Functional_Addict

Day 23/24/25/26/27: Sorry everyone i went full underground this week. I was quite stressed this week. The master thesis isnt going well... and my advisor is extremly hard to conncet. The good thing is that i just started to i could still switch the topic. I will probably still try it a bit but i decieded that i want to be prepared if this isnt working out with the current topic -just in case i sent out a bunch of emails to different professors this week and was in the official help council of my university to get some advice which was not realy helpfull so i have to figure this out on my own which is frustrating i dont know i would have liked to talk to someone about it. In the beachlor programm we had someone were we could go with such problems but in the master program we theoreticly have one of those aswell but he will only help you with minor problems for the rest you are on your own. I already got some answers from some professors back to my request for possible topics and some of them seem to remember me and seem like they would be very happy to work with me on some topics - its a much more welcomeing athmosphere then my current thesis professor. I didnt push the cello super hard this week since the stress and frustation with the thesis but i did some progress on the rain of castamere and it seems the second half of the Game of thrones notes are a bit boring i might have to do some edeting there to make them sound better. Week 4/5 goals : - Master 1. goal try to get in contact with the currenct advisor to see if i can save the sinking ship - Master 2. goal prepare for the worst meet up in person with everyone who responded to potential new topics - perfect Reign of Castamere and try to record it - modifiy the second half of the Game of Throne notes so they dont sound so boring

Day 21/22: Ok its now 3 Weeks without gaming. And i am happy to report all cravings and urges have completly stopped. In the first 2 weeks i often had the disire to play when iam board but this is now completly gone. When iam board i just kind of do something - it sounds stupid but if iam extremly board i may just stand up and walk around in my room. Its not something i do concously it just kind of happens. I still watch youtube videos that cover gaming sometimes and in the first 2 weeks i would always have that tingling feeling that i could do that aswell i would just need to start up steam and... But now i can report thats gone aswell. I am quite happy with this development this makes not gaming quite a bit easyer. Lets hope it stays this way and that iam over the hardest part. On a different note: I tryed a bunch of stuff of stuff to get the VAE to work wiht eeg data on day 21 but nothing realy worked that was a bit depressing but i found out a few new things about how keras works on my way into madess. Day 22 was filled with a reading a bunch of papers on how a vae may be improved and how they work on a more mathemeticly level. On the Cello front: the reigns of casamere notes are realy nice and the parts that i can play already sound wonderful but the end is quite tricky. Iam not so sure about the game of thrones note they sound rather bland i dont know like something is missing. Week 3 goals : - (Master:) Train first Variable auto encoder Network with eeg data ⬛ VAE for EEG implemented still doesnt work as planed proably need to talk to my advisor - Start with to practice a new piece : ⬛ Reign of catamere is comming along but the jumps at the end are realy fucking hard

