[Kishi]

2 hours ago, Scaly Freak said:

 

Atreju is a member of a nomadic people called "Greenskins", natives to the grass ocean plains. I'm not sure if Michael Ende meant for them to be green-colored Plains Native Americans or not, but considering Ende himself was born and raised in Germany, I'm a little hesitant to jump to that conclusion without further evidence to support it.

 

 

 

Well, from what I can find on the Internet, the "Greenskins" are supposed to be green, and there was apparently a scheme to color Noah Hathaway (the actor who played Atreju in the film) green that just didn't work for filming.

 

The reason I say that he's patterned after a Plains Native specifically is because in the film, when Bastian looks for a picture to give himself an idea of what Atreju looks like, it's a very red Plains Native hunting buffalo. (or at least, that's how I took that part, like he was looking for a reference). We cut back into Fantasia, and up walks this white-presenting kid in skins with a bow and arrow.

 

It's more complicated by mixed reporting concerning Hathaway. There's one 'source' that says he's Mohawk, and Wolfgang Petersen himself said he's half-Native, but most of what I found in researching it seems to indicate European/Jewish ancestry.

 

Which is all to say that I don't think it was Ende's idea, and I wouldn't ascribe it to him. I think Petersen read the book and made some adaptational choices that haven't aged well. Which tracks, really. Ende apparently wasn't a fan of Petersen's choices in adapting his work.

[Scaly Freak]

24 minutes ago, Kishi said:

Which is all to say that I don't think it was Ende's idea, and I wouldn't ascribe it to him. I think Petersen read the book and made some adaptational choices that haven't aged well. Which tracks, really. Ende apparently wasn't a fan of Petersen's choices in adapting his work.

 

Honestly, I'm not a big fan either. There are lots of layers and nuances in the book that were missed in the movie... and the decision to make the luck dragon look like a giant pink bathroom rug will forever aggravate me.   

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

I need to read Never Ending story. The movie is not my favorite. The second one I really disliked.

[TimovieMan]

I've always quite liked the movie. Of course I first saw it when I was five or six, so it may run on nostalgia for me (although I've seen it multiple times over the years).

 

The sequel was a disaster, though.

 

And I never read the book...

[The Most Loathed]

14 hours ago, Kishi said:

She had no answer. This helped to reinforce the notion that a belt just keeps the uniform together.

[Kishi]

15 hours ago, Scaly Freak said:

 

Honestly, I'm not a big fan either. There are lots of layers and nuances in the book that were missed in the movie... and the decision to make the luck dragon look like a giant pink bathroom rug will forever aggravate me.   

 

Yeah, I can see how that would be. The movie was part of my childhood and I came to like it as I got older, but I didn't know growing up that it was based on a book, and being unfamiliar with the source material I can't really make a call one way or the other. But adaptation is hard. That much is certain.

 

13 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

I need to read Never Ending story. The movie is not my favorite. The second one I really disliked.

 

8 hours ago, TimovieMan said:

I've always quite liked the movie. Of course I first saw it when I was five or six, so it may run on nostalgia for me (although I've seen it multiple times over the years).

 

The sequel was a disaster, though.

 

And I never read the book...

 

Yeah, the sequels weren't ever really necessary, but I've got enough nostalgia for the original that for me it's enjoyable. Even coming back to it after all the time away, I found myself liking it. The film has the shortcomings of an adaptation whose ambitions exceeded its grasp, but I find that refreshing and endearing in this case.

 

I do think I'd like to read the book, having read summaries of it. Just another one to chuck on the pile!

 

*

 

Goal 1: 24/24

 

Goal 2: 23/24

 

Goal 3: 12/24

 

Tuesday down! Not much to report about it. Did not hit up S&S yesterday but did manage to hit the mats. Worked on grapevine from guard and using that to set up sweeps. I wasn't able to hit that in sparring, but I was able to outfight everyone I got the chance to roll with. Passed more than I got passed, and got subs without getting subbed. I don't know what the difference is between now and before, although I have some suspicions that S&S has got something to do with it. What that is exactly, I couldn't say; I'm not sure if I'm actually stronger or if it's a mindset thing where I'm just more comfortable with certain discomforts. Maybe my technique is a bit better too than the people I've been going with lately? Or maybe I'm just playing the game better?

