Jarric

Monday - week 1 day 1 Yesterday was a good day. Crossfit first thing was box squats, and I built up to 100kg (220#) x 3, followed by 90kg x 5 and 80kg x 7. Then the workout was, in sub-40 seconds for load, 2 deadballs over the bar and 100ft yoke carry. I managed a 70kg ball and 165kg (363#) on the yoke, both of which are pretty damn heavy as far as I'm concerned! It only took me 32 seconds though, so arguably if I had time to go again I probably should have gone even heavier. Work was busy; got a few competing urgent things going on right now. I arrived to work on time though, and I left on time too as I had planned to go running with a couple of colleagues who'll be going up the mountain with me. That run was good, a nice 6 and a bit miles (10km) over the hills. When I got in I did my French, and then Dutch was done before brushing my teeth and going to bed. French remains fairly easy, Dutch remains tricky. Regardless, all goals were hit for the day. I went over calories by 169 thanks to a 240kcal jam doughnut, meaning that I have 2,197 left in the buffer for the rest of the week. That seems doable.

Yeah, I can see it now. They sound like a lot of fun to play too, very cool indeed.

I was so determined to work on this challenge yesterday that I stayed up late to make myself a sandwich, so I wouldn't have to buy lunch at work today. ...I'm working from home today, there was no need to stay up late ?‍♂️ Still, first day of this challenge (for me) in the bag, and at least I'm conscious of it right now I guess?

Good job on getting out in the rain! I always feel very ranger-y when running against the weather, makes me happy.

I'm afraid that my knowledge of vampire clans is so shaky that I wouldn't have made that connection . Anyway, isn't Vampire a dice pool system? Thank you! Good to have you

Week zero results As you can see from my challenge tracker, things have started well: You can also just about see my quick 'no spend summer' tracker, after I decided to jump on the PVP that @Sovalis set up. I'm skint after booking an appartment in Paris for next year to see the Olympics, so it seemed like a sensible thing to do. I missed getting to work on time on Monday for the chronologist, but managed to sort myself out once I'd bet those dice on it and posted my challenge. All calories tracked for the decisionist. I finished the week at 19,537kcal, against a target of 18,928 (averaging 2,791 per day instead of 2,704), but I still lost 3lbs so the calorie target remains unchanged. I'm now at 175lbs (79.4kg), and target weight at this date was 173.35, so I'm catching up with my playln. Only a couple of weeks before I stop cutting weight and go for maintenance. Shakes and creatine were drunk for the muscle. I feel like this is working, and that I'm leaner despite my weight not changing much. Maybe it's a placebo effect, but I'm not sure that it would be a problem if it is. Both translators were satisfied. I'm at quite an easy section of French Duolingo, so hoping to plow through that nice and quickly. For Dutch I'm struggling a bit with pronunciation, ever since I started trying to ad a rolled r into Dutch words. I'm sure I'll settle back into it after more practice. And finally, teeth have been done consistently for the face. All in all, a good week.

Yeah, it could have gone better for the gargoyles, and your crits with sneak attack were insane! Still thought I might at least kill one of you, but it wasn't to be Yeah, definitely. Thank you, I'm really pleased I managed to stay on track.

Awesome, thank you! Already shown them to WW and I'm planning to make the salad later this week (I'm a big fan of any salad where the first ingredient is bacon )

I have yet to meet a word limit I couldn't grossly exceed. Good week 1 goals Rho, I'm sure you'll smash them!

I like that you have hide days as an option. It's difficult to know when to take a break, but so necessary. Actually, I'm loving the whole rogue theme of this challenge to be fair.

I wasn't planning on doing anything like this, but this challenge has come along at just the right time as I am skint after paying for an appartment in Paris for next year's holiday. Goals are no discretionary spending, specifically: Normal stuff like groceries is fine Exception for buying Baldur's Gate 3, which WW and I plan to spend a lot of time playing as soon as it comes out Exception for planned night out with a friend on Friday 4th August. Exception for going to visit a national trust place on Sunday 6th, as we have a voucher to make it cheap The main things will be not buying food at work - which means making sandwiches if I don't have leftovers to take with me - and not buying beer to bring home or going out for unplanned beers.

Your doodle creatures are so cute! Love them ❤️

So first up, I would like to have your basement gym, please and thank you. I love that you're counting all of your punches, that's really cool! I look forward to seeing a very high number on that tracker. This all sounds incredible - do you have recipes you can share?

