I just realized

or maybe remembered

a quirk about my current financial situation. I have a grant that pays for my studies and an extra money for myself, which is what I consider my income. This value can't be changed on grant renewal, but it does change every year to match some factor (I think it matches inflation, but I'm not sure). However, my current arrangement is that I actually don't renew my grant, and instead I'll get a bunch of different grants in sequence.

Does this mean my income might increase year-over-year? I think the answer is yes. Good to know.

I bought a sashiko kit thing, not sure if I mentioned this last time. Excited to try it out when it arrives.

As I think of living on few things, I realize the need for repair. If I have things worth having, they are also worth repairing.

Sashiko is super cool, and probably a good thing to learn if I want jeans to become a staple of my wardrobe. I need to learn to sew.

Will work on it.

The Warriors are on a 4 game losing streak. This isn't particularly worrying, on the surface, but the streak includes both OKC and the Suns, and while the OKC game was close, the Suns game wasn't particularly so.

On one hand, I look at the statistical performance of the team and my worries subside, if only slightly.

Curry didn't play the OKC game and only shot well in the Nets game. It's good that he underperformed, in this case

that is to say it bodes well for the team

because Curry isn't likely to keep underperforming, meaning he'll improve, meaning the chances of victory are going to increase proportionally. His TOs were fine as well. Also, he's playing barely over 30 minutes a game... Which I get, to a certain extent, but also strongly dislike, on account of the losses.

Wiggins played big minutes in all 4 games, and shot poorly in a couple of games. I'm a little split, when it comes to Wiggs. On one hand, I know what he's capable of

what he's shown to be capable of

but on the other hand, what have you done for me lately? He's been doing well, this season, and his 3-ball is falling fine, but I don't know how much I should rely on this. If I assume his shooting is real, then this is fine. I'd like him to rebound a bit more, but that's life. His TOs are fine. Defensively, I know he can do the job. We can blame his poor shooting, for the few games.

Draymond also shot shit! His PFs are a bit concerning, he even fouled out against San Antonio, but overall his shooting seems to be the culprit.

I can justify the underwhelming performances with the poor shooting streak from the relevant players, I suppose. At least partially. Still, frustrating.

Being on the internet as much as I am, it gets tough. I'm thinking meditation is becoming a must in my everyday life.

I shall start doing that.

I'm back home.

Had to do a few stressful things today I had been putting off for this and that reason, but it feels good to finally have absolutely demolished that fuckass albatross around my amazingly shapely neck.

Additionally, I weighted myself right after eating lunch. 76 kg. This bodes very well for me. I don't know how much I'll lose overnight, but I know I'll lose quite a bit. This is great because last time I was at 75.75 kg, which means I'll clearly be way below that. Perchance 74? Not sure. 73?! No way right?! Maybe, we'll see, I suppose. Excited. Regardless, I'm feeling good. I'm not satisfied with my physique, but I'm proud of what I've achieved.

My parents bought me a rice cooker for Christmas. I don't want a rice cooker. I love my parents though... I'm trying to see the positives, y'know. I'm finding it hard to see the positives.

This is why I hate holidays, especially gift-giving holidays. And birthdays. I don't want people to give me stuff, because 9 times out of 10, I don't want their fucking garbage. At the same time, I get what they mean, I get they're just trying to be nice, so I can't be mad at them or something, that's unreasonable. I just don't want garbage, why would you give me garbage? I don't want a fucking rice cooker. I thought about it, then I didn't buy it. Why do you think I didn't buy it? You know I have the money. It's because I don't fucking want it. So why would you buy it? I don't want it, regardless of who buys it!

I don't even have anywhere convenient to store it. I'm already stressing out about this and it's not even December yet.

In the call, my parents were kinda pressing me about whether I wanted something. I used the rice cooker as an example of something that I was pondering, but then decided not to get because I don't need it. Then they hit me with the "well, I already bought it" FUCKING WHYYYYYYYYYY!!? WHYYYYYYYYYYY!!?

Christmas, birthdays. I hate them.

