Any time anyone asks what superpower I would mostly like to have, I always answer that I would like to speak every language with native fluency. And yet, I've rarely if ever done anything to approach that goal. Daniel and I did take a semester of French at SMU one time. That was fun but without continued effort didn't really stick.

Then my best seven foot tall woman friend suggested I download DuoLingo. It's free and you can learn any number of languages. So I did, and I started taking French lessons. Then I decided to throw in German since I already know it pretty well and it would be fun and easy to refresh. Then we planned a trip to Portugal so I focused on learning was Portuguese I could in the months leading up to our departure.

THEN I got so sick of the advertisements that I paid for a subscription. They got me. I admit it. But now that I'm paying for it, I'm going all in. I am currently switching daily between: French, Germany, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, and Danish. What's weird is that while switching between them certainly slows my progress, learning seven sets of vocabulary at once hasn't really proven to be any more difficult than one.

I know that these little exercises and AI driven conversation and voice recognition are unlikely to make me fluent. They're unlikely to allow me to converse easily in a foreign country. But I don't really care. Because (A) it's fun, (B) it's better than doom scrolling, and (C) it really does teach you a LOT if not all you need to know. When we were in Portugal, I busted out a few phrases with your guides (which of course ended with hilarious failure as I spoke Brazilian Portuguese), but also just consumed words around me. I knew what the little Brazilian kid was talking about when he screamed, "Abacaxi! Aacaxi!" at the top of his lungs (he saw a pineapple laying on the ground).

And that was enough for me. I cannot explain how utterly maddening it is for me in a foreign country to see words all around me and not know what they mean. I don't CARE what they mean. It just bothers me not to know. This really helped with that mental fatigue. To see a sign in a store window and know that it says "Closed on Mondays." It allows me to move on and not fixate on wanting to stop and translate.

So anyway, that's my plug for DuoLingo. It's free if you can withstand the most obnoxious assault of ads for phone games deliberately designed to wear you down into signing up for a subscription. But if you've ever been even a little curious, this is a super low effort, low risk way to delve into it and feel like you're accomplishing something every day.

I just had my gall bladder removed. Like so many things, I really didn't know anything about it until it became a problem.

A few months ago I started having this pain on my right side just below my rib cage. I actually went to an urgent care place once to have it checked out because I'd always heard that right side = appendicitis. And since I'm on blood thinners, emergency surgery is not a great idea for me. But the doc was basically like, "Nah, it's not appendicitis." And that was that. So I asked another doctor and he basically said, it's probably nothing, these things happen.

So I asked ANOTHER doctor, and she finally listened and said we should order an ultrasound of my right side to check the little cluster of organs there. It showed sludge and sludge balls in my gall bladder. Apparently most people have some sludge, made of cholesterol, and it's generally not a problem. But once it becomes symptomatic, there's no returning to normal function. The only thing to do is to cut the fucker out.

It's not that your gall bladder does nothing. It's just not essential and if it's more trouble than it's worth, law of averages says taking it out is better. It's just a storage sac for bile produced by the liver. When you eat fat, the gall bladder squeezes some of that stored bile into your intestines to break down the fat. Then the liver makes some more. Without a gall bladder, your liver just becomes an on-demand bile factory and everything works pretty much the way it did before.

I read plenty of horror stories online about what can go wrong (another reason I haven't been on Reddit since February). But so far things seem normal. I have 4 stab wounds in my abdomen that hurt an appropriate amount for what they are. But honestly the worst pain is in my right shoulder, which is so bizarre, but is apparently from the gas they inflated my abdomen with during surgery. It should subside after I burp enough, so I'm drinking fizzy drinks to facilitate that.

All in all feeling pretty good. Glad I got this done and added the gall bladder to my list of items removed from my lean, mean, human machine.

We just got back from our big 2025 trip to Portugal - Porto, Cascais, and Lisbon. Originally Portugal was nowhere on our radar, but we were supposed to go with a group and they all wanted to check out Portugal. After Daniel had finished planning the trip, they all had to back out for one reason or another, which left just us. But what the hey, let's check out a new country. Then we started seeing celebrities and influencers all hawking Portugal so we got excited.

