[Whisper]

Earlier this week I did something to anger my heel. Spent most of Wednesday limping pretty badly. Grabbed some gel heel pads on my way to work Thursday, and ordered new insoles, which were waiting for me when I got home after work.  The gel heels made yesterday better, the new insoles are making today better still.  I think I'll try and take things easy on my feet this weekend, skip the walk and such, and hopefully things'll be fully good for next week. 

 

 

[Elastigirl]

Glad the gel heels are making it better. Sounds like it might be plantar fasciitis. Have you tried any stretches for it?

[Whisper]

At work on Monday, I got to learn how to cut steel WITH FIRE

Wednesday, I continued messing around with a prototype snapping table. It won't work for most needed applications (but good for some). Back to the drawing board.

Today, I spent most of the day shopping for cabinets and countertops. Because, for some reason, we need a soda fountain at work. 

 

I do like the variety I tend to get in my work.  Now, to fire up our backup generator and make sure it's working right.

[Whisper]

3 hours ago, Elastigirl said:

Glad the gel heels are making it better. Sounds like it might be plantar fasciitis. Have you tried any stretches for it?

It's different form plantar; I've delt with that before. I tried doing some stretches on Wednesday, but that just seemed to aggravated it more. As it's starting to feel better, trying to get some gentle stretching in. If memory serves, you were talking about mobility exercises in your thread? I'm thinking I should add some mobility to focus to complement my efforts at more walking.

[Elastigirl]

39 minutes ago, Whisper said:

It's different form plantar; I've delt with that before. I tried doing some stretches on Wednesday, but that just seemed to aggravated it more. As it's starting to feel better, trying to get some gentle stretching in. If memory serves, you were talking about mobility exercises in your thread? I'm thinking I should add some mobility to focus to complement my efforts at more walking.

The ones I was doing were mostly for hips and shoulders. A bit for ankles  Some I like to do for ankles and feet are downward dog, where I raise and lower my foot, calf stretches, and backward calf stretches (Placing heel on floor and raising your foot up from toes.  Also, just doing ankles circles and toe opening and closing and wriggling seems to stretch it out. This is one of the stretches I have been doing. It's supposed to help with feet and ankle pain

 

[Whisper]

Feeling a bit out of sorts and unresolved this morning.  What I want is to have a quite day at home. What I'm supposed to do is go to a board meeting for a group I'm the webmaster of, followed by a worship service, followed by a potluck.  I can't get my head to actually commit to going, but I also can't seem to commit to backing out of it.

 

What I'm going to do now is eat some food, then go pick up and take my meds.

[Snarkyfishguts]

5 hours ago, Whisper said:

Feeling a bit out of sorts and unresolved this morning.  What I want is to have a quite day at home. What I'm supposed to do is go to a board meeting for a group I'm the webmaster of, followed by a worship service, followed by a potluck.  I can't get my head to actually commit to going, but I also can't seem to commit to backing out of it.

 

What I'm going to do now is eat some food, then go pick up and take my meds.

???

[Whisper]

Putting thought into next challenge. Need to translate some of the thoughts into notes as I keep forgetting my thinking. Mind like a steel colander; that's me!

 

Rough bullet points for now. Plan is to assign points (argold) and use that to buy rewards. I'll need to work all that out and have a translation to USD, with a reword list. Air fryer, electric kettle, fancy tea pot, sheet music...

 

Fight the Chaos

Push it back!

Defeat the encroachment!

Expand the islands!

 

 

Wordchians

Say a chain

Light a candle

Be still and know

 

Survey the lands

A brief foray

Walk the perimeter

 

 

Exercise the gorveks

 

 

Eat at table

without distractions

a salad

 

Laungage Study

Morning

Evening

 

 

 

Sharpening skills

Engagement

Completion

 

String practice (word starts with A, really need to practice assigning sounds to common but unknown words when reading)

A little

A bit

A lot

[Laghail]

aaaaH!!11! I'm very excited for your next challenge

[Whisper]

Sunday, I decided to stay home all day. 

