Hi, elvis!

Shucks, you got me. I freely admit that my first impulse when I saw your zap was to withdraw it to my LN wallet. Then I read that you wanted me to play with it and take note of any insights that crop up. Sure I will do that n play in the big leagues haha.

Now for why I only zap 50-60 sats (though that has increased thanks to @Undisciplined’s cajoling - I used to zap at most 20 sats haha)

1. The 21 cents per day is more symbolic than significant. I think that’s my coping mechanism to deal with the stresses of working life. I do love being a teacher and am pretty sure I’m not in the midst of any middle age crisis - but darn, teaching is hard. In the sense that every day I have to face so many (sometimes competing) demands from my colleagues and students - chasing for forms, attending meetings that have nothing to do with teaching, helping students get their uniforms, disciplining errant students. By the time I get down to it, I hardly have the time and energy to create great lessons - the thing that fills up my tank and makes me feel productive. Unfortunately, teaching is a microcosm of life; shit just happens. I cannot control all these variables that are part and parcel of my job. So every morning I zap myself in an attempt to exercise some control over my day.
2. On the practical side, I aim to buy a Bitrefill gift card at least once a month. I usually buy a supermarket voucher. So in Singapore, my trusty supermarket is part of a digital bank. So if I use the gift card and pay for the excess using my debit card, I will qualify for the higher interest rate. Provided that I make five transactions with my debit card, that is. The interest rate is nothing to rave about tbh, but I like the idea of working steadily towards a goal and seeing my sat stash increase haha. Exercising control over my life (back to point 1)
3. The selfish side of me doesn’t want to zap too much because I notice that some Stackers hardly zap others. But it isn’t my prerogative to tell people what to do with their zaps. Neither do I want to turn out to be a calculative Stacker who maintains a mental score sheet about how much I’m giving and receiving. If I relate to a post/comment, I will just zap it 50 sats - plain and simple.

So, I increased my default zap to 168 because in Chinese, it means “prosper all the way” (一路发”). It hasn’t even been one day but I have noticed certain changes:

1. Zapping is more meaningful to me because 168 is a symbolic number to me. It makes me feel that I’m spreading good luck around, especially since Chinese New Year is around the corner. Haha. Also I’m loving the darkish green zap - it makes me wonder just how many colours there are available!
2. Since my default is 168, I have to think more carefully about zapping a comment. Maybe my commenting behaviour has got to change. Maybe some Stackers have high default zaps, so they zap others but not me. I should just focus on developing my thoughts substantially so that people can’t help but zap my wonderful comments haha

Will get in touch again!

And thanks for the play money