guitar player's journal

Where are you and where are you going?
guitarplayer
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Location: Scotland

Re: guitar player's journal

Post by guitarplayer »

@zbigi, I see where you are coming from, assume that colder air can hold less water. That being said, just now it is 8 C outside and 11 inside so not much of a difference! Still, might try opening windows wide open first thing in the morning when it is cooler outside.

@chenda, where I live the building is over 100 yo, but not sure about the material but it definitely isnt 'modern . Problem is, the building opposite within the enclosure is a derelict industrial revolution warehouse and that space there is generally really damp, and I think this contributes to the issue as the road facing room is perfectly fine. What is the matter with double glazing? Windows here are double glazed.

chenda
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Re: guitar player's journal

Post by chenda »

guitarplayer wrote:
Tue Jan 24, 2023 1:09 pm
What is the matter with double glazing? Windows here are double glazed.
If they are already insitu there is probably nothing wrong with them, although thinking about it they may be contributing to the damp problem if the trickle vents are not sufficient. The environmental issues arises with endless retrofitting and replacement of perfectly good single glazing. The UPVC units contain massive amounts of embodied energy and frequently fail before the end of the energy payback period, and end up in landfill. Timber is framing can last for centuries if well maintain. Secondary glazing is usually much more cost effective and achieves similar results, and also provides the acoustic and additional security benefits.

avalok
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Re: guitar player's journal

Post by avalok »

Yeah, double glazing may cause damp issues to arise in older properties because they prevent the breathing that chenda described; you're sealing a unit that wasn't meant to be sealed. Closing off chimneys and other such efficiency measures can do similar.

guitarplayer
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Location: Scotland

Re: guitar player's journal

Post by guitarplayer »

Wow that was a lot of exchange in my journal the past few days, need to be mindful of this as I have a cunning plan to reverse engineer my FI journey to the 500th post.

2023 update 4/52

Job

017/156 weeks in (ca. 10.9%).

I got enrolled in a one day workshop about building dashboards with a programming language called DAX in Power BI, this is a MS software. It falls in mid February.

Otherwise, I have been reinventing the wheel building extensive macros in SAS which effectively are functions. Writing a script with many of them in one SAS program is equivalent of building a package, like an R or Python package. Lots of work can be quickly done with a proper setup of macros I feel, and I am aiming to optimise this area. I have a lot of fun doing it.

Otherwise I wrote the first part of a publication that goes live next month.

I am working on another piece that is going live in April, but the datasets are messy. so this actually serves as my playground for developing the macros I have been writing about.

Maths and Stats / Studies

I am working on queues, epidemics and lifetime modelling. So operational research, epidemiology and actuarial science 101 for statisticians, someone could say. Later this weekend I will be working on genetics, renewal models and diffusion processes. I am a bit behind in my plan of one assignment a week until my trip to South America in March. The good news is that I have all but one assignments that fall in the period I am away out of the way. Only one left, and only because the material for it is not available so far.

Also, I heard back regarding the research bursary to do with graphs and networks I applied for last week. Again I did not get it. This time however I got a more encouraging response, where the coordinator had written a personal message saying how he regretted there not being enough funding for me and that I was the first candidate under the funding bar. A couple hours later the post doc whom I wanted to do the project with reached out offering an informal internship project. I wrote him saying I am keen. I like this stuff and can hardly see how it could be possible to be canned as a glorified technician in this field. Anyway, this would be no strings attached I presume so let's spin the serendipity wheel. Pretty happy about the opportunity, let's see where it goes!

So many brainy people here, chip in if you have a comment about the above!

The flat reclaimed

After lots of excellent advice, our flat is reclaimed. A combination of many good tips above, plus yesterday the dehumidifier arrived. 200W and can be set to start running when energy is cheap. After last night when we had it in sleep mode in our bedroom, the humidity levels were considerably lower throughout the day in that space. Across the flat, readings were in their 60%s (also due to open windows it was a nice day). I have also noticed that the reading on those cheap readers DW got are a few percent higher than the reader on the dehumidifier, to err on the side of caution probably believe the higher ones.

