guitar player's journal

Where are you and where are you going?
guitarplayer
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Re: guitar player's journal

Post by guitarplayer »

2022 update 11/52

Web Dev Course

Yesterday we were practicing one-to-many and many-to-many relationships between objects. I skipped the class today and will skip one on Saturday, but will look up the notes to check out what's been done.

Reading

'The Logic of error: recognizing and avoiding error in complex situations'
'Early Retirement Extreme'
'Listening Society'
'Handbook for New Stoics'

Uni

Multiple integrals.

Part of me want to do the 'Optimization' module next year to get more of applied mathematics and work with computer software. Part of me wants to take 'Graphs, networks and design' because it sounds interesting and covers a broad scope.

Stoic exercises

Week 11. Moderate at mealtime - this was good, I tend to overeat because eat lots of relatively low calorie food. So I moderated the amount by eating more often or somewhat higher calorie content.

guitarplayer
Posts: 1300
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Location: Scotland

Re: guitar player's journal

Post by guitarplayer »

2022 update 11/52

Web Dev Course

Tomorrow is my last day of the course. I have a website, profile on AWS, PSQL sorted and I think we will be making our websites go live tonight. I have the feeling that I bit more that I could chew with the course, on top of other things I have going on. Still, valuable. Probably would want to go through the material slowly in the coming month of two.

Reading

'The Logic of error: recognizing and avoiding error in complex situations'
'Early Retirement Extreme'
'Listening Society'
'Handbook for New Stoics'

Uni

Done with vector calculus and multiple integrals, submitted an assignment. It was great to learn about multiple integrals, very practical. Another mental tool. I can now build funky raised beds and will know how much soil I need to fill them up.

Time for choosing my next modules, this or next week.

Stoic exercises

Week 12. Put temptations out of sight - this I have been doing since reading about behavioural economists and choice architecture nearly a decade ago, so there was not much new discovery here for me.

Job vacancy

A big topic in my life now is this: there is an opening for a unit manager at my organization (or in normal language, for a house manager in my village). This post comes with a big flat where relatives can live free of charge and are at liberty wrt what they want to do. The job is managerial in the sense of needing to remember many small details, getting a ton of small things done. In some ways resembles life of a parent I would think. My line manager would be a good one, someone I could learn from. Had I gotten the job, I would be the main person responsible for running of the house. I foresee overtime, occasionally covering a night shift etc. Dealing with other people and their problems a lot, which can potentially be a stretch for an INTP. Had I gotten the job, DW would probably go part time or stop working here all together, so financially we would be on par or saving a bit less. We would though get to stay living where we are which is a brilliant place with all its perks. DW would probably carry on doing a cybersecurity degree + expand on 'other interests' i.e. foraging, gardening and diy + look for jobs elsewhere (which she could do unlike now where the living arrangement is conditional on 40h/week employment). I would still want to carry on and finish Maths and Stats, because I find it fun.

I am not sure what to do. DW has always been the one wanting to move on more than me, for her care work is pretty 'meh'. I found much more meaning in the work. But now I feel like I have been gaining a momentum for a change and if I got that job, the Maths and Stats would be rendered underused. Also my recent efforts in building websites. Unless I can weave these all together, but this would require quite some imagination.

Then I wouldn't want to fall victim of the sunken cost fallacy and discard that opening for this reason.

On the other hand, being in that role would make it possible for me to more substantially contribute to building the community here. Or see what it is to run a community. This could be useful later on, in the form of managing e.g. volunteers in my workaway project I might set up after retiring. I can fairly easily imagine myself getting immersed in the role and waking up a few years later, when the money equation is solved and I might just turn out to be a much richer (in non-monetary terms) person. As long as DW would be happy with the arrangement, and she seems to be.

Of course, I might plainly not get the job. But I get some signals that folk here would like me to apply for it, including from the (senior) management.

My trouble is that I can talk myself into anything, good at rationalizing. Also when describing the situation to others like DW. To a certain extent I feel like I cannot trust myself in that I draw to rosy or to gloomy of a picture of various scenarios.

Advice very much appreciated on that last point! I am happy to elaborate more.
Last edited by guitarplayer on Thu Mar 24, 2022 11:27 am, edited 2 times in total.

