Ikar

I think it's just the fact people still don't fully grasp the idea that gaming could be addictive. They've heard of smoking, drinking, gambling... but gaming? I am however confident there'll be more self-identified gaming/social media addicts coming out of the closet over time, as the "uniqueness" stigma lifts as the mainstream media talks about the issue more and more. Is there a clearer way to say something is addictive? I think it's one of the best descriptions of addiction I've ever read. Reading this part, I remembered reading or hearing somewhere that people often think that they are "ordinary people who have unique experiences", while the opposite is more likely - we are "unique individuals having common experiences". It's worth thinking about when facing a problem - probably billions of people had the same problem to solve at some point too.

Do you have any new pictures for upload, so we can also take a peek and compare? 🙂

Losing my X was probably the trigger I came here three years ago too. I hope you are able to maintain a positive relationship with your X and your daughter.

You can try what I did. Not many language companies externally advertise they have available language courses for lecturers. The situation is so dynamic it wouldn't make sense to give a serious "regular" job posting for a "job" that is once a week for 90 minutes. When I first set out to seriously search for a job, I opened Google Maps, typed in "language school", "language agency", "English teacher" etc. and looked up all the companies in my area. I still have the file and it has nearly 100 e-mail adresses. Since then I've sent out hundreds of mails asking for an interview. I've been to dozens of interviews. And I've worked for a few companies. All this work made me have experience, options/relative job independence and confidence in myself. Now, it happens from time to time that somebody finds my advertisment/website and contacts me, or remembers me from the past and makes me an offer, but not often enough to build my business on that. I am happy I did all the work in the past and today I'm benefiting from it.

I think in my case, it's true, if you consider "heightened stress level" an acute feeling of boredom. It's sometimes the case that I feel idle for too long and that subsequently stresses me out and makes me unable to concentrate. It's just due to the nature of my job that I often have 1-2-3 hour windows and YT videos of 10-30 minute length are the easiest way out for me. I think GQ might be the last website that I regularly comment on. I don't comment in the comment sections of news stories. I used to comment very often on various websites in the past though.

29th June - 7th July: So I went to the gym and then to the shooting range on 29th. That was a pretty great day! On Sunday, I cycled for about three hours to visit my parents instead of taking the car. For the first week of July, I decided to visit my girlfriend in Prague. I took advantage of the fact that a lot of my students told me in advance that they will have holiday this week, so I only had to write two or three mails to reschedule the classes with the remaining students. It's a mixed bag of vacation, breaking the stereotype of being in my hometown and spending time with her. I'm not planning anything or using my calendar at all. That said, it also doesn't mean I'm not doing anything useful. I drafted curriculums for students of courses that require them and I edited the font on my business website. I've also started reading "Digital Minimalism" by Cal Newport in I'm pretty much through half the book (230 pages in total) in just three days. I can't remember when was the last time I read something this fast. I picked up the book about two or three years ago at a book fair, but it's been sitting on the shelf ever since. I decided to take it with me to Prague. I know one of my friends decided to do a weekly digital detox and that I'm kinda back-and-forth between using news websites and Youtube, but I didn't actively consider that before taking it. I just remembered I had it and took it. --- The plan is to get rid of or reduce the usage following apps and websides. I will include cases why they might be useful and why I have had them so far: Instagram app - deleted. I have a few acquaintances there, but they're mostly foreigners and hardly anyone writes me there. If my friends have it, I have other means of contacting them too. News webpages - blocked. I use them merely as a source of fun, due to their comment sections. I hardly ever come across an article that I would be genuinely interested in (maybe one in a hundred or a thousand). The same will go for "Wiki/Current events" - even though it's a healthier alternative to consume news, it might sway me, so I'll get rid of it too for now. Facebook - blocked. I used to justify keeping FB around for scoping events in the area, but I can't remember when was the last time I actually used it before coming to Prague (and I was looking for events here, as I am not local). YT - limited. I listen to music on YT, so I won't block it completely, however I am going to block/reduce the main page to prevent me from scrolling it. YT works well with my interests overall, but I noticed I just rely on it to entertain me more than I'd like. The blocks will apply on my desktop computer and notebook. I'm gonna have only one browser on them with a blocking addon installed. My phone will be "unlimited", mostly as I am not really used to using it that much (not having mobile data helps a lot) and in case I actually DO need to use the services above. I also have a "Digital Wellbeing" widget on the homescreen of my phone, showing me how much time I spent on each app. Replacement activities for 1 hour: reading, cleaning, washing the dishes, learning languages Replacement activities for 2 hours: going to the gym, going for a walk This is definitely not the first plan I devised for this area of my life. I actually have it partially in effect on my desktop computer at home already. This is just a thought out update of the plan put into words. --- I have a good opportunity to focus on my own life with all its needs and wishes now that I'm mostly on break from both teaching and university. The real work is now! Made a promise to not watch "porn" to my girlfriend. Our relationship is very warm. --- Summer goals: Find and do the internship. - I found one, unpaid, but I am 90% it will get approved. Work on my business. - Website fonts Get into better shape. - Working on it. Digital cleansing. - Find more activities to do over time instead of clickbaits and lazy fun.

