Phayze Embarks on an Encephalon Enhancing Expedition!

[Phayze]

[Fun fact: some letters are much easier to make alliterative sentences out of than others. -ed.]

Main Quest: Become My Own Hero

Motivation: In my last challenge I created an original hero for myself to look up to, but like any good hero he’s evolving as quickly as I am. I need to keep up!

I’ve done lots of work over the past year or so to get my fitness stuff “baked in†enough to justify moving it off to my battlelog, so with that as my foundation I’m ready to put a little more effort into my “dump stats†and play around with some fun new ways to push myself, without sacrificing my usual skill-emphasis.

Clever Spark: Redux (WIS+2, CHA+2)

When we last left our hero, Superpowered Government Agent Drew Zimmer, he was in deep cover with a mysterious religious cult that was harboring strange secrets! What dangers lie in wait for our intrepid investigator? Find out in the next episode of “Nobody’s Heroâ€!

Keeping track of word counts when you’re erasing and rewriting walls of text is really, really hard, so rather than tracking words as I progress with my writing project (started during the last challenge), I’m tracking time. This allows for editing, rewriting, adding, subtracting and planning for (maybe even starting on) additional stories about Drew and the strange world of Espers and Espionage that he’s been drawn into.

5 days per week, I will spend 20 minutes (or more!) working on “Nobody’s Heroâ€.

Mmm.... spaaaarky....

Electroreception (DEX+2)

In addition to his ability to generate electricity, Drew also has an affinity with EM fields that he likens to the way some sharks hunt by sensing the electrical activity in the muscles of their prey.

In real life, it’s more like proprioception. Twice per week, I will spend 5 minutes of my regularly scheduled playtime practicing my skills (rope dart and/or breakdance) while wearing a blindfold.

Zatoichi style!

Phaneron Projection (WIS+3)

Some speculate that the source of all esper powers is a more fundamental ability to project one’s own subjective view of reality, their “phaneronâ€, onto the real world thus making the perceived indistinguishable from the actual. Others speculate that this idea is utter nonsense.

Even I’m not convinced of the whole “phaneron†thing, honestly, but it never hurts to try. 8 times per work day (not all at once!), I will attempt to do something small, but impossible such as push my hand through a desk or generate a spark gap between my fingers. If it actually works, then I’ll know that I’m dreaming and will hopefully become aware enough to take advantage of the opportunities presented by a full-blown lucid dream!

You thought I was losing it for a minute there, didn’t you? It’s okay... you’re probably right. ^^;

Doesn’t looks so hard...

Electron Flow Control (DEX+1, CHA+2)

Just cranking out amps is easy. To really maximize the usefulness of his exotic skill, Drew has had to learn to dynamically regulate the “contour†of any electrical current on the fly, whether he’s producing it or not.

I went off on a bit of a rant a while back about my strong belief that “flow†(in the context of movement and performance arts in particular) is a skill in itself that must be learned and practiced independent of the “tech†that one embellishes their flow with. Time to put my proverbial money where my big, fat mouth is. I will practice freestyling (rope dart and/or breakdance) for 2-3 minutes 5 times per week.

When I can do that, I will totally be posting videos of it.

Stubborn Stick-to-it-ivness (STR+1, STA+1, CON+1)

Everybody answers to somebody, even exotically skilled secret agents, and when Drew falls short of his mission requirements he’s given over to the claw-like grasp of the merciless Professor Marion for participation in extra experiments in the Esper Lab. At least she lets him play with the railgun sometimes, so it’s not all bad.

My battlelog stuff may be fairly well “baked inâ€, but that doesn’t mean that a little accountability isn’t worthwhile. Once again, my regularly scheduled activities have been rescheduled a bit, so I’m keeping this mission on the list for a third challenge. Full details are in the battlelog, but here’s a rough outline:

The following things will be done daily:

5-10 min “Shotgun†Training (hands, neck or calves depending on the day), 5 min Mobility training, 2-5 min handbalance training (working on elbow levers), 15+ min Skills/Movement (dancing, juggling/spinning, etc.), 6 min stretch, 10 min meditation.

Also:

Strength Training 3x/week and eating raw garlic 3x/week.

I reserve the right to completely change anything and/or everything about this schedule at any given time, and to award myself “rest daysâ€, for which no points will be available, given that I have sufficient reason such as illness, injury, holiday, burnout, etc.

