Jarric

27 minutes ago, DarK_RaideR said:

I actually love this. So many RPGs these days go to such lengths to make character death nigh impossible even with lots of effort, unless it's "dramatically appropriate" (plot armor, much?) so it ends up being a no stakes game going from one place to the other without much challenge and the thrill to go with overcoming said challenge. Life sucks and some times things go wrong, not because you made a mistake but because of a dice roll or something completely out of control. You learn to take the hits, lick your wounds, get pissed off and come back stronger.

Yeah, it was actually a really fun session. Annoying not to be able to take the character concept to a high enough level for any of it to work, but that's the way the dice roll.

Also, I 100% could have run away, rather than trying to be heroic and getting myself killed. Some of the others not so much

10 minutes ago, Sea-to-sky said:

Pathfinder is pretty brutal. It is really easy to kill players accidentally in it as a DM ive been told. we definitely ran away a decent amount playing 2e.  
Plus the poisons/curses/diseases are not fun and very hard to get rid of. 
 

Yeah, though to be fair there was nothing accidental about this . Posions/curses l/diseases are good when they're interesting - when they just put a road block in the game not so much. I'd take diseases being interesting but not stopping you from playing over realism in that case.

9 minutes ago, Sea-to-sky said:

Sorry to hear you guys had a partial TPK dude.  Any chance of resurrecting you all?

Nah, we're level 1. We onew what we were gettibg into when the GM suggested we roll up 2 characters before the game started - this adventure path is notoriously lethal.

That said, if I need a new character in a year's time I might resurrect him then, if I can find a thematic way to do it. Or I could just introduce his identical twin

Week 3 wrap-up

Week 3 was so long ago I don't remember it, and I've talked about most of it anyway, but the final scores were:

The cartographer: 3/7 days doing art. Appears this very much dropped off at the weekend.

The muscle: 6/7 days kneehab. Saturday was tricky as I was out drinking and eating amazing food for most of the day, but otherwise we're good here.

Pathfiner update

I'm super far behind on updating, so let's start with the important stuff!

We had Pathfinder on Tuesday night, and we went to explore the cellar of the abandoned house we were in. We found a creepy chair-device use to create undead from the living, but before we could examine it we were attached by a giant, hideous leech creature (a leecher? A leeture?)

Our wood kineticist was first in the firing line - the leecher grabbed him immediately, dealing a bunch of damage, and then drained all of his blood in round 2. Meanwhile the rest of us failed a bunch of knowledge checks to identify the thing, but we did learn it was weak to fire. I spent an entire round trying fashion a flaming arrow, before missing it entirely the following round.

At this point, in real life, I went to the bar. When I came back our rogue was also unconscious and drained of blood, and the kineticist was losing his final grip on the mortal realm.

Trying to be heroic I dragged the kineticist out of the way. Then I stepped up to the creature, turned back to my companions, and told them to run. And then I blew up my mechanical composite bow, in a blast of fire.

Funny thing, turns out that this creature wasn't weak to fire . We'd failed that check too.

Our druid dragged the rogue away, whilst the creature was busy leeching unlife out of the summoner's shadow companion. To save the shadow, and deprive the leecher of another meal, the summoner pulled out a dagger, cut off his own shadowy hand, and the summon winked out of existence.

The kineticist breathed his last, failed his recovery check, and died. Then the leecher turned on me. He rolled a fucking crit, grabbed me, and drained me dry all in one turn.

Whilst the druid fled with the rogue's unconscious body, the summoner hung back to try and save me. A brave choice, but a poor one, as the leecher managed to get close enough to him to drain all of his blood as well.

So, after session 4 of this campaign, 3 of the 5 PCs are dead and we were quite frankly lucky to escape a TPK. Tune in next week to meet our new characters, I guess!

On 4/16/2024 at 3:59 PM, Mad Hatter said:

I've also done a blind simulation and that was really, ummm, eye-opening. At first it was fun when we had to for example touch random sculptures and figure out what they were. And then it turned horrible when we had to cross a street. Of course it was all fake, we were inside and there were no real cars, but it was still terrifying and overwhelming.

Wow, yeah, that sounds really full on. I'd like to give something like that a go - I appreciate that sticking a blindfold on for a few hours is not the same as experiencing what it's like to live as a blind person, but it sounds like it would still be a thought-provoking experience.

On 4/16/2024 at 3:59 PM, Mad Hatter said:

I wouldn't get your hopes up toooo much. 😕It's so often that MRIs show problems but the person is perfectly pain free and functional and vice versa. Unless it's something super obvious like there's no cartilage left or an acute injury. I do also hope it shows something useful but I also would take it with a pinch of salt.

