the animal's journal

Where are you and where are you going?
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Dave
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by Dave »

Very exciting! Will you still continue to do your current guiding, in between wilderness therapy guide excursions? Or is it an either-or situation?

theanimal
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by theanimal »

Dave- It is not an either-or situation. However, I will likely not continue my current guiding job. I am absolutely in love with the area that I am currently in, but with regards to the job itself I am pretty apathetic. Too much time sitting on my butt, driving people around. No challenge, minimal skill involved.

Dave
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by Dave »

Makes sense.
theanimal wrote:Too much time sitting on my butt, driving people around. No challenge, minimal skill involved.
Haha, this sounds likes a lot of desk jobs, less the driving people around part 8-).

theanimal
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by theanimal »

It has been now 3 weeks since the sun's rays last reached the ground here. Yes, that means exactly what it says. No sun so far for 21 days. It's not hidden behind the clouds or anything like that, it just simply doesn't exist within sight. I should say that I mixed up the amount of time we have no sun on my earlier post. It is not 33 days, but 63 days! About 20 out of those 63 the sun is below the horizon, the rest of the time it is behind the mountains. No sun from November 18 to January 23.

There have been 3 separate instances over the past 3 weeks where I have caught a glimpse at areas other than where I live. Each of those instances were for only about 2-3 minutes, but they were great days!! No matter where you are though, the sun is fleeting and by now the sun is just a couple days from going beneath the horizon. No glimpse of the sun again, unless I decide to climb up one of these mountains in this area. We are in a constant state of twlight. Right now that's right around 4 hours each day, and steadily dropping. The mountains are lit up with alpenglow all day long and the sky is vibrant with all kinds of colors including yellow, pink, orange, red, blue and purple. The light is quite magical, despite the lack of it. However the nights are LONG. It's dark from right around 3:30 pm to 10:30 am in the morning. Besides clocks, stars are the only indicators of the passage of time as the earth makes its daily rotation and their location changes in the sky.

For the most part, I don't think I have had any major issues with regards to the lack of light. I have a happy light that puts out quite a bright output of light (simulating sunlight), take a vitamin D supplement almost every day, eat fairly well, exercise every day and try to get outside as much as I can. That being said, there are still some things that I have noticed. With the lack of light, it's been really hard for me to motivate myself to do any big snowshoeing trips in the area or anything like that. The other major one is that I have noticed myself getting irritated rather easily lately. That usually is not the case for the most part, and I don't believe that my character/stoicism/ what have you is reverting, so I am blaming that on the light as well.

The interesting thing is that a lot of it is external irritations, which are obviously out of my control. One of the major things that I am ever so increasingly becoming dissatisfied with is the culture here. As someone who enjoys hiking, rafting, and/or doing whatever outside I am the outlier here. Not only in winter but summer as well! This has been the most surprising thing I have discovered during my time here. Most of the people here are indoor cats, who like to watch lots and lots of tv, drink copious amounts of alcohol and the like. Talking about tv shows and how your fantasy football team is doing is not my idea of a fun time. That's all fine if you're into that, but not something that I'm looking for. I want something more real and a lot less shallow. Off the top of my head, I can't think of a coworker that I would look up to as a mentor. If you are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time around, these are not the people that I would pick! They are nice and I get along with everyone just fine but I think you get what I mean.. I guess I shouldn't be too surprised with it being a seasonal job, it tends to attract that type of crowd. However you would think in the far north of Alaska, there would still be many people who have outdoor interests etc. Oh well..for the longtime locals in this area that is not the case. And they are surprised by the culture quite a bit as well. Fortunately, those are some of the people that I can look up to as mentors in this area, living lives that are essentially ERE.

On the job front, I have well surpassed the challenge stage for this venture. If I was to place myself somewhere on Jacob's beloved flow chart, I'd find myself in the apathy or boredom sector. This job is no longer a challenge to me or requires much further skill. I probably hit this point somewhere between 2-3 months ago. Early on, yes it was a challenge as I was learning both information that was pertinent to the area, figuring out how to present it in a tour format, interacting with guests, personalizing the tour based on their experience etc. I'm now at the point where I can provide an outstanding experience for guests and visitors without trying. I'm not trying to brag, just trying to demonstrate how little challenge this requires. My knowledge has definitely reached and by now slightly surpassed the 80% point on the S-curve. Many guests are surprised to find out I didn't study biology in school or something similar. I have been acquiring knowledge at a much slower rate. As someone who tends more to the introverted side, this position has been good for me as I have had to deal with over 750 strangers on my own in a variety of different situations. It is my belief that it has been a boon to both my interpersonal skills as well as my ability to speak in front of groups confidently.

