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Quick Hits and Brief Thoughts

- Mark Sisson is going to blog again. I was shocked yesterday to learn that my very long time buddy Sisson is tossing his hat in the ring to do more regular blogging like in the old days. Mark Sisson's Unteathered. He has 3 posts up, and most of it is free unless you want more personalized access. I loved his introductory post. "Blogging changed," it began. It's reminiscent of political partisans saying, "I didn't leave the party, the party left me." I feel it. In fact, I've been lamenting the very things he points out in that post. "This is my solo, unfiltered voice. Not a project linked to Primal Kitchen or Kraft. This is just me, Mark Sisson, untethered and unfiltered."

- Anthony Colpo did a stupid post about women and Thailand. He asks, Should You Go to Thailand in Search of a Bride? — Probably not, and here's why. I've read through and skimmed through the post, and it's just fucking stupid. I see he has now paywalled it. Maybe posting such stupid shit wasn't working out for the mama's boy (the crux of the issue). Here's what's so fucking stupid. He waxes on and on about how the dating scene works with ZERO first-hand experience. How do I know? I spent 5-6 weeks with him nearly daily (walks to the gym, 4 km round trip, workouts, shopping trips, other outings) here in Pattaya. I was completely transparent with him. He would not even try to go on a date, transactional or normal. He's deathly afraid of women and, in particular, of pussy.

- I'm very excited about the Pete & Bobby Challenge. Here's a quick 2 min YouTube: RFK Jr. Challenges Pete Hegseth to a Pullup and Pushup Competition. I love it because of its potential to be ingrained back into American culture. In the way back, fitness involved bodyweight movements and military style PT tests. In my officer training formation in my early 20s, I had to pass them. Now I'll critique the test a bit. Doing 100 pushups and 50 pullups in 10 minutes is not bad. It needs air squats, though. For me, the pullups are the real challenge. I could do 100 pushups and 200 air squats in 10 minutes easy. 50 clean pullups (no kipping). That's fucking hard. I have mass, both fat and lean, and pullups require an optimal balance. Think rock climbers. Perfect lean/strong/endurance balance. I'd love to hear what Sisson has to say. There is a magic to the pullups. A fat person can't even do a single one, doesn't matter the time given.

- I voted for this. I'm getting what I want. I'm using this more and more as a reply or quote/share all over social media (X and FB) when people are horrified. Democracy is a double-edged sword if that's what your morality is based on (two wolves and one sheep deciding on what's for dinner). An example.

- My buddy Russel Hantz is in town. So, it has been about 3 years since Russel Hantz of CBS Survivor fame (who broke the game; see this) walked up to me in a bar in Rawai, Phuket and introduced himself. He's back in Thailand for a month or so and we met up last night on Walking Street in Pattaya. IF you saw him in action on the reality show, you might call him The Energizer Bunny. Still is. I had to bow out at about 3am. The gal is from Bangkok, where he spent a few days before arriving in Pattaya. Min. Very sweet girl. Not a bar girl. Russel walks down public streets and just says, "you're beautiful." He's not afraid of pussy like Anthony Colpo is.

- Far is back to her village for a while after 3 months of daily living together. I had to buy her new shoes for the trip. The backstory is that the first time I took the 10-hour drive up to her village more than a year ago, I used Google Maps to get me to her rural neighborhood street, but then I had to just drive down it slowly, and finally, I saw her shoes on the patio. Bingo. They had become worn, so new and renewed. 14 bucks US. They are adorable on her.

- Finally, very sad news for me. My longtime friend and best expat friend here in Thailand, Steve Smith, passed away just 3 days ago. I learned the terrible news this morning. I mention it here only because he was a friend of this blog for about 13 years and also a lifetime member. But he became much more than that once I moved to Thailand. We had regular video chats and sometimes, near-daily texts. The main topic was what cool films or series to watch. He loved all the WWII films.

When I moved from Phuket to Pattaya in early 2023, I arranged to detour to Kanchanaburi near where he lived and worked for more than 30 years. If the location of Kanchanaburi doesn't jog your memory, it's where all the WWII Allied cemeteries are, plus the history surrounding the Japanese building the bridge over the River Kwai. The Thais are impressively respectful of that history and keep everything as clean and tidy as I have ever seen.

Steve is Australian, and he volunteered for various Commonwealth organizations that helped ancestors get nice pictures of their loved ones' grave sites, meticulously manicured—the high percentage being Australian, who took the brunt of it all.

Steve was initially trained as a geologist and came to Thailand nearly 40 years ago in that capacity. One day, he was out cycling with friends in rural Thailand, they stopped somewhere, and he saw a girl and set his mind to marry her. The rest is history, as they say. I didn't get to meet her, as where they lived at the time of my visit was a ways away. But he joked to me that pretty much the only English she knows is cuss words, because he does all the driving. He speaks Thai.

(Stories like this, of which there are "a million," are completely absent from Anthony "fucktard" Colpo's stupid fucking post.)

But what he did when he decided to live here permanently over 30 years ago was get a job teaching English. So he put 3 decades worth of university students through rigorous English classes.

He was a dear friend, a total "proper cunt," and you have to know Australians and English to understand that.

Rest peacefully, my dear friend.

... His daughter posted this on his Facebook profile today.

Dear friends who were so dear to my father,

It is with deep sadness that I share the news that Steve passed away peacefully on September 4th in Thailand.

Our family is truly grateful for all your kind condolences and support during this difficult time.

He built a legacy in a different place of his choosing. It will last.

WHAT IT'S ABOUT

Free The Animal is an eclectic writing project about everything since November 2003. 21 years, 5,500 posts, 5 million words.

Enough people like it in regular doses to pay me to keep doing it. If you catch the bug, you can manage that right here.