Especially my birthday, actually. I hate it so much. What do you think I want to do on my birthday? The answer is relax and enjoy the day. Eat nice food, maybe read, watch my favourite show or something, listen to music. That's what I want to do on my birthday. Not have to answer a bunch of calls and reply to a bunch of texts from people I don't care about. Not receiving a bunch of trash I'm gonna throw away. I mean, I don't even really like receiving things I don't want to throw away, though at least then it feels a bit more justifiable. Like, my grandma just gives me money, which really I can't be mad at. She knows where it's at. It's still a bit meh, why gift things at all, but sure. Other people though don't have the decency to spare me the trouble of throwing their garbage in the garbage.

I'm annoyed.

Something that bothers me a little is when I see people talk about how they can't save. They're counting every cent and they can barely afford to put a few tens away for a rainy day.

Now, don't get me wrong, there's a lot (a lot) of people out there that really can't do this and by no means am I trying to shit on those people and try to downplay their financial situation. I've heard stories of my grandmother, who grew up in poverty, and I know for a fact her family didn't have a cent to spare and they weren't really wasting their money, they just didn't have money. I know other people personally that experience very intense poverty. I know poverty is real, this isn't about that.

This is about those people that make, say, as much as I make and struggle to save money. I'm not rich, by any means, but I'm doing OK. I make about the median in my country! It's not a very rich country, by western standards, but if you make the median income over here you are doing fine. Not great, mind you, but fine.

I save about 60% of my income. I know this is a bit extreme, and I don't mean to say that I should be the standard. I'm a very weird guy, I'm totally aware of that

I've been made aware of that

so I don't mean to impose my lifestyle on others. My issue is that people act and say that this isn't enough to save.

On Reddit, someone replied to me on a post wondering how I could possibly save as much as I do, and saying that their sister was actually in the same situation as me and was struggling to save. Look, 60% savings rate is high, hell, 30% is high. But struggling to save? She was struggling? With the median income? No, she wasn't. She wasn't struggling to save, she was overspending and being reckless with her money. She lacked planning, discipline, and sense!

Well, I'm being a bit hyperbolic here, but I do mean the general point. If you can't save with my income, you're doing something terribly wrong. Look, I even did some math. I live in a small room, but I could rent an apartment

maybe she wanted more privacy and freedom, which is understandable on a human level

for something like 3x what I spend monthly. Even if I spent 3x what I do on rent, I'd still save about 15% of my income. 15% is a very reasonable saving's rate, for most people, so I'm struggling to see where this person was spending all this money.

I did another experiment actually. I'm losing weight (on purpose), so I'm eating in a bit of a particular way. Normally, I'd buy a bunch of veggies and stuff and cook them daily for my meals, but because I'm lazy and trying to lose weight, I've decided to eat lunch at the canteen, and then just scrap together an evening-time meal. You can say what you will about this, I'm getting my calories and my nutrients and I'm doing well both on the mental side and the physical side. My point is that, if I had an apartment, with a kitchen all to myself, you know damn well I'd be cooking. If I were cooking, I'd be saving money. The canteen offers great food for a cheap price, yes, but it's still more expensive than buying stuff and cooking it yourself! I spend under 10% of my income on food, and I could keep that number easily by cooking with an apartment. The experiment I did, little calculation, was to see how much I would spend if I actually ate fast-food for dinner every day. That's right. On top of my lunch and evening meal, if I went out and ate a fast-food menu everyday for a month, how much would I spend on food? The answer is about 24% of my income, turns out. I could eat out everyday, no exception, and still save 47% of my income. Like, come on man. On my income and this person was struggling to save?

It genuinely baffles me what she could possibly have been spending all her money on. I could rent a studio apartment right now for less than 3x my rent, by the way.

I've also considered they may have had to pay tuition, if their grant didn't cover that. Even with that, I would still be able to save over 50% of my income.

Well, I say it baffles me, but that's not quite true. It's very easy to come up with a situation that sounds reasonable and takes up the whole income. Sure, doable. The issue is, however, that if you're struggling to save, you're living above your means. That's my opinion. To save, you must live below your means. It is easy to live below my means when I make as much as I make.

On top of that, this person was telling me about their sister. Now, I don't know how old the person commenting was, maybe they were a child, but it was a financial subreddit so I find that to be unlikely. Regardless, we now have two people that just kind of accepted that it's hard to save on an income like mine.

I'm left wondering how many people live like that. Living past what is reasonable and then complaining they can't save and there's no financial future. Clearly, you need to make your own financial future, not just expect it to be laid at your table. If you keep spending, you'll keep having nothing left. Obviously. So spend less!

