Murphy's Roommate

I'm a ninja disguised as a pirate. That pretty much sums up my life goals right now. - Murphy's Roommate

My first challenge was, less than an unmitigated success. Two weeks knocked out of the game courtesy of some virus. Thus, my first goal... 1. Stay on target for all 6 weeks. I also noticed that working out 4x a week meant I didn't recovery very well. 2. Body weight calisthenics 3x a week. Mon-Wen-Fri like clockwork. Pushups, pullups, squats, and handstand journeys of discovery. Walking and jogging was good, but wasn't moving me towards a goal in as direct a manner as I would care. 3. Make the 3.2 mile loop in my area in 45 minutes. There is quite a bit of up and down, and varied terrain on that route. All the merrier. Doing the loop 3x a week will contribute to getting faster at it. As I look at my eating patterns, if it comes from a bag, a drive through window, or a soda/beer bottle, I'm on it like, well, bacon. This is not good for my health, my fitness, and my bank account. 4. Home cooked meals. Healthier and cheaper than the alternatives. I am a bachelor, and I can follow checklists that make a VCR manual look like child's play (and fun). Cooking is pretty damn simple compared to that. See a step, do a step, eat a banana - good checklist/cook book monkey. Goal five is self explanatory... 5. Wear more black - mindset - I'm on a quest to be awesome. Okay, Typhon is better than straight black, Kryptek has the best patterns. Side Quest: General class HAM license Side Quest: Complete my VHF/UHF backpack setup. EPIC LEVEL QUEST: hit the 20 lb weight loss PvP challenge. All of the above contribute to this - I have the 20lbs of fluff to lose, so I might as well get to it. It is nice playing a game that you can actually win, instead of just denying your opposition their victory condition. My victory condition is to achieve the above 80% of the time. Not rocket science, just do the right thing most of the time. Game on come Monday! - Murphy's Roommate

Slates - This is something I know about! Not so good on fitness, but alcohol and alcohol look alikes are known to me! Tonic and lime is a great choice IAW (In Accordance With, much like prophecy) Quilaho, as is tonic and bitters. Tonic and lime looks a lot like a gin and tonic, or a vodka and tonic. Tonic and bitters, served in a highball glass with rocks, looks like whiskey/bourbon/scotch aka brown liquor. Slow roll either one, order your drinks apart from the group, and life is good. If you *must*, and remember, life is filled with choices and barring some really scary not fun evil psychoactive drugs and extensive conditioning, no one makes your choices but you - a vodka and tonic, gin and tonic, or a scotch/bourbon/whiskey on the rocks looks just like the non alcoholic drink you'll order next round, or the non-alcoholic drinks you'll chose to order. A double bourbon/whiskey/scotch on the rocks gives you bourbon/whiskey/scotch breath, as you slow roll it the ice melts, and just about nobody thinks you're "nursing it" as you just ordered what is perceived as a serious drink. Yes, people have their ideological blinders on to that extent. As a bit of a barfly, if you ever need an excuse, opt out of the group order by hitting the restroom, and return from the restroom drink in hand from the bar, or order it on the way back. If it is your turn for the round, get everyone's drink and your drink order in, then change it by intercepting the server on the way to the bar. It may cost you a little if they have already poured it, but server's won't question your non-alcoholic order when you tip well and don't act like a jerk. We are rebels in the heart of the empire. We are undercover. You have decided that "Happy Hour" is something you are willing to endure to optimize your goals in the work place. As a rebel, you are not bound by the conventions of others around you. You need not order as they do, drink as they do, or function as they do. Anyone asks you what type of scotch/vodka/bourbon/whiskey/vodka you have in there - answer truthfully - well. Like the well you get water from, but they don't need to know that. Why do you order from the bar? To watch them make it. Truthful answer, they don't need to know that you are ordering a non-alcoholic beverage. If you don't like that level of deception, volunteer to be the DD. The truth sets you free - I'm on a diet, but I'd like to be the DD in case anyone feels the need. Aka - "I'm a team player who just can't drink right now - I enable your choices without partaking in them." Yes, welcome to how Machiavelli rolls. - Murphy's Roommate

Orazor talked me into giving this a whirl. If you don't mind I'm going to accept the 8 lost days and jump in guns blazing. Tonight 197.6 - end goal, 175 (I know, overachieving). Method - reduce alcohol intake, flee the snack shack at work, avoid processed foods, and be active daily. Diet and exercise, crazy talk! - Murphy's Roommate

