I’m been off running until now. After coming back from Tokyo, I’ve been resting my knee and torturing myself on the elliptical machines and walking inclines. I’m told that doing this allows me to maintain at least 90% of my capability but we shall see.

In the time of rest, I’ve been able to cultivate a series of pieces that are based on running. This first began with [What I’m Remembering 2025 by], which was then succeeded with [I ran the 2026 Tokyo Marathon]. And now we find our selves at the end of this stint, at least for now.

I have prepared for you a series of my thoughts surrounding the question: Why do I run, and what does it mean to me. My thoughts on running are not meant to teach others how to run, or why they should, they are to offer a glimpse in to my current story.

Enjoy, and perhaps I’ll see you on the trails.

Allen

Thought 1

Why do I run? It’s an innocent, hard to answer, and often enduring question. Why do I run? I can tell you it wasn’t because it keeps me in shape, I’ve gained quite some weight since I started running. Maybe it has to do with anxiety, a way to distract myself from it and also work on those thoughts and give it space. I think that’s mostly true.

I’ve pondered the question more often lately, especially in my period of recovery where I can’t run. A bit of insight came about when I was running in a downpour of rain. There was a break in the patterns, leading to a temporary relief and a breath of crisp air. The path I was running on, one that I’ve ran perhaps over 1,000 times now, was vibrant. I think I would have much missed out on this beauty if I didn’t run in the rain.

Each time I’ve asked the question, I usually conclude that running is a means for me to live in the present and to experience life. It is how I stay present. It is a way to experience living. And for each minute I contribute to running, I seem to enjoy life more.

It’s a hobby. And hobbies are enriching.

A hobby, which can be over-justified by capitalistic hustle culture, is something that helps me fall in love with life again, and again. For me, that is the possibility of what life could be and meeting it there. It is quite important to find a hobby that you look forward to.

Thought 2

In my 20s, I found it easy to be consumed by work and live a life in service of work. If you don’t have have boundaries or willpower, work becomes your identity. As it turns out, that’s not something I could sustain healthily.

I’ve also found it easy to be caught up with all the global narratives, of which 2025 is a remarkable yet taxing year for global narratives, and 2026 isn’t fairing much better. This too isn’t a healthy daily impression to have on the psyche.

It’s also easy to retreat to energy-less comforts a screen can afford. Revenge procrastination, as it’s called, where you seemingly try to reclaim the day through scrolling on a screen into the twilight.

I have habits, as it turns out, that do not often leave me recharged and instead create a dull and null sensation. A sort of mental baggage, in a way, that feels like a cloud. Cracking a window open, closing my eyes, and breathing as if I relish life seems to stay that cloud and if I’m lucky, a short nap to clear the brain can move it.

Fresh air can do wonders. I can find a lot of fresh air outside. I can even find more of it if I ran, so perhaps I should make that a habit too.

Thought 3

My confidence of my future, and about the future, are things that influence me more than I care to admit.

I can easily be surrounded with perhaps not the best outlooks of the world, and do that vague motion of saying “how terrible society is” or “look at the state of the world”, but I have found such mullings to be the least contributory and productive kind of thoughts. On the opposite end, I can find a confluence of some of the best energy and inspiration, of which a certainty of how the future could be, a future I am thriving in, could be.

I like to believe I am anchored on the best outcomes, but every now and the subconscious thinks differently.

While the world’s affairs can leave such a clouded impression on the next ten years of society, and it is definitely of a vice of mine to be consumed by various histories, geographic boundaries, and mythologies, I recognize the need to do other things that allow me to live life outside of my head.

And so here is running.

A means for me to be outside, without a screen, and paradoxically have nothing to do but to think. What’s fascinating to me is that I could have negative thoughts and positive thoughts in the same run and by the end of it, I’ll have reach an equilibrium on how I feel about those thoughts, and go about my day stronger. One can ascribe this as meditation, and holding space, and to me it’s all the same.

So why do I run?

Well, at first it was for my anxiety, then it was for my mental wellness, and now it’s because it’s a way for me to experience and appreciate life.

Thought 4

Running is the only thing I do where I can’t also be doing something else. I can’t infinitely scroll on a run. I tried and I dropped my phone, and if you are very sweaty, the screen doesn’t work correctly. I can’t half-watch something. I can’t be “capitalistically productive” in the way a screen rewards you for the feeling of busy.

It’s just me, the road, and whatever my mind decides to do with the next hour.

That’s the whole point. I found running to be a mental sport. I started running to alleviate the burden of my own thoughts (aka anxiety), and what I found was I was able to become more present with myself through running.

Running doesn’t quiet my mind, it gives my mind somewhere to go. It’s as if I’ve given my thoughts a formal hour to just be thoughts, with the loudest megaphone. I like to believe the hour spent with my thoughts is a culling act, honing down and refining idea.

But that’s not really true. If anything, running exhausts my brain so that whatever needs to be said, is said, and whatever needs to be carried forward, is carried with a succinctness and acceptance of itself.

An hour on the road and I come back having processed things I didn’t know I needed to process. I’m a more aware version of myself after a run. I like this aspect.

Thought 5

Have I suffered on a run? I recently finished a book by Haruki Murakami “What I Talk About When I Talk About Running” and in his memoir, he states that pain is mandatory, suffering is optional.

I think back to some of the longer runs I did. I can be at mile 18, legs asking increasingly impolite questions, having pissed my shorts, and still have a big stupid grin on my face. It can be mile 11 and it just pouring for a good mile there, and I’m not livid, I’m exhilarated.

I rejoice the fact that there’s something about knowing you’re doing something that not many other have willfully chosen to do, and what you’re doing is in itself a hard, but not impossible, challenge.

Perhaps I like running because it’s clearly an activity that each accumulated mile makes you a more capable runner, and that if you commit yourself to a string of what will be unremarkable runs, you’ll find yourself crossing a finish line and savoring every memory you made.

Thought 6

What does running support? In the hardest days, I ensure that I have incorporated at somepoint in the day a run. For me, it helps me break the cortisol wall and allows me to access higher tier thoughts more sustainably.

In my life, it would seem running gives me mental clarity for me to handle the affairs of the day. It also gives me physical energy, which could sound counter intuitive but when the body overcomes its inertia to not move, it gets used to moving and produces energy accordingly.

I think it’s very important to know what running does for me, because it itself is not an end goal. Running is in service of something, but of what - well I’d like to think its in service to my life. I can show up better and take on the hardest challenges as a consequence of running.

I hope I don’t forget that.

Thought 7

What I like about running is that is not gated to high gear costs or special memberships, or genetic lottery, or even teams. Perhaps its the simplicity of it, and that it’s just myself that I can rely on to get started. As simple as this will sound: I put one foot in front of the other and found myself at the end.

To me, running is a mindset activity, as running is a challenge of my will over wants, until my wants are exactly the same as my will. I do like the confidence I get from running, but it’s important to know what your basis of confidence is when running. My confidence in running has never been about speed. I would consider myself a slow runner. On average, I’m a 10-minute pacer.

What my confidence lies in is endurance, the ability to keep going for a quite long time. I trust myself to go the distance, and that was something I accumulated over many runs. Of course, it wasn’t always like this in the start. I first had to overcome the establishment of running by reaching a habit of daily 5k’s.

My experience with running has been a commitment to myself. It’s ofen a repetitive series of unremarkable moments every week that when examined individually, don’t stick out in the slightest, but when collectively examined, tell a story of my progression. It is expressed by my individual contributions into the process, and my choices and expansion into different challenges that come with the territory of running longer distances, that culminate into a miles spent looking at trees and buildings and birds and my feet.

What running means to me is this: A series of many unremarkable moments and it is through those unremarkable moments I enjoy life.

I previously posted last Friday about what I’ll remember 2025, which would lead into my first feat of The 2026 Tokyo Marathon on March 1, 2026

Let’s get the boring stuff out of the way, my net time was 4:51, 19337 out of 27479 men and it was by far the most significant run of my life and I’m going to tell you the story of what this marathon meant to me.

Here’s how I trained:

Run more!

My goal was straight forward: beat my Long Beach time of 4:30hr.

• increasing my monthly mileage to 100 (this is on the low end for those super fast marathoners)

• hired a coach for strength and mobility training

• threw a Hyrox in there for good measure

• persistently did those long runs (12 to 20 miles, depending on goal)

• revisited nutrition (err, fuel.)

• committed to pace improvement via SHRC “Track Tuesday” intervals.

My goal was 4 hr and under, and to finish with a smile.

Increased monthly mileage from 60 to 100

From October to February, I laid out and committed to a training block that was aimed at providing me the confidence, the routine, and even the friends to do it with. Though life and work came in the way, it did not prevent me from achieving a 100 mile month average, up from the 60 miles a month in the summer.

• Socal experienced hilarious rain patterns, which led to me running a 20 miler in the rain in January 2026. That was fun!

• Work travel to quite un-runnable places including New York (hi Theo and Connor), Whistler in January, Mammoth too.

• End of January I caught a strong strain of the flu which took me out 7 days

• Putting a two week ski-trip and vacation in Japan before my actual marathon race, scheduled for Feb 18 to March 2.

ICE Followed me to Japan

Where shit hit the fan was on Day 1 in Japan when I went skiing in Hakuba and, ate ice, and fractured my knee. That’s right, on Feb 18, I ate shit and got injured. Can you guess what was going through my mind?

I have a video recording of the incident and it basically amounts to me saying “ow that hurt” and my ski’s not detaching as I rolled. My friends were there to help me get up (shoutout to J & K) and I with the help of snow patrol, I was brought down the mountain, uberred my way to a clinic, and from there I got an x-ray.

That simplifies that to more than what that was. What actually happened after eating shit is J helped me up, K assessed my knee and determined it wasn’t a full ACL tear, and then snow patrol came to take me to the Gondola. My friends sent the snowmobile photo above to the group chat that included my wife, and her first thought was “TFTI on snowmobiles” followed by “wait that’s my husband and that’s snowpatrol.”

When I arrived at the clinic, still in my skier gear, I had to take off my ski boots to enter. That is usually a trivial task, but in this case with a stiff knee that can’t flex, it was far from trivial. The clinic definitely saw a lot of japow chasers and their injuries, I adding to the expected casualty list.

The Japanese doctors did their best, and through language barriers they explained my left knee was currently very different from my right knee and demonstrated “just how different” it is by squeezing the muscles and showing the jello-ness of the left leg vs the stiffness of the right.

Doctor said I can’t ski or do anything, gave me the Japanese version of Motrin (a NSAID), a very robust leg brace, and told me to be off my feet for at least 7 days and to get an MRI immediately when I get home.

So that’s the end of my ski trip, day 1 of a 2 week trip.

I just want you to know, dear reader, my left knee:

• Was going to swell a lot.

• was incapable of bending passed 90 degrees

• any lateral movement (left or right movement) is a NO go.

I think the worst part of this ordeal is after the doctor’s diagnosis, I still had to get back to my lodging and my only shoe I had to leave the clinic was ski boots that I had to take off when I was at the doctor. I am thankful my wife was with me for that, I could complain that the ski boots were harder to do than getting up from the original injury.

I would spend the next few days nursing my foot and keeping it elevated, and my left knee did swell to a very visible difference. I think from the point of accident, I spent 2 days with very minimal time on feet, perhaps only walking at most 15 minutes with a brace and medication. Time would pass and I’d binge watch movies such as the Aliens franchise and started Drops of God. Though we had a very fantastic lodging, my need to move was great so I would slowly and patiently, just kidding, I would just commit to walking for 30 minutes to 60 minutes at a pace slower than everyone, sometimes leaving ahead of the group.

About 5 days later I did my first 2 mile run at a 15 minute per mile pace in Nozawaonsen. I couldn’t go any faster, nor should I, but it was good to “Be on my legs moving”. I walked the inclines, as that was a very steep little town. This was more of an assessment for me, and it did give me confidence. The next day I did about 6 miles of walking in Nozawaonsen, and I also try skiing a very easy trail twice. By this point, I was T-Minus 4 days from Tokyo Marathon.

The Tokyo Marathon has three claim to fames:

• It is infinitely the best organized marathon on the planet and it will ruin you.

• it’s part of the Abbot Running World Majors

• Almost all lottery based marathon - 39,000 runners selected across 300,000 applicants.

The hype and prestige surrounding it can, as my wife observed, drive those who get in into an obsession to fulfill it. There are Facebook groups where spouses of runners talk to other spouses of runners about how incredible it is and once in a life time the Tokyo Marathon is and that their runner can walk it for the 7 hours if injured.

My wife understood me on the day of my injury that I couldn’t really be stopped. I am lucky.

T-Minus 2

For those unfamiliar with running, believe it or not, when your legs are stiff, we have what is called a “recovery run” which just that - you run, at a very slow pace, to get blood circulating and improving restoration. I do these even after the hardest efforts.

We also have this thing called “shakeout runs”. In a perfect world, you “don’t run as much” the week of your race, and then you get your jitters out 1 to 2 days before the actual race. You don’t put any effort in the run, it’s merely there to get blood moving.

I stayed at the New Otani Hotel near Sophia University in Chiyoda which offered a nice garden route to run through which included a lake and waterfall. A perfect place for me to come to realize that my legs felt like they already ran 6 miles, before I even finished the first 100 meters. The end of this shake out run allowed me to confidently determine I was reduced capacity by 25% to 33%.

The Tokyo Marathon would not be a marathon to set a personal record. Instead, it would be a marathon where I set personal meaning.

I’d do it again

I have never had as much fun running in my life as I did the Tokyo Marathon, and I could argue it was also the most traumatic experience on my body. Those who do run hear often via incessant feeds of all sorts of people who do sub 3 or sub 4 marathons or do many marathons a year. And as welcoming and encouraging as those are, it sometimes can trivialize just how difficult a marathon inherently is.

I mean the first guy who ran it between Athens & Marathon famously died.

I can tell you, dear reader, that this marathon, was the most enduring, rewarding, shit-eating grin, grueling, and gratifying experience of my life and during the run I experienced:

• I have my name on my shirt, courtesy of Mastercard, which allowed quite literally everyone in the Tokyo Marathon to yell my name. 10/10 would recommend at all times, #1 gear accessory.

• I’m wearing two knee braces (Bauerfeind, flagship store in Tokyo!), the one for my injured leg to keep it confident, and the other one so it wouldn’t feel like it was missing out on anything. This was a good idea - I didn’t want to alter form, and the braces really help my brain think “it’s going to be okay”.

• peeing my shorts because the line to the restroom at mile 14 was too long

• And I brought racing shoes that do not reward slower pace as they were brought assuming I was going to go under 4 hour (9 minutes per mile) but instead achieved a 11:20 per mile pace

• There was a heatwave which picked up by noon especially on the east-side of the Tokyo Marathon (Kuto, Chuo, and Ginza). I think because of my slower pace, my face was directly staring at the sun for more than half and since we are in a city with asphalt, the streets were a lot hotter because of it. You know how many people were passed out on the sideline with medics on them? A lot!

• Dehydration by hour 3 because it turns out NSAIDs prescribed to me to treat my knee injury severely restrict kidney, and does prevent me from processing water and electrolytes effectively, resulting in pee that was brown and sparse.

• And above all else, seeing my friends and my wife across Tokyo and coordinating sightings of me.

Triumph

This is single handled the best photo of me in the Tokyo Marathon. It’s not quite the half way mark, but it does represent the fact that “well I have nothing to do but to run forward”.

In Tokyo, spectators have the opportunity to take public transit and catch their runners a few times. That doesn’t mean it’s easy. My friends were trying to catch me across an entire town amongst 39,000 runners, and my tracker is on!

The photo above is taken by Asakusa, right as I pass the temple and turn the corner and was leaving the area.

This is just a snippet of the group chat. It was a great highlight of the run. I wasn’t going to PR in speed, but I was going to remember the marathon fondly.

Perhaps thats the beauty about running. When done right, there is the next run. How you enjoy the run, is up to you, and for what reason you enjoy, is also up to you.

Race day journal

A memoir note written after I complete the marathon on a flight back home:

The First Half

My legs were tired before the gun went off.

I’d gotten my racing t-shirt I got from Uniqlo with a name screen printed at the Mastercard booth at the expo. They only did flags + name, so I did ALLEN, big across the chest with an American flag. This is one of the least regrettable decisions I made all week, and I got a lot of vocal support for it. For the entire race, strangers cheered for me by name. A guy holding a French flag. A group of elderly Japanese women who pointed at me and said my name. A group in Mexican shirts who went absolutely wild when I shouted back “¡Gracias!”

My friends, meanwhile, were running their own parallel ops. There was a WhatsApp group going the entire race. They’d coordinate positions, I’d read their messages mid-run trying to figure out where they might be.

“You’ll see us at mile 7.”
Left side or right?
Left. I passed.
They missed me.
“We’ll get you at mile 12.”
Missed again.

Then I realized: the course is in kilometers. The map is in kilometers. They were thinking in miles. I typed back: “you mean KM, LOL.” Shortly after kilometer 12, R and J shouted my name (middle phot oabove) loud enough to cut across the entire race track. In hindsight, I wish I stopped to say hi and take a photo with them. Why not? It’s my marathon.

At kilometer 22, near a shrine in Asakusa, R found me almost entirely by chance. We’d missed each other twice, and as the photos show, I have the biggest grin.

