Re: akratic's ERE journal
Posted: Sun May 31, 2020 3:40 pm
The big news this month is I gave notice at my job. I have one week left, and then I'll be unemployed again! I'm glad I pulled this trigger: life is short, the job was mediocre overall, I don’t need the money, I have lots of other good options for my time, and I want to live my life deliberately and in control.
If I had to guess I'll take six months off to focus on things like my family, my health, my house, building a community in our new town, etc. And then after six months or so maybe I'll get another typical dev job or maybe instead I'll try again to create a little independent income stream.
I've decided to try a new approach in my journal this month, which is to be heavy on pictures. Let's begin:
As you can see, I'm totally kicking ass at cardio this month: 28 workouts averaging 1 hr 20 minutes and 850 calories each. I've been very consistent too, exercising 6 out of 7 days most weeks (my ideal). The far right image has a typical workout.
What I'm less happy about, and kinda actually embarassed, is my measurements: 201.5 lbs, 38" waist (widest point), and approx 24.4% body fat represent the worst shape I've been in my life. I look forward to seeing these numbers improve. Although I did well at cardio all month, I only started watching what I was eating in the last week, and my weight lifting is still interrupted by covid.
This is my setup: a recumbent bike, a table that I made out of a metal shelf from the garage, and a laptop. I have a system where I let myself play videos games but ONLY if I'm doing cardio. This is how I got such good workout number above! This sounds simple but it's pretty revolutionary for me. Normally when I start to get into a video game it kinda takes over my life, consuming all the free time. Here, I'm naturally limited by the ~1-2hrs/day my body can handle biking with resistance, and the exercise is basically free. I started playing a strategy game called TFT this month and have climbed to Diamond IV on the bike (top 1.7% of player base). I'm now working on getting a second account to Diamond and then climbing higher. It's so much fun and it's amazing to not feel guilty about it.
Here is a small new hobby: propagating plants. This is my first attempt and it's using a pothos plant we already had. It's so cool that all this plant needs to grow more of itself is tap water and sunlight.
Here are my kids!! 2.5yr old and 4 months old (both very big for their age).
In the background you can get a small taste of the constant state of disarray our house is in these days. This pains the minimalist inside me. That said, what I like about minimalism is the extra headspace it gives, and one surprise I've found as a parent is the right possession in the kid's hands results in them self-entertaining... which grants headspace. One short term goal I have is to pare down the non-kid possessions to counteract the whirlwind that our kids create.
My son has two magical abilities: 1) flipping through books 2) and doing jigsaw puzzles. He practices puzzles so much that he can do 24 piece puzzles on his own and 48 piece puzzles with help. He's also able to entertain himself in the yard. These are the exception though: he still takes an incredible amount of his parents' mental energy and resources on the whole, followed only by:
Here is our daughter, who is teething and is pissed off about it around 80% of her waking hours. Here she has surprised us by falling asleep for the first time in her upright chair. In the background you can see our 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle habit, as well as the sliding door my dad and I added to the house.
Our backyard has been taken over by this invasive species, which I believe to be creeping charlie (not 100% sure). The previous owners, as well as most neighbors, solve this problem with money by hiring landscapers. I want to solve it myself but haven't been able to finish my research yet. I believe I need to do something like:
1) kill the creeping charlie, either with chemicals (bad for kids) or like a big tarp (kill whole yard)
2) plant new grass seed and help it grow, with the help of a spreader.
Please let me know if you know how to solve this one. It will be one of my next projects.
Cheers,
Edit:
My wife, who lurks in this journal, has informed me that my post makes our lives look substantially more under control than they are. So I'll leave you with this photo a friend took of both our kids having meltdowns at the same time. I'll leave it to your imagination how the same situation plays out when there's only one parent around.
If I had to guess I'll take six months off to focus on things like my family, my health, my house, building a community in our new town, etc. And then after six months or so maybe I'll get another typical dev job or maybe instead I'll try again to create a little independent income stream.
I've decided to try a new approach in my journal this month, which is to be heavy on pictures. Let's begin:
As you can see, I'm totally kicking ass at cardio this month: 28 workouts averaging 1 hr 20 minutes and 850 calories each. I've been very consistent too, exercising 6 out of 7 days most weeks (my ideal). The far right image has a typical workout.
What I'm less happy about, and kinda actually embarassed, is my measurements: 201.5 lbs, 38" waist (widest point), and approx 24.4% body fat represent the worst shape I've been in my life. I look forward to seeing these numbers improve. Although I did well at cardio all month, I only started watching what I was eating in the last week, and my weight lifting is still interrupted by covid.
This is my setup: a recumbent bike, a table that I made out of a metal shelf from the garage, and a laptop. I have a system where I let myself play videos games but ONLY if I'm doing cardio. This is how I got such good workout number above! This sounds simple but it's pretty revolutionary for me. Normally when I start to get into a video game it kinda takes over my life, consuming all the free time. Here, I'm naturally limited by the ~1-2hrs/day my body can handle biking with resistance, and the exercise is basically free. I started playing a strategy game called TFT this month and have climbed to Diamond IV on the bike (top 1.7% of player base). I'm now working on getting a second account to Diamond and then climbing higher. It's so much fun and it's amazing to not feel guilty about it.
Here is a small new hobby: propagating plants. This is my first attempt and it's using a pothos plant we already had. It's so cool that all this plant needs to grow more of itself is tap water and sunlight.
Here are my kids!! 2.5yr old and 4 months old (both very big for their age).
In the background you can get a small taste of the constant state of disarray our house is in these days. This pains the minimalist inside me. That said, what I like about minimalism is the extra headspace it gives, and one surprise I've found as a parent is the right possession in the kid's hands results in them self-entertaining... which grants headspace. One short term goal I have is to pare down the non-kid possessions to counteract the whirlwind that our kids create.
My son has two magical abilities: 1) flipping through books 2) and doing jigsaw puzzles. He practices puzzles so much that he can do 24 piece puzzles on his own and 48 piece puzzles with help. He's also able to entertain himself in the yard. These are the exception though: he still takes an incredible amount of his parents' mental energy and resources on the whole, followed only by:
Here is our daughter, who is teething and is pissed off about it around 80% of her waking hours. Here she has surprised us by falling asleep for the first time in her upright chair. In the background you can see our 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle habit, as well as the sliding door my dad and I added to the house.
Our backyard has been taken over by this invasive species, which I believe to be creeping charlie (not 100% sure). The previous owners, as well as most neighbors, solve this problem with money by hiring landscapers. I want to solve it myself but haven't been able to finish my research yet. I believe I need to do something like:
1) kill the creeping charlie, either with chemicals (bad for kids) or like a big tarp (kill whole yard)
2) plant new grass seed and help it grow, with the help of a spreader.
Please let me know if you know how to solve this one. It will be one of my next projects.
Cheers,
Edit:
My wife, who lurks in this journal, has informed me that my post makes our lives look substantially more under control than they are. So I'll leave you with this photo a friend took of both our kids having meltdowns at the same time. I'll leave it to your imagination how the same situation plays out when there's only one parent around.