Kevin Awesom

I hit a major milestone, which may not seem like much, but I think it's awesome. My family came through for an early Christmas, and despite being around them, going to a football game, eating out, and having a ton of unhealthy food around, I stayed the course on my eating habits. I allowed myself one deviation - a cheeseburger, chips, and hot chocolate during the game - which I had planned on for weeks now. I was able to jump right back on the wagon, feeling no guilt. I even got my dad and brother to go to the gym with me, and taught them some basic lifts! Once again, I'm excited to hit the gym tonight. Posting here gets me all ramped up for it, I'm not going to lie. Today I hope to increase my deadlift weight by at least 10%; we'll see if I can add even more once I'm warmed up! Oh, and I haven't had a soda in two days. Huzzah.

Hokey smokes, Bullwinkle! I finally eked out three sets of three pullups last night! I've also been working on bench presses, mostly just training until failure, but it's progress! Now I feel great, and by great I mean sore, but also great.

Welp, traveling again, but I've been (mostly) good about eating and working out. On Thanksgiving I had stuffing, beer, and gravy with flour in it, which i planned to, and the next day I was right back onto my usual paleo habits. I'm getting a gym membership for the two weeks (or more) that I'm up here, so I can lift heavier, and have a distraction so I don't feel like going out and spending money. I'm almost to three sets of three pullups, and my goal of benching two 75lb. dumbbells seems like it's in reach. If there's one thing I'm slacking on is my soda consumption. As long as I'm not eating out I'm fine, but if I'm at a restaurant with free refills I will find myself drinking 2-3 in one sitting, which is not good. I need to come up with some kind of reminder, so I don't mindlessly get up and get a refill, which I will end up doing. Force of habit is strong... Speaking of reminders, I need to remember to update this here thread more often, so I think I'm going to set an alarm on my phone to force myself to post. It'll also force me to take a short break from work, which I could definitely use most days.

Argle bargle only was able to eke out one pullup last night, but at the very least I stopped when I realized I needed more rest. I changed last night to leg day instead, and will jump right back on pullups again tomorrow night. For tonight, rest, and lots of it.

I actually have some downtime at work today, so I decided I'd hop on here and waste some valuable company time enjoy the fact that, thanks to being a productivity ninja, I've gotten everything on my list done, and am just waiting for something to break so I can fix it. I'm excited for MOAR PULLUPS tonight, as well as bench presses, however the fitness center at my temporary apartment here doesn't have heavy enough dumbbells, and no dip station either. It's okay, I'll live. I'm heading back home for Thanksgiving, then it's right back up to the cold for another two weeks. I've been looking into getting a temporary membership at the gym across the street for then, but it's a bit pricy to do that. I do miss HEAVY squats and deadlifts...

In other news, I set a personal best on pullups today, eking out 2 sets of 3, 2 sets of 2, and 2 sets of 1. I'm excited to do even better in two days!

Things are going alright this past week. I had to travel to Pittsburgh this past week and was kept even longer than I'd hoped. Despite working 12-14 hour days I've gotten in workouts when I can, and most of all I've been eating extremely well. I'm going to be headed back up here after Thanksgiving, and I'm not quite sure when I'll be able to see a therapist, but I'm making it a priority. I will be done with this particular project on the 12th of December, and will be getting my life back then. For now, I'm going to keep eating paleo and lifting, since it's the only thing keeping me sane!!!

Didn't get a chance to lift yesterday, because I was channeling my inner hobbit and walked 12 miles, from work to home. I didn't have a ride home, so I thought, what the heck? Now my mind is clear and ready for the next challenge!

Put me in coach!

Alright kiddies, I'm trying an NF challenge again, and this time I won't have spotty internets to keep me from checking in! My Main Quest® is to increase overall strength. My goals are as follows: -Bench press 2x75lb. dumbbells for one set of five reps (at least). I'm currently plateaued at 2x65lbs., six sets of five reps. I want to break through this. -Eat 90% Paleo. This will probably be the easiest for me, since I'm usually very good about this, however this is a bit stricter than I've been regarding diet. -Limit myself to one and only one soda a day. I drink way too much Coke Zero, and I really need to cut back. And now for my life goal: -Do everything humanly possible to eliminate my crippling panic attacks/anxiety/thanatophobia. I'll be meeting with a therapist, instead of sweeping these feelings under the rug and hoping they don't creep up on me again (spoiler alert: they will). Facing this dragon head-on (apply directly to the forehead) is the only way this warrior can slay it. I'm currently 6'2", 198lbs. Measurements will come later!

Hey everyone, checking in again. Been coming up with the campaign and organizing my notes, just waiting on some more characters. It seems we already have a mechanic, a "computer nerd on the run", and the hired muscle. If anyone wants to step it up and be the captain that's still open!

Despite having a mild milk allergy I will have dairy while I am paleo - I've found that when I stay paleo I really don't feel the effects of the allergy at all. I read some stuff on Mark's Daily Apple that explains why this happens, and if I can find it I'll post it here. Also, cheap is good. They gave me some reading materials for the training, and my actual on-the-job training starts Wednesday. I'm kind of at a crossroads with it, though, because based on my work history they want to put me on the fast track to management, seeing as they don't have any assistant managers at the moment. While I'd love the money, I don't want to commit to staying in Utah too much longer. Not to say it isn't beautiful out here, but I moved out here for my girlfriend, and I don't want to sound like a broken record, but things just plain aren't working. I also would like to go back and finish school, and actually go to a physical campus, but the closest one is almost two hours away in Grand Junction, CO. It just makes more sense to me to save up as much money as I can here, head back to Orlando, and start up school again. Since I flunked out of two classes last semester I'll need to pay out of pocket for the next semester, but I know that I can get my grades up and get back on the horse. In other news, I am sore as anything after my workout on Sunday night. Definitely didn't drink enough water and eat enough protein yesterday. I just hope my body is less sore by tonight, because, as usual, I'm itching to work out again!