The Second Half

Here’s something I didn’t know going in: the anti-inflammatory medication I’d been taking for the knee injury was an NSAID. NSAIDs compound dehydration during prolonged effort. I found this out the hard way.

By the later kilometers I was managing a knee injury and dehydration simultaneously. At one point I lost control of my bladder, just after the half way pint. That’s just the reality I had to contend with while running a marathon on a injured knee body. At least I had a copious amount of Wagyu.

I kept going, and would toss water at the aid stations on my shorts to help wash it off. I’d take bites, and observe various runners on the floor being attended for their heat-related injuries.

I’d read signs, well, try to read signs, and wave at random corners expecting my wife to be there. It was easier to do that than to squint then wave, because then people would get photos of me squinting.

At kilometer 42, just before the end, my wife found me. She’d been navigating Tokyo all day trying to track a husband moving unpredictably through a city of millions. She missed me more than a few times. But she found me right at the end, and I mean like .2 miles away from the end.

I crossed the finish line, happy, relieved, stressed, and most of all, accomplished. I think the biggest surprise was walking out of the finish line only to be handed a bag with “sponsors expected to fill it up”, and fill it up they did.

You know what I got out of it all?

An ACL Injury!

Specifically a Segond fracture on my left proximal tibia resulting in bone marrow edema. This basically means a small piece of bone fractured off where it should be and is being held to the main bone by bone edema, and it would take a few months for it to harden (like cartilage).

So since I race the marathon, all I’ve done is nurse the foot by not putting impact on it, doing my strength exercises, and becoming maddened by elliptical machines.

Thanks for reading. Come back next week where I talk about the final installment of this running reflection. You can tell your friends you know a lunatic.

One of the more first world annoying experiences is when I’m forced to use an event ticketing system to make purchases, and the event ticketing system is sub par. I recognize that what I’m about to say is very edge case, and even I may demonstrate my severe lack of understanding on how to use a website, but hey, when the end outcome of the purchase is Olympic tickets that can range from $28 to $5,000, can you blame me?

It’s the pre-sale for LA residents for the LA28 Olympics.

And I have to say, it’s a mediocre buyer experience. And I’m not even the buyer. But perhaps that’s the thing - the LA28 Ticketing sight isn’t good for researching, or browsing, it’s just there to facilitate emptying your wallet via a prepayment for an event two+ years from now.

Since I have a few hours, I decided to see what Claude can do for me to make this inconvenience of a problem that only effects me, easier.

I’ll spare you the nerdy details, and get to what was made. For those who see this right now, congratulations, this is my gift to you and it probably works for you for the next 2-4 days. Anyone coming after, sorry - you missed the train. Link at the end.

What did I make?

I made a website that allows you to filter, research, and plan your LA Olympic events based based on any amount of variables, without the need to having to have too many tabs open.

Here go check it out: https://la28planner.vercel.app/

THE LA OLYMPIC TICKETING SITE

My gripes with LA28 Ticketing and General Website:

• Navigation is wasteful

• I’m better off searching for a specific item via Google and clicking the link that takes me to the LA28 website, than using LA28

• Pricing information and availability isn’t available for events. This is the biggest most important frustration because its the one that directly changes your decision on whether to attend a specific event pretty easily.

Searching on the ticketing website is basically a game of scrolling down a list after you filter for what you are looking for. Not offensive, but when you look at the way events are presented, it can be a jarring experience to figure “what is that event”.

And if there’s anything more annoying is that if their buyer experience is focused on serving me a list, then it stands to reason I should use filters to find what I’m looking for. But these filters aren’t like Amazon or Shopify, no. They are contextless, or remove possibility from you, without you knowing.

That’s buyer friction for me.

Now I know I can clearly open another tab, get it side by side, and use it to reference the [LA28 Olympic Games Calendar]. I can even use their [site ] but that subjugates you to a sluggish experience filled with the browsing experience of looking at the equivalent of someone’s Xanga for each sport. Go ahead, try to learn about the events on the [Official Olympic competition schedule].

I have accepted that Millennials like myself shop with a browser.

The more “serious” and “logistical” and “event-like” something is, the more likely we are to “not make a decision using my phone” but rather, make the decision using our trust computer with a lot of tabs. When I say I got to think about it, this one of the ways I mean. In hindsight, that could be a me thing.

You know what else is a me thing? I don’t buy phone apps on the apple store. $1 is still too expensive.

Anyway, the reality as a millennial is this: in the pursuit of taking the travel agents job, we wanted to become the travel agent ourself, and not let technology curate that decision for us, as we try to impress man’s control and hubris on technology, for we are the creator of it.

LA28 Planner

If there’s anything I can do, it’s to create useless, one-time use, things in spite of something. I didn’t need to do this, but because we’ve entered the era where products like Claude have trivialize software development, the creation of one-time, micro-apps with the goal of supporting a irreversible (all sales final) decision making is very possible and very fast.

Visualization of the Summer of 2028

Maybe I want to shop via calendar. We are talking about the Olympics, which spans at least two weeks in July in Southern California. Maybe I want to see “all the events” and see my options (and if money is no object, please buy me a ticket and take me with you).

Ah yes, the finer details of life. Like learning that Handball is in the 2028 Olympics.

Prelims or Final?

Oh, I got you. Choose an event and you can see the difference between preliminary round and final round for each sport.

Is it better on TV or in Person?

Trust me, for the price you are paying, and for the crowds you will face, you will want to know that. There are some sports that don’t make for great spectator sports (Marathons, I know I know, are NOT great spectator sports).

You know whats a great spectator sport? [Hyrox]. Also F1. Watching F1 in person is not what you’d think because if you think about how fast a car goes, and if it goes like 50 laps, you will probably see the car for a sum total of 2 seconds x 50 times during the race if you have the grandstand seat.

Will it conflict with other events?

I put that in there because anyone from SoCal knows this fact: Commuting here is a sport in itself, its a sport of logistics, and we measure things in time not in distance. “Oh it’s 10 miles away” translates to 50 to 90 minutes depending on the day and whether there’s a presidential visit to grace our 405.

A Spreadsheet

Here’s the tried and true old fashion list. Everyone' likes a list. This is an infinite list based on any collection of sports. Add to your shopping cart and plan your Olympic fanfare.

Mobile View

Here’s a mobile view because I know that buying tickets for the Olympic is a group endeavor where one spouse is on the phone researching and suggesting things, and the other spouse is mapping it to a plan.

The Link

User assumes all responsibility.

If you plan to use it, remember: It helps your decision making, you make the actual decision in the LA 28 Olympic Ticketing Website

LA28 Planner

It’s been a while since I’ve written a reflective piece. I wanted to break my usual recanting with something more enduring to me, and today we’re focusing in on my fitness habits, milestones, and what running means to me.

I considered penning and publishing this piece before the end of 2025, thereby joining the current Spotify driven trend of forgetting December when doing a yearly recap. I did not. I also considered publishing as a “forward looking piece” into Q1, stating my aspirations.

Clearly I didn’t do that.

So here it is now. This is a 3 part series - though the real question you should ask is if I will be publishing serially or interrupting it with other topics.

Enjoy.

Allen.

p.s. if it’s your first time reading this, or it’s been a while, hi, I’m Allen, and I will talk about what I’m up to in my life while also occasionally throwing something topical like “technology” and “policy” at you. I also will mask names or clearly blot out people in a photo if its not me.

What did I achieve in 2025?

I considered this question started answering it with travel destinations, fitness goals, and milestones. It felt meek. I found the extent of my thoughts to be meaningless as it devolved to “well I traveled to a snow place, a sandy place, a watery place, and a concrete place.”

So as a way to get a more proactive answer, I shifted the entire reflection:

What will I remember in 2025 by?

Travel Runs, Long Runs, and Social Runs!

I took up running in my travels, which is a great way to see a town, I pushed new limits in my long runs progressively building to a Marathon, and did a lot of social runs with friends at home, and abroad!

In 2025, I experienced the following fitness milestones:

• I ran my first marathon! The Longest Runs I’ve done expressed in miles, first hitting 15, then 20, then 26.2. This culminated in two Marathon Distance Runs, one of which was the Long Beach Marathon race with a PR of 4 hours and 27 minutes; the other was in my backyard relatively speaking. I did consider ending 2025 with a 33 miler (50k Ultra), but that got sidelined with…

• One Hyrox Open Doubles Men Race. I signed up for one since my gym had early access codes and it turns out I’m a sucker for early access. I didn’t know what I was getting into and it took me a while to realize that it’s a set routine you for the race.

• Sometime during the summer, I contemplated triathlons. I even did one simulated sprint triathlon set at the gym, an alternate but equal time commitment from doing a half marathon. But I can’t swim so this was just me back-stroking it.

• Back to back long-runs, which gives the first exposure to running on fatigued legs. I did a 10 mile one day and a 15 miler next day, and I would then proceed to stack 1 hour HIIT workouts before each long run as well. The body can be amazing, if you allow it to be.

It was out of the runnings in 2024.

I recall in 2024 telling my wife that a marathon was out of the question because it seemed dull. I had hesitation with committing to a training plan that when measured in hours, could lead to mental barriers and burn out. Striving to complete a marathon is not easy, and I learned that the jump from half marathon to full marathon is of greater intensity than 5k to half marathon.

Here I am thinking it would be incremental, and it was not, not in the slightest.

The reality is I was not motivated to do a marathon. Which translates to, I didn’t think I could do a marathon because I didn’t think I could commit myself to the process of training for a marathon. Which means there was something missing in my current regime that would give me the physical confidence that I could do it. Would I even enjoy it?

It’s quite a process and it’s a lot easier if you have a process. I didn’t have one.

I am thankful of friends who decided to commit themselves to running their first 5k, half marathon, and marathon, and for the run clubs they have found. Through it, I found process. Different processes actually - one could say, routines and subroutines. It helped build motivation for long distance running and making it to race day. I’m now at a state where I can go a casual 12 miles and call it a no-brainer.

Impulsively committing to Hyrox

As with any great decision making, I impulsively said yes to Hyrox with a friend. On luck, my gym offered an early access registration for Hyrox, while I was actively training for a marathon. Not my best move there as a first timer.

A Hyrox is a competitive race that famously ends with 100 weighted wall ball squats. The kicker? You race on 7 functional strength stations, spaced by 1 kilometer (0.62 miles) of running in between before I get to the wall ball.

Imagine 1 km run (0.62 miles), then 1 strength test, then another km run, then another strength test, committed to a specific order, competing in a large convention center with other fellow Americans and Europeans who did too much cross-fit and realized they needed to run.

There is an advantage for those that do run long distance as it turns out. After the running piece, a lot of the “stations” for Hyrox are technique driven.

Shoutout to J and A, and all the folks who showed up day of to cheer.

Juggling two plans

It was difficult to adapt two training plans for both a marathon and a Hyrox, and yet, I do think it’s worth it for any runner to do it. I would literally do a Hyrox workout Saturday morning before doing a long run, which put time on my feet to be 3 to 4 hours each Saturday.

Though difficult, it was a “smarter” idea to weave in Hyrox. It has a huge emphasis on functional fitness, which is to say, it focuses on core mobility muscles you need to support an active life.

I am thankful my gym offers training for it and became a source of consistency for me though admittedly I was pretty burnt out three weeks before the Hyrox race. It’s the same energy as prepping for a big show or conference and at some point, before excitement kicks in, you just want to reluctantly do it and get it to pass.

Thankful for both doubles partners I had leading in, and competing on, race day as well as the friends that supported me that weekend.

Injuries

On the road to increase mileage and pacing, I found myself injuring myself significantly more. At first in the early summer, I noticed my fatigued lasting longer after 2 hours of exertion, requiring more general recovery before committing again. I then noticed it when I did track-Tuesday sets (faster pace training) that my knees or ankles or calfs or hips would sprain, which would force me to reduce my running volume.

Turns out, I have poor strength foundation, so I hired a trainer for that. Thankful I did, should have done it earlier.

Bonus.

I went scuba diving for the first time!

The Stats

• Compared to 2024, I doubled my total mileage, going from 409 miles to 856 miles. According to Strava, thats 32 marathons worth of mileage.

• The first months of 2025 I actually had a 30-40 mile per month average, and the last 4 months of 2025, I had a 90+ mile average.

• The most important is that I committed 279 hours to general fitness, of which 144 hours were spent running. I equate that to 144 hours of mostly mental wellness.

• In 2026, there are plans to see what a 50k (33 miles) would be like, and a 50M (50 miles) would be like.

This is what I’m remembering 2025 by.

Summary:

• Eve Frontier is a massively online space-based video game that relies on scarcity, time, and player interaction to drive the gameplay loop.

• It’s a space-based logistics simulator with scarcity, time sinks, and decay. Fundamentally, it’s going to be harder than Eve Online, the studios current flagship game.

• Expected Initial Core gameplay: exploring, mining, slow resource movement, building the first supply chains, don’t get pirated.

• The First Gamers: Early adopters will be solo base builders, industrialists, and optimizers, and of course those trying to PvP (player vs player combat).

• There is no mature in-game economy yet. It’s not that the developers forgot to implement an economy, far from it actually - it’s that all the new players have not figured out how to stand up economies because no one knows what to do, so it will be just complete frenzy and mania.

• Conflict (Corp v Corp, which is the PvP aspect) is mostly impractical because of the lack of economy and manufacturing in game- give it time and the player base will make that so they can wage constant war.

• Blockchain (it’s Sui Protocol.) based Tooling and Applications will emerge organically, driven by necessity, grind reduction, and combatting “time”. This one reads simple - its actually the reason this game is going to create a new category of “gamers”.

• Smart contracts offer automation and in-game power projection with minimal online presence, and more PvP when the time comes.

• Just in case it didn’t sound office, Eve Online, and by extension Eve Frontier, is Geopolitics Simulator in space.

EVE Frontier: Phase 1
A First Look at the Infrastructure MMO

EVE Frontier is launching in what can best be described as a Phase 1, “Age of Discovery” state for the public.

It’s not about fast action or flashy gameplay. It doesn’t have those exciting, fast-paced core game loops yet. It’s a game about laying the first bricks of a functioning interstellar economy, where tenuous cooperation, time-sinking coordination, complex logistics, and smart contract competition define success more than gaming reflexes or starship kills.

It’s a Geopolitical Simulator in Space, but not of the Star Trek abundance mindset, but rather a hyper capitalistic scarcity mindset.

For context: EVE Online is a sandbox MMO that has operated for over two decades with entirely player-driven economic, political, and military systems. What makes EVE Frontier different is both its tabula-rasa narrative state and its native integration of blockchain primitives. The blank state and blockchain elements give players not just ships to fly, but tools to shape the game’s narrative, economic, and classical online coordination.

For existing EVE players, one of the greatest enemies in EVE Online is time itself. This translates to: Active energy. EVE Frontier’s introduction of smart contract based gameplay (player-made applications that can be accessed in-game or through a browser) is going to shift how much active energy is needed to do things, and how much they’ll benefit from automation running their backend.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. We’re a long way from there.

In this early phase of Eve Frontier, gaming will feel slow. Because it is slow. If you’ve read a Dune book, it is that slow. It will be tedious, and if you’re looking for conventional excitement, this ain’t it. You have good odds at binging a Netflix TV show while doing “in game work”.

For infrastructure-minded thinkers, people who like resource management games and systems building, this is the blank-slate moment. An opportunity to build systems, economies, and tooling that can endure for years.

Let’s call this Phase 1. Here’s how I see the arc:

What Phase 1 Will Actually Looks Like

It’s going to be a blank state. It’s going to have no infrastructure built by players to do things.

• No infrastructure. There are no stargates yet, no Panama Canals, no Suez Canals. Travel is long and expensive in terms of fuel and time. I can’t even buy fuel at the start. To jump across 34 systems early in testing took me an hour, and I already knew how to play.

• Tools are primitive or nonexistent. Every MMORPG spawns side tools — calculators, websites, wikis. I expect the same here. But I also wouldn’t expect CCP to build everything that makes the game easier. They have to balance inherent difficulty to the point where players innovate on their own. There’s a reason EVE Frontier has a literary notebook app built into the game.

• The incentives aren’t where you expect. Until the end of Phase 1 or into Phase 2, the in-game player economy is too underdeveloped to sustain PvP warfare at meaningful scale. The real incentive for all players is survival — making it to the point where people can reliably buy from other players to shortcut manufacturing and fleet production.

• The core users in Phase 1 are explorers and base builders. This is No Man’s Sky territory. The next wave are opportunists hoping future players will use what they built.

In practice, players will be:

• Surveying unknown star systems for resources. Travel is time-consuming. There’s a real risk of getting stranded in a star system because you poorly planned your route and couldn’t find compatible fuel. You’ll need someone with a vending machine extorting you for money. That person might be me.

• Constructing mining and refining facilities across star systems they can quickly reach.

• Establishing shipping lanes between resource-rich and manufacturing-heavy areas. The greatest achievement in Phase 1 may be the stargates being built and maintained. You’ll see players build them for free, then toll-roads emerge, then pillaging. Or a stargate that just ran out of energy and stopped working.

• Building up resources for when an expansion drops. Not an arms race yet, those features haven’t released, but everyone is slowly piecing together the economic backbone that enables future players to wage expensive conflict.

This makes EVE Frontier a logistics simulator with an extremely high skill ceiling. Completely dependent on player-side infrastructure.

