Boltzies' journal

Where are you and where are you going?
boltzmannsbrain
Posts: 40
Joined: Sat Mar 10, 2012 9:57 pm

Re: Boltzies' journal

Post by boltzmannsbrain »

The days are much longer and lighter now, and I managed to get through the winter without being heavily afflicted by seasonal affective disorder. Some of the days, I was just going through the motions - chop wood, carry water - or in my case, go to work, go to gym, go to winter bathing club. It's great not to have to use decision energy when you're low in energy.

Due to the coronavirus, I've been working from home since the middle of March and I've realised that I prefer working at the office, contrary to what most people in here prefer. I like my short morning and afternoon bike rides to work, it clears my head, and I like to be able to leave work at the office and let my apartment be a work-free zone. It's a lot nicer to work on two big screens, a comfortable keyboard and ergonomic mouse than a small laptop. Hell, I even miss the socialising and coffee talk. At the moment, my ideal setup would be to work 3-4 days a week and then have 3-4 days off. If my work offered that, with the corresponding salary cut, I would accept it immediately - though during this quasi-lockdown, it might not be that interesting anyways. Since I work in pharmaceuticals, my job security is high in the current situation. We've experienced a higher demand on our products as our medicine is used to treat pneunomia, among other things.

We're not in a full lockdown here. We're still allowed to go outside as we please, as long as we keep a distance. But all social activities have been shut down: the sailing club, the gyms, the boardgame events etc. I've bought two kettlebells (to use when we go sailing) and I've tried to be diligent about doing some form of physical activity every day; yoga, kettlebells outside, going for walks. Still getting a bit antsy, especially when we reach the weekend, I'm not used to sitting still for extended periods of time. Fortunately, we've been able to use the weekends to work on the boat. A full day of fresh air and physical labour fixes everything! That feeling of being physically fatigued rather than mentally fatigued is just perfect after a week of computer work.

That's the other thing about the coronavirus pandemic. O was back home when the pandemic was declared and everything closed. Technically, he can still go back to Iraq since he's a humanitarian aid worker, but he would have to go into 30 days of self-quarantine on arrival, in addition to the nation-wide curfew. So he's working from home with me. Needless to say, I'm quite happy about that.

Financially, my networth haven't suffered, mostly due to sheer dumb luck. I had most of my non-apartment savings in one stock, and in January, Tencent offered to buy the stocks for 27% over market price. The deal was to be finalised in April, but I chose to sell all my stocks in the company immediately which turned out to be a good move: Even though Tencent kept their offer, the Norwegian currency fell from an exchange rate of 0.76:1 in January to 0.59:1 at the lowest (it's 0.66:1 now). Year to date, my networth has increased 10%, caused by the Tencent offer and salary savings. For my remaining stocks, I've lost about 1-2 months of expenses. Based on my expenses from 2019 to now, I have 17.8 years saved, 10.3 years excluding the apartment.

My YTD savings rate is 74%, corresponding to my savings rate of 73% for 2019. It will be lower if I go on the 2 months sailing trip. There's still too much uncertainty to know if it will be canceled. At the moment, we're allowed to sail in national waters, but I don't know if that will be the case later. We will of course follow the guidelines. I trust the government's decisions regarding the pandemic. Supermarkets are fully stocked, the hospitals are still under capacity, the government has released a help package corresponding to 13% of the GDP and most people are solidary and follow the guidelines. We're a country with a population of 5.8 mio., and we've seen 104 deaths so far. An early estimate from the government was 1200 - 5900 deaths, I'm not sure if that still holds true. I do feel safe and incredibly lucky.

Stahlmann
Posts: 1121
Joined: Fri Sep 02, 2016 6:05 pm

Re: Boltzies' journal

Post by Stahlmann »

biohacker community
So tell us your secrets (with ERE commentary).

PS. Sure, the idea of selling normalcy (limiting screen time, taking care of your sleep and nutrition) as "biohacking" to the masses is pretty funny :lol: Nevertheless, in such society hyperpaced society, it's good to apply some "tricks" time to time (of course on the budget :lol:).

PS2. If going Walden/Nearing would be so easy, I woul have already done this.

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