I get not wanting to live in a tiny room, I get wanting to go out with friends, I get wanting a car, I get not wanting to eat at the canteen, but damn it sometimes you have to. Sometimes that's the way forward.

If you're broke, act broke. If you're broke and act rich, you'll stay broke. That's what I'm getting from all this, basically, that this person's sister was just acting way out of their tax bracket.

Which is fine, I guess. I mean, at the end of the day, I don't really care what people do with their money. It's upsetting on a surface level because it's so weird that someone would choose to do that, but it's their choice, so I don't really care.

On one hand, I find myself looking at people like this and wondering how many others are the same way. I hear about the country going to shit and people can't save money, but then I hear of this kind of stuff. I have a great family that I know I can rely on. I'm not scared that things are gonna go wrong for me, as long as I'm trying to get them going right, I have trust everything'll be fine. I realize the privilege I've been born into. Still, how can someone just sit there and talk about not being able to save money when I can clearly save money? On the same income!

I've had a lot of help getting here, but most people where I am don't have debt like the Americans, it's not like we're out here drowning in debt and she'd have to be paying off a bunch of student loans.

Whatever.

It takes me back to those things people say about avocado toast and Starbucks. Some people say to stop eating avocado toast and going to Starbucks, because that's money that you could be saving. How can you talk about not having money when you're doing that? I've no clue how much avocado toast or Starbucks cost, but I do see the point. At the same time, people say that that's not the real issue. Hard-working people should be able to go eat an avocado toast and drink Starbucks! Which I also think is a valid point. I guess, how can these two feelings coexist, is the question.

I don't think the sacrifices I'm making are sacrifices that should be made, only that they can be made. If someone refuses to live below their means and cut on extras to save, I find that upsetting. Especially if they complain about it. At the same time, the complaints have merit.

I don't know.

I've been watching lots of videos of terrible drivers. It's really frustrating to see people like that, so careless, with such little respect for their surroundings and for those around them, just driving around. Zipping by in hunks of metal, ready to take someone's life away. It really baffles me.

I think some people just honestly don't think about others, they just don't care, they don't consider it. They're inconsiderate, great word for the situation, I think. It's honestly upsetting.

The Warriors lost to the Nets, by the way, forgot to mention that last time. I mean, come on! THE NETS?!

They've actually been doing OK, I guess, but still. I was pretty upset at Kerr's terrible rotations, at first, but then came to the realization that maybe it's for the best. Who cares about the ego of winning against a bottom feeder, when you can rest your best player? Not me, that's for sure, and not Kerr either. I'm coming to terms with the fact we're gonna get a lot of these losses this season.

I've also found out about Polymarket. I mean, I heard of it a few weeks ago, but I learned more about it recently. It's an interesting concept, but pretty weird. Not sure how I feel about what that kind of thing means for the world... Maybe nothing, not sure at all.

I've been nothing about a whole lot of nothing these past few days.

Yesterday, I overspent on my food budget. Today, I underspent to compensate. Very reasonable. I wasn't even hungry at all today, quite honestly I didn't even notice I didn't eat extra. Admittedly, I had 4 oranges for a snack, but that's not even particularly notable in my usual routine. I think I can go some days without buying anything at all. That feels nice.

I've been daydreaming about fishing a lot, for some reason.

Is this the next level of hunger? I'm so hungry I'm fantasizing about hunting?!

I don't feel particularly hungry, and I haven't been feeling that way at all. I've been eating well, maybe even a little too much these past couple of days, actually.

Maybe I'll do some fishing one of these days.

I often think about the things I believe, as I believe that that is indispensable for coming to accurate and reasonable conclusions. In other words, I don't want to believe things just because I believe them; I want to have reasons to believe what I believe, and I want to inspect my beliefs and change them if they contradict or are incompatible with reality. I think that's the reasonable thing to do.

I was writing a lot for this post, but I keep bumping heads with my ignorance. To a certain extent, I think it's critical for everyone to speak their mind, even if they're wrong, so that their ideas can be challenged and questioned by others; I think that's a great way to find flaws in one's reasoning that might never be brought up individually. However, I don't know what to say.

