Starpuck: Journey through the Mire

[starpuck]

 

Coasting would suggest continued forward movement without a lot of effort.    Treading water is getting nowhere, despite a lot of work under the surface.      Nope, what I've got going is much more like trudging...   through the swamp of sadness...   without Artax.    {I did not use that picture because we've all been traumatized enough by that.}   The truth is, while I haven't back slid entirely...   I'm eating like an ass again.  I'm exercising fine enough.   But I've given into the swamp lately.     Life situations, weather patterns, poor sleep - whatever the reason/excuse might be - it's still up to me to put my foot down and choose to push through, rather than sink.    

 

Step 1 - FULL RETREAT!

 

Wait, what?   Rangers never give up, never surrender!    Nope... sometimes a strategic retreat is what it takes to the win the war.    I fell down the cookie hole.    Cookies, candy, cakes and brownies.   If there's sugar in it, I'm craving it.    Sure, some of that came from the fact I started baking.  [I had bought 'cheap' matcha and could not stomach it for my tea and latte, but it works great in matcha bread and brownie recipes... woops.]   Most of it is just that they are tasting so darn good lately, that 2 is not a serving.   So, this is a full retreat from sweets.     I realize that going cold turkey is a bit of a huge jump, so I am going to allow frozen yogurt bars as evening sweet treats.  Likewise, my toasted bread with pb& honey is okay too.    These are things that I will NOT over indulge on so I feel they accomplish the brain-trick of 'hey sweet' without being a problem.

 

Goal - Limit sweets to proscribed rations.  (Yogurt bars and pb toast.)     

** There is a 50th bday party and also 4th of July in this mix.   As such, I will allow myself two specialty treats during this five week span.  (I'm starting today!)

 

Me... facing sweets.

 

 

Step 2 - Don't Stop Mapping!

When you have a good map in hand, and you have yourself oriented... keep using the map!   I've been tracking for a while now.   And MFP tells me I have an impressive streak of logging in.   I'd say that probably 90% of those days are accurately and intentionally tracked - and the other 10% are half tracked, or 'man I am logging in to keep my streak alive'.   Even still.   90/10 is a damn tough thing to do, and I'd really like to hit the 1 year mark!   I just want these last 2 months to be more articulate in the tracking.     

 

I also had gotten to a really good point of cooking at home.    Summer always gets more tricky because I do my 'home cooking' at my friends house.  My friends house that does not have AC, and whose basement.... BASEMENT, hit 81 degrees last night while we were gaming.    Using ovens and stoves, in a kitchen that has me literally sweating while I cook, is really hard to get around.    But it's the only option I have because home cooking ain't gonna work, and I don't have my own house.   So, maybe I look up more 'no cook' recipes and do more cool-related foods- or just tough out the heat for some quick stir-fries or something.    I gotta stick to this.   My calorie purse and pocket book will thank me.

  

Goal - Cook food to eat on game nights - 1-2x/week

Goal - Continue tracking, and track more accurately - 7x/week

 

 

 

Step 3 - Keep the feet, and the pencil, moving!

I actually have been doing really well on exercise.  2 lifts a week, and 3 others a week- either boxing, bike riding or hockey.     I don't need a goal for this because I'm in a good place on this task.   But this is just a reminder that if I want out of this swamp, I need to keep moving.      

 

Art, on the other hand, is a skill I put a lot of time and love into, that is fading.    Not for lack of wanting to do it, but because I haven't been making time for it.   Along with this, comes now, a fear of having to regain some lost bit of polish on my efforts.   It's probably a little like riding a bike, but I am going to need get some confidence back and handle a few bumps along the road.   I've been at a place, where I feel like I want to change my style - and I'm not sure how one does that.   I have two Udemy courses in my course list that I can start working through.   I need to set days to do this.

 

Goal - Artwork practice - 3x/week

Goal - Art Lesson - 1x/week

**Set days so it is a routine.   (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday +1 weekend day.)

 

 

 

I think I will be setting up a simple BuJo for this, and also try to get into the habit of keeping that updated.     

 

Some other side goals for this are as follows:

☐   Update NF on the weekend.

☐   Continue to work on D&D Prep

☐   On 7/1 - Pay off all bills.  (Maybe pay off car.)

☐   Rework budget and start using Expense Tracker!!!

