Slevin's journal

[ertyu]

Mint can also be dried and stored to make tea.
Bean stews take mint well.
Also, and I don't know how popular this is, but I enjoy mint in my black coffee (usually I dunk a spearmint tea bag if I have any)

[mooretrees]

I’ve come back to your journal several times to reread your “freedom to”post. It really resonates with me, so I guess in some way I’m still a noob on this forum. When you first posted and I read it, it helped me feel less alone in a way. Thank you.

[Slevin]

@mooretrees Fantastic. I hope I have some good ideas every once in a while (and I think I put some solid effort into that one). Might be worth shoving into its own log for people to post what they want to be doing with their time and life.

@7Wannabe5 Agreed, except I already planted the mint once, and mint is mint, so now I will always always have mint . My region seems to do well with all the climate predictions except smoke, which seems a bit unfun. Technically you can even use methods to harvest fog from off the sea, but IMO the best way to let that happen is just to let the redwoods do it for you.

@NewBlood I'll try to get some up relatively soon. While I may paint some nice words about the gardening I also paint a very nice mess that I'm embarrassed to photograph until I clean it up a bit.

@guitarplayer John Muir is an interestingly complicated figure these days. Both a really great writer / naturalist who is responsible for a lot of land preservation, and also one of those people who looks really bad from the view of this century. Hard to take his prose about the deep woods and nature completely seriously when he is mostly referring to lands that were cultivated for about 10,000ish years by the Miwok people, whom he forced out of their homelands in order to "preserve it". Just classic American history stuff.

[mathiverse]

I finally got down to making homemade hummus for use on top of vegetables and I can't tell you how much my mind is blown regarding how tasty this dish is. Thanks for posting! I plan to try a few of your other hummus use suggestions.

[Slevin]

I finally got down to making homemade hummus for use on top of vegetables and I can't tell you how much my mind is blown regarding how tasty this dish is. Thanks for posting! I plan to try a few of your other hummus use suggestions.

Glad you enjoyed it! Bulk hummus, rice, and roasted veg (and some meat until 27) kept me running throughout pretty much the entirety of my 20s .

[recal]

Slevin, I was updating myself on the journals I've watched, and the first thing I saw was your freedom to post. Nothing new, but a very good reminder for me right now. I know my freedom to, I wrote a whole journal entry about it, but I also do have to lube that gear and get the habit rolling again.

I had to deny myself the "freedom to" activities for the past year, so now that I've achieved a (temporary) "freedom from," that's too fresh on my mind.

Maybe I'll write a post about my freedom to in my journal.

[Slevin]

Slevin, I was updating myself on the journals I've watched, and the first thing I saw was your freedom to post. Nothing new, but a very good reminder for me right now. I know my freedom to, I wrote a whole journal entry about it, but I also do have to lube that gear and get the habit rolling again.

I had to deny myself the "freedom to" activities for the past year, so now that I've achieved a (temporary) "freedom from," that's too fresh on my mind.

Maybe I'll write a post about my freedom to in my journal.

Good. I'm glad a lot of people liked and got value from the post. Its not perfect though; sometimes life forces us into places where there is nothing to do...

Life sucks sometimes. My favorite advice in these times is from Ajahn Brahm (physicist turned buddhist monk), which is to sit down and have a cup of tea. When there is nothing to do, do nothing. Worst case, if things don't improve, you can still enjoy the tea .

[Slevin]

2/ 24 update:

HH Assets: ~1.18M
HH Liabilities: ~451k
HH NW: ~731k

We are doing relatively well these days, judging by this. Our millionaire day is probably late 2025, assuming no asset growth. With asset growth, hard to say.

Seems fine with me. I think I will still feel poor, on the edge of roughing it, just like I do today. But clearly this won’t be the case. Because our FI date is — I don’t know. Technically we are probably already FI, due to some financial nonsense I don’t want to talk about in depth on the internet. But it doesn’t exist in hard assets, so I want it the backup in pocket as well. I’m in a weird hyper position of probably not needing to work, but not comfy enough yet to deal with it, and hyper conservative on the financial front.

I need to spend some time sitting with the above. Every time I do the math, I get very calm like “oh yeah we’re gonna be just fine”. And then 2 days later I’m nervous about buying organic vegetables because it will cost me $3 extra this week. Idk, maybe I’m just built cheap.

I Spent the first week of Feb on a beach in Mexico on a work trip. Met a ton of new and interesting people from around the world. The whole Mexico vacation in the middle of winter is great. Cures those winter blues right up! I see why people do it now, and can’t fault them at all psychologically. I’m trying to figure out how to replicate something similar at home that will help cure the winter blues… Wood stove? RMH? Sauna? I have a wood stove already, but it’s not super efficient. Maybe that doesn’t matter that much for a once in a while burn that will make me happier and very toasty. I love Saunas, used to go to one at the local rec center 2x-3x week in CO to avoid those winter blues. That stopped with COVID. Maybe time to bring it back again.

