The Real Philip Deal
Re: The Real Philip Deal
There are two layers to every Dostoyevsky work - the psychology of characters (written with amazing insight in time where psychology wasn't yet a thing) and his meditations on the consequences of abandoning God by (previously) Christian societes. Many readers only notice the former, as it's way more in your face, but the latter is more interesting IMO. I've read BK twenty years ago so don't remember much from it, but AFAIR this was his most overtly philosophical novel of them all.
Re: The Real Philip Deal
I feel like we might have hijacked this journal through a tragedy of the commons -- I mean I can't point to any one comment that is wrong, but the overall result doesn't seem right.
It looks like people have an appetite for more participation on the forum, and this is a thread that has come alive. We should probably start more threads, as well spin off some of these...
Practicing what I am preaching:
viewtopic.php?p=293613#p293613
It looks like people have an appetite for more participation on the forum, and this is a thread that has come alive. We should probably start more threads, as well spin off some of these...
Practicing what I am preaching:
viewtopic.php?p=293613#p293613
Re: The Real Philip Deal
... spinning back in from the spin-off thread:
viewtopic.php?p=293759#p293759
If you like history and are interested in the world before modernity, I recommend the books by Will Durant.
viewtopic.php?p=293759#p293759
If you like history and are interested in the world before modernity, I recommend the books by Will Durant.
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philipreal
- Posts: 30
- Joined: Thu Sep 12, 2024 8:17 pm
Re: The Real Philip Deal
Beginning of October Check-in
First, thank you everyone for the recs and discussion. I was lazier than I expected (also just in some pain - hard to focus) so I haven't really gone through any of them yet, but I will keep them in mind. I did finish reading Kegan's The Developing Mind which I found interesting/valuable—maybe I'll make a post about it sometime—so now I am able to start something new. The injury ended up being a fracture in my elbow (right radial neck), and not a particularly bad one. Currently I'm just in a sling, and if the x-rays I get in about another week continue to indicate that the fracture is minimally displaced, it should stay that way only a few more weeks. Also, my (dad's) health insurance plus the optional accident insurance I chose to get when I started my job means I likely won't be spending my own money at all to cover medical bills, although I will ultimately lose some money thanks to missed music stuff.
Spending:
I spent 740 dollars in September. This included more eating out (and a couple ordering ins right after I broke my arm) than I want to do in the future. I saved some money this month by getting some veggies from friend/family gardens and trying harder to use up what I already had in my fridge/freezer, and while that may not be as possible in future months, I expect it to be offset by advances In buying cheaper ingredients more in bulk—it's lentil time. I bought new running shoes this month, but didn't have any other notable car or other "one-off" expenses, so I'm just gonna skip amortizing for now and call it even. I can get more granular later. In short, I'm pretty happy with this, and can see some ways my spending can go down in the future. Savings rate was about 83%, with less income from music than I usually have.
Future plans:
I've been pretty convinced that I don't actually want to do law, at least not right now. With this in mind, I think my current plan is to continue working and saving, try to do more music as is possible, and aim to get FI while picking up skills and doing things I'm interested in along the way. First step for music is healing and rehabbing my elbow, so that will be my main focus for now.
First, thank you everyone for the recs and discussion. I was lazier than I expected (also just in some pain - hard to focus) so I haven't really gone through any of them yet, but I will keep them in mind. I did finish reading Kegan's The Developing Mind which I found interesting/valuable—maybe I'll make a post about it sometime—so now I am able to start something new. The injury ended up being a fracture in my elbow (right radial neck), and not a particularly bad one. Currently I'm just in a sling, and if the x-rays I get in about another week continue to indicate that the fracture is minimally displaced, it should stay that way only a few more weeks. Also, my (dad's) health insurance plus the optional accident insurance I chose to get when I started my job means I likely won't be spending my own money at all to cover medical bills, although I will ultimately lose some money thanks to missed music stuff.
Spending:
I spent 740 dollars in September. This included more eating out (and a couple ordering ins right after I broke my arm) than I want to do in the future. I saved some money this month by getting some veggies from friend/family gardens and trying harder to use up what I already had in my fridge/freezer, and while that may not be as possible in future months, I expect it to be offset by advances In buying cheaper ingredients more in bulk—it's lentil time. I bought new running shoes this month, but didn't have any other notable car or other "one-off" expenses, so I'm just gonna skip amortizing for now and call it even. I can get more granular later. In short, I'm pretty happy with this, and can see some ways my spending can go down in the future. Savings rate was about 83%, with less income from music than I usually have.
