hand, I’m making a lot of progress, but on the other hand I’m ready to be pain free. The surgery is an outpatient procedure, but it’s still back surgery. Some people claim it doesn’t help. There’s also the possibility of me having permanent nerve damage in my legs, with or without surgery.

I’m doing better, but I’ve still got a long way to go. My next planned milestone is either staying an entire day at work, or going every day of the week. Whichever feels right at the time, I probably won’t know which I’m going to try until I do it.

What I’ve Been Up To

This year I’ve tried to read more. I started One Piece around the start of the year. I’m all the way up to chapter 654 (end of Fish Man island) and I really enjoy it. I have a good friend who has been reading One Piece for several years, so it’s really nice to have someone to talk to about it and clarify things where I’m confused. It’s not really a confusing manga, but I have poor reading comprehension sometimes. My goal for One Piece is to catch up and be able to read the ending as it comes out. It’s way better than I originally thought it was going to be. I thought it was gonna be about the same quality as Dragon Ball, but it’s so much more. Don’t get me wrong Dragon Ball is good. The action and characters are super iconic. But One Piece is so much deeper than Dragon Ball with its themes. Finding small things mentioned hundreds of chapters ago that turn into plot lines is like a drug, Oda is a genius and he will go down as one of the best writers for it.

I’ve also started reading Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s “Crime and Punishment”. I got into a little Dr. Jordan Peterson phase for a bit, and this is one of his favorite books so I decided to try to read it. I’m about a quarter of the way through, and it’s pretty good. I’ve only recently started annotating it to help keep up with characters and draw out a little more meaning. I’m reading the Peaver and Volokhonsky translation, which I’ve heard is better than the Constance Garnett translation. I think I will try to read more of Dostoyevsky when I’m done. The main 5 of his are “Crime and Punishment”, “Notes from Underground”, “Demons”, “The Idiot” and “The Brothers Karamazov”, so once I’m done with this one I’ll move on to “Notes from Underground”. I might review the books, or I might not. There’s a lot of stuff I’ve been wanting to review but haven’t yet.

I don’t normally have so much that I’m reading at any given time, but I am also reading David Goggins’ “Can’t Hurt Me”. David Goggins is the hardest man alive, this dude is crazy. He’s a former Navy SEAL and a pretty good endurance athlete. His book details how he dealt with childhood abuse, racism and the holes he’s drug himself out of during his life. I’m about halfway through his book, this one is an easier read for me than Dostoyevsky because it’s a lot simpler (in a good way). There’s a lot of good messages in it, and he’s living proof of how mentally fortified someone can become. He thrives off of pain and suffering and finds more out about himself. He’s ran until his feet were broken and he was peeing blood, that kind of pain and suffering. It’s really good motivation and a really great example of discipline. He’s got another book that came out in 2020 called “Never Finished” that I also plan to read.

Apart from reading I’ve been doing more behind the scenes with my site. I’ve got a few reviews that will be coming out soon, and a little more site reorganization. I played through the “Red Dead Redemption” games for the first time and absolutely loved them. That review is massive so far and contains a lot of stuff related to the games and lore so it’s taking a long time to finish up.

I’m also planning to watch a bunch of classic movies that are really popular, but I’ve never seen. I started a list of movies I hear are really good, and plan to give them small reviews. Like a score out of 10 and a few notes, nothing major like the Cowboy Bebop and Red Dead Redemption reviews, unless it deserves it.

I’ve kept a streak going of posting once a month, so I’ll try to keep that as best I can. That’s another small goal for the year.

Deer Tick Announce New Album - Emotional Contracts

jackson@jacksontaylor.xyz (Jackson Taylor) — Tue, 25 Apr 2023 13:37:11 -0400

I don’t think I’ve actually mentioned it explicitly on my site anywhere, but I consider Deer Tick to be my favorite band of all time. I don’t listen to them as much as I did a few years ago (I used to listen to their whole albums over and over), but I don’t skip their songs very often. I found them after watching an episode of “Son’s of Anarchy” and their song “Goodbye, Dear Friend” played. Google play music (at the time) started playing radios with more of their songs, and I was hooked. My favorite songs of theirs are probably “Sea of Clouds” and “Don’t Hurt” of off their albums “Deer Tick Vol. 1” and “Deer Tick Vol. 2” respectively. They also play my favorite cover of all time of “Unwed Fathers” by John Prine, which is just outstanding if you haven’t heard it.

