Latest / bit of a Rambler / 050 Ramble On

Transcript

050 Ramble On · bit of a Rambler

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hello. My name is Kai, and I am a bit
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: of a rambler. There's a big old rainstorm going on
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: today with thunder and everything, so I thought it would
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: be fun to record the episode now. Also, there's just
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: been a bunch going on, and if I don't start
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: talking about it now, then the episode's gonna last way
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: too long. So start at the start. My glasses that
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: I've had since Cambodia from ten years ago, a real
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: long time ago. The lens frame finally broke and so
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: the left lens keeps popping out. But I went through
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: the last time this happened. I went to the dollar
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: store and I went through all the frames until I
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: found one frame because I got the most generic frame
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: is possible when I was in Cambodia in the hopes
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: that I would be able to find one that fit them.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: And in Denver, I think I found a pair of
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: frames that fit my lenses, so I was able to
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: do that. But now they broke again. Actually the first time,
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: I think an arm broke and I replaced that, and
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: this time the actual lens part has broken the lens frame.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: But I went to the dollar store here in Mediean
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: because I thought maybe they'll just have one again that
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: fits here. But I think now it's been so long
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: that whatever standard three factories are printing out all of
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: these dollar store glasses frames the angle of my lenses,
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: and that just isn't what they make anymore. But I
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: went through hundreds of pairs, because when I'm looking for
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: something just like this, this happens a lot. But if
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: I'm looking for a pair of glasses that just happened
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: to fit my lenses, if I just go through every
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: single pair of frames, one of them will fit. So
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: I did that this time, and I was spending a
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: very long time. I spend like an hour just going
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: through all of the frames, and one was so close,
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: but it just wasn't right, so I didn't get it.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: And then I remember that I had tape in my
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: first aid bag, like masking tape, and I just took
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: off a super little sliver of that and put over
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: the crack. And it's fantastic because masking tape is strong
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: but flexible, so when it moves, it can move without
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: stretching out, whereas like that clear packing tape stretches out
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: too easy. I was using that for a bit, but
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: it didn't work. Anyway, I'm happy to report that my
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: glasses lens are all good now again, so I could read,
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: which is good because I've been reading a bunch and
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: I actually kind of use my glasses as a barrier
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: whenever I'm on a screen. I feel like the blue light,
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: hey you got that thunder nice? I feel like the
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: blue light coming out of screens hurts my eyes, like,
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: it makes my eyes tired. It gives me eye fatigue
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: after a while or something, and my glasses seem to
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: block some of that radiation, which car windows block a
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: lot of solar radiation, so you won't get sun burned
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: even if you're pale white and the window is rolled up,
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: even if the sun's coming through, but you will get
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: burned if the windows rolled down. Glass just stops a
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: bunch of radiation. So I usually wear my glasses when
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: I'm on the screen, and that seems to help me
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: a lot with my eyes going red and tired. If
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: I you know, if I have a difficult situation like
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: I have to play a video game for five days
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: in a row, or I'm watching seventeen movies like I've
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: been doing this week. I've just been watching so many
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: movies lately. In fact, let's just bomb through some of
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: these real quick. Bug two thousand and seven has Ashley
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: Judd and importantly Michael Shannon. Great actors, good movie, very
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: difficult to watch, very body horror, almost uncomfortable to watch.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: For the last like thirty forty minutes. I watched The Watchers,
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: Irish folktale movie Pretty fun Knocking, which is a Swedish
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: groundhog day time loop movie. Not good and I'm angry.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: I watched it from two thousand finally watched Thunderbolts. I
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: didn't hear much. It was pretty fun. I'm glad Florence
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: Pugh is a new Avenger, but I'm kind of confused
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: if they're really new Avengers, or if it's gonna continue
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: or what I feel like Marvel themselves don't really know.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: I went back and watched Suicide Squad because I was
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: going to start Peacemaker. Couldn't remember anything that happened, so
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: I went back and watched all of the first season
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: of peace Maker, which it was just as funny as
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: I remembered, and I laughed out loud who knows how
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: many times, and then I was like, that was so good.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: I wonder Suicide Squad from twenty twenty one is good.
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: Also where the John Cena Peacemaker guy started and that
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: was great too, and he has a pretty small role
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: in it, obviously relative to his self titled series or
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: the character's series. But I really liked Suicide Squad from
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty one. Also, it made me want to watch
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: that Birds of Prey again. I remember thinking that was
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: a good a good one, and Suicide Squad twenty twenty
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: one made me laugh. Also more than a few times,
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: watched Edge of Tomorrow again Tom Caru's time Loop movie.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: That's how I was like, oh yeah, time loops are
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: like my favorite thing. That's why I watched that terrible
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: Swedish movie. But I also watched a really good time
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: loop short thirty Minutes, starring kurtwood Smith. Many people might
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: know him as the dad from that seventy show, but
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: he's in a way better movie called Patriot, and I
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: highly recommend everyone watched that TV show because it's maybe
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: my favorite TV show. It's so funny and deadpan funny.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: Then I watched Top Gun Maverick, which didn't really like
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: the original Top Gun. Definitely diging Top Gun Maverick. It
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: was pretty good, great to see Jennifer Connolly again reminded
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: me of snow Piercer's the TV show that I haven't
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: finished yet. But I found out that snow Piercer the
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: TV show is based on a comic, like a comic
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: from nineteen seventy or something. Nineteen eighty two. Snow Piercer
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: was a French comic called trans pierce nes which is
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: snow Piercer in French. I always wondered. I thought that
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: was not a good name in English. It sounded so
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: weird to me, and I wondered why they chose that name,
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: and I didn't realize it started as a comic forty
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: three years ago. That's why, because the name is literally
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: transpiarsnesh the snow Piercer. So yeah, and more movies besides.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: But I've been watching a whole bunch of stuff lately,
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: and I think the snow Piercer movie is great. So
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: when I found out it was based on a comic,
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: I was really excited to read that, and so far
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: it's great. I'm only halfway through. Don't spoil it for me.
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: I actually don't know if the story so far. The
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: story is pretty different from the movie, but I think
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: the movie does a pretty good job of translating the issues,
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: especially into modern day social sentiment. I think the movie
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: would be even more successful if it was released today,
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: a decade plus after it originally came out. They definitely
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: captured the essence of the comic so far anyway from
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: what I can see, and honestly really translated it into
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: cinema in a great way. The original comic is very
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: bland in terms of colors and action, so I can
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: see why they made it more exciting. But the comic
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: is good as its own story, as like a similar
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: parallel story different from the movie, and the movie's great
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: as a similar parallel story. They're just different stories completely,
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: but both are good. And since I did that, I
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: was curious about Edge of Tomorrow also because just like
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: snow Piercer, I thought that name was interesting and it
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: just felt it's obviously it's different than a lot of
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: other Tom Cruise movies, and the world felt so complete.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: I realized I had never checked if it was based
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: on something, so I went back, and it is based
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: on basically a Japanese light novel, which I guess in
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: English as novella. I cannot tell. I don't know what
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: the difference is between a novella, a novelette, or a
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: light novel or a YA novel. I guess. For that matter,
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: I don't know what the difference is between any of those.
