Nat Arem's Blog

Today I’m 27.  Technically just after 9 PM EST (or 8 PM Cayman time).  I’m not bothered by getting older as I feel it’s a natural part of life.  I remember seeing a poll somewhere about whether people would WANT to be immortal and the majority said they’d rather live a natural life span.  If you think about it, the idea of being, say, 25, forever sounds really great for the first ten seconds then it starts to become really kind of scary.  I mean, your friends would keep getting older, married, having kids, etc, etc and you’d be stuck at 25.  Then 50-60 years later (assuming your friends are lucky) they’re all gone and there you are still at 25.  That sounds pretty miserable to me.  In most cases I don’t care about moving with the crowd but, as far as age goes, I’m happy to march right along with it.

One thing I hear a lot of people say is that the years go by quicker and quicker.  That hasn’t happened for me.  I have a theory about this apparent clash.  I think the years go by faster and faster as you settle into a “groove” in your life.  For instance, someone who lives in the same house with the same people and does the same things every year is going to have a “faster” life in terms of perception.  Similar events will blend together and their memories will seem less variant because of the similarity of their life.  On the other hand, someone who travels, moves around and does different things all the time is going to “slow down” their life.  Keep in mind that I’m simply talking about recollection and reflection.

Even just three years ago, I hadn’t been to a World Series of Poker.  Party Poker was still serving US customers.  The UIGEA didn’t exist.  The NETELLER scandal hadn’t happened.  I hadn’t lived anywhere outside of Philadelphia suburbs or Lancaster (where I went to college).  I hadn’t lived in Atlanta, Las Vegas, Atlanta (again), Costa Rica or Cayman.  My businesses like thepokerdb and PSDollars had only really taken off in the six months prior.  I hadn’t even spoken to a single person at Bluff (where the db now resides).  I was still like 16 months away from even meeting the guys who I now work with.  I mean, tons and tons of things have happened to me even in the last three years.  It really seems like an eternity mainly because my life has shifted around and the industry that I work in has evolved so much.  On the other hand, if I’d worked at a more normal job in a more stable industry (say, being an accountant — which is what my college degree is for) and lived in the same place with the same people, I’m sure I would have a totally different perspective of the last three years.  I’m not saying one way of living is better or worse.  I just think it tends to change perspectives.

All of that being said, there really aren’t any benefits to turning 27.  For me, 16 was the best birthday because it meant I could drive.   I’d been waiting all year for it because I had a late birthday for my high school class (people were generally Aug 1981 until July 1982 … and I’m June 1982) so everyone else was driving before me and it drove me crazy to be the one stuck asking for rides all the time.  Obviously 17 was a great one because I could go see R-rated movies without worrying about parents.  18 was nice too although I never smoked cigarettes and it isn’t like anyone pays attention to the age restrictions on porn (yea, I had to throw porn in there).  And for obvious reasons 21 is a great birthday even for someone like me who isn’t a big drinker.  For me, more than anything, 21 is useful because you can go places without worrying.  I remember once I wanted to go to a concert and I couldn’t go because it was at a 21+ place.  So that was a good birthday.  And I guess 25 was good because I used to get charged sooooooooo much money to rent a car.  It has gone down by like 4x since those days.  So I guess not much changes for the better at 27 specifically but that doesn’t mean I’m not happy to close the chapter on 26 and see what 27 has in store.

In the wake of the theorized gluten problems I had for a few months, I’ve been reading quite a bit about human diets and the effects it can have on our short and long-term health. Some of the stuff I already knew: eat healthy, get exercise, etc, etc. But I’ve learned quite a few more details than I ever knew before. I mean, sure, I knew we need certain nutrients like iron and various vitamins to be healthy. But I never knew about ideal iron intake. I never knew about other important nutrients like magnesium and their effect on our health. It’s both a fascinating and confusing field. It seems like there’s a new report or study released every week … many of which either reverse or alter previous theory. It’s hard to know what to believe. But just having more knowledge is very important and I encourage everyone to read up on human nutrition needs and ideals. It could really pay off in the long run.

