[WhiteGhost]

Well, I seem to have fallen down a well or something.  How far along are we into this challenge already?  This is by far the latest I have ever been for a new challenge.

 

I wish that I could say it was due to being in quasi-lockdown, or stress from all of the uncertainty in the world, but the real reason I have been gone is because I have lost in the world of Skyrim.  A mod for the game that I have long been interested in checking out was recently ported over to xbox and it turns out that it is exactly the thing I was missing from the game.  Not only that it expands the game with so much new content that it seems like it has almost doubled the scope of the game.  It hasn't but it sure feels like it.  The result is that I have poured every moment of my spare time into it, with only the occasional break to get a work in every once in a while.  Staying up until 2 every night hasn't helped things either.  So now I am here to try out crawl out of this hole I have dug myself to be ready for the next challenge.

 

Goals as follows:

 

Sleep:  Try and be in bed by midnight every night.  At any rate no later than 1am.

 

Exercise:  Keep up with my current sporadic workouts but I need to create a new workout program to be implemented at the start of next challenge

 

Food: I have been in a holding pattern for almost a month now near my all time high and I can feel it and I don't like it.  Eating for this challenge is going to be a mess (at least until I finish my playthrough) but I need to have a meal plan for next challenge, which will probably be along the lines of my 5x5 bingo challenge that died when the pandemic first hit.  

 

Other:  I have a lot of idea for my PbP D&D game that has been ongoing but I have been kind of ignoring it in favor of Skyrim.  I want to keep going and at least stop by and check things out every few days or so at a minimum.  Also, I have a secret challenge ite was supposed to happen this challenge with @juliebarkley but it isn't going to happen this time.  That will be revealed next challenge (unless she has already revealed it on her challenge...)

 

And that's it.  I will be honest and say that you probably shouldn't expect to see me much around here until I finish my Skyrim playthrough, but I will be back

 

[juliebarkley]

53 minutes ago, WhiteGhost said:

along the lines of my 5x5 bingo challenge

I do not remember this one at all. Care to jog my memory?

 

55 minutes ago, WhiteGhost said:

Also, I have a secret challenge ite was supposed to happen this challenge with @juliebarkley but it isn't going to happen this time.  That will be revealed next challenge (unless she has already revealed it on her challenge...)

I have been mum, worry not.

[WhiteGhost]

22 hours ago, juliebarkley said:

I do not remember this one at all. Care to jog my memory?

Back in Jan 2020 I had a challenge going and the food part was to do 5 different food types (beef, chicken, pork, seafood, vegetarian) and 5 different styles )Mexican, Chinese, pan fried, pasta and something I don't recall) without any repeats.  I gae a list of possible foods I might make and had everyone send me a bingo card with their guesses on what I would make.  I was going to take a 1 week break in the middle for a holiday trip that ended up being more than a month because covid decided to be a thing.

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Yesterday started out well with a nice workout.  It then devolved into playing Skyrim for the rest of the day.  I was planning to at least go to be on time, but around 11:30 Ghostess comes to me and says she is going to be up for a while because her favorite streamer was live so I kept playing until her stream finished... at 3am   

[Terinatum]

You know where you are and what you can expect from yourself. That seems like a decent place to be until next challenge.  I feel ya and I am thinking of ya!

Stay with yourself as best you can, WG. 

[Jupiter]

Following.  

[WhiteGhost]

23 hours ago, Terinatum said:

You know where you are and what you can expect from yourself. That seems like a decent place to be until next challenge.  I feel ya and I am thinking of ya!

Stay with yourself as best you can, WG. 

Well, I thought I knew how bad things were what with my weight being so much higher than before, but then I tried to put on a suit jacket and realized that while the waist a bit snug, it wasn't abnormally so.  The shoulders, however, were so tight I could barely get it on.  Apparently a significant portion of my weight gain has been hypertrophy in my shoulders, but I would never have known it just from the scale data alone (even though it has BF% and a host of other metrics)  I guess I am better off than I thought  

 

23 hours ago, Jupiter said:

Following.  