Hazard - Yes, I'm still here, I'm healthy again, and I'm getting back into the fight. I'll be dropping by the Assassins Guild soon, and continuing along the path of bodyweight training. Convict Conditioning has come well recommended and I think it will be added to my reading list shortly. Next challenge goals are more of the same, with the side quest of not getting laid out on my back with the plague for a week and a half. - Murphy's Roommate

Being a plague carrier is one of those less than useful super powers I occasionally manifest. I'm on the road to not being super sick and will be back in the trenches of working out within the next few days. On the bright side, this gave me time to work on a surprise sidequest, writing a short story, and I am pleased to say it is effectively complete but still needs massaging and tweaking to make it just so. I expect I'll end up petitioning to join the Assassins guild, with the next 6 week challenge being much like this one as I am still fighting to control the basic fitness level of my life, I'm far from epic level quests like the one arm pullup and pushup, or the one legged squat. - Murphy's Roommate

Thanks, appreciate the sentiment. I have discovered a double threat of Nyquil and Robotussin that seems to let me sleep, last night was good, tonight should be better. Tried a pullup today, coughed a chunk loose afterwards. Today has been better though. Guy at work told me there were a few cases of walking pneumonia floating around (folks who have been diagnosed but are too stubborn to go home) so I'm going to the clinic tomorrow just to make sure I'm not one in progress. - Murphy's Roommate P.S. That may categorize the three types of people are work: The ones you have to tell to go home, the ones who work normal hours like normal people, and lastly, the folks you wish would go home.

This journey of discovery just gets better and better. In my pursuit of diversity, I have now coughed up four different colors of phlegm. My sinuses continue to be a replay of "A River Runs Through It". My energy level is so low that I had to cut my typical Saturday pub lunch by 30 minutes because I was too tired to sit at a bar and eat lunch. I'm so far from winning Fail Cat is asking me for pointers. Yes Ladies and Gentlemen, I may have wiped out half of my workplace during the last meeting just by breathing on them. On the bright side, when everyone else is out sick next week, I can get caught up! - Murphy's Roommate

Took a wrong turn in life here and have gotten myself a touch of the plague. When your boss just looks at you and tells you to go home, that is a hint. Yesterday was a go home early day too. Today was worse. Got winded just walking around the office to get a few thing done before I went home. I will spare you all the gory details, but sleeping is hard, working out is a no-go, about the only thing I'm managing is watching Top Gear season 20, but that may exceed my capabilities today as well. Future reports to follow. - Murphy's Roommate

Once upon a time, during a midnight shift, I came up with a bachelors guide to fridge cleaning. If it crawled, and was amusing, I would give it a hat and name it. Otherwise, I would KILL IT WITH FIRE. Yes, there are road flares near my fridge for that eventuality. I have recently purchased plans for a flamethrower, and have friends that would gladly help me drag a sealed fridge into a nearby desert to watch me torch it. Just because. If it isn't here with my permission, paying rent, or amusing me, I will eject it from this reality and dispose of it via my local trash company. Hats are important. I was on vacation over the last few days. Got in a workout (I planned to do it, but was still pleasantly surprised when it happened) and the pullups were good stuff. I had the upwards acceleration I've been missing recently. Got back Monday night, enjoyed sleeping in my own bed. Today, I decided to work on a short story for the Baen short story contest. Just under 2000 words so far, courtesy of my friend PBR (several people following this just threw up a little, but I drink at a local nano-brewery most Saturdays to repent my pedestrian tastes during the week. Swing through the 'Springs, and I will take you on a tour of local breweries that will leave you in a semi-liquid form. That is a challenge). I fancy myself a not completely incapable story teller, and have enough life experiences to weave something worth reading. As my life has been to some epic level extremes, fiction only interests me when epic is the understatement. John Ringo's Posleen series, Jim Butcher and the Dresden Files, etc. My muse has many forms (massive sleep deprivation, extreme stress, getting hammered up) and it struck today. Challenge accepted - a world where magic and technology run at epic levels side by side. I don't know if there will be survivors yet, the character's haven't told me that. At the very least, they die well. Tomorrow, time to get back in the saddle, hit the workout hard, and work on the story some more now that I know the tone of it. Very intense, where life and death aren't even a coin flip away, but driven by the will of the characters to turn that coin flip to their favor. - Murphy's Roommate