@Deku Lol that image realy got a good giggle out of me thx ? @JustTom Yes machine learning. I try to augment EEG Data with Variable autoencoder to improve the performance of a Brain Computer Interface. - What is your thesis about? Day 19/20: Holy shit it got extemly hot here in Germany. Beeing traped infront of code at hot days is not the most fun as you might imagine. But the possitve part is i made some progress on my VAE code. The breakthrough on Wendsday was a big help and today i got my first VAE with EEG data to work - the loss function needs proably some changes aswell as the disign of the layers. But No errors is a victory in my book. Yesterday i prepeared/prepocessed the data for the EEG VAE today - could probably have done a bit more but i was a bit lazy mainly because i was so proud i figured out how the latent space works the day before. On the sport front i keep the skating up, but since the temperture would boil you alive if you go outside in the middle of the day i have to wait till the evening to go skating, normaly between 9-10pm. Its actully quite a nice time for skating the sun is setting at this point and there arnt that many people on my skating track and as soon as i come back it gets dark. I finaly decided what i will play next on the Cello. Its a Game of Thrones piece well actully 2 songs to be more accurate. Normly to warm up the fingers i play a simplified version of the Reign of Castamere(the Lannister Song (see Red Wedding(Spoiler) background song: https://youtu.be/ZnxvUuSzbMI?t=63)) but i found the original notes for the song combined with the Theme song. The Original Reign of Castamere notes are quite a bit more complicated then my simplifed notes. This makes on the one hand sound much fuller and generly nicer to listen to but also way harder to play. There are fast jumps and at the end a tricky string crossing. Trying to get the string crossing correct took me 30 min today and its only like 8 notes and its still not perfect. The Second part of the Notes is the Game of Thrones Theme song you proably all know. This Song was one of the main reasons i started to play Cello 2,5 years a go. I tryed different versions of it in the past but they either didnt sound good because the notes were crap or in other cases i just sounded crap. The problem with the Theme is that it is written for 2 Cellos and until now i hadnt found a version sounds accaptalbe with one cello(obviously i am alone here so i need a version for 1 Cello). I think this version i found now is proably the best i found so far. I will give it a go. I realy want this to sound good and worthy of the song that inspired my to start this. Week 3 goals : - (Master:) Train first Variable auto encoder Network with eeg data ⬛ VAE for EEG implemented and it ran (didnt do quite what i wanted it to but alteast it ran) - Start with to practice a new piece : ⬛ Found the Notes for a new version of Reigns of Castamere(Lenistersong) and the Game of Thrones Theme this will be a bit of longer project to get them perfect if i have Reigns of Castamere in a acceptable condition i will upload something

I heard the 100th time is the charm! Trying to address everything wrong in your life can be overwhelming. And this overwhelming feeling can lead to the desire for escapism. And the best way to escape real life is gaming. So try taking small steps one project after the other.To avoid the overwhelming and the resulting escapism.

Day 17/18: So this is the first of my bi dayly reports. The last 2 days were full of looking at code then changing it seeing that it doesnt work and then cussing. Who could have thought that writing a master thesis about the cutting edge of machine learning could be this hard. Not gone lie this can be quite frustrating and if i would still play games i would probably try to escape the agony by escaping into the relaxing world of video games. But since this is no longer a option i make progress - very very slow and frustrating progress. On a more positive note my yoga mat arived and yoga realy helps to get a good start in the day. The star wars theme i started last week on the cello sounds now acceptable and i might record something soon - iam still not sure what iam gone practice next maybe something from game of thrones or maybe the imperial march sticking with the star wars theme. I also got a new chalorie tracking app the last one was quite anoying. Week 3 goals : - (Master:) Train first Variable auto encoder Network with eeg data ⬛ Finished the algorithm for a VAE for the MNIST dataset and understood how to sample the latent space - Start with to practice a new piece :⬛ Only practiced old songs couldnt decied on a new one yet

Day 16: Well the post from now onwards these post arnt gone be super exiting to read since i will basicly only work on the master thesis every day all day. So there aint gone be muchto tell you about. So what iam gone do from now is i will only post every second day unless ther was something meaningfull to report. I had some problems today with getting started to work if i would still game i would have defentiy started to game just out of escapism but since i dont i actully did something - not much but better then nothing. Lets hope tomorrow is better. Cello practice felt a bit unmotivated aswell but Star wars sound okish now so i need a new song. I am thinking about the impiral march but thats actully quite hard. I will probably print the notes and then see what to do. Week 2 goal Results - Finish Startrek theme start a new piece --> Is Mostly done to goal sucessfull - Finish resume --> Not quite finished i need to fill in some details - Finish exam 2 prep --> Done! No more exams! - restart work on Master thesis --> Could have done more But this ainta race its a marathone and we just got started - I kicked the tinder goal out for multipile reasons

