Search the Community

See? It's topical. Sorry I'm late. As I like to say, I think of challenges as things that we do first and foremost, and I started the challenge but I never posted it. So here are the big goals for the year: I want to get my freaking apartment cleaned up finally. I want to lose a significant amount of weight, because I have a significant amount to lose. I want to graduate to pain free movement. I want to complete a draft of the novel and get it before some beta readers. I want to go to therapy. I want to start dating again. A lot of these goals are... in progress already. After asking @The Most Loathed and thinking about it some, I decided to download the Renaissance Periodization diet app. Not because I need someone to tell me what to do but because I think it's useful to have something to help me track general trends in weight and tell me, "Hey, this is looking good," or "Hey, this is looking not so good and maybe you should change some things." I started up a weight loss phase for myself officially on the 17th and so far I'm looking good. You wouldn't think having a line chart trending the proper direction would make a big difference, and maybe it doesn't make a big difference for most people, but it sure does help me. My training, in the meantime, is helping my knee feel better, and work got off my back enough for me to start making mat time again, which is heckin' dope. So, looking back at my goals, I'm kind of vibing with the cleaning goal the most. It feels appropriate to the season, and a bunch of stuff kind of started to happen to convince me that it's just time: found some apartment repair opportunities that I don't want to haggle with my landlord about and I'd rather do myself I'm meditating more lately and it's cleaning out my headspace something nice I got another calcium score for my heart and it looks like there's more calcium in there despite our best efforts. This is an early warning of potential coronary artery disease, and given my family history of heart attacks, it's only a matter of time. After talking it over with my primary care provider, we're looking at starting up EDTA IV treatment, which is something that's normally used for things like lead poisoning and the detoxification of other heavy metals. It's not guaranteed to do anything about my heart, but it's not contraindicated either and there's a chance it could do me some good. I'll be paying out of pocket for it, I think, but that's what my HSA is for and I'm always under budget on that thing anyway, so it's not like I can't afford it. I think. I guess we'll see. So, just a lot going on to make me feel like it's time, and with the onset of spring, I figure, what the hell? The goal is a riff on my standard thing. Normally it's been clear up one piece of trash or properly store one thing. The riff is, I'm going to double that - two pieces of trash or 2 things properly stored, or a combination thereof. Each of these is going to be from the 2 spaces in my apartment: one from my job space, and one from my personal space. I'm also going to spice this up with some rewards, too: I picked up a book on home repair and it includes some tool lists for some of the jobs I want to get done. Every week that I do 80% or better, I will reward myself with a trip to the hardware store to pick up a tool. By the end of these 5 weeks, I should have the tools I need to start on the repairs I want to do. Whether that starts or not at the end of those weeks is gonna depend on where and how I find myself, but that'll be a problem for future Kishi to solve when he's collected enough data and changed his circumstances enough to make an intelligent decision. As I said, I've been at this now for a bit and the stats are as follows: Goal: 2.5/4 That is not 80%! So, I'm going to have to pick up (harrrr) my pace a bit if I want to get what I need to get my work done. The week's been decent so far. I've been missed at the academy, which warmed my heart some to realize, and so this week I've been pushing myself to get my "Strength At Length" work done in the morning. It's worked the past couple days, but it didn't happen today, so tonight is strength/rehab and rest. I've been recommitting to home drilling too to keep myself honest and sharpen up a little bit. Today's been kind of shit show, enough to derail my training but not more or worse than I've complained about before here. And hey, it's a short week on account of Good Friday, so a 3-day weekend will be nice. Only bad part is, they're gonna hold me to a full week's worth of productivity without a full week to do the work. That's never fun. But that's par for the course, and I did manage to solve some significant problems today. So that's good news. This is fine. Yup. Nothing to see here, folks. Just keep on moving. Fire cleanses, after all.

Kind of inspired by @Red1263. And I like the vibe of this one. Even though it is a monastery, and a separated space, it doesn't feel as isolated as the other fantasy pieces do where the monastery is built in the mountains. That is, it doesn't feel as removed from day to day concerns as the other pieces tend to. I like it for that. Feels truer to life somehow. Also, I like the feeling that it mixes East and Southeast Asian aesthetics for a real fantasy vibe. But that's just me tho. Anyway, howdy, y'all! Welcome to another challenge. Peace and be welcome. Last challenge, things went really great. I stopped leaning so much on caffeine and got really sensitive to it as a result, and I ranked up to a blue belt in BJJ, which caught me by surprise, and I advanced in my writing to the point that I'm writing prose on my novel, and... I just feel good. Good enough that I feel like I can make some significant changes in my life this year, things that I want for myself. This was my wishlist as I was able to articulate it to myself: I want to get my freaking apartment cleaned up finally. I want to lose a significant amount of weight, because I have a significant amount to lose. I want to graduate to pain free movement. I want to complete a draft of the novel and get it before some beta readers. I want to go to therapy. I want to start dating again. But you might notice that my topic and my tags, along with my tendency to only do one goal for a challenge, kind of makes it sound like I'm not getting after any of these. I beg to differ. It's been my observation that nothing exists in isolation; rather, everything relates and exists within a context. Training exists in a context with sleep and nutrition, and these exist in relationship with job and income and privilege, and these exist in a social context within which I have to live and move and have my being. It sounds like highfalutin nonsense, but what it basically boils down to is I can't change one thing without changing a whole bunch of other things at the same time. In this case, a movement goal helps me get after the clean up goal, the weight loss goal, and the pain free goal, because my place is messy enough that it interferes with my movement I weigh enough that it impacts my joint health (although it also provides free resistance too, so it's not like it's all bad) moving pain free is dope So, big ol' wind up. What does it all mean? Well, those of you what know me or followed me for a while know I've got a tendency to mix and match stuff from a lot of different trainers/training philosophies, but it's only been in the past month or so that I've really come to internalize the concept of "Junk Volume," or Bruce Lee's maxim of "Absorb what is useful, discard what is useless, and add what is specifically your own." I thought for a long that what I was doing giving myself an opportunity to express my body in a lot of different ways, and maybe that was true, but I wasn't being truthful with myself in terms of why I was doing what I was doing. Truth is, I was mad at myself for developing obesity, and I've been punishing myself for it, working beyond my ability to recover, and really failing to develop the attributes that I actually want for myself. That's not to say I don't want cool shit like front lever rows or heavy kettlebell snatches or long-distance heavy rucking or things like that, but I don't want them at the expense of pain free movement or the ability to do striking and grappling well into old age, and I suspect that that's what I've been doing. So after a lot of thought, I've elected to go with Ben Patrick/Knees Over Toes Guy's programs, specifically with the goal of building toward the BJJ strength program that he put together along with Nsima Inyang. As I mentioned to @The Most Loathed, I've been listening lately to Dr. Mike Israetel, a jiujiteiro/bodybuilder/Dr of Sports Physiology, and I eventually stumbled across one of his videos from some years ago where he talks about blending strength work and grappling, and he specifically recommends that there be as much separation between these as is possible so that they don't interfere with each other. And you might not think that a knee/body rehab program would count as bodybuilding/strength work, but Mr. Toes has personally said that he considers his work to be a mix of bodybuilding and yoga, specifically because he seeks to develop "strength at length." 7 weeks in, I think that claim is worth taking seriously, especially since I do have a feeling that my martial arts and my strength work have been in conflict with one another. So, what is my goal? My goal is to get myself to the point that I'm doing my strength work 4-6 hours before I go out to the mats. This will mean doing my strength work in the AM, and doing mat time at night. Night time mat time isn't going to be an option all the time, however, and my scoring for the challenge is going to account for that. Knees Over Toes (KOT) program presently runs Monday to Friday. Saturday and Sunday are rest days. Night training is only available Monday, Thursday, and Friday. Saturday and Sunday are noon and morning, respectively, but it doesn't matter, because those are rest days. Therefore, Monday, Thursday, and Friday training will each be worth half a point. So KOT is half a point, and mat time is half a point. Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday trainings are each worth a full point, because only one kind training is available to do on those days if I assume that the goal is for these to harmonize with one another rather than interfere with one another. Half points are still possible on days where I follow one program and not the other when I could have feasibly followed both. I will bias toward KOT because of its rehab benefits and its carryover to more of my life than mat time. If you followed me last challenge, you might recall that I could have a potential obstacle in that the building's washing machine busted, but I'm pleased to report that my landlord actually took care of this in a timely fashion and I have laundry facilities restored on the premises. So that's good news. Making this work is going to mean getting to bed earlier and getting up earlier, something that I've allowed to slip. It's also going to mean balancing my work-life balance a bit since I'm cleared for OT with the job right now and I need to work as much as I can/they'll let me before it cuts off at the end of the month again. Not sure how it's going to bear out since our legislators can't budget for shit these days, so I might get more next month and I might not. Just gotta be like water, I guess. But hey, here we are, on time for once. Cool. Looking forward to seeing how this one goes.

