The Shogun

I want this on a t-shirt. You know how I motivate myself to train in the morning? I don't think. I go thru the motions in my pre-coffee zombie mode. Most time, if I ever process ONE single thought in my head, it's my bullshit excuse voice of reason trying to negotiate with myself to avoid training. I start doing it until it's too late and that voice can shut the f up. The only thing that can bypass this is ehm, enthroned meditation. There's not negotiation nor postponing there. Aw... you missed these, right?

Can you record yourself experimenting and playing with weapons, pleeeeease? Just for research purposes, of course. Also, I think the onion ninjas got something hidden in your first post that's able to affect people across the screen... that's an interesting jutsu.

said Sauron to Morgoth.

Hm... just channeling your inner Geralt? I miss harassing you via text, too... It almost makes me want to buy an iPhone again.

Thank you for the lurking pressure!

TDF is one of the few books I'd rather listen to than read, don't know why... but the difference is not thaaat much. I'm currently more into listening fiction and leaving the reading to non-fiction. I'm taking note of all those recommendations, as soon as I'm done with The Witcher, I'll need more fiction or I'll end up reading Harry Potter.... again.

I just started reading Last Wish, but it's good to know I have options. I also re-read them every year or so, especially since I devour them ad I'm done in a couple of weeks. And as soon I saw the announcment for Peace Talks, I started listening/reading TDF again. It's actually what I listen to while I run. Can't wait to run and yell PARKOUR!

That was a warning to the dangers of waking up really old beings, not a narrative announcement.

“One of the Old Ones is known as the Sleeper. It’s said his tomb is somewhere under the Pacific. And that goddamned moron Lovecraft published stories and easy-to-remember rhymes about the thing.” He shook his head. “The signal boost gave the Sleeper enough power to influence the world. It has a number of cults. People get . . . infested, I guess. Slowly go insane. Lose their humanity. Turn into something else.” I remembered the captain’s open mouth and writhing tentacles and shivered. “So you think that’s what is happening here? A Sleeper cult?” So, who's reading TDF? I'm 10% done with Grave Peril. For like the 4th time. One of the many things I'm have discovered thanks to this Guild.

SIFU!!!!!! I've been listening to you while I cook breakfast. Just last week I was listening the one with the holidays.

Placeholder to appease the peer pressuring Monks summoning such an ancient one.

I have one job. Also, guys, it's RisenPhoenix's birthday today! Make sure you remind him how old he is.

Me every morning for the past week "I need to update my NF challenge first thing in the morning!" LIFE AND WORK HAPPENED late at night "Urgh... I forgot to update my NF challenge... I'll do it tomorrow morning." RINSE AND REPEAT UNTIL TODAY But first, the news... What's happening in The Night Vale? (it affects everything that follows), but I'll write in a spoiler thingy if you want to skip it So, you'll understand if my anxiety levels are off the chart... I am, literally, afraid of buying groceries and see the new prices or to try to make sense of the new currency... so, I've been living of what everything I had left since the last time I bought groceries... but that's dwindling already. Tomorrow or Wednesday I'll have to face the music and get in touch with reality again. Fitness Goal Last week I made sure to stay active, but nothing big. I set up a workout routine to follow, more structure and timed and I was supposed to start this morning but I woke up feeling terrible. I made the vow to workout as soon as I get home. Diet Goal So... the office started providing a catering service. Can I count my goal of not buying lunch out as accomplished? It's not always the healthiest choice (but it's homemade food, so it's no garbage) and I'm saving a crazy amount of money, so I'm going for it. That'll leave me the chance to work on my breakfast and dinner choices. =D Monk Goal Kajukembo still not happening. Working on it. Foursquare doesn't know any dojos nearby. What I'll do, I'll stick to my videos and bother the hell out of Meredith on IM. Work/Life Goals After a while, ignoring slack gets easier. I still feel the urge, but realizing that knowing but without being able to do anything is not worth the trouble... my mornings are focused to listening to Welcome to Night Vale instead. Reading Challenge Goal About to finish Level up Your life. 10% done with Sapiens. I really, really enjoying this book again.

You're both so right... what I'll do is that I record myself and send videos to Sifu @RedStone and bother her to send me video stuff too.. Sexting for Monks

Fitness Goal I need to establish a fixed routine, so far, I've just done 1 set of ten push-ups, squats and rows as soon as I wake up. I hate how rusty I feel, specially compared to my progress early in the year (in which I was squatting/deadlifting half my bw or more). Good thing? I found a friend who goes to a bootcamp training center and she wants me to join her, and she even offered to drop me by my office after training. She can also help me find rare things like coconut oil! Which leads me to... Diet Goal Started meal prepping but skipped bringing lunch to the office for two days because we had an event/birthday party and we had pizzas in the office for lunch. Monk Goal Found a Monk in the office! Casually talking about how I miss martial arts, I found out a colleague used to train kajukenbo and knows a dojo nearby, and we can also go together from the office and he always drops me home after the office, so he can totally do it after training. We need to manage how to leave the office early to go train yet but reaaally excited I found a training partner and dojo, as well as trying a new martial art. Work/Life Goals Nailing the no slack after/before I get to the office. I notified my boss just in case, the temptation is hard sometimes but I've managed. I repeat to myself that even if it's something important on it, there's not much I can do until I get to the office/from home. Reading Challenge Goal 70% done with Level up your Life Started a book club in the office and we started reading Sapiens.

