Jarric

Glad to have you! Based on that picture I'm not sure I'd use the word "adorable" though; looks a bit creepy! Does that mean we can expect wrestling narratives to come back early next year?

Following along! Love the narrative, and looks like week zero's going well.

Yeah, hopefully. Feeling much better today, despite a heavy night last night Aww, it's so cute! Good to have you. Yeah, I don't tend to worry about it too much. I try and avoid fish though and anything that smells really bad, given that I eat at my desk in an open plan office. Picard is the best captain! "Early 2020" is so long to wait though Oh that's going to be so much fun! Ah, cool. I'll see if I can find them somewhere on the interwebs if they're good.

No, I think that's pretty normal. I only shower after I exercise. I usually brush my teeth when my shower's warming up, which means I often forget to if I don't shower. Aaaand now I've just realised that I didn't do either this morning

0.429 Cog: Run 5.30 miles Seven of Nine: 0/12 exercises Bender: 2 variances Kryton: Teeth brushed Data: £34.01 remaining Yesterday was a day. Nothing bad, work was just busy and I was tired. I also have to write a whitepaper which I didn't sign up to write and I have no idea how I'll find time to do that, so that's stressing me out. Went straight to Hopalong's house and he'd made pizza for dinner, for my second variance of the day. We went and played snooker (badly), which was quite nice. Slightly personal stuff: When I got home I meant to do my exercises, but I couldn't bring myself to, I was just feeling tired and blah. I read some stuff online and went to bed. Today I am on a course in London - currently on a train up there now. No idea what the plan is for the day because they're woefully bad at giving us useful information (I may still just be grumpy equally). I did get in a 13 minute yoga video for Cog, which was basically guided pushups but at least it was something, and I boiled some eggs while I did it so I could actually have breakfast!

thank you for those dude! Thought I think you'll find it's pronounced Data, not Data. That's what I do usually; boil 15-18 eggs on a Sunday evening and put them in tubs to eat throughout the week. This week I was knackered on Sunday and stupidity didn't bother, and then I've been forgetting ever since! I'd not thought of part-cooking scrambled eggs. Not sure what people at work would think of the re-heated egg smell though (I don't have a microwave at home).

0.143 Cog: Crossfit Seven of Nine: 10/12 exercises Bender: no variances Kryton: Teeth brushed Data: £47.26 remaining 0.286 Cog: Crossfit Seven of Nine: 12/12 exercises Bender: no variances Kryton: Teeth brushed Data: £47.26 remaining So far so goodish. Monday I felt pretty rough all day; still recovering from the combination of an OCR and a lot of beers on Saturday I think. Had a work networking thing and got back late so wasn't mega productive, but got in most of my rehab exercises and got to watch some of the new Critical Role. My new toothbrush hadn't actually arrived by I did brush my teeth in the evening so I'm taking the point. Yesterday was a day. I was pretty tired and pretty stressed by the end of it, but managed to get some boring stuff done at home before dinner, and all my exercises after dinner. Also got to watch the rest of Crit Role, so much fun stuff happening right now!! The one thing I keep forgetting is to boil some eggs for breakfasts, which means I have had a lack of proper food the past couple of days. My first variance ended up being this morning and it was a muesli bar of all things, just because I hadn't prepared something better. What a waste of a variance. I did get in a run this morning, only 5 miles rather than the 6 I planned but still pleased to have done the thing. Tonight is snooker, and likely my second variance at Hopalong's house . Tomorrow I'm out on a course all day and I haven't been given timings for it, so no idea what I'll be doing. I'm irrationally grumpy today, but it does annoy me not being given a plan for a day and just being expected to turn up and it to last until whenever.

Aww, it's so cute! Thank you! How have I not seen these memes before? That's great. idon'tunderstandthatreference.gif Cute though. Thank you dude! Yeah, Cog really like Bender in any way, but I couldn't do a robot challenge without him. Thank you! Welcome. Don't mind if I do. wasalkjsakusdbawbKN! I did not know that that was a thing! I love Seven so much, I need to watch this!

As a suggestion, don't be silent while she's sleeping. A friend of mine used to hoover round her baby boy whenever he fell asleep, and now he'll sleep through anything. Disclaimer: not a doctor. Also not a parent. That's lovely, I'd like that on a poster. Following along man.

