The painful growth stage of change. You have to be some special kind of asshole to say there is no way in which you could improve yourself. But it's one things to admit your faults or that you have them. When you are actively trying to confront and change those things it's full of uncomfortable realizations about behavior that you did not even know was a problem. Also around 90 days into early sobriety, it's pretty common to just randomly want to drink for no particular reason.
Thanks. I try not to tell anyone I care about about urges because it's not a big deal and I don't want them to worry. But in the interest of hubski as a place to learn I'll explain the urges I get to people who will never be addicts. Being tired is apparently a trigger. When I got off work and was tired I'd drink a lot. As I am wont to do. Counterproductively because I would stay up later to drink more. I was kinda surprised by that but there are different layers to addiction. Like the physical act of putting liquid in my face is something I still do obsessively whether it's water or coffee or Dr Pepper, I'm just Pavlov style conditioned to drink stuff. I'll just drive by a gas station and the the pre action thought of turning into the lot will strike me for no reason other than for years I'd drive by gas stations and stop to buy beer. No desire to actually drink just subconsciously, "Hey look. That thing with the stuff you need. Better stop." but without words just a quick feeling that I should stop. I went to a bar which I'm not supposed to do. But it's an awesome bar https://www.sisterlouisaschurch.com and my girlfriend was in town and I wanted her to see it. No desire to drink. But we were trying to leave, I was trying harder, she was finishing her drink, and I instinctually wanted to just down her drink in one swallow so we could go. Which is rude and a dick way to get us out the door. But that was my impulse to get us to leave. To get my way really. And we were at a restaurant for my brother's birthday and she didn't finish a gin. So gin has the magical ability to make me vomit immediately in a way rubbing alcohol probably couldn't. But as soon as she turned her back to get up I instinctually thought to finish her drink. Didn't want to. Know even in active addiction that gin is useless to me. Still had the thought for no rational reason other than it's what I done did for years, finish other people's drinks given the opportunity. Her drinking is a whole other story. It doesn't trigger me but she's a cheap date who can't hold her booze. She'd die if she tried to keep up with me. But don't even want to really go into it. It's a thing. Things can be good and bad depending on context.
I'm signing for a new house with my new wife today (second house, first wife) and we're super excited. I'm still trying to get the hang of corporate training . So far I'm focusing on: 1. Showing people that the lecture format they've seen their entire life is a super inefficient way of learning, 2. No one here is going to give you permission, so just implement the smallest version of the plan as quick as possible. 3. Good communicators treat people like humans regardless of the setting. And I finally beat the main story of witcher 3. Damn that's a good game.
I'm still thinking through it so forgive me if I'm a little rambly. I ask people to write a lot of documentation. I talk to these people pretty regularly and for the most part we have really fun casual conversations. When I ask these people to write, they start using "essay english", saying things like "when one finds themselves facing the dilemma of an angry customer..." This stuffy language creates a barrier of formality - it's not only hard to understand but it's boring and not engaging, so it usually goes in one ear and out the other. The same thing happens when I ask people to teach or present. If I ask that person to explain something to me, we'll sit down and have a conversation. They'll stop and check to make sure I'm still with them, they'll look at my face and see if I'm getting it, they'll make jokes and tell me about quirks. If I ask them to do something formal like "teach" they'll make power points and stand at the front of a room with an invisible wall between them and the learners. Once again, we have distance and boredom. In both of these situations, people are treated a bit like machines - data is pushed out for them to consume, it's a very soulless form of education. I try to push people to stop teaching the way they were taught, through formal lectures and essays, and start teaching the way they learned, through conversations, experiences and laughter. In this way, all education is a human dialogue where one who knows is trying to make a genuine connection to one who doesn't. The stronger this connection, the better the learning. That's the idea at least.
Thank you very much for sharing this. As an aspiring teacher, I appreciate this kind of an insight when I can't get far beyond my own brain. As far as you understand: do you think this somewhat-informal approach to teaching is irreconcilable with formal language? In other words, do you think you could have an alive, conversational session of teaching using the kind of a language that takes place in more typically-academic settings?
I don't think it's irreconcilable I just think formal language is, in many cases, a detriment to itself. The goal of language and the goal of learning to to create a pool of shared meaning. Through that pool of shared meaning we can bond and grow as a group. The formal language used in "essay english" is often only used because "that's how essay's are supposed to sound". The goal of the information shifts from trying to share knowledge to trying to sound right - the latter helps no one. Formal language has a stigma of "if you don't understand this, then you are dumb" which usually makes people who don't understand feel unsafe. You can create a dialogue in any language so long as every participant feels safe - so you could have a dialogue in formal language, as long as you make sure everyone understands the language while you're talking.
