chroma's recent activity
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Comment on Fitness Weekly Discussion in ~health
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Comment on Fitness Weekly Discussion in ~health
chroma LinkI have discovered the magic of zone 2 running. I didn't hate running before, but I didn't particularly enjoy it. Didn't think the day would come where I would actually genuinely like running, but...I have discovered the magic of zone 2 running.
I didn't hate running before, but I didn't particularly enjoy it. Didn't think the day would come where I would actually genuinely like running, but now here we are. Turns out if you go slow as hell you can run a lot longer and it doesn't feel like death. I've been running 3x/week for the past month, and now with these easier runs as of last week I'm at 4.5 miles at a time at like 13 min/mi, all while blasting 2010s EDM and thinking about things like what I'll have for dinner today, or "I really have to pee", or just generally going "lalalalalala" in my head. It's great.
I've been better about gym 4x/week too over the last like month or so. RDL is up to 405x10, DB bench is at 90x5, DB OHP 65x7, leg press is at 5 plates + 20 + whatever the sled is x8. Combined with the running I'm pleasantly surprised at how maintainable this routine is. Recovery feels fine. I'm not in a rush to up the volume of either modality, at least until I decide to gain a bunch of weight again at some point later.
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Comment on Fitness tracker (2025 edition) in ~health
chroma LinkI use a Garmin vivosmart 5. I actually also have an Apple Watch, but it's sitting unused in a drawer somewhere. The rest of my comment will get to why lol. #0: I'd say the Garmin is worth the...I use a Garmin vivosmart 5. I actually also have an Apple Watch, but it's sitting unused in a drawer somewhere. The rest of my comment will get to why lol.
#0: I'd say the Garmin is worth the money. It was $150. This particular one is their second-cheapest fitness watch offering that they still sell. There was an eight month or so long period where I just stopped wearing my Apple Watch because it was annoying and the battery life made it a hassle, so I decided to just ditch it.
I decided to get the Garmin after that period of time mostly because I started playing basketball for a bit, so wanted a step tracker that covered for when my phone wasn't in my pocket. I fell off of basketball and started running, so it's still useful.
#1/2: I'd just get another Garmin, maybe a more expensive model, but most likely the same one. I vastly prefer it over the Apple Watch because
- It's more of a health tracker than a smartwatch. I want it to count my steps, track my heart rate and stuff, and track my sleep. That's really it. I don't need apps or anything else.
- The Apple Watch was more annoying than it was helpful after a certain point. I couldn't walk to the store without it asking if I was working out (that's mostly on me - I'm sure there's a way to turn that feature off). I'd randomly get jumpscared if I was listening to music and happened to turn the volume up on accident with the crown. I don't track strength workouts on it, because nothing of value is really recorded - just heart rate, and it artificially inflated my move ring. I don't need rings or social incentives to work out. If I wore lifting straps at the gym, the crown would sometimes bump against the straps and stop my music or do something unrelated. I just don't need a smartwatch.
- The Garmin battery lasts like a week, Apple Watch a day.
- The vivosmart in particular is subtle enough that I can wear another actual watch on my other wrist if I want to.
#3: I mostly realized that I don't need any other heuristic for my daily activity other than step counts. I don't put much stock in "active calories" or whatever because I know those measurements tend to be inaccurate. Step count is nice because it translates into how much I've intentionally moved around that day. And yeah, again, I just don't need a smartwatch. I do not want notifications on my watch (or my phone even), I don't want to take calls from my watch, I don't want to know that my friend ran a 5K without them feeling the need to tell me.
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Comment on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the rested Minnesota Timberwolves 114-88 in Game 1 of West finals in ~sports.basketball
chroma Link ParentWolves definitely lost this game, but the whistle for SGA was absolutely exhausting to watch. At least 2 of the shooting fouls called for him involved literally no defender(-initiated) contact....Wolves definitely lost this game, but the whistle for SGA was absolutely exhausting to watch. At least 2 of the shooting fouls called for him involved literally no defender(-initiated) contact. Plus that travel flop that got overturned into an OKC possession.
