Hello comrades and welcome to the fifth improvement megathread of September! 
Only two more days until October, it's a good time to make some plans for the following month.
As usual, some discussion ideas:
- Do you have any plans for October?
- Do you want to share something you've done in the previous week? Everything counts, nothing is too small.
- Do you have any goals or plans 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: "What the October Revolution gave to the worker and peasant woman"
Good luck with your goals! 
First post in one of these threads.
I left a Discord of friends I've had for around 15~ years because I got sick of endless discussion of anime, manga, and video games and people going silent any time anything real was being talked about. It's isolating, since I don't go out much, but has left me with a lot of extra time that I'm trying to make better use of.
I literally just started like 3 days ago, but I'm taking formal Mandarin Chinese lessons and a class on music theory. I've always wanted to speak Mandarin. Music is a relatively new interest of mine, but I frequently listen to music actively for hours at a time, not while multitasking. So I don't think it's another 'side quest' like other hobbies I've explored. I bought an electronic keyboard a few years ago I never really touched but I'm fiddling with it while I learn about music notation, keys, etc.
Chinese tones and syllables are hard, but I'm just drilling as much as possible between work. I only got xué correct once and had to move my mouth awkwardly to do it. Hello Chinese is a nice little app that tells you if you're saying things correct or not, so I've been using that until we get partnered up with some people.
Picking out the key of a song is also difficult, especially when there's no obvious instrument like a bass guitar to hone in on. I'm pretty okay with rhythm, I think.
I've learned a lot in the past few days and am feeling much more curious and fulfilled than when I would spend late nights chatting in voice calls or whatever. Re-discovering who I want to be and what I am interested in doing.
Plan is continue with these two things for the next 3 months and not let other things get in the way so I can continue beyond that. Need to also add some exercise into my routine somewhere.
An excellent first post.
Thanks. Spent part of the day drilling consonants again. I saw you also stopped interacting with some long-time friends. Probably a different situation, but similar feelings. Just not interested in the same conversations and time spenders as I was 15 years ago, but no real ill will involved. Hopefully you're able to take advantage of that time too and keep the gamedev rolling.