resilient dad

Inspired to continue the vlogs

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I have been hesitating on continuing the vlogs, but with some inspiration today from another fella doing the same format I thought I would just do it.

Justin Rhodes was on an interview today on The Survival Podcast and he described how he was in the same predicament I am in:blogging takes to much time so vlogging is an alternative to making the long form content.

I understand the viability of the approach, and I still need to make sense of what I am really doing with the vlogs on my commute home. It needs to give some value other than just a rundown of my thoughts for the day. I may change the frequency of it so that I can prepare the content and make it worth watching.

Here is a link to the podcast. I have learned a lot from The Survival Podcast and a lot of the information comes from great folks like Justin just do

http://www.thesurvivalpodcast.com/episode-1865-justin-rhodes-on-the-10-hour-homestead-and-new-media

Now my new dilemma is making the actual written blogs out of all the ideas I am summarizing in these vlogs 🙂

RESILIENT DAD: daily vlog 16.08.29

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Update:
-looking for a home where we can build a resilient lifestyle
-a former colleague tells me about how the pasture is greener on the other side. Less overtime; better salary; higher quality of work but less volume; better benefits
-car in front of me almost hits a street light

Vlog 16.08.31 – What we are looking for in a house

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A quick rundown on what we are looking for in a house. The goal is to find a home that can fit my plans for a resilient lifestyle. We are not looking for a house in a good school district with good comps for neighbors (at least I am not)
3bed 2 bath typically
not a bighouse, approx 1200 sf (low maintenance)
big yard(1/4 acre0
multiple road access (required)
no HOA (requirement)
garage + car port for hail protection (required)

ideally out of city limits (preferred)
brick exterior (preferred)
2 story (preferred)
no flood zone
easy to insulate (preferred)
good solar orientation (preferred)
fireplace (preferred)
buy something that looks poor so we can improve it (Dad’s list)
no pool, burden to property taxes (Dad’s list)
low property tax (requirement)
proximity to good developments, but not in it (preferred)

Revisiting an old passion

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Everyone I’ve followed as a mentor has always told me to follow my passion. I would love to, but right now I do not know what that is. I used to live to draw. I drew from the age of around 4-and I recall how my mind switched on to adding balls for muscles to that stick figure. I recall how my uncle from Batangas taught me how to draw the front view of an airplane (1 circle with 3 sticks). I devoured comic books as a teenager as I studied the inking and hatching techniques of Jim Lee and Whilce Portacio. I had no money but somehow I dug myself deep into that culture because I loved it.

I got into architecture because of drawing. Now, after about 12 years into it I realize I have hardly done any real drawing. I’ve been making money out of that passion, but I did not look to see if there should be more from it.

It’s been so long that I do not know if it is still something I would be passionate about. But I think the great thing with drawing, was that it enabled me to create something. In the time when I could not do anything, I could at least form my thoughts and beliefs into a snapshot of something.

I took out a sketchbook today. I’ve had it for about 1.5 years now and did not touch it for drawing. I’ve been living off of journals as my recent years have been better captured as notes and lists: business concepts, errands, bills. This sketchbook will definitely still have that-without a question. It already is filled with notes for the vlogs I posted today. But I will also consciously try to use it as a sketch book, I will find a subject and draw the heck out of it. I want to see where this takes me. One muse business I am thinking of is still related to the children’s book concept, so this will let me explore that. Or at least it will let me see how far away I have drifted from where I started when I was a kid drawing old buildings in Manila.

Make this weekend count.

Asking for a raise – Daily vlog 16.08.22

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Today I asked for a raise-obviously a critical tool to improving my family’s life. I mentioned it briefly on the video but I wanted to detail it further on the blog. A quick summary for how I am asking for a raise:

-check that I did in fact improve and that I am worth the increased salary. In my case it meant did I make my boss’ life easier? Did I save the office from some hairy disasters? in both cases I can say yes I did.

-find good timing for the question. I’ve been waiting for a while-too long almost. I have some understanding of how our particular team’s finances are. I tried to wait til the team had a better budget, partly so as not to burden the team any further during the low periods, but also because getting a raise during a lull means getting a tiny one. I would be in a bad spot to ask for another raise when budgets got better.

-Side note: I did research on recommended ways to approach the topic. I will skip that and just write down how mine went.

-I kept a list of important contributions and value I provided to our team. I kept this in my head so I could articulate how things have gotten better. Usually they do not realize the good things you do, they just notice that they have a nice day and there are no fires to put out on your project-I was ready to explain that most fires were dealt with on my watch so they did not have to.

