ixaera summons the Raven King~

[Jonesy]

Super Jealous!!

 

I keep seeing Staci's Instagram pictures and it looks like so much fun. 

[Jord]

Is this the twilight zone? No updates since Wendesday? where am I? 

 

[ixaera]

11 hours ago, Taddea Zhaan said:

Is this the twilight zone? No updates since Wendesday? where am I? 

 

 

it's camp nerdfitness 2016!!!

 

weeeeee

[RedStone]

16 hours ago, ixaera said:

 

it's camp nerdfitness 2016!!!

 

weeeeee

 

*Dies waiting for Camp pictures

 

 

[Emerald_Dragonfly]

9 hours ago, ~RedStone~ said:

 

*Dies waiting for Camp pictures

 

 

Right?!  

[ixaera]

not too much of a picture taker! I did get a decent one of the lake and miss marissa was nice enough to snap a pic of me and the SO at the waterfall!

 

will post those when I get done with all this traveling, sleeping, and eating ice cream I have to do

[Suzaqu]

Ahhhhhhh! Yay camp! I hope it is all of the amazings! 

 

I love your theme! I stopped the book about halfway through (i got distracted and it's a slow read) and I just added the series to my netflix list, so I'm glad to see you say it's good! 

[ixaera]

4 hours ago, Suzaqu said:

Ahhhhhhh! Yay camp! I hope it is all of the amazings! 

 

I love your theme! I stopped the book about halfway through (i got distracted and it's a slow read) and I just added the series to my netflix list, so I'm glad to see you say it's good! 

 

Thinking a write up tonight or tomorrow (lots to do!), then HELLO NEW CHALLENGE!

 

Ooops, hit reply too soon. Meant to SAY: I didn't get very far in the book yet (I'm still finishing Dresden #3 on my Kindle), and yeah, it's slow. I like the writing style enough, especially since I know what's happening now. The show goes MUCH faster and skips through years.

[Emerald_Dragonfly]

Please do a write up when you get a chance; I'd like to live vicariously. 

[Sam Ashen]

6 hours ago, ixaera said:

not too much of a picture taker!

 

This was me last year!  I trust you are home safely.

[ixaera]

6 minutes ago, Sam Ashen said:

 

This was me last year!  I trust you are home safely.

 

Made it undamaged!

And between the Five Guys, Pino Gelato, and Potbelly, also pretty full...

[Suzaqu]

54 minutes ago, ixaera said:

 

Thinking a write up tonight or tomorrow (lots to do!), then HELLO NEW CHALLENGE!

 

Ooops, hit reply too soon. Meant to SAY: I didn't get very far in the book yet (I'm still finishing Dresden #3 on my Kindle), and yeah, it's slow. I like the writing style enough, especially since I know what's happening now. The show goes MUCH faster and skips through years.

Nice, I definitely enjoyed the writing style, and the story. It just took a while and I had other books I really wanted to read too. Also it was hard to carry around, since I got it pre-kindle. I'm definitely going to watch the show now! 

 

Breath, take some time if you need it, and then please write up! I wanna live vicariously too!

[ixaera]

So, Camp!

 

Spoiler

Tucking it in here, because long. (That's what she said?)

 

I don't know how to organize this, so I'm just going to ramble in a haphazard manner. I hope that's okay.

 

My camp experience was very class-centric. I really wanted to see what was on offer there and did this a lot. Except for the last day, when I took it way easy and read for most of the afternoon. Some by the lake, then later up on the porch when I felt less peopled out.

 

- Met Forum People!

HI! It was pretty cool to meet folks that I've interacted with here!

I met @Sam Ashen, @miss_marissa, @Haikoo, and @Rurik Harrgath!
y'all are pretty neat!~

 

- Took every Kate G class

When I showed up, I was just kinda planning on these as filler, they looked interesting but weren't a priority by any means. I took one as my second class the first day and decided that I had to go to them all, and am now adjusting my approach to my mobility challenge to reflect what I learned there, to see how it works for me. Data is good.

