Kuya Vic

beautiful photographs
photos

the number one thing?

run a podcast
writer

you have a desire

be happy

be wealthy

be healthy

probably should be happy, healthy, wealthy
or
healthy, happy, wealthy actually

that is probably the correct order

anyway

have an organized room

a clean room

but what does that mean? it means to have space.

and so you have goals, you have tools (camera, drawing board), and things you want to do (read books, write), but there is excess stuff.

there is stuff in your way.

and you are living a scarcity mindset. that those things need to be replaced. and what if it all goes bad, and i need to be able to sell those things, and who am i to throw things away?

and instead the goal could be like, the reframe could be well, that is the price you pay for a clean, organized room. literal a price. you know you could resell those things for $200, and you do not. because well, it is a big piece.

you are reorganizing, you are organizing yourself.

you are gaining space. by donating and getting rid of stuff you are not just losing stuff. losing money. you are gaining space. you are gaining a clean space. an organized space.

you're smart.

figure it out.

there are short/long term net positive ways to do it.

How you make things fun in general:

engaging
add music
make it social
make it adventurous (hills, woods)
novelty (new areas)
tracking progress
not tracking for feeling freedom
talk to people on the phone

inherently?
fresh air
sunlight

Would you rather play one really good game and get really good at it? Or play a different game everyday?

Hard to say really. Initially, you think one good game and get really good, because then it gets more fun as you get better.

But maybe you get better at games in general as you play more different games?

Would you rather have one dog that is really good that you get to know? Or have a new dog everyday?

Seems like the answer is one really good dog.

So for relationships or things close to you, maybe novelty has limits.

Hard to say. Quality defined by who? Even if it is defined by yourself, how do you define it?

What if your definition of quality is wrong? What would that even mean?

It seems that the definition is closer to something we call happiness.

The good. The short term and the long term good.

Hard to say. How do you even define what is good? If an event is good or bad. Is it helpful or not? Or can you be the person that gets value out of either event?

Value for what purpose?

Back to the happiness thing again.

There is a middle way, a balance, something that is an unlock.

Instead of deciding between mind-numbing, soul crushing work that makes a lot of money, and engaging and enriching work that makes little money, there are other options.

Medium work that makes enough money to allow time and energy for engaging and enriching work. Minimizing work time and allowing more time for engaging and enriching work. Turning any work into something that is engaging and enriching. Getting engagement and enrichment from everything, in abundance, and not only work. Doing work that is engaging, and enriching, and makes a lot of money. Realizing what a lot of money really means and how to achieve that. Decoupling a need for spending most for most things, thereby increasing the effective excess of money. Being happy without regard for money or the work.

A lot of money is money in excess and abundance that replaces itself faster than it can be spent so that it continues to grow.

Novelty is a huge thing. But novelty has costs.
Quality does not necessitate stagnation.
Familiarity is a huge thing. But may also have costs.

Play long term games with quality players.

Seems like the biggest hack is being able to be in the sun.

You, of course, need a safe space to stay. Protection from the weather. A place to come home.

But my oh my, spending most of the day in sunlight is a benefit.

Walk.

Wear the right clothes: parka, snow bibs.

The difficulty in the winter is that, it gets really cold. Like here especially. Go parka. Go ski bibs. Get outside anyway. Mid morning time is probably the best.

What is better for cold weather sports? Snow bibs or pants?

Bibs, hands down. Besides cost, I do not know why people wear pants. They are more available? My perspective is an amatuer, maybe professionals wear pants for mobility or something. Bibs keep you warmer. Bibs do not fall down. Bibs have that lower back area covered, which often comes uncovered when doing cold weather sports.

What is a good winter activity for sunlight?

Walking. I mean walking is probably the GOAT.
Jogging or running works as well.

I have done a lot of winter biking, fat biking, and winter commutting. It is fun and for all the reasons that biking is fun, but walking is a GOAT activity.

Why is walking great for winter sunlight?