☐   Do some planning/actual paperwork on house goal.

 

Alright, let's do this.   To those of you who stalk me on facebook, please poke me there to keep me accountable here.  You have my full permission!  

[RhiaWolfe]

Heya Master Puck!!!! I am back! Getting on board the Challenge Hype Train for this month! 

 

Like the challenge goals so far! I too struggle with sweets and carbs. Way to go on your 90% tracking! that's awesome! You got this! 

[Wild Wolf]

49 minutes ago, Starpuck said:

Nope, what I've got going is much more like trudging...

 

 

50 minutes ago, Starpuck said:

On 7/1 - Pay off all bills.  (Maybe pay off car.)

 

Hell yeah!! That's a great milestone! I'm here rooting you on, girlie!

 

Wolf

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

2 hours ago, Starpuck said:

Alright, let's do this.   To those of you who stalk me on facebook, please poke me there to keep me accountable here.  You have my full permission!  

Do you REALLY want to give me unlimited permission to unleash the hounds of Facebook Accountability?

[RhiaWolfe]

2 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Do you REALLY want to give me unlimited permission to unleash the hounds of Facebook Accountability?

 

Hee hee... let's do it, Tank! 

[Cheetah]

6 hours ago, Starpuck said:

stalk me on facebook

 

I'm down.

 

These are great goals, and you are very stronk.  You can do it!

[starpuck]

The day you post your challenge is always the easiest one to keep up with heh.

 

11 hours ago, RhiaWolfe said:

Heya Master Puck!!!! I am back! Getting on board the Challenge Hype Train for this month! 

Like the challenge goals so far! I too struggle with sweets and carbs. Way to go on your 90% tracking! that's awesome! You got this! 

Yay!  A return of the padawan!     So glad to see you back, and also glad to hear you're still working with the coach.  Awesome awesome!

Sweets weren't always a problem for me... this is a new thing as of late.   I mean, I always loved them, but I used to reserve my out of control-ness to just gaming nights.   That... slipped a bit the last few weeks.   Fixing it now!

 

10 hours ago, SheriffWolfpool said:

Hell yeah!! That's a great milestone! I'm here rooting you on, girlie!

Wolf

Thanks!    I'm one of those that pays off their monthly usage credit cards every month.  >.>   But paying the car off a year and a half early IS pretty swanky.  I haven't decided yet if I am doing it.  It depends on our year end bonuses at work... which I'll find out in 6 days.  Gulp.   Bonus, no bonus, little bonus, big bonus?  /shrug\  Whoknows!?       And since I'm also trying to think about getting a house.  (Man I hate Illinois.)    I gotta weigh my options.

 

9 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Do you REALLY want to give me unlimited permission to unleash the hounds of Facebook Accountability?

 

6 hours ago, RhiaWolfe said:

Hee hee... let's do it, Tank! 

 

Yes!  I do.   

 

5 hours ago, Cheetah said:

I'm down.

These are great goals, and you are very stronk.  You can do it!

Thanks Cheetah.     I know I can do it.   I have to want it enough to make it a happening thing.   Attitude is always the hardest adjustment, eh?

 

 

So day one of getting back on the forum wagon.   

• No sweets.  (Damn did I want some!)   I skipped morning coffee because I wasn't feeling it, but did have a canned cold brew coffee after lunch.   For clarity (and sanity) I am not counting coffee as 'sweets'.   Even though I creamer and sugar them.    I only use 2 tsps of sugar per cup and have only 1-2 cups a day max.    And without that... I'd also be quitting caffeine at the same time?   Hah, no thanks!
• I did my workout and got through it at the weights it called for today.    I have not been feeling very strong lately.   .oO(Maybe the body is not best fueled by only processed sugar carbs after all.  Hmm.)
• Tracked food, ate healthy, all good.  
• The only thing that slipped through the cracks today was art.  I had played a game of Northgard with my friend, and it got me super jonesing to finish up the chapter I was working on in story mode afterward.    Which I did.     So that's done.   Art for sure tomorrow, before I hop onto my Don't Starve night with my peeps.

 

Hopefully work is calm tomorrow and I can finish up my prepwork for my D&D game on Sat.

 

Me... willing prep into my notebook.

 

[DarK_RaideR]

13 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Do you REALLY want to give me unlimited permission to unleash the hounds of Facebook Accountability?

