Juliebarkley gathers ingredients

[juliebarkley]

As she crested the hill, Juliebarkley saw a green meadow stretching into the distance. At the bottom of the hill, not far off the dusty path, several stones stood upright, offering some small shade. She was relieved - it had been a long time since she had found a good place to take refuge from the brutal sun. She leaned against one of the stones and took a long drink from her water flask, then rinsed her face and enjoyed the cool breeze. As she rested, she looked for shapes in the clouds, then allowed her eyes to drift to one of the nearby. It looks almost human, she thought sleepily. About the right height... shape... that bit there could be an arm stretched out... She leaned on the stone, nearly asleep. That one too, quite human-looking... And that one...

 

Now she felt much more awake. Was her mind deceiving her, or did all of these stones look human? She looked up at the stone she was sheltering under. If she brushed off the moss here, and moved that grass to get a better view... It was... It looked like a statue... of a tall man, frozen, his sword half-drawn and a shocked look on his face. She moved to the next stone, brushing off its face. This proved to be a woman with her right arm raised to shield her forehead. Five statues, in a meadow, in the middle of nowhere, carved in a most unusual manner.

 

Julie was sure that she had read somewhere about people turning to stone. Some story or legend - the details were not clear in her mind. But she did know that she had seen a recipe for a potion to heal petrification in the book she was studying. It would take her a few days to make it back home, and longer to gather the ingredients and brew enough potion. But she had a feeling the statues wouldn't mind waiting a few days longer.

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The theme for the challenge is:

• walk home and back - more walking! and other outdoor moving!
• collect the ingredients for the potion - work on my task list and inbox pile
• don't let the habits slip!

 

I'm making only minor additions to the habits I have been building for this challenge. Instead, I'm going to shift focus to all those little one-off tasks that get ignored when I am in habit-building mode.

 

Here's where we are right now:

Spoiler

• Continue with the daily walk and the after-walk habits of prayer, crow pose, and camel pose. Replace the crow poses with wall walks some of the time. On one day a week when the weather is nice, I will extend my usual walk to at least 1 hour.
• On exercise days, I will do my current exercises. On off days, I will (weather permitting) do "girly abs" and falling practice outdoors.
• When I first open my computer, I will read my daily Qur'an and do my daily Duolingo. Then I will contact at least one person and reply to at least one NF thread.
• While eating supper, I will read at least one page of a library book. After eating, I will pray maghrib, process one inbox item, repair one item, and then read from my regular book.
• VO non-negotiable time begins when it is quiet, roughly 11pm-1am and lasts 2 hours. If I am trying to research something, work through a course, etc., it might happen earlier in the day.
• I will brush teeth with rinses before bed.

 

To this I am adding:

Spoiler

 

STR: - Nothing new - the current exercise habit needs strengthening.

DEX: - Practice parkour roll outdoors on off days, weather permitting.

          - While outside, do one wall walk up the tree daily.

CON: - Increase walking to 5000 steps per day.

          - I will brush my teeth with rinses at least once per day. This is on the spoilered list, but I forgot all about it.

INT:  - Nothing new, though much more than 20 minutes of reading per day is currently happening.

WIS: - Nothing new for now - just strengthening the existing habits.

CHA: - Nothing new.

Occupation: - Warm up and practice every day.

Arts/Skills: -  I will increase the number of inbox items processed to two per day.

          - I will continue working on my book piles. The Ms are very nearly done, and the N pile is small, so I might even make it to the Ps this challenge!

Languages: - Nothing new.

