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Happy May and Happy New Challenge! I've been super excited about my D&D challenges, and they've all kind of fizzled out. I think because, as fun as it is to play a bard or a barbarian or a wizard, I am a Ranger. And you know what they say, Rangers gonna Ranger. But I'm also trying to balance not exhausting myself by doing ALL THE THINGS! So here's the plan for this challenge: I can do anything, but I can't do everything. Following the action economy of D&D, every turn I have a: movement, action, bonus action, reaction. I do not have to do one of each every day, the point is more that I am going to try to not do more than one in each category so that I think a little more about what I'm doing and how I'm using my time. Movement: Hiking, walking, or biking. Ideally averaging 1 mile/day. My favored terrain is forest, so wooded trails count double. Action: For theming purposes, I stuck with D&D actions for this section. Mostly these are things that I like doing but often struggle to follow through on. Attack: Get a workout in. My main workout goal is going to be my reaction (see that teaser?), but this can be any other activity, whether it's a full workout, boxing, jump rope, yoga, anything goes here. Gathering Swarm: As a Swarmkeeper Ranger, when I take the attack action, my nature spirits can swarm. So obviously, this is my gardening goal. Dash: Go for a run. Any other cardio will be Attack, this is specifically to track running. Help: Social obligations. Whether or not they take up the action category for the day or can coincide with another one primarily depends on where my social energy level is and whether I feel like I have the spoons for it or not. Search: Clean. Mostly indoor cleaning, but I might do some property clean up here. Or maybe that falls under Gathering Swarm. I'm making this up as I go. Disengage: This is a planned rest day. When I feel like I need a break, I can disengage. Hide: This is an emergency rest. I hadn't planned on taking the day off, but things went south and I bailed. If I start seeing too many Hide days, that's a clear sign that I need to rethink what I'm doing. Bonus Actions: These are my hobbies. I have a lot, some of which I've neglected lately. I don't have any set goals here as far as how much I do of any of them. The point is 1) to prioritize hobby time over empty phone time, and 2) see which hobbies I'm gravitating towards these days. Since these are fun, fulfilling activities for me, I might cheat a little and let myself do more than 1 a day, but we'll see. I am trying to reign myself in this challenge. Shooting: Rifle or Archery. I enjoy both. Probably going to lean more towards the archery side, as my gun range has a tree down on it, but that also might get taken care of this challenge. Creativity: Writing or Music. Both of these are fun for me, but I also have a tendency to put too much pressure on myself to do them on a fixed schedule, and then I lose my motivation to do it at all. So no pressure this time around, just a fun time if I feel like it. Animals: I used to be much more intentional about spending time with my horses. I've let that slide on the excuse that my barn building has taken up that time/energy slot, but there's really no reason I can't do both. Cat and dog time can also go here. Cooking: I like to bake, and when the mood hits I also like putting together a meal, not just the actual cooking, but also fussing around with setting a nice table and everything. Last night I lit a fire, baked bread, and turned a chicken carcass into some delicious chicken and rice soup, and it was so cozy. It reminded me to take the time to enjoy the whole process of a meal, instead of just gulping it down for fuel. Crafting: I have not done any crochet in a while, and no cross stitch in even longer than that. Both of them are good evening activities that I can use to keep my hands busy instead of doomscrolling. Reaction Opportunity Attack: Just one option here. I am not going to fuss much this challenge about getting regular full body workouts in, especially since I should be active enough keeping up with all my other hobbies. But I have hit a plateau with my pull ups, and I want to keep progressing, so we are doing Grease the Groove training! 2 reps per set, 4-12 sets per day. And how will I determine sets for a particular day, you ask? That's right - it's time to roll some dice! 3d4 pull up sets per day. Although, in defiance of D&D etiquette, I shall be fudging if needed and will probably take at least 1 day a week off. But I dug out some appropriately Ranger-y d4s to use. Free Action Barn Building: Yup, this shall be ongoing. But it doesn't count towards anything else this challenge, because the whole point here is for me to get some balance back into my life and make time for stuff I enjoy doing. Not that I don't enjoy building, but I am getting a little tired of making it my sole focus. And here's my nice little spreadsheet to track everything, which shall be appropriately color-coordinated and updated at the end of each week. Zero Week M T W R F S N Movement Action Bonus Action Reaction Free Action Not planning to track anything today. Will I start tomorrow? Maybe! Who knows?

