Ed

Although I can think of many stereotypes for other nationality, I can't recall hearing any about Spaniards.

I found moving North from Melbourne helped my mood immensely. As did learning MMA/BJJ, even though it's one of those things almost everyone totally sucks at in the beginning.

One technique for dealing with problem thoughts in the middle of the night is to write it down. The idea is that once it's written down it is somewhat psychologically external. Then you can go back to sleep knowing you can deal with it in the morning. Maybe that would help you, maybe not. But either way it often pays to experiment to see what works best for yourself. As for doing videos, if you don't show your face you would still remain mostly anonymous. What I've been doing for my thread is recording my voice on Audacity (it's free) and then using Windows Movie Maker to add a picture of my website logo and add the Audacity recording. Finally I upload it to Youtube and if it's for this forum I usually set the privacy to unlisted (makes it sort of exclusive to this forum). I record voice only mainly for the reason that it's much easier to edit audio than video. Not so much for privacy reasons.

800m is an easy enough distance for a casual jog. But to race for 800m tests your willpower. It's kind of an awkward distance for a race. Too long to sprint, but not quite long enough to be considered long distance. You did great to push yourself like that. It's great that you're getting into public speaking. Like the saying goes "it's not what you know, it's who you know". Being good at your job is important, but being good at the social aspect will have a much larger impact on your career. Getting good at public speaking is going to help you in multiple ways.

If you find reading boring, there is a chance that the books you've chosen are boring. (Not all the books that get awards are great). Or maybe they just don't have the subjects that interest you. I'm not sure what your interests are but here are some ideas for books that you might enjoy: Choose you own adventure books. These can be short but enjoyable reads, especially if you choose wrong. But you can always restart and get a different ending. Books by Paul Jennings. Australian author who writes relatively short stories with some interesting twists. The Outsiders by S.E Hinton. Harry Potter. I've never read them, but I've met plenty of people who don't like reading, who suddenly love reading once they started with these books. P.s. Groundhog Day is a great movie.

Thanks Cam. One thing I'm trying to do less of is edit the recordings after I make them. With my latest recordings the editing is minimal, I truncate silence and normalize. I'm leaving all my "ums" in there. This is my latest one: https://youtu.be/xQv0wZmRrC0 It's totally unscripted, so it's not great. I share some of my views about delivering a monologue. I'm thinking I should start doing an actual podcast. In a way that would force me to deliver a certain level of quality. Technically anyone could listen to these recordings, but in reality the only people who will hear them are people who read the GameQuitters forum and read my thread and click on the Youtube link. In other news I'm now on a 50 day streak with Duolingo. (Aber ich spreche nur ein bisschen Deutsch)

There's good and bad parts to every relationship. But the beginning of a relationship is usually where it's easiest to overlook someone's flaws. The fact that your uncomfortable this early on, is a red flag. Maybe whatever is making you uncomfortable is a sign that you two are not compatible. Or maybe it means you're not quite over your ex yet. Without more information these are just guesses. Whichever way it is, when it comes to relationships, trusting your gut is often the best way to go. P.s. Your use of pronouns for this person is interesting...

So much to learn, not enough time. I've got a couple more weeks left of this mathematics subject left. I haven't been concentrating on much else. I need to get back into making recordings if I have any hope of getting my public speaking abilities to the level I want before the end of he year. And I would like to make this journal more interesting for you to red, but for the next two weeks calculus will be mostly what I'm thinking about.

Unfortunately I live too far away and I'm too busy to get to Sydney this Tuesday. But it's good to see meetups starting to happen in Australia.

Great goal, you'll be pretty good at speaking Italian when you reach your 365 day streak. I'm at a 39 day streak with German at the moment. Yep, and by concentrating on improving yourself in one specific area it's likely to help other areas. It never hurts to be better at public speaking. It will help with your career, getting girls, making friends. It's one skill that I wished I put more work into when I was younger. I'm planning on rejoining my local Toastmasters club. Unfortunately membership is limited to people 18 and over, but once you turn 18 you should check them out.

