[sarakingdom]

4 hours ago, Jarric said:

That's interesting. I've seen the ones with the timers, but I suspect he'd just ignore the readout. I'll have to look into options for locking ones, they might help if they're suitably hard for him to break.

 

It looks like locks are plentiful and timers are plentiful, but locks with timers come mainly in 28-day dispensers. (And reviews on the lock quality of those is mixed, in terms of break ability.) However, there are also locking boxes with timers for things like storing your phone or cookies because you have no self-control, and they get pretty good reviews for breakability, generally. If he takes all his pills at the same time, another option is putting all the pill bottles into a locking box.

[DarK_RaideR]

Don't remember who it was, but some friend went to a gig or festival a month or so ago; Nova Twins were playing as a support band and really got the people going, so I checked them out. Haven't quite stuck with me, but I like their brand of modern electro-weird sounds mixed with that Rage against the machine vibe, all topped with a splash of Girl Power.

[Jarric]

23 hours ago, sarakingdom said:

 

It looks like locks are plentiful and timers are plentiful, but locks with timers come mainly in 28-day dispensers. (And reviews on the lock quality of those is mixed, in terms of break ability.) However, there are also locking boxes with timers for things like storing your phone or cookies because you have no self-control, and they get pretty good reviews for breakability, generally. If he takes all his pills at the same time, another option is putting all the pill bottles into a locking box.

 

Oh yeah that's a thought. I'll have a look at some general-purpose timed lock boxes.

 

2 hours ago, DarK_RaideR said:

Don't remember who it was, but some friend went to a gig or festival a month or so ago; Nova Twins were playing as a support band and really got the people going, so I checked them out. Haven't quite stuck with me, but I like their brand of modern electro-weird sounds mixed with that Rage against the machine vibe, all topped with a splash of Girl Power.

 

Yeah, they're pretty cool. I listened to a bunch of their tracks on Wednesday, and nothing stood out to me quite like that track, but I might give them a bit more of a listen. I seem to be liking that slightly shouty vocal style at the moment, which seems to be cropping up in pop, rock, and metal right now.

[deftona]

HEY JARRIC! ❤️

 

[Maigs]

I'm back (hopefully) and glad to see you still around. I'm excited for you having Wednesdays off and love your goal to have it planned out so it doesn't become a lost day

 

[Jarric]

On 9/16/2023 at 1:56 PM, deftona said:

HEY JARRIC! ❤️

 

 

HEY DEFFY!

 

 

On 9/16/2023 at 7:24 PM, Maigs said:

I'm back (hopefully) and glad to see you still around. I'm excited for you having Wednesdays off and love your goal to have it planned out so it doesn't become a lost day

 

 

Welcome back! It's really good to see you. And thank you!

[Jarric]

Week 1 update

Well I've already fallen off this challenge, so let's do a really quick run down.

 

Wednesday was a good day. I managed to slip well behind on my planned timings, and ended up losing all 1.5 hours of Baulder's Gate 3 and still getting home half an hour late from climbing. I think I need to budget in transition time between each activity, maybe say that any half-hour slot only contains 25 minutes of doing the thing so I have 5 minutes padding. I also need to not spend an hour procrastinating rather than doing the plan. I've been saying this a lot recently, but why am I like this?

 

I did do some good stuff though, French, Dutch, seeing my Dad, updating here, drawing stuff. Dad was on good form, which was nice. And the draw along had the wonderfully ridiculous prompt 'fancy beholder otter'...

 

 

Thursday was a good day. I was at a conference all day, but it was pretty interesting and I caught up with some people that, in addition to being people it's useful to know for work, I actually like. I left the pub at 9pm after several beers, but thanks to a series of train fuckups didn't get home until almost midnight. 

