Kobnach

Accomplished the bare minimum for my official challenge goals yesterday - but accomplished it. Also spent the whole work day working, though too much time went to MOOCs. (I need to prune some. I signed up for enough that keeping up is a full time job.) The living room and kitchen are beginning to emerge from the heap of st0ff. My methods are erratic - grab something that could be better located, and fix; lather, rinse, and repeat - but they are doing the job. The recycling bin in my office is approaching full. Not too many attacks of overwhelming emotion when doing this, even when I gathered up the remnants of Bear's medication yesterday, clearing a little more kitchen space. (Actually, what most commonly gets me is generally financial papers, sometimes lab books from prior jobs.) I'm slowly cataloguing my books, but that's more for fun than anything else (plus a convenient way to verify whether I already own a particular book, or have read it and didn't like it enough to buy it at the time. IBS is acting up; not sure why. And last night was one stress dream after another. Or maybe not all stress dreams. The first one I remember featured my deceased grandmother and deceased aunt. I'd been visiting them, and was on my way home, with some directional assistance. The second dream was a complete riot. It appears that when I lost my job at the startup, I'd kept on working there without pay. I was however working in a room with tiny desks side by side, and my external monitors were somehow powered by my car, with a kludge of a wiring harness. This broke, perhaps pursuant to moving the car. I figured out what was wrong - 2 wires disconnected - but the colours didn't match up, so I wasn't sure how to reconnect them. But it turned out there was a standard, which could be found in a file on any linux system. And my coworker gave me that information, *not* the result of reading the file. But my system is unusable until fixed... or maybe not, if I use the built in monitor. Some bl**dy fool decides to drive the car, with me and a third person in it. But it has no steering, thanks to the same fault. Fortunately the brakes work, and with my emphatic encouragement we get the car stopped and parked by the side of the road, some blocks from where it is needed - and where we need to be (the office). So I'm telling people I'm leaving for real now - they are surprised, and even more surprised to know I'd already been laid off. And I'm trying to leave a note for a coworker about what to do to fix the monitor. But every post it note pad in my desk turns out to have been written on. I start popping them into my bag - or into the trash, but some cleaning person purloins the waste basket. And then things start disappearing. I can't seem to have all 3 of broken part, functional pen, and blank paper at the same time. Meanwhile more desks (and people) have moved into the room. I ask whether the company had given up one of the floors of the office (to economize). Nope, they are reserving space for a TBH manager - lots of space, given that we now have 8 people in space that didn't properly fit 4. I welcome them to xxx, a large stodgy company I worked for in RL, some jobs ago. They rather agreed. I continue trying to leave the note - it's now very late - but now there's a new problem - table cloths on the desks, in layers, which pop back into place whenever I try to look in the desk. It also occurs to me that the car is personal property, and I need to arrange to get it back. Someone tells me that the coworker I expected to fix/take over the computer setup was still at work, but when I go where he was supposed to be, it's a manager with the same first name, who ignores me, even though he was previously *my* manager. (Both of these people came from the job before last, but don't in fact have the same first name.) Then I decide to just leave, and maybe email/call the coworker, but I don't have adequate clothes on. Fortunately there are clothes in the mess of tabelcloths. Unfortunately most of them would be oversize on an ogre, never mind a normal human. I finally find one garment, some kind of overshirt, that more or less fits, and when I put it on I find I'm also wearing pants and something like a tee-shirt, i.e. dressed well enough to leave. Then I woke up. Unsurprisingly, I got out of bed quickly, even though it was almost an hour before my mandatory wake up time.

You rock, Beaucastle.

Wedn Sep 17 Bed 0:47; up at 7:14. Net 7:27 Feeling like crud; either IBS, exhaustion, or illness, not improving as the day progresses. May take sick exemption from exercise and healthy eating. 2 green tea (ginger) 1 bagel, toasted few dried fruit 1 bagel toasted with butter tin of potato-corn-chicken soup 1 herb tea (raspberry) medium O/GJ 2 ghirardelli squares yogurt various saltwater taffies, and other non-chocolate candy crackers salty chips a very few more dried fruit 1 herb tea, ginger many coconut cookies total barely 3 fruit/veg, but feel like crud. 5410 steps giving this day a bit of an exemption for feeling unwell. No strength exercise.

I wouldn't expect them to handle any kind of computer programming. Am I out of date?