I think I'm falling victim to party allegiance. Or rather, I'm relying on party affiliation to guide my vote, rather than thinking and analysing for myself. Really, that's the whole point of parties

to help people choose without them having to do all the research

but I'm not too comfortable with that. I want to think for myself and come up with a good set of ideas and morals that I can confidently follow, and then decide based on that.

Immigration is a big deal, where I live, though I do believe it's a big deal worldwide, as well. There's so much babble all over, and it's hard to make up my mind on the issue.

It's hard to make up my mind on a lot of issues. And it's hard to figure out what's just ideology and what's actually doable and effective.

Very frustrating.

Listened to the new Kendrick album. It's amazing, predictably. My favourite song is probably luther or reincarnated. Just an incredible project overall. I'm feeling a strong 4/5, possibly a 5/5. I thought some of the songs were a bit wack, but the kind of wack that can grow on me. I'll revisit this later.

Did my laundry today as well. Feels good to clean up a little.

I keep wanting to rush, and at the same time I don't want time to pass. Very frustrating.

My favourite streamer's having some voice issues so the streams've been very short... It's fine, I guess, but it's really annoying. I wish her the best and a fast recovery.

Let's start with money.

I got paid today, which is odd because I'm usually paid on the 23^rd^. Of course, it makes sense; I was supposed to be paid on a Saturday, so I get paid on the Friday prior. I just hadn't thought that that was what was gonna happen. Anyway, I get paid and, of course, I buy my ETFs and Bitcoin. At the ATH, as is customary. Still, it all went up today so I actually don't even mind it that much. Regardless, the whole point of this is to buy and forget, go with the market, don't time it. My mom gave me some money as well, for some reason... I keep telling her I don't need it

and I just end up putting the money towards my savings

but she keeps giving me some money every month. What am I even supposed to do, at this point? It's not like I don't want it, of course I do, but at the same time I always feel like she's coddling me or feels that I can't get on without her help, when I very much can! Well, I'm just saying "thank you, I don't need it though, you don't need to give me money..." but next month I'm sure I'm gonna get the same 50 bucks again.

Kendrick dropped a new album like 1 hour ago as of me writing this. Cool.

I've also been getting a little into watches. No reason, really. I'm not going to buy a watch, but I do see the usefulness of them... My little brother actually bought one on my advice. Not buying a watch, that he wanted to do before I ever brought it up, but just the brand and model. He knows I'm into value buying.

I might buy a G-SHOCK at some point.

I'm doing an Excel spreadsheet with notable items I want to fill my closet with.

That's it!

Oh, I'm almost 7% up on my investments in almost exactly 5 months. That's almost a 17% YoY pace. I planned for an 11% YoY pace. Wowzers.

That's right, I said it. Warriors in 6. I don't care who they're up against in the finals (yes, they're making the finals), they're winning in 6.

With that said, I'm back on the slow cooking grind of life.

I ate some different kind of bread today; variety is the spice of life, after all. It was really tasty.

I've been doing a lot of research into the best kind of clothes to wear, and I think I'm really getting it together. Of course, I need to order some stuff and try it before committing, but I'm very excited about the products I've been selecting.

What bothers me most are the prices of seemingly small items. I mean, one thing is a shirt costing €50, another is a pair of socks! Darn Tough may make quality stuff, no doubt, but their prices are ridiculous. I simply can't imagine it being good value. In case you're curious, I'm currently half-stuck between Organic Basics and Falke as my socks manufacturers. The issue I have with this stuff is that I just can't make a snap decision, I have to try them for an extended period of time to come to any sort of conclusion regarding the quality of the product.

Well, whatever. I'll see it as I go.

Completely unrelated, but how 'bout that Bitcoin, huh?! The prices have been crazy recently, it's really shooting up. I'm widely in the green, but I have very little so it's barely anything. It's so close to breaking USD100k though. My stocks've been doing good too. Overall, I just want to be well in the green, and I am. I'm over 6% in the less-than-6 months I've been investing.

That's it.

The Warriors lost, I forgot to mention that last time. I remembered I was meant to say that basically the moment I pressed Post... So frustrating.

In other news, I'm feeling decent. I bought a tape measure a few days back and it broke... That's what I get for buying random shit instead of actually looking for something worth its salt. It was just a tape measure though!!! That's what I thought, but clearly one must pay attention to detail always!