Western Red Cedar
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Re: guitar player's journal

Post by Western Red Cedar »

guitarplayer wrote:
Thu Mar 24, 2022 3:29 am
My trouble is that I can talk myself into anything, good at rationalizing. Also when describing the situation to others like DW. To a certain extent I feel like I cannot trust myself in that I draw to rosy or to gloomy of a picture of various scenarios.
It sounds like you have many options opening up. I also struggle with what you describe above, and can spend far too many hours analyzing decisions and potential outcomes. When in a similar situation, I took a cue from my DW and tried to follow my intuition. It was very uncomfortable for me (INTJ), but it ultimately led me in the right direction. Sometimes you just know what feels right - whether that is moving on to something completely new or continuing to spread your roots in your community.

Based on your post, it sounds like all the possibilities will bear fruit. My main recommendation is that, whatever you decide, embrace that decision. Don't fixate on the opportunity cost.

ThriftyRob
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Re: guitar player's journal

Post by ThriftyRob »

I enjoy following your journal. You and your wife have benefited tremendously from your live/work arrangements in cost terms as well as in the quality of your lives. Occasionally in life, really good opportunities present themselves. My take is that the unit manager vacancy is one of those. You appear to have the experience and support to be a strong candidate, so why not apply and go for it? Better to test yourself and risk disappointment than to pass on the opportunity and have regrets later. If the role isn't what it seems, you will still have all your alternative options and you and your wife can reassess at your leisure. From my experience of climbing the greasy pole of the corporate world, moving employers can present challenges as we don't appreciate how it feels to be valued by our long-standing managers and colleagues when having to build credibility, relationships and a reputation in a new workplace. All jobs have their good points and their bad points and you probably have a better chance of anticipating them in your current environment than you do for future prospects outside your current work.

MBBboy
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Re: guitar player's journal

Post by MBBboy »

One of the things we help companies with a LOT is making go / no-go decisions like these. One of the primary questions, after we talk about value/impact and difficulty to execute is "reversability". If a decision is easy to unwind, then it lowers the bar for adoption.

It SEEMS like this scores low on reversability, so unfortunately you have to be really careful - IF you get the job. But applying is a no regret move. If you get it, you can always turn it down (unless you feel like this burns a ton of social capital, which is really unlikely).

Another easy way to make decisions - flip a coin! You're going to have an immediate gut reaction of panic / excitement / dismay at whatever it says, which is a good indicator of how you actually feel. If you flip a coin and go "well, let's do 2 out of 3" it's pretty obvious what you actually want.

We settled on two names for our upcoming baby boy - and it's been really difficult trying to decide between two names we like and have been testing out for months. As we get closer to go time, it SEEMED like we were going for name #1 as we talked out pros / cons etc.....but then I noticed I was trying to find ways for name #2 to stay in the running. Once I realized this, we stopped discussing it and picked name #2. Name #1 was the "winner" of the decision making process we set up, and we felt disappointed. Decision made for us based on that instinct

guitarplayer
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Re: guitar player's journal

Post by guitarplayer »

Thanks!
Western Red Cedar wrote:
Thu Mar 24, 2022 10:49 am
Based on your post, it sounds like all the possibilities will bear fruit. My main recommendation is that, whatever you decide, embrace that decision. Don't fixate on the opportunity cost.
@WRC, this is really good.

ThriftyRob wrote:
Sat Mar 26, 2022 5:19 am
You appear to have the experience and support to be a strong candidate, so why not apply and go for it? Better to test yourself and risk disappointment than to pass on the opportunity and have regrets later. If the role isn't what it seems, you will still have all your alternative options and you and your wife can reassess at your leisure. From my experience of climbing the greasy pole of the corporate world, moving employers can present challenges as we don't appreciate how it feels to be valued by our long-standing managers and colleagues when having to build credibility, relationships and a reputation in a new workplace. All jobs have their good points and their bad points and you probably have a better chance of anticipating them in your current environment than you do for future prospects outside your current work.
@ThriftyRob, yes, I think in any case I will apply for it. If it worked, it could work real well.

Part of me is thinking 'do you want to get this job because you are afraid to face the real world outside of your wee bubble?' which is the argument for a complete change of line of work.

Part of me is like 'do you seriously want to reject what is perhaps one of the more progressive living arrangements out there just in order to learn the ropes of a life of the average joe?'