19th June - 27th June: I can't say there's been nothing happening, however I have not been recently in the mood to write anything. I spent the weekend with my girlfriend camping in cities we've never been before. I spent some time reading about finance and the mindset, socializing and moving as well. The summer break for many courses starts next week, therefore my plans for the extra summer time are: Find and do the internship. Work on my business. Get into better shape.

Welcome back.

I'm using the template I used the last time. 08/05/21 - 18/06/21 "L" will stand for the (last) plan/notes for this term. "T" will stand for done this term. I added "Future goals/direction" to better reflect on the things I am trying to do and to add specificity. I will copy it and stick it somewhere where I can see it to remind myself whenever I feel aimless. I will also use different colors: blue for newly added goals/habits, green for completed/successful, orange for ongoing/some progress and red for ones I haven't worked on in that period. --- Books/Reading articles: L: I actually went through my 100+ newsletters yesterday to give myself a fresh start on them and to see whether I will keep up with them. I could unsub from some/all of them, if I no longer find them interesting. No books. T: I've been keeping up with the newsletters and read a few short booklets I got from LibertyCon about philosophy. Possible direction/goals: Continue getting through the newsletters. Family: L: Nothing new comes to mind. T: My brother is nice to hang out with and my father is a reliable and I can count on him with anything, though he is sometimes too hotheaded. I went for sushi with my brother two weeks ago and it was cool. Things are more difficult with my mom and grandma. I spend several hours a month alone with my grandma. I think she sometimes has the "victim" complex in a way that she did XYZ for other people and they didn't do anything back for her or don't understand her (without her asking). I can't help but feel that she also distorts my ability to have an opinion on my mom and that I see my mom as a caricature. That's not to say they dislike each other - my mom visits my grandma regularly and that wouldn't happen if they weren't on good terms. Weirdly enough, I think my mom is the family member I know the least. NOT: I don't want to get alienated from my family. Possible direction/goals: Continue working on bettering the relationships with my family. University: L: University's been normal and the classes I attend are mostly interesting. I haven't gone to Germany, but I am planning to go to Bulgaria for Erasmus after summer. It's amazing how the perception of education shifts once one has a real job and isn't fed by parents, for example by learning to value one's time. I sent the prof the outline with ideas what to write about in the thesis and I'm planning to meet him in May. I'm going to have two exams in a few weeks, but I suspect they won't be overly difficult and that I'll pass with a few days of studying. T: I forewent going to Erasmus completely, as it would result in the inevitability of extending my studies while not working towards anything relevant to my studies. There's no good way to do any courses/subjects or to write my masters' thesis abroad. I have a creeping feeling that the longer I take to complete the studies, the less likely it is that I'll finish them. I've successfully completed the semester and I even got the highest merit stipend (which is funny, because I didn't have a single A at bachelor's). I'm currently looking for the internship/praxis. NOT: I don't want to drop out of the university. Possible direction/goals: I finished the exams successfully. Find an internship for summer. Find more sources for my upcoming masters' thesis during the summer. Work on the assignments in a timely manner. Exercise/Movement: L: I feel that my "free-time" movement habits are sliding, however I somewhat counteracted that by creating incentives to push me into movement, such as having to visit students within walking/biking distance. I'm really not a fan of going to the gym lately, however I've already been outside with people playing football or basketball, as the weather got better. T: I haven't been to the gym since April and seriously (every week) since March. I keep moving by visiting my students either by walking or cycling, going to nearby evening events on foot and I manage to go for a walk once or twice a week. I also sometimes take the basketball outside and hop around. I think the combination