Barefoot Mitch

Day 29, Sunday, 10 September, 2020 Nearing the one month mark! I must admit that I have cheated a little bit. I played a few rounds of haxball (some online soccer/airhockey flashgame) during break time with a colleague today. It didn’t ‘trigger’ any convulsive thoughts about playing video games, but it’s still something I should be wary of. Work has been alright. Lots of programming, but also quite a few unnecessary meetings about stuff not ‘feeling right’ for people in other projects. Just let me do work, dangit. I managed to complete the challenge I set myself last Sunday, I ran the entire 5.8km without stopping. That means it’s time to move out, and plan new running routes. :-P. I have to call the rental office tomorrow, to ask if they have processed my information yet. I heard the land lord that manages this property is currently on holiday, so it might take a little while longer.

Day 25, Sunday, 6 September, 2020 Went to view the apartment today. Really nice people (current renters), I can keep their current floor and curtains, and they have some small furniture for sale like lamps and a table which they won’t take to their new house. First floor, sun during daytime, nice big balcony and a decently sized storage box (might be able to build a teeny tiny home gym in there). As far as they knew I’m the only candidate for this apartment, so I’m fairly excited that I might actually move out within the next two months. Lots to think about, already working on a list of stuff I need (like a washing machine, fridge, stove) before moving out. I also have set myself the goal to run the complete 5.8km without stopping before moving out. I should have at least this month to accomplish that goal.

What happens when a supervisor stops supervising you 2.5 months in? They take their cut for supervising you, and you get nothing out of the ordeal? Day 24, Saturday, 5 September, 2020 I really thought I wrote a journal entry yesterday.. Guess not. Yesterday was not the most productive day, typical case of the Fridays. Got quite a bit done throughout the week though, so I accept it. Went grocery shopping in a new supermarket with my mum, got myself a local ‘delicacy’ (kruidnoten). Saturday was a decent day though. Enjoyed a bit of sun, got a confirmation message that I have a viewing for the apartment tomorrow, and I just got back from a 5.8km run. I can nearly run the entire route without stopping now. I think I ran a total of 5.6km out of 5.8km. Only stopped to clear some sharp stones from my feet. People are starting to notice me running barefoot, two ladies even asked if they could record me running for their Facebook or whatever, lol. It’s fun seeing people freed from their mind for the few seconds it takes them to process what I am doing. Bit nervous for tomorrow, I’m not very good at new situations. I usually start sweating quite a bit when I’m feeling anxious or awkward. Still, there’s a chance I will be chosen as candidate for the apartment, so I will have to do my best to convince them I am not a sweaty neckbeard that cannot take care of the place.

I see. So if you decide to not pursue being supervised by someone you lose all your 'flight hours' with them? Sounds almost worse than how pyramid schemes string you along for more and more money. I hope everything works out well though! Day 22, Thursday, 3 September, 2020 Busy busy busy. Skipped another day of journaling.. Working on a portfolio site mock-up in case I decide to look around for a different job. Also re-bought the web-domain I used to host my portfolio on. Will re-create my portfolio over the coming weeks. Got an e-mail from an estate agent about a small studio apartment (40m2), quite affordable and allows me to save a bit of money every month. I’ll probably get a confirmation mail about a viewing opportunity tomorrow. Not the first time I viewed these studios, they’re small (no separate bedroom), but quite comfy. Didn’t get it last time, praying for a bit more luck this time. No plans for the weekend yet, so I should be able to invest a lot of time into the portfolio website, playing music and exercising.

