ceponatia

I try to not say "it only kills people over _____" because obviously they're still human beings too so that's still bad, but most of us don't have anything to worry about. If anything I'd want to get it early just to get it out of the way. Lol. I don't know if you were seriously asking if you're a sociopath or psychopath, or if you were just being sarcastic... but you're obviously not. Not only did you open your paragraph by saying you felt sympathy for poor people who were susceptible to the disease, you also wouldn't be asking that question if you were a sociopath. You likely wouldn't even be on this forum at all because you'd think you were perfect and there's no reason to change. Likely, you're like most of us and just detached socially from the world due to gaming. I've asked myself the same question when I was younger. But yeah, if you ask, you're not. 🙂

Might just be a muscle? Have you gone to the doctor? Maybe just some anti-inflammatory pills would help you.

Fitness is stagnant, I don't have much energy after work these days. Either I'm getting old or something is wrong. Lol I've thought that maybe I should try napping but then I just sleep til 9 and can't fall back asleep, end up staying up all night, and barely make it through the work day. Perhaps, like yourself, I should just get back on the habit of getting up early. What time do you go to sleep?

Age. People my age are married and have their own thing going on. Nobody just hangs out in large groups anymore. When I was younger there were always parties to go to where you'd meet a few new people to add to your circle, even if they were just occasional friends. Aside from coworkers and my relatives I don't know a single person.

Isn't it amazing how little we actually have to do to lose weight? Lol. People make it sound like you have to cut out everything but water and lettuce or you'll be morbidly obese. I just stopped snacking and lost 60lbs. That's it. I wasn't even working out at the time.

7% body fat! That's a dream for me lol. I don't stay consistent at the gym enough, it's just too busy and I hate waiting in line for 30 minutes just to do 24 bench presses. I gotta follow through on joining a real gym... less people go to those, I've found.

Nope, not yet. I've looked on meetup but there's nothing local, unfortunately. It's still early in the process, I'm sure it will lead to good things in that department!

If you like 1984 and you haven't read anything by Anthony Burgess yet, you have to check him out next! He wrote A Clockwork Orange, of course, which you've probably seen the movie for if you haven't already read it but I actually like his book The Wanting Seed better. Very dystopian and in a similar vein to 1984. It's about a society that has scripted wars in order to control the population and keep people in a state of constant worry. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley is another good one in that genre but more about how the unchecked pursuit of liberty for liberty's sake can be a bad thing.

Had a great time! My teacher is a guy my age and although he's incredibly socially awkward, we get along well and he really knows what he's talking about (plays like 12 different instruments fluently). I have some homework for the rest of the week and was able to skip a lot of the first part of the book because of all the self-teaching I was attempting previously. Very optimistic! Time to open up Studio One and play some melodies.

Leaving for first piano lesson in a few minutes. 😄 Feeling much better, the illness seems to have passed. Still don't have a car; hopefully they'll at least call me to update me tomorrow. If not I'll call them Wednesday. Didn't go to work today because I have tons of PTO and it was just too much of a hassle to organize a ride to and from work (it'd have to be two different people). Tomorrow I'm going to a different building for training and it's close to home so that'll be easier.

Sick today. Flu I think. Just gonna binge watch the new season of Altered Carbon and if the medicine I took makes my head stop vibrating I might play some music for a bit. Don't have a car right now anyway so there's not much else I can do in this state.

I think there's two things that go on there. One is that some people are just addicted to negativity and misery and no matter what happens they will be unhappy. Others are completely incapable of taking responsibility for the decisions they've made in life. I deal with the latter far more at my office. Like women who complain that their baby's father doesn't pay child support even though they've known all along that he has 6 children with other women that he's never paid for. Why would this time be different? lol. "...wear a giant sign saying 'I'm an idiot..." that's funny because it's what I always say about people who complain about their spouse. It's like advertising that you're a moron who makes horrible decisions. Lol.

I've always wanted to get into D&D (actually Shadowrun, specifically) but every group I ever joined lasted for like 2 games, lol. Seems like great fun though!

It boggles my mind how often people who chose to have children spend all their time complaining about the fact that they have children. Lol. I work in a child support office so it's basically all I hear day in and day out. I know what you mean about not feeling strong emotions very often. I get excited about moving forward in music but that's about it. I got pretty low yesterday, lower than I've been since I quit drinking, but I'm back now. Other than that, though, I never have anything truly sad or happy in my life.