 

- Took 3 Jen classes (Squat, Deadlift, and Kettlebells)

Jen's great! I didn't learn anything new about the squats and deadlifts I already do. This is good, it means I haven't been totally butchering them these past 6 months. I did learn to front squat properly (and got fun new bruises to prove it). Will I use them? Maybe someday. I dunno. Might toss 'em in as accessory at some point when I feel like I have a reason. When in doubt, more squats, right? Did not ever figure out the Jefferson DL. I worked with a wizard for a bit on it, and I stumped him, too. Unfortunately, it was at the end of class, which ran a bit long, and they needed to set up for the PL comp after, definitely did not want to get in the way of all that, so if I ever want to use those I'll have to figure that out via videos and such. 

 

I also discovered I'm not a big fan of the kettlebells beyond swings. Which is good, because the only kettlebells I have are probably only good for deadlifts and swings anyway. No new money to spend, yay!

 

- Took Jim's Snatch (he didn't need it) and Clean classes

Ok this was fun. While I doubt I'll incorporate either into my workout anytime soon, if ever (maybe the clean, someday, if I feel like it), I had a good time learning, and it was something new to expose myself to. Jim's a really awesome teacher who is great at breaking down complicated technical movements for the coordination-impaired, like me.

 

- Took 2 of the Nom Nom Paleo classes

Michelle is the cutest person on the planet. In real life, she's basically the same as her merch doll. I took the Instant Pot class because I've been eyeballing one for ages now (seriously, payday I'm finally pulling that trigger), and the Kitchen Essentials class. Basically the ones geared toward lazy people lol. Informative. Have new shopping list!

 

- Checked out the morning movement drill

In practice, was basically like Kate's stuff, with some differences. Neat stuff. My Texan feet froze numb in the morning dew, and getting my socks back on was pretty challenging.

 

- Went to the waterfall

Took a while to coordinate this one with the SO, but we finally hiked up there the last day. We were already hiking halfway every day because we were in the furthest up bunks up the hill. OF COURSE we accidentally took the wrong trail, which basically went Straight Up, past some place that looked off limits (but not IN, or we would have turned back, of course), then finally dead ends where a tree cuts off the rest of the path. We figured it was probably the wrong trail halfway up, because everyone said how easy it was, and if people are apt to complain about just the hike to the Misty Mountains bunks, they probably would not classify the trail we took up as easy after that. So we just found our way down back to the easy path, which there wasn't much left of before the waterfall, which was PRETTY COOL. Literally. I mean, it was hot out, and the breeze off the water and rock was refreshing and awesome.

 

PICTURE (thanks again @miss_marissa!)

 

I complained the whole way up the trunk, because I'm an asshole. But there we are in our Tyrus greens!

 

- Played trivia

Second place, ordered by dense ranking! (We tied for #2 with some other team that I fail to remember now.) I HELPED and was not totally at a loss for nerdy knowledge.

 

- Went to the parties

The toughest part for me, socializing. Managed a decent amount, met some new people. Limited self to 2 cups of red wine a night.

 

So, day 2 I was reasonably sore from All The Squats. Between Jim's Snatch class, Jen's Squat class, then Jim's Clean class, I did so many squats. Aside from that though, no real DOMS. Day 3 I was fine, and today I'm fine because I only really did the hike and kettlebells Day 3 for activity. Plus I ate all the food. And passed 10k steps every single day.

 

And this next part was a bit hard to talk about...

