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Well, two sets of one minute Thank you! My shoulders in handstand are getting a lot better with all the backbending work. Oof. Yeah, that sounds really hard. As much as I don't like zoom classes, I'm really thankful that I have them at least as a thing I'm theoretically supposed to go to. 👀 Thanks!

(I'M GONNA TRACK THINGS. ✔️= complete, ✅=partially complete, ❌=not done) Today: Practice ✔️ Reeds ✔️ Calculus ✔️ Linear Algebra ✔️ Write ✅ about 500 words? Tickets ✔️ Walk✔️ Workout ✔️ Got 2 minute-long handstands with legs in both splits, some OK balances, and the best tick-tock I've managed so far (on the right leg, still collapsing every time when I try it on the left.) My backbending is feeling really good-- I even tried a bridge against a wall to see where I was re. armpits/chest being able o touch the wall but the answer is still nowhere close, ha. (The video playing on the TV is... a calculus lecture, haha. Also-- look, FURNITURE!)

Great, thank you!

How do you get your current challenge to show up in the sidebar under your icon? 🤯

Congrats! ❤️ And I have been absent/lurking, but just wanted to say that reading through everyone's thoughts in this thread has been very helpful to me, too, so thank you for prompting them and making space for these conversations.

Last Challenge, I said that I was going to try to figure out something to do with scheduling this time. My situation is basically this: I am a professional musician with a full-time orchestra job. At the moment, I'm being paid to stay home; but I need to a) prepare for a livestream recital I'm a part of in a little mover a month, and b) keep practicing because eventually we're going to go back to work and I need to not suck. I'm also in school part time and have a bunch of hobbies that I want to do every day (including Assassining!) So the format of my days is basically a whole bunch of stuff that needs to get done at some point, but none of it is really urgent, which is a bad recipe for productivity. For a while I've been trying to address that by scheduling; writing down every morning when I was going to do what things. This works... sometimes... the only problem is that I hate it. Something about the act of writing down when I'm going to do a thing makes me resent the thing and wish I didn't have to do it. So, this Challenge, I am going to try... not scheduling? I think in order to make that work, I need to do two things: 1. Have enough time and energy to actually do things, i.e. go to bed on time and get enough sleep 2. Stay away from internet distraction vortices, i.e. most of web 2.0 So, my two main goals are to 1. Go to bed before midnight every night, ideally around 11 2. Spend 15 minutes a day combined on twitter/tumblr/instagram, only in the evening after most stuff is done. I don't really use those platforms much anyway in terms of posting, but I have *feeds* there, and once you click on it you end up sucked in for the next hour and then feeling useless and lethargic etc. etc. No time limit on websites that I actually want to use that don't suck me into despair vortices, viz. nerd fitness, dreamwidth, discord, because I'm perfectly capable of checking those, saying something to someone and getting back to what I was doing. Τhen, in the time that I hopefully have to fill my day with, there are eight things I would like to get done every day, realizing that some days not all of them will: 1. Practice bassoon 2. Make reeds 3. Work on my calculus class 4. Work on my linear algebra class 5. Write 1000 words of fiction 6. Work out (same goals as last challenge generally; flexibility, handstands, balances, walkovers) 7. Do some work on my volunteering with the OTW-- my role is on the Policy and Abuse committee, so I'd like to spend at least half an hour a day investigating abuse reports and keeping up with my ticket load 8. Go for a WALK every day. Now that I live in a house with my own space instead of the tiny apartment my partner and I were in until January, it's easy to spend all day inside. (Also because it's -30 outside. But hey I HAVE A HAT.)

Is this challenge... over? Is this me, coming back to report actual progress on the thing I said I wanted to do this challenge? UNPRECEDENTED. I actually say some big flexibility gains in the past couple weeks! I think part of it is the active flexibility work, and part of it is just the fact of actually doing flexibility stuff for a long enough time to get properly warmed up. In any case, here's a few days ago when I realized that I could a) touch my toe to my head in both splits, which previously I had only managed on the right leg by reaching back to grab the foot, and b) allllmost/sometimes/just barely get my leg straight in... erm, not sure what this balance is called. Is it a needle? A scale? IDK, but I couldn't do it before! Next challenge... I've been thinking about what to do and I am confused. I constantly vacillate between "I need to make a schedule for your day to get my shit done" and "I hate schedules so much and my brain rebels against them so I need to find a way to get things done without telling myself what do do every moment of the day." I DON'T KNOW WHICH IS RIGHT. Or which will win out. One of them will be my next challenge, though

Ahh, I remember this, haha! It suddenly seemed like everyone I knew was like "WHAT, I [have an inner monologue/don't have an inner monologue], I can't believe there are people who [don't have one/do have one]!"

Today I wanted to try practicing moving around in a handstand in small ways-- I'm not solid enough to try things like changing leg position in an ~artistic~ way and not falling more or less at random, but I practised pointing and flexing my toes in a split handstand. Made this chickpea bolognese-- with real noodles, not carrots-- for dinner last night. I need more vegetarian pasta-type recipes

omg, you have a wings-hating poltergeist in your electrical system o.O The scale mail looks so cool. Your facility with... how to put this, physical things? Just knowing what things will work together and what can be substituted for what to make shapes in space? is amazing.

