Have you talked to a doctor about it? Would you be able to get up and just go sit on your couch?

One of the things that has really helped me get (back) into habits is to break it into tiny, achievable steps, and once I master the first step, I build on it. For example, I was trying to rebuild my early morning gym routine, so my first step was just walking to the gym everyday, but not actually going inside. Once waking up with enough time to walk there and back was easy, I started getting up a little earlier so that I’d have time to go inside for a bit.

On a slightly separate note, I dug into a bunch of “sleep hacking” stuff a long time ago. A lot of it isn’t really useful to someone trying to live a relatively typical 9-5 type life, but one thing that I did find useful was understanding the basic sleep phases/cycle. One full sleep cycle typically lasts about 90 minutes, although this can vary from person to person, and also from day to day. If your alarm is going off in the middle of a sleep cycle, you’re probably going to feel like crap, but if your alarm is waking you up at the end of a cycle, you’ll probably feel more refreshed.

There’s apps for your phone (and probably for wearables) that can utilize various sensors to help wake you at the ideal stage. The one I used to use was called “Sleep as Android”. I would tell it what time I needed to be awake, plus a buffer of how much earlier it was allowed to wake me up, then leave the phone on my mattress. It would detect my movements to determine my sleep phase so that it could try to wake me up while in the ideal phase. It also had a variety of options so that you couldn’t accidentally turn off the alarm. For example, it could ask you to solve some math questions, or to scan a particular bar/QR code that you’d set up in advance. At one point, I set it so I’d have to scan my shampoo bottle to turn off the alarm.

Sure, but in the context of the post where waking up early may have desirable benefits, there are ways to make it easier on yourself while still getting a good night’s rest.

Honestly, I love that everyone else is still asleep when I get up. I enjoy the peaceful quiet of the early morning gym or an outdoor run at dawn, and if everyone actually took my advice, it would absolutely ruin it for me.

I’ve somehow lost rolls to cats rolling in either direction, so my TP roll is now often found in the cabinet above the toilet.

The trick is forcing yourself to get up early. It will be a rough couple of days, but pretty soon, you’ll be exhausted enough to go to sleep earlier. You can also try moving your alarm up in 15 minute increments to achieve the same idea in a slightly less painful way. But, you do have to actually get up when the alarm goes off for the plan to work.

I also find that smart lights really help. Mine gradually dim off in the evenings, and gradually dim on in the mornings, and I usually don’t need a traditional alarm. The dimming should be slow enough that it feels like sunrise/sunset. I usually have mine start dimming on about 15 minutes before I want to get up, and they’re fully off 15 minutes before I’m supposed to be asleep.

This is more targeted to other people than you, but was the post right next to the couch? One of the smaller details that people often overlook is that scratching leaves their scent behind and says “I live here”, so they will often want to scratch in socially significant parts of the house. So, if the only acceptable scratching surfaces are hidden away from the rooms you actually hang out in, they’re probably going to find something else to scratch on.

Unfortunately, the same logic is sometimes behind litter box issues too.

Awesome! A friend of mine recently found a whole litter of abandoned kittens, so I was trying to help them find some low cost options, and everything around here was booked months out too.

What an adorable little standard issue cat! Looks a lot like my princess.

Please be sure to get her spayed ASAP, if she’s not already. They can go into their first heat as early as 4 months old, and will become desperate to get outside!

They’ve been my go to for headphones & speakers for a while, but my last few purchases of different models all ended up getting returned due to the same connectivity issues. Sitting at home, the headphones are fine, but when I’m out for a walk, they experience some sort of interference that causes the music to skip/stutter. I still have an old, long discontinued, pair of Anker earbuds, and when I go for the same walk with those, there’s zero connectivity issues.

Niche interests and/or local stuff. My city has basically no activity over here, so I still browse the local subreddit regularly.

Ummm… I might be misunderstanding something, but I feel like I’ve been able to do exactly that here. Are you using an app or browsing directly on the website?

The app I’m using (Thunder) allows me to block users, communities, or entire instances, and also has keyword filtering.

🙋

I went crabbing and the resources I found said that killing them before cooking them was likely more humane than boiling them alive, so that’s what I did.

My old neighbor’s cat once left a paralyzed/twitching rat outside my door, which I found in the morning. I quickly realized that the rat was not going to recover (it had already been there for hours), so I had to figure out a way to quickly end its suffering. I did not eat the rat though.

While I do share similar feelings, selectively bred cats and dogs do also wind up in shelters and rescues too.

If only I could remember to put my tasks in them. And then, if only I didn’t also end up ignoring the reminders because there’s just too many reminders.

I’ve used them in a few rentals. There’s a wide variety of options available that are just bulbs + an app, or bulbs & a hub + an app, so unless you have some unusual fixtures, they can be used anywhere.