Happy New Year, everyone! "Kishi! What the hell, man, you disappeared last challenge!" Details. I had a meditation goal and I basically struggled with it until I found my way back to "Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Everyday Radicals," which imposes some external structures that I find useful for consistent meditation. As a result, I've been meditating more and it's been helping me. I feel good about that. So what am I talking about as far as slowing down? Well, in the course of my ongoing research about how to care for myself, I found out about this idea of caffeine cycling. Basic idea is to lay off the caffeine a bit - lots of low-caffeine days with some high days as needed. Highlights include cutting off mid-afternoon caffeine, instituting no-caffeine days, and regularly attempting to reset the sensitivity for it rather than coming to rely on it. Because I'm finding for myself that I don't really care for the degree to which I'm coming to rely on this stuff. I think my sleep is better when I'm not using or when I use less late in the day, and I worry that it's bad for my heart long term. So, my goal is to institute the "Green Tea Protocol" listed in the linked article - 2 days of coffee, 4 days of green tea, and 1 day of rest/decaf. The trackable for this goal is a 3 PM cutoff. Not sure how far the cutoff goes - might eventually go to 2 PM, then 1, but I want to take this challenge to watch myself and see how I'm doing. If my sleep improves to a satisfactory degree, then I see no reason to go any further, but that remains to be seen. The other hope in slowing down, ironically, is that I'll be better about being here and being present for y'all rather than focusing solely on myself and my problems. I find that the caffeine causes me to hyperfocus - very useful for work and training, but very difficult for transitioning over to being here. Here's to a New Year. I have a kind of Epic Challenge in mind for the course of the year which I'll write about once I can articulate to myself what the hell it is I'm trying to accomplish.

Goal: 1/2 The name of the challenge gives away the whole thing, really. Basically, I've hit a point where I like myself more the more I meditate. I'm successfully carving out space for myself to make it happen - only 4 minutes at a time so far, but it helps. I want to stick to that amount for the rest of the challenge. As I've observed, small changes applied consistently without flash or fanfare create some truly substantive results. Also, between it being the end of the year and my own theological leanings, it just feels right. Beyond that, right now I'm just solving a bunch of optimization problems, mostly having to do with joint health and actively working to feel better. The writing's doing well; I've found myself adding organically to my cast of characters as I've needed to without having to bend or break the existing ones to Make The Plot Happen. That's something I wasn't sure I believed in myself enough to do but I'm really happy it's happening. One other thing is that I'm doing more to take care of my place these days - regular vacuuming and cleaning of even some spaces is actually really good for me, and it helps me feel accomplished in a way that doing my job does not. I've also been kind of crafty lately in that I made a cloth mallet out of a cast off chair leg and some scrapped sweat pants. A cloth mallet is a conditioning tool for the Iron Shirt stuff that I asked my brother about and finally getting that made was good. Also, I've finally learned how to step away from the job to go for short walks over the course of the day, including getting my errands done early, so when I get to the end of the day, I don't have all this extra stuff to do to get in my way for getting down early. I'm not saying that the meditation is doing all of that, because I don't think it is, but it's taking place in the context of all this extra stuff I'm doing right now and it's... helpful, I think. But, yeah, that's things for now. Happy to round out the year with y'all.

Took a week for me to figure out the one thing I want to change, and the way in which I want to change it. I've known for a while now that I need to get up earlier. I'm pretty good at starting to for a bit, but it doesn't take: eventually, something goes haywire somewhere and I wind up being up late and needing to sleep late to make up for it, and before long I've regressed to the old mean. Meaning (harrrr) that I need a new mean. Instead of getting up at 9:30 AM, I'm going to spend the next few weeks focusing on just getting up at 9:00 AM. Get myself used to what life looks like there get a feel for making happen what needs to happen when it needs to for me to hit that target consistently. I don't need to be perfect, but landing there 80% of the time should get me somewhere like where I need to be. Exciting news on the job front. I put in for a promotion last week, which I've said before I'd be a shoe-in for. Didn't have the means to put in previously as HR didn't open up any slots, but when they did this past month, I went for it. It's a decent bump in pay and apparently the extra work isn't that much harder. Other good news is that the job opened up overtime again! It's only a little bit, but it'll help the paycheck and the caseload, and that's all I really want. Also, figured out that the head cold is actually just seasonal allergies based on its responses to medication, so I'm cleared to get back to the mats. Though I still need to figure out how to honor both the job and my desires. Because the writing's going well and I'm not willing to negotiate on that. Ah well. It'll be sorted. In the meantime: Goal: 1/1.

