[Waldgeist #6] In the land of the dritch

[Waldgeist]

Sixth Challenge

                   [ September 15th – October 26th ]

In the land of the dritch

 

Background story

Cuckoo, cuckoo. A bird's call is waking me from my slumber. I'm surrounded by trees, some are violet, a few magenta but most are plain purple. Yawning I get up and look around, a strange feeling in my heart.... It takes a few moments, but then I realize what's wrong. I have no idea, where I am and even less how I got there.

“Are you lost?â€, said a voice from the branch above me. A feline creature is hanging from there and looks at me with his inverted face.

“Who are you?â€, I ask the strange being. “I'm a grinning cat, what else? But the more interesting question is, who are you?â€

“I'm........ I'm....... I'm.....â€, I stutter, realizing, that I don't have the slightest idea who I am.

“You don't know who you are, neither where you are? Seems like you are in trouble!â€, the cat laughs, loosing its grip on the branch and floating through the air.

“Can you help me?†Nervousness starts to surround my thinking.

“That depends, what kind of help do you want?†The cat slowly rolling through the air.

My mind is spinning speedily to decide which question is the right one toask: “Where am I?â€

“Why, in the land of the dritch, of course! She rules this forest and surrounding areas with her temptations, you see them hanging from the trees, don't you?†His paws pointing to the right, where cakes, candy and other sweets are attached to the trees, where normally fruits would bee. “Don't eat anything she offers you, or she will control your actions forever!â€

“What else can you tell me?†I'm still not sure, who I am, but it becomes clear to me, that I must be some kind of warrior. A fighting spirit is rising in me, awakened by the feline warning.

“I don't know more than you do, really, although I possibly remember more than you! But here is someone, who may be able to help you...†And with this the grinning cats arms and legs disappeared, tail and body followed until only its head remained. Then that, too, became invisible, the shining teeth in the form of the waxing moon remaining only.

At first I didn't understand, but then I see it. The moonshine is concentrating on a gigantic mushroom in the next clearing. Warily I come closer. An almost undescribable creature as big as the cat is sitting there. It's green, that's the only thing, that is sure. But apart from that, numerous hands and feet, pointy ears pointing at the side and a judging yet benevolent stare; all wrapped up in a brown-beige robe.

“Who are you?â€, I want to know and get the answer I somehow expected: “Answer that question I will, after who you are you told me.â€

“I can't, I know my current limits.â€

“But break them, you will. If my counsel you remember, that is.â€

“I don't....â€

“Time I don't have to repeat everything, I thaught you. But two pieces of my advice you'll get from me, to fight the dritch!â€

“I'm listening!â€, I say and sit down in front of the mushroom.

“First, don't remembering you are you say. But you do! It's in you: Mind what you have learned save you it can! Be consistent in the basic aspects of your training and you will have the power to fight the dritch!â€

“My memory is like a library full of foreign books. But I will work on understanding and following them!â€

“Paradox might seem the other thing: You must unlearn, what you have learned! The wrong way brought you into this forest, of all, that you have learned in this time you have to get rid. The fear, the inflexibility.â€

“I will do that, too. Is there more I need to look out for?â€

“The rest you already realized on your own: This is a dangerous time for you, when you will be tempted...â€

 

 

Goal 1 – Continue bodyweight workout “Mind what you have learned. Save you it can!â€

3 STR / 1 STA / 1 CHA

In general this means doing three workouts per week of each the following exercises:

 

-Pull-Ups (Following 7 weeks to 50 pull-ups) [extra points if I make it to 10 unbroken pull- ups]

-Push-Ups (Following a progression leading up to one-hand push-ups)

-Pistols

-Planks/Hollow Body

 

Grading: Each workout is worth a point. 1 succesful workout equals 8% and 12 succesful workouts equal 100%

 

Goal 2 – Don't eat anything the dritch made, lest you be forever trapped “This is a dangerous time for you, when you will be tempted...â€

1 WIS / 2 CON / 2 CHA

The dritch is the queen of temptation. To escape her claws, I must only eat real food: Veggies, meat/fish, fruit, nuts, eggs, dairy etc.

