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GlenFromTheMailRoom

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  1. Quick second post. Forgot about double quoting. Yes & no. That's why I did caveat my statement by stating they are proxy data sources and not raw data sources. Comms, regardless of any level, are notoriously worse at introducing truth bias (I.E. people trying to use twitter data for multiple years only to realize it was just a bunch of bots). From a data science lense, it will all boil down to the EDA, data quality, methodology, etc.
  2. I get it. Was just passing it along from a super senior data science practitioner that's also worked in fintech in the past. In fact - I was one of the people summoned to DC by the newly founded CFPB to talk about fintech underwriting & business practices. Bear in mind the CFPB intrusion was warranted by this particular business but that's a different story for a different day.
  3. That's a fools errand from you data science team. Supply chain data is laggy and non-deterministic at best. They need to be looking at market level, proxy data, looking at the correlations of the industry the business is in to the demand signals for their products, and building derived variables to supplement the credit risk modeling they're doing.
  4. Please let this happen solely for the purpose of owning the Pancake Factory and The Wafle House.
  5. Thank you for the encouragement. This week is officially been 11 weeks since my last drink, I think. I'm losing track a bit but I guess that's a good thing. I've been continuing with breathing exercises and meditation as well as continuing to see my psychiatrist. Who I'm a bit on the fence about at this point because it's been 4 sessions and she keeps saying we're just scratching the surface. If this is about CBT, then I don't know if my insurance will allow it to go long enough to get the full effect at this rate. I decided to toss the SSRIs largely due to the fact that I can't deal with the side effects right now. I had been doing well on the prozac until a non-related health issue (stomach issues) came up last week and the Dr. switched me off of it and onto Lexapro. I didn't handle the change well and didn't sleep for almost 3 days. The Dr. (a G.I.) said to try to push through it but I need to sleep in order to deal with the other thing that's going on. I'll spare everyone the details of that because it's not tangential to this thread. I had to wind up taking a dose of Temazepam to knock me out last night but was able to get a solid 7 hours in and feel much better today. The lack of sleep really threw me for a loop and I wound up getting some BW done because my body was stressed out. All that came back clear and we're still treating the other thing. I've been looking more into Ketamine therapy as an alternative to SSRIs for the anxiety. I know there's no express lane for this stuff but I also don't want to go the pharmacological route for the rest of my life. The gut issues seem to be at the heart of what is really driving the anxiety and the GI, psych, and an integrative health doctor here in Austin seem to be in agreement with that. My panels from the integrative health visit turned up some interesting stuff. Low vitamin D levels, moderately low test, and thyroid. They sent me some stuff to handle that but I'm holding off the test and thyroid supplements while I deal with the stomach issues. I'd encourage anyone that's recently gotten sober or is considering getting sober to see both a GI and integrative health doctor (make sure they're an actual physician) to make sure your gut is in order. As you get older, that stuff is nothing to mess around with. I still have no desire drink and the thought hasn't crossed my mind. Keep fighting the good fight. Glenn.
  6. Was able to snag some pretty decent deals on the Qi10's off of global golf. Didn't see that much of a difference between the Qi10 and the new 35's to warrant the extra $800.
  7. New season, new gear. Been a while (Thanks Mrs. MailRoom for blessing us with two kids) since I've upgraded the setup so I went full bore on everything I've always wanted. Wound up with this - 1W TM QI10 @ 9 degrees with project x hzrdus 6.5 3W TM QI10 @ 15 degrees with mitsubishi tensei x-flex 3H TM QI10 @ 19 degrees with fujikura ventus velocore x-flex Bettinardi MB24 4-PW with KBS Tour X 130's Bettinardi Bronze Finish Wedges in 50, 54, 58. Bettinardi Limited Run BB8 And threw it all inside Ghost Golf Anyday Standbag. Got a social membership at The Hills in Lakeway and have been out on the range pretty much every day since I've gotten it all.