I haven't really had to tangle much with the ole social anxiety dragon in years now. I had a stint in 2008/9 where I was pushing all my boundaries in that arena because I had maybe two friends in the world and some opportunities opened up and suddenly I had more friends than an introvert could ever need (yay!). As a result, most of my (real life) social life involves people I've known for 8+ years and no longer feel super anxious around. I had NO IDEA until this weekend how bad it is now, but hooo boy. I don't think I ever managed to talk to anyone enough to escape the "everything I say is stupid, I can't words anymore, what's a good question to ask and why is my brain not helping me think of any, why didn't I think of this joke ten minutes ago/yesterday, oh god now I'm rambling, what the hell did I just say that didn't even make sense, my throat is so tight I hear it in my voice everyone probably hears it" stage. I did climb out of the box enough times to speak to plenty of strangers, at least, but I did feel a strong drive to hide. So, long story short, I learned that I have a lot more negative self-talk than I thought, by far, and I probably need to address that, because negative self-talk doesn't stay in one part of your life, and I probably have more that I don't notice. 

 

Also, my SO is a damned hero. I would have been too intimidated to go alone, most likely. (I can't say for 100% sure, but chances are high I would have passed on this without him.) He had never heard of NerdFitness outside of my random rambling, did NOT really understand what he was getting himself into, and he had a blast. He did miss bread a lot, though.

 

That said, bringing an SO definitely makes it easier to isolate yourself. It was a crutch for me, because I ended up sticking to him like glue. We did our own thing during the day a lot of the time (we have different interests, so we took different classes with only a little overlap), but the rest of the time, we were definitely Bert and Ernie.

 

From the bus picture! Georgia is pretty.

 

Lakeside reading picture! (Later, a camper kayaked by with the floaty green dinosaur you see here in tow. He told me he had named him Steve. Apropos.)

 

Creepin' on rock climbers picture!

 

Annnnd, yeah, that's all the pictures I took. I'm sorry. I know that there will be many (and better) ones published later by the photographer guy who was there!! There should be one of five of us in Star Trek uniforms from Time Travel night... we were an AWAY TEAM. It was on trivia night and it was a shame that I didn't think of that as a team name...

 

Which brings me to things I did not do. These were in part due to time and focusing so much on classes. There's just no way to do everything!

 

Field Day. What a cool thing! Unfortunately, the aforementioned anxiety kicked into high gear when I decided to do some water balloon tossing and I realized I needed some alone time. Wasn't too interested in the obstacle race, but might have done it otherwise. I didn't do much with regard to house quests or pin collecting, and didn't pursue the legendary quest. We did earn some gems doing various other things, so at least we weren't dead weight. (Our house did come in dead last, though.) I did not blob, but never planned to, and I did not rope or rock climb because of money. Keeb did, though. I didn't swim, either, but I'm not really much of a pool-person. 

 

Overall: Pretty cool! If it weren't so darned expensive, I'd consider going again next year, but money is a thing and I like new and varied experiences. Next year it'll be road tripping through national parks (including Yellowstone.) Perhaps again if/when the experience is something very evolved from what it is now.

 

[shaar]

Welcome back to the land of bread and cheese and pork products!!

 

People is definitely a toughie.  I think I lucked out that literally the first three people I ran into upon getting to Camp last year were friends from the forums, and it just kinda snowballed from there.  It can definitely get overwhelming though and the first day I actually spent a lot of time on my own just walking around, taking pictures, and getting adjusted to things.  (And napping.  I napped a lot~)

 

WEREN'T KATE G'S CLASSES GREAT?!?!?! Mobility <333333333

[Sam Ashen]

25 minutes ago, ixaera said:

- Met Forum People!

HI! It was pretty cool to meet folks that I've interacted with here!

I met @Sam Ashen, @miss_marissa, @Haikoo, and @Rurik Harrgath!
y'all are pretty neat!~

 

Hai!  There are a few others from the gang you mentioned.

@Tanktimus the Encourager

He plays a Ranger, but is really a Pally!

 

27 minutes ago, ixaera said:

Took every Kate G class

 

Regretted missing them last year.  Took two of them this year.

 

14 minutes ago, shaar said:

WEREN'T KATE G'S CLASSES GREAT?!?!?! Mobility <333333333

 

Pretty much this.

