starsapart revisits the basics

[starsapart]

30 minutes ago, juliebarkley said:

What he said.

 

2 hours ago, starsapart said:

aerialist ab exercises.

I'm gonna try these outside today! Hardwood floors make indoors an unattractive option when you don't have a yoga mat. Thanks again for showing us!

 

Glad to have you. And yay! Let me know what you think. 😊

 

31 minutes ago, juliebarkley said:

My brother did something similar once - it's astonishing how much blood you get from a tiny cut on the head. I hope Starlet is all better now and has had her fill of terrifying her parents.

 

19 minutes ago, Scalyfreak said:

 

Heads and faces are like fingertips. They have lots and lots of tiny blood vessels close to each other and close to the surface. That's why wounds to the head or face always look so horrifying and/or dramatic, depending on the context. My nurse sibling claims that chanting "it looks worse than it is" over and over when this happens with their children actually helps. If you remember to do it, that is.  

 

I hope Starlet feels better and avoided a concussion!

 

Yeah, now that she's not bleeding it really is a pretty small little scrape, but I've definitely been super jumpy all day thanks to that. She's napping now, so post-nap we'll have to check if there's any swelling, wash it again, and get more neosporin on her. My concentration for work and other things has been completely shot, needless to say.

[juliebarkley]

20 minutes ago, starsapart said:

And yay! Let me know what you think. 😊

It's fun! I like it. But I only did one round because it's windy and I was in a skirt. Whoops, sorry neighbors!

[dancezwithkittehz]

19 hours ago, bigm141414 said:

 

Video games ruined me. I now have a compulsion to complete ALL side quests before moving on, because I might miss some story or some lore. Is there a FOMO version for fictional world storylines? Because I have it

 

 

 

Same, friend, same. Hahahaha.  SIDE QUEST LIFE!

[raptron]

On 5/6/2020 at 1:49 PM, starsapart said:

I AM GLAD WE'RE NOT IRRITATING YOU.

You're really fun to play with and your NPCs give me life; I will miss it once this heist is over.

100000x not irritating me! This is the game. You guys are playing it. ❤️ 

 

And you are so sweet! I'm enjoying playing with y'all as well. We'll just have to play again sometime! 

 

On 5/6/2020 at 8:42 PM, bigm141414 said:

Video games ruined me. I now have a compulsion to complete ALL side quests before moving on, because I might miss some story or some lore. Is there a FOMO version for fictional world storylines? Because I have it

IT IS VERY MUCH A THING. One of my other games couldn't handle leaving a dungeon without exploring the whole map every time until I trained them that that was going to be a pretty bad idea a lot of the time, lol. 

 

On 5/6/2020 at 8:42 PM, bigm141414 said:

Does it have to be? Could the true heist be that we're stealing DM time from raptron without getting caught? Did I just solve the game?!?

🏆Hahahah. 

 

Sorry about the bump in the night and how rattled it left you guys. Glad she seems fine though! 

[starsapart]

21 hours ago, juliebarkley said:

It's fun! I like it. But I only did one round because it's windy and I was in a skirt. Whoops, sorry neighbors!

 

Listen, if they're staring into your yard, then whatever they see is on them, not you. 😋

 

19 hours ago, dancezwithkittehz said:

 

Same, friend, same. Hahahaha.  SIDE QUEST LIFE!

 

It's why it takes me 100+ hours to finish a Final Fantasy game.

 

56 minutes ago, raptron said:

100000x not irritating me! This is the game. You guys are playing it. ❤️ 

 

And you are so sweet! I'm enjoying playing with y'all as well. We'll just have to play again sometime! 

 

Say the word, I am here for it. I've got four (possibly five?????????????) characters running simultaneously now and I feel fine about it. It's great escapism.

 

56 minutes ago, raptron said:

Sorry about the bump in the night and how rattled it left you guys. Glad she seems fine though!

 

Yeah, she's completely fine. It's just a tiny little cut right in the middle of all her long hair (naturally)  that we have to keep clean, but she's clearly already forgotten all about it.

 

 

 

 

Yesterday was a rough day all things considered. I didn't make it outside because work was a zoo and then in the evening it got crazy windy to the point where I was worried I might get blown off to Oz if I stepped out. Fortunately, starlet got a walk with stillskies earlier in the day while I handled conference calls, so at least she got some fresh air. I made homemade Thai-style black pepper chicken again and then overpaid absurdly to have a boba milk tea delivered because it was that sort of evening. I did exactly one chin-up when I went down to swap out a load of laundry, and that was my only claim to exercise all day.