  8. It's been another week and I just wanted to post an update/journaling exercise. Finding time to put my thoughts down on paper has been hard over the past week or so with this, honestly, being the most difficult part of things at this point. Lately it has felt like my mind and body are turning a corner minus some GI issues that dehydrated me one day and shot my potassium and magnesium levels up - nothing a couple of liters of IV fluid didn't help fix. I've been doing a lot of wellness activity and it has really helped when the anxiety has kicked in. I start and end my day doing breath work and meditation and that has been a great platform for starting my day well and ending it calm and relaxed, meaning hopefully a good nights rest. I did have to go the SSRI route with a baby dose of prozac & hydroxyziene to help manage the anxiety when it creeps up. The good thing is when the anxiety kicks in to gear and I feel an episode coming on, I can tamp it down enough to not have a full blown attack with that only happening once in the past 10 days or so. The GI issues have really thrown me for a loop physically which is a lot of the root cause of the anxiety because a lot of the symptoms mirror other potential major issues per my GI & psychiatrist. Once they both kick in, the feedback loop starts. I did full panels (the hyper expensive integrative health versions) to double check everything and put my mind at ease. Other than low vitamin D levels, I'm healthy as a horse across the board. The plan is to keep up with the meds, meditation, add in some supplements, exercise, and keep seeing the psychiatrist for the next few months when I can start winding down. I'm also down 10lbs of good weight which has been a pleasant surprise. I do really feel like things are getting better but slowly. Anyone thinking about getting sober after heavy alcohol use, I'd caution that your mind and body are likely not as healthy as you might think. The GI issues have fucking sucked, the brain zaps have fucking sucked, and getting stuck in a feedback loop when they both kick in at the same time really fucking sucks. When I look back to when I started this journey, there's a mountain of things I would have done differently but everyone is different and every experience is different. The one thing I will say is get as much help as you can because of those facts. I went at this solo and cold turkey to start and that was the wrong move. There is no silver bullet for this and the sooner one accepts that fact the sooner you can start and even though it will be rough, you'll slowly start to have mornings like I'm having today. Spray tanned, rested, and ready - and feeling great. Yesterday was 10 weeks. Keep fighting the good fight. Glenn
  9. Those are the types of players that used to wind up at Bama for "reasons". Now that Satan is gone and Bama's NIL pales in comparison to other programs I think we'll see more kids staying home.
  10. We're pretty politically moderate and have owned a home in the Durango area for 5 years now. We're pretty used to it and can tune them out.
  11. This is us as well if you add NZ to the mix. The wife and I have been actively looking at selling both houses and setting up shop in the Boulder area.
  12. Figured I would post an update with how things are going. I was able to connect with @BearSchlong and had a great conversation with him. We were out of town for spring break and I actually attended a meeting where we were at. It's a smaller town in Colorado and the crowd was a bit rougher. I didn't participate much outside of formalities and did a lot of listening. Felt a bit out of place as we're in town frequently but don't live there. We've had our place there for a few years but still don't know very many people outside of our direct neighbors. First toes dipped in and wasn't an unpleasant experience. I plan on going to the weekly meeting near us as I feel like I'll be able to connect with that group a bit better. The anxiety was up and down all week. Rough at the start of the week with enough of a lull in the middle to take the kids skiing a few days. Overall we had a good time even though I was dealing with the mental and physical toll the anxiety takes on me. There seems to be a direct correlation with the amount of sleep I get and how bad it's going to be the next day. The littles don't sleep very well there and eventually I just let them sleep with their mom in our room and slept upstairs. The drive home was a little less intense than the previous few days and I was able to get some driving done to give the wife a break which is actually a big accomplishment when I'm like that. Another thing that popped up while I was there was symptoms of gastritis which was no fun. Chest pain, indigestion, and digestive issues which of course kicked off the anxiety. The local quack shack has great people there but didn't give me the best advice on what to take and not to take to manage it. Was having a rough day with it yesterday when we got home so I went to the minute clinic and they remarkably had a GI there that actually took what I was saying seriously because the other doc that was there was the first one that saw me when I was sobering up and had appendicitis. He told me to ignore what the other folks said and to carpet bomb myself with malox, sulfacrate (sp?), avoid NSAIDs & steroids, and continue to taking prilosec to flush my stomach out. I was able to have an initial telehealth visit with a psychiatrist in the Austin area to a grip on the anxiety issues. I really enjoyed meeting with her and have setup a weekly meeting to get a formal diagnosis and try CBT. I'm trying to avoid taking benzos for obvious reasons and SSRIs don't agree with me either. I've been doing meditation sessions in the morning and evenings before bed and those seem to be helping - at least to get me to restful sleep. Tuesday will be 9 weeks since my last drink. Keep fighting the good fight. It sucks but it's worth it.
