Recalcitrant Egg 3

So as I have discussed previously, I felt the daily art exercise was interesting, but not the best use of my time in the sense that while I enjoy making art, it isn't central to my identity. Spending that much effort (often an hour or more each day) on that project was not an authentic use of my time. For someone else it might have been, but not for me. So I set up my weekly personal progress program for 2022 that included reading two books simultaneously and trying to read at least 10 pages from each every day (20+ pages total). That may not sound like much, but I am a slow reader - my wife is consistently surprised by how slowly I read, even after all these years. Also, some of these books are very dense, and it often requires re-reading passages to make sure I understand them. I often do more than the minimum, averaging close to an hour each day reading for personal development. I like to think that I have a challenging book, often a classic like Nozick's The Examined Life ...

  I'd always been convinced cheesecake was really hard to make. But I recently started following an Instagram account called @cookistwow  and they had featured a couple of cheesecake recipes, so I finally decided to give it a whirl. It was really easy, and the product was excellent!  Technically a "Basque Cheesecake" - check out their recipe here : With its caramelized crust and creamy heart, this cheesecake is a must-try!   INGREDIENTS 600g cream cheese (at room temperature) 230g (1 cup + 2 tbsp) sugar 4 eggs 300ml (10 oz) heavy cream 5ml (1 tsp) vanilla extract 40g (3 tbsp) flour METHOD Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F. Line a greased 8' springform cake pan with 2 pieces of parchment overlapping each other, leaving at least 2 inches of parchment overhanging the rim on all sides. Set aside. In a large bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar with a mixer. Add eggs, one at a time, and continue to beat. When smooth, pour in heavy cream and vanilla extract and beat a litt...

If you are "of a certain age" (40+) I would like to recommend Arthur Brooks' new book, "From Strength to Strength". I listened to it on audio and liked it enough that I ordered a hard copy so I could read it more deliberately.  Perhaps my favorite quote (which is not necessarily representative of the book's theme): "[M]atters are hardly helped by Mother Nature's useful idiots in society, who propogate a popular piece of life-ruining advice: "If it feels good, do it." Unless you share existential goals with protozoa, this is often flat-out wrong." Check out the book at:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/059319148X/  

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=NaT5   US government debt - sold as Treasury Bonds to fund our federal budget deficits - are regarded by the world as a “risk free” asset - meaning there is no chance of losing money from the investment through default. In reality there is no such thing as a “risk free” asset, but T-Bonds are about as good as you can get.  With a regular 10 year T-Bond, you pay for the bond and for the duration of the bond’s life you receive semi-annual “coupon” payments and at maturity you receive the face value of the bond back. So if you bought a bond with a $1000 face value bond, with a 6% coupon rate, you would receive $30 every six months (6% x $1000 divided into two payments of $30 each), and at maturity you would receive $1000.  Without getting into a full lecture on bond valuation, let’s just think about that $1000 that, with a 10-year bond, you would be getting 10 years from now. That’s a long time, and with inflation, that $1000 isn’t going ...

Last week I used my own professional career as a process of finding the right fit in order to be the person you are meant to be.   This week I’ve been working on a new research project and one of the articles I reviewed,   Psychological Success: When the Career Is a Calling   by Douglas T. Hall and Dawn E. Chandler included the following model: The gist of this model goes like this: we begin a process of career exploration, putting forth effort to find work that aligns with our needs and values. When this goes well, we experience objective success - we can see we are good at something, and that is also often accompanied by external validations such as promotions, raises, and praise. This can lead to subjective success, where we feel validated in our choices and accomplishments. This then leads to our revising our identity - internalizing the successes and gaining confidence in our new-found competence. I often ask physicians, for example, when they internalized their ide...

  I made my first paddle to Goat Island from Jackson's Landing today since probably December. The river by Jackson's Landing freezes over, at least near the shore, making it tricky to put in, so I've had to put in at the Cedar Point landing, just northwest of Goat Island. During the winter I usually hug the shore line just in case, so I don't venture out to Goat Island, even though it is relatively close. This is probably my most frequent route when I go out.  This shot is from the south side of the island - Fox Point in Newington is across the water in the background.  It's about 3.2 miles each way, which makes for a great paddle. If I'm pushing myself, I can make it in 90 minutes, but a more casual pace (like today) takes closer to two hours.  The LHH is only about a mile from Jackson's Landing, so I can be on the water in about 15 minutes when I decide to do this route, which is great. 

