[Toshi]

I tried to go riding this morning. Land Cruiser was in the shop and neither the Tesla nor the minivan have a hitch on them at the moment. Therefore I had to resort to taking off the front wheel and sticking the bike across the middle row of the minivan.

(I could have moved the kids' seats to the middle row instead, folded the rear, and had the bike between the captains chairs but ultimately this was easier.)

Anyway, it was only an attempt. Traffic was horrendous this morning, looking to be over an hour from the middle kid's school to the trailhead. I turned back after a few minutes sitting along with everyone else, electing to have a lazy day with the baby + wife. I'll get out on dirt on Wednesday early afternoon so this week is not lost yet.

 

[SkaredShtles]

<snip>
Anyway, it was only an attempt. Traffic was horrendous this morning, looking to be over an hour from the middle kid's school to the trailhead. I turned back after a few minutes sitting along with everyone else,

Don't worry, man - this will get better.

Or not.

 

[Toshi]

The Fusion is being sold at $299 now. It launched at $699, I believe.

Rumored is that a Fusion 2, the Max, is coming soon:

Redirect Notice

www.google.com

I may jump on that bandwagon if there exists a clean helmet mount-with-offset solution. The closest I can see now is using one of these pieces:

https://gopro.com/en/us/shop/mounts/3-way/AFAEM-001.html

The GoPro Max was announced as per the trademark-based rumors:

That actually looks pretty good for what I want out of a camera: very wide field of view option, 1440p @ 60 fps, and in-camera stabilization because physical gimbals are a pain and don't work that great.

I shall definitely look for a deal on this new Max come Black Friday or so.

 

[Toshi]

Towards the effort for a perfectly cooked steak:

It interfaces with a phone app for remote monitoring. I sprung for the multichannel unit because when my wife cooks katsu she'll often have 3 pieces cooking simultaneously.

 

[SkaredShtles]

Throw steak on grill for 3 minutes per side.

Let rest for 5 minutes.

Enjoy bloody goodness.

 

[Toshi]

Throw steak on grill for 3 minutes per side.

Let rest for 5 minutes.

Enjoy bloody goodness.

That's the basic recipe I use (with some oil, salt, and pepper before plopping them on), but the exact time necessary is variable depending on how thick the meat in question actually is. I usually hit them with the ThermaPen while on the grill to estimate, but having realtime temps and alarms will up my game.

 

[SkaredShtles]

That's the basic recipe I use (with some oil, salt, and pepper before plopping them on), but the exact time necessary is variable depending on how thick the meat in question actually is. I usually hit them with the ThermaPen while on the grill to estimate, but having realtime temps and alarms will up my game.

This is for the full-thickness Costco NY strips.

I actually go a bit longer, as my wife's tolerance for blue-tinged meat is less than mine.

 

[Toshi]

Highly satisfying ride today.

Just shy of 18 hours fasted, great mental focus (cleared everything save for the last switchback root thing and the second root section 100 feet past there, but did need a second try for the second to last, shale switchback, thus the photo op), felt good all around.

Colorado is nice this time of year.

 

[Toshi]

This is for the full-thickness Costco NY strips.

I actually go a bit longer, as my wife's tolerance for blue-tinged meat is less than mine.

This marbling crazy ribeye is incredibly thick so is taking a long time on the grill. I’m glad I have the leave-in fancy temperature probe now!

On a 475 or so degree grill, I flipped it at 3 minutes first and then put the probe in, and at that time it was reading 31 degrees internally (after being in a cold water bath for an hour). I then let it sit on that side until it hit 80 degrees, flipped it now, and am waiting out 115 F before pulling it.

I’ll temp it a few times with the ThermaPen as it rests under its foil tent to see how much extra heat transfer occurs.

 

[SkaredShtles]

115F sounds about right. With such a fatty chunk, I probably would pull it at 105F, assuming it ends up around 115F.

Oh - and what sort of delicious wine do you have to go with that pretty impressive looking chunk of fat??

 

[Toshi]

115F sounds about right. With such a fatty chunk, I probably would pull it at 105F, assuming it ends up around 115F.

