[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.

 

May edit: I've booked a few more races: Nuclear Rush in May, Tough Mudder in September, and the British OCR championships in October. Also considering the other Nuclear races, a Spartan, and maybe a trail marathon?

 

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

 

May edit: I'm now confirmed to be working 4 days per week from September, so I'll need to find away to use those creatively  

 

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 completed in April  
• 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 what happened last time:

  

4 hours ago, Jarric said:

Week 5 wrap-up

A quick wrap-up here, because this challenge has somewhat fizzled out and I want to get writing my next one.

 

The cartographer: 5/7

The camp maker: 2/7

 

I struggled to track things this week, and I also realised that my poorly defined goals make it hard to score this challenge. For example I've not been giving myself D&D nights as a self-care thing, but I spend a lot of my D&D sessions drawing, so I would have got the point for a drawing challenge. This week I've given myself points for spending a bunch of time reading the new D&D Unearthed Arcana, and for watching Questing Time, which both kind of feel fitting?

 

Cleaning went very poorly - I swept the kitchen floor twice and that was about it. More work needed there.

 

I have spent some time this week prepping for a thoroughly silly D&D one-shot, entitled Normank Ook: Back Once Again it's the Renegade Mindflayer, Back Once Again with his Illithid Behaviour. I also got in my longest run in a while at 9 miles (14.4km) on Sunday.

 

Challenge score

 

The cartographer: 22/35 (4, 5, 4, 4, 5) = 63% = +1 SAN, +1 CHA

The camp maker: 10/35 (3, 3, 1, 1, 2) = 29% = +1 SAN

 

Overall, I think I've come to the realisation that I'm more stressed than I realised. I didn't think I was stressed, but I've been losing interest in this challenge, spending more time mindlessly scrolling on my phone, and drinking more than normal. 

 

Next challenge I'm going to have better defined goals which are more geared towards a couple of those stress habits, and also some goals which are just a bit easier to complete to hopefully keep me a bit more motivated.

 

The good news is, thanks to getting 100XP for completing my professional qualification after 4 years, I've levelled up twice this challenge. Level 20 baby! Epic boons here we come.

 

 

A month of Mondays

 

I don't know what to call this challenge, but we've got a ton of Mondays off work this month in the UK, so that's what I'm going with.

 

The decisionist [+2 CON]

 

No alcohol at home, simple.

 

I stopped drinking at home quite a few years ago, because I was drinking too much and it wasn't great for my fitness goals (or, with hindsight, my mental health). Then there was this pandemic thing, and I stopped going out, so I started drinking at home instead. Now that I'm going out more I really don't need to be drinking at home, so I want to knock it on the head again. I've also noticed that I've been drinking more in the last few weeks, possibly due to stress, and I don't want that to slide any further.

 

The muscle [+1 CON]

2 shakes per day, every day.

 

I've just bought a post-workout recovery shake, so I want to experiment with that and see if it makes me feel less sore from workouts/seems to improve my performance in general. I work out every day, so I want to try it every day

 

The second shake is just a protein shake - I find that on a day when I drink my protein shake I always hit about my daily protein goal, and without the shake I'm miles off. 

 

The second storey specialist [+2 STR]

 

Do something every day that makes me a better climber.

 

Specifically, stretch/foam roll/do yoga/do hangboarding/ab rollouts every day. 30 seconds of forward fold will do it if I'm busy, the bare minimum is enough to tick the box.

 

The cartographer [+3 CHA]

 

Do somethings creative, every day.

 

This is most likely to be drawing or D&D prep, but I'm flexible really for anything creative. As with the last goal, the bare minimum is fine if need be, so a quick sketch is all good.

 

The camp maker [+2 SAN]

 

Tidy/clean part of my house every day.

 

I did rubbish at this last challenge, but if I can just get a grip on this I will have a much nicer, lower-stress home to live in.

 

The face [+1 SAN]

 

Brush my teeth, twice every day.

 

I thought that I was on top of this, but it's very much slipped again, so back on the task list it goes!

 

The other things that's happening this month, apart from a lot of Mondays off, is that I'm running Nuclear Rush in a couple of weeks. Should be a nice, simple, 12km course, and hopefully really good fun. Here's a little map of the course to give you an idea:

 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Following 

[Sovalis]

I have teeth brushing on my challenge too. Solidarity. Looks like you are set up for a good challenge!

[Jarric]

30 minutes ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Following 

 

Good to have you mate.

 

3 minutes ago, Sovalis said:

I have teeth brushing on my challenge too. Solidarity. Looks like you are set up for a good challenge!

