guitar player's journal

[delay]

(it was so bad that many users preferred to send each other Excel files, instead of entering data into the system)

Thanks for sharing your experience! That sums up many corporate systems. I remember being invited to a finance department for a demonstration of their IT excellence. Their talk left me baffled and I thought their systems couldn't possibly work. As it turns out, the IT systems were unused, and actual billing was done by employees with Excel sheets. The IT people got paid more than the Excel people, and the IT architects seemed entirely serious when discussing their fictional billing system. You couldn't make it up.

[guitarplayer]

2024 update 14/52

Dangerous ideas

I have kind of read this book:

Greager's "Debt: The First 5,000 Years",

though admittedly after getting to the actual history of money as laid out by the author (which I think starts at chapter 7), I got through Mesopotamia and then jumped through to 1971-present.

Sometimes I like to read deconstructions, although like in the heading I have to really watch out to get myself back to a reasonable composure afterwards because I have a very bendy mind.

If too much stretching is no good for weight lifting, too much deconstruction is no good for participating in mainstream living.

'Why to participate in mainstream living?' you may ask. Well, so do I ask this question after the deconstruction exercise. I trust my past self chose it for the time being for reasonably good reasons.

Music

I am now doing random records of me singing on my iPhone inspired by @gnj's comments. Man I am crap at singing sometimes (thought sometimes it is passable). I do enjoy singing though so aim to get better. A big initial hurdle I imagine many face is to get used to listening to one's voice outside of one's skull so I am working on it along the lines of Albert Ellis.

Outdoors

We went for an Easter walk to Kelvingrove on Sunday. I didn't go running to Loch Lomond, had been reading that book from up above instead.

Raised bed and tools and bikes

So, we got the raised bed!

Nice, we'll hopefully meet like-minded folk there as well. The spot is next to the park where I go running everyday. There's a bonfire in two weeks. The charity has a 25 year lease on a building in the area turning it into a community centre, who knows maybe this will turn into something personally worthwhile.

Job

Whilst waiting to see how it goes with that orthogonal promotion I last mentioned, I see that the organisation is doing a broad employment for this job with nearly 100 posts available - I am going for it!

Studying / Maths

Nearly done with my last assignment. I still feel I owe this subject (Mathematics at large) more attention, too much skimming the surface the last year and a half. In particular, this module I am doing now is a brand new one and the amount of 'we state this without proof' makes my heart sink. I did get to practice quite a bit of Python though.

For the last assignment, I will be choosing between Integer programming and Simulations of the Ising model.

DW signed up for how a Cybersecurity module starting in Feb 2025 and got funding for it.

This is actually a Scottish curiosity, is that if your employer offers salary sacrifice for pension contributions, then effectively your gross salary becomes smaller (and all of the 'sacrificed' salary, including social security contributions and tax goes to your pot), and you are eligible for funding of your studies. So now, even though DW works a 'professional' job and earns something around median salary, after the sacrifice she gets funding for the degree. Needles to say this is kind of ERE enabled because effectively net income is less, but it is actually a lot because it pans out something like $1,500 a month of the salary that lands on DW's account. I wish I had this, but then again my employer funds my extra studies as it is now so no worries.

So anyway, DW says she will do that module and then one in Sep 2025 and a final one in Feb 2026 and then will wrap up the degree in June 2026.

Citizenship(s) / International

We are now both dual citizens with (soon) passports of three countries in the household!

[mountainFrugal]

Raised beds are the way to go if you can. The depth of the soil means you have to water it less. It is off the ground enough to avoid bunnies. Easier on your back. All of the successful gardeners where we live have full sun raised bed gardens with a drip irrigation system. The drip irrigation is not required, but it does allow you to be very specific with when and how much water gets applied.

[zbigi]

Nearly done with my last assignment. I still feel I owe this subject (Mathematics at large) more attention, too much skimming the surface the last year and a half. In particular, this module I am doing now is a brand new one and the amount of 'we state this without proof' makes my heart sink. I did get to practice quite a bit of Python though.

In my experience, the math used to solve some very practical engineering problems, such as Fourier Transforms or Lie Algebras, rely on so much advanced math that even a 4-year Bsc in Maths might not cover those. So, when doing real-life work, "believing without proofs" is usually the norm, unless you're the kind of person who really likes to spend years studying pure maths.

[guitarplayer]

@mF, in the UK also other than bunnies, and maybe predominantly, slugs.

