Renaming the Mystery Tank

Since the tank is a busy it’s time for a complete over haul again. More fundamental changes. First off it’s not a tank it’s more of a bowl and maybe because of it being an oversized wine glass the distortion from the curved glass is basically a magnifying glass. Still thinking about the same stocking options but with a wider variety of plants. And the name has got to go. It’s a bowl , not a “tank”. I guess the mystery has been spoiled instead of solved. I don’t know the name of the 2 plants from seeds but I often don’t know what type of plants I have. Unfortunately they died before I could really identify them.

I have decided to rename the mystery tank fish bowl to : The Nancy Drew bowl. One for the magnifying look and feel of looking into it and two because I’m counting on the stock to be elusive  especially once the plants grow in. As you can see I have got my aquarium sand in the mail and will be giving that a try. Personally I think the fluval stratum is good just not for beginners, plants that are slow to create roots, or in tanks that already have stock in them and are trying to add plants to. Over all do it does as advertised, great for shrimp and plants as far a nutrients go and does not harshly affect the pH of the water.

Still trying to solve that mystery Nancy Drew? Still no exact species names for the seed plants. One might be some type of hair grass and the other I believe is some type of clover. I have a spot for the Anacharis with some trimmings curious to see if they can be switched from submersed to immerse state relatively easy. Since any hard scape is going to look oversized because of the magnification I decided to just go with out. I’ve made small tweeks in the substrate that hopefully in a couple will help the view of the scape as imagined.

I’ve never worked with aquarium sand but it was the same process getting seeds to germinate and sprout using the dry start method. Same amount of growth and root system. However because the sand will become more compact when the bowl is filled with water and it’s heavier than the stratum I believe that the young seedlings will have more stability. Like most seedlings they will stretch towards the light if it’s not close enough or strong enough cause carpet plants to look like sickly stem plants. Luckily most seedlings don’t need an expert light to grow in the early stages.

Spoiler Alert : I have also added the flourite black sand to what was once known as the Zen Garden… Not really sure what I’m going to do with that tank of the poorly put together scape in it. I really put it in there because the last of the fluval that I had went into that tank and it wasn’t enough for a good layer or substrate.  There isn’t any plants or stock in that tank so for now its just basically a control tank. Still a spoiler because I am eventually going to be giving the nano 3.5 a nice over haul.

If everything goes according to plan, which is rare, I’ll be letting the Nancy Drew Bowl sit for a few weeks and allow the seedlings to really get establish. Which would make for a pretty boring blog post. So hopefully we won’t be back with an update here for about 3 weeks. Let’s keep our fingers crossed, I can’t possibly fail at the same project 3 times right?

Came to make WAVES

So this is a review post on some of the products I use for my waves. I haven’t bought any thing outrageous or fancy yet so if you’re trying to get drippy on a budget I think this blog may be of some assistance.

Let’s talk brushes! So I’ve have a wide array of brushes in my lifetime and I have used boar hair brushes. I haven’t done the research yet but I’m pretty sure that’s really where the hair comes from. Honestly I doubt see much of a different in the bristle then in other brushes. That’s currently what I’m using however. I have a hard curved palm brush & a doubled sided medium and soft straight brush. The hard bush was purchased at Walmart and the dual one at at local hair store. Both work equally well for the texture and I find having a mix of curved and straight works well. I am open to any suggestions on a place where I can get some good quality brushes.

Another cheap investment is duragS. Yes plural. Nothing sucks worse than getting ready for bed and having to spend 15 minutes looking for your only du-rag. I personally have about 4 and only one is an actually silky one. I use the others as back ups or for added compression. Wave caps come in handy too and I think a lot of the new caps don’t really understand that. Compression caps are expensive and in my opinion is just something about seeing little hairs sticking through the wave cap to prove that it’s working. I have no facts to support that statement.

Let’s talk grease. So before I was pretty avid about using murray’s because that’s what I grew up seeing. Now that I’m older , a year older 😋 more recently, I research and found that might not be the healthiest thing to put in your hair. Not knocking anyone that does because I was that guy. Seeing and feeling how hard it was to really wash out of my waves and durags along with a mix of ingredients I could pronounce I decided it was time to make a change. Sporting waves. I mean c’mon its in the name. It has hold to it but it washes out relatively easy, smells good and so far so good; it gets the job done.

