[The Most Loathed] learns....slowly

[Plazmotic]

On 3/16/2018 at 11:41 AM, The Most Loathed said:

My single biggest gripe about oatmeal is not oatmeal at all but about how people eat oatmeal, it's the same as my gripes about how people eat strawberries and yogurt.

The key to eating yogurt without turning it into dessert is to eat it like an Indian raita. I eat plain Greek/Balkan style yogurt with pepper, cilantro, and diced tomato/cucumber.

[Sloth the Enduring]

Thanks for the write up. I’ll give it a try when I finish my sack of protein balls (basically homemade solid Huel).

Yeah, they seem to be going for a high-end Soylent vibe.

[The Most Loathed]

3 hours ago, Plazmotic said:

The key to eating yogurt without turning it into dessert is to eat it like an Indian raita. I eat plain Greek/Balkan style yogurt with pepper, cilantro, and diced tomato/cucumber.

I haven't done it with peppers but we love "savory yogurt" here. It's usually yogurt with some spices, lemon juice, and cucumber or some variant there of. I need to look for some more recipes. When you say pepper, as we talking bell, jalapeno or something more complicated?

 

This weekend we had to roll out of camp early on Sunday, early enough that the Scoutmaster insisted on a cold breakfast. After seeing how long it takes for 15 scouts to cook over two open fires this was a prudent decision. I had already said I was going to handle Sunday breakfast with the plan of a scramble. When I was told it had to be cold I made "parfaits".

Parfaits are something I eat after a workout or sometimes if I just want a sweeter, light meal. I use plain skyre (10 oz if I have a scale to measure), granola (2 oz), plain kefir (2-4 oz) and usually about a tablespoon of honey. So it's a little sweet but not crazy sweet and clocks in between 500 and 550 calories. If you run the numbers it ends up being C 63, P 15, F 42

I know that the scoutmaster eats like crap but the other two guys are pretty active. The three more active folks loaded in a bunch on yogurt and kefir and threw in some granola. The Scoutmaster loaded up on granola and then poured milk a little milk on it. He tried the plain yogurt but was pretty obviously not a fan.

I'm always amazed when I run the numbers on my parfaits that despite how much less granola I do by weight, it's half of the calories in the entire dish. It also takes what would be a super proteiny meal and makes it carby.

 

2 hours ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

Thanks for the write up. I’ll give it a try when I finish my sack of protein balls (basically homemade solid Huel).

Yeah, they seem to be going for a high-end Soylent vibe.

So far so good on digestion although oatmeal doesn't hit me until day 2. You should know by the end of the week if you have free Huel coming your way.

 

 

My meeting up with a friend plan for the night tanked so I'm off to do yoga with Laura. I'm looking forward to getting and doing new kettlebell programming tomorrow. 

[Plazmotic]

13 hours ago, The Most Loathed said:

When you say pepper, as we talking bell, jalapeno or something more complicated?

Straight up black pepper, my friend! Maybe even some cumin and/or coriander powder if you want to go full Indian.

[The Most Loathed]

15 minutes ago, Plazmotic said:

Straight up black pepper, my friend! Maybe even some cumin and/or coriander powder if you want to go full Indian.

ah. I immediately imagined veggies. My wife loves black pepper, I'm less fo a fan, I would got the cumin and coriander route.

 

 

Last night I did a yoga class it was fine. The first few minutes I was pretty obviously not warm and everything felt kind of difficult. I was really questioning myself for a moment but then I got warm and it was a breeze. I could stand to do more trunk rotations though.

[The Most Loathed]

tonight I had a ten minute set programmed. Stupid me went into it thinking I would crush it. It was brutal. Also, I recorded it. It was 4 minutes of swing, swing, long cycle; 3 minutes of swing, long cycle; 2 minutes of long cycle and one minute of long cycle. Afterwards I had permission to go hit the gym:

Back Squat 100 kg x 20

Deficit Deadlift 100 kg 5 x 5

Dumbbell Press 2 x 50 lb, 3 x 10

Barbell row 60 kg 5 x 5

Active Hang x 3

 

Has anyone been seeing the ads for the new YouTube Series Cobra Kai? Have you been as confused as I am? It seems like it's going to take the very cut and dried morality of Karate Kid and mix it up, which might be a good thing. It really depends on which trailer you watch, the first couple kind of make it seem like Johnny is back and Daniel has to stop him. The third one I saw almost made it seem like Daniel is the bad guy. The fourth one was where I finally got the vibe that it might be going for a complex morality. 

