Stick 'Em With The Pointy End - Battle Tome!

[rainra]

I've got Academy! I'd definitely be interested in questing with you, I've also been thinking of going back through the mindset and nutrition quests (I... might have rushed through it the first time and never quite finished) and could use a reset. And having/being an accountabilibuddy wont let me just lurk around instead of actually posting.

[Calanthia Cobbin]

I've got Academy! I'd definitely be interested in questing with you, I've also been thinking of going back through the mindset and nutrition quests (I... might have rushed through it the first time and never quite finished) and could use a reset. And having/being an accountabilibuddy wont let me just lurk around instead of actually posting.

 

Yay! we can do something along the lines of "at-our-own-pace but also guided" so there isn't any pressure if/when we have busy weeks  

[Solunaria]

~ Cal (I'm copying you Sol   ) 

 

Oh thank goodness. I've been almost calling you "Cal" or "CC" almost constantly, but I wanted to honor whatever name you chose.

 

I also have academy! But I won't be going through them as a challenge - my currrent life activities and impending challenge goals are definitely enough, and while I would love to work through Mindset with you guys (now that I have larger quests to batcave towards) in the sense that I want to actually make a batcave and could use a refresher on the others, I've already transitioned my diet to exactly where I want it, and don't want to start bodyweight exercises this month.

 

But I totally support you guys in doing it! And will cheer you on.

 

I have a lot more things to say, but I'm going to say them in a big loud announcement post that I will start on now and post as soon as possible. <3

 

~ Sol

[Calanthia Cobbin]

Oh thank goodness. I've been almost calling you "Cal" or "CC" almost constantly, but I wanted to honor whatever name you chose.

 

I also have academy! But I won't be going through them as a challenge - my currrent life activities and impending challenge goals are definitely enough, and while I would love to work through Mindset with you guys (now that I have larger quests to batcave towards) in the sense that I want to actually make a batcave and could use a refresher on the others, I've already transitioned my diet to exactly where I want it, and don't want to start bodyweight exercises this month.

 

But I totally support you guys in doing it! And will cheer you on.

 

I have a lot more things to say, but I'm going to say them in a big loud announcement post that I will start on now and post as soon as possible. <3

 

~ Sol

 

Totally fine! Though me thinks that I will be doing this on the side and over time rather than within the constraints of a 4-week challenge. Especially since many of the Mindset quests can be done within a day or two! 

 

and I had been going back and forth on a nickname myself, and finally settled on Cal because my Kinship on Lord of the Rings Online calls me Little Cal (I'm the mini-me of one of the Kin-leaders whose nickname is also Cal, so I'm little Cal )

[Solunaria]

So, I don't know if you guys are doing the math, but my ??? has now been officially tackled and I have FEELINGS.

 

Jan 1. To Jan 30. Is not 28 days (4 weeks).

 

It is 27 days. 

 

 

Feb 1, to Feb 26, is TWENTY SIX days. Count on your calendar or do basic math.

 

 

Now, it's 4 weeks exactly between each CHALLENGE START DATE. Is that what they mean now? But they DIDN'T SAY THIS.

 

 

Just, a nice bulletin to anyone else who likes organization.

 

~ SOL 

[Calanthia Cobbin]

So, I don't know if you guys are doing the math, but my ??? has now been officially tackled and I have FEELINGS.

 

Jan 1. To Jan 30. Is not 28 days (4 weeks).

 

It is 27 days. 

 

 

Feb 1, to Feb 26, is TWENTY SIX days. Count on your calendar or do basic math.

 

 

Now, it's 4 weeks exactly between each CHALLENGE START DATE. Is that what they mean now? But they DIDN'T SAY THIS.

 

 

Just, a nice bulletin to anyone else who likes organization.

 

~ SOL 

 

I actually just saw this same issue on the rules/faq and it was brought up that people should be alerted about it for this exact reason! So yeah they are doing 4 "weeks" with a weekend in between each challenge. It was sad panda for me because I could have used today and tomorrow as my makeup days for this challenge but NOOOOoooooo they wanted to give us the weekend off :/ They did say that we could count the weekends for our own personal blah blah etc. lol but that's why I did my challenges as completion for 20 out of 26 days and things like that 

[Solunaria]

Dear Stick 'Ems

 

The end has come! Our days of journeying come to a close. 

 

It is time to walk those last few miles to the awaiting tavern, kick off your mud-caked boots and relax with a tankard in hand.

 

CONGRATULATIONS!

 

You have made it this far! And whether you had a clear destination in mind (like Cal's ever-dedicated Walk to Mordor) or wandered in flustered faith away from where you ran (like my ever-changing bewildered goals) you KEPT MOVING. 

 

And that is something to be deeply proud of.