Future plans:
I've been pretty convinced that I don't actually want to do law, at least not right now. With this in mind, I think my current plan is to continue working and saving, try to do more music as is possible, and aim to get FI while picking up skills and doing things I'm interested in along the way. First step for music is healing and rehabbing my elbow, so that will be my main focus for now.
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philipreal
- Posts: 30
- Joined: Thu Sep 12, 2024 8:17 pm
Re: The Real Philip Deal
Elbow Update!
It is healing so well. I only had to keep it in a sling for two weeks and now I don't need that. I have regained most of my ROM, and while I'm not supposed to do any heavy lifting with the arm for a few more weeks, I can do the vast majority of my usual activities normally. Awesome!
I've been alternating reading journals here and actual books, and I'm very glad to be doing both. I read Fumio Sasaki's Goodbye Things, and while it certainly had many good tips and reasons to declutter and be more minimalist, I was struck most by a quote he included at the beginning, "We are more interested in making others believe we are happy than in trying to be happy ourselves." Perhaps connecting this with Kegan 3 it could be more like, "We believe that other people must be right about whether we are happy/successful/etc or not." In any case, I'm finding it valuable to think about to what extent I'm doing things for external approval, and trying to interrogate its usefulness in those cases. I think me sort of internalizing these external societal ideas of success contributed significantly to why I wanted to go into law. Of course, now the question is if I'm just switching out broader societal ideas of success in my internal goals with ERE ideas of success, but I at least do significantly prefer the ERE ones. I will say I don't think so since I feel a much greater sense of intrinsic motivation towards things generally aligning with ERE, and I think this would have been true at any previous point in my adult life had I found out about it earlier.
In WRC's journal there was a point saying something like "If you want to do something post-retirement you should be doing it while you're still working." I think this is a very good reminder to figure out what matters to you and actually focus on it. This isn't original, but I'd like to expand a little to "If you want to do something, you should be doing it." and taking a step to "If you want to do something, you do it." It can be indicting to work backwards from my Dos to determine my Wants, with a lot of things not really matching up with the ideal(?) Wants I have in my mind. I think for the next little bit in my journal I'll go through some of my ideal Wants, and consider how I can get my current Dos to match up with them. Maybe this is just a way of renaming goals as Wants and creating a WoG, but I think it will let me get into more detail for each Goal node.
Starting with:
Physical Health
Breaking my elbow has been a reminder that health is probably the biggest constraint on what I am able to do. Being completely unable to use my dominant hand for basically a week (after that it could help with some minor things) has shown me how much I take my daily functioning completely for granted. Having more money would not have helped it heal faster (at least not to any appreciable degree). It also showed me some of the value of my social bonds. I was able to get rides to/from work from my parents, and my roommates helped me out with some cooking and other stuff in the apartment. I got well wishes from a good amount of people, and that was nice.
Anyways, back to health. Mine generally is kind of mediocre, at least in my mind. The pros are that I can do a few pistol squats, and can get out and run a few miles if I have to, but it won't be fast. Otherwise, I've never had great upper body strength, can't do unassisted pull ups, and am probably around 30 pounds heavier than I would ideally be with this amount of muscle. I want to have good health so I can keep my body functioning well for a long time, so I can be ready for just about any physical demand that I want to do, and I want to do more hiking/get into backpacking kinda stuff. I think ideally for these outcomes I want to aim for more process-oriented thinking, but it's also true that I'm planning on visiting Japan with friends next summer. I want to summit Mt Fuji and be fairly comfortable doing it so I can enjoy the process a lot and let my mind wander at times while I'm up there. I'd be grateful for tips/recommendations from forum members who do stuff like this.
To get there, here are things I will Do:
Exercise 4-6 days a week. I don't have a gym membership and am happy with my little home gym setup, but it will make it inconvenient to get cardio in during the winter. I'll try to do more running outside while the weather is still alright, and transition to more strength/endurance weight workouts as it gets colder. I'm gonna go for a run after I get home. I want to build a more specific plan for this.
Average > 10,000 steps a day. My job is sedentary, but I can easily get my steps up by using my walking treadmill/makeshift standing desk I have at home. I'm already pretty good at this but I want to get more consistent and am posting this as a reminder.
Stretching/Yoga/Meditation. I'm not that flexible and want to improve on this. I've seen many people mention yoga and meditation as helpful for them, I'd be interested in trying some sort of meditation and if I can improve flexibility while doing that it would be good. I also want to get more specific on this.
