[Artemis Prime]

Level 6!!!!

 

Some fun, new developments with a new level, but the basics have not changed, starting with the Big Three goals:

 

1. Become an ordained deacon in the ACNA

For this challenge, this will mostly mean staying up to date with my systematic theology readings, but also covers my psych eval on Nov. 15, the diocesan conference on Nov 2, meeting with my Spiritual Director Nov 13. Ongoing things here include building a weekly journalling habit and transitioning back to the full Morning Prayer liturgy.

 

2. Strength GainZ

Candito is not really working out for me quite as well as I had hoped, I think mainly because linear progression is not sustainable for me at this point. So yay for leveling up my lifting, I guess, even though what it really means is that I'm past the easy gains stage. I'm still going to stick with Candito for this challenge, though, aiming to add weight every other week. I'm also shooting for 4 workouts/week, looking something like:

Heavy Upper Day - Monday or Tuesday at the gym

Heavy Squat Day - Tuesday or Wednesday at the gym

Volume Upper Day - Thursday or Friday either gym or home

Heavy Deadlift Day - Friday or Saturday at home

 

3. Finish Barndominium

The main focus here continues to be getting electric run. A lot of that is dependent on other people's availability, so I'll also be setting tiny weekly goals for myself to keep picking away at things and making progress. Projects may or may not include finishing the deck rail, putting up the barn ceiling, finishing hay storage area, and framing interior apartment walls.

[Artemis Prime]

Not going to do a full mechanics write up this time around, but just highlighting a few things:

 

Exploration
They moved the Thanksgiving 5k my brother and I usually do from Thursday to Saturday, which doesn't really work with his travel schedule, so it's looking like the 5k isn't happening this time. (I mean, I could still do it, but I mostly just did it to be sociable with him.) I've decided my first step to get back to a regular running habit and specifically pursuing a faster mile time is first to get some baseline pacing back, starting with 37sec 100s until I am consistently nailing the time. What I haven't decided is if I'm going to try to do that this challenge or not, so for now it's not a goal, just a "let's see how it goes" kind of thing.

 

Social
My batteries have been feeling low lately, so I've been avoiding social things, but I feel like they may be too low now and what I really need is a jump start. I don't have any big social plans this challenge, but I am going to work on touching base with some people I haven't talked to much recently.

 

Cantrips
I touched on this in my old challenge, swapping Mending out for Shape Water to bump my hydration a little. Light is going to be more of a priority this time, and my attacks will deal an extra 1d6 radiant damage on days I got my Light point. My opponents will have disadvantage on their Word of Radiance saving throw on days I do the full Morning Prayer liturgy. Toll the Dead will get a bump with shorter days and me needing to do more productive inside things than slop on the couch wth my phone as soon as the sun sets.

 

Spells

No real changes here, just an added Level 3 slot with the level up.

 

Channel Divinity
I now get 2 uses of Channel Divinity per short rest, but the mechanics of turn undead and preserve life haven't changed.

 

CON Boost
I don't think I've been making full use of the in-game boosts I can use as rewards, and I realized when calculating my new hit points (44!) that my constitution bonus is 0, so this challenge I am giving myself the opportunity to do something about that. When I was originally planning the whole cleric theme, I thought I'd be moving into my own apartment a lot quicker and cooking was supposed to be a bigger part of it. That hasn't happened, but my goal this challenge is to cook dinner once/week for Create Food and Water. That combined with my Shape Water points means I'll have a total point goal for hydration and nutrition this challenge of 185. If I reach 80% of my goal (148 points) my CON stat will go up by +1. If I hit 90% (166) it will go up by +2. I don't expect to hit 100%, but just for funsies, if I do, we'll say I get a +3 to CON.

 

Skill Checks

A new development! Partially to make my character skill proficiencies relevant, partially to get more points as levelling up becomes harder, and partially to recognize the stuff I do that doesn't directly tie into the challenge, each day I can choose to make a DC10 skill check if there is something I have done that I would like to recognize but don't have a challenge mechanic for. On a successful check, I get 5 points. On a failed check, I can't roll that skill again until I've made a check using a different skill. So for example, Tuesday I exercised my horse and made a successful Animal Handling check. Yesterday we processed meat birds, which netted me a successful Survival check. As with any new mechanic, it will probably need tweaked over time, but for now it's a fun new addition I'm enjoying playing with.

