How I Stopped Using Toilet Paper And Starting Cleaning My Ass Instead With Great Results

Complexity is an enemy of a ecological life. Toilet paper is a luxury many people adopt as they develop from a third world country to first world country. Other than the problem of the term "develop" as it suggests a raising up of a moral character, it often creates unnecessary waste. While the use of toilet paper appears to be the most sterile method of cleaning oneself in the toilet, the use of the duvet, which one can wash their ass after a toilet suggests their are alternatives. For simplicity sake, I started to use rags and bag them for washing later. Than by using some medical ethanol I sterilize the area a little. The result has been a cleaner, eliminates odor and has allowed me to stop buying wasteful toilet paper. It's not solution to the problem of waste but it mitigates harm.

Wiping in itself is not that but just by considering that toilet paper is bleached white to the destructive of the river life paper mills inflict on their local eco-system, it's incredibly unnecessary.

Long Distance Cycling: Taking on a New Challenge

Since I live the life as an ESL teacher in South Korea, it seems focuses have narrowed rather than expanded.  I do not work a 40 hour job and the job is in many ways fun. However, living in the wildness of the world still alludes me. What I have found in the meanwhile are the things to make this human zoo I live in more habitable for the wild human within. One of these things have been long distance cycling. Long Distance Cycling is one of the best activities in modern society since it is a eco-friendly way to travel, is mentally and physically challenging to do, and is accessible to do on a low budget if you learn to fix the bike yourself and spend little money on food or accomodation (cooking, and camping anyone?). While it is in no way horsebacking riding or hunting, it touches the nomad in me. Approximately, closer to a hunter-gather-nomad. Is that a stretch? I think not.

This February, I went on four day trip and didn't accomplish what I expected. I was slower than I intended and I never reached my destination initial destination. It was a blast and I learned what to do in the future. My partner is this venture was L, the sort of person who can just hang and take things as they come.

We left late on a Saturday and we did half the pace we wanted to do. We stopped a lot to adjust our bikes but mostly that meant my bike and the seatwhich was leaning back due to a stress bent on the tube which required a lot of stopping until I figured out a makeshift way to fix it the next day. Or the rack which was not properly secured by ziplines and needed more solid rope. So the next day we got another late start by  my friend oversleeping and adding an hour  from retying my rack with better cord than the poor ziplines I used earlier Saturday morning. On that Sunday we arrived at Yangpyeong in the city, doing a quarter of a distance of the past two days I imagined we would do. Since L needed to be back on Wednesday we decided to head back from where we were but to wake up earlier and quicken the pace. I figured that if we got back home on the same day early, we could push past it and stay someone that night. Then the next day we could come back to our home city on the last day of the trip with the same pace.  So on Monday we woke up early and we reached Uijeongbu the same day from the city it took us two days to get to.

"Cash, Money, Drike," Day 1

NamYangju on Day 1

Yangpyeong City, the furthest we got from Uijeongbu, Day 2

My Old Bike pictured on Day 1

L and I got a feel for each other's rythym of the trip and by the end it felt more efficient and insync.  The fasted person no longer stopped for the slowest person but simply went their pace and the slowest person caught up when the fatest person stopped. That quickened the pace and we stopped way less. It also kept us from gabbing to each, which in itself is a good reason for our friendship.

And then 10km from Uijeongbu my bike rim broke. I had found the wheel to the wobly and so I waved L ahead and got down to business adjusting the wheel. I concluded that the rim was bent. It was almost a half hour after trying to re-adjust the tire that I realized that the rim was bent but split.

The bike is old and already needed parts replaced. Having it was an exercise in what I could get away with and what I could learn to fix and mend myself. Since some parts are hard to replace, it became clear that I would buy a new moderately priced bike after the trip and use the old bike to learn how to fix and repair bikes.

So that was it for the bike trip. 4 days shortened to 3 days. L rode back to me and we walked the rest of the distance back to Uijeongbu.

The next day we went hiking in Yeoncheon but that is another story.

