LifeInReview: 6 Month Update.
It's a fascinating chapter in my life at the moment, an exercise in so many contrasts.
From one vantage it almost seems like nothing is moving, yet from another perspective it's a blur where this half year has seemed like turning around twice before sitting down. In some avenues I feel a bit like Johnny Mnemonic, exchanging part of my present in exchange for a hopefully brighter future. Of course I don't see it as sacrifice really, for all intents and purposes life here is paradise: The temperature in LA is never 'really' something to bitch about, having a community of friends living next door is always rewarding. I still work from home most the week, but can drive into the office to get comradarie, and since I don't see them every day I actually look forward to seeing the people, though have to carry earplugs to keep my sanity as working with creative people is like having their inner minds spilled out onto the open office for all to experience. I can generally sleep and eat when I want, though neither are as necessary when life is good.
Locally the economic depression is easy to see, though it doesn't really seem that anybody particularly talks about it much. Though one of my favorite pizza places just raised prices $.50 to combat gas prices. There isn't a street I walk down that isn't missing stores like a hobo is missing teeth. At times 3 or 4 sores...er stores in a row, and I expect a more before it gets better. I rarely fill up my gas tank, and it's doubled in cost from a year or so ago, so it doesn't feel like that slow frog boiling as many have, but more a sharp visible stab. It affects everybody on multiple levels. I recently met a traveling meals cook and he's expressed that his food costs have all doubled in the last 2 years, causing him to see cheaper ingredients and reduce portions in order to keep prices about the same. Since I use so much fresh fruit/veggies something I can see it in my food bills as well, but I don't really care that much as like gas..there aren't many practical alternatives. Yet at the same time, I count more SUV's than ever, and Melrose is still opening new expensive clothing stores, I have yet to go to the Grove and it wasn't thronged with people, frequently shelling out $40/person for an evening of entertainment. Whole Foods is similarly always busy. I haven't seen more than a couple restaurants close..
In my own life there are financial parallels. I've had the incredible opportunity to work for stock for most the last 2 years, a gamble I've done before with other startups, which looking back so far haven't panned out yet and is one of the reasons I have the same car I went to college in that still runs... at the time always feels like, and continues to feel like the right thing to do. In conjunction with developing products, I've opted to go debt finance much of it and that time period, and I don't expect that those pay back for another year or so, as some of what I'm doing is complicated, and my resources at present time constrained. The result is an odd twisting sensation, to look at the balance sheet, the pile of monopoly money whose value is ghostlike in the need for someone to believe in it to have value growing vastly, the future projections saying something like 5 months more of this meager living,t potentially a year to pay back past that. ....yet it's just a moment, but I don't really stress either way as I'm thinking in years, and it all balances out. The volumes I learn are equally as valuable and actually less expensive than grad school. I'm fortunate that my skillset is in such high demand that I routinely turn away job requests, and if I had taken them it would be just cash that would grow at something close to the rate which currency devaluation and inflation would eroding it, right or wrong I still feel that good companies can grow far faster than a flailing economy can sink. I am also starting to speak professionally, so it will be fun to grow that side of myself, I really enjoy performing especially when it's a mix of entertainment and information.
The biggest opportunity costs I think are in health, as I'm increasingly aware of my own limited robust vitality. Health wise, unsurprising given the millions of keystrokes I logged in a career, while flirting off and on for years, RSI finally reached a threshold (during a major release) that said it was here to stay. Though thankfully good ergonomics, switching to a trackball, and frequent arm massages and stretching have kept it at bay. Knees too seemed to reach some threshold where it's noticeably not as easy to jog/run without having flareups, and I generally know that this isn't going to get better as I get older. But on the opposite side I recently joined a 24 fitness where going a few times a week has helped noticably, I've come to recognize how closely hypoxia is related to being a crabby unresourceful mood. After a few weeks though, I am able to go for an hour at my upper target heart rate (165bpm) at high resistance without even breathing hard.
I've given up almost all caffiene and reduced sugar, -I've realized that these just shift mental clarity from one part of the day to another...I've also started eating about 2 heads of kale a day in the form of 'kale crisps', basically the consistency of potato chips but healthyier, they are just dehydrated. Given up tea+milk,and infrequent alcohol has pretty much eliminated obnoxious body odor.
Despite my desire to go completely digital, I've mostly given up the Tablet PC and switched to paper, a great 'Manga' hard bound. At current I burn through one in about 1.5 months, so 1-3 pages a day. I've gotten many comments while at restaurants on the funny and intricate doodles and what I call pensieve diagrams. It's funny how much not having an allowance still haunts me, at first I balked, $14 for a 100 pages of paper and $2 for a pen?!?! but given the cost of the ideas, the amount I use it, it's actually one of the cheapest investments and far less than the tablet PC actually. Flipping through the pads shows me how much in my life changes, how many subjects I cover.
Dating life has been on hold for the most part. Occasional dates, mostly off Okcupid, including the highest match I've had on the system (85%), more out of curiosity than interest, though a UCLA Doctorate candidate and I have hit it off... fortunately she's abroad for a few months to keep us out of trouble.
