Trix

Hello, would you mind if I join? It'd be great to be able to discuss things with someone.

The mission had gone well enough, though RyÅ› didn't like the politics of the fractions. The team-work was great, though. Less about the mission itself - the Order paid well, but none of them believed the nonsense about orderly world. The team-work peaked on the survival stuff: they organised maybe not the best but sufficient sleeping arrangement despite the fact that one of them had nothing to sleep on. They got the gas-masks on time for the task. They had a hot tea and tasty breakfast every morning, and some washing water from an old well that had long since lost any pumping mechanism. Team-work got them out of some pretty tight situations, like falling into some other old well, or getting stuck to some rusty barbed wire while on the run from zombies. Or teaming up with another team - something that wasn't forseen by the command at all - to bring a heavy piece of equipment to the guys who then traded some information for it. RyÅ› got to make a new friend who, likewise, held a deep interest in the stories. The friend who also agreed that camping in the woods was no excuse for the lack of hygiene - and likewise sneaked out in the mornings and evenings to brush the teeth and stuff. During the last night, when both Order and Freedom teamed up to form a defence from an intense zombie attack - both RyÅ› and tier new friend forgone brushing the teeth, just this once. They sat by the fire with the rest of the group. In the morning, some other guys tried to both gas and bomb the base they were hiding in. Another league was forming, apparently. The fact that the Freedom tortured (even though torture was proved to be an unreliable method of information extraction!) that information out of a captive, and then shot that captive, all with a silent approval from the Order - shattered the last of belief RyÅ› held in any of those fractions. Friendship was the last of good things in the disgustingly dirty shade of politics. Maybe as dirty as their dust-and-soot-covered faces. More than a day passed since, and RyÅ› was tense as a piece of string. An evil advisor was here again, and plotting the demise of tier plans to save the commonwealth before those plans even started. That wouldn't do. Their social positions forced RyÅ› to stay polite and somewhat attentive, but RyÅ› would be damned if ti let the evil advisor stand in the way of the commonwealth's survival just for her sick pleasure of taunting the people against each other and watching them fight. --- LOG5 Huh, LARP was nice. Keeping in touch with those with whom we care about one another - holds my spirits high, even though a psychologically-and-emotionally-abusive family member is visiting. I made a conscious decision of not protecting my mom from her - my mom can barely deal with what words are thrown at her, but she needs to learn to stop inviting unhealthy people. Any intervention on my part would nip the process in the bud, for what reason would she have to protect herself if she could just enjoy being protected? As for myself, I was already once cornered into a psycho-game with a binary option - obey or rebel (the one when someone walks behind you and time after time orders you to do what you are doing anyway.) With some delay, I invented a third option - "I do what I want" - or, more accurately, "you can give me as many orders as you like, but I'm going with my own plans anyway." Implying that any obey/rebel effect is purely accidental. It isn't viewed kindly to take inspiration from comic villains (Marvel's Loki,) but I do what I need to. Also, I've already once (today) fallen for the-broken-talk psycho-game - I let myself be fooled into finally giving one emotionally invested answer about a subject the "evil advisor" kept asking me about, only to get the standard "I'm busy with something else, were you talking at all? I haven't noticed" kind of no-response from her. That no-feedback-treatment is a fantastically effective way to make someone feel like they don't matter, but since now I know what it's about, upon getting no interest I just made myself busy with something else, and made her frustrated in turn (I didn't get angry or anything, so the game failed ^^). I am proud of myself right now. One day of flossing is lost due to the zombie attack during LARP, though I could have found a way to do it, in retrospect. Another half missed - is due to a nap that turned to be a whole-night sleep. Anyway, I'm good enough to start working on the next two tasks: 5th and 6th. PS BTW, my skin is steadily getting better. Yesterday was a bit of a set-back, for I've eaten too much animal fat and my skin got predictably greasy soon after, but it's steadily getting better anyway.

Hello, Though I tend towards emotional non-eating, I can definitely feel you there. Do you use any hacks to manage this? (Bc personally, I've found that sometimes I can't rly manage without hacks like taking soups as drinks or adding various seeds/raisins to the meals to up the nutritional value.) Being surrounded by people without a drive similar to yours also sounds awkwardly familiar - so, how is it now, for you? Have you got some people around with whom you can sympathize, and push each other towards getting better in the field? Has getting into the field helped you with finding those sorts of people?