Super fortunate we got that raised bed. Other than what you have mentioned, it is small in dimension compared to a plot one can get at an allotment site so easy to maintain. I am already thinking chatting up other growers to establish some veggie swaps. At the moment I worked out veggie and fruit waste stream in the city so don't need to grow much, it will be much more for things revolving around this gardening project. For example, DW and I built quite some of our planet doing gardening so rekindling this is going to be a big bonus. People who are into gardening (even more so if they are working age) tend to be interesting. I am getting ready for serendipity to take its course. Then again, it might be a fiasco, this is always on the menu.

@zbigi, for sure I am in it for the beauty! I think even in terms of applied maths, theoretical underpinnings can be beautiful. In this sense, the job I am doing now is a side product of this original pursuit and I am on the verge of being annoyed sometimes that I am detracted from it. That said overall I still head in the direction I want to head as things are now.

[JollyScot]

How are you finding being outside the university system again. I am half considering picking up maths again now that we are free to do whatever. I vaguely remember enjoying the actual problem solving and kinda think warping it into the need for a job ruined it.

Mainly because I could do it now without having to worry about the other academic stuff that people complain about.

I missed going through your journal that you got a 1st for your degree. Congrats. Pomodoro techinique is great and got me through my Actuarial nonsense.

I got a 2:1 in my degree because I had one course I had an absolute disaster with. The way the grading worked at the time you needed out of the 16 courses.

10 x 1st
6 x 2:1

Plus an overall percentage above a certain amount, not sure how it works now. Thought about appealing at the time then got a job and didn't care anymore. As you can see over a decade later I am still miffed about it.

[guitarplayer]

I am still doing a module actually, this time in applied maths so keep my foot in the door. The first year in this new job was great (though I had still been doing the last year of uni coursework then) - learning coding basically. But I think now I am hitting something you have once mentioned which is seeing more clearly red tape and processes that make little sense. See it because I am not that busy with learning coding (and wrapping up uni) anymore, so see the process more clearly.

So I am trying to extend the life of this job by trying to switch to operational research now as this is more applied maths geared. No doubt though this will wear off soon, too. Next in line perhaps there would be approaching something more data science, or like mentioned previously (eventually international school?) teaching. Maybe a break somewhere in between.

We are far from your (potential) income levels @jollyscot, but after we pay off the flat this summer with our median incomes and low expenses we should be squirreling away around 80% income and this to add to already non-insignificant (though not FI level) savings. I really look forward to being debt free again. First time ever I am in debt these last few month, other than arguably owing my life to parents and probably some favours to friends.

Yeah thanks, I got distinctions in all my courses actually, and I think due to the status of OU being distance learning university, this meant scoring over 85% in all these modules. I was briefly in touch with one professor trying to get into a project working on graphs but yes got distracted with work.

I mentioned to my brother the other day I suffer from chronic open mindedness. I think this is what gives me a leg up in scoring well at maths and equally is a handicap getting promoted at corporate jobs. Yesterday I told DW I am too old for maths PhD but she laughed and said this is untrue.

[JollyScot]

Yeah working gets annoying after a while when you see how much time is wasted on things. Then if you think too hard on how pointless your job is in the grand scheme of things it can get even more annoying sitting faffing about at it. You are probably on the same income trajectory as me when starting out. Just need to jump about making sure the change moves you up either income wise or responsibility wise.

Unfortunatly people don't get paid what they are worth, rather within a range of what the last person paid. So staying still very rarely works out with the exception of a few specific circumstances. I did not ever get a promotion in my career so don't worry too much about that treadmil. Just fix peoples problems and move about a bit and you will make plenty. Will be up at the 95% saving rate soon.

Agree on the debt, although conceptually I understood having a 2% mortgage when markets go up lots more makes great sense. I didn't like the added cashflow requirement of dealing with it. Even though it is a bad choice from a numbers perspective I am fine with it. Having a smaller but paid off place is great for peace of mind. Other than outright confiscation or them putting council tax up but an order of magnitude (too many people it would impact so doubt it) then there is very little anyone can do to my detriment beyond a general collapse of everything. Maybe building a dump next door, area has some fancy houses so they usually don't sign off bad things near themselves.

I wouldn't mind getting a maths PhD and nice 3-5 year challenge. Guess it depends on if you were doing it to be a research superstar (probably too late) or because you find it interesting (would be fine). There was a 83 year old who did a degree at the same time as me when I was at univerity. He was great, did not take any nonsense from the professors.

