Urgan Shows Up, Does the Thing

[Urgan]

3/15/2019 - 3/17/2019

FLAMING CHICKEN

武士道   (ぶしどう)

Justice/Rectitude 

Within: Samurai Don't Complain (at the gym)

Did gud x 2.

 

Without: Giri

Floss - 14/28

Buy a better paper shredder

Clean toilet

Clean kitchen counters

Install new car air-freshener 

Buy new kitchen chairs

Clean tub

Clean sinks

Scrub walls/cabinets

Mop floor

Get recalled airbags fixed

Clean kitchen table

Clean shower

 

Courage

Without: Keep heizen and carry on

Necessity to clean out laptop dust\

Gun purchase

Cost of musical instrument repair

Audit Grocery Bill

Audit Power Bill

 

Benevolence

Within and Without: Love

Learn first-aid

Check up on people - 4/8

Donate to GoFundMe - 2/4

Cat food/water - 6/12

Cat grooming - 2/4

Nutrition 

2400 Calories. 2174 : 2389, 2246, 2339

 

I have tried very hard to make up for the caloric deficit (it showed up in the gym big time...), with some success. Sadly it wasn't enough to allow me to hit prescribed 192lb squat triples, but we repeat the weight and move on. Husband was out of town, so I flew solo on dinner Sunday. To compensate, I picked the lowest hanging fruit in terms of chores. Communication, cat care, and flossing (by extension teeth-brushing and shower cleaning also, because they happen together...) have been on point. I am accumulating receipts for the month and I do see a trend that is not terrible. If I am right, the new grocery paradigm will be able to stay. However, I am waiting until April 1st to make that determination final. I gave some dinero to the Aussie bat hospital for their fruit fund.

 

Aikido goals got axed from the daily report, for greater ease of reading. You're Welcome. Also axed laptop dust and new shredder. The former appears to not be an issue, near as I can tell, because it is much more responsive now to what I'm actually asking the laptop to do vs just getting hot and staying that way as long as I so much as think about YouTube. The former because LOL OUR BUDGET this month, it is so not a priority. 

 

Also in the course of watching my usual Sunday fare of British emergency medicine YouTube vids, they mentioned this silly CPR ad and it is just the most precious thing. 

 

 

[shaar]

Wow that chicken gif is legendary.

 

Do you find out today if new belt get???

[Urgan]

5 minutes ago, shaar said:

Wow that chicken gif is legendary.

 

Found it by way of "knife fight".....no idea either.

 

6 minutes ago, shaar said:

Do you find out today if new belt get???

 

YES I DO.

 

 

* fidgeting intensifies *

[Mistr]

I love the CPR ad.

 

I hope the grocery delivery service continues to be feasible. Saving the time and frustration of grocery shopping would be worth a little extra to me.

[Urgan]

13 minutes ago, Mistr said:

I hope the grocery delivery service continues to be feasible. Saving the time and frustration of grocery shopping would be worth a little extra to me.

 

Truth.

[Urgan]

3/18/2019

You feel that?

武士道   (ぶしどう)

Justice/Rectitude 

Within: Samurai Don't Complain (at the gym)

Basketball shorts were spotted in the squat rack. It is not possible to witness this without mockery as a direct result.

 

Without: Giri

Floss - 15/28

Buy a better paper shredder

Clean toilet

Clean kitchen counters

Install new car air-freshener 

Buy new kitchen chairs

Clean tub

Clean sinks

Scrub walls/cabinets

Mop floor

Get recalled airbags fixed

Clean kitchen table

Clean shower

 

Courage

Without: Keep heizen and carry on

Necessity to clean out laptop dust

Gun purchase

Cost of musical instrument repair

Audit Grocery Bill

Audit Power Bill

 

Benevolence

Within and Without: Love

Learn first-aid

Check up on people - 4/8

Donate to GoFundMe - 2/4

Cat food/water - 6/12

Cat grooming - 2/4

 
Nutrition 

2450 Calories. 2597 : 2597

 

Gym was a suboptimal affair, with a 105 followed by two 106lb bench singles. I know I'm still rebounding from last week, but still it kind of annoys me.  

Work was long and slow and painful due to not enough things to do. Also because obviously there were belts to be awarded come dojo time, but eventually that happened. Now I have a new dragon to slay, consisting ofr 8 multi-part techniques with one jo and bokken technique each. Better and worse than blue belt in some respects, I suppose. I got the technique CD and ripped those happy suckers onto my laptop. All I have to do is label the videos correctly and we're off to the races. On a completely unrelated note, I bumped up calories by 50 just because I can. I would have done 100 except 2500 resulted in non-LBM weight gain and right now is the very worst time to demand a new pants wardrobe. When that time comes, however, there will be jeans for days, so it wouldn't be all bad.

