m741's ERE Journal

Where are you and where are you going?
m741
Posts: 1187
Joined: Tue Jan 18, 2011 3:31 am
Location: Seattle, WA

Re: m741's ERE Journal

Post by m741 »

July, 2015 (Part I)

A lot of things happened this month, so I figured I'd break out the big developments from the financial minutiae (minutiae to follow).

The first big thing was that I asked my girlfriend to move in with me, and she said yes. I'm super-psyched. We always have a great time together, play tons of games, watch movies, and generally have a good time. She's a great friend and companion and I think we'll have fun. We haven't settled on a date, but it looks like she'll move in ~2 months.

A few things that fall out of that which relate to ERE: first, I think I know I'll be wasting less time on the internet, which is the primary bane of my existence. Which means that, even with watching more movies together and so on, I'll be more productive. At least, that's the theory, and maybe some of you are laughing right now...

Second, I will see some additional savings. It works out like this: toiletries will be split down the middle, which should save some minor amount (on soaps, etc), but I don't expect a lot there. We'll also be splitting some subscription services, which will result in a more notable savings. Right now I subscribe to Amazon Prime, Netflix and HBO Go. We'll definitely split Netflix, I'm cancelling HBO Go (until Game of Thrones returns - True Detective is a disappointment). I think we'll split Prime. I'd be happy to cancel my prime subscription, or vice versa. In total this will be $30-$40 month. Splitting utilities will net $30-50 a month.

We'll also be splitting rent, and I came up with a deal that seems equitable. Rent is $1275, so she'll pay $637, but half of that will go to paying down student loans. Thus, I'll be saving $318 per month. I really don't want her to have student loans hanging over her head, and I have none. So this seems fair.

All told, I expect I'll end up saving about $400 a month, give or take. There'll probably be more toiletry expenses, and less grocery/restaurant expenses, tough to estimate but I think it'll net out.

The second big announcement is that I discussed my long-term travel plans with the gf and she seems to be on-board. The plans are this: in 2017, I'd like to quit my job and travel for something like a year. Could be 6 months and I get sick of it, or it could be 2 years if I love it. Who knows? I'd like to do some off-the-wall travel (buy a van in New Zealand and travel there for a few months; hike the Pacific Crest Trail; etc) but I'm still in the dream phase. I'd also like to do some off-the-wall work to subsidize costs and because I think it would be interesting. Crew a sailboat/yacht; WWOOF on tea farms or volunteer, etc. Some things that could subsidize the cost. I feel so provincial in my outlook and experiences.

Also, my father is getting older, and I'd like to do something big with him before the trip officially starts. Maybe a few hundred miles of backpacking, or riding motorcycles or something. I don't know what this would be either. But I've seen so little of him since I started working...

My overall goal, as my 20s run out, is to have had some major adventures that I'm proud of. Right now, I've had one. I want to see more of the world, in a slow, deliberate way that's impossible while working (maaaaybe I'll try to finagle a remote work deal of some kind).

This is all super-tentative. I'm just happy to have brought it up with my gf; I'll have to have more serious discussions in the future, but I think we'll be able to iron out the details.

I've discussed this all before, but I've gotta say it feels like it's really happening. And now I've got a list of things I want to do that have a real timeline. Things like learning spanish, getting in shape, and picking up skills like photography. There's a specific reason I want to do these things, so I have a new sense of urgency.

Suggestions for cool adventure are welcome!

m741
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Joined: Tue Jan 18, 2011 3:31 am
Location: Seattle, WA

Re: m741's ERE Journal

Post by m741 »

July, 2015 (Part II)

I posted the exciting stuff first... here's the routine stuff!

What happened?

I took a trip to Austin, TX, with the gf, to go to a wedding. It was pretty exhausting for me - I don't enjoy spending extended periods of time together with people. The two exceptions are the gf and people at work (where I can be with people but not *engaged with* them). On the other hand, I had a great time at the wedding.

