GRIZZLY PEAR

written snapshots

Category: Tangent Triplets

  • Baron in the Trees, Calvino (1957), The Jerusalem Windows, Chagall (1962), Genie’s Banquet, Eifuku & Takada (2016) Dorfromantik, Palm & Zach (2023)

    Baron in the Trees, only took me forever to read this.

    • Like many foreign films, the novel is fun and quirky until but the real world intrudes.
    • Indeed, this impending sense of doom is why it took me months to finish.
    • But it was edifying. A brilliant display of sparse deep storytelling.

    Jerusalem Windows, a killer $2 find at the library.

    • As with many mid-century monographs, it comes with a hagiography of the great artist. I kind of enjoy it, in a nostalgic way.
    • The colors are stunning, and it’s awesome to watch the process from sketches to finished window and detail.
    • But the allegory in the images are hard to grok, even for a kid who grew up as a hardcore Christian. I need to reread this book. Slower.

    Genie’s Banquet, a filler with the kids.

    • A fine example of a sharp little Japanese card game, common in the 2010’s.
    • As a cooperative game, this it’s a perfect fit at this moment.
    • There are some translation glitches in the rules, but the joy of boardgaming is that you can make up the rules when you’re unsure. We made it work.

    Dorfromantik, for my wife’s fake birthday, but really for the boy.

    • Charming and idyllic is exactly correct in describing this game. Normally I want a game to have an edge, but it’s the lack such an edge that makes this game. The SDJ is well earned.
    • This board game successfully imports the ubiquitous constant-unlock dynamic of the mobile gaming. However, I appreciate that this is non-destructive process (unlike the Legacy series). Most importantly, thank god, there’s no pay to win model with this thing.
    • I wonder if I should toughen the boy up by playing competitive games (winning, losing, manhood, and all that). In the meantime I’ll enjoy these team games with him. Who knows when he will phase out—they change so fast!

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    Having finished my calligraphy notebook last week, I started on our girl’s composition book from first grade. Might as well use up all the paper we got. It’s fun to add my practice with her old studies, and this means I’ll finish another notebook sooner rather than later!

    (and yes…that should have been “hungry”, but sometimes you just roll with it.)

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  • Money Multiplication Matters

    Tangents from a few books about money. I heartily recommend the one by Harry Browne; the rest are OK.

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    Fail Safe Investing, Lifelong Financial Security in 30 minutes, Harry Browne, 1999

    If you’re a wimp (like me) this is the best book on investing. And if you get interested in Risk Parity style portfolios, check out Frank Vasquez’s “Risk Parity Radio” for up to date opinions and advice on this style of portfolio construction.

    • If you want to speculate, look elsewhere. Harry Browne advises that your profession will be your primary source of wealth and warns against taking risks like investing on margin.
    • Clean, clear advice. Some specifics are outdated (such as how to purchase investments) but his conservative concepts are solid.
    • I plan on revisiting this book every year. I’ve taken a more aggressive approach than his “Permanent Portfolio” (more stocks, less gold and bonds). Still, I thank him for introducing me to Gold. It’s a controversial asset but a game changer for me. It added a third uncorrelated asset class to ballast the portfolio, which made me more comfortable with investing heavier in stocks.

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    Explore TIPS, Harry Sit, 2010

    Gotta start somewhere and I was curious about Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities when I started my investment journey in 2022. I’ve gone with a different investing strategy.

    • TIPS are bonds with inflation insurance. Harry is a fan of going heavy on TIPS relative to nominal bonds. (I believe a properly diversified portfolio will compensate for inflation with the other asset classes, so I don’t like the extra cost of the inflation insurance).
    • Purchase them at auction, the secondary market or via ETF’s. Harry Sit is open to all investment avenues.
    • I-bonds are more like CD’s since they can’t be sold on the secondary market. Harry Sit is not a fan.

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    Value Averaging, The Safe and Easy Strategy for Higher Investment Returns, Michael E. Edleson, 1993

    An optimized way to pour cash into the investment market.

    • “Value Averaging” is setting a goal for how much you want an investment to increase over time and purchasing accordingly. Unlike “Dollar Cost Averaging”, Value Averaging pushes you to buy more when the markets are down and less when they’re up.
    • If you want to be awesome, the book gives a bunch of math to optimize the investment curve.
    • As a retail investor playing with small sums, I believe optimization is a waste. After learning the basics, the smallest edge requires a ton of study. Any such such bet will be overwhelmed by the capricious whims of the gods. Better to enjoy the finer parts of life.

