gondaily gon • 9h ago • 100%

Life Design: Again...

I truly think I'm obsessed with this. I find myself constantly thinking about how to optimize my life; more and more, I also find myself thinking about how to optimize my future. I think the latter is most important. I've been watching (binging) these videos by Ramit Sethi. Cool guy, solid advice. His big thing is this concept of "Your Rich Life". Now, I haven't read his book---wherein he details this rich life thing---but I've more or less gathered what it's supposed to be from his videos. Fundamentally, it's not complicated. It really boils down to not comparing yourself to others, and instead finding what you want your life to be like, and making a plan to get there. Perhaps most importantly, he thinks the plan should be for the now, as well; meaning you should live your rich life *now*, and live a *richer* life later. I think my rich life is chilling *ad eternum*. Perpetual chill, that's the kind of guy I am. Hence my obsession with early retirement. I think it's important to define what I mean by this, though. That's where the problems arise. I'm not so sure... I have fun watching YouTube, but it's because I have something to learn. I'm not watching *just* to watch---though it feels like that sometimes---but I'm learning, I'm taking in different viewpoints on these issues that I'm concerned with and trying to figure out the best approach for me. Still, what else is there. Cycling, sure... Reading, writing. I feel like I don't have many hobbies. Travelling, OK. I can see it though, in my---forgive the cringe---*mind's eye*. Yuck, I hate that idiom. I'm wearing baggy jeans, basketball shoes, and a brown sweater; I'm laying on the couch, half sleeping, half listening to an NBA podcast; my little brother built a family and I get to be the cool uncle; house paid off, a boat, I'm living on the islands; I fish for lunch and sometimes dinner, I have a small garden as well with cabbage, cucumber, tomatoes, shallots, and an orange tree; I buy lots of potatoes from my neighbour; occasionally, I'll travel out to Vietnam for three months and chill in Hoi An. That's the life I want. That's my rich life. Right now I'm focused on getting there. I'm trying to change my health so I can live longer, working on my PhD so I can get a solid job after, changing habits so I can become the person I want to be; and I'm saving like a maniac. Today it struck me that my rent might actually go up. It honestly hadn't occurred to me until today; goes to show how naïve I still am. I've had no indication that it might, but I just came to the realization that this price is likely not forever. It's fine, but it is annoying. This weekend was snack-city and overeating-city. Happens, happens. It's fine. I don't know if I mentioned it, but I did lose weight to 77.8 kg. 5 kg to go for my goal. It's OK, it's my cheat weekend. I'm determined to buy more fruit and whatnot these next two weeks and also to exercise more. My goal is 2 kg loss these next 2 weeks, let's see if I can do it. I'm also feeling that I'll finally respond to the increasingly large number of Slowly letters that I've been letting pile up...

gondaily gon • 1d ago • 83%

Lunch

Truly, sushi is just the best. I often think of an idealized life and food is rarely part of that, not in a significant way. I do think of the garden: potatoes, lettuce, an orange tree; but I don't ever actually imagine the cooking side of it. I think this may be because my favourite foods aren't really things that I'm willing to cook. I mean, maybe I can make sushi---probably I can make sushi---but I'd really rather leave that one to a professional. I might just be ignorant, not sure. Regardless, delicious sushi today. Got to catch up with a long-time friend, as well, which was great. Tomorrow I'll have lunch with my grandma again; another gigantic win for me. Set up a profile at a teaching website, hopefully I get some hits. I always think every photo of myself SUCKS, but I have to put something up. I wonder if the photo is actually bad or if I just hate looking at my own face; it's really hard to tell. I'll try to take a better pic soon to put up. I'll shave my beard and whatnot, try to get my hair nice and proper---that should be enough. I'm a bit nervous about getting a hit at all, to be fair, but I think I can do it. I'm charging 10 bucks an hour, which is reasonable, actually. The website gives us promotion for free until we get a match, and then we have to pay to stay up, but if we *don't* get contacted at all, they reimburse us! The price is rather reasonable too, just over 10 bucks a month! If I can do 2 hours per month, it's already worth it. If I can get good reviews, though, I'll probably up the price for other clients. Maybe not, I'll think about it. I'm getting ahead of myself, but the prospect of some extra income is rather nice.

gondaily gon • 2d ago • 100%

Not really feeling it

I'm in a bit of a rut. Today, I failed in my productivity. Not entirely, but my willpower failed; I failed myself. Still, I think I'm building good habits, so I'll just trust the process and try to improve day over day. Also, really not feeling Slowly... The letters I've gotten are fine, but not incredibly interesting or inspiring. I wish they were different; then again, I don't know what I was expecting. I'm tired. Sushi tomorrow though, exciting.

