Year: 2021

  • Sacrifice

    Sacrifice

    Someone was asking for advice a couple weeks ago. They wanted to make more money, but really their problem was that they didn’t save enough money. Not that making more wouldn’t be great, but just that I knew that if they did make more they would just spend it and be on a fancier treadmill.…

  • Gratitude 2021

    Gratitude 2021

    I write at least one post about gratitude per year, and each year I find the task a little bit more difficult because I have even more to be thankful for and narrowing it down to just one part is hard. This year, though, my family is top of mind. I think about and appreciate…

  • Vermeer Quest Complete!

    Vermeer Quest Complete!

    In either 2013 or 2014 I decided to see every Vermeer painting in the world. I’ve always been drawn to his paintings, and when I found out that there were only about 36 (two are disputed, one is stolen and most likely destroyed), it seemed like a reasnable goal to go see them all. Many…

  • Beethoven’s 10th Symphony

    Beethoven’s 10th Symphony

    Apparently this blog is now about me reading random articles on the internet and then going to Germany because of them. Luckily it’s not always about getting Covid while I’m there. This time around I read an incredible article about how AI researchers and music experts were using AI to complete Beethoven’s unfinished 10th symphony.…

  • My Experience Getting Covid

    My Experience Getting Covid

    I tested negative in Germany, and boarded my flight. I felt great. When I woke up on the plane I noticed that I had a slight runny nose and just felt a bit “off”. I figured that the runny nose was probably just caused from the humidity of wearing a mask for so long and…

  • A Day or Two in Dresden

    A Day or Two in Dresden

    I woke up to an email from my mom with a link to a story about the restoration of the Vermeer painting, “Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window”. You may remember that I’m trying to see every Vermeer painting in the world, and this one was one of the final four that I…

  • Moving Away from Weekly Posting

    Moving Away from Weekly Posting

    I can’t remember or easily find when I started writing weekly posts, but I think it’s been something like 5-7 years. Since committing to doing so I haven’t once missed a week, although my post time did gradually shift from Thursday morning to Sunday evening. At this point I realize that I’m posting weekly only…

  • Negative Cash

    Negative Cash

    Up until about a year ago I was against debt. Most debt I had encountered was opportunities to buy things one couldn’t afford, which didn’t appeal to me, or situations I couldn’t make use of, like borrowing to finance business activities that would return a profit. Recently, though, interest rates have dropped so low that…

  • How I Evaluated Risk During Covid

    How I Evaluated Risk During Covid

    I like to talk about EV and risk management a lot, but most of my examples are finance based, as the math is the clearest in those cases. Covid, however, presented a unique situation for risk management. Because the way I manage risk is unique to my own situation and I don’t want to offer…

  • Back in Europe After Covid

    Back in Europe After Covid

    As I got off the plane yesterday, I kept saying “wow…” underneath my mask. Going to Europe was more or less part of my monthly routine two years ago, but thenCovid kept me out for a year and a half. Even though I had double-checked the requirements and filled out preclearance forms, I was still…