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: I guess YA novels usually are starring Ya's usually are
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: staring young adults. Maybe that's the difference for YA. But novella, novelette,
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: novel even, and light novel shorter seems to be the consensus.
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: But some novels are not very long. Maybe those are novella's.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: Who knows whatever. Anyway, Edge of Tomorrow is actually based
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: on a Japanese novella or light novel called All You
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: Need Is Kill, and it's really good so far. I've
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: kind of been devouring it. At the same time, I'm
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: reading Isaac Asimov's first book ever, the Galactic Empire series.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: It had been a long time since I read any Asimov,
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: but I just watched I Robot and I Am Legend,
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: and I loved the Foundation series by Asimov, so I
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: figured I would start reading his books again. Pebble in
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: the Sky and it's Asamov. It's really good. It's interesting.
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: I can't see that it's his first novel. Some things
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: aren't as tight, and the story doesn't feel as complete,
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: like the world doesn't feel as complete as I remember
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: Foundation feeling. But then again, I read Foundation a very
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: long time ago, still pebble, and this guy was a
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: lot of fun so far, and I was just thinking,
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: how funny it is that so many movies are based
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: off of anime or light novels or cartoons and comics.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: But most people, if you ask them, check out this
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: comic still in most countries, picture book, no way. But
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: that same person will sit through forty hours of Iron Man,
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: Marvel super comic movies with the plotline of I'm the strongest,
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: there's this stronger guy. Now let's go fight that stronger
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: guy and win into the Spider verse. Killed it for
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: a newer comic movie. But folks, a story is a
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: story regarding animation as a less valid form of creative
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: expression compared to only typeset letters. It's bizarre. It's like
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: only it's like seeing everything in three primary colors and
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: nothing else. If it's not in those three primary colors,
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: then you won't interact with it. That's how I feel
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: when someone tells me they don't watch cartoons or animation
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: at all. In any form, or they don't read graphic
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: novels or comic books or anything. It's like that sucks.
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: There's so many good stories, and they simplify them on
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: the big screen a lot of the time so that
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: mass audiences can understand them. But a lot of the
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: actual stories in these comics are very emotional and complex
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: and fun and an important part of the culture. Like
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: with those Iron Men movies. You have to recognize that,
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: or all of the superhero movies. Those are straight up simple,
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: the simplest of comic book characters, or at least comic
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: book concepts, and the largest companies in the world are
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: spending hundreds of millions of dollars on each concept because
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: they know the stories have mass appeal. Humidity and electricity.
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: Mess with this microphone and it's messing up the sound,
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: so i'll finish this later. Okay, this should be better,
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: but the rainstorm is heavier and I had to open
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: up the window. But rainstorms are cool anyway. If you
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: don't like comics or animation, it's the exact same as
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: saying that you don't like books. Like some books you
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: don't like, but you'll probably like some books. Go ahead
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: and explore. So there was a pretty big Airbnb thread
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: on the Lemming community for the podcast, and a lot
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: of people, mostly Americans, were concerned because I said that
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: you can travel around the world for five hundred in
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: most countries to a thousand USD per month and all
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: the other countries, and immediately I get a lot of
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: naysayers talking about how it's impossible to live in Canada
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: for anything less than twelve hundred dollars in a city
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: and the only place that you can live is on
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: some farmland, rural area somewhere that's completely unpopulated. Now, I
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: want to bring this up because it's really important to
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: stress that that's incorrect by the numbers. If you get
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: Airbnb or booking or whatever. I use Airbnb because it's
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: easy to search. Almost every country is on it, and
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: the host can set the price however they want to,
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: so if you go on Canada. At the same time
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: these people were saying it's impossible Canada is an housing crisis,
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: you could find apartments for less than six hundred dollars
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: all across the country. There were about sixty when I
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: checked and posted screenshots so that people could see the
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: actual prices. But it was really interesting because I got
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: a lot of people who some of them said they
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: were from Canada and the rest were from the US.
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: It sounded like because of the prices they were quoting,
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: and then because when they talked about traveling, the only
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: countries they talked about were either Canada or Mexico. But
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: if you search for housing, you can find it under
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: seven hundred dollars, the rest for groceries, all your utilities
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: are included, and you can live in Canada for one
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: thousand USD a month. That's what it has been like
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: since I started traveling and looking at Airbnb and renting options.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: When I left the US, and a decade plus later,
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: all those prices are essentially the same, which it's really
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: interesting considering how crazy inflation has been. But housing was
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: a little better right when I left the US, but
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: three years later when I returned, it was about as
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: crazy as it is now, and then it got a
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: little bit worse every year. But the thing to remember
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: with traveling is that you are completely free to choose
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: wherever you want to. If you are traveling indefinitely, then
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: you're not going to be trapped to a job. So
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: you have to live in a specific neighborhood. Well, you're
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: not going to be trapped in a specific state, You're
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: not going to be trapped in a specific housing style.
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: You get to look at the entire listing of a country,
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: and in an entire country, whatever that country is, there
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: are cheaper and more expensive options for the same amenities
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: and the same services. If you try to buy an
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: apartment dead in the center of the city, you're going
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: to be less likely to find a cheap place than
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: if you buy an apartment or a house out in
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: the suburbs. It's cheaper out in the suburbs, and very
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: often the suburbs twenty minute drive into the city or
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: a forty minute bus ride often. But I want to
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: live in the city. Okay, that's fine. I know a
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: lot of people like living in the middle of the city.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: The great thing again about traveling indefinitely is that there
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: are new available places popping up all the time, and
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: Airbnb does a monthly discount. So if you're searching for
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: a place, you really you're like, I only want to
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: live in one city, and I only want to live
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: in the middle of that city. Thunderstorm. That's still not impossible,
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: that's still very probable that you'll be able to find
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: a place in short order because new properties go on
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: these booking websites all the time, and the newer the
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: booking is, the more likely it is to have a
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: pretty steep discount. But no matter what, if you book
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: more than twenty seven days on Airbnb, you get a
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: often thirty percent plus discount. They're huge discounts if you
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: book by the month rather than by the week or
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: by the day. So it's very easy to find places
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: in the middle of the city that are still affordable
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: if you're a traveler, because if you can stay for
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: twenty eight days or longer, you get a huge discount
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: as a monthly traveler. Monthly travelers are more responsible, the
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: stuff doesn't break, the host doesn't have to clean as often.
