Rooks - Tracking the Daily Grind...

[Rooks]

9 minutes ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

I wouldn't miss it. Think we could manage to pull a team together?

 

I know the guy I ran it with in 2015 seemed disappointed I didn't ask him, so he'd probably be in. @Gremlin I think was his account on here, but he only ever posted once and I think it was specifically to join the Clash of Clans NF Group.  

[Rooks]

Much like @The Most Loathed, it's been quite awhile since I posted anything. Guess holidays will do that. Let's rundown the days real quick.

 

Wednesday, 11/22 - Managed to get up early and head downstairs to hammer through a workout. Kiddo woke up half way through which was nice as I had wanted to do some barbell work, but it's too loud to do if she's sleeping. Anyway, workout was:

• GB Core
  • Failed miserably on everything as my core has regressed pretty far. It'll downgrade next time and self-regulate. 
• GB Legs
  • Still very easy.
• Bench - 45/5, 95/5, 135/5, 185/1, 195/1, 205/1, 155/10, 135/10

Very pleased that I can still top 200 with the bench and honestly, I'm probably still right around benching my body weight as 205 went up smooth. 

 

The rest of Wednesday was pretty blah as I just went to work where 1/2 the office was out on vacation and the other half wanted nothing to do with work so it was a pretty lazy day overall. Got home and just packed up to be ready to head out for the next's day journey.

 

Thursday, 11/23 - Again, got up early and did the GB Middle Split Stretch Routine. This was brutal as normal, especially on my right side. This may be TMI, but my upper inner leg muscles just sit and quiver after getting through this routine. 

 

After my promising morning though, we hopped into the car and journied west to the FIL's house. Overall, it was a good experience. They got us a hotel room for the night as they are smokers and my wife doesn't want kiddo sleeping in their house if possible. Worked out for the best as kiddo and I plus one of the niece-in-laws got to party in the hotel pool for a solid hour. 

 

Friday, 11/24 - Had debated about getting up early to hit the hotel gym for some HIIT type of workout (had a treadmill and some decent dumbbells), but kiddo woke up at 3:30am for the day. Worst of all, she was complaining about her leg really hurting so she didn't want to walk. Pretty much screwed all the plans up as we were exhausted. Had breakfast with the family again at 9am, then hit the road by 10:30. Kiddo was asleep by 11 and napped the whole ride home. 

 

Rest of the day was a pretty lazy day as we were all pretty tired from lots of car time and bad sleep.

 

Saturday, 11/25 & Sunday, 11/26 - Lumping these together because they were basically the same. Quiet days at home centered around cleaning the house, trying to get personal projects done, and trying to maintain sanity. Lately, days spent at home with the kiddo have been stressful to say the least. We have at least 1 or 2 "battles" per day centered around some completely insane thing which results in her just screaming at my wife and I for 20-40 minutes before she, like a light switch, instantly calms down, apologizes and wants to hug and snuggle us again. If people jumped out and said "You're on candid camera!" I wouldn't be shocked. It honestly feels like she's playing us. I'm sure it's just her acting out plus her being grumpy about her leg still hurting (its getting better everyday) and testing boundaries and all that crap, but, UGH! It gets old fast. 

 

Anyway, those battles took a lot of my wife and I and we both probably ended up drinking more than we should have both nights after getting kiddo to bed which of course just makes you feel shittier the next day and you have less patience to deal with it the next time. Probably for the best that we are all back to normal and getting some time away from each other. 

 

Saturday, I did manage to mash out a GB Upper Body workout in about 15 minutes. Also, been making good progress on some simple projects I'm doing for things. A set of "washers" for my truck. One of my repairs I ended mangling some of the metal in the truck bed, so I picked up some cheap steel at the local steel yard and I'm custom making some 2" x 4" washers to make sure that the truck bed is securely mounted to the frame. The regular round ones were bending pretty hard as I approached 100 ft/lbs of pressure. Simple enough, but requires cutting, grinding, drilling, then painting since I'm not using stainless steel.

 

Another project I started on Sunday is that I'm trying to restore a toy my dad had as a kid. I found it in their attic when I was doing some cleaning for them and I thought that'd be a cool gift for him once it's done. It's in pretty rough shape so it'll be fun to see how much well I can repair it. Once I get it completely disassembled, I might call around to see if a blasting shop can clean up all the parts for me just to make it easier. We'll see. I'm getting excited about the project which is good as it means I should have the motivation to finish it. 

 

Random Thoughts - Damn, Wendler is so great in his simplicity. I think @Machete shared this article recently, but seemed to hit right at home when I read it.

 

https://jimwendler.com/blogs/jimwendler-com/101066118-time-to-man-up

[Rooks]

Just a quick recap of the week so far. Nothing too exciting. Monday was nothing. Tuesday was a repeat of last Wednesday with slightly heavier bench sets.

