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Call for peeps! Love crows? Searching for new shinies? Join us! This is a video-based community challenge exploring crow and its variations. Wait, which one is crow again? This is crow: How does this challenge work? There is a crow leader position and a queue of crow peeps a MURDER of crows! The crow leader will contribute a single crow variation to the group (video-based). All the crow peeps will imitate the new shiny (it is not stealing, it is called making it your own!). The next peep in the queue will take the leader position, post a new shiny and so on. When we reach the end of the queue, we start again from the top. This the starting queue: ~ Queue of crow peeps ~ Norgaard Mad Hatter Elastigirl lucky fire dragon Raptron @mu Our first crow leader is indeed Norgaard, because he came up with the whole idea If you want to join, cut and paste the LATEST queue list, add your name and post it. That's it You can immediately start posting your video showing the variations contributed so far, and when it is your turn to be crow leader, you can post your own variation. A few guidelines ~ Let's be orderly ~ When you are crow leader, post your new shiny and include the following in your post: a video of you doing the new shiny obviously. Please make sure it has not been done before. Try to shoot from a good angle and with good light if possible. any tip / hint that could help achieve the variation, maybe progressions. call the next leader so that they receive a notification (with @ notation: e.g. @Norgaard). ~ People can be very busy ~ → When you have been called to crow leader status, you have up to 4 days to contribute a new shiny. After 4 days, the next peep is allowed to take your place. If you know in advance that you are going to be busy, let us know so that we can re-organise the queue or buffer some extra days. Otherwise, if you were on an impromptu leave, when you are back, caw, rattle and click and we will do some self-reorganisation anyway. Crows are smart → When you are not the leader, feel free to imitate the new shiny whenever time permits. If you missed a few contributions, feel free to do them in one row and post your video. You can also choose to reproduce the new contributions only once a week. This is very flexible. ~ Don't hurt yourself ~ Beware of the face plant! It does happen! Using props like yoga blocks for head / feet support is totally ok if balancing on arms only is a bit hairy. Parallettes or push-up bars can help with legs hanging too low and they are nicer on the wrists too. If you can't achieve the new shiny, ask for help, show a video of your problem, a good tip might help you get there. ~ Talking about balance ~ If you do an asymmetric variation, please do both sides. For instance, if you go for the one-legged crow, you need to do it on the left AND on the right. This can be hard sometimes, and you probably have a better side but do try both sides. ~Wait I don't know that many crow variations! ~ Search the internet, do a Google Images on “crow variations”, try out, be creative The only constraint is that you come up with an arm balance that is crow-related. If you still have a blank, tell the peeps, we might be able to find something together. ~ Can I join now? ~ You can join at any time, leave and come back again. Let the group know of course so that we can re-organise the leadership queue if needed. ~ I am not strong enough ~ Every crow started somewhere. This is why we have variations! And variations of variations. And props when needed. The whole point of this thread is to share progressions, tips and techniques, and have fun!

I'm back, I'm recharged, and I'm hopefully ready to kick some ass this challenge! So I can avoid making some of the mistakes from the last 3-4 months, I'm keeping things very simple. Goal 1: The Daily grind I'm not quantifying how much, but I need to do pull ups, push ups, and arm balances every day. Some days, it might be a single pull up, some counter push ups, and 5 seconds in crow. It has been entirely too easy for me to either feel too burned out to try anything or to get wrapped up in other life stuff and fail to set aside the time. This forces me to at least do something every day. I'm also hoping to make some progress in the arm balancing transitions PVP thing (even though everyone else seems to have abandoned it). Goal 2: Cooking for picky little eaters I'm sick of cooking 3 different meals each night, so I'm refining my normal crock pot goal such that I have to find and try recipes that my kids might actually eat. Yeah, that means the recipes will be much more boring, but in the long run I hope I can get them eating healthier foods. The goal is to try one kid friendly crock pot meal each week. Goal 3: New yoga excitement I've had huge motivational problems with yoga over the last many months. I think at least part of this is that I'm fairly bored with my normal app and need to try some new videos and workouts. So, the goal is to hunt for cool looking yoga videos on youtube and try at least 8 of them by the end of the challenge. If any of you have any recommendations for favorite videos, I'm very open to suggestions. And....That's it! I'll still be doing my usual parkour, recording tons of piano stuff, doing a lot of coding, playing around with martial arts stuff, etc., but I'm not going to force any goals.