From one vantage it almost seems like nothing is moving, yet from another perspective it's a blur where this half year has seemed like turning around twice before sitting down. In some avenues I feel a bit like Johnny Mnemonic, exchanging part of my present in exchange for a hopefully brighter future. Of course I don't see it as sacrifice really, for all intents and purposes life here is paradise: The temperature in LA is never 'really' something to bitch about, having a community of friends living next door is always rewarding. I still work from home most the week, but can drive into the office to get comradarie, and since I don't see them every day I actually look forward to seeing the people, though have to carry earplugs to keep my sanity as working with creative people is like having their inner minds spilled out onto the open office for all to experience. I can generally sleep and eat when I want, though neither are as necessary when life is good.
Locally the economic depression is easy to see, though it doesn't really seem that anybody particularly talks about it much. Though one of my favorite pizza places just raised prices $.50 to combat gas prices. There isn't a street I walk down that isn't missing stores like a hobo is missing teeth. At times 3 or 4 sores...er stores in a row, and I expect a more before it gets better. I rarely fill up my gas tank, and it's doubled in cost from a year or so ago, so it doesn't feel like that slow frog boiling as many have, but more a sharp visible stab. It affects everybody on multiple levels. I recently met a traveling meals cook and he's expressed that his food costs have all doubled in the last 2 years, causing him to see cheaper ingredients and reduce portions in order to keep prices about the same. Since I use so much fresh fruit/veggies something I can see it in my food bills as well, but I don't really care that much as like gas..there aren't many practical alternatives. Yet at the same time, I count more SUV's than ever, and Melrose is still opening new expensive clothing stores, I have yet to go to the Grove and it wasn't thronged with people, frequently shelling out $40/person for an evening of entertainment. Whole Foods is similarly always busy. I haven't seen more than a couple restaurants close..
In my own life there are financial parallels. I've had the incredible opportunity to work for stock for most the last 2 years, a gamble I've done before with other startups, which looking back so far haven't panned out yet and is one of the reasons I have the same car I went to college in that still runs... at the time always feels like, and continues to feel like the right thing to do. In conjunction with developing products, I've opted to go debt finance much of it and that time period, and I don't expect that those pay back for another year or so, as some of what I'm doing is complicated, and my resources at present time constrained. The result is an odd twisting sensation, to look at the balance sheet, the pile of monopoly money whose value is ghostlike in the need for someone to believe in it to have value growing vastly, the future projections saying something like 5 months more of this meager living,t potentially a year to pay back past that. ....yet it's just a moment, but I don't really stress either way as I'm thinking in years, and it all balances out. The volumes I learn are equally as valuable and actually less expensive than grad school. I'm fortunate that my skillset is in such high demand that I routinely turn away job requests, and if I had taken them it would be just cash that would grow at something close to the rate which currency devaluation and inflation would eroding it, right or wrong I still feel that good companies can grow far faster than a flailing economy can sink. I am also starting to speak professionally, so it will be fun to grow that side of myself, I really enjoy performing especially when it's a mix of entertainment and information.
The biggest opportunity costs I think are in health, as I'm increasingly aware of my own limited robust vitality. Health wise, unsurprising given the millions of keystrokes I logged in a career, while flirting off and on for years, RSI finally reached a threshold (during a major release) that said it was here to stay. Though thankfully good ergonomics, switching to a trackball, and frequent arm massages and stretching have kept it at bay. Knees too seemed to reach some threshold where it's noticeably not as easy to jog/run without having flareups, and I generally know that this isn't going to get better as I get older. But on the opposite side I recently joined a 24 fitness where going a few times a week has helped noticably, I've come to recognize how closely hypoxia is related to being a crabby unresourceful mood. After a few weeks though, I am able to go for an hour at my upper target heart rate (165bpm) at high resistance without even breathing hard.
I've given up almost all caffiene and reduced sugar, -I've realized that these just shift mental clarity from one part of the day to another...I've also started eating about 2 heads of kale a day in the form of 'kale crisps', basically the consistency of potato chips but healthyier, they are just dehydrated. Given up tea+milk,and infrequent alcohol has pretty much eliminated obnoxious body odor.
Despite my desire to go completely digital, I've mostly given up the Tablet PC and switched to paper, a great 'Manga' hard bound. At current I burn through one in about 1.5 months, so 1-3 pages a day. I've gotten many comments while at restaurants on the funny and intricate doodles and what I call pensieve diagrams. It's funny how much not having an allowance still haunts me, at first I balked, $14 for a 100 pages of paper and $2 for a pen?!?! but given the cost of the ideas, the amount I use it, it's actually one of the cheapest investments and far less than the tablet PC actually. Flipping through the pads shows me how much in my life changes, how many subjects I cover.
Dating life has been on hold for the most part. Occasional dates, mostly off Okcupid, including the highest match I've had on the system (85%), more out of curiosity than interest, though a UCLA Doctorate candidate and I have hit it off... fortunately she's abroad for a few months to keep us out of trouble.