Hello, Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History

May 14, 2021, 8:18 PM PDT by Parkzer • Tourism

This post is over 5 years old and may contain information that is incorrect, outdated, or no longer relevant.
My views and opinions can change, and those that are expressed in this post may not necessarily reflect the ones I hold today.

One of my friends is going through a frog obsession phase. She found out that there’s a frog statue on the campus of the University of Oklahoma, about half an hour away from where I’m staying this week in Oklahoma City, and insisted that I go visit. … So I did.

Meet Jeffrey the Frog. Officially named the “Frog Prince,” Jeffrey is the nickname of a lead sculpture made by Bryan Rapp, commissioned by Brenda and Michael Monroe.

Now, I thought that it would be a little bit ridiculous to drive all the way out here just to look at and take a photograph of a statue of a frog, so I also stopped by the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, which is less than a quarter of a mile away from the frog statue. It wasn’t exactly the most breathtaking or innovative museum, but admission was only US$8.00, and it was a good way to learn a bit more about Oklahoma.

The first exhibit was Dinosaurs: Land of Fire and Ice. I felt like this exhibit was geared more towards younger children, but there were some decent large-scale dioramas. (The literal first exhibit was the Orientation Gallery, but that area didn’t have any photo-worthy exhibits, so the dinosaur exhibit was the first place where I started taking pictures.)

The dinosaur exhibit transitioned into the Hall of Ancient Life.

After that was the Hall of People of Oklahoma.

And finally, the last exhibit was the Hall of Natural Wonders.

On my way out, I snapped a photo of a few statues by the exit.

Hello, Nonesuch in Oklahoma City

May 12, 2021, 11:31 PM PDT by Parkzer • Food

When I go to a new city, I like to try the best and the most unique things the city has to offer. Oklahoma City is home to Nonesuch, a twenty-seat tasting menu restaurant that won an award in 2018 for best new restaurant in the United States by Bon Appétit. Naturally, it was my top pick to try out while I was in Oklahoma City, so I went there for dinner tonight.

Unfortunately, the lighting was a bit dim so my camera had difficulty focusing and a lot of my photos came out blurry, but I still managed to get a handful of good shots. I feel like this restaurant is about the presentation as much as it is about the actual food, so some of these photos might not do justice for some of the dishes.

The first course was smoked borscht. The staff would explain each dish in much greater detail than just the name, but they would list off like 25 ingredients, so it was difficult to remember exactly what each dish was made out of. What I do recall about the borscht was that it had bison, and it had a very deep and rich taste to it.

The second course was catfish tart. It was far more than catfish tart, though—there was a bit of catfish at the bottom, but had a ton of extra flavors packed into it. I vaguely remember the staff telling me that the shell was actually made with something along the lines of kimchi. I actually ended up having two of these, for a fairly interesting reason…

My dinner companion caught and recovered from COVID-19 back in January 2021, but she still has persisting loss of taste and smell, several months later. Although some of it has come back, some foods still taste off for her. Apparently something in the catfish tart made it taste bad for her, so I had her portion.

Each course had a beverage to go along with it. My dinner companion had the reserve wine pairing, while I had the non-alcoholic pairing.

The non-alcoholic beverage to go along with the first two courses was cucumber honeysuckle shrub. I’m not the biggest fan of cucumber, but the cucumber was a bit more subtle in this beverage, so I still enjoyed it. The beverage to go along with the next two courses was strawberry and tomato. This had a slightly more viscous texture (presumably because of the tomato), and was slightly sweeter. Overall, the drinks were definitely made with an intent to complement the meal, rather than being standalone drinks.

Course three was asparagus with onion jam. Although this was very simple and straightforward, this was actually one of my favorite dishes, second only to one of the sweet courses later on.

The fourth course was a Spanish tortilla with rillette and blackened fruit. This dish seemed a bit plain at first, but this was my kind of food—I personally like foods that are only lightly seasoned so the true, deep taste of the actual ingredients can come out. The sauce went along great with the tortilla, and the greens provided just enough zest as to add an interesting flavor but not overwhelm the dish.

Course five was fava beans with chicken demi and white wine grapes. This dish literally made me feel like I was a rabbit eating straight out of my mother’s garden. The beans were beans, and the flowers had a fragrance that you’d expect from flowers.

Course six was potato with beurre blanc, which I don’t have a photo of because it was deep inside a bowl and the photo ended up blurry, but definitely tasty—the dish managed to capture both the crispy and soft aspect of potato at the same time. The potato came topped with a bit of caviar, but I could barely distinguish the taste of the caviar due to the liberal amount of sauce added to the potato.

