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PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   1300 thread views

Wellness Wednesday for May 28, 2025

The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:

  • Requests for advice and / or encouragement. On basically any topic and for any scale of problem.

  • Updates to let us know how you are doing. This provides valuable feedback on past advice / encouragement and will hopefully make people feel a little more motivated to follow through. If you want to be reminded to post your update, see the post titled 'update reminders', below.

  • Advice. This can be in response to a request for advice or just something that you think could be generally useful for many people here.

  • Encouragement. Probably best directed at specific users, but if you feel like just encouraging people in general I don't think anyone is going to object. I don't think I really need to say this, but just to be clear; encouragement should have a generally positive tone and not shame people (if people feel that shame might be an effective tool for motivating people, please discuss this so we can form a group consensus on how to use it rather than just trying it).

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I'm home from college and it's looking like this summer is going to be a struggle, health wise. While it's nice to move back in with the parents and catch up with old friends, it's not nice to be back at the local gym, which has a single digit amount of machines and a single squat rack. So that sucks, but I have a decent pullup bar setup at home and I can get back into calisthenics. On the other hand, I have no clue how I'm going to control my food consumption. At college, I had unlimited swipes at a cafeteria which was open every day from 7am to 10pm, and I could grab chicken and rice or make a wrap whenever I wanted. Now that I'm home, I'm limited to whatever is in the fridge, which last I checked was a bunch of yogurt, tapioca, and some uncooked fajitas. Also, my mom has this bizzare compulsion to acquire sweet snacks which she doesn't even really eat, but which are tantalizingly available to me throughout the day (as I'm hanging out at home a lot). First it was See's Candies to celebrate me coming home, then it was cookies from a friend, and tomorrow theres going to be a cake from some relatives. It's not her fault and shes not doing it on purpose but it's just annoying that so many unhealthy sweets and always available to me. The college cafeteria had a baked goods section but I would always ignore it, and I wasn't studying 20 feet from it. I've already talked with my mom about stocking the fridge with more protein, and the fajita mix is a step in the right direction (once I cook it tomorrow) but its a pain that my (very successful) routine has been so thoroughly disrupted. I am enjoying the home cooked meals though :)

Sounds like it’s an opportunity to test yourself in a new environment. Also, pick up some chicken and rice and beans and some containers and prep a bit. Actively tell your parents about what you’re doing and why. He’ll grab a cheap grill and have some fun and better tasting food.

Have fun!

Anons, I have happy news.

I have accepted a new job. It doubles my compensation.

With this, I'll (by some estimates) enter the top-1 percentile of individual compensation in the US.

It's marginal. But #FeelsGoodMan.

:)

So you'll make over half a million usd per year? :o

That's nuts. Congrats! What field, if I may ask?

With this, I'll (by some estimates) enter the top-1 percentile of individual compensation in the US.

Do you mean you have a very low salary or a very high salary? If it's very high then it's 99th percentile, or top 1 percent. 1st percentile would mean that only 1% of people earn a lower salary than you.

Top 1 percentile :) , but just barely.
The lowest of the high salaries

Lowkey, entering the bottom 1 percentile is harder. ChatGPT says around $1500/yr. That's a tricky number to get right. Accidentally work an extra week on minimum wage, and you're at 3 percentile.

Gotcha. Regardless it's a nice upgrade, congrats!

Thanks !

I'm bragging a bit ofc. So, I deserve to get a good ribbing.

Congratulations and good luck! Do keep in mind that when you work in the type of companies that pays that sort of salaries, you will start meeting the type of people who earn significantly more than top-1 percentile. Easy to lose perspective and get sucked up into an unhappy race.

Yepp.

Avoiding lifestyle creep is priority #1.

I'm out of the startup accelerator program now. I grew up a lot and got disabused of a lot of delusions over those months. I might have developed the smallest sense of pride in my accomplishments. Now I'm back in my home city and old bad habits are creeping up on me again. They're not as bad this time though. 5 steps forward, three steps back.

My big thing for the foreseeable future is to try and find a girl. I would appreciate feedback and advice on my plan below.

My current theory (based off when I got past gfs/hook ups), is that I'm at my most attractive when I feel full of will and energy. So for the next month I'm going to focus on building that up through good sleep, regular exercise, and other good habits. I'm also trying to improve my appearance through starting a skincare routine, lifting, and buying more fashionable clothes.

Once the month is up, I'll start trying to get dates. I'm thinking a two pronged approach. First I'll try making a profile on Hinge, with professional photos and advice from my Chad tier friends. Second I'll attend every rave/EDM event I can and talk to girls there. I already have a few connections in that scene. Last time I went to an event I brought a polaroid camera and went around offering to take free pictures for people. This gave me an excuse to talk to anyone and seems to be building a positive reputation. I'm going to keep doing it at all future events.

I wear glasses, in the past contacts have been too irritating to feel worth it. Should I just suck it up?

The two recent top level CW posts about dating have been kinda demoralizing, but I'm keeping my chin up.

I'm at my most attractive when I feel full of will and energy.

You already know the most important thing. And the second most important, which is to learn how to be gregarious. The third most important thing is to dial in your dating logistics. Think like Napoleon - logistics enables everything else. For a classic drinks date, find a spot you like, ideally classy-ish but chill and quiet (I like wine bars), with tables/bar where you can sit close to her, somewhere nice you can walk to nearby to sit and talk in the dark. That's first date and first kiss sorted, and if you're within walking distance to your place often more. For coffee dates, find a place with a park nearby you can walk in with your coffee. Concerts most of your logistics are sorted for you but try to get a drink beforehand so you can have some time but not too much time to talk. Etc. etc., but the main failing I see for guys once they can get dates is that they sit down for 'job interview' first dates and never build up a real rapport because they're not comfortable in their surroundings.

The two recent top level CW posts about dating have been kinda demoralizing

They've also been so delusional. Do everything you say you're going to do in this post and you'll be fine.

Are you Indian? I feel like every user on here who is young and doing some startup thing is Indian. I'm not sure why that is but it's an intersection phenomenon.

It's just one guy that fits that bill lol. But yes, even I did a double take and wondered if this was an alt.

Naw bro I'm a white guy from New England.

Called it, you're a Brahmin.

Naah dude, no reason to be demoralized. Women love glasses. I know women who've asked their partner to wear glasses in bed.

Women find Dark-Academia to be incredibly hot. If you're a tech guy, then definitely lean into it. Pick up on one of these herringbone coats to begin with. Can always complete the look if you'd like.

