November was… busy. December will be too.

Goal Tracking

• 🟡 Get 1% faster.
• 🔴 50% less discretionary spending. I spent about twice as much this month as my average in 2020—between holiday flights, a trip to New York, and Black Friday, I blew my spending record for the year out of the water.
• 🟡 One hour of solitary free time a day.
• 🟡 Twice-weekly live conversations with friends.

I’ll be taking a break from weekly posts for a little while!

October was my first full month in Atlanta since May—but I still found a way to get out of town for a couple of weekends. We have more travel upcoming in November and December, which is exciting but also maybe a bit too much.

Goal Tracking

• 🟡 Get 1% faster. I tweaked my hamstring—time will tell how long I’m out, but it seems certain that my training will be affected for at least a couple weeks.
• 🔴 50% less discretionary spending. October’s discretionary spending was 19% under 2020’s average, buoyed by the couple travel weekends I had—a wedding in San Antonio, a weekend in Clayton, and upcoming travel to New York.
• 🟡 One hour of solitary free time a day.
• 🟡 Twice-weekly live conversations with friends.

One thing role-playing games get right about life is the concept of experience points. To get better at wood chopping, you need to… chop lots of wood. Just like in life—cook a lot and you’ll probably get better at cooking. Of course, the fit isn’t perfect—lots of Runescape characters are level 99, but not many people become master chefs or elite athletes.

My first day at Vesta was three weeks ago—long enough for me to have some initial thoughts about joining.