guitar player's journal

[ertyu]

Do you live somewhere you can plant random fruit trees in parks/the neighborhood? Would be nice.

[guitarplayer]

@delay, someone on the forum mentioned once Stretching Scientifically and I roughly follow the approach. I first warm up with general stretching, I do sun salutations. Then I do isometric stretching as follows:
1. I do as much of a split as possible and tense hamstrings for 7 breath-outs, about 7s.
2. Then I relax the muscles and go a bit lower which is possible with now relaxed muscles
3. I repeat 1 and 2 three more times
4. I then tense hamstrings for 30 seconds (or breath-outs)
5. Then I walk back to standing.

Point 5 is quite accent for the muscles, big impact. Now thought I am so low that I am not standing per se, more leaning on insides of my feet. So now getting back to standing requires an initial sort of jump (I am yet to do it, the last time round I helped myself with hands).

After the routine hamstrings are damaged so I give them time until they are okay again and do it again. Have been at it for about a couple months, I think wrote about the initial idea in this journal.

I think it should work, it's a basic 'what does not kill you makes you stronger' sort of thing.

@ertyu I have thought about guerilla gardening, never acted on my ideas. The thing is, there is lots of hanging fruit in the urban wild. Below is 15.5kg of low hanging fruit from earlier today.

[ertyu]

What gorgeous apples. Enjoy!

[guitarplayer]

2023 update 46/52

Job

059/260 weeks in.

I have sent the job application and will hear if I am invited to the job interview next month.

Stoicism

I got a book 'The Stoics, a guide for the perplexed' and reading this now.

Exercise and health

About a year ago I was I think at a lowest of 69kg and now I am something like 77kg. It is quite amazing how weight can move up or down. I am not going to fall on the paddy excuse that I have gained muscles as though I have some, probably a few of these kilos are fat.

The last year, work as been sedentary despite the standing desk (I had a problem with not using that desk extensively).

I think BMI is one of those global factors that contribute overall to many other things so I will look into it.

ERE Confucian progression

Every now and again we contribute to various things to do with less fortunate relatives. Can someone please point me to good threads on ERE1 and financial help to relatives. I am more interested in constructive threads that would help to place oneself in the wider framework of helping others. I know there are some threads about cutting oneself off of individuals who are sucking out life energy and I am not interested in those threads.

In other words, something more easily digestible than moral and political philosophers which I would otherwise go to but this would be to dense and not fit for purpose.

Thank you!

[guitarplayer]

2023 update 49/52

Apples and food

Those apples we got on 11 Nov, yesterday we had the last one. The variety was Spartan, and they were excellent and juicy right after being picked up, turning more 'potatoey' as they got older. But all managed well, just sitting on the counter, in a box padded with a towel.

I am thinking, this is a unique (nowadays, for urbanites) experience to be able to see how taste and texture of produce changes as it ages after being collected. Makes me think how I would experience potatoes as they age. Heaps of people would know, all the farmers who would collect their potatoes in September and then keep them in their cellar until next spring.

On the food front, I keep on doing lots of Olio, people write to me when they have a lot of fruit and veg. I have been pondering scavenging a chest freezer because there is just so much food going to the bin, but then I think this is greed because the flow is strong so there is no point hamstering anything at the moment (in contrast to having a regular harvest in Autumn where it does make sense). How much food could fit into a chest freezer I wonder, one month's worth? Not sure if I could justify chest freezer with this sort of contingency, given that this would be low calorific and mostly health related rather than survival related.

The app does a rough calculation of 'my impact' and there I read that DW and I have a total of $6,250 in just over a year, or about $500 a month. Quite like a part time job, this. Also, quite a high food bill if we were to buy this stuff on our own (we buy spices, nuts and seeds, grains and legumes separately). I can't be bothered to take pictures anymore, but at the moment we have things such as pineapples, mangoes, watermelons, tangerines, bananas, apples, swedes, carrots, mushrooms, brussel sprouts, vegan burgers, vegan 'bangers' (it's a type of sausage apparently), falafels, lots and lots of microgreens, peppers, mangetouts, sweet corn, dried sea weed, stir fry mixes, broccoli, cauliflower, sourdough bread, I ran out of steam.

