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I had so much fun with the Rebels during my respawn challenge - and my life is still weird enough - that I think I'll hang around here a little longer! Thinking about my last challenge, I was reminded more than anything of one of the big themes of the lovely Undertale - "Determination". If you haven't played the game, it's more than just gritting your teeth and carrying on; it's a force that lets the characters come back from the brink of death, and even rewrite their own stories and those of the other characters in their world. For those who weren't following along for the last one, I was basically respawning on the tail end of a nasty few months with depression. It went really well (thank goodness), and I'm doing better than I have in a while, maybe since around this time last year. I was working on rewriting my story, as it were. I wasn't sure whether or how to do this challenge, since I'll be leaving next week for my annual week-off-the-grid on retreat, which I expect to be a wonderful time. The tricky thing about those trips away is that they tend to mess with my routine when I get back, so I think that's going to be my focus for the challenge: staying determined (especially once I get back), and locking down the benefits that I'm starting to see from the new and renewed habits I built last month. Also, y'know, it gives me an excuse to post about Undertale. Thus, the goals: Cooking with Undyne I've been eating a lot of good food the last several weeks, but my cooking has been getting a bit repetitive. We can't have that; cooking is one of my favorite hobbies! This challenge, my goal is to try two new recipes per week (aside from the week I'm away) and post photos and instructions where applicable. Yum! Showtime with Mettaton One of my favorite parts about last challenge was getting into a solid routine of practicing my guitar, and seeing lots of progress. I even learned, recorded and posted a song (?!). In addition to keeping up with this habit, I'm going to make it a goal to complete three online technique lessons per week either in guitar or mandolin, which I'm hoping to start learning in the next few weeks. More bonus achievements like last time (and extra ratings for Mettaton) if I record another song for posterity. Training with Toriel It's important to be ready for when the monsters attack. I've been doing lots of crosstraining to get ready for a couple of upcoming races (a 10k on April 1, and a Tough Mudder in June), and I'm still in the process of getting comfortable with a more regular workout routine again. I don't want to set any particular goals yet for the mix of running vs. weights or outdoor adventures, since I had fun doing lots of each last challenge, but I want to aim for at least four workouts per week. Tea with Muffet Finally, I need to keep working on rebuilding some of the social connections that fell by the wayside when I was fighting my way out of my cave of misery. This goal is to do something social with at least two friends during each week, or at the minimum track them down for a proper phone/Skype conversation. (Thanks to everyone who keeps following along!)