Now for moisture I’ve been using softee coconut grease. It reminds me of the burgamont my moms used to but in my hair as a kid. My biggest concern was finding a product that wouldn’t break my face out. At the height of summer what’s ever in my hair ends up on my face and normally I have excellent clear skin so when I start getting bumps and pimples in my face it can easily be traced back to the culprit. Coconut is good for your skin maybe that’s why it doesn’t break my face out. It keep my hair moisturized and doesn’t leave it feeling grease or gross.

Shampoo never really was a big choice for me. Like body wash, as long as it cleans and smells good I’m usually cool with it. I don’t have any pressing hair issues like tender scalp or dandruff so I don’t have to be picky. Mainly because I use dove on my skin I trust it to get the job done. And again so far so good. I can recommend hair, tail and mane brand shampoo. It was one of my favorites when I had dreadlocks and I will admit menthol in shampoo does leave your scalp feeling cool and refreshed.

If your not like me and you have quite a decent budget for wave care I do suggest you visit wavers @ heart on instagram and the web. They are a little pricey but from what I’ve seen they have everything your waves could ever need. This is not a paid advertisement and if you would like to donate to my wave journey here’s my cash app $KingIman619

Stay wavey my friends!

Oh yea spoiler alert I have gone to the dark side and am now a top waver… At least for now

Mystery Tank

Exciting news, my next aqua project is going to be a complete mystery, even to me. How, might you ask? Simple, buy random seeds and plant and wait. That is correct I have no idea what kind of plants I am going to end up with in this tank and I’m super stoked about it.

Long story short I’m trying to get my sponsors up for my fish hobby, nobody wants a hobby they cannot afford. Sponsorships help cover the over head for some of my aquascapes. I have 3 different types of foreground seeds and my plan is to make an awesome scape no matter what the out come is from the unknown seeds. So this can probably go either really good and amazing or a total and epic failure.

I did quite a bit of research after buy the seeds so fingers crossed I actually got aquatic seeds and not terrestrial seeds like some unlucky people have gotten online. The idea here is to grow out a nice lush carpet and then flood and then and some stock. I call myself a novice hobbyist but honestly when it comes to planted tanks I am still some what of a noob.

All these seeds were order from the popular site/app called Wish. Dirt cheap and only took a couple of weeks to arrive. By experience the proper way to germinate and grow aquatic plants by seeds is not just tossing them in an already established tank. However I’m not going to say that you can’t do this, but it does not yield the best results and should something go wrong now you have to figure out where to place the live stock while you uproot a ton of bad carpet.

I’ll try to get some footage and share it with you my experience in starting to grow from the seed. So for now just know this young fish keeper has a new project in the works!

Btw … My birthday is in exactly 7 days…. So here’s my cash app kingiman619 , just in case 💰

Blogs vs. Vlogs

Welcome back my returning readers and hello to any new comers. Wether you know it or not I’ve had this blogs for quite some time, years actually. It’s been here through all of my ups and downs and many of my escapades and failed attempts at things. Not to mention the many, many random hiatuses. Through it all I always knew I could come back here and get my thoughts out, express myself and maybe help someone or at least keep them entertained for a bit. Also I just recently got back on track with the schedule blogs it’s barely been a month yet.

Why am I saying all of this like it’s a eulogy to my blog… Well it’s definately not the end of my blogs but believe it or not it is somewhat of a struggle to post something worth posting 3 days a week. I have alot of other hobbies that I am picking back up on and I want to be able to focus on them enough to be able to have enough to blog about them. So vlogs are the answer? I’m not sure but that’s the route I am considering taking.

I’ve done vlogs before on other social platforms I’m no longer on like Facebook and Instagram and for a while I have been undecided on returning to YouTube for many reasons; equipment (or lack there of) is the main reason. Truly Vlog style isn’t with a professional camera fancy light or perfect script. Something humble and real is what in my opinion makes for the best vlog stories.