Week zero has been a good week! I've been pretty busy and lacking time on lunch breaks, hence my lack of updates here, but I'll try and remember what's happened so far... Monday to Wednesday were fairly normal days. Played Pathfinder Tuesday night and killed our second dragon in as many weeks. This one was a corrupted air dragon (I think) which had turned into a sort of sandstorm creature - we had to kill it with a magic talisman on a sword which had been created from water blessed by Aeries. It went weirdly well for the group (it went very poorly for me; I couldn't roll above a 4 - that might be part of the reason why I'm inspired to get some new dice for Psyche!). Watched Questing Time Wednesday night, so that ended up being quite a late one. Unusually I didn't drink, knowing that I had a potentially boozy couple of days ahead and wanting to conserve my calories for later in the week. I also booked a physio appointment on Wednesday, which I have to wait a couple of weeks for, just to try and make sure I don't injure myself in the run up to Man vs Mountain (or ahead of Beachy Head Marathon in October). On Thursday I had to go into town for a meeting all afternoon. I had planned to then have a couple of beers with the people I was meeting, but that didn't materialise so I went home and had some more of our beer tasting box instead. We also watched a bunch of Lego Masters New Zealand, which I'm really enjoying so far - very similar to the Australian version and definitely better than the American version. Friday was a very busy day. After an hour of working I had to get myself back up to town for a work lunch. I had a great time, ate a load of excellent Indian food, and drank quite a bit of beer. Calories for the day are a complete guess. We left town about half 5, I went home and changed and had a quick oven pizza, and then went back out in the evening for a friend's birthday. More beer, some fizzy pink wine, and a late train home. Yesterday I didn't feel too sharp, but definitely no worse than I deserved. I got up, dropped WW at work, and went out for a 5-mie run. The run actually felt great, it was a beautiful day to run along the sea front and I even accidentally joined a Parkrun for some of it. After that I went climbing, which was very much another story. I felt tired from the off, but I got a solid hour in and topped some decent routes in that time. In the afternoon I mostly vegged out, with a quick break from relaxing to have a nap. I did manage to get time to go to my parents' and put a tracker on Dad's phone so Mum can worry a bit less about him wandering off. In the evening WW made soup, and we relaxed some more. Today I got up and started feverishly preparing for D&D. I had started prep about a week ago, and then not got back to it, which meant that all of the real nuts and bolts still needed doing. I did as much as I could, and then went our for my run. I probably ran 15 miles, though my watch died 8.5 in which was a bit of a pain. Again, today's run felt really good - my cardio fitness has definitely improved a lot in the last month or two of upping running mileage. I got back about 3 minutes before I needed to start running D&D. I had a really fun session, and I hope that WW, @WhiteGhost, and @jonfirestar enjoyed it too. I was running Horror of the Shade - an adventure included in Limitless Heroics, which is a D&D sourcebook for modelling disability symptoms in D&D 5e. It's a very cool book and it was really pleasing to run something from it. Goals-wise I'm very much on track. I didn't get to work in time for my goal on Monday, but I did for the rest of the week, and I've ticked all of the other boxes. I'm going to be over on calories for the week (in fact I'm already just about over and I haven't had dinner yet), but I think I can keep it to a manageable level. Stats after week 0, day 6 The chronologist: 4/5 The decisionist: 6/6 The muscle: 6/6 De vertaler: 6/6 Le traducteur: 6/6 The face: 6/6

Thank you! I'm very much looking forward to it. Do you do something specific with the extra day, or is it just part of the week. Great to have you as always mate. Thank you! It's gonna be sooo good. Thank you! So far they're very motivating for that goal! it doesn't feel like that much to me, some how. Maybe I'm a bit of a nerd... Yeah, fair enough, that's a lot of changes happening at once! Sounds like you get a lot out of it though, which sounds good to me. I know, lovely, aren't they?

I'm sure! How long have you worked part time for, and how quickly did the extra time fill up? Thanks, I look forward to writing it! Feel free to remind me that you need me to go to work on time so that I buy the dice - it might just help.

