Thursday, December 22, 2022

Bangkok Chinatown Bing Dao dragonball (sheng pu'er)

 





Back in July I mentioned trying a Bing Dao version when visiting my favorite Bangkok Chinatown shop, Jip Eu, which I've mentioned many times here.  That was in a review of a 2006 Xiaguan 8653 cake, which I bought there.  Before hearing any details one might immediately question if any tea offered as Bing Dao really is that, even though some must be, that area must still produce tea.  I'm referring to how that origin, and LBZ and others, tends to be overextended in terms of claims, to the extent that anything that's not traceable and definitely that would likely be something else, being mispresented.

Here's the thing, they weren't selling that tea we tried.  Or this one they gave me, for free; I visited that day and tried one of his own teas, and this one Kittichai said was from a local producer there who is a friend.  That owner was just sharing his own tea.  Which I do too, bringing them tea to try whenever I visit, so I guess maybe he feels it's appropriate to return the favor.  I'm not giving him tea for that reason, to initiate a swap, it's so he can try it instead, but of course it's great trying pleasant and novel teas, with this one on the higher quality side.

An interesting related aside, I just visited there about a week ago, picking up tea for a Christmas gift exchange, and brought Kittichai--that shop owner--some Thai sheng that I liked.  He didn't like it.  He said that the style doesn't match Yunnan produced styles, that the flavors and general character are different, and that it wouldn't hold up well to aging.  Maybe, about all of that, except that I did like the tea.  I reviewed it here, in comparison with another Thai version and a Vietnamese sheng; it's the loose Gaw Khee maocha version.

It was cool that he was so honest about it.  We switched to drinking a 20 year old Menghai version of his instead, which he much preferred.  It was good, but I like the younger Thai style too.  It's often floral and sweet, and relatively approachable, although that version had pronounced bitterness, just not much for astringency.  I agree that putting that kind of tea away for 15 years might ruin it, as likely as the results would be great.


a $20 Christmas exchange gift:  a porcelain gaiwan, 100 grams each of Shui Xian and Dan Cong


One more tangent here before on to tasting:  would I be able to tell if this matches a standard Bing Dao character, as much as there is a narrow version of that?  Absolutely not.  This might be the third Bing Dao version I've tried (tea presented as such), setting aside a huang pian, which to me sort of doesn't count.  I'll be able to say if I like it or not, and hopefully describe some aspects, but the rest, speculating about how good it is, or how well it would age, would be unreliable.  It's hard to find that next level tea expert, someone who hasn't only tried an order of magnitude more tea than me, but is also a reliable source of judgement and information.  It's easy for people to get stuck on what they personally prefer, or to get hung up on aspect patterns tied to back-stories or whatever else.  Let's just see how the tea is.

I don't love dragonballs as a presented form, since they don't brew as well as maocha or cake pressed tea, but it's fine, it just makes for inconsistent brewing the first few rounds.


Review:


this is really the second infusion, after it opened more



First infusion (light):  it's pleasant.  There is a nice intense sweetness, kind of towards warm floral range, and nice underlying warm mineral tone.  Bitterness is there but not pronounced.  This is richer and warmer in tone than I expected; I wonder what year it is?  In tiny print the wrapper mentions 2018, so it seems quite possible this is a 4 1/2 year old tea version.

It goes without saying that aging time passes quickly here in Bangkok; teas are not well-preserved, and transition fast instead.  That can be good or bad, depending on personal preference, timing, and the tea starting point, but a few years here is perhaps equivalent to more than twice as long in a cooler and drier place.

There is an interesting character to this that'll be hard to describe.  One towards-mineral aspect, which is quite positive, almost tastes a little like soap, but in a good sense.  It's like how well water can have a mineral range flavor that's really unique, and hard to place, so you end up talking about rocks and how rusted metal smells, and probably not making much sense.  This really is in mineral range more than it relates to soap, what I'm talking about.  It strikes your mouth in an odd way too, a bit structured and dry, versus being astringent in a more normal sense.  Then I think what I'm referring to related to the flavor effect being rich might come across more as dried fruit once this develops.  It'll be easier to describe once it gets going though; this infusion is quite light.


Second infusion:  much more intense, and it all really starts next round.  That soap aspect really seems to link intense floral range with unusual mineral range, and how they overlap is what is reminding me of that.  The way this tea coats your mouth, the feel, and the way flavor experience comes from so much tongue sensation is cool.  That floral range must be more aromatic, but there is a lot happening with mineral tones, and sweetness.  I'll have to brew this next round a bit fast, moving off the longer initial infusions to get it to open up, or I'll have failed this tea related to brewing it appropriately.




Third infusion:  even for brewing that quite fast it's very intense, probably near enough to optimum related to getting timing right.  That "soap" effect has mostly transitioned to more typical forms of floral and mineral range, a bit deeper and richer now than in the first two infusions.  It's good.  It's really complex; beyond that floral and mineral range there is a dried fruit tone filling in complexity, along the line of dried Chinese date (which I guess people as often refer to as jujube).  There's just a hint of a warmer tone there too, a toffee sort of sweetness, which is somewhat novel (to me).  

Mineral tone range is more familiar, just warm.  Aftertaste experience is pronounced but in some other cases it can stay really strong for longer.  In this expression it just adds some depth, but not a secondary effect to continue to experience for a minute afterwards.  Or maybe that's not right, since it does just continually fade, versus dropping out, so a minute later you still do experience a faint echo of it, but again in some other cases aftertaste (finish, whatever) can almost seem stronger than the actual flavor.

I don't usually say much about feel effect but I can tell this is causing that already.  It's interesting how it's not really a stimulant or sedative effect, how it's seemingly shifting how I'm grounded in this moment.  Not stoney either though, just a bit relaxing.  Or all that is in my head, as likely.  

I'm hanging out with some plants that I've put a massive amount of effort into taking care of for the past month, so I should feel relaxed and comfortable around them.  I've already posted about "brewing tea" for them, of a sort, of trying out making a tisane infusion on a large scale to feed them, from their own fallen leaves.  It might be more natural to think of that as a novel composting approach.  I've "brewed" a few cubic meters (thousands of liters) worth of infusion of that for them, in two very large clay pots, and they seem to have appreciated the effort and nutrition input.




Fourth infusion:  not different than last round, really.  That mineral input is interesting, for being so strong in this.  Then having so much other intense range join it is novel, and it all balancing nicely.  Whatever this is it's quite pleasant tea.  My guess is that it is from the Bing Dao area, but I tend to take any such claims as probabilities, regardless of the source, and try to relate to teas as they are.  The intensity is nice but it would be too much, for just powering through 8 or 9 infusions of this quickly, as you really can drink very approachable teas (like that Thai sheng).  I think just drinking a little water in between rounds to offset the repetition would be enough; I'll try that.


The next infusion was similar, and I suppose this will continue to transition some over the next 3 or 4, and stay positive for a half dozen more.  The point here was to pass on an impression, not to document a full account, so I'll probably just add one more round of notes and drop this.




Sixth infusion:  it's as pleasant as it's been, or maybe slightly more so, in a really pleasant place.  It's hard to communicate that part, how the complex aspect range I've described relates to my own preference.  I like it.  It's better tea than I'm typically drinking, but I'm not really one to tie my enjoyment of an experience to a perceived quality level, so I can appreciate teas and experiences for different reasons.  This has pleasant character, good complexity, great intensity, and nice overall balance.  As for limitations or weaknesses someone would just have to not like part of the character for that to even come up.  Maybe it could be more astringent; it's strange to me but this being so approachable could be seen as a bad thing.

