[juliebarkley]

As Julie finished unpacking and settling into her new home, started exploring the nearby landscape, and made an effort to take care of herself, she felt herself brightening again. And the crows watched.

 

She walked home, grocery bags in hand, enjoying the beautiful summer day. It's not the swamp, but this too is a beautiful place. And the crow did say that I would need to spread my wings, so to speak. She smiles to herself at the pun. I'm sure there are lots of weird problems to solve here too. I just haven't found them yet. Though I should probably.... She stopped, taking a seat on the kerb. Her arms ached. She didn't remember groceries feeling this heavy before. She caught a flicker of motion above and to the right. On the big Giant Tiger sign, above the proud declaration that canned corn was but 88¢ this week sat... a crow. She squinted. Was it... what had Master Tun called him... Sparky? She watched as he pecked at the logo. No, just one part of the logo. The eye. Of... the tiger. She laughed as she put it together. Of course, just what she needed! A training montage! She picked up the groceries again and continued home, a spring in her step.

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

 

I've been reading bits of the story I wrote when I first started out on here. I had a lot of fun with it. I'm not sure why I stopped. The story arc I wrote at that time was leading up to the Big Walk I'd been planning, so it would have ended anyway. But no reason for the adventures to stop!

 

In a shocking turn of events, I'm actually going to focus on fitness this challenge. My exercise habits are very lax, I have an itch in the work-on-a-cool-human-trick direction, and I'm still hoping to pull off, if not the walk across Ottawa (might be a bit much with a weeklong event not long before I'd have to set out), some other big walking goal.

 

STR: My annual goal says, more or less, exercise daily and make a list of interesting moves to work towards. Sounds good for this challenge round. Might pick one to work on before I make the list though.

DEX: Is also about building a list of skills, and a skill tree to build up to more challenging moves. Let's do it.

CON: Walking. Food. Both good. Keep walking every day, unless there's a really good reason not to (like a thunderstorm). My current step count averages at about 5000 steps per day, with wild variance between days I don't work and days I do. Goal: get the weekly average up to 7500/day, and break 10,000 twice a week. Oh, and I'll also need to buy new shoes. 😅

INT: Continue on my reading plan. Currently reading Just One Damned Thing After Another. Non-fiction title for the month still undecided. (Mostly dickering between The Border by Erika Fatland and How the World Really Works by Vaclav Smil.)

WIS: Continue to work on making scripture reading a daily habit. Trying to link it with my Duolingo, which is a solid established habit at this point.

CHA: I have a mental health type book. I think it will be useful. I'm also in an online CBT program. Do something from the book every day (reading or an activity), and the readings/activities my program assigns me.

Occ: Respect the work/practice time I have set aside for myself by actually doing them.

Art: my paperwork stack is two feet tall, and my try pile is cluttering up my closet. One item from each per day acted upon. Also, daily fiddle practice. @WhiteGhost and my long-planned mini-concert is going to be a beautiful disaster, but I want to hold up my end as best I can. Might pick a goal song this challenge too. Depends on how much of a struggle the daily practice is.

Lang: Just keep on keeping on.

[Jupiter]

Following.  

[juliebarkley]

2 hours ago, Jupiter said:

Following.  

Yay!

 

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

New challenge that I only wrote up in the middle of the day, so I didn't work on it much today. I did have a lovely night walk, prepared a lovely meal with my new CSA box subscription, did lots of reading, and reviewed my goals so that I will be ready to work on them tomorrow.

[DarkMoba]

10 hours ago, juliebarkley said:

No, just one part of the logo. The eye. Of... the tiger.

tuuum tuum du tuum 🤣
I was seriously reading your story, then this association haha

 

10 hours ago, juliebarkley said:

Also, daily fiddle practice. @WhiteGhost and my long-planned mini-concert is going to be a beautiful disaster, but I want to hold up my end as best I can.

GL with the fiddle!!❤️ 

 

(and ofc all your other goals!!)

 

[Jarric]

13 hours ago, juliebarkley said:

I have an itch in the work-on-a-cool-human-trick direction, and I'm still hoping to pull off,

 

This sounds fun - being able to do cool stuff is usually my main motivation for fitness.