Welcome  

 

---------------------------------

 

Yesterday was pretty much a write off due to the lethargy of not having enough sleep the night before so it was pretty much a whole day of Skyrim.  I have at this point finished off almost all of the questlines and am now just doing radiant quests to collect unique items for my museum.  

[WhiteGhost]

Well, things are slowly slipping into our worst nightmare scenario.  Cases here have not only been consistently increasing, the rate of increase is also increasing.  For the first time, the tried and true methods of control are not working so things are gradually tightening until very soon the entire city will be in complete lockdown.  That in and of itself isn't a worry, except that I really do worry we are going to experience food shortages.  All of the stuff that normally comes through Shanghai (imported goods, international branded domestic products, products catering to international consumers, etc.) are already not available.  I can't get soda water, canned tunafish, tortillas, peanut butter, etc.) at all now, and I worry that it is only a matter of time before local staples like meat, fresh fruits, and vegetables become difficult to get, like things have been in Shanghai for the last 2 months.    

 

The next few weeks, and possibly months, are going to be very interesting indeed.

 

On top of all this, Ghostess managed to throw her back out on Sunday.  We went to the hospital yesterday and they said is was not serious and that hopefully it should get itself back in place in a week or so and prescribed a bunch of muscle relaxants.  Ghostlet has his first 2 high school entrance exams next month and the schools are already preparing for them to be done online.  They had a big conference call with all of the parents and students to explain the testing process, including the protocols for ensuring (as much as they can) that there won't be any cheating.  

 

On a positive note, I did come up with a rough draft for a workout program, but who knows if it will end up being something I can stick to if we are in full lockdown.

[Jarric]

Sorry to hear things are getting worse again mate - fingers crossed that it won't get too bad and won't last too long.

 

Any chance of a preview of your draft workout programme? I'm always impressed by your workouts.

[Jupiter]

Oh no. I hope things improve soon. 

[Teros]

On 5/18/2022 at 10:13 PM, WhiteGhost said:

A mod for the game that I have long been interested in checking out was recently ported over to xbox and it turns out that it is exactly the thing I was missing from the game. 

Uh huh.  The CBBE mod....

 

Can lose time that way.

 

--

 

Sorry to hear about the lockdown shiz happening.

[WhiteGhost]

On 5/23/2022 at 7:54 PM, Jarric said:

Sorry to hear things are getting worse again mate - fingers crossed that it won't get too bad and won't last too long.

 

Any chance of a preview of your draft workout programme? I'm always impressed by your workouts.

Sure, I haven't talked programming for a while but it is something I have been floundering with for far too long.  I have some skills that I want to learn but I struggle to find the right balance.  Many of the skill should really be done every day or every other day, but I don't have time or the strength/endurance to do all of my skills every day.  My current plan would be a compromise.

 

Skills I want to learn/improve on are Front lever, back lever, planche, handstand pushup, iron cross, human flag, L-Sit/V-Sit, and pistol squats.  I can't doo all of them, so I am going to limit it to just 5 (one for each day of the week.  I have a bunch of progressions for each skill.

 

Monday - Front Lever

Tuesday - Planche / Lsit (The progressions I am on right now make these work together really well)

Wednesday - Pistols (Plus other Leg Day exercises)

Thursday - Back Levers

Friday - Handstand Pushups

 

The balance will come in that in addition to the scheduled progressions for each day's skill, I will also choose one progression for each of the others so that they are not being neglected completely for a full week. 

 

I am thinking about maybe adding in some ab work or other cardio (probably dancing) to finish off the workouts

 

On 5/24/2022 at 11:34 AM, Jupiter said:

Oh no. I hope things improve soon. 

Nope, not going to be improving anytime soon.  I am already resigned to it but I just hope it doesn't get as bad as I am afraid it might.

 

19 hours ago, Teros said:

Uh huh.  The CBBE mod....

 

Can lose time that way.

