Ed

If you believe I'm wrong just chalk it up as some guy on the internet doesn't know what he's talking about. Though if I am wrong you would also have to ask yourself why anything I wrote made you upset. Anyway I'm going to refrain from commenting on your thread. Wishing you luck with your studies and writing.

That sinking feeling in your gut. Those deafening sirens in your head. That uncontrollable rage you feel. Your heart beating faster. It's not because you need anti-anxiety drugs, it's because some guy is trying to screw your girlfriend. Instead of acknowledging this, you're trying to justify why this situation is ok. It isn't. And it isn't going to go away by ignoring it. You know that you're not fine with it, if you were you wouldn't be taking your anger out on inanimate objects. It's ok to not be fine with your girlfriend hanging out with her "friend with benefits". No reasonable person would be fine with that. You've got some tough times ahead of you. Make sure you have a good network of friends and family to help you through.

7 Days of podcasts have been recorded. I'm not happy with the quality of any of them, especially when I know that I'm capable of producing content that is much better. However, better content takes more time and at the moment I don't have a lot of free time. They're serving their purpose but it isn't content that I'm proud of.

I'm sick, and feel like crap. I still put out a podcast, it's less than 2 minutes, it's terrible but it's out there.

It makes sense to aim for perfection in some cases. Generally that's when you're already good at something and someone's paying money for your services. Neither of those conditions apply to my podcast. I've decided that I won't be making a new post for each episode. If I get the time to make one to a certain standard it will get a new post and some shownotes. For all the others they'll just be added to the original post. The Day 02 episode was uploaded yesterday. It's crap, don't listen to it. The Day 03 episode isn't great but it's an improvement on yesterday's one. Even though I'm struggling to talk properly. I got veneers, they look good but I'm not used to talkking with them yet.

I've started a 30 day podcasting challenge. I'm putting more importance into getting them published rather than making them good. I found that when I was trying to make them good, I'd record half an episode, decide that it isn't good enough and then delete it. Obviously very little actually got published. Here's the day 1 podcast : http://edtrigger.com/30-day-podcasting-challenge-day-01/

Just a quick note to say I'm still around. A lot of my online activity has fallen on my list of priorities. I'll post when I can but in the meantime you can enjoy this video I made: https://youtu.be/GsUIFjnTQbs (It's just a short bike ride, the camera angle is horrible so you really can't see much)

I don't know if it's from climbing the mountain but over the weekend my middle finger on my left hand became severely infected. I didn't think it was a big deal, didn't hurt that much but over the weekend it just kept getting more swollen. I was joking around saying that it's either going to fall off or I'll have a finger with superpowers. Saw a doctor on Monday and he put me on antibiotics and told me to come back on Wednesday to have it lanced. Wednesday today. Hasn't been fun so far. Went to the treatment room, the doctor gave me a couple of anesthetic needles. They hurt a fair bit. Then I was left alone for ages, just laying on the bed wondering if the doctor had forgotten about me. Eventually he came back and cut it open to drain it. He actually said that it was one of the worst ones that he'd seen. And if I had left it any longer there was a very real chance that I'd be in hospital and lose my finger. So I guess I wasn't that far off when I was joking that it was going to fall off. So if you do have an injury get it checked out by a doctor sooner rather than later.

There's one of your problems. You might have an idealized idea of how things should go and that idea is not necessarily the one that will get you the results you want. One of the bigger problems with your plan is that you're building the first kiss up to be a huge event at the end of the 2nd date. This puts a huge amount of pressure on her and a huge amount of pressure on yourself. Ideally you want the first kiss to happen somewhere in the middle of the date, not at the end. Idea for dates - I like the motorbike ride and ice-cream date. Basically if I'm at the stage where I'm looking for a relationship I'll make sure that I find the date fun. If you're having fun, she's going to be more likely to have fun. It comes with the added bonus that you can get a better idea whether she has long term potential. Other tips - Take up some sort of partner dancing. Personally I like Salsa, but it doesn't really matter which one you do. Choose whichever one appeals to you the most. The idea is to get comfortable with touching women in a friendly, non-sexual way. You're tall and from what I can tell, good-looking, you'll be doing really well with women before you know it. Just need to get your confidence up, and the only way to do that is by going on dates. Good luck.

Thanks Cam, glad you enjoyed it. I used old Army boots that had been sitting in my closet for years. They're pretty good quality, but they were also relatively unused, so they weren't worn in. I should have worn them more often before attempting climbing the mountain.

You're not the only one. I tried it out just to see what the hype was about. Then I thought what the hell am I doing, I'm an adult catching imaginary cartoons....