I did watch the Baptist church online. The service was nice, but the sermon was really, really good. Good humor, excellent insights and broadening perspective on a parable I've heard many times, but never at more than a superficial level. Unfortunately, it wasn't a good representative sample; they had hosted a conference and had a guest preacher. I think I'll give them another try this Sunday, hopefully in person.

 

Continuing to work on points and format for next challenge. I've decided to make the big primary focus Expand the Islands! worth as much as all other points combined, and other points are currently sitting right around 50, so 100 total per day. This fairly firmly squashes my thought of 1 Argold = 1 USD.  Right now, I'm thinking I might figure out how much I'm spending on Door Dash per week and using that as the baseline. 

 

I'm thinking my grand prize for getting over 50% of possible points for the challenge will be a Tiny Snake of my own. Maybe plastic, maybe stuffed. Need to figure out what type of snake he is; amazingly not on the Wiki

 

Continuing to put thought into the narrative side, but not sure if I want to spoil that here or wait until we go live. 

 

Spoiler

Fight the Chaos +50 Argold/day possible

Push it back! +5

Defeat the encroachment! +10

Expand the islands! +50

 

 

Wordchians (all actions can be done twice per day) +10 Argold/day possible

Say a chain +1

Light a candle +1

Be still and know +1

Time for study +2

 

Survey the lands +6 Argold/day possible

A brief foray +1

Walk the perimeter +5

 

 

Exercise the gorveks +2 Argold/day possible

 

The Care and Feeding of the Quaternary +14 Argold/day possible

Home made +5

Eat at table +1

Without distractions +1

Have a salad +1

Protien shake with fish oil +1

Tangy Tangerine

AM oral health +1

PM oral health +1

Make Bed +1

Clean Mask +1

Deep Clean CPAP +5 (once a week)

 

Laungage Study +5 Argold/day possible

Morning +1

Evening +1

10+ lessons in a day +3

 

 

Sharpening skills Unlimited, ideally at least +6 Argold/day possible

Engagement +1

Completion +5

 

String practice (word starts with A, really need to practice assigning sounds to common but unknown words when reading) +5 Argold/day possible

A little +1

A bit +3

A lot +5

 

 

[Laghail]

3 hours ago, Whisper said:

Sunday, I decided to stay home all day. 

I did watch the Baptist church online. The service was nice, but the sermon was really, really good. Good humor, excellent insights and broadening perspective on a parable I've heard many times, but never at more than a superficial level. Unfortunately, it wasn't a good representative sample; they had hosted a conference and had a guest preacher. I think I'll give them another try this Sunday, hopefully in person.

 

Did you say what denomination the Baptist church is? ABCUSA  is the second biggest white Baptist denomination and they include a decent number of affirming churches, just kinda a luck of the draw. I hear good things about AWAB's and Alliance Baptists too!

 

3 hours ago, Whisper said:

I'm thinking my grand prize for getting over 50% of possible points for the challenge will be a Tiny Snake of my own. Maybe plastic, maybe stuffed. Need to figure out what type of snake he is; amazingly not on the Wiki

 

For your consideration:

•  3d printed snek
• Thai blown glass snek
•  Crochet snek

 

3 hours ago, Whisper said:

Continuing to put thought into the narrative side, but not sure if I want to spoil that here or wait until we go live. 

 

Can't wait

[Whisper]

24 minutes ago, Laghail said:

Crochet snek

crochet snek is perfect!

 

 

25 minutes ago, Laghail said:

Can't wait

Spoiler

The Care and Feeding of the Quaternary +14 Argold/day possible

It isn’t like the Quaternary, bearer of immense power and authority, needs someone to mother hen her, perish the thought! It’s just that, well, with such matters of import to attend to, sometimes the piddly details get overlooked, and PJs become the uniform of the day. That’s when the nice Quiet Rabbit steps in and makes sure she’s cared for.

 

[Whisper]

Every time I refresh the challenge page, I'm a little bit disappointed to see it still showing a "Current Challenge".  This is the first time I've stayed active through a challenge and been so eager for the next one to start. I am proud of this. 

 

I'm going to need to work out a clean system for tracking; most likely a google sheet will be involved. By my count I earned 77 of 100 possible Argold yesterday. Average of 50/day across the challenge counts as a win, so a nice solid day. 