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: So monthly travelers or indefinite travelers getting those monthly rates,
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: you're living for very cheap. And if you go to
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: one of the cheaper countries, if you're trying to save money,
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: you go to Southeast Asia or Africa or Eastern Europe.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: Tons of countries, dozens of countries. You'll get houses for
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: one hundred fifty or less. Certainly studio apartments for one
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: hundred fifty or less, and if you want really a
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: bigger one. Basically that's the only difference because you get
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: all the same amenities and services. But if you want
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: a bigger one, then it's three hundred per month. So
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: the prices are there. And if you're listening to me,
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: tell you about one hundred and fifty dollars houses. Go
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: look at the cost of living for countries. Look at
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: anything in the bottom half of the list. It can
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: be a perfectly safe country. I go on Airbnb and
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: check these prices all the time. These are publicly available prices.
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: Everywhere on Airbnb includes a shower, electricity, water Wi Fi.
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: Most of them have a kitchen. I prefer the three
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: hundred dollar ones for a little more space and like
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: extra amenities. Like my room right now is three hundred dollars.
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: It has an air fryer and a refrigerator, and a
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: washing machine and a rice cooker, just a whole bunch
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: of extra stuff if you pay three hundred instead of
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty. But that three hundred plus two
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: hundred spent on food five hundred a month indefinitely, that's
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: in most countries. And then the other ones like Canada,
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: like Switzerland, the most expensive countries in the world, you
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: can still find places to live for six hundred seven hundred.
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: Very you can find dozens of places for six hundred
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: to seven hundred, and you can find probably ten houses
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: throughout the country or less for under six hundred US dollars.
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: But you can still live in the most expensive countries
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: in the world for under one thousand usd per month.
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: So whatever someone is telling you, or whatever you've read
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: in the news about housing crises or anything, all of
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: that could be true or may not be, but most
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: of it, like the gist, is true. Yes, Canada is
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: having a housing crisis. But if you can search the
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: country and just look for an apartment that you're looking for,
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: one in a city with a washing machine or whatever
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: you're searching for, you will find that. Because countries are large,
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: people are always renting rooms out and right now those
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: prices are what the prices are there. Whatever the newspaper
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: tells you, you're never going to find an apartment for
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: under twelve hundred, that's just not what people are renting
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: their rooms for right now. If you are a traveler,
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: you get to search the whole listings. You get to
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: search all of them instead of just one neighborhood next
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: to an office or whatever. The culture section says the
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: best neighborhood is. You don't have to do that. You
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: get to choose whichever one is three hundred bucks and
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: still offers a safe neighborhood and all the amenities and
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: appliances and privacy. Yes there will be expensive places to live,
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: and yes there will be cheap places to live. They're
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: the same places. Some are just cheaper than others. Some
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: of the airbnb hosts set larger monthly discounts, so they're
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: going to be cheaper. Some of the airbnb hosts actually
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: just like to help travelers. I've met a lot of
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: hosts who deliberately set their especially monthly prices very low,
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: just so they can meet and facilitate the ease for
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: travelers to move around. They're still making money, of course,
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: the hosts are, but they like the idea that people
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: are moving through their city and getting to enjoy the
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: parts of the city that are amazing. So some houses
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: are going to be expensive, some are going to be inexpensive.
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: The tomatoes at store one five dollars a pound, the
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: tomatoes at store two two dollars a pound, same tomatoes,
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: the same truck, drop them off at those two stores.
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: One is five dollars a pound, one or two dollars
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: a pound. Just choose the two dollars one. You look
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: around on Airbnb, you'll find the listings with all the
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: great amenities that are much cheaper. Oh, that's right. I
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: also watched Superman twenty twenty five. I was interested to
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: see because James Gunn is a Marvel guy and now
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: he's doing DC and he did pretty good with Superman
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty five. He made it a little more serious
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: and it was funny enough. I saw Happy Gilmore too.
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: Adam Saylers just seems tired man, and it seemed like
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: a really nice movie because he could give money to
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: all his friends who maybe don't have the same success
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: he did, so he can spread that around. And that's
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: what it seemed like, just a nice way to share
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: money with his friends and make a funny movie. So
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: it was fine. I've been cooking chicken wings like every
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: friggin day because I have the air fryer here and
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: it's my favorite appliance. I was considering staying here a
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: whole extra month just because well, not just because of
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: the air fryer. But every time I thought of staying
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: an extra month, definitely one of the first things that
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: went through my head was, oh, I could use the
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: air fryer more. It's just especially with something like chicken wings.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: I can cook them exactly how I like them. I
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: can marinate them or glaze them with whatever I want,
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: put salt, pepper and spices on there, get the skin crispy,
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: but the inside is still moist chicken. It's the It's
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: my favorite appliance I'm going to get like I was
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: imagining using it to my delight, and I was imagining
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: whenever I get a sedentary home for a while, I'll
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: probably have multiple air fryers in the kitchen so that
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: I can cook the meat and fries and whatever else.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: But I can cook the whole meal at once, and
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: then I'll all be ready really quick, exactly how I
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: like cooking it. Because the only thing about air fryers
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: that I have to make the chicken, and then I
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: have to take out the chicken. Then I have to
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: make the fries, or I have to make the fries
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: and then the chicken. So I'm imagining a counter just
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: filled with five air fryers, and I can a full
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: Thanksgiving meal that way. Giant bowl air fryers. Man, I
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: love air fryers. So I've been eating all these chicken
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: wings lately because of the air fryer, and I was like,
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: let's just go crazy and buy twice as many, or
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: more than twice as many. I bought a huge bag
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: of chicken wings just to see if I could eat
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: them all. Because also because chicken wings are crazy cheap
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: here less than a dollar a pound. So I bought
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: three pounds of them and had a chicken wing party
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: and it was a great chicken wing party. The chicken
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: wings were perfect every single time I cooked them. I
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: cooked four or five at a time. And I watched
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: all of Peacemaker season one. It was super fun. I've
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: also been watching Oishinbo lately. That a Japanese show about
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: this guy who has a really good sense of taste.
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: And they made one episode where a chef from America,
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: Jeff the Chef, joins, and he does this int he
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: wants to become a Japanese sushi chef or learn all
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: the knowledge of cuisine in Japan, and so he goes
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: to a master, basically a Japanese master Jeff the chef,
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: and the master holds out a dikon radish, chops the
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: ends off, and then uses a knife to cut like
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: a meter long strip of dikon radish in one continuous piece,
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: and he says, this is your practice. And I thought
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: that was really interesting as a way to practice, and
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: I think it actually is a real way that chefs
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: will see how much control they have over their knives,
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: how good they are at using their knives. And I
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: want to try it, but I don't want to cut
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: my hand open. But that was a pretty fun episode.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: But then right after that episode that show got real
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: political slash cultural. There was a lot of statistics in
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: it which are true, and it was interesting to learn
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: about those statistics. But what was interesting about this episode
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: were a couple things. One it was one of the
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: very few two part episodes in this show. And two,
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: it was adamantly culturally definitive. It's about whale meat in Japan,
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: and for the first ten minutes or maybe five minutes,
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: I was like, wait a minute, are they setting this
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: up to be pro whale meat like Hardline? And they are.