 

Laura and I had an exiting day yesterday. She was surfing the internet and got really excited because a band she likes (who's name just does not stick with me) was coming to town. Then she got bummed because it was the weekend that we just committed to my family that we would go visit. A little bit later she of handedly said "well, they're in Vancouver on my birthday, we could go to Vancouver". To which I replied that we could. I also mentioned that I still want to get to Seattle sometime so we could try to make it a two-fer if she wants. 

It turns out that the band is in Seattle the night before, which is close enough for us. So we looked at ticket prices and they were crazy reasonable. So we booked it

The last weekend in April, we're just going to pop over to Seattle for a few days. We're going to catch a concert and I'm going to go check out Seattle Kettlebell Club. We're just going to be jetsetters in general.

 

Today they were working on the cable in our building, specifically our floor. When it was originally run, it was run in some really stupid way that lead to lots of outages as people moved in and out and had their cable turned off an on. We have had ours stable for a while but knew that a big revamp of the building was on the way. 

Not having internet at home means I can't work here. So, I headed to Dunn Brothers (a coffee shop) for a few hours this morning. I had blocked myself as unavailable all day so I wouldn't have to take phone calls. Around midday I came home and Laura and I went to Lynhall for lunch and a couple hours of work. Finally I came home and used our business center to finish my day. It was nice to not be on the phone all day. 

[The Most Loathed]

I just stumbled across this video. I have no idea what I think of it

 

[Bearlee]

8 hours ago, The Most Loathed said:

I just stumbled across this video. I have no idea what I think of it

 

 

Thought that was the lead singer from The Darkness. Jake Busey has really gone down hill in his choices of videos to show up in.

 

More epic rants coming soon? Still a lot of things on your list I’m waiting to hear about. And congrats on the jet set lifestyle and being able to go to Seattle KB Club since I know you’ve been a long time fan of theirs.

[The Most Loathed]

I did some looking in the YouTube comments of the video I posted yesterday and found a lot of references to Macklemore. Through the wikipedia page for Foxy Shazam I learned that the band never really made it out for Cleveland but has gotten a lot of fame lately because the lead singer shows up in the video for Downtown, below. I enjoy this song and video. It's silly. 

I hear a lot of hate for Macklemore. From the people who see themselves as hardcore it's that he's too soft. From other people I hear that he's misappropriating black culture. As a white guy in a predominantly white region of the country, it's not really mine to say but I don't necessarily see it. I mean he's definitely playing in the R&B space but I guess I feel like he's doing his own way. I don't feel like that genre is explicitly black culture but maybe that feeling is the problem.

 

 

 

4 hours ago, Bearlee said:

More epic rants coming soon? Still a lot of things on your list I’m waiting to hear about. And congrats on the jet set lifestyle and being able to go to Seattle KB Club since I know you’ve been a long time fan of theirs.

Maybe. I have one warmed up and ready to go. The thing about a good and proper rant is that I need to have some time and space where I don't feel like I need to be doing anything else. I just haven't had that lately. Also, dominating my aggravation space has been work and there's a difference between a good rant and bitching about work. That said, next time I get a chance (possibly tonight) I'm going to have a good old fashioned work bitch session right here.

I don't know that I'll ever cover all of the things I wrote down. That was a stream of consciousness exercise more than anything else. I got started on Ted's request last week when I had a couple beers but ran out of time and could finish it in the cold light of day. Maybe tonight I'll walk over to the brewery and hook him up.

I have to admit that I'm excited to meet the SKC people after all these years. 

 

Next on my list for today, need to go do kettlebell work. 

 

 

[The Most Loathed]

I haven't made it back to post in a couple days...

Thursday's workout:

• Swing, Long Cycle 2 x 20, 4:00 - 6 RPM, these were very tough due to muscle fatigue. First my forearms were complaining then my legs
• Dip Jerks 2 x 20, 3:30- Video. I hated these, meaning they were very effective
• Snatch 18 kg 15-16 RPM - Video - These were tough on my grip. I might have been able to do 7:00 but it would have been very close.

I also had plans to run but they got truncated a bit through timing, DOMS and just because. So I ran on the treadmill at 6 mph for a half and hour

 

Friday:

Off day. Laura and I watched Moon. I recall that it was a big deal when it came out. To be honest, I'm not seeing it. It seems pretty run of the mill science fiction. Also, I bought a bottle of whiskey so there's a chance that Sloth or Bearlee will get some rants eventually.  It really comes down to feeling like I have the downtime and free space to think more than the booze though, that just greases the gears sometimes. 

