Tom

MTG is a great game! Have fun!

Nice article! I've been there too. At the time I was also studying piano at the music academy. It took literally two decades for the problem to go away, but it did. Glad you found a good therapist: I agree that they are very hard to find and that doctors generally don't know how to treat these kind of injuries. All the best with your recovery!

It's acquarium season We are going tomorrow. Great to read you are feeling better and enjoying all the amazing things in your life.

Day 29. I woke up early and had four dreams to write down, with some hints of lucidity here and there. I finished writing just before my son's alarm clock started ringing. He woke up in a good mood which is not a granted! So we enjoyed the morning routine. It's a hectic period at work and I'm feeling its toll. I'm not very stressed, however I could use a holiday or two Fortunately it's all good things! I studied before work and I spent the evening with my family. The signal I made for my office is fantastic. No interruptions when it's red. Today (of course when it was green!) my children came to visit with the Spider-Man masks we made them. I put the big one under the barbell, gave a wooden katana to the little one, and shot a picture they will proudly cherish forever I also finished the first section of The Power of Habit and started the second. It's very thought-provoking, especially when one considers all of its potential applications. I love when a book keeps me engaged even in between reads. Gratitude journal: I married a wonderful woman. We made two lovely children. Nuff said.I think my boss is one of the best things that ever happened to me. And my respect only grows over the years.We have a roof above our head. It's worth remembering that it's not a given.

I agree and disagree with what you write. I'd put body and mind at the same level of importance. Our body develops sooner so it's easy to forget that we all had to go through painful and boring fundamentals such as turning around, balancing on two feet, articulating speech. What you call "mental workout" is exactly what it is: building good mental habits, resiliency, logic. It's working on the outer layer of the brain, the part that evolved last, the one which makes us human. And just like with the rest of the body, sometimes we don't particularly enjoy the exercises we perform but they are invaluable for our full development. I can't agree with your statement that "mankind evolved on the sole basis of physical mastery". Keep working on all levels and you'll be a happy, balanced individual.

Day 28. I decided not to wake up early to regain some energy. It was a good choice. I felt much better today and I managed to accomplish a lot at work. I also caught up with my Dutch lessons and trained. A good day. Gratitude journal: We are all in good health at home.The weather is surprisingly good for this country at this time of year.Our health insurance company sent a plush elephant to my youngest son just because

Yooo well done! Check this out: Scientists Discovered How Men Can Dance Better.

Day 27. I powered through the day instead of resting. My decision, and a good one business-wise. I also managed to study Dutch and spend some time with the children, although too little for my taste. Today was just one of those days when I worked even while eating dinner. Gratitude list: I'm in better health than yesterday.I'm on top of things at work and ready for next week's giant effort.I can now spend some time with my wife.

Thanks Hope your wishes come true Bands to recommend? Mmm. I'm more into old stuff. The Chieftains and The Dubliners, together with Gaelic Storm, are some of my favorites Irish music bands. I also like an accordionist called John Whelan, Déanta and their singer Mary Dillon. There Were Roses by Tommy Sands is one of my favorite songs ever. For Scottish bagpipes I can't recommend Gordon Duncan enough. A true genius. Just listen to those grace notes! Then you have celtic inspired music where I like Enya and Loreena McKennitt above others. Oh and let's not forget Afro Celt Sound System! I'll listen to BrunuhVille tomorrow, with good headphones. Thanks in advance for your suggestion! I never listen to anything when I meditate. To me the best is total silence, and the sounds of nature around me.

CPAP. But since you did a polysomnography already and you don't have sleep apnea, you would get no benefits out of it.

