NewBlood's journal

Where are you and where are you going?
NewBlood
Posts: 182
Joined: Sat Aug 08, 2020 3:45 pm

NewBlood's journal

Post by NewBlood »

Hi.
I’m in my late 30s, originally from western Europe, living in the US for the last 15 years. I recently relocated to the East Coast, in the midst of COVID. I have been reading about ERE for a while now. I don’t remember how I found the ERE website anymore, but read it in its entirety back when it was still active. I remember being very inspired by it but was having a hard time implementing it the RHCOL (really high cost of living) area where I lived. I had pretty much resolved to buy a cheap plot of land and attempt building a tiny house on it and try my hand at food self-sufficiency when I started a new relationship. Those plans were quickly squashed by new SO on the account of way too much hippiness. I don’t fall in love often, so that all took a backside to the new relationship. We have always kept our finances separate though, because it was clear from the get go that we had drastically different spending habits.

I might be one of the few here who found ERE first (I don’t remember how, but IIRC, I came to it initially from a climate change/peak oil thought process) and then went to MMM, which, in the context of the new relationship, seemed more achievable/palatable. To the point where we now have a joint savings account and have reduced SO’s spending with a goal to save a sizable down payment on a place (achieved many years ago on my end, getting there for SO). SO has even started talking about how great it would be if we could find something cheap enough that we could pay cash. After initial conversations of buying a 400/500k house with almost zero money saved for a down payment. It’s taken us quite a few years and detours to get here but I’m pretty proud and happy about these more recent developments and feel like I’m/we are somewhat back on track.

We moved to this SHCOL (super high cost of living) area in March for some very well timed job opportunities (sigh…) with the idea that city living was going to be great, no more car, public transportation, etc… We love the city and have enjoyed being able to walk and bike everywhere. More importantly, I love being able to meet all my needs with just walking and biking. But we chose our specific apartment based on the ease of metro commuting (ha!) to our respective offices, which means our rent is insane. I justified this in terms of quality of life after being stuck with a one hour car commute each way in bumper to bumper traffic for the last few years and wanting the exact opposite of that here. We knew COVID was going to impact the office situation for a bit once we moved here, but really did not expect the longer-term surreal American exceptionalisms that we are now living through…

So now that remote work is finally a thing in my field and for the foreseeable future, I’m not sure living here makes sense anymore, but we are stuck with a one-year lease. So we’re not going anywhere until at least March.
I have been thinking a lot about where to go from here, especially in this new COVID world, and I think I finally came around to the concept of web of goals (another post), which is why I’m finally posting here. I hope some people will be willing to share their thoughts and feedback.

I have been a lurker here for a while, have read quite a few threads and many journals. I have never posted anything before (I’m in introvert even in the cyberspace, INTP here, as far as I can tell from free tests online), but thank you to everybody who has been journaling about their journey for years. What an inspiration, and I have learned a lot.

NewBlood
Posts: 182
Joined: Sat Aug 08, 2020 3:45 pm

Re: NewBlood's journal

Post by NewBlood »

The Theory of Anyway

As I mentioned, I have been lurking here for a while and have read a lot of threads. I just did a search for Sharon Astyk and only found 3 old threads where she is mentioned in passing. I find this surprising as I think there is a lot of intersection between her work and ERE. As Jacob mentioned in this thread (viewtopic.php?f=7&t=8389) she originally comes at this from the peak oil angle. A lot of her writings (and books) revolve around food supply, food sufficiency, home food preservation, pantry cooking, frugality, etc… She’s a mom with lots of kids and has been thinking and writing about this stuff for many years.

Her “theory of anyway”, which, re-reading this post (https://www.resilience.org/stories/2007 ... ry-anyway/), I now realize didn’t originally come from her, has a lot of similarities with Jacob’s angle of ERE being really about climate change and fair use of resources - with financial independence being a nice side effect - and the concept of anti-fragility.
The idea is that
95% of what is needed to resolve the coming crises in energy depletion, or climate change, or most other global crises are the same sort of efforts. When in doubt about how to change, we should change our lives to reflect what we should be doing “Anyway.” Living more simply, more frugally, using less, leaving reserves for others, reconnecting with our food and our community, these are things we should be doing because they are the right thing to do on many levels. That they also have the potential to save our lives is merely a side benefit (a big one, though).

