Yes, it is time one again to gather round and share this last fortnight's escapades. Have you striven valiantly, vanquishing all resistance in the path to glory? Or have you succumbed to inactivity, allowing resentment to slowly sink away into apathy? Sit on down and share all...
Bonus Question: Has the pursuit of any of this year's goals so far taught you anything about yourself?
The document of compiled goals can be seen here. Feel free to add yourself if you have not yet done so. If you didn't participate in the past thread(s), that's okay too. You can also join in whenever you like, so go ahead.
Shoutouts, let me know if you wish to be adder or removed: lil nowaypablo, ghostoffuffle, kleinbl00, thundara, veen, OftenBen, lil, thenewgreen, swedishbadgergirl, doesntgolf, blackbootz, Cumol ,ButterflyEffect, kingmudsy
The Pros: Still waiting to hear back from the dream job. I'll get an email when the position is filled if it's not me who got the job. I'm fairly certain the next step would be a phone call if things are moving forward on the 'Hire OB to work for this clinic' path. In the meantime I'm building a list of all of the various insurance/financial/related firms that have been slavering over me since I put my resume up on LinkedIn, Monster, and a few other places. It's always good to have a backup plan I suppose. The Cons: Been seriously neglecting both my guitar and fitness. I've been more than a little obsessed with school lately, and I have my first round of exams this week, so both of those are probably still going to sit on the backburner until at least thursday afternoon/evening. BUT I am now confirmed to be singing in Carnegie in April with a specialty choir formed just for this concert series, so that's pretty damn sweet, musically speaking.
Finally took the SAT's, and I'm glad it's out of the way. I think I did well, I'll get results next week, but I surprisingly butchered the essay portion. I've never once had trouble with the essay, but I got caught up in the introduction and wasted time (only given 25 mins.) The essay topic was about loyalty, but I felt betrayed. I'll be taking it again in March for good measure, so this checkbox will not be crossed off yet. To counter the fact that I have absolutely and completely stopped working out, and that I need school sports team participation for West Point, and that I'm mildly muscular but cardiovascularly pitiful, I've decided to join my school's spring track & field team. For now it seems like it's gonna be a good solution to my exercise resolution. I'm a decent runner so if I kick ass I'll get a varsity letter a year early, which would be nice. In regards to the sticky icky, I've put the pipe down for now. I don't necessarily feel "better" about this, cause the sticky icky happens to feel great. in addition, I've experienced the really bad nightmares that some people have reported following immediate quitting after smoking for some time. That bit sucked, as I don't ever get nightmares, really; this shit was bad. Anyway, it's possible that I'm just not smoking much because I haven't come across it much recently, but I've been proactive in keeping myself away from it. In general, I'm making progress, which is fine by me as long as it's moving along. Honestly though, the only thing I really want is just to cuddle into a blanket of eternal nap time.
I have definitely heard, and sometimes experienced, that your dreams will become much more vivid after quitting (temporarily or permanently). It may also be harder to get to sleep. I agree that the sticky icky happens to feel great. I think about putting it down and then I think about how I tend to get very into my head and engage in recursive, go-nowhere thinking about things that doesn't help me, and how the devil's cabbage helps me let go of that sometimes. Maybe I should quit it though, then I wouldn't eat so much. I hate this bullshit of "Oh, you're older now, you just have a 'mature woman's body' of course you look different than you did in high school!" and so on. If you ask me, the term "mature woman's body" is just another excuse to not work on losing weight, exercising, and working on one's appearance. It is like saying "Oh I'm not fat, I'm just big boned." There are plenty of women out there way older than me that are thinner, more fit, etc. Their "mature women's bodies" don't seem to stop them from doing that. Neither should I, nor should I accept such a statement as a reason to not try. That's what I don't need. Platitudes designed to make me feel better that make excuses for a lack of effort - instead of the drive to actually work.
The sticky icky is tricky (horrible, I know). During last summer, I had a streak of 5/6 weeks, non-stop. The weird time after quitting put things into perspective. It correlated with the cold september/october weather here. So I had this weird phase and some winter depressions. This combination was not fun. The trick is to space the sessions out. Weekends work well. Unless I have to work/do something the next morning. Then I let it be. Good luck with the track team!