Oh - and what sort of delicious wine do you have to go with that pretty impressive looking chunk of fat??

Yeah, I’ll pull the next one lower. Just read temps 127F on up with the ThermaPen after putting it in its foil tent so it’ll likely end up as a relatively uniform 130-135.

 

[Toshi]

Resting, saving up its energy before I EAT IT

 

[Toshi]

It is pretty phenomenal.

 

[SkaredShtles]

It had better be, for $100.

 

[Toshi]

It had better be, for $100.

Being on sale for the company's anniversary these ribeyes were only about $71 per, and that's at 1.5 lbs! A veritable bargain

 

[Toshi]

So per lb when on sale these Gold graded Angus/wagyu ribeyes are about 115% more expensive than Costco USDA Prime ribeyes. I think I might just order a few more when I eat through these, especially since they threw in a $20 off $100 or more coupon with my order.

 

[Toshi]

A few unordered thoughts ricocheting around my skull tonight:

1) If I do get Pivot to swap me out to a large size Shuttle frame on the crash replacement transaction from my medium then I'll have to get Golden Bike Shop to put on a shorter dropper post.

From today's photo one can see that with my short-ass legs my 150 mm (I think) Fox Transfer is as low as it can go, and the larger frame size comes with a longer seat tube since Pivot didn't get the "only vary the reach" memo as of yet.

2) I took advantage of the drop in the market by directing what would be extra money this month towards the Land Cruiser's loan to my taxable investment account instead. Buy low!

I'll have the Land Cruiser's note paid off by Oct 31 in any case, as the end of October and end of April paychecks are healthy ones due to our biannual bonus.

After that the next things for me to do will be:

- refinance the Tesla and minivan, ideally to 2.49% or less. DCU's at 2.99% for energy efficient vehicles (and I'm at 3.49% with them at the moment) but there are two FOMC meetings before the end of the year and at least one more rate drop is likely, I'm thinking

- refinance the mortgage. For this I'll wait until at least May 2020 (so past the next bonus cycle) as I may have my hand forced into going to a 15 year mortgage even as the student loans and 2 car notes persist. We'll see. This may also involve paying down the mortgage to a sub-jumbo size--as of today the spread via Costco Finance is 0.126% for non-jumbo versus jumbo when comparing 15 year fixed notes (3.125% and 2.99%)

3) Christy Sports has a demo day on Nov 16 at Loveland. I'm planning on being there, eyeing the K2 Mindbender 108 Ti in particular. No more buying skis without demoing them first.

4) It would please me to have a vehicle with the Ford 7.3L V8 and the 10 speed in the future, but I just can't seem to figure out a scenario where that'd make any sense at all.

The Land Cruiser is one I'll keep indefinitely due to my emotional attachment to it (first real car purchase after getting this job offer, and I've wanted a Land Cruiser since about 1993 or so, during the straight 6, sliding 3rd row window era):

The Tesla will stick around until Jessica's Italian PHEV minivan gets replaced. It may be replaced with a Model Y, as she seems to really like driving the 3 around whenever it's an option, or the VW ID Buzz may materialize and may be awesome. But 2021-2022 calendar year seems reasonable, so the 3 has some time left in my garage yet.

 

[CBJ]

ID Buzz looks cool however I am want to see more about the quality of their electric product before I would jump on the bus - zing!

Btw I can see the Mercedes EQC is around the same price as my Volvo XC60. I think there is a really high chance we could go all electric when the lease runs out in two years and by then there are even more to choose from. Would like it to be a SUV and with good self driving abilities.

 

[Toshi]

I'll try to wait until/if I hit 200 to get repeat DEXA/RMR/lab testing, but if I plateau around, say, 210 I'll just get it done around 6 months in (so Feb 10 or thereabouts).