You have to pay to get supervised? That's quite strange. Hows your new supervisor? I haven't had the time to read through people's journals yet. Day 20, Tuesday, 1 September, 2020 Missed a few days, no relapse though, just very busy. Went for a run Saturday night, took a bath, and as soon as I opened my laptop to journal my mom called me downstairs. She say something weird sticking out underneath one of our kitchen cabinets. Turned out to be a mouse tail, we got the mouse out by pulling on the tail with a pair of tweezers, unfortunately killing the animal. Didn’t feel like journaling after, as it was already quite late. Went to the family member I mentioned earlier in my journal. Had a fun day, went shopping, bought a ton of clothes, and ate very nice food. Talked a bit with their video game obsessed son. Very smart guy despite only being 12. I can already notice that his posture is abysmal because of gaming though, so I’ll have to talk with his parents some time soon. Seemed a bit rude to mention my concerns immediately, and they didn’t ask (yet). No time to journal this day, came home pretty late. Monday workday. Came home, ate dinner, went upstairs to journal, get called down, someone at the door. The same family we visited Sunday, they promised me some food they had left in the freezer but forgot on Sunday, so they came and brought it over. Ate it today (Tuesday), very nice stuff. They stayed until quite late, so no time for journaling again. Another day of work today, came home, ate food, and went for a run. Here we are again, no relapse, just been busy. I should be less busy the coming few days, so I’ll journal more often.

Second forum page get. 🙂 Day 16, Friday, 28 August, 2020 Good day at work. Web shop fixed, and we got the green light on a new project as well. I wanted to go for a run today, but as soon as I got ready it started raining, so another lazy day at home. The Kalimba arrived, I didn’t expect that playing one would be this hard. Practice makes perfect. Our house got connected to fibre optics today. Something I've wanted every since I was a little lad. We used to have a really awful DSL connection (4mbit down) up until about 2014. All my friends (video game friends) had good internet and low ping, I had packet loss because I shared the connection with my sister that used to download a lot of junk. I've always wanted fibre optics, and now I'm not even excited about it any more. Sure, my latency to google is lower, and my download speed doubled (from 60 to 120mbit), but it's not like we needed more than that. Oh well, it was a free upgrade.

Congratulations! How are you feeling now compared to before? I hope you feel great, what an amazing achievement!

Things are definitely taking a turn for the better for me it seems like. Getting supervised for a quarter of the day sounds unimaginably stressful, is there nothing you say or do to get them to back off a little? Seems like something that could seriously hinder your performance long-term. Day 15, Thursday, 27 August, 2020 Rather stressful day. Web shop still isn’t live properly, aggravated colleagues (and me) and the boss won’t be happy until the site is completely. Customers can order products, but one of the domains is not working as of yet. My Kalimba should arrive tomorrow when I come home from work, excited for that. Bit of a busy weekend coming up. I want to dedicate the Saturday to reading, working out and playing music. My family and I will be visiting the family member I mentioned earlier in this journal on Sunday, and we will go shopping for new clothes as well. Not that busy for a regular person I imagine, but still much busier than what my weekends used to be in the past few years. I'm having some odd cravings about video games (probably because of the more stressful days I've had), but I counter those thoughts with "I am free from that now". It's still odd that I crave after games I haven't played in years, sometimes even games that no longer or never had entertained me. There's also been thoughts about jumping into game development, but if I think even one small step ahead it's just another form of mental gymnastics/rationalising that goes back to "I did something hard, so I should be rewarded with enjoyment".

Thank you very much! Day 14, Wednesday, 26 August, 2020 14 days! It’s fun comparing the first few days of my journal and compare it to how I feel now. I’m feel much more clear-headed, less anxious, and way less angry and irritable than when I were still gaming. Enjoying work, learning new things, meeting expectations, being more social with other employees within my company. So far so good, let’s keep it up!

You definitely should, I couldn't imagine a better start to the day than going hiking and seeing the sunrise! Day 13, Tuesday, 25 August, 2020 Another busy day at work, with very little exercise (rain, go away). Deadline for the web shop is moved to Wednesday rather than Thursday, so I’m pretty nervous about it. Internal mailing list has already been notified of the new web shop, and external mails will be sent out as soon as we are live. Hope everything goes smoothly. I watched a dozen YouTube video’s about people making their own (chromatic) Kalimba’s. I would love to source some materials and built my own chromatic Kalimba one day. I’m going to read Musical Instrument Design: Practical Information for Instrument Making by Bart Hopkin soon. Two weeks free of gaming tomorrow. Who would've thought. I think the longest I've ever gone without RuneScape was during my teenage years. I used to get grounded from the computer, and the longest I've ever been grounded has been two weeks. I usually were allowed to use other electronic devices though, so I substituted playing PC games by playing PS2 or other console games.