I think you won this one... - Murphy's Roommate

Story time. Yesterday I nearly avoided critting myself while cooking. This was through no merit of my own. I looked at the rolling clouds over the mountains yesterday, and vetoed going for a hike (I've been stuck in a thunderstorm out here before - how about NOPE). Instead I chose to grill a steak from my fridge. It was about 3 weeks old, and smelled a lot bit off. But hey, steak is expensive, and if I just grill it to death, then microwave it, I should be fine, right? Long story short, I didn't feel well last night, or today, but recovered by this afternoon and got back into working out. This afternoon, regression on pullups. Game plan was 2 2 2 2 max. By the last set of 2, I was assisting myself, and my max was 1. Teh Fails.... The hike, pushups, and squats went well enough. Not sure where the fail is, but I shall continue to fight on here. My weather sense is off, I thought it might rain, but nothing. I suspect that not eating tainted meat, eating better, and more rest will improve my pullups. As an aside, why does You Tube insist on showing me videos for skin lotion and tanning when I watch anime music videos? Clearly folks, if you like AMV's, or Eluveitie (Swedish Metal), you are not the person who tans. Odds are, you are the type who avoids the burning cancer star like a plague and views working in windowless places as a perk, not a downside of your job. I've had windows ONCE. EVER. In thirteen years! - Murphy's Roommate

For Sunday... Cardio, pushups, squats, complete IAW parameters above. Pullups, still needed to hit cheat mode (pushing off of a handy bench) to get my 3 at the end. Overall, completed 3 of 4 planned workouts, 3 of 4 cardio, and 0/1 hikes this week. Eating didn't epically fail. These next few weeks will be rough, I am gearing up to transition to a new job, which is great as I stay in the local area and will, for the first time in my life, have a 9 to 5 type of gig. However, I still have to leave my current job and start work at my new job (same organization, different location and branch) and that is never easy. The paperwork is teh fail. Side Side Quest, did my first ARES support on Saturday, spent 14 hours making sure a bunch of folks doing either a normal marathon, or a heavy marathon (same distance but a 35lb backpack added) or an ultra marathon (50 miles) or two heavy ultramarathoners didn't crawl of the trail and never get found again. there were 5 aid stations, and then the start/finish aid station where I spent all of my time. They had a very sweet comms setup, 5 guys (the start/finish station, and the 5 outlying aid stations) running digital mode (think 1200 baud modem, over HAM radio) and 5 guys running voice mode, then myself and 3 other guys with hand held radios ready to run whatever errands were required of us. I didn't do much, but I learned a LOT as to what I want to build for my first ARES radio rig, event support, the challenges with getting a useable signal from point A to point B, all sorts of neat stuff. In the vein of O Razor, I must now add a meme. - Murphy's Roommate

Cardio - check. Nice walk. Pullups - didn't make the three at the end of day one week one, had to assist off a nearby object. Pushups - went to 3x12, as flawless as I can make them. Pause at the bottom, pause at the top, rigid body up and down. Refining my form, tucking in my elbows seems to help a lot. Squats 3x15, butt below knees, tight form, challenging, I think I can do a few more next time around. - Murphy's Roommate

Monday I got a nice cardio session in, the weather dropped into the 40's so getting outside for a walk/shuffle was optimal. Today I re-tested myself, mixed bag of results. Pullups - 3 clean, number 4 was inches away. This is the star of the show. Pushups - 31 - really? Yep, I almost regressed here. I will keep on hammering at the sets of 20 for the next while, not sure why the limited progress. Squats - 34 - not much to show here, but progress is progress. I have a game plan for the rest of the week (Thursday, Friday, and Sunday for cardio/calisthenics) and I plan to continue to follow the pullup plan. On the HAM radio side I made my first contact today, just checking in on a local repeater net with my handheld off the back deck. Nothing exotic, just some practice. This Saturday I'm helping out with an all day event where local HAM radio types provide comms for the race supervisors, aid stations, and the like. it should be interesting. Now, time for some ESO and early to bed! - Murphy's Roommate

This week did not go so well. Not total epic fail, as I haven't given up, but the road got bumpy. Between my overnight shifts, and folks coming to visit, I've gotten in 3 calisthenic cycles, one cardio, no long haul hike. Eating took a dive from Thursday on out, so fails on Thur, Fri, and Sat. However, in John Paul Jones's immortal words... I have not yet begun to fight. Tuesday I re-test pushups, pullups, and squats. Will re-evaluate my plan then. - Murphy's Roommate

Very valid points on the diet coke/rum mix. I have always felt that I am a ninja disguised as a pirate. Managed to get in cardio on Tuesday (and a clean set of two pullups), then today was my standard calisthenics evolution. Working out in-between overnight shifts really wasn't very fun, but it did happen. Eating has improved after a trip to the grocery store - huge slabs of red meat + grill = less grazing and more winning! Tomorrow I'll be awake by the afternoon and be able to get in both cardio and calisthenics, being able to double tap is always good! - Murphy's Roommate

