Stack Update for June - 2024

Just to update the stack for June, I have found some CoQ10 and started taking daily.  Found a bottle on sale for essentially $8 / month so that seemed like a good deal to start.  Early feed back seems pretty good.  I was taking separate in the afternoon, but decided to combine with my morning pills. I found out after getting it and doing a little more research that the -Xol version is the desired state versus the -none version of the chemical. 

Also I found some collagen peptides. Started with the Walgreens version and have been taking for about 4-5 day.  Found I could mix with my morning water and it was fine.  I tried to mix with V8 + EVOO and it did not mix at all.  I've also added it to my Casein shake at the end of the day.  A little early to tell if there are any benefits to the joints.  Dare I say pickleball and early morning push ups have taken a toll on the shoulder.  Trying to back down the effort on arms a little in the short term to help the recovery, but hopefully the work is strengthening things.

On a side note, I went with Sophie to the Sam's Club and they had a nice selection of CoQ10 and collegen peptides and at more favorable costs.  If this initial June run goes well, then Sam's could be the supplier of choice going forward.

 Forward looking, still eyeing PQQ and Astralagus to add.  The astralagus should be a telomere lengthener or telomerase activator.  Telomeres are essentially what determines how long we make it.  Every time a cell divides the chromosomes get a little shorter on the ends until there are just too many copies made and the cells stop dividing, then you die.  This is the Hayflick limit which is currently around 120 years, and this is based on no hard living or outside influences decreasing that number.  

Still not a doctor, so not advising anyone to do this.  Always seek professional medical advice😉

The Current Stack 5/2024

So I have been running for about 8 years now and I have gradually picked up things along the way.  The one constant is I have been taking a daily vitamin.  Yeah that is about it.  My Mom had a stack of supplements she took everyday, but I never really got into it until I came across Bryan Johnson and what he was doing and that lead me to Dr. Jeffrey Gladden and his podcast.  So I have been binging that series and listening to what the different supplement interactions are to increase longevity and general health and doing some research on my own.  Anyway at this point here is what I am doing on a daily basis.  (DISCLAIMER: I am not a medical professional and this is not medical advice, this is just a record in time of what I am doing and I hope to report later on the effects).  Current Age - 46.

1 tab molecular hydrogen - 1st thing in the morning at least 30 minutes before breakfast.

1 mutli vitamin - Still hanging in there

500 mg turmeric  - with black pepper included

4,000 iu Vit D

50 mg Zinc

300 mg ashwagandha or however you spell it - cycle 3 weeks on 1 week off, 300 mg at night too

1 Heliocare capsule - helps with sun, potential for DNA repair, made with plant extract from South America

1,600 mg Beta alanine X 2 - taken twice daily with meals during the week 

2g-3g Creatin - just started this

250 - 375 mg niacin - trying to get the flush effect 2x per week right now.

6 oz of V8 - yes the juice

15 ml Extra Virgin Olive Oil - Bryan Johnson special, but not his brand

15 ml Apple Cider Vinegar 

Also drinking 1 muscle milk per day and drinking a Casein protein shake at night on days where I did a physical activity to help recover.  I've been hitting the sauna as much as possible too, to help with recovery.  There have been some studies out of Finland that 20 minutes at ~180°F x 4 times per week would result in a large percent reduction in all cause mortality and heart related deaths.

I've been monitoring when I start certain things and how I have been feeling.  Just finished 4 weeks of activity over 500 minutes (counting vigorous activity as double effective using Garmin technology) and 5 out of the last 6 weeks with a week that was at 635 minutes of activity including everything from mowing grass to running to pickle ball and basketball and even swimming. The 635 week is probably the highest I have had in about 20 years, as is at least the highest I have had since getting the Garmin.  My physical state seems pretty good, but I may take a little time and recover some this week and keep activity down some, but still hit the sauna.

