Hristo's FI Journal

[Hristo Botev]

It is also the perfect time to get rid of clutter...

Yes! DW and I had already significantly decluttered by virtue of the fact that we've downsized homes twice in the past 3 or so years (nevertheless, DW's clothes donation pile still filled up an entire trash bag), but this is the first time that the kids had to decide for themselves what exactly they wanted to move from their old rooms to their new shared room; and some tough choices were made. Every time I do this decluttering exercise I'm just blown away by how much STUFF we tend to accumulate (and we tend to think of ourselves as relatively low on the consumerist scale).

[Hristo Botev]

So chalk this up to yet one more time in my life when I realize just how lacking in practical knowledge I am.

I've been enjoying the home brew process, and am anxiously awaiting popping open my first attempt at a home brew this coming weekend (a West Coast IPA). And I've already got the next home brew ready to get started (a Scotch Ale). BUT, because of all the home brew videos I've been watching on YouTube, this guy (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tz8XFz5 ... =16&t=610s; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlXoTCV ... ex=15&t=0s) popped up in my recommendations feed. Is it really THIS EASY to make wine from fruit at home? I mean, some homemade sparkling strawberry wine sounds like a fantastic idea; and between that and the home brew beer, I'd never have to buy another gift for an adult (apart from DW, of course) ever again!

[classical_Liberal]

I mean, some homemade sparkling strawberry wine sounds like a fantastic idea; and between that and the home brew beer, I'd never have to buy another gift for an adult (apart from DW, of course) ever again!

I didn't watch the video, but I've been making wine in my closet all summer long. Instead of an aerator, I use a cleaned balloon with a pin hole in the top over my jugs. At first my GF was really, really sceptical. The first batch was a standard grape, when I was shiponing it (I use a small hand pump that's cleanable, but any hose would work), the GF was like, wholly s**t that smells like real wine. I let the batch clear for another week and she drank it all up pretty quickly, said she would've thought it was from a store if she didn't know better.

Start up cost: $1 for 20 balloons, $3 for siphon, $0-10 for gallon jug. I used a plastic one from purchased distilled water, but most people recommend glass. I've never noticed a plastic taste though. $2-$4 ingredients. I use bread yeast I already have on hand. FYI the most expensive part is buying the bottles if you are going to gift it. Otherwise you can reuse anything airtight for yourself, but i haven't tested it for longevity.

[Hristo Botev]

Nice! Definitely going to give it a try; though I'll likely start with something like strawberries only because I DON'T want DW comparing my first attempt at a homemade grape wine to what she's used to drinking from our local wine shop.

[classical_Liberal]

@HB
Yeah, I wouldn't want to try it on a wine connoisseur or anything. For her simple tastes it was fine (she'd normally buy a $10-15 a bottle). I stuck with the grape for the next couple of runs as I refined my strategy a bit, and it was a hit with the GF so I had encouragement. Right now I have a peach and kiwi-strawberry batch fermenting. We shall see...

[Hristo Botev]

Right now I have a peach and kiwi-strawberry batch fermenting. We shall see...

What are you using for yeast for the peach and for the kiwi-strawberry?

[classical_Liberal]

Still bread yeast. This whole experiment started because I had purchased a bunch of bread yeast for making bread last winter. I found that bread making is more a winter hobby and was worried I wouldn't use the bulk yeast quickly enough if not using it all year round. weird I know, but hey it works.

Edit: specifically this stuff But I bought it in bigger bulk packaging.

[Hristo Botev]

Looks like eventually you can use the yeast left over from previous fermentation efforts, as opposed to buying yeast from the store. I like the sound of that, as the whole homebrew adventure for me started as an ERE activity to do/create first, consume second.

[classical_Liberal]

@HB
Interesting! I wouldn't see why not, as long as you keep an active colony in a separate container at all times... Do you have a reference for how people have been doing that?

[Hristo Botev]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzPaINFECzQ

This Italian guy is fantastic!

[Hristo Botev]

In this one he actually shows (at about minute 8:40) how he harvests the yeast from when he makes banana wine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdbnUJnX6kE

[Hristo Botev]

They had to install keypad locks on the bathrooms in our upper floor office building, because the growing homeless population in our downtown corridor had realized that they could bypass the locks on the first floor bathrooms by taking the elevator to one of the upper floors. I see this as further evidence of societal decay.