Good point. There's a place for any kind of language and a time to use it. Academic speech belongs in academia, and slang belongs in the group of origin.you could have a dialogue in formal language, as long as you make sure everyone understands the language while you're talking.
Impromptu LA meetup with insomniasexx, randomuser, and thenewgreen last night! Good times! A ridiculous amount of crypto talk. We are doing a podcast radio interview thing here this morning. Then back to the mitten for me. I'm getting serious about getting some exercise.
Awesome! Wish I could've been there. I've been staring at this screen for the last hour or two - I found a bit of time to dabble in Mist / Solidity. The hope is that a bit of smart contract literacy can give me a better sense of how dapps work and if they're worth their salt.
Maybe you should use that other crappy wallet that some weirdos made....what's its called? myetherwallet or some shit? 😉
I have to admit, I trusted Kraken for a long time, but made the switch to MEW recently. Awesome service you guys have made! 💪💪 (Only thing I found a bit confusing about the UX was the large amount of stuff you get and need to keep. Wasn't entirely clear what it was all for. Wallet files, pks, passwords... But I tried it out with a throwaway wallet before I did the real deal.)
Yeah we're streamlining next version...a LOT. Biggest challenge has been trying to build a product for 50% power users / airgapped / security experts and 50% people who don't speak english and don't have any idea of what they are doing or even that they should maybe perhaps save something. 😩
Oh! Or you can beta our new product. I believe one of our new hires is going to be PRing a bunch in this weekend, but feel free to give it a go. It works on my computer. :) https://github.com/MyEtherWallet/mewify You may need to send me your IP address so I can whitelist you. Not sure the status of our DDOS protection. It was a bit overprotective for a bit.
I shaved my face, and my wife snapped a picture of it. I'm also doing an experiment where I've started uploading to Flickr and putting (lowish resolution) photos under CC0. We'll see if it ends up biting me in the ass somehow, but I figure hardly one is really going to look at them anyways. Do people even still use Flickr anymore? I ended up settling on it because I knew the creative commons search tools worked well with it. EDIT: I fucked up. Took a shower and then groomed the dog. Shoulda reversed those...
Hi guys,i am here this homepage, i hope you must be waiting for this amazing papa game, papa cooking had been played by since 1985 from japan, go on this site http://papacookinggames.com/ you can playing papa game, it is very simple one a single click, and win more game.
Photographers still use Flickr. It's become sort of a Galapagos social network in that Yahoo keeps insisting that it's part of Yahoo and it just isn't. That said, (A) their auto uploader is flawless (B) they store your images at full rez and no quality degradation (C) they have near limitless storage (D) you can still trick their search engine into not sucking. Their community can be hilarious. "Mario's Bike" is still up and if you click through to the beginning of the comments it's fuckin' great. Dalbegaria - you seem very attached to this photo or poster, but when it is submitted to a public group for criticism, then, well you get what you pay for. None of us claims to be an expert but our opinions are valid here, feel free to post a comment detailing why you like this shot...oh, hang on now I get it, it's not a problem with the shot, it's our opinions which are lacking, this photo is of such an intrinsically high quality that there could be no other explanation.
Our chicks are 6 weeks old tomorrow. Here's them when we first got them: 4 weeks old, discovering the yard for the first time: Pig (left) is very good at digging: Sittin': Everything else in life is kind of blah right now but I like these lil' guys. They've discovered that they can fly high enough to clear the cage walls (~2.5 feet high), so I guess I need to build a lid for their cage now...
Nice! Sorry to hear about the neighbors; who wouldn't want neighbors with chickens? We've got six so without a doubt we will be swimming in eggs here in a couple months... I am going to build a coop this summer out in one of the field areas near our house. It probably won't be anything fancy since fingers crossed we'll be leaving here in 2-3 years. Do you plan to let yours run around in your yard or are you building a run as well?
I've been told that certain breeds of chickens love field mice. If one of my neighbors wanted to keep a few chickens that loved field mice, I'd be all for it. Like centipedes and spiders in the basement, it can't hurt, right?Sorry to hear about the neighbors; who wouldn't want neighbors with chickens?
I heard about that. There's supposedly a patch coming in Junglefowl 52.37-12.183 update. The programmer loosefeathers found that the previous update affected all of the models running the G. g. domesticus distro. Apparently it was some kind of memory stack error that didn't manifest itself until after 1,200+ hours of uninterrupted runtime.