[Urgan]

3/19/2019

IT'S THE CIRCLE OF LIFE

武士道   (ぶしどう)

Justice/Rectitude 

Within: Samurai Don't Complain (at the gym)

-

 

Without: Giri

Floss - 16/28

Buy a better paper shredder

Clean toilet

Clean kitchen counters

Install new car air-freshener 

Buy new kitchen chairs

Clean tub

Clean sinks

Scrub walls/cabinets

Mop floor

Get recalled airbags fixed

Clean kitchen table

Clean shower

 

Courage

Without: Keep heizen and carry on

Necessity to clean out laptop dust

Gun purchase

Cost of musical instrument repair

Audit Grocery Bill

Audit Power Bill

 

Benevolence

Within and Without: Love

Learn first-aid

Check up on people - 4/8

Donate to GoFundMe - 2/4

Cat food/water - 7/12

Cat grooming - 2/4

 
Nutrition 

2450 Calories. 2518 : 2438

 

Today was a Bored Blind kind of day. People be working on big projects and not turning stuff out right now for me to test (it will all come in like a tsunami later, have no fear....), so here I sit trying not to jump out a window. I'm keeping up with the flossing and the cat care, which is something I suppose. The dental floss I have feels cheap, it wants to fray so bad my teeth can "cut" it and leave strings between my teeth (ARGH) if I'm not careful (the spacing on my bottom right is really tight relative to the rest of my mouth, FWIW). Gaps are opening up a bit, so this is becoming less of an issue. I'm getting past the dental surgery levels of bleeding, so either things are improving or I'm babying the floss too much. I'll spring for the Fancy Floss soon to try to remedy the issue. This is definitely the most I have flossed consecutively in my life, and there's an argument to be made it's doubled the amount of flossing done over the course of my life. Not even going to lie. 

 

Next week is Spring Break for the dojo, so that will be a rest period for me. It comes at a decent time in the context of my training, but it annoys my inner child because I just got this shiny new belt and gosh darnit Wednesday's session is the only time I may be able to play with new techniques beforehand. Oh well. Life is like a river and shit. I am taking some time this cycle to do three things--calibrate my rack pull weights, realign my training cycle with my hormone cycle (plz God make this happen), and back off volume while keeping intensity up as a break in the muscle violence. Basically a recovery month. To this end, I decided to throw food at the problem and make a serious effort to hit those numbers by any non-gut-harming means necessary. DEPLOYING PROTEIN BARS. 

 

In one week we will know a lot more about both sets of bills. I will be curious, but skeptical about the power. Late in the night (3~AM), Olive barfed in the precise place where I'd put my feet leaning out of bed. Maggy did the world the service of eating most of it, but I had to get up to clean it up because zombie brains do not remember barf. So I do that, and notice the A/C is running. WHY IS IT SET TO 70. WHY. I am suspicious, because the thermostat is programmed lower overnight. Fixed that, got back in bed. The barf-eater deployed a hairball in another high traffic spot about 5 minutes later. So I get up again. May wonders never cease. 

[shaar]

Holy heck floss fraying and tiny pieces getting stuck is THE WOOOORST.  The spacing on my lower right is super tight too, and it always happens there, a l w a y s ............

 

22 minutes ago, Urgan said:

 

In one week we will know a lot more about both sets of bills. I will be curious, but skeptical about the power. Late in the night (3~AM), Olive barfed in the precise place where I'd put my feet leaning out of bed. Maggy did the world the service of eating most of it, but I had to get up to clean it up because zombie brains do not remember barf. So I do that, and notice the A/C is running. WHY IS IT SET TO 70. WHY. I am suspicious, because the thermostat is programmed lower overnight. Fixed that, got back in bed. The barf-eater deployed a hairball in another high traffic spot about 5 minutes later. So I get up again. May wonders never cease. 

 

This is all a Very Big Mood.

[Urgan]

1 minute ago, shaar said:

Holy heck floss fraying and tiny pieces getting stuck is THE WOOOORST.  The spacing on my lower right is super tight too, and it always happens there, a l w a y s ............

 

Do you know who has two thumbs and hates having to let go of the floss to slide it past the worst offenders?

 

1 minute ago, shaar said:

This is all a Very Big Mood.

 

I love our cats, but I do not love this part of them. It's amazing Olive hasn't shriveled up and disappeared as often as she yacks up barely soggy kibble. SIGH. It's been a life-long thing with her, too, not a recent deal.

[Urgan]

3/20/2019

The Lion Sneeze

武士道   (ぶしどう)

Justice/Rectitude 

Within: Samurai Don't Complain (at the gym)

I'm getting better at passively observing the gym savanna without letting the shenanigans push my buttons too much--my goal is:

- Stupid thing happens

- Amused face

- Back to work, stupid thing forgotten

 

I feel I am getting better at not reacting strongly to what I see, but it does stick in my mind a bit more than I'd like. Oh well. 

 

Without: Giri

Floss - 17/28

Buy a better paper shredder

Clean toilet

Clean kitchen counters

Install new car air-freshener 

Buy new kitchen chairs

Clean tub

Clean sinks

Scrub walls/cabinets

Mop floor

Get recalled airbags fixed

Clean kitchen table

Clean shower

 

Courage

Without: Keep heizen and carry on

Necessity to clean out laptop dust

Gun purchase

Cost of musical instrument repair

Audit Grocery Bill

Audit Power Bill

 

Benevolence

Within and Without: Love

Learn first-aid

Check up on people - 5/8

Donate to GoFundMe - 2/4

Cat food/water - 7/12

Cat grooming - 2/4

 
Nutrition 

2450 Calories. 2496 : 2452

 

It was worth going to the gym for the 236lb rack pull singles I managed to do (two of them), an 11lb PR for the movement--not just for mornings, but period. They felt heavy in my grip, but the rest of me and the video evidence shows that it was child's play. It's expected that you should be able to rack pull far more (100+lbs for males) than you deadlift, for the obvious reason that rack pulls have a shorter ROM. This should have an effect on the numbers I'm programming going forward, especially since it can't be said that I was at my best this week. 