My orchard is growing all the time, and has all been moved into large pots, as we decided this probably isnt our final destination (probably one more local-ish <1 hour away move in the future). As just a small family, we can plant a bunch of ultra dwarf trees, and essentially harvest fruit year round from our garden, with loads of variety. I would eventually like to grow this operation to 30-50 fruit trees, but at that point it would be purely a hobby, and I would be handing out fruit to others on a weekly basis. I see this as in-line with the permaculture principle of abundance, as well as aiming my capitalistic impulses into a beneficial yield that then cyclically causes manual labor that pays off in keeping me fit. One of the neighboring towns is literally an orchard haven on the edge of a forest. Insanely lovely.

I’ve been having some small health issues for the past week, not super sure what they are but they suck a lot, made me lose sleep / intense chest pain under the ribs for a couple nights. Hoping it’s musculoskeletal since my heart and lungs apparently both seem totally fine. The doctor was a bit worried by my 45 bpm heart rate, I’m not sure if I am seeing as my history of training 20-30 hours a week for 10 years at this point (me training only ~10 hours per week right now is the lowest I’ve been in a long time). But it could be something. I’ll follow up with the GP when I can get in.

My partner is now working for an exceptional vegan chef / recipe developer, which has had some awesome side benefits for me (getting leftovers of delicious things at a godly tier of cooking). As someone who prides themselves on making good food, kinda hilarious to find the one loophole of people who can reliably make food at such an incredible tier (since I can generally make food better than almost any plant based restaurants around here, some specialty restaurants like plant based sushi excepted). Hoping to gain some good tips over time.

I also have the winter blues. Always have. It’s better here, where there are sunny days where I can go enjoy it in non-freezing temps. But still more than ideal. A lot of disparate unrelated sources on the internet claim you can solve this with large amounts of light (~1kw of LED light or ~100000 lux, as LEDs usually put out 100 Lux / watt). Getting an LED panel of this size would cost around $200, and eat about $1.50 of power per day. Seems cheap for health. No actual guarantees it works though. Best idea is probably to buy a panel off Amazon, try it for a week, and return it if it isn’t working. I could DIY something similar, but the general DIY cost would be much higher.

I’m considering paying off the house. Every calf in existence tells me it’s a bad deal, and yet I’m still tempted to. I hate debt of any sort, even when it’s exceptionally useful and apparently beneficial.

Lots to ruminate on. Lots to be thankful for.

[7Wannabe5]

Unfortunately, it has been my experience that old-school fry-you-up sun-lamps or tanning booths work best for combating SAD, if you can't hitch a ride down to Florida in January or Tennessee on a cusp month. Although one time when I was living in the Upper Peninsula in an apartment which had its windows entirely covered by banks of snow, I walked out through the tunnel of snow on an early spring sunny day, and the sight of the sun glinting off the bright colors of a Coke can abandoned on the bright white snow caused my mood to very suddenly rise from gloomy to joyous. There is some evidence that being in a visual environment featuring bright colors that contrast strongly on the color wheel can have similar effect. IOW, if you can't go to Hawaii, decorate your cubicle in the style/colors of a Hawaiian shirt. This is one of the reasons I enjoy the ornamental aspects of gardening, also why "garden porn" is a thing. Red fruit popping out at you from a green background will actually lift your mood.

[theanimal]

I Spent the first week of Feb on a beach in Mexico on a work trip. Met a ton of new and interesting people from around the world. The whole Mexico vacation in the middle of winter is great. Cures those winter blues right up! I see why people do it now, and can’t fault them at all psychologically. I’m trying to figure out how to replicate something similar at home that will help cure the winter blues… Wood stove? RMH? Sauna? I have a wood stove already, but it’s not super efficient. Maybe that doesn’t matter that much for a once in a while burn that will make me happier and very toasty. I love Saunas, used to go to one at the local rec center 2x-3x week in CO to avoid those winter blues. That stopped with COVID. Maybe time to bring it back again.

Saunas and woodstoves are nice, but I don't think they really do anything for winter blues or SAD. You need light. Have you used a happy lamp before? I read a series of articles recently where the author took the use of those to another level, adding enough light to simulate a sunny day within his house. It has me wondering about adding more light. I have just used a medium sized one, but it is somewhat effective in my experience.

https://meaningness.com/sad-light-led-lux
https://meaningness.com/sad-light-lumens

His anecdotal experiences are backed up within this study, which did more or less the same thing with 62 participants. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35981135/

ETA: Hah, well that's what I get for not reading your whole entry before posting. I see you addressed the same thing later on. My apologies!

