what i have stopped / started doing
Thought this way of framing recent changes could be nice for a check-in every now and then.
What I have stopped doing
- A while ago, I stopped paying for Discord. I have wanted to quit for over a year now, but I was on a plan that didn't exist anymore and was grandfathered into1, which made it harder to let go because I knew I couldn't resubscribe to that stuff anymore. The subscriptions ends in September because I was on a yearly plan.
- I have cancelled my Spotify a few days ago. I am not really much of a music person (compared to others, at least) and the recent news about Ek's investments gave me the final kick to just cancel. Again and again, I felt like it was missing features it didn't have but should, and whose suggestions were online in their forums as 'Under consideration' since 2018, while their employees are forced to change the color of buttons or move it 2mm to the left in each update. I was often running into bugs, the offline songs weren't actually accessible offline most of the time, and I was fighting the UI constantly. I also realized I listened to music more out of habit and to fill the time than actual enjoyment; now that I have to be a bit more intentional about accessing music2, it feels better for me. I mainly listen to soundscapes, the lofi music in my study software, and on YouTube now (no, not YT Music, I mean just normal YT use and visiting artists' channels).
- I stopped playing Pokemon Pocket TCG. I have played since about two weeks after launch and finished quite a few sets despite never subscribing, but felt more and more rushed with the set releases. Wasn't able to complete the last ones, and couldn't keep up with doing all of the bot matches of the new releases, much less the events all the time. I felt silly intensely saving up hourglasses so I could open 10 packs at the same time of any new release to get as much on the first few days as possible so I could have enough time to even have a chance at completing it (as non-subscribers only get 2 packs a day). The pack point prices are obviously not balanced for free players either, to entice you to subscribe. It's not as predatory or intense as other gacha games, but it is nonetheless gacha. I realized if I can't do my main joy anymore (completing sets) and do not get as much enjoyment out of the rest (battles) and don't wanna invest time into battling PvP and building decks and playing the current meta... what am I doing here? So I uninstalled after a particularly shitty pull and never even getting a sneak peek at Wonderpick. Will miss it for one aspect though: A friend is also playing it and we usually sent each other stuff regarding it and traded a lot. And I never got my Alolan Ninetales...
What I have started doing
- After I wrote the post about being unhappy at work, something so infuriating (but admittedly minor) happened at work that just pushed me over the edge. I finally officially started pushing back and requested things pertaining to an internal transfer. Unfortunately despite there being practical need for another person in the department/team I want to transfer to according to the people working there and them loving to have me, upper leadership is seeing no necessity and is blocking it. Had me crying in the bathtub, but I bounced back and asked for a meeting with my direct superior about it all. Something has to give, and I am not backing down - I need different work, new challenges, and I want to be recognized. I'm not asking for the perfect job where tech won't fail and people won't be annoying, that's impossible, but I'll ask for some changes in my workload and tasks3 and I want to try out everything I can to still possibly make the transfer happen. In the meantime, I'll continue getting better at what I do.
- I finally made the time to get more involved in noyb's GDPRhub project. I've been accepted as a Country Reporter for Germany, which means I'll translate and summarize German court decisions around data protection law for the wiki and the newsletter. I haven't yet had the opportunity to do any incoming ones, but there's a backlog of old ones from 2024 that still need to go into the wiki that I'll try to tackle soon. Right now I'm still getting familiar with the structure and style guides and the internal communication tool and have corrected some typos in some articles I came across in my studies.
- Started slow jogging after watching this video. For a while now I have done bursts of running for 2 minutes at 8.2km/h and 1 minute recovery at 5.5km/h for a good part of an hour on the treadmill, but was sort of hitting a plateau. Looked into slow jogging to first build up stamina and jog for longer, and it's been having a great effect. Now I do ~7 minutes at 5.5km/h before needing a little recovery. I can still work on my speed later. I'm okay with my progress for someone who was mostly in bed last year due to being severely ill.
- I started a new notebook because my old one was full :)
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Published 06 Jul, 2025
Anyone remember Classic? Honestly used to be the best plan for what you paid vs. what you get, I guess that's why it didn't survive. Now you have to decide between Basic, which has nothing anyone really needs but is cheap, vs. Nitro, which has what you might really want depending on your Discord use, but has about 10 other useless things you don't need that are supposed to justify the outrageous pricing.↩
My subscription runs out next month, but I have already deleted the desktop and phone app anyway.↩
The best way I can explain is this: It's like someone poking you in the arm at the same spot for 4 years, and I acknowledge that the poking is part of any job, but I may be able to lessen it and move it to another spot for a change as the current spot is severely bruised and makes the poking hurt much worse.↩