What Matters for Industrialist Players and Developers in Phase 1

EVE Frontier is incentivizing technical (sorry AI-enabled!) power-users, industrialists, to shape the meta (core game play loops to “win”) of Phase 1, which will completely decide how Phase 2 and Phase 3 unfold.

And to allow players to shape the meta, CCP Games is leaning into the concept of a Moddable MMORPG.

Here’s a live-service game, in one server instance, and we’re allowing you, the gamer and/or developer, to alter a lot of how you’re going to “win”. Modding is typically not supported or actively frowned upon in online-only games. EVE Frontier goes the other direction and commits to the idea, as its predecessor Eve Online has.

It starts with a core ruleset (controlled by CCP Games), then layers in a permissible, and encouraged, vector of development from the player community: Their own way to tackle the resource allocation, and subsequent power projections, in the game, via blockchain technology. [Editor’s note: As of Oct 2025, CCP Games has adopted Sui Protocol, of which as of March 2026, Sui has been integrated and they are in the player testing & build phase.]

Core Ruleset (Or what CCP game is launching the game with)

• Scarcity. In-game resources are scarce, which makes the production curve for ships, guns, and stargates harder to sustain. To put it differently, as of the time of this publication, the world is pinched again by oil strains. You get the same in Eve Frontier.

• Time. Everything in EVE Frontier is slow. Activating a turret. Building a capital ship, can take days. Flying, which you’ll measure in meters per second and hopefully kilometers per second, can take a while if an object is 100km to 500km away.

• Atrophy. Nothing is permanent. Everything can be blown to pieces — by players or by roaming NPC pirates, or by the inherent quality of what you made.

Put all three together, and you’ve attracted the same consumers who play Dwarf Fortress, Rimworld, Factorio, Stardew Valley, and Satisfactory. But also like Korean-Style MMORPG Grinds.

Smart Contracts:

There’s something beautiful about not only allowing but incentivizing the ecosystem to mod the game via dApps. I fully expect CCP to take a hands-off role in what a dApp can do.

For ease of understanding, dApp, or decentralized Apps, can be as simple as a smart-contract that does X, and it can interface with something in the game. It’s decently crazy to think “hey gamer, make a tool (vibe code it), publish it (it gets hosted on the blockchain at no cost to the user), and deploy/tie it in the game (it’s performance is based on the user and if it does as it’s supposed to do).

MMORPGs already get supplemented by wikis and gameplay planners so players can min-max them. But rarely has there been a direct, incentivized connection from those online tools to in-game interaction.

And rarely has there been an opportunity for non-gamers to directly impact the game itself, through sheer software development, and concurrently earn value for providing development services to those playing EVE Frontier directly. You don’t even need to know how to write a smart contract. Sometimes simple wikis and websites are just fine.

A New Surface Area for an MMORPG

This unlocks an entirely new type of interaction because you don’t need to play the game to advance the game’s narrative. Here’s what I expect to see emerge:

Smart contract-based logistics corporations.

• The terrible blessing and curse of an MMORPG is that it’s a persistent, always-on universe, and time is annoying. Smart contracts help shift “active hours” to other areas of opportunity.

• Under Phase 1, I’d expect simple automations. A space vending machine that dispenses fuel in exchange for crypto, positioned in a terrible part of space where you’re stranded with a haul you’ve promised to deliver. Bonus points if there’s a pirate gang roaming nearby but conveniently leaving the vending machine alone. I’ll even sell you ammo for your travels. When inventory runs low, the contract automatically posts a courier job to resupply, dynamic pricing based on regional player count or inventory level. If couriers keep stealing the goods, require a bond. All of this was done in EVE Frontier.

• By Phase 2, corporations will need to build something equivalent to Amazon Prime’s fulfillment center, coordinating mining, manufacturing, warehousing, and shipping, with player-to-player guarantees if anything goes wrong. I wouldn’t be surprised if by Phase 2, a niche corporation emerges that delivers X units of Z class starship to your system while you wage war. Just-in-time logistics in space.

Treasury tooling.

• At Phase 1, treasury tooling will be nonexistent. Everyone will have their own proprietary spreadsheet. The first generation of corporations will have no taxes, just gangs of players going around until invasions become permanent and a gang needs to join a bigger corporation. Then war comes, resources need replenishing, and suddenly taxes and tithes are required.

• Getting taxed in a corporation is a weird concept. But in EVE, the tax pays for the “fighter” type players to replace their ships without using personal funds, and those PvP players protect the industrialist. I can’t wait until bounties get set on specific players and the corporation that claims them gets its automatic payout via escrow.

• By Phase 2, I expect Ponzi schemes to begin. EVE Online had player-banks. It worked until it didn’t. Look up the 2009 E-Bank incident if you’re interested. It is always an incentive in these games. And that’s part of it.

Token-based alert systems.

Space fleet combat is about 0.01% action and 99.99% getting lost and hoping not to get detected. Stargates that run dApps can register who — by wallet ID — is using them. That information can be sold, or stolen, to determine traffic data or whether warships are approaching. Which reminds me: it is completely legal in EVE Online to disassemble ships, put them into freighters, ship them into deep space, then reassemble battleships at the other end — without anyone noticing the Trojan horse sitting at their doorstep.

Data scrapers and dashboards.

For all the min-maxers and industrialists. People will scrape data. In Phase 1, it starts as item stats and production rate data — that already exists as a player-made wiki. It will advance to: “What systems does X good sell well in, and at what unit and price?”

EVE Frontier likely won’t have any game-developer-designated commerce space. It’s up to players to figure out where trade will happen, based on physical in-game distance and accessibility. Someone convincing players on the other side of the universe to make the long trek to their market — because the promise of stable security and fair prices is too good — will need something communicating that rich data set 24/7. It won’t be a person doing it manually.

Custom routing and fuel optimization.

Route planning like a Tesla telling you where the Superchargers are — that already exists via third-party tools. I do expect truck stops to emerge. Vending machines everywhere. Stargates to key points. Advertising on in-game bulletin boards convincing players passing through to go somewhere. Player-run Nigerian Princes. EVE Online has its own in-game email system. EVE Frontier does too. You see where this is going.

Competitive Advantage Comes From Tooling

Most MMOs constrain innovation to what the game engine allows. EVE Frontier goes further: competitive innovation, inside a gaming ecosystem.

There’s a direct incentive to:

• Build better internal ops tools for your player-run organization

• Create dApps and services others subscribe to, reducing active hours spent on boring tasks

• Hoard resources, accumulate EVE Token or LUX

• Leak or steal tooling to gain a strategic edge

• Exploit misconfigured smart contracts in rival networks

I expect a technical arms race. And if EVE Online taught me anything, the winners won’t be the best pilots. They’ll be the best industrialists. It’s hard to compete against a corporation that can deploy ships faster than you can shoot them down.

In Phase 2 and 3, Payroll, Taxes, Escrow, and Insurance become dominant. But I don’t expect those in Phase 1. The phase of the game dictates what tools are needed.

The tradeoff: low player count at the start. By design. EVE Frontier has enough non-sexy problems to discourage many players — and concurrently, to attract exactly the right ones.

Player 3 Has Joined the Game, But Not Really

Traditionally, gameplay splits between PvP (player vs. player) and PvE (player vs. environment).

EVE Frontier adds a third vertical:

• Those who play for PvP: fighters, pirates

• Those who play for PvE: miners, haulers, builders

• Those who don’t play at all, and instead develop tooling or analyze in-game data for the ecosystem

And because there’s crypto involved:

• Opportunist. In-game, we call them scammers and grifters.

Non-playing developer roles that will likely emerge: Logistics Platform Engineers building cross-system shipping dashboards. Data Analysts scraping on-chain data and player location logs. Smart Contract Auditors scanning public corp contracts for vulnerable logic. Governance Devs designing resource pooling structures knowing that war, espionage, and attrition are facts of this universe.

A Platform for a New Meta of Open Source Gaming

In traditional MMOs, the game studio controls the technology ceiling. Ships, weapons, defense systems … all finite, all balanced by the developer.

In EVE Frontier, the most powerful competitive advantage may come from what non-gamers solve for gamers that the studio doesn’t touch directly. Expect: players paying outside devs to write logistics software, tooling dashboards, and coordination apps. And eventually: compromised scripts, dApps with backdoors inserted into treasury tooling, false dashboards designed to bait opposing fleets into bad routes.

This is the natural trajectory of an open economic protocol layered on top of a sandbox MMO.

Maybe by Phase 3, software built on EVE Token currency will earn more than CCP Games itself. Now that would be something.

Putting This Into Perspective

One of the largest battles in EVE Online happened in 2014. Estimated $300,000 in ships destroyed. 7,500 participants across 717 corporations and 55 alliances. The direct conflict took 21 hours.

The buildup took years.

• Over 5,000 capital ships were involved.

• 215 Titans — the largest capital ships in EVE — were fielded.

• 75 Titans were destroyed.

  • Titans were introduced in December 2005. The first player-built Titan appeared in September 2006, nine months later.

  • Building one requires 24/7 construction and defense — an entire alliance of players, minimally 50 online at all times, plus 100+ territory defenders. Titans can be destroyed mid-construction.

• They weren’t even effective at launch. They were bait. You spent another year or two enhancing them before they could do anything. Back then: no automations, no industry behind them. Built entirely in secret.

• Today, it takes about 6 weeks to build a Titan.

And yes there’s a video.

The Slow, Passive Excitement

EVE Frontier will be a slow build. It has to be — in a game where time is the currency.

These phases will be sequential at first. Then they’ll fork across the universe simultaneously — some pockets at Phase 2, new areas at Phase 1, old areas at Phase 3. It could devolve into feudal systems before a large security-focused corporation cleans it up.

And all of it will eventually be met by CCP’s actual EVE Frontier expansions: new ship classes, new weapon tiers, new regions of space, new non-player enemy threats.

Happy Flying, Capsuleer, err Awaken.

o7

I am closing out my 2025 records and according to my ChatGPT Unwrapped, I can run spreadsheets for miles, or I can miles for spreadsheets.

Enjoy my immortalization of my 2025 across my ChatGPT Usage, Music, Endel, Youtube, and Travel. Fitness was also a key item to be remembered, and that’ll be its own post.

Enjoy and Happy New Year!

Past 2025 Quarterly Updates

1. Q3 + Q4 Updates: Travel, Shoes, and Food

2. Q2 Update

3. Q1 Update

What my ChatGPT 2025 Unwrap says:

And it’s one sentence zinger is ““I build systems that let people, capital, and time compound quietly without breaking.”

I fully adopted ChatGPT, adding it as shortcut on my phone, and using the OpenAI Atlas Browser, and even getting an enterprise subscription going for it.

What I’ll Remember 2025 in Music

• F1 Lose My Mind ft. Doja Cat - Pop EDM & Great for starting a run

• Incinerator by Bear McCreary ft Serj Tankian - Metal, Chaotic, it’s mile 9 of a 13 miler.

• Gosh by Jamie xx - Slow House, Great for Tunnel Vision, great for mile 3 after runners high kicks in

• Shaking Body by Ezra Collective - Joyful and Groovy, great for either warmup or cool down.

• Remember by Asake - Afrobeats, great for mid run

• Earthquake by Jisoo - K-Pop, great any time

• RATATATA by BABYMETAL x ElectricCallboy - Go sprint. Zone 5.

• Fire for You by Cannons - Eh dont run to this

• Golden by Huntr/x (performed live at TIME) - Zone 4 or Zone 5 run, lets go.

• Pporappippam by SUNMI - Zone 2 run after you get your 2nd gel.

• Espresso Macchiato by Tommy Cash - It’s a fun run

• The 7th Guild by Holy Land - Zone 3 or zone 4 run.

In 2025, I made the massive switch from Spotify - 12 years of being a paid customer - to full on Apple. While the unwrapped isn’t as socially resonating as Spotify, the quality of daily features including higher fidelity music, more random randomization, live-sets, and discoverability is better than Spotify. Unfortunately, both Spotify and Apple Music have a terrible UI continuity experience so if you are thinking of switching because you listen to music in a Tesla, you will be disappointed.

What Travels I enjoyed in 2025

I also saw a lot of travel in 2025 that I enjoy. I’ll keep this portion simple.

I’d like to revisit and relax a the Dodler Grand in Zurich 🇨🇭 🏔️, enjoy another night time charade of whiskey in Davos 🇨🇭 🥃, get my fix of shuwa from Rosna in Muscat until my stomach quits 🇴🇲 🍖, go scuba diving in in Dubai 🇦🇪 , continue my shopping spree in Saigon until my suitcases overflows 🇻🇳 🛍️🧳, die again because of the seafood in Mi Compa in CDMX 🇲🇽 🦐🔥, and return to upper solitude at Mammoth 🇺🇸 🏔️❄️.

That New App in 2025

It’s not often I find a “new app” that I find myself gravitating to, and even paying for. 2025 was the year I discovered “Endel”, a soundscape app to help you create a vibe. I used it for 19,500 minutes, or 325 hours.

If you’re interested, here’s a two week trial (yes this benefits me, thank you in advance). If you actually want to pay for it, I recommend waiting for their 50% sales. (https://endel.sng.link/Ezeow/6l18q/r_4356ecdfe7)

I encountered it in a Wim Hof breathing class, and often use it when my mind is experiencing a sense of being overwhelmed to a state of paralysis and disfunction. I also use it during twilight moments to “sleep”, and making sleep and rest feel long, even if it was 20 minutes or after the first morning alarm.

What I Youtube in 2025

And believe it or not, the AMEX Plat refresh now includes Youtube Premium and I’m now a Youtube premium subscriber. Which means 2026 will have a lot more of Youtubing.

I know an obscene amount about airplane logistics, space exploration, and food manufacturing as a result of my youtubing. I also have an appreciation of various different culture though hilariously it’s not that I watch interviews of people, I watch history & current events of each country I visit. I’m also a sucker for tech product unboxing because I don’t shell on a sell that easily.

What I gamed in 2025

My top 2025 games:

• Hades 2

• Clair Obscure: Expedition 33

• Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader

• Tower Dominion

• 9 Kings

Hey, where’s the fitness?

Stay tune for the 2025 fitness recap, which was my original post that started the idea of what I want to remember 2025 by.

Back in September 2025, I gained a fascination on Erebor, a proposed new digital asset bank that was seeking a federal charter. So this post is a dedication in talking about it.

I read the submission of a new de novo bank filing + related literature so you don’t have to, and now I’m going to hold you hostage with it.

Enjoy!

I said enjoy!

p.s. Bitgo just got one of these on 12/12

Quickly now, what are you talking about?

What is Erebor, and why is it important?

Erebor Bank is a newly proposed U.S. national bank backed by Silicon-Valley-adjacent investors like Peter Thiel and that Anduril guy, and it just received conditional approval in October 2025 to be chartered as a bank. It aims to combine traditional banking services with crypto/digital-asset banking for tech, crypto, AI, defense, and manufacturing firms.

Here’s why this is big:

We haven’t had a new bank chartered since 2008. Between 2000 and 2008, over 1,000 banks were chartered per the IF12697 Congress Publication. After 2008 to 2023, only 90 banks were chartered (As mentioned by Acting Chairman Travis Hill of the FDIC) - this represents such a significant drop in banking innovation which would be stormed by both fintech and cryptocurrency products.

And here’s what I’m going to focus on:

What is it, and is it good for retail consumers, and is it good for companies? The answer is, let’s find out, yes, then no.

Where did the name “Erebor” come from?

It is the bastardization of J.R.R. Tolkien work - I will let those pundits take up their pitch forks later.

Are you new here?

For those of you joining in this newsletter, hello. I shall do my best to set definitional terms for you: We are going to refer to institutions as banks, established financial service players, and well anything that isn’t a start-up at this point,.

Erebor, the First Digital Asset Bank

TL;DR:

• Totally not a bank for my very rich friends energy

• Yes for consumers and great for any stablecoin ecosystem narrative

• Mid (subpar) for actual company operations

What is it?

It is a de novo national bank (thats fancy for “Newly Form” which rarely happens these days) headquartered in Ohio and it will focus on traditional banking + emerging technology and digital asset sectors. It’s investors are all the tech billionaires, basically.

It achieved conditional approval late 2025 (Office of the Comptroller of the Currency), which means we can expect a soft launch 2026. Given it’s ties to the administration, it wasn’t unexpected but it was surprising that it received conditional approval in less than 4 months since it filed its June 2025 application when the acceptable average is around 12 to 18 months

The formation of this bank is significant for the following reasons:

• Tech billionaires and their companies, who amass their fortunes through yet-to-be regulated spaces as well as hyper-growth companies, are underserved especially on the digital asset front.

• The U.S. hasn’t been approving de-novo banks all that often, especially a bank that is intentionally exposing itself from day zero to crypto.

• 2022 saw the peak hostility against any form of digital assets from the US Federal Administration and Banks, so to see something “fast yes” 3 years later is representative of the incredible tone shift

• All digital asset ultra high net worth ($30m+ in investable assets) are going to be so stoke that 1) they could possibly bank with Erebor, and 2) they can take loans against their positions as extended as 150% LTV. That means they can get loan at 150% their value - i.e. I can get a $1,500,000 loan using $1,000,000 of Bitcoin, ideally spread across 3 years.

Is it good for retail consumers?

Yes for the retail consumers and great for the stablecoin ecosystem narrative.