Still true with COVID.

Anyways, I just wanted to mention this here, because I think people in the ERE community might find her writings (on her now inactive blog, on resilence.org, and her facebook page) and her books (about using little energy at home, adapting in place, food storage and preservation, farming, population) interesting, even if you don’t care about peak oil anymore :D .

NewBlood
Posts: 182
Joined: Sat Aug 08, 2020 3:45 pm

Re: NewBlood's journal

Post by NewBlood »

Web of goals

Disclaimer: I read the blog in its entirety years ago, and many bits and pieces on this forum, but I have yet to read the ERE book from cover to cover. I’ve read parts of it based on specific interest on a given day. And I am planning to read it shortly.

Nonetheless, I have been playing with an attempt at a web of goals. I tried to search the forum for examples but most of what I found looks more like long lists than actual webs. Looking at the sheer messiness of the thing, that might be why. Am I correct in thinking that the “better” (=more robust?) the web is, the more impossible to decipher it becomes?
Anyways, here goes. The blue ellipses are my overarching goals (aspirations?). The white boxes are my strategies/projects. Black arrows are direct connections between strategies and goals. Green arrows are synergies between strategies, where one reinforces another. Red arrows are synergies between the goals.

Image

The goals:

1. Peace of mind. For whatever reason (I’m gonna blame my parents here because they have the same tendencies), my brain is hardwired to always automatically think of the worst. Examples would be:
- this friend isn’t responding very fast, are they pissed at me? I have shitty communication skills, so I must have said something at some point and now this relationship is over.
- SO went out with friends, is late coming home and not answering my calls, there must have been an accident, should I start calling the hospitals? I’m gonna check if twitter mentions any accident.
- from what I’m reading every day, COVID is gonna spark the end of democracy in the US, the dollar is about to be completely worthless, the new middle ages are about to start any minute now.
Now, at the same time this is happening, the rational part of my brain (INTP) is screaming: “this is completely ridiculous, what would be the odds, Occam’s razor, etc….). But even though I can rationalize it and stop myself from actually acting ridiculous (most of the time), I can’t stop those initial thoughts. And this about everything, all the time. This also comes with a lot of self-doubt and low confidence in myself whenever I attempt something new, since I have learned that I just can’t really trust my instincts. Which sucks.
So I have learned to structure my life as much as possible in a way that fosters peace of mind: stable job that utilizes my skills (this is the first time in my life that I change jobs, in 15 years, and I still work for the same program within the same overarching organization), relationships with rational enough people with no history of addictions, mental health issues or completely dire career/spending habits, as much savings as I can manage, at least one year of inflated expenses in cash, etc...
So everything on my web of goals should ideally reinforce this goal.

2. Long life in healthy condition: I’m not interested in living to a 100 if I can’t even wipe my own butt for the last 20+ years. So I want to do everything I can to ensure I’ll remain autonomous (physically and mentally) for as long as possible. I would also prefer not to die prematurely if I can avoid it. Obviously.

3. Food security. I want to become less reliant on supermarkets/online shopping for my food needs. So I want to get to a point where I can produce some of my food, learn to preserve it, and have a well-stocked pantry/food cellar.

4. Good social ties. I generally want to have good relationships with my family (there’s quite a history in my parents’ generation of years not talking to siblings/parents, which is such a waste. I hope to never replicate that pattern), my friends, colleagues, neighbors. I live really far from my closest friends, and after 15 years living in the US, my closest friends are still the ones I had in my home country before moving here. Not sure what this says in terms of my social skills or the importance of a similar culture. Maybe it’s just easier to get close to people when you are a student than when you have a full-time job. I did make some very good friends here, but it’s just not the same depth. I also believe in the importance of maintaining social ties throughout life. It’s believed to be a big factor in the long life expectancy in Spain for example. (which is biting them in the butt during COVID though…).

5. Be a good citizen. As much as I can, I would like to not be an ass. Individually, in my community, in the world. This is hard. I would feel pretty shitty if I‘m the only one in my neighborhood who’s well stocked up in an emergency. I feel pretty terrible that so many people are going hungry during COVID. I feel very guilty that us westerners are fucking up the world’s climate and have done so for the last few hundred years.
But beyond giving money to food banks, volunteering in the past for some non-profits, trying to be a respectful person and to not consume mindlessly, I haven’t made much headway here.