 

29 minutes ago, ixaera said:

Took 3 Jen classes (Squat, Deadlift, and Kettlebells)

Jen's great! I didn't learn anything new about the squats and deadlifts I already do. This is good, it means I haven't been totally butchering them these past 6 months. I did learn to front squat properly (and got fun new bruises to prove it). Will I use them? Maybe someday. I dunno. Might toss 'em in as accessory at some point when I feel like I have a reason.

 

Front squats transfer.  Paused front squats transfer.

(I don't remember what your back squats look like when you max out.)

 

31 minutes ago, ixaera said:

socializing

 

I get it!  This year I already knew some people.  Last year I just knew a few people from the Forums.

 

18 minutes ago, shaar said:

I think I lucked out that literally the first three people I ran into upon getting to Camp last year were friends from the forums

 

And if I am not mistaken, I was the first!

[shaar]

5 minutes ago, Sam Ashen said:

 

And if I am not mistaken, I was the first!

 

You were actually number two!

 

I walked into my cabin to see @wovercast already there!  INSTA-FRIENDS!

 

Then I found you when I left to wander, we did a pretty good Camp perimeter-walk IIRC!!

[Jonesy]

Thank you for sharing your camp experience! 

[ixaera]

1 hour ago, shaar said:

Welcome back to the land of bread and cheese and pork products!!

 

People is definitely a toughie.  I think I lucked out that literally the first three people I ran into upon getting to Camp last year were friends from the forums, and it just kinda snowballed from there.  It can definitely get overwhelming though and the first day I actually spent a lot of time on my own just walking around, taking pictures, and getting adjusted to things.  (And napping.  I napped a lot~)

 

WEREN'T KATE G'S CLASSES GREAT?!?!?! Mobility <333333333

 

MMM CHEESE (this was the biggest thing I missed, but my first post-camp meal was a bacon cheeseburger at Five Guys XD)

 

embarrassing confession: I was also afraid of forum people, less so people I'd talked to any before, more so people I never had. My brain is a big squiggly glop of gray dumb, sometimes.

 

I immediately bookmarked Kate's site.  Also she's so fun to listen to!

 

1 hour ago, Sam Ashen said:

Front squats transfer.  Paused front squats transfer.

(I don't remember what your back squats look like when you max out.)

 

Oh good to know! I liked them, so variations as an accessory appeal.

 

 

[JustCallMeAmber]

3 hours ago, ixaera said:

I don't think I ever managed to talk to anyone enough to escape the "everything I say is stupid, I can't words anymore, what's a good question to ask and why is my brain not helping me think of any, why didn't I think of this joke ten minutes ago/yesterday, oh god now I'm rambling, what the hell did I just say that didn't even make sense, my throat is so tight I hear it in my voice everyone probably hears it" stage.  

This pretty much sums up my social experience. I'm told that you tend to have to suck at something before you get better at it. That's something I remind myself of when I'm trying my best to melt into the wall I'm standing against lol.

3 hours ago, ixaera said:

I did climb out of the box enough times to speak to plenty of strangers, at least, but I did feel a strong drive to hide. 

I would consider that to be a job well done!

 

Sounds like you had a great time! Your trip for next year sounds pretty awesome too.

 

[Koaladle]

I'm so glad you had a mostly good time, despite the anxiety monster. Also, never complain about climbing a tree trunk to take a picture EVER AGAIN because you two look adorable. 

 

[Urgan]

Socializing is hard, kind of like lifting weights, lol. 

[Rurik Harrgath]

5 hours ago, ixaera said:

So, Camp!

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Tucking it in here, because long. (That's what she said?)

 

I don't know how to organize this, so I'm just going to ramble in a haphazard manner. I hope that's okay.

 

My camp experience was very class-centric. I really wanted to see what was on offer there and did this a lot. Except for the last day, when I took it way easy and read for most of the afternoon. Some by the lake, then later up on the porch when I felt less peopled out.

 

- Met Forum People!

