Here’s the latest creative video that I made. I first did a little beatboxing, recorded it, looped it with my computer and then scratched over it with my turntables.
I also used a little sound sample from the crosswalk ticker and some footage around the neighborhood.
Lately I have been watching a lot of Jordan Peterson’s stuff. He is really interesting. I signed up for one of his courses online called self and future authoring.
Some of the questions that are asked in the future authoring course I added to the video. Something to think about.
Autophagy is how a cell naturally clears away dead or unhealthy cells in your body. You can do that 2 ways and both of those ways require stressing the cell.
Way number 1 – exercise
If you exercise you can stimulate autophagy.
Way number 2 – fast or deplete your body of nutrients
Fasting and caloric restriction has been shown to increase autophagy.
Why you want to do that
Autophagy clears away the dead and unhealthy cells in your body. The older you get the more of these cells you get in your body.
So autophagy promotes health and healing in your body by clearing away dead and unhealthy cells.
If you are not doing these things then you are essentially speeding up your own destruction.
Are you looking for a super fast Joomla template? How about a fast loading and responsive Joomla template? Or do you need a high speed solution to slow loading pages?
The problem…
Joomla can be slow
Here’s why:
lots of CSS files
lots of javascript files
unminified CSS, Javascript, HTML
lots of images and icons
Google fonts
lots of http requests
lots of components
And if you add Google analytics, Adsense, or Youtube videos they will also slow your site down. Although I share something later in the template that will speed up your Youtube video loads.
Out of the box Joomla is usually not optimized and it is often slow. This can depend upon the template, but there are often lots of CSS and JS files.
So I created my own template over the years that is extremely simple and fast.
Should a website be fast?
People prefer fast websites and since people prefer fast websites so does Google. It’s likely that the faster your website is the better you will rank in Google.
I don’t know about you…
But if I go to a website and it locks up my page because it’s loading a bunch of ads and other stuff I hit the back button.
And…
I silently wish to myself that their bounce rate goes up and Google demotes them.
If you want a lot of bells and whistles then you will pay
If you want a flashy website then it’s going to slow you down. Some things may look cool, but just add to the overall weight of the page.
The flashy stuff may look cool, but it doesn’t make up for something that is missing in your content.
The bells and whistles should be in your content. If you try to make subpar content look better by adding cool effects and what not then you will slow your site down.
Think Wikipedia or Craigslist.
Are these flashy websites? No. Are they popular websites? Yes. Why? Because they help people.
A flashy website isn’t go to make you any more popular.
Enter my speedy template that will get a 100% on most page speed tests
Javascript and CSS files will slow down a page. So how many CSS files does my template use?
Zero.
How many JS files does my template use?
Zero.
I eliminated them both.
What?!
Yes, it’s possible. Out of the box Joomla open source software is for everyone. It’s versatile and you can build a massive site with all kinds of different functions.
But what if you just want a simple site that’s fast and responsive in mobile view?
I didn’t need that much. I just wanted a fast simple site for my content which was mostly a blog and videos.
Is this template for everyone?
Absolutely not.
It’s for the minimalist. If you want a simple (minimal), fast loading Joomla template that’s responsive then this is it. If you want something fancy then this is not for you.
How can a site work without a CSS file?
As per Google’s recommendation for small css files I inlined the css. This template uses very little CSS.
How can a site work without Javascript?
Javascript is often used for Joomla components, so if you don’t need any components then you probably don’t actually need to be loading Javascript files.
By default Joomla is going to load a bunch of files. But they can be removed.
If you decide that you want to load these files or need them for a component you can add them, but remember that comes with a cost. They will make your site slower which may decrease your ranking.
How does this template do on speed tests?
You can check out this minimal and super fast Joomla template here. The following are some checks for Google’s Pagespeed. My template gets 100% on all of these.
The template will score 100% on speed checks, however if there is an image on the page that will slow it down a bit.
Reduce server response time
Leverage browser caching
Avoid landing page redirects
Eliminate render-blocking JavaScript and CSS in above-the-fold content
Enable compression
Minify CSS
Minify HTML
Minify JavaScript
Optimize images
Prioritize visible content
How does it compare to other “fast” Joomla sites?
There are a few sites out there that say they are fast. And some of them may be compared to others, but the ones I have tested are still not that fast.
For the last 30+ days or so I have been eating a vegan diet basically. I basically cut out eggs and A2 dairy like goats milk cheese and occasional turkey or fish.
It wasn’t that hard because I was at one point a vegetarian for 10+ years.
I had read some bad things about eggs and decided to test it out.
