Kishi

Here's hoping you got the rest you needed.

No worries! I like it when people stop by. Thank you. I mean, there's not much to it. Had a tournament last month and my final match was with a guy who was a lot stronger than me. Soon as he got a hold of my right arm he yanked it hard enough to cause a shoulder strain. That's really it. Anyway, thanks for the encouragement. Thanks! I like it. It's fun to do. * Goal 1: 18/21 Goal 2: 17/21 Goal 3: 19/21 Saturday was the kind of quiet day I've been needing for a while. A good recharge kind of day. I'm grateful for it. Today, woke up to the news that one of my fellow white belts from the Original Crew made blue! She was a 3-stripe white belt out of 4 stripes, and she's good enough that they just skipped the formalities and bumped her up a rank. I had a feeling it'd work out that way for her. She's that good, and I'm proud of her, truly. I just wish I was happy about it. Instead, my usual bitterness has come to the surface, courtesy of my shame and envy. Neither of which is really an appropriate response for lots of reasons that I can point out, but they are what they are, and it is what it is. Today's a rather lax today. It's been gray and rainy and I slept and napped long enough to wake up in the afternoon, and it's really hard to get after things when that happens to me. And I wasted a bunch of time on my feelings instead of training, so now it's late enough that I have to go visit with my folks instead of that. Which is fine. Rest isn't bad for my hurting bits anyway.

Wait a minute. You're from Texas. Don't they sic the Secret Police on people down there for using metric? I mean, cool if they don't, I just don't want you getting in trouble.

Is there any possibility of husband and son doing some prep work themselves? You'd all win if they did.

Hm. Any word on what the successful groups are doing that maybe y'all could pick up?

FWIW, I suspect that forcing black belts to run at 100% is probably one of the best compliments you can receive. Even though it might not feel that way at the time.

Howdy! I'm sure things are very much A Lot right now, and I just wanted you to know that we're thinking about you and hope that things get better or give you some rest.

Goal 1: 17/20 Goal 2: 15/20 Goal 3: 18/20 The day went well. There was another meeting about the stats. We're all on the same page of being angry at the agency, and Boss is definitely working hard to advocate for us, which is better of her than I've been led to expect of people in that position. But there really wasn't much else to it. I trained as much as I could, ate, wrote, meditated. A pretty quiet Friday, which was nice. Elbow's responding to treatment, although I wonder if I should be icing it afterward like I'm doing with my shoulder. It's not technically part of the protocol, but it might not hurt things. Otherwise, today is today. Should be nice and quiet. No plans, aside from laundry. Always laundry.

Yeah. At least in this instance, it's all tied to the fact that the agency wants to treat telework as an incentive rather than a business practice. If they just gave us 4 days out, 1 day in, that'd solve the whole thing, but they don't want to do that. I'm not sure how much of that is down to inertia in the system vs how much of that is down to preferences of certain agents in the chain of command. I have a lot of suspicions, but I don't have any names or hard proof, and I'd really rather work in good faith here. Stupidity is a much better explanation than malice, I think. Yup! That's the idea. If the pandemic takes another turn, I'll have to work around it again, but on the whole I'm pretty optimistic about this. And I do miss the heavy bag. We have bags at the Academy, but we never get to use them! Gives me a sad. 😢 * Goal 1: 16/19 Goal 2: 14/19 Goal 3: 17/19 Like I said yesterday, I had to get up early to go to the dr for blood work related to my thyroid, and while I was on time, I didn't take care of myself getting there, so I'm docked a point for that. Also, I didn't meditate. Oopsiedoodle. No satori for me. That being said, I wrote a couple pages of my cast of players getting together in a warmly wooden-paneled room to talk. Because it's a character study. Get it? Also, my trick of interspersing drills with resting points in Hades carried off! I still haven't got back to doing everything that I was told to do, but we're getting there, just a bit at a time. I emailed my boss last night about the work situation. She's on an advisory panel for goals and incentives, and I told her that I didn't think a processing time goal was fair given all the other goals we have in place and how they balance out. She got back to me this morning and said she'd take it to the board, and she also said that based on my stats, I'm not going to lose telework, which is a relief. 😌 Anyway, Not much to training today beyond the usual; TGUs, shoulder routine, weighted carries, elbow work. The elbow protocol says to lay off on carries, but those actually feel good, so I'm going to keep them on until otherwise indicated.

Gonna echo the others. My dad was an Airman and a farmer, and he moves along really great for someone his age, but he's also status-post a heart attack and he's got some pulmonary issues to go with it. Seeing him now struggle to walk up a hill... it's kind of hard to watch and be there for, even as it's all I want to do. So, yeah, I get it. Also, hey, your coloring is really pretty. Good work!

That snow is so pretty~! We couldn't handle it down here, so I'm glad I get the chance to admire it via a photo.

I know short workouts are all the rage, but there's just something cleansing about going off to visit The Iron for an extended stay.

+1. Limited liability isn't just for LLCs. Anyway, I really hope that someone somewhere in that process gets a cranial-rectal extraction and fixes your situation. What they're doing to you is really unfair.

Given what passes for the ordinary in American health, I'm not sure I'd trust any lay advice. That being said, I know for a fact that I know everything, so you can definitely listen to me.

Well, it's true, so keep saying it. Good for you knowing yourself well enough to know when you need a low intensity day. That takes time and practice.

Unfortunately, no. She's in the right to follow those procedures. The only thing I get to do is to watch my cases closer and take action myself if similar situations arise. Which means that my younger cases are going to slow down, and I have to close a bunch of old cases now in order to counterbalance my new case assignments and keep my overall load in check. So. Unless the Powers That Be decide to remove the processing time goal, I'm probably going to be back in the office fulltime starting either April or May.

