2022 update 26/52
Job
I got a confirmation of the offer for the assistant statistician role! This is the biggest news this week, so I stick it in first. I have been initially assigned to deal with matters to do with national economics, which I will continue for about two years unless I will get a promotion before that (not unrealistic). I am chuffed and really look forward to the start date (TBC). Also, started to get ready already, reading various white and working papers on the subject.
With this, I conclude that I will likely be dropping my striving for the unit manager post at where I work now. Tomorrow will have a supervision with my current line manager so will discuss the matter.
Holidays
There is an unexpected follow up to our holidaying adventures. DW won two tickets for a Michael Buble's concert in England. None of us is a fan of Michael Buble, and for me it was perhaps the first time hearing the name. Also, travel to the site seemed a bit of a headache and time consuming. We both agreed that if not for the won tickets, none of us would consider going to the concert. However, DW seemed hooked on going (sunken cost fallacy? wow factor of attending a concert of a famous singer? showing her affection to me in inviting me?). Anyway, I said that I would go along if she had decided to go and invited me.
So, I got an invite and we went for the concert. That guy is a good musician and more importantly a good performer! A bit of a comedian, not treating himself too seriously. We had a good time. I liked the music too, as he sang quite a few songs from the Great American Songbook.
The round trip was 25h, including the concert itself and half a night spent waiting for the bus back home, getting familiar with the homeless people community in the city the bus was departing from, hah. The bus turned out to be 2.5h late as well. Luckily, I happened to read 'On the Shortness of Life' so made no fuss about it and supported DW who was slowly losing it.
Got back home this morning and just had a late morning 2h nap, now typing away here. It will be an experience to remember, for sure!
It costed about $100 total for two people. I want to tally up holiday expenditure and will include this sum in the earlier holiday total, I think.
Reading
I continue with Seneca, read 'On the Tranquillity of the Mind' and 'On the Shortness of Life'. Reading now 'Consolation to Helvia'. I am curious about the upcoming 'Natural Questions, Book 6: On Earthquakes’ that is coming after 'On Mercy'.
On Pigliucci's 'Handbook for new stoics':
Week 24: Premeditate on Encountering Difficult People - I did re-read a synopsis of Cipolla's essay and reflected on his categories. 'Acting stupid' is acting non-rationally and in this sense non-intelligently, or randomly. 'Stupid' can be found in each stratum of society when people choose to engage in activities where they lack intellectual apparatus to act rationally. One way of looking at the dimensions he proposes is the 'think' (harm/benefit to self) and 'feel' (harm/benefit to society or moral sentiment) where 'do' is an instantiation of the combination.
This coming week I will do:
Week 25: Deal virtuously with frustrating people (Have not read the chapter yet, but a wild guess - I might have managed it when joking with the bus driver after he's arrived 2.5h late, instead of getting cross with him)
ETA: Pigliucci and Lopez give this long list based on Marcus Aurelius, I am adding it in the journal here
Pigliucci and Lopez wrote:
1. We are all members of the human population, here to help each other.
2. Ask yourself why people do what they do, especially when they do wrong. Understanding their motivations goes a long way.
3. Nobody does wrong on purpose; no one wishes to be considered a bad person. People make mistakes, sometimes horrible ones, but they think they are doing right.
4. Don’t feel superior to others; you are just as fallible as they are.
5. Remember that you often don’t have sufficient knowledge of other people’s motivations or situations, so abstain from judgment.
6. Keep in mind that you are mortal, and that human life is brief. Whatever bothers you, it will not last long.
7. What causes us to lose serenity is not what other people do, but our opinions of what they do, and our opinions are within our power.
8. Often, by being sore about things, we cause more damage to ourselves than those things caused damage to us.
9. Do your best to correct others, but gently and without irony, and for the right reason, not just to show off.
10. Don’t expect people not to do wrong, because that is foolish. But do not allow them to hurt others, if it is in your power to stop them, because that’s your duty as a human being.
They say to choose three that resonate most and incorporate in the week. I find it hard to disentangle the ten points though.
Week 26: Turn Difficulties into opportunities.
ETA: reframing challenging situations (1) rationally: how the best case scenario will turn me into a better person? the worst case scenario? why bother doing it at all?; (2) emotive: find encouraging words, eg the British 'keep calm and carry on', Seneca's 'it doesn't matter what you bear, but how you bear it'.
Maths and Stats
I started learning about graphs (as you have gathered from my earlier post). Fascinating stuff, like learning how to speak yet again, in yet another language. I will likely wrap up the available material by the end of the month.
A kind forumite offered their mentoring in learning R, so I am dropping the idea of doing the Coursera course and will do (for starters, likely starting in August) some of
https://software-carpentry.org/lessons/ - for intro to R and Unix,
https://r4ds.had.co.nz/ - for R in Data Science.
I have two other statistics modules that I will be reviewing after that and before the beginning of October.
Gardening
Strawberries are here! And tons of them, we will be freezing many. Raspberries ready soon.
Purple sprouting broccoli has a great combination of characteristics:
* One of few veggies that will be ready spring time after winter frosts,
* Harvesting it every few days feels like foraging,
* Cruciferous / brassica - this food is good for you,
* Tastes deceptively sweet and delicious raw, just snap a sprout!
Radishes are poorly this year. Carrots are growing fine.
There are rats in the communal compost. Yet another argument for a whole food plant-based diet and generally not wasting food - rats are not interested in fruit and veg peals, but they love meat and fish bits, fatty food residue, processed grain such as old mouldy bread stuck in the compost etc. Also, perfectly good cooked leftover foods such as veggies and grains, morning porridge leftovers etc. Feast for rats in the compost? Make it a feast for yourself on the table!
Health
I will look forward to some downtime next week or two after lots of travelling and variable sleeping pattern. But generally fine. By the way we were setting a diet example for our family when visiting them, they now eat more whole food plant based. This is good, two family members are overweight/bordering obese, so might play out to their benefit (and our benefit down the line as one of them is an elderly person we will likely end up caring for in some capacity).
My dad is retiring in a few months with a relatively nice defined benefit person as I have learned; He is now determined to live a very long life to rake as much retirement as possible, ha! This is not out of the blue, he lost perhaps 20-30lb in the last year or two; he might just make it how he wants it. Some correlates are in place, still married to his first wife and seemingly happily so, daily movement in the form of a ¬1h walk, got hold of his weight, regular medical check-ups. We will wait and see.
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The takeaway message is that things are going well; I cherish the moment while it lasts (even standing in the cold for half a night waiting for a bus with grumpy homeless folk around) and embarking on a new journey (statistician) in a true ERE style (if I may)!
Thanks for stopping by!