PaulG

Is this clothes shopping we’re talking about, or something more fun?

100% agree. It is not easy, I don’t think we’re trained to pay attention to the signs we need it. Your thought process is exactly why I started scheduling meditation-type stuff for after I finish the workday, because that’s when my motivation and energy really hits bottom. If I don’t do something to give me rest, I wind up reflexively scrolling social media or YouTube for like two hours, looking for easy dopamine hits. Rest is indeed awesome, though I am reminded of a recent discussion that revolved around getting neighbors to unplug someone’s wireless so she’d take actual work breaks... who was that again?

There’s no colloquial term for it, but it is a known phenomenon. It’s been observed in clinical settings for a while that lack of sleep, particularly REM sleep, seems to have a negative effect on people’s emotional stability overall. Especially, it seems to make it more likely that someone will start to catastrophize things that happen in their waking life — viewing everything that happens to them as a large threat or problem in their life. I had forgotten until it was mentioned, but I suddenly remembered Tamora Pierce! I read her first couple series as a tween/early teen, and really enjoyed them. I remember enjoying one of her later series — I think it was Protector of the Small — more than her first, mainly because she seemed to drop a lot of the “magical chosen one” tropes and just portrayed a heroine who was willing to work harder than anyone else around her. Sleep regularity is something I’ve been working on a lot recently, so I am totes here for the sleep-based challenge. This is an awesome tip, must check out.

Sounds like a Lodge combo cooker, or something similar? I use the same thing for bread. My uneducated guess on the sticking is it has something to do with proteins in the flour — kind of like fish sticks to steel pans. Yeah, in my experience both halves need to be preheated, both to ensure less stickage and to promote oven spring in the loaf. I was having problems with burned bottoms myself not long ago. Ultimately, I found it was happening because I was following recipes that told me to put the cooker on the oven’s bottom rack position. When I switched to lower-middle or middle, my bottoms got a lot better. LABNEH IS DELICIOUS. I’ve never had it with herbs already mixed in, although I’ve seen it sold that way in some stores. I’ve mainly had it with za’atar, and if you’re looking for other herbs to mix in, the stuff that goes into za’atar might be a decent place to look... stuff like thyme, sesame seeds, sumac (I think), fun stuff like that. The work stuff sounds crappy, but good on you for not getting drawn in and participating. He doesn’t have to worry about dumb shit he says reflecting poorly on him in this particular workplace anymore, but you do. And ultimately, drawing some clear boundaries around how you want to be interacted with at work will hopefully make things less stressful for you, as people who think that kind of thing is okay in the workplace stop trying to engage you on it.