Arrr.. . I felt like sticking with pirates, but I'm branching out and recruiting a bunch of famous pirates to help me with my quests. This will be a 5WC, since I prefer just continuing along with things, so the points are intended to encompass that. Main Quest: Parkour all of the things!!! Climb all of the things!!! Balance in mind-bending ways! Play with weapons! Sail to new horizons! Loot, pillage, plunder. Pirate #1: Edward Kenway (parkour)- Naturally, I'm turning to Assassin's Creed and the Pirate Edward Kenway to help me with my parkour. My goals with this are twofold: One of the bits of feedback I received at my rank testing was that I was trying to go too fast, and as a result, I was adding stutter steps right before most of my vaults. Also, now that I have full open gym, I want to expand my horizons a bit by trying new things or new configurations for skills, rather than just recycling things that I've already done in classes. So, I get 5 points whenever I do parkour class or open gym and work on slow, smooth flow runs without adding stutter steps. I get another 5 points for doing class or open gym and trying some new skills or new moves. I also can get 5 points for taking my parkour outdoors and trying techniques in new ways (vaulting over benches or picnic tables in ways I've never before tried). The goal is to reach 100 points by the end of the challenge. Pirate #2: Guybrush Threepwood (strength) *well, he says he's a mighty pirate. Who am I to argue? Really, none of the pirates are overly strength-y, and I wanted to include some monkey island goodness. I want to get stronger for both parkour and climbing. And so far, my approach has been very haphazard. Ideally, I will insert some combination of these exercises at the end of parkour sessions, climbing sessions, or yoga, so I can increase my strength: Pull ups, Flag progressions, Dragon Flag negatives, toes-to-bar, one leg squats, HSPUs, plyo push ups, cat hang pull ups, and dips. Obviously, sometimes my muscles will be so trashed from climbing or parkour that I won't be able to do anything. In that case, I can get credit as long as I at least try to do the exercises and verify that there's nothing left in the tank. +5 points for every day I go climbing, do parkour, or do yoga and then after that do a strength mini workout. +5 points for each Darebee workout (providing it's primarily strength based). +5 points for every full strength workout. Edit: + 7 points for every day in which I completely fry out all of my muscles, whether it's just from a full strength workout or whether it's from parkour/climbing/yoga classes + a supplemental strength workout. Goal is to reach 100 points. Pirate #3 - The Dread Pirate Roberts (Discipline/ Diet goal) The Dread Pirate Roberts is a disciplined swordsman in full control of himself and his body. So, I'm turning to him to help me rein in my diet. Vacation was great, but it left me with the tendency to eat entirely too much, drink entirely too much, and consume way too much sugar. Easter and the abundance of candy in the house isn't helping with that, either. So, the plan is to eat relatively healthy meals every day, with only one modest dessert (100 calories or less) per day. But I also get 3 variances/week, where I can eat out, have an alcoholic drink, have a less healthy meal, or have a bigger dessert/sweet. I get 20 points/week for full compliance, but -5 points for each additional variance. And situations where I hang out with friends, have an unhealthy meal, extra sweets, and hit the booze can easily count as multiple variances. Goal is 100 points. Pirate #4: Captain Jack Sparrow (Adventure/Life goal) I need more adventure in my life, and I'm recruiting Captain Jack Sparrow to help me sail to new horizons. Last challenge, I intended to create my own adventure guide, with all of the local hikes, day trips, weekend trips, etc. within a 4 hour driving radius that I'd love to do. Normally, a large part of my goal would be to actually get out and do at least one of these adventures, but I am pretty bogged down in the next month with birthdays and other big events. But I'll do the best that I can. I get 2 points for every entry into my adventure spreadsheet (each entry can be a hike that I want to do, a nearby city + attractions that I've researched, a climbing spot that I want to try, or an event that I'd like to attend, along with the distance, estimated time needed, and other data). Since learning languages is helpful for exploration, I'm also getting 1 point for every 50 XP in Duolingo. And since reading is an adventure of sorts, I get 10 points for every book completed. If I do manage an actual adventure, I get 10 points for every new place explored. The goal is to reach 100 points. Bonus goals: Bonus #1: Ship maintenance - Keep my ship tidy by doing the flylady mission for each day (or a 15 minute substitution if the mission isn't relevant for my house). Bonus #2: Ranger Mini.

