At the @npub17cya...4ml3 in Medillin, Colombia
Lots of bitcoiners here, hanging out by the bar before Bitcoin Medillin, while there is a Bitcoin class happening for some pre-coiner locals next door
Great way to start the new year!
First trip of 2026!
On my way to the first international meetup of @npub17cya...4ml3 tonight in Medillin, Colombia then onto the Bitcoin Medillin Conference
LFG!
2025 was full of change for me--both professional & personal
One big one on the personal side, after more than two decades as a vegetarian, I ate meat again
I become vegetarian as an act of protest against the factory farm system and those feelings have not changed. Something else did though.
For most of the time I've been vegetarian I led a nomadic life, living in a variety of different cultures around the world. I met other vegetarians who told me they would occasionally eat meat while traveling because they saw it as a way to bond with new people in a new place. I always rejected that notion
I understand the concept differently now
I eat most of my meals with my son and we share everything. Well, for awhile we would share everything expect for meat
Starting a few months ago, I decided that we would just share everything, no exceptions.
Fatherhood is a wonderful journey that reprioritizes everything
It also makes me appreciate my own parents so much more. My father became a vegetarian shortly after I did. When we would eat at restaurants we would often share plates. It's only through my own experience eating with my son that I realized that my father changed his diet, at least in part, to be closer with me
I have had the privilege to travel to much of the world, including places such as Venezuela & Iran
It's such an important lesson to realize that people are nuanced for sure, but generally good, everywhere
hate the govt, but love the people
"Whenever a new theory challenges the dominant worldview, it's natural to seek to reestablish the original order.'
From: Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned
IMF loan agreements are very complex and require a lot of background and context to understand
In the case of El Salvador that has been lacking, this does a good job of filling in some of that context
Venezuela in 2026 rhymes with Iraq in 2003
An unpopular dictator leading a nation with lots of oil is overthrown by the US military
The US occupation in Iraq led to civil war, thousands of deaths and the rise of ISIS. It was an unmitigated disaster
"The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting"
In 2009 I took a boat from Barcelona, Venezuela to an island in the Caribbean. The beach looked back over the turquoise waters & onto the continent, where the Andes mountains began, seemingly rising right out of the sea
It was beautiful
Wishing for the best for Venezuela today
