Archives for May 2015

See?

Hair tied back in a man-bun, back of head, cool like.

…My newest friend, a Canadian expat, just 200 yards away, drives a Harley, has 3 enormous Dobermans, plays Pink Floyd loud, and has a sign on his gate that proclaims:

NO SNIVELLING

Whenever I snivel? I go down to the beach—5-minute walk away—so that I’m automatically reminded about what the fuck I’m doing and why.

 Long story short:

1. Bro and I crossed the border in Tijuana on 6:30 am Wednesday morning. Goal was about 750 miles down the road at Loreto. We made it to Santa Rosalia, a Mexican New Orleans. Check it out.
2. Stayed in Hotel Frances, the former French administration building for the copper mining and smelting operation, left 5 am.
3. Got to Zac at about 3pm.
4. I’ve driven cross country a couple of times, including in 3 days once by myself. This drive, with Dave and I trading off, at 1/3 the distance, was the most nerve wracking, exhausting drive ever in terms of the speed and intensity with which we did it (90% very narrow, 1950s style 2-lane with hundreds of semi trucks going very fast). This is an intense mind drive. You have to be 100% on your game 100% of the time. You get to see the hundreds of roadside memorials along the way for those who didn’t.
5. Three miles from new home, my X5 Baja Buggy that I just spent 4K on for custom lift (no kits), wheels, adapters, steel wheels, kitchen sinks, etc., blew the right frot strut on a pothole.
6. Everything being sorted, I get Internet at the home on Tuesday, maybe even a cell-phone repeater…right now scrounging from Zac’s in exchange for a drink and dinner.
7. I’ve managed two ocean swims in the last 24 hours. That will be a habit.

I fucking feel more alive than I have in years. I quite enjoy having some problems to solve. Reminded me of having my ‘Vette break down 40 miles from home in Toulon, France, after I drove it from where it came in to port in Rotterdam. Got it sorted.

…Running low on water…another problem to sort. Next week, a Mexican guy is going to truck out 10,000 liters over 12 miles of dirt road for $65, to fill my two 5,000 liter, cross-connected tanks.

I love this world! Lots lots more later, including the story of no gas stations in 340 KM, and we missed the memo.

In the meantime, find a way to fucking love your life. Really, really love it!

And remember, no looking back, just forward.

Trip began Monday at noon from San Jose where I hit the 101 south to Santa Barbara, stopping off in Montecito for the evening at the invitation of Drs Mike & Mary Dan Eades. She had amazing sous vide ribeye steak at the waiting, accompanied by roasted asparagus, cauliflower puree, and a fantastic caesar salad. I provided the old vine zin. Sat around the table and chatted until midnight and rest assured: all the world’s problems have been taken care of.

Soon after the morning rounds of cafe Americanos, I headed out, down the Hwy 1, and stopped off in Malibu for a brief lunchtime visit with Mark Sisson in his backyard, overlooking Malibu canyon. More world problems solved.

Picked up my brother at SAN in the late afternoon and we snatched a cheap room at Motel 6 just a few hundred yards from the border and beginning now, 5am:

1. Gas the X5 BajaMobile, check oil and tire pressure.
2. Hit the Starbucks for a triple-shot latte.
3. Cross the border.
4. Drive until Lareto, which we ought to be able to do by 8-9pm.
5. Cabo by lunchtime Thursday.

Updates to follow.

Or, is it really just a day off?

What would you wager that her memorials don’t trump yours? Or, how about her infant’s eventual resentment over lack of birthright memorials compared to your Memorial-Day beer pong?

…

Read More

OK, thats’s indeed a bold title, but this is a TL;DR post. See, this one was drafted a good while ago. The Duck Dodgers decided to prefigure with a few things that have been posted—like this and this—but then there were more revelations, so what we have is this one, about 900 words and way incomplete, and a 4,000 pound whopper coming up next week. So here’s the “Too Long; Didn’t Read” version for the lazy asses.

Update: Well, it didn’t take long for a commenter to misunderstand what we’re doing here, so let me preface some clarification. This is not an assertion of causality searching for a hypothesis. It’s clearly a set of reasonable, testable associations that give rise to a hypothesis that fortification or enrichment of foods with iron (and perhaps other vitamins and minerals) may have a host of unintended consequences and this should be studied specifically. The follow-on post will contain a lot more justification. For additional clarification I’ve added an additional image below as well.

It’s becoming more commonly known that iron overload can be a prominent feature of obesity and metabolic issues. Obesity and insulin resistance has been linked to an iron-enriched diet. Obese people have iron in the hypothalamus of their brains, their urine, their adipose tissue, and they do not absorb iron well and iron blood levels can be low in some cases. The body may very likely be using adipose intentionally to keep excess iron out of the blood so that pathogens and cancer cannot thrive (i.e. anemia of chronic disease). As those studies point out, adipocytes use hepcidin to regulate the iron status of the blood.

Surprisingly, what virtually all researchers miss is that the countries that fortify their food with iron (or rely heavily on imports of fortified food with iron) are the countries that tend to have the most obesity and metabolic issues—particularly as those countries consume more iron-rich meat.

…

Read More