I grabbed a near-complete set of homebrew supplies for $20 (6-gallon carboy, wort chiller, various valves and tubes). I'll be making some beer as soon as the weather cools down a bit.

Finally, I picked up tickets to Seattle and London, which will be the two big trips for the remainder of the year (Seattle at the end of this month and London over Christmas/New Years).

Job

I officially changed jobs at the end of the month. I was really working with smart people before, and I'm interested to see how the new team pans out. I don't have a lot to say here - nothing changed until the very end of July. I'm more detached, of course, because there's an even more tangible end-date.

Finances

Pretty good month financially. Markets took a big hit but then more-than recovered to bring me to a long-awaited positive month. I didn't make many discretionary purchases, mostly dumping the dead-weight Seadrill, a company I bought for dividends, but which cut them and hasn't recovered. Good riddance - I purchased it on an impulse and it doesn't fit with my other companies.

In total, my expected monthly dividends rose $40 this month, mostly from scheduled mutual fund and ETF purchases.

Finally, a small note: I signed up for a Patreon account, and there's two Youtubers whose videos I now pay $1 for. Not a lot, but it's the start of paying for free things that bring me enjoyment.

m741
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Joined: Tue Jan 18, 2011 3:31 am
Location: Seattle, WA

Re: m741's ERE Journal

Post by m741 »

August, 2015

What happened?

August was super-busy. I flew to Texas for a 4 days at the start of the month, took a 3-hour (each direction) bus ride to visit my father and step-mother midmonth, and then did a week out in Seattle at the end of the month. Lots of travel time, and I hate buses and airplanes...

I was also starting a new job and doing a lot of other things besides. So, I'm glad that I don't have any travel plans for a few months, though weekends in September and early October remain busy. I'm looking forward to getting into a good routine. The next big trip is for Christmas.

I'd go into more details, but I remain busy and setting aside enough time for tabulating monthly totals was enough.

Job

The new job is, I guess, a "hot mess". I'm learning quite a bit, and I like working on a smaller team much more than a larger team. But the team dynamics are all over the place. I'm still letting things settle out, trying to figure out my role. I remain sort of detached, as a defense mechanism.

Finances

Yuck... like most others in the market, I took a bath this month, seeing my net worth down 4%. Strangely, every single holding was down month-on-month, stocks and bonds alike, except for my small holding in gold, which didn't exactly skyrocket.

It's a bit of a shock, and though I always like seeing small modest gains, I'm not really panicking. Right now it just seems like a good buying opportunity, though as always I'm leery of a dip. I'm simply continuing my regular spending/dividend reinvestment for now.

The one bright point is that a few late payers on Lending Club paid their outstanding balances. And I found some good buying opportunities there as well - I only trade on Lending Club, never buy new (I guess maybe people were liquidating after taking hits on the market, not sure).

What am I doing?

My three focuses right now are on Spanish, getting healthy (this time for real, I swear!), and drawing. I'm simply using DuoLingo for basic grammar and vocab right now to build up a base for conversation. As for drawing, I'm reading through "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" and doing the exercises. I enjoy it.

I'm also doing some work scanning old photo albums, for backup and so I can discard old photos that I don't care so much about. It's relaxing and kinda fun.

---

I'd post more, but it's been pretty hectic for me here and I was late enough as-is!

spoonman
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Re: m741's ERE Journal

Post by spoonman »

I rememer the days, back in grad school, when I actually enjoyed business travel. The last time I had to fly for a business trip I can back sick, as usual.

Indeed, the market is down but you can back up the truck and buy more good companies on the cheap.

DuoLingo...I'll have to check that out, thanks for the suggestion.

m741
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Joined: Tue Jan 18, 2011 3:31 am
Location: Seattle, WA

Re: m741's ERE Journal

Post by m741 »

August/September Follow-up

I mentioned in my last post that I was pretty busy. I'm a little less busy now and thought I'd give a bit more of an update.