I've got mixed feelings about this because I was trained as a ninja not to trust public videos, most trainers will perform a technique wrong on purpose to ensure the quality of the master-student tradition/legacy/heritage. But, it's one of my few possible options if I want to continue practicing Wing Chun for the moment at least. I can detect when something is not right if I'm familiar with the technique, but to learn new things? really hard.

I'm finishing Level up your life by... some guy. And I'm re-reading Sapiens for the book club I started in the office.

and you Sifu!

Please, be my biographer.

The Ghost of Monks Past says shame on you!

Seriously, how come we haven't made a Guild Leader of you already and still have @Kishi around!?

If I don't this tonight, I'll probably don't post any challenge at all. So, I'm resisting the temptation to go to sleep and binge-watch some Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood and finally post my challenge. As I said in The Courtyard, my big thing is taking back my life. On March I got fired from my job (wasn't really doing anything to preserve it, was having a bit of Office Space moment) for which I regret nothing... but it happened in the worst moment of my year. The house I had been living for the past two years was sold and I was in the middle of moving and buying stuff for the new house when I got fired. (Here, you don't usually rent furnished-places, so I had to buy *everything* I needed for the new place. And I still eat on my desk, there a few key items missing). So, I was unemployed with his savings quickly draining in a post-apocalyptic economic wasteland with hyperinflation. (Read that last sentence several times really fast... Now, do it in Spanish). It was NOT pretty. I was the most anxious I've been in my life for those couple of months. That was until, out of the blue, I got a job. I started as a copywriter and quickly got promoted as senior writer manager for an American/Australian digital marketing company. Yay! The first couple of weeks. I was so focused on pulling my weight and not starve in the process while making it look effortless that I hadn't noticed what a HUGE goal and dream I had accomplished. I mean... Ever since I started reading Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone I've been dreaming to write for a living and after a couple of years of freelancing... I'm not only actually getting a steady paycheck (enough for me to live, and slowly replenish my house and savings and yes, escape the country) but I'm managing a team of writers and mentoring as much as learning from them! If that's not a level 50 goal... it's probably a level 25 or something. But, I reached that goal the wrong pay and I'm paying dearly for it. I'm in the worst shape of my life. I feel all the process I had accomplished with my lifting 5x5 routine at the start of the year is lost and eating crap almost every day and heavily smoking again. I've also been highly competitive, trying to outshine a workaholic control freak co-manager and losing sight of what's truly important in the process. Enjoy the blessing that is that I'm working on my passion instead of suffering thru it and seek not to outshine "the competition" but to maintain a healthy work/life balance. (something that sucker is terrible at, btw) (see?). I'm even behind on my reading! the only constant in my life! So, that's I want to make the theme of this challenge that, retake control of my life, maintain a healthy work/life balance and start doing all those things I froze when I had to focus all my mental energy on, you know, not dying. Fitness Goal I want to focus on conditioning to build enough strength and stamina to finish a whole 3-circuit bodyweight workout session (45mins-1hr) by the end of this challenge. This will allow me to look for better options in terms of training without the fear of dropping dead in the middle of a gym/box. Also, I want to focus on making this train from anywhere a permanent thing, since I won't always be certain I'll have a gym or place to train. I will work out first thing every morning, starting small and taking baby steps. I don't have a specific routine on paper but I've got enough experience and knowledge to know which exercises I should be focusing on (you know, push-ups, squats, inverted rows, hip raises, maybe even some burpees if I don't die in the process). Diet Goal Start meal prepping again, Stop buying lunch outside Soft drinks nevermore. Level up my salads game. Not much of a plan, I just got to stop fucking it up and meal prep again. Also, I'm not very creative when it comes to preparing salads and vegetables. So, I'm focusing on that. I've been reading some ideas from Nom Nom Paleo (taking out the fancy you can only find this in America ingredients and replacing them with exotic you can only find this in the Caribbean f*ck you 'murica ingredients like Ají Dulce (google it, you gonna love them) or huge cheap avocados the size of my face. Also, one of my worthless peons is a level 5 vegan (she doesn't eat anything that casts a shadow) so, I've got plenty of support for this goal. Monk Goal With my Wing Chun school closed (the only one in the country) and not many dojo options nearby, the only reason I still call myself a monk it's because for me... martial arts are essential, part of how I express myself, and without them... I feel censored, muted, and I need to blow off some steam or I'll explode. It happens to me sometimes. Luckily, I've been talking to Sifu @RedStone and coming up with a conditioning routine based on Wing Chun moves I can do on my own. It's a temporary solution... but it's a start at least. Eventually, I'll have to consider other martial arts options. Also, we're starting like a brain trust group. The idea is to train, starting with 15 minutes as soon as I get home (you know, to vent off after the office, relax and change the mindset) and building up some time. I still need to coordinate this with my morning workout routine. Work/Life Goals No work on the weekends/do something enriching and entertaining instead (other than binge-watching something, I do that on workdays). If possible, no work after 6pm. No Slack after 9pm/before I'm in the office in the mornings. Reading Challenge Goal Set a plan/reading list so I can read with purpose instead of drifting from one book to the other. Don't feel compelled to finish a book if you don't enjoy it. I will finish at least 2 books by the end of this challenge and started at least 2 new books. So, here it is. It's a start and there are some things that still need defining but at least I'm back in the game.

My big thing for these months, now that I have (barely) managed not to die, is to take back my life. There are so many things I need to retake, I don't know where to start. At least I know I'm in the right place here.

hey! are you still here with us?

I miss the little check squares =(