But to appreciate why it’s good, it’s mostly because there aren’t many banks that will bank a crypto company, without the crypto company hiding itself behind elaborative dull explanations of itself. If you as an individual try to go to a brick & mortar bank, it will most likely end in a weird, or hostile, experience.

Erebor is a net great advancement in the institutional narrative adoption of cryptocurrency (stablecoins) and any chain that has a proven stablecoin offering is going to benefit from Erebor’s 2026 launch. So, Solana, Sui, Base, Avalanche, Ethereum and so forth.

This all translates to: Finally a bank that doesn’t despise me.

In pursuing the digital asset space, Erebor enters a very resented market, and this will make them the temporary heroes of the era.

I can also expect Erebor to have a sort of tiering on digital assets (as been suggested in the wave of crypto legislation in 2025). That tiering basically is a determination on whether a token is security, or a commodity, and the classification will set of a mental model of “closer to standing with Bitcoin and thus Tier 1” than you are an “alt coin or some non-consequential coin”.

From an institutional standpoint, that’s a great advantage to be recognized as Tier 1 because it means:

• The risk associated with that blockchain ecosystem is lower than others

• The blockchain ecosystem has a strong maturity compared to others

• Institutional liquidity in the form of traditional loans and debt offerings are more readily available

As a consumer, it means I can take a loan against my digital assets just like any other asset without having to actually liquidate it into cash. Digital Asset-backed loans via trad-fi are open for discussion!

Context: As of 2022, Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac only allow cryptocurrency if it has been exchanged into U.S. Dollars, which effectively means, “sell your crypto” - I can’t wait to…not do that.

The Mid Part

That said, I was able to have access to specific readings around the business model and the offering of Erebor, I can’t help but conclude that the target customer for Erebor isn’t blockchain foundations or developer companies, it’s ultra high net-worth individuals who ultimately want to be able to take out trad-fi loans against their digital assets, as well as get a simple bank for their unbanked company. The bar is quite low for this capital demographic.

1. Expectedly, Erebor will have a huge reliance on IntraFi, which is FDIC $250k insurance but multiplied across all the commercial banks in the network so it’s like $100m,

2. plus their credit underwriting framework (see commentary on Tier 1 in previous section),

3. and their filing application forces a highly liquid and conservative balance sheet and a need to be ultra conservative which means not having concentrated deposit risks tied to one company or a group of companies

These suggest that the initial banking business model is tailored for ultra high net worth consumers ($30m in Digital Assets) and smaller companies, but it wouldn’t really service all too well Crypto Foundations whose treasuries are in an untold amount of crypto capital.

I also don’t think it’s going to be remarkable for companies, besides the fact that they get a bank.

At best it’ll be a “better than nothing” offering which is a let down for companies whose treasuries depend on digital assets and financial technology improvements.

It would, however, be the first major institutional legitimacy.

The following portions are from something I think I read.

Erebor’s Target Customer
I think, besides anything with a digital asset pulse.

1. Ultra High Net-worth Individuals that Erebor can confidently consider a 150% Loan-to-value credit line on the individual’s assets. POV a 40% LTV is conservative, 20% is ultra, 60% is the default, 100% is what you see in Defi, and 150% or above is only for very high net-worth individuals. You’d only offer that if you have that “deep relationship” which suggests to me the same level of deal diplomacy Trump gives, but to the Erebor owners. Only a few of the customers would be this; the rest of us will get like the 20% treatment.

2. They also have a single-depositor risk capped to 10%, and top-10 depositors are capped to an aggregate of 35%. Basically, it can’t have such a deposit concentration such that one person accounts for 10% of Erebor’s banked assets. This signals to me that it can’t really bank full on Foundation Treasuries, and at this state, Erebor would prefer small & many deposits from from High Net-worth Individuals instead.

Hilarious Advantages

1. Regulatory: Incredibly close to the current US Administration, all the way to VP Level. It’s most likely going to have an easier time getting regulatory approval.

   1. Since this was written in September 2025, as of October 2025, Erebor has conditional approval to be chartered.

2. Niche: Erebor could have a high density of every single US crypto client, and may already have a line up of all customers (aka the unbanked digital asset billionaires) before it launches. That means it has a distribution advantage off the bat.

3. Asset Seizures: Erebor’s business model is dependent on credit operations and loans - so much so that they expect to give out loans that are 70% asset backed. Terms can be between 90 days to 3 years, $100k minimum, with different threshold applied to various tiered assets. That means in the event of a continued market down turn (i.e. more than 3 months), Erebor could liquidate a lot of positions and seize collateral from individuals. And then, because it’s a bank that’s bankrolled by billionaires, it will out-survive the crash and sell the seized assets at much higher gains.

If you’re a token, here’s what you need to argue for: To be recognized as a good Digtal Asset by Erebor and the broader Institutional Market, which is a function of a great many deal of other hurdles cleared. Otherwise the end consumer ability to make loans against their assets drops off a cliff based on their proposed LTV. If you are not Tier 1 asset, your ability to get a trad-fi loan backed in your digital asset diminishes.

Mid for actual company operations

That said, would I use this in Company operations? For Treasury opportunities, probably. For actual company operations where we have to handle payment -

Eh.

While it does make it a little easier, I would not consider it significantly easier. Here’s why:

For Company Operations:

1. It brings down the complexity of stablecoin transactions downward to a regular bank ACH/wire as Erebor would remove swap-operations. Swap-operations suck. Erebor instead would handle it like a non consequential foreign currency transaction, which is a huge plus.

2. It could allow a company to have one approval workflow policy for outbound stablecoin/wires, instead of two approval policies that have different requirements. Approvals for crypto are very different from approvals over a banking wire, and it’s a function of technological limitation or overt security, depending on the scenario.

3. Let’s assume stablecoin payment risk is downgraded to be like direct wires. Direct wires are still risky and burdensome for operations teams and doesn’t eliminate or “make this easier”. A company running direct wires is a company that is extremely inefficient (i.e. very early company days). To have company operations fully adopt Erebor, it not only needs to handle the swaps, it also needs to handle approval workflows & scheduling payments for stablecoins, AND, connect into existing accounts payable processes & solutions so that the overall company energy involved to make a payment is minimal.
   
   Let’s look at type of spend and implications.

1. Types of Spend:

   1. Credit Card Spend

      1. For decentralized organizations with high trust and smaller dollar amounts, it’s a lot easier for a company to pay for things using credit card. Erebor isn’t going to move a needle directly on this area, though it does have the opportunity to provide lines of credit (credit cards) to individuals/companies with sufficient digital assets on their balance sheet.
         
         Unfortunately, this then becomes a question of “how great is Erebor at Credit Card Management / Spend Management”. There’s a reason why Brex, Ramp, and Amex Corporate Cards exist even with Chase Banking having it’s own business credit cards.

      2. For retail consumers, this is going to unlock major customer potential especially with those that have crypto but no credit history.

   2. Accounts Payable Process

      1. It’s incredibly inefficient for companies to solely rely on direct wires, and by extension, direct wallet to wallet crypto payments, to pay for things. Companies build Accounts Payable to create control, visibility, and extreme efficiency in paying vendors. That is, unless Erebor also builds the payment authorization API that connects into existing Accounts Payable Solutions such as Bill, Netsuite, and so forth, to the Erebor Bank Account.
         
         In which case, it eliminates all concerns from “Direct Wires” and “Crypto Payments” Direct Wire. If it were possible for a FInance & Operations function to receive an invoice wherein the counterparty stipulates a USDC payment, and FinOps could execute it using existing Accounts Payable software to get approvals and schedule the payment in the future, based on a vendor account that is KYBed and they already gave their payment instructions, and I don’t have to think about the asset to back the payment, then this would be seamless and desirable. But that’s not what Erebor is entering the market as.
         

      2. Bottomline: A company’s accounts payable can easily handle invoice processing and accuracy, but there’s a lot of what would have to be true statements for that to be the case.

         1. What Would Have to Be True:

            1. Erebor handles swapping and it maintains competitive rates as well as processing speed

            2. Erebor cash/stablecoin accounts can be interacted with via ACH-like pull or API pull from an Accounts Payable Software

            3. The Accounts Payable software would handle multiple teams/peoples involvements async, the two or three way invoice match, gather internal approval, vendor records, and scheduled payments.

It’s a Net Good for the Stablecoin & Crypto Ecosystem Narratives

Gotta unlock digital asset wealth somehow.

Erebor’s existence will be a net good given how low this bar is. It opens the door for the next wave of company financial process innovation at institutional level, finally addressing an underserved market that at this point is very resentful.

It’s future is also guaranteed via a Paypal x Erebor relationship happens due to Peter Thiel’s involvement there too.

We shall see.

Never has there been a more exciting time in banking than now, can’t imagine what 2026 has in store here.

Do you know what time it is? It’s my time, that’s for sure.

Coming to you with my end of year updates.

New readers take note, these pieces focus on me.

Enjoy! And if for some reason I stop writing in December which my track record would suggest, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Past Memos

1. 2025 Q2 Updates

2. 3,200 miles, and counting.

3. AI Taking Accounting Jobs

Memo on what I’ve been up to.

Summary

1. It is the era of fitness challenges for me.

2. I’m extremely grateful to not travel in the holidays

3. Oh I am eating good!

On the Horizon

Future aspirations and commitments

• I aiming for at least 20 days of skiing. Wanna join?

• I am racing Hyrox in Anaheim this weekend. That’s right I do Hyrox now.

• I will be eating racing the Tokyo Marathon in 2026

• There will be at least 2 more fitness accomplishments in the form of race or never-did-that in 2026, which will complete my target for 4.

On Travel

• HCMC Vietnam happened in August, and surprisingly going in August isn’t really as humid as you’d think it would be. And almost everyday I got a massage. Anyway, the food pics are at the end.

  • Btw STARLUX ROCKS.

• CDMX Mexico in November also happened and let’s just skip to part where you are looking at my food photos, okay? Its at the end.

• New York also happened back in November, and I was 100% fucked by the Gov Shutdown into FCC reduction. Beyond that, I enjoyed catching up with someone I knew from EY Earthwatch, running in central park, and seeing the Hoosiers play. Oh right, and also attending a cool Web3 summit and getting to hear Federal Reserve Governor Stephen Miran, CEO of MSTR Phong Le, and Crypto Daddy Chris Giancarlo talk.

  

On Fitness

• The New Balance Rebel V5 finishes its time with me after recently crossing 300 miles and having a warn out thread. It’s claim to fame for me was the Long Beach Marathon, and some Hyrox Training.

  

• Speaking of which, the Long Beach Marathon came and went and I completed it with a 4:27 total time. One official marathon in the books, now begins a life long career in it.

• Let’s talk about Hyrox for a moment. Its functional strength training meets endurance and running, with this viral hit appearing across the globe. Yours truly competes this weekend for the first time.

• The Hyperion Max 3 will be my selected shoe for long distance, speed play, and cross-training & competing in Hyrox.

  

• The daily shoe? Adizero Evo SL

  

• But the Recovery shoe? Mount to Coast R1 because of the zero drop.

  

On Media Consumption

• Music

  • BLACK PINK IN YOU AREA (also Long Beach Marathon Anthem basically)

    

  • Alicia Keys has an Apple Live Holiday Set and its Jazzy & Good

• TV Shows

  • Oh Pluribus on Apple TV, how weird you are. I love it.

  • The Studio on Apple TV is an incredibly love letter to movie making, just get passed the tense first episode which makes sense after you finish the finale.

  • Alien Earth on Hulu comes in as a surprising, hyper-late-stage capitalism hit.

  • Frieren on Netflix, is a nice cozy world. I’d recommend it.

  • Tires on Netflix is a crude raunchy humor, but it’s hilarious too.

  • Boots on Netflix was also something I binged and I quite enjoyed the coming of age story of a guy who thought joining the marines is a good idea.

  • Eyes of Wakanda is such a visually stunning TV show but it also represents the very Disney+ problem - it’s boring?

• Movies

  • Rental Family starring Brendan Fraser is my movie of the year.

  • Wicked 2 was trash.

  • A Big Bold Beautiful Journey has a great piano-driven soundtrack and a compelling enough premise that’s its worth watching.

  • 28 Years Later is hilarious only when you realized what they did to England.

• Audiobook section

  • Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt is on my audiobook active listens and I find it enjoyable if you focus on “what’s up with the character this time?”

  • The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers is a rather long book, but I enjoy how easy it is to “get back into” as the book its character focused and you really don’t need to remember what happened several chapters ago.

• Moulin Rouge live is this era’s fun pop-mash up musical and you have to give it a try. If you miss Lady Gaga and Lorde, this one is for you.

Best Purchases

• The Litter Robot is something I can approve of, 8/10. Why only 8? Cause I got Litter Robot 3 and every weeks I find it being stupid.

• DJI Osmo Nano is such a fun little camera that you can can magnetically stick to things - get it just for the adventures!

• RUGPADUSA - It’s also an odd one, but this little sucker elevates any thin to plush carpet easily while also dramatically softening floors

• This Chair - its’ stupid, but if you find yourself "sitting on the floor” or “close to the ground”, it gets the job done and giving just a little more comfort. Call it a slumber party essential.

On Video Games

• Hades 2 released, making me appreciate the witch-craft of Greek Mythology, and I went ahead and 100% it.

• Ball x Pit has been a fun way to enjoy space invaders, pin ball, and brain going brrrr.

• Clair Obscur Expedition 33 is such a french-emo game and I love it. Soundtrack slaps too hard. Here, give it a shot!

• Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader - ahh Warhammer. Finally I lived to an age where the games are finally good. And not ass. Also it looks like Dark Hersey and Total War are coming out for this… lets goooo!

On Restaurants

• Vietnam

  • Banh Xeo Dinh Cong Trang

  • Pho Hoa Pastuer

  • Bun Bo Ganh

  • Nha Hang Ngon

  • Bep Me In'

  • Park Hyatt Saigon

  • Pizza 4P’s

  • Mille Mille

• Mexico

  • EVERYTHING I ATE IN ONE PHOTO

• New York City

  • Koete Omakase

Random

• Space Station Industry Day - Long Beach is jumping in on it’s Space Beach name and I got to tour the Vast Industry facilities and see their 1 to 1 replicable of their next generation space station.

  

• DIY Home Make Over using AI - I finished redoing the living room and two rooms using chatgpt. First to get a baseline, then to have consistent style across rooms, then to create

  mock-ups.

  • Seriously, here’s a mock up it did for a nook I left empty for years.

Until next time!

I have a chat tonight with some lovely students from my alma-mater and the professor there, Dr. K., had the students submit some questions. Those quesitons can be boiled down to 6 themes

1. AI Taking Accounting Jobs

2. Crypto / Blockchain / Web3 = Curiosity + Confusion

3. New Career Paths: They Want Permission to Not Be Traditional

4. Skills & Certificates: “What Do We Learn NOW?”

5. Macro: “Where Is Accounting Going?”

6. Regulation, Fraud, Controls, Governance

This memo is to help address some concerns around these questions, though I admit I think I can only answer that partially.

Cheers y’all!

p.s. I have a lot to share, I hope to get to that soon.

AI Taking Accounting Jobs

The #1 set of questions being asked by students this time around is focused on AI & Accounting. Some can see it as taking jobs, where as if put my hat on and pretend I’m a student, I see it as a source of anxiety. Rightfully so!

There were over 50+ questions asking at least one of these:

• “Will AI replace accountants?”

• “What tasks go away?”

• “How will entry-level work change?”

• “Will job opportunities shrink?”

• “What skills keep us competitive?”

• “What human abilities still matter?”

• “How should students position themselves?”

And the anxiety students (me, I don’t know about the students) feel isn’t entirely irrational. It’s very rational, born out of a generation of students who are looking at a career path that was invented in like 1980, kinda digitized somewhere in the 2000s, somewhere in there experienced outsourcing, and now has to consider AI in the 2020s.

What is important here is “why” are we having these thoughts, and often time, it’s due to a competitive job market, especially for new graduates, and the pursuit of a career that justifies the degree. What does a student’s future career look like? More importantly, what is student’s future look like in terms of earning a livable wage? Is it a stable future, or unstable future? (Three body problem reference)

Contextually to my alma-mater and the socioeconomic dynamics, the answer you probably have heard to your thoughts are unsatisfying, and probably around eliminating jobs and shifting dynamics.

So let me spell out to you the current state of an accounting career, or “old accounting career”.

I expect the accounting career, the old public accounting career, that has probably been conveyed to this demographic via firm speaking engagement, to be eliminated, or made irrelevant. It will not go slowly, but it will go surely. I expect a variation on what we see as the accounting career that focuses its efforts on “why”, “where”, and “when”, and less about “how” and “What”, albeit with 10x the work, with tools that allow you to do it at 10x the speed.

That Old Public Accounting Career

It was going when I was in school, it should have died in the pandemic, and now with AI, it is effectively sealed. At smaller, more historic firms, you will see the by-product of those eras, a time before digitalization.

Perhaps at the Big 4 or the recently acquired Private Equity Company that used to be Moss Adams, you’d see more digitization. But outside of those names, I fully expect this old accounting paradigm to be eliminated, or consolidated.

The old current accounting career is structured like an apprentice model.

These kinds of working dynamics have a “staff” or “associate”, or some other “entry level” worker focused on performing routine, and while they may joke it’s decently true - brainless jobs.