Anyway, that’s to say I keep up with them and this is a big deal! Today they announced a new album called “Emotional Contracts” set to come out on June 16th and released 2 songs from the album! The songs are called “Forgiving Ties” which was accompanied with a video, and “The Real Thing”.

Deer Tick’s sound has changed over each of their albums pretty drastically. They are not afraid to do things differently than they have before, and that have been done by others before, which are some of the reasons I love them so much. They seem like they are gonna keep that up for this new album. Although none of their records really sound the same, “Forgiving Ties” is the most “Deer Tick” out of the 2 new singles. It’s upbeat, and has Ian O’Neil on vocals with the rest of the band coming in throughout the song, and reminds me of their other song “Mr. Nothing Gets Worse”. “The Real Thing” is a lot slower and gravely with John McCauley singing it, it’s also the longer of the 2 at exactly 9 minutes long. I think out of the 2 I prefer “Forgiving Ties”, but both are awesome. The song “If She Could Only See Me Now” will also be on the album, which appeared on their “Live From Fort Adams” album from 2020. It’s a good song. This one is sorta boppy and is a big middle finger to the girl he’s talking about, and how he’s doing better now that she’s gone. I’m glad it’ll be getting a studio version.

They’ve also posted tour dates for the album, but the closest one to me is in a different state, so I may have to do some traveling to go see them. I was robbed of seeing them in 2021 because the venue either changed their vaccination policies or didn’t advertise them well enough, and I didn’t have enough time to get it done. I was so bummed.

If you aren’t sure who Deer Tick is, or you’re just curious go listen to them! John McCauley also has a few side projects like Middle Brother (I think they are disbanded unfortunately, but this band will introduce you to Dawes which is a phenomenal band as well), Diamond Rugs, as well as some solo stuff. Ian O’Neil also has a few solo albums which are really good as well.

Updated Vim Config

jackson@jacksontaylor.xyz (Jackson Taylor) — Mon, 27 Mar 2023 14:49:16 -0400

TLDR: I made a lot of changes to my neovim setup. You can find them here

Intro

I’ve been using vim as my editor at home for a few years now. I’m comfortable with the motions, functions, and have started using vim modes in other programs because they’ve become ingrained in my muscle memory. It’s also really fun to use.

I didn’t use strictly vim at work until recently. I work as a typescript developer, and with the tooling our team uses, it made more sense to just use vscode like everyone else (I’ve actually been using vscodium, but same difference). I used a vim extension in it and customized a lot of the keybinds to what I would use in vim anyway, so I finally decided to pull the trigger and use vim exclusively.

This week I sat down and got neovim working pretty well and wanted to let you guys know about my setup a little bit.

I’ve written about vim before in one of my first ever blog posts which you can find here if you need convincing on why you should at least learn vim.

Neovim vs Vim

Vim is actually in a family of text editors that come from Vi created by Bill Joy in 1976. Vi and vim are modal text editors, which means that you utilize different modes to edit text. They’re primarily used in the command line, and are known for being light on system resources.

Vim (stands for Vi-Improved) was created to iron out some of the bugs seen with vi, and to add features. Neovim is doing the same thing to vim what vim did to vi. Neovim has slimmed down the code base, and now allows for lua as the configuration language along with VimL (the standard config language).

I use neovim, and this setup will NOT work with normal vim because most of it is written in lua. I currently use v0.9.0-dev, but I think this will work with v0.7+ maybe, you’d have to check if you want the exact same lsp setup.

My Setup

Most of my lua setup came from this tutorial and ThePrimeagen’s other videos. I’ll leave him to explain how to get started with a “vimrc” if you want to write your own, but I’ll go over certain parts that are more specific to my setup.

