[Kishi]

Wait, wait, hold up, you're telling me that this challenge is going to pop off on January 1st? Just lines up like it's meant to be?

 

Well. I guess I know what I'm doing!

 

 

Howdy, everyone! Kishi here, your friendly neighborhood itinerant monk. Took a few weeks off the forums just to chill and focus on end of the year shenanigans, but that was then and this is now! Even though now is technically then, but it will be then by the time the challenge officially starts.

 

As a rebellious rebel, I'm not a big believer in the old Rule of 3 + 1. I instead believe that you can change one thing, and that one thing interact with and change all the other things.

 

 

It's all connected, man.

 

Of course, that being said, no real reason to have just one challenge when two will do.

 

In my case, the big thing that I really want to hone in on is getting to bed earlier and getting up earlier. Reason being that I want to get my job done earlier in the day so that I can make more mat time. I'm about 80% of the way there, really, but the striking sparring only happens on Fridays and it's an earlier class than the others. So technically, I only really have to be early to bed and early to rise for one day of the week, but that one day will be easier if I'm keeping those hours other days of the week.

 

Also, I suspect it will be better for me. So, you know. There's that.

 

The other goal is a writing goal. Just want to do a page a day. 50,000 words in a month is nice and all, but 90,000 words in a year that you actually like? That's better. I think. Maybe. Never got there. Sure would like to, though.

 

So, those are my two challenges for myself this time around.

 

And... yeah.

[KB Girl]

Pfsh!

[Everstorm]

Placeholder comment

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Follow holder. 

[sarakingdom]

[Kishi]

5 hours ago, KB Girl said:

Pfsh!

 

 

4 hours ago, Everstorm said:

Placeholder comment

 

4 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Follow holder. 

 

Ah yes, your tables are right this way.

 

Also, @Everstorm, I know your quote! I'm on book 2 of the Stormlight Archives. Can't believe I slept on this one. (shhh, ignore my challenge goals here, shhh). How many have you read?

 

2 hours ago, sarakingdom said:

 

 

That's just so unnecessary

[sarakingdom]

12 minutes ago, Kishi said:

/cdn-cgi/mirage/c1366f622a80ba39af3e098356d5031f96e74a0a39a2cc2ba7a6caa5e20bfdbb/1280/cdn-cgi/mirage/c1366f622a80ba39af3e098356d5031f96e74a0a39a2cc2ba7a6caa5e20bfdbb/1280/https://media4.giphy.com/media/10FHR5A4cXqVrO/200.gif

 

That's just so unnecessary

 

DO YOU LIVE THE TRAINING LIFE OR NOT GRASSHOPPER

[Kishi]

13 minutes ago, sarakingdom said:

 

DO YOU LIVE THE TRAINING LIFE OR NOT GRASSHOPPER

 

You ask that like I'm not doing kettlebell farmer's walks at, uh, 11:39 at night

[sarakingdom]

Just now, Kishi said:

You ask that like I'm not doing kettlebell farmer's walks at, uh, 11:39 at night

 

And tomorrow morning you will practice your blocks.

 

[Everstorm]

8 hours ago, Kishi said:

I'm on book 2 of the Stormlight Archives. Can't believe I slept on this one. (shhh, ignore my challenge goals here, shhh). How many have you read?

All of them.  More than once.  It is killing me that there isn't a prayer that we will get the next one before Fall 2024. 

 

I am a bit of a Sanderson fangirl, I have read pretty much all his stuff except WoT (because I couldn't get past Jordan's books) and Legion.  My kids got Mistborn and Alcatraz books for Christmas 😂

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

14 hours ago, Kishi said:

Took a few weeks off the forums just to chill and focus on end of the year shenanigans, but that was then and this is now! Even though now is technically then, but it will be then by the time the challenge officially starts.

[KB Girl]

4 hours ago, Everstorm said:

It is killing me that there isn't a prayer that we will get the next one before Fall 2024. 

On the bright side, we could fit in another re-read or two x) 

[Kishi]

13 hours ago, sarakingdom said:

 

And tomorrow morning you will practice your blocks.

 

 

 

5 hours ago, Everstorm said:

All of them.  More than once.  It is killing me that there isn't a prayer that we will get the next one before Fall 2024. 