• GB Core
  • Got through the Bent Hollow Holds and Russian Twists, but I suck at Tuck-ups. I can't figure out if they are meant to be a dynamic move or strict. 
• GB Legs
  • Still easy. 
• Bench - 45/5, 95/5, 135/3, 165/3, 195/1, 215/1, 185/3 x 3, 185/6
  • 215 felt good as well. And I was stoked to get 6 on the last set of 185. Pleased with where my bench is at right now. 

Wednesday and Thursday both saw me get up early, get downstairs and not do anything. Really gotta figure out a proper morning routine that can get me straight into my workouts. 

 

Tonight is swimming lessons, so that'll be fun and I'm going to do everything in my power to get downstairs and hammer through a GB Front Split stretch routine after kiddo's bed time tonight.

 

Then tomorrow morning will hopefully GB Upper Body and some squats. Saturday and Sunday will be stretch days with hopefully a small HIIT workout sprinkled in before a stretch workout one day. Anyone got any solid HIIT KB workouts? Say 15 minutes long? Maybe something EMOM or something like that? I'm a noob with them so appreciate any input, @Machete and @The Most Loathed specifically. I swear I'm not going to tag you guys in every post I do, by the way.  

[The Most Loathed]

last night I did snatch left, burpee, snatch right, mountain climber, starting each exercise EMOM. If you can alot 16 minutes that's 4 rounds and you will be super done. 

I also like "kettlebell complexs"  like Swing>Snatch>Swing>Clean>Squat>Swing>Clean>Press>Hand 2 Hand Toss>repeat until your time is gone. 

[Machete]

On 11/30/2017 at 11:19 AM, The Most Loathed said:

last night I did snatch left, burpee, snatch right, mountain climber, starting each exercise EMOM. If you can alot 16 minutes that's 4 rounds and you will be super done.

 

I got lightheaded just thinking about it.

 

On 11/30/2017 at 11:19 AM, The Most Loathed said:

I also like "kettlebell complexs"  like Swing>Snatch>Swing>Clean>Squat>Swing>Clean>Press>Hand 2 Hand Toss>repeat until your time is gone. 

 

I like complexes as well. I try to find a few, but (probably because I'm boring and dislike High Pulls) I always just end up with either Armor Building or Deep Six.

[The Most Loathed]

11 hours ago, Machete said:

I like complexes as well. I try to find a few, but (probably because I'm boring and dislike High Pulls) I always just end up with either Armor Building or Deep Six.

I may try armor building today. It seems straightforward if grindy. I couldn't figure out from the Instagram what Deep Six is. Care to elaborate?

 

Edit; ok so I figured out it as a video. Sorry, I don't do much instagram

3 each of 

swing

snatch

clean and press

front squat

 

1 TGU > transition

 

Do you do six rounds? Is that why it's the Deep Six?

I think you're pressing a 32 there which is pretty impressive if true. I've always been a little week on presses and don't think I can pull it off. 

[Machete]

9 hours ago, The Most Loathed said:

I may try armor building today. It seems straightforward if grindy. I couldn't figure out from the Instagram what Deep Six is. Care to elaborate?

 

Edit; ok so I figured out it as a video. Sorry, I don't do much instagram

3 each of 

swing

snatch

clean and press

front squat

 

1 TGU > transition

 

Do you do six rounds? Is that why it's the Deep Six?

I think you're pressing a 32 there which is pretty impressive if true. I've always been a little week on presses and don't think I can pull it off. 

 

I did 3, it's supposed to be 5. I'm not sure how many rounds, I just repeat until I'm done (usually 3-5). I believe it refers to the 6 basic movements in RKC/SF, with the Press and the Clean just executed as one.

 

The 'bell is a 28kg. (One of those nonstandard in-betweener ones that happened to come on sale.) I don't think I can pull off a 32. Haha

[Rooks]

Much appreciate the tips guys. I like all of those. I went with something similar to @The Most Loathed's but will probably try Deep 6 the next time. Although snatch is a bit sketchy in my basement as I can easily hit my ceiling if I don't get myself centered between joists. Stupid low ceiling. 

 

Friday 12/1 - Didn't get up early, but got home before everyone else and smashed out a workout quick. 

• GB Upper Body
  • Failed on the Scapular Shrugs as I slowed down the movement to more how their demo videos describe it. 
• Squats - 45/3, 95/3, 135/3, 185/1, 225/1, 275/0, 185/5 x 3
  • No sleeves, no belt, and barefoot. The Beta Alanine was in full swing by the time I got to my working sets. I was a bit bummed that 275 flattened me, but 185 was flying by the end. I almost went for an AMRAP set additionally, but very glad I didn't as I felt a bit light headed after this. Think I got a bit too hyped. 

Kiddo got to go home with grandma so that we could have a childless weekend. The Mrs and I shared a few tasty beers and went through one of our older bookshelves to clear out more junk in our house (it was going to be a theme of our weekend). Then we watched Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2. I really liked it. Snarky heroes are the best. The Mrs fell asleep about half way through. She has a tough time with action sequences that last longer than 5 minutes. 

