It is going to be interesting to find out what happens when China & Asia hit a bump while Europe is hitting a bump, and the USA is doing “ok” (sneeze is a reference to this article). Fun times!

China was a fun trip, it was fun to travel with my dad and finally see my brother and his city :). Next time I hope to see more of the countryside, and I’d love to travel along the historic silk road.

The big thing that struck me is the incredible growth, and how well managed it has been over such a long period. It is not perfect by any measure but when I look at all the places I’ve visited none of them are even close to managing such incredible growth so well. I hope that continues.

And, because of that, there is a real feeling of hope and optimism about the future that is awesome to see/feel. I might feel that in the presence of entrepreneurs or the tech community in the USA, but I don’t get that impression from most Americans. I am looking forward to seeing what the next 20 year holds as China grows. I do not see it as a zero sum game, and I think long term it will benefit the entire world.

Some more pictures of the delicious chinese food we tried…

Here are some of my favourite Chinese to English translations… I love these as they are so beautiful, and poetic.

“The mountain is evaluating your quality as you are appreciating its beauty.”

“Experience the history of the treasures and feel the passing of time.”

“Civilized sightseeing is advocated in Mt. Huangsi.”

“Leave behind your virtue and you’ll leave with the memory.”

“The mountain is inspecting your behaviour while you are apprecating its beauty.”

We took a short train ride out to Hang Zhou, and I have to agree with the old Chinese saying that it is one of the most beautiful cities in all of China. I love West Lake and we spent all our time walking around it and enjoying some nature. Beautiful spot!

We hit a bit of a wall in Beijing and took a good number of days to rest (so funny!). We went to the national museum, forbidden palace, walked around a bit, and Tiananmen Square. Our hotel is awesome, so we enjoyed some break days to use the sauna and relax which was nice.

The below pictures should hopefully give you a feel for this part of our trip, the light was pretty harsh so not a ton of great photos.

Today we went to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall outside of Bejing. Pretty cool :). You can see from the pictures how polluted it was today though, ~190 or so.

I have to admit, one of the coolest things is they have a giant metal toboggan you can take down, it was wicked fun! There was a small pileup that delayed my run time, I could have gone faster.

I do not have words for how unique and amazing this place is. It is a wonder of the world and so utterly amazing!!!!

I wish I had my nice camera with me, but I decided to shed the weight and only bring my iPhone with me. The mountains are at about 4000 to 45000 feet high, and free of pollution. The haze you see is either clouds / water vapor. We were here in the dry season and got lucky on weather with a ton of sunshine. Usually, it is foggy for ~250 days of the year. We spent 2 night here, in two different hotels. There were a TON of steps up and down and we did a lot of walking. If you can’t do a lot of steps I recommend just a one day visit and to stay at a hotel near a skycar.

And, some short 5 to 10 second videos to better see it :)

My dad and I left Shanghai and took a high-speed train about 4 hours away to meet up with a guide for 4 days (around Huangshan). She is going to take us all over the yellow mountains and local area.

The first stop was an old village you will see below. It was old to us yanks, but not in the grand scheme of Chinese history. It was very cool to see, and especially to see the domestic tourist industry in action. Quite a few Chinese people who haven’t seen many foreigners would ask to take a picture with you. It was fun :). I think a lot of them are from smaller cities and rural areas.

Some of these pictures are not great, but at least you get a general idea of what the village was like. Along with some pics from the train and car ride of the countryside :).

My dad and I did an amazing food tour a few days back so we decided to do one focused just on dumplings next (I LOVE dumpings, it was 90% dumplings and 10% a few other delicious things). It was fantastic and run by UnTour. I liked the first food tour a little better, but they were both great! This one was unique as at the end we got to make our own shrimp dumplings in a kitchen :). Very fun!

Our dumplings tasted great even if they all looked a little funny, so much fun :)

In the distance a state of art skyscraper that is the 2nd tallest in the world, and in the foreground an old park. Maybe not old for China, but old for the yanks.

We went to the museum of the 1st party congress, it was interesting. I like that it had a gift shop :). I was a bit surprised but all the exhibits were in English as well. I guess they get a lot of foreign visitors and want to make sure they know their narrative.

We also went to a beautiful old garden, it was maze-like and a blast!

So far in Shanghai, we’ve had one day that was really really polluted and the rest have been beautiful. The one day was disgusting, I went for a short run and could feel it in my lungs burning. I bet in 10 years they have the pollution under more control.

