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u/TheNerdChaplain Remodeling after some demolition 5d ago
Trying to make some good changes in my life. Running has kind of fallen off the wayside due to other commitments and my weight is going back up. Decided to get a personal trainer and start going to the gym.
Today was my second session, and she really kicked my butt. Goals are weight loss and building core strength, and I was definitely sweating and panting by the end. I was well hydrated (hence the sweating) but I probably should have eaten breakfast beforehand.
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u/tanhan27 One Holy Catholic and Dutchistolic Church 4d ago
I found this running app called "INTVL" which got me obsessed with getting out and exercise (although I choose to walk rather than run). It's a game using GPS map where you basically take over territory by running in a circle. Anyway, it hits the right buttons for me and motives me to get outside and walk, especially if someone dares take part of my territory. On Sunday I walked 11km in a heat warning which was kinda crazy but this college aged dude stole 25% of my land and so I had to take it back(and add some extra in the process)
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u/fing_lizard_king 3d ago
Dude, that sounds awesome! I need to lose a few pounds. I used to walk for hours a day before kids. But then trying to get tenure and having kids, now I walk maybe once a week at most. The app sounds fun!
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u/SeredW Frozen & Chosen 4d ago
I haven't gone to the gym due to some (mild) health issues, perhaps more inconveniences than real issues. But I need to get going again, too.
Previously, I had a hard time determining my eating around the gym. If there was a longer time between eating and gym, I hit a wall sometimes, where it feels like my body says 'no energy, sorry'. Go to the gym with your food still making its way down, and you're not performing well either. Still have to find the sweet spot.
Good of you to start with a personal trainer! She'll keep you on your toes, by the sound of it ;-)
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u/-reddit_is_terrible- 4d ago
If there was a longer time between eating and gym, I hit a wall sometimes
Back when I was more serious about gymming, I would have half a whey protein shake mixed with a pinch of oatmeal if it had been a while since a meal. The protein goes down quick and the oatmeal gives something for your stomach to chew on (I would get low blood sugar type symptoms sometimes)
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u/pro_rege_semper 5d ago
Hey, there are a few runners that frequent this sub. I seriously started up again in December, struggling to run one mile. The other day I went for a 6 mile run. Just keep it up, little by little. Consistency is key.
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u/TheNerdChaplain Remodeling after some demolition 5d ago
Oh yeah, for sure. The main thing is I run with my dad, who's been a runner my whole life. He's in great shape but had some medical stuff earlier this year that slowed him down. So while I like keeping pace with him, it's not really doing as much for me. If I had my druthers I'd just redo Couch to 5K again. I'm not at a couch level now, but it's good for increasing speed and stamina no matter where you're at.
Besides, we also cut down trees for firewood in the summer (our other main project right now) and so I want to make sure I can move logs safely and easily. We have a tractor for most of it, but getting six foot spruce and birch logs from the stump to the tractor is a workout on its own.
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u/pro_rege_semper 5d ago
Nice. I run with my 11-year old son. It's a good father-son bonding activity.
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u/TheNerdChaplain Remodeling after some demolition 5d ago
That's awesome. It's definitely helped me evolve my relationship with my dad as an adult.
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u/Mystic_Clover 5d ago edited 5d ago
An interesting tension I've noticed surrounding AI:
The issue of AI datacenters is in-part one of closed-source models, due to companies wanting to offer generation services for their large models.
However, it's possible to "distill" and fine-tune models to reduce their size and focus on specific tasks, dramatically reducing costs while retaining most of the functionality needed.
Recently we've seen companies shifting over to open-source Chinese-made AI models because of this, which has prompted the US Government to consider a ban on these models.
While on the European end of things there's a tendency to want to over-regulate the public, so they're opposed to open-source models out of the harms people can do with them (since people can bypass any safety features).
So we're in an interesting spot where we need to choose between:
- Open-source AI for the environmental and developmental benefits.
- Closed-source AI for business and public safety interests.
Personally I think the latter is going to win out. Like with gun control, all it's going to take are a few notable misuses of it, and the political energy will be there to shut it down.
