— Anything, not everything, but lots in-between | March 5, 2023

Well this is way late again so I better account again: Moving finally done; Entrepreneurs; My new book; A stupid new diet study

Moved

That’s the young entrepreneur team who were my rental agents. Competent and hardworking. Verbal English is poor, but in text, easy.

… Anyway, this will be a very abbreviated version. It took a week of travels to get to Pattaya and then exactly a week to find and move in to a new place, and it’s hard to imagine it being better.

I’ll give the whole story next issue, which will also be the kick-off to things getting back to normal. Next time I do this—combine traveling and sightseeing with a move and the need of finding a place after I’ve already left the old place—I’ll just let yooze-all know I’ll be down for some weeks and will document everything and tell the stories later.

As much as I’m champing at the bit to write, I’m sometimes either too hungry, too tired, or both to do anything but grab some sleep. I don’t even know what a regular night of sleep is, anymore.

I got it done. After days cruising Facebook Marketplace to find suitable low-cost accommodations, which involves dealing with Thai landlords and their listings, I was getting frustrated. I asked Yui if she could come up with something, and that took 10 minutes. They showed me an initial place in a modern high-rise, but the rent was right.

Then I found out why.

I’ve seen larger prison cells than this “living” space these Chinese land developers put two partitions in, call it a 1-BR-1-Bath, and you’re lucky if you can get out of your own way. All I did was tell Chatkamon that I was looking for the “old style” studios where it’s one big room, 30 square meter minimum.

And bang. I was under contract within 2 hours. It’s in a different area than I’d intended, but that’s nicer too. Turns out I won’t be living in “Moscow.” That story, too. Ironic that I’m supportive of Russia’s aims in this Ukraine conflict; and yet, the Russians infesting the places around here are simply fucking assholes, and it’s difficult to find an exception.

Entrepreneurs in poor places

One thing I noted after moving to Thailand over 3 years ago and thought about it for a while is that an enormous number of people are self-employed. Out in rural areas, it’s damn near everyone, and many are “jacks-of-all-trades.”

Even those with jobs have one or two self-employment side gigs. Their experience is wide and varied. They’re just very competent people across the board. Compare that to your average cubicle wokester in San Fan who can’t even change oil or a tire on a car, much less cook a decent meal. The pinnacle of their acumen is rattling off hugely complex, tongue twisting Starbucks orders for 10 bucks a pop.

… Thinking more about it, it makes sense. It’s a complete fabrication and illusion that the West are “free countries.” The “Land of the Free” is the biggest laughing-stock joke of all in this regard.

Fucking pathetic: 93.4% of employed Americans work for the man.

I’m FREE!!!

LOL

No, you aren’t. Literally every Thai I know is freer than you. I’m freer than you. They may not have the money, pension, enormous mortgage, 2 car payments, other bills out the ass, or the confiscatory tax burden y’all do, but they’re fucking happy and enjoying their one and only life on this stopover to nowhere.

… Only 6.6% self-employment in the USA! Thailand? It varies year by year because it’s dynamic, as you would expect. But the range is a whopping 50-60%.

Think about the implications of that.

TEN TIMES as many entrepreneurs…bottom-line-thinking business people…in Thailand than in the vaunted US of A. I’m tellin’ ya, it makes me bust a gut thinking of Americans so proud of themselves…workin’ 9 to 5…what a way to make a livin’.

Looking at the global state of self-employment, it becomes apparent that there is in fact an inverse correlation between the proportion of self-employed workers and the GDP of their countries.

According to data from the International Labour Organization, only 12.2 percent of workers are self-employed on average in high-income economies while in low-income economies, this figure rises to 80.3 percent.

Statista

Here are a couple of charts that should make you weep…or cry.

Me? Makes me laugh my ass off because above all else in the world, I’m a diehard iconoclast. That starts with God, of course, but the jokes of what’s become of Western Civilization and Enlightenment is palpable.

Way to bring it home, USA!

So, all this “land of the free” stuff is an interesting perspective, isn’t it?

Is there any evidence for that?

Any at all?

My new book

It’s something I’ve been thinking about, primarily as a title, since I snapped that photo at the house I built, and the village fed the lucky-number of 9 monks breakfast at 07.30 in exchange for their blessing.