[WhiteGhost]

following along again.  I am glad to see the story bits coming back

 

[Scaly Freak]

Here for the story and the fiddle!

[juliebarkley]

20 hours ago, Drakandar said:

I was seriously reading your story, then this association haha

If you read back, my stories are rarely without humour. I try not to take myself too seriously.

 

20 hours ago, Drakandar said:

GL with the fiddle!!❤️ 

 

(and ofc all your other goals!!)

Why thank you!

 

17 hours ago, Jarric said:

This sounds fun - being able to do cool stuff is usually my main motivation for fitness.

I want to keep cool stuff within reach for sure. There are things like pistols and handstands, but also things like walking a big trail or rock climbing. So many fun things out there. I want to feel like I could give them a fair go and maybe suck, but not be too worried about getting hurt because I was too out of shape.

 

3 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

following along again.  I am glad to see the story bits coming back

It's fun! You'll not get more than the lead-in intro though (for now at least).

 

1 hour ago, Scaly Freak said:

Here for the story and the fiddle!

Awesome. As WhiteGhost said, keep you expectations on the music front low.

 

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

STR: 'Twas on my schedule as a Mobility day, so I did that.

DEX: Did not start building a skill tree, but I did add it to my Second Quadrant list of things that I am planning to reactivate tomorrow. But this is not a daily item.

CON: Was over 7500 steps today, so that should be good for the average. Went out for takeout from a chip shop, then again for a night walk. Saw a very clearly wrecked car being delivered into someone's driveway. Why? I have no idea.

INT: More reading. This book will be done soon.

WIS: Yes to reading and the Friday khutba.

CHA: There's a thought journal thing today that I am going to add to as soon as this update is done.

Occ: Didn't do this at the correct time, but I did practice and I am planning to do a little reading in a book I need to learn from after this update too.

Art: The fiddle practice was practiced. I have some rust to shake off, but I remembered all the notes. For the purging, gave a small shelf I made in middle school to my son, as well as a manual for a C64 disk drive that might be saleable.

Lang: Practice was also practiced here.

 

So windy today, and threatening rain all day, so other than the walks, I did not go out. I did have a long list of little tasks to do to get ready for this challenge, so I have been working away on those. It felt like a pretty busy day, though I'd struggle to tell you exactly what I was doing all day.

[juliebarkley]

STR: Elements - check.

DEX: Nothing yet.

CON: It was cold and windy, but I did walk. Steps are not high though.

INT: Finished my book. I like the series and plan to continue, but there was one thing that was a bit odd about it. The way the characters changed and events flowed felt a little episodic, or like the author was putting the equivalent of three books' plots in one. The author also didn't make the flow of (regular) time all that clear, so five years passed in what I would have guessed was one or maybe two. I would estimate about seven years total passed over the course of the book, but no one retired from their job or seemed any older. Since there are several more books in the series, she's not going to be able to keep making seven years pass like this and keep the same main characters.

WIS: Yes, though I'm going to have to work at doing Duo and the right time so I can do this at the right time too!

CHA: Still need to do this.

Occ: Did a little reading and practice, but not at the right times.

Art: Did my two items. Did not do my fiddle practice, as I remembered only after someone was asleep.

Lang: All good.

 

We had our fourth major power outage in two months today. It appears this is a magic town and wonderful town of unpredictable electricity. This time, a car hit a hydro pole and it knocked down a bunch of others like dominoes. We were originally told it would be three days before power was restored. Luckily, it was only three hours. My son has been scheduled to work during all three outages (that were during the day; one was at 2am), and in every case the power went out only 10-20 minutes after he arrived. In only one was the power restored before the end of his shift, and then only for an hour. They keep records of who has had the most hours at work with no power, and he is now number one for the location. He's only worked there for two months.

[Jean]

Love your writing style, I'll not look at 88¢ canned corn in the same way ever again.

 

Also, Magic is Friendship (do I have it right?) Maybe some good will come out of all those power outages?

[juliebarkley]

18 hours ago, Jean said:

Love your writing style, I'll not look at 88¢ canned corn in the same way ever again.

  Glad you are enjoying it! Enjoy your fresh perspective on tinned vegetables also.  