The good news is that things are looking up on all fronts. In about a week, I am heading back to the Chicagoland area for 2 weeks to visit family for the holidays. I'll have more than 7 hours of sun!!!!!!!!! My new job should allow me to engage with the type of people that I am more interested in and that are of a different type of culture. And finally, it'll provide a much greater challenge and take more skill to work with behaviorally challenged youth. But yes, I am aware of the eventual possible recurring issues in the new job as well. I'll evaluate again as time goes on.

Well, that's plenty of rambling for one night..Thanks for bearing with the rant if you read this far. I mainly just wanted to get this out of my head and onto paper for my own purposes.
Last edited by theanimal on Tue Dec 08, 2015 3:21 am, edited 2 times in total.

theanimal
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by theanimal »

Also, I figure I should provide an update on my housing situation. I have since moved out of the cabin and have been in another room for the past few weeks. The lack of insulation caused the usage of a large amount of electricity which I deemed unnecessary and wasteful. In my new room, I am still working on cold adaptation and minimal energy usage, but the hallway and surrounding rooms are heated. For the most part my room is around 40 F. I can be comfortable in this with adequate layers and a blanket for quite a long period of time. Sometimes I require a hat too. We've had colder temperatures (-20 F or colder) the past few days and my room has dipped down to 36 F. I have persisted for now but that thermostat is looking awfully tempting... :?

Note: I have no pipes or anything plumbing related connected to my room that I have to worry about keeping warm.

cmonkey
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by cmonkey »

Oh my 63 days without sun. I thought my days were rough with the sun still rising as I sit down to my desk and the sun just setting when I step off the bus in the evening. At least I can see it through the window! I was just commenting about how far down on the horizon the sun is this time of year. When I was younger I never paid much attention but now I really notice it.

So your community is made up of seasonal workers? Why go to Alaska if not to experience the outdoors! I would try to get out every day if I could. I have come to enjoy colder weather more as I get older and this year walking to the bus each morning in the crisp air is really nice, especially with frost covering everything. Very magical. I've even started walking on weekends in the morning.

theanimal
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by theanimal »

@cmonkey- Yes, it certainly is easy to take it for granted. Back when I lived in IL I used to be upset about the measly 7 hours or so in the middle of the winter. But no sun at all drastically changed my perspective.

Yes, there are two communities in this area. The one I'm at is very close to 100% seasonal. The other is comprised of locals who live here year round, multiple years. Still not a lot of people total though. Less than 35 people are divided between the 2 communities. It boggles my mind why they decided to come up here. You can't beat a nice walk! Plenty of beauty in the landscape.

theanimal
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by theanimal »

Update from Another World

Apparently, I am now in the Chicago, IL area but somehow I seem to have found myself on another planet. After spending 7 months straight in the Arctic, I surely have noticed quite a few differences. There are cars, travelling everywhere. Flying over Seattle was weird..all the cars travelling down the highway in the morning rush. The line simply never ends. Like a barrage of ants travelling in formation. Walking around the airport, I am surprised (although I shouldn't be) at how many fat people there are and how many of them are staring at a screen! Did I get dropped on the set of Wall-E? While waiting in Salt Lake City's airport, I walked from one end to another. In 5 minutes (one way distance), I encountered 18 people walking and on their phones. However, almost everyone stopped or sitting was on a phone, laptop or some other telescreen. There are lights everywhere. I can barely see a single star in the night sky, instead I see the light pollution reflecting off the clouds. Planes, helicopters and other flying objects seem to be flying over constantly. Everyone is a stranger. Nobody wants to talk to you, let alone wave when you are passing. This is considered OK. I truly feel like I'm travelling between 2 worlds, the movie Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance reflects this well. I'm in an ecological wasteland.

PS: On the plus side there is quite a bit of light here! Apparently, it's not night basically all day on other planets. Who knew? :P

cmonkey
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by cmonkey »

Welcome back to this part of the world! Even though I have never spent time away like that I understand the feeling. Whenever I take vacation I almost always spend it on my homestead just enjoying myself which means not leaving the house/property for up to a week, possibly longer. Then if we go to get groceries or something its so.....strange. People just sort of wandering around with phones in hand looking like they haven't the foggiest what's going on. Same feelings with the traffic, our preferred method of transit is very very strange. Though, I do consider from time to time just how nice it would be to get around by horse and buggy now that we have all this asphalt everywhere. Maybe once the cars don't have gas anymore..