 

Saturday 12/2 - Spent all morning going doing a basement cleaning. We took a whole trunk load of stuff to the Arc (Goodwill-esque shop here in the Cities), 2 giant tubs of baby clothes went to friends, and filled up our garbage bin and 1/2 our recycling bin with junk that we didn't need. Also, put a bunch of stuff up for sale on Craigslist and Ebay. It was good morning and our basement is SO much cleaner but still has a long way to go. 

 

For lunch, my wife had booked an appointment at a new a new pizza joint called Young Joni. Nice date for our kidless weekend. It was packed even being it was Saturday at 1pm. It was decent enough wood fired pizza, nothing mind blowing. Swung into Dangerous Man Brewing to buy a few crowlers afterwards and headed home to do a bit more cleaning (went through bins of old wires we had, so much just random crap). After that, it was off to help a buddy move some stuff. He needed to haul some chairs to his wife's office, then haul a electric piano back to his place from his parent's house, then load up a dresser that he was selling the next day. Simple enough, although sadly, nothing was heavy. Call me a masochist, but if I'm being asked to move stuff, let's move some stuff!   Was mostly driving around, chatting with him for like 3 hours. 

 

Got back home, and stupidly started hammering some pretty hefty beers. I drank too much. We did watch an episode of Firefly. I finally convinced my wife to give the show a shot. We are 3 episodes in and so far she hasn't complained about it other than she doesn't like that the show features a prostitute as one it's main characters. 

 

Sunday 12/3 - Even being slightly hung over, I managed to get up early and do something.

• EMOM w/ 20kg Bell - 20 2-handed KB Swings, 15 Goblet Squats, 5 Burpees
  • Went for 4 rounds and was pretty trashed. Really should have added more burpees and if I wasn't hung over, I might have.
• GB Thoracic Bridge Stretch Routine
  • This was more of an attempt. I got about 10 minutes in and just couldn't do anymore. Felt too much like garbage.

Had some coffee and food and I was feeling slightly better, so off to church. Got home from that, and did more cleaning around the house, although more the normal stuff (dishes, laundry, etc.). Watched a bit of the Vikings game and even got the see the end of the Packers game as they stole a victory. The Mrs took off to get kiddo from grandma's and I stayed home to pack up an Ebay sale I had, as well attempt to put a new belt on my car. The belt installation went poorly, but I think after some video research online today, I can fix that tonight.

Kiddo got home in rough shape. She slept like crap Saturday night at grandma's house, so much so that she stayed asleep as I carried her into the house even after sleeping most of the car ride home. Slept in my arms for a solid 90 minutes, at which point I attempted to wake her up for dinner. That was a mistake. It led to over 2 hours of her screaming at us, before we finally got her into pajamas and got her to lay down. She still seemed tired even this morning, but she was at least happy. 

 

Sometimes parenting is no fun and while weekend's at grandma's are great, the days following are usually pretty terrible. It's just a give and take. We had planned on decorating the Christmas tree last night, but hopefully it'll get done tonight. 

 

Hoping to get a workout in the next 4 mornings. Still toying with ordering, but I definitely learned last week that GB Front Split cannot be done the day (or even 2) before Squats. My calves get brutalized in that stretch routine to the point where I had DOMS for like 4 days. Just takes a load more warm ups and even then feels iffy.

[Rooks]

Monday 12/4 - Briefly chatted about it in my last post, but figured I'd recap it a bit for my own sanity. Kiddo was a snuggle monster at around 5:30am so I felt guilty about leaving her. Stayed in bed until 6:30 when her head shot off the pillow like a rocket and she looked me square in the eye "Dad! Is it time to get up now?"

 

We got up, and did our normal morning routine (she takes a medicine every morning which requires her to not eat for 60 minutes afterwards). The morning went fine. Don't remember much about it as I think I left for work fairly early (maybe 30 minutes after getting up). Work was nothing special. Just work. Although more and more I'm wondering if I'm truly doing something I care about it, or if I should start making a plan on where I want to move to next. I just finished up Rob Bell's How to be Here and it really got me thinking about doing something that I find meaningful. I'm thinking either custom fabrication or working at a hospital in some fashion. Not sure. Either way, it's more just an idea floating around at the moment. We are about 3-4 years away from having our house paid off, so I don't think I'll be doing anything until that is accomplished. And the whole insurance thing is sort of important so that would be a big factor in wherever I went. Anyway, I digress.

 

Swung into the auto parts store to rent a tool to fix my car on the way home from work. Took 30 minutes to do once I had the proper tool, a lesson that I always seem to forget in my arrogance. We were supposed to go to a friends house for dinner, but they cancelled due to a sick kiddo so we decorated the Christmas tree instead. It went splendidly. It was a great evening.