It's a pretty weird situation for me - I've got a lot of things that I'm juggling right now, even outside of hobbies and interests. Here's a rundown:

- Still settling in to the new job. It's a bit stressful (more than the other job), but I think that's just how work is for me generally. I postponed any attempts at promotion this year, since I was changing jobs, etc. But I'd like to push for promotion early next year, so I'm thinking about paperwork etc. This promotion is 1/3 better money, 1/3 vanity, 1/3 resume fodder. Maybe 1/2 vanity :D . to top it off, I just spent two weeks in 'crunch' mode, finishing the end of last week.

- Girlfriend is moving in later this week (!!!) So there's been a lot of organizing, cleaning, donating, etc. Plus of course I'm nervous as realistically this is my biggest lifestyle change since college (excepting the 2-month roadtrip).

- I was out in Seattle with the GF a few weeks back, and I went through the storage unit I'd had out there since my mother passed away. I brought pretty much all the personal stuff back: scrapbooks, videos, photos, etc. It was a lot of luggage... Anyway, I don't want to hold onto this stuff forever (it's probably about 4 rubbermaid containers worth of stuff), so I've been pulling apart and scanning scrapbooks (scanning _everything_), then tossing 75% of the photos and papers. I have a device that records VHS to my computer. Then, I back everything up online (photos on Amazon Cloud Drive, and videos on Google Drive). It takes a long time, but it's also interesting and satisfying, and something that I'd been postponing forever... the kind of thing where you worry a fire will destroy things. It's emotionally exhausting at times, though.

- I've been thinking about how I want to discuss money with GF. We've talked a bit about things, and I mentioned that I want to take time to travel in somewhat under 2 years, but there's been something of a veil. I think financially we're fairly compatible: I'm not quite as conservative with money now, and she's still sorta in a college mindset. We're in very different places financially: college debt vs savings. But my biggest concern is that her family is not good with money, and they're right at retirement age. I believe they have no savings. They're working, right now, but how long will they be able to, and what will we do at that point?

- I'm trying to settle all sorts of inherited accounts. I won't go into details, but I botched some of these accounts about a year ago. Not horribly, but it was a costly mistake. Now I'm trying to figure out how to salvage things. There's a bunch of accounts that I've had to go through, and just lots of phone calls to financial companies figuring out how annuities and IRAs work.

- I'm reaching the final draw-down of my cash reserves, with about 3 months of cash left. Maybe that will carry me through bonus season? I'm starting to look what I can do to maintain cash reserves without reducing my regular investments, but I'd been investing at a really aggressive rate. Now the market's down and I'm running low on cash! Boo!

- I've been tracking lots of little long-deferred tasks (eg, oiling boots, contacting landlord about basement storage, emailing people), and I've been good about knocking things out. It feels good to resolve these things. The inherited accounts bit mentioned above is part of this.

---

So, yeah. It's been busy.

spoonman
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Re: m741's ERE Journal

Post by spoonman »

I think you'll enjoy the benefits of having things digitized. It's a pain the neck at first, but eventually you'll have everything backed up and easily accessible. It's literally a huge weight off your life. It took us months to get everything digitized (it could have been less time, but it was daunting task), but now we're far more mobile than we were before. One side benefit of digitizing things is the sense of closure that comes with tossing that stuff to the cloud, it's kind of difficult to explain but I think you'll get my meaning.

You should definitely sit down with the GF and talk about her parents. It would be a shame if YOU come on the hook for someone else's irresponsible parents.

m741
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Location: Seattle, WA

Re: m741's ERE Journal

Post by m741 »

September, 2015

What happened?
My girlfriend moved in! Plus, lots of other stuff: her mother visited and stayed with us. We did some travel at the very beginning of the month, then I was swamped at work, and I've been keeping a busy schedule. I'm looking forward to some rest.

Job
Job's going ok, though I find it difficult to focus for an extended period of time. I was super-busy at the beginning of the month on an exciting project, and now I'm working on the stuff that nobody wants to do (but somebody has to). Hoping to change things around a bit in the coming months. At least there's an opportunity to learn.