I had so much cycling that I caught the bug and I'm looking forward to more cycling in my life, albeit in the vagabonding kind of way.

Story of Larry Walter's Balloon Trip

I recently heard on Christopher Ryan's podcast this amazing story.

A man ties weather balloons to armchair, takes a pack of beer, a sandwich and a pellet gun and reaches 15,000 feet, lands safely and becomes a motivational speaker for a short time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Walters

Paying for College Part 1: My Search for Cheap Accomodation

I need to pay for college and keep costs low so when I got a new job I looked for cheap accomodation. While I looked for a cheap apartment in Korea, I have moved into a cheap Goshiwon for who a month. Goshiwons are convenient for students and single people looking for short term accomodations. This one cost me 170,000 won for the month, which is about 150 U.S dollars.

Here is a video which shows you the room.



The bed room is small and cramped but it does the job, until I move into the new place I found. It has a shared kitchen, bathroom, and laundry area. It's been great to have internet, tv, a desk, and to not have to keep most of my things in my work area. It became really expensive as I was eating from convenience stores, which in Korea can be healthy, but they are still expensive.

Before I moved into a goshiwon I was looking for apartments in Uijeongbu. It was hard to find a place with a good location for an affordable price. I started to look at the local classified paper and learned the Korean vocabulary I needed to learn. I also found out how the housing market worked in Korea. Most importantly, I found out what was available and I didn't take anything until I found out what my options were. I moved into the goshiwon after one month of living in a sauna and then a friends couch. The day after I moved into the goshiwon, I found a place to live.

Paragliding with Adventure Korea

I am certain that I didn't need to paraglide before I died, but I did appreciate the fun of it. In fact, it was awesome.

How I Want to be Burried.

I would like to be returned to the life cycle. My body should decay and be eaten so I do not wish to prolong this with environmentally destructive methods.

My body should be un-embalmed and my casket should be free of preservatives. My cemetary should also be helpful and supportive of this. And finally, it should be clear to the people who handle my body how I want my body to be treated.

As of writing this: there are 150 natural cemetaries in America. That means that there are no concrete burial vaults in the ground and they are focused on encouraging the bodies to decay.

As for a coffin, it is possible to buy a naturally made and biodegradable coffin such as those found on naturalendings.co.uk. They have pine, bamboo, cane, and more, and even cardboard.

Ideally, though I would like to be burried as naturally as possible. If I can be to be burried in a forest- that would be great.

Even though I am relatively young, I wish to prepare for this eventuality.

What I Ate Today.

I lifted today so I ate more carbs today. The routine was clean and presses until I felt tired and some situps.

Breaking Fast 1030am

Instant Coffee with a few tablespoons of cream.

Not pictured. Pumpkin seeds raw, with salt and cream.

Lunch 1ish...

Noodle soup with sesame seeds. Not pictured is the generous kimchi, half cup of rice, and 

Between meals and pre-workout: Double Expresso.

Dinner Post Work Out

Seaweed served with two overeasy eggs with runny yolks fried in butter. Also in the pan with eggs was a little ground beef. Then I removed the eggs and stired in 2 cups of soft soybean curd and then mixed in the seaweed. Adding a few dashes of salt, put into a bowl, with eggs on top and served hot.

Noodles in steaming water with some soybean paste mixed in.

Frozen banana and two frozen strawberries. 

Victor Belfort's Amazing Spinning Back Kick

There are martial artists that are on another level with some of their skills. Victor Belfort's Spinning Back Kick is amazing.

This Simple Standing Up Test Predicts How Long You Live and You Can Improve Your Score

How well you sit down and get up predicts your lifespan according to the advocates of the SRT Test.. The good news is your can increase your lifespan. It makes sense to me that getter fitter lengthens your life.

By testing how well you get up and sit down is claimed to improve your lifespan. The Less Aids used in standing up will predict a higher lifespan. So it certainly is something I want to make sure I score perfectly on. 