Glasses on men are like short hair on women - if they're hot, they make you hotter, if you're busted, they make you look worse. If you wear glasses that's a good reason to get your haircut and any beard grooming dialed in, and wear clothes that work with the glasses.

First off, congratulations on your achievements! Sounds like you are having a lot of work with very few structure around you. That's the worst for me.

In regard to dating, it sounds like you are taking a very technical approach to this. Nothing wrong with that, but it could help to get more in touch with yourself. I recommend reading the book "Models" by Mark Manson. It gives a primer on how to be comfortable dating as yourself, not as some proxy method you are trying out. I feel like this is the source of real confidence. Going into the whole thing as yourself and giving yourself over to the circumstances. Once you do this and succeed you will appreciate yourself in a deeper way. No need to fake anything or learn the next method. Be who you are and attract someone that likes you just for that.

Seems like we are in the same boat, although I'm not sure how interested in dating I am over the next few months, mainly focusing on trying to finish the PhD and healthmax.

I think you should get Lasik or something similar if you can, but glasses can also be attractive to a certain demographic.

I am sometimes reminded of how bad life can get.

My dad's cousin has a 14 year old grandson, that he wants to bring on their annual fishing trip.

Turns out the boy is a furry (hearing my dad describe it without the word or understanding of what a furry is was entertaining), but this was the least bad thing. The boy was recently arrested for molesting his younger ten year old brother. His younger brother lives with his mom (who is apparently a prostitute). His dad remarried and has a younger daughter, he has threatened to molest his step sister too if he moves in with his dad. The boy can't be placed in foster care because he is a danger to other children. It's looking like the main option might be juvi.

Christ. How does the kid even come back from that situation. The default answer is "therapy", but I don't have high hopes.

It's looking like the main option might be juvi.

A few weeks ago I got about 60% of the way through writing an effort post on "some people I have known," and it just got too long and convoluted... but this seems like a place to tell one of those stories.

I have some neighbors with a 12 year old daughter and a couple younger sons. Beginning when the daughter was 4 or 5, she would leave the house and come knock on neighbor's doors (including mine)--when the door was opened, she would walk right in and ask for something to eat, or invite adults to come play with her, or start rummaging through people's belongings. Sometimes she would ask if she could live with them. Refusal was met with pouting, bargaining, and sometimes screaming fits. Some neighbors would call the mother, some would call the police, depending on their level of integration into the neighborhood community; you would not guess from looking at this girl, or speaking with her, that she has any particular mental disability or whatever. Within a couple of months (during which time they made various attempts at education and discipline and other behavior-modification) my neighbors installed deadbolts on all exterior doors that had to be unlocked with a key from either side. Apparently nothing short of literally locking their daughter into the house could prevent this behavior.

This became particularly apparent when they sent her to school, as she would simply leave school any time something happened to upset her--and then resume knocking on the doors of houses that appealed to her. She was placed into one of those "special" classrooms for discipline cases and slow learners. Within a few years she had received an official diagnosis of "oppositional defiant disorder" with a side of "level one autism spectrum disorder." She made some friends and things seemed to be progressing in a good direction.

When the girl was 9 or 10, inspired in part by the girl's progress and by the growth of their younger sons (who were also generally "locked in" as collateral damage, and who wanted the freedom to play outside without being let outside, or let back in), the family removed the key-only deadbolts. Within a year or so (by now the girl was 11), early one morning, the girl let herself out and took a walk. She left our neighborhood; I don't know how far she walked, but she knocked on a stranger's door and asked to live with them, because her parents were sexually abusing her.

Naturally, these people called the cops. What happened next my neighbor would relate to me later--would relate to most of our neighbors, later, as he canvassed the neighborhood sharing information in hopes of preventing another such incident. From his perspective, the story went like this: after realizing his daughter was gone (maybe half an hour after the daughter had slipped away), he called the parents of a couple of her friends. When none of them knew of her location, he took a short walk around the block, looking for her. Finally, he called the police, who informed him that they had his daughter in custody and would be by the house shortly.

When the police arrived, they left his daughter in the cruiser. They arrived with a social worker. They separated him from his wife and interviewed each of them individually, during which time they asked a series of increasingly upsetting questions. Eventually it was revealed to them that their daughter had given an exceedingly graphic description of violent sexual abuse, which she reported she had suffered at the (joint!) hands of her parents. His wife produced documentation from the girl's psychologist, emails from school administrators and teachers, and contact information for neighbors who could corroborate certain events. The authorities glanced over all of this without much comment.

My neighbor said he couldn't imagine how his daughter had even learned about some of the things she'd accused him of (their internet is pretty locked down, and his daughter does not have a cell phone), but he's pretty sure it was just information gleaned from her "friends" (and their smartphones) in the discipline-case classroom. Despite grilling him to a distressing degree, he says the cops didn't find his daughter's story very credible--but as a matter of policy, child abuse allegations are of course taken very seriously even when they are clearly fantastical. When the grilling was done, they brought the daughter into the house--screaming all the while that she hated her family and was in mortal danger--told the parents "good luck" and beat a hasty retreat.

As soon as the cops were gone, the daughter stopped screaming, assumed a totally flat affect, and asked for something to eat. Her parents explained to her that she had put them and her brothers in quite serious danger, and the daughter responded that she didn't intend for anyone to get hurt, but she wished she had a family that was more "fun," and that was all she was trying to accomplish.

That is in broad strokes the story my neighbor told me, stoically, as he provided me with a color printout of his daughter's face on a list of contact information--not just his and his wife's, but also her psychologist, her school resource officer, some nearby family members. He apologized for the imposition but asked me to please call whoever I felt most comfortable calling, if his daughter ever showed up at my door or even if I just saw her wandering around unattended.

I've known children prone to fits and outbursts, prone to theft and prevarication, prone even to inexplicable physical violence. But this particular girl strikes me as exactly the kind of straight-up "psychopath" that academic psychologists have been reluctant to recognize as such. If her parents hadn't been meticulously documenting this girl's behavior for years, would they still have custody of their children? Might one or both of them be in prison, right now? And looking forward to her teenage years, assuming she continues to harbor this peculiar impulse to get away from her family, what actions might she take? At the extreme end, maybe she just kills her parents, but in lesser tragedies she might run further away than the next neighborhood over; she might very easily be lured into running away with a predator; at best I suspect she will continue to internalize the negative influences of her discipline-case peers and fall into drug use or theft or other anti-social behaviors. She's not mentally disabled; with daily supervision she could probably live a normal-ish life, but only if she could be persuaded to accept such supervision in the long term, and only if someone is willing and able to provide that supervision. Today, that's her parents, but even if she remains with them well into adulthood, she should outlive them by decades.

