[Jarric]

  My 2023 road map:

 

On 12/29/2022 at 9:58 PM, Jarric said:

2023 road map

 

Last year I decided that, rather than post my road map for the year in a battle log and then forget about it, that I would put it at the top of my first challenge for the year, and then repeat it in every subsequent challenge. That worked fairly well, so I'm sticking with it.

 

I also decided last year to divide the things that are important to me into 5 pillars, and map each of those pillars onto a D&D stat. For how that went you can see my 2022 wrap up here, but the final result was as follows:

 

Level 17 Wood Elf Ranger

STR: 12  -  CON: 10  -  CHA: 3  -  SAN: 7  -  INT: 11

 

This year I'll be following a very similar format, trying to earn points to increase those stats as much as possible. I'll also be including some specific benchmarks within some of the pillars - not necessarily goals to hit (though I might well have challenge goals working towards them), but to see what I can tick off by the end of the year.

 

Exercise (Strength)

This pillar is all about the physical activities I do, be that OCR, climbing, crossfit, running, swimming, whatever. It also encompasses activity that enables those things, like yoga, physio, foam rolling etc. I don't separate between STR and DEX, because I don't really think that makes sense for the kind of things I do.

 

Specific benchmarks I'd like to hit:

• Complete Strong Viking in June
• Complete Man vs Mountain in September
• Climb a font 7A
• Climb a font 6A outside
• Get reliable ring muscle ups
• Get reliable bar muscle ups
• Handwalk 12ft
• Learn to kip up
• Squatmas: 50 reps at 75% bodyweight, unbroken
• Deadliftmas: 50 reps at 100% bodyweight unbroken

 

I also need to plan out a few more OCRs, maybe a triathlon or aquathlon. I'd like to do a novice strongman competition too.

 

Nutrition (Constitution)

This is about putting the right things in my body (hey, if a joke ain't broke, don't fix it). That includes food, obviously, but also alcohol and caffeine, not smoking, basically whatever I consume. Currently I'm trying to bulk up a bit, and at the moment I anticipate cycling cutting and bulking for the year.

 

Creativity (Charisma)

This is a stat I didn't hit much all year, so I'm really keen to boost this stat in 2023. I think being creative is really good for me, and it's something I want to do more of. In order to enable this I'll probably also need to redress my work/life balance, to give me some more creative energy. This includes drawing/art, music, and D&D stuff.

 

Specific benchmarks:

• Publish some of my own D&D content online
• Be prepared (enough) for every session of my D&D campaign
• Complete Inktober this year
• If I reduce my working days, use the extra day creatively

 

February edit: I have had my flexible working approved, so from September I'll be working 4 days per week  . So, I want to get creativity on my extra day when that comes around.

 

Self-care (Sanity)

2022 was a trying year, and 2023 is definitely going to have its challenges (though fewer of them would be nice). With that in mind I need to keep on with the little things that keep my mind in check - brushing my teeth, keeping in touch with friends, tidying my house, getting out of work on time. I got most of my points in this last year from brushing my teeth, a habit I hope I may have finally cracked (at the age of 33!). This year I want to get more points in this stat, and get them from more different activities.

 

Specific benchmarks:

• Sort out the outhouse, and run power down there
• Get a price for the porch
• Paint my office
• Go away with friends

 

Learning (Intelligence)

I like learning stuff for pleasure, and I need to do it for work. This encompasses my professional qualifications, language learning (currently learning Dutch and French), and anything else I want to study.

 

Specific benchmarks:

• Complete professional qualification
• Achieve extra qualification status
• Converse in French with a francophone
• Converse in Dutch in The Netherlands

 

*    *    *

 

Under the hood

Each challenge goal will have stats assigned to it, which I earn on successful completion, and over the course of the year I want to get all of my stats as high as possible. My character level is determined by XP (and has been for possibly all of my years on NF) - each stat point is worth 5XP and I level up every 100XP. There's no requirement to hit all of the stats every month, I can mix and match depending on what I need at the time.

