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Greetings, young pupils. I understand you wish to lean more about how to be a master bender. Well, in order to master bending you must prove you are disciplined in the daily practice of training your body and mind. To prove yourself worthy of learning bending skills and to learn which of you is worthy of reaching the Avatar state, let's have a friendly competition, shall we? Every day, you will complete a "Daily Dare." There are two levels of difficulty: normal and extra credit, which usually consists of completing the physical challenge in one set. To prove yourself a capable student with enough discipline to learn bending skills, we will use a scoring system based on completed dares. Each challenge completed equals 1 point; extra credit adds an additional point. Just record your name, your goal, and your daily dare progress on the scroll that the monks have provided for this challenge. The more challenges you complete with extra credit, the more bending skills you will unlock. The totals needed to unlock are: 15 Points: Air Bending 30 Points: Earth Bending 45 Points: Water Bending 60 Points: Fire Bending You have 35 days to complete this challenge, beginning October 28th and ending December 1st. At the end of this challenge, the bender who has unlocked all four bending skills and has the most points will be deemed worthy of becoming the next Avatar. Good luck, young pupils, and have some onion-banana juice before you go.

Doesn't look like anyone has the motivation to set this up yet, so it falls to me Welcome all to the latest Round of Darebee's Daily Dares! This will be starting on Monday 15 and lasting for the rest of the challenge. All are welcome. Every day, they post a bodyweight exercise challenge no equipment needed, every day. Sometimes they're easy, sometimes they're not. Every day there are two levels of difficulty. 1) just get it done, over the course of the day, and 2) Extra Credit (EC,) which usually means all in one shot. Either do one or the other. You get either 1 or 2 points per day, no more. Miss the day (in your time zone) and you miss the points. Need a variation? Not a problem, but no points for you. If you decide to join, declare what rank you're aiming for and sign up on this spreadsheet. Then, just keep track of how many dares you complete throughout the challenge. If you're not sure about what counts for the dare or extra credit, post here and we'll rule by what seems to make sense to the most of us. Some days you might not be able to do an exercise, and that's ok! If you like, try modifying or scaling the dare to something you can do. I've added a new column where you can keep track of dares you've modified and completed. The modified dares don't "count' toward "official" totals, but we can still reward you with creative titles if you like. Sometimes Darebee likes to be cute and offer extra extra credit. That's cool...go for it, we'll all be impressed. Let's keep it simple and leave those out of our calculations. The person with the most points at the end of the challenge will be declared the Daredevil! (other titles are available, inquire within.) Leaderboard Round 13: Xena (41 points) Feb/March 2018 Round 12: WhiteGhose (68 points!!) Nov/Dec 2017 Round 11: Momsjm (62 points) April/May 2017 Round 10: Magicman (64 points) Round 9: Alcnedlor (60 points) Jan/Feb 2017 Round 8: JonFirestar (61 points) Round 7: Xena (59 points) Round 6: Xena (54 points) Round 5: Zeroh (48 points) Round 4: Rocketbikeninja (62 points) Round 3 (Tie): Rocketbikeninja and mom2sjm (64 points) Round 2: Rocketbikeninja (67 points) - May 2016 Challenge Round 1: Geek On Fire (53 points) - April 2016 Challenge Ranks Titanium: 60 points (e.g., 30 days of dares + 30 days of extra credit) Gold: 45 points Silver: 30 points Bronze: 15 points Custom: A custom goal of your choice. Just make sure to state your specific target in the spreadsheet.

I am going with Kiki this month. Kiki is Ghibli's heroine of 1989. She is honest and cheerful, hardworking and loyal, and honestly a little lost. She isn't an awesome witch, and when she leaves home for her mandatory year of training away she only really can do one witch thing. Flying. And she's not really good at that either. But she goes and does it anyway. And in way we all know, at least I do, she looses that thing that makes her her, and has to relearn magic from scratch, and she has only herself, and the friends she makes along the way and she figures out how to be what she knows she has to be. A witch. A good one too. So I really could use her spirit right now. I am hitting the books hard, learning what I can about being a trainer and I am not entirely sure if I can do this. But I like giving people tools to make themselves less fragile. And encouraging them to find a healthier person inside themselves, doing good things for themselves... Work. 8h / week. Do something productive for me being a trainer. Plan classes, read school material, work on homework. FlyLady. 15min / day. Do some adulting at home every single day. No doing heaps one day then lazying off for days on end. Act like the badass you know you can be. Drink water. (every day) Eat well. (a good choice each day) Move daily (DailyDare or yoga 5 days per week = non-class days) That's the plan so far. I will log in my bujo (bullet journal), and from time to time I will dazzly you with the pretty of it... Or with food porn... or you know, being spring, with nature being pretty. You have been warned. I do love this community. And the amazing people in it. Katrin