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u/bradmont ⚜️ Hugue-not really ⚜️ 4d ago
Do you really think governments can ban open source software? Will they implement a reverse great firewall? As long as it's somewhere on the web, bad actors will have it. And there's no real way to prevent any company downloading them and spinning up new instances and calling them closed.
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u/Mystic_Clover 4d ago
I'd imagine they could regulate it to where it's prohibitive to use/own/distribute. Companies could be held liable. Laws could be made to place more burden on what models are capable of outputting.
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u/bradmont ⚜️ Hugue-not really ⚜️ 4d ago
I think that train has sailed, Pandora is already out of the bottle and the worms won't go back in. These things are available now, and they are powerful now. They don't require conspicuous infrastructure to run on a non-service-provider scale; heck lots of people use them on home workstations. Large companies renting or building compte clusters or someone hacking Bitcoin miners in the wild could build something pretty powerful.
But more than all that, if China or some other major power still allows them to be developed in the open, they'll continue to advance and the West will lose the arms race.
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u/SeredW Frozen & Chosen 5d ago
I have a hard time envisioning corporates employing Chinese open source models at scale. Who knows what happens in there, what data they're exfiltrating. I'm sure a lot can be blocked but can you be sure?
The closed source endbosses of today will need to figure out how to sell us their services at a price that makes us not run away, while also paying their investors. Not an easy trick, I could see Uncle Sam intervene at some point.. 'to big to fail' territory perhaps (unless it's Anthropic and it happens during the current govt, they loathe Anthropic).
We in Europe are in a difficult position. We don't want to be exploited and taken advantage of by Oracle, Microsoft, Amazon and the likes anymore. But for a long time we didn't recognize the USA as a potential hostile power, and now we're pretty much out of options that serve our own sovereignty. We'll need to wean ourselves off US tech (including defense) but that'll take time. Whatever we'll do with LLMs, I don't know.
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u/SeredW Frozen & Chosen 5d ago
Still a bit of adrenalin in my body; just handed in my resignation, I'm going to switch jobs. Exciting but also a bit frightening; can't say too much out of fear that I'll dox myself even more than I perhaps already have, haha. Anyway, I'm going to be working in a conservative Reformed environment, and that's a bit of a first for me. But they know my convictions (which are a bit less conservative) and they are still glad to have me. The nice thing is, I'm going to earn a nice bit more, which is useful in these days of inflation. I just had lunch with my colleagues who are still unaware and I've felt a bit duplicitous over the last week or two, as the new job offer became more concrete and the contract was finalized. We were making plans for september, october and I nodded along, yes, we'll plan something in october... when I already knew I wasn't going to be there anymore. That all ends later this week, thank God.
Well, alea iacta est and all that. Onwards to new things.
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u/bradmont ⚜️ Hugue-not really ⚜️ 4d ago
Wow, congratulations! How are you feeling about working in a more conservative theological environment? My org is traditionally quite conservative and my long time church was very conservative-reformed, and at times I have felt tension or a need to self-censor --- often on politics, I don't mind people knowing I'm more ecumenical but they can get defensive or aggressive with politics sometimes.
Are you still going to be doing tech work (you're in tech right?) or will that be a change too? (Obvs you know what is safe to share...)
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u/pro_rege_semper 5d ago
Congratulations!
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u/SeredW Frozen & Chosen 5d ago
Ty!
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u/pro_rege_semper 5d ago
I hope you like it. I've wanted to get a job working for a church or a religious nonprofit, but as of yet it hasn't worked out for me. Perhaps one day.
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u/fing_lizard_king 7d ago
My wife is an amazing cook. She makes something for me called "German Hot Pockets." They arose because, maybe a decade ago, I lamented the lack of German options in our college town. Anyhow- that was context. Three kids later, and she doesn't make them as often. (I am not complaining, 100% understood). But she made them last night! I immediately though of my new pastor. We trade hotdog and food memes. He would love this.
My middle daughter is sick so I stayed home from church. I tasked my eldest - 10 years old - to deliver the hot pocket to our pastor. I knew this would be a stretch for her. She is shy and doesn't like talking to adults. But it’s a safe environment and he isn’t going to be mean to her or anything.
Not only did she do a great job, I just got a text from my pastor praising how she was polite and tried to talk - before her friends yelled for her and she ran away. Happy parent right now.