[KB Girl]

One chinup is more than zero chinups! I'm somehwat convinced (trying to convince myself?) that those little things will at least send all the right maintaining signals to our bodies. 

 

6 hours ago, starsapart said:

then overpaid absurdly to have a boba milk tea delivered because it was that sort of evening

Worth it. 

[WhiteGhost]

14 hours ago, starsapart said:

and that was my only claim to exercise all day.

You also found me an abz video, that's gotta count for SOMETHING!

[starsapart]

On 5/8/2020 at 4:12 PM, KB Girl said:

One chinup is more than zero chinups! I'm somehwat convinced (trying to convince myself?) that those little things will at least send all the right maintaining signals to our bodies. 

 

Worth it. 

 

I mean, I hope so. My haphazard occasional seconds of activity are surely better than nothing. That's where I'm at...

 

On 5/9/2020 at 12:38 AM, WhiteGhost said:

You also found me an abz video, that's gotta count for SOMETHING!

 

That was the day after, to be fair.

 

 

 

 

 

The weekend (which always includes Friday in my book) was kind of a blur, but I definitely did the Cirque advanced abs video, so at least there's that. There was lots of housework, D&D (recaps below), and a little unavoidable in-store shopping... sigh. We were on our way home from dropping off starlet with my parents on Saturday when the grocery store informed us we wouldn't be getting cat litter in our order that afternoon because they didn't have any (?????) so we had to mask up and go to Target, because that is not an item you just put off buying. Target was full of people, just literally everywhere, it was insane and super stressful after a month of not even going into stores for groceries, and I nearly had a panic attack in the pet food aisle. Fun times. But we survived and bought all the things we needed that had been labeled as out of stock at our grocery store (like the cat litter, but also honey, my preferred brand of skyr, even chicken) annnnnnnnnnnnd a baby pool for starlet for when the weather warms up for real. This is the first May in memory that we HAVEN'T had a final snowstorm as a sort of last hurrah somewhere between May 1-10, but it's still been windy and kind of chilly, so it's definitely an item for use sometime later. Oh! And I had socially distanced teatime with one of my closest friends on Friday after starlet was in bed, too! I set up the folding table and chair for her on our back patio and we chatted through the screen door 10 feet apart (she brought her own cup, even). It was nice to see her.

 

The official start of the challenge was yesterday, also known as Mother's Day, so we had some tasty food with my parents and celebrated a little. I drank a LOT of water, though my eating was still pretty questionable. But hey. All we care about right now is the water, right? I was in bed with the lights out at 10:28pm. YAY. Sadly, it took me a long time to get to sleep and I still had multiple wake-ups in the middle of the night, but that's just my current reality, I suppose.

 

D&D recap time!

Spoiler

Saltmarsh: We're still doing downtime, but we had some fun little character interactions while we wait for the progression of the plot. It's good to start seeing the characters' personalities emerge a little more. I think the next live is on May 22nd, so I may or may not have much to say about this one before then.

 

Fraxaria: This campaign kicked off on Saturday to replace Grimkofe (aka the Shitshow) for the next month. I got my first taste of the incredible power that comes with playing a swashbuckler rogue, holy WOW, so much damage??? From a plot perspective, the first session was mostly about bringing a team of relative strangers together. The cleric and the fighter came into town together - the cleric is adorable and seems very young but is also somehow a hyperactive zealot, so the fighter's main goal seems to be to keep her from getting stabbed when she begins loudly proclaiming that her god IS THE ONLY TRUE GOD and he SENT HER ON A HOLY MISSION etc. Anyway, my character joined them at their table at the tavern mostly because they'd nearly started an altercation and then were drinking whiskey at 9 in the morning, and per my rogue that is the definition of a good time. Shortly thereafter, the tabaxi warlock wandered over who claimed to remember my character from many years ago (she was young at the time and I failed the history check; she had no clue who he was, but the more the merrier, right?), and then finally an aasimar monk came thundering down the stairs shouting for a healer because a druid in bird form had burst through her window, turned back into a man, and was now bleeding out on her floor... so there we all went, because what the hell else did we have to do? The druid was the only survivor of an adventuring party that had tried and completely failed to hunt down an absurdly expensive (I am talking 25k gold) mark in the nearby woods. While many of us had doubts that this was something we were likely to successfully accomplish (that price on the mark's head implies a pretty damn hard fight), the cleric immediately decided her god had sent her a sign and charged off, and the rest of us, for varying reasons of our own, decided we weren't going to let her go get killed and followed along. We had to gather some info first and (unsuccessfully) attempt to get a few soldiers from the local barracks to help us out, so we headed into the woods after dark, then started a fight by making a distraction and picking off some of the easier enemies (we have no idea how many there are, but we've killed 6 so far and were told the longer portion of the fight was still to come soooooooooooooo). We paused at a break in the action before the serious battle begins, per the DM... here's hoping whatever's in that cave doesn't just mow right through our level 3 asses. Assuming we survive, there are a couple of additional plot hooks we will need to go explore afterward. All in all, the thing that struck me the most about this campaign was that, despite having the same exact players as the shitshow, these characters were (with the exception of the cleric) sensible adults who didn't do stupid shit that could get them killed on accident 6 times per session. It's a completely different dynamic. I can actually believe a situation where these people might save the world. 😂

