Matt Metzgar

Turning 40

 
Today marks my 40th birthday.  Last year, I thought about doing something physical to celebrate the milestone, but I never came up with anything solid.  So today, I went out and did a trail run which has been my regular activity as of late.

The biggest change for this last year was getting my current position here in Charlotte.  It has been a great move, and I really feel fortunate to be in a solid position.  With high unemployment and poverty right now, there are a lot of people out there struggling.

If you take a broader viewpoint, roughly one out of every 7 people on the planet doesn't even have enough to eat.  So I count my lucky stars in that regard.

Turning 40, overall I feel very fortunate.   Great job, great family with two healthy young children, great climate, good health.  That sounds like a pretty good deal to me.

I feel grateful for discovering the Paleo concept, which has produced many benefits in terms of diet, exercise, and overall lifestyle.  I have no health problems, take no medications, etc.

There will be no shirtless picture of me to celebrate my birthday like Keith Norris (after all, who can compete with that).  But I did furnish a picture of me goofing around barefoot in the backyard today above. 

I wish everyone out there the best as well.

Neglected

The blog has been neglected as of late.  I am just too busy with my new job at the moment.  But regular blogging will resume at some point!

Leatherheads

One of the things I was curious about when moving to Charlotte was what movies have been filmed here.  It turns out there haven't been that many.  However, the movie "Leatherheads" with George Clooney was filmed in and around Charlotte, with a local football field being used for filming.

I made a trip to the field this morning - it is an old American Legion stadium built in the 1930s.  Here is a picture of it today:

 
 
I kept thinking about the movie and remembering a building closer to the field.  So when I got home I checked and found this production shot from the movie:

 

Then visual effects were added to round things out:

 
The magic of cinema!  Neverthless, it was a worthwhile trip to see the stadium.

Thoughts on Western New York

For the last few years, we lived in Avon, NY, which is a suburb outside of Rochester.  I thought for a small town that Avon was pretty good - at least for the six months of the year when it wasn't snowing.  This leads to one of the two main reasons while that area will continue to lose population:

1)  Cold weather

2)  Taxes

The first is obviously due to physical location, but the second one is really a burden on young families.  The property taxes there are extreme in my opinion.  Let's say a newer house sells for $150,000.  The local property taxes might be $6,000 a year or more.  You basically end up with two mortgage payments.

This is just a massive burden to a young family looking to get started, especially giving that Southern cities have lower taxes (and better weather).  It becomes a downward spiral as well, since as people move away, they just keep raising the taxes on thos who are still there.

The New York state government is one of the worst.  New York, I believe, has the second highest tax burden of the 50 states.  High sales tax, high gas tax, high property tax, it just keeps going.  I believe the former governor even wanted to tax movie tickets.

It's simple economics, and I only see the trends of people moving south and west accelerating. 

Back From AHS Part 4

Here's one last item about AHS I wanted to discuss.  I noticed on various wrapups the claim that AHS was full of "beautiful people".  I have a different opinion on this.

Compared to walking through a mall, the people at AHS were on average in better shape.  But as for being more beautiful, I don't think so.  I think of beauty in the biological sense, meaning symmetry and other features.  Beauty is valued because it is rare.

As speaker Michael Mew noted, the beautiful people of the world were not at AHS, they were across town working in the movie industry.  So while eating and exercise in a Paleo way can improve your appearance, I don't connect that with true beauty.

For example, a lady who cut my hair the other day had better facial symmetry and skin tone than anyone I saw at the conference.  And I highly doubt she was eating a Paleo diet.

I'm not trying to be negative here, but this is the way I see it.

Busy Busy

I've been very busy getting settled in Charlotte.  Blogging will resume in a few days or so.

 

Hello Charlotte NC

UCLA

Ancestral Health Symposium

Cleveland