gondaily gon • 3d ago • 80%

Things I like

Today, I feel like talking about things I like. I like music. One of my favourite artists, Tyler, the Creator, posted a new clip today on his YT channel. I'm happy about that, because it's pretty cool. It's for his new album, CHROMAKOPIA. I'm hyped! I also like food. I'm actually kinda hungry, right now... I know I don't need to eat, but it still does bother me. I'll weight myself Saturday morning, possibly Friday evening and eventually write about it. I do also like getting healthier. I like learning about other people. This Slowly thing has been pretty cool, though I think I should probably cater the people I talk to on there better. In everyday life, I talk to certain people. Well, in truth, I don't really talk to anyone in my everyday life, I guess, but when I do it's with people I like, so I should do the same on the internet. Today, I managed to control my impulses a bit better. It wasn't perfect, by any means, and it wasn't particularly impressive, but I did it. Slowly, I'm improving. I think this is how I should approach improving my life: step by step, day by day. Today is good, tomorrow will be better, the next day will be better yet. If I falter, and one day is worse, or the worst, then I'll just try to make the day after better again. I think I should stop checking my investments. I mean, it's not like I'll sell if it goes down, or buy more or something. I'm just checking because I'm nervous I might be wrong, I think. That's psychology, right there, and I really shouldn't do that. Logging in means I *could* fuck things up. Why even let that be a possibility? I'd rather not. My goal for tomorrow is to get some work done and to not check my investments. I can happily report today's lunch was good again, by the way. Not as good as the past few days---the tofu wasn't great, but the rice and veggies were divine---but I'm sceptical about tomorrow. It's chickpea stroganoff. What? Yeah, I mean, sure I guess. I don't know. Maybe it's great, I love chickpeas. It rained a lot today. Not thundering, terrible rain, but just a constant thick drizzle. It was sunny too, how was it even raining?! I got wet, but it was fine. Didn't eat snacks today. I'll try hard again tomorrow.

gondaily gon • 4d ago • 100%

Snacks as a metaphor for my future

I've made the executive decision to cut snacks out of my diet. For a couple of days now, the lunch at the canteen has been incredible; looking at the menu tomorrow, this streak is likely to continue. I got a coupon for 15% off some chips, today, and I took it and went to buy some chips. After I ate them, I thought to myself that that had been a monumentally stupid decision. It was impulsive and just wrong. Not only did I not need chips, I didn't even really want chips. It cost me just over a euro, I could afford them, but I didn't need nor want to. Why did I do it? Well, because I like chips, that's why. They didn't even taste that good, especially with the stupidity of the purchase weighting on my mind. I could've bought bananas, or plums, or apples, or something else. There's oranges growing in the yard. I actually picked a couple big ones after eating the chips and just thought to myself, once again, how stupid of a purchase that had been. I could've just picked the oranges to begin with and skip the damned chips. These small habits, I wager, are a symptom of a big problem I have with self-control and discipline. I watched a YouTube video today that hammered that point for me, as well. I'm determined to change. For my future. I have things lined up. All I have to do is bat. I'll be trying really hard to hit, from now on. No excuses.

gondaily gon • 5d ago • 100%

I'm tired

There was a bit of a meeting today. Annoying, but at least there was food at the end. I ate too many sweets... I can feel the calories! But I think it's OK to have a treat. It's free anyway. I also ate a small plate of more reasonable food, so hopefully I got enough nutrients into my system instead of just sugar. Today was a reasonable day. Lunch was delish. So, so delish. It was quinoa and sweet potato burgers with roasted potatoes and salad. I got to talk a little with my dad and my mom. I love doing that. Let me go back to lunch, actually. Holy crap. It was so good, I can't even describe it. It's something actually pretty similar tomorrow, I'm looking forward to it. The point is, when I stop having access to these things, I need need need to learn to cook this stuff. It's actually so good, and vegetarian! I loved my fit today as well. I like shoes, even though they're not fully worn in yet and hurt the back of my feet a little. It's OK, I guess, but not good enough for the weekend when I walk a lot more than usual. Today was a €2.40 day on food. So was yesterday. I actually already have everything bought until my next payday, save for some travels during the weekend which is €4.30. I'll have almost €50 left after all, this month. That's nuts. I can't wait to add everything up since my last paycheck to see how much I'm spending, actually. I might've made a mistake somewhere, but my full monthly expenses add up to only €365. To be fair, I got a discount on utilities, so really it's more like €380. That's still €70 under my high-end prediction. I'm saving almost €80 monthly that I'm not investing. Should I be investing it, or is it good to have that money for fun? To spend on some eating out, sometime. Or buy something nice. Or save up for something nice! It would only take a year to afford a laptop, and only 8 months for an electric bike... About a year for a more serious bike purchase. I'm tired.