 

Saturday:

Laura has yoga at 11 or so. During that time I plan to do my kettlebell workout. Later I'm going climbing with a friend and taking him out to eat to celebrate his birthday this week.

 

Huel seems to be working out just fine. I had it every day this week and I had a little more gas than usual, nothing particularly obnoxious. The prescribed dosing ends up clocking in at 450 calories which is not a lot but there's enough volume and enough water to keep me in a pretty good place all morning. I tried using their "coffee" recipe but meh. I bought some chocolate "flavor boost" when I ordered my supply. It's fine but I'm not sure it's a whole lot better than just using the vanilla stuff I have. 

If I were more ambitious I would blend my Huel with fruit and so forth. I'm just not feeling it. Part of what is making Huel work for me is that it's not even 5 minutes of prep and I can nurse it for a hour. When I finish it, because there's often a lot left sticking to the sides of the container, I pour a cup of coffee in. The coffee adds enough liquid so that I can get all the remaining bits off the inside of the container and drink them down. The texture of this second pass is a little off putting but not enough to stop me. Also, I love coffee but am not snobbish about it. Not recommended for coffee purists.

If I was to raise a complaint about Huel it would likely be that it's just kind of messy to prep. Probably not any worse than any other powdered meal supplement but just get a little film of powder on your prep surface and hands. My second complaint would be that it would be nice if their branded drink container were just a smidge larger. If you follow the prep instruction included in the package, it just barely or doesn't quite fit. An extra 100 - 150 ml of volume would fix this. 

All in all, I'm satisfied with my Huel experience . I know me well enough to know that it won't last, I'll get bored and move on to something else. For the time that it holds my attention though, I'm ok with it. I could play around with some more flavors or recipes, even do something with the unsweetened and unflavored but so far, so good.

 

Friday I had an initial phone interview for a Lead Data Analyst job at Target. It's nice to have another call. I like the idea of going back to Target still but remain a bit anxious about the amount of job hopping I've done in the last few years. I don't accept that it has been objectively bad but it's hard to not look at it and think of it as a mistake. I try to think of it as "learning where I'll be happy" and "getting exposure to the industry" but it feels like a lot of scrambling that amounts to nothing. 

I've been in touch with a Target recruiter for a while but she, frankly, hasn't seemed particularly helpful. The role I got the call about was one I found on the Target jobs site myself and applied for. I like the idea of some of the roles she has talked about coming up but she's failed to produce on any of them and I'm losing faith in her.

Part of me also asks if I need to accept a couple changes. I could stay with my current employer and make stupid (more stupid) money and just aim to retire in 17 years. I don't really feel like 40-60 hours of aggravation a week is worth it though.I can't help but wonder, too, if I committed to that path, would some of the aggravation go away. Am I creating that aggravation with my perception that there is a better deal waiting for me. 

The problem there is that I know I'm not entirely making it up. My current employer is way behind the curve on technology, which in and of itself isn't the worst thing. What is "the worst" thing is, why, their culture sucks. The are driven by fear and tribalism. The people in the credit card line of business don't want to talk to, deal with, or help the people in wealth management, for example. They are each so concerned about their tiny slice of the pie that they screw up the pie as a whole, not realizing that they aren't even baking the same pie (To stretch a metaphor past breaking). 

A part of the laziness, fear and greed that drives them also leads to behavior that just often looks lazy to me. The number of times I've seen a person ask another person to "set up a meeting" rather than just do it themself or when they set up they can't be bothered to actually look at people's calendars and find a time that works for people. Everyone seems to want everyone else to "keep them informed" but not too much. They all seem to be looking for an adult to step in the room and tell them how to take care of things.

Even when that does happen it's met with nothing but opposition. I've seen that a lot of places but it's pretty bad here. People piss and moan that, for example, they need a new system for tracking requests. So a new system is rolled out. Suddenly no one wants to convert to it and the old one was perfect, why did they have to go and change it? Whatever

The second change that I've been wrestling with for a long time now is the question of management. I've been a manager, it's not my favorite thing. I backed away from management deliberately. I will do some leadership. For example, I like working on a project that is too big for just me to perform. I'm happy to give work direction, help with planning and negotiation, but I want to have a hand in completing it too. 

