Jarric

Chickens in your office is kind of a cool thing to have. I'm sure I'd get bored of the mess fast, but right now it sounds like a great idea.

17 hours ago, sarakingdom said:

Since meal prepping is still an exploration, an unconventional take on it:

 

 

This is similar to what I do actually. We usually have a roast dinner on Sundays (as is the law in England), so we just get about 1kg of meat for 2 of us and then chuck it in curries/chillis/sanwiches/pasta stuff/whatever during the week. It's arguably even lazier than his method, because we don't even seal the meat, it just goes in an oven dish and goes in the oven for a while.

You could do a similar thing with a slow cooker too - you don't even need to add liquid to a slow cooker, you can literally put the meat in, turn it on low, and leave it for 8 hours.

@Rhovaniel if you're looking at this method I would also mention that Tesco do massive turkey thighs for £3.50, which I think is ludicrous value. We had turkey roast on Sunday, turkey noodle soup yesterday, and I've just made 4 sandwiches out of the remaining meal (probably could have stretched to 5 if I'm honest).

17 hours ago, Wild Wolf said:

I played some this past weekend since I have the game pre-ordered. I went with the rogue and had an absolute blast! I'm excited to get him to lvl 20 (currently lvl 13) so I can unlock the wolf pup backpack gift you get for getting to lvl 20 during the beta. 

 

 

I am also excited to test out the Necro and Druid . Productivity will hit an all time low this weekend!

Aww, that's so cute! I have not pre-ordered the game, so presumably I'll miss out on that, but I did get early access to the beta. Unfortunately I only got one night of it so I'm pretty low level, but looking forward to picking it back up on Friday evening when the open beta goes live.

4 hours ago, DarK_RaideR said:

Super fun indeed. We absolutely should play it again sometime, drunk or not.

17 hours ago, Rhovaniel said:

Once a month is actually an interesting idea. I want to look into if that's something that could work for me, just making a giant batch of things and freezing them 

I don't know where you are with it now, but if you don't meal prep at all now then once a month would be a big jump. If you manage to do a massive batch of 10 meals, that's half the working days of the month. Sure, it's only half, but it's infinitely more than none.

17 hours ago, Rhovaniel said:

It looks like it MIGHT happen, just a few days later than planned! Woo!

3 hours ago, Heidi said:

What have you guys been watching lately?

WW and I have spent a good chunk of time catching up on Lego Masters Australia - it's incredibly compelling somehow.

2 hours ago, shaar said:

suddenly NOT KNOWING HOW TO TYPE ON MY PHONE is just askfhdkfhsdkskfs

This is a great no context quote.

21 hours ago, Wild Wolf said:

Diablo 4

Downloaded the beta yesterday - time to watch my productivity absolutely tank for the week

2 hours ago, DarK_RaideR said:

 

*something something, a pet rock, @Jarric and a door used as a tower shield...*

Man that was a fun game - I could do with a drunken level-zero meathgrinder again sometime.

18 hours ago, Rurik Harrgath said:

May the bridges I burn light the way.

There's something deeply metal about this sentence. Following of course.

Hey shaar! Love your characters for this challenge; hope they serve you well.

The half-elf at the bar gives a start at the newcomers bustling into the tavern, as though snapping out of a trance.

Pint of the black stuff, barkeep, he says automatically, before coming to his senses a little more. Actually, I'll have a trippel bock, if @TimovieMan's buying.

Looks like I checked out for a couple of weeks there. Guess it's time to start seeking my next challenge?

9 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

RIP Hammarfist.  You have died twice now, and each time alone without your friends nearby.   You will be missed    

He will be missed. I felt very bad for murdering him.

On 3/19/2023 at 7:48 AM, Rhovaniel said:

Get consistent with meal prepping

Do you have an idea of how consistent qualifies for this goal? Is it prepping once per month, once per week, every day? It might be that you still need to work that out depending on what kind of meal prep fits for you, but I'm just curious.

On 3/19/2023 at 7:48 AM, Rhovaniel said:

 

-          Complete 100km canoe trip across Scotland??? (goal pending)

This sounds absolutely rad; I hope you get to do it.

On 3/19/2023 at 7:48 AM, Rhovaniel said:

Taking a fair bit of inspiration from the wonderful nerds on here, I utilised a page at the back of my planner for tracking it all:

  

This is beautiful! I need to re-think my challenge trackers.

Well, this challenge is over, and at some point I might just write a wrap-up post. Maybe tomorrow lunchtime? 

I have just downloaded the Diablo IV beta last night though, so expecting my productivity to be very low for however long I can access that.

On 3/15/2023 at 1:40 PM, MaeradCase said:

10/10 would play

On 3/15/2023 at 2:00 PM, DarK_RaideR said:

 

Depends if you have anything even remotely... honkable around

Yeah, that's true. I wonder who Zeus is really following...

