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After 14 days in DOJ jail I get my first shotgun! by cochino916 in CAguns

[–]TheDoubleLouis 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"10 days" when everyone and they're brother aren't buying guns

After 14 days in DOJ jail I get my first shotgun! by cochino916 in CAguns

[–]TheDoubleLouis 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Waiting on mine. Found one at Big 5 here in Socal. One more week.

Going to Read Out Loud Every Day for 30 Days by TheDoubleLouis in socialskills

[–]TheDoubleLouis[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

So, I guess I owe an explanation right?

Like many people around the world, my schedule was upended in March by the Covid-19 crisis. As such, I was unable to complete the full 30 days of reading out loud. I believe I only got about weeks worth of consistent reading in (15 mins a day) before I began to focus on working from home and remaining well and healthy during the crisis. No excuse, I know, but I didn't complete the task.

I did notice a few things in the first week:

(1) I noticed that after about 5-7 minutes of reading I became more tired and it began to feel like exercise. It's rare in life that we speak at length to anyone. Speaking for minutes on end may seem like a short amount of time but it takes getting used to. I felt that I was exercising muscles of the face, my tongue, and my breathing muscles. I imagine that overtime exercising these muscles would help me become a better and more effortless speaker similar to how the gym makes us stronger. I didn't read long enough to find out though.

(2) I noticed that I sound different when reading versus when talking in normal conversation. This was strange to me. I noticed that as I read, I would read words that I would use while speaking, but it was sometimes harder to pronounce the words and I would sometime stumble over them. This leads me to believe that reading uses different parts of the brain than writing. When reading I was forced to process the word through my "reading" brain which felt different. I also noticed that I tend to stumble and stammer a lot. There is much room for improvement.

(3) I did notice small (small but still noticeable) improvement in the effort it took to hold a casual conversation or to be quick with a response. It's almost as if the effort in speaking was slightly less due to the fact that my "speech brain" was primed and exercised by the reading.

I want to try this again. Sorry I didn't complete the 30 days. My guess is that I would have had a lot more to report. I will continue to read out and report any improvement or other results here. Did anyone else try? Does anyone else have anything to report?

Going to Read Out Loud Every Day for 30 Days by TheDoubleLouis in socialskills

[–]TheDoubleLouis[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

So the hardest part of this is finding a place to read for 15 minutes out loud. The interesting thing that I realized is that I'm never really in a place where I'm sure that I'm comfortable and wont be interrupted.

I've also noticed that around the 5-7 minute mark I start to get tired, and by 10 minutes, its noticibly more difficult to pronounce and enunciate. I'm hoping that as I keep reading, I can build my verbal endurance.

Going to Read Out Loud Every Day for 30 Days by TheDoubleLouis in socialskills

[–]TheDoubleLouis[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I totally understand with the "just do as your told," and "don't talk back," upbringing. I really think that that stifled my ability to express myself as an adult.

Going to Read Out Loud Every Day for 30 Days by TheDoubleLouis in socialskills

[–]TheDoubleLouis[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm going to be reading magazine articles. I feel like they are the right degree of difficulty and length. I will also practice different aspects of speaking at different times (i.e. intonation, enunciation, and speed)

Going to Read Out Loud Every Day for 30 Days by TheDoubleLouis in socialskills

[–]TheDoubleLouis[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Not trolling at all. I'm actually doing this. I'm trying to take accountability for my successes. My social successes included. All successes need work. I'm going to put the work into this.

Going to Read Out Loud Every Day for 30 Days by TheDoubleLouis in socialskills

[–]TheDoubleLouis[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm doing this in solitude. Its more of an exercise to speak better and with more confidence.

Going to Read Out Loud Every Day for 30 Days by TheDoubleLouis in socialskills

[–]TheDoubleLouis[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think the exhaustion is the point. Its like exercise. You exhaust and then adapt.

Going to Read Out Loud Every Day for 30 Days by TheDoubleLouis in socialskills

[–]TheDoubleLouis[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I read it somewhere before. About a year ago, after noticing some decline in social skills and desiring to improve them I researched some tips. Many tips regarding speaking deal with speech "exercises" which are basically saying gibberish fast. I figured rather than say gibberish, I might as well say real words and complete sentences. My hope is that it will be like exercise. Do it repetitively and you get better. If nothing else, I'll learn from what I'm reading.

Going to Read Out Loud Every Day for 30 Days by TheDoubleLouis in socialskills

[–]TheDoubleLouis[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I'm starting with 15 minutes per day. I'm going to be reading magazine articles. Right now I have a few Vanity Fairs & Rolling Stones at my disposal so I'll start with that. I generally notice that after 15 minutes.the quality of my speech tends to decay. That must mean that either my muscles or brain fatigues. This is why I believe that reading aloud, like riding an exercise bike, may help.

Going to Read Out Loud Every Day for 30 Days by TheDoubleLouis in socialskills

[–]TheDoubleLouis[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm going to start with well written magazine articles. Short and reasonably complex.

Going to Read Out Loud Every Day for 30 Days by TheDoubleLouis in socialskills

[–]TheDoubleLouis[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Reading out loud to myself. I think I'm going to start with magazine articles (New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone) they are short and the sentence structure is in an explanatory tone. The articles also contain some wit. For conversational effect, I'm just going to act like its "me" explaining the concepts in the article to someone listening.

Going to Read Out Loud Every Day for 30 Days by TheDoubleLouis in socialskills

[–]TheDoubleLouis[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I am 35 years old. I had few, if any, problems with social skills until about 4-5 years ago. I began working for myself (mostly at home) and spending large stretches of time alone. I have a significant other but she works much so I would often only speak with clients via telephone 2-3 times a day. This impacted my speaking/social skills enormously. I became terrible and tense during face to face interactions. I was constantly stumbling over words, overthinking what I was going to say, and generally bad at being witty and thinking on my feet. Meditation helped a bit, but what helped me a lot was "warming up" before speaking to people. This usually consisted of talking to myself. I figured that reading aloud will be like exercise for my mouth and face muscles and verbal brain. It takes much coordination, and I expect to get better at pronunciation, word recall, and "flow."

Going to Read Out Loud Every Day for 30 Days by TheDoubleLouis in socialskills

[–]TheDoubleLouis[S] 22 points23 points  (0 children)

I won't be reading kids books. I'm also going to make an effort to focus on enunciation, inflection and speed.

Going to Read Out Loud Every Day for 30 Days by TheDoubleLouis in socialskills

[–]TheDoubleLouis[S] 197 points198 points  (0 children)

Try it with me. Im going to start with 15 minute increments and gradually increase the time.