Friday Morning: After an extremely restless sleep I got up and started to pack up my tent. Leg muscles still feeling very sore and blisters starting to really rise up. I knew that I only had a couple more kilometres to go. But if I thought what I had done to this point had been hard, the last bit of the track was hell in comparison. It didn't take too long to get to a point where the it suddenly got extremely difficult. It was almost a wall in front of me. It was steep, I couldn't even see the top from the bottom. Every step required me to pull myself up to the next ledge and with a heavy pack on my back it took about an hour to travel about 30 metres. I rested at the top of the wall. (Not really a wall but don't know how else to describe it) It was still difficult terrain to the 7km marker. But it was such a relief to see the hut and the helipad. I could finally leave my big pack behind and just take the small day pack to get to the peak. The peak is only 500m away at this point, but it doesn't get easier or less dangerous. To get there you still need to cross the boulder field. It might not look like it but a lot, but between the boulders are gaps where the drop is about 2 or 3 metres down. I hadn't seen another person the whole morning, so if I slipped and injured myself I had no idea how long I could be waiting for help. Hours? Days? I wasn't going to rush it, I took it slow, just needed to get to the summit, get back down. Here's the view looking down at the helipad and evacuation hut from about halfway through the boulder field: The angle makes it look a lot shorter than it is. The rest of the hike up the mountain was relatively easy, though somehow I did manage to walk past the summit and somehow end up at the camp on the other track. After getting my compass out and making sure I was heading in the right direction I finally reached the summit: Yep, the actual summit was very much anticlimactic. The trees obscured any view and the official sign was no longer there. That didn't matter, I had conquered the highest peak in Queensland, Australia. The walk down was extremely painful but relatively uneventful. The next few days I could hardly walk, every muscle in my leg ached and the various cuts and bruises on my legs didn't help. Also the blisters meant that wearing shoes was also out of the question. Here's what my left heel looks like after 4 days: The journey was dangerous, full of pain and arduous work but I'm so glad that I did it.

^^^ It was the biggest snake I've seen outside of a zoo. Fortunately the size of a snake has little to do with how poisonous they are. I believe that particular snake is a carpet python. They aren't likely to kill anyone but they can still give a nasty bite. It's the small, quick snakes that can kill you.

I knew it would be a challenge, but I wasn't expecting the level of challenge that I faced there. It was Thursday I started climbing Mount Bartle Frere, the tallest mountain in Queensland, Australia. It's probably a good idea to start hiking a lot earlier than I did. I started at 11:30 am, thinking 7.5km isn't that far for a walk, I should easily be able to make it to the top within the afternoon. Besides some inclines, declines and small creek crossings the first 3.5km of the track aren't extremely difficult. I saw two interesting things on this part of the journey. The first was what appears to be a shrine. There was a picture of a guy with a bottle of Tooheys Extra Dry next to it. Was he someone who died on the mountain? Was the mountain his favorite place in the world? There was a bushwaker who died on this track in 2011, I don't know if it's the same person but I think that would be a reasonable assumption. After a brief rest and drinking some more water (you do NOT want to be dehydrated), I started walking again. That's when I saw it. I stopped. Across the path was the biggest snake that I had ever seen in the wild. I slowly lowered my pack, took out my camera/phone and took a couple of pictures and a video. Pictures are terrible but you can see it a bit better in the video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzev-qm8pus Just before the 4km mark and the Big Rock camp I met the first person I had seen since being on the track. He told me that I wasn't far from the camp and that from just a bit further it gets much more difficult. He had given up because he had decided it was too hard. Great. At this stage I could feel the blister forming on my right heel. I soon made it to the camp. Or to be more precise a small area that is flatter than the surrounding area. No amenities. Doesn't matter, it was too early to stop and although I was covered in sweat, I still had the energy to keep walking. I crossed the creek next to the camp, carefully navigating the wet and slippery rocks so I didn't fall in. The last thing you want is to be weighed down by water you can't even drink. He wasn't wrong about it getting harder. Almost every step from there was lifting myself up by about half a metre. By the time I had reached the 5km mark, I could feel that the blister on my right heel had formed. Every step I could feel it rubbing just a little bit more. My hamstrings and calf muscles were burning. I felt like giving up. Also it was getting dark, I had maybe another hour or two of daylight left. I wasn't going to make it to the summit today. Walking on the track at night is a really stupid idea. Doubly so because I was walking alone, which some people would say is stupid in itself. I had to find somewhere to camp for the night. But the bush is so think for most of it that there wouldn't be anywhere near enough space to set up a tent. I met two other guys who were on the way down, they were rushing to make it out before dark. They also told me that it's about to get much harder and that there's a near vertical wall you need to climb up not that far away. I was getting a bit worried at this stage. What if I don't find somewhere suitable to camp? Every painful step I was hoping that there would be an opening just big enough for my tent. I started cursing myself for not buying a smaller tent. But fortunately there was an almost perfect spot open up. I decided this would have to do. It would be too dangerous to continue on. And I'd come too far to go back. I set up camp for the night. Did I make it to the summit? Did I survive the climb? These questions and more will be answered in the next post. To be continued.....