A good start on the first official day of the challenge. 7906 steps! The Verstegen exercises are getting a bit easier, and I managed to motivate myself to do them. (Challenge doesn't require them, just an alternation of 2 *very* basic sets of strength/core exercises taking less than 5 minutes.) My wonderful housemate made sure I got up on time. And I've made more space in the living room, so that I can just barely fit most exercises into the space, without having to move boxes and/or chairs before exercising, or resort to the (generally far too hot) back porch as exercise space. (No coincidence that the 5 minute minimum requires very little space ;-0) Life quest needs attention. I spent a lot of yesterday creating a probably useless online profile/resume on the state job hunting site. I need to finish it this week as a requirement for receiving UI. But the site categorizes all software people into a small number of categories, and has check off lists of skills, also insufficiently detailed. I strongly suspect any employers searching here just use those categories, in which case they wouldn't come here to look for someone like me - they've no way to distinguish me from every other sub-specialty ;-( If what they want is someone who is adequately described by these categories, then what they want is an interchangeable part/newbie, not any kind of senior person, and they'll want to pay accordingly - which means my salary history will scare them away immediately. What I haven't done is contacted anyone about a potential job, and doing that is another requirement for UI. *sigh* Also a requirement for actually getting one, which is the more important thing.

Tues Sep 16 Bed 0:03; up at 7:48; net 7:45. Woke for the first time at 7, but wasn't motivated to get up; my housemate had to encourage me. (She's being very helpful with this part of the challenge.) 2 green tea (ginger) 2 slices of french bread, toasted with butter and the last of the ginger marmelades 3 slices of french bread toasted with butter and black currant jam 2 bagels, toasted with butter 1 largish glass of O/G juice herb tea (raspberry) 1 dark chocolate square, 2 dark chocolate with mint large bowl of brussels sprouts with bacon and onion 3 licorice all sorts; 2 salt water taffy net fruit/veggies 4 out of 5 3 sets of: 15 lateral raises, 5 lb dumbbells 15 bicep curls, 5 lb dumbbells 15 floor presses, 10 lb dumbbells This is minimum, and done shortly before 6 PM. 6622 steps; just a bit (150 or so steps) short of 3 miles

Here I am again. That no-S diet sounds interesting; I like the principle of keeping things simple. And this time we share a life goal. *sigh* Which is what I should be working on now, rather than catching up on nerd fitness.

Sounds like you have plenty of challenges, just no NF challenge ;-) Sometimes a holding pattern is the right answer. And it looks like you are doing fairly well.

How's the dog doing now? I hope she's OK.

Just reread the challenge with all the additions. Beautiful! You've got a potential future in some kind of writing, if you ever get tired of fire fighting, game design, etc.

Mon Sep 15 Bed at 1:47; up at 7:41 - net sleep 5:54 (ugh) 1 green tea (ginger) 2 "plastic" toaster waffles (I had bread, but lack of sleep made me uninterested in it) 3 slices french bread toast with butter 2 herb tea (raspberry) 1 bowl of stew with cottage cheese 1 square dark chocolate nuked a small frozen entree ginger cider Verstegen, prelim week 1, short, Monday - 2/5 items, + some of 3rd - foam regen - usual substitution of "stick" on IT band - "movement prep" - usual substitutions for forward bend, lunges, and squats - AIS regen - only did 1st of 5 exercises 5 minute self-designed minimum: - bridge 60 sec - plank 40 sec (*sigh*) - bridge 60 sec Finished these by by 3:15 PM, which is late, but not as late as yesterday, and I managed more than the minimum. 7906 steps - 3.5 miles ++

Subbed. Good luck with everything, particularly the surgery.

Sounds like a great anti-stress challenge. Subbed.

Found you! Wishing you a great challenge! And subbed, of course.

Sun Sep 14 Bed at 0:30; up at 7:49; net sleep 7:19 2 green tea (ginger) 2 frozen waffles 5 slices of french bread with butter and ginger marmelade large glass of 3/4 OJ, 1/4 GJ large bowl of stew, livened up by adding several tablespoons of creamed cottage cheese chunk of muenster cheese (about 1 oz) couple of crackers 1 herb tea (blueberry) 1 herb tea (raspberry) dried apricots 2 ghirardelli squares net 5 fruit/veggie, barely 3 sets of 15 lateral raise, 5 lb dumbbell 15 bicep curls, 5 lb dumbbell 15 floor press, 10 lb dumbbell. Didn't do these until round 8:30 PM, which sucks. _Did_ shut the dog out of the room, which made things much easier. as of 11:14 PM basis band reported 7201 steps; once again the morning sync gave the same value

The good news is that I can afford the time on the bench. They were quite decent about severance pay, in spite of it being an "at will employment" state. And I have a contingency fund for emergencies. The bad(?) news is that I'm way too comfortable not working. The experience has got me looking forward to retirement. Unfortunately if I were to retire now, I'd be far too impoverished for my expensive tastes ;-) Still, I think I'll retrench a bit, and try to hasten that magic retirement date.

Thanks. I'm out of practice for job hunting from a position of unemployment - lately I've pretty much waited passively as opportunities came in via LinkedIn, then eventually jumped ship. I haven't been laid off this century ;-) But then, I've been staying away from startups and similar. I knew when I went to a startup in April that this was a possibility, just didn't expect it to happen, particularly not that fast.