Normally I would take the easy way out but technically I think this one might end up being a little more complicated in the long run but I’ll never know until I try. I can recall at one point for maybe a 4 months span I was mentally sound and motivated enough to run this blog, a YouTube channel and a social media presence. I was younger and had less responsibility but it not like I’m in college or taking care of kids so if I could do it once even half assed I’m pretty sure I can do it again.

Starting next week blog post will be on Sunday mornings to get your week started and Thursday evenings to end the week and start your weekends. It seems like weird days I do admit but it fits perfectly with my normal weekly schedule and I feel as if I’ll be less likely to miss a post day. Only posting twice a week and so spread out like that missing one post will ultimately feel like I have been gone for an entire week. Better news to go with that announcement is I’m opening up more categories and hobbies I will blog about. So while you might only get a wave or hair post once a week you’ll run into topics that I haven’t or wouldn’t normally talk about and hobbies most of you probably didn’t even know I had.

So what about these vlogs I keep going on about right? Normally I’m all for spoilers but unfortunately this time giving up the deets would take away from the excitement of content to come. For those that don’t want to follow me over to YouTube you are more than welcomed to keep coming back here because I guarantee the blog will be more in depth, more thorough and with less typos, spelling and grammatical errors I assure you.

But wait there is spoilers !!!! No, not for the vlogs but for other platforms I will be slowly reaching out to. Most of you don’t remember for very brief moment I was running my own podcast. And the big shocker secret;(I doubt anyone connected to this platform) I was also doing some exotic photo shoots and short films in the industry. There’s a lot more to me than just what’s on this blog😜

Trust me this weekend will fly by faster than you think and I’ll meet you all right back here Sunday morning. Thanks for all your support.

Improper injections ?

This is a blog that’s long over due , bit of great great importance. If you feel like any of these facts I’m bout to drop are incorrect , Google it & thank me later.

First off guys, WE ARE NOT JUICERS !!! There is no reason why we should be offered intramuscular injections… men who have testosterone deficiency are not “suggested” to inject the hormones intramuscular. Don’t believe me, Google it. If you are like me and don’t like needles having the option of a less painful injection would have been awesome, especially at some of the clinics I’ve been at.

For the guys that do inject intramuscular especially in the thigh because I see so many dangerous injections on Facebook and Instagram live. Not passing judgement, just here to once again share public knowledge.

I was first instructed at at small youth clinic in New Orleans. It was not a trans-specific clinic and this was back in 2014 so I’m going to assume that both the doctors and nurses were not properly trained in hormones replacement therapy. Even though my doctor seemed other be knowledgeable; she ran all the proper tests, checked all my levels, and went through all the paperwork with me. I was doing clinical injections at first, of course because needles and injections give me a lot of anxiety. Soon it became quite a burden traveling from New Orleans East to downtown every other week , especially trying to juggle work and home schedules. So I decided to make the transition to self injections at home. Needless to say it did not go well, 4 years later and it still doesn’t go swimmingly🙄

When I advised my doctor I wanted to start doing self injections at home she sent me to the nurse who not only gave me a 5 minute hand demonstration and made the motion at my thigh but some how gave me the wrong gauged needles.

“Already nervous about stabbing myself with a needle that really didn’t help at all.”

Not going into detail but most of my injections during that session of therapy were painful and most likely improper.

Fast forwarding to almost half a decade later I find myself at a LGBTQAI specific clinic in NYC learning how to properly do a intramuscular injection. It was also at this time that I found out the first time I had been showed how to do my injections were not only incorrect but dangerous. That was then, this is now. So a few self injections using the new method and I found myself more confident and less anxious. Still probably took me longer than the average guy but whatever. It was less painful then prior injections, but I still would have opted for a choice even less painful if it would have been presented.

Again skipping to current time. I am no longer on team intramuscular injections. Subcutaneous I recently have found is the the best method for me. Result are about the same as they were before, since most guys believe the myth that intramuscular injections are more effective than subcutaneous injections. A myth of course that can be debunked quite easily with a little bit of research.

