Hello comrades and welcome to the third improvement megathread of July! bonfire

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?

Good luck with your goals! praise-it

  • charly4994 [she/her, comrade/them]
    ·
    2 months ago

    37 days of giving a shit, 22 pounds down. Got through a major bit of work drama without going back to eating, feels extra nice to cross that 300 pound barrier today. Went on a day trip down to DC and stopped counting but still didn't go wild, sorta feeling like I'm not looking for as large of meals now too. Didn't hurt that the trip down to DC had us do >20k steps through the day so any extra snacks were sorta paid for. This coming week might be rough without someone else in the house to keep me accountable, but I prepped with easier stuff to make so I'm ready to keep going for it.

    • LGOrcStreetSamurai [he/him]
      ·
      2 months ago

      Got through a major bit of work drama without going back to eating, feels extra nice to cross that 300 pound barrier today.

      Hell yeah! Congrats on that! That's wonderful. Line go down! stonks-down

    • moonlake [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      2 months ago

      Congratulations on your sober streak, keep it up chief! rat-salute-2

  • Tomorrow_Farewell [any, they/them]
    ·
    2 months ago

    Currently working on something that I should finish ASAP, so I will likely not be able to make a proper comment until tomorrow.

  • Rojo27 [he/him]
    ·
    2 months ago

    Just maintained my level of workouts for this week. Weighed by self and I'm getting into the 12-15 lbs loss range. Knee has felt a lot better than when I started running/working out.

    I think the next step for me is just dealing with my mental health. I've been getting more anxious of late (trying to maintain the momentum I had with my crush after our first date, workplace relationships and stressors, same family issues, among other things). Taking some steps myself to try and alleviate some of it, but I'm starting to think getting some therapy too.

  • Grebgreb [he/him]
    ·
    2 months ago

    Missed a few threads and have definitely slacked on most things for the past week or two. Last week I went running back to back for 2 days and have felt sick/tired since then. Not sure if I overdid it or if it's accumulative damage from covid or something.

    Optimistically, I've still been doing good on most things and will try to space out my running a bit more and go from there.

  • LGOrcStreetSamurai [he/him]
    ·
    2 months ago

    I choose to invest in myself. I 🏴‍☠️bought🏴‍☠️a bunch of online courses on some technical stuff for computers and programming and I'm going to see if I can hack my way to a better job. There is so much to learn and the industry is always change so I'm looking to specialize in one language (C++ to exact) and try to increase the depth of my knowledge and skillset. My scheme is if I get at really good at one thing, I'll be able to do other things okay-ish because I have rich understanding of how the one thing works and how it relates to other things.

    One of my big issues is that I struggle with is "you're not worth the effort" mindset, so I'm doing this totally on my own and my hope is that if I can get nice with C++ I can create opportunities for myself through my own skill and efforts (but not in the bootstraps way, more so in the I am good at a thing way). I think back to my eagerness of my undergraduate degree in computer science and how I just ate up every textbook or website I could find on programming. fast forward to now, I don't care about writing good code at work or even care about understanding how anything works, so long as it compiles, and I don't get yelled at so I'm fine. I want to keep that slacker-hacker mindset at work, but I want to get back into the hack into the matrix mindset I had when I initially began. I want to be good, for me because I'm worth being good for.

    Also I bought a budget planner so I can track my spending by hand and hopefully get my money up and save for a rainy day.

    I also got back into Street Fighter and it I'm re-learning how much I love fighting games, the depth and complexity is so robust and interesting that I feel much like the language programming thing is that if I get hella nice at USFIV I can translate that knowledge of systems and mechanics to any other fighter like something more modern like Guilty Gear Strive.

    Overall I'm really happy with upward trajectory in several areas.

    • Tomorrow_Farewell [any, they/them]
      ·
      2 months ago

      If you have any questions regarding programming, I could help you with. If I can't help you with something, that means that you are giving me exercise. So, I urge you to ask me relevant questions.

      C++ is one of the languages that I have a few years of non-commercial experience with.

  • CommunistBear [he/him]
    ·
    2 months ago

    Maintained my sobriety streak for another week. It gets easier and easier to not drink at this point. My partner has also gotten slightly jealous of how I'm feeling and how my body has been changing so she has decided to join me in not drinking.

