Shooting Film

Maybe it’s not even about taking pictures, with film there is nothing else you can do, especially using a simple camera like the Olympus trip 35, there are no focus to fuss with, no exposure settings to worry about, no lens to should have packed. Just point and shoot.

Out of focus, who cares!

It’s freeing, not knowing. It doesn’t matter. Who cares anyway? In our minds it was and will always be fantastic. It’s a moment we enjoyed enough to think to put on film. No need to fuss about, perfecting every little detail. No worries.

It’s not what film gives you, it’s what it takes away that truly makes it quite unique in this day and age. with everything offering more and more, film takes away just about everything except for the ability to take pictures you can’t even see right away. It is truly a different experience.

Tourist shot

What was most important to me was the freedom from the limitation of film. There is nothing else you can do other than make photographs with film cameras, limitation is the very best thing about it. You can’t take videos so you don’t even think about it. No panorama mode, no selfie mode, and none of those fake film simulation stuff because you got the real deal.

With the XPro2, digital is great!

I also feel with shooting my 5 dollar value village film camera I have a less of a “omg this is serious” kind of mentality. Maybe because I can’t and don’t control everything with the camera so it provides me with some excuses if the shot didn’t turn out well. With that comes with the freedom to do many things, take photos of things I normally wouldn’t. The best part is when I see the film it’s all a surprise for me.

It is so much fun to shoot film, the freedom provided by the nature of film, that surprise when the film is developed, makes it a fun and enjoyable experience. Of course I’m not ditching my digital camera for a film one but I am carrying both everywhere I go. Try a roll, you will get hooked.

 

Printshop with Marku

Had the opportunity to visit the print shop my friend Markus is doing some silkscreening over the christmas break over six months ago, finally processed the pictures. 

It took so long to process these is because I was trying to get the pictures to show off the nice rainbow inks he was printing with. It never felt right. There was too many colours, too many different colours to make the pictures come together as a whole.

Soon as I converted to black and white however it clicked, the light was surprisingly good thanks to the window and the work lights, but it was really hard to see with all the colours getting in the way. I think these pictures are much better served in black and white than in colour despite my initial thought of the importance of showing off the colours.

I wanted the black to be really dark to accentuate the window and work light on the work surface, he’s arms and occasionally he’s face. Trying to emulate the look of tri-x but not recreate it.

Through doing this set of images I learned for me colour could get in the way of seeing the light. I had a hard time seeing through the mix of window light, artificial lights with both soft white and blue-ish, not quite daylight colours, perhaps in these sort of situations black and white really is our friend. Throwing away all the colour reduces distraction leaving us pure light.

Centre Island

Sometimes the closer you are to something the less it is appreciated.

Last time i went to centre island was when i was just a wee lad. With my parents and can barely remember what had happened.

For most tourists it’s a must go, for the barbecue and the view of the city.

A few tips:

• skip the line by purchasing your ferry ticket online. We did it on our phone while we queued up for normal ticket purchase. Once you have your e-ticket they just scan it at the booth and you are through.
• Bike rental is not cheap, they will take debit for deposit if you are cashless.
• Wear comfortable shoes and pack some snacks, you are in for a long walk.
• Pack a jacket, it can get cold at night.

Have a written plan

Why bother writing this down, it’s not like we would forget about our financial assets.

From going through the process myself not only have I learned more about myself, what do I want with my future, about different funds and investment option, but the most important is how much more I have still to learn.

The reason we need an IPS (Investment Policy Statement) is to have directions, thinkings and ideas on paper where it’s plain to see and easy to revisit and/or revise. When the ideas are just floating in our heads it’s impossible to scrutinize in detail because there is nothing solid. Once written down we can refer back to it when we need guidance and never have to run into any “I think that sounds about right.” or “I can’t recall but it might be part of the plan.”.

Directions and Targets

The first we should do is set up short term, medium term and long term directions, and set some realistic goals without which we would be lost.

