Mike Wazowski

Happy birthday!!! Hope the cake (plus any leftover banana pudding) help to lift your spirits at least a bit.

I know I've said this a bunch, but your BuJo spreads really are an inspiration (that I'm unlikely to copy in the near future). I don't have a whole lot to add re: parenting and talking to kids about myths and/or religion, but I'm glad for your kids' sake that you're putting real thought into it.

Ooh, that Saturday dinner looks delectable!! And I can't help but think, after reading the phrase "hateful badger," that someone naming parkour moves just wanted things to sound ridiculous. How's the shoulder healing up?

I chuckled real hard at this - as someone who admires a lot about German culture (but mostly from a "the grass is always greener" lens), I appreciate getting to hear about the experiences of someone actually living there. The pig and the landscape are both lovely, as well!

...even though we own the same workout log (bought it on your rec), I've never noticed the QR code on the pages, haha. Nice workout, regardless!

Gooooood luck on exams this week!!!

Thank you!! Still about a week and a half out - I’m currently flitting between “not nervous at all, pure excitement for the likely benefits” and “oh God, why did I sign up for this??!?” haha. Hands in rings is a progression I’ll do eventually. Not yet ready for them, I’d wager. Oh yes - at least last night. Saturday morning the BF had a suuuuper early flight home so I had to wake up way too early to take him. Yesterday was, unsurprisingly, kind of a dead day with the sleep deprivation - and maybe a flare up of a sinus infection or head cold, though I’m thinking it may just be allergies from our winter tree pollen (because that’s a thing this far south). The 28th, barring any Covid etc issues. So roughly the end of the challenge will be just me recovering (there’s a week of no strenuous physical activity post-op - I’m planning to take some walks still so my body stays active).

Haha got it, we're more alike than I realized!

+1 for the dot grid love. I'm a convert for my journal thingy, even though I use a separate planner for now. Glad you're still getting some of the community you love in zoom classes - even if it's not quiiiiite the same as the in-person thing.

Woo!! Haha, don't think I've seen them called this, but I love that it's a clearer mental image. Sounds like a great first sesh back at the gym too!

Ooh yes, gotta love winter days with good walking weather when they come around!

Glad you popped back in!! Crossing my fingers things keep looking slightly better, day by day. And way to go dealing with the rotten tomato - spoiled food is my nemesis.

Those goats are fantastic!!! Really captured the look of conflict well.

Knocking out mobility goals by Thursday? Killin' it! You coulda fooled me with calling that fried rice a hot mess, looks about as good as any "full meal in one dish" any of the rest of us make!

Haha well....some of those are useful! I'm preeetty sure a thimble will be too low for me, haha. Are you sure??!? Do they not HURT SO GOOD for you? Haha. HAHAHA fair point, y'all. I guess I mean beginner in the sense of "have hit severely diminishing returns on a beginner strength regimen and need to incorporate some sort of periodization." Which is very different from, like, actual beginner. Oh yes, that is another good option for adding some balance / control challenge. Time to add it into the hopper along with some other variations (and figure out how I tweak my supersets when I need rings for the pushups, since I refuse to adjust ring height in between sets of rows and pushups, which are currently supersetted). Ooh, thanks for sharing! Definitely some food for thought / tools to play with as I build the mobility / motor control components up for actual pistols. Side note, and I feel bad for saying this, I would like GMB videos more if Ryan wasn't narrating them. There's something about his voice (maybe a lack of breath support?) that just grates on my ear. My slider pads from target claim that they can be used smooth side down on carpet. I haven't bothered to test this claim yet. Or you can try what @sylph said. Week 2, Day 4 (Thur): Did the things re: mobility, updating my time block plan, and meditating. Meditating, especially, was needed, and I found myself praying a full rosary (I sometimes just do through the first decade, sometimes just the intro set of 3) because I felt some steadily increasing benefits. Putting thoughts down was real hard, but real necessary, and I felt a weight lift off once I was finished. In similar huge relief news, I finalized arrangements for my upcoming sinus surgery, including my mom volunteering to come into town to help take care of me (which is incredibly sweet and loving of her to do, and I'm really excited for her trip). Work itself was blah for most of it, but I got excited towards the end of the day as I started researching coding best practices that I want to implement more into how I manage my work (because way too long is spent saying "I know I did something like this once before, now I need to find where I did that thing" while I rummage through a massive folder of ad hoc analyses I've done in a particular area of the business). After work, it was time for date night, where it was a mix of good food, exploring a new shopping area (really just walking around and enjoying the lights), and then chatting for a bit on the couch when we got home. Unfortunately, my sleep last night was a dumpster fire - I think I had coffee too late in the afternoon, some fried food at dinner disagreed with my stomach a bit, and as a result I was up til 1 am and woke up before 6. Needless to say, today is a "just shamble through it" kind of work day - but then it's the weekend! This morning, I went out for a run (still working my way through a noob program that I very much need) and it went well given that I was both sore and sleepy going into it. Running scores (through 2.4) Mobility: 5/7, 2/7 Meditation: 5/7, 2/7 Sleep: 7/7, 4/7 Sleep Averages: 6:47, 6:55 (time asleep per my apple watch) Plan: 2/2

