Mappy November!
$3200 All-inclusive Hotel for free / First Ever Smiley / Shush About the Past / AI Commercial in 2 min / Writing on the go / Brain Health and Exercise / Black Friday Lies / Petite Maman / Travel Bug
New on MappyEverAfter: Hotel Diary: Alila Ventana, Big Sur, CA, and my new Las Vegas Sphere Up Close - video.
From the Archive: How I Caught the Travel Bug
AI Shenanigans: I had Invideo AI Create a Commercial for my Website with a simple prompt. It took 2 minutes
Experiment: We Stopped Talking About the Past (sort of)
Travel: My Light Writing Gear
Health: Keep Your Brain Healthy with Exercise
Money: The lies of Black Friday
Watch: Celine Sciamma's Petite Maman
A Thing of Beauty: The Pretty Details of Ventana
Mental Hack: Just Juggle!
Just because: The First Ever Smiley
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: My Alila Ventana Birthday Extravaganza / Las Vegas Sphere from Up Close
Alila Ventana sits in the middle of a coastal redwood forest in California with a view of the Pacific Ocean. It became the biggest travel hack we’ve ever managed. The rooms cost $1700 to almost $4000 per night depending on size and season, all the food and many activities are included and the whole experience is superb.
We got two nights for free (with points) and got upgraded to a suite with 2 decks, 2 fireplaces, and a jacuzzi. We showed up so early that we managed to squeeze in a guided hike, a fermentation class, and a lunch all before even checking in. Read all about it here.
I also made a video of our visit to the Sphere, the astonishing new venue in Vegas. We got to touch a few of the 1.2 million lights that make up the outer shell. Have a look!
From the Archive - How I Caught the Travel Bug
We all have our tales of how we caught the travel bug. For me, it all started when the Iron Curtain lifted and I set off on an adventure. Traveling had a mystical way of making my life make sense, as if each piece of the puzzle finally clicked into place. Here’s the story: MappyEverAfter.com/travel-bug/
AI Shenanigans - I had Invideo AI Create a Commercial for my Website with a simple prompt
Me: Please create a 1-minute-long ad for my website MappyEverAfter.com
That’s the whole prompt. (Yes, I do say “please”. I’ve seen enough Sci-Fi movies to know what happens to people who are rude to AI.)
Then inVideoAI scanned my website and created this ad. It’s a bit rough and has watermarks but it’s pretty ingenious when you think it did it all on its own, in a couple of minutes, with the minimum of instructions. You can then further edit the text, subtitles and video footage just by writing additional prompts.
Experiment: We Stopped Talking about the Past
I read that the older you get, the more time you spend talking about the past. Disturbed by this little nugget, Mark and I decided to conduct an anti-aging experiment.
Here are the rules:
For 30 days, you can only talk about things that happened yesterday or today
You can talk about the future all you want
At the end of the month, see if it changed you in any way
Here are the results:
We both found it difficult to stick to and were annoyed when caught trespassing across the timeline. It never got easier either. But when we did manage to adhere to the rules, the conversations became more interesting. No more of the same old stories starting with “When I was a kid…”, more emphasis on what could be instead of what was.
I’d imagine it would be both pleasant and good for productivity if you managed to banish the past from your mind as well as your mouth. But I’m still skeptical about the anti-aging aspect.
Either way, we both like it well enough to make this one a long-term experiment.
Travel: My Light Writing Gear
For shorter trips, such as our Ventana escapade above, when I leave my laptop behind but still want to write, I’ll pack my trusty foldable blue-tooth Microsoft keyboard (I got it on sale for $30 at Best Buy) and a Jsaux stand for my phone (these are not affiliate links).
I’ve had the keyboard since 2016 and it has never failed me. The charge lasts for months (I honestly don’t remember the last time I charged it), it connects to my phone automatically, I can change the language of the keyboard when I need to (handy when writing to my dad), and it’s nice and light, at 6.3oz (178g). Folded, it’s the size of a CD case.