MBBboy wrote:
Sat Mar 26, 2022 8:43 am
One of the things we help companies with a LOT is making go / no-go decisions like these. One of the primary questions, after we talk about value/impact and difficulty to execute is "reversability". If a decision is easy to unwind, then it lowers the bar for adoption.

It SEEMS like this scores low on reversability, so unfortunately you have to be really careful - IF you get the job. But applying is a no regret move. If you get it, you can always turn it down (unless you feel like this burns a ton of social capital, which is really unlikely).
@MBBboy, aha I see what you are getting at, along the lines of the Bezos' revolving doors. I will apply and interview for it, nothing really can go wrong with that. If I get the offer, then I will flip a coin and see how it feels! This job could go real good or real bad because it is hard to retain modularity in the arrangement, it's all very viscerally connected. In some ways it can be good, because forces one to have skin in the game, at the same time on a global level, well it is always possible to quit if things really don't work out.

This sounds totally ridiculous, but one silly thing I worry about when taking that job is that I probably would need two rather than one more year to finish my BSc in Maths and Stats (which is super silly, since I would not 'need' it anyway, it is so far predominantly a fun project).

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Personal accomplishment of today: there was a goodbye party of our general manager today. He is such a great man, it won't be the same without him. I offered to play a song and decided to play an actual song where I sing, rather than just a composition on a guitar. I played 'Guaranteed' by Eddie Vedder, in front of more than 100 people. First time in my life amplified with a mic. It went well, I got lots of kind words (like maybe 15 - 20 people told me it was great). Some of it might have been just kind words, some of it genuine appreciation. But hey I will take it anyway, feels great! Will perform more. I though of this performance today as the first step in me busking while traveling Europe in 5-10 year when I hit mid age crisis.

Otherwise: All the talking about this management post, and meanwhile I have been invited for the second stage of interviewing (Zoom interview after online tests) for an entry level statistician position, it will take place early next month. I applied with not much hope, but there you go.

theanimal
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Re: guitar player's journal

Post by theanimal »

Wow, great job on the performance! I really do love that whole Into the Wild album.

guitarplayer
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Re: guitar player's journal

Post by guitarplayer »

@theanimal, it is a great one indeed! It was really encouraging to hear people thanking and praising me even the next day and the day after that.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2022 update 12/52

Web Dev Course - Review

This was a pretty intense experience of some 6-8 months of standard pace learning packed into a 2-month evening course. I have learned a lot, using some of it daily, have a live website. Finally, have been enjoying a few days without human interaction though! DW told me that there is some research she'd learned about in her studies about how Zoom call can be pretty draining because we are not used to extended close-up looking at faces of other people, too intimate.

Reading

Same old, I am slow at reading now because am catching up on Maths and Stats after having finished Web Dev.

'The Logic of error: recognizing and avoiding error in complex situations'
'Early Retirement Extreme'
'Listening Society'
'Handbook for New Stoics'

Uni

I am writing a modelling report. Having software solving equations numerically is a godsend.

I think I am going to slow down in my last year of Maths and Stats and split it into two years. So two modules this October, and two modules October 2023. I am uneasy about it, I would like to have it done next year. Then again, might use the spare time for some other stuff I have in the pipeline. Also, one of my tutors mentioned that 'graphs, networks and design' is 20 years old and would be better to wait for 'graphs, games and design'.

Networks or game theory?

Optimization which was my second choice will turn into 'applied computational mathematics' - a more general course.

Stoic exercises

Week 13. Start practicing minimalism - I have been for years! This, and simple living. Nevertheless, I cleaned my living space recently and got rid of perhaps 7 pieces of clothes, some really old and with holes that I insisted on wearing, some that are now too big. DW is selling a pair of my Levi's, apparently they go for $30 used, let's see.

Work

I will meet the new ceo of my place tomorrow to talk about the house manager post. Just to query, and for me to get a feel of how it would be to work with him now that the old ceo is gone.

Meanwhile, next week I will have an interview for an assistant statistician post.

guitarplayer
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Location: Scotland

Re: guitar player's journal

Post by guitarplayer »

2022 update 13/52

Reading


'The Logic of error: recognizing and avoiding error in complex situations'
'Early Retirement Extreme'
'Listening Society'
'Handbook for New Stoics'

Uni

Finished writing a modelling report, will be submitting it next week. I have some catching up to do re stats.