I used to do exactly the same. It was three stages for me. 1.Diagnose a medical problem. I snored all my life and always complained of sleeping awfully. A few years ago I found out I have sleep apnea and started treating it. That night my life changed. 2. Sleep enough. We are terrible at evaluating our level of performance when sleep deprived. Like when somebody is drunk and overestimates his ability to drive. 7 hours are generally too little. 7.5 is a bare minimum for most of us. 8 to 9 should be the norm. 3. Trick yourself out of bed . I use an Android app called I Can't Wake Up. I set it so that it won't stop ringing unless I scan a barcode. The barcode is on a box in the living room. So every morning I stand up, start shaking my phone to keep it quiet, go to the living room, switch on the lights, reach up to scan the barcode. I'm up. Mission accomplished. Bonus. Have at least one activity to look forward to right after waking up. Getting first to the gym, writing a dream journal, resuming your book. Something good for you that you can do every morning.

Day 26. A long night of sleep at last! Ten hours! Of course my youngest son was next to me when I woke up but this time I was too exhausted to even notice what went on during the night. I did a quick search to find out how soldiers manage to sleep in a war zone. Turns out they are constantly sleep deprived and that's it. Damn. So my headache wasn't gone in the morning but hey, suck it up baby, it's a workday. Plus I needed to go to the office. So I left only to find that public transportation was disrupted and I had to wait quite a while. No problem, actually a good thing: I started reading The Power of Habit with great pleasure. I can see from the beginning that it's well put together. Can't wait to read it further. Thanks Joe My original plan was to stay in the office for the minimum time necessary. However my headache finally subsided, so I changed my mind and decided to stay the whole day. I caught up with pretty much everybody, even with those with which I don't usually converse much. I left the office much happier than when I entered it. Well, my routine was thrown off but I didn't want to skip my holy workout session. To my dismay I was still very low on physical and mental energy, so my performance was quite terrible. Well, I gave it all I could and I don't regret it! Now I'll tuck my children into bed, have dinner, my beloved cold shower and some time with my wife. Today turned out much better than I expected. Gratitude journal: I am surrounded by positive, inspiring people. 360°.Those mega chocolate cookies they sell at the kiosk taste like sweet sweet sin.The Power of Habit is an interesting read.

Howdy you too Good luck with your first steps. Looking forward to reading your journal.

Nice! Today I was wondering how you were doing. I'm so happy to read such a positive post!

Get well soon! I found out that if you take medicine the flu goes away in seven days, while if you don't it takes one week

Day 25. Another poor night's sleep. Woke up dizzy and angry. I was irritated by the loud voices of my family members. I tried retreating to my office but it was no good. We had plans to go to the park but I bailed out. Went to bed in darkness and waited for the massive headache to go away. After the children went to bed I had a chat with my wife about our life goals and how we can optimize. I was still feeling bad but I really wanted to do it. Gratitude journal: I had a couple of hours of silence.Super quiet celtic music is soothing.It's Sunday so there's nothing chasing me.

Check LinkedIn for Technical Sales, Sales Engineer, Technical Consultant, variations on the theme, and read the job descriptions. That should give you an idea if it's something you'd like to do. It basically comes down to this: know your subject deeply and be able to explain it to a child. You must be comfortable talking with peers at your level of knowledge, middle managers, CxOs, purchasers. In RPG terms you must be a high-level multiclass technician/salesman My best advice on how to sell (that's actually my job) is this: be empathetic. Understand how you can make your prospect/customer happy. Don't talk features, talk benefits!