Okay, let’s keep this real simple. I’m PaulG. Current jams: parkour, cooking, strength training. The low-key top secret goal through my challenges to date are to finally get a good bar muscle-up, re-attain headstand push-ups, put on three (or five or ten) pounds of muscle, and become an assistant coach for my parkour org. Heart? Composed of gold. Left shoulder? Composed of suck, but under the care of an excellent physical therapist who is getting me back to strength work. Also, I recently moved apartments, and I can feel myself swinging into hardcore nesting/cooking mode as I get acquainted with my new space and far more awesome kitchen. This challenge is going to be filled with a lot of ruminations on furniture, slowly-building workout progress, and hopefully respectable levels of food porn. You have been warned. If you’re wondering why this challenge is posted a touch late, it’s because in the last three days I: Confessed in my last challenge that my 2021 life-goal and workout plans had not been written, then sat down and wrote them; Finally installed the last bit of furniture and unpacked all but one (!) moving box; and Came down with a gross stomach flu. So I have plenty of goals to draw out of my 2021 plan, but I’m still feeling a little discombobulated. Let’s get to some goals, such as they are. Goals: 1) Life: Make someone else's life a little better one time per week. When I finally wrote out all my goals for the year in one place, I realized that quite a few of them fall into the bucket of "be an active part of a community," which is something that I've felt missing in my life for a while now. When I visited my mother recently to connect with her after she got vaccinated, I was reminded of how important social connections really are, especially when so many of us -- including me -- are isolated from regular human contact. I've been thinking about this goal for a while now. In theory, it's a way for me to bolster my mental health, and the mental health of other isolated folks around me. In practice, it will probably be an excuse for me to bake a lot of bread products and deliver them to people over the next few weeks. 2) Nesting: Overdue adulting. This is really four little goals, things I've been putting off due to my apartment move that now need to get done. Taxes need to get (re)done. I did them once already, but they got rejected for putting my employer's tax ID number in wrong or something. In the meantime, one of my coworkers insisted I must be doing them wrong and should get way more money back every year, and was kind/cavalier enough to provide me with her own tax returns to check mine against. So a relatively simple, dumb chore is a little more complicated. But it must happen. I need to crunch a few numbers now that I live in a new place and ensure all my fixed costs are under 60% of my take-home income. OR have a damn good reason why they aren’t. Yes, fixed costs includes fancy groceries. Need to submit claims for all my recent PT care, which has all been out-of-network for my health insurance and thus needs to be submitted... BY MAIL. Let's be real, there's probably at least one other time-sensitive chore I'm forgetting. TBD. This goal, though, will have an inbuilt reward (aside from the fun of bragging that I performed basic adulting tasks online)! Now that I have a new, much larger apartment, it needs FURNITURE -- mainly lighting for the living room and dining room, and maybe a side table and nightstand or two. So let's set this down for myself: once all my adulting garbage for this challenge is done, I can turn my attention to the FUN part of nesting, namely picking and shopping for shiny new furnitures. 3) Strength: Do a Dang Pull-Up. After lots of PT and prep work since December, it looks like I’m getting close to some real pullups again. I’m even doing eccentric pullups! That means I’m probably 3-5 weeks away from being able to work the real thing. The finish line is simply being able to do at least a set of one pullup that doesn’t aggravate my shoulder or set back my PT. Extra credit if I get my chest to the bar. 4) Mobility: Improve Hamstrings and Add in Glute Work. This is simple. Mobility has taken up a challenge goal slot just about every challenge for the last year, and over that time I have seen progress -- mainly in my adherence. This time last year, I had a lot of trouble doing any mobility that wasn't on a workout day. Now, I'm working on my legs in a couple different planes just about every day -- I'm averaging 6 days per week of some kind of mobility work. The next step is to start tracking my progress objectively. So this challenge, sometime before the start of Week 1, I will take a benchmark photo for my hamstrings and hip flexors, for comparison at the end of the challenge. As well, I'm going to add in bird dogs (or quadrupedal leg lifts, or whatever) as an activation exercise when I do squats, and on off-days to assist with hip flexor work -- I haven't been seeing as much visible progress with my flexor range of motion as I'd like, and I want to see if they help. BONUS GOAL: What could it be? TBD. Current Stats: Height: 6’ 0” Weight: 176 lbs Age: 32 Waist Measurement: 28 5/8 inches Bodyfat: 12.1% Workout Log Legend

woooo 100% increase! Here for it.

There are quite a few of us Seattleites hiding out here. It’s only a matter of time before we pull the whole forum into our orbit. I can tell you’ll fit in great with the Assassins, running seems to be the hot new trend around the guild.

I'm sure you'll be pleased to know that studs were ultimately found. Over the years, I seem to have forgotten the not-that-complicated process of drilling pilot holes and driving lag screws. It took me almost two days of staring at the project, wondering why the screws would barely drive, until I realized I was trying to drive the solid, non-threaded part of the shank through a pilot hole that had only been drilled based on the diameter of the threaded part. ... Yeah, real quick study over here. I have almost no clue what next challenge will be, but let's wrap this one up! Challenge Wrap-Up Time Goals: 1) Improve my living situation: This was my biggest goal of the challenge, and if I do say so myself... I knocked it out of the park. It's taken me most of the last two challenges to get it done, but I got myself a new lease and moved into a MUCH nicer place. Plus, as of the end of Week 5, I'm most of the way out of boxes and starting to think about a furniture purchase or two. Final Grade: A+. 2) Finally write my 2021 plan: This goal was a study in good intentions... around the edges of my other priorities, I managed to get a couple good sessions of thoughtful writing for the plan and came up with some really good goals. However, I didn't actually make them SMART or actionable by the end of the challenge. As I look at my plan, I'm a little irritated, because so little work was needed to actually finish it... but it didn't happen, so looks like it will be a background goal for next challenge. Final Grade: C-. 3) Stretch while watching TV or Youtube on non-workout days: Over the weeks, since TV became less a part of my evening routine around the move, this shifted into stretching in the park, or on the balcony, during my daily sunrise- and sunset-viewing. In the end, out of 15 possible days, I hit 14. I probably should have taken some benchmark photos at the challenge start, but progress-wise, I'm happy simply to feel myself getting more comfortable with my hamstrings and hip flexors exerting strength at their end ROM. Final Grade: A. 4) Write the master workout plan: Erm. Yeah, didn't happen. I wrote out rough monthly blocks for how I might focus my efforts during 2021, but didn't tie it into any specific goals, or write out real exercise progressions like I'd planned. Final Grade: D-. BONUS GOAL: Finish the book Explain Pain. This is the most embarrassing, because it was definitely my easiest goal, but the one I definitely did the least with. I've read about ten pages since the start of the challenge and I'm still roughly halfway through. It's a bonus goal so I suppose it doesn't get a grade, but it still doesn't feel amazing. Overall... well, my goals were a grab-bag this time. I hit half of them out of the park, and the other half I mostly ignored. Usually four goals isn't too big a deal for me, but with the move, I guess this time around I bit off a touch more than I could chew. Despite that, as I look back over the last month-plus, I can't help feeling it still went really well. I'm quite literally in a different place than I was one month ago, in a very good way, and now I'm even starting to think some happy thoughts about the future in the coming months, and what new things I might be able to make happen. I probably need another evening to scrape a few goals together and get a new challenge up, then I'll throw the link here. See you all on the other side!