Finances
This was my big quarterly dividend month, so I saw dividend income grow by $70/month, mostly from re-investment. I've been buying SolarCity bonds pretty aggressively - including the new 3-month bonds, which offer better interest than letting money sit in the bank (though of course with some risk).

The market recovered, so while I'm not quite at maximum net worth, I don't have a net loss in investment income, which is all I cared about psychologically. I'd happily let the market stay steady now and continue to invest.

What am I doing?
I've been using a to-do list for about 2 months now, and knocking things off of it pretty aggressively. Digitizing was part of it, but a lot of it is mundane things: (repot plants, list stuff on Craigslist, send emails to family friends, brew kombucha, write blog posts, clean refrigerator, etc). It feels good to finally be organized in this area of my life.

I guess that's a bit lame! I've also been doing a bit of drawing, and exercising regularly (2 weeks now). I try to meditate a little each day, and I've been listening to podcasts aggressively and doing more reading than normal. I'm staying pretty busy overall.

----

There's a lot of other things going on, I'll do another mid-month post in a week or two.

spoonman
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Re: m741's ERE Journal

Post by spoonman »

What kind of to-do list do you use? A phone app or a good-old (physical) notepad?

m741
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Location: Seattle, WA

Re: m741's ERE Journal

Post by m741 »

I use Google Docs. I have a tab open on my desktop and at work for consultation or if I think of anything at all I want to do (anything that takes more than 5 minutes or which requires some planning/supplies). If I'm on the go, I can open it on a phone. It gives me some flexibility for organization/structuring as well.

I don't included repetitive tasks like "do dishes," "do laundry," etc, but everything else goes on the list.

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C40
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Re: m741's ERE Journal

Post by C40 »

Congrats on the girl moving in. Less rent!! (?)

m741
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Joined: Tue Jan 18, 2011 3:31 am
Location: Seattle, WA

Re: m741's ERE Journal

Post by m741 »

October 2015

What happened?
A busy month with lots of events, but no travel. Multiple concerts, parties, gatherings with friends that left me exhausted - looking to recover in November. Of course I had a good time but it was draining for me as an introvert and I'm ready for a regular schedule.

Job
Job's ok. Got to experiment with a bunch of stuff so felt like I learned a lot. I feel like my capacity for work is limited. From burnout (not recent, but 2 years ago), or maybe because I know I can walk away at any point, I work less hard and less diligently than I actually want to, but it feels like there's an upper ceiling to my output. This is the number one thing that's bothering me right now.

Finances
A huge month for me financially. Of course the market recovered, which was reassuring, but a lot of other things for me personally as well. I talked to my tax guy, who's very helpful as a sounding board, and came up with a few actionable items.

- I opened up a 529 plan. At some point I'd like to take some college classes, whether for a degree or simply my own interest. And even if I don't, I'd like to have an account for my kids someday. So it makes sense to open this.
- I'm continuing to max out my IRA, which will be converted to a Roth in ~2 years (legal reasons for the delay).
- I'm ready to switch to an HSA+high deductible health insurance (thanks to the Mad FIentist post about HSAs as the perfect retirement account). That option will be available at work in November.
- Finally completed the transfer of a bunch of inherited accounts.
- Completed a bunch of tax-loss harvesting and end-of-year selling.
- Opted in to autosale of vesting stock at work.
- Moved emphasis on high-dividend funds to tax-advantaged accounts (though I still have plenty in non-tax advantaged accounts).

What am I doing?
Besdies all of the above, I'm continuing to draw in my spare time. I haven't had a whole lot of time to work on other personal things. I'm considering purchasing a grow light for herbs but would need to run the numbers. The gf and I are experimenting with mixed drinks, which incidentally seem more cost-effective than beer - and are more interesting to make. Especially with fresh basil.