 

Grading is easy: 1 successful day a week equals 15% and 7 successful days a week equal 100%.

 

Goal 3 – Non-strength related basics “You must unlearn, what you've learned!â€

1 CON / 1 DEX

Consinsting of stretching and/or working on hand-balancing/hand-stands before going to bed for at least five minutes.

 

Grading is easy again: 1 successful evening a week equals 15% and 7 successful evenings a week equal 100%.

 

Life Goal – Make your voice heard

2 WIS / 1 CHA

This one only starts in week three and is a simple pass/fail: Create a blog and publish at least three texts.

[Waldgeist]

Week 1-Monday

G1: PUSH (A B C) PULL (A B C) SQUAT (A B C) PLANK (A B C)

Did push-ups (still normal ones with feet elevated, still not sure to what I should progress to next...) instead of breakfast, 3*12. Some hollow body position training after dinner, with one 1:00 and one 0:30 plank as dessert.

 

G2: MO TU WE TH FR SA SU

Was a little tempted during lunch, because there where a lot of danishes lying around. And since I had no breakfast.... But I stayed strong! Would've been a bad omen, if temptation got me on the first day, too.

 

G3: MOTU WE TH FR SA SU

Did a lower body stretching routine and (since that was a little imbalanced) complemented it with wrist routine. Two sets of roughly 0:15 for each stretch.

[AshPS]

Sub'd!  

 

Found ya! I shall be in my customary lurk mode.

 

Nice set of goals Waldgeist, and I really like the color coded  daily tracking! Very cool!  

 

Plus, a big thumbs up for keeping away from the Danish monster! Woot!! 

 

Now kick Tuesday's butt!  

[Paradigm]

Lovely stories as usual! I missed them the last couple of months so I will need to catch up. Loving the challenge though, it's right on point and not too much so you should be able to rock it without breaking yourself!

[Waldgeist]

Sadly there is not much to catch up to. I hibernated too, for a couple of months.

[Paradigm]

Sadly there is not much to catch up to. I hibernated too, for a couple of months.

 

Maybe us assassins do summer hibernation instead of winter?

[Hazard]

Maybe us assassins do summer hibernation instead of winter?

I'm definitely not a summer person. Too hot here.

[Batwoman]

Decline diamond push-ups might be the next step. Or trying to progress to one-armed push-ups?

[Waldgeist]

Decline diamond push-ups might be the next step. Or trying to progress to one-armed push-ups?

 

I was thinking about decline diamonds or wall one-armed ones. We shall see tomorrow today, what works for me!

 

 

Week 1-Tuesday

G1: PUSH (A B C) PULL (A B C) SQUAT (A B C) PLANK (A B C)

Did some rolling pistols preperation work. But no pull-ups, so I've got to tackle them today!

 

G2: MO TU WE TH FR SA SU

Dinner was mexican, so I had to eat around the corn, but I stayed clean.

 

G3: MOTU WE TH FR SA SU

Went to bed at half past midnight.... And then I really didn't want to do anything. On the plus side I spent the evening with my co-volunteers playing games and talking. And one of the cute guys and I were the last ones staying and talking.

[Waldgeist]

Week 1-Wednesday

G1: PUSH (A B C) PULL (A B C) SQUAT (A B C) PLANK (A B C)

Indeed, decline diamond push-ups are challenging yet doable next step!

 

Sadly I didn't do no pull-ups again. Went to a high ropes course (this one, just built for the state garden festival taking place here this summer) though with my co-workers (our boss got us a coupon, so we got in for free). It was really awesome and over two hours of fun. Not an easy endeavor, fell into the safety device one or two times and had to pull myself out and onto the next platform even more times. But no proper pull-up training, so that's still number one on the list for tomorrow.