 

Tuesday 12/5 - Intended on getting up early to workout, but when I tried to get out of bed at 6am, kiddo woke up with me. I decided to be nice to my wife and hang with the kiddo. Morning drive was terrible with the new found snow and ice here in the Cities. Took me like 2 hours to run back to the auto parts store to return the tool, then get to work. The same drive took about 20 minutes the previous day.

 

Anyway, got through some morning meetings, then got a call at about 12:15 that kiddo was crying uncontrollably. Said her ear was hurting. My wife had a work shoot in the afternoon, and my schedule was pretty open so I drove over to her school, and took her to the doc. They gave her some antibiotics and said it was an ear infection. I was going to chat with them about whether it was worth using antibiotics, but kiddo really seem to like the idea of taking something to help her feel better.  So we cruised home, took some antibiotics, had a late lunch, and then I got her to lay down. She napped for a solid two and half hours. That was pleasant. 

 

After she got to bed, I went downstairs to workout. Started out with a little KB work as I was angry with my spouse about a stupid thing so I wanted to move some weights.

• KB Complex w/ 28kg KB - 5 Cleans + 1 Press w/ each arm EMOM x 6 rounds
  • 28kg was probably a bit much and my form was terrible. I was more just angry and looking to move weight. I have some pretty solid red marks on my shoulders from where I was catching the cleans today. 
• GB Middle Split Stretch Routine
  • Calmed down with a solid stretch routine. This one feels good. Only thing I can't really do at all is the final stretch called Roll throughs. Basically, pancake into lying on your stomach. I just have to come up too high to make them viable. 

Came upstairs and showered and went to bed.

 

Wednesday 12/6 - Got up early and decided to get back on track with my workouts even though kiddo had been up since 4am. My wife agreed since we were all awake. 

• GB Lower Body 
  • Easy again, it's 4 sets of 8 ATG squats. No weight. It's a pretty easy program.
• GB Core
  • Not sure what was going on here, but couldn't do anything here. Failed on all the sets. I was trying to hold a bit stricter on my form (like toes and knees together), but just bombed out of all 3 exercises. 
• Bench - 45/5, 95/5, 135/5, 185/1, 225/1 (w/ Slingshot), 225/3 (w/ Slingshot), 185/5 x 4
  • Again, feeling great here. Decided to slap on the slingshot for a little overload work before my working sets. I did end up putting on wrist wraps for my last two working sets. Kind of wanted to feel how it felt to bench with them again, and kind of noticed my left wrist cocking a bit in the 2nd set.

Afterwards, I showered up, and then had a super "fun" morning that entailed arguing with a 4 year old about how her "being sick" doesn't mean she gets to stay home and party all day with mom and dad. If she's sick, she needs to rest in her room most of the day, and if she feels good, she needs to go to school. She had no fever and no ear pain anymore, but holy crap, does she have a will of iron. I'm pretty sure I could systematically take ALL of her toys, and if she was in the right mode, she'd freeing let them all go and still stick to her guns. Normal punishment's don't work on her. She's definitely pushing my parenting skills to the next level. 

 

Finally got her out the door at 8:45 and left for work. There was a couple moments of intense anger this morning with her. 

[Laghail]

27 minutes ago, Rooks said:

We were supposed to go to a friends house for dinner, but they cancelled due to a sick kiddo so we decorated the Christmas tree instead. It went splendidly. It was a great evening.

 

Took me like 2 hours to run back to the auto parts store to return the tool, then get to work. The same drive took about 20 minutes the previous day.

 

She's definitely pushing my parenting skills to the next level. 

 

 

- I often feel guilty over how good it feels when a friend cancels and I spend the evening in pj pants

- Midwestern winters. It's not the cold, it's the variable drive times.

-  Progressive overload parenting?

[Laghail]

[WhiteGhost]

On 12/7/2017 at 12:43 AM, Rooks said:

had a super "fun" morning that entailed arguing with a 4 year old about how her "being sick" doesn't mean she gets to stay home and party all day with mom and dad. If she's sick, she needs to rest in her room most of the day, and if she feels good, she needs to go to school. She had no fever and no ear pain anymore, but holy crap, does she have a will of iron. I'm pretty sure I could systematically take ALL of her toys, and if she was in the right mode, she'd freeing let them all go and still stick to her guns. Normal punishment's don't work on her. She's definitely pushing my parenting skills to the next level. 

I was nodding my head in solidarity as I read this.  When Ghostlet was at that age we had a few bouts, but luckily he has now learned that when it comes to battles of wills, he isn't even in the same league as us.  On the flip side, however, he is cunning and has learned to get what he wants through negotiation, misdirection and other tactical maneuvers  

[Sylvaa]

Recommending this book. 

 

I've got one of those kids too. So solidarity. 

[Rooks]

On 12/6/2017 at 11:12 AM, Laghail said:

- I often feel guilty over how good it feels when a friend cancels and I spend the evening in pj pants

- Midwestern winters. It's not the cold, it's the variable drive times.