 

Each month I will budget £250 as a bet against my goals. On pay day I will split that money. For the percentage of success I've had on my goals since the previous pay day I get to keep the money in my savings or spend it on something nice. For the percentages of goals I fail I have to transfer that money as an extra payment off my mortgage. The idea is that if I'm not improving future Jarric by hitting my goals I'll improve things for him by reducing his debt instead. This runs payday to payday, rather than with the challenge cycle, because it ensures that I actually have the money to pay the bet when it's due.

 

And here's how last challenge went:

 

Spoiler

Challenge wrap-up

 

The muscle [+2 CON]

  Hide contents

It's bulking time! The aim is to increase my body weight by 0.25% each week (about 0.4lbs at the moment). In order to do that I will set my target calories for the week, and divide by 8 to give myself a daily target plus a floating 8th day for beer/snacks/whatever. I will also track protein daily, with a loose goal to eat at least 150g each day.

 

I don't have a way of weighing myself that precisely, so the plan is that if I lose weight in a given week I'll up my calorie target, and if I don't gain at least 1lb for 3 consecutive weigh-ins I'll also increase my calorie target. I'll set my calorie goal on day one of this challenge, when I've weighed in.

 

Score: 22/35 = 62.9% = +1 CON

 

I'm actually finding this quite hard at the moment. I did have a week where I massively exceeded my calories, thanks to lots of beer and plenty of food to soak it up, but mostly it's been hard to hit them. I think I need to eat a bigger breakfast, and to try to eat calorie dense things like seeds, and maybe that will help me get on target. That's the plan anyway.

 

I'm going to include week 0 in my recent weights (because it makes it look better  )

• 11 stone 12
• 12 stone 4
• 12 stone 2
• 12 stone 2
• 12 stone 2
• 12 stone 6
• 12 stone 3

The upshot, I've lost 1lb in the last 5 weeks, but I've gained 5 lbs in the last 6 weeks. I think it's pretty clear that my 2nd January weight was an anomaly. I'm only looking to gain 1lb every 2-3 weeks, so I think this is generally, vaguely on target. I feel like I look bigger too, and I'm feeling strong, which are the important things.

 

The documancer [+2 INT]

  Hide contents

I have two more 3,500-word essays to write in order to complete my current professional qualification, get new letters after my name, and earn some time off studying! Last challenge I did naff all, so I want to get back on this before I get close to the deadlines for these. I also find that working on this daily, even if it's only 10 minutes of editing stuff, it's much easier to pick it up and remember what I'm writing about.

 

12/35 = 34.3% = +1 INT

 

A pretty poor score all round here, so for week 0 of next challenge this is my one and only goal. I really want to get this damn essay finished.

 

The face [+1 SAN]

  Hide contents

Brush my teeth, twice daily, use electric brush and interdental brushes in the evening. Simple. This has been going dangerously well for the last couple of challenges, so here's hoping it continues.

 

34/35 = 97.1% = +1 SAN

 

Near enough to perfect that I'm very happy. I'm dropping this goal next challenge, as it's becoming second nature, on the proviso that I'm bringing it back immediately if it starts to slip.

 

The translator [+1 INT]

  Hide contents

Practice both French and Dutch daily. This can be in any form, though I suspect that Dutch will largely be on Duolingo, and French will be a mixture of Language Transfer, Duolingo, and the Duolingo podcast. If anyone has other suggestions for resources though, I'm all ears!

 

31/35 = 88.6% = +1 INT

 

I missed one or the other language on a couple of days, but overall this was pretty good. There were quite a few days where I just made a token gesture, but I figure a token gesture every day is probably more productive in the long run than pushing myself harder and failing. This goal stays.

 

The chronologist [+1 SAN]

  Hide contents

This is a new goal, about work/life balance. I've been working late a lot, and then feeling knackered and stressed, and then I don't want to go to work in the morning and I get in late. It's a horrible, stressful cycle. There's a lot of things that are stressful about my job right now, but this is the one thing I have real control over if I choose to exercise it.

 

Arrive at work by 08:35 every day. Have logged off from work by 17:30 every day. Weekends and days off don't count, obviously.

 

5/21 = 23.8% = no stat increase

 

I sucked at this. On the days I got away from work on time though, I did feel better for it. I think a more general time-keeping goal is needed next time round, because it's something I could just do with working on generally.