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I have been working on a multi-pronged personal development program this year (see  https://recalcitrantegg3.blogspot.com/2022/02/new-personal-progress-program.html  ), focusing on tracking nine different weekly goals that hit on a range of themes that I want to improve on. Below is last week's final report. As you can see, I kind of blew the fitness goal of doing three weight training sessions/week. Well, totally blew that goal, but hit all the others. Accepting some failure each week is actually one of the underlying emotional goals. This isn't a rigid, absolute exercise. I am actually trying to build habits, rather than simply hit arbitrary targets.   If you are interested, you can see the Google Sheet where I keep the records live here:  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1YLDgU6R8eGB5TdcGPhkUEoYvPXALyLGF5aAaEvgMcNw/edit?usp=sharing   One of the things that has been effective is I can access the Google Sheet from my phone...

  I came across this Paul Coelho quote last week and I have been thinking about it because it reflects some of what I have been thinking about this year: “Maybe the journey isn’t so much about becoming anything. Maybe it’s about un-becoming everything that isn’t really you, so you can be who you were meant to be in the first place.” ― Paul Coelho I enlisted in the Massachusetts National Guard in April of 1989. I did so for a number of reasons - some of them financial - but also because I really wanted to be part of something that I thought was admirable, and to go through training that I thought would improve my character. I wasn't wrong. It was financially beneficial - I have been largely financially independent since that decision - my folks still helped me with school, but I reduced their contribution by about 90% - and then I went on active duty as soon as I graduated in 1992 and never looked back.  But something I learned fairly early on was that I was not going to be a g...

I just saw this wistful article about traveling only with a carry-on. My sister many years ago made the same calculus as this author - forget the backpack - who wants to have all their junk on their back - get a rolly carry-on! K and I did Paris for 8 days with only a carry-on each. If you don't check a bag, the airline can't lose it. That's probably the best bit. https://www.travelandleisure.com/travel-tips/packing-tips/how-to-travel-with-only-a-carry-on-small-suitcase?utm_source=instagram&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=travelandleisure_travelandleisure&utm_content=like2buy_headline&utm_term=curalate_like2buy   I can't wait to start traveling again. (Pic is of K and I on our flight to Paris for our 25th wedding anniversary)

I've been a fan of Arnold Kling's writing for a long time. His simple web site is:  https://arnoldkling.com/   He has written a number of books, but my favorite is The Three Languages of Politics . I use his three-languages lens to think about political discourse all the time.  He recently started a Substack at  https://arnoldkling.substack.com/  . One of the benefits of being a paid member of his Substack is you get invited to seminars he runs. The seminars are small - 15 or so people - and he runs a very open and respectful discussion. I mostly just listen because I don't feel I have the knowledge most of the time to add to the discussion, and I think it is a great discussion. He led a discourse tonight on the history of the US financial system.  The Substack system is great, and I love the fact that I can listen to people I have followed for years now. 

I discovered the joys of homemade amaretti from the cooking blog Love and Olive Oil a couple of months ago. Super easy to bake, they make you look much more talented than you actually are - or at least they make me look more talented than I am. You can make them a bunch of different ways. I have tried the basic version, the cherry stuffed version (our favorite so far), and the raspberry version yesterday (pictured here). Amaretti are an Italian cookie made with almond flour. They come out moist and chewy, with a soothing almond flavor. For the raspberry version, we added raspberry powder (the recipe called for freeze dried raspberries, which you then grind into powder - I just skipped the grinding step by buying raspberry powder from Amazon). You can get the recipe here:  https://www.loveandoliveoil.com/2018/12/raspberry-amaretti-cookies.html  

I have become a big fan of Bari Weiss and her project - the Honestly podcast and her Common Sense newsletter.  The week prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Weiss interviewed former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. I remember Rice vaguely - I didn't pay as much attention to politics at that time - and she was a Republican and I was still a knee-jerk, Blue State public school product, anti-Republican.  Listening to her talk about her upbringing and beliefs about individual agency were heartening. I wish she would run for president, but she swears she will not. Too bad - it would be my first time voting Republican.  Check out the interview here:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/honestly-with-bari-weiss/id1570872415?i=1000551866282