I decided for me short term is 1-2 years, medium term is 5-8 years and long term is 10-15 years, this is entirely up to you, only you can decide the ranges that work best for you.

For my short term I want to buy another cheaper car, currently we have a lease (bad) that is coming to an end this year, it’s time to switch to a much more reliable and cheaper car. Medium term would be to have a kid or kids, maybe move, but that’s merely just a thought. The long term of course is to save enough money work becomes optional.

Financial Information

Once we know where we are going it’s time to decide what are we willing to do, by that I mean how much and how often are we going to contribute. I personally have decided to put aside $500 per pay towards investing, something you need to think about is of course the more you save, the more it grows the better it is for the nest but also it would limit your ability to have a disposable income. It is up to you to decide what is the number you are comfortable with. The idea is: invest early, and invest often.

Asset Allocation

Once we have decided where we are going and speed, we have to pick the vehicle that will help us get there and ones to avoid. It is also important to know the best investment you could make is to pay off high interest loans, such as credit cards, payday loans or any short term loans that have exceedingly high interests. Most investment “gurus” would tell us use low fee index funds and hold.

Also we have to decide what is our risk tolerance and what are we willing to be exposed to. With lower risk tolerance we would favor more bonds and money markets rather than equity. Exposure means are we looking for US market or global market? Do we want to invest in oil and gas, tech, manufacturing, consumer staples or financial services, there are many many areas to choose from, it is up to to us to decide what we are most comfortable with. I have chosen for myself a 100% equity portfolio including total market of US, Canada, europe and emerging markets, with an emphasis on US and Canada.

I picked 100% equity because I don’t have short term need for this money, I can afford to be a bit more risky. With total market funds I get diversity. Geographical diversity was considered as well, although Canada and the US is closely linked together, I might chose in the future markets that are not so closed linked.

Canadians it’s also important to consider RRSP, TFSA or taxable accounts. I have decided it is paramount to max out TFSA and then RRSP, you on the other hand might be in different situations and would adjust accordingly.

Review and Rebalance

For the average home gamer investor there is no need to pay attention to the market, make changes yearly or every six months, do not try to time the market or predict the market, many have tried, many have failed.

I have gone for a six month review and yearly rebalance regiment. It seems to make the most sense to me, reviewing every six month would give me a good idea of how my investments are doing and catch it fairly early if i made a bad call. Yearly rebalance would give me enough time to let the investments settle down a bit before i make any changes.

Final Thoughts

I am certain the document will be modified as I learn more.

We are all different, with different situations, it is up to us to add and subtract things as we see fit. The important thing is to have a written document with clear plan for our financial future so we have something solid to fall back on when the going gets tough. If the first iteration wasn’t as successful as we had hoped we can modify and change instead of starting again from nothing, keeping what works and throw away what didn’t.

This is the guide I followed (and general good resources): https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Investment_policy_statement

Ask yourself

I came by the idea of active question in the book Triggers by Marshall Goldsmith.

