Originally posted by Harrier88
To get it out of the way first, it was absolutely "baka" to drag myself to karate practice last evening. I only had a bit of a sore throat etc before that, now I really feel sick.
That sounds remarkably similar to how my recent cold progressed.
On Saturday I had a mild sore throat. After driving for 8 hours, I was to sick to drive.
Sunday and Monday I spent mostly in bed asleep. Tuesday I was fine.
Originally posted by VorpalF2F
That sounds remarkably similar to how my recent cold progressed.
On Saturday I had a mild sore throat. After driving for 8 hours, I was to sick to drive.
Sunday and Monday I spent mostly in bed asleep. Tuesday I was fine.
For me, it started on Monday, and I wasn't even sure yet if I was simply too tired that day. It later became increasingly clear that I must have caught something, and by yesterday, I hoped that I should have most of it behind me, so I could fully recover over the weekend. After last night, it seems more like it just started.
It's a good thing it's a public holiday here today, because I would have hated to go to work in that condition, but I also don't like to get a sick leave for something as petty as a cold. So on the plus side, of all the times to catch a sickness like that - and I often feel like I'm overdue after a while - now is a good one.
It was about time we got another final table, after poor results recently. Tonight's Badugi finished 4th, with $27.58 in returns including bounties.
No success in the satty, and I decided that from now on, I will probably only play one $2.20 satellite for the "Boogie" on Fridays. For the time being, it seems like a good compromise, and I believe I usually did better in this one than in the $3.30 game anyway.
Hope you get better soon ...
Have not been sick or having a cold for 5 years now. I take quercitine + vit. C, zinc and vitamin D every second day for 5 years now and didn't even get a cold. Before that, I had a cold or flu at least twice a year and more.
I don't say I can't get ill anymore, but at least it's going well for a loooong time 
Originally posted by Zeezout
Have not been sick or having a cold for 5 years now. I take quercitine + vit. C, zinc and vitamin D every second day for 5 years now and didn't even get a cold. Before that, I had a cold or flu at least twice a year and more.I don't say I can't get ill anymore, but at least it's going well for a loooong time
Wow, five years without the sniffles is pretty sweet. No other illnesses either, I assume?
I typically catch one or two colds per year, which I believe is common. That's why I tend to think I'm overdue after some time, like right now. I have once made it almost two years without any colds, though I had other minor ailments during that time, also at a rate of about once per year.
Fingers crossed that you can keep the streak up. 
Don't want to jinx it, of course.
And I started taking some vit C + zinc now too, I suppose it won't hurt. So far, I am taking some multivit and magnesium nutrition supplement every evening, those dissolvable tablets. I suppose I might as well add C + zinc from now on to keep the immune system strong.
I did have problems with a knee injury due to overload and hay fever, but no other illness.
The problem with multi vits is the overdose for some vits you can get.
Eating healthy will normally be enough to get your vits.
Quercitine is an exeption for me, it's powerfull, but you can also get it by eating enough kale.
The combination zinc and vit C is important. It boosts your resistance. Also magnesium (in not too high dose) is important. You can take too much though!
I don't use any other vits, but usually eat an egg a day or tuna
Beware of magnesium. Dont take too much! The same with B6. It can bring you nerve damage!
I take magnesium only once a week. Normally you get enough by eating f.i. lettuce etc.
Must say, I also 'take a short sniff' at the supermarket when flu or 'corona' is active. Being in contact with a virus without receiving an overload is activating your immune system. This way, your body can weapon itself agains these virusses and your immune system gets activated.
It's the same with kids. Allowing them to 'eat from the floor' is boosting their immune system. They need it! Not too much though. It's the short contact that activates your system. Long contacts can make you ill.
Originally posted by Zeezout
It's the same with kids. Allowing them to 'eat from the floor' is boosting their immune system. They need it! Not too much though. It's the short contact that activates your system. Long contacts can make you ill.
Same with kids picking their noses and eating it. Looks really gross, though
Originally posted by VorpalF2F
Same with kids picking their noses and eating it. Looks really gross, though
That's because it is! 
Originally posted by Zeezout
The problem with multi vits is the overdose for some vits you can get.
Eating healthy will normally be enough to get your vits.
Quercitine is an exeption for me, it's powerfull, but you can also get it by eating enough kale.The combination zinc and vit C is important. It boosts your resistance. Also magnesium (in not too high dose) is important. You can take too much though!
I don't use any other vits, but usually eat an egg a day or tuna
Beware of magnesium. Dont take too much! The same with B6. It can bring you nerve damage!
I take magnesium only once a week. Normally you get enough by eating f.i. lettuce etc.
The supplements I take are meant for daily consumption, I think I have taken them for about two decades by now. It's true that eating a balanced diet eliminates the need for these things, but admittedly, I rarely get my good share of fresh veggies and especially fruit, which is why I introduced the multivit supplements back then. The magnesium supplements were introduced because I figured I would need them with all the endurance sports I do, and this was already the case about 20 years ago, though there were times when I neglected them a lot.
