In Which Sarah Barr Embraces Pain (Challenge 16)

[Sarah Barr]

Hello, my name is Sarah, and I will definitely not regret this challenge about two weeks in.

 

 

Goal 1: Yoga 

 

 

Work diligently towards the following three targets, by doing yoga that challenges me, DAILY.

1.) Put legs behind head

2.) Hold Crow Pose for longer than it takes to fall haphazardly through Crow Pose

3.) Move forward from Down Dog to a forward fold in one fluid movement, without taking my hands off the mat and without doing a Night of the Living Dead shuffle. 

 

I don't expect to achieve them this month, but that doesn't mean I won't give it a square go. 

 

+3 DEX, +1 STR

 

 

 

Goal 2: Food and Drink

 

 

- Consume no more than 1400kcal/day, through a combination of calorie counting and intermittent fasting. (My normal fasting method is 23hr fasts. I'll decide whether I'm having several weeny little meals throughout the day or just one meal in the evening at the start of each day, but I have to do one or the other.)

 

- Record calorie intake daily. 

 

- Eat at least five portions of freggies within that calorie allowance. 

 

- 2 pints of plain water down the hatch every day. 

 

+4 CON

 

 

Goal 3: PAIN

 

 

Since a reward system doesn't seem to work, we're going to go for a punishment system this time. Ho. Ho. Ho. 

 

- Every day I don't update my thread, I put a £1 coin in the Idiot Jar, and reveal one embarrassing fact when I next update.

 

- If I miss a goal more than three times in one week, I am only allowed to eat raw vegetables the following Monday. Photographic evidence is required. Not nice, delightful, refreshing vegetables like cucumbers and bell peppers, either. We're talking cruciferous vegetables here, my friends. And onions.

 

- At the end of the challenge, the money in the Idiot Jar is taken to a British charity shop of your choice, selected from the following list of ones near me:

- The Bethany Christian Trust - Providing practical help for homeless people across Scotland

- The British Heart Foundation - Research into heart disease

- Cancer Research UK - What it says on the tin.

- Marie Curie Hospice - Support and palliative care for people with terminal illnesses throughout the UK

- Capability Scotland - Help with education, employment and care services for disabled children and adults in Scotland.

 

- I then spend the idiot money on the thing I find most hideous and useless in the whole shop, be it a weird fluorescent mesh bodysuit with Nameless Stains, an earthenware arse, a 5-video VHS boxset on How To Use Your Filofax, whatever. This will serve as a reminder that I am an idiot. The remaining idiot money will then go in the wee collection box on the counter. 

 

- If there is no money in the Idiot Jar, I can reward myself by spending up to £10 in the chosen shop on something I really fancy.

 

+2 CHA, +2 STA

 

 

Life Goal: Write a Play

 

 

Produce a first draft of the play I need to write for the playwriting course I'm attending. Redraft until I'd be happy seeing it professionally directed and performed, because it will be, on the 22nd of April, no matter what.

 

 

Pressure is good.

Pressure is good.

 

Then redraft it even more. 

 

+2 CHA, +1 WIS

 

 

 

LET US NOW DO THIS THING.

[Shello]

I am so looking forward to this challenge...   Y'know... for your goals... not so I can pick a shop for you to spend money on something insipid.  

[Sarah Barr]

insipid.  

Ooh, I like that word. I am putting that in my play somehow.

[Sylvaa]

I fully believe that if you have to purchase something, after purchasing said item you should have to post a picture for the world to see.

[Sarah Barr]

I fully believe that if you have to purchase something, after purchasing said item you should have to post a picture for the world to see.

Oh yes, esPECially if it's a hideous garment that I can't fit into.

[Sylvaa]

Oh yes, esPECially if it's a hideous garment that I can't fit into.

 

I'm voting for that nameless stain bodysuit myself.

[Teros]

My dog does EXACTLY that.

