7Wannabe5-Take 5

[7Wannabe5]

I had a weird moment yesterday. I opened up an old ebay account associated with my business that I hadn't looked at in years. Back in the olden days of the internet, I was shipping my own books and selling on 5 different marketplaces. I was surprised to note that we (I was in partnership with my sister) had sold over $100,000 worth of books on Ebay alone during that time period. In fact, I was so surprised that I wondered for a second if maybe it was a sign of early onset senility. I decided that it was more likely a sign that maybe I have fried out my brain with too many different projects, interests, occupations, road-trips, residences, and boyfriends over the last 10-15 years. It's like I'm flipping through an entirely new epoch every 3 years, so 2008 was like 4 epochs ago for me, and I have to practically do an archaeological dig to reconstruct the lifestyle of 43 year old me from the perspective of 54 year old me.

[Jin+Guice]

I'm disappointed in your seeming choice to navigate away from your plan of following, as closely as possible for someone so far removed from the target audience, the plan outlined in "Efficiency." I'm also disappointed in your choice to purchase a car. Otherwise you remain one of my heroes.

[7Wannabe5]

Otherwise you remain one of my heroes.

Odd choice. Is Ignatius J. Reilly also one of your heroes?

I am still trying to follow something resembling the "Efficiency" program. That is why I bought a car. Riding the bus for 90 minutes to get to my teaching gig and attempting to operate a bicycle hauling boxes full of books in the Michigan winter in order to re-boot my old business (as warm-up to starting new business(es)) did not seem very efficient. To paraphrase the philosophy of the authors of both "Efficiency" and "The Art and Science of Dumpster Diving", one must be at least a little bit of a boundary maintaining , competitive asshole to survive on this planet. Also, I justify my acquisition/use of automobile for my own business as being no worse than living off of profits from investment in businesses that also burn fossil fuels. IOW, rule of thumb would assign my mileage to my customers as end consumers. Also, I gather and sell used books and somebody has to drive the recycling truck.

[Dream of Freedom]

Congrats on restarting the business. How full is the schedule? How are you doing with the HITT and weight training part of the program?

[Jin+Guice]

I can't make it more than 20 pages into that book.

“The only excursion of my life outside of New Orleans took me through the vortex to the whirlpool of despair: Baton Rouge.”

I think this quote shamed my major professor into allowing me to live in New Orleans while working towards a PhD in Baton Rouge, he used to quote it to me while he looked off into the distance...

I'm glad you haven't strayed from the Efficiency plans. I realize a car may be the most efficient transportation, I just don't like to imagine my heroes in cars.

[classical_Liberal]

Otherwise, you are lining your pocketbook at the expense of YOUR OWN concept of humanity.

Absolutely! I rarely bring this up because it's so god-damned cliche, but its true, so I will. I get to spend quite a bit of time conversating with a lot of people towards, or at, the end of their lives. The healthy, happy, fulfilled, 90+ year old's all have a few things in common. Of course, being physically active throughout life(in a non-repetitive way, ie factory-work doesn't count) is the biggest commonality. But the second is that they express having had great pleasure in whatever it was they did with their "working" life. This isn't just rose colored glasses either, because many of them do it up until, and even past, the point that they physically can't partake in the pleasure of it anymore.

The takeaway for me has always been, whatever it is you do, make sure you believe in what you are doing.

I still get chills in my spine every time I think of a comment @7WB5 made in another thread (I forget where) about one of her wealthy, older lovers. It was something to the effect that his house was filled with costco boxes, it seemed like all he knew was how to make and save money, but he had forgotten how to live. No matter how much I want the freedom and security of FI, I will not let that be me.

[7Wannabe5]

How full is the schedule? How are you doing with the HITT and weight training part of the program?

Well, I could be working pretty much all the time now, since I have an almost endless supply of teaching gigs, rare book buying opportunities, and I also signed up for a grocery delivery gig to further justify the expense/overhead of my new used car. So, my next steps are to either rent some warehouse space or construct some on my vacant lots, start another business, and shuffle towards maximizing my $$/hour.

One thing I don't quite grok about the "Efficiency" program is that theoretically you are initially throwing all your extra money from your lucrative career at your business for quite a few years. Most of my business ideas don't require a ton of money to get going.

