Starpuck : A New Hope

[starpuck]

 

 

Moment of honesty here; Starpuck is starting to falter.    The Dark Side whispers temptations into my mind and they are growing harder and harder to resist.    I'm just starting to feel like nothing works and when nothing works, hope is lost and motivation falls with it.    I don't want that to be the case, so I must double my efforts.    I need to SEEK these changes and have trust in the Force that it will come together.    This challenge will be a lot of the same as last, though with a few tweaks.

 

Bring Balance to the Force- Food.

1A) Eat as clean as possible, limit splurges, don't have frak it moments.

1B) Veggies and fruits - 3x / day.

1C) Debating yet on if I want to track or not.   On one side, data is good - on the other side, with motivation at its low, maybe I should save it for some of the other tasks.

 

 

 

Knowledge- the life of a Jedi should be one of constant learning, constant self-improvement.

Mental/Spiritual Improvement

2A)  Every morning, read a chapter.

2B)  Every morning, write affirmation. 

2C)  Art - 3x/week + more frequent quick sketches.

2D)  One night a week, set uninterrupted time aside to read book for 30 minutes.

 

 

 

Physical Improvement

3A)  Lift 2-3x / week.

3B)  Sweat (without lifting) 2-3x / week.

3C)  Yoga 1x / week

 

 

I seriously have the biggest crush on this ^ Obi-wan.   I love him.  I want to marry him.   And I think he was a really good Jedi.    I have heard people debate and theorize on who was the stronger Jedi at the time of Revenge of the Sith.  Obi-wan or Anakin.    At the end of the short commentary this person put up, they said something that has stuck with me ever since.   Anakin was more powerful naturally in the force, Obi-wan had to apply himself more and work harder- and due to that, he was able to defeat Anakin on Mustafar.   I really want to emulate Obi-wan's commitment and perseverance.  In NF terms, simply put:  Obi-wan had to play on Hard Mode and he ended up kicking ass.   I want to be like Obi-wan.

 

There are a few other things I need to jot down here tomorrow (I have the day off) and I am officially starting this challenge on Monday because Monday's just work better for me.   I also had a pretty hectic weekend of wakes, funerals, hockey games, birthday parties and then a dumping of 6" of snow to contend with today.    But.    Here's the challenge folks.   Wish me luck.

 

[Red1263]

Do or do not, there is no tr-- errr I mean no luck

sent from my phone whilst exploring new dungeons

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

I am glad to see you continuing to read the thingy and write the thingy. Now I challenge you to think the thingy. After you read and write, spend 5 minutes, just five in meditative prayer. You define what that means.

 

I'll be following along again.

Obi-Wan may very well be my favorite Jedi, especially the Ewan MacGregor Version.

[SevenFootGeek]

Hello, my love.

 

Though I whisper temptations of the Dark Side to you, it is because of the strength I see in you.

 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

1 minute ago, SevenFootGeek said:

Hello, my love.

 

Though I whisper temptations of the Dark Side to you, it is because of the strength I see in you.

 

Back, you will go. In the light side, Strong Starpuck is. To your darkness, fall she will not.

[joedog]

Hi friend! I'm glad to be back and following along with you this challenge.

Sent from my SM-G935R4 using Tapatalk

[obax]

Following along again!

[Jarric]

Love the challenge, great balance of goals. You've totally got this.

[starpuck]

15 hours ago, Red1263 said:

Do or do not, there is no tr-- errr I mean no luck

Hahaha, nice!  I love the catch there.   Thanks Red!!!

 

15 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

I am glad to see you continuing to read the thingy and write the thingy. Now I challenge you to think the thingy. After you read and write, spend 5 minutes, just five in meditative prayer. You define what that means.

 

I'll be following along again.

Obi-Wan may very well be my favorite Jedi, especially the Ewan MacGregor Version.

So, just so you know, I did the new thing.  It was HARD.   I guess I am so much of a go go go person, who usually juggles so many things at a time... that sitting still, in quiet, for 5 minutes, was actually challenging.   But I did it.   I am opting for read the thingy, meditate the thing, write the thing.  This way I can put down newly born thoughts into the writing thing.    And omg yes.  Ewan MacGregor one.  <3  /dreamy sigh.    I feel very much like The Clone Wars caught the same sort of charm and cleverness.