The things I'm looking at picking up are CoQ10 & PQQ and a detox / AMPK cycle.  The CoQ10 should help with ATP production and the PQQ helps to rebuild mitochondria.  For the detox cycle, looking at Spermidine, with rapamyacin, Fisetin and Dihydroberberine.  I think the Spermidine and Fisetin could almost be taken on a daily basis, but the rapamyacin and Dihydroberberine both should turn off mTOR and activate AMPK.  From what I understand mTOR is kind of a build up phase where cells and muscles are building, but the AMPk cycle is the end of cell lifetime and theoretically if you did a "clean out cycle" mTOR is off and this AMPk cycle runs to kind of clean the junk out.  I haven't tried this yet, but I think it would be bad to do during a muscle building or training cycle.  Maybe before you start a cycle of building or some type of weekly cycle where the AMPk is activated during a down period or at night after a lighter day or maybe the start of a fast.  Also on the radar is collagen peptides.  Seems like they are good for the skin and maybe some tissue issues like for ligaments or tendons.

Why has the gas gone out of the EV movement?

Fun with titles, huh? Turns out the EV movement is slowly losing steam.  In my opinion there are multiple reason for this.  Turns out the cost effectiveness of driving an EV is probably less than most people anticipate.  If you can't home charge, owning one is even more inconvenient.  It could take 15-45 minutes to fill up at a charging station and the price per mile is eerily close to regular combustion vehicles.  I think the early adopters were kind of sold on the idea that this was 100% the future and oil was going away, but here is the thing - oil and its derivatives are used in lots of stuff.  Most projections had the peak of oil productions hitting in 2027, but after Covid it looks like the peak may have gotten pushed back.  I guess at that point there would be some alternative technologies that had matured to the point they could compete economically with oil and eventually oil would be pushed back.  Here is the thing though, there are a lot of businesses that depend on oil for their success.  So as much as the EV cars wanted to end oil, turns out you need it for tires, plastics in the cars, roadways... and all the sudden the need for alternates beyond cars becomes a little more obvious.  Also the infrastructure of the country is not centered around EV's, so you have to change all that as well.  The early adopters were willing to fall on the sword so to speak to be at the tip of the spear and drive the change forward, but now the EV's look like more of a novelty act and less sustainable.  Part of this is due to the pandemic.  The inflation that happened during the pandemic and directly afterwards having driven (no pun intended) car prices through the roof and consequently insurance.  Insurance has gotten completely out of hand because people are driving around houses that you have to be insured against incase you get into an accident.  And if you have one of the cars that is priced like a house, your insurance is even higher.  So the EV's kind of fell into this trend, instead of being the new technology that weasels it's way into the market by being affordable and pulling the masses into the tech, they have been leading the charge (pun intended) in raising prices.  I think the legacy car makers in the U.S. kind of detected this market shift when they were jumping in with both feet and have quietly gone back to focusing on ICE based cars.  For makers like TESLA and Rivian and the like there is no other option.  They have to produce electric vehicles that can compete with ICE cars and be more affordable.  If they are just a niche in the luxury car market, which is kind of where they have ended up, there will be no wide spread acceptance.  The only way for electric car makers to push the issue in the future is to come up with an affordable version of there vehicles that can get in the market at less that $25k new.  If they can't touch that market then they are just a novelty at this point.  And novelties are not going to shape a movement. The 1st quarter of 2024 was the first quarter that Tesla had year on year quarterly sales decline.  Partly an indicator of the market, but also an indicator of how the love for EV's has waned in recent years.  Oh there are issues in cold weather, and charger accessibility, and range anxiety, but the pricing has now greatly outpaced the benefits of the car and the negatives of ownership are more pronounced.  It has resulted in a general feeling (imo) that the EV revolution won't be ready for 2027 and probably not 2028 either, at least not in the U.S. In the emerging markets of China and India the EV is almost more feasible because they don't have the existing infrastructure of combustion vehicles so no great change over.  

So what is the path forward?  Well people have to be interested in the EV.  This change can't be driven (pun also not intended) by the manufacturers or the government.  I mean if this is the future it would make sense if the government switched to EV's. State vehicles, maybe even cop cars and what not.  They could install charger stations at the base, save on fuel charges and help develop the market by being an advertisement everyday.  Unfortunately politics are at work here (not really a pun, but kind of) and the government will never adopted a non-union made vehicle even if it makes total sense and is for the betterment of society as a whole.  And that is the impasse we are currently at my friends. Either someone takes the hit to develop the infrastructure, lower the price of the vehicles, or makes the vehicles so mainstream they are unavoidable or the whole thing limps along at the 10-15% market share that it has until change is forced by a lack of oil.  But here is the kicker, as long as these other countries opt for electric, we can push out the combustion engine life and oil will still be needed for the other products. If we only had "flying EV's"...