Not eat out unless it is with a group of friends. Eating out with friends only happens like 1.33 times a month and is an important way for us to hang out since they are pretty not ERE-minded. Maybe I could work on setting up more different ways to hang out but that is a job for a different post. The point of this is to cut out eating junk food for me just for lunch or otherwise because it's easy. Being very regular about my meals will help me tailor my diet as desired, and will also have other good effects of saving money and getting better at cooking.
It is healing so well. I only had to keep it in a sling for two weeks and now I don't need that. I have regained most of my ROM, and while I'm not supposed to do any heavy lifting with the arm for a few more weeks, I can do the vast majority of my usual activities normally. Awesome!
I've been alternating reading journals here and actual books, and I'm very glad to be doing both. I read Fumio Sasaki's Goodbye Things, and while it certainly had many good tips and reasons to declutter and be more minimalist, I was struck most by a quote he included at the beginning, "We are more interested in making others believe we are happy than in trying to be happy ourselves." Perhaps connecting this with Kegan 3 it could be more like, "We believe that other people must be right about whether we are happy/successful/etc or not." In any case, I'm finding it valuable to think about to what extent I'm doing things for external approval, and trying to interrogate its usefulness in those cases. I think me sort of internalizing these external societal ideas of success contributed significantly to why I wanted to go into law. Of course, now the question is if I'm just switching out broader societal ideas of success in my internal goals with ERE ideas of success, but I at least do significantly prefer the ERE ones. I will say I don't think so since I feel a much greater sense of intrinsic motivation towards things generally aligning with ERE, and I think this would have been true at any previous point in my adult life had I found out about it earlier.
In WRC's journal there was a point saying something like "If you want to do something post-retirement you should be doing it while you're still working." I think this is a very good reminder to figure out what matters to you and actually focus on it. This isn't original, but I'd like to expand a little to "If you want to do something, you should be doing it." and taking a step to "If you want to do something, you do it." It can be indicting to work backwards from my Dos to determine my Wants, with a lot of things not really matching up with the ideal(?) Wants I have in my mind. I think for the next little bit in my journal I'll go through some of my ideal Wants, and consider how I can get my current Dos to match up with them. Maybe this is just a way of renaming goals as Wants and creating a WoG, but I think it will let me get into more detail for each Goal node.
Starting with:
Physical Health
Breaking my elbow has been a reminder that health is probably the biggest constraint on what I am able to do. Being completely unable to use my dominant hand for basically a week (after that it could help with some minor things) has shown me how much I take my daily functioning completely for granted. Having more money would not have helped it heal faster (at least not to any appreciable degree). It also showed me some of the value of my social bonds. I was able to get rides to/from work from my parents, and my roommates helped me out with some cooking and other stuff in the apartment. I got well wishes from a good amount of people, and that was nice.
Anyways, back to health. Mine generally is kind of mediocre, at least in my mind. The pros are that I can do a few pistol squats, and can get out and run a few miles if I have to, but it won't be fast. Otherwise, I've never had great upper body strength, can't do unassisted pull ups, and am probably around 30 pounds heavier than I would ideally be with this amount of muscle. I want to have good health so I can keep my body functioning well for a long time, so I can be ready for just about any physical demand that I want to do, and I want to do more hiking/get into backpacking kinda stuff. I think ideally for these outcomes I want to aim for more process-oriented thinking, but it's also true that I'm planning on visiting Japan with friends next summer. I want to summit Mt Fuji and be fairly comfortable doing it so I can enjoy the process a lot and let my mind wander at times while I'm up there. I'd be grateful for tips/recommendations from forum members who do stuff like this.
To get there, here are things I will Do:
Exercise 4-6 days a week. I don't have a gym membership and am happy with my little home gym setup, but it will make it inconvenient to get cardio in during the winter. I'll try to do more running outside while the weather is still alright, and transition to more strength/endurance weight workouts as it gets colder. I'm gonna go for a run after I get home. I want to build a more specific plan for this.
Average > 10,000 steps a day. My job is sedentary, but I can easily get my steps up by using my walking treadmill/makeshift standing desk I have at home. I'm already pretty good at this but I want to get more consistent and am posting this as a reminder.
Stretching/Yoga/Meditation. I'm not that flexible and want to improve on this. I've seen many people mention yoga and meditation as helpful for them, I'd be interested in trying some sort of meditation and if I can improve flexibility while doing that it would be good. I also want to get more specific on this.