FB community guidelines are very consistent with their inconsistency. I've seen a video of a man having his hand chopped off with a machete. One of the few times I bothered to report a post. Kids use Facebook, they don't need to see shit like that. "This video does not violate Facebook Community guidelines" Then they ban posts that logically argue against certain ideas.

Going to the top of the mountain to think. That's not a metaphor. I'm heading off to Mt Bartle Frere tomorrow. Just need to finish off throwing a few more things in my backpack. I've got my tent, sleeping mat, sleeping bag, 10L of water, some basic first aid stuff, compass, and other things I think I'll need. I feel like I'm forgetting something but the main thing is that I have everything that will keep me alive. I'm doing it alone, so there's a bit more danger involved. The two big risks are getting lost and snake bites. I'm staying on the track and not walking at night to mitigate the first one. To avoid snake bites I'll be wearing some sturdy Army boots and trying to spot them before I step on one. Just weighed my pack. A bit under 30kg. I don't have the most lightweight equipment. You can buy stuff that weighs less but it costs a lot more. While I like heading off into the bush it's not something I do regularly enough to justify spending a heap of money. Back in a few days....

That's the plan. Tiny but consistent improvements. As with anything else I've practiced, there are going to be those occasional huge breakthroughs on top of the small improvements. Thanks. I'm not sure how inspiring they will be. The general idea of the podcast is to talk about things that I have learnt over the years.

In a display of goodwill, Kortheo offers the front seat to the new guy as he hands him the combat shotgun. He's going to need it. These missions never go to plan. Kortheo slams a 30 round magazine into his assault rifle as he takes the back seat. They look at Kortheo. "We're ready. Let's go."

The first podcast had some room for improvement but there was also things I was quite happy about. Points to improve - I think I could have covered my point a bit better, perhaps I didn't concentrate on the introvert aspect of public speaking enoughMy speech has a bit of a start-stop quality to it, Need to work on making it smootherSome words could have been enunciated a bit betterPoints I did well - I'm happy with the production quality. I'm sure a sound engineer could make it better but I believe the sound quality is comparable to much bigger podcasts.Overall I think I was clear with my messageIt's not perfect but it's a good start. And to get back on track I recorded a second podcast. It wasn't on the list of titles that I wrote about last page but that list was never meant to be set in stone. I'm not as happy with it but that's ok, one step closer to being back on schedule. The third podcast was originally scheduled for the 4th of July, so long as I record it by Monday I'll be back on schedule. Here's the link to episode 2 : 6 Ways to Battle Procrastination

I've kind of crashed recently. Metaphorically speaking. I haven't really been dealing with things as well as I should have. And I was over two weeks behind on my self-imposed podcast schedule. I'll write more later but for now I'll just say that I'm getting back on track. It may be late but I have published the first episode of my podcast. It's not perfect and there are some points I could have said better but overall I'm pretty happy with the quality. For now it will be exclusive to the GameQuitters forum, tomorrow I'll finish of the show notes and publish them on my website. It seems that I'm unable to embed the player on this forum so you can click here for direct access to the mp3.

Someone I know was recently featured in Buzzfeed. She was one of about ten people who held up a sign with something they had written. The "journalist" basically took photos of each person with their message and posted that. The only thing he did was type their names above the photo. Photos he took with his iPhone. Half the pictures had light behind the person he was photographing. Buzzfeed is not as evil as some of the other media outlets but their standard for "journalism" very low. Most people on this forum are much better writers than the ones they have at Buzzfeed. Daily Habits: Writing - Done - 16 in a rowExercise - Done - 16 in a rowPublic Speaking practice - Done - 15 in a row

If you never mentioned that English wasn't your first language I never would have guessed it from your writing. Your English is better than a lot of people who only speak English.

Yep, it's a start. If the podcast takes off and somehow becomes popular I think I'll hire someone to create a new design. I'm not expecting my podcast to be that popular, doesn't matter, the aim isn't really about creating a popular podcast. It's about working on a valuable skill, so if I record 100 podcasts and I'm a better public speaker, then I will consider this project a success. Lack of skill/confidence at public speaking has cost me more opportunities than lack of technical skills ever has. Daily Habits: Writing - Done - 14 in a rowExercise - Done - 14 in a rowPublic Speaking practice - Done - 13 in a row

Daily Habits: Writing - Done - 13 in a rowExercise - Done - 13 in a rowPublic Speaking practice - Done - 12 in a row Went for a light 5km jog, finished it in 34 minutes, so definitely nothing to brag about. I also did a bit of work setting up my podcast, getting the settings right and making some cover art. If you want your podcast to be listed on iTunes it needs some cover art. Unfortunately I am not at all skilled when it comes to graphic design. So after a few minutes working with Gimp I came up with this amateur AF design:

The donate button links to your Kingpin Social account. Obviously the money will be going to the same place but it might confuse people who are unfamiliar with your other site. It could be a good idea to change the name of the account or start a new one for Gamequitters.com