— Greetings From Pratumnak Hill Where Life Moves Fast

My endeavor is to make this Sunday newsletter non-formulaic. At all. So, no particular formula to follow, and provide at least something of value that makes reading it worthwhile, perhaps even something looked forward to.

… Where the hell is Pratumnak Hill, anyway?

Well, it’s also spelled—depending on who’s writing—Pratamnak, if that helps. That’s how I started off spelling it, but I keep running into the other instance, seemingly more often, so I’ve adapted. Google doesn’t seem to care much.

… Anyway.

The blue dot marks the home spot. It’s a great location. The 500-meter walk down to Yinyom Beach on Soi 5 is quite charming. A sort of walk down Main Street vibe—only with plenty of some of the Things Thailand Uniquely Offers mixed in amongst everything you’d expect. Use your imagination.

It also offers a quick 3-min MC jaunt to the hustle and bustle of Pattaya, or the more quiet and laid-back Jomtein—the pristine, clean, quiet beach amongst jungle and plantations we’d spend the day at after a party night in Pattaya back in the ’80s. Now it’s reminiscent of any beachfront, with high-rise condos across the street from the unobstructed beach frontage. Still pretty nice, though.

So you can’t miss the Big Buddha Temple in the center of the map. As serendipity would have it, I did both a post and video with it as the backdrop last Sunday, after I’d already sent this newsletter out. After sending, I read a very uncharacteristic post by Anthony Colpo whom many of you know. Both the post and video are dedicated to him and his post.

Walking Tour of the Pattaya Big Buddha

Other regular posts:

• Command Comes From Value Creation
• Tell Me When You Love That It Sucks So Bad

114 No-Pill Advantages posts:

• No-Pill #47 Fully Integrated Honesty: The Key To Everything
• No-Pill #48 Relax and Guiltlessly Be Yourself
• No-Pill #49 Jealousy: The Good Thoughts and the Bad Thoughts
• No-Pill #50 Jealousy: The Poison Core

A personal update is that I started on TRT last Wednesday and took dose number 2 this morning. The dose is 1mL per week, 0.5mL each. One intramuscular, multi-dose vial is 10mL, so in theory, a 10-week supply. Cost is 800 baht ($22). Needles and syringes are cheapo, so under 3 bucks a week. No prescription required, can be purchased at any pharmacy.

How many thousands do guys living in various “lands of the free” get nicked?

The reason for the different gauge needles (smaller gauge is bigger, just like in shotguns) is that it’s an oil base for intramuscular injection, so rather thick. The bigger needle is for drawing it out, then you replace with the tiny, half-inch one and seriously, I don’t even feel it—just like the puncture from a mosquito (unfortunately).

My Canadian friend Dennis did a short vid demo for me, which is here in a shared Google doc. I’m not going to publish it anywhere. At the end, you’ll see what that does for his phyzeek, provided you bust ass in the gym and eat like a man-human. Dennis is 58.

I’m not going to defend my decision to take it. Just like not taking something, it’s my business, my exclusive authority, and my own determination to make. I will say that #1, I’m not 35yo deciding to take it, but 62, and it’s highly medically sanctioned for older guys. The benefits are unassailable and a good reason so many, once on it, stay on it. #2, I’m already doing the things you’re supposed to do for good T levels (weight training and good diet). #3 is that this is not a body-builder level of dose at all. It’s the so-called Goldilocks dose…not too little, not too much…just right.

What have I noticed so far? First, a recapture of good sleep every night. Sleep has just not quite been excellent since dropping booze, so for over a year (and who knows how good it was really, when on the booze?). The other thing is enhanced calm confidence, like when you’re a young man and think yourself invincible, so take risks easily in life, like you’re supposed to. But now, it’s kinda cool because that’s mixed with the age, experience, and wisdom.

Coolest effect, so far. Will keep you posted. Of course, there’s also this aspect to the whole thing. That could easily be a photo taken down at my gym, Muscle Factory.

… Out and about in the world, simply superlative values delivered by Tucker Carlson who has become the most influential news and comment man in the world, by a long shot. Just hit his Twitter (X) feed.

I’m talking about his latest, in particular. The interview with who may be hopefully the next president of Argentina is remarkable. Never have I heard a politician, except perhaps the Paul father & son team, or Massie, convey such a deep understanding of markets and economics (he’s an economist). The added bonus is that he also understand culture and architecture from both a classical and former-Soviet perspective.

His interview with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is head-shaking unbelievable. The federal stink goes all the way down into state houses, and even Texas, supposedly controlled by “Republicans.”

Then there’s his 6-min clip about how questioning lies gets you tagged as a liar. Gold.