gondaily gon • 6d ago • 100%

I can't wait for the weekend

It's only Monday, but I can't wait for the weekend. Next weekend, I'll eat sushi. I think that's the major thing for me. I really want to eat something deliciously good. Lunch today was tasty, but nothing too special. The tofu was absolutely *banging* though, it was crazy. I've never had tofu like that. It was rough and kind of dried out? Hard to explain, but the texture was amazing and it held lots of flavour. Really nice. Not sushi though. I ate 5 plums today, I think. 1 for breakfast (rarity) and 4 for dinner. I love it. It's an investment! Buying these slightly more expensive things really does end up being good. I don't regret my plum purchase at all. I do wonder about my caloric intake, however. I'm trying to lose weight, so how much do I care about this really... But still. I think I might've had only 1000 calories today. This is slightly concerning, as I'm not really hungry. I mean, I could eat, sure, but I could *always* eat. I've gotten used to the feeling of constant hunger, I can fight it. This is nothing more than that. 1000 calories though? The calories listed on the app for lunch say that it's 137 for the soup and 527 for the main course. 5 plums should be about 150. The bread was about 150 as well. In total, that's 964. The BMR calculators on the internet aren't particularly reliable, but they estimate my BMR at 1700-1800. I biked today too. Didn't really do anything else, to be fair, but still. When I put my pants on, I felt I could go for another hole. Also, speaking of holes, I think it's the ice tea giving me the shits. Not sure.