Sticking with Snowspire for my challenge soundtrack this month. Next month it will probably be something a bit more up-tempo, maybe even Solanaceae, thanks for the recommendation to @Rurik Harrgath! This challenge is part of an ongoing trek to the 5Peaks BC race at Alice Lake in April. Mr. Radost and I will head over to the mainland and crash with our buddy in Vancouver who last-minute registered to join me on one of my Island trail races this past summer, then all drive up together for the race. I've been imagining the training as a grand cross-country trek and wrote a little story about how I got off-track last challenge. This challenge I have some ground to make up, but I think my goals are solid, so...this might look a little familiar. Physical Discipline All in a day's march - run at least once per week. I will be hitting the trails every Saturday, or making time on another day if I know Saturday is too busy. Combat training - do at least two workouts per week. Could be continuing the Darebee Hero's Journey, Zombies!Run home workouts (have to finish Dragon Flight!), or 20 minutes of RingFit Adventure/Just Dance (thanks, Santa!). Mental Discipline Strengthen the shine - celebrate immediately every time I choose a veggie or movement snack instead of junk food. Check out my last challenge for an explanation of where this comes from and why. This was a tough one last challenge, I know I can do better. I need to make that good choice more often, and I need to follow through and actually do the celebration, not just think about it and then tell myself "yeah, but it's not like this is actually an awesome thing to celebrate..." Sharpen vision - one hour of painting or gardening per week. I'd really like to be doing more painting...which means I need to actually set aside time to do it, right? I do have some garden tasks that need to happen before spring planting, so that's the one activity that may bump this one. Both come under Mental Discipline because they help ground me when I'm struggling with executive dysfunction. Adventure? Decipher ancient mysteries - over the whole challenge, complete one set of hexipuffs from already-spun yarn, and spin one skein from the next puff of fibre. Long ago, I started a modular fibrecraft project: a Beekeeper's Quilt that I would knit out of handspun yarn. I realized this week that the project will be 10 years old this year! I'm not going to dream of an extreme goal like finishing it (I have probably 32/300 puffs made, haha), but I am committing to working on it regularly again this year. Say 'yes' to Plot Hooks - schedule two fun activities for this month. The past four years have been stressful. I was working 3 jobs, then 2 jobs/back at school, then one job + school during pandemic, and now back to pandemic + 2 jobs (which only add up to about 38 hours/week, but one of them is fairly high stress). I've definitely been hermiting in my home blanket fort. But this winter I decided to start seeking adventure. The important ones were going to the ballet (Nutcracker! Including one of the kids I've looked after for the past 11 years!) and sending hand-made Solstice cards to some pocket friends. Small adventures by some standards, but adventures nonetheless! I even inspired Mr. Radost to grab his own Plot Hook and register for a dance class at the local rec centre! So I'm going to find at least two novel activities I can say yes to during this challenge. Bonus: learn from the Hawk - watch two videos from the Painting Big Patreon collection during the challenge.

