So, I had an interesting reaction this morning to the entry I posted last night. I woke up feeling guilty about posting it (which is why I removed it - btw, I still have it & will likely post it after this). Even though it wasn't huge news, it was on the positive side of things, and that made me self-conscious enough to preface it with a disclaimer.
I know I don't have much to post by way of positive entries, but i wonder just how much I might unintentionally downplay things that could be seen as good, as a subconscious way to not post about them? Kind of a 'selection bias' of sorts?
I don't know, but it was an interesting realization. Anyway, here's the entry I posted last night.
A couple items of note this evening. I actually had some good news today, financially speaking, but I hope I don't upset anyone by talking about it - I know a lot of people aren't doing well right now, and I feel a bit guilty that I'm doing ok. Apologies in advance.
1) Every month, I update several spreadsheets, starting with my cash accounts (checking & savings) and going through my monthly budget. Since I've not been going out at all since maybe February, I'm under budget by quite a comfortable margin now, and it's a bit of a relief. I was worried after having to buy the new washer/dryer, and with the old cycle repair coming due soon.
Once I have my monthly budget spreadsheet updated, I update my monthly net worth spreadsheets. It turns out that, as the US market has been uncharacteristically upbeat recently, as well as the real estate and used car markets, both my 401K balance and my overall net worth are the highest they've ever been. which means that I'm still on track to FIRE in the next 5-7 years. This is important to me because right now, all I want to do is sell most of my stuff & head out on the road & wander. I have the feeling that I won't feel so alone if my surroundings are always changing - maybe I'm wrong, but I'd like to find out either way.
2) I actually found a Japanese language 'meetup' group in a town that's maybe 1.5 hrs from me. It was a private group so I couldn't see any details, but it has a couple hundred members showing online, so it might still be active, and this town is a big college town, so it's likely a very diverse crowd
I almost wrote them a note asking to join, but found I was too nervous. After all, how would that even work? How do you practice speaking a language when everything is online? Yes, there's zoom, but I'm not terribly impressed with their software's security (I guess I can read up on them a bit more to see if it's improved at all?).
But beyond that, I can't type in Japanese because a) I don't have a Japanese keyboard, and b) I still don't recognize hiragana & katakana well enough to know which one means what even if I had one, and c) even if I did use zoom, I'm a socially awkward introvert. Do you know what introverts like me do when in large groups of people they've never met? They sit in the corner & just watch everyone else & hope someone notices them. How would that work online? Ugh. Maybe it would work out fine, but I'm too nervous at this point to try it. It might be different if we could all meet in person though.
Anyway, I'll keep it in mind, maybe I'll be brave enough one of these days to do it.
4:51 p.m. - 2020-08-04
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