The Jsaux stand is made of metal, it holds my phone in any position and is really sturdy. It weighs 3.7oz (105g). This one is a “nice to have”, not a “need to have” since you can always prop your phone against anything, a wall, or a rolled pair of socks (as I’m known to do).
Health - Keep your Brain healthy with Exercise
If you don’t exercise, you’re missing the biggest piece of the health puzzle, according to Peter Attia MD. Here he sums it up in 55 seconds:
Regular exercise is not only way more important than anything else you can do for your body but it’s also essential if you want to keep your mind ship-shape into old age. When it comes to your brain's well-being, exercise beats puzzles, language learning, or any other mind gymnastics you might be considering.
So, instead of stressing whether your smoothie berries are organic, your steak is grass-fed, or your sleep quality is A-grade, shift your focus. The key phrase here is MOVE YOUR BODY. That's the real game-changer. Here’s a brief layout of Attia’s workout routine throughout the week, start listening at 1:08:31
My grandma had never been to a gym, she carried heavy buckets of water from the well, chopped wood, and climbed ladders to pick fruit from her trees. Her lifestyle required constant daily activity. For my ideal, health-promoting living environment, I’m imagining the beautiful hilly terrain of Alila Ventana in Big Sur 😍
But for now, I try to follow Attia’s exercise framework:
Stability (I do yoga, DNS, Busu ball, balance on one foot)
Strength (weights, resistance bands)
Aerobic efficiency (“zone 2” exercise - fast walking outside or on a treadmill, hikes)
Aerobic peak (short bursts of intense cardio - climbing a steep hill or stairs)
I fail often and spend days glued to the computer like so many of us do. During those times, I try to sit on the ground at a low table. That way at least I have to hold my torso upright and get a bit of exercise by getting up from the ground every so often.
Money - The Black Friday Lies
I’m in the middle of traveling and travel planning so I’m not shopping for anything this Black Friday/Cyber Monday. But, I thought I’d run an experiment. Mark and I looked up the items we’ve bought online this year and compared the prices to Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals. We also looked at items sitting in our Amazon shopping cards.
Only one single item costs less today than when we bought it, and that’s the Jsaux phone stand I mentioned in the Travel section. I paid $10 and it now costs $7. The “deal” prices today on everything else are about the same (less than 20 cents difference) or higher than what we paid at random times throughout the year.
Watch - Celine Sciamma's Petite Maman
This movie comes highly recommended by the hubby—I haven't watched it yet, but let me share with you his glowing review on Amazon that has me itching to check it out!
“I thought Celine Sciamma's Portrait of a Lady on Fire was one of the most stunning films I've ever seen but with Petite Maman, she returns with the purest and simplest expression of love and beauty. It is truly a stunning example of less is more. The performances by Gabrielle Sanz, Joséphine Sanz, Nina Meurisse, Stéphane Varupenne, and Margot Abascal are all subtle and mesmerizing. Petite Maman is a modern masterpiece.”
It’s free to watch on Prime (at the time of writing this)
A Thing of Beauty - Ventana details
There were so many gorgeous details at Alila Ventana in Big Sur that I have to share a gif, not a pic. Even the cat was perfect.
Mental Hack - Do Juggle Too Many Balls!
I’m not sure where I heard this but it helps me when I’m overwhelmed by life:
Juggling 43 balls and dropping most of them is way more fun than safely clutching one ball with both hands.
Just Because
Have a look at the email from September 19, 1982 that gave birth to the first-ever smiley
You can also play the very first MP3, see the whole map of the internet in 1977, and see many more curiosities of the Internet history in Neal's Museum of Internet Artifacts. It's amazing AND interactive! My kind of museum :-)
So there you have it. Hope your November was a harmonious blend of comfort food, cozy evenings, and just the right amount of procrastination on that novel you were totally going to write during NaNoWriMo.
Be Mappy,
Mags