My training is going terrible. I can't figure out where to fit it into my day. I might have to join a gym, because close quarters with my BF is part of the problem. Also, I am stuck in a vicious mid-life hyper-feminization cycle which is causing my body to store estrogen in the form of huge quantities of fat on my lower body in last ditch desperate effort towards maintenance of fertility. The situation is so out of hand, I actually found myself googling "butt bra" the other day.

@Jin + Guice:

My DD27 went to school in New Orleans, so I had occasion to visit the statue. I have to say I wasn't overly impressed with the visual appeal of the rest of the state.

@classical_Liberal:

The eccentric multi-millionaire with the Costco boxes is my friend, not my lover. I like eccentric people, and he is a good egg, just far less balanced in his functioning than most people. He is also in 99th percentile fitness for a man his age, but his house-keeping is pretty much the opposite of anything you might see in Dwell magazine.

[Jason]

Also, I am stuck in a vicious mid-life hyper-feminization cycle which is causing my body to store estrogen in the form of huge quantities of fat on my lower body in last ditch desperate effort towards maintenance of fertility. The situation is so out of hand, I actually found myself googling "butt bra" the other day.

For purposes of scientific clarification, is it appropriate for, let's say, a male reader, someone with a healthy but not extreme affection for zaftig women to be aroused by the above captioned statement? I am talking someone who might take a moment out to flip through a Lane Bryant catalogue, but stops short of spending his hard earned money watching Gilbert Grape's mother sized women eat banana splits on internet cam shows.

[prognastat]

The situation is so out of hand, I actually found myself googling "butt bra" the other day.

I think they're called spanx.

[Jin+Guice]

@Jin + Guice:

My DD27 went to school in New Orleans, so I had occasion to visit the statue. I have to say I wasn't overly impressed with the visual appeal of the rest of the state.

It's taken years of living here and years of dating a native, but I will begrudgingly admit that this state has its charms, even outside of New Orleans. As far as I can tell, Baton Rouge is the sincere attempt of the old-school middle class to distance itself from everything that is great about Louisiana, keeping everything that is terrible, while importing the mistakes of the rest of the culture.

My current operating paradigm is ERE interpreted through the lens of past experiences, so everything else is stuffed through that filter. As with any filtering, you risk losing something you want while removing that which you do not. Viewing "Efficiency" through this filter (and truthfully I'm on page 5), their critical failure is blind adherence to the idea that a large amount of money is required for a good life or just about anything. To me, this explains most of their shortcomings.

[Kriegsspiel]

Just get a kettlebell and do swings.

[trailblazer]

I’m really enjoying your take on WSP. I think the rare book business is very much consistent with what they teach. If you can make a reasonable income then go for it. They have a number of blog posts mentioning their own work as watch repairmen that they used to earn extra money. Go ahead and skip the 10 year investment banking career that is supposed to come first. My sense of their teaching is that your own business income is always far superior to wage slave income. For those who don’t follow their tweets, there is no reason that a 50+ person can’t succeed - it’s just that they tend to run out of energy and give up.

[7Wannabe5]

is it appropriate

Well, since it has been suggested that increased mammary size of humans is related to the fact that evolution of upright posture reduced visual access to posterior signaling very evident in other most closely related primates, I would answer in the affirmative.

OTOH, the reason why I googled "butt bra" is that I am suffering from a good deal of outer hip pain and it is kind of natural to think that anything that would transfer the weight of my butt to other parts of my skeleton/musculature would offer some relief. Analogous to how females who wear G cups might seek relief from upper back pain through breast reduction surgery. However, internet search of variety of medical/fitness sites and memory of advice offered by physician when I suffered from similar pain around 20 years ago, suggests that I am likely suffering from some sort of muscular imbalance combined with being pigeon-toed. My hips are almost fully open in one direction (supta virasana-very easy), but completely locked in conjunction with my ham-strings in the other direction (upavistha konasana-very difficult.) Therefore, I am afraid I will do more harm than good jumping right into weight-lifting/strength-training regimen such as suggested in "Efficiency" without somehow addressing imbalance first.

their critical failure is blind adherence to the idea that a large amount of money is required for a good life or just about anything. To me, this explains most of their shortcomings.

