Sara experiences the world a little differently than I do.
Her: Do you want an almond cookie? Me: Sure. Where’d you get it from? Her: I was downtown and I got lunch and the cashier pulled them out of the case and handed them to me. I got one for each of the boys too. Me: (laughing) It pays to be a hot blonde.
Then literally the next day.
Her: Hey, I got you a Boston Cream donut. Me: Sweet, thanks! How come? Her: (shrugging) I dunno. I got a Dunkin and the guy at the counter just handed it to me. Me: What is happening here?! Her: Oh, they’re just being nice. Me: That is so whack. Her: (rolling eyes) Whack? The 80s called, Logan. They want their word back Me: OK, that’s just rude. Her: Do you want the donut or not? Me:…yes. Lemme get some peanut butter.
This happens to her all the time.
Speaking of the 80s, it reminds me a little of this old sketch – that I saw LIVE with my brother when we were little kids – on Saturday Night Live in 1984 with Eddie Murphy where he’s in whiteface and experiences the world as a white guy and is shocked at how the other half lives.
Kinda feel that I’d experience life really differently as well if I were in her shoes.
Think of all the free carbs…!
In other news, I had to pick up some milk for the kid after the gym tonight, so I went to the supermarket that’s open late just south of my pad and, when I exited the subway, I was greeted with the aftermath of an accident.
Someone was not having a good night.
Her: Whacha gonna write about tonight? Me: I dunno. I think it’s gonna be about you. Her: Me? What about me? Me: How you always get free crap while the rest of us losers don’t. Her: Oh, stop. That’s a rarity. Me: It happened two days in a row! And it happens all the time. Her: (waves hand dismissively then brightens) I know! You can write how much you love me, how you can’t stand to be apart from me, and how your life is just loads – LOADS – better now that we’re married and I’m in it. Me: I’ll get right on it. Her: You do that, Logan Lo.
Location: the supermarket, looking for the last half-gallon of whole milk in the joint
Mood: exhausted
Music: Then be with me all the way (Spotify) Like this post? Tell someone about it by clicking a button below.
Friend: Honestly, music stopped being good after 2010. Me: I dunno about that. Her: There’s literally nothing I can stand on the radio anymore.
In 2015, Spotify looked at its user data and found that people stop listening to new music after the age of 33.
At least in the US.
See, in the UK, where they use something called Deezer, that company discovered that Britons stop listening to new music at 30…and a half.
What adult uses “and a half?”
In any case, my point being that, in nature, there are only three states: Growth, stasis, and decline.
Me?
I keep wanting to put as much (natural) space between me and decline as possible and that means avoiding stasis wherever and whenever possible.
That doesn’t just mean seeing old friends, working out, eating well, and doing some deep thinking.
It also means listening to new music, because, if I don’t, I’m at least in stasis, if not decline.
And I can’t have that.
Not when the kid’s this young.
Music is a unique art form because, unlike, say, a sculpture, which is carved, and then just exists, music is created and has to be played or performed.
But, as you hear it, it can be remembered, heard, and anticipated – you can guess a lyric or beat because music requires a rhythm of some sort – so that it exists in the entirety of time itself, past, present, and future all at once.
Music is profoundly human is because it’s the only artform that only exists entirely in time and disappears once it’s done as if it never existed at all.
Kinda like us.
So, with all due respect to my friend, listen to new music, and fight the stasis.
Him: You’ll come to my talent show? I’m playing XXXX. Me: I love that song! And of course – have I missed one yet? Him: No… Me: Then I wouldn’t worry too much, kiddo.
For the past few years, I’ve put all the music from this blog into this Spotify playlist here, if you want some new tracks on the regular.
Or just keep reading and click on the music links below (I get a few cents if you end up buying the song on Amazon, just fyi).
Location: the bathroom, installing a bidet
Mood: bidet-ed
Music: they say you know when you know (Spotify) Like this post? Tell someone about it by clicking a button below.
Me: I think this is the fourth year you’re coming with me for this dinner? Her: Yup! The first was just a few weeks after our first date.
It was a pretty full weekend as I had to shoot for Scenic Fights both Saturday and Sunday; we have a new guy we added to roster, along with a special guest.
That’s them above.
I was chosen to work with them because they were both weapons specialists.
Both were very nice and knowledgeable fellas – really looking forward to having you all see the videos.
