Kishi

Goal 1: 8/8

Goal 2: 7/8

Goal 3: 5/8

Got everything done yesterday! A quiet Sunday. It was nice to be social and have a day to just rest and meander without any kind of intentional training. Kind of weird, if I'm being frank.

But yeah, nothing done means nothing to report.

Today is today. S&S and BJJ on the docket. Sci Fi friend initially said he was taking the night off of hosting duties because of the situation with his mom but then said he wanted to get together to see the D&D movie, and I wanted to see it too and I know I won't take the opportunity to do so unless someone invites me to do it, so guess I'm doing that tonight instead of kickboxing. I'm... kind of mad about it? Dunno if it's just my normal saltiness about making plans and having them be changed by my priorities and external circumstances or if it's something more. I have to admit that a sense of grievance has been developing in me lately toward my friend, and I'm working to understand it and let it run its course into background noise; this is just a data point for me to understand.

Anyway. Time to be simple on my way to being sinister.

Goal 1: 7/7

Goal 2: 6/7

Goal 3: 4/7

Quick update will be quick! Weather's good and I wanna go for a walk, so I'm gonna while I still got time.

Training carried off well the past couple of days. I did S&S late at night Friday night because I fell down the rabbit hole of the job. I'm pretty close to getting my caseload reduced such that I could actually work from home 4 days a week instead of 3, and so I'm honed in on that pretty strongly. Could happen in as soon as a month, but it's not guaranteed by dint of a bunch of factors that I don't have any control over. I suspect what's going to happen is I'm going to miss cutoff by maybe one case or two when it's reviewed next month, but it's either that or worse if I don't try to do anything about it, so.

Saturday I did hand and neck work, and also hit up the mats. Saturday is a drill-heavy class; most of what we worked on was Toreando passing, the armbar-triangle-omoplata sub series, and some De La Riva stuff. No sparring yet, since that would have been open stuff, although I probably could negotiate situational sparring with folks. I dunno how much I trust them, though. For that matter, I don't know how much I trust myself either.

Writing and meditation happened on Friday. It was only writing on Saturday, though. I played and finished off another game from a Humble Bundle from a while ago called Celeste. It's a platformer game about a girl who's climbing a mountain who has a lot to prove to herself. Very, very good, but there's no way I could have beat that game without its Assist Mode (read: easy mode). Still a good game, though; pixel art is gorgeous, music is dope, story's affecting and effective. Good times.

Today is today, and like I said, I'm going for a walk. No real training to plug into today. Got some of my writing done already. All that's left is to get meditational for a bit. I can do that.

On 3/30/2023 at 1:42 PM, The Most Loathed said:

Not trollish at all. A perfectly legitimate defense and evidence that he wasn't quite in place. You're helping him improve.

Right. I help him get better and he helps me get better. It's a both/and kind of thing.

On 3/30/2023 at 1:42 PM, The Most Loathed said:

We have a woman who I have never been able to Americana for this reason. She's known throughout the school for being hyper flexible. It's just and attribute we get to learn to work around

Oh yeah. And I outplayed him for the most part on position - went from side control to scarf hold and then ran out of time. But you're right, it's a lesson in figuring out how to work around things.

*

Goal 1: 5/5

Goal 2: 4/5

Goal 3: 3/5

Thursday done! Writing with friends did not happen, so mat time did instead. Still got some writing done in terms of refining my "One Sentence Summary," which I'm sure I'll come back to again but it's still good to have done.

Mat time was notable for being all about escaping scarf hold. Boooooooo. Scarf hold is my one happy place, and every time we run classes on how to get out of it, I feel like I'm being personally attacked. 🤣Situational sparring afterward:

• One Stripe White: rolled with my class partner. Relatively new. Flails a lot in guard, but surprisingly he's a good hand-fighter (meaning that when I go to grab his hands or his arms or whatever, he's able to counter it) and has a tendency to find his way to good frames. Got a tripod sweep on him.
• No-Stripe Blue: I've rolled with this one before. Successfully held him off this time; biggest win here was that I was able to slip a triangle when he went for it by posturing up and curling my endangered arm up to my head to block and give me some literal breathing room. He eventually loosened the lock and I was able to shuck his legs aside and land in side control. Think this might have been him playing with a weak position, but I was able to work with it, and that's not nothing.
• One Stripe White: same one as the first time! Played a lot easier this time with each other, just trying to go with some stuff. Got an armbar in a non-resistant context, but I was trying to show him triangle and my muscle memory got confused. Oh well.
• Two Stripe White: heavier gentleman. Nothing really memorable here. He got past my guard and I was able to recover to standing, which is better than nothing. I seem to recall that we got to a half guard position too, and I was able to get on to my side rather than lying on my back, which is good.

Got back home. Worked on some qigong stuff. Worked some OT. No meditation since the world was just a bit too interesting for some reason. I don't really have anything else to attribute it to. 🤷‍♂️

Today is today. I had hoped to make some mat time, but I wasn't able to get my stuff laundered in time last night on account of neighbors using the machines. It's just as well. Working OT has actually caused me to go to bed later than I'd like, and I'm kind of fried as a result. A little rest won't hurt me none. Beyond that, shouldn't really be anything today to stop me from getting after the goals.

