Bardic Garlic Prepares for Asgard

[BardicGarlic]

Hey folks. Bardic Garlic here. Very bardic. Very garlicky. A professor. 30. I live in SE Asia after 12 years in the USA. 

 

At the end of this challenge, I will be in California for a conference. I need to get ready to dish it out. This bard of the orient is going to face the giants and the gods!

(The American folks are literally giant for me. I'm 5'5 (165 cm)).

 

To get to Asgard, I will need to get approval from each god.

 

SACRIFICE: I sacrifice bubble tea for Odin. My replacement is black tea with no sugar. 

 

HEIMDALL of BIFROST: Eat the rainbow. Taste the rainbow.

- Track a visual journal of my food.

- Make sure that each week I eat the vegetables, fruits, or grains of all 5 colors: red, yellow, green, black/purple, and white.

 

ODIN of the GALLOWS: For 9 days and 9 nights he hangs... in a dingy pub downtown. 

- Pull up + Chin up 90 times for 3 out of 4 weeks. 

- Run at least 9 km a week

- Improve my bench press and squat to 99 kg by the end of the challenge. (Stuck at 90 kilos for a while. Tips highly appreciated)

 

THOR of the HAMMER: They ask for his fists but not for his feels.
- Each week, sympathize with people who make you upset.
- Reconnect with at least 3 friends.

 

LOKI of the TRICKS: Craft him the tales he won't forget until the rebeginning.   
- Spend 6 hours a week on my lab manual. 

- Spend at least 2 hours a week on creative writing. 

 

That's it. Looking forward to hear from you all!

[Bean Sidhe]

Welcome to rebels. Looks like you have an fairly decent challenge going. Whats the lab manual for?

[BardicGarlic]

18 minutes ago, Bean Sidhe said:

Welcome to rebels. Looks like you have an fairly decent challenge going. Whats the lab manual for?

 

Thanks! I call it the lab manual, but it's a studio manual for landscape design on sloped area. 

[NicTheRugger]

You have awesome goals for this challenge! Following along for awesome Nordic goodness

[Scaly Freak]

11 hours ago, BardicGarlic said:

To get to Asgard, I will need to get approval from each god.

 

Freja and Hel want to have a word with you about the way you phrased that...  

 

Following the upcoming food pictures.

[BardicGarlic]

1 hour ago, NicTheRugger said:

You have awesome goals for this challenge! Following along for awesome Nordic goodness

Thanks, Nic!

 

1 hour ago, scalyfreak said:

 

Freja and Hel want to have a word with you about the way you phrased that...  

 

Following the upcoming food pictures.

 

Uh... erm... Yes! It's because the goddesses, the radiant and powerful, are too merciful to force me into such small challenges... 

 

Oh, now I've angered the male gods. Yikes. Um... let's... I'll just put on sun screen every morning for Freja and pray 'The Chant of Mercy' (a Buddhist chant that distributes to merit of my good deeds to all spirits) every night for Hela. 

 

Definitely not something I've already done for a regular basis at all!

 

Did I mention I'm just a Level 1 Bard? My bardic skill might be... Level 1ish. 

[Scaly Freak]

6 minutes ago, BardicGarlic said:

 

Definitely not something I've already done for a regular basis at all!

 

Definitely not at all.

 

What your Bardic level skills may lack, your exceptionally high Charisma bonus will see you through! (If you'rein D&D 5e. Any other system, you're on your own.)

[WhiteGhost]

21 hours ago, BardicGarlic said:

Eat the rainbow. Taste the rainbow.

- Track a visual journal of my food.

- Make sure that each week I eat the vegetables, fruits, or grains of all 5 colors: red, yellow, green, black/purple, and white.

I'm guessing a bag of skittles isn't going to count?  They are fruit flavored

[BardicGarlic]

13 hours ago, scalyfreak said:

 

Definitely not at all.

 

What your Bardic level skills may lack, your exceptionally high Charisma bonus will see you through! (If you'rein D&D 5e. Any other system, you're on your own.)

 

Haha thanks. I do play DnD 5e. 

 

At my real job, I am at the situation where I have to roll for charm and persuasion very often. I hope I pull it off there too!

 

5 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

I'm guessing a bag of skittles isn't going to count?  They are fruit flavored

 

Tempting, but no. 

[BardicGarlic]

Monday:

 

Food

6:00 Black coffee

8:30 Boiled eggs with lime sauce, sour cabbage, little fried fish, rice

12:00 Sticky rice, broiled beef, fried fish, fresh veggies, pork rind, spicy beef salad.