I got DW some vegan gluten free British mince pies for a charity event to do with Cancer Research.

Separately, we got in touch with a nearby community centre to see if we can do something together.

Water

We scavenged a thermos of the brand Thermos (the original thing?). DW says it is the second best brand currently. It holds kettle full of water, we use it extensively.

Job

062/260 weeks in.

I am waiting to hear about my job application.

I think this was good to me to post on Job and Studies in the previous academic year, but I have little need for this now.

Holidays

Will be away to mainland Europe for three weeks across December and January.

Exercise

Got back to doing burpees first thing in the morning after a tall glass of water instead of mid day, then cold bath (like jumping into a lake). It sets the tone for the day nicely.

Thanks for reading.

[guitarplayer]

Apologies to all, I took a little break from blogging. What's happening?

Overall I consider to be in a sort of moratorium before the next thing (that might never arrive, mind you). Most notably looking to resolve within the next year and a bit the following

- pay off the loan we have without a penalty
- get UK passports
- get two or three years living expenses cash on bank accounts. Think now we oscillate around 0.5-1 years.
-- the point above is linked to the first point
---after paying off that loan we should be again spending very little
---and have a paid off flat in a big UK city
- finish the data science programme I am now doing
- lock-in on a pension I am accruing as I will pass 2 years at where I work now
- lock-in on minimum UK social security as 10 years of contributions clocked in

I took the axes from the ere book and did a Rorschach test like exercise to write stuff. Some of the bullets might not correspond well to categories.

Physiological

- doing 201 burpees everyday. I do triplets back-right-left when doing the backwards jump. Also rotating arms in four directions of the world in 51-51-51-48 proportions.
- I also run a loop around a local park daily
- adventuring on a bike to get food in the evenings, too
- last night I checked any my resting heart rate after all the hustle of the day is 50
- doing moon salutations to recover from a near injury when I was trying to do a split
- DW wants to be able to do a pullup
- restarted donating blood and wanting to donate plasma, I will query in April
- intermittent fasting
- growing hair and beard the last two months
- chromatic exercises for guitar playing and voice

Intellectual

- learning software development in the context of data science
- learning optimisation in python
- not learning much about economics because
-- learning the previous two will boost this household's economy

Economic

- waiting for decision on if I get promotion
- waiting for summer 2025 when I am not in debt anymore
- applying some prudent regular financial planning like
-- building inflation linked pension
-- DW using a salary sacrifice scheme to get as much money as possible to a retirement fund
-- DW buying her company's shares at 50% discount (with some strings attached)
- getting emergency fund replenished after contributing a chunk to MIL's healthcare costs

Emotional

- still in love with DW
- enthusiastic, if occasionally overwhelmed, by work
- figured my dad who's a few years into retirement starts reminding me of his mum
- continue daydreaming about lots of stuff

Social

- are going to attend a family event in May and do some wild camping
- are going to the EuropeanEREfest all being well
- DW got engaged in raising money for a charity
- DW is going to spend three months in the last quarter of the year working for her company in Spain
-- I am going to arrange working from abroad thing for one month at my work
-- we are going to take holidays when we are in Spain

Technical

- I need to put a new chain on my bike

Ecological

- got even more plants to the flat
- still scavenging lots of food

Spiritual

- wondering what is a good system for sorting books into a reading queue. What is yours?

[delay]

Thanks for your journal!

- DW wants to be able to do a pullup
...
- intermittent fasting
...
-- DW using a salary sacrifice scheme to get as much money as possible to a retirement fund
...
- DW is going to spend three months in the last quarter of the year working for her company in Spain
-- I am going to arrange working from abroad thing for one month at my work
-- we are going to take holidays when we are in Spain
...
- wondering what is a good system for sorting books into a reading queue. What is yours?

