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Stagnation is Death Annals of a Bladesinger A haunting melody weaves its way through the quiet forest. An alien in her homeland with a mind touched by the hand of darkness, the elven wizard hones her dangerous dance, ever vigilant, ever mindful. She practices her art not just for the protection of her people, but to soothe her tormented soul with the meditative, otherworldly whistle of bladesong. Journey to Bladesinger Master 2020 Stats: STR 10 || DEX 11 || CON 11 || INT 15 || WIS 16 || CHA 12 2020 Level: Bladesinger Apprentice Goal Stats: STR 14 || DEX 17+ || CON 14 || INT 18+ || WIS 18+ || CHA 14 Goal Level: Bladesinger Master Bladesinger Apprentice - Trains under a Master. Must demonstrate above-average intelligence, and wisdom to be accepted into training for a wizard, must show some promise in dexterity to be accepted by a bladesinger master. STR 8 || DEX 10 || CON 8 || INT 14 || WIS 14 || CHA 8 Bladesinger Knight - Able to train and fight independently. Must demonstrate above-average mastery of dexterity, and very high intelligence, and wisdom. Strength, constitution, and charisma must be high enough as to not impede progress. STR 12 || DEX 14 || CON 12 || INT 16 || WIS 16 || CHA 11 Bladesinger Master - Can train an Apprentice. Demonstrates exceptional abilities in dexterity, intelligence, and wisdom. Above-average abilities in strength, constitution, and charisma are required to perform at this level. Goal Stats: STR 14 || DEX 17+ || CON 14 || INT 18+ || WIS 18+ || CHA 14 Bladesinger Leader - Can serve as leader to other Master roles. Demonstrates all the abilities of a Bladesinger Master, with higher charisma for leadership qualities. Goal Stats: STR 14 || DEX 17+ || CON 14 || INT 18+ || WIS 18+ || CHA 17 How to Level Scores based on max 20 system, current list only filled to requirements for mastery from current stats, does not include information prior to or past current and master stats Strength (STR) - Calisthenics and Iron STR 11: Plank 1min, 4x13 Pushups, 4x25 Crunches, 30/20 bodyweight squats, 2x20 tricep dips, 2x30 one-leg calf-raises STR 12: Plank 2min, 3x15 Pushups, 3x30 Crunches, 2x40 15lbs one-leg calf-raises, DB Bench 30lbs, DB Squat 50lbs, Deadlift 40lbs STR 13: Plank 3min, 3x20 Pushups, DB Bench 40, DB Squat 60lbs , Plank 3min, DB Deadlift 60 STR 14: DB Bench 60, DB Squat 75lbs , Plank 4min, DB Deadlift 80 STR 15: DB Bench 90lbs, DB Squat 100lbs, Plank 5min, DB Deadlift 100 Dexterity (DEX) - Flexibility, Agility, Balance, Coordination DEX 12: Eagle pose, Warrior III, Hands flat on floor in waist bend, Baby Crow pose DEX 13: Front and side splits, Crow pose, complete NF Yoga DEX 14: Crane pose, Wall handstand (1min), start martial art or agility training DEX: 15: Flying crow pose, 8-angle pose, dragonfly pose, unassisted handstand (1min+), 1 year of martial arts training DEX 16: Level 5: Dophin Push Up Challenge DEX 17: Black belt in a martial art DEX 18: 3rd degree black belt in martial art AND first degree black belt is second martial art Constitution (CON) - Stamina, Endurance CON 12: Complete a 5k in under 45 min CON 13: Complete a 5k in under 35 min CON 14: Complete a 5 mile run in under 60 min CON 15: Complete a 10k run in under 60 min Intelligence (INT) - Academia and Language INT 16: Personal Trainer Cert AND Health Coach Cert INT 17: Complete a Master's Degree program AND reading intermediate reading level for 2 forgeign languages INT 18: Complete a PhD INT 19: Research published in 5+ academic journals INT 20: Research published in textbooks and taught in classrooms Wisdom (WIS) - Generativity, Activism, Social/Environmental Awareness +Be a founding member or leader in a non-profit organization +1 Teach a skill to at least 10 people (OR) mentor at least 10 people +Teach a college course +Create a college or arts scholarship fund +Convert >90% of Beauty, Cleaning, and Meal Prep products to reusable/recycleable/eco-friendly Charisma (CHA) - Leadership, Social, Performance, Confidence CHA 13: Perform a leading role in a community/unpaid show (OR) 1k sub on social (OR) Manager 1+ employees (OR) Promote to SR/Lead position CHA 14: Perform as a supporting role in a paid performance (OR) direct a community show (OR) Manage 10+ employee team CHA 15: Perform as a leading role in a paid performance (OR) release a music album (OR) 10k subs on social (OR) Manage 50+ employee team CHA 16: Publish best-seller (OR) 10k subs to a blog (OR) 100k subs to social (OR) Run a business of 100+ employees CHA 17: Performance award (OR) 100k subs to personal blog (OR) 1mil subs to social (OR) CEO of 1,000+ employee business

