RisenPhoenix Channels Past Lives

[RisenPhoenix]

 

 

Well here we are again and again and again.  Aangain?

 

I'm not quite sure which past life I'm actually channeling for this.  I'm not sure if it's the Fresh Faced Nerd, who found this place years ago.  The Fitness Obsessed One.  The Aikido Obsessed One.  The One Who Cooked All the Time.  The One Who Was Unemployed.  The One Who Traveled.  The Pre-Pandemic Exhausted One.  The Social One.  The Academic One.

 

Truth be told, I'm still figuring things out about what I want, both in terms of the pandemic restrictions marginally lessening (though prematurely it seems), and in my current role at work, and my life as a single person, and my life as an aikidoka and physically active person.  There's a balance that I lost a long time ago, and I've been trying to search for it for what seems an eternity now.  The pandemic for me was relatively easy.  I don't like people, I live alone, and in some ways it gave me a safe way to be away from aikido and recover from a lot of stressors put on me when I was training for my shodan last year and just after it.  And given how 2019 went, I never really got a solid decompression before the pandemic forced a lockdown.

 

A lot of this challenge is a form of trying to find a new normal here, both physically and mentally.  And hopefully channeling the past lives will help.

 

 

1) Aikido Returns: Two virtual classes a week, plus one one-my-own aikido based extracurricular.

 

My dojo has started twice a week classes on Zoom.  One on Monday, one on Saturday.  I am going to attend both of them.  On top of that, each week I'll do one extracurricular aikido thing.  I have a friend running a Tuesday night park weapons class.  There are a lot of virtual seminars now.  I'm getting my own thoughts in order on certain topics and potential ways to digitally train.  So I should embrace the fact I have this energy after months of not having it.

 

2) Enjoy the Sun: Two Outdoor actives a week.

 

I've been hiking/rucking regularly, but early on in the pandemic I was very good about going to walks outside at the end of the work day.  Over time that has dropped (possibly due to a very rainy April and an anxious May).  So my goal is to get out of the house and do some outdoor thing twice each week. (Note: I'm not counting NP in this, even though I do this technically outside every MWF on my porch.  I mean out of the house and something enjoyable in the park/nature/NOT I N THE DAMN HOUSE with some movement.)

 

3) Accept the Bad Stuff: Log non-paleo items in MPF, stick to an intermittent fasting schedule of 15-9.

 

Kyoshi doesn't have time for my shit.  My fasting schedule has been relatively solid the last few weeks, with a few issues here and there.  But I also realized that I can eat A LOT.  The baking has not helped this scenario.  Also with my work schedule now being technically 7-1ish, and physical activities happening more often at night, I can't really keep my 12-8 window that I've been using and not go insane or force myself to gorge to make some arbitrary window.  So instead I'm going to make a blanket eating window of 12-9PM.  It's wide enough that I won't feel rushed, and the logging will remind me that just because I'm doing IF doesn't mean I have free range to shove everything in my face.  (Note: Starting weight is 213.4 pounds, with a stomach measurement of 36.25" - looking to get back to the 210 or below / 35.5" or less metrics.)

 

4) Conquer the Black Thumb: Tend to the garden each day

 

I do not have good luck with plants.  At all.  And yet, in a fit of madness, I decided to try a porch garden.  Nothing crazy, currently just some strawberries, a tomato plant, some herbs and scallions, and a lone zucchini plant.  That said, I have about zero idea on how to tend a garden, so I'm slightly winging it.   I need to both tend this thing daily, and also make sure I'm treating the plants appropriately.  First order is business is really getting a bunch of proper planters for the herbs (preferably the on-railing planters my neighbor has, as I think having the herbs up high and in the sun often would be nice.  Otherwise, I may also look at getting some additional veggies added.  Like cabbage.  Mainly just trying to create a non-physical activity /screen based past time.  Hopefully I won't kill everything.

 

 

 

So yea, here's to learning from Past Lives.

 

 

EDIT: BONUS GOAL:

 

 

Agni Kai: Complete 666 pushups before AgentsSka.

 

Details of our battle here.

[AgentsSka]

Bring it.  

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Following along.

[Kyellan]

I love the garden initiative. I am with you on it. I have a surprising number of bean plants, a surprisingly low number of cucumber vines, and about 20 corn stalks growing in my backyard right now. I was hoping to plant more this year, but it just didn't happen in time. I do plan a cool-weather crop in the fall though, maybe some spinach and kale.

 

It's cool that your aikido club is meeting by Zoom. That's something, at least.

 

Keep on keeping on, brother.

