Also me:
QualifiedKitten@lemmy.world

  • 1 Post
  • 39 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
cake
Cake day: July 1st, 2023

help-circle
  • Oh wow! That’s awesome! I wonder if I’ll see another upgrade soon too? I have a similar setup going too. Seed box for active torrents and other recently acquired files, and then anything I want to keep long term eventually gets moved to my local server.

    I had tried a VPN + kill switch before getting a seed box, but it failed on me a few times. Plus, I was in school at the time, spending very little time at home, and my ISP increased their rates AGAIN, so I just cancelled my home internet. Trying to torrent through my laptop on public WiFi was a pain, but with a seed box it was way easier, and just needed to download the files to my laptop if I wanted to watch at home, which was also never a problem on public WiFi.



  • I just take my meds then stare at my phone for an hour. Lol.

    Not sure if Ritalin has similar effects in this sense as Adderall, but I used to run into a problem where I’d wake up, take my meds, get ready and head out the door, then suddenly the most urgent need to #2. I was attending community college at the time, and parking was beyond terrible there, so I’d arrive at like 6:30a, only to find most of the restrooms still locked! Fun times.


  • I’ve actually found weightlifting to be surprisingly satisfying. I really enjoy it because I get to compete against myself, and tracking the weights & reps gives me a very clear sense of progress. Weightlifting (and some low intensity cardio options) also allows me to do plenty of scrolling during my workout if I want to. The trick for me has been to find something that I can make a routine, and whenever I lose my routine, I work to build it incrementally. I’m actually really struggling right now because my gym made some changes that led me to cancel my membership, but having a physical location to go to seems to be a key factor for me.

    Anyway, when I’ve needed to rebuild my routine in the past, step 1 was walking to the gym, but not going inside, and just walking back home. Since that entire process took about 30 minutes, it wasn’t too difficult to squeeze in if I overslept. Step 2 meant I had to actually enter the gym and do something. Usually it was just walking on a treadmill for up to 30 minutes, depending on how much time I had available. From there, I’d start adding some time in the weight room and increasing the intensity of my cardio time (running or stairs), and eventually I’d work myself up to an hour of weights plus 30 minutes of running.

    Since I’ve cancelled my gym membership, I’m really struggling to stick to a routine. Going to a certain location at the same time every day seems to be important in keeping me focused. One thing I did find that I’m hoping will motivate me is a running meetup. They have routes of varying difficulties, and often grab a beer together after, so I’m currently trying to build enough stamina to feel confident participating in their easiest runs, and hoping I’ll eventually feel confident in their more challenging runs too. If running isn’t your thing, I’m sure there’s other groups for activities that you would enjoy.



  • TL;DR: Great to have if you’re looking for less popular content, high quality files, and/or are concerned about copyright notices, but the rules that keep the niche content alive make them less appealing for super popular content.
    I randomly made friends IRL about a year ago and got an invite to BTN & PTP. I don’t watch/download a lot of movies, so my account at PTP has lapsed, but I’ve kept my account with BTN.
    From my recent searches, BTN tends to have higher quality files and more seeders than public trackers, but since a) I have a seed box, which provides a line of defense against copyright notices, and is only strengthened my my *aars (gets me in & out of the swarm before the studios find it), b) I usually can’t tell the difference in quality from the devices I’m using (and my friends/family most definitely don’t notice/care), c) seed ratio or time doesn’t impact access to public trackers, and d) I prefer to keep public torrents alive, I usually lean towards public trackers, and only use the private trackers for things that are harder to find and/or things I want in high quality.
    I still try to seed to a minimum ratio of 3.0 on popular files (public or private), and ∞ for more niche files, but sometimes demand is so low, and I need to move files off of my seed box. While a ratio below 1.0 makes me feel “stuck” no matter where I got the file from, private tracker rules definitely amplify that feeling.






  • In the US and currently fully WFH, but if I need to go into the office for some reason, it’s a 10-15 minute walk.

    Walkability is pretty important to me, so I moved to a city with decent public transportation and don’t currently own a car. I use ride sharing apps or traditional car rentals on the rare occasion that I need a car, and even though they feel expensive, my annual car expenses are still significantly less than what I’d pay for parking alone if I owned a car.



  • As I read other people’s comments, my diagnosis experience seems somewhat unique. I may be misremembering the exact sequence of events, but I’ll try my best.

    As a young kid, I did okay in school. My report cards often noted that I did really well on the tests, but I often forgot to do my homework, and since homework was a large portion of the grade, I had lots of Bs and Cs. On the standardized testing we did each year, I’d score well above my grade level on everything except the listening portion, which was just average. In junior year of high school, I made it a point to have no missing assignments. Even if I didn’t finish my homework, I’d still turn something in, and suddenly I had straight As.