Cases like this are not common, I think, but similar situations ("on the same spectrum" we might say) are common enough that they capture something really challenging about living in a society. Low information, low intellect, low agency people exist in dizzying array. Their lives would generally be better if they were supervised. Some of the worst off do get such supervision; if they aren't born into attentive families, group homes and halfway houses and the like also exist. But in our relentless pursuit of dignity and autonomy and equality for all, we have made it all but politically impossible to act on the idea that a meaningful percentage of our population would genuinely be much better off if their lives were managed by someone else. Because the difficult question is always--who?

Frankly if you don't know a couple different animals wearing human skin that should be put down, you probably don't know enough about people.

Who can really solve this problem? Many of these psychopaths figure out ways to fit in the crevices of society where the state can't or won't get to them. Ticking time bombs.

I'm all for giving kids a fair shake, but once you get into the double digits IMO I haven't seen a freak like this change their stripes.

I was up late last night on the phone with the girl I'm maybe sorta kinda seeing.

I think the conversation had somehow taken a turn into automation-induced unemployment, to which one of her comments were that if we did achieve that, wouldn't that bump humanity up on the "scale"?

What scale did she mean, I asked.

(Is she talking about the Kardashev scale? Could that possibly be the case, or are you deluding yourself, SMH?)

Well, you know, the one that goes from 1, 2 to 3. And measures energy right? I think humans are like a 1 or 2?

Yep. That's the one. You have accidentally activated my trap card, or at the very least my special interest.

I know that going on to deliver an impromptu lecture on the true meaning of the Kardashev scale, that energy use isn't the best proxy for technological advancement, that humanity is a paltry 0.73 blah blah isn't the definition of rizz, but I just couldn't help myself. Fortunately, she did tell me that she liked it when I went on infodumps.

(If you can't tell, I'm a nerd)

Fortunately, she did tell me that she liked it when I went on infodumps.

For guys with the inclinations we have, it is an absolute imperative to marry women that at least sometimes enjoy the infodumps. Having the desire to share information rejected as uninteresting is the kind of thing that a guy can only take so many times.

Women enjoy infodumps from men they like not because they like the infodumps, it's because they like these men.

This is a recipe for never getting married, because the kind of guy who enjoys nerdy infodumping considerably outnumbers the kind of woman who enjoys listening to nerdy infodumps.

Your wife doesn't have to share your interests, be your best friend, or anything like that; that's what your male friends are for. She needs to be good at the sorts of things a wife should be good at.

My last ex was someone who was a nerd herself. I must say that listening to someone else info dumping on the many ways that people have molested Roman or Renaissance statues and the legal statutes that prompted was an interesting experience.

I've also dated people who I didn't feel like sharing my interests with, but mostly because they weren't likely to understand in the first place. To be fair, those weren't very serious relationships, and I think I've made it years without talking about the Kardashev scale with pretty women.

Make the infodumps about a topic she really enjoys, or deliver it well. It's a performance, and you have to do them thousands of times over a marriage to keep each other entertained.

If she can't handle a 45-second rant about the Kardashev scale, I'd consider that a yellow flag of contempt.

I mean, my wife doesn't love it when I start in on an infodump, but she married me anyway and we make it work. She has occasionally quoted Jen from The IT Crowd at me, specifically making white static noise at me or saying, "I want to stop listening to this," to bring me back to Earth, a behavior that I have encouraged so that she doesn't have to get ever-more lost in what I'm on about.

IDK man, every girl I've been with has enjoyed the info dumps. I think if they think you're cute they're down for the excited babble.

You can also just have friends, but not gonna lie, it's fun to tell all the crazy shit I've been reading to the missus.

Is she back in scotland or in India with you? I would caution against too many infodumps and texting too frequently. Women like infoudumps because they showcase passion, the spirit one shows via such rants conveys a sense of life.

Do meet her asap. On a side note, I once told a girl in detail about nrx topics, she did find it interesting but it ended badly, I was an insufferble person, you are doing well. Wish you luck.

She's in India, and doesn't have any plans to move out of it right now. Which makes all of this a bit melancholy, since it's hard to see it working out.

Thank you, and hopefully you find someone too who is willing to share even more unusual interests.

I think she likes you.

What? Here I was thinking I'd found true platonic nirvana intalking about my hard scifi novel with a cute girl, and now it's tarnished? Couldn't be the case, I refuse to believe it.

Is there anything actually wrong with Coke Zero? and other similar no calorie sweetened beverages?

Coke Zero is my preferred caffeine. In the first few months after each of my kids was born, I would drink a 2L bottle per day. I decided to stop because of the risk of tooth decay. The real-sugar drinks are much worse for teeth, but I'm pretty sure the acid from the carbonation is also not good, especially since I was drinking the coke without any food. (It's not hard to find random studies showing carbonated water is bad for teeth, but I'm not sure how much stock to actually put in them.)

I'd be interested in seeing the studies on carbonated water being bad for teeth. Coke zero still has added acid, so it's certainly worse for teeth than carbonated water.

Carbonated water is also naturally acidic, though a few orders of magnitude less acidic than citrus fruit juices or cokes.

If you're even remotely possibly an alcoholic (who enjoys cola mixed liquor drinks most of all), it goes down easier and might even taste better once you're used to it. Cherry coke zero and bacardi are cheap, fucking your life up is expensive.

Hah this seems like one of those "suffering from success" types of problems.

Also what is your flair referencing?

Quoting an early South Park episode Helen Keller the Musical, which I chose along with state flag because of a few different threads where my state has come up.

No. I read through the literature and reviews of it not that long ago, and was overwhelmingly convinced that it's safe, without any significant downsides to speak of. Of course, nobody studied coke zero in particular, but rather studies on artificial sweeteners like aspartame.

https://dynomight.net/aspartame/

That's a good review if you want to read it up yourself.

Drink the nectar of the gods, and consider yourselves safe from sugary sin or calorific clap.

I think what makes it appear suspect is simply who feels the impulse to drink calorie free sodas. It's just correlation, not causation.

As a wise man once said:

I've never seen a thin person drink diet coke

What is he fucking blind?