 

Does anyone else feel somewhat claustraphobic when using row 1 or column A in a spreadsheet?

 

Leaning towards and exchange rate of 10 Argold / dollar, so $7.70 into the slush fund! Argold is now the unit of exchange for things like Doordash, drivethrus, Etsey and fun Amazon items.  I tend to spend way too much on lazy food, so even at potentially $10/day, I should moderate my total spending, and hopefully switch the spending away from food, and to things of more lasting or substantial value.  Budgeting has never been something I've had any skill at. If money, then spend. If no money, wait for pay day, then spend. I'm hoping an earned slush fund will help me make progress towards a real budget. 

[Laghail]

3 hours ago, Whisper said:

Every time I refresh the challenge page, I'm a little bit disappointed to see it still showing a "Current Challenge".  This is the first time I've stayed active through a challenge and been so eager for the next one to start. I am proud of this. 

 

Hard agree and congrats on showing up for yourself the way you wanted! 

 

3 hours ago, Whisper said:

I'm going to need to work out a clean system for tracking; most likely a google sheet will be involved. By my count I earned 77 of 100 possible Argold yesterday. Average of 50/day across the challenge counts as a win, so a nice solid day. 

 

Does anyone else feel somewhat claustraphobic when using row 1 or column A in a spreadsheet?

 

Hard agree. I like to add a bonus column and row  of blank space if I'm expecting to screen grab from the spread sheet frequently.

 

3 hours ago, Whisper said:

Leaning towards and exchange rate of 10 Argold / dollar, so $7.70 into the slush fund! Argold is now the unit of exchange for things like Doordash, drivethrus, Etsey and fun Amazon items.  I tend to spend way too much on lazy food, so even at potentially $10/day, I should moderate my total spending, and hopefully switch the spending away from food, and to things of more lasting or substantial value.  Budgeting has never been something I've had any skill at. If money, then spend. If no money, wait for pay day, then spend. I'm hoping an earned slush fund will help me make progress towards a real budget. 

 

Honestly that later approach to budgeting is super common, and it also make sense when things are so tight that extra money isn't really a thing. I've gotten myself in unnecessary trouble for not adjusting how I think about money when I was lucky enough to not be paycheck-to-paycheck anymore.

[Whisper]

2 hours ago, Laghail said:

Honestly that later approach to budgeting is super common, and it also make sense when things are so tight that extra money isn't really a thing. I've gotten myself in unnecessary trouble for not adjusting how I think about money when I was lucky enough to not be paycheck-to-paycheck anymore.

It's how my parents always handled money. It's how I've always handled it too. But I'm at a point in my life where I don't need to live paycheck to paycheck. Things aren't so tight, but money is still leaking through my fingers, and far too often with nothing to show for it. So, lets gamify part of my spending and see how it goes!

 

 

[Whisper]

I attempted to pill my Grivecks tonight, before giving up and putting it in some wet food. There is a good chance that they will slaughter me tonight, so if you don't hear from me again you'll know why.

 

Also, I'm finding Argold significantly more motivating that it's cash value. In bed, tired, don't want to move, not a chance I was going to get up and wash my cpap maak for 10 cents. But an Argold? And another green box on my spreadsheet? Oh heck yeah, I'll get back up for that!

 

The human psyche is so, so strange. 

[Whisper]

I survived the night, but His Excellency, Sasha Generalissimo Meow von Pussy Cat, 42nd Earl of White Have, Defender of the Realm, and Keeper of the Faith, is loudly proclaiming to the world that I have done what is evil and failed to do what is right. For this, I clearly deserve his punishment, both now and in eternity.  I almost feel guilty.

 

Kitties are going to the vet today, the drama will only continue.