 

I hoped in writing this out I'd have an answer, but one did not arrive. Maybe it's just time. Maybe I'm breaking through the plateau finally and on my way to the next one.

 

So, yeah. Things are good. At this point, the main issue is time management. There is enough time to do all the things I want to do, but I'm not really using it very well, and it's frustrating to run up against the limits that imposes.

 

Also, my body fat percentage has dug in and it's not moving anywhere despite my efforts as far as raising protein and cutting carbs and all that. Part of it is down to a lot of social eating in the past week, but even with moderation, I'm completely stalled out. I'm thinking it might be time to return to the upper end of maintenance for a while and just let my metabolism rest. Part of the struggle might just be down to a lack of energy, since 1) I'm not taking as much energy in, and 2) clearly I'm not getting energy from the release/burn of body fat. So I might just have to be kind to myself and eat more food for a while and just observe. See what happens.

 

Otherwise, tonight I'll be off the mats. Need to get some batch cooking done, and as long as I'm on the hook for that, I might as well do some cleaning and lift heavy things.

[Sovalis]

These last two updates have been full of good stuff! Happy belated birthday! I am intrigued by your burger suggestions (a little put off by the egg, because I assume it’s a fried egg with runny yolk and those are gnarly for me) and could totally see pineapple working. I’d even try the peanut butter. Keep it all up!

[Kishi]

19 hours ago, Sovalis said:

These last two updates have been full of good stuff! Happy belated birthday! I am intrigued by your burger suggestions (a little put off by the egg, because I assume it’s a fried egg with runny yolk and those are gnarly for me) and could totally see pineapple working. I’d even try the peanut butter. Keep it all up!

 

Well, I think you're right that the egg is supposed to have a soft yolk, but I actually messed up and did a hard fry instead. It still tasted fine! I reckon if you wanted to go ahead and wrap the burger in some parchment paper or something then you could even get away with scrambling too, which if I was gonna do I'd want to do hard. Although one of the things I found in this latest dietary experiment was scrambling eggs with a curdy cheese like cottage or feta, so you could mix it in that way. I personally vouch for feta, since the cottage cheese tends to release a lot of water into the pan and it makes the eggs more runny, which I don't like, and also it doesn't taste as good to me.

 

Literal food for thought.

 

*

 

Goal 1: 25/25

 

Goal 2: 24/25

 

Goal 3: 13/25

 

Wednesday down! Made a mistake in terms of not cooking yesterday like I said I would. Since I'd said that I was going to take the night off, I made the choice to bring work home with me and work OT, and then I found that my laundry bin was full, so I wound up doing laundry and work instead of the batch cooking I promised myself. I told myself if worse came to worse, I could just do that this afternoon since I'm working at home, and fortunately this has turned out to be true. Or it will. Shhhhhhhhh.

 

Last night was productive, though. I managed to lift heavy things like I promised myself and finished up the broad strokes of the plot for this next draft of the novel. Neato! Next is character dossiers which are to expand out from the broad-stroke things that I wrote before. The method itself calls for a page of information on each character, but the blog I pulled from has a kind of character-builder that's really in-depth and is also like 20 pages or so. I think what I'm probably going to do is pick my favorite questions from the dossier for each character and roll it from there, just because it's possible to know too much and to be overloaded with information. Felt good to get all that done and be on to the next thing, though.

 

Let's see, beyond that I'm doing a watch-along of Star Trek: DS9 with one of my dirty leftist podcasts. Presently at S2E5. Enjoying it, but it's definitely a timesink and needs to be managed/accounted for/worked around. I'll get it done.

 

Today's docket will be lifting heavy things and getting the batch cooking done. Not sure if I'm making mat-time tonight or if I'm off to write with writer friend or what. Think we're getting toward the point where she's not gonna be able to do this anymore, but I'm going to work to make it work until it doesn't anymore. No bad options.

[Sovalis]

What blog are you drawing from for the character profiles? 

[The Most Loathed]

On 3/8/2023 at 3:30 PM, Sovalis said:

I am intrigued by your burger suggestions (a little put off by the egg, because I assume it’s a fried egg with runny yolk and those are gnarly for me) and could totally see pineapple working. I’d even try the peanut butter. Keep it all up!

I can vouch for the runny egg on a burger. It takes the umami to 11.

I always dislike the idea of peanut butter on a burger but the two times I've had it, it's been deeply satisfying. 

