Oh I love it, cause I actually remember: It was around 1998-1999. I was a child. A new mall opened and they had some kind of special. 1 hour surfing for 1 DM or 1 €. We had no internet at home yet only an old computer for fun. Nothing fancy. And I really wanted to go on the Diddl website. Imagine something like a german Mikey Mouse but as collectible like Beanie Baby’s. I was obsessed. Anyway I think each click took 5 min to load. There was lots to discover like the mid 2000 Gorillas website. My mom was annoyed. But I was hyped. 10/10.

I understand that. I find it hard to commit myself to something which I don’t burn for. I can start a huge crochet project let’s say because I want to gift it, it has a clear start and end (starting a magic loop -> finished product). My driver for the programming was: you are unemployed, they got you the course, if you don’t go your unemployment benefits would be cut. And I rather choose my own course instead of being pushed to do something I don’t like. I don’t enjoy the programming, but I enjoy pretty data. If I was still working I wouldn’t have started. So the stars aligned.

TLDR: commit to a course.

For the last two to three years I tried a couple of times to get into Python on my own. Each time I find the very basic steps extremely boring. And once I come to a bit more complex question I am like: you didn’t teach that yet! Since I am interested in biology, I want to look into data. I tried my hand on already published stuff but often felt like I am not making anything new, just copy pasting.

The last year I took 2 day classes and are now in a “full on learn 5 month from scratch programming course”. The first two weeks were rough because we went over the very very basics in a slow tempo. And now the “fun” stuff starts.

One day we had a a different tutor and he showed us that some cities (in Germany) provide public data to their citizens. And that this is a good resource. I checked for my city and I have plenty of csv files to choose from. Just waiting to be made into a graph. It helped me stay engaged in the first two weeks. Did I code it myself? Hell no. ChatGPT was a huge help. The haters will tell me I just “vibe coded” but I had so many error messages to work through I think I learned a lot while analysing the data and going back and forth checking if anything made sense. The gist of it is that I am now committed to a course, where I have to show up every day (online). I still often feel like a failure when I don’t understand a question and it is hard to judge if the others are as lost as I am. But it is also kind of fun and having others going through the same makes it more tolerable.

I have a scar in my left armpit. I have several patches of skin all over my body which looks and behaves funky. I have brown straight hair but where my funky skin is I have blond spare curly hair which doesn’t grow long. I got it lasered on my neck and face as a teenager because I was told it needs to go because insurance didn’t want to continue paying for an acid creme to make it brighter (the skin is also darker and uneven). + random assholes asking me if I didn’t wash my neck. Under my arm the skin got often inflamed from sweating and looked like a rough naked mole. They tried to laser it and I got bad scarring and they decided to cut it away. Roughly 10 cm. The scar is ugly as hell. I can’t feel shit and it is uneven and hard to shave around. Lifting my arm for sport like jumping jacks hurt. Lucky me I hate sport anyway.

Switched for the same reason. I have the feeling that in the last couple of weeks lemmy got a lot more interactions, especially after Elon tried to ban posts on reddit, but maybe it is just a feeling. Initially I really missed Reddit. Some inside jokes where missing for my communities. Having this girl show up in everyone’s inbox felt like the first kind of sitewide memory to look back onto. I don’t miss the porn. Having to see crazy attractive people all the time made me feel bad. Would prefer fair trade porn if I seek it.

Sleeping hygiene is a good point. No phone in bed.

But also try to make it cozy

Have a nice duvet cover, I like cotton. No synthetics. Change it more often.

Temperature in your bed room should be lower, open your window before going to bed.

Have good curtains. But not too dark. Whenever I have a window shutter and I close it completely, I just don’t wake up and sleep over 8-10 h.

Here are my things I do when I can’t sleep

If my feed are cold, wear socks, or cloth but don’t heat the room too much.

Try to sleep in a different room (if you can). When I am just too active I move to my sofa for a change. It really helps me.

Important question. Are you alone or is someone next to you. If your sleeping schedule or preferences don’t mix with your partners, try separate beds. Cuddling sounds cute until you cannot sleep because of a snoring person next to you. And don’t be angry when your partner prefers to be separate.