Wait, it’s perfect. They should just switch challenge threads! @deftona gets a massive shoulder tattoo. @WhiteGhost gets a corset.

Thanks! I won't lie, it's made for a really busy couple of weeks. I think I've been to various hardware stores at least six times this week alone... but I was highly motivated to start working out again: after a week of packing and mostly ignoring strength work, I could start to feel myself getting a little too comfy with not following through on those habits. That's the main reason I rebuilt my pullup bar as soon as possible, I could feel it starting to become a mental excuse not to exercise. Now, of course, my kitchen and exercise equipment is in great shape, but my books are still in boxes because my bookshelf needs to be bolted to the wall, and I seem to have a mental block on finding studs to screw into... 🤷‍♂️ -- Well, this sucks -- my Thursday (3/18) workout went great, but I accidentally wrote over that entry in Evernote when I logged my Saturday workout. So now I have only a dim memory of what I did. I do remember I performed a bunch of pistols and natural hamstring curls, went back to three sets of ring pullup negatives (no issues for the shoulder), and got some really good rep numbers on my shoulder PT. Then I had to go back to work until like 9 PM, and finally crawled into bed at midnight. Not super fun. Friday was PT; this was my third appointment overall. Last time she had added pike presses to my workout as an overhead push, and we wanted to check in on those. As well, I wanted her opinions on returning to pullup work. Here are the highlights: This was my first appointment scheduled for a rest day, rather than a workout day -- this meant I was still a little tired from my Thursday workout, and my left shoulder fatigued pretty fast in the office. We decided scheduling for workout days is a better idea for the future. I still don't appear to have fully symmetrical strength in the lower trap on the left, and the pec continues to try to stabilize my shoulder by pulling the scapula forward. Much less severe issue than it was in January, but annoyingly, it's still there. She eyeballed all my pressing and pulling forms, and gave pike presses an A overall (though my first rep is always a little sloppy). Pushups were an A+. She also eyeballed my pullups for the first time. We tried chin-ups and pullups, and ultimately she cleared me to work pullups -- on a bar, rather than on rings, which is what I would prefer to do anyway. We discussed chins as a progression; she decided they are different enough in muscle recruitment that there's not much point in my spending time on them, pullups will be more functional for parkour regardless. Some new cues for pullups to keep in mind: trying to keep my body line as close to vertical as possible, chest open, and elbows forward. I have to continually remind myself of all three. She had me try dips off the edge of a table as well, and ultimately pronounced my form good. I forgot to clarify at the end whether she thinks she wanted me to start doing them right away, though. I'm inclined to make the shift in my pullups this week, and leave dips to work in next week, so I can clearly tell what effect each change is having on my shoulder. Afterward I had the rest of the day off work, and tried to get some work done on that 2021 plan; but had to stop writing early after deciding to visit my mom, who's been fairly isolated since the pandemic started. I dropped in, and we made some amatriciana for dinner using the bulk of my remaining koji pancetta. Saturday was a workout day and the last day of this challenge. I don't have a full wrap-up quite yet today, but in the meantime, here's the workout log: Workout Log 3/20/21 - Going In: Feeling a little distracted, but energetic; decent sleep last night (finally), just under 8 hours. Warmup Foot-Assisted Ring Supports: 10s b-e, 15sb-x, 15sb-x Foot-Assisted German Hangs: 5sc-e, 5sc-x, 5sc-x - These are feeling a little squirrelly today on the left shoulder; not painful, just a little unstable. So to compensate, I used a little more foot assistance than normal. (Superset A) Pistol Squats: 0/7a-e - For some reason my left knee has been bothering me since shortly after my Thursday workout, and it's not feeling so hot today. I wanted to get my leg work in, but I couldn't shake it after a couple tries, so I just moved forward with a single set on the right and cut my usual deep step-ups. (Superset A) Feet-Elev. Pushups: 10b-x, 11a-x, 11a-x (Superset A) Bar Pullup Eccentrics: 1(7s)b-x, 3(6s)b-x, 3(6s)b-x (Superset B ) Knee Pike Press: 7b-x, 2n2(2s)b-y 4n2(5s)a-x - Did I mention I've been doing these off the edge of my bed? Knees on the bed, hands on the floor. Tipped myself a little more vertical this workout by putting my hands closer to the bed; it made them much more difficult. I'll probably stay at this level for another two weeks or so. Ring Rows: 10a-x, 11a-x, 11a-y Prone O Extensions: 4c-x, 4c-x, 4c-y Wall Slide & Flex w/ Step: 4b-x, 3b-x, 3b-y Kong Pull: 3c-x, 3c-x, 4b-y Knuckle Wall Angels: 3a-x, 3b-y, 3b-x Cooldown - The PT exercises have mostly been modified in small ways, except for the "kong pulls", which my PT essentially made up to mimic shoulder movement in a kong vault. Starting from a pushup position with my hands gripping dumbbells/parallettes and my feet on sliders, I slide my feet forward, between my arms, and forward into a reverse plank position; then I reverse the motion back to a pushup position. It is... not easy, and I have to keep a careful eye on how my shoulder stabilizes through the very large range of motion. Edit: Ohey, I almost forgot to share the meal I made Thursday night: it's a dish popularly known as Pasta Alla Norcina. Pasta shape of your choice, in a very nutmeggy cream sauce with a Northern Italian/Umbrian-style sausage (which I mixed up myself according to the Serious Eats recipe). It's fairly rich, but definitely deserves a spot in my semi-regular rotation... I have a feeling I'll be making it again in a month or so.