Well, it really depends on what you read, because there is a lot of different information out there. To some eggs are a super food and to others not.
How do I feel?
I don’t really feel any different, not stronger or weaker. I didn’t really gain or lose weight. Instead of eating 4-6 eggs a day and a little bit of cheese I ate more nuts, seeds and carbohydrates from mostly sweet potatoes.
I have tried the ketogenic diet, vegetarian diet, the plant paradox diet, intermittent fasting and now a vegan diet which wasn’t so different from the diet that I was already on.
I’d say my diet is rough combination of all those diets with fasting one day a week and occasional longer bouts.
I have been making these really yummy pancake like thingies with:
I used to add eggs to them too, but I found the addition of tapioca flour to work great at holding everything together while giving it a crispy outer and chewy center.
I’d say for the nut flours that almond and pumpkin seed are the best. I bought a coffee grinder to grind all the seeds up which is great for making flour.
You could sprinkle that flour/meal on all kinds of things.
I think grinding them also makes them more digestible, easier on your teeth and according to some grinding may reduce the phytic acid. I also started to soak them too for the same reason.
I am pretty content being a mostly vegetarian. I am not planning on becoming a militant vegan or anything. I just wanted to test it out.
Fasting makes you really appreciate food. I think this was my second or third 3 day fast.
This time I drank ginger and astragalus tea in the morning, water and a little plain mineral water. So for some it’s not that strict of a fast, but it was pretty good for me.
Anyways…
The first day was like normal. I stopped eating at 4:30 on Saturday which is not that unusual. Usually I will stop on Sat. somewhere between 6-8pm and then not eat until 6-7pm on Sunday. But this time I decided I’d go longer.
The first day was a bit harder than the second day. I felt pretty good on the second day. So good that I even went to Jiujitsu and by then I hadn’t eaten anything in like 50 hours.
I kinda wanted to see how I would do. I did surprisingly well. In fact I felt rather euphoric and happy. I had plenty of energy and I didn’t pass out or anything. I might have been slightly weaker, but it wasn’t too noticeable to me.
I even felt great after class. I was wide awake, but.
The problem came when I stayed online writing past 11pm which is like the magic time to get off for me. If I stay on longer than that then it’s pretty likely I am going to mess my sleep up.
I was right.
I hardly slept.
I kept thinking that if I ate something I would fall asleep. I slept like maybe 1-2 hours. So I woke up not feeling so good. I couldn’t sleep so around 4-5am I just got up and started working online.
I took a short nap in the afternoon and just wasn’t feeling so good. It was then when I decided what is the point of all this????
So I ate a little.
I was hoping for 5 days, but…
Fasting is good for autophagy. Something like when your body starts eating itself, but not muscle or anything I think it’s like dead cells.
Fasting is supposed to help healing.
Fasting for 3-5 days is supposed to stimulate stem cell growth when you start eating again.
It’s good for your immune system.
Fasting is supposed to help increase growth hormone.
Some people do some intermittent fasting before working out.
Your body can burn fat for energy.
It’s pretty cool. I feel good. Thumbs up for fasting ;-).
Things in Chinatown are looking a little grim. A lot of shops on Grant Ave. have closed their doors. In fact a lot of them have had closed doors for quite some time. These are not stores on the side streets of Grant, but stores directly on Grant.
Recently a few stores closed.
918 Grant Ave.
There is a 918A the big one and a little downstairs one 918B. Both have been closed for a while and maybe 918B has been closed for a year or more. Not sure.
900 Grant Ave.
This one just closed in December. I think several stores have been in that one since I have been here. The last one sold like massage chairs.
808 Grant Ave.
This weird pink guy has been hanging around 808 Grant since they closed 6 months or a year or so ago.
801 Grant Ave.
This just closed in December.
730 Grant Ave.
This just closed in December.
729 Grant Ave.
I was surprised to see this one closing. They just closed at the end of December.
716 Grant Ave.
This one closed maybe a month ago or so.
708 Grant Ave.
Kan’s has been closed for a long time like maybe 1-2 years.
700 Grant Ave.
Floating Sushi Boat closed maybe a month or so ago.
615 Grant Ave.
Not sure when this one closed, but it’s been quite a few months.
601 Grant Ave.
This one has been closed for a long time. It used to be Food Court and then that closed and it looks like someone started to move in, but didn’t make it.
528 Grant Ave.
Not sure about this one, but it’s at least been many months.
Why are there so many closed and empty businesses on Grant Avenue?
I don’t know, but I wonder if fewer tourists are going to Chinatown than ever before???