tldr; I'm in a place to focus on things - feel free to skip the below if you just want to see my challenge without the background Background - I've been here a really long time. Much of it struggling with getting a handle on stuff. Really, life was just not where I needed it to be - hindsight and all that. While the pandemic has been rough..... it also allowed so much to happen that has gotten me into a headspace for things to really stick. We moved out of Atlanta. I was stuck in a tiny kitchen where I had NO CHOICE but to keep it clean (and have learned the joy of a clean kitchen by spending 10-15 at night cleaning up and 5 min in the morning unloading the dishwasher). We FINALLY found a house with acreage in a rural area in the mountains (well, on the Cumberland Plateau - the Appalachians are old and time has scraped off the tops) with gigabit access. The pandemic allowed my 85% travel job to become 100% WFH. I switched from Services to Sales which greatly reduced stress. I discovered an inexpensive Meal Kit service (Every Plate) which does most of my weekly meal planning for me, delivers the food to my door which allows us to eat relatively healthy and not get in a rut of frozen pizzas and chicken tenders. Since it's cooled off (by mid-August - there was a week we didn't get to 80!), I'm getting in a daily walk and slowly extending it. I'm FINALLY starting to do all of the things I've known I needed to do to get healthy. It only took a f'ing Global Pandemic...... So - enough with the WOT and on to the challenge! 1) Walk - starting goal week 0 is 5k steps per day I can manage when not raining. My ultimate goal is to be doing 10k a day by end of challenge. My knee was good at D*Con (a couple of reminders I did a BAD thing 2.5 weeks ago, but didn't need the brace or sleeve). I just got back from DragonCon where I did over 10k steps per day so I know I'm capable of more, but sometimes finding the time and weather interferes. This doesn't have to be all at once, and multiple walks per day (2-3) would be a GOOD thing 2) I really need to make getting up at 7:30a on work days a thing - BUT I'm on vacation so that will really start week 1. Week 0 however, I'm setting a 9a alarm and going to try to get to bed by midnight and not fuck up my schedule completely. 3) Eat my veggies. There MUST be a veggie with dinner. I don't care if it's carrots that came with Every Plate, salad or a bag of frozen veggies, I need to replace some of the crap I'm eating with something better for me. I also should at least TRY to add veggies to lunch. Breakfast during the week is a Vegan protein shake so it's actually packed with good stuff for me. 4) Stay on top of keeping the kitchen clean. If I miss a day, no big - but not 2 days in a row. This is somewhat helped by having a limited # of dishes\cookware. Once had way too much and it was too easy to just stack shit until it became critical and it would take all day to run everything through the dishwasher or an hour (or so) to wash by hand. 5) Stay on top of keeping the house clean. Run Rosie. Do some laundry. Clean a bathroom. Just a few minutes is all it takes. Consider reviewing Flylady stuff again just to make sure I'm on some sort of detail cleaning schedule so everything gets "touched" every month. 6) Hubby and I are looking at hobbies that we enjoy that could also make us $$ again. We're working a few ideas, we need to pick ONE, get the equipment and proceed to experiment. I'm also going to make another vanilla order and make vanilla paste (which doesn't take as long to "cure" as extract). I need some for me and I may as well see if it's something I can sell to at a minimum pay for my addiction LOL. That should do it and then some. I usually only babystep a couple of things. Some of what's here is stuff I have at least a half a handle on, but don't want to let slide while focusing on other stuff.

