Krakow is incredible and Auschwitz is incredibly depressing. It has easily been my favorite city so far. In Budapest now and it's wonderful. The parliament building is stunning. I'm mooching off public WiFi right now waiting for it to get dark to get a good picture of the building lit up and reflecting off the Danube. And the pictures!
Aw man... I miss Budapest. After taking a photo of the Parliament, then turn around and look at the "Chain Bridge", Lanchid. And then, go into Parliament square in front of the Parliament building. Notice those other three gorgeous buildings standing around the square? Yeah... those were the three runners-up designs for the Parliament building. The Austro-Hungarian Empire liked all four submissions so much... they built all four of them!! Make some time to check out Nyugati Train Station. It was designed by Eiffel. Yes, THAT Eiffel. And Margit Sziget (Margaret Island) is lovely to walk around. As is the Varosliget (City Park). Aw man... enjoy it!!
Margaret Island has the WiFi I'm mooching! What a lovely park. Took a walk around the island. So nice. I'll try to check out the station. I took a tour of the Parliament building earlier and what a beautiful building inside. Breathtaking. Shame they don't let you take pictures of the dome the crown is in because I'd have loved a picture if that ceiling and the 16 King statues and coat of arms they had hanging around.
Budapest has been my favorite place I've traveled so far. I can get cheap flights to/from Pristina so I'm working on getting back there ASAP.
Mountains and Shit If my dog was a rabbit on a Sunday afternoon Some kind of lamp I’m having a pretty rough day. I got all sorts of stress coming at me from multiple angles, which kind of sucks and I’m pretty much drained of any ability to form any real thoughts here. But I felt like I should contribute something. So, here are some crappy drawings I’ve done that are some of my less crappy drawings. I screwed up twice on the mountain one (that I know of). The rabbit one was drawn on a really nice brown piece of cardstock that for some reason, when I tried to color correct the image, it turned a puke yellow brown, so we’ll just leave it slightly less fucked up. There’s no symbolism for the lamp. I drew a planet, decided it needed a man standing on it looking proud, and then figured he’d be looking at a lamp, that the lamp needed to be plugged in, and that it needed to be sitting on a table. I like the pentagon shaped head though. It makes it easy to figure out which way he’s facing. I tend to draw while listening to Dala's podcasts with her or watching television. I date the back. I'm starting to think I should also write what I'm listening to or watching as well, just because it'd be interesting to look back on. Sorry they’re not amazing, but not really sorry. I have fun drawing them and I think that’s all that matters.
Mum's a hoarder, we've argued before over my throwing things away and she has fished them out of the trash to save them. She won't accept that she is; but her behaviour gives it away. Threw out almost half of the rubbish on just one shelf, took two hours and has cleared up about a decade of anxiety and tension over this damned mess. And yes, this is literally just one shelf, just shy of two metres big. She came home and was okay with it, suggested I throw away some of the circa 2005 computer / web user magazines she has 'kept because they have important information in'. Kind of shocked to be honest, we've had huge fallings out over this before. Worried she has dementia. Found my Modofly Ultraray toy-laser-gun moleskine though!
Work is going well. I'm finally getting results of the quality I want from the instrument setup I've been working on for the past few months, and I'm feeling confident I can get this project to where it needs to go. I've also been having fun with recording stuff. I acquired a pair of studio monitors from a friend that needed some quick cash, and I've been having lots of "make a 1 min composition and record it this evening. GO!" sessions.
We're moved into the house and I'm a little freaked out about our mortage. The only way to get a 30 year loan with our wonderful credit union was to go on a 5/5 ARM. Starts at 4%, caps at 10% and can't go up more than 2% per period. The credit union is great and has helped me with loans in the past when I fell on hard times, but everyone seems to think ARMs are the worst idea in the world. We also found a headstone in our curbside trashcan. The garbage men won't take it, it's too heavy, but now we have all these questions like "is there a body on our property?" and "why does the idea of breaking this into rubble freak us out?" On the good news side, I'm finally implementing my dream of home automation. I currently have speakers in every room downstairs and have light switches for the living room and bedroom on the way. Soon I'll be able to live out my childhood dream of a voice activated home.
