What is something you've done this last 7 days you're proud of?

Exercise. I went from 0-1 days per week to 30 minutes every day for the past 6 weeks, only skipping two days over that time.

Survived another week

I haven't ate meat in 6/7 days, broke down and had a BLT yesterday. Tough to give up the bacon completely but I'm working on it.

You know when a friend's loved one dies and you tell them the usual sentiments about being there for them, anything you need etc? But there's rarely anything you can do, especially if you're not in their immediate circles where you could be making food or helping with estate etc.

Friend needed to do some job applications quite urgently, but was obviously not in the right headspace to do a great job. Friend asked me to help review drafts (I write for a living) and between us we got out 3 very solid applications.

I'm proud my skills had real and immediate use to someone. This white collar shit can feel pretty ineffectual sometimes, but this was a tangible help to someone so I'm proud of myself.

Exercise. I've now done it 8 weeks straight, and I think I have it locked in as a long term habit.

Never had that before in my life and I'm 48 now. It's never too late to get going folks.

Just about kept my shit together. It's been a really shitty week.

First time at a personal trainer.

I am writing this from the grave.

I threw a work party and it turned out to be really fun. Everyone got drunk and silly, some people danced, someone people sat by the campfire, everyone ate way too much food. It reminded me why I love my workplace so much.

Avoided being hung over, which I guess I could attribute to not drinking.

got married! was a stressful but amazing week

Finally scheduled the two root canals I need. I get pretty bad anxiety talking on the phone, especially to strangers so doctor’s appointments are always hard. But I finally did it so I’ll be done with this pain soon.

Helping someone escape domestic abuse and care for her animals while her dangerous lunatic ex keeps wrecking her house and farm, actually risking to put the entire mountain on fire, and the police keeps typing a pile of documents about the ongoing case without actually doing anything. I'll keep doing it even if I end up tearing the 'Call us if you experience domestic violence' posters off of the police station walls tomorrow to shove them up the arses of the smug bastard clowns in uniform who are supposed to guarantee the safety of vulnerable people. Been a long week and no end in sight.

Overcame my anxiety and asked a pretty girl out. We're going out for drinks tomorrow night 😁

I'm teaching myself French. J'ai étudié le français pendant quatre ans when I was younger, but it's been years. Maintenant, mes enfants want to learn French, so I'm re-learning with them. And just in the last week, we started making plans for a trip to France! Je suis content!

I haven't stabbed anyone!

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After picking up the guitar 3 years ago, I recorded a song yesterday for the first time. Feels good, man.

1st in Diamond League in Duolingo. Now I can relax and just keep up my daily streak.

I went to the gym every day in the last 7 days.

I wrote a song and have been recording it for like the past year. Kind of got too complicated so I just ignored it for the last few months. This week I said I would finish it by the end of the month and today I have the final mixing sesh at the studio 👐

I was fired in June for a mixed non-descript bag of reasons from my previous employer of 8 years. The reasons they told me were not what they told the DOL. They told the DOL that I was fired for attendance issues, which is weird since I hadn't been absent since March, and the company's on-site nurse told me not to come to work. I used 2.5 days of my yearly allowable 6 days of sick time within 6 months. They also told them I falsified records.

What's really weird is that it happened to coincide with my complaint of workplace harassment by a former boss.

The worst part was they lied to the DOL and told them I admitted to falsifying records. Little did they know, I recorded audio of my HR meeting so I could prove that I didn't admit to falsifying records.

Anyways, after months of fighting for unemployment benefits (they didn't even give me a severance), I won my appeal hearing. My previous employer didn't even give the DOL an in service phone number, so they didn't even attend the hearing.

They really were banking on me not trying to fight them. After months of me sounding like an insane person to everyone I talked about it to, I finally got vindication.

And before you think this must be some small operating business where my boss just didn't want to show up to lose, this is a large publicly traded company with thousands of employees and is an industry leader in the field. The site I worked for was a drop in their revenue bucket with a mere 70 million in net revenue.

I may be jobless right now, with 5 kids, a mortgage, and had my name dragged through the mud, but I'm so fucking proud of myself for sticking up for myself and proving that I was fucking right the entire time.

They still haven't been able to fill my position, have had more people quit and are in dire straights according to an inside source.

Oh and the kicker? Turns out the last woman they fired complained about the same person, but they gave her a giant severance package even though she was only employed with them less than a year.

Can't wait to see that place bleed itself to death.

Learned to sew!

I got called into a work meeting yesterday. Apparently they are very pleased with my progress.

So that's nice. I have no idea what they're talking about, but it's nice.

I traveled 12 hours to an isolated lake to spread my father's ashes as he requested.

Technically just over 7 days but I'm saying it. I started a Bachelor's in Cyber Security at a big university.

I'm the first in my family to ever seek higher education and my nephew (who lives with me) has already been asking questions about how he can go to college someday as well.

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Bought a nice Sawstop table saw that I've been eyeing for years. I make good money, but have issues spending anything on myself. According to my therapist, it's from a fear of catastrophe. Even though I'm extremely frugal, make good money, and am in a better position than the vast majority of people my age, there's a constant voice in the back of my head telling me that I don't need whatever it is that I want to get for myself.

In moderation, that's a good thing, but I've taken it to a pretty far extreme. It legitimately stresses me out to buy something for myself that costs more than $15-20, even if I can afford it. I talked to my therapist about it, mentioned the table saw, and he suggested that I buy it. I talked to my wife about it, and she talked me into it, and I finally bit the bullet and did it. Definitely a luxury, but it's cheaper than a hospital visit to sew a finger back on.

