Mappy April!
DIY Yucatan / Car Rental in Merida / Vegas' Fontainebleau / Dexa AI / Not bossy! / 12k-point Flights to Europe / Heart and Microdosing / Naval's Almanack / Poor Things / Deep Web (Literally)
Hello, fellow curious cats!
You’re reading Mappy Monday, a free monthly newsletter about budget travel, quirky self-help experiments, thrifty money hacks, movie and book gems, and occasional silliness. You’re also the first to learn what’s new on my MappyEverAfter website.
New on MappyEverAfter: From our Mexican trip: Yucatan - From Dinosaur Killer to Mayan Marvel, and Renting a car in Merida, Mexico. Plus a new video - Walkthru the curvacious Fontainebleau hotel in Vegas
From the Archive: 6 minutes of nature fondling close-ups: Tactile Travels in Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks in California
AI Shenanigans: Dexa AI - famous Doctors, Thinkers, and Podcasters (think Andrew Huberman, Krista Tippett, Rick Rubin, Lex Freedman…) All to Yourself
Experiment: A test of Will (and marriage): Refrain from all Advice for 30 days
Travel: Chase points transfer to FlyingBlue with a 25% bonus until 4/30/24 = flights between the US and Europe for 15k points!
Health: Heart-to-heart on Microdosing Psychedelics
Read: Naval Ravikant”s Almanach
Watch: Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, and Willem Dafoe in Poor Things
Mental Hack: Naval’s Life Formulas
Just Because: A Dive into the Deep Web (Literally)
Note: I will always tell you if I’m getting any referral bonuses and how much they are. There aren’t any in this letter
New on my MappyEverAfter website - Exploring Yucatan, Renting a car in Merida, and admiring Fontainebleau, Las Vegas
DIY Yucatan escapade! From ancient meteor craters and Mayan skeletons in water-filled caves to the unevenly distributed charm of Magic Towns, Yucatan is easy and fun to navigate on your own. Click to read more: Mayan Magic in Yucatan, Mexico: Chichen Itza and Beyond
We got fed up with Mexico car rental horror stories online, found a brick-and-mortar local company, and enjoyed smooth sailing around Yucatan. Click to read more: Renting a Car in Merida, Mexico
A few new hotels/casinos opened up in the past few years on the Las Vegas strip but only Fontainebleau has a couch made out of nickels.
This hotel is seriously stunning - curvy design, beautiful materials, and a luxurious vibe that feels inviting, not stuffy. Have a look at our walkthrough:
From the Archive - Touching Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks
This was my 3rd ever YouTube video, complete with a cheesy intro and 6 minutes of nature fondling close-ups. I count rings on a 2000-year-old tree, destabilize some moss, and find out that not all that glitters in Hume Lake is gold.
AI Shenanigans - Dexa AI - You can have Famous Thinkers All to Yourself!
Dexa, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
Do you remember Steven Jobs’ prediction from 1985?
"My hope is someday, when the next Aristotle is alive, we can capture the underlying worldview of that Aristotle in a computer. And someday, a student will be able to not only read the words Aristotle wrote but ask Aristotle a question and get an answer."
With Dexa, you can ask your favorite thinker a question and get an AI-generated answer - if they are one of the 106 (yes, I counted) that can be tagged with an “@” in Dexa searches.
You can have Andrew Huberman all to yourself! The future is closer than it used to be.
Experiment - A test of Will (and marriage): 30 Days Without Advice
What's that you say? Not a single piece of advice for the whole month of April?
The hubby wished to experience the sweet taste of autonomy. No directives, no unsolicited counsel, no "helpful" suggestions, and a complete absence of all nagging. Just pure, unadulterated decision-making sovereignty.
Armed with determination and a roll of metaphorical duct tape, biting my tongue became an extreme sport.
Did his laundry folding take a... creative turn? Quite possibly. Did he eat fat-soluble vitamins on an empty stomach with a glass of water? I shudder to think. Did I slip or present a well-meaning piece of advice as "something I heard somewhere you might be interested in"? You bet.
But the man not only survived. Unchained by counsel or caution, he blossomed. And I enjoyed the break from my unsolicited advisory role and treated the hubby as the capable, grown-up human that he is. For the most part.
Travel - Get 25% Bonus When You Transfer Chase Points to FlyingBlue
Spring in Athens or an autumn in Venice for 15k points and $125 each way? Mother, may I!
Last call: You have until 4/30/24 to take advantage of a 25% bonus on transferring Chase Ultimate Rewards points to FlyingBlue, the frequent flyer program for Air France and KLM. If you live in the US and don’t collect points and miles, here’s a primer so you’re ready next time a deal comes by.
The cheapest flights between the US and Europe cost 20k FlyingBlue points. With the Chase deal, you’d pay 25% less, 15k points per flight.
And as if that wasn’t amazing enough, today and tomorrow (i.e. by Apr 30th ‘24) you can double-dip.
