Welp... lot's happening at Forever Labs. This week is a perfect distillation of what it's like to run a startup. We are training a new Chief Marketing Officer, we had new hoods delivered to the lab, we signed off on advisory agreements for a company Mark/I are advising in the stem cell space, I picked up 8 human wisdom teeth from a friend that is a dentist, I took a phone call with a guy that sold his company in the largest consumer acquisition in history ($3.5b), we have an interview with Harpers Bazaar on Friday, we launched a new pricing model for the month of January testing if a lower price (just $500) increases signups and shortens the sales cycle, Mark is processing stem cells from dog testicles, we are putting together a pro forma for a capital raise, we took meetings with our business attorneys this morning about how to structure an A round and how to best form a b2b entity of our business which would sell stem cells lines for R&D purposes, we took a meeting with healthcare attorneys to ensure we can legally allow our clients to consent to donate their cells for R&D (turns out we CAN!!! Woo-hoo!), we have dinner tonight with an investor and with the Pet Labs team (a pet stem cell company partially owned by us), I have a call with our lead investor from our previous round tomorrow to give an update and we banked a 5x NBA all star's stem cells who signed up his supermodel girlfriend to bank this week. Someone asked Mark how his holiday break was and we both started laughing. Break? I was able to record a song over Christmas. I will post it to Hubski today. How are all of you? Please, live life for me. Let me live vicariously through all of you ;-) Onward! -TNG
The goddamn airline cancelled my flight back from India, and the flights back cost 4 times what I paid. So I just spent an hour on the phone and cancelled my 3 month long trip I've been looking forward to for months. We were supposed to leave the coming Wednesday. We were going to go to India, Sri Lanka and Nepal. Relax at the beach, take the most scenic train ride in the world, hike up to base camp, visit the sacred city of Varanasi, experience the complete mess and culture shock that India is supposed to be. It was going to be the best!!! I spent 200$ on vaccines yesterday, read Shantaram, bought hiking boots and have a whole word document with the details of the trip. And now we're staying in fucking dumb Canada for the stupid winter. I'm so sad and pissed off. I guess the upside is that we're last minute planners. So I didn't yet book any hotels or trains or tours, and didn't even apply for the visa. And we could always go to India next year. And probably we'll still go somewhere to escape the winter. Maybe Peru? Anyone has any recommendations of cheap cool places? I'm gonna spend today being sad about my dream trip falling through, but tomorrow's a new day and I'll see if I can get exited about going someplace else!
I'm sorry to hear this. I'd be pissed too. Go to Peru. Hike Machu Picchu. Spend more time in Cusco than Lima. Peru/Machu Picchu is the best trip I've been on. Close second is Iceland. Onward!
YES! We got 2 months so the new plan would be Colombia > Equador > Peru > ( Bolivia if we got time) Maybe it's for the best. We get to stay and actually enjoy the event we've been helping organise for the past months. And India will still be there next year...
Friends of mine recently visited Colombia, and were very surprised. They loved it. As Americans 'of a certain age', Colombia has always been a scary place... drugs, death, corruption... but it has turned around and is blossoming, without being touristy yet.
My mom was horrified when I said we’re considering going to Colombia. She literally said “have you seen narcos!?” But I’ve heard so many good things about Columbia now. Medellin is practically a case study about how fast a city can transform. Looking at the government advisory website, looks like there still are areas to avoid there. Mostly border areas because of kidnapping.
And India will still be there next year...
If, for some reason it is not, I am blaming you.
Why on earth did they cancel?? And what train ride is supposedly the most scenic?
I guess it was not profitable so the company cancelled all their routes to India... We did get our money back at least! There's a train ride in Sri Lanka that's getting really famous for the views. Here's a picture one of my friends took there: https://www.instagram.com/p/9-N8ORK6zR/
Go to Egypt with me in the summer and we can meet over some Egyptian coffee.