Praying the Wolves get it together. My beloved prince Steph didn't die for this.
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Comment on Single most useful program you daily use? in ~tech
chroma Link ParentI spent some time fiddling with it today because of this, haha. The motions are familiar, but weird... in a good way, because the whole "motion first" thing is logically more intuitive to me, but...I spent some time fiddling with it today because of this, haha. The motions are familiar, but weird... in a good way, because the whole "motion first" thing is logically more intuitive to me, but 6 years of vim muscle memory makes me have to think a lot. Actually, the mnemonics and modes are all more intuitive than vim IMO. One problem I have is that so many default bindings want Alt, which is "special" in macOS for sending composed characters and emojis and stuff. I actually use that feature a lot, so I'll have to rebind a lot of the defaults I guess.
Anyway, the native IDE-ish features it has so far (mostly pretty good LSP support and config) are basically enough for me to want to switch. Neovim's LSP support is good, but a bit much config-wise. I can pretty much do what I normally do for all my projects without any plugins, which is nice.
helix --healthfor default LSP health check is really helpful too.I'll probably drive this on my personal machine for a bit before I decide to fully switch. Thanks for the shout!
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Comment on Fitness Weekly Discussion in ~health
chroma LinkOooh for some reason I had no idea Tildes had a weekly fitness thread. Hi everyone! That being said, I haven't made any exciting changes to my training lol. General strength training/bodybuilding...Oooh for some reason I had no idea Tildes had a weekly fitness thread. Hi everyone!
That being said, I haven't made any exciting changes to my training lol. General strength training/bodybuilding 3-4x a week, indoor bouldering 1-2x a week (more like once now since I recently moved further away from my gym). I've been teetering on the idea of running again for a bit, but the first two things are plenty enough for me to balance with everything else in my life.
Recent PRs of 365x8 RDL, 210x8 pendulum squat (I don't know how pendulum squats vary from gym to gym, but mine is one of those ones where you have to load a ridiculously light amount of weight; 210 is 1 plate so wooo milestone), 195x8 lying machine press.
As I type this, I remembered the one exciting thing I've got going for me. I've been dealing with a shoulder impingement forever now and haven't been able to overhead press or do certain movements with my shoulder for months, but I've found a rehab routine that works well enough for me that I can specifically do neutral grip machine overhead presses without pain, which is awesome. I've been out of that game for a while so I have no benchmark for how my current intensity compares to what it was before, but I'm just happy to be doing some kind of vertical pressing again.
I will leave you all with a simple recipe that I've been making most days this week: Meathead imitation crab salad (like what you get at a poke shop or in a California roll). Food processor or hand blender recommended.
- 150g imitation crab
- 80g 2% cottage cheese
- 5g kewpie mayonnaise
- Sugar, MSG, chopped green onions to your liking
- Mince or blitz the crab until it's at your desired consistency; I usually make it look like what's in a California roll
- Mix cottage cheese, mayo, sugar, MSG. (If you have a food processor you can puree all of this together for a creamy consistency, but it still works fine without)
- Mix all that together, fold in green onions
That's it! Imitation crab is pretty high in sodium so beware if you're sensitive to that, but otherwise, this makes a pretty good way to satisfy a sushi craving (which is like every day for me). Macros roughly 256kcal/6F/29C/19P
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
chroma Link ParentYeah totally understandable, that's how most of my attempts to learn chess have gone. Puzzles are definitely one thing, but the idea of not focusing too hard on "winning" moves for now, in games...Yeah totally understandable, that's how most of my attempts to learn chess have gone. Puzzles are definitely one thing, but the idea of not focusing too hard on "winning" moves for now, in games and instead just trying to play a solid foundational style is what helped for me to break past that mindset. It's indeed pretty depressing when the engine calls half of your moves inaccuracies, lol.
Ultimately, what I realize is yes, they're misses/inaccuracies, but they still developed the piece/controlled the center/whatever at the cost of missing material or letting the opponent play a tactic; and they weren't blunders. The engine is rated at like 3600, which we are not; it's basically perfect. But "don't let perfect be the enemy of good" is how I'd summarize the mindset that helped me.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
chroma LinkI've been playing... chess. Maybe not the answer you were expecting in this thread, haha. This all started after I had watched LoL Worlds after not having played for a while, maybe since 2015. I...I've been playing... chess.