I plan to gradually be knocking down humidity across the flat and tonight will run it in the kitchen for the night, then living room, then corridor, bathroom etc and see how it goes. Nice that things are under control again.

A bonus: nice that we now have a dehumidifier for drying laundry (an issue I have been writing about in the past).

No-heating in the winter experiment to continue. I think we are past the peak actually. I did run the heater a few times but not for its conventional purpose, so I will write it off and say that the experiment is fine and well.

Food

We continue to get lots of food for free, eating heaps and heaps of greens, brasicas, other veg, fruit, berries, sometimes we spoil ourselves with a dark rye sourdough bread if we spot one, too. Otherwise we are running out of legumes, black beans are slowly coming to an end. Next 25kg bag of legumes will be lentils I think.

I estimate we spend less than $50 a month for our excellent varied diet.

zbigi
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Re: guitar player's journal

Post by zbigi »

guitarplayer wrote:
Fri Jan 27, 2023 1:50 pm

I plan to gradually be knocking down humidity across the flat and tonight will run it in the kitchen for the night, then living room, then corridor, bathroom etc and see how it goes. Nice that things are under control again.
Suprisingly to me, my experiences of years of running air purifier during winters (for polluted air) has shown that the location of the purifier doesn't matter - the PM2.5 content in the air falls almost evenly across my 38 m^2 apartment (I haven't checked the bathroom, and I have no other doors inside, so the air flows freely between rooms). So, it may not be necessary to move the dehumidifier around?

guitarplayer
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Location: Scotland

Re: guitar player's journal

Post by guitarplayer »

Thanks both, that's the sort of middle world physics I like. I also have a good book on mechanics of different sport disciplines.

I screwed up the setting of the dehumidifier last night so cannot judge, but I will move it around across the coming week to see anyway.

-----
Heard back from the postdoc, he is suggesting a laid back no pressure project to look at the general position problem and its variations. Why not, I might take a book on graphs on my trip in March to have something to read.

guitarplayer
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Re: guitar player's journal

Post by guitarplayer »

2023 update 5/52

Job

018/156 weeks in (ca. 11.5%).

Having good fun dissecting and gluing together cryptic datasets to get to know their ins and outs.

This past week I have learned that there is still a pot of money left for trainings in my team so I am trying to think what training to do with data science I could suggest to take part in and have funded. If anyone has good ideas, let me know. I think I could realistically ask for a training with a price tag up to $1000 or £1000 (though that would be a stretch I think but possible).

DW job

Good news! DW is now doing a one year placement at a company to do with energy, to finish in late summer. A couple of days back, she had been offered and accepted a position in the company's IT department from late summer onwards. DW is happy and I am happy for her, too. She wanted to work in IT so there you go. Also, this means a 60% pay rise for her. It's a sort of graduate program, she said she might be heading to the US, continental Europe or somewhere else for placements up to several months.

I think we will be back to the savings levels from our previous life where our salaries were relatively low but expenses were through the floor. Now expenses are just mainstream low, and salaries will be both above median so savings rate will oscillate around 65-85%. Still, this is not the US or Switzerland, there savings rate with our lifestyle would probably be in the 90%'s.

But the way life is heading now, it is becoming increasingly possible to make our way many places with ease.

In fact, I would be rather keen to follow DW somewhere as the last few times I was more of the driving force of our relocations and life rearrangements.

Maths and Stats / Studies

Reading on the theory behind linear regression models.

Food

Ordered 25kg of organic brown lentils, it was about $75. 25kg bag of black beans lasted us about 9-10 weeks.

Thanks for reading!
Last edited by guitarplayer on Fri Feb 03, 2023 2:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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mountainFrugal
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Re: guitar player's journal

Post by mountainFrugal »

guitarplayer wrote:
Fri Feb 03, 2023 1:58 pm

Reading on the theory behind linear regression models.
I classic text if you have not seen it already is- Plane Answers to Complex Questions : The Theory of Linear Models. It may be what you are referring to.

basuragomi
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Re: guitar player's journal

Post by basuragomi »

1.3 kg of legumes per person per week! That's amazing, are half your calories coming from lentils alone? 0.5 kg a week is about all I can handle.

guitarplayer
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Re: guitar player's journal

Post by guitarplayer »

@mF, thanks! I am using tailor written books for the BSc I am doing (this is handy as they come in the whole BSc package so I just get the paper copies delivered home) but get referenced to other sources. Never have time to look up the references. Will try to make time to look at this one!