 

Friday was a good day. I was actually in the office, for a bit, but left early to go out for dinner with a colleague and a client. We went to a restaurant where you eat in absolute, pitch-black darkness. All of the waiters are blind, and you have no idea what you're eating; they just put food in front of you and let you try your best. It was really interesting and really good fun, both from a food point of view and a people point of view. It seems that people lose some of their inhibitions when you can't see them, and of course everything sounds like an innuendo when you're sat in the dark and talking about what you're doing with your hands. It was a right laugh.

 

I actually got home at a reasonable half-10-ish time, but then decided I wanted a whisky and got stuck in a loop where I would rather stare at my phone than go to bed regardless of being really tired. Think I went to bed at half midnight?

 

Saturday was a good day. I got up a bit late, unsurprisingly, but eventually made it to climbing. Had a chilled afternoon watching Wakanda Forever, in my bid to catch up on MCU while I have a couple of free months of Disney Plus. Then in the evening we went to a charity gala for a deaf charity, organised by MG. It was a really cool evening. Dinner was good, and we were sat between a couple who were really into D&D, and someone who's running the same marathon as me in a few weeks. There were a range of performances, including a signsong rapper (that's not a typo, he was rapping in British sign language), so that was really interesting. Another late night, though think we were home by midnight at least.

 

Sunday was a good day. Got up late, as D&D was cancelled, and eventually went out for my run. After 3 nights on the beer with inadequate sleep I thought it would be really tough, and about 2 miles in I considered giving up, but in the end I had quite a good time and wasn't ridiculously slow overall. In the afternoon I did very little, which felt much needed.

 

So, about those goals...

The chronologist 0/5 - I've been consistently shit at being on time this week, and it's going to cost me those dice  . Not sure if I should consider recalibrating the reward, so I've got more motivation to continue with the goal? I'll think on it.

The muscle 3/7 - I somewhat gave up on tracking calories when I started eating out for events on things, which is a poor excuse. I think a lack of energy, and motivation, in a busy week was what was really going on here.

The second-story specialist 2/3 - Got my two climbing sessions, but forgot about the extra hangboarding until Sunday, and then didn't have the energy.

The translator 5/7 - I did at least one language every day, but missed out on doing both on a couple of days.

The cartographer 2/3 - I didn't have Pathfinder this week, so I missed out on that drawing session, but I made it up drunkenly on my very long Thursday train journey. Again, I was aware of this and could have done the final session on Sunday, but I didn't.

The face 5/7 - not ideal, a couple of those late evenings missed.

[Kalitraz]

32 minutes ago, Jarric said:

We went to a restaurant where you eat in absolute, pitch-black darkness.

This sounds wild! I used to work in a cave and doing the pitch dark as a tour guide was one of my favorite parts. I can't imagine a restaurant like that!

 

Maybe a bit of a bumpy start to the challenge session, but that just means there's room for improvement. Sounds like you've had several fun and unique events tho. You've got this. GL!

[Jarric]

14 hours ago, Kalitraz said:

This sounds wild! I used to work in a cave and doing the pitch dark as a tour guide was one of my favorite parts. I can't imagine a restaurant like that!

 

Maybe a bit of a bumpy start to the challenge session, but that just means there's room for improvement. Sounds like you've had several fun and unique events tho. You've got this. GL!

 

Oh that sounds really cool! I guess you get pretty good at navigating your environment in the dark if you work in it all the time?

 

And thank you! You're right, I'll get there, just need to keep chipping away.

[Jarric]

Monday - week 2 day 1

Yesterday was a good day. Work up feeling knackered, after being woken in the night by thunderstorms (and possibly still recovering from Sunday's 15-mile run), so I took it easy at Crossfit. We had deadlifts, then 3 rounds of 400m run, 21 kettlebell swings, 12 pullups.

 

I was in a perfect position to be on time for work, but then I decided I just had to look up whether the word 'dishevelled' is an orphaned negative* and that made me miss my target time by one minute. I'll ask again, why am I like this?

 

Work was really busy - between a team meeting and a client meeting I did very little to clear my massive backlog from the time off last week. I worked a bit late, think I got home about half 6.