It was pretty damn good. Daniel is ready to immediately move to Porto, and I wouldn't mind it. It's a little hilly for my liking, but the weather, geography, and people were all amazing. We did a little port wine tasting. I like port as much as the next guy, but it's not my favorite thing in the world. But you had to have some there since that's where it all comes from. We did a little tour/tasting at Calem, one of the big port houses, but we were hung the fuck over so it was a little bit challenging to get through. But we persevered.

The night before, we'd done a day tour with a guide who stopped and had a few drinks along the way. Then we did a 1-star Michelin meal at our hotel. Then we decided to hit up a gay bar our tour guide had pointed out that was just a couple of blocks from our hotel. We were kind of sitting alone sipping aperol spritzes, but then old David emerged and started telling women how beautiful they were, and saying hi to randos, and chatting up anyone who would listen. We ended up meeting some chick from London and her South African boyfriend and partying with them well into the morning. At a certain point we looked at each other and were like, "We have to leave." And we bounced. But I was still wearing her sweatshirt. Oops. It was just a jokey thrift store find she'd purchased that afternoon, so later on Instagram where we'd connected, she said I could have it.

Cascais was a beautiful, little ritzy beach town. Not quite as much to do there but that was fine by us. We took a boat out one day and rode the coast up to Lisbon and back, then out into the swells of the open Atlantic for just a few minutes. Ate lots of seafood, then headed for Lisbon.

Lisbon was super cool, but a big crowded city. It reminded me a little bit of Rome. It was basically erased from the map by a huge earthquake in the 1700s, followed by raging fires, followed by a giant tsunami. So the whole low lying area was planned out and rebuilt, and that made getting around easier than some other medieval towns. We had the second best meal of my life at a 2-star Michelin restaurant, Belcanto. Just a superb 10-courses with outrageously good service. And we splurged on a bottle of Krug (our first), and it was worth every penny!

The other fun part of the trip is that I spent the last 3 months racing through Portuguese lessons on DuoLingo. I always hate being in a foreign country and not knowing what signs say. I dunno. I don't CARE what they say, I just hate not knowing. So I wanted to learn as many words as I could. In that respect, it was a raging success and will be the standard operating procedure for every trip. I am getting started on Spanish for our trip to Spain next year.

On the other hand, I didn't realize I was learning BRAZILIAN Portuguese, not European. And they're different. All of our tour guides were super chill and friendly. And they all expressed that they appreciated the little bit of effort I'd made before visiting their country. But then they all laughed at me for speaking with a Brazilian accent and using Brazilian words. I said, "Você fala inglês?" and they were like "Você?! hahaha" Apparently "você" is super duper formal in Portugal, to the point of being comical/offensive. They use "tu" instead. Brazilian also muddles the constants and Europeans say them like they're spelled, more similar to Spanish. Just little things like that. I think that will be unique to Portuguese though. DuoLingo doesn't even have an option for the European variety, so if we move to Porto we have a lot to unlearn.

Anywho, we home now. Fighting jetlag. Got a few days before we're all the way over it but we worked 3 days this week without any problem. I'm about to head to my StretchLab appointment and see how much flexibility I've lost in the past 2 weeks. Ciao!

Have you all seen this commercial for the new Quatro razor? Two blades is better than one. And three blades is better than two. And thats as good as it gets, right? Wrong. Introducing the new Quatro razor.

I laugh every, every time I see that commercial. Did any of you ever see that SNL commercial for the razor that had like 21 blades. The first blade cuts the hair. The second cuts it even closer. The third? Even closer. Then an amazing fourth blade cuts EVEN closer. Out of nowhere ... a fifth blade to cut even closer. The sixth blade usually completely misses the hair, but the seventh? EVEN closer.

God it was so funny. So I've decided to invent the quintro turbo razor. 5 fucking blades. Can you imagine? I'll completely trump this Quatro piece of shit.

Its almost time to get to Kyle Field to watch the Aggie beat the hell out of OSU. Deauxcheck is in town to go to the game. And then tonight is the big costume party. Ho ho ho. My prediction for the game? Aggies 69, OSU 6.

Post Script from OClay66: FYI David: I tried to find this new "quatro" you spoke of but had no luck. Then I realized it was because your miss spelled it. Its quattro no quatro (2 ´T´s). I am sure all you other international readers would appreciated the clarification and perhaps a website reference in the future. Thanks doll