Mappy May!
AI Computers / Mexico's Path Less Traveled / Route 66 / Attia's Rule / Free Sleep in the US / Watch "The Holdovers" / Read "The Egg and I" / ADHD as a feature / The Spaghetti Tower Test
Hi there!
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’ll also learn what’s happening on my MappyEverAfter website.
New on MappyEverAfter: Mexico: Off the beaten path - 5 Ancient Cities on Ruta Puuc, and Izamal - the Yellow Town
AI Shenanigans: The first-ever line of AI computers
Experiment/Travel: Play-It-By-Ear Roadtrip - Route 66 (2,448 miles, 3940 km)
Health: More important than what you eat - Attia’s Rule
Money: Save on Accommodation while roadtripping the US
Watch: Paul Giamatti in “The Holdovers”
Read: Betty MacDonald’s “The Egg and I”
Mental Hack: Martha Beck loves her ADHD
Just because: Business School students lose in the Spaghetti Tower Test
Note: I will always tell you if I’m getting any referral bonuses and how much they are. There is one in this letter - I’m recommending one of my favorite books. The Kindle version is on sale for $2.99 as I’m writing this, and I’d get a few cents if you buy it using my link. Your library probably has it for free.
New on my MappyEverAfter website - Off-the-beaten-path Ancient Mayan Cities and the Yellow town
A pyramid built by a dwarf, a liana swing, and 250 masks of the trunk-nosed rain god Chaak - these are just a few of the things you encounter on the sparsely traveled Ruta Puuc which links 5 abandoned, ancient cities. We made the trip in a rental car. Read all about it here: Ruta Puuc – Chasing the Ghosts of Ancient Maya in Yucatan, Mexico
And here’s one about a town the color of a ripe banana - Mexico’s Yellow Town: Izamal, the Pueblo Magico
AI Shenanigans - The First-ever AI computers
Imagine a personal assistant with a photographic memory, great graphic design skills, who speaks 40 languages, can go a whole day without a break, and does all of this (and more) at 40+ TOPS (trillion operations per second).
Well, Microsoft says their Copilot+ PCs, an AI-enabled line of computers, are just like that. You can ask “What were the vitamins in a green bottle that I looked up last week?” and it would know. It can translate 40 languages in real time (think Zoom calls with people worldwide, instantly captioned), runs Wifi-7, GPT4, and has up to 22hr battery life.
It’s very early in the AI game but for now, Copilot+ PCs are the fastest, most intelligent, and longest-lasting PCs ever built. Such are the claims, at least.
They start just over $1000 and come in these brands: Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Samsung — and of course, Microsoft Surface. They’re launching on June 18.
Here’s a 13-min clip out of the hour-long Microsoft presentation.
Travel (and an Experiment) - Driving Route 66, in the hubby’s play-it-by-ear style
I usually spend countless days researching and planning my travels (i.e.: slightly neurotic). This month's experiment is a 2,448-mile-long (3940-km) adventure, Route 66 road trip from Santa Monica to Chicago, in hubby’s laid-back, play-it-by-ear, devil-may-care style. No planning.
We’ve just reached St Louis, Missouri and so far it’s been surprisingly delightful!
We stumbled upon (among others):
A hole-in-a-wall BBQ joint in Amarillo, Texas whose hero owner feeds poor kids and cleans up the neighborhood
A haunted hotel where a madam mother and her two sons murdered 30 guests and ditched their bodies in old mine shafts in Galena, Kansas
An iconic Route 66 celebrity who gave us a private guitar concert
The most amazingly whimsical city park (The Gathering Place) in Tulsa, Oklahoma
The workshop studios of an art university
One of Frank Lloyd Wright’s houses for sale
The Leaning Tower of Texas
A Slovak guy who created the famous Route 66 passport
A Ginkgo Biloba tree, and munched on its leaves like koalas (if koalas munched on ginkgo leaves)
Excited about the lemony and slightly bitter ginkgo leaves
But, I’m also stressing about tornados (‘tis the season), getting lost, backtracking in search of the oldest Route 66 segments, and I have some serious FOMO since it’s impossible to see everything.
This No-Plan plan still triggers my inner neurotic but it’s definitely growing on me. Route 66 stories to come, stay tuned!