There's a really catchy lavender sort of floral tone that I've not really described much, heavy and sweet.  For some I guess that could be too heavy?  Maybe instead of trying a round really light, to see how that changes things, I should try one heavier and see how that goes.  I've been keeping that moderate, using infusion times between 10 and 15 seconds, because that was plenty to draw out lots of intensity, but it could be interesting ramping that up.


Seventh infusion:  it hits pretty hard, brewed for longer, more like 20 seconds.  That lavender sort of floral range is absolutely perfumey this intense, balanced nicely by warm mineral range, and much more subtle other earthier range, or slightly stronger dried fruit.  One fruit aspect starts to resemble a citrus edge more, warm in tone, between a tangerine and sweet red grapefruit.  Someone inclined towards passing on long and complex tasting notes descriptions would have a lot to talk about, to imagine around.  Don Mei could write a short book about this experience.  I'll stop taking notes instead; my wife is bugging me about going out for a late lunch.


It's really nice tea, whether or not it is Bing Dao, but I choose to believe that it is that.  But then I don't care so much one way or the other, since I value tea experience a lot more than stories.  Of course I don't see that as a universal value preference; people could love stories, or other parts I don't get much out of, ceremonial forms, aesthetic input of teaware, and so on.  Tea experience can be social or not; body feel can be the central point or quite secondary, or even mostly irrelevant.  

I do tend to value meditative effect, how that break to really focus on a beverage experience can really put you in the moment.  I enjoyed communing with the plants that I've been tending for about two months now.


at the other table that looks like this, but this cat didn't join me



a jackfruit plant is there, with a local edible plant, and scallions (green onion)


Sunday, December 18, 2022

Brewing tea for plants (tisane, really)




I've been tending my mother-in-law's gardens for the last 7 weeks, and have experimented with brewing a tisane version from fallen leaves to nourish them. The idea came from throwing rinses out into the yard, about considering how the plants would probably prefer the main infusions, what I drink instead.  Then she also keeps very large jars around to catch rainwater to use, and leaves falling in those brews a light infusion that might essentially feed them. 

Connecting the ideas I tried out putting a large amount of leaves into two large empty pots, then filling them with water, pouring that on the plants, and repeating the process.



 



It sounds like an impractical amount of work, doesn't it? I've spent hours on the experiment. I remove the water using a couple of small buckets, straining most leaves by drawing it from one side. It takes many such buckets to empty a pot, maybe 40, drawing out 3 liters / quarts at a time, emptying maybe around 30 gallons a round (130 or so liters).

Does it work though?  How could I know if it's helpful for the plants, or if there is some form of risk (eg. mold contamination)? I asked that in a gardening group, drawing no response. I could tell by the plants' health, I guess. Some that had been growing very pale, yellowish new leaves have gone mostly green in just a few days, with green coverage spreading from the inner veins. Who knows though, really.

Mentioning this here relates to it being interesting, and vaguely related to tea. And to potentially drawing feedback, which isn't really how blogging goes.

Conventional composting would probably be easier and more efficient, piling these leaves mixed with some soil, and keeping that damp. That brings up another comparison that would only ring a bell or be interesting to tea drinkers, about shu pu'er.

One pot I filled with drier, fresher leaves, from the top of a pile swept together, and the bottom layer had been there for a couple of weeks, regularly wetted by rain in that time.   The bottom of that pile had already been decomposing, seeming a bit like dirt, or I guess also like shu pu'er.  It "brewed" a lot faster, producing rich, brown liquid right away, while the other leaves produced a paler liquid the first day. It has evened out some since, but the one pot is still breaking down faster.


It sounds like I'm going somewhere with all this, doesn't it?  Not so much.  If anyone has feedback about the pros or cons of this sort of practice it would be interesting to hear that.  I'll close this with more photos of the garden.


birds of paradise



many of the plants are in pots, some with minimal soil, making watering them more demanding



some recent additions from a farm in Chayapum; one will become a jackfruit tree



these are blue pea / butterfly flowers, a tisane, but I don't care for that



papaya!  there are a dozen or so growing now; the race is on with the squirrel



higher growing flowering vines have a sweet scent, only in the evening



Myra Kidney



cat in natural environment



Mama Nid with the kids and that one cat


Tuesday, December 13, 2022

Why the world seems to be changing for the worse

 

about a "dead mall" theme; related article and photo credit


A recent video brought up an interesting and promising line of consideration, why the world seems to be changing for the worse.  It's here, under the title "Does Anyone Else Feel Like Everything Has Changed?"

It would be simple enough to just blame the internet, wouldn't it?  The author cites three book references as a completely different range of answers, in relation to broad patterns in society playing out.  A main theme, or maybe the overall main theme, was that cycles occur in society in such a way that resets tend to occur, which typically aren't positive and low-impact forms of transition.  Societies collapse a bit, from time to time, with that even following regular patterns and time cycles.  Maybe this is about the cycle form he was discussing, or maybe a different version instead.

This idea is familiar.  I studied the philosophy of history in a philosophy class, even though my professor in that class wasn't introducing or presenting the subject, and dissuaded me from researching and writing about it.  Why?  It had been "debunked" as a meaningful pattern and trend.  People had wanted to apply a human lifespan sort of theme to societies evolving and eventually coming to an end, but in trying to apply filtering, looking for preset patterns, they extracted what they sought from what could easily have been random sets of circumstances (the confirmation bias idea).  Or so that "debunking" went; let's dig a little deeper into it all.

It all started with medieval Islamic philosophers, or at least that was my understanding.  Ibn Khaldun was quite influential, here presented as the Wikipedia level summary of main ideas:


Perhaps the most frequently cited observation drawn from Ibn Khaldūn's work is the notion that when a society becomes a great civilization, its high point is followed by a period of decay. This means that the next cohesive group that conquers the diminished civilization is, by comparison, a group of barbarians. Once the barbarians solidify their control over the conquered society, however, they become attracted to its more refined aspects, such as literacy and arts, and either assimilate into or appropriate such cultural practices. Then, eventually, the former barbarians will be conquered by a new set of barbarians, who will repeat the process.


I took it as less clear why this happened, that he was mostly identifying what he regarded as a common and repeating trend, which he offered some explanation for, but never really clearly resolved in terms of cause and effect, or even experienced forms.

It's interesting trying to find that reference that a Western citation about the philosophy of history doesn't mention anything outside of European contributions.  It's as if Ibn Khaldun hadn't developed the main starting points, observations based on clear cycles in regional history, as he presented it all.

My own guesses about why this would occur, surely of marginal value, kept changing over time.  I suppose a more natural starting point, from where I've left the ideas, is how and why it was "debunked."  Broad societies must begin and end, and there must be common patterns in forms in the middle?  The problem is that if you start with assumptions about the patterns you are looking for it's quite possible, even likely, that you will sweep complex inputs and effects together in ways that really make no sense.  Time-frame can shift quite a bit, and definitions of a society, or empire, and so on.  Philosophers can end up collecting together all sort of ideas, starting points, argument forms, transition patterns, end-points, and so on, and then eventually it can lose too much cohesiveness, and become meaningless.