George the original one
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by George the original one »

> all the cars travelling down the highway in the morning rush. The line simply never ends. Like a barrage of ants travelling in formation.

I felt that way while living/working in that world. Now it's a mild form of entertainment provided I don't have to be in those lines.

AtticusFinch
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by AtticusFinch »

Did you make it back up in one piece, friend? How's the temp? Are you happy to be back or just waiting for the next gig to start. All is well here, thinking seriously about taking up the bow project you left with Jacob, I was looking at recurve bows online when I remembered my new years resolution, "no new shit or anything I could make myself." Seeing as how you've already broken ground on it, it's up to me to finish if I want a bow anytime soon. Keep us posted on your travels man, it was a real pleasure reading your journal!

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Ego
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by Ego »

Welcome back to the land of opportunity! Adding a new planet where you can function and survive (the arctic) represents massive growth. The societal-sickness that screams at you but that everyone else thinks is normal, and its correlate, return-overwhelm, may encourage you to shun this planet. That would be the opposite of growth. Being able to function in both provides advantages over those who can only function in one.

theanimal
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by theanimal »

cmonkey- That's basically the same strategy I followed during my time away. I only left the house if visiting others or otherwise needed. I'm not a fan of these artificially contrived environments. I feel as if I'm living in a designed world, like The Truman Show. I think like Ego says though, it's important to have the ability to still do it.

George- I'm sure it feels good to be on the other side!

Atticus- My initial flight was cancelled by sleet in Chicago, so I was delayed a day but gained a more direct flight and a $125 discount in the process. Not the worst that could happen. There is a warm spell going on up here. It is 20 above zero (F) today after hitting -45 below on two separate days last week. T-shirt weather! It's great to be back. I love it here. Though the new job should be fun too. I like the bow project idea. Let me know how it progresses.

Ego- Thanks. Great points to consider. Being able to live in both environments requires adaptability, which I know you value. I do too. I do recognize shunning the rest of civilization to live in the Arctic or some other remote location would be a regression. As of now, I can live in both worlds. The hardest part is the transition. Hopefully, I can improve on that over time.

I will say I'm very happy to be back to this...

Image

Opportunity Costs

These have played a big role in my thoughts lately. I'm reading Economics in One Lesson now, which doesn't help ;) . I'm realizing more and more how opportunity costs dominate almost every factor of life. Its quite present in my current situation. I constantly have questions in my head whether or not I am making the right choice to go to the new job. I love the area I'm in now and am part of a great community. Though the other job is something I want to do and also allows me to have greater freedom (allowing me to do other things I want to do). I think the lack of security, in the form of a contract job, leads to the thoughts that maybe I should be doing something else, perhaps something safer. It could be fear of the unknown too, but it doesn't really matter. I think that fear or the particular worries can be dangerous and prevent any growth from occurring. After all, I don't want to live like the cubicle drones who believe they are secure. The perceived risk may be high but actual risk is very low. There is also the possibility for great benefits. Most of the time, I am content with my decision and thought process. Questioning myself and my decisions is probably healthy as long as I don't over-do it. So we'll see how things go.

There are so many things to do in life, yet so little time! I do like the way my lifestyle is set up for this year. Yesterday, I was offered a pretty good outdoor related job, for which I didn't even apply! How cool is that? If I was in the same spot two years ago, I would've taken it. But I'd like to do other things this year. Anyways, I think it's time for me to read The Renaissance Soul.

skintstudent
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by skintstudent »

Truly inspiring journal. You are showing that life doesn't need to be lived on corporate cubicle terms. Well done. Some of the things you've done are well outside my comfort zone. I'm envious you've done them!

theanimal
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Re: Year End Reflections

Post by theanimal »

2014

I was daydreaming the other day and came to realize how I had a great year!

I moved to Alaska. Made some great new friends and acquaintances and am part of a strong community. I love where I live.

I didn't work for about 4 months of the year. This time was spent with friends and family, reading books, hiking, a couple backpacking trips and a climbing trip.

