Funky Freedom's Journal

[FunkyFreedom]

Post # 042, 6/13/25

Brief update. Harvard flourishing measure up to 9.1. Had my first follow up pulmonologist appointment after being diagnosed with asthma 3+ months ago this week and both understand more and feel like things are on a good trajectory. Finally, my trombone arrived this week! Will get to try it out on Sunday!

[Scordatura]

RE: the trombone:

You're doing Fred Wesley proud, sir.

Oh, and I found Overshoot fascinating. The idea that we basically eat petroleum indirectly through draw down fundamentally change my thinking on energy.

[FunkyFreedom]

Post # 043, 6/20/25

First day of summer. Day off; walked over 14 miles today!

Updates:
-Harvard Flourishing Measure down to 8.4 this week.
-Re-analyzed my annual expenses based on the last 11 months and revised it upwards a bit. There are reasons why it went up and I want to use actuals to give me more motivation to make progress on expenses.
-As a result, NW/AE is down to 6.8, due to the increased denominator.

RE: the trombone:

You're doing Fred Wesley proud, sir.

Oh, and I found Overshoot fascinating. The idea that we basically eat petroleum indirectly through draw down fundamentally change my thinking on energy.

Trombone has been fun! It’s nice to play with other people so you can look at their slide position and listen to the notes and get some assistance in learning that way.

Yes, Overshoot is fascinating, but heavy. It has me wanting to learn more about the transition to sustainable energy so I can track how it’s going.

[AxelHeyst]

The short version, as I understand it, is that while our percentage consumption of renewable energy / total energy used is going up, our absolute total energy used is going up even faster. Meaning, we’re not really transitioning to renewables so much as augmenting growth with them. More renewables on top of… more conventional. So far.

Finding a relevant episode of Nate Hagens podcast and then hunting through the papers he always links to in show notes would be a good starting point I suspect (I’ve been meaning to do just this sooner or later…).

[FunkyFreedom]

…we’re not really transitioning to renewables so much as augmenting growth with them. More renewables on top of… more conventional. So far

Thanks! That sounds about right. By the way I just finished your book - I liked it very much and it has me thinking. Next up on my reading list is “Limits and Beyond”, the 50 year update to “Limits to Growth”. Also I just requested from my library system “Living in the Future’s Past” which is written by Nate Hagens and narrated by Jeff Bridges. There’s a 50 page study guide that I downloaded a PDF of, too.

[jacob]

Thanks! That sounds about right. By the way I just finished your book - I liked it very much and it has me thinking. Next up on my reading list is “Limits and Beyond”, the 50 year update to “Limits to Growth”. Also I just requested from my library system “Living in the Future’s Past” which is written by Nate Hagens and narrated by Jeff Bridges. There’s a 50 page study guide that I downloaded a PDF of, too.

FYI, as part of the forum's minimalist challenge, I'm getting rid of parts of my doomer library. See here, viewtopic.php?p=303426#p303426 There will be more coming in the future.

[FunkyFreedom]

Post # 044, 6/28/25

Food expenses, June - 8.6% (ok!)

NW/AE = 6.9

AE newly revised upward; some medical and one-time large charity expenses I’d like to try to not incur moving forward. Using the larger number is motivation to do what I need to do to keep those expenses lower moving forward.

Harvard Flourishing Measure = 8.6

Finished copying the Tao Te Ching into a colorful notebook.

Finished the Dalio book. Learned about his view of long cycle macroeconomics and risk of national debt issues leading to debt crises and possible effects. Right away I am looking for critiques and alternate takes on the national debt and the long term debt cycle. Would like to learn more about holding TIPS (inflation protected treasuries) in my 401k and/or precious metals as alternative stores of wealth/ sources of portfolio diversification instead of the bond market.

[jacob]

Would like to learn more about holding TIPS (inflation protected treasuries) in my 401k and/or precious metals as alternative stores of wealth/ sources of portfolio diversification instead of the bond market.

Typical strategies for this are https://www.amazon.com/Risk-Less-Prospe ... 1118014308 and the Permanent Portfolio.