Jarric

It's been a mad couple of weeks, but I'm back! Week 2 started with me on holiday in Oxford, for a relaxing break with WW. It was hot as balls and sleep was pretty poor as the hotel had no air con, but we had a lovely time wandering around the town and the surrounding countryside, and visitng various museums and botanical gardens. Week 2 ended with a few days In Cornwall, where I ran Man vs Coast; a 25-mile (ish) adventure race that goes across the Cornish countryside and then down the north coast all the way to Land's End. I say ran; I had to walk most of it with my knee, but I ran enough of it to finish in just over 8 hours rather than the 9 it took me last year. The weather was about 16°C and a little wet, which is perfect running weather but not so much good for enjoying views of the Cornish countryside. Week 3 I drove home on Monday (via a stop for one last sea swim), worked in the office on Tuesday, WFH Wednesday, travelled up to the northern office Thursday to work there in the afternoon, travelled home again Friday morning. When I was working I was flat out trying to catch up after the time off, and the travelling time didn't help with that. On Saturday I had a lifting competition at my Crossfit gym. I hit 52.5kg (116lbs) for snatch and 92.5kg (203lbs) for cleans (just cleans, no jerks). Both were PBs which I'm very happy with - there was no chance of me competing with some of the big boys in my gym and I knew that going in. On Sunday I went and had a gait analysis at a running shop and bought some new running shoes, in the hope that this might magically fix my knee. I also bought a knee exercise programme from GMB last week, so I'll be running that in combination with the new shoes and we'll see if it helps. In the afternoon I ran D&D; it was a very chill loot admin and shopping session. Then out in the evening for South African pizza with friends. Phew, I'm worn out just typing all of that. Hopefully this week will be a bit more chill.

It's not ideal. On office days I'm home about 7, and WW has dinner ready pretty much for when I get home, so I don't want the taste of toothpaste before a good meal. On Pathfinder nights I go straight from work to the pub (which is in a city in totally the opposite direction to the one I work in), so I'm not home at all until after my normal bedtime. It might work on WFH days, but as that's only 2 days per week it's not great for building the routine. Evenings are the ideal time to do it because the toothpaste can then remain on my teeth for several hours without me eating or drinking anything, I just need to actually do it.

This is incredible! Amazing work. Your players are very lucky. I really enjoyed running SKT (though we never got to finish the campaign, unfortunately). A good chunk of the book is travelling and exploration based, getting to know the world and having random encounters that tie in with the themes of the adventure. It's a really good example of how random encounters can add to the story rather than just being filler, actually. But it's also a bit unfocused in the middle, so not for players who like a more on-the-rails story. I have had exactly the same experience, and felt totally outclassed by players experienced in investigation. Good fun though Clear plastic risers are good for simulating flight or even multiple levels of a building. And because they don't look like anything, they're more versatile than making terrain pieces.

Having done a week of tracking, a few thoughts: - No alcohol: 3/7 - always going to be a tough week with everything going on, but had I thought about it I probably could have avoided the solitary can of agave nectar beverage on Sunday with dinner (though maybe it was worth it for the novelty). - Teeth: 2 full days, followed by 5 mornings brushing. Clearly evenings are the weakness, particularly when I've been out late. - No fizz: 0/7 - might have to out some work into this, though given the holiday and the can of Pepsi sat next to me, probably not until week 3. - 5 strength sessions, no other exercise. This is about spot on where I wanted to be. - 1 creatively session (might have been work on a mini, but I think probably just basing that little duck?). Busy week so not a surprise, but expect this to be low again with traveling on week 2.

I like the idea of switching alarms to internet radio stations, that's a pretty clever plan to actually notice the change and have it trigger behaviour. Also, new book hype! Though I'll probably wait until it's out in paperback

Yeah, it's not great, unfortunately it's sort of how it works round here. Moving to a job in town got me a 48% pay rise, not too mention hundreds more opportunities than I would have locally, and the commute is the price you pay (or the cost of living closer, which is significant). Last time I did it, in 2017, I swore I'd never be a commuter again. But with hybrid working it's only 3 days commuting now, I'm doing it for a job I actually like this time round, and I'm a bit older and a bit more prepared to get up at arse o'clock to beat the rush and get to the gym. Yeah, I'm very much looking forward to it!

