m741's ERE Journal

[BeyondtheWrap]

What city is the new job located in? Or are you still in the NYC area?

[leeholsen]

you have a really great journal, read thru some of it today; will read thru more as time allows. always great to see what someone down the road did; as one of my professors used to say; almost everything that could be done, has been done; most new things are just following someone else and altering what they already did.

[m741]

I guess I wasn't very clear. I'm still in the NYC area (didn't move at all). It's just a tech company - they do exist here!

[lilacorchid]

m741 - It could be a honeymoon period... there is nothing perfect about anywhere. Or perhaps you found a good company with the kinds of crazy you can overlook! Thanks for the good read!

[Seneca]

Love that road trip route! Looking forward to doing same with our kids as part of their geography and social studies education.

Enjoy the new job, may you find the challenges to get to the next level with your programming.

[m741]

I ran my marathon this past weekend. It was quite an adventure.

My goal was simply to complete the thing, which I did. But I also had to walk part of it, towards the end. Not because I was exhausted, but because I didn't want to injure myself - my ankles and knees were really upset with me. I wouldn't have minded my very slow time if I ran the whole thing, but I was disappointed that I had to walk; that felt like a failure.

I was aggressive about preparation... some people spend 8-10 months preparing for a marathon; the runners reading this will probably shake their heads when they read that I had 3 weeks to prepare after returning from my trip. Of course, I was in good shape from all the hiking, but wasn't prepared for the stress road running put on my tendons. Even backpacking downhill was less stressful on the knees than running.

The good news is that I'm well on my way to recovery, and I discovered that I rather enjoyed the training. Like many people I'd grown to hate it during school, but I found that for medium/long distances it didn't inspire the same sort of loathing I had for 2-3 mile runs. I also enjoyed the event itself, with other people to run alongside, tents, and (small) crowds. It reminded me of when I rowed in high school and college.

So, I'm definitely going to be doing future races. I'd like to try a whole variety: 5k, 10k, 10m and half marathons before another full marathon. The thought of doing 1 race per month in 2014 has crossed my mind, but maybe that's too aggressive. I'd also like to start training barefoot-style (I caved a while back and bought some minimalist shoes), something I wasn't able to do with a short amount of time. And then there's pace training via sprints.

I'm also glad to have the marathon out of the way, as it means I can focus a more on lifting weights and working out regularly, rather than preparing for a specific event (the week before the marathon was enforced inactivity to recover from my 2 weeks of strenuous training, which I wasn't happy about). My job subsidizes a gym membership up to $50/month, and there's a gym just a few blocks from me that I'm going to join soon.

[spoonman]

I'm sorry to hear you had difficulties running at the end. I think you did the right thing in slowing down, otherwise you could have done permanent damage to your joints.

Running on concrete can really ruin your knees. I messed up my knees several years ago after running on concrete for a whole year. My knees haven't recovered and I don't think they will. I've had physical therapy twice, which has helped mitigate the problem somewhat.

[JeffD]

What an amazing journal! Very inspiring. Your programming goal is kind of the same as mine.

[m741]

@JeffD - what exactly is your goal? What are you doing to get there?

[leeholsen]

What an amazing journal! Very inspiring. Your programming goal is kind of the same as mine.

you know, sometimes i think we should rename this place the P+W ERE forums, with p standing for programmers and w standing for writers. seems you cant swing a published book around without hitting one or the other.

[mds]

Wait, you trained for a marathon in 2-3 weeks? You definitely shouldn't be upset about having to walk. I trained 10 weeks for a 10 mile race!

[DutchGirl]

This weekend's the NWERC (North West European Region Contest) programming competition here in Delft. My boyfriend is one of the jury members and he helped to create the problems that need to be solved (that sounds a bit weird ). There will be an online competition as well... http://2013.nwerc.eu/en/online-contest/

[JeffD]

@JeffD - what exactly is your goal? What are you doing to get there?

Someone who could program competently in any field. Like a Renaissance Programmer. I have no concrete idea how to get there. Seems like a big challenge. Right now, just doing projects that I have no idea how to even get done and tinker with it as I go.

Hows your journey going so far?

What an amazing journal! Very inspiring. Your programming goal is kind of the same as mine.

you know, sometimes i think we should rename this place the P+W ERE forums, with p standing for programmers and w standing for writers. seems you cant swing a published book around without hitting one or the other.

You are right.

[m741]

November 2013 Update

It’s a pretty big update this month, as I’ve been very busy. I started working in the beginning of the month; I’ve also run a marathon, traveled home for Thanksgiving, started working out, picked up guitar, and tried to do some programming in my spare time. Among other things .