Testing planned:

- DEXA, to find out what my lean mass and body fat has done, particularly the bad-risk visceral fat
- RMR, to see how weight loss using this method has affected my basal metabolic rate
- lipid panel with Lp(a), to see if I have a good risk profile or not, good being defined as low Lp(a), high HDL, low Tg, and any LDL value (yes--see Lp(a) or ask if this doesn't make sense)
- LFTs, to see if my AST/ALT/ferritin elevations have resolved, if the fatty liver has gone away

My plans have been stymied by the on-campus Wellness Center discontinuing public DEXA body composition scans come the new year. Thus on Dec 18, earlier than planned, I'll be getting my repeat DEXA and RMR testing... my "will I fit in the wedding dress?" day, if you will.

That'll be 130 days since starting intermittent fasting.

I also put a request to my new PCP (never seen him but assigned to me apparently) via our handy patient web interface for the labwork, both what's mentioned above and also an A1C and a 2 hour oral glucose tolerance test with insulin levels. I'll get those done around the same time, perhaps after the DEXA and RMR on that same day.

 

[Toshi]

America's Auto Loan Debt Is Truly Out Of Control

When you go to buy a new car, how long do you really expect to make payments on it? Three years? Four? Maybe five? Lately, there’s a good chance it’s more than six years, which is an increasingly troubling sign for buyers, the auto industry and the economy as a whole.

jalopnik.com

The latest in a recurring story line:

About a third of auto loans for new vehicles taken in the first half of 2019 had terms of longer than six years, according to credit-reporting firm Experian PLC. A decade ago, that number was less than 10%.

The average loan stretches for roughly 69 months, a record. Some last much longer. In the first half of the year, 1.5% of auto loans for new vehicles had terms of 85 months or longer, according to Experian. Five years ago, these eight- and nine-year loans were practically nonexistent.

A third of new-car buyers who trade in their cars roll debt from old vehicles into their new loans, according to car-shopping site Edmunds. That is up from about a quarter before the financial crisis.

(It was this high even before the crash!)

The median-income U.S. household with a four-year loan, 20% down and a payment under 10% of gross income—a standard budget—could afford a car worth $18,390, excluding taxes, according to an analysis by personal-finance website Bankrate.com.

(The answer to this is that the median income households of this country shouldn't be buying new cars. But they don't say that.)

 

[Toshi]

The GoPro Max was announced as per the trademark-based rumors:

That actually looks pretty good for what I want out of a camera: very wide field of view option, 1440p @ 60 fps, and in-camera stabilization because physical gimbals are a pain and don't work that great.

I shall definitely look for a deal on this new Max come Black Friday or so.

or maybe just a Hero8 Black. Hypersmooth 2.0 looks good, too. I should find a comparative review:

 

[Toshi]

When I grow up I'd like to be half as intellectually curious as Peter Attia:

 

[Toshi]

Spinoff question directly inspired by a segment in this above video: Should I, and all other evidently insulin resistant people, be on metformin? (Note that I'm not and have never been formally diabetic.)

Effectiveness of Metformin on Weight Loss in Non-Diabetic Individuals with Obesity

Thieme E-Books & E-Journals

www.thieme-connect.com

Objective:
The efficacy of metformin for the treatment of obesity has been evaluated in few clinical trials with inconclusive results. Moreover, the effectiveness in a real-life outpatient setting has not been tested until today. In this study we aimed to examine the effectiveness of metformin as a weight reducing drug in obese and overweight patients with regard to their degree of insulin resistance.


Design and patients:
We treated 154 consecutive patients with a body mass index ≥27 kg/m2 in an outpatient setting over 6 months with metformin up to a dosage of 2 500 mg per day. Additionally, we included 45 untreated patients as controls. Patients were monitored for weight changes over 6 months. Before metformin treatment was started insulin sensitivity was determined in all patients by calculating HOMA index and Matsuda index after a 75 g oral glucose tolerance test.


Results:
The mean weight loss in the metformin treated group was 5.8±7.0 kg (5.6±6.5%). Untreated controls gained 0.8±3.5 kg (0.8±3.7%) on average. Patients with severe insulin resistance lost significantly more weight as compared to insulin sensitive patients. The percentage of weight loss was independent of age, sex or BMI.