On 3/29/2023 at 2:26 AM, Scaly Freak said:

 

Ooo, I know about this game! Husband bought it last week and played through it, and has only good things to say about it. I might need to play it now.

Yeah, I think so! I didn't expect to find some annual re-play material here between this and Disco Elysium, but here I am. What a fun year it's been so far.

*

Goal 1: 4/4

Goal 2: 3/4

Goal 3: 3/4

Ah, back to the regular update schedule. Feels nice. Like I'm recalling things or something.

Tuesday mat time was... hard. I wrote down all the stuff we went over and I was pretty good at most of what we did. I dunno how to balance fundamental classes against the more advanced stuff - probably a side effect of karate training, which is All Basics All The Time - but I think maybe I'll be more comfortable going to regular classes when I can hit up fundamentals classes and feel mistakes as opposed to floundering. The hard part was the sparring.

• 1-stripe White: situational sparring, open guard against a standing opponent. This is a weak place for me, so I needed to work on it. Got manhandled by the guy up until the last 30 seconds or so, when he popped a rib out of place. Still don't know how it happened. I didn't do anything; I had just toreando'd around his leg and was coming down on him without having any weight on him. He sat up hard into me and he just popped. So that ended that round pretty quickly; it's not my fault and nobody blames me, but it still feels bad because someone got injured rolling with me and I feel like I should have taken better care of him.
• 2-strip White: same situation. This one was coming back from some time away. Managed to get to side control and land an Americana but couldn't get him to tap since he had gumby shoulders.
• New Blue: an older gent who's wiry and athletic as hell. He's goals in some ways for me. Couldn't tap me, but almost got a rear naked choke and cranked me pretty hard for it. I was able to stymie him with the trollish move of turning my head to the side and replacing my airway with my carotids, and since he didn't really have a choke it worked, although my airway was a little sore after for all the pressure.
• There's one more here that I don't remember all that well. Not really remarkable or memorable.

Afterward, sat and chatted with folks for a while. One of the students who'd been there earlier said he was going to stay around for the regular class afterward, which is a no-no at our academy because of limited space. I didn't snitch on him because it's not my rule to enforce and I didn't really care what he did, but it did offend my sense of fair play. Got to carry that feeling that I was being penalized for doing the right thing, and that was a bummer.

It hasn't persisted, though. I'm okay.

Worked some OT afterward and that was that. Had to return to the office again yesterday and again managed my meditation and writing goals at the office. I've decided to be more generous with the writing goal and count research on planning methods toward it, and in this case, research has been about getting more detail about the Snowflake Method. So that's happened. Didn't make it to the mats last night, though; I'd missed morning training and I didn't get out of the office in time and I was actually kind of feeling rundown and like I needed some rest, and I thought that a couple hours of kickboxing and no-gi practice would be too much.

I did manage my strength work, though. And hey, my elbow's doing well enough for me to return to inverted rows in a limited capacity! I'm taking some BJJ strength-training advice and really slowing down my cadence - 3 seconds down, 3 seconds up - and while that's going to slow things down even further, it'll spare my joints, and that fits my priorities right now. I'm just glad to get this back. Right now I'm employing a hook grip on the rings rather than a closed grip, which I think is going to be the next progression once I hit standard.

Did qigong work and drilling afterward. Found some good work for some knee pain I've been dealing with and experienced some immediate relief. Will be investing in this further when I get paid tomorrow.

Anyway, that was all yesterday. Today is today. I'm back at home, and I think we're at the point now where the Writing Friend has fallen off, which I saw coming. Unless she decides to surprise me, which she might. Things will happen as they will today and tonight.

Coheed and Cambria takes me back to my Rockband days in college. We used to get together at my place and we'd basically just jam out on the gaming peripherals. Good times then, and good music here and now!

Wow, all this good music! I'm gonna have to yoink it for some of my playlists, once I'm in a position to do so.

On 3/24/2023 at 5:22 PM, Sovalis said:

Here for this! Enjoy the beach! 

On 3/24/2023 at 9:04 PM, Everstorm said:

Ooh, it's a nice weekend here for the beach.  Good call!

On 3/25/2023 at 10:21 AM, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Following. Watch out for seagulls. Don't let them poke you in the coconut.

On 3/25/2023 at 2:07 PM, Mistr said:

Following. Have a great weekend!

Thanks, y'all!

*

Goal 1: 3/3

Goal 2: 2/3

Goal 3: 2/3

And with that, we are off to the races!

Trip out to the coast was fun times. This trip was to celebrate one of my Sci Fi Friend's wife's birthday. And so we did! Because she wound up with a bunch of nerds under her roof, she decided that she wanted to play D&D, having never played it before. We were able to facilitate this; our DM wound up giving us a heist game whose plot is a crossover between Ocean's 11 and Jack and the Beanstalk.

The game has proven to be a lot of fun to play. I'm presently playing as a Warforged Monk who is acting as a pickpocket/sneak thief for the group. I've had a really easy time with improvising lines and playing comic relief, which is good since comic/adventure is the tone we're going for.