This is code for “I’m going have you do something, and repeat it hundreds of times”, and then to reduce the risk of error, I’ll make sure the senior “redoes your work” so two people did the same task a few hundreds times. Then, to be very sure, especially on higher risk accounts, I’ll have the manager repeat your work too - though they’ll take some shortcuts because I expect the manager to have oddly more niche experience that you get after doing the job a few thousand times.

The Hard Skills of the Old Current Public Accounting

For almost all entry-level public accounting jobs (and yes I cover private too), it comes down to these “hard skills”:

• Data Requesting, which is known as PBCs (Provided by client) or Requests Lists, is a age old project management thing that involves an auditor or tax person or accountant asking for a bunch of things, and expecting the client to give a bunch of things.

  • If you’ve ever tried to prove you are qualified for financial assistance (FAFSA), that you are a US Citizen and can fill out a W9, or tried to take out a mortgage, at some point you were slapped with a “pleased provide X, Y ,and Z”.

  • Alternatively if you filed your own taxes, and had to get random statements, you know what I mean.

  • If you haven’t done these things, the best proxy I can offer you is renewing your DMV license and trying to prove you are currently a resident.

  • If you a foreign student and got a VISA, I guarantee you that was probably harder than most of these things I’m going to list.

• Tick & Tie, which is the process of taking a report and basically using the accounting equivalent of citations to a source document.

• Bank reconciliations, which is the point-in-time driven procedure of matching bank statements or cash held at third party institutions with the end of the month so we can argue who owns all the cash or not because somehow in 2025, “cash can be in transit” like some weird physical check was cut and sent using the address found in a rolodex.

• Sample testing, which is the accounting value add of choosing random things that happened in a “process” or “financial accounting” and trying to prove it happened, or didn’t happen consistently.

• Invoice Vouching, a time old fable that involves getting stacks of paper, often a purchase order, the bill of lading (shipping notice), and the invoice, and saying “yep” they match, it happened, no funny business except sorry senior, you have to re-perform what I just did and review this stack of paper. Also sorry I didn’t sticky note what “piece of text” I saw to give me the impression it was good.

• Expense Categorization, or basically sorting. You know companies pay people to “sort” what an expense means based on an established chart of account aka we have like 50 choices, make sure the expense is 1 of the 50 choices?

Many auditor busy seasons are based on light or substantive testing that involves burdening their clients with requests for “Artefacts” aka documents (pdfs or paper, depends on industry) so that the auditor can match data-sets together across various systems or processes.

For tax accountants, their busy seasons are tie-outs and make sure their internal docs flow into the 1040 / 1120 tax form appropriately, supporting each financial accounts. If their google-fu / chat-gpt-fu is strong, they will do research to support a taxpayer’s unique case which involves basically going to Bloomberg Tax BNP and finding tax and legal case law to support an argument or credit, or skimming OBBB. Usually these kind of antiques begin because the taxpayer heard from a friend who heard from an instagram reel that there is a new tax credit for XYZ.

The Hard Skills of the Old Current Private/Industry Accounting

And for all the the industry accountants, those not working in public accounting, they have the joy of the following entry level tasks:

• Accounts Payable: Pay an invoice based on the contract terms & if the department approves it for payment. Bonus points if they can figure out “if we actually got what we paid for.”

• General Ledger: Make sure journal entries for various accounts book into the financial system. Hurt your head when the system bugs out.

• Payroll Coordinator: Lock yourself in a room for 2 days and ensure everyone punched in time sheets or that their salaries are flowing correctly based on what HR tells them, and while we’re here, making sure any deductions that the employee made in the HR System flows through. Alternatively, call the HR System (ADP, Workday, etc) and complain their system doesn’t work as expected.

• Cost Accountant: Tell us how much something cost based on what was consumed and time spent. Have fun working with legacy systems or various systems. I’ll like you more if I can go to you and you can tell me how much a window pane SHOULD cost.

• Billing Analyst: Uh, you bill our customers based on whatever contract they agreed to with us. Send an invoice and the payment link.

• Internal Audit Associate: There is a policy or audit plan to “test” each financial accounting or “process” to see if it is “consistent” across a period and you will follow it. Sorry, we no longer give clipboards.

Everything I listed was going to be obsolete the moment we started to digitize the workforce with the internet, and made the grand ole push in the 2010s. In the early 2010s, we talked about Digital Transformation. Digital transformation was going to accelerated the work that could be done, with less resources. The 2020 pandemic accelerated digital adoption at a global level (yay).

AI is a continuation of that energy as companies move to reduce labor cost by reducing the intensity of a problem.

The apprenticeship model used to make sense when the working world was paper driven, systems (computer or processes) didn’t interact each others, and the core essence of accounting was “turning documents and hearsay into numbers with meaning.” Business models were built on that world.

The Next 10 Years

In the next 10 years, that accounting world, specifically the businesses of the old paradigm, will continue getting sunsetted at even faster pace, whether through aging & retirement, through getting acquired, through closure, or through reinvention, and what will remain is what I hope is a new paradigm. One focused on the “meaning” of accounting, as opposed to what does accounting mean.

Well that didn’t make sense but it sounded clever.

What I hope to see is less oddly specific accounting roles, and more thematic basket of roles. Instead of a specialist of 1, it’s most likely a specialist of many - but rather than be an A+ specialist for the topic, I think a passable C grade specialist in a myriad topic if fine. That is the point of AI - to get to an answer that moves us forward, not what gets it perfect.

Here’s what I think the next 10 years will have in store:

Roles will fit the following themes:

• I’m here to be blamed.

  • A lot of professionally licensed firms, whether law or CPA, continue to exists for their ability to certify independently the status of a company.

  • They exist solely to take the blame. Goldman Sachs is a great example of “if the strategy does great, the company takes the credit, if it it goes bad, you can blame Goldman Sachs.”

  • A lot of senior roles are like this - they are the “accountability” of accounting, literally.

  • If you have great soft skills at being relationships, congratulations - this is a great place to be.

• I’m here to build operations and make sure we can scale our workforce or technology.

  • This is the kind of person who thinks in process improvement, technology operations, or scaling.

  • We also call them a generalist, and if they happen to be great at talking to people and building influence, we’ll call them a politician too.

  • This one doesn’t really need soft-skills but benefits from being able to make cross functional relationship. But the role itself can be done without such a focus on having soft-skills that make you an excecutive.

• I’m not here to lead people, I’m here to be a nerd and work on new implications, or new concepts I don’t know that you deem are technical.

  • A lot of unusual, one-time transaction types that were complex due to how much energy and resources it took, will become a lot more cheaper and frequent and permeate into different industries. Someone is going to need to understand the tax, or regulatory, or financial implication of that decision.

  • Alternatively, I’m the tech wizard because my millennial boss who can’t book a flight using a phone and needs to open a laptop goes to me for all the scripting and processes and configs.

  • This leads to contractor opportunities in the future.

• I’m here to understand the business and the context.

  • This one I like, because of all things I have proposed, it is the most pure.

  • Accounting is giving meaning to numbers. And what do the numbers mean, is a function of either a very good FP&A professional or analyst, or strategist. Those who can understand a business and all its components, not just from the mechanics, but from the environment, incentives, and challenges, are in for a treat.

  • Which is hilarious because this brings the profession full-circle again: When someone sees a CPA, they see someone who is good and understands general business. That sentiment has wane the last decade, but perhaps it will make a resurgence.

  • This could also be the person that is the advocate of value, almost like an appraiser. An appraiser looks at real value, and perceived value - where in AI can help us understand real value, it takes quite a culturally aware human to see the various shapes of perceived value on the buyer or seller of an idea.

Job Titles of the Future

Some I will propose, some I’m going to make fun of.

• AI Controller - this is stupid. That’s like saying I’m an Internet Controller in the late 1990s when the dot-com era was around. You are just a controller, and you have various automations at work. Maybe Rillet or Campfire has made processing so fast that the accounting processing portion of the job only takes 10 minutes of a month and you have moved on to different things.

  • It is possible that the Controller of the future is downgraded from a director/executive to a senior-accountant level role as the expectations of the controller are less.

  • This also implies you would need to do more.

• FinOps Architect - this is good one, because the internet, blockchain, and AI, has bled IT considerations into all other roles. A FinOps architect is then someone who understands systems, both human and digital, and how they do or do not operate together, and thus ideally, would know where the gaps are or where the opportunities could be, and where time is best spent.

• Global <insert any title from the past> - truth be told, what was done on a local scale or regional, can be done on a global scale with the same labor with the advent of more technology.

• Contract & Config Specialist - Someone who can read both the legal contracts & the associated claims, as well as digital smart-contracts or system logic, to see if what we legally penned with a customer is matching what we have configured, and if there is a deviation - what is the risk and response? Ideally, this role focuses on taking chaotic data managed by other outsiders, into decision making.

• OI Analyst - Operational Intelligence or Financial Intelligent Analyst is someone who works on taking data into decision making points. You’d ideally be responsible for the pipeline of data leading, as well as the presentation of data, as well as what is trending.

• Payments & Treasury Specialist - This one is fun because “how someone gets paid” and “how to pay someone” will probably still be one of the hardest questions going in to the future due to how people and countries make that complicated.

• FinOps Specialist - The irony of this title is that it’s a FinOps generalist, which is effectively someone who can do all the traditional accounting roles mentioned previously, with even less time. Basically, this means do more with less.

A big question I didn’t address is what will entry level jobs look like. I hope to answer this in time, but my hunch today is to take way we know as traditional, and what we think traditional routes are dominating the linear career progression model, and throw it out the door.

I don’t careers are linear, thats a by-product of the Gen X era. I think we believe or have conformed our career stories so that they are linear, but they aren’t.

I shall talk about this another time.

I just crossed a running milestone.

To date, I’ve ran 3,200 miles, or ~5,000 kilometers.

I’m not a fast runner, and I won’t break any PR’s, but I will break total mileage. One day soon I’ll do an ultra.

Since 2021, I tracked all my running mileage and experience self smartwatch and fitness tracker transitions. Since I have the data now, this is how that looks like over the years:

My mileage has gone down beginning the middle of 2023. I started doing Lifetime and started taking fitness classes as a way to enhance my physical routines. Those are not factored in here, and you can clearly tell the reduction in mileage starts to happen in Q4 of 2023.

Before the end of Q1 2024, I started training for the 2024 May Orange County Half Marathon with Jason, and it would be my longest distance ran since 2017 when I did the Star Wars Disneyland Half Marathon. Then, others I knew started running the distance and I would then proceed to do the 2024 Long Beach Half Marathon.

I did more run clubs in the first half of 2025 including Social Hour Run Club in Cypress, California, and Jumeirah John Running Club in Dubai (I did these guys twice when I was out there), and had a continuous streak of long runs in Q2 of 2025 with a full-Irvine marathon ran in May 2025.

From short frequent runs, to long not-as-frequent runs. Though somehow I’ve made myself more injury prone.

That’s been fun.

It took me 635 hours to get to that threshold, or about 4 years. It’s not a secret on how I adopted running, but it did take a considerable amount of years before it became routine.

And now, I have a growing shoe collection and I’ll even run in different countries as part of my vacation routine.

Somebody stop me.

Or else I’ll run into you.

p.s. And if you are around, yes you can run with me. Just know that I’m a 10 min pacer, which for most people, is easy & slow.

Fun fact

Almost all of this project was done inside of ChatGPT, including figuring out how to retrieve data, download data, cleanse data, review and remove duplicate patterns, as well as all of the visualizations. I even had it tell me how to recreate this one specific chart it made in Google Spreadsheet because I enjoyed the layout.

I remember when things like this took me a week, and now it took me one evening instead, of which most of the time was spent deciding what visualization I like the most.

Best part?

I contained it all to “one chat” so if you want to see how the prompting back & forth is, and how I used AI, you can. Shoot me a dm to check it out. No, I’m not concerned you’ll be able to “download” previous data files - ChatGPT auto-purges it every 10 minutes so you can’t really download anything.

Just Tuning In?

For those of who you are newly subscribed to my newsletter, I occasionally write about my running. Here are those pieces:

It’s another crypto-centric piece. It’s been quite the week okay?

Building on yesterday’s piece, and because I expect CLARITY & GENIUS to be signed into law today, here are some visual aids to help you understand what just happened.

Enjoy.

Allen

Previous Pieces

• Three Bills that Shape Crypto, and America's Fiscal Policy

• Q2 Called— It Wants Its Marathon, Muscat, and Michelin Stars Back

• How to eat an Uncrustable

GENIUS ACT

Or, how 50 states+friends are now responsible to driving the demand of US Dollar.

Here’s the slightly cheeky version

I imagine a lot of auditors are going to be lost. Audit firms can hire me to help them figure out “it all”.

CLARITY ACT

Understanding whether you play by CFTC rules, or SEC rules, is key which will also determine the pathway for listing on exchanges and other financial markets in the United States.

DEFINITION OF SUFFICIENTLY DECENTRALIZED

We now have a regulatory milestone on what “decentralization” finally means. If you wonder what current real world examples of sufficiently decentralized are, it’s Bitcoin and ETH Post-Merge.

This photo is purely to make the social reels look better.

I’m back with another special. It’s one of my fabled I read the technical thing and made it not technical to my own liking. So notes, what I’m talking about is, I’m sharing you my notes.

Today I write about the various bills going through US Legislation to get me you a quick recap.

• One Big Beautiful Bill (signed July 4)

• GENIUS Act (expected to sign July 2025)

• Clarity Act (expected to sign July 2025)

GENIUS / Clarity are on the floor now and could be voted in any second now. Anyway…

One Big Beautiful Bill

TL;DR: 2025 Tax Bill. Guys I don’t know how to TL;DR this one with out inserting commentary.

Also known as let’s straddle every citizen from birth with a debt bill equal to 120% of their expected net worth, if they had any. The Big Budget & Tax bill impacting every American passed July 4. Never have I paid attention more to a bill than that one from a personal household, corporate, and opportunist perspective.

How it impacts Crypto-based companies and individuals is only in the area of financial tax enforcement, and foreign entity ownership.

General Impacts

• State and Local Tax Deductions for 2026 - 2029 - Raised to $20k (single) $40k (married) for for anyone having adjusted gross income under $500k. Yes W2 withholdings count to it.

• Big Ouch to the Green Sector as many, many green credits and tax incentives are repealed or phased out.

• 100% Depreciation in the year an item is put into service, so have fun expensing things.

Crypto Impact

• IRS has $60b in funding, and is direct to use AI, and to target Digital Asset Flows, High Income Filers with Underreporting Risks, and Foreign Financial Accounts.

  • The IRS laid off 25% to 33% of its workforce, won’t be replenishing it, and will instead tell them to be productive to use AI, and to go after the targeted amounts.

  • That said, the IRS directed to look at Foreign Account Holders & Crypto folks.

• Controlled Foreign Corporation (CFC) and Transfer Pricing takes on higher scrutiny under OBBB and a significant majority (dare I say, all blockchain foundations?) are at risk for any IP or Token-Based revenue flowing through foreign holdings.

  • Aka everyone that used FDII / GILTI is on a short change list.

  • Aka if you count some of your money as “off-shore money earnings”, you are on the shit list.

• Domestic R&D 100% expensing is back, and yes you can take any amortized R&D from previous periods (2021-2024) and fully expense it out in 2025. Every single blockchain company has R&D to expense, that’s for sure.

  • *ahem* Foreign R&D however, is a 15 year amortization.

  • aka if you use foreign developers, how dare you. If you use on-shore devs, you are a patriot and will be rewarded.

Stupid question: What’s stopping me now from buying a luxury car under an entity, putting it into service (TURO/UBER), and then depreciating it fully in the first year, taking the taxable income liability reduction, and then dissolving the entity? I don’t know but I think the answer is something about California.

GENIUS Act

TL;DR: Let’s define stablecoin as regulated financial products, like cash

“Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act”

This bill can be referred to as the Stablecoin pill, paving the way forward for a confluence between stablecoin, traditional finance, and decentralized finance. Remember folks, the concept of a non-central finance entity isn’t new; we just call that different country’s currencies. Anyway-

GENIUS acts focus on the following:

• Definition of Stablecoins

  • Only USD fiat backed stablecoins. So, good bye “algo coins”, you are out. Good riddance.

  • From a qualified issuer in the United States.

  • See giant note on reserve requirements later on.

• Who can issue stablecoins
  The path to Federal Recognition & Regulation for Issuers

  • A very tightly defined (this is good) list, stablecoins can only be issued by banks, OCC license, or state-certified issuers. Here’s who can issue:

    • Federal Non-bank issuers with a special license from the OCC (Office of the Comptroller of the Currency) with a $10m minimum capital requirement, monthly reserve attestation and public disclosurers, no activity other than issuing stablecoins, and it must have a Chief Compliance Officer and a maintained Audit Committee.

      • Aka Tech Company partners with Reserve Bank or Credit Union to create new subsidiary dedicated to the deployment of, management of, and responsibility of, stablecoin issuance.

      • which btw, the OCC has a 120-day decision window - this moves fast.

    • State-Qualified Issuers - entities approved by home state based on the state banking requirements, as well as approval from the federally-sized Stablecoin Certification Review Committee (Multiple Federal Treasury Agencies here) who can prove that the entity operates in a “substantially equivalent” regime following federal standards. Caveat: If the issuer hits $10b in circulation, they must go federal in 1 year or figure out a way to not be $10b.

