I walked the walk

I did the Camino Portuguese last month, 180 miles. 

I met pilgrims from many countries. One Italian man, in his 60s, has walked several Caminos in the two years after retiring. Next he will do the Via Francigena trail (2000 kilometers) from Canterbury, England to Rome. 

In one coastal section in Spain, the trail was 80% Germans.

Me: [to one young German] "Why are there so many Germans in this section?"

Him: "Because Germans are everywhere. Everyone thinks we are working so hard, but instead we are just making vacation all over the place."

One American woman was on her fifth Camino. She's planning to move to Spain and open a Camino guesthouse. She's currently a doctor and is disillusioned at the profit-driven nature of US hospitals. 

At a break, two college-aged guys were laughing over viral meme videos. Later, I encountered them on the trail and met their group leader, who is the grandmother of one of them. She told us about thru-hiking the Appalachian trail for 3 months, camping with snorers. 

I hoped to feel "walker's high" from endorphins. That lasted 15 minutes per day. Instead, most of the time I felt anxious, sometimes over practicalities like avoiding rain and heat, and other times ruminating pointlessly over frustrations. Despite this, I felt very satisfied by the Camino. I had many novel experiences. It was memorable. 

I also developed an appreciation for exercise. Working out is not just an obligation performed due to societal pressure. It actually helps you propel your body up hills and along trails. 

MRI happiness

Today I took my mom to get a brain MRI. She's been walking slower, and a neurologist ordered a MRI to check out her brain. It could just be age-related (she's 73), but we're verifying to be sure.

I sat in the corner during the 35-minute process. No electronics are allowed, so I wasn't able to use a phone or kindle. I just sat there and thought.

Strangely, I felt really happy during the MRI process! It was probably the happiest I've felt this week. I listened to the MRI machine noises, and felt satisfied that I was taking good care of my mom. It was a relief to get this errand crossed off the list, and be able to look forward to answers from the neurologist.

I would not have expected "waiting for MRI" to be the highlight of my week, but strangely it was!

random internet photo of MRI

book about the two wolves inside us

I was touched by this book, by a mom who develops ALS at age 44. Upon her diagnosis, she knew that she had around 3 years to live, and would progressively lose the ability to walk, type, feed herself, and speak. 

She wrote about how some friends dropped her, because they were uncomfortable with her wheelchair and slurred speech. She was furious at their desertion. But she decided to intentionally focus her attention towards the friends who stepped up. 

Every day, friends stopped by with home-cooked food, to help her kids, or to read passages of her book. 

She typed the book using just her thumb on her iPhone. Later she could no longer move her thumb and she wrote an epilogue using nose-tracking software. 

There was a sweet quote from her husband of 20 years. He dressed her, fed her, and helped her go to the bathroom. He said, "You're not a burden. The least I can do for you is everything." 

a little wizard hacker

I really like this Wired article about Marcus Hutchins, who saved the world from the WannaCry virus by registering its sinkhole domain. 

He comes across as very moral! He made mistakes as a teenager when he tried too hard to impress his peers. They asked him to write sketchy code, and he did it. Then he paid for it with years of anxiety, and now he is wiser and thoughtful.

He is Ged from the Wizard of Earthsea.

Red Rocks

I'm climbing with Aff and his friends in Red Rocks. Climbing on slab sandstone is much better than I expected. 

I've attempted ten routes over three days, and I successfully reached the top of all ten! 

It is calming to be out in nature, looking at cliffs and cacti, with no cell phone reception, climbing rocks.

a funny sketch: Black Lady Courtroom

This is uplifting and hilarious.

zen interior design style

I'm very impressed by people who can do interior design. I've read many books and watched videos, and I'm still unable to do it.

I did figure out that my preferred style is the Zen style.

Camino plans: Porto to Santiago

I've been talking a lot about the Camino. Finally I decided to do it. 

I bought plane tickets to walk the Camino Portuguese this May. Hopefully there will be wildflowers. I'll be walking 173 miles from Porto, Portugal to Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Aff will walk the final 63 miles with me.

I hope it will be meditative, with trees and ocean and port wine and audiobooks.

white-glove manipulation

During the pandemic, I read "Class Acts: Service and Inequality in Luxury Hotels". The author went undercover and worked at two luxury hotels for a year, to assess how workers felt about customers spending $500 or $800 per night on a room. This book is from the mid 90s, so it would be equivalent to something like $1000 per night nowadays.

The workers were earning around $20 per hour. They used mental techniques to deal with witnessing the wealth differential up-close every day. Some workers looked down on the customers for being uncouth or being unable to endure any hardship due to lifelong pampering. They passive aggressively left rude customers on hold for 15 minutes, and then apologized profusely when taking them off hold. This made the customers frustrated and helpless. Other workers identified with the wealthiest customers and saw them as buddies. 

The customers wanted approval from the workers. These 5-star hotels cultivated an extremely complex and undocumented set of etiquette, to create insecurity in their rich customers. If you don't tip your bellhop, you're a jerk. If you try to tip the receptionist, you're also a jerk. If you tip too little, you're a jerk. How much is the right amount to tip? That depends on many variables and is not posted anywhere, but if you get it wrong, you're a jerk.

