David Bard

No, this isn’t some pretentious babblings about the futility of fitness in the face of death.1 Unfortunately it also doesn’t mean I’m moving to Toronto and playing bass for Sex Bob-omb. What it means is that I’m going to attempt for my third time to read David Foster Wallace’s novel Infinite Jest. I first tried during Infinite Summer back in 2009, but gave up somewhere around page 100. I tried again last year and got to the low 240s.2 I plan to make 2012 the year that I finally get to page 981 (as well as reading the 100+ pages of endnotes). I don’t want to reread the first 200pages, because that’ll take half the challenge; instead I’m going to skim through them and read along with the articles in InfiniteSummer.org and try out http://infinitejest.wallacewiki.com to help out with some of the stuff I don’t get. I’m hoping I can finish that in over a week and a half to two weeks.3 After that, I plan to follow along with the Infinite Summer schedule of 75 pages a week (or 10-11 pages a day)4; if I read for the last four weeks on the schedule, I will end the challenge around 52% of the way through the book; that leaves me with about six more weeks of reading, which I can finish for the next challenge. One of the (many) reasons that I never finished Infinite Jest the first two times, or don’t accomplish a lot of things I want to do, is because I (feel like I) spend too much time on the internet. I love the internet and don’t want to cut it out, but there are times when I just stare at the screen and think, “eh, there’s nothing to do right now so I’ll just stay on the internet.†or “eh, it’s almost 1am, but I could stay on a bit longer.†If I cut down on my internet time, I can get more sleep and get up earlier and then have more time to do stuff (other than be on the internet). I’m going to time myself when I’m online and limit the amount of time I can use it. Each week, the time will go down a bit. (Exceptions to this rule include video chats and instant messaging, since interacting with people is something that I miss out on when I’m on the internet too long and also while watching wrasslin, because Raw and ppvs are 2-3 hours and I really need my support group in the WithLeather.com live chats to make it through the rough patches (if I have to listen to another monologue about “this business†one more time…). Week 1 – 3 hours, Week 2 - 2:40, Week 3 - 2:20, Week 4 - 2, Week 5 - 1:45, Week 6 - 1:30. And now for the fitness challenges! One of my advice guys recommends learning how to ballroom dance as a way to improve confidence and make friends (and help with dating). Last week I attended a ballroom dance troupe session run by a friend. My goal this challenge is to attend as many sessions as he has (usually one a week), and learn a dance routine. It was pretty tough on the first day, but if I keep working at it, I know I can improve and learn the routine. I’m doing a Warrior Dash mid-July and although I’ve improved my upper body strength, I haven’t spent much time working on my legs. So, to reconcile that shit, I’m going to do couch to 5k. I won’t be able to finish it in time for the Dash, but I think four weeks of running is better than none. I have a bad habit of biting (and clipping) my fingernails and loose skin on my fingers. I want to stop it. During the challenge, I’m going to look up ways to stop and then try them out. If you have any recommendations, let me know, because this has been an ongoing issue for as long as I can remember. Infinite Summer Part 1 – 4 points +3 WIS, +1 STA Internet – 2 points +1 CON, +1 CHA (because I’ll hopefully be able to better manage time and hang out with people!) Dancing – 3 points +1 CHA, +1 STA, +1 DEX Running – 4 points +2 DEX, +2 STA Fingers – 2 points +2 CON Current stats: STR: 4.75, DEX: 4, STA: 3.75, CON: 4.25, WIS: 7, CHA: 4 1In fact, I’ve been feeling the opposite lately – becoming healthier has given me hope that I won’t end up like my obese grandmother whom I’ve been spending a lot of time with lately. It also means I’m doing a better job moving her furniture and stuff than I would have a year ago. 2which is surprising, since according to a friend who has finished the book, he has never met anyone who passed page 223 and didn’t finish the book. 3Assuming I can get through those pages that fast. If I can’t, I may have to adjust my end goal slightly. 200 pages is a lot, and if I need to take more than a week and a half, that’s fine. It’s a dense book and I didn’t include footnotes in the estimate. 4Endnotes not included in that estimate.a aEndnotes are required reading.

Wait, you mean the next challenge is in two days, not four?

After spending a week doing yoga and then a week of hill sprinting, I went back to mountain climbing and was able to escape with the Idol of Steve! I finished in 34:50, although part of the reason I did it faster was because I had a better area to do my dips (okay, hanging in place for a minute since the chairs/me couldn't support dips and were too short).

Sorry to hear about the no-goal. We played each game for about 15 minutes (I'm guessing - I had my phone off)/until we wanted to take a break/were out of time.

http://www.theclothesmakethegirl.com/store/well-fed/ The Well Fed Paleo cookbook includes a chocolate chili recipe in the free download sample.

So I got in an argument today with my mom over white rice; I say it's bad becuase paleo, she says it's good because of iron. What are some good paleo options to get iron/way to convince her that she doesn't need to worry about my iron levels?

Cool bonus: her site says that if you buy the print book you get a download code to buy the pdf for $1 (and that dollar goes towards a non-profit that teaches low-income kids how to cook healthy).

Flipped through the 30 page sampler; it might be partially because I'm really hungry right now, but I want to buy that book and start cooking everything in it right now.

Either chaser or beater, which is great because one of the players complimented me and said that I did well playing both positions (I played a chaser in a 5 on 5 game and a beater in a 4 on 4 game). Each team had one of the short goals (with two-three chasers blocking it), so it was tough to score on, but I did manage to make a goal! I'm planning on going back again soon; hopefully there will be more people and we'll have a full 7 on 7 game with three hoops each and a snitch!

FUUUUUUUUUU- I just wrote out a really long detailed post but it deleted everything because I hit Reply to thread instead of Post Quick Reply! NOOOOOOOOOO. I can't rewrite all of my post now, but I'll at least repost my response to ocelot. Ocelot, quidditch is awesome. The IQA (International Quidditch Association) contains hundreds of college and community teams (I played with a community team). You can find more info on teams at http://www.internationalquidditch.org/teams/, although it might be easier to find your region on facebook and ask there about teams near you. There are lots of games available to watch on youtube, and hopefully there will be a livestream of the national summer games taking place during the Olympics. http://www.facebook.com/events/433551479998003/. Also, check out this awesome article about how adding quidditch to PE increased attendance to ONE HUNDRED PERCENT! http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/9287132/School-boasts-100-PE-attendance-entance-record-after-adding-Quidditch-to-curriculum.html Short story on the rest: continuing to eat better, quidditch rocks, can't wait to play again.

Check out your local libraries; they probably have some yoga dvds.

I don't have netflix and have also been looking for yoga videos to do. I just checked the libraries in my area and found a bunch of potential yoga dvds to check out. EDIT: D'oh! Misread the post and thought you were asking if there were any on netflix. Sorry 'bout that.

I kind of want to be one of the first nerdfitness-ers that multiclasses in EVERY class, so for a while I might be hoping around from class to class. No idea where I'll end up, but it'll be fun to find out.

It should be doable. The challenge I'm working on is to do yoga five times over a week. If you start today you'll be done by Tuesday! And depending on her wording, a 15 minute youtube video may be acceptable (because as awesome as it would be to do six 60 minute workouts, if her goal is to do six 60 minute workouts over six weeks, ten to fifteen minutes a day should work).

Since Dexterity is my lowest stat, I decided to join Brenda in her goal to do yoga five times a week! http://www.nerdfitness.com/community/showthread.php?10965-Brenda-Will-Become-Deadly