Since I have been here in San Francisco (for 4+ years) I don’t think I have ever seen so many stores closed at once. Aside from summer, the weekends and holidays it’s often dead in Chinatown.
I don’t think it got any busier for me either.
I have seen some other stores around Chinatown with signs saying that they are going to retire or go out of business. Actually I used to think that those signs were just like “sale signs”, but some actually went out of business or closed.
What a day. Some crazy homeless guy possibly on drugs tried stealing my money as I was street performing on Grant in Chinatown, SF. I do a hybrid kinda street performance that entails a costume (see the latest), some miming, story telling, goofing around, and beatboxing.
I divided this post into 2 parts as there were 2 altercations with this same guy within maybe 10-20 minutes.
Part 1 – Guy tries to steal my money
So I was sitting out on Grant St. in Chinatown doing my pink man show and waiting for someone to push play. Then this guy who wasn’t wearing a t-shirt or shoes comes by and picks up my money can sitting between my legs and starts walking off.
At first I thought is this guy joking?
I told him to stop and he kept walking. So I threw him with a judo throw. It happened fast and I can’t remember what kind of throw it was, it was something like osoto gari or o guruma or harai goshi.
He hit the ground, my money went flying and then there was that moment of thought…
“Arm bar him, get on top or this guy is probably going to go away…”
That was my mistake. He got up hit me in the side of my temple and than ran over to a store across the way and grabbed a bin of umbrellas.
Then he tried throwing them at me and eventually ran off.
After that I was thinking about my mistake. I was telling myself… “You got to get on top of the guy and finish him with a submission. That’s why he got up and hit you. That happened cause you didn’t control the situation. Don’t assume he is going to go away.”
Luckily most people are good people and a few people collected my money that had flown everywhere and watched it while this was happening.
Weird too, after that the woman who works next door gave me $20 and another guy $5. It’s weird how that works. The same thing happened another time when a guy was being a jerk throwing these loud firecrackers near me and then I got angry and went over to him and said some things.
Drama.
Maybe people like drama or maybe it’s compassion. Maybe some people feel a sense of compassion for this pink or blue dude who people are messing with.
Anyways back to the story…
Part 2 – He comes back
Then he came back.
He started saying I took some of his stuff. This guy was crazy. He wouldn’t go away and kept walking around me. This time I took off my sign that I wear. Then he took his shirt off the ground and started whipping me with it.
This is all happening on the sidewalk and middle of the street.
There was that thought (a moment) of, “do I back off or attack?” I actually attacked him and grabbed him and got him up against a car from behind in a rear naked choke.
But his chin was tucked and I couldn’t finish him. Later I thought how I could have got that choke… more on that later.
Then another guy comes and asks if we could get off the side of the car. So I threw the guy again on the pavement and got on top of him. He was pulling on my shirt and pushing towards my face.
I was going for the americana. I was thinking of a choke, but he had no shirt on and I’m less confident about my arm triangle chokes. So I went for the americana.
The guy is fighting, but eventually I got his wrist to the ground. I kept my elbow by his head to keep him from biting me. I was thinking this guy could bite, try grabbing my balls or any other dirty thing.
Once I got my grips I pulled it down and up toward his hips. Then I heard some pops and cracks in his shoulder or elbow, the guy yell and then suddenly he became limp and apologetic.
“Sorry. Sorry.”
“I am sorry”, he said.
“Sorry.”
He stopped moving.
If I wanted to be mean or really destroy his elbow or shoulder I would have done it again even deeper. But he stopped fighting and started saying sorry.
So I just held him there in that arm lock.
I was thinking, “do I let him go or hold on or what?”, but I held on, the cops eventually came and handcuffed him. I guess he was causing problems up and down Grant.
Things I learned from that fight
So that’s my story about using judo and jiu-jitsu in a street fight. I always wondered if it would work. I mean it should right? I had been training in jiu-jitsu for maybe close to 3.5 years frequently and in judo for a few years less often.
But you never really know until you are in a fight.
Even after part 1 I was thinking about that mistake and well like most things in judo or jiu-jitsu there are no mistakes.
I know it sounds a little cliche, but…
There are only learning experiences. You may have heard that if you have been practicing jiu-jitsu. It may sound cliche, but it’s the truth.
And I got the chance to immediately apply what I had learned from the first episode. I knew this guy was a problem when he came back so I took my sign off. He took his shirt off the ground and was whipping me with his shirt and then I attacked.
In the end I submitted the guy until the cops came. But learned a few things along the way.
Don’t just throw the guy and think the fight is over. Get on top and/or submit.