I'm interested in buying a new small backpack. I have the new big one, of course, but I want a small one as well. Something with lifetime warranty and the whole shebang. Thing is, I'm not sure what kind of bag I'm looking for, so it's tough.

I'm really loving the new jeans, by the way. I think I've mentioned this already, but I'm actually really liking them. Strongly considering just going and buying more as time goes on. I have a few brands in mine, but a lot of them are a pain in the butt to order from where I am... Which really sucks. I'll also look for workarounds for that.

Wore my new pants today for the first time. I liked it! They're comfortable and (I think) rather stylish.

I'll wear them again tomorrow; they're jeans, after all.

I also bought a beginner lock picking set. Very excited to try it out. Should arrive on Thursday. I've been wanting to do this for a long while, so I'm glad I finally committed.

Food was just OK today at the canteen... I like a sausage-thing they have (vegetarian) but the rest was mediocre. Tomorrow the food is likely to be better, but we shall see.

Waddup.

The Dubs play today against the dreaded Clippers. Hopefully they get their revenge.

I'm thinking of reading Re:Zero. We shall see.

Ate good today, feeling good as well.

One of my housemates said he noticed I lost weight. I just said that I hadn't, on instinct, but really I have; I just thought there's no way he'd notice. We barely see each other, though it is true he's one of the first people in the house I ever did see, so I guess in a way it does make sense that he'd be able to tell I lost some weight from 5 months ago.

Feeling like a skinny king.

I'm feeling like going to the theatre. Not the movies, just the actual theatre, maybe watch a play or a stand-up set or something. There is actually a new movie coming out that I do also have some interest in watching, though. Or it's already out? I'm not sure. I'll look into it. I think it's a good investment.

I don't like movie theatres very mush, but I think it's nice to keep up with culture; see what people are making to get some insight into what people are thinking. Also, it could just be fun.

They say not to judge a book by its cover, but I do think that good advertisements for artistic endeavours provide significant insights into the artists. I say this because I saw some adverts for a stand-up set that's going on nearby (I assume) and it was really cool-looking, and that one movie I mentioned caught my eye because of great advertising as well. "Great" not as in technically great

I'm not knowledgable enough on the subject to judge the quality of ads

but as in it spoke to me.

I'll look into it.

I can't believe I forgot to write my daily entry again. Feeling very disappointed with myself... Admittedly, it was a Travel Friday, so that does explain why it would happen, but still. This is rather unfortunate.

This is reminding me of Matt D'Avella's 2-day rule

or whatever he calls it.

I've been spending some time with my grandma and little brother, very enjoyable time.

I'm hoping to instil in him some good lessons, but I'm also afraid to pressure him too much. I want him to realize how important these years are for his life going forward, but I also don't want him to burn out. I think he understands, but I don't want him to resent me, even if things work out.

I'm trying to keep a balance of telling him what to do and letting him do whatever he feels like doing.

Ate sushi today, but it didn't sit right for some reason. It usually does...

I also saw a very cute girl today. There's this archetype of nerdy girl that I really appreciate; it's kinda like Sayaka from Eikouzen, but there's a lot of art online with this particular set of characteristics and a lot of online personalities that either embody it or occasionally "cosplay" it, dress up in that style, whatever you wanna call it.

I'm a very neutral person; I don't think I have a boring personality, necessarily, but I do find myself interested in a lot of things most people find boring or weird. Something I'm thoroughly uninterested in, however, is love and relationships. I have some people I care about and that's good enough. I don't say good enough as in "I can live with this" but as in "I find no reason to look for more than this" and "I can't imagine better than this." In a way, I can see why some people might see that as problematic, but I disagree.

Still.

That girl made me honestly consider hitting on someone.

Reading this, I promise you, you have no idea how monumental a statement that just was.

She was beautiful, and looked so cool. Plus, she was eating sushi

who doesn't love a sushi lover?! I certainly do!

She really blew me away. Not enough for me to actually make a move, though, mind you. And really, as I said, I don't see the point. I feel like it'd be performative. Honestly, I don't want to talk to her... That's the end of the whole thing, right there, isn't it?

It's one of those things that I do end up thinking about, though.

I'd like to think I can't have a lot of change left in me, but objectively, I can't know that for sure. What if she was someone capable of revolutionizing my life, giving me a different sort of purpose, making me a better person? I guess that's the whole point of meeting new people; the possibility that they can change you for the better trumps the chance that they might be a dud.