[sarakingdom]

7 hours ago, RisenPhoenix said:

Otherwise, I may also look at getting some additional veggies added.  Like cabbage. 

 

Gardener here. I recommend kale instead of cabbage. Kale is basically a leaf cabbage, which means you can take individual leaves off for an entire season, maybe even a full year if you're lucky, starting in about a month from planting, and they just keep growing new ones. Cabbage, you wait a long time to get a single head, if nothing goes wrong. Leave that to professional cabbage guys.

 

Kale is very winter-hardy. It won't grow much, because it's cold, but it will laugh off the frost and snow, so you can keep picking whatever's on it, and it'll pick up again in the spring when it warms to.

 

Herbs are fine in the sun, but apart from basil, most herbs are pretty good with partial shade, if you want to allocate the sun to something that really needs it. Most herbs are pretty hardy.

[RisenPhoenix]

On 6/20/2020 at 8:04 PM, sarakingdom said:

Gardener here. I recommend kale instead of cabbage. Kale is basically a leaf cabbage, which means you can take individual leaves off for an entire season, maybe even a full year if you're lucky, starting in about a month from planting, and they just keep growing new ones. Cabbage, you wait a long time to get a single head, if nothing goes wrong. Leave that to professional cabbage guys.

 

Kale is very winter-hardy. It won't grow much, because it's cold, but it will laugh off the frost and snow, so you can keep picking whatever's on it, and it'll pick up again in the spring when it warms to.

 

Herbs are fine in the sun, but apart from basil, most herbs are pretty good with partial shade, if you want to allocate the sun to something that really needs it. Most herbs are pretty hardy.

 

See, thing is I REALY do not like kale.  I really don't like most leafy greens, to be honest - the lack of substance just makes me feel meh about them (I feel the same way about broth-heavy soup).  But noted that the cabbage idea is not a great plan.  My garden creation plans are.... haphazard at best.  Mostly focused on the few herbs regularly used, and the lone zucchini plant since I haven't had fresh zucchini in a long, long while.  And strawberries because strawberries.  Really I think my goal is to keep things alive, more than having a solid crop this year...

 

Of which, when I got home from being away most of the weekend I remembered to water all the plants.  They were.... not pleased I was not around in the morning to provide water, because it was super hot out.  Along those lines, I got home to a house that was 90F degrees, and I learned my split AC units aren't actually, you know, conditioning the air.  They seem to be functioning as bit fans, but not cooling at all.  Even after leaving them on the highest setting and letting them blast for 20+ minutes.  So yippie, I need to make a service call.  But in investigating all of this I learned my compressor unit is rated for 18,000 BTUs, which should cool practically my entire unit.  I knew I bought this place for a reason.

 

------

 

Today for me is really Day 1 of the challenge.  I spent the weekend with my folks, which meant a lot of food over lots of hours.  Wasn't too terrible of a trip, minus a few tense Pro-Trump comments and exchanges.  Totally unrelated, I stayed up Saturday night until 0230 drinking.  Totally, totally unrelated. 

 

Food this week is going to be strange, because I didn't get to go grocery shopping, but my parents loaded me up with food and snacks.  Most of it is healthy, so I'm not too concerned, but also my house is a bit bare after about a week and a half of no shopping.  At some point this week I'll go, potentially tomorrow after I leave work for my morning shift.

 

Tonight is Sensei's virtual aikido class, so that'll be on my evening docket. Tomorrow my friend is meeting in a park for bokken work, and I plan on going to that, too (so I get aikido AND outdoor things rolling).  And thinking of outdoor things, I'm debating getting a season pass to PaddleBoston, which would let me rent canoes and kayaks around the area.  Seems a nice summery thing to do, plus I like it.  The Pandemic has made it a bit trickier, since they require reservations now, but it's not too bad.  The downside is the launch point nearest to me isn't going to open until the 3rd, but that's not that far away in the grand scheme of things.  Some afternoon canoeing would be nice, I think.

 

And that's about it for now.  Happy Day 2 for the rest of you!

[AgentsSka]

Well you could come to the Allston Paddle Boston location (behind the stadium on Soldiers Field Road) and hang with me after.  BOOM!

[RisenPhoenix]

7 hours ago, AgentsSka said:

Well you could come to the Allston Paddle Boston location (behind the stadium on Soldiers Field Road) and hang with me after.  BOOM!

This would also function well. But man, the reservation thing makes it tricky. I get why they are doing it, but also it takes away some of the season pass benefits of “go whenever you want.” 