Some of my remaps and settings come from Luke Smith’s vimrc, like shortening <C-w><C-l> to move to the buffer on the right to just <C-l>, and adding spell check with <leader>o (o for orthography). He also uses nvim, but he uses the traditional VimL form of config files. His init.vim file is here.

Vim’s syntax highlighting by default is pretty good, it bases it on the file extension and applies it that way (if you have highlighting turned on). Sometimes though you want files read a certain way, or you want them to have specific settings. I normally have an indentation of 4 spaces and have vim convert the tabs to spaces, but for files that end with js/jsx/ts/tsx it uses 2 spaces instead.

With the workstation I’m using currently (me lying down on the couch), I don’t have a separate keyboard and mouse, so I use the one on the laptop and always end up pressing on the touch pad while I’m typing. This causes issues when typing because it ends up moving me somewhere totally different. So I just disabled mouse use entirely. I don’t use it in vim anyway, so it’s no big deal for me.

I have a few keybindings (that I don’t use that often actually) which call out to programs that should be on your path if you intend to use them. They come from Luke Smith’s scripts, and they have their own dependencies themselves.

If you read the lua/jacksontaylorxyz/remap.lua and after/plugin/which-key.lua files, you’ll probably notice I try to keep the binds simple and easy to remember. E.g. <leader>ff is (f)ind in (f)iles, <leader>bc is (b)uffer (c)lose, etc.

Plugins

I used to use Plug, but have switched to packer, just because it was used in the tutorial from before. You can find it here. I don’t have an opinion on plugin manager, but packer works pretty well, and is similar to Plug in syntax.

Quality of life things

vim-commentary - Really nice commenting ability (gcc comments a line, and works with motions like gc20j comments 20 lines down)
vim-css-color - Highlights color codes with that color
nerdtree - Folder view
delimitMate - Auto delimits characters
telescope.nvim - Finder bar
nvim-web-devicons - Icons for other plugins
tagbar - Ctags but in memory *
todo-comments - Highlights TODO comments

* - tagbar uses your local ctags installation. ctags is a program that parses out the elements/tokens from your code and creates a file that has them all indexed so another program can parse them. tagbar just loads the current file into a buffer and lets you jump without having to create a file. The version of ctags you use does seem to matter. I use exuberant-ctags, and it does not have typescript support by default. You can add to the regex patterns that it uses, but it doesn’t really work that well. I’ve read universal-ctags does have typescript support, but haven’t tried it yet. I also don’t use this function very much anyway, so I’m not in too big of a rush to get it fixed.

Anything to do with git

fugitive - Git wrapper
vim-signify - Marks line changes and additions
blamer.nvim - Git blame on the current line as you move

I still commit and push mostly from the command line, because it’s just second nature. But adding this to my config shouldn’t be too hard. Right now I also still use vscodium to stage hunks when I want to break up commits. I’m not sure how easy that is to do, I don’t know the syntax of the git command for it on the command line, otherwise I could probably add it now.

Different vim modes

vimwiki - Diary and wiki suite

Vimwiki is a really nice way to keep documentation or keep notes on tickets and projects. It’s just markdown which isn’t very special, but Vimwiki gives you tools to jump to different files through the links and gives you tools to create tables nice features for editing. I’ve thought about trying to make a website with it because you can convert it to HTML. I don’t normally launch Vimwiki after I start vim though. I’ve got an alias on my machines called wiki that runs vim +VimwikiIndex which will open the index page.

Fancy stuff

vim-airline - Fancy status bar
vim-airline-themes - Fancy status bar themes
vim-startify - Fancy startup script *
which-key.nvim - Fancy keybind menu **

* I use mostly lua for my configuration, but there is 1 file that would be time consuming to write in lua, and I don’t care to do it right away. I have a plugin for a startup screen if vim is called without an argument, and it has a bunch of ASCII art and quotes in these arrays and stuff. It basically takes an ASCII drawing and puts a random quote from a set of quotes. I may try to convert it to lua and have it read a file and use fortune, but for now it’s VimL. I think you can use the startup screen without these fancy ASCII art things, but I like them. Apart from that plugin, everything else is in lua.