I've been insanely busy lately, but yesterday was a nice opportunity to spend some time with my girlfriend instead of freaking out about whatever assignments are due, or what college I'm going to go to. On the flip side, I had my interview for the Raikes program on Friday ( I think I've talked a little about it before, but it's on wikipediai if you guys are curious), and I'm glad it's over. No idea how I actually did, the memories are a blur, but it's out of my hands now! I'll know what's going to happen in March. As a side note, anyone know what's been up with swedishbadgergirl? It seems like she was having medical issues, and then dropped off the face of hubski ~2 weeks ago.
Coding is going well for me. I've moved away from Python now I've established some basics of coding and I am getting stuck into Java. I am enjoying it, and am sometimes surprised by how much i've learnt, but other times frustrated by my unclear thought processes. I'm sure this is something that will only be on the up as I throw myself into the language more. Meditation has succumbed to inaction. I have not done it in a week or more. I have been reading more, specifically articles that I wouldn't have even bothered usually. I am glad I have as I've learnt some really interesting things such as how Bitcoin works and about the advancements in generative composition. I intend to keep this going. Maintaining a 'good' sleep/wake time is something that has also picked up again over the last couple of weeks, so that's good.
I found this article quite usefule to reflect on my programming learning process.
Averaging about 100 views a week on my blog, so that's cool. My record was 700 last August. Haven't missed my two post goal so far, so that's cool too. Unwritten goal, but I've been cutting through my backlog like a hot knife through butter. Finding things to post about for the blog means I need new stuff to play and talk about. I said no to something, but it was happening the same day that I had a midterm worth 25% of my grade, so I don't feel too bad about it.
I've given up eating meat. Granted, it's only been 4 days, but so far, so good. I'm going to resume running this week. Today is like 30 degrees out and I'd like to wait for it to warm up to avoid injury and to just enjoy it more. Work is tough, but I'm confident that my results are going to be strong. I'm working very hard, and it's no secret in life, high activity = high results -that is, unless your activity is idiotic, which i would like to think mine is not. I dig these accountability lists rezzeJ, thanks!
Go running 2-3x a week This will be dropped. No time to do it. Need to find some other kind of sport Meditate at least 5 days a week for 10-15 mins This is going great. Except for the past 4 days, as I was visiting friends and had the whole time planned. Still a bad excuse for not taking 20 minutes to do it. But I didn't have the need for a clear mind because I liked being surprised, engaged and maybe a little confused while visiting my "german hometown". Maybe I need to question my motivation for meditating Set up knowledge base about MDMA, LSD, Psilocybin and Cannabis Girl that I was supposed to do a journal club with did not contact me. Might be another indication that I have to do things by myself. Making this goal dependent of her might be stupid. Find a PhD position that suits me/Leave current job this one replaces my last goal that I had (reading Marx). I wrote my letter of purpose last week, its being edited by a friend right now. Two of my past supervisors send me their letters of reccomendation. One of them had a long enthusiastic letter (with details about my work etc.) while the other simply wrote a paragraph of "I recommend Cumol for a PhD position" and I have a feeling that it doesn't do me justice somehow... The two letters are so different, I fear that people would question the "good" letter. Applying for the first position once I have all the paperwork. Wish me luck :)
Feel free to forward it on to me / other hubskiers, I know people on here have helped with editing these in the past. It's probably on the distasteful end to request them to redo it, but is there anyone who has worked more closely with you who can write more specifics than that? I ended up having mentors / grad students write the letters while the professors edited / signed off on them.I wrote my letter of purpose last week, its being edited by a friend right now.
One of them had a long enthusiastic letter (with details about my work etc.) while the other simply wrote a paragraph of "I recommend Cumol for a PhD position" and I have a feeling that it doesn't do me justice somehow... The two letters are so different, I fear that people would question the "good" letter.
Sie haben Post! I also have another letter of recommendation from UCL where I did my internship. Its 2 years old but is also very detailed and good. Thinking about handing that one in instead. The only problem would be the date. Do you think it is a problem?It's probably on the distasteful end to request them to redo it, but is there anyone who has worked more closely with you who can write more specifics than that? I ended up having mentors / grad students write the letters while the professors edited / signed off on them.