It certainly is, I never heard of Kalimba's before before seeing them on Aliexpress. Walking is a great way to see some awesome sights and get some cardio in, sounds like you have some trails nearby which makes the experience even better. The part of the Netherlands I live in is a bit lacking in terms of nature and trails, going somewhere nice takes up a few hours of your day. Same issue in the Netherlands for pedestrians, especially in bigger cities like Rotterdam. The nicest drivers I've seen so far in the Netherlands weren't Dutch, but German. They stop for everyone and everything, as German law is much more strict when it comes to protecting predestrians. Day 12, Monday, 24 August, 2020 Busy day at work. Got a lot done for our web shop. Nearing the deadline, so we’re all feeling the pressure. Found a very nice looking second hand Hugh Tracey Kalimba that I would love to buy, so I put an offer on it. Still awaiting the sellers reply. I’m still feeling very good overall (freedom from video games and porn!), but I’m not really investing my time wisely yet. Not much else to say about today.

Going barefoot really is the way to go! Healthy feet, happy people. Good on you for teaching your kids the proper way! I'm a bit wary of grass myself, as you can't see glass in it that well. Thank you very much for the warm welcome! I never looking into kung fu before, but it seems that there are two gyms in my city teaching it. The more you know. Seems like an interesting sport. We've apparently even had a Dutch champion in 2017. Cool stuff. Day 11, Sunday, 23 August, 2020 Rainy day, rainy day. Didn’t do any exercise :-(. Wet asphalt feels much sharper on the feet than dry asphalt. Aliexpress product recommendations really came through today. As I was looking for some (fake) plant decoration with LED lights in ‘em for my room the site recommended me a cool looking flute, after clicking on it I saw something that really peaked my interest; a Kalimba, also known as a thumb piano. I looked up the sound signature of the instrument on YouTube and they sound really good. So I ordered two (one that can connect with audio equipment and one acoustic one). Excited! Work tomorrow, hoping for a good nights rest.

Snowy and icy winters and blistering hot summers? I've heard that some people run barefoot during (snowy) winter, others cover up their feet with Vibram Fivefingers or similar type of 'barefoot shoes'. Bike riding during winter seems unwise, too slippery. I never liked running on a treadmill myself. You could substitute cardio with martial arts training during winter time once COVID-19 ends. Day 10, Saturday, 22 August, 2020 Blisters are still healing, riding my bike has been postponed to tomorrow. Decided to sand down and remove the rust from the metal bench in my backyard, spend most of the morning and afternoon on it, still not finished. One of my ‘friends’ thought that me quitting games was unnecessary and that I should just ‘play some casual games during the weekend’. Sure man, I’ll just use a little bit of heroin whilst trying to quit heroin. No thank you sir, I feel much better without video games.

Day 9 - Friday, 21 August, 2020 It’s going to rain all weekend according to Google’s weather forecast. I’m partially glad, as my blisters aren’t healed yet. I wanted to substitute running for cycling this weekend though, we’ll see if that’ll be possible. I painted our awning in the evening. Might have to coat it again, not sure how well that will go with the rain. Is summer really leaving us already?

Day 8 - Thursday, 20 August, 2020 A productive day at work. Nearly done with the webshop changes I don’t need our third-party vendor for. I’m currently reading the “EasyPeasy” PMOHandbook book about stopping porn addiction. My feet are pretty beat up, but still in much better shape than I expected them to be. I can walk just fine, and I don’t even have muscle soreness. I wonder if I will be sore as can be tomorrow.