mountainFrugal Journal

Where are you and where are you going?
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mountainFrugal
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Re: mountainFrugal Journal

Post by mountainFrugal »

mooretrees wrote:
Thu Feb 02, 2023 5:01 pm
I am SO proud of your socializing efforts!

I was a little confused about one of your notes. Did you take your previous sketches from this journal and made them into separate pieces that can be used independently? If so, that's totally neat. You are making your own database of images! And the idea is (if I have this right) that you can easily pull together a new piece without having to draw every single part of the image?
Thanks! Your initial social coaching really helped to get the ball rolling to learn how to put myself out there more.

Butter and fresh ground black pepper on the handmade pasta was my favorite.

Your description is close. I have reused only a few sketches (e.g. my groundhog self portrait) only a handful of times. I make each monthly review sketchnote new to get more reps in. I do not use any of the forum art for any other projects. I might pull all the monthly reviews together eventually into a collection, but that is a longer term project. For other non-forum projects, I am sort of making a database of base images that can be combined. There are not really any rules for how Zines are made, so the idea is that I do an illustration that is used as a header for a blog post, cropped and repurposed for social media (as I ramp that up), then used for the Zine with accompanying text. Popular Zines might have popular images. Those can be used for making prints. If I have a step or two in there that is physical creation (pencils/inks) as opposed to digital only, those become non-digital artifacts that could also be sold as originals. The drawing process can also be easily filmed with my phone, sped up, and I can add a voice layer to explain my thinking process over it. This can also be shared. After a while the illustrations can be combined into a collection for some other purpose. I no longer view it as one-off art. It is art that has a lifecycle and interacts with all the other pieces of art through time.

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mountainFrugal
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Re: mountainFrugal Journal

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Mid-Month Update-
I have been cultivating an attitude this past year of asking for help. This may not sound revolutionary, but it is for my individualist personality. It was a blind spot that surfaced through deep Plotkin work. I started with a few small things (helping to find/sift information) to asking for medium sized chunks of people's time to think through something complex. Now in my half-time role, technically I am fine, but I need to ask where stuff is (data, information etc.) or who to talk to all the time. People are especially likely to help if you have already done some of the leg work on your own rather than just asking to be told the answer. At first I felt surprisingly vulnerable because "rugged individual" and not wanting to incur any "social debt" to anyone. Now I see this as a way to form bonds with people, especially as my interests widen and my projects become more social.

Add: This attitude has been especially helpful for art critiques and has been an unexpected benefit of the ProkoYo! art MMG.

AnalyticalEngine
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Re: mountainFrugal Journal

Post by AnalyticalEngine »

Good insight on the value of asking for help. That's something I've struggled with too, but I'm starting to see that helping others is something that many people actually like to do. By asking them for help, you give them an opportunity to express their talents and knowledge and strengthen the social connection.

ertyu
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Re: mountainFrugal Journal

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Im reminded of whoever historical figure it was - Ben Franklin? - who realized people start liking you when they do small favors for you, so asking for small favors was actually an explicit strategy to befriend people for him. This efect was actually proven through psychology studies later on

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Re: mountainFrugal Journal

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

@ertyu:

Benjamin Franklin is one of my eNTP role models. What you described is also pretty much my dating strategy. However, with platonic friendships and longer term relationships, it vibes more like “How can we form mutual self-interest partnership?” I tend towards viewing relationships that are just “emotional “ as a waste of my time. But, I have been known to be willing to listen to somebody’s divorce woes if they are buying dinner. If I was a high earner, like AE, I might not even do that.

AnalyticalEngine
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Re: mountainFrugal Journal

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@7W5 - It's funny you mention that because I am in the process of trying to reforge or eliminate all relationships in my life that are founded on mutual or one sided complaining about things like divorces. :lol: I've started calling this trap "fake intimacy" where the entire relationship is founded on mutual or one-sided misery instead of bettering each other, hobbies, business, or shared values.

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Re: mountainFrugal Journal

Post by jacob »

It was Franklin. My spider sense is tingling wrt the strategy of asking favors or questions to build relationships. There may be more going on. For example, people might be flattered or felt needed when the famous Franklin asked them for a favor. Conversely, Franklin himself might not appreciate everybody asking him a favor to increase their chances of landing a job, etc.

I've noticed that beneath the surface of those gregarious people who seem to want to talk and include everyone exists a kind of sorting mechanism that prioritizes who they want to spend time with/on (there are different levels of inclusion after all). That is fine and all but it belies their outward appearances which can therefore be flagged at manipulative or conniving depending on the personality style who is on the receiving end.