OTOH, everyone else is really, really new to the game and it shows. Remember, this is supposed to be a heist game played in the course of an afternoon, but instead of going with the flow of the story and letting it happen, we've spent the past 2 days planning this thing out instead of actually executing the thing. The other players are basically playing the game like it's a game to be won rather than a story to be told, which is a rookie thing to do (and I know I done it). Also, one player basically doesn't trust the DM to not smack us around with information that he might provide in asking questions, so he's really circumspect and oblique in communicating with us and it's proving to be really frustrating for everyone else.

Sigh. We should have played Blades In The Dark. Simpler mechanics, session's done in an hour, and no need to waste time on the planning stage. But she wanted what she wanted, and so we got what we got. And TBH, it really has been fun, and I think everyone else is having a good time. Suppose it remains to be seen. I do think some of our players are going to bounce off the game, but I don't think it's anyone's fault. Frankly, FWIW, I've had fun; it's good to know that I can actually improvise with people when I'm paying attention and investing myself in their stories without an attachment to the end result.

Anyway, that's the big news of the last couple of days. Beyond that, we basically came home on Sunday. Since I skipped out on hand and neck work on Saturday, I did Sunday instead after having got home. Would have got after the other goals except that a game I'd been wanting to play came up on Steam Sale, so I went and got that instead. Game in question was Citizen Sleeper; in it, you play as a piece of sapient corporate property on the run from your masters in a hard-science space opera setting. So, think a cyberpunk take on The Expanse. It was fun stuff. It's a text-heavy RPG and plays out more like a visual novel than it does anything else; the gameplay loop is about time and resource management as you're trying to make enough money to buy the food and meds that you need to keep yourself alive as you're trying to stay one step ahead of the corporation that's chasing you. I really enjoyed it; I think I'd like to replay the game on some kind of annual basis so that the story beats hit harder rather than frying myself out on it.

Monday, I took the day off of the job because my Dad wanted some help working on the house. That meant going home and helping with removing a bush in front of our porch as well as putting up some fascia board to pretty up the tongue-in-groove board that my folks rebuilt the porch with. Hung out with them for the day before going back to hang out with Sci Fi friends again to continue D&D, which was just another night of planning (although we did manage to punch it up some with the use of a flashback mechanic that we borrowed from Blades In The Dark. Which I'd offer is proof that we should have played that game instead, but I digress). The labor at my folk's place was my training, and the writing and meditation got done; I actually found that I'm going to have to bump my time to 3 minutes since 10 deep breaths is longer than 2 minutes for me.

Today, back in the office. Training goal was accomplished at home, and writing and meditation goals are completed here at the job, hence my offering numbers up to today. Gonna make it out to the mats tonight and follow up with some overtime work. Gonna try to get my laundry caught up as well so I can make mat time tomorrow, but I suppose that we'll just have to wait and see how it shakes out.

Good start! I've observed that, when it comes to food, you either spend money to save time, or spend time to save money. What is appropriate when is down to you.

I'm glad to hear that the dog wound up in a good place, and I hope your work trip goes well!

Howdy, y'all!

Getting in early on this one as I'm taking off to the beach in a couple hours and I don't know if I'm going to get the chance to post on time.

In keeping with the last challenge, I made a point of redistributing my training tasks to win back some much needed time. I applied that the past week as follows:

• Monday: Simple and Sinister, Farmer's Walks
• Tuesday: Straddle Planche progression, Side Lever progression
• Wednesday: Rope Climb progression, Single Leg Squat progression, Manna progression
• Thursday: Hollow Back Press progression, Front Lever progression
• Friday: Simple and Sinister, Farmer's Walks
• Saturday: Handstand and Neck work
• Sunday: ???

It all sounds like a lot and very heavy until you realize that at this point it's just planks and push ups and inverted rows and super basic things at this point. But I tried it out and, uh, it worked like gangbusters! Everything's done really fast; nothing takes more than 20-30 minutes and I hit enough of my body to feel good for having done it. I've even been able to retain my qigong practice, although that too has changed some. Shi Yan Lei, whose work I'm following, wants like 5 different stances in addition to the qigong, as part of a combined program of qigong and kung fu. Well, I've already got enough leg work in my kung fu program as it is, and only 2 of the stances he provides show up in the qigong movements, so there's no real reason for me to faff about and waste more effort.

And the thing is, the training workload as it was distributed last challenge had some substantial effects on my ability to get after the non-training portions - the meditation and the writing. So I want to attack those problems again, but this time with this new set up, just to see how it goes.

For those who didn't follow along last time, it goes like this:

Goal 1: Training

Like it says on the tin. Qigong is going to happen as it does; I actually want to try to get to 3-4 times a week, which I think will be quite doable. This was another one of those things that suffered under the prior load, but really it's more a matter of being an opportunity than something I'm going to pursue aggressively.

Goal 2: Meditation

Gonna shift this goal a little bit and set a time of 2 minutes as my minimum. To be clear, even if I miss this goal, I'm still going to take my deep breaths at bed time and get some benefit. So it's not an either/or situation by any stretch. I just want to challenge myself to do more, and having a hard standard that I won't wiggle out of will help. Maybe. Or maybe I'll be lazy again. IDK.