Maybe not the answer you were expecting in this thread, haha. This all started after I had watched LoL Worlds after not having played for a while, maybe since 2015. I started watching some "macro basics" videos to catch up on the game, which led me down a long path of being interested in RTS/MOBA macro as a whole.
At the same time, I watch a lot of Wirtual, a Trackmania streamer, while I'm working. He is dating and frequently collabs with Anna Cramling, a chess WFM and also streamer. Me being recently into studying video game strategy but also having no time/interest in really playing a competitive video game, I figured I'd get back into chess.
I've known how to play since I was a kid, but have never been good. I've tried on and off to get into it, especially over the pandemic, but a combination of ladder anxiety + overthinking each and every tactic made it more stressful than fun back then, and I never made decent progress. But, this time around, I discovered this video series, which is Yet Another Chess Guide for Beginners™️; only the idea isn't to memorize like 4 openings, or to play
1.e4just because, or whatever other rote beginner advice is floating out there (none of that really helped me understand what to do); the idea is to build good habits, play very simply, and stop overthinking. Which turned out to be exactly what I needed.Now all of a sudden chess is really fun. I'm just playing a really simple game and doing puzzles most days, purposely not thinking too hard. Over the past few weeks I've noticed I actually am building an intuition for tactics and can actually formulate a plan in the middle game, whereas before the idea of finding the perfect move every time stressed me out. I've recently realized I'm a positional player who prefers a slow opening and breaking open the middle game with tempo.
My Chess.com rating is still only like 500, though I've climbed from 300 in like 2 weeks. I'm still blundering pieces randomly, but I'm having a hell of a lot more fun.
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Comment on Advice Needed: Simple and Reliable notifications in ~comp
chroma LinkA straightforward AWS-centric option is SNS; you can just send yourself SMS. Assuming you have control over how your backup service sends out its notifications, you can route payloads to SNS...A straightforward AWS-centric option is SNS; you can just send yourself SMS. Assuming you have control over how your backup service sends out its notifications, you can route payloads to SNS however you'd like.
If that's not an option: Going off no self-host, AWS, and HTTP-based: A really low-brow way could be using Lambda + messaging service of your choice, with your phone configured to receive notifications on that service? I've done exactly that with Discord before when doing a one-off hacky project to annoy my friends.
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Comment on <deleted topic> in ~food
chroma (edited )Link ParentIf you get the chance, I'd also recommend trying the related stuffed pizza. I personally prefer it to deep dish - there's an extra layer dough separating the cheese from the sauce, so it's less...If you get the chance, I'd also recommend trying the related stuffed pizza. I personally prefer it to deep dish - there's an extra layer dough separating the cheese from the sauce, so it's less swimming pool of ingredients and more "really big buttery calzone thing with some sauce on top". More cheese, filling, a bit less sauce than normal deep dish. This is my favorite stuffed pizza place.
(I apologize to any pizza enthusiasts whom I've offended with my description. I live in California.)
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Comment on Developers Aren't Nerds in ~comp
chroma LinkWell yeah, not every programmer is a hobbyist, that much I agree with. I don't think that's a bad thing. I guess I can understand how it can be annoying that some aren't as invested as you when it...Well yeah, not every programmer is a hobbyist, that much I agree with. I don't think that's a bad thing. I guess I can understand how it can be annoying that some aren't as invested as you when it comes to your professional work, but this is kind of a weird way to complain about it.
Is it actually affecting the author's work to a measurable degree? Then it sounds like a team dynamic issue, and you should probably say something like "hey I need the team to stop throwing bugs over the fence at me without actually investigating first". Does the author have a say in hiring decisions? Can you not filter out these candidates during the hiring process? Is the author a manager? Tell them you need them to step up.