However, I do not recommend moving it solo to prove a point. 450lbs is not light

Went to a nudist beach for the first time!

I wrote 14 pages of a masters thesis.

Got an open source offline text to speech AI that can read me any text of any length, another that can convert my speech into text, and finally got another working directly on the command line using python.

Put together a fun party with friends

I finally started being active physically, by going on walks, and doing a bit of workout. This weekend will mark the 2 week completion, i have never felt so good mentally in my life, as i have been feeling since i started working out. I am gonna stick to it.

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I got back into reading (after ~ half year pause).

I survived a hurricane and got my lawn mowed in the process…

Got a big job interview. It's down to me and one person and I feel like I have the edge. I (hopefully) find out the results tomorrow! I desperately need the money lol.

Took a “mental health day” off from work. First time I have ever took PTO for myself.

I'm starting to understand math after failing all my exams, i hope i can pass in October...

Nobody cares, but I have reached the point where I can drive my project car to work.

I dragged it out of a field in January of 2023, and I did a quick and dirty engine rebuild to get it running long enough I could find what else is wrong with it. I've replaced the brakes and some steering parts, along with some broken lights. I rebuilt and tuned the carburetor, set the timing, replaced the plugs, distributor cap, wires, and rotor.

And now when I drive it people look at me.

Finally renewed my license. Only 4 months late this year.

Lost 3 lbs!

But I binged on food today...

Built a tiny and rather simple piece of software to make my daily work easier that now the whole company uses :)

I really cleaned. I'm too exhausted to get into it, but it was a terrible mess and now it's clean. I have a lot of disabilities including severe chronic ankle and back pain and endocrine issues that make me tired all the time, but I did it!

Almost nothing, I suppose I should try and fix that

I beat the shit out of Godskin Noble today. Took me about ten tries. At least three of those, he had a sliver of life left and cheesed me in a corner with his roll attack. I was livid. Like, the angriest I've ever been at a video game. Damn Elden Ring has some cheesy bosses.

The time I beat him, I was so calm. Just slowly chipping him down to nothing. BLAM. Dead. It felt so good. Nothing beats beating a hard boss in a Soulsbournekiro game.

Actually going to the office 3 times this week and actually staying there for almost 8 hour a day.

Reverted a payment provider at work without bugs in a legacy project in an hour. (Software)

Beating twilight princess on Wii after leaving it for few years. Now I can start botw, it's on same timeline :D

Spent the "weekend" with my two kids (they are in the next city for university) and we got tattoos. all Hail Rat King!

Absolutely nothing. ☹️

Started working out and have done a fair leg workout three times with a mix of bodyweight exercises and kettlebells. Haven't worked out even semi-regularly during the past two years, or since my son was born, so the body feels weak but the positive impact on mental clarity and sleep quality is already a huge plus.

I spent the better part of the last decade in a good deal of pain due to an undiagnosed spinal injury in my neck. In the 4-5 months leading up to having surgery, the pain and muscle spasms were so bad I couldn't stand or walk on my own, put on my own clothes, or take care of myself. I was severely suicidally depressed, extremely overweight, and jobless.

In July of 2022 I was finally able to get approved for surgery (I had to wait 3 months for an MRI), my surgeon performed a corpectomy (removal of the vertebral body) of my C5-C6 vertebrae and fused C4-C7. I spent the next 3 months in a neck brace, doing rehab and physical therapy and decided that this was going to be the turning point in my life.

In the 9 months since I got the brace off, we've been eating better (the hardest one) and I lift weights 2x per week for about 1.5 hrs and walk 3x per week for about 45 min. I've lost about 40 lbs so far and I can definitely see changes in my physique for the first time. I have a long way to go, but I makes me proud to see how far I have come.

But to answer to question, yesterday I went on a 4.5 mile hike up a mountain with a friend and was able to complete it all. My feet are quite sore today, but I'm really proud of myself for being able to do something like that after being in such bad condition.

Nearly climbed an indoor route graded 6c at my gym. 6c was my target when I started climbing in June and I gave myself a year as my aimed timescale, I worked out the crux of a 6c route on Sunday and am only one move off finishing now.

Way ahead of schedule! And for anyone who's never tried rock climbing I can't recommend it enough, it's a sport for people that love video games where every route is a level that needs beating and you learn new abilities to unlock those harder levels. Helps that's I'm stronger and fitter than I've ever been before even after just 3 months, it's one hell of a workout!

Updated the model for an active aerodynamic surface control system.

In the overwhelm of a job that’s been way over my head, I managed to sit down and process a couple pieces of business. It’s not much, but the mountain of work is getting a little smaller.

I read two books after years of not reading for pleasure. I started tracking my food and trying to get enough protein after some chaotic months. Trying to ingest enough sodium to keep my POTS in check. I painted two things, after not painting for 8 years! I've been trying to keep 'unproductive' screentime down. (Movies and shows I haven't seen before are fine, scrolling on my phone forever is not). I still waste hours on my phone when I'm fatigued but I'm more mindful about what I do when I feel able

Raised out of my funk for once and got back on antidepressants, my financial aid and scholarship applications done, and my project work for the week all done today. I honestly didn't think I would get this done in a week, let alone in one day.

Did LSD

Proud? Actually nothing.