Removing a filter preventing one from asking due to not wanting to incur social debt is fine, but asking as a way to build social capital may backfire. It likely comes down to interdependence rather than dependence. If the favor is not somehow returnable, the [developing] relation becomes more dependent than interdependent.

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mountainFrugal
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Re: mountainFrugal Journal

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@ertyu - I was immediately reminded of the Walter Isaacson biography based on your comment. I seem to (mis?)-remember Franklin doing this as a way to win over potential competitors or turn enemies into friends? To be clear this is not what I am doing. Removing the filter is a good way to put it. Thank you for the framing @jacob. My default would be to not ask for help. However, there are instances when asking for help would really push the idea/project/product forward. A few recent examples are borrowing something (e.g. expensive power tool) to do a task or doing the leg work first and then asking for help/critiques from others. I would often NOT do these things to the determent of the final project. I started asking for help on small things because that is a way to build in reps of doing this. However, I do not abuse this by always asking for little things from the same people over and over again. At least in my current role where this comes into play more, I have an area of expertise that my colleagues do not and I would happy to help them, even with small things, if they put in some work on their end ahead of time. I noticed that there could be a faster "bond" formed when asking for feedback on projects/products (posters, art, writing, etc.) because in that exchange there is trust. I am putting myself out there with something I made with the trust that the other person's expert feedback will be constructive, give me angles to think about, and generally improve the project or give me another perspective for the next one. I agree that there is a delicate line there though when asking.

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Re: mountainFrugal Journal

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

Simple example would be if you are one of the 10 church ladies angling for the attractive widower, it's a better tactic to ask him for help with small task you know to be within his realm of competency than to compete with the other church ladies who are all bringing him unsolicited pies and casseroles. Since online dating market is opposite situation/ratio, I have noted that this tactic also works when used on me. For instance, if man I've pretty much decided to never see again texts something like "There's a weird bug in my garden, will you come over and help me figure out the mystery?" I might cave.

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Re: mountainFrugal Journal

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It might come down to intent then? This becomes more apparent over time with more interactions. In both of these examples, you are using the ask to get to some other goal though. This is more clear in the church lady example. Is the intent of the "weird bug" example to see you again to maybe date and using the bug as an excuse? Or is it that the weird bug is eating all of his produce and you are the only expert he knows and would feel comfortable asking without necessarily expecting anything beyond your opinion? Or all of the above?

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Re: mountainFrugal Journal

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

Oh, the intent is clearly to try to lure me back into his circle. However, I would say that intent is not as relevant as level of mutual awareness. It’s humorous to me because I know what he’s up to, and he knows that I know what he’s up to, but there’s still a level on which it “works.” Somebody with a lower level of social playfulness might view such behavior as manipulative, but that’s like calling somebody who knows how to pitch a baseball 6 different ways manipulative.

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@7 Not really my style of game, but I see that it could be fun if all all parties are being playful.

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Re: mountainFrugal Journal

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

@mF:

I am not recommending it as general practice, because there are more humans who feel "hurt" or "disrespected" more strongly than they feel "bored." This is also why society in general does not validate those of us who suffer most from being "bored", because we hold primary Ne. My youngest sister who is also an ENTP, but much more "E" world traveler than "e" library-book/garden-bug-explorer-me, was recently very excited to share with me a nugget from Graeber's book on anthropology, "Guess what! There is evidence that even the earliest humans liked to travel just for the fun of it!"

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Re: mountainFrugal Journal

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Image

An unexpectedly really hectic month with a decent amount of time spent off-line and using online time for hammering on projects.

# WINS
At the start of the month I was finally able to do a long hard effort without coughing post Covid. Yeah for Zone 3 HR workouts! We traded my partner's old exercise watch for some handmade beeswax candles from @mooretrees. We are hoping these candles bring our living room Hygge from a 10 to 11. A major part of the hectic month was I had a science communications proposal accepted. I needed to do some calls, meet some people in person, and generally rearrange my zine making schedule to accommodate. Fortunately, the articles I had planned on producing for the zines are the exact content that I wrote about in the proposal. Nothing changes with my yearly plan, except now I need to take the longer form article versions of the zine content more seriously.

# IMPROVEMENTS
I am really delving into the live sketchnotes as a viable way to make income from art and learn at the same time. One of the self-criticisms of my current live sketchnotes is I have not worked the visual hierarchy muscles enough to do layouts on the fly. Practice, practice, practice. On my road to imagination drawing I am working on rotating relatively simple forms inside of an imaginary box and then drawing them from multiple angles. This is how one gets really good at being able to draw anything from any perspective.

