The Mel Robbins, at Maximum Volume
I love old people.
Let me take that back. I love old people who don’t give an F’ about anyone around them.
All right—maybe I don’t.
What prompted this post? I’m sitting in the waiting room at Carolina Eyecare Physicians, eating my Costco pretzel bagel—see my other blog post—when a lady older than me walks in with her phone at maximum volume. I mean, as loud as that thing can possibly go.
She’s walking through the office watching—or listening to—a Mel Robbins podcast.
I love the Mel Robbins. Yes, the Mel Robbins.
The episode wasn’t about relationship problems, as I first thought. It was about a decline in mental capacity—which I, along with everyone else in the waiting room, could hear clearly.
Did I mention she was sitting 20 feet away from me?
I don’t know what’s going on in her life, but thanks to maximum volume, the entire waiting room was now part of the podcast.
Eye Appointments and Costco Pretzel Bagels
I’m at Carolina Eyecare today—not for me, but for my dad. I drove him, and I didn’t just bring the Neo along with me. I also slipped a Costco pretzel bagel into my backpack.
Now, before all the New Yorkers judge me—and I get it, because I would too—these pretzel bagels are fantastic and such a good value! I think a bag of six was only $4.99.
They taste surprisingly close to the ones from New York street carts. They aren’t salted on the surface, but there’s just the right amount of salt baked into the dough. They’ve been flying off the shelves at my local Costco in MTP, and I can understand why.
Would I prefer the outside to be a little crispier? Absolutely. But I can’t have it all.
The Lotto Dudes Hit the Jackpot... Of Absolutely Nothing 😂🎰
Well...
Nobody won the $663 million Powerball jackpot.
Which means the jackpot has now climbed to $707 million for the next drawing.
That's the good news.
The bad news?
Neither did the Lotto Dudes.
Our fraternity pool bought 50 Powerball tickets with a $100 buy-in.
The result?
🥁🥁🥁
$0.00
Not a dollar.
Not a free ticket.
Not enough to buy a stale stick of gum.
Nothing.
Our return on investment was surprisingly easy to calculate.
-$100.
Or...
-100% ROI.
I believe that's what financial experts call "less than ideal."
The amazing part?
I'm already organizing the next pool.
I've sent the message to the guys:
$10 buy-in.
Same process.
Same optimism.
Same statistically questionable decision-making.
Why?
Because someone has to win.
We just proved it with the Mega Millions jackpot. Somebody walked away with hundreds of millions of dollars.
No rule says it can't be a bunch of fraternity guys arguing over who forgot to Zelle their ten bucks.
I've also decided to hedge my bets.
In addition to the fraternity pool, I'm buying my own ticket.
That's right.
I'm diversifying my lottery portfolio.
Some people hedge with stocks.
Some hedge with bonds.
I hedge with... more lottery tickets.
Financial advisors everywhere are reading this and quietly removing my phone number from their contacts.
Will this strategy work?
Probably not.
Will it make checking the numbers more exciting?
Absolutely.
If nothing else, I'll have plenty of material for the next blog post explaining how I expertly turned another hundred dollars into a life lesson.
Until then...
Good luck to everyone playing.
Maybe the $707 million Powerball jackpot will finally belong to one of the Lotto Dudes.
A guy can dream.
Join the adventure on NielFlamm.com/blog.
Day 46: Welcome to the Nextdoor Weekend
It's 6:00 a.m. EDT on a Thursday.
Like many Thursday mornings, I was up early checking my fraternity's lottery pool tickets.
Spoiler alert...
We didn't win millions.
I know. Shocking.
The odds continue to be very disrespectful toward our group.
After posting the results and setting up the next pool on Discord, I had another thought.
I said to myself...
"Self, let's see if anyone from Nextdoor finally sent an email."
So I checked.
And...
Nope.
If you've been following this journey, you already know the story.
If you haven't, you can catch up at NielFlamm.com/blog.
Today isn't about rehashing the timeline.
It's about what Day 46 represents.