I wouldn't sweat it too much. Many areas of the world have no such thing as a 30 year fixed, and they own homes just fine. The question is whether you can afford a potential payment of 10% 8 years from now. If yes, then it's shitty but no big deal. If no, then it may be a good idea to look to refi into a fixed rate after a couple years when your credit is better. I wouldn't let it burn you up too much. The exciting thing is that you have a house that you can do whatever you want with.
Tell me about your speaker setup! Are they all set to play from one source? Can you split the speakers into groups? How did you get it wired? Asking because pumping sweet sounding music is a hallmark hospitality, and I'm shooting for the stars.
So, my setup is my personal project that my wife has no interest in. This is important because it all comes out of my discretionary fund which never gets too big, so I had to build it in pieces and for cheap. The first thing I got were new speakers for my PC. This left me with some Logitech 2.1's that connected through a 1/8in jack. Next I got a Chromecast Audio, plugged it into the 2.1's and set that up in the kitchen. I downloaded the home app, hooked up my google music account, and now could say "ok google, play music in the kitchen". Worked great, cost under $100. Next, I told everyone that loves me that chrome cast audio's and 2.1's are always on my gift list. So the holiday's roll around and I get two more audios and one more set of speakers. I went out and got some bookshelf speakers and a smaller amp from amazon. Those became the setup for my living room and dining room. Using the home app, I named all the Audio's based on the room they were in then grouped them together as "downstairs". I cracked and bought a Google Home (though now you can make one from a raspberry pi and they're talking about the next generation being a router as well). I also have two Google Videos named properly, so now you can say "play music on [location]" to get tunes anywhere downstairs, or 'play video on [device]" to get shows on the projector downstairs or tv upstairs. And, since it's all chromecast, you can of course do all of these things from any android phone on the network (we keep it open for parties, but no one ever really uses it). I also have a nest thermostat and protect, and some switches coming, but those are more for energy efficiency.
Interesting! I, too, have a sliver of a budget for speakers and the like, but it seems so easy to do it piecemeal now that it sounds completely doable. Thanks
The point of an ARM is to get out and cash out your equity or refi into a conventional. It's also entirely possible that every other bank out there can beat your credit union. Credit unions, because they're membership-owned, have a fiduciary responsibility to their members and they are estimating risk appropriately. Banks, on the other hand, can sell your mortgage to someone else and tranche it up and treat it like a security (AND NOTHING BAD WILL HAPPEN). I don't think interest rates are going anywhere anytime soon. It's not a bad time to ARM it. Just keep in mind that if you make your minimum payment you're paying interest and every penny above that goes to principal. If you can pay anything above minimum you will build equity much faster.
I'm too stressed to tell if these are sarcasm caps - but one of my biggest fears was having our mortgage sold, which was the main reason we went with the CU. b_b I'm also responding to you. We're also making payments as though it was a 15 year loan, but were planning on a family in the near future, so we wanted the flexibility of being able to pay less. And yeah, I'm 90% excited (this is the coolest thing I ever bought) and 10% freaking out (this is the most expensive thing I've ever bought) but I've never been so excited to build shelves, so that's cool.AND NOTHING BAD WILL HAPPEN
It doesn't really matter if your mortgage is sold because the terms stay the same. I think our mortgage has been sold three times, and that's above and beyond the two refis. The securitization of mortgages isn't bad for the homeowner, it's bad for the market; it incentivizes unstable behavior by banks and provides excess cash flow into the market, thereby inflating prices. A 10/90 freakout ratio is appropriate and level-headed. I'll say this: Wayfair is about 150% the quality of Ikea and costs a little less (and you don't have to get it to your house) but both companies make temporary furniture. legit shelves are far easier than ikea bullshit and drywall anchors are a tool of last resort. this will beat every stud finder at Home Depot because it uses a burly neodymium magnet to find nail heads as opposed to questionable readings of capacitance. Congrats. Keep us posted on your automation adventures.