@JustTom I play Cello I recorded the Star Trek Voyager theme i practiced last week today. : https://instaud.io/3YCL If you are interessted in the progress I have a Link in Day 8 when i got the first half mostly correct. To the tinder - well i dont realy have the option to just jump over to asia sooo no white guy bonus. And you are probably correct girls have so much choice its probably not worth it to put the affort in. But i feel its kind of the only option. I dont have the balls for cold approach so thats not a option but iam sure it works decently if youget good at. Day 15: I did a bunch of work on the resume in the first half of the day. And the second part of the day was filled with more literature research for the Master thesis. All went relativly well. And in the afternoon i went skating. Then Cello i recorded the Star Trek Theme from last week. The Star Wars theme turns out a bit harder then thought the speed needed is reltivly high and keeping the precision up while increasing speed is proofing difficult. So i was maybe a bit optimistic when i thought i finish it earlyer in the week. Week 2 goals : - Finish Startrek them start a new piece ⬛ Getting the speed up is proving to be quite hard - Finish resume ⬛ Mostly done just needs some details to be added - Finish exam 2 prep ⬛ Wrote it so thats done. - restart work on Master thesis ⬛ More literature research

Day 14: I didnt feel like writing yesterday but nothing remarkable happend anyway so lets pretend the day never happend. Back to today: 2 weeks without gaming! Time for a little resume: Feels strange to write that it was so long part of my life. The cravings are basicly not existing as long as i keep myself bussy but there are still days when i am not bussy or i have done whatever needs to be done and then the cravings come hard. I dont mind the cravings on lazy days so much they feel normal and deseved for beeing lazy and not doing anything. But i get quite angrey at the cravings that start whenever i was super productive the day and just want to relax for the last few hours.There is just nothing that comes close the relaxation level of watching a series on one monitorand playing a aram or a bit of elite on the other its the perfect mix of engament and entertaiment and icant find a replacement for that.I think starting to game in this time wouldnt be a bad thing since i have done everything i need to do and more for the day BUT if i would start gaming in those situations i wouldnt be able to controll it. I would keep playing the whole night instead of going to bed or i would cut the days work short to start earlyer with the "deserved" gaming. I would try to trick myself into thinking it would be ok to just start this one day a bit earlyer - except it would be every day. So the only solution is to not game all together. And be slightly anoyed after a productive day that i cant quite find the relaxation i want. Week 2 goals : - Finish Startrek them start a new piece ⬛ Getting the speed up is proving to be quite hard - Finish resume ⬜ Not today - Finish exam 2 prep ⬛ Wrote it so thats done. - restart work on Master thesis ⬛ Restarted the work today with literature research and a very limited amount of coding - improve Tinder profile ⬜ Stupid goal i should concentrate on other things

Yeah that was weird ? Well iam not watching any star wars at the moment (i ofcause watched all the movies) but at the moment i just try playing the theme song. Sadly iam defenitly not super handsome(that would be real nice) but tinder is kind of the only option if you want some booty.

Day 12: Despite the chinese spammer invasion here today iam here again once more. So originaly i planed to be super productive today buuut it came different then planed. I felt quite exhausted i think the last week of exam prep was maybe more straining then i thought it was. I also was super sore from the 2h walk yesterday. So i couldnt push myself to do much. so i just didnt. So just eating nice food and binge watching series today not ideal but whatever i think i earned that. Atleast i did my usual yoga in the morning and i went skating in the evening. Tomorrow will be more productive! Week 2 goals : - Finish Startrek them start a new piece ⬛ First half of star wars is done but secondhalfis harder and will take a bit longer - Finish resume ⬜ Nope i was lazy today - Finish exam 2 prep ⬛ Wrote it so thats done. - restart work on Master thesis ⬜ Nope i was lazy today - improve Tinder profile ⬜ Probably have to wait on this till next week until a friend comes back and helps me with photos

One week! Whooo nice work so far! And also good doing some studing the haredst part is often to just start.