of all this works, however it's not a 100% stable habit, so I have to keep an eye on that. NOT: I don't want to become fat. Possible direction/goals: Keep in shape. Job/English: L: I also visited my English teacher-friend and asked him about his history when it came to teaching English. He said that he started teaching when he was 26, started his own courses when he was around 35 thanks to recommendations and had these ever since. He is now around 50 and he started teaching at high school a few months ago for a change of pace. The meeting helped me soothe some anxiety over the fact I am not advancing as fast as I'd like to when it comes to teaching. Regardless, I've recently made the effort to ask my students for recommendations to a) the respective language schools, b) on my website and c) on Google Maps. It can help me leverage my position regarding the language schools as well as to attract more private students. I managed to get a raise from one of the companies, a nice 16% raise. I'm also looking into getting my own payment terminal in my phone and possibly a pay gate on my website, on top of the cooperation with the benefit companies. I might even start my own LLC soon. T: I don't know if I am going to teach English forever, but I like it reasonably enough, sometimes it's challenging as well and it's paid nicely. As I wrote above, I need to take some internship/praxis for the summer and the one I responded to was paid nicely as well. I'm gonna have less English classes during the summer, so I'll spend the time on the internship or master's thesis. We'll see if I like it (and if it gets approved by the prof at the uni). I paid the taxes this month. I also contacted the benefit companies, which advertise my business for a small cut of my profits. I also talked about this with my students. Some of them work in HR or marketing and they've been very helpful and the advice they gave me was useful. I went to a business workshop on Wednesday organized by the university and it was useful to clear up some concepts regarding marketing and business progress. NOT: I don't want to have a job that I don't enjoy. I don't want to have a job that is not well paid. Possible direction/goals: I'm also gonna attend an interview and another to re-negotiate my salary, once all the reviews I from my students are in. I received some information that I could use to my advantage, so I'm gonna work on that in the next few weeks. I set up cooperation with the benefit companies. Keep asking for reviews or recommendations from students. Create a client persona for both B2B and B2C. Update my website to reflect the new ideas and inspiration from the web. Look into strategies in becoming truly self-employed by skipping the agencies in between. Check out a few more seminars on how to run online courses. / English research Women/Dating: L: T: We've been seeing for weekends. My girlfriend even made a surprise visit today, traveling to my hometown for the weekend. Possible direction/goals: Set up at least two dates a month. ----- Additional thoughts/activities: My hobbies are: personal finance, gunnery, GIS/statistics, reading/videos about (modern) history, English and geography. - I do not want to be lonely. I'm intentionally putting a very broad classification here, because I don't know how my friends or romances are going to look like a year from now. All I know is that long-term isolation is deadly and that I want to have meaningful relationships. I do not want to become addicted again. All of the things above got a lot better once I stopped gaming several hours a day and dozens of hours a week. Time to time, I encounter a game with a strong pull on my psyche. I don't know if there's anything else that could have such a pull on me that would also be good for me. Who knows. - I spent more money than usual this term, due to the fact I had to pay the taxes, stock up on food and buy fuel for my car. It's no problem, I'm still bound to get two full paychecks until the summer break starts for some courses. I also noticed I'm writing here fairly often now. This month, I did these cool activities: reading about personal finance, taking part in many social events, working on my business/visiting a business seminar, going to the shooting range, going to the excursion with the uni and overall visiting a lot of social events.

8th June - 13th June: I've been keeping fairly busy - going out with friends, studying for the last exam (got it), setting up the internship/summer job and visiting my girlfriend at the weekend.

