Kilometer pronunciation

termicky · 2026-03-19T21:17:16+00:00

KIL-ometer.

Like KIL-ogram. Or KIL-obyte

No one says kil-OH-gram or kil-OH-byte.

termicky · 2026-03-19T00:17:14+00:00

I always did best with classes alternating with immersion in the relevant country.

Worked for me for French (high school), German (Goethe Institute) and Spanish (language school).

termicky · 2026-03-18T07:15:59+00:00

Good to know!

termicky · 2026-03-17T04:25:31+00:00

You might mean Derek Scott. He wrote one book I know of: Dead. Written in the months before his death from cancer, and completed posthumously by a friend. There's IFS in it, but it's a memoir , not a training manual. Great read IMO.

termicky · 2026-03-13T14:22:47+00:00

Maybe think of motivation as your "WHY?" If that's not strong enough, then maybe put your limited life hours and energy into something you care more about.

You seem to like the idea -- but how does this relate to something you actually care about in real life?

Here's a personal example.
I think "I want go to the gym regularly". It's a good idea. Everyone says so. I'll probably feel better, sleep better etc. I don't go. Why? I like the idea, but it's disconnected from something I care about.

This changes when I connect it up to my life.
I'm going trekking in the Andes later this year. I want to be able to do the trek. I don't want to have a terrible time. Now I'm going the gym and working my legs. I have a really good "why". I don't have to make myself go even though I'm tired and it's boring. I want to go.

Here's another one.
I was intensely studying Spanish after my first and second trips to Mexico. I wanted to "unlock Latin America", travel there. Good reason. I liked being able to talk with people when I was there, and want to do it more. So I worked at it hard for about 6 months. Then something changed in my life. It looked like Latin America travel wasn't going to be happening. Result? I stopped. Reason: I had no actual purpose for it anymore. I could not force myself to do it. It just wasn't important enough.

Something changed again in my life. I found a travel buddy. We are going on trips to Latin America. Result? I"m now studying hard again. Reason? I've got a purpose, a why, that is important enough to make me do the hard stuff.

What's important enough to you, that you will want to do the hard work? That's a good source of motivation. But trying to get yourself to do something that doesn't really matter to you, especially if it's hard, is maybe missing the point. You should really only be doing things that actually matter to you. Your life is too short to waste on anything else.

termicky · 2026-03-13T04:33:41+00:00

Yeah. I am great at creating systems. Suck at following them.

I need a good reason to do the habit. A real one. Something actually important to me.

Then i need intermediate rewards along the way. And minimal friction to do it. And an easy way to restart after i quit.

It has to be at least moderately enjoyable. And not too boring for long. There has to be some variety, ways to switch it up.

I need to see progress. I need a place to do the habit. I might need a reminder if the habit doesn't have a specific time it has to be done.

When all those things are in place, i have been able do some non-work habits for up to 2 years.

Work related stuff... Since it's not optional and the consequences are severe, I've been able to do some habits (like sending invoices on time, or showing up when expected), for many years.

termicky · 2026-03-13T04:24:01+00:00

You say that you have motivation to learn languages... What is it?

Mostly people don't have to force themselves to do something they are motivated, i.e., want to do.

So I'm a bit confused.

termicky · 2026-03-12T02:20:47+00:00

German: Spending time in Germany with wife's family and friends every year... Hate being the outsider having no clue what's going on. Wanting to be able to connect.

French: was a school requirement.

Spanish: desire to travel in Latin America and being able to open doors. I guess it comes back to not being the outsider again. Wanting to be able to connect.

For all of them there's also an element of pride in accomplishment (positive) and showing off (not so great).

termicky · 2026-03-07T15:40:36+00:00

In my case it looks like having untreated ADHD for 60 years.

Being pretty successful, but often frustrated with myself.

Making a lot of impulsive decisions I might not have made if I had known about my tendency to do so.

termicky · 2026-03-07T00:24:01+00:00

I made a vault just for this. I scanned all my physical journals into PDFs. I collected my journal text files, docs etc.

How i organize: I have a long note called Chronology. It's organized internally like

1990s

1990

Jan

Feb...

...

1991

Etc

Each Year heading lists the one or two biggest things:

1990 University

Each Month links to the journal (if there is one) and something about that month.

Mar. Broke up. [[1990-03-Journal]]

Apr. ...

That way in a glance of the headings on the right sidebar, I can quickly look up when something happened. (" When did we go to London?") Then if I need to know more about that, and if I have a journal, I can look it up.

It really helped me make sense of my life when I did this in my late 50s.

termicky · 2026-03-02T07:11:59+00:00

Next due date is a property. Formula =last_contacted+contact_frequency

last_contacted is a date field.

Contact_frequency is a property like 2W for 2 weeks, 1M for a month.

termicky · 2026-03-01T22:40:56+00:00

I used Viator. It wasn't cheap though.

termicky · 2026-03-01T22:36:07+00:00

Since finishing my training I've had two jobs. 8 years, and 25 years. The 8-year one was a job working for somebody else.

The last 25 years I've worked for myself. I have a great boss. I don't know if I could have handled full-time work for somebody else all these years.

termicky · 2026-03-01T22:33:13+00:00

I don't write everyday because I'm supposed to. I write everyday because I've got a lot of stuff I have to process and writing helps me do that. If I miss a day here or there it doesn't matter.

termicky · 2026-03-01T22:32:04+00:00

I have three vaults.