Hello, lovely nerds! I'm back in the "real" world (I use that term in the loosest possible sense) after a whirlwind of a summer. My adventures, briefly: Started singing lessons Auditioned for Making God Laugh Played Baptista Minola in The Taming of the Shrew Auditioned for The Wedding Singer (which meant actually singing in front of people, thus directly addressing a lifelong phobia) and played Angie Sullivan (which involved not much, but a little, actual singing in front of people.) Began learning to play the tin whistle Auditioned for The Little Mermaid. Had a mild panic attack because the audition panel comprised some of the most well-trained professional singers I know, but I did it and did not die so ... yay! Was not cast, but I don't mind that because the actually doing it despite the fear was the thing. Was confirmed as the director of next spring's presentation of The Merry Wives of Windsor - the second Shakespeare production ever in our community. Signed up to sing in my music school's Christmas Show, which means much more singing in front of people. Solo. Whole songs, not just a line or two. <taking deep breaths. Lots of deep breaths.> Shot my first NRL-22 competition. Absolutely sucked at it, didn't care, had fun. All of this came after a several-year period of doing remarkably little. Wake, work out (sometimes), go to work, come home, eat dinner, watch YouTube or scroll 'til bedtime, repeat. My comfort zone had become a rut and it started to itch, so I went into this year determined to do three very specific things. 1) Audition for community theater things ✅ 2) Submit a story to a publisher 🔲 3) Shoot in competition ✅ Ah, the writing. Well, I still have four months left of the year. And I have the Struthless Alphabet Superset challenge (spoilered for size). TL:DW - a 30 week challenge to make something, of a reasonable, doable size, every week - 26 weeks, with four planned breaks. The something of each week will be on a topic starting with a different letter of the alphabet. The something must be shared on the internet (part of the driving force behind this is the near-universal fear of sharing creative work on the internet.) My something is short stories, 100 - 1000 words. In other news, the Summer of Theatrical Craziness got me out of my workout habit, though I was still very active. But now that I am not in intensive dance rehearsals three nights a week for a musical, I am starting back up with bodyweight workouts. Just the basics right now. BW squats, push-ups, inverted rows, planks. That's all. I'm keeping it simple, because life is complicated enough right now. The venue where we had planned to present Merry Wives will be under construction in March, so I have to find a place to play. I'm lobbying for an outdoor venue, Shakespeare in the Park style, but the logistics are complicated. And I am trying to squeeze singing exercises and tin whistle practice in as well. So, challenge specifics: 1) Post a short story online every week 2) Do a bodyweight workout at least 3 days per week.

Am I late, or are y'all early? Or did I start this precisely when I meant to? It's totally me, I'm late, you guys, I don't know how it happened I'll let you ponder that. I skipped out last challenge because I didn't know what I was doing and I didn't really know what I meant by saying I wanted to "Maintain." And truthfully, some of that is still at play now. My old workout routine has completely flown the coop. I don't really have a routine anymore so much as a series of touchstones that I try to touch every week. Instead of thinking about particular movements, I think these days in terms of patterns - press, pull, squat, hinge, lunge, invert - and do a little core work on the side as it relates to or enhances my martial arts. (At this point, that means hanging leg raise progressions, loaded carries, and side planks with the goal to develop a Copenhagen Plank for adductor strength). I walk more these days too. A lot more. I managed to get a pedometer app on my phone and it's been mindblowing to see how little I was moving beforehand. It's not perfectly accurate, but it's consistent, and I can work with that. I'll document that some in the logs this week to give you an idea of what this comes out looking like. I feel really good these days as a result. My busted shoulder is nice and quiet. I'm better-rested, and I feel like I'm moving better as a result. I've been going easier in the rolls out on the mats for BJJ these days and I've had to get technical since I'm not using strength so much. I think I'm better, and even when I'm tapped, I find that I don't care about the tap so much as getting tapped safely (ie don't be stubborn, tap early, tap often). I got a couple things coming up this challenge. One of these is a belt promotion this Sunday, 8/6, which I'll go to. I don't have any expectations; the job has consumed me and I'm not making the time that I want to for this, so, I'll go, but I'm not so certain that I'm going to be promoted. It's fine if not. I've been meaning to go to these things for a while anyway, and it'd be good to be a part of the community. The other thing is a GoRuck challenge out in Denver at the end of the month. This will be with my brother, who is apparently arranging the whole thing. I've bought the tickets and the weight, so now I just need to get a couple other pieces of safety gear and I should be good to go. Just need to get some training volume. This particular event is slated to just be a 12 mile hike in 5 hours with a 20 lb weight. I think that's too easy given how it went the last time I did one of these, but I think I'll be better-prepared this time. More prep time would have been better, but I couldn't accomplish that with the equipment I had, so, I'll just have to make the most of what I can do now. I have three goals for this challenge. Surprisingly, only one physical, but that one physical goal will cover, like, everything, so for the most part I'll just be logging that stuff here. The other two goals are to keep working at my writing and to meditate. I'm up to 5 minutes at this point, so I'd like to hit 6 minutes for the remainder of the challenge. And, uh, yeah. That's that. I'll be about. Good to see you all again.

I'm finishing up my vacation and after some thinking about how I'm living and what my strengths and weaknesses are. I need to focus on simple daily habits. Exercise Breath-work while the coffee brews Morning walks-- take coffee, listen to audio books, and walk around the neighborhood. (Lift barbells or KBs on rainy days). Eating Breakfast can be normal. After that, all meals at work will be one taco (or similar item) at a time followed by a walk around the shop. Reading and writing Do at least one writing activity on the evening-- even a single sprint or some editing. Stretch before reading. Read before bed.