** Which-key was mostly what I was fussing with to get my setup right. It’s not that hard to use and setup really, but I combined 2 different tutorials and that was getting messy. It’s basically a menu that pops up when you push your leader key, or a key that requires another one after it such as g or '. It just shows you what options you have. Right now my leader key is space, so for things like finding searching the entire project where I can push <space>ff and it will bring up a text input. But if I were to stop at just <leader>f it would show me all keybinds that start with that combo. You can also include descriptions for the keybind, or leave it as is and it’ll show you the command it’s gonna run.

Themes

ayu-vim - Nice theme

Language supports

vim-polyglot - Syntax highlighting for a ton of languages
vim-gemtext - Syntax support for gemini markdown (because of course vim-polyglot doesn’t have a language I want, smh)
gotests-vim - Better Golang Testing (I don’t write that much go anymore, but maybe I will)
nvim-treesitter - Even better syntax highlighting

LSP

LSP is an area that I struggled getting right because it’s still relatively new for neovim, but lsp-zero made it really easy to use. LSP stands for Language-Server-Protocol, and is a way to get autocompletion and diagnostics while you’re writing code. Your editor calls out to a program (a language server) on your machine and it gives the editor instructions on what you’re trying to do.

My setup is still not perfect, but I am able to jump to definitions and get errors near real time (takes about 5 seconds to update on some larger files). I want to mess around with snippets as well for things like tests in typescript and common things I use at my job.

lsp-zero.nvim - A super simple lsp setup Instead of using lsp-zero you can setup the following plugins yourself (lsp-zero.vim uses these, and you can still customize them yourself, so I don’t see much of a reason to not use lsp-zero).
nvim-lspconfig - LSP protocol for neovim
mason.nvim - Package manager for LSPs
mason-lspconfig.nvim - Manages the connection between what’s installed with mason and the lsp config

How to use my config?

I haven’t totally tried to install it anywhere else, but I think that if you clone the repo to ~/.config/nvim/ and run the install steps from packer’s github, and then run nvim +PackerSync it should work? I know it doesn’t play nice with windows, I’ve had some issues trying to get vimwiki installed as well as some other plugins. That’s dealing with installing a c compiler and node, which is kind of a pain that I have to have node installed to use my editor.

You can also just read it and pick out what you want. That’s easy too if you have a setup already.

Why not emacs?

Emacs is a well known “editor” (people meme about it being an operating system in a way). There are many pre-configured builds and versions of emacs like Doom and Spacemacs which include Evil-mode (vim keybinds) as well as many other tools and programs, so why not just use those? I’ve tried Doom, and it’s ok, and I might try it again eventually. The most basic answer that I can give as to why I don’t use it is that I don’t know lisp well enough to configure it how I want, and I didn’t really find the documentation all that user friendly for those who don’t know lisp. That’s fine, I don’t think that’s an issue, it’s just more work than what I feel like doing. If I wanted to relearn all my binds and use their defaults then I’m sure it’d be fine.

There’s also the debate over what all should be in an editor, because emacs is so large and so feature dense you don’t need much outside of it. I’m kind of in the camp that my editor should really only edit text (or do things that revolve around that), which my setup follows pretty closely. With emacs you can have a browser, an xmpp client, games (literally DOOM), discord, and so so much more. From a tinkerer’s perspective that’s pretty cool, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t need that much in my editor.

Conclusion

That’s pretty much it. I’m enjoying using nvim, and have more ideas on what can be done with my setup. So if you’re interested, you can clone my repo and keep up to date with it.

Hugo Transfer Done

jackson@jacksontaylor.xyz (Jackson Taylor) — Tue, 28 Feb 2023 18:37:53 -0500

Hugo move

Having started this transfer a few months ago (maybe more than a few months), I have finally completed 90% of what I set out to do when transferring to Hugo. Go enjoy the new hotness!