RyÅ› grinned - things were going well. The wise old soldier helped tiem to keep those things going well just the day before. It was really good to have someone to turn to, in the time of need. In the meantime, there was an announcement issued about an urgent need of intervention in the contamination zone. Something about some creatures getting out of it and terrorising the locals from the villages around. RyÅ› enlisted as a volunteer, and was immediately grouped up into a small task team. They would reach the zone this very day. Investigation, enforcement of quarantine, and anything that would help to nip the potential catastrophe in the bud - those were their tasks. They should be back in a few days, if... once they succeed. --- LOG 4 Thing are going well enough. Seems that I was right about the key habit. I had to talk myself into contacting one of my friends yesterday, but the congratulations he gave me kept my spirits up enough to do more of what needed to be done ^^. This weekend I'm going off on a P.Scouting trip (sort of a LARP but with us as the characters,) so I will be very busy/active, and I definitely won't be online. There won't be any problem with keeping in touch with my friends, either - it's hard not to keep in touch with the people one is having adventures together with . It's a bit of a temporary escape from "real life" - and maybe I feel a little guilty about that, but that sort of a trip hones some skills that can be of use if any disaster strikes; and besides - everyone needs a little escape,right? And an active escape seems like a better option than a passive one. BTW, I've enlisted on the accountabilibuddies chart, too. I hope to find an accountabilibuddy and start and awesome team/squad together. Team of misfits? maybe. That'll be ideal, right ?

A familial voice brought RyÅ› out of tier hibernation, if it could be called like that. Damn, it seemed RyÅ› stopped eating once again, and so tier energy levels dropped enough to start turning into stone. Laws of Nature (in this case - of biology) cannot be broken, one can only break oneself trying to break them, RyÅ›'s old teacher used to say. RyÅ› supposed the teacher was right. RyÅ› felt humming of the energy of every single person around. The feeling was new, unexpected. RyÅ› used to catch the emotions of the people around as a child, but noticing those clouds of emotion outside tier own body was quite new. It was a better way, definitely - it gave tiem more control over tier own behaviour. It was unexpectable, though - none of the Gnomes RyÅ› knew had ever mentioned anything like that. To think of that, none of the other Gnomes had ever mentioned catching foreign emotions, either. Nevertheless, RyÅ› had read some books in which that subject showed up, briefly, as a potentially useful ability in healing. RyÅ› could see the potential, indeed. Anyway, that wasn't the priority for now - for now, the priority was preventing tehself from turning into stone. --- So I had this slip-up. Short, fortunately - about one and half a day. I haven't done enough stuff, because I didn't have enough energy, because I didn't eat enough to have energy - in fact, little enough to get some hunger pains - because I didn't get enough healthy social interaction to remind me that I should eat, because I chickened out from calling my friends. At least I've finally deciphered the mechanism of those bouts of inaction I'm prone to - so now I can seriously think about preventing them. Social interaction gets a top priority, now. And at least I had enough sense to start eating enough with some milk, even though I still felt like everything was about to come back up, for a few hours. The thing about "personal energy"/"aura" from my little fantasy RP? It's about some over-reactive mirror neurons. It's nice to finally learn enough distance to be able to filter those mirrored emotions from my own, ant to not "catch" emotional states from complete strangers. (BTW, there are pairs of different emotions in which one normally causes another, like sometimes anger->fear, or despair->compassion. If a kid unexpectedly mirrors the first emotion and e.g. attacks a much larger bully or is very shaken by seeing someone being helpless over some thing meaningless to the kid in question - like being late for a bus, or something - it might be the mirror neurons acting stronger than the rest of internal emotional regulation system, I guess? Does anyone here know more about that subject? I'd be glad to learn.)

Mini challenge 1 - complete.