15:00 Tapioca dumplings [DUMPLINGS ARE LIFE ITSELF]

17:00 Pad Thai with shrimp

19:00 Sticky rice snacks, juice (not depicted)

[Today I only got different shades of green and a bit of orange. Will see what tomorrow would bring!]

 

Work out

(Short sets because I'm tired)

I started working at 6:30 AM and didn't stopped until 8:30 PM. Lunch meeting, etc.

It was already my work out time and I was too tired, so I lifted in my work clothes. 

Chin up, 5x3

Pull up, 5x3

Bench press, 80 kilos, 5x3

Squat, 95 kilos, 5x3

I couldn't bench 90 last time and didn't want to risk it. 

 

Sympathy

I worked with a team today for an event. The team leader didn't start working until 2 days before the event. And today at lunch she gossiped about her boss instead of talking about the event we are supposed to prepare for.

But I tried to understand her, and I learned that she is feeling really pressured by her demanding boss to handle another big project. She tried to work as much as she can while keeping her mental health in check. That I do get.

My boss is unpredictable at times, but she has been very nice to me, so I feel like I luck out and I feel maybe I can contribute a little more without feeling too mad.

Also, with our resourcefulness, the event was done and it was a fair success. 

 

[BardicGarlic]

Tuesday

 

Food

6:00 Black coffee

8:30 Sweet Chinese sausage, Hot water spinach curry, fried eggs salad, rice

12:30 Local greens with eggs, banana flowers salad, boiled vegetable with salsa, assorted fermented pork. 

18:00 Miso soup, deep fried pork, cabbage salad, rice, kimchi.

19:00 Mango. 

Colors: Red, green, yellow, white. (all I need is purple and this week is good!)

 

Exercise:

3 km run

 

A friend of mine came over from the US to say hello. We had an awesome time!

 

[Bean Sidhe]

I love your colors in the challenge theme. Have you thought about what you will be doing for Purple?

[BardicGarlic]

6 minutes ago, Bean Sidhe said:

I love your colors in the challenge theme. Have you thought about what you will be doing for Purple?

 

Thanks! So there is taro, purple sweet potato, black berries (frozen,) grapes, rose apples, red cabbages, and red onions.

 

One of those!

[Scaly Freak]

3 hours ago, BardicGarlic said:

Colors: Red, green, yellow, white. (all I need is purple and this week is good!)

 

Does aubergine/eggplant count as purple?

[BardicGarlic]

7 hours ago, scalyfreak said:

 

Does aubergine/eggplant count as purple?

 

Purple eggplant, yes. This is the first time I have heard of the word aubergine. 
In Thai there is:

 

Plate eggplant (aubergine)

Long eggplant/purple eggpant (Chinese aubergine)
Bunch eggplant (Turkey berry)
Brittle eggplant (Thai egg plant)
Foreign eggplant (Tomato)

The last one is out of the left field, but hey, they are all in Solanaceae, so it's not really a big miss. 

[Scaly Freak]

The tomato looks weird in that list.

[Butternut]

Your goals are, excuse my french, bad ass! 

 

Love your pictures...  food just makes me happy. 

[WhiteGhost]

14 hours ago, BardicGarlic said:

Sweet Chinese sausage

We call those Guangdong (Canton) sausages here.

 

14 hours ago, BardicGarlic said:

Mango

Your mango looks really pale compared to what I am used to

[juliebarkley]

You may only have hit orange and green the first, but the dishes look varied and tasty. Your second day food looks awesome as well.

 

On 2/11/2019 at 11:17 AM, BardicGarlic said:

[DUMPLINGS ARE LIFE ITSELF]

Also, this is objectively a correct and true fact of life.

 

 

[Bean Sidhe]

13 hours ago, BardicGarlic said:

Foreign eggplant (Tomato)

The last one is out of the left field, but hey, they are all in Solanaceae, so it's not really a big miss. 

 

Not going to lie, my first thought is what color tomato is it? Youngest Agent loves growing food of random colors and tomatoes are her favorite. I wonder if black tomatoes would be purple, yellow,  or red...  You could probably make a rainbow out of just those.

[NicTheRugger]

Mmm the food looks amazing, as always! 

[BardicGarlic]

15 hours ago, scalyfreak said:

The tomato looks weird in that list.

Haha, yeah, may be that's why it's foreign?