Not eat out unless it is with a group of friends. Eating out with friends only happens like 1.33 times a month and is an important way for us to hang out since they are pretty not ERE-minded. Maybe I could work on setting up more different ways to hang out but that is a job for a different post. The point of this is to cut out eating junk food for me just for lunch or otherwise because it's easy. Being very regular about my meals will help me tailor my diet as desired, and will also have other good effects of saving money and getting better at cooking.
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philipreal
- Posts: 30
- Joined: Thu Sep 12, 2024 8:17 pm
Re: The Real Philip Deal
Beginning of November Check-in
Money:
In October I spent roughly $750, including three copays for elbow check-ups. However, I didn't have any other notable expenses, so once again we'll call it about even. I bought some groceries more in bulk (relatively big bags of rice, beans, lentils). It's looking like I'll have like $600-700 worth of medical bills post-insurance once this all resolves, including the copays I've already paid, however...
On the income side, I got a $4500 payout from my accident insurance! Even after accounting for medical bills and lost music income, and vaguely accounting for any other related expenses, I'm going to profit over 3k from my bike accident. I guess it's true: biking really does save you money
. Overall, this month I had a savings rate of about 92%, although I feel like it's cheating to not include my non-copay medical bills. They'll be included next month, although I'll also get three paydays in November. Current NW about 52k.
ERE-adjacent things:
My workplace had a Trick-or-Treat thing where we could bring our kids/grandkids in and have them go around the office and get candy. I thought it would be lame to just buy normal candy, so I decided to make some fudge. I hadn't ever done it before, but it turned out pretty well, I made it in three layers and the middle layer was a white chocolate peanut butter layer that I made orange with food coloring to make it look Halloweeny. In a perfect world I wouldn't have had to go and buy ingredients strictly for the fudge, but I'll work on that for next time I suppose. Really happy with it, and there's still enough left after the kids all got some to have it for the Halloween party happening at my apartment tonight. Great!
I kind-of started the Warrior Diet. I make one meal for myself per day, but then if there's free food at work, I'll have some. I think it's working out pretty well, I've stayed fairly stable weight-wise which is what I want for now as I finish up healing. It generally means I have to go pretty protein-heavy in the meal I have at home which maybe isn't good for absorption? I don't know if that's real or not. In any case, I'm not feeling too hungry during the workday, and I like how easy it is to just be able to get up and go if I want to without thinking about breakfast or packing a lunch. First concern is that eating too much work food won't be awesome for me (currently the usual selections range from fresh fruit to donuts and candy, with varying availability) Second is that it may be difficult/bad to work out in the morning, which is the time that makes the most sense for me, and then eat little to nothing until dinnertime. We'll see how that goes.
I signed up and am in the process to start volunteering some piano-playing time at the local hospital. Should be nice for me, and I want the people there to also find it good for them.
Final Thoughts:
I feel more alive than I used to, at least in the sense that I find more meaning in my time. Before, I think I thought of myself in a more disconnected way, where it's like "Okay, I'm at work, turn this part on. Alright, now I'm home, turn this part on. Maybe turn all the parts off beside the one that watches random Youtube videos mindlessly." Now I'm much more aware and considerate of the fact that all uses of my time and all of my behaviors add up to me, so everything I do can be and is important to me since I'm important to me. This has already reduced time-wasting behaviors significantly without even really trying. I've also been reading books at a pace I haven't since middle school, except the ones now are actually informative for me instead of the next YA whatever in the online school library. I'm undoubtedly going too fast at times and missing some wisdom, but I'll be able to review later.
Money:
In October I spent roughly $750, including three copays for elbow check-ups. However, I didn't have any other notable expenses, so once again we'll call it about even. I bought some groceries more in bulk (relatively big bags of rice, beans, lentils). It's looking like I'll have like $600-700 worth of medical bills post-insurance once this all resolves, including the copays I've already paid, however...
On the income side, I got a $4500 payout from my accident insurance! Even after accounting for medical bills and lost music income, and vaguely accounting for any other related expenses, I'm going to profit over 3k from my bike accident. I guess it's true: biking really does save you money
. Overall, this month I had a savings rate of about 92%, although I feel like it's cheating to not include my non-copay medical bills. They'll be included next month, although I'll also get three paydays in November. Current NW about 52k.ERE-adjacent things:
My workplace had a Trick-or-Treat thing where we could bring our kids/grandkids in and have them go around the office and get candy. I thought it would be lame to just buy normal candy, so I decided to make some fudge. I hadn't ever done it before, but it turned out pretty well, I made it in three layers and the middle layer was a white chocolate peanut butter layer that I made orange with food coloring to make it look Halloweeny. In a perfect world I wouldn't have had to go and buy ingredients strictly for the fudge, but I'll work on that for next time I suppose. Really happy with it, and there's still enough left after the kids all got some to have it for the Halloween party happening at my apartment tonight. Great!