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    Die Broke, Stephen M. Pollen and Mark Levine, 1997

    I found the book in a random giveaway pile in Berkeley, maybe in lower Sproul Plaza. Two cities (and decades) later, I finally read it.

    • Great title and interesting provocation to reevaluate our relationship to money, work, and retirement.
    • I love books with unique structures. Part 1 is a short self help mindset manual. Part 2 is an alphabetical list of chapters with practical advice. (Since this book is almost thirty years old, I lightly skimmed the second part since I presume most of it is out of date.)
    • I enjoyed Part 1, partly because I already agree with their four key maxims. I view employment as a transaction not fulfillment, believe in avoiding debt, and doubt the positive good of leaving a large bequest. I’m not totally sold on the maxim of “Don’t Retire” but I appreciate their skepticism of the modern retirement paradigm.

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    make
    money
    grow
    invest
    digits
    on a
    screen

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  • 2023 Retrospective & 2024 Prospective

    I’m trying a new format where I just comment on things with three bullet points. Hopefully it will help me blow through the backlog of old blog drafts. Thought I’d try it out by looking at the year in review and the year to come.

    But you must read Andrei Atanasov’s No. 26 – Dancing In A Supermarket first! I don’t care if you make it back.

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    2023

    My theme this year was “catching up”. I feel like I did just OK with the theme, but the more that I think about it, it was an eventful year as we started re-integrated back into society despite our pandemic caution.

    Highlights

    • Buying a House
    • Visiting San Diego (twice!)
    • Two great architects joined the Division

    Hobbies

    • Reading — Homer and Tarot
    • Substack — finding fellow wanderers on Notes
    • Fountain Pens — Sketching and Calligraphy

    Lowlights

    • Getting the house ready for move-in, renovations are still miserable.
    • Didn’t exercise nor eat well enough, gained weight.
    • Distractions, unfocused focused, especially the second half of this year.

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    a year
    a life
    goodbye
    tomorrow
    smiles and
    sorrow
    hello

    When calligraphing, I have to be completely focused. This morning I chose John Coltrane’s Giant Steps instead of the usual Chicken and Dumplin’s by Bobby Timmons. That slight change was enough to add an extra O to the page. Fortunately, the early mistake kept me ultra-concentrated for the rest of the exercise.

    It’s been twenty years since hand drafting at the ground floor of Ron Bogley’s house. Small residential doesn’t pay well, but it was the most fun I’ve had as an architect. Graphite on vellum is a lot more forgiving so I would listen to the baseball games as I lettered.

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    2024

    My theme for next year is “settling in”. For the new house and everywhere else. The first half of the year will be a mess between the house and the biennial cycle for my government job. Hopefully the second half will be a time of customizing the home to fit our needs, it’s been a decade of always thinking we’re moving soon.

    Settling In

    • At the new House
    • Returning to the Office (again)
    • Digital Places and Processes

    Practices

    • Sketching and Calligraphy
    • Exercising
    • Reading my repeating “little library” and pushing forward on the classics

    Tiny Targets (and goals)

    • Three deep breaths on a yoga mat every morning. (I’d love to do the 8 Brocades three times a week, but I’ll start tiny.)
    • Sit down and say a small mantra before eating anything, including snacks. (The big goal is to lose a couple of pounds a month, but the numerical goal failed spectacularly last year. Maybe instilling a mindfulness practice is the first step in the process.)
    • Do something with a pen every morning (It would be nice to finish my OPM Letters and clear out my pile of read books to be blogged.)

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    new book
    new year
    new month
    new week
    new day
    Foundational Hand
    new font 

    I wrote this on 12/26 with a new-to-me font from The Art of Calligraphy by David Harris. I messed up the word order on the last line (working from bottom up) and kept it for the rest of the poem. But it sounds wrong so I went back to the original wording in the light blue scribbles.

    I’m not sure if I will stick with Foundational Hand for a long period (as I did with Uncial) but I’ll give it at least a week before exploring other fonts.

    This morning habit of writing a tiny poem for calligraphy practice has a highlight of this season to close out the year. Thanks to Beth Kempton and Nadia Gerassimenko for catalyzing the #tinypoem project! I just got Mary Oliver’s A Poetry Handbook — hopefully her wisdom will help me write gooder before I start publishing them in earnest.

    On to another 366 days of discovery in 2024!

    !