What do I NOT want? An idea that kept bouncing in my head for a long time after watching Peterson's videos. It's easy to define what I want and then be complacent enough not to care or be happy where I am. I will put this into my monthly report as well to keep track of it. --- Family: I don't want to get ostracized from my family. My brother is nice to hang out with and my father is a reliable and I can count on him with anything, though he is sometimes too hotheaded. Things are more difficult with my mom and grandma. I spend several hours a month alone with my grandma. I think she sometimes has the "victim" complex in a way that she did XYZ for other people and they didn't do anything back for her or don't understand her (without her asking). I can't help but feel that she also distorts my ability to have an opinion on my mom and that I see my mom as a caricature. That's not to say they dislike each other - my mom visits my grandma regularly and that wouldn't happen if they weren't on good terms. Weirdly enough, I think my mom is the family member I know the least. University: I don't want to drop out of the university. I forewent going to Erasmus completely, as it would result in the inevitability of extending my studies while not working towards anything relevant to my studies. There's no good way to do any courses/subjects or to write my masters' thesis abroad. I have a creeping feeling that the longer I take to complete the studies, the less likely it is that I'll finish them. Exercise: I don't want to become fat. I haven't been to the gym since April and seriously (every week) since March. I keep moving by visiting my students either by walking or cycling, going to nearby evening events on foot and I manage to go for a walk once or twice a week. I also sometimes take the basketball outside and hop around. I think the combination of all this works, however it's not a 100% stable habit, so I have to keep an eye on that. Work: I don't want to have a job that I don't enjoy. I don't want to have a job that is not well paid. I don't know if I am going to teach English forever, but I like it reasonably enough, sometimes it's challenging as well and it's paid nicely. As I wrote above, I need to take some internship/praxis for the summer and the one I responded to was paid nicely as well. We'll see if I like it (and if it gets approved by the prof at the uni). Relationships: I do not want to be lonely. I'm intentionally putting a very broad classification here, because I don't know how my friends or romances are going to look like a year from now. All I know is that long-term isolation is deadly and that I want to have meaningful relationships. --- I do not want to become addicted again. All of the things above got a lot better once I stopped gaming several hours a day and dozens of hours a week. Time to time, I encounter a game with a strong pull on my psyche. I don't know if there's anything else that could have such a pull on me that would be good for me. Who knows.

3rd June - 7th June: At the weekend, I was searching for some (paid) praxis/internship and I found one interesting offer. Listing all my qualifications and achievements and reflecting on my life made me feel nice and grateful. I don't think that I am delusional about that either. Unless there's some catastrophic event wiping out my relationship with the Georgian girl, getting fired from my jobs and university and losing a friend/family member COMBINED, I'll be doing just fine. I can handle these one by one "going out", even if it will be annoying and saddening. Life is good. I went to the shooting range with a friend on Saturday, visited my family on Sunday and started studying for my last (for a better grade) exam on Friday. I picked up my suit and shopped for food yesterday extensively. I got a lot of good stuff (read nuts, olives and non-alcoholic beer) for a good price. I actually enjoy shopping for food in bulk 😄 I also felt fairly tired the last two three days before going to bed. That's a good sign that I am putting myself to work.

20th May - 2nd June: Porn is still a struggle, however this week's been only once and the last one as well. I feel like I am going outside more and walking or cycling more often. The exams went fine, though I want to get a better grade from one to get the grade stipend from the uni. I went to get sushi with my brother on Wednesday. It was fairly good and I think we'll go there again. I feel like I got more time overall and that I also laze around more. I'm also fairly social in the evenings. I think it could be the aftermath of the Georgian girl leaving, as we socialized one another fairly often. On a related note, I enjoy spending time with her every day, however not all day. But that's the reality we live in and we have to deal with, when we see for the weekend every other week. She however inspired me to read more and educate myself more now.