 

I am a bit of a Sanderson fangirl, I have read pretty much all his stuff except WoT (because I couldn't get past Jordan's books) and Legion.  My kids got Mistborn and Alcatraz books for Christmas 😂

 

No kidding! I finally got a bug to see what the hubbub was around the Cosmere universe, and it's been a fun time. I'll probably take a break after Words of Radiance to read Kim Stanley Robinson's Ministry for the Future, but I plan to be right back at it once that's done.

 

5 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

 

It works, don't worry.

 

*

 

T-minus some days. Sleep and writing didn't happen like I'd wish they would. No excuses. I was doing exercise late at night, and I really could have done that and got to bed early, but I wound up slacking off after BJJ last night and by the time I got the wherewithal to train, it was late. I did TGUs and some farmer's walks, and that was it. I wanted to do some stretching too, but that would have carried me past midnight and I thought that would be excessive.

 

The plan yesterday had been for me to get the lifting stuff done early in the day, then go to the office, then mat time, then come home and stretch. That plan didn't carry off. I signed into my job and let myself get distracted, which I know better than to let happen. But it felt urgent. We'd been off for five days for the holidays, but people don't stop freaking calling, so I came back to, like, all the voicemails, and I thought that was relatively urgent. It wasn't, really, not in hindsight. Like I said. I know better.

 

Today, a friend of mine was in town, so I went to lunch with him. After kettlebell swings and burpees. I'll do some core training later once the brick in my stomach is dissolved, and I'll be hitting up the mats again tonight. We shall see how it shakes out.

[Maggie-Miau]

Mmmmm, sleep 😊 lovely. Cool goals, love the writing one!

[Rurik Harrgath]

22 hours ago, Kishi said:

Wait, wait, hold up, you're telling me that this challenge is going to pop off on January 1st? Just lines up like it's meant to be?

 

[Mistr]

Nice, clear goals.

 

I am with you on wanting to shift sleep time earlier to make more time for exercising early in the day. It sounds so simple, but is so challenging to make stick.

[KB Girl]

Sleep does make everything better! 

[Sovalis]

Here to follow along! 😁

[Stronkey Kong]

Following for writing and because I should be working on getting up earlier too.

[Treva]

I am also here to support you in your early sleeptime goals! Something I am working on too. Nice to see lots of unity for sleep on the forums!

[Kishi]

On 12/29/2022 at 1:52 PM, Maggie-Miau said:

Mmmmm, sleep 😊 lovely. Cool goals, love the writing one!

 

Thank you!

 

On 12/29/2022 at 3:43 PM, Rurik Harrgath said:

 

 

Yeah, but it's so rare!

 

On 12/29/2022 at 4:01 PM, Mistr said:

Nice, clear goals.

 

I am with you on wanting to shift sleep time earlier to make more time for exercising early in the day. It sounds so simple, but is so challenging to make stick.

 

On 12/29/2022 at 6:52 PM, KB Girl said:

Sleep does make everything better! 

 

On 12/30/2022 at 1:33 AM, Stronkey Kong said:

Following for writing and because I should be working on getting up earlier too.

 

19 hours ago, Treva said:

I am also here to support you in your early sleeptime goals! Something I am working on too. Nice to see lots of unity for sleep on the forums!

 

I'm genuinely glad that the sleep goal has so much support. Hopefully, if I have a hard time getting around to everyone this challenge, it'll be because I'm asleep.

 

On 12/29/2022 at 10:44 PM, Sovalis said:

Here to follow along! 😁

 

Hey, good to have you!

 

*

 

T-minus some hours before the start of the challenge. Mat time didn't happen on Thursday due to a need to get some chores done. Did still do my home training, though, which was good.

 

Friday was no-training. I worked a half day before going over to my Sci Fi Friend's house to make pirogi with him. It's this yearly tradition, where we basically get together and make a shit-ton of pirogi. It's kind of soured some, though, on account of the fact that my friend's neighbors caught wind of it and they like to put in requests, and both my friend and his wife like to be generous. This year, they really took advantage of him, and he knows it. We made a lot of pirogi, but it took all day, and most of the folk that came by to help were more interested in the 'party' part of pirogi party than they were in anything else; about half of us were more concerned with drinking my friend's good beer and socializing rather than helping us to make food, and when all's said and done and portioned out, my friend isn't going to get what he considers to be a fair portion of some of the more expensively made pirogi (we kind of went nuts on fillings. Crab rangoon, philly cheesesteak, and curry fillings as well as the standard potato/cheese).