 

I caught a few last-minute bills that needed paying. We are running a bit tighter in the money department than I'd like, but tomorrow is payday for us both, so I think we'll survive March. The last half-strength grocery bill from the credit card has been paid and going forward ironically will cut March's credit card bill in half, April's bill is projected to be half of that, and May should be half again of April, due to a combination of happenstance and buying non-grocery items on the card. The Avoids Temptation perk of shopping online is so real right now, guys. So real. If you are not able to go through the store without hoovering up random quantities of unanticipated goods and a service is in your area, it is worth your while to consider this option. We are trending around $115 per week via Instacart, which was the low end of typically what a normal grocery trip cost (normal: $115 - $160 per week at Walmart, with a roughly 10% Impulse Purchase tax in there). Doing the math, I anticipate weekly grocery expenses to fall solidly in the $5-700 range--we don't end up throwing away a lot of spoilage either, so it's a pretty accurate reflection of consumption. 

 

AC bill is trending to a very low amount for April. I am optimistic about where this is going. March was difficult, because it was paying the piper for the old paradigm while flying face-first into the new PLUS an annual trip that means random hundred dollar chunks of cash go POOF to support that venture. And I'm still planning on donating--not a large quantity, but a bit, enough to matter. 

 

Dojo time was spent on a sankyo variation that wasn't anyone's belt technique, it was just messing around. Very, very painful messing around. I've got the technique videos properly labeled now, so we are ready to go after next week.

[Mistr]

Wow, you had a productive day!

 

6 hours ago, Urgan said:

 

It was worth going to the gym for the 236lb rack pull singles I managed to do (two of them), an 11lb PR for the movement--not just for mornings, but period. They felt heavy in my grip, but the rest of me and the video evidence shows that it was child's play. It's expected that you should be able to rack pull far more (100+lbs for males) than you deadlift, for the obvious reason that rack pulls have a shorter ROM. This should have an effect on the numbers I'm programming going forward, especially since it can't be said that I was at my best this week. 

 

Congratulation on the PR!

 

Pardon my ignorance. I can see the physical difference between rack pulls and dead lifts. What are the comparative benefits of each of them?

 

6 hours ago, Urgan said:

The Avoids Temptation perk of shopping online is so real right now, guys. So real. If you are not able to go through the store without hoovering up random quantities of unanticipated goods and a service is in your area, it is worth your while to consider this option. We are trending around $115 per week via Instacart, which was the low end of typically what a normal grocery trip cost (normal: $115 - $160 per week at Walmart, with a roughly 10% Impulse Purchase tax in there). Doing the math, I anticipate weekly grocery expenses to fall solidly in the $5-700 range--we don't end up throwing away a lot of spoilage either, so it's a pretty accurate reflection of consumption. 

 

Yeah, I can see how avoiding temptation would make a big difference. It would certainly help with staying on plan with your food goals. Do you get produce through Instacart too?

 

I ask because produce is the most variable part of my in-store shopping. I always have a line item for fruit and one for green veggies. What I actually buy depends on what looks good and is at a reasonable price. For example, last week blackberries were $0.99 per box (6 oz.). That's as cheap as they ever get and Dumbledore really likes them, so I got two. We like cauliflower but it ranges from $1-$5 per head. Some things are pretty consistent while others vary wildly from week to week.

[Urgan]

3/21/2019

Just trying to live in this world on a Thursday

武士道   (ぶしどう)

Justice/Rectitude 

Within: Samurai Don't Complain (at the gym)

 -

Without: Giri

Floss - 18/28

Buy a better paper shredder

Clean toilet

Clean kitchen counters

Install new car air-freshener 

Buy new kitchen chairs

Clean shower

Clean tub

Clean sinks

Get recalled airbags fixed

Scrub walls/cabinets

Mop floor

Clean kitchen table

 

Courage

Without: Keep heizen and carry on

Necessity to clean out laptop dust

Gun purchase

Cost of musical instrument repair

Audit Grocery Bill

Audit Power Bill

 

Benevolence

Within and Without: Love

Learn first-aid

Check up on people - 5/8

Donate to GoFundMe - 2/4

Cat food/water - 8/12

Cat grooming - 2/4

 
Nutrition 

2450 Calories. 2482 : 2441

 

Well. I was driving to work and was in a real good mood for a Thursday, thinking wow this drive sure is pleasant, I can detach myself from it all and observe with impar--

Car cuts me off going from left to right hard-braking for the Bullet Coffee on the far right side of the road. I slam on my brakes and liberally apply the car horn to the situation to let them know what I think of their life choices.

 

Sigh. Luckily some of us were paying attention just enough to keep everybody involved from having to stay in the Bullet Coffee parking area for two hours.

 

Cue practicing smoothing the anger-face away before turning off the highway. 

 

Otherwise, the day was alright enough, I had some actual work to do. Spontaneous picture day at work for security badges. A coworker and I only learned of this due to coincidence and our coworkers happening to inquire about it, but damn if we don't get Safe Driving Tips (use a seat belt!) and corporate-level spam. The photographer was surprised I was in IT. I am a girl and there are lots of guys around me. This was a matter of note. Just take my picture, guy, I don't even want to be here. Working mostly with men is exactly how I want it actually for way more reasons than a picture-taker deserves to know. 