So remember how I was like, 'grab life by the balls and do it'. Since then......... - Fired 2 more clients - Hired three new devs to crank on MEW v4 (T minus 40 days) - Managed to sleep less than before? - Was on two podcasts. - Answered 2124 support tickets - Hit 12k transactions on a non-token-sale day - Survived too many more token sales (peaks on above graph are TKN ANT STORJ) - Survived a 30m requests/day (sustained 658/s) DDOS from Russia (haha puts those token sales to shame) - Consistently forget that a buttload of people are listening to whatever flies out my mouth.. - Lost people's ETH - Saved people's ETH - Bid on myetherwallet.eth - Lost bid on MyEtherWallet to a squatcock who valued our domain a 1/5th of Shapeshift's 😎 - Built a boatload of websites for a boatload of awesome clients that have nothing to do with crypto And now were going camping in an area with no cell service because I cant do anymore screens. 💖
I have been really out of the loop regarding Ethereum, only really started reading about properly recently (I am looking for interesting new things to work on that use recent technology). MEW looks awesome. I've made a note to have a look at the source code and issues.
I feel like most of my past year has been moving exactly six weeks at a time. 6 weeks from a breakup to graduation. 6 weeks from graduation to starting my summer job. 6 weeks of that job. 6 weeks until I moved to Chicago. 6 weeks in Chicago. 6 weeks home. 6 weeks making pizza in Portland. 6 weeks making tacos. And now, I'm finishing my last week of working in a warehouse. I was hired for 6 weeks, and told I could stay longer if I wanted to. The head of HR (a 23 year old girl who brings the weed for the post-work smoke-a-thon in the parking lot) took me aside the other day and said that if it is at all possible, I should start finding a new job. Fast. I guess this company has been on the verge of collapse for about a year now, mostly due to the fact that my boss is a tremendous fucking tool with little to no ability to listen to others. In a week or so, 5 of the 8 employees are going to confront him with a list of demands, and if he doesn't accept, they are all quitting. Either way, not something I want to stay around and see. But tomorrow, I have a very exciting interview with a leather-working company. I sent them my sewing portfolio, and they were really impressed. In a few weeks, I might be getting paid to sew, which would be incredible. The good thing is, I wouldn't be working with a machine all day, I'd be doing hand sewing, and probably getting cross-trained on firebranding and construction. This would be the first time in a year or so that I would actually be doing work that I like, and it pays better than any job I've had before. Here's hoping it lasts more than 6 weeks. EDIT: Oh, and I made a Canjo!
It is my firm belief that leathercrafting will be the last bespoke textile work to die. I paid more for my Kindle cover than I did for my kindle. And while I know several people who have engaged in the fashion industry in one way or another, it's the leather guys that are killin' it. If this is something that interests you I would encourage you to pursue it with zeal.The good thing is, I wouldn't be working with a machine all day, I'd be doing hand sewing, and probably getting cross-trained on firebranding and construction. This would be the first time in a year or so that I would actually be doing work that I like, and it pays better than any job I've had before.
I went in to place my two weeks, and got fired in the subsequent conversation. Too fresh and complicated to talk about it right now. You guys liked my post into oblivion when I finally got a job, and I did a lot of talking about it here and I'm grateful. I know we're just internet strangers, but you guys helped me out a lot. I'm sorry if I've disappointed you. Trying not to fall into NEETdom, been going to the local art space every day at the same time I would go to work. A friend of mine has set me up with a (big money) client that should be an ace in the hole, but there's a lot of internal guilt and ruminations swirling in me right now. I've sought out a lot of help from my circle already, and I'm dreading replying back to people. I've been meditating a lot. Here's what I've been listening to.
On the way to packet pickup for the Devil Dog Double, I bought some bitcoin at a gas station ATM. The machine by the door was dollar-based, so I hunted around and found a Satoshi1 machine in the back. The process was quite painless. Enter a mobile number, receive a five-digit verification code via SMS from Austin number 512-233-6843. The exchange rate was quoted as $1588 buy $2188 sell for up to $1000, a bid-ask spread of 27%, fairly high for a currency exchange. The spread was 16% ($1765 buy $2110 sell) for larger purchases, up to $10,000. (The price on BitStamp was between 1920 and 2010 that day.) I fed a 20 in and elected to receive a new paper wallet rather than showing my own QR code. Out came a thermal-printed receipt with my new stash. I tried a second transaction using a Google Voice number, but it was immediately rejected as a voice-over-IP number. Smart money says you should not trust a wallet generated in a gas station, so I am trying to transfer the value out before I spill something on the receipt. This has been a learning process. Contray to my earlier dismissal, transaction fees are no longer less than a penny. My client software suggested that I include a fee worth more than a dollar, which struck me as pure frivolity. After insufficient research I offered 0.00025 BTC to the mining gods, still over fifty cents. Now I realize that my offer of 97 satoshis per byte is likely to leave my transaction unconfirmed indefinitely. Apparently the network will forget about my transaction in a few days and I'll be able to try again. Bitcoin remains a stark example of the Subjective theory of value, that a thing is worth whatever someone is willing to exchange to get it. At the race, I pushed hard to set a good PR at my first 5-miler, but did not even hit my conservative goal of 40 minutes. Then it was tough to find motivation to run the half marathon, and the lazy pace evident in my pace chart resulted in a finish almost half an hour slower than my best. Probably I should have walked up Hospital Hill.
