Author: Duane Storey Posts

In 2004, the Human Genome Project was completed. The goal of that project was to sequence the entire human genome, ultimately revealing the cause of a majority of ailments in the modern world. Instead what it revealed was that most of us share over 99% of our genetic code, and that 1% difference doesn’t seem to explain many of our diseases. So if our own genetics aren’t entirely responsible for if we are healthy or sick, what else potentially can be? The answer to that question came shortly after the development of 16s rRNA sequencing technology – technology which allows us, for the first time, to take a detailed look at the complex bacterial organisms living in our guts and each of their roles. Rather than being benign spectators in our lives, it turns out that these bacteria have developed a symbiotic relationship with us throughout our evolution. In terms […]

There is great deal of evidence to show that our guts used to be in a much healthier state decades ago. For example, the Hadza in Africa, one of the last ‘hunter-gatherer’ species on the planet, appear to have 300% more bacteria in their guts than we do. It seems that over time we have lost many of these bacteria, and whatever functions they once provided. In terms of gut health, one metric that’s often used is diversity. Similar to the environment, it’s often thought that the health of any ecosystem is related to the number of species in it and their relative abundance. Harmony is basically where you have a lot of species, with a mostly equal membership. If any one species starts to take over and populate excessively, it endangers the entire ecosystem. This is similar to the gut microbiota. Any overgrowth of a particular species can tend […]

Years ago, when looking for a way to do local WordPress development, I eventually stumbled upon a pretty nifty tool called MAMP.  MAMP stands  for “Mac/Apache/MySQL/PHP”, and it’s the Macintosh equivalent of the well-known Linux-based LAMP stack. While you can configure MAMP by editing configuration files, I decided to upgrade to MAMP Pro, as it gives you an easier UI to use when managing some of your local websites. Despite MAMP ‘mostly working’, it has a number of really annoying downsides as well: MAMP Pro is paid software, but despite buying it multiple times, I don’t really feel like I’ve gotten good value with upgrades. Whenever I visit the website, it seems like there’s a new version that I have to upgrade to in order to even get a new PHP version etc. It’s very unstable: often it will seize up completely and you’ll have to force-quit it. This is […]

I live a fortunate life. I have a profession that effectively lets me work from anywhere in the world, all while making an income generally in North American dollars. Popularized by such ‘visionaries’ as Tim Ferris, my lifestyle, and the lifestyle of potentially a billion people by the year 2035, is likely a new world norm. No longer are people like me stuck in offices – we can get on airplanes and work from anywhere in the world – from the remote jungles of Vietnam, to the beautiful mountains of Spain’s Canary Islands, to the wineries within a few stone’s throw from Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa. All it takes is an airplane ride and we are off visiting somewhere new. Over the last ten years, I’ve visited over 44 countries. It’s been a life-changing experience, and I’m truly humbled by all I’ve learned and encountered by traveling […]

Hey everyone, I’ve started a new website called TapasForever detailing my goal for living for a year in Spain. If you’re interested in the journey, or perhaps want to move to Europe for a year or longer in the future, head on over and check it out. I recommend visiting the Start Here page for information on the various resources that will be available. I’m looking forward to getting my visa and checking off a lot of boxes in terms of things I would to accomplish in life (Spanish language, I’m looking at you!). Cheers, Duane

So if you’re here, you’re likely thinking about moving to Spain at some point. I know this, because that’s my end goal as well. Maybe not forever, but likely for a year or more. One of the first hurdles you may encounter is opening a bank account. Once you have a long-term stay visa or a temporary residence in Spain, you can open an account as a resident. But there are certain advantages to having one sooner. For example, I thought moving larger amounts of money from Canada to Spain would probably be much easier when I am actually physically present in Canada, so I thought opening a bank account before heading back should make things smoother. Given that I was in Spain for a month recently, I decided to go down to the bank and try to open an account – you need to be physically present in Spain […]

One of the hardest aspects of being a business owner is being able to come up with a metric, even an internal one, for what it means for that business to be successful. For some people, that goal is completely monetary – i.e., if they can sell the business for 1 million dollars within 10 years, then that represents success for them. As an example, one of my good friends recently sold his business. While it was always his dream to build a popular retail business, at some point he realized that the excitement, and the dream, mostly involved building a business, and not really running one. So even though the business was turning a monthly profit (which for some people would amount to owning a lifelong lifestyle business) he decided that it met his own definition of a successful business, at which point he sold it and cashed in […]

I recently was looking at a business plan for a new venture that came across my desk. The two individuals involved are trying to raise money for a bar in South America that they will manage. It’s one of those businesses that most people dream about – a foreign country with lots of sunshine, lots of friendly travellers, and evenings spent sipping beer on a patio. Sign me up! As part of their business plan, they needed to come up with a value for what this new business would likely be worth once it was off the ground. The reason you need to have a value is that when you are trying to solicit investments from people, they need to understand how much of the company they will own. So if a business is worth $500,000, and an investor puts in $100,000, it wouldn’t be unreasonable for them to own […]

I recently made the decision to take advantage of Iceland Air’s free stopover policy to visit Iceland on my way from Vancouver, Canada to Europe. If you weren’t aware, Iceland Air allows anyone to stop for up to a week in Iceland without any additional charges. This is a brilliant marketing move, and it’s help Iceland become a hugely successful tourist destination in the last few years (one tour guide told me that fishing used to be about 70% of the economy, and now tourism is coming close to eclipsing that). Before I arrived, I had heard stories about how expensive the country is. Let me be clear, those rumours are true. Compared to prices back in Vancouver, I would say most items in Iceland are 2-3x as expensive. For example, I had a small latte and a banana, which back home would probably cost me about $5 Canadian – […]

I used to proactively write about every upcoming travel adventure I had, but I tend not to do that much these days. One of the reasons is that sometimes my plans change, and then I end up with a post that’s no longer accurate. Another reason is that people, while well intentioned, tend to sometimes aggressively give advice on how I should change my trips around, which ends up putting me on the defensive regarding my choices (most of which are well thought out in terms of what I want to get out of that trip). That said, this next three month trip of mine is pretty exciting, so I wanted to share it. Iceland In less than a week I’m getting on a plane and heading to Iceland for two days. Obviously two days is a pretty short amount of time, but I’m taking advantage of Iceland Air’s free […]