 

WHEE!

 

Made a more complicated dinner that usually is made on the weekend, which was a kind of magic trick. I don't normally cook chuck roasts due to fear of time constraints, but I jumped on it immediately after getting in the door, soooo it happened successfully. COME ON FRIDAY.

 

19 hours ago, Mistr said:

Wow, you had a productive day!

 

Do you ever have days where you don't figure much happened, but then you stop and think and actually yeah a lot happened?

 

19 hours ago, Mistr said:

Congratulation on the PR!

 

Pardon my ignorance. I can see the physical difference between rack pulls and dead lifts. What are the comparative benefits of each of them?

 

So that's not a stupid question at all, it's actually really important. The answer is...drumroll plz...it depends on what you are aiming for. Competitive lifters, after they reach a point where gains working the competition lift (in this case, deadlifts, but this applies to all the compound movements actually), have the opportunity to attack the problem from a different angle. You can find movement variations that look a lot like the main lift, but vary in ROM. You can make the ROM longer (working harder with the same or lighter weight) or shorter (heavier weight over a smaller distance). These two alterations of the main lift's path of travel should overlap a bit (such as halting DLs and rack pulls--they overlap at the knee height--the squat is a bit trickier to imagine, but there's a method even for the squat to be worked by degrees), so if you alternated you are in fact training the whole path but you've broken it up in an attempt to change the stress for general strength progression + emphasized the part of the lift where you tend to fail when the weight gets too heavy on say, deadlift. They might abandon the deadlift earlier for the halting/rack pull split. 

 

General strength athletes might want to keep on with the deadlift longer/forever because they aren't as laser-focused on peaking for the 1RM/meet total and have more of an eye for the value of the 3-5RM range. General strength, yeah? I chose to do rack pulls in the morning because it compensates for the fact that my CNS is still cold at 7AM so I can get a bit more work out of the time with heavier weight, then on the weekend I do the full deadlift. 

 

Pressing against the safety pins (isometric contraction) vs pressing from the safety pins is the equivalent for OHP.

Changing grip width on bench press changes the muscles involved and the difficulty of the movement. Incline and decline bench are also used.

Squats have box squats, pause squats, and front/high bar for variations.

 

You can add bands and chains and all sorts of tomfoolery as well, but that's not really a change in the mechanics of the movement as much as it is just adding/removing resistance throughout the movement.

 

19 hours ago, Mistr said:

Yeah, I can see how avoiding temptation would make a big difference. It would certainly help with staying on plan with your food goals. Do you get produce through Instacart too?

 

I ask because produce is the most variable part of my in-store shopping. I always have a line item for fruit and one for green veggies. What I actually buy depends on what looks good and is at a reasonable price. For example, last week blackberries were $0.99 per box (6 oz.). That's as cheap as they ever get and Dumbledore really likes them, so I got two. We like cauliflower but it ranges from $1-$5 per head. Some things are pretty consistent while others vary wildly from week to week.

 

Yeah, anything in Publix (in my case, this is the only store I get to order from) is fair game--I haven't tried alcohol yet, bet that would be hilarious (BOOZE 2 U). Depending on your area, you might have access to more stores depending what specific delivery service you're going with. I think Shipt has a wider range on the store front, but there is a corresponding $$$ difference in having to pay upfront to try vs Instacart's free trial. Then again, I am using the Publix-specific app, so I probably need to fix that wheeeee...aaaand doing so opens up CVS and PetCo lol. 

 

There are deals that pop up in the app, can't say whether they are 1-to-1 for the in-store deals, but they are there and you can make notes about how much you want. They give a default rate (boneless butt roast is typically 3.28 * $6.10, just for an example) to show you how they arrive at the item's cost. YMMV for sure.

[Urgan]

3/22/2019 - 3/24/2019

 Unsought attentions for days

武士道   (ぶしどう)

Justice/Rectitude 

Within: Samurai Don't Complain (at the gym)

Saturday there was a guy who looked British wearing an American flag t-shirt and a debatably dude with a manbun atop his noggin and a tank top with a woman on it, deadlifting and squatting respectively, which amused me greatly. The former I am not sure I've seen before, the latter could not be missed on account of the bouncing manbun and his height.

I am highly skeptical of his intelligence, more because of from a prior encounter his apparent-by-way-of-t-shirt choice of campaigns to volunteer for (local election) and he approached me inquiring about which rack I'd prefer he take since both me and the British-looking dude were deadlifting outside of racks. Specifically giving me the choice of which rack he would use, which seemed incredibly odd. I look up at him and then over to the racks. One is clearly well out of anyone's way and one would 100% require me to move with 1 set to go, lest he crown me with each rep--he wasn't a half-repper, so this would have been a guarantee of head trauma. So I explain that yon rack was free for him to use and would be out everyone's way as patiently as a tired, hungry human can. See, not too bright. Or else he just wanted to talk, people do that sort of thing in gyms and they have the craziest ways of acting on it.  

