Dark_Mother Posted January 20, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 20, 2019 A neat thing happened with my habit! I woke up at 5, turned off my alarm, and checked my sleep quality chart. Apparently, I didn't sleep well last night, and I awoke with a headache. I made a conscious decision to go back to sleep... or so I thought. I laid back down and closed my eyes, but I was fully awake. Like even trying to sleep in, I found myself unable. Now if I could do that with other habits, I'd be in a good place. Let's see; what habit to focus on next. I think cleaning would have to be the next hardest (and maybe most needed). But how to gamify that when I'm playing solo... (this will include things like dishes as well, so "Uhg.") [after a great ponder-osa pause here] Exercising has become quite fun with a mobile game called Burn Your Fat With Me. I think perhaps starting with enjoyable movement would be a good way to jump start my motivation. From there, I'll turn on a YouTube speed run of a game, decide how long my cleaning period should take me, estimate how far I'd be in that amount of time in the game, and race it! Trajectory set! I'll post my results after. 1 Quote In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back. . ― Albert Camus Link to comment
Jean Posted January 20, 2019 Report Share Posted January 20, 2019 Glad you're seeing progress in your sleeping habits, though it'd be even better if it didn't result in an aching head. How was/is the day afterward? 4 hours ago, Dark_Mother said: I think cleaning would have to be the next hardest (and maybe most needed). But how to gamify that when I'm playing solo... Keep us posted on that. I'm working mainly on a "too tired of the mess so I'm taking action" myself. Any way to make it a fun adventure would be a boon I'd not spit upon. Have fun! 1 Quote Legally bound to hug people in need. Living life as a Druid is about walking with the beasts. It's about being scared, looking your fears in the eyes and going on anyway. Dread doesn't go away, you just learn to know it. It's still a beast, it still has fangs, but you walk among it. Link to comment
Dark_Mother Posted January 21, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 21, 2019 Sleep Solid amount of sleep, mostly light (not sure if that matters). Overdid it with the caffeine yesterday, because I had some sleep paralysis in the middle of the night, but I'm still doing just fine. Cleaning Didn't start it yet I had some social opportunities occupy my time. Exercise Took a break from strength and went for a jog and a walk. They were short, but with -5 degrees farenheit, it was long enough. Water Took down a gallon by the end of the day. Woot! 2 Quote In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back. . ― Albert Camus Link to comment
Dark_Mother Posted January 22, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 22, 2019 I'm having a bit of an off period. I was so tired all day yesterday that I decided to let myself sleep in today. I'm shifting my focus to exercise and water for the day. Cleaning... that might get postponed again. I'm not sure yet. I just know that if I'm struggling to protect the first 3, I shouldn't push the fourth too hard. 2 Quote In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back. . ― Albert Camus Link to comment
Jean Posted January 22, 2019 Report Share Posted January 22, 2019 2 hours ago, Dark_Mother said: I just know that if I'm struggling to protect the first 3, I shouldn't push the fourth too hard. Sane and sound reasoning. Go for what works. Quote Legally bound to hug people in need. Living life as a Druid is about walking with the beasts. It's about being scared, looking your fears in the eyes and going on anyway. Dread doesn't go away, you just learn to know it. It's still a beast, it still has fangs, but you walk among it. Link to comment
Dark_Mother Posted January 24, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2019 I'm still alive. I didn't give up. I got surprised by a mini-boss, and her name is insomnia. That set me back quite a bit on many things, except the will to fight. That has grown stronger, and as I tinker further with my "game," I have some great ideas coming. Good 'ol Steve may have had a point when he said our epic game needs a main quest. A story to unify things and give even small action purpose and significance. I may have been working on my game with all mechanics and little to no plot consideration. This is where I start shamelessly adapting my game story into my reality. We'll see how it goes. I'll aim at getting enough sleep tonight and hopefully start my habits back on track. 1 Quote In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back. . ― Albert Camus Link to comment