In fact, my last apartment had an unusual fixture: an overhead fixture that had hardwired LEDs in it, rather than any sort of swappable bulb, so I found a cheap overhead fixture that fit standard E26 bulbs, and just swapped the fixtures for the duration of my stay, then switched them back when I moved out. As long as you can ensure the power to the fixture is off at the breaker, it should be a pretty simple swap.

• Smart lights throughout the house. Mine very gradually dim off in the evening, simulating sunset, which helps convince my body to crawl into bed. They also gradually dim on in the mornings, which helps ease me into being awake. When my routines are strong, I’m often up and out of bed before my alarm (and before sunrise).
• Exercise. I find that working out first thing in the morning works best for me, but my friend does better with evening workouts. Consistency is much more important than time of day, but maybe don’t expect to fall asleep immediately after working out.
• Sleep cycles. A typical sleep cycle is roughly 90 minutes, so aiming for a bedtime that gives you a multiple of 90 minutes total sleep time can make the waking up part easier. I used to use the Sleep ad Android app for my alarm because it could try to detect your sleep cycles and would wake you up early if it meant waking you up in the ideal sleep phase.
• Don’t sleep in. I know it’s a real tough one, but if you can force yourself to get up on a consistent schedule, you’re more likely to be actually tired on schedule also. This one is especially challenging to stick to if you want to get up early on weekdays, but stay up late on weekends. Naps may help here, but it can take some practice to find what works.
• Bed is for sleep (and sex) only. Don’t hang out in bed, and if you’re having a lot of trouble falling asleep, get out of bed for a while until you’re feeling more tired. This helps your brain form a stronger association where bed = sleep.
• Avoid caffeine, alcohol, marijuana, etc., before bed. While some of these may help you fall asleep, they often result in lower quality sleep and may make it more likely that you wake up.
• Limit fluid intake before bed so that you don’t wake up in the middle of the night to pee. *Routine. I think I kinda loosely touched on this in a few other points, but sticking to a consistent routine makes it so much easier to fall asleep and wake up.

Oh, and if your responsibilities and/or latitude have you regularly trying to sleep during daylight hours, definitely get a sleep mask and/or some good blackout curtains so you can block out the light. Ear plugs may also be helpful if noise is an issue.

I still use Craigslist, but it does seem like fewer other people do. I’ve never really cared to get top dollar for whatever I list, I mostly just want to avoid tossing it in the garbage or hauling it to a donation drop off, and it’s worked well for that. I’m currently browsing for a few items, and it does feel cluttered with dealers, even when supposedly limiting it for sale by owner only.

I tried Offer Up once a few years ago, and for some reason, it didn’t notify me of any responses, so by the time I thought to check it again, I had already sold the item through CL. I refuse to use any Meta products, so FB Marketplace effectively doesn’t exist to me.

I’ve used Windows since I can remember… at least since Windows 95, then probably early 2000’s, added OSX into the mix. I currently use an old Mac Mini as my Plex machine, and the computer provided by my employer runs Windows.

My “journey” began around 2015 on an old Dell laptop that I set up to dual boot Windows and Linux. I tried 2 or 3 distros, one of which was probably Ubuntu, before settling on Mint. I remember having enough minor issues with Mint that I kept booting back to Windows, and eventually stopped booting to Mint at all.

Then one day, I have no clue what I was trying to do, but I was confident that I knew what I was doing, so I just went for it without pulling up the instructions. Welp, I ended up deleting my bootloader, or something like that, and now couldn’t boot to any OS. I tried using my parents’ Mac to create a bootable USB, but that wasn’t working. I wound up buying and returning a random open box laptop from Best Buy just so I could create a functional bootable USB. I also found help from a very kind internet stranger who walked me through the process to fix my bootloader. They happened to only use Arch btw, so that’s what we used to get my laptop fixed.

That whole drama really scared me away from fiddling with it for a while, then I just got busy and had no motivation. That laptop is collecting dust and still dual boots Windows (7?) and headless Arch. I’m thinking of fiddling around with Linux again, but most definitely need something more noobie friendly than Arch without a DE.

In 2020, many people suddenly got to work from home, and while many have been unnecessarily forced to resume commuting, I’m curious what the numbers look like if you ignore workers who work from home? If I’m not required to be onsite for my job, why would I choose to live near my workplace? I read the linked article, and it kinda alludes to it, but doesn’t explicitly answer my question.

I’m a big fan of blue cheese:

• Water cracker, soft blue cheese, and a bit of hot (spicy) honey drizzled on top.
• Ramen with blue cheese crumbles melted into the broth.
• Avocado toast with blue cheese crumbles.

Pretty sure Venmo is owned by PayPal.