[Scaly Freak]

3 hours ago, The Most Loathed said:

I can vouch for the runny egg on a burger. It takes the umami to 11.

 

I've done egg with steak, or with beef stir fry, a time or two. Adding my voice to @The Most Loathed's recommendation.

[Kishi]

22 hours ago, Sovalis said:

What blog are you drawing from for the character profiles? 

 

This one. The information that they insist on is freely available, but they offer a PDF template download thing, which I'm not sure if I think is useful or not? I ultimately downloaded it since a lot of the places I go to write don't have easy internet access, and having the resource downloaded is just easier.

 

*

 

Goal 1: 26/26

 

Goal 2: 25/26

 

Goal 3: 14/26

 

Thursday done. Friend never confirmed our writing time, so mat-time it was. I've been sticking to the fundamental classes, since I've never thought I was too good to skip the fundamentals, and while it means I don't get access to more advanced stuff (because they limit mat time to only one class), I genuinely don't mind. The only deficiency is that the sparring is situational only, but that can be addressed by hitting up open mats, which I'll be doing once the ortho clears me for it again.

 

Anyway, we worked on basic guard stuff - mostly posture breaks and a triangle counter to the stall position, which I really liked and was almost able to pull off. Also did a very, very simplified version of a Flower/Pendulum Sweep from guard. It's got almost all the same pieces, but instead of getting an arm under your partner's leg and curling with the sweep, you just get one leg in their armpit and the opposite on the ground. Sweep up and over. This is apparently referred to in the old school as a "Calf Roll Sweep," but I can't confirm since I went looking for a video and everything came back with calf slices instead.

 

Situational sparring was a mixed bag. First opponent was squirrely and athletic but I was able to cancel him out with weight and technique. Second opponent was a cinnamon roll; I played as nicely with her as I could and tried to be as gentle in my technique as I could manage, and she couldn't do anything about. Next roll was with a purple belt who I think had it out for me on account of crushing the cinnamon roll, as he crushed me, and then I saw him on the final roll going nice and easy with her. (he also made an offhand comment afterward when we were cleaning up that the head coach doesn't like green gi, and I was the only one wearing green. Which, like, okay my guy. If coach has a problem, he can tell me himself. Also, it could be that I'm misreading that; there was some talk about wearing different colored gi and how wearing red is apparently a power move of some kind and how coach apparently only likes white and blue and black gi as those are the colors he wears, and I just happened to be the one person who was wearing different colors). My last roll was with a younger, more athletic man who outplayed me pretty hard. No two ways about that one.

 

I have to admit, I walked off the mats pretty frustrated, but that's really more to do with how I finished and how I was reading the situation at the time. Dunno if it means anything in terms of whether I'm getting better or not. Have to keep showing up and doing what I can.

 

Unfortunately, I couldn't do mat time today because I totally forgot to wash my uniform and my belt afterward, and I wanted to be a good teammate and present clean today. Couldn't do that, so no mat time. And no mat time tomorrow because I'm going off to help someone with moving stuff tomorrow morning and then coming back to do lunch with my folks. Sunday would be mat-time if I wasn't committed to keeping my word to my ortho and limiting my sparring to situationals. So I'll have to sneak out on Monday instead.

 

At least meditation, writing, and qigong happened last night. And it'll happen again tonight. And I'll finally get the batch cooking done. So there's that.

[The Most Loathed]

54 minutes ago, Kishi said:

(he also made an offhand comment afterward when we were cleaning up that the head coach doesn't like green gi, and I was the only one wearing green. Which, like, okay my guy. If coach has a problem, he can tell me himself. Also, it could be that I'm misreading that; there was some talk about wearing different colored gi and how wearing red is apparently a power move of some kind and how coach apparently only likes white and blue and black gi as those are the colors he wears, and I just happened to be the one person who was wearing different colors). My last roll was with a younger, more athletic man who outplayed me pretty hard. No two ways about that one.

This is dumb BJJ politics. 

For people who don't know, at some gyms people love wearing many and varied uniforms, others, blue, black, and white only, and others still, there is a single uniform gi. Many gyms will never tell you, you're just expected to get it from the vibe. BJJ, while I love it, has a lot of this dumb culture stuff that you're just supposed to vibe with but then people who get different vibes tend to hate on one another. 

