A little while ago, a newbee suggested an introduction thread to help people jump into the forum, and I thought that sounded like a fun idea, and a nice way to help people join in and get to know other Beeminder users.
If you’d like to join in, feel free to share as much or as little about yourself and your goals as you want – but if you’d like some ideas, here’s what I came up with:
The name you want people to use for you here
The pronouns you want people here to use for you
A link to your Beeminder gallery
Your favourite goal (and why!)
What do you use Beeminder for the most?
Hobbies and interests
I’ll do mine in the first reply here, assuming no one beats me to it.
Name: Nicky, or shanaqui – either is fine Pronouns: Any neutral, preferably they/them/their Important: I am also the Support Czar of Beeminder, meaning I’m in charge of the support team and everything relating to support. Beeminder gallery:Tada! My favourite goal:shanaqui/clockoff
And why: It’s one of my longest-standing goals, I’d bet, and it’s one that’s been really helpful in sorting out my tendency to overwork. It’s been really good for me, and I also like the way I set up the goal and how it looks: I have access to custom goals with my Beemium subscription, so I made it a non-cumulative keep-under goal. What I use Beeminder for: I think an apter question is what don’t I use it for. I use it for studying, chores, health stuff, hobbies, work… Hobbies: Reading is my main hobby, but in the last couple of years I’ve also become an enthusiastic player of the massively multiplayer online game Final Fantasy XIV. I’m a gamer more generally as well, and play a range of different games… when I can tear myself away from Eorzea and the people I’ve met there.
I’d say by this point my studies are also a hobby: I’m currently studying for an MSc in Infectious Diseases, but have previously studied English Literature (BA and MA) and Natural Sciences (BSc). I’m sure this isn’t the last either. Other than that, I do crochet and cross-stitch sometimes, though lately haven’t had much time to do so, and I like playing card games with my wife and my sister if I can round them up.
name: enbee (preferably, because of the pun) or mara (boring, because real name)
pronouns: they/them
(or other neural ones should be fine, too, but i find that’s always a subjective thing, too—for example, i find “fae” sounds rather feminine. long story short, any neopronoun is okay, but they/them is best/safest)
favourite goal: i don’t want to feel bad right now, so i’ll say gmuns, which hasn’t derailed once yet!
it’s keeping my unread emails in check (mostly). [it actually works wonderfully for actual unread emails in my inbox, it just lets me open a lot of emails on my thunderbird tab which i plan to get back to eventually but neglect most of the time … yes, i need another goal for this :p]
what i use beeminder for: various things! work-related, uni-related, leisure-related, health-related (steps, fruits, veggies, flossing, …)
i use it for pretty much everything so far, but haven’t figured out my ideal balance / goal types yet (does one ever? ;)
hobbies and interests: languages (japanese and korean, currently), movies/series, game nights with friends, ttrpgs, (book) design, writing lettersemails to my future self (not affiliated with futureme.org, just a big fan), rambling a lot, gratitude journaling, …
(okay, that last one especially is more a daily routine rather than hobby-hobby, but i’m proud of myself for sticking with it for over a year already without missing a day. i’m kind of hogging the thread currently.)
click here for visual proof that the forum doesn't want me to continue hogging the thread `:p`
if you’re active in the forum you’ll probably come across me, if only because i liked your post. (i like 99% of posts i read, and i think i might only have one thread muted?—liking is, among other things, a great way for my forgetful brain to see if i already read something!)
name: Brent, or byorgey is fine. Danny has been known to call me “Professor Yorgey”, and yes, Beeminder helped me get a PhD, but I don’t place too much stock in formal titles!
favorite goal: grading-zero – byorgey – beeminder . I get 1 point every day I get to “grading zero”, which is defined in the fine print but basically means I need to stay caught up with grading, one of those things that’s not too bad if you stay on top of it but quickly turns into a stressful, demoralizing fiasco if you get behind. The goal is nothing fancy but it’s resulted in a huge quality of life improvement for me!
Hobbies and interests: Piano, reading (largely speculative and science fiction but a mix of other things as well), competitive programming, open source, mountain biking, language learning (Spanish, German, ancient Greek and Hebrew), Go
Thanks so much for putting this together, @shanaqui! <3
I’m Danny or dreev (I’m sometimes called the latter even IRL) and am a cofounder of Beeminder, along with @bee who might be too shy for threads like this.
Of course I have a fairly extensive Beeminder gallery but not as extensive as some people. I use it for work, workouts, eating, reading, communications, you name it.
A few of my favorite goals right now:
mathingbee: for filling pages of math with Bee – just whatever puzzles we come across or things we want to teach each other
freshgish: for cycling through and curating GitHub issues (I actually have a bunch of these, for different repositories, like my personal task list, household tasks, my and Bee’s “relationship repo”, long story)
blarticle: for not letting my Pocket backlog get out of hand
(I also have an RSSminder goal for posting here in the forum but it’s clearly not pushing me very hard. Dialing that up a bit now! It was actually my mustdo goal that got me to get in here and post this.)
Hobbies and interests: math puzzles and bike racing and inline skating and back-country skiing and prediction markets and voting/decision mechanisms.
gallery: here, although some of my most important current goals (toggl goals for time spent working on specific projects) are hidden, and some others have cryptic names
favourite goal: Kind of hard to answer, because I’ve kind of been in a beeminder slump for a while now I think. It’s currently archived, but I think my favourite goal is still nonfiction, which added up the pages read on all my nonfiction reading goals in order to make sure I made a goal to read a new book after finishing the previous one (as simple as it is, just proud of my own metaminding script). I have high hopes that I will break out of my slump and get a new favourite goal out of the anti-smartphone goal I made for May’s new month’s resolution, however…
What I use beeminder for: in the past year, toggl goals have been the most consistent players, with some for work and some for hobbies. Historically I had exercise goals as well as weight loss and calorie goals, and nonfiction reading, and lots of flossing / waking up / going to bed kind of goals. I have a huge list of archived goals. Perhaps this is a sign I need to get better at making goals stick…
(i like 99% of posts i read, and i think i might only have one thread muted?—liking is, among other things, a great way for my forgetful brain to see if i already read something!)