Now, the second day of shooting, I’d forgotten to bring peanut butter with me to eat so I picked some up across the street. While I was in the kitchen, the studio manager told me that he liked my machete trainer.
Him: I have a real one, you know? Me: Oh, that’s a good thing to keep in the house as a self-defense tool. Him: Home? No, here. Here.
And he pulled out this really snaggle-toothed one.
That’s a tool that’s seen some stories, man.
Right after the Saturday shoot, though, I shoved some fried fowl into my face, rushed home, changed, and grabbed Sara.
We both headed downtown to meet up with my college friends for our annual birthday with Gar and Cappy at a restaurant called Essex.
Sara ate something off the day before and I was pretty beat from the shoot that day, plus it was all the way downtown, but it’s always a good time with them so off we went.
There were so many of us that we were all crammed together, which was annoying.
But it meant that we could all talk.
An old friend, John – whom I’ve not seen since this entry – was there and sat next to me so it was nice to be able to catch up.
Him: (to Sara) You married him? Me: Best decision of her life! Her: (shrugging) Eh.
I was looking at that picture of me back in my early 30s in the last post.
While it’s clear that I’ve aged between then and now, I don’t think that I look like I’ve aged 20 years.
Still, while my face looks older, my body looks…pretty identical.
If anything, I look better now than I did at 25 just because I’ve been so regular with my physical therapy these days.
But exercise is just one of the three sides of the triangle – the other two are genetics and diet.
On genetics, there’s not much you can do there, but I’ve been thinking about diet more than usual lately because of the death of actor James Van Der Beek, who recently passed from stage 3 colorectal cancer.
If you’ve never seen it, it might be worth a watch.
In any case, on the topic of diet, I’m definitely eating well over a pound of peanut butter a week now.
I know this because I started doing Amazon’s Subscribe and Save with two two-pound jars delivered to me every month, about a year ago, but the kid and I kill them in the first three weeks.
Sara and her son don’t touch the stuff, despite my best efforts, which is terribly disappointing as you’ll read below.
In any case, I regularly have to go to the store to buy two more regular jars to last us the month – check out the size difference below.
Now, that means that I’m eating about 2,650 calories, 225 grams of fat, and 28 grams of fiber a week in peanut butter alone every week
BUT that’s in addition to the regular brekkie, lunch, and dinner that I eat.
And yet, I am slimmer than almost all of my peers, which is precisely what I expected when I first started doing this about 20 years ago.
In fact, I remember distinctly a conversation with someone that rang me outta the blue one day that went something like this:
Her: There is no way you can eat that much peanut butter and not become super fat. Me: I dunno. I don’t think that the body processes protein, fat, and fiber the same way it does just fat and carbs. Her: What will you do if you’re wrong?! Me: (laughing) I dunno…stop?
But I never did.
Because it turned out exactly as I expected it to – I ended up losing weight, increasing lean body mass, and reducing my cholesterol.
Since 2006, I’ve been telling everyone that would listen that nut butters are secret to being slim and in excellent health and I used myself as a test subject for 20 years.
I eat peanut butter because it’s just a lot cheaper than nut butters (yes, I realize it’s a legume).
But, if I was wealthy, I’d be eating walnut butter, probably the best thing on the planet to eat after tinned fish, which I also try to eat regularly.
If anyone wants to gift me an annual stipend of walnut butter, I’m not gonna stop you.
In any case, I bring this up because I came across this guy below recently, and he backs up the mountain of research that peanuts are a health bomb.
Now, while he talks mainly about whole raw peanuts, I believe – and I’ve got 20 years of real-world practice that supports this – that natural peanut butter essentially provides very similar/identical results.
If you look up pretty much anything to do with colorectal cancer, you’ll see two things show up in every mention: (a) the lack of fiber in modern diets and (b) the ultra-processed nature of the modern American diet.
The regular consumption of nut/peanut butter helps address both those issues; the former directly by injecting fiber into your diet, the latter by simply making you too full to eat much else.
Anywho, just another of my rando thoughts for a rando day.
Him: Whatcha making, papa? Me: A brown-butter fried peanut butter and banana sandwich. Him: Is that any good? Me: Is it any good!?!?! Dude…prepare to have your mind blown…
Met up with the pastor early this past week for some coffee and…
Me: Wait, they have a $5 burger here! Him: Yeah, it’s pretty good. Do you want to get one? Me: Do I want a $5 burger?! Heck yeah! (afterwards) Are you thinking of getting another one? Him: I will if you will. Me: Looks like we’re having more burgers for brekkie!