You're correct, if coach has a problem, coach needs to ties his own pants up and tell you and purple belt can take a walk. 

[Sovalis]

Thanks for the link! Sorry that guy was being rude. That’s just so unnecessary. What are you batch cooking? 

[Kishi]

On 3/10/2023 at 3:07 PM, The Most Loathed said:

This is dumb BJJ politics. 

For people who don't know, at some gyms people love wearing many and varied uniforms, others, blue, black, and white only, and others still, there is a single uniform gi. Many gyms will never tell you, you're just expected to get it from the vibe. BJJ, while I love it, has a lot of this dumb culture stuff that you're just supposed to vibe with but then people who get different vibes tend to hate on one another. 

You're correct, if coach has a problem, coach needs to ties his own pants up and tell you and purple belt can take a walk. 

 

That's about what I figured. Though I should double-check the mat rules and make sure that I'm in line there. I don't think it's a problem; I've seen a wide variety of colors on the mats and a direct preference has never really been articulated. If I'm not out of line, then there's no problem until I'm told by someone who matters.

 

On 3/10/2023 at 3:15 PM, Sovalis said:

Sorry that guy was being rude. That’s just so unnecessary.

 

I mean, eh. It's probably me. Truth is, I hadn't been smashed in a while and I forgot how much it smarts, and so I perceived everything through the lens of a stung ego. Everything sucks when you look through that lens. And nobody else seems to have taken it as if it was some sleight or as if he was out of line, so realistically I was probably just topical to a silly conversation that I wasn't in a position to receive well. No reason yet to make more of it than that.

 

On 3/10/2023 at 3:15 PM, Sovalis said:

What are you batch cooking? 

 

Beef. Just ground beef. Not complicated to do at all, but I haven't been managing my time well and I paid a price for it.

 

*

 

Goal 1: 29/29

 

Goal 2: 28/29

 

Goal 3: 16/29

 

Howdy everyone!

 

It has been some days since last post. Had a pretty busy weekend. Mostly a lot of running around and not having time for myself. Just the way I like 'em.

 

Friday was quiet. I got to get my cooking done and get some chores done around the place. Tweaked some small things on my present training program to allow for more rest and deloads on the bodyweight feats I'm pursuing, which is good.

 

Saturday I went to go help my friend with lifting things. I know better than to think that lifting kettlebells on a daily basis predisposes people to come looking for me to lift their shit every couple weeks, but doggone if it doesn't feel like it. Gonna spoiler the reasons below:

 

Spoiler

So this was my Monday Night Sci Fi friend, or one of them, and something I didn't mention about last Saturday - the one with the escape room - was that he texted me after I was out saying he'd got some bad news and needed some company. So I went and did that. It turns out his mom has a brain tumor. A big brain tumor, which she didn't elect to get checked out for a long time despite lots of concerning symptoms, partially down to some mental problems she has and partially down to sheer stubbornness and toxic positivity.

 

Which would be bad enough of my friend even liked his mom. He doesn't, which is fair because he grew up in a pretty emotionally abusive relationship with her. Despite that, he feels a sense of duty to her, to do the Good Son thing and try to arrange her affairs and take care of things, but the weight of this isn't sitting well on the relationship he has with his brothers, all of whom have varying degrees of involvement and willingness to be involved.

 

The lifting that we had to do Saturday involved clearing out some of his mom's space in her apartment for some of their distant kin to come in and live-in for a while. This was complicated by the fact that my friend's mom's a hoarder, and while he was in project manager mode on Saturday his anxiety was definitely up and he was relatively high strung in a nonproductive way. I've never had to work in those conditions before, and it wasn't fun for all that I was able to be companionable with my friends who were there.

 

I couldn't stay for all the lifting that had to be done and it turned out complicated because I was also on the hook to be back in Raleigh to visit my folks for lunch, so I almost wound up being late for that and definitely didn't get there in time to clean up like I told myself I would, but they didn't treat it like a big deal and it really wasn't.

 

Sunday I went out to breakfast with my folks, because this was how they wanted to celebrate my birthday from back on the Third. Which I thought was kind of weird. Since my Dad's birthday and mine are so close, I tend to treat his celebration as our celebration, especially since we gave up on gift giving some years ago. But they wanted it, and my younger bro was able to show up, and it was nice to see him and everyone and so we did it. It was a cold, sleety, snowy day after sunshine and spring the day before. Welcome to NC.