I could point to more, but that’s enough. And it’s plenty.

Then there’s another little foray. There’s this geopolitical analyst named Peter Zeihan, who everyone is always all on about, as though he’s some sage. I’ve been interested in geopolitics forever, beginning with my time in Navy service in the cold-war region of the world.

I could go on and on about it, but to be brief, geopolitics is primarily concerned with things like geography in terms of oceans, land masses, natural resources, supply and trade routes, and how things play out politically amongst nation states with interests that both converge and diverge. There are a few problems with analysts, in my view. The first is that they view everything as amoral, pragmatic, economic and national influence/position. They discount things like morality and culture to too great extent…unless that influence is overwhelming and paramount.

The second is that they sell themselves by back-testing sleight-of-hand. They simply use geopolitical analysis to explain what has already happened in history, to bolster their soothsaying authority. It’s kinda like those fortune-tellers on TV skilled in asking probing questions…and people call up and pay to be told what they already know.

When things have already happened, not only is hindsight 20/20, but it’s also whatever you want it to be, within reason.

Ask two geopolitical analysts how and why some past event happened as it did, and their respective analysis will be different, with each being exactly what the respective clients who pay them big bucks generally want to hear.

The world is chock-full of whores…on every level and in every corner.

Zeihan has a lot of clients who want to hear both that China is a big threat, but also that we’ve got them on the ropes, so keep up whatever it is that tax dollars are being spent on in whatever amount, to whichever whore contractors.

I replied:

But how about if China focuses only on its region, along with Russia and India?

There were about a half-dozen Zeihan-sycophant replies, which all amounted to: I REALLY REALLY REALLY HATE THAT CHART!!! I dismissed them all.

Then Zeihan himself replied, surprisingly enough.

“Wouldn’t matter economically. Several east Asian countries are in a somewhat similar demographic bind, and ultimately China needs to export stuff. That, and their own demographics will still bring them down even if their export model persists.”

So, vague hand-waving. Could be he’s just being dismissive, wanting to say something for his sycophants. Don’t know. But I replied respectfully.

So.

In final news, I completely rebranded, again, only I kinda went back to the way I did things before. Rather than the formulaic pitches, it’s just me. If you hit the Home Page and pause to watch the new image, you’ll get it.

New tagline.

Ex Navy Officer. Entrepreneur. 20-Year Blogger: 5000+ Posts; 5 Million+ Words. Autodidact-Polymath. I Connect Dots, Synthesize Forecasts, and Deconstruct Pet Narratives. All Of Them. I Tell Stories.

Only slight edits to the About Page.

My pitch, offer, whatever you want to call it? A total rewrite. Every word.

My Endless Searches, Struggles, and Learnings

— Intellectual Freedom and Your True Potential

Welcome to a haven for free thinkers and truth seekers who dare to defy societal norms. Discover over two decades of content that challenges mainstream narratives and empowers you to take greater control of your life. Join me in championing independent personal authority, finding and taking responsibility, doing the hard stuff because it’s hard, and learning to embrace the suck.

Do you know what you’re capable of? I wish I knew the answer to that question.

Getting older seems to have a profound effect on a lot of people, and I’m no exception. In the space of just over 40 years since I graduated from college, embarked on a career, and moved to a strange new land—and since then, lived a total of 12 years outside the USA in four countries on three continents—I’m grateful that I was too ignorant to know how much I didn’t know.

The realization might have paralyzed me…

I suppose that when we’re young, raging hormones fill in a lot of gaps and afford us a certain “courage in secreting glands.” Young folks…at least they used to…seem to have a lot of well-balanced fearlessness in seeking out the unknown, to then soak up as knowledge of reality and the world around them.

They’re exited and engaged, and with just a modicum of good sense and a lot of hard work and struggle, they can do a lot, accomplish a lot, and end up knowing a lot. For many, though, life gets in the way because just as strong as that exploratory drive can be within us, the drive to find a mate, settle down, and raise children in the ways they should go is even stronger.

And that’s good, too.

It’s hard to do both and to do both well. Maybe impossible.

… What I do here is simple.

I tell you all about it.

That’s the nutshell.

What is it?

