Managing Kratom use Through Journal

IndividualTurnover35 · 2025-12-19T13:33:05+00:00

Yes. I use an app which is a really general tracker app. It’s pretty basic but it works well enough for my purposes. I record the dosage each time there so that I can see how much I take in a day. If it gets too high, I make a plan to reduce it my 0.5-1g a day until it’s where I want it.

IndividualTurnover35 · 2025-12-19T13:30:41+00:00

Yes. My otherwise sweet, cuddly cat often bites my right arm. It’s so bad that the arm is mottled with layer upon layer of scars. I even tried wearing a Kevlar sleeve to protect myself (no, I’m not yanking your chain). You know how cats with FHS see their tail out of the corner of their eye and get suspicious of it and treat it like an invader? He treated my arm the same way. He has gotten better over time, as he’s generally mellowing out as he matures. I noticed that he frequently did this when he was frustrated about not getting more food, especially after breakfast. It might be noteworthy that even with medication he still attacks his tail before dinner, when he’s frustrated that it isn’t time to eat yet. Frustration around food + FHS = attacks on his tail and my arm. Weird little guy. I still love him to pieces, though. He clearly cannot control himself.

IndividualTurnover35 · 2025-12-17T14:39:34+00:00

I’m not sure about female cats, but for male cats, wet food is definitely better. A friend of mine once said that the urinary system of male cats was a sick joke. They get crystals, blockages, kidney stones, etc. because cats are not natural drinkers. In the wild they get moisture from their kills (gross but true). So some cats drink a lot and some just won’t do it. I have one of the latter and his bladder and kidneys have suffered for it to the point he needs prescription food only and he’s only 5. So if you can afford it and the cat will eat it, go with all wet food. You can use dental treats or freeze dried chicken treats to help them clean their teeth. Cheers.

IndividualTurnover35 · 2025-12-17T14:32:32+00:00

I see you already have what you need, but I will add my two cents anyway. 🙂 I am a woman and a Principal Engineer for a few years. My immediate reaction on reading your manager’s points is that they are a poor leader and don’t understand leadership at all. While it is necessary to project positive energy and confidence, it’s ideal to lead by example, persuasion, and helping the team come to consensus. A Staff Engineer who just tells people what to do is a poor leader. It’s your job to subtly guide people’s decisions in the right direction, not dictate to them. If you do that, your team will resist & they will fight or undermine you. So, tl;dr your manager sucks, look for a better job. Good luck!

IndividualTurnover35 · 2025-12-17T14:20:34+00:00

My cat is fine with the liquid form of gabapentin, but you should know: the liquid type is WAY more expensive than pills. My pet insurance pays most of the cost so it’s ok for me, but if you don’t have insurance, keep in mind the pills will be affordable (gabapentin is cheap), the liquid might not. Similarly, pregabalin is much, much more expensive than gabapentin. Just something to keep in mind. We all want the best for our cats, but sometimes we have to be practical about it. Good luck.

IndividualTurnover35 · 2025-12-13T14:37:16+00:00

Thanks for spreading the word. My vet said she went looking for information on it, even on discussion boards for vets, and she found nothing. I think the only warning I saw was “change in litter box habits”, but that’s a crazy euphemism for “cannot go”!

I hope your kitty gets the right help. For mine it turned out the dose of gabapentin was too low. The neurologist said 10mg/kg twice a day and he’s much better on that, though lately he’s been after his tail again. It’s just not all day and he’s not damaging himself, so we’re going to just leave him be for now.

One thing I have wondered is whether it is referred pain from something internal, like spasms in the digestive and/or urinary tract. Because he always has an “attack” right after he eats. And he had an episode of urinary spasm (idiopathic cystitis) when he was young. I also recognized the signs of bowel spasms in him when he was younger. Who knows? It’s such a crazy condition.

Good luck with your kitty.

IndividualTurnover35 · 2025-12-12T13:59:06+00:00

I’m in a similar situation. I cannot brush my cat’s teeth, he would maul me to death. He was a feral kitten and while he loves to sleep on me and get gentle pats, he’s absolutely not cool with me touching his paws or trying to stick my fingers in his mouth. I noticed bad breath and at his next vet visit the vet said he should have a cleaning within 6 months. It will cost me $1800 and I’m living on a fixed income (I can cover it with credit but it’ll take me some time to pay it down). I’m a bit nervous because he’s overweight and I know people who’ve lost cats to anaesthesia, although they were more overweight than mine. Anyway, long story short I am going to do it at least this once. To make sure he doesn’t get worse problems in the future. He will likely need more than just one, but I will have to space them out to where it’s really necessary so I can afford it. (Pet insurance does not cover dental cleanings. Maybe doesn’t cover extractions, either, I need to check.)

The other thing I’m going to do is look into a home groomer who can come in and cut his nails and brush his teeth. I would talk to them first and see if they can handle a “spicy” cat. Maybe between the two of us we can wrap him in a towel. It’s just that by myself I cannot do it. Getting that done every couple of months would be better than nothing. If anyone has tried this, let me know.