[Artemis Prime]

My Level 6 opponent will be the Wight

 

They have a ranged longbow attack, but I'm not sure yet if that will be coming into play. We'll be getting up close and personal with melee attacks. The Wight makes two longsword attacks, or one longsword attack and one life drain attack. If I miss one of my scheduled workouts with a solid reason, the Wight makes 2 longsword attacks. If I miss a workout because I just can't be bothered, the Wight makes one longsword attack and one life drain attack. 

 

Those hits are nasty, and I had to put my Kensui weight vest reward from last challenge on hold due to vehicle repairs, so I'm making it up for it by giving my character a chain shirt, upping my AC to 17.

Wights also have Sunlight Sensitivity, so if I miss a workout but get my Light point, the Wight makes its attacks at disadvantage. 

 

The Wight is a CR 3 monster, so I get 700 points every time I take one of these bad boys down, but not so fast. Each Wight can control up to 12 Zombies, so before I fight a Wight, I have to kill 1d12 Zombies to get to them. Our first Wight has 5 Zombies under its command.

 

 

The Zombies get an attack whenever I miss Morning Prayer, and have Undead Fortitude, which means they might not stay dead unless I kill them with radiant damage or a critical hit.

[sylph]

12 minutes ago, Artemis Prime said:

Level 6!!!!

[Sovalis]

Woohoo Level 6!! Excited to cheer you on and follow the adventure!

 

[Everstorm]

[Heidi]

2 hours ago, Artemis Prime said:

cook dinner once/week for Create Food and Water.

I have a lot of low-cook / no-cook recipes and methods. If this would help while you are still not in your apartment yet, I'm happy to talk more about this. Equipment is usually only a crock pot and refrigerator, and sometimes a rice steamer (helpful but not essential) and the electricity to run them. 

 

woohoo for barndemonium!

always excited by what's going on in the barn and on the farm.

here to cheer you on.

❤️ 

[Artemis Prime]

I didn't talk about point goals! I'd like to stick with leveling up every 3 challenges, which means I need 3,000 points this time to hit 17,000 total. That's a stretch goal, though, and next challenge is a shorter one, which will also throw things off. So, to level up in 4 challenges, I need 2,250 points which would put me at 16,250. If I hit that, I can buy a fun new lanyard for my fun, new work badge. (The badge isn't actually fun, it's very plain, but new job, new badge, seems like it calls for a new lanyard.) If I get to 17,000, I can buy a set of change plates.

 

A little bit of Zero Week wrap up:

Finished my last week in my old job, which was a bit bittersweet, starting in a new department on Monday. I'm excited about the job portion of the new position, as it's a major step up for me, which will be reflected in the paycheck. But I am going to miss the people here, even though I'm just going one floor down in the same building. Perhaps some of my social goals for this challenge will be staying in touch with old coworkers.

 

Going to a noon Eucharist in a few minutes and then working on fencing this evening. Tomorrow I'll deadlift and have class in the morning, then hitting the fencing hard in the afternoon. Need to get every squared away because Sunday I am going to look at a new horse! And then we hit Monday and the challenge begins in earnest.

 

Artemis Prime starts the long, lonely trek back to civilization. She had enjoyed her summer of solitude on the shore and been comfortable here, but there was work that needed done, and it was time to move on to something else. She had not been walking long when she spied a Wight with its Zombies. She hit one heavily with a mace, but they kept dodging her Word of Radiance blasts. She sighed as she walked onward. "This would be much easier if I had a horse."

[Artemis Prime]

1 hour ago, Heidi said:

I have a lot of low-cook / no-cook recipes and methods. If this would help while you are still not in your apartment yet, I'm happy to talk more about this. Equipment is usually only a crock pot and refrigerator, and sometimes a rice steamer (helpful but not essential) and the electricity to run them. 

Thank you, but I have access to a full kitchen, the problem is it is my mother's kitchen, and she is fiercely territorial about it. As long as I plan ahead and make sure she wasn't planning to be using the oven or what have you while I have it, though, I can usually make it work.

[Ranger Hal]

Here for all the stuff!

[Artemis Prime]

Good morning! Enjoyed the noon Eucharist yesterday, leaving my office at the end of the day really wasn't that bad, since I'm really just going one floor away, and made solid fencing progress in the evening. 