6. Have and settle in a place. Ideally (eventually) paid-off. I am really tired of my semi-nomadic lifestyle and I have come to the conclusion that it’s impossible (for me at least) to keep energy/resource use at a low level when you live very far from your family. Or when you live in an apartment in a big city. And generally I find it harder in the US than I think it would be in my home country. On average, the pervasive culture here is oriented towards hyper-consumerism and wastefulness. And cars. It’s much easier to use and consume less when most people around you do so as well.

So the vision tying up those 6 goals, as I currently see it, would be:
- Find some cheap-ish land (0.5 – 2 acres) in my home country. Within biking distance (let’s say 10 miles) from a small town or big enough village that has a train station. Within 1-2 hours by train of the city where my family lives.
- Build or renovate a small house, as passive as possible.
- Learn to produce food, preserve/store it and buy local. Share bounty with neighbors, anybody in need.
- Keep energy use/consumption very low. Achieve 1 JAFI or whatever level compatible with the earth’s carrying capacity.
- Potentially, become a foster parent.
At this point in time, I am not currently anywhere close to achieving this vision.

Biggest obstacles:
- SO’s whole family is in the US and doesn’t speak my first language so is understandably not very eager to relocate. And with regards to plane-related carbon footprint, we’re screwed no matter where we live.
- Nearly inexistent homesteading skills.

I’ll go over my strategies in the next post but would really appreciate any feedback on the structure of the web.

mooretrees
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Re: NewBlood's journal

Post by mooretrees »

I've worked on my web of goals on and off for the last year. It doesn't look anywhere as nice and cool as yous, more like a kindergartner wrote some words and connected them with lines. Not really ready to show that to the world.... But yours looks great! Lots of connections between modules and you've covered health, social, learning... lots of stuff included to keep you busy and engaged.

Have you looked into what breaking your lease would cost you? Maybe it would be worth it? It sure seems like this is the new normal for who knows how long? So maybe it would be a small price to pay to move on to the next way of living?

Is your SO interested in living in your home country? I don't recall reading that. Homesteading skills take time and focus to learn, so anything you can do to start now will get you heading in the right direction. I'm assuming if you're in a city, you have access to a farmers market? Can you learn to can/freeze/dry/sprout ect any of the veggies that are ripe now? Or learn to bake bread, make salsa, sauerkraut? I see cooking is in your web of goals, but you talk about homesteading as well. Learning what to do with produce is just as important as growing food. And if you focus on what is in season you can start learning about gardening in an indirect way (plus it should be cheaper to buy in season).

That is interesting that you started out with ERE and then went to MMM, quite the opposite route I see normally here! But, it does make sense as far as your SO goes, giving them the chance to learn from people that are closer to her Wheaton level.

Looking forward to hearing more about your journey!

classical_Liberal
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Re: NewBlood's journal

Post by classical_Liberal »

Welcome!

I can relate to having a SO that is half on board with the cause. It's great because she gets the MMM level stuff, but sometimes frustrating because I lose her when I start getting too ERE.

I like your Web. I really think anyones Web of goals really only needs to reflect reality and make sense to them. The former can be tough when it mostly only makes sense to you, so I get your need for some affirmation. All I can say is make sure the interplays are reality and not in your head. It's hard to do when you can't directly measure flows from one thing to another with a standard unit of measurement (like $$), so you almost have feel your way through. This seems to come more naturally to others in the forum than me, so I'm not a great resource.

I look forward to reading more!

NewBlood
Posts: 182
Joined: Sat Aug 08, 2020 3:45 pm

Re: NewBlood's journal

Post by NewBlood »

Thank you @mooretrees!

As far as I understand it, we can break the lease if we find someone to take it over. Or we can break it and we're on the hook for paying rent until the leasing office finds someone else. It doesn't exactly look like a landlord's market right now.... And I don't think they have any incentive to find someone quickly. So that feels kinda risky and stressful. I don't want to potentially have to pay double rent for who knows how many months. As much as I don't like paying this much, I figure it gives us time to explore the region and the various neighborhoods and figure out what would work better.

