What's Making You Happy Today?

Dropbear said:
How???

I can’t remember the last time I got 8hrs of sleep.
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I used to have sleep machismo, sleep when you are dead. Survive on 6 hours or less (more like 5) for donkey years and all that.
So this is a rarity for me. I suppose over the past year or so, I began to prioritise sleep.

I tried a ton of things, tracked a few stuff (manual and via tech) and it seems to be working.
8 HOURS + is rare (I even had a few 9 hour nights last week). I consistently get about 7hours+ lately though. Unless I am travelling a lot, unduly stressed etc.

Sleep is mostly bio-individual but most of us need more quantity and quality but worked the most for me:

-If I have coffee (not always) , I have my last one before noon.
-I go to bed and wake up around the same each day, including weekends.
-I sleep in something akin to a bat cave, with temps topping around 18 deg C
-I don't eat anything 3+ hours before I sleep.
-Morning exercise, however little, preferably outdoors.
- I very rarely drink, if at all, anymore. And when I drink, I keep it to day/ day drinking. This is personal to me, as something as simple as one beer fucks up my sleep. I have tested this many times and various drinks and qualities. The result is the same.


Sure, I can drink on occasion with friends/ family/ social events but I know my sleep will be fucked that night and I have just have to accept it.

There are a few others and this do not guarantee 100% results as life gets in the way but compared to my starting point, I get consistent results 90% of the time
 
‘I’ve got a .38 Special, up on the shelf.
If I start acting stupid, I’ll shoot myself.
I’ll sleep when I’m dead’ - Warren Zevon

But the reality is that whatever I do, my bladder can’t go a full 8 hours and I’ll have to get up at some point in the night to piss. If I am lucky, it won’t take me hours to get back to sleep.
 
I feel sorry for you guys (really). I can't fall asleep like once or twice a year and laying in bed for hours not being able to sleep is THE WORST FEELING EVER.
 
Dropbear said:
‘I’ve got a .38 Special, up on the shelf.
If I start acting stupid, I’ll shoot myself.
I’ll sleep when I’m dead’ - Warren Zevon

But the reality is that whatever I do, my bladder can’t go a full 8 hours and I’ll have to get up at some point in the night to piss. If I am lucky, it won’t take me hours to get back to sleep.
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Yeah, my Bladder most of the time can't either and when it happens (very rare)it is a pleasant surprise. Apparently, it is age-related (often, not always)

The key is keeping the awakenings as little as possible. 1-2x is normal. Anything more than that (for me, often when evening drinking ) and is not ideal.
 
güero said:
I feel sorry for you guys (really). I can't fall asleep like once or twice a year and laying in bed for hours not being able to sleep is THE WORST FEELING EVER.
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imagine having to medicate yourself just to be able to go to sleep at all.
 
We're all dying. Act accordingly.

That said somehow I outlasted another executive in the senior team. Even thought my job was the one first announced to be redundant 18 months ago.
 
Rambo is American. Make more money. Earn 190x more than the common man.
 
Last month I was at a dinner with a bunch of visitors from Europe. One of them happened to be the global CxO of the insurance line of business I'm serving. One of my Canadian executive peers was sitting next to him at the other end of the table and gave up his seat and waved me over so I can make an elevator pitch to him to sink 7 figures into an initiative that would save him high 6 figures on an annual basis, and with the 7 figures amortized the P&L impact and pay back would be even more attractive.

Yesterday said global CxO told a former CxO I knew in Germany that he spoke to me whilst he was here, he was impressed by my proposal and they shouldn't let this guy (me) go. It's a bit too late for that situtation but...
 
I have next week off....

Still going to continue to seek new employment but I signed up to a cooking class online because my brother bought me a gift card to Classpop.

Previously I bought a few from Eataly for my mother but I usually just set her up and drop off the ingredients and go.

Just wondering how competitive they are. The class is on risotto and panna cotta which I could probably make on my own but I thought I'd try it it.
 
Fwiffo said:
I have next week off....

Still going to continue to seek new employment but I signed up to a cooking class online because my brother bought me a gift card to Classpop.

Previously I bought a few from Eataly for my mother but I usually just set her up and drop off the ingredients and go.