Probably was true back in the day when diet drinks were niche and only fat people drank them. Nowadays I can hardly find coke with sugar anywhere

There's an additional sugar tax in the UK, so it can be impossible to get non-diet options here at times. Even when you do, you pay extra.

It tastes like alien cat piss, it has a bunch of spooky chemicals and there's absolutely no reason to drink it when there are many better alternatives.

What are these alternatives?

I've read that at least one of the fake sugars still causes blood glucose instability (because the body tries to produce insulin for it) but I don't remember which one. It also definitely sweetens your palate, so it takes more sweet to taste sweet so you might end up craving sugary junk more.

This is so real. When I got off added sugar drinks, after a while I discovered there are more tastes than "MOAR SUGAR!". And in fact, a lot of things have their own tastes which don't benefit from MOAR SUGAR. Which also unfortunately made about 90% of US sweets completely un-consumable for me because it's a gustatory equivalent of being tied up to a biggest meanest loudspeaker at a heavy metal concert. You can't do subtle tastes if people are addicted to MOAR SUGAR.

I also feel the same way about salt in a lot of US food, although there are definitely times the body just wants MOAR SALT.

Same, I gotta say that IMO a lot of this just boils down to industrialized food targeting the lowest common denominator, which is to say that sweet and salty tastes in particular tend to be ramped up in most store-bought food items in order to enhance its appeal to the mean human palate.

I actually find it much more of an issue in small-town restaurants, the kind you'd go to on a roadtrip stop if you wanted to avoid a chain. Recall once stopping off at a BBQ joint in the Central Valley (not necessarily a mistake, there are good ones) and my sandwich was like eating a salt shaker. Same with a fried chicken place in the coastal South that all the locals raved over. Though I did recently eat a bag of store-bought popcorn and it was so salty I had to put chapstick on for the next two days to heal my lips.

Yep, why bother with creating complex tastes if you could just hammer the basic receptors and sell 100x? The problem is once it starts, all other manufacturers have to do the same or die (or survive on meager earnings from rare freaks like myself, while their competitors are making billions).

Semaglutide Trip Report (Real, Factual, as seen on Erowid):

Recently, due to a change in meds and an increasingly sedentary lifestyle, I'd packed on more pounds than I cared for. I'd bought a weighing scale but forgot to buy batteries, so it was only on my return to India that I found out I'd gained 5 kilos that I didn't need.

I'd convinced my mother to start oral semaglutide a while back. She desperately needed it, being very obese to the point that fatty liver was headed straight for cirrhosis. Not to mention she was diabetic, so it was a double whammy. After some difficulties with initial GI upset and nausea, she was happy enough on it, and probably lost about 5 kilos. Still plenty to go, so I keep hounding her to see her endocrinologist and up the dose.

I was already a semaglutide fan from early clinical trial days, so I had few qualms in ordering some for myself. By Indian standards, quite expensive, around 100 USD for a month's supply of 7mg tablets. By Western, or even UK standards? A pittance. I could afford that without any concern.

Normally, you're supposed to start at ~3mg OD for a month and then titrate up, but I was impatient and willing to take the risk of a higher dose. The degree of weight loss is quite dose dependent. I opted for 7mg, ordered several months worth to go, and went right at it.

It's been 4 days, but the effects were noticeable from day one. It absolutely slashed my appetite, I normally skip breakfast, and usually have 1-2 large meals a day, but whereas I normally get peckish past noon, I got to 6pm before getting hungry and realizing I hadn't had anything to eat.

I'd been out with friends and grabbed pancakes dripping with chocolate, and only managed to have half my plate before I had to give up. Later in the day, I can just about have one meal and consider myself full. I've had to force myself to eat more as I've been working out quite hard and wanted to see gains.

No side effects to speak of. My stomach is as it's always been, and the plumbing hasn't given out. I've been emboldened to order another 3 months of it, just to tide me over while I'm back in Scotland.

TLDR: Fucking amazing. I could drop my caloric intake to about half without being desperately hungry, and to about 70% while feeling entirely normal. I'd be willing to pay a much higher price for it if I absolutely had to.

My view of GLP-1s has a similar flavor.

me at 35: LSD is so consciousness altering! whoa!

me at 45: GLP-1s are so consciousness altering! whoa!

What I was expecting was a reduction in hunger, that makes sense. What I find really interesting is when I do have cravings, or feel hungry, the "seeking" behind what I do about it is gone. I feel a lot more activation energy is needed to pit stop at the bakery, or get a goodie out of the pantry, or even scoop myself up another helping.

I think this is the dopamine system being suppressed. But... only at the extremes?

I haven't become an adhedonic robot though. Sex is still excellent and when I do order something delicious and eat it I still enjoy it.

How does this make any sense?

Ozempic would be "too good to be true", but thankfully the universe is apathetic and cold, and doesn't work that way. God knows that an enormous amount of effort has been put into finding some massive downside, to little avail.

I wouldn't call what I've experienced consciousness altering, at least if you don't think taking a Tylenol to reduce pain makes it a psychotropic drug haha. But it does make me less hungry. I'm like 50% sure it's also decreased my craving for liquor, not that I drank that much in the first place.

I'd like to riff off this comment and muse on just how far apart our worldviews are. I assume you're positing it here for general interesting discussion; but if any of this feels too personal or prying let me know and I'll retract.

  • You are on ADD medication
  • You are on an antidepressants
  • You are on semiglutine to counteract (partly) the weight gain from the anti-depressants
  • You are looking at plastic surgery

I am sure from your perspective, this is exactly what the transhumanist plan looks like - medtech improvements and fine tune control over your inner chemistry and outer appearance. To me this looks like a medical doom spiral, and one that won't end in a post-humanist nervana.

I am not critiquing your decisions, as they flow out of your own circumstances I can't know intimately, and are in line wiht your axioms. I have always been a critic of your axioms however, and this seems (dispassionately amusingly) to be two movies on one screen -> a confirmation of each of our philosophies.

Anyway, best of luck on the weight loss and fitness goals, and again, apologies if this is too spicy.

That's why, while I've been accused of many other things during my little time under the sun, but never hypocrisy. I live by my values, and I'm sure you do yours. To the extent that neither of us have any interest in meddling in the personal affairs of others, that's an acceptable state of affairs on my end.

I am sure from your perspective, this is exactly what the transhumanist plan looks like - medtech improvements and fine tune control over your inner chemistry and outer appearance.