Is this your posting? https://hubski܂com/pub/382326 Your image gave enough away to steal your private key. I did that and took the remaining 0.0002424 BTC out of your account (+ 0.00005 BTC transaction fee). It was mostly just as a personal challenge but I will give it back if that bothers you. Just let me know. QR GUY For the record, I figured US$20 would be a fair reward for anyone enterprising enough to salvage that QR code. I gave it a trial scan to confirm that it wouldn't be easy. Now I've gone back and forth on whether QR guy is pranking me. First of all my transaction was eventually confirmed and I believe I still control the 0.00859833 BTC. The "remaining" 0.0002924 BTC was, I think, the transaction fee, and should have gone to a miner. Yet I see a transaction today from that address, lending credibility to QR Guy's story. Anyone have an insight? QR Guy, are you there? [How] did you manage to recover the private key?On Sep 3, 2017, at 15:02, qrguy wrote:
Your original transaction sent 0.00859833 BTC to your new address, paid 0.00025 BTC in miner fees, and sent the remaining 0.0002924 BTC in "change" back to the original paper wallet. Of that remaining 0.0002924 BTC, I sent 0.0002424 BTC to myself, and paid the last 0.00005 in miner fees. The paper wallet now has nothing left. I probably could have used a lower fee, if I had been willing to wait longer. The transaction backlog isn't as bad as when you tried it. I also stole your 0.0002924 in Bitcoin Cash from the same address. I recovered the private key by filling in the blanks in your picture. The private key was on your receipt twice -- once as a barcode and once as text. You covered up part of each, but not the same parts -- QR codes actually start laying out the data from the bottom right. So I could reconstruct that corner using the beginning of the text. This was how far I got before my phone could scan it (with a bit of difficulty): Even if I hadn't been able to fill that much in, the combination of you showing most of the QR code, plus its built in redundancy, means that it would likely have been feasible to brute force the remaining bits of the key.
Thanks for the clarification, and nice work! I see now that the fee is listed separately from the input and outputs which have addresses. I assumed that the fees would be assigned to a bitcoin address, but the documentation is not quite clear, merely saying that "all transaction fees are collected by that user creating the block, who is free to assign those fees to himself." So the only thing I don't understand is why I didn't transfer the entire amount of the ATM address, less the transaction fee, to my new address, instead leaving some leftover change. Rounding error? Sloppy copy/paste? I remember I wasn't too sure what I was doing and used the Blockchain.com app for Android.
Finally getting back to this. From the total elevation gain, I think Hospital Hill is quite a bit more impressive than anything I'll do this weekend. I'll have to go up Observatory Drive twice, and while no joke, it isn't a gain like that. I suspect I'll have about 650' ascent. My main goal is always to survive, and clearly you did. Congratulations on running your fastest ever five mile race!
Maybe a Venezuelan shopping for USD? https://www.venezuelaecon.com When the exchange rate catches up to the money-changer's price in two or three days, it's hard to complain about the spread.
Going to Iceland tomorrow, I hope it's going to be as awesome as it looks like.
Having my annual late spring life freak out where I question everything I'm doing but. I think big things are coming. I believe that. Likely finally moving to Seattle at the end of the Summer. Getting universally positive reviews at work and realizing that I already check off all the boxes for group manager positions for the department I work in. Hit a new high last week for miles ran and hiked in a week (39.7!!!). It's getting weird. When I solo hike I'm the person people approach to ask for directions, distances, view points, etc., like they think I'm some sort of expert.
"I also find that people now assume I own every venue I am standing in. If I go to a bar, or a party, or a fundraiser, or a restaurant, or any sort of gathering, people will mistake me for the organizer/owner." I'm that guy, too. Or, I'm that guy when I'm not frowning. It's a combination of confidence and friendliness - it isn't 100% necessary that you be the guy they're looking for, so long as you're the guy who won't mind them trying you out. It's an asset, believe me.When I solo hike I'm the person people approach to ask for directions, distances, view points, etc., like they think I'm so sort of expert.
I say hi/good morning/good afternoon to almost every single person on a trail. It's unsettling when they don't say anything back. Maybe one day this will do something to alleviate my perpetual state of unrest.
The difference I've seen for my interactions when hiking is when discussing how many of the 46 I have left, those who are already 46ers ask "which will be the last one," and among non-46ers I'm at the high end. It wasn't that long ago when I was on the bottom end and was (rightfully) treated as a newbie. Congratulations on your 40 mile week! It's feeling good? My summer plan is to run 20-25 per week and maybe hike another ten or so.
