With your life, or artificially happy, knowing it’s temporary?

To be clear, this post is semi-autobiographical. My life’s not bad, just kind of dull. Recreational cannabis use is legal. Am I wrong to enjoy it? Should I focus on improving my life instead of getting high?

I think I remember this song. It seems familiar. YouTube recommended it based on other songs I was listening to. It was clearly popular. Do you remember it? What do you associate it with?

I recently travelled to East Asia for two weeks. I wanted to share a couple things I learned.

Things I packed that I didn't use:

• dress pants/trouser, instead I wore my button-down shirt with khakis.
• shorts, I just don't wear shorts, even on a warm sunny day. I wore lose-fitting long pants instead

Things I was glad I packed:

• two wallets. I had a passport wallet with large bills and a backup credit card. This usually stayed safe in my one-bag in the hotel room. I also had a slim wallet for a credit card, a transit card, a hotel room key and local cash.
• swimsuit. I brought a speedo and a small micro-fibre towel (that I didn't need) and Swedish-style goggles. I only swam once, but it was nice that I could. I forgot my swimcap, which is required in Asia.
• first aid kit. I had polysporin, hydracortizone, vaseline, bandages, Advil, tylenol and an antihistamine, all of which I used. I also had gauze, antiseptic wipes, antibacterial medication and rehydration salts, none of which I

I'm writing this partly because I think others might be interested, partly because I want to know what others think of my setup, and partly because I'm going to upgrade my hardware and need to review my setup so that I can re-create it on the newer hardware.

I have an old 2009 iMac at home that wasn't being used anymore, so I installed Ubuntu server 2022.04 LTS. I have two printers, so I installed the CUPS manager, which allows my to print wirelessly from iPad, iPhones and my MacBook Air. For media, I run PlexMediaServer (video) and Navidrome. For content, I run Transmission, which I can manage from a web browser. For e-books, I use calibre which I access via a web browser (on my iPhone or a Kobo). For coding, I've installed Nginx, MariaDB and PHP.

My router has a built-in VPN, but I'd like to install WireGuard on the server. I'd also like to be able to collect and manage my family's photos. For now, I use MacOS Photos, but since we rarely plug our phones into the computer to sync t

When you get to the end of your life, old and tired, and you look back on all the things you did and time you spent, what will make you say: yes, I did well and it was all worth it?

Put another way, if you have an extra hour tomorrow with nothing planned, what could you do with yourself to later say: I’m glad I did that? What if you have an unplanned day? Or a week? Does how you use that time change? Would the choice of how to use that time be more or less deliberate, depending on how long you have? Does that choice define you as a person?

When I’m unhappy, I feel like I’m doing life wrong. I’d rather be happy. But is happiness the point of life, or is there more to it? If I pursue happiness, mine first then for those around me, is that selfish? But if there’s a bigger purpose, then what about people with Alzheimer’s or dementia who can’t recall recent experiences or make plans?

Some of these numbers are shocking. Who knew that Taiwan has 14 Costcos, whereas France only has 2 and New Zealand only 1?

Probably my favourite punk-ska song.

“I promise not to judge any person solely as a teenager. But you will constantly remind yourselves that some of my generation judge people based on the colour of their skin or their religion and that this is no more right than saying all teenagers are drunken dope addicts or glue sniffers.”

I think the singer is really talented and this song is a good example. That’s not to diminish the ability of the rest of the band.

I packed my Farpoint 40 for two weeks in Alaska. It was more full than I would like. In order to fit my dress shoes, I put three pairs of socks (rolled) in each shoe.

What do you do to save space?

One of my favourites.

I wrote this as a comment in another thread, but I thought it might deserve its own post. This is how I think about saving for retirement, given a fairly difficult scenario. I'm open to feedback, suggestions or criticism, and I'm curious to see if others think about this differently.

I assume that $34,000 hits your bank account and that you're only able to save $1,000 into a savings account of some kind. If this can be extrapolated to a trend, you can expect your investments to grow by $1,000 per year, but also with a compounding return. If you invest it in a savings account, a GIC, a bond fund, a stock fund or a high-flying stock, you'll expect different returns. You need to build that up until there's enough to last for your retirement. There are two ways to think about that: having enough for 20 years (or some fixed duration) or having enough forever, which means some will certainly be left over. I pick 20 years as an example, because that would be age 65 to 85 (median life expecta

“Take a very small travel bag, a guidebook, a pair of sandals, standard hygiene items and relevant medicines, disposable earplugs, a few changes of simple clothes, one relatively nice outfit, a flashlight, sunglasses, your smartphone, a daypack and sturdy walking shoes. Anything else can be purchased along the way.” Rolf Potts, Vagabonding, p. 209

You know what we really need for this road trip? A radio.

Merger news: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/toronto-star-nordstar-talks-merger-postmedia-1.6890659

LiveWire local news: https://livewirecalgary.com/2023/06/16/youve-given-us-5-years-calgary-thank-you/

Rick Steves has been taking American tour groups through Europe for years (decades?). He only allows one bag that is carry on size, and he describes his reasoning.

You don’t need to pack everything on the list, but don’t pack anything that isn’t on the list.

I originally learned about one bag travel at onebag.com, by Doug Dyment. It's a great resource. I probably found that website after reading Vagabonding by Rolf Potts. I highly recommend it. Then I bought an Osprey Farpoint 40 and although I don't travel as much as I'd like, when I do I try to restrict myself to just that bag and maybe a personal item.

I love seeing other people's packing lists, hearing about travel, what worked and what didn't, and even seeing knolling spreads. Happy travels!