 

The cartographer [+1 CHA]

  Hide contents

I haven't done a lot of drawing in the last few months, and I miss it. Also, I really need a CHA goal! I'd love to do this almost every day, but the goal right now is to spend time drawing something once per week.

 

My pathfinder games (where I play an elf artist, who actually is the party's cartographer, and take a lot of my notes in sketches) don't count towards this goal.

 

Other than that I can draw anything. One thing I'd like to do at some point is to draw the characters who represent my goals. Anything counts though, even just a few minutes of doodling.

 

2/5 = 40% = no stat increase

 

The fact that I didn't draw at all for the last 3 weeks of this challenge is pretty rubbish. I'll be running the Gygax 75 challenge next cycle, so that will be taking the place of this for my creativity goal. Hopefully the accountability of a group doing the same thing will make this stick.

 

The camp maker [+1 SAN]

  Hide contents

It is just possible that I should occasionally clean my house. Something about hygiene, dust mite allergy, clutter stress, embarrassment when people come over, I don't know. Anyway, I want to spend a few minutes cleaning the house every week. Normal maintenance things I do, like washing clothes and dishes, don't count. Maybe I should hoover something?

 

4/5 = 80% = +1 SAN

 

Until just now, I thought I'd done rubbish on this goal. Turns out I only missed week 5, which just goes to show that this is easier than I thought. Not sure what to do with this next challenge, but I would like my house to be cleaner.

 

The field medic [+1 STR]

  Hide contents

In order to not get injured, I need to take care of myself. The goal is to do some intentional physio, stretching, foam rolling, or something like that at least once per week. Again, I'd like to do this 4-5 times per week, but once is the goal for now.

 

5/5 = 100% = +1 STR

 

So my actual scores by week were 7, 3, 3, 2, 4. This was quite easy to hit, because stuff hurts from running and lifting and I want to stretch and foam roll. Will probably keep this up to track it, but combine it with this...

 

The second storey specialist [+1 STR]

  Hide contents

When I was wrapping up 2022, I identified that bouldering was something I had really improved at, and would like to keep improving at. I can only climb once per week right now, but I get a lot of useful cross-training at my gym. The one thing I'm really not getting though is crimp grip strength, so this goal is to hangboard once per week.

 

4/5 = 80% = +1 STR

 

This went ok, once I figured out that it was much easier to do of a Wednesday evening than a Tuesday morning. It's the sort of thing I need to keep up for months or years to actually see any benefit, but I think I can work it in and eventually my climbing will improve.

 

Overall

So my stats now look like this:

STR:   12  +  2  =  14

CON: 10  +  1  =  11

CHA:    3  +  0  =     3

SAN:     7  +  2  =     9

INT:    11  +  2  =  13

 

So I think one thing we can say is, so far in the last 13 months, I have not really fostered my creative side. That needs to change.

 

Aside from that I'm very happy with this challenge. There's a couple of things I didn't manage to hit, but that's ok, I had far too many goals and I did better than I expected.

 

Jarric's birthday party

 

Last challenge I put an adventuring party together to represent my goals. There were far too many of them, so I've whittled it down slightly to give a bit more focus. My birthday falls at the end of week 3 of this challenge, so I guess these adventurers are my birthday party.

 

Week zero of this challenge has been pretty busy at work, but I got some good news at the end of the week. I've applied to change my hours to work a 4-day week, and I got told that my application has been accepted! It doesn't start until September, so no immediate change in things, but it gives me something to look forward to.

 

Aside from my birthday this challenge, I've also got a week and a half off leading up to that, and then I'm running Nuts Challenge (a 14km obstacle course race) the day after my birthday. Week 5 is likely to be pretty busy as my Mum is on holiday so I'll be checking in on my dad more, but at the end of week 5 I'll probably be going out for my usual 'watch the rugby and pretend it's for my birthday' day out.