 

 

Which brings us to:

• Continue with the daily walk and the after-walk habits of prayer, camel pose, and handstands. Aim to do handstand practice outdoors, with one wall walk up the tree. On one day a week when the weather is nice, I will extend my usual walk to at least 1 hour. Get in at least 5000 steps per day.
• On exercise days, I will do my current exercises. On off days, I will (weather permitting) do "girly abs" and practice parkour rolls outdoors.
• When I first open my computer, I will read my daily Qur'an and do my daily Duolingo. Then I will contact at least one person and reply to at least one NF thread.
• While eating supper, I will read at least one page of a library book. After eating, I will pray maghrib, process one inbox item, repair one item, and then read from my regular book.
• VO non-negotiable time begins when it is quiet, roughly 11pm-1am and lasts 2 hours. If I am trying to research something, work through a course, etc., it might happen earlier in the day. Every day, do warm ups and practice narration.
• I will brush teeth with rinses before bed.

 

To this I will add a list of one-off tasks, with the aim of getting one done per day. I shall harness the power of the todo app for this, but first I will need to brainstorm a list (and also check the ones I put in the app in the past). The first task will be to make the list, but making this challenge was today's task, so that will have to wait till tomorrow.

 

- - - - - - - - -filler for tasks - - - - - - - - - - - -

[WhiteGhost]

You almost made it before week 1 started    It's really nice to see the narrative making a comeback!

[Scaly Freak]

Hey, your challenge is early! Mine still hasn't been posted yet, so maybe I have no room to talk?  

 

I like that the new things you are adding are essentially a collection of "continue to do what works just more of it". I often forget that is an option for challenges.

[WhiteGhost]

16 hours ago, Scalyfreak said:

I like that the new things you are adding are essentially a collection of "continue to do what works just more of it". I often forget that is an option for challenges.

"Continue to do what works, and in the same volume at which it is currently working" is also a valid option.  Just saying  

[juliebarkley]

23 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

You almost made it before week 1 started  

You know what I am like.

 

18 hours ago, Scalyfreak said:

Hey, your challenge is early! Mine still hasn't been posted yet, so maybe I have no room to talk?  

Still waiting....

 

18 hours ago, Scalyfreak said:

I like that the new things you are adding are essentially a collection of "continue to do what works just more of it". I often forget that is an option for challenges.

I've got end-of-year goals set, so the challenges have been progressive steps towards those. "Continue to do what works just more of it" is an excellent summary of how it is working out.

 

So first day = not so hot (performancewise; it was indeed hot today). I slacked a bit on habits during the off week, so though I am tightening up my game, I'm not all there yet. I missed handstands after the walk (not entirely my fault - I had to wait until early evening to walk due to the heat, then had something to do immediately after the walk, and then there was rain) and missed post-supper prayers. Not sure how many steps I did because it resets at midnight, but I don't think it was enough. Only one paper item done. Task list is not made. Not as much work as I really needed to get done today unfortunately with a deadline fast approaching. However, I did camel pose for the first time in weeks, and I will make sure to set up my sink area to make my oral hygiene routine as frictionless as I can make it before bed.

 

Looks like what I have given myself, is room for improvement.

[juliebarkley]

There was improvement today, kind of.

• Continue with the daily walk and the after-walk habits of prayer, camel pose, and handstands. Aim to do handstand practice outdoors, with one wall walk up the tree. On one day a week when the weather is nice, I will extend my usual walk to at least 1 hour. Get in at least 5000 steps per day.
• When I first open my computer, I will read my daily Qur'an and do my daily Duolingo. Then I will contact at least one person and reply to at least one NF thread.
• On exercise days, I will do my current exercises. On off days, I will (weather permitting) do "girly abs" and practice parkour rolls outdoors.

All after-walk habits were done, but the walk itself was not. It was very windy, and I cannot breathe when it is windy. Plus I was trying to dry my hair, and blowdrying it straight in a strong wind was not what I had in mind. So clearly the steps goal was also not reached. Now my lower back hurts from too much sitting. Ow. As mentioned, I did not go outdoors today, so the off-day exercise items were also not done.

• While eating supper, I will read at least one page of a library book. After eating, I will pray maghrib, process one inbox item, repair one item, and then read from my regular book.
• Do one item from task list.

I did the reading, and finished my library book, yay! There are only... a lot... of books in the library pile still to go. My next book has a lot of short sections, which is perfect for suppertime reading. I also started the next Harry Potter book (I'm up to Order of the Phoenix) as I desperately needed it as a break. The other items did not happen as I could not spare the time.

