An Alternate Tuning

[Laura Ingalls]

Riveting. Isn’t that more of a sheet metal joke?

DS had very eclectic music tastes. He goes to shows of lots of genres. The music they play tends to be a bluesy rock jam band vibe. I am pretty eclectic as well. My most recent live music experience was Fado in Portugal. Before that was a British cover band with Cure covers. My favorites tend to be Americana/folky sorts of stuff. I have a ton of childhood piano lessons. I actually had two housesits with a piano and some easy sheet music. I played for the first time in years. It was fun.

[Scordatura]

You know the drill. Everyone's a critic.

That doesn't sound too bad for a housesit.

[Laura Ingalls]

You know the drill. Everyone's a critic.

That doesn't sound too bad for a housesit.

Housesitting has been kinda wild. You sort of get to live someone else’s life for a bit. There is also a weird asymmetry. I think sitters learn more about homeowners than the other way around.

[Scordatura]

Housesitting has been kinda wild. You sort of get to live someone else’s life for a bit. There is also a weird asymmetry. I think sitters learn more about homeowners than the other way around.

Oh no doubt.

One observation I've made in life over and over is that people use their physical environments as external memory storage. Can't remember where the car keys are? Install a hook.
Want a cue to think of happy times with your family? Put up the vacation photos.

A housesitter is sitting in the middle of someone's memories.
"What would your house say about you?" Is a good thought experiment.

[Scordatura]

Last week I worked overtime at one job, extra at the other. Needless to say, my day off was spent loafing. I didn't even finish this post in a timely manner.

The machining job is going.. Well, for the most part. I picked up extra hours finishing parts that Gary, My Pokemon Rival started. I have to say, he's a fine machinist. He did a modular setup and he built it on his own. I finished out his run after normal hours. I've been working on my mechanical knowledge, particularly machine anatomy. It's one of the things I'm lacking. Think pinions, mandrels, variable drives, gibs, etc. Things I've heard, but may only vaguely be able to define. The last job didn't allow machinists to do maintenance tasks at all. It was literally a fireable offence to be in a PLC (programmable logic controller) cabinet. This job has me in the cabinet changing out drive batteries. We're setting up the swiss lathe this new week, and it's really driving home how much I need to up my skills. Gary (all names in this journal are fake to protect the innocent and not so innocent) did the programming on this (he's really good) but isn't speaking unless spoken to. Either to me or the senior guy. I dunno if he's irritated with us, or just having some personal stuff bubble into work hours. He's not rude, but mostly nonverbal. He's working on the mill and leaving the two of us to figure out his setup without help. It's been a pain. Some his fault (some of the tools were labeled incorrectly in mastercam so we had to wait on them to be delivered) some not (the bar feeder collet keeps sliding by the bar stock). I dunno exactly what do about it all, except keep after it. It's really weird he's not talking to the old guy too. Me, I understand, but the old guy is super nice to everyone. Maybe it was just a single day thing. *EDIT: Turns out it's his personal life, I got tired of it and asked.*

Relevant quote I keep thinking about:
"Say to yourself in the early morning: I shall meet today ungrateful, violent, treacherous, envious, uncharitable men. All of these things have come upon them through ignorance of real good and ill... I can neither be harmed by any of them, for no man will involve me in wrong, nor can I be angry with my kinsman or hate him; for we have come into the world to work together." - Marcus Aurelius

The nursing home management texted me the night before my shift asking if I could work four extra hours, they needed help. They normally authorize double pay for this. I had already worked around 50 hours for the week, so I said no. I don't normally turn double time pay down. But this time I did. Then in the morning they texted me and said they were desperate. Their word. Desperate. Okay, fine. I said I'd come in two hours early, and boy when I did was there a strange sight: management doing CNA tasks. The full time girls got a laugh out of seeing the administrator out brandishing a spoon. I don't necessarily have the same animus, but it was kinda funny to see.

I've been cleaning house in my spare time this week and realized I have a few things to say on that front. First, I took my ad down for a second roommate. Wasn't getting the kinds of responses I wanted. I'm not even remotely heartbroken. It means some of the original items on my yearly goal list are live. Here's looking at you, study cubby. I am, however, waiting on my roommate to move from one room to the other. (His wishes.) The timeline isn't in my end of the court unless I push, which I only plan to if the dragging is indefinite.