[Western Red Cedar]

I’m not sure if I am seeing as my history of training 20-30 hours a week for 10 years at this point (me training only ~10 hours per week right now is the lowest I’ve been in a long time). But it could be something. I’ll follow up with the GP when I can get in.

Your knowledge about biomechanics is very impressive. I'm curious what your workout routine looks like and how it has changed over the last ten years? Feel free to point me to a previous post if you've detailed it elsewhere.

The winter blues are tough. I've always just accepted that it was a time where I hunkered down, read a lot of books, cooked delicious meals, and caught up on shows or movies that I didn't have time to watch when the weather was nicer.

Having just escaped a sub-zero winter for a tropical paradise, I'm not sure if there are really any hacks to emulate the long days, excessive sunshine, and fruit smoothies. Winter is great to really appreciate the upcoming spring and summer though .

[guitarplayer]

Winter is great to really appreciate the upcoming spring and summer though .

Yes this, there is some tension created and then resolved.

[Slevin]

@theanimal literally one of the sources I was looking at. Another being a post I was linked from the EAs (thanks Bay Area), how to build a lumenator. It seems like this idea has popped up multiple times across different branches of people. I implemented a small scale test yesterday, and it might have helped. Obviously probably not 100k lux. Also probably a more useful thing in Alaska / anywhere with a long dark season. 100 watts seems like a dealbreaker off-grid though.

@7 bright colors everywhere inside is basically my nightmare. Light earth tones + wood + infinite plants is my preferred decorating style. Maybe it could improve my mood though.

@WRC agree, the long days + sun is tough to match.

Also, my training these days is generally: 3x week push / pull / squat + maybe extra core. Focus on weaknesses first, since I’m past the point of really caring about getting drastically stronger over time. Most recent was 5x5 (per leg) pistols + 5x 10 raised feet pike push-ups + 5 x 8 narrow grip chins. Heavy focus is currently on glutes / lower back, and I usually try to seek movement complexity >> heavier weights. Today I’ll probably do dragon squat negatives and an offset (opposite hand) kettlebell deadlift / squat. I prefer Kettlebells and calisthenics to dumbbells and barbells for the much higher skill ceiling and ability to imbalance things to build more core / have more interesting dynamic movements.

Then 2x - 3x / week rucks on the off days. 40-50lbs for now for ~3 miles (whatever roughly an hour is distance wise). Bonus points for going into the redwood forests or to the beach. But I do that less when the sun goes down at 5pm.

Then mobility every day. I try to just build this into life Katy Bowman style. Work from the floor, which does a lot of internal / external hip rotation stuff constantly + squatting + ground to floor many times a day + more. Hang when I go outside, stuff like that. In the past I’ve done active mobility training up to 5x / week, up to taking presence over strength work. Just not my current focus.

I’m not sure how helpful that is, it’s pretty basic atm and not necessarily that useful for getting to where I am now. It’s also missing many whole branches of movement (object manipulation, skill work like handstands, juggling with feet or hands, reaction speed, fluidity, rhythm training, I could add on and on) . As always, more training days / more time spent training (in terms of number of days spent, not reps per set or anything) is better, and gains accumulate very slowly over time, like investing without the exponential payoff later on.

[7Wannabe5]

@7 bright colors everywhere inside is basically my nightmare. Light earth tones + wood + infinite plants is my preferred decorating style. Maybe it could improve my mood though.

Egads, that's not what I was recommending style-wise, although I do sometimes purposefully create semi-garish garden beds in never-recognized-by-another-human protest against the elitism inherent in the Vita Sackville-West all-white garden style. One painting or a bouquet of flowers in a room otherwise decorated as you described could serve the purpose. I think the Matta print I posted below would work well in such a room. I don't like the label on the candle or the way the eiffel tower piece weakly signals "I travel internationally!", in the second image, but if the contrast of the orange and the blue along with the shiny metal perks you up just a tiny bit looking at it on a screen, it very well may work even better in actuality.

[Slevin]

Ah, yeah this is much nicer and more calm (in a good way). Just a pop of color here and there that could add the warmth and happiness to the space, like in the bottom one.

[7Wannabe5]

Right, but you also have to have the lighting in the room arranged in such a way to allow the colors to pop. There is a chapter in "Home Comforts" by Cheryl Mendelson which addresses meeting all manner of home lighting needs appropriately. Otherwise, any article or video on the topic of lighting and placement for paintings or other focal point pieces would offer further suggestions. Adding a little bit of "tension" to the arrangement will also help to prevent the likelihood of becoming visually "dead" to the effect due to familiarity.

[Western Red Cedar]

I’m not sure how helpful that is, it’s pretty basic atm and not necessarily that useful for getting to where I am now. It’s also missing many whole branches of movement (object manipulation, skill work like handstands, juggling with feet or hands, reaction speed, fluidity, rhythm training, I could add on and on) . As always, more training days / more time spent training (in terms of number of days spent, not reps per set or anything) is better, and gains accumulate very slowly over time, like investing without the exponential payoff later on.