 

3 hours ago, Starpuck said:

Yes!  I do.   

 

Discord accountability, standing by

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

5 hours ago, DarK_RaideR said:

 

 

Discord accountability, standing by

Oh man, I haven't been on that discord app in so long. I couldn't keep up with it.

[RhiaWolfe]

9 hours ago, Starpuck said:

   Art for sure tomorrow, before I hop onto my Don't Starve night with my peeps.

 

 

 

LOVE Don't Starve! I play with some of my friends on Wednesday nights. Love it! 

 

 

Although right now we're trying out our hand at We Need to Go Deeper. Talk about a difficult game... 

[Raxie]

[starpuck]

Day 2 went down fine.   I got a lovely bike ride in on my lunch break and soaked up the sun.

Food was on track and I avoided the sweets.

I also inked my attempt at an arcanoloth - which is one of these guys.   

 

Thing is... my style is kind of 'anime-esque' and so trying to draw a fox humanoid type came out pretty anthro.   Not nearly as cool looking as this guy here; and while I could have for sure copied just that pic and pose, that wasn't the goal.   I'll share it once it's done. (Hopefully tonight.)   The story behind this arcanaloth pic is that we went to a village beset by the yugoloths and were fighting through the peons, up to the bigger guys and eventually to this one.   And we got into a jam.    The kind of jam where it plays out like this...

 

New guy in party (eager lawful good kensai) runs up to engage because we had agreed to not parlay with the fiends.  

He gets nearly killed by the two nycaloths near the boss.

Arcanaloth, named Schmitty lol, holds up a finger and holds his action (which is to cast finger of death!) on new guy, and says, "It doesn't have to go down like this.  Shall we talk?"

 

And so we opted to talk.  And now we have to probably sell a bit of our souls (morals wise) to use these guys, to accomplish a feat we keep failing at.  (Killing the Archmage that has killed 6 of my rogue's friends now.)    So I wanted to draw a pic of him holding his finger out at his target.  

 

Basically... I'm rusty as heck.  Haven't drawn in forever.   And my first thought was 'An anthro animal, facing forward, with a finger pointing (so foreshortening skills needed) out ahead'     Sometimes I am dumb lol.

 

Today is maybe exercise (I've got an injury I might have to cater to instead) and more healthy eats, working on D&D stuff and then drawing.

 

To Do for Next Few Days

☐  Pick Recipe / Write Shopping List

☐  Make plans for Monday Sushi with Lisa/Ams

☐  Find 4th of July Fun Things

☐  Yard work and cut stump out of dead bush in front

☐  Alternate D&D night on Wed?

☐  Epsom salt bath!

 

[RhiaWolfe]

14 minutes ago, Starpuck said:

Day 2 went down fine.   I got a lovely bike ride in on my lunch break and soaked up the sun.

Food was on track and I avoided the sweets.

I also inked my attempt at an arcanoloth - which is one of these guys.   

 

Thing is... my style is kind of 'anime-esque' and so trying to draw a fox humanoid type came out pretty anthro.   Not nearly as cool looking as this guy here; and while I could have for sure copied just that pic and pose, that wasn't the goal.   I'll share it once it's done. (Hopefully tonight.)   The story behind this arcanaloth pic is that we went to a village beset by the yugoloths and were fighting through the peons, up to the bigger guys and eventually to this one.   And we got into a jam.    The kind of jam where it plays out like this...

 

New guy in party (eager lawful good kensai) runs up to engage because we had agreed to not parlay with the fiends.  

He gets nearly killed by the two nycaloths near the boss.

Arcanaloth, named Schmitty lol, holds up a finger and holds his action (which is to cast finger of death!) on new guy, and says, "It doesn't have to go down like this.  Shall we talk?"

 

And so we opted to talk.  And now we have to probably sell a bit of our souls (morals wise) to use these guys, to accomplish a feat we keep failing at.  (Killing the Archmage that has killed 6 of my rogue's friends now.)    So I wanted to draw a pic of him holding his finger out at his target.  

 

Basically... I'm rusty as heck.  Haven't drawn in forever.   And my first thought was 'An anthro animal, facing forward, with a finger pointing (so foreshortening skills needed) out ahead'     Sometimes I am dumb lol.