gondaily gon • 1w ago • 66%

Determination and Religion

I decided to check out The Ramsey Show today. No particular reason; I'd heard about it many times before, but it was always pitched as this America-centric podcast that wouldn't really matter too much to me, but this time I decided to take a look. It's really nothing special, compared to everything else you find on the internet nowadays concerning finance. Save your money, don't get into debt, how to get out of debt, yada yada. It's good, it's solid. The one thing that's picking at me is the whole religious undertone. I have no idea where Mr. Ramsey came from, his background his story, whatever, but he talks about religion a lot. It's about spirituality, what church you go to, talking to your pastor. I'm not religious. Now, I don't think there's anything wrong with religion---as a matter of fact, I'd argue that if religion gets people out of debt and into a better financial situation, that's a good thing---but I do think it's rather weird that he focuses on that so much. Maybe I just got a weird batch of videos, I don't know. Religion is very strong, it's an incredible tool, really, but I think it's wholly unnecessary. I have no religion and I can save, I can keep my head in the game. I don't need a god or a church. I need family, yes, a community, people I can look up to and talk to and discuss this with. I see the value in organized religion as a vehicle for social interaction, but it comes with so much baggage that, to me, it seems bloated. Moreover, it's dangerous. Sure, it comes with good things, but it comes with a lot of other philosophies that go way beyond finances. I definitely wouldn't prescribe religion as a cure or aid for debt, but Mr. Ramsey seems to be rather convinced it's at least a viable option. I know I'm talking about this from a very detached perspective. Truth be told, I don't really get religious people. I understand them, on a technical level, but not on a practical level. I guess, on one hand, I do get why he would mention it so often: he's religious. He believes in a religion and he believes sharing that religion is his duty and it's good, so he does it. Might I add, he's not being particularly obnoxious or anything, it's not offensive by any means, just noticeable. Determination is essential to financial freedom. I mean, you really have to take a good look at your finances to make the call that you can't afford this or that, or that you *don't want to* afford this or that because your priorities lay elsewhere. My parents, my mother in particular, was adamant that I rent an apartment, or at the very least a larger room. She even offered to cover my rent! Isn't that ridiculous? She offered me hundreds of euro monthly for me to rent an apartment. Look, I love my mum, but what the fuck. I told her no, on two fronts: I wasn't going to rent a bigger (more expensive) place myself, and I didn't want her help. I don't mind small things, she sometimes pays for my travels, for example, but my rent? I appreciate it, of course, and it would speed up this whole thing, but I've already taken so much from my parents that I just can't stand to keep doing it. I have money, so they don't need to be burdened any more. This feels so silly. Of course I know they would be happy to pay for me. I really live a privileged life, don't I? It just doesn't sit right with me, though. A few days ago, actually, I talked to my parents about buying that rice cooker. By the way, I'm still considering that purchase. I'm pretty sure my dad was offering to buy it for me, he just didn't want to say it. As a matter of fact, he told me I didn't need to change the paying information on Amazon. He said it just like that. In the immediate, I didn't realize that that's what he was implying---that he was willing to pay for me---so I just said something like "oh thanks, that's convenient, I'll just send you the money after then." Reasonable, right? No need to change payment information or anything, I use his card and then send him a payment with the price. Makes things simpler. But he was so obviously unhappy to hear that! He didn't say anything, but I could tell he didn't want me to send him money. I think it's similar to how I'm feeling towards them. I'm so thankful for everything they've given me, everyday I'm thankful, and so I just can't bare to rely on them so much. I don't want him to pay for my fucking rice cooker, he's already paid for so many grains of rice for me why the fuck would he pay for the cooker too?! He probably feels that, as my father, it's his responsibility to pay for my necessities. Sure, I'm all grown up and earning my money, but it's just a rice cooker, it's to improve my life, and so he has no problem forking over €20. And what, he needs his son to pay for €20?! He doesn't need that! I get it, I get it. It's great to have parents that care so much. I was tearing up writing that, by the way. I think that's what I need to keep this up. My parents are a reminder of what can be achieved. They have no debt, two homes, two healthy children, one of which is starting his education and the other who's making money. They're even starting to make some small investments now, thanks to my influence. My mum cashed out on about €400 in 3 months. That's a sixth of the minimum national salary. I'm not sure if she has enough saved up to actually just make the minimum national salary of the interest but she's not far off. Seeing this, I stay motivated to save. Whenever I share my passion with saving with the uninitiated, I get the same comment: don't forget to live. First of all, uh, duh?! Obviously. I know people are just looking out for me, and I really do appreciate it, but it does get a little obnoxious. I'm someone that thinks things through, especially the big things. It's not that I don't make mistakes or miscalculate, but forgetting to live would be a major miss. The miss of a lifetime, one might wager. This month (and by month I mean salary) I bought over €120 worth of stuff. Really just 2 things, the backpack and the shoes, but still that's quite a decent chunk of change. Had I invested that money, I would be up significantly right about now. But I value the things I bought, and I intend to keep valuing them, so I consider it money well spent. I checked the maths today and I think I'm safe. I had about €100 to spend and I sent €120 instead, pushing it, but I'm pretty sure I'm safely in the green. And by green I mean above the cushion in my checking account that I'd rather not dip under for whatever reason. So many arbitrary numbers... Silly, again, but I prefer to have that. For peace of mind. And we're back to religion. I do still have these rituals, these barriers and points of contact that I keep perfectly lined up for no reason other than peace of mind. It's psychological. Rituals are useful, but praying isn't. Praying is a ritual, and rituals are useful. That's where it ends, as far as I see it. I cleaned my room and did my laundry this weekend. It was nice. I also ate dry ramen for the first time, I think. Just boil the ramen, drain the water, and *then* add the seasoning. Two packets cost me 90c. Not bad, not bad. I also bought just over a €1 of fruit today, plums. I didn't eat them all today, so maybe I'll just have them for dinner tomorrow and save there. Not that I need to, mind you, the plums were well within my budget. They were under, actually, but it's just a nice thing that happened. I'm also eating lots of oranges. There's a tree in the garden of the house I'm renting at, very convenient. Lunch tomorrow seems delicious. I saved 2 meals from last week because I didn't have lunch at the canteen. I wonder about my weight. I look in the mirror sometimes and it's clear I've made progress, but it's hard to tell if I'm *making* progress. My arms are surprisingly muscular, actually. I noticed that today, or maybe last night, not sure. Something else is that I'm just itching to update my net worth. I have a little sheet on GDrive where I keep my finances lined up, but I told myself it was silly to update it everyday or even every month. I mean... That would add to the obsession, it's stupid. I don't need to focus so much on this. My limit was 6 months. Maybe that's too long, to be fair. Quarterly might be better, I don't know. But I said 6 months, so 6 months it is! Only in December, damn it... I'm curious, though. I saw this thing some time ago, I don't remember where or what they called it, but the idea was basically judging what the hypothetical max is that I could maybe save and then seeing how much I did save. It should help keep things in perspective, how much life really costs, and also keeping my greed in check. Comparing to these rich people out here getting paid a fortune in a day... That's just bad. I'm looking forward to it. I've been looking at shoes and shirts and pants. I really think I found my style. I hope to slowly build my wardrobe to fit it. I'll end up selling a bunch of shirts, I reckon. Vinted stardom, here I come! I started a Pinterest board. I plan to save 5 pins for each category of thing I want to wear in the future. Hopefully, I can look back on it to guide my purchases. Also, tomorrow I'll get a reply from the Slowly thing. Cool app, hopefully it's interesting. I'll get it mid-afternoon, I believe. Overall, feeling decently good. I'm not rich yet, and my income is low, but slowly and surely I'm getting closer to my goals. Speaking of that, I saw this post on Reddit about what the lean FIRE number should be. Right now, people said 500k was reasonable. That sounds a little crazy, but I don't know. If I had 500k today, I probably would retire, actually. The thing is, really, I don't! I have barely anything at all. When I'm 50, I can expect 500k to be 1.25M. Crazy... 500k today should yield some 1.5k/month, which is actually more than I have per month! Way more. I could travel lots, so much. At my current pace, I can expect to hit 500k in 20 years. In that time, 500k will be 1M. It feels like wealth is running away from me, it's nuts! Still, this isn't particularly upsetting. It's OK, and I really do think that I'll find ways to enjoy life on less as time goes on. Maybe I'm being naïve, maybe dangerously so, but who knows. There's this other experiment I like to do. If I get a decent job after I graduate that let's me save a little more per month, I can shorten this timeline so much. Not to mention, all this is being calculated with a notably high inflation rate of 3.5%. More realistically, I can get this done. I really think so. I'm still thinking about Vietnam quite a bit.