Just wondering how competitive they are. The class is on risotto and panna cotta which I could probably make on my own but I thought I'd try it it.
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sounds like fun. let us know how it goes.
 
Fwiffo said:
I have next week off....

Still going to continue to seek new employment but I signed up to a cooking class online because my brother bought me a gift card to Classpop.

Previously I bought a few from Eataly for my mother but I usually just set her up and drop off the ingredients and go.

Just wondering how competitive they are. The class is on risotto and panna cotta which I could probably make on my own but I thought I'd try it it.
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Fwiffo Fwiffo why don't you go to the CIA or something like that for a couple of months? Or go intern with some good chef?
 
güero said:
Fwiffo Fwiffo why don't you go to the CIA or something like that for a couple of months? Or go intern with some good chef?
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I didn't know we had Culinary Institute of America here. There's a community college that churns out a lot of the local cooks and chefs.

Time commitment (yes, even at my job that isn't a job). And the fact I'm an amateur who does it for...not sure if fun is the right term but I'll use it. It's not 'fun' cooking 4 or 5 recipes all at once with a deadline to put things on the table in X hours.

My brother did get a full culinary diploma at that college. He did some weekend or evening classes for a number of years. No idea how he fit that into his investment job. I was a taste tester for the year we shared a place together.
 
Fwiffo said:
Time commitment (yes, even at my job that isn't a job). And the fact I'm an amateur who does it for...not sure if fun is the right term but I'll use it. It's not 'fun' cooking 4 or 5 recipes all at once with a deadline to put things on the table in X hours.
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I meant to do it while you're out of a job anyway - but then I forgot, for whatever reason you refuse to quit until you find something new... You will certainly learn a few tips and tricks, or some dishes you couldn't figure out, etc. Not saying you should become a professional chef, though that certainly seems more useful and fun than your current line of work (probably more stressful and certainly less pay, though).
 
He can do it in his current job as well as he seems to be mailing it in or going through the motions and no one knows if/what he is doing at work.


That being said, working in a kitchen sucks. I did it for two years whilst in college. Porter and then commis/veg chef. It is bloody hard work, not really a young man (or woman's game), particularly rewarding and deleterious to your sperm count. Avoid!
 
güero said:
I meant to do it while you're out of a job anyway - but then I forgot, for whatever reason you refuse to quit until you find something new..
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I am holding on to my principle of it is always better to have a job when you go find a job.

QuandoDio said:
He can do it in his current job as well as he seems to be mailing it in or going through the motions and no one knows if/what he is doing at work.
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I realised now I am one sounding like one of those people who take advantage of European labour loopholes or their North American equivalent to stay employed that a certain Mr. Smith deals with.
 
Dropbear said:
CIA or interning with a chef? 🤔
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What about being a chef for the CIA?

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I second guessed myself today and stayed at work instead of getting out before the blizzard.

I figured that taking a grid road might be better than the highway but it was an insane whiteout. I crawled along eyeballing what I thought was the middle of the road. That worked for about 5km and then I turned onto another grid that would take me to Costco and the strip mall as well as access to the highway and a normally 10 minute drive 120kph to Flat Broke Acres.

Halfway to Costco I hit the ditch because I saw some dim headlights coming towards me but to the right of me. I got disoriented and hit the ditch. He had been in the ditch and trying to plow his way out but he just kept getting more bogged down until he stopped. I talked to him for a bit and then went back and put it in 4WD low and actually fishtailed out of the ditch. I then pulled him out with my tow rope. Crawled along, just missed the concrete divider. Sat in the Costco parking lot for 3 hours waiting for a break in the blizzard. An extra hour because little cars clogged both exits.

Weather map showed the snow moving off so I gave it a go and it worked for a few kms but then it was a whiteout again and I did 30kph staring at the white lines on the highway and stopping if I lost sight of the lines in the swirling snow. Cars, trucks, semis in the ditches. Others pulled over to wait it out. Never seen so many vehicles off the road. My renter's car was backed into and totalled by a snow plow when they were still on the roads, so she was sitting in her car texting me.

So I grab her up and poke along trying to find my turn. Found it and headed north. Into the wind and blizzard. Drove by sound from the rumble strips and found my next turn. It's all good except for the car turned sideways and stuck in the middle of the road and another bogged in the snow 25m ahead.

