sarakingdom

I made good progress on a new bottle of sriracha sauce. My respiratory system is too fragile for it today, though. It's decided to cough everything up, which is agreeably cooperative of it, but not a lot of fun.

Week 2: Day 5-7 "He's been replaced as Patrician? By the vote of the guilds? The unanimous vote?" "The Beggars and the 'Seamstresses' voted to adjourn. So did the Launderers and the Guild of Exotic Dancers." "So that would be Queen Molly, Mrs. Palm, Mrs. Manger, and Miss Dixie Voom," said William. "What an interesting life Lord Vetinari must have led." "No comment." Fitness Points 25 hours of sleep6 liters of water0 meditationLife Points +0 All Control Starts With the Self (morning routine)+0 If You Can Stand the Excitement (time management)+0 Know What's Going to Happen (log planning)+2 Learn the Words (Duolinguo)+4 self-careTotal: 37 points Big long sick-day of a weekend.

That sounds like a winner for a monking challenge. That'd be awesome. Sinuses are better, and lungs are clearing. I figure a little more moaning miserably for effect, and I'll be good.

Week 2: Day 4 Someone knocked softly on the door, and he glanced at the clock. "Come," he said. Nothing happened. After a few seconds, the soft knock came again. "Come in." And there was the pregnant silence again. Lord Vetinari touched an apparently ordinary part of his desk top, and a long drawer appeared out of what seemed to be the solid walnut of the desk, sliding forward as though on oil. It contained a number of slim devices on a bed of black velvet, and a description of any one of them would certainly involve the word 'sharp'. He chose one, held it casually by his side, crossed soundlessly towards the door, and turned the handle, stepping back quickly in case of a sudden rush. Fitness Points +6 hours of sleep+2 liters of water+5 meditationLife Points +1 All Control Starts With the Self (morning routine)+0 If You Can Stand the Excitement (time management)+0 Know What's Going to Happen (log planning)+1 Learn the Words (Duolinguo)Total: 15 points

I will help you with the camera thing. GIMP is free editing software of the same calibre as Photoshop, and point-and-shoots are surprisingly good. Most people never master what you can do with those, and the truth is that it's more the artist than the camera that makes a photo great. And if you have a Canon point-and-shoot, a lot of those have the ability to use optional firmware that unlocks some of the abilities of their more expensive cameras. (It's a "void your warranty" sort of thing, but I've never had an issue with it on the cameras I've tried it with.) There. I've saved you $1500. Go take photos.

Week 2: Day 3 Technically the city of Ankh-Morpork is a tyranny, which is not always the same thing as a monarchy, and in fact even the post of tyrant has been somewhat redefined by the incumbent, Lord Vetinari, as the only form of democracy that works. Everyone is entitled to vote, unless disqualified by reasons of age or not being Lord Vetinari. And yet, it does work. This has annoyed a number of people who feel that somehow it should not, and want a monarch instead, thus replacing a man who has achieved his position by cunning, a deep understanding of the realities of the human psyche, breathtaking diplomacy, a certain prowess with a stiletto dagger, and, all agree, a mind like a finely balanced circular saw, with a man who has got there by being born. A third proposition, that the city be governed by a choice of respectable members of the community, who would promise not to give themselves airs or betray the public trust at every turn, was instantly the subject of music hall jokes all over the city. Fitness Points +6 hours of sleep+2 liters of water+5 meditationLife Points +1 All Control Starts With the Self (morning routine)+1 If You Can Stand the Excitement (time management)+0 Know What's Going to Happen (log planning)+1 Learn the Words (Duolinguo)+2 productivity bonusTotal: 18 points On the mend. Half my diet today is hot sauce. I knew that impulse buy of every type of hot sauce at Trader Joe's would come in handy one day. The time management point is more for effort than accomplishment. But rewarding effort at first is probably a good strategy.

If you keep having knee issues at aikido, say something to the instructor and ask if they'll check your form. May just be your body getting used to things and you just need to work through it (ugh), or it may be something you can avoid with a slight adjustment. But I've definitely had days that were hard on my knees. They get a lot of use in aikido.

Congratulations of being part of the Western literary canon. One day, I want rings. They look amazing.

FTFY.

I can see how that feels like just getting the sugar and caffeine from other sources, and, okay, maybe something to keep an eye on, but I wouldn't worry too much about using other sources of caffeine or sugar as a crutch for this challenge. It still breaks the key behavior. Trying to break a soda habit, a caffeine habit, and a sugar habit all at the same time over four weeks is a big thing to ask. I'd break them down into separate habits and work on one at a time. In the end, you may decide coffee fits your goals reasonably well if you don't add sugar, or you may decide that juice as a treat when you're the designated driver is a relatively harmless occasional indulgence that makes sticking to your goals easier when you're socializing. Mindless choices aren't great, but a few mindful compromises aren't the end of the world, and can even be helpful in the bigger picture.

I thought all the Pratchett fans would come out of the woodwork! Honestly, watching Going Postal with a goant pot of tea might be all I'm capable of managing today. I try not to take decongestants, because they have a bad habit of making congestion a lot worse for me. But I do have the Vicks and SO MUCH TEA. I'm taking my fluids seriously. Sleep would be great. The irony is that when you need it most is when you're least able to get any. That right resting angle is killer. And right now, no angle results in breathing.