Jarric vs Mountain Before I talk about what I'm doing this challenge, it's important to remember my plans for the year, so here's my 2023 road map. This challenge has a lot of exciting things happening right at the end of it. Firstly, I'll be running Man vs Mountain on 2nd September. It's a 22 mile run up and back down Mount Snowdon in Wales, including probably some abseiling and lake wading and that kind of stuff. I'm really looking forward to it, but it's scary to think about how little training time I have left after working towards this for 9 months! Secondly, from September I'll be going part time. That won't affect much this challenge, except that I'll be trying to clear stuff at work in anticipating of having fewer hours to do things in, but I'm really excited that I'll be working a 4-day week Goals-wise, last challenge was pretty good so I'm not changing much. Let's get into it. The chronologist [+2 SAN] Get to work (either physically in the office, or sat at my desk at home) by 08:35 on work days. This is goal went very poorly last challenge in one way, and really quite well in another. I'd been late for work a couple of times, and really wanted to nip that in the bud before it becomes something that I become known for. I start work at 08:45, so the goal of being ready 10 minutes early allows me to get sorted, log in, and actually be working by that time. What actually happened is I barely ever hit my goal time of 08:35, but I always got in by 08:45, so it sort of worked? I want to do better this month, and so I'm going to do something I've never done before. I'm going to set a reward for a goal. If I achieve at least 80% success on this challenge goal, I get to buy these: Aren't they pretty? My elven cleric of Aphrodite, Psyche, has a lot of rose-themed weapons thanks to a visit to a temple to Aphrodite, and these would be perfect for her. The decisionist [+2 CON] I started cutting last challenge, looking to lose 0.75% of my total body weight each week. The plan is simple; I'll track calories every day, weigh myself weekly, and adjust my weekly calorie target based on the week's results. I've also refined an old method I used to have - each week I'll divide my weekly calorie target by 8, giving me 7 daily targets and then a buffer that I can spend throughout the week. Each day I'll write down how much I used from my buffer, and try to keep enough buffer left to finish on track for the week. I've put together a spreadsheet with my goal weights, and here's where we'll be up the the end of the challenge: Date Target Actual Change Actual kg 26/06/2023 180 180 81.65 03/07/2023 178.65 180 0 81.65 10/07/2023 177.310125 180 0 81.65 17/07/2023 175.9802991 182 2 82.55 24/07/2023 174.6604468 178 -4 80.74 31/07/2023 173.3504935 07/08/2023 172.0503648 14/08/2023 170.759987 21/08/2023 170.759987 28/08/2023 170.759987 As you can see, I'm planning to stop cutting just before Man vs Mountain, to make sure it doesn't interfere with the race too much. Having said that, I'm also behind on the weight target, so we'll see how that goes. Scoring for this goal will just be based on whether or not I tracked every day, regardless of whether I manage to hit my calories perfectly or not. The muscle [+1 CON] 2 shakes per day, every day. Over the last 2 challenges I've been experimenting with a recovery shake after my workouts, and last challenge I also added in creatine to my routine. Both seem to be working a bit, though it's really hard to tell. I'm going to stick with them, and try to be mindful of how/if they're helping. De vertaler [+1 INT] I'm cloning the translator this challenge, and splitting him into two goals. The first is to work on Dutch, using Duolingo, every day. I really liked being able to speak a little Dutch in The Netherlands this year, but it would be nice if I understood a whole lot more. I may very well be going back for another Strong Viking next year (or maybe an Iron Viking), so I want to build on this. Le traducteur [+1 INT] I'm cloning the translator this challenge, and splitting him into two goals. The second is to work on French, using Duolingo, every day. Next year I'll be going to Paris for a week to see a bit of the Olympics (which I believe starts 1 year today), so I want to get as good as possible at French before then. My French is already a lot better than my Dutch, so it'll be interesting to see how far I can take it. The face [+1 SAN] Brush my teeth, twice every day. I did excellently on this last challenge, and I had a very positive dentist visit towards the end of the month, so I want to make sure I keep it up. As my goals haven't changed, I'll be starting them in zero week, so lets go!

I'm not involved in either field, but questions I might ask myself are: - What was the original motivation for studying CS? Has that changed? - What is the motivation for switching? Does this come from a fear of not finding a career in CS, or a genuine desire to do counselling? - Where does the desire to do counselling come from? Is this something you really want, or something you would settle for instead of CS? I would say don't be motivated by fear, and don't settle. That doesn't mean switching is the wrong choice, but examining your reasons for doing so might be informative.

It's got what plants crave! Make mine a double! Congratulations man, that's fantastic news!