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: So there's two episodes in Oishinbo by far the most abrasive,
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: but they do put out a lot of very good data.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: It's not all correct, but that show is like forty
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: years old now, so it makes sense that it's all
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: not correct anymore. But what is correct is that whales.
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: Not all whales are endangered or near extinction at all.
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: Most species are not, and the ones that Japanese fishermen
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: do hunt are in no way endangered or near extinction.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: Their numbers are still increasing for the past like forty
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: years now. The problem is when they do hunt one
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: humpback or something that is endangered, that is a problem,
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: but that is very rare. They mostly are hunting mink, say,
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: fin whales, and there are a lot of fin whales,
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: hundreds of thousands, way more than there were forty years
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: ago when Japanese instituted whaling regulations, which didn't exist up
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: until then. So what you know about Japanese whaling. I agree,
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: I don't like that they hunt whales, but if you
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: look at the numbers they are hunting now, especially in
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: relation to how many cows, pigs, chickens the rest of
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: the world is killing every year, it doesn't look as
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: crazy as some headlines might make it look, if there
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: are forty whales, which is common when they're hunting fin whales,
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: If forty fin whales are hunted that year, that means
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: that there are another seventy thousand fin whales out there,
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: so it's really a very small part of the population.
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: The whale that gets hunted the most is the mink whale,
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: and you might get around one thousand hunted per year
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: these days, but there are near a million of them
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: around the world. There were seven hundred and sixty thousand
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: at the last count, and that doesn't include all of
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: Earth's oceans, just the ones closer to the equator, so
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: there could be well over a million, and they're only
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: killing one thousand per year. Now. I don't think they
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: should be hunting whales either, don't worry. I like whales,
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: saw them when I was a kid, saw them when
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: I was adult. I think they're cool. But that is
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: the reason that I don't want us to hunt them,
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: because I think they're cool and small. I also think
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: cows are cool and smart, and I also think pigs
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: are cool and smart. Also, it's really important to notice
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: the hunting numbers, because one thousand mink whales per year
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: might sound like a lot, but it's down way more
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: than ninety percent in the past generation, really in the
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: past thirty years. Every year it's going down and down,
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: so it's already kind of a endangered part of cuisine.
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: Not many Japanese people eat whale, not many Icelanders eat whale.
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: Like whale eaters are rapidly going down, just like every
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: other food in the world, someone's going to harvest a
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: few every year. But Save the Whales worked, basically, it
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: worked around the world. When it started in the late seventies,
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: there were thousands of whales of all types being hunted
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: all the time, and now you're down to maybe twenty
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: from some species, like I said, the most popular one,
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: you're down to one thousand per year. It used to
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: be six thousand when the Save the Whales started, So
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: that means every year they're hunting hundreds of less whales.
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: So while it would be nice if everybody just stopped
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: right away hunting whales, it is pretty gratifying after watching
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: this TV show that so strongly advocated for whale hunting that,
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: if nothing else, they kept the numbers up until the
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: show aired in nineteen eighty six. Very consistent and very accurate. Also,
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: an important thing to note is that Japan almost exclusively
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: hunts within its territorial waters for many reasons, and some
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: of those waters are obviously disputed, but most whales, as
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: in more than nine out of ten, are hunted within
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: the territory of Japan's waters, where it chooses to continue whaling.
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: But despite that continuation, even Japanese people, dedicated as they
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: are to their culture, are less interested in eating whale.
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: So the industry is going down in any case, which
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: is good for me to hear, because I just have
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: that I like whales, don't want to see him hunted.
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: But I was glad to find out that even forty
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: years ago, when the save the Whales movement started, the
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: numbers were a lot better than that movement made it
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: out to be. Even back then, the mink whales and
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: the fin whales weren't endangered, and now they are thriving populations. Basically,
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: So if I go back to Japan, I might try whale.
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: I will make sure it's the whale that is of
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: a healthy population. But I've eaten dog and pig and
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: cow and mouse. I've eaten everything that people have given
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: me in different countries, so I have no compunction against
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: eating another species from a healthy population. I did, indeed
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: whale the first times I went to Japan because I
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: was unaware and I had never taken the time to
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: really look at any of the population numbers. So I
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: assumed that all whales were endangered because if you ask,
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: if I asked anyone I knew, I was told, yeah,
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: whales are endangered and they're being hunted to extinction. And
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: that's just incorrect. That's just not true. There are either
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: dozens or hundreds of members of different species of whales
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: being hunted per year and harvested for their meat. I mean,
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: I don't know how many chickens or pigs are harvested
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: for their meat, but it's more eighty six million cows.
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: Eighty six million cows are harvested every year, and that's
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: India's divine animal. So I definitely understand. Whales are super cool,
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: they're big, they're probably smart. I think they can talk myself.
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: I also happened to think that other animals can communicate,
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: and humans just haven't figured out how they talk to
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: each other yet. So by the numbers, I agree with
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: the show that it's unfair to malign whale eaters because
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: most people in the world are also eating smart, fun,
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: cute animals, and of course whaling is as old in
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: Japanese culture as their history. So I see what they're saying,
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: but they got so into it. The number stuff was
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: good and good points, but the gusto with which they
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: converted everyone in the show, it just felt like a
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: step too far. Like they were like, and it's good
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: to eat whale and it's delicious, which I bet it isn't,
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: because all the numbers are going down. I bet that's
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: partly due to because from I'm nineteen seventies, that's when
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: it meat kept when factory farming came into popular society,
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: and you could get cow or chicken or pork really easily.
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: If one meat tastes better, then people stop eating that
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: other meat. So I will try whale next time I
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: go to Japan, but I'm not sure how great it's
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: going to be, since even Japanese people are choosing to
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: eat all of the other meats instead of whale. And
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: even with all those rational explanations, I have to say
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: I'm just uneasy with the idea of eating whale, which
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: again is silly because I eat cows and I've had
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: a dog, and I will eat meat. It is meat.
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: I understand that I am taking the life of an
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: animal to eat their flesh. That's what meat eating is.
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: I came to terms with that a while ago. But
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: I'm very aware of the act of eating another animal
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: from a sustainably harvestable population, no different from harvesting a
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: whale and eating that flesh, except that I think cetaceans
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: are smarter, but I don't know. I don't know if
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: I think they're smarter than cows or pigs. I think
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: they're probably smarter than tuna. I eat horse in Italy,
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: that's a popular dish over there. Yeah, I will eat
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: different meats. It's it's definitely tricky because I still just
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: feel weird about eating whales. And I bet it's because
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: I grew up with a lot of misinformation about the
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: population of whales, and then you're just born into whatever
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: culture you're born in. So I'm like, these are the
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: three normal meats. People who eat other meats are weird.