Brain training games have failed to be proven beneficial. But there are alternatives that are much more useful. And just as fun: Duolingo if you'd enjoy learning a new language Khan Academy if you want to learn mathematics or programming CodeCademy if you want to learn how to program (I haven't used this one but I've heard it's great) I personally find these sites fun to use. And the best thing about it, is you're actually learning useful skills at the same time

I haven't been making recordings lately. But I did make one today. It's terrible. It's closer to ramblings rather than coherent thoughts. I sort of explain my rather lame excuse for letting this slip. https://youtu.be/ixLoN1JJEeY The next one will be much better.

Are you writing down the things you need to remember? I've had the same problem. I can read something and understand it. When I try to remember, it just vanishes. I still wouldn't say I have a great memory. But there are certain things I've learnt over the years that are just ingrained after using them so often. For example it would be impossible for me to forget Ohm's law. (V=IR) One thing that can help you remember things is to write it down. By hand. Most people do not retain anywhere near as much if they only read over passages. As Cam said, Cal Newport has some great content on studying. As does Scott H Young (he taught himself an MIT computer science curriculum within 12 months). I also highly recommend reading A Mind for Numbers by Barbara Oakley

2 tips that can help you become a more confident speaker: https://youtu.be/lnot8GVDp8g I'm not totally happy with this recording. I could have expanded more on certain points. But I'm not unhappy with it either, lots of room for improvement but I believe I get my point across. In other news, I'm still on a streak with Duolingo, I'm at 27 days.

There are 2 main things I consider when I decide a recording is publishable. I'm not trying to be a great public speaker straight away. So one thing I've been trying is to just start speaking whatever comes to mind. And just like when I do the same thing with free writing, there will be parts that are good enough to expand on. But the whole recording is a mix of long pauses and disjointed thoughts. I'm keeping the recordings as a reference but these ones are not good enough to publish. The other thing is sound quality. I've made a couple of recordings while walking. Using my smartphone. Both times the wind noise has made it sound terrible. So for a recording to be publishable I want to have a main topic. The sound quality doesn't need to be perfect but there is a minimum level I want before I publish. It will be a couple more years before I find out if it was a good decision. But as a technician I was getting bored of solving the same problems over and over. I was never bad at mathematics but the level between what I needed as a technician and what I'm learning now is a bit of a jump. At the moment I have 3 books I recently read to write reviews for. So I should have three new posts for my blog in the next week or so. The 3 books are: You Are a Writer by Jeff Goins - It's good but Jeff's writing style can be a little too nice for my taste. I'd recommend On Writing by Stephen King and Write, Publish, Repeat by Sean Platt and Johhny B. Truent over Jeff's book. A Mind for Numbers by Barbara Oakley - I loved this book. There are so many tips that can help you improve your study techniques. Regardless whether you're studying mathematics or another technical subject. I can not recommend it enough. Conquering Fiverr by Damien Pros - Great info on how to make money on Fiverr.

I haven't been posting much lately. Been very busy learning differential calculus. I'm not finding it easy at all, I never needed to know this level of mathematics as a tradesman. And it's been many years since I left high school. But I have found a couple of books that have helped me Are you studying? If you are, there are two books I consider must reads: How to be a Straight A Student by Cal Newport.A Mind For Numbers by Barbara Oakley In other news, I've recorded myself a couple more times, but nothing that has been worth publishing. Duolingo is still on a streak, but I've dropped it down to 10xp per day (I was doing a minimum of 50xp each day). I haven't been writing as much as I would like lately. Here and on my blog, I've got a few book reviews to write up. I also plan to expand a bit more on the points in the How to survive a breakup in 10 steps thread.