 

In the evening I cooked beef in a black been stew, and we chilled in front of Taskmaster NZ while I caught up on here.

 

Languages, teeth, and food tracking/shakes were all done. No progress on art or hangboarding yet. I restarted my proper calorie targets (having gained 3lbs last week), so I have a budget of 2,513kcal per day, plus a buffer of 2,513kcal for the week. Yesterday I ate 2,885kcal, so I have 2,159 left in this week's buffer.

 

*turns out that dishevelled is not an orphaned negative. It comes from a Middle French root meaning 'without hair', which came into English as 'with hair undressed', and then became not correctly dressed in general, before the modern meaning we have of 'scruffy'.

[sylph]

1 minute ago, Jarric said:

I'll ask again, why am I like this?

I still think we should figure out a way to shuffle up my pathological earliness with your lateness and both be precisely on time.

 

There's got to be some sort of trans-Atlantic transmogrification we can cobble together.

[Heidi]

Sorry that the goals are off track, but WOW lookit that "today was a good day" streak.

This has to count for something, right?

 

Also, I hear you about the extra-minute resulting in being now-late, and honestly, this is not what I thought being a Time Lord would feel like.

[Maigs]

On 9/18/2023 at 3:47 PM, Jarric said:

We went to a restaurant where you eat in absolute, pitch-black darkness.

That sounds really interesting. I've done the cave tours where they turn off the lights like @Kalitraz mentioned, but I would never have thought about it for a restaurant. Are they accommodating to dietary restrictions?

[Rhovaniel]

23 hours ago, Jarric said:

I was in a perfect position to be on time for work, but then I decided I just had to look up whether the word 'dishevelled' is an orphaned negative* and that made me miss my target time by one minute. I'll ask again, why am I like this?

Self-sabotage might be at play here, however unconsciously. Same as when I find myself post-binge, wondering why the hell I am the way I am. It ain't easy, but I am starting to suspect that until I start to think of myself as a healthy person with a healthy relationship to and attitude towards food, it will always be a battle. Therefore, perhaps thinking of yourself as a punctual person who can schedule their procrastination tendencies might help? I get so many tangent thoughts in a day, much like your orphaned negatives, that threaten to derail me. I find a quick note to self and moving on helps with mine. 

[Jarric]

On 9/19/2023 at 1:23 PM, sylph said:

I still think we should figure out a way to shuffle up my pathological earliness with your lateness and both be precisely on time.

 

There's got to be some sort of trans-Atlantic transmogrification we can cobble together.

 

That would be wonderful. Just need to find a friendly sorcerer to balance those things (maybe a druid or a shaman actually, that magic feels more about balance), and we should be away.

 

22 hours ago, Heidi said:

Sorry that the goals are off track, but WOW lookit that "today was a good day" streak.

This has to count for something, right?

 

Also, I hear you about the extra-minute resulting in being now-late, and honestly, this is not what I thought being a Time Lord would feel like.

 

It most definitely counts. It's about framing for me - every day there's some good stuff and some bad stuff. and I can always choose to remember it as a good day.

 

11 hours ago, Maigs said:

That sounds really interesting. I've done the cave tours where they turn off the lights like @Kalitraz mentioned, but I would never have thought about it for a restaurant. Are they accommodating to dietary restrictions?

 

Yeah, as far as I know you can ask for any requirements you need. You still won't know what you're getting, but you can veto things - one of our party said no seafood, for example.

 

1 hour ago, Rhovaniel said:

Self-sabotage might be at play here, however unconsciously. Same as when I find myself post-binge, wondering why the hell I am the way I am. It ain't easy, but I am starting to suspect that until I start to think of myself as a healthy person with a healthy relationship to and attitude towards food, it will always be a battle. Therefore, perhaps thinking of yourself as a punctual person who can schedule their procrastination tendencies might help? I get so many tangent thoughts in a day, much like your orphaned negatives, that threaten to derail me. I find a quick note to self and moving on helps with mine. 

