no time like now - hello from central PA

[Velkyn]

I just joined the academy.  

 

My goals are getting back to how fit I was when I was a field geologist back in the 90s, now that spouse and I have a handle on our mental illnesses: anxiety for me and bipolar for him.  I also have a background where my ancestors live a long time and there is certainly no reason not to live it as well as I can. I'm very scared of being incapacitated when I'm old, and that fear certainly hasn't been helped since I work for a gov agency that regulates nursing homes.  Something that I want to avoid at all costs.

 

A bit about me.  with the same fellow for 27+ years and met through tabletop rpg gaming with him as my first DM in college.  love cats.  atheist.  no kids. love to cook and brew. cosplay (we did pathfinder characters at GenCon last years). love tabletop RPGs though it's been an age since we've played. have a degree in Geology and I love any kind of science.  love to take up new skills just to have them.  Love reading just about anything with words on it, but prefer sword and sorcery, planetary romance and space opera.  Used to be a big reader of Marvel comics until the mid 90s when things just got too convoluted.  have my own blog: clubschadenfreude.com (fair warning, plenty about religion and politics on it, as well as recipes and just general nattering)

 

Used to hate exercise and I blame it on horrible phys ed teachers and the damned President's Council on Physical Fitness.  I now love to walk and walk to work most days (3 miles one way and then the bus at night, and working back to walking both ways).  I'm getting to like weight training but still have a ways to go with that. 

 

that's about it.  Pleased to meet you all! 

[Odinson]

Welcome to the rebellion, impressive nerd credentials there! I've never given pathfinder a go might have to give it a try. 

[Sabina]

Hello - I'm new here too. Geology degree? Awesome. I'm a geophysicist!

[Velkyn]

On ‎7‎/‎15‎/‎2017 at 10:56 AM, Sabina said:

Hello - I'm new here too. Geology degree? Awesome. I'm a geophysicist!

 Cool!  It's been a very long time since I worked in the industry, but my work was mostly taking samples and drilling wells for leaking underground storage tanks, with little structural boring added in. 

 

pathfinder is a curious world, a little "kitchen sink" for my tastes but I do like a lot of the fiction books written for it.  In my heart of hearts, I'll always be a AD&D second edition girl.  I've also played shadowrun (first edition), playtested Alternity (first version), and whole bunches of other tabletop RPGs.  Husband has a tendency to buy whatever is the latest system  

[Sabina]

Nice! I went the academic research route for a new years and had fun presenting and hanging out at the AGU and some of the planetary science conferences. I know all sorts of obscure things and can research the life out of random areas of geophysics! I'm out of that field now, but I've stuck with some teaching - physical geology for a few years and more recently intro to physics. It's fun trying to get people interested in science. My current course development is a science summer camp for middle school students - the Physics of Superheroes! I may post on here somewhere about that to see if I can get a small group of advisors together to give me feedback on ideas for activities!

[Guzzi]

Hey, welcome on board!  I know that if you've joined the academy then you'll be working your way through the modules and stuff but there is also the 4 Week Challenges here on the forum, and have you seen that you can create your own character?

[Velkyn]

On ‎7‎/‎17‎/‎2017 at 7:43 AM, Sabina said:

Nice! I went the academic research route for a new years and had fun presenting and hanging out at the AGU and some of the planetary science conferences. I know all sorts of obscure things and can research the life out of random areas of geophysics! I'm out of that field now, but I've stuck with some teaching - physical geology for a few years and more recently intro to physics. It's fun trying to get people interested in science. My current course development is a science summer camp for middle school students - the Physics of Superheroes! I may post on here somewhere about that to see if I can get a small group of advisors together to give me feedback on ideas for activities!

 

Hah! I'd love to take your superheroes course.    Of course, superheroes always have those nifty things like the "dimension of speed" and other curious handwaving to get away with their antics.  Way back in the day I wanted to go for planetary geology but that just didn't work out.  As close as I got to that is a one in a million intership at the National Air and Space Museum and working with the lunar suits which look like the guys were rolling around up there in the dust. 

 

[Velkyn]

On ‎7‎/‎17‎/‎2017 at 3:38 PM, Guzzi said:

Hey, welcome on board!  I know that if you've joined the academy then you'll be working your way through the modules and stuff but there is also the 4 Week Challenges here on the forum, and have you seen that you can create your own character?

I've been at that link and have tried to select a class and image.  It never seems to want to let me select anything, and when it does kinda act like I selected a class (ranger) it just says "Choose what picture represents you" and shows nothing else below those words.  The words appear to be a link but when I click it, it goes no where.  I'm running IE (whatever the lastest version is, spouse is a high-level IT person) and don't know what may be amiss. 