 

I did, however, create a task list - an assortment of items I had already entered in my todo app and new items that I have added. There are more items on the list than there are days in the challenge. There may also be duplicates. I will likely add items too, or do things that are not on the list. All fine. I may try to get back in the habit of picking one and adding it to my Tomorrow task, but not yet, because time.

• VO non-negotiable time begins when it is quiet, roughly 11pm-1am and lasts 2 hours. If I am trying to research something, work through a course, etc., it might happen earlier in the day. Every day, do warm ups and practice narration.

Did not do warmups or practice, because I spent almost the whole day editing my recording. I belatedly realized that I am pushing up against the due date for it, and I have to work rather a lot for the next few days to make sure that I can get it done to the standard I want and leave some wiggle room for things going wrong in the uploading process. This is what happens when you accidentally miss a rather large file from your calculations. This means not a lot of time for the other challenge items, but hopefully only for a couple or three days.

• I will brush teeth with rinses before bed.

Off to do it now! Then the sweet bliss of sleep.

[Scaly Freak]

Every time I read one of your challenge updates I tell myself I will test doing Duolingo on my computer instead of my phone, and then I forget.

 

I blame Procrastination.

[juliebarkley]

4 hours ago, Scalyfreak said:

Every time I read one of your challenge updates I tell myself I will test doing Duolingo on my computer instead of my phone, and then I forget

It's better on the computer. You can type in answers rather than just picking them out of a list - much better for vocabulary recall. And you don't get interrupted by ads.

[Scaly Freak]

I type on my phone, but doing it on a computer keyboard would be easier. The lack of ads is definitely incentive to remember to do this!

[WhiteGhost]

9 hours ago, juliebarkley said:

You can type in answers rather than just picking them out of a list

I wonder if this depends more on the language than the device.  For Russian and Spanish I am asked to type stuff in, but for Arabic and Korean it is pick from the list only.

[juliebarkley]

6 minutes ago, WhiteGhost said:

I wonder if this depends more on the language than the device.  For Russian and Spanish I am asked to type stuff in, but for Arabic and Korean it is pick from the list only.

It is very possible - likely even - that it is only available for languages that use the Latin alphabet. At least for me, it was also not the default setting for any language and I occasionally have to tell it that I want to type in answers, please.

[WhiteGhost]

32 minutes ago, juliebarkley said:

It is very possible - likely even - that it is only available for languages that use the Latin alphabet. At least for me, it was also not the default setting for any language and I occasionally have to tell it that I want to type in answers, please.

It lets me type in Cyrillic, but I suspect they don't have typing capability for a most non-Latin alphabets yet 

[juliebarkley]

I feel like I was productive workwise. Less so with other things.

• Continue with the daily walk and the after-walk habits of prayer, camel pose, and handstands. Aim to do handstand practice outdoors, with one wall walk up the tree. On one day a week when the weather is nice, I will extend my usual walk to at least 1 hour. Get in at least 5000 steps per day.
• When I first open my computer, I will read my daily Qur'an and do my daily Duolingo. Then I will contact at least one person and reply to at least one NF thread.
• On exercise days, I will do my current exercises. On off days, I will (weather permitting) do "girly abs" and practice parkour rolls outdoors.

Did the walk, but the after-walk habits were very delayed and I forgot to get back to the handstand practice. Computer habits were all done early. There is no way I got 5000 steps today, but I am strongly considering going for a walk after this post, which will help tomorrow's total. And I totally forgot it was exercise day. Sigh.

• While eating supper, I will read at least one page of a library book. After eating, I will pray maghrib, process one inbox item, repair one item, and then read from my regular book.
• Do one item from task list.

Read from new library book. Ate food. Read from regular book at a different time. Did nothing else in this list.