I suppose all of this applies as a critique of what that Youtube content producer was summarizing, of what he was reading about, in terms of cycles of history.  One early and main point was that on about an 80 year cycle periods of disruptive war occur, which looking back really seemed to map well to experienced history, at a glance.  Only at a glance though; he was mapping out main periods of disruption backwards from WW 2 (or really forwards to get there, but it worked out the same), landing on mid to late 19th century events as the prior disruption point.  That only works by jumping over WW 1 as a significant event, which of course is absurd.  It was significant.

Since I'm not going to set all this aside as irrelevant, looking for clear and repeating patterns where none occur, I'll treat these patterns of history repeating itself in this way as real, and speculate as to whether they might occur, and why.  To be clear this step doesn't completely work; I can't support it.  But we also can't effectively set aside ideas that haven't really been fleshed out and considered, so let's go there next.


Cycles of history


The idea is that a society or civilization starts in a relatively chaotic state.  Maybe that's related to the downfall of a prior civilization, or maybe that input cause and conditions don't really matter.  In this state societal forms are not clearly defined and rigidly enforced, kind of like the romantic American "wild west" notion; things go as they happen to go.  We don't seem to have walked off the map just yet; this kind of status must be a real thing, if a bit rare, in comparison with ongoing replacement of more orderly, older, previously well defined societies, with clearly identified social roles, public institutions, central government, laws, infrastructure development, well organized trade, and so on.  All of that develops organically, for a set of relatively obvious reasons.  Those structures are effective, and as they serve purposes they become reinforced, with later decline and disruption a related separate subject.

In the Islamic model, the patterns Ibn Khaldun was observing, a literal overthrow of society by barbarians kept occurring.  It sounds like the end of the Roman Empire, doesn't it?  That just took a long time, and happened in stages, over very long periods of gradual decay and secondary transition.


Let's skip ahead.  If we assume this all makes sense, our focus now is going to be on why an organized society might stop working, not to what extent the consistent whole cycle occurs, or about the first two thirds of the transition.  And one might stop working for completely different reasons.  Maybe it's that eventually external barbarians get conditions right to successfully overthrow that organized society.  Maybe it's internal instead; this consideration seems more interesting.

The societal structures themselves tend to eventually evolve to be ineffective and unstable, it seems.  Maybe it doesn't matter why, and it's only a matter of time before internal and external causes and conditions change, really for complex reasons.  Ibn Khaldun's model proposed an external factor as a main cause, again that barbarians eventually took over, but the sense comes across that internal factors were also critical (maybe explicit in his detailed work; I didn't get too far with literature review).  It has been 16 years since I wrote that paper, to be clear, which I would've read a half dozen sources to support, so all of this isn't a claim that I'm remembering it well, or ever was a solid reference on that work myself.

Related to speculation about internal factors, why did the British Empire come to an end?  That's seems like a fairly clear and modern example.  At the beginning of the 20th century it was expansive and strong, and by the middle it was over.  The whole colonial era ended; it seemed that it was mostly just that, in that case.  If it's that simple "real historians" could probably identify that the writing was on the wall going into that century.

I've considered lots of other guesses, over time (not so much about the British Empire, but in general).  It seems possible that societal structures become rigid over time, and their failure to be able to change can't enable them to be relevant in changing external conditions.  Or maybe it's as simple as something like the unequal distribution of wealth being reinforced over time, that eventually the other 99% of the population aren't going to have it.  Infrastructure burden could add up; as societies develop better and better central supports, roads, institutions, social protections, complex tax structures, laws, etc., eventually these could add more and more burden to be supported by the whole of society, and would be difficult to maintain over time.  In the "wild west" example there barely were any laws, the opposite untenable status, but if you add too many laws and protections, and keep on adding them, eventually some sort of unsustainable tipping point would probably arise.  It's this theme that I'm going to develop most.

There's lots more I could add across levels of this range, but let's move on to pursue that one direction, assuming that society gaining order and structure can be problematic.  That isn't a claim that this would have to be a main cause, but I'm going to discuss it as if this were so, it will seem implied.  I don't mean it that way, but developing the ideas is going to require setting aside continual framing discussion.  Here I'm going to take this in an unusual direction, not looking for aspects that I see as decay later on (eg. infrastructure burden, rigid social practices, economic transitions), but instead consider how developing societies seem to be different from more developed examples, to start from what changes earlier on in the process, especially related to general feel and perspective.


Evolution of developed societies


We don't need to go back to the wild west or dark ages to examine first hand how chaotic, undeveloped, less structured, less economically developed societies differ from the opposite extreme.  I was in Cambodia the day before yesterday, at time of this initial draft writing, and I live in Thailand, and as I see it those two examples populate the less developed spectrum that we can examine now, as two distinct stages.  Then the US and Europe span the opposite side of the spectrum.  Obviously this is going to overweight my own interpretation; that's how speculative, extended, first-hand observations would have to go.

Cambodia is chaotic; no doubt about that.  I've been to Siem Reap twice (where the ancient temples are, Angkor Wat and such), and Phnom Penh once (the capital), but this was my first visit to Poi Pet, a border town set up mainly as a gambling resort.  It was amazing how development is happening so partially; individual roads, houses, and shops seemed half-finished, most of them.  Cleared out vacant lots are interspersed with developed areas.  Factors like municipal water quality and sewage system support tend to improve over time, along with roads and rail systems.

Thailand already doesn't follow zoning restrictions, not forcing business, residential, industrial, and agricultural areas to be zoned in isolated sections, but Poi Pet was that much more chaotic, just absolutely random.  Which seemed fine, interesting and not unpleasant, after the initial shock of the differences wore off.  They don't use traffic lights, stop signs, or roundabout style intersections, they just sort it all out on the fly.  That was different.  Traffic is chaotic in Bangkok too, with road designs and intersections a bit of a mess, but not like that, there are traffic lights and roundabouts. 


Poi Pet actually looks like rural Thailand, like Sa Kaeo or Lop Buri


Backing up a bit, I was considering all of this from a different perspective in relation to Thailand very recently.  My wife and I visited a somewhat chaotic local market built in an open space under an elevated highway in Bangkok, along a railroad.  It was just set-up stalls in an open space, with a food court area across the tracks that was just another blank area filled in with booths / stalls for vendors (including makeshift kitchens), and flimsy tables and plastic chairs as the seating area.  I loved it; I won't make a secret of that tone.  If such a place seems dirty or rough edged it can be off-putting, but I found this place to be well organized, clean, and inviting.  Of course Americans would be divided on that; it would have to be completely unfamiliar to most.


that outdoor food court; the market section is across a set of railroad tracks


The one part that really stood out to me is hard to describe, the feel.  It was positive, loud and vibrant, but also relaxed and open.  Literally loud; music was playing a bit too loudly, which comes up a lot in different contexts in Bangkok, even out in the country here sometimes.  Chaos can have a rough feel, but this included enough order.  The food was good too, but I guess that could've went either way.  Was it safe; was there higher foodborne illness risk than in a US restaurant?  Probably, but I've lived in Thailand for 15 years, eating in food courts regularly, in different forms, surely at least 1000 times, and I've never became sick from one.  I've only had full-blown food poisoning twice, both times in Korea instead; probably just bad luck, that.  I've experienced less minor stomach distress here than in the US, but not much in either place, less than once a year; maybe I've been lucky.