Active questions are questions that put you in the driver seats, questions like “Did I do my best to define a career goal?” instead of questions like “Do I have a career goal?” that puts you in the passenger seat instead, making you someone going along for a ride with no control over where you end up.
When “Do I have a career goal?” is asked it sets in our mind a black and white situation with no shades of grey in between. What if I’m just setting up a goal or I don’t have a goal and is working on one? “Did I do my best to define a career goal?” is a much more involving question, it makes you think about your career goal, not only whether or not you have one but to think even if you have one is it the best for you? Could you improve on it? Is it time to change it? What’s the current situation with your career? It is a question that provokes and promotes active participation instead of a passive yes or no.
I’ve always thought and told myself that I have the power to change my situation because I can change the way I act in different situations and control the way I respond to the world.
Active question is a great way to have me ask myself or rather, remind myself that I am in the driving seat of my own life. Sometimes, maybe very often times it’s hard to realized you are actually the master of your own destiny. The world overwhelms us, could be too much to bare and it’s just easy to go with the flow and let the world take you wherever it decides. Active question is a good way to tell yourself “I may not be able to control the world but I can do something to get closer to the desired outcome.”.
I want to from now to set up a series of active questions to ask myself at the end of each day and I could score how well I did on each one. I don’t expect myself to be able to ace each question everyday, just trying, however, isn’t enough, not only would I have to try have to try hard, effort counts here.
I will score myself on how much effort I put in to each category and overtime I should be able to see if I’m heading in the right direction. The hard part would be to be honest with myself, and face the harsh reality that I may not be putting in as much efforts as I had hoped.
The questions:
“Did I do my best to eat healthy today?”
“Did I do my best to write today?”
“Did I do my best to be a better husband?”
“Did I do my best to learn something today?”
“Did I do my best to exercise?”
Start with the basics, I will be adding more as I find out more about myself and gain more experience. I am scared of these questions in part because I might not end up liking the answers I’ll have to give and in part am worried if I had just wasted my life before this. It is never too late to start, journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step.

Would it help?

 

 

Have you watched bridge of spies? The movie with Tom Hanks as someone who had to negotiate with the USSR regarding the exchange of a spy and a pilot. In the movie Tom Hanks’ character on multiple occasions asked the spy “why aren’t you more worried?” “Would it help?” replied the spy.

Springing to action seems like a good idea until that action doesn’t seem to contribute to anything, and often would make it worse. “Would it help?” ask yourself. Screaming out in pain when I burnt my hand seems like a great idea, would it help? Absolutely not, not only would that not help it would probably scare my wife and cause all sort of unnecessary concerns and undue stress, rinsing it under cold water and put some lotion/healing cream on it would be the thing to do.

“You missed the turn!” not much I can do now, I’ve already missed it. I could swerve and cut other people off to try to make my turn, but would that help? It would probably cause some traffic accident and that definitely does not help, calmly, take the next exit or street, make our way back on track. It might have taken a few more minutes but it sure as hell beats getting into an accident, not only waste hours not going anywhere but also risk getting someone hurt.

Most events allow for a few seconds or even a few minutes for us to think it through, remember how you were told “count to three before saying anything”? That is basically it. Give yourself a bit of time to ask “would what i am about to do help the situation?”

Save saving

Everyone knows one way to become rich is business, or special skills. Since I started reading the Mr money mustache blog I realized having a lot of money can be achieved another way, one we all can do without needing any special skills, luck, or starting capital, is saving.

Recently I had a talk with a co-worker, who is fairly young, a year my junior, about “getting rich”. He’s thinking about buying a condo in the near future, and was wondering about ways to get enough for a downpayment. The obvious thing, to me anyway, would be to save up, it is what I did to purchase my first home. However it’s not something my colleague has even considered, he said something along the lines of “sure I can save, but I’m talking about making a shitload of money fast”.

I was always brought up not spending every cent I made and try to save as much as possible. Spending all of my income seems like building a financial prison for myself, living paycheque to paycheque despite having the ability not to. I’ve always budgeted my life to use about 50% to 70% of what I make, build an emergency fund, save to purchase a home and for retirement.

A bit surprised by my co-worker’s reluctance to save I asked him why was saving not something he feel like would be the best way to reach his goals. “It takes too long, I want to make a lot of money right now”. Short of winning the lottery and some “spend a while in jail” type of things not many paths lead to “make a lot of money right now”.

It got me thinking, how slow is saving? I know saving isn’t fast, but over time it builds up, like a snowball, the more it builds up the fast it builds. Also maybe he wasn’t thinking about investing the saved up money instead of just letting the money sit and gather 0.2% interest from the bank.