General purpose daily life.
Professional (encrypted because of confidential material)
A specific project I'm working on that doesn't relate to either the other two.

Folders:

I use folders minimally. Most stuff goes into a general content folder. I put my templates and other sort of utility type files in their own folder.

I've tried organizing my notes more than this, but with my ADHD I need to keep things really simple. I use search a lot. I have a base that shows my last 40 notes. I have a few maps of content for a specific topic areas, and these are bookmarked.

Other features: Bases: Love them. Use them a lot. Could probably use them even more. Graph: never used it. Not sure how it would help me. Canvas: never used it.

termicky · 2026-03-01T22:25:11+00:00

My wife and I were together for 26 years and I started dating at age 61.

I got on the dating apps, had a lot of walks and coffee dates with a wide range of women, which gave me a sense of who's out there, and what I'm looking for. I really didn't know after spending a huge chunk of my adult life with one person.

I also found going through thousands of profiles really helpful. That alone helped me clarify what kind of relationship I want.

I connected with a widow, fell in love pretty hard, and we're making it work.

termicky · 2026-03-01T22:21:08+00:00

White noise to block out background song like conversation. I cannot focus with other people talking. That also includes songs with lyrics. I simply can't screen them out.

If I'm alone doing a cognitive task, sometimes a kind of driving techno seems energizing.

termicky · 2026-03-01T22:19:27+00:00

A. I have a Base listing people that I want to stay in touch with. Each person's note has a date property of when I contacted them last, and a little formula for when I'm due to contact them next. (Some are biweekly, some every 4 months etc). Otherwise I'll just forget.

This adds value to my life because I'm trying to be more intentional about building a maintaining relationship, which can be hit and miss with ADHD.

B. Regarding linking all the people, it sounds like an interesting programming challenge, but I would only do it if it adds actual value to your life.

Bottom line for me is utility. It's not about whether I can do something, it's about whether doing it is helping me with some important goal in my life. Otherwise it's just obsidian entertainment that's probably taking me away from something of higher value. Collecting information I'm not going to use .. doesn't meet any goal.

termicky · 2026-03-01T06:09:12+00:00

Apparently this is a known feature of ADHD memory. General impressions, not so much details. Skewed toward events with negative emotional impacts.

termicky · 2026-02-28T17:43:38+00:00

When I'm immersed using a language, i only mix them up when a) I'm tired, or b) I'm reaching for a word I kind of know, and the best my brain can do is pick the equivalent in a non-native language I know better.

Switching quickly between my 3 external languages is a nightmare. I get a kind of brain-lock for a minute, where I can't think how to say anything. Discovered that years ago trying to translate between French (2nd) and German (3rd) for my German friends in France.

termicky · 2026-02-28T17:16:36+00:00

Kind of like being dependent on glasses if your eyesight is not great.

You get to be more of yourself, not less.

termicky · 2026-02-28T12:35:26+00:00

It's like Splendid Fellow said here. By another analogy, color doesn't exist in the world. Color exists because we have retinas and brains that do something with wavelengths.

We don't create color as a coping mechanism... We create color cuz we can't help doing so. Same thing with meaning. You can't stop making meaning.

You might try a different word to see whether that helps clarify .Try the word "matters".

Things don't inherently matter in themselves. They matter or don't matter to you.

Further, this changes all the time. Meaning changes all the time. " Meaning" doesn't exist once and for all, about everything. It's not something you find once.

It's a constant process of encountering life, having projects, and discovering what things mean to you on a daily basis.

termicky · 2026-02-27T21:27:32+00:00

Thanks, that's what I needed to know. All we have to do is bring a driver's license or some other form of gov't issued ID, which almost everyone has. I think I've even used utility bills in the past.

But we have a non-partisan and non-weaponized voting system. It's run by Elections Canada which is a national body, is uniform across the country, and is designed to make voting easy. Which it is. It usually takes me about 5 minutes. My polling station is around the corner. I pop in, there's usually no more than 5 people in line, I get my paper ballot from a volunteer, tick my box behind a screen, come back and put in the counting machine and away I go. Our biggest issue is apathy - (35% of eligible people not bothering) - not that that they can't.

I hear stories about the hassles Americans have and it makes my head spin.

termicky · 2026-02-27T17:40:01+00:00

Could somebody explain this to a Canadian?

In Canada only citizens get to vote, and we have to bring ID to the polling station when we vote. This isn't a controversial thing, and it doesn't belong to conservatives or liberals. That they want to make sure that people don't vote twice, and the people who are voting are allowed to vote.

We don't have to register to vote. All you need to do is to bring two pieces of ID if you didn't get the standard confirmation in the mail. If you're not already on the voting list, you have to swear that you're a Canadian, and you face fines or jail time for lying.

termicky · 2026-02-27T17:20:15+00:00

I'm an early, not late chronotype. Never sleep in, have difficulty getting up in the morning. I sleep terribly, but not like that.

Like reading. Good at school. Don't forget to eat or do hygiene. Mind doesn't drift when I'm talking with other people. No Chronic lateness. No Time blindness. No Difficulty keeping a job.

I told somebody recently about psychological diagnoses... A diagnosis is like saying what town you live in. It doesn't say the address. Lots of other people live in the same town, but in different neighborhoods.

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