wishlist addition: yamaha reface cp mini keyboard
legend has it that when time came for Fito Paez to write his best song, he was found holding a toy piano that Charly Garcia had given to him as a present
stratocaster player ii
i bought a strat and a pair of headphones to relearn music while the family sleeps
how is it that such an occurrence can occur?
so there it was: Emerson filled the remaining $15.06 needed on top of the cheap plastic pretend play doctor kit... how is it possible?
Thucydides, Book 4
a petition to preserve Spartan dignity in misfortune takes us back to Solon's warning
cruise to alaska
just returned from a 7-night Disney Cruise to Alaska. When two toddlers and their tantrums are involved, my small Sony A7Cii with the tiny 24mm prime turns out to be too much to carry.
Celeste was born to sing Mi Enfermedad
and that's because this song was inspired and written for Celeste, and our Argentinian Janis Joplin was born to sing this song. Am I not right?
history's first (and grandest) funeral oration
an answer, perhaps the answer, to "what we fight for?", "what we die for?" and, most importantly "what we live for?"
the non-linearity of having kids in quick succession
non-linear effects and negative convexity can be described and explained using different methods. Depending on the method used, a different level of understanding is attained.
"daily standard deviation of 1% moves 1% a day" - not so
In the financial markets, the definition of volatility is assumed to be standard deviation. However, in practice, people seem to either forget the definition or completely substitute it with the mean absolute deviation. For example...
placing high-confidence bets in mediocristan and winning
life in Mediocristan is quite enjoyable. It reminds me of Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria. The ocean is nearby, and the climate is pleasant. Never too cold, never too hot.
shorting stocks based on fragility
On principle, therefore, a small short position is in order. Small because we cannot time markets, and small because it's an expression of a philosophical view, not an attempt to make fuck you money with one trade.
dying a good death and reading antifragile
against my (acquired) skepticism of anything published in the last 50 years (exceptions: Kazuo Ishiguro's novels, The Selfish Gene), I picked up Nassim N. Taleb's Antifragile.
basic hiking gear (2025)
nowadays our hikes are frequent, easy, and short. We drive long distances to reach the trailhead, and typically do not make it to the main attraction (the waterfall, the pool, the giant sequoia), but we do have lots of fun.
tahquitz canyon - evacuating from the L.A. fires
morning hike in the desert
when you cross the street, you remove data
more data--such as paying attention to the eye colors of the people around when crossing the street--can make you miss the big truck.
only one new year resolution --> don't buy shit
so be it resolved, that I will not, in the entirety of the year 2025, buy shit unless such shit has one of the following three characteristics
from high school nerd to boss
when nerds become restless at work about getting promoted to higher levels of management, they double down on their nerd skills to increase their output.
it was christmas eve babe
i kept them with me babe, i put them with my own, can't make it all alone, i've built my dreams around you
fred rogers testifies before congress
after watching this mesmerizing speech and reading the YouTube comments, I have the sensation that I have missed something important.
when batu khan set out for the eurasian steppe...
how could he lead so many victorious campaigns and cover such vast territories if the subreddit r/CampingGear had not come to existence yet?
home scene
a royal pain to set up this trampoline... but an endless supply of fun
virtue over fortune in investing and other pastimes
since you can't help yourself, then let's use the word "virtue" for the disciplined application of your method, and the word "fortune" for the outcome of your "investments."
what we talk about when we talk about correlation
in day-to-day meetings and coffee chats, no big deal, but when it comes to making investing or hedging decisions, beware.
making photos look old
there's something endearing about spending a couple thousand dollars on a brand new full-frame camera to then process the heck out of the photos to make them look as if they were taken with a $15 disposable film toy