I’m not going to out right say guys are injecting hormones wrong but I will say some guys are practicing dangerous injection methods/habits that are improper. This is indeed a touchy subject. So allow me to just drop some uncommon facts and let everyone take away from it what they will.

• intramuscular injections are absorbed faster than subcutaneous.
• subcutaneous tend to be less painless
• intramuscular injections are administered in the muscle
• subcutaneous injections are administered in the fat
• intramuscular injections are absorbed quickly by the bloodstream

I am not a doctor and I am still very much suffering from Aichmophobia. Personally subcutaneous is the way to go for me. No matter what type of injection you do just be safe and be clean.

circaJan2018

 

The benefits from being around nature.

I’ve always enjoyed having pets. Even if they weren’t really pets. I used to get in so much trouble for sneaking and feeding the stray cats. Causing them to hang out around the house.

Not to mention the stray somehow suprisingly never rabid dogs. I even found much enjoyment and interest in wildlife. Like feeding the birds in squirrels in my back yard. Helping my grandmother in the day Lilly flower beds and rose bushes

Biology was always my favorite subject since elementary. And just being outside was a pleasure…. 

That was until I developed an unhealthy distrust for all human species.

Seeing another creature wether sential or not seems to promote calms and relaxation for me personally. And also usually being stoned it’s fun to watch pets just… live, you know.
Gives me hope 💗
Never stop appreciation life

Minding your OWN GODDAMN BUSINESS!!!!!

“If you don’t have something nice to say; don’t say anything at all… If it doesn’t concern you, it isn’t any of your concern… What ever happened to that?..”

I’m starting to find as I get older and mature my patience for people not minding their own business, and not shutting the fuck up is fleeting. Like that shit really grinds my gears. 

Sometimes even though an issue doesn’t directly involve you but you still have a valid part as an ally. For instance: Men considering themselves feminist. Directly indirectly involved. 

By all means stand up for what’s right. I’m referring to people speaking up on with negative opinions on things are aren’t directly affecting them.  Key word here being negative.

So many times on social media I come across people spewing hatred and negativity on situations that don’t involve them directly or indirectly. 

Don’t mind me, I’m just venting….

Hard work pays off

..  or I just have really good luck

Either way life has been going good. Recall me blogging about abruptly losing one job back in December (a week before christmas) then I got hired 3 days later and starting working a week later. Well things have come a long way since then.

This dish washing job was what I thought was just something that would keep me afloat untill I either won the lottery or figured out life. However it quickly turned into something great. Of course I was putting in an enormous amount of hard work and effort into it. Because this was the only thing I had at the time to keep me from sinking.

Originally hired as “kitchen help” I learned a new skill as far as cooking; 😋 now I know how to toss dough, 😏 been tossing salads for a while now tho. Of course me being my own worst critic and never ever having tossed dough let alone do anything else with a pizza besides either order, put it in the over or eat it. I quickly got frustrated a seized the opportunity to quietly maneuver to busboy/dishwasher. 

“Like always pot brings people together.”

Just so happen that the current dishwasher wasn’t thrilled about coming to work. Probably a college kid just look to have something to do sometimes a a small paycheck. So soon it went from picking up his shifts, to; “you’re the only dishwasher”. Seems like a miniscule job, one the someone would not desire. Nope. Not me. Doing pretty much mindless one task labor for a decent amount is fine with me. Can’t go to work stoned of you’re an accountant or a brain surgeon. Think about.

Still, the “decent” amount of money wasn’t really making me smile on paydays exactly. So I worked a little harder. Picked up extra deep cleaning shifts. Made my schedule completely flexible. Stood out there. Went above and beyond. Showed up and showed out. At first I felt like I wasn’t being taken seriously then *boom* I came in the clutch. Earned some respect, recognition and not to mention hours and money.

And now. .    it was time for my demands. I started asking around; who does what & why and how long before I can start to do that??? Still seemed like I wasn’t getting the results I wanted so I snatch my chance like women snatch they edges. 