Monday was a good day. Crossfit was sandbag/deadball loads, zercher carries, and rope climbs - I love playing with strongman stuff and I love rope climbs so I thoroughly enjoyed it. Work was mostly meetings. In the evening I went to see my Dad for a bit, then went home, heated up some mini beef pasties, and crashed on the sofa. I was totally knackered, so I went to bed early. 2/6 goals hit - on time and languages.

Yesterday was a good day. Running first thing - 4 miles - it felt fine and I stretched for a bit after. Work was busy but ok, and I had time to do some essay writing.

In the evening we had Pathfinder, in which we had a massive battle with a variety of blood-themed monsters. It went poorly, and we ended the session with 3 PCs unconscious and bleeding out, the monk on 2hp and engulfed by a massive blood globule, and the wizard on 1hp jumping out the window to escape. As he jumped out he heard a Goose honk and all hell break loose, so I'm hoping that we'll get some goosus ex machina to save us from a TPK. (This is the goose that's be following us for a while and most definitely isn't Zeus in disguise.)

3/6 goals - essay, stretching, and languages.

21 hours ago, Sovalis said:

I love your tracker full of icons! That's brilliant! Hope things go okay with visiting your Dad. 

Thank you! I thought it would be an interesting option to try. It works, as long as I remember to update it

Well I've been rubbish at updating this challenge recently! To save me writing out my week 4 results, here's my challenge tracker from weeks 1-4:

The top left row is just a reminder for me of the 6 icons for my 6 goals, and then each day I draw an icon on the day I've completed that goal. You can see how poor week 4 was with the lack of drawing.

Last week was a good week though. Busy early in the week catching up from my time off, and then travelling at the end if the week, so I was a bit short on time and brain power for this challenge.

On Saturday I knew I needed to run and needed to work on my essay, but I got a sudden flash of inspiration to bring out my drawing tablet that's been gather dust for god knows how many months. I had a really good time messing around with tutorials on that, which was pleasing.

On Sunday we had a power cut, which cut our D&D game extremely short, but I used the time to tidy the house and do a quick drawing study. When the power came back I did a little bit more work on the tablet too. Overall a good weekend.

The outlook for week 5 looks similarly busy. Mum's away on holiday, which means I'll be dropping in to see my Dad on my free evenings, and generally probably stressing about him. My sister's mostly looking after him, so I'm sure he'll be fine, but I can't help but worry anyway.

On 3/12/2023 at 12:33 PM, Artemis Prime said:

It does, thanks! I think calling it a budget threw me off because when writers talk about a budget we're usually referring to an audience's ability to assimilate and retain information and making sure that we're not overwhelming them with too many new terms or characters at once. 

23 hours ago, DarK_RaideR said:

Ironic, because it's actually the opposite, a few things that work as a reminder to sprinkle on top and tie everything together via a common theme. That's why the directions say it's okay to overspend.

Yeah, I think the difference in approach here relates to how the different mediums work. In a novel, you get to decide all of the information that is provided to your audience, so you can provide exactly the right amount. In an RPG your players might decide to entirely circumvent the room where you put all of your clever foreshadowing and thematic ideas. Generally it's better to have too many reminders/clues/thematic points than too few, because your players will always miss or misinterpret some of them.

22 hours ago, MaeradCase said:

An excellent question, though I'm sure there are oddball players that would take the pit. However, making it the path of least resistance is an excellent DM choice. "Oh, you try the elevator? It's not working at the moment. You'd have to successfully fix it." *group immediately pulls MacGuyver out of their pocket* 😅 If you want it to be a future easy-mode, I'd put some of the problem in the upstairs portion, but have the user manual point out that a particular issue can only be resolved by getting down to the elevator. (They might still choose the elevator shaft instead of the pit, especially since it'd be manufactured and accessible... But didn't you say the tunnels have a few access points? Maybe they'd discover the tunnel into the elevator shaft by climbing down slowly rather than riding the elevator up and down.)

I might take the pit - might be treasure down there

I don't think it's a problem if a player has spent all of their skill point in crafting and is able to fix the elevator straight off though - it validates a character choice and lets them be centre-stage for a bit. As long as it's not easy for just anyone to fix.

22 hours ago, MaeradCase said:

Despite my feelings of inadequacy (for it not having quite the elaboration or theming that seems to have been the assignment, and for it being the city and not a dungeon crawl), I'm gonna share the image of my point-to-point map.

I think this is great - I had never thought about mapping towns in this way, but it works really well!

On 3/8/2023 at 2:44 PM, Artemis Prime said:

 

I'm a bit confused by the "theme budget" though. Say I roll a 4 for a level, is that just a reminder to put 4 things that relate to the theme on that level? 