4+ weeks of adherence is good! That’s at least 80% better than most people do. Let’s agree to blame the Root of All Evil (daylight savings time). For the very boring answer, see the title of my challenge thread, “PaulG Does Boring Life Crap He Meant To Do Five Weeks Ago.”

I like to think of the body as Nature’s weight vest.

Casting the first vote for Julie’s imminent new forum title, “The Leech Whisperer.” It’s entered the lexicon. RBATIUTNFABAA 4EVA! I now hereby move to strike “Beast Mode” from the roster. It does sound like a strength endurance thing. Also makes sense that it’s being trained primarily by Doing The Thing, which seems very strength endurance-y. Or maybe it’s... the subject soon to outstrip leeches and cannibalism as most likely to get us banned from the forums... PLASTICITY!! Depraved social experiment? Or perhaps @Scaly Freak is right, and this coffee purveyor is the great evil we’ve always been warned of. A twisted boutique storefront of fire and darkness, bent upon seeking The One Roast to rule them all.

I have learned a few things about shifting circadian rhythms recently, so when I first read about your shift change I got real excited to share all the knowlejj. But then I read you’d already made a full 12-hour swap, and it sounds like you won’t have a couple days to do weird things to shift your internal clock around, which blows. I’m sorry you’ve been having to do it without any prep. FWIW, I haven’t made a shift nearly that big in a long time, but my understanding is that with access to a couple bright artificial lights, and a willingness to do a little early-day exercise and take some uncomfortably cold showers, you can shift your clock drastically within a couple days. If you want to learn about it for the next time, I hear @Mad Hatter has a podcast...

Before you posted this, the most I was willing to jump down this rabbit hole was pull up the leech Wikipedia entry. I learned two things: 1. Eeuuurrrrfrrgjgghhhhh 2. Leeches don’t appear to have any kind of body part they “bury” under your skin, and no one is aware of anything they exude that helps the wound heal, you just bleed until it clots normally. So now that I have an opportunity to ask someone in the know: is it unsafe to just remove them before they’ve done their business? I don’t love bleeding sores, but if I’m gonna have one anyway, I’m not all about letting myself get exsanguinated too. I know all too well how terrible this is. Is there an exercise term for this aside from “noob gains”? I dislike “noob gains”. Let’s coin a new term. Idea 1: “re-becoming awesome at the thing you used to totally not fail at being awesome at”. I feel like it really rolls off the tongue. Thoughts?