      • USDC and Paxos are currently following this via New York DFS.

    • Foreign Issuers - Foreign companies can also be an issuer, provided that they follow one of the above path ways and subject themselves to US Enforcement, having US Property, and subject to Block/Freeze orders.

      • bye Tether.

    • Public Companies - Non Financial Public Companies can’t touch this. So EY FSO is about to 1000x its resource needs.

  • To be federally recognizes, you either get licensed via non-bank path, or you transition from a state-license to a federal license due to volume.

• Issuer Reserve, Audit Requirements, and AML/Compliance/Consumer Protections

  • On the topic of audits and “stuff”, this is considered the most stringent financial control ever proposed.

    • Fully backed, 1:1, cash reserves held in segregated FDIC insured accounts, with a liquidity requirement of under 90 days to maturity for any treasury bills.

    • That are audited and attested for monthly

    • That can’t be, and are not used, as collateral

    • And must have a stable value (so handcuffed to US Dollar).

    • No Exceptions.

  • Issuers can’t lend, pledge, or use any reserve, excvept for the purpose of redeeming stableocins (sit on your pile of cash, and you will like it). Issuers can only use the cash to get Treasury bill earnings and Repos.

  • Audit & Attestation is intense.

    • Reserve Composition (make up of assets) is published publicly, daily.

    • Monthly attestations certified by CEO and CFO under penalty of law with personal liabilities and criminal charges.

    • Annual Financial Audit required for issuers over $50b

    • Any material incident post posted and reported in 5 days.

    • Consumers msut know what backs the token, how quickly it is redeemable, and whether the reserve is there to match the customer deposit (or bank liability).

Quick Quips:

• GENIUS basically mandates by regulation segregated subsidary stablecoin options.

  • Stablecoins act? More like segregation act. Or subsidiary act.

• Financial Compliance Industry just got more intense, and also, more conviction, because of this.

• There’s not that many ways for a stablecoin issuer to make money here because the GENIUS act is explicit on what you can do to make money, and what you can’t. Can you figure out how much they need to earn to be able to maintain, and grow, its operations?

CLARITY Act

TL;DR: Let’s define blockchain as markets act

“Creating Legal Accountability and Regulatory Transparency for Innovation in Crypto”

This is the bill that gives definition on whether digital assets are under CFTC or SEC purview.

Often referred to by me as the markets bill, Clarity Act introduces the framework for “mature blockchain system” which is a 4 year timeline for a blockchain to get a Mature Blockchain System Certification.

• The Mature Blockchain System distinction is a certification the blockchain files for with an automatic effective date 60 days after submission, unless the SEC objects.

  • At any time, this standard can be rebutted by the SEC and appealed in corp. It offers a distinct regulatory distinction from being recognized as a tokenized project, to a truly decentralized network.

• To qualify as mature:

  • Open source with transparent programmatic operation rules

    • Which presumes a publicly distributable codebase which all chains offer by default.

  • A functional network with validators & publicly available transactions

    • Validators can’t be owned by a supermajority, no gatekeeping on who can be a validator such that anyone can be a validator should they meet the technical specifications to run a validator

  • No special permissions to alter the consensus or take control, except for critical fixes

    • No unilateral ability to modify consensus mechanism.

    • Publicly accessible and visible governance on code changes

    • Aka IT Auditors, go find admin permissions.

  • Not controlled by one person or under common group control

• Which agency enforces?

  • If deemed Mature System → CFTC Jurisdiction under digital commodities.

  • If an immature system (aka not certified) → SEC Jurisdiction, treated as securities

• Why would you want to go for Mature System?

  • As with anything in the U.S., maturity gives insider sale relief (aka those who came in early and want the safe harbor), and makes trading & listing tokens of that chain significantly easier and faster.

Notes:

• Ethereum has demonstrated clear decentralization, but Polygon and Algorand do not. Solana however would the one to argue with as the definition of decentralized network in the form of validator is to be determined.

What does this all mean?

Dollar is becoming the reserve currency for Crypto.

The US is paving the pathway to regulate and industrialize stablecoins. What happens when the US Financially Regulates a product is that it is significantly enhancing the US Dollar position. Specifically, the stability of crypto insured by the US Dollar. The US Dollar Hegemony lives on.

What’s that?

Well that’ll be it’s own post I guess. Let me pull up my January 2025 notes…

p.s. yes it’s just photos of DC this time.

Not your cup of tea?

You can check out my more casual updates post instead.

Coming in late to you is my Q2 update. Sit back up straight and speed gloss through this. A lot of my favorite things have happened.

Memo on what I’ve been up to.

Summary

1. My fitness is steadily pacing itself favorably for Q2.

2. Never have I been so invested in learning just what is in the OBBB, market structure bills, and boring banking, and how insider vs outsider incentives really drive the economic chaos that it is.

3. I traveled a lot and now I’m opinionated, oh good ness I’m one of them. Also Breeze Airline doesn’t suck for US Domestic, and they run a 2-3 configuration,

On the Horizon

Future aspirations and commitments

• Long Beach Marathon in October, I go weeeee.

• I think I miss writing and publishing more often. So shorter unfinished pieces it is.

On Travel

• International: Oman is a great place for those that like Joshua Tree & Deserts, and thought “where can I get even more of this”. The people there are authentic, not flashy, and very hospitable and are just happy you are there. It is not an “Easy” country to travel to and get around, but it is very well worth it unique experiences and food. I still have memories about this “Shuwaa” dish I had at “Rosna”. I’d like to visit the South of Oman, Saladah, one day. Oman holds a special geopolitical interest of mine as it’s regarded as 1) the Switzerland of the Arabic world, 2) They are dominantly Ibadi Islam, which is different from dominant Shia Muslim or Sunni Muslim (almost the rest of the Arabic world), 3) had uncorrupted internal growth for at least two ruling family generations, and 4) it’s a stark opposite to Yemen even though they had similar geographic characteristics.

• International: Dubai on the other hand is the most generic feeling cosmopolitan feeling city you can come across with access to “everything in the world”. It makes sense as it represents a connecting hub for not only the Arabic world, but the entire world. Where else can one ski, scuba, surf, skydive, and spa without having to fly out or travel great distances for it? I did enjoy sometime Token 2049 festivities. In visiting someone’s villa, it hit me that this is the place for those who have to travel around the world, and want to come home and be able to “easily do just about anything” without getting on yet another plane. That said, what you know about the Arabic world, doesn’t really exist in Dubai - Dubai shares more with Las Vegas, Miami, Newport Beach, than what you think it would.

• Domestic: San Francisco called, and I enjoy sometime karl free time there, having found Thai and Burmese food. Oh, and running Bay to Breakers - more on that later. And also Statement of Digital Assets Symposium hosted by Sam Leichman, a driving force behind Statement of Digital Assets. Shoutout to the friends who went to Bay to Breakers with me, and Christina, Javier, Sahib, Mo, Romin, and Chateau Shea for the lovely time in SF.

• Domestic: FLORIDA. Have you ever been to Disney World and arrived at one of the parks after lunch, rode every ride, and left? In case you aren’t aware, I find waking up super early to go to a theme park, only to stay all day until closing, to be a very exhausting and not-so-fun endeavor. But if you stay at Disney World resort, you get access to buy Premier Lighting Passes which allow you 1 cut-the-line pass to every single ride without having to make a reservation. It costs the same as ticket itself per person, and is only available to those staying in Disney properties. Best part? There is a Disney property that is 5 minute walking distance to the side entrance of Disney EPCOT (which is worth going to - get sushi in the Japan-area at 8pm, and enjoy the firework show at 9pm while being indoors and avoiding humidity and heat.

  • Also the answers are: TRON at Magic Kingdom, Guardians at EPCOT. Honorable mention for Tianu’s Bayou Adventure. Dishonorable Mention to Seven Dwarfs Mine Train.

On Fitness

1. Scuba Diving in Dubai counts as fitness, having dove as deep as 40 feet for 50 minutes. I highly recommend Scuba diving to everyone, even if you can’t swim (like me!) because 90% is mental, and 9% is figuring out how to breathe under water, and 1% is not letting you fear of heights as you look in the abyss scare the hell out of you. Never have I ever breathe so well than in Scuba diving. DM me if you want to see the video the diving center made of me.

2. Long Beach Beer Relay - There’s something about running and drinking beer that makes it one of the worst things I can think of doing on a hot summer day. So anyway I did that, and thankfully I had a decently short leg. I commend those who ran the entire thing.

3. San Francisco Bay to Breakers 12k + 3k bonus happened and it’s extremely fun and worth it. It should not be taken seriously, don’t expect to “race”, and really expect to vibe. It carries the same energy as a Halloween walk. I got tortillaed in the face, traffic coned, did a “car pitstop”, and had a grand ol marry time. I recommend ditching the extra 3k if you are considering this. Want to run it in 2026? Let me know, I think I’ll form a gaggle of us - Bay to Breakers its great as a group.

4. Self Marathon - Unbeknownst to me, I was able to achieve a goal for the first 6 months of 2025 by running a full marathon. Logically, it made sense as my body was at it’s peak to do it after months of build up then a month of tapering. Results are on Strava.

5. Swimming & Deep End Fitness, a Sprint Triathlon - I’ve taken upon myself to learn a bit of swimming, inspired by just being around water. I’ve relied on the the backstroke, and I can tell you my freestyle is absolute trash. But it didn’t stop me from doing a 5k run, 20km bike ride, and 750m swim in 2 hours at the gym which I find more enjoyable than a direct half marathon run. My gym offers a heated pool which is great to be in in the morning, and also some more advanced aquatic fitness classes which was hilarious to get into.

6. Pilates - Or because I’m an idiot, PyLaTezzz, Lifetime fitness has a new class called “CTR”, st anding for Core Tone Reform and it’s phenomenal. For no additional cost to my membership there, I get group-pilates fitness on Reformers. And while yes, it’s fast and it’s not personal, it’s enough to get me exposed to the benefits of Pilates (it’s calisthenics meets HIIT as a class).

7. Running - I also retired my Mount to Coast S1, finishing it off at 333 miles after the last run gave me a repeat injury that I noticed was only coming from that shoe. Farewell great shoe, you were the shoe that gave me the confidence that I could go half marathon, 20 miles, and full marathon, all in a 6 month window. Picking it’s place is the New Balance FuelCell V4 and V5; I may find myself getting another pair for Mount to Coast S1 as it is such a great daily trainer (Hoka Clifton Recovery vibes).

   1. btw I use Mount to Coast P1 when I travel as my daily walker, and running shoe, and I still have the R1 in rotation.

Special Shoutout

To Endel, a Soundscape app meant to play the exact same sounds you get at yoga studio that allow you to really get “lost in a trance”. I took a Wim Hof Breathing class and found myself enjoying Endel that I went a bought a 1 year premium subscription. It now is my default play for my 1 to 2 hour exercise sets since time is very hard to tell with Endel.

Yes there’s a referral, get 14 days of science-backed sounds to help you focus, relax, and sleep. (Dm if it doesn’t work…) https://endelreferral.page.link/rkax

On Media Consumption

1. Football: Watching Angel City FC cleanout Utah Royals at the LA BMO Stadium was a treat; watching Christen Press (beginning of 2nd half) and Alyssa Thompson (overtime) bring in an ending score of 2-0? Worth it. Thanks Jason.

2. Live Performance: The Grand National Tour featuring Kendrick Lamar and SZA was a hoot at SoFi stadium.

3. lmao Eurovision - let me tell you, I got into Eurovision 24 hours before the actual Eurovision finale on May 17, and it powered by entire Bay to Breakers Run. My top favorites were Wasted Love (Austria), Espresso Macchiato (Estonia), and Zjerm (Albania), with Wasted Love winning Eurovision.

   1. These are great to watch when you realize it’s mocking Italy.

      1. For us Americans, Eurovision is basically every country competing in an Olympic style singing contest except the rules are hilarious restrictive, and yes it’s basically a popularity contest.

4. Andor Season 2 ended, and it was one of the best TV series I’ve seen in the last 5 years, giving me the payoff that I wish the rest of Game of Thrones offered. You don’t need to know anything about Star Wars to enjoy Andor- Andor has create its own world, niche, and style that transcend the fable action western of Star Wars and gives me that HBO-action-drama I am looking for. Watch it on Disney+.

5. F1 is a great film to watch in theaters and it captured the same magic I had when I spent a weekend in the Red Bull Paddock at the Las Vegas F1 last November. Fun fact, I only recently got into F1 (that’s a stretch to say I know something) and the movie does a great job teaching you the same fundamentals I learned when I tried to figure it out. The roar of the engine, the sparks, and yes there is about 100 seconds to go around the Abu Dhabi F1 track and they do a single camera shot of it with no sound at the end. Ignore the 5 minute love plot.

6. KPOP Demon Hunters has the most memorable songs (there’s only 4), iconic animation style similar to Arcane, and extremely fast pacing for a family movie. My top 3 song order is: Strategy (by Twice)…wheres the url, Golden, and What it Sounds Like.

7. Blood of Zeus Season 3 ended and well, it’s not as great as Season 1, they wrote themselves into impossible plots, and really I don’t know how that was going to resolve. What I severely disliked about Season 3 is that it was just a continuation of Season 2; where as Season 1 was a great standalone.

8. Lost in Starlight has the best first half of the movie, and the most okayest second half.

9. Gladiator 2 is a tragic mess that didn’t make flight time go any faster. Arguably, slower. I want those hours back.

10. I’m Glad My Mom Died is a great autobiography told by the former Icarly star Jeannette McCardy from Garden Grove. I think the best part of the book is the way the Grandma get’s introduced.

11. The Martian Audible narrated by Will Wheaton is also in my current rotation. It’s great for the running.

12. I’m picking up my literary joy for Warhammer franchise with “the Infinite and Divine”, which is basically two immortal beings trolling each other at this point. The narration is fan-fucking-fantastic, and the punitive pettiness shows.

Best Purchase of the Year

I was shopping for a cooling solution for my bed, and I can’t really stomach getting the current generation EightSleep beds with a silly annual AI powered subscription because I don’t enjoy those business practices, so instead I got a bedjet, a simple fan (pictured above) that performs miracles on your existing bed.

My summer sleeps are infinitely better as it not only keeps my dry and cool, I can sleep in comfort with comforter and still be cool. Plus it also has a heating function; save on whole house AC and reduce fan noise by simply having this bedjet! Yes get the cloudsheet. Here’s my referral link.

I love it. I will rave about it.

On Video Games

1. Split Fiction was a lovely release, hailing from the same co-op developers behind It Takes Two. If you have a partner, grab two controllers and a couch because Split Fiction is the game to play (along with It Takes Two!). Story wise, It Takes Two is better; gameplay mechanic wise - Split Fiction is better.

2. Starcraft 2 dominates my recurring plays with me leveling up my Co-Op commanders, playing Cute Defense, and exploring another custom map called Stellar Horizons. The custom maps and mode scene in SC2 is great.

3. Helldivers 2 gave the most epic campaign with the introduction of a 3rd enemy faction that invades Super Earth, rallying all the patriotic Super Earth defenders to a week long campaign. The rework equipment system plus the enemy squid invasion gave me the Fall of Halo Reach vibes we’re all chasing for.

4. Tower Dominion, an indie tower defense game, released and has been in my rotation. I’m a fan of 3rd maze Tower Defense games, hailing that love from the times of Warcraft 3 back when Cube Maze and Tower Wars were the mainstays. One of the few games I hit 100% achievements in, joining Space Marine 2 and Helldivers 2 in recent years.

5. Sirocco debutted, having found its origin in Warcraft 3 15 years ago, and I’ve had my fun. There’s something about seafaring strategy combat that satisfies a specific itch. Unfortunately, like Legion 2 TD, it is having a very rough start getting a niche as its player base has dwindled so what remains is Pros meaning the skill floor required to play and enjoy a game is too high for even me to get into.

6. 9 Kings, a card deck base builder, also got a fair amount time played when it was a demo in Q2. I enjoy it for it’s progressive difficulty though it’s possible for it to get stale fast.

On Restaurants

Most of this comes from my time in Oman and Dubai.

• Rosna, an Omani Traditional Classic, dominants my heart and stomach with its terrific Shuwa and Tandoori fish. What stands out about Omani cuisine is just how flavorful, and individually pronounced, their rice is, sharing more characteristics with Basmati rice but taking in the expected flavorings that you get in Mexican and South American rice cuisines. It beats regular rice for me, and I’m the Asian guy. But the meat? I have cravings. This is where the Arabic tourists go, and it doesn’t disappoint.

• Que Viet in San Francisco holds a special place not for it’s Pho (it’s passable that great),but for its Banh Hoi which are do-it-yourself wrapping dishes, offering you interlaced noodles as the wrapper and a great assortment of meats, herbs, and dips.

• Orfali Bros in Dubai hails as one of the best restaurants of the Arabic World, and while it’s hard to say I agree with the claim, what I can say is that it has the most hit-or-miss menu, and where it hits, it hits hard. My favorite all time dish will be the Adobo Sticky Rice Chicken, which is effectively an entire Chicken Wing section with the internal meat and bones removed and replaced with sticky rice, glazed in a stick Adobo sauce. It was divine.

• Kin Khao - I enjoyed Kin Khao, but didn’t realize it was Michelin star restaurant when I did a last minute phone call booking for a group, unbeknownst to all of us. Sorry for the bill guys, but the food was solid. I very much enjoyed their wrings, octopus, and soft shell crab curry. Pro tip I learned from my wife: You are 1 phone call away from having a great meal.

