Search the Community

"Right now, you're suffering under an enormous weight. We provide…Leverage." except that right now I am suffering under the enormous weight, and I am going to provide the leverage to get me out. To do this I will be channeling the expertise of the 3 best characters on the show: The Hitter, The Thief, and The Hacker: Aka Eliot, Parker, and Hardison respectively. The Hitter: "Look. Hold a knife like this, [holds a chef's knife normally] cuts through an onion. [switches to a backhand grip] Hold a knife like this…cuts through, like, eight yakuza in four seconds. Screams, carnage. People are like knives. Everything's in context." to channel my inner Eliot Spencer, I will be working on my cooking skills, and my strength. Every week I will post my proposed menu for the week, at the end of the week I will see how well I stuck to said menu, by posting a log of all meals made, and also critiquing each one. I will also be restarting my body strength workouts, dedicating 4 days a week to following the basic routine in You Are Your Own Gym. I will also be posting flex Friday photos to document my progress. The Thief: "Looks like Parker's gonna have to crawl through the air duct again. God forbid anyone else would have to learn how to frickin' crawl on their stomach through a tiny space. It's not rocket science, people." To channel my inner Parker, I will work on my flexibility and agility. I will be dedicating 2-3 days a week on either flexibility through yoga, or agility through zombies, run! or learning/practicing parkour. At least once a week I will post a update photo/video of one of these activities. The Hacker: "Hardison: Looks like an ordinary cell phone, right? It's not, man. It's a metal detector. See, it uses pulse-induction technology that sends out a current that generates a magnetic field, and then...are you even listening? Eliot: Yeah. Hardison: Well, what'd I say? Eliot: You were explaining how you're still a virgin?" Age of the geek, baby! In order to channel Hardison I will be doing NaNoWriMo again this year.... and will hit the 50000 mark this year! I will update my word count daily here and on the nano site, with a goal of 2000 words per day (to give me some cushion) {will jazz up this post later, right now I should have gone to sleep hours ago}

I am going to frame this challenge thread a bit differently; I am going to base it on the main characters of the television show, "Leverage". In summary, it is a series that follows a team of criminals that even the advantage afforded the rich and powerful so that people hurt by them can achieve some form of restitution - leverage. Leverage is the created by some tool or device to afford the wielder enhanced ability to face a challenge: a lever is used mechanically to allow a person to lift or move an object otherwise too heavy. By forming steps to my overall aims as goals matched to the five main characters' roles I anticipate gaining leverage on my life. Thief: (+5 Dexterity) This happens to be my favorite character in the show, but primarily because she is crazy and crazy is not a Nerd Fitness - approved stat. Dexterity is arguably the most important ability for any thief, used to avoid confrontation, not be noticed, and dodge alarm systems. I will tackle this by working on handstands, bridges, and core balance with the eventual goal in mind to reach a free standing handstand without kicking, such as from crow pose or slow and controlled from a bridge. As of starting this challenge I can kick up to a wall-handstand successfully approximately 60-80% of the time and during the previous challenge could hold without the wall briefly before hitting it, hold for about thirty seconds, and not quite remain balanced after bending my knees and slowly curling toward a crow or forward-bend pose. This will be measured by 15 minutes a day with, baring changes, at least 5 being handstands, at least 5 being bridge, and at least enough leg stretches to easily touch my toes. Yes, the days are a bit short considering I am starting early. That is how my grace is built into the grading format. It is possible to complete this early, or make up days by doing more on another day; that too is intentional due to the form of grading I have found to be most effective for my motivation without being overly harsh by allowing one mistake to create an irreparably lower grade. pts: total minutes 5 : 630+ 4 : 567 (90-99%) 3 : 504 (80-89%) 2 : 441 (70-79%) 1 : 378 (60-69%) 0 : anything less Cracker: (+4 Strength) Clarification: Hackers are more of a test, somewhat like Urban Exploration's "Take nothing but photographs, leave nothing but footprints." Crackers are more malicious, comparable on a scale from graffiti artists just tagging his or her location to burning down the building. What is done on the show is cracking, in that information is sought/taken or changes made. Even the behind-the-scenes person needs to be ready to lend a face, and some muscle, to any operation. Although I could not find any good images or gifs, I know he has participated in his fair number of fights, for which some cursory amount of strength is required. As part of working towards pull-ups I will do dumbbell rows, lifting household objects such as a plastic jug filled with water (~3.8kg, ~8.4lbs). The measure will be 3 sets to fail on each arm once a day. Again, the extra days by starting early are the grace for missed sessions. My starting level is 13-9-8 for both left and right. pts: days 4 : 42 3 : 36 (6/wk) 2 : 30 (5/wk) 1 : 24 (4/wk) 0 : less Mastermind: (+2 Wisdom, +1 Charisma) Being able to know the players, the board, and move with regard to possible moves by the opponent is crucial for the leader of any criminal group. However bad my chess playing ability is, on the other hand, taking the time to play is not much of a challenge. Instead I will reuse, with updates, a goal I failed from the previous challenge. Study something (GRE, mathematics, physics, a foreign or programming language, A+ certification, . . . ) or write (a log from notes, stories, GRE practice, . . . ) for an hour a day. I also split the points to include charisma because when I write it is generally rather similar to writing different personae, which fits in with the grifter, as well as the fact that studying and its results improve how I appear to graduate schools, potential employers, and individuals in general. I anticipate exceeding this goal do to the additional accepted activities but based on my previous result I wanted to be conservative. pts: hours 4 : 42 3 : 36 (6/wk) 2 : 30 (5/wk) 1 : 24 (4/wk) 0 : less Retrieval Specialist/Hitter: (+1 Constitution) There is more to life than just hitting people and retrieval for various employers, cooking is also a fairly useful talent. I will find a recipe, obtain ingredients, and make at least one paleo or no-gluten meal a week. (In addition to any other things I might create, such as banana bread, lemon pie, pretzel bark, . . . I like to bake.) The long-long-range use of this is to eventually try a week of regimented food and try to see if taking some things out will lessen my headaches. The point will be awarded only if all 7 are made, because there is plenty of room for making up a meal from a missed week. Grifter: (+1 STA) The art of a grifter is to accomplish one's aims by gaining access to otherwise restricted opportunities. The most base version of this is to simply trespass without problems, aided by enough stamina to keep up with active or multiple roles as needed. I will continue to walk the dog at least once a week, because although this was a previous goal that was met the habit has not yet stuck. This exercise allows for a plausible excuse for roaming outside my dominion on the longer treks, or stamina training if it is a jaunt around the neighborhood road where I attempt to outrun my dog. Point awarded only for 7 excursions. Pay a favor: (+1 Charisma) I will vacuum the house at least once a week with an aim to at least either do the areas that need an attachment, vacuum thoroughly, and/or vacuum more than once in the week. This is to fulfill an agreement with someone that had leverage over me, and having cleaner floors means that I and my clothes will be cleaner which justifies the charisma stat point. Point awarded only if the floors are vacuumed 7 times.