DarK_RaideR's BattlE_LoG

[DarK_RaideR]

There seems to be a pattern lately, one of me updating every half a week or so. Let's see if I can condense everything into a little post, then go update my current challenge thread.

 

Thursday, September 22

Followed the SRLF to her final Krav Maga class as guest male attacker. We had fun and a good workout, then visited the place where her new school will be based, before setting out to find a friend of hers that was celebrating her birthday. Had a slice of ice cream cake #no_ragrets

 

Friday, September 23

Went to Muay Thai class and left with a sore finger on my right foot due to a bad landing. Not a big deal, it still hurts a bit but there hasn't even been any swelling. We went to see our first movies of the Athens International Film Festival. It was Pedro Almodovar's new film "Julietta" (pretty good), then "Hired Guns", a great documentary about session musicians and ended with "Lights Out" (you know when the audience laughs and claps, your scary movie is a flop). Had dinner after the first 2 movies, restaurant was closing so we had to settle for leftovers but at least we didn't grab takeout. Although I did share a small popcorn during the final flick.

 

Saturday, September 24

Caught up with sleep, a much needed rest for both of us. Had the chance to do some studying for Tuesday's exams, then we went to see "Anthropoid", a great movie about the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich (a.k.a. The Butcher of Prague, #3 in Nazi hierarchy and architect of the "Final Solution") by Exile Czechoslovak soldiers during WW2. I have to admit the whole genre has been milked dry, but it was a fresh take on the subject with minimal swastikas and great acting from Cillian Murphy (of Peaky Blinders fame). Again, eating wasn't stellar, but it was really good and certainly home made.

 

Sunday, September 25

We visited the SRLF's mom for lunch to celebrate her birthday. Carby stuff was consumed, including a semi-sweet wine and a little pastry at the end, but I'm not sweating it (@Machete's instagram stuff posted below couldn't have come at a better time). In the evening we went to see the band that contacted me a while back about reviewing their new EP, as they were doing a gig here before touring my home island. Can't say they knocked the ball off the park, but it was nice getting back into that groove of things, plus I did my first ever live interview!

 

 

[DarK_RaideR]

Monday, September 26

Clean eating and another Muay Thai class in the books.

Quote

Training was all about knee strikes and I was chosen again for displays. I can't put to words how much the knee strikes hurt, even though we were using a shield. The sheer force killed my diaphragm and affected my breathing until the end. My solar plexus hurts today and I have friction scars on my outer palm and forearm from simply holding a damn shield. I also managed to tweak my big toe again (the one I hurt on Friday) and in general it was the first time I thought I wouldn't make it or that Muay Thai might not be for me. Fortunately, that went away fast and we wrapped things up by listening to a presentation on the history of MT from two classmates, a prerequisite for the exams they will be taking. We then stretched and surprised the kru with a song and a little muffin cake for his 39th birthday.

 

[DarK_RaideR]

Tuesday, September 27

Ate clean and rocked my Masters' elective exams. Got a phonecall from my professor, officially sealing the job deal. We have an appointment at his office in about an hour from now as I type this. Day ended with us watching The Handmaiden, newest film by Chan Wook Park (of Oldboy fame).

[Raxie]

This is awesome!!! Congrats!

[darkfoxx]

*I'm happy dancing internally but you can't see it*

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Congrats on the tests and the job!

[Jarric]

Congratulations man!

[DarK_RaideR]

Thanks everyone. Keeping my fingers crossed for the SRLF as well, hoping she gets the job she was interviewed for too.

 

Wednesday, 28 September

Food went down the drain when I had a slice of banoffee semifreddo cake at work. It was someone's birthday and since only a handful of us were around, I caved into the social pressure and did not refuse my share. Professor appointment went ok and now we're just trying to figure out which days I'll be at his office. This meant I got to work late, left late and didn't make it to the Muay Thai class. No hard feelings, wasn't in the groove anyways. I'll make up for it Thursday now that I don't have classes, it's a chance to get out of the clinching/punchbag loop and try speed/target practice that goes down on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Train to Busan was a flop, made even worse by six ladies on the row behind us who wouldn't shut up, even after a lot of loud complaining from our part and others around. FFS people, I know it's a zombie movie and we're all chilling to have fun, but if you're gonna be disrespectful and spoil it for everyone around, watch it in the comfort of your own home.