LOG 2 and half Are my goals SMART? Is your overall quest achievable (over a short or long period of time)? Is it reasonable? ​Yes. Do your 3 quests all build towards your main quest in little ways, or are you taking on too much? Do your quests have sub-quests or is it just one thing to focus on? ​There are more than three, but most of them are either a modification of something I do already, or very small things to make a way for a habit change. I likely won't be able to make that hauberk in time, but the point is to get started - and I had to write that it counts 1 point to Charisma somewhere, right ? ...or maybe I'll change it to doing a part of the task, for it's likely going to also be a part of my next challenge. The rest is fully achievable, though even if I'm a few days late with the last task - it's not a tragedy. Are your main goals realistic? Can you scale them to smaller steps to fit your life better, even if it will make it take a little longer to achieve them? ​Yes. Those smaller steps are either written up above or pretty self-explanatory. Are your goals able to be measured and tracked? What will you use to track them? ​Yes. Everything is in the chart. How are you grading your goals? Are they pass/fail (“every dayâ€, “not even once over the six weeksâ€)? Is there a reward for the effort, or are you only grading yourself on whether or not you “lose the weight†or “run the distanceâ€? ​​I go with the binary system. After all, a habit can't be halfway established - for it won't hold unless it's complete. What is your plan for continuing/altering/grading those goals if you become ill or injured? ​No more than five blank (without doing the task, not counted on the bar) days are allowed for a habit establishment. They should be enough if there's a temporary hinder. If a hinder is more than temporary - I won't do the related parts of the challenge and I won't get the points. Easy. Did you take into consideration any special occasions (Labour Day, Independence Day, birthdays, anniversaries, etc) that may occur during the challenge? What modifications do you need to build into your goals for those? ​As above, though for many of those task a holiday doesn't change anything. Do any of your main goals conflict with each other? Will one goal make it hard to do another? ​I'll need to eat more. That way I'll have enough energy for all of them. But being mindful about eating enough is a part of one of those tasks, and something I need to do anyway. Do you already have the time in your schedule to actually complete the goals you’ve set? If not, what are you planning to do to make time for them? ​Yes, I do have the time. Are you trying to build multiple habits, or is all your energy focused on your main quest? Huh, once I correct the way I've written the description of the main quest (not the quest itself,) all those habits lead to the main quest. +1 WIS

RyÅ› sighed. It was the middle of the night, not the best time for any work. Still, that was what happened when one's nap lasted too long. Any other time RyÅ› might have used such a situation as a pretext to read some fiction, but since now was a time of a quest - RyÅ› decided to use the time productively. Even if it just meant writing a duty-related letter to a long-unseen Friend. --- LOG 2 There's that folk method for depression, basing on the fact that a depressed person has a skewed heat signature. One day I may find some photos and write an article on that. Anyway, that folk method has several different ways of applying, but a running theme is to safely (safety is very important here! the risk is high, so one needs to proceed carefully) warm one's head in order to increase blood flow in one's brain. Especially during the sleep. It works surprisingly well. Thanks to sleeping in a warm cap, I woke up energized enough to be able to do stuff - and even sort of happy . Unfortunately, it passed after a few hours. Still, I guess that if not for a person who made a routine of pulling me down, it would last longer. As it is, I call those few hours a success. Especially since I was doing some useful stuff during that time. And a lot of those few hours is to be attributed to the fact that the previous day I've gathered enough courage to ask someone from my support network for a complement. It's amazing how long one complement can keep a person's spirits up. The habit of doing "buckets" everyday - holds surprisingly well. Maybe it'snot so weird that it's easy enough to keep an established habit, but I'm glad nonetheless. I had a hard time with communicating with my support network today. The reason was, I was ashamed for not being enough, and not in any way worthy of such fantastic people. In the end, I compromised by completing and sending some of my work to the person who had expressed an interest in helping me by reviewing that work - and I've added an inquire about her well being in the email. Since everything in me was, until I've completed that piece of work, shouting to hide and die of shame - I count it as a success, too. About the diet - I've likely eaten more sugar than I should have, but the only other option I could think of at the time (now I realise that I was wrong - I could have made something else, though it would mean working in the sight of people who look upon me unfavourably for longer than I had to, and in my mental state - it hadn't crossed my mind. I'm still a little hungry, but also I still have some fat to burn, so I'll deal. Also, I think that maybe the mulberry leafs and horsetail tea might just be the thing to keep me drinking enough fluids without too much side effects. (Nettle and mint are tasty, too - but nettle is an effective way to cause dehydration, while the mint makes me loose most of my appetite. I can afford neither .) Since I know that eating the chicken skin causes me to have some spots, but I like it very much - I've made a compromise and have eaten only a little - as an addition to the rest of meat - and of a chicken whose origins I know. It seems to work - my skin didn't seem to react adversely so far, so that's it. Also, I've taken on flossing twice a day today, since that one is easy and still makes me feel that I do something. It's gonna be okay, I think.

