- SGQ: I started a new book yesterday (The Way of Kings—finally trying out Sanderson! It’s good so far, about 30% in) and didn’t feel too compelled to finish it before it going to sleep. I think I’ve broken my old habits!
- Peppermint tea.
- We finally got all our christmas decor put away (^_^').
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- The bunnies being really really cute.
- I worked ahead a bit yesterday when I couldn’t figure out what else I wanted to do, so I have a bit more free time today.
- Extra meetup of my static tonight to do an extra clear of a weekly thing. Looking forward to “seeing” those nerds, I will admit.
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@sheik
I’m curious about why this specific start is his favourite instead of any other else. Aren’t they all white dots burning in the sky?
I think he was one of the first to observe it (back in the 1980s as a graduate student). When it was first analysed it had the then-fastest-known fluctuation rate - 69 milliseconds. It’s actually a neutron star and a normal (optically visible) star in orbit around each other, with a period of 16 days, and every so often at perihelion (point of closest approach) the neutron star rips stuff off the optical star and swallows it, leading to a visible light and X-ray burst. It’s known as A0538-66 - he and I did some work last year on optically observing it, looking for these optical flares (we used a remote telescope in Australia, as it’s only visible in the southern hemisphere).
My uncle is a world expert designer of x-ray telescopes, so when the optical flares occur, he rings up his friend who controls the X-ray telescope on the ISS (aka NICER, which he helped design), and they target it at A0538-66 to watch for the X-rays. It’s having a bit of a flare up recently, hence the discussion!
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- self-gratitude-quota: i’m grateful i remembered to take a pen to the meeting today. i already had a sheet of paper anyway, and i just ended up doodling most of the time, which was super fun and helped me not get endlessly bored.
- i’m grateful i found some new shows to enjoy on netflix. i needed that especially yesterday, and while there’s a “dark side” (but with cookies!!) to it (especially today as well), i’m also glad and grateful that i have something enjoyable to binge-watch.
- i’m grateful that i managed my daily 5 500 steps today. i haven’t yet derailed on this goal, even with manual daily ratcheting to 0 safe days for the last few weeks (days? time; fake). i know i’ll have a harder and harder time the more i bump it up, but i also know i need to bump it up more frequently than 500 steps per month/three weeks. (going on a ten-day-holiday with my best friend this summer, and we always walk so much and my feet are always so so wrecked, and i fear that without long-term practice i will utterly destroy them or just have 2 full days of staying home and resting, which would not be fun.) anyway, i made the baby steps goal today, and that’s what counts!
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- SGQ: I crushed work today, clearing some looming work overflowing from last week that was weighing on my weekend.
- My sous vide salmon lunch turned out outstanding.
- Got our house closing scheduled and ready to go!
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- Had a good night’s sleep last night, after a rather busy day that completely exhausted my spoons
- Got in a gym visit this morning, and did an FTP test, in which I didn’t completely suck
- Have finally come to a conclusion about a new car - now need to source it!
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- Lisa recently got me a copy of Legends & Lattes (Travis Baldree), which I’ve been meaning to read forever – and that prompted me to start it, and I’ve been inhaling it.
- My static managed to clear the Unreal trial in 30 minutes (we died once and then had a second try, but got it easily on the second try), so we also gave EX3 a shot. We did not manage to clear it but it was fun. (Sorry, guys, FFXIV is a major hobby for me, and many of my friends play, sooo it’s a common source of gratitude.
) - Pancake Day!
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Thanking Allah I
- Have a flip phone (sunbeam F1, no internet access, decent navigation though nowhere near as good as google)
- Blocked out distractions again. My cold turkey blocker expired the end of january and it took me till february 17th to put it back in again. I didnt flounder exactly as the digital detox did help but I didnt flourish either.
- finished my tax returns
- Implemented task ratchet which is so far successful
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- I visited a large butcher where the entire shop was inside their cold room. I’m grateful that they provided jumpers for customers to wear.
- I am grateful to myself for finally stopping procrastinating about booking a physiotherapist visit for some neck pain I’ve been having for a while.
- The physio helped and I was able to book another session for Friday.