Worst Coach of All-Time

I know what you are thinking and no, this is actually reserved for the coach that I had my senior year of high school.  I use the term senior year here loosely as I could only manage being part of the team for 4 games.  Gather around kids and hear the tales of de-motivation, lack of organization, general incompetency and nepotism.  So it started back in 8th grade when I experienced the worst teacher of my academic career (this dude flat out hated me from the jump for some reason, I mean I'm a likeable guy, right?) in industrial arts.  Industrial arts you say, that must have been a sleeper class for an A, huh?  Not exactly.  You basically had to copy drawings with an industrial layout, that had dimensions and different things, think your basic floor plan, and that was the class.  Literally nothing to this class, and I end up pulling a D.  No idea why, don't remember, just glad to be done with that class and this moron forever.  Well as luck would have it the head coach of the basketball team, decides that he is going to go to another school to coach one of the good players from our team that is transferring.  Don't blame him, he had made a really deep run into the playoffs before and Beallsville was about to experience a serious drought on talent.  So we get new coaches for Freshman year and guess who gets named to the reserve coach role... yep you guessed it the one guy I thought I would be done with.  Fortunately freshman rarely played JV and mostly just played Freshman team.  So that is what I did. Nothing spectacular about the year.  Sophomore season starts and reality hits home. Now that Freshman year is over the only option to play is varsity or JV.  Well the varsity team is pretty well set with seniors and juniors and maybe one guy from my class getting some reserve run and that is about it.  I'm buried deep on the JV bench and am not enjoying the game at all.  Now a little background here - my parents were waaaay older than most peoples parents, at this point 62 and 69 years old and they were not athletic and never really cared about sports, even when I played when I was younger.  My Dad did make a basket for me when I was in second grade though, and when I say "made" he literally went into the woods, cut down a tree, and built the backboard out of wood with home made supports and put it in the ground next to the car port.  This was awesome by my Dad and something I was shooting around on as much as 38 years later, but that was about all he could do for me, he couldn't teach me fundamentals, couldn't coach a team couldn't even play me one-on-one really.  So now that I'm deep on the bench with no way off and no real way to improve I faced a difficult decision.  You see I had always liked basketball, enjoyed playing with my friends, enjoyed shooting at home (because during the summer there was literally nothing else to do, I would just practice for an hour, come in the house to cool off, then go back out for another hour later), but now it was unenjoyable to do. I don't remember the specifics, but I would say I was pretty out of shape and about the height I was in 8th grade.  Side note: I was always tall for my age, but I hit that last growth spurt early and now everyone is catching up, also I was the youngest in my class, so even though I'm a Sophomore I started the year at 14.  That's right go ahead and project that out.  Side Side note: Mom started me in school early (I believe because she wanted me out of the house ;) j/k ). 

Ok, back to the story.  So I quit my Sophomore year.  I don't remember how many practices or games or if I played any games, but I remember coming out to the truck after practice one day and telling my Dad that I was going to quit.  He did not put up a fight.  Like I said my parents weren't into sports, so not having to pick me up every day was probably a blessing to the them.  Anyway I came back out for my junior year.  I broke my wrist fairly early in the season, running a sprint retreat.  A sprint retreat is one of the worst drills I have ever done and couple it with a dusty gym floor it is basically the perfect recipe for me to break something.  I was out for the requisite 6 weeks before returning to play JV. I don't remember much about this season other than at one point on the road at Hundred High School in WV (it's named Hundred because that's how many miles it feels like you drove to get there) at the end of the game we won and I asked how many a player from the other team had because I felt like I played good D.  The coach said 6, and that it was a good idea to keep track of who we played against to keep track of such things.  This was the coach I couldn't stand BTW, but that did seem like an obvious thing that a coach would do, foreshadowing perhaps. The rest of Junior year was uneventful until tourney time and the final varsity roster was put together, me being a junior I figure I would be added for deep bench duty, but was passed over for a freshman that at that point hadn't played a whole lot of varsity if any, but was a golfer so the JV coached liked him better automatically since he was also the golf coach.  Now to be perfectly fair, the kid was probably a better athlete, but that really stung.  I shouldn't have had any lofty goal of playing after that, but I was dumb and didn't understand the system, also no one told me anything to work on or what my game was lacking.  But that is likely due to them not knowing what my game lacked either.  