[DarK_RaideR]

Thursday, 29 September

It's funny when I think that the highlight of my meals for the day was broccoli, fava and feta cheese for dinner. Eating was in line and I Muay Thai'd alright. Turns out Tuesdays and Thursdays involve padwork and we did plenty of kicks and knee strikes. I should also note that by the end of the class, we did the "one last shot from the kru" thing again, where I received an elbow shot to the stomach and barely even felt it.

[Mr_Willes]

11 hours ago, DarK_RaideR said:

where I received an elbow shot to the stomach and barely even felt it.

That was unexpected, i expected to see something along the lines of: "And fell to my feet"

 

Much better outcome anyway, definitely training for results!

[DarK_RaideR]

Friday, 30 September

Eating was fine but not perfect. Didn't make it to MT class tho, so come Monday I got a lot of work to catch up 

[maegs]

Congats on your exams & the new job, and also on not hurling after taking an elbow to the stomach!  

[DarK_RaideR]

Saturday, 1 October

Ate alright but after the night's movie we grabbed takeout and I shared a beer with the SRLF at the festival's closing party.

 

Sunday, 2 October

Kept my eating clean alright. Saw the final movie of the festival and had a talk with the SRLF about the stuff burdening our minds. I'm completely demotivated and don't feel like doing anything but this being Nerd Fitness, I'm sharing the fitness part of it: Muay Thai is nice but not clicking the way Crossfit did. SRLF suggested giving it time until the end of the year and then switching back to Crossfit if I still feel the same. I can't really tell if it's MT per se or whether it has fallen victim to the general "meh" though

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

The Meh can be tough to deal with. Finding the source of meh is often a chicken or egg kind of quesiton. Are you Meh because you miss crossfit or are you missing crossfit becuase you feel meh? And then of course there are a thousand other possible sources of meh. One trick is to imagine what you would do if time and finances were not a burden. Whatever you come up with may be what you are missing.

[Mr_Willes]

If time and finances wasn't a burden, i would have been over at Camp NF and i now would be touring the warmer parts of South America on my bike. 

[DarK_RaideR]

@mr_willes has me pretty much covered, chaplain. Although I do have my suspicions as to what is causing the meh.

 

Monday, 3 October

Stuck to good eating habits and went to Muay Thai class. Halfway through me and my partner were sent over to pick up a newcomer each. It was fun sparring with a noob, I got to be helpful and point out stuff and be a bit of a smartass, but the thing is I noticed my improvement within the month. I usually get paired with veterans and while you need someone better to push you towards improvement, it also makes you feel like you're not making any progress. This time I noticed my technique and power are nothing like they were a month ago, plus by the end of class I took another elbow shot to the stomach from the kru and didn't even feel the impact, let alone any lasting stinging pain. There's this thing about Muay Thai where, in a way, getting hit is acceptable but looking weak or stumbling back isn't. Combine that with the fact that during training sometimes you intentionally expose yourself (i.e. receiving a kick with your belly to avoid hitting ribs or pelvis bone) and you end up with a very "come at me bro" attitude towards getting hit.

[NeverThatBored]

9 hours ago, DarK_RaideR said:

@mr_willes has me pretty much covered, chaplain. Although I do have my suspicions as to what is causing the meh.

 

Monday, 3 October

Stuck to good eating habits and went to Muay Thai class. Halfway through me and my partner were sent over to pick up a newcomer each. It was fun sparring with a noob, I got to be helpful and point out stuff and be a bit of a smartass, but the thing is I noticed my improvement within the month. I usually get paired with veterans and while you need someone better to push you towards improvement, it also makes you feel like you're not making any progress. This time I noticed my technique and power are nothing like they were a month ago, plus by the end of class I took another elbow shot to the stomach from the kru and didn't even feel the impact, let alone any lasting stinging pain. There's this thing about Muay Thai where, in a way, getting hit is acceptable but looking weak or stumbling back isn't. Combine that with the fact that during training sometimes you intentionally expose yourself (i.e. receiving a kick with your belly to avoid hitting ribs or pelvis bone) and you end up with a very "come at me bro" attitude towards getting hit.

 

I had this experience with Aikido! For months I felt like I was just terrible compared to anyone else and wasn't making any real progress, but once a new student joined I suddenly felt extremely competent and realized that I had come a long way. When you're working with people who are much better than you, it's hard to see progress.

[DarK_RaideR]

This is stupid. I feel like I'm double-posting stuff here and on my current challenge. Dividing isn't obvious either. Nutrition reports, do they go here or do they go on my challenge since they affect saving for TEW? And since my current challenge is with the Monks, shouldn't I be expanding there on the Muay Thai stuff? This is ridiculous, I moved to the BL because challenges weren't working for me, I don't know what went to my head and led me to putting up a challenge, I could have simply made it a minigame inside this BL. Whatever.