Very helpful. Just curious what your routine looked like based on your knowledge level. I've been on a push/pull/legs split 5-6x per week for a few years now. I currently have access to a gym while on the road for the next couple of weeks, but will need to get more creative with my workouts and mobility over the next year when I don't have access to equipment. I brought a set of mini bands with me, but still haven't used them.

I've had some heel pain (probably plantar fasciitis) in one foot for about 14 years now. It started right before I ran my first full marathon. Comes and goes after long walks or 15,000+ step days, but I can feel crinkles in the arch and the right calf doesn't feel as healthy as my left. The achilles and calf are definitely tighter on a regular basis. I'd like to take the next few months to really focus on stretching, myofascial release, and improving my posture to see if I notice some progress. Kelly Starrett mentioned that soft-tissue problems like PF are his biggest concern as he gets older. Hoping to finally take the necessary time to properly address it. It would be great to be able to do some long-distance hiking again without having to deal with the foot pain.

[Slevin]

I've had some heel pain (probably plantar fasciitis) in one foot for about 14 years now. It started right before I ran my first full marathon. Comes and goes after long walks or 15,000+ step days, but I can feel crinkles in the arch and the right calf doesn't feel as healthy as my left. The achilles and calf are definitely tighter on a regular basis. I'd like to take the next few months to really focus on stretching, myofascial release, and improving my posture to see if I notice some progress. Kelly Starrett mentioned that soft-tissue problems like PF are his biggest concern as he gets older. Hoping to finally take the necessary time to properly address it. It would be great to be able to do some long-distance hiking again without having to deal with the foot pain.

Interesting. I’ve always had the understanding that soft tissue work is always a temporary fix (much like massages and bodywork) where it can relieve symptoms for a short amount of time, but if the problem is a bad patterning or default muscular imbalance (you only use quads but not glutes sort of thing, can usually be visually seen in extreme cases by someone having abnormally large compensatory muscles, in this example giant quads and soft glutes) you need to find and fix the root of the problem. And also finding the root of the problem is a massive PITA, because actual fix times are long and so every incorrect “theory” can cost months of regular training.

Exceptionally good DPTs / trainers can pinpoint these issues much quicker and recommend interventions/ training routines for correct repatterning / imbalance relief, which is worth its weight in gold for time saved. Squat university and and some others on YouTube do have vids all the time showing this, but those 60 second diagnosis videos are *chefs kiss*. I do wonder how long the actual diagnosis took, and how well the end interventions end up fixing the problems (which I never get to see).

Anyways, this a long winded way to say “awesome, let me know if you see a large scale difference from the soft tissue work as a medium to long term useful intervention”. Though even in the short term fix case it may also be useful if you can cause the issue to subside for long enough to do work on actually fixing the imbalance or repatterning.

[Lemur]

+1 Slevin

Relatable with my back issue...there is true acute phase that needs to be resolved first as the muscles and nerves are really severely inflamed and are sensitive to any sort of movement. This needs to be resolved first before the chronic muscle imbalances (the true root of the issue likely) can be targeted through graded exposure from exercise. The exercises I am doing now to correct my long-term chronic back issues would have been impossible for me to perform just a few weeks ago out of sheer pain.

@WRC

To get out of my acute phase, I followed something close to Stuart McGill "virtual surgery" for back problems. It took about a week in early February but I did no exercise, lots of rest and sleep (when I could..my particular issue was horrendous), and I did everything in my power to not flex at the spine. After the pain was reasonably down, I did elliptical cardio only and hung from a pulldown bar. That was it. Once I regained adequate sleep and could walk without significant pain, then and only then I went back to exercise...rather cautiously.

In other words, you might consider to act as if you had just had surgery on your heel. You wouldn't do stretching and myofascial release (that is stage 2 perhaps). Stage 1 would actually be to literally stay off your foot for a few days, perhaps even a week. Bed rest, heat/ice perhaps. Got a video game, movies, or some books you want to read? Could even use crutches.

This is drastic of course if your particular problem is not a daily thing you deal with and only happens after tons of activity. But if it is something you deal with as soon as you get out of bed in the morning, I think its worth considering. Not a medical professional *

My anecdote is I think what I learned from my issue is that I rushed to solve my problem (I made it worse actually) when what I really needed to do is step back and just let time do its thing for a bit. We problem solvers sometimes have a knack for not letting nature do its job first.

[Western Red Cedar]

@Slevin and Lemur - thanks for the suggestions and encouragement. DW is a former ballet dancer and has a good understanding of anatomy and biomechanics. After talking over the last couple of days, she thinks the issues probably start much higher in the chain. My shoulders are apparently rotated forward and internal, and I have dowinerger's hump in the neck. So, we'll start there and slowly work my way down the chain.