 

I think you might just be spot on there about the self-sabotage. Perhaps thinking of myself as a person who can manage their time would help.

[Jarric]

Tuesday - week 2 day 2

Yesterday was a good day. I felt really tired first thing, and whilst I got out for my run (6 miles with 5 x 0.5 mile intervals) it was pretty slow and grindy. I've decided that, with Tough Mudder coming up at the weekend, I'm going to take Thursday and Friday morning off running/Crossfit. 

 

Didn't get to work on time, despite working from home. Between getting back late from my run and being knackered I wasn't moving very fast; I think rest is needed.

 

Work was mega busy, just desperately trying to catch up after being out so much of last week. I sort of did, but I didn't manage to get to all of the really important stuff I wanted to clear, even with working late.

 

We were late to Pathfinder, thanks to me being late from work and then needing to cook dinner. Had a great time though; we were travelling through some mountains and started to hear a horrible screaming sound. Being PCs, we of course headed straight towards the screaming. After quite a lot of travelling, we discovered that this noise was coming not from a creature, but from a set of pipes installed on the side of the mountain, which were angled so that the wind blowing through them created a horrible screaming noise.

 

Travelling further we eventually came across a lot more of those pipes, surrounding a shrine to Deimos, the god of dread. It appears that the pipes were designed to put fear into the hearts of travellers, to please the dread lord.

 

We also found the belongings of a pilgrim who had travelled this way before us, and had died en route, left by one of his travelling companions. We rifled through and got a lot of pretty cool gear, and then left some things we didn't need as well as some wine and a small statue as offerings to Deimos. Apparently this action pleased the dread lord, as he filled us with a sense of unease which will give us a +1 to our next initiative roll.

 

I did a bit of drawing in my notes for the drawing god goal. Food was tracked, languages were done, and teeth were done. I also planned out my Wednesday before bed:

 

05:50 - get up and out

06:30 - Crossfit

08:00 - walk WW to work

08:30 - shower, dress, breakfast

09:30 - Dutch practice

10:00 - set up drawing tablet and do some drawing

11:30 - mess around with monitors and see if that improves Baulder's Gate 3

12:30 - lunch

13:30 - call Dad, call electrician

14:00 - French practice

14:30 - leave for bouldering

15:00 - bouldering

16:30 - head home

17:00 - leave for the station

17:30 - night out seeing Fascinating Ada

[Kalitraz]

1 hour ago, Rhovaniel said:

 It ain't easy, but I am starting to suspect that until I start to think of myself as a healthy person with a healthy relationship to and attitude towards food, it will always be a battle. Therefore, perhaps thinking of yourself as a punctual person who can schedule their procrastination tendencies might help? I get so many tangent thoughts in a day, much like your orphaned negatives, that threaten to derail me. I find a quick note to self and moving on helps with mine.

I want to second this from @Rhovaniel. Changing your outlook on how you relate to something can be a powerful mental shift. Going from something like 'I am a unhealthy person making healthy choices for now' to 'I am a healthy person who was unhealthy for a while' may seem subtle but made a big change for me. Healthy people make certain choices and do certain things just by default, it helps remove decision fatigue. It can help make things just seem like a given, not requiring much of an effort or willpower to follow through. "I am a punctual person who manages their time well and my reputation for being on time is important". It's a hard trick to manage, doesn't just mean parroting the words. It really works if you can make even a part of yourself believe it. It's basically how I ended up losing 100lbs in a year (+2weeks, gah so close). Unfortunately when I hit a rough spot I went back to old habits that put me back to where the unhealthy bad habits do. Take the decisions/choices out of it. If that is who you are, not just what you're doing, some choices are automatic. Does take some mental effort to make the switch over, but then it's much easier to make the choices for what your goal is. I wish I could explain this and put it into words better, but it's been very helpful for me.
 