Howdy, y'all! Getting in early on this one as I'm taking off to the beach in a couple hours and I don't know if I'm going to get the chance to post on time. In keeping with the last challenge, I made a point of redistributing my training tasks to win back some much needed time. I applied that the past week as follows: Monday: Simple and Sinister, Farmer's Walks Tuesday: Straddle Planche progression, Side Lever progression Wednesday: Rope Climb progression, Single Leg Squat progression, Manna progression Thursday: Hollow Back Press progression, Front Lever progression Friday: Simple and Sinister, Farmer's Walks Saturday: Handstand and Neck work Sunday: ??? It all sounds like a lot and very heavy until you realize that at this point it's just planks and push ups and inverted rows and super basic things at this point. But I tried it out and, uh, it worked like gangbusters! Everything's done really fast; nothing takes more than 20-30 minutes and I hit enough of my body to feel good for having done it. I've even been able to retain my qigong practice, although that too has changed some. Shi Yan Lei, whose work I'm following, wants like 5 different stances in addition to the qigong, as part of a combined program of qigong and kung fu. Well, I've already got enough leg work in my kung fu program as it is, and only 2 of the stances he provides show up in the qigong movements, so there's no real reason for me to faff about and waste more effort. And the thing is, the training workload as it was distributed last challenge had some substantial effects on my ability to get after the non-training portions - the meditation and the writing. So I want to attack those problems again, but this time with this new set up, just to see how it goes. For those who didn't follow along last time, it goes like this: Goal 1: Training Like it says on the tin. Qigong is going to happen as it does; I actually want to try to get to 3-4 times a week, which I think will be quite doable. This was another one of those things that suffered under the prior load, but really it's more a matter of being an opportunity than something I'm going to pursue aggressively. Goal 2: Meditation Gonna shift this goal a little bit and set a time of 2 minutes as my minimum. To be clear, even if I miss this goal, I'm still going to take my deep breaths at bed time and get some benefit. So it's not an either/or situation by any stretch. I just want to challenge myself to do more, and having a hard standard that I won't wiggle out of will help. Maybe. Or maybe I'll be lazy again. IDK. Goal 3: Writing I found a more detailed version of the Snowflake Method. I think I'm going to use this one, since it has a more integrated approach to character profiling and stuff like that. The old 6-step program on Reedsy that I referenced before was a good starting point, but it was also looser in a way that I had a hard time connecting with. I still think I can use their character profiler as a way to construct a dossier on my characters for reference, but it's hard to use for the planning stages, at least for me. My figuring at this point is, plan out -> write the damn thing -> fill out dossiers afterward with the information I develop. But we'll see. 1st step is to follow the plan. Those are my goals this time. It works out to being mostly a repeat of the last challenge. There is some stuff I want to do/get into, but I don't really have a realistic way of approaching that just yet, so that'll be something that hums along in the background. No worries. T-minus a couple days. See y'all when I do!

Okay, I might still have a tiny spark of sass and style, but it needs to be fanned into flames for sure. I've got gains, but they aren't the good kind. I'm at 141.6 lbs. and heading the wrong way, so this challenge (my first one) is right on time. I need it. Really, really need it. I have been in a winter slump and it's time to move past it. I wish my brain could conjure a lovely tale complete with a point system and rewards, but that is a bit of a reach at the moment. Perhaps I will work on it during this challenge once my brain is functioning better. Anyway, on to my goals for these five weeks: Fitness: NF app's Bodyweight Level 1 Attempt a pullup every time I look at the anime dudes hanging from the bar in my kitchen doorway. Whatever pops in my head to move a little more that day (walk, dance, etc.). Drop under 135 lbs. Nutrition (I know what works for me and I have to just do it): Lots of good proteins, carbs and fats. Limit tea (seeing if it affects my migraines), caffeine, sugar, grains, and whatever else that keeps me sick and unhealthy. Drink at least five cups of water a day with plans to increase as I adjust. Plan some meals. Mindset: Use music to motivate myself. Spend a little time each week on learning to play either my guitar or the piano. Memorize something (some French, a new word, lyrics, etc.). Try to overcome my shy nature and meet people on here and become part of the community (totally outside of my comfort zone). Follow a better sleep routine and work my way off of Benadryl as a sleep aid. Get creative: art, photography, whatever creative thing pops in my head. Writing: Complete Camp NaNoWriMo (my first time participating in the camps). Set up Scrivener. Work on my novel or something novel related a little each day. Continue journaling and writing on 4TheWords (online fantasy writing game and tool). Okay, I think that is my plan. Detoxing from sugar, grains and caffeine will be rough for the first week or so, but I have done it before, and I can do it again. I just might be prone to growling, snarling and biting for a bit, but it's all good.

Happy Spring, nerds! My plans for this challenge changed last night because we decided to postpone our California trip to September. So instead of frantically trying to get my barn ready for my horses before I head west, I can take a more relaxed pace as I continue my tour through the D&D classes with the Wizard class! And holy cow are there a lot of spells, guys. I tend to stick to the martial classes when I play, and now I'm remembering why. Even trying to limit myself for this challenge, I may have chosen too much, but I don't think it's as much as it looks like, and if it does end up being too much, I'll adjust. But for starters: Subclass: Bladesinging I shall continue with the music of the iron with my 3x5 push/pull split. I think I may sub out chin ups for dumbbell rows for now, with one set of AMAP chin ups just to keep my hand in. I am going to shoot for 2 workouts per week, and since I can pretty reliably get a weekend workout in, that means I just need 1 workout during the week, which sounds very reasonable. Spellbook: Writing What else would a spellbook be? I've been neglecting my novel and I want to get back to drafting. For this challenge, I'm more concerned with redeveloping my habit of regular writing than I am with actual output, so the goal is to write for 20 minutes/day, 5 days a week. I'll mostly be doing this on my lunch break, playing catch up on the weekends for days I have plans during lunch. Cantrips: Daily Habits I need to get a little structure back in my daily routine, so I am going to bookend my days with 2 cantrips, which I've found enormously beneficial in the past when they were regularly established habits. Prestidigitation: Make the Bed Messy bed, messy head and all that. There really is something about making my bed first thing in the morning that sets my whole day up for success. And it's a really easy, simple thing to do, I've just gotten away from it. So, time to get it back. Shape Water: Skin Care I'm not always very good about removing all my makeup and moisturizing at night, and not only is it rough on my skin, it also leaves my day somewhat incomplete. So 9:30 every night, I'll do my full skin care routine and put myself in the right frame of mind for a nice, restful night in my neatly made bed. Spells: Misty Step I had planned to pause my cardio goal, but that's when I thought I had a cross country trip in my near future. With that postponed, I can resume my goal of running a 5k again this year. The goal for this challenge is 3 cardio sessions a week, and at least one must be a run. Private Sanctum The clutter has gotten out of control, guys. And I keep making the excuse that I have an apartment's worth of stuff shoved into one room, but it doesn't matter, I can't deal with it anymore. And I haven't rolled any dice for this challenge yet! So each day I will roll a d20 and clean for that amount of time. Contrary to how I did my dice rolls last challenge, I can fulfill minutes on later days, but only within that week. So if I roll high on a busy day, I can make it up later, but once Monday rolls around I'm starting over with a clean slate. Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion Even though I'm not nearly as crunched for time as I thought I'd be, I still need to get my barn done. I'm planning on going on a church retreat in the middle of June, so I'd really like to have my horses moved in by Memorial Day to have a couple weeks to iron out the wrinkles before I go away. That should be easily doable, but when I start trying to project too far into the future with this barn, I get myself overwhelmed and confused, so I'll be sharing goals in bite-sized chunks here. So, it looks like a lot, but subclass and cantrips are somewhat established habits that just need a bit of reinforcement and spellbook is for fun, so it's really just 3 major goals. But like I said, I'll adjust if I start to go under. For zero week, I'm not going to track much or get too worked up about getting things done. Just going to start picking away at the clutter and my barn goal for the week is to get the fascia board up on the lean-to.