 

 

So as we all arrive at this tavern, I'd like to talk about where we will go, when our rest is over. For whether you arrived here on purpose or not, we are at the edge of the starting zone, ready to walk out into the world. But our destination... that is something still yet to decide.

 

 

On a Personal Note

 

So, when I began this, I knew I wanted to move. I knew I was ready to change, and figure out who I was, and move forward in health and life.

 

But I didn't have a Big Why. I still don't. I'm too low level still to know what the grand end-game of my ascendence will be. 

 

Now, at least, I have larger goals. I have Master Goals, things that will take 3-6 months, and are something to work towards with my challenge quests. 

 

This sense of larger, longer reaching purpose feels stronger to me. Feels more important, more significant, full of more momentum. And I'm excited to move them forward.

 

It means I'm finally going to make a batcave. I'm finally going to make charts and hang up pictures and set treasures to be won. And it means I feel very passionately about going after them in a real, trustworth, secure way.

 

 

Our Team

 

In the Academy, in the articles, and in the basic spirit of these forums, an important message about change is that strong-arming it alone isn't enough. It's dangerous to go alone. If we could do this all by ourselves, without our environment and people around us to push us through change, we would have made these changes a long time ago.

 

And so we gather self knowledge, we inspire ourselves to persevere through the incentive of leveling, and we shift our environment and relationships to better support where we want to be.

 

Roping up. Accountabilibudies. People to hold you to task, and remind you who you want to be. That, in it's strongest form, is what I see allies as being.

 

And I'd love for us to Level Up as a team this month. And really put some organized effort into supporting each other as a team. 

 

To me, the first step of that would be:

 

Reliable Check-In Festivals. I suggest Quartermark Group-Huddles! For this next challenge, that would mean

• February 1st - THE SEND OFF. We declare our Challenge Quests, our daily expectations for ourselves, and our larger motivations. We celebrate our new challenge!
• February 8th - THE FIRST TEST. We check in on our Guild forum and talk about how our week is going, regardless of if or how much we've posted to the Guild forum so far.
• February 15th - THE MID-QUEST FESTIVAL. We celebrate our victories so far, and post another Week Report.
• February 22nd - THE DARK HOUR. We post Week Reports and remind each other why we're fighting, getting us through the last stretch of the challenge.
• February 28th - THE DAY OF VICTORY. The challenge "ending date" which is schedule for week 3 day 5 of our FOUR WEEK CHALLENGE (still have feelings) is kind of like the 25th of November in NaNoWriMo - if you're ahead of schedule, you can win now! And wait in the tavern in a nice rest for the others to arrive as well. On the actual end of the actual four weeks, is when we will celebrate victory together as a Guild, and talk about our experiences.

 

 

As a last suggestion:

 

I want to know you guys. I want to know what motivates you. I want to know what you're striving for, and what vision inspires you to move forward. I want to know what you want from this and from us and from yourself.

 

And I'd love to be in more regular contact with you guys, and/or create a Team Quest concept where every day that you hit each one of your four quests we as a GROUP get a point towards our goal. That sort of thing would be really neat.

 

 

Let me know your thoughts, and remember,

 

Stick 'Em With The Pointy End

 

~ Sol

[Calanthia Cobbin]

LOVE THIS. ALL OF IT. I consider you guys to be my friends now We should get to know each other and I LOVE the organized check-in festivals! 

 

I send this post with my seal of approval!

 

~Cal  

[Calanthia Cobbin]

ALSO does anyone know what affects the title above our profile pics? I'm now a malcontent for some reason, Sol and Rainra are still Newbies, and Laurenji is a Rookie. I thought it had to do with the number of posts but Sol has way more posts than any of us and Laurenji and I have about the same amount... what gives? 

[rainra]

I think the scheduled check-in festivals is a great idea! It'll definitely help keep me posting. Having a Team Quest sounds like a lot of fun.

 

ALSO does anyone know what affects the title above our profile pics? I'm now a malcontent for some reason, Sol and Rainra are still Newbies, and Laurenji is a Rookie. I thought it had to do with the number of posts but Sol has way more posts than any of us and Laurenji and I have about the same amount... what gives? 

Maybe it has something to do with the number of posts you've liked/number of your posts that have been liked? :S

Edit: Or not. Just looked at your and Sols likes, that doesn't seem to be it.

[Calanthia Cobbin]

Yeah that will have to be something we ask an admin sometime because the curiosity is almost literally killing me right now! 

 

On a side note... I haven't started working on the academy quests or anything just yet but is "my husband is a jerk and makes comments and I want them to stop" a good thing to add to my big why? ughhhhhhhhh he's in medical school and is pretty skeptical about NerdFitness and my ability to do much of anything :/ Granted I haven't given him much reason to have faith that I can do this, but still, does he HAVE to make the comments? and yeah, he knows how I feel about it. He's very "tough love" ...  :/

[Solunaria]

I DON'T LIKE YOUR HUSBAND'S BEHAVIOR. "Your comments and lack of faith in me and support of what I'm doing" is not a debatable subject.

