Dan the man

March 21st, 2026

What do you wish you could do more every day?

Energy, ambition, desire, hunger anything that moves me as I find myself do very little and having more time to do things. I would say that a case of mild depression is in my life now and honestly I have every reason to be the happiest guy in the world, but the brain is an enigma and we will never know it’s full capability, I have been to therapy many times and it does good for awhile I leave feeling rejuvenated, lighter less heavy and it stays that way for months, years maybe longer. As I get older and just entering retirement I find myself spending more time in my head, oh I’m active every day I go for morning walks/runs afternoons I workout or do tai chi or yoga and my wife and I spend a good amount of time together so I feel I do have a healthy balanced life, so why so sad?!? That’s a question I cannot answer.
March 18th, 2026

What was the best compliment you’ve received?

I imagine there were a few throughout my life mostly later in my life. In my youth my parents didn’t hand out compliments very often my dad’s version was one simple word, good, because if it wasn’t good it was bad and he didn’t tolerate bad. My mom was complimenting, but it came with bias and criticism and a story about how someone did it better. I believe I evolved out of that type of behavior and speech it’s always a conscious effort to hold your tongue in situations where most feel the need to speak their minds I stay silent, I feel I’m a better version of myself because of that. When I was a caregiver I did receive compliments a lot, but honestly I was just doing my job, in retrospect I was easing the burden of his loved ones who took care of him for years and I soon realized the toll it takes on those loved ones so I became very aware of the power of compliments and use them often especially with my wife who I feel deserves a lot of them. Coming over from Thailand to provide a better life for her mom and sister is a huge sacrifice, but she sees the results of her efforts through her hard work, when we met she was here on a six month visa working seven days a week after she went back to Thailand I told myself if she ever returned to America I will marry her and it was over a year and a half later when she did we married right away and so began our amazing life. I make a point of complimenting her as she does me which is every day, we both work hard for what we both want… a better life and we’re going along very nicely with a nice home in America and a nicer home in Thailand we also travel to Thailand every year and as I’m writing this we’re at a private island beach resort in the gulf of Thailand that is just taking my breath away. Compliments, use as need and offer.
Birthday

March 13th, 2026

Celebrating my birthday has always been anticlimactic mostly in my adult life, but even in my youth I felt I was overshadowed by my two older brothers and their birthdays and other accomplishments. So it’s no wonder that as I grew older I wouldn’t even acknowledge my birthday it just didn’t have any relevance, just another day and I was fine with that. The women that loved me felt differently, they wanted a party a reason to have people over to celebrate with us and I never understood why, but I loved them and they loved me so I didn’t really have a say in it. During my single years I celebrated my birthday quietly, alone with myself usually at the beach after a great dinner at a nice restaurant because I was never ashamed to take myself to dinner. The last ten years with my beautiful wife is on a completely different level she celebrates everything, that was something I had to grow into and honestly I am so glad I did because anything that warms the heart or puts a smile on my face is priceless. This year we have the pleasure of celebrating both of our birthdays in Thailand, a first for me and when my wife get the family together there is a abundance of love and laughter, we barely understand one another but the message is clear, “ we love you” it’s that simple, but it’s everything kind in the world. There’s no gifts to exchange just food cooked with more love than you can ever imagine and the smiles that light up the room. There’s simplicity or the whole thing is remarkable, there’s no disappointment because there’s no expectation, the memories are the greatest gift because I can share them.
March 10th, 2026

Which animal would you compare yourself to and why?

A Platapus mostly because I feel people look at me scratch their head and say what the fuck!?!? I’m not much to look at, certainly no eye candy and my body is not the wonderland it used to be, but I’m capable and can adapt to nearly any environment and fit in with many different social classes. I am well versed in a variety of topics and am smart enough to avoid politics and religion as a topic of discussion. I’m a survivor for what ever reason I am still here.
March 10th, 2026

The photo shows two prescriptions I bought in Thailand. The reason goes back nearly one year. After twenty seven years of living in Venice Florida I wanted to move, we have family in the mountains of NC. So we decided if we got the chance we would move, we did so we packed all our stuff and left Venice to our new home in NC. The house we moved to was fully furnished with a hot tub which is awesome because I sold ours in Venice because I didn’t want to move it. Once we got settled in I treated the hot tub with the chemicals the owner provided, well after a week or so I was getting dry skin, it was spotting and I thought maybe it was eczema or some other skin problem and bought some eczema cream and that was it. Over time it came and went and I didn’t want to go to a doctor that will just write me a prescription with a bunch of unwanted side effects and I’m a patient man so the cream was good enough for me. We we left for Thailand a few weeks ago it was nearly gone and I wasn’t even thinking about it, but when we got to our house in Bangkok and I started hitting the pool every day the dry spots came back and again it wasn’t that bad, but my wife wanted to do something about it and we stopped at a pharmacy near our house I showed the pharmacist my spots he and my wife talked for a bit and he gave me a blister pack with eight pills (a antibiotic of some sort) and a bottle of oil and told me to use both in the morning and in the evening. Both prescriptions cost about $3.50 America dollars hell I throw away more than that on lottery tickets so if it works great if it doesn’t no problem. after eight days it all cleared up. I still use the oil because there’s still about three quarters of a bottle left and I am back in the pool with no problems at all. I’m fairly certain that in America it would have cost way more than what I spent here and yes I know the cost of the plane ticket my point is in America I couldn’t walk into a CVS or Walgreens without a prescription from the doctor who’s visit would have cost a couple of hundred dollars, but here it’s very simple and affordable.
March 7th, 2026

What is your middle name? Does it carry any special meaning/significance?