“Stubborn†isn’t a bug, it’s a feature.

Bonus Round!

For the last two challenges, I’ve managed to participate in all six weeks of the Guild Mini Challenge, which has been a fun, and sometimes educational, bit of bonus work. I want to see how long I can keep my streak going!

Let’s get versatile!

[tenaciousglee]

I'll be honest, I just breezed through the words and enjoyed the gifs.  But I'll be back to give it a proper reading.

 

Anxiously Awaiting Alliterative Adventure!

[Ocelot]

I love lucid dreams, though rarely get them - but the random checks thing does work for sure. Fascinating goals, I love your short daily bodyweight bursts. And good luck with that religious cult, sounds like you're gonna need it, hopefully they're scared of sparks..

[0gravity]

Sub'd for bboying and lucid dreaming!

[Nymeria]

Good luck with the elbow levers!  I always get excited when other people are trying advanced hand balances.    

[ShadowLion]

Great stuff! Really interested in seeing how the lucid dreaming, proprioception, and the flow work go - you always have such interesting angles on things.

[Phayze]

T: No worries, the gifs are my favorite part, too. ^^

--

Ocelot: Good to know! It sounds a bit far-fetched to me, but then again lucid dreaming sounds a bit nuts all on its own, so I'm starting in Wacky Land to begin with... As for the cult, I'll definitely be needing all the luck I can get - things aren't as they seem, in more ways than one!

--

0gravity: Welcome aboard! ^^ Fair warning: I'm a terrible dancer.

--

Nymeria: Thanks! This is a move I've been wanting to get for a looooong time.

--

SL: "interesting" is one of my favorite euphemisms - If I had a dollar for every time somebody used it on me, I wouldn't be wasting my time on a day job. ^^;

---

Weekly Report Card: Chapter 0 “Prologueâ€

Clever Spark: 4/5 Only missed one day of work here, so not bad, but I went well over my minimum time requirement at least once, so I don’t feel bad about it.  I have the broad strokes of a trilogy sketched out (so cliche!! ><), and I've given myself a nice long break from the stuff I wrote during the last challenge, so I hope to go back to it for editing with a fresh perspective.

Electroreception: 2/2 This?  This is really weird... o0

Phaneron Projection: 10/40 I did a terrible job at prioritizing these this week, and intend to do much better now that the challenge is officially on.  I can already sense that this will be weak spot for me, though.

Electron Flow Control: 5/5 I didn't really obsess over time or anything with this, but I did intentionally freestyle (mostly rope dart) everyday for "a few minutes", so I'm taking the points. I'll probably be more rigorous going forward.

Stubborn Stick-to-it-ivness 4/5 I dropped a strength training session, but subbed in a skills training session and I skipped 2 cloves of garlic - none of that sounds especially bad when I write it out like this, but I’ll never learn if I don’t keep my standards high, so both of those transgressions cost me half a point.

BONUS ROUND: I looked into the future and started preparing an elaborate schedule for dominating all 6 weeks of the mini.  I’ll just save some time and give myself the +1 stat points now, okay? ^^

Thinky Bits: Week 0 is my testing phase, so none of these scores will be averaged in with my final challenge grade, but they give me a good idea of what to watch out for - mainly reality checks and my old nemesis, raw garlic! *shakes fist*

[ShadowLion]

Unique? Different? I guess I need to keep a thesaurus handy. Getting lazy in my old age.

I'm curious how you will get additional feedback on your flow darting when blindfolded. It will certainly focus you in on the feel of the action, but won't you need visual comparison to get the correlation between the feel and how the dart responds? Maybe video the five minute session for later viewing?Though maybe with repeated practice you will recognize the feel of certain things more easily when you do them without the blindfold?

[rowan]

RETURN OF THE RAW GARLIC: THE SON OF THE GHOST OF THE BRIDE OF THE SPECTRE OF THE REVENGE OF THE NIGHT OF THE EVIL EVIL GARLIC!

 

Also, please do keep us updated on this lucid dreaming thing - it is one of my most coveted dreams (HAH SEE WHAT I DID THERE) to be able to lucid dream, and I want all your notes.

[Lalie Fanyarendil]

Following Forthwith For Future Fun, Fulgurous Fellow! I aspire to lucid dreaming but have never been able to make it happen. Although successful phaneron projection would also be pretty dang cool.

[Phayze]

SL: Thesaurus.com is my best friend on the internet.

