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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   1264 thread views

Wellness Wednesday for February 25, 2026

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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New year's resolutions check-in:

  • Posted my fifth blog post of the year on Monday, offering my two cents on the school shooting in Tumbler Ridge. It was expanded from a comment I wrote here after the Annunciation Catholic shooting last August. I'm sad to say the points I made remained exactly as relevant six months later as they were at the time.
  • Went to the gym three times last week, again on Monday, planning to go this evening. Can deadlift 1.8x my bodyweight for 4 reps, squat .98x for 9 reps and bench press .82x for 7 reps.
  • Have not consumed any pornography since waking up on January 1st.
  • Have completed 8/11 modules in the SQL course.

How goes it, @thejdizzler, @birb_cromble and @oats_son?

  1. Work: Committee meeting went great, can graduate whenever apparently. Starting to look for postdoc and/or biotech jobs this summer!
  2. Fitness: Another great race this weekend. Just under 58 for 10 miles on a hilly course. Negative split too which was awesome. Feeling a bit tired now, and have been able to sleep extra, so maybe time to back off next week. 10.5 hours last week, and will be ~11 this week.
  3. Intellectual Stuff: 2nd blog post of the month (Spanish update) is up. Marx is done, and Spinoza is close to being done so things feel more under control.
  4. Finances: Spending is way down this month, going to be well under $3k, which feels good. The main thing has been no big-ticket expenses. Hoping I can save equivalently in April and May.
  5. Dating: Went on a date with a med student this morning. She was very into me but I was more tepid. Will hang out with her one or two more times to get a better idea of if I actually don't like her or was just tired. Taking a new approach with porn: trying to quit just porn but not masturbating, which seems to be helping. Part of the reason I may not be super into this girl is porn brain, which would really suck.
  6. Tarot: Didn't do it this week.
  7. Socializing: Didn't do much of this this week because I have been cooked at work and with fitness and book clubs.
  8. Screen time: 1.25 hours.

Committee meeting went great, can graduate whenever apparently.

Congratulations

Great blog post, by the way. Always very well reasoned.

  • I got the flu, or something like the flu, and went off my diet for a number of days and didn't leave my apartment for like, four days. Naturally, it's difficult and perhaps inadvisable to lift weights or go jogging in this state. I recognize that my life feels like it has less point to it if I'm not doing something semi-regularly at the gym. I still have a headache even today, though. At least the coughing is subsided. Interestingly, I actually lost weight, despite not tracking my calories. I weighed 174.2 lbs yesterday, 174.6 lbs today. I don't really look that different.
  • I managed to listen to 4 hours of Comprehensible Input last week. I think I need to start throwing in some "Intermediate" level content. I also read a couple articles. I think I want to take the article goal down from "1 every day" to "like 2 or 3 every week or so". Native articles are very taxing to me, especially on complicated subjects. My favorite articles have to do with murder or people threatening each other or evicting people or immigrants being bad or something. The other day, I actually learned more details about the Mar-a-Lago trespasser from that site. I guess Japanese news is actually news, rather than just study material, huh.

I missed out on a fun time on Saturday doing a bowling pin shoot with my 10/22 at the gun range, which was pretty sad. I skipped out on a pistol league yesterday so I could get my oil changed. Also that rotisserie bone stock went pretty well, the resulting stock is quite gelatin-like. I guess I should freeze it.

I got a job out of college, but it feels like every day I spend at this job, the possibility of me ever getting another computer science job dwindle, even as the computer science industry dwindles itself. I guess I'm no striver. Really, I apparently lack quite a bit of motivation. If you wanted a job that AI can't replace without going back to school, what would be good? I'd like to leave this state someday, it sucks.

I think I'm going to stop posting on this account. I've posted a lot of personal things, and to do that, I had to trust that no one would use those things against me. I no longer trust this.

If you wanted a job that AI can't replace without going back to school, what would be good?

I've been asking myself the same question a lot recently. Right now, it seems like my best bet is "bartender". I've done it before, and if you're good at it the pay can be decent by the standards of unskilled labor. Waiting tables also isn't bad if you can find the right place. The pay is good enough that I could live on it

Anything beyond that is probably going to require some sort of certification, outside of sales, and sales is its own special kind of hell.

Thanks for keeping me honest.

Spending for the year so far is $1200.77 less than the same time last year. Month over month spending is $153.02 higher, spread out over gas, a quarterly utility bill, and taking my partner out for dinner and a margarita.

I'm a little disappointed that the spending was higher, but I'm reminding myself that I can't be a complete miser all the time. Being able to go out and do something nice for someone you love is worth it.

I'm still hitting a 60+% personal savings rate for the year by the federal definition. That will likely get blown to hell next month when the dental work comes up, but I tell myself that's why I'm doing this now.

I'm a little disappointed that the spending was higher, but I'm reminding myself that I can't be a complete miser all the time.

I have the same dilemma. I look at my spreadsheets and lament spending, but then I look at the cause, and it's generally social eating. Unless I want to never leave the house and subsist on oatmeal, beans, and peanut butter, then I'm going to have to spend some.

Although I've looked back to compare to past years (and by this I mean pre-2020), and eating out is just expensive now. Even accounting for inflation, it's expensive. A diner breakfast for 2 anywhere near me is going to push $50 with tax and tip.

I'm still hitting a 60+% personal savings rate for the year by the federal definition.

Seems solid to me.

eating out is just expensive now.

God it really is. I remember when I used to be able to hit an all you can eat Chinese buffet for $5. That got me through the first couple of years out of college.

A professional chef of (legit) Chinese cuisine once explained to me that in Chinese thought there are two categories of object: food, and rocks.

With this in mind I expect that you might field very low-cost Chinese food for yourself if you're brave enough.

"If it has got four legs and it is not a chair, if it has got two wings and it flies but is not an aeroplane, and if it swims and it is not a submarine, the Cantonese will eat it." – Prince Philip

This was included on a list of Phil's worst "gaffes", but no Chinese person I've mentioned it to has been offended by it, or even contested it. They really will eat anything that moves, and more power to them.

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