Here is a park I went too and read for a while at, it was a really nice green space:

And, here are some interesting ads (“they” are trying to make Halloween a big thing here):

Today we went to the 2nd tallest building in the world, it was a little expensive but pretty amazing. The elevator going up goes 40mph but is totally silent, all you feel is your ears popping :). Beyond that, we went to nick’s tailor and roamed some malls and streets.

Dad and I went on an AMAZING Shanghai food tour and I highly recommend it if you are in town. We walked around old Shanghai for 4 hours trying all kinds of food, along with some history/insight, local alcohol, and tea. Our guide was Jim and he was fantastic :). We also went to a big Carrefour for some groceries which you will see below :).

My dad and I are visiting China for the next 3 weeks!!! My brother has lived in Shanghai for 3+ years and teaches here, and I am excited to finally visit him :). The flight wasn’t too bad compared to flying to Australia (12 hours instead of 16). Day one was mostly recovering from jet lag, checking out Nick’s neighborhood, using the metro, checking out the bund, and grabbing sim cards.

2023 was a great year!

Calico started school, and we started easing into the new “school” routine. That was a big change for us, especially for Lindsey, as she has a lot more time open up and is thinking about what she wants to do next.

Lindsey’s health was a big focus of the year, and we are still working to get that to 100%. We thought it was good, but then it went a bit squirrelly, and we are working to figure that out again.

We spent the year waiting to see if anything would change in Spain. Unfortunately, nothing has changed, and we can’t move there due to the broken tax system 😞.

The Amazing

Lindsey and I have been married for nine fantastic years! We both feel that things are smoother in day-to-day operations (which is a good feeling to have). I want to do something extraordinary for our 10th anniversary 😁.

Calico turned seven this year, which slightly blows my mind. Unfortunately, he is sick for his birthday, but hopefully better by the following weekend as we have a 25+ kid party planned at a jump park. We were up all last night as his fever was hitting above 104, poor guy.

I did my longest bike tour yet… over 1,200km in France. I went from Bordeaux to Paris along some wild trails, and then up to Mont St. Michael on the Veloscenic cycle route. I look forward to these long rides all year; they are incredibly therapeutic.

What fun stuff did we do this year?

• We started the year with a January trip to Granada and Malaga. We liked Malaga and wish it was an option to move there (although we prefer Valencia if that is ever possible). Unfortunately, the elections in Spain didn’t go how we wanted for purely selfish reasons (we were hoping they would fix the tax system so we could live there… the current broken tax system would tax us at 70% to 100%+).
• We entered a new world of routine as Calico started 1st grade in February! It was a bit brutal at times as he had to deal with bullying and the realities of the education system. But he is doing fantastic and is fairly fluent in Portuguese (just missing vocabulary).
• Calico and I surprised Lindsey with a birthday weekend on the Portuguese coast. We rented a cute traditional fishing house with a fireplace overlooking the ocean. It was still cold and rainy, but we had fun.
• Calico and I did our first bike weekend together! We went up to Ponte De Lima and did two days of riding. He crushed it and rode 22km on day one, followed by another 25km on day two. Plus, we played in the water, explored, and enjoyed our father-son weekend.
• We met Rose, Steve, and Evie for spring break in Valencia!!! It was a joy to hang out with them and one of the highlights of my year. I hope we can see them again soon. Evie is so adorable! I miss them. I wish Ireland were about 10 degrees warmer and 70% sunnier.
• In May, I met up with my brother in Cannes, France. I hadn’t seen him in almost 5 years with Covid (he lives in China). It was so much fun to hang out with just the two of us, catch up, and enjoy his success with his short film (which was amazing!). I had a great time, and I hope we can do it again next year. I miss him. I wish we lived in the same city together.
• I took Calico camping in Spain in June (while Lindsey stayed in a villa). I am trying to make sure we get a lot of adventures together. We had a fair bit of rain but did a lot of exploring, hiking, and grilling. I am not very good at grilling but hope to improve when I take him on a special guys’ weekend in January. This trip reminded us how much we miss Spain and wish we could live there. Lindsey and I had fun on Friday night as we ended up drenched but all eating and drinking at a local bar in town. It was an excellent way to reconnect.
• I took Calico on his first overnight bike tour in France! We followed a converted rail trail outside of Sarlat, one of the most beautiful trails I’ve ever been on. He covered 36km on day one, and we stayed in a beautiful guest room in the countryside (it even had a pool). Then, on day 2, we rode 21km and met up with Lindsey.
• With Calico in school, we are more limited on when we can travel. This year, we spent all of July in Issigeac, France, in the Dordogne region. It was very relaxing and just what we needed. My mom and stepdad visited for two weeks, which made it extra special. I hope we can do more of that as I enjoyed us all staying in the same place. We ate delicious food, went on a canoe trip, visited all kinds of markets and history, and otherwise just enjoyed each other’s company. Plus, they helped us try to lighten Calico’s contrarian streak. I also celebrated my 42nd birthday with them, which hasn’t happened in quite some time.
• Over August, I did my bike tour for the year (while Lindsey and Calico were visiting family in the USA). I went from Bordeaux to Paris along some wild trails and then up to Mont St. Michael on the Veloscenic cycle route. It was fun and my longest yet. I am excited about what I can do in 2024 and 2025. When I picked up Calico and Lindsey from the airport, we spent a few days on the beach before returning home.
• In August, I became an Uncle!!! Nick and Isidora have a beautiful boy who I hope to meet in person soon.
• Calico started 2nd grade in September! Mind-blowing! He had a weird brain leap in the middle of the year when he suddenly started reading! That was cool to see.
• In October, Lindsey organized a Halloween in the park for Calico’s class. That was fun to do, and the Portuguese families loved it!
• My dad and stepmom are visiting us in Portugal for Christmas, Calico’s birthday, and New Year’s! That has been relaxed and fun. We still have more day trips to do, and I love showing them all the amazing places around us. It has been a good reason to see parts of Portugal I haven’t had a chance to yet.