 

A Wild Sheep Chase: This will be your first time hearing about this one, but basically a good friend of ours who lives in Spain messaged us and asked if we wanted to play a one shot with her. The only things she told us were that it would probably be 3 hours or under, and that it would be ridiculous so to please make some ridiculous characters. Accordingly, we had a gnome barbarian known as the kneecapper, a judgy old lady kobold warlock, a swashbuckler changeling with a short attention span, and my tabaxi monk who really just wanted to collect shiny rocks and honestly did not care a bit about anything else. The plot turned out to be... a sheep came to us with a "talk to animals" spell scroll and informed us that he was a great wizard whose apprentice had stolen the magic wand of transmutation that he had invented and turned him into a sheep and taken over his tower. So we had to go get his wand back. Highlights included setting fires as distractions and the apprentice, who sounded like a super ditzy college girl, trying to turn a bed into a dragon. We managed to get back the wand and turn the wizard back into an elf, and he thanked us with magical items and gold because he could finally eat some damn cereal instead of the grass he'd been forced to subsist on for the last two years. And that was it. It was extremely silly and fun and I would absolutely reprise this team of oddballs if I ever had the opportunity.

 

Coming up...: We may or may not be heisting tomorrow - there might be an availability issue. Saltmarsh might get some more character interaction. And Fraxaria is scheduled for Saturday night, with hope that we might survive whatever's in the cave.

 

[Scaly Freak]

40 minutes ago, starsapart said:

We were on our way home from dropping off starlet with my parents on Saturday when the grocery store informed us we wouldn't be getting cat litter in our order that afternoon because they didn't have any (?????) so we had to mask up and go to Target, because that is not an items you just put off buying.

 

Two words for you: Amazon subscription.

 

And yes, good grief, never, EVER, be without cat litter. They get creative!

[starsapart]

1 minute ago, Scalyfreak said:

 

Two words for you: Amazon subscription.

 

And yes, good grief, never, EVER, be without cat litter. They get creative!

 

Yes, I should probably set this up. We already have a subscription for the other poo-related necessity in our house (diapers) so why not......

[Scaly Freak]

3 minutes ago, starsapart said:

 

Yes, I should probably set this up. We already have a subscription for the other poo-related necessity in our house (diapers) so why not......

 

We have that for toilet paper as well, and it has honestly been a relief to not have to worry about that.

[starsapart]

Just now, Scalyfreak said:

 

We have that for toilet paper as well, and it has honestly been a relief to not have to worry about that.

 

Blessedly, I was able to order a huge box with 60 rolls a few weeks ago. We're good through the fall, at least.

[starsapart]

Yesterday was an unexpectedly high-spoon day in that I had the mental energy to do a lot more than usual. I did the water thing, mostly. I made a big pot of curry at lunchtime. I took a walk with starlet and stillskies during the brief break in the drizzly weather. I made an order for some furniture and drove out half an hour away to pick it up and bring it home once I'd put the baby to bed. After I got home, I went and did a quick 5x5 set of deadlifts, and I was on bed with the lights out at 10:23.

