Manipulation

There is a article that says germs in our gut manipulate us.Manipulate is a pejorative word, and not really true in this case. When your guts feel better it makes a genuine difference. We have a very important nerve from the gut to the brain, the Vagus nerve and it connects the intestines, the heart, and the brain. A set of organisms that makes your gut feel better sends that signal along to vital regions and we feel better as a whole. We have to make friends with these bacteria since they provide vital services to us as we do for them. Let's just call it a fair deal for both sides.

Commodification and Profit

Commodification helps refine prices, but conversely the defined prices bring an end to the days when you could make easy money. I am sure that 15 years ago when someone came across an old item they just put it out on a table at their next garage sale. Or, like my buddy Sean, find an old guy advertising in some local paper no one reads and then offer him 5% of what its worth. This more subtly devious form of lowballing has come to an end after so many years of the Antiques Road Show - most people check eBay first to make sure they're asking a fair price. Only the most obscure items require a real appraisal. The point is that you have to know what the item is worth to you and how far away it is from being worth a lot to someone else. People collect weird stuff and to get a good deal you have to be one of them.

Don't Sit Down

Here is a list of all the studies saying sitting on your butt can kill you. I sit down eight hours a day at work, and even people with active jobs can sit four or five hours a day. It doesn't matter if you have a fancy Aeron chair, it's the lassitude in the muscles that causes them to act badly in spite of the workout you put in that morning. I have heard that you should stand up for five minutes an hour.

Easy Money

The most disgusting show on television at the moment shows a group of pawn brokers separating addicts, drunks, and fools from their valuables for outrageously little. Sure, the pawn stars repair some stuff really nicely, but they make the real money by lowballing desperate suckers. If these people did not need a fix they would walk away indignantly, take a little more time and get a decent deal - perhaps even twice what the pawn broker gives them. Even the most basic negotiating tactics would have helped the rubes immensely. Truthfully, the show makes me sick and angry.

Making money doesn't have to be that way; there are many more honest ways to profit, e.g. horse trading.

Back in the day when you actually had to buy an animal to ride people with the right knowledge and a sharp eye could see value in horses others didn't. Perhaps someone didn't realize that the animal acted skittish in the barn due to an irrational fear of cats but behaved perfectly otherwise. It takes a good eye and experience to separate the salesman's lies from genuine bargains. Several years ago I bought an American Strat. for super cheap from Guitar Center because I realized that the neck needed a truss rod adjustment. It played funny in the store, but I realized the fix would take no time at all. I needed one so I bought it new cheaper than you can buy one on used on eBay now. The other suckers passed this one over and paid hundreds more for the exact same thing because they couldn't diagnose the problem.

In case you're a guitar player you know that eBay has a lot of guitars up for sale. This really marks the commodification of the guitar market. It's great because you can search completed auctions as well as current ones. You can see what prices similar items sold for, or that the exact instrument you are looking did even not get bid on last week. In monetary terms something is only worth what someone else will give you for it and almost any instrument you can name has an actual price that others have paid and would pay in the future. This type of visibility defines the market value.

However, eBay falls down when it comes to horse trading. No way anyone can get a close enough look at the instrument to make an independent judgment. That means you have to take it as a commodity, and like horses, every one is different. Let the buyer beware, you can buy junk that looks ok in pictures.

Decisions Wear You Down

Here is an interesting article on how making decisions costs you energy and willpower. If you make a lot of decisions at the same time, like choosing among 56 interior colors for your new car, the theory says you will run out of energy to make other choices. Willpower turns out to be a choice, and a potentially difficult one at that; resisting that piece of cake requires a lot of effort. People that work in jobs filled with a constant stream of difficult decisions come home exhausted and don't have enough energy left over to hold out. Not really fair that glucose restores mental energy and helps willpower. Once you've eaten that cake it's too late!

Getting very hungry reduces willpower as well. I know that I can get short-tempered and snappy when I'm hungry. Grandma used to say "you'll feel better after you eat" and she sure was right. I act nicer, too.

Habit might be a saving grace in this regard. Forming the habit of running after work every day can make exercise the non-decision thing to do. Unhealthy choices would require more effort and happen less. But it takes time and willpower to gain good habits and that means a large reserve of mental energy. Perhaps using peer pressure and social obligation like having a running partner would be a more efficient way to build habits. Definitely organizing your life to conserve willpower sounds like a good idea.

Running Time Conversion

There are lots of places that try to sell theories about diet or exercise. Sometimes, though, I just want an answer. I am trying to take 10% off my time in the 5K, but I always have trouble with pacing and the best way to train. This this site provides a plain and simple set of conversions between mph, minutes/mile and their metric equivalents. It makes it all seem simpler now.

Sir Paul

Even at almost 70 years old Paul McCartney puts on a heck of a show. This picture show definitively that Paul plays in the National League and let's face it, the South Siders don't have anyone that can possibly compare. His voice was in fine shape, and he played for almost three hours without a break on a hot summer night. Paul added touches of charm and some nods to John and George. Nothing about Ringo, though. Odd. Anyway, when you're Paul McCartney it's impossible to be a name dropper. No one is more famous. Even better, he whipped out original instruments including the bass and an Epiphone Casino from Sgt. Peppers. And a ukelele that George gave him. Fun.
The second night we went to Goose Island and sat in the beer garden facing Wrigley so we could listen. It sounded great and was almost the same show. Plus, it was a heck of a lot cheaper!

You Can Geek Out on Anything

even pizza boxes.

The great thing about the video is that you can tell how totally into it he is. Geek.

Back Again? Again?

Thinking about blogging some more again. I haven't written a post in a long time, but Google+ has me curious again. This one was to break the ice.