Avalok's Journal

[avalok]

Ran to/from the office both days this week. I'm borrowing a small rucksack and I don't take a lot, but my laptop is quite large so it is a bit of a squeeze. The rucksack is slightly too big for me, so I have a bruise on my back from the laptop knocking against it repeatedly. All good fun though; nice to have yet another option to get around. Enjoyed the reduced commute time, but still with the feeling that I had exercised (as with walking). The bike doesn't give me that; the ride is too short. I felt it was no more tiring than walking, but then I have been drowsy most of today. I'll put that down to an intense workshop yesterday that has exhausted my brain.

[Jim]

I admire the "Bicycle commuting is too short/not enough exercise, I'll run instead" mentality.

[avalok]

@Jim it's also that I don't think it is very convenient for the distance travelled: when I include setup and tear down time (e.g. getting bike out of the house, locking up at work), it's not much faster than running. In addition I cannot switch off riding my bike on the roads like I can running/walking along the canal. A run/walk stacks more goals than the bike does: exercise, solitude, time in nature, as well as merely getting from A->B.

Investment Curriculum
Working through bond duration and convexity this week and last. I have little experience with calculus, so have taken the time to tangentially explore how convexity is derived. This has meant slower progress through the final bond chapter, but I am enjoying taking my time to understand the fundamentals in the maths. Once I have nailed down convexity and have working functions in R I plan to move onto either the options chapters, or look at security analysis.

MMG
Yesterday we had the first meeting of the Plotkin MMG. @OutOfTheBlue delivered a detailed link between Jung and Plotkin's work. It was very beneificial for me to better understand the lineage Plotkin is coming from. Before the next meeting I plan to decide on some practices to follow and make a start. On my run this morning I said hello to a few blackbirds and a duck.

Allotment
Sweetcorn and squash are pretty much ready to go in the ground now, as are the tomatoes. We're past the frosts and in a warm spell but last year I planted our corn late May only for it to turn cold in mid-June and set some of them back. Hopefully the weather stays warm this year, perhaps with a bit of rain.

Homebrew
The wild ferment brew took longer to get going so I only plan to bottle it today. I'm not convinced it'll be any good, but it has been easy to make as an initial run.

[guitarplayer]

Hey will be pulling you into the investment curriculum thread once I set it up later this year

Yep, definitely overhead when biking short distances makes it not worth the while. NB I've just discovered another pleasant thing about Scotland as my back gear shifter cable snapped yesterday: Scotland Cycle Repair Scheme funds up to £50 worth of bicycle servicing. Not sure how this is regulated but I assume this is for an annual bike service type of thing. Looked it up as I have no space (and little time) to service the bike this time round.

Is fermenting strictly for ale? My mum makes nettle vinegar, it's excellent. I think also it is harder to go wrong with vinegar as my limited knowledge suggests it is just leaving the brew past the ale / wine / spirit stage to keep on fermenting (might be wrong here though).

[avalok]

Please do! Will be good to discuss it with others; I don't know anyone who finds this stuff interesting.

Not just for ale, that was an impulse experiment. When DW used to bake with cooking apples more, I would used the scraps to make cider vinegar. You are right, just leave it to go past the beverage stage and you have vinegar. I've not heard of nettle vinegar before, but then knowing you can make a beer, I really should know you can therefore make vinegar. I've done other ferments over the years: kefir, sauerkraut, ginger beer and the obligatory sourdough. I always end up killing the sourdough starters because I stop being so enthused by it that the poor thing gets left in the fridge to starve, forgotten about.

[guitarplayer]

I always end up killing the sourdough starters

You can freeze your starter and whilst it will be no use for bread after being defrosted, just take a bit of the defrosted blob to prepare a new starter; after two or three iterations you should have the starter all the same ready for baking bread. Or it worked for me these few times I had done it.

[Frita]

Have you tried dehydrating or air drying your sourdough starter?

https://homesteadandchill.com/how-to-d ... h-starter/

[avalok]

I have frozen the starter before, but yeah, it was never the same afterwards; led to very acidic, dense loaves. Drying it I haven't come across before, but think I'll give this a try if/when I decide to do sourdough again. I need to do it in advance of the starter going south, or us needing to go away for a period.

Anyway the bottling went quite well and I think if it continues to mature it could turn out quite nice. The recipe says to leave it for ten weeks; could be a nice beer to see out the summer. Might try a nettle beer next year now, as I don't have enough bottles to start another brew... unless I can source a crown corker from somewhere.