 

Tuesday, 4 October

Slipped a bit on eating and didn't have the mental/emotional energy to make it to MT thanks to another wonderful phonecall from my mother in the morning. I swear it's borderline intentional dismantling of my well being, this can't happen every month.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

7 hours ago, DarK_RaideR said:

Tuesday, 4 October

Slipped a bit on eating and didn't have the mental/emotional energy to make it to MT thanks to another wonderful phonecall from my mother in the morning. I swear it's borderline intentional dismantling of my well being, this can't happen every month.

Sounds like it's time to start letting some of her calls go to voicemail.

[Agnarr]

7 hours ago, DarK_RaideR said:

Tuesday, 4 October

Slipped a bit on eating and didn't have the mental/emotional energy to make it to MT thanks to another wonderful phonecall from my mother in the morning. I swear it's borderline intentional dismantling of my well being, this can't happen every month.

oh man, that sucks. Hope you get to clean your headspace ASAP

[Charlie_Quinn]

As someone with a high maintenance mother, my sincerest sympathies go out to you. If screening her calls isn't an option (I know if I tried that with my mum it would make things even worse) Is there any way you can set some boundaries with your mum when she calls? Let her know that the conversation about XYZ is making you upset and if she continues to bring it up, you'll have to end the phone call. 

[DarK_RaideR]

20 hours ago, Charlie_Quinn said:

As someone with a high maintenance mother, my sincerest sympathies go out to you. If screening her calls isn't an option (I know if I tried that with my mum it would make things even worse) Is there any way you can set some boundaries with your mum when she calls? Let her know that the conversation about XYZ is making you upset and if she continues to bring it up, you'll have to end the phone call. 

What @Tanktimus the Encourager suggested isn't an option indeed, since her excuse was exactly that there's been distance and walls between us lately. The real reason of course is that neither she nor my dad approve of my relationship with the SRLF.

 

I assume this is your reaction reading that

 

After 11 months and plenty of arguing in this relationship, I've learned to deal with things in a different way and I did an alternate version of what CQ suggested. My mom likes to dance around the issue and over-analyze to the point where the discussion loses any semblance of focus or logic. This time I laid it out plain and simple: "The real problem is you people aren't comfortable with my relationship and after almost a year there doesn't seem to be any middle ground; either you accept/respect it or I break up with her". The response of course was that I'm being too brutally blunt and placing her in a spot against me when she's trying to wrap her mind around the situation.

 

My reaction hearing that

 

Wednesday, 5 October

Eating was on point. Went to Muay Thai class, it was all a revision of everything knee related. Did pretty well and was paired with a guy of equal skill but I really need to work on my distance skills. Like, fast, before I knee somebody else to the groin by accident again. 

[Agnarr]

2 hours ago, DarK_RaideR said:

I really need to work on my distance skills. Like, fast, before I knee somebody else to the groin by accident again. 

So you won, didn't you?

 

[shaar]

How the actual catcrap did I manage to unfollow your battlelog?!!!?!?!  I'm going to blame Tapatalk, because it has been spawned from the BOWELS OF HELL, and doesn't play by any rational rules of forum etiquette.

 

4 hours ago, DarK_RaideR said:

 

After 11 months and plenty of arguing in this relationship, I've learned to deal with things in a different way and I did an alternate version of what CQ suggested. My mom likes to dance around the issue and over-analyze to the point where the discussion loses any semblance of focus or logic. This time I laid it out plain and simple: "The real problem is you people aren't comfortable with my relationship and after almost a year there doesn't seem to be any middle ground; either you accept/respect it or I break up with her". The response of course was that I'm being too brutally blunt and placing her in a spot against me when she's trying to wrap her mind around the situation.

 

 

 

HELL YEAH GOOD ON YOU for being direct.  I don't think many people are prepared to deal with direct statements like that - your mom seems like a great example, dancing around the real issue, then getting defensive (and probably flustered) - and just don't know how to communicate openly without having a wiggins.  I personally think a lot of it goes back to vulnerability and how people are afraid to really out their Real Feels out there because there is always a chance of someone hurting them over it?  People, man.

[DarK_RaideR]

Thursday, 6 October

Messed up my eating slightly and went out for a great night, alcohol and all. In all the hustle of these days I forgot to mention that on Monday SRLF got the call that she was picked for the position in her company. It's a big win as it's right on her area of expertise (accounting) and she can finally leave the call center and buttheads insulting her over the phone.