Assuming a modest deposit of $500 a month with initial money of $1,000, easily doable on a middle class income, and assuming a modest investment return of 6% a year, in 5 years, our saving would have gone from $1,000 to around $37,000 dollars. A sizable amount but we can do better. Instead of saving $500 per month let’s do $250 bi-weekly, all of the sudden, everything being the same you’d end up with around $40,000 by the end of the same 5 years. Decent change for almost no perceivable difference to us. We can do even better, increase $250 bi-weekly to $500 would result in almost $80,000 dollars, now we are talking. This a very very simplistic representation to investing savings, a increase of 4% on the return would net you another $10,000 dollars. All of these things add up.

I started saving up soon as I started making money, thanks to my upbringing and a constant nagging from my parents “don’t spend everything you got!”. After building up a decent emergency fund (around $5,000) I give the rest of my money to my parents to help them pay down their mortgage and in turn they would give me the interest they would have paid to the bank ( about 2.25%, much better than savings accounts). I would also buy RRSP to reduce my income and get some money back from the government. After working away from home for two years,I moved back home, paying $600 a month in rent and very little other than that since I ate at home and took the bus to work. 3 years of doing that I saved up around $70,000 to $80,000 dollars (if I had invested my savings according to the above paragraph i’d end up something close to $136,000(10%) or $120,000(6%)), with that and some help from my parents I purchased my first home. After living in the home for about a year and half I got married and purchased another home with my wife, renting out my old home.

This brings me to where i am currently, with almost all the big expenses behind me i have decided to get serious about investing and enriching my future. I think i did well financially with my life, not the best i could have done but i’m happy with what i was able to achieve, now that i’ve gotten more serious about what i want and learning much about investing i hope to snowball what i have.

A few things helpful to me in saving is ALWAYS pay your credit or any debt that is not a house as soon as possible. Credit card debts will bankrupt you, 20% a year is not something you want to ignore, if our investment grew at that rate, $500 bi-weekly would become $125,000 in 5 years. Your interest could easily have gone that high as well.

Assume what you make is the money left over after you saved, don’t even think about spending the part designated for saving. Say $1,000 per month is what you want to save, and you make $3,500 a month, then $2,500 is what you have to budget everything for. It’s not an option or “if I go over I still have some”, don’t even think about it. Make a habit out of it. First thing you do when you get paid is put the money in a saving account or investment account, do not touch it. It’s a very addictive thing once you start seeing the number grow.

Another thing is simply for every dollar spent, save a dollar. You want that nice camera? Sure, you can buy it, as long as same amount go to saving/investing. All of a sudden a lot more thought is required to buy something, that $1,500 camera just became a $3,000 one.

I base my grocery shopping on what is on sale. From what I gather it would be at least $150 to $250 reduction on your grocery bill. Not only do you save money from this, it’s a great habit building exercise, it gets you in the mindset of thinking how you can optimize your money, it could take some work in the beginning but it’s hugely beneficial to build a more financially responsible thinking. I am however in the process of trying to buy less but “better” hoping to reduce the amount of food I eat but keep cost the same.

I hope to also use this blog to document my journey and collect my thoughts, ideas and knowledge about achieving financial snowball.

Cheap Thrill

“Cheap thrill” is such a bad name for something so sinister, maybe it should really be called something-that-won’t-last-so-i-can-keep-buying-and-feel-happy-for-a-fleeting-moment.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t buy things, but consider instead of constantly buying cheap things you may only use once or twice then be discarded or stashed away never to see the light of day again, take a serious look at your needs and buy something that fits your need and will be as useful to you in 15 years as it would today.

To me, cheap thrill is a terrible slop to slide on, it’s not just about buying things you don’t actually need, it’s about buying things you don’t need and won’t last and probably won’t have much of a purpose beyond a few minutes of “well that’s interesting”, and making a habit out of it.

“Is it such a bad thing? I mean it is only 20 dollars!”