Yeah, that's how I read it - I think the idea is to avoid filling a load of rooms with traps and monsters but forgetting what the theme of your dungeon is.

Love the broken necromancer's tower idea, very cool, and very foreboding.

1 hour ago, DarK_RaideR said:

Fell behind on this one, courtesy of a minor health scare and its aftermath. Week 3 is where I struggled (and abandoned) this challenge last time, so I'm trying to power through. Gonna complete this thing, just not in its exact timeframe intended. Which is fine, not like I have a deadline and a group impatiently waiting to play.

Though not for the same reason, I'm in a very similar position. Gonna try and jump back on this from next week!

1 hour ago, DarK_RaideR said:

The tunneler's "pickle room"

Loving the horror vibes here - very, very creepy.

On 3/8/2023 at 5:38 PM, MaeradCase said:

The doors to Heliodor are in two sides of the mountain. A great gate of daunting dimension and intricate carving has been fashioned in the wall of the mountain. In its immediate vicinity are guard rooms with windows and slits that permit defense of the gate.

Beyond those are balconies and windows that belong to residents of the mountain city who prefer to have access to fresh air - they can be reached by precarious foot paths on the mountain face, and are artfully decorated by the mountain foliage tended carefully by those with green thumbs and clumsily by those who don't mind getting a little dirty digging in the rocky terrain.

This sounds beautiful - I'd like to live here!

On 3/7/2023 at 2:53 AM, Sovalis said:

Happy belated birthday, Jarric! Sounds like you’ve had some great adventures!

Thank you ☺️

On 3/7/2023 at 9:15 AM, Rhovaniel said:

Ah, Man v Mountain? Exciting to watch your adventures unfold Jarric!

Yeah! I'm going with a few people from work, which is good because we're all keeping each other accountable to do some training - 22 miles is a long way! Really looking forward to it though.

Week 3 results

The muscle: 4/7 days on target with calories. I finished the week with a total of 22,832kcal against a target of 22,064, and I gained another lb. I'm gaining weight a little fast, but I was also slightly over on calories so I'll keep the same target for now.

The documancer: 2/7 days writing essays - must try harder

The chonologist: 5/7 days mostly on time - having no appointments helped here!

The cartographer: 0/11 Gygax75 tasks done - I totally slipped on this this week

The translator: 6/7 days practising Dutch and French - good enough

The second-storey specialist: 5/7 days stretching etc. - days off from the gym/running made perfect time for this

Sunday - week 3 day 7

Yesterday was a good day. I had a nice lie in, hobbled up to the shop to get bacon, and then chilled out with a bacon sandwich and watched TV. D&D was cancelled as a couple of players were ill, and I should have spent that time doing some essay writing but in the end I never got round to it.

I went over to my parents house for a late lunch and to get some birthday presents from them. It was a bit stressful, as these things are, but nice to see them. When I got home I had a few beers and a couple of ports, updated on here, watched more Lego Masters, and went to bed at a sensible time.

Timings and languages done; 2/6 goals for the day.

11 hours ago, DarK_RaideR said:

"...and it dies"

Makes me wonder how that ad got greenlit

I think it's a good message - it's not worth working yourself to death; take a break.

11 hours ago, DarK_RaideR said:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!

Thank you mate!

2 hours ago, Wild Wolf said:

 

This sounds like a proper birthday meal!

 

 

Hell yeah. That's great, dude. When will you know if this officially qualifies you??

 

Wolf

 

Yeah, it was really good 

They say 3 working days to publish provisional qualifiers, so later this week hopefully (though they're pretty bad at updating their website most of the time).

1 hour ago, sylph said:

You've posted this before, and it is excellent every time.

I'm glad you like it as much as I do

15 hours ago, Chris-Tien Jinn said:

😥  Still at 32%

32% isn't particularly high - I wouldn't worry about it if you've hit your goal weight. With that said, I thoroughly support a goal of building strength and muscle.

On 3/4/2023 at 8:55 PM, Rurik Harrgath said:

Spezzy did the math and we're looking at like 1000 eggs per year or something equally absurd like that.

On 3/4/2023 at 9:16 PM, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

I just did the math and I realized our family is using about 2190 per year just for breakfast.

We get 936 eggs delivered every year from a local farm, and I eat all of those. We have to go out and get extra if WW wants any, or if we want them for anything other than breakfast.

6 minutes ago, Rhovaniel said:

Epic race report Jarric! I keep forgetting about Nuts until it's over... might need to see if Summer Nuts lines up for me this year

Thank you  . Annoyingly I can't do Summer Nuts this year. I'll be running up Snowdon, so it's a fun reason, but it's still a shame to miss it.