gondaily gon • 1w ago • 100%

Tax and Government

Ultimately, I've been concerned with politics more and more. Probably because I'm investing and I'll have to worry about paying taxes. Where I am, capital gains tax is relatively high, though under 30%. Now, I don't mind this. Personally, I love the idea of contributing to the national infrastructure, and have absolutely no qualms about cutting my gains for this. Now, it does *hurt*, don't get me wrong, but I get it and don't particularly mind it. I'm watching a video about the national budget, and while I don't like everything I'm hearing, I don't think it's too bad. I'm happy to see the government really isn't just a bunch of incompetence. Now, about Vietnam. Wild pivot, I know. I've been watching too many videos about Vietnam, the food, and specifically Hoi An. Holy crap that place is gorgeous. This is where frustration really kicks in... I live in such a cheap place to live. My country is fantastic and I could definitely retire here without worries. As a matter of fact, it's one of the top destinations world wide for retirees! Oh but Hoi An... There's this girl called Mai Pham on the red app. She's Vietnamese and filmed some vlogs in Vietnam a while back. I fell in love with the country without ever stepping foot in it! I remember a few years back when I was enamoured with Bhutan, but then learned more and more about the country and started throwing up in my mouth, or when I thought London was peak-living (hopefully no need to explain why I change my mind on this one), or rural China, or northern Scotland (this one I'm still big on, actually). Vietnam is in the honeymoon phase, right now. The big difference between Vietnam and all those other places is the *why* of my interest. It's price, of course. Vietnam is cheap as FUCK! Retiring there would be a piece of cake... If not for the lack of Visa! Damn it, Vietnam! Though of course... Marriage. I could get married to a Viet girl and move there no problem. Doable? Probably not, not for me anyway, I'm very aroace, but fuck it man I want to go there. A big issue with this kind of stuff is that, if I want to visit Vietnam, I have to pay to go there. Obviously, I need to visit before actually making a decision. I could easily stay there for three months, no problem, but staying longer is fucked. I'm making plans for 27 years in the future over here, Vietnam, help me out!

gondaily gon • 1w ago • 100%

Upgrading

I've been thinking about upgrading some of my stuff. New lappie, new phone---that's all the stuff I have, pretty much. But then I think... Don't I already have a phone that works? Yes I do. I see all these promotions and deals and stuff, but why would I buy that?! Why would I spend money that I don't need to spend? Sometimes I feel so silly looking at these listings. I'll keep saving. I rejoined "Slowly" today. It's an app that matches you with people from all over the world and you send messages that take a long time to arrive based on how far away they are from you. I used it last 3 years ago and it was OK but I didn't like it that much. I'm really feeling this whole moving abroad thing though, so I felt it'd be cool to talk to some "foreigners." I'm rather hungry as I write this. No money spent on food today. I was hoping I could keep it that way but... Nah, I really need to eat something. I'll be careful though, with my purchase... I'll keep it under €2. Maybe some chips? I like the sound of that. We'll see. xoxo