-  Progressive overload parenting?

 

I spend damn near every evening in sweat pants regardless of whether I'm going to a friends or not.  Maybe I should care more about my appearance. 

 

And the progressive overload parenting is so true, it's scary. Being a parent is not even close to easy, but it's most certainly made me a better person. 

 

And as for your comic, 

 

10 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

I was nodding my head in solidarity as I read this.  When Ghostlet was at that age we had a few bouts, but luckily he has now learned that when it comes to battles of wills, he isn't even in the same league as us.  On the flip side, however, he is cunning and has learned to get what he wants through negotiation, misdirection and other tactical maneuvers  

 

2 hours ago, Sylvaa said:

Recommending this book. 

 

I've got one of those kids too. So solidarity. 

 

I'm finding more and more the concept "flanking" her needs to be done. I can't let her attitude make me angry, so I meet anger with anger. That just leads to both of us pissed off and yelling at each other. When I can just stay calm, and inform her that her attitude is wrong and she needs to correct it before we can move forward with our day, things end so much better. But man is it hard. I just want to yell. It's what feels natural. 

 

I'll throw the book on my too read list, but I'll be honest. It's long right now.  But I've been making headway recently. 

=====

Quote

Rise, rise, rise, rise
It’s all or nothing
Rise, rise, rise, rise
It’s do or die
Rise, rise, rise

 

get up, get up
One life, one shot, give it all you got

(Yeah, yeah, yeah) get up, get up

 

Keep the flame alive

 

Hope for the hopeless, a light in the darkness
Hope for the hopeless, a light in the dark
We stand for the faithless and the broken
Hope for the hopeless, a light in, a light in the dark

 

Spotify just sent me a list of my listened to songs of 2017. This was my #1. I've listened to this song so many times this year. Starting at the section of lyrics listed above (2:37 of the video for reference), every time it hits me. The heart rate accelerates. The hairs on my arm stand up. Every single time. It's everything. The energy. The music. The lyrics. The huge bass just methodically hitting. The guttural scream of "RISE" repeated. Every time I think to myself, "Keep rising, no matter what. Be the hope for the hopeless. Because I refuse to be the hopeless."

 

 

Thursday 12/7 - Nothing to report on the fitness side of things. Kiddo had her first dentist appointment which went great. I guess dentist are super paranoid about doing things on chemo patients, but they found no issues with kiddo. She had a hard time with the x-rays (stupid bit down things they put in your mouth) but she toughed it out. I hate those things too as I have a massive gag reflex. After that though, we had a the final swimming lessons for the session we signed up for. It was pretty fun as the teachers just sort of gave us free pool time so we goofed around with a pool noddle and stuff. Then we got to go down the big water slide twice. It was another pretty spectacular evening. 

 

Friday 12/8 - Got up around 6am due to 20 minutes of prodding from kiddo. Then, she got grumpy and suddenly didn't want to do anything. Luckily, things deescalated quickly after I told her that I was going to go downstairs for a few minutes to get ready for my workout because that was important to me. I'd be back up stairs shortly and if she wanted to talk, we could, but I expected her to be capable of talking in a normal voice (i.e. no yelling or whining). Surprisingly, I came back up to find her smiling. "Dad. I'm in a happy mood now. Let's talk." So we chatted for a bit, got things figured out, and started our morning. Sadly, that took some time out of my morning, so I only got in squats. 

• Squats - 45/5, 95/5, 135/5, 185/5, 195/8 x 2
  • No sleeves, no belt, no shoes. Almost went for a 3rd set of 8, but it would have been brutal, and I was already running late for the day. 

Today, we have a work outing at Dave & Busters (an arcade bar place). The last time I was at one, it was alright, but it's a good time to get to know some of my co-workers better, so I'm sure it'll be at least alright. Weekend is pretty packed with activities so we'll see if I can manage to get in 2 more workouts. Current plan is to do GB Upper Body and GB Middle Split tomorrow morning, and then a KB routine with GB Thoracic Bridge on Sunday morning. 

 

Hope anyone reading this has a fantastic day and / or weekend. 

[Rooks]

Haven't really had any though provoking questions lately. I'll come up with something soon.

 

Saturday 12/9 - Like I mentioned in my previous post, weekend was pretty busy. Saturday morning we did some overall cleaning of the house, and the Mrs cleaned out our freezers (defrosted and organized). She was getting annoyed with how unorganized they were, and that's one of her pet peeves since she's the owner of the kitchen (for the most part). I hung out with kiddo for most of the morning. Played some board games and drawing. Nothing mind blowing, but it was fun. Mornings with her (after 9am) are usually pretty great. While kiddo was napping, I managed to hammer out a decent workout.

