guitar player's journal

[guitarplayer]

Monthly update

On money

We actually had some pretty substantial expenses compared to the last months! Above the standard ~$680 for lodging, bills and food
- DW got some second hand clothes from ebay. Good quality apparently, like two merino wool jumpers, and a fleece that is by some Canadian brand and really warm I hear. Also two pairs of jeans, and woolen socks (these were new). Around $170 for these
- the rim of my front wheel finally thinned out to the point of the inner tube sticking out. Quite funny, I actually thought that the wheel needed trued but was too lazy to do it. So one day I went for one more 40miles cycle trip and after the wheel was again rubbing against the break pad decided 'ok it's time to true the wheel'. Surprise surprise, the rim was broken. This costed around $45
- Sadly I neglected my bank account abroad in that I forgot to top up the foreign sim card needed or getting authorization text messages. I lost the phone number and had to send the bank a document with my apostilled signature, asking for updating their database with another phone no. This costed all together $67 The silver lining is though that it seems to be now (it was not in the past) possible to give them my current (foreign to them) phone number which is great because I top it up regularly.
- DW got me a perfume (I don't know how much it was)
- We went to the glasshouses of the Royal Botanical Garden in Edinburgh, this was $13

Regarding the net worth we now stand at around $114,000.

On mushrooms

A new found in the last month was the wood blewit! It turns out quite slimy when cooked and I think would be great marinated. We also touched upon mushrooms that are not necessarily foraged (only) for culinary purposes which was very educational.

Lambskin coat

So when I went to see my family for Christmas last year I decided to take with me my lambskin coat. It is really nice, made in the UK, I got it from a Welsh guy when I was at uni in Budapest. It is super bulky and heavy, and very warm as well. I though it would be worth a fortune but actually find similar ones on ebay advertised for ~$40 and no buyers in sight. so yeah, *sigh*, don't know what to do about it. It has some sentimental value for me but would not fit quite a few of the other clothes. I guess I would just give it away to the charity shop at some point.

On studying

I really like the Maths and Stats degree with Open University! I did two computer marked assignments and produced two assignments for tutors to mark. Man, Maths and Stats degree and I found myself hand writing one of the assignments and scanning it before sending off. So now I am learning LaTeX https://tobi.oetiker.ch/lshort/lshort.pdf! great stuff, I am already more than halfway through.

I really don't know where this degree is going to lead me, but so far so good.

On reading
I read The Peter Principle.

On exercises
Keep on doing the burpees.

[ertyu]

lambskin coat: these make the best house shoes on the face of the planet. there are youtube tutorials, but one can easily lift the pattern off any ugg-type shoe. similar retail new for 24 euro a pair where i'm from, so 40 dollars spent on a coat like that which can then be used to make house shoes for multiple people would definitely pay off. that thick lambskin is valuable material.

you can also:

cut insert soles to go into a pair of winter shoes that are too small, and make those both tighter-fitting and warmer in the process. this also increases the range of sizes that you can buy from second hand stores.

or, you can cut a circular or square seat cover for a chair.

you can also make it into a jacket that goes on top of your regular clothes and you wear around the house in winter.

you can make mittens and a hat (youtube tutorials)

etc.

[guitarplayer]

@ertyu this is mind blowing, I wonder if you just pulled it out of the hat or have been thinking about it in the past hahaha. I guess it never crossed my mind because this coat looks so beautiful and fancy and it almost feels like a sin to cut it up. But yeah definitely these projects are really cool, thanks! I'll look up youtube for designs, threads needed etc.

[ertyu]

well, you could always not cut it up and buy another one
you never know when these would come back in fashion

[guitarplayer]

@ertyu, nah I am going to cut it up.

I moved again, to a cottage nearby. Very peaceful here other than guys shooting pheasants sometimes. The house was deemed HMO and does not meet all the safety standards. This means that despite the four rooms in it, only two unrelated people can occupy it. So despite paying for 'a room', I ended up having two rooms on the ground floor in the cottage. It is great, there is a fireplace and a nice vibe of living in a 19 century Victorian style house. On the other hand, it is quite shabby (we painted the living room and it made the world of a difference) and there are mice (maintenance put poison to get rid of them).

I have the project of getting rid of stuff I don't need (sigh). It is incredible how, even having a pretty mobile lifestyle, one somehow acquires so much stuff that is barely ever used.