@basuragomi, I wouldn't be surprised. One bulk is legumes and the other whole grains (currently have barley and rye). I normally cook 600g of each overnight and with this cycle it comes to not needing to cook roughly every fourth night (for two people). Otherwise we eat a lot of fruit and veg which are bulk rich but not calorie rich, and something like 2-5 table spoons of nuts and seeds. Then we occasionally have treats like peanut butter, tahini, jam, honey, bread, last month we scavenged 1.5 kg mango chutney through the food scavenging app so will add a bit of that. And herbs and spices, a wall full of them.

My reasoning is that the savannah version of myself would probably not fuss about the food in front of them. The modernist version of myself gets in touch with the savannah one and tells them what science deems to be good stuff. The result follows. But other than that I am also fortunate in that I (and DW) like the diet.

With the legumes, we soak for 12-24h with 1/8 teaspoon of soda bicarbonate, change water 1-3 times, makes a difference in that the legumes are much less heavy.

NewBlood
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Re: guitar player's journal

Post by NewBlood »

guitarplayer wrote:
Fri Feb 03, 2023 1:58 pm
This past week I have learned that there is still a pot of money left for trainings in my team so I am trying to think what training to do with data science I could suggest to take part in and have funded. If anyone has good ideas, let me know. I think I could realistically ask for a training with a price tag up to $1000 or £1000 (though that would be a stretch I think but possible).
Hi gp,
I've really liked some of these books:
https://www.highstat.com/index.php/books

It looks like he also does trainings (haven't tried those). His focus has mostly been ecology, so may not be super applicable to the work you do, but it looks like they also offer trainings in other fields: "Some of our courses are in-house, whereas others are open. Since 2002, we have trained over 7000 scientists from different fields, such as biology, medicines, psychology, and even economics and social science. Our courses are non-technical. All courses are based on our books and use R."

Here's one of his papers: https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley ... 09.00001.x

guitarplayer
Posts: 1300
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Re: guitar player's journal

Post by guitarplayer »

Thanks @NewBlood, I have applied for a work funded training with that company. They are based in Newborough which has a great looking beach, although the training would be remote. The application sparked a discussion on trying to organise a 'group training for the whole team' that everyone could benefit form which is not possible given the skill level across the team.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

2023 update 6/52

Job

019/156 weeks in (ca. 12.1%).

It has been a busy week with another publication going live next week. I applied for funding for a training in R, but as per my response to @NewBlood above, it might be that a group training will happen instead. Things are fine at work generally. I had my first performance review due to mid probationary period. My manager is happy with how things are going. He is a nice guy, wants to make life as easy as possible for his analysts. Let's see if there will be any opportunities for promotion sometime soon.

DW job

DW sent all docs needed to the HR at where she works, heard from her current manager that it might take about two weeks to get the contract.

Maths and Stats / Studies

I went through a really good chapter on graph theory in coding. I am reading about physical networks now, like hydraulic, electrical etc. and representing them as a network. Over the weekend I will be working on block designs.

Food

We got the 25kg sack of organic brown lentils, they are very yummy. DW suspects that perhaps brown lentils naturally contain sodium.

Health

So far so good.

Thanks for reading!

NewBlood
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Re: guitar player's journal

Post by NewBlood »

guitarplayer wrote:
Fri Feb 10, 2023 1:29 pm
Thanks @NewBlood, I have applied for a work funded training with that company. They are based in Newborough which has a great looking beach, although the training would be remote. The application sparked a discussion on trying to organise a 'group training for the whole team' that everyone could benefit form which is not possible given the skill level across the team.
Awesome! Would love to hear how it goes, hope it's good.

guitarplayer
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Re: guitar player's journal

Post by guitarplayer »

Well we will see. Now that there are many people (and their interests) involved, the chances of it materialising are far lower. That being said, I actually filled out a form to request funding for it, so one scenario would be that we will be talking about what training we need ad infinitum, and then will reach no conclusion, whilst at the end of the financial year my form will be there so will be processed because otherwise training money falls through.