gondaily gon • 1w ago • 75%

The Perfect Life

My investments have now officially valued over 3%. This is huge, for me; I really feel like I'm getting closer and closer to my goal. I'm still only around 0.4% of the way there, but every step towards that goal feels amazing. I haven't looking at my current life situation as a sacrifice, but as I've reflected on it I have come to see it that way. Objectively, I could rent an apartment, instead of a room; there's actually one available right now pretty close by with access to a pool and a garden. I could easily, easily afford that. But instead I'm only paying a third of the cost for a room. I could be eating much better and more comfortably; sushi on my own dime, pizza, some Burger King. Instead, I eat at the canteen and tunamayo sandwiches for dinner. Sure, I've made some purchases. I have actually eaten at Burger King a few times, McD's too. But in total I've strayed from the ideal maybe... €150 worth? €120 of which are new shoes and a new backpack, which I intend to use to death. I'm saving about 63% of my income every month. That's *a lot*, especially considering I don't really make that much at all. I'm sacrificing a lot. I just happen to be someone that can live pretty well off not much, I have a lot of support and encouragement from my family, and I have a clear goal in mind. I'm striving towards that, so I can handle this. I do wonder though, how nice it would be to live in an apartment by myself, go workout at the gym or swim in the pool. But that's not the way I'm gonna reach my goals, so it's not the way I'm gonna live. This goal I talk about... I haven't really defined it very clearly, have I? I want to be a millionaire. Not because being a millionaire is cool or whatever, but because I've calculated that that's how much I need to retire safely at any age. Meaning that, no matter how old I am, as soon as I hit those 7 figures, I'm gone. The actual number is slightly slower than 1 million, actually, but it's easier to talk about it this way. Also, I'm actually more than 0.4% of the way there, but once again I cut things broadly so I can be safe. I prefer to be wrong because I have too much than because I have too little. This million though, what can I do with it. That's the big question, the way I see it. I'd probably want to buy a house, but the problem is that I can't predict how much a home will cost when I read it, I can't even predict when I'll reach it! At my current pace, that'll be when I'm 50. I'm fine with that, more than fine. If I can retire earlier than my parents, I'm happy; I feel like that's what it's all about, really. But I will almost certainly hit it earlier. I don't want to earn this much forever. I want to advance my career and earn more money. I actually did some funny math, some time ago. It was very rough, but not particularly optimistic: if I can increase my monthly investments by 50% of my current investments every 5 years, I can shave 5 years off my retirement. This means that I can retire by 45. That's really not crazy, especially if I emigrate, which is likely. Regardless, I feel like thinking about all that isn't too helpful nor satisfying. Instead, I want to focus on what I'm actually gonna do with the money. Well, first of all, I'm not gonna spend much of it at all! The whole point of having that much money is to keep it invested so it can keep growing. Still, there's a few things I want to buy. When I first spoke to my grandma about this---she didn't even believe that I meant to do this by the way, she didn't understand that I might want to retire as early as possible---she immediately thought I wanted to buy a house. At the time, I laughed at the idea. Maybe I didn't literally laugh in her face, but I did reject it. After a long time thinking, I just thought that it wasn't worth it. Why would I spend so much money buying a house, when I could just rent an apartment instead? The difference isn't much, and an apartment allows me much more flexibility with much less effort. I've thought this over, since then, and I've come to the conclusion a house would be nice. Maybe I'm being silly, I can't quite tell. Here's the pros, as I see them: - No landlord worries - Rent won't increase - It's an investment - I can feel settled in - It's a symbol of what I've achieved Basically, it's less worrisome overall, though more expensive. That last point though... Am I stupid? A symbol? What do I care about a symbol?! But really, I want it. Something I can point to and say "see, it worked!" A place I can *really* call home. Specifically, I wanted to go back home, to the islands. Houses are cheaper there too. It'd be amazing. I love the people, I love the environment, the clean air and the sea. The big problems don't even apply as much now as they did growing up. There's lots of fast delivery stuff like Amazon, the internet is good now. Sure, there's no fast food places, but who cares?! There's good food! I love fish, I mean, come on. It'd be awesome. The only real issue would be travel. Travelling in and out of the island is tough, and it'll likely always be tough, but also just going from place to place is hard. You pretty much *need* a car there. There's electric cars and bicycles, that's a possibility, but it's still tough, overall, to go and just live like that there. It's never too hot or too cold, but when it rains it *rains*. I think it's doable, I think I'd like it, but who knows. There's also the cons, of course: - More expensive in the short term - Less flexibility with moving around That's it, pretty much, but that first point is a good one. I can't afford to spend a lot upfront, that's the negative part of my plan. It's hard to make *huge* purchases because I need the money to be invested. Even if it's cheaper in the long run, I'd rather have the money *now* so it can grow than *not* have it. I'll keep thinking about it, I do have a long way to go still. Something else I've been thinking about is emigration. I'll almost certainly emigrate at some point, yes, but that's for work. For settling down, I always imagined myself in one of three places: somewhere in the city, back home, or Vermont, USA. Why Vermont? No idea. I just think of the state as a big forest, really, and I love the idea of living in the middle of nowhere in a mansion. The more I learn about the USA though, the less I want to live there, so I'm probably cutting that one out. The problem with the city option is that it's expensive. Buying a small apartment is gonna run me about as much as a large home back home, though it will have a lot of convenient benefits. Back home though, that's heaven. I grew up in heaven, looking back, marvellous place. There's a fourth, secret option though. Get citizenship or a Visa somewhere else with a much lower cost of living and just move there. Living in Thailand or something. Or somewhere else, really, there's lots of destinations that I could aim for. Nepal. I'm strongly considering that, more and more. That way, I could retire even earlier, maybe at 40. I don't know. Still, it's interesting to think about. And with that, I'm done.

gondaily gon • 2w ago • 100%

Japanese

I'm feeling inspired to learn Japanese. I've been learning Japanese for a while, on and off. I have a basic understanding of the language, but not really enough to talk to anyone about anything other than the most basic of things and not for very long and not very fast. I'm a bit better in writing (digitally) but not my much really. Maybe I'll get to it. Lunch was great today, but I didn't feel so good overall.