• VO non-negotiable time begins when it is quiet, roughly 11pm-1am and lasts 2 hours. If I am trying to research something, work through a course, etc., it might happen earlier in the day. Every day, do warm ups and practice narration.

Once again, no practice or warming up, because of editing and deadline. I am up to 2:16 completed of 2:59 total, so I am confident I can get the first pass editing done tomorrow and maybe the little bits that need recording. Then I just have the proof listening and uploading. (Sorry if the description here is boring to read, but it motivates me to get my work done when I type it out. )

• I will brush teeth with rinses before bed.

Completed successfully yesterday for the first time in a very long time!

[juliebarkley]

Today was a lot like yesterday. Good for work, less good for the new habits.

• Continue with the daily walk and the after-walk habits of prayer, camel pose, and handstands. Aim to do handstand practice outdoors, with one wall walk up the tree. On one day a week when the weather is nice, I will extend my usual walk to at least 1 hour. Get in at least 5000 steps per day.
• When I first open my computer, I will read my daily Qur'an and do my daily Duolingo. Then I will contact at least one person and reply to at least one NF thread.
• On exercise days, I will do my current exercises. On off days, I will (weather permitting) do "girly abs" and practice parkour rolls outdoors.

Did the walk, failed to do both camel and handstands (forgot camel entirely, and the mosquitoes put me off handstands). I easily hit 5000 steps today due to my late-night/early morning walk yesterday. Didn't contact a friend/acquaintance today, but did the other computer habits. Did abs outdoors later on - those straddles are especially hard work! Forgot about the rolls, though. I need to spend some time mentally linking these things so I don't forget them.

• While eating supper, I will read at least one page of a library book. After eating, I will pray maghrib, process one inbox item, repair one item, and then read from my regular book.
• Do one item from task list.

Read a chapter from Harry Potter right after I woke up. Didn't do anything else. In fact, I didn't have supper today. Actually now that I think of it, I had only six samosas all day. Hmm. Methinks I should eat something before bed.

• VO non-negotiable time begins when it is quiet, roughly 11pm-1am and lasts 2 hours. If I am trying to research something, work through a course, etc., it might happen earlier in the day. Every day, do warm ups and practice narration.

Work work work. Lots of work, no warmups or practice. I finished the editing (yay!) and recorded the intro/outro, so now it is just the final listen to tweak the silences and rerecord a few bits that need it. Like where I snapped my fingers in the middle of a word. 🙄 I'm looking forward to not cramming for a deadline so I can get my goals in progress, and with any luck, I will be all done tomorrow!

• I will brush teeth with rinses before bed.

Another success yesterday, and I will try to make it three tonight.

[juliebarkley]

Ok, I have pissed away enough time today. Time to get to work, which means that I might not make it back to the forums. Early update it is!

• Continue with the daily walk and the after-walk habits of prayer, camel pose, and handstands. Aim to do handstand practice outdoors, with one wall walk up the tree. On one day a week when the weather is nice, I will extend my usual walk to at least 1 hour. Get in at least 5000 steps per day.
• When I first open my computer, I will read my daily Qur'an and do my daily Duolingo. Then I will contact at least one person and reply to at least one NF thread.
• On exercise days, I will do my current exercises. On off days, I will (weather permitting) do "girly abs" and practice parkour rolls outdoors.

Did the walk, but it was in the rain, which wasn't ideal as I was trying to dry my hair. lol. So I sat down for computer time to allow hair to dry and it just. wouldn't. It took hours. I got the computer habits done (except the contact someone habit, again), but not the prayer or camel pose - I just never made it back. I did do exercising today. I am still a boss at planks and a wimpy wimp at anything that looks like a pullup.

• While eating supper, I will read at least one page of a library book. After eating, I will pray maghrib, process one inbox item, repair one item, and then read from my regular book.
• Do one item from task list.

Only read a little today, and not from my library book. I can't remember why - I did have supper? Nothing afterward though.

• VO non-negotiable time begins when it is quiet, roughly 11pm-1am and lasts 2 hours. If I am trying to research something, work through a course, etc., it might happen earlier in the day. Every day, do warm ups and practice narration.