Of course, there's the chance that they might change you for the worse; at the same time, one should be confident in oneself not to let outsiders negatively shift their character. They do say, to be loved is to be changed. Maybe to love is to change both oneself and another. To mould each other into a fitting pair or to mix one another into a different thing altogether.

This isn't something I'm particularly keen on experiencing, but I do find it interesting to think about.

Maybe I should've hit on that nerdy girl with the crop-top.

I'm losing weight, by the way. I might've mentioned last time I was home

2 weeks ago

that my weight had dropped to around 77 kg; it is now at 75! Well, it was a 77.8 or something like that, and is now at 75.75 kg. Still, a 2 kg drop in two weeks. This is a very reasonable pace, in my humble opinion. I've been eating healthy and well. I mean, to be perfectly honest, I was actually a bit scared I'd been eating a little bit too well, if you catch my meaning.

These past couple of weeks I ate out twice and had a bag of sweets and a bunch of bread. Even in retrospect, it's hard to believe I didn't gain weight. I didn't feel like I did anything particularly energy expending either... I did take a particularly long walk, at some point, but that was it!

I can't quite remember when I quit unhealthy snacks

like chips and sugary cookies, though I still do eat some plain dry cookies regularly

but I'm thinking that might've been a very significant factor in my progress. I really hope that, by this time next month, I'll be at my goal of 73 kg. I'd be so proud of myself if I reached that. I'm going at a steady and respectable pace.

I'll re-evaluate at 73, but I'm already thinking that I'll probably decide to keep going until 67 kg. That's a bit of an undertaking, but I think I can do it.

I'm guiding myself by BMI here, which I know is an imperfect metric, but I still think there's value in it. At 67 kg I'd be smack dab in the middle of the "Normal Weight" range for my height and age. I'll keep a look on my body and see if I'm looking too skinny or something. I doubt it, but I'll have to be careful regardless. One thing to add, though, is that I do want to get some muscle. I don't think I'm weak or anything

actually I feel pretty strong, overall

but my muscular development has been very lower-body-focused recently on account of my cycling, so I intend to get some work done on my upper body as well.

I don't know if it's the right time to work on that... I don't mean in the sense of optimization or anything; I assume the "best" time to start is yesterday, and the second-best time is today; what I mean is that I hate exercise so I want to postpone this until I feel like I look "weak" and then just fill myself in until I look good.

Hope that makes sense. Maybe I'm crazy.

That was actually something I worried about, running the scenario of hitting on the girl in my head. I don't look good enough. I thought my fit was actually decent; I mean, it was pretty normal and she was way out-swagging me, but it was fine. I got compliments on my shoes twice today (my younger and cooler brother and his friend), actually. Still, I'm still too close to overweight to feel confident.

Maybe that's a bad way to think.

I guess being insecure about one's looks is normal, so I'm not worried I'm weird for being this way, but I don't want this to keep me from doing what I want. I know for a fact I'm not so ugly people are afraid to look at me or they point and stare or something. I think I look rather unremarkable, actually, in the grand-scheme of things, which I think is good. I'd just like to try and improve some aspects of my looks before I start doing things that scare me. Maybe that's the wrong way to think, though... I've heard confidence is very attractive, so it might be a chicken and egg sort of situation. Who knows, really?

There's other cute nerdy girls out there, I'm sure. She was in a different city anyway. If I see her again, though, I'll take it as a sign from the universe and chat her up.

I forgot to post yesterday, so I'm posting a bit earlier today.

Not much to report from the past couple of days... I guess I just kinda do nothing all day, or at least don't do anything that I think is worth reporting, is a better way of putting it. I do things, I swear!

Today, a colleague of mine said I have a British accent. He thought I was British, like actually thought that. I think that's just hilarious. My accent is decent, I guess, but I don't sound native. Admittedly, his English is mediocre at best; still, I'll take every compliment thrown my way.

I ate some bread today (and yesterday, I think). It's just too much not to eat anything at all besides lunch; I can tell when I've hit my limit, and I have no intentions of torturing myself.

My jeans arrived. They're OK... A bit tight, I should've went with a size up, but I am aiming to lose weight so, at the same time, maybe it's the right choice. I don't want to continue to lose weight and need to buy another pair or jeans. They're black and discrete, I like them. The length is perfect.