 

After that, got home, chilled and lifted weights, then talked to my Librarian Friend and accidentally talked him into coming up here to visit us tonight for Nerd Night. Which'll be nice, although I don't know what the plans are or what we'll be doing.

 

Also, one of my Dramatic Friends wants me to come out to visit her so we can binge some shows together. I'm trying to get her to plan this out. She is... ah, inert. So I suppose we'll see how that shakes out. I honestly wouldn't mind if it didn't. I'm getting tired of people getting in the way of my single-minded determination to get beat up in as many different ways as I possibly can.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

23 minutes ago, Kishi said:

Also, one of my Dramatic Friends wants me to come out to visit her so we can binge some shows together. I'm trying to get her to plan this out. She is... ah, inert. So I suppose we'll see how that shakes out. I honestly wouldn't mind if it didn't. I'm getting tired of people getting in the way of my single-minded determination to get beat up in as many different ways as I possibly can.

You're allowed to set your own priorities and decide who to hang out with based on how they affect those priorities. You can also say "no" to people.

[Kishi]

17 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

You're allowed to set your own priorities and decide who to hang out with based on how they affect those priorities. You can also say "no" to people.

 

Of course I am, but the way I see it, my priority has to be other people. Otherwise, I'd be spending every spare moment on the mats, and I wouldn't ever really see anyone else. Every weeknight would be given over to that, and a good chunk of my weekends too, like the midday sections. And for what? To get beat up? To remain mediocre despite everyone's best efforts including my own? That's its own kind of nonsense.

 

We're also overlooking the fact that if I was out there on the mats all the time, I'd be complaining about how I don't have a dating life and whining about whether or not the investment of time is even worth it.

 

Truthfully, I'm rather lucky. I get the privilege of choosing between things I want to do and people I want to be with. The real problem is, I don't know how to be happy about it.

 

I'm just living through a high tide in other people's demands on my time. It won't last.

 

*

 

Goal 1: 30/30

 

Goal 2: 29/30

 

Goal 3: 17/30

 

So, good news and bad news. Good news is, I'm getting up earlier! The added hour has me getting tired earlier than before, so I've been able to ride that wave and get to bed earlier!

 

Bad news is, it hasn't helped. I'm getting up at 8:30 now, but I'm dragging too much and by the time the tea's kicked in, it's time to job, and I've been letting that take up more of my focus rather than lifting in the morning, which was the whole reason I wanted to get up earlier in the first place. Part of the answer is getting down earlier to get up earlier, which is feasible, but it's still disappointing that I'm so whipped by the job that I can't just log in and jiggle the mouse for a while as I do the things I really want to do. So much for my politics.

 

Still, self-knowledge is useful. Since I'm not immutable, I can change. And I can only consciously change what I know about, so knowing this is useful. SO, probably need to get earlier to bed. We'll all win that way.

 

Last night was a good night. Finished off Season 3 of Lower Decks. Show got good. Glad I stuck it out. Can't wait for the next season. Plan from here is a rewatch of Chernobyl, as half the Nerds are into The Last of Us show and Chernobyl was the showrunner's debut. After that, our newest Nerd put in a request for Vox Machina, which I want to see and haven't made the time for, so this would be a good excuse.

 

Anyway, tonight will be the first of three nights of bingeing Netflix stuff. Because my priority is people, and my plans are subject to change.

[Mistr]

Belated Happy Birthday!

 

I am glad to hear that you have a good mix of friends, mat time, training, family, work and creative time. I hear you about that being a lot to juggle.

 

Do you find yourself going out to do social things, then staying up late so you can do your own things?

 

If so, that shows that you care about having your own time more than getting enough sleep. Which is normal, but leads to the issue you describe about having trouble shifting your schedule earlier. 

 

I know you value your time with people you care about. That said you might be able to make your life go smoother if you used the phrase "I'd love to get together with you, but ____day does not work for me. Could you do ____day instead?"

 

On 3/9/2023 at 11:26 AM, Kishi said:

Well, I think you're right that the egg is supposed to have a soft yolk, but I actually messed up and did a hard fry instead. It still tasted fine! I reckon if you wanted to go ahead and wrap the burger in some parchment paper or something then you could even get away with scrambling too, which if I was gonna do I'd want to do hard. Although one of the things I found in this latest dietary experiment was scrambling eggs with a curdy cheese like cottage or feta, so you could mix it in that way.

