Mostly self-confidence and it's a decent group activity. I hadn't worked out with other people in quite a long while. My choice of aikido was predicated on already having some exposure to it and not hating it. The 'landing on the floor' part was a bit tongue-in-cheek, though it does begin to feel samey despite the fact I know it's one of the pillars of this high-mobility sport. Time will tell.

Judo isn't taught anywhere where I'd be willing to commute after work, and that goes quintuple for wrestling. Sambo is viable, there's even a place for it close to where I TA, but I'd rather stick to what I have now rather than switch one intro for another.

Really, I think that part of the problem is that I'm not passionate about it. My last homework gave me more of a rush than any martial art or fight done so far, so it's a bit hollow but better than not doing anything.

Be wary even of low doses of stimulants ((meth)amphetamines, MDMA etc.), they can have long-term effects, including years-long heightening of sensitivity and dopamine response to those compounds.

Cumol.

This week I talked two people out of resigning from our programme, and they joined my current study group to keep up with the pace. That's five in total. Not gonna lie, this place is hard, and it goes double for competitive types (i.e. nearly everyone), but that doesn't mean we don't have each other's back. nowaypablo's comments about life/attitudes at WP didn't go amiss. I hope you're doing well!

Yesterday I delivered a presentation about my research project to a mock symposium composed mostly of senior staff and other students. After q&a, I had to do the only proper thing: approach the professors who asked all of those measurement-oriented questions and get them to explain what I messed up. That took most of yesterday and today, and I was invited to see a similar setup next week. It was a lot of fun and it always takes me by surprise just how most of the seniors here are eager to teach.

Didn't happen much outside of studies/research, unfortunately. The girl I mentioned last time fizzled out, but at least I can honestly say it's for the better.

Aikido is a lot of fun, though, at some point, I hope to learn something beyond hitting the floor safely. Gonna give it a few months more and see where it goes from there.

Barely had the time to even lurk around here, and I miss you all.

This still works, might substitute clickables:

Speaking of changes…

1. Will 'people' tab make a comeback? This place isn't about 'muh stats', but it was a quick way to look-up popular comments/threads.

2. I noticed that there is no way to click on things like "shared posts" or "replies" while going to another user's profile. Functionality is still there, but so were 'people' until this update launched. Will those return in a clickable form?

3. Easy access to Deleted seems to be lacking and I'm kinda certain about suggesting adding it to the profile page a while ago. Seems doable, so why not?

First one is more of a curiosity, the second I find to be sometimes better than search function. Third is just one of those things nobody needs right up until they need it.

Regardless, I appreciate the hell out of all the work you've been doing. Kudos for every minute of it.

Oversaw my first mid-term yesterday, can't help but think that I've been left there alone with 200+ freshmen on purpose. I can't even tell if they're giving me attitude or a lesson at this point.

I'm making a lot of progress in other endeavours, though. Research project goes forward, joined a group working on stuff that's a hat throw from my MS thesis, studies workload stabilised around somewhat-sensible 15 hours per course per week, went out on a date with someone interesting (and, apparently, interested – meeting her again this weekend), and started going on aikido lessons twice a week.

You can also run a large subset of nix tools and get POSIX goodies with either Cygwin or GOW. Only really used the former (and it was enough for me), heard a lot of good things about the latter.