Steph Davis, Base-jumping & Wingsuits

Recently finished Steph Davis's memoir Learning To Fly. In it she describes her evolvement from climbing to skydiving to wingsuit flying and finally, base-jumping. 

Here she is at Castleton Tower.

Here I am at Castleton Tower.

Talking about Base-jumping.

20-min video about climbing & Base-jumping (at the end) w German subtitles.

Here's the wingsuit company.

A Major Influencer

a16z comes up in lists of investors who think technology will save us. As an agnostic, I'm neither a doubter nor a believer, but, today, right now, we're looking at the results of a market economy and I'm not particularly inclined to accept the unbridled enthusiasms Mr. Andreesen espouses in the article below. But he's powerful...not like you and me.

https://a16z.com/the-techno-optimist-manifesto/

Also see:

https://www.exowatt.com/news

The "spotlight" on Exowatt's site

https://techcrunch.com/2025/11/13/sam-atlman-backed-exowatt-wants-to-power-ai-data-centers-with-billions-of-hot-rocks/

ZEPP Let Me Down

After sleeping all day, "recovery" (finally!) began around 5 pm.

After documenting the loss of ~ $650 on ZEPP, nearly half of the year's profits, I brought the trading amount up to $3200.00, sufficient to buy 50 shares of SOXL at my targeted price of $63.00.

Though making the decision to sell at a loss was discouraging, its minor effect on my mood showed how far I've come. 

This morning, we're talking 2 a.m. this morning, a couple of hours ago, as the effects of the fentanyl dose change from 25 to 75 mcg lifted, I reset the sails (deposited money into the Webull account) and after having slept through most of yesterday, hoped to get a few hours before the full trading day begins at 7:30 (pre-mkt begins at 2 a.m.).

Further!

End of day update:

ZEPP continued down and closed at $18.02. Had I held, I'd have lost $950.00.

After watching SOXL drop like a stone to $60.50, I decided to wait and see what Monday brings before buying.

Unfortunately, this is not a game I'm good at. But lying here, hour after day, it's entertaining.

Clean Living Survey

Keeping an eye on consumer spending is a natural part of being a marketeer. So when i found this custom-designed survey in ESM Magazine (European Supermarket Magazine), i went for it.

https://go.numerator.com/rs/567-EJP-123/images/Numerator%20-%20Consumer%20Trends%20in%20Clean%20Living%20.pdf?version=0&mkt_tok=NTY3LUVKUC0xMjMAAAGbZZyYhFM1H9tAdbk9n_r11t-iQcHDb5jJZvN_v7Hy38nQu0wmjdX4qneowSm9XpjzSb4pxR7O8_BkySYhHt7SGp8UsV2X2g_qH1atp__FK7xO

SNOW!

10:56 a.m.

5:15 a.m.

7:20 a.m.

10:00 a.m.

Still Coming Down!!!

A murder!

Front

Two FITs...a 2008 & 2015. Never, EVER choose cars based on brother-in-law's opinion. I still can't believe we got the 2nd one.

2:48 p.m.

Crows Chased Off By Roadrunner. 

Il Barbiere Di Seviglia

 Warsaw Chamber Opera

Figaro begins his famous song of self aggrandizement at 18:52

Angina Attack!

We were collaborating; the idea was pasta w marinara. We make our own marinara with tomato paste and seasonings.

Pain got so bad I had to lie down and put my feet up.

We hadn't had a selfie in a while.

Feet up.

The pathos!!!

We took several.

Michelle's mom's last Paramour crafted the cabinets to my left. He died about 10 years ago. She died 10 years ago.

The triage Nurse told me to get back onto my oxygen. That meant walking from the kitchen to the bedroom. 40 feet never seemed so long.

Update Sunday.25.Jan. - 7 days later

It was a tad past 4:30 a.m. when, after several anti-angina pills and a swig of morphine had had no effect, that I called the office. The on-call Nurse said he was coming to do an assessment.

When he arrived 20 minutes later I was writhing. I've been poked so many times over the years the mere mention makes my arms hurt; I've specified no more needles. So, after consulting with the attending physician, he slapped on all three of my 25-microgram fentanyl patches and 20 minutes later I had an inkling I might actually live and was able to whisper, "We beat it." I came close to pulling the plug, though.

It's taken a week to regain the energy to write it up. I've stayed with the 50-mcg increase in fentanyl. It's meant I'm sleeping more. They gave me 4mg tablets of hydromorphone (dilaudid, another form of morphine) for breakout pain; I've taken it a few times.

Jessica, my poet-nurse, is caring for her 94-year old aunt. She said Theresa came out from her bedroom the other day and announced, "I'M NOT DEAD YET!" They, Jessica, Jessica's daughter and Jessica's granddaughter, didn't know what to think.

I can't speak for Theresa, but my feeling is she wanted some reassurance that they hadn't gotten fed up with caring for her. I felt kinduh guilty about bringing someone out at 5 a.m.

I've always thought it'd be the pain that would motivate me to use the MAID (medical aid in dying), but this brought out some psychological perturbations around being a burden.

I encouraged Jessica to give Theresa a hug & tell her she loves her. Fortunately, it's true.