On to Senior year and the redemption arc... or not. My high school was very limited in sports offerings for kids, for fall it was Football or Golf, Winter was Basketball or wrestling and Spring was Baseball although they did start a track team my Senior or Junior year.  Anyway since cross country didn't exist (I feel like I could have been decent at this in High School) my friend and I did some running before school a couple of times to get into shape for basketball since we didn't play fall sports.  Granted we played as much as possible for being in a rural area without a whole lot of opportunities to just go play, and in all honesty I was probably in the best shape of my life up to that point.  One other thing to note in this story is that I was 16 at the very beginning of my senior year of school, and there were actually about 3 other people that were in a similar situation, I turned 17 in the first month, but by Ohio rules I could have actually played high school sports for another 2 years.  Not that it makes a difference in coaching, but in the timeline of things, being a young senior isn't optimal for sports success.  So the season starts and I don't remember the exact time frame (sorry it's been 30 years), but me and another guy were brought into the coach's office.  He sits us down and proceeds to explain to us that we probably aren't going to play.  Actually matter-of-fact that we were not going to play.  Now this is a small school (~45 kids per class), so cutting kids is something that is almost unthinkable, but making it miserable enough for people to not want to play is completely an option.  Didn't say it was a good option, but yeah as a coach you could do that if you were so inclined, and this guy was definitely inclined.  Keep in mind, this is his first head coaching gig in basketball at the high school varsity level and there are no guarantees that this team is going to be great or how many games we should win, so why just tell 2 guys who have played basketball for 10 years and are hungry to get on the floor that you don't need them?  You don't know if you need me.  And that is the crux of the whole thing, a coach that comes in with that much hubris, with exactly 0 wins to his name is basically doomed to failure.  I realize this now, but it took a while then.  So even though I was told I wouldn't get in, I still remained optimistic that if I got in a game I could show something and then the PT would grow.  Well after 4 games I had gotten in about 2 minutes of a 40 point blow out (scored 2) and that would be the extent of my varsity basketball career.  "Okay", you say, no big deal, what was the record after 4 games...0-4.  At one point one of my buddies and a couple of football players got to be on the court together, as the "hustle team".  Unfortunately they never told the guys that was their job to run around and cause turn overs and run outs, so they didn't do that, they just played normal basketball.  It's one of those things you think back on and wonder why they even said that out loud after the fact it didn't work.  Would I have made a difference in those games... short answer is no.  I was no where near good enough to make up for the train wreck on the bench, but I could have at least had fun.  

 So after 4 games me and my other friend (not the one who was told he wouldn't play, one that actually played some) decided to quit.  This was actually the point were pay-to-play had to be paid, but since I wasn't actually playing and $45 seemed like a lot back then, it seemed like the perfect time to cut bait.  And since my friend was walking out at the same time it seemed right.  At that very moment when we walked out and declared to other people we were done, something happened that I'll never forget.  The head football coaches son told my friend that he should not quit, but that I - "Yeah you should quit". And the delivery was even more heartless than it reads.  Here was my interpretation of this exchange - here is someone who played wide receiver for his Dad and got all the recognition in football because he would run the deep patterns and my friend would run all the short patterns and take all the hits over the middle, and this coach's son who had been coddled in football, and given a starting spot in basketball was telling me I wasn't good enough.  GIVEN A STARTING ROLE.  Little emphasis there.  There was no try out for starters there was no shuffling the starters around to jump start the offense/defense - nothing, and this guy didn't have to earn anything.  It was disheartening to say the least but indicative of the kind of person he was and the kind of leader he was - aka not a leader.   Okay, so you had a coach that didn't like you, never gave you a shot and made you want to quit, that doesn't mean he is a bad coach.  No that alone would not him a horrible coach, the fact that he would not win a game the entire season (0-21) and lost to an 0-8 team at home kind of seals his fate as a horrible coach.  Needless to say this guy was one and done, but it just so happened that the one corresponded to the one year senior year that I had.  