 

13 hours ago, Butternut said:

Your goals are, excuse my french, bad ass! 

 

Love your pictures...  food just makes me happy. 

Thank you. Mine too!... Maybe a little too much. Haha. 

 

12 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

We call those Guangdong (Canton) sausages here.

 

Your mango looks really pale compared to what I am used to

I guess it's off-season mango. That's why, to an on-season one, it's PALE IN COMPARISON!! HA!!

Nah it's actually because it's a variety. There are many varieties of mangoes in Thailand. 

 

Also, good to learn the name of the sausage! We call them 'kunchiang' because... reasons...  

 

6 hours ago, juliebarkley said:

You may only have hit orange and green the first, but the dishes look varied and tasty. Your second day food looks awesome as well.

 

Also, this is objectively a correct and true fact of life.

 

Thank you! And yes... there are many types of sweet dumplings here and I love them all!

 

2 hours ago, Bean Sidhe said:

 

Not going to lie, my first thought is what color tomato is it? Youngest Agent loves growing food of random colors and tomatoes are her favorite. I wonder if black tomatoes would be purple, yellow,  or red...  You could probably make a rainbow out of just those.

True that! I haven't seen a purple tomato, but I can imagine one.

 

44 minutes ago, NicTheRugger said:

Mmm the food looks amazing, as always! 

Thanks, Nic!!

 

Wednesday

 

6:00 Coffee

7:30 Grilled pork and tricolor sauce, rice

12:00 Green noodles, crispy pork, bok choy

12:30 Thai tea plum smoothies

15:00 fruits (not depicted)

19:00 Pork hot pot and veggies, beer

21:00 grapes

 

Workout: none

 

Today we had a small catch up with coworkers. I also email an old friend to catch up (score!)

 

See you later!

[Bean Sidhe]

20 hours ago, BardicGarlic said:

True that! I haven't seen a purple tomato, but I can imagine one.

 

 

So these are some of the one Youngest Agent likes to grow

 

 

Youngest Agent really wants to grow these, but I find the seeds a bit expensive to do it. ($5 for 15 seeds)

 

Now you see why I asked what color tomatoes. We also tend to do some yellow and orange and pink. We are not allowed Green Tomatoes when ripe since Hubby will never know which tomatoes are ready.

[Butternut]

13 hours ago, Bean Sidhe said:

 

So these are some of the one Youngest Agent likes to grow

 

 

Youngest Agent really wants to grow these, but I find the seeds a bit expensive to do it. ($5 for 15 seeds)

 

Now you see why I asked what color tomatoes. We also tend to do some yellow and orange and pink. We are not allowed Green Tomatoes when ripe since Hubby will never know which tomatoes are ready.

 

Beautiful!

[BardicGarlic]

On ‎2‎/‎14‎/‎2019 at 7:24 PM, Bean Sidhe said:

Now you see why I asked what color tomatoes. We also tend to do some yellow and orange and pink. We are not allowed Green Tomatoes when ripe since Hubby will never know which tomatoes are ready.

Yes I do! This looks absolutely beautiful!

 

14 hours ago, Butternut said:

 

Beautiful!

 

 

 

 

 

Agreed!

 

Wednesday

 

Food

6:00 Dark chocolate

8:30 Rice noodle with pork and egg

9:00 Tapioca dumpling in coconut milk

11:00 Vendor pastry

12:00 Rice, garlic pork, brussels sprouts with pork

18:00 Fried chicken, fries

 

Exercise

None

 

I woke up with a horrible ache in my left jaw in the middle of the night. I had to skip work for half a day to go to the doctor. Apparently, I have been chewing ice and grinding my teeth as I work, so my jaw is inflamed.

 

It threw off my schedule and made me feel grumpy all day (hence the sweets and comfort food). I went to bed at around 8 pm and I didn't work out. A bad habit here.

 

 

Thursday

 

Food

6:00 Black coffee

8:00 little fish, boiled egg with fish sauce, vegetable soup

12:00 Pork belly with rice, pickled veggies, boiled veggies

19:30 Pork curry over rice, jicama

20:00 Sticky rice and coconut cake. 

 

Exercise: 

30 chin ups

30 push ups

30 squats

 

I was so ready to work out after working late tonight, but the gym was closed early! So I worked out at home for a bit.

 

I had been feeling tired and disappointed in myself as of late. I feel that I want some rest. Maybe the sickness yesterday helped me relax a little and regain my balance! I should get back on the work out though.