I finished my final cardio session for the week at 1045 p.m. today. Plus side: got in all 4 cardio, all 4 calisthenic, and the one hiking session (accomplished this morning) that I want to get in. Pushups, pullups, and squats show minor improvement. Zero errors on my evaluation at work. Minus side: two eating fails this week (today and Tuesday), some of the cardio was just going through the motions, my primary sustenance tonight was nuked pizza, stuff from bags (i.e. chips), and rum with diet coke. Overall, I plan to stay in the fight, take tomorrow as an off day workout wise, then giddyup for Tue-Thur, and Sunday. While hiking today, I came closer than I care to rolling an ankle on a path I normally move a lot faster on. It seems like wearing boots makes my feet dumb, while the five fingers keep my feet smart. Point to ponder. - Murphy's Rommmate

Got my cardio in today. One of those days I'd really have preferred to pack it in, but got it on anyways. - Murphy's Roommate

So, mixed bag of results. Tuesday was the Paleo fail, but I got in my calisthenics, Wednesday got cardio and good eating, Thursday has been good eating and I got in my calisthenics, Day 2 of Week -2 on the pullups was good. This means I have a 1 hour hike, 2x 45 min of cardio, and one calisthenics workout to complete before the upcoming Monday. I appreciate the thought on the pullup routine. I'll probably follow closely in your steps on that routine, adding pullups is tough! - Murphy's Roommate

I didn't think I'd get in my pushup/squat/pullup cycle today. Had a meeting at 10 a.m., came home, got lunch, a few beers and a few melatonin, went to sleep for my 10 p.m. shift that I'm headed into tonight (10 p.m. to 6 a.m.). Figured I'd sleep until 8, get ready, go in, no joy on the workout. Well, the flaming cancer star was irradiating my bedroom with such intensity that I was up and annoyed by about 6:30 p.m., so instead of just laying there I got in my calisthenics. Fired up the computer and watched the ending to "The Way of the Gun" and "Leon" to get into the Assassin frame of mind while working out. No cardio, and the entire eating right thing today is most likely in the toilet between the beer and as I tend to graze on these overnight shifts. Pretty sure Red Bull isn't paleo. Tomorrow I expect to get in the cardio, no calisthenics until Thursday. The pullup cycle is here http://twentypullups.com/20-pull-ups_ilka-helo.pdf I am on week -2, 1 pullup. - MR Posted while typing erratically.

Thank you all for the comments. Today met parameters: 30 pushups, 30 squats, 1 pullup for my baseline, will test again at the end of week two/four/six to assess progress. 45 minutes cardio, and eating clean were also achieved (enjoying my steak w/ sweat potatoe ATT) for Day 1. Tomorrow the goal is 3x20 pushups, 3x25 squats, pullup program, eat right, and then more cardio. Convict Conditioning looks interesting, I'll pick at it some more. Depending on how I do in this challenge, that may play a large part in my next challenge. - MR

That which can go wrong, will go wrong. - Murphy's Law That which can go wrong, will go wrong, to me. - Murphy's Roommate This is my story, and it starts at level zero, where every adventurer makes that decision to leave the safe confines of the farm/smithy/bakers shop and take on the adventure. The firt few steps on the road are always the easiest. You have a full stomach, a little coin in your pocket, and dreams of Epic! in your head. I know this from other things I have done in life. The end state is somewhere along the Assasin line of thought, my body and overall goals align with being able to get places other people can't, survive things most people wouldn't, and still be able to win a fight and get back out. For now, I'm just an adventurer with the main quest of baseline fitness. 6 Week Challenge Goals: 4x week bodyweight work: pushups, squats, and pullups - Victory condition: Pushups:50 in one minute Squats: 50 in one minute Pullups, 5 in one minute 4x week cardio (run, eliptical, rowing machine) for 45 minutes - Victory condition: achieving 20/24 possible cardio 1x week spend at least an hour hiking - Victory condition: achieving 6/6 possible hikes Eat 80% paleo Sun-Mon, 80% of my calories have to come from the right sources - Victory condition: out of the 30 possible days, do this 28 of them Eat 50% paleo Fri-Sat - Victory condition: out of the 12 possible days, do this 10 of them Side Adventure: Take the General Class license for HAM radio, pass the test FTW! I did break out my 3.5 books and have figured out that I am most likely trying to do something along the lines of the Ninja class from "The Complete Adventurer". Yes, the rolling of the dice is the percussion instrument when they play the song of my people. - MR