[TimovieMan]

Halfway through the last challenge, I stopped my spreadsheet logging. Neglectfully the first couple of days, but then I couldn't be arsed to update the backlog, and I dropped the logging altogether.

And I didn't derail!

 

So I will continue that trend for this challenge. Not logging, but remaining sensible. Still paying attention to my fasting windows, calorie intake, step count, sleep curfew and exercising. Just not putting colours in a spreadsheet.

See where it gets me in 5 weeks...

 

 

I *will* update on the weekly weigh-ins, and my weekly distance on the Road to Mordor, though. Those are separate from the spreadsheet.

And I'll still be discussing what I did, for accountability.

 

 

No log??? Did someone cut the tree???

 

Monty Python - The Lumberjack Song

[TimovieMan]

Yesterday I went to pick up my bike again from the bike shop where it got its yearly maintenance. To fit it in my schedule, I had to pick it up before work, but Mrs. Movieman needed the car, so I *walked* there.

It's 6.9 km (4.3 mi) away, just over halfway on my 12 km (7.5 mi) commute.

Still went on a lunch break walk, which is usually just shy of 3 km (1.9 mi).

Had to pick up TimovieDaughter and a couple of her classmates from after-school drama class. Was 15 minutes early. Went for an additional walk.

And as if that wasn't enough, I went for yet another long walk in the evening - as I regularly do on Thursdays.

 

Total tally for yesterday: 21.8 km (13.5 mi) in dedicated walks (which count on the Road to Mordor), and a total of 35K steps. Possibly the highest amount since I track them with my Fitbit. Definitely top-3. ?

 

 

Another office day today. Had a productive morning, but not feeling it all that much this afternoon. Still have 2.5 hours to go. Guess I'll go Oprah-parody on them...

 

Happy Friday, everyone! ?

 

 

Will be an evening with just the kids.

Mrs. Movieman is helping out at a quiz organised by several of the parents of TimovieSon's football team. The assistant-coach's youngest has severe disabilities, and the quiz evening is a charity event for him.
I had originally intended to participate with brother-in-law, but he can't today, and I didn't want to be paired up with people I either don't know or don't really like all that much.

So I'll be at home with the kids.

 

Will most likely translate to: I'll be playing Cyberpunk 2077 on the laptop while they're watching The Masked Singer on TV. ?

 

Dinner will be akin to the carnivore diet. There's some chicken breast filet in the fridge that needs to be eaten before it expires, and there's a rack of marinated ribs that Mrs. Movieman took out of the freezer yesterday "because it took up too much space and would otherwise have remained in there until next summer". Her words, not mine.

As a massive meat-eater, I'm not complaining. ?

 

 

About Cyberpunk 2077: I've been going a bit overboard with it these past weeks. I've already racked up 70+ hours in 3 weeks! ?

And I still have a LOT to do in the game, so I'll probably get to 150+ hours.

The two main female characters (that are also in-game romance options) are very well-written.

I immediately liked the Judy character. In my V's very first interaction with her, we both geeked out over some piece of technology, hitting it off from the get-go.

Alas, the relationship is platonic. She's a romance option, sure, but for a female V, and I'm playing as a male V... ?

Anyway, the main point I'm trying to make is that the game is friggin' brilliant! ?

[Sovalis]

I am going to leave this piece of fondly loved Canadian media here: 

 

 

Wishing you light feet this challenge!

[Everstorm]

24 minutes ago, TimovieMan said:

Total tally for yesterday: 21.8 km (13.5 mi) in dedicated walks (which count on the Road to Mordor), and a total of 35K steps. Possibly the highest amount since I track them with my Fitbit. Definitely top-3. ?

 

 

You walked a half-marathon!  

[TimovieMan]

13 minutes ago, Sovalis said:

I am going to leave this piece of fondly loved Canadian media here: 

That may be the most Canadian thing I've ever seen! ?

 

10 minutes ago, Everstorm said:

You walked a half-marathon!  

And my calves are complaining about it today! ?

[Harriet]

Logless, eh? A bold move. I hope it is both successful and enjoyable.

[Snarkyfishguts]

I LOVE THIS SO MUCH!!!! I'm cheering for your sensible ways

[Shello]

Rails with no logs?  What sorcery is this?   Following for knowledge! 

[TimovieMan]

Ribs were delicious this evening.

Slow-cooked them (1 hour in the oven at 150°C - 45 minutes under tin foil, the last 15 open) and they were so tender and practically fell off the bone.

TimovieSon tried one as well... and consequently left half of the meat on it with a credulous "how do you do that?" at the clean-picked ribs that I leave behind... ?

 

 

In random news: brother-in-law had taken a picture of Floeffie, our oldest cat, a while ago. A picture that wound up becoming something of a running gag here, as it could give "grumpy cat" a run for its money.