ETA:

Studies

I figured it would be good I went through a quick course in pure maths, queried my tutor and was pointed to some good learning material.

The problem one prof would like to collaborate on is a variation (to be defined by me) of the general position problem in graph theory.

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

Re: guitar player's journal

Post by NewBlood »

guitarplayer wrote:
Sat Feb 11, 2023 4:20 am
Well we will see. Now that there are many people (and their interests) involved, the chances of it materialising are far lower. That being said, I actually filled out a form to request funding for it, so one scenario would be that we will be talking about what training we need ad infinitum, and then will reach no conclusion, whilst at the end of the financial year my form will be there so will be processed because otherwise training money falls through.
Ah, got it. That sounds frustrating. I hope it works out.

guitarplayer
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Location: Scotland

Re: guitar player's journal

Post by guitarplayer »

2023 update 7/52

Freedom to

Have been reading the thread about freedom-to recommendations with interest. A varied framework, yet another one. In fear of killing that thread (or maybe folk just went on to write on the 4th, 5th, 6th perspective one instead), I am plotting my carousel exploration of personality on the side.

Guitar

Off of my readings of the freedom-to thread, it occurred to me I have recently neglected my Fe, which of course is playing music. It brought me some feeling of longing for I did not know what, until I set up a few playing sessions (just myself). Much happier now.

Once some form of multidimensional life is obtained, it can be a struggle to turn unidimensional again. Which makes me think about the Flatland (which I have not yet read).

Job

020/156 weeks in (ca. 12.7%).

I had what I think was a minor breakthrough at work today. Really nothing extravagant in general terms, but feels good. Like, when you sit for extended period of time thinking about a problem and how to tackle it, meanwhile walk around, get some food, make a cup of tea. Then in your mind all is in order and you just sit down and do it and it works.

Feet

How do office workers deal with swollen feet / ankles !? I am fairly new to office work after years of being active throughout the day, and it just occurred to me that my feet are swollen by the end of the day! More so when I stand at work (I have a standing desk), but then when I sit all day I have other aches. I am pretty sure it is from inactivity, as otherwise I am pretty healthy and with healthy habits.

So if you have any tips and trick on the matter, let me know please.

For now, I am going to do more breaks with being active, maybe start doing stretching throughout the day.

Flat

On the flat front, humidity is totally under control in the 50-60's % range. Applying advice from earlier in the journal, plus dehumidifier.

We realise we need more space, this flat was a good find for moving to the city and starting with new chapter in life, but there is little slack in terms of space. A bit like camping all the time, or maybe like living in a camper van, but without the benefit of outdoors / greenery just outside. The flat is I would say around 30 square meters, it would be good to have around 50 square meters.

DW job

DW signed her new contract, hey! It's good news. She will be starting her new post in the end of summer. I get the impression DW feels a bit like she 'made it' here.

Maths and Stats / Studies

The block design book was about designing experiments to have a good set of comparisons between varieties.

I am waiting for material to write up an assignment on cluster analysis.

Food

We got like eight vegetarian haggis last week and are having a good time eating through them + lots of fruit and veg as always.

Health

I carry on doing the 200 burpees daily, now in the mornings. I thought this was my golden pill to always give me enough movement daily no matter what else I do. But now that I notice those swollen feet from working an office job, I need to reevaluate.

Thanks for reading!

guitarplayer
Posts: 1300
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Re: guitar player's journal

Post by guitarplayer »

2023 update 8/52

Some advice about studies needed (see below)

Guitar

The last week I have been doing daily chromatic walks and spiders + the voice warmup exercises @Horsewoman recommended a long time ago. Got out of rust again.

Job

021/156 weeks in (ca. 13.5%).