———
 

Totally unrelated time my challenge goals, but I just finished my rewatch of Avatar. It’s amazing and I loved it and kind of want to watch it again. Instead I’ll probably watch Watchmen (finally).

[RisenPhoenix]

Edited the goals with a new Bonus goal: Beat the snot out of @AgentsSka for his pushup challenge. 

 

Also just saying Ska, if we are already going for the 900+, why not just make it a cool 1000?

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Just FYI, I was just on the tracking sheet and I think it's possible to get personal details about one of you from there, I was on the same time as one of you and it showed me what I think is one of your real names. I know some of us on here guard our IRL identities carefully, so just want to let you know.

[AgentsSka]

18 hours ago, RisenPhoenix said:

Edited the goals with a new Bonus goal: Beat the snot out of @AgentsSka for his pushup challenge. 

 

Also just saying Ska, if we are already going for the 900+, why not just make it a cool 1000?

 

We already know you are going to beat me to the goal number.  You have the advantage of actually being in shape.

 

I'm taking the tortoise route, you can have the hare one this challenge.

 

Annnnnnd..... 1000 seems very much in reach there doesn't it...

 

 

15 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Just FYI, I was just on the tracking sheet and I think it's possible to get personal details about one of you from there, I was on the same time as one of you and it showed me what I think is one of your real names. I know some of us on here guard our IRL identities carefully, so just want to let you know.

 

I come from a position of having met many nerds IRL.  They know my name.  I'm cool if others do too. (Double-checked with RP, and he's cool with it, as well.)  But, I do appreciate the concern.

[ChrisWithaStick]

On 6/22/2020 at 11:18 AM, RisenPhoenix said:

See, thing is I REALLY do not like kale.  I really don't like most leafy greens, to be honest - the lack of substance

You could fry up three strips of bacon (eat one) and then sautée the greens in the bacon fat, and crumble the remaining bacon into them.  Or.... if you want to go all healthy... sautée them in the fat of choice, add in some minced garlic, then steam briefly, then dress with a little balsamic. 

 

 

[raptron]

The 3rd is super soon. Get on that kayak train.

[bigm141414]

On 6/20/2020 at 9:02 AM, RisenPhoenix said:

Agni Kai: Complete 666 pushups before AgentsSka.

 

Details of our battle here.

 

Definitely got a tortoise and hare type race going on here, people! Ska's got the slow and steady consistency going and RP's adopting the sprint and rest technique! It's a bold choice of strategy, let's see how it plays out.

 

[RisenPhoenix]

13 hours ago, ChrisWithaStick said:

You could fry up three strips of bacon (eat one) and then sautée the greens in the bacon fat, and crumble the remaining bacon into them.  Or.... if you want to go all healthy... sautée them in the fat of choice, add in some minced garlic, then steam briefly, then dress with a little balsamic. 

 

I mean, it sounds tasty.  I could probably deal with this.  Mostly leafy greens are the lack of substance that bothers me, rather than the taste.  I don't feel like I'm eating anything, and since I can eat a lot, that's a problem.

 

But I have some veggies from my folks, so maybe I'll try that a bit....

 

2 hours ago, raptron said:

The 3rd is super soon. Get on that kayak train.

 

Season pass ordered and safety lesson reviewed and I am waivered!  And then I even went and reserved a time slot for 4:40 tomorrow afternoon.  Even if it's only a short jaunt, it'll get me used to going there, seeing what the routine is, and what sites might be interesting.  Also just saying I get a guest discount coupon....

 

1 minute ago, bigm141414 said:

 

Definitely got a tortoise and hare type race going on here, people! Ska's got the slow and steady consistency going and RP's adopting the sprint and rest technique! It's a bold choice of strategy, let's see how it plays out.

 

 

I mean, it's the closest I'll ever get to willingly running, soooo.....

 

 

---------

 

Hokay, Goals update?

 

Monday night was the a virtual aikido class.  My Sensei is.... not good with words, but his brain works in interesting ways.  I do get (I think) what he's trying to drive at, but I'm fairly certain the more green members do not.  Hopefully a few more repetitions can get that down.  I'm also slightly worried about the senior instructors thinking this is too hard, and then just stopping, but that's a whole other issue I'll have to tackle during the next Board meeting.  Which is Sunday. 

 

Tuesday night I went to a park and did a weapons class led by my friend.  Mostly 5th  kyus, and then me.  I got to tweak my suburi practice, and I learned an alternate pattern for a 4-direction cut kata.  Considering the weather was gross and that I was worried about a knot in my back, the practice felt good.  The other people were glad to see I exist outside of a computer screen, too.  But it was a nice time, and a double whammy of aikdio + outside.