Stoic exercises

I don't know how but I missed a week! So this week coming I will stick two weeks in one:
Week 14. Evaluate your goals,
Week 15. Remind yourself of impermanence.

I really look forward, they look like my cup of tea.

Week 13. Start practicing minimalism - the jeans have sold for about $30, nice one! DW is much better at this than me. The clothes to be given away to the charity shop are still awaiting removal, it just takes an opportunity to get to the nearest collection centre.

Work

Spoke to the CEO about the upcoming manager post. He seems keen to have me in his team. I keep in mind the advice above about this post. The post is not advertised yet anyway.

Had an interview for an assistant statistician, it took about two hours and was pretty exhausting. There were three people on the panel, a pretty nice bunch. Was chatting a bit about my research on why people run marathons, it caught attention of at least one. They said any decisions would come in sometime beginning of May. I gave it my best shot, we'll see.

Holidays

We will be off for about two weeks in the second half of April, planning on cycling to one nearby bothy that we wanted to visit for a long time. There is a couple of reservoirs and lochs around there, I foresee wild swimming. Otherwise perhaps some hill running, we'll see about the weather. We'll take kindles for reading in case of bad weather. DW got some extra fuel for our Triangia. Really look forward to it, it's been a while! Something different from books and computer. And the Scottish remote hills, peace and tranquility.

We will also be off in the second half of June for two weeks. Either my parents will come to visit or we will go to visit them in the EU.

Frugalchicos
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Re: guitar player's journal

Post by Frugalchicos »

Good luck with the job interview!

The Holiday plan sounds pretty good. I can't wait to go out to the wild and run :)

guitarplayer
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Re: guitar player's journal

Post by guitarplayer »

Thanks @Frugalchicos!

About holidays, i'll try to take some photos to let you all appreciate the landscape here.
__________________________________________________________________________________

Meanwhile, foraging season is kicking off again. Some wild garlic in nature,

Image

and on our plates.

Image

We had the spot where we went in mind already a year or two ago. Lots of wild garlic. We took some bulbs and transplanted around the house and nearby burn (it likes moist mud-like soil). Hopefully it'll propagate!

Frugalchicos
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Re: guitar player's journal

Post by Frugalchicos »

Those bowls look amazing! Is that hummus?

It looks super healthy and colorful (I am about to have some buffalo chicken wings for dinner :) )

guitarplayer
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Re: guitar player's journal

Post by guitarplayer »

Yep @Frugalchicos, that was hummus. Yeah colorful food generally is often on our table.
_______________________________________________________________________________________

2022 update 14/52

Reading


Finally finished 'The Logic of error: recognizing and avoiding error in complex situations'. By the way Josha Bach whose youtube appearances featured on the forum recently wrote his PhD thesis under supervision of the author of the book. Makes me want to read his PhD dissertation.

Otherwise still reading (mostly before sleeping or sometimes at work)

'Early Retirement Extreme'

It's a different read this time compared to the last time. I especially enjoyed ergodicity and destiny. Human capital and necessary personal assets was good to refresh. Gauging mastery and CCCCCC I think I will appreciate still better in the future. Decoupling and increasing complexity - this is good and feeds right into my life choices now.

I am currently at 'shelter'. Funny @Jacob wrote about the caregiver arrangement, I never remembered it but technically I have been right in it the past few years.

I would like to make a mind map of this book.

'Listening Society'

Yeah The Listening Society is on people's minds here, but I am not sure I am in the right frame mind to actionably read that book. I will finish it though. DW is reading it as well, I feel it might come back to us at some point in life.

and once weekly a chapter of

'Handbook for New Stoics'

Uni


Submitted the modelling report, for stats refreshed theory behind regression, variable transformation and report writing (again!). For practical statistics, I finally plunged into Bayesian stats, super keen to learn more. It's quite a bit to wrap my head around at first, conditional probabilities seem to never be intuitive.

I am having great fun with the uni.

Stoic exercises


Week 14. Evaluate your goals - this made me think about the four stoic virtues in various configurations, e.g. chasing high paycheck in light of temperance, calling out bullying in light of courage. Also was well timed with goal setting in the 'logic of failure'.