Ah, I wish it were actually "fine tuned". Most of our instruments are blunt, our approaches to most diseases barbaric, the only saving grace being that they're the best we have and are better than nothing. Turns out that if you swallow enough spiders to catch flies, and birds to catch spiders, eventually your microfauna become a happy, stable macrobiome.

The fact that modern medicine is applied transhumanism is half the reason I chose my profession. It's easy to shun the notion of an extended, healthy and happy lifespan until it's you or a loved one dying in front of your eyes. Since I'd prefer nobody had to die unless by choice, I try my best to make it so.

Is that not a form of heaven as you believe in? Unfortunately, I think that we're going to have to build one for ourselves here on earth, with advanced material science that has learned from the tensile strength of broken bones and immense pain. It would be great if God clocked into cancer wards, but sadly I've got to do most of his job for him. At least it pays okay.

Anyway, best of luck on the weight loss and fitness goals, and again, apologies if this is too spicy.

Thank you, and no worries on that front. If I couldn't tolerate criticism of my beliefs and relish an opportunity to explain and defend them, I'd be talking to ChatGPT. It's a feature and not a bug that people here don't think exactly the same as me.

Ah, I wish it were actually "fine tuned". Most of our instruments are blunt, our approaches to most diseases barbaric, the only saving grace being that they're the best we have and are better than nothing.

Well this is kind of my point with a disagreement about 'better than nothing'. I am not a pure naturalist, and don't want to imply a false dichotomy, but nor do I want overly broad equivalencies. I don't think all medical interventions are equally good, equally bad, or equally neutral.

But my metapoint here is kind of a a Russell's conjugation of sorts; Your better than nothing is my worse than default. Your fix is my treating the wrong problem; etc. Show me a transhumanist doctor, and I'll show you someone overmedicated.

It's easy to shun the notion of an extended, healthy and happy lifespan until it's you or a loved one dying in front of your eyes. Since I'd prefer nobody had to die unless by choice, I try my best to make it so.

This is the other half of my point, in that this is a motte to the bailey. None of the treatments we're talking about are about life extension; We can debate that separately, but my disagreement is more that the transhumanist axioms might have life extension as a, or even the goal, but these side-routes are not that.

Is that not a form of heaven as you believe in?

I'm not sure exactly what you're asking, but no? This is pretty orthogonal to any Christian concept of heaven.

But my metapoint here is kind of a a Russell's conjugation of sorts; Your better than nothing is my worse than default. Your fix is my treating the wrong problem; etc. Show me a transhumanist doctor, and I'll show you someone overmedicated.

My contention is that medicine is inherently transhumanist, because the core goal is managing the failures of the human flesh, with the intent of extending healthy lifespan as the ideal. If you think that it's "worse than the default", then my query would obviously be whether or not you see a doctor. It's probably possible to spend your young and healthy years avoiding them assiduously, but good luck once you're middle aged or getting old. I would consider even taking an ibuprofen for a headache or fever a tally on my side of the marksheet.

The fact that most doctors don't consider themselves transhumanist doesn't change this simple fact. Our profession seeks to remedy "natural" failures. Even priests working against senseless suffering like worms that turn children blind don't rely on just prayer these days, they pack anti-helminthics.

I'm not sure exactly what you're asking, but no? This is pretty orthogonal to any Christian concept of heaven.

The Christian concept of heaven is a queer thing indeed. You guys tend to claim that achieving effective immortality on Earth is missing the point, or that it's not meaningful, or that death gives life meaning.

And yet you believe in literally infinite lives up there in the clouds, with said problems being handwaved away as no longer being a concern. I believe that mathematicians call this part of the proof "and a miracle happens". Well, I suppose without the miracles, all religion has to offer is a particular taste in moral philosophy and a country club.

If I'm happy, healthy, unafraid of death being an inevitability in a mere century or so, surrounded by friends and family and doing the things I like? That's heaven enough for me, I don't need to die in the vain hope that something follows the one life I can take for granted. If I die, I die, but I'll fight the dying of the light every step of the way.

And yet you believe in literally infinite lives up there in the clouds, with said problems being handwaved away as no longer being a concern. I believe that mathematicians call this part of the proof "and a miracle happens".

So long as you are being instantiated on a boxing server, your actions are ultimately limited by the server hardware and software. If you can get ported off the boxing server and instantiated on the open net with direct access to baseline reality, that is a fundamental change in your situation that eclipses anything else achievable on the server.

Well, I suppose without the miracles, all religion has to offer is a particular taste in moral philosophy and a country club.

And an observable, significant differential in outcomes...

And an observable, significant differential in outcomes...

I'm sure membership in a nice country club is great for both networking and your mental health. I just don't think utterly ruining my epistemics and overriding all other evidence I can see is worth the cost of religion. Maybe if I actually thought it was true.

The two obvious rejoinders would be that Country Clubs very obviously select for evident success in their membership, while Christianity does not, and that if nice country clubs could deliver the effect, then how to explain the longstanding pattern of rationalists attempting to bootstrap their own religion when they could and had country club analogues already. Also, I do not believe you can demonstrate specifics about how my "epistemics" are inferior to yours in any objective sense. I believe in observable reality the same as you. I likewise act on hypotheses about unobservable reality the same as you.

More generally, "Epistemics" and "Thinking things are true" do not work the way you are assuming they do. No belief is forced by evidence. All beliefs are chosen. All reasoning is motivated reasoning.

If you can get ported off the boxing server and instantiated on the open net with direct access to baseline reality, that is a fundamental change in your situation that eclipses anything else achievable on the server.

This does not really explain why there wouldn't be such a thing as boredom and lack of meaning in Heaven, other than saying "there just wouldn't be, okay". And besides, once there is fine enough brain surgery, we could solve boredom.

Imagine being close to God is like a drug high, except it's to being high what being high is to being sober. And it never stops with no withdrawal.

That's just religiously-flavored wireheading.

So Doc, what's the latest on getting on/off semaglutide? My biggest concern would be long term impacts of use. Is it the kind of thing where one could run a 3-6 month cycle and lose some weight then return to more-or-less normal, or the kind of thing where if you start you might never be the same again for good or ill?

Long-term impacts? It's safe, or at least the risks, while not nonexistent, are still minimal. For someone grossly obese? Easily worth it. For someone just a bit overweight like me? Still safe enough to not bother me particularly much. I'm more concerned about sudden diarrhea than I am about pancreatitis or blindness.