As dust gets swept away by footsteps of the newly arrived, a few pick pen and ink to dribble on recent developments. Many have perished on this path, many might never attempt it. “A man goes to knowledge as he goes to war: wide-awake, with fear, with respect, and with absolute assurance. Going to knowledge or going to war in any other manner is a mistake, and whoever makes it might never live to regret it†-- Carlos Castañeda, The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge You have accessed Aeri's battle log, and are welcome to give input or press for oath keeping. Much love, - Aeri

My name is Rhovaniel. Once, I was a pawn, an unthinking Empire pawn. Some months ago, I woke up, and sought my freedom as a Ranger, a member of the Rebellion. For that, I was imprisoned by the Emperor, Lord Morgulon, who wants all living things held under his dominion, held under the sway of sugar and processed poison under a tasty and addictive guise. I resisted his attempts to reclaim me, and with the aid of another Ranger, Callan, I escaped. Callan brought me to a healer’s house some leagues from the Capital, on the fringes of the Empire. But still they found me. The healer who sheltered and nursed me was murdered, her daughter gravely wounded. Injected with a strong dose of sugar syrup and succumbing to Empire chocolate, I face now a greater challenge. Protect the healer’s daughter. Resist the onset of sugar cravings. Grow in strength and endurance. Prepare for my next encounter with the Emperor’s agents. And there will be a next encounter. I have to know why the Emperor wants to reclaim me so badly. Why he did not have me killed. I’m starting in Week Zero, but I do anticipate that my History weekend away (this weekend) and the funeral coming just after that will mean I won’t be able to complete some of these. I’ll just try to keep my food choices as good as possible, since at the Lodge, I won’t be in control of what food is on offer, or if there’ll be space/time to do a workout (it’s a shared room with another student) and I can’t dictate what I will eat with my Dad and the day of the funeral, and I’ll also have to get the train back home after. To track, I will use the symbols Tank uses: C = Compliant, T = Travelling, V = Variance. For workouts, X will mean I did not complete that workout, will mean I did. The Lay of the Land: - This challenge, I run. Only once a week to start myself off, but later on I hope to increase this. Minimum 5 km each week. ZR tracks my times and pace, so it should be relatively easy to track. In addition, I will aim for one other cardio workout, probably swimming. Walking 10,000 steps or more will also count as a cardio workout if I have no other option because Life Happened. 2 cardio workouts per week: _ _ /_ _/_ _/_ _/_ _ The Strength to Fight: - Demons don’t just attack the mind. Illness, aches, pains, injury. They prey on the unfit body. So, I work to defend against this, and become… anti-fragile. 3 strength workouts per week: _ _ _/_ _ _/_ _ _/_ _ _/_ _ _ To Hunt or Gather: - Nutrition has been and remains my biggest struggle. So, this challenge I’m going to re-try paleo, since I still dislike MFP as much as ever. With the exception of wholegrain rice, because I cannot live on sweet potato alone. Baby steps till I fully figure out how to cook properly. 4 variances (non-paleo, or unhealthy food) per week. Shamelessly stealing Tank’s code for tracking this. Eat Paleo with 4 variances per week: _ _ _ _ _ _ _/_ _ _ _ _ _ _/_ _ _ _ _ _ _/_ _ _ _ _ _ _/_ _ _ _ _ _ _ Into the wild: - I must face the unknown with courage. My comfort zone offers safety but not growth. This one is more of a Life challenge, but I’ve got to kick a few bad habits here. Confidence, calmness in the face of adversity (read: stressful situations). For this, I will do one thing every day to either boost my confidence, push myself out of my comfort zone, or otherwise teach me to be more resilient and calm under pressure. I will research how to help that. Meditation maybe, or perhaps online tutorials on problem solving, etc. Anything that will boost my confidence in my ability to face pressure and responsibility. One action daily to boost confidence and resilience under pressure: _ _ _ _ _ _ _/_ _ _ _ _ _ _/_ _ _ _ _ _ _/_ _ _ _ _ _ _/_ _ _ _ _ _ _ Rewards: I’d like to add some rewards into this challenge, as an incentive to stick with it, especially in weak moments. I’ve noticed that when motivation is low, I feel the need to have an incentive to push on. The problem is, I have no idea what they should be. I will hopefully get these in place before Week One and the official start of the challenge. EDIT: Each week that I get 90% or more overall completion of my goals, I get a movie night. Weeks 1-3 will be (performance dependant) Lord of the Rings extended editions. I may or may not allocate a variance to said movie night.

