Vella Admits that Green Life Goblin Won Round 1 ...

[Vella]

But he shall not win round 2!!

 

Isn't that what always happens? The villain kicks the hero's spandex-clad posterior a few times, and then the hero gets his act together and wins in the end?

 

Well, whatever the case, we're back for the challenge, and things have changed. I have a job, which pays rent and not much else. I have a second job, which makes sure I eat. And I just need to hold out for a few months until my lucrative tax job takes me back (hopefully this time with New! and Improved! hours because I'll be a qualified tax consultant by then.

I don't have any major holiday commitments looming on the horizon.

And I've still got a couple of kilos' holiday/Honours/stress backslide to deal with.

 

So here we go.

 

Health Goals

 

 

Not only will I remember to turn off the oven, I will use it to cook delicious things!

Of which I know exactly how many calories there are.

 

I've actually got to start tracking again - especially since a friend and I are trying Intermittent Fasting (two days a week, 24 hour period) together. I want to be sure that I'm not either eating waaay too little, or completely running off the rails.

Unfortunately, I have this habit of batch cooking and not actually measuring what goes in.  It needs to stop.

 

I'm going to combat this two ways.

First, stop being so lazy.

Second, have a go at planning meals instead of just buying things and combining them. Since I've already grocery shopped this week, I will use this week to plan for next week, and start then.

 

Now, the calorie counting can't be an exact science, for the simple reason that I have two to three social commitments a week where I'm either not cooking, or cooking for a group which includes a picky eater and a chronic snack buyer. I'm just going to be tracking otherwise, and leaving calorie space for those meals.

 

Metric!

1 point per three days in a row logged.  If I managed to string together three weeks, I get a two point bonus, the whole challenge, a four point bonus.
 

 

 

 

I have this perfectly good bike sitting in my house and taking up space.  I will do two things with it.

First, I will reinflate the tyres because they are currently next to useless, and it's kind of important to do that before anything else.

 

Then, I will ride it. I will ride it instead of driving.

I cannot ride very far, as I have proven to myself, so I will start by riding the bike to the shops a few blocks from my house if I need to go shopping, and see how I go.

 

Metric!

1 point per bike trip taken/car trip avoided. Bonus five points if I make it to the fresh markets - it's a 10 minute car drive and I'm highly likely to die, but maybe with some practice, by the end of the 6 weeks... the incentive is there.

 

 

 

Yes, this is actually a health goal. There was going to be a pic of swinging and stuff, but then I found this and well it's kind of perfect.

Saving money is currently a thing for me. Like, paying $10 for my parkour class may well mean I have to adjust my food budget kind of a thing.

 

So, I'm going to try not to pay for parkour lessons. The parkour people fairly frequently just post things like "I'm going to practice. Who wants to go with me?" and people will show up.

I will go to these instead. They are free, and involve new places to practice in.

 

Metric!

1 point per free session attended. Two points if the session is the second one in the week.

 

 

 

 

Life Goal

 

 

I realised the other day I was using my work to procrastinate from my work, while I should have been doing my other work.

So here we go: I'm not making a points system for this because that would be a hilarious defeat of the point.

One hour, every day.

Not messing around on the Internet, not having a "pause" from whatever the work is. I will chill.

 

Sanctioned activities include:

Video games

Reading

Watching a movie or some episodes of a TV series without having work open on my laptop while I do it.

Getting back to my Irish translations, or learning kanji

Going for a walk or a run or a bike ride.

 

I am very bad at relaxing, and that's very bad for me, so I'm going to start working it into my daily schedule. Life's too short, and all that.

 

 

 

But hey, look at all these points I'll have. I should do something with them, so they're not just abstract numbers in a metric.

Well, as per a split-second decison half-joke discussion in another thread, these points will be used to 

 

 

Queer ALL the things!!!

 

Diversity good and all that sort of thing.

 

Well, in order to queer the world, one must first queer oneself (or something to that effect).

SO. For every five points I get, I will make one themed project, either for me to wear, or for me to give to a friend, or to decorate my house with. It is appropriate to use my chillin' time for this.

I don't know what these are yet, and I don't know how I will make them. Suggestions welcome. Baking is super likely to happen. I might be able to make some thread do what I want. But that's OK; I have time to gain points to think about it.

 

Challenge first day in Australia, so I'll post an update this evening. Happy challenging, friends, and I look forward to following threads and getting involved again

[Elastigirl]

Yay, Vella is back! 

[kaelvan]

Will you take pictures on your lovely projects? *puppy dog eyes*

[Vella]

Yay, Vella is back! 

 

Glad to be back. I've been so slack; it's good to get the motivation up again with community and nerdery.

 

Will you take pictures on your lovely projects? *puppy dog eyes*

 

Yes, there can be pictures. I'll have to remember to take them, but there can be pictures.

[Vella]

OK, so end of day 1:

NO POINTS!!

 

It was a fast day, so no food to track, I didn't get to parkour, so no point there. And I haven't filled up the bike tyres, so no biking. I didn't even manage my chill hour; I got 15 minutes in and started to clean house...

I mean, my room is now clean and I can use my desk again and my garbage is taken out and all my dishes are clean. But still, no chill time point.