I recently saw an animated YT video trying to explain what "love" is, based on one guy's interpretation of what Jesus said or did in the Bible. He interpreted it as "giving willful attention with the intention to understand someone". This fosters connection between people and creates a bond if done right, unless the person is completely deluded or seriously mentally ill. Stereotypical romantic "TV love" is mostly focused on getting the other person's attention during some sort of courting process of uncertainty. It's also possible one person does something fairly crazy to achieve that. It's worth mentioning that what one sees as undying acts made out of love, another might see as creepy. Finally the couple kisses at the end and the credits roll, or alternatively the main character wallows in the pain of unrequited love. It's fairly interesting this recipe is often applied for singles, as well as divorced (casting serious doubts on the fact that the first part of the relationship is the most important, as presented). Regardless, it's just the first part of the relationship that doesn't repeat itself afterwards. It's a fool's errand to try and implant something as intrinsically unstable as this period of courting into an ongoing stable relationship. The instability past the first stage has different sources, e.g. figuring out what to do together or considering each other's long-term values. Not whether the other person likes me. Pure sexual desire with zero knowledge of the person is not love either. Otherwise PornHub would be called LoveHub. However it's not completely independent, as it's hard to be romantically involved in a relationship with zero physical contact. All this means that the word is fairly ambiguous. For me, "love" can be directed towards anyone, anything or any activity. There's a sense of devotion, attention, betterment and purpose. It's also trying to understand other positions and points of view. Giving the benefit of doubt, ingrained in the approach of not blowing up every time someone does something stupid (from our point of view).

13th May - 19th May: I spent the last few days with the Georgian girl before she moved to another city. We did a bit of driving, cooking and also socializing. We'll see again the next weekend, at the end of the month. We called yesterday for half an hour and it was nice. I'm also getting through the newsletters continuously. I am almost finished with setting up the cooperation with the benefit companies. However, one hurdle is that my phone doesn't have the NFC chip for payments, so it can't be used as a mobile terminal. My old phone has NFC, but the Android version is too old for the app. I'm not interested in renting and carrying around a real portable terminal, so we'll solve this another way.

I haven't been feeling particularly great mentally today, however I do feel solace in the long-term plans that I have set up for my future. It gives me the confidence that no matter what happens, I'll be able to deal with it. 8th May - 12th May: I had my last uni classes for the semester and I have two exams coming up in a few weeks. I don't expect them to be difficult, but I'll have to put in the time to study. I've been in contact with the benefit companies and managed to sign a few contracts already, so I hope this will lure some potential students my way. Pay-gate and mobile terminal solutions are in the works too. I went out for a walk with one of my friends I haven't seen in a while and did a bit of basketball yesterday. I'm catching up with the newsletters as they come now. This is actually helpful, because I do seem to have a tendency to explore new things a lot. I'm on YT and Wikipedia fairly often already, plus they're related to my hobbies and interests. I just had to get rid of the baggage of the hundred accumulated mails to get started on reading them again. The Georgian girl is leaving to another city on Sunday, so we are spending our last days together. We are continuing this regardless.

