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I wasn't going to do a challenge, but I heard this on the radio and I took it as a sign. Being a teacher, this is the start of a new year for me. I've learned over the years that the habits of the next few weeks will determine how the whole rest of the year will go for me fitness-wise. Thus I need to develop robotic habits quickly. Morning kettlebells and some cardio are what I'll focus on as I rebuild my oxygen processing capacity. Did I really just spend 3 or 4 hours watching videos of 80's synthpop, synthwave, and retrowave music when I should have been sleeping? Yes I did.

Odinson Awakens (1st Challenge) So Hello all you glorious geeks! This is my first ever challenge after around 12 months of gathering underpants and not really taking this seriously. So I’m 31 now and really need to start sorting my s@*t out so my life resembles something like an adults; to start off with my goals are pretty straight forward and there to build a solid foundation. Thanks again to Dark Raider for the awesome mini challenge which I will be using to form some extra bonus goals. Also Guys just wanted to say what you have built here is pretty amazing seen tons of support and encouragement given to each other as I have been reading posts etc. Diet & Cooking Batch cook lunch for the entire five days of work each week (16 Point) (15) Going to do the chicken, sweat potato and veg meal (need to buy containers) Eat three meals a day! (84 points) (82) Terrible at eating enough so doesn’t matter what I eat as long as I’m eating three square meals a day Log food for Four weeks (28 Points) (28) Just to see how much crap I actually consume also to log beers as I have a tendency to over indulge Exercise & Fitness NF Level 1 (Three times per week) (12 Points) (12) Old dumbbell work outs at gym or beginners workout at home if I cannot make it Log steps daily (6 Points) (6) 7500-10,000 daily (figure out the walk to Mordor) Domestic Rangering Paint the woodwork in the front room (10 Points) (10) Just paint the bloody house Maintain gardens i.e. lawns, hedges & deck (10 Points) (10) Again get off my arse and look after my property Life & Goals Take before Photos & measurements & weigh in (5 Points) (5) Start pondering the big why (5 Points) (5) Paint a full ten man squad plus a Heavy weapons team in three weeks (10 Points) Ring one family member per week (5 Points) (5) Dark Raiders Mini Challenge Goals Construct the thing (set out goals for the challenge) (1 Points) (1 Point) Connect with five (power) rangers (1 Points) (1 Point) Week One Full speed ahead (extra workout) (2 Points) (2 Point) Week Two Fine Tuning (Assess current progress) (1 Points) (1 Point) Week Three More Than Meets The Eye (3 x 1 min Heavy bag sessions per workout) (2 Points) (1 Point) Week Four the Killing Blow (Finish Strong) (2 Points) Loot 80% Pass New Warhammer 8th edition Rulebook Failure Under 80% Donate £30 to PETA 98% Pass rate for the month which means PETA doesn't get my money!

Warning: GIF heavy post Remember when anime was about huge robots? When Transformers were an awesome TV cartoon and not Michael Bay's mix of CGI and explosions? When everyone from Silverhawks to Power Rangers and Saber Rider could call up some huge robotic backup and then combine the damn things into an even bigger robot? If you answered yes to any of the above questions, you better buckle up cause I got news for you. Our mini for this challenge will draw inspiration from all things large and robotic *insert sick guitar riff* especially the kind that's piloted by an awesome person inside (that's you) from the classic mechas to the latest trend of robotic armored body suits. We'll be using the classic feat system for this and instead of revealing the challenge every week, I'll lay it all out from the start so you can plan accordingly, especially if you're looking to incorporate this in your challenge. Also, since a lot of us are turning the 2 week break between challenges into a 6 week challenge, I'll be including an optional bonus for these first two weeks. Ready? GO! Optional Week 0-A quest: Constructing the thing Before we pilot a robot, we need to have a robot and in order to have a robot, we need to make a robot but before we make a robot, we gotta plan carefully. Hope that makes sense, because it's an allegory about your challenge goals. Take some time to sit back, review your challenge goals and check whether they are S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-related). Optional Week 0-B quest: Strength in unity What's better than a big robot? Well, multiple of them combining to form an even bigger one, of course! Your mission for the second week of the break is to find the threads of 5 Rangers you've never followed before and do just that. Week 1 quest: Full speed ahead! It's the first week of the challenge and we are all HYPED! Use the excitement to push a little more and be off to a strong start. Maybe go for a new PR, do an extra workout or try to ace your goals for the week with a 100% success rate. Whatever it is, go do it and come back to share your success. Week 2 quest: Fine tuning Maybe putting your plan to action during the first week has exposed some weakness in the design. Maybe you were too ambitious and aimed too high or put too much on your plate (the RangerBrain effect). Maybe life's thrown you a curveball and things have changed. Or maybe you're doing a 6 week challenge using the Zero Week breaks and by now you're starting to lose momentum. Whatever the case, look into your challenge and do any tweaks you might need. Remember, adaptation is a Ranger thing! Week 3 quest: More than meets the eye Two common misconceptions about robots. One, they are big, bulky and hard to move around. Two, they use ranged weapons and only go into melee as a last resort. Your mission for the week is to challenge either. You could add some mobility work or a foam/lacrosse rolling session. Perhaps try out some yoga or just basic stretching. Gymnastics, parkour and ninja flips are always a yes. Alternatively, grab a weapon and get physical. Whether it's a staff, nunchucks, a sword or your own body as a weapon, get some work done in that area. Week 4 quest: The killing blow You've made it this far, it's only fitting now that you finish strong. You might feel this challenge was a failure or maybe you'd like to retry it next round, but you might as well drop the excuses and finish it first. The goal is not to pull off a flawless one (though kudos to you if you did) but to finish the challenge. Even a mediocre or failed one includes a degree of success and work put in and even if that's not the case, lessons were learned. As you head towards the finish line, your mission is to do a quick recap of your progress so far and let us know your plans on finishing as best as you can. Ready? Suit up and let's do this thing!

Last challenge went so-so for me. I have been doing really well in terms of continuing on with what habits I have built up for a while now, but I can't help but feel like I am coasting. I have 5 weeks to finish (i.e. start and finish) real training for the PL comp at CAAAAAAAMMMPPP! I've been powerlifting for almost 2 years now, but due to some unrelated injuries, some emotion stuffs, and a bit of just general slacking I have not progressed nearly as far as I would want to by now. I regularly deload or don't increase my weights when I'm feeling meh and just don't really push myself, in addition to cutting back from lifting 3x/week to 2x/week since I started a rowing program. I tried to ramp it back up to 3x/week last challenge but it just didn't work out because reasons. I also have been eating TERRIBLY. Well OK, not really that bad, but it most definitely cannot be classified as "eating clean" and I think this has been making my attempts at kicking more butt harder since my fuel source has been subpar. I even had a short moment of whininess where I tried to convince myself there wasn't enough time to train for the PL comp and I should just not do it. But that was brief, and I quickly convinced myself of otherwise. If it gets to be time for camp and I'm not feeling it, I'll assess the situation then. But for now I'm going to train HARD up until the last minute! How am I going to train hard you ask? I'm going to become a robot! Due to some budget constraints at work (which is paying for my PhD) I am not taking any classes this semester. I'm sad about it but I'm not going to let this extra time go to waste! I'll be using the bonus time during the day and weekends to hunker down and do what must be done like a well oiled machine. I will stop coasting, I will lift 3x/week again, I will increase my weights per my programming, I will not debate whether or not I will do these things on any given day because I am a robot and a robot doesn't question it's programming. I will eat clean food, because it is fuel, and that's what I need to keep it going. In short, I will get things done because I'm a Ranger and that's what we do. So, on to my specific goals. 1. Lift More & Lift More Often. Objective: Stronglifts 3x/week with prescribed weight increases (currently set to 5lb/workout but I do reserve the right to lower this to 2.5lb/workout at any point) Threshold: Stronglifts 2x/week with prescribed weight increases OR Stronglifts 3x/week but without the correct weight increase 2. Continue to be Rower 5 and Escape Those Swamp Zombies. Objective: Row 2x/week on the erg using the Zombies, Run 5k program Threshold: Row 2x/week on the erg, but one of the two times not being a ZR5K workout. 3. Go Hard Every Day. Objective: In addition to the 5 real workouts/week laid out above, have active rest days. This can be rucking, hiking, vinyasa yoga, ballet, swimming, a long walk, seriously anything that isn't just sitting on my butt. Only one of the two days can be restorative yoga/yin yoga. Threshold: Same as objective but both active rest workouts are restorative/yin yoga or something like it in terms of being not really that active. 4. Oil the Machine. Objective: Wake up with a yoga flow every morning. Anything more than 5 minutes counts. Also do a 15+ minute mobility routine every day before working out (i.e. immediately upon getting home from work). Mobility routines can be a long foam rolling session, a free ROMWOD workout (which I am debating subscribing to!), or something from Fit for Real Life. Threshold: Still yoga every day, but mobility sessions 5x/week only before "real" workouts and not on active rest days. 5. Fuel the Machine. Objective: Batch cook every week. 1 variance allowed per week. Also eat 100+ grams of protein per day. Threshold: Batch cook every week. 2 variances allowed per week. I'll be starting TODAY and making this a 5 week challenge. The only caveat to this is next weekend I am almost certainly going on a long weekend trip to NH to climb Mt. Washington. A lot of these goals won't be attainable on the trail or in camp, but as long as I don't eat terribly I'm preemptively giving myself a pass for those 3-4 days.

No one in their right mind would trust a robot dinosaur. Imagine the destruction... a deathly strong, deathly smart combination of prehistory and the cybernetic distant future. This is why Dr. Asimov considered his most important invention the Three Laws of Rawr-Botics, meant to neutralize any possible threat to humanity. No robot dinosaur could be built without including the Three Laws, and the Kail-o-saurus was no exception. Law 1. A robot dinosaur may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. The saddest injury of all is eating a bunch of junk and getting a bellyache. The Kail-o-saurus will eat 1400 calories per day, to include no more than one (actual, suggested-size) serving of cheese per day, one dessert per week, and no alcohol besides red wine. Law 2. A robot dinosaur must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. The Kail-o-saurus will also follow orders given to it by the pedometer. 56,000 steps per week! Law 3. A robot dinosaur must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law. There is no better way to protect one's own existence than to train for the apocalypse (this is a bit of a sore subject for a dinosaur...) Starting from W1D1, complete three training sessions from Zombies, Run! 5K per week. Life Goal: Cohabitation By the end of these 6 weeks, Kail-o-saurus and Mr. Kailer will establish a measurable, collaborative version of the dinochores. With these Laws, humanity felt at ease along side their robot dinosaur creations. For now....

I've decided I'll be doing my BA thesis on science fiction, robots and feminism. I have no clearer subject yet and don't even know what books to focus on, and shamefully have to admit I haven't read half the novels I probably should have. So, fellow nerds, any books you can recommend that have/are about: - robots/androids? - good/interesting female protagonists/characters? - alternatively, rant-worthily bad female characters? - otherwise something awesome/interesting/really out-there? (Yeah, this one's just for finding more good stuff to read ) I'd also love suggestions about academic texts on those subjects. Sci-fi's not considered "high lit", so finding source material for arguments is a little harder.