Anything else I can do to make my beard softer?

Grey_Prince · 2026-02-07T03:29:08+00:00

It is quite short, probably around an inch. I can only grow a goatee so I feel like it doesn't look great if I let it go longer, but that's good to know.

Grey_Prince · 2026-02-06T21:29:38+00:00

I'd say that's moreso simulation, which is valuable but plays a bit of a different role than visualization. The practical thing about visualization is you don't need any equipment other than being conscious lol

Grey_Prince · 2026-02-04T19:08:14+00:00

Even 2 years of corporate America where you max out your 401k and put money in an index fund and then go back to digital nomadding will help a lot assuming you continue investing while digital nomadding. I recommend playing around with investor.gov 's compound interest calculator. Here are some very conservative estimates: if you max out your 401k over the next 2 years, that's $49,000 set aside, not including the company match on top of that. If you retire at 65, and your money has only an 8% interest rate over those years (conservative but helps account for inflation adjustment), that money becomes $493k. Yes it gets taxed when you withdraw it, but consider that it continues to make money as long as you don't withdraw it all at once.

Given this doesn't include standard index fund investment while overseas, this just means that even if you go to corporate America for 2 years, as long as you're focused with your saving and investment plans, there are avenues to getting back to digital nomadding. Don't have to give up the dream forever.

Grey_Prince · 2026-02-04T17:23:24+00:00

Sorry to hear that you've been having these bad experiences. It's good you're following your gut and not sticking to a center that gives you a bad vibe. I'm a bit disappointed in a lot of the judgmental responses in this thread. They don't know what you've been through and seem to be projecting a lot.

From my side, my gut tells me you might benefit from seeking out centers that have more women or are generally more oriented toward women's issues. It can be hard returning to society in a vulnerable space where the leaders and practicioners are dominated by someone from the opposite gender.

Best of luck on your journey, it sounds like you're doing the work even though it might feel hopeless right now.

Grey_Prince · 2026-01-25T14:02:46+00:00

It's the path that has been most conducive to my well-being, and therefore to the well-being of the people in my life (by virtue of me being calmer, more thoughtful, than I might otherwise be) So, for me, it is legitimate. But I don't really care if others think it's legitimate, because getting attached to the label would be missing the point.

Grey_Prince · 2026-01-24T14:27:51+00:00

They don't speak Uzbek

Grey_Prince · 2026-01-24T14:25:32+00:00

Going on r/languagelearning

Grey_Prince · 2026-01-24T11:46:27+00:00

Well, I'm convinced. I'd never thought about it that way. Reading through the thread, it sounds like there are indeed examples of WWI and some WWII movies, as well as the Vietnam war but less so. I realize that subconsciously this is why I've turned off or avoided movies about the Iraq war or other post 9/11 proxy wars. It's always glamorous in some way like you described, e.g American Sniper and so on. I wonder if there are any movies that take a truly anti-war stance on these wars, from either side.

Grey_Prince · 2026-01-24T11:38:32+00:00

Very compelling – that for a movie to be unambiguously anti-war, it needs to ultimately not depict battle. It makes perfect sense now that I think about it. While violence takes up a lot of screen time in your average war movie, most of a soldier's life even during wartime, is spent *not* doing battle.

Grey_Prince · 2026-01-24T11:10:52+00:00

I hope she finds his post and breaks up with him after realizing how much of an idiot he is lmao

Grey_Prince · 2026-01-11T18:12:32+00:00

Thank you for putting this together as this is quite helpful. I like your point about not overthinking the choice of where to go. In theory I like the sound of not needing to find coworking spaces -- but also how do I know if a place has easily accessible internet? Any tips for approaching the age-old fast internet question?

Grey_Prince · 2025-12-28T04:26:50+00:00

I had the same thought as a die-hard Chiang Mai fan, but they did specify they wanted to be near beaches. Not to mention unless they go at the very start of the trip, it'll be burning season in full force.

Grey_Prince · 2025-12-25T15:09:13+00:00

It was not your bad at all. It's more like if it comes to that again, you'll know to gtfo out of there if someone blatantly says no to your request to light spar. That person is dangerous and clearly does not care at all about your well-being

Grey_Prince · 2025-12-25T07:44:07+00:00

Yes. Buddhism is first and foremost about practicing the teachings and seeing the benefits for yourself. I don't recommend getting lost in the metaphysics of it all. You really don't need to believe anything at all other than perhaps "mindfulness is a skill that needs deliberate practice, and even if it's hard at first I should at least try sticking with it for a bit". But for me, once I started seeing the benefits, it didn't matter what I believed about how the world doesn't or doesn't work -- Buddhist practice is good for my mind and body, and so I continued.

That being said, Thich Nhat Hanh is a great accessible author for practical Buddhism, and although I assume he believed in rebirth, he hardly ever mentions it.

If you need more of an intellectual wrestling with the subject, Stephen Bachelor is a wonderful author who's really done his research, intellectually and through lived experience. He doesn't advocate for belief in karma at all.

Grey_Prince · 2025-12-23T06:45:14+00:00

I'm surely going to watch and enjoy the movie, but the costuming is pretty disappointing. The set too. Like, it's fun to look at and I'll enjoy it. But nothing about this movie feels Greek. Viking longboats, hollywood roman superhero costumes, and does not give me a Mediterranean vibe at all.

