What's Up Gamers
I haven’t written a blog post in around a year and a half. I’ve been spending all of my writing energy on journaling off and on and writing thoughts on the books I’m reading. I’m not really in the mood to write about too much right now but here’s a list of some of the books I’ve read in the past year and a half and my thoughts on them.Avoiding a slow death
I regret to inform you that you’re dying. We all are. The journey we’re on is a one way trip and we’re unlikely to discover a cure by the time you need it. Knowing that, how will you decide to live the life you have?10 reasons why I'm in love with bouldering
Bouldering is a form of free climbing that is performed on small rock formations or artificial rock walls without the use of ropes or harnesses. I’ve recently fallen in love with the sport and I want to tell you why. So here’s 10 (or so) reasons why I’m in love with bouldering.
Got to Go Fast
Yesterday I discussed me getting back into intermittent fasting and the individualistic (and very Western) reasons why. The short of it is: I want to feel good about my body, I want people to find me attractive and one way I can go about that is by slimming down a little. Now, are there less selfish reasons why someone would decide to start fasting? Well, of course, fasting, and dietary restrictions in general, are commonly practiced in many faiths.
Sentient Potatoes: The Future of War
So I’m doing intermittent fasting again. It works for me. It helps me reduce my weight in a sustainable way that doesn’t disrupt my life (too much). I don’t want to lose much weight. I don’t have to. From my very unbiased perspective, I can assure you that losing 10 pounds would be enough to bring me to very sexy man level. Theoretically (I don’t think it’s going to happen but who knows), losing 20 pounds would bring me to sexy Greek God level.
Undiscording yourself 101
Skip ahead if you know what you’re doing and just want to learn how to delete all your messages on a Discord server. Discord is a social media platform allowing users in various user-created groups, called servers, to chat with each other through text or voice chat and stream video of themselves or their screen, all in real time. Text messages are stored on the server forever and aren’t automatically deleted no matter how old they are or currently relevant they are.
Get me out of here!
I like to play games. And to no one’s suprise, I guess I’m really into escape rooms. What are escape rooms, you ask? Borrowing elements from point-and-click adventure games, live-action role-playing, interactive theatre, treasure hunts, movies, and TV shows, an escape room is “a live-action team-based game where players discover clues, solve puzzles, and accomplish tasks in one or more rooms in order to accomplish a specific goal (usually escaping from the room) in a limited amount of time”.
The Overjustification Effect
I learned to code sometime in 2011. I started getting paid to code in 2016. What started out as a passion turned into a job. This sometimes leads to what’s called the overjustification effect. The overjustification effect occurs when an expected external incentive such as money or prizes decreases a person’s intrinsic motivation to perform a task. Overjustification is an explanation for the phenomenon known as motivational “crowding out”. The overall effect of offering a reward for a previously unrewarded activity is a shift to extrinsic motivation and the undermining of pre-existing intrinsic motivation.
Benefiting from the Nasal Douche
I’ve suffered from seasonal allergies and dust mite allergies (and cats make me want to die) most of my life. I wasn’t brought to an allergy doctor when I was a kid and so I just learned how to deal with it. But my symptoms worsened over time, making it impossible for me to ignore them any longer. Eventually, I went to get help. How does one treat allergies? I’m not a doctor but this is what I know.
F*** dating apps
As discussed in my first entry of my “F*** X” series of posts, we are motivated by a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards that encourage us to spend our valuable time on certain activities rather than others. Companies are not people, they’re not your friend. If they could murder you, without getting caught, and sell your organs for profit, they would. Money is what motivates companies to do what they do.
F*** the haters.
Every couple of weeks, my friend L decides that it’s time to remind me of the “small” number of people who actively read the writing I do here. Here’s why I don’t care. We’re all influenced by a mix of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations that determine how we choose to spend our time. “Intrinsic motivation exists within the individual and is driven by satisfying internal rewards rather than relying on external pressures or extrinsic rewards.
Moving Out, Growing In
Moving out of my childhood home to live on my own was going to be tough. I realized this as I rolled out of the U-Haul truck with a piece of toast in one hand and my hopes and dreams in the other. I moved out of my family’s place a little more than a year ago. In the time since, I’ve experienced a lot, I’ve learned and I’ve grown. Given that I’ve just moved out again somewhere new, why not reflect on the time that I spent living away from my family and share that with you.