My new job as a tour guide is good for the most part. It has allowed me the opportunity to strengthen my knowledge on related subjects and develop interpersonal skills. My application for and acceptance of a position as a wilderness therapy field guide was also a great development,

I spent lots of time outside. But not enough! A lot more packrafting this year and plenty of great hiking being on the doorstep of one of the largest remaining wildernesses. I also went on a climbing trip with my cousin earlier in the year and had a great time.

Skill acquisition was limited this year. I had a goal of learning bike maintenance that was sidelined. Another goal was to learn more about hunting, which I certainly did but did not have any practical skill building in this regard. This past summerI helped maintain a coworker garden, which helped to further the knowledge and practice I had in that subject. If I was to stay where I am now, I would maintain my own garden and hunt small game. Alas, that will not be the case. Knife and axe sharpening were also learned.

I read the most books I've ever read in one year. But not enough! There are a number of books that stand out in my mind as having the greatest impact (listed in no order).
Brave New World
This Ugly Civilization
Meditations
Survival +
Status Anxiety
Nunamuit:Among Alaska's Inland Eskimos
Sacred Economics
Overshoot
1984
It's Not All About Me

Health wise- I've done pretty good. I was fairly active this year and didn't let myself become sedentary after periods of low activity. I did a couple rounds of Insanity but other than that not much in terms of scheduled workouts. Eating habits are largely the same. My eating is good for where I am now but not great. Not many fruits and veggies make it up this way in the winter time.

Financially, I did pretty well. I spent right around $3,000 total. Most of that came from early in the year before I moved to Alaska (ironically). Too much excess spending though! Seriously! It could have easily been cut in half, but due to a lack of effort on some days it was inflated. This being my first full year out of school marked my greatest earning year to date. Although, it was much less than most on the forum, coupled with low expenses made for a good savings rate. Since moving to Alaska my savings rate is about 91%. For the year, it's right around 80% +/- 4%. Most of the savings went to paying off student loans. I've made great progress in this regard. I am very close to completely paying off my largest and highest interest bearing loan. The rest of my loans will probably be paid off at a slower rate since their interest rate is pretty low (3%). I'll likely appropriate half my savings this year to loans and half to build up assets.

Looking forward to the new year. There will be a post on that to follow sometime in the next few days.

theanimal
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by theanimal »

Skintstudent- Thanks, that means a lot. I appreciate you following along.

AtticusFinch
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by AtticusFinch »

Great book list man, I've been thinking of rereading status anxiety one of these days. Brave New World, man what a piece of art.

Gilberto de Piento
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by Gilberto de Piento »

I am very close to completely paying off my largest and highest interest bearing loan.
Nice job on the progress with the loan and going beast mode on your savings rate. I think 91% might be the highest I've heard of.

theanimal
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by theanimal »

@Atticus- Status Anxiety is sure great, well worthy of a re-read.
@GdP- Thanks. I make much less than most people here so I try to compensate for that with very low spending. It has worked very well so far.


2016
I have a number of exciting things that I plan to do this year. As mentioned previously, I will be starting a position as a wilderness therapy field guide. I had stated above that I didn't think I would continue my current job, but have since changed my mind. While I would love to run around Alaska hiking and packrafting wherever, I think long term my best strategy is to keep earning as much as I can. So the plan is that I will be doing my current job for the majority of the year with wilderness therapy stints dispersed throughout. It is pretty likely as well that once I finish my CDL training that I will receive a pretty decent raise. With the CDL, I will also be able to take more people as well resulting in more tip $. Win-win. Below I list some of the categories I am focusing on for this upcoming year.

Hunting
It's time to stop messing around with books and actually get some practical action in this department. I have been talking with my extremely skilled local friend (mentioned a page or two previously) and he recommended that I start out by going for caribou in the spring. It's much smaller than a moose and is not too intimidating for a first hunt. I haven't decided whether or not I will do that in the spring, fall or not at all. I'll keep this journal updated with any new developments. Besides caribou, I would be interested in hunting small game and birds, such as snowshoe hare, ptarmigan and spruce grouse. If things go well, maybe try Dall sheep in the fall? We'll see though. That's getting far ahead of things. If I was to go hunting, I'd have to purchase some firearms. Likely a .243 winchester rifle for the caribou and sheep and a .22 for the smaller game.

Bike Repair
As stated in a post above, I had planned to start learning bike repair last year, but utterly failed. That will change this year. There are 2 bikes nearby that are in serious need of repair and one that could use a tune up. I plan to work on these in the first half of this year. This upcoming summer, I also plan on biking much more frequently when going out hiking or packrafting(the only instance when I use a car). I have debated whether or not I should purchase my own bike, but I will probably just use one of the bikes I fix up.