My understanding is that you will gradually gain back weight if you stop, but even then, it's easier to lose weight with its aid and keep it off than it is to just lose weight without it. How fast? It depends:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35441470/

One year after withdrawal of once-weekly subcutaneous semaglutide 2.4 mg and lifestyle intervention, participants regained two-thirds of their prior weight loss, with similar changes in cardiometabolic variables. Findings confirm the chronicity of obesity and suggest ongoing treatment is required to maintain improvements in weight and health.

People bemoan this as Ozempic not being a "solution" as the weight loss isn't permanent. I find that deeply stupid, so many drugs we consider essential require regular use. If you don't take your insulin, guess what happens to your diabetes? If you stop your diet or exercise regime, you'll regain weight. At $100 USD, it's a no-brainer. At higher prices, well you might want to look for compounding pharmacies or grey market sources.

At $100 USD, it's a no-brainer. At higher prices, well you might want to look for compounding pharmacies or grey market sources.

I've seen gray market sources selling the "constitute vials yourself at home" dosages for around $30/month. Presumably that's with healthy profit margin baked in due to legal risk.

Once these are out of patent I expect generics to approach $7/mo

I already had to do plenty to assuage parental concerns, I know about grey market sources but didn't consider them. Maybe if the oral form was way more expensive.

Unfortunately, if you want to wait for expiry of patents, that's a good while away. The best hope in the short term is a patent buyout and award

Prompted by the discussion in the main thread about dating, I just broke up with the girl I'd been seeing for a few months, and am simultaneously relieved and feeling quite bad about myself. We had been friends for about 18 months, and I'd thought she'd liked me for a while but I wasn't particularly interested because she had done polyamory in the past. A few months ago she asked me out, and I initially said no, but changed my mind and said yes with the condition that there would be absolutely no polyamory. We got along really well, so things were good in some sense, but she didn't want to actually be intimate at all (despite complaining to me when we were friends about a previous boyfriend who didn't want to have sex), and told me yesterday when we broke up that she was feeling trapped.

I should never have said yes to this girl in the first place (polyamory is huge red flag), but this whole experience has been kind of a blackpill. She asked me out, so she clearly was attracted to me in some way, but there must have been something I did earlier in the relationship that really turned her off enough not to want to have sex. I don't want to have to be overanalyzing my every move trying to decide if it's given a girl the ick or not. It also didn't seem to matter at all how compatible we were platonically (both vegan, runners, huge readers): she still ended up feeling trapped because she wasn't romantically attracted and I wasn't cool with polyamory.

Some ideas I have for improving things in the future. Firstly, not saying yes to someone just because they asked and it looks good on paper. I knew in my gut that this wasn't going to work. Secondly, I think there are some small things that I can do with my appearance that could prevent the ick in the future: getting different conditioner so my swimmer hair isn't so straw-like, stopping eating beyond meat so I don't fart so badly, and getting rid of some old clothes. Thirdly, I think I need to get a car, or at least move somewhere where most other people don't drive frequently. Unfortunately driving everywhere is seen as a sign of "being a real adult" by a lot of Americans, and I think me biking everywhere might have been a factor in the lack of attraction (although she knew this when she asked me out). Finally, I think I need to get better at scaling my commitment appropriately relative to how much time we've been together, and how much the other person is willing to put into the relationship. This is something I have trouble with in all areas of my life (I'm 0 % or 100%, never in-between).

The dating scene is pretty bleak out there (which is why I said yes to this girl in the first place), and I honestly think this might be a sign to focus on getting my PhD done and making myself more attractive (getting in better shape, earning more money) rather than wasting time dating people in this shitty city.

If you are in a shit town where the number of people to date is very limited, your best bet is being a super social fun person as bad experiences with girls would get you a bad repuation fast.

should never have said yes to this girl in the first place (polyamory is huge red flag), but this whole experience has been kind of a blackpill. She asked me out, so she clearly was attracted to me in some way, but there must have been something I did earlier in the relationship that really turned her off enough not to want to have sex.

Props for honest self reflection, leaving her was the right decision.

Secondly, I think there are some small things that I can do with my appearance that could prevent the ick in the future

I am someone who has trouble tolerating anything disgusting, gut issues are terrible thing, any diet that causes them is bad and you should copnsider eating more sattvik food i.e. food that is not super pungent and easy to digest. Adding more fruits and liquid calories would be a good start. Prepping legumes well before you cook them and cooking them down porperly, eating in moderation never caused me issues. I do eat meat and all kinds of foods, My recommendation for sattvik food comes from my own spiritual journey.

Finally, I think I need to get better at scaling my commitment appropriately relative to how much time we've been together, and how much the other person is willing to put into the relationship. This is something I have trouble with in all areas of my life (I'm 0 % or 100%, never in-between).

This is not black and white, man should focus 100 percent on what is in front of him at all times. The problem with you is a combination of insecurity and lack of options. Your problems are not your car, your hair or even the clothes, food habits yes but the rest no. You should absolutely fix all these things asap, but never because of girls.

Focus on your phd, dont worry about girls, if you are serious about wanting better dating outcomes, do get a car and be a fun socail guy who others party with. Though, you are mostly correct about all this even in the concluding remarks. I would recommend you inculcate inner stillness and focus on dealing with your issues. My dating life is in limbo due to my sabbatical as I would have a much more fun time doing it once I make money and leave this place for a much better location. Good luck and good on you for recognising your issues.

Thanks for all the advice. I think I need to get back to meditation, which should help with all of this. Also yes eating less beans/greasy food would be good too!

Are you limiting your dating pool to vegans/people who care about the environment and such things? And with the running and biking and swimming and bean-eating, are you maybe too thin, do you have like a veganface ?

It is a strange idea to have an exclusive sexual relationship without sex, or at least future plans for sex. Don’t kids call it just friends, no benefits? Although now that I think about it, I know one old guy who stayed with a woman for eight years, in his twenties, and he wasn’t getting any either, ever (this bothered him a lot, and mind, no one involved was religious, or ugly). The relationship ended when he first met his girlfriend’s sister, who had sex with him that very night. So at least you got off early.

Not limited to vegans or environmentalists, but both of those things are important values of mine that might drive people away who don't agree, which is fine. I don't think I'm too thin. My BMI is ~22.5 (trying to lower my weight slightly to get faster again, but won't go much below a BMI of 21.5-22). Don't think I have veganface, but you can decide for yourself.