Have you ever heard of Meghan Reinertsen?
She’s a nanny and an influencer but what really made her famous is the fact that she personally cancelled a United Airlines flight by having…explosive diarrhea.
And, to be clear, I’m not mocking her – at all – here.
After all, I know exactly how embarrassing and uncomfortable it is to have your body involuntarily leave your DNA everywhere and anywhere, through no real fault of your own.
Meghan’s story is that she, evidently, ate this undercooked cheeseburger and then had to lock herself into the airplane bathroom for 90 humiliating minutes where her DNA came out of both ends.
This was not the burger that she had but it was the burger that I had with the pastor. Now I want another one…
But now, everyone has a camera and recording device on their person at all times.
And I can’t help but think of all the incredibly stupid, stupid, and cruel things I’ve done and said throughout my life – to say nuthin of all my embarrassing moments.
Dude, you may not believe it, but the version of me you met in 2006 was the matureversion of me.
Logan Lo circa 2026?
I’m a goddamn piece of fine art by now.
Ok, maybe not fine, but just go with it for now…
Me in Berlin in 2006. I was 32.
My only saving grace is that no one had video phones/cameras on their person in the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s.
You absolutely would not be reading me. You’d be saying things like:
Logan? You mean the guy that wore rollerblades and fell down the entire staircase leading to Bethesda Fountain?
Logan? You mean the guy that wore parachute pants with the flock of seagulls haircut?
Logan? To mean the guy that practiced taiji for a decade and tried to fight with it?
My point being that, but for my telling you any of this, none of this would exist except in my own head.
But for the kid and his friends everything has the potentially to be recorded and preserved forever.
Everything has the potential to be just devastating – emotionally and socially.
I can laugh about alla that now because I’m 52 and honestly don’t care about much these days but, man, did I care when I was a kid.
And I hope that the kid realizes that nothing embarrassing is anything but a story to be told years from now.
So, here’s to the Meghans of the world that just say, Fuck it, and own their most embarrassing moments.
Because, today, there’s not much else you can do.
Him: Papa, why don’t you ever show my face? Me: Oh no, kid. I’m so proud of you. It’s not that, it’s the opposite. You’re my treasure. And you don’t go showing off your treasure. You keep your most valuable things private. Him: I’m your valuable thing? Me: No, kid, you’re my most valuable thing. I got nuthin close to you. Him: Yay!
Him: Look… (holds up belt) Me: What? HEY – you got it! That’s my boy!
This was a pretty busy week, kid-wise.
First, the kid got a new BJJ belt, which he’s been hoping for for quite a while now.
Then I went to another one of his publishing parties at his school – it was nice that he was so happy to see me.
Then we dropped down to 0 degrees Fahrenheit with wind chill this past weekend in the city and we had a full day shoot at my old gym.
Me: Whoa! Why’s it so cold? Him: The heat’s out. Me: Get outta here.
It was wayworse in that everyone else got to wear sweatshirts and hoodies, but I had to do all six hours in a tee-shirt.
I was absolutely miserable.
For serious, one of the guys was literally wearing his entire outer wear AND his costume while setting up while I’m in a tee-shirt.
Director: Whoa, your hands are turning blue. Me: (teeth chattering) I am not unaware…also, I hate you.
Normally, I’m one of the fastest of the bunch to shoot his scenes but, because I was absolutely freezing, I kept messing up my lines.
Me: By the end of this video, you’ll know the mistakes that get people killed by Ghostface… Director: You can’t say killed. Me: Goddammit! OK. Sorry. “By the end of this video, you’ll know the mistakes that get people killed…” Director: You can’t say killed. Me: Goddammit! OK. Sorry. “By the end of this video, you’ll know the mistakes that get people killed” – GODDAMMIT!
Repeat about 20 times.
But I had to get my lines done because I had to make the kid’s recital, which was supposed to be at 5PM waaaaaaayyy uptown.
Because I wasn’t gonna make it, I wrote Sara and asked her to talk to his guitar teacher and ask if he could push it back 20 minutes to 5:20.