That is SUCH a good min-goal! And a good reminder for all of us (or, at least, me - been so guilty of totally neglecting lunch breaks).

What's up nerds! Quick update from yesterday: Week 2.3 (Wed.): Sleep: ~8 hours going in Mobility: Yep Meditation: Nope Plan: Yes, I actually tracked my time usage! Pretty packed day - kicked off the morning with a sinus surgeon consult, then straight into some miscellaneous work tasks and meetings til the end of the day (with a break for an interval run, because when it's over 60F and sunny in January, you gotta enjoy it). Video chatted with the parents, then it was D&D time - we celebrated leveling up, shot the shit, and started a new dungeon where it appears we'll fight lots of tough baddies and probably have our work cut out for us. Chatted with the gang for a bit, then got ready for bed and was out COLD pretty quickly thereafter. Kicked off today with a nice calisthenics workout: A1: Pull-ups: 3x5 Feels good to be doing these (my wrists like pronation better than supination) A2: Pistol squat to box: 3 x 5/5 these were...interesting. I feel like I'll need to keep practicing these, and start getting creative soon with lower targets I can aim for as my ottoman I'm using is ~24" tall B1: Rings Support Hold: 28s, 22s, 21s slow and steady build here B2: 2 leg hammie curl (with sliders): 3 x 5/5 these are a weird exercise, but as a boy who chronically underutilizes his posterior change, I'll think of them as the "eat your veggies" of strength training C1: Pseudo Planche Push-ups: 3 x 5 welp, that escalated quickly. Incorporated a form correction on these to not go back to a normal plank at the top and it made them *noticeably harder* C2: Ring Rows: 12, 12, 10 same angle as Tuesday, slightly more reps - yay, noob gains! D1: Hanging knees to chest: 3x5 reunited and it feels so good! Forgot how much I love hanging ab work. D2: Copenhagen plank (knee down, lower leg assist): 3 x ~15s each side these were tougher than expected, but I like them D3: Superman / arch hold (just legs for now): 3 x ~12s these are new to me in this program, I don't like 'em as much as reverse hypers, but I can tell they'll be useful for me as an athlete Also made time for some L-sit and handstand progressions, and it felt good to get those working again. Rest of the day has been a mixed bag so far - with some really high highs and some not so great lows. BUT, I feel like the highs are winning the battle for tomorrow, so things are looking up again for me, mood wise. An over 30 minute meditation session happened this morning and I think it was *very much* needed.