Yes, for sure! I would love to live somewhere where a car isn't a necessity, but that is very much not the reality right now

Ugh, that therapist sounds awful. I'm sorry that was a bit of a waste, but at least you... are clarifying what you don't want? Being a tourist in your own city is awesome

We finally have a new-to-us car, so I managed to make it to gymnastics this week! I have not been great about organizing videos of things I have done but here are... some things from the last two weeks. I managed the front portion of a tick-tock without collapsing immediately, and the needle (is that what that position is called?) thing is new to me. Gymnastics this week was not as terrible as I thought for having had two weeks since the last session-- I think doing a lot of stretching stuff involving my shoulders actually helped. I tried front stoops on bars and got one that I actually managed to kip out of, and tried giants on strap bar out of a clear hip-- the next one after the one I got a video of I tried to case higher but when kind of... collapsed when I tried to get around the bar in a way that I think is just shoulder strength? Finished with some back handsprings on laser beam.

I have no idea, actually! I've never really... learned any of this stuff properly, so I never really thought about there being different sequences with the head... I think I was doing the arms first because the challenge for me is getting my shoulders open, so I try to start with that thought and keep focusing on my shoulders the whole time. We're pretty much set up, except we bought a sofa and two chairs from ikea that are delayed and supposedly going to arrive in February sometime, so our sofa right now is a futon mattress propped up against the wall

My minimal excuse for starting this challenge late is that a) my car was totalled (partner was driving a neighbour on some errands, some poor college student home for christmas misinterpreted a stop sign and rammed her parents' car into ours, everyone was OK except our car), then b) I MOVED TO A HOUSE YAYYYYY in the rental the insurance company provided, trundling boxes of stuff up and down the block over the course of about two weeks. Also c) somewhere in there we had to self-isolate while half-moved until my partner got the results back of a (negative, yay) COVID test. THUS CONCLUDES THE EXCUSES PORTION OF THIS POST. Anyway. Goals for the next little bit: 1. Set aside half an hour a day to work out, with a focus on flexibility! I have been watching a lot more rhythmic gymnastics, and am inspired to at least work on my walkovers and balances (arabesque/penche/y-balance). And now I actually have room to do those things in my living room! 2. Take videos to track my progress. I really like the idea of having frequent records of what my gymnastics looks like, but am not great at actually doing it, partly because I am trying to use my phone and platforms like instagram less. BUT I have a camera and will take videos and put them up of what I am doing, like so: 3. Make/eat dinner with my partner every day. We are prone to getting tired and being like "ehhh ok we';; just fend for ourselves" and then they make pasta and I eat popcorn and crackers. NOT HEALTHY, shockingly

Oh, I love this'll. and yes— this approach reminds me of a "method" I read a lot about during school (part of my degree was in music education) called The Habits of Musicianship, which is basically just a practical implementation of the "radical" idea that students should be taught to focus on intention and artistry from the first day they pick up an instrument, instead of musicality being something "added in" only after the student is "good enough" technically (which is inevitably going to be after so many years of study and habit-building that suddenly adding in an entire dimension of artistry will be essentially impossible.) So I've been thinking a lot lately about how to apply that to gymnastics, which likewise has a lot of talk about artistry and personal style, but only a thing the very highest levels— there's very little notion of gymnasts at lower levels having personal style or expression.

HOMEMEADE! EGGNOG!!!! That gate vault looks really cool, and actually super useful to be able to do smoothly. (I mean. If you anticipate... situations where you might need to do that. Hahaha.)

Understandable! I hope the vortex spits you out soon. ❤️

Gideon the Ninth was both absolutely delightful and one of those books that took effort for me to read; it's SO heavy on barowie descriptuons of physical environment, and my mental images are not up to par :P Harrow the Ninth was one of the most supremently frustrating books I have ever read, intentionally, and then it alllll comes together 2/3 of the way through.

Aaaah, that video is the MOST dramatic, I love it. This thread has given me so much food for thought and also music to check out! I’d never heard of Laban, and the idea of communicating dance through Braille is fascinating.

THANK YOU! And yes, it should be a pretty easy move— it’s only a block away, and we’re going to have an unavoidable overlap of paying rent at the old and new places, which isn’t ideal but means we’ll have all of January to get set up. I also have a (double bass player) colleague with a large van who’s offered to help, so hopefully we’ll be able to get stuff like the mattress over without even renting anything. (I suggested that we just walk the mattress down the street over our heads, but for SOME REASON, partner was not a fan of that plan.)

I really shouldn’t watch fail videos because they GET IN MY HEAD and I’m like oh no, dramatic failure is an OPTION here. Buuut I do anyway 😂

Ha— I assume this is something that’s different on rebounding vs. non-rebounding surfaces? It seems like bent arm/leg strength/technique is more important when the surface doesn’t have any give, which makes sense— every time I try to tumble on grass it feels like a one-way train to shin splints and sore wri/“st-shoulders, so.

Oh wow, your hair looks great! What a difference! Real difficult decision, there I’m glad it’s something that can be treated, here’s hoping it starts working quickly!

I am super late but your giants look AMAZING. I am super curious to try them outside/ on a metal bar with no give, no idea if I could even get over 😝 Also, what are you using for Russian? I am doing it on Duolingo but it doesn’t feel... idk, particularly systematic or organized?