Day 24. I hoped after yesterday's extended playtime I'd sleep longer and without interruptions. No way. My youngest son just won't let that happen. Dream recall was shattered again and the night's sleep just wasn't good enough. Yesterday my wife twisted her ankle so she had to stay in bed all day. House and child duty was on me. I also had a commitment to choose five videos for the next TEDx meeting so I shamelessly plugged my children to the TV and got to work with help from my wife. Interested in what talks made the cut? Here they are: 19:10 (TED original) How Not to Be Ignorant About the World | Hans and Ola Rosling | TED Talks Data science extracts knowledge from large volumes of data. Hans Rosling and his son use it to explain today's rapidly changing world where intuition alone would lead to drastically different conclusions. 6:11 (TED original) ShaoLan: Learn to read Chinese ... with ease! Chinese ideograms are supposed to be incredibly difficult to learn. ShaoLan spent years recognizing their patterns and exposing their meaning, coming up with a learning system that is easy and fun. 15:04 Why people believe they can’t draw - and how to prove they can | Graham Shaw | TEDxHull We all have self-imposed beliefs on what we can and we can't do. Graham demonstrates that it's easy to overcome these limits and how beneficial it can be for our health and even our jobs. 14:37 The most important lesson from 83,000 brain scans | Daniel Amen | TEDxOrangeCoast Psychiatry is the only medical science that doesn't look at the organ it's curing. Daniel's work combines psychiatrist with medical imaging to bring real benefits to patients and to prevent crime. 18:22 Confessions of a passionate introvert: Brian Little at TEDxOxbridge A talk about recognizing and accepting the way we interact with others and what we need to recharge, as well as the importance of being able to act out of character. We are passionate about these talks because they shake beliefs that are very ingrained in how people see the world and themselves today. We believe that recognizing and overcoming these self-imposed limitations is key in progressing both as individuals and as a species. Gratitude journal: Our homemade pizza tastes better than home delivery from the best pizzeria in town TED and TEDx are an endless source of wonder.IPA is finally available from local brewers. No more need for costly imports.

Hey Reanimator, welcome to the forum You already received some great advice. Look to the future and stand tall on your past. You've put a finger on what makes you unhappy, which is a fundamental step! Once you are self-aware it can only get better.

Both. Home PC is fully Linux. On my work laptop I dual-boot Linux and WIndows 7 because of some corporate applications not running well on Linux. We are changing some of those services though, so maybe in a few months I'll be able to run Linux exclusively.

Understood. Thanks for explaining. I have a stricter definition, ranking my dreams as lucid, half lucid, and fully lucid. Since you too are interested in lucid dreaming, take a look at Lucidipedia. I keep my private dream journal there. Its author Tim Post also did a TEDx speech. All the best

First some background. My aim was to gain weight and be healthy. Although I always did sports, I was 58 kg at 170 cm and always getting sick. Stress pad a big role there but that's another story. I was looking for the quickest and most effective method After some experimentation I found StrongLifts 5x5 to be the best routine for me. I thought I'd find lifting weights excruciatingly boring, especially since I come from a martial arts background. How wrong I was! Now I've built my home gym and I'm as happy as a pig in the mud. Now that I'm at my target weight of 70 kg and the numbers say that I'm an intermediate lifter, I picked Madcow 5x5 as my intermediate program. For running (you mentioned elsewhere you are preparing for a 5k) I found a 10-20-30 protocol to be very effective. I ran for a while and my performance skyrocketed with that method. Unfortunately running bores me to tears, plus it doesn't agree with my fast metabolism since it eats muscle like crazy. Hope this helps!

Sometimes you just need to be alone with your own thoughts I guess. When I feel like you feel, I grab some music and just walk aimlessly. Turns out my feet usually know where I want to go. Congratulations to you and to your girlfriend!

I completely agree with you on the role our environment plays in our lives. That's why I think that limiting our options actually makes us happier and more focused. "Less is more", to use a cliché

Day 23. I was a bit upset in the morning. My children didn't get ready in time and I had to jump into a meeting, so my wife had to take them to the childminder. This robbed me of some happy time. Ironically the meeting was postponed and then cancelled. Mmpfh. Whatever. I was a bit low on energy but still managed to make good use of my time at work. I am happy that I like my job: it makes it easier to keep going. After realizing that I milked the last drop out of my strength training program I changed it for a more advanced one. As usual I've done much research before settling on the one I think will be the best for me. Session one went well! The children really wanted to go out so we went to town for a bite and a drink. We are in the middle of the cultural season and it was nice weather, so we sat outside and enjoyed some live music. I had a conversation in Dutch with a woman from a local volunteer organization. I'll meet her again with my CV and we'll see how I can be of help. Back home, even if it was late, we played with the children until they practically fell asleep while running around. We are putting an effort into being the best parents we can. Guess what we found out? We are happier as a result. Gratitude journal: Dutch public transport is fantastic!Belgium is close by so there's no lack of excellent beers on tap.Playtime before bed was loads of fun!