Yeah, except I've developed a new hopefully not cardiac issue which is scaring the bajeezus out of me but not stopping me from running so...there's that. Do you do any trail running? I've found running parts of hikes is really a lot of fun!
I haven't tried any trail running yet. It's been sort of wet here, and I want to try it in more like ideal conditions. I can see how a trail run could be a great alternative. Do you do much steep stuff as runs? The trail I hiked last week would be a great run, I think. It isn't steep, but it is a constant up hill. I've been conducting an informal poll: are specific trail running shoes necessary?
Define "steep". Typically my trail runs will be in the 600 - 1,200 ft of elevation gain range, depending on how long the run is and where I go. Did one that was a run/hike that was 2,500 of gain and that was kind of awful but felt amazing by the end. A constant mild grade sounds like it would be a great workout and will probably kill your quads. Which is the best, right? NO. At least I don't think they are, I run in hiking shoes or in running shoes depending on the grade and how comfortable I am with traction on the trail.
That's the part that is new. I spent Memorial day 2016 through February 2017 injured to some degree or another so feeling like I belong is new. It's doing wonders for my confidence though, since so many of my friends are long distance runners.
I'm really lazy when it comes to certain things. Food prep, for example. My parents are two of the best cooks I know, and they're always cooking something up. Feeding you is how they say hello, how they relax, how they make you feel comfortable. I never had to cook much growing up, to such an extent that family lore includes me calling my dad up one day when I was home alone, hungry, asking how to boil water. So imagine how much the lazy hungry-man in me rejoiced when I visited the bodega that's literally two doors down from my new place. I live in a mostly Hispanic neighborhood and saw beans, burritos, fried plantains, all kinds of chicken and pork dishes under heat lamps, for super cheap ($3 for a decently sized burrito, $2 for a 16 oz cup of beans). Open 5am-9pm everyday. I started imagining how often I was going to come here, how the matriarch of the bodega is gonna know me by name, how I'm gonna put their kid through school with all the beans and burritos I'll buy from them. I guess I'm never learning how to cook.
The bodega is truly a double edged sword. I sincerely want to know how to cook, but I don't yet have the intrinsic excitement and motivation for cooking. Which is how I normally spend my free time: on things I'm itching to do. Someone recently put it to me in a new light--and it's kind of embarrassing how simple it is--but he said, "What's your favorite thing to eat? Cook that." And I was like. Oh. That makes sense. Cooking isn't just for making fuel in between activities. I consider this realization very promising.
Learn to cook learn to cook learn to cook! What's the simplest thing you know? I've had periods of time where I have gotten out of the habit of cooking my own meals and ended up relying on bought food (kind of like at your local bodega, although probably not as delicious). The thing that always gets me back into it is buying packets of fresh pasta and fresh pasta sauce. It'll be a bit more expensive than cooking it from scratch but it'll be done in three minutes or so. Less time than I'd need to take to put my shoes on, leave the house and buy some takeaway.
Feel like I've been MIA for a while. Some updates. - my parents have bought tix to come visit and we're gonna drive the Adriatic coast end of July - early August - got my tix home - have some interesting job prospects for when I get back - have some neato me + Meriadoc news that will break sometime towards the end of the summer ;) Parliament voted no confidence on this government so it dissolved and snap elections are in a couple weeks so I have next to diddly to do. Starting today I'm assisting an ex-boss with some projects at her think tank that focuses on reconciliation work, so that's neat.
It's already underway! I've lost over 10 kilos since beginning grad school. It's been so rewarding to have already seen progress in two weeks. My body's like "bro, we got the blueprints, just lift big, eat big, sleep big". Wish I had even more time, but don't we all? Yo, I remember your deadlift PR video from one or two years ago, and it was just about my own max at the time. Do you guys have all the squat racks somewhere across the pond? America has a national shortage. And I think I know why! Insurance. :D
Awesome! Getting powerful feels so damn good. My previous gym had two squat racks and two bench racks... Most have at least a power cage. Insurance? Isn't that what all the machines are for? ;) I bought two kettlebells, a floor mat and a smart scale for my home gym two weeks ago. My plan is to just build up the habit and keep it fun before I get more equipment and go on a bulk. Slow and steady. However... I've already lost 3 lbs just because I went from "eating whatever and no exercise" to "eating healthier and some exercise". I hope it plateaus soon, my BMI dropped to 19.7 yesterday.. .