 

Thanks - hope that goes well for you too! I usually find just a little bit of accountability by having to talk about it here is enough for me.

[foxinthenorth]

Ooh, tooth brushing, good reminder!

[Jarric]

1 hour ago, foxinthenorth said:

Ooh, tooth brushing, good reminder!

 

Glad I could help!

[WhiteGhost]

I like the party format you have been doing recently.   Here to actually follow this time

[Jarric]

8 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

I like the party format you have been doing recently.   Here to actually follow this time

 

Thanks! I should really draw my own versions of them at some point. And to be fair, there wasn't much to follow by the end of last challenge. Planning to be more present this time.

[Jarric]

Monday - week 0, day 1

The decisionist 1/7 - No beer

The muscle 1/7 - shakes drunk

The second-storey specialist 1/7 - ab and calf rolling

The cartographer 1/7 - doodled on my challenge tracker

The camp-maker 0/7 - nope

The face 1/7 - teeth done

 

Yesterday was a good day. The first of our bank holiday Mondays here, so I had a lie in and a fairly slow start after a fairly boozy day out on Sunday. Got to the gym at 8 and did some bench, building to 75kg (165#) x 3, 67kg x 5 and 60kg x 7. That was followed by a workout of power snatch and hand release pressups. I wasn't feeling my most dynamic, but I'm happy with the bench weight at least. The recovery shake afterwards may have helped? Too early to tell.

 

The rest of the day was fairly chilled. I went to see my parents for a bit and wish my sister happy birthday, then spent most of the afternoon wrapping up my last challenge and writing this one. Also cooked roast pork as we didn't have a Sunday roast and I had an enormous joint of pork that needed eating.

 

Once that was done I had to get to work ticking off my new challenge goals. I did a few quick doodles on my challenge tracker in my journal, did a set of ab rollouts, and spent some time rolling my calves. I also boiled some eggs for breakfasts and made myself a pork sandwich for Tuesday lunch, because I somehow appear to be skint this month and I can't afford to be eating out every day. Only thing I didn't manage to tick of was the cleaning; this is going to be a tough habit to crack.

[Snarkyfishguts]

3 hours ago, Jarric said:

Only thing I didn't manage to tick of was the cleaning; this is going to be a tough habit to crack.

Overall it sounds like you had an awesome first day. I have been here with the cleaning and honestly, the conclusion I

came to was not cleaning made me feel stressed out. It’s not always fun, but I feel really capable afterwards. The feeling carries over into the rest of my day.. also, there’s nowhere for spiders to hide😂

 

 

[Artemis Prime]

On 5/1/2023 at 12:33 PM, Jarric said:

The other things that's happening this month, apart from a lot of Mondays off, is that I'm running Nuclear Rush in a couple of weeks. Should be a nice, simple, 12km course, and hopefully really good fun.

I've had RPGs on the brain too much lately. I read "running Nuclear Rush" as in "serving as GM for a game of Nuclear Rush" and was like, "huh, sounds like an apocalyptic game setting, could be cool." It took a minute for the 12km course to kick in and me to realize what you were actually talking about.

[DarK_RaideR]

Very much here for this.

[deftona]

I read the title of this challenge and wondered why anyone would want a month of Mondays, and then I realised that it's May and May has THE BEST Mondays ❤️ 

 

Following along! 

[Cheetah]

You can do it!

[Jarric]

On 5/2/2023 at 5:00 PM, Snarkyfishguts said:

Overall it sounds like you had an awesome first day. I have been here with the cleaning and honestly, the conclusion I

came to was not cleaning made me feel stressed out. It’s not always fun, but I feel really capable afterwards. The feeling carries over into the rest of my day.. also, there’s nowhere for spiders to hide😂

 

 

 

Yeah, same here, I find myself getting more and more stressed in a messy house. The trouble is, knowing that it's good for me doesn't always make me do it

 

I like the spiders though - I feel mean when I deprive them of their habitat.

 

On 5/2/2023 at 6:03 PM, Artemis Prime said:

I've had RPGs on the brain too much lately. I read "running Nuclear Rush" as in "serving as GM for a game of Nuclear Rush" and was like, "huh, sounds like an apocalyptic game setting, could be cool." It took a minute for the 12km course to kick in and me to realize what you were actually talking about.

 

To be fair, Nuclear Rush is a great name for a TTRPG. Maybe we should write it!

 

On 5/3/2023 at 9:41 AM, DarK_RaideR said:

Very much here for this.