First time I tried BJJ I tapped out to a teenager who was half my size. This was before MMA had taken off as much as it has now, I had no idea what I was doing. I haven't trained in a few years now, but I loved it when I was doing it. Most BJJ clubs are welcoming to beginners. Just be prepared to tap a lot in the beginning

What do you think of "This Will Make You Smarter"? It sounds like it might be an interesting book. The reviews for it on amazon are a bit divisive. A lot of people gave it 5 stars and raved about how great it was. But there's also a significant amount of reviews that are very negative. (Of course ignoring the 1-star "Didn't read" reviews) Do you have any favorite essays from it?

What I worked on today: Public speaking: I suck at delivering monologues. And no, I'm not saying that because I want reassurance. At the present time it's simply a fact. Another fact, is that by the end of the year it's something that I'll be vastly better at. I have slacked off, and only made my first recording this year. I used my phone's voice recorder app as I went for a walk. I tried to just talk about what I was thinking about, I felt somewhat self-conscious about talking to myself in public. In short, the recording was terrible so it won't be published. (Unless someone REALLY wants to hear me not saying much with long pauses) DuoLingo: I'm on a 19 day streak with Duolingo claiming I'm 21% fluent in German Studies: I haven't talked much about this on the internet. Partly because I have no idea if I made the right choice. I'm much older than the average student and it could turn out to be a huge waste of time and money. But after over a decade of working as an Electronics Technician I've chosen to go to university last year. I've got a mathematics subject starting tomorrow. So I made a couple of flashcard decks using the Anki app. Rather than type it, I hand wrote the cards, then took pics:

It was more to do with staying with my brother. We live a long way from each other so we don't get to catch up often. So while I was there I felt somewhat obligated to make sure I was available most of the time. Which meant that for a short time some of the thing I've been working on got downgraded on the priority ladder. I'm back home now so I have no excuse not to be working on making 2016 my best year yet.

It's 16:37 New years Eve. I'm on my computer at home, quickly typing this up before I go out. Going to catch up with some friends, it will be a low-key event but with plenty of laughs. In a few more hours at around midnight it will mark one year of not drinking. Not that I was ever a huge drinker before, but I wanted to see if I could last a whole year without alcohol. I really didn't miss it, I thought it would be a lot harder than what it was. I've got to go, but first I want to say I hope you have a great year in 2016. Happy New Year.

Shame/guilt and other negative emotions can be the trigger to change behaviors (I believe Cam has a differing opinion on this). But I don't believe they are a healthy to use as a continuous motivation. It's more useful in the context of a single event where you do something stupid, feel shame, learn from it, change your behavior and most importantly move on. Yes, the move on part is easier said than done. In these situations you need to pay close attention to what you say to yourself. For example it is better to tell yourself something like "I did something stupid, that's not like me, next time I encounter this situation I will *positive action*" vs "I'm so stupid, I always do this" I'm sure you have your faults, as we all do. It is a good thing to combat some of them. But are you spending the same amount of time telling yourself about your positive traits? We all have our positives too. Don't forget to acknowledge them.

Don't feel too bad about not having a girlfriend earlier. I didn't have a girlfriend until after I left high school. Breakups suck at any age and at least in my experience they don't get less painful as you get older. But you have better idea of what to expect. And now you've had a girlfriend you know you'll get another one (occasionally you'll have some unfounded doubts). It sounds like you're already doing what it's going to take to get yourself through this tough period. You're a lot more mature about this than I was at the same age. You're going to come out of this a better man.

We all want to get better at something. Maybe you want to get fitter. Or learn a new language. Or learn how to make the most delicious food on the planet. But there's a difference between wishing for something and deciding to make it happen. I've decided that 2016 is the year I'm going to get good at public speaking. I'm sure you're planning on making yourself more awesome in multiple ways. But if you were to choose only ONE thing to be better at by the end of 2016... what is it you're going to be much better at this time next year?

Leechblock is great. You can set specific times when it will block websites. You can set amounts of time for each day. You can even set a combination of specific times and quantity of time.