No worries my approach is read all the fine details about optimisation for advanced lifters and then fail to even put the basics in place because I'm too sick to even show up consistently, let alone do any sort of effective volume. 

Oh goodness I did not mean to fall off the face of the earth like that! Cancun was AMAZING, and gave me much needed space and perspective. I spent the last night there on the beach with the full moon and it was just what the universe ordered. ❤️ More on the peace and mindset I came to below in "conversations with D" (I'm going to trademark that! LOL) When I returned we went to pick up D's truck from the dealership where it was getting some work done, then went and got the camper, nice to have that bill eliminated! Friday was our camping trip with a great group of women. Things went very well after we had a talk after arriving Friday evening and I told her a few things about herself.  She's been under the impression that I still want a relationship with her and that's why we've been sleeping apart according to her, so as not to give me 'hope'. This conversation came up because she was planning on sleeping in the extra bunk while on the camping trip which is just silly...I informed her that she didn't need to worry about that a bit, I didn't care if she did suddenly have a change of heart and begged me to get back together, I didn't want her back. I told her that I have no issues living as friends and companions for the rest of our lives if that's how it turns out but we are NEVER getting back together, (cue Taylor!) because I'm not going through this shit again. If you refuse to get over events of 5 years ago and completely disregard what led to it, it's not gonna happen! I'm focused on remembering what it is to do for me and maybe be a bit selfish as well, as much as I'm able to be anyway. That seemed to also be ordered by the universe because things calmed after that and we had an enjoyable time, and the uncomfortable feeling that was lingering was gone even after we returned home. So this week, was supposed to include a ride to TN for a women's motorcycle rally, which we are not going to because of a certain storm headed our way  the event is still going on but we're not riding in those conditions!! I took Wed - Fri off and decided to keep them and catch up on some things and just relax a bit. One of those items is catching up on the forums!    

Since I tend to ignore all sensible advice anyway I won't read them at this point in time. 😄 My personal strategy is completely inverting the training pyramid and focus entirely on the fun specialized things and ignore the basics like eating sensibly. 🙄 I'm sure it will change one day.

Time to resurrect this thread and stop pretending it doesn't exist. 🙃   I feel better, kind of. The nightmares have stopped, the weather's improved. I do suffer from a certain pointlessness of my existence and lack of motivation, but my mood and energy are... fine. It's weird.   - Still playing the ninja dancing roguelike, but the claws of addiction have released me. Or maybe it's become less fun at the harder difficulties - it's now quite unforgiving and I don't seem to have the capacity to focus for that long... It annoys me.   - I'm embarrassingly only 4 pages into my sketchbook. Hey better than zero?   - Handstands are plodding along, with frustratingly slow progress, as is the wont of handstands. 😛 I wish they weren't so incredibly inconsistent. I'm trying to understand if I fail because of lack of endurance or lack of concentration but it's all a confusing mess. I'm trying to get rid of some bad habits to reduce the variables, and sometimes I think it's helping?   - I sat down yesterday and made myself a schedule. I know, craziness! My track record of following schedules ranges from instantly forgetting it to rage quitting, but I need to do something to get my time under control. I struggle for hours with getting started and then the whole day's somehow gone. Since I feel similarly blah about starting anything maybe a schedule will work this time? And if not maybe it will at least tell me something about how long everything takes.

Poetry is a bit like enjoying paintings in that everyone gets something different from the same piece. No two people will read the poem in quite the same way.  so theres no wrong way of doing it. Everyone has different taste and opinions and they're all equally valid. Everyone comes at a piece from their own perspective and life experiences, so will experience it differently.  personally short stories are not my cup of tea. They are just the wrong length for me to enjoy.

As expected, this past weekend I made it to Rivendell!   Doing no more intentional walking besides my daily stride to and from work, it took me little less than 5 months to cover the distance those fithy hobbitses did in a mere 27 days. Although admittedly, they had little else to do each day besides march forward, and some of that distance was done on ponies.   I've caught up on my LotR audiobooks too, just finished the merry making aspect of the Rivendell stay. Next up is the council of Elrond, where so many memes were born

If you want a more comprehensive guide with no sexually depraved jokes, the scientific principles of strength training and scientific principles of hypertrophy are the two books they put out. Very good.

Alas.   Lol I'm not so easily shocked but thanks for the warning. 😄

Sounds amazing!