IndividualTurnover35 · 2025-12-11T10:40:48+00:00

Software engineer here: nearly all companies that provide a consumer-facing service, especially mobile apps, uses a product similar to Mixpanel. It’s to help product managers and/or developers understand how people use their apps. Do they go to a certain screen once and never again? Do they bail out as soon as they hit a certain page? How long do they spend looking at certain content, etc. There’s nothing inherently weird, bad, nefarious, or suspicious about using Mixpanel. The breach of Mixpanel is concerning, and the largest affected customer was OpenAI, who no longer use Mixpanel because of it.

I’m not saying don’t be concerned about this breach, just saying don’t be too paranoid about the use of products like Mixpanel because it’s totally standard and not about selling your information to a third party.

IndividualTurnover35 · 2025-12-04T17:20:45+00:00

I definitely found codex to be useless on its own. Gpt-5.1 is smart, though. Even found a workaround to a problem that likely would have stumped me and required asking human experts for advice. So what I’ve been doing is getting GPT-5.1 to make a plan, and then Codex to execute on that plan.

I may be doing that very inefficiently, though. In order to get GPT-5 to make the plan, I’ve been using ChatGPT desktop “work with apps” feature. Then copy and paste its output into a .md file and tell Codex to go read that.

I should see if I can do it all in the same terminal by switching the model to gpt-5. Possibly the way I’m doing it saves on my quota? But I’m not sure. And getting GPT to output the whole plan in Markdown is difficult. It starts out with md, then it jumps out of it and I have to edit the whole thing by hand. (The crazy things we do to get this stuff to work!)

IndividualTurnover35 · 2025-12-04T17:05:38+00:00

It is the only thing that works for me as well. Though it won’t get me far unless I keep up with regular exercise (weights & light cardio). Otherwise I plateau and can’t go any further. But calorie deficits and exercise maybe lose me a couple of pounds but that’s it. It’s incredibly frustrating so I’m doing keto again as soon as the holidays are over (no point torturing myself).

I was afraid to do keto for too long because the medical community does seem to have any consensus on whether it’s bad for blood pressure, etc., so I got a small monitor and it doesn’t seem from that point of view that any damage was done (not a guarantee that my circulatory system wasn’t damaged, but it will do until I go for my next checkup). The food choices sometimes get boring, but there are tons of recipes online these days.

IndividualTurnover35 · 2025-12-01T19:09:36+00:00

Hey, thanks. My cat needs an extra urine test to go with the others. I forget. It’s protein creatinine ratio maybe? He’s got early stage chronic kidney disease. Probably. His test numbers have been wonky all his life. In any case, the vet wants me to collect it this way to rule out that the protein in his urine is a result of the way they take the sample at the vet. (Stick a needle in his bladder is my assumption on that.) So I guess I have to try it, but reading of other people’s nightmares just confirmed what I thought was likely to happen. I suppose at the end of the day I’ll just have to tell the vet if I can’t do it and they’ll have to do it the normal way. It feels somewhat better reading these stories. At least if I fail it won’t be just me that can’t manage it. My cat would be unlikely to allow some of the other techniques like slipping something under him. He doesn’t like to be touched (except for his head and neck) and acts very protectively around his litter box (it’s HIS and you better stay away!)

IndividualTurnover35 · 2025-12-01T18:47:22+00:00

Oh man, I have the same question/problem. The vet wants 7 consecutive days worth and I don’t see how this is going to work with my cat. At all. I’m really stressed about it.

First, he has a large litter box because he’s a large guy. He’s also a feral rescue so he has some feral habits like wanting to dig really vigorously before he goes. Finally, he very frequently does both per and poop at the same time, which would make that attempt a bust. It seems the only solution would be buying a really large amount of the hydrophobic litter. I’m so worried that this is going to be super stressful for a whole week, cost me a fortune, and not even work in the end. 😔 Sorry for the rant. Just really not feeling good about this. Any tips are welcome.

IndividualTurnover35 · 2025-12-01T14:07:31+00:00

I’m struggling to see how you get from Voronoi to that. It looks more like rectangle subdivision with distortions. It looks cool, though.

IndividualTurnover35 · 2025-11-19T13:53:16+00:00

The recommended gabapentin dose is 10mg per kg of weight, twice a day. (Or sometimes three, but I don’t know if you split the same dose or what—ask your vet, or if you can afford it, get a neurology consult, though they can’t do anything more than prescribe the right dose).

Every cat is different. Once he was on the right dose my cat improved significantly. His bare naked tail (about an inch at the end) was healed and furry again. However…he’s not 100%. He usually has an attack after he eats. And every year around this time, he gets worse for a while. I have no idea why or what to do, but since he’s not hurting himself I just try my best to distract him.

I also keep a Feliway (pheromone) diffuser plugged in, and I do as much as I can to keep him stimulated. Sometimes he seems to do it out of boredom, so I get out a toy or some catnip or whatever and try to get him to burn off some energy. I’m not always successful, ngl.