I'm using the template I used the last time. 05/04/21 - 08/05/21 "L" will stand for the (last) plan/notes for this term. "T" will stand for done this term. I added "Future goals/direction" to better reflect on the things I am trying to do and to add specificity. I will copy it and stick it somewhere where I can see it to remind myself whenever I feel aimless. I will also use different colors: blue for newly added goals/habits, green for completed/successful, orange for ongoing/some progress and red for ones I haven't worked on in that period. --- Books/Reading articles: L: I realized I actually do read quite a bit, it's mostly just not books. I'm currently reading one book on sex, but overall during the month I've gone through many articles on history, finance and current events, as well as my newsletters. I've actually decided to block one news outlet that I think I was reading too much for no real gain. Now I follow "Portal:Current events" on Wiki, where I can easily see world-wide news and access information without much bias. The situation is fairly similar, except that I cut down on news. I think I much rather watch videos where people are having a conversation or explaining something rather than reading or just simply listening without video. I've barely touched the newsletters. T: I actually went through my 100+ newsletters yesterday to give myself a fresh start on them and to see whether I will keep up with them. I could unsub from some/all of them, if I no longer find them interesting. No books. Possible direction/goals: Continue getting through the newsletters. Family: L: A few weeks ago, I decided to visit my family every other weekend for the afternoon to prioritize my own issues, needs and wants. I think it's also better to meet the members separately - i.e. meeting my family twice as a whole, plus meeting my father and my brother once for a month for lunch - somewhat seems as more valuable than meeting my family four times as a whole. I also helped my grandma with getting a new phone and transitioning to a new operator! T: Nothing new comes to mind. Possible direction/goals: Continue working on bettering the relationships with my family. University: L: University's been normal and the classes I attend are mostly interesting. I haven't gone to Germany, but I am planning to go to Bulgaria for Erasmus after summer. It's amazing how the perception of education shifts once one has a real job and isn't fed by parents, for example by learning to value one's time. T: I sent the prof the outline with ideas what to write about in the thesis and I'm planning to meet him in May. I'm going to have two exams in a few weeks, but I suspect they won't be overly difficult and that I'll pass with a few days of studying. Possible direction/goals: Find more sources for my upcoming masters' thesis. Work on the assignments in a timely manner. Exercise/movement: L: I feel that my "free-time" movement habits are sliding, however I somewhat counteracted that by creating incentives to push me into movement, such as having to visit students within walking/biking distance. I'm really not a fan of going to the gym lately, however I've already been outside with people playing football or basketball, as the weather got better. T: Same as before. Possible direction/goals: Keep in shape. English: L: I worked around 110 hours this month; 65 and 30 for language schools and 15 for my private students. I also visited my English teacher-friend and asked him about his history when it came to teaching English. He said that he started teaching when he was 26, started his own courses when he was around 35 thanks to recommendations and had these ever since. He is now around 50 and he started teaching at high school a few months ago for a change of pace. The meeting helped me soothe some anxiety over the fact I am not advancing as fast as I'd like to when it comes to teaching. Regardless, I've recently made the effort to ask my students for recommendations to a) the respective language schools, b) on my website and c) on Google Maps. It can help me leverage my position regarding the language schools as well as to attract more private students. The salary negotiations have turned out to be quite a drawn out process. I'm trying to position myself as best as I can in regards to several companies and to present my case as best as I can as well. I hope the interview I'm having tomorrow will be constructive, as I am also effectively asking for my competences and responsibilities to be expanded. T: I managed to get a raise from one of the companies, a nice 16% raise. I'm also looking into getting my own payment terminal in my phone and possibly a pay gate on my website, on top of the cooperation with the benefit companies. I might even start my own LLC soon. Possible direction/goals: I'm also gonna attend an interview and another to re-negotiate my salary, once all the reviews I from my students are in. I received some information that I could use to my advantage, so I'm gonna work on that in the next few weeks. Look into strategies in becoming truly self-employed by skipping the agencies in between. I am going to pursue closer co-operation with my English mentor. I am going to check out a few more seminars on how to run online courses. / English research Women/dating: L: T: In April, we've been apart for about two weeks and there's one more week until she moves to another city for the internship. We spent a lot of time together this week. I've entertained the idea to have a long-distance relationship until I/we are able to be in one place or to change location at will. My plans are to do the Erasmus in Bulgaria and finish the masters at the uni in early 2024 and after that I am completely location-independent - until then, I am to an extent bound in my current city. The money is not necessarily the issue either; although it's usually more expensive to travel than to stay in one place, I expect my financial situation to be healthy. It's not unrealistic, but we'll see. Possible direction/goals: Set up at least two dates a month. ----- Additional thoughts/activities: My hobbies are: personal finance, gunnery, GIS, reading about history, English and geography. This month, I did these cool activities: reading about personal finance, planting trees, visiting LibertyCon, watched videos about modern history and took part in many social events.

19th Apr - 27th Apr: As for porn, I haven't watched it since the day I made my last entry. Neither have I ejaculated until I had sex with my girlfriend yesterday. I believe the best way to control porn is to have a working relationship with all of its elements. I literally had zero thoughts of porn until I came back here to report on it now. I did some work on the marketing/benefit programs to increase my reach to potential students. I will continue working on it in the following days. We with my girlfriend went to the LibertyCon in Prague the last weekend. The topics were very interesting, ranging from economics, politics to philosophy. I definitely had some takeaways from it. I played table football with my friend and we finished 3rd on a tournament on Monday.

Days without the computer are often the best and memorable ones. Movies and series can be sometimes problematic, though I just find it too passive to watch more than one movie or multiple episodes a day - it's not really my cup of tea anyway. Fasting is interesting, because I remember the one time I did it, I found out I have no way to relax without eating something!