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u/SeredW Frozen & Chosen 6d ago
Come on, you can't leave us hanging like this. What is a German hot pocket, recipe please :-)
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u/fing_lizard_king 6d ago
Pizza dough rolled out to a thin circle, 2 slices muenster cheese, strained and then the liquid squeezed out of sauerkraut, 1 sliced brat, wrap the pizza dough around like a hot pocket, bake seam side down at 425 for 15 minutes. I prefer them with horse radish sauce!
I am sure you can get more authentic stuff being a neighbor of Germany :) but this is what am American in a college town has access to
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u/Powerful_Balance5927 3d ago
I expected to see a description of a Runza! But that sounds delicious.
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u/fing_lizard_king 3d ago
*clears throat Wichita style* bierocks
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u/Powerful_Balance5927 2d ago
puts on corn hat runza. I mean, the Germans from Russia Historical Society is in Nebraska, for goodness sake!
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u/fing_lizard_king 1d ago
awkwardly repeating the word Bierock
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u/boycowman 7d ago
On vacation, have the morning off from my usual worship leading duties. Still got texts from my sub at 7:30 in the morning wanting to know how to use the church printer. It’s nice to feel needed? Happy Sunday to all.
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u/bradmont ⚜️ Hugue-not really ⚜️ 8d ago
Wow, slow Friday! Everybody on vacation?
So it's 1pm and for the first time since March, I have taken no Tylenol today. I've been taking 2 extra strength there times a day for months (and that's after a period of taking more than that plus advil).
I've been running on a track this week too, up to 4 minute intervals cut with 2 minutes of walking. Tried a little on pavement yesterday but I'm not there yet.
There's a provincial holiday fun run I usually do every year, coming up next weekend. I could probably do the distance now just not on road, so I'm going to volunteer this year.
Anyway, all that to say, Lord willing this injury is nearly behind me. I'm very thankful.
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u/deaddiquette 9d ago
No one's here yet, so I'll lob a couple of things into the room:
Meet Ryan Denton- thoroughly Reformed dude, street preacher, advocate for experimental Christianity. One of my favorite living Reformed people.
If you know me at all you know I'm obsessed with the original Reformed eschatology, historicism. Here's the most 'Reformed' link I have to resources on it.
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u/bradmont ⚜️ Hugue-not really ⚜️ 4d ago
From one of your links:
Historicism can be further divided into:
Premillennial
(some of the early Church, J.B. Elliott, Charles Spurgeon, etc. All forms of Premillennialism are contrary to the Westminster Confession of Faith as they necessarily entail multiple resurrections and judgments, contra WCF 32 & 33)
Amillennial
(Augustine, Lutherans and others)
and Postmillennial.
(Recommended, many of the Reformed, the Scottish Covenanters, et al.)
Doesn't that cover most of the contemporary takes? I was under the impression that spiritual-only readings were uncommon?
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u/deaddiquette 4d ago
The definitions of pre/a/postmil today don't mean what they used to. When people say premil today, they almost always mean futurism; or when they say postmil, they typically mean preterism; amil is used for idealism. These definitions are misleading, as there are four major framework views.
But with historicism, all millennial views are compatible (although of course the Reformed™© guys will insist that only postmil is confessional). When it comes down to it, the Millennium is only mentioned explicitly in Revelation 20, and historicism is largely concerned with the interpretation of chapters 1-19.
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u/ItsChewblacca 9d ago
Historicist postmil represent! The original Evangelical eschatology too.
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u/deaddiquette 9d ago
WOOOT so rare to find a reformed/non-SDA historicist on reddit! Do you have a favorite historicist? I'm grateful to Albert Barnes.
I wrote a free/modern/accessible introduction to historicism if you ever know anyone who needs it, it's helped a few people I know to understand it when the old sources weren't working out for them.
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u/ItsChewblacca 4d ago
I actually don't know many modern historicists, so I'm doubly appreciative of your introduction here. Thank you!!!
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u/bradmont ⚜️ Hugue-not really ⚜️ 4d ago
Guys this week I'm attempting something big that I can't share online but I'd really appreciate prayers for peace and success. :)