 

15 hours ago, SevenFootGeek said:

Hello, my love.

 

Though I whisper temptations of the Dark Side to you, it is because of the strength I see in you.

 

Hehehe.  I see.  Thanks for being here 7FG.    I've missed you!  

 

15 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Back, you will go. In the light side, Strong Starpuck is. To your darkness, fall she will not.

Hahaha, awesome!   Thanks Yodimus!

 

12 hours ago, joedog said:

Hi friend! I'm glad to be back and following along with you this challenge.

Sent from my SM-G935R4 using Tapatalk

 

11 hours ago, obax said:

Following along again!

 

7 hours ago, Jarric said:

Love the challenge, great balance of goals. You've totally got this.

Thanks for the follows guys!  It's so great to have your cheering section at the ready.   I've tagged in to all of yours as well!  We gonna rock dis!!

 

Day 1 here, and it's a much needed day off.   I got some of the stuff done for the challenge already, and I wrote myself a list of what to do in order so I don't get distracted and pull a lazy day.    I wanted to try and get my 10k steps in, but I'm not sure that's gonna happen.  It's snow covered out there and slippery icy.    And I don't have any dance games set up upstairs (and the basement flooded again so it's a mess).   I do have some yoga on tap for today.  That and lots of getting Stuff Done.    I shall tally up my progress at the end of the day all!  

 

Have a great DAY ONE!!

(or two for you peeps that adopted this new Sunday start fandango)

[Oramac]

17 hours ago, SevenFootGeek said:

Hello, my love.

 

Though I whisper temptations of the Dark Side to you, it is because of the strength I see in you.

 

 

Yup.  Right there.   

 

Following, of course! I gotta say, Ewan's Obi-Wan is one of the very few redeeming qualities of the prequels.  Good choice.  

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

4 hours ago, Starpuck said:

So, just so you know, I did the new thing.  It was HARD.   I guess I am so much of a go go go person, who usually juggles so many things at a time... that sitting still, in quiet, for 5 minutes, was actually challenging.   But I did it.   I am opting for read the thingy, meditate the thing, write the thing.  This way I can put down newly born thoughts into the writing thing.    And omg yes.  Ewan MacGregor one.  <3  /dreamy sigh.    I feel very much like The Clone Wars caught the same sort of charm and cleverness.

Good for you. The Go GO GO part of you is exactly why I suggested the meditative prayer.

 

2 hours ago, Oramac said:

Following, of course! I gotta say, Ewan's Obi-Wan is one of the very few redeeming qualities of the prequels.

My highest scoring reddit comment is from saying almost exactly this.

[starpuck]

• Clean Eats  --
• Veggies  ✓
• Tracked  ✓

Read Thing ✓

Meditate Thing ✓

Write Thing  ✓

Art  ✓

30 Minutes Read  --

• Lift  --
• Sweat --
• Yoga  ✓

 

So guys, this is pretty sad, right?  (Perhaps needed, but sad.)   I have not even taken 2000 steps today!    Ugh.  

 

I did however;  pay bills, finish my most recent art thing that I started in Florida, update and check in on NF, get the padawan on SWTOR greeted and trained, did Yoga (Water A, first time in a YEAR, omg, I was stiff and tight) and the other things that are on my daily check list.      I think I just really needed a super do nothing day.  And I got up and did Yoga despite this, so that's still kind of big.

 

I am tracking my food today.   I did not eat the healthiest of things- I ate the easiest of things.  There was a leftover burrito, but I had just one.   Bro'n'law offered Taco Bell (and I didn't have to leave the house) for lunch, so I had 2 Fresco Tacos.    I had some pineapple as a morning snack, and an apple as an afternoon snack.   So calorie and portion wise, I am fine.   It's just all crap food.  Dinner is some homemade turkey chili.   I'll have to see about how to get the last fruit/veggie in.   Chili is not known for veggies.

 

Art:   This is my SWTOR Knight, Cassienne Theis and her bestest buddy from growing up as padawans together, Atreiu.   Had it been an easier background to try and do, I'd have given my own a shot... but this is supposed to be on a city/cosmo planet, so... stealing backgrounds!

 

 

 

[Oramac]

14 hours ago, Starpuck said:

• Chili is not known for veggies.

