Trying out a new weekly thread idea.
This would be a thread for anyone working on personal projects to share their progress, and hold themselves somewhat accountable to a group of peers. We can coordinate weekly standup type meetings if their is interest.
@ArjinFerman, @Turniper, and myself all had some initial interest.
Post your project, your progress from last week, and what you hope to accomplish this week.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
I have three “projects” going on at the moment.
I’m getting back into guitar playing after way too much time letting my skills atrophy. I finally bought a high quality electric and a practice amp that suits my needs. Previously I didn’t really play because my wife goes to bed really early and we live in a small apartment, and I like to play at night after work. So this tiny practice amp and electric will let me noodle around with headphones quietly.
I’m working on losing some weight that I slowly gained over the last 5 years and really since COVID. Started at a disgusting 182 and finally down to 172. Very very happy with my progress, a tiny bit slower than I would like (took 2 months) but that’s probably healthier and more sustainable than a truly deep calorie cut. Goal weight is 150-155 and maybe less depending on how much body fat I still have.
Finally I’m getting back into writing poetry after almost a decade without. I was really big into the scene during college but simply lost the inspiration and spark as adulthood settled in and those acute emotions of being a teenager and very young adult faded away. Problem is I don’t really have a place to share it, and most of the Reddit-type forums feature some pretty mediocre Rupi Kaur, cliche-ridden garbage. Not to be an arrogant douche but I think I am at least several tiers above that, I published some poetry in magazines back in college and won some awards from the English department, so I feel confident in saying I’m better than average (by no means amazing). In college I had a great group of like-minded people who would workshop but I don’t really know how to find that anymore and most poetry scenes are also bleeding-edge woke :( For now it’ll have to remain something I keep for myself I guess.
Any specific strategy for the weight loss you are following?
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What guitar and amp did you get? Back when I was working on learning electric guitar I ended up just buying an audio interface and using a DAW with plugins to practice. Great for getting a wide range of tones, but ultimately pretty bad for just knuckling down and practicing since you spend more time fiddling with dials than playing. Plus you're stuck playing sitting at the computer.
I'm pretty sure the Motte has some poetry aficionados (poems seem to get quoted with regularity) so you might get some feedback here if you posted.
My kids got a mini amp (in addition to a real one) for just this reason; it's so much easier to accumulate practice time in if you can grab 10 minutes here and there without having to go to the floor amp and adjust it first.
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