Such a place could not exist in the US.  The closest one would come might be the stalls selling food in a public fair environment, or food trucks are closing in on somewhat related forms.  Let's pause there a second; doesn't the recent existence of food trucks offset the broad pattern I described earlier, how controlled, limited, restricted conditions evolve over time, not new forms that limit prior restrictions on social controls and protections?  Maybe, but it could be that the exception proves the rule, somehow.  Or maybe it's about cracks forming in the rigid social structures in the US, compensating for the one-way development of oppressive levels of order.  Or maybe food trucks are too good an idea to oppress, and they were naturally going to move from industrial site lunch support to become mainstream.


a predecessor to the mall form, a Chinatown style market area, here in Ayuthayah


It's not just that one example, related to disorder and more chaotic forms being common in Thailand.  Street food is a main theme everywhere, and you can't cook and sell food from a steel table welded to the side of a motorcycle in the US, or from a cart that you push around.  Old style markets are often just large empty buildings, or just open spaces, as in that highway / rail line example.  Taxation burden is lower, infrastructure development and spending is lower, and social protections are far more limited.  The government provides moderate quality health care for low cost, maybe with "moderate" a generous assessment for quality range, but beyond that people are mostly on their own.  Cohesive family structures fill in the rest, and in general it works out, just not in every case.

Certifications of all sorts, for companies and individuals, are limited as requirements.  I think this example holds more meaning and runs a lot deeper than it might seem at first.  To be a masseuse in Hawaii my wife would need to take a one year training course, and here in Thailand whatever background you have is enough, down to almost none.  Engineers aren't really registered here; maybe some function gets lost along the way for not having those restrictions, beyond just adding clutter of extra paperwork and fees.  I don't see restrictive levels of training and certification in the US as a mostly positive context though; to me it often evolves to be just as wasteful as it is functional.

The feel is something else, to keep returning to that.  I found that market and food court area to have a dynamic but relaxed feel, in a sense that doesn't map to other places very well in the US.  To be clear I'm from the East Coast, rural Pennsylvania, and I've only lived back in Honolulu for two months this year, two months ago now, so I'm more familiar with Thailand and local culture than my own native version.  It really does work to map the absolute chaos we experienced in Cambodia as the next step in the same direction.  And per one visit to Europe--very long ago, so again very limited input--it also works to map a higher level of order, restriction, narrower social expectations, and general quiet to European cultures, in comparison to the feel of the US. 

It might seem like I'm heading towards a claim that European cultures really should become unstable, if a pattern of normal chaos to order and then downfall typically occurs.  I'm not saying that.  Obviously somehow most European cultures have evolved to very stable forms, and a range of positive outcomes.  A European from any given place might vehemently argue against that, experiencing what they interpret as broad social changes over the past 20 years, seeing it all as unstable and inclined towards further and faster change, but that would probably depend on individual perspective and degree of optimism.

I don't have enough experience to really map out such range of ideas, but here I'm using stability and order in narrow, limited senses.  You can act out in unconventional ways in the US and it's fine, a normal part of that culture.  You can even pitch a tent and live on the street, and that's a main social trend right now, along with "van life," living in a car or larger vehicle, not only due to restrictive financial necessity.  In Thailand there are much narrower and more developed social expectations, related to roles and forms of expression, but in terms of what society restricts, across other levels and scopes, things are much more open.  Even the laws are a bit optional in many cases.  I could develop that theme quite a bit, but it's as well not to, to leave that as an unsupported assertion.

All this isn't really "hanging together" as much as it might, is it?  The general thesis here is that order increases as societies develop, with restrictions bringing positive change and also limitations, offsetting personal options, and impacting the free and open feel experienced by individuals.  It's largely about what I've experienced and felt, more than examples that highlight how it's all necessarily so.  Honolulu is a much cleaner, more organized, structured place than Bangkok, and Poi Pet is further towards noise and chaos.  Along with the benefits of adding to order something gets lost.  This later "collapse of society" theme seems to be something else, about negative patterns in pushing on and on, so that in some limited senses too much could get lost along the way.  I think the two themes do connect.

One might automatically assume that the structuring increases safety, that it's not just illness from eating bad grilled pork satay that's a risk, but that factors like crime should gradually decrease.  Oddly it doesn't work out that way.  Crime seems to relate to social forms and patterns that absolutely do not map to development level or average income level.  Bangkok is much safer than Honolulu, which is much safer than the average mainland US city.  Level of corruption also seems to be an unrelated secondary factor, loosely pairing with general decline as societies become more organized and developed, but it also seems possible that the corruption could also just become more organized and developed.


A long term pattern of decline


That context mapping seemed like it might never end, didn't it?  Let's jump ahead again, back to this idea of whether or not the US really is shifting in form now, perhaps in a way tied to general decline.  I could write this out as a carefully developed, supported, step-by-step explanation of patterns I think might be occurring, but that would take 10,000 words instead of a few hundred.  I'll need to just say what I think, without explaining it in such a careful way.

I think a few main causes are occurring that end up shifting the form and feel of US culture, with real negative impact for people on the wrong end of these patterns:


-economic shift:  the late-stage capitalism theme, a form change combining with other transitions, a shift from manufacturing to service based economy, and so on.  Cost of living increases undermine the practicality of sustaining manufacturing and labor intensive agriculture, and then service based work conducted with more employee protections works out to not be so much more ideal.  I think housing and real estate being used as an investment base is a main cause of many problems now, but that's too much of a tangent to develop here.


-economic decline:  a natural development of lower prosperity as economic development changes form and in a sense also stops, really one part of the first pattern.  Standard of living is still much higher in the US than in Thailand, and certainly than in Cambodia, but for many that's declining, while those other countries still experience generally positive changes.  I'm from the "Rust Belt," and my own industrial engineering career ended essentially when it started, so I get it how local economy and job-sector impacts play out.


-increased wealth inequality:  this part is complicated.  It seems as if a middle class develops as countries develop, and then later that trend can reverse, shifting back to most people being rich or poor.  Some European countries seem to have intentionally countered that, setting up institutions and processes to even it all back out.


-internet influence:  social forms moving online, and changing as a result.  This is not the same kind of thing as the rest, since it has only came into being over the past 20 or so years.  I'll add a lot more about forms of this factoring in, because it seems like some interesting changes are occurring.  A lot of the underlying patterns may stay the same without that input, with it just speeding up some transitions.


-reduced general health in the US:  the result of a number of factors.  Again, it's something else, probably not closely related to the rest.  Or maybe it is tightly linked, and eating mass-produced processed foods instead of local, natural foods pairs with these other trends.  Either way I'll set this part aside.  Mental health issues are even trickier; those causes and effects must mix, but I won't treat those here much either, beyond limited and not overly meaningful overlap with one internet experience example.


The third part about wealth inequality ties back to part of what I attributed Ibn Khaldun as saying, right, a progressive, natural change that becomes untenable?  Perhaps unfairly connected, since that part was my interpretation or even extension of his points, more than I remember it being directly received ideas.  There is a lot to unpack related to all of these, but I want to focus on the internet form change instead of the rest.  I don't think it's more primary than the rest, but some really interesting social changes are occurring.