Week 15. Remind yourself of impermanence - things break, no point taking anything for granted and better to enjoy life while it lasts.

Great exercises, I kept thinking about those themes throughout the week. In the first weeks of this project I kept journal, now not so much anymore. Perhaps I should restart the journal, end up with something tangible rather than just ephemeral impressions.

Work


Nothing unusual. The manager post is not up yet. Chatting with DW, leaning towards moving out and to a city sometime this year regardless.

Holidays


I dried lots of fruit for our trip, have lots of canned beans. Maybe I should dry some veggies as well actually? Anyway, we will be heading out in a week for a few days, 'fate permitting'.

The bothy is just 3-4h cycle away, we should make it there. I think we will take a tent anyway just in case.

For June holidays, we will be heading off on the continent.

Health


My teeth enamel was showing signs of decay, I think I overdid it with vinegar teas. I stopped and started using fluoride toothpaste, it improved to my great relief.

Yesterday DW suggested 24h fasting, I very happily agreed. We will have a nice meal in 20min.

Still doing burpees, started cooper tests to check how the weight loss improves running. Ended up with 2745m last week and 2960m this week, I calculated VO2max to be in the 50-54 range.

As I put the garmin on, it was quite shocking to see my resting heart rate to be 49bpm! Never in my life, the lowest it was was perhaps 55, lying in bed. After waking up and just sitting on a couch, would not be less than 60. This should be the effect of the whole food plant based (no/little added oil and salt) diet.

Still doing 200 burpees daily.

Generally the web dev course was too much on top of everything else, I now recognize. I am back to normal now.

Also, realized that I just should not have caffeine. Recently was experimenting with white and green tea, and ended up in the same pickle of muscle twitches and staying up till late. I am aware it is silly to have this conversation with myself over and over.

Thanks for reading!
Last edited by guitarplayer on Thu Apr 14, 2022 12:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.

jacob
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Re: guitar player's journal

Post by jacob »

FWIW (anecdotal evidence only), I've found myself having the lowest resting heart bpms when my exercise routines focused on long-duration (1hr+) mid/low-intensity like biking or running type workouts at RPE5/6. All time record was 42bpm. HIIT and the likes doesn't bring it down for me. I've also found caffeine and having eaten recently to add 10bpm+.

Tour de France rider bpms are all over the map (between 30 and 60something). W/O killing oneself, the more interesting number might be the maximum heart rate, which should be somewhat age constrained.

The heart muscle will adapt and change shape according to what you do. Just like any other muscle. For example, a low-intensity runner will have a larger heart (more volume) but given the lack of intensity it doesn't need to be strong. It makes sense that operating a heart like that at rest leads to low bpms. Slush ....... slush ..... slush .... Whereas a powerlifter needs a heart with thick walls to provide maximum blood pressure over a short (<30 second) duration. Operating that kind of heart under resting conditions will still beat reasonably faster (60ish bpm) because has normal volume whereas the thick strength it not required when resting.

guitarplayer
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Re: guitar player's journal

Post by guitarplayer »

Yep HIIT raises my resting HR short term as well for sure. That was good the slushing made it very visualisable.

I think for me the above change was diet as I cut off cheese and eggs the past 6 months and I used to eat a lot of these everyday.

Btw IIRC from some research on running, athletes with thick heart walls have increased chances of heart related conditions, because thick walls are not very flexible and can crack.

Anyway, I’m on a quest of finding my max HR. Tried with running and recently pushing it more with daily burpees and with HR monitor. The last run I went up to 182 bpm and that is my highest one now (pretty sure it could be higher). In the past I remember it in its 190s.

Man, it might just be that I am getting older!

guitarplayer
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Re: guitar player's journal

Post by guitarplayer »

2022 update 15/52

Reading

'Early Retirement Extreme'

Finished 'a renaissance lifestyle' and onto 'foundations of economics and finance'. Reading this book gives me a feeling like when I was 18yo and left my boring mid-sized hometown to move to a student dorm full of interesting people.

'Handbook for New Stoics' - a chapter a week.

Uni

Waiting to hear about the modelling report for applied maths. Easter break plus it was a non standard assignment (lots of freedom of expression) so I suspect I will wait some more, no worries.