I'm so excited about everyone's challenges and the energy they're bringing to the forums. I've been through almost a year here making small steps of progress toward better health and mobility. Long rambling tangents of where I'm coming from: And I have three goals to track! 1. Write 1667 words every day (starts April 1) 2. Do a mobility exercise every day (bonus points for biking and/or DDR) 3. Eat a fruit, a veggie, and a portion of mixed nuts every day (bonus points for ones that I don't already eat on regular basis) Gotta go get ready for work! Thanks for being here! Sincerely, Maerad

This is Stronkey Kong here to tell you that I’ve got a real problem-- a set of problems really. And these are problems that you’ve all probably faced, and will face again. BUT! – Lucky for you... Lucky for me, lucky for us all, I’ve got a plan to combat these problems. And if you’ll stick with me, you can combat them too. Problem #1: I am too fat. Really. I weigh 300 lbs. It’s out of control. I have been fat all my life. Is it a slow metabolism? Is it because I’m lazy? Or just too busy to focus on eating right and exercising consistently? Problem #2: I am in too much debt. Student Loans. Credit Cards. Car Payment. Sure. I could work overtime like a dog at my job, but then I’d have no time left for me, for my friends and family, or for YOU! Scrimping and scraping pennies isn’t gonna get me that nice little piece of land. Now, it’s time for... REAL LASTING CHANGE. Problem #3: I want to work on my own terms, my own schedule, from wherever I want. If I had the freedom to set my own schedule, do what I love (writing), I’d have the extra time for more activities, spending time with friends and family, and traveling. Without a job tied to a desk, sapping my willpower, I’d have the energy and drive to work out more. And more time to focus on writing fiction and other creative hobbies that charge me up instead of draining the life from me. Can you relate? Have you, yourself, faced one or more of these problems in your life? Do you anticipate seeing them in the future? If so, at the beginning of this challenge, I’ll show you the ONE SIMPLE TRICK to making all of these problems go away. DON’T MISS OUT!!! Hit that “Like” button and SUBSCRIBE NOW!

Hi! So this past Tuesday, I had something of an epiphany. I went home to help my dad out with some chores about the place. Nothing strenuous in particular, but it reminded me of an old guideline from Simple and Sinister about testing yourself against unusual and unorthodox demands every now and again. This has always worked out for me to being a matter of serving others somehow, because everyone needs help with moving their couch. I found that I missed the program a great deal. I've also been working on losing some body fat per the latest iteration of Berkhan's Leangains protocol, which is basically all protein all the time. He's suspicious of "fuckarounditis," or trying to train everything and ultimately training nothing. My latest measurements indicate that I'm actually gaining fat on this protocol right now, and that's a matter of compliance more than it's anything else. The past month has been remarkably social, and I've not had all that much opportunity to be compliant. I can't do anything about the social component beyond damage control, but I can do something about my training, and I think it's worth it. New plan is to hit S&S on as near to the daily as I can. GB training is going to be broken up some as a result - no more core movements and one upper-body movement per day, plus one leg movement and 1-2 days of handstand work. Reason being that GB's protocols call for integrated mobility, and in their core series they all ultimately work out to having a lumbar flexion component that Pavel warns against. S&S in its current iteration fortunately can make space for this - once I get back to lifting the 32, the recommended days drop off from daily to 3-4 days per week, and I can return to core training then. In the meantime, the work I'm doing will build me toward a Hollow Back Press, and a Straddle Planche, which are non-flexion core strengtheners which would be good to have a base in by the time I get to the point that it matters. Fortunately, everything should work just fine, I think. The past few days have felt pretty good in terms of me getting what I want. Now the trick is to work in qigong and stretching, which I think I can do as long as I'm focused properly on it. So here are the challenge goals: Goal 1: Train Bit of a gimme, but consistent logging is good for me when I make changes like this, so I can confront myself and be honest about what's happening and whether I like it or not. Goal 2: Meditate This fell off in the past week. Dedicate 10 minutes a day to relaxing my mind. This feels like something I can get after now, but I'm reserving the right to adjust if needed. Goal 3: Write This fell off in the past week too. No excuses, and the good news is that when I've done work, it's been good, deep, structural work. I've been figuring out what kind of cast of characters I need and who they are in relation to the structure of the story, which is good to do. Now I need to keep going. I don't really know how to quantify it at this point beyond "just sit down and do the thing," but I think I can do it. And, yeah. I've been writing down what I do on the mats afterward and that alone has been helpful, but I've had a hard time with actually doing the homework of reviewing videos and taking notes. This could be better. Just a matter of making time, really. Can do. Will do? That remains to be seen. But, uh, yeah. T-minus a couple days. Let's go.

The liturgical calendar marks this as the season of Lent, my favorite season of the Church year, one marked by dedication and gratitude. Through mindful application of ourselves and our spirit, the Way opens before us, as if lit by small lights that bolster us in our efforts. This is the Way. Last challenge I took stock of where I am, of what worked and what didn’t. This round I’m applying a bit of a honing blade, sloughing off that which doesn’t serve me and narrowing my focus and efforts onto what does. Also last challenge I resurrected the old-school skills tree, marking my progress in somewhat less-than-orthodox ways, but meaningful ones nonetheless. I’m interested to see what comes of this next segment, and would like to level up a point in each. Sometimes the Universe gives me the opportunity to level up a second point as well. Constitution: This is wellness, and includes Acupuncture, gym time, good food, and plenty of water and sleep. It also includes the apartment work that I’ve been doing, because being at home while I’m at home is a comfort and an anchor. Strength: Go to work, each day and every day. I know this seems simple. It’s not as easy as it sounds, physically, and I’m seven months into a six-week contract. Being a contractor has a lot of uncertainty with it, so part of my job is also cultivating and nurturing having my job. (See Dexterity) Additionally, my doctor as given me a PT regimen beyond the routine walking. I’ll be doing exercises with bands in the hopes that additional physical strength will help relieve some of the tension and inflammation that is everywhere all the time. Dexterity: Lots of emotional balance going on between the job and the relationship with my daughter. It feels like significant moments are on the horizon for each. Any movement stat also has to take into consideration transportation, which is once again in the Challenge column. I’m hoping to get more fluent with public transit this round. For everything else, there is Uber. Wisdom: Speaking of balance, there’s also perspective. This is the “choose well” portion of keeping my center and being able to choose well during the chaos. It’s also about lightening my debt load. I’d loaded up some debts with scary interest rates over the last couple years, and I’m grateful I was able to leverage my way out of a bad situation, and now it’s time to put that behind me as swiftly and neatly as possible, without wrecking anything else. Possible bonuses to other stats as well. Intelligence: The class wraps up this challenge, and I’m glad I’m taking an accelerated course. Also, there’s a fair amount of work that gets to be done for the dissertation. Before I take on the next project, there’s a lingering, overdue paper that I really want to finish up and move on from, probably next challenge, but definite bonus sparkles if I get it done this round. Charisma: Alliances and support. We aren’t meant to be on this path alone. Thanks for being here.