Other than that, 9-to-5 programmers are in the workforce because they can be productive, mostly in companies who also think they can be productive. I don't see why they'd need to change if their team doesn't need them to.
Outside of a professional context, I don't think this is a good take. Programmers shouldn't be required to set up dotfiles or have a Neovim config or whatever (and I do both of those things). Would they be better programmers if they did more deep dives into more topics? I dunno, maybe, depends what they want. But if they don't want that, then what's it to you?
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Comment on Does anyone have experience or advice on cutting sugar consumption? in ~health
chroma (edited )LinkI'm sorry, but I don't agree with a lot of the comments in this thread. "Just restrict your access to sugar" isn't a solution for the OP in this case - they seem to already be imposing a...I'm sorry, but I don't agree with a lot of the comments in this thread. "Just restrict your access to sugar" isn't a solution for the OP in this case - they seem to already be imposing a restriction on themselves, and the problem seems to be that they can't abide by it because it is too harsh. When they break that restriction, they keep going for the sugar. This is the binge eating cycle.
I am also someone who's struggled with binge eating in the past, and I can tell you that not allowing yourself to be within a mile radius of a tub of ice cream works for like, 3 days. Do you know what I want even more after those 3 days? Fucking ice cream. And then the binge eating starts all over again.
Adding more restrictions isn't a solution, because it's the same thing as what the OP is already doing. All you're recommending them to do is to stigmatize sugary foods even more, which may likely make binge eating both more likely and more stressful. This advice is literally "just don't eat sugar 4Head". Are you stranded in the desert and dying of thirst? Just go find some water 🤡
At the same time, there is a lot of advice in this thread which recommends addressing behavior change and practicing mindful eating. I agree with most of this; it's most effective to get to the root of the problem. "Why do I want sugar at 2:30?" and "Am I actually hungry now?" are perfectly fine questions to be asking.
In addition to the general advice of being mindful, this is what's worked for me: I'm a proponent of "add, don't restrict". Meaning, if you want sugar at 2:30, then eat sugar at 2:30. It isn't forbidden. You shouldn't be banned from eating sugar, or anything for that matter. But in the interest of aligning with your goal of eating and living healthier, you can:
- Have some sugar (not the whole tub of ice cream, but just enough for you at the moment), but alongside some "healthier" foods that you think work well with it. For example, I sometimes break up some Oreos and mix them in with fruit and Greek yogurt. You still get to have what you want, but you're also creating a middle ground where you're also having foods that push you towards your goals.
- Ask yourself why you want to eat sugar at this moment. Is it really the ice cream you want? Or are you stressed out about something else? Is it simply a well-formed habit? Once you've taken some time to reflect and you still want your sugar, then go ahead! You may find that your sugar cravings are coming from some other source or stimulus entirely.
The idea behind this is to stop treating certain foods as forbidden, therefore reducing the likelihood of binge eating. In the end, the goal is to create a healthy mindset and continue to cultivate your relationship with food, as you've been doing.
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Comment on The "Great Games"- AAA titles, easy brand recognition- are what everyone pushes. But sometimes you need a "just average" game. in ~games
chroma Link ParentSure, I'd summarize it as I like the feeling of overcoming a challenge. This isn't mutually exclusive with 100% completion, but those two things don't completely overlap by any means. I briefly...Sure, I'd summarize it as I like the feeling of overcoming a challenge. This isn't mutually exclusive with 100% completion, but those two things don't completely overlap by any means.
I briefly mentioned competitive multiplayer games - by my own description, these are the types of games that would appeal to me the most, because getting better to overcome a challenge is the entire point. There's no "100% completion" concept involved at all. Speedrunning is another example, and I do this sometimes.
An example where completion is involved might be "All bosses, highest difficulty". The point is more that beating a boss or two is hard, and so beating all of them is harder.
In contrast, I don't usually care about getting 100% of achievements or anything like that. You don't usually have to learn/challenge yourself to 100% a lot of games, you just have to be thorough. If there's a difficult challenge involved in getting that 100%, I'm usually just fine doing that part.