As soon as I cranked out that stupid line, I dashed up there, RAN outta the subway station (in boots, on ice, carrying a ton of gear and frying pan (part of the shoot)) and into the church where he was the next kid up.
Just made it.
At 1:52, there was a slight glitch with the video, sorry, but otherwise, it’s pretty good, I think?
Watch the video and catch the ending, where he saw that I came.
In season seven of the Game of Thrones, John Snow begs all the sides of the Seven Kingdoms to put away their differences to prepare for the coming war with the White Walkers.
He knows that humanity is doomed if they don’t unite because they’re unprepared for the war about to happen.
Hold that thought.
Many historians don’t consider World War I and World War II as two separate things – at least not in Europe.
For them, it was one long war of modernization and ethno-racial underpinnings, with Germany at the center:
In WW1, because the Second Reich of Germany came about as the result of the breakdown of the old-world order of empires (German, Austro‑Hungarian, Ottoman, Russian), while…
In WW2, just 21 years later, Germany was still smarting over its defeat in WW1 and the subsequent humiliation of The Treaty of Versailles, and it was a chance to show the world that WW1 was just fluke – that didn’t work out.
It’s only by seeing the big picture that you realize what is really happening.
Me at the Jannowitzbrücke station in Berlin 21 years ago.
While most of sane people in the world, and here in the US, see the downfall of the American Empire under Trump, which is accurate, I see that but it’s more than that.
A lot more.
If the US and the EU/NATO do become adversaries, then China – and, to a lesser extent, Russia – wins.
It might not happen tomorrow, but it’s definitely gonna happen.
And a war is coming, in one form or another, hot or cold. But it’s coming if it’s not here already.
Yes, Russia is evil and dangerous but it’s not the danger that China is.
You have no idea how dangerous China is.
Because China is dangerous in ways you couldn’t imagine.
100 years ago, in 1926, China was…nuthin.
It was in the middle of (multiple) civil wars, called the Warlord Era (1916–1928). This was after the Opium War and the downfall of the Qing dynasty.
There was no unified national army, no cohesive economic strategy, no real industry of any sort, outside of large agrarian areas predominantly used to feed their own people.
It was a whole lotta, well, like I said, nuthin.
The Western powers – plus fucking Japan – controlled all the ports, legal, banking, customs, and tariffs – everything was in the hands of someone else.
100 years later, in 2026, China has the largest trade surplus in the world, reaching roughly $1.2 trillion in 2025 — the largest number EVER in human history, recorded by any country.
Think about that.
To go from a backward nuthin nation of warlords under the thumbs of everyone to athe nuclear-powered creditor nation in four generations.
That’s mindboggling.
In fact, just 24 years after the warlord period of China, China was already showing the world how quickly it learned how to use soft power in Korea – essentially handing the US the first of many defeats in Asia.
China did it again, just four years later with the Vietnam War.
Then the USSR/Russia attacked a weakened China in 1969 and should have destroyed them, but it didn’t, even with superior firepower and tech.
Culturally, the Chinese are quiet – we watch and learn. And we think.
If it wasn’t for the fact that the Chinese government is absolutely brutal against its own people and regularly threaten Taiwan, a country I love deeply, I’d admire and be proud of these facts.
But, just like here, the country is in the hands of the selfishly evil and the populous is too brainwashed or too fettered to do anything about it.
That’s what the West is up against.
But with Trump pissing off all its allies to line his own pockets so, because half of my countrymen are imbeciles, there is no unified front against China.
The united west lost the first two rounds when it was fighting China by proxy.
Fractured? The West is screwed.
If there’s a true cold war against China – and really, that’s the only war that’s possible between two nuclear empires – Donny’s barely able to play checkers against some chess grandmasters and we’ve got zero friends to help us.
That’s not good. None of this is good.
Now, I hate China because of how it treats its people. Which is to say, I hate China because of how it treats the Chinese.
Then again, the US isn’t treating its people all that well either, lately, now that I think about it.
Me: Congrats on becoming a parent! It’s tough but awesome. Him: Any advice? Me: Yeah, have her learn how to fight, learn how to manage her money, and learn how to speak Mandarin. Him: (laughing) Why Mandarin? Me: OK, so in 1926…
“Owned” being the operative word as I sold alla it back in September when they took Kimmel off the air.
Still, that doesn’t stop me from despising them.
From a legal standpoint, they are probably one of the most evil companies on the planet from an intellectual property attorney standpoint but that’s a wholly different conversation.
