Hobbies
I’ve loved collecting vinyl, much of it from criminally obscure bands who only pressed 300 copies of a record in 2014 or whatever. A part of me thinks of record collecting as ‘archiving’. You might ask why I collect vinyl if I can hear the music on the internet. Or you might not ask, in which case I will give the answers unsolicited.
- Vinyl sounds better than the compressed digital counterpart sent via electrical pulses through wires. You can actually see the album artwork too.
- I seem to be nearly incapable of listening to an entire album on the internet. I get distracted, my player of choice is shuffling before I realize it, and I get distracted. I also get distracted. There’s something about the ritual of pulling out a chunky piece of vinyl that is not only viscerally satisfying but also commits me to listen to a continuous piece of music the way the artists intended. Songs on an album are often sequenced in a way such that the sum of greater than it’s parts. One example I can think of is Black Sabbath’s Master of Reality when the second to last song Solitude quietly invokes images of a large starry desert night sky, proceeded by the last song Into the Void with one the most monstrous, kick-ass riffs in rock n’ roll. That transition is such a good moment, one which can only be experienced through the album format.
- Not all records I’ve bought can be easily found or accessed on the interwebs. I recently heard a song called Let Them Eat Valium on a weekly late-night radio show from LA that plays a lot of crazy, weird, and obscure stuff. This song about knocked me over, and I was compelled to track it down. The problem was that the only thing I could find on the internet was a youtube video - of someone playing their vinyl record. I researched the song and discovered that nobody really knows much about the band, who put out one single on a 7” decades ago before sinking back into the darkness of obscurity and nearly being lost in history until someone found a copy at a yard sale and began spreading the word. There are probably a few hundred copies of this record in existence - and might I stress that the song is damn good. Luckily I was able to find a copy, for under 15 bucks too! It’s kind of cool to have an obscure song nobody has ever heard of that’s actually quite catchy.
I recently discovered a band from the mid-2000s that I truly believe could have radio hits, even today (maybe add in a little bit of autotune for the kids; and yes, new vinyl is being pressed to this day). I’ve been a little obsessed with them and found myself scouring the internet for a reasonably priced record that is inevitably out of print and few have ever heard of. A few weeks ago I walked into a record store and saw just the record I was looking for, for 7 bucks.
Yep, seems like I’ve caught the bug.
Parenting
Parenting does not fit my personality and it’s often difficult to stay positive about life. I’m most content when I have free time that I can choose to use how I wish, and the freedom to be spontaneous (whether or not I actually exercise that freedom, I still like having the option), but most importantly I find joy in chasing after my hopes, dreams, and aspirations - which I used to have. I do love Kev, and it’s not his fault that my personality seems to be such a poor fit for the parenting lifestyle. Last year I wrote a blog post about parenting where I was trying to be positive but the truth is it’s rough out here.
I am able to do a bare minimum of hobby pursuing, so at least there’s that. And there is one dream that’s still alive:
Trading
Oh boy, here he goes…
Last year was the first year that I’ve truly been able to trade with a realistic amount of money that will let me do it “for real”. When I say trading, I want to be clear what I’m not doing is buying and holding stock. Every now and then I do something like that, but mostly what I do is (essentially) buy and sell short-term insurance premiums on stock, otherwise known as options. depending on how I position my trades, I can profit when stocks go up, go down, or just stay flat.
(To any who may know a thing or two about options, I know it’s not exactly ‘insurance’, but it’s a good analogy, and I’m going to refrain from writing a dissertation on what options are. If you want to talk shop, see me after class.)
Trading options allows me to define my risk to the point where I know exactly the maximum amount of risk possible on any trade. When I was trading with a smaller account, I put on trades where the most I could possibly lose is 25-50 dollars. As I’ve scaled up, I regularly risk 100-300 dollars on any one given trade. Being able to so accurately assess my risk/reward allows me to build a system based on probability. Having the ability to keep my risk in any one trade small allows me to scatter my risk around, which I suppose you can think of as a form of diversification, meaning no one disastrous trade will knock me out of the game.
This past year I’ve worked as hard as I’ve ever worked in my life to hone my system. This means among other things I’ve been gathering and analyzing data, monitoring various strategies performance and making tweaks to increase my odds, and going through an inevitable crucible of disappointment as I fail over and over and continue to learn from experience.
I’ve traded small but have gradually been scaling up as my system becomes more and more potent. This year I made a whopping $3,500 in profit which represents over a 10% return, which may not sound like much (and it isn’t), but considering that my original goal was to make $1,000 (I told you I was trading small) means that my system has proven itself to be a wild success. This year, I will start pushing the proverbial accelerator and taking a larger proportion of risk; my goal is to make at least $10,000 this year.
My ultimate goal is to eventually be able to quit my job and trade full time. Working a 9 to 5 corporate job is something I worry that I’m not capable of doing for the rest of my life. Eventually, I will need to start a record label (which is like starting a newspaper or a typewriter business), become a pan-handler, or make trading work. The good news for me is that trading is looking more and more viable. The bad news for you is I’ll get to blab about it forever and ever and ever and ever.
TMI
I sit down when I pee because that makes way more sense to avoid splash damage (as long as it’s a trustworthy toilet). I’m baffled why I ever thought it made sense any other way.
Why did he say that?
Post School
The arctic winter here is really kicking our ass.
I often question if going back to school and finishing a degree was a good idea. I really was mostly doing it for fun and enlightenment, but it made it so that we’re now stuck in Rexburg for who knows how long thanks to some very poor timing involving the housing bubble. No doubt everyone over 50 will reassure me that having a degree is a good idea. I’ll go on record to say that any company that disqualifies an otherwise qualified candidate based on academic credentials is a company I flat out refuse to work for. So there.
I’ve always liked reading interesting crap, but now that I’m not in school I can do more of that. Of course with a kid I have to choose between reading, watching things and wasting my life on the internet trying to convince others I totally have my life together. If I have to pick one (which I do) I prefer reading interesting crap and is one of the things I do to try and remember why life doesn’t suck, and is so much better than hanging out with people (ick). In fact, I read over 40 books this year. Here is a list of my favorite 5 for the year that I haphazardly threw together:
Top 5 books
The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro (ever read a book about nothing that ends up being an emotional gut-punch?)
Leonardo Da Vinci - Walter Isaacson (proving that curiosity is a viable superpower)
The Invisible Man - HG Wells (good twist on a storyline that is now a bit cliche; a bit dark and twisted…which is just how I like ’em)
Sorry I’m Late, I Didn’t Want To Come - Jessica Pan (introverts unite)
Basic Economics - Thomas Sowell (maybe I’m just a nerd, but this was way less dry than it sounds)
Thanks for letting me talk about me. We can talk about you now.