 

--

 

Sorry to hear about the lockdown shiz happening.

haha, you sweet innocent summer child  I have had CBBE on there since they allowed modding on consoles (I don't have any bikini armors though...)  The specific mod in question here is called Legacy of the Dragonborn

 

-----------------------------------

 

So things have gotten progressively worse here and every day comes with new restrictions.  As of today we have mandatory daily covid tests, no non-resident are allowed inside the complex (we have to go outside the gates to pick up deliveries),  and we have all been issued residence documents that we can use to prove we are resident if we have to leave for some reason.  They gave all residents an official notice today strongly recommending we don't leave the complex until at least the end of the month unless absolutely necessary which is the last step before a full mandatory lockdown.  I expect the lockdown will come before the end of the week.

 

As a bit of good news, Ghostess sneezed on Monday and it popped her spine back into alignment so it looks like we are not going to have to go back to the hospital to get that fixed.

 

I realized after a couple hundred hours in my current playthrough that I was missing an important patch that was creating a bunch of bugs so I just gave up and started a new playthrough.  I am not broken up about it, because I was having so much fun I was already looking forward to my next playthrough now that I know what I am doing  .

[Scaly Freak]

9 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

Ghostess sneezed on Monday and it popped her spine back into alignment

 

I'm going to add this to my growing list of Reasons Sneezing is Terrifying...

[Mad Hatter]

On 5/25/2022 at 5:01 PM, WhiteGhost said:

As a bit of good news, Ghostess sneezed on Monday and it popped her spine back into alignment so it looks like we are not going to have to go back to the hospital to get that fixed.

Bodies are awesome.  

 

Shitty about the lockdown, but hey at least you've got video games.  

 

 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Just found your thread. Sneezes have thrown my back out before, they've never fixed it. I hope things don't get too dystopian over there.

[WhiteGhost]

On 5/26/2022 at 7:46 AM, Scaly Freak said:

 

I'm going to add this to my growing list of Reasons Sneezing is Terrifying...

I know I am going to be in the minority here, but I love sneezing.  I actually enjoy the experience

 

On 5/27/2022 at 3:15 AM, Mad Hatter said:

Bodies are awesome.  

 

Shitty about the lockdown, but hey at least you've got video games.  

Awesome yes.  Weird, but also awesome

 

I also have my books for when Ghostlet is on the Xbox.  I am currently well into the Wheel of Time series (I have the whole set combined into one on my Kindle so I am not even sure which book I'm on)

 

11 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Just found your thread. Sneezes have thrown my back out before, they've never fixed it. I hope things don't get too dystopian over there.

That is a little terrifying.  Ghostess is afraid to sneeze again on the concern hat is could unto what the last one fixed.  

 

Things are always dystopian here, it's just variations in the relative levels

 

---------------

 

Not much new here since last update.  still on unofficial lockdown with covid testing every morning.  my eating seems to getting under control a bit and I avoided a "cheat meal"* yesterday which was a win.

 

 * Cheat meal for me is defined as when I have already eaten dinner with Ghostlet and Ghostess suggests a second dinner with her later in the evening.  

[deftona]

Here you are! Or rather, here I am. I was thinking about how I hadn't heard from you for ages so was going to send you a message to see how things were but it appears it was me who was absent, not you! Sorry to hear about the supply issues, I hope they don't descend any further. And I loved this:

 

On 5/25/2022 at 3:01 PM, WhiteGhost said:

As a bit of good news, Ghostess sneezed on Monday and it popped her spine back into alignment so it looks like we are not going to have to go back to the hospital to get that fixed.

 

Must have been one hell of a sneeze, can she teach me her ways?!

[sarakingdom]

On 5/23/2022 at 12:37 AM, WhiteGhost said:

Well, things are slowly slipping into our worst nightmare scenario. 

 

 

 

[WhiteGhost]

On 5/28/2022 at 5:18 PM, deftona said:

Here you are! Or rather, here I am. I was thinking about how I hadn't heard from you for ages so was going to send you a message to see how things were but it appears it was me who was absent, not you! Sorry to hear about the supply issues, I hope they don't descend any further

My challenge was easy to miss coming in as late as it was, especially as I am not following anyone else so my activity here is very under the radar.