Time to get to proof listening, right after this post. I could have started yesterday, but in trying to save a copy of the file (always good practice to avoid destroying information), I discovered that it is was just over 13GB. My hard drive is only 250GB. This became a problem I had to fix before anything else could happen, and since it took more than ten minutes to save the file (including the failed attempt), there was no more time left over when it was resolved.

• I will brush teeth with rinses before bed.

How is this my most successful challenge goal??

[juliebarkley]

I'm getting very annoyed with today. I have done no habits, not a single one. I had trouble sleeping last night, so was tired when I had to get up. I had had a rather stern talk with the son about his schoolwork, culminating in an ultimatum. He had to leave me a bunch of things that had not been marked or evaluated in a while (both of our faults). I started at 4, after my meeting, have done nothing else, and I am still working through the pile. Holy cow, there is a lot to mark. Fortunately, he seems to have mostly understood all of the things, but still. It hasn't helped that I have been a bit off all day, whether from lack of sleep or the weather (big thunderstorms), so I have had trouble focusing and also finding a comfortable position that doesn't make me either nauseated or headachey. And I really want to finish my audiobook tonight and get it all sent in and done.

 

Ugh. End whiney rant.

[Scaly Freak]

If a close friend of yours had the day you've had you would not call that friend whiney, would you?

 

Be as kind to yourself as you would be to your friend, and give yourself a break. Tomorrow is a new day and a new start. Hopefully entirely without either headache or nausea!

[WhiteGhost]

27 minutes ago, juliebarkley said:

Ugh. End whiney rant really tough day.

FTFY

[juliebarkley]

7 hours ago, Scalyfreak said:

If a close friend of yours had the day you've had you would not call that friend whiney, would you?

 

Be as kind to yourself as you would be to your friend, and give yourself a break.

 

6 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

FTFY

You're both very kind. But I was only feeling a little uncomfortable, not crawl into bed sick, and my problems today were entirely of my own making, so yeah, I was being a little whiney . I do wish I had gotten more audiobook work done, but I finished the homeschool work and now I'm very glad to be able to go to bed and start afresh tomorrow.

[juliebarkley]

I am currently waiting for my audiobook files to upload. It is so satisfying to have a finished product that is going out into the world.

 

It has been a good learning experience - which steps are important, how long different steps are taking, how long they should take, and just the step by step process from audition to delivery. I still have lots of learning to do.

 

I will celebrate with a much-needed shower, a walk, and I don't know, reading or board games or something. Consider this challenge as "officially" starting tomorrow, because I totally ditched everything else to get this done on time.

[juliebarkley]

I'm finally sitting down to my computer habits after supper. Then I'll have to get into the after-supper habits, too.

 

• Continue with the daily walk and the after-walk habits of prayer, camel pose, and handstands. Aim to do handstand practice outdoors, with one wall walk up the tree. On one day a week when the weather is nice, I will extend my usual walk to at least 1 hour. Get in at least 5000 steps per day.
• When I first open my computer, I will read my daily Qur'an and do my daily Duolingo. Then I will contact at least one person and reply to at least one NF thread.
• On exercise days, I will do my current exercises. On off days, I will (weather permitting) do "girly abs" and practice parkour rolls outdoors.

It was warmer than I was expecting at walk time, and it took a crazy long time to cool off. I made it worse too, because after the abs outside, I did three parkour rolls on each side, and afterward felt so dizzy that I decided it would be unsafe to proceed to handstands. It takes me ages to recover from dizziness (anyone who has ever been to an amusement park with me knows that I avoid all rides with a spinning motion because once I'm dizzy I'm out for the day). I'm going to reduce it to one on each side AFTER the handstands and see how that goes. I was warm enough with the weather and being outside that I played melting cat for the remainder of the daylight hours, drinking water to stave off dehydration. Though I didn't feel any better till I drank some juice, then quickly recovered from feeling a little like I would pass out every time I sat or stood up. Not sure what that's about - water alone never did much to stave off heat stroke or the sick feeling of dehydration when I cycled in the summer either. I would just get to the point that I felt sick at every sip, but no better in other ways.

