Ego's Journal

[Ego]

@sky, I figured that was the case. Know that there are many of us out here rooting for you.



We bought a mattress from a couple who never used their guest bedroom so they converted it to an office. Appears to be brand new and sized perfectly for the Murphy bed. $55. It fit in the Honda Fit. That car never ceases to amaze me.

[C40]

Do you ever have the sense of ".... siiiiiiigggghhhhhh ... I don't want to do this any more?" I get the sense that you don't, but would be curious if you have any thoughts around that. At least in this area of your life, you don't seem that impacted by some variation of hedonic adaptation, but perhaps it's just that you're able to compartmentalize it into these 3/1 chunks of your life.

Ego and his wife are the best people I've ever seen at making transitions like leaving, coming back, and 'starting over' (in terms of physical stuff, but perhaps also jobs). They are VERY good at it and, importantly, it seems to be fun for them. I think every time they do it they "win": financially... having fun.. and socially.

[jacob]

Do you ever have the sense of ".... siiiiiiigggghhhhhh ... I don't want to do this any more?" I get the sense that you don't, but would be curious if you have any thoughts around that. At least in this area of your life, you don't seem that impacted by some variation of hedonic adaptation, but perhaps it's just that you're able to compartmentalize it into these 3/1 chunks of your life.

I have thoughts.

I just counted up my relocations while making coffee. I moved out from my parents 30 years ago. Over that time,...
I've moved 11 times.
Lived in 3 different countries.
In 3 different states.
In several different types of housing: dormitory, extended stay hotel, rented apartment, RV, rented house, and owned house.
As a single and a couple.
Aquarium, dog, no children.
Car, no-car.

(Given that 10 of the 30 years has been in the same house we live in now, this makes the above list more "intense")

My thoughts:
The "siiiiigh"-effect depends on a combination of how easy it is to move and whether moving is a feature or a bug, that is, something you want to do for its own sake (primary reason) or something you have to do because of something else like a new job (secondary reason). The biggest sigh obtains from having to do a hard relocation you didn't really want but have to do anyway... for reasons.

Some of my moves have been exceedingly easy: If all your stuff fits in a couple of suitcases, it's easy to pack up and bring with you. If your career or dreams force you to move a lot, it makes sense to keep yourself light. Early in my career I was warned against collecting books, for example. Same goes if the move is short (e.g. intra city) and you can transfer location with a few car/truck trips. You can be done in less than half a day and keep most of your "infrastructure" (see below).

Our hardest move in terms of stuff was rented house->RV because it required getting rid of a lot of stuff (all the furniture, big DVD collection, decent book collection, appliances,...). This process took weeks. This can be further complicated insofar you own something that is so heavy/big you can't just lift it, like a 300lbs lathe, for example.

Another factor is whether you're dependent on a lot of local "infrastructure". E.g. if you mostly have local friends, local family, local bank, local doctor, local plumber, ... then moving is harder because you need to build all that back up again. Conversely, if you have global friends (online), work in an international community (not to be confused with a community of internationals), use an international bank, ...and have the landlord deal with plumbers, etc., then it gets much much easier because much of your life is location-independent. Partners, pets, and presumably children complicate this insofar any of them are locally-minded---otherwise, also easy.

Moving to/from rentals just requires ending the lease, cleaning up, and finding a new place to rent.

Moving out of something you own takes a lot more effort.

Resetting also comes with some constraints. I can tell by contrasting and comparing the fact that we've lived in this house for 10 years. That's nowhere near as long as the 20-40 years that many people have spent in the exact same place (or the generations some families have done) but it gives an idea. "Resetting" means never really getting all that far from the "starting line". The roots---in the most generalized sense of the word---never go that deep. Of course some people grow these roots faster than others. Some also enjoy that process more than others. For example, growing a few tomato plants in a bucket takes an hour to set up. OTOH it took us 5 years here to build up the soil enough for productive French long beds and while I enjoy the results, I absolutely did not enjoy the process of working the soil. Likewise, it's easy to populate a new place with Ikea furniture. Populating it with used furniture requires a bit more effort. Actually building new furniture to match the dimensions of the new home is A LOT of effort. Maybe that's welcome if you're looking forward to spending a few hundred hours in the workshop ... but if you aren't, it isn't. However, again, it very much depends on WHAT part of your life is being reset. If you enjoy bespoke furniture and don't care about discovering a new marketplace, that's a tough reset. OTOH, if you enjoy discovering new shops but don't enjoy having a history with your garden soil, then a reset is a welcome feature.

Overall, you can set your life up so moving is pretty easy and almost routine---definitely nowhere near the top of "most stressful life events". Or ... life can be constructed to make moving almost impossibly difficult.

This was a very long-winded way of saying this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psy ... cteristics Depending on what you're doing, how often you do it, and why you're doing it, moving can be either exciting, boring, or dreadful depending on how difficult you've made it for yourself (y-axis in flow chart) and how experienced you are (x-axis).