I kind-of started the Warrior Diet. I make one meal for myself per day, but then if there's free food at work, I'll have some. I think it's working out pretty well, I've stayed fairly stable weight-wise which is what I want for now as I finish up healing. It generally means I have to go pretty protein-heavy in the meal I have at home which maybe isn't good for absorption? I don't know if that's real or not. In any case, I'm not feeling too hungry during the workday, and I like how easy it is to just be able to get up and go if I want to without thinking about breakfast or packing a lunch. First concern is that eating too much work food won't be awesome for me (currently the usual selections range from fresh fruit to donuts and candy, with varying availability) Second is that it may be difficult/bad to work out in the morning, which is the time that makes the most sense for me, and then eat little to nothing until dinnertime. We'll see how that goes.
I signed up and am in the process to start volunteering some piano-playing time at the local hospital. Should be nice for me, and I want the people there to also find it good for them.
Final Thoughts:
I feel more alive than I used to, at least in the sense that I find more meaning in my time. Before, I think I thought of myself in a more disconnected way, where it's like "Okay, I'm at work, turn this part on. Alright, now I'm home, turn this part on. Maybe turn all the parts off beside the one that watches random Youtube videos mindlessly." Now I'm much more aware and considerate of the fact that all uses of my time and all of my behaviors add up to me, so everything I do can be and is important to me since I'm important to me. This has already reduced time-wasting behaviors significantly without even really trying. I've also been reading books at a pace I haven't since middle school, except the ones now are actually informative for me instead of the next YA whatever in the online school library. I'm undoubtedly going too fast at times and missing some wisdom, but I'll be able to review later.
Re: The Real Philip Deal
Creating something, whether it's food or music, does make one feel good. I recognise the "Watch YouTube videos mindlessly" part... it's so easy to slip into when I'm low energy. Thanks for sharing your journey!
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brainstorm
- Posts: 31
- Joined: Tue Sep 12, 2023 8:00 am
- Location: Midwest, USA
Re: The Real Philip Deal
Loved reading this! In my experience, living more intentionally is *hard* work, but it pays for itself. It's only by active and intentional decisions will you look back on a day/year/life and think, Man, that was a great ride. It also makes me appreciate and understand how so many choose to be more passive in their approach - there's a lot of collective exhaustion. "We travel the wrong path because it is so well worn" and whatnot. Keep it up!philipreal wrote: ↑Fri Nov 01, 2024 9:01 amI feel more alive than I used to, at least in the sense that I find more meaning in my time. Before, I think I thought of myself in a more disconnected way, where it's like "Okay, I'm at work, turn this part on. Alright, now I'm home, turn this part on. Maybe turn all the parts off beside the one that watches random Youtube videos mindlessly." Now I'm much more aware and considerate of the fact that all uses of my time and all of my behaviors add up to me, so everything I do can be and is important to me since I'm important to me. This has already reduced time-wasting behaviors significantly without even really trying. I've also been reading books at a pace I haven't since middle school, except the ones now are actually informative for me instead of the next YA whatever in the online school library. I'm undoubtedly going too fast at times and missing some wisdom, but I'll be able to review later.
And glad to hear your elbow is on the mend!
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philipreal
- Posts: 30
- Joined: Thu Sep 12, 2024 8:17 pm
Re: The Real Philip Deal
Midmonth Update
I went hiking at a nearby state park. The weather was beautiful, and I was surprised by how (Very Relatively) hilly it was compared to the area closer to where I live. I was a little disappointed at the level of "wildness" to it, since if you were ever at the top of a big hill you could just see multiple farmsteads around and at one point closer to the edge of the park I could hear somebody working with power tools in their garage. I still enjoyed my time, though. I saw a few deer who ran away very quickly at any point they saw/heard me, some cool plants and birds, most of which I had no clue what they were, and one surprisingly chill chipmunk, who I hung out with for like 10 minutes and named "Beaver." To get in I checked out a state park pass from the library, which felt good.
https://imgur.com/a/lD7zzOw
https://imgur.com/a/jQU9g8G
https://imgur.com/a/fG2VdUI
We had a symphony concert this past weekend and that went well, many people offered me their good wishes and were glad my arm was better. I've also noticed a significant improvement in my pistol squat ability. I did my first one sometime this summer and have had inconsistent training for a while, but after finding it difficult to do any more than a few for a while, it's now a lot more comfortable and I can do 10+ in my right leg and slightly less with my left. I have lost a little weight but it feels good to know my corresponding strength has increased. I continue to read books.