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: And then I grew up and realized that normal is
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: normal and weird is weird, and it entirely depends on
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: where you are coming from. Well that lasted longer, but
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: I really that episode hit me a lot, and I
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: I didn't like it because the great thing about Oishinbo
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: is that they talk about cuisine of Japan and like
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: little tricks and stuff, and this was just an extremely
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: political episode about how eating whale meat is okay, And
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: for the most part, I agree with that intellectually, at
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: least I agree with that if humans are okay with
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: harvesting animals for their meat from sustainable populations, then the
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: whale is one of those species that's one of those
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: sustainable populations. On the other hand, they're really big and cool.
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: That's the other hand. Indians a billion and a half
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: people feel the same way about cows, so it's difficult,
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: especially having lived in India and traveled to different countries,
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: and they feel, well, this is normal. Normal is normal,
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: and weird is weird. But it all depends on where
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: you're coming from. Still, it's a great show, maybe through
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: forty episodes, but I'm kind of getting fatigue from watching
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: so many. I think that's why I've been watching all
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: these different movies recently. But I'll probably continue it because
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: I like eating garlic, and they did a garlic episode
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: after the whale one, and that was super fun to
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: read about, but that one. I didn't learn anything from
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: the garlic episode except garlic is tasty and you should
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: eat garlic. And most of them do teach something like
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: they had a beer and ad a mammy episode and
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: you get a good beer head that sticks there if
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: the bubbles are really small, if they're big at pops
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: and then the gas escapes from the beer so it
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: goes flat quicker. So they have really interesting information for
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: a lot of food and drinks, just interesting culinary information
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: in general. Oh man, So I hiked up this trail,
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: and I was really excited to hike up the trail
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: because it was only a twenty five thirty minute walk
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: away before I could start the trail, and then I
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: would be going up on the mountains outside of Medie,
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: and I thought that would be super cool. But then
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: the trail kept going and I realized I was hiking
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: all the way up to a famous viewpoint that was
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: pretty far away. But I just kept going, one foot
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: after the other. I saw some mountain bikers up there
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: and they told me to be careful, but they were
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: fine with me hiking up that trail. They just said, like,
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: just keep your eyes open in case someone's bombing down
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: the mountain. And I just kept going. And halfway up
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: there was a green grass playground and exercise equipment, and
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: I was like, what the heck? And there was kids
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: playing there and families in a little parking lot. So
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: there's a place you could actually just drive straight up
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: there on a different road. And I didn't realize that.
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: So I went up like this back super difficult trail
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: and hiked up. But I kept going and I was
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: panting hard. It was the hardest I panted in a
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: long time. Maybe because I'm at elevation and I haven't
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: hiked in a while, and I had been hiking for
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: a long time, and because I thought it would be
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: a quick hike, I didn't bring any water. Yeah, there
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: was a lot of factors there. But I kept going
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: and I struggled up these steps and I finally reached
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: the top, and I kept up a pretty good pace
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: the whole time. I was pretty happy with my body.
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: It's been doing good since I started exercising again. And
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: when I made it to the top, I was again shocked.
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: The whole top viewpoint of the mountain covered in dozens
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: of people having picnics, flying kites, exercise. There's a huge
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: exercise gym at the top of the mountain. There are
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: probably dozens of people just on the exercise equipment, like
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: it was packed. It was a huge fun green park
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: on the top of this mountain, and I was like,
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: where did you all come from? Like how did you
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: get up here? And then when I started going downhill
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: after using the exercise park a little while, because I've
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: never climbed up a mountain, exhausted and then exercised at
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: the top, So that was pretty crazy doing pull ups
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: at the top of this mountain after a two hour hike.
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: Turns out there was another road that goes straight up
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: to the top of the mountain that you can drive
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: to from the city. So everyone there had driven their
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: motor scooters up to the top of the mountain, and
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: I was one of the few people who had actually
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: hiked for a couple hours to the top of the
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: mountain instead, And that's fine. I don't mind that they
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: rode up there. It was just really funny trying to
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: figure out, Wow, I can't believe all these people hiked
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: up this mountain. That was like a pretty intense hike,
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: and the trail isn't great, and there are a lot
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: of children here. And then I walked down the other
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: side of the mountain and there was a road leading
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: there was a parking lot with a bunch of parked
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: motor scooters, and I was, oh, I get it, okay,
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: But man, it was so cool. Everyone was having a
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: ton of fun music playing and like I said, picnics
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: and a bunch of people exercising, just having a good
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: time at the top of a beautiful mountain with absolutely
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: amazing views. It was pretty great. A couple nights after that,
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: there were these two kids who he drives his girlfriend
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: home and then parks outside and they park right outside
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: my window because I'm sort of I'm in an apartment,
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: but the door to my apartment is next to the
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: door of a much bigger apartment building. But I'm basically
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: on the street. I mean, I have a street facing door.
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: And this time when they showed up, they didn't leave
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: right away, and then I heard some noises and I
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: looked out the window and I was like, oh, man,
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: these two kids are trying to get it on in
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: his car. And I don't mind about that at all.
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: Go for it. I salute you young'uns. That's awesome. But
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: his car was loud and I was right in the middle,
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: I think of recording, so it must have been recording something.
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: And I was like, well, they're not going to be
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: here forever. And then twenty minutes later, they were still
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: like making out in his car, and he was trying
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: to be like, hey, let's do more than makeout, and
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: she was like, oh, geek, can't. Also, I know his
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: name is all because she said his name still when
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: they when she when he drops her off and they talk,
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: she says Alejandro every sentence. So he'll say like, come on,
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: it'll be fun, and she'll say, oh, Honro, I can't
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: and they'll be like, oh, wasn't that so wasn't that
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: food so good? And she'll say it was good. Alejandro Alejandro.
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: She just says Alandro every single sentence in response to
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: whatever he says, and he has not said her name once,
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: so so now I know half to this pair. But
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: they're trying to get it on this time, because now
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: it's been twenty minutes, it's getting heavy. And I was like,
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: you know, whatever, they'll just do and then they'll get
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: out of here. But she was still like not going
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: all the way and he wanted her too, but she
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: was having a very she was leaning in to kiss him.
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: This was some mutual teenagery fun, but it was going
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: on for a long time. So now it's forty five
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: minutes later. I was like, okay, are they gonna get
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: to it and then finish or are they just gonna
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: make out? Literally? And then it was an hour and
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: fifteen minutes and they were still like, you want to
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: still make out? Yeah, let's do. And they kept making
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: out and I was like, okay, this is crazy. So
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: I took my trash and it's like two in the morning,
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: maybe closer to three. It was pretty late. I think
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: they got back it too, and I made noise at
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: my metal door and then went out threw away the
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: trash and the trash can, and when I walked back,
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: he has left his car on for almost an hour
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: and a half now while they've been making out, and
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: he's been like I should go, and she's like you
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: should go, and then they'll start making out again. And
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: I asked them, hey, sorry, I'm recording something right now.
