Made a bunch of progress on the ground source heat pump tool we’re building. I devised a way to check for all 250k+ parcels in the county how many boreholes could theoretically fit. 1 borehole means a 30ft standing column, so the question is how many points at least 60ft apart fit into a parcel. It works pretty well! My roommates also made a bid on a house, which got accepted today. So my plans of moving in with my girlfriend seems to perfectly coincide with them moving out, which is just perfect. Then we’ll have this bigass apartment just for the two of us. My mind is already thinking of all the things I want to change or add.
Our flatmates bought their house the same time my girlfriend and I moved into our own house and it is truly awesome having your own space and things to alter. Like I miss these flatmates, one I had lived with for the past 7 years or so, even traveling to Australia with him! But now there's that wonderful sense of knowing you aren't in anyone's way. The only other person I need to take into account is my girlfriend. Bliss! Enjoy it :)
Lion's settled in with his new flock and everyone seems to be getting along quite well! I'm not talking to my parents anymore because they're trying to pass off shitty behavior as respect! The spring semester starts next week! My wife's engaged! I have to get downstairs and take pictures of their rings so I have something to post in kingmudsy's next craftski thread.
I’ve known a few people who’ve decided to drop contact with their parents, and each one reacted in their own way. I hope you’re doing well with it. It makes me happy to know you’ve got so much love and support outside of that relationship! Can’t wait to see the rings :) Is it your metamour that proposed to her?
I have extremely conflicted feelings about it but at least this way it won't keep eating up my energy so I can spend it on things I want to do instead like graduating My wife proposed! I taught her how to use the lathe and helped her make the rings. She is really fun to work with — she's got the clever ideas and the art skills and the enthusiasm and I have the planning skills and fine motor control and the patience for picky detail work.
So. Due to a bank error in my favor aka changing our time off policy, I have 8 weeks of PTO this year...trying to figure out where to go considering the heavy physical training schedule I have this year. I signed up for a 50-mile race which shockingly entails a looooot of training and prep. Most importantly - there’s snow on the ground at sea level!
The catch is I have to use 4 of the weeks in the first 6 months of the year. PCT south will likely be doable by then. Also wondering about a mountainous vacation somewhere or a bunch of small trips but am trying to be cost-conscious.
We’re at about that time of year where my financial anxiety starts setting it. My only real/steadyish source of revenue are my tours in the summer (I’ve tried giving them in winter, but it’s proving to be not viable). So when in January I have nothing to do, and my bank account starts slowing draining it always makes me question my life decisions. Because there is no real guarantee the tours will pick back up well in the summer. And it’s not really a lifelong career so I really should be looking for something else in the meantime. It’s a bit annoying that I come to this place every year. And then loop thought the same thoughts again. - what’s an easy money business I should start now? - maybe I should start applying for jobs? - what am I actually good at and could be a valuable skill for someone to hire me for? - fuck this, it would be cheaper to go live in Asia, travel or something for the winter maybe? - feeling unproductive and lazing around on the couch self-loathingly - volunteering at various places so I feel less like a lazy fuck I feel I’ve been coping a bit better than usual this year with the precious plastic project - but there is no financial gain in sight. I’ve probably volunteered hundreds of hours on passion projects this year, and i love it. But sometimes I wish I could do that without being stressed about paying my bills. And I feel like my parents are judging me a little right now for not having a game plan :( i know they love me, but i feel like a disappointment when every time I see them I just get grilled on what I’m doing and my mom tries to convince me to go get a masters degree in something (anything).
Sounds like you are backwards from where I was; I wanted to start my marketing consultancy, but needed to pay the rent until I built up my roster of clients. So I became a Ghost Tour Guide at night in Pike Place Market in Seattle. This allowed me to work on by business during the day - meet with clients, write, promote, etc. - and make enough money at night to keep me in Ramen and rent. The better I did, the bigger the tips I got! So you have the "night job" sorted out. Now you need to figure out what fills in the other time, and is flexible, so when tour season picks up again you can focus on that, and put the main gig on life support. Which is basically the point of the "gig economy" like Uber/Lyft, Mechanical Turk, DoorDash, pizza delivery, and all that crap. But I don't think that is the right direction for someone like you... I like the Volunteering thing. It gets you involved with a group that needs help, and could possibly lead to something full-time in that particular area of work. What about merging your vlogging and your tours? Do short vlogs of particular parts of your tours... something that people can watch to not only learn about your city when they are coming to visit, but also to learn about YOU and your PRODUCT: the tours! You know vlogging. You are good on camera. You know your tours. Now merge the two together! I had people take my tours multiple times, simply because they enjoyed the experience. So you aren't limiting the pool of people who will attend your summer tours; instead, you are expanding your market to people who may never take your tours, or who aren't capable (wheelchair, physical infirmity, etc.), and appealing to a whole new market of people who like history, travel blogs, etc. I'd watch them. And I wouldn't skip the ads on YouTube either, just to make sure you got the monetization! :-)
My vlogs were already on a bit of a backburner, but then my camera got stolen in Eindhoven and i lost half my african safari footage. And I can't really afford to buy new gear right now. It was a fun adventure and I learned a lot, but it wasn't really going anywhere anyway so I think it's time to move on to other things.
