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:
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Requests for advice and / or encouragement. On basically any topic and for any scale of problem.
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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.
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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.
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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 looking for advice on how to fake being a football fan.
I call myself a fan of Arsenal because, when I played Fifa 2001, I'd end up picking them because I thought the cannon on their flag looked sick. I'm reliably told that they peaked right about then, and I've had decent mileage telling people I stan Arsenal because then they give me pitying looks and don't ask followup questions.
Courtesy of drinking at Scottish pubs, I feel at risk of more detailed grilling, and I want to get better adaptive camouflage. So far, I've come up with:
"What was the coach even thinking?" and "They keep trying to walk it in this year", but I'd appreciate more personalized advice to shake the trail.
Excellent choice fellow gooner. You picked a good time to be an arsenal fan - the bad years are over, we have an exciting young team full of likeable characters, but we haven't won anything big yet despite finishing second three years in a row and whipping Real Madrid in the Champions League, so you're not a glory hound. If you want to learn more about the team, the subreddit is fine, there's also arseblog.com (best arsenal news/commentary site, they do reports and player ratings after each match which will give you a good sense of how to talk about it).
I'd be honest with people, say you haven't been watching for a long time, and you have a perfectly good excuse with the time difference and med school in India. And when the season starts at the end of the summer, would suggest, if you happen to be off work for a match day, going to a pub and watching the game. It's a great way to make friends. Just do expect a little banter from the Scots for supporting a posh London team...
PS - if you do get sucked into it, and you find yourself taking a trip down to London, DM me, I can most likely sort you a ticket.
A serious answer? Far too much effort for a throw-away joke, but I appreciate it haha. Maybe I will watch a football match, then I can stop getting shit for wearing football shoes out and about.
Yeah, as serious advice - I didn't become a devout football fan until after I left England and started traveling. It's the world's sport, so one of the best ways to make quick friends wherever you go. I've had great nights out from Bulgaria to Bogota start by chatting with other fans at an Arsenal bar.
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