Dark_Mother Posted January 25, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 25, 2019 I'm headed to bed right now, because I shall not be defeated by a mere mini boss. And if Insomnia should strike me down; on my next spawn I will, like so many Mega Man boss attempts, return with more knowledge and new ideas, and I will push back with the fury of a thousand suns. <self-directed pep talk> Then as my next step, tomorrow I shall inspire myself with the story of Devil May Cry 0 and The Matrix to create an elegant story that will allow me to leverage my struggle into resiliency and growth. Just like Mega Man, I will keep respawning as many times as it takes, and for every boss that stands against me, I will grow and learn new skills. I will become as an endless tide of experience and ambition one drop at a time. </self-directed pep talk> 1 Quote In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back. . ― Albert Camus Link to comment
Dark_Mother Posted January 25, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 25, 2019 I beat insomnia. Now to get my sleep back on track! Take that, insomnia. Starting inspiring myself for some content for a story line. Super excited Quote In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back. . ― Albert Camus Link to comment
Jean Posted January 25, 2019 Report Share Posted January 25, 2019 1 Quote Legally bound to hug people in need. Living life as a Druid is about walking with the beasts. It's about being scared, looking your fears in the eyes and going on anyway. Dread doesn't go away, you just learn to know it. It's still a beast, it still has fangs, but you walk among it. Link to comment
Dark_Mother Posted January 26, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 26, 2019 Woke up pretty early today, though I didn't hit my goal. I've been really enjoying watching speedruns lately; not sure why I haven't checked them out before, but now I find myself wondering, "Could I speedrun my entire day?" Dare I dream? That could get me very interested in things, and it would benefit me to awaken early. Hmmm... Any how, I mention that because if that can get me doing things, I'll start posting my times. Maybe I'll plan some stuff out and give it a try tomorrow. 1 Quote In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back. . ― Albert Camus Link to comment
Jean Posted January 26, 2019 Report Share Posted January 26, 2019 I'd not go for a full day speedrun (because there's more to the living than simply rushing to the evening in the quickest possible time) but speedrunning chores sounds kind of great. Mind if I steal the idea (house cleaning and ironing come to mind) ? Quote Legally bound to hug people in need. Living life as a Druid is about walking with the beasts. It's about being scared, looking your fears in the eyes and going on anyway. Dread doesn't go away, you just learn to know it. It's still a beast, it still has fangs, but you walk among it. Link to comment
Dark_Mother Posted January 26, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 26, 2019 Not a problem! But I can't exactly take credit for it. It might be interesting to exchange notes on how we do things faster. Pro tips. Lol. Ultimately, I'm kind of thinking I could have a daily routine of chores and tasks and speed through them as quickly as possible. More than that though. Like see how early in the day I could complete my entire day from grooming to chores to exercise and other good habits. But like all my whimsies, it may not progress far beyond being a thought. Who knows~ Quote In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back. . ― Albert Camus Link to comment
Dark_Mother Posted January 29, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 29, 2019 ~~~~~~~ Update ~~~~~~~ So it turns out I got rather sick. As I type, I still feel like I'm dying. In my boredom, I'm rebooting. Yep, hold your shock everyone. And it includes gamifying with Habitica. Yep. Really thinking outside the box with this one. I'll get the formula right one of these days. This is the part where I start logging my newest ideas, so it's everyone's cue to exit the post at this point. hahaha ~~~~~~~~~ Rumination ~~~~~~~~~ Game #1 <----> Area #1 That's the basis of it. Every great game involves you succeeding in Area A so that you can more easily succeed in Area B. But why succeed in Area B in the first place you might ask? So as to make Area A easier. Duh! Yep. Vicious cycle. Here's an example. I play Skyrim. I do quests so I can get the reward. That reward is experience and gear to make me stronger. Why would I care to be stronger? So I can complete harder quests and get the good rewards; that way, I can complete the extra hard quests and get the extra good rewards. Hmmm... I call shenanigans. But it works, and so that's my focus this time around. Here's a concrete example of what I'm thinking of so far. Kitchen Cleaning will correlate with Disgaea 5 for the PC. In this game, you can highly customize how you approach things which to me means I can highly restrict myself. Both game and area of cleaning will start at lvl 1 with a boss battle quest which must be completed to elevate the level of that area. Since they both correlate with one another, lvl 1 in cleaning the kitchen gets me "Unlock Disgaea Stage" for 1 gold. (Clearly, my first restriction is I cannot proceed to new stages without first paying). The boss battle for dishes of "Wash 100% of dishes" will unlock a second reward type "Add 