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QualifiedKitten@lemmy.world

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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 1st, 2023

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  • Oh wow! That’s awesome! I wonder if I’ll see another upgrade soon too? I have a similar setup going too. Seed box for active torrents and other recently acquired files, and then anything I want to keep long term eventually gets moved to my local server.

    I had tried a VPN + kill switch before getting a seed box, but it failed on me a few times. Plus, I was in school at the time, spending very little time at home, and my ISP increased their rates AGAIN, so I just cancelled my home internet. Trying to torrent through my laptop on public WiFi was a pain, but with a seed box it was way easier, and just needed to download the files to my laptop if I wanted to watch at home, which was also never a problem on public WiFi.




  • I’ve actually found weightlifting to be surprisingly satisfying. I really enjoy it because I get to compete against myself, and tracking the weights & reps gives me a very clear sense of progress. Weightlifting (and some low intensity cardio options) also allows me to do plenty of scrolling during my workout if I want to. The trick for me has been to find something that I can make a routine, and whenever I lose my routine, I work to build it incrementally. I’m actually really struggling right now because my gym made some changes that led me to cancel my membership, but having a physical location to go to seems to be a key factor for me.

    Anyway, when I’ve needed to rebuild my routine in the past, step 1 was walking to the gym, but not going inside, and just walking back home. Since that entire process took about 30 minutes, it wasn’t too difficult to squeeze in if I overslept. Step 2 meant I had to actually enter the gym and do something. Usually it was just walking on a treadmill for up to 30 minutes, depending on how much time I had available. From there, I’d start adding some time in the weight room and increasing the intensity of my cardio time (running or stairs), and eventually I’d work myself up to an hour of weights plus 30 minutes of running.

    Since I’ve cancelled my gym membership, I’m really struggling to stick to a routine. Going to a certain location at the same time every day seems to be important in keeping me focused. One thing I did find that I’m hoping will motivate me is a running meetup. They have routes of varying difficulties, and often grab a beer together after, so I’m currently trying to build enough stamina to feel confident participating in their easiest runs, and hoping I’ll eventually feel confident in their more challenging runs too. If running isn’t your thing, I’m sure there’s other groups for activities that you would enjoy.




  • I believe the logic is that dry food is better for their dental health, because the firm texture is better at scraping away plaque, although there’s definitely disagreement on that, and there are other ways to address dental health.
    The argument for wet food is that it does a much better job at keeping them hydrated, which is important for a number of bodily functions, including urinary health. Studies say that while cats fed primarily dry food likely drink more water, their total fluid intake is still lower and they’re often still chronically dehydrated (which is also not good for dental health). Moistening kibble can help, but it’s still not as effective as wet food for ensuring your cats are well hydrated.

    My oldest strongly prefers kibble, but after his urine test at his 1 year check up indicated early signs of urinary troubles, the vet said to either switch him to 100% wet or to a prescription kibble. It took some trial and error, but he’s on 100% wet now, and only gets crunchies as treats. His urine tests have been great, and the vet also said his teeth look good.


  • To add to your coments about calorie content of foods, in the realm of wet foods, pates tend to have the most calories per ounce, while “extra gravy” foods often have the fewest calories per ounce, since the “gravy” is mostly water.
    I’m sure there’s some exceptions to this, but I’ve spent a lot of time creating a spreadsheet comparing foods on a variety of aspects in an effort to find the most affordable foods that work for both of my cats’ needs & preferences. If in doubt, the cans should list both kcal/ can and kcal by weight.


  • How many cats do you have? Are they overweight? Can you provide more details about your specific situation?

    If you have cats vomiting due to eating too much too fast, maybe try slow feeders? There’s also microchip feeders available so that your slower eaters can come back on their own schedule, and it’s more difficult (but not impossible) for other cats to steal their food. And finally, there’s automatic feeders that will dispense food on a schedule. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen anything that combines even two of these into a single product.

    In my case, I have 2 resident cats, and frequently foster. My Tabby is a slender grazer, and although he prefers kibble, the vet said he needs to either eat wet food or prescription kibble (urinary). My Void LOVES food and will devour almost anything, and would gladly be a total potato if he could.
    I use a microchip feeder for Tabby, and feed him twice per day, leaving the food out for about 2 hours at a time, which seems to be enough time for him to eat enough to maintain his weight. Void currently eats from a basic/standard bowl. He also eats twice per day, and usually finishes his food in less than 5 minutes, but has only vomited when there was an urgent medical condition, so I haven’t actually tried a slow feeder for him yet.



