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A semi-scientific account of what makes me happy and/or what happiness makes me do, etc

I like to record what happens. It feels wrong that life goes on in all its concrete splendor, and there’s nowhere I can get an official record of what it was. It feels crazy that it might just not be knowable what happened on a particular evening in 2016. I want to be able to know, at least a bit. Relatedly, before bed I do ‘logging’: I write down what happened in brief, my mood on a 1-9 scale, details of drugs I took, afflictions that beset me, and a few other things. Elsewhere I record how much productive stuff and work on my literal job I get done. An upshot is that I can empirically check how my mood relates to various things, such as the mention of different words in the day. Some things that seem to go with being happier: * Mentioning my boyfriend (conditioned on the period we have been dating) * Taking vitamin D * Taking ibuprofen * Basically doing work is better, except 1-5 poms of work is worse than none * Antibiotics (this is the best ‘drug’ according to my records, in spite of my felt experience that it is entirely neutral - I wonder if the end to wondering if I’m about to die of a UTI and/or feeling like I’m maybe about to die of a UTI is cheering) * Having a migraine (!) (they tend to be mild, but still) * Having some other kind of headache (!) * Having fewer overall afflictions (I’m an affliction snob, I only like headaches) * Interacting with some of my friends * The word ‘flight’. Yeah, I love airports I guess. * The word ‘bike’. (Or I just love going places?) * Various sexy words * ‘Read’, ‘singing’, ‘cafe’, * Going to Constellation (contrary to my impression) * Mention of two different specific hated work projects * ‘AI’ (this is very surprising, but I guess doing work makes me happy). Apparently I have not once mentioned ‘Claude’ or ‘GPT’. Some things that don’t seem to make me especially happy, contrary to some expectations: * antidepressant * dextroamphetamine * acetaminophen * b12 * not having my period (if I had to g

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PublishedOctober 16, 2026KatjaGrace
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