HI! It was pretty cool to meet folks that I've interacted with here!

I met @Sam Ashen, @miss_marissa, @Haikoo, and @Rurik Harrgath!
y'all are pretty neat!~

 

- Took every Kate G class

When I showed up, I was just kinda planning on these as filler, they looked interesting but weren't a priority by any means. I took one as my second class the first day and decided that I had to go to them all, and am now adjusting my approach to my mobility challenge to reflect what I learned there, to see how it works for me. Data is good.

 

- Took 3 Jen classes (Squat, Deadlift, and Kettlebells)

Jen's great! I didn't learn anything new about the squats and deadlifts I already do. This is good, it means I haven't been totally butchering them these past 6 months. I did learn to front squat properly (and got fun new bruises to prove it). Will I use them? Maybe someday. I dunno. Might toss 'em in as accessory at some point when I feel like I have a reason. When in doubt, more squats, right? Did not ever figure out the Jefferson DL. I worked with a wizard for a bit on it, and I stumped him, too. Unfortunately, it was at the end of class, which ran a bit long, and they needed to set up for the PL comp after, definitely did not want to get in the way of all that, so if I ever want to use those I'll have to figure that out via videos and such. 

 

I also discovered I'm not a big fan of the kettlebells beyond swings. Which is good, because the only kettlebells I have are probably only good for deadlifts and swings anyway. No new money to spend, yay!

 

- Took Jim's Snatch (he didn't need it) and Clean classes

Ok this was fun. While I doubt I'll incorporate either into my workout anytime soon, if ever (maybe the clean, someday, if I feel like it), I had a good time learning, and it was something new to expose myself to. Jim's a really awesome teacher who is great at breaking down complicated technical movements for the coordination-impaired, like me.

 

- Took 2 of the Nom Nom Paleo classes

Michelle is the cutest person on the planet. In real life, she's basically the same as her merch doll. I took the Instant Pot class because I've been eyeballing one for ages now (seriously, payday I'm finally pulling that trigger), and the Kitchen Essentials class. Basically the ones geared toward lazy people lol. Informative. Have new shopping list!

 

- Checked out the morning movement drill

In practice, was basically like Kate's stuff, with some differences. Neat stuff. My Texan feet froze numb in the morning dew, and getting my socks back on was pretty challenging.

 

- Went to the waterfall

Took a while to coordinate this one with the SO, but we finally hiked up there the last day. We were already hiking halfway every day because we were in the furthest up bunks up the hill. OF COURSE we accidentally took the wrong trail, which basically went Straight Up, past some place that looked off limits (but not IN, or we would have turned back, of course), then finally dead ends where a tree cuts off the rest of the path. We figured it was probably the wrong trail halfway up, because everyone said how easy it was, and if people are apt to complain about just the hike to the Misty Mountains bunks, they probably would not classify the trail we took up as easy after that. So we just found our way down back to the easy path, which there wasn't much left of before the waterfall, which was PRETTY COOL. Literally. I mean, it was hot out, and the breeze off the water and rock was refreshing and awesome.

 

PICTURE (thanks again @miss_marissa!)

 

I complained the whole way up the trunk, because I'm an asshole. But there we are in our Tyrus greens!

 

- Played trivia

Second place, ordered by dense ranking! (We tied for #2 with some other team that I fail to remember now.) I HELPED and was not totally at a loss for nerdy knowledge.

 

- Went to the parties

The toughest part for me, socializing. Managed a decent amount, met some new people. Limited self to 2 cups of red wine a night.

 

So, day 2 I was reasonably sore from All The Squats. Between Jim's Snatch class, Jen's Squat class, then Jim's Clean class, I did so many squats. Aside from that though, no real DOMS. Day 3 I was fine, and today I'm fine because I only really did the hike and kettlebells Day 3 for activity. Plus I ate all the food. And passed 10k steps every single day.

 

And this next part was a bit hard to talk about...