Goal 3: Writing

I found a more detailed version of the Snowflake Method. I think I'm going to use this one, since it has a more integrated approach to character profiling and stuff like that. The old 6-step program on Reedsy that I referenced before was a good starting point, but it was also looser in a way that I had a hard time connecting with. I still think I can use their character profiler as a way to construct a dossier on my characters for reference, but it's hard to use for the planning stages, at least for me. My figuring at this point is, plan out -> write the damn thing -> fill out dossiers afterward with the information I develop. But we'll see. 1st step is to follow the plan.

Those are my goals this time. It works out to being mostly a repeat of the last challenge. There is some stuff I want to do/get into, but I don't really have a realistic way of approaching that just yet, so that'll be something that hums along in the background. No worries.

T-minus a couple days. See y'all when I do!

Kudos to you for walking in the rain. Walking is something I really need to get back in my life in a bad way. That is some daggum dedication right there.

Wow! Sounds like life happened to you in a big way this challenge. I wish you luck in the new business venture! I hope it turns out well for you and everyone involved.

How do you like HRV so far? I've heard mixed things about its value for recovery; I've seen some folk swear by it and other folk say that it's overcautious.

Job well done! I think for as much as this challenge threw at you in the Life department, you did wonderfully.

On 3/19/2023 at 4:35 PM, Scaly Freak said:

 

What I do know, is that a vodka martini with a pinch of chocolate protein powder unintentionally mixed in, is not enjoyable to sip at all  

 

 

Oh, wow, yeah, no, that's terrible. That's definitely not a flavor profile that works.

19 hours ago, Mistr said:

I think expanding your lunch time to an hour is a good strategy. I have an hour lunch and it is enough time to get a short workout in. Or do to a couple errands, or take a nap if those things are more important on the moment.

I'm hopeful. And even if it doesn't work out, I'm doing well enough at the job that I don't need to spend an extra half hour or so on my cases. Worst case, I get a little extra rest over the course of the day like you say, and I'm not complaining about that.

19 hours ago, Mistr said:

See you on the next round.

See you soon!

*

OK, thoughts and feels about this challenge.

Overall? Pretty good. This was one of those where I won some and learned some even as I won some. That is genuinely dope.

The training win is that I've rediscovered my love of kettlebell swings and get ups, and they've had immediate carryover into the things I want to be good at, both in terms of martial arts and general physical prep. That is good. I also learned, however, that it's hard to combine this with other things afterward; it's not a problem of finding or having extra stuff to do so much as the more recent emphasis on "timeless" standards, meaning generous rest and looseness in the body. It takes enough time for it to become a compliance issue, and while it's not necessarily bad to stop and go as life demands, it's also not terribly pleasant to take that long.

I was reminded recently that in the 1st edition, Pavel suggested that S&S could be combined with an ongoing S&C program at a dose of twice per week, which would slow my progression down considerably, but may be the easier option to comply with. Probably going to jump to that this week to give it a dry run and then plug it in for my next challenge.

Meditation was really good this past challenge in lowering my blood pressure. Which is always a win.  But the lesson is that, as usual, if I give myself permission, I'll settle for the least possible amount. In this case, it worked out to 10 deep breaths before going to sleep. I do believe I'd benefit from more work in this space, but I also know that I'd have to set a standard and stick to it without any wiggle room. Then again, though, if I'm benefitting from the present dose, do I really need more? I don't know. Ironically, the meditation I would do on my need to meditate doesn't appear to be at an appropriate dose to figure this out.

Writing was hard, because being a creative is hard. As little as I got done, I actually feel really accomplished about. I do like what the Snowflake Method gave me in terms of story structure, and I eventually figured out a way to use it to generate character profiles, which feels right for the planning form. However, in researching the Snowflake Method, I found that there's actually a lot of variations on this form, and I want to research those and see if I could develop the story even further. I really think if I buckled down on this, I could return to prose work in the next month or so, which I'm actually really itching to get back to. Maybe some kind of morning pages too to scratch the itch and loosen those processes back up again.

So, like I said, it's been a good challenge on the whole. And as always, I thank you for stopping by. Special thanks to @Jupiter, @KB Girl, @Mistr, @Scaly Freak, @Sovalis, @Tanktimus the Encourager, @The Most Loathed, @Everstorm, and @TimovieMan, and anyone else I missed who stopped by. It's the community I'm here for, and it wouldn't be a community without you. ❤️

See you next round!

On 3/17/2023 at 5:46 PM, Scaly Freak said:

 

Yes, it is true. Make sure the protein shaker is completely clean before you start mixing though. Just trust me on that.

Hey, maybe I want some protein powder in my mixed drinks. You don't know!

On 3/18/2023 at 3:53 PM, The Most Loathed said:

I hope it pays off. I never entirely planned to start that process but kind of arrived at it organically, realizing I had heard of others doing but also realizing I wanted to know if I was getting the subs I wanted, how I was getting subbed, and, at the time, I really was holding top but not finishing as often as I wanted ( i was/am). For me, it was more successful at that than I expected but it also made me feel like I had an opportunity to tell the story of the gym that I wished I was telling. I also found that while it was a little tough at first but just the act of having to remember enough to be able to write things down has made my retention of my gym time so much higher. 

Glad the roll with the purple belt was so good. 

Yeah, we'll see. I've observed that writing things down, even if I don't go looking for video references later, still helps a lot with retention. I'm hoping for similar results in writing down my rolls in terms of identifying trends and seeing how I get to where I get to. Maybe useful, maybe not. But can't hurt to try.