FlyingBlue is running a monthly deal on select flights between the US East Coast and select European cities for 15k points each way if you book by Apr 30th and travel by Sept 30th.
Subtract the 25% Chase transfer bonus and there you sit, flying over the Atlantic, fluffs of whipped-cream clouds floating by, and it only cost you 12k Chase points and $125-ish (taxes and fees)!
If that’s too much pressure, keep an eye on new FlyingBlue deals at the beginning of each month.
A quick tip: When searching for flights on FlyingBlue, leave the date empty. This will give you a whole month overview.
Health - Heart-to-heart on Microdosing
TL;DR: Most well-known microdosing protocols recommend a 2 to 4-week break after each 4 to 8 weeks of microdosing. Emerging science says this break may be necessary to protect your heart.
The other day I got an email from MAPS (my favorite hub for all things related to psychedelic research), titled A Psychedelic Researcher’s Approach to Creating a Psilocybin Session Playlist. Cool, right?
The guide was penned by one Kelan Thomas. Intrigued, I wanted to know who this musical psychonaut was (and to snag his playlist, of course). Turns out, he’s a psychiatric pharmacist and his link took me to a page full of links on ... the effects of psychedelics on the heart.
After hours in the rabbit hole of valves, receptors, antagonists, and fibroblast proliferation, I emerged with the following:
Kelan compares the effects of microdosing to weightlifting. And while it's perfectly healthy to work out your biceps or quads, you don't want your heart to bulk up – or in this case, your heart valves to thicken.
If you microdose regularly, it's wise to take a 2-4 week break for every 4-8 weeks of microdosing, giving your heart a chance to rest.
Even though psychedelics interact with the same 5-HT2B receptors as some medications taken off the market due to their effect on heart valves, I found no specific studies linking psychedelics to cardiac issues.
Here’s more info from Chakruna Institute, Kelan Thomas’ interview, and NIH.
Read - The Almanack of Naval Ravikant
Apparently, wealth and happiness are skills we can learn. So what exactly are these skills and how do we learn them? And what does progress look like?
Eric Jorgenson condensed the thoughts of Naval Ravikant (who has been called one of the best living philosophers disguised as an investor) in a book called The Almanack of Naval Ravikant.
He offers it for free, as a public service.
Here's a free download: Navalmanack, and here is a free audiobook, in the form of Jorgenson's Sandbox podcast. Look for the 9 oldest episodes, that is the book. I borrowed my copy from the library and listened to it on the Libby app.
For a sneak peek, here are some of Naval’s basics in a 16-minute video:
Watch - Poor Things
I’m not going to give you any links here as they would inevitably take you to reviews and trailers. I avoided them like a plague before watching Poor Things and that made it all the better. Just find the movie and dive right in.
It’s on Hulu, AppleTV and Amazon Prime.
Mental Hack - Naval Ravikant's Life Formulas
Happines = Health + Wealth + Good Relationships
Health = Exercise + Diet + Sleep
Exercise = High Intensity, Resistance Training + Sports + Rest
Diet = Natural Foods + Intermittent Fasting + Plants
Sleep = No alarms + 8-9 hours + Circadian Rhythms
Wealth = Income + RoI (Return on Investment)
Income = Accountability + Leverage + Specific Knowledge
Accountability = Personal Branding + Personal Platform + Taking Risk?
Leverage = Capital + People + Intellectual Property
Specific Knowledge = Knowing how to do something that society cannot yet easily train other people to do
RoI = Buy-and-Hold + Valuation + Margin of Safety
Read the full break-down in the Almanac of Naval Ravikant linked above
Just Because - Deep Web (Literally)
I always thought our digital world ran on satellites beaming data from the sky. If you're worried about a solar flare frying your Friday night Netflix binge, it's time to unclench.
Turns out, your frantic emails, grandma's FaceTime, cat videos, and classified documents all travel through undersea cables thick as a garden hose. They crisscross the murky ocean depths like bioluminescent spaghetti while we blissfully click and DoorDash away.
If the satellites went down, it would be inconvenient but survivable. We'd lose GPS, satellite internet, and connectivity in some remote areas. But if (god forbid) all those cables on the ocean floors snapped, it would mean a digital doomsday. No money, no stocks, no internet, no waving your credit card at the grocery store register.
A hidden army of 1000 heroes living on 20-ish ships patrols the oceans, ready to race to any cable break and get us all back online. They are the reason websites load, bank transfers zip through, and civilization keeps chugging along. Ironically, the internet connection on those ships isn’t great - they use satellites.
So there you have it!
This month, you joined me on a road trip in Mexico and in a swanky Vegas hotel. We petted the biggest trees on Earth, nabbed some cheap flights, talked shop with famous doctors, micro’d psychedelics, learned how to be rich and happy, watched a delightfully peculiar movie, and thanked the seafaring heroes who make all this possible.
You’re a good travel partner. I think I’ll keep you.
We’ll take one of the most epic American road trips in May! Can you guess? (rhymes with kicks)
Be Mappy,
Mags