Do I need to introduce myself? Goals: Marbles: I've been trying to figure out what's helping or hurting my mood on a daily basis. Since coloring in a pizza was a nice visual guide for tracking junk food consumption that helped quite a bit last challenge, I decided to do this with things that affect my mood and sort out the good days and the bad days and what's contributing to each. So I bought a few mini-goldfish bowls and a bunch of multi-colored marbles. The bowl in the middle holds the reservoir of marbles, and the marbles are color-coded as follows: Red = Writing Blue = Work Green = Health/fitness Yellow = social Multi-color swirl = environmental, aka all the little things The bowl on the left is for bad days, the bowl on the right is for good days. If I had a good day because of writing, I put a red marble in the right bowl. If I ruined the day by eating too much pizza and got indigestion, I put a marble in the left jar. If I had a 'meh' day with no strong feelings about it, no marbles move. Then at the end of the challenge, or whenever, I can look at the bowls and see if something is contributing disproportionately to good vs. bad days. Greyskull: Lift weights per Greyskull. I was on a really good run, but stopped for a break last week because of tendinitis in my wrist. I'm gonna restart this week with a deload on squats and switch from low bar squats to high bar squats Cholesterol: I still have to go in for a blood metabolic and lipid panel, but I'm not sure I've done enough to change habits and see if I can lower it. I've basically dropped whole eggs and eat mostly egg whites now... and my egg white omelette game is bangin'. But, I'm researching and finding that dietary cholesterol isn't the biggest driver, and it seems like eating lots of fiber is a bigger help. So starting the day with a bowl of oatmeal, and eating a can of beans daily should skyrocket my fiber intake. If I skip one or the other, I have some psylium husk fiber to make up for it. Writing: It's looking like we're going to keep going with our workshop, though without the author that kicked off the whole thing, so we'll see, but I likely won't need a writing goal since one of the driving forces of the workshop is daily accountability for word count and reading. Other stuff: I'm still playing chess regulary with kishi and KBGirl, and I have a 44 day streak on Duolingo studying Ukrainian.

Wait, wait, hold up, you're telling me that this challenge is going to pop off on January 1st? Just lines up like it's meant to be? Well. I guess I know what I'm doing! Howdy, everyone! Kishi here, your friendly neighborhood itinerant monk. Took a few weeks off the forums just to chill and focus on end of the year shenanigans, but that was then and this is now! Even though now is technically then, but it will be then by the time the challenge officially starts. As a rebellious rebel, I'm not a big believer in the old Rule of 3 + 1. I instead believe that you can change one thing, and that one thing interact with and change all the other things. It's all connected, man. Of course, that being said, no real reason to have just one challenge when two will do. In my case, the big thing that I really want to hone in on is getting to bed earlier and getting up earlier. Reason being that I want to get my job done earlier in the day so that I can make more mat time. I'm about 80% of the way there, really, but the striking sparring only happens on Fridays and it's an earlier class than the others. So technically, I only really have to be early to bed and early to rise for one day of the week, but that one day will be easier if I'm keeping those hours other days of the week. Also, I suspect it will be better for me. So, you know. There's that. The other goal is a writing goal. Just want to do a page a day. 50,000 words in a month is nice and all, but 90,000 words in a year that you actually like? That's better. I think. Maybe. Never got there. Sure would like to, though. So, those are my two challenges for myself this time around. And... yeah.

Hi. I'm Stronkey Kong. I'm 38. I'm fat and I don't want to be fat anymore. I lift. I have a vague idea for how I need to eat to keep this weight loss + get stronker thing going. I write... in fact, I'm doing a writing workshop during this challenge. Also, I have weirdly intense hobbies that I tend to jump between at random intervals. Okay. Goals. Goal 1: DO NOT EAT A PIZZA As I've mentioned in the holiday mini. My worst habit/downfall is I'll go grocery shopping on the weekend, pick up a Meat Lover's-esque pizza and a bottle of wine/six-pack/booze/etc. and undo a week's worth of good eating in one evening. This challenge, I am not going to do this.(every week) Further, I'm going to track how I'm not eating a pizza. For the duration of the challenge I am going to avoid eating any ingredients that belong in that meal: 1 large meaty pizza and a bottle of wine. Those ingredients are: 12 servings of junky meat: any meat that can be described as fatty, salty, processed, cured, etc. 12 servings of cheese. 12 servings of junky carbs: white breads, pastas, desserts, candy, etc. 5 servings of alcohol. These are all foods I need to work on my relationship with, which is why they will be limited so much. Tomato sauce is fine. I'm going to track this by drawing a picture of a pizza, and drawing on the crust, cheese, and toppings, next to a bottle of wine that I'll fill up with reddish-purple ink. This will hang on the fridge. It will be an ever present visual reminder in my kitchen. And when I make mistakes, drawing stuff on will force me to spend time pondering my mistake. If I make it through the five weeks without eating a whole pizza, I can reward myself with a small pizza and a couple glasses of wine or beer. Other than that, I'm emphasizing proteins, fruits, and veggies, minimizing condiments, and judiciously adding whole grains and legumes for protein/mineral/fiber support. Goal 2: GREYSKULL and CARDIO Lift weights following Greyskull 3 days per week. 2x30 min med. intensity cardio sessions 2 days per week: stat bike, ring fit, racquetball, or any reasonable substitute. This has been going well the last two weeks. I just gotta keep doing it. Then I'm gonna take my 24 lbs. kettle bell to work. I don't have time for long walks... or even a good place to walk... when I'm at work, so I can do a quick KB sesh after food breaks. Not sure what. I just want to get my HR up and burn a few extra calories. Goal 3: COMPLETE MY WRITING WORKSHOP Starting Jan 15, by every Sunday I have to write 2500 words, and read up to 9 other people's 2500 words and provide feedback. Between now and then, I need to write 2500 words on a handful of projects, and pick one for the workshop. Goal 4: PLAY CHESS I've been on a chess kick lately. I used to play casually in high school. And the occasional game here and there. And I've been playing online games, and they stress me out in a weirdly good way. I've always wanted to really learn it and get good at it. Daily: play a game or study a game. (watching a YouTube video doesn't count... unless I set up the board and play through and analyze something I guess). Also, this counts as research for a middle grade novel I might do for the workshop... a portal fantasy about a chess prodigy. Goal 5: LEARN (at least some) UKRAINIAN. I've tried learning Slovene in the past as some way to connect to my own heritage, but resources are limited. Another way in is to learn another Slavic language. Though Russian is an obvious leader in terms of resources, learning Ukrainian is kinda trendy for solidarity. I started doing the Ukrainian course on Duolingo, and it's been fun and interesting so far. But I realized this morning all the sentences I've learned rely on an implied but omitted 'is.' I know no verbs, and the inflections are coming. Also, Pimsleur, I found out, is giving their Ukrainian course for free through 12/31/23 if you sign up by 12/31/22.