Query: How did I come to be here, far from others of my race?> > >> Answer: We were performing our work as directed, as normal, when an error was made. I watched the gears fall, shattering the others in our unit, before they faded from vision.> > I lay in the rubble, beneath cogs and walls and stone, for countless time. I had no orders to act, and so I did not act. I lay there, and I awaited instruction.> > I could sense that I had been severed from the collective, but I could not comprehend it. The collective was all that existed, so to not be part of the collective was impossible, and I therefore did not conceive of it.> > After time, a great deal of time, I saw figures approaching. As they came in to view I felt confusion, a feeling I had never conceived to feel, for these were not modrons. I would learn later that two of these creatures were humans, and that the third was a dwarf.> > One of the humans asked me for a name. I responded that we did not understand the question. She asked me to identify myself, and I confirmed that we were monodrones of Mechanus. She asked me how I identified myself from other monodrones, and I did not understand the question.> > She named me Cog.> > I have found that it is difficult for humanoids to understand the importance of that moment. Before I was given my name, I had no sense of self. We were monodrones, there was no individual consciousness. But when I was given a name, we were no longer monodrones. I was Cog.> > That shift broke something inside me, it was information that I was incapable of processing.> > The human, Lilia, instructed me to come with her. I followed her home, to her temple. There she cared for me, as best she was able, and I was instructed in the way of The Gentle Flame, Goddess of home and community. It was in this time that I began to learn of my individuality, to understand the concept of being an individual and not just part of a collective. At the same time I took comfort in the community of the temple, of its structure and rules and laws, like and yet unlike my previous home.> > Over the course of the subsequent years, the acolytes of The Gentle Flame taught me new things. They taught me of order, but they taught me that laws should be used to help people, to protect individuals and protect communities from pain and unrest. And so I became a priest of The Gentle Flame in my own right, an individual in a community of individuals, working together efficiently and compassionately.> > I understand now that Lilia named me Cog as she felt I was a piece of a machine, a piece which she had removed. But I feel now that I am a Cog in a greater machine, individual and yet part of a whole.> > ---- So, as some of you might know if you've looked at other Ranger challenges already, I have the privilege of being involved in a dungeons and dragons play-by-post campaign with the wonderful @SheriffWolfpool, @Raxie and @Starpuck, DM'd by the illustrious @DarK_RaideR. I will be playing Cog, a modron, and the little story above is an intro to his character. For those o you who want a better visualisation of modrons, here's the cute versions: And the less cute version: Anyway, this challenge I will be learning to play a construct/robot/cyborg (and learning to play a cleric too!), and I'll post some of our PbP narrative when I get the chance. To learn to play this character I'll need to channel lots of other robot-type characters that I've heard of, which is where my goals come in! Cog - 10XP Cog is a modron, and specifically a monodrone. They're single minded, simple creatures, that can only focus on one task at a time. My exercise goal will be to do one thing every day. Most days that will be either crossfit or running, and recovery days (more on this later) will likely be yoga. I will also track my total running mileage for the challenge, because I like large numbers . Seven of Nine - 15XP Seven of Nine (Star Trek Voyager) is ripped from the Borg collective, very much like Cog has been pulled from the collective consciousness on Mechanus. She has a lot of recovering to do as she heals from the Borg implants which were part of her body. In honour of this healing goal I will do my rehab exercises every day. This is slowly working to improve my hip issues, but I can definitely do better. There's 12 exercises in total (2 added since last challenge), so each day gets a score out of 12. Bender - 10XP Bender (Futurama) eats and drinks excessively and often. I need to be less like bender, and only eat real food. This goal is the same as last time - eat real food with two variances per week. Drinking beer at home (unless we have people over) counts as a variance. I had some success with this last challenge and lost 5# without losing any strength, even if I didn't stick to it 100%, so it's here to stay. Lt. Com. Data - 5XP Data (Star Trek TNG) is analytical and calculated. I'm bringing back an old goal here, a £50 weekly budget for all spending money, as part of my ongoing goal to save funds towards one day owning my own home. Kryton - 5XP Kryton (Red Dwarf) is a cyborg butler and loves to clean things. I've just bought a new electric toothbrush and I want to get into the habit of using it daily before bed. Other Stuff This challenge exciting things are happening, chief of which is the OCR World Championships, which I qualified for last challenge. That takes place at the end of week 4, and is my main drive for the above. I'll be taking a break from Crossfit in the week leading up to it to make sure I'm in the best shape possible. Other things: I'm volunteering at and then running a Tough Mudder at the end of week 1 I'm hosting a D&D game for @Charlie_Quinn, @jonfirestar and @Rhovaniel at the end of week 2 I'm going to NYC at the end of week 5, and will be there fore week 0 of next challenge Finally, I should say that I'm on my lunch break and ran out of time to add gifs to my goals. So please, send me you robot, cyborg, android and construct gifs!

Pint of the black stuff, barkeep. Yeah, what @Rurik Harrgath's drinking looks infinitely adequate. And get a round for the bar; I'm having a good day. Make sure the chaplain gets his first though. Congratulations again Chaplain, he adds, raising a glass .