- Move out of LA Literally 80 hours this week talking to architects, contractors, lawyers, etc. - Rebuild wife's business in another market Have learned more about tenant improvement allowances and commercial construction than I ever care to know again. Also, her current business is going to die an ignominious death which means she needs a new one, so I guess this week was actually a bit of a step back, despite the 80 hours spent poring over legal minutiae and ASHRAE handbooks. - Learn WWise & FMod Have not so much as fired up WWIse in a month. - Add another industry to roster Am eagerly awaiting the scathing verdict of a former editor-in-chief of Dutton to tell me how much my book sucks. Am also becoming a certified social media marketer because it's free and because it makes more sense than paying a PR firm $500 a month to post to Facebook for us. - Log into MyFitnessPal every goddamn day New Cyanogenmod update on my phone has caused it to lock up twice and drop the cellular antenna once. However, the "you haven't logged breakfast yet" notifications worked for the first time yesterday. EDITED TO ADD: Need to check out "Recondite" when I have access to headphones. My inlaws' place is so amazingly messy that I've been incapable of finding my f'ing Sonicare for three days.
I found my fitness pal to be incredibly annoying. Why? Because it actually held me accountable and I wasn't able to eat like a moron anymore. Point is, it works. Fuck it. I'm downloading it again. I'll resume tomorrow. See you on it punk. :)
I hate myfitnesspal. I suppose I should join you guys on it. I have intense difficulty estimating my food correctly. I buy lunch from my work cafeteria whenever I am there. They don't provide calorie counts. It's a salad & soup every day, so the salad is almost negligible tbh, but the soups vary and make a big impact. My strategy had been to simply choose a soup like the soup I'd had that day and use those calories. I suspect this is an ineffective way to go about it. However, uh....what else can I do? Also, my mom's cooking (I'm living at home so that happens a lot now) - not sure how to account for that unless I take the recipe, total the calories in it from all the items, and divide it out. Which can be time consuming and boring. Anyone got any suggestions? The other route I've used is to mostly eat processed/packaged foods because, hey, the calories are right on them - but processed foods aren't good in general and mess with my blood sugar too much too often, besides.
At least for me, the point isn't to be calorifically perfect, the point is to track one's intake consciously so one keeps roughly under a daily goal to achieve roughly one's long term aims. (And keep an eye on micronutrients to see if you're crazy deficient in something vital.) On the whole I (and I assume many people) eat many of the same things day in day out, so once entered the regular meals are very quick to select. Try Noom who make apps which measure things by 'a handful' and 'a golfball sized portion' of various foodstuffs. Really quick to enter the meal.
Yeah that's my problem too, as a foreign food eater. Myfitnesspal doesn't know what koufta or foōl or besboosa is, and if they do, it's not accurate to the stuff I make, and then yeah the whole "totaling things out" angle is too much work for not enough gain.
I am 156lb and 5"7 (? stupid imperial system) I have been losing weight lately, might be due to "sticky icky". Need to find out more about that because it sounds counter intuitive This study sounds interesting...
Couldn't be more on track towards my goals. Running is still going on, and I've started a weight lifting training. Currently I'm running 3 times a week and lifting once or twice, I hope to switch that around in a couple of weeks. Regarding my reading goals I'm almost done with The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene. I've started Meditations and The E-Myth, which gives an excellent explanation of why a lot of small businesses fail (and how to avoid those pitfalls). My graduation is in sight, so I'm already thinking about the next step: a master's degree. I think I've found a great programme at a different university. It's got a good reputation, has a more challenging programme and is focused on design.
Good luck! I've found it difficult to do both, but that's because you end up needing to consume a ridiculous number of calories to keep up with it. I've heard the advice of a gallon of milk a day just to keep up with a full strength training routine alone.Running is still going on, and I've started a weight lifting training. Currently I'm running 3 times a week and lifting once or twice, I hope to switch that around in a couple of weeks.
Back when I cared about such things, I used to eat half dozen eggs in a typical day, albeit with most of the yolks removed, and I was losing weight. It's not so easy to put on weight when exercising a lot. One thing people often forget is that working out doesn't make you bigger. Eating makes you bigger. Working out helps you put the chemicals where you want them. The thing I notice most about getting older is how long it takes my body to recover compared to ten years ago. I got to a point where I would struggle to work out hard enough to make myself sore. Now I can feel it after a night of ice skating really hard. Part of that may be due to the fact that I'm not a gym rat like I used to be, but I also think I can chalk a lot of it up to age.