First, some concrete numbers (Finally!). My total expenses this month were $1,877. As usual, there were some unanticipated expenses, including: $70 for a guitar program (more on this later), $65 for Thanksgiving bus tickets, and assorted dinners out with friends. My total income was $2,769. This number is pretty much meaningless, for the following reasons: only one paycheck for this month; I received a $5k signing bonus for the new job, but I also put 50% of income directly into the 401k to try to max out my match. I don’t include 401k in ‘income’ although maybe I should. Dividends were steady with previous months. The end of this month marks the wealthiest I’ve ever been, as the company match ($3k, the $5k bonus, and the paycheck brought me over the amount I spent on my trip). Next month I’ll be depositing the check for the van I traveled with, as it finally sold. I took a heavier hit on that than I wanted, but so be it.

As part of my tabulations I introduced a new expense category: “Hobby.” I’d previously lumped this in with “Entertainment,” but I think that’s misleading. Entertainment, henceforth, will be passive stuff - books, movies, music, which really should be $0. Hobbies are skills I’m actively developing. Obviously, I’m willing to spend a bit on my hobbies that I wouldn't on entertainment.

The job will be dropping my expenses even more over the next few months with its crazy perks. This month I paid $75 for internet access; that will be 0 from here on out. I now have a free cellphone. Not that my phone expenses were high, but this will save me ~$150 per year. My gym costs are subsidized, and food is free (it’s really good food!). I did spend a lot on food as I felt I could justify ‘splurging.’ I think an achievable expense goal would be $1500/month though I won’t hit that in December.

What about investments? Even during my trip I was investing $250 weekly in Vanguard mutual funds. I’m bumping that to $500 starting now. I’ve also been transferring about $1000/week additional into funds as a plan to shift 10-20k out of cash on an averaged basis. The impetus here was when I realized that a good chunk of ‘cash’ was in a vanguard MM mutual fund with an expense ratio. Yuck! The final note on my investments is that, now that I have stocks in a Vanguard brokerage account, dividends are reinvested, which I’m actually super-enthusiastic about. It was the biggest shortcoming of my previous account. I like that, without any action on my part, I’m increasing my investments monthly. Dividends this month were $350.

Charity

Ok, on to my other interests. One thing I was hoping to do was to get more involved in charity. I haven’t had any free time to volunteer, but I have been donating more. Kiva finally introduced a way to dump money into your ‘account’ there regularly, and I’m doing $100/month, plus reinvestments. I don’t include this as an expense as the money is still theoretically available to me. Also, on my new smartphone I installed an app called ‘One Today,’ which introduces a charity each day and asks for a $1 donation. I like this, as I can spread money across a variety of causes. For instance, clean drinking water, education for sex trafficking victims, and hurricane recovery efforts in the Philippines. That totals $30/month and I do include that in my donations. I think I will be able to begin volunteering in 2014.

Guitar

I mentioned guitar earlier. A few years back I’d bought a crappy guitar/amp/etc combo. I didn’t use it much and had considered selling it. But recently I somehow got interested again. I’d had an aversion to guitar because it’s the stereotypical instrument to learn. But on the other hand, I think it’s considerably easier to be competent at than piano or harmonica, the two other instruments I’d been learning. It's also very versatile. And there’s a ton of educational material available. Foremost among these is the game ‘Rocksmith,’ which uses a special USB cable to turn a real guitar into a video game. I’ve really enjoyed that and I’m tracking my practice, trying to do an hour per day. That’s usually 30 minutes of Rocksmith and 30 minutes of chord practice and instructional videos. I do this right after work and enjoy the separation it gives me.

One thing I really like is that, with 15 minutes of dedicated guitar practice you can see a substantial improvement in some ability. For instance, 15 minutes dedicated to switching between the A and D chords will make me a better player, guaranteed. And guitar is so broad, there’s always something new to learn.

Fitness

I ran a marathon during the middle of the month. This was on three weeks of practice, a very aggressive schedule. I enjoyed the training, but I’m still recovering: the wear on my ankles and knees was quite a bit. I think in a few weeks I’ll be doing some regular running.

My work schedule is flexible; I try to arrive at around 9am. That means I finally have enough time to go to the gym, typically from 7am-7:45am. My gym is literally 3 minutes walk away, and it’s subsidized by my job. I’m pretty weak, given that I’d only done ~3 months of lifting over the past 5 years. My routine is simple: three lifts M/W/F, 5 sets of 5 reps. Lifts are squats, deadlift, overhead press and bench press. I had success with this routine in college and I’m already feeling stronger, even after 2 sessions . I have no immediate goals, but long term I want to hit 1000 pounds total between bench press+squat+deadlift. I’d like to do more distance running, maybe some half marathons and 10ks.

