I was looking for some products to flip on Amazon and went over to Alibaba. I found these dupes for a viral skincare tool that were probably made in the same factory as the original. There are a few versions and a couple of different suppliers. I pick out one supplier, place an order, then pick put some cheaper ones from a second supplier to compare. I kid you not I had only $40 worth of stuff in the cart. I keep browsing but did not finalize my order, suddenly a DM pops up. Hmm?? It's a person named Lucky who wants to know why I didn't check out. I explain I'm still browsing and possibly have changed my mind. Lucky starts sending over suggestions, asking questions, and spends over an hour talking to me. Literally an hour for $40 worth of product. I have gone car shopping and spent less time with a sales person. I have no idea how this is a profitable use of time.

When it comes to China I think many Americans have a negative opinion because of the fact that they're technically communists and they're our #1 competitor. Their culture and world view are much different than the American, but I have always found my interactions with Chinese people to be polite, friendly, and enjoyable. Idk if I will follow through with this business idea yet or if I will ever do business with Lucky again, but the hour I spent shopping was quite enjoyable and left me perplexed for days after. It's just mind blowing to me that there is a giant online marketplace where you can buy wholesale goods in small quantities to run a business from anywhere and sales reps from these factories will spend an entire hour of their life to answer your questions for a $40 spend. It just doesn't make any sense!

It's the 1980s, Japan is booming. People are miserable and unable to keep up with the monotonous grind of modern life. The government of Japan, relying on the collective intuition of an ancient forest society proposes public policies to help people return to the healing power of nature. Forest bathing is born.

Decades later, scientists would discover that the forest does hold magical fern gully like powers. Trees share information and food among themselves using the wood wide web, bees count and use their imagination to play games, and the human body, when exposed to the fragrant oils of pine, cypress, and cedar trees heals itself.

Forest bathing can lower blood pressure and improve mood better than prescription drugs. Exposure to the forest boosts natural killer cells and stimulates them to produce more cellular weaponry which makes them more efficient killers.

Scientists have found that while forests rejuvenate us, we can get some of the benefit just from smelling oils distilled from fragrant trees. That could be achieved from visiting a local park, or using common steam distilled essential oils.

Some other amazing fact, just one visit to a forest for a few hours has benefits that last over a month.

Viewing green light reduces pain signals in the body. One of the few places on earth to find green light, forests, as light passes through the foliage.

So forests are good. We should all go to them.

A few years ago I learned about the critical importance of sleep for our health. I gave up alcohol immediately to improve my sleep and it improved it so much that I developed trouble sleeping. I had too much energy and felt restless, often at the wrong time of day.

I figured to solve that problem, I'd just exercise more often, harder, and if that didn't work I'd take some melatonin. I went through bottles of melatonin and bottles of NyQuil Z.

Finally I stumbled on the importance of sunlight. Doesn't sunlight cause cancer? Aren't I supposed to avoid the sun like the plague?

The fact is you cannot have good health without good sleep and you cannot have good sleep without light exposure. Our circadian rhythms depend on bright light exposure in the morning to set our metabolic clock for the day which winds us down at night.

Even on a cloudy day, the brightness outside can be 100,000 lux, inside, you may have 5,000 or 10,000 lux. Scientists have found that sunlight improves sleep, which improves immune function. Sunlight improves vitamin D status, which improves immune function. Sunlight's UV-A rays kill bacteria, fungi, and viruses, which also helps keep us healthy. Sunlight prompts our blood vessels to release nitric oxide which lowers blood pressure and helps us to relax. Sunlight exposure also improves mood.

I like to get my sunlight while barefoot and touching the earth. This grounds us and we know that this is true. Whether or not it has any benefit is not known, but there is some evidence that grounding improves wound healing and blood flow. The idea behind grounding is that the earth has a negative charge and when we're connected to it we become a grounding rod which allows electrons to flow through us into the earth which can (in theory) neutralize free radicals, which damage cells. While there is very limited scientific proof that grounding helps mitigate the damage the sun does to our skin, it is intuitive. Step outside in the sun and take off your shoes and you will instantly feel more relaxed.

To avoid skin damage, I avoid burning. I use an app called D Minder which tells me the limits of what I can spend outside and then alerts me to go in. We will all get old eventually, and as a guy, getting a few wrinkles doesn't bother me at all. I'd rather have wrinkles than cancer or a million other chronic illnesses that happen as we rack up damage from viruses, senescent cells damaged blood vessels etc.

