Raikas

We need to have main quests now? Then mine is: Learning some new stuff and have fun doing it! Yes, that's a little vague, but my main activities (running and work-related training/travel) are all totally solid, so putting any of those things down as goals would feel like cheating, so it's the extra bits in my free time that I'm focused on here. Just got back from Aruba (which was fun, although I've never been anywhere with such limited site-seeing options) and am now moving towards an international relocation September/October. Fun times! My title for this round is inspired by the fact that I accept that my main activities will always take priority over this stuff: trail running is always going to happen even if these goal-related fitness activities don't. We've moved to a new system and server at work (we launch tomorrow) so I'm learning about new features and functions (and issues) constantly, even if these goal-related learning activities need to take the back-burner. This is for fun - and fun's important, but it's not in my top 5 right now, and I'm comfortable with that. Goal 1: Rings work. Continuing off of last month's (increasing static hold times). Considering an organized program, if time permits. ETA: doing GMB's Rings1 + points to STR/STA Goal 2: Coursework Copying off a few other people, I'm working through a couple of courses that are running on Coursera during this same period. + points to WIS Goal 3: Playing with food. I'm probably one of the least strict people here when it comes to diet, so for the sake of curiosity I'm going to see what happens if I take it a little more seriously - so I'm going to cut out my home baking habit and see what happens. + points to CON Goal 4: Language play: These days about 95% of my "fun" reading is in English, which has the result of letting my non-conversational fluencies in other languages fall away. I'd like to increase my fun-reading in languages other than English (realistically probably just French and Afrikaans) to make up at least 30% of my entertainment consumption. + points to CHA And that's it!

Eh, it depends what they mean by lighter and what they mean by "burn fat". Lighter isn't always the little pink dumbells - people who do those aerobic lifting programs (I think "body pump" is probably the most famous, although it's far from being the only one) are doing many reps with (relatively) light weights and do lose weight in the same way that people do from any cardio-type program. And people who want to bulk up are assisted by lifting heavy - sure, it's not the only thing that can get them there, but it works for a lot of people. I mean, that place may well be talking about tiny weights and scaring people, but maybe not. Hard to tell just from that little blurb.

Fair enough - I always feel the need to chime in on these things because I actually did wear the tread off a pair of Vibram Bikila in 3 months. Having been told over and over that they last two-three times as long as standard shoes (which I replace every 2-3 months), having them come in at the high end of my average shoe lifespan made me feel a bit misled, so I like to warn people that it can vary quite a bit.

Wow, hardcore!

Eh, you could always still go for it, but give it your own spin!

Epic stuff! Congratulations!

Gee, who'd have imagined? Seriously though, if you're genuinely looking for a specific answer, it helps to know more specific details. If you're looking for a general answer, then that's already been posted.

Last night's leftovers? The extras from whatever you're packing for lunch or planning for dinner? No need to stick to traditional breakfast foods!

Incredibly durable, yes - but they're still not industructable, and if you put in the mileage, the soles still eventually wear down. And depending on what you you're doing you can still rip the top fabric. Even with standard running shoes, it's often wear on the treads rather than the insole that cause them to be tossed after 300-600 miles of use (people sometimes rotate between two pairs of standard running shoes because the cushioning can generally bounce back if given some off time).

Congratulations!

Good stuff - on the learning and the profit!

Vans generally still makes shoes with a thick sole even if it's not the shaped/built-up sole of a traditional running shoe, so that's the major difference. Also, depending on what you mean by "broken", having worn soles can do weird things to your posture - it's one of the reasons people change out their running shoes after covering a certain distance in them.

I'm not sure how to grade myself for this one since I decided that goal 2 wasn't a priority - maybe a C? Goal 1: Be the Gibbon (rings progression @ home) - Success! Saw a doubling of time (at least!) in all four positions. Very pleased. +2 STR +2 STA Goal 2: Be the Fool (floor progression @ hotel) - didn't do much with this one. I wouldn't call it a fail as much as a realignment of priorities (I see no reason not to prioritize hanging out with co-workers at the hotel gym or pool and at 6am than stay in my room over working hand balances alone). No points. Goal 3: Go to Sleep - Fail. No changes at home, and even less sleep on the road (was hanging out with co-workers to midnight and then meeting up again at the crack of dawn). No points. Goal 4: Get some stuff done - Projects running on schedule professionally, another large bag of stuff taken to the donation centre, home office organized and set up for summer guests. +2 CHA +1 WIS

So, the wrap up! Goal 1: Be the Gibbon - Success! Saw a doubling of time (at least!) in all four positions. Very pleased. +2 STR +2 STA Goal 2: Be the Fool - didn't do much with this one. I wouldn't call it a fail as much as a realignment of priorities (I see no reason not to prioritize hanging out with co-workers at the hotel gym or pool and at 6am than stay in my room over working hand balances alone). No points. Goal 3: Go to Sleep - Fail. No changes at home, and even less sleep on the road (was hanging out with co-workers to midnight and then meeting up again at the crack of dawn). No points. Goal 4: Get some stuff done - Projects running on schedule professionally, another large bag of stuff taken to the donation centre, home office organized and set up for summer guests. +2 CHA +1 WIS