He now had a shopping bag made with the picture on it, as well as a T-shirt he intends to wear at metal concerts... ?

 

This is the picture:

 

Even now, the kids are in stitches by seeing this picture on my screen... ?

[Qnobi]

5 hours ago, TimovieMan said:

and consequently left half of the meat on it with a credulous "how do you do that?" at the clean-picked ribs that I leave behind.

 

This happens in my home with corn on the cob. Of course, it may be that no one else cares about their sloppy cobs and feels a little corn wastage is acceptable. Still. 

[fleaball]

over here lurking, don't mind me.

[Mad Hatter]

On 10/18/2024 at 9:06 PM, TimovieMan said:

In random news: brother-in-law had taken a picture of Floeffie, our oldest cat, a while ago. A picture that wound up becoming something of a running gag here, as it could give "grumpy cat" a run for its money.

He now had a shopping bag made with the picture on it, as well as a T-shirt he intends to wear at metal concerts... ?

That's hilarious, love it!

[Salinger]

Hey Timo, you sound really well!!!

 

35k steps. Wow bloody hell!!!!!! Xx

 

Ps. I'm a poet.

[Darciana]

Hi hi! This sounds like a great experiment and I'm excited to see the progress you make with this method!

[TimovieMan]

Weekend recap:

 

Topped Friday off with a bag of crisps.

 

Took TimovieDaughter to an extra football practice on Saturday morning. The trainer rightfully cancelled all competitive matches because too many players are new and the team's just not ready yet. So every match they would have had at home is now an extra practice session.

Since it was just training, I didn't stick around to watch and went for a walk around the lake. It's adjacent to the football grounds.

 

Trip to the recycling center in the afternoon. Lazy evening with the kids (as Mrs. Movieman went out with friends).

 

Mrs. Movieman took her godchild to a children's show on Sunday - and TimovieSon went with them (but he regretted it afterwards - he was at least twice as old as the target audience).
I stayed at home with TimovieDaughter, and made a batch of waffles and pancakes for when Mrs. Movieman'd return.

 

While I did pretty solidly calorie-wise, a LOT of the calories over the weekend were carbs, so ultimately not the healthiest of weekends. But at least no food extravaganza.

 

 

Worked from home yesterday, at the office today.

These two days have somehow been filled with work appreciation for me.

 

The coworker that sits in front of me at the office was in a meeting with our managers about a data project. When they requested a new bit of data to be added to a large working list, they started arguing about who could pull that data, and how they were going to process it. Management didn't listen when my coworker pointed out that *I* would be able to do that, and they just continued arguing. So she worked proactively and started a chat session with me. By the time management had decided to put the new data in a separate file in the project folder, they were baffled to find that the data was already there.

 

Got a call in the afternoon from another colleague who apologized in advance for having me revisit an older ticket, but then he proceeded to explain in detail how important my data exports are for his team securing a major sales contract, and giving feedback on why we needed to revisit that ticket. Hardly anyone ever does that, and I greatly appreciate people telling me why something is urgent instead of just saying it's urgent without explanation.

 

And then today we had a department meeting with all teams - including the team that's across the country and the team in the US. Basically we had 4 different speakers explaining the biggest / most impactful projects they were working on... and ALL of them were using my data, and namedropped me specifically - to an audience of 100+ - as being a huge help. I didn't even know the projects were that important for half of them. I was just doing my job.

But it certainly made me feel like the centre of the department. 😇

 

After that meeting, I get back to my desk, and there's an email waiting for me with a request for a status update on a ticket from last week (without specified deadlines, I basically have two weeks to handle tickets, to give me leeway in my own planning). The wording was "how is my superhero doing with my question?".

 

Let's just say that job satisfaction is pretty high at the moment... 😁

[TimovieMan]

Walk to Mordor

 

Distance walked last week: 42.23 km (26.24 miles)
Road to Mordor: total 1461.0 miles - Rauros to Mount Doom - Mar. 3 - Day 8 since Rauros

Quote

Climb a long shallow slope.
Gully curves away north, then west back to the marshes.
Hide again during day (March 3).
Creep forward as dark falls. Bitter, parched air. Unknown to them, Battle of Helm’s Deep rages far to the west.

Land rises in a long slope: arid moors of the Noman-lands.
Descend a steeper hill face.
Land rises in another long slow climbing slope.
Still on the moors.

 

 

 

In random news: I forgot to weigh in on Friday. Need reminders for this, now that I'm no longer working from home on Fridays.

 

Also burnt my left index finger while making pancakes on Sunday. Grabbed the pan's handle too close to the pan itself (where the handle was iron instead of rubber).

Nothing Flammazine and gauze couldn't alleviate - after keeping my finger under cold running water for a while. The burn's hardly visible any more.