 

I also don't quite understand the challenges.  From what I've read, it seems that you kind of make your own and then simply be responsible to the group with updates on progress? 

[Sabina]

19 hours ago, Velkyn said:

 

Hah! I'd love to take your superheroes course.    Of course, superheroes always have those nifty things like the "dimension of speed" and other curious handwaving to get away with their antics.  Way back in the day I wanted to go for planetary geology but that just didn't work out.  As close as I got to that is a one in a million intership at the National Air and Space Museum and working with the lunar suits which look like the guys were rolling around up there in the dust. 

 

 

Yeah, the physics of superheroes is a fun topic. Some if it's quite accurate science, some of it... not so much! I really like it as a way to try to connect kids to science. Less dry - much easier to have fun with.

 

How did your first week go with this? I did great for three days and then my diet went wrong. I'm trying to regroup this week.

 

 

[Velkyn]

11 hours ago, Sabina said:

 

Yeah, the physics of superheroes is a fun topic. Some if it's quite accurate science, some of it... not so much! I really like it as a way to try to connect kids to science. Less dry - much easier to have fun with.

 

How did your first week go with this? I did great for three days and then my diet went wrong. I'm trying to regroup this week.

 

 

 

well, I've been a bit delayed thanks to my parents visiting this past weekend.  I get so stressed when them come down (you'd think I'd get over this being in my 50s) and I knew that there was no point in starting when I knew I'd not behave with the eating.  I'm using the rest of this week to get my act together and get the house cleared of temptation and full of stuff I should eat.  It also helps that the weather will start to behave and stop being in the 90s. 

 

I'm also finally going back to the doctor and getting my anxiety back under control.  Always fun to have a misbehaving brain.  That will hopefully keep me from just reaching for a couple glasses of wine to calm down after a day of dealing with an entirely frustrating job. 

 

Regrouping is always a good thing.  A few years ago, I did South Beach.  Lost 30 pounds and kept 20 of it off.  But I need to go at things again. 

[Sabina]

On 7/24/2017 at 5:05 PM, Velkyn said:

 

well, I've been a bit delayed thanks to my parents visiting this past weekend.  I get so stressed when them come down (you'd think I'd get over this being in my 50s) and I knew that there was no point in starting when I knew I'd not behave with the eating.  I'm using the rest of this week to get my act together and get the house cleared of temptation and full of stuff I should eat.  It also helps that the weather will start to behave and stop being in the 90s. 

 

I'm also finally going back to the doctor and getting my anxiety back under control.  Always fun to have a misbehaving brain.  That will hopefully keep me from just reaching for a couple glasses of wine to calm down after a day of dealing with an entirely frustrating job. 

 

Regrouping is always a good thing.  A few years ago, I did South Beach.  Lost 30 pounds and kept 20 of it off.  But I need to go at things again. 

 

Good luck for the week getting your house cleared of temptations and getting fully gearing up to get started. I hope your doctor can help with the anxiety. Brains are kind of weird, how they work and don't. Can hypnosis help with anxiety? I tried that once to help with a bad spider phobia - it worked really well. Except now I have 25 pet tarantulas. That's a better problem to have, though!

[zeroh13]

Hi! Welcome! I played Pathfinder for a few years and really enjoyed it. When I was a kid we played a lot of AD&D 2nd edition and GURPS. I haven't really played any pen & paper (tabletop) RPGs since I moved out of my parents place though. (That was almost 10 years ago.)

 

On 7/23/2017 at 1:03 PM, Velkyn said:

I also don't quite understand the challenges.  From what I've read, it seems that you kind of make your own and then simply be responsible to the group with updates on progress? 

Basically, yeah. There's an FAQ here: https://rebellion.nerdfitness.com/index.php?/help.html/4-week-challenges/challenge-instructions-and-faq/. Just make a topic in whatever guild you're challenging with. It's best to do your first challenge with the Rebels, but if there's another guild you're really interested in, no one's going to complain if you start with them from the get-go. Generally, you'll have four SMART goals to work on each challenge. Post updates throughout the challenge. Follow challenges from other people. And your guild mates will check in on you, see how you're doing. There's a lot of emphasis on supporting each other, and it helps a lot of people stay accountable.

 

The current challenge has a little over a week left. Then there's a break/prep week, and the next one starts on August 13th. If you're interested, you can try a one week challenge or wait for the next one (many people unofficially start their challenges during the break week, if you don't like waiting). It might also help to just read a few challenges to see what it's like, maybe get some ideas and inspiration.