 

19 hours ago, Jean said:

Also, Magic is Friendship (do I have it right?) Maybe some good will come out of all those power outages?

Google says it's Friendship is Magic, but hey, if a equals b, b also equals a. I'm not sure what sort of good could come. My son is happy enough - he's gotten twelve hours of pay for playing on his phone and chatting with coworkers. I'm just glad the power is going out in the summer, and hoping that the power lines develop a no-touching zone before winter.

 

And thanks! ☺️

 

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

STR: Decided to switch things up and try Vitamin today, since I was at the end of Mobility. It was fun. Also hard. And hard on the wrists - for some reason, the wrist warmup only seems to make my wrists sore and nearly unable to bear weight, which seems like the opposite of what should be happening.

DEX: Not yet begun.

CON: Only a short walk today, and very low step count, but a walk was had.

INT: I have been persuaded to read The Border rather than How the World Really Works because it is a travelogue about travelling through the borderlands of Russia and learning how people experience that border, which is quite relevant to current events. However, it is a massive brick of a thing - nearly 600 pages and too fat for my book stand. I will not be done by the end of the month. Today the subject was the early expansion of the tsar's empire eastward across what is now Russia, and their efforts to explore even further east into Alaska.

WIS: Just a little. I failed to link it with my Duo, which I also failed to do at the correct time.

CHA: I read a little in my book. I have new readings on the website, but they remain untouched.

Occ: I did work, and at the actual scheduled time! This may be a first.

Art: Music practice done. The rust is starting to flake off, but there were still some ear-bleeding moments. The purging was not done though. I'll double up tomorrow and call it good.

Lang: Need to start practising my spoken Esperanto since the conference is at the beginning of August.

 

I spent almost the whole day going through email. I deleted more than 2000, probably more like 3000 messages, set up a very large number of filter-to-trash filters, and unsubscribed from a bunch of lists. It was phenomenally boring. Tomorrow I have to go through all my library books, in theory to decide what to keep and what to return, but also because I have a very overdue book that I do remember borrowing but cannot find, despite always putting my books in the same place.

[Jean]

3 hours ago, juliebarkley said:

deleted more than 2000, probably more like 3000 messages, set up a very large number of filter-to-trash filters, and unsubscribed from a bunch of lists.

 

Respect.

 

 

 

[Jarric]

4 hours ago, juliebarkley said:

STR: Decided to switch things up and try Vitamin today, since I was at the end of Mobility. It was fun. Also hard. And hard on the wrists - for some reason, the wrist warmup only seems to make my wrists sore and nearly unable to bear weight, which seems like the opposite of what should be happening.

 

I used to struggle with wrist pain for hand-balancing stuff quite a lot, but over a while of doing GMB's wrist warm-up regularly it did get a lot better. Hopefully if you stick with it you'll see the warm-ups being more useful and less like workouts in their own right.

[Scaly Freak]

9 hours ago, juliebarkley said:

I spent almost the whole day going through email. I deleted more than 2000, probably more like 3000 messages, set up a very large number of filter-to-trash filters, and unsubscribed from a bunch of lists. It was phenomenally boring.

 

I have done this, and I feel your pain. It is so very much worth it though, and I salute your persistence! 

[Mad Hatter]

Oooh cool shiny stuff!

 

11 hours ago, juliebarkley said:

And hard on the wrists - for some reason, the wrist warmup only seems to make my wrists sore and nearly unable to bear weight, which seems like the opposite of what should be happening.

Is that the stretch with your wrists facing backwards? If so then it’s a stupid warmup IMO.* It’s alright as small part of a proper warm up (when done gently!), but it’s quite meh on its own as it doesn’t really activate anything. Pretty sure I’ve seen good wrist warm ups from GMB though. Maybe find one of them and only do the ones that feel useful? And keep in mind you don’t have to push hard at all with wrist warm ups and stretches, a little goes a long way.
 

*Actually I hate all of the vitamin warm up. At least in the beginning week, don’t know if it changes later on.

 

Whats the Esperanto conference?

[juliebarkley]

18 hours ago, Jean said:

Respect.

12 hours ago, Scaly Freak said:

I have done this, and I feel your pain. It is so very much worth it though, and I salute your persistence! 