In the meantime, let's talk house setup. One of the more abnormal things about my lifestyle is how I actually live when at the house. I try to set everything to where it's basically automated (laundry, dishes, cooking) or where it doesn't need attention at all (laundry, item placement). Wait, laundry was in there twice? Yeah, that's what I'm going to talk about. I do the normal washing and drying like everyone else. But from there on the system is strange. One, I don't fold clothes. At all. Two, I rarely hang clothes (dress clothes only). What I do is anything in my room is clean, anything outside is not. And in my room, on top of my cube organizers are three standing hampers. Those are my clean clothes. One is work clothes, the other two are everything else. The whole assembly is about seven feet in the air. So the advantages are: space savings (do I need a dresser for clothes?), never folding clothes, never folding clothes, have I said never folding clothes? What a waste of finite life. So now, the tradeoffs? Wrinkled clothes? No, not really. The public can't detect my deviancy by the state of my shirts. I do have one weird quirk from this: I hate getting socks for christmas. As you might imagine, I bought all the same kind and cut of socks for this setup. I don't want to search for matching socks. Buying me Santa patterned socks is a wrench in my well oiled gears. Best part is, this is using space I normally couldn't use: the space just below the roof summit.

I weighed in at 199.7.
This means:
1) I will try to weigh in consistently at the same time, this could be time of day fluctuation.
2) More importantly, I'm not headed in the right direction, so I will be doing my favorite thing in the world, accounting. I will start with simply WHAT I'm eating, but I intend to count calories. I need to figure out how many calories some of my cooked meals are, and I don't want mathing to be the reason I don't hold myself to task.

[Scordatura]

Forgive me, Fisker, for I have sinned..

I wrote this:

February (in dollars)
3600.08 Ending Total
1170.12 Beginning Total
2429.96 Difference Gained
5166.47 Total Credits
47% "Saved" in checking account.
...
I suspect the rate will go up, rather than down.

I was *wrong*.
Analysis time.

March (in dollars)
4803.84 ending total
3600.09 beginning total
1203.76 difference gained
3838.2 total credits
31.36% savings rate

What happened? Well, I bought things in parallel, that I probably should have spread out a bit.
1) 80 Dollar CNC text that I bought the newest edition of
2) 145 ish dollar trumpet
3) Raspberry Pi Pico kit
4) A shelf for the bathroom (don't recall the amount)
5) A medical expense (small by medical standards) ~100

on top of this, I spent about 100 bucks eating out. Kind of unusual, and definitely at cross purposes with my goals.

So.. The shelf is installed, I'm reading the book (though I could have gone cheaper, I got the gold standard), and I play the instrument. The pico is the only thing that unequivocally should have waited. I haven't started on it, but intend to.
I don't think next month will be this low of a savings rate, but I might find that I have to quote myself in shame.

31% isn't atrocious by median standards and my 10% in 401(k) is unaccounted for. But c'mon, I'm on early retirement extreme, not "retire comfortably at 55". My rough guesstimate is a normal low month for me should be a savings rate of 40% a good one around 50% and a phenomenal one around 60%.

I need to improve my accounting system to account for my HSA, 401(k), taxes, and cash paid for rent. I have most of the cash left from March, whereas I didn't from February. Doesn't rehabilitate my savings rate much, but I think I'll try accounting for it in the future.

One of my plans is to buy (ouch!) some easy cheap stuff like ramen and microwaveable rice. This isn't an optimal solution, but it is a solution. There's no reason I should be darkening the door of a Taco Bell. I intend to post some of my recipes in my journal. I have a baked potato bowl medley that's particularly good. I find convenience tends to trump cost for me. I probably should meal prep, but I always find it a hassle. Instead, I'm microwaving nearly everything except my fried eggs. I don't love making a massive amount of food for one person, though I probably should do it anyway.

[ertyu]

Forgive me, Fisker, for I have sinned..

[delay]

One of my plans is to buy (ouch!) some easy cheap stuff like ramen and microwaveable rice.

Thanks for sharing your journey! Learning to cook is worth it in every sense: health, money, satisfaction. And cooking slows down your life for a bit, which helps the mental transition from work.

[Scordatura]

Thanks for sharing your journey! Learning to cook is worth it in every sense: health, money, satisfaction. And cooking slows down your life for a bit, which helps the mental transition from work.