-Understand how your boss might prefer to receive the question. In my case, I thought he would prefer a quick chat, nothing formal, but just a reminder about reviewing my recent performance. I followed up with an email apologizing for the the abruptness of the question. I explained I had been pondering it for awhile and remembered to finally ask. I also made mention that I was looking to discuss a salary adjustment-a nicer word than raise. In my case I had custom tailored the letter to my boss.

So that is how I asked for a raise. I am currently waiting on a response and will post an update as made available.

RESILIENT DAD: Daily vlog 16.08.20

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Updates for Aug 20 2016:
-Planters for produce is ongoing
-Mention restarting the urban farm
-benefits of the urban farm as a small business and as a tool to understand business
-Preparing my child for school by taking a rainy Saturday morning walk, using it to teach him to appreciate a good jacket, to learn how to find directions and to cross the street safely.
-Looking for a martial arts approach to integrate with a firearm.
-Learning to cook new recipes, cooking as a skill that needs to be developed

Resiliency progress 16.08.15

Chris

The weekend was busy as predicted. Here’s the progress I made:

Food resiliency:
Been planning on gardening again this season. As part of this I am making planters from scrap wood and fencing. I finished a good sized planter on Friday night til Sat 2am working in the garage. At some point my circular saw ran out of juice and I used a hand saw-grrrreat for exercise but the timing was wrong. I had little left in me to do this at 1am.

The planter is done and ready to sit in the yard with good soil til temps get cooler. I will tarp over this and just let some life build into the soil.

Defense:
Still trying to find a good holster that will work for my handgun. I have been carrying it everyday for a week and the holster does not work for me. Apparently, the gun I have does not have a lot of options for holsters so it’s been difficult to find good ones.

I decided to upload a 2min review for other folks using the same gun and looking for holster options:

 

 

Gear:
A big bonus over the weekend was camping supplies. My wife found a garage sale where we found camping supplies worth over $200. These included a Coleman propane 2 burner stove, catalytic heater, MSR isobutane pocket stove, thermal blankets, cooking gear, a 12v air pump and inflatable bed. There’s a bunch more in it but those are still hot in my head and I am giddy with awesomness from the great find. (edit:I am making a separate post about this to give more detail)

We drove to Irving, TX to explore homestead options. Still looking for a neighborhood we can afford with the characteristics we are looking for. This is not a big homestead, but just a small suburban one. I still would like a bigger lot and no HOA.

The only flaws for this super productive weekend was that I did not work on the book at all. I will need to catch up somehow.

Mental white noise

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I was focusing yesterday on finding some kind of mental white noise. What happens sometimes is I listen to a series of podcasts/videos while at the office and I get saturated with information. Some are actionable and some are conceptual. At some point my mind gets bogged down and I don’t always realize it but I end up wanting to stare empty into space and zone out. These are times I try contemplate/meditate and make plans. Me feeling like I want to zone out, is actually my brain telling me he is tired and signaling me to stop using him. To accommodate this rest and jumpstart my head, I am trying to find this mental white noise-be it a place to meditate or a state of being. Hopefully it is a place I can designate as a neutral physical space and train my mind to assign this place as a time to power down.

I continue to carry a gun using this holster I am still testing. I am in a weird state as I carry it loaded but not cocked. I guess it is an extra precaution as I get used to the fact that I am carrying a gun on my person. The holster has had issues and I am trying to figure out where and when I can test it. For example I checked how hard it would be to draw from a car seat.

Progress update:
Book-drew entire story board early this morning approx midnight.
Blog-still contemplating format. Must be actionable for myself and others-not just me blabbering. Must also document my progress in a concise manner.Children’s story-every night I tell my son a story. Sometimes a real story sometimes it is a micro lesson on all kinds of stuff. Yesterday it happened to be how the election process works. Told him about voting and how America currently has 3 folks still running in this contest. No specifics, no heavy stuff, just how the thing is supposed to work.

Distracted

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Yesterday my mind was blowing up and wanted to get so much stuff done. I got home and planned to work late late late into the night.

Somehow, some argument started at home and consumed me. I got emotional and lost my priority for that night. I cannot understand how these got started, but they did the damage. I went to bed planning on getting back up to work, but I dozed off.

Some nights I feel that the universe also conspires to make things NOT work for people. Maybe not the universe altogether, but some immediate factors put pressure to derail what could have been good progress for me. This is not the first time this has happened. It happens quite regularly. I wish there was some kind of counter to it but I have not found any.