 

Porting my fencing list over from last challenge for things I would like to have done before bringing a new horse in:

Fencing Milestones, Sanctuary points for each task done:

Remove fenceposts Done on Wednesday! And it's so satisfying. I'm going to start putting temporary fences up everywhere just so I can pop the fenceposts back out. 

Clear exterior fence Done yesterday! I love my new fence line trimmer, should have bought that thing years ago.

Run hot line at top of exterior fence - with the fence cleared, it's hitting pretty good right now, so this has been bumped down the priority list a bit. If I have time before a new horse comes, I'll still put it up, but won't delay transport just because this isn't done. Actually got all the stuff thinking I may not get a new horse until Spring, and wanted the extra hot line to keep my gelding from getting any ideas about going to search for buddies. If he ends up having a buddy right in the pasture with him, this isn't a problem.

Clear interior fence line This is today's job, and I'm not looking forward to it. But it will be very nice when it's done.

Run new interior fence line Ideally would be done today, but that depends on how clearing goes. Once the line is cleared, stringing new fence should go smoothly.

 

Deadlifts at 9, class at 10, fence work for the rest of the day. Sneak some breaks in there to work my horse and read. And maybe nap.

 

Shaping up to be a beautiful day here, hope all of you can have a beautiful day as well, whatever the weather!

[Radost]

Level 6! Following to see you put this Wight back in its grave!

[Harriet]

Good luck with the continuing ordainment, liftment and barnment! Oh and radiant damage sounds so appropriately clerical but also like the ultimate high fashion effect. *blinded* by glamour!

[Artemis Prime]

18 hours ago, Harriet said:

Oh and radiant damage sounds so appropriately clerical but also like the ultimate high fashion effect. *blinded* by glamour!

I shall bedazzle them with my gem-encrusted mace!

[Artemis Prime]

Saturday Report

Deadlifts went well. My rubber flooring which was a reward from a previous challenge was finally delivered. It's a big step up from what I was using, and additional blocks will definitely be going on the reward list for future challenges.

Class was fine. My professor tends to just ramble on, but there's lots of good stuff in there if you can follow the thread.

Got lots of fence work done, interior line cleared and up. Also worked my horse, read a chapter of The Hobbit, and went pumpkin shopping.

 

Sunday Report

Was chalice bearer today and then we had our annual meeting. I nipped out pretty quick after it wrapped up to go look at a horse. He was...fine. They haven't been doing much with him, I wasn't super impressed until they told me he hadn't been ridden in 5 weeks, and then I thought he really didn't do bad for sitting that long. His feet need a trim, but they weren't terribly long yet. His ground manners are terrible. but I can fix that, and he settled in pretty quick once I was in the saddle. So I remained very noncommittal, but I am thinking about making an offer on him. I don't usually do a lot of bartering for things, but they couldn't even be bothered to knock the mud off him before saddling him for me, so I don't mind lowballing them. Trying to make arrangements to go see a few more next weekend, if none of them are the one, I'll probably call this guy back up and make an offer.

 

Zero Week went pretty well, didn't do any barndominium work but got lots of fencing done, think I might make it a regular practice to take a break from the apartment for Zero Week and catch up on other farm chores that are suffering from my attention being on construction. I got Shape Water every day, only did the full Morning Prayer liturgy once, Light was hit or miss. Had plans to cook dinner tonight, but horse shopping meant I got home too late. I did not get my alarm clock moved, but I suspect I'll be up and at them early this week with the new job to get to, even without changing the set up.

 

Since the site might be down for maintenance tomorrow, going to go ahead and post the outline for Week One, although tomorrow is my first day in the new job, so I'm leaving myself the option of noping out of anything if I'm too fried by the end of the day.

 

Ordination - Just class work here for this week

Strength - gym workout on Mon/Tues and home workouts on Thurs/Sat

Barndominium - electric company is supposed to come stake the line this week, need to follow up with them tomorrow, if weather is nice I'll put the bottom rail for the deck up, otherwise I'll start clearing stuff inside to make room for interior walls.

 

Monday - workout at lunch, oiling my truck after work

Tuesday - workout at lunch, dinner with my sister

Wednesday - noon Eucharist, probably helping my neighbor, otherwise class reading and apartment work

Thursday - class reading at lunch, workout in the evening, have the house to myself so just enjoying the quiet

Friday - class reading at lunch, maybe Forbidden Lands in the evening

Saturday - workout in the morning, then class, then hopefully horse shopping

Sunday - church, then a free afternoon. Barn work, horse work, chill

[Salinger]

Morning AP

 

Your challenge is looking great.