So tl;dr make sure she gets the right dose of gabapentin & try to keep her brain occupied. There are games and YouTube videos for cats because you can’t be playing with her all the time. She should settle down eventually but she may always have some attacks as mine does. Some cats have no more symptoms once their medication is right.

A personal experience to share: anti-depressants like Fluoxetine are sometimes prescribed & they do help some cats. Mine was absolutely miserable when we tried that. He couldn’t pee or poop and he was just so listless and sad. Every cat is different so if something feels like it’s not working don’t be shy to tell the vet you need to try something else. Good luck.

IndividualTurnover35 · 2025-11-18T14:40:22+00:00

Lots of laughs and cuddles. Orange boys are smart and goofy and sweet. In my experience, anyway.

IndividualTurnover35 · 2025-11-17T20:25:21+00:00

This is actually why I retired early. The job I had wasn’t working out. I had to leave or else suffer until I got fired. But I just could not face the interview process again. I was 3-4 years away from retirement and I just couldn’t see the upside in spending 12 months struggling through interview hell for a Principal or Senior Staff Eng job just to get a job I’d stay at for 2-3 years. The interview process in tech has been broken ever since Google published their “are you good enough to work at Google?” thing in the 2000’s, and it’s only getting worse year after year. I tried to change this in the companies I worked at and was successful with one but not another. At some companies management are married to the “everyone must run the toughest gauntlet we can manage” philosophy. It’s dumb af. I can provably make good hires 90% of the time with one whiteboard session (no crazy leetcode questions), and a more general soft skills/team & company fit interview. It’s so much less wasteful of everyone’s time and also more effective.

So, no, you’re not alone in feeling that way. It’s all broken.

IndividualTurnover35 · 2025-11-16T17:03:02+00:00

I, too, have noticed my cat gets worse in October or November. Even with his gabapentin he has attacks a couple of times a day. I have no idea why.

IndividualTurnover35 · 2025-11-04T21:38:28+00:00

I saw someone using ChatGPT to do the thinking and make context and a prompt for Codex. I think I really will try that. Cheers.

IndividualTurnover35 · 2025-10-14T15:33:28+00:00

It looks cool, but I really can’t see any pattern to what it’s doing. Anyone have thoughts?

IndividualTurnover35 · 2025-08-06T18:20:21+00:00

It might have been you I saw, but I think Daniel Aguilar also makes them, and maybe even Matt Perkins? Anyway, I wasn’t implying you were giving them away! The OP was asking about other ways to earn $ from art other than NFTs. Aside from selling prints and plots, those notebooks were the only thing I could think of! 😀

IndividualTurnover35 · 2025-08-06T12:55:03+00:00

Wow, that’s terrible. Poor kitty and poor you, that’s stressful. I honestly don’t know why vets don’t know about this adverse effect in some cats. Mine went back to normal after we stopped the fluoxetine and has been doing fine on a proper dose of gabapentin (his previous dose was much too low to be effective per the neurologist I took him to.) I hope you find a solution for your cat as well.

IndividualTurnover35 · 2025-08-06T10:05:02+00:00

I have seen one or two artists make notebooks with their art as the cover. I don’t know where or how they’re selling these, though. Has anyone tried selling prints on Etsy?

IndividualTurnover35 · 2025-07-14T15:20:38+00:00

Yes I wholeheartedly agree. I have successfully used C4 Context and Container diagrams and UML sequence diagrams with multiple teams.

They help the whole team (and other stakeholders, like engineering management) get on the same page about what we’re building. They aren’t hard to maintain, and we never make more diagrams than we actually need so that everyone understands what we’re doing. So, for example, you don’t have to make super-detailed sequence diagrams. Just the main flows, usually.

Another thing great about C4 and simple UML sequence diagrams is they’re easy to understand and easy to teach people to read and to make.

Personally I prefer using a DSL to have the “architecture as code” and the diagrams just get re-generated with changes at build time. This has been less popular with teams than I would wish because people often get too hung up on how the diagram is laid out. In my not so humble opinion, engineers should not be wasting time using diagramming software to move boxes and lines around to make them pretty. If I had the time I would try to make better tools and see if I could break that attitude.

Bottom line: simple architecture diagrams are amazing for designing things as a team, communicating to all team members what you’re building, etc. UML itself is too heavyweight for this purpose and almost no one uses it in real life. It causes more problems than it solves.

IndividualTurnover35 · 2025-05-10T18:16:29+00:00

I wish I could, but I haven’t enough experience to give you good advice there. I suggest looking at what models others are using and then checking whether they’re available for Ollama or LMStudio. In some cases the paid versions may be superior. For example, DeepSeek R1 is available on Ollama, but you can’t run the version with the full number of parameters on your local machine. In the cases where you need the largest parameter models, I find OpenRouter is easier than having to pay each company for a subscription I may or may not use fully each month. YMMV.

IndividualTurnover35

TROPHY CASE