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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 2nd, 2023

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  • 2 alarms, one on the iPad, one on the phone. Full volume, spaced 10 minutes apart.

    Edit: these go off almost 2 hours before I have to leave, and I’m asleep 7-8 hours before they go off. My biggest difficulty in waking up on time is not going to bed with enough time to fall asleep for 8 hours.

    I have a hard-stop alarm, set 9 hours before I have to wake up, to remind myself to get ready for bed. A full sleep cycle (including morning routine) is an 11-hour time investment for me.



  • I’m from California, been on various trips around Spain, and France, with under a week spent in both Italy and Switzerland.

    I love everywhere I’ve been. I’d be happy to live somewhere in western Europe.

    I don’t know if European healthcare is better, but it’s far more civilized in its availability. I haven’t seen much difference between EU and USA for equivalent-quality grocery prices, with the exception of Zurich. I’ve found Europe to be generally safe. There seems to be more “sneaky” crime, whereas the States has more confrontational crime.

    Freeway etiquette is far better in France and Spain than California. Trains, of course, are better too.

    One major difference is labor laws. The EU has far more protection, but far less mobility. I remember telling a German friend that I had gotten a new job operating a fairly large power system, after working in a tangentially related field, without any additional study or licenses, and his response was “Only in America!” I hadn’t even considered that this move would be far more difficult in other countries.


  • You think that’s hard?

    Last year my dentist/denturist asked my what I wanted my teeth to look like!

    It was unreal, trying to develop an aesthetic preference for teeth. It was actually quite eye-opening. I did find that I had a very strong opinion about it. I haven’t quite gotten to the end product, but I now know what I want.

    I recommend photos, but also to be careful in explaining what you like about the photo. It’s easy to latch on to one aspect of a style, not realizing that an attempt to reproduce other aspects might end up completely ignoring what drew you to it in the first place.



  • I’ve always taken life as it came, never had a goal like being a (professional?) pianist. I’m not entirely sure what that means in this day, either.

    Even if you stick with regular work, make sure you keep a list of everything you could theoretically call yourself proficient at doing. These skills can often be rallied into promotions and career changes later on, if you need to move or advance.

    I’ve sold a lot of pianos from my time in estate liquidation and I do know that the inconvenience of moving them means that used pianos are often sold for essentially nothing. There just isn’t an active market for anything but the absolute best instruments. If you need an inexpensive piano, they’re out there. The best strategy is to have a piano mover on your phone. If you show up to someone’s house and tell them you can have it out on Tuesday, they’re often going to be happy to see it go.













  • This is always the question that trips me up.

    I’m 5 years younger than OP. I work in a municipal transportation power system job (we maintain and control the grid for trains, trolleys, etc.). I’m sure I’m wasting all sorts of effort in my professional life. I have time. I got a lot out of learning Power Automate. However, if you ask me to pick one specific project, I get overwhelmed because I don’t know what’s reasonable.

    I don’t know enough to know if my ideas are achievable, or if I’d just be bashing my head against the wall. I don’t know if they’re laughably simple tasks, multimillion-dollar propositions, or Goldilocks ideas that would be perfect to learn a coding language.