The beverage pairing with these two courses was blueberry and sage.

The seventh course was focaccia and butter. This was one of my dinner companion’s favorite dishes, because the bread had a nice texture to it, and with diminished taste, texture becomes much more important in food. I also liked this, and would probably rate it third right after the asparagus. The edges were nice and crispy, while the inside was moist, soft, and spongy.

The eighth course, which is not pictured, was bison with smoked cheddar and pickles. This came out as a small lump of meat covered in cheese, so the photo doesn’t look very interesting, and it didn’t occur to me until after I finished it that I should have probably cut it in half and opened it up to photograph it. The meat was cooked medium rare and was very tender and juicy. This probably would’ve been my second or third favorite dish had it not been for the fact that I eat so much high-quality meat that I’m somewhat desensitized to great steak.

The beverage pairing with these two courses was beet hibiscus.

The bison was the final savory dish, and the ninth course was the transitional course from savory to sweet. This also ended up being my favorite dish—it was ginger mint tea with canneles. I find it silly that this somehow ended up being my favorite course, because there were so many other far more intricately-prepared dishes, and this one was so simple. Yet, I think that might have been why I liked it so much—it was some tea that wasn’t too sweet and wasn’t too plain, along with a nice pastry that also wasn’t too sweet and wasn’t too plain.

The final two courses were dessert. Course ten was sorrel ice cream with milk jam. I actually forgot to photograph this prior to taking my first bite, so I left the spoon in so it wouldn’t look weird and have a chunk missing. The actual ice cream was fairly plain, but with the jam, it was the perfect amount of sweet. There were also some greens and flower petals, which, when mixed in with each bite of ice cream, gave a much more interesting texture to the dessert.

And last but not least, the eleventh course was Madeira ice cream with pecan florentine. This tasted pretty much like normal rich, specialty ice cream, but with no greasy or fatty aftertaste. It was served in an edible cone atop an inedible bed of pecan shells. The beverage pairing for the final two dessert courses was spiced Thai tea port, which was unsweetened as to not interfere with the sweetness of the desserts.

I had a great experience and am happy with my restaurant selection, but I think this restaurant is sort of a one-time-visit kind of place. That’s one of the issues of restaurants that base their service heavily on the presentation and experience—the experience becomes less novel the second time around, and you get less value for your money because of it.

I think if I was ever in Oklahoma City again with someone very special and I wanted to treat them to the experience, and several months had passed since my last visit so the restaurant changed up all their courses, then I would visit again. However, if it wasn’t for those two prerequisites, I personally would much rather go to a place that is known for great-tasting food and large portion sizes.

One reason I say this is because of the price. I had originally thought the price listed on the website of US$110 per person was all-inclusive, but after going through the booking process and pre-paying for the reservation, I realized that absolutely wasn’t the case. Here’s a breakdown of what we paid:

Eleven-course tasting menu ×2	$ 220.00
Reserve wine pairing	$ 80.00
Non-alcoholic beverage pairing	$ 45.00
Mountain Valley sparkling water (1 quart)	$ 8.00
Service charge (15%)	$ 52.95
Taxes (8.375%)	$ 34.00
Total	$ 439.95

A few things to note is that the service charge is basically a gratuity, as the staff does not accept tips. Also, this final total price was not a surprise; Nonesuch requires you to pre-pay for your reservation, so you know exactly what you’re getting yourself into, and you have plenty of time to back out of the reservation after seeing the total price (i.e., there are no surprises after you arrive at the restaurant).

Overall, if this price point is something that is manageable for you and you’ve never been to Nonesuch before, then I’d definitely recommend it.

Hello, Morimoto at MGM Grand in Las Vegas

April 29, 2021, 11:03 PM PDT by Parkzer • Food, Las Vegas

As a Las Vegas local, I don’t frequent the Strip (even though I literally live directly on the Strip in a high-rise condo, and have been for over two years now). I haven’t been to all the hotels and casinos, and even for the ones that I have visited, I often don’t remember each one precisely off the top of my head. So, usually when I go to a hotel or casino, it ends up being an adventure.

Today’s dinner ended up being an adventure, as we went to Morimoto at the MGM Grand. Morimoto is named after Japanese chef Masaharu Morimoto, best known for his appearance on the Japanese cooking television show Iron Chef. Today, he has 13 restaurants spread across the United States, Mexico, Japan, India, and Qatar.