 

Food the last few days has been.... less solid.  Mostly in the "snacking and not logging" category.  Whoops.  Trying to do better about that today, where I've had some low calorie ice cream and saltines.  Otherwise my food stuffs have been good.  I even batch cooked some hardboiled eggs for a breakfast that won't cause my kitchen to heat up.

 

And the not-yet-food things are still growing.  I have been watering things daily, but I still need to go and get proper pots and what not for the garden this weekend.  I'm going to try and get some of that and soil this weekend.  Maybe a few extra plants if I like anything I see at the store.  Also I got a free Jade plant from a coworker who is moving away.  Not edible, but adds some greenery to the house, which I need.

 

Pushups happened a lot yesterday, so my triceps kill me.  I'll have to do a few more later, but I'm not going to murder myself.  

 

 

Weekend plans are a bit weird for me.  Tomorrow I'll do the post-work kayaking, but I have to go into work for about 0530 to accomplish some things before I'm kicked out (COVID + mission critical plans I'm not a part of).  Saturday I'd like to go for a hike early, but I need to go to work AND I realized I need to host/tech help the Saturday Zoom class for the dojo.  So I can still hike, but that'll be harder.  I ALSO need to work on Sunday AND have the board meeting for the dojo.  Plus I need to go and do the Lowes/Home Depot run for the garden stuff, plus also my thermostat seems to have died so I need to fix that.  Also the ottoman for my porch furniture has arrived, so I need to put that together.

 

Suddenly I'm glad that I have a long weekend next weekend.

[AgentsSka]

22 minutes ago, RisenPhoenix said:

Pushups happened a lot yesterday, so my triceps kill me.  I'll have to do a few more later, but I'm not going to murder myself.  

 

The spreadsheet makes it look like a daily pushup challenge.  It isn't really.  So, You don't have to do any if your body is telling you not to.

 

We are just trying to hit target number(s).

[RisenPhoenix]

18 hours ago, AgentsSka said:

The spreadsheet makes it look like a daily pushup challenge.  It isn't really.  So, You don't have to do any if your body is telling you not to.

 

Since when have I ever paid attention to what my body was telling me to do?

 

-----

 

Kinda broke my IF window today, and I'm a bit too exhausted to care.  I was in the lab at 0530, and just kept working when I got home (sucked into a research rabbit hole, honestly), and by 9am my body was ready for food.  I managed to make it until 10:45, when my stomach was loudly protesting this abuse.  So I had my breakfast and currently am chugging more water.  I'll try to compensate for the not-proper timing of eating, but I'm not freaking out.  Just need to make sure these "not freaking out" hand waves are few and far between.

 

Tomorrow I was supposed to do aikido, but I think I'm going to skip.  I was supposed to host the meeting, but a late night text message absolved me of that duty.  That means I can sleep in, relax a bit, and THEN go to work and do my other chores, rather than wake up, get things settled for the class, do the class, then go to work and do chores.  Not a huge difference, maybe, but given my Sunday starts with a meeting at 10am, I'm okay with giving myself some space.  This will also allow me to the chance to go on a hike, if I want.  I should try to do some suburi as a result of skipping the class, though.  Maybe run through the jo kata, as much as I hate it.  My back yard has a small patio which would be fine to run it on.

 

Gonna water my plants right after this, because the heat definitely means they need it.  Starting to see a bunch of flowers on one of my strawberry plants, so that's kind of exciting.  When I'm at the garden store I need to get something to hang those suckers up since they are in hanging baskets but just sitting on the porch floor.  Also noticing one of my zuchini leaves is yellowing and sad looking.  Need to investigate that.

 

But for now, back to work.

[Kishi]

Sometimes stomachs are like that. It happens. It's honestly part of what drives me back to seeing people - generally, it's because they eat outside my window, and it gives me an excuse to shake things up.

[RisenPhoenix]

On 6/26/2020 at 6:55 PM, Kishi said:

Sometimes stomachs are like that. It happens. It's honestly part of what drives me back to seeing people - generally, it's because they eat outside my window, and it gives me an excuse to shake things up.

For sure. I still sometimes have to fight the binge/massive restriction for punishment urge I usual feel, though, when I do go off kilter. Butter than I was in the past, but it’s still a mental block/reaction I get. Working on it, though. 
 

————

 

Today has been mostly restful, I guess. It’s not even 9PM and I’m tired, and my body woke me up at 0600. i skipped aikido since I I had to go into work a bit today. Did what I needed to do but then stuck around fixing some things and talking to some coworkers. 
 