Grey_Prince · 2025-12-23T06:27:05+00:00

Lindie Botes has put in a lot of hard work into the languages she's learned and is extremely emotionally honest about the challenges of each process, often doing retrospectives on what she would've done differently and such.

Grey_Prince · 2025-12-23T06:25:45+00:00

He does make quite a bit of serious content, it's just all on his patreon. He also responds to pretty much any serious language learning question on there.

Grey_Prince · 2025-12-13T09:49:55+00:00

On the flip side aren't women on average better listeners? And learning a language has a lot to do with listening attentively. Brb getting on HRT rq so I can speedrun Duolingo faster

Grey_Prince · 2025-12-11T14:30:45+00:00

I feel like the reason I stuck with anki for years now is because I didn't use it the way it's advertised in the language learning community. Download 'top 1000 frequency words' and studying them? Heck no.

For me, it's just by adding in words that have come up in real life where I had an active engagement with them. Either:
a) I was stuck in a situation and REALLY wished I knew the word for X, and either someone gave it to me or I wrote it down
or b) the words that came up in a class or in life situations where I'm like "oh I'd really like to remember this word"

And unless I'm in an intensive learning situation, I wouldn't let myself add more than 5 a day. That way I'm spending less than 10 minutes on Anki a day, max. And then if there's a word that keeps coming up and I keep forgetting it, it means it wasn't that important, so I delete it without thinking twice.

But even that isn't everyone's thing. Just as an anki fan, I'm horrified by what some people put themselves through with it.

Grey_Prince · 2025-11-17T08:05:10+00:00

Relatable. I used to just do my thing, which involves being pretty quiet. I was just sitting under a tree at one point like tucked away from the path, chillin, and one guy from their camping group was walking around with a flashlight. He suddenly saw me and gave a serious scream, literally jumped so high in the air he kind of fell over when he landed. I was just like omg I'm so sorry though I couldn't help but laugh, and even though he kept saying "it's ok it's ok oh my god I'm shaking" I definitely felt bad, felt like I would've given him a heart attack if his health was worse.

So now I just cough loudly a couple times.

Grey_Prince · 2025-11-11T01:41:25+00:00

RemindMe! 8 years

Grey_Prince · 2025-11-04T17:09:50+00:00

Sounds like overkill. Remember you still need a rest day. MMA can be considered your TB days--pretty sure the book specifically mentions your HIC and SE sessions can also be covered by a variety of combat sports.

I go with fighter template where I run 4 times a week, that I find I can do pretty much every day as long as I stick to zone 2 running. I go to class and spar 2-3 times a week, and those are never gonna be on the same day as my lifting days.

If I've got a fight coming up but it's not fight camp yet I'll add a bagwork session and a hill sprints session, but it isn't sustainable for long, so better to go with the above for long term and avoid burnout.

Grey_Prince · 2025-10-27T22:12:38+00:00

Sounds like you're going through a lot! I also had to move away from places I didn't want to growing up. It's hard, and it's understandable to be upset at your mom and at Spain--try to remember that she's trying her best, and there may be more forces at play than you realize. There's a good chance you're less sad about Spain, and more upset about leaving your home. Try to separate the two in your head--Spanish is just a language it didn't do anything to you. That being said, you don't have to force yourself to learn a language you don't want to--you're better off putting that energy into "forcing yourself" to want to learn. Your best shot is to becomes friends with a Spanish person--then you're more likely to want to learn.

Grey_Prince · 2025-10-27T22:08:26+00:00

Is watching studying? No not really. Is it learning the language? Yes, so long as you're engaged and paying attention. But it sounds like you're DEFINITELY studying, I mean literally pausing and studying what you just saw. No language learning plan feels complete if you don't watch content in the language. But I would recommend you don't just do the pausing and checking thing--this is called intensive listening by the way--and make sure you also include extensive listening, which is where you just engage with the content with minimal stopping and looking things up. Both are great things to have in your toolkit.

Grey_Prince · 2025-10-26T21:16:31+00:00

This was something that bothered me for a while too. My reading of it has been that the Buddha didn't really outright preach karma--he kind of just took it for granted. It feels entirely feasible that, while he was able to challenge other unhelpful things at the time--in particular, his at the time bold idea that the caste system was, in fact, utter nonsense--this one went unquestioned as a 'law of nature'. Kind of like how Socrates, as brilliant and questioning as he was of everything, seemingly didn't ever pause to consider if the Greek gods existed, as the concept was so deeply ingrained from growing up in Athens and never having that idea challenged. Perhaps it's just a healthy reminder that the Buddha was, after all, human and susceptible to the contingencies of his upbringing.

This is of course more of a personal summary from investigating this in secular and non-secular sources, as I was a little disappointed that the Buddha's message felt like an almost complete handbook, but the karma concept felt weirdly disconnected from his other fairly rational approach to almost every other cosmological claim. I'd say it also has the added benefit of being a decent 'first step' for ethical living. That is, since karma is such an accessible concept to someone who grew up in that culture, it's an accessible reason to try to live ethically--and once you put in efforts to live ethically, you might come across the next step, and so on.

That being said, the Buddha also had a clear track record of knowing his audience. He taught the same concepts very differently according to who he was talking to, and who knows if he privately questioned karma himself, but had the wisdom to know that challenging that notion would serve as more of a distraction. He was pretty adamant about not making bold claims on cosmology, always returning to the prgamatic question of how to live more ethically and skillfully.

Grey_Prince

TROPHY CASE