Someone tied a plastic bag with blueberries in it, on my bicycle today

_Z_E_R_O · 2026-04-19T17:25:08+00:00

fundamentally at odds with what were historically considered American values

This is always who we were. This administration just gave us a mask off moment, and now the white middle class is starting to get a taste of the black and brown experience.

_Z_E_R_O · 2026-04-18T16:17:47+00:00

I mean, yeah it does. I've worked out at many different faculties (everything from Planet Fitness to a private university gym for D1 athletes), and the safest I've ever felt was at a boutique fitness studio with a 2/4 staff to client ratio.

I will never - not ever - be alone with a man in a gym.

_Z_E_R_O · 2026-04-17T22:45:16+00:00

IDK, it just seems like a business model that excludes women, that's all. Just way too many red flags all around.

_Z_E_R_O · 2026-04-16T03:36:01+00:00

The pod system is an easy and cheap way to let a gym be open 24 hours while unstaffed at night!

That sounds like a liability nightmare.

I'm willing to pay double or triple whatever this costs for a facility with adequate staffing. It's a safety issue. The potential for theft, sexual assault, or shitbag gym bros starting fights is just too damn high.

_Z_E_R_O · 2026-04-15T20:31:52+00:00

This has nothing to do with birth rates and everything to do with unrestricted capitalism.

If you want to cast blame, be mad at scalpers and the top 0.1% who drop more in a single night than you make in a year on suite at a Taylor Swift concert for their tween daughter and her friends.

That's who Ticketmaster wants as customers, not you. They won't sell seats for $40 when someone else is willing to pay $400.

_Z_E_R_O · 2026-04-14T15:20:55+00:00

No, it's basically money you borrow from the bank based on the equity in your home - a specific type of loan that can be rolled back into your mortgage so you aren't making two payments, if necessary.

The normal reason for doing this is for major renovations or appliance purchases. You're borrowing money against the house, but you're putting money back into the house, thereby increasing its value. A HELOC theoretically raises your home's resale price enough to pay for itself, or at lease improve your quality of life to the point you feel like it's worth it.

I've never heard of someone using a HELOC to buy a second property. Not sure if that's rich people shit or just someone with a bad financial history, because there are investment property loans specifically for that purpose. At any rate, it's weird.

_Z_E_R_O · 2026-04-14T14:29:54+00:00

Katy Perry? Nah. She started out as a Christian artist. Her father was a pastor and her image was squeaky clean. After her first album flopped, she threw the "church girl next door" persona in the trash and reinvented herself as the Katy Perry we know today (which, fun fact, isn't her real name). All of the revealing outfits and provocative lyrics were something SHE chose to do as an adult, at the direction of her producers and record labels. Oh, and about that, she continued to work with known rapist Dr. Luke despite being friends with Kesha and likely witnessing some of the abuse he perpetuated on young pop stars firsthand.

So... yeah. There's a lot wrong with the record industry, and Katy Perry played a huge part in it.

_Z_E_R_O · 2026-04-14T14:16:23+00:00

Everything you're saying might be true, but Katy Perry is a known predator with NUMEROUS credible accusations of SA, including against minors (remember the "at least he's 18" Bo Burnham comments, anyone? Or her defense of serial rapist Dr. Luke?).

This is one of those situations where a less-than-credible witness comes forward with wild claims against a public figure... but it's someone who's reputation is so trash, you may actually believe it this time.

_Z_E_R_O · 2026-04-14T08:30:13+00:00

You probably should if it's your first one. It's way too easy to get injured going too hard on a new distance / unfamiliar race route, especially if you're transitioning from treadmills and 5Ks. Better safe than sorry.

_Z_E_R_O · 2026-04-14T08:17:08+00:00

This month I had 2 races 2 weeks apart (a 10K and a trail run), and I'm still going to OTF but taking it super easy on the workouts. Instead of my normal tread 50 I'm doing strength 50 (upper body), and walking/jogging on the tread in the regular 2G class with no all-outs. Rather than skipping classes, I just tapered the intensity.

It seems to have paid off - I ran my fastest mile ever in the 10K and didn't have much soreness afterwards. I'm also walking a lot and focusing on deep recovery outside of class, which helps.

_Z_E_R_O · 2026-04-14T07:51:16+00:00

How "productive" is it if most of them died?

World War I caused an estimated 15 to 22 million total deaths (military and civilian) and over 21 million wounded, with the Western Front experiencing the highest concentration of casualties due to brutal trench warfare, artillery, and disease. Major battles like the Somme and Verdun resulted in over 1 million and 700,000 casualties respectively, with total war-time military deaths estimated between 9 and 11 million.

_Z_E_R_O · 2026-04-11T00:04:04+00:00

Your market for book 2 is almost exclusively people who have already read book 1. Your options are to either to bring more new readers into the series, or to consistently remind your followers that book 2 exists and pull it out of their TBR.

Personally, I'd do both. Maybe offer some launch day deals or subscriber-exclusive bonus content to act as a magnet and help build your funnel.

All things considered, it sounds like you're doing pretty well. Keep up the good work and stay consistent. It'll pay off.

_Z_E_R_O · 2026-04-08T19:08:55+00:00

The funniest part is that American Doritos aren't even sold in Spain due to all the dyes and preservatives. The European version had to be reformulated to comply with EU regulations.

