I’m going with the definition of financial independence popularized by Your Money or Your Life with a focus on the “crossover point.” This is the point where the income derived from your investments/assets exceeds your expenses.
A further crossover point is when the income derived from your investments/assets exceeds the income derived from your day job.
The former should be possible for me within the next 10 years (5 if I’m lucky).
Still walking 5+ miles a day, jogging a mile once in a while.
I’m up to 80 push-ups, 80 sit-ups, and 80 squats split into 2 sets (I do these 3 times a week). I should be up to 100 of each in 2 sets by the new year.
Now if I could just install a pull-up bar and use it, start jogging routinely, and work on my flexibility I’d be close to reaching this goal.
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=91CB31E05D408B50
I have been working on my own music, but lately I’ve been thinking that learning some songs I love might be worth doing (plus, it is fun).
So I noticed that I have been learning for a little over a year now, so I thought I would make a note on my progress. I’m very close to finishing Alfred’s Book 1 (currently ironing out “The Entertainer”), I have the first 20 exercises of 60 exercises (for “mastery” ha ha) memorized and I can play them well, plus I have learned three Bach minuets. My sight reading is improving though I don’t work on it specifically very often.
Over the next year I will strive to continue to practice regularly (I’ve been doing so almost every day), improve my sight reading, work through Alfred’s Book 2, get through 20 more exercises, and learn all of the Bach pieces in my Bach for Beginners Book 1 (and commit to memory those pieces I enjoy).
I would also like to spend some time on classical and jazz theory (including ear training), begin to improvise a little, and perhaps write some simple parts for my own music.
I intend to go back to college next year, and I want to ace my placement exams. So, I’m starting with the basics – I want to have a strong foundation to move forward so I won’t be bogged down in trying to recall how to do computations.
I love the rain, the beer, the produce, the book stores, the cheap music clubs, the second-run and art-house theaters, the parks, the restaraunts, the bicycles, the bridges, the walks, the dives, the haunts, and so much more about Portland. It is one of only three cities I’ve loved (San Francisco and Paris being the others), and the only one I felt at home in. Add to all that, the close proximity to the Columbia Gorge, Mt. Hood, the sandy and rocky beaches…there is such a fine compromise between city and wilderness.
Alas, I don’t see the long-term tenability of buying a place, securing steady work at a decent wage, or many similar practicalities. Nor do I embrace the changes I have seen, and like many people I feel the sting of favorite locations lost to development and commerce…too many secrets divulged and too much magic diffused.
Maybe one day I will start over there, and carve a new niche – but I can’t envision that day so clearly any more. I’m hatching new plans for new locales.
I’m starting to have mixed feelings about this goal. There is so much more of the world I would like to see, but I don’t want to be in a position of ticking countries off some list just to make it to 100…
Bleeding edge updates were interesting during the wildfires in San Diego last year, so I can imagine scenarios where Twitter could be useful to some people (tornado/flood updates, election results, live sports updates, daily haiku(?), etc).
On the other hand, I’ve found most feeds to be disappointing – the MarsPhoenix feed, for example, is surprisingly insipid – but then, this may be the nature of the medium.
Much like text messaging, I don’t like the way Twitter tends to degrade language and truncate thought. As my friends move from mail to e-mail, e-mail to IM, IM to social networks, social networks to Twitter/Pownce/Jaiku, I hear from them with increased frequency but with diminished (depth of and care for) content.
I’m sure we’ll soon be hearing about the “maturation of micromedia,” and how these services make great “business and networking tools.” Just what the world needs, yet another (viral, invasive) tool in the corporate marketing arsenal. No thanks.
I had a mixed reaction to Rushdie’s first novel (and the first of his I’ve read). I know little of the history of India/Pakistan/Kashmir/Bangladesh, so the story of the ancient region’s new infancy and adolesence was captivating.
The “magical” elements are interesting to me as well, because I’m not sure how to react to their presence. Might Saleem’s powers, his prophecies, his conspiracies all be delusions of grandeur and guilt? Even if that were so, it seems that his environment fostered his fatalism – surrounded on all sides and through all time by a generous plurality of fanaticism, folklore, domestic sorcery, petty intrigue, gossip, superstition, etc.
I never did quite adjust to the narration, the story-teller interrogating himself in a long-winded and frequently repetitive verbal marathon. While I suppose it is impressive to fuse Dickens with 1,001 Nights, this everything-but the kitchen sink style of writing can inspire fatigue. With its myriad digressions and circumlocutions, this is far from a tidy tale. Then again, India is not a tidy country, but one of teeming multiplicity, crowded with stories.
I haven’t run at all since January, and then only 1/2 a mile. Tonight I started jogging with my dog and decided to see how far I could get without stopping. Unfortunately I made every green light on my 5k loop around the neighborhood. I pushed myself, and about half an hour later and I’m back at home feeling like I’m about to die. The damn dog looks like he could run another 5k…