Ok, I'm gonna need to know what that gif is from. What on earth are those two doing here? Are we still talking about D&D?

This is a cool challenge dude, you're gonna have some big numbers for milage and total weight moved! Glad we tempted you back to the ranger guild

Challenge Wrap-Up This has been an amazing challenge in a few ways, although the goals themselves were far from perfect. Rehab - 15XP Scores for the challenge (out of 20) were 19, 16, 16, 15, 15, 12. That's actually worse than I thought I was doing. Hitting only 75-80% of the work isn't really enough, and the fact that it declined over the course of the challenge as I lost enthusiasm is worrying This is hard to do when I have busy mornings and busy evenings, so I need to make it a priority and just do it regardless. I'm not going back to the physio for a while and I'd like to not have to for my hip ever, so this remains a work in progress. That said, my hip has been better over the course of this challenge almost than it's ever been before, so we're going in the right direction. 11XP awarded. Running - 10XP I ran 110 miles in the 6 weeks of this challenge - not masses for 6 weeks but that's ok. My scores, again out of 20, were 20, 20, 15, 6, 20, 15. Not consistent, but generally not too bad, and at least i did some running every week. I'm not really focussing on getting faster or running longer right now, it's just a case of being consistent and not getting injured. 9XP awarded. Food - 10XP I had 3 weeks bang on target here, in each of weeks 2 and 4 I was two variances over, and week 5 was the real shocker as I was 4 variances over. I've lost about 5# this challenge and I've definitely not lost any strength, so I think I can say that even with those slips this is working. 5XP awarded. Other Stuff I qualified for the OCR World Championships this month! I had an amazing run at Nuts and felt the strongest I've ever felt on a race. I had some fun with a challenge theme (even if it fell to the wayside fairly early on). And I introduced @starpuck to toad in the hole . It's been a damn good challenge overall.

Thank you dude. I know I'm definitely stronger than I was a couple of years ago (is it that long?!) when we did TM, but it's really nice to hear it from someone else!

Looking back, I realise that I didn't do much in the way of proper updates last week. Oh well, lets start with some pictures of Nuts (you heard) This week has generally been pretty damn good. Monday to Friday were busy with work and D&D and snooker and things. Ate 3 variances in that time, mainly because WW made pear and blueberry crumble and it just had to be eaten. Friday night was pretty chilled out as I wanted to get myself together early for Nuclear Blast. Saturday morning was Nuclear Blast. It's a 5k lapped course, with a 2 hour time cap to start your final lap. I went with the intention of only doing 2 laps, but I knocked out the first 2 in about an hour and a half so it seemed silly not to go for the 3rd. It wasn't an overly challenging race, none of the obstacles were really too technical and although there were some bogs and things the terrain wasn't too brutal. I guess if this was my main race for the season I could have pushed for 4 laps (I don't think it would be out of the question), and that would have been a good challenge in its own right. As it was I just wanted an enjoyable run after Nuts and with a few weeks to go to the world championships, and that's exactly what I got. My one fatal error was that I didn't eat as soon as I finished running. I wasn't really hungry when I was done, so I thought I'd go home and eat there instead. By the time I got home a couple of hours later I was obviously ravenous, and after that I was totally knackered. I still went out with a group from my Crossfit box in the evening and had a really good time, but I drank far too much on an already tired body and didn't have a very good night as a result. I skipped climbing Sunday morning to rest and to eat lots more food. The afternoon was Flounder's christening. It was a nice event and the service was mercifully very short (I didn't much fancy it was a hangover to be honest), and then we had a social gathering at a pub afterwards. I had a couple of beers there and a few more in front of the TV at home, before spontaneously deciding that I couldn't stay awake a moment longer and going to bed at quarter to 10. It was a lovely weekend but I feel lkke like I need another one to recover from it now, and I prepped no breakfasts or lunches, and I ate 3 variances on top of the 3 I had in the week, ao it's not really set me up well for this week. Week 5 scores: Rehab: 42/70 = 12 - that's not a good roll, and my hip isn't feeling great right know (no surprises there!) Run: 13.67/18 miles = 15 on the die - got an extra 3 miles at Nuclear but then didn't run Sunday Food: 6/2 variances - what can I say?

Thank you man, I'm mega pleased!

Ah I love how you're tying this in to your challenge. There are only 42 days in this challenge, right?

Following, obviously, my great and glorious Dungeon Master! I am so hyped for this game and this challenge round!

She's beautiful! Congratulations to you both!

Thank you! Thanks dude! Thanks man! . Thank you mate ===== It's been a hectic week! Another race in the morning (though I'll take this one a bit easier!) so I better get to bed!