Yeah, it's a fair point, I shall try not to get too hopeful. It's just such an usual presentation of symptoms, I'd like to get more than contradictory guesses from different physios.

On 4/16/2024 at 6:30 PM, Kishi said:

 

Hey, I'm right there with you. I want to do all the things all the time, and it's hard.

 

I would be loathe to advise counter to what the physios and doctors and imaging are going to tell you - again, I can't stress enough, I'm just a guy on the internet with impaired information - but in terms of practical/practicable advice I'd probably want to know what it is you're doing before I try to advise you. Maybe if I know what all you're doing, I can give you something useful in terms of cramming it all in or making it more efficient, or maybe even advising around what might not be so necessary.

 

If you want!

That would be great, thanks so much for the offer.

So at the moment, physio exercises are:

 - single-leg, bent-leg calf raises - 1x20ish

 - single-leg squats, focusing on glute engagement, straight back, knees not tracking past toes - 1x12ish

Doing that every day is easy, I mostly do them betweent sets at the gym, and as it's only 1 set of each it doesn't take long if not. The call I had with a different physio to book the MRI suggested doing them less than daily (maybe 3x per week), but doing 3-5 sets. I haven't implemented that yet; would need to find a good way to fit it in.

Unrelated, the single leg squats are definitely doing something even with low volume, because my pistol squats have improved about 500% in the last 2 months.

I also decided last weekend to try and do some ankle exercises when I've got free evenings sat on the sofa - specifically these ones from GMB: https://gmb.io/feet/ . So far I've only done them twice, but it feels like even a couple of times per week they might be useful. I've also noticed that doing the ankle circles whilst weight bearing on the ball of my foot seems to aggravate the same area of my knee as running, which is interesting.

My gym coach has got me doing eye focusing exercises, which are in theory 20 seconds 3x per day (actually doing 1-2).

In terms of general exercise, I'm in a crossfit-style gym Mon, Wed, Thurs, Fri (1 hour each), and I go cycling Tues, Sat, Sun (probably 2 x 40 minutes and 1 x 90-120 minutes). I also go bouldering Wed and Sat, for anywhere between 1 and 3 hours of chilled-out climbing.

On 4/15/2024 at 3:06 AM, DrFeelgood said:

I've had issues with my knees for years, mostly only when I'm required to climb stairs and ladders.  Doctors were all too willing to waste my time and money, so I decided to just live with it for as long as I can.  I sincerely hope you have better luck with yours.

Sorry to hear that mate - it's definitely difficult finding good people to help you. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I end up with someone good!

22 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

Yes please! For no selfish reasons whatsoever. 😉

22 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

I've done this with a few colleagues, and yeah it was super cool!

I wish it was a more common thing - definitely think more people should try it.

22 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

Pinging @Kishi for knee nerdery 🙂

17 hours ago, Kishi said:

Man, I'm sorry to hear your knee's hurting!

 

I don't know that I have any brilliant ideas beyond what you've been doing as far as getting seen by a couple of physios who have said that it's likely an issue of the surrounding tissues which need to either be strengthened or mobilized or both. Most of what I've been doing has been influenced by the work of the "Squat University" and "Knees Over Toes Guy" YouTube channels - lots of backwards walking and single-leg work, but really doing a lot to strengthen and lengthen the surrounding tissues. That would mean things like tibial raises in addition to calf raises and L-sit progressions as well as learning to split squat super, super deep. I also added on wall-sits at the end, just because isometrics in the context of the work/exhaustion of other strength modalities seem to be useful and help me feel better.

 

Maybe some of this would help you too? But, you know, take it all with a huge ol' grain of salt. I'm just a stranger on the internet, surfing the algorithmic waves and living out my biases. I hope the consult is productive and that they give you something tailored to your situation which will help you get back to running.

Thanks for the advice! I've heard good things about Knees Over Toes Guy, don't think I've come across Squat University before, but I'll check them both out. Wall sits are one of those things that I hate, but also think it would be cool if I were good at them

I think all of it would be helpful. The main thing I can never work out is how to prioritise things so that I'm getting what it is I need without spending 3 hours every day doing every ankle/knee/hip/glute exercise under the sun. Not to mention the eye exercises that my gym coach has recommended for posture  . I'm hoping that an MRI might give me a better idea of what to target, but if you've got any idea how to work it out other than that I'd appreciate the help.