I'm sticking to moves that I consider "mastered" when blinded, that way I already have a good sense of where the dart is during the movement. It's weird, but I discovered pretty soon after taking up the dart that relying too much on visual cues was a no-no anyway, so I'm used to tracking the movement with my peripheral vision only. My understanding is that by taking the eyes out completely, you end up paying more attention to the way the move "feels", which is easier with spinning motions than with shots, but the rope seems to actually give me enough feedback to know if a shot was higher than I might have liked, and if it's too low then it'll hit the floor and kill my momentum.

Definitely not going to be doing any sharpshooting this way, though! That's going to have to wait for another challenge.

---

Rowan: Let's dare to dream the impossible dream!

Actually, at this point I'd be happy with just getting a decent night of sleep, regardless of what kind of dreams I have - I've been waking up a lot these past few nights, so I don't even have non-lucid dreams to make notes on. u_u

---

Lalie: I bow to your alliterative prowess!

phaneron projection would be an acceptable consolation prize if I don't manage the dreaming thing.

--

This is so weird... I actually have DOMS! o0

... Not those Doms. I haven't had lingering muscles soreness since I started focusing on sub-max training last Fall. Sunday was my first "testing day" since before Christmas, and I guess I really pushed to get those PRs!

--

Week 1 so far:

-Electroreception: 1/2 Scheduled for another tomorrow. I need to find a bandana - pulling a cap over my eyes just isn't the same.

-Projection: 18/40 Pretty much on target. Had to squeeze in a couple while getting ready for bed last night. For bonus, I meditated myself to sleep, which seems to do great things for my sleep quality.

-Flow: 2/5

-Stubbornness: 2/5 Gotta keep on that garlic!

-BONUS: I did the "mini-mini", but haven't crawled yet. Need to get on that!

[ShadowLion]

Ah, that makes sense on the blind-folded practicing. I have my music students play things with their eyes closed a lot, as it can really help them focus on the kinesthetic feedback, but thought that a rope dart might be a lot harder to do. It sounds like you've been working towards it over time with the peripheral vision training.

[tenaciousglee]

--

Week 1 so far:

-Electroreception: 1/2 Scheduled for another tomorrow. I need to find a bandana - pulling a cap over my eyes just isn't the same.

Definitely read that as "need to find a banana".

Mental image of you rope-darting with a banana strapped to your face.

[rowan]

You would have to go to the grocery store and test the different bananas by holding them up to your face to see if they gave sufficient eye coverage.  It would be a great way to make friends!

 

Sometimes a dishtowel can do the bandana job- also a tshirt tied around the head, which has the added bonus of looking wicked cool.  Zatoichi power!

[Alexandrite]

Subbed and enjoying the out-of-this-world feeling of your challenge! Good luck on the raw garlic... =x

- Sent from my magic Navi-powered device!

[Phayze]

SL: Ohh, interesting! I never thought about doing it for music practice, but it makes sense - rather than seeing where your fingers are on the frets, you focus on how the chord feels and sounds. Wish I'd thought of that when I played guitar....

--

T: Worth a shot, I guess. It worked for Geordi.

--

Rowan: I have a big head, so I might have to try one of those banana-like plantain things that nobody ever buys, but are always there next to the bananas anyway.

You mean like this?

--

Alexa! My old world kind of sucked, so I built a new one and never looked back. ^^

[Phayze]

Woke up yesterday feeling some stiffness in my left ribs - nothing like "pain", but it felt like the serratus muscles had been worked in some novel way that I don't remember actually working them. Weird, but it gets weirder. As I went through the day being sort of gentle with those muscles and stretching them a bit the feeling just got worse until it developed into what now feels like a full-on muscle pull. NOT AMUSED. -.-

For the sake of recovery, I'm giving myself a pass on elbow lever practice (something I should have done yesterday, actually) and I'm replacing strength training with some stair runs for the extendo-mini. I didn't do much for the main goal, so this can help me feel more like I earned that STA +1.

--

Week 1 so far:

-Electroreception: 2/2

-Projection: 34/40

-Flow: 4/5

-Stubbornness: 4/5

-BONUS: Total of 20 crawls for the mini, 50 Swings for the mini-mini, and by my count I did 10 flights of stairs yesterday toward to extendo-mini.

[rowan]

sleepwalking/sleep-gymnastics injury?