Perhaps if you got more money than you know what to do with. That’s not the case for most of us regular folks who work for a living. Have you ever wonder after checking out at costco what could possibly have costed you 200 dollars? All you got some some chocolate bars, a roast chicken and some frozen food. Upon closer inspection of the receipt you have came to realized all it took was a few double digit items and probably nothing too far north of 25 dollars for a single item.

How quickly it adds up! Imagine each one of those is one of the “cheap thrills”. 20 dollars here, 50 dollars there, by the end of the month it could be 300 or more dollars. The money also isn’t the worst problem here, it’s reinforcing a habit. You’ve already spent 50 bucks on some stuff, might as well throw in a few more things. Few days later, thinking another 20 or 30 dollars wouldn’t hurt much because you’ve already went over the budget for this week/month anyway.

If it’s so bad what could be done about it? I can’t tell you what you should do but here are a few things I did to help me.

Let the idea of purchase sit for a while, at least a couple of hours, leave your computer or store, go for a walk or eat something. It gives you time to reflect and think, usually I end up realizing I have no use for it, and the dire need to buy subsides. Personally I do this all the time with watches, I enjoy looking at the watches around 100 to 250 dollar range (cheap enough to make my brain go “let’s buy it now!”), but I have virtually no use for any of them other than when I attend weddings or something fancy, but those occasions doesn’t happen often enough to justify the purchase of such items.

I also try to research similar items that are much more expensive (not overly so, but just something you’d expect from a higher quality product, watches I tend to go around one to three thousand dollar range) than the cheap thrill but would be of much higher quality and would last me forever, or at least many years to come. Usually so doing would result in a huge decline in willingness to purchase the cheap thrill, either realizing perhaps it’s not what I wanted or now I want to buy the more expensive thing, not the ideal outcome, but usually the price is enough to stop me.

Another thing is I would send the cheap thrill to a friend who is knowledgeable, if I lack a friend with the required expertise I would run it by my wife or any friend. The maven friend would usually recommend something else and overload you with information, at which point it becomes too much trouble so the purchase is off. The normal friends and my wife would usually say “sure, but do you really need it?” most of the time if I answered yes I’d be lying, that would normally stop me.

After a while of doing this it has become easier and easier not to buy something, it literally requires less things to be done, and less things to do in life makes for a better life. Next time the credit card bill comes you’d be delighted at how small the number is.

I write therefore I am

Like many people I was never good at writing by hand and would say “oh it’s really too hard for me” or “what’s the point of it when you can just type everything?” Was always glad whenever I get to type up an essay instead of handwritten.

It’s true we do a lot of our writing on the computer or the smartphones that never leave our side. The ability to sync notes to all your devices is amazing, but it would be hard to answer your phone while it’s being stuck to the side of the fridge, or when the battery runs out while trying to keep track of produces that needs to be acquired. Handwriting saves you from buying a new phone every time you want to stick a note on the fridge, and save the electrons in your phone.

Despite very few write by hand anymore many notices. In my line of work I take a lot of notes at meetings or reviews. It feels nice when people comment on and are impressed (usually) or surprised by my handwriting, it’s almost like people suddenly respect you more, well probably not but it’s something unique and rare. Hand writing saves you from awkward conversations with colleagues and friends by distracting them with your penmanship!

A handwritten thank you card/note, a beautifully penned snail mail or postcard, makes for quite a treat in this email and text dominated world. It’s all about putting your personal touch, handwriting is extremely personal and like a signature, unique to you, and also shows careful consideration and considerable effort. Others would appreciate the time and effort. Handwriting makes you look like a sophisticated social savant (without actually being one)!

Have you seen those framed quotes at the local home decor stores? They look terrible don’t they? You think to yourself “my goodness, I can probably write better than that!” Low cost home decor items, and it’s made just for you by you, how cool is that? Makes a good gift as well. Handwriting saves you money from buying crappy home decor!

The hardest part about this whole thing is starting, I had a hard time figuring out how to start writing. Then I remember we have access to literally all the information in the world, the internet. I looked up on how to start writing on youtube, of course videos are much easier to absorb than written words.