Clearly you like to cook more than I do.

I always liked the social aspect of it, so I'm an above average cook. But I don't enjoy cooking intrinsically.

I'm thinking something to the effect of "I have a thirty minute lunch minus travel time, how do I feed myself in the fastest way possible, maximizing my me time?"
My answer is normally microwave or sandwich.

I probably SHOULD cook more. It aligns with my other stated values.

In other words this is laziness rather than ignorance. I should probably frame it as making a wage by cooking.

[Scordatura]

I've read two books since we last spoke:

Library of Shadows - Rachel Moore
This... Wasn't what I expected it to be. I expected ghost story, got ghost romance. I finished it. Wasn't bad, per se, just wasn't for me.

The Next Millionaire Next Door - Thomas Stanley & Sarah Stanley Fallaw.
Like slipping into comfy slippers. I've read the millionaire next door repeatedly.
Apparently, Tom passed away in 2015 and his daughter compiled this book. There isn't a large amount of new material, but functions more as 'The Greatest Hits of Dr. Stanley'.
Perfectly fine. I enjoyed it.

It's weird to hear his daughter talk about FIRE as an outsider, when I would consider the books to be if not founding scripture of FIRE, honored apocrypha of the movement.
Also weird she spells it "Mr. Money Moustache".

I particularly liked the bits about reducing spending in order to create margin to start businesses. I don't remember that from his books, though I haven't read them all. I remember reading some of the stories in his earlier books of people leveraging themselves to the gills and risking it all. Then thinking " not for me". Nice to hear what I'd consider more stable startups.

The quote "All else being equal, invest in the company with the fewest color photographs in the annual report." Made me chuckle.

Again, not much new if you've read Stanley before, but there doesn't need to be.

*financial stuff*

With the financial news, I made a few adjustments to my plans.
First, I doubled my 401(k) contribution from 10 to 20%.
Second, I will not be focusing on accelerating the mortgage payoff in the near term.

My logic before was that P/E ratios were ridiculously high and I didn't want to contribute the maximum at those prices, but stock prices just took a baseball slide to the shins.
I'm contributing more and holding more cash. The house can wait.
I did this during Covid and made money just accelerating my stock buy in when everyone was terrified. Let's see if history repeats itself.

[Scordatura]

I've been working on my mechanical knowledge. Looking up swiss lathe content. The difference between a swiss lathe and a fixed lathe is work holding. The fixed lathe has a work holding device (collet or chuck) that is stationary. A swiss lathe has a holding device (collet) that moves, along with a guide bushing (a non clamping collet). The swiss lathe looks to me like someone playing pool. The front hand guides the pool cue, while the back hand grasps the handle and pushes the material forwards and backwards.

I wonder if there are good mechanical education things on the web. Suppose I could start with reddit. This is here so I remember to look. I'm already watching YouTube videos.

I had another random education thought: If your only goal was to learn a skill (rather than legal certification) it is cheaper in almost every case to simply purchase the equipment yourself and learn the skill rather than go for a even a year. I looked up the local community college, and it's roughly 15,000 dollars a year. For 15 grand, I can buy all sorts of industrial equipment and piddle with it in solitude. The case doesn't hold for something like nursing however. There are legal things, and you need to work with others. I'm thinking about other certifications, can you tell? On the low level I could do phlebotomy, there are only two classes I'd need to do. I could attempt to get certified as a CMA, which is basically a CNA allowed to distribute medications. There are a few medical headhunting companies around here that basically employ mercenary CNAs and the like. With six months experience, I can work there. I didn't summon this idea from the ether, I know a lady who does this. I just don't know if this has enough of an ROI, considering I only do this a day a week. I may not do it, but I'm keeping an eye on the horizon.

I will be working on my raspberry pis this month. Got the pico out, not sure what I'm doing with it yet. My computer skills have skyrocketed since I started to mess with these. I'm thinking of doing the same with my mechanical stuff. Build a CNC router, mill, laser, or printer. Make things. The cost expended in the things would be much lower than taking classes, plus no commute. And you get to keep the things.