 

So, without further ado, lets meet our adventurers:

 

The muscle [+2 CON]

 

Continuing my bulk, hopefully in a slightly more consistent manner this time around. The aim is to increase my body weight by 0.25% each week (about 0.4lbs at the moment). In order to do that I will set my target calories for the week, knock off a couple of thousand, and then divide what's left by 7 to give a daily goal. That extra couple of thousand will form a floating allowance for snacks/eating out/alcohol etc.. I will also track protein daily, with a loose goal to eat at least 150g each day.

 

For reference my weekly goal for week zero was 22,064kcal, divided up as 2,832 per day plus a floating 2,240. Assuming my weight doesn't drop this week, that will also be my goal for week 1. If I lose weight in a given week I'll up my calorie target, and if I don't gain at least 1lb for 3 consecutive weigh-ins I'll also increase my calorie target.

The documancer [+2 INT]

 

I have so nearly finished my current essay, following which I will have one, final 3,500-word essay to write to complete my professional qualification. This essay needs to be submitted in the next couple of weeks, though really I want it submitted by the end of week 1, and I'd love to have finished the final essay by the end of this challenge.

 

In order to do this I will do some work on this essay every day. Even if it's only 10 minutes of editing in front of the TV, it all adds up and it keeps it fresh in my mind. During my time off work I will I have scheduled time in my calendar to do 2 hours per working day on the essay. If I hit that, I should finish it by the end of my time off.

 

If I do finish and submit the last essay before the end of the challenge, I get a free pass on this goal for the remaining time and it counts as 100% completion on those days for my financial tracking.

The chronologist [+2 SAN]

 

This went poorly last time, so I'm mixing it up a bit. I'm crap at timekeeping, so I'm extending this beyond work to everything I do. Every day, I want to be on time for more things than I'm late for. And I'll be following the saying, 'if you're not early, you're late', so I'll need to arrive at things before a time for it to count.

 

This applies to everything I have an appointment for, but I also have a few specific benchmarks:

• At the gym before 06:30
• Out for my run before 06:30
• At work before 08:35
• Log off work before 17:30
• At Pathfinder before 19:15
• At D&D (online) before 11:55
• At bouldering before 08:15

 

The cartographer [+2 CHA]

 

This challenge I'll be having a go at the Gygax 75 challenge, with a bunch of other great nerds. This is a worldbuilding challenge that should give me everything to start a new homebrew campaign if I wanted to. To get full marks on this goal, I will need to complete all of the tasks each week, including the extra credit tasks.

 

There's still time to sign up by the way, if you fancy a bit of a creative writing challenge:

 

 

The translator [+1 INT]

 

No change to this goal - practice both French and Dutch daily. Dutch will usually be Duolino, French will often be Duolingo or the Duolingo podcast, but if anyone has any other good resources I'm interested in that.

The second storey specialist [+1 STR]

 

This goal is to do something every day that makes me a better climber. Specifically, do hangboarding at least once per week, and stretch/foam roll/do yoga on all other days.

 

I think that's it! Challenge start on Monday (obviously), and now I've written this I'm looking forward to it!

[ladyofthebog]

following! i'm not inspired to convert some ability scores for myself!

[Sovalis]

Definitely here for this! 🥳🎉

[Jarric]

14 hours ago, ladyofthebog said:

following! i'm not inspired to convert some ability scores for myself!

 

Thanks! It took me literally years to find a system that worked for me, but this one's been going pretty well so far.

 

11 hours ago, Sovalis said:

Definitely here for this! 🥳🎉

 

Great to have you!

[DarK_RaideR]

Grabbing myself a front row seat for the Jarric show!

[shaar]

Jarric I love love LOVE your challenge setup and may unashamedly steal it for my next challenge... 

 

 

And yes a front row seat to see you CRUSH IT!

[KB Girl]

February birthdays are the best. Following!

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Happy soon to be birthday. Following.

[starpuck]

Maaaaaan the art you found for this.   HOT STUFF!

Always here for a Jarric challenge.

You are still definitely so very Ranger, but that's what we love about us rangers - hah, we all relate!

 

[Jarric]

On 2/12/2023 at 12:35 PM, DarK_RaideR said:

Grabbing myself a front row seat for the Jarric show!