 

The furniture is because we're trying to move starlet's playroom down from the front living room to the den. She's been playing in the front room since she was born, and it's been convenient (until now) to just put her toys on the lower shelves in our wall of bookshelves. However, as she gets bigger, we have to keep moving our books up so she doesn't pull them out and tear them (tearing books is her FAVORITE FRIGGIN ACTIVITY), and she's also trying to climb the bookshelves, plus there's that decorative end-table that she's dropped on her head that we've had a hard time attaching to the wall. Downstairs is NOT baby-proof right now, but we've discussed how to make it so and the first step is getting some toy display shelves, which I picked up yesterday and now need to assemble. Next, we'll get rid of the tall decorative shelf that holds various display items that we've had for years (and put up floating shelves to display the ones we want to keep out). My parents are coming for dinner on Sunday, so I'm hoping to have all the new furniture built and the old furniture moved so my dad can help us bolt EVERYTHING to the walls. There's more babyproofing to do down there still (figure out what to do with the DVD collection, for example, see if there's a way to keep her from endlessly hitting buttons on the gaming systems, do something about the shoe cubby by the garage door), but we're hoping to have it completely done and her transitioned down there by the end of the month, hopefully. It will also help for the rare moments that we do turn on the TV for her (she was screen-free until quarantine started; now she gets some Russian cartoons once in a while because we're only human). For now, whenever we put the TV on for her, we've had to park her in a pack and play that she does NOT like because it's not safe to let her free-roam down there. Hopefully, this new plan results in a better situation. I've got the last week of May off, since my work wouldn't let me move my PTO even though our trip to Mexico was (of course) canceled, so I guess I'll use my birthday week to really double down on the transformation.

 

On a less positive note, I didn't sleep well, again. I can fix my bedtime but I can't fix the stress of the general world situation and the fact that I'm waking up multiple times a night feeling tremendously stressed and anxious for no immediate reason. I have been mainlining melatonin (it helps a little, though I still wake up), but I felt yesterday like maybe I should slow down on that as it's most likely not meant to be taken multiple weeks in a row, and naturally, last night's wake-ups were worse than usual.

[Scaly Freak]

I don't remember right now where you're at with meditation? I have found that using meditation techniques to help me fall asleep also seems to help my brain stay calm while we sleep. Is this an option at all for you?

[starsapart]

Just now, Scalyfreak said:

I don't remember right now where you're at with meditation? I have found that using meditation techniques to help me fall asleep also seems to help my brain stay calm while we sleep. Is this an option at all for you?

 

As I rule I'm notoriously terrible at meditation and it doesn't really seem to help relax me, so I quit trying years ago.... 

[Scaly Freak]

Fine, never mind then 😛 

 

On a more serious note, meditation isn't something that works for everyone, and that's just one of those things that are the way they are. My understanding of melatonin is that it helps us fall asleep, but not stay asleep or sleep well... can you get your hands on relaxing herbal teas that may help with that?

[starpuck]

Super awesome busy day!    This high spoon phrase ... I like it.  Where did it come from?     I have a term called floon - which I picked up during my years of MUSH'ing and MUX'ing and MUD'nig on the internet.   It basically means a bunch of positive, creative, get'er'done energy!    As an example, my art floon was high last night!   (It helps that something happened in D&D that made me want to work on my halfling's pic.)

 

So much house readiness to shift into!  Whew!   Good luck!    Those are the kinds of projects I LOVE.  But since I don't have my own place, I can't do aaaaany of them.  *Cry*

[starsapart]

20 minutes ago, Scalyfreak said:

Fine, never mind then 😛 

 

On a more serious note, meditation isn't something that works for everyone, and that's just one of those things that are the way they are. My understanding of melatonin is that it helps us fall asleep, but not stay asleep or sleep well... can you get your hands on relaxing herbal teas that may help with that?

 

I wish I could get it to work for me! But I'm one of those people who just has a hard time with forced mental relaxation (unless I'm going outside and sitting in the air and watching a sunset or something, but those sunsets have been in short supply with the current weather). I've been trying to swap to herbal teas with calming stuff in them (raspberry lavender is my current jam) and hoping they are helping at least a bit.

 

19 minutes ago, Starpuck said:

Super awesome busy day!    This high spoon phrase ... I like it.  Where did it come from?     I have a term called floon - which I picked up during my years of MUSH'ing and MUX'ing and MUD'nig on the internet.   It basically means a bunch of positive, creative, get'er'done energy!    As an example, my art floon was high last night!   (It helps that something happened in D&D that made me want to work on my halfling's pic.)