Week 2: Day 2 When the Patrician was unhappy, he became very democratic. He found intricate and painful ways of spreading that unhappiness as far as possible. I'm SO SICK. I'b so biserable you caddot beliebe it. Sick day = good choice. I have blankets, a massive pot of tea, the second half of Going Postal, maybe a few more pretend stabs at work, and then back to bed. I'm going to have to be creative about meditation today. Breathing meditation does not work when you can't breathe. I'll see what alternatives I've got. Fitness Points +7 hours of sleep+2 liters of water (if I get through all this tea)+5 meditationLife Points +1 All Control Starts With the Self (morning routine)+0 If You Can Stand the Excitement (time management)+0 Know What's Going to Happen (log planning)+1 Learn the Words (Duolinguo)+2 self-care (I may as well get points for being this sick)Total: 18 points Okay, pulled out a guided compassion meditation that does not require any breathing, and I'll squeak it in there as juuuuust qualifying for this week's looser timing requirements.

Five to ten minutes of practice is perfect at this point, IMO. Building muscle memory isn't something you do with long practices, it's something you do with small regular practices.

That floor is not going to be good news for a beginner. Really. There are advanced people who will refuse to do that. If you live somewhere that's not that cold in the winter, grass is softer, and otherwise I'd say try very carefully on the bed. (Do you have a gym? They often have areas with rubber flooring.) If none of those things work out, I'd say try to go to class a few minutes early or stay a few minutes late to practice ukemi. Or just chill till things thaw out in the spring, and work on it in class where people can correct the motion, and pick up with extra practice when it's warmer and you've had more experience.

IMO, if the challenge is soda, cut yourself some slack on the orange juice this challenge. A couple of orange juices when you're the designated driver are nothing like a soda habit, and you're still finding ways to not run screaming back to the sweet, sweet soda bottle. You can do the "no sugar at all in drinks" challenge later, when the soda monkey's off your back. Taking two or three months to get there in smaller steps is a lot less painful and more likely to stick than trying to get from zero to perfect in one four-week challenge.

I'm definitely getting sick again, which is super-annoying. But I'm thinking of taking half a sick day tomorrow and finishing the Going Postal movie, which is definitely good times.

It's really good, though it's going to take me a long time to get the real measure of it. Dense and jazzy and electronic, like a lot of his avant-garde stuff, and quite ominous-sounding. Like it or not, it's definitely the work of an artist who knows what he's doing, and It's an incredible note to go out on. The video ("Lazarus") was apparently held back intentionally until just before he was about to die, so it really is the statement he's making about his death. It's slightly difficult viewing because he's telling you what it's like to be dying, but it's very, very good. I'm the same way on meditation. I find it hard to connect the habit to a useful trigger, or something.

Man, he is going to be trippy for a non-fiction reader. If you're good at visualizing and hearing things when you read, he's incredibly cinematic. His stuff is full of the special effects and heightened reality of big-budget action comedy, with a very dry, cynical sense of humor. If you can get an audiobook for your first one, that would be helpful, but if not, just imagine a sarcastic British person reading it.

It's real close to doable, because there is some carpeting, so I just need to be a teeny bit more adapted. I'm willing to go with a little bit of not fun, because the ideal is really to be able to do ukemi safely on concrete if you have to (though the idea isn't training on concrete, because obviously).

Take it easy, man. There are... really bad days. We've always got to find ways to take care of ourselves at unexpected times. Take care of yourself and your wife, and we're here if you need us.

Labyrinth honestly introduced me more to David Bowie's meat-and-two-veg than his music, which I suspect was a common experience for girls in the '80s. It was a movie starring Muppets, David Bowie's crotch, the rest of David Bowie, and a young Jennifer Connelly, for the part of the audience that was Watching While Female. (I'd ask if that's too soon to be respectful, but it's never the wrong time for David Bowie's crotch surrounded by dancing Muppets.) Life goals, man. Life goals.

I am annoyingly congested, after having just got over being sick a couple of weeks ago. I don't think I'm coming down with anything, but, grrrrr, the winter congestion. I'm trying to drink ALL the fluids to get rid of it. It also made meditation a misery, but I did it. Not at the right time, though, so no Patrician point for that one. Also, I got in a little ukemi practice, for those keeping an eye on me after last week's basic ukemi fail. Not quite enough padding on that carpet, I'm going to need to work up to longer ukemi periods. I think my knobbly bits will start getting used to that surface, the more I do it. Still pretty good instincts, though impatience is not my friend when I'm doing back rolls. Rush it, and I have a sloppy roll.

Yes, BE LESS AWESOME. Be more asleep. Something like that.

The audiobooks definitely helped me get into Pratchett. I struggled with my first few books and put him aside to try again one day, and the audio made the difference. And it probably does get in the habit of hearing his writing aloud when you read it, because there is some wordplay in there that depends on the sound. ("He didn't administer a reign of terror, just the occasional light shower.") I think you're right on it being helpful to view them as series. He eases people gently into the continuity for each book, but I can't swear that Mort and Soul Music didn't help me appreciate Hogfather, because purely by accident I did read those in order. (Though, actually, getting a sense of the chaos of Ankh-Morpork helped for Hogfather, too, because it helps understand how skewed that book actually is.) I think there might be another series in there in the later books, a series about the civic institutions of Ankh-Morpork, like the university, the post office, the working class neighborhoods. They're not Night Watch books and they're not quite standalones like Monstrous Regiment, but you get a lot of Ridcully and Moist and how the city runs.

So tonight's your second aikido night, huh?