*

Goal 1: 35/35

Goal 2: 33/35

Goal 3: 18/35

Quick update here at the end of the challenge since I've gotta go and train, but basically, things ended out as well as they were probably going to. Used my protein shaker to whip up heavy cream for making Irish Coffee, which turned out super dope. Worked overtime on Friday night and then put in with my boss for an expansion of my lunch time from half an hour to an hour, which is a great, nonspecific way to get the time I need to sneak off and not have to answer to anyone for why I'm not responding to messages and doing what I'm told. I'll pay  a price for it in terms of having to be to work a bit earlier, but only a bit, and it's manageable compared to what I was trying to do before, so it'll be no problem.

Saturday was an all-social day. Got up and went to hang with friends. Slept too late to get any lifting done, which is my own fault. It was a good time overall, although it did use up all my time on Saturday, and so when I finally got the chance to sleep in super late today, I took it, and got up just in time to have more social demands on me, which. In practice, it doesn't really amount to being a problem, but in principle it's a real drain.

Anyway, I'm off to lift things and then go to more social stuff with my folks, so a detailed write up of how things went here is going to be delayed. On the whole, it feels good. But it's also got some lessons in it that I think could be useful going forward.

Goal 1: 33/33

Goal 2: 32/33

Goal 3: 17/33

Thursday down! Happy Friday, everyone!

I lifted heavy things and went off to the mats afterward. Good times, y'all. Yesterday marked the start of a new cycle where I was able to bump up the weight on a couple sets of swings and get-ups. It was fun to be able to lift a little more.

Mat time was good. Worked on side control and guard recovery from there, something that I'm really bad at and need to practice as much as possible. Gonna take a page from @The Most Loathed and document the rolls as I remember them:

1. 2-stripe White: relatively new student. Very intense. I started off with side control, and while he was initially able to escape to an open guard situation, I was able to knee-slide back to side control, convert to scarf hold, and submit him with an Americana using my leg. When it was his turn, I didn't really escape so much as I used survival postures to stymie him: he was able to convert to mount, so I got to my right side, got my left hand buried under my torso, and covered my neck with my right hand. He was able eventually to muscle my left arm out and sat back to arm bar, but I was able to use my left hand to catch my right bicep and use it as a sticking point. He didn't think to use his leg to break my grip, so I pushed up with my right hand to make a space and sat up into what became his guard, then managed to split it with a "tactical kneel." Timer ran out.
2. That Freaking Purple Belt: that's right, went with that guy again! It was a better roll this time. Dunno if it was his attitude or mine, but there was no bad blood one way or the other. Actually, we spent the whole roll joking and laughing with each other, which causes me to look back at the prior interaction and conclude that I was probably looking at that badly. I think he was trying new stuff to him as far as back takes and stuff, but I stuffed most of what he was trying to do with survival postures. I don't recall getting subbed, which was its own victory, but I know for a fact that was a matter of largesse.
3. No-stripe Blue: nice guy. He subbed me once. He's one of the most recent crop of blue belts, and he's always been better than me, but it's nice to see that he's not as much better than me as I thought. Surprisingly fluid.
4. 2-stripe White: different from the first one. Lighter than me and wiry. He started off with side control and while I couldn't recover to guard, I was able to force a half-guard situation. He countered by putting me on my back in half-guard, which is a good place for questioning your life choices leading up to that point. I was able to sweep him so that I was on top, but I couldn't really do anything with it. At the last second, he went to sweep me, but I was able to roll with it and counter-sweep him to retain top position.

It was a good night. Got off the mats afterward and managed to pick up some stuff for St. Padraig's Day today. Also, apparently you can use a protein shaker for shaking... ah, non-protein things. That's pretty neat to try and saves me $50 if it's true.

I'd hoped I'd be able to sneak out to the mats for lunch, but the job indicated today that it's starting up a new initiative where we're going to be more aggressive in scheduling appointments with our doctors on aged cases, which for the purposes of sneaking off to the mats amounts to a more aggressive monitoring system as long as I've got aged cases to which this would apply. Which I do. So no more sneaking off until I get that caseload under control. Boo.

Then again, maybe I could talk to my boss about it and see if she'd be cool with me going off at lunch to do that. After all, the job alleges that it cares more for our health and wellbeing, and this would certainly help with that. Having cleared lunch times to do this would also be really cool as far as letting me balance mat time with social time. Flip side being, if she says no, then there's definitely no way I can sneak off in the short term since she'll be looking for me to try.

Anyway. Today is today. Let us lift and be about our business.

Seminars just be like that. There's a reason other people are asking these teachers to come out and teach. Generally, traveling teachers are very, very good at imparting knowledge. And personally, I find the break in routine to be a lot of fun. Sounds like you had a lot of fun too.

Goal 1: 32/32

Goal 2: 31/32

Goal 3: 17/32

I elected to sleep in today. Because getting up early hasn't been doing anything for me and it's not resolving the core issue, which is that I'm too focused on the job at the expense of exercise and artistic development. A better solution may be to cultivate an awareness of time and to honor myself and my pursuits. The job does not suffer for this. If anything, it actually benefits. A happy, independent Kishi is a productive Kishi.