Finally I use red light therapy. I have 200 watts of red led flood lights, I use them for about 10 minutes a day. Each bulb cost me about $10. You don't need to spend $2000 on a 1500w red light panel. In fact, you can get plenty of red light in the early AM or at the hour before sunset (golden hour).

The body's clock benefits from light exposure during the day and viewing the sun at different angles in the horizon helps adjust the clock in your brain if it's gotten off track from too
Much screen time or too much time indoors.

I had some REI bucks and used it to pick up the Leatherman Skeletool in black topo. I already have a stainless skeletool but I just find them immensely useful for bags and gloveboxes. Its main features are a combo blade, pliers, and bit driver. I use the knife the most out of any tool, and I am not bothered by the combo blade as some are. I think its a good tool for days when the jeans may be a little tighter or the pockets are smaller.

The other day my back went out. I hurt it carrying a 100lb generator, normally carrying 100lbs isn't too bad for me but I slipped in some mud and twisted my back but didn't fall. That was in January during the big storms. We had a power outage which is why I was lugging a generator around.

Anyway, Its been in and out for the last 3 months. I decided to do something about it. I don't have room for a full size power rack. This is a trap bar. While my back is healing up I loaded it up with 70lbs and the frame weighs 30. I'm doing dead lifts, squats, shrugs. I also have a curling bar coming and a lot more weight. 100lbs just isn't heavy enough.

My legs are strong, my shoulders are strong, but my lower back, core, glutes, and hamstrings need work. My chest and arms also need to grow. This will get me my way.

I watched "Full Swing" on Netflix and decided right then and there golf is my sport. What got me interested is first off there's no real exercise involved. Then I noticed that a lot of "pro golfers" are 40 year old dad bod types. You can be one of the top golfers in the world and not win a "major" for a decade. Colorful outfits? Check. Tiny Cars? Check. If you want to break into pro golf you just cough up some cash and enter a tournament. I found out one of the rules is if you ask anybody what club they used you have to add a stroke to your score card.

A lot of people complain about how hard golf is, but not having any experience I feel qualified already to say that they're looking at it wrong. Golf is so hard, nobody ever gets really good at it. Step back and think about this for a second, the ball is tiny, the course is huge, the golfer cannot control the wind, how wet, dry, course, or thick the grass is. A golfer cannot control if the sun is in his eyes or if it's raining. All a golfer has is a bag of mallets with which to whack the tiny ball. Idk about you but aiming with any degree of accuracy is probably pretty tough, it is more like hoping it goes in a general direction and figuring out what to do next. I watched a 6 hour tournament, this guy hits it perfectly onto the green. Perfect shot, easy put, but the wind blew it over this hill and it rolled down the hill into the sand trap and everybody was like "Tough break, no do-overs" and that was it, he had to try again. There are sand traps, water hazards, and rough areas all over where you don't want the ball to go, and guess what? It goes there a lot. All regulation basketball courts are basically the same, the balls used by professionals are all the same, the hoops are the same height, the keys the same size, court materials are all regulation, so you can improve your game by consistently practicing. Golf is interesting because the courses are huge, the weather is different every time, clubs come in all shapes and sizes and styles, and there are all kinds of different balls, it's just not possible to replicate the same conditions every time you play to be able to measurably improve. Sure you can work on your puts and work on your drives and work on your chipping but ultimately the environment is going to be different even if you're on the same course every time you play.

I also found out the Golf as it is today appears in the 1500s, some Scottish king banned it because he thought it was a distraction from learning archery, an actual useful skill, which the nation depended on for its defense. Then this king got a set of clubs and unbanned it. That's just funny.

The world's longest drive was set in 1974 by a guy in his 60s. 515 yards. This was before computer aided design and modern manufacturing made it possible to analyze every aspect of a club to make sure it was optimized for maximum distance. Every year golfers spend billions getting the latest club designs which have the "latest technology" and nobody has ever beat the record set in the 70s. The guy was like 65 years old, and shaped like a bowling pin and was playing a round of senior golf when he did it. Definitely not your typical elite athlete / sports record holder.

So that's why I'm in, worst case you get to go on a walk, best case you have a good game of golf.