 

So much house readiness to shift into!  Whew!   Good luck!    Those are the kinds of projects I LOVE.  But since I don't have my own place, I can't do aaaaany of them.  *Cry*

 

Read a bit about the spoon theory here! It comes from disability and chronic illness circles to quantify the idea of the finite energy reserves that people have, and how the amount of energy in said reserve is significantly lower for someone with a chronic condition, and how the daily "max" that a person with that kind of condition can give is simply not comparable to the daily "max" of a healthy person.

 

ETA: Here is an older video from a disability activist youtuber I like demonstrating the concept. It's a bit rambly (this is early in the YouTube career, I think), but she's got a nice way of explaining it.

 

I do like home improvement projects, though. They make me feel really badass once they're finished.

[Scaly Freak]

15 minutes ago, starsapart said:

Read a bit about the spoon theory here! It comes from disability and chronic illness circles to quantify the idea of the finite energy reserves that people have, and how the amount of energy in said reserve is significantly lower for someone with a chronic condition, and how the daily "max" that a person with that kind of condition can give is simply not comparable to the daily "max" of a healthy person.

 

Thank you for posting this! I have been wondering what the spoon references were about, and it seems my theory was not far off. I was envisioning a spoon as a reservoir of energy, that grows larger on good days and smaller on more challenging days. A changing number of spoons makes perfect sense as well.  

[Renate]

3 hours ago, starsapart said:

ETA: Here is an older video from a disability activist youtuber

 

Jessica is awesome! I use 'spoons' to indicate the energy levels I have, never entirely sure if it's not insulting to do so as a theoretically "healthy person".  If anything, my angle is that it normalises the term in a positive way. It's not the same as saying you have "OCD" when you are only mildly annoyed by a disorderly place...  Or that you "understand depression" because you feel bad sometimes.

 

4 hours ago, starsapart said:

Hopefully, this new plan results in a better situation

Here's hoping! Baby-proofing is expecting the unexpected... Oof.

 

4 hours ago, starsapart said:

last night's wake-ups were worse than usual.

 

Sorry to hear.

[starsapart]

Just now, analoggirl said:

Jessica is awesome! I use 'spoons' to indicate the energy levels I have, never entirely sure if it's not insulting to do so as a theoretically "healthy person".

 

I looooooooooove Jessica so much. She makes amazing content, I always learn so much from her, and she's one of those rare super wholesome yet extremely queer role models that the internet needs more of, if you know what I mean.

 

As far as using the term as a healthy person, I think some people would find it offensive while some wouldn't care at all. I struggled a lot feeling like I was "allowed" to use it myself until a friend sat me down and (kindly) beat into my head that long-term mental illness is still long-term illness, and chronic pain is still chronic pain even if it COULD be fixed with surgery (because I am not having the surgery any time soon for a variety of reasons, largely financial, and I'm going on three years of constant pain now). Oddly enough, under "normal" circumstances, I find myself in possession of a lot more spoons than many other people with mental illness whom I personally know... but for whatever reason, the current confluence of factors has made it rough enough for me that I'm back to tracking how much energy I expend on "non-essentials" again.

 

4 minutes ago, analoggirl said:

Here's hoping! Baby-proofing is expecting the unexpected... Oof.

 

So true. We've been tweaking things ever since she became mobile because she gets into the most unexpected things and makes a complete mess of them.

 

5 minutes ago, analoggirl said:

Sorry to hear.

 

Thanks. I'm wondering if trying to work up the energy to exercise more might help. I do know that exercise has been instrumental to managing anxiety-related insomnia for me in the past. It's just that getting myself to do the thing takes energy I don't have because I didn't get enough rest, so then I don't exercise and I once again sleep poorly... you see the death spiral forming here, yes?

[Scaly Freak]

8 minutes ago, analoggirl said:

Jessica is awesome! I use 'spoons' to indicate the energy levels I have, never entirely sure if it's not insulting to do so as a theoretically "healthy person".  If anything, my angle is that it normalises the term in a positive way.

 

1 minute ago, starsapart said:

As far as using the term as a healthy person, I think some people would find it offensive while some wouldn't care at all. I struggled a lot feeling like I was "allowed" to use it myself until a friend sat me down and (kindly) beat into my head that long-term mental illness is still long-term illness

 

My video game inspired outlook has led me to view things in therms of health bars, or rather a stamina bar (general energy levels) and a mana bar (mental and emotional energy). Using either kind of energy depletes the bar, and resting makes the energy replenish slowly. Too much activity and not enough rest and the bars go down to zero, which boosts the Flame of Anxiety. Energy can also be restored with "potions", like alone time, working out, quality time with a book or pet, etc.  