You know that screen after you get a GAME OVER, where it says press START to continue? That's where I am now. I've more or less fully recovered from the accident. I'm ready to start exercising again, and I'm ready to start stepping away from the comfort foods. But I've lost a bit of progress, so it feels like I've been thrown back to the last checkpoint. I don't have my notes on me, but here's the basic plan: --> Workout 2/week. I was originally thinking 3/week, but I don't want to ramp things up too fast. It likely won't the the same days every week, cause my schedule depends on when events are. Mondays are my normal off day, so that and some other day (not Tuesday). The weather was getting nicer when I started planning this challenge so I was going to resume my playground workout. This will be a weather permitting why is winter two months late kind of thing. Indoor routines I'll pick from Darebee. Because doing the same routine quickly bores me. --> Morning routine. Doing the daily dare every morning has worked out well. And I've seen other people have success with morning routines, so I'm going to come up with something. I'm pretty sure this part of my notes is filled with giant question marks. --> Adulting. The approach I used last time worked out really well, so I'm going to continue with that. For this challenge the goal will be to get all of the dishes washed. --> Job search. I moved this over from my previous challenge. With the caveat that I approach this with a game plan. I had to work really hard to limit this to four goals. I wanted to include nutrition and hydration stuff, but nope. I cut it out, cause I don't want to get burnt out. More details later. When I'm not waiting for my therapy appointment.

With my senior recital and graduation rapidly approaching (my recital hearing, which is more important than the recital itself, is in 5 days), I don't have a lot of time or energy to devote to a proper assassin's challenge, so I'm taking up some desk work for a while. /failed attempt at sort of themeing Goals: > 10h practice clarinet per week outside of rehearsal and lesson (%) > keep evening checklists of things to do before bed and do them. I must Tame my Monkey! (No more than one thing left undone every night) (P/F daily) > do something for bio outside of class 5 days /week (P/F) > do something for Spanish outside of class 2 days /week (P/F) > no late work! Also no more incomplete work. (%) > accumulate 25 points in Darebee Daily Dare thing (P/F) > pass recital hearing (P/F) > earn 94% or higher on next biology test (P/F) > earn full marks on next Spanish presentation (indigenous cultures; rehearse, do not read) (P/F) > Tame the Monkey (my score > Monkey at end of every week) (P/F *5) > limit phone (especially this) and laptop usage during the day and before bed. Things like using airplane mode or turning it off altogether during bio, practice, rehearsals, etc. Because EMFs are poison. > tennis ball rolling 3 days /week (% EC)