I mostly only care about cutting the porn. I've been in a content (sexual) relationship for about four months, but now we're briefly apart for about two weeks. I just want to keep my mind in the real world. Even for singles, keeping the sexual mind on the people that are really around them is still the best solution, because it's at least an actionable indicator that this guy/girl is attractive to them.

I never understood it either, though I've been told it's emotional, creates bonds between people and that people like seeing people who are great at something and succeeding at it.

14th Apr - 18th Apr: On 14th I decided to go to an English event I haven't attended in a few months, as normally I get up early on Fridays and now that I have no lack of English connections. I met some old faces and even made two new connections with guys to go to the shooting range with next month. Crazy. I also visited a friend's birthday celebration nearby. We had Easter holidays for four days here after. I did some schoolwork, got new shoes, a gift for the Georgian girl once she returns, finished the outline of my thesis and sent it to the prof, worked on my English business marketing, watched a lot of finance videos and visited my family. One thing that stains it a bit is the habit of masturbating before sleeping, however I am not going to lose my sleep over it (pun intended, because I actually do). I'll do better next time.

7th Apr - 13th Apr: I drove the Georgian girl to the train station on 8th and we'll meet again on 23rd after she comes back from Georgia. I went tree planting on 9th in an event organized by the university. I normally don't do a lot of volunteering, but sometimes the event fits my style. I met a few known faces there and met a few new people too. I also nearly slid into a really stupid habit regarding masturbation and a sort of porn (again), but I kept away from it for the past two days. Speaking of which, I do check the news again, so I put them on the blocking software again. The last few days have been however good for making time to watch interesting conversations with Peterson, Sowell and yesterday I also watched a few videos about firearms. It's always nice to educate myself, to return to my hobbies and to relax. I also got a 15% pay raise in one of the language companies, so I'm gonna make the other ones follow suit. The negotiations are still going on, though the process is slow. Better yet, I'm gonna explore some ways to do my own marketing during the Easter holiday. That's something I can always work on. I also worked on the sources of my masters' thesis on Monday, so I made progress on that after over 3 months. That'll be also a topic for Easter.

4th Apr - 7th Apr: I'm gonna go to bed early today, as I have been feeling tired all day today. I can't afford to go to bed at midnight and get up at 7. I just have zero energy and the sun wakes me up early. I met a friend I didn't see for 2-3 months, spent time with the Georgian girl and worked on a presentation for the university today. I also had some communication with the language companies regarding my employment and other options of cooperation.

