Category: Family and Musings

Attitude

A pickup full of men is getting ready to leave the car park of the local grocery. They are ready to go to work. A vehicle that should hold no more than four is crammed to the rim with ten in the back and four in the cabin. Sardines in a tin with no roof, they are pressed up against each other in the back. In the front it is the same, except the roof is on. They are shouting and joking and sipping tea to warm up in the morning before hard labour begins.

A lady with jewels and fine clothing is walking to her luxurious car in the same parking lot. She looks disdainfully at the crammed pickup and mutters something about safety. She is white and the car is all black. She disapproves. The pickup falls silent, movement reduced to steam floating out of the teacups. A negative moment so early in the morning. She definitely will not have to work as hard as the pickup full of men today.

Walking to my own car I saw this unfolding and decided to try to counteract the negative vibes. I lifted my leg over the edge and pretended to launch myself into the pickup – much laughter and the men tried to drag me in with them. After we settled down, I asked them where they were going – a building site down the road. One man from the cabin of the pickup says I should come along. I explained that I had to get home to my daughter.

Less judgement, more interaction, more communication, more positivity. It really made a difference to the situation.

Have a nice day.

 

 

Dune update

Over the weekend I have been away on plane flights and had evenings alone in bed and breakfasts which has given me time to get further into Dune.

What a book!

The flaws in the father’s character are becoming apparent, and the interactions with the local Fremen are adding an extra dimension to the tale.

It is such an engaging book, I think of it like a microscope which is gradually zooming in closer and closer to the inevitable war and dangers on the planet of Arrakis. Detail and nuance is getting more and more….well detailed! and Nuanced!

There is no turning back for any of the characters, only forward into the desert.

Love it.

Contrast

I watched two movies last night. With family away I could indulge myself a little. The two could not have been more different.

Anomalisa is an extraordinary film which made me think and reflect. To quote Rolling Stone: “There’s explicit sex, profound sadness, jokes about the Cincinnati Zoo and hotel-door keycards, heartbreak, hilarity, and a half-naked Japanese automaton that both sings and spits out bodily fluids”. All of this is in stop motion animation. Throughout the film a sense of the protagonist unravelling, and a deft handling of his psychological state keeps you completely absorbed. I could not recommend this film enough. I know it will stick with me for a long time.

At the other end of the spectrum, the second film I watched last night was Star Trek Into Darkness. Intergalactic adventure, beautiful girls, a bromance and a bad guy for the ages make this an easy watch. It requires far less concentration than Anomalisa, but it is topical, and still has heart and substance in spades. Loved it.

Contrast in all things is good. It makes life interesting. Dark pans, light shirt. Artistic stop motion animation and a blockbuster. My life is driven by routine and the two girls in my life. For a night the two girls were away and I could change up the routine and binge watch to my heart’s content.

 

Long trip musing

A few things stand out in my mind after doing a long distance trip with multiple flights:

  • Almost without fail, airline customer service is terrible and often downright offensive. How did a whole industry stuff that up so badly?
  • Traveling with a 1 year old is infinitely harder than traveling without a 1 year old.
  • My stomach always thanks me when I get home. Travel food is artificial and/or full of caffeine and sugar.
  • It’s so very good to be home, 1 year old asleep, showered, fed, in bed. You need to travel to appreciate what you have at  home.

Back home

I’ll be heading home with the cub and mumma tomorrow after beautiful holidays in Europe. Home means many things but now it also means execution of my long term plan. I am excited and nervous. Excited because I know what I want to do after so many years not really knowing. Nervous because of all the inertia I have to overcome to execute my plan. It’s a change of direction and that impacts my whole family, not just me.

Regardless, I am determined and there is so much to do to become CFA qualified. Imagine a world where there was nothing left to do? Bring it on.

Now to get me started, a sleep and then I’m up for a 24 hour journey with a 1 year old. 

Fun times!!

Long term goals

I decided this week to set a long term goal. I want to get a CFA certification before the age of 40, which gives me about 6 years. It would be for the good of my family, my self esteem and my understanding of the world. Eventually I want to use this certification as an avenue into private equity and venture capital in Africa. I think I would love that line of work and be good at it.

Setting a long term goal is satisfying. It is a surprisingly straight forward thing to do, and yet I have never really done it before. You are the only one who can set the goal, not a school syllabus or an overbearing other….just you. 

Of course the next step is to keep working towards the goal and to then achieve the goal. Also, completely up to you. It’s the terrifying thing about chasing your own dream – the accountability. 

Accountability is very important, but for now I am just happy to have set the goal. Writing about it is also very important, and using the blog as a way to track my progress is a big part of my long term plan.

Bring it on.

Generation

The Girl just woke up. She is still blinking and holding onto a window ledge to keep herself from falling over, as most 1 year olds do. In a life full of sweet moments, she is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. The spark, the fuel, the life, the reason I get up in the morning. My daughter.

She can’t even talk yet but I find myself wondering many things about her. What music will she like? What sense of humor will she have? Will she believe in a God? Will she ever learn to drive a car, or Uber everywhere?

My sore back brings me back down to earth and reality in a hurry. The girl must go now, the rest of the family is heading out. I will stay and rest my back. I will miss her this afternoon, but I will put her to bed this evening.

A breeze moves the trees outside as I think of what I want for my girl. Give her options in life. Let her keep that smile of hers til the day she dies. Let her be healthy.

I’m a lucky man.

Music collections

I have extensive collections of music in three main locations.

  1. Physical media, which is mainly composed of vinyl and cd collections. These collections still afford the most emersive experience  in that I can read the cover art, and the liner notes while listening to the music. 
  2. Digital media, which is essentially an iTunes collection which has built up over the years on my hard drives. This takes a bit of effort to keep organized. There is always the bitrate and compression to think about. I find the “mastered for iTunes” series to be more than adequate sound quality though. I am growing less and less bothered by the bitrate, given that my playback equipment is at best midrange hifi which means most of the time I can’t hear any difference.
  3. Streaming collections, which I have collated and organized on Google music. This is essentially my iTunes music uploaded and complemented with a lot of albums from the cloud subscription service offered by Google. It is the most convenient and widely used collection that I have. I play it in the car, on the computer, in bed and most places in between.

What comes next? Alexa by Amazon? Something similar from Google?

I think most audiophiles enjoy having options in collecting and accessing music. And hardware options for the playback of music. As streaming quality improves, the options only will widen.