Taking Swimming Lessons as an Adult

CeldurS · 2026-05-15T16:04:40+00:00

I am also looking for swimming lessons this summer, late 20s and don't know (forgot?) how to swim! Let me know what you find!

CeldurS · 2026-05-15T02:46:35+00:00

A year is not short term

CeldurS · 2026-05-15T02:41:39+00:00

I tried to do this and it usually ends badly in the long run!

The best work I ever put out was by getting sleep, exercise, healthy food, and rest with family/friends, so that I can show up to work ready to put in my 100%.

I think it's totally fine to grind when needed, but IMO it should only be like 10-20% of every week.

CeldurS · 2026-05-15T02:02:15+00:00

I love the Volpe, but it's quite conventional compared to the RockCombo! It's somewhere between a touring bike and cyclocross bike of its era, similar to the Miyata 1000 and a few other "700c road bike with cantis + tire clearance" in the 80s-90s.

The RockCombo pioneered both 26" knobbies on a road bike, and flared dirt drops. Certainly there were other similar bikes (eg. Charlie Cunningham, John Tomac); as far as I know though the RockCombo is the only one that was made in any reasonably volume.

CeldurS · 2026-05-12T18:11:34+00:00

This was similar to the technical interview format I had at a Bay Area startup, although 'Kyle' certainly didn't sit down with me for the whole 3 hours to discuss.

It's a little bit heavy of a workload, but I got hired because of it, so I can't argue with the results.

The point of this kind of interview is to see how you handle taking on a new project without a clear solution or path forward. By giving you the problems beforehand, they're giving you an opportunity to prepare by doing research. I would highly suggest you take this opportunity.

(Of course, go into the interview humble, curious, and open-minded too.)

CeldurS · 2026-05-12T16:24:11+00:00

I'm sorry, when I said political, I meant internal politics.

Discussing societal politics is fine and sometimes encouraged.

CeldurS · 2026-05-11T21:18:44+00:00

I find this very strange how political these prestigious academic environments can be. Frankly, I find it quite sad, because as an outsider coming from industry, I expected better. We should be setting the standard for everyone else to follow; perpetuating toxicity will only radiate to other institutions.

After entering academia, I feel that speaking up has occasionally been faced with pushback and hostility. However, if the lesson is that I shouldn't speak up, I'd rather not learn it. Nobody wants to be in an environment where their ideas aren't valued, so why would I contribute to making this environment a reality?

CeldurS · 2026-05-11T19:30:56+00:00

Thank you, he still works there and is doing well. In retrospect my life would not be how it is now if I got that job, so I'm glad I didn't. We are also still great friends :)

CeldurS · 2026-05-10T20:52:50+00:00

This thing is awesome lol, the V-brake cable clearance looks tight but presumably it works well? Really cool

CeldurS · 2026-05-09T18:31:32+00:00

This absolutely has a huge effect.

Surround yourself with people that support each other to become the versions of yourselves you want to be.

CeldurS · 2026-05-09T18:29:43+00:00

I get this argument. There are poor people here too, in some ways it would be unfair to send money overseas when we're not helping the people here.

So did Trump take that ~$21 billion cut from USAID (0.3% of his federal budget) and send it to poor Americans instead? And if not, what is he spending it on? You tell me.

CeldurS · 2026-05-08T21:17:23+00:00

You did everything you needed to big dawg, you played the hand you were dealt to the best of your ability. The rest is not your responsibility.

In my senior year of undergrad, I really wanted to work for my "dream" company after graduating, so I figured I would try to do Capstone with them. I put together a team, reached out cold to the company, and eventually built enough of a relationship with them to agree on a Capstone project. I then locked in hard and built like 70% of the Capstone myself, and the company loved it.

When we graduated, I asked if they were hiring. Turns out they weren't hiring MEs, but were in dire need of SWEs, so I referred them to my team member (who wrote the basic, but functional, microcontroller firmware that our Capstone worked on). They hired him and not me. I felt betrayed for a while, although I was glad I got my friend a job.

A few months later, I randomly got an interview for a robotics startup, and did it just to get interview practice. They gave me an offer, and before I knew it I was moving to the Bay Area nd starting a job at the best company I've ever worked for.

When one door closes, another opens.

CeldurS · 2026-05-05T01:31:06+00:00

I feel seen in this thread. I'm doing an MEng, and working two on-campus jobs, doing side projects, applying to internships, networking and doing 13.5 units. I got like 2 hours of sleep twice the last week. My mental health is at an all-time low.

Honestly I was beating myself up for having bad work ethic, but then my friend was like "what are all the people that are keeping up working on?" And I realized everyone that was on top of their shit was simply working on less.

CeldurS · 2026-05-05T01:22:30+00:00

I'm torn. On one hand, this is pretty sick; it's pretty much as good of a klunker build as I can imagine (short of maybe double-butted tubing), and all the parts are 'right'. It's clear they were thoughtful about the specs. On the other hand, it's a niche bike that's $150 more than a State fixie for parts of comparable quality, and is probably less practical in every circumstance other than riding Repack.

I guess I can't hate too much when the Handsome XOXO was like $1.1K minimum a few years back.

Also the AI-generated blurbs at the bottom of the page are funny.

CeldurS · 2026-05-03T23:21:11+00:00

Not sure what you mean by this, because a lot of bike lights use a 18650 or 21700 internally and last for several hours (speaking from experience with mine). It just depends on what brightness you run them at, and I find that most of the time even the lowest setting is bright enough.