Contrary to the title, this challenge is not about meditation. My life is at a quite difficult point right now. Those of you who know me or have been following me have a clue of what's going on. In short, I'm facing: An important and challenging Epic Quest at work, including a Boss Fight against a hostile co-worker A fresh relationship that is yet quite prone to emotional ups and downs Masters' exams on the 8th and 15th The 2016 Crossfit Open Having to make arrangements for my April trip to Italy, in order to face the Spartan Super Life's tendency to throw me a curveball every time things are on the edgeAnd that's just in March. It might make sense now that although I'm a Ranger through and through, I'm venturing deeper into the mystical forest and doing this challenge with the Druids. There's a lot I have to juggle and my only goal is to not go crazy doing so. Therefore, I'll be using this thread as my personal space for this challenge and reporting on my progress as I try to balance everything. My only (totally not S.M.A.R.T.) goals are Successfully complete my Masters' exams Successfully complete the Crossfit Open Have transport and accomodation for the Orte Spartan Super in Italy booked at least one month before race day (a.k.a. by March 23rd)And those will be judged on a Pass/Fail scale at the end of the challenge, with no specific roadmap of how to get there and nothing to track on a daily basis. I shal remain calm in the middle of the storm. Completing this challenge will unlock the following skill for my shamanic alter-ego: Battle Meditation

2016 has been consistently kicking my ass since day 1. If you need any more proof, look no further than this thread. My uncanny ability to keep up with everything on these boards (known in Crossfit lingo as "ThreadCon™") is gone and I haven't posted my challenge thread already a day into the challenge. Things aren't looking pretty up ahead, so let's get to the point. Upcoming Events: 11km Trail Race on Feb. 7th Crossfit Open, kicking off on Feb. 25th for the following 5 weeks Masters' Exams on March. 8th and 15th.Simply put, I need to get back in line both physically and mentally Goals: 1. Nutrition: After checking with the SRLF™ I'm allowing myself the following Sugar: 1 day meal per week, to be used wisely while having a good time out and not stupidly stuffing things in my mouth at homeCheese: Allowed 2 days meals per weekComplex Carbs: Allowed only on workout days, from breakfast to 1 hour after the workout2. Workouts: 3 per week, preferrably straightforward Crossfit WODs instead of Oly Lifting, Gymnastics or other specialised classes 3. Study: I need to be ready for my exams. So far I've managed to lose interest in the lessons and not study any of the book or notes. This needs to change, drastically. 4. Animal Companion: A few days back, I picked up a stray cat. This goal is twofold. One, take care of it, take it to the vet, buy the necessary equipment and make the adjustments required to this new situation. Two is defend my decision against the family who is bound to go bananas once they hear of it. I am not giving way. The cat stays. 5. Peace of Mind: Special thanks to zenLara for inspiring this one. As mentioned, my ThreadCon™ has become terrible and instead of trying to fight it, I must come to terms with it. I can't keep up with everything and it's no use trying to do it or feeling bad for not being able to. 6. Daily Quests: This worked wonders during my previous challenge so I'm keeping it up for this one as well.