Future planning:
I find it likely I'll move to some sort of Semi-ERE-like plan for the future. I feel very confident that I can cover my spending doing any job for even just part of the year while still continuing to overall save money. I also feel very confident that I will continue to do some level of income-generating activities for nearly all my life, at least music performance and likely other things as well, in which case it's not crucial I focus on hitting a FI number. While it's true that money compounds, and getting more of it sooner would allow it to compound more, skills and experience also compound into new opportunities and essentially a new me. I think it's more valuable to me to do new things and learn and take risks and figure out what sort of person I want to be continually becoming throughout my life than to get a little extra money earlier. What's more, since I have not really progressed in any sort of career ladder, I'm not missing out on much to pivot early.
What does that actually look like?
Currently I have 2 basic ideas. One is that I would mix some amount of seasonal work with doing workaways/WWOOF and other ways to get valuable experiences/skills at low cost. For time between, I work on my other skills and/or do interesting travel. The other idea is that I stay with my aunt and uncle for some time. They have a place near Sequim (between Port Townsend and Port Angeles on the Olympic Peninsula) where they do a little farming and raise chickens and have enough space to have another person around. I'm not sure how they'd feel about letting me stay long-term, but I definitely will find out, since that option seems really good. As a bonus, my aunt already has a lot of connections within the local music scene, and experience working within it that I could learn from. My uncle also does a good amount of mountain biking which could be very cool to try. And of course, these two ideas aren't mutually exclusive.
What skills do you want to learn?
I want to learn things that increase my self-sufficiency/decrease my financial/ecological footprint, like growing my own food, repairing stuff, building stuff, bushcraft, etc. I want to continue improving at music performance and would like to at least try composing and teaching to some extent. I want to continue learning Japanese and keep learning more languages past that. (this feels a little disconnected tbh, will continue to think about how this can connect with other things I want to do or if I should stop.) I want to improve my health and physical abilities, ideally by doing some skill or joining some group. I feel like it's a bit of a waste if I have to block out specific time to exercise at home instead of getting physical challenge through other stuff I'm doing or things that benefit me in more ways. I should also learn more about how to invest well. I'm sure I can add to this list but I'll stop it there for now.
How about right now?
Well, I'm not going to go anywhere for at least a few months. I have an apartment lease through May, musical commitments through the end of April, and I think spending a bit more time before making major changes to my life won't be bad. I do have a good amount of smaller project ideas that I will give some updates on as I do them in the future.
I went hiking at a nearby state park. The weather was beautiful, and I was surprised by how (Very Relatively) hilly it was compared to the area closer to where I live. I was a little disappointed at the level of "wildness" to it, since if you were ever at the top of a big hill you could just see multiple farmsteads around and at one point closer to the edge of the park I could hear somebody working with power tools in their garage. I still enjoyed my time, though. I saw a few deer who ran away very quickly at any point they saw/heard me, some cool plants and birds, most of which I had no clue what they were, and one surprisingly chill chipmunk, who I hung out with for like 10 minutes and named "Beaver." To get in I checked out a state park pass from the library, which felt good.
https://imgur.com/a/lD7zzOw
https://imgur.com/a/jQU9g8G
https://imgur.com/a/fG2VdUI
We had a symphony concert this past weekend and that went well, many people offered me their good wishes and were glad my arm was better. I've also noticed a significant improvement in my pistol squat ability. I did my first one sometime this summer and have had inconsistent training for a while, but after finding it difficult to do any more than a few for a while, it's now a lot more comfortable and I can do 10+ in my right leg and slightly less with my left. I have lost a little weight but it feels good to know my corresponding strength has increased. I continue to read books.
Future planning:
I find it likely I'll move to some sort of Semi-ERE-like plan for the future. I feel very confident that I can cover my spending doing any job for even just part of the year while still continuing to overall save money. I also feel very confident that I will continue to do some level of income-generating activities for nearly all my life, at least music performance and likely other things as well, in which case it's not crucial I focus on hitting a FI number. While it's true that money compounds, and getting more of it sooner would allow it to compound more, skills and experience also compound into new opportunities and essentially a new me. I think it's more valuable to me to do new things and learn and take risks and figure out what sort of person I want to be continually becoming throughout my life than to get a little extra money earlier. What's more, since I have not really progressed in any sort of career ladder, I'm not missing out on much to pivot early.