If only I were done... But it is a large step in the right direction!

 

17 hours ago, Jarric said:

I used to struggle with wrist pain for hand-balancing stuff quite a lot, but over a while of doing GMB's wrist warm-up regularly it did get a lot better. Hopefully if you stick with it you'll see the warm-ups being more useful and less like workouts in their own right.

I have been struggling with wrist pain for a while whenever doing hand-balancing as well, so I am heartened to hear that it can get better over time.

 

10 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

Is that the stretch with your wrists facing backwards? If so then it’s a stupid warmup IMO.* It’s alright as small part of a proper warm up (when done gently!), but it’s quite meh on its own as it doesn’t really activate anything. Pretty sure I’ve seen good wrist warm ups from GMB though. Maybe find one of them and only do the ones that feel useful? And keep in mind you don’t have to push hard at all with wrist warm ups and stretches, a little goes a long way.

That is the one. Do you have a suggestion for a non-stupid wrist warm-up? I feel like wrist/finger tendon flexibility might be an issue I need to work on if I want to have any success in future at hand-balancing. It is also possible that I am pushing too hard, but I do have my hands quite close to my knees to reduce the amount of backward lean, and I still end up feeling like I need to spend some time leaning on the back of my hands to even out the pressure, or just do wrist rolls, or something.

 

10 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

Actually I hate all of the vitamin warm up. At least in the beginning week, don’t know if it changes later on.

If it's anything like Elements and Mobility, it will be pretty much the same forever. I don't care deeply about the warmup part. The only bit I feel is completely useless right now in the Vitamin warmup is the kneeling lunge. That one does nothing for me. I've got their YouTube channel open in a tab, so perhaps there's some variation/alternative in there that I can sub in.

 

10 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

Whats the Esperanto conference?

UK (Universala Kongreso) is the big once-a-year annual conference. They run alternately in Europe and not-Europe. 2020 was supposed to be Montreal, but we all know how 2020 went. So now Montreal is 2022. I am booked for UK, and my son for IIK (a smaller meetup for children, mostly teenagers). Neither of us have been, so I have no idea what to expect.

 

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

STR: Didn't get around to exercise today.

DEX: Not yet begun.

CON: Two walks; lovely weather.

INT: A little more reading done.

WIS: Just a little.

CHA: Much like yesterday, I read a little in my book.

Occ: Yes. I took the book I needed to read outside to focus on while my hair dried. This was an effective strategy, it turns out.

Art: I did not practice today, but I did deal with four items from the piles. One is still ongoing - a book of creative writing done by someone who was serving a substantial prison sentence. It seems disrespectful to not read it through once before discarding it. It's only 50-odd pages long.

Lang: Just Duo today, and a little real-life French/Esperanto from reading websites and emails.

 

It looks like I got nothing done, but I swear I felt busy all day, and not with time-wasting things. 🤷‍♀️The item I rolled as my priority was "spend time with my son", so we spent our after-supper time playing games. We started on BoardGameArena, where he lost all but one game. Then we moved to physical games, where he lost all three. 😂 We tried out a new game too, Campaign Secrets, that he bought in the bookstore at our former house. The game is meant to be political satire, where you can be nominated for a party (big or small), win vote share, and have dirty secrets that may or may not be revealed by election day. The game itself is okay (the rules, however, are often ambiguous and confusing), but the real fun was in the stories that got told. We ended up with extreme but somehow plausible characters. (We played with two stuffed animals because the rules said it was four players minimum.)

 

The stuffed cat, Lina: First nominated for the Reform Party, then outed as a racial purist, picked up an endorsement from the NRA, and was promptly nominated by both the Republicans and Constitution Party. She was also later nominated by the Greens, because she likes guns and racism, but not Big Oil. (Except that one of her unrevealed secrets was that she was on the payroll of Big Oil.) She was also a member of a cult. She still won the election.

The stuffed bear, Molly Humbee: He was nominated by the Natural Law Party (they of the yogic flying) and later by the Socialists, was twice outed for drug use and once for being involved in drug cartels (the dazed look on his face just went perfectly with the drugged-out New Agey reputation he was earning). He was also a racist with deep connections to Big Tech and the media conglomerates, but he managed to keep all that secret.