I don't like birthdays, specifically my birthday, but I'm going to make the most of it. My 30th birthday falls near the end of this challenge. And that brings with it all sorts of feelings. Mostly not happy ones. And that's on top of the not happy feelings hanging around from the accident. I want to sound optimistic in my challenges, but that's not how I'm feeling at all. I always get mopey around my birthday because leading up to it I always imagine that I'll have a cool party or we'll go out for dinner or drinks and all my friends will be there... And that's where it falls apart in reality. I'll put up a few posts on Facebook asking if anyone wants to do anything, and I get a lot of nothing. I haven't really talked with any of them for a long time, so it shouldn't be too surprising. I might have better luck messaging them directly, but Anxiety. I get the same anxiety thinking about just asking if they want to hang out. And it's the kind of anxiety that makes you feel that being miserable is better than facing it. *sigh* I know I don't need to hang out with friends to make it a good birthday, but it's hard when that's what I want. This particular birthday is even worse because it's one of those milestones. Like, when you're in high school and college some teachers ask where you want to be in 10 years. Well here I am, 10ish years later and I'm no where near where I wanted to be. It also doesn't help that I don't really know where I want to go. Like, there's several different career/job ideas that I get excited about and I don't know what to pick. So this challenge is about dealing with those feelings. And it's about recovering from the accident. I'm finally going back to work. And I can walk around the apartment sort of normally. I do still wear the fracture boot and use one crutch when I go outside, because better safe than sorry. Anyways, I figure it's about time to start exercising again. And figure out where I'm at now. So, goals... Is that really a good idea? My one fitness goal for the challenge is to do the daily dares from Darebee in the morning. And to make whatever modifications I need to get it done. This is something I was pretty good at keeping up with, so it's more just getting back into the habit. Is this a landfill? The apartment is a complete mess. Even more of a mess than before. So the goal is to get rid of all the trash by the end of the challenge. And to keep it under control. By trash I just mean all the used paper towels, empty cans, wrappers and that sort of thing. Sorting through stuff is for a later challenge. What do you want to be when you grow up? I need to be looking for a new job, but when I think about it, I don't really know what job I want to get (and stick to). So this is about working on some kind of career plan and sorting through my options. Are you sure you can't draw? Back in December I was trying to think of something special I could do for my birthday. And I settled on getting a new tattoo. In January I was playing around with an idea for my arms, but it's still pretty basic. And I want to sit on it for awhile. So I'm going to go with adding on to the tattoo I already have (I'll post a picture later). I have a very general idea, but I need to actually work some kind of design out. At least enough of a design to get the tattoo artist on the same page as me. Is the cake a lie? Basically, figure out birthday plans, get whatever I need to get, and do my best to enjoy the day. And that's about it. I still need to figure out specifics, like how many days and for how long to work on things. But that's a problem for future me.

Huzzaaaaahhhh the threads are opened up! The plan is set, I already logged food and goals yesterday and am eager to get started. It's still dark outside. But this season's bout of depression and endorphin-depletion was broken around Midwinter. It was broken easier than ever before and I am happy and eager to get started with the christmas gift I made myself: new journal. The goals are: Log everything. Note down what I eat. Include quantities, where possible, do not stress if not possible. Go for runs (or >30min walks) 3× per week. Go to classes. (FKS (Fitness, conditioning, sports-games), tue+thu, if it happens) (Bellydancing, wed, schedule permitting) Workouts at home to stay at 2× or 3× per week. Figure out if cancelling studio membership would be right choice or wrong. Figure out a way to stay emotionally healthy. No running myself into the ground and then starting to cancel workouts, ending in me being depressed. Rest. It's not optional. Gorrammit. Will add some nice theme-y pictures once on the PC. But I'm not yet and I am planning a run/long walk along the coast at dawn... things to look up and get ready.

There's a month and some change before camp, so that must mean I'm going to bust my ass and get into totally perfect shape just in time! Right? Nope. Not in the least. I know now that physical and mental wellness are the summation of several choices. I need to continue making those good choices to keep me healthy, fit, and pumped up for camp. Some of the challenge/goal titles may seem a little weird, but they all work as clever reminders to keep me on track. Love is to Eat Anything Fluffy: Cook/assemble food 1x per day. Log all food into phone. Don't Be Clawhauser: Limit sweet snacks to 2 per day. Increase water and tea intake. Go for Walkies: loops on the parking garage for work days; loops at the park on off days. Bees? Complete Darebees when possible, attempt extra credit. Include with daily stretches. +Back Up Tigers: dance party. +Venus: heavy bag, house/yard work. Mirror Mirror: daily skin care + masks. Hush: minimum half hour quiet time before bed. Reading, coloring, meditation, chores. DatDA: class work as needed. +Haruka: weekly free/errand ride. Kissing Town: once weekly fun times with Ifrit. With the bonus activities, and with trying to reach a bronze level for Darebees, I am considering some sort of prize system. Trouble is, I've been on a minimalist kick again lately, so I need to think hard on some non-clutter-y, and probably also not food-based, rewards. I kinda want some fancy new leggings for camp. I also want a slackline. I could go back to the springs by myself for a day. Plus now that my nights off changed I could go to a lot more concerts here soon. UPDATE! New Prize System! Bees Bronze = 1 prize. Bees Silver = 1 prize. Etc+ 20 pts 1 prize. Etc+ 30 pts 1 prize. Etc+ 40 pts 1 prize. Avalanche Ranch Sulphur Springs Hand and Stone Spa