Music recommendation for today: King of Swing.

And with that, I'm out.

I've been eating a lot recently; I feel like I am, at least.

Today, I didn't have dinner. That's actually pretty normal for me, but I've been eating at night these past few days, maybe for a week or something I've been doing this, or more.

Glad I didn't today. Hopefully I won't tomorrow, either. Trynna stick to my goals.

Not cooking is frustrating me, a little bit. I hope to cook over the weekend.

I feel like there should be an optimal social media.

There's a lot of different websites and apps out there that appeal to different niches, which is fine, of course, but does bother me to a certain extent

objectively, all the things that can be done in each app, could be done in one app.

I'm a big fan of the decentralization of Lemmy and Mastodon; I also understand the appeal of both long-form posts with thread-like comments for specific communities and personal account micro-blogging; and I can say the same for a lot of other social media apps.

That being said, however, I find it very irritating that these apps are different apps and not just one big "social media" sphere. The Fediverse is attempting to (more or less) correct this, but it's not being particularly successful. You can kind of interact with Mastodon from Lemmy and vice versa, but the other Fediverse social medias are struggling to integrate.

To a certain extent, I get that keeping different sorts of social media in their little boxes helps foster a sort of subculture for each one; at the same time, I feel like that could also be achieved by using a single app and just letting users customize their experience.

I know I'm talking about this like it's easy and simple when it's really not, but I do think it's more-or-less doable.

Hopefully we get there, at some point.

Did my eyebrows, shaved my beard, cut my nails, showered. Feeling super clean tonight.

Clothes are washed too, organized my room yesterday.

This is pretty good.

Bitcoin is super high right now, ATH or close to it I believe, though it did hit ATH today. Stocks are crazy as well, I'm way, way in the green.

I'm spending too much money willy-nilly this month... I don't like how much I've been spending. It's bothering me. I need to keep myself under control. Bought some fast food today, though the relatively healthy kind, but still. Bought some jeans too, tho pushed by my parents (my dad even offered to pay for them). Dang it...

New Hololive debuts today. I managed to watch 2 of them fully, 2 of them partially, and missed the last one because the stream I usually watch started up.

My thoughts are rather uninspired, right now. First, I'd like to point out I actually understood the debuts pretty well. Not perfectly, by any means, but well enough that I could keep up with the topic and understand what was being discussed at any given time. My Japanese is better than I expected.

I might keep an eye on the girls for a while, but I doubt any will become a regular watch for me.

Speaking of watching, the Warriors. Predictably, the Cavs ran through them. It was way uglier than I expected, though. I feel deflated and my hope is dwindling for this Dubs team. I'll say though, if they manage to beat OKC, there might still be a chance for a ring.

I'm also watching some videos about sleeping on the floor. Interesting.

Have cleaned my room today and will get my clothes, they should be dry by now.

Good day.

At this point in the NBA season, the Golden State Warriors find themselves tied for the first seed in the Western conference with the Phoenix Suns and the OKC Thunder with a 7-1 record; for much of the NBA media and for the vast majority of fans

including the peeps over in the bay

this is a very surprising development. To add to the surprise, this incredibly winning record also puts them in second place in the league, surpassed only by... Cleveland?!

It's not that people expected the Cavaliers to be a bad team; on the contrary, many talking heads and fans alike expected them to be a solid team

some few hopefuls even selected them as championship contenders this season, expecting the Mitchell-Garland connection to improve and Mobley to finally take his much anticipated offensive jump

but nobody (other than perhaps-not-so-delusional-after-all Cavs fans) thought to put them in the undisputed number one position in the league, brilliantly undefeated after 9 games.

Something that people get to hold against the Warriors is their schedule, which was actually the easiest in the league up until their game with Boston.

Of course they have such a great record, they're beating up on the bottom feeders!

I'd debate how "weak" the Pelicans (currently sitting at a dreadful 3-6) and the Rockets (5-3) really are, but this sort of criticism isn't unfounded; truth be told, they weren't facing contenders, or even teams people expected to make some noise in the playoffs. After their sound defeat of the Boston Celtics, however, the noise started to quiet down. There were still some justifications, some flags to be waived

sure, the Celtics were missing two of their best players, and it was just one game, but the Warriors beat them without hitch and, might I add, they are sitting pretty near the top of the league on both offence and defence.