 

It's made with onions and peppers and garlic and stuff.  Which kinda sorta counts as veggies.  I think.  Maybe.  

 

Overall, still a good day!  Even if you did eat kinda wonky a bit.  You got a lot of other stuff done.  And sometimes we need those nothing days to recharge.  

 

Also, the art looks amazing as usual! 

[Kishi]

OHAITHERE.

 

I like that you're reading a chapter, writing a thing, and trying to internalize it. It's hard. But it's a good thing to do. Good practice.

 

Also, hey, a day of crap food isn't bad every now and again. A little ominous, sure, given that it's the start, but we're just getting started here. Shake it off!

[Red1263]

Bouncing off Kishi, one day isn't the end of the world. Just dust off (the chili) and do better tomorrow

sent from my phone whilst exploring new dungeons

[starpuck]

FOOD

Clean Eats  --  ✓

Veggies  ✓ ✓

Tracked  ✓ ✓

 

MENTAL

Read Thing ✓ ✓

Meditate Thing ✓ ✓

Write Thing  ✓ ✓

Art  ✓ ✓

30 Minutes Read  --

 

PHYSICAL

Lift  -- --

Sweat --  ✓

Yoga  ✓  1/1 Done!

 

Busy day back at work, but I managed through it.    The morning routine was a bit more panicked today because forcing myself to sit for 5 minutes when the brain is used to rushing to get myself put together and out the door... was trying.   I put myself on the bed, and held the blow dryer to my noggin' while I meditated.   Hopefully that still counts.   And more hopefully... tomorrow I will wake up a bit before my alarm and be less rushed.

 

Lunch break consisted of a run.  Indoor at the track.   I pretty much took a solid week off of ALL exercise, and my only activity on vacation was lots of walking and one run on Thanksgiving.   With that in mind, I expected a terrible outing.  It wasn't!  Track distances are 11.75 laps = 1 mile.

 

Walked 2 laps as a warm up.

Ran 18 laps (1.5 miles)

Walked 2 laps

Ran 12 laps (1 mile)

Walked 2 laps as a cool down.

Total: 3.06  miles

 

I also got a quick sketch in at work, so I can mark down a bit of arting.   Super rough doodle.    It is going to be the scene where one of the Masters taught my newly Knighted Jedi how to use a more advanced form of telekinesis.   They used the lake and the water as their medium for this lesson.

 

 

The rest of the night is some gaming and maybe some anime.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

7 minutes ago, Starpuck said:

The morning routine was a bit more panicked today because forcing myself to sit for 5 minutes when the brain is used to rushing to get myself put together and out the door... was trying.

As with any new skill, it's always really hard at first.

[Luciana Valerosa Culming]

I like your finished art piece, but there is something odd about the hands. At the right hand it's mostly the thumb. You're right a normal finger has three parts, but the thumb is two parts.

 

just a friendly reminder. I'm not good at drawing hands myself. I guess because I haven't been drawing humans for a while mine would be much worse. You still did a nice job.

[mightstone2k]

Obi-Wan reminded me of my dad. I could see him as prequel-OW in his (speculatively) wayward youth, and he was definitely on his way to being Old Ben. Obi-WIN is my favorite Star Wars character, easily.

Oh yeah, found you! This clearly answers my question to you in my battle log.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Oramac]

12 hours ago, Starpuck said:

 

That's really cool!!  I love the water idea.  Very Bruce Lee-ish.  I agree the thumb of the left hand is a bit long, but other than that it looks fantastic so far! 

[starpuck]

Thanks @Luciana Valerosa Culming - when I went back and looked at the big picture, it struck me like a flying carp!  Too many thumb joints!   Good tip.   Thanks.        

 

Something that I've been struggling a bit with my art, is that I'm trying to pull myself away more from copying and push myself more into starting with just using poses and references for basic lines and trying to teach myself the proportions and body angles by trial and error.      I know, I know.  There are tons of art books that will help me with that, but I have a rebellious study habit.   In that, BOOKS SUCK.   I HATE BOOKS.   I HATE READING HOW TO DO STUFF.   I want someone to put a thing in my hand, walk me through it once, then let me learn by doing.  Over and over and over.    So, my progress might be slower this way- but it also avoids the rage that would potentially trigger my quitting.