 

Another handy tool is an egg ring. You can use them for fried or semi-scrambled eggs. The ring makes the egg come out in the perfect shape for a hamburger (or an English muffin).

[The Most Loathed]

19 hours ago, Kishi said:

Truthfully, I'm rather lucky. I get the privilege of choosing between things I want to do and people I want to be with.

You're absolutely right, the greatest privilege is choice.

Don't beat yourself up for having imperfect foreknowledge of how you want to choose. As long as you keep paying attention and making little tweaks, you're doing much better than most. You're wise to see the change in demands on your time and call them out for what they are and know that the seasons will change.

[Kishi]

On 3/14/2023 at 12:17 PM, Mistr said:

Do you find yourself going out to do social things, then staying up late so you can do your own things?

 

If so, that shows that you care about having your own time more than getting enough sleep. Which is normal, but leads to the issue you describe about having trouble shifting your schedule earlier. 

 

Kinda sorta? I stay up, but my own thing is apparently just coasting down and waiting for myself to get tired. Sometimes I'll stay up to write but sometimes not; there's not really a pattern there for me to point to and say, "Ah, yes, this is something I need to prioritize."

 

Mostly it's just my own internal rhythm. I've always been a night owl, and it's never been a problem until I had a job that insisted on 1.5th shift hours. It's not quite first shift and it's not quite second shift, and so it's the worst of both.

 

On 3/14/2023 at 12:17 PM, Mistr said:

I know you value your time with people you care about. That said you might be able to make your life go smoother if you used the phrase "I'd love to get together with you, but ____day does not work for me. Could you do ____day instead?"

 

Maybe? Worth a shot. I'm personally paranoid about how my chores pile up and I worry that I'd ask for a day for myself and get it only to have to lose mat time in favor of chores and then wind up losing mat time later because I'd negotiated that time away to someone else. But that doesn't mean it's not worth trying. I'm losing time now, so worst case, I lose time having tried to do something about it.

 

A bigger possible issue would be getting pulled into group stuff, where that kind of approach would render me some kind of a lone holdout. I would be very uncomfortable with trying to force a bunch of people to do what I want, but that's a separate situation.

 

On 3/14/2023 at 12:17 PM, Mistr said:

Another handy tool is an egg ring. You can use them for fried or semi-scrambled eggs. The ring makes the egg come out in the perfect shape for a hamburger (or an English muffin).

 

Mm! Yes! I've seen these before! I've never had a chance to use them because they're metal and my own pots and pans are nonstick, but my friend could have used them since he was cooking on a flattop (or rather, I've only ever seen metal). They look hecking convenient!

 

6 hours ago, The Most Loathed said:

You're absolutely right, the greatest privilege is choice.

Don't beat yourself up for having imperfect foreknowledge of how you want to choose. As long as you keep paying attention and making little tweaks, you're doing much better than most. You're wise to see the change in demands on your time and call them out for what they are and know that the seasons will change.

 

Thanks. I just need to get used to making those little tweaks under pressure. Won't get that if I don't get out to the mats, but, I'm also on my own to make those tweaks, and I won't be able to study those in-depth if I'm on the mats. So, really, it seems I need both, and whichever will be available is a matter of 'the season,' I guess.

 

Maybe that's why I'm doing better after so much time away? Between the S&C work and the home study, maybe that's getting me places.

 

*

 

Goal 1: 31/31

 

Goal 2: 30/31

 

Goal 3: 17/31

 

Day was done. Not much to say about it. Didn't get my lifting done before going to the office, and didn't get it done after getting home late. Did go off to hang with that friend, and it was a good time. She's been having some mental health troubles lately and needed some companionship since 2/3s of her polycule are off traveling without her. So we engaged in some companionable vegetation and it was fine.

 

I'm bout to wrap up on work here. I'll get to lift some weight and then go off to veg some more. Should be enjoyable. Not sure if we're doing a third day together tomorrow or what. I'll take it as it comes.