gondaily gon • 2w ago • 100%

Missing a day

I missed yesterday. gondaily? More like... gonsometimesly! BOOM ROASTED! But seriously. It completely slipped my mind. Totally. To be fair to myself, I was abnormally exhausted yesterday. I couldn't even watch the stream! I was running on wisps, if that makes sense. As such, I also didn't have much happen, yesterday. I was too exhausted to do anything! Here's today though: I fixed my breaks! Well, temporarily, probably. My back brake on my bike (bbb alliteration there) has been problematic for a while. I tighten it and it's great, but overtime it gets looser and looser to the point it doesn't break any more. A pain in the ass is what that is. I can live with it because the front brake is very reliable, but it's still scary to ride around knowing half of your breakage apparel simply doesn't work. For now, it's great. We'll see how it goes. Wore my shoes and jeans with the belt! Oh I'm serving, I'm slaying in these fits! Actually. I feel really good, though a little self-conscious... I think I look good, but I'm always scared people think I look silly with the oversized pants and the chunky shoes... I like it though, and I think that's what really matters. Here's the thing though, and this is both a bad and a good thing. This has inspired me to pursue fashion a little more seriously. I love these shoes and jeans, and I love jeans now as I've hopefully been making clear over my many posts, so I've been thinking of ways to optimize that sneaker-jeans combo. I think the answer might be brown sweaters. HEAR ME OUT HEAR ME OUT!!! I know... I'm colourblind, what do I know about brown! I only wear Ts, what do I know about sweaters. Well, first of all, rude! But second of all, I'm a notorious Pinterest enjoyer. I know I don't look it, I know I don't write it, but it's true. I love looking at cute girls and cool buildings, sue me. Regardless, I think brown sweaters look really good with jeans. The one issue I have is that they look better with tighter fitting pants. I think a straight fit is fine, but an oversized fit like I'm wearing is maybe too much. I'm not sure why, and to be fair I haven't really seen this worn out, but I just feel it. Naturally, I don't own brown sweaters. The colour palette of my clothes is black, grey, white, and dark blue so dark it looks black or grey. I have 1 (one) T that has a little bit of wine. Like a dark red that looks almost black. Well, to me anyway I'm red-green colourblind so maybe it's more intense to others but I can barely tell it's not black. Maybe I'm crazy. But I don't think so, I feel like light-blue jeans, sneakers, and a brown sweater is a look. It's a look, I'm telling you. Sorry if this is painfully obvious and the most common fit ever put together in the history of fashion. I'm new here. The autocorrect on here keep annoying me with trainers over sneakers because it's British. I wore my Scrooge McDuck socks today. Feeling cash money. Speaking of which---iconic segue by me right here---my mom shared her investments with me today. She started investing three months ago (to the day) because I talked to her about it. She put it in some short-term bonds and made a decent chunk of money. Way more than I have in my measly 3 months... Then again, she put it way more than me way earlier than me. Regardless, I'm very happy she liked it. I don't want her to get into anything even remotely risky, but this stuff is very safe, so I think it's great for her. If my parents keep doing this they can fund some nice trips or bigger purchases. This is fantastic. I'm really happy. I've been feeling good. I don't know if I mentioned this already but I lose weight. I've been trying to lose weight for a while now, basically since I moved I've been going hard at it. I started somewhere around 87kg I think? Maybe closer to 90, but now I'm at 78. That's in about 3.5 months. I feel really good with my progress. That's it, for now. Hopefully tomorrow there's more.

minimalism gon • 2w ago • 55%

Rajiv Surendra

www.youtube.com

Recently, I've been really watching the YT videos of a certain Rajiv Surendra and feeling somewhat conflicted. (Love the videos by the way, recommend) I'm a minimalist, by all accounts; I don't buy things I don't need and I only buy what I need and when I need it. I do have a hard time throwing things away (I'm working on it) but, generally speaking, I live a very minimal, intentional life of few but meaningful possessions. Rajiv, though, isn't like that. He does so many things: candlemaking, soapmaking, he plays music, he's a caligrapher, videographer, writer, public speaker... He's amazing, he's incredible, really. His apartment is relatively small, but it's so full of *things*. Yet, I can't help but feel he follows a philosophy very similar to my own. He mentions stuff like "only add it if it serves a function" when talking about gift-wrapping and I'm just taken aback by the dichotomy of owning a bunch of gift-wrapping stuff---a thousand rolls of yarn and string---but following a minimalist wrapping philosophy. --- I guess the point of this post is to ask a bit of an open-ended question. Why are you a minimalist and what could make you change? I'm a minimalist because I hate waste and clutter. I don't like having a bunch of stuff I don't need and I don't like buying disposable things, it bothers me. Thing is, when I see Rajiv write beautiful letters I can't help but wish I had someone to write letters to. I wish my room was filled with paper and bottled ink. I just feel that, despite going against what's really at the core of how I live my life, I could accept it regardless. Sorry if I'm not making any sense, but I'm curious what you guys think. xoxo

gondaily gon • 2w ago • 100%

Drenched

I got home drenched; dripping, as if poured from a jar. Cold too, which was the real problem. Took my clothes off and a shower, everything's good now. My backpack held up well in the ravenous weather. Everything got home dry, except for me. I feel like I have things to say, but I'm tired. Hopefully tomorrow.

gondaily gon • 2w ago • 75%

Sushi

I ate sushi today. It was great :D as per usual. We're regulars at the restaurant, I'm pretty sure the managers know our faces, they always greet us warmly. Spent some time with my brother and grandma, it was great. Also watched a stream today, fantastic as well. Feel good. Not much else to report, unfortunately.

gondaily gon • 2w ago • 100%

Got home, lost weight

Just got home. I'm terribly exhausted. I lost weight, which is great! I'm closer to my goal, which is 72kg. Maybe I'll go lower, we shall see. I weighted myself after getting a drink and something to eat and was at about 79.5kg, which likely means that my weight in the morning (which is when I usually weight myself, for consistency's sake) will be lower, which means I'm safely in the 70s. Very proud of my progress. And with that, today's entry ends.

