adhearn

I cannot tell you how awesome knowing Scheme is! My current research involves writing optimizing compilers for Scheme in Scheme, so if you need help/resources I might be able to help out, although from your comment above it looks like it's more of an issue of time than anything else. (All your others goals look appropriately epic, that's just the only one I felt I could intelligently comment on. (Also, you'll begin to nest your parentheses like crazy once you learn Lisp (which I do all the time now, much to the annoyance of people who have to read what I write).)) Also, I like all the verby words (which is adjectiving verb (which is verbing an adjective)).

(I'm a little bit late, but challenges sound like fun, so I'm doing it anyway. Also, the first paragraph is largely explaining the title of my challenge, and can be safely skipped by those with short attention spans/busy schedules.) A couple months ago, I heard about a comic called "Magnus: Robot Fighter," and the title intrigued me, so I took a look. In this story, Magnus is an orphan who lives in a world where robots do all the work and humans sit around doing pretty much nothing. A wise robot stumbles upon Magnus and trains him to be an amazing fighter, capable of defeating even robots in hand-to-hand combat. This is a picture of Magnus being awesome enough to punch a robot in the face: One of my goals as a computer scientist is to create a programming language expressive enough to create artificial intelligence. If that AI finds its way into a robot, I might, in fact, have to be able to destroy a robot by punching it in the face. The fate of the human race could rest in my ability to defeat robots with my bare hands. It is with that burden in mind that undertake this abbreviated 5-week challenge. Fitness I've broken my fitness goals down into 3 categories: diet, Hapkido, and bodyweight training. I plan on doing more detailed measurements every Friday, so I'll try to remember to post starting measurements this Friday. Starting Measurements Height: 5'8" Weight: 138 lbs Diet I've contemplated going paleo, but I'm currently vegetarian, which makes paleo difficult to say the least. (I'm not necessarily opposed to eating meat again, except that when I tried eating fish this summer I wound up in the hospital with an extremely severe allergic reaction, so I need to go talk to an allergist (or at least my GP) before I make any dramatic dietary changes.) Instead of going completely paleo, I'm going to try to cut down on the amount of crap that I eat one week at a time. For now, I'm defining "snack" as time-based rather than content-based. If it isn't breakfast, lunch, or dinner, it's a snack. (I am going to make an exception for non-starchy vegetables, which I can eat any time I want.) Snacking also includes any sort of soda, diet or otherwise. Here's the plan: Week 1: No snacks until I done with all my classes for the day. This varies by day, but is never before 3:30, and is usually after 5. Week 2: No snacks until I'm done with all my work for the next day (or I'm done with classes for the day, which ever comes later): This week should be a huge win-win: either I get my work done early, or I don't get to snack. Either way, I come out ahead. Awesome! Weeks 3 and 4: No snacking. Week 5: I'm not sure yet. I think I'll spend weeks 3 and 4 closely tracking calories and leave week 5 open to help me adjust as needed. Hapkido I just started hapkido, and it's one of the major motivations for the rest of my fitness goals. My yellow belt test is coming up soon, but it might be in 6 weeks, not 5 weeks. Either way, I want to be prepared for my belt test by the end of the challenge, which means going to hapkido club at least once a week (in addition to normal classes), starting next week. Also, I'm incorporating hapkido practice into my bodyweight training. Weeks 2-5: Go to hapkido club at least once a week Week 5 (potentially): Pass yellow belt test Bodyweight Training I started Convict Conditioning a little while ago, and I'm working through it pretty slowly (although I'm getting close to the point where it's my strength, not patience, that's limiting me, which is a nice change). This post is already ridiculously long, so I won't go into excruciating detail about planned workouts. I will go into excruciating detail about my goals for the end of the challenge, though. By Monday, 9/26 Squats: 3 x 35 Supported Squats (current: 3 x 22) By last day of challenge: Pushups: 3 x 40 Incline Pushups (Current: 3 x 22) Squats: 2 x 20 Half Squats (Current: 3 x 22 Supported Squats) Pullups: 3 x 20 Horizontal Pulls (Current: 3 x 9) Leg Raises: 3 x 25 Flat Bent knee raises (Current: 3 x 35 Flat Knee Raises) Life Every week, I set weekly goals with my research advisor. They should all be reachable (since my advisor signs off on them), so my non-fitness goal is to accomplish my weekly research goals every week. Week 1: Read 2 papers, benchmark an optimization from last week

Another new person checking in for the first time after lurking for awhile. For the Nerd part of NF, I'm a student studying computer science who plans to eventually go to graduate school (I'm currently researching programming language theory, for those who know/care about such things). For the Fitness part of NF, I finally manned up enough to begin studying martial arts, which is something I've been too scared to do for something like 7 years. Unfortunately, I'm not optimally equipped to practice Hapkido at present. At 5'8", ~140 lbs, I'm not overweight according the scale, but I'm currently "skinny fat", so I definitely have some fat to lose. My medium term goal is losing ~5% body fat, but I need to get an accurate starting measurement. I believe I'm about 18% right now, and calipers are in transit, so I'll at least be able to track progress over the next few weeks/months/years. More importantly, I'd like to gain considerable strength, as I've always been relatively weak. To that end, I'm working through the progressive calisthenics training in Convict Conditioning. Long term, I'd like to be able to do the 6 "master level" exercises from that particular system: one-legged squats, one-arm push ups, one-arm pull ups, hanging V leg raises, standing to standing bridges, and one-arm handstand pushups (preferably free standing), which should keep me busy for quite awhile. Finally, I'd like to get my black belt in Hapkido before I graduate (2 years), which I've been told is just barely possible if I work at it really hard, which brings me back to needing to improve my overall fitness. To summarize, I'm currently aiming for an NF Profession of Monk, but I've got a ways to go. Hopefully, having a group of awesome people will help me get there. (If nothing else, having posted my goals in a public place will guilt me into eating better and working harder.)