• GB Upper Body Workout
  • Nothing memorable.
• Turkish Getup - 16kg KB 1x each arm
  • Just wanted to see if i could do them. The hardest part for me most certainly was the initial rise from back to elbow. If I can strength that part of the movement, I think I can jump up to the 24kg easily enough since the rest of the movement seemed quite easy with the 16kg bell.
• GB Thoracic Bridge Stretch Routine
• 2k Steps w/ 50lb Weight Vest
  • Just wandered around the basement a bit since kiddo was still asleep and I wanted to listen to a bit of podcast.

Got cleaned up, and then we were off to visit one of my wife's friend's house with a bunch of other families, primarily one that was visiting from their home in the Dominican Republic. It was a good time, but we stayed too late, and kiddo got sleepy and grumpy. Such is life.

 

Sunday 12/10 - Sunday, we had to get up and be at church early since we were serving in the kids area today. I ended up causing an accident near the end of our time, as I was giving rides to kids on a big rolling chair and one of the boys fell off and landed face first in the floor. I felt terrible for a solid few hours. His mom said not to worry about it as he's pretty resilient and injures himself a lot (guess he's already broken his leg once and he's only 3). But yeah... still didn't really help my mood.

 

After church, I went over to one of my friend's houses for some football watching. A bunch of people from our Fantasy League were getting together just to hang out as we don't get together much anymore. Overall, I'll be surprised if I stick it out for another year. It was a fun day of just chilling. I managed to only consume 1 beer and not too much pizza and left there around 5pm. Got home and had a bit of salad that was part of our dinner. My wife started feeling terrible around 7pm so I put the kiddo through bath and bed and let her rest, then managed to get downstairs to hammer out a pre-sleep workout.

• EMOM - 10 KB Swing, 10 Goblet Squats, 10 Pushups, 10 Burpees - 2 rounds
  • Used a 28kg KB for the Swings and Squats. Overall, I'm going to scrap the Push-ups next time through and I think I'll put the Burpees first. This was more of my continued experiment with how I can use KBs to get some conditioning done without crushing my forearms (I'll get my clean and snatch form fixed eventually). 
• GB Front Split Stretch Routine

This was the first time I've gotten through all 6 "prescribed" GB routines in a single week. Pleased that I seem to getting some sort of rhythm going. Hopefully, I can keep rolling given how terrible I've been lately..

 

Monday 12/11 - Kiddo was up at 4:30am and my wife was feeling even more terrible, so I tackled the morning solo (she does it pretty much everyday and I have no idea how). When kiddo gets up early, she's usually starting to feel tired by 7:30am, just when we want to start getting ready. But I got her ready and out the door and still managed to get to work before 9am so I'll call it a win. 

 

Work was nothing special. I honestly don't know how I got through the day as I didn't really do anything, at least that's how it felt, and then suddenly it was 4pm. I did manage to go for a 2+ mile walk over lunch. Took about 40 minutes. Overall, I've been above 6k steps for since 12/2, so I'm pretty pleased with my overall activity level given I've been hitting my workouts as well. 

 

Left work, picked up kiddo, got home, and really struggled to stay engaged last night for some reason. I was frustrated with everything. Dinner was a struggle to get kiddo to eat anything, even though everything on her plate was something she loves (cheese curds, broccoli, chicken, and tomatoes), but I really had to keep myself from yelling. There's no reason to yell at her if she's not eating, but somedays she just drives me bonkers. Took her a solid 60 minutes to eat and we had to get her back focused on eating every 2 minutes. She just wants to talk and chat about anything and everything or play with her napkin. After dinner, my wife was feeling well enough to handle bath time, but I was on bedtime duty again. I feel so terrible being annoyed at reading her a bedtime story, but that's just how I felt last night. I know I should relish these times as sooner than I want, she'll want nothing to do with me, but man, it's hard somedays. 

 

After bedtime, my wife hopped into the bath for another long soak to feel better, so I popped in Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. It was a decent enough film. Not sad I watched it, but overall, not something I'd watch again. My long running sci-fi futuristic go-to has to be the Fifth Element and Valerian definitely didn't top that. I felt like the first half of the plot was literally just mashing 3 hours of worth of plot into 1 hour, but the 2nd half of the movie was pretty solid (although I was sipping on bourbon throughout so maybe that aided this part of the review). This review summarizes my thoughts pretty well, and I thought this quote was too much.

 

Quote

To say that “Valerian” is a science-fiction epic doesn’t quite do it justice. Imagine crushing a DVD of “The Phantom Menace” into a fine powder, tossing in some Adderall and Ecstasy and a pinch of cayenne pepper and snorting the resulting mixture while wearing a virtual reality helmet in a Las Vegas karaoke bar. Actually, that sounds like too much fun, but you get the idea.

 

Like I said though, I wasn't sad I watched it. I've got Jupiter Ascending coming next, which universally seems to be much less liked, but I've sort of been jonesing for some sci-fi movies so I'm going to watch it anyway. 