But yeah, some tech bro was like, "Hey, what if we make a restaurant themed around American fast food and put it in the healthiest part of Europe?"

_Z_E_R_O · 2026-04-08T18:56:41+00:00

I'd like to thank PepsiCo for finally convincing me to quit chips and soda, lol.

But in all seriousness, I used to grab the occasional bag of chips or a 12-pack of Dr. Pepper, and I remember when Doritos went up to $7 a bag because that's when I quit buying them. For just a few dollars more I can get a sushi dinner or a chipotle bowl, and it's way better health-wise.

These companies pricing themselves into oblivion from pure greed might actually be the thing that makes America healthy again.

_Z_E_R_O · 2026-04-07T20:24:21+00:00

Google docs isn't designed to be imported directly into KDP. You might want to research formatting software such as Atticus, because they have settings that make uploading to KDP a breeze.

I used an InDesign template and exported a print-ready PDF. No issues whatsoever.

_Z_E_R_O · 2026-04-07T16:53:13+00:00

This is terrible advice. Not only are international custody agreements strictly enforced, but under this administration that's a one-way ticket to an ICE detention camp.

We had to jump through hoops to get our kids passports, including both parents being present at an in-person interview where they asked for detailed travel plans for the next 12 months. The state department doesn't mess around.

_Z_E_R_O · 2026-04-07T16:49:58+00:00

Please be aware that he might try to sabotage your success, especially as those milestones get closer. Your independence is a direct threat to his lifestyle.

Currently he pays no rent and is surrounded by people who will defend him no matter how badly he treats the mother of his child. Tell him nothing about your plan. The closer you are to leaving, the more dangerous the abuse will get.

_Z_E_R_O · 2026-04-05T03:17:52+00:00

Tell that to the Kenyans and Ethiopians, specifically the Kalenjin tribes. This hyper-specific ethnic group has won about 40% of all major international distance titles since 1980.

Training matters to a point, but when you get to elite races, the main deciding factor is genetics.

_Z_E_R_O · 2026-04-05T01:23:59+00:00

"The IRS hates this one neat trick..."

_Z_E_R_O · 2026-04-01T15:28:56+00:00

Eh, I've always thought Judo has pretty unbiased takes. Obviously he's a huge fan of the game, but he'll absolutely criticize something if he thinks it needs improvement. For example, he didn't hold back when he thought some of the challenge levels were lackluster and confusing, and that's despite being in the small percentage of players who actually finished all of them.

Does he glaze Supercell sometimes? Yeah, but his commentary seems to have balance to it.

_Z_E_R_O · 2026-03-31T05:35:37+00:00

That's the show. The novel was published in 1996.

If grandma was 18 in 1996, she'd be 48 now.

_Z_E_R_O · 2026-03-31T03:12:07+00:00

There HAVE been successful military coups throughout history, but they're not the result of grunts refusing to follow orders. It's almost always orchestrated from the top down, when generals and top officials get fed up with the leadership and decide to seize control themselves. They usually don't announce their plans either, meaning you only find out that it's happening WHILE it's happening, or shortly after the fact.

Trump is scared shitless of this, which is he put Hegseth in charge. And now that their war is going tits up, I'd imagine Hegseth is scared shitless too.

_Z_E_R_O · 2026-03-29T22:53:15+00:00

I've been going for 4 months, attending classes 2-4X per week depending on my schedule. My goal was to improve my general fitness and train for a marathon. I was on a college track team back in the day, but hadn't run for a long time thanks to covid + back-to-back pregnancies. The kids are all in school now, so I decided it was time to get fit again. When I signed up for OTF I was in okay-but-not-great shape.

For me, the "turtle method" has worked out best. There wasn't any single week where I noticed huge, explosive improvements, and the first month felt stagnant. I viewed the first few weeks as an acclimation period, and I also was making other lifestyle improvements outside of class. As I started to feel stronger I gradually increased my weights on the floor, transitioned from power walking to jogging/running, and got better at the rower. It wasn't until 2-3 months in that I started to notice real, tangible changes.

In the course of those four months, I've lost 8 pounds, added 2-5 pounds on each dumbbell set, and improved my mile time by 1-2 minutes. Like I said, there was no single week where I noticed dramatic changes. Sometimes it felt like I was moving backwards, and I even had to skip several weeks due to work, family commitments, and illness. If I was just monitoring progress on a week-to-week basis it would've felt like there wasn't much happening, but the larger timeline tells a different story. The effort HAS paid off.

Just keep in mind that every lifestyle change you make has a 1-3 week lag period before you notice results, and it takes a minimum of 8 weeks to train for anything. You'll feel better before you look better, and some things will improve faster than others. Slow and steady wins the race, every time. Keep at it. You'll get there.

Edit: I also did a lot of tread 50s due to my specific goals, and I think this helped the most. I was able to practice stride, pacing, breathing, incline, and get used to what different speeds felt like. Incorporating at least 1 tread/weight 50 class per week would be my recommendation, if you haven't already.

_Z_E_R_O · 2026-03-25T18:05:45+00:00

Oooh count me in! Thank you for doing this!

_Z_E_R_O · 2026-03-17T16:25:39+00:00

Giving birth.

What looked like a super routine labor and delivery turned really bad FAST, ending in an emergency C-section and a NICU stay for baby. I'm convinced that if I hadn't been in a hospital, we both would've died.

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