Neutral Evil Human Druid (6th Level) Ability Scores: Strength- 16 Dexterity- 14 Constitution- 15 Intelligence- 14 Wisdom- 14 Charisma- 15 Alignment: Neutral Evil- A neutral evil villain does whatever he can get away with. He is out for himself, pure and simple. He sheds no tears for those he kills, whether for profit, sport, or convenience. He has no love of order and holds no illusion that following laws, traditions, or codes would make him any better or more noble. On the other hand, he doesn�t have the restless nature or love of conflict that a chaotic evil villain has. Some neutral evil villains hold up evil as an ideal, committing evil for its own sake. Most often, such villains are devoted to evil deities or secret societies. Neutral evil is the best alignment you can be because you can advance yourself without regard for others. However, neutral evil can be a dangerous alignment because it represents pure evil without honor and without variation. Race: Humans are the most adaptable of the common races. Short generations and a penchant for migration and conquest have made them physically diverse as well. Humans are often unorthodox in their dress, sporting unusual hairstyles, fanciful clothes, tattoos, and the like. Class: Druids- Druids gain power not by ruling nature but by being at one with it. They hate the unnatural, including aberrations or undead, and destroy them where possible. Druids receive divine spells from nature, not the gods, and can gain an array of powers as they gain experience, including the ability to take the shapes of animals. The weapons and armor of a druid are restricted by their traditional oaths, not simply training. A druid's Wisdom score should be high, as this determines the maximum spell level that they can cast. Wasn't anyone else evil? C'mon now!

Wow, you're tiny for someone of your height! What are your goals? The answer will be different if you're looking to train for sprinting vs. for a general cardio workout vs. for 5km mud run vs. a marathon.

And that housewife is probably a nerd too - I've seen Romance readers totally geek out over their favourites series and authors. Totally hardcore. In the old-style definition, no because my husband is an engineer who enjoys reading about economics and physics in his free time (he's also a sports nerd regarding soccer). But in the geeky pop culture sense? That's totally my situation too. He fell asleep during The Fellowship of the Ring and refuses to see any movie based on a comic book. He also refuses to even try any of my comics and only touches video games when its socially required. That kind of thing just has zero interest for him at all. That's too bad, that would have been cute! Although there is a part of the population that thinks adults trick-or-treating with under-2-year-old kids are just candy trolls, so maybe that was her objection?

/r/ is a funny sound when it comes to phonology though - it's actually very common for it to be added/dropped in various accents (not to mention the l/r swapping that comes in all kinds of non-English languages) in interaction with the surrounding vowels (I believe it's called "intruding sounds", but it's been a good decade since my last Linguistics class, so I'd have to confirm that). I don't know where you're from, but I know that people from Newfoundland or from Missouri who pronounce "Wash" as "Warsh" are showing a regional accent when they add that "r" sound. It works in the opposite direction as well - my husband (who grew up in the UK near Liverpool) pronounces "World" as "Wohld" without the "r" sound whereas my mother (who grew up in what's now Namibia near Windhoek) pronounces it "Wurrr'ld" with extra emphasis on the "r" - I've spent the majority of my adult life in Canada and say "Werld" (although when I'm tired my accent shifts and I overdo the r a bit). None of us is wrong; we're just all showing different regional variations in our accents. I'm not trying to pick on your hatred of that one thing, but one of the things I love about language is how flexible it is. And one of the things I love most about travel is listening to how the accents change as you move in any direction. I'd hate to see us lose that kind of regional diversity, y'know?

Ha! You're joking right? Or just talking about RP? There are so many accents in the UK that are utterly incomprehensible once you head 20km in any direction.

Are schools (outside of the really posh ones who want the kids to use RP maybe) supposed to teach pronunciation? Just looking at my own secondary school, my five English teachers included two with Newfoundland accents, one with a Kenyan-colonial accent, one with a Trinidadian accent and one with a Southern Ontario accent. Were the students supposed to change accents every year? I mean, I agree with the rants about writing, but when it comes to spoken language I think it would be a shame to want everyone to sound the same. As an aside, I did a fair bit of conversational transcription for a linguistics class during university and the main thing I learned from that is virtually everyone speaks in fragments during casual conversation. I was trying to study relative pronouns, and it was actually a serious pain to gather enough of them because people just don't talk that way when they're chatting.

Nice work!

You win. I don't know that I've heard that particular pronunciation, but I'd have assumed it was the product some regionally specific accent. It's not?

Nice work on the progress!

Since you're looking to gain weight, you'd need to eat back the calories that you burn during your cardio sessions, so that depends on what you're doing and how long you're doing it.

Nice work! Congrats!