[7Wannabe5]

I think most humans need some aspects of their life that stay grounded while other aspects change in order to maintain perspective and plasticity. For example, Ego is very grounded in his long-term, successful marriage, and I am very grounded in my regional sense of place and extended family, but neither of us are very grounded in career identity. So, for example, I would almost certainly feel somewhat "lost" as well as "bored" if I took a full-time data analyst job in Phoenix and married the guy in the next cubicle over. So, I totally grok what Ego means about fine-tuning the rhythm of change vs. ground. I also grok that most humans (particularly those with Fi higher on stack than eNtP) regard travel as a more morally acceptable vehicle for "novelty" than "dating", even though the first certainly burns more jet fuel on average Unfortunately, simply relying on the rotating contents of the Newly Arrived book rack at the public library does not provide quite enough novelty for this Goldilocks (sigh.) Probably I will have to resign myself to chipping in 50/50 on more travel-type adventures with my family and female friends. Although, I am actually more motivated towards seeing if I can get the Primitive Technology guy to teach me flint knapping and basket weaving with natural fibers. Unfortunately, I simply do not know if it is moral (the right thing to do) to enter into a short-term open contract for skillz and sex exchange with a man, because my Fi is in my 7th position blind-spot. My tertiary Fe only informs me that it might be wrong if I think the man will end up with hurt feelings if/when I end contract. Of course, it is also possible that I could just attempt to barter homemade pie and conversation for exciting new primitive technology skillz, but it has been my experience that it usually doesn't work out that way, even if my self-image is "old, chubby, like Aunt Bee, so sexually neutered."

[Ego]

... importantly, it seems to be fun for them. I think every time they do it they "win": financially... having fun.. and socially.

It is great fun! I do not remember exactly what we sold the Ikea Kallax shelves for before leaving so I cannot say how much we "won" on this deal, but I bought the big one for $25 and the little one for $20 on Facebook Marketplace. Closets are getting organized!



A tenant is experimenting with making sourdough and they made this massive loaf. They burned it slightly. In frustration, they put it in a paper bag and put it on top of the trash. In my opinion, it baked to perfection with a flaky crust but soft interior. Chef's kiss.

[2Birds1Stone]

That's my kind of bread!

Trying to catch up on your adventures since the Bangkok earthquake

[Ego]

The bread is really good. Sandwiches and salad for lunch today.

We have very little storage in the kitchen so I purchased a glass case that can hold dishes and other kitchen stuff. $45. Our building has some hints of art deco character so it fits well. I need to find a nice piece of wood to makes shelves for it.

[Ego]

A lovely little lady had a garage sale on Sunday and when it was over she listed everything that remained as free on FB marketplace. I got there just in time to get two chairs. We can now both sit at the same time. They need a good cleaning and stuffing. Mrs. Ego has suggested more than once that we will furnish our place with round or curved items this time around. Ugh. So far, I have been successful in pretending that I did not hear her.

[chenda]

Wonderful chairs, that's a great idea by Mrs Ego

I like curvy things.

[ertyu]

Very cool. Solid structure, easy reupholstering job. They fit the cabinet too.

[7Wannabe5]

I think it's more fun to have a theme when decorating, although sometimes it might arise somewhat organically. For example, my current room-of-my-own is towards Twee Minimalist.

[Stasher]

Love the chairs
Love the solid wood
Love that they are free

[Ego]

Thanks folk. Zep carpet cleaner was used to clean the upholstery. I believe I just need to reattach the supporting material on the bottom and they will look new. Mrs. Ego has mentioned the round theme several times and I've been forced to grunt in response more than once, so it looks like we are headed in that direction.

The conversation over on @IlliniDave's journal got me thinking about improving my VO2max. Here is my Garmin data as of today. I don't really understand why I would have more than one VO2 max... the cycling one is out of date and today was my first long spin class in more than a year. Anyway, I'd like to be over 50 in the next few months for both.

[suomalainen]

At the most basic level, the analysis used to calculate VO2max compares how fast you are running compared to how hard your body works to maintain that pace. Given that we are using heart rate as the key input to determine your effort, it’s important to understand that there are times when your current HR accurately reflects your current speed and there are times when it does not.

So, there has always been a lot of filtering and prioritizing happening in the background to sort out things like uphill/downhill, stops/starts, intervals and naturally occurring changes in intensity, etc… all in pursuit of identifying when relationship between and internal and external workloads reflects your fitness level (VO2max) and when it doesn’t. For all the obvious reasons, trail running adds a substantial layer of complexity to this problem. Changes in elevation have been incorporated into the analysis for many years now and that remains the case for trail running-based VO2max – but only to the degree to which it has been previously used.

The new element in the mix here is how accelerometer data is being used. We are basically looking for and identifying patterns in how you are running to recognize when more energy than normal is being used to keep pace. In other words, it’s about attributing the fact that your body is working harder due to the ruggedness and changes of the trail instead of simply assuming you’re working harder than normal because of inadequate recovery or a drop in fitness. Without taking this perspective into account, your VO2 max would almost always be underestimated during trail runs. Getting a VO2max estimate from your trail runs is kind of neat but I think the ultimate value here is probably that it also means you are getting more data fed into things like Training Status. Perhaps it’s worth noting that there isn’t a separate “trail running VO2max analysis.” The developments that make estimating VO2 max during trail runs possible are baked into the normal VO2 max calculation, making the whole shebang more robust.