 

Writing this on Tuesday at about 1pm. Not really planning on getting a workout in, as I think I'm starting to come down with whatever plague my wife got. I'm hoping I can avoid it, but we'll see as my throat has a felt a little off today. It's not getting worse, and I'm hoping I'm just playing mind games with myself. 

 

[The Most Loathed]

1 hour ago, Rooks said:

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

We tried watching this recently. The vibe was weird, they seemed to be trying to do some of 5th Element's aesthetics but bounced back and forth between teen rom-com and though piece on the unintended consequences of war. We stopped it to go to bed for the night and when I asked Laura cared to finish it the next day, neither of us did. 

[Sloth the Enduring]

Those look like some solid workouts.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Machete]

On 12/8/2017 at 12:20 AM, WhiteGhost said:

I was nodding my head in solidarity as I read this.  When Ghostlet was at that age we had a few bouts, but luckily he has now learned that when it comes to battles of wills, he isn't even in the same league as us.  On the flip side, however, he is cunning and has learned to get what he wants through negotiation, misdirection and other tactical maneuvers  

 

On 12/8/2017 at 9:02 AM, Sylvaa said:

Recommending this book. 

 

I've got one of those kids too. So solidarity. 

 

This definitely makes me feel better about thinking I am the second-worst parent out there (next to Casey Anthony). I seem to have just [conveniently] accepted that I probably have very little impact in his life in the long run. He's going to lift though, dammit.

 

On 12/8/2017 at 12:09 PM, Rooks said:

Today, we have a work outing at Dave & Busters (an arcade bar place). The last time I was at one, it was alright, but it's a good time to get to know some of my co-workers better, so I'm sure it'll be at least alright.

 

Nice. I went to a work thing here as well last week. Mandatory fun day. I was outed as the Asian who can't play Dance Dance Revolution (while the other Asians were KILLING it), and just ended up taking a bunch of shooting games probably a bit too seriously.

[Rooks]

On 12/13/2017 at 10:52 AM, Machete said:

Nice. I went to a work thing here as well last week. Mandatory fun day. I was outed as the Asian who can't play Dance Dance Revolution (while the other Asians were KILLING it), and just ended up taking a bunch of shooting games probably a bit too seriously.

 

I unloaded most of my "game tokens" (even though it's all on credit card like things now) on Big Buck Hunter and Time Crisis 5. Although, I'm no where near as good as that guy. I did step foot on Pump It Up (DDR clone with diagonal arrows) and got up to a 5-foot difficulty song without too much trouble. Then, a young lady came in with yoga pants on and started dominating some songs that were using both pads. It was unreal. Wasn't quite as good as this fella, but pretty similar.

 

 

 

On 12/12/2017 at 3:17 PM, The Most Loathed said:

We tried watching this recently. The vibe was weird, they seemed to be trying to do some of 5th Element's aesthetics but bounced back and forth between teen rom-com and though piece on the unintended consequences of war. We stopped it to go to bed for the night and when I asked Laura cared to finish it the next day, neither of us did. 

 

I ended up watching Jupiter Ascending Thursday as I was working from home and I wasn't doing much work anyway (it's a very slow time of the year as we are approaching the holidays and we have a massive office move coming so it's there's not a lot going on). Anyway, that was even more confusing. It had so much promise, but they left too much backstory out and some of the characters were pretty atrocious. Also, you couldn't really tell who the bad guys were, or why some of the good guys were suddenly bad guys, only to be good guys again? It was strange. Tough to apparently find a good sci-fi flick these days. I added Dune to my Netflix DVD queue, so maybe that'll satisfy my craving. 

 

On 12/12/2017 at 4:58 PM, Sloth the Enduring said:

Those look like some solid workouts.

 

Thank you sir. I'm really going to have to improve the cardio so I can smash both of you guys come spring. 

 

-----

 

First, I finally came up with another question. Do other people feel like almost everyone they interact with on a daily basis is basically in a completely different universe in terms of things they enjoy? 

 

From the online chats I have with ex-co-workers, to my current co-workers, to my wife and kid, basically, I feel disconnected with almost ALL of them. I love my wife and kid, but my wife doesn't have the same interests I do. And my kid isn't old to give two shits about what I like. She likes her stuff and that's what matters to her. My ex-co-workers and current co-workesr are standard Americans (to be stereotypical). They want money. They buy shit they don't need because it's the hobby of the week. They say working is way too hard because "who wants to go sit on a treadmill for 90 minutes a day"? They think fat is bad. It's like I'm this fucking crazy guy because I don't want to take 10 medications and I want to say healthy and moving until I'm 100. Why does it seem like no one I interact with gives two fucks about me or my hobbies? Should I take this as a sign I need to re-assess who I surround myself with? Sorry... that was a lot of questions and probably just me ranting more than anything.