Finished intro to Bayesian stats, learned how to operate WinBUGS. Still trying to fully wrap my head around the nitty gritty of this approach to stats, I will watch some tutorials sometime. Probably at 1.5x or 2x speed. I love distance learning in that one can do that and also skip what I don't need.

I got a notification about a student research bursary scheme and applied for two projects, one is from the area of biostatistics (genetics of appearance) and the other related to position problems in graphs. There were more but I had to choose only two and give preference. I gave the preference in the order as laid out here. This is designed as a 'taster of what PhD is like' and pays over $1000 involving about 140h of study spread over 4 - 8 weeks of summer break. I will hear back in May.

Stoic exercises


Week 16. Contemplate death and how to live - 'No one can have a peaceful life who thinks too much about lengthening it, or believes that a long life is a great blessing. Rehearse this thought every day, that you may be able to depart from life contentedly'. This is a paraphrase from Seneca.

It was a good week of contemplation, thinking about how 'Lifespan' got so viral here on the forum, about where is the limit of optimizing health. For example, to what extent is it justified for me to keep on buying the imported Indian gooseberries because they are just 'so healthy', and to what extent it makes sense to start hunting when living up north like @theanimal, even though meat is ultimately a sub-optimal food. Then my mum is getting older and sometimes mentions how 'life passed so quickly', and that she would not like to part with it. Then it also put me in place about trying to rush through things and getting annoyed about the insignificant. Ultimately, life has got to be expressive, instrumental life pursuits are vain.

Next week: Meditate on others' virtues - this will put me in a good mood!

Work

Some STEM research internships have come up and I am going to apply for one regarding bioinformatics. I think I might stand a chance. This would be 10 weeks full time or 20 weeks part time, would return about $4500 which is about what I need for 1 year of sustenance financially (on an individual basis).

Holidays


Currently on holidays, I read the 'fate permitting' from last week and smile. DW is working on something for her uni and so we are postponing the trip for a bit. I use the time to reflect, do some of my reading and writing and to basically chill. Feeling good to have the time.

All the panniers are out and it would take just a couple of hours to pack and go.

We have been invited to a relative's birthday in June in the EU, so we have an anchor for the June holidays.

Health


With the burpees, some months back I added a 'stretch' element to them which slowed the burpees but well, added some stretching. Now I took it out and basically do a bit of stretching beforehand, and then burpees more speedy. So the 200 are done in under 15 min, and it is then again a proper HIIT.

I tried a few times to push and see what's my HRMax, no luck going above 182. I will take a hypothetical 185 HRMax for now.

Property


Looks like DW in on board with getting a property. Looking for a cheap place in or around Glasgow, not more than $100k. This will be with a mortgage with at least half of the price being our deposit. Currently looking at neighbourhoods with an above average presence of immigrants. I think I will need a solicitor to interact with sellers, I need to educate myself about these things.

Thanks for reading!
Last edited by guitarplayer on Thu Apr 21, 2022 12:39 pm, edited 2 times in total.

JollyScot
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Re: guitar player's journal

Post by JollyScot »

Reading through the last dozen or so posts you are doing a pretty good job of being consistent at doing stuff. I stop and start and it comes and goes in bursts. Suspect my parents were correct when they said if I was a kid now I would be plonked on ADHD medication immediately. Thankfully I was just class as overactive when I was a kid

Also seem to be doing a better job at getting out and about in the country than I am. We need to get better at that.

theanimal
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Re: guitar player's journal

Post by theanimal »

Are you doing the traditional burpees with a pushup? I'm impressed you can do the 200 under 15 minutes. My best time for 100 is something like 5:30 but any time I've done more than 100, the second 100 has always taken closer to 10 minutes. I guess that's the benefit of doing them everyday, you become a cardio freak!

guitarplayer
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Re: guitar player's journal

Post by guitarplayer »

Hey @JollyScot, good to hear from you! Yep I keep on going on about the same things seemingly forever, but hardly see any progress day-to-day. Then every now and again there is a highlight, like this other time when I played music for a bunch of people or yes a trip somewhere. It's still on our to-do list to live someplace around Alps in a few years for a few years, but maybe also Scandinavia. Funny, I was on the phone with my brother recently who had a hard time grasping when I told him that in 5 years its perhaps 90-95% sure we'll be out of Scotland. He operates more along a 1 year max timeline.