Internet context changing social forms and experiences


On the one hand I think this is as much a factor as all the rest related to a general impression that "things are changing, and not for the better."  Then on the other I also suspect that the forms of changes, the specific patterns, were already happening to some extent, and the online forms are just speeding up other transitions, or helping separate and problematic conditions combine together.  


dead mall interest (related Youtube channel, Reddit discussion group):  this subject combines interest in culture changes, economic shifts, and a change in media consumption and online discussion.  People interested in this topic must embrace experience of nostalgia, to some extent, with the content producers describing their own interest as documenting recent history, what malls were like in the 80s and 90s, since many are now closing.  This isn't included as an example of "things are getting worse;" shopping form changes are more complicated than that.  It could be interpreted that way, but a more common take is that online shopping and popularity of smaller retail centers were the main causes.

Again in popular interpretation malls ending is an aspect of "late stage capitalism," a broad category subject which would mean completely different things to different people.  The dystopia theme is interesting too though, referenced in Reddit groups like Dystopian Future, and Idiocracy.  I don't love all the main aspects of general Reddit subculture, but right now it does seem more interesting and effective for following these subject interests than most Facebook groups, which seem to age out of active and focused topic participation faster.


more novel and impactful changes:  I recently saw a video about Tik Tok viewers mimicking Tourette's syndrome behavior, picking up verbal expression "tics."  I've been exploring how other mental health conditions have also become popular, especially how people are copying the form of Dissociative Identity Disorder in intentionally  developing "tulpas," secondary internal personalities.  What's all that about?  I'm really not even going to address it here, except to guess that this is all a very extreme example of what is already unusual and potentially impactful enough, that online group identification has shifted to take on more and more extreme forms over the last half dozen years.  

Real life experiences are becoming marginalized, with online associations taking on greater and greater importance.  You can't really "catch" mental illness though online social exposure, I don't think, but social experience and general mental health can change.  This seems like a symptom that is probably hard to fully place.


that tulpa group I had mentioned:  this group is about people imagining secondary internal personalities into existence, essentially mimicking dissociative identity disorder.  In this case it's more odd that the practice itself exists than the group; of course if people take up such an uncommon interest association with others might be seen as positive.  I don't see it as different than participation in a group about running, for example, except maybe that online group association itself is being carried to extremes. 

Given other focus here on societal level decline and groups identifying with dislike of some common theme one might look for some related pattern of meaning in this example.  It's not about that.  It definitely seems to represent an unconventional take on reality, and a new form of adjusting internal experience, but it's not really negative, just quite unconventional, as some of these other examples are.


Let's go further, onto other examples.  I'll add links to these, since my own exploration of these themes has largely occurred online, and these examples help show what I mean in relation to form and context.


Theo Von comedian podcast:  it's normal for people to watch podcasts or comedy content, but this Reddit group is for self-identification as a fan of Theo Von.  The Youtube channel has 1.2 million followers, and discussion group 40k, so that many take self-association the next step.  I'm not saying that this is bizarre behavior, or negative in any way, but a decade ago people identifying through being a fan of a comedy related podcast would've been relatively unthinkable.  15 years ago podcasts hadn't happened yet, in this modern form.  

Taken alone this has nothing to do with the general decline of society, or individual lives having less meaning, but some related patterns could add up in negative ways.  The existence of media or performing arts stars is definitely not new, but this form is, and somehow personal identification patterns also seem to be.  That part is going to connect more in an unusual form later on.


Joe Rogan Reddit sub:  this group has nearly 800,000 members that generally discuss Joe Rogan's podcast (the main such channel), towards the main end goal of tearing Joe Rogan apart, ridiculing him.  They could still be fans, but the group purpose is not support, or shared positive interest.  I'm not even sure that makes sense now, never mind however many years ago, before recent cultural changes that embrace new forms of negativity became common.  


they love to photoshop Joe to make him look tiny, which is funny



Some background from foreigner / expat experiences in Thailand might help inform what is going on.  Initially, visiting as tourists or new to living in Thailand, people experience a "honeymoon period," very positive about how different the culture is, the food, general look, ways people smile a lot and interact positively, and follow different customs.  Then later negative experiences accumulate, and at some point they feel compelled to changing over to disliking Thai culture.  In the middle it can be awkward, trying to balance perspective on some aspects being positive and others negative.  Positive things can have a negative side, or the opposite, but things need to break cleanly in one main direction or the other; people are wired to like or dislike things, to see them as essentially good or bad.

I think with Joe Rogan there had always been an everyman appeal, as an actor who was relatable, a comedian with a normal outlook on things, and a fight fan.  Then as Joe Rogan became wealthy and drifted further into conservative ideology it all came apart, and disliking him for being wildly successful acted as a cause.  Covid and the political divide have become two main points of separation in society, and it seemed like those alone were also primary causes.  Joe emphasized risks in vaccination, echoing conservative talking points, and then when he contracted covid he underwent tens of thousands of dollars worth of advanced treatments steps, which few followers could afford.


Better Bachelor, men's "not dating" themed group:  I guess this is a moderate derivative of MGTOW, men going their own way, a movement for men to self-identify as not dating.  This is particularly interesting to me, again for being a sort of backwards or reversed interest form, a group shared interest in not doing some particular thing.  Again I don't see this as problematic or extremist, it's just an odd social identification, to identify as not dating.  You can just not date.  I see this as a follow-up to extreme forms of feminism rejecting a lot of what can be associated with masculinity, or the patriarchy, so perhaps this is in part a negative reaction to a separate negative reaction.

Then there is also a rejection theme or broad dislike here in these topics I can't completely place in terms of common ground.  The culture war is one thing, but this is about men and women rejecting dating, sex, and any pair bonding (including an opposite feminist variation), previously fundamental practices and forms of self-identification.  It's unusual.


fasting; another atypical interest:  I've become a bit active in a fasting group recently; it's odd that social identification could occur around the idea of taking breaks from eating.  It's not so much a social activity.  Taken alone that's not at all negative, but the cumulative effect of splintering personal interests replacing "real life" social contact could become problematic, especially if shared dislike becomes a main theme, as in these other cases.  

In recent discussion it was brought up how odd it seems that some people react so negatively to other people not eating, as if it's a critique of their own lifestyle choices, more specifically that of eating every single day, which is quite natural.  These interests immediately move on to self-definition and in-group issues, even when that doesn't seem to be a necessary step.


anti-woke entertainment media commentary:  Nerdrotic, this example, or this more mainstream Critical Drinker channel is probably better.  This is really unusual, that a sizable set of media commentary channels has gained significant following by criticizing mainstream movie and television content for being "woke," liberal and progressive in forms seen as negative.  Most of these channels were conventional critic or commentary themed, but the opportunity to gain a much broader following for zeroing in on this one culture war based theme caused them to isolate that one topic, and essentially exclude all others.  Here again it's a case of people self-identifying not in terms of how they define themselves, but as associated with others who dislike the same things, which is odd to me.

The idea of "hate-watching" television shows and movies comes up, not just this critique, for a large following to actively pursue and express dislike for media content, but that many people who self-identify as disliking some entertainment media forms do continue to watch it.  Why?  I suppose it ties to the political divide / culture war in the US, to both liberals and conservatives making it a personal interest and pass-time to critique the other extreme.  People who hated Trump ended up hearing a lot more about Trump than people who were more neutral about him, surely.