SO is slowly warming up to the idea of relocating but would only do so because I want to. So I'm trying not to be too pushy.

We do go to the farmers market and we love it but it's actually very expensive. Like $10 for a pint of tomatoes, $6 for 4 peaches... I'm happy to support local farmers especially right now, but at these prices, I'm not gonna buy large enough quantities to make jam or pasta sauce.... I really enjoy learning about what's in season, we lived in a different climate before and this is fun. We're also starting some mini indoor gardening experiment (cut and come greens, green onions, Basil, nothing major). I can make passable bread, and I want to try my hand at making sauerkraut and kimtchi this winter.

Thanks for the feedback and suggestions!

NewBlood
Posts: 182
Joined: Sat Aug 08, 2020 3:45 pm

Re: NewBlood's journal

Post by NewBlood »

Thanks @classical_liberal!

I hear you, being on different planes re-ERE can be frustrating. I feel like I'm constantly on hold and can't make as much progress as I probably could because it would require changing our lifestyle too much for SO. I'm constantly balancing doing something that is meaningful to me vs being selfish in my relationship. I have to remind myself that most couples probably have to deal with this to some degree.

For the web of goals, yes, I haven't quite figured out how to measure progress/success yet. Making progress is not my strong suit when there isn't a very clear path with delineated progress level, so I need to put in place some kind of system for each of the strategies. Measuring $$ is definitely easier.

2Birds1Stone
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Location: Earth

Re: NewBlood's journal

Post by 2Birds1Stone »

NewBlood wrote:
Sun Aug 09, 2020 9:33 am
I have to remind myself that most couples probably have to deal with this to some degree.
Like you wouldn't believe :)

Welcome! I love your web of goals graphic. Would you mind sharing what software you used to make it? Mine looks like chicken scratch drawn by a 4th grader on a napkin using ketchup.

classical_Liberal
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Re: NewBlood's journal

Post by classical_Liberal »

NewBlood wrote:
Sun Aug 09, 2020 9:33 am
For the web of goals, yes, I haven't quite figured out how to measure progress/success yet. Making progress is not my strong suit when there isn't a very clear path with delineated progress level, so I need to put in place some kind of system for each of the strategies. Measuring $$ is definitely easier.
Same here. I wasted quite a bit of energy trying to figure out ways of measurement that can translate in between realms. It reality though, how do you equate something like sense of well-being, or good friendships into $$ or back again. Almost impossible, yet I see the flows happening in my daily life. A little fresh food from my friends garden here, feeling a little better because I have the time to be outside there, etc. I know it's real, but what is it really worth.

Anway, one take away I did get from this is that we become what we measure. So, in trying to equate all things into $$ made or saved, I began to build my individual web nodes to produce $$ benefit flows. This is not ideal, and has made it even harder for me to completely separate from my golden handcuff situation.

Good luck and share what you learn! :D I can use the help.

NewBlood
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Joined: Sat Aug 08, 2020 3:45 pm

Re: NewBlood's journal

Post by NewBlood »

@2Birds1Stone Haha, thanks!

It's heartening to hear that 1. I'm not alone here, 2. having a SO who's not really onboard hasn't stopped you guys from making as much progress as you have. Gives me hope!

For the web of goals, I used Adobe Illustrator, but you probably could get a very similar result with PowerPoint. I just happen to have access to Illustrator and I'm used to it.

NewBlood
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Joined: Sat Aug 08, 2020 3:45 pm

Re: NewBlood's journal

Post by NewBlood »

@classical_liberal, not sure I have much to teach here.... :?

But yeah, I don't think trying to equate intangible things to $$ would work.
My current thinking about this, going back to the "theory of Anyway", is that as long as I'm mostly spending time/energy on stuff that align with my values or with my aspirations, even if I can't quantify how much benefit I'm getting from it, there is less chance that I'm wasting my time. Whether they help me reach ERE faster or not, it's things I think I should be doing anyway.
And as long as I keep doing it anyway, I'm bound to be making some progress eventually, right?

I think for me it might come down more to accountability. I'm very good at making excuses for not doing the things I like to think I want to do/should be doing, but never really do. Another reason why I'm starting this journal.