• Kalbi Social Club - Located in Irvine at the Irvine Spectrum, what has a fun upscale vibe, doesn’t really have that great of a KBBQ. I can’t say I’ll go back. That said, what I would do as take away is their kimchee - like holy shit was that the best I’m going to get.

• Battambong BBQ - a small scale pop-up Cambodian American BBQ, is worth the grease.

• When in Dubai, go to the Al Maha luxury resort - their lunches and dinners, available at the only restaurant on the premise, are winners. Which is rare, because almost every hotel I’ve been to has the most okayest restaurant possible.

• The Original Dubai Chocolate by Fix clocks in at a $20-25 price tag, has so many fakes and copycats, can only be purchased online delivery only at 2pm and 5pm, and has a 3 day shelf life because it has to be refrigerated, is… well overrated. It offends me with a chocolate bar that falls apart like a terrible burger, with the chocolate shell not being memorable (just get a Theo chocolate bar instead from the U.S.). I sound like a hater, and it’s because I think I am.

• Shvili Dubai, a Georgian Restaurant (no not the American Georgia), holds the record as my most memorable Dubai eat with a dumpling that makes Din Tai Fung no longer desirable to me. A Georgian Dumpling, also known as Khinkali, is essentially a massive bao-sized xiao lao bao, packed with extremely well season filling (similar to Lamb schwarma) - the fun part is that their “Stem” is so thick they recommend you skip that, but I just eat the straight dough. Combined it with a Georgian Cheese Pizza (Khachapuri), and you have a repeat customer in me.

• Kucu in Oman holds a special appeal, hailing as the absolute cheapest meal you’ll get in Oman at 1 OMR (so $2) for a Popeyes sized Fried Chicken Sandwich. That said, for $2, it’s also messy and can fall apart so eater be ware. I jest, I actually hated the experience but it’s worth mentioning here.

• Iraq Style Avenues in the Oman Muscat Mall holds a special charm in that their grilled chicken is ridiculously good, and their different flavored rices hit the right spot in jetlagged me.

• Irvine Marble Steakhouse Slaps, being one of the few places I can get KBBQ cooked by the restaurant staff in front of you, great banchan, and raw marinated crab. Shoutout to Theo for meeting me and my wife there after, wait a minute, Grand Prix?

• Bopomofo is open in Irvine, with a radically different menu then when I first had them 6 years ago. And you know what, I think it’s better, albeit fried-food-centric.

• I am once again, recommending Intercrew, but this time for events having had my 1 year Celebration of Marriage festivity there which included food, drinks, company, and singing.

If you’re reading this between 8 am and 10 am on July 9, 2025, I’m currently in a Tax Webinar of my own free will. Relevant reaction video.

Did I distract you enough?

Shoot a note or dm me on my TG @allentau. Or read the last update.

Here is me using an AI Visualization Tool to make make overtly complicated post. So basically, Management Consulting.

Disclaimers

This post was entirely made in Napkin.ai while eating an Uncrustable Sandwich, available at Costco and other American Grocery stores.

Sponsors

This post is brought he’s also broke inspired by Jason S. and his suggestion to use Napkin.ai as a very “me tool”.

Production Timeline

This was made in between Helldiver 2 sessions.

How to Eat a Peanut Butter Jelly Uncrustable

What are the Pros & Cons of an Uncrustable

Enjoying an Uncrustable Sandwich

Okay so what the fuck is an Uncrustable?

Things you would say to your consultant.

Breakdown of how this is made

What did I use to generate the text for the AI Visualization in Napkin.ai? I used Napkin.ai itself, though it’s text gen is very weak. The question, or prompt, was “How to Eat a Peanut Butter Jelly Uncrustable” as I was interested in seeing the visual AI capabilities.

You can select a body of text and click “Visualize” and see what happens.

Cheers!

It’s been 3 months into 2025 and basically an eternity has gone by. The first quarter of every year is typically exudes such a density in “shit that needs to be done”, and I think it’s because we all of us collective procrastinated the quarter before due to the holidays. Either that or Day Light Savings is much more important than I realize.

Here I am now, coming at you with how my eternity’s been.

Enjoy.

p.s. If this is the first piece of content you’ve read from me, hello. I find this a much better medium than instant messaging.

Memo on what I’ve been up to.

Summary

• Professionally Speaking, there’s never been a more exciting time in banking and financial technologies.

• Social Rights Speaking, there’s never been a more terrifying time than what is going on now.

• Civic Service wise, jfc.

I think that captures it.

On the Horizon

Future aspirations and commitments

• Bay to Breakers is coming up in San Francisco this May, and I said “eh why not do a 12k + 3k (9.6 miles) on San Francisco.

• I will be in Dubai for the Week of Token 2049, and yes I will take time off to be a tourist after Token 2049.

• I still am contemplating trips for the remainder of the year, mostly targeting South East Asia.

• I have aspirations to run a full marathon this year, as well have day dream (or run dreamed?) running a mile equivalent to my age before end of year (Ultra Marathon).

On Travel:

• Went to Magic Mountain, otherwise known as Davos 2025 in Switzerland. I ate shit on skiing and I will have my revenge. I also had a ride of a lifetime meeting and catching up with worldly people. I’m a sucker for geopolitics, and being in the area for Trump’s Inauguration week was oddly remarkable there given the EU centricity of Davos - though dreadful outside of there. The way I would think of spending a week here is like doing the equivalent of an ultra-marathon, daily, in the business conference sense.

• Rotted at the The Dolder Grand in Zurich Switzerland after Davos; this is a great spa hotel that blends contemporary architecture with appreciation for history. If you have a layover, or need a recharge from Davos, this is 100% the place to be because 1) the food doesn’t suck and it hits, 2) spa access is included and doesn’t close until late - enjoy ice plunges and jacuzzi while watching Zurich city sunset, 3) you can get evening massages ending by 9pm, and 4) it has a great running/walking/nature trail. Oh and 5), the shower located in your room is ridiculous in that it’s a 360 experience. Go here for the an accelerated recharge.

• Celebrated in Cabo Mexico for a Wedding and that was truly spectacular. It even had fireworks during the reception. Though I am not a huge fan of the airport and how much of a hassle it is to travel to Cabo, the weather was not humid like Cancun Mexico. Also the airport lounge for priority pass is a travesty.

• Relaxed at the Civana in Phoenix, Arizona, at a Wellness Resort. It’s quite nice and if you’re looking for spa, detox, and simple desert wellness - it’s the place. You should eat the vegetable lasagna they have!

• The Mountains Called. I enjoyed not one, not two, but 5 days of skiing in Mammoth California on two separate trips including the taste of weekday skiing there. After the first trips, I bought very discounted ski boots, which allowed me to do Upper Solitude at Mammoth (my first black diamond) to Canyon Lodge comfortably. I can’t foresee more time in the snow, but in the mean time I’d like to check out Virtual Snow in Santa Monica which boasts “1 hour training there is 6 hours on the mountain”.

  

• I also had a trip to Palo Alto wherein the flight from Southern California to there was delayed 6 hours because SFO wasn’t allowing more planes to land there due to congestion. Also it was 6 hour delay. It was tragic.

On Fitness:

1. Running

   1. 20 miles! I ran the most I’ve ever ran with a 20 mile run that include a trail hike, a zoo, and some serious altitude gain (over 1000 feet). It helps to also a have a compelling audiobook (100% recommend it as an audiobook) which for this run was I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

   2. Faster average pace. I am picking up the pace with strength training and fast-group runs after years of just jogging. This was unintentional as it started with this: My gym now does Saturday Social Runs but they aren’t that social and dear god why are we picking up the pace oh the coach is a normal sub 6 minute miler jfc.

   3. Run Clubs. They are everywhere. It’s here, it’s their, its every fucking where and you know what, they are great. Each run club has a unique focus and personality to fit the weekly needs. Would I “join” one? No. I don’t talk to strangers on runs or in any exercise.

2. Cycling - while I do indoor cycling, how the hell does someone manage 17mph average for an hour after a run. That’s hard.

3. Swimming - I don’t know how to swim so I got nothing here. But if I figure this out, I can be on my merry way to a sprint triathlon.

4. Skiing - See Travel section.

p.s. it’s all on Strava so it happened.

I need running music or audiobooks. Open to recs. For the fast run, for the jog, for long run, for it all! Otherwise it’s just this song on repeat.

On Media Binging Consumption:

• Paddington in Peru was fantastic, though #2 is still better. It’s wholesome, but most of the actors change since the first Paddington.

• Invincible Season 3 has been great especially if you watch the Atom Eve special, though the Amazon Prime Ads are simply killing me. Spoiler alert, the main character survives the first two seasons?

• Mad Max Furiousa is … okay? I can count the amount of times the main character spoke, rivaling John Wick’s dialogue.

• I watched Rebel Moon which is arguable one of the worst sci-fi films I’ve ever seen that I watched Part 2, then watched the Directors Cut for Part 1 and Part 2, to be sure that this was a terrible movie. It really is a terrible movie.

• I heard Mythic Quest Season 4 is good. No seriously, I heard my wife play it and I guess I know some of what’s going on.

• The Gorge is the most pandemic-era movie output ever, and it also a great premise until the last act. Passable movie though unless you want to see “how do you film an entire movie with two characters when the pandemic happened and people had to be socially distant from each other.

• Adam Sandler’s Spaceman is perhaps one of his best most serious films yet, and also peak pandemic-era movie output. What’s hilarious is that it’s based on Czech space program, and Adam Sandler play’s a Czech astronaut (so very serious because they are Czech) who must go explore a space anomaly in the solar system, alone and not lose his marbles.

• Severance Season 2 finally finished, which means I can binge the entire thing and so far, it’s one of the best visually told dystopian sci-fi stories there is. Unfortunately, this is the 3rd time I had to get started to actually watch it and that’s because Severance is like a Christopher Nolan film - you have to focus on it, and maybe do a few episodes at a time, as there’s a lot of visual detail presented.

On Video Games

Not a great time to be a video game publisher or industry employee given the state of video game industry and layoffs. That said, several indies are out or will release that I look forward to.

• Split Fiction is a fantastic Couch Co-Op game to play for the fun factor. If you liked It Takes Two, and you also have SO, this is the game. There aren’t many co-op centric video games published these days.

• Sirocco has been a nice treat to play after being in my loop of Space Marine 2 forever. Sicorro is basically DOTA/LEAGUE but water-based, and it’s directly based on the Warcraft 3 battleships custom map.

• Legion TD 2 has been enjoyable, part tower defense, part tower war, very competitive. It too is based on a Warcraft 3 Custom Map.

• Speaking of Custom Maps, I find myself playing Starcraft 2 Custom Maps. Specifically Cute Defense, a Warcraft 3 skinned custom game, in Starcraft 2, and scratches the survival, tower defense, and tower war itch.

• Okay I cant’ say Starcraft 2 without mention its Coop missions. Those are great alternative to the daunting traditional games Starcraft 2 is focused on.

• Steam also had demofest and I can recommend the following upcoming indie game for their novelty or addictive gameplay: 9Kings, Dungeon Warfare 3, Tower Dominion, Drop Duchy, and Machine Mind.

Big Boy Moves

• I’ve gone caseless for my phone, and have a simple D-brand leather skin and magsafe attachment. It’s been 3 months and no issues thus far. It feels quite nice and makes what is an expensive phone feel more of a luxury good.

• I’ve completely switched to Apple Music, breaking a decade of Spotify Premium Membership. It’s easy to copy your Spotify playlist over with this tool. I love the music quality of Apple Music and if you have a Ipad or Mac from the last 2 years, Sonos, Premium audio in a car, or Bookshelf speakers, you’ll notice it. However I hate the “Discovery” playlist as … it’s not playing a new music for me. That said, their curated playlists are very, very good. Checkout New Zealand Top 100

• I have a subscription to NYT Crossword Puzzles. It’s that good to play and wind down or start the day with. Don’t tell younger me this. Connections is one of my favorite games as it’s a reminder that no matter how sophisticated or complex a connection could be, there’s always a chance it could be solved with stupid drunk logic.

On Restaurants I’ve Tried (Again)

• Intercrew had it’s last restaurant service in March and it was glorious.

• The Marble Steakhouse is surprisingly a great kbbq place when you want a focus meat selection and a superior banchan to Baekjeong.

• Ettan is some fabulous, though small portioned, upscaled Indian food.

• Oh Banzai is one of those “let’s make wacky handroll flavors” and it delivers. You’ll find pairings you might not like, and then you’ll find the one you’ll come back for.

• Crearee - A taco place in Bishop which you can have when you go for snow sports in Mammoth, has no right to be as good as it is. Plus it’s next to a tesla charger.

• Thai Favorite now beats Siam Station for me. Both of which beat Chiang Rai for me.

• A pop up in Toast Bakery during the evening times appeared, serving traditional ceramic cooked Korean barbeque. It’s called Jarbecue.

• Another handroll place open and it slaps. Ootoro Bar.

• Toast Bakery - I’ve made fun of their sisig burrito (it’s just not that good), but their breakfast burrito? GOAT. Especially after you do a Newport Bay 10 miler.

• Quan Mii, a Banh Xeo focused placed that has a disproportionally large serving, is a great intro place for newbies to Vietnamese food.

• In the same plaza as above is Quan Nhii, which is basically build your own Vietnamese rice roll. No, it’s not a springroll. A bit pricey, very Instagram-able, and very fun.

• Chicken Gs - Shout out to Mike for this late night halal fried chicken in a main street suburb. Just hope to god you don’t hit every red light possible that evening.

Some Office Appropriate One Liners

Use as necessary.

• This is giving 51st state vibes.

• If at first it doesn’t succeed, gaslight yourself until it does.

• You can’t string together a committee of words and expect it to mean something.

• Today is a horrible day to be literate.

Anything beyond this line is not approved by Management

Viewer discretion is advised.

Los Angeles is heavily impacted by wildfires. This memo provides both a micro and macro snapshot on how one can help, and where one can get help. All forms of helping are a net positive.

When all the world is a flame asunder, what hope is there? Well, as Mr. Roger’s would say, look for the people who are helping.

There’s no shortage.

And you can help too.

Thanks to my wife, as well as Jason, David, and Trixie for a lot of recommendations.

Allen

How To Help

There are five kinds of contributions people can make when there’s an active crisis

• Information, and the support of factual reporting (Where to go, but also who to listen to, are very important)

• Labor, and getting logistic distribution to work

• Physical Resources, and the organizing, packaging, and delivery

• Safe Lodging and Storage

• Money, which simply gives options

Key Information

Short Term Resources

• MONITORING INFORMATION: Get all your fire status and crisis response information from Watch Duty, which includes evacuation zones and shelter points.

• VOLUNTEER: Find a volunteer opportunity via LA Works.

  • You don’t have to be professionally good, you have to be physically there.

• DONATE ITEMS: Find out what organization needs what kind of resource via Mutual Aid Los Angeles Network Spreadsheet.

  • Find an org. See what they need. Donate that specific item.

  • And yes, you can go to locations giving out resources, and move said resources to other locations.

• DONATE CASH: Pick an organization(or 10) or specific gofundme, and donate.

Long-Term Resources

• INSURANCE: California Fire Insurance: California prevents insurance companies from canceling or not renewing home insurance policies for those impacted by the LA Fires. Caveat: Insurance can’t be cancelled within 1 year of a declared California emergency. The This was declared January 7, 2025. Here’s the grand ol’ list of other wildfire emergency declarations.

• WORK: California Labor Code 230.8 gives parents job protected time off when schools are closed due to natural disasters including fires. California Labor Code 1139 gives employees the right toe refuse to go to work if the workplace is unsafe.

• TAXES: IRS extends all key deadlines to October 15 for Southern Californians.

• AID: Federal Assistance available today for Californians, for individual and business assistance. It is quite the process.

How can I show up and help?

This list on LA Works has it all.

• Housing

• Family Support

• Food and Supplies

• Animal Support

• Financial Contributions

How do I keep up with fire situation?

The Number 1 fire monitoring app: Watch Duty

Watch Duty, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, provides real-time alerts on wildfires and firefighting efforts in the U.S. West and Rocky Mountains.

Known for clear, factual updates, it combats misinformation during crises with dedicated reporters and radio monitoring. Support their essential, costly infrastructure by donating.

You can donate to them here.

What organization can I help locally?

A prolific list on “what organizations” to provide help to at a local level is curated Mutual Aid Los Angeles Network (MALAN).

I’d point you to the FEMA/CA website but those are a bit much.

For crisis response, community-driven action, and grassroots campaigns, a google ol’ fashion spreadsheet with logistic information has never failed. MALAN provides a repository of all kinds of volunteer organization - and for the 2025 January Wildifres in SoCal, they’ve got a simple, yet incredible, list of of what organizations need your help. Useful for when you want to be specific.

You can donate to them here.

Who are the organizations helping?

• LA Times: A list of free and discounted resources for victims of Los Angeles-area fires - presents a list of private businesses helping.

• World Central Kitchen - Started by chef Jose Andres, WCK provides fresh, nutritious meals on the frontlines of humanitarian, climate, and community crises. Partnering with local groups and using food trucks or emergency kitchens. Your donation supports their emergency food relief efforts which are actively deployed in LA’s Wildfire Response.