[avalok]

I missed my update for June; work was very busy, probably the busiest I have known, and this has extended into July also. It has been sleep, run, work, eat, repeat. I have to admit it has been a lot of fun though; the project I was working on involved a lot of learning for myself and gave me a much better understanding of project-level work beyond merely the software implementation. Until this year, my work has mostly been technical in nature: fix this issue, implement this new feature, optimize this component. While there has always been deadline constraints, I've been allowed the freedom to do that work relatively undisturbed by other factors. An item of work would be raised, and I'd be allowed to implement a solution in a way I deemed best. For the projects I have worked on this year, because they are more at the architectural level, this involves considerations from parties motivated beyond the technical implementation. If I write a feature that is not as efficient as possible, assuming it is satisfactory, no one will bat an eyelid. Conversely, architectural considerations do motivate others to contribute to the eventual solution: cost, time, feasibility, politics all intermingle with the simpler technical constraints to produce a more protracted and involved road to an eventual resolution. Suddenly I cannot just opt to do something in one way, because it would cost the business 4x more, and that needs to be (and should be) challenged. The project I was working on until its completion in the middle of this month has been a great learning experience, but it has very much taken its toll on other parts of my life. Things have calmed down considerably now, but I have been so enraptured by the challenge that my brain is scanning for other challenges to take on, rather than taking time to come down. I've a lot of loose ends I need to tend to beyond work, but I'm struggling to get out of orbit to attend to them.

The one thing I have kept up diligently is running; I'm still following the training plan I started back in early May and still thoroughly enjoying it. I run 6 days a week, and use it as time to commute, but also to process my thoughts. Thoughts have admittedly been dominated by work, but I've also used the time to work on aspects from the Plotkin MMG. I run mainly along canals so get to spend time with wildlife I wouldn't otherwise see; the water seems to create a vibrant edge environment where many habitats converge.

For August I'm planning to spend some time clearing the allotment and garden; tidying and decluttering the house, and getting back to reading the Plotkin book. Also, spending more time here...130594.11

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Total Capital: £130,594.11.98
Average Savings Rate: 59.8%
Average Savings Rate TTM: 67.21%

[avalok]

I'm off work for the next week and a half, so finally have some space to pause, to take stock, to pull myself away from it all for a bit.

My Dad started a long trek on the weekend, so I joined him for the first morning. 16 miles along the canal for lunch at a proper pub. Most pubs in the UK now are "gastropubs"; heavily gentrified and more interested in serving food than drinks, to the point they can be rude if you go just for the latter. This pub was like going back in time, minus the cigarette smoke. It was nice spending time with him along the canal; I've spent a lot of time there alone this summer.

I've then been getting to things round the house and at the allotment that I didn't tend to through the height of summer. I have cleared most of the allotment of the weeds surprisingly quickly, there is just one small patch left to clear, and then I need to bring it all back for composting. Also generally cleaning the house. I did notice that despite our lack of time for housework this summer, the place had remained tidy if not clean. I think this is thanks to all the de-cluttering we've done over the past two years; the place might need dusting, but there is not much crap lying around to get in the way. It's still a big space for the two of us, but it is nice to be able to get it looking good again quickly.

[avalok]

Have spent a good chunk of my time playing the guitar this weekend. I'm starting to learn songs that involve individual note playing alongside chords, as well as different rhythms. I returned to a song I had tried earlier in the year, but found to be too much for me. This time it has come far more naturally; I'm still making some daft mistakes when picking the individual notes, but will no doubt sort that over the coming weeks.

Back in July we had the realisation that we are on course next year to accrue enough capital to pay off the outstanding debt on our mortgage. This week I had the time to run a better estimate. Making some realistic assumptions, we should cross this mark in about ten months time; in about a year from now we will have enough to pay off the debt and the early exit fee. We are currently of the mind that this will be worthwhile doing: we are both enjoying our work and aren't convinced we'd be gaining much by moving. I have written before about the issues we have in our home, and they still exist, but I think we'd be taking an unnecessary risk at this time to move. Plus, as guitarplayer has mentioned regarding their flat, removing the debt drastically reduces month-to-month expenses. I would still want to be working towards FI, but at least our minimum required income would drop significantly. I would greatly appreciate the burden of a huge debt being lifted as well. Let's see; this journal has shown already how my thoughts can change drastically. If we decide to do it, it'll be committed to at the last responsible moment, for now it is just an option.

[avalok]

August was a much better month than June and July from a work perspective. The time off got me out of the whirlwind for short time. I have to admit that while I was off I was looking forward to getting back; there are a load of things I wanted to do, and I was interested in knowing how a project was progressing.

I had a break from running while off and noticed I started to feel lethargic and down, this compounded by the fact that I had intended to continue running anyway. The half-marathon I intended to run was cancelled, hence me tapering the training. I started going out again the past few days and feel much better for it.

The garden and allotment are looking much tidier; I have turned the compost heap ready for spreading next year. Hoping to have the time next year to put some more effort into the garden and allotment. I've pretty much written this year off.

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Total Capital: £134,092.66
Average Savings Rate: 60.2%
Average Savings Rate TTM: 67.79%

[guitarplayer]

Wonder if your allotment is on a local authority site or you mean your garden (presume the latter)?

Yeah running is this magic pill where one often starts tired and ends rejuvenated.

[avalok]

We have a garden and an allotment. The allotment is very near to home, if it was further from the access road it could be used as a garden in fact. I have toyed with relinquishing it at times this year, mostly when I was very busy with work over the summer and felt bad that I wasn't giving it enough attention, but think I'll keep it for at least another year. I really enjoy it, but I'm not sure what I want to do with it next. I find it difficult to maintain interest on anything that becomes routine.