At least initially, the actual rate or amount of progress or success is not as important as whether I can stick to it.
Last edited by NewBlood on Sun Aug 09, 2020 5:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.

NewBlood
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Joined: Sat Aug 08, 2020 3:45 pm

Re: NewBlood's journal

Post by NewBlood »

Strategies

So my strategies include:
1. Saving/investing
2. Reading
3. Strength training
4. More cooking/food preservation
5. Gardening/learning to produce food
6. Improving my emotional IQ
7. Volunteering with Habitat for Humanity
8. Moving back to western Europe
9. Becoming a foster parent

1-6 are stuff I am working on right now.
7 hasn’t been happening because of COVID.
8 wouldn’t happen for at least a couple of years
9 wouldn’t happen until I move back home.

NewBlood
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Joined: Sat Aug 08, 2020 3:45 pm

Re: NewBlood's journal

Post by NewBlood »

1. Savings/investing.

I got a huge raise when I relocated here, so I’m now a 6-figure earner! :shock: But we have very high expenses and with COVID I’ve also upped my charitable donations to various foodbanks and crisis funds.

So far since April my savings rate has been around 60+%. I didn’t start an SRA right away with the new employer because I wanted to rebuild my cash savings a bit after relocation expenses. Then I realized that I have access to a 457b, which I had never heard of. As mentioned in here (viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4708&p=67853&hilit=457b#p67853), with a 457b I can withdraw money whenever I want after separating from my employer. Since I’m thinking about moving to Europe within the next few years, it’s a no-brainer. So I’m maxing it out for this year, and putting the rest in my savings account. I debated putting the rest in my 403b, but things are so weird right now that I feel more comfortable with having more cash.

I am currently at about 30% cash, 53% in tax deferred account and the rest in liquid investments accounts (457b + Roth + brokerage). I’m invested in index funds (I know….), about 15% bonds and 18% international stocks and the rest in US stocks. I just don’t trust myself yet with individual stocks. so for now, this is working well enough for me and yielding way more than my savings account…. (I did make a detour through jhcollins and Boggleheads before finding my way back to ERE, so bear with me).

Once I’m FI, and without charitable contributions, I could easily live on $1500/month. This would reflect cheaper rent or equivalent mortgage based on the places I’m looking at in my home country, and my current spending on everything else, which I can definitely optimize (a lot) more.

Based on that number, which I’m calling "conservative FI", I have 15 years saved, all types of savings combined.
If I only look at my liquid accounts (cash + 457b + Roth + brokerage) minus a one-year emergency cash amount, my 4% SWR would be $370/month. I know 3% is more conservative, but I’m not trying to be as conservative as possible for several reasons I’ll touch on in the other strategies.

So my goal here for the rest of 2020 is to max out my 457b and save at least 40% of the rest of my income every month (the 60% figure was before I started diverting pre-tax money to the 457b).

NewBlood
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Joined: Sat Aug 08, 2020 3:45 pm

Re: NewBlood's journal

Post by NewBlood »

2. Reading.

This one might sound cheesy and obvious, but I have a weird relationship with reading. I grew up without a TV, we never had one at home, so as a child and teenager I was an avid reader (no other option). When I became more independent, I bought myself a TV card for my computer (remember those?) and started binge watching everything (initially binge watching meant checking on Napster for an hour, watching for 20 mins, repeat). As a professional adult, I really didn’t do much book reading at all. A lot of internet reading, but very few books until the last couple of years. All of a sudden, I just started reading avidly again. My book selections are very chaotic, there’s no method there, and I read a lot of fiction/autobiography stuff. And I have a love/hate relationship with Netflix.

Since the beginning of April, I started keeping track of what I read. I’ve read 18 books so far, so about one per week.
My goal here is to read at least 50 books a year, and add in more non-fiction (non personal essays) to the mix.

Reading is how I learn, so between this and internet and forum reading, I can learn more about my other strategies. I also think that reading makes you a better human in general by exposing you to so many other points of view, circumstances, opinions, etc…

I you haven’t seen Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s TED talk about the danger of a single story, I highly recommend it, it’s great:
https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ng ... ngle_story
She’s one of my favorite authors.

