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Wellness Wednesday for August 19, 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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  1. Work: Got the job for next year which is nice! Doesn't pay amazing (62k to start, rising quite a bit every year to a max of 80k after 5 years), but I will either be transitioning to industry or taking a faculty position after 3-5 years, so it's fine. I'm excited about the project too and having a cut-off for the end of my PHD.
  2. Fitness. Another week another 60 miles. Think I could be eating slightly more as my sleep and anxiety have been a bit worse than usual. Returned to swimming this week too. Hours: 8.3 running, 1 swimming
  3. Intellectual stuff: Wrote a blog post on my Spanish learning journey. Finished our summer novels for philosophy book club and we are returning to philosophy, with a focus on historical materialism reading either Lenin or Peter Turchin. Spanish Immersion hours last week: 8. Blog posts this month: 2
  4. Finances: Just trying to keep spending below 4k. Next month is going to be great with reduced rent and utilities and hopefully a large ZIM divvy because they had some good earnings. Now that I'm going to be staying in Baltimore, I'm going to be house (and car) hunting. This should help both my finances and dating. Monthly spending so far: 3340.
  5. Dating. Went on a date with a girl Sunday. Have another one this Sunday. Was fun, but I think I may find her to be too boring.
  6. Tarot. No session this week
  7. Socializing: Ran with the pacemakers Saturday, which is a group of a bunch of old people. Nice change of pace to hear from some boomers. Also got dinner with my lab mate Thursday and saw the Odyssey with some friends last night.
  8. Screen time: 1.4 hours.
  9. Meditation: 5 minutes 3x last week. Would like to make this more of a priority.