Found you and subbed. Glad everything is looking so good.

Thanks and back atcha ;-) Looking forward to watching your progress.

Sat Sep 13 Bed at 0:07; up at 8:30 (fail); net sleep 8:23 2 green tea (ginger) 2 frozen waffles, toasted small bowl of stew lots of crackers large glass of OJ/GJ chunk of muenster cheese canadian chocolate bar frozen rice bowl, microwaved blackberries net 5+ fruit/veg bridge 1 min plank 1 min bridge 1 min 11:56 PM; basis band at 7470 steps; this time, Basis upload got the number correct!

Long list of stuff there. In your place, I fear I'd find it overwhelming, and neglect a few. But it all looks achievable, and well thought out. You rock! Are you into RPG games at all? I've found HabitRPG really useful for those wretched little tasks I need to do every single day. Gain XP and levels by doing your tasks - or skip them and lose HP, maybe die and lose a level.

*settles down and gets comfy*

Hi Folks This time I'm making this my primary/sole accountability group; maybe I'll even manage to post ;-) New challenge thread in my sig; basically more of the same.

Fri Sep 12 Weight 165 lb Bed at 0:37 up at 7:51. Net sleep 7:14. Less than it should be, but probably not bad enough to be as draggy as yesterday. Some DOMS still, presumably from Wedn. 1 green tea (ginger) 3 slices of home made bread, toasted with butter large glass 3/4 OJ, 1/4 grapefruit juice large bowl of homemade stew part of a cup of peppermint tea 1 herb tea (ginger) crackers 1 oz or so muenster cheese herb tea (blueberry) 12 fl. oz hard cider 2 ghirardelli squares approx,. 4 fruit/veg equivalents 3 sets of 15 * lateral raise 5 lb 15 * bicep curl, 15 lb 15 * floor press, 15 lb Very disorganized thanks to canine assistance. I was on my 6th of the first set of floor presses when the canine companion placed himself such that I could not safely lower the weight in my left hand. I repositioned myself such that I could put down the weight (no room to simply move and continue), and intermingled living room cleanup with exercises - cleanup made the dog bored, so he left, returning when I picked up the weights. *sigh* The first 2 exercises are done standing, so canine interference didn't matter, but the rhythm was all messed up for the floor presses - and that in itself messed up the rhythm for the other 2. 6616 steps as of 22:54 HOT day, which impaired my enthusiasm for exercise. Did manage same living room cleanup. Probably time to turn off the PC, which means no sync for the basis band, and no gaming. Not doing well at job hunting. Too many MOOCs and too many things scheduled in day time, making it easy to do OK things without actually doing anything that makes progress with any of my major issues. Ambivalence not helping - I want a job in October, not now ;- But need to keep looking, because (a) they come when they come and ( unemployment obviously wants me to be looking, not taking random courses and organizing my house. Walked 6707 steps.

Thur 11 Sep 14 Weight 164.0 lb Bed at 0:24; up at 6:12 Net sleep 5:48 - intentionally got up early to have a non-rushed morning, and forcibly reset my internal clock. This has been very difficult. Draggy all afternoon, to the point of stupid goofs. And somehow this morning (or last night) I bent the frames of my eyeglasses - perhaps putting them into their case and that in my pocket this morning. Definite DOMS, noticed even before I went to bed last night, when it was annoying. 2 green tea (ginger) 1 herb tea (lipton orange) 1 herb tea (blueberry flavor) 4 slabs of home made bread, toasted with butter piece of bundt cake several cookies sandwich with salami and ham small amounts of fresh pineapple (yum!) and rather dried out "baby carrots" - 1 serving veg total bowl of homemade stew (from yesterday) - approx 2 veg servings, mostly beets and potatoes 2 ghirardelli chocolate 1 glass of gatorade few crackers Big internal argument about exercise. As of 5 PM I'm exhausted; I left to play bridge at 9:45 AM, so only had done the dog walk (less than a mile) by the time I got home overheated around 3 PM. Sat and read for a while, made more caff. tea, then ate dinner and fed the dog. Still enough DOMS to be annoying. Going to try taking a walk, then doing the minimal workout (that would be 2 bridges and a plank, today), and see if that perks me up any. I kind of hate skipping a day of the Verstegen experiment - but I already knew I was due to repeat week 1 until I can do at least the complete short set (with mods) all 6 active days of the week. As of 5:45 PM bridge, 1 min (a bit sloppy) plank 40 sec bridge, 1 min As of 11:35 PM the basis band is reporting 6066 steps - recording in case it loses a few ;-) (Next morning) Basis band's web site thinks I walked 6045 steps total for the day; I don't know where the other 20 went ;-)