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Comment on The "Great Games"- AAA titles, easy brand recognition- are what everyone pushes. But sometimes you need a "just average" game. in ~games
chroma (edited )LinkI feel this, but for slightly different reasons than you. I'm within that group of people with not a lot of time to play a lot of games, but I'm also kind of just picky - I: generally dislike the...I feel this, but for slightly different reasons than you. I'm within that group of people with not a lot of time to play a lot of games, but I'm also kind of just picky - I:
- generally dislike the "AAA formula".
- generally require a game to be challenging for it to be fun - I play everything on the highest difficulty, as I find anything lower to be less rewarding. I tend not to be the "collector" or "100% everything" archetype.
As a result, I just don't play that many titles. Of the ones I'm interested in and end up playing, either I've completed them and none are AAA, or they're AAA and I haven't completed them. Some of my friends give me shit for this, lol.
I've just accepted that I play fewer games now, but it's kind of annoying sometimes that nothing catches my interest, because I'm still interested in games, I just don't want to play a lot of them. I also stopped competitive multiplayer games for my mental health, even though I'm, per my own description, the kind of person who gravitates towards them.
That being said, I find myself mostly playing roguelikes and some JRPGs. Mostly because those are the two genres that satisfy my criteria for "fun" while still being things I can play only every now and then. Hades, Slay the Spire, One Step from Eden, etc. Right now I'm playing Persona 3: Reload, which isn't exactly the most difficult game, but is fun as a story game with what's basically a roguelike+JRPG gameplay loop in some parts.
Anyway, that was more of a rant than anything. But I feel heard. 😆
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Comment on On creation for creation's sake in ~talk
chroma Link ParentWhat's funny is that this is how I think about things at work 😆. Your last paragraph resonates with me; the reason I can be "pragmatic" about it at work is because my job is to deliver value. But...What's funny is that this is how I think about things at work 😆. Your last paragraph resonates with me; the reason I can be "pragmatic" about it at work is because my job is to deliver value. But also, I think the reason I tend to over-plan for personal stuff is because high level system design (or its equivalent in game development land/whatever else I'm doing) is what I like doing most. Like, implementing sound features with sound paradigms is fun to me. Messy code makes me slightly uncomfortable when I'm in a position to do something about it, which is seldom at work for practical reasons, but 100% of the time when it's my own thing.
But yeah. Maybe this all means being a perfectionist is fun to me. 🤷
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Comment on On creation for creation's sake in ~talk
chroma Link ParentHah yeah, I totally agree with you and @feanne. I've actually done game development before, but that was 7 or 8 years ago. I understand what you mean when you say it gives you the ability to...Hah yeah, I totally agree with you and @feanne. I've actually done game development before, but that was 7 or 8 years ago. I understand what you mean when you say it gives you the ability to explore whatever you want; in fact that's what drew me into it a long time ago, and that's why I'm thinking of doing it again.
Maybe a game jam would be nice. Haven't done one, but I've done hackathons for unrelated subjects, and it's been a positive experience.
I dunno, for me I think there's a divide between "small games can be fulfilling" and "I have an idea that means something to me, I want to make it happen" that I haven't learned how to cross. Maybe thinking of the smaller stuff as intermediate steps towards the larger project would help, but I can't help but become disinterested in the smaller stuff quickly... hence my post, haha.
Anyway, I appreciate the encouragement. How'd you stumble upon game development? You seem to be very passionate about it.
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Comment on On creation for creation's sake in ~talk
chroma Link ParentOh, that sounds cool! I've only run into the topic of ROM hacking a few times, but it seems like a wacky mix of reverse engineering, low level programming, and game development. The idea of a base...Oh, that sounds cool! I've only run into the topic of ROM hacking a few times, but it seems like a wacky mix of reverse engineering, low level programming, and game development. The idea of a base game already being there certainly makes the process seem less daunting.
How'd you get into this? And what idea did you have for a game originally that translated into a ROM hack? Sounds fun.
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On creation for creation's sake
I want to make a game. ... is what I've been telling myself for the past few weeks. Honestly, I might have subconsciously had this thought for the past few months, if not years. Strange as it...
I want to make a game.