The environment of the Las Vegas location was pleasant, and it didn’t overimpose a particular vibe; it had nice Japanese touches while maintaining a core feel of being a unique but straightforward restaurant. Today is Thursday, and we’re in the tail end of a pandemic, so the restaurant wasn’t very busy, but I feel like this is one of those places where a high amount of bustling clientele would enhance the mood.

First up was the toro tartare. “Toro” is the Japanese term for tuna belly, the fatty part of the tuna fish. It was spread out as a thin sheet on a ceramic plate topped with some sturgeon caviar, and we were provided with a spatula-like scraping tool to remove the toro from the dish. It came with six condiments: nori paste, wasabi, sour cream, chopped chives, guacamole, and what I believe was just toasted rice cracker balls. It also came with soy sauce on the side.

I thought this was fairly underwhelming, both in taste and in portion size. The fish was nice, but honestly, my favorite part of the dish was actually the nori paste. At US$29, I would’ve much rather just ordered some regular tuna belly sushi.

Next up were market oysters. The oysters were tiny—about half the size of regular oysters you’d expect from a restaurant. They definitely tasted good though, and something I found very interesting about them was that they tasted much cleaner than usual. Usually, you’ll get at least a little bit of crunch from your oysters, but these almost seemed like they had been pre-shucked and purified, then replaced back into their shell. Half a dozen came in at US$24.

Our third dish was something a lot more simple: tuna pizza. It resembled a crunchy, hard-shell pizza, but instead of the tomato sauce, it was replaced with tuna. Toppings included red onions, tomatoes, olives, jalapeños, and something green that we for the life of us couldn’t figure out what it was, drizzled with some anchovy aïoli.

My impression of the dish was that it was extremely overwhelming in flavor. All the toppings—especially the raw red onions and olives—were fairly pungent and had piercing flavors, and it overwhelmed the taste of the tuna. After eating my share of two slices of the pizza, I felt as if, had the tuna been entirely missing, I probably wouldn’t have even noticed. The tuna pizza cost US$25.

Our only hot dish was next: kakuni. Literally translating from Japanese as “square simmered,” our kakuni was a square of ten-hour pork belly atop some rice congee, drizzled with soy scallion sauce. The pork belly was extremely salty and had a very strong flavor, but after mixing it in and eating it along with the rice congee, the saltiness was diluted a bit, which allowed the richness of the meat to come through. This was US$21.

With three cold appetizers and one hot appetizer out of the way, it was time for the main dish. Considering that this is a famous restaurant under the brand name of a famous chef, we figured that we would do a “chef’s choice” dish, so we ordered the chef’s sashimi combination. It was a 20-piece dish for US$110, so each cut came in at $5.50. The sashimi assortment had salmon, tuna, tuna belly, octopus, mackerel, flounder, scallop, and yellowtail, along with what I think might have been abalone.

As you can probably tell from the photo, needless to say, this dish was extremely underwhelming. No matter how nice the restaurant, there is no way that I can say each bite of fish was worth $5.50. Some of the sashimi cuts were unexpectedly thin. The sashimi was definitely high-quality fish… but it was nothing more than just high-quality fish. I wouldn’t say that any of this would particularly qualify as specialty fish that would warrant such a high price tag.

We went to this restaurant as a group of three, and with the very small portion sizes, my companions weren’t yet satisfied, and I was personally just barely getting started. So, we decided to give the chef another chance and ordered the chef’s sushi combination. At US$100, it was slightly cheaper than the sashimi combo.

This ended up being a far, far better selection. The rice was obviously much more filling than the fish, but the balance of rice and fish was good enough such that I feel like the fish quantity might’ve been just as much as the sashimi combo, so it’s as if we paid $10 less and got free rice to go along with all the fish. This was also a 20-piece dish, but it appears like each piece of nigiri counted as one piece and each set of six-piece cut roll counted as one piece.

The combo came with eel, shrimp, mackerel, salmon, squid, tuna belly, yellowtail, and tuna nigiri. There were two pieces of nigiri that I had trouble identifying, but I’m thinking it might have been parrotfish. The two cut rolls we received were tuna and shrimp tempura.

As I’ve mentioned throughout the whole review, the prices were pretty steep. But, apart from the tragedy that was my roommate forgetting to bring her ID with her and not being able to enjoy some alcohol, I’d say the overall experience was pretty nice.

I think that, as a local, I was particularly critical of this restaurant because I know that there are plenty of restaurants across the Las Vegas Valley that will reach 95%+ of this quality and presentation for about 40% of the price. But, if you’re a tourist coming to Las Vegas and want to experience eating a meal at a Morimoto restaurant for a special event, or even just to treat yourself, I think that it could be reasonable.