 

 

 

On 2/12/2023 at 1:41 PM, shaar said:

Jarric I love love LOVE your challenge setup and may unashamedly steal it for my next challenge... 

 

/cdn-cgi/mirage/6df18a013346874737038973bbb9422011fb23aa4322e9879ce3c2f225765967/1280/cdn-cgi/mirage/6df18a013346874737038973bbb9422011fb23aa4322e9879ce3c2f225765967/1280/https://media2.giphy.com/media/VHlKSFRTQ7nn81fkv4/giphy.gif

 

And yes a front row seat to see you CRUSH IT!

 

Absolutely steal away! Hyped to have you here

 

 

22 hours ago, KB Girl said:

February birthdays are the best. Following!

 

I'd argue that March birthdays are the best (by 3 days )

 

 

21 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Happy soon to be birthday. Following.

 

Thanks dude!

 

 

5 hours ago, starpuck said:

Maaaaaan the art you found for this.   HOT STUFF!

Always here for a Jarric challenge.

You are still definitely so very Ranger, but that's what we love about us rangers - hah, we all relate!

 

 

I know! I did think of you when I picked out the Grog image actually

 

I'll definitely take that as a compliment - always happy to be a jack of all trades.

[Jarric]

Thought I'd share my challenge tracker from last challenge. I'm going to do something totally different this time round, but I did like the last one:

 

 

[DarK_RaideR]

9 hours ago, Jarric said:

This gif was going to be my original post, but I figured I might as well type a line instead and say hi. Good to see we're on the same wavelength, mate.

 

Also, noice challenge tracker. Do you sketch dungeon maps, by any chance?

[Rhovaniel]

Here to follow and lurk and be inspired  

[Jarric]

6 hours ago, DarK_RaideR said:

This gif was going to be my original post, but I figured I might as well type a line instead and say hi. Good to see we're on the same wavelength, mate.

 

Also, noice challenge tracker. Do you sketch dungeon maps, by any chance?

 

That is pleasing to hear.

 

I've been know to sketch one or two... Hopefully I'll sketch some more in a week or two

 

 

1 hour ago, Rhovaniel said:

Here to follow and lurk and be inspired  

 

Always good to have you lurking

 

[Jarric]

Monday - week 1 day 1

Yesterday was a good day. A bit of a slow start to the challenge though; I drew up my new challenge tracker about 9pm and realised that I hadn't hit a single goal so far that day . I quickly did my Dutch lesson on Duolingo and forced down an extra glass of milk to hit my minimum calories, so 2/6 goals were actually hit.

 

On Sunday I had been up to town to see a rugby match. It was a great day, that match was fun and we had a meal and quite a few drink there as well. Including travel at 2+ hours each way I was out of the house from 9am to 10pm, so I was knackered when I got home.

 

All of which meant I was feeling a bit flat yesterday. I did go to Crossfit, and hit 100kg (220#) x 3, 90kg x 5, and 80kg x 7 on squats. If that was tough, the WOD was tougher - 7 rounds for time of 2 power snatch, 5 pullups, 10 hand release pushups, and 15 air squats. I went for 35kg (77#) on the snatch, hit the 12 minute time cap after 6 rounds 11 reps, and was bloody knackered afterwards.

 

I was late to Crossfit, late to work, and late leaving work - not the best start but that's why I'm working on timekeeping.

 

The evening was spent being highly distracted by a rather excellent game of play by post werewolf, which thankfully for my challenge goals I am now out of. I've really enjoyed playing it for the past week, but man it was time-consuming.

 

I did at least manage to hit those couple of goals, and boil eggs for the week (usually a Sunday evening activity), so I'm a bit better set up now at least.

 

ETA: is anyone else having problems with the traffic filtering thing you have to go through before getting on the forums? On my phone it now comes up in the Cyrillic alphabet (and presumably what it's telling me is in Russian or another language in that alphabet), and I can often wait minutes to log on. It's not as bad on my PC, but definitely a lot slower and comes up more often than it used to.

[starpuck]

8 hours ago, DarK_RaideR said:

Also, noice challenge tracker. Do you sketch dungeon maps, by any chance?

Ditto.  I didn't realize I was looking at a bujo tracker at first.  I was like ... what is the puzzle here, hmmmmmmm.

