I was severely depressed a month or two ago, and I went ahead and bought two 2 pound chocolate rich cakes in succession and ate them over a period of 24 hours. Though it didn't kill me, but it was definitely not too upsetting. I still have the urge to just eat huge quantities of sugar, and I am not sure how to control it, but yea it definitely did not kill me or make me sick.
I am otherwise an extremely fit individual (can run 5k in 16 minutes)
Incidentally there are some studies with rats showing that sugar/sweet addicted + cocaine addicted rats prefer their sugar hit over their cocaine hit, and plain sugar-addicted rats when removed from sugar/sweet had opiate-withdrawal like symptoms.
Eating sweets does improve mood. There are several known mechanisms. e.g., carbs facilitate amino acid transport across the blood-brain barrier [1], and wheat stimulates endogenous opiate receptors [2]. But, if you want to influence brain chemistry therapeutically, eating sweets is probably not the best approach. Good luck!
I got the basic one (Bamboo) with the smallest possible size (I think it's the 4x6 one). If you're doing design and other complex tasks, it's probably better to have those large ones. For me though, since I only use it for general computing and the occasional design work, having a small one makes it portable (and it fits on my desk!).
Unfortunately though, after years of getting used to the mouse, I do find it hard doing detailed work in Photoshop (i.e. tracing something/colouring something). It probably has to do with me not being used to the tablet but in times like those, I (using the tablet) still don't have the dexterity to manipulate things as well as when using a mouse.
don't know what worked for cmos but for me it was recognizing that most of my self doubts stemmed from irrational fears such as being uncomfortable/scared around meeting new people. I'm a bit of a workout junkie so I decided to apply principles from working out to my psychology- I would take an irrational fear or something that made me uncomfortable and do incremental "mini-workouts" until I became comfortable and the fear disappeared. For example meeting new people- I started using every chance I had to start conversations with people I didn't know. Say you're standing in line at Starbucks and see someone wearing shoes that you like say "Hey, cool shoes, where did you get them?"
meta: now that only the poster can see his/her post's score, others can't tell if a post with a question interests many in the community or not. Previously, edw519 (or others) could gauge using the question's score the community's interest.
In a pragmatic sense, it's not far fetched to assume that a question that you can see interests many people (but only few can answer) will have more chance of being answered than a question that appears to interest only Joe User.
Now, if I want to show interest in the question, edw519 can't see my upvote(1) and thus it's useless in the "showing public support" sense. The only thing I can now do to show public interest is a "me too!" or a "yes, do tell!" post, which I guess all of us would like to avoid.
(1) maybe with enough karma you CAN see everybody's score, idk, but the point still stands
The food stays hot for longer in the pot and can be placed in the fridge, microwave, dishwasher. I think it cooks better due to infrared rays apparently, and there's no risk of metal contamination: that's my concern from hot acidic foods like tomato sauce, especially when kept for days in fridge, or scratched out with metal spoon. I think it tastes better and cooks better - the overall experience feels awesome. 3 brands I've come across are Neoflam (Korea), Piral (Italy) and Xtrema (USA.) Xtrema best but most expensive but all v good. Sudden heat changes and dropping are the enemy.
Excellent, I'm always looking out for new techniques & tools. I've always wondered if cooking in non-conductive would make a difference, your response validates. Thanks adrian
Sprinting gives a rush of endorphins and hgh. Sprinting is anaerobic exercise for the heart, and jogging is more aerobic. However, both are important. Sprinting not only involves power, but technique and arms, it yields a different physique by using faster twitch muscles and requires flexibility. Jogging is more harmful to the body when one gets addicted to constantly pushing and playing with the pain threshold, or ignoring it, which happens when schedules and distances are embraced by ego.
I am inclined to think we're built to go for a walk to a hunting ground, sprint and throw an arrow, and walk home with a carcass on our backs, sleep while the women cooks and disects its organs, then eat it. Jogging serves no purpose other than to save time. If we're jogging a lot, we haven't positioned our tribe properly. What animal would you pursue jogging? Would you take your army out jogging? Would you rather jog or ride a horse into war?
Nearly all animals built for sprinting don't have the endurance for sustained evasion. If you've ever chased wildlife, you'll notice they quickly zip away, but stop some couple hundred meters away to turn around and look back at you. This is really to recharge their batteries and keep an eye on the threat (you).
I mentioned it in another comment, but persistence hunting was a well-known tactic across the world. It's particular effective on flat desolate land, but was also practiced in hilly woodlands, in combination with tracking skills.
Eventually the animal would keel over from exhaustion.
Don't fall too easily into this Paleo trend and the hunches people posit as "the way things were". They often have a narrow view of how things were.
