Bragging about something nobody else will care about

[Usenko]

Hey all!

Everything has been so grim over the last couple of weeks, so I thought I might start a new thread.

In this thread, your task is simply to brag about some achievement that you're proud of that you're pretty sure nobody else is going to care about. Nobody else will understand, but we're proud of you!

I'll go first.

Yesterday I submitted the abstract[1] to present at my first major conference - the Society for Biblical Literature International Conference in Adelaide. You likely haven't heard of it, but this is a BIG DEAL to Biblical Studies scholars!

I will be presenting on Pathos in a Judicial Context: Emotional Appeals in Acts 26.

The even more exciting aspect to this is that if all goes well, Mohr Siebeck (an academic publishing firm) has shown interest in publishing the papers in the seminar I'll be presenting at as a book, so this will also double as my first publication!

[1] Normally this would not guarantee that you'd be presenting, but the person who is running this particular seminar is also my PhD supervisor, and she's ensured that my abstract was up to scratch.

[clakclak]

Congratulations Usenko, also a very nice idea you came up with to lighten things up a bit!

I wish you the best of luck for your endeavour. You are right, I, at least, have never heard of that conference before. Still if it is a big thing in your particular field all the better!

I do however know of Mohr Siebeck. A friend of mine is currently working on her Dr. theol. and while she didn't publish anything there, if I remember correctly she cooperated with them on some project a while ago.

Like I said best of luck and I will write up a post myself once I find the time.

[Gavrushka]

Oh that is a huge achievement, congratulations!

And the day I stop caring about other people's special moments is not one I care to visit.

I'm trying to imagine something better, intellectually related, than presenting to your peers.

I don't have any personal achievements to add at the moment, but I am working on it, so hopefully I'll be back!

[Alan Phipps]

Very well played Sir.

I very recently built my new garden shed from a panel kit, on my own, including levelling and laying the pebble-filled plastic tile base to anchor it to. The good news it that it survived the recent windy storms and didn't shift a bit even when empty. At 74 years of age, I call that a big win for me. (Now I just have to get rid of the bits of the old leaky rotten shed and wooden base. How long is it to bonfire night?)

[Usenko]

(Now I just have to get rid of the bits of the old leaky rotten shed and wooden base. How long is it to bonfire night?)

If that's still Guy Fawkes' night, you may be waiting a while!

(Mind you, unlike Sydney you're not in the middle of Bushfire season, so I'd guess you're perfectly at liberty to burn stuff at times other than that. )

[Alan Phipps]

Given the compact nature of my garden and the close proximity of the neighbours' properties, there might be objections to a personal disposal bonfire - even assuming no need for a Fire Brigade callout when the fences go up too.

Normally the public event bonfires will take combustible items that you might deliver in advance but yes, that's more for October/November sadly.

[jlehtone]

NVidia's Linux driver version R530 had a regression on niche feature. (This was almost three years ago.)
We did kept using R525 where it was needed.
May 2024 that started to block kernel updates, so I finally reported the issue to NVidia.
By September 2024 NVidia confirmed the bug and told that a fix will come with R570.
That was released a year ago.

Not recent, nor huge, but still feels like an achievement.

[Falcrack]

I play trombone in a pretty good community jazz band. I play pretty good myself, but I suck at improvization. That's one if the few things I have to brag about!

Oh, and I have successfully tracked calories and exercised since Jan 5th. My goal is to lose about 40 pounds this year.

I hear that if you brag about things you plan to do before you do them, it decreases your chances of actually doing it, since you are congratulating yourself before actually accomplishing what you set out to do, giving yourself a premature sense of satisfaction. Will that be the case here? Time will tell!

[Alan Phipps]

Premature satisfaction is a terrible thing to suffer ... <I'll go now.>

[Usenko]

Oh, and I have successfully tracked calories and exercised since Jan 5th. My goal is to lose about 40 pounds this year.

I hear that if you brag about things you plan to do before you do them, it decreases your chances of actually doing it, since you are congratulating yourself before actually accomplishing what you set out to do, giving yourself a premature sense of satisfaction. Will that be the case here? Time will tell!

Well, the first part of your goal is the tracking and exercising, so you can legitimately say you have achieved that.

The actual weight loss is not under your control to the same degree, but the other items are - so you're right to concentrate on those. Even if you don't achieve the weight loss you're hoping for, you will be fitter and healthier. So well done!

[Falcrack]

Oh, and I have successfully tracked calories and exercised since Jan 5th. My goal is to lose about 40 pounds this year.