Another round of cat photos

April 26, 2021, 11:38 PM PDT by Parkzer • Cats

The rate at which I’ve ben posting new cat photos lately has been slowing down because there’s only so many unique ways you can photograph cats in the same ~1,300 square foot condo. But, I’ve been keeping my eye out for some new photo opportunities and trying to catch them when they do interesting things.

Mochi, Pudding, and Pumpkin have all been “housecatted” enough that they’re not exactly nocturnal, but they’re still somewhat crepuscular. Considering that I live in a high-rise on the Las Vegas Strip and often leave the blinds in the living room open overnight, the bright lights from the hotels and casinos shine in just enough that it maintains a “twilight” effect throughout the whole night. This obviously pleases the cats, to they like to play among themselves while I’m sleeping.

This also means that they’ll be eating overnight, so before I go to sleep, I try to make sure they have enough food in their bowls so they won’t wake me up asking me to feed them. However, sometimes, I’m either too busy or distracted and don’t fill their food bowls up all the way before I go to bed, and sometimes my roommate also forgets. If that ever happens, I get woken up by a cat, the methodology of which differs depending on which cat decides to wake me up.

Pudding is the most timid; he sits next to my head, stares at me, and meows until I wake up. Pumpkin is mute and can only hiss, so instead, he takes a more physical approach by nibbling on my fingers until I wake up. Mochi likes to be the most destructive; she jumps on my desk and starts knocking things over and off my desk until I wake up from the ruckus.

I think Pumpkin gets the most bored out of the three cats. Not only does he tend to be the troublemaker, but he also likes to lay in new places all the time. In previous photos, I’ve shown him using random places like the litter box, my shower, Amazon delivery boxes, and clear plastic storage boxes, among other things, as his bed.

My roommate was doing her laundry, and Pumpkin realized that there was yet again a new bed opportunity. I thought he went missing, but I eventually found him laying inside her laundry hamper.

Pudding likes to spend his mornings with me grooming himself. After I wake up, he likes to jump on my bed at the precise spot where the cool air from the air conditioning vent hits. He sits down like a distinguished gentleman, looks out my floor-to-ceiling windows, and licks himself clean.

Mochi also likes to spend her mornings with me, but she prefers my desk instead. She lays down in front of my keyboard to make sure that she will get enough pets prior to me starting to work.

Considering that the cat scratching beds are made out of cardboard, once we leave them out long enough, the cats will scratch through them and they’ll get flat, so they need to be replaced on occasion. My roommate recently bought the cats a new cardboard scratching bed. Pudding seems to like it.

Here is Pumpkin taking a smol nap with a smol blep.

I have a desk on the side of my room where I keep my gun safe and some stuffed animals that I receive as gifts from friends and for donating to law enforcement charities. Pudding likes to jump on this desk and lay next to the stuffed animals.

This desk is within view of my webcam. With the pandemic happening, my executive organizational leadership courses at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas have been moved online to video conference calls. One day during class, Pudding was laying on that desk and was so still that my instructor thought he was another stuffed animal. She had quite the surprise when he got up and jumped off the desk.

What other guides don’t tell you about finances for content creators and influencers

April 23, 2021, 7:31 PM PDT by Parkzer • Finance, Highlights

I’ve noticed that financial literacy has been on the rise exponentially in the past year. I imagine it is a combination of people studying finance on a need-to-know basis after hardship caused by the COVID-19 economic disaster, people being bored during the COVID-19 pandemic isolation period and wanting to put their time to better use, and the ever-increasing accessibility of knowledge through the Internet.

I’m the Director of Operations of Tempo. We started out as an esports team and gaming strategy content website, but have since then expanded to be a gaming and interactive media production company and game development company. I joined back in 2015 when the company was a year old and have stuck with it—through all its ups and downs—for the past 6 years. As the head of corporate operations, I oversee and personally handle a lot of the company’s legal, finance, and human resources matters.

As you’d expect from a role like that, I am one of two people in the entire company who have the security clearance to access any and all of our confidential and sensitive information. That gives me a unique insight into our employees’ and contractors’ lives and allows me to build a general profile of what the average esports player, content creator, and influencer is like from a financial sense.

This guide is not going to walk you through the fundamentals of being a content creator. I’m not going to tell you when you can quit your day job, or describe how you can best monetize your Twitch stream, or explain how to file your taxes as someone with no W-2 income. If you don’t know how to even get started being a sole proprietor, or if you don’t even know what that means, then you need to take care of that first.