[QuirkyDM]

Another set of awesome goals. Transitioning to blindfolded skills, especially rope dart, is very badass. I love it.

 

One thing to consider for your sore left rib muscles is your blindfolded rope dart work. When I went back to nunchuks after taking a few months off. I woke up the next day with very sore back muscles. The sloppier technique as I was out of practice meant I ended up beating the crap out of my back with the nunchuks. You might be hitting yourself with the rope a little harder or not quite as cleanly as you were before and it's giving yourself an unintentional deep tissue massage.

[Phayze]

Rowan:  I’m going to be really annoyed if I can do cooler stuff in my sleep than when I’m awake. o0

--

QDM: Hey, welcome to the show!  In all fairness, it’s probably more comical than bad ass at this point, but I appreciate the vote of confidence. ^^

Interesting idea... I hadn’t thought about the dart being related to the pain, but it’s definitely possible.  I’m reasonably convinced that it’s related to the elbow lever practice, though- I think I might have slipped a bit while trying to hold the pose and pulled my serratuses (serrati?  serratus?  spell check is okay with all of those, so I don’t know what the plural is...).  It’s transitioned from a generalized rib cage pain to two specific areas that hurt like stab wounds, and I’m not sure if that’s good or bad.  I ought to take my Dad’s advice and ice it (he’s a massage therapist), but it’s so friggin cold I can’t stand the thought.

Also: Nunchucks?  Sweeeeet! \m/

---

And now for the good news!

Weekly Report Card: Chapter 1 “The Hero Returnsâ€

Clever Spark: 5/5 I know it’s early in the challenge, but these 20 minute sessions are pretty awesome.  They’re easy to get into, and often result in me getting sucked in and working more than I intended.  Spark and ShadowLion are starting up a little NF WriMo over in her thread that I intend to join in on, so this goal will merge with that one and their power will be unSTOPpable!!!

Electroreception: 2/2 Still never found a banana or a bandana that will work for me, so I keep using my hat.  It works, especially when I keep my eyes closed underneath it, but sometimes I catch myself sneaking peaks to figure out where I am in the room.  Also, it has a velcro strap in the back for adjustment, and occasionally the hook-side snags my rope on neck/shoulder moves - the results are about as unpleasant as you might expect.

For variety, I might try doing some strength training and/or stretching blinded, since those things would likely benefit from the enhanced spatial awareness as well.

Phaneron Projection: 10/40 My goal was to do one of these each hour while at work (they only take a few seconds), though I tend to forget during those first few hours, which leads to a bit of a bottleneck.  Starting with week 2, I’m going to try spreading them out even further by getting one in first thing in the morning (have you ever dreamed about waking up?  I hate that!), and another while eating lunch.

The best part about reality checking is thinking up weird crap to check it with.  So far I’ve tried waterbending, levitating small objects, making a spark gap between my fingers, instantly heating my dinner, instantly freezing my water (though it would be easier to just set it outside for a minute) and firebreathing.  I haven’t succeeded at any of these things, so I guess I’m still awake.

Electron Flow Control: 5/5 I’m a really terrible dancer...  I’ve done some general breakdance, poi spinning, top rocks-only breakdance, and rope dart.  

It’s really hard to turn off the analytical part of the mind and just move without thinking.  When I was into Aikido (a hundred years ago), sensei called it “mu shinâ€, which sort of means “empty mindâ€, though I’m not sure how direct that translation is (I’ve seen several, but I prefer “emptyâ€).  It was easiest for me when I was saber fencing - there’s no time for thinking, you have to just let the saber lead or you’re going to get bonked before you ever cross the line.  Dancing and juggling are different - they’re pure movement without the immediacy of combat.

Stubborn Stick-to-it-ivness: 5/5 Aside from a few adjustments to accommodate the rib pain everything went according to plan.  Shotgun training is going well and daily skills work proceeds apace.  I’ll admit, though, that dancing has become increasingly less attractive to me as I get more into juggling arts.  I’ve been carrying around my old contact juggling ball all week, but haven’t convinced myself to spend time catching up with it yet.  Still, I like having the b-dance as a foundation for body movements while juggling, so I don’t want to let myself completely neglect it.

BONUS ROUND: Contributed (though only a little) to the shared mini goal of 1000 army crawls, did the 50 swings mini-mini to take down an evil knight, and then pranced up and down the stairs 50 times for the extendo-mini dessert.  Not that bad!