I think I could have gotten the rear naked choke had I used my other bicep on his fore head to open up his neck more for my other hand. Probably hard for some to visualize what I mean.
Be aware of your vulnerabilities because the guy may try the dirtiest stuff.
But that’s jiu-jitsu.
It doesn’t matter if it’s a real fight, rolling at the gym or a competition.
The same sort of reflection happens every time you roll with someone. When you fail you can look back on what you did and think about what you will do next time.
The damage
My performance glasses got f*cked up, I got a bump on my temple from getting hit, scratch on my forehead and a bruise on my knee – mounting on the pavement is a lot harder than a mat in the dojo, but otherwise I am o.k.
I noticed that guy had a bloody hand when I had him in an arm lock and I am pretty sure by the sounds of things mentioned earlier that something tore or broke in his elbow or shoulder.
I didn’t punch or kick him I just did what I learned.
In the end
I wanted to get a video because I saw some people recording it, but left by the time the altercation was finished. So hopefully one will surface on Youtube or somewhere else that I can use in the next week or so.
Seeing some pink street performer dude fighting on Grant Street in Chinatown, San Francisco is a little unusual so maybe a video or two will surface somewhere.
Before I got into jiu-jitsu I heard people talk about how it can make you more confident. I always wondered if it had made me more confident. I still don’t know, but had these things happened 4 years ago I think the outcome may have been different.
The cops were actually pretty cool to me which was surprising considering I had known one of the cops for a long time. I think that same cop seems to respect me more now for whatever reason.
I have been very congested since living in San Francisco. I recently became determined to find out why. I started eliminating foods, I cleaned my house, bought a HEPA air filter and recently a dehumidifier.
Now I remember in the past when I vacuumed the carpet I would sneeze and get more congested.
I got tested for allergies today. They tested me for 43 compounds which include mold, pollens, dogs, cats and dust mites.
Here is what they skin tested me for:
Tree Pollens:
1. Golden Acacia (2-5): 0
2. Alder, Red (12-3): 0
3. Ash, Red/Green (3-5): 0
4. Birch (mix) (3-5): 0
5. Bottlebrush : 0
6. Box Elder Maple (3-5): 0
7. Cedar, Mountain (1-5): 0
8. Cottonwood, Com. (3-4): 0
9. Cypress, Arizona (1-5): 0
10. Elm, American (8-10): 0
11. Eucalyptus: 0
12. Gum, Sweet (3-4): 0
13. Olive Tree (4-7): 0
14. Pepper Tree Species (7-9): 0
15. Mesquite (5-6): 0
16. Mulberry, Mix (3-5): 0
17. Oak, Mix (red,Virg, Live/White) (3-6): 0
18. Sycamore, American (2-4): 0
19. Walnut, Black (4-5): 0
20. Walnut, English (3-5): 0
21. Willow, Black (2-5): 0
The zero on the end meant that I was negative. The last two were the positive ones. Dust mites.
I threw out my carpet about a month ago, but there is carpet I can’t throw out which is in the hallways. It’s old and dirty enough and probably filled with dust mites.
I washed the curtains too.
I think the humidity is a problem. Drier places and high elevation places are supposed to be better. I don’t remember having a problem in the Southwest.
There is also mold and apparently dust mites like humidity.
So I am trying to use some dessicants like
salt
silica gel
cat litter (bentonite clay)
I placed these in open containers/tea bags around my room in drawers and in my closet.
Then a few weeks ago I got a small dehumidifier which takes about 16 oz. every 3 days or so out of my small 7×8 room.
This is what the allergy doctors at UCSF suggested to do:
Use zippered dust mite proof covers for pillows and mattress and box-spring
Remove feather pillows and down comforters from bed
Washing sheets/bedding weekly in hot water (140 F) to kill dust mites
Steam clean or remove wall-to-wall bedroom carpeting
Remove area rugs
Dust mites die when the humidity falls below 40 to 50 percent. If you don’t have dry skin or eczema, consider using a dehumidifier if the weather is humid.
+Sinus rinses and a nasal spray (steroid)
Other effects
If you are congested then you can’t breath well. If you can’t breath well then you’ll start breathing through your mouth which is no good and probably the reason why I got 3 cavities (so they said) in spite of eating well, brushing and flossing.
So I have been trying to be more mindful of keeping my mouth closed when sleeping and have even tried taping it closed when I sleep which is tough.
The other problem is a deviated septum which also helps block my nose. I had one surgery in 2006 on it. The ENT doctor gave me a couple of options to consider and showed me with a camera the scar tissue that grew inside after that surgery.
Which makes sense as I didn’t really notice any improvement from that surgery.