30 minutes ago, Jarric said:

It most definitely counts. It's about framing for me - every day there's some good stuff and some bad stuff. and I can always choose to remember it as a good day.

But then, you're not a stranger to the concept of re-framing things.

 

As far as the thoughts that derail you, I have a page in my bullet journal that I keep just for this reason. I call it my 'Brain Buzz' page. anytime I think of something that I want to pursue further, but don't have time for right now, I jot it down in there. Maybe it's something I want to research more. Maybe it's an idea for my DnD game. Maybe it's a sketch of a project I want to build or work on. Maybe it's just a funny interaction of words that I just need to get on paper and out of my head. The brain buzz page is the catch all. And when I then find I have some time on my hands I have a page full of interesting tangents to follow-up on and not just waste time scrolling. Works for me, maybe it'd help you? Maybe even just a note on your phone if you're not a pen & paper guy.

[DarK_RaideR]

21 hours ago, Jarric said:

We were late to Pathfinder, thanks to me being late from work and then needing to cook dinner. Had a great time though; we were travelling through some mountains and started to hear a horrible screaming sound. Being PCs, we of course headed straight towards the screaming. After quite a lot of travelling, we discovered that this noise was coming not from a creature, but from a set of pipes installed on the side of the mountain, which were angled so that the wind blowing through them created a horrible screaming noise.

 

Travelling further we eventually came across a lot more of those pipes, surrounding a shrine to Deimos, the god of dread. It appears that the pipes were designed to put fear into the hearts of travellers, to please the dread lord.

 

We also found the belongings of a pilgrim who had travelled this way before us, and had died en route, left by one of his travelling companions. We rifled through and got a lot of pretty cool gear, and then left some things we didn't need as well as some wine and a small statue as offerings to Deimos. Apparently this action pleased the dread lord, as he filled us with a sense of unease which will give us a +1 to our next initiative roll.

It's this kind of writing I really love about Pathfinder. Folks at Paizo really knock it out of the park more often than not.

[Heidi]

34 minutes ago, DarK_RaideR said:

It's this kind of writing I really love about Pathfinder. Folks at Paizo really knock it out of the park more often than not.

So, wait, is this a prepackaged module thing? Online thing? I just assumed that it was something your DM wrote.

[Jarric]

22 hours ago, Kalitraz said:

I want to second this from @Rhovaniel. Changing your outlook on how you relate to something can be a powerful mental shift. Going from something like 'I am a unhealthy person making healthy choices for now' to 'I am a healthy person who was unhealthy for a while' may seem subtle but made a big change for me. Healthy people make certain choices and do certain things just by default, it helps remove decision fatigue. It can help make things just seem like a given, not requiring much of an effort or willpower to follow through. "I am a punctual person who manages their time well and my reputation for being on time is important". It's a hard trick to manage, doesn't just mean parroting the words. It really works if you can make even a part of yourself believe it. It's basically how I ended up losing 100lbs in a year (+2weeks, gah so close). Unfortunately when I hit a rough spot I went back to old habits that put me back to where the unhealthy bad habits do. Take the decisions/choices out of it. If that is who you are, not just what you're doing, some choices are automatic. Does take some mental effort to make the switch over, but then it's much easier to make the choices for what your goal is. I wish I could explain this and put it into words better, but it's been very helpful for me.
 

But then, you're not a stranger to the concept of re-framing things.

 

As far as the thoughts that derail you, I have a page in my bullet journal that I keep just for this reason. I call it my 'Brain Buzz' page. anytime I think of something that I want to pursue further, but don't have time for right now, I jot it down in there. Maybe it's something I want to research more. Maybe it's an idea for my DnD game. Maybe it's a sketch of a project I want to build or work on. Maybe it's just a funny interaction of words that I just need to get on paper and out of my head. The brain buzz page is the catch all. And when I then find I have some time on my hands I have a page full of interesting tangents to follow-up on and not just waste time scrolling. Works for me, maybe it'd help you? Maybe even just a note on your phone if you're not a pen & paper guy.

