Hello comrades and welcome to the second improvement megathread of July!
As usual, some discussion ideas:
- Do you want to share something you've done in the previous week? Everything counts, nothing is too small.
- Do you have any plans or goals for next week?
- Do you have any streaks? For example, "sober for one day." Feel free to post your streak every day in this thread.
- If you don't have a continuous streak, did you manage to abstain from something for a day or more?
- Did you come across some useful information or resource that might help others?
Poster caption: "(come) To our construction site, friends!
Greetings to the builders of the Yenisey cascade (of dams)!"
Good luck with your goals! 
I ran 4 days in a row now... Fell off regular exercising for over a decade and something just snapped in me and now I'm a runner again! 😊
Not yet, just trying to build routine and recondition my body a mile at a time.
I'm gonna be real with you, this heat wave has been kicking my ass for the past week. It has been 35°C outside and 30°C in my apartment all week. I'm mostly keeping up with my baseline healthy habits but it's hard to make any progress. I'll try to ride it out, the plan for next week is just to survive
roll call
@SeventyTwoTrillion@hexbear.net
@TraschcanOfIdeology@hexbear.net
@LGOrcStreetSamurai@hexbear.net
If anybody else wants to be added to the roll call, just let me know
What I've been doing:
I have been re-learning basic calculus stuff and covering my embarrassing flaws in that area. I might get laughed at for lacking such a basic skill, but I have finally figured out a general way for finding limits of rational functions defined on the complex plane. Yes, finding limits used to be my weakest math skill, along with basically the entirety of number theory. Yes, I got to understand general topology before I understood how limits work because I either missed or was not properly explained them in secondary education. Yes, I'm afraid of numbers. Throw tomatoes at me.
I have been brushing up on SQL and Lateχ.
I have been learning Blender and continue to work on a Blender project for someone else' birthday.
I am almost finished with Polya's 'How to Solve It'. I have so far not found much use in it (I am not coming empty-handed from it, though), as I picked up those techniques a long time ago.
I have been trying to get employed. Got rejected for being overqualified, as I have shared in another post.
Plans for this week:
Keep re-learning math stuff. I nominate real analysis, probability theory, algebra as this week's primary subjects. In particular, I want to commit to memory theorems on averages for integrals, Cauchy-Bunyakovski inequality, exercise producing random variable distributions from a given uniform distribution, exercise solving systems of linear equations, experiment a bit with tensors.
Finish brushing up on SQL and Lateχ.
Fix those shoulder blades in Blender.
Finish 'How to Solve It'.
Keep trying to regain employment.
Take another stab at reading 'Capital' without assistance, perhaps? (I do hate the way Marx and philosophers in general write their works. As somebody who reads math texts daily, works like 'Capital' could have been made much more understandable.)
Try to resume physical exercise.
Streaks:
I have successfully made myself study and/or do something 'productive' every day. I have overcome my anxieties when dealing with most of the relevant stuff. Every day, I go to sleep a better person than I was the day prior.
Several months of almost-daily walks outside. I am a grass-toucher.
Duolingo Putonghua 2-day streak after a couple of years of pause.
Resources for others:
I can be your resource if you have math questions. I can also find you actual math resources and textbooks.
Small update: Still doing my summer school course. Getting back into game development this week. I wrote 1000 words for my creative writing. All is well.
Feeling not very accomplished lately. Chinese learning is slow due to my main motivation becoming slightly less motivating. By slow I mean I haven't done any, but also there is construction across the street that's fucking my attention span so I do have an excuse.
I got an ereader and plan to get back into reading. I read I'm Glad My Mom Died yesterday, and then started reading a book I read twice as a kid that I recently remembered the name of. The first is a good but difficult book, and the verdict on the YA murder mystery book is still out. I'm after recommendations if anyone has any. Not for YA novels. Just books in general.
I feel like total shit physically lately and don't know why. Doctors appointment booked for the 24th. I probably just need to get off my butt more.
Still sober. Yesterday was difficult though. I think I'm fine and just need to distract myself.
What kind of books are you into? I'm currently reading How Not to Die by Michael Greger and it's already the most important book I've ever read. It explains why the whole-foods plant-based diet is the healthiest diet. It's an evidence based book, the last 200 pages of the book is a list of studies that the author referenced in the book.
In regards to fiction, here are some of my favourites:
- On The Road - Jack Kerouac
- Generation X - Douglas Coupland
- Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
Still feeling shitty, but this weekend I managed to go for a walk both days. Hopefully I can keep it up. Trying to moderate my caffeine intake and I’m feeling better in some ways but worse in others. Slowly taking control over my bedtime (tankie alert!). A little more reasonable about my crush obsession.
Have you tried drinking green tea instead of coffee? It's a great choice if you're trying to moderate your caffeine intake.
In regards to walking, I have a step counting app on my phone and try to get 6000 steps every day. It's a good way to motivate yourself to walk more
Nothing really eventful happened this past week for me tbh. I maintained my sobriety streak. I've maintained my eating and did light exercise. I went on a 4 hour round trip motorcycle ride that left my butt and shoulders sore for like 4 days since my partner was on the back. I swam in a lake and had a beautiful day in the sun. For some reason or another I'm have zero issue with the heat despite everyone else in my life seemingly struggling hard with it.
The big thing I want to work on improving now is my employment. It's not a great fit for me at this point and the pay is mediocre as best with zero benefits. I had put off finding a new job for a while now because my work commute is so short but the feeling that I'm wasting my life in this place is becoming overwhelming. I have no real education (associates degree gang) so my options are pretty limited. I have a shitload of experience but have no idea how well that would translate over to different fields
been at a summer camp in china so not too much time but been getting some running and taiji as well as some journaling in. really missing rock climbing hopefully i can do some when the camp finishes and i head to chongqing.
going pretty good
it’s government sponsored too. it’s basically the chinese government offering a free tour for chinese diaspora on their dime
Keeping things steady in so far as working out. Results are really starting to show. Had someone comment that I'm looking slimmer. I weighed myself and I'm still in that range of 8-10 lbs lost, but my bellyfat seems like its started to recede quite a bit. I'm starting to see my abs again, although I have a really long way to go before I can see them entirely.
Otherwise my sleep has been all over the place. Same with my anxiety. Might just have to go see someone about it because it just feels so bad. And its not the first time I've gone through this. But I'm hoping that if I can't see someone right away that I can at least do a few things myself to get my mind more at ease.
Honestly I have no idea lol. I usually have trouble. Maybe I've just found the right combination of diet (I've cut down on fatty foods) and exercise (I mostly jog, but I've been using the rowing machine and Skierg at the gym quite a lot too).
OKAY so I fell off, but now I'm back. I think dating had distracted me from taking care of myself and paying attention to my needs. Currently trying to build an effective evening routine to keep myself balanced and also go to sleep at a reasonable time.
Welcome back comrade
I'm also trying to have a consistent evening routine, reading a book before bed is probably the best thing you can do