NewBlood
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Joined: Sat Aug 08, 2020 3:45 pm

Re: NewBlood's journal

Post by NewBlood »

3. Strength training.

I have the strength of a baby bird and the flexibility of a 90yr old…
That’s not entirely true, my back and hips are pretty flexible but my hamstrings are just ridiculous. I don’t know why. I did Iyengar yoga 2-3 times a week for 3 years in my mid-20s, and I still couldn’t touch my toes. I also have hyper mobile joints, and I’ve realized that every time I try to stretch my hamstrings I end up hyperextending my knees.

So I’ve decided to give up on my hamstrings for now and focus on becoming stronger to stabilize my joints and stop hurting myself. But because I’m overall pretty weak, I’ve been very wary about using weights, I don’t want to get any long-lasting injuries.

I am functionally in ok shape. I can walk for 2h easily, I can bike 20-30 miles easily, I can hike for 2-3h easily. But every time I’ve taken up any kind of physical labor (gardening, house building, anything useful), it’s been a very humbling experience and I’ve felt useless.

A few weeks ago, @JenAR mentioned “Convict Conditioning” and @Dave expounded on it (thank you both!). It sounded like the blueprint I’ve always needed, so I found it in my library’s app and quickly read it. I think it’s great (maybe skip the first part if you already agree that calisthenics is what you want and don’t care about the prison life). The way he talks about calisthenics makes sense to me, it seems to correspond to what I want (I have no interest in big muscles), and there are very discrete progressive steps to each exercise, with pictures and explanations, to ensure that even total noobs like myself should be able to perform the first exercises and not hurt themselves . Perfect! I’m only 1 week into the “New Blood” training program (see what I did there?), so obviously, take this endorsement with a grain of salt…

From what I read, there is a follow up book that talks about stretching but I can’t get it from my library or as a cheap paperback (it sells for >$100 on ebay!), so I’m going to have to bite the bullet and buy the ebook. If anybody has any experience with Convict Conditioning 2 or with flexibility vs hypermobile joints, I’d love to hear what you think.

Anyways, my goal here is to stick with this method until at least the end of 2020 and reassess from there.

NewBlood
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Joined: Sat Aug 08, 2020 3:45 pm

Re: NewBlood's journal

Post by NewBlood »

Log

I guess there is a reason I’ve never kept a diary. I lose steam pretty quickly and haven’t kept up with this series of posts. Instead of expounding on my other goals/strategies, I want to share (mostly with my future self, but if anybody finds it useful, that’s a bonus) the way I have been keeping track of progress on the most actionable ones.

Image

Filling in the spreadsheet takes me about 30s each day. I’m about 15 weeks in, so not exactly a long-running thing yet, but it has proven to be a surprisingly effective motivator, even though I’m the only looking at it. I really enjoy keeping track of which books I’m reading. Going up in the spreadsheet takes me back to how I was feeling while reading specific books.

Same for the chats/calls. Looking back, it's cool to see how many people I am keeping in touch with. It's definitely more people than I would have guessed off the top of my head.

Meals: I just record dinners, mostly to have a list of tried recipes I can refer to when I lack inspiration, but also to keep track of take out nights, which are still too often. My goal is no more than once per week, and ideally not every week, but it’s been tough balancing food fatigue, laziness, support to local businesses, and exploration of a new cosmopolitan city food options (before they all disappear ….). The biggest part of all my travels has always been food. I mean, what else is there? :lol: I can tell you a lot about Spain (‘s food). The struggle is real!

CC is the Convict Conditioning strength training. Twice a week, I record which exercise and number of reps and sets. So for example,1. 3x35 would be first level of whichever exercise, 3 sets of 35 reps.

Nothing revolutionary or fancy, but so far I’ve found this useful.

NewBlood
Posts: 182
Joined: Sat Aug 08, 2020 3:45 pm

Re: NewBlood's journal

Post by NewBlood »

Phew... it's been a minute...

I really like the way Lemur organizes his journal updates and am going to borrow some of his categories (I hope it's ok, Lemur):

Net worth:

I briefly hit my minimum 4% goal. Which would yield about minimum wage in my home country (which should be more than enough to live on if I have a paid off house). Pretty sure I’m down since then. I try not to obsess too much about the market vagaries, and I’m really glad I’m about 35% in cash. (I plan to buy land and a tiny house once I move back). Future contributions are going to be even more heavily into cash.