Truly a great movie - have you seen the SNL skit about it? My BF showed it to me the next morning and I got a huge kick out of it! Preach it. 10/10 would read that ebook. Aww thanks!! Steal away! (incidentally, the title of a great spiritual - this is the level of wildly unhinged my brain is at this week) Haha it's all relative. I'm sure the strength'll come back soon for me (also, being under 30 - just barely! - and being a man helps my strength ramp up, I think). Hahahaha - someone who still loves his own dancing, but has realized he doesn't need to put so much pressure on himself to become the bestest dance teacher ever (also, realizing that I've got a TON of career capital built as a data / analytics person, so I'm no longer quite so sure I want to pivot hard into full time dance teaching at any point vs. carving out a niche of great work/life balance and interesting projects somewhere in the data / analytics / economics sphere - and TBD if that ends up being in academia, working for someone like the federal reserve, or in the private sector). Not quite what I meant (I think that's the trapezius). I more meant that my shoulders are much wider than my waist, such that my waist is typically a size S while my chest / shoulders a size L in most brands (and on top of that, being a bit shorter, any excess length in a garment tends to bunch up and make the waist area even looser). Separately, I need athletic fit pants in most garments because of my glutes and thighs (an "off the rack" pattern for dance pants could barely get over my thighs but fit my waist perfectly lol). ❤️ - it was really helpful as a framing tool, not 100% sure from where I synthesized it. I will certainly be borrowing it to jam at home!!! At least for now, I'm enjoying running with just my watch (yay, apple toys!) so I've gotta own the music in my iTunes. So, you know, great excuse for throwback jams! (because I def haven't bought any music in YEARS lol) Haha no joke - my go-to back in the weight room was string quartet music. Because I'd easily get overhyped and unable to dial in my form with anything that was even mildly uptempo. Week 2, Day 1: Loooooong work day, then a really good dance practice. I think that's about it (unfortunately, did *not* get a chance to work out). Also did not meditate or do mobility. Week 2, Day 2: Meditated, but didn't mobilize. Woke up early with no good reason why, but used that time to box up Christmas decor and get in a slightly shortened workout. BF was super busy with LSAT prep so we took a mulligan on a possible date night til Thursday night. I was tired and run down, so ice cream was dinner and a marathon watch of "Outlander" was the order of business for the night. Today, so far: kicked off the morning with a surgery consult - looks like I'm a good candidate for a sinus surgery, it'll be ~1 hour of procedure, then ~2 days of not working and just recovering (plus a week off all strenuous exercise...which'll be sad but worth it to get some relief from constant sinus issues). Wrote out a rough plan for the week, then dove into the metric sh*tload of stuff people are asking for from me this week. Oh, and I got 8 hours of sleep last night according to my watch, which I think was much needed. Running scores (through 2.2): Mobility: 5/7, 0/7 Meditation: 5/7, 1/7 Sleep: 7/7, 2/7 Sleep Averages: 6:47, 7:40 (time asleep per my apple watch) Plan: 2/2

Shit, I'm sold AF. Time to research if it'll run on my current laptop - if not, I guess it's an excuse for a new toy!

Alright, Week 1 Goals check-in (plus some side quests!): Meditation: Somewhat less than 100%, I think I need to try anchoring it to a specific time of day or part of my morning routine. Tentatively, right after I put on clothes after showering after a morning workout (on work days) and similar timing on weekends Sleep: Honestly, my sleep issues were the result of sinus infection issues, so not dinging myself at all Mobility: I missed one day, but it was also THE DAY last week, so not gonna ding it (hopefully the only time in my lifetime - God willing - that it'll happen) Plan: Boy howdy, I am *not* making optimal use of my planner. Not yet sure what the solution is, we'll see. But I did make a plan for the week, so the goal is still met. Just need to try something different. NEW SIDE QUEST: Book sinus surgery or similar sinusitis treatment. So far, I've knocked out the first 2 of 4 steps on this. Next up is a consult tomorrow to make Sneaky SIDE QUEST: I'm taking a machine learning course for work. I've not touched it since leaving for my parents' house on 12/23. That needs to be changed this coming week. On the plus side, I'm excited for a super nerdy, tangentially related side project: writing a Monte Carlo simulation program to answer "which of our D&D group's melee characters would win in a fight?" I'll start reporting out how much machine learning work I'm doing here, hopefully that'll motivate me to overcome *the inertia* Also, updating my yearlong "plan" here, in addition to my second post: First up: build good foundational habits - sleep, mental health maintenance (meditating, maybe journaling if I feel like it), mobility, making plans for my time so that it's frittered away less (and instead, I'm *planning leisure* which is a concept shift for me). Then, lots of add-on habits (some of which are connected to a larger project, and realistically not all of these will get tackled this year): While also tackling some of these projects (will all these get done this year? probably not, and that's ok):

Oof, "I'll do it later" is rough - but I'm glad you had a good French chat with the coworker! And props to those beginners for their bravery - I dunno if I'd have the courage to do that in German or Spanish, even when I was somewhere in the intermediate realm of proficiency for those.

So RESPONSIBLE with your gaming schedule. What an adult (I, on the other hand, have not yet learned that skill).

I am WAY late, but sending you a big ole Internet hug - and sincerely hoping that you're able to get paired with a great professional to sort through your anxieties. I know it really helped me to work with mine.

Preach it, man - I wish it were more possible to exist in the US without a car (outside a few major cities). Maybe someday...

Hey Hatter, hope you're doing well!!