~ meditation ~ I'm now more than three weeks into the Headspace Take 10 programme. I don't know to what degree meditation can have a positive effect on one's day, but I feel like it has a noticable effect on mine. I feel less stressful even though I'm not doing less stuff. Anyone else here meditating? ~ random encounter of the week ~ I was climbing the stairs from the platform to the exit of the train station when the guy in front of me dropped his empty cup. Bending over to reach it, a bottle that was sticking out of his backpack poured some water on his neck. It looked like he kept some kind of thin bamboo sticks in the bottle? I felt bad for him so I said something like 'hey man, your bottle is open and so is your backpack' and he looks at me with the vilest look on his face and growls: DIDYOUTOUCHIT?!?! 'no, I just wanted to say that...' WELL DON'T EVER TOUCH IT. UGH. And then he scurried away to the bike stalls, leaving me behind all confused. While exiting the station a girl came up to me asking what happened. We concluded that he was just rude. I still don't know what Bamboo Backpack Guy was thinking.
There was a ~month long period where I cycled through Headspace's starter 10-day course a few times. I found it immensely useful. I stopped short of enrolling in their paid app and haven't tried it since, but I honestly see the utility in it. I think there's value in exercising the "muscle" of mindfulness--of not identifying with every thought and feeling that spontaneously arises, but letting them pass non-judgmentally. This ability, paired with a larger overarching life goal or set of deeply examined principles, makes for a potent human being. It's not the only kind of potency (Kanye West is a pretty potent guy, but I think he identifies with every thought that passes his consciousness), but mindfulness steels you in a quintessentially stoic kind of way. Question: Is the desire for the benefits of stoicism at odds with stoicism? Because I view stoicism as a means to an end--that end being a peaceful and fulfilled inner life. But wanting a peaceful and fulfilled inner life seems to violate the stoic creed of not wanting for things, or otherwise living a life free of desire. (I imagine this paradox has parallels in a buddhist context.)
Question: Is the desire for the benefits of stoicism at odds with stoicism? Because I view stoicism as a means to an end--that end being a peaceful and fulfilled inner life. But wanting a peaceful and fulfilled inner life seems to violate the stoic creed of not wanting for things, or otherwise living a life free of desire. (I imagine this paradox has parallels in a buddhist context.) I think Seneca would say that you should desire the benefits of stoicism. Adopting a viewpoint is something that is internal to you. That's exactly the realm in which you should desire and set stock by according to the Stoics: qualities that are assigned to you by yourself, through your own faculties of reason, and not by fortune.
This is helpful. I feel less selfish in pursuing stoicism now.Adopting a viewpoint is something that is internal to you. That's exactly the realm in which you should desire and set stock by according to the Stoics: qualities that are assigned to you by yourself, through your own faculties of reason, and not by fortune.
I meditate. I did tai chi when I was younger because I've always been an old man, and it was a great way to slow down and appreciate what I have. I don't do the motions any more, but I do still have two meditation techniques that I like a lot 1. Thankfulness. A lot of times we curse what goes wrong, but very rarely do we appreciate what goes right. This is an all day exercise where you say "thanks" out loud when something goes well, like you hit a green light or don't have to wait for an elevator. The goal is to be thankful for everything that goes right in your day - if you do that you'll quickly see how much the good outweighs the bad. 2. Clear mind. This is a more traditional meditation - I find a quiet place where I won't be disturbed and close my eyes. I imagine a clear flowing river. Whenever I have a thought, I drop it in the river and watch it float away. It takes a lot of effort to make sure every thought goes into the river and flows away, it's easy to hold on to some, but it helps me to practice what it feels like to let things go. On really good days I do this until my mind is clear, but on most days it's until I'm frustrated or bored.
I decided to upgrade my high school courses so I could go to university instead of college which in Alberta could cost me at least $600 per course while it's $40 in Ontario. The difference there is insane, I'm just using my parents Ontario address since I can write my exams when I visit but it blows my mind the lack of good options people have here to get ahead especially since so many people live in remote areas. No kidding people felt like they had no options when the oil fields were laying off tons of workers. A plus side to Alberta is that the northern lights were amazing the other day and right over my home. ButterflyEffect, hopefully they are visible when you are around here.
That would be incredible. From reading up on it it sounds like July is outside of the optimal time of year for seeing them, but who knows! I'm optimistic.