Well, I'm late, but at least I'm here? Mixed bag of news - we found out why I've been so sick! My Crohn's disease, which normally only forms blockages, decided to form the tiniest little fistula this time (think like a little tube coming out of my intestines in a place where there should not be any tubes) that was too small to be seen on the imaging we'd done, but was plenty big enough to allow all kinds of gut bacteria and related bugs to escape and take up residence in my abdominal wall, festering into a whole series of infections and eventually a large abscess. Back at the start of March, when I was having daily unexplained fevers that got frighteningly high (all the way up to 104.3 at one point), they found the abscess - which at that point had grown to be about the size of a baseball - but the draining procedure failed and they tried hard to throw strong antibiotics at it for the few bacteria they had been able to identify in hopes of pushing off more drastic measures. Unfortunately, that failed as well, and on March 22nd I was readmitted for surgery. They cut out several inches of diseased colon on either side of the fistula and cleared out the abscess as best as they could, taking a bunch of cultures along the way that helped us identify a few more bacteria and a yeast that were missed in the original drainage attempt. Post-surgery complications, including more fevers (which turned out to be mostly drug fever, a reaction to one of the antibiotics they had me on, though I still get a low fever every couple of days for unknown reasons, most likely related to the fact I haven't finished my antibiotics or antifungal meds yet so there's probably some hold-out bacteria/yeast trying to fight back) and a bit of internal bleeding where they had to sew my colon back together had me in the hospital until April 7th when normally I would have been discharged around March 28th. But now I'm back home and on the road to recovery! There are still challenges ahead but I should be on the downhill part of all of this basically as soon as May hits - so, right as this challenge ends. That should get me past all the doctor follow-ups and hopefully on new meds to stop this from happening again, past my thesis due date (April 29th), past a lot of work nonsense with EOC exams and contract signings, etc. etc. It might be a tough month, especially since I'm starting it behind - I didn't exactly do a whole lot of work while I was in the hospital - but I'm optimistic! A few more weeks of nose to the grindstone and I'll finally be at the point I've spent the last several years working towards. I can do this, even if it sucks sometimes!! Quest One: Movement I'm actually current banned from "working out on purpose", as the surgeon put it, but mobility is medicine and sitting on my butt all day long isn't good for me either. I've lowered my step goal on my watch to 1,000 steps a day just as a way to make sure I'm not spending too much time on the couch/in bed, which I think should be a pretty reasonable goal for just like minimal taking care of myself and my house type movement. This might change as I try it out - I just came up with that last night, so haven't actually figured out if it's a good goal or not - but it's 4:45 and I'm currently at 606 steps despite not doing a heck of a lot and taking a nap earlier, so it might be a good number. Quest Two: Nutrition This is very arguably the single most important quest of this challenge for me. Not only did I lose more weight in the hospital - came home at 125, which is only 7 pounds away from medically underweight, and I can see many of my bones including almost all my ribs - but almost all my doctors have various nutritional recommendations for me to help me heal and regain my strength. I feel like I've been eating a lot, but my husband says I eat less than I think I do, so I'm not only going to record everything I eat on a daily basis so I can make sure it's enough, but also to make sure I can reach the goals my doctors have set for me. Most of these are fairly vague - like, no one has given me exact calorie counts or grams of macros to hit or anything like that - but hopefully having a food dairy will help us quantify some of those things more specifically if needed. Goals for my daily entries: 1) at least 64 ounces of water or other fluids a day (I can count juice and milk towards this, according to the doc) 2) "substantially increase" my protein intake - I'm shooting for at least one source of protein in at least 2 meals a day, preferably more, plus I'm also routinely adding high protein supplements - in my case, Boost (but maybe not quite daily, because they're expensive) 3) start off low-fiber because it's easier on the intestines, but can slowly increase this over the course of the month if my guts respond well 4) make sure I eat at least 3 meals a day or the vague equivalent because it's often easier on my guts to eat multiple small plates rather than a big meal - I'm not tracking calories but I want to be able to say, "yeah, that's a good amount of food for an adult woman to eat in one day" Quest Three: School I mostly mean grad school here, but also the school I work at. I need to finish my thesis and create my final portfolio presentation for my defense. For work I need to do my daily lesson plans of course, catch up on my grading, sign my contract for next year, and ideally start one my curriculum re-organization but let's be honest, that's probably not going to happen in April. Overall large goals: 1) thesis section 7 (2 halves) 2) thesis lit review 3) reflection essay for portfolio 4) website and handout for portfolio 5) I think I might have to do a video or something as well? 6) catch up on class discussions 7) catch up on grading (currently only graded through February 21st in Spanish 2 and February 15th in Spanish 3) 8 ) ideally get a buffer going for lesson plans (currently don't even know what we're doing on Monday) Quest Four: Hobbies But all work and no play makes KCAleece a grumpy, bitchy lady. To help keep my sanity, I want to make sure I'm making at least a minimal amount of time for myself. While I was in the hospital, I desperately was dreaming about getting back to quilting, so I want to get some time to work on my kid's quilt. I also enjoy watching certain YouTube channels (is that really a hobby? Questionable) and I want to keep up with my manicures. Also I have really been missing cooking and baking. So my goal is that I can say I did 2 hobby things every week - for example if I did a manicure and baked cookies, or watched a YouTube video and also worked on my son's quilt. It won't be a daily thing, but I'd like to think I can fit in 2 things every week to feel like I'm still getting "me time" (which I often don't feel like I am). A few specific goals I'd like to hit with this: 1) my son's quilt is done through row 11, so I'd like to finish at least row 12 2) I always make lemon crinkle cookies for May Day, so I want to do that at the end of the challenge 3) I'm still working through my untried nail polishes and want to use at least 2 of them this challenge (manicure or pedicure is fine)

Hi everyone! This group is for you to display your creative endeavors. Enjoy.

Hey guys and gals, So I've always been a jack of all trades in life, always jumping around to different interests and never quite sticking with any one. I'm fortunate enough to have a good education and a job that can at least give me the income to pay the bills and let me try some new things, but I have always struggled with finding my true calling. I have always known this was a temporary job and didn't know how to make my way out of it. Around the time I started reading Level Up your Life and discovering the community here, something in me clicked into place and told me to wake up, that I deserve better than a job that makes me miserable. While this has been a huge blessing, It's a double edged sword. I have boundless energy, but it always feels as though I can't decide a path to direct it, like a car spinning its wheels in the mud. I desparately want to find something that is my true calling, and while I've been able to eliminate a lot of options, I still get lost in a sea of choices often when I think about it. So I thought I'd poll you guys for some advice. For those of you who know what your calling is, how did you find out? And for those who are still looking, what steps are you taking to find it?