[guitarplayer]

Monthly update

On money

Due to the shares appreciating recently and our usual saving's rate of around 70-80%, the net worth now stands at around 128,800 USD.

Recently DW has been talking about changing jobs to earn more money. I am pretty sure she could easily achieve this while employing her BSc in Biomedical Engineering somehow.

On studying (and the future)

Inspired by JollyScot I started using pomodoros in studying my BSc in Maths and Statistics. It works great, I usually do blocks of 4 x 25min with short breaks in between and a longer one at the end. I have been off work the last few days and have been pretty much doing them first thing in the morning, then a coffee in the longer break when I already have 100min worth of studying under the belt.

I enjoy studying maths and stats. Have some ideas about monetising it as well, and some forum members have recommended me various resources elsewhere on the forum. Also, Scotland is great in paying for this high quality BSc (that I can pursue alongside a full time job). If I complete (or maybe even before it) I might start looking for relocation; some people here on the forum mention Switzerland and I would not mind moving there at all - reported high salaries, but from first hand experience, just such a beautiful country and the weather so much better than Scotland.

DW is studying for IELTS later this month.

On foraging / nature

We found some wild oyster mushrooms recently, as well as the prince mushrooms. There is one beech nearby that fruits yellow oyster mushrooms, should fruit in a month or two.

Recently we have been walking around measuring trees' circumference. DW tells me that 2.5cm counts for one year of life. The oldest ones we had found today were over 300 yo. Pretty impressive and makes you feel quite humble about whatever years you've been alive.

House

We are on a week holiday but have not gone anywhere. It's cool to just be in my new accommodation. Sure the house has its problems but generally it is an impressive Victorian house with stuff like tall ceilings, wooden window shutters with a heavy cast iron bar to lock them from the inside, fireplace, great views and silence.

Exercise

Boring here, I just keep on doing burpees, sometimes I skip them when we go for a longer outing or do some work in the garden.

DW admires the changes in her body after some months of doing burpees. She also does yoga and running and cycling.

Art

DW has sent a portrait of her nephew to her mum; she's painting now something for my mum.

I just keep on playing guitar. Because of the move pianos are not that readily available for me so not playing that very much (still playing while at work though). But I started doing the Baxter warm-up exercises horsewoman recommended (albeit with the guitar, not piano). I think my singing has improved somewhat.

I think one day when we've got enough money we will head on a cycling trip where I will carry an instrument with me and will be busking.

On property

I still waste some time on zoopla and rightmove, but now I also request home reports. In Scotland every seller is required by law to provide a home report which describes their property, what are the things that need fixed, and what is the value of the property.

I think it would be good to have something relatively cheap and unspectacular in, say, Glasgow (or even Edinburgh if the property bubble there finally bursts). We could always make HQ's out of it and have it for storing some things (and furniture? We started accumulating pieces of furniture that we have gotten for free from here and there), having a lodger and us staying periodically, but having a permanent address in the UK. Things would have been soo much different if there was any family we had in this country.

[ertyu]

Having a permanent lodger but with a right to stay at the property occasionally sounds like an excellent solution to the permanent address issue. In a couple of years, might be in position to volunteer being the lodger . Good luck!

[guitarplayer]

In a couple of years, might be in position to offer a room!

Glasgow as an European ERE city? I think a few people from there on the forum.

P.S.

Forgot to mention in the update something I am very happy with. So I started using the pomodoro technique for studying. I also looked up what 60 ECTS credits (or 120 UK university credits) mean. In the UK every 1 ECTS (or 2 UK credits) counts as 20h worth of studying. This means that each year of uni should take about 1200 hours of studying, and this is 720 sets of four pomodoros.

With all this in mind, I printed out from Excel two 9 x 40 tables, first one with cells numbered 1-360 and second 361-720. In each cell I mark 'I', 'II', 'III' and then them crossed when the 4x25min set is completed. I also write a date of completion in cell.

I really like the schedule. Before I would sometimes rush through the material (e.g. things I 'should know because of previous study' etc.). With this handy, I am much more at peace and just, well, following the schedule.

[guitarplayer]

After reading some more about the pomodoro technique, I have decided to change the way I count studying time. I am going to include the short breaks and the 30min break at the end in the study time. I figured that not doing it would be perhaps too conservative. After all, students do take breaks when studying. If I end up struggling with the material, I am going to revise it.

This means that each set of 4 pomodoros counts as 150min of studying rather than 100min. And this means, that I will need 480 such sets for each year of BSc.

[guitarplayer]

Too much processed sugar lately, because Christmas and it is all over the office and around the house I work in.

I've been thinking about the journey that is life and chatted with DW a few times over the last weeks. Looks like no matter how we do it, we will get to an arbitrary FI mark that I set on around $400,000 in about 5-8 years.

I came to a realisation, it does not really matter the exact year, plus I don't think I would be able to bring myself to do such detailed money tracking consistently anyway. These days I am refocusing on having an elegant life. Get through it in style.

[guitarplayer]

Monthly update

On money

Currently we are at 137,580.59USD. I think the shares appreciate on the news about the vaccine and brexit deal perhaps, maybe there was also some currency swing between pound and $, because we definitely did not save $8500 from our salaries.

I am not tracking it to the jot, but we have probably saved something between 70-80% of our salaries,around $2500-3000.

DW and I are due to get a $680 bonus each from Scot Gov for being such brave care workers in the pandemic. I wonder if they will tax it.

I am trying to remain calm and do the 'Dogs of the FTSE100' strategy and in February I will be depositing another $27,000 and purchasing the highest yielding stocks. I am up for selling some seriously depreciated ones like oil and gas ones, because they don't yield high enough (dividends cut). I would really like to know how to take advantage of the whole pandemic, but well, for now I am just gonna stick to this simple strategy.

On studying (and the future)

I love producing my assignments in LaTeX! It's really amazing to produce the docs with it, I get into the flow state, proper. Those beautiful files coming out of my gibberish. I wonder what my tutors are going to think. In a couple of days I will get the first result (EDIT: I got a 100/100 for my first LaTeX produced assignment). Generally I am towards the end of going through the material of Math 101 and Intro to Statistics. In Jan or Feb I will start Math 201 and 'Economics in Context'. I tried to swap this for something more CS, but all the other courses were full. I already got the books for this course, it should be pleasant and cover some of the things from Jacob's 'investment curriculum'.

DW managed to get her IELTS just before they locked the country up again. She got 7.5 and is very happy. Apparently NHS offers some sort of training scheme for biomedical scientists / technicians and she is looking at this now. Because a training and a salary.

A public sector post (actually many posts) for an assistant statistician (entry level) has come up and I think I will apply. I am just starting with maths and stats, but for this one I can apply on the back of my psychology degree.

I am still pretty comfortable where I am, but I think it will be good for me to apply, even if only for the exercise. Pure money-wise and immediately I would be better off where I'm at now (since cost of life so low and quality of life so high relatively to the cost), but I would not mind doing some analytics. Suits me better in terms of personality, also. And civil sector still offers defined benefit pensions, I am a great sucker for 'guaranteed income from the age of x until I die.' So yeah we will see how it goes. Super lengthy process and the results would be only in April.

On foraging / nature
We are still waiting for those yellow oyster mushrooms from the nearby beech. The last couple of weeks there was a beautiful winter where I am at, because it is a bit in the hills. Gorgeous, still, with some 5mph winds, white powder snow, blue sky.

House

My housemate is moving out, I wonder who is going to be moving in. Maybe nobody, then the whole house would be for my humble self. I would not mind at all.

Exercise / health

Like last month, I just keep on doing burpees, 200 a day, sometimes I skip them when we go for a longer outing, not much work in the garden these days. I look good. Also, intermittent fasting with eating in the afternoons and evenings works well.

I actually got vaccined for Covid with the Pfitzer vaccine. Frontline workers get it now in the UK. There will be another dose in the end of March.

On property

One of my New Year resolutions is not to waste time on real estate websites, I manage relatively well so far.

I suspect we will end up owning something. Especially if DW and I move to Edinburgh or Glasgow, it would be cheaper to buy than to rent. But I am not going to look at it now because it is irrelevant at the moment.

[JollyScot]

Glad the Pomodoro technique is working out. Sometimes I have issues with doing the "no distraction" part. Usually the phones fault, tried timers on a watch instead. I'm a sucker for the pretty graphs the phone app produces though. As my Japanese pomodoros picture will testify. Something to be said for just marking them off on a sheet of paper though. I did that in france for a while, had an A6 square notebook and marked a square each one.

If you do buy, based on recent experience if you do buy a house avoid the listed one. They nice but not worth the extra red tape. Something decently modern that you can keep costs down with. Preferably 3 bedrooms, as that is the sweet spot for cost versus potential rent. If you were to rent out the spare rooms then the prices in Glasgow (an even Edinburgh) are still a bargain.

For the UK public sector pension. Based on the fact that the private sector has been decimated this year the DB pension for public workers is less secure than it once was. It is one of the largest inequalities between the two sides. So if you go for the public sector because of that, be aware that public opinion on it may well take a turn. Especially with your planned retirement date.

That said whatever deal would eventually come out it will be suitably generous at the trasfer point I am sure. If you are passing through Glasgow when things are more normal ping me a message and we can catch up for a drink.

[guitarplayer]

Yup I saw those graphs, they look impressive. Now thinking about it, I will read about the app again in your journal because I think DW could enjoy it. She likes app generated graphics as well (like step count, strava for running, now garmin connect etc).

I happen to have an actual cooking timer and use that for pomodoros, and a printout A4 page with cells to cross out (4 pomodors each cell, jail style 3 bars crossed by the fourth).

Yes I read about your experiences. I live in a B listed house now (for a ridiculously low rent btw) and see what problems can come up, and what are the troubles when wanting to renovate / improve anything. Thank god I have a flat rate for heating with these single glazed windows.

Last thing I was checking on rightmove was a two bed flat in a modern building in Dennistoun overlooking a listed red sandstone one - best of both worlds. I think it was advertised for somewhere around £110k which I think would be okay. I never thought about a 3 bedroom, rather always trying to decide for '1 bedroom / cheaper / peace, quiet and privacy' vs '2 bedroom / more expensive / lodger bringing tax free income'. But again, checking these deals out is just irrelevant at the moment and a time sink. Sometimes I play with the idea of getting a place while we still live in our rural location, and renting room(s) to lodgers, us becoming 'weekend residents / landlords.' But it just feel so complicated.

Yes I am aware that things might change in the next 20+ years re the pension. Definitely would not hook my choice solely on the DB pension when applying for this job. Also would not be necessarily counting for it either. However, being in the same boat with loads of people who count on it, or who really cannot stand forgoing it, will probably work in my advantage with no(t much) effort on my part.

That job could be a good learning opportunity. I am not sure how I would get on with the BSc in maths and stats if I got in though. The fact I enjoy it so much now is because my day job is about something else. If I did 8 hs of analytics at work everyday I could be much more keen to do gardening in my spare time. But that's just drawings in the air, I'll see how it goes.

They do offer posts in Edinburgh and some in Glasgow. I would opt for the latter, because overall cheaper, larger and I think potentially more to do for DW. So hey may ping you a message sometime in the future. Not much of a drinker myself though, other than maybe twice a year. If you're into sports (which IIRC you are) then maybe a run or something.

[guitarplayer]

So we stopped using shampoo. Mostly because annoyed with dandruff, I mean how did I come to the point when I have to use Nizoral just in order for the dandruff not to take over like there is no tomorrow?

DW asked me 'name an animal that has beautiful hair' and without thinking much I answered 'horse'. Well, horses are being brushed rather than washed if we're not mistaken. So this is what DW does, brushes her hair with some sort of boar bristle hair brush. She rinsed the hair just once in Jan. This year she already got two compliments about how amazing her hair is. I think she still has dandruff but I root for her, I guess it takes some time for scalp to heal.

As to me, I rinse my hair quite often because I do burpees and sweat. I try not to do it too often and not disturb the hair beyond rinsing. Otherwise I sort of massage the scalp (when outside of the shower) so that the natural oil gets distributed around (this is the equivalent of brushing for short hair, I reason). Once this month I had to properly rinse my scalp because I cut my hair. After shower I used an ointment that I use for dry hands in order to replace the lost scalp oil. Nearly no dandruff after three weeks! I don't look obnoxious either, so I am going to stick with this (lack of) routine. Hey, one less thing to remember.

DW found a clinical scientist trainee job advert with the Scottish NHS and is going to apply. And I still intend to apply for the assistant statistician job. It would be quite a change if either one of us got one of the jobs. Now we are in quite a cozy bubble.

P.S. today we cut out (paper) slipper patterns for lambskin coat up-cycling project. DW got me an awl for my birthday so hey ho maybe we'll get there by the end of.. Feb?

We use this design https://www.instructables.com/Simple-Shearling-Boots/ but skip the second layer of soles because (1) we don't have the glue and (2) don't plan to wear them outdoors. We use in-soles from some old footwear.