Using the Science From the Age Shawn Wood Teaches Stone Age Bowmaking and Demonstrates Our Ancestors' Intelligent Problem Solving

Otzi the Iceman dead in icy weather and was found so intact that scientists were able to retrieve blood cells, clothes, shoes, and tools that he had been using. They found meals he had eaten still digesting. Information can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96tzi. Died around 5,000 years ago in a suspected murder.

One of the things I love about Primitive Skills is that they gave me a sense of how intelligent our ancestors were. They used a lot of science and they had an understanding of how to live on the landscape and knew the utility of the plants and animals around them well. Without plastic and cities extracting resources from the country, these people had to rely on their landscape and imagination and problem solving abilities are part of the problem solvers we remain today.

These people were not cavemen. That's kind of a falsity. Anybody foregoing the modern trappings of life will have to live creatively and intelligently as they did before.

Shawn Wood is a bowmaker who breaks down the process for making primitive arrows and bows as Otzi used. He offers videos about Primitive Bow Hunting on his youtube site.

His skills are fantastic! Check it out!

Making a Bow:



Making Arrows:

New Rules: Working Out A Little Hungry(AKA fasted)

New Rules:

1. So my workouts should be while I am a little hungry. When I start to get hungry, I should work out first.

2. Wait an hour after working out before I The newest recommendation from DH Kiefer is to wait an hour to

3. A little is better than nothing. (Which applies to anything)

4. Work out the muscles that are not sore a lot.

5. Do not eat if I haven't worked out an hour before....

-------------------------------------------------------

What Am I doing?

Today I am working on box splits. I will focus on it until I've achieved it. Box splits are a baseline for flexibility. Improving it will benefit my movement practice. I have hated strengthening but I want the flexibility. So I need to change my belief system about it to start liking it.

The things I need to change the most are the things I least want to do and overcoming that discomfort gives my life meaning.

Before this I needed coffee. My coffee drinking varies from unhealthy to healthy. These past few weeks, it has been a lot.



I've been looking at pictures of my changing body throughout the years in Korea and there has been a correlation between stress and belly fat. I have fluctuated between these two photo extremes. Something that is not healthy for myself and I have stabilized a lot with a low carbohydrate high fat diet with periods of high carb feeds or an earned meal, intermitten fasting, and calorie restriction.

This week I have decided to try two calorie restricted days a week of 500 to 1000 calories of a low carb, high fat diet. Tuesday I tried a fat fat and made two videos. A before:



And an after:


 One low fat, high carb refeed on Sunday evening. Three days lower carb, higher fat eating. Sometimes these days will be ultra low carb.

My Athletic Ability Bucket List

I want to be all that I can be. The following is a list of things I want to be able and have done so far:

Planks
Situps
Jumping Jacks
Squat Jumps
Pull up
Muscle Up
Pushup
Fist Pushup
Seal Pushup
Cartwheels
Handstand
Free Dive
Walking Handstand
Kipup
Scoot
Wall run
Sideflip
Front Flip
Back Flip
Butterfly Kick
Vault Jump
Inward 360 Roll
Tic Tac Precision
Cheat 900
Sideswide Wrap
Split
Front Split
5 foot high split jump
Deep Squat
scorpion pose
shoulder stand
tree pose(steady)
headstand
bridge pose
bow pose
wheel pose
warrior one
warrior two
warrior three
crow pose
triangle pose
warrior
plow
wheel kick
roundhouse
beginner front kick
jab punch
upper cut punch
overhand punch
curve punch
6 percent body fat
longevity
ability to lift my weight above my head

What to Look For in any Plutonic or Romantic Relationship?

Be in a relationship with someone who works on expressing their love with action.
Be in a relationship with someone who is trying to improve their relationships.
Be in a relationship with someone who takes the time to understand you.
Be in a relationship with someone who tries to understand you.
Be in a relationship with someone who is patient.
Be in a relationship with someone who likes spending time with you.
Be in a relationship with someone who can share their world and their hobbies with you.
Be in a relationship with someone who is your friend.

That's it.