 

In hindsight, I kind of wish I had made more of a fuss about the burn, if only to show the kids that just dealing with it is better than whining about it... 😅

Although overselling it would negate that point entirely. 😏

 

 

 

Here are two songs.

The first one is the main theme for the game 'Cyberpunk 2077', the other is Daft Punk's 'The Grid' from the 'Tron: Legacy' soundtrack.

Because the beginning of the former reminds me so much of the latter, but I can't seem to find any others expressing the same online, so it might just be in my head. What do you guys think??? 😋

 

Marcin Przybyłowicz - V's Theme

 

Daft Punk - The Grid

 

Basically, after about 14 seconds in the main menu for Cyberpunk 2077, I start hearing Jeff Bridges going "The Grid. A digital frontier..." 😅

[Mad Hatter]

12 hours ago, TimovieMan said:

The coworker that sits in front of me at the office was in a meeting with our managers about a data project. When they requested a new bit of data to be added to a large working list, they started arguing about who could pull that data, and how they were going to process it. Management didn't listen when my coworker pointed out that *I* would be able to do that, and they just continued arguing. So she worked proactively and started a chat session with me. By the time management had decided to put the new data in a separate file in the project folder, they were baffled to find that the data was already there.

LOL sounds all too familiar. Usually I was in the meetings as well, actually solving the problem while management was jabbering away. Sometimes in meetings with 50+ people. 🙄

 

12 hours ago, TimovieMan said:

Hardly anyone ever does that, and I greatly appreciate people telling me why something is urgent instead of just saying it's urgent without explanation.

That is really cool! Especially when everyone comes to you with their urgent problems and it's all the most urgent. 😛 

 

12 hours ago, TimovieMan said:

But it certainly made me feel like the centre of the department. 😇

That's awesome! Even if it seems like you get a lot of Dilbert moments at least you get really appreciated for your good work. It makes such a big difference!

 

11 hours ago, TimovieMan said:

Also burnt my left index finger while making pancakes on Sunday.

Most important question - what kind of pancakes?

[Snarkyfishguts]

OMG you ARE a superhero! I love that you are getting recognized for your hard work and know-how.  

 

I love the cat photo, and it's definitely so metal!

[TimovieMan]

2 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

LOL sounds all too familiar. Usually I was in the meetings as well, actually solving the problem while management was jabbering away. Sometimes in meetings with 50+ people. 🙄

I love working with people who just get shit done instead of tirelessly discussing things.

 

Best project I've ever done was adapting our project management tool with a template specifically for the editing team. The editing team lead had an idea of what he wanted, and I knew what the project management tool was capable of. He gave an outline of all the things he wanted, with a workflow and steps for each part of the flow.

I analysed this, and sent him an email with over 50 questions on it. Mainly suggestions, questions for more detail, or giving him multiple possible options to choose from.

He replied by answering every single one of my questions, putting his answers in colour in my own mail.

We went back-and-forth for three more mails, and the project was ready for development.

 

Then I had a meeting with the admin for the tool, and instead of hearing me out on everything I'd prepared (and then doing the work afterwards), he just did it "live" with me next to him.

 

Management had given us three months to set this up. We were up-and-running in less than a week. 🤘

And this was despite me and that team lead being 7 time zones apart, so only having two hours of overlapping working hours each day.

 

2 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

That is really cool! Especially when everyone comes to you with their urgent problems and it's all the most urgent. 😛 

The fun part of that is: I can make my own planning. I have zero shame in admitting that I work on a case-by-case basis. The "urgent" of colleagues that are thankful, or that I perceive as capable, is FAR more urgent than the "urgent" from those colleagues whose symptoms I looked up, and found they weren't neuro-divergent, just idiots. 😅

And I got my previous and current team lead to go along with this. So *I* determine what's urgent and what's not... 😈

 

2 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

That's awesome! Even if it seems like you get a lot of Dilbert moments at least you get really appreciated for your good work. It makes such a big difference!

I have a tendency to play up both the idiocy in colleagues as well as the competency.

It's just baffling when both of these mix in the same person. Either "that's unusual for him/her" or "could he/she finally be learning?"... 😊

 

2 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

Most important question - what kind of pancakes?

I'm Belgian, so it's the thin, large, crêpe kind:

[Sepherina]

37 minutes ago, TimovieMan said:

I love working with people who just get shit done instead of tirelessly discussing things.

I feel this in my bones all the time at work.  

 

Following!

[Heidi]

On 10/18/2024 at 8:58 AM, TimovieMan said:

Total tally for yesterday: 21.8 km (13.5 mi) in dedicated walks (which count on the Road to Mordor), and a total of 35K steps. Possibly the highest amount since I track them with my Fitbit. Definitely top-3. 

Holy Moly, well done Sir!

I think my highest step day is 12.5 miles, and that was a distant while ago.

 

Are you joining the West Marches side campaign? Looks like there's a walking group gathering at the Emberwood Inn.