kawatan: Breaking the Start-scumming Cycle

[kawatan]

So last challenge...did not go well. The stress that started with my dad getting injured three days into it came on late and held me back from actually putting the effort to stick with it. I'm not even going to give myself points for it, honestly. I'm going to find myself an accountibilibuddy (or a dozen) and come back better than ever, though!

Start-scumming is a terrible habit for players of some roguelikes and similar games; you basically restart over and over until the random number generator gives you a good starting situation. Since I tend to restart "being healthy/finding a job" over and over, I figure I need to break this cycle too.

Kawa: L1 Spriggan Assassin

STR 1 | DEX 2 | STA 3 | CON 3 | WIS 3 | CHA 3

 

GOALS:

1. Do thirty or more knee pushups fifteen or more incline push ups a day, at least 30 out of the 42 days. +2 STR +2 STA

GRADING: 75 pushups is 1/3 STR 1/3 STA. This allows for bonus points. Push ups can be broken up as much as I want during the day, just gotta do at least 15.

EXTRA CHALLENGE: Do ten proper pushups. +1 STR

2. Eat 1400kcal or less for at least 30 of the 42 days. +3 CON

GRADING: 1/2 point for every 5 days on target. This allows for bonus points.

3. Do my morning and evening skincare and dental routine every day. +1 CON +1 CHA

GRADING: 1/3 point each for every 14 days on target.

 

4. Spend at least 60 hours out of the 42 days studying for the actuarial Financial Math exam. (That's two hours a day five days a week.) +3 WIS

GRADING: 1/2 point for every ten hours. This allows for bonus points.

 

5. Have 30 "contact points" in the job search by the end of the 42 day period. +1.5 WIS +1.5 CHA

Contact points can be won by contacting either someone in HR or someone actually doing the work I want to do (operations research or math education), doing an online application, or attending an appropriate event (career fair, job interview, interview prep training session, etc). The ideal will be at least ten contact points each in my three geographic job markets (New York metro area, Tampa/St. Pete metro area, and Melbourne/Palm Bay FL).

GRADING: 0.25 WIS 0.25 CHA for every 5 points. This allows for bonus points.

SPEEDRUN TRICK: if actually hired with health insurance offered, all points are earned regardless of how many contact points have been earned.

[Elastigirl]

I wouldn't be too hard on yourself for last challenge, life threw you a major curveball. Even if you didn't make it, you did take steps in the right diretion. You got this challenge

[kawatan]

I'm not gonna lie though, it feels good to have a fresh start! I definitely need more tools under my belt to stick with it for six weeks though.

[kawatan]

...And it's already midnight, dang. I did...none of these other than keeping up with my morning routine. *sigh* Deciding to do this again was kind of a spur of the moment thing...

[Nuala]

As long as you can maintain the "spur of the moment" everyday, you'll be fine. Don't aim for the whole 6 weeks, just try one week at first, then in one week you'll see You can do it, organise yourself, have a Todo list ready, and when you check it do one of the thing written down NOW! Really, just keep telling yourself "Do it now" those are the best magic words ever!

 

By the way, as standard push-ups are one of your side goal, I would add some incline push-ups in your training. I found that knee push-ups don't translate well in standard push-ups while inclines gives you the correct form. My 2 cents!

[kawatan]

Thanks guys! I definitely need more organization. To that end, since I'm always on TweetDeck anyway, I started a new Twitter: @KawaChallenge. Instead of having to get myself to another website to do daily updates, I can just update this as I go with what I've eaten, any push ups I do, and so on! (It'd be kind of cool to create a script collating those tweets into daily posts here, but I think I have enough on my plate...) 

 

As for incline pushups, I'll look around for an easy to access object that's stable enough and the right height to give me a challenge. Hmmm... *eyes entire house*

[InDestructiBull]

Your goals seem solid! I especially like your contact points system, I may borrow it in the future.

[kawatan]

Today, as evidenced on Twitter:

Skincare and dental care: YES PROGRESS: 2/42 days

Actuarial work: YES PROGRESS: 2/60 hours

Calories: 1350 YES PROGRESS: 1/30 non-cheat days

Contact point: 1 (New York) YES PROGRESS: 1/30 contact points

Pushups: 10 knee, 15 incline. I'm going to switch to 15 incline a day instead of the 50 knee ones. This will be pretty tough but hopefully I should see some progress! YES PROGRESS: 15/450 pushups

[swaffe]

your goals look good, and I love the idea of using a website you are frequently on anyway to help keep you organized for the challenge!

[kawatan]

Yesterday, as evidenced on Twitter:
 
Skincare/dental care: YES Progress: 2/42
Calories: YES Progress: 2/30
Contact point: YES Progress: 2/30
Pushups: YES Progress: 30/450
Studying: YES (actually ahead by an hour) Progress: 5/60

 

That "progress bar" button on the editor is such a tease! I don't know how to make it work!

[jtj016]

I really like your goals.  You did a great job making them SMART, and I look forward to seeing your progress!

 

Doing good so far!

[kawatan]

Thanks everyone for all your support!

 

Progress as of right now:

 

Skincare/dental care: 3.5/42 (missed last night, otherwise good)
Calories: 3/30 (went a little overboard with Chinese food tonight, sigh)
Contact point: 4/30 (two yesterday but none today)
Pushups: 70/450 (WOOT. Also, sixty second of planks.)
Studying: Progress: 8/60 (I did study yesterday but didn't tweet it. Blergh.) 