Living Simply and Honestly in All Things

It's important to me to live simple, honest, clean, in relationships, work, fitness and community. I need to develop myself.

Sometimes it takes a true love's doings to inspire this...

How About A Paleo Diet Based on the Local Foods of the Wild Peoples?

There is a lot of debate between paleo diet enthusiasts about what Paleolithic people ate. The most obvious reason for this is due to a lack of understanding of ancestral traditions. The most insidious reason for this is the lack of reporting of what current wild people eat or what wild people did eat.  Those in the mainstream are not doing this. Instead people not clued in to this fact are modeling their Paleo diets on the Flintstones and look for approximation in a grocery store. It's quaint to be polite and, well, cartoonish like the show.

There is a need to debunk the myths of the Paleo diet and go deep into discussing what the wild people left are eating as well as look at what wild peoples were eating in the local area a person inhabits. The rediscovers, from primitive skills practioners to scientists, can learn from those alive and base their diet on their wisdom. Those like myself in living in a city will have to approximate the best they can, but those who can move beyond the grocery store will benefit the most.

So far in the mainstream media, the group TED talks had a myth busting talk on the Paleo Diet titled, "Debunking Paleo," which was a hatchet piece to make the diet seem laughable. They certainly threw the baby out with the bathwater, when there was no discussion of a diet of native people.

Why isn't this being done so far in the mainstream? Maybe it is that our thinking has been flawed towards thinking of the beginning of agriculture as the end of the paleolithic diet for the wild people left in the world. Or maybe we live in a state of denial, too sensitive to acknowledge the merits of those living outside of a civilization.

For whatever reason during these diet wars many people do not know that many Native American's were living in a pre-agricultural state when the colonists arrive in America.

The localvores amongst paleo practioners can short out what the people were eating amongst them. Much is lost unfortunately, for people whose wisdom was ignored and died with those who can remember a time when they weren't forced on reservations. At this point, people have to discover the local foods available themselves.

Outside of the mainstream, there is few with the expertise and the charisma to report on the Paleo diet. The best video I've seen of the  Paleo Diet myths and clarification has been by Arthur Haines, a taxonomist. Being a student of the ethno-zoology of this area, (that is the study of people and their use of the land)  he introduces foods that were previous taken out of the paleo diet according to certain paleo authors that the local native American's used.

Arthur's actions and videos are an heroic contrast of what the mainstream media is failing to do in the diet wars, look at the ancestral traditions of Native people and report what to do. But to do so, we would have to respect the people we ignore.

One of the foods has been a local wild grain in his area, rice. Paleolithic people didn't eat white rice, but in the area's it was grown they definately ate wild rice along with whatever else would support them, whether it be a wild species of legume in an area of New England, which Arthur said was eliminated in recent years or the varieties of wild edibles unknown to Arthur in another climatic zone.

Below is a video of Arthur's about Wild Rice gathering and preparation.



Would grains be in an Inuit's diet? Of course not, but the point of all of this is that by learning what the local people ate in our area, we can progress towards a localized Paleo diet. For this unknown location in Maine, wild rice would be paleo. It's certainly a contrast based on heavily approximating a paleo diet based on  what's in the grocery store though that's the only choice some people have.

Wild Foods for Health

Arthur Haines, a zoologist and primitive skills teacher,  recently posted this chart about wild plants. It's based on nutritional studies , biological studies and anthropological information.  

I grow organic foods, but propogating wild plants are the way forward to rebuild ecosystems and restore our health. 

Source: Delta History of Natural History( Arthur Haines)

What I Think About When I Am Meditating Slightly Exagerated for Comic Effect

Start time after procrastinating for 15 minutes on facebook. 

I have to do this. 

Five minutes later.

Remember my breathing. Check watch. 

Ten Minutes later. 

What was I doing? Oh yeah remembering my breathing. Was I supposed to count my breaths? Crap, I forgot. Shit, I said crap. Check watch. 

11 minutes later. 

Only a minute has passed. Okay, I am not checking my watch.