 

With great effort of will I am suspending judgment on account that the only thing that really matters about gym interactions is the kind relevant to sharing equipment and maybe he was hungover or had low blood sugar for all I know. Not every day is a display of raw majesty. If politeness is a muscle, it gets worked out on a regular basis. By way of contrast, in the mornings I have to navigate around this old guy who seems to prize maintaining shallow level friendships/acquaintances with the enter morning crew by way of shouting out incredibly superficial--sometimes the very same one consecutively--compliments to people arriving in the weight area. I don't really like being complimented, so empty flattery grates on my nerves at about the same level as politics being injected into an environment where you don't want or expect it. He does this to everyone, including me, and I deal with it by accepting the compliment as words that were spoken to me, but not really reacting as if they were genuine because there is no way on earth they could be given he doesn't know me personally at all.

 

Without: Giri

Floss - 20/28

Buy a better paper shredder

Clean toilet

Clean kitchen counters

Install new car air-freshener 

Buy new kitchen chairs

Clean shower

Clean tub

Clean sinks

Get recalled airbags fixed - called the dealer

Scrub walls/cabinets

Mop floor

Clean kitchen table

 

Courage

Without: Keep heizen and carry on

Necessity to clean out laptop dust

Gun purchase

Cost of musical instrument repair

Audit Grocery Bill

Audit Power Bill

 

Benevolence

Within and Without: Love

Learn first-aid

Check up on people - 5/8

Donate to GoFundMe - 2/4

Cat food/water - 8/12

Cat grooming - 2/4

 
Nutrition 

2450 Calories. 2465 : 2445, 2444, 2437

 

Friday was a flurry of goal-related activity. I called the car dealership finally and got that ball rolling--first they have to figure out that my car is eligible for the recall, then we set up the appointment. It may end up being out beyond March, but that's okay. I'm finally confronting it.

 

The gun purchase thing requires a bit more of a discussion. The purpose of buying at least one gun is due to my interest in personal and home defense in the event the security system fails to deter. I don't have an interest in hunting due to it requiring a human being be up at 3AM in the cold sitting very still in a cramped space with the hopes of catching sight of an animal, much less actually bringing home dinner (and then there's the process of...processing, who when where??). I haven't eliminated concealed carry from the possibility, but that's a separate event from just owning a firearm and assumes a level of comfort with shooting that is too far in the horizon to plan for. You can buy online or at a gun store, obviously. If you buy online, you have to fill out a form(s) and send the gun to a licensed dealer. Standing in the store, they background check you right then and there (aka we already have universal background checks). If you pass, you get to take it home. I haven't researched whether there is any additional state layer of hoops to jump through, but I imagine if there is it's just another form or two. I know just enough to know that I don't know much about what make or model would be the best intersection of reliable and $$$ given the caliber I'll likely use is .22 or 9mm, one. I figure I will learn the same way I learned about lifting, which will be a process but I do know a guy who knows about this stuff so after my research I can cross-check to see if I'm off the mark, so to speak.  For now I have a better grasp on what the buying process is like + about how much we're talking for a handgun ($400 - $700 seems like the price point for most of them, but whether a First Gun needs to be in this range I dunno yet). I feel like I need to have a better understanding of this gun business on my own vs relying completely on someone to just pick one out for me, that ownership thing, you know? I take it pretty seriously and if I don't have the time to learn about it I won't have the time to practice with it or anything else once we've made the investment, which is just dumb.

 

Guys I got new floss and now my gums are back to bleeding yup the cheap floss is crap, confirmed.

 

Saturday was the usual, with the knowledge that Sunday we were going to my grandparents' house to salvage some of the books left there. Woof. Anyone who's lost a generation of relatives knows what it's like to come back to a place after a while and you're looking around for signs of deterioration and whatnot to the property while trying to sift through stuff. So yeah, we schlepped up the 2-hours, stopping by Jack's on the way for a combination bathroom break/lunch. This was my first Jack's encounter and I knew immediately I wouldn't be getting any meat there because hoooooly crap it's either bread of breaded up in here. So I got a large fry and a large green beans. Legit, the green beans serving was twice the size of the fries, which was shocking and hilarious. Also, do you want fries, but you want them to taste like popcorn? Well Jack's has the answer. At any rate, this was a strategic choice to avoid low blood sugar headaches and I more or less succeeded with the help of a large pack of m&ms and a protein bar. I got a few boxes' worth of books, we found some things that might have some sentimental value to mom, and verified nothing new was wrong anywhere. You learn a bit about someone by looking at what types of books they collect. We hope the property will sell soon, so this might have been the last time to see the buildings. Maybe not, who knows. Insert a lot of rambling about conflicted feelings here. We got home late, so the normal Sunday groove was well and truly thrown off. Monday is a work-from-home day to help compensate.

[Urgan]

3/25/2019

Gains

武士道   (ぶしどう)

Justice/Rectitude 

Within: Samurai Don't Complain (at the gym)

Pretty normal, including the usual navigation of pointless flattery man.

 

Without: Giri

Floss - 21/28

Buy a better paper shredder

Clean toilet

Clean kitchen counters

Install new car air-freshener 

Buy new kitchen chairs

Clean shower

Clean tub

Clean sinks

Get recalled airbags fixed - called the dealer

Scrub walls/cabinets

Mop floor

Clean kitchen table

 

Courage

Without: Keep heizen and carry on

Necessity to clean out laptop dust

Gun purchase

Cost of musical instrument repair

Audit Grocery Bill

Audit Power Bill

 

Benevolence

Within and Without: Love

Learn first-aid

Check up on people - 5/8

Donate to GoFundMe - 2/4

Cat food/water - 9/12

Cat grooming - 3/4

 
Nutrition 

2450 Calories. 2505 : 2505

 

Monday was a strange day. Given this is Dojo Spring Break, no classes all week. Due to Sunday's trip, I decided the best course of action was a work from home Monday, which was glorious. I did the gym thing and scored a 104lb bench 2RM (.5lb PR) and more time for OHP to do a bunch of volume work there. Then I went home. A low-key day ensued, warm and no huge wall of rain, just a shower while in the gym and around 4.