Meanwhile, I read in the paper this morning that my little city has decided to address affordable housing with an "inclusionary zoning" mandate--meaning that builders will have to set aside 10% of new apartments for people who make less than 80% of the area median income, and for condos it's less than 120% of the area median income. Someone please explain to me how this isn't just feel good but totally ineffectual legislation--wealthy, woke, virtue signaling NIMBYs living in "modest" $750K "bungalows" get to feel good about progressive legislation that they know, or should know, isn't actually going to do anything to make housing more affordable. And that's of course the point. The solution to affordable housing in our market-based system is more housing. The way to get more housing IS NOT to put more financial restrictions on builders, to make it LESS profitable for them to build. The way to get more housing IS to change the zoning. And in fact one of the best recommendations that came out of our city's affordable housing task force (and one the city of course didn't adopt) was to ease zoning restrictions across the city to allow for duplexes, triplexes, and perhaps even small apartment buildings to coexist alongside single-family detached homes--which already exists in many neighborhoods, it's just that those multi-unit dwellings were built before the current zoning restrictions were put in place. Naturally, the NIMBYs fought that tooth and nail, because that would actually mean they'd have to share their streets with affordable housing units.

If you don't really give a s*%# about affordable housing; that's fine, I have no qualms with that. Be honest about it: "(a) we worked really hard to save up and to pay for our fancy house in a fancy school district on a fancy street with fancy neighbors who look just like we do; and (b) a MASSIVE chunk of our NW is in our home equity, and so we can't afford to have affordable housing in our backyards, because that would drastically reduce our NW." But I'm really, really sick of all the yard signs and the op-eds and the virtue signaling on social media, etc., crying out for the need for affordable housing, when you don't REALLY want it--what you want is nice-looking public housing ghettos that are wholly separated from your neighborhood, that at worst you have to drive by on the way to the store.

Also going to be adopted, property tax abatements for low income folks and dedicated money from the city's general fund for "rental assistance." So we're going to place more restrictions on builders to ensure that new affordable housing units don't get built, but our property taxes will increase because we're paying taxes on inflated property values and we're going to fund "rental assistance" for low income renters who are living in units they otherwise couldn't afford because we're not allowing the units that they could afford to be built.

AARRGGHH!! Affordable housing means building more housing, which means your home values will also go down, and it also means you're going to have neighbors who might not be part of your socioeconomic circle. If you're not OK with that, then you're not really in favor of affordable housing.

Yet, somehow, I'm the problem, because I'm just not woke enough. Am I in favor of "inclusionary zoning"? Hell no. Am I in favor of taking money from my property taxes and using it to help pay the rent of someone who can't afford his apartment because apartments he could afford don't exist in our city? No. Am I in favor of actually addressing the affordable housing problem by lifting stupid, exclusionary, discriminatory zoning restrictions so that, yes, I can build a 2-story 5-unit apartment building on the 1/4 acre lot directly adjacent to the 1/4 acre lot on which your hideous 3-story, 3,500 sq. ft infill monstrosity sits? Hell yes. What does that mean? It means EVERYONE's home becomes more "affordable," and our property taxes go way down.

That's my rant for the day.

[Hristo Botev]

DW and I just did the free https://www.16personalities.com/ personality test, because everyone keeps talking about INTJs, etc. on this forum, and I figured I'd probably figure out what that means. Anyway, I am an INFP-A and DW is an ESFJ-T; we're almost completely opposite one another on every trait except the Thinking/Feeling trait. Interesting stuff. Both DW and I agree that our respective results are pretty spot on.

[Hristo Botev]

Ha! No doubt this answers the why of my stumbling onto ERE: "Mediators often wish that they could just be, doing what they love without the stress and rigor of professional life."

[horsewoman]

Welcome to the dark side we have 16 kinds of cookies
(don't let @alphaville piss on your MBTI parade!)

[Alphaville]

(don't let @alphaville piss on your MBTI parade!)

hey! it’s useful! it’s just neither the explanation to everything nor a limiter to what one can do.

let’s not turn it into astrology is what i’ve always said. astrology is silly.

[horsewoman]

@alphaville I was just ribbing you little

[Alphaville]

@alphaville I was just ribbing you little

hahaha no worries i originally forgot to add also

[Hristo Botev]

Personally, I'm taking the strengths as affirmations and completely ignoring the weaknesses. Probably not how it's supposed to be used, but at 42 years old, I'm not reinventing anything.

Also, apparently I'm in the worst possible profession for my personality type. But I have to wonder, the law might be the worst possible profession for any personality type.

[Alphaville]

but aren’t some lawyers actual mediators though?

not that you need to follow that particular label though, because that same personality type gets labeled something else by others.

e.g “the healer” (whatever) https://www.truity.com/personality-type/INFP

grains of salt for sure

my intp weakness is properly diagnosed however: i DETEST paperwork and i’d rather be shot in the eye than do my own taxes/bookkeeping. i’ll gladly pay to outsource that, & the renaissance can eat my modernity.