surfing the universe

2025 Day 3: Happy Birthday Anthony

2025-0103F-0707 Austin, TX

My then wife awoke a little after midnight. “I think it’s time”, she said. We timed the contractions and it was time to go to the hospital. I remember running a red light to get there. The rest is a blur until Anthony was born around 7am. I remember an old doctor coming in and checking on Anthony. He placed his thumbs on the soles of Anthony’s feet. Anthony’s toes curled around the doctor’s thumb. I exclaimed “Oh, that reflex must be from when we were monkeys and swung from trees.” The doctor looked at me confused and said something like “well, if you believe that fiction.” Since this story is burned in my memory, I was obviously shocked by a doctor not believing in evolution.

Yesterday, I saw a puppy sticking out its tongue. I was reminded of how very similar humans are to the other animal species. All life forms known to humans share a common genetic code origin which is highly conserved. This fact has always fascinated me since I learned it. In the winter of 2022, I started blogging on all the amino acids, beginning with A is for Alaline. An interesting thought experiment is to imagine that a probe finds life on asteroid, or even some frozen RNA/DNA fragments. How would our view of our origins change based on this discovery and analysis of the found RNA/DNA? What if it obviously matches our genetic code and appears from Earth? What if it obviously doesn’t? What if it doesn’t, but shows a common heritage?

In pondering these questions myself, I arrive at a creation story. Around 14 billion years ago our visible universe was reborn from whatever ancestor universe came before it. A few billion years later, our Milky Way galaxy was similarly reborn. Soon after, one of the solar systems in our galaxy began evolving life. The origin of this life occurred either in that solar system or another one that interfered with it. That solar system eventually died in a supernova or similar event. Hardy microbes survived in icy rocky asteroids that eventually found their way to our solar system as it formed. Initially in the Kuiper Belt, at least one of these asteroids crashed into Earth around 4 billion years ago. The rest is evolutionary history. Life is both very precious and very abundant in the multiverse. Creation is a recurring theme.

When I read my blog post from five years ago, I am reminded that I still struggle with replacing consumption with creation. I also failed in my 2020 intention of only checking my stock portfolio monthly. I still own AAPL, AMD, IBM, and WT. I sold SFM around $80 as it skyrocketed from $15 to $150 over the last few years. I also sold DS and NOK and bought EB, INTC, PYPL, and YELP.

Full Moon on Mar 18th, 2019 – a day after I reconnected with Anthony in downtown Austin

2025 Day 2: The Importance of Listening and Being Heard

2025-0102h-1750 Austin, TX

Five years ago, I talked about my struggle with beginning a new habit of daily blogging (Ref: https://surfingtheuniverse.com/2020/01/02/2020-day-2-feeling-a-short-trip-and-closing-the-wormhole-behind-me/). I am feeling a similar struggle today. An assertion I made then was that “reality is more than what I see”. We exist in a multi-dimensional reality. I continue to find this viewpoint helpful. For instance, it helps me stay grounded when there is chaos around me. It also helps me understand how easily miscommunication can occur. This brings up my topic for today – the importance of listening and the importance of being heard.

“Just left Dr have no voice”, my Aunt texted me earlier today. Without context, these six words, ordered as they are, can be interpreted in multiple ways. Pause now and make a note of your first interpretation. Then, consider a second and third interpretation. Can you imagine others? My first interpretation is that she has laryngitis or similar. I am biased though because I heard her talk yesterday and she was hoarse. Ignoring my bias, my second interpretation is that her doctor wasn’t listening to her. My third interpretation, is she is referring to herself when saying “Dr have no voice”. I can’t think of a fourth. Actually, if I remove everything I know about her I can think of a fourth one. It’s like the second one except Dr refers to her partner. She is breaking up with her partner because she feels that he (or she) doesn’t listen to her. She is also upset now and using voice-to-text to send the message to me as she drives somewhere. Did you come up with these same interpretations? Any others?

In this case, given my prior knowledge of the context, I felt near 100% sure in my first interpretation. In other past cases, I have been much less than 100% sure in my first interpretation. I have had friends ask me to interpret a text someone sent them. I have had friends misinterpret a text I sent them. I’ve misinterpreted texts sent to me. What’s my point here? My point is having a shared interpretation is critical for effective communication. Furthermore, active listening and feeling understood is critical for maintaining a healthy relationship. And finally, it’s a multi-dimensional world out there so cut yourself and others some slack when there is a miscommunication.

Going Deeper: Often when I listen, my mind is predicting what someone is going to say next. Sometimes, I even interpret someone to finish what I think they are going to say. I have learned that many people dislike the interruption, regardless of whether I’m right or wrong. It is still difficult for me to just listen without interrupting, but I’m getting better.

2025 Day 1: Five Year Anniversary of Waking up in a New Universe – RIP Buddy Ollie

2025-0101W-2020 Austin, TX

On the first day of 2020 I decided to try blogging daily beginning with https://surfingtheuniverse.com/2020/01/01/2020-day-1-seeing-is-believing-good-morning-new-universe/. I purposely chose that day to start. I felt a strong urge to do so. I also believed my chances of daily blogging were higher. Starting on a date well known for people trying to change their life and adopt new habits seemed strategic. I still believe in trusting instincts. It’s also important to take advantage of the new year to form new habits. Today, I noticed a very strong urge to restart blogging again, not necessarily daily, but consistently. Let’s see how things play out this time.