Ive never come across 'nam for Cheltenham, but I know a few people who refer to Littlehampton as LA. That eclair cake looks incredible, I need some of this!

Well, it's been a busy week Wednesday: Crossfit, work, then tidying the house from the moment I finished work until friends started arriving. Then D&D until bedtime. WW ran a wonderful game, including a fight with a giant eel and the aforementioned giant weasels as played by tiny ducks. I used colour spray to blind the weasels, and we took care of them handily (though that used up 1 of my 2 spell slots for the day - level 1 wizards have it rough!). Thursday: Gym first thing - played with some ring muscle ups - then work. Super busy day trying to rush through everything before the end of the month and time off. Worked later than I planned, but still finished by about 4 in order to cross town to our office summer party. Had a great time, ate free food, drank a lot of free beer. Got home at something like half midnight, decided to put the washing away, and then got to bed about 1am. Friday: Skipped the gym, got the extra sleep. Another super busy day at work, and I kept working until about 7.20pm to get stuff cleared and handed over to colleagues. Cooked poutine (or a rough approximation thereof), chilled, and went to bed at some point (maybe around 11-midnight?). Saturday: We had a Pride Month competition at my gym, which was pretty fun. I hit a new 3RM for cleans at 80kg (176lbs)! To be honest I'm not sure what my clean 1RM was, so I might as well claim it as a new max overall. 3 workouts, lots of hard cardio stuff, but pretty good fun. Left there about lunchtime, got home to eat and shower, and then Hopalong picked me up to go and see Iron Maiden live. It was a great gig, but we arrived too late to see the support bands (including Halestorm), which was a real shame. I'm going to buy Halestorm tickets for later in the year I think, I've been meaning to see them for years. It took us an hour from the gig finishing to get to the car, 90 minutes to get out of the car park, and another 90 minutes to drive home. Got back at 2am and was far to energised to sleep, so I had an extra beer and stayed up until 3am listening to music and carching up with social media. Today: I had a lie in, chill morning of sorting the hiuse and packing bags, and then WW and I drove to Oxford for a short holiday. Arrived here just before 4pm, and we've been for a little wander round town and dinner at a Mexican street food place. Now sat in the hotel room, having watched Jumanji 2 and some other TV, and I'll shortly be going to bed. Looking forward to a very chill few days off work, where I expect we will do very little of substance.

It's so daft and so much fun I shall share his adventures as best I can then. A little less, that's rounded up. I could probably get to work in 1 hour 20, but just the way train times line up I get home about 6.45pm if I leave at 5pm. That's a surprisingly tough question the more I think about it. In real life, I think the ducks. In D&D, the weasel; swarms are nasty business. It is now! (Technically his rifle; the mini has a crossbow because I don't have a mini with firearms.)

23/06: 178.9lbs 29/06: 176.5lbs Gonna be some odd weigh ins here as I'm traveling - started on a Monday, then today (Sunday), and the next one will have to be Tuesday. Still, a good start, though I won't put too much stock in it until the days sort themselves out.

It's the only logical explanation.

I'm radiating with British pride. I hope it was a pebble beach; sand's for showoffs. I'll take that description. It's definitely medically possible to feed a cat that way (or a person, for that matter), but I wouldn't recommend it . If for no other reason than it's not that efficient. Energy dense, hyper palatable food sounds like a plan though. Congrats on the weight milestone. I'll raise a glass to many more.

I'm finding this too - that deload week comes round fast. And spending 25% of my lifting time deloading feels a bit much. To but in, because I'm also running this programme, I suppose it depends what you want. In terms of muscle growth, because you're always finishing your sets within 3 reps of failure, it's pretty solid. It's designed to be a companion strength training programme for athletes though, so if your primary goal is to increase weight on your powerlifting it's probably not the thing. I'm debating whether I stick with it for another cycle after this one, but I do find it pretty fun so maybe that's the answer in itself.