 

 

 

Since a reward system doesn't seem to work, we're going to go for a punishment system this time. Ho. Ho. Ho. 

 

- Every day I don't update my thread, I put a £1 coin in the Idiot Jar, and reveal one embarrassing fact when I next update.

Life Goal: Write a Play

 

 

 

It's like truth or dare but I don't have to participate!

 

What's the play about?

[Sarah Barr]

 

What's the play about?

 

 

I HAVE NO IDEA AND IT'S BEING PERFORMED IN 2 MONTHS HELP

 

The rules are:

- Basic lighting

- Minimal props

- No more than 10 mins long

- Max. 3 actors.

 

 

Well, currently I have three draft ideas:

 

- A woman on a date tries to ignore the argument her antidepressants are having with her depression brain. 

- This is both very much drawn from raw personal experience, and bloody godawful and cliched and I hate it I hate it I hate it.

 

- Two arguing lovers accidentally rouse a lonely demon from a 250 year long waking coma while lost in a bog, and the demon makes them choose which of them gets eaten, and which has to keep the demon company until the next travellers come along. 

- This would have had promise but the lovers have absolutely no characterisation and basically all the demon does is whinge about how lonely it is. I could maybe get this one to work with a LOT of coffee. 

 

- The 17th century: A man accuses two sisters of bewitching a drippy teenage boy into stalking them. They are found innocent, but the man has their cottage burned down anyway. The play focuses on the ten minutes before they leave the village for good in the dead of night. 

- This one's my favourite, the characters are 3D and have defined motivations, and I just need to be careful to really whittle down the necessary props. 

[Shello]

I HAVE NO IDEA AND IT'S BEING PERFORMED IN 2 MONTHS HELP

 

The rules are:

- Basic lighting

- Minimal props

- No more than 10 mins long

- Max. 3 actors.

 

 

Well, currently I have three draft ideas:

 

- A woman on a date tries to ignore the argument her antidepressants are having with her depression brain. 

- This is both very much drawn from raw personal experience, and bloody godawful and cliched and I hate it I hate it I hate it.

 

- Two arguing lovers accidentally rouse a lonely demon from a 250 year long waking coma while lost in a bog, and the demon makes them choose which of them gets eaten, and which has to keep the demon company until the next travellers come along. 

- This would have had promise but the lovers have absolutely no characterisation and basically all the demon does is whinge about how lonely it is. I could maybe get this one to work with a LOT of coffee. 

 

- The 17th century: A man accuses two sisters of bewitching a drippy teenage boy into stalking them. They are found innocent, but the man has their cottage burned down anyway. The play focuses on the ten minutes before they leave the village for good in the dead of night. 

- This one's my favourite, the characters are 3D and have defined motivations, and I just need to be careful to really whittle down the necessary props. 

 

I like the 3rd one but I am disappointed at the lack of yaks.  Although the minimal props provision doesn't really help.  Will there at least be some tartan?  

[Sarah Barr]

I like the 3rd one but I am disappointed at the lack of yaks.  Although the minimal props provision doesn't really help.  Will there at least be some tartan?  

I intend to squeeze a cosy tartan blanket in there somewhere but I think all I'm allowed to do beyond that is use the power of words...

[Teros]

I HAVE NO IDEA AND IT'S BEING PERFORMED IN 2 MONTHS HELP

 

The rules are:

- Basic lighting

- Minimal props

- No more than 10 mins long

- Max. 3 actors.

 

 

Well, currently I have three draft ideas:

 

- A woman on a date tries to ignore the argument her antidepressants are having with her depression brain. 

- This is both very much drawn from raw personal experience, and bloody godawful and cliched and I hate it I hate it I hate it.

 

- Two arguing lovers accidentally rouse a lonely demon from a 250 year long waking coma while lost in a bog, and the demon makes them choose which of them gets eaten, and which has to keep the demon company until the next travellers come along. 

