Am I a liberal?

Today, I visited a corner that has two used bookstores. I walked into one, dropped off my bag under one of the tables of books and asked how much they'd buy my Grisham book for. They said no thanks, and that they already have too many.

I walked next door and asked the same question, "I'd like to sell this John Grisham book, what can you offer me?" The owner of the store looked at the book and said apologetically that he can only give me $1. I thought for a second and said, sure sounds good. I recently donated two books to the same shop because they didn't want them. Readers need used bookstores more than the owners of the stores need our books. They are in the business of selling books, not buying them.

I buy my Grisham books for $3 and sell them back for $1. When my friend found out how little I sold my book for, she was horrified. I thought to myself, "Oh my God, am I a liberal?"

How to blog

I've heard it a million times, "I can't start a blog, I don't know how." I decided to write a simple how-to for helping people start a new blog.

1) Write about what you know

There are no boundaries. There is no ideal word count. You don't need to try to find your niche. Don't write for a particular audience. All of these things will find you. If you can't find your voice, just pretend you're writing an email to a friend. If you're 70 years old, make that a letter to a friend. There's no excuse why blogging isn't for you. Blogging is self-expression in public. It is a place for exhibitionism. Sometimes, your commenters and followers may affect what you choose to publish. This is ok. Your blog will change as you do. Don't try to force yourself into your blog. Let it flow with you throughout your journey.

SE Asia City Review

I'm not a traveller. I've been around, but I prefer to live somewhere, pick up the language and become immersed in the culture. This is the American way. You meet a whole lot of Westerns who say they don't meet many Americans and that we don't travel outside of our borders. Americans are not travellers looking to party and pick up whores, we'd rather expand our cultural boundaries, fall in love, start a business, and become part of the landscape. This is how I roll as well.

Asia is my home. I lived in Korea 2005-2006, China 2007-2008 and have been to Japan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Burma, Philippines and Indonesia. A goal of mine when first coming to SE Asia was to determining a place to stay for a few years. I'd like to use this space to discuss my perspective of various cities in SE Asia. I prefer big cities to rural living, so though there are wonderful places to settle with fewer than 5 million dwellers, any smaller than that and I miss the traffic.

Eliminate nutrition dogma

Paleo is not for me. OMG, did he just say that? He can't say that. I just did, deal with it.

Crossfit HQ prescribes zone/paleo for eating. Zone was created by Dr. Barry Sears and involves weighing and measuring food to ensure that the proper quantity of macronutrients is consumed at the right time throughout the day. Paleo ignores the precision and is about getting Crossfitters to consume quality foods and to get rid of garbage.