The document of compiled goals can be seen here. Feel free to add yourself if you have not yet done so. If you didn't participate in the past thread(s), that's okay too. You can also join in whenever you like, so go ahead.
Shoutouts, let me know if you wish to be added or removed: blackbootz ButterflyEffect byonic caeli Cedar coffeesp00ns Creativity Cumol doesntgolf elizabeth francopoli galen goobster jafle jleopold KARAMAZ0V kleinbl00 lil nowaypablo NSSTomato OftenBen psychoticmilkman Quatrarius thundara thenewgreen kingmudsy
And thanks to rezzeJ for starting the whole mess!
April sucked. I spent half of it moving, or sick, and am still way behind on so many things. Ran myself down, that's for sure...and can't say I've learned enough not to make the same mistake twice (thrice...?).
THE PROS Kicked ass at yoga, mostly. I can still be more regular about my practice but I am doing it. I kinda fell off the kettlebell wagon so I've got to get back into doing that regularly. No more zero days. Meditation is going alright. I think I've hit a plateau of some kind though. I'll see what my teacher says about it next time I see him. I've actually done way better at tracking my diet, but there are still gaps. It's astonishing to see how fast calories can add up from unsuspecting items. As a result though, when I do indulge I enjoy it more, because I feel like I've earned it. Example, I now weigh less than I did at the beginning of undergrad six years ago. (Holy shit that feels like forever and a half) THE CONS Still haven't finished all of my grad school apps. I had a brief period where I was like 'Why am I doing this? Do I really want to do this?' and for a brief period of time I almost convinced myself that I should withdraw the applications. I'm going to go through with them, including my moonshot ones. Because I'm worth it, and because even if I decide that I don't want to go back to school right away, I'd rather have the option to say 'Nah, no thank you' than wonder if I would have gotten in. I have made some progress with connecting with more organizations that could be professionally valuable in the future. It's hard to know if I'm making the right kind of connections though. As much as I like my fellow researchers, a lot of the people I talk to outside of my own institution aren't decision makers. I probably shouldn't stress about that at this point. I'm making connections not job hunting and while those things are related they aren't identical. Still need to take all the fun stuff more seriously.
I've got group meeting coming up at the start of next month and I've realized that while I've progressed in my plans, I haven't actually collected any meaningful new data since my last presentation in January. This does not bode well for my thesis proposal... Climbing's been going great, found a belay partner and starting to top-rope more. May go adventuring to outdoor climbing locations when the weather and workload finally stabilize. Dancing has been an unfulfilled want due to a re-damaged knee. I've taken to biking everywhere now because walking outdoors for more than 15 minutes has become skeletally stressful. I've no idea what an hour of even salsa would do to me, so for now I've taken to consuming media about mental illness and drug abuse. I've just started Serial Experiments Lain, which I believe kleinbl00 and a few others were recommending. I also found a touching documentary last week that followed the relationships of several individuals on the spectrum. I normally have trouble taking shows / histories about romance seriously, but this felt like a real punch in the heart. Any other suggestions? The book of trainspotting has been sitting in my library for about a month now, but was pushed aside by all the other DFW and GRRM stories I've been reading.
Media about mental illness and drug abuse: I wholeheartedly recommend Methland. Trainspotting isn't so much about drug abuse or mental illness as it's about Scottish thugs. My suggestion is you read the glossary first. I didn't know it was there until I'd finished the book. Tim Hunter directed a movie called The Saint of Washington Park which is about mental illness and homelessness. It's okay. A Beautiful Mind isn't about mental illness or John Nash; it's about Akiva Goldsman and Ron Howard's magical imaginary friends fantasy about what they think moviegoing audiences believe mental illness is about. Ingmar Bergman's Through a Glass Darkly, on the other hand, does a pretty good job of exploring schizophrenia in 1961. The gold standard druggie movie is probably Drugstore Cowboy, William S. Burroughs and all: My sister keeps harping on The Glass Castle because she says I'll relate to it. The primary difference between me and my sister is my sister thinks my mother is a lovable scamp who happens to be batshit insane. I have a bit more of a "Mommie Dearest" perspective.
To add: If you can find this book it's... hardcore. It's of debatable providence and is far older than Amazon would lead you to believe; "Lara Jefferson" is a pseudonym for someone who has never revealed their true identity and "These are my Sisters" is basically a diary kept by a woman in an insane asylum during and shortly after WWII, the period that was effectively the nadir of mental health treatment. There's no way to verify that any of it happened but from what I know of the treatment of mental illness during the period (parts of maybe six books) it's truthy. Whoever wrote it may not have been in an asylum but they at least worked there.
Might finish the book today. Could have finished it yesterday, but instead spent the entire day feeding rhododendrons to a wood chipper. Donated platelets for the first time a couple weeks ago. Shit wiped me out for like the afternoon but I was okay within 24, which has whole blood beat by a mile. It was pretty aggro, though. Like you cramp up from your arm not moving and the anticoagulant makes you dizzy and your limbs tingle and then they give you a fistful of Tums 'cuz it's bonding all the calcium in your blood and then you get done and all you want to do is lie there 'cuz you've been feeding the vampire for two hours. I have conclusively determined that "hot yoga" is purest bullshit. I still need to try regular yoga but I'm about to be knee-deep in Los Angeles in a few weeks so that ship has likely sailed. And the stress has pushed my cortisol levels back up to epic numbers. It's reflected in my ability to retain weight. Burning 600-800 calories a day in exercise and starving. Still gaining weight. I gained 4lbs in two days and that shit takes weeks to get back off. I mean... I'm up like 7lbs in the past year but it feels like an impossible amount. On the plus side, I'm staring down the barrel of 28 miles of bike riding a day for the next four months so that's going to involve some caloric expenditure. "Program an Android app." LOL