 

I had some issues with that a few weeks ago- the traffic filter.  It resolved on its own in a few days though.

 

[Sovalis]

Thanks for posting your tracker, I sure love seeing what other people do with theirs! Good job going to CrossFit when you weren’t perfectly rested. That’s impressive. 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

6 hours ago, Jarric said:

ETA: is anyone else having problems with the traffic filtering thing you have to go through before getting on the forums? On my phone it now comes up in the Cyrillic alphabet (and presumably what it's telling me is in Russian or another language in that alphabet), and I can often wait minutes to log on. It's not as bad on my PC, but definitely a lot slower and comes up more often than it used to.

Seems we go through waves of those sorts of issues.

[sylph]

6 hours ago, Jarric said:

 

ETA: is anyone else having problems with the traffic filtering thing you have to go through before getting on the forums? On my phone it now comes up in the Cyrillic alphabet (and presumably what it's telling me is in Russian or another language in that alphabet), and I can often wait minutes to log on. It's not as bad on my PC, but definitely a lot slower and comes up more often than it used to.

I don't think I've ever had this as a problem (not just the Cyrillic alphabet but any kind of filter at all).

I am glad the emojis are fixed, though.

[Jarric]

5 hours ago, starpuck said:

Ditto.  I didn't realize I was looking at a bujo tracker at first.  I was like ... what is the puzzle here, hmmmmmmm.

 

I had some issues with that a few weeks ago- the traffic filter.  It resolved on its own in a few days though.

 

 

Oh thanks, I like it, though I definitely stole the idea...

 

1 hour ago, Sovalis said:

Thanks for posting your tracker, I sure love seeing what other people do with theirs! Good job going to CrossFit when you weren’t perfectly rested. That’s impressive. 

 

Well thank you, because I totally stole the idea for it from you  . Yours was nicer though. 

 

To be honest, this might sound like a cliché but I never feel like I have to go to Crossfit, I'm excited that I get to go to Crossfit. So even if I'm feeling pretty rough I tend to go. 

 

30 minutes ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Seems we go through waves of those sorts of issues.

 

Thanks. I'm sure it'll sort itself out eventually.

 

10 minutes ago, sylph said:

I don't think I've ever had this as a problem (not just the Cyrillic alphabet but any kind of filter at all).

I am glad the emojis are fixed, though.

 

That's interesting, because I wasn't aware the emojis were broken

 

[DarK_RaideR]

18 hours ago, Jarric said:

ETA: is anyone else having problems with the traffic filtering thing you have to go through before getting on the forums? On my phone it now comes up in the Cyrillic alphabet (and presumably what it's telling me is in Russian or another language in that alphabet), and I can often wait minutes to log on. It's not as bad on my PC, but definitely a lot slower and comes up more often than it used to.

I no longer log into the forums from my phone, because as soon as it begins verifying my connection, it gets stuck in a never ending loop.

[TimovieMan]

8 minutes ago, DarK_RaideR said:

I no longer log into the forums from my phone, because as soon as it begins verifying my connection, it gets stuck in a never ending loop.

I have the same issue on my work laptop. Incognito mode fixes that. Not sure why. 🤷‍♂️

[DarK_RaideR]

53 minutes ago, TimovieMan said:

I have the same issue on my work laptop. Incognito mode fixes that. Not sure why. 🤷‍♂️

Not sure why either, but I tried it and the same happens on my phone, so thanks for the tip!

[Jarric]

4 hours ago, DarK_RaideR said:

I no longer log into the forums from my phone, because as soon as it begins verifying my connection, it gets stuck in a never ending loop.

 

Definitely not just me then . Sometimes refreshing seems to work for me too.

 

 

4 hours ago, TimovieMan said:

I have the same issue on my work laptop. Incognito mode fixes that. Not sure why. 🤷‍♂️

 

Oh that's really good to know, thanks man! I spent 3 minutes spinning through Cloudflare just to see and reply to this, so that'll definitely come in handy.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

This is weird, all three of you having problems are in Europe (more or less in Jarric's case). I wonder if it's a geographic thing.