 

Let me know if you have any questions!

 

[Velkyn]

On ‎7‎/‎26‎/‎2017 at 7:30 AM, Sabina said:

 

Good luck for the week getting your house cleared of temptations and getting fully gearing up to get started. I hope your doctor can help with the anxiety. Brains are kind of weird, how they work and don't. Can hypnosis help with anxiety? I tried that once to help with a bad spider phobia - it worked really well. Except now I have 25 pet tarantulas. That's a better problem to have, though!

25?   Oh my    I'm not sure about hypnosis.  When I was in high school, they had a hypnotist come in, and I volunteered to be hypnotized but I guess I was too curious to see how it was done because I never responded to it.  I'm also not sure if I trust anyone that much which could be part of the whole anxiety thing. 

[Velkyn]

On ‎7‎/‎28‎/‎2017 at 10:12 AM, zeroh13 said:

Hi! Welcome! I played Pathfinder for a few years and really enjoyed it. When I was a kid we played a lot of AD&D 2nd edition and GURPS. I haven't really played any pen & paper (tabletop) RPGs since I moved out of my parents place though. (That was almost 10 years ago.)

 

Basically, yeah. There's an FAQ here: https://rebellion.nerdfitness.com/index.php?/help.html/4-week-challenges/challenge-instructions-and-faq/. Just make a topic in whatever guild you're challenging with. It's best to do your first challenge with the Rebels, but if there's another guild you're really interested in, no one's going to complain if you start with them from the get-go. Generally, you'll have four SMART goals to work on each challenge. Post updates throughout the challenge. Follow challenges from other people. And your guild mates will check in on you, see how you're doing. There's a lot of emphasis on supporting each other, and it helps a lot of people stay accountable.

 

The current challenge has a little over a week left. Then there's a break/prep week, and the next one starts on August 13th. If you're interested, you can try a one week challenge or wait for the next one (many people unofficially start their challenges during the break week, if you don't like waiting). It might also help to just read a few challenges to see what it's like, maybe get some ideas and inspiration.

 

Let me know if you have any questions!

 

 

thanks, Z.  I do love your avatar image. 

[Guzzi]

On 23/07/2017 at 6:03 PM, Velkyn said:

I've been at that link and have tried to select a class and image.  It never seems to want to let me select anything, and when it does kinda act like I selected a class (ranger) it just says "Choose what picture represents you" and shows nothing else below those words.  The words appear to be a link but when I click it, it goes no where.  I'm running IE (whatever the lastest version is, spouse is a high-level IT person) and don't know what may be amiss. 

 

I also don't quite understand the challenges.  From what I've read, it seems that you kind of make your own and then simply be responsible to the group with updates on progress? 

 

Sorry, I've been away on holiday and not been online.  Did you ever get this sorted out?  I know they were in the process of updating the site recently and I wonder if that was the problem.  You can email the team at contact@nerdfitness if you haven't been able to resolve it.  

 

As Zeroh said, the challenges are a personal thing, set by yourself.  The idea is to make small, lasting changes that build up and support your overall goals.  If you try to change too much at once then it can all come crashing down when you hit a bump in the road, but if you can create underlying habits that contribute to your success then you stand a far greater chance of long term success.  This article is an old one from back when the challenges were 6 weeks long, but it explains the concept really well. 

 

Ideally you want to pick goals that seem almost too easy.  If you can keep it up for the whole 4 weeks then it's likely that you can keep it going for good!  Depending on where you are in your fitness journey "too easy" could be as simple as - get up 30 mins earlier, drink enough water,  walk for 30 mins each day, eat one [paleo/vegetarian/vegan/low-carb/whatever-you-want-to-aim-for] meal a day OR once you know your abilities it could be something like - complete the C25K (Couch to 5k) running program, follow a new lifting schedule.  It will all depend on you and what your long term goals are.  

[Velkyn]

On ‎8‎/‎10‎/‎2017 at 2:09 PM, Guzzi said:

 

 It will all depend on you and what your long term goals are.  

 well, I think I'll figure out the class stuff after this current challenge.   things seem to be going well so far.

[SeekingCassandra]

Welcome! 

Central PA is my old stomping grounds! Central Pen being what it is, we probably know at least 1 person in common! lol

 

Good luck with your goals!

[Velkyn]

11 hours ago, SeekingCassandra said:

Welcome! 

Central PA is my old stomping grounds! Central Pen being what it is, we probably know at least 1 person in common! lol

 

Good luck with your goals!

well, I'll have to admit that I'm terribly anti social.  I used to be in the local SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism) group here but that's been long ago.  Thanks for the encouragement!