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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   714 thread views

Wellness Wednesday for April 29, 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 tenth blog post of the year last Thursday, an analysis of Chinatown and Spec Ops: The Line I originally wrote for Scott's everything-except-book review contest.
  • Went to the gym three times last week. Have yet to go this week, as yesterday morning I suddenly got a horrible pain between my shoulder blades which has yet to dissipate. Can deadlift 1.84x my bodyweight for 3 reps, squat 1.15x for 7 reps and bench press .87x for 6 reps.
  • Have not consumed any pornography since waking up on January 1st.

How goes it, @thejdizzler, @birb_cromble, @falling-star, @Tollund_Man4 and @self_made_human?

No gym this week, but mostly because I was traveling for 48 hours and just started a new, extremely hectic job. I'll give myself a pass for once, but I intend to go tomorrow.

What’s your new job?

@Throwaway05 is correct. New rotation, after a mercifully long vacation extended somewhat involuntarily by geopolitical strife. I've been enjoying it so far, for a value of enjoyment which encompasses and excuses being incredibly stressed. At least my colleagues seem nice: a cute Dutch doctor said I have a great voice. She suggested I should be a voice actor, a compliment I have carefully filed away for later. And here I was thinking that I only had the face for radio...

Pshh skip the meet cute hoss, I want to know what the rotation is.

Busy......Emergency?

Goddammit, I wanted to talk about cute but intimidatingly competent colleagues complimenting me. It's liaison psychiatry.

Busy......Emergency?

Oh there's no rush. Get well soon.

Goddammit, I wanted to talk about cute but intimidatingly competent colleagues complimenting me.

Several of my high-school English teachers complimented how good I was at reading books aloud, and suggested that I could be a radio announcer. Could this be another way to convince the feds that we are soul mates?

I was happier not remembering that textual exchange, let alone the sexual exchange within it. The ass-hair has grown back, but I still felt like an ass for shaving it and then getting stood up at the aisle.

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A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


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