However, because I have a knack for leadership, many people can't differentiate that from management and keep trying to slot me there. In my domain It's hard to continue to get better in a vertical path. I know about all the SQL there is to know and can do interesting things with in a variety of environments. I can work the process from requirements gathering through delivery and presentation. I think that there is still plenty more to learn in the forms of automation, better presentation and so on but it seems that a lot of people see those as different domains not a continuation of the same. So to many people I've gone as far as I can as an individual contributor.

To be fair, I've never said that I will never be a manager. If there was a big project that I really believed in and felt like I could contribute more as a manager than as a developer, I would take the leap. I almost did it voluntarily while I was in pharmacy and had I stayed longer, I probably would have. I also acknowledge that there may come a day where my technical skillset ages out of utility. But that's not today.

So these are the things I am wrangling with on a daily basis right now. I'm dissatisfied in my current job and seeking to leave but I'm also questioning myself, my motivations and my goals. I don't think I'm being unreasonable in what I want but I also realize that at my pay grade and skillset and, frankly, age, there is a smaller and smaller pool of opportunities. I need to find something in the near future that I can do for a decade. It might be that I'm already doing that thing and I just have to get over myself. 

 

Probably no more writing today as I need to go lift, do some pickup, go climb and eat but I'll try to post tomorrow. Laura's been tracking her food and it's been a reminder of how that process goes, especially when you start and especially when you eat a very different diet from mine. 

[The Most Loathed]

I lied. I'm back

 

Gym notes from today:

• Static Jerk 2 x 22, 5 x 5
  • works out to be approximately 1:30 on, 1:30 off
  • tough but better than last set in terms of feel
• swing, long cycle 2 x 22, 2:00
  • 6 RPM
  • I didn't take any specific notes on feel. My memory is that these were neither especially hard nor especially easy
• long cycle 2 x 22, 2:00 8 RPM
  • I found these "slightly tough" I found that I was getting winded but muscular fatigue was not a challenge
• long cycle 2 x 22, 1:30, 10 RPM
  • Not bad. The pace was tough but the set was short enough as to not be a problem
• Jerk 2 x 22, 1:00, 12 RPM
  • also not too bad on difficulty.
  • I haven't yet watched the video but I recall thinking that a couple of my reps didn't lock out or fixate properly
• Bonus: rack drill 2 x 22 2:00, 1:00 x 2

 

a friend of mine wants to be a climber so sometimes I go to the climbing gym with him. I have no aspirations but it's good exercise so sometimes I go with him as a bonding moment. Last week was his birthday so we went today and I took him out for dinner afterwards. 

 

I think that's it for today though.

[The Most Loathed]

Today was Sunday so Kristjian came over. She wasn't feeling 100% and I was ordered to "take it easy" by Coach. So we did.

• snatch 18 kg 4:00
• swing, snatch 18 kg 2:00
• 1/2 snatch 18 kg 2:00
• low swing 20 kg 2:00
• waiter hold
  • 1:00 on, 1:00 off
  • 0:30 on, 0:30 off x 2

That was it, a pretty easy one. 

 

This weekend I've eaten a bit in excess but considering I was all the way down at 214 this week, I don't count that as a bad thing. That said, back on this wagon tomorrow 

[LouCarJo]

You seem to be good at sniffing out new employment opportunities.  And retirement is definitely closer on the horizon for you than it is for me!  Pension calculators assume 5% annual growth and I’m not achieving that, so I worry even another 30 years of work won’t do it for me!  Having said that I took a job that’ll give me plenty of time for life before retirement - I’m not hankering for it at all.  Though I then worry that AI will take away my job before those 30 years are up!  This is where planning for the future gets you...

 

Do you have an imminent KB comp that your training is geared towards?

[The Most Loathed]

3 hours ago, LouCarJo said:

Though I then worry that AI will take away my job before those 30 years are up!

Seeing how slow really basic automation has been in multi-billion dollar enterprises here, you're probably good. 

 

4 hours ago, LouCarJo said:

Do you have an imminent KB comp that your training is geared towards?

I do have a weird kettlebell news thing that I keep forgetting to share so I'll put that below, however, comp-wise, nothing right now. The promise Laura and I made to @KB Girl was that we would try to visit the Netherlands again next year and hit up one of their comps in Jaap's gym. That's a year out but is my primary goal. I definitely want to be in shape to hit 100 reps with 20 kg by then, which I'm feeling pretty confident about. I can imagine getting on the platform there and getting my rank 2 numbers again (65ish with 24 kg). Depending on the timing of the comp I will either be about to turn 40 or have just turned 40 so I feel like these are good accomplishments.