So while I figured the magnesium would come in handy because I may have a special need for it, the purpose of the multivit really is to fill a gap, I am aware of the risk of getting too much of it. Adjusting my diet would be a better idea, sure, but as you can tell from the lack of good cooking posts from me recently - as well as the subjects of the ones I did in the past - I feel like I rarely have time to cook a good, elaborate meal from scratch after returning home from work in the afternoon. I am getting a little annoyed myself by how much of my cooking is in some way a variation of a sandwich.
I usually visit my mother on weekends, where I do get the benefit of more sophisticated meals, which also helps fill the gaps. It would still be good to introduce more variety in my own daily cooking too. A possible "old year's resolution", perhaps.
Interesting discussion (and some massive trolling! 
) going on here! As for the supplements, I must say: It depends! I always take 500 mg Magnesium (along with Potassium and Calcium) the evening before a competition and 500 mg afterwards, especially when I compete in hot weather and sweat a lot.
One competition means: about 3 hours tennis! I cannot get all the minerals I loose during those 3 hours back only by foods! Especially in summer! I´m not a fan of supplements either, but as a competitive tennis player who also has inherited anemia, I can tell you guys from experience: Sometimes there´s just NO WAY to avoid them! Normally, I don´t take any either, but sometimes, in certain situations they can be a MUST! So, sometimes, I need Iron as supplement!
And as for Magnesium: It is hydrophilic, so soluble in water, that´s why it´s very hard to overdose it. Cause that´s what your kidneys are for: Getting rid of the excess! Hydrophilic vitamins and minerals are less of a problem, the problem starts with the lipophilic (insoluble in water) vitamins like vitamin D, E or A! If you overdose those, then ....well, you got a problem. ♠_ugly:
Altogether I can say from my own experience: Only take them when really urgently needed (sports competitions, diarrhoe, infection, anemia), just don´t go over the top with them and be especially careful with the lipophilic ones!
I once used to take calcium supplements too, but not anymore, as I should have plenty of dairy-based items in my diet. Whether it's from this or the old supplements, it must have been quite effective, because we often run into situations during our in-person meetups where I make a sassy remark and Prim (playfully?) tries to hit me, only for her to hurt her arm when I block her. 
Incidentally, if you guys ever plan to visit Primrose some time too, it may be a good idea to either always be nice to her and watch what you say, or come prepared and take some self-defense classes in advance. 
Originally posted by Primrose6789
Altogether I can say from my own experience: Only take them when really urgently needed (sports competitions, diarrhoe, infection, anemia), just don´t go over the top with them and be especially careful with the lipophilic ones!
I first heard about vitamin A overdosing in the context of the Franklin Exhibition. In that article it was speculated that the expedition had consumed polar bear liver (or perhaps seal liver. This has since been debunked.
I may still be too sick to do sports, but that doesn't mean we can't analyze them - and I while I have kept my "Trollympic Records" up-to-date ever since I started in 2023, I found myself wondering about the developments of my PBs in the last years at the German Sports Badge. So I compiled a bunch of smoothed line graphs with each year's PB, but only in the events which have data for all three years.
For better comparison, the data for the events where performance is measures as time have been converted to speed in meters per second, which means that in all of these graphs, higher values indicate a better performance.
These graphs should be taken with a grain of salt. Apart from the fact that we only include yearly PBs, ignoring the often significant developments within a year, it should be noted that not all events have had the same amount of effort behind them. By that, I don't mean to imply that I didn't care about some, but mostly that the examiners can only divide their attention so much, which means that if I already have Gold locked up in a category, they are less likely to give me their time for a PB attempt that only matters to me. As a result, the "required" events will often have seen a much greater push for improvement. And then there is the issue of small sample sizes.
Of special note is the 800m Freestyle, where I didn't even use the same kind of swimming stroke over the years. But without further ado, here are the graphs:
Endurance
Strength
Speed
Coordination
The scale of the graphs may make some of these changes look much bigger or smaller than they are. For example, I considered my improvement in 25m Freestyle this year to be massive, and it is barely noticeable in the graph. Standing Long Jump performance, meanwhile, seemed relatively consistent to me over the years, but the graph implies more significant swings. At least the 3K run graph accurately displays the big improvement in recent times.
Well, it will be interesting to see how some of these graphs develop as time goes on. Aging will certainly be an obstacle, increasingly so with each year, but as Vorpal likes to point out, it's better than all known alternatives.
Forex Trading at the Stars Cashier?
Another final table tonight, though a single $1 bounty and $5.36 for a 7th place finish is a rather modest addition to the bankroll. Speaking of which, I have had another look at my stated poker bankroll goals for this year - here's what I wrote about them in early January:
Originally posted by Harrier88
Currently, I have €3,807.32 on Stars. I'd say that if we hit 5K, that definitely would be a moment to stop saving up. Reaching that milestone would require me to make almost €1.2K in profit - is that realistic in 2025? Technically, I'd say it is... but it would require a very good year. Let's just say that reaching 4K means the year was not a failure, 4.5K means it was okay, and 5K is our big goal.
