Physical-Health

N.B.: If I link you to this personally, it is to explain why I usually seem to be in a great mood. It’s an experiment. I’m normally in merely a good mood, and I am pushing myself to be great. This is an unusual entry for a Today I Learned site, even by my standards. But I think it’s something I would prefer to pre-register ahead of time. I’ve always been predisposed to mirth. I laugh easily; I rarely get depressed; I’m just about always in a content mood these days, in no small part because I have actually succeeded on the meager goals I set for myself as a teenager (soulmate: check, child: check, sujuvuus vieraalla kielellä: yhä työn alla mutta kyllä se siitä, give me maybe five more years). Yet for some reason I have always felt it is, I don’t know, low status to be so effortlessly joyful and opulent. Like people will take you less seriously or something. So I’ve been reluctant to push my naturally good mood into the realm of actively loving life as my default state. ...

This week I achieved a modest personal dream of mine I’ve had since I was a high schooler: I purchased a proper standing desk, with a low-profile treadmill underneath. The total cost for a setup here in Finland came out to only about $350, something I can easily afford with a week’s take-home pay. The primary hurdle for me was psychological: How could I justify spending so much money on a more ergonomic setup when I’m not even sure this whole “software engineering” thing will work out for me? Nevermind that I taught myself to program at 14 from a Civ 4 hacking tutorial, nevermind that I’ve been living my life as a budget cyborg for the last 15 years, nevermind that every job I’ve ever had post-college has been at least 60% WFH – how could I be sure this investment in my home office will pay itself back? ...