 

My part was to play boiler and packer, which I did well I think. Nobody had any bad things to say about how I did, and I was a lot less frustrated with myself compared to prior years, which was good.

 

But yeah, after that, ate a bunch of Chinese food, drank some good brown, and binged through a couple hours of Lower Decks. We're on season 3 now. It's markedly better than season 1. I'm really glad I stuck it out.

 

I didn't get to bed early, but I did get down at the normal time and I thought I'd let my body dictate to me whether I went out to the mats or not. Body knocked me out and kept me down until 1 PM, which usually means I needed it. I'm trying to play a little more conservative with my training recently; at the last tournament I went to on 12/17, I got a pretty bad shoulder strain, and it's behaving kind of weird. Felt pretty bad yesterday, but I think the constant movement of ladling and packing pirogi might have been therapeutic somehow? It feels remarkably better today, but I'm still set for an orthopedist visit on 1/3.

 

Strongfirst has put out what reads like an on-ramping program for The Quick and the Dead, which I think I'm going to switch to just for now since I'm still working with lighter weights. It'll mean programming things a little differently, but my body's been playing well with this strength work-as-rehab approach, and having something be explicitly designed as a way to build into my endurance program would be better than my present piecemeal approach. I think.

 

Otherwise, today I will probably drink tea, play some Hades, and strength train before going off to visit my folks for the holiday. Should be fun times, I think.

[Stronkey Kong]

Dude.

 

Pierogi!

 

Enough said. 

 

I feel like some Polish-American sleeper agent, just blending in, going with the flow, keeping cool. Then someone says pierogi and that's the code word that sets me off and I get all excited. 

[Jupiter]

Following, especially for the writing!  

[analogwatch]

Following for the getting up earlier (I should be doing that too) and the writing.

 

But as a Municipal Liaison for NaNoWriMo, I have to say that I am a big fan of the November 50k challenge. (Victorious in 16/18/19/20/21/22 so far! I took 2017 off entirely because my life was a dumpster fire.)

[Kishi]

On 12/31/2022 at 6:17 PM, Stronkey Kong said:

Dude.

 

Pierogi!

 

Enough said. 

 

I feel like some Polish-American sleeper agent, just blending in, going with the flow, keeping cool. Then someone says pierogi and that's the code word that sets me off and I get all excited. 

 

Dude, you and me both. I just wish we got more people excited about making them than we did about eating them. But eating them? So. Worth it.

 

15 hours ago, Jupiter said:

Following, especially for the writing!  

 

Hey, good to have you!

 

5 hours ago, analogwatch said:

Following for the getting up earlier (I should be doing that too) and the writing.

 

But as a Municipal Liaison for NaNoWriMo, I have to say that I am a big fan of the November 50k challenge. (Victorious in 16/18/19/20/21/22 so far! I took 2017 off entirely because my life was a dumpster fire.)

 

Heck yeah! I've loved NaNoWriMo whenever I've done it. I only ever got a finished draft once, but it was darned educational. I think the reason I framed the 90k in the way I did was that 1) I do need to work on being consistent with my writing, and 2) I generally really dislike my prose during NaNoWriMo and I find that taking only a page a day usually gives me the chance to slow down and think and be deliberate in a way that I like.

 

Which region did you ML for? I did it a couple times for Raleigh-Durham. It was a lot of fun.

 

*

 

Goal 1: 1/1

 

Goal 2: 1/1

 

Day 1 down and in the bag. Fortunately, as a Sunday, sleep is not a big deal, and the writing happened, although I held off on that for too long. Wound up doing it last thing before going to bed because I was like, "Do I really want to have to report that I screwed up my writing goal first thing?" and then I was like

 

 

So that was cool. Most of my day was spent doing the walking snatch program and playing Hades. The sequel's been announced, and I didn't want to go into it cold. I've already beat the main story, so now it's just post-story epilogue type stuff and playing for pride.

 

Today I had to get up to go out to lunch with my folks, which was good as ever. Now I just gotta wait for the brick of food in my stomach to dissipate so I can do headstands and flexibility work. (shoulder's still doing well there and actually seems to have liked the snatch work. That slow, steady return to rack position seems to have done a minor wonder).