Au contraire, monsieur. I can vouch that in the right context, a well-placed chainmail bikini can change just about anyone’s mind.

Love a good sleep goal. I’m curious about your meditation — I’ve been messing around with it too, but mainly once I’m done with work. I tend to crash about 3:30 or 4 PM, and I find some meditation-ish practice tends to give me a reset for stress, and it helps me be more alert in the evening. Is your reason for meditation also around stress, do you meditate right after waking up because you tend to get stressed in the morning? Or are you doing it for something else?

Hate it, but what I hate even more is getting a hard copy book dirty while cooking, or running back and forth between the work areas of my kitchen and the dining table where the book is. I’d rather smear a dozen kinds of animal fat on my phone screen than leave a nice cookbook vulnerable to stove or sink spatters. I love my cookbooks for how nice they are to read through, but when I actually cook from a recipe, I take photos on my phone and reference those. I feel like fish are lucky everywhere. Or maybe that’s just because when I’m hanging out in Seattle and eating salmon, I feel like I’ve made it?

That’s insane, and yet I am fully willing to believe that it’s delicious. Pickles in puff pastry? I can see it working. btw, I don’t think I would go for the armor tattoo for myself, but you are inspiring me to dust off some old tattoo ideas and see how they hold up. Dammit! You’re spending all my steam-injected bread oven money! Weird, chain mail is usually known for being so flattering to peoples’ figures...

The cartwheel/chest vault reminds me of a gate vault, which is a move that has been increasingly dear to me recently (as I pop over a fence to break into my local park every morning). I salute you for experimenting with it! The video shows a good climb-up, it looks good. It also makes me wish we were training in the same city so we could hang around and give each other tips. My thought looking at the video is that some knee drive would make your climb-up much easier/smoother. Have you had anyone point out knee drive to you before? I have trouble knowing what anyone knows or doesn’t over the internet, so this may be totally unhelpful; but if, as you initiate the pull, you drive one knee to your chest, it can give you a significant amount of momentum. A half-decent case study is an old Ryan Ford video on climb-up levels: Ford was strong enough by the time he made this video that he didn’t need much knee drive. But if you look carefully at his left knee during some of the replays, you’ll notice he gets into a cat position on the wall, then as he initiates his pull, he drives his knee up a little and takes an extra step on the wall. With some knee drive, a climb-up becomes much easier. It’s a little tough to work out the timing when you don’t have someone watching you in person, but if you get it right, a decent knee drive can really push your climb-ups along and make everything a lot smoother.

