Tongariro Alpine Crossing

There was one pretty exciting incident that happened when we were roadtripping around New Zealand. I had decided right from word go that I was going to climb Mt Doom ( Mt Ngauruhoe IRL) and throw a ring into the crater, but the day turned pretty messy.

The track to Mt Doom (Tongariro) actually isn’t a very hard walk, it is pretty short and the slope isn’t very steep. Plus we had done a few Hikes beforehand so I was feeling pretty confident.

The weather was overcast and chilly but I had many layers on to keep warm, on top of that just to be safe I was persuaded to bring an extra jumper by a concerned girlfriend. Then she drops me off and I tell her that I’ll see her at the finish.

I was making awesome pace because of the light pack so I overtook many groups. But a little way in I encounter a sign warning that if ill equiped or adverse conditions exist to turn back (You can’t just walk into mordor!) I laugh and continue on.

By the time  I get to the sign pointing to Ngauruhoe’s peak the weather had turned bad. Unfortunately a cloud was hanging around so viability was awful, and the path to the peak is unmarked. I Thought about going anyway (solo) but a comment along the lines of “That is so dangerous” from another hiker made me think otherwise.

Upset that I didn’t get to destroy the one ring I push on even harder. Then we reach the saddle between the two mountains (The ridge in between). And I see a group of people huddled against a rock to protect from the wind.

At this stage the rain is going horizontal from the gale winds and a the occasional strong bursts would knock everyone walking in the group to their knees. So I stop and chill with the group and wait for it to quieten down. A few more people catch up before we get convinced to turn around, being alone I don’t get much choice.

Head slumped I head back to the start carpark, there I find out we don’t get reception so I can’t call for a lift back. I hitch a ride to the nearest gas station/cafe.

After enjoying a hot chocolate I learn the phone doesn’t want to work at all (Later I found out 1 textmessage went through). I can’t remember the GFs number and she doesn’t know I’ve turned back. I go outside to the payphone to call home and get the number off them but the payphone is broken aswell. The attendant in the petrol station informs me that there is another payphone a couple of Kms away. So I set out (In the rain) to find this phone (Its interesting that the attendant was willing to direct a person in need of help to a payphone but wasn’t kind enough to let me use his).

Then I was able to call home to tell them to leave my Gf a message to come get me (Her phone was flat aparantly). Next I was an hour in the wind with wet clothes talking to a random outside the bus station.

Pretty boring story, but it was uncomfortable at the time. In hindsight I think it was the most memorable thing that happened while in NZ.

2012
03/30
CATEGORY
Travel
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Profit as a Return on Risk

There was an interesting business concept that I came across a while back, I can’t remember who created it but it’s definitely not original content by me.

The idea is that in business you have to take risks to make money (Duh). A simple risk is holding inventory that may not sell, or maybe you make a significant investment of time to create something useless.

Most people are risk adverse, the good news for them is that most risks can be mitigated or at least insured. There establishes an economical demand for reassurance that things will not go wrong.

Here the concept states that all profit can be allocated to some form of risk taken by an entrepreneur. The opportunity is for every risk taken the potential reward grows.

To be profitable you need to take risks where the potential reward is greater than the potential cost, better known as taking ‘calculated risks’.

Imagine a theoretical risk (Could be anything) and most people don’t want to take this risk. However, according to your own knowledge/resources/skill you conclude that the pay-off is greater than the potential cost. So you take their money and they don’t have to deal with this risk (You profit from the calculated risk as well as from the customer).

Skill is simply how good you are at understanding the risks associated with an activity.

2012
03/26
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Business
Financial
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Minimum wage policy

There was an article I read on the minimum wage policy today. It debates the effects of minimum wage policy on the job market and generally, economists dislike this policy.

Theoretically, for an employer to pay $15.50 an hour (the Australian minimum wage) the employee needs to be bringing $15.50+ of value to the business every hour they work; else the business would be unprofitable. The problem is that a good proportion of the population struggle to bring that much value, so they can’t get employment that they would like. The best examples of this are apprentices and the inexperienced (like myself). It takes time for us to learn the tricks of the trade and refine our skill to the point where customers are willing to pay for our services.

Interestingly most people do find work and the policy causes high wages. Combine this with our strong currency and we Australians have a high standard of living that is the envy of many International countries.

This is why many people strongly believe in minimum wage policies.

But contrastingly we have so many ‘cash in hand’ jobs, which don’t consider Australian minimum wage.