DutchGirl
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Re: m741's ERE Journal

Post by DutchGirl »

m741 wrote: I feel like my capacity for work is limited. From burnout (not recent, but 2 years ago), or maybe because I know I can walk away at any point, I work less hard and less diligently than I actually want to, but it feels like there's an upper ceiling to my output. This is the number one thing that's bothering me right now.
I don't know you very well, and I can't see how you're actually doing, but it could also be possible that you're judging yourself too harshly here, and are expecting superhuman dedication from yourself. Could that be the case? I've experienced that myself: sometimes you want to care and think you should care, but you just can't or don't (and looking back, sometimes there's also a good reason why you didn't care). And I've also seen in my IT-boyfriend that work dedication just comes and goes. Some months he enjoys his work a lot and stays up late to finish some exciting new bit of code, other months it's all "meh" and he works much less and is way less excited about it. Maybe everyone's like this, or maybe some people are capable of producing a certain level of work year-round, and others show a more or less ebb and flood pattern.
So maybe you're just human?

El Duderino
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Re: m741's ERE Journal

Post by El Duderino »

DutchGirl wrote:So maybe you're just human?
Or maybe he's adjusting his equilibrium point in the Gervais 'loser' sense. I certainly get that way a lot and I've found the cure is some serious goofing off while I'm on the clock. Eventually, this gets dull too, so I turn back to work but since I've got my funglasses on, it's actually enjoyable and I end up with a much higher quality product.

spoonman
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Re: m741's ERE Journal

Post by spoonman »

m741 wrote: Multiple concerts, parties, gatherings with friends that left me exhausted - looking to recover in November. Of course I had a good time but it was draining for me as an introvert...
Spoongirl and I had the chance to go to a party recently, the first one in many months. I felt the same as a you: had a great time, but felt tremendously drained. Part of that may be due to aging, but man my tolerance for extroverted environments has gone way down.

m741
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Location: Seattle, WA

Re: m741's ERE Journal

Post by m741 »

@DutchGirl - I'm sure there's natural cycles of enthusiasm and boredom. For me, I just seem to land pretty consistently on the boredom side of things. And have for about 3 years now (since fall 2012, when I felt like I just ran into a wall, work-wise). Of course every few weeks I get a bit excited about something, but I just don't feel the same way as the first ~2-3 years of my career. Maybe the honeymoon wore off... though looking back I wasn't that excited even then!

@El Duderino - You're certainly partly right. I realized I never needed to work as hard as I did. And I have little reason to push myself. On the other hand, I feel like slacking off reflects poorly on myself... and frankly isn't even that much fun anyway (I mean slacking off while at work). I want to take pride in my work. But the motivation is somehow missing.

@Spoonman - Yeah, I enjoy social events, but they exhaust me for a few days. Plus, I'm just generally more social, since moving in with my girlfriend. I used to not talk to/see people after work ~3 days a week. Of course, it's different with her and doesn't exhaust me, but it's also not a mental reset, either.

DutchGirl
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Re: m741's ERE Journal

Post by DutchGirl »

I've seen my boyfriend, a programmer, go through cycles of boredom and enthusiasm, but the enthusiasm is really there. So, I'm wondering whether software engineering is a good fit for you? The fact that you're smart and educated enough to do it, doesn't mean that you have to do it. Or maybe you're in the wrong part of software engineering for you (I have understood that there are many different subfields). Or maybe software engineering is wonderful, but the goal you're trying to reach at your current job is not worthwhile to you? (Kind of like how I used to like studying DNA and genetics, but only if it was to work on real diseases, not to study the heritability of hammertoes - sorry, hammertoe-sufferers).

Good luck :)

m741
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Re: m741's ERE Journal

Post by m741 »

Time for a mid-month update!