 

Weather - 4,000,841

Forecasters everywhere - 12

 

Felt like the laziest day ever, which was amazing.

[Urgan]

Highly relevant....

 

 

 

 

 

[Urgan]

3/26/2019

Goals progressing like

武士道   (ぶしどう)

Justice/Rectitude 

Within: Samurai Don't Complain (at the gym)

-

Without: Giri

Floss - 22/28

Buy a better paper shredder

Clean toilet

Clean kitchen counters

Install new car air-freshener 

Buy new kitchen chairs

Get recalled airbags fixed

Clean shower

Clean tub

Clean sinks

Scrub walls/cabinets

Mop floor

Clean kitchen table

 

Courage

Without: Keep heizen and carry on

Necessity to clean out laptop dust

Gun purchase

Cost of musical instrument repair

Audit Grocery Bill

Audit Power Bill

 

Benevolence

Within and Without: Love

Learn first-aid

Check up on people - 5/8

Donate to GoFundMe - 2/4

Cat food/water - 10/12

Cat grooming - 3/4

 
Nutrition 

2450 Calories. 2447 : 2389

 

The highlight of the day was discovering I'd gotten a deaf fart on the phone at the car shop who CBF to actually run my VIN (it takes 2 seconds to get the results) to ensure my car actually requires the recall repair. Apparently they are covered up in recalls, so I won't be able to actually get in until 2 weeks from Thursday, WHEE. Mission accomplished.

 

I am doing very well on oral hygiene stuff, maintaining the shower spray-downs that are not being officially tracked anymore, and cat care overall. I'm a lot more likely to eyeball their food and water before leaving the house, even though hubs is very reliable about taking care of it. That's why I wasn't checking, because he has it under control the majority of the time, but team effort and whatnot. We're closing in on the time to see what groceries and power bills will look like (power is going to be super low because Spring, but I have the data to compare against last year, which should be interesting given the old unit was basically not run during the harder months and got a recharge last May.). So far we are on track for between $15 and $40 in savings over last year this time. I will take $15 extra, thank you much. Groceries are going to end up on the upper end of normal given the transition process, so I'll need another two months' time to establish a trend. I am optimistic that the Avoids Temptation aspect of this style of shopping makes up the difference in cost. HOWEVER. It's become obvious that Publix fails at one thing hardcore, and that's paper products--half again as expensive and/or an inferior quantity. What gives with that? Paper towels, toilet paper, and Shark Week supplies specifically. These aren't obscure niche items.

 

Ah well. I'm working on my Checking Up On People goal, which is tricky in that I'm not counting any time I'm conveying info or asking for something--it's purely a "how are you?" kind of deal that has to not sound weird. Again, tricky. At least for me, yeeeeeee.

 

First aid and chores are in the greatest danger of not being accomplished, due to the fact that last weekend was nerfed as a viable opportunity to do chores. That's okay, I'll try my best to make up for it somehow. The instruments thing is...probably not happening. At least not this month. I think the win here would be deciding which instrument to triage first--I've got a flute, clarinet, and sax that all probably at least need help with their pads. Being metal that is not plated all fancy-like, the sax is probably the lowest hanging fruit to refurbish. However, I'm not sure that's the one I want to pick back up. DECISIONS. Probably need to figure that one out, huh?

[shaar]

Paper products are a racket.  Toilet paper specifically.  Like JEEZO HECKIN CROW I get that I'm willing to pay a little more to wipe my ass with something that doesn't have the consistency of grade-school tracing paper but I shouldn't have to get a second source of income here........

[Urgan]

6 minutes ago, shaar said:

Paper products are a racket.  Toilet paper specifically.  Like JEEZO HECKIN CROW I get that I'm willing to pay a little more to wipe my ass with something that doesn't have the consistency of grade-school tracing paper but I shouldn't have to get a second source of income here........

 

Something between tracing paper and pulped DIY recycled paper would be neato.

[Urgan]

3/27/2019

Moving on up

武士道   (ぶしどう)

Justice/Rectitude 

Within: Samurai Don't Complain (at the gym)

It is hard not to Observe all the wacky gym behavior, but it's getting easier to let it pass through instead of getting lodged in my brain somewhere along the way

 

Without: Giri

Floss - 23/28

Buy a better paper shredder

Clean toilet

Clean kitchen counters

Install new car air-freshener 

Buy new kitchen chairs

Get recalled airbags fixed

Clean shower

Clean tub

Clean sinks

Scrub walls/cabinets

Mop floor

Clean kitchen table

 

Courage

Without: Keep heizen and carry on

Necessity to clean out laptop dust

Gun purchase

Cost of musical instrument repair

Audit Grocery Bill

Audit Power Bill

 

Benevolence

Within and Without: Love

Learn first-aid

Check up on people - 6/8

Donate to GoFundMe - 4/4

Cat food/water - 10/12

Cat grooming - 3/4

 
Nutrition 

2450 Calories. 2455 : 2463

 

Gym featured heavy 183lb squat doubles and not-so-heavy 225lb rack pull doubles. I went ahead and made my remaining donations, swapped out YMCA for Operation Underground Railroad because the Y already gets a good chunk of money from me every month and OUR is a little more important in its effort to save kids vs teach them how to swim lol. So that makes Tolga Bat Hospital, Mercury 1's Nazarene Fund, and OUR. Benevolence is rocking it today, I also managed to do another check-in, whee. 