My son: The Democrat nominee. He had barely more than a few harsh words he'd dealt out in the past as secrets, but that was enough to lose him the election. Maybe he was just a boring candidate.

Me: I was the nominee for both the Libertarians and the Communists, and my secrets were all about my criminal affiliations and past support for the Army of God (a terrorist group that bombed abortion clinics). The public were willing to forgive one of my criminal connections, but not the other. So fickle. I finished dead last, but 18% of the vote is still a damn good result for a Libertarian/Communist, if you ask me.

[Scaly Freak]

17 hours ago, juliebarkley said:

The stuffed cat, Lina: First nominated for the Reform Party, then outed as a racial purist,

 

It's a  cat. How was this a surprise!?  

[juliebarkley]

5 hours ago, Scaly Freak said:

It's a  cat. How was this a surprise!?  

Cats aren't racial purists. They are quite happy to live with humans, fish, probably dogs or birds too if it came to that. They are, however, feline supremacists, and will insist on being top of the hierarchy. (At least you have to let them believe it is so.)

 

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

STR: Vitamin today was forward rolls. Walking into a forward roll but not going over is an odd feeling. And I'm still a bit dizzy. 😅

DEX: Not yet begun.

CON: No walks; weather was awful and thunderstormy and none of my currently wearable shoes can deal with water. Have I mentioned I need new shoes?

INT: Going to read while having some food after this post.

WIS: Yes.

CHA: My assignment for the week was a couple of mood surveys (done) and a request to practice what I learned last week. It's a good exercise to practice, so this is fine.

Occ: No. I knew something would not make the cut today, and this was it. I will try to read a paragraph or so just so I can say I made some progress.

Art: Practiced my fiddle with a metronome to try to make sure my tempo is consistent. This ... did not go well. I could barely hear the metronome over the fiddle, and since I'm working off memory and essentially playing by ear (I did have printed music, but I think I changed the key and some of the notes as well), I had a lot of trouble figuring out where I should be landing by each beat. This resulted in sounding like I had never played any of the songs before. It was painful to listen to. I also did my two items of sorting/purging: recycled an old map for a local attraction, and sieved my cattail pollen to remove the fibres. (Isn't that what everyone does of an evening?)

Lang: Duo and some Esperanto email. I have to make some arrangements pre-conference.

[juliebarkley]

I have been fighting heavy tiredness ever since I got home. I got some stuff done, but just couldn't do the rest. And I will sleep so well tonight.

 

STR: I had good intentions to do this after my walk, but I just cannot.

DEX: Not yet begun.

CON: Long walk with lots of exploring of streets I've never been down before. Walked to a chip shop to look at its menu. The order window was open, which was weird, then we heard a noise that sounded like someone inside. Could have been an animal, could have been a loose door in the (strong) wind. We decided not to stick around longer to find out.

INT: Read a little, and finished the Arctic Ocean portion of the voyage. It's really sad how often the description included piles of rusty oil barrels, abandoned buildings, and trash. Plus some very entertaining, in a glad-it's-not-me sort of way, descriptions of some of the Arctic expeditions around the North Pole area and Bering Strait area.

WIS: I have now.

CHA: I did my practice assignment.

Occ: No.

Art: Neither practiced fiddle nor purged anything. There was no good time for fiddle unfortunately, and I could have purged but I didn't. Can do two tomorrow; that one will be fine.

Lang: Duo, and also read and wrote in Esperanto. I have left my booking of accommodation very late. You know you might be in a bit of trouble when you are anxiously awaiting a reply from a stranger in Benin.

[juliebarkley]

STR: Elements threw me a variation on Spiderman where you rest your knee on your arm. This neither looks nor is easy.

DEX: Not yet begun.

CON: Since I went to bed with 6500 steps already done for the day, I knew it would be easy to exceed my target today. And it was.

INT: Will do a little before bed, I think.

WIS: Yes.

CHA: Ehh, I guess I should do a little of that before bed too.

Occ: No.