So I get out and go up to the car and the man and woman are waving their hands like I don't see them. Morons. The West Indian chap asked me if I was Dick and says they have a reservation at the Bradwell Hotel and they would like a ride there and that they would pay me. That is a 20 minute drive in good weather. I told him my name is not Dick, I'm not risking my life to get your ass to Bradwell and I asked if he knew the Bradwell Hotel is a shit hole but a rocking place to have a beer. I told him to call the RCs or wait for Dick and blasted around him through a snow drift. Pulling him out was not an option. No pavement, no traction.

Crawled through the edge of the ditch to get by the abandoned other car. Found my next turn and 2km of more whiteout with the window down checking the snow piles from the grader that was the edge of the road. Looked like Johnny's truck in the ditch by Ray Ray's place. Really hard on that stretch because it is a serpentine curved section. Made it to Bill's bushland and finally I could see because the trees blocked the wind and snow. Right turn to my grid, decent shape expect for the grill high snowbank in the front of my driveway. Punched through it and blasted down the drive through drifts.

Not going anywhere tomorrow.

The happy bit? Getting home in the second worst blizzard since we came here in 2005. The one in 2009 was only worse because it was an east wind and threw up 2.5m snowdrifts and I had to pull a sled 1.5 km each way to and from the highway where my truck was parked and it was days until the roads were plowed. This was the worst whiteout driving I've ever experienced though by a long shot.

Mr. Magoo got home again.
 
Thruth said:
I second guessed myself today and stayed at work instead of getting out before the blizzard.

I figured that taking a grid road might be better than the highway but it was an insane whiteout. I crawled along eyeballing what I thought was the middle of the road. That worked for about 5km and then I turned onto another grid that would take me to Costco and the strip mall as well as access to the highway and a normally 10 minute drive 120kph to Flat Broke Acres.

Halfway to Costco I hit the ditch because I saw some dim headlights coming towards me but to the right of me. I got disoriented and hit the ditch. He had been in the ditch and trying to plow his way out but he just kept getting more bogged down until he stopped. I talked to him for a bit and then went back and put it in 4WD low and actually fishtailed out of the ditch. I then pulled him out with my tow rope. Crawled along, just missed the concrete divider. Sat in the Costco parking lot for 3 hours waiting for a break in the blizzard. An extra hour because little cars clogged both exits.

Weather map showed the snow moving off so I gave it a go and it worked for a few kms but then it was a whiteout again and I did 30kph staring at the white lines on the highway and stopping if I lost sight of the lines in the swirling snow. Cars, trucks, semis in the ditches. Others pulled over to wait it out. Never seen so many vehicles off the road. My renter's car was backed into and totalled by a snow plow when they were still on the roads, so she was sitting in her car texting me.

So I grab her up and poke along trying to find my turn. Found it and headed north. Into the wind and blizzard. Drove by sound from the rumble strips and found my next turn. It's all good except for the car turned sideways and stuck in the middle of the road and another bogged in the snow 25m ahead.

So I get out and go up to the car and the man and woman are waving their hands like I don't see them. Morons. The West Indian chap asked me if I was Dick and says they have a reservation at the Bradwell Hotel and they would like a ride there and that they would pay me. That is a 20 minute drive in good weather. I told him my name is not Dick, I'm not risking my life to get your ass to Bradwell and I asked if he knew the Bradwell Hotel is a shit hole but a rocking place to have a beer. I told him to call the RCs or wait for Dick and blasted around him through a snow drift. Pulling him out was not an option. No pavement, no traction.

Crawled through the edge of the ditch to get by the abandoned other car. Found my next turn and 2km of more whiteout with the window down checking the snow piles from the grader that was the edge of the road. Looked like Johnny's truck in the ditch by Ray Ray's place. Really hard on that stretch because it is a serpentine curved section. Made it to Bill's bushland and finally I could see because the trees blocked the wind and snow. Right turn to my grid, decent shape expect for the grill high snowbank in the front of my driveway. Punched through it and blasted down the drive through drifts.

Not going anywhere tomorrow.