 

 

2012
03/24
CATEGORY
Business
Financial
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Living without Security

Thousands of years ago in the environment of evolutionary adaptedness farms did not exist and neither did structured markets. Without these, the very basics in life were not guaranteed; people had to search extensively simply to find food (Rather than go to the supermarket). The ability to stay in the same place for extended periods of time was not possible. Our ancesters were nomadic.

Now it is true that routine has many benefits and without it technological development would be stiffled, but people like tools need to be kept sharp through constant challenges and by living outside of their comfort zone. This in essence is why people become modern nomads, they keep moving to avoid becoming stagnant.

I watch many movies where adventurers travel with only a small knapsack (Lord of the Rings, Robin Hood, etc) and it seems like such a foreign way to live. When we travelled in NZ from our car with no set plan or guaranteed place to sleep it felt invigorating. A car is not as minimalistic as a small bag but it definitely felt like there was a connection between us and the nomadic ancestors simply because we were living without the security of a home.

They lived without security every day of their life, and routine seems pretty dull in comparison.

2012
03/23
CATEGORY
philosophy
Travel
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Undergraduate Business

The funny thing about business concepts is that there are lots of them (Probably Infinite) and they can be manipulated to suit any and every situation, the problem that arises is having the foresight to apply the right concept to the right situation (which is subjective) is easier said than done.

The only real method to learn this is from practical experience and even then it sometimes takes CEOs a good proportion of their life.

I have been thinking about the general structure of my degree (Commerce) and the conclusion I have come to is that the faculty is trying to teach us the mindset of the business world. I would say that teaching a mindset is pretty difficult but I kinda like their approach.

The subjects I’ve had to study are broad in nature with considerable overlap in content. All this means is that we repetitively have to think about being in a situation that businessmen are faced with. By no means is this as good as going out and creating a start-up but it simulates it with zero risk.

The other thing is that it sparks an interest, so I have read many books on how to run a business and I am so keen to create one.

This leads me to believe that my time spent at university was well worthwhile and did its job exactly.

2012
03/21
CATEGORY
Business
Financial
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Cars

I have such mixed feelings about cars. I find how they work interesting (Although I only have a little experience with the mechanical aspects of them), but I really hate how much they cost.

Once I get some form of shed I definitely want to pull a car apart and learn more about how they work. But when it comes to deciding whether I actually want to get one or not is a completely different question.

If we take the following costs (these may or may not be accurate and there may be more but it will do):

  • Approx $1000 per year on registration, insurance etc
  • $30 a week on petrol
  • $200 budget per year on repairs

These assumptions bring the weekly cost of a car to $50 (1200/52 + 30).

What is the opportunity cost of this $50. The most immediate thing that comes to mind is a house in a better location, theoretically you could get rid of the car and put the cost towards living closer to work (So you could walk or ride).

Whether or not this is feasible again is questionable, a car might be a necessity in today’s society (Depending on where you live). But my belief is that a car is more hassle than its worth due to the negative qualitative factors, these include:

  • Police harassment and traffic laws.
  • Capital locked away in an asset that doesn’t hold it value.
  • Hassle of breaking down.

The main thing for me is that it ties you to one spot. You can’t travel overseas too easily if you have to deal with this huge possession and if you are frequently away it creates little benefit anyway.

However, there are plenty of good things about having a car. That is why I have such mixed feelings towards them.

2012
03/13
CATEGORY
philosophy
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Becoming a Man of Knowledge

I have a tiny interest in the story of Don Juan, so when I came across The Teachings of Don Juan I naturally was pretty interested. Little did I know this book had absolutely nothing to do with the Libertine who seduces women but rather was a story about an apprentice learning the ways of a Mexican shaman. The book is an amazing piece of work that although has been proven to be fiction comes across as a legitimate recount of the authors experiences. But the book is divided into 2 parts, the first is his diary like notes and the second is his interpretation of his apprenticeship.

The second part greatly fascinated me, a couple of the concepts he put forwards are (not all of them):

  1. Anyone can become a Man of Knowledge if they overcome 4 obstacles
  2. A Man of Knowledge uses the help of “Allies” who allow him to accomplish greater feats than what is possible alone.

Although a Man of knowledge is a temporary perfection the 4 obstacles are:

  1. Fear: scares an apprentice away from knowledge.
  2. Clarity: At this stage there is a false sense of what is, it causes one to rush when patience is needed and vice versa.
  3. Power: after overcoming the first 2 obstacles you will have gained some form of power, this power corrupts.
  4. Old age: the desire to rest that results from seniority must be overcome.

Then you will gain powerful insight, note that this perfection will only last momentarily. Then the struggle must continue.