[Mistr]

I see why not complaining at the gym is one of your goals.

 

My sympathy on cleaning out your grandparents' farm. All the feels. There is barely enough time on the weekends to keep normal life going. Fitting in these extra things is essential but disruptive. Plus making decisions is emotionally exhausting on top of dealing with family about it. I hope you get resolution on the issue without too much more work on your part.

 

Thank you for explaining rack pulls. That makes sense.

 

Are there shooting ranges near you that offer gun safety courses? They might have different models for you to learn on so you can see how they handle.

[Urgan]

3/28/2019

Well tough

武士道   (ぶしどう)

Justice/Rectitude 

Within: Samurai Don't Complain (at the gym)

-

Without: Giri

Floss - 24/28

Buy a better paper shredder

Clean toilet

Clean kitchen counters

Install new car air-freshener 

Buy new kitchen chairs

Get recalled airbags fixed

Clean shower

Clean tub

Clean sinks

Scrub walls/cabinets

Mop floor

Clean kitchen table

 

Courage

Without: Keep heizen and carry on

Necessity to clean out laptop dust

Gun purchase

Cost of musical instrument repair

Audit Grocery Bill

Audit Power Bill

 

Benevolence

Within and Without: Love

Learn first-aid

Check up on people - 6/8

Donate to GoFundMe - 4/4

Cat food/water - 11/12

Cat grooming - 3/4

 
Nutrition 

2450 Calories. 2439 : 2398

 

Do you ever have a day where you suspect a coworker has critically malfunctioned? And you aren't the only one with that impression? That was today. Honestly it was funny more than anything, but if it carries on too long there may be some issues coming soon. Stay Tuned.

 

Dinner....was fried eggs because I was supposed to make a real dinner except for the part where I slept for 2.5 hours and had to wake my husband up to inform him of this error. He took it like NBD, which was nice, but. Probably need to start setting an alarm or something. I felt kind of bad about it, but he liked his bacon, eggs, and biscuit dinner well enough so no one was harmed this time. 

 

This morning I played an unfortunate co-starring role in contributing to wacky gym behavior. Spoilered for Long:

 

I read a physical book just before and between my work sets (where rest between sets needs to be at minimum 2 minutes).

Well, I'd just completed my first press set when this dude gets my attention and asks if I'm done. Being as I am sitting down beside the rack, I'm like, no I'm resting between sets, in an incredulous "Can't you see I'm right here?" tone.

He feels the need to explain him drawing this conclusion, well because I'm reading and at that point I stopped listening. I got pretty indignant about this and smarted back at him about the implications of this statement.

Context note: I average about a page a minute, given where I was when he interrupted me he at most had 1.5 minutes from the moment I sat back down to suppose I am just farting around from now on

Well, can he work in? He'll reset the plates. 

Sure, if he doesn't mind resetting the rack height, I reply, testy, not sure what he wants the bar for, and assuming it was upper body work because Probability, but still willing to share in spite of there being an open rack beside us which has plates on it but no owner. Apparently this was the more convenient route.... * coughs *

 

He proceeds to explain what gym etiquette is, he wants to do a thing he can only do in this rack and to just let him known when I want the bar back (which was basically when he said the sentence) and I ignore that slight condescension due to the fact that I'm zero'd in on the initial offense that he's not getting.

One thing led to another and I deployed "fucking book" in lieu of a coherent point (hey man, you had less than two minutes from the end of my last set to decide I was wasting time when this is completely typical of anyone strength training just because it involved a physical book and that kind of makes me mad because you seem really impatient, you know?) because I am a particularly expert communicator when someone has inadvertently jabbed at something that I'm already a bit self-conscious about having recently started bringing physical books into the gym. Well my "cursing at him" (I never insulted him as a person, I was attempting to articulate the above point and LBR I failed really hard--the closest I got was at least you could just ask to work in and not judge me...) makes him quite indignant and we traded a couple more really clever lines in a snarky but normal speaking tone of voice, we never got to the point of yelling at least.

 

The upshot is he basically commandeered the bar until he was done due likely to a combination of him feeling himself to be seriously wronged and my inability/unwillingness to lay hands on him to get his attention that I wanted the bar back. He had headphones in and words/waving of the hands wasn't getting the job done. He did about 3-ish sets of rack pulls or shrugs (I'm not sure he couldn't have done them on the other rack, but anthropometry is a thing), put my weights back on the bar, but left the bar on the pins possibly as a parting shot (is it possible to remember the plates that were on the bar but not where the bar was? Maybe? I dunno. * shrug * ). Regardless, turns out I can hang clean 73lbs with terrible form. Woo.