Whatever one could say about RyÅ›, that gnome was stubborn. Not the I-know-I'm-wrong-but-I-won't-ever-admit-it kind of stubborn, oh no. More like the you-can-kill-me-but-I'll-come-back-to-rip-your-head-off kind of stubborn. Only with less head-ripping and more of continuous efforts to engineer out the impossible. After all, the gnomes were well-known for that, and the gnomes of Lachland* specifically made an art out of crafting exactly what some other folks loudly deemed to be non-makeable. Not that it was always working out - the perpetuum mobile project was still stuck in the initial phase. RyÅ› was stubborn, crafty and sturdy - much like many other gnomes. RyÅ› was also very social, somewhat ambitious, deeply empathetic, somewhat shrewd, and made a point of following tier personal Code of Honour. At the time when the story starts, RyÅ› was sort-of stranded in an undesirable situation. No job, potential employers not wanting to hire a student, funds slowly running out, the ties of tier support network stretched too much due to lack of regular contact. Therefore, RyÅ› decided to take the matters in tier own hands. RyÅ› has an ambition to protect tier people, and is ready to do a lot to be able to do that. It'll just take some time. *"Lachland" is a made-up name, but it's based on existing legends from a specific geographic location. --- LOG 1 My last attempt at the challenge has shown me what mistakes I was making. Good. Mistakes mean there's something to learn from. This time, I'll start closer to everyone else (though I'm late already, damn it - I've for some reason thought that 20Apr was the starting date) - so that we can connect and form a team. Also, this time I'm making the challenge to fit my psychological structure better. I'm keeping the point I've earned setting the everyday exercise habit. --- CHALLENGE SET-UP motivation My life isn't exactly my own. I've got a duty to the generation that will come, and to the heritage of the generations past. Good. Duty is a thing that can hold even if everything else is gone. Especially when it's about the very survival and well-being of some people. (The army and teacher traditions are running in the family.) main goal Long term: self-esteem. A large part of that is to become physically fit. There are habits that hold every other part of life in place, and physical fitness might just be that sort of habit for me. strength (up to 1) +1 - (8th) - make a daily strength training routine based on this. Up to 10 times of whatever hardest kind of squats, leg raises, push-ups and pull-ups from there I'm capable of performing. Do use that public machine that, combined with the specific sort of massage (I am a masseur, after all) - will help me to get rid of the fat in my lower body. (0/25 days of squats) (0/25 days of leg raises) (0/25 days of push-ups) (0/25 days of pull-ups) (0/25 days on working down the fat) dexterity (up to 1) +1 - (7th) - make a daily stretching routine. The set of exercises from Methode de musculation by Olivier Lafay should work for that. (0/25 days) stamina (up to 2) +1 - (12th) - daily biking, instead of the public transport. (0/25 days) +1 - (13th) - daily barefeet or barefeet-style running, just to make a routine. (0/25 days) constitution (up to 4) - (1st) - keep the habit of exercising daily / almost daily. 3May is the revision date, and by that time I gain the right to keep my first constitution score. [ ] +3 - (3rd) - manipulate my diet to get the clean skin, even and satisfactory high energy levels, and maintain my immunity. Clean skin [ ], healthy amounts of activity every day (doing useful stuff in my waking hours, self-care also counts as such; measured in the bar below) and staying healthy during the challenge [ ] - those are my check points. (8/42, 2 blanks) 19.05%19.05% - (4th) - floss the teeth twice a day, dammit. (3.5/25, 1.5 blank) 14%14% wisdom (up to 4) +1 - (5th) - make a habit of taking the daily shower at the community swimming pool, as it increases the probability that I'll swim some and saves me some money on the costs of water. (0/25) 0%0% +1 - (6th) - make a habit of doing the foreign languages (other than English) exercises every day. (0/25) 0%0% +1 - (10th) - learn about the vitamins and micro-elements and make sure to have all of them in the diet. (0/17) basic minerals (0/13) basic vitamins +1 - (9th) - learn stuff or create stuff every day - make a habit out of that. (0/25) charisma (up to 3) +1 - (11th) - start making that damn hauberk for the community project. +1 - (2nd) - make a habit of communicating with my support network everyday. (6/25) 24%24% +1 - (14th) - make a habit of going to sleep preferably at 9 p.m., and at least at 10 p.m. - as a natural morning bird, I function better on that sort of timetable. (0/25) notes - the days start counting only when I start working on a habit specifically - it'll help me to keep control over the challenge. The random instances I do the thing before I start working on it - aren't counted in the progress bars. There aren't even any progress bars until I start working on a thing. - 15 points is the max for level 2, right? so I stand corrected . - I've had a slip on 20-21Apr, so I've started counting 2nd and 4th task over again. - I'm of for the 24-26Apr weekend, so I'll try introducing the 6th task before the 5th. +1CON is conditional over my keeping the habit of everyday exercise up to the 3rd May, at least; +1WIS due to mini-challenge is conditional and can be revoked if I don't complete enough of this 6-weeks-challenge.