 

Weekend's coming up; I'm heading over to my partner's. These are expected cheat days for me for just about everything but the skincare/dental care stuff, so don't expect me to tweet, but I'll try anyway.

[kawatan]

Progress as of right now:

 

Skincare/dental care: 4.5/42 
Calories: 3/30 
Contact point: 5/30 
Pushups: 90/450 
Studying: Progress: 9/60

 

This Twitter system is really working for me.

 

OVERALL: Some of these are going great (DEM PUSHUPS! JOB STUFF!) and the rest is...not quite awesome, especially the calorie counting. (I blame my partner for this weekend!) But it can - and WILL - get better, and I can't give up!

 

Coming up this week: visiting a job search center, some follow up calls to make, and whatever mini-challenges come my way between the Assassin's Guild and the Fellowship of the Nerds. 

[Kishi]

Hey! Just wanted to drop by and say that your goals look pretty awesome and that I hope you're doing well. Let's nail this thing!

[InDestructiBull]

One week down! No worries about some of your goals going better than others, there's plenty of time to catch the others up and it sounds like you're off to a great start. Good luck with Week 2!

[kawatan]

PROGRESS:

Skincare/dental care: 6.5/42 +2
Calories: 5/30
Contact point: 7/30 (I know I said "three points" on Twitter, but I've decided to count this more as "days working significantly on job search" instead of "number of applications".) 
Pushups: 125/450 
Studying: Progress: 12/60 (Internet's been crappy on me, sigh.)

Minichallenges: Gain +1 STR for last week; on target 2/5 for this week plus the bonus point for the squat.

 

Getting back on track, woo! 

[kawatan]

PROGRESS:

Skincare/dental care: 8/42
Calories: 7/30
Contact point: 9/30
Pushups: 155/450
Studying: Progress: 14/60

Minichallenges: 4/5 for this week. Note to self: add the +1 STR from last week to my sig! 

Also, posted to the Warriors Guild about completing Kawdog Swabullanx. 

[Kishi]

A for effort, posting with the Warriors about that. Sorry I didn't get the jump on that.

[kawatan]

thanks for stopping in, folks! 

 

Skincare/dental care: 9.5/42
Calories: 8/30
Contact point: 10/30
Pushups: 175/450
Studying: 17/60

Minichallenges: Got both the +1 DEX and the badge from last week. 40/200 frog squats so far this week. 

 

This challenge is not going perfectly, I admit. And I'm distracted by a lot of nerdy things (some of which are, yes, very exciting for me.) I roleplay on Twitter; I'm getting back into making video game videos (and got unofficially invited onto Roguelike Radio, OMG!); I run a fanfic/fanart challenge; etc etc. Balancing all of these awesome/fun things and the relative drudgery of pushups and job apps is hard.  

 

But I can't let my less than perfection or my distractions stop me from trying!!!! I need to remember that trying sometimes and getting a B this challenge is better than giving up partway through, and that sometimes (in fact, quite often) the Internet can wait.

[Kishi]

Well, yeah. You can't let perfect be the enemy of good for you. It sounds like you're doing a pretty good job all things considered, even with you wanting to get into all the things. So, take it a step at a time. Just give it your best shot and play it day by day.

 

Remember: the point of these challenges is to live a fuller life, not a lesser one.

[kawatan]

Skincare/dental care: 12.5/42
Calories: 11/30 
Contact point: 13/30 
Pushups: 215/450 
Studying: 20/60

Minichallenge: 200/200 (+1 STA woo!!!)

 

Repeat after me: any progress is progress! any progress is progress! any progress is progress!

 

For those of you interested in my geeky projects, it's looking like I will be appearing on Roguelike Radio in two weeks. \o/ I've been a huge fan of them for so long and it's an honor and a pleasure! 

[Kishi]

Anything is better than nothing at all. Keep going!

[swaffe]

I'm glad you are making progress and I admire your spirit about it!

[kawatan]

Skincare/dental care: 15.5/42
Calories: 12/30
Contact point: 14/30
Pushups: 255/450
Studying: 24/60

I'm making it slowly, making it surely. These numbers are rather lower than I want them to be (other than those pushups, where I'm actually ahead of schedule oh my goodness), but they're higher than 0 and that's a good thing. Plus, I've kept up with all the Assassin mini-challenges so far, which is a bit of a feat in itself. All this while dealing with a homebound dad, financial less-than-perfection, and all sorts of other ways life is Less Than Perfect - and while handling more than my share of nerdy distractions. Thank you all again for all your support. 

 

Speaking of the minichallenge, this week's is to go to bed at a somewhat decent hour every night. OH DEAR. But I like the streak I'm running as far as minichallenges go, so uh, time to cut down on the ludicrous late night Tumblr surfing!

 

My Roguelike Radio recording is happening on Wednesday Thursday. I'm really super psyched and honored, considering how much I admire the other guests that are slated to show up. (Besides de facto showrunner and madcap roguelike developer Darren Grey, there's also Jeff Lait, who made POWDER and Vicious Orcs.) If you like roguelikes, maybe you'd like my Youtube series that I've been recording furiously over the last few days, about how different games represent the world in ASCII:

. There's two episodes coming out tomorrow, too.

[Kishi]

Roguelikes are awesome games. I was exposed to the method and the madness via one of my roomies, and the whole thing seems beautiful. Congrats on the interview!