The customers end up in a state of insecurity, hoping they don't breach etiquette. They probably also sense that some workers may look down on them secretly. The hotels serve as a finishing school for the rich, teaching them the arbitrary rules. Customers sent flowers to the workers, brought them gifts, and remembered their names. The workers served as judges of who is exuding upper-class behavior and who is an impostor.

I like reading about manipulative systems, to give myself some defenses against manipulative tactics. 

Earning dough vs unlimited breadsticks

Me: "So many work leaders like to say 'We're not just a work team, we're a family.' That's just a way to manipulate employees into working free overtime. I prefer if we just stick to setting clear professional expectations. What are the deliverables? When are they due? What will employees be paid? I don't pay my actual family. I don't assign titles and promote my family members."

Rebecca: "Maybe some people don't take the idea of family as seriously. It's like Olive Garden. When you're here, you're family."

History of Sugar

I listened to an audiobook "The History of Sugar". I had no idea that sugar plantations were even crueler than cotton and tobacco plantations. The average life span of a slave on a sugar plantation was 10 years. It was so hard on the women's bodies that it made them infertile. 

Sugar led to the creation of sugar bowls, for rich Europeans to show off. They whitewashed the ways in which the sugar was produced.

This audiobook actually led me to have less desire to eat sugary foods.

Also, these old-timey sugar advertisements are evil.

Wizard of Earthsea

I am having a good day. 

I'm 66% through "A Wizard of Earthsea", which I'm reading for a book club. I first read it in 2008 and didn't understand the ending. I could tell that it was about a journey toward maturity and wisdom, and I figured I would appreciate it better one day when I myself reached greater maturity. 

Fourteen years have passed. I have forgotten most of the plot, so this read still provides all the pleasure of discovery. I am listening to it on audiobook.

It is such a delight to experience a masterful work, to witness so much competence and skill. 

Perhaps this time I will understand the ending. If not, in 2037 I will try again. 

Update: I did understand the ending this time. But I'll probably understand it even better in 2037.

a fragile encasing

Me: After reading that Twitter thread about people who feel an impending sense of doom and then die shortly after, I really feel aware of my mortality! Our bodies are just a meat encasing that will decline and one day die.

Aff: Stupid meat. [looking up at the sky] Why me...at?? 

Quiet Antarctica

One unexpected cool thing about Antarctica is knowing there are almost no other humans around, as far as the eye can see. 

It is quiet. There are no sounds of traffic. Just penguin noises and ice breaking off. 

We passed another ship yesterday and it was shocking to see another sign of human life! 

It is also interesting to look out and see vast mountains that probably no human has set foot on.

Antarctic snow

Antarctica is making me appreciate snow. 

Snow in cities is inconvenient. Shoes track sludge into the house. Going inside or outside requires minutes of changing clothing. I need to keep track of so many additional accessories: hat, scarf, mittens, socks. 

Snow in nature is awe-inspiring. It is silent, but alters the landscape. 

When it comes to oceans or lakes, I encounter them in their full form, after driving out of the city. My memories of them involve amazement. Most of my memories of snow involve half-melted snow on the roadside, mixed with dirt and leaves. 

I've been seeing a domesticated form of snow, and now I am seeing it in its natural habitat.

Antarctica!

I'm going to Antarctica in a month!

I previously tried to go in 2009, but that boat sank before my trip. (All the passengers were rescued.)

When friends hear of my Antarctica plans, their reactions are divided. Some immediately say it is a dream of theirs. Others say it sounds cold and unappealing. There are few reactions in the middle. 

I started packing already and reading about historical expeditions to Antarctica. 

Currently I am reading about the Belgica ship from 1897. To my surprise, there was mutiny, mass firing, and the ship getting stranded on rocks before they even rounded past Argentina. 

I have also been binging Great Courses audiobooks in the past month. My favorites were about the Berlin Wall, Japan, the Civil Rights movement, and Beethoven.

I will download so many audiobooks for the days at sea through the Drake Passage!

Mint ice cream

I made mint chip ice cream from real mint leaves! 

It's good. 

New York is noisy

I am visiting NYC after a work trip to Connecticut. 

NYC is so noisy! There is movement from all directions, honking and talking and sounds of objects being moved. 

No wonder people here are cranky. Their nerves must be frayed. 

And yet people pay huge sums to live in NYC! 

I like the large number of ethnicities. I heard so many languages spoken around me, and saw so many types of food. That part was cool. 

I once thought NYC would be a stimulating place to live, because of all the museums and diversity. But now I think the noise is a deal-breaker. 

walking 2023

I am increasingly captivated by the Camino de Santiago. It is a walk across Spain that was started in the 9th century by pilgrims.

The most popular route, the Camino de Frances, is 800km. You start at the border of Spain and France, and then walk westward across Spain. 

Over 100,000 people walk the route each year. I'd like to stay at the communal albergues (hostels devoted to walkers), so I'll need to wait until covid subsides more. 

The most appealing aspect is the endorphin rush. When I did survival school a decade ago, I felt ecstatic for hours each day from walking 15+ miles. It was probably runner's high, which I've never had while running. 

My fear is what if the endorphin rush doesn't happen? Then it'll be just drudgery, physical discomfort, and loneliness. 

However, it will be pleasant to see castles, forests, mountains and little quaint towns.  

Carbon dioxide

Aff got a CO2 monitor, so that we can see the ventilation levels of indoor spaces, for covid safety. It's quite convenient!