Gardening
I'm still not sure how much I want to try to achieve in this department. Last year, I helped out in a community garden. I'm debating whether to take charge of that (resulting in plenty of skills, but little yield) or start my own garden. If I were to start my own garden, I'd likely grow a limited supply of food. Probably at least carrots and beets, maybe potatoes as well. The community garden always has an excess supply of greens.

Interpersonal Relations
In 2015, I believe I advanced more in this area with regards in interacting with others. As someone who tends much more to the introverted side, I occasionally can have issues dealing with others (relating to others, overconfidence, mediocre conversationalist etc.). Living and working in close proximity helped a lot in this regard in allowing for experimenting and practicing new ways of interacting with others. This should continue to improve going forward.

My job(s) also help with this too and will only continue to do so. So far, I have led over 900 guests in the time I have been up here. I have dealt with a large variety of people from all places on the globe and don't recall any negative experiences. Most of the people leave extremely satisfied. My new job as wilderness therapy will likely help even more so. Living in extremely close proximity with troubled youth (mainly from a native background as well) should provide for tremendous growth, and at a much faster rate, than what I am experiencing currently.

Outdoor Competence
I aim to achieve more than I have in years past, especially last year. What does this mean? In essence, a lot more trips and trips that are longer and more challenging than what I've done previously. I want to dramatically improve my skills at travelling through wild landscapes both on foot and by boat. The only way to do that is get out as much as possible. I have a list of trips (both multi-day and challenging day trips) of things I want to do/accomplish this year. I aim to have it done, and hopefully much more, by the end of August. The trips are all in this area.

Books
This year I plan once again to top 100 books. My primary focus this year is on economics and investments. I would like to be much more educated financially than I am at the moment. I'll be reading much of the financial related books on the wiki list, books Jacob recommended on the blog and some from the forum. Here's some reading material for February:
Image

I also will continue reading material related to improving interpersonal relations. These will include topics on envy, empathy and communication among other things.

It should be a good year!

Here is a picture I took from a nearby area last week. While we may not have much light in this area, the light we do have is beautiful. The sun comes back in 7 days!!!
Image

theanimal
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by theanimal »

Well the month is basically over and I'm not buying anything in the next few days, so time for an update.

I was pretty upset with my spending this month. I felt like it was much more than it should have been but I've been thinking about it and realize that maybe I need to take it easy a little bit...

Spending for the month: $226
Savings rate-90%

If I feel like it's a bad month and I'm still getting a 90% savings rate and spending a couple hundred dollars maybe things aren't all that bad. The bulk of that spending is on a plane ticket for training at my new additional job in March.

It has finally hit me how much harder I am making it on myself, with regards to amassing financial assets, in a low income job. Sure, I realized before that it would take longer but it has now finally sunk in. Still contemplating what should be done about this and where to go from here. I'm finishing my CDL soon and that should get me a 50% boost in pay. I would still be on the low end of the scale. Decisions, decisions... There’s not much more I can do in my current job expense wise. I can consistently achieve 90+%. Now it’s time to find a way to either increase income or just wait patiently..very patiently. I feel like a kid who can’t get dessert until he finishes his homework. The dessert is within reach. The only catch is that the homework takes 4-6 years. Oh well, it’s definitely worth it.

I have also realized how much more antifragile I am with two jobs. If one dries up, I still have the other. My current boss loves me and seems afraid that I'll run away to the other job. It feels like I have a little more power, but I get how that could also be a bad thing job wise.

In other news, the sun is back! How great it is to see the sun light up entire mountains, the valley floor and the trees. It's such a beautiful sight. It's not up above the mountains for much more than 30 min a day still, but in just a week or so it'll be high enough to be up for hours!!

It's incredibly warm here. 32 degrees ABOVE zero farenheit yesterday. 30 above again today. T-shirt weather (not a joke)! In the middle to the end of January, the average high daily temperature for this region is anywhere from -25 below F at the higher end to -65 below. The temperature has been hovering between -10 F to 5 above the past few weeks. Very warm for this area.

I've found a way to take better photos of the aurora. This shot below is from a couple weeks ago, looking to the west (not north!). The aurora is better than any show I've ever seen. And I get paid to watch it. 8-)

Image

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