 

Day 2 so far:

I have one of the aforementioned social evenings, so my tracking is going to go off the rails. But! I have tracked everything else and planned the calories I'm leaving for it, so I'm counting that as 'tracked'. One point!

I am also going to count this evening as 'me' time, since I'm not letting myself do any work during it, and I'm going to spend most of it relaxing by being ridiculously gleeful (Code Geass DVDs: $30 each. Dinner for 3: $20 for ingredients. Watching friends faces at Those Episodes at the end of the first season? Priceless, and also probably a Kodak moment). Therefore: 1 point for chilling.

 

This puts me at 2 points thus far.

I've currently got a friend going through some heavy stuff who'd appreciate treats, so I think baked goods with some sort of trans flag decoration would make her smile. That's probably my first project.

I have all these visions of cupcakes with blue, pink and white centres. At first I was like "that's going to be difficult" but then I realised that it wouldn't a fun project if I did something easy. So I'll update on those when I've worked out exactly what I'm going to do and how.

*retreats to Pinterest and Google to scheme*

[Vella]

Quick update for today because I am freaking exhausted:

 

Tracking: Lolnope

Chillin': Lolnope

Biking: Lolnope.

But I did to go Parkour, so yay, 1 point for today!

[Elastigirl]

Yay for parkour. Did you do that over the winter too, or are you just now restarting it?

[Twilight]

Pleeeeease post pictures of the delicious food!

[Vella]

Elastigirl - I did some over the winter, but I had a few months off (because stress and money issues mainly)

 

Twilight - I'm cooking them for tomorrow evening, so I'll have pics then.

 

For today:

Biking: Nil

Tracking: Yes! My aunt bought me lunch (because she's a lovely woman who understands what it is like to be poor), so it's rough, but I have tracked.  1 point.

Parkour; Not today

1 hour chill: I'm going to say yes. I did mainly writing (because I'm currently a little obsessive - more on that either in a couple of hours or tomorrow when Announcements are made), which I told myself I wouldn't do, but I sat in a cafe for four hours with a cup of coffee and my laptop just watching the world go by and bonding with the kitchen staff, who are lovely and beginning to recognise me, so I say it was relaxing enough and recharging-batteries enough for me to call it Me Time. So 1 point for me-time.

 

Running total: 5 points, so tomorrow, I shall begin by Queering a Thing.

I will be Queering Croissants, or Pain Au Chocolat, with Trans flag fillings. Pictures will be posted, and my friend will be surprised with a treat.

[Ahyar Dreamspark]

Ohai! Sub'd.

 

Looking forward to seeing the cupcakes and ALL THE UPDATES!

[Vella]

Update tomorrow because I just tried to write it and lost all my text, so I'll rewrite tomorrow when that fact annoys me less. 

 

Upshot:

Tracking; 1 point.

Biking: 1 point (but boy did I need to work for it

Parkour: 0 points

Chilling; 0 points. I was going to list my baking time, but it ended up being neither alone nor particularly relaxing.

 

I intended to make croissants, but as it turned out those need to be chilled overnight and I hadn't time for that, so I made puff pastry pockets instead.

 

 

There are the finished pockets, and the pink and blue fillings photographed. I had white fillings also, but didn't get time to snap a pic before the friend they were intended for arrived.

She was very pleased with them, and thought them really rather tasty. She was especially impressed that that's puff pastry from scratch.

Therefore, my job here is done.

[Vella]

Two days at once!!

 

But first - The Bike Shenanigans.

 

So, I said I was going to bike this challenge. Then, I had to go to the supermarket, like people often do, so I wrangled my bike downstairs, put my headphones in and started to walk.

I say 'walk' because my tyres were entirely flat.

That's OK, I thought. Petrol stations have places where you can pump up your tyres.

 

Two petrol stations later, I learn that my bike tyres, as they do not have the same valves as car tyres, cannot be used with any nearby petrol stations' air pumps.

I am pointed to a bike shop, where I am told I might find an adaptor.

 

They do not have an adaptor, in fact, but they do have a cheapie tyre pump that will work, for only 15 of my hard-earned monies. I purchase this device, walk next door to purchase what I need to for baking my pastry pockets, and head on back to my bike.

"It's alright for pumping up your tyres to get home," the man behind the bike store counter said. "But it's really better to have a full size one."

That's alright, I think. I can spend ridiculous amounts of energy pumping up tyres  now, and then next payday get a better bike pump. No biggie.

 

So I do my best with the tyres, inflate them till they can't be easily compressed with a hand, and set off down the road, only to discover that two blocks down the tyres are so flat that the metal inside is scraping on the ground.

 

And that's how I spent $15 in order to walk home.

 

Therefore, this challenge, I shall walk rather than bike, unless I get the tyres fixed before the end of the challenge.

 

And I'm a few days late on updates, so:

Saturday:

Tracking: 1pt

Biking/Walking: 0pt

Parkour: 0pt

Chill: 0pt. 

 

 

Sunday:

Tracking: 1pt

Biking/walking: 0pt

Parkour: 0pt

Chill: 1pt - I sat down and read some manga for an hour.