[guitarplayer]

Well looks like I am going to make an orthogonal jump up after all, into dabbling with optimisation and mathematical models like mentioned above. just got a ring from my manager. Onwards and upwards for a wee while longer then.

[guitarplayer]

2024 update 15/52

Dangerous ideas put back on the shelf

I have returned Greager's "Debt: The First 5,000 Years" back to the library. Need a bit of a break before I try to tackle 'bullshit jobs'.

Familiar ideas revisited

I note that Monevator refreshed @jacob's article from 14 years ago.

Household inequalities

Also, a Monevator article I had as my morning read on intra-generational inequality regarding household wealth stemming from intergenerational wealth being handed over as gifts for deposit for houses, this refers to an FT article.

Thinking of it, when we sealed the deal on buying our place last year, I shared this with my parents and remember they acted being caught off guard and almost apologetic on not helping with the deposit (which we didn't need any help with that). Guess some of the atavistic tendencies I have just written off long ago - though interesting to observe as this will likely be my attitude if I ever have kids. I am sure my parents are keeping some loose score of how much they have helped each of the three children they have. Unsure, but suspect, that my two siblings are also keeping some score if it. I just can't be bothered.

Studentship goodies

I have a good system for these: my employer pays for an applied maths module I am doing with the Open University and this unlocks my student status which gives me access to FT articles through FT student subscription.

Separately, I also have GitHub co-pilot through the same.

I hope to pick up another module this Autumn, it is great the clever ways one can move forward in the world. Happy for anyone to have a laugh at how I am counting pennies and likely foregoing pounds somewhere.

Music

I started recording some of the stuff I just play without much structure in an effort to give it more structure. It does work a bit - the fact of putting down some of the music onto a recorded track makes me ruminate on the recorded rhythms and melodies more. Maybe a way to distill some recognizable tunes from all the playing I do.

Raised bed

So yes, we got the raised bed. I consider it an 'add an egg to your magic cake powder and mix to become a househusband baking great cakes' situation.

It is 4sqm, we will be growing broadbeans, peas and maybe some beets. It will be nice to hang about there with DW.

Job

I have been very busy dealing with very tricky data linkages but found my way through it.

Next month, the idea is that I will move to be building machine learning models for fraud and error detection, and for more money.

Studying / Maths

For the last assignment, I will be writing on Integer programming. Politically correct, the book talks about 'traveling salesperson problem' - but they anyway managed to keep 'salesman' on one or two occasions.

There is also scheduling problem and mining problem which I recon are both classic problems to exercise on.

[delay]

For the last assignment, I will be writing on Integer programming. Politically correct, the book talks about 'traveling salesperson problem' - but they anyway managed to keep 'salesman' on one or two occasions.

Thanks for your journal update! I remember exercises with the traveling salesman problem. We were using Dijkstra's Algorithm to solve it. I think it's impossible to find an optimal solution for a larger graph even today. One had to prioritize certain paths and stop after a certain amount of iteration.

[guitarplayer]

it. I think it's impossible to find an optimal solution for a larger graph even today. One had to prioritize certain paths and stop after a certain amount of iteration.

That’s true - the allure of unchartered territories.

I covered this and some other good problems last year when learning about graphs and networks, the field is fascinating.

[guitarplayer]

2024 update 16/52

'free'

Dan Ariely has one chapter in 'predictably irrational' (or the other of his first two bestsellers) about how people's decisions change significantly when the choice architecture is tweaked so that from a range of things to choose, an item that used to cost very little (say 1 cent) is tweaked to cost nothing (it is free!).

A curious phenomenon. I get that all the time when I cycle around the city scavenging food. The slippery slope works its way. Tonight, ended up with 5 vegan sausage rolls (hey, they are vegan after all) and four brown baguettes (hey, they are brown after all, and I even see some rye berries in the bread). Carmelised carrots, eggplant and cherry tomatoes with feta cheese also suddenly become 'just a salad, and feta cheese - will just pick the cheese out and put in the compost' (I did pick it out - though obviously you'll get an odd microscopic piece that remains in the dish).

So yeah, first world problems. I cheer myself up remarking that I go cycling to get all the food, and vast majority of what I get is fruit and veg.

job

[redacted to change wording]

Looks like I am going to be moving to another team on a higher position. Got there with a slightly unusual process to speed things up, and due to the fact that (as @avalok below pointed out) there’s no established fast streaming process for promotions of people who are thought to fit posts real well.