Ease. That is number one. You can just literally go outside and do it. Almost wherever you are.

How do you make walking fun?

You know, I have thought a lot about enjoyment and outdoor fun.

I used to think writing was the priority, or running, or lifting, or brazillian jiu jitsu.

It is walking.

Even above travel, music, inspirational reading.

Walking is king.

The reason people are happier with dogs is because of the walking.

I think that a large part of it is the walking. Walking your dog is a massive confounder. A walk gets you sunlight (vitamin D), social interaction usually positive about people wanting to pet your dog or ask about the dog, and walking movement.

Walking in and of itself.

It is also like joining a little (dog) club. The cafe that you go to all the time? Well, it was not until you had a dog that you realized the barista gives out little dog treats. Home Depot lots of the associates carry dog treats and it is allowed to bring your dog.

Walking easier than running.

Running you have to like dress different, I guess. Walking, I mean you walk. Maybe you wear walking shoes instead of dress shoes. But even that you do not need. We walked around London all day, 15k - 25k steps, and most of it was dress shoes. Boots too.

You can do other things while walking.

Namely, you can have a conversation. You could even work theoretically if you had a walking treadmill and a standing desk, although I do not recommend working while walking all the time.

Sure people jog during a phone meeting, but you sound all out of breath if you actually have to talk.

How to make it fun.

Do inclines instead of flats. Faster to a sweating workout without having to 'push' yourself on speed.

Earbuds for audio. Huge unlock. Put one in and so you can still hear everything around you. When I was growing up I was a runner and my coach said, we do not listen to music while running, we are runners, not joggers. He may have meant it as a joke, or maybe just as a throwaway comment, but being a naive high schooler, I took it as gospel.

Well, for walking, forget it. Sure it is great to be completely disconnected. But with just an earbud (remember just do one!) you can turn a boring, mundane, walk into something interesting with just some audio. It is a tiny dose of magic.

Yes, you can go full idgaf speaker phone or bluetooth speaker, but it changes the experience two ways: people react to the music and you might be thinking about the perceptio of people and what you are listening to and what they hear. Ex. curse words or out of context quotes. Plus, you do not need to scare every animal away.

Do make yourself do it everyday. Just do what is fun and what works. Variety. Indoors, outdoors, flat, hills, phone call, music, no music, dog, no dog, people, no people, texting, listening to videos, listening to podcasts, listening to your own music...just be smart and safe.

Which leads to the last tip.

Go somewhere with no cars, if you can. There are neighborhoods with no sidewalks. Sometimes I walk there, just take up a portion of the street and if there is low traffic and slow neighborhood people can go around you easily. But walking in a park is nice. Walking on a sidewalk. Walk in an alley .

Have fun.

have been considering this for a while now and going to bite the bullet and go for it.

we bike on vacation and it is fun.

we have tested it because we have rented bikes and those cost about $30-$50 a day.

we have also done the bike shares very, very often. pretty much every vacation.

we have gone on multiple roadtrips now the folding bike makes sense because bike share is not always available, can cost a lot, fun.

the best ways to see a city are to get around in it. you have to get to a good location, but walking, jogging, and biking are the ways to get around. riding the train might be one too. they immerse you in the city in a way that does not happen otherwise.

a city to a young person, especially who has not grown up in a world class city, is a feast. the amount of things to do. the amount of new people and looks. the architecture and art and design. it is like you had never read the ny times before and suddently everything is available to you.

it is like weird.

but the folding bike, having one is different. when you are on a roadtrip, especially a long roadtrip. you stay at places along the way. a bike on a hitch or something is well it gets in the way. the ideal way to travel is if you can fit everything inside the vehicle.

is it better to have everything inside the vehicle or more cabin space while on a roadtrip?
both. carry less and have both. everything inside the vehicle is better because it is secure. it is out of the elements. it does not interfere with the operation of the vehicle. it is easier to get to.
downsides? space. dirt.
if you are transporting dirty things, it is nice to have some area that can be dirty. or contain the dirt in a bag.