 

Weird kettlebell thing. 

Kristjian and I have bantered about the idea for a while of doing a Pentathalonand trying to make it virtual, so that SKC and even Jaaps gym can play along if they want. One day we got to chuckling about how competition kettlebells are the colors of the rainbow and the big Twin Cities Pride festival is right by my apartment. The idea of somehow putting these two things together appealed to us both. 

I talked to a couple gay friends about whether it would be appropriate for me to do some kind of kettlebell thing, playing with the Pride theme. I didn't know if it would be some kind of misappropriation. I'm straight, I'm not particularly active supporting the gay community. They all felt it was a fantastic idea. So I contacted the Pride committee. They also thought it was a fantastic idea.

So, I've just kind of sat on that for a few weeks. I need to get in gear and get them a waiver for people to sign and decide what we're doing. I do this to myself occassionally. I think of somethingfunny and whimsical and mention is knid of ironically and people hop to it. Then I'm suddenly like "oh, I was joking". 

So, I guess that's my homework this week:

• Get a waiver to Dot at Pride
• Get more details from Dot
• Find out who the Crossfit folks are that will be there the day before and see if we can partner up a bit
• Talk to Jamie about sponsorship
• Price out schwag (thinking rainbow wristbands)
• Figure out what the "rainbow relay" really means

[Sloth the Enduring]

That’s a fabulous idea. Is it still a pentathlon or something more general?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[The Most Loathed]

2 hours ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

That’s a fabulous idea. Is it still a pentathlon or something more general?

Well, here's the delimma.

• I don't know how many people will show but I know that I have two of each bell I own. I can probably borrow some bells but they will be cast iron and thus not fit the rainbow theme.
• I can't assume people will show up with any knowledge of how to use a kettlebell. This means that I need to spend some time teaching. I don't know that I can spend an hour teach and a minimum hour lifting. 
• I could make it more of a competition, eliminating the above two issues but then it becomes an exhibition and therfore, non-inclusive and I really want people to be able to participate

So I think it's going to be a few minutes of talking, 30 minutes of education and 30 minutes of some kind of team workout. 

 

[The Most Loathed]

Today I did my own programming, by which I mean that I shamelessly stole it from last week

• Long Cycle 2 x 20 kg, 1:00 rest between sets
  • 1:00 - meant for this to be 8 RPM by my mind wandered and I think it came in at 10 RPM
  • 2:00 8 RPM
  • 3:00 - 8 RPM - I use a 1 minute timer that just recycles. I got to the end of a minute and suddenly started asking myself if that was the first minute or second minute. I decided that since I didn't know, it had to be the end of the first minute. So I suspect this was a 4 minute set
  • 2:00 - 8 RPM
  • 1:00 - 10 RPM, I decided that since I felt good and I thought the first 1 minute set was 10 RPM, I'd do that again
  • 1:00 - 10 RPM
• Static Jerks 2 x 22, 5 x 5
• Rack Drills 2 x 1:00

I had a phone interview today for a Lead Guest Data Quality Analyst. I don't think we'll be talking again. I focused more on the Lead -- -- Analyst part but the interview was bent more towards the Data Quality part. That probably doesn't mean a whole lot to anyone else but in my business, it's a significant issue. In a junior role, they are close enough that you could probably take one and train them up fast enough to be a good fit at a reasonable price. Once you're playing in the Lead Analyst space, they typically want you delivered as the perfect, finished product. I'm not heartbroken, I'm not convinced that it's a good fit for me either. 

 

I had a weird work conversation that has spanned a couple days. I got an email to my boss and I that basically said "Hey, we need to talk to you about GDPR". I don't expect you all to know what GDPR are but if you deal with international data (Facebook) you should know what it is, it's the EU's regulations on how data privacy is handled. It's notoriously strict. My manager replies with just a "what is GDPR?" which doesn't feel like the most business savvy answer but whatever. So I replied to the whole group with a link to the wikipedia page and explain mostly to my boss that the issue is that we don't control our data once it leaves our hands and they probably want to talk to us about that. To which I get replies back from the initial folks saying "oh, sorry, you're obviously more engaged with this project than we are."