I’m just kidding it’s the same basically. That’s by design though. I wanted this to be seamless, with the inclusion of some small nice features. Hugo is nice for the most part, I struggled a lot with this project because I didn’t want to read the docs. I found a string of tutorials that helped me out though.

I custom made my own theme which uses the color scheme I’ve always used. I want to eventually put the theme out for others to use and make the colors configurable. I got the original scheme from https://terminal.sexy, and it’s called “gotham”. My theme is nothing special, I don’t use any shortcodes or anything yet, but it’s simple enough where someone could probably use it and start their own site with it.

The RSS feed was kind of hard to get configured how I want. It used to keep track of every single page on the site, which I didn’t like. There’s probably some RSS.xml files on here that I don’t want, but I’m too lazy to figure that out right now.

General update

I talked about my herniated disc in my last post. Overall I think it’s about the same, or maybe a little worse over the past few days. I thought I had found an exercise that was helping, but I think I overdid it. I woke up last night to my calf feeling like it had gotten torn to shreds by a large dog. This ordeal is definitely the worst pain I’ve ever been in, and it’s been pretty continuous for 4, almost 5 months.

I’m in the process of getting an appointmment set up for a prednisone shot, which is supposed to treat the inflammation, and could work 2 days or 2 years. It’s different for everyone. If this doesn’t work, or doesn’t last for very long I’m going to commit to the surgery. I’ve got a plane ticket to Texas in June already, which I really don’t want to miss. If I miss it because of my back I’m going to be severely upset, I already missed a Hawaii trip.

Anyway, on a lighter note I’ve been taking my time up with some fun things. I finally started reading One Piece, and I’m already up to Chapter 300 or so. I played through Red Dead Redemption, and I’m about 75% done with the second one. I bought a PS2 slim and a few accessories to mod it. I plan to do reviews or tutorials on some of these things. One Piece I might not, just because there’s so much to cover, and so many other people do better jobs than I could.

I also posted the first episode of a series I might complete on Youtube. I played about 30 minutes of Silent Hill. I don’t know if I find it entertaining enough to continue posting it. I’ll probably finish the game eventually though.

Overall, some good and some bad. Just how life works. With Hugo I hope posting will become easier, and I might write more (probably not).

2023 Plans

jackson@jacksontaylor.xyz (Jackson Taylor) — Sun, 01 Jan 2023 00:00:00 -0400

Happy New Years! If you’ve followed some of my other blog posts you’ll know that I like posting my new year goals and music year-in-reviews.

I mentioned last year that I hurt my back on a trip to Virginia beach, and that has significantly worsened unfortunately. Long story short, I have a herniated disc between the L4 and L5 vertebraes in my back. It started out as mild discomfort, then leading to major pain one morning, then to mild sciatica that I let go undiagnosed/untreated for over a year. I then went kayaking and could not walk without severe pain the next day which prompted me to go to the doctor and after about 3 weeks was told I had herniated the disc. That was in October, and I am still in pretty severe pain. I plan on making a larger article about my recovery process when I’m able to return back to normal life.

I’m 10 pounds lighter than last year though, so I didn’t let my diet totally go out the window. I’ve been maintaining that weight for the entire time.

Overall, 2022 was not a very good year for me. Personal matters, along with this injury have really just brought me down. Music wise, it’s been awesome though. Zach Bryan, Koe Wetzel and Tyler Childers all put out albums, and I found a bunch more artists I love.

I use YouTube Music for the moment, and I did get a year in review thing. It was really buggy, but it claimed that I am in the top 4% of Zach Bryan listeners, and “Starved” by him was my most listened to song. It still does not count downloaded songs because it would have put “Burn Burn Burn” way higher. Koe Wetzel was also high up on my list, and so was Charles Wesley Godwin.

It’s hard to sit and write for a long time, but I plan to make an in depth review of my year in review.

For 2023, I want to finish the transfer of my site to Hugo. It’s mostly done at the moment, but I am still fighting with single pages and the rss feed.

That’s pretty much it for this year. My main resolution/goal is to fix this disc issue, then I will reassess when that is normal.