After practicing pushups for 5 months I can now do 10 in a row! Hoping to learn pullups next. I've bought a bar that I can attach to a door frame.

Intermittent fasting is working great for me. I hope it works as well for you!

Some care is advised when you sink money into retirement funds. What are the restrictions for withdrawing? In The Netherlands, payout from retirement funds must be done through an annuity, with restrictions on starting age (68) and the minimum duration of the annuity (20+ years.)

Since I have an active dislike to sticking to a plan for the plan's sake, I do not order my books into a queue. They're in one big pile which I scan when deciding what to read next. Currently reading the Brother Cadfael series for relaxation and The Intelligent Investor for skills.

Enjoy a blessed holiday month in Spain! Sounds awesome, congratulations!

[guitarplayer]

I also don't like sticking to a plan for the plan's sake. Ideally I would have one big pile of plans which I then scan when deciding what plan to stick to next. Currently somewhat unexpectedly I am following a career and reading stuff roundabout this, with some ventures further afield. Oh hang on, maybe I have just developed a good system for sorting books into a reading queue. Thanks @delay!

Yeh I am happy about that Spanish adventure.

Extra update:

Things are rolling, got good news from the Home office and all being well will be applying for British passports in April!

ETA: to balance the above out, I did not get promotion.

[guitarplayer]

Hi everyone.

Finally, writing to you from Ubuntu. For many a reader this will be a very uneventful thing to read about, but it marks some transition in the guitarplayer HQ.

Being recently (unexpectedly by everyone) passed over for promotion in my kinda numerical career made me reconsider the path I am on. I am now doubling down on going technical since this is where my strengths are. Lots of support on the forum to do with it as well. Obviously I am not your person who started coding at the age of six to ten, (other than coding that game about the sheep, wolf and cabbage getting on a barge to travel across a river, all in one piece. In Basic on Commodore 64 - the code came out in Bajtek, @zbigi maybe knows). But from looking around me, I can do the job I see the technical guys doing. I am aiming at data engineering with potential failure modes of something around data scientist or software developer. There is one post I now see and I might give it a shot. I passed applying for two interesting posts thinking that I would get the one I never got which is sad. Then again, the whole project is on the big plus. Got my foot in the door, am coding daily, started another 'life'.

On a different note, some good news from DW is that insofar her Spanish adventure was meant to be set at the capital, now an option emerges to maybe have this in the Basque Country. DW would prefer this, for the mushrooms as it is autumn time. I am not sure as September to December, it will be rainy probably. But sure warmer than Scotland, and Basque country can be reached by ferry from the UK, so that's a nice one. They say it's a bit Celtic up (down?) there.

ETA: Also, Ubuntu 22.04 has the Red Alert game! Man, I might sink some time playing this. DW was a gamer in the past too, hmm.

[delay]

Thanks for your update! When I used Ubuntu for a few months last year it could run very recent games. Linux on the desktop has really grown up.

I am now doubling down on going technical since this is where my strengths are.

In my experience, the higher up you get, the less technical people are. And within the group of older employees a smaller portion is technical. It's the path I'm on myself, but it may not be the optimal path to promotion.

[guitarplayer]

Yep I get what you mean @delay. I thought that there was still some room to up one or two levels in what I do now mostly through technical development, but it looks like it perhaps is not the case anymore. Though it might have equally been a wide range of other factors, there's only so much under one's control. I am happy to try traversing to a more technical job, will keep eyes open.

[zbigi]

(other than coding that game about the sheep, wolf and cabbage getting on a barge to travel across a river, all in one piece. In Basic on Commodore 64 - the code came out in Bajtek, @zbigi maybe knows).

Oh yeah, definitely, "Bajtek" was my entrance to the computing world too! In elementary school, I was collecting all available magazines - "Bajtek", "C64&A", "Magazyn Amiga", "Amigowiec" (and probably others I forgot), and obsesively re-reading the articles. That was way before Internet, so it was the only available source of knowledge, apart from some sparsely available books.