But not really a lot to report on yesterday. I took a short day and worked from home again before headed out to visit my friend and continue the vegetation. It was fine. We've been working through the Netflix show Outer Banks, which is this adventure series taking place on, well, the Outer Banks. It centers on a group of teens who wind up involved in a treasure hunt against murderous rich folk. Characterization is strong, and it's rather novel for me to see an episodic series taking place somewhere that I recognize, with all its familiar mores and quirks. In season 1, a couple of the characters wind up going to Chapel Hill, and it was surreal to recognize some of the places where they went.

As to how the show is? It's all right. First season's really good; character work is strong and the conflict feels natural, with believable consequences and just enough luck to suspend disbelief. Season 2 is also good, but it starts to run into problems in that the characters get dumber because the plot has to happen and the writers apparently didn't have the imagination to see the show take different directions. It begins to show a reliance on the S1 formula and without spoiling it, there's a major jump the shark moment at the very, very end. Season 3 starts off with a bang, but it's leaning even harder on the formula now to the point that it feels kind of lazy. Characters are still a lot of fun, and the actors are acting the hell out of their scenes, but the sense of realism is gone, and I am 95% sure I know how this season's going to end. Which is disappointing, but hey. It's not like they asked for my help or anything.

Anyway, I'm off of that today because season 2 of Shadow and Bone dropped and my friend is going to be mainlining that. So I get to lift heavy things and return to the mats tonight. That'll be good.

On 3/14/2023 at 12:17 PM, Mistr said:

Do you find yourself going out to do social things, then staying up late so you can do your own things?

 

If so, that shows that you care about having your own time more than getting enough sleep. Which is normal, but leads to the issue you describe about having trouble shifting your schedule earlier. 

Kinda sorta? I stay up, but my own thing is apparently just coasting down and waiting for myself to get tired. Sometimes I'll stay up to write but sometimes not; there's not really a pattern there for me to point to and say, "Ah, yes, this is something I need to prioritize."

Mostly it's just my own internal rhythm. I've always been a night owl, and it's never been a problem until I had a job that insisted on 1.5th shift hours. It's not quite first shift and it's not quite second shift, and so it's the worst of both.

On 3/14/2023 at 12:17 PM, Mistr said:

I know you value your time with people you care about. That said you might be able to make your life go smoother if you used the phrase "I'd love to get together with you, but ____day does not work for me. Could you do ____day instead?"

Maybe? Worth a shot. I'm personally paranoid about how my chores pile up and I worry that I'd ask for a day for myself and get it only to have to lose mat time in favor of chores and then wind up losing mat time later because I'd negotiated that time away to someone else. But that doesn't mean it's not worth trying. I'm losing time now, so worst case, I lose time having tried to do something about it.

A bigger possible issue would be getting pulled into group stuff, where that kind of approach would render me some kind of a lone holdout. I would be very uncomfortable with trying to force a bunch of people to do what I want, but that's a separate situation.

On 3/14/2023 at 12:17 PM, Mistr said:

Another handy tool is an egg ring. You can use them for fried or semi-scrambled eggs. The ring makes the egg come out in the perfect shape for a hamburger (or an English muffin).

Mm! Yes! I've seen these before! I've never had a chance to use them because they're metal and my own pots and pans are nonstick, but my friend could have used them since he was cooking on a flattop (or rather, I've only ever seen metal). They look hecking convenient!

6 hours ago, The Most Loathed said:

You're absolutely right, the greatest privilege is choice.

Don't beat yourself up for having imperfect foreknowledge of how you want to choose. As long as you keep paying attention and making little tweaks, you're doing much better than most. You're wise to see the change in demands on your time and call them out for what they are and know that the seasons will change.

Thanks. I just need to get used to making those little tweaks under pressure. Won't get that if I don't get out to the mats, but, I'm also on my own to make those tweaks, and I won't be able to study those in-depth if I'm on the mats. So, really, it seems I need both, and whichever will be available is a matter of 'the season,' I guess.

Maybe that's why I'm doing better after so much time away? Between the S&C work and the home study, maybe that's getting me places.

*

Goal 1: 31/31

Goal 2: 30/31

Goal 3: 17/31

Day was done. Not much to say about it. Didn't get my lifting done before going to the office, and didn't get it done after getting home late. Did go off to hang with that friend, and it was a good time. She's been having some mental health troubles lately and needed some companionship since 2/3s of her polycule are off traveling without her. So we engaged in some companionable vegetation and it was fine.

I'm bout to wrap up on work here. I'll get to lift some weight and then go off to veg some more. Should be enjoyable. Not sure if we're doing a third day together tomorrow or what. I'll take it as it comes.

17 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

You're allowed to set your own priorities and decide who to hang out with based on how they affect those priorities. You can also say "no" to people.

Of course I am, but the way I see it, my priority has to be other people. Otherwise, I'd be spending every spare moment on the mats, and I wouldn't ever really see anyone else. Every weeknight would be given over to that, and a good chunk of my weekends too, like the midday sections. And for what? To get beat up? To remain mediocre despite everyone's best efforts including my own? That's its own kind of nonsense.