20 minute later. 

Wow, I feel relaxed. I can change my whole life. 

25 minutes later. 

I will change the world! 

50 minutes later. 

My back really hurts. I can't feel my legs. Why did I choose to try for an hour and half today.  

60 minutes later. 

Ommmmm. 

70 minutes later. 

I am ugly. No one loves me. The world is dying. I suck with people. I am in a room alone, because I am ugly and disgusting.

80 minutes later. 

I love everything. The world is beautiful. I am so glad I did this.

90 minutes later.

Times up. I feel so relaxed. I have to work tomorrow, but I feel I can meditate  all the time. I will be mindful and relaxed. 

95 minutes later. 

I am a golden god! I am a golden god!  

100 minutes later.

I have to go to work tomorrow. 

Shit.

Missteps, Neglect, and Brown Thumb Confessions in the Garden to Cleanse Me of My Sins

Perilla is infamous I suppose for having a long incubation time. An internet resource I checked said he sprouted the seeds before planting them so I did the same. Two weeks later still nothing. So I dumped the soil of  unborn perilla plants into a bed and laid down some arugula sprouts. One month later the arugula thrived. Now two months later, the arrugula is being overrun by the Perilla. Perilla likes higher soil temperatures so now being May, I sprouted the seeds as recommended before planted the seeds into soil. I thought the seeds had died, but it turns out they just weren't ready. It's been informatory and a reminder of how much gardening will be a continuous learning process. I have about 14 little plants that will need to be transplanted onto guerilla gardening plots quickly! since the circular bed will only support 3-4 mature plants.

Like many things in life the projects I've taken on had unknown steps to take until some things could only be done good enough instead of stellar. Since farming is not my full-time job, I can not devote all my time to doing it perfectly, and some things have been neglected when things came up in life that had to be dealt with first.

There are some Jerusalem Artichokes that I haven't planted. Some have been lost to mold, and the others need to be planted. I just have prioritized other things at the moment such as working out and eating cleanly. Now, it's a matter or plant them now or don't plant them at all, a stark choice that makes this a priority.

I am afraid that two of my food composts have been severely neglected. The food has to be mixed with a nitrogen rich leaves to break down, but I haven't and if there wasn't a good breeze on my roof, I would have gotten rid of the rotting mass it has become. If was doing a good job with the last two boxes of food waste that I am speaking about than I would have probably mixes in leaves about a day or two following the food. But its been about a week without any leaves to help it break down.

My forest compost system is great, because its the simplest and needs the least amount of input, A shallow whole and the food and covered with leaves in the forest will produce a good result and will not offend my white collar neighbors.

Unfortunately, the leaves are not far persay from me to gathe, but in the city it can be hard to make the trip to gather leaves when I have a short window of time when work finishes until bedtime. That isn't an excuse, because ultimately that is my fault and it isn't enough.  I should have prepared better on the weekend. My shame will help me to comply with this.

It goes to show that the simpler something is, the easier it is to comply, something that speaks for why living in the country is going to be more ecologically friendly, since I would  have way less hauling and inputs to maintain this garden. It also shows me, how much better I need to do.

Namsan Community Garden Kicked Started by Guerilla Gardners In Seoul

Near HBC Seoul, Sunday,  I met a group of people part of meetup.com/urbanfarmer to help with their community garden project, led by fellow rooftop farmer Justin and waygook gardener.

What is essentially a guerilla garden project needs to be aesthetically pleasing so the parks department will accept it as a project. No permit, we are are going into a sensitive area that needs to look like an improvement. The group has met several times and cleared a mass of bamboo to created an aesthetic shape. 

We cut the weeds and turn the soil, layed out logs to make nice shapes to the beds and then, covered the soil with leaf mulch to protect the micro-organisms. 

These picture was taken earlier in the day. Two beds had already been constructed a week earlier. 

The results of the days work felt great. I had left by the time this photo was taken by Justin to get back to Wonju. The raining season began the next day in time for planting. 

Great job all!