...to defeat the huns bad habits and low self-esteem. While my quests aren't as epic as almost single-handedly defeating an invading army, I love me some Mulan gifs and memes so *shrug*. Main Quest: Reach low-normal BMI (about 90 more pounds) I've gotten weekly meal prep pretty much down (thank you, Instant Pot!), but actually consistently eating that meal prep without adding in side trips, meals out, snacks at work, etc. has been difficult. So for the next logical step: Goal: 6/7 days of eating meal prepped food and 5/7 days of eating under 1500 calorie goal I also want to do a bit of training to prepare for.... a vacation. No seriously! My husband and I are taking a trip to Vancouver at the end of this challenge and have a lot of hiking, biking, and walking planned. I'm comfortable walking and hiking, but it's been a looooong time since I've been on a bike, and I don't want to get left behind on biking tours or feel anxious about riding a bike in a city. Goal: 5 workouts per week, with at least 1 bike ride, and an additional active rest day of yoga. Side quest: Build Confidence I've had an increase in anxious and repetitive/vicious cycle thoughts in the last couple years, and had a hard time with low self esteem. CBT has been a huge help in changing the most intrusive thoughts, but I still have a hard time feeling confident and handling not being good at things. So for this challenge, I'm doing a bit of exposure therapy - purposefully putting myself in low-stakes situations where I'm going to have a hard time so I can get used to laughing it off and dealing with it rather than being upset at myself for not being perfect. Goal: practice either of my new hobbies (sewing clothes and painting) for 15 minutes a day. I'd like to finish making 2 undershirts by the end of this challenge, but I'm not fully sure how long that's actually going to take, so I'm focusing on the daily practice rather than the end product (so I also can't try to rush through and do it all in the last couple days of the challenge) I'll be tracking all of these in my bullet journal along with some of my past challenges (to make sure I keep up on them ) but I also want to post in the forums (either my own thread or others') at least every other day to stay encouraged and active. Now let's do it!

Intro to come... Snuggles has been improving her physical therapy and (with great hope) this will be the last time it will be listed as a challenge. She has adjusted her physical therapy time to fit in during her morning break. This will open time up at lunch for other activities. For this challenge she will aim for weekdays/ 3 full sets, weekend days/ 1+ full sets. Squat 10 times Quadriceps Stretch, Hold for 15 seconds 3 times both sides Shoulder Rolls, forward and backward, 10 count each Trunk Rotation 10 times Dog to Camel pose 15 time (2 sets instead of 3) Spinal rock 10 times Bridge 10 times Spinal stretch, Hold for 15 seconds 3 times both sides Week #1 of my challenge = .75(STR) & .75(DEX) Week #2 of my challenge = .75(STR) & .75(DEX) Week #3 of my challenge = .75(STR) & .75(DEX) Week #4 of my challenge = .75(STR) & .75(DEX) Snuggles is also going to begin exploring a less processed food in her diet. She will eat what she has on hand, but will start looking for alternative. The true challenge with this is that meat and dairy will also be kept to a minimum. The first week will be spent researching both foods that can be added, but also different cultures and seeking new spices and flavorings to enhance her food. Week #1 of my challenge = .5(CON) Week #2 of my challenge = .5(CON) Week #3 of my challenge = .5(CON) Week #4 of my challenge = .5(CON) Finally Snuggles needs to start incorporating her many interests into her daily routine. A schedule is in the process of being set up, but for a brief review… Saturday- French practice w/ breakfast, general shopping and cleaning, knitting practice, 30 minutes lock picking practice Sunday- French practice w/ breakfast, 30 minutes knitting practice, 30 minutes lock picking practice, social activity Monday- French practice w/ breakfast, knife practice in the evening, 30 minutes knitting practice Tuesday- Weight training in the evening (If weights still haven't arrived, 30 mins at the park), 30 minutes lock picking practice Wed.- French practice w/ breakfast, knife practice in the evening, 30 minutes knitting practice Thursday- Knitting Lunch, Weight training in the evening (If weights still haven't arrived, 30 mins at the park), 30 minutes lock picking practice Friday- French practice w/ breakfast, Knife fighting class “If the supplies haven’t arrived for necessary activity, substitute with doable one” Week #1 of my challenge = 1(CHA) Week #2 of my challenge = 1(CHA) Week #3 of my challenge = 1(CHA) Week #4 of my challenge = 1(CHA) Builder Goals- Continue to track healthy all habits Take time to write 2 times a week Take 5 minutes, 2 times a week to meditate Walk every morning to work (plan alternate activities for evening) Follow healthy eating from past goals Pass- Gain 1 (WIS) Fail- Lose 1 (WIS)

When I was little, I had this misguided idea of what a Scribe was. I essentially thought they were fiction writers from the middle ages, but I now know that more often than not they were essentially secretaries whose sole function was to copy papers. Scribe is still a cool name. I'm going to try and form this into some kind of repetitive daily function that is easy and fun to write and hopefully to read as well. So, to start out I'm going to start tracking my day-to-day nonsense, goals and challenges: Mostly Vegetarian, Mostly Paleo - A maximum of one food-item that isn't paleo, if anything (exceptions: Dairy and rice) --------------------------------------- Worth: 0.5% (CON +1) Walk to Mordor - Walk 5 minutes. BONUS 135 Miles to Bree (217.3 km) if reached before/by the end of challenge treat oneself to some brie and a pint - Worth: 0.5% (STA +1) Bat Cave - Clean or maintain some part of living space. Minimum 1/2 hour ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Worth: 0.5% (WIS +1) Shameless - Complete 1 hour bodyweight training of some kind, can be intense or relaxed ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Worth: 0.5% (DEX +1) TODAY Today. Today I had coffee, scrambled eggs /w onion, and lemon yogurt. My one exception to the paleo diet was some crisps. I'm hungry now, but currently unwilling to make eat anything. Going to keep drinking my water~ I DIDN'T WALK BLOODY ANYWHERE BECAUSE I'M NOT A WHITE-WALKER GDI IT'S TOO COLD FOR HOBBITS I did a lot concerning my bat-cave today, fairly proud of myself for that. I can see part of the floor again d*w*b Doing laundry currently and trying to figure out where to temporarily relocate my stuff while I clean/reorganize my closet. Where's Alfred when I need him? I didn't work out today either, and the reason is TMI. If you're curiosity is blinding you, click the spoiler. I'm giving myself this as a good excuse, so not too worried. And for FUN Today I played "The Last of Us", got to a certain point and gave it a rest because I was starting to get irritated. Spent A LOT of time looking up possible workouts because I was upset I didn't have a good enough range of motion for it today. Going to watch 1 or 2 episodes of Gotham later today (almost caught up!) "We aren't entitled to sh!t. You were born with a silver spoon in your mouth, so you don't yet understand that as a living creature you have to bloody-well earn what you want"

I don't know if a thread like this already exists so I apologize for my ignorance if there already is one. This thread is sort of inspired by the "Overheard in the gym - Share!" thread. I thought it would be cool and inspiring to see what others have achieved, whether it's in the gym, sports, martial arts, hobbies, health and fitness goals or even other goals you might have. Share what you've achieved and let's make this a positive thread. I achieved something yesterday. I reached a new maximum dead lift yesterday, pulling 170kg (374Ibs). My previous best about three months ago, was 140kg (308Ibs). This Monday coming I will be attempting a new maximum squat of 140kg (308Ibs) with my previous best being 120kg (264Ibs).

lately, i have been compelled to work with my hands. this results from a combination of factors - living in a house with garages, sheds and a backyard, etc. the next quest i intend to embark upon is that of gardening/landscaping. to be specific, i would like to plant some ground cover over some spots in my yard that are bare due to their location in the shade and out of the sunlight. would any of you rebels be able to give me advice on how to excel at this task? what resources would you be able to refer to me?

i have never much cared about cars. they were little more than a transportation vehicle to me. growing up, the cool kids were into sports and cars, while i was into video games. because i was a nerd and was picked on, i associated cars with my enemies and developed an irrational animosity towards the subject of cars. this past weekend, I changed a tire for the first time in my life. at age 30. it was a fulfilling experience. it was an epic win, if you may. i gained so much satisfaction from that experience that now, all of a sudden, i feel stangely compelled to learn more about cars. what resources would you be able to recommend to me? is there a site like NerdFitness but about cars instead of health/fitness?