We have a mole at work. When we came back in there was a... "camera" over the door. Several people freaked out. I observed that I had put in about seventeen security cameras in the past 18 months and none of them looked like that. I was told I don't know everything. I observed that the camera was mounted to an I-beam and that in order to connect it to anything the technician would have had to drill through half-inch steel. I was told that there was in fact a cable coming through the other side (!). I observed that it's really fucking hard to talk a security camera into letting its red light blink continuously and was told that I clearly don't know everything about security cameras. About this time one of my coworkers left the room because he was having a hard time not laughing. I looked up "fake security camera" on Amazon and the thing in the corner was, in fact, the top hit. I sent it to him via text and he sent back "LOL." I asked "how long do you think we can keep this going?" and he said "All season" and I said "sold." He then suggested that we needed to progressively add more cameras - after all, the fake ones were $12 for a pack of four. I sent him a pic of the four of them when they arrived with "you know we're going to hell, right?" but he was busy working the red carpet at the Globes. Then our leaker tweeted anew and I decided that the time was right to put up another fake camera. I did not know that the first fake camera was also ours. Also a box of four. A box of four that's sitting out in the open where many of us can see them but the most paranoid, ancient and kermudgeonly among us never venture. So there are eight fake security cameras in that room right now, two of which have been deployed, one of which has been noticed (I mean, they're the size of coffee cups with large prominent blinking lights and still the Paranoids haven't found the other one). We're debating how many we can get up before the other half of the department figures out they're fake. The problem is they've spun up a conspiracy where they see wires where there are none. They've started talking about bringing in balloons to block the cameras. If we get to, say, four will they completely, abjectly lose their minds and go screaming to the head of the show? There are currently three schools of thought: 1) The cameras all disappear suddenly one day 2) The rest of them appear in a single day rush when people start to catch on 3) The cameras gain googly eyes when people start to catch on The truly hilarious thing is that we're about to hit the point where the booth has people in it 24:7. Therefore if more cameras appear, it means that one of us is in league with THEM.
Completely tangential, but why on earth do humans have a pull cheeky shit gene? What's the evolutionary benefit to pulling wool over our unsuspecting neighbors? Why does the image of our friends/coworkers acting goofily consistently inspire such hilarity?
Because play is wargaming for stressful engagements while also a useful safety valve within hierarchy. Monkeys pull cheeky shit. Wolves pull cheeky shit. Ravens pull cheeky shit - they dive and peck at wolves to see if they can get away with it, and to get wolves used to having them around, and to get wolves' attention so that when they're out in the woods and they start calling raucously it gets the wolves' attention because it means there's something to eat that's too big for the raven to take down itself. You're asking "why do animals play?" and this is a complicated subject but the answer is basically "it's socially useful." If you can play at a rivalry you don't have to exercise it. Two tribes of warriors can peacefully coexist if they occasionally play polo to earn bragging rights instead of slaughtering each other until only one team stands. A group of men in a department can prank the rest of the men in the department as a safety valve so that they can all be friends while one group can still lose.
I heard once that laughing is an evolved behavior that basically communicates "everything is ok between you and me" so you ease into the relationship and the bond strengthens. But I have to really stretch to reach "and monkeys also massively rib to the point of embarrassment and at great potential cost to themselves." I certainly get why it's fun. But why it's so pervasive is just surprising.
The evolutionary advantage of Homo Sapiens over Homo Erectus or Homo Habilus or Homo Neanderthalensis is our ability to use language - sinuses exist for better communication. the sapiens palate is better evolved for communication. Our forebrains are evolved for better communication. The tribal hierarchy practiced by sapiens allows for more sophisticated herd behavior which gave us an efficiency advantage over everyone else. If I haven't recommended this book to you before, I am now correcting that deficiency. Fundamentally, humans don't have the jaws to eat raw and without the ability to cook food we perish... but by evolving the ability to cook food, we were basically able to develop the animal kingdom's first external digestive system. Doing so allowed us to run fast, run lean, and run brutal in ways other animals can not but putting such a vital biological function out in the field instead of inside the ribcage required a communal-insect-level commitment to societal structure. It's only been recently that biologists have started listening to anthropologists: anything that strengthens social bonds is of evolutionary advantage. Full stop.
This breaks the hearts of the old anthropologists. My thesis adviser, on the one occasion that I heard her complain about anything, bemoaned the fact that she was entering into her 70's right as the field has begun to be taken seriously.It's only been recently that biologists have started listening to anthropologists: anything that strengthens social bonds is of evolutionary advantage. Full stop.
I don't really know what I'm doing and mental health is hard to talk about but sometimes it's good so hi I've been back in Freiburg for 4 days and I'm doing really really poorly, I'm incredibly homesick all the time, depressed and anxious, can't get any work done and can't sleep. (And the stress nausea! Oh, the stress nausea!) I cried every day since the day before I left home because I just didn't wanna go and now I just wanna go back. Did some calculations and I'll probably have to stay here for 3 more semesters after this one's done just to finish my BA, which sounds like an unimaginable, unbearable length of time to be so far from home. And between work and school here, if I stay, I'll only be home around 2 weeks a year. Questioning if it's even worth it considering that I have no idea what I would do with my BA (and I'm 19!!) Today's been better, I guess. Got an extension on a presentation I was stressing about, finally got a fair amount of uni work done, even though I haven't left my apartment since yesterday. Plans with a friend this evening. And I made a doctor's appointment for next week so I can ask for a referral to a therapist and a psychiatrist. But for now it's just really fucking hard, you guys. Well wishes/prayers/whatever you believe in appreciated.