Last challenge was about embracing the stillness, and as we enter the final days of the year, the nights seem to be gobbling up the daylight, and the thin sunshine buffeted by wind, rain, and and a cold that crawls through the cracks. I have a list of things that need to be buttoned up before the end of the year. My focus this round is to go slowly, making time and space for what supports and sustains me. I've found that when I do this, and go gently, all the rest falls into place. Happy Solstice, friends.

I'm coming off the madness that is NaNoWriMo, and I was of two minds when deciding what goals to pursue for the end-of-year challenge. Part of me wants to jump into exercise and diet with both feet and finish the year with a bang after putting both on the back burner for 30 days. The other part of me wants to go full couch slug and eat my weight in pfeffernüsse and potato candy. So, because I am me, I decided to do both. Yes, both. MAP: Every other day. No excuses. I can go full couch slug on off days, but adaptive practice needs to happen. Sweets: (No more than) every other day. (I am sensing a pattern here...) This is sort of my take on never twice in a row...with cookies. There will still be an exorbitant amount of sweets this month, but this way, it will only be half as much as a typical December. Plus, it will make my brain remember that I will need to go back to healthy eating after the holidays. I am allowing 1 serving of unsweetened fruit and/or 1 scoop of protein powder as exceptions since these are not foods I am looking to limit right now. Writing: Although I won NaNoWriMo with 50,000 words, I did not finish my novel. So, I plan to write half as much half as often, i.e. 10,000 words in the three weeks of the challenge. I get to keep moving forward while also having more time for seasonal crafts, etc. Leaving this here, because 'tis the season and this song was stuck in my head when I got to imagining telling myself "you can have some tomorrow/take the day off tomorrow" when I decide my goals suck 😂

Nice and simple. I've been on again-off again (mostly off) with these challenges for a while but have been thinking through some things and something's gotta change. So I thought I'd give it another go, for accountability if nothing else, see if it (re)sticks this time. 1. Healthy Body Go to the gym 3x/week. That's it. Just attend and do the class (I go to a crossfit gym). I've done crossfit before and really enjoyed it, but the cost became prohibitive, so I had to give it up. New(ish) job = new paycheque, and I re-signed up earlier in the year, and was doing really well for a few months. Lately, life + job stress has led to me sliding off the rails a bit by either not scheduling classes at all, or scheduling and cancelling when my day was hard. I'd like this to not become a habit (or more of one than it's already become), partly because 3x/week is what I'm paying for, partly because it's not really that big a time commitment and I legitimately enjoy it, and partly because I feel better when I'm moving/lifting more regularly. 2. Healthy Eating This is a bit more nebulous, but I've gotten very off track w/ my eating habits. Some days I forget to eat. Some days I remember but can't be bothered. Some days I choose unhealthy fast food/takeout while on the go for work. Most days I get takeout of various healthiness for dinner, or don't eat dinner at all. I've mostly identified the problem as a lack of will to shop for groceries/meal prep mid-week, which has slowly expanded to a lack of will for the same on weekends. If I have healthy food I will eat it, the hard part is procuring/making (with an added wrench that I eat on the go when I'm on work so food needs to be hand-held and not drippy). Right now I'm starting small, focusing only on my workday lunches: Monday-Friday I need to take my lunch with me and prepare it at home from food purchased from the grocery store, not from Tim Hortons or McDonalds. I've been doing better with homemade dinners lately, so I'm less concerned right now about this, but as a bonus goal I'd like to prepare 2 separate soup/stew options for freezing. 3. Healthy Mind My current main creative outlet is writing (it feels pretentious to put it this way, but I'm writing a book!) When I started I was very hyper-focused on it, to the detriment of much of the rest of my life (and if I'm honest, this was probably a major contributing factor to some of my healthy eating derailing). I've gotten myself in a much more sustainable mindset with regards to time spent on this, but am feeling like the trade off for sustainability is lack of progress. I often tell myself that I don't have the time or energy because I can't commit to sitting down and writing for 10hr straight without coming up for air (yes, that happened, and it was glorious, but not at all doable on the daily), and then don't touch a keyboard for days/weeks. It might be true to a certain extent but writing is a practice like anything else and not everything I produce at all times needs to be capable of winning a Pulitzer. So I'd like to commit to at least 5 hours/week to spend writing something. I've got my main WIP, a side project, ongoing revisions of both (I revise as I go, which is less than efficient but I don't care), and several sources for writing prompts. As long as I'm spending this time focused on one of these things, it counts. Actual writing is fine, worldbuilding is fine, brainstorming is fine, revising is fine, noodling is fine. Minor edits and staring into space daydreaming is not fine (or rather, they're both fine but don't count towards the 5hr). 5x 1h or 1x5hr, it doesn't matter, and if I have the time and the energy for a marathon session on a day off, 5 is just the minimum. And that's it!

Yup. Just look at it. It's sticking out way too far. Even for an innie. It is winter and I am generally irritable and all this holiday food is everywhere. I just had my annual physical and talked with my doctor about weight loss, etc. I'm right where I was last year at least, so I haven't gained. But that cholesterol is still high, and we talked about medication and bariatric therapy (not surgery, just physician supervised weight loss). And in pondering all the options before me and looking more at my lifestyle, I'm realizing how far I've slid into general laziness and inconsistency farther than ever in my adult life. There is still so much more that I can be doing. 1) Fix my diet -- I have been running some numbers through some calculators. TDEE, body comp, macros... and oof. I'm not doing what I need to be doing for my metabolism and activity levels... both of which are low. I need to hammer out a feasible set of eating habits. 2) Create opportunities for Exercise/Activity -- work has me spending most of my 10 hours/day there sitting at a desk. While I've had nights where I get up and walk a couple laps, the occasional an sporadic. I need to create a daily routine for physical activity. I'm not in the situation where life is gonna just throw it to me. 3) Keep doing what I love to do, namely writing -- every minute scheduled toward word and exercise is one less that I have to write and finish these novels and stories. I need to create a robust, daily reading and writing routine. 4) Take better care of my shit -- the house and yard. The last year kinda got screwed up because I got sick in the spring, put off a lot of projects, then summer heat was relentless (or it was storming) and I got way behind on a lot of things. Again, I need to figure out a workable routine and stick to it. Notice the trend? Scheduling is needed. This helped a lot a couple of challenges ago. I need to get back to it. Some things I'm working on: 1) Eating plan: meals, timing, portion sizes, macros, etc. 2) Setting up a powerlifting routine: assessing training maxes, days/split, assistance lifts, etc. (Greyskull) 3) Coordinating 1 & 2 -- A mistake I often make is cutting too many calories while adding too much activity etc., and that creates burnout. 4) Plan and schedule meals and workouts. 5) Create intuitive and simple plans for execution. 6) Stick to my evening writing schedule. 7) Work in some additional reading and writing time... write/read during workout rest times. 8- Other? I bolded #5, because that's what needs emphasis here. This won't work unless I can accomplish that. Otherwise, I'm just building another elaborate plan that will fizzle three weeks or less into it. Anywho... Happy Ho Swolidays!