Instead, this guide is going to point out some basic things about finances that I often never see covered in other guides. Maybe it’s because these are a bit more obscure, or maybe it’s because relaying this kind of information to someone may be perceived as brutal. Either way, I think this is information that you need to know to improve your baseline financial competency as a content creator or other kind of online influencer.

As a disclaimer, I live in the United States, and a lot of this advice is geared specifically for residents of the United States. Additionally, I am not an investment advisor, certified accountant, financial advisor, or real estate agent… and even if I was, I wouldn’t be your advisor, accountant, or agent. To you, I am nothing more than a guy on the Internet writing blog posts on his personal website. If any of this information sounds helpful to you, make sure you consult with a real professional to see how this may apply to your unique, individual situation.

You probably won’t have this job forever.

You need to worry about your job security far more than normal people. If a “normie” loses their job, they can submit their résumé to a similar, comparable company and probably get hired somewhere else (unless they did something incredibly stupid and got involuntarily terminated due to their conduct). You, on the other hand, can’t really do that. How many companies do you think would want to hire you when your entire professional experience involves playing video games all day and talking to a camera?

A lot can change in the content creation and entertainment industry. There might be some sort of accident that affects your face, and people stop watching your content because they no longer find you attractive. That sounds terrible, but you very well know that that’s definitely a possibility. Maybe, due to the stress and pressure of being a content creator, you start overeating and become overweight, and then people stop watching your content because they, again, no longer find you attractive.

Even on a less personal level, trends change. What if you’re a video game streamer, but the video game (or maybe even the entire genre) that you’re good at becomes not as popular anymore? There are many examples of extremely popular StarCraft II players who just don’t pull viewership numbers anymore because people don’t really play much StarCraft anymore. Or, what if your target audience gets older and consumes less content, while you fail to make a personal connection with the new younger generation?

What if you randomly get canceled for something you didn’t do? What if someone just doesn’t like you or is jealous of your success, and decides to make up a story that turns your entire community against you? It’s considered taboo to ask questions or not believe the victim. Sure, you can file a defamation lawsuit, but what about your income source right now?

Never take a single day as a content creator for granted. Save your money like your life depends on it, because it does. Take this especially to heart if you don’t have an academic background or degree beyond secondary school that you can fall back on if your content creation career goes awry.

Treating yourself to something that makes you happy once in a while is very important, but I do not recommend splurging on anything big until you have five (yes, five) years’ worth of basic expenses saved up. This should obviously be assessed on a case-by-case basis, and the savings buffer can be reduced depending on your non-influencer qualifications, but the 3-6 months of expenses that normies save up for is not enough for you. Five years’ worth of expenses will cover things while you get back on your feet, enroll in a vocational or trade school, and build a up a new career.
Invest in your own safety and security.

As a public figure, there is a large target on your forehead. No matter how wholesome and well-liked you might be, there will still be people out there who dislike you. Most people take out their anger by sending you mean messages on social media, but there are people out there who are mentally unstable and will take things too far. If you are unlucky, you end up becoming a victim of one of these people.

One of the best ways to invest your money is to spend a little bit more to make sure you are safe and secure in your home.

It might feel good saving a ton of money by living in a regular house in a regular neighborhood with a bunch of other people, but that leaves you out in the open. It is fairly easy to find people’s addresses nowadays. For example, did you know that, if you are registered to vote and didn’t fill out a special form to tell your local government not to release your information, your address and party affiliation becomes public record? If you live in a regular house, someone can literally drive up to your home and threaten you in-person.

Ever since moving out of my parents’ house, I have never lived in a publicly-accessible location. I’ve only lived in high-density apartments and condominium complexes that have 24/7 security. At the condo that I recently moved out of, you would need a credential to even drive into the building property at all, then you need a key fob to get into the building, a key fob to be able to use the elevator, then a physical key to unlock your door and bolt lock to your own unit. Does this absolutely guarantee that a predator won’t show up at my door? No, but it sure makes it borderline impossibly difficult.

You are your own most valuable asset. If you have the funds available to upgrade your living situation, don’t underestimate the value of security guards and restricted-access building lobbies that stand between your door and the street. (On a related note, don’t fall for the false sense of security that an unattended “gated community” might give you—those are functionally useless, as people can climb over the gate, and the access code is often given away by your neighbors to delivery drivers.)
Set up a wishlist of personal items you need or want.