Okay, first things first. Let’s get back up to speed, I know it’s been a bit. How about a wrap-up for Weeks 3 and 4? Workout Log 3/13/21 Warmup (Superset A) Pistol Squats: 5/0a-x, 5/5b-x, 5/5b-x, 0/6b-x - New form standard for pistols: I'm now trying to keep my back straight until the very last moment, as I bottom out (where my hamstring mobility keeps me from fully flattening my back). - Got a very painful twinge in the right leg, right along the medial side of the tibia, as I was doing my first set of pistols. At first I thought I would have to cut leg work for the day entirely, but then I decided, I may as well do one more set with the left... and three minutes later, after another set on the left side, I found I could do pistols on my right without pain again. Very strange! Maybe the weird twinges I've gotten randomly haven't been quite as serious as I've thought. I still have no intention to push through pain in a set, but it's encouraging to know I might be able to try again the same day. (Superset A) Pushups: 9a-e, 10a-e, 12a-e (Superset B ) Knee Pike Press: 5b-x, 6b-x, 4n3(3s)a-y (Superset B ) Ring Pullup Eccentrics: 3(5s)c-e, 3(5s)b-e, 3(5s)a-x (Superset C) Deep Step-Ups: 5/5b-e, 4/4a-y, 5/5b-y (Superset C) Ring Rows: 8b-x, 7b-x, 8a-y Prone O Extensions: 6b-x, 6b-x, 5b-y Wall Slide & Flex: 6a-x, 5a-y, 6b-y Sliding Pike Up: 7b-x, 5a-x, 6c-x Knuckle Wall Angels: 4a-x, 3.5b-y, 1.5b-x Cooldown - I restarted pullups! And the next day, my shoulder felt fine! Saturday my kitchen was finally clear of boxes and everything was (mostly) stowed, except for my liquor cabinet, which I suppose is more extensive than I though. Still, I wasn’t going to be stopped by a few half-empty bottles littered around my place making me look like an alcoholic. I invited over one of the friends that helped me move, and made my new kitchen’s inaugural meal to thank them: gambas al ajillo and caldo verde (inspired by a recent Kenji video in which he made caldo verde in 15 minutes flat), with some good bread from a real-deal bakery, . (I made the sauce for the gambas with Shaoxing-style cooking rice wine rather than sherry — sorry @Lara !) Everything turned out great, but no photos because company. Sunday I set up my li’l wok burner and made a meal for myself, and now it’s official: I HAVE A KITCHEN THAT WORKS. It figures, don't it, that the meal to both begin and end my apartment-moving saga would be Zhacai Rousi. A dish this tasty feels like it should be difficult to make, but it’s not. I’ve been using mustard oil in my Sichuan-style dishes lately, on the advice of Chinese Cooking Demystified, and I’m happy to report they were right: that somewhat sharp, somewhat tingly flavor does add a lot to the dish, especially simple ones like Zhacai Rousi. I guess mustard oil proves an ingredient doesn't have to be legal to consume in the US to be delicious. If ya want a recipe that's not locked in a Fuchsia Dunlop book, I recommend stealing the pork marinade and vegetable portions of this variation, where Zhacai Rousi is made into a noodle soup. Workout Log 3/16/21 - Going In: Tired. Daylight savings time, plus last workout’s increased volume, did a number on me. Warmup Foot-Assisted Ring Supports: 10sc-e, 10sc-e, 15sc-x (Superset A) Pistol Squats: 5/5a-x, 5/5a-e, 6/6b-x (Superset A) Pushups: 10b-e, 12a-e, 14a-e - I think we're done with regular ol' pushups, folks. (Superset B ) Knee Pike Press: 7b-x, 6(a-)-x, 7a-x (Superset B ) Ring Pullup Eccentrics: 3(6s)c-x - Ran one set of pullups, then realized that during my second set of pike presses I was starting to have some twinges in the left shoulder. I'm not about to go back down the injury road, so I cut the pulls to be safe, and finished the presses. (Superset C) Deep Step-Ups: 5/5b-x, 6/6a-x, 5/5b-y (Superset C) Ring Rows: 8a-e, 9a-x, 9a-y Prone O Extensions: 6b-x, 6b-x, 6b-y Wall Slide & Flex: 4b-x, 4a-y, 6b-y Sliding Pike Up: 6b-x, 4b-x, 6a-x Knuckle Wall Angels: 4a-x, 4b-y, 3a-y Cooldown - Slooowly crawling forward on these PT exercises.

The downside of dating real-life Vikings is their lack of appreciation for frilly dresses.

I am quite sure you did the right thing there. I guess it’s that wonderful twist of your job being childcare: your charges don’t appreciate the work involved in caring for them. At least, not until long after you’re done. 😁 That’s hilarious... though now that I think about it, I grew up in a Lutheran church where plenty of folks had those views. A little depressing to think of, especially given — you’re absolutely right — there was plenty of stuff in there way more objectionable than the nudity. 😂 I’ll bet a sandstorm-y day would be represented by a super sweet icon on a smartphone weather app...

Flawless logic!

For what it’s worth, I think both values can coexist — you can place the highest value on viewing art as it was intended by the artist, and you can also take advantage of the fact that it’s a video game meant to be consumed in a way the viewer finds most palatable, and turn the swearing off. Also, I’m going out on a limb here, but I’m going to take the plunge and say that swearing in an A-list console game might — might — not be central to the intent of the work. I’m guessing you can turn off the swears, and still get the distinct impression that assassins carry an air of mystery and hoplites are awesome. In an effort to be slightly more useful... there seems to be a fairly bright distinction between a consumer tailoring their video game narrative, which is a personal choice that doesn’t change how other people consume the work, and public censorship. Turning off the expletives for your own convenience is different from, let’s say, painting over the Mona Lisa’s (scandalous) neckline in the Louvre. I agree, I always kind of thought most of the nudity in Game of Thrones was superfluous. 95% of the time, no one needed to be nude in any of those scenes. BUT, I don’t think anyone’s ever felt the need to complain about living in a world that got to see Emilia Clarke naked.