What was I even thinking?, a green-clad gnome chided hirself. I should know better than try to do things without enjoyment. How can I become a legend when I don't take time nor tasks to be proud of myself? How could I inspire my sister or friends, or gather a team, if I don't inspire them to work with joy in their hearts? For there is no other worthy reward aside from joy. ---- Now I've tried my challenge, I know that I've made several mistakes when making and scheduling it. 1) Too many new habits at once, after all; I need at least three days to integrate something into my schedule, or otherwise I will be overwhelmed with the list; Easter may have seemed like a good starting point for many because of how much free time I've had, but in the end I have to conclude that things are easier to do when I already have a day's timetable shaped by the day's events. -> one new habit to start on every three days; since it's so long, I need to prioritize. 2) The way I've made my challenge sound, it's not geeky enough. The characters I could identify with - rarely show in the popular productions, and even more rarely as protagonists for - let's face it - for some reason most writers think that strategists and tinkers don't make a good focus of a story. To the point when I have trouble convincing myself that I could make a good focus of a story of my life. I guess you can see the problem. Also, it's easy to forget that I have both advantages and disadvantages of a gnome if I don't mention being a gnome. Well, that's to be fixed. -> I've drawn a pic of myself as a gnome, in the I-want-it-that-way portrayal; I'll put it in this thread, later; -> I can't count just any 3 things for my regularity stuff: they need to be things that make me happy; esp. since what I'm trying to do is developing resistance to depression; -> make a list of tales whose protagonists could as well be gnome heroes (D&D version of the gnomes) ; so far, I've got: * Dratewka/Skuba the shoemaker from a Polish legend (the guy who killed an unkillable dragon by tricking it into eating a thing that resulted in the dragon trying to wash the taste down with so much water that it died from too much water; here is an illustrated song about it - )* sir Boruta the Devil from a bunch of Polish legends (he's a rather liked trickster figure, and very much of a temperamental meddler - my fave is when he hijacked a court's verdict by repeating the trial in the middle of the night, smelling of sulphur, and left a handprint shape burnt into the judge's desk, so that no one would dare to protest his solution, which favoured the poor widow over a wealthy magnate unlike the court's original verdict; well, Boruta was from the folk, after all - he got his nobility by pushing "some noble's" cart out from the river and jokingly demanding the castle up the hill as a payment - which may have been a way to make next demand sound less outrageous - but he didn't yet know that he was helping the king himself; Boruta did get that castle; ) * the Puss in Boots; * Bean from Ender's Shadow; * Loki - Ćwiek's interpretation, mythological in some versions, and from some MCU fanfiction; * Andy Dufrane from The Shawshank Redemption; * sometimes the Doctor from Doctor Who; * the historical heroes who came with some most crazy battle ideas and won; * the historical heroes who sabotaged the oppressing regimes in such a way that no one could (legally) touch them; (...there is a distinct shortage of portrayals of cunning Ladies, BTW - Oo; ) if anyone knows more - especially from sci-fi and fantasy genre (I can't stand too realistic surroundings) - please, tell me. 2) HQ is and should be a thing; recent changes: -> tea set on my windowsill makes me remember to drink fluids; -> swimming pool set set on a nail by the door makes going there swifter; -> healthy snacks on the desk's edge make me unlikely to reach for sweets; -> a poster with Chinese characters on my wall makes me rehearse them just by looking; -> the toothbrushing stuff near my windowsill reminds me of flossing; I'm going to continue this method, as it works. 3) I've taken wrong psychological approach to diet; since the most lasting changes I've made so far work on this principle, the ones I'll do now should be based on this, too. The habits I've already established enough for them not being too much of a challenge: - drinking more water, - flossing teeth, - learning languages, - no sugar. Today, I add the community swimming pool. The routine shall go: swimming->sauna->shower->dry my stuff. Also, I'm preparing to eating buckwheat instead of wafers, for there are no wafers left in the house.