18/03 - 164.9lbs

25/03 -163.9lbs

01/04 - 163.1lbs

08/04 - 163.5lbs

15/04 - 162.2lbs

Ate a little over 1,000kcal over budget last week, but that's still well in deficit and that seems to have worked fine. I'm not quite on track for my goal right now, but 2.7lbs down from the start of this challenge isn't bad at all.

There was, to be fair, a great deal of guessing on Saturday. Had my meal in the dark, which was an amazing 3-course meal including a great swordfish starter. It was a really cool experience, and though I've done it before I was still amazed at how relaxed I felt being temporarily blind. Add to the mystery meal the beer before the restaurant, the cocktail before the meal, two glasses of wine with the meal, a beer on the way home, and then deciding to have cheese and biscuits for dinner, it was certainly a high-calorie day with a lot of margin for error on the guesswork element. 

16 hours ago, athousandwords said:

Although I'm going to an All Inclusive for a 3-day vacation this weekend, so it may be a couple weeks before this blip goes back down. 😆

Sounds exciting; where are you off to?

I'm speaking to a consultant about my knee on Monday, so I want to get my thoughts in order about it beforehand. Figured I'd share it here whilst I'm writing it up, in case anyone has a brilliant idea. Spoilered for size

Ok, I'm well behind on updates, so:

Wednesday - Kneehab done, art not done. Spent a bunch of my morning routing wires and considering a wifi extender or an access point, as I had new internet installed. On the plus side, I now have synchronus up/down 900mb internet. Had physio, which wasn't really helpful, but he's referring me to a consultant for a possible MRI scan.

Thursday  - Kneehab done and art done. Art was a rubbish, late night sketch of the cat after a long day on the road (I spent about 6.5 hours driving for a 2 hour client meeting).

Friday - Kneehab was done, art was not done. I tried running very slowly, in very short distances, at Crossfit. It didn't hurt, but no idea if it's better to push or not. By the end of the day I was knackered and just stared at my phone until bed time.

Saturday  - Yesterday was a good day, but neither kneehab nor art were done. I got up early, went for a short bike ride, went to climbing, drank tea and had a chat instead of actually doing any climbing, then came home and headed into town. In town WW and I met up with some friends and went to a restaurant where you eat in the pitch black, and are served mystery food by blind waiters. It was really brilliant - the food was great and it was just such a cool experience. We had a cocktail beforehand and a beer afterwards, and then headed back. In the evening WW and I caught up on the last 4 episodes of Doctor Who, and ate cheese and biscuits and drank beer. It was a marvelous, high-calorie, non-goal-scoring day.

All green with all of those schedule disruptions is a pretty major feat in itself - well done mate!

17 hours ago, sarakingdom said:

 

Honestly, excellent choice.

 

Glad you approve - I spent way too long choosing a gif to respond with. 

Now I'm wondering if there's enough Spike gifs or there to theme a whole challenge...

1 hour ago, sarakingdom said:

 

Ok, I guess it depends who's doing the biting...

Tuesday - W3D1

Yesterday was a good day. Art was some sketches during Pathfinder - one of Tangletop, a brownie who we decided to help get a shiny thing in return for information, and one of Mr Bird, who was the weird, soul-bound construct which was guarding said shiny thing.

In combat with Mr Bird I rolled a crit to overdrive my bow (as an inventor I can mess with it in combat to make it do extra damage), and then proceeded to miss every damn attack for about 5 rounds. In the end I finally hit, and that hit ended up being the killing blow! We gave the shiny (a spyglass) to Tangletop, got some information about weirdness in the general area and a random key which we hope opens a door in the tower we were trying to explore, and ended the session there. Next session we'll either be going downstairs in the place we're in, or going to a cave with a dragon in it, or to the tower to try the key,

Kneehab was done at Crossfit. Crossfit was deadlifts - I didn't write down the weight but think it was 140kg (308#) x 5 - and then some disgusting 1-minute intervals of 6 deadballs to shoulder and max distance air bike. My legs have taken a hammering recently

Work was good - it felt unusually productive which was really nice. Working from home helps with that. Calories were low ish, though WW accidently bought me a coke rather than a diet coke at the pub where we play Pathfinder, which was a waste of 133kcal on a drink I don't like as much.

Monday W3D1

Monday was a good day. Art was a quick sketch in the small book right before bed, having spent most of my sofa time sewing on more patches.

Kneehab was done at Crossfit. Crossfit was a full on leg day - box squats at 90kg (198#) x 3 x 5, then box step ups, hamstring curls, and natural leg extensions.

Work was ok, calories were low, and dinner was a delicious sausage and root veg tray bake.

Sunday - W2D7

Sunday was a good day. Art was a quick sketch of a lego minifig.