A lot of content creators and influencers have Amazon wish lists or other gift registries, but people tend to make two distinct mistakes. First, some people… don’t actually have wish lists. Second, some people put exclusively business items on their wish list but leave out all their personal items.

It is in your best interest to buy business expenses with your own pre-tax income so you can write them off as deductions, and be gifted personal items from others so you end up saving as much of your post-tax income as possible. The magical element here is that you do not have to report your gifts as income (because they are gifts); taxes on gifts are (usually) paid by the giver, not the receiver.

Imagine that there is something worth $70 that you have to buy for business. All you need to do to earn this purchase is to make $70 and buy the business item. Now imagine that there is something worth $70 that you have to buy for personal reasons. In order to afford this $70, you have to make about $100 in actual income, pay $30 in income taxes (this is just an example, and your tax bracket may be different), and then use the leftover $70 to buy your personal item. Consequently, if someone wants to give you money to buy this $70 personal product, it’s in their best interest to just straight-up buy and give you the $70 product, as opposed to giving you $70 in cash so you can buy it yourself—because, after taxes, $70 in cash won’t be enough anymore.

There’s nothing wrong with putting high-value business expenses on your wish list, especially if you have a few whales who love to spend a ton of money on you. However, keep in mind that, if you still have personal expenses left that you need to account for, it’s not optimal for someone to buy you business products in lieu of personal products, if the value of both products are identical.
Take full advantage of all your tax-advantaged retirement accounts.

Most people are aware of IRAs now and have started a Roth or Traditional IRA with their favorite brokerage or provider. If you’re going for a long-term savings plan, it is very important that you max out this account every single year before you put your money in any other kind of savings platform. For example, if you have an individual brokerage account and an IRA, and your investment objective is long-term growth, and you put money in your individual brokerage account prior to maxing out your IRA’s yearly contribution, you’re doing it wrong.

(As a disclaimer, note that I said you should always be maxing out your IRA if you have a long-term savings plan. Early withdrawals from IRAs come with penalties, so if you need investments with the utmost liquidity for an upcoming big purchase, then putting that income in tax-advantaged retirement accounts may not be the best course of action. If you are unsure how to proceed, consult with your own tax professional prior to committing to any investments.)

But let’s say that you’ve already put in the maximum allotted amount into your Roth IRA this year, but you still have some leftover funds that you want to invest for long-term growth. Then you would put that money into your individual brokerage account, right? … Well, no.

As a sole proprietor, you have access to more tax-advantaged retirement savings options. Before you start buying index funds on your regular brokerage account, do some research and look into SEP-IRAs, i401(k)s, and SIMPLE IRAs. These are all special retirement programs for business owners (and all content creators and influencers who make Form 1099-NEC income count as business owners, even if you might be your own employee), and they may carve a fairly large chunk away from your tax liability.

For example, I have a SEP-IRA with Vanguard. Each year, I can contribute several thousand dollars into this SEP-IRA, depending on how much taxable income I made that year—and this is on top of the $6,000 I put in my Roth IRA. These several thousand dollars in my SEP-IRA are tax-deductible, which means it’s as if I had never made this income to begin with. Within this SEP-IRA, I am able to invest my money as if it was a normal brokerage account. Seeing as my objective is long-term growth, I usually buy growth-oriented Admiral Shares, a special type of index fund by Vanguard.
Be cautious of aggressive Schedule C deductions if you’re planning on getting a traditional mortgage soon.

The real estate market has been absolutely insane lately, and you might be someone who wants to get in on the hype. Warnings of emotional investing aside, if you do truly want to purchase a house, chances are, you’ll need to borrow some money from a lender and get a mortgage.

This process is fairly straightforward for normies because they’re on a set salary. The lender will contact their employer, check on their job security, verify their employment, and base their approval amount on their salary. However, independent contractors generally don’t have set salaries—you never know how much advertising revenue or sponsorships or tips/donations you’re going to get each month—so lending to an independent contractor is inherently higher-risk.

The way banks calculate how much they lend to an independent contractor is to look at your Schedule C in your yearly Form 1040 filing to the IRS. From there, they look at your net income (not gross income), re-add business expenses for home office use and depreciation, and subtract the remaining 50% of your meals deduction to find your overall yearly income. They look at the previous two years of tax returns for this; if your income has increased year-over-year, they take the average of the two, and if your income has decreased, they use the lower value.