We've got some power racks, but they see constant usage. Hard to get in, sometimes. Most people want to see (empty!) treadmills when they walk into a gym, I guess. I've used a form of "have" that implies "now", but that's how it is just about everywhere I've been for a solid decade, except for GLORIOUS CU Boulder. Someday, I'm going to mortgage a house. Then, I will have payed for some percentage of a garage. Then, I will completely own a squat rack. There's a fictional deity that may comprise an entirely too centralized portion of my general mentality, and his name is Coach. Coach is a hyper-dimensionally* ripped meathead who spots you at least 50% better than Jesus. Jesus won't make you beg for it like Coach will, but Jesus isn't getting massive gainz, is he? And Coach doesn't fucking care what you're training for. Coach just wants you to vomit before, during, and after your workout, every day, but he'll settle for once a year or so. Cool guy, Coach. *nope
Thesis My thesis is definitely picking up steam. I found this fascinating book on transport justice, advocating a methodology to transportation planning based on principles of justice and accessibility. I rewrote my proposal again because of that book. Next Monday my thesis committee will discuss my proposal, here's to hope they like it. Moving The same day I found out the source of the infrequent sewage odor in my room, I also got the confirmation that the studio I was looking at will be mine. Finally I can have my own place, one that doesn't literally smell like shit and looks like a run-down haunted house in the hallways. I have yet to know the precise studio in the complex but I already know for sure it'll be somewhere between the 16th and 22nd floor, which means I can enjoy a kickass view whenever I want. I'm considering lasercutting a map of everything visible from my window.
It's this one. Here's a taste of it. I found it fascinating because the book was written specifically for transport planners, providing a concrete methodology for prioritizing transport measures based on principles of justice and equality. Basically, the book felt like it was written for me. If all goes well, I'll be Skyping with the author next week to get some input on my ideas.
The gist of or is this: Transportation planning is mostly about government bodies deciding where to allocate their resources based on the locations that they give the most priority. Setting priorities and distributing resources are inherently normative activities. Currently, planners prioritize and distribute resources based on their expectations of congestion and on cost-benefit analysis. Both of those methods are disproportionally favoured towards the non-poor. The book argues that a more fair transportation planning method should focus on population groups that suffer from the largest accessibility deficiencies.
Over time, as the public's appetite for extraordinary investment opportunities continued to grow, the claims of these bubble companies grew equally extraordinary. No regulatory oversight or specialist review was needed at the time, so claimants began to pitch companies which claimed they would achieve: "the making iron with pit coal", "the transmutation of quicksilver into a malleable fine metal", "the making of rape-oil" and, of course, "a wheel for perpetual motion". At the height of the madness, the most famously ethereal company of the bubble promised, without irony, "a company for carrying out an undertaking of great advantage, but nobody to know what it is". I'm sick. Been sick. This is what having a kid is - every summer cold, rhinovirus, sniffle and cough within a hundred miles alights upon your house like a vulture. On the plus side, we can do obnoxious shit like check pulse-ox. On the minus side, we sometimes have to do obnoxious shit like check pulse-ox. Being sick - and having no major projects left prior to shipping off for the summer - means that I can sort of do nothing for a little while. As it turns out I'm very bad at doing nothing. I watched like five episodes of Silicon Valley yesterday and felt insufferably guilty. I was stoked for a minute there because the last short film I have on the docket washed across the transom yesterday at "90%" but upon watching it it's at like 40%, 50% done. I won't be able to touch it for several months. The ECM for my motorcycle landed in Germany this morning. It will hopefully get diagnosed by Monday, and then I will most likely spend $600 on a used one, which will make its way this way probably two days after I leave for LA. So on the plus side, I'm keeping the mileage low on the beastie. On the minus side, it's because I've been able to ride it once in the past two years. Kinda sucks. But really? I've got 2200sqft of medical-dental in a plum of a market. I got through the marriage-destroying act of moving interstate (twice), the family-destroying act of a major commercial build-out, the grind of post on a feature and I even got the novel off to the agency. I actually don't have any major task hanging over my head for the first time since 2013. I built a car in high school. Cut down the frame rails of a Scout 800, put a Chevy 400 in it and put a Triumph TR-7 on top. Took me years. Delayed college a year. Drove it a thousand miles to my uncle's house and landed at 2am Friday, with move-in at college to begin Sunday afternoon. Camped out until a reasonable hour, went to my uncle's house, took a shower and slept all day. Nothing to do, nowhere to go, first time in four years, spent Saturday drinking Diet Coke and watching a Johnny Quest marathon. It was fucking sublime. I'm no longer good at Johnny Quest marathons. Wondering if I should mow the lawn.