That last example went through an odd inversion in my own case.  Like anyone else I was concerned about how Trump leadership would go, and for being more liberally inclined dislike for some range of factors entered in quickly.  But within the first year it was clear that following the story-line sides wasn't going to help, what he said day to day, so I avoided that news, which was easier to do for living in Thailand.  A Canadian co-worker found it all very entertaining and compelling, even for being less involved as an interested party, so he kept on filling me in on it all.


Mr. Ballen story channel, and associated Reddit group:  this channel is pretty good, so again the point here isn't passing negative judgment.  "Mr. Ballen" tells spooky stories, about ghosts, accidental deaths, or crimes and such.  He has nearly 7 million subscribers, which I think is up from about a million a year ago; it's a subject that draws considerable interest.  People self-identify as fans of the channel and stories, which is fine.  Then for essentially all of these Youtube channels they would now offer Patreon options to contribute, and merchandise to wear related clothing.

Think back to how people really loved, and to an extent self-identified, with mainstream comedy shows in the past, at the end of the last century, with Cheers, then Seinfeld, then Friends.  It's not completely different, but because such a large proportion of the country was on that same page even if the online channels had supported discussion and self-identification then it wouldn't have worked in the same way.  I think there is a lot more there to consider and explore.  It's almost as if a vacuum in personal meaning or identification is playing out, more than these directions are drawing people in.  Or maybe it's only that three main network television channels have been replaced by literally countless other media selections, and somehow embracing that media consumption interest leads to self-identification of a different form.

I'm not claiming that I'm separate from that, that I don't experience it too.  I tend to explore media types and themes, interested in the ideas and formats, but it's not so different than sticking to a few for longer.  I attribute that to being slightly socially isolated related to living as a foreigner in another country, and to parenting demands limiting my real-life social development, tied to being coupled with that other factor.  Maybe to some extent it's just generally how things go now, that parts of most lives are lived online, and it's not all going to map back to what one might see as previous conventional life practices (dating, exercise, cooking, etc.).


What is different from earlier mainstream media following related to this trend?


This I seemed to pass over quickly in that earlier mention; maybe more is going on here to consider.  I think a few key differences come up related to finding a comedy show experience very important and meaningful and instead identifying as a fan through these extra formal channels.  To be clear I think that this earlier trend laid the groundwork for what we now experience, that association as a tv show fan isn't a completely unrelated and inconsistent experience.  Liking a comedian or K-pop star isn't so different than following a sports team or musician in the past.

One difference has been the degree of shared experience dropping out.  With three main television channels in the US in the late 20th century, and a lot of focus on sports events, people were experiencing a lot of the same things that many others were.  Now that's not nearly as true.

I think "real life" still playing a main role in life experience at the end of the 20th century was also completely different.  It's all too easy to put online content consumption the center of one's life now, with "water cooler" discussions replaced by online commenting.  It doesn't even need to center on one show or theme; combining interest in sports, television show media, movies, and informative content could make watching shows--consuming content--seem like a diverse activity, when in a deeper sense it's really not.  Or the same applies to social media participation, in a different sense.

A lot gets made of how social media participation is now designed to reinforce further participation, how alerts and activity steps trigger some internal brain reward chemical release (popular interpretations of brain chemistry processes aren't a personal interest).  Of course that's probably at least partly real.  In simpler terms social media participation and media consumption can be very habit forming, and these previously unheard of types of self-identification connections can be one result.  I'm not sure to what extent it's important that self-identification with personal dislikes has increased so much.

I agree with common assessments concluding that self-definition and locating self-value in social media experience and "success" could be problematic.  It's artificial, and unlikely to generally carry over directly to real life experience.  If it's a direct means to an end, eg. product marketing, then that may not be accurate, but related to packaging and re-locating conventional life experience into these forms is something else.  Then of course a grey area comes up; "influencers" see themselves and their reach as the marketed product.  For someone working in the modeling profession the connection is just as direct; they are clearly marketing themselves.

The theme of liking to hate things seems new.  It seems a secondary effect from how narrow and somewhat artificial social group self-definition occurs, tying back to themes like the US political divide.  As I explore some of these themes I've mentioned online I tend to often be rejected by groups for not being central enough to their shared interest form.  For example, I run, for four years now, but I don't approach running in the right way to have a valid and shared opinion in many online groups.  I'm not wearing a watch that tracks distance, pace, and heart rate.  I do explore and adjust training parameters (distance, pace, use of rest breaks, etc.), but not in the right forms, not according to common trends.  People in the groups don't necessarily hate me for that (the starting point here), but I'm not one of them.

Things can get a little strange related to social identification around these following themes.  To be seen as a true fan of Theo Von, for example, you might be expected to feel a certain way about Brendan Schaub or Bobby Lee, fellow comedians he is friends with, or to share perspective on their life events.  It maps back to how people always experienced real life very locally, but now it's not that, in this form.


Conclusions


I've followed a few threads here that don't necessarily tie together, really letting the conventional social trend patterns beyond online group exposure and self-identification largely drop towards the end.  I didn't explore economic patterns nearly as much as I see those as primary causes.  As an industrial engineer the decline of manufacturing in the US took on a unique level of personal importance, also as a resident of the US "rust belt."  My original home area, Western PA, is economically decimated by this transition pattern, and I'm separated from my family now because it's not practical for me to live and work there. 

I think decline is occurring in the US, and elsewhere, for many reasons, and sweeping the causes together as mostly connected probably doesn't work.  It's not happening in Thailand in the same sense; the economy is generally ok, personal life experiences seem generally positive, real-life social ties are persisting, crime isn't increasing, there is no drug epidemic or homeless problem, poorer urban area decline and gang participation never took on the same forms, and so on.  The wealth divide isn't really resolving here, but it's also not getting worse.  There have been exactly two public shootings in Thailand, the second this year, and the first in early 2020; some of these negative trends seem to be able to spread.  Or maybe it's that the causes are just running behind in timing, but also occurring.  I suspect that the "retail apocalypse" will occur here too.

Politics are just as problematic as in the US, just in a different form, which hasn't generated a related culture war.  Some would contest that, based on clear examples of why exactly that type of opposition is happening, but to me it hasn't entered everyday consciousness to the same extent, or transitioned to two opposing story lines.  It's more just that the country isn't ran well, and that democracy isn't working.

One might naturally wonder if Thais will experience most of those same patterns as in the US over the next 20 years, if they aren't just behind in some unavoidable societal and social transitions.  Maybe.  To be clear they have their own separate problems to deal with; it's not some sort of utopia.  The onset of dystopia just seems a lot more limited, so far.  To me--and this is just my own speculation, to be clear--the culture war in the US seems partly artificially maintained, by a divide in media reinforcement, which is surely complicated.

It would be interesting if someone as familiar with European cultures as I am Asian societies would break down how the range of related themes have impact there, or aren't relevant.  I've not really filled in my credentials as an Asian culture specialist, have I?  I live in Thailand, and we travel a lot, and I have friends in and from other countries; that's about it.  It's interesting having kids who are half Thai, because they absolutely and completely "get" local culture, on a level I probably never can.  It seems awkward for them to explain it to me, but they do try, if I ask specific enough questions.  As of right now they are in Honolulu, attending school there, so we've switched it back to me explaining their other cultural experiences.


with local family and a friend there


All of this is quite speculative, open to refutation.  It's the kind of thinking out loud in writing that will probably become clearer as I continue to consider these ideas for a few more years.  Or maybe I'm making next to no sense, and will continue to not.  Thoughts, feedback?  Generally informal writing like this doesn't turn into a discussion; just asking.


as a parent I have to be optimistic, and prepare them for a world that will keep changing


Wednesday, November 30, 2022

Water fasting for 5 days

 

More to report on fasting experience, after trying out a 3 1/2 day trial earlier.  I didn't get electrolyte supplement right that first time, and felt a bit off during the night after the third day.  This time I bought the other supplements they recommended in a Reddit fasting subforum, or an equivalent of that.  