I haven't really had to tangle much with the ole social anxiety dragon in years now. I had a stint in 2008/9 where I was pushing all my boundaries in that arena because I had maybe two friends in the world and some opportunities opened up and suddenly I had more friends than an introvert could ever need (yay!). As a result, most of my (real life) social life involves people I've known for 8+ years and no longer feel super anxious around. I had NO IDEA until this weekend how bad it is now, but hooo boy. I don't think I ever managed to talk to anyone enough to escape the "everything I say is stupid, I can't words anymore, what's a good question to ask and why is my brain not helping me think of any, why didn't I think of this joke ten minutes ago/yesterday, oh god now I'm rambling, what the hell did I just say that didn't even make sense, my throat is so tight I hear it in my voice everyone probably hears it" stage. I did climb out of the box enough times to speak to plenty of strangers, at least, but I did feel a strong drive to hide. So, long story short, I learned that I have a lot more negative self-talk than I thought, by far, and I probably need to address that, because negative self-talk doesn't stay in one part of your life, and I probably have more that I don't notice. 

 

Also, my SO is a damned hero. I would have been too intimidated to go alone, most likely. (I can't say for 100% sure, but chances are high I would have passed on this without him.) He had never heard of NerdFitness outside of my random rambling, did NOT really understand what he was getting himself into, and he had a blast. He did miss bread a lot, though.

 

That said, bringing an SO definitely makes it easier to isolate yourself. It was a crutch for me, because I ended up sticking to him like glue. We did our own thing during the day a lot of the time (we have different interests, so we took different classes with only a little overlap), but the rest of the time, we were definitely Bert and Ernie.

 

From the bus picture! Georgia is pretty.

 

Lakeside reading picture! (Later, a camper kayaked by with the floaty green dinosaur you see here in tow. He told me he had named him Steve. Apropos.)

 

Creepin' on rock climbers picture!

 

Annnnd, yeah, that's all the pictures I took. I'm sorry. I know that there will be many (and better) ones published later by the photographer guy who was there!! There should be one of five of us in Star Trek uniforms from Time Travel night... we were an AWAY TEAM. It was on trivia night and it was a shame that I didn't think of that as a team name...

 

Which brings me to things I did not do. These were in part due to time and focusing so much on classes. There's just no way to do everything!

 

Field Day. What a cool thing! Unfortunately, the aforementioned anxiety kicked into high gear when I decided to do some water balloon tossing and I realized I needed some alone time. Wasn't too interested in the obstacle race, but might have done it otherwise. I didn't do much with regard to house quests or pin collecting, and didn't pursue the legendary quest. We did earn some gems doing various other things, so at least we weren't dead weight. (Our house did come in dead last, though.) I did not blob, but never planned to, and I did not rope or rock climb because of money. Keeb did, though. I didn't swim, either, but I'm not really much of a pool-person. 

 

Overall: Pretty cool! If it weren't so darned expensive, I'd consider going again next year, but money is a thing and I like new and varied experiences. Next year it'll be road tripping through national parks (including Yellowstone.) Perhaps again if/when the experience is something very evolved from what it is now.

 

 

It was awesome to meet you!  We were super lucky to track down so many awesome forum-goers last week! 

 

5 hours ago, shaar said:

Welcome back to the land of bread and cheese and pork products!!

 

SO MUCH OF THIS.  I've been binging on sugar and energy drinks since the airport yesterday! 

[Man-At-Arms]

Awesome recap of camp!  I'm jealous!

[Suzaqu]

People are stressful, I'm there with you, but I'm so glad you had fun! I'm intrigued by this Kate G, would you mind sharing her website? I want to see all this cool new mobility stuff!

[Sam Ashen]

6 minutes ago, Suzaqu said:

People are stressful, I'm there with you, but I'm so glad you had fun! I'm intrigued by this Kate G, would you mind sharing her website? I want to see all this cool new mobility stuff!

 

Here.  Fit for Real Life.