Survival of the Fittest Kind of a cool phrase. Science-y and warrior-sounding post-apocalyptic vibe at the same time, depending on how you read it. I picked the name because I liked it, that’s all. My challenge is very similar to my last one and to many before it, but I have a couple little twists and I’m pretty excited about it. 1. Run 92 miles. This is just a little increase from my last couple, but the added treat is that for every week I’m over 25 miles, I get to play an extra mission on ZombiesRun. I’m using the free version and have been rationing and hoarding them. I’ll use up my backlog of missions, but only if I “earn” them. If I use up all my backlog, maybe I’ll break down and pay for the app J One modification…I have a hiking trip planned during the challenge. I don’t always count walking miles, but this will be hard enough that these will count. 2. 250 pushups. A substantial increase over last time. This time minimum per set is 3 in week 1, 4 in weeks 2-3 and 5 in week 4. Think I can aim toward bigger sets, but don't want to make it toooo hard. 3. Gravitron - 50 negatives – Gravitron. I’m excited about this goal. I’ve been working toward chin-ups for a while, mainly by doing negatives. That’s a good way to work, but hard to tell if you are improving. I use the gravitron (assisted pull-up machine) as a gauge of progress…but I’ve been slacking on this lately. Idea is to max out on the gravitron in zero week, work through 50 negatives over the course of the challenge, and then test again (final test can be during the next zero week). 4. Shape your Environment. I had a work-related goal last challenge and found it really helpful. This time I’m going to organize my office and try to make it a nicer place to work. I spend a ton of time there and I don’t really find it to be a very relaxing, creative or comfortable place. I made a specific list of things I want to do, and I’ll spend at least 4 hours working on it (aiming for an hour a week). If I somehow finish the whole list in less time, that would be fine too. As a bonus for finishing this, I’ll buy something to make my office nicer. I’m thinking either some paint (no one said I couldn’t) or a cool plant. So yeah, kind of the same stuff I always do, but it somehow feels exciting. Bring it on! I’m also doing the Daily Dare PvP. It was a lot of fun last time.

Ivy is back!! Invigorate - Walking - Every day, outdoors if possible - Work in garden or something creative at least once a week Variety - Yoga - 2 days a week Yearning - Homework - Want to finish school so I can move on to better things...want to start this AFAA course that I signed up for last challenge two challenges ago and see where that leads Doing the Daily Dare PVP, hope to get bronze again, I tried for silver last time but too much of it was beyond my ability. So much happened last challenge...my wife lost her job, we're getting the house ready to rent out and going to get an RV Trailer to live in (can't wait!! I'm so excited!!) We do have a lot of work to do and a little time to do it, hopefully by the time I finish my course we will be ready to go back to Florida! We are tearing up the carpet, laying laminate flooring, finishing the kitchen, cleaning up the yard, getting the outside painted and some minor fixes, and I'm sure I'm forgetting something in here...as well as looking for a truck to finance for a reasonable amount (because her's is too small) and trailer to purchase within our budget... My oldest son is getting married in June - I make candles and am doing the centerpieces for them My nephew is graduating high school in June - Which means I have to deal with my family, Goddess give me patience because if I have strength I'll hurt someone We plan on being out and the house rented July 1st Not happy with weight loss right now, it seems no matter what I try nothing is happening...I don't 'cheat' or go over calories that much or that often, I stay in an activity range that should have me losing weight, but I'm not, doesn't seem to matter what I do one way or the other, I stay in the same 5 lb range....I'm wondering if it's the fact that I don't have a gall bladder, which is about the only thing I haven't looked at since my hormones are dealt with, sleep is as good as it's ever been, and it seems to be about the time that it was taken out was when I started having trouble, which was the same time I went Paleo. Going to try a couple of things this go around and see if it helps, Ox bile is one of those things, if anyone has any suggestions or has dealt with the same problem I'd love to hear if you found a solution!