1 Character to Team" for 1 gold. (My second restriction will be that I cannot fight with more than the initial main character without paying). Meanwhile on the Disgaea (fun) side of things, lvl 1 gets me that I get to wash dishes in the kitchen for rewards. The boss battle will be to complete the first 4 stages (1st chapter), and its reward will be that putting dishes away counts as a second and separate habit. The reason I'm creating quests for the game at all is to encourage me to want to progress in it which necessitates the rewards I may obtain by doing chores. If I want to complete the first boss quest in the game without a second character, I'm looking at 3 gold still. Once that's done, it makes the chore more rewarding which will make it easier to grab the rewards and fling myself into more challenging quests with greater rewards for making the chore even more rewarding. Huzzah! The circle is complete. Knowing me, I'll have fizzled out by the end of the week, but as it stands, I can't even stand comfortably, so I'll have to wait a bit before getting started. Bleh. Being sick is gross. Quote In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back. . ― Albert Camus Link to comment
Jean Posted January 29, 2019 Report Share Posted January 29, 2019 Wait a second... you can't reboot when you're bored! That's... Anyway, I hope you'lle get better soon, I'm eager to know how the Wash your Dishagea game goes. Quote Legally bound to hug people in need. Living life as a Druid is about walking with the beasts. It's about being scared, looking your fears in the eyes and going on anyway. Dread doesn't go away, you just learn to know it. It's still a beast, it still has fangs, but you walk among it. Link to comment
Mikey Fitpants Posted January 29, 2019 Report Share Posted January 29, 2019 Wow. What an interesting blog. I'm not sure I totally I know what you're doing but you make it sound exhausting. How's the job search going? What job were you doing last year? What kind of fitness things are you doing? Quote Link to comment
Dark_Mother Posted January 29, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 29, 2019 2 minutes ago, Mikey Fitpants said: Wow. What an interesting blog. I'm not sure I totally I know what you're doing but you make it sound exhausting. How's the job search going? What job were you doing last year? What kind of fitness things are you doing? Thank you! At the moment, what I'm trying to do is make basic chores fun. For me, tinkering and systematizing is fun rather than exhausting, so all of this seems like less work than just doing the chore. lol. The job search is challenging due to a variety of details. Last year I was doing something with computers. I don't want to get into too much detail. Stranger danger and all on the interwebs. As for fitness, pretty much anything I could do consistently would be a step in the right direction. I just need to get myself moving! That'll come back soon though with my health. Quote In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back. . ― Albert Camus Link to comment
Dark_Mother Posted January 29, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 29, 2019 1 hour ago, Jean said: Wait a second... you can't reboot when you're bored! That's... Anyway, I hope you'lle get better soon, I'm eager to know how the Wash your Dishagea game goes. LOL IKR? And it'll extend out to include a variety of game buffs with a variety of chores. If I don't keep it moving though, I'll end up ADHD-ing away from it and *gasp* rebooting yet again. Any how. If I stop trying new things, I supposed I'm doomed to repeating the same results. (yet a meta-cycle seems to be in play.) So as long as I care and am trying, I'm not at lvl zero... I tell myself. Quote In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back. . ― Albert Camus Link to comment
Jean Posted January 29, 2019 Report Share Posted January 29, 2019 You are not level 0. You are level 1/11th of everything. Goblins by Thunt And guess what? Those synergy bonuses stack like crazy! Besides, who in their right mind goes straight for the main quest when there's so much to fiddle around and so many "wrong" ways with sidequests to explore that you can't get back to once you've moved on? (I know, I know, real life means the main quest won't just stand there waiting for you while you fiddle around but it's still an asset to tie strings to one's bow for that one occasion when everybody stops fighting and what is really needed is a bard - and what I'm really trying to say is that your way of handling things has merits and that like all wild horses running around, learning to handle it is probably a better idea than deciding to eat it because it does only what it wants and everybody eats their horse anyway). Quote Legally bound to hug people in need. Living life as a Druid is about walking with the beasts. It's about being scared, looking your fears in the eyes and going on anyway. Dread doesn't go away, you just learn to know it. It's still a beast, it still has fangs, but you walk among it. Link to comment