They say that you need to supplement sodium (oddly recommended there on a wiki page as both salt and baking soda, which is nasty to drink mixed in), potassium, and magnesium.  I couldn't find the food grade epsom salt so I bought a magnesium supplement.  It turns out that salt substitute products tend to be made from a potassium salt; easy.  Unfortunately the version I found was mixed real salt (sodium chloride) and potassium chloride, so I had to do some estimation in amounts, since I was too lazy to really write down and calculate it all out.  A friend mentioned that he thought that calcium might be an issue, related to how it interacts with other mineral use, so I took some of a calcium supplement at the house, and an occasional multivitamin.  And that's it; that's all I ingested for 5 days, in addition to water.

This writing will work in two parts.  The first is about the actual experience, since I went a day and a half longer than the last trial, and hoped that it would be easier since I last tried this experience a month ago, and changed supplementation.  The second part is about effects, hopefully positive effects, which I'll need to wait at least a couple of days to write it.  I'm writing a draft of the take on the experience just before I end the fast, to get to experience this written communication while I'm still doing it.


Before that just a few related details.  I had considered what else I could ingest and still consider the experience to be fasting, like coffee (not that I normally drink that), tea, tisanes (herb teas), or adding lemon or lime to water.  I opted to omit any of that; I think for a progressed fasting habit adding what works for you would be better, just being careful about things making you hungry or impacting your stomach, but for initial trials it's better to leave it all out.  The fast was really for something like 4 days and 22 hours; I started and stopped on dinner 5 days apart but will [/ did] eat earlier at the end.  I had meant to do the extra night, so 5 1/2 days, if I had slept well the night before, and if it seemed easy and symptom free, but it wasn't exactly like that.  And I don't [/ didn't] want to be recovering on Monday, as would occur if I eat in the morning.

I have a slight sore throat today, on day 5, which I actually had for 2 or 3 days prior to fasting, but had shaken.  Maybe a cold?  I thought then maybe it was a mold or dust issue from leaving our house vacant for two months not so long ago, maybe resolved because I cleaned the AC filters and had that bedroom unit professionally cleaned.  Of course I'm considering if I might not have some serious medical condition, but I doubt it.

About weight loss, I'm not exactly doing this for that, and since we don't have a scale at the house I never weighed myself.  It would be nice if I lost a couple of kilos / 4 or 5 pounds, but it won't change much for me whether I do or don't.  I'll never know, since I won't weigh myself soon after and didn't before.  I've crept up to 165 pounds (74 kilos), when I had been around 160 / 71 for most of the last 15 years, so I would like to drop back down.  Some of that is probably muscle tissue gain, because I've been running for four years, and swam a lot in Hawaii for two months recently.  Still, being slightly leaner would be fine, and that would have all my pants fitting well, versus the tighter ones not as comfortable.


just "after," I didn't take a before.  I do look like a dad.


I ran across a couple of decent but not ideal video references about fasting, this one by Dr. Berg (which gets electrolyte supplementation completely wrong, assuming that sea salt would contain enough other minerals besides sodium, which it wouldn't), and an experiential account.  That "doctor" is a chiropractor, who makes multiple videos a week about popular health subjects, far too many to research any in any significant depth.  I see his input as no more than a collection of internet hearsay, and it's no surprise that he didn't get the only practical detail right, about supplementing electrolytes.  

There would be better references out there, but Youtube is almost entirely populated by these sorts of light content sources.  One is about actual research on fasting delaying Alzheimer's development in genetically inclined mice; maybe that highlights a good reason to take up fasting or maybe it doesn't carry over directly to humans.  Fasting seems to be the only thing that extends test animals' lifespans, or at least suppressed calorie intake does, so there probably are multiple benefits to it, it would just be hard to sort out.


The fasting experience


Was it easier?  It's not as if having prior exposure and dialing in electrolytes made it a lot easier.  I was still really hungry for the first three days, but the mental haziness and radically shifting energy level was reduced.  Level of hunger might have backed off a little, or maybe it was that I was just as hungry, for just as long (3 days), but that it seemed more normal to me, so it didn't bother me quite as much.  Again instead of avoiding all exposure to food on the first day I went to a grocery store (it was a street market the first time), to buy pumpkin seeds and cashews for after the fast, to start back on food with low carb and stomach friendly inputs.  Kind of off topic, I also bought some American style white cheddar, which isn't commonly available here in Bangkok.  

It wasn't bad being in that store, around food, because I used a lunch break at work to go there, and the real hunger only kicked in later in the day.  I guess that had been worse the first time, because I had visited a market in the evening with my wife.


visiting a street festival selling food; it wasn't so bad, being around it while fasting


Lots of references mention how through prior experience you can speed up the switch into ketosis, only processing fat energy, in this case that from your body, not food, versus carbohydrate energy use.  Two ways to do that:  eat almost no carbs the day before, or do light exercise the first day to cycle through existing glycogen reserves (I think that's how they put that).  I didn't attempt that at all, eating a large dinner of Isaan sausage and corn the night before, with pineapple, banana, and orange for desert.  A lot of carbs!  The reasoning was to boost nutrient intake, and to not worry about the carbs.  Maybe a long walk to that store on day one speeded up draining energy reserves, but it had just worked out like that, I wasn't intentionally exercising.


About electrolyte experience:  it's hard to say how much difference this made, but I didn't experience exactly the same heart palpitations that I had the first time (or at least thought that I did).  Learning in mid-fast that I wasn't properly supplementing electrolyte input probably didn't help with confidence related to experience any body changes.  Maybe that practical improvement this time did help with keeping energy level more stable.  I didn't push it by doing exercise, but I did sweep leaves in the driveway and do laundry and such, and visited a temple and another market on day 4 (again my wife wanted to do that, and hunger wasn't so bad then anyway).

That salt and water mixture was disgusting.  I thought that if I could dilute it more than they recommended it would be better, but it turned out best to drink it at about that strength and then drink plain water after to resolve the reaction from it.  I mixed it at double the strength they mentioned and then added cold water to drink it cool, but otherwise I was consuming a variation of that Reddit sub information wiki's "snake juice" recipe, with magnesium added twice a day in the form of those fizzy dissolvable tablets.  On day 5 I was considering dropping the baking soda sodium input, just bumping the salt, but by then it was near the end anyway.


Side effects, hunger and other:  I was quite hungry the first three days, and then that resolved on day 4.  On day 5--as I write this initial draft--I'm not hungry but energy level and clarity isn't great.  I didn't sleep well last night, or most nights, only getting a solid 9 hour nights' sleep on one exception (after day 2?).  I felt like I was always dialing in how much of that vile salt mixture and regular water I had been drinking, and that's what kept waking me up.  Just a guess from my experience, but I think drinking 2 liters of that and one liter of water might work well.  3 liters is a decent amount of water to drink in one day, but I think adding a bit beyond a generally recommended 2 to make allowance for body processes being atypical and no food input containing any water makes sense.  Drinking more yet might pull out more of other minerals and vitamins, but a five day fast isn't really pushing it for risk from nutrient deficits (per my understanding; who knows really), especially when adding a few vitamin supplements.