 

If he is doing ANYTHING other than responding to that with apologies, re-affirmation of his love and faith in you, and an attempt to change behavior, that's NOT OKAY.

 

Sincerely,

~ Sol

[rainra]

You know what I find really, really satisfying?

 

Proving people wrong in their assumptions.

 

 

It's okay if you've fallen through before, but if people judge you based on your failures without recognizing that you keep standing back up, then they are asking for your ascension to power to be rubbed in their faces for years to come.

 

 

But more than that, it's a chance to prove to yourself that YOU are the ONLY person who gets to decide and define who you are and what you value. You are the only person who gets to decide what you're capable of.

[Laurenji]

1) Sol, that sounds awesome. All of it. I will mark those dates on my calendar and set reminders so that I remember to come back and update stuff, since I've been rather lax at updating the past couple challenges.

 

2) Cal, I don't think that qualifies as "tough love", I think that qualifies as "I am trying to change my life for the better and you aren't being supportive (in fact, you're being actively unsupportive)." My husband is also skeptical of my ability to change myself (with good reason, as I rarely finish anything I start), but when I get excited about a new thing or a goal, instead of discouraging me, he instead helps me remember to set my expectations to realistic things and plan concrete actions that I need to take to make to achieve it. Then he just sort of lets me go do my thing, reminds me about my goal periodically, and tries not to tell me "I told you so" when I lose interest a couple weeks later. But he's always very willing to try and help me do my thing if I'm trying to work hard for a goal.

 

3) I'm not part of the academy, but I'll hang out with you guys here still!

[Calanthia Cobbin]

I DON'T LIKE YOUR HUSBAND'S BEHAVIOR. "Your comments and lack of faith in me and support of what I'm doing" is not a debatable subject.

 

If he is doing ANYTHING other than responding to that with apologies, re-affirmation of his love and faith in you, and an attempt to change behavior, that's NOT OKAY.

 

Sincerely,

~ Sol

 

I don't like his behavior either He's always been skeptical because he "doesn't know where this Steve guy gets his sources because he was an economics major" and I told him that he is welcome to check his facts for him because they make sense to me and I was a biology major! I'm not very vocal (except when online of course) so I'll have to build up the spine to let him know that this is what I'm doing whether he approves or not.

 

You know what I find really, really satisfying?

 

Proving people wrong in their assumptions.

 

 

It's okay if you've fallen through before, but if people judge you based on your failures without recognizing that you keep standing back up, then they are asking for your ascension to power to be rubbed in their faces for years to come.

 

 

But more than that, it's a chance to prove to yourself that YOU are the ONLY person who gets to decide and define who you are and what you value. You are the only person who gets to decide what you're capable of.

 

This is why I'm considering adding it to my Big why. I want to prove him wrong and show him that I can do all the things!

 

1) Sol, that sounds awesome. All of it. I will mark those dates on my calendar and set reminders so that I remember to come back and update stuff, since I've been rather lax at updating the past couple challenges.

 

2) Cal, I don't think that qualifies as "tough love", I think that qualifies as "I am trying to change my life for the better and you aren't being supportive (in fact, you're being actively unsupportive)." My husband is also skeptical of my ability to change myself (with good reason, as I rarely finish anything I start), but when I get excited about a new thing or a goal, instead of discouraging me, he instead helps me remember to set my expectations to realistic things and plan concrete actions that I need to take to make to achieve it. Then he just sort of lets me go do my thing, reminds me about my goal periodically, and tries not to tell me "I told you so" when I lose interest a couple weeks later. But he's always very willing to try and help me do my thing if I'm trying to work hard for a goal.

 

3) I'm not part of the academy, but I'll hang out with you guys here still!

 

I'm so happy that your husband is so supportive! Mine tries... he just doesn't always do it nicely. He basically wants me to just go run with him and only listen to his advice about weight-loss and I told him that I'm not working on that right now, but that I would probably still go run with him anyway as long as I can still do my challenges. 

 

 

Thanks guildies for your support My husband basically said that he has all the information I need to lose weight and that I should just listen to him, but then his professors say things like "programs like weight watchers have been proven to support long-term success" which I know is false for a lot of people AND they give you food that is processed up the a**! He also says that we need to be a team and do the same thing but that he will NOT do NerdFitness because he doesn't trust that it works and he doesn't want to do the forums :/ He can be a bit self-centered, which comes with the territory of marrying a future doctor... I told him that the forums are completely optional at which point he asked why I do them then if they are optional. Um, because I think it's fun??? UGH. I wound up telling him that I would be willing to workout and do other things with him but he is NOT allowed to tell me that I can't do the challenges or other NerdFitness activities. He still rolls his eyes though when he sees me on here. Oh well maybe that will be fixed over time.