I'm using the template I used the last time. 05/02/21 - 05/04/21 "L" will stand for the (last) plan/notes for this term. "T" will stand for done this term. I added "Future goals/direction" to better reflect on the things I am trying to do and to add specificity. I will copy it and stick it somewhere where I can see it to remind myself whenever I feel aimless. I will also use different colors: blue for newly added goals/habits, green for completed/successful, orange for ongoing/some progress and red for ones I haven't worked on in that period. --- Books/Reading articles: L: I realized I actually do read quite a bit, it's mostly just not books. I'm currently reading one book on sex, but overall during the month I've gone through many articles on history, finance and current events, as well as my newsletters. I've actually decided to block one news outlet that I think I was reading too much for no real gain. Now I follow "Portal:Current events" on Wiki, where I can easily see world-wide news and access information without much bias. T: The situation is fairly similar, except that I cut down on news. I think I much rather watch videos where people are having a conversation or explaining something rather than reading or just simply listening without video. I've barely touched the newsletters. Possible direction/goals: Continue getting through the newsletters. Family: L: I got us a board-game on Christmas that we sometimes play together during the weekends. I'm also helping my grandma to transition to a new phone operator and my brother helped me regarding some settings of my bike. It's a bit of a rare occasion, but I am not visiting my parents this weekend, because my father contracted CV a few days ago. My brother had an inconclusive test, but I am negative, so I'm visiting my grandma tomorrow. T: A few weeks ago, I decided to visit my family every other weekend for the afternoon to prioritize my own issues, needs and wants. I think it's also better to meet the members separately - i.e. meeting my family twice as a whole, plus meeting my father and my brother once for a month for lunch - somewhat seems as more valuable than meeting my family four times as a whole. I also helped my grandma with getting a new phone and transitioning to a new operator! Possible direction/goals: Continue working on bettering the relationships with my family. University: L: I wouldn't have thought so at first, but working on the collaborative assignments has been a crap-shoot. I'm not particularly happy with their outcomes, although they are/were done sufficiently enough to get by. I'm happier with my own work and assignments and it seems I might not even have an exam this semester in the classical sense. As I had guessed, the exam term ended for me by handing in some writing at the beginning of January, yet for most people it ends today, so I haven't really done much in the last month. I contacted one of the profs to be my tutor for my project/thesis. I also take part in our geography student's group, though we're not too active at the moment. T: University's been normal and the classes I attend are mostly interesting. I haven't gone to Germany, but I am planning to go to Bulgaria for Erasmus after summer. It's amazing how the perception of education shifts once one has a real job and isn't fed by parents, for example by learning to value one's time. Possible direction/goals: Find more sources for my upcoming masters' thesis. Work on the assignments in a timely manner. Exercise/movement: L: This month has been slower, yet every week I went at least once for a walk and at least once to the gym. T: I feel that my "free-time" movement habits are sliding, however I somewhat counteracted that by creating incentives to push me into movement, such as having to visit students within walking/biking distance. I'm really not a fan of going to the gym lately, however I've already been outside with people playing football or basketball, as the weather got better. Possible direction/goals: Keep in shape. English: L: I worked around 110 hours this month; 65 and 30 for language schools and 15 for my private students. I also visited my English teacher-friend and asked him about his history when it came to teaching English. He said that he started teaching when he was 26, started his own courses when he was around 35 thanks to recommendations and had these ever since. He is now around 50 and he started teaching at high school a few months ago for a change of pace. The meeting helped me soothe some anxiety over the fact I am not advancing as fast as I'd like to when it comes to teaching. Regardless, I've recently made the effort to ask my students for recommendations to a) the respective language schools, b) on my website and c) on Google Maps. It can help me leverage my position regarding the language schools as well as to attract more private students. I'm also gonna attend an interview and another to re-negotiate my salary, once all the reviews from my students are in. I received some information that I could use to my advantage, so I'm gonna work on that in the next few weeks. T: The salary negotiations have turned out to be quite a drawn out process. I'm trying to position myself as best as I can in regards to several companies and to present my case as best as I can as well. I hope the interview I'm having tomorrow will be constructive, as I am also effectively asking for my competences and responsibilities to be expanded. Possible direction/goals: I'm also gonna attend an interview and another to re-negotiate my salary, once all the reviews I from my students are in. I received some information that I could use to my advantage, so I'm gonna work on that in the next few weeks. Look into strategies in becoming truly self-employed by skipping the agencies in between. I am going to pursue closer co-operation with my English mentor. I am going to check out a few more seminars on how to run online courses. / English research Women/dating: L: T: February and March have been pretty good with the Georgian girl and I believe we both enjoyed it. I'm happy that we managed to get the things we wanted to get done together. We will continue to date, until the distance is just too much to bear. She's going to have a more complicated schedule in April with a lot of traveling and in mid-May she's going to move to another city, which is however reachable on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. I hope to post an update on this when the time comes. Possible direction/goals: Set up at least two dates a month. ----- Additional thoughts/activities: My personal finance hobby has resurfaced once again. I made a new brokerage account, did a lot of reading and made a few calculations in one software. I calculated that my savings rate for 2021 averaged around 50% and that I doubled my net worth over the course of 2021 compared to 2020. My saving and investing is proceeding as planned. I'm also happy that during these two months, I tried out these activities: ice-skating, going to the theater and going to the shooting range. I think there is some merit to sharing joyful activities together with friends. My hobbies are: personal finance, gunnery, GIS, reading about history, English and geography. ----- Thanks for the support this year to the people below: @Max @BooksandTrees @Icandothis @Amphibian220 @The_Creative_Quitter @NesteaDrinker @Marius @alle @NannerZ @awcy_h @goodvibes I am happy that there is some "new blood" on the forums again besides the old guard. New or old, we can always make our lives a bit better. I don't have time to read and post in all your topics, but in case you want to ask me anything, feel free to message me.