 

Great to have you mate!

 

On 5/4/2023 at 8:04 AM, deftona said:

I read the title of this challenge and wondered why anyone would want a month of Mondays, and then I realised that it's May and May has THE BEST Mondays ❤️ 

 

Following along! 

 

It really does ❤️

 

 

On 5/4/2023 at 7:14 PM, Cheetah said:

You can do it!

 

Thank you mate!

[Snarkyfishguts]

1 minute ago, Jarric said:

I like the spiders though -

Spiders and I have an agreement they may live in vents and corners. Not on the walls, near the bed or bathroom, or on my comfy chair. A clean room helps keep defined boundaries.  There’s one in my bedroom corner who has eaten some other bugs so she and I are good neighbors. 🤣

[Jarric]

Tuesday - week 0, day 2

The decisionist 2/7 - No beer

The muscle 2/7 - shakes drunk

The second-storey specialist 2/7 - some token gesture stretching

The cartographer 2/7 - drawing during Pathfinder

The camp-maker 1/7 - cleaned the bathroom sink

The face 2/7 - teeth done

 

Tuesday was a good day. Got out for my run first thing; 5 miles with a 2 mile tempo interval. I realised that I hadn't planned a route for this, and I ended up doing too much running in town and not enough off-road, so later in the day I worked out a better 5-mile route for myself for future runs.

 

Work was ok; busy but I achieved quite a lot. I also did some token stretches during the day for the second-storey specialist. Straight after work I had a much needed shave and took the opportunity to clean the bathroom sink for the camp-maker. 

 

In the evening we played Pathfinder; our Greek mythology inspired campaign. I always take a lot of my notes for this character in drawings, so it's pretty much an automatic pass for the cartographer (and in game my character is the group cartographer too).

 

When we had left off last session we were in a secret room below a temple to Aphrodite, and the ground had just started shaking. We were torn as to whether to leave the room we were in, where we were trying to figure out how to free a chained statue of Aphrodite, or to go up before the temple collapsed on us and crushed us all to death. We eventually decided to go above ground, and discovered that the temple, the statue next to it, and the entire bloody hill was being held aloft by a giant... giant! I'm not really sure we know who or what he is, although we think he's a son of Aeries. He shook us off and ran away in the direction of a temple to Aeries that is supposed to be the first stop on our pilgrimage.

 

At this point we realised that we have been playing for a full year, over 31 sessions, and 38 in game days, and we haven't gone anywhere near the first stop on the pilgrimage. In fact, we're only a 4-day walk from where we started, and we've got side-tracked by every imaginable thing on our journey

 

The rest of our session was spent travelling back to a group of exiles we had lead to a cave for their safety, to find that they had been drugged by the friendly lampad we left them with and turned into affable zombies that just wanted to hug us. We tied them up and thankfully after 24 hours the shrooms wore off, but we'll be having words with that nymph next session.

[Jarric]

33 minutes ago, Snarkyfishguts said:

Spiders and I have an agreement they may live in vents and corners. Not on the walls, near the bed or bathroom, or on my comfy chair. A clean room helps keep defined boundaries.  There’s one in my bedroom corner who has eaten some other bugs so she and I are good neighbors. 🤣

 

Seems like a fair truce to have then

 

[Jarric]

Wednesday - week 0, day 3

The decisionist 2/7 - Beer was had

The muscle 3/7 - shakes drunk

The second-storey specialist 3/7 - some last-minute token stretches before bed

The cartographer 3/7 - drew some fractal patterns in front of the TV

The camp-maker 1/7 - No cleaning done

The face 3/7 - I think I brushed my teeth?

 

Wednesday was a good day. Crossfit first thing - banded deadlifts, single-leg deadlifts, pistol squats, windmill stretches - all good stuff. Work continued to be busy, but less productive as being in the office tends to be.

 

After work we went for a couple of beers to celebrate some business we won. That was all fine and to plan. Then on the way home we needed cheese for dinner, so WW and I stopped at the supermarket. And then I decided to get some beers for the evening, which was entirely not to plan. We've developed a bit of a tradition of having a few drinks whilst watching Questing Time, which began when QT was on on a Saturday during lockdown. It makes a lot less sense now on a normal Wednesday evening, and is a habit I would like to break, but nonetheless I stuck with it this week.

 

In order to not totally fail my goals I made a point of doodling some fractal patterns in my journal whilst watching Questing Time and drinking beer, as well as doing some token stretches before bed. On the plus side, I am still loving Questing Time - it's my kind of chaos.