Coinmarketcap averages the going rate on every exchange it considers valid. Thus, right now, the spread on ETH is everywhere from $12,888 (ARC/ETH on Livecoin, whatever that is) to $39.36 (WINGS/ETH, also on Livecoin, at a volume of $8). Crypto is not an efficient market and there are probably thunderously amazing arbitrage opportunities at the moment. So while Coinmarketcap can assert that ETH hit $221, It hit that mostly in Korean Won, which may or may not have more than a little to do with fluidity across the Korean border and the current plunge the Won is making against the dollar. Fortunately none of these markets are regulated, the parties on both sides are anonymous and the whole ecology is vulnerable to software exploits, social engineering and good, old-fashioned securities fraud. The South Sea Bubble blew up no less than Isaac Newton and I reckon he's smarter than me. I view the whole spectacle with an unhealthy amount of distrust.Given the chance, investors will rationally jump at the opportunity to be the second greatest fool, and to promote long-shot schemes over modest and humble endeavors.
I've decided that music can't be my only real passion anymore. Whilst I'm by no means giving up - I still intend to dedicate a good amount of time to it - I feel like that after 8 years it's potentially inhibiting my personal growth to define myself purely as a composer. I mean, even if I'm successful by my own measurements, it'd never be enough to make a living (not that that's the point). And it kind of sucks having your actual job be something you're apathetic about. If I'm spending a decent amount of time having to do something, then ideally that thing would be something that I'm passionate about, right? Basically, I'd like to be able to pour the same amount of eager energy into my livelihood as I do my composition work. To that end, I've started training myself in front end web development. I've been doing the respective track on Treehouse and it's awesome. I feel like I've already learnt tonnes and I'm already kind of enamoured with CSS. Like, I had a vague idea of what it was but to find out how even simple code can powerfully shape a website is exciting. My ultimate first project is to create a modern, professional website for the new flagship SaaS web application I've been helping to project manage with third-party developers. To this end, I've managed to get permission to dedicate an hour of my work day to my learning and development of this.
I feel really, really strongly that today's internet kerfluffle about "Trump et al"'s attire choices - you know what I'm talking about; that photo of the Pope, Trump, ivanka, and whoever trump's currently wifed - isn't really about what Trump or the Pope is wearing at all. It seems to me everyone throwing shady comments about that photo is 90% commenting on what Ivanka and Melania wore. I mean, it helps my point in a very serious way that the Pope wears a consistent uniform (papal vestments) and men, in general, when in formal situations such as these, can opt to wear a black or charcoal suit which, while it may vary in details, essentially is a uniform of its own. You wanna comment on this photo? Well I can god damn promise you right from the start you won't be commenting on what the Pope is wearing as that's what he wears every god damn fucking day. Safe, innit? Steve Jobs didn't stick to his black turtleneck and jeans for no reason or even just personal preference, dude. Consistency reduces opinion/public reaction. Hillary "successfully stopped the conversation about her clothes" by adopting one of the most neutral fashion options available to professional women ever - a black on black pantsuit - link for reference What I have observed today is that clearly, Hillary only managed to succeed because she fineessed every element of that super norm-core outfit. Because clearly, opting for basic black formalwear isn't enough for today's society -- Ivanka and Melania both went for that "safe" color option and have still ended up being dragged through every press and opinion piece which cares about catering to the lowest common denominator because, well shucks I guess, the cut of their dresses wasn't simultaneously formal and fashionable enough. Their veils, especially Melania's which was more apparent, didn't conform well enough to our expectations of what American women wear (which, considering the avg American woman doesn't wear any sort of veil or head covering, means that there wasn't a lot of room for them to win regardless of what sort of head covering they might have chosen) so instead, what 90% of the American internet (or so it seems) has found most pertinent to discuss is "what everyone in that Trump/Pope photo was wearing." Let me say one more thing. Take out Ivanka and Melania from that photo and you have the Pope in his official uniform and the President in his unofficial uniform (suit). What is there to discuss? Fucking NOTHING. The furor around this photo and the mocking memes which have arisen from it both baffle and infuriate me. Aren't there more important things to talk about? Am I a dreadlocked unshaved hippie ultrafeminist y'all roll your eyes at? Or has everyone else simply not noticed that almost all of the commentary surrounding this photo is really directed towards the women in it, and not the men? Because how the fuck can you throw shade on the Pope wearing the same thing he does every day? And how can you slam the President for wearing a suit? What, should it have been a tux? I was ashamed to see "feminists" on my facebook rejoin in the opportunity to make catty comments "on the photo overall". This is a veiled critique on gender, people. Nothing more and nothing less, and if you're going to call Ivanka "the bride of Dracula" for what she was wearing then god mother fucking damn it, you can just turn in your "equal rights for all sexes" card to me right. the fuck. now. I will be glad to collect it. I'm not interested in your counterarguments, so don't fucking make them. Bai
There's a piece of land for sale in a neat location at a price I can probably afford. I'm continuing to think about it. I'm not quite sure how to buy land, but I think I want to.