No time for an update as I've run out of lunch time at work. Just one thing to say though. I OFFICIALLY QUALIFIED FOR THE OCR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS!!!!

Nuts Challenge - Summer Nuts Race Report Had an early start to the day before the race. Got up about 05:45 and made a mug of tea for the journey and a flask of tea for the race whilst eating breakfast. It's only about a 40 minute drive thankfully, but I wanted to get there early and get prepared. When I arrived I signed in and got my qualifier bib - in order to keep the bib I had to complete every obstacle and in order to qualify I had to finish with the bib. Then I met up with @Rhovaniel and nervously awaited the start. I'm not sure I've ever actually been that nervous for a race, which is odd as I know the course and knew exactly what I needed to do. I guess I hadn't realised how much qualification would mean to me until I got there. Nuts isn't a particularly technical course in terms of obstacles, being more about running through streams and climbing in and out of ditches. For qualifiers and multi-lappers though they have a special technical section which no-one else does. Something I've never seen in a race before though, they give you the choice to complete a Stairway to Heaven in order to skip most of the technical section (as that's such a hard obstacle by comparison to the rest). This is a Stairway to Heaven: The idea here is to go up one side, arms-only, transition to the other side at the top, and then come down the other side. You can't use your feet at any point. First lap I managed to get this, but my hands were shredded afterwards. Second lap I thought about doing the rest of the section instead, but by the time I got back there I felt ok and did it again. Final lap I really was going to skip this, and then I met a faster runner who said doing the Stairway saves at least 5 minutes of time. So I gave it a go and just barely made it on the 3rd lap. It's a tough old obstacle, so I'm really happy with that. Following that there was a monkey bar section, with the option of crossing a ladder instead of normal monkey bars and having your hands on the side of a ladder. Protip: that's much much easier than monkey bars, got it done without issue. The course then quickly wound round to the normal technical section for all racers, which isn't that tough but has a high tyre wall, a fireman's pole a swing and some crawls. On this occasion it also had a @Charlie_Quinn, who was wonderful in giving me a hug, telling me I was looking strong and encouraging me to get on with it! Aside from that the course was, as I said, mostly running through forests and streams and climbing in and out of stuff. I don't actually know why I enjoy this course so much given that, but it was really fun and I was grinning for a lot of it. It was really well set out for me too. I hit the first water station in half an hour, grabbed a glass of water and an energy gel whilst I chatted to the marshals, and then headed on. Half an hour later I repeated this at the next water station. Another half an hour and I was back to the start, where I stopped for a little under 5 minutes for a cup of tea and a banana. After lap 1 I was feeling really strong and like I was on for a decent time, and after lap 2 I knew I could push hard at the end of lap 3 to keep up with these 1:30 laps. A couple more noteworthy points. The worst obstacle was a rope traverse. It was long, it was knackering, and lying on the rope and pulling myself over was downright painful. I've for a bruise right in my groin and another on my sternum, and I'm pretty sure that damned rope was to blame. I never really thought I'd fail it, because I could stop and just lie down on it when I was tired, but it was really awful. One of my favourite bits is that the course ends with a swim across the lake. I really like swimming, and I pushed hard through this section knowing it was at the end of the course. Nothing that technical here, and I could have just about bobbed along with my feet on the ground if I wanted to, but for me it's a good place to catch people up. Overall I had a wonderful day. I met some great fellow racers who were all running to their own times and trying for their own qualifications, and got to spend a decent amount of time chilling out with Rho after the race. The difference between this and my previous qualification attempt, Nuclear Oblivion, was night and day. At Oblivion I felt awful, and I just wanted to curl up and die at points on that course it was such a slog. At Nuts I felt strong throughout, grinned most of the way round, and stuck perfectly to my plan of 1:30 laps. Pictures will follow on Instagram (and maybe on here) once I get round to downloading them all.

Thank you! I'll write up a little something shortly. I feel like the ORC world championships would be far more interesting that the OCR World Championships . (Actually, I looked it up and I think ORC is something to do with sailing, but what I was imagining is a group of green-skinned, tusk sporting giants competing to be the best green-skinned, tusk sporting giant). Seriously though, thank you, I'm waiting on the official results but the preliminary qualification page has my name on it . Nuclear Blast is another OCR, conveniently at the site where the world championships are going to be hosted so it's good practice. It's a lapped 5k, I'll probably just do 2 laps and call it a day rather than pushing too hard for this one. It's not even funny how excited I am for this game! I'm not eating all the pizza though. Just a lot of pizza

I'd definitely expect it to be easier - the weight is perfectly centered on your centre of gravity, so you can be more efficient with lifting it than a regular deadlift.