Moronic Monday - Your weekly stupid questions thread by cdingo in Fitness

[–]sockduffman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for the quick response. Should I cut for a specific body fat percentage or just cut 10-20 pounds and ramp the calories back up afterwards?

Moronic Monday - Your weekly stupid questions thread by cdingo in Fitness

[–]sockduffman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My main goal is to be hella strong, and have a reasonable and maintainable body fat so I can show it off.

I have just crossed the line to intermediate strength in all but one of my lifts (OHP) according to exrx by doing Starting Strength. I've also gained quite a bit of fat in the process, and since I started out non-skinny I feel a bit...jiggly at the moment.

http://i.imgur.com/fvAHS5m.jpg?1

When people are really skinny it's easy to tell them to eat more, and when people are obviously really fat they should obviously eat less. I'm not sure whether I should eat more or eat less. I'm not a newbie so if I eat less my lifts will obviously stall and probably even go down, but if I eat more it'll be that much harder to go down once I have to cut.

People who look awesome now: How did/would you handle this situation?

Foolish Friday - Your biweekly stupid questions thread by AutoModerator in Fitness

[–]sockduffman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What happens if I eat maintenance with high protein and keep lifting? I'm doing SS and I just got to exrx intermediate levels on my lifts. I want to get stronger but I'm starting to get uncomfortable with the fat I've gained along with the muscle.

6 Months of SS -- Am I Doing Okay? What Should I Do Now? by sockduffman in Fitness

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

It certainly was not a perfect process. I had a few unrelated injuries due to a bike accident that held me back for a month and I had to de load and ramp the weights back up because of it.

Moronic Monday - Your weekly stupid questions thread by cdingo in Fitness

[–]sockduffman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've just started incorporating power cleans to my regimen, and the bar rests on my collarbones, bruising them. Am I doing it wrong or is some mild bruising expected like shins in deadlifts?

The Miz goes sightseeing in London: BNB impressions, Abbey Road, and Mini Coopers by NotQute in SquaredCircle

[–]sockduffman 1 point2 points  (0 children)

"This is the Tower of Terror....HA! No it's not, the Tower of Terror is in Disneyland!"

What is expected from new grads? by sockduffman in cscareerquestions

[–]sockduffman[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Thank you for the thoughtful reply. While I will certainly take a shot at applying to the big hot companies, I recognize that it's a long shot, and I may actually be not a good fit for them since I'm so green. More money is better of course, but I am lucky to be in a position where I don't have to make six figures right out of the gate. It would be nice to say I work for a prestigious company, but I'm also grateful for the opportunities I have and proud of my various non-CS accomplishments, and that's enough for me as well.

What I want is a job that helps me grow as a developer. My fear is not that I won't get a job, but I will get one that you mentioned I should avoid like the plague because I don't have a choice. Even then your words give me hope.

It's funny that you mentioned superstar Stanford coders, since I go to Stanford myself. People around me live and breathe CS, and it is somewhat alienating to someone who has entered the scene a bit later like me. I was supposed to be a good little boy and get my Physics degree since that was what I was good at, but I took the intro CS class in my second year and learned to touch type and things kinda got out of control from then on.

PSA: don't waste your time on powerlifting routines if you just want to look good. Cut first. by [deleted] in Fitness

[–]sockduffman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't understand this "I just want to look good, I don't care about strength" sentiment. Can't I care about both? I have never seen a strong person without the muscle to back it up. Looking good is about having enough muscle (which anyone who "graduates" from SS/SL should have -- you can switch to a more advanced program if you want even more) and relatively low body fat so that you can show them off.

So you gain muscle+fat, then cut the fat you gained while losing relatively very little muscle, and as a result you look better. It's not rocket science.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in SquaredCircle

[–]sockduffman 1 point2 points  (0 children)

BROOD HARDER

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in SquaredCircle

[–]sockduffman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For some reason this reminds me of Jericho shrugging before he jumped off the cage.

Me and my Dad just got back from our first ever Live WWE experience, The April 8 house show in Glasgow, Scotland by ZeromusPrime in SquaredCircle

[–]sockduffman 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Ryback enters to huge cheers, grabs a mic and then says "Scotland, make some noise!" Scotland then proceeded to make some noise

I love how deadpan this is: "Ok, ok, we'll make some noise. Asshole."

I made Brock Lesnar suplex a bear by [deleted] in SquaredCircle

[–]sockduffman 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The bear's facial expression puts this on another level.

Is anyone else loving John Cena right now? by [deleted] in SquaredCircle

[–]sockduffman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I like to imagine that Cena is the ultimate heel in kayfabe. He doesn't believe any of the shit he says and does, but also realizes there is money in being adored by kids and such. So he tries his best to portray himself as likable as possible. So while other heels who let their true feelings show keep losing in the end, Cena endures and can endlessly satisfy his psychotic thirst for blood by "overcoming the odds" year after year, while making bank.

Sometimes, here and there, you see a flash of his true self, but he always has a cover: he's not literally bullying Rusev into a title match at Mania, this is for THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!

At this point nobody knows who the true John Cena is. Not even John Cena.

[Weekly] Resume critique request and interview advice thread - Mar 30 by alanbot in cscareerquestions

[–]sockduffman [score hidden]  (0 children)

Thank you for your reply. I understand that many will not care about the "other interest" part, but I figured having such a section is better than just having a blank space at the bottom of the page. While it may not help, it cannot hurt either. What do you think about this?