It was incredibly disappointing from an athletic standpoint, but I have always enjoyed basketball, still do.  I fixed my shot after high school and have become pretty decent at diagnosing shot inefficiencies and how to correct them.  I also understand defensive positioning now and help coach in the church league for K-6.  Would I ever tell a kid "you can't play"? No.  One you never know what a kid is capable of truly until you put them in the game situation.  Two, that sucked horribly when I was in school.  I don't know if it was personal or not, but it became personal.  I would rather build a kid up and even if I thought someone was terrible at the sport and I eventually got them to the point they could play in a Varsity game, then I would have really thought I did a good job as a coach.  Not this guy though, oh and one time he brought in a rope that he used to string up deer (still had blood stains on it), to illustrate visually ball-rim-you principles and how it always made a triangle. I remember this because he put the rope through the hoop, but the concept makes no sense, which makes all the sense now.  The actual concept is called Ball-you-man for off ball defense, and positioning your self between the person you are guarding and the ball, while keeping your back to the basket, but that was well beyond this guy.  Think that's all for this one, hope you never run into anyone this bad both tactically and as a person.

20 Years Already

Hey, blog's been around for 20 years already, pretty sweet.  Be sure to like and subscribe.  Sorry wrong app.  Be sure to click on adds and leave comments 👍. 

Fun with time

If you think of time as a "base 12" operation (number wise it is still base 10 numbers but bare with me) it makes a little more sense.

There are 60 seconds in a minute or 5 - 12 second groupings.

There are 60 minutes in an hour or 5 - 12 minute groupings

There are 24 hours in a day or 2 - 12 hour groupings.

7 days in week - you got me there.  Biblical I guess?

but 365 days is real close to 360 days or 12 - 30 day groups or 30 - 12-day groups

For a day there are 1440 minutes or 120 - 12 minute groups.

Maybe a week should be 12 days... with a 4 day weekend... come on science this sounds way better.

Merry Christmas 2023

I was kicked by my Mom on Christmas day.  Yes a 94 year old woman in a wheel chair wanted to physically strike me because I wouldn't take her home.  But home is gone, sadly.  She isn't able to give herself the medicine she needs, nor is she able to make meals for herself, let alone a wheel chair being unable to make it through the hallways in the old house. The last 2 years have been a really sharp decline and it is so heart breaking to look in her eyes and see nothing.  She is a shell of her former self and it hurts being able to see her and know that there is just no way back to the way she used to be.  It also hurts when she kicks me.

New 5k PR

The new 5k PR is 25:15 set in 2022.  No new records so far in 2023.  I won't say that I have plateaued, but I definitely haven't got to train like I want to.  I have been doing more strength stuff though and even though I'm not getting the mile I feel like a stronger runner.  I just don't have the endurance... so I probably need to run more miles.  Well I have a couple of races left this year maybe, so I might be able to pull off that sub 25.

