Listen: Spotify | Apple | Spreaker | Youtube | Podcast Addict |
I had this whole sophisticated plan to publish new posts and episodes every single week and then our internet broke, the pass closed due to storms, the creek flooded, and frogs fell from the sky. (All of that is true except the frogs. Too arid here, I guess.)
(Our driveway is under there somewhere.)
Our internet is still broke most days, crippled the others. (What dastardly satellite internet provider operates such woeful customer service as to leave us with broken equipment for so long, you ask? It wouldn't be proper to name names, so I'll only give you a hint. Something something rhymes with dusk. As in dusk has irrevocably fallen on the last pale glimmer of my techno-utopian dreams. Darkness falls. )
Anyway, about two weeks in to the nonconsensual internet detox, I thought: right, hell with this, the internet is for losers. I quit.
I don't mean I quit using the internet. I mean I'll quit using the internet at home. My parents aren't up for going without internet, so they'll get it going again here on the land eventually, but I will pretend it never got fixed. That means to Internet I'll have to catch the shuttle, walk, or ride my bike 27 miles into town to the library. I keep getting flack for this idea. But Tyler! People say. That will be very inconvenient!
Well, yes. I suppose that's the point. I'm not optimizing for easy, I'm optimizing for transformation and interesting, and rarely is worthwhile transformation convenient. Run *towards* inconvenience, I say. I've had easy access to the internet since I was, what, twelve? I'll bet being 25 miles away from the internet will change me somehow. For better or worse it'll be interesting and that's enough of a reason for me, so I'll have a go at it.
My last experiment along these lines, my Satanic Digital Sabbath, went well. The difference with this experiment is that I can't just sit around and wait it out. I've got to *move* - I have to convey my meatsack a marathon's distance to get at it.
This does mean that if I ship a typo or a video with spinach in my teeth or something it'll have to sit there in public until the next time I descend from my mountain fastness. Ah, well. It'll build character.
Okay, on to the Projects Update!
Project TTM5K
My ttmCOL up through end of March is down to $7,305. I'm going in the right direction. I probably won't break the 5k mark until the fall unless I do something drastic.
The very last category of expense that I'm getting under control is labeled 'Education' in my spreadsheet, which just means books. I've regularly spent about $100 on books a month since forever, 95% of them used, typically from thriftbooks if I'm not near any brick and mortars. But I've now finally got access to a library I can check books out from (long story), so I expect my Education category to drop by one order of magnitude.
All that's left of significance is Food (which is around $150) and Shelter (which is also around $150 and includes clothing, the materials I bought to sew my own bivy bag, as well as anything I buy from the hardware store for my builds). This website and my podcast costs about $25 a month.
Project Local Solarpunk Handyman
I concluded my handyman gig with a neighbor. After the last six months we repaired a pond, fixed a collapsed patio roof, build a garden enclosure, installed irrigation for same, stacked a lot of wood, tidied up a cutting garden, and many other things. It was enjoyable to earn a little money while working a few hours a day a few days a week chatting with my neighbor, who is a knowledgeable landscape architect, but I'm not going to enter into any arrangement like that again. It was too many hours and too little autonomy. Neat idea in theory, but in practice I'm filing it under the "never do that again" category.
My other neighbor project is humming along. I've just about got the PV rack done, and mostly now just need to get everything wired together. I massively, *massively* underestimated how much work this project was going to be, but I'm learning a ton and have almost pure autonomy on it, so it's entirely tolerable. Also it's my largest design and install to date at 5kW of production and 27,000Wh of storage, which feels cool in a Tim Taylor Binford 5000 kinda way.
Project Have Adventures and Do Interesting Fun Stuff Because We're All Gonna Die Soon and Nothing Really Matters Anyways
PCT LASH (Long Ass Section Hike). Jeez, I don't know yall. There's a lot of snow up there now. I either go when my permit says I can go (May 30), and walk right into a wall of snow, or I wait it out a bit and then deal with really dangerous runoff flows. I'm really excited about the PCT in general, but this isn't the sort of shindig I had in mind. I'm considering giving my permit up to someone more psyched to deal with all that and doing a different adventure, such as hopping on my bike, filling the panniers with climbing equipment, and dirtbagging my way through the summer.
Some people plan their thru-hikes around quitting their jobs and have a lot less flexibility than I do. I can just call an audible, do something else, and hit the PCT next year. And, maybe, make someone's day who couldn't snag a permit.
Project Shipshape
I've maintained a clean but averagely organized space my entire life. My desks have always been piled up with random stuff. While introspecting on the topic of self-regard it occurred to me that a messy space might serve as a signal that I only 'deserve' a messy space. And that a very clean space might serve as a signal that I am worthy of a clean space.
It's a small thing, of course, but I thought it worth an experiment. I've been keeping Serenity very tidy for a full week now. This month I'll add the grounds of Ft. Dirtbag and the interior of the Studio. Already I feel, I don't know, more formidable? just from having a cleaner space. And my copper sink really is rather handsome once you scrub the patina off of it.
Project Write A Book
The manuscript is coming along well. I went through the first round of advance reader feedback which spurred a ton of revisions, cuts, additions, and reformulations. The thing sucks less and less every day. I plan to either finish it before I go walkabout this summer, or let it 'rest' while I'm out and about and finish it when I get back. Either way, I plan on taking some notebooks with me to begin longhand work on the next writing project.
Project Dry 2023
Still haven't had a drink since December 31, 2022. What a good choice. I feel great. By the way, I haven't listened to it, but I know a lot of people on the forum say they quit drinking after listening to this Huberman podcast on the effects of alcohol. I think my rule is that, after 2023, if I decide to have another drink, I have to listen to that episode first. As things stand, I'm just enjoying being a non-drinker too much to put any thought to it.
For many years I thought that the most healthy amount of alcohol for me specifically was something like 2-4 drinks every fortnight. I noticed that it helped pull me out of taking reality too seriously. I'd have a couple drinks and have a "oh, right, nothing matters and everything is beautiful" moment, and be good for another couple weeks.
It's really hard to only drink that little though! In many domains 'zero' is often way easier than 'just a little', and that's definitely true for me and alcohol.
Anyways, three months in to 2023 and I'm finding other ways of reminding myself to not take things so seriously. Headbanging to Amon Amarth for fifteen minutes does the trick reliably, as does sitting outside and listening to birds for fifteen seconds. And all I have to do is catch a half second glimpse of one of our local little kangaroo mice scampering about to get a recharge on the mad beauty of existence.