Dark_Mother Posted January 29, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 29, 2019 LOL I love the comic. 3 minutes ago, Jean said: And guess what? Those synergy bonuses stack like crazy! I definitely am red-maging or rangering/barding my way through this whole process. I'm still waiting for that moment when I realize it's not that I suck at every specialization, but that my specialization is tri-casting everything I've learned all at once. Quote In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back. . ― Albert Camus Link to comment
Jean Posted January 29, 2019 Report Share Posted January 29, 2019 13 minutes ago, Dark_Mother said: it's not that I suck at every specialization You know that already. It's not specializations you're after, it's mixing and matching everything at once, using the right cantrip at the right time to build a tsunami on the other side of the earth... which is a specialization in itself, as you say. So, go redmage life and rock that feather on your hat. Quote Legally bound to hug people in need. Living life as a Druid is about walking with the beasts. It's about being scared, looking your fears in the eyes and going on anyway. Dread doesn't go away, you just learn to know it. It's still a beast, it still has fangs, but you walk among it. Link to comment
Dark_Mother Posted January 30, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2019 En garde! Quote In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back. . ― Albert Camus Link to comment
Mikey Fitpants Posted January 30, 2019 Report Share Posted January 30, 2019 6 months ago I would not have got the D&D references - I started my first quest last year. Quote Link to comment
Dark_Mother Posted January 30, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2019 Using my favorite outline app (workflowy), I've got a ton of areas mapped to games with a formidable collection of restrictions that can only be surpassed by Habitica purchases. One obstacle I might see is that I've made the restrictions far too difficult. I haven't yet decided on quests and how the unlocks are going to work, but that's coming next! Sick, trapped in a house with children (snow day), and bored; it's getting done today. lol. I might consider allowing quests but not side quests. Hmmm... Anyway, I don't want to bore everyone with the particulars. So - TADA. I'm making progress on my latest iteration of this monster. I'm already excited to start cleaning the kitchen! How about that. 1 Quote In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back. . ― Albert Camus Link to comment
Jean Posted January 30, 2019 Report Share Posted January 30, 2019 Speaking of the one I know : Yeah, you miiiiiiiight be a tad heavy on restrictions. Anyway, your game, your rules and maybe all the more motivation to build some crazy habits. Keep at it. Quote Legally bound to hug people in need. Living life as a Druid is about walking with the beasts. It's about being scared, looking your fears in the eyes and going on anyway. Dread doesn't go away, you just learn to know it. It's still a beast, it still has fangs, but you walk among it. Link to comment
Dark_Mother Posted January 31, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 31, 2019 Regarding the difficulty, my intention would be that I'd have to save up a couple of gold to equip an item or learn a magic or what-not. That way I'm paying to play without exactly having to pay to play (save for the quest requirements). I got a burst of energy back though! I'm feeling a bit better, and my energy is certainly up. Now that I'm in execution mode, I'm finding all my great ideas are slightly challenging to wield. I'm not willing to throw all my ideas out, because there are some gems in there, but it just needs some practical refining - or baby steps. While I was sick, I got into the game of Slither.io with the children during snow days. There is now a child component to Habitica, and we're competing for time on the computer. Works like a charm! Maybe even party creation soon. We're buying lives in the game for now, and that makes me think that might be a more practical place to start. If I play my games on max difficulty and make myself pay for saves, heals, side quests, and continues, that might be something. The association is really what's throwing me for a fluster-cluck of micro management in the system, so I may just roll like a D6. That's right. Randomly generated reward opportunities and quests. I've got an idea for some algorithms to evenly distribute my attention between all areas while still randomizing things. Blah blah blah, game mechanics, blah blah. So I've been infinitely more successful today than in the past few days, and I'm excited to keep it going. I'm just going to keep things in a holding pattern while it's productive and wait to see what breaks first. I got cleaning and brain training in so far today. Next up will be a sick combo of dishwashing plus squats. Day 1 of living it. More to follow - per the usual. 1 Quote In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back. . ― Albert Camus Link to comment
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