[Bankai]

Great progress!

A public sector post (actually many posts) for an assistant statistician (entry level) has come up and I think I will apply. I am just starting with maths and stats, but for this one I can apply on the back of my psychology degree.

I am still pretty comfortable where I am, but I think it will be good for me to apply, even if only for the exercise. Pure money-wise and immediately I would be better off where I'm at now (since cost of life so low and quality of life so high relatively to the cost), but I would not mind doing some analytics. Suits me better in terms of personality, also. And civil sector still offers defined benefit pensions, I am a great sucker for 'guaranteed income from the age of x until I die.' So yeah we will see how it goes. Super lengthy process and the results would be only in April.

Career-wise it's best to consider lifetime earnings (which for ERE pursuer might be next 5-10 years or so) vs. only immediate increase/decrease when considering a career change. Analytics will definitely pay better in mid- to long-term and also diversifies your skillset.

Also agree with buying a flat in Glasgow - it's still one of the most affordable cities in the UK. We bought 3 years ago after a decade of renting (paying someone else's mortgage) and it was by far the best investment we've ever made. The city has multiple universities, various industries, and the long-term trend of declining population was recently reversed. All this combined with relatively low prices make it a good place to buy. Obviously, YMMV and DYOR.

[guitarplayer]

A rather untidy monthly update.

On money

We are now at around 4230 USD/annum 3% SWR.

February is the investment month! That means selling 'Dogs of the FTSE' that cut their dividends and buying what seem to be 'unloved' doggies. I had a brief look, there are some shares that did well and I'd be getting more of, some that did rather poorly but kept (part of) the dividend, some that did well but cut the dividends and then the losers that lost value and cut dividends. I am rather liberal with the strategy, leaning towards 'not selling' is possible. So there is one company with rather small yield but announced a dividend increase - I will keep it for now.

On learning

I am not really learning all that much about investing. However, I have recently mastered fundamentals of complex numbers. Maths and Stats is great, love it. LaTeX still gives me lots of fun.

I am actually also doing a short course for the job, about supervision. I figured, they pay for it so well let me get it. So then regardless of what future brings I will have legit blue collar profession.

On jobs

Recently I've applied for an analytical post in the public sector, and yesterday DW for a science'y post with the NHS.

I need to hold my horses because I have this super potent imagination and already have in my mind a few years of experience in the new job and transferring to work for the UN in Geneve, EU in Luxembourg or something similar. So I am trying to imagine not getting this job.

Exercise / health

Exercising most days.

I'd like to sort out my sleep better. Due to my work I sometimes start very early in the morning and sometimes work till late at night. I guess in this scenario the ideal would be to train myself to fall asleep like a rock soon after the hour of the end of the potential late shift, and wake up soon before the beginning of a potential morning shift. This is a span of 9 hours, so giving myself 30min for routines it would be 8 hours. This training would be difficult because, especially in the evening, we end up chatting with DW until later.

So now I am kind of binging on sleep, not enough sleep on some days and getting it back on other days. I wonder if things would have been different if I had a 9-5 and living withing 30min from the job.

Property

So especially on those days when I had not enough sleep the self-control system is half switched off and I go into more primal behaviours, like looking for shelter

I spent some time on property websites but I think I am overall doing quite well in not spending too much time on it. Regardless, this or next month DW and I are going to send $11,000 to gov backed 'property accounts' that will then multiply it to $13,600, to be used for a first property or taken out in retirement. This can be done once a tax year (April-April) and this is our second year doing it.

[guitarplayer]

Mushroom season is on!

Okay, someone can say that mushroom season is all year round. But today was the first day we had some wild foraged mushrooms in 2021. And not just any mushrooms, but what turned out to be Velvet Shanks in Asia known as Enoki mushrooms!

https://www.wildfooduk.com/mushroom-guide/velvet-shank/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enokitake

Apparently they have some anticancerogenic properties. Nice find! They are tasty too, a bit sweet and no issue with eating the stems.

Fresh cheese and bread

Also on food, we started making fresh cheese. We get milk from a biodynamic farm around the corner, but this could be a great strategy of using the milk that supermarkets sell for pennies because it expires on the day.