 

 

 

I have missed seeing all the Puck-arts! Looking forward to your uploads! 

 

15 minutes ago, Starpuck said:

 

To Do for Next Few Days

☐  Pick Recipe / Write Shopping List

☐  Make plans for Monday Sushi with Lisa/Ams

☐  Find 4th of July Fun Things

☐  Yard work and cut stump out of dead bush in front

☐  Alternate D&D night on Wed?

☐  Epsom salt bath!

 

 

Oooh, what fun things are you looking for for the 4th of July? 

[starpuck]

Managed the Day.

Food fine.  No sweets.   Light exercise around injury.   Art happened.    Cut grass.   Did laundry.

 

To Do for Next Few Days

☒   Pick Recipe / Write Shopping List

☐  Make plans for Monday Sushi with Lisa/Ams

☐  Find 4th of July Fun Things

☒   Yard work and cut stump out of dead bush in front

☐  Alternate D&D night on Wed?

☒   Epsom salt bath!

 

And, since I promised.  >.<   Here's Schmitty, the Arcanaloth, as he's about to Finger of Death our monk.

[Cheetah]

Not the Monk!  NNOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

 

 

Good work though.  Keep it up.  ;-)

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

36 minutes ago, Starpuck said:

 

And, since I promised.  >.<   Here's Schmitty, the Arcanaloth, as he's about to Finger of Death our monk.

You know the hardest part of this? The hardest part is cleaning up afterward.

[DarK_RaideR]

On 6/25/2019 at 4:21 PM, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Oh man, I haven't been on that discord app in so long. I couldn't keep up with it.

 

5 hours ago, Starpuck said:

Here's Schmitty, the Arcanaloth, as he's about to Finger of Death our monk.

I'm preeeeeeetty sure it's not the index finger that's used in that spell...  

 

Missed the Starpuck D&d stories! Also, I had to pause at the part below:

16 hours ago, Starpuck said:

Thing is... my style is kind of 'anime-esque' and so trying to draw a fox humanoid type came out pretty anthro.

I get how it can be a struggle with anime being full of anthropomorphic animals and especially all that kitsune stuff. While I do appreciate the more realistic art like the one you posted as a sample or even grittier takes like this one

being the Planescape dork nerd that I am even if I found out about it long after it had gone out of print (it's a 2nd edition ad&d thing from the early 90s, when I got into the hobby in the early 00s when 3rd edition came out) when it comes to planar creatures I have a soft spot for the more psychedelic style of Tony DiTerlizzi

Some folks might recognize his style from artwork he did for several Magic:The Gathering cards

 

Here's Shemeska the Marauder, a supremely vain, self centered and tyrranical crime lord of the Multiverse

 

What I'm trying to say is

1) Your style doesn't have to be "realistic" (especially when drawing fantasy stuff, ffs)

2) The "default/usual/popular/canon" style is not what you must look up to. Likewise, not doing stuff in that exact vein doesn't make your aforementioned stuff not-good

3) Have faith in your unique personal flavor. DiTerlizzi's came to visually define the entire Planescape setting

4) Your art is great

5) D&d is great

6) Planescape is awesome

 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

5 hours ago, DarK_RaideR said:

1) Your style doesn't have to be "realistic" (especially when drawing fantasy stuff, ffs)

2) The "default/usual/popular/canon" style is not what you must look up to. Likewise, not doing stuff in that exact vein doesn't make your aforementioned stuff not-good

3) Have faith in your unique personal flavor. DiTerlizzi's came to visually define the entire Planescape setting

4) Your art is great

This. This. So. Much. This. We don't need another artist who can draw "Realistically." We need Starpuck doing Starpuck things with her art. That's the beautiful thing about Art, is that the artist decides what to do. "Comparison is the thief of joy" applies to artwork as well. Maybe we don't need yet another GrimDark interpretation of stuff, given how grimdark the world can seem. We need Puck's style where characters smile. 

 

 

I also agree with 5 and 6, but they aren't about Puck's awesome drawings.

[starpuck]

Omg guys...

 

Local gaming store is starting a "Game like a Girl" monthly event, to be held 4th Wed of each month.   I got the flyer and asked if it was just board games, or if there would be an D&D sessions.   They said that first one was just board games and interest polls, but they very much anticipated D&D would be up for future events.   I replied back that I've played D&D for 20 years and have DM'd for about 2.5 now, so if they needed some bodies to help grow their D&D I would be more than willing.