... is what I've been telling myself for the past few weeks. Honestly, I might have subconsciously had this thought for the past few months, if not years.
Strange as it sounds, I've gone on a weird mental journey in getting to the point where I'm able to acknowledge this desire. I've always had a vague, constant urge to be creative, but for the past few years, this urge has been tied to an outcome: "I want to write a JS library because it'll make for a cool product later"; something like that. Inevitably, having that outcome in mind makes me set a standard of perfection for what the thing is supposed to be, which makes me start planning every piece of the thing, which... tires me out, and then I just don't do it.
I'd say I've been better about this recently, in that I'll sometimes do one-off things because it seems like fun at the time. Small coding projects that serve no purpose at all. I randomly got into drawing for a week, so the day's drawing for that week. Rediscovering this process has been fun, and it's definitely been fulfilling to just marvel at my work without having to check off boxes for what the thing is supposed to do.
But now, I've got the idea that I want to make a game. A game isn't a small project, or at least not as small as what I've been working on recently. I'm pretty sure my motivation for wanting to do this is entirely intrinsic: I just want to do it, I don't want to sell it, I don't care if nobody plays it. And yet, I'm still finding it pretty hard to do anything.
Firstly, I don't have much time during the week to work on this game; I also work full-time. Second, when I do have time, I find it pretty hard to make any progress. A game isn't small, so I feel the need to plan stuff out, even just roughly. Which is what I do at work. So then it just feels like work. I tire of planning pretty quickly, and I think I've come to conflate this tired feeling with burnout at work, so I just stop and scroll on the internet.
Sometimes I'm able to focus and just write something without planning. It's nice when I'm able to do this, but inevitably I start thinking about the bigger picture... "Okay, the protagonist feels X because the theme I'm going for is Y, which..." and then the planning starts again.
Anyway, this is all a very long way to say that I struggle with creating for creation's sake, partly because budgeting my time as a full-time laborer is hard, and partly because I have trouble seeing the trees for the forest, so to speak. Have you all ever had to deal with this? I'm curious to know what's helped you, or just your thoughts on the topic/my situation.
Cheers!
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Comment on Happy Leap Day in ~tech
chroma Link ParentProbably something to do with date arithmetic? For example, daylight saving time in Cuba begins at midnight on March 11th of this year, so: import DateTime from "my-date-library"; let date =...Probably something to do with date arithmetic? For example, daylight saving time in Cuba begins at midnight on March 11th of this year, so:
import DateTime from "my-date-library"; let date = DateTime.date("2024-03-12", { timestamp: "00:00", locale: "cuba/CU" })/; // midnight the day after DST date.subtract({ hours: 24 }); print(date.format("yyyy-MM-dd")); // "2024-3-10" print(date.format("yyyy-MM-dd, hh:mm")); // "2024-3-10, 23:00"We've just subtracted 24 hours, or 1 day. But we went back 2 days, because there were only 23 hours on March 11, not 24. Thus, "32 days" in March.
I haven't really thought about the semantics of writing a date library too much until now, but my guess is the right approach is to always calculate dates in absolute units from the beginning of time*", separately keep tabs on when DST is supposed to start in a given locale, and calculate the appropriate date representation based on whether or not it's DST.
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Comment on How to center a div in ~comp
chroma LinkWhen I was first learning CSS, I remember purchasing a "Flexbox Zombies" educational game which, well, taught you CSS flexbox. I think it was by David Geddes. I found it so effective that I...When I was first learning CSS, I remember purchasing a "Flexbox Zombies" educational game which, well, taught you CSS flexbox. I think it was by David Geddes. I found it so effective that I haven't forgotten, 7 years later, and with my career now quite removed from frontend development, haha.
Nowadays flexbox is the only "complicated" thing I really memorize from CSS. I flail when it comes to a lot of other things. I never grokked grid.
Lol yeah, HIIT and intervals are my worst nightmare. After a certain point I feel like I'm flailing instead of sprinting or whatever the movement is. Props to you for liking that style of training. I'm happy to continue staying as far away from it as possible though. 🌞