gondaily gon • 2w ago • 100%

A good day

Today was a good day! The stream was a little worse than usual because the streamer was exhausted, she's been having a bit of a rough time lately, but other than that I had a great time. For one, lunch was good. Not great, still, but it was good. The tofu was a bit bland, to be honest, but it was good enough, and the rice the came with it was fantastic. The soup was also great, I actually really enjoyed it---I'm not a soup person but it was delicious. The only *actual* issue with lunch today was the fruit. Admittedly, I could've picked an apple instead of the orange, but god that was a terrible orange. I have never had a drier orange, and I mean that. Still, it was good overall. I got both my backpack AND my shoes! Weirdly, the backpack arrived *before* the shoes and the delivery experience was much better, as in, I actually got delivered the package instead of it simply being delivered to some shop that I then had to go to to get. Sorry about the terrible construction of the previous sentence. Regardless, the products are as expected. Sizes are right, construction quality is right, everything is good in the world, except for the bad parts of course. My ReVanced YT broke today, for some reason. Weird, but things happen, maybe I fucked something up I guess. Whatever the reason, I just uninstalled and repatched. Works again. Tomorrow I go back north. Sushi on Saturday... I get to see my little brother... Truly nice. I'll flex on him so hard with my new backpack and shoes. YO!

gondaily gon • 3w ago • 100%

Canteen lunch

Canteen lunch today was garbage, though it was an unfortunate situation and a major blunder by yours truly. I bought the vegetarian meal as it seemed to me, by the description, to be the best of the bunch. The fish meal was something I'd had before and hadn't thoroughly enjoyed, so naturally I gravitated towards the other option. As I made my way across the counter, I noticed four people in a row asking for the vegetarian option. Now, seeing four people ask for the vegetarian option would already be odd, but not only were all of them in front of me and in sequence, but only two of them were together! That's right, three independent groups of people asking for the vegetarian meals. Not to mention myself, of course. I would've been the fifth. The issue was that the vegetarian meal tray was already low on food, and the sudden onslaught of vegetarians really tore it down to nothing---or basically nothing. So much so, that I was afraid that, were I to pick it, I would be relegated to a measly meal, instead of what I paid for and was rightfully owed. Maybe that wouldn't have been the case, I'll never know, but I didn't want to risk it. I was terribly hungry, at the time. So, I chose the fish meal. There are basically two types of fish meals at the canteen: has fish, is fish. Sometimes we get something like pasta with tuna or a fish lasagna, those are in the first category; other times, we get pieces of fish *accompanied* by something, like sardines with rice, for example. That's what it was supposed to be, today, but instead I got some other weird fish with boiled potatoes. I've got nothing against potatoes, mind you---as a matter of fact, I prefer potatoes to rice---, but these potatoes were not great. They were cold and hard. Not only that, but the fish itself was cold too! Now, my next complaint is a personal gripe: there was an onion and tomato sauce drenching everything. I like raw tomatoes, I like raw onions, but that *thing* is disgusting, I struggle to eat, I struggle to even look at it! I realize this is personal taste, so I'm not docking points for it, but it was still terrible for me. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the fish was more bone than fish. Every bite had a bone, every fucking bite. I tried to pick them out but it was impossible, they were small but so hard, and hard to find. It ruined the meal. To throw salt into the wound, they threw a slice of green pepper into my salad. I hate peppers. I realize I sound a bit whiny and maybe ungrateful, the canteen is a great environment, everyone there works hard, and they provide complete and varied meals for all students at a very affordable price. Moreover, I didn't even choose what I actually wanted. Still, it left a bad taste in my mouth (pun intended). Tomorrow I'll *have* to go veggie, if I go to the canteen at all (which is very likely). It's tofu. Looking forward to it; the last time I had that there it was really, really good. I was also starving at the time, if I remember correctly, but still. Only real issue is the rain. It's been raining like crazy the whole day and I expect the downpour to continue tomorrow. It would be a real pain in the ass to go there just to get drenched, but the food might just be worth it. Then again, maybe not. Did some math and turns out I spent almost €27 this past week (since last Wednesday) on food. That would add up to around €115 per month. Some €12 (by far the biggest single chunk) there does include €4.80 that haven't been spent yet. Still, €115 for now. If I account for everything, my expenses are coming out to less than €450 per month. That leaves just about €800 for investing, which sucks. I wanted to do €800, but I also wanted to keep some money to buy other stuff. And I do, to be fair, about 10 bucks, and there's also some other money that comes in occasionally from my family for various reasons, and I'm estimating utilities on the high side side. Still, it's a tight budget, the way I see it. What I'm getting at is that this small money that I'm spending at the canteen matters and I'd like it not to be trash.

gondaily gon • 3w ago • 66%

Dinner

I didn't have dinner today. I wonder why... I usually get hungry later in the night, but today I didn't. I suspect this has something to do with 2 things: firstly, I drank a fuckton of water---really, a lot of water---, and secondly, I drank lemon flavoured water. I suspect the flavour made me less hungry. Could this be a win? Maybe, maybe. There's also the calories in the flavouring, it was very sweet though not too caloric. I must've had something like 1100 calories today. Lunch was just OK, squid stew and pea soup (I think). It was good but not great, you know? That's it for today.