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: Do you mind using any of the other streets around
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: this area? In Spanish, and they were like, oh, oh yeah, okay, sure,
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: And it was clear they thought I didn't know what
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: they were doing, because they were like, what do you
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: mean use the street? And I was like, you guys
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: can do whatever you want to do, just right now.
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: You're right in front of my door, so my microphone
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: is picking up your car engine. And they were very
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: confused by that. So maybe I said the words wrong,
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: or maybe they were just like, who, why are you
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: recording something at three am? And what the hell are
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: you talking about? But they wrapped it up after another
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: fifteen minutes of making out and then drove off. But
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: he was straight up like cranking his seat back so
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: that they could lie down. And then I was like, great,
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: get it done, get out of here, and then they
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: and then it happened for another hour, and then his
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: seat came back up, and then they made up sitting up,
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: and then it went back down. It was And when
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: I threw away the trash at the end of the street,
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: I walked back and I'm walking back under the street lights.
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: The only figure in the entire street, his headlights are on,
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: and the whole thing I'm walking back, I can't see
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: straight through the windshields. She's on top of him in
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: the front seat, and they're just like going at it
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: with the car on. The windows are down also, all
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: the windows are down. It was they're just publicly having
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: a freaky time. And that was when I was like, hey,
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: I don't mind if you do this, but can you
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: turn the engine off or use any of the other streets?
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: And yes, I definitely felt like an old man, but
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: they were respectful. They wrapped it up. They're gonna do
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: it every other day anyway. They still stop by here
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: and make out for like fifteen minutes, and then she
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: comes inside the apartment building. They could be thirty. Maybe
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: they're thirty because she must have her own apartment, right
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: if she's coming home at two am and she has
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: the key to the apartment. They just seem like teenagers
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: to me, but maybe they're both adults anyway. Alejandro and
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: Red Hair Girl, good on both of you. Thank you
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: for keeping it quiet since I've talked to you. Okay,
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: I had the first orange chicken eye I've ever liked
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: because it wasn't sweet. Oh, actually you know it. I
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: did have orange chicken in China finally last year, and
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: it was actual Chinese orange chicken, which is not a
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: popular dish in China, and I had never had it,
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: and my Beijing friends had never had it before. I
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: was told all seven years I lived in China that
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: it's not a Chinese dish, full stop, every Chinese person
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: I know. Turns out, my Chinese friends are incorrect. If
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: you go to the south of China, they instead of
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: Christmas trees, they have orange trees for holidays, so you'll
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: get an orange tree and it's a holiday thing. So
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: orange chicken is a Cantonese holiday dish, and it's not sugar.
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: It's mandarin juice made into a syrupy glaze and they
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: put that on the chicken, so you get more of
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: a souri with some salt, and it tastes great. It
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: tastes very good because it's not just orange syrup or
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: in sugar syrup, which tastes like a kool Aid pop
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: on a piece of chicken, which I don't know. I
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: don't know why people like that so much. But real
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: orange chicken in China was good. And I had pretty
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: good orange chicken here in Median which really surprised me
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: because it's orange chicken and they don't have a lot
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: of Chinese restaurants here, but it was pretty good. Maybe
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: that's why it was good because they didn't put in
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: too much sugar that's so popular around the rest of
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: the world for orange chicken. I also had a really
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: good panini ham chicken panini with a little bit of
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: cheese and a really interesting type of bread. It felt
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: like a sponge cake almost, but it wasn't sweet, and
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: they panin eat a sponge cake around pulled chicken and
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: ham and cheese, and it was one of the best
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: paninies I've ever had, and it wasn't even crispy. It
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: was very good. And with that I got a coconut
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: milk lemonade mix fresh so fresh juices are really popular
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: around here. You can get a fresh any type of
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: juice for a dollar, which is kind of expensive, yeah,
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: but it is straight up fresh juice from a fruit.
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: They juice right there like all the places here, and
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: there's no added sugar. So I saw they had lemonade
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: and she said it's actually a coconut water lemonade mix,
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: and I was like, what give me that? And it
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: tasted exactly like a candy that I cannot remember. But
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: fresh coconut water mixed with lemonade tastes like some citrusy
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: maybe a Starburst, maybe like a red Starburst or something.
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: It tastes. It tasted so much like a candy I
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: was familiar with, and I couldn't quite place it, but
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: it was like a bubblegummy citrus. I couldn't believe how
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: tasty it was, and I couldn't believe how synthetic it tasted,
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: even though I saw the coconut milk and raw lemon
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: juice she put in there. It was wild. I bought
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: candy in the mall from this old lady, but I
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: was three hundred payso short, and I felt bad about that,
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: but she was like, it's candy and enjoy whatever. Thanks
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: old lady. But I went back the next day and
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: about like ten times as much candy, and then I
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: had way too much candy and I got one of
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: those cankers, one of those like if you eat too
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: much sugar crystals, it makes a blister on your gums
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: that I used to get when I was a child.
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: I ate so many sour belts that I got one
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: of those blisters on my gum, and I thought that
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: was hilarious. We call them cankers growing up. I don't
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: know if that's the word for it. Still sugar blisters
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: that makes more sense to me. I got a sugar
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: blister for the first time in decades from eating sour
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: belts that I bought partly out of guilt. But they
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: taste good all right. So there's a huge park that
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: I've been exercising at. They don't have a lot of
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: exercise equipment, which is weird because all the tiny parks
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: have a lot of exercise equipment. But this huge park
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: does have a two kilometer bike track, paved running track,
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: and grasstop running track separate from those two, and I've
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: been running there every day and it's been so great
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: to start running again. But whenever I run and start
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: getting healthy, my body is very clear to me about
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: the food I'm eating, and it's like that's not healthy
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: for some reason when I run. Ever since that first
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: time I fasted in China, I've been able to hear
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: my body telling me what how nutritious something I'm eating is,
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: and when I run, that becomes even clearer a message.
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: So I've been running a lot more these days, and
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: now when I want to eat fried chicken or something
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: like that. My body's like, nah, that is twenty percent
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: too much oil, and it just knows exactly. It's like,
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: you should probably go get a couple clementines instead. You
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: can have a cheriso, but make sure to fry up
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: some garlic with that. Like it's so clearly telling me
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: to be more careful with my diet. And it's also
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: interesting because that means it's been a while since I
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: have been running, and it definitely has. And this is
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: a mountainous region, but the track, the grass top track
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: is pretty flat, so I can run for a couple
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: hours pretty easily. Oh and I have to I'll get
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: to that later about my elevation training. But that park rocks.