The second concept, about allies, is interesting. In the book the allies are drugs that brought the protagonist to non-ordinary realities, however if you extend the concept they could be many things. Essentially there is the limits on what is humanly possible but anything that forces you beyond this limit is an “Ally”.

And to become a man of knowledge you must utilise these allies.

The other thing I found interesting is about life pathways. All pathways lead to death, the only difference is that some have a “Heart”. Whether a path has heart is for the person following it to decide, if the answer is no then they must stop following the path immediately.

 

2012
03/12
CATEGORY
books
goals
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Surfing

I grew up in a country town, there was a river for us to swim in but I had only seen the coast once or twice before I moved away for Uni. Suddenly I lived 5 minutes away from the beach, needless to say I almost immediately picked up surfing. over 2 years later I still feel like such a rookie whenever I head out for a paddle.

To get good at anything it takes dedicated practice, but the funny thing about surfing is that you are at the mercy of the swell. A good proportion of the time you physically can’t learn anything because the waves simply aren’t good enough.

As we don’t have a car this is made worse because we can only check out the closest beach.

So the best times to surf (And learn) aren’t decided, you simply have to be ready for it.

I don’t believe any other sports are like this (Or at least as extreme), most of the time you can get away with saying “I will go to X every day until I get good at it”.

The best surfers have to chase swell by reading weather forecasts and going to the country with the right conditions, this is the only way they can get enough practice to stay at a professional level.

Anyway the lesson I’ve learnt is to be spontaneous, be ready for any opportunity.

2012
03/11
CATEGORY
Fitness
philosophy
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Epiphany

Its normal to be asked what the plan is after school, or and why you picked a certain pathway and for a while I had trouble answering this. I study Accounting and as much as I tried I couldn’t imagine myself doing that sort of work. I am a very practical sort of person who loves pulling stuff apart, for example computers seem pretty natural to me.

So why am I going down this bean counter pathway?

I read the Richest Man in Babylon and came to the realisation of why, I had subconsciously been studying money (although I kinda knew that) simply to learn exactly how it works.

I really need to emphasise how little I actually want money, by all means I’d love to be a millionaire (and I’m convinced that I probably will be later on) but for the time being I would rather enjoy my youth and earn a 1/4 of what a normal person does if it would mean I have 4 times as much free time.

Money doesn’t bring you happiness but I need cash to do everything on my bucket list and If money would miraculously land in my lap it would be great.

So I’ve studied money for the past four years, becoming as financially literate as possible so this may happen.

two side effects of this is:

  1. Money makes the world go round, so understanding the why behind a lot of things is easy.
  2. I am qualified to work in the financial industry.

Now I don’t feel so bad about the career I’m going to leave behind when I travel to Canada after graduation.

2012
03/07
CATEGORY
Financial
goals
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Diet and Exercise

Yesterday I mentioned that one of my daily duties to myself is to drink a protein smoothie. Many people seem to think smoothies are unhealthy meal replacements (Most of these people are overweight funnily enough), but I can talk endlessly about the benefits of these smoothies.

Firstly I don’t use them as meal replacements, so at no stage am I getting any less nutrients. Every morning I eat my bowl of oats (Super Important that I don’t skip breakfast), get lunch then have a smoothie (Only half a blender at this stage). I have found that I can eat a meal then force down a smoothie but not the other way around. Same thing after dinner.

Now that means that my 3 meal of the day get me approx 1800 calories. That is great if I sit down and do nothing all day (my BMR is a bit shy of 1,700) but I normally do stuff (Surf for example) and any exercise at all expects more to be eaten. So I take the muscle building amount from 4chan fit which make my required intake close to 2800 calories.

My smoothie recipe:

  • 3 bananas
  • handful of Blueberries
  • 2 tsp of canola oil
  • 4 scoops of protein powder (strawberry 🙂
  • 4 scoops of milk powder
  • Yoghurt
  • Milk
  • Orange Juice

This gives something like 1200 calories and 80g of protein.

One of these badboys brings me up to 3000 calories, hence why it is so important I stick with this.

 

Future Plans

At this stage all my workouts are full body routines simply because I’m trying to get back into it. Sometime next week I’ll break my routine into a 4 day split and a little after that (Once I plateau) I will bump up the calorie intake. This should then get me near the 80kg mark before I plateau again, then I will start taking supplements (Vitamins, creatine, etc.) to get to my final goal of 85kgs.

Simple enough plan. Will post on progress after I get there

2012
03/05
CATEGORY
Fitness
Uncategorized
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