Um, no. I just know what things are in my business area. But since I've been being nicey, nicey, I have to write back a "I'm sorry for any confusions I may have caused" email and explain that no, I'm not on the project and I'm at your disposal to sort out this whole thing anytime. It just left me scratching my head.

For the record, I think some of more challenging aspects of the GDPR are really good. Basically, I as an organization that has your data have to be able to say how long I will keep it and what I will use it for and promise that anyone I will give it to will abide by the same rules. This is technical and procedural nightmare. 

The thing is, these rules just make companies treat data the way that people think that they will, keeping track of it, deleting it when asked and not randomly giving it away in a business deal. Companies don't and, frankly, can't handle data this way. It's too much of a commodity, a high value commodity but a commodity regardless. It's not that it's actually impossible to treat it as people think, just challenging and until there are repercussions in place, no company will ever treat your data with the respect it really deserves.

So, there will be some tough years ahead for multinationals. Some big companies will get fined a lot of money. Many of them will whine and cry about how it's unjust. A decade from now, they will have all but forgotten how painful it was and it will just be how business is done. 

 

 

[Bearlee]

Hopefully Laura will be the documentarian if you do the KB Pride. I would like to see what that would look like. Did the MN group ever come to a consensus on when or if you are going to see Ready Player One?

[The Most Loathed]

2 hours ago, Bearlee said:

Hopefully Laura will be the documentarian if you do the KB Pride. I would like to see what that would look like. Did the MN group ever come to a consensus on when or if you are going to see Ready Player One?

I've got videos but they all tend to be one angle. If she's not one of my ringer trainees I'll ask her to try and get video.

We're supposed to go the 8th. I'm pretty sure it will be @Rooks and me with @Sloth the Enduring as a firm maybe. We have two other local nerds who have acknowledged but it's hard to gauge interest over Facebook.

[Bearlee]

Don’t know if this will be helpful, but I read a post by Tim Ferriss talking about his on the go breakfast being a can of chili beans. Didn’t know if that would meet your breakfast criteria.

 

Thought I would let you know that Sloth may be trying to troll you too. Met him this weekend and I couldn’t see where he was fat and out of shape (if he was that is the kind of fat I would like to be). So make sure you bring your A game on the 14th and don’t let his posts lull you into a false sense of confidence.

[The Most Loathed]

15 hours ago, Bearlee said:

Don’t know if this will be helpful, but I read a post by Tim Ferriss talking about his on the go breakfast being a can of chili beans. Didn’t know if that would meet your breakfast criteria.

 

Thought I would let you know that Sloth may be trying to troll you too. Met him this weekend and I couldn’t see where he was fat and out of shape (if he was that is the kind of fat I would like to be). So make sure you bring your A game on the 14th and don’t let his posts lull you into a false sense of confidence.

I'm honestly not sure what I think of the idea of a breakfast that is just a can of beans. I'll need to think on that for a bit before I render and opinion.

 

It would not surprise me if slowth were trolling me but I'll take the confidence boost even if it's a grand lie. Don't tell @Sloth the Enduring but it doesn't actually matter one way or the other for me. I'm a big believer in the only competition being myself. I'd like to hit 90 minutes but it's a lot to ask and I don't wear a watch on the course. 

No, for me it'll be all about finding the very edge of what I can sustain for my time on the course and holding things right there. Assuming it's the spring course from last year, if I see him after the big hill climb I will try to catch him but by that point we're like 4 miles in and the likelihood of seeing a specific person is pretty low. Also, by that point, my body and my mind have reached a very uneasy alliance.

That said, I'll try to get some more video of him coming across the finish line so everyone can see his pain-face. 

 

I sucked at finishing my workouts last week. Coach and I had a communication snafu, I did a crappy job planning and even worse executing. 

Wednesday was

swing, swing, long cycle 18 kg 4:00

swing, long cycle 18 kg 3:00

long cycle 18 kg 2:00

Jerk 18 kg 1:00

Followed by a 6 km jog outside just because it was a nice day and because I know that my body feels outside runs a bit differently than inside runs

 

Thursday was game day - I'll come back to that

Friday I took off when I should have trained

Saturday, I met up with Brian for more games We played Mainframe and Lewis and Clark, both good games

Sunday I did:

• 2 x 218 kg
  • 2 x Long Cycle
  • 3 x Jerk
  • 4 x Long Cycle
  • 6 x Jerk
  • 6 x Long Cycle
  • 9 x Jerk
  • 8 x Long Cycle
  • 12 x Jerk
  • 10 x Long Cycle
  • 15 x Jerk
    • completed in 6 minutes
    • By about the 3rd set of jerks my shoulders were telling me that they didn't want to go overhead anymore but they were able to keep going despite that. I was very winded in the last set of long cycle and seriously questioned the 15 jerks but did them as three sets of 5 and was able to finish.
• Farmer's Hold 2 x 32 kg, 5 x 0:30
• Swing 2 x 24, 5 x 10
• Rack Holds 2 x 24, 5 x 1:00
  • I assumed I wouldn't be able to complete these, given that I have been doing holds for 2 or 3 sets and with 20 kgs. They actually weren't too bad. I didn't adjust at all a couple sets and the other three I adjusted midway through but finish with relative ease. 
• Lunge Walk 2 x 28 kg, 4 x 6
  • These were extremely heavy but completed

Today is my scheduled day off. In light of sucking last week I really want to train but I've resisted based on knowing I have plenty of hard work coming to me over the next couple days

 

Coach wrote out my next several weeks already. I'm psyched and need to finish transposing them to my hardcopy notebook that I take the gym with me - oh, also, I got a new hard copy notebook

 

I bought another month of Huel today as I just finished my first (of two bags) and everything seems to be going very well. I have a little more gas than prior but not particularly odiferous. My breakfast comes together in a few minutes but keeps me satisfied for quite a while. I've tried it with and without the "flavor boost" I ordered. Both are good. I decided to try a strawberry boost this time.  

 

Arkham Horror

Every other week I play Arkham Horror the Card Game with the same group of guys. It's a cooperative game like the board game version (although much faster) or Pandemic for a more common touchpoint. The game is played out of approximately 8 scenarios per story line. Each scenario takes about 45 minutes per player.

In a scenario all the investigators generally start out in a location, the Study of one of the characters for example. Each player makes a deck for their character that follows certain rules but also typically trying to put together a certain kind of character. For example you might have to use mostly Guardian cards and be building a Monster Slayer or maybe some who protects weaker members but also can gather clues.

Clues usually contribute to the game clock that favors the players. There's also a sort of game clock that the players want to beat. Also, each turn some monsters turn up or just generally bad things happen that the players have to deal with. 

Because the game allows all this deck building and because characters are generally designed to fill a niche, what happens with your teammates matters a lot. If Susy gets her character beat up early on and is gun shy, everyone else is trying to pick up Susy's slack. More common is that Billy builds a crappy deck and can't fill his role so someone else, who isn't geared for it, is trying to fill in. 

This group of guys I'm playing with isn't very strategically minded and sometimes just not bright. We sat down to play last week using all new decks, because we all got killed off and didn't get to finish the last run, and one of the guys hands me his deck and asks my opinion. I flipped through it and it's just a mess. He's grabbed 30 different cards with no real direction to them. If he pulls one group of ten he can go gather clues, a different group fight monster, and another are support cards. All good cards but when they come out randomly, you have a hand of garbage. 

I gently suggest that he drop down to 15 distinct cards to focus his deck ( you can have at most 2 of any card and it's a common strategy to have 2 of every card to ensure you know what you'll see). He takes one card out and replaces it with a duplicate of another. Great. 28 distinct cards and two of one card. 

When we get playing we all agree that we can't sit around a couple turns and pile equipment on out characters like we did last run because it puts us behind the clock. So what does everyone do first turn, sit around and pile on gear. My character is a support character so she should stay with the party. When no one else will move I send her off to take care of a ticking bomb so we don't all wipe early. The next turn everyone goes the opposite direction. When I shift to support them them all move again, leaving my character behind to just die. 

I'm growing frustrated with this. They seem to know that they are bad at the game but time and again, they make bad choices. Even if we all sit there and say "go to that location and get a clue" and one of them will say "well, I really want to see if I can find this one card in my deck" then spends his turn drawing for something. The other guy will constantly take takes (basically roll a die to try to do something) in which only bad things can happen.

It's a really good game and I'm glad I have people to play with but I'm increasingly thinking I might need new people to play with. 

 

Gym Notebook

I use this log as my journal. It's obviously a little bit bent towards fitness because that's what the site is about but I'm a little bit bent towards fitness so there.  However when I go into the gym, especially with real programming now, it helps to have my workout written out and it helps to be able to add just a couple quick notes right after a set about how it felt. Totally unintentionally I settled into using a small moleskine I got in a 3 pack from Target.