Openinkstand, she has a lot of videos and instagram with tips on handwriting and calligraphy, the audio quality is not the best but worth a watch regardless (watch all her videos): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIN1zjrrf_Y

Here is a nice little video on cursive writing, in the video he used a fountain pen but the pen is not important. Like photography, it’s the person who writes, not the pen. In the video he talks about paying attention to how you write and slowing down, very important tips. They also have a video on worksheets and guides: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6rfoRiWa8A

This here is an interesting video, it’s someone who is not that good at writing by hand trying to improve, he’s got the right attitude and it’s really something we all should do when practicing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9WURPrgqe8

Just watching or reading doesn’t do much, it takes practice. nothing beats practice. here’s a few places you can find worksheets or books on how to write. just take 10 or 20 minutes a day to do a few exercises. it really isn’t that much of work and you will be quite impressed with the amount of improvement over not even all that much time.

This PDF helped my get started with cursive writing, i’ve never learned it in school so this is the very basics and first introduction of cursive to me: http://www.peterson-handwriting.com/By_Hand_Books/Cursive_Step_1_Rev.pdf

Loops and tails is where you can get instructions and worksheets to get you started with some basic cursive writing: http://www.loopsandtails.com/

A few more worksheets for you: http://www.donnayoung.org/penmanship/cursive.htm

Here are some lessons from The International Association of Master Penmen, Engrossers, and Teachers of Handwriting: http://www.iampeth.com/lessons/guide-sheets

 

To quote a friend: #Funemployment

The other day I walked outside and was wondering, what makes all this go around? I mean not in a bullshit, superficial, “oh look at me i’m so smart” sort of way, or in a “oh it’s just physics”, kind of way. More in a “I’m just wondering what this is all about” or “I’m feeling kind of lost” sort of way.

It’s been about 2 weeks since I lost my job (not my fault I swear), I think it has finally sunk in the phone no longer tells me when to wake up, big plus, and I’m no longer getting paid, big not so plus.

Work seemed so far away now, I can’t even remember what it felt like to go to work. The normalcy that came with having a, at least what I thought at the time, a stable job is rather easy to get use to and really really comfortable. It’s like floating in a pool that perfectly matches your body temperature.

I suppose even the best plug leaks over time, and without knowing, the bottom of the pool greets my head and a rude awakening. Despite all this not being my fault, or the fault of others i work with, I or they, can’t really help but be stuck with the consequences of some would say reckless manager of the business. I, however, don’t know much of the details but can’t help feeling not so great towards this individual.

However every bad thing is the beginning of something, or at least i was told that and i like to think that as well. I mean we have to lie to ourselves from time to time to keep us happy: “that one chicken wing won’t make me fat” or “he totally still loves me”. Of course being the highly skilled and very in-demand individual such as myself i believed I would have no trouble at all in finding something new. So far the lie hasn’t worked.

However it’s not to say it’s all bad, I mean I now have time to read, learn and flex my literary muscles. I’ve never been a particularly good writer but I do like to write stuff. You know, the usual “I can complain about something I should be a critic!” I’ve even written a few reviews of restaurants and places on google maps (you can thank me later).

Through all this, I have a few people I am extremely thankful for. The obvious, my parents, everyday they tell me “don’t worry! You still got us!”, it’s nice to know someone’s there for you, even if sometimes they might know be able to not know how to help but they are there and willing. My girlfriend, she’s been extremely supportive despite being in the same situation (we work together, different department). More about them later.

But back to the question, what makes all this go around? I don’t know, but for now I feel like it’s family and friends. People, makes this go around, people you care about and people who care about it. Even that asshole who cut you off at the parking lot, maybe he just lost his job too, maybe he wasn’t feeling so good, or he could just be an asshole, but the point is you don’t lose much by being nice, being nice makes us happy, and being happy makes us nicer to people. Seems like a pretty good vicious cycle to me.