# NEW DIRECTIONS
Minds eye to hand to pencil and back again. A lot of practice to get what I can imagine in detail in my mind onto the page. In theory this is similar to having an object in front of you, but I want to be able to do it while also rotating and maintaining the details. The profession that is really good at this is industrial design. I am working through some design sketching tutorials and exercises from this community. Once the simple forms are mastered, then the sky is the limit. My art buddy and I attended a life drawing session in the next town. Many of the same folks come to the community drink and draw, but we met some new artists as well. 5, 10, 30, and 90 minute poses of the same model in different positions, different clothing, and different lighting. Drawing from life is always way harder than from photos or a screen. $20 for the session hosted 1x per month. A new art expense.


# DRAWING
In my quest for 1000 figures from my imagination I am currently at 490 (including all the figures for the lettering and reporting on this page).

Various drawing stats, but I finished 2 new portfolio pieces that will be used in social media, my blog, into a zine, and potentially prints for sale.

I spent what seemed like an absurd amount of time creating a zine creation plan that also had the exact techniques I would learn/try for both data viz and illustration. However, all the detailed thought came into immediate use once I got the proposal acceptance email. It was easy to slot these new "products" over the next 18 months into the "work" category.

# OUTDOOR ADVENTURE
Various stats illustrated by boxmen 440-446.

# WORK
In working on the proposal last fall I was doing research on various masters in science writing programs. I am not actually interested in more school, but I am interested in just doing the curriculum to build up a portfolio of better than typical blog content, but less time than a full peer reviewed scientific manuscript. The key though is figuring out how to write for more general audience, especially about topics that you may have expertise in, without it sounding like jargon babble. The products I am going to produce as a part of this are listed in the sketchnote. The topics are mainly just extensions of the things I am already interested in and have plans to do the research for zines anyway.

My science communications contract is up at the end of July, 2024. Even if the contract is extended, on August 1, 2024 I am going to try living completely off creative income. This will provide some more hustle on the creative, business, and frugality side of things. I will allow myself to have an emergency fund buffer, but this will consist only of the art/commission income I get between now and then. Tick, tick, tick.

The work section is gradually going to be overtaken as an art business. I pre-sold a poster print! I need to ship it soon. I had a goal to have a zine for sale on an etsy shop. Zine is ready, etsy shop requires bank account info. I need to go to local bank in person to create account. We have gotten hammered by snow this past week so this task is postponed by a few days. (damn you short months!)

I created a file that includes all of the zine fests, trout related shows, and outdoor shows around various US Western Cities. I have the information on where the Native Trout ranges are so I need to integrate the two data sources for travel optimization. This is mainly around coordinating timing of when watersheds are open for fishing with the zine fests. Huge bonus if I can make this line-up with visiting friends or ERE folks in the West. :).


# SOCIAL
We went to a Nordic ski themed wedding. Delightful humans. Delightful skiing conditions. Delightful weekend.

My partner and I discussed where we thought we were on the minimalist vs. maximalist versions of our current life and the one we are building together. This is in-part due to the discussion on the forum about how 20M might or might not change your life thread. We basically decided that it would not really change that much other than spending even more time on creative projects, potentially while living abroad. We have been in the minimalist side (from our perspective) of things for so long that doing the same things in a different country is actually not that interesting. We can just do that now if we really wanted to.

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Re: mountainFrugal Journal

Post by mooretrees »

Fantastic stuff!

I certainly hope we're on the list of places you might visit! I am really digging your push to make money off your art. There's a danger in trying to monetize something you love, but if you're only trying to make a small amount from the work it's less dangerous, imo. Also, the pressure of a deadline for making money that is realistic (2024) is a great way to keep you pushing forward on this area. I've noticed that with my candle business, I don't push super hard as I have my W2 job to pay the bills. I think I would work harder if I knew I had to live on that income. And I might try it someday.

The watch is working out great, thanks again!

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mountainFrugal
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Re: mountainFrugal Journal

Post by mountainFrugal »

mooretrees wrote:
Wed Mar 01, 2023 2:32 pm
I certainly hope we're on the list of places you might visit! There's a danger in trying to monetize something you love, but if you're only trying to make a small amount from the work it's less dangerous, imo. Also, the pressure of a deadline for making money that is realistic (2024) is a great way to keep you pushing forward on this area.
I was bummed our visit in January did not work out because we were stuck home with Covid. :(. But I will make it a point to visit camp mooretrees on my various travels. :)

I have thought a lot about this question. I want this content to exist in the world. I do not need the money. However, it scratches an entrepreneurial itch, it provides a way to optimize taxes more efficiently and if it stops being fun I will just take 6 months and focus on art again like during my 2020 sabbatical. It also forces me to engage with people through art (still a lot to learn here). After planning the art as lifecycle it is not that much more work to post things online for sale, go to a few shows near where I want to do more research for content, and do some freelance work I am stoked about.