Hi! I'm writing a novel this month. For those of you just tuning in, this is not new. I've done this most years around this time, but I think this is the... 2nd ever time that I walked in with a really concrete idea of what I wanted to do and where I wanted it to go. (the first time was a sci-fi riff on Ragnarok meets A Yankee in King Arthur's Court. I would definitely not write it the same way this time, but I should probably go back to it someday since it's the story that taught me the most). As you might imagine, though, that's my only official goal. As if the other stuff is going to be put on hold; it won't be. But keeping all the plates spinning with this new wrinkle going on is going to be challenge enough, I think. Goal is 50,000 words. I will provide my word count here as my goal for the challenge. I do note that the challenge cuts off on 11/26. I might carry past it. I might not. I don't know if I'm going to finish the draft before I get to 50K, so if I do, I'll consider the challenge a success. Had tournament this past weekend! Best showing yet - got to medal contention and went the distance on that match, even winning points, which is the first time that's ever happened. I still didn't win. It was fine. I showed growth, and when I went to class yesterday I was recognized along with a bunch of other people for having gone out and done stuff. Yesterday was also our last day in the old building. They're going to the new building tonight; they're still capping class sizes, and I thought I'd have an errand tonight that it turns out I don't, so I reserved a spot on the waitlist. Might not make tonight. That's okay if it happens. Also, last night was Halloween! Went to hang with my friend for Sci Fi night; the Halloween tradition when that happens is for us to sit outside with Adult Beverages and pass out candy along with treats for the adults. This year, the entire cul de sac got in on it and it wound up being more of a block party than anything, especially since there weren't that many kids on account of inclement weather. Today is the first day. I will update with my word count later.

Hello fellow nerds, I have returned. Felt like taking a mental break. Was on NF on a daily basis to post for the last month - sometimes twice a day, and felt like maybe I needed to slow down. I also have determined that walking in the morning makes my feet already hurt by the time I show up to work, thus making standing for 6-7 hours absolutely miserable. This connection has been discovered by my doing almost zero exercise this week... 😅 Yesterday I was feeling so good and had some spare time so I did walk around the park a bit! I have almost no idea what I'm doing this month aside from NaNoWriMo, and even that itself is daunting because I don't know how it's going to go. I'm using week 0 as a chance to breathe before getting into a new thing. I don't know what to do about my walking problem, and I don't know how easy I should take things in order to focus all my energy on getting words in for each day. I'm so nervous about it all, and I don't know how to reconcile that since all my physical challenges have been within my means in order to improve. This is just a huge challenge to face a daunting project in daily portions... But I don't know how hard it will be because I've never done it before. I feel like a couple weeks ago, I was really confident about this, so I may need to contemplate what changed - possibly my focus because I had a week to cram for my friends' D&D session on Saturday. It went well. I had an instigator to burst into a room full of ghosts and nearly start combat with them, except I let them be chased off by one of the spell-casters. They caused a scene in the ballroom which played out hilariously, and they fought some giant spiders in a library - hurting several of them badly enough that they fled, and killing those that couldn't run fast enough. They also found clues regarding a red-lit trophy room that helped them discover that secret portals had been carefully composed in red chalk to hide them in plain sight. With holidays coming up, we won't be playing again for a few months, but they sound excited to continue the game. The way I currently am thinking, I think it'll be good for me to kick off my month of NaNoWriMo at a local event on the 29th. Maybe it'll be all prep and encouragement, and that may be exactly what I need. Starting week 1, I'm going to try sitting down for half an hour (with what lyric-less music I can find to play in the background) to type for half an hour. Current dilemma is whether that will be in the morning or the evening. If I'm really skipping exercise to see if my body will stop screaming at me for a month (except maybe warm-up and stretches bookending the writing session), then it could take my morning routine's place, in which case I might get extra words in by continuing to think about it over the course of the day, and adding more in when I get home. If I don't have it figured out by week 1, I'll at least be trying out the pattern to get back into prep mode, in which case I can confirm that it's what I want to use for this challenge. Fingers crossed for this one, 'cause I don't see how it's gonna end. Maerad

It's gonna get busy in here. I don't even have time to come up with an original title. Hi. I'm Stronkey Kong. Been here doing this thing 9 years. I'm still fat but making the best of it I guess. How's that? WORDS: I'm doing NaNoWriMo this year. I need to hit 1667 words daily to hit 50k by the end of November. I'm going to track my daily and total word count for November. And (despite some lame planning and number crunching on my last challenge thread) I'm going to strive to hit that 1667 minimum every day. I also have two writing events to attend. The first is a NaNo write-in at the local writing center on 11/5. The second is a writing class, same place, on 11/15. Nano is win/lose, but I can grade myself on word counts and EC for events. In the end, I'm just trying to get myself on a working routine with writing. WEIGHTS: Still following Greyskull. I'm gonna go back to MWF, base program, but with both front and back squats and M and F. Deadlift day, W, also has barbell rows programmed in. WALKS: I want to walk with coffee and audiobooks on at least two of the days I don't lift. WINTERIZING: I have to get the house ready for winter. To-do list style: plastic on windows finish the bathtub painting so I can get it all indoors rake leaves -- if I time it right, all I need is 40 min of leaf raking for the whole season) get HVAC contractor to look at my furnace depending on their answer, raise hell with the gas company. Last challenge I was really all about scheduling and time management, and that helped, or at least I was able to figure out what will work best for this challenge. I work 10 hour shifts, M-R. On those days I will exercise in the morning, and write in the evening before bed. On F, I often go into work for OT. I will continue to do so except on 11/15 which is my writing class. These days I only work a partial, 7-8 hour shift so I can fit in extra weightlifting and writing on both ends so no big deal. On weekends I plan to do extra writing to get that word count up, like aim for 2000 words to get ahead of days where writing gets constipated. Winterizing will be a weekend thing mostly.