I keep good track of my results, and I should now be at $244.01 in MTT profits for the year, slightly offset by $64.48 in realized satellite losses, but still in profit overall. And yet, this is what my cashier shows right now:
The amount is lower than what I had at the beginning of the year, despite being in profit so far. It made me a little confused, and even a bit concerned when I first noticed. Have there been any transactions that I should know about?
It doesn't appear to be the case. So where did the money go?
I may have an answer. Remember that my account was originally in USD, but then got changed to EUR after the forced migration to the DE client two years ago. Rather than converting the whole bankroll right there, any new tournament buy-ins were supposed to still be paid in USD with the existing bankroll, while tournament winnings would be paid out in EUR, making the conversion a gradual process over time. Here's what the grand total currently looks like:
Clearly, there have been fluctuations in the relative value of these currencies. They can be easily looked up, for example here on Xe.com, which provided the source for the graph below (for once, I didn't create it myself):
Looks like the EUR has gained quite a bit of value in relation to the USD since the beginning of the year (1 EUR = 1.03534 USD on January 1st, according to the chart). And since my bankroll is displayed in EUR, the discrepancy can be easily explained by my roughly 1K USD not doing so well anymore. Having to fight not only the volatility of the deal, but also the volatility of the economy could make my bankroll goals quite challenging to reach.
Well, it seems like there is a conversion option in the cashier. Not sure if it would come with any extra fees.
At least the exchange rate seems to roughly correspond to the one found in my online source, assuming that the displayed value is simply rounded to the 2nd decimal place for the sake of better visibility. Would it be a good idea to convert the whole shebang to EUR right now? My financial literacy likely leaves a lot to be desired, but the graph above looks to me like the increase in relative value has slowed down by now, and may eventually reverse. So could now be a good point to get a decent value out of my USD?
I'm mostly just wondering these things out loud, I'm not really looking for "investment advice" over here. Especially without knowing about any potential fees, I guess I will just keep going as usual, and gradually convert my bankroll to EUR by slowly converting buy-ins to winnings. I should definitely keep all of this in mind while evaluating any current bankroll goals, however.
the forex thing is one reason I don't play on party any more.
the CAD takes a beating whenever I buy into a tournament.
Originally posted by Harrier88
Would it be a good idea to convert the whole shebang to EUR right now? My financial literacy likely leaves a lot to be desired, but the graph above looks to me like the increase in relative value has slowed down by now, and may eventually reverse. So could now be a good point to get a decent value out of my USD?
Talk about financial illiteracy... if the above interpretation of the graph is correct, now would be a terrible time to trade USD for EUR, because the relative USD value would be at a weak point! If anything, it would make sense to trade EUR for USD instead, if I expect the EUR to USD exchange rate to be at a high point. But we never aimed to do that in the first place, even if that prediction was correct.
In my defense, it was well past midnight when I wrote that post. I actually realized my mistake while I was brushing teeth this morning and thought back to those exchange rates I wrote about last night. I was already wondering if anyone would have called me out on it by the time I got home from work.
New Poll: Advent Calendar 2025
You may be justifiably annoyed by Christmas stuff already being on display in the stores at this time of the year, but yes, I believe it is time to discuss our plans for advent already.
If you have been following over the years, you surely remember our advent calendars, going back all the way to 2020 on my own blog back then, and the precursor was even done one year earlier than that in a private Skype group. In the first ones, we just did a “show and tell” with Kinder Surprise figurines, but starting in 2022, I also added Lego calendars, where we would do another step in the instructions of a classic (80’s or 90’s) Lego set each day instead.
This year, I originally had no plans for any further advent calendars on the blog. However, as I have noticed with our previous poll, it seems like we have more readers here than we might be aware of, who may not always be actively posting, but who like to have a look nonetheless. Maybe some of them have enjoyed the previous iterations of the advent calendar, but haven’t commented on them? Maybe some people have even been annoyed by those posts, but didn’t want to ruffle any feathers?
Well, here’s your opportunity to anonymously voice your opinion once again. As usual, there is no guarantee that I will go with the majority opinion, I am just curious what you guys think.
Specific comments and suggestions are very welcome, of course, feel free to drop them right here on the blog.
I had a same problem with my currencies. I live in € zone, but PS and GG in $. My live Bankroll in € which is stable, but in the past I counted in $ all my bankroll. Later I thought I have to count all my money in € which is better for me, but the currencies getting worst. Last 2 days $ bit better, hope in the future will be more better. But sure now bad idea change $ to €.
Originally posted by BORT99
But sure now bad idea change $ to €.
Yes, definitely. I guess it's best to just keep playing until my bankroll has been automatically converted to EUR, with USD being used for buy-ins and EUR for winnings. Once this is done, the bankroll itself will be stable, which is better for bankroll goals, but the money itself will still have fluctuations, since the games on Pokerstars will still be in USD, first and foremost.
I think the switch to EUR in the main bankroll was forced with the migration to the DE client. Otherwise, I would have preferred to stick to USD.