Challenge wrap-up Well, my short challenge if over. I had a brilliant time at the start of it travelling to The Netherlands and meeting some of Willy's friends, and I ran a great race that I very much want to go back and have another go at next year. It's hard to believe that that was only this challenge cycle now - it seems like a million years ago. There were also some goals this challenge.. The decisionist [+2 CON] Score: 28/28 = 100% = +2 CON I went a bit conservative with calories this challenge, so whilst I tracked every day (and I'm very pleased with that) I only lost 2lbs. In fact, I gained weight to start with, and only through some improved strategy in week 5 did I lose anything. The new strategy (which is in fact, an old strategy I'm resurrecting and improving) works, so I'll be sticking with that next challenge. Actual weight results for each week, if you're interested, are as follows: Date Target Actual Change Actual kg 26/06/2023 180 180 81.65 03/07/2023 178.65 180 0 81.65 10/07/2023 177.31 180 0 81.65 17/07/2023 175.98 182 2 82.55 24/07/2023 174.66 178 -4 80.74 The muscle [+2 CON] Score: 25/28 = 89.3% = +2 CON I'm fairly sure I got the creatine in every day, but had a couple of days with only 1 shake. And I think the creatine is working, but it's very hard to say. The weight gain in the early part of this challenge was encouraging, because if that's caused by creatine it implies that I am storing the creatine and therefore it's working. I also feel a bit leaner than my change in weight would suggest. And I feel like I can eek out a few more reps than I could before, maybe? It's seriously hard to tell if it's working, but I suppose believing that it works is enough for now. De vertaler [+1 INT] Score: 27/28 = 96.4% = +1 INT Well this went very well, and I'm still enjoying learning Dutch, Some of the initial excitement from having come back from The Netherlands is gone, but I'm still making steady progress. Le traducteur [+1 INT] Score: 26/29 = 92.9% = +1 INT Another goal that went very well indeed. I've also booked our accommodation for Paris next year, so all the more reason to keep practising this one. The face [+2 SAN] Score: 24/28 = 85.7% = +2 SAN Not perfect, but definitely a lot better than if I hadn't been tracking this. I also had a very encouraging dentist visit during this challenge, and I feel like I'm on the right track. The chronologist [+1 SAN] Score: 1/8 = 12.5% = no stat increase So, in a weird way, this goal kind of works. I haven't achieved it in any way, but I also haven't been late for work, just between my goal and my actual start time. I do want to do better though, because that extra 10 minutes would make the start of my day much less stressful. I have no good strategy for this, but I will try and find one next challenge. These goals are really working for me, so I'll be keeping them for next challenge just as they are. I might not be able to post that challenge for a day or two, but given that I already know the goals I'll still be starting it in zero week.

The barn looks amazing! You've done so much this challenge. Pushups are hard, no matter how much I do them they're much tougher than I ever give them credit for.

Saturday and Sunday - weekend 5 Saturday was a good day. Drove to bouldering and did a quick 5k run before climbing, then had a really good climbing session. Climbing was good fun - they've removed and replaced one of the walls so it was cool to try something totally new (rather than just a set of new problems on a wall I was used to). They appear to have surfaced the new wall with sandpaper, so I'm covered in scrapes, but I topped a few reasonably hard routes and I'm happy with that. In the afternoon we went to B&Q to buy some wood, then Tesco for groceries. When we got back I used the wood to bodge together a repair on a foot stool that had collapsed - hoping it'll last a bit longer now. If it does it's a right result; £25 of meterials and 90 minutes work compared to the £200 a furniture upholsterer wanted for it (it would have been cheaper than that just to buy a new one). In the evening WW made sushi and we cholled out. Yesterday was a good day. Went for a 14 mile run in the morning. Because my run is out to the hills, then up into them, then turn round and come back, the middle was weirdly the hardest bit. Had to walk up some of the hills, but got a solid 4+ miles without stopping to finish off, and then felt pretty good. In the after we played D&D, with @jonfirestar running a one-shot in which we were prisoners of a cult and trying to escape with our lives. Somehow we annihilated the CR16 final monster, despite being level 6 - I blame @WhiteGhost's monk (monks are just brutal when they get a stunning strike off in a single-target combat). We had a really good time, and lots of cultists gave their lives trying to stop us leaving before we scared them off. AFter D&D I started preparing for next week's one-shot (though I didn't get very far, it had to be said). Finished in time for a roast dinner and some Critical Role before bed. Hit 100% on my goals both days, feels like a stong end to a strong week. In fact, I hit 100% on all of my goals this week, except for timekeeping where I only managed 1 day out of 5.

Friday - week 5 day 5 Yesterday was a good day. Crossfit was handwalking practice, which was good fun, interspersed with ab rollouts. Then some practising l-sits and ring dips, and some legless air bike. It was a really chilled session, and I very much enjoyed that. Work was ok - nice and quiet in the office and I got the urgent stuff done. I failed to hit my goal time by 1 minute though. 1 damn minite! I worked a little late, which worked out well because I ended up finishing at the same time as a colleague and we went for a couple of quick beers. When I got home WW cooked basa parcels with rice, and we tried some more beer from the tasting box. All of that meant finishing the day at 3,012 calories - that's 646 more calories used up from the buffer, leaving me 744 left in the buffer for the week. Around bedtime I realised I hadn't done any language practice, so I did something I don't usually like and did French and Dutch back to back. I think I did 4 French lessons and 2 Dutch lessons, and it didn't feel too bad switching from one to the other. Teeth done, so again all goals except timekeeping.

I think that is DDOS protection from the website, rather than anything that's wrong with your system or the website. As far as I know everyone gets it occasionally, but some browsers are worse than others. It's also worse if you keep changing connection (like on a phone jumping between different wifi and mobile networks). I had to stop using AdBlock browser on my phone, because the forums became inoperable on it, but I only get it occasionally on Edge. I like the idea of a points-based system - sounds like a good way to count the wins. It also allows more flexibility than a list of goals, which is great if you want to work your challenge around your summer activities.