I hear that if you brag about things you plan to do before you do them, it decreases your chances of actually doing it, since you are congratulating yourself before actually accomplishing what you set out to do, giving yourself a premature sense of satisfaction. Will that be the case here? Time will tell!

Well, the first part of your goal is the tracking and exercising, so you can legitimately say you have achieved that.

The actual weight loss is not under your control to the same degree, but the other items are - so you're right to concentrate on those. Even if you don't achieve the weight loss you're hoping for, you will be fitter and healthier. So well done!

I have achieved tracking and exercising for a few days. But the only real benefit of it comes after a long time of sustained effort. Too many times I have started, but failed to sustain the effort for the amount of time needed. That goes for many other goals I have set for myself, many of them focused on decreasing my personal screen time (including too much time on forums like this).

I know I'll lose weight if I track calories and exercise. What I need to prove to myself is that I have the determination to follow through for the time needed to achieve the desired weight loss, and after that, to sustain that new weight.

[Alan Phipps]

Pro hint for success at daily exercise - take one or more big dogs for long walks (even if you offer to exercise a neighbour's pet). You also get to know, meet and talk to the rest of the doggie walking community, which is no bad thing either - and I'm a cat owner. (Don't forget the poop bags.)

[clakclak]

NVidia's Linux driver version R530 had a regression on niche feature. (This was almost three years ago.)
We did kept using R525 where it was needed.
May 2024 that started to block kernel updates, so I finally reported the issue to NVidia.
By September 2024 NVidia confirmed the bug and told that a fix will come with R570.
That was released a year ago.

Not recent, nor huge, but still feels like an achievement.

That is pretty neat and will probably end up helping a lot more people than one may first suspect.

Pro hint for success at daily exercise - take one or more big dogs for long walks (even if you offer to exercise a neighbour's pet). You also get to know, meet and talk to the rest of the doggie walking community, which is no bad thing either - and I'm a cat owner. (Don't forget the poop bags.)

If you don't have a dog at hand you can also supplement this with a grandchild, niece, elderly relative, or flatmate. To motivate them to keep going simply pack the right treats, sweets for old or very young people, coffee for adults and beer for college aged folk. (Don't forget the poop bags.)

[Alan Phipps]

Big dogs tend to be quieter though with just the odd excited bark or two. You probably won't need ear-defenders or noise-cancelling earbuds to enjoy the exercise.

(Also the dogs don't get a say in whether, when, where or how far you go.)

[Gavrushka]

I'm having a reminiscent smile at the minute. Back in October 2010, even found the post, Usenko, amongst others, taught me how to form a basic written sentence in English.

Some years later, I was credited in two Guardian 'books of the month' for the pre-publisher edits I made for a great author friend of mine.

I've even written 11 books, and I owe my thanks to people on this forum, including Morkonan. (I wonder what he is up to nowadays.)

[Falcrack]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1R22Jb2 ... p=drivesdk

Here is a chart of my weight loss over time, since January 5th, when I started tracking calories using the MyFitnessPal app and exercising (treadmill, 30 minutes, 3 mph, 10% incline). You'll notice the weight is in freedom units, and the date is in the freedom format.

But what I am most proud of is the R squared value of 0.92, which is pretty high. My goal is to get an R squared value of 0.95 or greater! I set up the goal on the app to lose 1 lb per week, but the trend so far is 2.5 lbs per week. I bet over time that will level off somewhat though.

In many ways, I am as much if not more motivated by the health and appearance benefits of losing weight, as I am by making a nice looking graph with good data over time. I love Excel.

Losing weight is only one part of it though. I need to lose weight and keep it off. I note with some dismay that in previous use of MyFitnessPal to lose weight, I got down to 170.6 lbs on Apr 18th, 2017. I stopped tracking calories at that point. I gave up. By Sept 7th, 2017, I was back up to 189 lbs.

So I need to understand that I can't simply give up, that I need to keep doing this, or else my weight will rapidly rebound.

[fiksal]

well, my French appears to be at a level of a B1-B2 (called intermediate). I would like to push it for B2+ this year

enough for a short conversation, written emails, reading news from France and enough to switch my phone and PC to French.

I think this fits under the topic

[berth]

well, my French appears to be at a level of a B1-B2 (called intermediate). I would like to push it for B2+ this year

enough for a short conversation, written emails, reading news from France and enough to switch my phone and PC to French.

I think this fits under the topic

Bien fait cet homme!

[fiksal]

oui, merci, je suis pas mal )

[Scarecrow]

Well ... I've managed to stay out of a nursing home (that was last year's New Years resolution, and coincidently, this year's as well).

.... and managed to put on 25 much needed pounds.