[grundomatic]

I find it difficult to maintain interest on anything that becomes routine.

Story of my life. An especially big hang-up is that in the professional world, companies want to pay you for doing the same things over and over again. Most want you to have already done these things repeatedly. Not spending all my money has given me time and space to figure out what to do next, but I need to start designing for this, rather than continually trying to find the "best" routine that I will want to stick with, because it's not going to happen. I suffer a little bit of grass-is-greener syndrome when I see people that are happy executing their routine, over and over. I suppose they probably look at me with envy when everything starts changing and they are flustered, while I seem to be having the time of my life.

[avalok]

Yeah, I am fortunate enough that (a) I enjoy my work currently and (b) the team I work in encourages learning and change. That said, I know that even this will run out eventually; I'll have learnt all I wanted to learn, and contributed all I wanted to contribute.

Have you read The Renaissance Soul, grundomatic? It is on the ERE reading list and I quite enjoyed it. From what you said above, you should relate to it well. It is very much about accepting that you may not find an everlasting routine/interest/whatever, and how liberating that can actually be.

[grundomatic]

I just put that book on hold at the library, thanks for the recommendation. I've pretty much accepted how I am, dealing with it is another matter.

[avalok]

I think it is difficult to accept when there is a heavy cultural bias towards "callings". From a young age we are asked what we are going to be when we grow up, and the answer must be a single thing. Education progressively narrows until you supposedly reach the field you will spend the rest of your life in. People who don't fit this framework are known as flakes, whimsical, distracted. Even for someone with strong self direction, it is difficult to not absorb these biases and judge from them.

[avalok]

End of last week at work was pretty rough so have enjoyed having three days off this week. It has been nice to not have it on my mind either, which makes a change.

In the time off I've been for walks and ran with a friend in the pouring rain, always fun. Started blocks of reading time again, something I've been missing for a couple of months now. In fact, since about June I've not been reading much at all, listening to audiobooks instead, and probably listening too much as I have the habit of listening to one while falling asleep. I don't like this because it builds an unnecessary association between audiobooks and falling asleep. Current books are a re-read of Taleb's Fooled by Randomness and the McConnell-Brue Economics book opening chapters.

Guitar playing is feeling increasingly natural, I noticed I am relaxing more while playing. I want to spend more time on this to capitalize on recent progress. It is extremely satisfying to play even simplified versions of tunes one has admiration for.

[avalok]

Garden & Allotment
Back on the decluttering this weekend. The focus this time is the garden; house is looking pretty good now. We have a lot of stuff at the back that has been effectively dumped there from building the polytunnel, removing shrubs etc. All that is being taken for municipal composting. This part of the garden has been causing me some stress, because it looked like a mess and looked like it would take ages to clean up. Thankfully it wasn't much of an issue at all and is looking much better. Clearing has also allowed me to get at some bindweed creeping over from next door; always need to be on top of the bindweed coming over.

The pallets for our second compost bay are falling apart so I'm going to have to move to a single bay system until I can source replacements. I will see how a single bay goes. A second bay is required for compost toilet systems, to give time for the material to cure, else it will always be too rich to spread. We might pause the compost toilet for the time being anyway; we have plenty of compost for now and it'll prevent the single bay filling up.

We have loads of winter squash over at the allotment, and they are curing well on the ground. It'll be time to pick them in a couple of weeks and get them in the polytunnel for further curing. I grew some turk's turban this year which look fantastic: massive, bright yellow and orange. Really chuffed that these at least have done well. Leeks have also managed despite my neglect; need to get some potatoes to make plenty of soup with.

Guitar
F chord is... not as bad as I remember? Make no mistake, this is the most difficult chord I've learnt since picking up the guitar again last December, but I strongly remember this being extremely frustrating when I was younger. In fact, this is something I have noticed about relearning guitar; it has shown me how much more patient and persistent I am in comparison to when I was young. I don't think it is a change you notice until something makes it clear to you, but everything I have re-learnt on guitar has been far easier and more enjoyable than I recall it being first time, and any stumbling blocks have not felt like an issue at all; worst case it's just put the thing down, come back tomorrow and see if some neurons have rewired.

Work
Some interesting changes at work as the big projects for this year wrap up. Firstly we're losing a team member but there doesn't seem to be any interest in replacing them. Granted he wasn't brilliant, but it isn't as though we was a complete dead weight either. Not sure how to read this, but it sounds like me like the budget has contracted...

On top of this an existing project, and the most successful one in terms of process and value-added, is being de-prioritized in favour of newer, smaller projects. This is a complete switch from just earlier in the year where the current project was getting consistent encouragement and there was a real drive to develop it well beyond its current capabilities. I don't mind so much things changing quickly, but I do think it is a shame that the shining example of working in a dynamic team is being ignored in favour of newer work. I do care about my work, so it is a good reminder that these things are transient, and to not become too attached to particular projects/workplaces, even lines of work... certainly something to consider after choosing to dedicate so much time to projects over the summer.