What? Another turncloak assassin? Autumn is my favorite time of year, and I'm always looking for excuses to head outdoors for hiking, exploration, and other fun stuff. Plus, all of the parkour people seem to be here these days, so I'm going to Ranger it up for this challenge. A little about me: For each area, the goal is to reach 100 points over the course of the challenge. I'm expecting to do my usual parkour classes and climbing sessions during the challenge. But, I don't specifically get any points for any of them. Goal 1: Explore the area around the vault -hike on a trail that I've never done before (+20) (I love hiking, but I tend to go back to old favorites rather than try new things) -go climbing outdoors (+20) -attend an outdoor parkour meet up (+20) -go on parkour jogs of 2+ miles (+5 pts/jog) -go on a 2+ mile nature walk (+2 pts/walk) -go camping (+20) -go canoeing and fishing (+20) -collect new videos of doing parkour outdoors. (+5 pts/video) -do misc. outdoorsy stuff that seems to fit here (+? pts.) (new) -learn about the flora and fauna native to Shenandoah. Be respectful of the wildlife while camping. Try to identify plants and such while hiking (+5 pts) -learn to identify the local snakes, and learn about their behaviors (+5 pts) -learn about the native wildlife in Shenandoah 2. Avoid Rad Poisoning -only 1 alcoholic drink/week (mmm.. football booze) during the challenge (+5 pts/week with 0 or 1 drinks) -no soda at all (+5 pts/week) -try new recipes (+10 pts/recipe) (mmmm.. iguana on a stick) -do batch cooked meals in the crock pot (+5 pts/meal) -5 times/week, eat a serving of veggies first for evening snack (+5 pts/week) 3. Level up my game -be able to do Kong vaults with no hesitation (+20 pts) -learn a new yoga pose from the yogajournal.com Advanced Challenge poses (+20 pts) -30+ second rail balance or completely walk across the rails at the parkour school (maybe 25 feet long with turns). (+20 pts) -successfully land a lache that is far enough that I couldn't just reach and grab the next bar (+20 pts). -Climb a new route that is at least a 5.10+ (+20 pts) -Do something that absolutely terrifies me (probably from the parkour obstacle class). (+20 pts) -Weapon practice (+1 pts for each 15 minutes) -Progress through Age of Pandora. (+2 pts for every chapter finished) 4. Study the Big Book of Science: -swift or Xcode tutorials (+10 pts per non-trivial tutorial) -work through swift manual (+1 pt/10 pages) -complete non-trivial project Euler programs (+5 pts/program) (new) +1 point for project Euler program, but coding must be in Swift -resume Duolingo practice (+ 1 pts for every 50 XP on Duolingo). -make some sort of math education app for my kids to play with (+25 pts/finished app) -read (+5 pts/book) -do science experiments with the kids (+5 pts/experiment) 5. Keep the camp clean and comfortable: -Keep the house close enough to guest-ready that I never have to decline my kids' request to have friends over. (+5/week) -learn a new piano song (+20) -paint Russian doll minions (+5 pts/doll) - morning adulting before play - after getting kids on the bus, must take care of adulting tasks before hopping on the computer or relaxing (+5 pts/week) -uploading vacation photos and creating a vacation photo album for the kids (+10 pts). + ??? points for any other significant adulting, cleaning, or crafting related task. I'm sure things will come up during the course of the challenge, and I'll assign appropriate points to them.