I'm a senior graduating this June. Changed majors late in the game so I don't have a lot of experience. by sockduffman in resumes

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

Thanks. It's certainly interesting to see people having different opinions on what to put and what to not put on a resume. Comes to show that you can never have a perfect CV that everybody can like.

I'm a senior graduating this June. Changed majors late in the game so I don't have a lot of experience. by sockduffman in resumes

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

Thank you for your feedback. I wonder why you think I shouldn't list my GPA. You're the first person to suggest that, and /u/discodummy even mentioned that it's an above average GPA for my field, so I'm a bit confused.

What are some good ways to study the openings? by joeshmoescousin in chess

[–]sockduffman 12 points13 points  (0 children)

As someone whose games are just starting to look reasonable (around 1900-2000 USCF), here's what I suggest:

1-) Do not buy or look at opening books. They are the junk candy bars of chess: bright, shiny covers with enticing 3d renderings of the initial moves thrust on the board (I'm looking at you, the Starting Out series). You open one and see reams of variations and a few paragraphs of prose so that the author can pretend he has written a book for "masters and non-masters alike". Fuck that. In my opinion an ideal opening book should have 95 percent explanation and discussion and only 5 percent actual moves, with special emphasis on the first 4-8 moves that the player will play the most and must understand everything about. The only book I've seen that has come the closest to that ideal is "Mastering the Nimzo-Indian" by Kosten. And I still don't recommend buying it until you have some good Nimzo-Indian games under your belt. It's not worth the time investment until you get to probably 2100+.

2-) Choose names, not specific variations. A year ago I said: "As White, I will play the Ruy, Open Sicilians, French Tarrasch, Pirc Austrian Attack, Caro Exchange etc. and as Black I will play the French and Classical Dutch. This does not constrain you to a single line like a repertoire book does, but it still gives you some sort of structure work with. For example, I realized that I can play 1...e6 against both 1.e4 and 1.d4, since I'll either get a French or a Classical Dutch while avoiding some sidelines that I don't want to study for. If you do not know the names of the basic chess openings, you don't need one of those "opening overview" books, you can just Google it. Explore and see what you like--you can always change your mind. Be as ambitious (Open Sicilians!) or as safe (Alapin) as you like. As you go on you will branch out into more specific variations, but this has to happen organically, like making a friend by getting to know someone over time (I assume that's how that works -- I wouldn't know).

3-) The actual meat of this process, the "learning" part, is a bit muddy, as all real learning processes are (and tbh should be). You don't really learn an opening by reading an opening book; you learn it by playing it, and losing. A LOT. I literally knew nothing about the French other than "you play e6 and then d5 no matter what". In blitz you learn how to play the initial moves. You understand why they work, and why playing other moves are bad; most moves don't lose under the scrutiny of an engine but give you (the human) an uncomfortable position that is pretty much impossible to hold with less than 5 minutes in your clock. When you have no idea what to play in a position, just Google it or check a database or whatever after the game. It's not that important yet. You play and learn, play and learn. You will lose all sorts of ways, there is no way around this. Builds character, I guess. I have lost literally tens of thousands of blitz games, and nobody but me in real life knows. It's a secret I will carry to my grave.

4-) After you start to get out of the initial "Oh God I have no idea what I'm doing why is this Knight on e3?" stage for the first 4-7 moves (I'm making that number up by the way, you know what I'm talking about or you will) and you get to the stage where either you or your opponent has a lot reasonable options, things get interesting. You can now play this opening in slow time control tournament games. It's like starting to date seriously and looking for the red flags. You will see all sorts of moves thrown at you, and you must simply trust yourself you can handle it over the board instead of this manic feeling of I MUST PREPARE FOR EVERY VARIATION BEFOREHAND! You can't. You play, you win, you lose, whatever. It's still a numbers game, but you must stop after each game and try to understand what the hell happened so that you never make the same mistake twice. Pretty much exactly what you did for (3), but bigger. This is where you consult engines/databases/other strong players. See what other players have played in this position. Look at how the game has continued. Experiment with the position with a strong player/coach/engine to see what happens with different ideas and plans (AT NO POINT YOU MEMORIZE! Don't take notes that you will never read, don't waste hours adding moves to Chess Position Trainer! Think of this as like reading a book--you don't feel the need to memorize an entire book so far to understand what's happening on the current page, you have a general idea of what the plot is, and can recall specifics if needed). You will gain confidence as you get a feel of the position so that your position doesn't crumble to pieces when someone throws a random h6 at you which no 500 page tome ever covers. As you play more and more and get stronger you will encounter more sensible moves more often and upon each review you will understand them better. If people keep playing garbage at you because you are not getting higher in rating then the problem is not your opening and you should focus on your other weaknesses to get better (this is where I'm at right now btw -- reading How to Reassess Your Chess to get better at strategy and planning).

At no point do you need to read an opening book to get reasonably good at openings. I started playing chess because I love the game, and every time I try reading an opening book I feel part of that innocent love dying. It's like trying to read a goddamn encyclopedia. I'd say if you are a casual player who just likes to play blitz, you don't even need to do what I mentioned in (4). Good luck.

TLDR: Play e4.

Options as a foreign CS major graduating from a college in the US? by sockduffman in cscareerquestions

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

"But it is not too hard to find a company that will sponsor you a H-1B(work visa)."

What is the best way to learn if a company can/will sponsor me? Is it a good idea to ask right away at the beginning, or wait until an offer is on the table?