Target date for the move is summer 2023 though, so the whole ignoring the market, in it for the long term thing, isn’t working so well for me. Better this than crazy drops right after pulling the plug I guess.


Physical health:

I’ve been dealing with some hip/lower back pain for about a year and have been working with a physical therapist. It’s been a problem, because I love walking, but if I walk longer than 1-1.5 hours, I start getting very sore. At one point it was so bad I had periods when I couldn’t sleep for 2-3 days in a row. I think I have it under control now, and have signed up for Nerd Fitness for bodyweight strength and mobility training because I need a simple “today you do this” program to get me into the right habits. It was working great until I had to travel for work for 4 weeks. I need to get better at maintaining routines when I’m not home.

I’d be interested to hear if anybody has any feedback on Nerd Fitness. I mix in PT exercises, dynamic moves and stretching, so it’s not like it’s my only reference, but I’m curious.

Cooking/eating better:

Finally home after 4 weeks on the go and eating a bunch of crap. I’m going to try making my own grains and greens bowls a la Sweet Green. Went to the farmers market and going to do some few meals at a time prep.

Job:

Good. We had our first in person 4-day broader team meeting in over 2 years of not even being allowed to step foot in the office. As much as I love teleworking, this was very much needed and really re-energized me. It feels great to get some direct feedback after 2 years of zoom vagueness and to reconnect with colleagues over beers (we are a very distributed team). I don’t think I would every prefer to be in the office every week again (let alone every day), but in person week-long team meetings at least twice a year are really critical.

I’m trying to convince my boss to let me work from home country after next year to tie me over the transition and get a better sense of actual cost of living there. Initial conversations have not been encouraging. I need to show her that it could work and find a mechanism that would let her employ me. I’m currently a grantee of a fed agency, so lots of complexities… I could work anywhere in the country, but abroad is a whole other story.

Gardening:

We had to move in April, which wasn’t planned, but they decided to raise our rent by $400/month… Because it took a while to find a new place and move, and because I wasn’t sure I’d still be close enough to my community garden plot (I am, thankfully), I didn’t start any plants this year. And with the work trip I just came back from, I didn’t do anything in my garden until now. All I have in there is garlic and some lettuces. Not sure what’s worth starting at this point… Any suggestions? I’m in the mid Atlantic. It’s getting hot here already.

Reading:

With everything going on in Ukraine, and my plan to go back to Europe next year, I started reading “Europe, a history”. I love the way it’s written, but man, it’s dense. It’s gonna take me a while. I’m amazed by how much I don’t know or don’t remember about European history and geography…

I also finished Retrotopia (JMG), Lilac girls (I’ve been on a bit of a WW2 kick… not great for my mood, but instructive. Or as much as fiction can be anyway) and reading the graphics novel version of Sapiens (first version that was available from the library. I feel like I’m probably getting the gist of it though, and much faster than if I was reading the whole thing).

Goals:

I’ve decided I want to learn how to draw. I’ve dabbled a tiny bit in the past, but I’ve basically no creative bone in me, and I want to expand that dimension a bit. If only to make some nice Christmas cards and have fun with some of the kids in my life. I found a youtube video series that I’m going to give a try.

NewBlood
Posts: 182
Joined: Sat Aug 08, 2020 3:45 pm

Re: NewBlood's journal

Post by NewBlood »

Progress

Since my initial 2020 posts, a few things have happened:


Big life Decisions.

SO and I reached the decision that when I move back to home country next year, we will most likely part ways… we stopped trying to make things fit and are now just going with the flow, it was creating too much tension and conflict. The thing is, our families live at two ends of the world and we have very different life visions. At some point, we just have to accept that we’re just not really compatible, not matter how much we like/love each other.

I’m also so tired of living a life of cognitive dissonance. I work in a field where we talk and deal with climate change routinely but I and everybody around me are some of the worst offenders. So much air travel, upper middle class lifestyles and spending. SUVs and big pick-up trucks everywhere in the office’s parking lot.
Most people don’t seem to ever question it or care. I question it and I care, but am no better, because of inertia, mostly. Once I made my career in the US, air travel to see family became automatically built into my lifestyle. Because I live in the US and SO was raised here, our lifestyle is so wasteful and there is only so many battles I’m willing to take on every day. (not that everybody here is wasteful, but wastefulness is definitely more prevalent and accepted here).