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: It's very comfortable. It feels like a completely separate area
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: because there's so many trees and grass that block off
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: the park from the rest of the city, including the
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: extremely popular street Kaye seventy that's right next to this park.
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: But with all the trees, it really feels like a
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: separate area. It's a great place to jog and I've
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: been enjoying it lately. Oh and there's an amazing view
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: of the eastern hills of Metaean from that park. And
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: there's also an airport like a domestic airport next to it,
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: so maybe once an hour a plane will take off,
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: but even the plane isn't very allowed while you're jogging around.
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: And because it's an airstrip, it's all just grass except
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: for the runway, so it feels even more open and
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: separated from the city than it actually is. That place
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: is great. I usually use the calisthenic stuff, pull up
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: bars or pressed down bars. They even have a boxing gym.
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: They have an ultimate frisbee golf course or disc golf.
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: They call it. It's cool. That is a cool park. Oh,
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: I've had homeless people. I thought it was going to
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: be a thing because I had two homeless people ask
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: me what time it was while I was walking past them,
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: and I told them what time it was, And then
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: the next day I had another homeless guy ask me
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: what time it was, and I was like, what is
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: your schedule? So I don't know what was going on
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: with that, but nobody else, no other homeless person has
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: asked me the time. But since it happened twice in
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: a row, I thought it was going to become a thing.
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: Then it didn't. I was waiting in line in the
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: supermarket and someone started speaking to me in Spanish and
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: I couldn't understand what he was saying. He kept saying
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: fela asphila, and I was like, I'm sorry, my Spanish
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: is the worst and I'm the worst. He was like, no, no,
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: it's okay. Your Spanish is good, and I was like, no,
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: I study every day, but I still don't know a
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: lot of words, so sorry, what is fela? And it
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: turns out fela means line? And he was just saying
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: are you waiting in line? And it must be one
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: of the most common words in the language, but I
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: didn't know it. Lina is what I was thinking is line,
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: but that must be like a drawn line of something.
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: But now I know how to ask people if they're
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: waiting in line, and I actually did that a few
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: days later because one guy couldn't decide which place he
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: was going to go, and he was just standing in
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: the middle of two cashiers and I was able to
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: ask him if he was waiting in line. So even
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: though I sounded silly in that first line, I learned
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: an important word, and now I know Spanish a little
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: bit better. A guy in full clown makeup, wearing stilts,
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: walked around the corner and gave me a high five
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: while I was walking down to my jogging park. I
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: had been jogging down there like three days in a row,
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: and the third or fourth day whatever, I'm going along
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: the road to the park and then a ten foot
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: tall man rounds the corner on stilts, talking to everyone
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: like it's normal. And he's wearing full clown makeup, clown wig,
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: big clown suit, red and pin striped black. And he
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: saw me and he leaned down and held out his
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: hand for a high five, and I was like, yeah,
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: of course, and I high fived him. And then he
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: just kept walking up the street. And these are mountainous streets,
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: so I don't know. I would have liked to watch
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: him walk up one of the hills. This was one
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: of the few flat streets that he rounded the corner
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: on because it's near the main street. But that was
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: bizarre and pretty cool. Median is cool, by the way.
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: This city. It's been another week since my last ramble
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: about the city. This is a cool city. This is
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: a city I could chill in. There is great food,
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: there's not too many people. It's extremely modern. They have
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: all the electronics, and it's very well taken care of.
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: The city is clean, and they have cool thunderstorms, and
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: they have great parks. They have exercise equipment everywhere. They
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: have a ton of museums. This Median is very nice,
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: and I haven't even explored that much of it. I've
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: mostly been staying down in Belen in the Southwest, which
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: I'm fine with. I don't need to go to all
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: the museums right now, but I'll probably come back at
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: some point. Considering how much fun I'm having in Median
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: and just how comfortable and clean and safe Median is.
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: I solved another cultural mystery, which is a huge reason
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: why I never stay in a place for only a week,
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: because there are so many things to figure out, and
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: there's always a couple things where I'm like, what the
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: heckers and then I find out the answer and it's
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: usually pretty satisfying. And this one was when I moved
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: into this apartment. The first day, I heard people whistling
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: a lot. Man, I can't whistle much anymore. I haven't
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: whistled in a long time. But they were whistling like that,
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: but very loudly, so you could hear down the street,
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: and the first thing I thought was drugs, that they're
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: selling drugs to each other. But my neighborhood's pretty quiet,
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: and I am very close to a police station, and
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: I don't know. It was happening so much it seemed
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: sort of unlikely that it was drugs, and I just
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: lived with it for a week or two, and then
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: I finally found out what it was. I was walking
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: home and there was an older couple outside the front
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: gate to an apartment building, and the woman, the old grandma,
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: whistled out this bird whistle, like loud bird whistle, and
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: then yelled up, Hey, Gabriel, are you there. And I
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: realized that's what they do here. Instead of just yelling out,
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: the whistle will travel so much farther and be so
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: distinct you can hear it inside as well. So once
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: I realized that's what they were doing, I saw it
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: and I heard it even outside. I'll hear them like whistle,
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: and then someone will come out for their food, Like
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: if you're waiting for your food in the lobby, if
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: the guy drives up, he might whistle so you know
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: he's there, and then you'll come out and get your
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: food and go back in but that's how they call
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: to each other, Hey man, how are you are you
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: in there today? They'll whistle instead, and then if you're
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: waiting for someone, you'll know from that whistle that the
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: person is outside, which is really cool. It's a cool thing.
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: Median's cool. You know. It's weird with that running track though,
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: there's like hundreds of people literally outside running on the
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: paved running track, but there's no separation other than a
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: painted line of the running track from the paved cycling track,
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: So the paved running track and sidenly track are next
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: to each other and the cyclists go fast, but there
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: are still hundreds of people jogging on the paved running
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: path outside of the park and on the inside on
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: the Grasstop running path, literally three people. There's me and
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: two other people every day and we are running on
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: the Grasstop running track. But it's way more comfortable, first
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: of all, and it's way safer because the grass part
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: of the park is separated by a chain link fence
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: from the paved bike track that goes around the grass
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: inner part of the whole park, and it's huge. It's
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: still a two kilometer track, the grass top running track,
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: but everyone chooses to run. Most people choose to run
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: on that pavement instead of on the grass separate from
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: the bicyclists. What do you think of people? I don't
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: know what they're thinking. It's and there's trees, so there's
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: tons of shade. It's just way nicer inside the park
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: than outside next to the bicycles. And that's also closer
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: to If you're talking on the paved running track, you're
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: right next to the main street, whereas you're removed by
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: thirty feet and a row of trees and a fence
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: if you are on the grass running track of the park.
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: But yeah, literally hundreds of people will go running on
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: the paved track instead of the grass top track, and
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: I think they should come join me in the green.