[Kishi]

Goal 1: 32/32

 

Goal 2: 31/32

 

Goal 3: 17/32

 

I elected to sleep in today. Because getting up early hasn't been doing anything for me and it's not resolving the core issue, which is that I'm too focused on the job at the expense of exercise and artistic development. A better solution may be to cultivate an awareness of time and to honor myself and my pursuits. The job does not suffer for this. If anything, it actually benefits. A happy, independent Kishi is a productive Kishi.

 

But not really a lot to report on yesterday. I took a short day and worked from home again before headed out to visit my friend and continue the vegetation. It was fine. We've been working through the Netflix show Outer Banks, which is this adventure series taking place on, well, the Outer Banks. It centers on a group of teens who wind up involved in a treasure hunt against murderous rich folk. Characterization is strong, and it's rather novel for me to see an episodic series taking place somewhere that I recognize, with all its familiar mores and quirks. In season 1, a couple of the characters wind up going to Chapel Hill, and it was surreal to recognize some of the places where they went.

 

As to how the show is? It's all right. First season's really good; character work is strong and the conflict feels natural, with believable consequences and just enough luck to suspend disbelief. Season 2 is also good, but it starts to run into problems in that the characters get dumber because the plot has to happen and the writers apparently didn't have the imagination to see the show take different directions. It begins to show a reliance on the S1 formula and without spoiling it, there's a major jump the shark moment at the very, very end. Season 3 starts off with a bang, but it's leaning even harder on the formula now to the point that it feels kind of lazy. Characters are still a lot of fun, and the actors are acting the hell out of their scenes, but the sense of realism is gone, and I am 95% sure I know how this season's going to end. Which is disappointing, but hey. It's not like they asked for my help or anything.

 

Anyway, I'm off of that today because season 2 of Shadow and Bone dropped and my friend is going to be mainlining that. So I get to lift heavy things and return to the mats tonight. That'll be good.

[Kishi]

Goal 1: 33/33

 

Goal 2: 32/33

 

Goal 3: 17/33

 

Thursday down! Happy Friday, everyone!

 

I lifted heavy things and went off to the mats afterward. Good times, y'all. Yesterday marked the start of a new cycle where I was able to bump up the weight on a couple sets of swings and get-ups. It was fun to be able to lift a little more.

 

Mat time was good. Worked on side control and guard recovery from there, something that I'm really bad at and need to practice as much as possible. Gonna take a page from @The Most Loathed and document the rolls as I remember them:

1. 2-stripe White: relatively new student. Very intense. I started off with side control, and while he was initially able to escape to an open guard situation, I was able to knee-slide back to side control, convert to scarf hold, and submit him with an Americana using my leg. When it was his turn, I didn't really escape so much as I used survival postures to stymie him: he was able to convert to mount, so I got to my right side, got my left hand buried under my torso, and covered my neck with my right hand. He was able eventually to muscle my left arm out and sat back to arm bar, but I was able to use my left hand to catch my right bicep and use it as a sticking point. He didn't think to use his leg to break my grip, so I pushed up with my right hand to make a space and sat up into what became his guard, then managed to split it with a "tactical kneel." Timer ran out.
2. That Freaking Purple Belt: that's right, went with that guy again! It was a better roll this time. Dunno if it was his attitude or mine, but there was no bad blood one way or the other. Actually, we spent the whole roll joking and laughing with each other, which causes me to look back at the prior interaction and conclude that I was probably looking at that badly. I think he was trying new stuff to him as far as back takes and stuff, but I stuffed most of what he was trying to do with survival postures. I don't recall getting subbed, which was its own victory, but I know for a fact that was a matter of largesse.
3. No-stripe Blue: nice guy. He subbed me once. He's one of the most recent crop of blue belts, and he's always been better than me, but it's nice to see that he's not as much better than me as I thought. Surprisingly fluid.
4. 2-stripe White: different from the first one. Lighter than me and wiry. He started off with side control and while I couldn't recover to guard, I was able to force a half-guard situation. He countered by putting me on my back in half-guard, which is a good place for questioning your life choices leading up to that point. I was able to sweep him so that I was on top, but I couldn't really do anything with it. At the last second, he went to sweep me, but I was able to roll with it and counter-sweep him to retain top position.

It was a good night. Got off the mats afterward and managed to pick up some stuff for St. Padraig's Day today. Also, apparently you can use a protein shaker for shaking... ah, non-protein things. That's pretty neat to try and saves me $50 if it's true.