 

Thanks again for your support and sorry about my negativity rant I'm just so frustrated with him right now! Things will get better... things will get better... things will get better...

 

~Cal

[Laurenji]

As an econ major, I resent that remark by your husband!

I don't know whether or not you will find this useful, but you might want to check out the advice website CaptainAwkward.com, and the accompanying forums at friendsofCaptainAwkward.com/forums. She has a LOT of advice on how to set boundaries with people you love, including scripts for how to state your boundaries clearly and nicely. For example, in this situation you might say something similar to "I understand you don't like Nerd Fitness and won't be joining me in doing it, but I'm more likely to want to do fitness if I'm doing it my way and not being forced to do it a different way or made fun of for my choices," or "my goal is health right now, not weight loss, so please stop pestering me about your weight loss plan," or perhaps "I know we disagree about this. Please just let me do my own thing without snarky comments and you can do your thing."

[Calanthia Cobbin]

Those are all excellent ideas. I will have to try some of those out and see if it helps. Thank you and I'll check out that website some more

[rainra]

Hey friends! How did your first day of the challenge go? :3

[Calanthia Cobbin]

Pretty good for me! I accomplished all my goals though I had to use some Rogue-ish thinking for my outside time goal because it was pouring rain! What about you?

[Laurenji]

I took a walk outside at work today. Technically it was to the pharmacy across the street to get some sudafed fit my boss, but . . . it totally counts. I also mediated for 5 minutes at least. And I read my scriptures. So, no planking. But pretty good so far, especially considering I got 5 hours of interrupted also last night.

[Laurenji]

Hey everyone! How are you all doing?

[Solunaria]

...GEEZE.

 

Well, HELLO friends.

 

So things got...

 

 

...things got a little intense, the last couple weeks.

 

And, in a matter of speaking, Solunaria got...

 

 

... well...

 

 

... taken out.

 

She's in danger. She's been in danger for a while. And now she's resting, only to be woken when her power is ready. And her match is strong.

 

 

Solunaria is and has always been made of the essence of who I am. She's the bard, the princess, the ultimate magical girl. She's pinks and golds, beauty and grace and short flowing skirts with knee-high boots to match. She't the influence and the charisma, the pep and cheer, the sunlight and starlight and power of love in a tiny package who has expressions like an anime character, who lives life with the perpetual innocence, optimism, and passion an anime character, and who gets excited about pretty things to the level that only an anime character can express.

 

She's the voice. She's the dancer. She's the actress and the model and the Haruhi Suzumiya leader / director. She's in charge or she's the star, even if she never tried to be or even tried not to be. She's the talent, and the inspiration, and the vision of magic and hope.

 

 

... but, it's not the only part of who I am.

 

Even if she's everything that I usually express, and am, and am seen as, and use to interact with the social, outside world, 

 

she's not my spirit. My spirit is someone else.

 

My spirit is her partner. My spirit is her other piece. My spirit just finally got dusted off and taken out into the light of day.

 

They've been sitting in a box for a while. Hiding in fear, from a path that taught it so.

 

To be honest about the person that is my spirit is one of the hardest things I can remember doing. Aaaaaaand I'm working on it. But Solunaria is going to take a break for a while, while my spirit works on getting strong enough to protect and support her. 

 

 

Yeah Okay But

 

I could really, really, SERIOUSLY use some accountabilibuddies. Really, really hard core.

 

Mostly, what I need is contact via phone, and via regularity.

 

And you want to know what? I'm going to call each of you and explain about that personally. Expect voicemails!

 

Thank you all so much for your support so far in this journey. 

 

- This One

[Calanthia Cobbin]

I have been not doing so hot either! My computer practically died and then I got a new one, but I spent so much time setting it up and figuring out what to transfer between them that my goals and regular posting have been... Well a little bit put to the side. I am also in need of some accountabilibuddy support! We talked about doing the check-ins... When is our next one supposed to be again?

[Laurenji]

I think technically according to the schedule, we're supposed to check in every Monday. This coming up one is week 3.

Wow, Sol. Sounds like you've been through a lot lately. Sounds like it's time for my healer/paladin mode to kick in.

[Calanthia Cobbin]

I think technically according to the schedule, we're supposed to check in every Monday. This coming up one is week 3.

 

Okay so at the very least let's plan to check in with each other tomorrow and discuss where we are with our goals and things like that.

 

ALSO now that I'm actually online again we can probably get started with questing through the Academy quests together if you would like I figure we can just go in order and say "okay sometime this week figure out your Big Why" or "take your measurements this week" and things like that. No pressure, completed at our own pace throughout the week or at least over a few days, so that it doesn't take over our challenge goals.

 

What do you think? I need a bit of a reboot on my "Why" so I can put up with the "How"