[Jarric]

Thursday - week 0, day 4

The decisionist 3/7 - No beer

The muscle 4/7 - shakes drunk

The second-storey specialist 4/7 - some stretches done

The cartographer 4/7 - worked on a D&D map

The camp-maker 1/7 - No cleaning done

The face 3/7 - Teeth not brushed

 

Yesterday was a good day. 5-mile run done, and my new route was more or less a success. A bit too far along one particular country lane, but I'm not sure that there's much I can do to tweak that.

 

Work was extremely busy. I ended up cutting my lunch break short and working about an hour and a half late. As soon as I got home I put down my stuff and went back out to vote. When I got home for the second time I was about done, so I lay down on the floor and didn't move for a very long time. I was supposed to be cooking dinner, but that would have meant getting up, so instead I ordered pizza from the floor. When the pizza arrived I transferred to the sofa, where I stayed for the rest of the evening.

 

Before I got off the floor I did a couple of stretches lying on my back, so that counts. And post-pizza I dragged out my sketch book and finished off a map for this weekend's D&D game. I may have mentioned that I'm running a thoroughly stupid one-shot which I'm very much looking forward to, and I thought it would be fun to draw maps for it. I didn't brush my teeth though - I think a couple of days off updating on here makes it easier to ignore my goals.

[Artemis Prime]

16 hours ago, Jarric said:

To be fair, Nuclear Rush is a great name for a TTRPG. Maybe we should write it!

Let's do it! I want to make it something different, though, like a d8 system. The d8 doesn't get enough love, in my opinion.

[Jarric]

On 5/6/2023 at 1:41 PM, Artemis Prime said:

Let's do it! I want to make it something different, though, like a d8 system. The d8 doesn't get enough love, in my opinion.

 

I do like a d8. Also a d12 - it's a great shape, with a great name, but only barbarians ever get to use it.

[Jarric]

Friday - week 0, day 5

The decisionist 4/7 - No beer after I got home

The muscle 5/7 - shakes drunk

The second-storey specialist 5/7 - some stretches

The cartographer 5/7 - worked on a D&D map

The camp-maker 1/7 - No cleaning done

The face 4/7 - Teeth brushed

 

Friday was a good day. Crossfit was front squats and air bike sprints - I felt pretty weak and out of it for some reason, but I got in a good couple of sets. Then we played a few rounds of 'rowling', where you have to row as close to 100m as possible - it's a very chilled game so that was nice.

 

Work was busy, but by the end of the day I felt like I'd made progress with things so that was good. After work I went for a couple of beers (which is fine; the challenge goal is to avoid drinking at home). I also found out that one of my colleagues handed in his notice yesterday, so that was sad; I'll miss him.

 

In the evening WW cooked a sort of Mexican feast with chicken, tortillas, avocados, black beans, sour cream, and cheese. It was nice, but surprisingly bland given the number of things and flavours on the plate. I spent a chunk of time drawing maps for D&D, which was nice, and then got to bed at a fairly sensible time.

[shaar]

I struggle with not drinking at home too - which is dumb because I'm LITERALLY the only thing standing in my way. I like drinking at home because it's cheaper and I'm home and can just play video games and not have to deal with people. BUT it's also empty calories............. ugh.

[Jarric]

Saturday - week 0, day 6

The decisionist 5/7 - No beer

The muscle 6/7 - shakes drunk

The second-storey specialist 6/7 - some stretches and ankle massage

The cartographer 6/7 - did a bunch of D&D prep, and finished my last map for Sunday's game

The camp-maker 1/7 - No cleaning done

The face 5/7 - Teeth brushed

 

Yesterday was a good day. First thing I drove to bouldering, and ran 5km (3.1 miles) before climbing. It chucked it down with rain, so I was thankful it was a short run. Bouldering was good fun - nothing spectacular but there were some nice new routes to climb and it's always good to chill out with Hopalong.

 

Once I'd chilled out a bit, bought some stuff for WW's birthday, and had lunch, I eventually got on with D&D prep. It's really fun preparing for a one-shot, and setting up something totally different, particularly when I've drawn my own maps. It is, however, pretty time-consuming, as I refuse to pay Roll20 lots of money so end up manually entering a lot of monster stat blocks. I also wanted to download some music for this game, given the theme.

 

In the evening I finished drawing my last map and chilled in front of the TV.

 

Thus far stretching has been happening, but always little token gestures. I don't think that's bad to build the habit, but I still need to be doing more occasionally I think. Just something to bear in mind. Cleaning has been almost non-existent, so more effort needed there.