Dog Pickle Debacle:
So I have two dogs, both lab mixes. I was making a sandwich, both were dutifully begging. I tossed them both a hamburger pickle and went about my day. I ate my sandwich, did stuff for a few hours, then was hungry again. So I came back to the fridge and... *ugh* my sock is wet. I look down, and I'm standing on a pickle. Hm, okay, guess I dropped one. I pitch it, then make my second sandwich of the day. The dogs are, again, dutifully begging. Okay, fine. I take a pickle and softball pitch it to the old girl. She comes up like an orca/ softball catcher, and snaps it right out of the air... And lays it next to my feet. Then it dawns on me. Real food, please!

I came in at 197.0.
Still recording what I eat, I haven't managed to consistently time restrict, I am biking around town now that weather is nice.

[jacob]

Build a CNC router, mill, laser, or printer. Make things. The cost expended in the things would be much lower than taking classes, plus no commute. And you get to keep the things.

So can I count you in? This never got off the ground ... viewtopic.php?t=12979

[Scordatura]

So can I count you in? This never got off the ground ... viewtopic.php?t=12979

It's a definite maybe. That's exactly the sort of thing I want to be doing, so I'm not opposed. I've also worked with other people in my life, and there's always the flaky undedicated guy, and I don't want to be that guy for you.

Is there some particular reason you must do that in a group? The cost of waiting seems higher than what you would save in materials by mailing them around. You could've been making chips by now!

[FunkyFreedom]

I just skimmed through your journal. We started our journals around the same time. I think yours is more entertaining than mine! Maybe my journal will get more exciting during the summer. It sounds like you like your two jobs - that’s good! I’m hoping to find more time to catch up on other folks journals and interact a bit, so this is a start. I saw you bought a trumpet. How is that going? Is that your primary instrument or something you’re trying to pick up? I play saxophone and earn a little extra money on the side from performing music. Not sure if you play guitar or play jazz at all, but I came across a method called the Barry Harris method that’s super interesting! It’s about taking the a regular seven note scale, adding one additional note, and then building chords off of alternating notes just like your would with the seven note scale. The scales are built off of a major 6 arpeggio plus a diminished 7 chord one step up, or otherwise the same diminished seven chord one step up plus either a dominant 7 arpeggio, a minor 6 arpeggio or a minor 7b5 arpeggio. Anyways, when I came across it, it was something I had never heard of before and it seems very cool! I haven’t worked it into my repertoire but I am generally very lazy about practicing. I’m more about performing regularly and that keeps me from getting too rusty. If you check out my journal, there were a couple of other musicians who introduced themselves to me.

Reddit post about Barry Harris method:
https://www.reddit.com/r/jazztheory/com ... ?rdt=35427

[jacob]

Is there some particular reason you must do that in a group? The cost of waiting seems higher than what you would save in materials by mailing them around. You could've been making chips by now!

Eventually, I'll get tired of waiting and just make it myself, but I was going for an MMG style activity. We previously had a repair cafe, but in terms of results it was mostly social because our respective projects had little overlap and little direct experience with the actual problem.

In the spirit of much increased synergy from making the same project, I invite people who are interested in making the same router to join me. It would be most helpful to be competent in at least one of the many skill components required. For example, given my background in mechanical clocks, I'm certain I can make all the wood+metal structures. OTOH, I know nothing about CNC programming.

To reiterate, the group strategy is to make the same widget. This will make it a lot easier to help each other. I would, for example, be able to make wood brackets for those who don't have access/skill to a scroll saw or a 3D printer, but this will only work if we're all making the same thing.

[Scordatura]

Thank you. I do like my jobs... Most of the time.
Trumpet is definitely tertiary for me. Voice is my primary instrument, if you count that. Otherwise it's guitar. I'm a solid singer, with many local performances under my belt. Guitar I'd rate as 'gifted amateur'. I play well enough around a campfire, but I wouldn't want to be forced to play in front of a large crowd. Yet. I'm explicitly learning guitar so I'm less reliant on instrumentalists. I can play basic chords and riffs on piano, and I played trombone in middle school. I wanted to play trumpet too, then, and missed the opportunity. So on a lark, I bought one. The old skills transfer surprisingly well. I don't know trumpet fingerings, but I sound like I know what I'm doing if you don't examine so closely. The dogs hate it. They'll put up with me howling lyrics, playing guitar or keyboard, but the brass mortifies them. I don't play much jazz, but it isn't lack of interest. I skimmed that link. I'll read into that more when I have time. I need more music theory in my life. I'll give your journal a second look. I give most active journals on the forum a read.