To make the cheese we
1. heated up 1.5l of milk up to 48 degrees Celsius
2. added 130ml of apple cider vinegar. Any vinegar apparently works, but apple cider vinegar reportedly has some other health benefits
3. left for 20min in the pot
4. placed a cloth (old bedsheets) in a sift and sift in a pot2; poured the cheese out of pot1 onto the cloth
5. covered with a lid (I don't think this is necessary)
5. went to watch a movie.

After a while we came back to the kitchen to find around 360g of cheese in the cloth and about 1270ml of whey in the pot.

So then I figured there has to be a good way of using the whey, reinvented the wheel and baked a no-knead bread (think Jim Lahel) with it. Whey retains most/some of milk's lactose so I though feeding the yeast with it will help the dough grow even more. And it did! Plus the lactose is digested by yeast so less of a trouble for adult human's stomach. Great tasting bread, nearly no effort.

Jobs

I did some online tasks for the job application for the public sector analytics post. They should get back to me at the end of the month to tell me if I will get to speak to some actual people (i.e. job interview).

Otherwise still relatively happy at my current job, a bit tired so I will be taking some time off. Like, 3 weeks out of 7 that I have for the year, between March and April.

Training

I am doing a small training for the job. Otherwise I started two new modules for the BSc in Maths and Stats. The first two modules will finalise in an exam in May,but I covered all the material already.

I am now taking a class called 'Economics in Context'. The first chapter was about how capitalism came about, and a case study of the cotton industry as an industry going through the revolution. A bit about Smith, Ricardo, Bentham, Marx. A nice read but it took me 2h to read 1/10th of the course material, this should be an easy module. Or maybe there are more tasks online.

I will be learning more about essential mathematics as well which I look forward to.

Family

I had a new year resolution to phone my parents once a week and I have been pretty good with it so far. I am gonna try now.

[guitarplayer]

We found Elfcups the day before yesterday. When cooked, they look like pieces of bacon, have a very firm texture and nutty flavour. Quite different from most other mushrooms we had.

https://www.wildfooduk.com/mushroom-gui ... et-elfcup/

DW was not successful with her NHS application and I am yet to hear from the HR about the post I applied for. This is despite a deadline for results being 1st March - I assume I did not make it.

Quite tired of our work at the moment. On Holidays from Tuesday afternoon.

I am thinking quite a bit about getting a cheap flat in Glasgow, moving there and doing a good market research / upskilling and changing field. We would have $41k for a deposit and would be aiming for something cheaper than $80-100k. So the running costs of hanging out in Glasgow would be low, maybe 1000$ / month total. Then just get a bit of a breathing space, good look around, full in on skill acquisition and get a job.

I am going to write a monthly update over the next days but I am going to reform the money section due to my recent resolution of not looking at the stock and shares account.

[guitarplayer]

(slightly late) monthly update

holidays!

I am off for the next 9 days. Also will be off for about 20 days from in the last few days of March and about two weeks of April. We are in lockdown so not going anywhere, but it will be good to have time for myself and DW

on studying

I finished a short course for the job but still need to write about 1500 words of an assignment, this should be easy.

For the uni, I had a good time reading about the history of the cotton industry as a pivotal industry in the Industrial Revolution. The next chapters will be about the supply and demand, and homo oeconomicus and homo socius. I also covered a chapter on the number theory and had some intro to cryptography.

I was thinking about learning how to draw so that I would not need to take photos when on trips and travels. Well, I will see how that goes, ha!

on money

I think I must have spent something not more than $100 this year, outside of shelter, food and bills (these are flat at $300 month). But I am not giving exact numbers, partly because I decided not to look at my investments. Overthinking choices then consumes too much of my time. I will rather read some books about investing!

On jobs

Both DW's and my job applications were unsuccessful. It's okay, DW had a low moment but I think she is fine now.

I don't know how to convince DW that the actual title of the job is not that important, and that blue collar jobs can involve a lot of thinking (and conversely, lots of white collar jobs can be were draining mentally as in repetitive).

On DIY

DW put together her slippers from my lamb skin coat, thanks @ertyu! I have mine cut out but not sewn together yet, will try to do it in the coming days. I use the soles as insoles in my old slippers, cozy!

[Bankai]

Job hunting is often a numbers game, especially in tough markets like nowadays. I like framing a job interview as a 'win-win' situation: either I get a job I want, or at the very least I get some free interviewing practice which will help me being successful next time. Treat it as a data point, analyse what went wrong and what could've been done better and don't give up. Sometimes it takes many attempts. And, if possible, ask for feedback - it's invaluable.