"The truth shall set you free." -- Caltech
Me: "Why is there so much talk about the Founding Fathers? They created a great system but they've been dead for centuries." Aff: "The first presidents willingly gave up power. They could've continued for additional terms, but they chose not to. You rarely see that." Me: "George Washington was one of the 10 richest people in the US at the time. He probably wanted to go home to his mansion and live…
I'm so touched by this month's Atlantic article about a breakthrough in cystic fibrosis treatment . In the fall of 2019, Trikafta was approved by the FDA just 10 days before a large annual gathering of CF experts in Nashville. Doctors who attended told me the atmosphere was electric. Jenny happened to be there to speak on an unrelated panel, and she remembers seeing the geneticist Francis Collins…
I've been confronting my mortality for the past couple years. It started when I saw that according to a census table, I was past the midway point of my life expectancy. I responded by finding a more granular life-expectancy table. By painstakingly filling out that I've never smoked and I do exercise and numerous other habits, I received a reprieve. The new granular table said that I have one more…
I'm watching Tsinghua University lectures about Chinese architecture over the past 5000 years. Me: [to Aff] "One of the professors always looks like he's secretly smiling. He looked really happy in one lecture, then he had a less flattering haircut and was less smiley in the second lecture. Now his hair is great again and he's even wearing a very Chinese style shirt." Aff: "I hope he didn't go…
I love this post by talented writer Sarah Miller : I thought a lot about my lying review of that racist, boring, laughable, pseudo-intellectual movie ["The English Patient"]. I thought about how at the time, I was proud of myself for having the courage to make shit up because I was afraid to disagree with someone I wanted to impress, and also afraid of not making money. [...] If you write…
Today I read this advice column letter in the New York Times : I am 68 and live alone in a nice home in the suburbs. My only child, 40, is happily settled with his fiancée in another city. I always hoped they would come back here to raise a family, and I offered to give them my home if they did. They like the idea and plan to build a new house on the site. Over Christmas, I told them I was excited…
My mom and I have been strength training together for 6 months. I found a YouTube channel of a Japanese-American personal trainer with her 82yo mom. We are their perfect target demographic! Four times per week, we do an hour of these exercises. My mom is very graceful! She was a gymnast as a child, and it still shows in her fluid movements. I see my mom getting stronger over the months, and her…
I think it's safe to say I've broken free of my sugar addiction. It was difficult the first few days, and I felt urgent cravings that lasted for an hour or more. But now it's easy. I don't really think about sugary foods or this sugarfree experiment. In the first week, I spent 10+ hours watching videos about the history of sugar. The British created colonies and enslaved Caribbean people on cruel…
I read Matthew Perry's memoir a couple weeks ago. It's about his addiction to alcohol and opiates. He went to rehab 10+ times. His withdrawal symptoms were worst on days 3 and 4. Even after 14 surgeries from drug effects, he still broke his sobriety and sneaked opiates when cravings hit. After reading the book, I realized I probably have a sugar addiction. If I don't eat sugar for a day, I…
I have three new goals on my bucket list. 1. Walk the Camino de Santiago, Portuguese Central route. 2. Do the most popular Camino, the Frances route. Perhaps I'll bike the Meseta plains in the middle. 3. All of that will be build-up for someday walking the Camino del Norte. It's often called the most gorgeous of the Camino routes, but people also say it may be the most strenuous. Nearly constant…
I'm playing "A Short Hike", made by a solo developer. You play as a bird that's hiking and flying up a mountain. There's fall foliage, streams, and trees. It's cute. I also enjoyed Eastshade, another game made by a solo developer. You wander around an island, solving mysteries and creating artistic paintings. I started playing Grand Theft Auto 4 and Spiderman last year. They're both impressive…
After reading "Better Living Through Birding", I've started identifying birds via the Merlin app! There's a concept of the "spark bird", the first bird that gets you excited about birding. The first bird I identified was the Great Egret, but I don't think it was my spark bird. The author Christian Cooper points out how birding leads to an increased desire to protect the birds' habitat. Birding…
I did the Camino Portuguese last month, 180 miles. I met pilgrims from many countries. One Italian man, in his 60s, has walked several Caminos in the two years after retiring. Next he will do the Via Francigena trail (2000 kilometers) from Canterbury, England to Rome. In one coastal section in Spain, the trail was 80% Germans. Me: [to one young German] "Why are there so many Germans in this…
Today I took my mom to get a brain MRI. She's been walking slower, and a neurologist ordered a MRI to check out her brain. It could just be age-related (she's 73), but we're verifying to be sure. I sat in the corner during the 35-minute process. No electronics are allowed, so I wasn't able to use a phone or kindle. I just sat there and thought. Strangely, I felt really happy during the MRI…
I was touched by this book, by a mom who develops ALS at age 44. Upon her diagnosis, she knew that she had around 3 years to live, and would progressively lose the ability to walk, type, feed herself, and speak. She wrote about how some friends dropped her, because they were uncomfortable with her wheelchair and slurred speech. She was furious at their desertion. But she decided to intentionally…
I really like this Wired article about Marcus Hutchins , who saved the world from the WannaCry virus by registering its sinkhole domain. He comes across as very moral! He made mistakes as a teenager when he tried too hard to impress his peers. They asked him to write sketchy code, and he did it. Then he paid for it with years of anxiety, and now he is wiser and thoughtful. He is Ged from the…
I'm climbing with Aff and his friends in Red Rocks. Climbing on slab sandstone is much better than I expected. I've attempted ten routes over three days, and I successfully reached the top of all ten! It is calming to be out in nature, looking at cliffs and cacti, with no cell phone reception, climbing rocks.
This is uplifting and hilarious.
I'm very impressed by people who can do interior design. I've read many books and watched videos, and I'm still unable to do it. I did figure out that my preferred style is the Zen style.
I've been talking a lot about the Camino. Finally I decided to do it. I bought plane tickets to walk the Camino Portuguese this May. Hopefully there will be wildflowers. I'll be walking 173 miles from Porto, Portugal to Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Aff will walk the final 63 miles with me. I hope it will be meditative, with trees and ocean and port wine and audiobooks.
During the pandemic, I read " Class Acts: Service and Inequality in Luxury Hotels ". The author went undercover and worked at two luxury hotels for a year, to assess how workers felt about customers spending $500 or $800 per night on a room. This book is from the mid 90s, so it would be equivalent to something like $1000 per night nowadays. The workers were earning around $20 per hour. They used…
Me: "So many work leaders like to say 'We're not just a work team, we're a family.' That's just a way to manipulate employees into working free overtime. I prefer if we just stick to setting clear professional expectations. What are the deliverables? When are they due? What will employees be paid? I don't pay my actual family. I don't assign titles and promote my family members." Rebecca: "Maybe…
I listened to an audiobook " The History of Sugar ". I had no idea that sugar plantations were even crueler than cotton and tobacco plantations. The average life span of a slave on a sugar plantation was 10 years. It was so hard on the women's bodies that it made them infertile. Sugar led to the creation of sugar bowls, for rich Europeans to show off. They whitewashed the ways in which the sugar…
I am having a good day. I'm 66% through "A Wizard of Earthsea", which I'm reading for a book club. I first read it in 2008 and didn't understand the ending. I could tell that it was about a journey toward maturity and wisdom, and I figured I would appreciate it better one day when I myself reached greater maturity. Fourteen years have passed. I have forgotten most of the plot, so this read still…
Me: After reading that Twitter thread about people who feel an impending sense of doom and then die shortly after , I really feel aware of my mortality! Our bodies are just a meat encasing that will decline and one day die. Aff: Stupid meat. [looking up at the sky] Why me ... at??