The Challenges!

My Health
My health is good after some cholesterol concerns toward the start of the year. I changed my diet to eat less meat and add more fish/beans. I am working to improve my eating habits as I tend to overeat. I’ve lost some weight and am doing better about hitting daily protein goals, so my energy stays steady. I need to keep working on my portion sizes and eating speed.

Lindsey’s Health
Lindsey has had a rough year with some of the same post-miscarriage health issues from 2022. We thought we had it fixed, but then some issues came back. She is a bit stressed, and we are working through it.

Shepherd
Shepherd had a pretty tough year. Traffic was entirely flat, and Google knocked us down several times. This is incredibly frustrating. Without more traffic, we don’t have more money, so we can’t build new features as fast (and doing new stuff is what I enjoy). I’ve been working really hard on Shepherd since December 2020, and I plan to take my foot off the gas pedal a bit in 2024. I need to slow down (you can only sprint for so long).

How did I do on my goals for 2023?

I did great on two out of three!

1. My goal was to get Shepherd to break even on costs and exit beta. We exited beta, but we didn’t get to break even on costs. Mostly because traffic was almost entirely flat year-over-year. That said… I had a lot of fun, and we built some great features for readers/authors. I am considering what I want to do in 2024 with limited financial resources.
2. My goal is to live a life of adventure and plan fun adventures for Calico. That went great! I took him on his biking weekend and his first overnight biking trip. And we did two camping trips. I also did a month-long bike tour that fed my adventure.
3. My goal was to keep my energy and health in a good place after the disaster in 2022. That I did well on. I still skated on thin ice and need to keep working on this. The October/November madness with the launch of the fav-3-reads format almost broke me. I’ll need to figure out how to do that better next year.

2024…

We have big changes coming in 2024! We will move to Bordeaux, France (after Calico finishes 2nd grade).

We are ready for a bigger city. We will be sad to leave Viseu as it is a beautiful place full of amazing people and nature. It will be tough for Calico since this is the only place he knows, and all his friends are here.

A longer 2024 post is coming soon…

Since 2010, I’ve participated in a yearly challenge to read 100 books. For 2023, I aimed to read at least 50 books as I knew this would be an intense work year. Luckily, I reached 100, thanks to some good summer breaks.

For 2024, I will try more books that are outside my wheelhouse. I’ve been struggling to find good science fiction with well-developed characters. Note, you will notice this is different from my favorite reads of 2023 on Shepherd; that is because the Shepherd book year runs from October 1st of the previous year to September 30th of the current year.

87% of the books I read were fun, and 13% were serious. I read more nonfiction this year and hope to add more in 2024. This was the most nonfiction I’ve read as a percentage since 2018.

If you want to look at past years for some reading ideas, check them out here: 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, and 2023.