a folding bike you can just put inside is what i am trying to say.

you can use it for groceries.

importantly, it can fit multiple people.

you can bring it inside. and there is something nice about just being able to ride it. you will do it more.

we have luckily been able to stay with people that live close to bike share stations. that is fun. it is way less maintenance. but you do have to get the apps, or the codes, or this or the other. and sometimes the bikes don't work. or whatever. that can be part of the fun.

but the ease is having a bike.

when would i prefer a full size bike? probably anything non city commute. a long bike tour, off road riding, etc.
but who knows? it may be surprising.

looking forward to it.

buy things that make things easier that are good for you

open spending on health

and the majority of things need to be action

products << action

a bike ride >>> a new bike

what is luxury?

let's say you did not have much money in your bank account, but you did not have to worry about expenses, is that okay?

what if everything you touched daily, your clothes, furniture, computer, tools, house, shoes, were all luxury goods, does that make you have a luxury life? what is still missing?

what if you lived in the jungle or a remote area, with simple accomodations, but had a huge bank account? is that a trade-off most people would make?

the question really, that underlies this all, if you take a chance to examine the filter you are putting it through is: would i be happy?

happiness, then, not luxury is actually the marker. or at least, it is a superior measure. luxury might be part of happiness, but luxury should function to improve happiness.

would you want to be wearing luxury goods if now you were worried, not only about them getting stolen, but about your own life and getting kidnapped? seems like no.

luxury answers to happiness. but often we get the two confused.

luxury functions best when you get the best functioning products. marketing is part of it to. customer support is part of it too. attention is part of it too. or they can all be part of it, rather. return policy at REI is better than at Burberry. at Burberry you get champagne and a personal attendant.

and attention from people that you perceive have taste. but if you stop caring about that, then what does it matter? big win.

how can you spend a bunch of money?

I have been reading about VR and all the technology about metaverse. VR has been 'just around the corner' for at least 10 years.

There have been video game systems with VR games for at least a decade now. I have played on them.

The Playstation had a VR headset and a video game for flying that was widely commercially available. At the local big box electronics store.

Seems like a lot of people are talking about beat saber and oculus VR headset.

I think the problem is the headset. Why would I do that? It is cumbersome, but supposedly the immersion is great.

Right now, it is so easy to just use the controller, but I guess that is because it is a more mature technology. We have been gaming on controllers for 30+ years. The initial games were bad and buggy and you had to be very particular about the equipment and system. And not everyone had it.

Maybe that is how VR is right now.

But the point I was trying to make was that IRL (in real life) interactions are underrated.

I have calls and message people semi-regularly. But if you actually visit someone? In person. and talk to them even for 20 or 30 minutes? You get SO much more information. So much 'higher fidelity'. You learn things that they do not normally mention.

It is crazy how different it is.

Go for real life interactions. Worth the cost.

When you are trying to do something good and helpful for yourself.

Be in an encouraging and supportive environment.

Find likeminded people is the best for that.

Just be cautious about falling into groupthink. That is, a group having similar views, that are incorrect, but not challenged.

For things related to work, output, creativity, opt for less friction.

Make things easier for yourself to create.

Make things that you do not want to do, harder.

This reasoning is why cordless tools make sense. It seems like trivial to get an electrical cord. Plus if you already have tools, then just continue to use the ones you have.

But if you start doing outdoor projects, then cordless tools make sense. Indoors, sure, fine. But sometimes you also need to turn off the power. Batteries can be made easier to use.

Of course, some tools, battery versions are inferior, ex. random orbital sander. But for drills, oscillating tools, drivers, jigsaws. Wow, go for cordless.

A fast laptop for blogging and writing. The friction of waiting for pages and having to reload things and close is not good. Output, output, output.

Outerwear that does not show dog hair, if you live with a pet. It is too much to have to roll your clothes.