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Re: mountainFrugal Journal

Post by AnalyticalEngine »

Looks like a solid month! Exciting to see so much progress on your creative projects. If you did travel abroad, where would you like to go?

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mountainFrugal
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Re: mountainFrugal Journal

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@AE - pre-pandemic we were planning on living in Chile/Argentina for a while. Patagonian wilderness is roughly the size of Texas and California combined. Still on our list, but really happy where we are.

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Re: mountainFrugal Journal

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Image

Image


mF's Free-Dumb-Too Zine: WOG activities that are free (or cheap) and are dumb (use minimal tech) and also provide super stoke. Adding to my 1000 figure number while getting zine reps in.

Print, fold and cut your own following:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBGm85tw_3g

I plan on doing a mini-zine session at ERE-Fest.

Enjoy!

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mountainFrugal
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Re: mountainFrugal Journal

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Image

# WINS
I was invited to a scientific meeting for sketchnoting. I completed 2 live ones during the talk sessions. They were well received and it opened a number of great conversations.

We had to find another venue for our wedding. Our old venue is higher elevation on a North aspect in a forested area. It is also buried in 10+ feet of snow (it is still snowing). There way that is going to melt out before July.

I upgraded my website/blog using Quarto. It now includes many illustrations and image thumbnails for the various projects. I am using this as the catch all for my various projects and a place to point to for freelance art projects.

# IMPROVEMENTS
In addition to the scientific meeting, I had some other meeting travel for work. I was feeling really stressed out until I realized I had only been meditating intermittently! Back on the wagon.

# NEW DIRECTIONS
I am in touch with a data science organization that we might write some proposals together for data visualization and illustration.

I worked through a visual storytelling book based on photo essays. This is an interesting media and is closer to what I am making. Not video, not comics, but images with some explanatory text. A lot to learn for sequencing only a few images. Many of the same ideas transfer over from pure sequential art, but there is more left up to the reader in this style of article. This is the direction I am moving for blog posts.

A few of my running/ski friends have been goading me to make a strava account so we could compete with one another on there for segments. This sounded fun in theory. I started systematically slaying segments at the popular XC ski area and uploading them. Lots of "kudos." However, after one day of particularly good efforts on segments, I got called out by one of the former CR holders because I was only uploading segments. I guess this is a unsaid Strava no, no and people got really pissy about it. After trying to explain myself it only made things worse. I deleted my account. No mas! Haha. That is the long winded backstory leading to an ongoing reflection on the meaning of competition. I first and foremost compete with myself. I like to have friendly competition with friends to push one another, but that is very secondary to seeing personal improvement. Ongoing reflections for a future post...

# DRAWING
Various stats. I went to a live drawing session again. It was excellent. This time there were a few really good artists there working in pastels. The local art scene continues to expand for me. One of the co-organizers is really stoked on hiking/flyfishing and plein-air painting so we are going to go out soon. And then there were three for making a local Nature Art/Journal Club.

# OUTDOOR ADVENTURE
Pow. Pow. And more Pow.
Various PRs winter road running and xc skiing. (But did they even happen bro if they are not on Strava? The answer is yes.)

# WORK
Sent out our first newsletter using mailchimp. It is essentially designing a webpage for an email format. It was fun, but mailchimp servers are very slow to update when changes are made. I will likely use a different service for the art biz next year.

Various rejects from NatGeo and a consulting gig I was working on. I will reapply to Nat Geo. The end client for the consulting company did not commit for the proposed project I would be working on. So maybe sometime in the future?

I am working with two scientists to visualize/illustrate their research ideas. One works on MRI images and the other in cognitive psychology and mental models. These opportunities are only available to me because I took this communications position. These two projects will add to the diversity of my sci-comm portfolio as they are outside my area of expertise.

# SOCIAL
I volunteered for a film festival in town. I asked what the hardest job was. Turns out it is taking tickets because you have deny people if and when the small makeshift theater is full. I got to watch all except the first film and could have unlimited beer and pizza. I went hard on the pizza.

I interacted with a number of cool researchers at this conference I attended. This included the MRI researcher which I am now working with on his project.

Are handguns the new corvettes? I shot some handguns with my buddy for his 40th. Mag dumps (rapid fire) with a 10mm Glock with 280 grain shell was very fun. The cardboard "grizzly bear" target was still standing after. A testament to how scary grizzly bears are. ;). My friend carries this gun when hiking in the Alaskan backcountry. Is this common for the locals @theanimal?

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