Made the leap from dish to expo. When they needed a hand I was there. Slowly at first then a little more confident and a lot less mistakes. Still, effort for no movement. But I was waiting on a raise from my MVP moment so I was content and enjoy the switch from dish to expo at my leisure. Since my title was still dish but also liked to lend a hand and give my brain different task.

“Some have greatness thrust apon them”

The light at the beginning of the tunnel. A morning chef was calling it quits and enough faith had already been proven from my part that the position was mine. It came as more of a question than a statement. However, I was still being called for those hail Mary plays and, well my arm was getting tired. And let’s not forget IMAN IS NOT A MORNING PERSON. So now I’m starting to think this isn’t really the tunnel I want.

Originally reluctantly I had to speak up that I was getting burned out with working my normal nights , then detailed mornings. Much less reluctant when me mentioning another raise got brushed off like a snow flurry. Whilst asking me to do additional mornings for training. Still waiting for a raise. Not to mention on top of insomnia and my sleep pattern officially going to shit around that time.

Still I rise, tho. Keep working hard, giving 109% and most importantly having a flexible work availability schedule. Immediately after dropping the details to focus on morning trainings. Things get switched again. And not only do I keep my nights instead of having to train in the mornings (at open btw) but a closing manager position opens up and my training started the following shift, which happened to be that same night. Plus I am currently working at my new wages 💯

Present day:

Working 2 weeks straight putting in extra time and effort into my training and once again proving that I am that MVP. Already 2 weeks into to the 6 of +40hrs/week you need to qualify for full time benefits. Hopefully here after my training it will simmer down and I can work a set schedule 40 and can go back to having a normal life.

Thanks for stopping by

I don’t know if it was hard work, because I’ve put in hard work before and got nothing. But I’ve literally have done no work not even fake work and been lucky. So maybe this time it’s a little bit of both 👌🏾

Hidden Talents/Hobbies

When I was around the age of 8 or 9 I got my first Rubik’s cube. Of course at that age and my attention span it quickly became a misplaced toy or something gathering dust on a book case.

“The quickest thing I learned about the (Rubik’s)cube was how to take it apart.”

I revisited the cube a few times sporadically in my early teens and then the little paper that came with it made a little more sense. Its bright colors and ability to intice my brain still was in my spirit as an adult. 

But within the last 4 years it has been increasingly attracting my attention, so a few weeks ago I sought out to master the Rubik’s cube. Suprisingly it was a whole lot easier to solve then I originally thought. If you know something about Rubik’s cubes or know how to solve one then you know it just requires memory and basic understanding on how the peices move separately and in it’s entirety.

Within a few days I went from barely being able to solve the middle layer to solving the entire cube in just over and hour. Practice makes muscle memory, muscle memory makes improvement.

Too often I find myself not really able to point out my hobbies or skills or something Im good at and also enjoy. Little knick knacks things, odd jobs that I am unique at. I can honestly say the frustration I experienced the first time I picked up a Rubik’s cube never would have led me to imagine that one day I would be able to solve it.

Can you solve a Rubik’s cube™ ?

Life is AMAZEBALLS ! **NEW PRODUCTS @ GenderCat™

Or at least products over at GenderCat™ are !! And NOW even BETTER than before !!!

To bring you up to speed ;my first soft intact packer with amazeballs….. Is no more. Long story increasingly shorter, I received my new “and improved” 4inch soft intact packer with amazeballs!

I can feel that material in the sack is stronger and way less likely to tear or bust. Still with awesome floating 3D testicles. It’s been a few weeks but I am already confident and me and my new packer are already inseparable. 

But wait ….. THERE’S MORE !!!!

You can now purchase the awesome body and prosthetics safe soap that is used so GenderCat™ headquarters.

Also prosthetics with the fascination sleeve add on now come with a nifty sleeve insert so you can now adjust the depth of your fascination sleeve or opt out of engaging the sleeve altogether at your leisure.

Once again they are improving the trademark self adhesive sheets we have all grown to adore. Now made with stronger adhesive and easy peel backing. 

“Every time with this company. It’s a swing away and a home-run. I only wish I knew about it sooner”

GenderCat website is now more user friendly head on over and check them out.