 

I hope your offer for the new horse is accepted. What a life he will have with you.

 

What will you read to him?

 

Xx

[starpuck]

Your challenge format is nerdy, and I love it.

I might be biased though.  You're sort of all around amazing and so it comes with the territory.

Speaking of territory... found myself back in this here territory.

Just need to find a place to long rest....

 

[Artemis Prime]

On 10/20/2024 at 11:56 PM, Salinger said:

 

I hope your offer for the new horse is accepted. What a life he will have with you.

Thanks, Sal. I like to think my animals have it pretty good. May not be getting that one anymore, but first, some updates while we let the suspense build!

 

 

2 hours ago, starpuck said:

Your challenge format is nerdy, and I love it.

I might be biased though.  You're sort of all around amazing and so it comes with the territory.

Speaking of territory... found myself back in this here territory.

Just need to find a place to long rest....

 

PUCK!!! The forums are always open to the weary traveler in need of rest. Except for, y'know, when they're down for maintenance, but we won't talk about that. Always pleased to have another online space to hang out with one of my favorite people.

 

 

Welcome back, Friends! I know it was less than two days, but I missed y'all. Here's what's been happening:

 

Monday Report!
First day at the new job. Farmland Preservation Coordinator may be back next week, but until then I'm a bit at loose ends. They currently have me cleaning up old files, and apologizing for the busy work, but I actually enjoy organizing, and I'd much rather be busy. It was 4:00 before I knew it. So far everyone's been friendly. Don't have quite the same camaraderie as upstairs, but that's because people have a lot more work to do down here, so less goofing off time, and excessive downtime was one of the reasons I made the move. Also my new boss has told me three times already how happy he is that I'm in his department now and plenty of other people are excited about the backlog I am currently clearing, and in general it just feels good to be busy and productive. Also, as predicted, my worktime snacking has dropped to almost zero. I know it won't always be like this and any job has its lulls, but day after day of watching the tock click starts to wear on you. Did feel a bit of a twinge when they confiscated my Human Services badge, though.

Got a workout in, did OHP seated and that felt better. Switched pull downs out for lat prayers. It's a new movement, so need to futz with it some to figure it all out, but I like the change. Landed a solid hit on the Zombie, with extra radiant damage because I got my Light point. Also did full Morning Prayer for Word of Radiance damage and got my Shape Water point, as well as an Animal Handling point for spending time with my horse and dog in the evening, and got my truck oiled. A full day, but I think I'm really going to notice a difference at home from not battling inertia at work all day.

 

Tuesday Report!

Light point, Word of Radiance, had a bit of an epiphany during morning chores which led to some journalling and Zone of Truth points, which reinforces @Heidi's wise point that chores are useful for more than just feeding animals. Work went smoothly for day two, there was a bit of a snafu upstairs which I helped out with a little bit (just shared a document I had because their copy got corrupted) and it stills feels a bit odd to not be all in on fixing stuff for them. Another good workout, another solid Zombie hit, so it is currently sitting at 2hp and hopefully Morning Prayer tomorrow will finish it off.

 

And finally for my last bit of exciting news...on Saturday I am going to test ride this beautiful girl:

 

Gotta go in cautiously, 'cause horse traders be the originally sketchy car dealers, but man oh man, I want her!

Might test ride a gelding while I'm there for a friend of mine, which would be super if it worked out for both of us, because then she could haul mine at the same time she picks up hers. But we shall see. 

[Ranger Hal]

I'm excited for all the potential new horses!

[sylph]

2 hours ago, Artemis Prime said:

lat prayers

this is new to me too. 

from what I've gathered from the internet it seems like kind of a hybrid pulldown/row + body English/torso movement?

[starpuck]

6 hours ago, Artemis Prime said:

Gotta go in cautiously, 'cause horse traders be the originally sketchy car dealers, but man oh man, I want her!

 

"You gotta see a guy about a horse?"

Hahaha, I've always wanted to use that in proper context!

 

Fingers crossed.

[Harriet]

On 10/21/2024 at 2:53 AM, Artemis Prime said:

I nipped out pretty quick after it wrapped up to go look at a horse. He was...fine. They haven't been doing much with him, I wasn't super impressed until they told me he hadn't been ridden in 5 weeks, and then I thought he really didn't do bad for sitting that long. His feet need a trim, but they weren't terribly long yet. His ground manners are terrible. but I can fix that, and he settled in pretty quick once I was in the saddle. So I remained very noncommittal, but I am thinking about making an offer on him. I don't usually do a lot of bartering for things, but they couldn't even be bothered to knock the mud off him before saddling him for me, so I don't mind lowballing them. Trying to make arrangements to go see a few more next weekend, if none of them are the one, I'll probably call this guy back up and make an offer.

 

 

Do you actually want this horse, even at a lower price? Is he a good horse? What makes a horse good at the foundational level, versus things that can be trained or fixed?

 

9 hours ago, Artemis Prime said:

And finally for my last bit of exciting news...on Saturday I am going to test ride this beautiful girl:

 

Ooooh, pretty! She does look very cute with the patches.

[Artemis Prime]

12 hours ago, Ranger Hal said:

I'm excited for all the potential new horses!

Me too!!!!

 

10 hours ago, sylph said:

this is new to me too. 

from what I've gathered from the internet it seems like kind of a hybrid pulldown/row + body English/torso movement?

If I'm doing it correctly (caveat that I may not be!) there's much less elbow flexion involved than with a pulldown or a row, and I think you want to keep the body English to a minimum, but some is needed to avoid hitting yourself in the face with the cable. I haven't watched this full video, but he talks about lat prayers starting at about 13:00 (warning for Mike Israetel's often inappropriate jokes.)

 

Exercise Scientist's Top 5 Back Exercises

 

6 hours ago, starpuck said:

 

"You gotta see a guy about a horse?"

Hahaha, I've always wanted to use that in proper context!

 

Fingers crossed.

Hahahaha! I actually used that line on Sunday, when I left church kind of in a hurry and someone asked me where I was going and I said, "I have to see a man about a horse!"

 

4 hours ago, Harriet said:

Do you actually want this horse, even at a lower price? Is he a good horse? What makes a horse good at the foundational level, versus things that can be trained or fixed?

I'm on the fence about whether I want the horse or not, but a lower price is a big selling point. I suspect he is a good horse, since he did pretty decent for me despite not being prepared properly or knowing me at all. His conformation was decent, though not great, and even though he's pushy he doesn't seem bad-minded, so I think all he needs is someone to push him back and he'd be happy to not be in charge. Attitude and innate talent are really the only things that can't be fixed at all, but some things are easier to fix than others, and for all I want to do with him, he doesn't need that much talent. I'm more concerned about finding something with a good attitude than a fancy mover. He checks a lot of boxes, the only thing that somewhat concerns me is when I first got there he seemed like he was looking for something to spook at, which is one of those things that can be fixed, but I really don't want to. On the other hand, he never did actually spook, and he settled down as I worked him, so I suspect if I brought him home and let him settle in and develop some trust in me, he'd be a pretty solid horse. But with all that said, I don't think I'm going to put an offer on him even if the mare doesn't work out. I think he'd be a very good horse for me at a different time, but right now I really need something solid that isn't going to take much work from me to keep them that way.

 

 

 

Keep forgetting to post my Winter is Coming Sidequest!

<insert obligatory GoT gif here>

 

Winter is coming, and before it gets here I need to shore up my chicken coop. Sanctuary points for each item on the list done:

Remove old siding

Replace front siding

Replace back siding

Install new door

Install new windows

 

 

[sylph]

1 hour ago, Artemis Prime said:

If I'm doing it correctly (caveat that I may not be!) there's much less elbow flexion involved than with a pulldown or a row, and I think you want to keep the body English to a minimum, but some is needed to avoid hitting yourself in the face with the cable. I haven't watched this full video, but he talks about lat prayers starting at about 13:00 (warning for Mike Israetel's often inappropriate jokes.)

huh. So more like a pullover kind of movement-ish, but standing/kneeling, rather than lying on a bench. I like pullovers, so 👍from me.

 

(the videos I found were apparently NOT doing this correctly...or doing some other movement entirely but calling it the same thing)

[Sepherina]

Here to follow my northern neighbor!  Loving the solid challenge you have!