Had a chat with my line manager a couple of days back. There is a new product that has been launched recently and soon there might be pressure to publish something on it. My manager had thought I could tackle it and hinted at writing something in June. Asked me for my thoughts, I mentioned being away in two weeks for a month and then publishing in the end of April, Mid-May and Mid-June. He sort of then answered the question himself. Actually, I would really like to publish on it as it would be writing a completely new piece of work. At the same time I don't think I could manage for June, also given the BSc Maths and Stats exams (three, also in June). A shame. Hopefully they reschedule writing on it until August perhaps, then it should be doable I think.

Feet

So I figured that working all day standing (but not moving / having a stepper / having a thread mill) is the cause of swollen feet / ankles. I spent the last week mostly sitting, beautiful feet, no problem. I will still try to spend some time standing at a desk, find it good for keeping focus.

Flat

We went to view a flat yesterday, very central and good looking flat, a converted Victorian warehouse. But judging by the amount of viewers, I recon it will go for well above its estimated value, might even not bother bidding.

All the business with flats, currently I feel like this is just distracting myself with more useful things to do. For example, getting a really, really good grasp of data plumbing, or going through the investment curriculum as we are gathering an increasing amount of money.

Studies

I am finishing the last assignment before my holidays in March and April. It's about applying Generalized Linear Modelling with binomial and logistic response. The last last assignment (after I am back) will be about cluster analysis.

Pledge for advice: there is a potential to do a MSc in Data Science / Data Analytics that is funded. I wonder if this would be the best use of my time.

For:
- would embark on this journey only if gotten a scholarship, i.e. would be for free;
- would be gaining a MSc degree;
- I like studying;
- would be in line with my current work (and I would stay at work);
- could be done part time, @7w5's 2-day principle (paraphrase) '[being engaged]two days a week - enough to be seen as a friend [to academia], not too daunting';
- would meet more people in the field;
- DW wants to keep on studying for a BSc in Cybersecurity after summer - if I got into the programme I would avoid the mimetic desire problem of me having lots of free time unlike DW;

Against:
- I have two MA degrees and am in my mid-30s, is there enough added value in getting a MSc to justify the choice? I mean, part of me feels like I am verging on farce, getting a third Masters degree.
- could spend the time reading the investment curriculum instead;
- could spend the time quickly rereading material from my BSc and developing my own analyses + a deeper understanding of the world;
- could spend the time playing more music and generally doing non brainy activities to diversify from the currently brainy work;
- could spend the time getting to know my work inside out;
- could spend the time working on a graph theory problem that could lead to some Maths research situation (though could argue that getting the MSc would be slightly homeotelic towards this, depends).

Health

I stopped drinking coffee, again. This time mostly I ran out of it and since I don't have it it supplied like in my previous work, I go without. There is still some black and green tea in the house, currently I go with green tea. I might stick to green tea and decide to buy a kilo, it would cost around $30 and last about three months.

Seasons

It's getting warmer, spring is increasingly in the air.

Let me know if you have any advice on the 'study' bit. So far I had lots of good advice on the forum.

Thanks for reading!
Last edited by guitarplayer on Sat Feb 25, 2023 9:09 am, edited 1 time in total.

ertyu
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Re: guitar player's journal

Post by ertyu »

another advantage of msc over not is that someone is keeping you on schedule and scaffolding you in the pursuit of goals. if you were to use your time in any of the alternative ways you've listed, would you do it with the consistency of effort you would apply towards a msc? no judgment around how you answer this question; some would, some won't (i probably wouldn't). it's something to consider.

tbh, you sound to me like you'd enjoy doing it and that you want to do it -- i say that's reason enough

NewBlood
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Re: guitar player's journal

Post by NewBlood »

Getting a fully-funded degree while still being able to stay in your job (and earning money) is probably the most ideal way to learn stuff you're (presumably) interested in and get more skilled in your field. There is no downside, except less free time for more renaissance-man type of activities. So I'd say it really depends on what your goals are for the next 5-10 years. Asking your boss whether this would unlock major opportunities vs being stuck without that degree might be a good additional data point.

mathiverse
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Re: guitar player's journal

Post by mathiverse »

Do you have to do the funded MSc now or never? It may be the case that a good option is delaying the program a year to give the other projects time and to get more experience in your job. After a year, you'd have more information to make the MSc decision.

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