Separately, I barely made it on time with the piece I am wrapping up next week. It has been a bit of a wild ride but at the end of the day turned out a decent piece of analysis and everyone seems happy (which the two don't always go hand in hand).

passports

All the passports are back with us. I feel a bit sentimental about getting the UK passports. DW and I met in Scotland, we had probably seen more of the country than at least 90% of people living here.

flat flooding

A few days back I was leaving for a morning run and heard water flowing somewhere in the flat. Turned out there had been heaps of water flowing into the cupboard underneath the kitchen sink. I shut the mains, meanwhile the downstairs neighbour knocked at my door to let me know they had a leaky ceiling in the kitchen. Yayks!

Upon investigation, turned out that the thread of the breaded cold water hose that connects with the tap had worn off and slipped out of the underneath of the tap. I did quick research on youtube on how to replace it. Needed a new hose and an adjustable spanner. Looked up the industrial estate we about a mile away and went for a run to get a couple of these hoses for about $7-8. Went to the neighbour downstairs to borrow an adjustable wrench. Then swapped the hose - problem fixed.

I still feel bad for the neighbours, but really not much we could do. Got them a bottle of prosecco to accompany returning the wrench. Happy with the fix though, and with not needing to call a plumber, they would probably take at least an order of magnitude more for the job.

It took about three hours from 6am to 9am between discovering it and getting it done and dusted, even managed to go to work okay. I found the experience very eresque.

bicycle - replacing casette and chainset

If my bicycle could talk, it would probably curse me. I do little of regular maintenance and really try to wear things off before fixing anything. Like, in the past the rim of my wheel would tear under the pressure of inner tube, because the rim would be so thin from using breaks.

This time it is finally time to replace casette and chainset I think. I think it because I had a skipping chain when pedaling, so I replaced the chain (in the past this would fix the issue) but I continue getting the skipping even with the new one.

Fair enough, the bike (and so the casette and chainset) is now something like 8 years old. I ordered the parts on ebay for around $50 and will be looking to replace them soonish. Maybe can think of it as buisness overhead connected to scavenging thousands of pounds worth of food by cycling around the city.

keyboard and mouse shelf

I found on freecycle an attachable pull-out shelf for my keyboard and mouse to attach to the stand up desk I got from work. The person who had been giving away the shelf was the same person I got the IKEA lamp I have clamped to the said desk nearly a year ago. We joked that in a few years I will get all the office setup of the person.

DW checked that a new one would be around $60. I wouldn't buy it but it was for grabs and also it is a sort of thing that I feel I can easily find someone to give it away to. In result of this, there is now more space on the desk to for example set things up for recording music etc.

[avalok]

Congratulations on receiving your passports, and also on the job offer (application). Always a bit silly needing to do stuff like that, but if the organization does not have a process to bypass the usual steps, it must be done. I think there should always be a fast-track process to keep valuable people around.

[guitarplayer]

Thanks @avalok!

On the process, yes agree. Think I’ll redact these paragraphs slightly, to put it less explicitly and more like you put it.

ETA: there, done, feels better.

[guitarplayer]

2024 update 17/52

health

I have added pull-ups to burpees, every 15 burpees I do a pull up.

raised bed

We have planted
* broad beans
* peas (don't remember which ones)
* runner beans
* beets
* lettuces
* rocket
* fennel
* parsley
* chives (transplanted)

bicycle - replacing casette and chainset

I have the parts and will aim to tackle this today.

ETA: got the new cassette on, but need a crank remover for removing the cranks / chain set. I also need a new bottom bracket to go along with the new chain set I found discounted, but will find out its dimensions only after I get the tool. I know it should be 121/123mm total, but not sure about the shell width whether it needs to be 68mm or 73mm.

It is fun figuring this stuff out.

job

I have some idea of what my new job is going to entail and it sounds exciting.

I think I will be able to apply lots of the vernacular from the forum in my job.

Spain

I got an informal okay for going to and working from Spain for a few weeks in Autumn.

I looked up Spanish language certification in Spain but the Cervantes Institute charges around 170/201EUR for a B1 / B2 certificate. No way! I rather do one when I am at ERE fest in Latvia at 85/93 EUR or in the nearby Vilnus for 64 /71 EUR.

Counting pennies, this habit seems not to fade. Good the thinking slow mostly prevents me from getting too lost in counting pennies.

Do I need a DELE certificate of Spanish language skills? Well, this could be a carrot to formalise my learning, if you took me to the test just now I predict I would score A2. Besides, who knows, life as I have it always has certain degree of welcomed unpredictability.

I took applied computational maths last year for other reasons, and now I will be spending chunk of life building models.