Yesterday was a good day. Deadlift deload day, so a chill gym session. Work was mental; lots of people who wanted stuff from me yesterday that I wasn't able to provide; it's gonna be a real learning curve to not over promise and to still keep everyone happy I think. In the evening we played Pathfinder. Our party joined an adventurer's guild retrospectively for red tape reasons, and then had to go and complete a quest that we'd been signed off as completing a week earlier to legitimise our guild status being in the past. The quest was 'DEAL WITH RATS'. It turned out that we were not supposed to kill the rats living in the basement of a tavern, but to work for the rat folk who had quite legitimately hired a retail space below a tavern. They sent us to investigate a 'haunted' shopfront which so far turns out to have a gelatinous cube in the 5ftx5ft front porch. We decided to avoid this, and went in round the back to explore. In the process of looting the place I picked up a cash register, which turned out to be a mimic, and I ended the session with both hands welded to it. The guy running these sessions isn't our usual GM, but his sense of humour combined with classic D&D monsters was just incredible. I think this is the first time I've ever encountered a mimic as a player, and I was genuinely thrilled that it was me to get caught out by the thing. Not a lot of boxes got ticked, thanks to going straight from work to Pathfinder and then getting to bed about 11.

Mostly we've been hiding them randomly around the house, but it's got to the point where we're not even surprised to see them any more . Today she was using them as D&D minis in the game she runs for us, as a substitute for giant weasels.

It's a big thing to do, walking away, even if it's a positive thing. I'm not surprised you feel ambivalent about it. If you needed a sign it was the right choice though, I think your boss's reaction couldn't be a clearer signal.

If you don't enjoy running and it's hard on your body, is there an alternative (for when you're at the stage that you want to add something)? Cycling and swimming come to mind, or skating practice (away from hockey). If you haven't already discovered this, there is a group for people talking about various kinds of D&D prep: A focus but not a plan is a great way of putting it; I might have to consider something similar. I guess in a way it's not that far temoved from my challenge of tracking but not scoring.

Yesterday was a good day. Worked out before work - deload day so light bench and some shoulder and arm stuff. Work was super busy as predicted. In the evening I did some Tody tasks and tidied the kitchen, which is good because the house definitely needs it. I also did some mini painting... sort of. WW doesn't have a mini for out current Pathfinder campaign, and I didn't have one she liked so she decided to use a tiny duck that we have. (1 of 100 tiny ducks that WW bought me for my birthday a couple of years ago ). I offered to put it on a base for her, to make it easier to use on a battle map, and I decided to go the whole hog:

Welcome back! Nice to see you here. I haven't spoken to them in ages either actually. I should do that. It's a good quote though. Thank you! Hopefully it'll help. Oo, that's interesting! To be fair, once the average starts to drop below 7 I start to struggle, but 7's plenty. I think it helps that I'm really good at sleeping. I fall asleep quickly, can sleep almost anywhere, and if something wakes me up I can always get myself back to sleep if I want to. It's not the most exciting superpower, but it is handy.

Really thought that peach was a coconut for a moment, and I was feeply confused Your meals look delicious though.

Welcome back! It's good to see you here. I wish you every luck in finding your new name. Are you looking for something accurate to who you are now, or aspirational to who you would like to become?

I don't know . If I regularly get more than 7 hours sleep I start walking up early, so it does really seem to be enough. And thank you, I certainly hope it'll be useful. Thank you! You've definitely found the inspiration for his name too

I read this immediately after coming from this comment on @llcawthorne's post, which feels very fitting:

I feel like there's a lot of truth in this, and not just for fighting - you could apply it to almost any skill or sport. Really impressed by how much you're reading - sounds like you've read more in the last couple of weeks than I have in the last couple of years!

Great to have you as always!