I just want to get to a point in my life where I never have to be in a plane, and where I don’t need to fight to not have AC blasting in my house in April. Where I don’t need a blanket or space heater to be comfortable at the office. Where people don’t serve dinner on paper or plastic plates. Where the automatic answer to everything is not to just throw more money away.


Minor wins

- I started a plot at a community garden. Very minimal success, the only thing that I really managed to grow well was garlic. Everything else was either a failure or stolen. It’s a public garden in a gentrifying area with lots of people struggling, so I’m mostly ok with it. I still learned quite a bit. This year is probably not gonna be great either because I’m going to be out of town quite a bit and I wasn’t able to get things started early enough. But I still like spending time there and observing.

- I also taught myself how to knit and made two pairs of mittens that look quite good. I lost steam and haven’t tried anything else but I now have the basic tools and knowledge to pick it up again.

- I learned how to rehab my old bike at a bike clinic. Changing tubes (front: easy, back: a little bit more tricky), changing a tire, replacing brake cables, derailleur cables, readjusting brake pads, adjusting derailleur. My old bike got a second life despite my father’s insistence that I might as well buy a new one since it would cost so much to fix it anyway. I was able to do all that for about 30 euros (the most expensive was the new tire, which the bike clinic didn’t have. Everything else they sell at cost or below cost and they have all the tools). And a few hours of learning and meeting new people.

- I’m still holding on to the only smartphone I’ve ever owned. Best purchase research I ever made. It’s an LG G5, one of the “modular” and fixable smartphone OGs. I was holding out for the fairphone but they never made it available for the US, so I got this one refurbished and unlocked from ebay. When I bought it (2017), it had the highest repairability score on Ifixit, except for the fairphone and a couple of 2011 models. I’ve replaced the battery and screen a couple of times and the volume button. I added an SD card for more storage. Now the power button stopped working (it didn’t like the rain). I can work around it, but it’s a pain. I bought a new power button ($5.81, including shipping) and will work on it this weekend. Ifixit and ebay are my best friends.

-I resurrected my old Thinkpad (T420s). I replaced the hard drive, the old one wasn’t getting recognized by the BIOS for some reason. And I installed Linux Mint. Still works like a charm, much better than my work Dell laptops.

- I learned how to make a few new dishes in the last couple of years, slowly increasing my range. One of my favorites is Spanish tortilla! So good, so satisfying!

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Last edited by NewBlood on Thu May 19, 2022 9:29 am, edited 1 time in total.

Western Red Cedar
Posts: 1205
Joined: Tue Sep 01, 2020 2:15 pm

Re: NewBlood's journal

Post by Western Red Cedar »

I'm sorry to hear about your partner, but it sounds like you are both dealing with the relationship maturely and are making the decision with your eyes open. Best of luck as you navigate the end of that relationship.

FWIW, in regards to climate change and cognitive dissonance, I find the west coast to be a much better cultural fit for an ERE lifestyle (vs. the east coast). There is still plenty of lavish spending and hypocrisy over here, but there seems to be more cultural norms around conservation, minimalism, and self-reliance. I'm often shocked when I visit major US cities outside of the west coast/mountain west.

Congratulations on all of the minor wins. Feel free to share a recipe that you like for the Spanish tortillas if you have a link. I love those!

NewBlood
Posts: 182
Joined: Sat Aug 08, 2020 3:45 pm

Re: NewBlood's journal

Post by NewBlood »

Thank you, WRC! the navigation of the end has me a bit stressed out, not gonna lie. We'll see how mature we manage to remain as the end date approaches.

Incidentally, I'm in the middle of reading your journal. You are quite the prolific writer, and I love your photos. It's always enlightening to read about others' journeys.

I have never lived on the West Coast but I have friends in Corvallis and I really like it there. I agree it would probably be a better cultural fit for me, although that would get me even further from home country and would worsen my carbon footprint struggles even further... sigh...

I think this is the recipe I used:
https://www.recetasderechupete.com/tort ... paso/5182/

(you get to practice your spanish!)

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