- This would have had promise but the lovers have absolutely no characterisation and basically all the demon does is whinge about how lonely it is. I could maybe get this one to work with a LOT of coffee. 

 

- The 17th century: A man accuses two sisters of bewitching a drippy teenage boy into stalking them. They are found innocent, but the man has their cottage burned down anyway. The play focuses on the ten minutes before they leave the village for good in the dead of night. 

- This one's my favourite, the characters are 3D and have defined motivations, and I just need to be careful to really whittle down the necessary props. 

 

Oh only 10 minutes? Cool.

 

Do you think that the 3rd option would need to be 3d if the play is 10 minutes long?

 

I think the demon one would be doable IF you make the demon more of a playful trickster character.  It would be mostly fall on that character to do the performance.

[jcsimmons]

lurking.

[Leigh]

I kind of like the first one actually, and yes I agree it is a touch cliched but I can see them at dinner someplace nice and the waiter is part of the mental argument, like they get to be the antidepressants or the depression, and the woman keeps getting into little spats with her mind while the date is frozen in place or something. I think that would be easier to do in ten minutes.

 

Good luck!

[deftona]

 

 

 

 I don't mean to brag but I can kinda do what that dog is doing already. *hairflip* 

 

I love the idea of you taking the idiot money and buying yourself something terrible with it. I used to play a game with my friend when we were teenagers where we went to New Look or somewhere and found the most hideous outfit we could find and made the other person try it on and this is giving me major flashbacks to that. Excellent idea! 

 

Following along! 

[SomeGuyFromScotland]

Embrace the Pain. I'm in.

[ExpectJade]

Stalking

[Sarah Barr]

Do you think that the 3rd option would need to be 3d if the play is 10 minutes long?

I think it'd really count against me if they weren't well rounded characters, I need to make sure that, whatever plot I pick, every line and word somehow advances the plot or develops a character. 

 

 

Dusting off the dumbbells, I want to get a few free weight exercises in alongside my yoga in preparation for getting back into weight training properly next month. 

 

Prepped so much food today. Trying very hard not to EAT IT ALL. The roasted sweet potato is so good. I am excited for next week. 

[Sarah Barr]

Right, I worked out exactly what I'm to do for the Doodlie PvP, and I reckon in order to do an efficient job I'll need to join the gym again. The cardio's going to be a bugger, especially with the 5km relay - my leg's still not better, so the walking I'd normally do for cardio is out of the picture. I don't want to trade cards, though, because it's been so long since I did proper cardio and I need to find a way to work it out.

 

I think swimming and the elliptical, depending on my form, are probably the best ways to get around the tendon issue. If I throw £32 for a month's gym and swim membership at the uni tomorrow, and see how it goes, I'll consider committing to a longer membership in April on the condition that the people who keep telling my partner she has a job with them in April don't do what they did to her in January and say "oh, actually, we meant you start in three months from now, not now, SO SORRY" and actually employ her like they say they will (I am so very bitter).

 

Should be good, and they're open early enough that I can still get in a gym or swim session done before work, even though it's much further away than my old gym so I can't go at lunchtimes.

[DrFeelgood]

Following.  I hope we don't have to see any idiot purchases, except I kinda hope we get to.

[Terah]

Following

 

And personally I love the second play idea. You could make good use of the word 'perkele' in it

[SomeGuyFromScotland]

I really want an earthenware arse. If that's not actually a thing, I demand someone craft me one forthwith.

[ExpectJade]

I really want an earthenware arse. If that's not actually a thing, I demand someone craft me one forthwith.

i am prety sure i could get my girlfriend to craft that...

[jmk]

Following!  I just hit the crow pose the other day for about 4 seconds.  I'm focusing on yoga this month too!

[Archon]

Following! Awesome Yoga goals

[Teros]

I really want an earthenware arse. If that's not actually a thing, I demand someone craft me one forthwith.

 

Settle for a booty pillow?