Thanks for stopping by!

[Scordatura]

Well, count me in.

I have Good Friday & Easter off, so I'll do some research and post in that thread soon enough.

I was digging for subtext when I asked.. I did read the link, actually. I hope to be pleasantly surprised by the synergy.

[FunkyFreedom]

I can play basic chords and riffs on piano, and I played trombone in middle school. I wanted to play trumpet too, then, and missed the opportunity.

There’s a local group around where I live that has instruments you can try and they teach you. I tried trombone and started picking it up pretty well. I’ll have to head back to that group this summer. I’d be more useful to them on sax, I’m sure. Would be fun to get good enough to be able to play gigs on sax and swap to trombone!

This company has created a map of all chords within a given hey and how they relate. They have a bunch of free videos. The map is at 25 seconds in on this link.
https://youtu.be/34Ktoao2XMw?si=IIKCSMBO3rzZ6s0O

[Scordatura]

The main job is going well. I decided I would no longer argue. It's going swimmingly. It's hilariously low stress and I'm getting along with Gary, the Pokemon Rival. I'm getting along because I literally only agree with what he wants to do, only offering suggestions to improve his ideas, even when I fundamentally disagree with them. It's low stress because I don't have any responsibility whatsoever. I just run parts for him and worry about my own edification.

On that note: I'm having a bit of a block actually sitting down and practicing mastercam (it's machining software).
I'm doing well on basically everything else. Learning machines, figuring out corporate structures, etc. Geez, even my personal projects are going well.

Been singing and playing guitar for a while now. I have Hurt and House of the Rising Sun nearly acceptable for public consumption, and House of Gold isn't far behind. I'm thinking I want to do a more complicated guitar piece with no vocals. I'd like to really work on my guitar chops. I have sheet music for the Ernesto Schnack arrangement of Orestes - A Perfect Circle. I'm thinking that one may be TOO complicated for me right now. I'll think about what I want to do. I think that long term I want a list of about 50 songs I can play at any time, at an adequate level for public performance. Provided I don't shuffle from this mortal coil, I think it's doable. I'm in it for the life trajectory.

The CNA gig is going well. Finally thinking I may understand the job well enough to be actually competent to my personal standard. I'm not good, exactly, but I'm getting positive feedback. I was getting positive feedback before, but I thought it might be charity. I don't immediately think that now, especially since the girls give me flak now. That indicates to me I may not be such a charity case any more.

I got called by the nursing home the morning after my day to work because they were desperate again. (2 call-ins) They do double pay for this. I requested that I not work a full shift, but I went. I know what it's like inheriting a shitshow, so I figured I'd help prevent one. The money doesn't hurt also. The funny thing about that is the nursing home can't seem to get people to get people to come in even for double pay. The charge nurse that called me literally told me she went through most of the list, and I was the only one who answered so far. It really matters that everybody shows up when they're supposed to, no one calls in sick, etc etc. It really affects the residents and the work experience. There isn't much buffer in the labor force scheduled. They schedule exactly what they need or less. If somebody is late, you're behind. If someone calls in, you're really behind. I'm thinking they have labor problems. But I'm the dumb muscle on the weekend, it isn't my problem to solve. Yet I still think about it. We get paid well. 23 an hour for days, then a healthy shift differential for nights. There are many ways to solve this sort of problem, more money being the brute force approach. They could lower workload a bit. They could work on morale to make the place more pleasant to work at. I particularly don't care for how they enforce rules, the tone is draconian and some of the rules are duuuumb. The problem, I think, may be that they don't understand that they compete with Walmart for labor pool. (low skill manufacturing has this problem too, by the way.) Most of the aides are teenage girls. For a mild decrease in pay, they can work retail and do significantly less work. Not to mention avoiding dirty diapers. Being out of touch with the common laborer comes standard with management though, doesn't it?

I'm behind on my forum responses, I do plan to get to them. I've been busy, then I spent Easter sitting in my comfy chair like one of Dali's melting clocks. Mea Culpa.

[Bicycle7]

I've been following along and enjoying the work anecdotes! I work at a bike shop, so I find it interesting to peer into the world of machining. I like the idea of having 2 jobs that are in different worlds from each other, it keeps things interesting and provides redundancy in income.