About a month back I bought a tea strainer, and a small container of looseleaf tea. I drink tea now ~3-4 times per week, and that's trending up. I discovered that I liked tea more than I thought when I tried a delicious fancy Rishi green tea (bagged), so the cheap strainer seemed worth it to try nicer tea. This tea is good enough that I don't need to sweeten it... I've tried loose ginger/turmeric herbal tea and Pu-Erh tea, both of which I really enjoyed, and have a big bag of gunpowder green tea sitting on my counter waiting for me. I'm now fully stocked up for a while.

Since April I've been growing houseplants... I didn't have houseplants since moving out to college. I always enjoyed gardening as a kid (except for digging around tree roots outside), and the plants, which are pretty forgiving, have done well. Currently I have:
* A parlor palm, doing well
* A peace lily, doing not-so-well (unclear if underwatered or if it has root rot)
* A large container of rosemary
* Two snake plants that don't appear to have grown at all, one may be struggling
* One lush oxalis and one very sparse oxalis
* One beautiful pothos that keeps sending out vines which I trim and propagate (now have 3 additional pothos)
* An oregano plant, which I'm nursing back to health
* A mint plant, sitting outside, which got attacked by aphids
* One immense, stringy purple basil
* Two stringy sweet basil, which I just chopped down to try to propagate and make bushier this time
* A spider plant that I bought two weeks ago at Home Depot, suffering and heavily root bound, that I just split into three pots.

I lost:
* One oregano, and one mint plant, unwatered for a week on vacation
* Two chili plants, completely infested with aphids
Winter is coming and most of these plants sit near poorly-insulated single pane glass windows, in some cases right next to them in homemade shoebox planters strung up from curtain rods. When I have some access to power tools soon, I'm planning on building a standalone planter wall with LEDs that I can sit further from windows. I did a bunch of research and grow lights are pretty amazing (thanks to the pot industry). I'm excited to build it and will report back in December.

I have also been going to the gym. Very quick visits, I run for 15 minutes and do a few weight machines. Nothing fancy, just trying to stay active and build a little muscle. I'm trying out a ketogenic diet as well, flirting with it last week and trying it more fully this week.

I've officially signed up for high-deductible health insurance with an HSA, reputed to be the best retirement vehicle out there. My insurance changes in 2016, so I'm loading up on Doctor's visits to round out the year. I went to a physical therapist about my back, which has been bothering me off and on for six years. They took x-rays and I finally got a chance to look at things: one disc is compressed a bit funny (L5, extreme lower back), and my spine tilts to the side, apparently due to favoring the one side for all these years. So far the sessions haven't helped that much, they've mostly been loosening things up. We're starting to get to exercises, so I'm excited to see how those turn out. Since my back only feels a little sore after a long day sitting, my intent was mostly to start preventative care. I may try to have bloodwork done... any suggestions on how to simply go to a doctor and get a big screening with no specific problem in mind?

I started playing ping-pong again at work. A tournament just started and I was practicing... I just won my first match in the tourney and feel pretty confident in my chances (intermediate bracket).

For a week and a half in December/January the girlfriend and I are going to England and Scotland. We've booked up all our AirBnBs, bought all our flights and the big train tickets. I'm excited to see another country at Christmas, we're going to a big New Year's party, and I'm starting to ramp up my research. The itinerary is 2 days in London, 2 days in York, 2 days in Newcastle/Durham, 3 days in Edinburgh (possible day trip to Glasgow or elsewhere), train ride back to London, and then one more day in London. Suggestions welcome.

cmonkey
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Re: m741's ERE Journal

Post by cmonkey »

Sounds like you need a greenhouse ;) That's a nice list of plants.

I know we do, half of our kitchen is covered in potted up plants. Only place where the cats can't get them!

Have fun in the UK, that is the DWs dream vacation right there.

JasonR
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Re: m741's ERE Journal

Post by JasonR »

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Last edited by JasonR on Fri Mar 15, 2019 1:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Ego
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Re: m741's ERE Journal

Post by Ego »

FWIW, I had success with Sarno's book Healing Back Pain.

http://www.worldcat.org/title/healing-b ... c/60190198

Here he is on 20/20 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsR4wydiIBI

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