 

G2: MO TU WE TH FR SA SU

Everything's fine, the only sweet thing I allowed myself was mustard for the bavarian veal sausage at dinner. But maybe I've got to monitor my fruit intake. Not actual pieces of fruit but rather juice. I already mix juice with the same amount of water. Nonetheless that amounts to a large quantity.

 

G3: MOTU WE TH FR SA SU

Back into routine. Stretching while finally watching the winter soldier = win-win.

[AshPS]

Good going  Waldgeist, even missing the pull-ups! Sounds like you had fun!  

 

Ooooooh! I just saw the Winter Soldier! Awesome movie!

 

Have a fabulous day!

[Waldgeist]

Week 1-Thursday

G1: PUSH (A B C) PULL (A B C) SQUAT (A B C) PLANK (A B C)

 

G2: MO TU WE TH FR SA SU

 

G3: MOTU WE TH FR SA SU

[AshPS]

   

[Waldgeist]

Week 1-Friday

G1: PUSH (A B C) PULL (A B C) SQUAT (A B C) PLANK (A B C)

Worked some more on the hollow position this morning and ended again with planks: 3*30 seconds and 1*1 minute.

Also did some mor prep work for rolling pistols.

 

G2: MO TU WE TH FR SA SU

Breakfast was really tempting. I finally decided for some paella where I picked the meat/fish/shrimps out and some quark mixed with orange juice.

 

G3: MOTU WE TH FR SA SU

Mostly hand-stretches today.

 

So, I've been doing some serious future thinking, since my volunteer service days will end in about three months. The plan was to get an intership or trainee position in PR/communication, consulting or HR starting in January. But the job search hasn't been going well really, despite there being a lot of ads. And today I've realized why. My perspective was "what jobs can I do with my current experiences (school as well als work experience)? and which of those would I like best?" which basically means "what's the lesser evil?"

Instead of asking: what do I want to do. I buried some dream job ideas over the years (for other reasons than the actual work content) and realized, that those have not much/nothing to do with my current plans. I thought about why those were dream jobs for me and what kind of work I've done in the past, that's made me happy. Four things came up: research (both the university and journalistic way of research), teaching(/counseling) (certainly more fun with older teenagers and adults than with kids for me), being creative/inventive and having a meaningful and worthwhile function. Having a decent income and a secure job are the two other relevant factors, of course.

With this changed perspective, I've found some new ideas. But of course those don't come without problems. The biggest one being, that my degree isn't relevant for most of those and I'd need another qualification, to pursue those jobs. But to finance that, I need a job. Which brings me back to the original problem, I guess. I'm going in circles, but that's okay, because with every round I get a better understanding.

 

So, that's enough self-analysis for one day (although those thought have been haunting me for a while now, just didn't systematize them, let alone write them down)!

[Waldgeist]

Week 1-Saturday

G1: PUSH (A B C) PULL (A B C) SQUAT (A B C) PLANK (A B C)

Pushing and Pulling as usual.

 

G2: MO TU WE TH FR SA SU

I don't know about you guys but dessert served in little glasses are a real temptation.

 

G3: MOTU WE TH FR SA SU

Very basic stretches, need to do more next week.

 

Future thinking is still going on. Made a few variants of a plan. Just not sure, if I should act upon it. Well, got more urgent things to do anyway.

 

Little nerd quiz extra today. I'm rewatching an old (90s, I think) cartoon. Which one is it? Hint: The three following things play a role there, as the world's most powerful magical objects: the grimorum arcanorum (not sure if that's the right spelling), the eye of Odin and the phoenix gate. So, who's the quickest nerd?

[Waldgeist]

Week 1-Sunday

G1: PUSH (A B C) PULL (A B C) SQUAT (A B C) PLANK (A B C)

It never rains but it pours, which is exactly what happened, when I went to the playground, where I do my pull-ups.... Wearing a hooded sweater and having no umbrella... But I just kept walking, did the pull-ups, got soaking wet and went back.

Also did some rolling pistols training again, with pistols in at least the negative part of the movement.

End-of-Week-Evaluation: It was hard to get the pulll-ups in, had to minimized the rest in-between, but made it happen. Goal accomplished, I'd say.

