May 16, 2023
News
The house search is continuing. We are looking in the Mozley Park neighborhood in Atlanta. This is a "developing" area. Supposedly the crime is very low in this area, but in the surrounding areas this is not the case. I am going to do some more scouting of the area in the coming weeks and set up some tours for houses. There seems to be very good value in this area and if the location works out then we could end up with something nice in a good area. Besides crime, the location is awesome... it's right on the beltline and in between two MARTA stations. The whole westside of Atlanta is "developing" quite a lot.
I got some new tennis shoes because when I arrived at the courts the other day I found that my shoes had a hole in the bottom. I walked into the tennis shop and grabbed the cheapest pair they had... and these are way better. I felt good on the court, moving well and not making too many unforced errors. The heat is starting up and I love it. I do well in the heat, not so much in the cold.
I have a half-marathon coming up in Brooklyn. My training has been pretty much non-existent. This is the last long race I am going to do. I would rather spend my exercise going on short, easy runs and lifting weights. Training for 13 or 26 miles is more than I want to be doing. So I'm gonna give this one my all and try to do my best despite not training.
My birthday is coming up tomorrow, I guess it will have passed by the time this is sent out. 26 feels like a good age. I have been enjoying getting older. I like progressing and maturing. I'm sure I'll feel different as time starts to work against my health rather than for it. But so far every year that has passed has been better than the last. There is a lot to look forward to in the future... owning a home, (hopefully) starting a business, having a family. It's nice to have reason to be hopeful and optimistic for the future.
Book Review: A Gentleman in Moscow by Amore Towles
This past week I went to the beach with some friends for 3 days, then drove straight to the mountains with my family for 2 more days. The driving tired me out, which furthered my scenery's effect of general relaxation. Most of (my favorite) moments of this past week were spent sitting on a porch, reading this novel.
A Gentleman in Moscow was a page turner. Towles layers in explicit foreshadowing that feels stolen from a thriller or a mystery novel (for example, one chapter ends with something like, "Count Rostov had no idea that this time next year he would be looking down from the roof of the hotel preparing to fall to his death"). However, this is not a thriller or a mystery. The action of the novel is not even what caused me to turn its pages so quickly — the charm of the characters did that all on its own. The main character (The Count) is extremely likable, a characteristic that is made explicitly evident in the first page ("Your charm may disarm the others in our company, Count Rostov, but I know that charm is the last of the qualities the elites cling to when they have lost all else."). There are many supporting characters, none of which are as completely likable and endearing as The Count; but they have their own quirks and differing shades which serve to allow The Count to show more sides of himself, and to engender an atmosphere of fun quirkiness.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was a great movie Ilana and I watched last year. It was great to watch principally because the characters were so fun and likable, and the movie allowed the characters to just mostly hangout with each other while we watched. That was a great hangout movie, and this was a great hangout book. Of course, the benefit of a hangout book versus a hangout movie is that a book is much longer and can peer deeper into the minds of the characters. If want we want from a hangout movie is to spend time getting to know our characters and spectating their lives, we can do so much more completely through literature.
I always learn something when I read a good book. Furthermore, I finish a great book with a slightly altered perspective on life. The Count spends his days hanging out with his friends, enjoying good food, drink, literature, film, and searching for little adventures to pass the time. He is always good and loyal to his friends, and his friends to him. This seems to me the way to live. At the beach and mountains I had a relaxed state of mind just like The Count, and I found myself questioning why I ever need to be stressed or worrying about things when I have good friends and delicacies my mind and body can enjoy. In the novel, The Count's life and world inside the hotel he lives at in Moscow (the setting for the entire story) is often juxtaposed with the outside. The story takes place while communism is being established in Russia, and as the story progresses peoples' lives outside the hotel worsen. It is undoubtedly the privilege of the wealthy to refute worry. In past times and places one was born into wealth. Now it is also possible to become wealthy on one's own accord; but to do so requires one to worry and stress orders of magnitude more than the average person. This is the nature of work and "success." Oh well... I had a nice time relaxing and dreaming this week. The dreaming will continue, the relaxing will not.
Platform Update
I've been really appreciating the feedback I've been getting on the newsletter. I hope it's something I can send that makes you all happy to receive it in the mail. Since currently the only outlet for feedback is by contacting me directly, I want to add some way to provide anonymous feedback, so I'm working on adding this to the website. This will be automatically added for all users (so if you write a newsletter, people can go to your page to provide anonymous feedback). Similar to this, I am considering adding comments to the website.
If you are a longtime subscriber you may remember that a few months ago I wrote a section on a fountainpen I purchased. Well, it turns out this fountainpen was most likely a fake from amazon, so I just ordered the real thing and it is even more amazing than the fake. I think it would be nice to send a fountainpen to people writing newsletters since it is a nice thing and I can customize it with a pink color and your page address (so for me it would be engraved with evnv.friendmail.co). So I'll send a nice fountainpen to everyone who sends out 12 newsletter issues to at least 5 people. The fountainpen is a Lamy Safari in case you want to see it online. As a reminder, you can sign up for an account and start sending newsletters at friendmail.co/admin. Just create your issue, add the addresses of people you want to send it to, and I will send out your newsletter for you for free.