[Whisper]

	Week 0
	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Fight the Chaos +50 Argold/day possible		50	50
Push it back! +5
Defeat the encroachment! +10
Expand the islands! +50		+	+
Wordchians (all actions can be done twice per day) +10 Argold/day possible		10	10
Say a chain +1		++	++
Light a candle +1		++	++
Be still and know +1		++	++
Time for study +2		++	++
Survey the lands +6 Argold/day possible		1	0
A brief foray +1		+
Walk the perimeter +5
Exercise the Grivecks +2 Argold/day possible		0	2
			+
The Care and Feeding of the Quaternary +14 Argold/day possible		10	5
Home made +5		+
Eat at table +1
Without distractions +1
Have a salad +1		+
Protien shake with fish oil +1		+	+
Tangy Tangerine +1		+	+
AM oral health +1		+	+
PM oral health +1			+
Make Bed +1
Clean Mask +1		+	+
Deep Clean CPAP +5 (once a week)
Laungage Study +5 Argold/day possible		5	2
Morning +1		+	+
Evening +1		+	+
10+ lessons in a day +3		+
Sharpening skills Unlimited, ideally at least +6 Argold/day possible
Engagement +1
Completion +5
Auriad practice +5 Argold/day possible		1	1
A little (wrist / ankles) +1		+	+
A bit (back) +3
A lot (follow a routine)+5
Total Argold Earned		77	70

[Whisper]

Help! I need a word!

 

It starts with R, I think it derives from retainer. A group of servants / support people that travel with a dignitary. 

[Whisper]

1 hour ago, Whisper said:

Help! I need a word!

 

It starts with R, I think it derives from retainer. A group of servants / support people that travel with a dignitary. 

retinue

[Whisper]

Putting this here in case I'm at the wrong computer when the next challenge finally goes live.

 

Spoiler

Moon Thegund (aka my apartment) has long been a neglected backwater of the Triplanets with a history of Chaos outbreaks. Most of the Moon’s population resided in protected enclaves, but there had been efforts at expansion, with some scattered farms and research facilities. For the last several years, the background levels of Chaos have been steadily increasing, forcing a retreat back into the enclaves, but now, a full Chaos storm has erupted, taking down the System on that moon. The corruption was spreading and if left unchecked, even the enclaves would fall.

When Knight Alis-art’h, Quaternary of the Triplanets, heard about the situation, she felt like it was a gift from the Mother Herself!

The original plan was for her to be at home right now, doing all the things a nurturing mother should do with a healthy set of newborn wizard triplets. Nursing them, racing to their cribs at their every cry, coddling their tiny authority senses to be sure they were developing properly.

Diapers.

Thank goodness this corruption mishap had occurred just a week before she was scheduled to give birth! She’d waddled herself straight into the Grand Senate’s emergency session and volunteered for duty. With enthusiasm that at least a few senators seemed to have mistaken for hostility…but the point was that she was off the hook.

It was just so hard when they were in that frightening needy stage. They couldn’t even talk to her yet, and she was always scared she might accidentally smoosh them with her authority in a fit of postpartum confusion.

She was sure that at least one of the spouses in the household adored newborns. It was best to leave the triplets to them. Alis would take a vacation from work and fall in love with the little creatures when they were old enough to toddle around and make comprehensible sounds.

Three, she thought, gliding out of her suite and entering the travel dome’s dining room. I’d like to get to know them when they’re around three.

 

Fight the Chaos +50 Argold/day possible

Alis-art’h power is singularly suited for purging corruption. To the untrained eye it might look like she’s simply lifting up huge swaths of the landscape and slamming it back down again, but that was just shacking the Chaos free for disposal. Like beating an old rug. A long process on a moon this size, and the Chaos would push back, fighting to reclaim cleared ground.

There are currently 3 islands of order in the Chaos, the task is to preserve and grow them. The islands are The Sink, The Reading Chair and Desk at Work.

Push it back! +5

The barest of minimums. The chaos has spread back onto cleared lands and the strength to truly defeat it is missing. Push the chaos back into the messy lands.

Defeat the encroachment! +10

More strength is at hand, actually clean the new messes instead of just moving them.

Expand the islands! +50

 Maintain the lands that are purged of chaos, and grow their boarders, if only a single step. Eventually, the Chaos Storm will be defeated, the islands of order will grow together, and the people of Moon Thegund will be safe.