Yeah Assassining isn't a word but whatever. I am so bad at Topic titles and it's better than Jonesy's 2nd Challenge. Haha. Sort of nervous to post here but here it goes. My name is Tiffany. My friends call me Tiff, Jonesy, Mrs. Bilbo Baggins, or Hobbit. This is my first big adventure outside of the Rebels or the Adventurer guild. Little backstory. I’ve been attempting to get healthy for the last 3 or 4 years. I have not been able to find something that makes me keep with it though and it’s starting to piss me off. I want to find something fitness related that makes me want to be active. I’m fitness shy and get incredibly self conscious when trying new things. I’d really like to be able to do a handstand or some of those fancy push ups and this “most of all we are determined to be the masters of our own bodies†is a huge reason why I gravitated towards the Assassins. Long Term Quest : Over the course of the next 2 years I want to lose 100-150lbs, become more flexibly and learn to do some awesome things with my body. Main Quest: For my second challenge, my main quest is to strengthen my body. I want to focus on doing bodyweight workouts, so hello Assassins! Exercise/Food Quests: 1. Go to the gym and do yoga at least 1 time each, each week. This is practically the same quest as last time but I’m adding in yoga as well. I want to start using my gym reimbursement for rewards so I need to keep at this. There is no good reason I should not be doing this!!! Gym : Elliptical + Stretching Yoga : Yoga For Beginners - 40 Minute Home Yoga Workout or something else if I find one I like better. Grading : A 4+, B 3, C 2, D 1, F 0 Character Points : 25 points (6.25 points each week) 2. Do 2 bodyweight or resistance band workouts each week. TRACKING I have not done bodyweight workouts in a long time so I feel I will struggle with this in the beginning. Warm Up: 2 songs jog in place, 8 Stretches Your Tight Hips Are Begging For Assassins Workout - In honor of moving over to the Assassins guild! Resistance Band Workout 5 min cool down/stretching Grading - How many days I did bodyweight workouts during the challenge : A 8+, B 5-7, C 2-4, D 1, F 0 Character Points : 30 points (7.5 points each week) 3. Track Food everyday. Either write it down or input into Myfitnesspal. I need to get back into the habit of knowing how much I actually eat. I bought a kitchen scale and I’m going to see if measuring some of my food helps will controlling my intake. Grading - How many days did I track : A 25+, B 18-24, C 13-17, D 10-13, F 0-9 Character Points : 35 points Life Quest: 1. Knit at least 50+ rows My main life goal is to read 4 books a month and that won’t change but I have some additional life quests that I’ve been slacking on. I’ve been working on this scarf for my friend for almost 2 years. I’m so horribly slow and have other things to do that it gets pushed to the back burner. I am committed to finishing this damn scarf within the next few challenges. I won’t be starting ANYTHING creative like knitting or painting until this scarf is done! I’m so close too. If I end up finishing this quests early, yippie! Possible books this challenge : Night Seeker, Blood Rites, Parasitology Series, The Diabolical Miss Hyde , Black Widow, Fifth Grave past the Light, & Written in Red Grading : A 50+ or F 0 Character Points : 10

As I crept into the Assassin's guild for the first time, I found myself nervous with anticipation. There was no way the Assassins would welcome me. With such poor strength and even poorer flexibility, how could I possibly hope to earn a position in such a noble guild? I knew I must take on a formidable quest in hopes of proving myself. Must I find the knight's sword and challenge a fierce dragon? No! Must I rally up my brave comrades to take down our tyrannical king? No! Must I overcome my fears to save our world from destruction? No! I must DANCE! No! I Must Dance! ~Rhyme's sixth challenge~ Hey nerds! I've always admired your sassy Assassinry from afar, and I think it's about time I hop in and get my poi quest rollin'! I just learned how to make fuzzy, poorly-saturated gifs... and well, if progress pics are a thing, why can't we have progress gifs? Needless to say I'm a complete noob at making gifs, though. If anyone has any tips, I'm all ears! Fitness goal: Learn Crossers! I recently learned crossers, and while I can technically do them, I either hit myself or destroy my planes within five seconds. Not to mention, it takes me lots of preparation to enter or exit! Here's where I'm at right now: Ohh myyyy. You see that pink light? That's supposed to be parallel to the red one. Crossers are in the wall plane, which means the lights shouldn't be pointing towards the camera at all -- they should be parallel to the wall in front/behind me. Also, they're