What does that actually look like?
Currently I have 2 basic ideas. One is that I would mix some amount of seasonal work with doing workaways/WWOOF and other ways to get valuable experiences/skills at low cost. For time between, I work on my other skills and/or do interesting travel. The other idea is that I stay with my aunt and uncle for some time. They have a place near Sequim (between Port Townsend and Port Angeles on the Olympic Peninsula) where they do a little farming and raise chickens and have enough space to have another person around. I'm not sure how they'd feel about letting me stay long-term, but I definitely will find out, since that option seems really good. As a bonus, my aunt already has a lot of connections within the local music scene, and experience working within it that I could learn from. My uncle also does a good amount of mountain biking which could be very cool to try. And of course, these two ideas aren't mutually exclusive.
What skills do you want to learn?
I want to learn things that increase my self-sufficiency/decrease my financial/ecological footprint, like growing my own food, repairing stuff, building stuff, bushcraft, etc. I want to continue improving at music performance and would like to at least try composing and teaching to some extent. I want to continue learning Japanese and keep learning more languages past that. (this feels a little disconnected tbh, will continue to think about how this can connect with other things I want to do or if I should stop.) I want to improve my health and physical abilities, ideally by doing some skill or joining some group. I feel like it's a bit of a waste if I have to block out specific time to exercise at home instead of getting physical challenge through other stuff I'm doing or things that benefit me in more ways. I should also learn more about how to invest well. I'm sure I can add to this list but I'll stop it there for now.
How about right now?
Well, I'm not going to go anywhere for at least a few months. I have an apartment lease through May, musical commitments through the end of April, and I think spending a bit more time before making major changes to my life won't be bad. I do have a good amount of smaller project ideas that I will give some updates on as I do them in the future.
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philipreal
- Posts: 30
- Joined: Thu Sep 12, 2024 8:17 pm
Re: The Real Philip Deal
November recap
Money:
I paid off my broken elbow medical bills, my spending not including that was under $700, pretty neat. This month was a Big income month, with 3 paydays and also a holiday/end of year bonus that I didn't know existed. I also still had music stuff and sold a couple things I don't need on ebay. Thanks to that, my savings rate even including the medical bills was close to 87%. NW broke 60k.
Cool things:
I did actually play piano at the hospital for the first time. It wasn't anything crazy, I played a few pieces that I knew, noodled around with some other pieces that I knew, and just noodled around some for a bit over an hour, receiving a few kind words as people move in and out. I'll continue to do it and work on increasing the repertoire I can play/improvise around with at any given time.
I went to a climbing gym with some friends. That was fun, I don't really climb (have been to that gym once before in my life), but I know many people on here do, and I can see why. Got a little scraped, and my arms were sore afterwards, but a good time, and I'll hope to do some more climbing in the future. I probably won't make the climbing gym a regular thing right now though, it's kinda far away and at least a little expensive considering I already have sufficient workout equipment at home. I will add some more grip strength work though.
I've been reading Umineko When they Cry, and currently I'm somewhere early on in the 4th of a total 8 parts. It's Very interesting/entertaining/thought-provoking. Assuming it keeps up its quality, once I finish it (won't be for a while), I will hopefully write up some sort of longform thoughts about it. I think it is and will continue to say a lot of things that may be philosophically interesting to ERE people, but I will hold off from going further about it right now.
I fixed a clog in our kitchen sink drain. We were experiencing that if we ran the water for any more than like 30-40 seconds in a short time it would start to back up into the sink, so not awesome when washing a bunch of dishes. However, it was usually manageable, which is probably why it got put off for a while. I got a small hand drain auger v cheaply off Facebook Marketplace and got in there and broke up something at least like 15 feet in there and now it runs well. Very glad to get that done just in time for:
Thanksgiving!
I ate thanksgiving dinner on Thursday with my parents, and helped do some of the cooking, it was very good and nice. I also surprised my mom some by playing a piano piece she had asked me if I could learn a month or two ago. She loves the piece and I'd been working on it consistently which she hadn't quite expected. It was very meaningful for her, so I'm glad to have put the time in to get it to a reasonable level, and I'll keep working on it so I can play it even better. There's good chunks of it where you want to work at really bringing out the melody with the weaker fingers of your right hand while the stronger fingers are playing chords or parts of chords, so being able to vary the amount of force with which you're pressing down different keys at the same time with the same hand is difficult and valuable to get better at.