The Anti Hustle

Well there is a new term out there called quiet quitting and it is basically the antithesis to the Hustle mentality.  The let's do more, learn more and take on more responsibility mentality has given way to the "I'm good" mentality and I understand completely.  You see my family is full of hustlers and over achievers - people that started their own business, traveled around the world, gone back to school to get more and more education, and for the most part I followed similar paths. I took one of the hardest under grad majors in college, was willing to work whenever for my employers (including being locked in for 12 days once), go wherever was needed and learn what was needed.  All in the hopes that I would continue to ascend the ranks.  However, my ascension was a dealt a critical blow earlier in the year.   The plant manager was relieved of their duties and several people in the plant had mentioned that I should take the position.  I pondered on it, and long story short I decided that for the people that worked there and for my own benefit  - if I was going to work another 20 years - that I should go for it.  The bad news is that I was never offered the position.  Never interviewed. Never even asked what I thought should happen and I am the most senior person now at the plant.  Instead someone was brought from a completely different country, who was already a manger at another plant, and given this plant.  Within 3 months the production manager was fired in the name of "safety" and I vehemently disagreed with that decision.  So now I have gone from potential plant manager to person who doesn't get asked about any decisions that affect the plant.  And who gets most of the fall out... me. Unfortunately when people get fired they take all their experience and knowledge with them, and simply replacing a body doesn't replace the skills.  So 6 months later I'm still at the same job, basically zero prospects to improve my position as I've learned first hand and facing a decision.  And here is where things get tricky.  If I no longer like my job should I look for another job?  The problem is if I leave the hustle starts all over and quite frankly I am over the hustle of it all especially if there is nothing to gain at the end of the day.  My mentality has shifted to - what do I need to retire and it is actually a much more welcome idea than what do I need to accomplish to move up the ladder.  Heck I don't care about the ladder any more.  The only bad thing is if I keep doing my job as effective as I have been other people will continue to look good and benefit from my work.  Not a huge fan.  But by the same token I can't sink people because the would wind up sinking me.  So this no hustle mentality is really a fine line of push the ball down the field, just don't let it go backwards and use your position to fill your goals outside of work.  Don't make work your goal.  So what if you get a promotion, get moved up.  Are the making statues of you?  Are they writing books?  Who's reading those books or looking at your statue?  If it isn't something you truly enjoy, then why do it?  Well I need that money, yo. Right we still need to be employed and as awesome as it would be to just walk in and hand in the notice you really can't just quit to do nothing.  At least not with a family.  So can I eek out an existence here, not ruffle feathers, and just get to the finish line?  I mean once you come to the reality that your not going to be the CEO and I have no desire to be the CEO, you have to be content with what you are doing, but content isn't happy.  The bad thing is after you get to this point I don't know that you can be happy working.  I have a ton of other things I would rather do - run, work on my house, make trips.  I for sure don't want to miss anything my daughter is in, especially not for this place.  I don't want people to lose their jobs, but I also don't want to work myself to death.  The biggest  thing that I have noticed in the last 6 months is that no one is really interested in helping me.  People just want stuff from me.  But I want stuff for my self.  Mostly I just want to be free to do what I want to do, novel idea right?  If I start somewhere else the hustle comes back, which I wouldn't mind the hustle if it was something I really wanted to do.  Just right now, after 22 years of work and 5 years of education, I'm good.  I don't want to learn a new facility and new rules, I just want to focus on me and my family and what I want to do away from here.  If I could announce pro games and make a living I would do that.  I started doing high school last year and the response has been really amazing.  I have fun, and I find myself thinking about announcing stuff rather than other things.  It has been a welcome distraction from the stuff I have been dealing with for my mom and the work stuff.  Don't get me wrong, I am glad that I hustled as much as I did and I grateful to have a supportive wife that didn't complain and let me do what I had to do without making me feel bad.  But I feel bad about missing opening days, missing my son run in a local race or the first race of season.  I've been taking time in the morning to complete breathing exercises, do some yoga and lift some weights and I feel better about myself doing that than getting to work 15 minutes earlier.  I mean I'll put my time in, but with a phone I get messages and e-mails 24/7 so sometimes it is hard to switch off, but I try to only respond during work hours unless it is an emergency or one of the people who has helped me.  Well I that's enough for now.  I'll check in later and let you know how this new mental approach works.  Also sorry for the long paragraph, there should probably be a break in there somewhere...