The happy bit? Getting home in the second worst blizzard since we came here in 2005. The one in 2009 was only worse because it was an east wind and threw up 2.5m snowdrifts and I had to pull a sled 1.5 km each way to and from the highway where my truck was parked and it was days until the roads were plowed. This was the worst whiteout driving I've ever experienced though by a long shot.

Mr. Magoo got home again.
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jesus christ this sounds terrifying. glad to hear you made it out and managed not to completely fuck up your truck.
 
Thruth said:
I second guessed myself today and stayed at work instead of getting out before the blizzard.

I figured that taking a grid road might be better than the highway but it was an insane whiteout. I crawled along eyeballing what I thought was the middle of the road. That worked for about 5km and then I turned onto another grid that would take me to Costco and the strip mall as well as access to the highway and a normally 10 minute drive 120kph to Flat Broke Acres.

Halfway to Costco I hit the ditch because I saw some dim headlights coming towards me but to the right of me. I got disoriented and hit the ditch. He had been in the ditch and trying to plow his way out but he just kept getting more bogged down until he stopped. I talked to him for a bit and then went back and put it in 4WD low and actually fishtailed out of the ditch. I then pulled him out with my tow rope. Crawled along, just missed the concrete divider. Sat in the Costco parking lot for 3 hours waiting for a break in the blizzard. An extra hour because little cars clogged both exits.

Weather map showed the snow moving off so I gave it a go and it worked for a few kms but then it was a whiteout again and I did 30kph staring at the white lines on the highway and stopping if I lost sight of the lines in the swirling snow. Cars, trucks, semis in the ditches. Others pulled over to wait it out. Never seen so many vehicles off the road. My renter's car was backed into and totalled by a snow plow when they were still on the roads, so she was sitting in her car texting me.

So I grab her up and poke along trying to find my turn. Found it and headed north. Into the wind and blizzard. Drove by sound from the rumble strips and found my next turn. It's all good except for the car turned sideways and stuck in the middle of the road and another bogged in the snow 25m ahead.

So I get out and go up to the car and the man and woman are waving their hands like I don't see them. Morons. The West Indian chap asked me if I was Dick and says they have a reservation at the Bradwell Hotel and they would like a ride there and that they would pay me. That is a 20 minute drive in good weather. I told him my name is not Dick, I'm not risking my life to get your ass to Bradwell and I asked if he knew the Bradwell Hotel is a shit hole but a rocking place to have a beer. I told him to call the RCs or wait for Dick and blasted around him through a snow drift. Pulling him out was not an option. No pavement, no traction.

Crawled through the edge of the ditch to get by the abandoned other car. Found my next turn and 2km of more whiteout with the window down checking the snow piles from the grader that was the edge of the road. Looked like Johnny's truck in the ditch by Ray Ray's place. Really hard on that stretch because it is a serpentine curved section. Made it to Bill's bushland and finally I could see because the trees blocked the wind and snow. Right turn to my grid, decent shape expect for the grill high snowbank in the front of my driveway. Punched through it and blasted down the drive through drifts.

Not going anywhere tomorrow.

The happy bit? Getting home in the second worst blizzard since we came here in 2005. The one in 2009 was only worse because it was an east wind and threw up 2.5m snowdrifts and I had to pull a sled 1.5 km each way to and from the highway where my truck was parked and it was days until the roads were plowed. This was the worst whiteout driving I've ever experienced though by a long shot.

Mr. Magoo got home again.
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Damm...where you live again?
 
I bought Phil Howard's cookbook and I've been reading it for 3 hours straight.
 
Fwiffo said:
Amazon product ASIN B073VF4LHP
Perhaps I'm a masochist and I really wanted to try something crazy and complex.
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Please report back once you've tried something from the book. I get a food magazine that has a Michelin plate described in great detail every other issue or so and imho it would take me somewhere between 10 and 30 hours to prepare a plate, if I'd do everything true to the original. (you might also be interested in "The French Laundry Cookbook" because I believe it is the OG of those type of cookbooks)
 
güero said:
Please report back once you've tried something from the book. I get a food magazine that has a Michelin plate described in great detail every other issue or so and imho it would take me somewhere between 10 and 30 hours to prepare a plate, if I'd do everything true to the original. (you might also be interested in "The French Laundry Cookbook" because I believe it is the OG of those type of cookbooks)
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10 to 30 hours... now I get even more pressure.
 
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