Gratitude journaling together

  1. Fresh pumpkin scones.
  2. Lentils - easy, healthy, and sort of tasty.
  3. The Windsors - tacky and silly but surprisingly enjoyable.
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  1. Refrigerators. Can you imagine life without them? :scream:
  2. Sunshine.
  3. Lentils. Easy, nutritious, sort of tasty.

(This morning, I made a pot of tea and a bowl of pre-cooked lentils at the same time. I caught myself just in time to stop myself spooning the lentils into the teapot.)

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Oops, late today.

  1. Got up early and had an early walk. Rather chilly and quiet, just birdsong, felt nice.
  2. My GP had no problem giving me another month of anxiety meds. WHEW.
  3. It’s bath day, as opposed to shower day, which means a self-indulgent hour soaking in hot water, probably with bubbles, definitely with a book.
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My morning routine includes eating, getting dressed, taking meds, brushing my teeth, and then several particular bits of work that I always do on a morning, and any Beeminder tasks that take <5 minutes and are in the orange on that day. At the moment, it often includes writing a letter to my mother as well. After the work, I try to fit in some working out or going for a walk (possibly to the postbox with said letter), but either way my morning routine ends with logging in to do Beeminder’s inbox.

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Ooh I like including that as part of a morning routine!

Hot baths are really good for depression: https://www.health.com/condition/depression/hot-bath-better-depression-treatment-than-exercise

I have a beeminder goal to take a hot bath every day!

I’m grateful for hot running water - so miraculous to just turn the tap and have it come forth!

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Yep, that is why I have at least two baths per week, between 2 and 6pm, at a temp of 40 degrees C per a pilot trial on hyperthermic baths as treatment for depression. I’ve been doing it for a while, with definite sleep benefits. I’d say I’ve sometimes not really managed much beyond the spirit of it (my bath is a bit too small for full-body immersion), so I’m curious how it’d be if I had access to a deeper tub. On the other hand, reading in the bath would be more difficult then!

It’s hard to say how well it’s helped my anxiety because external-to-my-brain-chemistry causes made it spike over the last six months, but I’d say it’s had an impact there too.

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You accidentally a number there

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this sentence no verb

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  1. Verbs.
  2. Nouns.
  3. Grammar in general. I find it quite interesting! I learnt Latin for a while and the increased understanding of grammar was my favourite part."
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Thanks for the flashback :smiley:

Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres

will haunt me for the rest of my life :stuck_out_tongue:

Gotta say though, it was kinda awesome to be able to read this historical work.

Today’s gratitude:

  1. Three(!) letters from my mother – clearly the Royal Mail is batching deliveries, or possibly pickup (actually now that I think about it, it’s probably pickup).
  2. The nose piece that has come off my glasses twice has been found twice! It’s tiny so this was unexpected to say the least.
  3. Wife got us small cheesecakes as a treat and we had them today for elevenses. :yum:
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But have you ever verbed a noun?

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This is why I wish I’d learnt Latin. I loved learning enough Old Icelandic to read the sagas and that was really cool. (I should’ve kept practising my Anglo-Saxon and Icelandic… but keeping up my French is hard enough!)

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Ooh, yes, my gratitude entry for today is our new bug report template:

I had so much fun figuring that out (consulted extensively with my linguist friend in Germany and the rationality hive mind on Facebook) and I know it’s so eye-rolly to everyone else but, well, I’m grateful that I have people who like to nerd out on such things with me!

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I’m grateful that there is an instant cure for canker sores - I had a really painful one and putting the cure on it made the pain go away.

I’m also grateful for this thread! It’s a lot of fun and it helps remind me to appreciate good things.

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  1. My housemate made pumpkin scones.
  2. The weather has turned cold enough for blankets to be snuggly but not so cold it’s uncomfortable.
  3. EasiYo yoghurt - you can make it at home from powder, and I have a stash of packets, which is really convenient right now.
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  1. The little piece that came off my glasses repeatedly ended up just borked. I was very afraid we wouldn’t be able to get them fixed because of everything, but it turns out my optician has a totally slick repairs setup where you just show up, place your glasses in a pod, they whisk them inside and get to it. It was done in like five minutes!
  2. I started my day late because we accidentally slept in by half an hour, but a) that meant I actually got 7 hours sleep and my Beeminder graph is looking happier, and b) I’ve pretty much caught up, anyway.
  3. I set up a bee drinking station yesterday and right as I stepped back and left it, a butterfly landed to drink or rest.
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  • I got my MacBook Pro back! Apple replaced not just the battery¹, no, they replaced the entire top case for free. New battery, new keyboard, new trackpad, new speakers and of course half of the case is new. The guy who returned it to me said it’s basically a new computer, aside from the mainboard. And aside from the display I guess. I asked him why and he said they did it as part of the keyboard replacement program. That’s only half an explanation, but I’m not complaining!
  • Riding my bike is still so much fun! I’ve never done a sport as regularly as this
  • The shelter in place is beginning to see some relaxation, meaning I can get plywood and get crafty again, soon
  • I got good friends and I talk to them often
  • I pitched the idea to my professors that I am “cautiously optimistic” to hand in my project’s documentation, the bane of my existence, this week. While that means more stress now, it also means I’ll get stuff done and probably have this thing off my mind in a couple days.
  • The weather is just lovely!
  • I’m making new friends and I’m very excited to meet them once people are allowed outside again

¹ It kept inflating when in use, pressing against the trackpad so much it became hard to click on it, the computer had terrible battery life, would shut off at about 19% charge. Despite only 40 cycles. The battery was just a dud², plain and simple. Maybe it bent so much stuff inside that they replaced the entire thing? Dunno. I think they were just being nice.

² In German these things are called Mondaysomethings, implying that faulty products were likely made on Mondays by, say, people who were still trying to catch up on missing sleep from the weekend. So this would be a Monday battery.

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Oh man, I eventually learned that if I don’t get at least 8.5 hours of sleep a night, (1) I can’t function worth a damn cognitively or emotionally, and (2) I’m not really aware of (1) at the time.

So I realize I keep telling everyone to get more sleep, and hopefully I’m not being too obnoxious, but it really is one of the best life hacks and cognitive enhancers there is - of course, easier said than done, but I’ve found it worth putting some time and effort in.

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A lot of people don’t sleep enough, it’s true! Personally I know seven hours is around right for me (benchmarked with no alarm and a dark room), but there’s quite a lot of variation between people. My sister’s got a non-24-hour circadian rhythm and that blows everything up. :joy:

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