Forty-six days without receiving the study I requested.
Forty-six days without a response from Jacob Chavis.
Forty-six days of documenting my experience and asking questions about communication, moderation, and corporate culture.
Today is Thursday.
For many people, it's Friday Eve.
I've always called it "Pre-Friday."
But in the world of Nextdoor...
It also feels like the beginning of the weekend.
Because when you've gone 46 days without a reply, one more business day probably isn't changing the outcome.
That doesn't mean I'll stop asking.
Communication shouldn't take weekends off.
Neither should accountability.
I'll keep hope that one day, someone at Nextdoor decides the conversation is worth having.
Join the discussion at NielFlamm.com/blog. I'd love to hear your thoughts.
The Tiny Device I Wish I Had Taken Seriously Years Ago
The Tiny Device I Wish I Had Taken Seriously Years Ago
How a Continuous Glucose Monitor Helped Me Build Better Habits
I'm going to be super vulnerable.
One of the reasons my body is in the shape it's in today is because I didn't manage my diabetes and insulin resistance the way I should have.
I ate poorly.
I didn't exercise consistently.
I rarely checked my blood glucose.
Why? Because the traditional process was a drag.
It went something like this...
* Wash my hands.
* Get the glucose monitor.
* Find a test strip.
* Grab the lancet.
* Stick my finger.
* Hope I got just the right amount of blood on the strip.
* Wait for the reading.
* Write it down.
* Do it all over again several times a day.
And let's not forget...it hurts. Fingertips have a lot of nerve endings, and after enough finger sticks, you start looking for reasons to skip it.
So I skipped it.
Looking back, I wish I hadn't.
Today, I live with an above-the-knee amputation, kidney failure requiring dialysis, and vision problems. While many factors can contribute to complications like these, years of poorly managed diabetes likely played a significant role in my situation.
I can't change those decisions.
But I can change today's.
Better Habits Beat Perfect Habits
I've known about Continuous Glucose Monitors (CGMs) for years.
The idea always made perfect sense.
Put on a sensor.
Go live my life.
See my glucose levels throughout the day instead of taking occasional snapshots.
Notice trends.
Get alerts.
Share the data with my endocrinologist.
The problem?
Because I'm not insulin-dependent, Medicare doesn't cover one for me. My diabetes has been managed with oral medications in the past and now Ozempic, so I didn't qualify for an insurance-paid CGM.
When Stelo became available, I jumped at the chance.
It's based on Dexcom technology, works through a subscription, and gives me exactly what I wanted—continuous insight into what my blood sugar is doing without constantly stabbing my fingers.
Even better, the data can be shared with my endocrinologist, giving us much better information than a handful of random finger-stick readings.
A Pleasant Surprise
Recently, I opened the Stelo app on my Android phone and immediately noticed something had changed.
Wow.
The redesign is impressive.
Unfortunately, I didn't take screenshots of the old version, but it was functional—it got the job done.
The new version feels much more polished and informative.
Now I can quickly see:
* The percentage of time I'm in my target range.
* Whether I'm running above, within, or below that range.
* Seven-day glucose trends in an easy-to-read graph.
* Additional ways to connect and review my data.
It's one of those updates that isn't just prettier—it actually makes the information easier to understand at a glance.
If You're On the Fence...
Whether someone is diabetic, prediabetic, or simply curious about how food, stress, exercise, or sleep affects blood sugar—and doesn't qualify for an insurance-sponsored CGM—I think Stelo is worth looking into.
No, this isn't sponsored.
Nobody sent me a free device.
Nobody paid me to write this.
I'm simply sharing something that has made it easier for me to build healthier habits.
If one small sensor can help someone avoid even a fraction of what I've gone through, then sharing my story is worth it.
Sometimes the biggest improvements don't come from massive life changes.
Sometimes they come from removing one small barrier that kept us from doing the right thing in the first place.
If sharing my story encourages even one person to take control of their health before complications develop, then being vulnerable today was absolutely worth it.
Join the discussion on NielFlamm.com.