I played lots of guitar this week, but not a lot of piano. Fitness is going well, at least 3 workouts per week, but some days, I let nutrition slip and only eat like 1000-1500 calories when the goal is 2300 with tons of protein. It might be time to cut down on the little coffee I drink (my beloved 😞) to help me eat more.

Sleep quality and amount has been overall good, keep it up, me.

I'm looking for more work next month, which I've put off far too long.

Goals for February: 1. write and stick to a schedule as closely as possible, 2. avoid wasting morning time lazing in bed (which also delays breakfast/meds, sabotaging nutrition).

roll call:

@SeventyTwoTrillion@hexbear.net

@Mokey@hexbear.net

@FumpyAer@hexbear.net

(if anyone else wants to get added to the gamma male roll call please comment below)

How was your January?

Overall, a lot more chaotic than I thought it would be; hoped things would calm down after December.

Do you want to share something that you've done this week or month?

The news megathreads and posts therein have taken a backseat to trying to find more literature and decent news sources.

As a sneak peek as to what I've been trying to cook over the last few weeks (that the news mega people won't see unless they're also here, or scour my profile I suppose), I wanna shift from daily+weekly news posts to daily+monthly news posts, as with nearly two years of experience - good fucking lord it really has almost been that long - I'm coming around to the idea that a week is actually kind of an awkward timeframe. It's not really long enough to allow most events to play out, and for shorter term events, you want the granularity that daily updates gives you rather than having to wait a week. So, daily posts are staying, but I want to do monthly posts. The actual logistics of this is what I need to work out, and it's taking me longer than I thought as I only have so much free time in a day.

As I said, I'm also trying to find more literature, and this is to get the geopolitics reading list up from its barebones state to something actually useable. The problem is that most literature of the communist variety tends to be focussed on the big hits - the Russian Revolution, or the Chinese Revolution, or events from the 19th century, etc. The rest of it is very general, like on imperialism in general, or on Marxism/anarchism in general, or on Africa in general. If I want to find a useable, relativelt recent, and definitive text on, say, Gabon, then where do I go? Repeat for 200 countries, of which ~150 are either fairly obscure, or known but are usually oversimpified. Like, geopolitics is kind of my thing now. I want to be the mythical Geopolitics Understander, and I can't do that unless I actually fucking know what's going on (and has been going on) in Tanzania, or Mongolia, or Peru. In general I wanna minimize the sense of events overtaking me - as in, I don't wanna be like "Oh, looks like [country] has popped off into revolution/war/crisis, anybody got any articles or reading about this?"

So that is my current task, and I'm not gonna say it's going badly, but it's harder than I thought it would be.

Do you have some plans or goals for February?

Well, continuing this, and finishing it up hopefully. I really hope I can put something together for January, but I can't promise anything. On top of that, I do wanna get into cycling again.

Solidarity forever, comrades.

I think my January went well. This month I mostly focused on nutrition. I cooked healthy meals and ate a bunch of fruits and vegetables, especially broccoli. I also practiced meditation around 4-5 times every week.

In February, I would like to touch grass more often. I'm already going outside for walks every day but I'd like to hang out with friends more often. Other than that, I want to keep making progress in general and continue all my regular habits like nutrition, reading and meditation

Have yet to fail my 2x a week exercise resolution. And I'm practicing chess and doing the Duolingo again.

Hello fellow SigmaAlphaBeta Grindset Self Help Reading Mindful Capitalism Cuckolds. I have been out of town for some music shit. Some good things came out of it that I can't say here but I can say i went to the gym and ran two miles for the first time in a long time. I did practice everyday but it wasnt always the best practice.

Not trying to practice today because I wanna play the new Yakuza game.

Forearm technique:

[v] Tap Stroke 70 BPM. I finished full strokes for now, tap strokes are basically baby full strokes so I don't think I'll be spending much time here. 10mins.

[v] Rebound stroke LH 16th@100BPM. Drop forearm, let stick hit surface, pickup forearm, get free rebound stroke. I'll be working on double stroke after this. 10mins.

Left foot technique:

I might need to take a lesson again. I think I'm stuck.

[v] Heel Down 60-70 pedal stays with foot 10mins

[v] Ankle 120-125BPM 10mins

[v] Ankle 175-170BPM 10mins

Groove Studies:

[v] Jazz ride with Bass Drum permutations

[v] Work on weak points on 1 bar click on, 2 bars click off. Eighth Notes, Sixteenth Notes, sextuplets subdivided in 3 and2, 32nd. 60 BPM Benny Greb app 20 mins.