I have a tattered and torn copy of The Brothers Grimm, read every story there at least twice.
Girls I dated in high school and college always wanted to watch Disney films for some reason and I remember watching The Little Mermaid and its saccharine plot and being so pissed off.
See, I read that book when I was like…13? Way too young.
I think my dad had a copy, so I read it exactly once. But, holy shit, that book fucked me up.
It was the first time that I understood the cruelty of people to other people.
Never really got that before reading that book.
Seeing how Disney sanitized it and made it into a completely different thing upset me, so much that I never did see the end of it – probably never will.
Later that same year when I read the book, I learned about the holocaust, like really learned about it.
I get why people deny it even happened; the cruelty of it all seems unbelievable.
And yet, that’s exactly why people need to know about it. So that we can steel ourselves against ever allowing such a thing to happen again.
In today’s news cycle, the cruelty of people to other people is just sickening.
Can’t help but think that maybe it’s because companies like Disney spend all their time feeding all these syrupy stories of nonsense when life is poor, nasty, brutish, and short.
There are ways, I think, to entertain but also let the truth of things settle and change people.
While it was great seeing them, it was rough realizing how old we all looked.
I’ve known my aunt and cousin my whole life.
Seeing them just reminded me how quickly our time here was coming to an end.
In any case, after brunch, the Firecracker and I finally managed to get ourselves some IC Cards, essentially Taipei’s version of the Metrocard/OMNI for their mass transit.
Me: Can I use a credit card to buy the cards? Clerk: Yes…but you need cash to put money on the card. Me: Are you serious? Him: …Yes?
Like I said, it’s a cash-based society and that took some getting used to.
But the stations were clean…
…and the trains were galley-style which were pretty cool.
Afterward, went to check out Taipei 101, currently, the 11th tallest building in the world.
We did this Instagram hack to get to a really high floor of Taipei 101, which is legit impressive…
What I meant by that was that the city really comes alive at night, mainly because it’s so damn hot during the daytime.
Grilled trumpet mushrooms.
This also meant that Taiwan developed these cool nighttime markets where you can eat for days and buy all sorts of stuff.
So, after I had the snacky-snack, we all went off to the Raohe Night Market – which was definitely not as nice as others I’d been, but still fun.
More on that in a later entry.
The Firecracker’s been reading about Stinky Tofu and just had to try some.
Here’s her trying it for the first time…
I cut it outta the video but (a) both boys were holding their noses and (b) we literally chased two tourists outta the bar with the smell.
Should mention that we ate more than half of it.
Woulda killed the whole thing – she ended up really liking it, just like she loves kimchi now even though the first time threw her for a loop – but we wanted to save room in our bellies for more night market food.
The boys had a ball all night.
But it was getting late.
So, with that, we ended the main part of our time in Taipei.
The next day, we had to go see my family home a bit southwest of Taipei, to what used to be a little town called Hsinchu.
Me: I just realized something. Her: What? Me: The kid’s gonna be moving out in just seven more years. That seems so insanely quick. Her: (nodding) Yeah. We really don’t have them all that long. Me: OMG, I’m so bummed out suddenly…
Came across this article recently from the oldest practicing – 101 – doctor in America.
But, between my friend who just got discharged from the hospital, to me with my crap back, I feel that, at some point, it’s just fighting against the tides.
Everything is about maintenance, I’m not really growing anymore. I’m just trying to deteriorate at a slower rate than most people my age.
I’m just shocked that more people aren’t doing everything they can to stave off the inevitable.
Me: It just seems crazy to me – do people not think it’s gonna happen to them? Her: Getting older? I think they don’t really consider that working out or eating healthfully will really make all that much of a difference. Me: That’s crazy. Her: (shrugging) I honestly don’t think a lotta people realize it’s an option.
On that note, I look at the kid and realize that, unlike me, he’s improving every day.
He’s getting stronger and smarter and better each day, and I’m thrilled for him and for it. That’s how it should be.
I just wish he doesn’t have to deteriorate like all humans do.
Then again, that’s what it means to be human, I suppose.
Location: my kid’s bunkbed, looking for missing screws from all the construction around here that have vibrated them off
Mood: prickly
Music: Everything counts in large amounts (Spotify) Subscribe! Like this post? Tell someone about it by clicking a button below.
