Another Sunday here in Las Vegas, and I finally got around to writing. It’s approximately 85 degrees (30 celsius) which feels refreshingly mild compared to the 100+ degrees that will be coming in a few hours. It’s my first summer living here, and so far the heat has been totally fine. I’ve spent a lot of summers in California and Mexico City over the last decade, and I couldn’t remember how nice it is to have warm mornings and evenings. Of course I would trade for the year-round mostly perfect weather, but waking up to sunshine more than anywhere else I’ve lived is a pleasant way to start each morning.
It’s been a while since I’ve last written so plenty of small stuff has transpired, but big picture my goals and things I’m working on are similar. I went to Austin for a weekend to visit Jeff and his family which was a great trip on several levels. We had an awesome block party for the 4th of July this past Friday, and we’ve done some nice day-trips in the states surrounding Nevada (Arizona, Utah).
Normal daily life has been pleasant too. I’ve continued to get better at pickleball, but recently have been taking some time off to heal my chronic tendonitis/some other overuse injuries. I’m starting to get back into strength training and normal working out, and not just grinding pickleball for 4 hours after work. I noticed (but ignored) I lost a lot of strength and mobility from just doing a minimal warmup and then jumping into pickleball vs traditional functional exercise programs I’ve followed for years. The upside is normal strength training feels new and novel again. If I can ignore how hard everything is compared to my mental recollection of peak fitness periods in my life, I’m getting beginner enjoyment and gains.
Work has been good. I don’t think quant finance stuff is the most interesting to write about, but I’ll note that I’m still continuing to learn, improve, and enjoy the process of becoming better at the craft.
Otherwise I’ve been fixing some other physical health things like my low Vitamin D levels ironically from not spending enough time in the sun (I usually hang out in the mornings and evenings), cleaning up my diet, trying to substitute doom scrolling for more reading or just sitting and being present with our cat Hunter.
On the book front a fictional book I enjoyed recently is “The Poppy War” by R. F. Kuang. I was worried it was going to be a bit childish and a Harry Potter/young adult romance early on, but it definitely changed directions several times and was more dark and adult than I was expecting.
Non-fiction wise I’m doing a re-read of “What to do When It’s Your Turn” by Seth Godin. One of the few non-Kindle books I’ve bought in a long time. It has pictures, and it’s meant to be an easy motivational kick in the butt read. I read it when it came out 11 years ago, and remember it being exactly what I needed then and it still holds up.
On TV we just finished the two seasons of “Hand of God” on Amazon Prime. Very underrated crime noir series. I’m not sure why it wasn’t rated higher by critics. Amazon had been recommending it to me since it came out 10 years ago, but I always ignored it due to mediocre reviews. It’s on the darker side and not all fuzzy feelings, but I thought it was a really well done revenge noir.
With that I’m going to leave you with a pic from a walk in a park in St George, Utah (probably the nicest weekend destination from Las Vegas for us). Wishing you all a great week and month of July!
Andrew Manser 