Been a couple days. I've had a pretty bad end to my week, unfortunately. We had a bad snowstorm Wednesday night and Thursday morning. On my way to work I slid on some black ice and crashed into another car. Did no damage to theirs and just had a crack on my bumper so we decided to not get insurance involved (don't need my rate going up $600 for the next 3 years). Took it to the shop because it's a lease so I have to get it fixed and A FREAKING BUMPER COSTS $2000. Coincidentally that is exactly the amount of money I paid to get out of debt, so now I'm going back into debt just as much as I was... like I made no progress at all. I was really depressed and beat up over it yesterday but I'm better now. It's just money and I'll pay it off again eventually. I'm just sick of the endless cycle of interest payments and recurring loans (complicated but basically I have to take out a $1000 loan every time I get paid because it has to be paid with every check.. and it's my entire check). The really shitty part is my lease is up in a few months and now I won't even have enough money to get a new one. I'm going to have to buy some rusty beat up piece of shit and fall back into that trap of having my starter and alternator replaced every 6 months like when I was younger. I'm not depressed anymore, I'm pissed off. But it is what it is. On the bright side my piano lessons start in 2 days. I hope my car will be fixed by then.

Tax return came today. Paying off allllll of my debt like planned (aside from student). I'll try to save a little for some fun but at the end of the day, having no monthly payments on anything will leave me with a lot more fun money anyway. Also nice to know that I won't be spending a dime on games or game-related products. Planned out a modular synth build last night and then found an app (which is 😮 a bit like a game) which teaches you finger drumming on sample pads. It's a lot of fun and I've already noticed an improvement in my timing and coordination. It's just like those crappy phone piano games (which don't actually teach you anything because they're on a phone) but since you're using a hardware controller with it, it's like learning an instrument. Excited.

Yeah, I'm excited! It's right after work and in walking distance from the office so very convenient. I want to eventually learn several instruments (and to sing) and I think that piano is a great foundation. The friends I have who went straight to guitar always seem like they're missing a lot of theory, which is usually fine because they're playing rock songs not orchestral compositions, but my perfectionism won't let me learn 25% of it. Lol. Second week of my new class today. This week is on motherboards so I'll probably breeze through it like I did with last week's material (assembling a PC). This whole course seems to be prep for the A+ exam which I've already been reading Mike Meyer's latest book for, so it's been very easy. A+ isn't difficult to begin with... most of us ex-gamers are probably pretty well versed in computer hardware and operating systems. The only hard part about the class is that the software we use for our labs is terrible and extremely unpleasant to use (cengage).

I feel like I say this to everyone who has a new hobby, but I've always wanted to learn to code a Raspberry, lol. Maybe I just like too many things. I thought about buying one a few months ago but I couldn't find any projects online that really spoke to me. Keep me updated on how it goes!

Finally pulled the trigger and signed up for piano lessons. Mondays at 5:00 I'll have a half hour lesson. Not a bad price either, definitely less than I expected.

@creationlist Those statistics would probably be suspect because what are they classifying as a gamer or an internet user? Everybody with a smartphone is an internet user, and I'd wager most phone users have at least tried a game like Candy Crush. But as for people who actually navigate to sites like Reddit or something like that, most people don't I've found. That's why I always tell my friends who are trying to be web designers that the future is in apps, not websites. Nobody goes to websites anymore. "Average" people don't even have desktop computers in their homes these days. So yeah if they're talking about that kind of internet user, I'd bet that most or all of them are also gamers because they're the ones who have PCs and are far less likely to have social lives.

Just got a copy of Thucydides "The Peloponnesian War" translated by Martin Hammond. I think it's probably one of the essential historical texts to read as it's a first hand account of the transition of power from Athens to Sparta, which of course led to the conquering of all of Greece by Macedon years later. Also a good reminder that people have been voting for unqualified, selfish liars since the beginning of time and we're all doomed. Lol

Well, feminism itself isn't bad. There are just so many versions of feminism and the only ones that ever get attention are the crazy ones. It's like conservatism in America... conservatives aren't all racist homophobes who hate poor people, but they're the only ones who ever get on the news. Lol

I think the big difference here is that the people behind the pick up artist books and classes know they're bullshitting people and ripping them off. Most of the NoFap community genuinely want to help each other although I believe the founders are having a bit of a laugh.

Yeah I read a couple of feminist books when I was younger and one of them was defending porn as a way for women to take charge of their sexuality and blah blah, and the other was quite against it. I think to some degree it could be true but you never see a retired porn star who doesn't look used up, tired, and slightly insane. Plus, the industry is run by a certain type of man who is not really in the biz for women's welfare, so that whole side of the argument is BS in my opinion.

Lol that dating advice stuff is so cringey. For some reason I've been seeing lots of ads for it on my YouTube account lately. I watched one all the way through just to see if anything has changed since I was desperate and reading about it back in like 2005 (it hasn't) and I think now the algorithm things that I just love that kind of ad.