We are settling into a routine here in New Delhi, although it isn’t yet complete. Wake up around 05:30–06:00; dress in sports gear; drink juice and coffee (maybe a phone call to family); walk with Woland around the colony (30 min); back home for a maintenance workout; shower and get dressed; more coffee and work until 10:30; play ball with Woland; work until 17:00 or 18:00; a drink if it isn’t a dry night; cooking, dinner and wine (if it isn’t a dry night); read and sleep. On dry nights I have dinner early and watch a movie or show. Weekends are more disorganized, given the need to coordinate activities with Natalia and her mom. Natalia goes to the office almost every day during the week; I don’t, and I don’t go out much — almost never — and that is fine. What I miss, other than the beach, is being able to do a proper workout and run. But we are not yet approved at the local club/gym. If the delay continues, I will buy some basic equipment myself and set it up in the basement
I enjoy the morning walks with Woland, and I think the community is starting to accept us. Many people walk in the morning — our neighbors — but I haven’t seen a single other foreigner. Woland walks without a leash, but when someone is about to pass us I ask him to heel by my side. During the first weeks people looked at us with disdain and never said hi, even when I did. But as they get used to us, things are improving, and more people now offer a civilized good morning and even a smile. We are being assimilated.
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Some of you know that I have a demon and two monsters: BEHEMOTH, the demon, and the Blue and Red monsters, its diesel engine and generator. I want to introduce you to one more monster and one more demon. The Gray monster is my new MacBook Pro with chip 5M Pro, a real beast (see pic). Almost ten times more powerful and faster than my previous laptop, whose keyboard stopped working a few weeks ago, forcing me to upgrade. She is perfect for the demon: Azazello, the name I gave to my Claude Code Pro Maximum (you can’t see him physically, only some of the stuff he produces).
What can I say — it’s impressive what he can do with the support of the Gray monster. Part of my work involves large data sets, household and labor surveys, and economic modeling. Azazello works with me on these projects. He can grasp the big-picture objective, read the technical documents I give him explaining the data and methods, and then take care of the programming and analytical work. He operates on my hard drive, so he can create files of different types directly, which I can then work with. What used to take me days now takes me one morning, all included. It’s mostly the back-and-forth with Azazello until we both converge on what’s needed — because he is not a passive agent. He also comes up with very creative suggestions or brings my attention to issues that might be wrong with particular assumptions. How he is able to do it is beyond me. For now, he is helping me, complementing my skills, and increasing my productivity. The time might come, though, when he replaces me… Hopefully I’ll be retired and sailing by then, and his new role will be passage planning, weather forecasting, or helping me fix the Red and Blue monsters.
Sailing to the Pacific 