• Pasadena Humane Society - Animals.

• LA Fire Department Foundation - for the funding of deployable emergency fire shelters, hydration backpacks for firefighters, and wildland brushtools used to clear debris that fuels fires.

• Red Cross - Donate to the Red Cross at redcross.org, call 1-800-RED CROSS, or text CAWILDFIRES to 90999.

• DirectRelief - Direct Relief is providing medications, N95 respirators, and aid to communities affected by Southern California wildfires. 100% of donations to their wildfire response fund support individuals in Palisades, Altadena, and across California.

• Emergency Network Los Angeles, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit aiding disaster-affected communities. Funded by grants, member dues, and donations, ENLA relies on contributions to make a difference.

• Global Empowerment Mission - LA County Wildfire - A multi phase response to helping a disaster the area that starts off with gift-cards for those in need to get what they need, and expands into rebuilding later on.

What individual can I help?

Check in on anyone you know who lives in Los Angeles; they will know someone, or know someone’s someone.

Here’s that list.

Gofundmes:

• Note: No one fund is “better” than the other.

Firefighters

• Help the Yu Family Recover After Fire Loss

• LA Firefighter and Single Dad to Toddler Needs Our Help

Eaton Fire Victims

• Support Mike and Jess: Recovering from Fire

• Help Fabian's Family Rebuild After Eaton Fire

• Support the Gochez Family After Eaton Fire

• Support Colleen and Adrian: Recovering from Fire in Altadena

• Help the Bradley Family Rebuild After the Eaton Fire

• Support the Lansdown Family Following the Eaton Fire Tragedy

• Support Nick's Family After Fire Loss

• Help Phoenix Rebuild After Losing Home in Eaton Fire

• Help Mary and Andre Rebuild After Eaton Fire

Who did we donate to?

Our household donated to:

• Global Empowerment Mission

• World Central Kitchen

• Watchduty

Happy New Years everyone. 2024 has been a ride. I got married, did a few half marathon runs, and played a lot of videos game.

Anyway, here’s what I’ve been up to in Q4.

Q4 2024 - WTF am I up to edition

Since August 30, 2024, oh holy shit I did some things. I even made a Crypto post.

The Q4 Trips

1. SAN FRANCISCO: In October, I did a less than 24 hour round trip to the Bay Area for work that had a happy hour to it, two same day runs in Golden Gate Park, and catching up with a High School friend.

2. DISNEYWORLD: I went to Disneyworld as a continuation of “Honeymoon but across random places for the next few years”. Animal Kingdom, Disney Springs, and Magic Kingdom were the 3 things hit and let me tell you:

   • Animal Kingdom is severely underrated and the Safari, Avatar ride, and Yeti ride is just too good.

   • A completionist approach to Magic Kingdom entails about a half-marathon worth of walking

   • The best rides are: Tron, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, Be Our Guest, Enchanted Tale with Belle, and Monsters, Inc Laugh Floor. Also here’s my Space Mountain score.

3. NEW YORK CITY: New York City came thereafter, with a stay & run in Brooklyn and some park, with a detour around for San Sabino (pic of food), a visit the EY Hudson Yards Office, bagels at Court Street, and the MET.

4. F1 VEGAS: I became an F1 fan after spending all 3 days for the Las Vegas F1 Race, Paddock Club style. Hilariously, if you watch F1 live, you will only get to see about 50 seconds total of a car racing during the race. 50 Laps around the Vegas Strip, and you will barely catch 1 second of them. Anyway heres a pit stop.

5. PALM SPRINGS: To cheer a friend push the limits of his body by doing his first Ironman, like holy shit J. I was so inspired to do an Ironman until you told me someone died. bye.

A note on trips: I’m always in random places, and if I happen to know you are there, I will reach out to you. The problem is, knowing when I’m there.

Restaurants that I’m recommending

• Kiyo Sushi in Irvine surprised me with superior chirashi bowls, salmon-don and hamachi-dons, and solid lunch specials.

• But Gooyi92 (next to Kiyo) truly delighted me with short-rib bbqing done in front of you and great banchans. I think of this place when I don’t want to feel like I over-ate at KBBQ.

• I have no regrets going spicy at KEBAB KURRY EXPRESS, which is an Afghan restaurant serving delicious savory-refreshing meals. The Indian part of the restaurant is because the husband LOVES indian food- a lighter take on what is normally heavy Punjabi food, I’m told. Took family out here too, and it turns - Grilled Lamb Chops Afghan Style are a win win.

• ROL Hand Bar opened up in Irvine, and their take-out menu is a great way to skip the line and still get decent hand rolls. I still think Kazu Nori is better, but until that gets here, this is the best of what I have.

• Brio Brio Cafe is a Japanese Inspired but Kind of America restaurant, known for baking its own bread and sweets. Brunch is solid, but their burgers for dinner are a war-crime.

• I found my traditional diner-like-joint called Rooster Cafe, serving up a respectable breakfast burrito and signature sauces (get them all). But the facts are, you are here because the coffee shop across the street is too damn slow.

• A new mazemen place opened up in Irvine called Menya Hanabi punching at the same level as my favorite, Mogu Mogu. Unfortunately, Menya Hanabi has ridiculously long lines due to its popularity.

• Not a joke, the brunch service at Habana is fun.

• Thanks to my wife, for my Birthday, I had omakase at Taberu Sushi, a Korean-American owned Omakase restaurant that opened less than 6 months ago.This Omakase beats every other Omakase I’ve had on sheer risk it takes with completely different and wild flavor combinations and cuts. You will not be disappointed, please me invite me.

• Heng Heng Chicken Rice in Gardena/Hawthorne is a delightful comfort food of Hainan Chicken and Roasted Chicken, especially after an international flight. What’s not to love?

Foods for the Pantry

Im on a tinned fish crusade and heres my favorite, and heres the shit list:

• I enjoyed the hell out of Miss Can Mackerel Fillets with Curry and Chilli Pepper.

• Skinless & Boneless Sardines in Olive Oil is deceptively great

• This plant based caviar (ZEROE) works for taste but not texture. It doesn’t have that “popping sensation”, but it does give a great sea-water-like taste. Because it’s algae.

• All of these work well in a Couscous Microwave recipe.

Athletics

• At some point I ran the Long Beach Half Marathon. I posted that here. And also got some shoes, which you can see me rave about it here.

• I gave Nike Run Studios a shot as a Founding Member. As solid and performance improving as a workout that it is (typically 25 minute of run and 25 minutes on the floor), it doesn’t have towels or showering capabilities. Cancelled.

• I started developing runners knee after my October runs, which I addressed in physical therapy and this bad boi (thanks S + E).

• I discovered my Lifetime gym’s new cryotherapy / massage stuff. Its amazing. I have guest passes.

• I was also classically denied by Berlin and Chicago marathon lotteries.

• And then ran a half marathon as a regular training run in December 2024. And then another 11 mile run with a friend on Dec 27.

TV Shows & Movies

Here are the TV Shows I’ve watched binged.

• Diplomat Season 2 - who knew politics could be fun looking

• Arcane Season 2 - This was just pure eye candy with great story.

• Shrinking Season 2 - This hit me in the emotional gut. This is a must watch for all adults 25 and above.

• Lower Decks Season 5 - This gave great nostalgic feels.

• Pantheon Seasons 1 & 2 - This triggered a max dose of existentialism.

• Secret Levels - Has been a guilty pleasure - the Space Marine one, Outer Worlds, Megaman, and Pacman.

• Wicked was the best movie watched in Q4, and I saw Moana 2 & that new Deadpool movie. Not even close.

Video Games & Media

Helldivers 2 has been dethroned by Space Marine 2 for me, and while both games have intense gameplay loops, Space Marine 2 lets be live a power fantasy. No other game has come close to these two, though.

Misc.

1. I got my wisdom teeth removed before Thanksgiving, which led to 10 pounds of weight lost.

2. I changed the Newsletter Name to simply be a “Memo from Allen”

3. I also changed the URL to be an easy www.allen-au.com

See you in 2025.

It’s nerd o’clock memo time. It’s time for me to talk about a Federal Publication impacting crypto companies: “Gross Proceeds Reporting by Brokers that Regularly Provide Services Effectuating Digital Asset Sales”

I read it it all so you don’t have to.

What is it?

Starting in 2025, certain crypto industries that are classified as brokers need to collect customer information via an IRS Form (W9 for the US, W8-BEN for Individuals / Companies).

DATES

Here’s your cheatsheet on timelines and deadlines:

• February 28, 2025: Regulations become effective (assuming December 30, 2024, publication date).

• January 1, 2025: Reporting of gross proceeds begins for transactions completed on or after this date.

• January 1, 2026: Reporting of cost basis information begins for transactions completed on or after this date.

• 2026 Tax Year: First cost basis reports are due (filed in early 2027).

The Crypto Industries Impacted?

Any company that acts as agent of a transaction.

• Custodial Digital Asset Brokers

  • Companies that host wallets as a service to you. I’m a big fan of Custodians. Coinbase Custody, Bitgo, and Anchorage, etc.

• Non-Custodial Decentralized Finance (DeFi) Participants

  • For Example, Lending / Borrowing Platforms. If you don’t know how to think of this subcategory, think of peer-to-peer financing (torrenting?) using a technology as the intermediary.

• Digital Asset Payment Processors (PDAPs)

  • On-Ramp, Off-Ramp, and any middle-manning

• Kiosks and Dealers Accepting Digital Assets

  • Catch all description.

How will this impact the industry?

This was something that was known to industry for some time, and great efforts have been made to stall it, challenge it, or sue it out of existence.

Assuming all parts of the publication go into effect unchallenged, here’s what I think it’s going to do:A lot of paperwork, for the promise of investor protections.

• Mainstream Time: This represents a grand shift toward mainstreaming cryptocurrencies within the financial ecosystem.

• COMPLIANCE: Increased compliance costs become a barrier for new players and RegTech is going to have a moment in the crypto space.

• TAX: We are going to need to adapt to a landscape where tax transparency and regulatory oversight become the norm.

Breaking it Down by the Industry in Crypto:

1. Crypto Exchanges and Platforms

   1. Increased Compliance Costs: Exchanges like Coinbase, Binance US, and Kraken will face higher administrative and operational costs to implement systems for collecting and reporting tax data.

      1. Everyone will need to invest in technology and staff to manage compliance. For you IT Auditors out there, here’s that “next job” for you to get in front of to make your millions.

   2. Shift Toward Regulatory Compliance: Centralized exchanges will shift toward more transparent (though with who, is an eternal question) and aligned with government oversight. There will be pain in and suffering of course, and we’ll take no question. Smaller exchanges and non-compliant platforms have a barrier to entry in US Markets, or simply not play in the U.S. directly.

2. DeFi (Decentralized Finance) Platforms

   1. Broader Classification of Brokers: DeFi protocols and operators (e.g., decentralized exchanges, staking platforms) may now fall under the IRS’s definition of “brokers” and face similar reporting requirements. This part is being disputed with requests for more time from DeFi companies

      1. Some argue this could disrupt the DeFi ecosystem, which thrives on anonymity and decentralization, pushing some platforms offshore or toward greater regulatory compliance.

         1. I think it temporarily thrives on anonymity, but what is really happening is 1) where do people “trust” their funds go, 2) how fast can we make it happen and 3) what airdrop incentives are there.

3. Institutional Investors

   1. Greater Trust and Participation: Enhanced transparency and tax compliance could attract more institutional investors, such as banks, hedge funds, and corporations, to the digital asset market (or bring the Digital Asset Market into the Traditional Asset Scope). Tax reporting systems will play a huge part in reducing the perceived risks of investing in cryptocurrencies.

      1. We’ve already seen traditional companies leverage digital assets as part of its corporate treasury strategy (M$TR).

   2. Changes in Tax Planning: Institutional players will need to adapt to the speed of the industry (or at least faster than what they are used to).

4. Retail Crypto Investors

   1. Simplified Reporting: The issuance of Form 1099-DA will simplify tax reporting for individual investors, as y’all will no longer need to rely solely on personal transaction records. However, investors engaging with platforms that fail to comply may still face challenges including getting a tax withholding on your tokens applied (22% - 27% is my estimate)

   2. Potential Tax Enforcement: Increased reporting will enable the IRS to better enforce tax compliance, potentially leading to audits or penalties for underreported crypto income or gains. Though whomever gets audited first, will get some social credibility for being first.

5. Tax Advisors and Accountants

   1. Boom in Demand for Crypto Expertise: Professionals specializing in cryptocurrency taxes will see increased demand as individuals and businesses seek help navigating the new requirements.

      1. it’s me, hello

   2. Increased Complexity: Accountants will need to manage a higher volume of 1099 forms, reconcile discrepancies, and advise on new rules for staking rewards, DeFi gains, and NFT sales.

      1. And accountants weren’t already over worked

6. Blockchain Startups

   1. Opportunities for RegTech Companies: Companies offering compliance and tax-reporting solutions will likely thrive as demand for their services increases.

   2. There will be major opportunities every time a new protocol is launched and gains traction.

7. International Impact

   1. Non-U.S. Platforms: International platforms with U.S. clients may also be subject to these rules, increasing compliance requirements globally. Or they’ll run. Some platforms might restrict access to U.S. users to avoid these obligations.

   2. Cross-Border Taxation: The new rules will require more handling of international payments, impacting foreign investors in U.S. based crypto assets. Already a pain, lets add more.

ONE MORE THING - STAKING, CUSTODIAN, AND REPORTING

Because someone asked it: I have a Custodian for my crypto assets. On the Custodian’s platform, I staked assets into validators of my choosing using the wallets that are hosted on the Custodian’s platform. Am I subject to these reporting regulations?

Yes. Two Reasons:

• All Custodians providing a hosting service of your wallets are considered a broker and need to report on their customers.

• You made the conscious choice to stake, and therefore, generate income. No one forced you to stake; you could have easily just not stake.

Any way, Happy New Year everyone.

I forgot to mention the shoes in the last post.

So welcome to my Mount to Coast shoe review.

For the 2024 Long Beach Marathon, I ran with the Instagram viral shoe Mount to Coast R1s. I broke them during a Cypress Social Hour Run Club Shakeout 5k the day before the half marathon. I felt good in them and decided to make the R1s my race shoe, which is hilarious because 3 days before I got their S1s and did a 6 mile run in them and thought those were going to be my racing shoes.

Here’s how they performed for me.

Mount to Coast R1s
A great long distance racing shoe that can match a strong pace. Very worth it.

• No blisters on my feet.

• High arch support continuously during the run.

• Didn’t get plantar fasciitis

• No toes cutting each other due to feet swelling because the toe box is… EXPANDABLE.

• A lot of shock and soreness I would get on knee joints transferred to the thigh / lower IT Band area, which is great because that’s easy to recover from.

• I don’t have any specific soreness this time around, only general post work out sore.

• Shoe is bouncy still.

• I expect to use it for 600+ more miles.

Proxy Comparisons

• If you had to use HOKA Clifton 8s, the R1s (and S1s) have equal platform without the drag and weighty “whaleness”.

• If you like the light-ness and nimbleness of On shoes, the R1s give you something very comparable to it.

• Only affordable shoe that has two sets of laces per shoe, the higher lace and lower toe-back lace.

Mount to Coast S1s
The daily trainer for long runs, slow runs, and recovery runs.

• Same as above, except it doesn’t have on the fly toebox adjustment

• The general platform and ankle padding is noticeably thicker or more pronounced

• Very bouncy

• Not so great for sprints.

• If I did 5 runs in a week, 4 of the 5 will be in S1s. Protect the feet.

Wait you got two shoes?

Yes. I’ll be using both interchangeably - between the two I expect 1200 miles in them which effectively translates to 3 to 4 non Mount to Coast shoes.

I ran again.

I ran the 2024 Long Beach Half Marathon with a 2:07 total time, beating out my 2024 Orange County Half Marathon of 2:17. Given that my goal was “survive & finish”, I’m going to consider this a huge success. Not a bad for a guy who was out of commission on training for a good 6 weeks there.

What I liked about running this time.

While running seems like functional individual sport, running a massive event with others you know and sharing in the same challenges, weather, obstacles, and finish line, creates the same sports condition of team sports. You are rooting for each other, and you’ll be celebrating together. You don’t need to keep the same pace, but hopefully you share in the same joy at the end with a beer.

I did it with friends, and by the sound of it, next year will have more friends!

I also deeply appreciated the friends (and my wife!) cheer-section at mile ~10. I enjoyed the SHRC cheer-section at ~8 & ~11, and all the people quite literally cheering every mile - yes even the guys offering fireball. I also could be biased, it is Long beach and it was a place I called home for 7 years.

After running this half marathon, I have an aspirational goal of doing a full marathon.

Unfortunately for my wallet, the conditions for doing a full marathon are “Destination Marathons” which means I want to run random scenic places that I’ve never been to, or experience in. Sorry Los Angeles, I won’t do a marathon here unless its on my couch. Going to look at these marathons…if I get lucky!

I’m not going to set any records.

I don’t have a desire to “run a marathon as fast as I can”. I don’t think that’s a healthy relationship for running for me. I just look forward to being present and being there, wherever there is. I may want to train to get to a pace that allows me to qualify for that desired marathon, but that’s unlikely.

Run forward, friends!

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Oh wow I only wrote 3 times this year? Embarrassing.