Then, on Sunday I roasted my own turkey, made mashed potatoes and stuffing, and gravy out of the turkey drippings. I ate that with my roommates, and will have leftovers for a while, accompanied by the turkey stock I'll be making this evening. That was very fun, I hadn't roasted a turkey before. I ended up spatchcocking it, which was difficult because I don't have shears or anything, so I ended up abusing my standard chef's knife a bit in order to cut out the spine. It certainly ended up working out well, I got juicy turkey cooked more quickly than if I had just roasted it normally.
I'm also thankful for ERE!
The blog/community/book have definitely helped accelerate (both vector magnitude and direction) me towards living and thinking in a way that is more self-reflective, more complex, more intentional, and more in line with my values/desires/the part of me that isn't satisfied when I see the way people around me live. I still have a lot of work to do to figure out the things I want to be doing and the ways I want to be being long-term, or to get close towards any sort of self-actualization. But I feel pretty sure I can do it.
Looking into December:
It'll be a busy month, there's a bunch of Christmas-adjacent music gigs. Otherwise I'll take it as it comes.
Money:
I paid off my broken elbow medical bills, my spending not including that was under $700, pretty neat. This month was a Big income month, with 3 paydays and also a holiday/end of year bonus that I didn't know existed. I also still had music stuff and sold a couple things I don't need on ebay. Thanks to that, my savings rate even including the medical bills was close to 87%. NW broke 60k.
Cool things:
I did actually play piano at the hospital for the first time. It wasn't anything crazy, I played a few pieces that I knew, noodled around with some other pieces that I knew, and just noodled around some for a bit over an hour, receiving a few kind words as people move in and out. I'll continue to do it and work on increasing the repertoire I can play/improvise around with at any given time.
I went to a climbing gym with some friends. That was fun, I don't really climb (have been to that gym once before in my life), but I know many people on here do, and I can see why. Got a little scraped, and my arms were sore afterwards, but a good time, and I'll hope to do some more climbing in the future. I probably won't make the climbing gym a regular thing right now though, it's kinda far away and at least a little expensive considering I already have sufficient workout equipment at home. I will add some more grip strength work though.
I've been reading Umineko When they Cry, and currently I'm somewhere early on in the 4th of a total 8 parts. It's Very interesting/entertaining/thought-provoking. Assuming it keeps up its quality, once I finish it (won't be for a while), I will hopefully write up some sort of longform thoughts about it. I think it is and will continue to say a lot of things that may be philosophically interesting to ERE people, but I will hold off from going further about it right now.
I fixed a clog in our kitchen sink drain. We were experiencing that if we ran the water for any more than like 30-40 seconds in a short time it would start to back up into the sink, so not awesome when washing a bunch of dishes. However, it was usually manageable, which is probably why it got put off for a while. I got a small hand drain auger v cheaply off Facebook Marketplace and got in there and broke up something at least like 15 feet in there and now it runs well. Very glad to get that done just in time for:
Thanksgiving!
I ate thanksgiving dinner on Thursday with my parents, and helped do some of the cooking, it was very good and nice. I also surprised my mom some by playing a piano piece she had asked me if I could learn a month or two ago. She loves the piece and I'd been working on it consistently which she hadn't quite expected. It was very meaningful for her, so I'm glad to have put the time in to get it to a reasonable level, and I'll keep working on it so I can play it even better. There's good chunks of it where you want to work at really bringing out the melody with the weaker fingers of your right hand while the stronger fingers are playing chords or parts of chords, so being able to vary the amount of force with which you're pressing down different keys at the same time with the same hand is difficult and valuable to get better at.
Then, on Sunday I roasted my own turkey, made mashed potatoes and stuffing, and gravy out of the turkey drippings. I ate that with my roommates, and will have leftovers for a while, accompanied by the turkey stock I'll be making this evening. That was very fun, I hadn't roasted a turkey before. I ended up spatchcocking it, which was difficult because I don't have shears or anything, so I ended up abusing my standard chef's knife a bit in order to cut out the spine. It certainly ended up working out well, I got juicy turkey cooked more quickly than if I had just roasted it normally.
I'm also thankful for ERE!
The blog/community/book have definitely helped accelerate (both vector magnitude and direction) me towards living and thinking in a way that is more self-reflective, more complex, more intentional, and more in line with my values/desires/the part of me that isn't satisfied when I see the way people around me live. I still have a lot of work to do to figure out the things I want to be doing and the ways I want to be being long-term, or to get close towards any sort of self-actualization. But I feel pretty sure I can do it.Looking into December:
It'll be a busy month, there's a bunch of Christmas-adjacent music gigs. Otherwise I'll take it as it comes.