Health - Attia’s Rule
According to Dr. Peter Attia (and countless studies), physical strength and endurance are several magnitudes more important for health and longevity than anything else you can do for yourself. A recent banter between Dr Attia and Dr Huberman gave birth to “Attia's rule," which essentially states:
You shouldn't be allowed to discuss the nuances of your diet, supplements, or anything health-related until:
Your *VO2 max is at least at the 75th percentile
You're able to dead-hang for 1.5 - 2 minutes
You can farmer-carry 75% (women) or 100% (men) of your body weight for 2 minutes (split between your hands)
You can hold a wall sit or air squat for at least 2 minutes.
*VO2 max is the maximum amount of oxygen your body can absorb and use during exercise. It measures your aerobic fitness level. You can estimate your VO2 max by measuring your performance of simple exercises like brisk walking or step-ups (you’ll find the instructions in the link above).
The score you’re shooting for is “Excellent” or “Superior” VO2 max based on your age and gender:
Money - Sleep for Free in the US
The United States is not as pricey to explore as it may seem — if you’re willing to sleep in your car or van.
You can find rest areas along US highways where it’s perfectly legal to park and sleep all night. Most are open 24/7 and feature clean toilets, picnic tables, and ample parking space. The best-equipped one we’ve found so far included showers, laundry machines, a TV room, a restaurant, a grocery store, and massage chairs.
We’re driving the historic Route 66 and have relied on a mix of rest areas and Hyatt hotels (we use Chase points for the latter). This combo saves us over $100/night. More cash saved means more shenanigans to be had.
Read how we do it, here: Sleep for Free at US Rest Areas
Watch - Paul Giamatti in “The Holdovers”
"The Holdovers" is a little gem by Alexander Payne, director of “Sideways” and “The Descendants”. Giamatti plays a grumpy teacher stuck in a boarding school with a bunch of misfit students over Christmas break, and the result is a mix of dark humor, unexpected friendships, and revealed secrets.
We got ours from the library and it also streams on Prime, AppleTV, and YouTube Movies.
Read - Betty MacDonald’s The Egg and I
Decades ago, my godmother Margitka gave my sister and me a Slovak translation of her favorite book. We devoured it, snorting with laughter as the pages turned. The book became a well-worn family treasure.
It was Betty MacDonald's autobiographical “The Egg and I” and right now I am reading it in English for the first time. It's even better than I remembered.
Betty’s style is pure magic, her vivid descriptions transporting you right onto that ramshackle chicken farm in the lush, rustic Pacific Northwest. You feel like you're there, watching her newlywed misadventures unfold, a memorable cast of eccentric neighbors leaping off the pages. With charming wit, she weathers every mess, marital spat, and farm calamity thrown her way.
If you're looking for a classic that stands the test of time, this is it. Makes me miss Margitka and our shared obsession with this little book.
Mental Hack - Martha Beck Loves her ADHD
As someone who's spent 2 months in the rabbit hole of PKMs (Personal Knowledge Management systems) just to satisfy my curiosity, I resonate with the thoughts of the Harvard-educated life coach Martha Beck (and I have a feeling you might too):
My world-class case of ADHD, I’ve been told, gives me pathologically “interest-based attention.” This means I pay attention to things that interest me. Pathologically.
“Wait,” I said to the neurologist who first diagnosed me. “How is that pathological? Why do most people pay attention to things?”
“Because it’s optimal,” he told me. “Because it lets them get done what needs to be done.”
My ADHD may be a “disorder” in a society where everything is about making money, but I wouldn’t give it up if I could. After thirty years of coaching, I know that the first thing most people ask about any activity is, “Will it sell?” ... In our culture, many people don’t see any other question worth asking.
I, on the other hand, ask questions we’re supposed to leave behind after preschool. Does an idea feel fun? Will I learn from it? Does it light up my imagination? Does it make me laugh, or cry in a good way, satisfy my mind, heart, body, and soul?
If the answer to any of these questions is “Yes,” then count me in.
The rest of the article dives into the delights and benefits of letting yourself be creative. Read it here.
Just Because - Spaghetti Tower Test
Dry spaghetti, some tape, and a marshmallow are involved in a simple team-building exercise, where lawyers, CEOs, and Business School students consistently lose to… kindergarteners. The only group better than little kids at building a spaghetti tower are architects (thank god).
There’s a Ted Talk about it.
So there you have it – we ventured off the beaten path in Mexico, peeked into the future of AI, embraced spontaneity on Route 66, slept in Hotel Prius (a.k.a. our car), celebrated heart-warming movies and books, embraced our quirks, and learned a thing or two from kids.
I wish you Happy Adventuring (of all kinds)!
Be Mappy,
Mags
