The Mundane Situations of Chestnut + Hazel # 47

I really don't even want to take classes for the Fall 2026 semester, but I really would like to have that option open, and so, there is basically something I need to take care of, and I think that this will take about 19 days. What a nightmare. what a real nightmare. These last two months have been nothing short of a total catastrophe. 

There are a number of other, sort of, unrelated issues that really impede this, or, well. I guess what I mean is that there are a number of other issues that add to the overall strain that I'll be dealing with over the next 19 days. such a nightmare, such an absolute nightmare.

Huge mistake. One of the courses I took this semester required this enormous allocation of time. Even allocating 12 hours a week to that course only produced really mediocre results, and I really consider 12 hours a week to be an over-allocation. 

Either I just couldn't produce grade points efficiently for the amount of time allocated, or I was just subject to an unfavorable exchange rate, you know, between time and grade points. Anyway, yeah, I really do not want to attend any classes for the Fall 2026 semester, but I would like to have that option open, and I also don't even think I really enjoy driving anymore, but I don't really know what else I would do.

Stock trading: I don't even like doing that either. Sometimes I have passengers who want to do that or talk about wanting to do that or kind of doing it in a paper account, but I found that whole thing totally agonizing. They usually talk about trading some other kind of securities, but, you know, doing basically that.

Fall 2026: I would legitimately rather pay off my student loans than attend the Fall 2026 semester. In fact, I think that from now on I'm always going to describe something that I don't want to do within the context of or in comparison to paying off my student loans. Would you like to eat frog less? yes! what about turkey legs? yes! what about some other kind of legs? you know what? I think that I would rather pay off my student loans than eat some other kind of legs!

Victor Frankenstein, Esq. is working on his Ph.D. in Chemistry at the University of Bavaria, Ingolstadt; he is in his laboratory developing a magical alchemical potion which should provide the consumer with eternal life on a quality of life adjusted basis when he hears a knock on the door and a man calls out: "Lord Frankenstein." Victor Frankenstein, Esq. is in fact irked by this salutation because he is a gentleman, and not a Lord; Frankenstein is from Geneva and his countrymen dispensed with their peerage system ages ago, deeming it a barbarous relic of a bygone era, alas, Victor is in Bavaria. Victor responds to the man saying: "What?" to which the man replies: "I'm here to deliver a letter from the Probate Court." to which Victor responds: "I think that I will disregard that letter."

I think what I was trying to get at is that Frankenstein doesn't have to worry about estate taxes and by extension the step up in basis mechanism if he lives forever as a result of consuming his eternal life elixir. When Frankenstein receives a letter from the Probate Court it means that somebody else is deceased and that Frankenstein is going to inherit money, but we know from the original Frankenstein novel that Frankenstein builds a machine to resurrect people, and because he builds such a machine he could disregard the letter from the probate court because the person who is deceased would simply be resurrected. A bequest only exists if a person is deceased; my guess is that if a person is no longer deceased, then a bequest is no longer going to be made, and a letter from the probate court could be disregarded, because it is no longer relevant.

I think I have a scenario where price is greater than cost, but less than cost due to exchange rates. Suppose an exporting country is experiencing deflation and a weakening exchange rate simultaneously, the weakening exchange rate would result in more domestic currency for every unit of foreign currency acquired, while simultaneously generating more purchasing power for every unit of domestic currency retained. I think that the key to this strategy is delaying repatriation of foreign currency long enough to allow the weakening exchange rate and the rate of deflation to have the desired effect. I think that another scenario would be where a country exporting finished goods to a country with a reserve currency also imports raw materials and inputs from a third country that also accepts the reserve currency for its raw materials. I think that the key to this other strategy working is that the reserve currency has a lower inflation rate than the two other countries, and the country exporting finished goods has a lower inflation rate than the country exporting raw materials and inputs, and primarily using the reserve currency to acquire foreign currency from the country exporting raw materials.