 

Yeah, thank you, that really helps. I'm going to work on cultivating that mindset more; it feels like it should be helpful.

 

I could probably make better use of my bujo now that you mention it; I'll give that a try. The trick will be resisting the voice that says 'it'll only take 2 minutes, look it up now!'.

 

Losing 100# in a year is amazing btw, that's something to be proud of.

 

1 hour ago, DarK_RaideR said:

It's this kind of writing I really love about Pathfinder. Folks at Paizo really knock it out of the park more often than not.

 

32 minutes ago, Heidi said:

So, wait, is this a prepackaged module thing? Online thing? I just assumed that it was something your DM wrote.

 

Yeah, it's all homebrew, from our GM's weird mind. It's not even really part of the plot either, just something to fill a session whilst we were 1 player short. He's a very good GM.

[Jarric]

Wednesday - week 2 day 3

Yesterday was a good day. Yesterday was Wednesday.

 

 

I went to the gym first thing. Felt pretty rubbish so kept it fairly light on the squats. Not sure I went light on the yoke carry, but as it was a timed carry there's a limit on how heavy you can go under the time cap, so it wasn't totally crippling.

 

I ended up procrastinating a bit after walking WW to work again - I'm going to give these timings 1 more try, and if that doesn't work I'm going to give up and allow more time before starting my day. I ended up not calling the electrician, and skipping my long French lesson, in order to fit everything else into the time.

 

I did do my Dutch, and I did dust off the drawing tablet (literally - the thing was filthy and I foolishly brushed it off with my white top which I then immediately had to change out of. The theme this week was 'twisted elephant hag'.

 

 

It's not my best work - it's mostly a copy of what one of the artists on the show did and I would have needed about another 4 hours to make it look really good - but it got me used to using colour/layers/other tools again.

 

I also called Dad, put out the washing, and messed around trying (and failing) to get Baulder's Gate 3 to run a bit better. I didn't actually get much time to play the game, just enough to TPK against a load of goblins I shouldn't have been fighting.

 

Bouldering was good, ticked off a few decent problems despite being tired, and left on time.

 

In the evening we went for dinner and then to see Fascinating Aïda, who were excellent. If you haven't heard of them, they're a group of 3 older women who play light piano music with hilariously offensive lyrics. The following clip is 100% NSFW:

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

I did a bit of French when we got in for my goal, brushed my teeth, and tracked all 3,823kcal of food. All goals hit except for the illusive timekeeping one.

[TimovieMan]

30 minutes ago, Jarric said:

In the evening we went for dinner and then to see Fascinating Aïda, who were excellent. If you haven't heard of them, they're a group of 3 older women who play light piano music with hilariously offensive lyrics. The following clip is 100% NSFW:

Found out about them a couple of months ago when someone recommended their song "Cheap Flights" to me. Have been listening to more of their stuff since. They're hilarious! 👍

[Jarric]

18 minutes ago, TimovieMan said:

Found out about them a couple of months ago when someone recommended their song "Cheap Flights" to me. Have been listening to more of their stuff since. They're hilarious! 👍

 

Yeah, they were incredible live. I only knew 'Dogging' and 'Try not to be a cunt, it's Christmas' before I went, so I had a lot of funny surprises.

 

One this I was really impressed about is that they wrote a song specifically for the city we were in. It's obviously something they do everywhere, but a little bit of time to write a couple of verses about where we were and then learn them for the show was really cool to see.

[Maigs]

2 hours ago, Jarric said:

In the evening we went for dinner and then to see Fascinating Aïda, who were excellent. If you haven't heard of them, they're a group of 3 older women who play light piano music with hilariously offensive lyrics. The following clip is 100% NSFW:

*Off to share this with everyone I know 😂😂

[DarK_RaideR]

Sounds like the classier, female version of The Northern Boys to me.

Spoiler