 

Wordchians (all actions can be done twice per day) +10 Argold/day possible

It is a common practice of the peoples of the Triplanets to set aside time at the start and end of the day to use word chains. In the morning, to prepare for the day ahead, and in the evening to restore balance.

Say a chain +1

Light a candle +1

Be still and know +1

Time for study +2

 

Survey the lands +6 Argold/day possible

One cannot defeat an outbreak of corruption if one does not know the lay of the land and the progress of the battlefield. Alis-art’h firmly believes that it is best to survey it with her own eyes.

A brief foray +1

Walk around the block

Walk the perimeter +5

 Walk in the park roughly 1.5 miles.

 

Exercise the Grivecks+2 Argold/day possible

Naturally, a person as important to the Triplanets as Alis-art’h couldn’t be allowed to wonder off into a Chaos Storm on her own; even the powerful must sleep. So, she had taken a small, carefully chosen retinue with her. The mandatory Healer, a nice, quiet Rabbit to look after more domestic concerns, and two Griveck Warriors for personal protection. To human eyes, Grivecks look like large, hairless panthers with their knees turned round the wrong way. His Excellency, Sasha Generalissimo Meow von Pussycat, 42^nd Earl of White Haven, Defender of the Realm and Keeper of the Faith, was joined by his less grandiose, but no less fierce companion, ShyAnn.

 

Grivecks are renowned across the Universe for their savagery and prowess in battle. They looked at eating food hunted and butchered by someone else much the same as humans would view eating regurgitated food like a baby bird. Unfortunately, the Chaos has rendered Moon Thegund devoid of prey, and what creatures remain are too corrupted for even Grivecks to survive eating. As such, their hunting needs must be satisfied through more artificial means.

Yes, I did just write to paragraphs to make a goal of playing with my cats.

 

The Care and Feeding of the Quaternary +14 Argold/day possible

It isn’t like the Quaternary, the 4^th highest ranked Knight of the Triplanets, bearer of immense power and authority, needs someone to mother hen her; perish the thought! It’s just that, well, with such matters of import to attend to, sometimes the piddly details get overlooked, and PJs become the uniform of the day. That’s when the Quiet Rabbit steps in and makes sure she’s cared for.

Home made +5

Eat at table +1

Without distractions +1

Have a salad +1

Protein shake with fish oil +1

Tangy Tangerine +1

AM oral health +1

PM oral health +1

Make Bed +1

Clean Mask +1

Deep Clean CPAP +5 (once a week)

 

Language Study +5 Argold/day possible

 

Morning +1

Evening +1

10+ lessons in a day +3

 

 

Sharpening skills Unlimited, ideally at least +6 Argold/day possible

Engagement +1

Completion +5

 

Auriad practice  +5 Argold/day possible

A little +1

A bit +3

A lot +5

 

[Snarkyfishguts]

I love the progressive point system you have going on!

[Whisper]

I got my ballot today! Suddenly reconsidering my vote for president...

Spoiler

No one told me Lucy was an option! Plus, it's not like I'm in one of the 7 states where my vote actually matters.

 

Also @Laghail, guess what I got!

Spoiler

Not starting them yet, I'm rereading Super Supportive. On the one hand, it isn't as good on a second immediate read. Dropped all the way from "best thing ever!" to only "really, really good". On the other hand really fun seeing how some stuff gets passing mention early on, and doesn't pay off for 100 chapters. Amazing level of planning went into this and it's fun to pick up some of those finer details. 

 

 

 

Cats survived the vet, and after giving them supper, they seem inclined to forgive me. Oddly, ShyAnn is hissing at Sasha some. Normally they get along really well, but I think she's just stressed from the day.

 

I'm feeling super burned out; not sure how well I'm going to do on points today. 

[Whisper]

[Rookie]

On 10/9/2024 at 1:21 PM, Laghail said:

 

Liam says you're very welcome and the cover art that you're looking for is Rainbow Rowell's Simon Snow series. Simon Snow, or, what happens after the Harry Potter series ends and the chosen one has trauma, a blank resume, and an foe-yay thing with Draco Malfoy:

Oh? My interest has been peaked. 

 

Also I looked at the painting ? beautiful ❤️