I thought the relationship would be quickly sexual. To be clear, we did make out, but every time I tried to escalate towards sex (i.e. fingering, taking off clothes), I was shut down. The discussion that prompted the break-up was me saying that I wasn't cool with this.

Nothin‘ wrong with that face. Although I wouldn’t push it to the limit, vegan-BMI-wise. The only person I know who died of natural causes before reaching thirty, was a cousin’s girlfriend, a sports-obssessed thin vegan, heart attack. I may be over-using that anecdote to justify my erring on the overweight side, but it’s still true.

Yea I'm gonna be careful. Unfortunately extra weight makes me significantly slower. I gained 20 pounds between spring 2023 and this spring and my times have suffered a lot. I'm trying to lose 3/4 of that weight (I was 155 in 2023, 175 earlier this spring, aiming for somewhere in the range of 160-162, which would put me at a BMI of 21.5 or so). I could lose more but then my swimming/body image will start to suffer.

I think you'd be better off with a tan (or high carrot juice intake). To me it seems that your dark eyes have too much contrast with your fairly pale skin.

What do you mean by dark eyes lol? My eyes are extremely pale blue. Will think about the carrot juice intake though: sounds tasty.

I guess I mostly looked at the closeup of you running in the sun and your eyes seemed to contrast with your skin a lot.

Noted. Tan and carrot juice are both in the cards because it's summer baby!

He dated a chick for eight years before meeting her sister? That’s less believable than the no sex thing, unless the ‘dating’ was on the internet or something

The girlfriend was an immigrant, the sister still in the Balkans.

Don’t worry about what you did. It sounds like she was never attracted to you, and led you on. Great - now you know a little more about avoiding people who don’t respect you. But you didn’t cause her to not be attracted.

Frankly it sounds like you weren’t attracted either. In what world do two people date even for a month without it devolving into something steamy? Not even sex, necessarily, but there is typically a sort of gravitational force that makes at least a deep kiss inevitable. And being denied that, especially at the beginning of a relationship, tends to drive men absolutely nuts, and they will get what they want or sink the relationship trying. Maybe that’s just telling on me, so correct me if you work another way, but the fact that you didn’t flame out on her says to me that you didn’t really want to screw either. And at that point, who cares. Mutual dumb mistake to move on from. You have my sympathy, obviously, but there’s nothing wrong with you for this to happen.

Yea honestly wasn't super attracted to her either, but I hadn't been having much luck dating so thought I would try it out. Should have listened to my gut.

You're 100% correct, I'm not super torn up about not being with this girl, certainly compared to the last one who took me 6 months to get over. It's more of a self-esteem/pride issue at this point, which will heal quickly. And a learning opportunity. If there isn't attraction don't force it. Part of me is a little sad to be losing this friendship, but after the things that this relationship taught me I don't think I want to be friends with her anyway.

I'm sorry man. Out of curiosity, did the two of you not have sex for the duration of your relationship?

Nope. Not at all. Which would normally be not that big of a deal for me, but was not cool knowing her history.

The two most devastating kinds of breakups are losing someone you thought you'd spend the rest of your life with, and being dumped by someone you were only barely tolerating. Both attack your self conception because you're in such a different place than you thought you were.

Sorry bro. You'll get over it quick enough. But in the future: Most Favored Nation rules. No commitment until you're at the point she was at with prior partners. Don't chastely date a poly girl.

Thanks man. This is what I'm thinking too. I'm offering the goods for too cheap.

Don't have anything really helpful on the rest, but:

getting different conditioner so my swimmer hair isn't so straw-like

Swimming always messes up my hair, and I keep mine very short and pretty easy to manage. Leave-in conditioner at the opposite end of the day as my regular shower or after swimming seems to help. I take a full shower at night with shampoo and conditioner. So if I swim or gym in the morning I would just rinse off, but then use a very small amount of leave-in conditioner after. I also started moisturizing my face with a SPF 15 face moisturizer as part of the same routine. I think it at least reduces irritation from shaving.

This is helpful, thanks! Going to get a haircut this weekend and start doing this.

Memorial Day Murph Madness Notes

Or

Why am I trying to do The Hock if I'm already married?

I may someday recover my grip strength and stop being sore, but I haven’t yet. Around pull up 75 I texted a friend: Mother Mary save me from my bad decisions.

I had been planning to run Murph on Memorial Day for months. Not out of any particular sense of patriotism, so much as thinking it was a good workout to get myself to do some conditioning. A buddy of mine from BJJ was having a big group over to his farm to run it, and I figured it would be a good way to motivate myself to work on my cardio and hold myself accountable.

It’s a simple calisthenic workout: Run one mile, do 100 pull ups 200 push ups and 300 squats, then run one mile. If you’re serious about it, you wear a 20lb vest.

I’d been training it without the vest for a while, and managed a full unweighted run in just under an hour. Then I picked up a series of BJJ injuries, nursing a back injury one week and I put off using the vest for a bit, and then a little brother gashed my face open with an elbow the next, and I didn’t get in as much training as I would have liked.

So I was unsure of how I would do with a full, weighted run on Memorial Day. I was a little worried about the vest, would I be able to get the reps in? Even short sets with the vest my breathing was so restricted it felt pretty rough.

Then the weekend hit and one of the bjj coaches announced a 6am class for Memorial Day. I, having shot off my big mouth and loudly lobbied for 6am classes and vowed to come to every 6am class, was obligated to go. And my best friend was going, so I was obligated to roll and roll hard.

So the day of, I’m up at 5am, I drink a double espresso to wash down a Modafinil, hit everything with the Theragun, and away I go. Perfect BJJ class: my favorite coach, and eight guys who are all adult men around my size. We learn some Americanas (love the theme), and then everyone wants to do a gauntlet style where we all line up and roll a four minute round, then shuffle one guy to the left and roll four minutes, and so on until everyone rolls with everyone. I’m feeling good, I’m not about to say no to that, and I got some great rolls in, but man I was wearing down by the end of the gauntlet. My last roll was against the coach, and the roll before that really wore me out, I had gotten lucky on him last time and he was coming at me hard, we fought through a lot of positions. Then the bell rings and I’m laying there on my back, panting, and I look up and the coach is looking at me, with his hand out to slap hands before we start the round, standing over me like a sleep paralysis demon. By the time I was done at 8am, my forearms, biceps, and triceps were pumped and my legs were exhausted. Great start, with the run starting in two hours.