 

Monday:

Tracking: 1pt

Biking/walking: 1pt - I walked down to the RTA to wrangle my full license out of them ( :D )

Parkour; 0pt

Chill: 0pt - I had a space of time set out this afternoon, but I had friends over around lunchtime because they needed to get out of their house, and they decided to stay for an extra three hours, so both my productivity and my personal chill time did not happen.

I wish I wasn't too nice to kick people out of my place.

 

Running total:

12 points! I'm up to another project!

Now, if only I knew what the heck I was going to do...

[Vella]

And then I suddenly and unexpectedly road-tripped to Melbourne.

 

Therefore, I award myself a full 5/5 chill time points for the time it's been since I last posted, because I took a whole weekend out and chilled, basically.

I foresee my chill time going up dramatically in the next few weeks, because some very good friends of mine bought me Minecraft.

So far, in the three days I've been playing, I've had the game glitch me to the Isle of Swimming Pigs, so one of my friends had to teleport me back, and in my own server, I've been spawncamped by a skeleton in armour, so not only can I not get to my bed anymore, I can't get to my grave to get my stuff back, or into my house, or to my garden.  And the skeleton's sitting in a pool so I can't actually get close enough to hit him.

And I do so want to murder him right now.

 

Not much walking in Melbourne, but I've walked to the shop twice, and out to dinner with my parents once, so that's three points for walking (Dad fixed my bike like the lovely human being he is, so I can go back to biking now.

 

Tracking didn't happen - 0 points for that. I'm pretty sure I ate two or three blocks of chocolate by myself over the time I spent there, so yeah, tracking will not produce a result I like.
 

And parkour has, sadly, not happened, so 0 points. But I can get out to do some tomorrow evening, so I should catch up.

 

Which brings me to 12+5+3 = 20 points!  Three projects!

 

We made hama bead pictures with the kids at work today, so while they were still making theirs, I knocked up a little agender flag person really quick and ironed it as practice before the kids finished and started mobbing me with colourful things.
It's now hanging up from my rear view mirror like an air freshener.

 

I think it turned out really well! Though I did have to reattach its head when a kid grabbed it to "have a look", but eh, that's kids. They do that.

And then I accidentally made a kid cry by breaking his painstakingly-made camel in half  Granted, the kid cries basically as soon as things look like they're maybe not quite going exactly the way the kid expected them to, but I still feel awful about it. I promised him that we'd fix the camel next time he was at after-school care.

[Twilight]

Oh bike woes! Argh.

[Vella]

Brief update: Tracking has not happened, biking has not happened, I can't even remember whether chill has happened or not, which probably means no, and I haven't parkoured in weeks.

 

Therefore the count remains at 20 points; no new projects to show.

 

Sorry I've been so absent, folks. Life seems to be resistant to settling down, especially after a huge money scare last week (thankfully my parents were able to come to my rescue), amongst other things, and I'm pretty sure my head's still not screwed on straight. I'm concentrating on making it through tomorrow and then refreshing and restarting on the weekend.

[Elastigirl]

Hoping life gets easier and this weekend gives you the refreshment you need.

[Twilight]

Thinking of you!

[Ahyar Dreamspark]

Heya! Hope you had a good and refreshing weekend.

 

There's still one week to kick the RL goblin in the nuts!

[Vella]

Bluh, last week sucked. I crashed and burned on the day of my tax course (last lesson I can miss without failing the course - thank goodness I only have a couple of weeks to go!) and still haven't recovered.

 

I haven't been tracking, but I've been trying to portion control and be conscious of what I eat, which seems to have worked (from looking, I'm back down to roughly where I was before I went completely out of control in Honours), at least size-wise.

I have taken a couple of walks down to the shops, to get coffee with friends and suchlike.

 

And I've been flipping crazily between doing nothing and doing EVERYTHING AND PANICKING - the other day I accidentally read until 2am (but I finished the book, that means it's OK, right?), but last night I started working on my story synopsis to send to agents and suddenly it was 4am and I was still making tweaks and changes to try and get the stupid thing under the page count.

 

Some progress on Queering All the Things - no craft, but I bought nail polish yesterday and did my nails up in Agender Pride colours because really, why not. I'll report back on amusing reactions from the kids at work if I get any good comments.

And I also was introduced to this: Awesome Shirts.

I have purchased two new hoodies (I'm a Nonbinary Adventurer and I'm a Genderqueer Artist) and one T-shirt (I'm a Queer Writer), because 1) hoodies are so important, especially for adventurers, 2) my parents took pity on me and so I have a little cash spare for making poor spending decisions (c wat i did thar) and 3) my friend told me I had to at least purchase one of the Writer shirts, and if they told me I had to, well, what else was I supposed to do?

 

Now to last out the week, I guess. I'm going to at least try to get out for a walk, though I might not make it to Parkour (I will if it's at all possible!) and now I batch-cooked some food and have it in the fridge, I at least know I can eat this week without worrying about having to spend effort cooking.

I'm going to try and make a round of everyone's threads this afternoon and evening, and catch up on everything I've missed.

[Twilight]

I hope this week is going better for you!