Anyway, in the process of reading about all of this stuff, I came across a bunch of information about the problems with water supplies. Many people who drink tap water are taking a major risk. That includes people in more developed countries such as the US or UK. Many municipal water supplies contain chlorine and other potentially harmful chemicals (I know, the chlorine is there to kill other potential harmful things and is a net benefit). While small amounts of chlorine probably won’t cause a problem for you, there are many other things that can get into water supplies which can be very harmful. One case in point is the Camp Lejeune study that was just released. Sure, the study says that years of drinking trace amounts of deadly chemicals didn’t adversely affect health. But there are also many indications that the study wasn’t done thoroughly enough. What it really comes down to is whether you’re willing to risk your long-term health on the chance that your local municipal water supply is looking out for you. And that the pipes all the way to your faucet are in good shape. It’s a definite risk.

So anyway, I decided to buy a water tester. It doesn’t really tell me that much. But it does tell me the parts per million (PPM) of substances in water. I don’t know what those substances are. And it can be misleading because there are some trace nutrients like magnesium that can be effectively delivered via water. But it does give me a good idea of the purity of the water. Which gives me a rough idea of the quality of the water for my overall health. So I’ve done a bunch of tests so far. In the suburbs of Philadelphia, the tap water is 230ppm. The filtered water coming out of my parents’ fridge is 200ppm. Dasani is 30ppm (they advertise that they add things like magnesium and potassium so it could be that all of the substances in Dasani water are actually helpful). Then I flew back to Cayman. I tested the bottled water that I get delivered from a company called Le Bleu. I put the water tester in it and it read out 0ppm. I was like… is this thing broken? I kept waiting for it to move up but it never did. Just to make sure it was working I put it into some tap water and it instantly jumped to 175ppm. I was pretty floored. To put it mildly, Le Bleu is not lying when they say that their water is ultra pure.

In the end, I think the best thing to do is to drink the purest water possible and get trace nutrients from other sources. While some 200+ ppm tap water might be mostly good things, you’re taking the chance of drinking something that will cause major problems for you down the line. Anyway, feel free to do whatever you want but I figured I should post what I’ve figured out so far. I’m sure some experts in this area will explain to me about all sorts of other tests I should be doing on the water so I’m curious to see the comments.

I’m currently at home in Philadelphia for a visit with my family and to deal with the various things that always need dealing with back at home. As I’ve written about in the last few months, I haven’t exactly been feeling great recently so I’m also home to help figure out what’s going on outside of a suspected case of gluten intolerance. I believe the problem has been successfully identified (finally) and I’m getting treated for it. I would write about the details but I don’t think I should for a bunch of reasons. The main reason is that people always tend to give me a bunch of advice for the problem based off of their experiences with a similar problem — either in their own life or in the life of someone they are close to. While I definitely appreciate the concern and well-meaning intentions of those people, I am going to let this one play out without outside advice for now. I don’t want to be discouraged by people who have had bad luck with my specific problem — and those are the people who are often most-motivated to write comments or emails. As shitty as I’ve felt the last few months, I am relieved that the causes of these problems has finally been identified and that I should be able to make a full recovery (and that the problem isn’t life-threatening). However, I might be blogging a bit less for a little while. I also might be skipping the WSOP which I had initially planned to attend for a five day trip. It depends how my recovery goes.

In other news, I haven’t felt well enough to watch the NBA finals but I have been following them online. I’m pretty happy to see the Lakers pull ahead 2-0. I grew up in Lower Merion during the Kobe high school years so I can’t help but root for him to win an NBA championship as the undisputed leader of the team. It will validate his game as a true champion as opposed to simply being one of the best all-around scorers/defenders in the history of the game. I don’t expect Orlando to roll over now that they’re down 2-0 but I do think it’s going to be very difficult to come back (obv).