I never really felt normal, or good.  Even though hunger seemed slightly less of an issue processing all that salt water threw off my digestive system a little.  I didn't have diarrhea, that time, but my stomach kept churning for the first 2 1/2 days.  It wasn't really so uncomfortable, so I didn't mind much, but I could imagine someone finding that off-putting.  At a couple instances on day 4 and 5 I felt a little dizzy standing up quickly; my equilibrium wasn't normal.  Waking in the night I felt more off than during the day, but drinking water resolved that (again I didn't get hydration and electrolyte supplementation completely dialed in).   

It's odd describing what it's like to not feel hungry after not eating for 5 days.  In one sense I'm definitely hungry; if I think about food I crave it, and thinking about how my stomach feels brings up noticing a notable hollow feeling.  Smelling food is even worse; I can smell the neighbors cooking dinner, which I don't really remember doing before.  But oddly I didn't crave food very much at that night market on day 4 evening, even when my wife ate in front of me in two places.  I kept seeing food on the table while working remotely; it probably would've been better to remove those snacks, now consisting of dried strawberries and a Thai crispy rolled crepe / cookie sort of thing.  But the energy issues and general concern about my body experiencing this is worse, and that very minor sore throat.  Better to let it go roughly at the five day mark.

Today is my birthday, one part of why my wife wants us to go out to dinner, preventing me from stopping right at 8 PM, as I had planned.  It's a strange present to myself, to experience the last of starving for 5 days.


right after the fast


Lessons learned / new experiences:  being a little more active this time worked out, and I can see how exercising while fasting might be possible, just in a mild form.  I think if someone practiced fasting more normalizing the experience might be helpful, perhaps not talking much about shared experience in a related forum, not telling many people IRL about it, and trying to include the full range of normal activities.  Not related to how those others would see it, but just in relation to making it seem as normal as possible within your own perspective.  I think going heavy on carbs the day before is probably a bad idea; I probably could've lessened transition impact by not doing that.  

I've read and watched videos a bit more on what it's supposed to bring for benefits, but oddly I'm skeptical of all of that.  It's probably all mostly right, but health claims in general often amount to hearsay knowledge extended from a study that wasn't quite that specific, or worse, general medical care perspective or from the echo-chamber effect of people repeating what they saw claimed somewhere, from unreliable sources.  Maybe that fasting experience just did cure cancer in my body, and offset diabetes risk, reduce insulin resistance, and delayed my later onset of dementia.  Maybe significant autophagy occurred, and lots of damaged cells have been recycled, which should reduce inflammation and resolve all sorts of minor organ health and tissue damage issues I'm barely aware of.

The only noticeable benefit last time, beyond having a different perspective on food, and perhaps a slight boost in mental clarity, was that it seemed like I had a lot more energy when running distance, over 2 or 3 miles (4 or 5 kilometers), up to 8 km (5 miles) on my longer normal route.  That's not really even one of the benefits mentioned in hearsay accounts, so it wasn't confirmation bias that caused noticing that.

Beyond that I don't know.  Maybe I'll add more in a later effects addition to this initial draft.  This took just over a half hour to write, if that's helpful for clarifying how writing just over a page of text would go with potentially diminished mental acuity.  I feel as mentally clear as normal; kind of odd.


Later account, experienced effects 


Breaking the fast:  I ate pumpkin seeds, almonds, and a small bowl of meusli with milk to return to eating.  Of course it all tasted great, especially the almonds.  It was great eating food with salt that matched the food instead of drinking that salty water.  Then we went out to dinner; I had wanted to eat that controlled food type form of small meal first.  A food court burger tasted the best of any burger I've ever eaten, surely only because of the context.  Then I ate a waffle with caramel and ice cream.  Every time I fast I vow that I'm going to eat a very healthy diet afterwards, and that drops out as soon as I see ice cream.  Next we went to a familiar restaurant (MK) where I ate more ice cream cake, offered for free related to it being my birthday.

As to side effects from eating, the first light meal went great, as planned.  I was somewhat full eating what wouldn't overfill a moderate sized cereal bowl.  The burger I ate too fast, and started sweating as a response to the digestive system shock.  Maybe related to a carb spike from the fries?  Probably not; it was right afterwards, and it settled out quite quickly.  After what wouldn't have been a huge meal I felt like I'd eaten a round of Thanksgiving dinner (which I missed, since that Thursday was day 2 of the fast, but they don't "do" Thanksgiving in Thailand anyway).


I did eat that traditional meal, just a bit later on, as a cafe special


Later account of effects:  I'm writing this on Tuesday, after ending the fast on Sunday around 6 PM.  Monday morning it felt like I wasn't completely back to normal.  I didn't really lack energy, or mental clarity, but still felt a much milder form of that odd feeling that had persisted over the fast.  

By Monday afternoon that had resolved, and by evening I felt fantastic.  My wife and I went for a 12 km bike ride at a local park, and that felt like it took absolutely no effort at all, so I went out for a run right afterwards.  That's the fastest I've ever ran that 4 km loop (not that I time it; I'm oddly opposed to that, which I won't go into here).  I usually either run an 8 km milder pace circuit (5 miles or so), or with the shorter 4 km version I include a 1 km (two thirds mile) maximum speed segment at the end, and it was surprising how it felt effortless for the entire run, and that pace was crazy the last kilometer.  It helps to adjust the form and effort by matching stride pace count to breathing pace, automatically  changing both and the relationship at different speeds, and it was hard to get it to push towards a highest speed near-failure point; I could just keep going faster.


anyone visiting Bangkok might check out renting bikes at Rot Fai park; it's so nice there



There is no way that fasting improved my cardio capacity, but it definitely felt like it did.  I think that was because use of fat based (ketogenic?) energy supply was boosted, becoming a much more familiar internal process, so the other sub-processes of lactic acid and carbon dioxide removal and oxygen intake felt more comfortable.  I don't know why.  I'm not sore at all the day after, just a little stiff; that I can't explain either.  It is possible that the 45 minute biking warm up helped out a lot.

Mentally I feel normal, maybe slightly sharper.  My energy level is good.  As I was telling my wife maybe it's all because my baseline of feeling relatively terrible for 5 days makes "back to normal" feel like I'm bright, sharp, and energetic.  

I slept ok for the past two nights, with some interruption last night, but then my sleep hasn't been as consistent since returning from Hawaii, nearly two months ago.  Unusually vivid dreams have been a side effect during fasting, and also an after-effect.  I don't know what to make of that.

It would be nice if I had more experiential input or conclusions to share, but that's pretty much it.  It did seem a good bit easier than the first fast, just still rough enough, so it seems possible that after another round or two it might be much more manageable.  I'm not sure if I'll do it again, but probably that boost in running experience is going to be quite tempting.  I'll do the longer run again later in the week, so I can see if that was a temporary effect, or if I can fly through the routes now, which would seem strange.


kids making colored sand street art at that festival



a better look at more of their work



(off topic) this local mall sells the houses ($45), but not gingerbread men, so strange