But from looking around me, I can do the job I see the technical guys doing. I am aiming at data engineering with potential failure modes of something around data scientist or software developer.

Having done data engineering for about 5 years, my opinion is that it's thoroghly meh - because you're expected to cobble together a data pipelne out of a ton of different small tools, services and programs/scripts. There's no type-checking or almost any other kind of guarantees between the steps in the pipeline, often no easy way to test-run the pipeline. There are dozens of alternative tools for each task in the pipeline (generally, the easier something is, the more open source solutions emerge), so you'll be switching tools often, with no room to gain mastery with any of it. Overall, it's not very satisfying, and feels more similar to DevOps than to coding. DE can be a good stepping stone to some more interesting jobs though.

[guitarplayer]

Yep definitely a stepping stone @zbigi. Remember I worked in social care two years back.

I just know I am bright and have a knack for logical thinking, so let’s see where this gets me.

[guitarplayer]

Hi all

Things are okay here, days are getting longer.

I am having a hard time reconciling not getting the promotion, some old part of brain playing up. I am trying to think how to fuel the energy that comes from it.

I have read the Fifth Discipline recently and am now reading the ERE book.

[Western Red Cedar]

I am having a hard time reconciling not getting the promotion, some old part of brain playing up. I am trying to think how to fuel the energy that comes from it.

In my experience, avoiding these promotions can be a blessing in disguise. I tend to lean hyper-rational, but DW has helped me accept that some of the most important parts of life play out how they are supposed to. Especially when it comes to our professional lives and careers.

What would the stoics have to say about it? The obstacle is the way....

Keep on truckin' and count your blessings.

[delay]

Thanks for your update! I'm also enjoying the longer days. I love how the sun feels warmer every day.

I am having a hard time reconciling not getting the promotion, some old part of brain playing up. I am trying to think how to fuel the energy that comes from it.

Employers like to dangle carrots in front of employees. A promotion, a car from work, a trip to a congress and so on. Reward motivation works much better if the reward is not guarantueed, or even random, and that's what it evolved to.

So, don't get mesmerized by a single carrot. There are many carrots and many ways to get to them.

[guitarplayer]

Thanks @WRC and @delay, I appreciate you are helping me get through this. @WRC, the stoics could say many things, one of them being to take the view from above - this is partly why I picked up the ERE book. If 'Overshoot' provides societal view from above, 'ERE' provides personal view from above. @delay, I am aware of Skinner's work on conditioning, I fell into the trap for couple reasons.

Now that I gave it assent I need to give time to let it go, though I might try to use the energy somehow.

Again, thanks for your thoughts !

[dara]

In my experience, avoiding these promotions can be a blessing in disguise. I tend to lean hyper-rational, but DW has helped me accept that some of the most important parts of life play out how they are supposed to. Especially when it comes to our professional lives and careers.

What would the stoics have to say about it? The obstacle is the way....

Keep on truckin' and count your blessings.

I second this. I don't have any first-hand experience regarding promotions at work but someone very close to me recently had to quit a job she very much liked. She was very disappointed about having to do this but a few months later a sort-of dream job appeared that she couldn't have got had she stayed in her old one. Life has strange ways sometimes and what we think is a negative event might lead to something better further down the line.

Reminds me of this story:
https://youtu.be/sWd6fNVZ20o?si=q2xWLR3c2WtEFvnW

So don't despair. Plenty of fish in the sea.

[guitarplayer]

Yep DW is a gem in this regard.

I think I am more or less over it now, which it actually did not take that long, a week and a bit.

Though still, I appreciate all's pats on the back.

@dara nice video thank you, I will show it to DW.

[mountainFrugal]

I think I am more or less over it now, which it actually did not take that long, a week and a bit.

The promise of stocism is that we will always be given chances to practice because we are human.