DrVornoff

I know this looks visually like the setup to a sarcastic punchline, but I'm sincere when I say thanks for the support, everyone. I've got one habit down. Now I need to work on my mental health as well. I'm gonna be hanging with the Druids for the next few weeks working on a meditation and stretching regimen to help me work out some... let's call it a mix of depression, anxiety and proletarian anger.

Just completed my first challenge in... over a year now that I think of it. I've hit a rough point in my life, so that was a victory I'll happily take. My last challenge was with the Assassins, setting up a habit of morning kettlebell swings and Turkish Get-ups with a 15 lb kettlebell. I do the routine every weekday morning adding one more swing than the last time and a TGU on each side for every set of tens past 10. I'm up to 35 swings and 2 TGUs/side as of Friday. Since I'm a bard, I see no reason not to also pal around with the Druids. As long as I've got some momentum to keep me going, I want to try approaching from another angle. Like I said, I'm going through a very rough patch. And due to a mixup on my part, I won't get a prescription refill until the 9th. I figure now's a good time to work on mental health. I'm going to continue the pattern with kettlebells for the foreseeable future. That's a habit I'd like to keep. I want to see if I can pull off 100 swings before I look into getting a bigger kettlebell. So this time around I'm planning to get with some stretching and meditation. I've dabbled in both at various points but never was able to make a habit out of it. Let's break that pattern. I'm going to be looking around for some guides to yoga and stretching in general. I also think I still have a book I picked up years ago called The Shaolin Workout. It was a complete stretching regimen from an actual Shaolin monk. I'll work out the process over the next few days as I finish the research. I also tried metta meditation for the first time the other day. I'm curious to see if I can make this one stick. For an extra dash of motive, the task is to meditate for a minimum of 10 minutes a day. Doesn't need to be consecutive. The idea is to get to the end of the challenge with enough time logged even if I miss a session or two to add the Month of Meditation challenge to my character sheet. This is really the big one for me, the one I really want to stick. As a side challenge, I need to knuckle down and finish reworking my new shows. I'm working on a "Haunted Theater" presentation for a local ghost tour company called Haunted Pittsburgh and developing private parties for doing historical seances. All I really need is 4 weeks to have a show I can sell.

To be honest, yeah. I'm having a lot of financial problems and it's not making life any easier. That said, I completed my challenge today. A total of 35 swings and 2 TGUs/side. Time to start planning for the next one.

Not gonna lie, had a rough day today. Long story short, it climaxed in a panic attack and a shouting match. Things are back to normal now, apologies to all parties have been made. And I'm still proud to have gotten my 31 swings and 2 TGUs in this morning. Hey, some days you just have to sleep off like a hangover. You take the victories where they come. Is anyone reading this a fan of Aaron Williams? In one of his old Nodwick comics, he introduced one of my favorite concepts: the destiny sponge. Similar to the meaning of "schlamazl" the destiny sponge is that person who just seems to be always having that kinda day. Someone whose existence is to take it on the chin for everyone else. He's introduced some truly idiosyncratic ideas and phrases into my thought vocabulary. Now I just need to get the other people in my life to give a shot at reading his comics.

That's 30 swings and 1 TGU/side as of this morning. Got the scale out this morning, and I weighed in at 199 lbs. Slowly but surely, the weight is starting to drop. One more week to go and this will be the first challenge I've finished in about a year or so.

Tours start up tomorrow yes. And since I'll be hitting 30 swings tomorrow, I'm also going to the TGUs. I missed this morning due to some digestive problems. The day before I grabbed fast food for the sheer convenience and a day later my innards decided to reenact the entire Battle of Kursk. I've been eating my own cooking long enough now that fast food is starting to lose its appeal. I'll still probably hit up Steak n' Shake or a breakfast buffet on Saturdays, but I feel a lot better these last couple of years since I made an effort to stop eating like I did in my college years: like a goat.

Just finished another set of swings this morning. I'm now up to 25.

Twenty swings as of this morning.

I feel you on that one. I'm starting to put together my own routine that I can stick with and all I really need is to invest in a couple more kettlebells and freeing up a bit of floor and wall space. I really don't need a gym anymore. Still want to get those drunken boxing lessons, though.

I like to roast vegetables in the oven myself. I usually toss a pound of them in olive oil then add 2T paprika, 1T cumin powder, 2 teaspoons of sugar, 1 tsp salt and a dash of cinnamon. The sugar carmalizes when cooked and seems to help lock in moisture so the food never dries out. Put that in the oven for 20-25 minutes at 425 degrees and there you go.

So as of this morning I'm up to 17 kettlebell swings. I'm a little disappointed to learn that the walking tours won't be starting until May 12. We had planned to start this weekend, but we weren't getting any sign-ups.

I have something in the works for steampunk later on down the road. Specifically, a show called Screampunk.

My current focus is working on promoting my historical seances and home seance parties. I use a few tricks of the trade and some atmosphere to reconstruct the experience of an old Victorian seance. My bosses at Haunted Pittsburgh are helping to promote the shows once our season gets off the ground.

I'm a tour guide for Haunted Pittsburgh. We present walking tours and lectures about the history of Pittsburgh's weirdest true stories. I admit I wasn't initially sure about trying out the assassin path. I'm not built the way you'd generally think of an assassin, what with being short in the legs, long in the torso, and so dominantly left-handed that I can't move the last two fingers of my right hand independently of each other. But it does dovetail nicely with how I've started thinking of myself the last year or two: I'm a bard.

Been a while since I tried a challenge and I've had mixed results getting them accomplished. So for this one, I'm setting my sights on a series of 3 very simple goals. 1. Kettlebell swings every morning. For the last few days, I've been starting my day with a series of kettlebell exercises starting with swings. Every day I add one more and take a day or two off on the weekends to let the muscles build back up. I want to keep this up throughout the challenge. The goal is not to hit a fixed number of swings, but just to do it as many days as I can in order to form the habit. 2. When the challenge starts I'll be adding Turkish get-ups to the morning routine. Two on a side and every Monday I add one more to each side if I believe I'm ready for it. Again, the goal is less about reaching a certain milestone than it is about sticking to the habit. 3. My tour guide job starts up again on the 22nd, so I'll have a steady income again at that point. I want to sign up for a dance class to learn more about hand waving, finger tutting and gliding. I looked up some tutorials and it's really fun so now I want a real instructor to teach me a good practice routine for these styles. That about covers it. Should be a good starting point.