Travel Chronicles chapter 109

So this video got flagged on Youtube because I go a little in the weeds on vaccines.  Here's the thing, after a certain point of census in theory, when you push things out to the real world the theory gets replaced by data.  And for any data references I have mainly been using the Covid tracker over at World o meters - COVID Live - Coronavirus Statistics - Worldometer (worldometers.info)  They have all the data as far as new cases and deaths and it seems to track pretty closely with Johns Hopkins stuff but is a little easier to navigate for me.  So just basing some things from that DATA and drawing some conclusions besides the feel good stuff coming from the "consensus" I see that there was a spike in cases in late summer which is odd because more and more people had been getting the shots and as you go on the cases should become less if the vaccine works.  But there was a funny little caveat that they included with the vaccine that it wouldn't stop the spread, but would decrease the chances of death and severe illness.  Ok fine.  But normal vaccines stop stuff.  Polio vaccine - stops polio, small pox vaccine - stop small pox.  Covid vaccine - doesn't stop it necessarily.  And you can see that in the data.  But when you mention that it doesn't stop it and cases are still going up despite increased vaccines you get a warning for "misinformation" even though by all accounts the data says the vaccine is minimally effective against spreading it and there is absolutely no way to verify how sick someone would have gotten without it.  Would they have died? You honestly don't know.  I had Covid, I was sick for about 5 days. Never had a fever, never had the muscle aches, lost taste and smell and was tired.  That was it.  The big question to me from this video is why didn't we work on cures for the infection? Any time someone suggested something they were met with ridicule and venom - oh antibodies won't work just get the vaccine, invermectin is for parasites etc. I'm not saying I have the cure, but when there is only one solution for a global problem that seems ludicrous to me.  Anyway here is my back door attempt at this even though blogger is google and youtube is google.  Enjoy.

LOL it's too big.  Ok have to find another way.  hang in there.

Definitive Marvel Movie Rankings 1-25

So after the release of Shang-Chi I have decided to sit down and rank the Marvel movies in a definitive list.  This is the end all be all list for how the movies should be ranked.  Qualifiers - this is more about the story of the movies and how they relate, a little bit is recognized for nostalgia and more credit is giving for the movies that did the heavy lifting early on without a whole lot of cross over potential.  Here we go...

25) Thor the Dark World - face it, if you were going to rewatch any Marvel movie this is near the bottom.  How did they even get the ether into a stone?

24) Hulk - No jokes, not the same Hulk as the rest of the MCU.  There actually is a lot that may make it out of the this film - Abomination, Thunderbolt Ross, but as of now not a whole lot came out of this movie - including Edward Norton.

23) Iron Man II - First sequel of the MCU but gets kind of scattered in the story.  does introduce Black Widow.

22) Thor - Watch it again.  This movie just doesn't hold up. The kiss is cool though.

21) Black Widow - Ruined Task master, B.W. character was already dead, just severely mistimed. More of an origin story for her sister which no one asked for.

20) Captain Marvel - This movie would have been better if it wasn't all flash backy.  Also she comes off as a bit of a Mary Sue.

19) Guardians Volume 2 - Kind of a crazy story, I know it is comic booky, but the story is just so darn creepy.  Plus the first one was so good, but hey baby Groot.

18) Captain America the first Avenger - Let's face it, it was an origin story, the big bad was meh.  Cool stuff with Tony Starks dad, but does the time line fit for that?  Tony was born in the 70's so for his Dad to be working on stuff in the 40's would make him like in his 60's when Tony was born.  Oops.

17) Ant Man and the Wasp - Kind of required reading for End Game and a nice introduction of the Wasp, but who was he fighting here?  Everyone kind of ended up on the same side and Ant man ends up in the quantum realm.

16) Iron Man III - No real connection to the other films, depressed Iron Man isn't that fun to watch.  Kind of reminds me of the 5th Harry Potter film. Necessary, but you may not watch it again.

15) Dr. Strange - Crazy visuals, but an origin movie.  B.C. is awesome and embodies Dr. Strange, but the big bad - Dormomu ? is a little under developed. 

14) Avengers Age of Ultron - It's important to the future of the MCU, but fighting a robot doesn't have that satisfying feeling.  But hey Vision.

13) Black Panther - Once again this is about the Movie itself.  Michael B. Jordan is kind of the star of this movie and he is the bad guy.  The rules are a little confusing for the suit and how the power is transferred but BP is cool and the action is on point.

12) Captain America, Winter Soldier - Another Cap movie and coming to the realization that Bucky wasn't dead. Black Widow is in this one too.  Could move up, hey on your left.

11) Ant Man - Cool comic book character, more on the comedic side which a comic book movie should be.  New Powers and Hank Pym who is so crucial to a lot of Marvel Lore.

10) Spiderman Far from Home - No real cross overs, Sony takes a little better care of the individual character movies cause they have to, plus they are building the sinister 6. A little disappointing with the actual lack of a super big bad, but Jake G is pretty good here.