  13. Apologies for being a bit slow to respond - the family and I are in Colorado for Spring Break. Things have ebb'd and flowed. Had a really good week last week except for last weekend. My brother in law had a bday party for his wife on the friday before this past one and their group is a pretty rowdy party bunch. I didn't partake and kept club soda in my hand all night to the amazement of some of the folks there. Being around that much booze though seemed to trigger some of the PAWS symptoms and I started getting the brain zaps while we were there. We left shortly after and I spent most of the weekend just getting by and exercising. It seems when episodes like that hit, they stick around for a 24-36 hour period and leave me feeling pretty terrible but I try to dull them with a workout. I still haven't had any urges to drink mentally but my body still freaks out. This past week was better most of the week until Friday. No brain zaps, thank god, but good sleep was really hard to come by this weekend. I'm pretty dead on my feet but can't seem to fall all the way asleep and that seemed to trigger an episode last night that lasted through this afternoon. More body zaps and racing thoughts. I'm going to try to load up on melatonin tonight and see if that helps on the sleep front. If there is a positive side of things, It seems like I'm slowly going longer periods between bad days. Even if it's an additional day each week between episodes, if that makes any sense, I'll take the wins where I can get them. There was an issue with my insurance coverage on the outpatient recovery center. They said that since I'm not actively drinking that my insurance kicked back the approval. They called today and said they had a work around but I haven't had the time to call them back. I'm going to see what they have to say and hopefully it's good news. I'm hoping they can help with the withdraw symptoms somehow because those days are the worst. Tuesday will be 2 months since my last drink. I know these things take time but the bad days can be brutal. Keep fighting the good fight.
  14. Apologies if my messages in this thread get long winded. Consider this as part of my journaling exercises associated with the process. I hope that anything shared in here might help others that are considering getting sober and if you need help to seek out the resources that are available. I've learned that you can't start your recovery journey if you don't take the first step. Today was a much better day. Got a good nights sleep last night and no feelings of overwhelming anxiety today, no brain zaps, etc.. I went ahead and called Sage recovery center today and had a great conversation with the staff there. They agreed that it sounded like PAWS and I went ahead and initiated the intake process to help manage my way through PAWS symptoms and to have a third party keep me accountable to seeing things through. One fortunate part of the appendectomy is that now my out pocket is covered for the year, doing the evening outpatient program for 7 weeks would cost less than my old monthly booze expenditures. I'd do the inpatient but I have to work. In addition to that, they have a clinician & psychiatrist onsite in the event any medication is required to help manage the PAWS symptoms. That's good to know. Are there any specific ones you recommend? I've tried a few here and there but it was interment/spot dosing so that may be the reason I never noticed any benefits. I think I may have similar issues with euphoric recall and have switched to kombucha mixed with soda water to have something to keep my drinking hand occupied. That seems to be helping except. The only downside to drinking that much water is that I have to piss every half hour. I'm dropping the light dosing of THC drinks as well as I think that euphoric recall may be coming from those as well. I hope I'm understanding and using that terminology correctly. For the short term, I'm going to be using the nightly outpatient meetings to satisfy this part. I worry that going to any informal meetings at this juncture might trigger something and kick me into anxious state. When I have a better grasp on things, I do plan on attending weekly meetings near me. I'm currently in the Lake Travis area if anyone has any recommendations for groups in the area. The timeline went pretty much like this: Panic Attack in early October -> first pass at tapering consumption -> get put on first round of SSRIs because of the panic attack -> PAWS symptoms kick in -> change SSRI because of symptoms -> repeat the last two steps two more times with trips to the er splashed in -> go two weeks without drinking just to fuck up and have a couple glasses of wine after a week of feeling okay -> ER the next day because of what I thought was SSRI side effects -> restart sobriety clock -> switch to THC drinks to help manage what I now know is PAWS symptoms -> stop taking SSRIs completely -> appendix ruptures -> narcotic based painkillers kick my dick in the dirt -> PAWS symptoms persist -> Me thinking the PAWS symptoms are the SSRIs not being out of my body -> mix in good days & bad days -> realize the SSRIs aren't in my system anymore and the symptoms are still there -> go see a cardiologist to see if it's my heart and told everything looks fine but a get a heart rate monitor to be safe -> fire previous behavior health specialist that kept throwing stuff at me instead of looking for the root cause -> start internet sleuthing to figure out what might be going on -> decide to visit the alcoholics thread on surly and make my first post -> today. I'm trying to be thoughtful, deliberate, and cautious with how I handle things so I don't wind up in the same situation you did. No offense. I hope my explanation of the timeline clarifies things a bit. It's been a rollercoaster to say the least.
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