Thanks! It was definitely a "Rocks Fall, Everybody Dies" kind of way, but done is done and I can get to work applying my lessons. * Goal 1: 16/18 Goal 2: 12/18 Goal 3: 17/18 Job is testing my patience today. I have a, ah, very zealous secretary or call center worker who is going behind my back to force additional development on cases that would otherwise be able to close. This is a problem because she's interfering with my younger cases which I need to close to drive down my processing time, which is a standard I'm being measured against to keep my telework. I do have older cases that can close, and the agency wants those closed, but if I do that, they drive up my processing time and I fail to meet my standards. That's a fun thought. "Congrats, Kishi, way to go and work hard on a lot of stuff we wanted you to! Anyway, your doing so caused you to fail to meet our standards, so we're gonna revoke your telework for the next 6 months. Thank you for your service. " I'm sure one way or the other this is going to work out to being my fault in the long run, so better to use this as an educational opportunity to tighten things up. Last night I started the research process for some stuff that my protagonist can do that I definitely can't. It's highlighted a flaw in my draft already which is super-useful to have. Want to work on some intercharacter studies to make voices more distinct; I think their personalities are definitely varied, but they didn't shine through that way. At least, not for me. And I was writing the thing. The flexbars arrived last night, so I was able to begin the elbow rehab in earnest. Looking at the program, I notice that it's going to require access to an EZ Bar, and it seems kind of excessive to buy a single bar and a bunch of plates for a thing I'm only going to need a little while. So, I may be looking at a gym membership again. Which is something that I was probably going to have to do anyway, eventually, just given what GB has me doing. There's a Crunch Fitness in walking distance which has the necessary bits and pieces, and heavy bags besides. I'll probably start that in March, which is when the program will have progressed to the point that I have a need. It'll be my birthday week then. Happy Birthday to me. And, hey. If I'm gonna be stuck in the office again before too long, it may not be a bad idea in the long run. I'll probably wind up doing strength work after BJJ and striking, which is not fun, but it may be necessary and I can be disciplined about it. Maybe need to start looking into further collagen supplementation and bringing a kiwi with me to reinforce my joints beforehand. Did meditate before going to sleep. Had to get up early today for thyroid labs, so I didn't get a full night's sleep. I do mean to use this as an opportunity, though, to drive my bedtime earlier; I've had some success with that before, but I'll need to be disciplined in how I get after this tonight.

It sounds good from out here. I suspect it's gonna grind your gears some, but the enforced rest is going to be a net positive, I'm sure.

I mean, that's the Simple and Sinister way, innit? Show up and practice and slay the thing when possible. That's probably the best thing I learned from it.

Goal 1: 16/17 Goal 2: 11/17 Goal 3: 16/17 So! Someone somehow got an actual gif of my office this morning! Here, let me show you it: Apparently, the office phone somehow stopped forwarding messages to my work cell, so I walked in to find like a week's worth of missed voice mails. Of course, given the nature of my job, everything's a damn crisis, so I spent all day putting out fires and getting everything back in working order rather than actually closing cases and getting the load down. I don't really mean to complain. I don't feel strongly enough about it to find complaining worth it. Also, it does appear that everyone in my unit had some kind of problem with their phones sometime this week, although I got some dry heaves from folk when I told them how many messages I'd got to go through. But it's done now. Crisis averted. Tomorrow will be a productive day. I think. Maybe. Good news! Got in touch with my orthopedist and managed to get my follow-up moved up to next Tuesday. No guarantee that I'll be cleared as yet, but no harm in asking and it's not like they won't take my money, right? Also, managed to finish the novel draft! Gonna have to adjust the goal a bit; probably to reflect a research focus rather than a writing focus. I'm motivated to get after it at the moment, so I'm going to bury myself in that for a bit. Maybe start writing character studies to get a better feel for my cast. Also, while I do like the scene-sequel structure, I don't think it works very well for my style. But conversely, I think I can do a better job with conflict on my own, and I think the experiment was educational for that. And... yeah. Otherwise, not much to report. Gonna get after TGUs and rehab today. Still need to work on spacing out drills and getting after them; gonna see if I can intersperse them some with stopping points during my nightly Hades run. But... yeah. A very busy and productive day and a half so far.

That is a huge help and I really appreciate you writing all that out. At present, my approach has been to pick a thing from class as I've attended and find a YouTube video about it, and then add it to a library. At present, I have three different libraries - one for "Judo" or standing/takedown work, one for "Grappling," and one for my tournament game plan. I basically rotate between them as a kind of casual, low key review at night, but I don't really do much as far as taking notes, so that's probably the move. I'm also reviewing the white belt section of Saulo Ribeiro's Jiu-Jitsu University, which was insanely helpful for helping me to survive rolls. As far as any kind of a self-study, I don't really have a plan yet? It might just be "Get Less Weak," because even if BJJ is about technique, there is such a thing as being too weak to use technique in any kind of productive way. But I do still think it'd be better to engage with my materials in a more constructive way, so I'll see what I can apply from what you've said. Thank you again for your help!

Hey yo, hold up, there are weight tracking apps? Like I can just have an app do all the spreadsheet shit I've been wasting time on most mornings for a long time? When were you going to tell me this?

I have those kinds of days too and it bothers me that they're so unmemorable. You'd think, given the relative simplicity, that those'd be the easiest to remember, right?

Whaaat? Gaming until a reasonable hour in the evening as opposed to Late O'Clock at night? What a novel concept! I wish some gaming groups I've been a part of would have known about that. Might have kept me around more. +1.