 

On the plus side, I hit 5000 steps easily because I took a walk last night.

 

Computer habits to follow this post, since my computer is now open.

• While eating supper, I will read at least one page of a library book. After eating, I will pray maghrib, process two inbox items, repair one item, and then read from my regular book.
• Do one item from task list.

Have only done the reading, as it's very compatible with being a melted cat. The repair/task list item has selected itself: my shoes are in a sorry state and need urgent repairs. One repair is easy (hopefully). The other - I'm not sure. But I'll try. Worst case, it doesn't work and I have to get a new pair, which is where I would be at if I didn't try anyway.

• VO non-negotiable time begins when it is quiet, roughly 11pm-1am and lasts 2 hours. If I am trying to research something, work through a course, etc., it might happen earlier in the day. Every day, do warm ups and practice narration.

The plan for today is to format the warm-up that I had made and print it off for easy reference and use, then proceed to a bit of practice and the LearningAlly courses.

• I will brush teeth with rinses before bed.

Not for the last couple of days. Aiming to get back on the wagon tonight.

 

 

[WhiteGhost]

17 minutes ago, juliebarkley said:

anyone who has ever been to an amusement park with me knows that I avoid all rides with a spinning motion because once I'm dizzy I'm out for the day

Same!  Ghostess and Ghostlet both love them so whenever it's time for those rides I am on camera duty.  It works out though, because Ghostess can't do anything with big drops so she is on camera duty for those  

 

I probably should do something about it, because the older I get the easier it is for me to feel dizzy.  I just don't want to put in the work.

[Scaly Freak]

29 minutes ago, juliebarkley said:

I was warm enough with the weather and being outside that I played melting cat for the remainder of the daylight hours, drinking water to stave off dehydration. Though I didn't feel any better till I drank some juice, then quickly recovered from feeling a little like I would pass out every time I sat or stood up. Not sure what that's about - water alone never did much to stave off heat stroke or the sick feeling of dehydration when I cycled in the summer either. I would just get to the point that I felt sick at every sip, but no better in other ways.

 

I have noticed the same thing as well. I think it is because dehydration is a lack of electrolytes as well as of water, and drinking only water doesn't replenish the electrolytes. I've started adding apple cider vinegar or lemon juice to my water, and that seems to help. Also, Gatorade.

[juliebarkley]

16 minutes ago, Scalyfreak said:

I think it is because dehydration is a lack of electrolytes as well as of water, and drinking only water doesn't replenish the electrolytes.

I think so too, and was going to try adding salt and sugar to my cycling water bottle, but never got around to it. Given how very quickly I felt better after the juice (literally the walk from the kitchen to the living room), I suspect the sugar has a big role to play. It's not curing the dehydration itself, but some secondary effect of it maybe?

 

28 minutes ago, WhiteGhost said:

Same!  Ghostess and Ghostlet both love them so whenever it's time for those rides I am on camera duty.

But but.... I've seen you flip! On a trampoline! (I can't even jump on a trampoline without dizziness, or swing on a regular swing for more than a minute or so. It's embarrassing.)

[WhiteGhost]

8 minutes ago, juliebarkley said:

But but.... I've seen you flip! On a trampoline! (I can't even jump on a trampoline without dizziness, or swing on a regular swing for more than a minute or so. It's embarrassing.)

Yeah, for me horizontal spinning (on a vertical axis) is what kills me, vertical spinning (on a horizontal axis) is still ok for me up to about 5 rotations.  I used to be able to do both just fine, though. 

 

I thought it was just something that happens as you get older, but I am following a circus athlete who was talking about it and apparently it is something you can totally train yourself to overcome.  It isn't easy and involves loads of nausea so it isn't exactly appealing, but if you want it enough it is possible to overcome.