 

A lot of my stuff early on was, for the most part, almost exact copying of existing stuff, with just tweaking some of the facial features, or hair, or clothing.   Now- like you can see with the water pose, I'm starting with super basic lines (yes pulled from reference) but then changed, altered and molded to try and look right.   So hard!   But I am not going to give up!

 

One thing I use on a lot (and have asked Santa for the hard copy books for Christmas) is this guy's stuff.   Seriously.   This guy is awesome.    And on his FB page, he posts tons of the poses for free because he wants to inspire other artists to keep doing their thing!   But yeah.   That's been my approach.   So right now, as I try to force myself to learn the things, without relying on someone elses finished product to get me what I want... very challenging.

[Oramac]

25 minutes ago, Starpuck said:

One thing I use on a lot (and have asked Santa for the hard copy books for Christmas) is this guy's stuff.   Seriously.   This guy is awesome.    And on his FB page, he posts tons of the poses for free because he wants to inspire other artists to keep doing their thing!   But yeah.   That's been my approach.   So right now, as I try to force myself to learn the things, without relying on someone elses finished product to get me what I want... very challenging.

 

That's some good shit!  I'm sure you can do the no-copy thing.  Visualizing it is probably a big part of that, at least from this layman's completely uninformed perspective.   Either way, keep it up!  You're doing great! 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

1 hour ago, Starpuck said:

it struck me like a flying carp! 

 

[starpuck]

MENTAL

Read Thing  ✓ ✓ ✓

Meditate Thing ✓ ✓ ✓

Write Thing  ✓ ✓ ✓

Art  ✓ ✓ ✓

Read 30m

PHYSICAL

Lift -- -- ✓

Sweat -- ✓ --

Yoga ✓     1/1 Done!

FOOD

Clean Eats  --  ✓ ✓

Veggies  ✓ ✓ ✓

Tracked  ✓ ✓ ✓

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Woo!  That only took me like 35 minutes to get that formatting to work.    Got a hundred bucks says it breaks before the day is over.   Wanted a way to keep my posts shorter.  Er, in actual like, length of page scrolling manner of speaking.   

 

So today is going well.  I was really not feeling the mood to work out at lunch time, but I told myself "afterward you'll feel great" and indeed, I did!    I was also super concerned I'd have lost so much on my gainz due to the Florida trip + Thanksgiving + week of birthday celebrations.   I chose to scale things back a bit because I didn't want to be so concerned with being where I was, that I ended up sore and super miserable and not able to do it again later this week.

 

Workout Details

• Weighted Glute Bridge   3 x 20 x 40#
• TRX/Rings Low Row   3 x 12
• DB Gobtlet Squat 1 x 12 x 20# (being safe) then 2 x 12 x 40#
• Push Ups 10 - 10 - 8   (Was able to keep it at DB height, which is just about straight up regular push ups if you ask me)
• Single Leg KB Deadlift  1 x 8 (each leg) @ 20 / 28 / 30# through the 3 sets.
• Planks  30" regular, then 35" each side
• Pullup Hold/slow negative  44"

 

Also.  I had a dream that I wore a cute skirt with boots and leggings today last night.  So, I figured ... I'm a Jedi in training, perhaps this was the Foresee ability!  Who am I to deny the Force its Will, right?

 

I plan on getting some time in on the art after I get home, either before/after dinner, and before heading on to SWTOR.  I'd also like to watch some more of the new anime series I am checking out, and I need to finish Assassins Creed Syndicate, since I asked for Unity for Christmas lol!

 

Tomorrow is our work Christmas party so food is being catered in.   That also means no workout during my lunch hour, so I'm trying to psych myself up to do some Just Dance on the Wii at my friends house AFTER work, but before D&D.    Speaking of D&D, I think our very clever and intelligent wizard, is starting to think something is up with usually silly and carefree Mira.   She's so bossy and even MORE selfish than usual!   Can't wait!

 

 

 

 

[Oramac]

Way to go!  Cutting back the workout to reestablish a sort of baseline isn't a bad idea after some extended time off.  If nothing else it lets you ramp back up to your previous highs at your own pace.  

 

The formatting is good.  Still haven't taken the time to figure out how to do that for myself.  I need to get on that.  

 

And the boots look great!!  Those would make a really great set of boots for a Sith costume.  Jus sayin!!   

 

Go Mira!  Be fun and bossy and greedy and stuff!