I’m eating pretty well, holidays excluded. Typically right after lifting I have a small bowl of oatmeal, protein powder, and psyllium (fiber). At work, I have a bowl of cottage cheese, yogurt and granola. Then a green juice drink, some small snacks. For lunch I have a few small pieces of flatbread pizza, a small dessert, berries and some pasta/greens. For dinner I have some tofu dish, some grain/legume salad, some soup or potatoes, and another dessert. I’ll have to have a bit more discipline here, but overall I’m pretty happy.

Job

I’ve been working 4 weeks now. About two weeks of that were training and basically pointless. I’m starting to get back in the routine. There’s a lot to learn. I’m using Java and Javascript, and doing Android development. All of these are new to me in a professional environment. There’s also, of course, a ton of code to get familiar with.

I realized very early on that my ‘practice muscles’ had atrophied. I haven’t had to dedicate much effort to learning something new for 5 years, since I started at the previous job. Just applying myself to this new stuff was a struggle. Another element was that the burnout I suffered at the previous job had led to some bad habits. This is another reason I’m learning guitar, because I want to strengthen my ability to practice.

At work I keep a daily log of what I learned (for instance, static classes in Java, how to construct an enum, etc). I also track the rough hours I spent coding in both Java and Javascript. I like this because I can say “oh, it’s understandable I don’t really get that. I only have a total of 50 hours of Java practice,” or whatever. Plus when I get to 1,000 hours or 5,000 hours I’ll have some understanding what that means.

I had hoped to do a lot of programming outside of work, but I’m simply too busy. I’m casually working on some javascript games, but not as regularly as I’d like to. My schedule looks like this:

* 7:00-7:45 Gym
* 7:45-9:00 Shower, change, commute
* 9:00-9:45 Breakfast at work, read email, etc
* 10:45-6:30 Working
* 6:30-7:15 Dinner at work, finish up daily tasks
* 7:15-8:00 Commute home
* 8:00-8:30 Settle in at home
* 8:30-9:30 Guitar practice
* 9:30-10:00 Catch up on websites, email
* 10:00-11:30 Read, watch TV, or try to do some programming
* 11:30-7:00 Sleep

Overall I’m happy. I’m getting stronger, learning a lot, and finally practicing an instrument with some regularity. I'm back on quantifiable financial footing and increasing savings. I kinda wish this upcoming month were January rather than December, as December is not a great month to cement a routine. But so be it.

[CLE]

Not sure what your level of comfort is with Javascript at the moment, but I highly recommend this book. You'll come out with a much better understanding of the prototype chain and scoping which I believe are the most powerful and misunderstood features of the language.

Javascript Patterns

I play guitar as well, but classical instead of contemporary. I like that I can sit down and play a full pieces (melody and accompaniment) solo. Rocksmith does look pretty cool though.

[m741]

@CLE - that book was on the list of JS books I wanted to look at (along with Javascript: The Good Parts). I'll have to check it out soon. I've been doing more Java/Android recently but want to have a good JS understanding by the time I need to use it.

Rocksmith is a lot of fun. It's not a great learning tool - I suspect it encourages sloppy technique - but it's good motivation, and the mini-games are fun.

[riparian]

I love your journal cause you're so opposite me.

Next time you're car living, you can charge your laptop while driving with a cheap cig lighter inverter. Stop for lunch in a parking lot with wifi and you're golden.

How are you so good at quickly setting up and changing habits/routines?

[OmFlux]

Looks like your Rocksmith is going for 49.99 on the official website as part of Black Friday special. I may have to pick that up as I have a guitar /amp combo gathering dust and this is one of the things I want to spend more time on for ERE.

[m741]

@Riparian: The funny thing is that I'm not good at setting up new routines! My routines constantly fall apart, so it's mostly a case of my eyes being bigger than my stomach. I have a feeling this set out interests and routines may be more sustainable than previously.

As for the laptop - I actually did try using an inverter but it blew a fuse in the car. My laptop drew too much power. I think a netbook or ultrabook might have worked but I didn't want to buy one. In the future a smartphone with bluetooth keyboard will be enough and I wouldn't even use the laptop.

I agree we're really different. I'm secretly envious (not so secretly now, I suppose) of your crazy Alaskan lifestyle! It makes my day-to-day existence seem so mundane.

[Gilberto de Piento]

If you decide that you again want to use the laptop in a car you could get one of the larger inverters that is wired directly to the car's battery. It will require routing the cables for the inverter from under the hood into the car. It's the same process as people do for car stereo amplifiers.

You also might try it with a different car someday in case there was some sort of electrical issue with that particular van. Even better, many new cars have AC outlets built in so it eliminates the need for an inverter.