Art: Fiddled briefly, and it went very well. So unlike last time. The items I pulled for purging were difficult. Not the papers so much, but the other ones. I got the set of dolls I collected as a child of women from countries around the world in traditional outfits, and the tea set my grandmother left me on her death. I should really get rid of the tea set - I don't really like it, I never use it, and I have no memories associated with it. But it is the only thing I have from that grandmother. The dolls ... I don't know. I'll have to have a look at them. I like them, but not enough to put them on display or anything, because dolls on display feels creepy in a bad way.

Lang: Waiting for the stranger in Benin to reply (she didn't) was the wrong choice. The congress organizers said, two days ago, that bookings would be open until the 28th. I logged in to make my final bookings today, and got the message that ordering was closed. I'm hoping it's a glitch in the system. It's not the end of the world - the conference is in Montreal, so I know the language and the country, and the place where I was going to book a room can been found on booking.com - but I wanted to take part in one of the excursions to an indigenous village and old Quebecois museum village, and if the ordering is closed, I can't. I sent off some pissed-off emails in Esperanto and I'll try to book again tomorrow.

 

I had an unusual amount of stuff that had to be done today, on top of all the other stuff I normally try to fit into a day. It disrupted my schedule and required a lot of mental energy to keep track of and tick off. But I think I got all the stuff that absolutely had to be done today done (except the booking), and now I have a couple of things that absolutely must be done tomorrow too. I have a bit of a headache now and am looking forward to relaxing with my book and falling asleep.

[juliebarkley]

I got caught up in the news and also in picking roles for my Werewolf game tomorrow (still not complete!). Today was a failure from a challenge point of view. But I got my bookings done for the conference (it was indeed a technical error), so that's not nothing.

[juliebarkley]

STR: By the time I finished setting up the Werewolf game and had a night walk, it was 1AM, I was tired, and it was still 27º. No. Did not.

DEX: Not yet begun.

CON: Walk was very nice (except for the truck whose driver may have been drunk).

INT: May or may not before bed. May read a manga I picked up instead. I finished my breaktime book too.

WIS: Yes.

CHA: Yes.

Occ: No.

Art: Did none of this.

Lang: Did this though.

 

There are a lot of people in the game and I didn't get all the details sorted out before I had to go to bed last night, so I was setting up almost right up to the official start time. There's board gaming to be had tomorrow, so I'm fine with an early-ish night. But must get back on track tomorrow.

[juliebarkley]

STR: Yep. Vitamin was a walkthrough of three steps of the Plow position. Steps 1 and 2 are very easy for me. But I can barely straighten my legs in step 3.

DEX: Not yet begun.

CON: I think I have seen most of the town, except the bit by the hospital/old college campus and the walking paths in the forest. Somehow, I cannot convince my son that going walking in the dark woods at night is a good idea. He's good with the graveyard though. Kids.

INT: Read a quick one-volume manga. Will settle into my book a bit with some food after this post.

WIS: Yes.

CHA: Ooh, not yet.

Occ: Darn. Off-track with this.

Art: Did my two items today. They were very easy. Did not fiddle though.

Lang: Yes.

 

Went out to play board games, which was nice. Tweaked my calendar, which took a lot longer than you'd think. Nothing else exciting happened, though I did have fun watching the Werewolf players settling in to the game. Just a chill day where I got to read a book and listen to the rain.

[Mistr]

I am glad to hear that you are feeling better about things. You certainly are making good progress on a lot of fronts.

 

I am with your son on not walking in an unfamiliar forest in the dark. I love walking in the forest, but even in the daytime it is easy to get disoriented. Also the bugs are out at night. No fun at all.

 

How did working with the metronome go? I have tried to do that with my piano practicing and struggled. I'm just doing finger exercises, and even those are hard to stay on a steady beat. I suppose it means I need more practice.

 

My wrists did get stronger and more flexible after doing the GMB warmups for a couple months. At first I could barely stand putting weight on the backs of my hands. Later it felt like a good stretch. YMMV

[Scaly Freak]

17 hours ago, juliebarkley said:

Somehow, I cannot convince my son that going walking in the dark woods at night is a good idea. He's good with the graveyard though. Kids.

 

Makes perfect sense to me. Unlike a cemetery, the forest is filled with uneven paths and things to trip over, not to mention that anything that is out there with you is alive and might not appreciate your presence. Graveyard are quite safer, by comparison.