Checking in again. Been working myself hard every other day. More pullups, more protein, more POWER!!! I'm able to do three sets of three, which I then follow with negative pullups. The rest of the circuit is a piece of cake, so I've moved on to weighted pushups and lunges with the crappy weights they have here at the ranch. The dumbbell handles they have are standard size, and the weights are Olympic - not sure if they thought that through. They do have a smith machine, but yeah, no... Once I get my first paycheck I'll get myself some Olympic-sized dumbbell handles and maybe a bar, and I'll start my powerlifting routine again! Speaking of which, I finally start training at the new job on Wednesday. I'm going to need to play catch up when it comes to my savings goal, but I'm not giving up! Eating paleo is, as usual, my main hurdle. The last few days I was 100%, eating clean, but not getting enough protein since my girlfriend didn't buy enough meat to last me through the week if I eat a gram of protein per pound of body weight. She's off today and tomorrow, and therefore cooking for us again. I'd like to be eating cleaner, but believe me, I need to pick my battles. With my first paycheck I will be getting myself a protein supplement; I'd rather be only eating meat for my protein source, but beggars can't be choosers. At the very least I'll be sticking with whey protein instead of soy. Between that and working I'll have a lot more power over choosing what I eat. Again, I'm not giving up.

That's exactly it, I usually take a hand in character creation so as to better fit the adventures around it, and to make sure everyone has a role to play on the boat without having everyone else cramp their style. This also makes sure I have information about your character that generally wouldn't be common knowledge; one of the best parts of Firefly was the mysterious past of each crew member.

Well, since it seems we have players I say you guys roll up some characters, PM them to me, and we can get the ball rolling on this. I have a rough outline of a campaign in mind already. I'm excited for this. I aim to misbehave.

"What makes a man, is it the power in his hands? Is it his quest for glory? Give it all you got to fight to the top so we can know your story." -DVDA's Now You're A Man

I'm located in the middle of nowhere that is eastern Utah, but the closest bastion of real civilization is in Grand Junction, so I find myself there about once every two weeks. If we have a rebel meetup in western CO I can definitely be there!

*Professor Frink voice* Finished!

Feeling much better today. The girlfriend is back to work, giving me freedom over the food in this place. Invented Paleo Pigout Pizza last night, which may be one of my go-to meals from now on. I posted the recipe in the proper forum - try it, you will be in Hog Heaven! (See what I did there?) I can now complete my circuit with the exception of the pullups (curse this extra weight I've accumulated!) I'm going to be splitting it up, running the circuit (and beyond) minus the pullups, so I can work on my pulling strength. I wish I had access to free weights right now, but at the very least I can do negative pullups once I've hit my limit of regular pullups. Between that and losing some of this extra weight I should be able to get back to where I was earlier this year, because dammit, I love me some pullups. I FINALLY will be starting this new job next week. I'll be picking up as much overtime as possible in order to reach my goal. Hopefully something I write will get published as well. Either that, or a million people will descend upon my website, fall in love with my music, and I can begin touring the country. Hey, I can dream, can't I? Still working on a new song. Have a basic outline done. Need to buckle down and work on it, so I can begin recording and sequencing stuff for the finished product. Rockstar mode activated!

If you need the book just PM me and I'll give you the link to it. I'll make sure to give it a good read since it's been a while since I've played it.

As a huge Firefly/Serenity fan I second this. Given my nigh-obsessive knowledge of the source material I'd like to volunteer as GM.

The problem is I have absolutely no income at the moment. I will take stock of what each paycheck will bring me, but the majority of it will be budgeted to saving. I have no immediate bills beyond groceries as it is, and there's not a whole lot of stuff to spend money on in this town, so I don't see there being a problem once I do have cash rolling in. I just need to start working. As far as meals go, it's ridiculously easy for me to plan meals out, however I really only plan my cheat days, as I'll plan out what I'll make for the week when I go grocery shopping and then pick one of those meals whenever I'm hungry for it. I'd cook paleo meals for my girlfriend and I, except that A. she hates my cooking, B. she won't eat a meal without a starch, usually pasta, and C. she thinks that eating paleo is unhealthy (which is why she'll cook decidedly un-paleo things for me when she does cook). There are deeper problems between us than this, though, so I think I'm going to soldier on, save up the $1,000, and use it to get back home. Despite being together for a long time I've realized how unhealthy (no pun intended) this relationship is for me.

That's all kinds of ridiculous. At the very least I did get a call yesterday. I can come in tomorrow and finalize the paperwork and whatnot, so hopefully I'll be working soon. I need to, because I don't think this relationship is built to last

I have the Serenity RPG PDF, fyi.

Alright, so it seems like we have some people interested, so let's take a vote - what kind of setting/genre of game would we want to play? I personally am partial to superhero, post-apocalyptic (zombies are a plus!), and of course classic high fantasy, but honestly I can enjoy most anything we can all agree on. I want to hear ideas, people!