Kneehab was done as a warm-up for an afternoon bike ride.

I had  a very chilled day - got up late, went for brunch with WW, and chilled out for a bit before a short bike ride. Went out in the evening for my dad's birthday meal, and had an enormous amount of food. Even though I only had two meals on Sunday I consumed over 4,000kcal, and given that I had nothing in my budget I was 4,000 over target for the week. I only gained 0.4lbs though, so I'll take that.

In the evening I watched the lego D&D one-shot that was on recently, and spend a bunch of time sewing Tough Mudder patches onto a Tough Mudder hat. They give you a patch every time you volunteer and I've been meaning to do something with them for years, so I finally bit the bullet and got on with it.

Week 2 stats

Art: 6/7 (just missed Saturday with Tough Mudder volunteering taking all my energy)

Kneehab: 6/7 (just missed Saturday with Tough Mudder volunteering taking all my energy)

6 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

Just don't go in midge season, apparently it gets disgusting 😬

 

 Cool! 

Good to know, thank you. Being bitten to death really puts a downer on a holiday!

On 4/9/2024 at 1:24 PM, athousandwords said:

 

I've always thought that experience would be so cool! Report back on what you think! 

On 4/9/2024 at 3:21 PM, Sea-to-sky said:

Does sound very cool. Always fancied trying it since i saw it in a film

Yes, remind me and I will report back! I have been once before, so I know a bit more of what to expect, but I'm really excited to go again.

On 4/9/2024 at 3:34 PM, TimovieMan said:

About Time?

On 4/9/2024 at 3:54 PM, Sea-to-sky said:

Yup, thats the one. Hilarious film. 

Genuinely just thought Timo was saying it was about time you went to one of those restaurants  

NF support got back to me, and it's all sorted now. For those looking for answers:

• The epic quest list is now available again at https://www.nerdfitness.com/level-up/my-epic-quest/. All your previous quests should still be there (mine were)
• The Academy quests are no longer hosted on the website, however NF have put together a Google Sheet that contains all of the quests and will calculate your XP and level for you. You can find it here, and will need to make a copy for your own use: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1kkOxEC9yxH7qhDxJLfEd_3qTSnaN9xXuomhaXTJNlRo/edit#gid=0

12 hours ago, Laghail said:

 

I need to see this sketch! Lou Sanders is #36 on my list, sorted by date added.

It's a very rough sketch that doesn't look much like her, and it's also in my tiny pocket sketchbook, but sure:

12 hours ago, Laghail said:

 

Kinda magical to see you facilitating these events that you love so much. 

Yeah, it was really nice actually.

The free race entry and 8 cans of beer sweetened the deal too

1 hour ago, Sea-to-sky said:

That sounds really awesome dude. I have heard good things about those and they sound like a lot of fun. Different from the perspective of volunteer but defintely very cool thing to do

They're really fun! I'd recommend doing an OCR, though which one depends on what you want to get out of it. Tough Mudder has a lot of cool big-ticket obstacles, but it's also a lot of running and like £150 per ticket (though heavily discounted if you buy months in advance). Some of the smaller local events can be pretty cool (and are always cheaper), and the well organised ones have a really lovely, friendly atmosphere that you don't always get at big races. On the other extreme, Spartan is very much a competitive race first, rather than a fun participation event, and then there's various regional and world championships that take the competitive side even further.

18/03 - 164.9lbs

25/03 -163.9lbs

01/04 - 163.1lbs

08/04 - 163.5lbs

I ate a little more than 4,000kcal over budget last week, so gaining 0.4lbs feels about right (the budget figure should lose me about 1lb per week). It was a mixture of lots of chocolate, of feeling weirdly hungry, a full day on my feet marshalling a Tough Mudder on Saturday, and free beer from said Tough Mudder than all conspired to put me over. Oh, and my dad's birthday dinner  

So far this week I haven't had much of an appetite, and am getting less excited about all of the Easter chocolate I still have, so that should see me sticking to budget for a couple of days at least. Going out to a restaurant on Saturday where you eat in pitch darkness and get served by blinder waiters, so I'll have zero control of what I eat there, but aside from that I don't foresee any difficulties in staying on track this week (and honestly, that meal can't do much damage if I'm on track in the 5 days before).

Saturday - W2D6

Saturday was a good day. Not good for goals though. Art was not done, and kneehab also not done.

I was volunteering at a Tough Mudder, so I got up at 4.10am, left home at 5.35, and arrived on site at 6.10 for a 12-hour shift.

