Useful Stuff: Recording a Voicemail with Laryngitis, Working Out with ADHD, How to Stop Cringe Attacks, and Cookie Science

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A screenshot from www.naturalreaders.com/online

A screenshot from www.naturalreaders.com/online

  • Recording a Voicemail with Laryngitis: I’ve been dealing with a nasty cold lately and I have little to no voice. If I DO try to talk, I have a coughing fit. I can’t afford to take the entire week off work though, so I wanted to find a way to help out applicants that call me while avoiding taxing my voice or throat.
    A friend suggested I try to an automated voice of some sort, to let people know I couldn’t talk and that they should email me; I thought this was impossible at first, but then I googled around and found www.naturalreaders.com/online. This takes your text and reads it out loud for you, in a variety of different voices and accents. It took a bit of messing with the text to figure out how to get the voice to read out the spelling of my last name for my email address at a reasonable speed, but with a lot of commas, it worked fine. I just turned up the volume on my computer, held up the headset on my work phone to the computer, and recorded it that way. Thus - I essentially have a robot secretary for the week! We live in the future.

  • Working out with ADHD (written mostly in November): I get bored really easily, so working out isn’t always easy for me. I was doing really well for a while with walking/running outside, but I messed up my knee a couple months ago (fortunately, no arthritis, just some sort of pulled muscle!), so that hasn’t been an option lately. Plus it’s cold outside.
    I’ve joined a gym and go to various classes now (which helps a LOT with the ADHD, as the instructor keeps things moving too quickly for me to get bored), but for a long time, my main workout was hooping. It’s like hula hooping, only with weighted hoops that an adult can actually use without a crazy amount of effort. I have a hoop I bought from a friend like, 8 years ago, and it works wonderfully as a low-impact workout; I’ll hoop downstairs in our basement for 20-30 minutes each morning, and it just makes me feel so much more energetic and healthy throughout the day!
    However, my brain did get pretty bored with it. I tried podcasts for a while, and then Netflix, but my monkey brain just kept scampering off, and I found myself checking the clock more often than not.
    Fortunately, I discovered that with my low impact hooping, I can actually hold and use my phone while working out. So I now use the time to catch up on articles I’ve saved, read a kindle book, or even blog! (Yes, I wrote the majority of this blog post while hooping, lol). It’s not by any means a high intensity workout, but it makes the time fly by and it keeps me dedicated to doing it daily. It’s not perfect, but it’s good, and it’s certainly better than skipping a workout entirely.

  • How to Reduce the Sting of Cringe Attacks: So I actually read about this method in this article on The Cut and was so fascinated with it that I checked out the author’s full book from the library, called Cringeworthy: A Theory of Awkwardness. It took me ages to actually read it all, due to other books and obligations, but I finally finished it! And it’s such a wonderful, hilarious look at awkwardness - what it is, why we feel it, how to handle it and embrace it. The article and book’s advice on combating “cringe attacks” is really useful as well. I don’t know about y’all, but I definitely find myself remembering past embarrassing memories fairly regularly and getting upset about it; I often end up saying, “you’re okay, you’re okay,” to myself to try to calm down.
    This never works. But you know what does, according to recent neuroscience studies? If a certain memory is bothering you, try to recall other, nonemotional details about it, like all the sensory factors. What did you see? What did you hear? What did you smell? What were you wearing? Who else was there? It won’t necessarily stop the cringe attack entirely, but it can really help you contextualize the memory and be more okay with it.
    Elsewhere, the book suggested talking about your embarrassing memories as if they happened to someone else. By distancing yourself from the situation, it becomes more manageable. And concentrating on self-compassion - seeing yourself the way others see you - and self-indifference - realizing that you are simply not that big of a deal - can help you place it all in perspective.
    I may be rambling here. I don’t know. I have a nasty cold. But I really loved this book and I think y’all should consider reading it too. :)

  • Cookie Science: (this section written in like, November) I engaged in a bit of cookie science! I’ve made raspberry thumbprint cookies twice now for John, but I’ve been unhappy with how hard and crispy they were. In an effort to make them fluffier and lighter, I switched out half the butter for margarine, whipped the butter/margarine/sugar for longer, and chilled the dough. I made the cookies in five batches (represented by one cookie each in the picture, from left to right), each progressively in the fridge for longer before going in the oven. I also lowered the baking time by a minute. My official cookie tester John decreed that batches 3 and 3 were the best.