One of two black holes I currently own. At the bottom you can see the reason for the excavation: the pipe supplying mains water to the house. Scroll on for more black holes and a curious listening device.
Weekly Savings Round-Up
My own black hole drama is set out below.
In the world we saw an attempted assassination of Donald Trump leading to much conversation about violence in politics and merciless British ribbing of his dressing, described variously as wearing a panty-liner and a teabag on his ear. Attracting even more derisory comments were supporters sporting sympathy dressings.
Meanwhile Farage, Truss and Johnson (and, it seems, Russell Brand) were at the Republican National Convention, each vying to be the Trump whisperer. Some lovely writing from Marina Hyde on the matter:
all Liz could muster was a handshake photo with JD Vance. I love this type of picture, which fails to clear even the “can I just grab you?” desperation of a selfie. Consider the mechanics. In order to get the snap, one of Liz Truss’s aides has had to wait and – on pain of a bollocking later – capture the fleeting moment the vice-presidential pick shakes her hand in a line-up. Which is presumably why not simply Vance, but also Truss, are out of focus. Give the aide a break! They only had half a second or something, and from this momentarily blurred encounter the impression of some kind of bilateral must be spun.”
although this had me giggling (I know, not very grown up):
The prize on offer, I read, is the chance to fill the role of “Trump whisperer”, a sort of unofficial backchannel position that I assume is officially located in the presidential backchannel. From those proctological premises, the Trump whisperer is meant to persuade the notional once-and-future president that things he doesn’t give a shit about are actually quite important, if not to him, then definitely to little ol’ Britain.
Both quotes from Welcome to 2024's saddest race by Marina Hyde.
Going back to Britons' predeliction for mickey-taking, apparently, according to Peter Ackroyd's biography of England, this is a trait from our earliest beginnings along with a nonchalance about death - violent death anyway.
Savings Goals
Let's see how we're doing:
| Asset | Goal | Start | Last Time | Today | Progress |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hive Power | 115,000 | 100,400 | 121,311 | 121,608 | 105% 💪 |
| EDS | 4,600 | 3,299 | 4,113 | 4,154 | 89% |
| HSBI | 1,000 | 741 | 984 | 984 | 98% |
| HBD | 10,000 | 5,374 | 10 | 14 | 0% |
| EDSD | 1,000 | 128 | 1,840 | 1,865 | 186% 💪 |
Progress
TL:DR - everything is going to plan.
- EDS, EDS-VOTE, EDSD - I moved my HBD savings into EDSD - it makes sense while HIVE is so low and so many more EDS are minted for the same HBD interest. I'll continue to buy EDSD with my earnings from my side-hustle and posting. (More about side-hustles).
EDS eco-system breakdown and model
EDS Income Token | Fixed and Variable Savings Plans
EDS Dollar (EDSD) Release Post
Blogging - I did a few calculations about potential income from blogging. I reckon it would bring an income of about 775 (855 with interest) HBD and 3,575 (3,731 with curation and inflation) HP a year.
Saturday Savers Club - 2024 Launch and FAQs. Over sixty registered savers now. Anyone can join at any time by commenting with their goals on the weekly post on the
account (also follow
HSBI - HIVE basic income - I'm growing these through sponsoring HPUD and other challenge posts over on Saturday Savers Club.
What's New
Well, a week or two ago, in the process of sorting out my bathroom problems, the plumber said, "I can hear water running." That was interesting, because I had noticed the same thing several times in the same place, although nothing was running and no taps were on.
After a lot of listening at various places along the length of the house, including Josh (below) with a listening stick that looks like something out of the Middle Ages but is still the go-to technology and works like a stethoscope, and a visit from Severn Trent Water ...
... long story short, I ended up with black holes at either end of the house. The one above is where the pipe supplying mains water comes up into the house from underground.
Mick and Earl excavated the two holes by hand - a long old job - giving an idea of the graft that Irish and Welsh navvies had to put in to build the canal system in England.
At different times doors were coming off, loads were being moved, the toilet and cistern were shifted and every so often there was a cup of tea until finally they went home. It reminded me of this song (1962, if you're wondering, and they have 6 cups of tea if you ever need to know for a quiz).
Have a good week everyone!