Thinky Bits: First and foremost, going into week 2 I’ll have to make some adjustments.  Whatever I’ve done to my ribs still hasn’t healed, so I’ll be backing down from some of my regularly scheduled activities until further notice, namely: Shotgun Training’s Neck/Posture Day and elbow levers (the likeliest candidate I can think of for the cause of the injury).  Also, I will continue with the modifications to mobility and stretching that I used last week.  The hard part here is going to be strength training - I’ll have to experiment a little to see what I can do without hurting this more.

Second, and just as pressing, I've been putting some leftover ideas from planning this challenge together to make a rough draft of my next challenge (because challenge write-ups are one of my favorite parts of doing challenges in the first place), but I'm having my usual problem - laggy stats. u.u

I don't like how far behind my CON is from all my other stats, partly as a matter of Red Mage pride, but also because it suggests to me that I'm not focusing enough on my overall wellness.  The hard part, then, will be thinking up good ways to raise it!  I'm open to suggestions, but here are some random thoughts that I came up with:

-Sleep (but I regularly get 7-8 hrs)

-Diet (but mine is already pretty clean and I don't have any particular food weaknesses worth giving up)

-Cold showers (which sounds like a real treat in the sub-zero heat wave we're getting in my neighborhood)

-Adding a supplement (but I'm cheap, and most of them are crap.  Creatine or protein powder are "maybe's", though)

-Body composition, which is basically the same as diet, isnt't it? (except that I have no idea how to dissolve my lingering belly fat)

-Food Tracking, which is also diet-related, but kind of different? (I haven't done this for a long time, so it might be worthwhile to see if my macro balance needs adjusting)

Lots to think about... glad I've got some time to work it out!

[Phayze]

So far so good! Managed to get in my strength work yesterday with only minimal sacrifice of ROM on the upper body moves (which might not have been needed, but I'm playing it safe). Spent my Sparky time these past two days on planning for future installments of Drew's adventures, which I intend to begin work on as part of NerFiWriCh! ( it starts on 1/16 - join it now, or you'll regret it forever!) There are still gaps in Drew's first adventure that need some spackling over, but I think that after spending so much time striving to get those words out of my head I need more of a break from them than I expected.

Finally getting into learning some basic poi spinning moves - way different from rope dart, but it's going to be fun looking for crossover points.

Had a weird day for reality checks on Sunday. I forgot to do them at all until late in the day, and went to bed short by three or four, but I kept waking up through the night so I did one before falling back asleep each time. I'm not sure how many I did in the end, but I'm only claiming 7 points as a penalty for not doing them when I was supposed to.

--

Week 2 so far:

-Electroreception: 1/2

-Projection: 15/40

-Flow: 2/5

-Stubbornness: 2/5

-BONUS: 70 Archers, mostly with a resistance band for added fun.

-NerFiWriCh: 0 words (wait for it... wait for it....)

[Nymeria]

If rope dart is anything at all like chain whip, you couldn't pay me to practice it blindfolded.    Is the rope dart something you picked up on your own, or did you learn it in some sort of martial arts school?

[Phayze]

If your whip has one of those high-caliber, steel deathfangs on the end of it, I don't blame you! My dart is fairly forgiving, by comparison. ^^

Rope dart is a lot like chain whip, but longer and held with two hands. There are lots of moves that you can do with both, though I'd say that the dart is more of a piercing weapon, whereas the chain whip is more for slashing.

Take that assessment with a bit of salt, though, because (to answer you second question) I've never formally trained in any Chinese martial art - only European and Japanese ones. I've been teaching myself rope dart (and some chain whip, too) with youtube videos and repeated blows to the face. I'm pretty sure that doesn't qualify me as an expert...

[rowan]

Wait...when you kept waking up in the middle of the night, and doing reality checks...WHAT IF YOU WERE DREAMING, and the habit just hasn't set in enough quite yet?  What if there was a giant talking elephant looming just out of your range of vision?  WHAT IS REALITY?

 

But seriously, good job with everything!  This rope dart business sounds fascinating...

[mediaguy99]

Sorry I missed the first week of this!  Pretty awesome!

 

Love the blindfolded work (and the reality/dream checks).  That's a cool thing I'd never thought of doing!

 

Did you hear the This American Life this past weekend about the blind guy with echolocation?  You might dig it (it's an hour long radio program if you're not aware)

 

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/544/batman

 

Have fun and I'll keep an eye on you!