We're also overlooking the fact that if I was out there on the mats all the time, I'd be complaining about how I don't have a dating life and whining about whether or not the investment of time is even worth it.

Truthfully, I'm rather lucky. I get the privilege of choosing between things I want to do and people I want to be with. The real problem is, I don't know how to be happy about it.

I'm just living through a high tide in other people's demands on my time. It won't last.

*

Goal 1: 30/30

Goal 2: 29/30

Goal 3: 17/30

So, good news and bad news. Good news is, I'm getting up earlier! The added hour has me getting tired earlier than before, so I've been able to ride that wave and get to bed earlier!

Bad news is, it hasn't helped. I'm getting up at 8:30 now, but I'm dragging too much and by the time the tea's kicked in, it's time to job, and I've been letting that take up more of my focus rather than lifting in the morning, which was the whole reason I wanted to get up earlier in the first place. Part of the answer is getting down earlier to get up earlier, which is feasible, but it's still disappointing that I'm so whipped by the job that I can't just log in and jiggle the mouse for a while as I do the things I really want to do. So much for my politics.

Still, self-knowledge is useful. Since I'm not immutable, I can change. And I can only consciously change what I know about, so knowing this is useful. SO, probably need to get earlier to bed. We'll all win that way.

Last night was a good night. Finished off Season 3 of Lower Decks. Show got good. Glad I stuck it out. Can't wait for the next season. Plan from here is a rewatch of Chernobyl, as half the Nerds are into The Last of Us show and Chernobyl was the showrunner's debut. After that, our newest Nerd put in a request for Vox Machina, which I want to see and haven't made the time for, so this would be a good excuse.

Anyway, tonight will be the first of three nights of bingeing Netflix stuff. Because my priority is people, and my plans are subject to change.

On 3/10/2023 at 3:07 PM, The Most Loathed said:

This is dumb BJJ politics. 

For people who don't know, at some gyms people love wearing many and varied uniforms, others, blue, black, and white only, and others still, there is a single uniform gi. Many gyms will never tell you, you're just expected to get it from the vibe. BJJ, while I love it, has a lot of this dumb culture stuff that you're just supposed to vibe with but then people who get different vibes tend to hate on one another. 

You're correct, if coach has a problem, coach needs to ties his own pants up and tell you and purple belt can take a walk. 

That's about what I figured. Though I should double-check the mat rules and make sure that I'm in line there. I don't think it's a problem; I've seen a wide variety of colors on the mats and a direct preference has never really been articulated. If I'm not out of line, then there's no problem until I'm told by someone who matters.

On 3/10/2023 at 3:15 PM, Sovalis said:

Sorry that guy was being rude. That’s just so unnecessary.

I mean, eh. It's probably me. Truth is, I hadn't been smashed in a while and I forgot how much it smarts, and so I perceived everything through the lens of a stung ego. Everything sucks when you look through that lens. And nobody else seems to have taken it as if it was some sleight or as if he was out of line, so realistically I was probably just topical to a silly conversation that I wasn't in a position to receive well. No reason yet to make more of it than that.

On 3/10/2023 at 3:15 PM, Sovalis said:

What are you batch cooking? 

Beef. Just ground beef. Not complicated to do at all, but I haven't been managing my time well and I paid a price for it.

*

Goal 1: 29/29

Goal 2: 28/29

Goal 3: 16/29

Howdy everyone!

It has been some days since last post. Had a pretty busy weekend. Mostly a lot of running around and not having time for myself. Just the way I like 'em.

Friday was quiet. I got to get my cooking done and get some chores done around the place. Tweaked some small things on my present training program to allow for more rest and deloads on the bodyweight feats I'm pursuing, which is good.

Saturday I went to go help my friend with lifting things. I know better than to think that lifting kettlebells on a daily basis predisposes people to come looking for me to lift their shit every couple weeks, but doggone if it doesn't feel like it. Gonna spoiler the reasons below:

I couldn't stay for all the lifting that had to be done and it turned out complicated because I was also on the hook to be back in Raleigh to visit my folks for lunch, so I almost wound up being late for that and definitely didn't get there in time to clean up like I told myself I would, but they didn't treat it like a big deal and it really wasn't.

Sunday I went out to breakfast with my folks, because this was how they wanted to celebrate my birthday from back on the Third. Which I thought was kind of weird. Since my Dad's birthday and mine are so close, I tend to treat his celebration as our celebration, especially since we gave up on gift giving some years ago. But they wanted it, and my younger bro was able to show up, and it was nice to see him and everyone and so we did it. It was a cold, sleety, snowy day after sunshine and spring the day before. Welcome to NC.

After that, got home, chilled and lifted weights, then talked to my Librarian Friend and accidentally talked him into coming up here to visit us tonight for Nerd Night. Which'll be nice, although I don't know what the plans are or what we'll be doing.

Also, one of my Dramatic Friends wants me to come out to visit her so we can binge some shows together. I'm trying to get her to plan this out. She is... ah, inert. So I suppose we'll see how that shakes out. I honestly wouldn't mind if it didn't. I'm getting tired of people getting in the way of my single-minded determination to get beat up in as many different ways as I possibly can.

1 hour ago, Treva said:

Things I'm learning about scheduling my life - Realistically, I only have two hours to work in, and one to get ready for bed and the next day.