Well that sucks ass. But it is something you can do instead of "feeling unproductive and lazing around on the couch self-loathingly", - you already have the skills learned/refined, - even a cell phone can be all the equipment you need at first, - and it has both a physical bricks-and-mortar aspect and a virtual/viral aspect to the business. That gives you more coverage/reality than your usual YouTuber, and a target market (visitors to Montreal), that is easy to target and market to. It's an option. But I also understand when I am just DONE with something, and want to leave it behind. I get it.
Just had the final of three guests in our new house. My girlfriend's parents visited, then my brother and his girlfriend, then my friend from the UK, whom I've never actually met as we only know each other through the rugby podcast we're on. He had never been to New Zealand so I got the pleasure of showing off the southern gem that is my city. Basically we ate a lot of really nice food and he got sunburnt on an overcast day cause New Zealand hates you if you're pasty. Was great having guests, but being back to just me and my girlfriend is very nice. I've read my usual new book over the New Year break, now to bust out this macrame set I got given as a gift.
howdy howdy ho life continues to go there's been a surprise resurgence in hobbies lately - among other things, making a map for the alternate world i like to write about there's a world 'isekai' in japanese that i like - it basically means "parallel universe" or "alternative world" but it's less clunky than either of those expressions are in english, and doesn't have the judgementalness of 'fantasy world' anyway have a good week everybody
So the comment I left last week about being alone got significantly more traction than I thought it would. Hell, someone even badgered it! In it, I promised to reflect. Here I am, reflected. I feel the slightest bit of guilt for that comment now - I spoke of uncertainty, but I know why I like being alone. I’ve learned to love the accessories of solitude, but I know that’s not why I reach for it so compulsively. I need it because I’m driven by anxiety to analyze every moment of every minute of every interaction I’ve ever had with another person face-to-face. I’m not too kind to myself in these analyses. I turn over every rock, looking for unfavorable microexpressions or sideways glances, churning everything I have until each memory is smooth and formless and empty. It’s free-floating guilt in search of shame powerful enough to wield it. It’s made me clever, it’s made me wise, it’s made me precocious, and it’s made me tired. So tired that physical exhaustion hardly compares to the mental weight I’ve saddled myself with out of a sense of duty and a desire to please people. So there it is: Staying up late. The world is quiet, but the watcher in my head (the one who delicately selects the warrants it will use to convince me I am hated) is quiet too. There’s nothing for him to watch, so he sleeps while I enjoy the stale night. I think, too, it’s why I enjoy the internet. Written communication allows me to take pauses and convey myself more accurately, and for some reason I don’t put nearly the same pressure on myself with the pseudo-anonymity we all share. I think there’s more mystery there waiting to be elaborated on; maybe next week. I thought this would be more therapeutic to write. Where’s my catharsis? I think I earned it.
battle of the bands! Had the joy of being part of Gainesville's Worst Show Ever 3 last week, a three hour musical extravaganza where the worst performance wins. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nef5x_1KJ51HC5Dy5MKKWqtdW4QaEa9z/view?usp=sharing It was very fun :) We had two people who knew what they were doing, 3 who didn't, and one man on the musical blender
Seawolves rugby season (well, pre-season) begins on Thursday... and there's snow on the ground in Seattle. Should just be the usual wet and shitty in Seattle by Thursday, but we will have the added benefit of wet, shitty, and cold.... for a NIGHT game. Hmmm... I wonder how many layers can a human conceivably wear and still survive? (Apparently the number is 227 t-shirts.) Band Collaboration In other news, when I was in Budapest I was a part of a group of about 20 or so musicians who all played together in various bands for about 10 years. Those people all dispersed to the wind more than a decade ago, but 8 of us recently reconnected via email. We are spread around - UK, EU, all parts of the USA, Sweden, Australia, etc. - but we all have some sort of musical software (usually GarageBand or Logic) and a GoogleDrive. So we have started writing new music! One guy uploads their part - say the guitar part - and each of us write a corresponding part for it: guitars, bass, keyboards, vocals, etc. We upload all of the separate parts to the GoogleDrive, and then each of us mix the bits together in our own unique way, or ask others to write a section or part that is heavier, or softer, or whatever. There are multiple guitarists, bassists, and singers, so there are always interesting different interpretations, depending on who wrote the part. So we are winding up with 2 or 3 great versions of individual songs that have no empirical "single final version"! The creative juices are flowing, and we are having a lot of fun. Hopefully I'll have something to share with Hubski soon...
Heyyyy Rugby time again. The Highlanders just finished their pre-season and they had a public training run on my club's field. It's going to be a very different team - not least because we've lost Waisake Naholo and Ben Smith as well as some stalwart forwards but there's a good young and excited feel about the squad. I have selected Seawolves as my American comp team btw, need to sort some merch!
certain terrible experiences taught me the value of Cabela's Realtree ensembles. Depending on the sale, $200 will get you a goretex jacket with fleece liner and pants that has no odor, makes no sound and will keep you warm and dry in a ten hour freezing rainstorm on top of Mount Rainier. Your friends will mock you initially, but as soon as the sky opens up you will be the envy of every dipshit wearing $2k worth of Arcteryx.
Those same friends will be laughing right back at you when you try to pack that in a rucksack and hump it cross country... That being said, next time I’m in the states I will now be going straight to a cabelas
Yeah if you try and pack a "standing still in the rain" outfit so that you can use it as your "hiking Mt. Baldy" outfit you deserve to be laughed at. The kit that allows you to be comfortable when at rest is very different from the kit that allows you to be comfortable in motion, which is my whole point.
John Oliver pointed out that Mike Pence is younger than Flava Flav. See this choad? My wife's junior class president.