Today I definitely woke up in a new universe as well. My friend’s dog passed away last night. I sometimes called him Buddy Ollie. He was in my bathroom this morning until just an hour ago. I didn’t grow up with a pet and so never went through the death of a pet. I’m not including the eight aquariums that my Dad bought and filled with a mixture of fish. Counting the dead fish was a regular morning occurrence for the few weeks afterwards. Today felt strange. I tried to live my life as I normally would. In the background, my mind kept remembering there is a dead dog in my bathroom. His death seemed near the last few days and much closer yesterday. My friend and I were with him as he took his last few spaced out breaths. A couple hours later, the fireworks exploded in the night sky. They burst over the back fence as everyone celebrated the coming of the new year. The loud noises frightened my friend’s two puppies and their bodies trembled as we held them to calm them down.

Being with Buddy Ollie as he passed on reminded me of being with my Uncle when he was near death. I was with my Uncle a few minutes before he died. It was difficult to watch him struggle – he had requested a natural death at home. I left to walk around his house and when I returned, he had taken his last breath. For me, both deaths felt similar. My friend felt an energy move behind her shortly after her dog’s death. It seemed to move to one of her new puppies. While I still ponder the existence of a spirit world, I don’t imagine it being exclusive to humanity.

20221221W Day 0: Y is for Tyrosine (Tyr)

Exiting the wormhole is messy with lots of moving pieces, with V & Z – Winter Solstice, 2022

20221221W-1812-AustinTX

Y is for Tyrosine, aka 4-hydroxyphenylalanine, a non-essential amino acid with a polar functional group. Tyrosine was first discovered in the cheese protein casein and was named after the Greek word for cheese, tyrós.

Tyrosine is encoded by the two codons UAC and UAU. Tyrosine is often substituted with the similar but essential amino acid Phenylalanine, encoded by the nearby codons UUC and UUU. Humans can synthesize Tyrosine from Phenylalanine.

Tyrosine is a precursor to neurotransmitters Dopamine, neurotransmitter and hormone Noradrenaline, hormone Adrenaline and the pigment Melanin.

Tyrosine is decarboxylated to tyramine in the gut and also during fermentation. Tyramine can cause blood vessels to constrict, increase blood pressure, and also cause heart palpitations. Foods high in tyramine include fermented vegetables, wine and beer, aged cheese, cured meats, chocolate, coffee, soy sauce, and salt-dried fish (ref: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK563197/).

In proteins, the Tyrosine residues may by phosphorylated by tyrosine kinase enzymes. This phosphorylation can change the function or location of the protein. Tyrosine kinases are important for maintaining normal cell growth and differentiation. Tyrosine kinase disfunction can lead to carcinogenesis. For this reason, targeted tyrosine kinase inhibitors are used in treating cancer. Resistance to these inhibitors is being studied (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41392-022-01168-8).

Regarding the exit of the wormhole that I felt 20 days ago, I can report feelings of humbleness and WTF. I’m still processing what happened around midnight on the 21st of Dec. There was definitely an extreme shift and completely unexpected experience. I wonder how much of it was brought on by my anticipation of a wormhole exit. I did share with AZ that I was expecting a shift and so perhaps her behavior was impacted. Most of the differences I feel are internal versus external. However, these internal changes seem to be impacting my external reality.

20221220T Day -1: W is for Tryptophan (Trp)

20221220T-2042-AustinTX

W is for Tryptophan, an essential amino acid encoded by only a single codon, UGG. Tryptophan is essential for the synthesis of serotonin, a molecule that plays a key role in many bodily functions, such as sexual desire, mood, focus, learning, cognition, sleep, body temperature, wound healing, bone health, nausea, digestion, and vasoconstriction, and blood clotting. An adult body requires about 250mg/day per 100 lbs of body weight (about 5 mg/kg of body weight). A normal adult diet supplies about 20 mg/kg of body weight. For example, 150 mg of Tryptophan can be found in the following servings:

Cup of milk
Cup of oatmeal
Canned sardines (3 oz)
Edamame (3 oz)
Eggs (2)
Hamburger patty (5 oz)
Tofu (2 oz)
Roasted turkey breast (2 oz)
Tuna or Salmon fillet (1.5 oz)
Steak, chicken, or lamb (1.5 oz)
Seeds, for example pumpkin seeds (1 oz) and chia seeds (0.7 oz)
Wheat germ (1 oz)
Spirulina (0.5 oz)

An interesting study found that a high tryptophan diet had a positive impact on mood in healthy college students:

The results of this double-blinded, within-subjects study indicate that participants consuming higher levels of tryptophan (>10 mg/kg body weight/d) had significantly less depression and irritability and decreased anxiety than when they consumed lower levels of tryptophan (<5 mg/kg body weight/d).
2014 Dec 9, The Effects of Dietary Tryptophan on Affective Disorders (https://doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.apnu.2014.11.008)

As we near the end of reviewing the encoded amino acids, the following genetic code diagram with chemical structures might be helpful.