  • TL;DR: Great to have if you’re looking for less popular content, high quality files, and/or are concerned about copyright notices, but the rules that keep the niche content alive make them less appealing for super popular content.
    I randomly made friends IRL about a year ago and got an invite to BTN & PTP. I don’t watch/download a lot of movies, so my account at PTP has lapsed, but I’ve kept my account with BTN.
    From my recent searches, BTN tends to have higher quality files and more seeders than public trackers, but since a) I have a seed box, which provides a line of defense against copyright notices, and is only strengthened my my *aars (gets me in & out of the swarm before the studios find it), b) I usually can’t tell the difference in quality from the devices I’m using (and my friends/family most definitely don’t notice/care), c) seed ratio or time doesn’t impact access to public trackers, and d) I prefer to keep public torrents alive, I usually lean towards public trackers, and only use the private trackers for things that are harder to find and/or things I want in high quality.
    I still try to seed to a minimum ratio of 3.0 on popular files (public or private), and ∞ for more niche files, but sometimes demand is so low, and I need to move files off of my seed box. While a ratio below 1.0 makes me feel “stuck” no matter where I got the file from, private tracker rules definitely amplify that feeling.




  • As I read other people’s comments, my diagnosis experience seems somewhat unique. I may be misremembering the exact sequence of events, but I’ll try my best.

    As a young kid, I did okay in school. My report cards often noted that I did really well on the tests, but I often forgot to do my homework, and since homework was a large portion of the grade, I had lots of Bs and Cs. On the standardized testing we did each year, I’d score well above my grade level on everything except the listening portion, which was just average. In junior year of high school, I made it a point to have no missing assignments. Even if I didn’t finish my homework, I’d still turn something in, and suddenly I had straight As.

    Around the time I was 18, I began trying a variety of antidepressants, mostly SSRIs.

    I was probably 20 years old when my parents suggested that I see “Dr. Feel Good”. In their experience, he handed out prescriptions like candy, so he’d probably give me whatever I asked for. When I went to him and explained my struggles and how I felt they were indicative of ADHD, he told me that I couldn’t possibly have ADHD since people with ADHD don’t get depressed. I think he did end up giving me a 30 day prescription though, and suggested I find a more specialized doctor.

    I think it was after that that I began seeing a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist again put me on an SSRI, I think Zoloft. I took it for a while, but eventually got fed up and just stopped taking it. I think it was when I told him that I stopped taking it that he finally gave me a prescription for Adderall. Or maybe my time with him overlapped with the next paragraph.

    Somewhere around that same time, I had dropped out of university and decided to take classes at the local community college while I figured things out. Somehow, I learned that the community college offered learning disability testing, so I signed up. From what I remembered, I did really well on everything except (surprise, surprise) the listening portion. I was told that my results indicated that I have an “auditory processing deficit”. I eventually wound up taking the test results to a new psychiatrist, and they put me on Adderall right away.

    Honestly, I’m still not totally sure if I’m “officially” diagnosed as ADHD, but I’ve moved around a bit and changed doctors a few times, and 15ish years later, I’m still getting ADHD meds.

    All this is to say that there’s lots of doctors out there that won’t take you seriously, and/or have outdated understanding of mental health, so whether or not you have ADHD or anything else, don’t give up until you find a solution that works for you.



  • I don’t have any experience with Usenet or any current DDL sources. I generally check public trackers first, then private trackers, and mostly use private trackers when I can’t find something on public trackers.
    My selfish reasoning is that with public trackers, I don’t have to worry about my seed ratio, etc. I generally seed to a 3.0 ratio, and I do have some older/more niche stuff set to infinity, but when I need to clear some space in my seed box, it’s nice to be able to delete stuff without worrying I’ll be penalized.
    From a less selfish perspective, if it exists in decent quality on public trackers, I’d rather contribute to keeping it alive there, where more people can access it.



  • Right as cold/flu season was taking off, the location near me went and removed over half of the equipment cleaning stations (paper towel dispensers & spray bottles), so I decided to cancel my membership. After hearing so many horror stores like yours, I was shocked at how easy it was, since I was able to cancel mine online.
    Although, I did quickly learn that I had also effectively prepaid for another 3 months, so even though I cancelled on October 31st, and was not charged for anything after that date, my access didn’t end until January 31st. I think part of it was credits from the COVID times, but I never went back to test it, so if anyone reading this is thinking about cancelling, be aware that you may have access for quite some time after cancelling!