Remember to keep your skepticism healthy. When someone tells you to use a standing desk, because cavemen used standing desks, remain skeptical. When someone says you should just do short sprints, because that's what cavemen did, be skeptical. I'm not saying standing desks and sprinting are bad, I do both, but question & verify what you're told, especially before spreading that (mis?)information.
Long distance running has it's place in human history. Check out "persistence hunting". The Tarahumara tribe, which is now pretty well-known among laymen, were practitioners of this. Their story has been covered in quite a few books, Born To Run being the most popular.
> I am inclined to think we're built to go for a walk to a hunting ground, sprint and throw an arrow.
The adaption to bipedalism actually reduced our sprinting capabilities and increased our endurance. It's likely that we used our superior endurance to chase down our prey over long distances far before we had arrows.
See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=826HMLoiE_o
If it were me, I would've told my buddies to start building a fence for next time while I was out hunting it down. Also dogs and horses could have helped with the hunt. How is he meant to carry the carcass back? Does he light a fire to signal to the others to help him? What happens if tigers smell the blood or no one reaches him in time, or a pack of hyenas are following the hunter? Most of the time, a lot of the hunt was reconnaissance (endurance yes, jogging no.) Large groups of people jogging frequently for long groups of time doesn't seem right, perhaps in parts of Africa (eg Kenya) jogging has become part of society and remains fun. Bipedalism has other benefits besides endurance: vision, climbing, reach, sitting, freeing up hands, inducing fear. People going on a 10km run every weekend, on concrete, in a polluted city, with a hunched back is just wrong. Just because you can jog, doesn't mean you must.
So could you share more details regarding how to shed off my social awkwardness, and be more friendly. I made an attempt by reading "How to win friends.." and well it didn't really help much, maybe I should have stuck out longer, but yea I would be interested in your elaboration of this.
And DO IT ALL THE TIME. Talk to everyone. Talk to cashiers, talk to random dorm people. Talk to professors. Talk to them like people. Be interested in them, etc.
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As far as building friendships, the trick it to talk to people about activities that might be interesting and plan to do those things. Then do them. It might be as convoluted as a dinner + play + drinks evening out with time tables and tickets, or it might just be a game of NHL hockey on the Xbox 360 later at 9pm.
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Women(or perhaps men, depending on sex/inclination): Just talk to them. They're primarily people. Additionally, ask people out constantly if they're interesting to you in that way. The 2nd time you see them or the 15th minute of talking to them should be about when you think to do that. "Out" implies an activity, and little else. It could be disc golf, or walking around town even. It's about talking.
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For any social situation: Read a bit about the news, and a couple obscure (non tech, not all political, but some is okay) sources. Talk with people about them. Figure out how to ask questions about what people think about the happenings of the world which someone could have an opinion on without having read the item in question. This is a great way to make sure you're not totally out there and silent.
Thanks for the book recommendation. I don't want to come across as arrogant, but my childhood till 13 years old was spent in moderate poverty in another country, so I really know what living in a slum feels like. When I think about what little I remember from those days, it makes my cringe because I do realize how lucky I am to be where I am, but then the motivation is short lived. What else if at all helped you overcome depression ?
Running from my current lifestyle is sort of what I am trying to do. I really can't think of anything else in the short term that would help, though I am open to suggestions. I did look into non-profits, but they want you to work for free, pay them application fees for stuff, which really sucks, if they had been nicer, I would have offered to re:design their website, but I really didn't want to offer any webwork upfront as I wanted to stay away from the computer for a while.
I am fairly good at web:design, but really that is not what I could call a purpose. I have dabbled in random stuff from photography to volunteering to build houses to skydiving, and I really don't find passion in any of that and I can't figure out why. Are there other ways to find what you love doing ? I remember a Steve Jobs speech where he says "...keep looking, and don't settle." But it gets disheartening after a while.
Thanks. Also, how does one get employed as a ski resort with no prior knowledge ?
You don't need any background to work at a ski resort unless you want to teach lessons. Another idea is working at a national park. I worked at glacier national park after my freshman year of college.
I got hired as a ski instructor at Breckenridge in Colorado after having been on skis 4 times in my life, 3 of them on the mountains of North Carolina.
There were two reasons I was able to get a job.
1. I had been a white water raft guide the two previous summers, which I also had only done a few times before getting a job. I got into this because I paid $250 to attend a raft guide school, which as long as you make it thru they will offer you a job.
2. Mainly, because I was courteous and clean cut during my interview. I told them flat out that I was not the best skier but I would show up on time everyday and that I knew they would likely train the heck out of me. Plus I knew they would stick me with people that had never skied before. So I just had to be a little bit better than them.
That was about 3 years ago. I can tell you know it would probably be even easier as most resorts depend heavily on foreign workers for everything, not just low paid jobs, and visas have become very hard to come by. I would say a third of my fellow instructors were from another country.