[v] Quarter Notes. 30BPM Subdivide between 8th notes and Triplets 20 mins.

Listening/Ride Cymbal:

I need to do this more seriously, I'm falling off the wagon.

[ ] Listen to Recordings, take notes.

Transcribe: Havent touched this in weeks.

[ ] Minority

January went good, a lot of no work. February will be much busier for me oh well.

January was good, lots to build off of.

Meal prepped Sunday. Going to keep that up, best way for me to eat good throughout the week.

Started week 2 of my new lifting routine today. This one really vibes with my current goals/outlook. I've been about start slow, progress slow, for years now, but at some point I'd always get excited and skip weight progressions and that'd inevitably lead to stalling.

This time I will stick to the plan. I will not add 10lbs instead of 5lbs, because I'll get to an arbitrary weight goal sooner. If I want a harder challenge there's built in ways to go harder without locking in a new baseline.

Okay so I failed my last weeks goal to make an entire song, but I succeeded in many other ways, so it's all good!

• I got a lot of exercise, and "forced" myself to go and do it even when I was feeling like a bag of potatoes after work. I'm sore as fuck today and it rules.
• Getting back on the lifting train. I used to be able to lift pretty heavy things, but that kind of fell off a little bit after I started working full-time.
• Finally took the time to learn hi-hat barks. It's one of those things that I've heard a million times but not understood how to do, so it was a major "ooooh so that's what that sound is!!" moment. Fun.
• Made a really dope beat in 13/8 (3-3-2-3-2) when I was studying odd time signatures and polyrhythms.
• Submitted a track to be released on an independent "Various Artists" type compilation. Figured it'll help me get some external validation and get over some of the self-criticism if it gets released. Means at least one other person thought it was decent, right?
• Doing well at work, still employed and keeping up the hustle. Landed a project that's gonna look really fucking sweet on the ol' CV, too.
• Smoked more weed 😎

This week I'll try to:

• Flesh out the 13/8 beat into a proper track.
• Play some more drums and grind some more left-foot technique. Aiming for 60bpm 16ths, where [ 1 e ] are on open hh (accent on 1) and [ & a ] are on closed hh. Move the accent around and switch to [ x x o o ] etc for bonus points.
• 2x gym. Improve my squat, deadlift, and ohp. Either same weight more reps, or more weight same reps, doesn't really matter.
• Leave the house for non-chore matters at least once.

January, first month without video games totally! Let February be the month of working out.

Back on my bullshit, quitting smoking starting tonight, got NRT this time though. I used my state's quit line and got the gum. Hopefully I can make it last this time. When I break 26 days I'll make a thread because then it's been a record for me.

Life got in the way and I didn't exercise 3x last week, 2x is still better than the 0x that I used to do so w/e still a win. Already 1x this week.

Still eating enough, a bit more wouldn't hurt though.

Study slowed down, too much fucking about on my phone at work instead. Gonna try to do better this week. Still reading for fun tho at least.

Was sick this past two-ish weeks and kinda slipped. Main issue was being sick really messed up my eating schedule which lead to overeating on snacks, which has highlighted another issue that I'm unconciously subbing sweets for salties. Not worse but also not really better. I've also started noticing the limits of minimizing added sugar from prepackaged food, so unless I start making everything from scratch I think I might bite the bullet and try getting back to calorie counting.

Been looking for something to pickup for February and came across this concept called a "commonplace book" which is just writing down tidbits of stuff that resonates with you. This seems like it might be a decent fit for me because journaling isn't something have had success with in the past. Might also help cut down on digital clutter.

Marxist theory: Read

Weight: Down at least 10 pounds

Gym Membership: Purchased

Tasty cauliflower rice bowls: At least 4 of them made up in the fridge

Will return to the self improvement Mega tomorrow with screenshots of how much I ran on the elliptical

Been having a rough January because I'm living with my GF and her family, but I'm unemployed and can't really contribute, which makes me feel shitty.

I'm doing my PhD, but job hunting has not got me anywhere for the past 7 months, and my savings are pretty much exhausted.

This has made it very difficult to maintain good habits and has led to binge drinking to switch my brain off

Making good progress on my c/news goals. Felt like I was shoveling snow slower than it was falling down for a while but now there is an actual light at the end of the tunnel.

Also going to bed earlier, which is great. I think I just have to ditch my phone entirely past like 10pm. Even with the best of intentions, I end up spending too much time on it at night.