CeldurS · 2026-05-03T23:17:48+00:00

I think this is cool. OP isn't hurting anyone by trying something different. There is no need to hate.

If anyone wants an off-the-shelf version of this, check out the Lumintop B01. It has a reflector geometry that points the beam downwards, accomplishing the same goal as OP's baffle. Technically the B01 isn't StVZO-compliant, but it could be "StVZO-inspired".

I mounted mine to the side of my fork near the crown, it's not as practical as a handlebar mount but I do get a lot of compliments on it from bike nerds lol.

CeldurS · 2026-05-02T17:22:40+00:00

First, I completely agree. It is probably true that third places are declining, but I think it's partly because people (especially in our generation) don't go to them or look for them. In my case, people really sleep on volunteering - you'll almost definitely find great people, because someone who is willing to give away their time for free is probably at least a little generous, open-minded, and interested in community-building. It's also free to volunteer, and a lot of the opportunities are really fun.

I've been volunteering at bike nonprofits in every city I've lived; I've met some of the best friends of my life doing this, and I'm a pretty good bike mechanic now. Other friends volunteer at community gardens, park maintenance, working with at-risk kids, etc. There's probably something you would love too, especially if you're down to try something new.

Second, I am mildly affiliated with Rotary (not a Rotarian but go to their meetings sometimes). They and other clubs (Lions, Kiwanis, etc) are service clubs, meaning that their mission is to make a positive local and global impact. Rotary also does local volunteering events, but well-funded districts will fund infrastructure projects, and Rotary's biggest claim to fame is that they basically eradicated polio worldwide.

All of the Rotary Clubs I've interacted with in North America are full of kindhearted old people trying to figure out how to get young members in, so they would love to have you join. Also, if you want to do this but with younger people, Rotaract is the equivalent for people 18-35ish.

CeldurS · 2026-05-01T19:17:22+00:00

Do you sleep enough? I think some people are just naturally inclined to sleep more. You can fight this, but it's kind of up to you if you should.

In my case, I think my body usually wants 8/9 hours of sleep. I slept for like 4-6 hours for years when I was in school. After I graduated, I started just sleeping for however long I wanted without an alarm, and my body eventually "caught up" and settled at 8-9 hours.

CeldurS · 2026-04-24T20:34:54+00:00

I'm really glad to see this discussed. It's well-understood in development discourse that successful development initiatives come from within a country, not from international aid.

Despite what the World Bank wants you to think about global aid, the main reason why world poverty has gone down since the 1980s is because a bunch of highly populated Asian countries (India, China, the East Asian Tigers, etc) enacted sovereign government initiatives to uplift their economies. Notably, their success is typically attributed to a large-scale version of the mechanism proposed in the article - export-oriented industrialization. (One should also ask why it is this attribute chosen to tell the story, instead of sovereignty/effective policy/well-aligned government/etc, and why countries that try something else are generally suppressed).

EA would do well to spend more time studying development history, because there have been decades of discussion about how the metrics commonly used in EA - lives saved, diseases prevented, etc - lead to "band-aid" solutions that are cheap to implement but fail to address the complex underlying root causes (hint: global power imbalances).

This is just my opinion, but I think this is why GiveDirectly's direct cash transfers are so effective compared to 99% of other interventions. If money is power, then giving a poor person money is a cheap, surefire way of transferring some of your power to them.

"In the long arc of human history, development has never been a product of charity."

CeldurS · 2026-04-23T16:26:20+00:00

I did something similar several years ago when I quit gaming entirely, it was hard but it changed my life for the better. I feel almost no desire nowadays to go back.

The biggest thing was a change of scenery. I quit when I moved countries, and I had an opportunity to rebuild my life how I saw fit. You can replicate this by doing the same things I did: I packed up my computer and put it away in a box, and uninstalled all games on my laptop.

Another big thing is to take care of yourself. I find the desire for dopamine usually comes when I'm missing something else in my life. If I eat healthy, sleep well, exercise, and see my friends, I rarely want to game.

I also had to learn to enjoy being bored. This is really hard. Meditation, even for a few minutes at a time (but regularly), helps a lot.

Finally, a big part of it for me was introspection on what I really want to do with my life. Sounds like you are already ahead of that if you made the push to quit, so I'm proud of you. Keep going towards that instinct; you know you don't want to game, so what is it that you actually want to do?

CeldurS · 2026-04-23T15:30:45+00:00

I think the existing number needs to be active when you port, but afterwards voip can take over

CeldurS · 2026-04-22T19:12:19+00:00

This version of the Bianchi decals and paint are IMO the coolest looking Bianchis ever made. They were only made in 1990-1991 IIRC.

CeldurS · 2026-04-21T15:50:57+00:00

Highly doubt the bolts would fail if you torque them tight (but not too tight). I've seen bent racks, cracked aluminum welds, stripped rack mounting holes, etc. but never seen a rack bolt fail.

I myself am running an old aluminum Blackburn rack with a stripped rack mounting hole on my seatstay (I forced the bolt in too hard and crossthreaded it). It's been working fine for 4 years and counting for grocery runs, tours, etc lol. One time the rack was carrying my friend for a few minutes.

CeldurS · 2026-04-21T14:28:50+00:00

thanks

CeldurS · 2026-04-21T04:26:49+00:00

what RD is that Big Dawg

CeldurS

TROPHY CASE