• I grew up on construction sites with family in all the trades
• I also grew up in fields and streams with family who hunted and fished
• I grew up tending to large gardens; I milked goats and butchered chickens and rabbits
• I did a lot of church; so much so, they had a school I graduated from
• I attended a year of college at a Bible school
• I graduated from Oregon State University (math, computer science, business admin)
• I was a Navy officer for eight years (missile systems, deck operations, electrical systems, navigation, staff: logistics and scheduling)
• I know how to pilot big ships
• I lived in Japan for five years and travelled all over Asia
• I lived and worked in France for two years and travelled all over Europe; I speak French
• I visited China before it had a pot to piss in (1985) and the former Soviet Union (where only future oligarchs had pots—1989)
• I started a company in a spare bedroom with 200 bucks to my name that I grew to 5 office locations, 30 employees, a dozen sales reps, and over $3 million annual revenue
• I designed, programmed, and coded my own customer management system (CRM) because off-shelf was inadequate and custom was too expensive
• I lived off-grid in Mexico in a house 100% powered by solar and battery; I then duplicated that setup for an off-grid mobile home setup in sunny California
• I fly hang-gliders, sailplanes, and powered aircraft
• I do SCUBA and snorkeling in tropical waters
• I have jumped out of airplanes (skydiving) and off of platforms (bungee jumping)
• I made and lost a lot of money day-trading options contracts
• I got fat, hit the gym, began eating like a human, lost 60 pounds, and became an influencer in the “Paleo Diet” craze, resulting in substantial notoriety and appearances
• I wrote a Paleo Diet book that was published and did well
• I owned and remodeled a lot of houses, including rental houses
• I know crypto
• I have lived in Thailand since January 2020, coming up on four years (Chiang Mai; Si Sa Ket; Jomtien Beach; Rawai, Phuket; Pratumnak Hill)
• I built a house with 100% village labor in rice-paddy-rural Si Sa Ket, Thailand, sitting out that global thing that happened in 2020; owing to my construction background, I managed the whole project, sourced all materials, and completed it in 2 1/2 months with a 95% language barrier

I write. A lot.

For some specifics on that list, there’s the About Page where there are a bunch of other references, if you are at all interested in diving deep.

The point is, about that list, I already told you:

I tell you all about it.

I have, and I do. Over 20 years, they’re all there. I still tell all about it. Some of it’s what’s going on now; some, of what went on then, and some are stories I try to make engaging.

What’s the offer?

It’s a subscription to everything. The cost is $50, $60, or $72 per year, depending upon whether you pay one time, four times, or twelve times. There’s a lifetime option, but those are typically members who’ve been reading what I write for ten years and more. Some of them have written testimonials, if you’re curious.

What does it have?

• 5500 posts and 5 million words about all the foregoing and more
• Lots and lots of stories to deliver life lessons
• Constant new content to the tune of several pieces per week; New Content is King
• I do videos; both public and private, but increasingly for members only (unlisted)
• Downloads, always free to all members with limited license to distribute to F&F
• Post series (currently The 114 Advantages and Physical Culture in full swing, more to follow)
• Integrated AI (ChatGPT-4, custom-designed and prompted for this blog); all post featured images are now generated with Midjourney
• A new and growing Discord community

What does it do for you?

That’s the impossible question because I don’t lie and most lists of benefits in most direct marketing are assumptions at best, lies or gross exaggerations at worst.

It comes down to this:

1. Do you like me and what I do, or feel or suspect you might?
2. If so, you can give it a spin at whatever level you feel comfortable with. Cancelation is a 1-click, no questions thing

If you like me and what I do, it’s not going to be a problem. My retention is sky-high. I have readers who go back 10, 15, and even more years. If you don’t like me or worse, then there’s no point to this, and you’re reading out of morbid curiosity, I guess.

If you’re new and interested enough to find out if you’d like being a member, it might turn on what values you hold and how compatible they are with those I hold.

Nutshell: I’m set in my values, not in my ways. I believe there are a certain set of values, regardless of how you come about them, that are essential for most normal folks to have a good turn at their limited time on this planet.

There are men, women, and children (boys and girls). Each have common characteristics and each category has categorical characteristics that differ from each other, and there’s no pretending otherwise.

Common to all include things like striving for health, eating whole food, being physically active, limiting vices, working hard, always learning, always striving for improvement.

Common to all, but in different capacities depending upon roles: culture, family, community, education, traditions, celebrations, self-preservation, protection, and defense; safety, security, provisions.

Without going into great detail because those who like or could like me and what I do already know what I’m going to say, or thereabouts, and that’s that I believe so-called traditional roles in all the foregoing are natural roles; and because we’re here, we survived, and we prospered, they became traditional because Duh!

I’m not that big on labels, preferring to describe behaviors for the sake of clarity and precision, but I wouldn’t complain about anyone calling me a cultural conservative, family-values guy, golden-rule adherent, or any other such terms. About the only qualification I can think of is that I own guns; I like guns. Huge fan. Not a “gun nut,” though. I don’t even know why…

Alright, the rest is up to you. You can always hit the contact form if you have any specific questions. I see everything. I answer everything.