Tricky thing to buying land is the finance available for buying a home is not available for buying land. You can get a gap loan that will cover the land and the cost of construction until you have a habitable domicile on property at which point it can convert to a conventional mortgage but in general, the financial instruments available for homeownership are significantly curtailed for vacant land.
I think I could swing the financing by taking a home equity loan on my condo. Or remorgaging it. Or something. I have enough equity there to cover it. I like the idea of hedging my bets a bit by owning land while also having the excuse to stay in my condo longer.
I'm still going to the gym. I've just been running on the cross-trainer for half an hour at a time. It's not as much as I ought to be doing but it helps chase away some of the anxiety. Nothing like getting home stressed after work, going to the gym, working out and then feeling HAPPY. Thanks, dopamine. Lots of career anxiety. I don't want to give away too many specifics, but let's just say that I have a decision that I want to take but I'm finding it hard to commit to making it. If I take action I won't be able to undo it, but I know that it is inevitable and the sooner the better.
Last week I had another car issue that I was able to resolve quickly. I had previously changed put the ignition coils and all was running well, but one afternoon coming home from work I got barely half a mile away and the car started shaking violently and the check engine light went on. It was a major "oh shit" moment. After some quick googling and driving back to the work parking lot, I deduced that another coil had gone bad/something was wrong there. I cursed the cheap Chinese coils my friend had hooked me up with and got a ride back home (where all my tools and the old coils were stashed). The next day I got a Lyft to work with my tools in tow. In the work lot I swapped out the old coils (which were worn but usable) and confirmed that it was an issue with the new coils. While doing this swap I found one coil had a bit of plastic sheared off on the inside, and I was able to confirm that was the one that had gone bad. I swapped it out with the least-worn of the old coil set and all is good again. You really do feel super manly when you can pop the hood in a parking lot and fix a barely-functional car without a mechanic or tow. I'm also still thinking about music names still. I realized I should sift through some literary muses for ideas. Repent, Harlequin! has a nice ring to it.
Just beware of the opposite - when you fix your friend's dead battery and end up cooking off her voltage regulator because red is positive and black is negative UNLESS YOU'RE VOLKSWAGEN. Or when fuses exist to keep surges from damaging electronics UNLESS YOU'RE VOLKSWAGEN. On the plus side, it's a diesel which means they're buying it back for more than she paid for it and this little peccadillo meant they accelerated the schedule three months and since they're going to crush it anyway they don't give a shit that the voltage regulator is cooked since it starts and runs. So in the end, she paid $180 for a new battery to get out of HER FUCKING VOLKSWAGEN. Which doesn't quite make up for the $800 they charged her to replace the urea sensor on their fraudulent emissions system BECAUSE THEY'RE FUCKING VOLKSWAGEN. So yeah. I know that feeling. But this week, THANKS TO FUCKING VOLKSWAGEN, I discovered what it is to cripple a car by changing out the goddamn battery. THANKS VOLKSWAGEN.You really do feel super manly when you can pop the hood in a parking lot and fix a barely-functional car without a mechanic or tow.
I thought the magical $60/bottle coolant that turns to jello when you mix it with Prestone was bad enough then I met this fucker. but yeah. Fuck those piece of shit nazimobiles.
Week's been good. A couple of thoughts helped me overcome the overbearing anxiety and dread that I've been having over the upcoming exams - something I've talked about in my latest personal post. Now, even though I have little energy, I'm taking on things I want to take on: things as ambitious as building a literary RPG single-handedly and as simple as cooking. Finally broke up with the girl I've been talking about over past Pubski gatherings. Felt like a move forward. There's nothing to a relationship that doesn't have both people interested consistently. Decided I would take responsibility for whatever relationships I end up with and the way I handle them from now on. Developing my core personality helped me realize how low I've been selling myself so far. I can feel paradigms changing in my head ever since I've decided against soda. I've talked about it over IRC but am no longer sure it's the whole scope of things. Starting to feel differently about food, exercise, relationships, people, honesty, life decisions, tastes, my own place in the world... Lots of things that become opaque for a moment then lose themselves in the flow of thought. It's a change for the better, and I'm grateful for it. Starting to realize a few things about myself, as well. I'm mostly a serious person. Most of the fun people around me have seems senseless to me, empty in essence. I figure I'd need to start looking for people in places of common interest rather than try and dig those out - unsuccessfully - in those who don't seem to exhibit them. Great plans for summer include putting energy in meeting people with similar tastes and, hopefully, outlook. Planning to take a look in at least groups for writing and tabletop games. Maybe start a gaming clan: Depressively-Serious Gaming (dunno about you, but it gives me a giggle). Keeping borders about things and people in life seems to be the lesson I'm learning: you have to say "no" to those that take away time from things that are important to you. For a person who was raised to always agree, it's a difficult yet exciting lesson to learn. Aiming for pass marks by the start of the next uni year.