 

I'd hoped I'd be able to sneak out to the mats for lunch, but the job indicated today that it's starting up a new initiative where we're going to be more aggressive in scheduling appointments with our doctors on aged cases, which for the purposes of sneaking off to the mats amounts to a more aggressive monitoring system as long as I've got aged cases to which this would apply. Which I do. So no more sneaking off until I get that caseload under control. Boo.

 

Then again, maybe I could talk to my boss about it and see if she'd be cool with me going off at lunch to do that. After all, the job alleges that it cares more for our health and wellbeing, and this would certainly help with that. Having cleared lunch times to do this would also be really cool as far as letting me balance mat time with social time. Flip side being, if she says no, then there's definitely no way I can sneak off in the short term since she'll be looking for me to try.

 

Anyway. Today is today. Let us lift and be about our business.

[Scaly Freak]

4 hours ago, Kishi said:

It was a good night. Got off the mats afterward and managed to pick up some stuff for St. Padraig's Day today. Also, apparently you can use a protein shaker for shaking... ah, non-protein things. That's pretty neat to try and saves me $50 if it's true.

 

Yes, it is true. Make sure the protein shaker is completely clean before you start mixing though. Just trust me on that.

[The Most Loathed]

On 3/17/2023 at 11:59 AM, Kishi said:

Gonna take a page from @The Most Loathed and document the rolls as I remember them:

I hope it pays off. I never entirely planned to start that process but kind of arrived at it organically, realizing I had heard of others doing but also realizing I wanted to know if I was getting the subs I wanted, how I was getting subbed, and, at the time, I really was holding top but not finishing as often as I wanted ( i was/am). For me, it was more successful at that than I expected but it also made me feel like I had an opportunity to tell the story of the gym that I wished I was telling. I also found that while it was a little tough at first but just the act of having to remember enough to be able to write things down has made my retention of my gym time so much higher. 

Glad the roll with the purple belt was so good. 

[Kishi]

On 3/17/2023 at 5:46 PM, Scaly Freak said:

 

Yes, it is true. Make sure the protein shaker is completely clean before you start mixing though. Just trust me on that.

 

Hey, maybe I want some protein powder in my mixed drinks. You don't know!

 

On 3/18/2023 at 3:53 PM, The Most Loathed said:

I hope it pays off. I never entirely planned to start that process but kind of arrived at it organically, realizing I had heard of others doing but also realizing I wanted to know if I was getting the subs I wanted, how I was getting subbed, and, at the time, I really was holding top but not finishing as often as I wanted ( i was/am). For me, it was more successful at that than I expected but it also made me feel like I had an opportunity to tell the story of the gym that I wished I was telling. I also found that while it was a little tough at first but just the act of having to remember enough to be able to write things down has made my retention of my gym time so much higher. 

Glad the roll with the purple belt was so good. 

 

Yeah, we'll see. I've observed that writing things down, even if I don't go looking for video references later, still helps a lot with retention. I'm hoping for similar results in writing down my rolls in terms of identifying trends and seeing how I get to where I get to. Maybe useful, maybe not. But can't hurt to try.

 

*

 

Goal 1: 35/35

 

Goal 2: 33/35

 

Goal 3: 18/35

 

Quick update here at the end of the challenge since I've gotta go and train, but basically, things ended out as well as they were probably going to. Used my protein shaker to whip up heavy cream for making Irish Coffee, which turned out super dope. Worked overtime on Friday night and then put in with my boss for an expansion of my lunch time from half an hour to an hour, which is a great, nonspecific way to get the time I need to sneak off and not have to answer to anyone for why I'm not responding to messages and doing what I'm told. I'll pay  a price for it in terms of having to be to work a bit earlier, but only a bit, and it's manageable compared to what I was trying to do before, so it'll be no problem.

 

Saturday was an all-social day. Got up and went to hang with friends. Slept too late to get any lifting done, which is my own fault. It was a good time overall, although it did use up all my time on Saturday, and so when I finally got the chance to sleep in super late today, I took it, and got up just in time to have more social demands on me, which. In practice, it doesn't really amount to being a problem, but in principle it's a real drain.

 

Anyway, I'm off to lift things and then go to more social stuff with my folks, so a detailed write up of how things went here is going to be delayed. On the whole, it feels good. But it's also got some lessons in it that I think could be useful going forward.