It's so hard to have perspective at 19. But, trust me... none of the things stressing you out matters as much as you think. Not even close. Take care of yourself. Do something active. Sweat. Make something. Go to the school of music and play a drum set. Go see a movie. When you go home those 2 weeks a year, you're gonna feel like a rock star. Why? Cause you are strong enough to get out. You are strong enough to leave the nest and forge your own path. You've got this, galen. Onward!considering that I have no idea what I would do with my BA (and I'm 19!!)
- Hey pal, I'm pulling for you. Always. But you are NOT supposed to know what you would do with your BA at 19. Hell... you're not supposed to know at 25. If you are one of the rare souls that knows your life's direction by 25, I kind of feel sorry for you. I'm 41, I have a pretty good idea of what I'm gonna be doing the next 2-3 years, but beyond that... No idea. My college education was a joke, from a specific career standpoint. What it taught me was self reliance, how to deal with loneliness (I had some dark times) and how to be social.
Hi Galen. I'm glad to hear that you have sought out help. Never be ashamed to ask for help. College is hard, it's a huge transition from high school straight into adulthood and high school doesn't prepare you much for how huge of a transformation it is. I promise you it will get better. Your friends will become a second family, and soon enough you will be moaning and groaning about having to go home for the holiday breaks and summers. Tough it out, a degree is never a bad investment. I recently graduated with a BS and got a job right out of college, but that first year was TOUGH... you will get through it and once you're graduated you'll say "Do I have to go into the real world now?" lol
Congratulations, Devac, it sounds like you're straight-up slaying right now :).
After almost 10 months of work, I have an appointment scheduled at Cleveland Clinic for next week. I would appreciate some answers or at least a confirmation that I am indeed as unwell as I keep telling people I am. I'm also supposed to be seeing a pain doctor sometime soon because my non-narcotic pain medication has been reclassified as a narcotic, it's losing effectiveness even as we increase the dose and it's chewing big gaping holes in my memory all at the same time. Fighting off some kind of virus. Four doses of Tamiflu and one influenza PCR test later it's confirmed I don't have the flu. Managed 20 minutes of yoga last night with a few breaks. Gonna try to do five miles on the bike today to say I did something.
I've got all my own kayaking gear now. I got to try it out on my first class III rapids the other day and it was blast. We did a 10k trip down a river which started with some gentle features and then built up as it went on. It was great to navigate the extended runs and feel all the things I've been practicing really come into effect. Bouncing up and down on waves, going down drops, and having to paddle to avoid real danger really gave me some excitement that I'd been lacking in my life. Also, it's awesome when a big wave splashes you in the face. I used to do a lot of board sports in my teens and feeling that rush again was like the embrace of an old friend. Here's a video of one of best rapids of the day For scale, a picture of me entering the top of it: I just got a raise at work. I'm transitioning into a new position which entails a lot more responsibility and direct communication with the customers. That's something I've shunned in the past, but I thought I'd take it as opportunity to grow. It's a 3 month trial and still the same hours, so we'll see how that goes. Taking the entirety of December off from everything was definitely a great idea. Though it came about through necessity as I'd forgotten to take any holiday this year so I had to use it all up. I took a step back from my music during that time too and it's really helped me come back with a refreshed perspective in what I want to achieve.
been back to uni for a couple days, getting back into the swing of things: my japanese professor this time around is very strict but also feels like a grandmother figure - i like her i applied to a job for the first time yesterday and i think i have an ok chance of getting it so wish me luck fellas i came out as trans to 2 more of my friends and they were so accepting it made me wonder why i waited so long to do it life is a strange bird
I continue to largely ignore politics, which continues to help. I'm still struggling with mood stuff, but it's unclear if this is breakthrough mess with the meds or simply seasonal. I definitely had a downturn this time last year (which is what prompted me to get on antidepressants to begin with), so that's at least one data point. I could use some more, though. Beyond that, just plodding along. My agency is thankfully not affected by the shutdown, so little has changed for us. Work is still work, and I'm still trying to figure out more about what I want to do with myself and how I want to spend my time. For the moment, I find myself not wanting to do much more than sit in the dark and play video games. Starcraft Remastered is the order of the day, plus a couple iOS games I picked up over the holiday. I still think about and occasionally dabble with writing and drawing. I'm less enthusiastic about either, but this is actually a good thing: I have no way to deal with coming down off the excitement high, so a lower peak means a softer crash. I'm also trying to be less goal-focused with these, as that gets overwhelming with a quickness. That's about it. There's talk of snow this weekend, which would be awesome, but this far out who knows.
Maybe a birthday coffee. This place serves coffee, right? -Working towards ccnp. -Working my program. -Celebrating today with music and writing. Almost done, hubski. Nasdarovya!
Well, my goal is to take all the specializations in security. However, a few others interest me as well. There is just so much to learn!!!
Thank you! Feel free to PM me and I would love to see what we can learn from each other. It's all about pacing and taking it a day at a time. Funnily enough, the routing and switching one interested me as well.