 

Post-mortem analysis suggests this was not remotely worth escalating to that degree, which is nice and all had I been actually thinking enough to make a conscious choice about doing so. OTOH, I am not the slightest bit sorry about the general sentiment because I deserve two minutes before anyone assumes I'm just permanently parked next to a rack hogging it for no reason.

The guy was probably a Crossfit sort of lifter (I'm guess from equipment, personal styling, and lack of inter-set rests, which would be consistent with both his apparent expectations of me and being bent out of shape, so I cannot be certain). If so, his training philosophy would not feature much rest and as such wouldn't likely appreciate other people resting too much. In which case I still think he's a jerk but at least there is logic attached to it . 

 

Bah. The worst part is it sours the rest of the gym experience and leads to serious RBF (as opposed to the standard kind), but I went out of my way to not transfer that negative interaction to the few other passing interactions because nobody did anything to deserve it. Think it sorta worked? It's hard to tell when the world is painted angry-face in your head, everything looks like everyone knows you had a pissing match just now even if they just walked in lol. This is why I rarely draw lines in the sand and say what's really on my mind such as with Pointless Flattery Man--PFM is there virtually every day and I don't want to make an enemy. No idea if this guy was or will be a regular. Won't that be fun to figure out?

 

tl;dr, two dumbs don't make a smart, no matter how justified you feel digging in. Dramatic re-enactment of this morning:

 

17 hours ago, Mistr said:

I see why not complaining at the gym is one of your goals.

 

If nothing else, I can stand on honesty. There's so much going on there is bound to be something that gets to everyone at least occasionally. Fully cognizant that I am not immune to inspiring these feelings in others, but what are you gonna do? One thing that has been learned for all cases that do not walk up and demand your attention, you can avoid 100% of all issues by not doing a double-take or even a single-take if you can avoid it. I do however do social threat assessment on everyone who walks in just to give myself that extra time to decide if the person is approaching me and what their intentions might be. Yes, this is necessary because if I don't know said person, Dumb is likely to occur. The correct response is to not take it so seriously and let it wreck everything...

 

17 hours ago, Mistr said:

My sympathy on cleaning out your grandparents' farm. All the feels. There is barely enough time on the weekends to keep normal life going. Fitting in these extra things is essential but disruptive. Plus making decisions is emotionally exhausting on top of dealing with family about it. I hope you get resolution on the issue without too much more work on your part.

 

This precisely. There wasn't a lot of stuff at this point left to go through, but I wasn't expecting to feel much of anything during the trip? It's complicated and not terribly upsetting, just a little sad. At least I saved a few books from a bulldozer or whatever ends up happening. I think that's what the thing was, I'd never visualized the building being torn down and it's looking like it could potentially come to that and you're standing in a house that might not exist a few months from now. The buyer doesn't really fancy anyone else sharing the land and he never had much esteem for it. Not that anyone who isn't family would, to be fair.

 

17 hours ago, Mistr said:

Are there shooting ranges near you that offer gun safety courses? They might have different models for you to learn on so you can see how they handle.

 

Probably and it is a thought that occurred to me. No matter how much knowledge I have, I'd have to fire some examples before making a commitment, for sure. The first and only time I have shot I did hit center mass on the target followed by random shots because my vision got a touch blurry from concentrating on the sights + twilight setting in. My greatest nemesis will always be my eyeballs it seems lol.

[shaar]

Wow.  That gym story.

Wow.

Wowie wow wow.

Who ARE these people that think this is not only OKAY but have no feeling of "oh wow i just might be an enormous dirtweasel" while completing said interaction?!!?!?!?

Throwing my vote in for 'hope he's not a regular'.

 

[Urgan]

4 hours ago, shaar said:

Wow.  That gym story.

Wow.

Wowie wow wow.

Who ARE these people that think this is not only OKAY but have no feeling of "oh wow i just might be an enormous dirtweasel" while completing said interaction?!!?!?!?

Throwing my vote in for 'hope he's not a regular'.

 

 

I really appreciate this. The encounter rattled me pretty bad, not because I don't feel the same way, but because it pushed my buttons HARD and hostile cursing is just not taken casually here like it is elsewhere. It may sound quaint to treat them as originally intended, but that's just how it is. And I don't always make enemies, but when I do it's with someone I see All the Time. So.

 

Just sitting here between squat sets hoping I don't have to have a spontaneous territorial skirmish today. 

[shaar]

19 hours ago, Urgan said:

 

I really appreciate this. The encounter rattled me pretty bad, not because I don't feel the same way, but because it pushed my buttons HARD and hostile cursing is just not taken casually here like it is elsewhere. It may sound quaint to treat them as originally intended, but that's just how it is. And I don't always make enemies, but when I do it's with someone I see All the Time. So.

 

Just sitting here between squat sets hoping I don't have to have a spontaneous territorial skirmish today. 

 

Seriously, like I won't shy away from gentle equipment confrontation (and I've never had to resort to LITERAL CURSING), but just reading that made me uncomfortable and I'd also be 100% rattled.  How incredibly rude and it always makes me wonder about people like that, like how unfulfilling their personal lives must be, like do you act like this everywhere?? ? ??? Jeez.

 

Good luck~ o7

[ReturnOfTheDad]

On 3/25/2019 at 11:38 AM, Urgan said:

The gun purchase thing requires a bit more of a discussion.

 

Sure does, sent you a DM with some info I did on my first purchase. Best of luck!