Conclusion:
Metformin is an effective drug to reduce weight in a naturalistic outpatient setting in insulin sensitive and insulin resistant overweight and obese patients.

 

[Pesqueeb]

Too much monocle for this blue collar schmuck......

Polestar reveals prices for its Polestar 2 electric car - electrive.com

The Volvo and Geely electric car subsidiary Polestar has published the final list prices for Polestar 2 in European countries where the Tesla Model 3 competitor will be launched. In the UK, for example, the base price is 49,900 GBP. ++ Kindly find all updates to this article below. ++ Production...

www.electrive.com

 

[Toshi]

Too much monocle for this blue collar schmuck......

Polestar reveals prices for its Polestar 2 electric car - electrive.com

The Volvo and Geely electric car subsidiary Polestar has published the final list prices for Polestar 2 in European countries where the Tesla Model 3 competitor will be launched. In the UK, for example, the base price is 49,900 GBP. ++ Kindly find all updates to this article below. ++ Production...

www.electrive.com

Interesting world where the Chinese knockoff (to stretch the concept) is more expensive than the product made in Fremont, California.

 

[Toshi]

Spinoff question directly inspired by a segment in this above video: Should I, and all other evidently insulin resistant people, be on metformin? (Note that I'm not and have never been formally diabetic.)

Effectiveness of Metformin on Weight Loss in Non-Diabetic Individuals with Obesity

Thieme E-Books & E-Journals

www.thieme-connect.com

I called myself in a prescription for Metformin Extended Release. Let the body hacking commence (even more than changing macronutrient mixes and timing of eating/not eating)!

 

[Nick]

I called myself in a prescription for Metformin Extended Release. Let the body hacking commence (even more than changing macronutrient mixes and timing of eating/not eating)!

is that ... I dunno ... legal?
(a) prescribing drugs for yourself that (b) you don't 'need' as (c) they're for a condition you do not have?

 

[Toshi]

is that ... I dunno ... legal?
(a) prescribing drugs for yourself that (b) you don't 'need' as (c) they're for a condition you do not have?

Totally legal to use drugs off-label as here. One just needs an MD's prescription for them in the first place, and it so happens that I know one.

It's super sketchy/jail worthy to call oneself controlled substances, on the other hand, but I haven't even had a DEA # since 2014 or so so couldn't even dig myself that hole in the first place.

 

[Toshi]

Some Lincoln Aviator owners battle serious problems with luxury SUV

The Lincoln Aviator draws praise, but, Consumer Reports expert says, "Ford tends to struggle on new technology in ways that Toyota and others do not."

www.freep.com

 

[dan-o]

Interesting world where the Chinese knockoff (to stretch the concept) is more expensive than the product made in Fremont, California.

Volvo turns a profit.

 

[Toshi]

Volvo turns a profit.

Margin is positive on Tesla’s car sales, something like 20%. They just have huge capex for factories and Superchargers, high R&D costs for developing multiple lines, and a boat anchor in SolarCity.

 

[Toshi]

 

[Toshi]

Possibly at @Nick 's bidding, there was a train laden with Vesta-labeled slightly conical long tubes headed east as I rode in tonight. I didn't see blades (which I have seen on similar trains at the same place before) but these had to be for giant wind turbines.

 

[Nick]

Those sound like tower sections.

 

[Toshi]

Vestas is a wind turbine manufacturer, the Googles tells me, so this is all concordant.

 

[jstuhlman]

the middle one . . . looks like trouble

 

[Toshi]

the middle one . . . looks like trouble

She is my snuggler. At bedtime last night she told me that she wishes we could live forever so that we could snuggle all the time.

I guess I'm buying her a BMW in high school, in summary.

 

[Pesqueeb]

Vestas is a wind turbine manufacturer, the Googles tells me, so this is all concordant.

They build pieces in Pueblo.

 

[Toshi]

They build pieces in Pueblo.

When riding home at 10:15 or so I saw another train heading east, this time with the giant wind turbine blades.

 

[Toshi]

My current depth down the supplement/off-label use rabbit hole: