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It is really hard to find GIFs of this show. After yet another harrowing adventure, Jothra heard tell of a tropical island nearby. It sounded like vacation time to him! He used his ever-growing prowess on the bike path through time and space to check the place out... ...only to find it in a permanent state of 1930s-ness. It was like being stuck in a TV adventure series. No rest for him! Donald P. Bellisario first proposed Tales of the Gold Monkey in the 1970s, telling networks that a 1930s adventure show would delight and thrill audiences. He was repeatedly turned down. Then Raiders came out, and he gave them a big fat I told you so. Anyway, after a multiple-Emmy-nominated first season (it won for art design), the show was unceremoniously cancelled. Tragedy! Many, many years later, it would be spiritually succeeded by Disney's Talespin. Also great. Abridged from Wikipedia: In 1938 in the South Pacific, ace combat pilot Jake Cutter operates an air cargo delivery service based on Bora Gora. He flies a Grumman Goose called Cutter's Goose. Jake's best friends are his mechanic Corky, and a one-eyed Jack Russell terrier named Jack. Jake's love interest, Sarah Stickney White, sings in the Monkey Bar as cover for her real job as an American spy. The Reverend Willie Tenboom is actuality a Nazi spy who often finds he has more in common with the other people of Bora Gora than with his own government. "Bon Chance" Louie owns the Monkey Bar and is the French magistrate for Bora Gora. Jake's nemesis is the half-Japanese princess Koji, who has eyes for Jake. Koji's devoted bodyguard, Todo, is a fierce practitioner of Bushido and is unwaveringly loyal to the princess. Enough gab. Challenge time! 1.) Main Fitness Quest My three goal-achieving-type-little-goals-that-add-up-to-a-bigger-goal-goals. i.) Fly the Goose! except on S Days (Saturdays, Sundays, and Special Days — unless I wanna). Cutter's Goose is Jake Cutter's Grumman Goose cargo plane. In lieu of a Grumman, I'll ride a bicycle. I have three choices here: the Blue Meanie (roadie), The Triceraton (MTB), or the Modified Thunderbolt Grease-Slapper (stationary.) Naturally, any other bicycles are fair game, but I don't own any more. __/20. [+2 STA | +2 DEX | +1 CHA] ii.) Swing my samurai sword! Also excluding S Days. Todo is Princess Koji's right-hand man. He is a well-trained and very...well...angry modern-day (well, in the 1930s) samurai. In lieu of swinging an actual sword around (though I have a nice foam Minecraft one from a couple of challenges ago), I'll keep shugging away with my Shovelglove. Swing that sledgehammer, Jothra! SWING IT! __/20. [+2 STR | +2 STA] iii.) Don't overdo it, Corky! I mean, of course, food. At some point before the show takes place, Jake's best friend and mechanic Corky drank waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much and too often. These days, he can still drink a beer now and then, as long as he doesn't overdo it. I will apply the same rules to eating too damn much. I'm aiming for a 500 calorie deficit a day, or 1 lb. a week. Ish. I will be focusing on this goal much more carefully than I did last challenge. __/27. [+2 CON | +2 WIS] 2.) LIFE SIDE QUEST Keep the Monkey Bar clean. You know — clean. The Monkey Bar is the main hangout on the island. The characters who don't actually work in the bar spend a lot of time there anyway. Sometimes there are brawls — after which they are expected to clean up and pay for damages. I spend a lot of time in my apartment, and let the mess get away from me during theatre season. I'm finishing the marathon clean this weekend. The challenge goal is to get in the habit of keeping it that way by cleaning up new messes as they arise instead of letting them build up. I admit, this will probably be the hardest of my challenge goals. __/27. [+2 CHA] As per normal, I'm going to determine scores based on percentage ranges, more or less like on my childhood report cards. A = 86-100% | B = 73-85% | C = 66-72% | D = 51-65% | F = 0-50% 3) MOTIVATION Who wouldn't want to be in this?

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? Seconds after Jothra had picked up the ratty old journal and re-entered his house, the rain started pouring in buckets. Damp and unfortunate, sure, but hardly foreboding. Jothra was a fairly skeptical person, despite having spent quite some time in a place with cardboard-winged flying people and extant dinosaurs in top hats. So when he found the journal full of descriptions of strange creatures, he was about to dismiss it outright. Until he found a page about a portal. According to the book, Jothra's Rebellion-provided home was located directly on top of the former site of a large dimensional rift, and a bunch of things had come through. Things too weird for this place? This was definitely a problem...the kind of problem Jothra intended to solve. So, I think it's rather telling that in a world in which almost every single person now carries a camera for almost 100% of their waking time, there is still an absolute dearth of evidence for Bigfoot. But mysterious creatures sure make for good television! It's too bad the next episode is the series finale, but at least it's ending before it has a chance to fizzle out or something. 1.) Main Fitness Quest My three goal-achieving-type-little-goals-that-add-up-to-a-bigger-goal-goals. i.) Mine, shovel, chop, and hoe except on S Days (Saturdays, Sundays, and Special Days). Shovelglove! Shugging is a good time. I have recently developed the ability to complete my whole routine in exactly 14 minutes. If I get it done faster, I'll add more reps. I am quite happy with the 22 lb. hammer. Easy scoring: __/20. [+2 STR | +2 STA] ii.) Ride the Getaway Golf Cart! Except it's actually a bicycle. I don't own any golf carts. Ride a bicycle for 30 minutes except, as above, on S Days. Unless I want to. No rule about intensity, and no upward time limit. I've been going to town on my Modified Thunderbolt Grease-Slapper of a stationary bike, and the mountain bike has been behaving. Also, the way the weather's behaving, I might be back on the road bike sooner than I thought. __/20. [+2 STA | +2 DEX | +1 CHA] iii.) Stick to an all-gnome diet. It's basically paleo, and also gnomes are gluten and lactose free. Actually, I'll just eat at a calorie deficit as if to lose 1 lb. per week. This is a deficit of 500 calories a day. It more or less worked last time, and wasn't terribly taxing. __/28. [+2 CON | +2 WIS] 2.) LIFE SIDE QUEST Read every day. With an important difference. I'm in a play. For the first half of the challenge, I'll be reading from that script a lot. After that, the play will be over, and I can go more free-form. __/28. [+2 CHA] As per normal, I'm going to determine scores based on percentage ranges, more or less like on my childhood report cards. A = 86-100% | B = 73-85% | C = 66-72% | D = 51-65% | F = 0-50% 3) MOTIVATION ... I absolutely could not think of a thematically appropriate way to include this image, so here it is anyway.

I will absolutely continue with the story element here, because I enjoy it. I will, however, save it for the beginning of the challenge on Monday. In the meantime, here are my goals and whatnot! 1.) Main Fitness Quest My three goal-achieving-type-little-goals-that-add-up-to-a-bigger-goal-goals: All scoring assumes i.) Mine, shovel, chop, and hoe except on S Days (Saturdays, Sundays, and Special Days). Shovelglove! I will shug for at least 14 minutes per weekday. I feel so much stronger since I started doing this three months ago that I have trouble believing it. I poke my traps a lot. I'm not sure when I had traps installed. Easy scoring: __/20. [+2 STR | +2 STA] ii.) Bicycling Through Time and Space is the name of a trilogy of really goofy but particularly fun books about a guy from California who can travel through time and space using an alien-implanted 22nd gear on his Nishiki mountain bike. Ride a bicycle for 30 minutes except, as above, on S Days. Unless I want to. No rule about intensity, and no upward time limit. All that running stuff last challenge cut into my bicycle time pretty hard. It's winter here, so I'll probably be either on my winterized Kuwahara Eclipse MTB, or on my heavily modified Body Break kludge-o-cycle with the cadence meter made with a $10 cyclometer and free math. If I'm lucky, I'll get to sneak the Trek 1.2 out here and there. If I really can't snag a bicycle for some reason, I'll find something else to do. __/20. [+2 STA | +2 DEX | +1 CHA] iii.) This is my first directly weight-related goal on this site. Ever. Eat at a calorie deficit as if to lose 1 lb. per week. This is a deficit of 500 calories a day. It really shouldn't be hard to stay away from junk food (most of the time, anyway) and stuffing myself to the gills. Besides, my other goals will add at least a handful of calories back in each day; in theory, that's what this Fitbit HR is for. __/28. [+2 CON | +2 WIS] 2.) LIFE SIDE QUEST Draw every day. I have a sketchbook. I am playing with brush pens, but that part could change. I love cartooning. Why am I not drawing more often? For the purposes of this challenge, I will ink without doing pencils first. I'll illustrate my update each day. The pictures will be black and white, because colouring takes ages, and isn't what I feel like I need to mess with right now. I will share said drawings here. __/42. [+2 CHA] As per normal, I'm going to determine scores based on percentage ranges, more or less like on my childhood report cards. A = 86-100% | B = 73-85% | C = 66-72% | D = 51-65% | F = 0-50% 3) MOTIVATION This: