Jarric

Yeah, it was pretty damn good

Even if you were building something that looked like a strat replica it would still be something to be proud of - just building your own guitar is amazing regardless of how distinctive it looks. Humbucker on the bridge and P90 on the neck sounds cool (or sounds like it would sound cool I guess). Just things like how you wire and position the pickup selector(s) and volume/tone pots can make it look and sound personal to you as well. What kind of music are you planning to play with it?

Wow, I wish shops here did that. Everything we get is in single use plastic packs ?

Great job on week 1 man. I'm loving the look of the guitar already; will be cool to see how it turns out.

I had a Fitbit a couple of years back (a Charge HR, which I'm pretty sure they don't make any more). It wasn't the most durable thing, but it was excellent while it lasted and the app was really good. They were also really good about replacing it when my first one broke. I now have a TomTom Runner 3, because I wanted a proper running watch rather than a day to day tracker. It really suits me for running, particularly for GPS tracking runs and getting less lost, but the app is nowhere near as good all round as Fitbit. The other upside of the TomTom is that it's almost indestructible - I've given it a fair beating on obstacle courses and it just keeps going.

Always nice to have some no-effort food ready to go. Speaking of which, I need to go prep some breakfasts. Thanks for the unintentional reminder!

Saturday - Week 1 Day 6 Wormy Got up first thing yesterday and went climbing. I arrived a little late, and feeling slightly jaded after Friday's beers, but I got an ok session in and climbed some nice stuff. I left my car at the climbing centre and went for a run along the seafront for a change. It actually felt really strong, and I was grinning and having fun despite the rain and the wind. I don't know why I enjoyed that run so much but I'm not complaining! 9/10 for the week so far. Wormintrude The original plan for the day was 2,300kcal, but after the high calories on Friday the plan became as low as felt sensible. Having made that plan I proceeded to cock it up by having a massive dinner. We have chicken sausage, and I made celeriac gratin to go with it, plus a side salad. The gratin was bloody good, but using an entire celeriac, plus potatoes and onions, and then pouring a pot of double cream and some whole milk over it, wasn't the best for a low calorie meal In hindsight, I should have tracked the calories before I'd served it up. Then I would have probably have divided it into 6 rather than 4, which would have been more reasonable. Still, an otherwise restrained day finished me at a perfectly sensible 2,132kcal. Slimey Yes! I took a load of stuff to the charity shop, and also cleared out the box from my computer components. A small step, but that ticks it off for this week. Tiberius Nothing today, but I'm already 2/2 for the week. Sir Reginald Teeth done, 6/7 for the week so far. William Checked in here around lunch time, 6/7 for the week so far. Yesterday was a good day. Bouldering, running, getting rid of stuff to the charity shop, a big supermarket shop, and a bit of computer sorting before cooking a lovely meal. It's basically all in the goal updates, so I don't need any more detail here!

I love the phrase "dive off the cliffs of fuckit"; I'm stealing that! And thanks! I figure that although I have a calorie goal, I also have a rough idea what my maintenance calories should be. So if I'm below maintenance, even if I don't hit my goal, I should still be losing some weight.

I will do my best to strike a balance between protecting her and protecting me I think I can manage about 2,000kcal per day with a little luck. That would put me about 450 over for the week, which only increases my daily average by about 64. So Wormintrude shouldn't be too hurt.

Friday - Week 1 Day 5 Wormy Crossfit yesterday morning. We started with walking lunges, and I worked up to 72.5kg (~159#) for 8 steps. Followed that with prowler push. As it was raining we had to do it indoors, which is bloody hard on a rubber floor, particularly when the floor maps pick up and ripple if you dig in with the prowler at all. The workout was to do the maximum 50ft push in 20 seconds. My score was 40kg in 14 seconds. I did 50kg in 'eventually', having taken half the floor with me on the way 7/10 for the week so far. Wormintrude This went a little wrong today. My initial plan for the week hadn't accounted for the fact that we'd get invited to Hopalong's house for beer and barbeque. I got there and had a burger in a bun and a sausage, and then drank over 1,000kcal of beer. (Is 1,000kcal = 1Mcal? Sounds like a thing.) I hadn't tracked anything at this point, and wanted some food to soak up the alcohol, so I had a couple more sausages and a slice of halloumi. Finished the day at 3,348kcal, against a target of 2,300. Woops! The upshot of that is I'm not going to hit this goal this week, and Wormintrude is going to take some damage . I have 3,558kcal left for the week, or 1,779 per day, which just isn't enough food for me to function (bearing in mind I'm climbing and running on Saturday, and I have a 3 hour running workshop on Sunday). The closer I get to this goal the less damage Wormintrude will take, so I'm just gonna keep as low as sensibly possible. Slimey No boxes unpacked Friday, 0/1 for the week so far. But (spoilers for Saturday) I'm about to take some stuff to the charity shop to hit this goal. Tiberius Got a little sketching in at lunchtime, so 2/2 for the week so far. I might even do a bit more; I'm really enjoying getting back to this. Sir Reginald Teeth done, 5/7 for the week so far. William Checked in here at lunchtime, 5/7 for the week so far. Yesterday was a good day. Had a performance review at work, which went pretty well and made me feel a bit better about the way I work. Work was otherwise mega busy, as ever! In the evening we went to Hopalong's house for some beers and a barbeque to celebrate his birthday. We weren't really sure what was happening, and when we got there it turned out that there were half a dozen people there already. I had an initial panic of "oh my God there's a lot of people here, and I'm in a proper social situation for the first time in months". I relaxed into it though, and ended up having a really lovely evening with friends. We left about half 9, and I had a whiskey in front of the TV before bed.

Glad to hear you got the all clear!

Thursday - Week 1 Day 4 Wormy I ran yesterday morning, another 4 miles (~6.4km) with 8 x 0.25 mile (400m) tempo intervals. It felt pretty good, maybe not quite as strong as Tuesday but definitely ok. When I got home I did hangboarding and handstand practice. Still the hangboarding is tough, and to be fair having sweaty hands after a run probably doesn't help (even when I use lots of chalk)! I also reached out to my Crossfit coach for some technique videos on d-ball/atlas stone to shoulder work, to see if I can work out what I'm doing wrong. 6/10 for the week so far. Wormintrude This was my second planned high calorie day, aiming for 3,070kcal. Knowing that I'd gone over on Tuesday and Wednesday I worked to get under here, and even with a few beers in the evening managed to finish at 2,768kcal. This puts me spot on back on track, and I need to hit 2,300kcal for the next 3 days to hit my goal. The only slight spanner in the works is that when I set this plan I didn't realise I would be going to Hopalong's house tonight to celebrate his birthday. I'm just going to keep calories low in the day, take it easy when I get there, and see what happens. Slimey No boxes unpacked today, 0/1 for the week so far. I've identified a couple of bits I plan to sort on Saturday though, so at least I have a plan for this week. Tiberius No drawing today, though I wanted to I didn't have the time in schedule. 1/2 for the week so far. Sir Reginald Teeth done, 4/7 for the week so far. I also booked a dentist appointment a couple of days ago, so that should serve as some extra motivation to stay on track in preparation for that. William Checked in here at lunchtime, 4/7 for the week so far. Yesterday was a good day. WW's work friend (who I need to come up with a name for) came over first thing as he had got a lift to work early and didn't want to be stood in the cold for an hour. So he was there for the end of my workout, whilst I was doing handstands in the next room. It was a bit weird having someone else in my house that early. Work was really busy again, and as I mentioned there isn't an end in sight for the moment. I'm trying to lower my expectations, and accept that I won't be able to keep up with everything, and that that's ok. I stayed at work late until about 18:10, then headed home via the shop for some beers. In the evening we had Pathfinder, our Mummy's Mask game. We were late for it of course, due to the late working leading to a late dinner. Nonetheless it was a good session, starting out with us in combat with some invisible stalkers, followed by us gently landing a flying pyramid and crushing a temple to our god Nethys, and finishing with a huge fight with the mummy general who controlled the pyramid, two mummified harpies, and two huge water elementals. We fought to victory and won the day, although there were some close calls for a couple of the PCs.

Wow, 16 people? That's a big gap. Hope things pick up for your place soon. We can but hope! Part of the issue will be that it's common in our industry to have a 3 month notice period, so even if we agree to take someone on now we won't see them for 3 months. My place only has a 4 week notice period, which is a bit of a mixed blessing as it's nice for me to not be so tied in, but it does mean that there can be quite a gap between someone leaving and us a replacement actually starting.