9) Shang-Chi and The Legend of the 10 rings - If you like choreographed fighting this is top notch for Marvel.  Like the story - it is a comic book movie after all, and I feel like he is going to be the leader of phase IV and what Marvel does going forward.  New Iron Man.

8) Iron Man - The original, started it all.  Character made it through and was instrumental to the whole story.  Probably not the best movie, but the importance and what it allowed is unmatched.

7)Spiderman Homecoming - Like I said Sony does a little better job and after the 3rd reboot of Spiderman I think they finally got it right, plus the Iron man cross over is awesome.

6)Avengers - The first team up movie, first look at Thanos, but no Spidey keeps this one down a little bit.  But still a great movie.

5) Thor Ragnarok - Let's call this the perfect amount of Hulk, hilarity and team upness. Asgard gets destroyed, Thor losses an eye real consequences.  Odin dies and the reference to Point Break never gets old.

4) Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 1 - The only Marvel film that was so good I had to see it twice it the theater.  The first real infinity stone movie, Thanos featured prominently, talking tree and racoon - how can that go wrong.  Also killer sound track, just everything about this movie is great.

3) Captain America Civil War - Airport sequence, Spiderman joins the MCU and Black Panther shows up for the first time.  Avenger on Avenger crime is real, and the cracks in the team that are left at the end of this movie allows Infinity war to happen.  Cap fighting Tony at the end, this movie does have a lot of memorable scenes.

2) End Game - Real consequences are finally delivered on.  It kind of undoes a lot of Infinity War, but we say farewell to Tony, Cap and Black Widow.  Well sort of Black Widow as she had the stand alone movie after this. But there was a ton of pay off, and it was well done. Also fat Thor.

1) Infinity War - A super hero movie where the bad guy wins. So much to finally payoff in this movie, the last big team up and all of the infinity stones are finally put together from 22 other movies.  Just so much build up to this movie that it was almost impossible to fail and there were real consequence for some - basically just Vision (and even he came back on Disney+ so who knows).

Travel Chronicles Chapter 21ish

Talking about collective consciousness, different brain wave states, and how to get in the zone and postulating that perhaps being  in "the zone" is a link to the collective unconsciousness. 

New 5k PR

Picked this up on Sunday -

Didn't feel too bad afterward, and my average heart rate was 163 or so which was about 15 beats below my average when I ran in July, and this was about 1:30 faster.  The weather was about perfect though, maybe a little on the cool side, would have been good to have running sleeves instead of running with a long sleeve shirt.  Less sun though probably helped keep the heart rate down.  I was also probably 5-7 pounds lighter than I was in July so that should have helped.  Still need to drop about 20 more pounds, that should help get the time down more especially if I can hold on to muscle.  I think what I am doing is working just a matter of grinding some more and putting work in.

Travel Chronicles Chapter 12

It's Chapter 12, even though I say 11.  Today we talk about morning routines.

My routine if I had time and wasn't rushed for anything:
1) Wim Hof Breathing.

2) 10 min. meditation
3) Cold shower (start warm and end cold)
4) Breakfast or skip this step for now
5) Yoga
6) Quick weight lifting

Travel Chronicles Chapter 11

Talking today about weight loss and a couple of things that have helped me lose 30 lbs. over 4 years and 17 lbs. over the last year.  TLDW:
- Be honest with how many calories you are actually in taking.
- Use more calories than you intake, but don't starve yourself.  Your body will actually burn up muscle first if you aren't using the muscles and preferentially hold on to fat (crazy right, come on body do what I want).
- Any weight loss is going to starting by changing your routine.  I hate the word diet, because those are temporary.  You got into the situation you are in because of how you are eating and how you are living.  If you want to lose weight and keep it off you have to make a lifestyle change.
- Fat comes off easiest with aerobic exercise or exercise where the heart rate is in Zone 2 -3. A high heart rate will push you anaerobic and it will just burn up glycogen stores.

 Part B Subset ii

Travel Chronicles Chapter 10

Travel Chronicles Chapter 9

Travel Chronicles Chapter 8

Travel Chronicles Chapter 9

Travel Chronicles Chapter 7