Where we are, it's impossible to avoid the country. Lots of lambs outside just now and a beautiful few days.

Image

By the way, would you have a conveyancer of solicitor to recommend for buying a flat in Glasgow? Or a good search engine for one.

@theanimal, yep with a pushup and a jump, like here - she does it pretty fast, 200 with that pace would probably take around 10min! I have been recently approaching that pace in my last 50-20 burpees in the quest of getting to HRMax.

Totally, doing something everyday will make you good at it, though from my point of view it's more a quick and easy body maintenance that is a good enough proxy instead of spending considerably more time thinking about and doing body training.

guitarplayer
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Re: guitar player's journal

Post by guitarplayer »

2022 update 16/52

Reading

'So Good they can't ignore you' by Cal Newport.

'Handbook for New Stoics' by Massimo Pigliucci and Gregory Lopez - a chapter a week.

Uni

I got 98% for the modelling report for applied Maths.

Working now on systems of particles, circular motion, rotating bodies and angular momentum. It takes time to chew through the topics because they bring back all the rest learned through the year. It's good to know, like know how the mechanics of the world work. I found myself finally resorting to youtube to try to get a better picture of the relationships between angular velocity, angular momentum, torque etc. Anyone having particularly good resources do shout out! Although I think it just needs a bit of time to sink in, basically to establish mental visualizations a bit more firmly.

I applied for four modules for the next year, so I will be finishing this degree next year in June. For a while I had been toying with the idea of splitting the year in two, but finally decided that I would take it on full time. I'm enjoying the momentum.

Stoic exercises


Meditate on others' virtues - writing about other people's virtues did put me in a better mood! Sometimes all it takes is to spell things out.

With this week I finished the 'discipline of desire'. I retook a quiz I have been asked to fill out 17 weeks, asking to rate oneself on a scale 1 to 10 re
-getting upset when things don't go my way,
-putting lots of effort into avoiding things I don't like or am afraid of,
-spending lots of time pursuing comfort and pleasure.

Judging by the results of the quiz, the exercise did their job.

Next comes: 'Keep your peace of mind in mind' - remember that you always have two goals: one goal is a goal you set for yourself, the other goal is the goal to keep cool.

Work

The manager post is still not advertised, but after talking with DW we have come to a solid conclusions of me not pursuing it unless some very unexpected event occurs.

I am yet to apply for the STEM research internship, but I have the info about it opened.

Re the assistant statistician post, I got an email beginning with 'Congratulations on reaching the assessment stage...' so I thought 'well I didn't get it'. But then I expanded the email and turns out they wanted to find out my preference of the city I'd like to work in, topics I am interested in, software I know etc. Seems like they ask everyone who got through to the assessment stage such things. So yes, by the looks of it in one or two weeks I will hear the result of this assessment.

Holidays


The weather is great, although it's cold.

Whilst DW was working on her pieces for uni, I managed to catch up with all my material after the lag following the Web Dev course. Now I have only half a chapter to go through and am actually ahead of the game. After that it is going to be only revisions for June exams.

I still think that we might go somewhere perhaps, but with the stoic exercise of the coming week, I will keep it cool and take what comes. After all, life's good.

I wonder how to go about June holidays. I have one idea of taking a ferry to Holland and then doing a bit of a cycling trip to end up at my folks' place, leaving the bikes and panniers there for some time. This would make it easier for us to move which we plan later this year . Also would be good to have all the gear for cycling trips at my folks' because it is very central and many many nice trips starting there could be had unlike when starting from the UK it being an island.

Health


So I set to do some burpee time tracking and I managed 200 burpees with a pushup and a jump fastest in 12:41. Intensifying HIIT definitely feels different, better! I got some sore muscles for the first time in a good while after burpees (exercise specific, I easily get sore legs after running these days when I don't run regularly).

Property


I have a tentative location of our new neighbourhood, keeping an eye out for flats for sale there. It is kind of linked to that job application result that I am waiting for. If they offered me a job but not in the location I want, I would possibly still want to get a flat, though some place else. In any case, in the UK owning is cheaper than renting most of the time, lest one has some very preferential deal like ours is now, or maybe living with relatives who charge little.

Thanks for reading!

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