True, but this also allows their program to be more robust in the sense that it is inclusive of any level of such ambition, if the purpose of any such program is to encourage people to divert their earnings towards accumulation of productive assets. I mean, if you tell a 21 year old kid that he can spend all the money he wants to on "bottle service", but only after he completes the program when he is 35, it's kind of like me telling me I can have all the cookies I want, but only after I stick to my strength-training program for 18 months.

I think the rare book business is very much consistent with what they teach. If you can make a reasonable income then go for it. They have a number of blog posts mentioning their own work as watch repairmen that they used to earn extra money. Go ahead and skip the 10 year investment banking career that is supposed to come first. My sense of their teaching is that your own business income is always far superior to wage slave income. For those who don’t follow their tweets, there is no reason that a 50+ person can’t succeed - it’s just that they tend to run out of energy and give up.

I think my rare book business would receive a ranking of 3, at best, according to the guidelines found in "Efficiency." It is not highly lucrative. It does not scale readily. Most of my customers are not repeat purchasers. It requires my personal labor. OTOH, it does have the benefits of very high initial mark-up and ability to make some money while sleeping.

Ideally "efficient" business would involve selling something that costs very little to produce over and over again to the same customers. So, something more like Middle-Aged Women Who Need Butt-Bras Riding Upon Bicycles Video of the Month Club, if a market for such a product existed.

Anyways, people over 50 can do anything (and more!!) that people under 50 can do...IF they also include a nap in the schedule

[Jason]

Well, since it has been suggested that increased mammary size of humans is related to the fact that evolution of upright posture reduced visual access to posterior signaling very evident in other most closely related primates, I would answer in the affirmative.

What a double standard. All my life I've been called a pig for admitting to being aroused by such a statement when in fact it is just an expression of my humanity.

[7Wannabe5]

@Jason:

Right. This cultural standard is most likely due to the fact that St. Paul's parents belonged to a cult that was started by a sour grapes guy who was born with a shrunken leg.

[Jason]

Well, getting shit from those people, I can at least understand it.

But next time I'm at a Darwin conference getting yelled at for staring at a woman's chest too long, I'm going to say "What, you want to go back and have me stare at your ass all day like we're fucking monkeys?"

[7Wannabe5]

@Jason:

Well, hopefully her colleague, seated to your left, who perhaps rather resembles Miss Hathaway, will gently remind you (as she places her hand upon your leg) "Of course, humans also differ from near-related primates in that the swollen red posterior signaling is clearly indicative of cyclical sexual receptivity in female baboons, whereas mature human females, likely in conjunction with development of greatly enhanced verbal communication abilities offering more advanced modes of ascertainment, are sexually receptive at any time in accordance with personal druthers as opposed to invariant pseudo-signaling appendages." (and then presses her room key into your paw ...er, hand.)

[Kriegsspiel]

@Jason:

Well, hopefully her colleague, seated to your left, who perhaps rather resembles Miss Hathaway, will gently remind you (as she places her hand upon your leg) "Of course, humans also differ from near-related primates in that the swollen red posterior signaling is clearly indicative of cyclical sexual receptivity in female baboons, whereas mature human females, likely in conjunction with development of greatly enhanced verbal communication abilities offering more advanced modes of ascertainment, are sexually receptive at any time in accordance with personal druthers as opposed to invariant pseudo-signaling appendages. you have to spank it" (and then presses her room key into your paw ...er, hand.)

[7Wannabe5]

@Kriegsspiel:

[7Wannabe5]

I think the reason why I keep going on tirades about the cultural prejudice towards voluptuous women* is that I keep falling prey to it myself. My hip starts hurting and I think "That's what you deserve for eating too many cookies." Whereas, if I was a young, rangy man, I might be more inclined to go to "You haven't been stretching enough" first.

Anyways, instead of continuing to give myself the message "No point in doing anything until you drop at least half a holiday ham off your posterior", I decided to focus all my WSP assigned exercise time on doing hip opening stretches. Guess what? Pain is now almost completely gone after just 3 days of focused stretching!! Now I can proceed to boot-up basic body-weight strength training routine of push-ups, crunches and squats along with continuing the focused stretches.


*It's funny that Jason mentioned Lane Bryant in his above post, because just last week as I was hobbling around an outdoor mall with my BF, he pointed out my resemblance to lingerie wearing mannequins in Lane Bryant window. He also says charming things like "Even though you are old and fat, a lot of women would kill to have a body like yours."