If you only read 3 books this year, I recommend the following…

1. Thursday Murder Club series by Richard Osman
   I adore this series. I’ve read the first three and am about to start on the fourth. They make me laugh, cry, and everything in between. The story is about four septuagenarians meeting every Thursday at a lush retirement village to solve cold cases. I love the characters (especially Joyce), as the author is brilliant at weaving in the struggles, joys, and torments of getting old with excellent crime fiction. Plus, the humor perfectly matches the dark/light moods that life throws at you. It’s made me reflect heavily on friendship, marriage, love, aging, and more.
2. I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes
   This is the best thriller I’ve read in 5 years. I read this book in one go as I could not put it down. The plot revolves around bioterrorism and is fantastic and complex. I loved that I couldn’t see how all the pieces would meet back up, and how they tie together in the end is perfection. Plus, the writing is brilliant, and the main character feels real (something often lacking in spy thrillers). This is as good or better than Vince Flynn, Tom Clancy, and David Baldacci. I am looking forward to the sequel.
3. Inspector Lu Fei series
   I love detective books that take place in other countries, especially when they mix in food. Not only do I get to learn about life in that country, but also what they eat! The series is about a policeman named Lu Fei who lives in rural China. He ends up with a rural posting after stepping on some powerful toes. The author does a fantastic job describing what it is like to work in that power system and how he has to navigate the realities of modern China. I like Lu Fei as he reminds me a bit of Bosch. He has a code and must figure out how to stay true to his code while navigating the world he lives in. I’ve read the entire series, and I hope the author releases a new one soon. Some later books feel like thrillers, which is also quite fun.

Honorable mentions?

• Nonfiction? Walking with Sam is about a man and his son walking the Camino route in Spain. He reflects on his son, his relationship with him, his life, and their daily interactions on the trail. As a father, it was moving and special to read. It caused me to reflect heavily on my relationship with my son and some adventures I hope to take with him as he ages.
• History? Savage Peace was stunning in its ability to show me one year in history and make the pace feel more realistic. The book is the story of the year 1919. WW1 has just ended, the Spanish Flu is receding, and the USA is filled with hope but also red scares and terrorism. There is something about digesting history on a slower granular basis that helps me look at my own time and see the world more clearly. It is hard to articulate. We are in a weird moment in history. It feels like fascism is lurking in the shadows, a war in Europe has broken out, and the Middle East is slipping into the same violent echos of the past. This book helped me to hone in on the pace of change based on the past and what I need to keep an eye on. Plus I got to learn some incredible history that I am not as well versed on.
•  Thriller? Heat 2 is stunning! It is one of my all-time favorite movies, and Michael Mann and Meg Gardiner delivered something equally impressive. It picks up where the movie is left off but expands into something more (with both a pre and post-story). It is only available via audiobook, and I enjoyed it immensely. I hope they make a movie.
• Historical fiction with a bit of adventure? Washington and Caesar by one of my favorite authors, Christian Cameron. This was a CHALLENGE to read because the depictions of slavery and that mindset were so ugly and brutal. It is one thing to read a dry history book and know “what” slavery was in the USA, but to see it come to life in these historical figures and characters was like getting your skin peeled off and rubbed with salt. I read a lot of books about slavery in Ancient Rome, but somehow, the Americans made it so much worse. This belief that somehow x group is better than y group is just so fucking repulsive. This book is one I think every history student should read, not for the story, but for how well it puts you in the mindset of a slave-owner and slave (among many other things).
• Fun crime fiction? I am a big David Baldacci fan and picked up his Memory Man series. It is about a broken man with a perfect memory and his climb back to some life in the world (while solving great mystery cases). I’ve read the first three and just got book four. David has a gift with characters as they feel rounded and grow with the story. That is my favorite part about books.
• Fantasy? The Empire of the Wolf series and the Covenant of Steel series. I loved both of these, and they were close to being some of the best books I’ve read this year. I adored the main character in the Covenant of Steel and his growth over the series. The Empire of the Wolf was fantastic as well and just utterly unique. I can’t wait for the book 3 in that series.
• Sci-fi? It was a rough year in that area… my favorite was the Rorshach Explorer Missions. I loved the mystery elements of this science-fiction as they went from hearing mysterious signals from space to exploring the cause. Fun read!
• Unique? Babel by RF Kuang. Excellent world-building, but it felt like the intro to a story that never developed. It was a great read, and I see why people love it, but I wanted the meat instead of just an appetizer. Where is the plot? Where is the resolution? It ends with a cliffhanger, and I don’t think a sequel is planned.
• Self-help? From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life. My brother and I read this together, and I found it an incredible articulation of a lot of the ethos I’ve created for myself (along with help from Tim Ferris and the 4-hour workweek). My brother is turning 40 in a month, and I am 42, so it is an excellent book to review life and where we are headed. The bit about intelligence in the book’s first part was interesting, and I am still thinking about that.