 

On 5/28/2022 at 10:48 PM, sarakingdom said:

 

 

haha, that brings back memories of the first horror movie I ever watched (Poltergeist) and the first horror book I ever read (It)

 

------------------

 

Well, things here seem to have made it around the corner.  Credit where credit is due, the government here seems not to have mucked everything up.  6 of 8 districts here are now covid free and the remaining two have daily new cases down to single digits.  I suspect the city may be covid free by the end of the dragon boat festival holiday next week.

 

I would never have guessed it even a week ago, but  I may be able of be back at the park working out by next challenge.  There is only about a month of school left so I am guessing they are going to stay online for the rest of the semester.  Whether or not finals are going be at home or not is the real question.

[RES]

On 5/30/2022 at 8:02 PM, WhiteGhost said:

My challenge was easy to miss coming in as late as it was, especially as I am not following anyone else so my activity here is very under the radar.

 

This is the reasoning I'm using on why it took me so long to get over here as well!  

On 5/30/2022 at 8:02 PM, WhiteGhost said:

Well, things here seem to have made it around the corner.  Credit where credit is due, the government here seems not to have mucked everything up.  6 of 8 districts here are now covid free and the remaining two have daily new cases down to single digits.  I suspect the city may be covid free by the end of the dragon boat festival holiday next week.

 

This is very good news! 

[Shello]

Alas!  I found you too!

[WhiteGhost]

On 6/1/2022 at 8:22 PM, RES said:

This is the reasoning I'm using on why it took me so long to get over here as well!  

It's a pretty solid reason

 

On 6/1/2022 at 8:22 PM, RES said:

This is very good news! 

Not as good as I had hoped, unfortunately

 

On 6/2/2022 at 2:00 AM, Shello said:

Alas!  I found you too!

Welcone

 

--------------

 

Hints have been chugging along here.  Food has generally been under control and workout have been happening, although sporadically.  Lots of free time being taken by Skyrim and reading.  

 

As for Covid, we are technically back out of virtual lockdown, but it seems the new normal is worse.  We used to have daily covid testing in our yard which took 5-10 minutes.  Now we have every other day testing but all of the residential testing sites were shut down so we have to go to a community site which means waiting in line for 2 hours.  Definitely less convenient than virtual lockdown was.

[WhiteGhost]

Well, it seems that my last post was me being a baby over nothing.  As of today, all covid restrictions in the city are lifted and we are back to where we were before the latest outbreak.  School will be back in person again from next Monday and covid tests requirements have been relaxed to 72 hours which has made the line wait time decrease significantly.

 

Ghostess's  back has continued to give her problems so we went back to the hospital and the doctor prescribed a therapy program so we need to go to the hospital every day this week for her to do her therapy.

[juliebarkley]

Not being a baby. With you past lockdown experience, their severity, and the way they can come on without a lot of warning, it makes sense that the switches into and out of and all the varying testing requirements and such would be stressful.

 

Are you able to make it out to the park and such, or is "normal" more restrictive than that?

[WhiteGhost]

6 hours ago, juliebarkley said:

Not being a baby. With you past lockdown experience, their severity, and the way they can come on without a lot of warning, it makes sense that the switches into and out of and all the varying testing requirements and such would be stressful.

 

Are you able to make it out to the park and such, or is "normal" more restrictive than that?

Yeah, it definitely has been a bit stressful

 

Theoretically I could have been going to the park this whole time, but I have not because the risk of cross infection was greater than the benefit of going to the park.  All restaurants are open from this week and everything else (including gyms) will be open from next week, going to the park will definitely be on the docket

 

----------------------------------------------

 

The last few days have mostly been about getting to the hospital every day for Ghostess's treatment and then making sure she gets her medicine (a heat compress and a some kind of salve) get applied on time.  Gaming and workouts have taken a backseat but they are still happening when I can fit them in

[juliebarkley]

1 hour ago, WhiteGhost said:

The last few days have mostly been about getting to the hospital every day for Ghostess's treatment and then making sure she gets her medicine (a heat compress and a some kind of salve) get applied on time.  Gaming and workouts have taken a backseat but they are still happening when I can fit them in

A sweet and caring husband, you are.