It was really good fun - I was stationed on Sewer Rat, which involves crawling through a tube and then dropping into a river before wading round and dragging themselves out. Lot's of very funny reactions to the freezing cold water, and also lots of really lively moments where people who were scared to give it a go - usually being either claustrophobic or unable to swim - faced their fears and got stuck in. I actually really enjoyed myself, which hasn't always been the case when marshalling events.

At the end of the day I had to pack down course markings, sign out, do a quick sweep of the event village for freebies (ended up with 4 sparkling waters and 8 beers for my trouble), and drive home via Lidl for dinner. I got in exhausted, showered, and just sat and drank beer in front of the TV until bedtime. 

According to my watch I burned 4,647kcal,  walked 10.76 miles (17.2km), and reached 255% of my daily activity goal. I also ate a ton of snacks on shift and had 6 little beers in the evening, but it more or less balances out.

Friday - W2D5

Friday was a good day. Art was a quick, rough sketch of comedian Lou Sanders in front of the TV ( @Laghail if Lou isn't already on your slayers list she's well worth a look).

Kneehab was done at crossfit.

Crossfit was squats - 95kg (209#) x 3, 85kg x 5, 77.5kg x 7. Then a workout for time of 30 calories on the air bike, followed by 5 rounds of 10 lunges and 10 wall balls. My legs have yet to recover.

Stayed at work late catching up on stuff, then a chilled evening and a very early night before an arse o'clock start on Saturday.

On 4/5/2024 at 4:08 PM, Laghail said:

 

Mood. Weddings are a trap, at least in the states. Egregious amounts of money and work for an event you barely get to be present for. I don't have a vote on your life, but if I did, I'd vote you destination wedding somewhere fun and affordable, like Kungsleden. Just don't take any unplanned detours, there was a documentary or something in 2017, it went poorly.

 

Well Now I definitely want a holiday there - it sounds beautiful. Bookmarking that for later.

On 4/5/2024 at 4:08 PM, Laghail said:

Gotta make sure your sentences don't return N/A#

Too true

On 4/6/2024 at 2:08 PM, sylph said:

Seems like it!

Hope WW is on the mend.

Thanks! She's not quite there yet, but definitely feeling much better.

On 4/6/2024 at 4:26 PM, Sovalis said:

Hope WW is feeling better soon and that you are able to resist enough of the chocolate this week to not derail your goals completely.  

Thanks! It's hard to entirely derail your plans in 1 week - I ended up eating over 4,000 calories over budget, and gained 0.4lbs, which is fine. Granted I'm trying to lose 1lb per week, so it's actually put me 1.4lbs off track, but that's still not a disaster.

21 hours ago, DarK_RaideR said:

If you need any help in speeding up this process, I might be able to help 😂

Well you're certainly more expedient than me in this regard

49 minutes ago, WhiteGhost said:

here!  (finally...)

Welcome! Good to have you mate.

On 4/6/2024 at 10:24 PM, Ranger Hal said:

@Jarric this showed up in the Facebook group a couple of days ago. Looks like you can get some of the info that was on the missing pages if you email support. I'm not sure whether that will get you your personal info though.

 

Facebook Post:

 

 

Brilliant, thanks for that. Do you happen to know what the support e-mail is? I e-mailed contact@nerdfitness.com and they haven't got back to me yet, so I'll chase them unless there's a better e-mail mentioned on Facebook?

Also tagging @titsworth in case you can confirm?

Thursday - W2D4

Yesterday was a good day. Art was done late at night, and was just a couple of quick sketches in the pocket book.

Kneehab was done at Crossfit. Crossfit was fun - we did a bunch of handstand practice - but my wrists and hands are pretty sore now. We also did a few 75-second intervals of:

5 chest to bar

5 toes to bar

Max distance ski

The bar stuff went really quickly and I ended up spending almost a whole minute skiing, which was fairly grim

Yesterday I was back at work, and spent the day wading through the mountain of e-mails that came in while I was off. I was knackered by the end of the day (though I've been a bit knackered anyway as WW's not been sleeping well with her cold and it's been waking me up too (obviously I'm not as tired as she is, but still (also, who nests brackets in brackets in a sentence?).).).

I finished work more-or-less on time, but then spent ages chatting to a colleague and catching up on everything I'd missed. Then home, cooked a quick dinner (pork and pineapple tacos), and straight online to play Baulder's Gate with some friends. We wrapped up at about half 10, and I stayed up to do a quick bit of art and keep my Duolingo streak alive before bed.

Calories were a little high again - it's going to be a challenge to hit the calorie goal this week (particularly if I don't stop eating all of the Easter chocolate).