If you’re intuitive, you may see where this is going. If you take a lot of business expense deductions, your net income is going to decrease, and your mortgage amount is going to decrease as well. This is because lenders are using the information on your Schedule C while honoring the true spirit of the concept of “business deductions,” in the sense that, the only reason you were able to make that amount of gross income is because you had to spend your own money too. Thus, they don’t see deductions as ever having been your money, but rather, a resource you needed to use to make your income.

For people with squeaky clean Schedule Cs, this might not be a problem. However, if you smudge your deductions a bit or walk within the gray area, it may seem counterintuitive to have a lower mortgage approval amount, even though you’re keeping more money by giving less of it to the government in taxes.

I personally faced this problem for years, and this is the conclusion I came to: If you’re rich enough that you’re willing to pay income taxes on your money, then the lender can feel comfortable taking that money into consideration when determining how much you can borrow. If you’re taking a ton of deductions, the bank has no concrete way to prove that you’re not just scraping by and taking those deductions because you have to, so it’s in their best interest to not take the risk and just disregard that from being eligible income.

And yes, there is yet another side to this—independent contractors can just elect not to take deductions (because you are not required by law to take deductions), thus artificially inflating how much money it appears like they’re making. Banks would then base their lending decision on this information, you end up wasting more money on taxes, you get a bigger mortgage, and you increase your chances of not being able to make payments and defaulting on the loan.

This is obviously a fairly involved process, and I have no be-all-end-all advice for you apart from doing research on this and calculating a good balanced situation for yourself for your taxes. The point here is, don’t be caught off guard that this system exists in this manner, and educate yourself about how mortgages work (and possibly some alternative lending solutions) at least two years before you plan on purchasing a house.

As you’d imagine, this only scratches the surface of finances for sole proprietors. I’d classify most of this as basic information, or low-intermediate at best—and this is why a lot of people off-load their finances to a certified accountant.

I mentioned this at the top of this blog post, but to reiterate, if any of this seems useful to you, make sure you do your own research and reach out to your own advisors and professionals to figure out how this may apply to your unique, individual situation.

My COVID-19 vaccination experience

April 17, 2021, 8:31 PM PDT by Parkzer • General

You can find a lot of helpful information about the COVID-19 vaccine online, but people often want to hear anecdotes directly from others to see what their own experience might be like. As of not too long ago, I received the second dose of my COVID-19 vaccination, and in a couple weeks, I’ll officially be able to call myself “fully vaccinated” after my immune system becomes fully able to recognize and fight off the virus.

To begin, I want to point out that there is a possibility that I had antibodies, but I’m not entirely sure. I recall getting pretty ill right after I traveled to PAX East in Boston, which was right around the beginning of when COVID-19 was getting widespread in the United States and people were slowly starting to get cautious. I ultimately never got my blood tested for antibodies, and now that I’m vaccinated, I guess I’ll never know.

For the first few months, I was fairly cautious and didn’t really leave my home… though I generally don’t leave my home too often anyway, so that’s not saying much. I did not wear a mask for the first few months of the pandemic, and only started after Nevada imposed a state-wide mask mandate. A lot of my travel was canceled at the beginning of the lockdown period, but shortly after, I resumed normal travel.

After going to Boston for PAX East, I also went to Los Angeles, California on multiple occasions; New York City, New York; Dallas, Texas; Orlando, Florida; Minneapolis, Minnesota (but only for a layover); Seattle, Washington; Portland, Oregon; the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area; the state lines of West Virginia and Maryland; Detroit, Michigan (only for a layover); and as I mentioned before, multiple trips to the Southern California area spread out throughout all these trips.

So yes, I did indeed travel a lot during the pandemic. As far as I’m aware, I did not catch COVID-19 throughout any of my travels unless I had it and was entirely asymptomatic. In fact, I felt healthier traveling during the pandemic; I occasionally have a very mild illness after coming back from extended travel, but I did not feel sick at all whatsoever throughout the entire past year.

In mid-March, I was eligible to get the first dose of my vaccination. I went on the State of Nevada government’s COVID-19 vaccine hub and scheduled my first dose on the earliest date available, which was two days from the date on which I scheduled the appointment. I opted to get my vaccination from the Southern Nevada Health District at the Cashman Center at 850 Las Vegas Blvd N.

On the day of the vaccination, I arrived at the Cashman Center to a packed parking lot and a massive line. The line started outdoors and snaked its way multiple times before reaching the entrance of the building, then snaked again many more multiple times indoors. In total, it took about an hour and a half after arriving on-site before I was done waiting in line, received my vaccination, and sat for 15 minutes to check for any unexpected allergic reactions.

