Sal Salerno

I haven’t posted about my weight loss in awhile. At my highest weight in November 2024, I was a whopping 414lbs. Unable to walk, unable to climb one flight of stairs without having to take two breaks. Just 12 steps…. I knew things had to change. In 2025, I started taking GLPs. This is the weight reducing drug, known by several Manufacturer names. I had three different kinds, because manufacturers couldn’t keep up with demand nationally. After being on these for 9 months, I did lose weight but felt it was very lackluster. Just 14lbs. Then I made the life changing decision in September 2025 to have full Bariatric surgery. I had months of testing and continued to take the GLP I was on. During those months, I changed my diet and started eating healthier. Between that September until January 2026, I lost another 20lbs. Then at the end of January, I had my full Bariatric surgery, the procedure is known as Roux-en-Y. After a 7-day stint in the ICU, due to internal bleeding, then three more days in the regular wards, I was released to go home. Over these ensuing 10 1/2 months, I’ve lost an incredible amount of weight. It starts off quick and then slowly tapers off as your body begins to equalize. I’m not quite at that point yet and am still losing weight. So then, the reason for this post. Since surgery, I’ve lost 116lbs. Add the 34lbs prior to surgery and I’ve lost a whopping 150lbs! A whole medium sized person! I can easily walk up my flight of stairs without breaks now. My health is so much better. Blood pressure is great, nearly all of my blood results are in the healthy range. My mental clarity is through the roof. For anyone considering this procedure, there is a lot of research to do before hand, you MUST get your mental state to at minimum a good condition. Going into this and not being mentally prepared may set yourself up for eventual failure. You have to be VERY willing to completely change how much and what you eat. My typical caloric intake a day is now between 800-1000. Right after surgery it was no more than 400 calories. Then gradually overtime, with my Bariatric teams guidance, I was able to increase the calories as well as what I could eat. When you first start after surgery, you are on a liquid diet for a few weeks, then move to yogurt, then soft food, then regular food. Moving to each type is a gradual process. You can not rush it as you would put yourself in danger of the now healing much smaller stomach pouch rupturing. So again, discipline is needed. This is as much a mental exercise as it is a physical exercise, in eating right. The following pics show my progression. First is from October 2024 at the Halo Museum. Second is 34lbs lost on the day of my surgery. The last three show my current size. You can see how big the sweats are on me and how much I’ve lost. That last pic has the drawstrings tied as tight as I could possibly get them. I still have room… I rarely say I’m proud of myself. This however IS one of those times. Yes, the surgery made it easier. But the continued weight loss has been all on me and staying disciplined with my diet and exercise. The weight loss is undeniable. I still have more to go. But I just had to share this milestone!

So let’s see….Vision lets Ultron go. Outlook goes down. Airplanes grounded. Hmm. Coincidence?

I saw this on Tik Tok and wanted to repeat it here: One of the most effective features of American capitalism is how thoroughly it redirects people's anger away from the structures producing their suffering and toward other people experiencing that same suffering. Americans are taught to look sideways and downward for the causes of problems created above them. Your wages aren't enough? Blame immigrants willing to work for less. Housing is unaffordable? Blame people receiving assistance. Your taxes are too high? Blame the poor. Your job is disappearing? Blame foreign workers. Notice what's missing: the employers determining wages, the corporations controlling housing, the political decisions shaping taxation, and the economic incentives rewarding the elimination of jobs. But the mechanism goes deeper than scapegoating. Americans are conditioned to experience economic insecurity as a competition between ordinary people rather than a consequence of how resources and power are distributed. Someone else receiving help feels like something being taken from you. Someone else gaining rights feels like your own position becoming less secure. Another person's survival becomes an expense you are personally responsible for. This transforms solidarity into resentment. And here's the psychological trap: people become emotionally invested in defending the very hierarchies that disadvantage them. If they've spent their lives believing hardship is the price of being responsible, seeing someone else escape that hardship can feel like an injustice. Rather than questioning why they had to suffer, they demand that everyone else suffer equally. The system turns deprivation into a moral achievement and compassion into an undeserved reward. The deeper consequence is that structural problems become almost impossible to confront collectively. Millions of people can recognize that something is wrong while disagreeing so violently about who deserves blame that they never challenge the arrangements producing the problem. And power doesn't necessarily need to orchestrate every division. Once people internalize these beliefs, they reproduce them themselves. The greatest success of the American blame game isn't convincing people that their suffering is imaginary. It's convincing them that the people suffering beside them are responsible for it. /end

My wife, when I go a bit crazy on collecting stuff… Such was the case in October. I found some really great prices on Funko merch. Even BETTER than Funko’s own Thanksgiving sale, going on right now!

I really wish XBOX and Halo Gear would understand that we regular gamers just can NOT afford these types of high prices for things. You can get gaming chairs for far less. So is it really the branding that makes it more valuable? Given the state of abalone right now, respectfully, I say, no. Even the playing cards are WAY overpriced. Yes, the ink and designs are cool. But good lord, $27 for ONE pack? Again, there are other card companies that put out similar product that charge HALF as much as these cards. And once again, the branding right now just doesn’t hold up. Who at Halo Gear is choosing these vendors? Again, respectfully, they need to do more research. There are equal or better vendors that can put out the same/similar product for far less. Give the every day Halo Fan a better chance to own these. Not just the influencers, who normally get this stuff for free anyway but Conan afford it… Sigh. I wish I were on the Gear Team. I’m CERTAIN I could get better contracts for similar quality merchandise and for a much better prices.

Some very cool 8-bit Halo vids from this person. i recommend checking them out, #HaloSpotlight tiktok.com/@streams_last_nig…

The mid terms were not just about turning this country towards progress and away from hate, racism and the like. it was about the very sound of humanity. The world was watching and they are now proud of us again! tiktok.com/t/ZPLQ3t2LD/ Do NOT screw this up! Dems, use this power that has been given to you, to effect meaningful change, to change this broken system into something new and much better, to hold accountable those who sought and continue to seek the breakdown of this country. When January 3 comes, hit the ground running. DO NOT LOOK BACK!

I love this energy! instagram.com/reel/DfVGZc6tW…

Forgot to post this, this weekend. I got several more achievements in Halo Infinite! Just three more to go! Since this weekend is Halloween and my mother in law will be here, no a halo for me. Weekend after, I plan on getting the top and middle achievements in the pic below. That LASO is going to be in a party of four. I’m looking forward to that! It’s been a lot of fun playing the campaign again and going for achievements. I’m glad I didn’t race through them. This gives me something else to do in Halo Infinite.

Check out oz_ace's video! #TikTok tiktok.com/t/ZPLAwrkLb/ They also have another video showing how they made it. Neat stuff.

New @Halo novel coming next year! Halo Burn The Road Home. See the official cover and read the synopsis below. Here is the @simonschuster page about the book and where to pre-order it from: simonandschuster.com/books/H… I’m greatly looking forward to this one. Quite a different story than we usually get with Halo. I appreciate that it shows another facet of the Haloverse. One that rarely is explored. Perhaps this may even set up the future story line for the next Halo game by @Activision? I would enjoy a Halo “Insurgency” game.

TOMORROW! New Weapons Coating for @Halo Infinite! Watch @LVTHalo’s stream tomorrow Oct 18, 2026 for two hours to get the “De-Res” weapon coating! What’s cool about this is that it’s pretty much the “Neon Superfly” coating for weapons!!!! I am SO STOKED for this one!!!

Remember when the droid control ship was blown up and all the bots stopped working? Posting this for no particular reason…