-I am never going to be someone who wakes up before work to get stuff done.  I will sleep in as late as possible.  Maybe this will change in the future, but right now body is gonna SLEEP and sleep hard.

-6-6:45 Practice-->workout 6:45-7:15-->dinner+study 7:15-8:30 means I will need a snack to get me to 7:30, BUT I can eat less things at dinner time.

-Buying salads at work will cost me ~$120 per month, but it saves me time and calories, and time is a more valuable commodity.    I bring nuts or the GoodRX target knockoff bars with me to snack on during the day. 

-Picking a workout based on how much time I have is really working

-Practicing at 8 PM is not working.

Gotta go with the flow, right? Challenges are sometimes about changes and sometimes they're about learning things. Both are equally productive, although in different ways.

3 hours ago, Sovalis said:

Had to pay for some boxes to get shipped to the Kelowna store to the tune of $485 today, so really hoping that Ken keeps his word about paying me back for that. I feel really awkward about it. I think in the future I might decline something like that. It feels like a big ask for the sake of some convenience. We could have sent it with our regular courier, it just would have taken more work on Ken’s part and more time to get it organized. But I wouldn’t be out almost $500 if something doesn‘t go right… The boxes were full of a promotional display stand, so nothing that couldn’t have waited. I don’t know, Friends. It just feels weird now that I am not laser focused on solving the problem. 

Yeah, that's Not Okay. Almost reads like he's treating you less as an employee whose labor he needs and more as a repository for capital that he can draw on. You hold him to it, and in the meantime I'd advise looking into what kinds of consequences you can force on him in case he tries to weasel out.

Given all the breaks everyone else appears to be taking while leaving you on the hook, it should be no big deal.

22 hours ago, Sovalis said:

What blog are you drawing from for the character profiles? 

This one. The information that they insist on is freely available, but they offer a PDF template download thing, which I'm not sure if I think is useful or not? I ultimately downloaded it since a lot of the places I go to write don't have easy internet access, and having the resource downloaded is just easier.

*

Goal 1: 26/26

Goal 2: 25/26

Goal 3: 14/26

Thursday done. Friend never confirmed our writing time, so mat-time it was. I've been sticking to the fundamental classes, since I've never thought I was too good to skip the fundamentals, and while it means I don't get access to more advanced stuff (because they limit mat time to only one class), I genuinely don't mind. The only deficiency is that the sparring is situational only, but that can be addressed by hitting up open mats, which I'll be doing once the ortho clears me for it again.

Anyway, we worked on basic guard stuff - mostly posture breaks and a triangle counter to the stall position, which I really liked and was almost able to pull off. Also did a very, very simplified version of a Flower/Pendulum Sweep from guard. It's got almost all the same pieces, but instead of getting an arm under your partner's leg and curling with the sweep, you just get one leg in their armpit and the opposite on the ground. Sweep up and over. This is apparently referred to in the old school as a "Calf Roll Sweep," but I can't confirm since I went looking for a video and everything came back with calf slices instead.

Situational sparring was a mixed bag. First opponent was squirrely and athletic but I was able to cancel him out with weight and technique. Second opponent was a cinnamon roll; I played as nicely with her as I could and tried to be as gentle in my technique as I could manage, and she couldn't do anything about. Next roll was with a purple belt who I think had it out for me on account of crushing the cinnamon roll, as he crushed me, and then I saw him on the final roll going nice and easy with her. (he also made an offhand comment afterward when we were cleaning up that the head coach doesn't like green gi, and I was the only one wearing green. Which, like, okay my guy. If coach has a problem, he can tell me himself. Also, it could be that I'm misreading that; there was some talk about wearing different colored gi and how wearing red is apparently a power move of some kind and how coach apparently only likes white and blue and black gi as those are the colors he wears, and I just happened to be the one person who was wearing different colors). My last roll was with a younger, more athletic man who outplayed me pretty hard. No two ways about that one.

I have to admit, I walked off the mats pretty frustrated, but that's really more to do with how I finished and how I was reading the situation at the time. Dunno if it means anything in terms of whether I'm getting better or not. Have to keep showing up and doing what I can.

Unfortunately, I couldn't do mat time today because I totally forgot to wash my uniform and my belt afterward, and I wanted to be a good teammate and present clean today. Couldn't do that, so no mat time. And no mat time tomorrow because I'm going off to help someone with moving stuff tomorrow morning and then coming back to do lunch with my folks. Sunday would be mat-time if I wasn't committed to keeping my word to my ortho and limiting my sparring to situationals. So I'll have to sneak out on Monday instead.

At least meditation, writing, and qigong happened last night. And it'll happen again tonight. And I'll finally get the batch cooking done. So there's that.

5 hours ago, Sovalis said:

I am also buying two sets of dice via private sale. They are both out of print and therefore hard to find. The seller is raising money to pay a copay (? This is an American Healthcare thing and I don’t quite know what it means).

Basically, if insurance covers something like a doctor's appointment or lab work or whatever, the patient is still on the hook to pay some money for it. The money that they pay alongside the insurance company is the copay.

Sounds like their policy isn't very helpful. Good of you to help out. ❤️

Also, excited to hear that y'all might be getting a raise! 🤞