[miss_marissa]

On 5/7/2020 at 11:04 AM, starsapart said:

Apparently this video has kind of a cult online following. Granted, anything that promises you abs in two weeks is lying to you, but that said, it was a pretty decent ab workout in the sense that I felt it, more or less. Honestly, the hardest thing was the up down planks with my sprained wrist (I basically just did all the weight bearing on my right hand, so I didn't alternate sides, ah well). I also ended up in a brief video chat on discord with @WhiteGhost and I think @juliebarkley (???) demoing some aerialist ab exercises. I was in bed with the lights off by 10:33pm.

TBH I only watched the first 20s or so. But I find it interesting that video has a cult following as I would not say that she has well defined/visible abs. (This could totally be my bias from being more into the powerlifting and crossfit communities where visible abs are more of a thing). Not trying to body shame or be judgemental, but just surprising to me.

 

6 hours ago, starsapart said:

do something about the shoe cubby by the garage door

I don't think eating a little shoe ever killed anyone  

 

6 hours ago, starsapart said:

On a less positive note, I didn't sleep well, again. I can fix my bedtime but I can't fix the stress of the general world situation and the fact that I'm waking up multiple times a night feeling tremendously stressed and anxious for no immediate reason. I have been mainlining melatonin (it helps a little, though I still wake up), but I felt yesterday like maybe I should slow down on that as it's most likely not meant to be taken multiple weeks in a row, and naturally, last night's wake-ups were worse than usual.

Caffeine?

[Mad Hatter]

14 hours ago, miss_marissa said:

TBH I only watched the first 20s or so. But I find it interesting that video has a cult following as I would not say that she has well defined/visible abs. (This could totally be my bias from being more into the powerlifting and crossfit communities where visible abs are more of a thing). Not trying to body shame or be judgemental, but just surprising to me.

Because god forbid if a woman looks jacked. No no that wouldn't be very feminine, you need to have just the right amount of leanness everywhere. And big tits.

 

Technically the video doesn't claim abs in two weeks. I found this disclaimer at the bottom of the video. 😉

Quote

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: Please note that all of my videos are titled according to SEO best practices for content discoverability. Unfortunately this may mean that video titles are subjective and shouldn't be seen as absolute truth. As an example, targeting fat reduction is not scientifically proven but a video title might suggest otherwise.

 

Having said that, it's a decent enough video for a bit of light conditioning (I also tried it!). And even if it won't get anyone abs it still gets a lot of people exercising for a few minutes. 🙂

[starsapart]

18 hours ago, Scalyfreak said:

My video game inspired outlook has led me to view things in therms of health bars, or rather a stamina bar (general energy levels) and a mana bar (mental and emotional energy). Using either kind of energy depletes the bar, and resting makes the energy replenish slowly. Too much activity and not enough rest and the bars go down to zero, which boosts the Flame of Anxiety. Energy can also be restored with "potions", like alone time, working out, quality time with a book or pet, etc.  

 

I really love this.

 

16 hours ago, miss_marissa said:

TBH I only watched the first 20s or so. But I find it interesting that video has a cult following as I would not say that she has well defined/visible abs. (This could totally be my bias from being more into the powerlifting and crossfit communities where visible abs are more of a thing). Not trying to body shame or be judgemental, but just surprising to me.

 

1 hour ago, Mad Hatter said:

Because god forbid if a woman looks jacked. No no that wouldn't be very feminine, you need to have just the right amount of leanness everywhere. And big tits.

 

What Hatter said. I think the societally "feminine" definition of "abs" is literally just a flat stomach? I don't know.

 

1 hour ago, Mad Hatter said:

Technically the video doesn't claim abs in two weeks. I found this disclaimer at the bottom of the video. 😉

Quote

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: Please note that all of my videos are titled according to SEO best practices for content discoverability. Unfortunately this may mean that video titles are subjective and shouldn't be seen as absolute truth. As an example, targeting fat reduction is not scientifically proven but a video title might suggest otherwise.