    I'm back up to a weight I'm happy with now that I'm consistently eating 3 meals a day and my digestive system isn't constantly being fucked over with alcohol. I'm still not exercising enough but given that my job is quite physical I still get some physical activity day to day.

    I rode 100+ miles on my motorcycle this weekend. I really want to start doing some off-road stuff soon. It's a dual sport with knobby tires so it can handle it so it's mostly just me learning how and gaining confidence with it. I took it on a gravel path and rode it around a grass field which was very tame but more fun that I thought it would be. Unfortunately there are no good places near me with any kind of dedicated off-roading but as long as I'm ok with ~an hour ride out there are some places I've found.

    • LGOrcStreetSamurai [he/him]
      ·
      2 months ago

      Maintained my sobriety streak for another week. It gets easier and easier to not drink at this point.

      That's what up! Well done man. Sobriety is cool and good.

      I'm back up to a weight I'm happy with now that I'm consistently eating 3 meals a day and my digestive system isn't constantly being fucked over with alcohol.

      GAINZ!

      • CommunistBear [he/him]
        ·
        2 months ago

        Gainz is no kidding. For the longest time I thought I was a "hardgainer" but no, more realistically it was probably just drinking far too much. It really is amazing the health problems that have just completely vanished once I stopped dumping half a liter of liquor into my body a day

  • Tomorrow_Farewell [any, they/them]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 months ago

    What I've been doing:

    I have practised with theorems of averages for integrals, Cauchy-Bunyakovski inequality, solving systems of linear algebraic equations. Unfortunately, didn't get to experiment with tensors as much as I wanted to, and, due to some employment and software-related stuff, did not have the time for the probability distribution thing. I did read about 70 pages of an algebra textbook, however, and solved some of the problems that were presented there.

    I successfully restored my skills related to SQL and Lateχ.

    I did fix those shoulder blades in Blender.

    I finished Polya's 'How to Solve It'.

    I spent basically an entire working week dealing with some problems related to trying to apply for a specific job. I did learn not one, not two, but three frameworks, though.

    I did not get to trying to read 'Capital' on my own.

    I did not resume physical exercise.

    Plans for this week:

    Keep re-learning math stuff. I nominate topology and probability theory as my subjects to focus on this week. In particular, I want to deal with the leftover goal of remembering how to find an appropriate random variable distribution from a given uniform distribution. Otherwise, I intend on simply advancing in reading the textbooks.

    Finish the Blender model's hands and start working on the head.

    Keep trying to regain employment.

    Try to resume physical exercise.

    Take some rest after dealing with several arcane programming errors on basically a deadline.

    Streaks:

    Still touching grass every day.

    Duolingo Putonghua 10-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.

  • vehicom@lemmygrad.ml
    ·
    2 months ago

    still at the china camp so not too much to report. slept kinda late up w friends last night but i don’t regret it. flying to fujian province later today.

  • blight [any]
    ·
    2 months ago

    Went for walks all week except one day. Sleep is still a bit fucked, but within 1-2 hours of reason. Depression haze is lifting slightly.

  • Mokey [none/use name]
    ·
    2 months ago

    Foot Technique:

    Ankle Technique Left foot 120 2.5 minute x 2

    Ankle technique bossa pattern left foot 80 2.5 minute x2.

    Trying to use big toe because my right foot uses it to get those really slow tempos (relatively for ankle tech) I want to be done with ankle tech so bad. I need to learn songs and a ton of them.

    Brush Technique

    Quincy Davis Sheet @ 120 BPM for 10 mins

    Brush Permutations, play rhythm pyramid in right hand while playing circles in left without slowing down 10 m @50bpm

    Play Brush pattern and jump into different patterns and comping patterns 10m @50bpm

    Independence studies

    Click on middle triplet, play (XXLLXK and XXKKXL) at 120BPM for 10m

    Play in Three 100BPM, all permutations in left hands, try to play directly on the beat and dont move when u switch permutations

    RRLRLLRL ideas 10m 100BPM

    Transcription

    Pot Luck Philly joe Jones trading fours

    Listening

    Miles Davis Four & More

    Learn

    Gloria's Step (learn the last 8 bars)