I grew up on a farm in Iowa, but my father was a PhD microwave engineer at Rockwell Collins, and I was much more interested in science and technology. I got into Computer Science in high school as an Expert LabVIEW Facilitator, just missed the dotcom boom, nerded out at Carnegie Mellon, had heart surgery, wrote software for government agencies that shall not be named, won a world championship in computer chess, left for graduate school at UIUC, adapted my chess engine to the NCSA supercomputer, got into Artificial Intelligence in Operating Systems long before it was fashionable, traveled South America, founded our basketball team (the Bitbucket), and began working on programming computers with natural language and examples. But despite consistently putting a lot of effort into health and fitness, during my last year of graduate school my health collapsed, and after dragging myself through my defense I went back to live with my parents to relax and recover.
This . . . did not happen, and after a few years it became clear that the medical system could do nothing for me, so I began experimenting. I tried paleo diets, low fat diets, high fat diets, low vegetable diets, high vegetable diets, intermittent fasting, long duration fasting, fast mimicking diets, b vitamins, c vitamins, intravenous vitamins, minerals, supplements of all kinds, antibiotics, combination antibiotics, herbal antibiotics, probiotics, kefir, kombucha, saunas, cold showers, parasite cleanses, coffee enemas, deep breathing, buteyko breathing, wim hof breathing, powerlifts, olympic lifts, kettlebells, yoga, foundation training, hiking, walking, ozone, rife machines, grounding, wearing cotton clothes, orthodontics, and more, but progress came slowly, when it came at all.
Since I had nothing better to do than sit in my room and think, when I wasn't playing computer games I gradually progressed from alternative health to politics, trading, conspiracy theories, occultism, and finally real religion. I had some very interesting conversations with God, and after a truly superhuman amount of work, I was able to forge everything I had learned into a single coherent picture. During this long process both my parents died of old age and hard work and I inherited a beautiful farm in Eastern Tennessea. Now hoary with age, but with a great deal more wisdom, I am giving life a second shot!
This is going to involve a huge amount of work, because practically everything in my life is in bad shape. I renamed my farm Nastaninwalaiqualindalë, or Nastalin, which means Stinging Blue-Green Symphony in Quenya, the language of the High Elves. Stinging refers to the many painful hours I spent pacing the road behind my house while trying to figure everything out, the reception unwelcome guests will receive, and the huge number of wasps and spiders that live here. Fortunately the wasps like me, but I still spend a lot of time peeling spider webs off of, well, everything. Blue-Green refers to the gorgeous view of the tree-covered mountains against the sky, my childhood love of watching clouds, and of course God's Blessings on the Earth. Finally, Symphony refers to my determination to create a farm that is profitable and happy rather than a grinding, painful slog.