Yoga? I think I'm going to go to a yoga class on Friday night? What sounds better than yoga at 8:00pm. Hopefully it will help a bit more with flexibility. That, and combating some mild shin splints are my current priorities. Had a conversation last night about why we do certain things, and kind of had a realization that a lot of challenging things are fun. I get enjoyment out of difficulty when it comes to things related to fitness and competition. Anyway, meeting up with a girl tonight. Not really a date, since she's gone for a few weeks, but maybe a date after this? And two of my friends keep alluding to me and another friend "hitting it off". And then there's the girl I'm actively chasing. So...can't lose 'em all, I think.
In my opinion, morning Yoga beats evening Yoga because morning Yoga stays with you all day. And it will definitely help with flexibility, and probably help with core. I'll say this: if you don't like that yoga class, figure out what you don't like about it and see if there are other yoga classes that feature whatever it is a lot less prominently. I tried Bikram Bullshit Yoga like three times and then gave up for a year before finding a good yoga class and the good yoga class is awesome.
night yoga is great because you can work on yoga nidra -- yogic sleep. it'll make you feel really good. one of the best yoga nidra stretches is the legs up the wall stretch -- a relatively simple inversion that helps take a lot of stress off the lower body.
Just looked up that stretch and it looks great! The nice part about Friday night is it would lead into my long run for the week which is almost always on Saturday, so sleeping well is super important. Otherwise it's just miserable to be out running for forever.
- We keep rapidly alternating between blue skies and sunlit rain/hail. - sgeorge has some kombucha starting. It's a few days old. - I've got some sauerkraut going. Also a few days old. The pickles I made a few weeks ago have lost most of their too-aggressive dill edge. - So, now we're up to Sourdough, Beer, Pickles, and Kombucha on the home ferment front. - I discovered that it's possible to modify old Light and Motion mounts to be quick release! Not as smooth an action as the new model of mounts, but it works. Such a small change, but I'm really excited about it. Locking up is way less of a hassle now. Just remove the screw and trim back the rubber to roughly the bottom of the screw hole and the light can unsnap and slide out. - The library's copy of War and Peace still isn't available, so I just bought the same edition. Had to spend some time on wikipedia reacquainting myself with volume 1. - Kicking around the idea of setting up FreeNAS or TrueOS on a vps for remote file backups. It'd be a little expensive, but I shouldn't need too much space since RAW files are the bulk of my data at this point and I imagine they'll compress OK. - Which also got me thinking about setting up a VPN. - Started listening to Hardcore History. Content is interesting, wish the production was different. - My journal is on a bit of a hiatus. The scheme I was using was nice for keeping me organized when I used it, but required too much upkeep to actually keep me using it.
Funding ran out, and as of June 30th, I'm out of a job. Because it's a Force Reduction and not like, a firing or something, HR is going to be helping me connect with other positions here at the U that could be good fits, plus I get a month's pay severance. Still sucks. NYC bound in less than 24 hours. I've got a week off to perform, come home, get my shit together, and re-orient for the next phase of my career. I always knew that this was a temporary position. I guess I was expecting more notice. Edit so that there's a positive note to this. Showed up to the last pre-Carnegie rehearsal last night. I'm glad that I did, because only one other tenor showed up and he's not the most confident singer. Got complimented by the Maestro at the end of rehearsal for carrying the tenor line against 15 altos, 15 sopranos and a quad of powerful basses.
Some of the less-than-awesome aspects of living in my new home are coming to light. It's pretty expensive. I landed a sweet restaurant job at a nearby luxury hotel, but I've got pretty much all my summer income earmarked already. Thankfully, a lot of these things are one-time expenses. Even more thankfully, I'm able to swing all this on a poor man's income, so when I start to make grown man money, I should be more than set. The other less than sexy thing: my neighborhood is the definition of love-hate. I love the genuine improvements and care given towards it from within the community, like the beautification, fundraising for kids recreation, and the amount of renovation I see on my block alone. I hate that I haven't slept in two days because I keep getting woken up by people & kids yelling outside my window through all hours. I hate how my fight-or-flight reflex is primed when I park my car after dusk, or when I see ten kids on bicycles wheely-ing down the street. Hopefully this will all attenuate as I get used to living here and calling it home.