They’ll eat again at 11.30 and that will be it…until 07.30 the next day.

And there’s much more to it.

I’ll have a specific post soon laying it all out, chapter outline, gist, and all.

The subtitle is a tongue-in-cheek contrivance, for now. Just remember, I’m an iconoclast, and so I mock everyone…sometimes even myself.

A stupid new diet study

This is fresh from just this morning. It’s what motivated me to put at least a quickie post out there as I get through my final bits of organizing in the new place.

This morning, a longtime and well known friend in the dietsphere sent me a new study (has positive views about the results). Because of the brutality of my reply (to a friend), I’ve chosen to withhold his identity.

Higher dietary protein intake is associated with sarcopenia in older British twins

My reply:

LOL.

“Associated with”

Why do you waste your time on bullshit? Life is lethal. Hit the big areas. If being skin and bones makes you live a longer, more miserable life, then doing that on purpose is rather insane.

Since increased protein intake CAN FUEL increased muscle mass both experimentally (CONTROLLED studies) and observationally hundreds of millions of times…then this has to be…

1. Typical ideologically-driven data manipulation to imply that buying umbrellas causes it to rain
2. A simple situation where some folks are simply genetically programmed to become weak and frail as they age, more so than the mean…almost no matter what they do

If #2, then people actually interested in getting to the truth would have taken these high-protein-eaters-to-no-avail peeps and put them on a competent and effective resistance training regimen properly timed, to see if that made the difference.

I’ve never seen anyone claim that simply eating high protein builds muscle (unless a youngster and still growing and then, it’s probably only utilized to the extent it’s sufficient fuel to carry out the genetic program).

There’s lots of stuff out there about old folks gaining strength and mass through adequate diet (including high protein) along with resistance training. There’s also plenty of research on protein being sparing of lean muscle loss as people age.

… As far as the other stuff (the other lifestyle stuff in the “study” giving their ideologically-driven agenda away), that’s bullshit too. Unhealthy people are unhealthy for lots of reasons, little having to do with meat consumption.

That’s a stupid cherry-pick by ideologically, not science-driven, people. It’s the case that lots of unhealthy people are simply lazy, gluttonous, and have sufficient means to create perfect storms.

Eating a good steak often is simply one thing, and it’s just as likely that it’s actually a MITIGATING factor in an otherwise sea of bad shit they do. But you would have ZERO interest in ferreting that out, [name withheld], which is always why I take you with a grain of salt.

[Here’s where I begin to fuckin’ stew on the fucktarded stupidity of it; nope, not brutal enough…]

… So, I continue with more replies.

Here’s my favorite association, which I have saved and ready to attach whenever I get stupid shit like you just sent me.

… And this shit you advocate? It makes a man unfuckable, especially older men.

Here’s my primary fuck, over 3 years now. She’s 30, I’m 62. Think she’d be interested if I was a pot-bellied skinny-fat fuck like Greger?

If I was God for an hour, [redacted redacted redacted redacted redacted redacted redacted redacted redacted].

FUCK THEM ALL.

I’M DEAD SERIOUS.

[redacted redacted redacted]

Take your unfuckable weakling shit elsewhere henceforth, please. I’m not fucking interested in your beta-boy, soy-boy, cucked-simp crap.

Dinner last night (pork tenderloin & fried onions; eggs; fried in coconut oil/butter). Breakfast, 50 baht. Sticky rice stays in the bag to stay sticky (9 BBQ pork @ 5, 1 rice @ 5…50 baht…$1.45).

I can feel my lean mass vanishing, all the while my arteries are clogging. 555. (5 is ‘ha’ in Thai, so everyone writes 555 for our equivalent of LOL)

(Yes, I’m mocking you. Because, I have integrity, I never lie, I don’t do bullshit. Ever. If my dad or mom sent that egregiously stupid “study,” the same response would issue, under my principle that when a person does something stupid, they ought to be made to lose sleep over it.)

OK, that’s about it. I’ll be back on Sunday the 12th and that’ll be in-depth on some stuff for the public, more in-depth on some other stuff for Members, and it will also kick off a more regular routine of 2-3 posts/videos weekly, most for Members.

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