The actual process of receiving the vaccination went smoothly. At the check-in desk, I presented my appointment confirmation QR code, government-issued identification, insurance card, and credential that qualified me to get an earlier vaccination. The check-in representative looked through everything and waved me onto the next part of the line. When it was my turn to get vaccinated, I was sent to a line with a nurse in medical attire. She seemed skilled and experienced administering vaccinations, as the needle insertion was fairly painless.

I was scheduled to make a trip to California at this time, but just in case I would experience side effects, I postponed my travel for a few days. Later in the evening on the date of the vaccination, as well as the following day, my arm felt mild soreness at the site of the injection. As the nurse recommended, I kept my arm active through light exercise (like arm circles, hand grippers, etc.) but avoided harder exercise (like weightlifting). The soreness went away after the second day after the vaccination.

Three days after my vaccination, I traveled to Southern California and felt no side effects or other changes in my health.

The second vaccination dosage was far more eventful. When I arrived back at the Cashman Center, the parking lot had far more open spots, but the actual line was noticeably longer (I imagine people were just parking at a different lot on the other side of the building). In total, it took about two hours this time (an increase of 30 minutes) after arriving on-site before I was done waiting in line, had received my vaccination, and finished sitting for 15 minutes.

The actual vaccination process itself was comparable to the first dosage in terms of process and logistics.

The difference came later that day. My vaccination appointment was in the early afternoon. By the time night came around on vaccination day, I felt just tired enough that I wanted to take a nap. I took a one-hour nap and woke up feeling groggy and more tired. I watched a few YouTube videos, did some work, and tried to go to sleep. At this time, I felt like my body was having a little bit of difficulty regulating its temperature. At approximately 2 AM, I finally fell asleep.

The following morning, I woke up at about 9 AM. I stayed in bed and browsed through social media and replied to some emails and messages, and by 10 AM, I felt noticeably weak and unwell. I’m usually the type of person to power through illness, so I forced myself to get out of bed and take a shower. After a warm shower, I felt much, much worse. I dried off and got straight back into bed.

Throughout the entire day, I had very low energy and felt like I had a very severe common cold. My body had very severe issues controlling its temperature; I would feel burning hot when I put on a blanket, but freezing cold if I take it off. The air conditioning breeze would feel refreshingly amazing for the first few minutes, then it would feel like my face was getting frostbitten afterwards.

From 11 AM until 3:30 PM, I laid in bed watching videos and browsing social media on my phone. From 3:30 PM to 4:30 PM, I got up to get some food and catch up on some work that was piling up throughout the day, then went back to bed at 4:30 PM to watch more videos.

At 8 PM, I tried ordering some ice cream from Postmates. I had low appetite, but I didn’t want to be on a calorie deficit while I was feeling unwell, so I figured ice cream would address that problem. Well, with Postmates having the most unreliable delivery drivers I’ve ever seen in my life, the driver assigned to my order marked my order as delivered, but it was nowhere to be seen. (Postmates officially had more lost orders than correct ones at this point, so I contacted customer service and asked them to delete my account.)

At about 10:30 PM, I got up again to make some instant ramen. I cooked and ate for half an hour, then went back to bed. At 12:30 AM, I fell asleep. I woke up at 4:30 AM because my roommate was still up and I could hear her talking on a call in her room. At this point, I had gotten enough rest that I didn’t feel as bad. About 45 minutes later, I fell back asleep and woke up at 9:15 AM.

When I woke up, I felt like I was at about 95% health compared to pre-vaccine. I still had very, very mild body aches, but my body temperature regulation was back to normal, and I was able to get up and move around without feeling like I was going to collapse. At this point, I was well enough that I forgot I had even been sick the previous day, and I carried on as usual.

Something to note here is that I seem to have an overpowered immune system. Even when I caught the common cold when I was younger, I was notorious for never being sick for longer than a day and a half. This might have something to do with my recovery time, and if you end up feeling unwell with side effects, you might not necessarily recover in just one day.

Speaking of side effects, I’m hearing that my pattern of side effects is commonplace among other people I know as well. For most people’s first dosage, they had little to no side effects, but they would get nearly knocked out after the second dosage.

I wish you the best of luck with your own vaccination experience, and hopefully, your side effects don’t completely cripple you. My word of advice is to leave a day or two free after each vaccination dose, just in case. If you’re concerned about the side effects, just keep in mind, a few days of “fake illness” while your immune system accepts the vaccination is far, far better than getting the real COVID-19 and putting yourself in a life-threatening position.