From a user perspective, there is a setting that still allows a user to disable Trail Run VO2max calculations in the Trail Run profile. A big benefit of the Trail Run profile in the past is that users could effectively use it to “screen out” trail runs so they wouldn’t affect their VO2max, Training Status, etc. If users still want to exercise caution with VO2max on trail runs (especially, say, if they are wearing a pack), they can use this setting to still “disqualify” a run from generating a VO2max so it doesn’t mess with their other features.

A garmin rep's explanation of the vo2 max calculation from https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2021/02/gar ... eview.html

So, there's a different algorithm for cycling vs running and the running algo will have more "noise" issues. Presumably the same noise issue impacts mountain biking, but I'm not sure how easy it is to tease out such nuance from HR, GPS/altitude and accelerometer data. Neat algos, anyway.

[7Wannabe5]

I wonder why my VO2 max according to my FitBit is almost as good as yours for age/gender?

[jacob]

I wonder why my VO2 max according to my FitBit is almost as good as yours for age/gender?

An direct VO2max measures the difference between fresh air delivered by mask and how much oxygen is left in the air one breathes out (the VO2) while slowly increasing effort to the point of total collapse (10/10 perceived effort) which then becomes the "max".

Whereas more indirect tests may try to estimate vo2max based on vo2 at a somewhat lesser effort than max and extrapolate from there. If I had to venture a guess, @Ego has probably sampled data points closer to his max (higher on the Borg scale) than you have? This should make his estimate more accurate.

Even more indirect tests would try to make a statistical guess based on the data available to it e.g. pulse rate and step frequency to estimate VO2. As @suo notes, not all "steps" are created equal. Also, if the fitbit doesn't have GPS, then correct calibration of the step length becomes very important. In theory, you could also estimate VO2max w/o moving a muscle by simply counting up your weekly activity level and doing some rough back of the envelope calculation. Fitbit/Garmin might do some of that too.

Notably at this point, the estimate has become indirect indeed! If you want to do an accurate (non-lab) test to estimate the accuracy of your wrist gadgets, do a Cooper test. Otherwise, whatever the watch reports is mainly there to motivate you.

[7Wannabe5]

@jacob:

Yup, had to dig a bit, but since I haven't tracked a run, FitBit is just calculating VO2 max based on my resting heart rate and demographics.

[Ego]

We haven't had chocolate since 2B1S and wife invited us to their place for good conversation and snacks. Right on top of the trash today I found this wonderful gift for Mrs. Ego. Happy wife, happy life. She got to the Hershey's bar before I could take a photo of it.

[IlliniDave]

... I don't really understand why I would have more than one VO2 max... the cycling one is out of date and today was my first long spin class in more than a year. Anyway, I'd like to be over 50 in the next few months for both.

Those are really strong numbers, Ego. I'd be thrilled to even get into the 40s at this stage. I recently encountered somewhere in my travels that according to conventional wisdom I'm in the decade where from here on I'm fighting a steep uphill battle to get any more than token VO2 max improvements and I'll be doing good just to keep mine from declining. The assertion was that if you want to have excellent VO2 max from age 60 onward you need to develop it when you're much younger. Of course they say about strength/muscle mass too, and although I'm far from ripped, I'm estimating that I added roughly 12 lb of lean in the last 12 months by making an effort, based on a ~15 lb weight increase with no change in the belt notch metric.

I'm looking forward to following your progress. The common statement is that a 1 MET improvement corresponds to 10-20% decrease in mortality and it's inspiring to me to see people who are already in an excellent position aspire for improvement.

[jacob]

Yup, had to dig a bit, but since I haven't tracked a run, FitBit is just calculating VO2 max based on my resting heart rate and demographics.

This results in an extrapolation that is forced pretty far out of range. Consider that one's resting VO2 consumption-rate is 10--15 times below that of one's maximum rate (VO2max) and it becomes obvious how such estimates can easily get wildly off the mark.

There's a bunch of tests that are calibrated to different ages, genders, weights, activity-form, and performance levels. E.g. running, walking, shuttle-runs, and even burpees! For accuracy, these require that one is neither a specialist nor totally inexperienced. E.g. a Cooper test will not be accurate for a very efficient runner from the cross country team nor for someone who can't run for 12 minutes straight. The burpee test I found is calibrated such that failing to perform even a single burpee still gives the minimum VO2max estimate of 35 which is obviously not the case for someone who can't complete even one. Apparently "brisk walking" tests do have some validity even if they base the estimate on one's VO2 performance around 1/3--1/2 of VO2max. Look up the "Rockport walk test equation". It only requires a flat distance of exactly 1 mile (precisely 4 times around the inner line of an athletic track if you have one of those in your hood) and the ability to measure one's heart rate.