not supposed to crash into each other when I try to exit. That too. By the end of this challenge, I want to be able to enter the move without pausing, sustain the move with proper form for at least 10 seconds, and exit the move smoothly! Fitness goal: Learn the Reverse Windmill! I made the poor life decision to learn the corkscrew before I learned to do the windmill both ways. For reference, here's the windmill in the direction I learned it: Pretty nice! The reverse direction, on the other hand.... Ohhh myyy. You can see it awkwardly morph towards a corkscrew, which is like a windmill but down in front of you instead of over your head. I learned the corkscrew in that direction before I learned the windmill, so my muscle memory is trying to fix it. You're not helping! I want to be able to perform the reverse windmill by the end of this challenge -- and the only way is to practice! Diet goal: Garden of Eatin’ I want to grow edible flowers so I can make some fancy pants salads like this! Or this! Oh, they’re all so adorable that I want to devour them. And I’m gonna make it happen. …The thing is, that’s what I said last year. And it never happened. I have a bad habit of getting awesome ideas, and then never actually trying to accomplish them? So, I want to set aside at least 30 minutes a week to working on garden stuff – be it researching, contacting nurseries, or starting seeds! Life goal: Chem Is Try! Oh, I’m very responsible. I always get my homework done. Usually at 2AM where I turn into a rabid, sleep-deprived gremlin. And then I wonder why studying stresses me out. But when I study early instead of all in one last-minute session, I actually like to read and practice the material! I just put it off because “studying stresses me out! (when I have all this crap due tomorrow and I want to go to bed)â€. So, for this challenge I’m going to study for ten minutes every day. Once that book’s open I typically either get on a roll, or I make slow progress in between finding a catchy playlist and petting my cat. Either option would be great! And if I reeeeally don’t want to study, It's ten minutes and I can go back to doing nothing useful as usual. Also, fair warning, I'll be posting obligatory kitty pics every week after my volunteer shift at the animal shelter! It's not related to my challenge this time, but it was a blast to share last challenge, so I'll keep doing it anyway!

I debated on what to call this thread and what to write here. This isn't my first challenge but in a way it is. See I've been here before. I joined NF back in November of 2012 and did a lot of challenges. Last year I tried, emphasis on TRIED, to comeback and called it a respawn but I don't want that again. Hello 2016, goodbye old threads and old Jonesy! Long Term Quest : I can't get away from this quest until I work my butt off, literally. I can't wait until I conquer this quest but for now, losing weight is my long term quest. Over the course of the next 2 years I want to lose 150lbs. Main Quest: I want to stop wheeze every time I have to run upstairs or walk farther than normal. I want my lower back spasms from bending down, to go away. I want to be able to walk without my lower back muscles contracting and cramping. Seriously, it puts a damper on window shopping and walking 5Ks! I sort of miss doing 5Ks. Exercise/Food: 1. Go to the gym at least 4 times. M gym membership payment gets reimbursed from my work if I go 4 times a month. There is no good reason I should not be doing this. Grading : A 4+, B 3, C 2, D 1, F 0 2. Stretch and strengthen lower back, knees, arms & shoulders 2 times a week. Back in Junior High School, I had to do physical therapy for my lower back because of a sports injury. Every day I would do my stretches in Pyscial Education while all the other kids did different warm ups. Doing these again with some new stretches added in will be a great way to help with my main quest. Grading - How many days I stretched : A 8+, B 5-7, C 2-4, D 1, F 0 3. Limit soda to 1 can a day. I've been drinking way to much soda. Kind of goes hand in hand with eating poorly for me. Grading - How many days without soda : A 26+, B 18-25, C 13-17, D 10-13, F 0-9 Life: 1. Read 4 books this challenge. I'm the leader of a book club and we read 3 books a month. Last year I fell behind and have to make up on a lot of reading in order to be caught up on books this year. I currently have 9 books I need to get caught up on. I won't be making that difficult goal but I have in 1 month but I can get 4 in if I cut back on Netflix. Books : Magic Slays, Death Masks, Slave to Sensation & The Geomancer (Switched out Black Widow with Slave to Sensation because library did not get in Black Widow in time) Goodreads Profile Grading : A 4+, B 3, C 2, D 1, F 0 Starting Weight : 329 lbs