Mark is my middle name it’s also the name of my first born son. Both my parents were devout Catholics and other that my oldest brother (who is named after my father) us three brothers are all bible names. Either the first or middle or in my case both first and middle, maybe they wanted me to become a priest who knows, but they didn’t have a book of baby names to refer to so my generation was named either from the bible or from previous generations. I’m fine with the bible name because I would not want to be called some of the men’s names in my family. Not that I would know the difference and care I would just make up a nickname I liked, thankfully I didn’t have to I am happy to be Daniel Mark. God bless.
March 6th, 2026

What is the last thing you learned?

I am learning to speak Thai if that’s even possible for me and honestly I don’t think I really need to know a lot of it. My wife is Thai and we’ve been together for ten years and I never saw a need to know that much about the language, but now we’re spending more time in Thailand she feels as I do that I should be able to speak to people even if it’s just to ask questions, I say why I wouldn’t understand the answer. I have picked up quite a bit of Thai mostly through my wife, but now I’m understanding more of the conversation that happens while we’re in the car with her family or during a transaction at the store so all and all I am pretty satisfied with the amount that I do know, because I will tell you for me communication is not the key to a happy marriage and if I ever do become fluent in Thai I would not want to know what she’s saying so I am ignorant and it’s blissful.
As I get older I have gotten more in touch with my inner self and more in tune with my well being as a whole. I imagine most people do, you become more aware of the creaking knees the sore back is sorer than ever almost every joint in your body is aching or worse no longer moving as far as before. Most people have the conversation when the go for their yearly checkup some of it get dismissed as just growing old so they accept it. Not I, and I am old 66 to be exact and I will tell you it’s not the new 56 it’s 66 all day long, but I believe I am aging well. My mind is still sharp, kinda my body still does what I ask it to do there’s morning stretches, meditation,mindfulness followed by a run or walk or both usually in the 4-5 mile range then there’s an hour or two in the gym with heavy weights every other day and weights everyday. Afternoons are another short run or longer walk and a swim then whatever chores I have to do, so my body is doing great I maintain good nutritional habits mostly, vitamins no prescriptions. But I will tell you the biggest question I have for myself is why every morning over the past 20 years I wake up do my morning routine all the while there is a soundtrack playing in my head, thankfully it’s louder than the ringing in my ears, but I get blown away by some of the songs that play, sometimes more than one like this morning it was Bruce Springsteen three great songs playing in rotation, yesterday it was Bon Jovi it’s mostly the music I grew up with, but every now and then I hear EMINM or 50 cent and honestly I barely ever listen to rap. So my takeaway on this is that music makes life better I think most people would agree there is nothing worse than living inside your head with no way out. Maybe I’m not crazy after all.

March 3rd, 2026
March 2nd, 2026

What experiences in life helped you grow the most?

There are so many experiences in life I think the key is to recognize the ones that impact the most. usually it’s the ones that are the worse, the ones that hurt the most that crush your soul until you no longer want to go on. As a child experiences should be enjoyable like a friends birthday party or a Christmas filled with gifts or that hurt enough to teach you but not change you. Your first crush that didn’t turn out like you wanted, a broken heart can hurt and be a great lesson in life. Adulthood brings some downright terrifying experiences, the world of the unknown like how happy your marriage is going to be only to find out your in the wrong marriage, she wasn’t the one that’s after two wonderful experiences with the birth of your sons and then the horrible experience of divorce which robs you of your will to live or do anything but die. That experience alters your soul, crushes your heart to where you physically feel your heart breaking and can do nothing. Time is a great healer, it’s different for everyone for me it was many years filled with terrible experiences and very few good ones. I wouldn’t say I’m a better man today than twenty five years ago there are way too many scars on my heart and soul to say I’m better or worse different for sure, but that’s the beauty of experiences good and bad they shape us into the people we see in the mirror today and without them there isn’t that person.
February 27th, 2026

If you could be someone else for a day, who would you be, and why?

The only reason I wanted to be anyone else was for money. So it would be bezos buffet or Zuckerberg, but that was years ago when I was younger and more ignorant to the world. And at one point it was the president only out of curiosity it seems to be a very stressful job. Now I would love to be Dalhi lama. He seems to be living the best life, a very calm and content existence free from the stress of chasing paychecks or fame and fortune just waking up grateful for the day. No meetings no clocking in/out no politics to muck up the day just love, I mean who wouldn’t want that is the question. I look at the super rich mega wealthy and wonder what their life is like. Money makes people worse than what they already are so can you trust the people around you? What does it take to manage the wealth they have. I will take a headache free day any day and who can put a price on a good nights sleep.

Birthday