 

Having said that, it's a decent enough video for a bit of light conditioning (I also tried it!). And even if it won't get anyone abs it still gets a lot of people exercising for a few minutes. 🙂

 

Yeah, the two week thing was the social challenge she ran saying if you do this for two weeks you'll get abs, but I think that's now been buried (unless you look at the videos from her followers). There were a ton of Instagrams and TikToks and so on. I was just fascinated that something so... average? Had so many freakouts attached to it. But as you said, it's exercise, she's not promoting terrible form, and it's far from the worst thing you could do!

 

16 hours ago, miss_marissa said:

I don't think eating a little shoe ever killed anyone  

 

No, but cleaning up shoes strewn all over the floor every night because every single one has been pulled out of its cubby might kill ME. 😅

 

16 hours ago, miss_marissa said:

Caffeine?

 

I already stop drinking black tea by 2 (usually by noon). I do have green tea after that but it's never impacted me before, caffeine-wise. I've been trying to transition from green to herbal in the evenings, but it's hard as I'm really picky about my herbals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday wasn't much to write home about. Work was annoying. starlet got two walks because she was fussy, but I was on the phone putting out work fires for both of them, so I didn't get to go. I did take her out to play in the backyard after dinner, so at least I got some fresh air, but nothing much happened in the way of movement as I had D&D at 6:30. Not that I'm complaining about that! 😋 I did the water thing and skipped several snacks because of it! I definitely snacked like crazy during the D&D session, but at least most of the day was under control.

 

Today's going to be interesting. I think work will be pretty slow (though that could change at any moment). However, I need to build starlet's cabinets and try to reorganize the den furniture by tonight. Tomorrow morning, we're all packing up and going to my parents' because our house cleaner will be coming for the first time in two months, and I'd like everything arranged before she does. She wouldn't let me pay her if she wasn't working (and obviously, we didn't have anyone in the house for the last couple of months), so we've decided to resume service this month with a couple of precautions. Namely, we will leave her a key and a check and depart before she comes. I've asked her to disinfect all surfaces and leave all the windows open. We'll come home a couple hours after she finishes. I can't deny that it will be nice to have someone else scrub and disinfect the various surfaces in my house for a change. I've gotten so spoiled having a cleaner for the last five years. 😅

 

On to my favorite part, the D&D recap!

Spoiler

Heisters Gonna Heist: Last night was the last heist prep session, and therefore the penultimate session of this month-long "one-shot," which should conclude next Tuesday. We were missing two players, but we soldiered on all the same. Myself, @dancezwithkittehz, and @WhiteGhost headed into the sewers to scope out our escape route, along with @Mike Wazowski's character, whom we'd gotten advance permission to pilot in his absence. Fortunately, we did pretty well orienting ourselves down there and headed in the right direction to hopefully find the entrance to the mansion. We got past some magical vines just to get ambushed by a couple of alligators. One of them took a pretty massive bite out of me. Everyone was rolling poorly EXCEPT Mike's halfling, who we have hereby dubbed the murder hobbit, because he was critting everything in sight, starting with the vines and continuing with the alligators. We then found the entrance to the mark's mansion, and bless the Drow High Magic feat I picked up at level 4 with its unlimited spamming of Detect Magic. I was able to identify two spells: an alarm spell on the door and a conjuration spell of some kind on the stairs leading to the door. I have one daily use of Dispel Magic as well (despite not having third level spell slots - and again, thank goodness for Drow High Magic), and the group decided we should remove the spell on the door and risk fighting whatever was conjured by the spell on the stairs. Tossing something at the staircase summoned a giant tentacle sewage monster (ew) that we then managed to fight off, in no little part thanks to the amazing skills of mister murder hobbit and his many critical hits. We couldn't open the door from the sewer side but did get the sense that it could be opened from inside, so there was nothing for it but to limp back to our inn for baths and a short rest. Meanwhile, @bigm141414's character headed to the university library to research the demon cult that the mistress of the house may or may not be following (current working theory is she might be a warlock......) as well as how to care for fire gryphons (which is almost certainly what we're stealing). Once we all met back up again, we went shopping and picked up some spell scrolls (another Dispel Magic and a couple of Spider Climbs) and then I had the bright idea to find a veterinary type store and we were able to get a soothing spray AND tranq darts that are supposed to work on gryphons. We rounded out our shopping by picking up a few more fire protection potions and ensuring the people who don't have the catering gig have invites to attend the party at the mark's mansion. We're about as ready as it is possible to be, I think. Next week, WE HEIST.