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- self-gratitude-quota: i’m grateful i’ll go to sleep now without watching another episode of the show i’m currently binging. next one would be the first of a two-parter episode, and they’re all around 40-70 minutes long, and it’s very late for a tuesday night anyway XD
- i’m grateful i’ve decided not to take on the third job. i still have to do the super hard part (telling them no), but i can refer a friend, and i think i can do all communication via text, so it shouldn’t be too horrible, hopefully!
- i’m grateful for a relatively chill day at work today. it was the perfect mix of All Chill and A Little Challenging, and despite being there longer than i’d hoped, i wasn’t annoyed by the problems that came up, or too drained by the end of it.
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- Am mature enough to feel that derailing on one my study goals was worth it for the sake of not letting the mold I found growing on the vent covers (
) stay there another night - Answered the call from the doctors office (instead of avoiding it, like I sometimes do with phone calls) and thus learned that my appointment is tomorrow (like I originally thought) and not Thursday, as one of the receptionists told me last week.
- Ran an experiment yesterday that didn’t work, and I learned something from it.
- Lao Gan Ma Chili Crisp makes my low effort hypocaloric diet very sustainable.
- Got in the whole programmed workout today — this hasn’t happened since last summer, I think
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- My dad letting me work at my parents’ house today to avoid disruptions.
- Legends & Lattes was so good!
- My curtains with bunny faces on them really do help keep the flat warm.
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- Systolic and diastolic were both lower than last time.
- Looks like I slightly lost weight on net since my last visit, despite the aggressive 2.5kg regain that happened during December from finals week to New Year’s.
- The apartment management people came and did their routine maintenance while I was out, so was able to avoid awkward conversations, or just implied judgment about what we choose to have in the apartment, e.g. a 500lb of weights but no proper furniture
- Either something I did last night helped me feel more rested than I otherwise would, or I’m just lucking out today with not feeling as tired as expected. A win either way.
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- i’m grateful that my neck is much less stiff and painful now than it was this morning. it’s not back to normal yet, and it took basically the whole day to get to where it is now, but it’s indubitably so much better than when i woke up, and that’s great! finger’s crossed i can properly sleep it off tonight!
- i’m grateful for the great korean dinner we had tonight. i’d never been to the restaurant (or had much korean food in general), but it was very good, i can’t wait to go back there again some day!
- self-gratitude-quota: i’m grateful i did some work again towards my application tonight, to keep me from derailing
:)i hadn’t looked forward to this particular task, but it was kind of the path of least effort/resistance compared to other things i could have done, and it turned out fine and even fun in the end, because after Doing The Thing i brainstormed a bit about next steps with my flatmate, which was both helpful and illuminating, and which gave me a clearer picture of where i want to be headed, i think.
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- I slept without waking much overnight.
- A pleasant cool day.
- Our fridge and its ability to keep food fresh for a long time. I don’t think to appreciate that often enough!
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- my fridge, keeping my food fresh for a long time
- one customer wants something pretty easy.
- I like my new work schedule. Coworkers seem to respect it for now
- after 2 weeks of hard work, I finally have extincted my lifetime phobia of needles.
- life feels good when I go outside, the sun is shining again!
- @vivgui’s Raycast extension which makes my life easier
- something that I thought was super urgent turned out not that urgent
- having lots of stuff to be grateful for today!
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- SGQ: I was a little tired today but I took my dog on a long walk anyway and he met a friend and had a wonderful time.
- Sunshine and shorts temperatures!
- My grandboss really has my team’s back at work.
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- ChatGPT is making incident response way less stressful (db crashed because too big)
- My car driving teacher told me that I did tons of progress. He thinks that I’m almost ready to pass the exam.
- Friends reached out to me to hang out (SGQ: I accepted. I need a break from work anyway)
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- i’m grateful a meeting today was successful.
- self-gratitude-quota: i’m grateful i actually took care of a bank thing today instead of just trying for 1 minute and then giving up, or not even trying at all.
-
i’m super grateful that said bank thing was incredibly easy and user-friendly to figure out in the end; it didn’t even require an e-mail! or a phone call! best case scenario, truly!
:D
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- SGQ: I got everything critical on my to-do list done today, which was rather a lot, with house closing happening tomorrow!
- I got to take a long nap with my wife and dog in the afternoon.
- The pool equipment at my new house appears in better shape than I feared.
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