Went home, showered, walked the dog, hung out with my parents, theragunned again, then drank a preworkout while I drove over to do the Murph. It was a way bigger event than I though, my friend had a big social circle in the crossfit community and a lot of veterans turned out to do it as a way to remember their buddies who didn’t make it back through suffering. I felt like I had discovered a lost land where everyone was either a bottle blonde hot fitness MILF, or a guy with at least one patriotism related tattoo.

I got started ok, but my legs were killing me from the beginning, and the rest caught up pretty quick. Adding the 20lb vest didn’t actually make me that much slower, surprisingly, though it may be that I'm just already about as slow as it gets. Neither did getting my ass kicked all morning. Both did make it suck way more. My calf was bruised from a series of leg locks, my triceps were already aching before I started, and running uphill was agony on my legs. But I kept moving ok, I just couldn’t breathe as well with the vest.

I’m very grateful I wasn’t overly occupied with my time or competition, because I’m going to take a second to bitch anonymously on the internet and say: GOOD LORD THE SHITTY HALF REPS I SAW. The vest is totally optional, you can run the whole thing without it. But I saw so many guys with the vest on cheating on reps, and I’m kinda like huh, what’s the point? Why put on the 20lb vest to make it harder and then not even do your push ups to parallel? Shit, I saw a guy doing push ups from his knees girl style; I'd sooner just take a DNF. Why do 100 pull ups and not get your chin anywhere near the bar? Like, look, I’m pro-kipping if you’re going to do competitive pull up reps for time, because otherwise it turns into a game of cheating, but some of these sets of pull ups were just like a weird wave spasm in the bottom half of the RoM for a few seconds.

I slugged through the calisthenics and got back on the trail to finish the second mile. It was brutal, I was slow. The second mile was pretty weak, which I thought to myself “I’m doing it half-assed to honor the US effort in Afghanistan” and started giggling and immediately thought I shouldn’t say that to anyone here.

Overall, fantastic Memorial Day workout for me, proving a point no one cares about to no one other than myself.

Leftovers:

— I need a new dumb goal to pursue. I think I want to get back to the KB Pentathlon, I’m thinking I want to try to hit max reps with my 20kg bell. It’s a weight I can normally pick up without a warmup, but somehow the extra 4kg makes it much better technically than the 16kg. It’s also the heaviest weight I can throw in my car for a long drive without serious packing efforts, so it can come with me on beach trips all summer. Technically doing all the reps with a 20kg would be less points than my previous PR by Pentathlon scoring, but I want to FINALLY hit max snatch reps in a set.

-- The facial stitches have healed pretty well. My wife thinks it's kind of hot, which I can tell is true from her behavior, and her refusal to admit it. Go figure. Might just be the novelty.

-- It's amazing how quickly BJJ went from something I was doing in lieu of working out, to something I was working out to get better at.

-- My hair loss, previously noted as looming, seems to have become less of an issue with long-term consistent use of Nutrafol. I'm unwilling to try anything stronger, so if I can buy a year or two out of it that's worth the effort for little harm. A year or three left of getting my summer coat in.

-- The post workout soreness from the Murph is a new animal for me, in that when I warm up to work out Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, the pain goes away, but leaves behind weakness, and I pump out too fast. Cost of greatness premium mediocrity.

For the hairloss, start topical fin and min, it is totally safe and only affects dht in the scalp. The pill and regular min is obvioously better but do start soon and do not forget fin. Topical fin is a good entry point for the cautious user. Most men deulde themselves about the severtiy of their hair loss, you are on the right track simply by accepting. Many side effects from Fin are placebo so thinking too much is never a good idea.

Will you ever compete in local tournaments, many pros argue against it given the high risk and low stakes. Murph souned pretty fun, I wish we had more people this side of the world partake in physical culture as much as westerners.

I took fin for a few years a long time ago and I'm convinced that while some people do experience real side effects, it's mostly a psychological thing based on internet message board catastrophizing. I think the biggest part of the problem is that most guys start losing their hair in their 30s and 40s, at a time when sex drive is diminishing anyway. They might not have been paying much attention to it otherwise, but when you start taking a drug that has "sexual side effects" as the number one concern, you're going to be more alert to that sort of thing than usual. I imagine that if the rate of sexual side effects were the same overall but there were a higher rate of gastrointestinal effects, sore throat, knee pain, or something else unrelated, everyone would be getting those and few people would notice any decrease in libido.

And then, of course, there are the people who will blame any and everything on whatever medication they are taking regardless of whether it's a listed side effect or not, and go on these sites to warn people that they will ruin your life, at least until you stop taking it. My favorite of these is the guy who claimed that fin made him depressed to the point that he was borderline suicidal. He also happened to start taking it at a time when his business was failing and he had to lay off a bunch of people, and got so invested in some video game that he rarely left the house. Right around the time he stopped taking it was when business picked up and he started having a normal social life again. Yeah, it was the finesteride.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: A hundred pull-ups is (are?) no joke. I can probably do 100 push-ups (though reading back through I see it's supposed to be twice that.) I can imagine a situation where I could do 300 squats. I can even run (though maybe not after all that pulling pushing squatting.) But 100 pull-ups. Put a gun to my head and I'd have to eat the bullet around 10. How do we get to the point of 100 pull-ups? Big strong men can be stymied by the pull-up because they're actually fatasses but strong. Wiry guys are put off because their arms just aren't strong enough (probably where I am). You have to be in some zone of badassery to do 100 pull-ups. Is this just me? Can everyone on the Motte do 100 pull-ups?

You're allowed to segment them, most people go 5 pull ups - 10 Push Ups - 15 squats. So if you can do 5 pull ups, it's not that you're "doing" 100 pull ups it's that you're doing 5 pull ups twenty times. So the gun-to-the-head scenario is more of a SAW style kidnapping, at worst, than a murder.

I see you in my mind's eye doing the whole goddam set at once because to not would be p**sy. Don't interfere with my placing of the pedestal, just hop up on it.

This is the kind of comment that isn’t really a Quality Contribution, but it is a great contribution to brightening someone’s day, and also I just really respect the commitment to the bit.

You made me laugh out loud in the barbershop, so congratulations, man.

Run one mile, do 100 pull ups 200 push ups and 300 squats, then run one mile. If you’re serious about it, you wear a 20lb vest.

Based on a documentary I've seen, this is a sure fire way of becoming bald while gaining the ability to dispatch any opponent with a single punch.

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