Wednesday - Week 1 Day 3 Wormy Yesterday was Crossfit. We started out with deadlifts, and I built to a heavy 5 reps at 135kg (~297#). It felt heavy, but still pretty good. My current 5 rep PR is 137.5kg (~302#), so as long as it feels goo I aim to match that next session, and improve on it in the next few weeks. That was follows by a 6 minute workout of d-balls to shoulder, and a 6 minute workout of d-ball box squats. I suck at d-ball to shoulder, and because the class was pretty full I had to go for the prescribed weights of 50kg, 60kg, 75kg (~110#, 132#, 165#). I could barely lift the middle weight, which was really demoralising, and I'm pretty sure that throwing too much weight on top of my shitty form will not do me any favours. If anyone knows of any good tutorials for d-ball to shoulder, please let me know! 4/10 for the week so far. Wormintrude This was a planned high calorie day, aiming for 3,070kcal. The idea was to use those calories for beer in the evening, but I also went out for a pub lunch with work so had a couple of beers too. I did my best to keep it sensible food-wise, and the cottage pie I made for dinner was pretty light at 485kcal, but I still finished the day at 3,255/3070. I've done the number and I'm sure it's still possible for me to hit my average for the week; it will just mean I have to be even stricter for the next few days. Slimey No boxes unpacked today, 0/1 for the week so far. Tiberius I started reading through The Silver Way whilst having a beer in front of Questing Time, and did do a few basic character sketches. It wasn't much, but it's good just to get back into the groove of drawing something. 1/2 for the week so far. Sir Reginald Teeth done, 3/7 for the week so far. William Checked in here after work and before cooking dinner, 3/7 for the week so far. Yesterday was a good day. Work was busy, but cooking a nice meal and chilling in front of the TV with a beer and some art made for a really lovely evening. Today I found out that one of my colleagues is leaving the company. This means more work for everyone else in the team until they're replaced, and given that we're already understaffed (and trying to recruit) and have a lot of work pressure on I'm really concerned about the impact of it. For context, there should be 11 of us, and we're in negotiations for a 12th person as we're too stretched as it is with 11. What we actually have is 10 people, and colleague leaving will drop that down to 9. That mean's we'll realistically be at 75% of our ideal number. There's nothing I can do about it, so I'm not going to waste too much energy worrying about it, but writing this out and getting it straight in my mind helps. Hopefully we'll find someone soon, or find another way to offload some work so that we're not too overburdened.

No, but 'you wear what you eat' sounds like a great concept for an adventuring party I suppose broadly speaking what you're wearing is likely to be bits of plant and/or animal, so it's not that hard to do, but it would be more interesting to be dressed in a full meal.

No, I think there is valid action to be taken arising out of that question, because I don't believe that one needs an environment free from pressure. We all have a tolerance for pressure, and as long as the stressors in our environment are within that tolerance then that isn't a problem. It's when the cup overflows that issues arise. So if we accept that some stressors are legitimate parts of our environment that we have no power to change, but that others are self-imposed by our own views and standards, then removing just those stressors within our control may be enough to bring us below tolerance level and allow us to deal with environmental stressors comfortably. To give an easy example, at work I have projects with deadlines. Some of those deadlines are non-negotiable and are beyond my control. Others stem from what I believe to be best practice. I can't do anything about the former, but for the latter I can analyse the situation and try to make a decision on whether those deadlines are necessary, based on the perceived consequences of missing them. The skill I would like to learn is identifying whether a deadline (or task, or working practice etc.) is immutable or mutable.

The positivity in this update really made me smile - it sounds like a very good day.

That's a really good point - I don't know how you tell one from the other. That would be a good skill to learn though.

Oh wow, that sounds deeply unpleasant! In Pathfinder 2e there's an elf racial trait that allows them to subsist on dirt and ash. One of our players decided that this would be a great starting point for a character concept . The character was filthy, covered in rags, and constantly leaving dirt everywhere he went - it was definitely memorable!

This seems like a totally reasonable way to lose weight to me - as long as the overall trend is down, it doesn't matter how you do it. In fact, this might be the best way to do it; periods of strict tracking followed by more relaxed periods to give you a physical and mental break. I'm pleased by this This sounds like a good idea. Whether you decide to get professional help on not, getting out on your own would be a good thing - I get the feeling that your home life is a bit claustrophobic? It's alright to feel anxious about getting out and about, but don't let it stop you from doing what you really want to do. I'm about 7 behind - it's hard to keep up with!

Ah, I see! Thank you. Thanks man, we're going strong so far!

Tuesday - Week 1 Day 2 Wormy Went out for my 4 mile (~6.4km) run first thing. I left a little later than planned, but the run itself felt fairly strong. When I got back I had a quick session of hangboarding and handstands, slightly rushed thanks to the late start. My hangboarding is rubbish at the moment. I don't know what's happened to my grip strength, it might just be the return to Crossfit and climbing that means I'm working more, but I hope it comes back soon! 3/10 for the week so far. Wormintrude A bit of a challenging day - I had no bananas so I substituted them out of my breakfast for some breakfast buscuits which were about twice the calories. Then lunch was the last of last week's leftovers, when I was making bigger portions and not tracking them very carefully. Dinner was a sausage, cabbage and potato hash, which was lovely and much more reasonably sized. Ended up at 2,509kcal against a goal of 2,300. Not too bad, but I'll have to find some calories later in the week to get back on track. Slimey No boxes unpacked today, 0/1 for the week so far. Tiberius No art today, 0/2 for the week so far. The other week I ordered a book on character drawing called The Silver Way, and that arrived yesterday, so that should give me something to work on in art sessions. Sir Reginald Teeth done, 2/7 for the week so far. William Checked in here at lunchtime, 2/7 for the week so far. Yesterday was a good day. In the evening we played Pathfinder 2e, which I reviewed a bit in my response to D_R above. It was a really fun night - I played a halfling oracle whose actions were controlled by her ancestors, and we had a human druid, an elf ranger/rogue who eats nothing but dirt and dust, and a fighter who was 5ft2, almost entirely square, and most definitely not a dwarf. The not a dwarf was called Vlad, and despite having a comedy Vlad the Impaler accent, actually fought with an axe and shield.

I don't get the reference Yeah, fair point mate, I'll keep an eye on it. To be fair tonight I'm just watching Questing Time playing D&D on Twitch and having a beer, so it is downtime. Might do some drawing whilst I watch too, for goal purposes. We really enjoyed it. There was a bit of frantically looking up rules at the start, but overall we managed to have a fun game. It's a little more streamlined than Pathfinder 1e, and the action system (3 actions per turn, use them how you like) is really nice and easy to use. The death system I really like - it's a bit like 5e's death saves, but you need progressively higher rolls to recover as you get closer to death, and if you're revived from dying you gain the 'wounded' condition, which makes it easier to die next time you drop to zero. I'd definitely be up for played a P2e game, if that's what my group decide to do once we've finished either of our current 1e campaigns.

Monday - Week 1 Day 1 Wormy Yesterday was Crossfit. We started off with a 10 minute AMRAP - either 2 muscle ups, 4 handstand pushups, and 8 American swings, or 2 pullups, 4 pushups, and 8 American swings. I wanted to go for the harder option, but I would have got about 2 rounds and a load of rest if I'd been doing muscle ups, and the coach wasn't keen on us mixing and matching options. So I did the easier version, with a 20kg (~44#) kettlebell for the swings, and hit 11 rounds plus 3 reps . Followed that with bench press - a heavy 6 followed by immediate drop sets (with one person each side of the bar unloading so you have almost no rest). I managed 60kg (~132#) for 6 reps, but that was just about all I had to give, so I did bugger all reps at 50kg and 40kg. 1/10 for the week so far. Wormintrude The plan for this week is 5 days at 2,300kcal, and two days (probably Wednesday and Thursday) at 3,070kcal. Yesterday was in budget, at 2,202kcal. This was a bit tricky to track, as lunch was a leftover burrito bowl that I made last week and I can't remember exactly what I put in it. I didn't want to let perfect be the enemy of good, so I just weighed the whole bowl and put it in as a random burrito bowl. The other tricky bit was that that lunch came to 779 calories, which squeezed the rest of my day fairly hard> I got there though, by being very controlled about snacks and drinks. Slimey No boxes unpacked today, 0/1 for the week so far. I've got a busy week (almost entirely of D&D), so this might end up being a weekend thing. Tiberius No art today, 0/2 for the week so far. Sir Reginald Teeth were brushed, thanks to a combination of @Yasha92's tips and not wanting to kill the worm that @cn3wton selected for me. 1/7 for the week so far. William Yep, checked in here at lunch time. 1/7 for the week so far. Yesterday was a good day, though I ended up working quite late and I still don't feel like I got much actually done. In the evening I cooked dinner - chicken and butternut squash with couscous. It was my kind of cooking; everything goes in the pan when I run out of space on the chopping board and need to get rid of it, and then leave to simmer and do it's own thing for a while. It tasted pretty good too, though I think I should have either added salt earlier in the cooking process or added a stock cube to bring out some more flavour. After dinner I helped WW create a Pathfinder 2e character for a game we're playing tonight, and finalised the gear for my own character. I feel like I could get used to this system fairly quickly (it will be our first time trying it tonight), but it's a steep learning curve creating those first two characters.

Yeah, I could definitely have planned it better. And thanks man! Yeah, I need to make some time for Slimey! I don't like leaving stuff until the end of the week, but I'm doing things every evening this week so I'm not sure if I'll get to it before the weekend It was good! Not all the veg we'd normally have with a roast, but we've been making an effort to use up what we get in our veg delivery box rather than buying other stuff. I didn't, but for the last couple of nights I've used your technique of saying "I have a choice, do I choose to brush my teeth or choose not to?". That's worked well so far. Willy beat me to it, but oh really? Do tell... And thanks! I really like your journal entries with all of their colour and decoration though, it's just that I usually leave making one until the last minute, and then I need something functional and fast. So basically mine are the lazy option