    Around the time I was 18, I began trying a variety of antidepressants, mostly SSRIs.

    I was probably 20 years old when my parents suggested that I see “Dr. Feel Good”. In their experience, he handed out prescriptions like candy, so he’d probably give me whatever I asked for. When I went to him and explained my struggles and how I felt they were indicative of ADHD, he told me that I couldn’t possibly have ADHD since people with ADHD don’t get depressed. I think he did end up giving me a 30 day prescription though, and suggested I find a more specialized doctor.

    I think it was after that that I began seeing a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist again put me on an SSRI, I think Zoloft. I took it for a while, but eventually got fed up and just stopped taking it. I think it was when I told him that I stopped taking it that he finally gave me a prescription for Adderall. Or maybe my time with him overlapped with the next paragraph.

    Somewhere around that same time, I had dropped out of university and decided to take classes at the local community college while I figured things out. Somehow, I learned that the community college offered learning disability testing, so I signed up. From what I remembered, I did really well on everything except (surprise, surprise) the listening portion. I was told that my results indicated that I have an “auditory processing deficit”. I eventually wound up taking the test results to a new psychiatrist, and they put me on Adderall right away.

    Honestly, I’m still not totally sure if I’m “officially” diagnosed as ADHD, but I’ve moved around a bit and changed doctors a few times, and 15ish years later, I’m still getting ADHD meds.

    All this is to say that there’s lots of doctors out there that won’t take you seriously, and/or have outdated understanding of mental health, so whether or not you have ADHD or anything else, don’t give up until you find a solution that works for you.


  • In the places I’ve lived (all US), no businesses could sell alcohol between the hours of 2am and 6am, and some alcohol licenses have even more limited hours. I’m pretty sure I overheard a cashier at the Target near my parents’ place telling a customer that they couldn’t sell alcohol until 8a, and I believe I’ve encountered some alcohol licenses with a cutoff as early as 10p.
    I hear that some regions don’t allow alcohol sales at all on Sundays, but luckily I’ve never lived in any of those places.


  • I do often put my tongue between my teeth in an attempt to recduce damage to my teeth, but I still bite my tongue, which I think still makes the muscle tension worse. My current approach is to open my jaw as wide as possible and hold it for like 30 seconds to stretch the muscles. It seems to kinda help, but depending on where I am, it can be kinda awkward.



  • Cons: The side effects. It wasn’t always this bad, but they increase my tendency to clench my teeth, which can lead to enough pain by early afternoon that I can no longer focus on anything but the pain. I’m on a relatively low dose (10mg XR), and didn’t notice any benefit when I tried a non-stimulant medication.

    Edit: I just need to shout into the void about this for a moment. No Adderall for at least 5 days, and no coffee/soda/energy drinks for even longer. It’s the weekend and I’m just vegging, so not a whole lot to be stressing about, but for some fucking reason I’m clenching and my jaw fucking hurts. 😬


  • I don’t have any experience with Usenet or any current DDL sources. I generally check public trackers first, then private trackers, and mostly use private trackers when I can’t find something on public trackers.
    My selfish reasoning is that with public trackers, I don’t have to worry about my seed ratio, etc. I generally seed to a 3.0 ratio, and I do have some older/more niche stuff set to infinity, but when I need to clear some space in my seed box, it’s nice to be able to delete stuff without worrying I’ll be penalized.
    From a less selfish perspective, if it exists in decent quality on public trackers, I’d rather contribute to keeping it alive there, where more people can access it.


  • Right as cold/flu season was taking off, the location near me went and removed over half of the equipment cleaning stations (paper towel dispensers & spray bottles), so I decided to cancel my membership. After hearing so many horror stores like yours, I was shocked at how easy it was, since I was able to cancel mine online.
    Although, I did quickly learn that I had also effectively prepaid for another 3 months, so even though I cancelled on October 31st, and was not charged for anything after that date, my access didn’t end until January 31st. I think part of it was credits from the COVID times, but I never went back to test it, so if anyone reading this is thinking about cancelling, be aware that you may have access for quite some time after cancelling!



  • I’m a millennial, and I will abandon my basket 99% of the time when there’s not a staffed cashier lane available, especially if I’m trying to buy more than 2 items.

    I actually tried to use the self-checkout at the airport recently when I was buying a single bottle of water, and the cashier jumped in almost immediately to assist anyway. I forget exactly what happened, but it was definitely overly complicated compared to the staffed checkout that I used at the same shop the previous time I flew through that airport.