Speedwalking and running are quite different, so you may never know until you try. Nice to meet you, Amy the Magnificent

04.04.2015, Saturday - battle log I'm running myself raged, and apparently my body caught up with the problem - I think I have had raised body temperature in the middle of the day, though I've just quietly laid down, instead of borrowing a thermometer, so I don't know how much. Still, due to the circumstances, I take some blanks earlier than I've planned myself to be allowed to. (What little can be shifted - I shift to the next day.) How to help it? Well, for one - no more mint tea for me. It may be one of the tastiest things ever, but it has an unfortunate effect of taming the appetite - and with no sugar in died, I end up eating less than I need. Two - I keep sleeping little due to waking up too early (with no alarm clock,) compared to how much sleep I thought I need. Is it how I really need it, or am I going on overdrive? It's an important question, since getting enough sleep is important for every other aspect of life. From the three tasks - I completed but one: helping with the horses. The habit of exercising keeps well. No sugar, barefeet-style runs, face-to-face talk (two!), half a flossing, meditation, soup, three glasses of liquids - done. Everything that I could have done and have done in the morning. My sleep was too erratic for the plan, so I've called it an early blank. Thrice I was afraid that the depression period was coming back, but since I'm still up and kicking - it is not. Just a momentary slip due to health reasons. Though I would feel guilty about it still, if I had no comparison with other NF members. Now I know guilt over such things serves no-one, and it's better to go right back on track instead of beating oneself over it.

Hello, just dropping in to say that I like very much the way you write you reports. Especially the narrative part reminds me of some inspiring fantasy book .

03.04.2015, Friday - battle log Despite being very tired yesterday evening, I didn't fall asleep in time - I guess I was too tensed up. Since I almost always fall asleep right away, and I still left those 8 minutes of slack just in case - I still count the task as done. I finished putting the training stuff in my calendar first thing in the morning. I was reluctant to start so many habits almost at once, for I was afraid that they'd go away together - but in the end, I've decided that establishing those habits as a part of familiar environment may help with that. After all, I was so excited that I'm moving to the next level with buckets (Weider's aerodynamic 6) - partially managing the middle part - that I made a second one in the evening. My day resembles check-list: this? done. that? done. I can't wait to having those habits fully established. It'll be nice, not to need thinking about them. Three tasks quest: - go to the mil. qualification facility for a check - even tough they told me to come on Apr.17th, it was useful in the terms of gaining knowledge; - bathroom thoroughly cleaned - hurray spring cleaning, heh; the normal home stuff is done, too, so I can say that for once I've done it on the top of things, not instead of them; - Easter postcards made and send; - I've taken back some of the documents I've left at my best friend's place, too. I've planned more, but it was unreasonable, so I feel accomplished with what I managed to do. Check-list today: two flossings, a bucket, no sugar, short barefeet-style run, soup, 3 glasses - all done. The today face-to-face talk was me getting advice on how the mil. qualification process goes and what the prospects are. The guy was very helpful ^^. I've started on Russian before I had the "languages everyday" thing planned - I'll see how it goes. Pre-strength-training measurements are taken. I've got more of them for myself, but here: - fat percentage in the US Navy estimate: 18.5% by male method, 24.64% by female method. I'd guess it's more like the latter, for I do have some fat on my buttocks and therefore at my hips. - neck is 32cm around (I'll add the inches when I'll have time) - "bicep" is 27cm - thigh is 53cm - calf (tensed - it actually makes it bigger) is 37cm. I've done the hot pepper-onion-garlic thing, too. Onion was cooked, so not the best for the vitamin C intake, but I've rewarded myself 4% for eating all of those things and for the right meals at that. I've made most disgusting quark stuff I've ever eaten, but mixing quark, garlic, yoghurt and banana actually made me eat it - and eat some proteins, too. Ah, and the carpet-beater is no good for pull-ups, but I've found that the goal-gate nearby works well for that. I'll have to think out something to put the legs on, for I can't do a full pull-up just yet. I'm so tired... but happy ^^. And besides, I'm looking for an accountabilibuddy - preferably someone similarly ambitious. Please, do direct me to the right place with that, because right now I'm so busy that I can't just look trough the sub-forums, and I think that in a few days I may need someone to hold me accountable.

What are you looking for in the martial art? What do you expect to gain from the training? There is a difference in what different arts give to a trainee, in the long run. Maybe someone from the Monks' or Druids' sub-forum could help you choose, once you know what you are looking for? I mean, for example: Karate Shotokan and Krav Maga are very different, I think. The former seems to be more of a competitive sport, the latter seems to be too ruthless in style to be counted as a sport.