this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2024
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Self Improvement

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A community which focusses on improving yourself. This can be in many different ways - from improving physical health or appearance, to improving mental health, creating better habits, overcoming addictions, etc.

While material circumstances beyond our control do govern much of our daily lives, people do have agency and choices to make, whether that is as "simple" as disciplining yourself to not doomscroll, to as complex as recreating yourself to have many different hobbies and habits.

This is not a place where all we do is talk about improving "productivity" (in a workplace context) and similar terms and harmful lifestyles like "grindset". Self-improvement here is intended to make you a generally better and happier person, as well as a better communist, and any other roles you may have in your life.

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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

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago
[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 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.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 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)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Integrals are cool