Day 11: Hallo you all. yesterday i thought today would be Day 5 all over again - lots of free time with nothing anything to do but to crave for gaming. But nothing could be further from the truth. This was probably the best day since i started the detox! Day started as it always does - yoga. Still amazed by this stuff. Then i wrote exam 2. It went okish wasnt amazing but i think its good enough. This was my last exam - ever (well atleast in university) feels realy good to be so close to the finish line. Then i went shoping for a yoga mat but those ones in the store all kind of looked crappy so amazon it is. Then i came home ate lunch and watched a bit netflix. I decided to spoil myself today and give myself a day off today since the exams are now done. But to avoide the situation of just sitting around i already had a plan. There is a sailing club i wanted to checkout near the town - its quite a journey to get there but that was kind of the point. I kind of hoped to find someone there to ask if i could maybe help out a bit and learn a fewthings about sailing. But i didnt realy expect anyone to be there the whole thing was more about getting out of the house. The way there also involved quite a long walk. As expected nobody was there when i showed up but it was worth a try and it was a nice little adventure - i was never in this part of town since its quite out of the way. After getting back i thought about which song to play next and looked for notes. And since we got Star Trek last time i thought it would be fitting to go with Star Wars next. I went and printed the notes at the university and went grocery shopping. At this point it was already getting quite late - originaly i wanted to go skating but there wasnt even time for that today time just flew and my feet also did hurt like hell after the long walk to the sailing club. Then i played cello - the star wars theme is suprisingly simple just need to memorize the notes a bit more. I will probaly need a new piece before the week ends. Then dinner and the day was already pritty much over. Time just flew today i was active just felt great. Week 2 goals : - Finish Startrek them start a new piece ⬛ Started Star wars them - seems to be quite easy - Finish resume ⬜ Nope took a day off today - Finish exam 2 prep ⬛ Wrote it so thats done. - restart work on Master thesis ⬜ Nope took a day off today - improve Tinder profile ⬜ Probably have to wait on this till next week until a friend comes back and helps me with photos

This cat will be very happy from now on. You will have so much time to cuddle with her!

Day 10: Whooo double digits party! Today was anoying.Thats the best wayto describe it - i mean i knew it would be sitting through 10h of video content of a lecture that is 70% linear algebra is not great fun. But it had to be done and now its finished. Exam preperation for exam 2 is officaly done. Well there wasnt much going on except repeating the lecture today as you might imagine. I did my normal yoga and cello, the star trek piece is basicly finished at this point i have to get a new piece not sure what yet. Iam a bit worried for tomorrow afternoon. When the exam is done everything that hast to be done immediately will be done and i basicly have a bunch of free time. As you all know thats no good for not gaming. I can ofcause go for a skate and i also want to go in the city and buy a few things but thats not gonne cut it for long. Not sure yet what to do about that. Week 2 goals : - Finish Startrek them start a new piece ⬛ Star trek is essentialy done need a new piece for tomorrow - Finish resume ⬜ Nope only lecture watching alll day - Finish exam 2 prep ⬛ Done! - restart work on Master thesis ⬜ Nope only lecture watching alll day - improve Tinder profile ⬜ Nope only lecture watching alll day

Day 9: So the day of Exam 1 has come. Day started with yoga again. I am still amazed every times how good you feel after it. Then i packed all my stuff together and went to write the exam - all went quite well :-). Normaly the rest of a exam day is prime gaming time since there is nolonger anything super important to do and exams are quite exhausting. But not today - i made some lunch then i wanted to continue with exam 2 preperation but i couldnt quite get my concentration up so i took a little 15min nap. After then exam 2 prep continued tillthe evening. I went Skating today. My patched skating jeans did hold up suprisingly well maybe stiching is my secret talent. Then dinner and Cello. The full star trek them sounded actully quite decent for the fist time. After that even more exam 2 prep. I now complete summerizing and learning everything. But to catch up on some detailsi will have to review 10h of video recordings of the lecture tomorrow/rest of today. Last time i just played games while doing so and that worked great. Just watching it will probably drive me slightly crazy. Oh well only one day. Week 2 goals : - Finish Startrek them start a new piece - Finish resume - Finish exam 2 prep - restart work on Master thesis - improve Tinder profile