After that I went to the garden store and didn’t find what I wanted, which annoyed me. Then I took a detour to a grocery store. I didn’t really need to go, but I was hungry and did have some stuff I wanted. I bought much more than I should have an about half of it was hunger-shopping related. As a result I also have eaten an entire pint of Ben and Jerry’s tonight. 
 

Neighbor invited me to be social with her and some friends she had over, but my battery was very low so I declined. She also asked to use my grill and I told her that was fine even if I wasn’t joining. Instead I binged watched the last 4 episodes of HBO’s Watchmen. It was amazingly written and acted and directed, and is incredibly relevant for our times. Freakishly so, since the show came out back in January before the current BLM push happened. 
 

Taking it easy the rest of the night and will probably play some of the first The Last Of Us game. I am replaying it before I buy the new one, which I’ve heard is really good. Tomorrow is a lot of work so I’m taking today as rest. I have a dojo board meeting in the morning, followed by two hours or so of lab work, and then I offered to help a director make a PowerPoint review of some papers for our CSO. On one hand, my help was accepted immediately. On the other I should have acted faster yesterday when I saw the exact thing the director had posted and was debating reaching out to him about. From an optics perspective it would have been good. Oh well. This’ll teach me that my gut instincts aren’t as bad as I think they are, at least? Maybe? But that’ll be the rest of tomorrow night. 
 

also just remembered I put some laundry in before I left this morning and it’s still sitting wet in my washer. Whoops. Gonna go fix that. 

[AgentsSka]

11 hours ago, RisenPhoenix said:

also just remembered I put some laundry in before I left this morning and it’s still sitting wet in my washer. Whoops. Gonna go fix that. 

 

 

Also... 191.

 

  

 

[RisenPhoenix]

5 hours ago, AgentsSka said:

Also... 191.

 

  

 

 

Look, I could tell you that it was a completely freak accident that I ended the night count with one pushup more than you.

 

But I we both know that is a lie.

 

The 30 in one set was real, though.  Ow.

[bigm141414]

17 hours ago, RisenPhoenix said:

I am replaying it before I buy the new one, which I’ve heard is really good

 

Just make sure you are emotionally prepared for Part 2. I had to put down the controller a few days ago and haven't been able to summon the emotional courage to continue playing yet.

[Mistr]

Hi RP, good to see you!

 

I am glad to hear you are enjoying your gardening adventures. I have herbs in pots out back and seedlings on the porch. My work gave each of us an herb garden kit as a project. So far all the seeds have sprouted. They have been just hanging out and not putting out more leaves for a week. The basil and cilantro I planted in the garden several days earlier has true leaves now. Fun to watch them grow. 👩‍🌾

[RisenPhoenix]

I am exhausted. Mostly mentally. But some physically. Yesterday I took a nap, which only happens when I’m dying. And the nap was one of those “set an alarm, blocked, alarm going off “ type naps.

 

This also ties into several days of shitty eating habits I’m realizing, so I’m also exhausted and trying to exhibit self compassion and not freak out over how bloated and gross I feel. But it’s hard since I also know I’m eating more crap than I should, even with the minimal crap I have in my house. But hey, I did a modification of leafy green cooking that @ChrisWithaStick suggested. I bought bets that came with the greens not hacked away. Cut them off, sautéed with bacon fat and garlic, and then sliced a store bought smoked pork butt and the it in.  Voila! Dinner was served. Used too much salt by mistake though because of the butt. Ah well. 
 

I half heartedly did the aikido zoom class last night. Mentally exhausted, I didn’t even properly get dressed for it. Threw on gi pants and kept my camera off. But it was good to move. Tonight I’ll try to go to the weapon’s in the park my friend does if the weather stops raining on us.  But good news! The crappy weather has allowed me to test how good the new gutters for my house are. I can now use my porch even during massive down pours! Huzzah!

 

 More good news! My experiment failed in one part ( bear with me) so it ends today rather than tomorrow. Tomorrow is a blackout day at work which would mean if I went in it would have to be 0530. Which means I would skip NP because I just don’t have the mental energy to work, leave work to workout, and then keep working. But because the experiment now ends today, I can make NP! Huzzah!

 

That said I’m very much looking forward to Thursday afternoon when I can stop working and have a long weekend. Maybe I’ll all my boss for the Monday off, too....

[Kishi]

I definitely feel you on unproductive time as a blessing.  That being said, if it winds up that you sleep through NP, don't hold it against yourself. Sometimes the body just needs rest.