 

They emailed today...

 

Good morning, Starpuck!  I wanted to circle back on your note from Monday, as we begin to plan out our Game Like a Girl event for July.  You mentioned you’ve got experience DMing….is this something that you would be willing to do for our event in July?  If so, what systems are you familiar with and open to running?

 

In my brain, I was thinking like 'Oh I could be an experienced player at the table' and I didn't even realize the other option.    Thing is... I sort of want to try?   But I am soooo terrified of it.  I've never gamed in a store, or played in a store run game, or played with strangers, and ... holy crap, nerve-wracking!!!

 

[RhiaWolfe]

14 hours ago, Starpuck said:

 

And, since I promised.  >.<   Here's Schmitty, the Arcanaloth, as he's about to Finger of Death our monk.

 

 

Love the Puck Art!!!!! <3

 

1 hour ago, Starpuck said:

Omg guys...

 

Local gaming store is starting a "Game like a Girl" monthly event, to be held 4th Wed of each month.   I got the flyer and asked if it was just board games, or if there would be an D&D sessions.   They said that first one was just board games and interest polls, but they very much anticipated D&D would be up for future events.   I replied back that I've played D&D for 20 years and have DM'd for about 2.5 now, so if they needed some bodies to help grow their D&D I would be more than willing.

 

They emailed today...

 

Good morning, Starpuck!  I wanted to circle back on your note from Monday, as we begin to plan out our Game Like a Girl event for July.  You mentioned you’ve got experience DMing….is this something that you would be willing to do for our event in July?  If so, what systems are you familiar with and open to running?

 

In my brain, I was thinking like 'Oh I could be an experienced player at the table' and I didn't even realize the other option.    Thing is... I sort of want to try?   But I am soooo terrified of it.  I've never gamed in a store, or played in a store run game, or played with strangers, and ... holy crap, nerve-wracking!!!

 

 

Oh wow! First, that's awesome that your game store is doing a thing like that! Love it! 

 

I can see how that could be stressful and nerve wracking! I would suggest maybe telling them that while you don't feel 100% confident in being DM for such an event that you'd be willing to try? I think it would be cool to try that out.

[Sloth the Enduring]

Never tell gamers you’re a DM. You’ll never not be a DM.

[Raxie]

1 hour ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

Never tell gamers you’re a DM. You’ll never not be a DM.

 

Truth. It does sound like a fun opportunity though!!

 

ALSO YAY ARTING!

[Sloth the Enduring]

@strickland5 runs a store game; he might have advice.

[starpuck]

Things are going along well folks.

No sweets still.  (I did have a slice of my homemade matcha bread.  It's bread, it's allowed!)  ((And it was the last of it before it was going to get weird.))

Nice bike ride yesterday.   Lift day for today.

 

Need moar art.

Need to finish getting ready for my D&D game tomorrow.

 

I replied to the gaming store.  I told them I had never played at a gaming store before, so probably should play a game or two to get a grasp on the differences in dynamics and atmosphere,  but also said that if they ended up with so much interest they were desperately short on DM's, that I couldn't refuse the call to don my adventurers gear and go out and save the world.  Er, D&D night.

 

We'll see how it goes.

 

Last night's D&D game had me showing off my new level 13 rogue assassin ability "Imposter".   I donned a disguise and perfectly mimicked our enemy general, walked into the war room of the Rebel Council and .... found the actual General whom I was copying, already there!    AWKWARD!   lol.   And amazing.   (We had been trying to convince her that her side was not on the level, and that there was another thread puller controlling the prince she served.   She had come to find we were right, and had offered to come help us resolve the civil war.)

 

Good stuff, good stuff.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

5 hours ago, Starpuck said:

Last night's D&D game had me showing off my new level 13 rogue assassin ability "Imposter".   I donned a disguise and perfectly mimicked our enemy general, walked into the war room of the Rebel Council and .... found the actual General whom I was copying, already there!    AWKWARD!   lol.   And amazing.   (We had been trying to convince her that her side was not on the level, and that there was another thread puller controlling the prince she served.   She had come to find we were right, and had offered to come help us resolve the civil war.)