While this isn't a product endorsement I will say that I have no complaints about these little moleskines. They're about the right size for me to write a workout with a couple blank lines between sets to make notes about the experience. They hold up well enough to being stuffed in my pocket or held in my sweaty hands. I usually write the workout with a fountain pen but take notes with a different color of gel, retractable pen. Even I don't want to take a true fountain pen in my pocket to the gym. 

I decided to upgrade my gym notebook slightly though. In the past I just used whatever was lying around. Even the first couple pages of my most recent moleskine have random shopping lists or vacation planning prior to becoming my gym notebook. This week I bought a 5 pack of Field Notes and a nice "traveler's style" cover.

I did this for two reasons, well three. First, I can. Second, my mother-in-law has been asking Laura a lot lately if I have any new paper or pens that I like, I don't. I've been making an effort to get back to using good paper and pens more and really enjoying it. I'm super happy though with my TWSBI pens, Noodler's ink, and Rhodia paper. It's all just really good. However, I thought I'd play around with some better "everyday carry" kinds of options to let her pick from for my birthday. Last, now that I have actual programming, it's just really attractive to me to have a notebook that is nothing put that workout. So I'm taking some pleasure in copying my programming over to it. 

Perhaps I'll post some pictures when it's all done.

 

[LouCarJo]

You should take your fountain pen to the gym just for the looks you’d no doubt get from others for it!

[RisenPhoenix]

On 4/2/2018 at 9:13 PM, The Most Loathed said:

I use this log as my journal. It's obviously a little bit bent towards fitness because that's what the site is about but I'm a little bit bent towards fitness so there.  However when I go into the gym, especially with real programming now, it helps to have my workout written out and it helps to be able to add just a couple quick notes right after a set about how it felt. Totally unintentionally I settled into using a small moleskine I got in a 3 pack from Target.

While this isn't a product endorsement I will say that I have no complaints about these little moleskines. They're about the right size for me to write a workout with a couple blank lines between sets to make notes about the experience. They hold up well enough to being stuffed in my pocket or held in my sweaty hands. I usually write the workout with a fountain pen but take notes with a different color of gel, retractable pen. Even I don't want to take a true fountain pen in my pocket to the gym. 

 

Ha.  When I was lifting regularly those were the exact notebooks I ended up going with, for the exact reasons you listed here.  Relatively cheap, sturdy, and good enough size to make notes and commentary on my lifts.

 

That said, the new notebooks you're using look awesome.  If I get back into regular note taking I might look into those guys.

[Elastigirl]

Interesting on the Arkham game. I think it takes a while to figure out deck building games. I'm only so-so at it. We played Hogwarts  deck building game with my son and won easily, but when we played with friends we lost. I'm still trying to work on deck building strategy, and teaching others. And one friend who said he didn't want us  "to tell him what to do" so he refused any advice and so picked really odd cards. When my son helps me pick cards he always explains his reasoning, or he will say why he picks a certain card, and that helps me

[The Most Loathed]

11 hours ago, Elastigirl said:

Interesting on the Arkham game. I think it takes a while to figure out deck building games. I'm only so-so at it. We played Hogwarts  deck building game with my son and won easily, but when we played with friends we lost. I'm still trying to work on deck building strategy, and teaching others. And one friend who said he didn't want us  "to tell him what to do" so he refused any advice and so picked really odd cards. When my son helps me pick cards he always explains his reasoning, or he will say why he picks a certain card, and that helps me

Everyone I have know who has played the Hogwarts game has loved it. The only complaint has been that the deck can be worn out faster than people think it should.

 

It would be fair to say that I have not made some of the questions into the teaching opportunities that they could be. Part of that is because I'm not totally convinced that I know what I'm doing yet. However, I could at least attempt to make more of a dialog about deck strategies. I was planning to try out two new decks this weekend in solo games to settle on one for our team game. I will attempt to do a better job of conveying where I think the value of the deck is and what I need to rethink. Hopefully that will encourage them to do the same.

Thanks for that

 

Yesterday I did:

Static Jerk 2 x 22, 3 x 5

Long Cycle 2 x 20, 1:30 on, 1:00 off

• 2 x 6 RPM
• 2 x 8 RPM
• 2 x 10 RPM
• 1 x 12 RPM

Front Squat 90 kg 4 x 3 - I was scheduled to do 5 x 5 but I just couldn't finish them

 

Run 6.5 mph, 30 minutes, 0-3% incline