Still, the Cavs don't even have that. Their early-season matchups included the Bucks, the Knicks, and the Lakers. All three of those teams do happen to be underperforming expectations, but the point stands: they didn't get their pristine record by beating up on scum and fluking out the championship favourites; they got it by being better than everyone else.

As tonight approaches, the Warriors come face to face with reckoning; a scintillating clash or low-sample-size NBA narratives coagulates under the bright lights of... Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse? Dumbass name for an arena, geez, I wish I didn't know that... Regardless, fans will scream and shout and something's about to happen.

There are no ties, and the only draws will be chalk outlines of a team, dead on the floor.

I'm an unapologetic Warriors fan; I don't hide my affiliations. I want my pookie-bear Curry to win and my sweetie-pie Hield to hold his hand as they gleefully skip towards NBA greatness. I want the Cavs undefeated streak to shatter into a million pieces and I want to bask in the scattering light they'll reflect.

However, anxiety haunts me and weighs on my breath and my heart...

The Cavs are missing three meaningless pieces and their players are coming off incredible performances, save for Evan Mobley who fouled out of their matchup with the Pelicans.

The Warriors, on the other hand, are missing THREE HUGE PIECES. Draymond, Melton, and Podz are all expected to be out for tonight. Green and Podz might make it, and Melton has been out most of the season so it's hard to say if he'd've made a difference anyway, but still. Undermanned, away game in the middle of a long road-trip, facing a confident and undefeated juggernaut... Lord have mercy.

On the good side, the Warriors actually had a pretty decent outing against the Celtics: Curry and Hield balled out, Trayce and Looney showed up, Moody as well, Wiggins did OK, and Dray did his thing as well; all this facing the Celtics, the championship favourites, tied for 2nd in the East, and posting top 10 in the league in both offence and defence.

How can they beat the Cavs? I don't know.

Looking at Cleveland's stats, I'm having a hard time figuring out what exactly the Dubs can do. The Cavs are absurdly efficient from everywhere on the floor and defend incredibly well. The one thing I can see is that they haven't faced a three-point juggernaut just yet, so maybe that's a way to exploit their defence. On the other end of the court, though, the Warriors are giga-supremely-super-mega-absurdly-fucking screwed and it's not even funny. The only (only) person in the whole roster with a snowflake's chance in the deepest burning caves of solar hell of stopping Mobley and Allen is TJD, which means nobody on the roster has a fucking chance. The Cavs are gonna abuse the Warriors size mismatch until they go back limping to SanFran; except, of course, they'll actually go limping to fucking OKC to fight the 2nd in championship odds this season, because of course they would.

Here's my projection for tonight's game: Cavs win.

I want to bet Warriors, but I just can't. The Cavs have too good a defence and too mismatched an offence for the Dubs to actually match them. The only way Curry and Co. get away with the win is if Kenny Atkinson doesn't know how to guard the line and somehow Lindy Waters turns into Prime Curry and Kuminga turns into Giannis. Weirder things have happened (looking at you, Malachi Flynn).

We shall see.

I might've mentioned this before, but maybe I haven't; regardless, I'm an engineering researcher and, right now, I'm working in the field of extraterrestrial construction. Like, on the moon and mars, that kind of thing.

I have no clue if that sounds interesting or weird or whatever, but I'm very neutral on it. It's cool

to some extent

but at the same time it's just a research field; there's no guarantee this is going to go anywhere. More likely than not, it won't go anywhere. Whatever the case, I am thinking of what pathways there are for when I graduate, as I'm getting my PhD, right now. The big one is a job at the ESA. That one seems incredibly unlikely and terribly far-fetched, but maybe, right?

When I think about the future like this, I'm always left at a crossroads. I see my life going in so many different directions; or rather, I can think of so many different directions I could make my life go. I'm not sure if the ESA is a possibility at all, not at this point, but what if, right?

Then I find myself thinking about all sorts of things. It's overwhelming.

I think this might be because, at the end of the day, I know where I want to get. I know the goal. All of this is just the path, and I really don't care about the path, as long as it gets me where I want to go. It feels weird to think about "uprooting" my life to move cities so I can get my PhD and then "uproot" my life again to move to France or something to work at the ESA and then "uproot" my life again to finally retire.

I feel so silly talking about this.