 

G2: MO TU WE TH FR SA SU

One week of pretty much completely clean eating, yay!

 

G3: MOTU WE TH FR SA SU

The only goal I met by less than 100%, but 85% are still great.

 

Altogether a good week, even considering that first weeks usually are. Let's hope I can hold this level for the rest of the challenge!

[KB Girl]

A great first week Way to ride the motivation wave! 

I love your clear grading and report setup. Seeing all the right colors makes me happy ^^ 

 

Out of curiosity, what do you have a degree in?

[AshPS]

 

Little nerd quiz extra today. I'm rewatching an old (90s, I think) cartoon. Which one is it? Hint: The three following things play a role there, as the world's most powerful magical objects: the grimorum arcanorum (not sure if that's the right spelling), the eye of Odin and the phoenix gate. So, who's the quickest nerd?

 

Would that be Gargoyles????

 

Gah, it's been awhile since I watched that. Used to be a regular watcher, lol.  

 

Now,  Whooooo hoooooo on week 1 Waldgeist!!!! :triumphant: 

 

Way to kill it!  

 

Wish you a wonderful Monday!

[Waldgeist]

A great first week Way to ride the motivation wave! 

I love your clear grading and report setup. Seeing all the right colors makes me happy ^^ 

 

Out of curiosity, what do you have a degree in?

I like it, too. Some variation on hatters original design. For week 2 and thereafter I also want to integrate the previous week(s)'s results. So, at the end, I don't have to look through the whole thread to get all weekly results, but it should serve as a motivational toll as well.

 

Right now, I don't have any degrees actually. I'm two 1 hour exams away from my double degree in Political Science/Japanese Studies and about 1.5 years minimum of classwork/thesis away from my degree in Psychology. The first one is the one I wrote about, the only one I can use for hunting a job beginning January.

 

 

Would that be Gargoyles????

 

Aaaaaaaaaaaand we have a winner.

[Waldgeist]

Week 1 G1: 100% G2: 100% G3: 85%

 

Week 2-Monday

G1: PUSH (A B C) PULL (A B C) SQUAT (A B C) PLANK (A B C)

Took a rest day, today.

 

G2: MO TU WE TH FR SA SU

Went well, although my mum offered me ice cream, which looked yummy. But I declined!

 

G3: MOTU WE TH FR SA SU

Only some leg stretches. Need to do more tomorrow!

[KB Girl]

Like a boss!

It does seem like a hard degree to job hunt with keeping your preferences in mind.. Maybe something like teaching/tutoring?

[Waldgeist]

Week 1 G1: 100% G2: 100% G3: 85%

 

Week 2-Tuesday

G1: PUSH (A B C) PULL (A B C) SQUAT (A B C) PLANK (A B C)

Some hollow body holds and decline diamonds today.

 

G2: MO TU WE TH FR SA SU

Clean!

 

G3: MOTU WE TH FR SA SU

Little more than yesterday.

[Waldgeist]

Week 1 G1: 100% G2: 100% G3: 85%

 

Week 2-Wednesday

G1: PUSH (A B C) PULL (A B C) SQUAT (A B C) PLANK (A B C)

Seems like this week the squats seem to elude me. Not a big surprise though, I had massive DOMS on Monday (and still a little on Tuesday) from progressing to negative pistols.

 

G2: MO TU WE TH FR SA SU

Clean!

 

G3: MOTU WE TH FR SA SU

Basic Wrist and hamstring stretches.

[Waldgeist]

Week 1 G1: 100% G2: 100% G3: 85%

 

Week 2-Thursday

G1: PUSH (A B C) PULL (A B C) SQUAT (A B C) PLANK (A B C)

 

G2: MO TU WE TH FR SA SU

Clean, though breakfast really tempted me, becaus there was only one healthy option, which didn't really appeal to me. But I took it anyway!

 

G3: MOTU WE TH FR SA SU

[KB Girl]

Still completely owning this challenge I see! Where do you get the motivation from?