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: There's these really good teas I got lately that have
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: stevia no sugar and they're tasty, so I've been indulging
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: in them. But now I don't know is stevia I
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: know there's still no real solid evidence like it should
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: be saved, but maybe it isn't. But it's new, so
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: we're not sure. But I definitely feel like I dehydrate
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: faster drinking those teas than if I'm just drinking glasses
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: of water. I can drink like six of those teas
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: and they're delicious. They're great with a salty meal because
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: they're sweet and they taste like tea sweet iced tea.
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: But I don't think I feel as particularly hydrated as
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: I do as when I drink water. So I'm getting
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: suspicious of Stevie again, which I used to drink like
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: a sugar free Stevia soda just because I wanted to
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: drink less sugar. But even if I only drank one
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: or two cans of the Stevia soda day, something felt
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: weird about Stevia to me, and something felt kind of
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: weird with these teas also, so I haven't had them
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: in a while, but they were real tasty, and I
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: bet it's not as bad as drinking sugar. The only
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: problem with my favorite exercise park that I go running on,
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: that Grasstop Running track, is that apparently it closes at
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: six o'clock on Saturdays and four pm on Sundays, which
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: is surprising because the night life here some of the
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: latest night life I know about, which it's weird because
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: it's a tiny area, but a lot of people eat
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: much later here, like a lot of the street food
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: stalls are open until midnight or one am, and even
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: a lot of the restaurants will be open till midnight,
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: or not a lot of them, but there will be
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: restaurants open in the neighborhood very very late. And the
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: park is open until nine pm Monday through Friday, but
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: Saturdays and Sundays they close three hours and five hours earlier.
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: That seems way early, but because of that, I was like, okay,
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: and I jogged a mile over to a different park
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: that I hadn't been to before, and it was turned
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: out to be a sculpture park and very steep hike
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: up there. If you're hiking up. Turns out there is
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: a road up there like their other mountain that I
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: didn't realize, but I hiked up the back way apparently,
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: or the maybe pedestrian way, and there were there were
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: tons of food stalls, giant sculptures, huge flags, and a
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: lot of people. Hundreds of people were up there, and
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: there was a death metal show playing down the hill
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: in a little theater where concerts played all the time,
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: so there was music. And when I left the park,
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: I walked down that way so I could listen to
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: the crazy metal playing. That was a lot of fun.
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: I was talking to a friend, Oh, I get to
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: talk about the elevation training. Okay, So I am running
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: because it feels real healthy. But recently I'm going to
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: be running. I decided to run more because I'm going
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: to go to Cusco. Baby. I was going to go
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: to Lima, Peru, and then Santiago or whatever some big
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: city was in Chile. But originally I was going to
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: go to Bogota. But everybody, everybody has been telling me
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: not to go to Bogata. It's just not very fun.
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: There's way more people, it's not as green. It's just
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: not as much fun as Medaian. Not as comfortable either, especially,
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: and I was like, well, if there's a little more people,
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: I'm curious what it's like to live at eighty six
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: hundred feet. I'll check it out. And then I checked
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: and there's two million people in Mediian and fifteen million
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: in Bogata. So it's not a few more, it's way more.
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: It's too much. I'm not interested in that, really, but
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: I was still interested in the elevation. The thing about
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: that is that I was looking at different cities I
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: could go to. If I wasn't going to go to Bogata.
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: And it turns out that Cusco Peru is eleven thousand,
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: six hundred feet elevation. That's straight up like altitude sickness
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: elevation's that's well over halfway up to Everest Base Camp.
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: That is that's high. Is that's higher than the highest
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: city in the US. There's a marathon called Ledville Marathon
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: Ultra Marathon. Maybe it's like one hundred miles if I
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: remember correctly, and I remember, that's a ten thousand plus
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: feed elevation, and that is the highest city in the US,
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: this city, of this very popular tourist city since it
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: also has Machu Pichu, there is eleven thousand, six hundred
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: That's crazy. That's I didn't even know they made cities
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: that high. I knew about Machu Pichu, but I didn't
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: know it was at that elevation. I figured it was
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: another high mountain like many other high mountains. I've been
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: to five thousand feet above the rest of the city whatever.
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: But yeah, that is some elevation. So I'm gonna go there.
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: I got my ticket earlier today, I think, and yeah,
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna go partying Cusco. I guess I might actually
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: go to Machu Picchu. It's such a popular destination that
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: I've never really been interested in it, even though there's
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: no denying. It looks absolutely beautiful and all the pictures
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: are super cool. If it's easy to do and I
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: don't have to go with the tour group, then I'll
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: probably do it. Or if there's like a cable car
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: to go up it, maybe I'll do that. But if
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: I have to do some kind of tour thing, I
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: might not actually go on top of Machu Pichu because
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: I don't like tours very much. But I think I'm
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: gonna like Cusco. They have tons of museums, the city
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: looks super cool. That elevation is going to be crazy.
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: I might get altitude sickness. I don't think I've ever
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: been up that high. I don't think so that's that's
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: some height. But yeah. I booked another week and a
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: half in meda Ian so that I chose whatever the
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: cheapest ticket was. It was forty bucks cheaper than everything else, so,
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: and it was ten days after my original reservation ended
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: in Medaian, so I booked that ten days out changed
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: my reservation Medaian to ten days further. I'm all set,
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: so pretty excited to go to Cusco and see a
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: new country. Also, Peru, they have alpacas there or really popular.
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 1: I love alpakafer, but I'll have to be careful about
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: buying stuff because I bet it's gonna be pricey, but
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: you know, probably not as pricey as frickin' every single
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: thing in the US that I've bought from al paka stuff.
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: I just feel like they'll make tourist y, crappy el
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: pakas stuff for the tourists, so I don't want to
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: accidentally buy any of that. Also, it's going to be
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: fricking cold up at eleven thousand feet. It was already
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: going to be cold at eight thousand, so I don't
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: even know if I have warm enough clothes, but I
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: will find out when I land there, and if I don't,
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: then I can get some clothes while i'm there. It'll
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: be fine. I didn't even know that the city next
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: to Machu Pichu was called Cusco. I knew nothing about Peru,
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: which is what I know about most countries I don't visit.
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: But I've been reading all of the Weaki voyage articles
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: now about Peru and about Cusco, and that does sound
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: like a very interesting country. I'm pretty excited to get
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: over there. I'm pretty excited to be in Median right now, though,
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: But there's something that feels different the further south I go.
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: I think it's going to be significantly different the south
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: of South America rather than the where I am now
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: at the northern part of it. I don't know. We'll
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: see Cousco. It's cool. So I will check out now
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: and I will talk to you very soon. I hope
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: you're having a wonderful day. I am talk to me
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: a bit of a rambler at gmail dot com or
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: a bit of a rambler on Blue Sky and Lemmy.
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 1: Have a great rest of your day.