Accept the fact that you embody "gentrification" and that the whole point of you getting a big financial leg up on this is that you are not a hoodlum, you are not the sort who yells outside other peoples' windows and that, demographically speaking, they have a lot more to fear from you, white man, than you have to fear from them. Also, you have expressed an intention (combined with, I believe, a contractual obligation) to live there for a good long while so considering your passion for volunteering, the sooner you start integrating yourself into the community, getting involved in the beautification, raising the funds, and adding to the renovation the happier you will be. Strangers yelling outside your window at the middle of the night? Potential confrontation. Bob's kids yelling outside your window at the middle of the night? You can tell them to keep it down in clear conscience. FWIW: even confronting strangers isn't hard. Our corner in LA was heavily frequented by college kids in need of Ubers and standing on the balcony and saying "Ladies, I hate to be 'that guy' but I got a 6am call and a toddler that sleeps light so if you could keep it down a little it'd be a blessing" was remarkably effective. Meanwhile up here our neighbor has a basketball hoop pointed to the street and stepping out onto the porch in a bathrobe to say "guys, seriously? It's 1am" gets them to scatter shamefaced. Really, so long as you can keep your conversation out of the realm of "keep it down you damn kids" you'll probably be fine.
I was very cranky when I wrote that. But I don't think the issue is nearly so intractable that I won't sleep in the next ten years. I'm already meeting neighbors and saying hello. Beautification, here I come: I'm putting up terra cotta planters and planting a tree in the grass square out front.
Haha! I remember the grade school kids carrying on till the wee hours when I lived across the street from section 8 housing. If it's section 8 than you'll be living with it for decades, if it isn't your arrival in the neighborhood means it will be over in a few years.
I'm not sure if it's section 8 or not. But I did notice that there are about six other gut-and-rehab projects ongoing on my block. My next door neighbor, a black lady who's been renting there for almost 15 years, says she's getting pressure from her landlord to move out and that he's trying to remodel the place himself and start charging more. It seems that some the property owners around here sense a change. Which is interesting, and so quintessentially Baltimore: two or three blocks north of me and the abandoned houses start in earnest. Yet the real estate markets are so hyperlocal that it's just a matter of a block or two to go from somewhat booming or desirable to vacancies and condemned housing.
What I've Done With My Life Since I've Quit My Job: The Wonderful Misadventures of weewooweewoo. I've met some busy freelancers and have benefited from their company. I am now the proud owner of http://fidgetak.com/ (fidget spinners) and http://savory.af (database of food trucks). I also have a hair cut prototype for a client: http://angies-true-colors-hair.webflow.io/ And a prototype for analytics company for non-profits: http://queryon.webflow.io/ My life is surprisingly alright. I have to leave the house at 9am every morning to convince my parents I am still employed. Three people I have told this to have told me that I should break the facade. They're right, but I'm being stubborn. Leaving the house at 9am helps me not stay in my room and watch Youtube all day. I've been busy. Things are alright right now, in what would otherwise be a tumultuous time. I don't want to break that. I meditate now. Do you meditate, bruh? You should meditate. Did you know that if you put all of the benefits of meditation into a pill, it would be the most effective drug on the market? If you don't meditate you're a piece of shit. You would feel better if you meditate. (I haven't meditated in three days, combo breaker. Too bad.)
I've noticed that there's a lot of destructive noise around places I most frequent; that, or I'm inclined to create the noise in my head as a result of the ritual about those places. So... Tomorrow, I'll be going dark for a week. I'm going to limit my Internet usage to necessities (crucial communications, urgent activities) and reading the articles from the bookmarks. I was going to use Twitter with the profound purpose of subscribing to at least one positive thought a day while dark, but registering to Twitter seems to be far more complicated than I remember. In particular, I was required to add my phone number to the account so that someone would call me - to verify it, I suppose? - which is not something I'm comfortable with. I'll figure something out. Might put that GitHub free hosting to use. Or file an Instagram account: start making photos. I'm committing to the idea of one positive thought a day. I'll post the results once I'm back. In the meantime: have a good one.
mk what's up with the Pubski I ? I know you're sick but come on! We expect more from you.