 

Anyway, last update was last Monday. Since then, there's been nothing but being an adult. The whole family came down with a bit of something. My wife was out sick Monday, but then thought she had recovered enough by Tuesday so she went work Tuesday through Thursday, but got home Thursday and was in rough shape. She was out of commission all weekend. Kiddo had the sniffles all week and a cough in the mornings but stayed pretty consistent all week. She was luckily blessed with my immune system I think, as I was rarely sick as a kid, and even under-going chemo, she's usually healthier than most kids her age. I came down with something Tuesday and thought it would knock me down and out, but overall, it wasn't too bad. I worked from home Wednesday through Friday, but that was more because I can, not because I needed to. 

 

The weekend was just me and kiddo doing everything and trying to stay out of my wife's hair to let her rest as much as possible. It was a good time, but being a solo parent is just mind-blowing to me. Even with a kiddo who's super well behaved most of the time, you can only read so many kids books in a row before you just want a 10 minute break to chill. And then getting asked every 2 minutes if that 10 minute break is over... oof. But anyway, we managed to get through it unscathed and without anyone losing their temper. 

 

My wife went to the doctor today finally and they diagnosed it as bronchitis for her. Which means probably a few more days of me doing most of the heavy lifting for household stuff. Not sure when I'll get back to working out on the regular. Sucks as I was just starting to get back into a groove. 

 

I did weigh-in at a light 212.6 this morning. Lightest I've been at a weigh-in in awhile. So there's that. Anyway, if I don't post again before this weekend, have a great Christmas to anyone reading this that celebrates the day. Hope you enjoy it. 

[Sylvaa]

2 minutes ago, Rooks said:

First, I finally came up with another question. Do other people feel like almost everyone they interact with on a daily basis is basically in a completely different universe in terms of things they enjoy? 

 

Yes. All. the. time. There are three other women on my project and they are (without trying to sound nasty) the stereotypical consultants. With like the $300 suits and the nice hair and make-up and manicures. And I don't judge them for that, because you do you. But like dressing well and living this "perfect" life are all they talk about. It's a hard situation for me because I am fairly isolated. I live too far away from home to have a lot of time for friends there and no one I work with lives near me. I'm sure some of this echos what you deal with too - not for the same reasons of course.

 

I find that I continue to isolate myself and I can tell you it's not the right solution. I've tried to find common ground OR looked to more non-traditional sources. My closest friend on my current project is old enough to be my father. He's no one that I would probably choose to hang out with, but we both love sports (and the same conference / division depending on the sport) and we talk about our family. 

 

Hope your wife recovers quickly!

[The Most Loathed]

 

12 minutes ago, Rooks said:

First, I finally came up with another question. Do other people feel like almost everyone they interact with on a daily basis is basically in a completely different universe in terms of things they enjoy? 

 

From the online chats I have with ex-co-workers, to my current co-workers, to my wife and kid, basically, I feel disconnected with almost ALL of them. I love my wife and kid, but my wife doesn't have the same interests I do. And my kid isn't old to give two shits about what I like. She likes her stuff and that's what matters to her. My ex-co-workers and current co-workesr are standard Americans (to be stereotypical). They want money. They buy shit they don't need because it's the hobby of the week. They say working is way too hard because "who wants to go sit on a treadmill for 90 minutes a day"? They think fat is bad. It's like I'm this fucking crazy guy because I don't want to take 10 medications and I want to say healthy and moving until I'm 100. Why does it seem like no one I interact with gives two fucks about me or my hobbies? Should I take this as a sign I need to re-assess who I surround myself with? Sorry... that was a lot of questions and probably just me ranting more than anything.

 

Yes and no.

The "typical" American interests that you describe are pretty spot on. Most of the people I have ever worked with or met through "normal" means are exactly those people. The work all day and go home, eat something with whole wheat because it's healthy, watch TV and go to bed. When I find people with interests outside of these few things I usually immediately latch onto them just because I'm glad to find someone who does something.

This is where the internet has been a huge boon to me. I've been one various workout forums for years and made a lot of "internet friends" some of whom I actually got to know in real life. I also used to be a lot more shy about just owning who I am. Now I'm all to happy to talk workouts or games or computers with someone but hopefully not pushing about it. I try to be at least a little bit self aware. However, when someone asks what I think of this or that show I'm also not shy to say "I don't really watch TV". 

But at the end of the day, any one of us who posts on this forum is weird and those of us who have been doing so for years are probably doubly so. I wouldn't trade it for "normal" any day.

[Sloth the Enduring]

Smash!?! You make me laugh puny mortal.

Of course, why do you think I'm on here so much. Re-assess all you want. The real problem is how do you find people to hang with, that have the same interests and goals, and that have time, and aren't already socially full up.

I interact with a lot of people in the biking scene, but it's all superficial because who has the time or energy to make more friends.

Nice job not losing your temper with the kiddo. I've gotten in the habit of getting my ten minute breaks in the bathroom.

I hope you have a good Christmas too Rooks.

[Scaly Freak]

56 minutes ago, Rooks said:

Do other people feel like almost everyone they interact with on a daily basis is basically in a completely different universe in terms of things they enjoy? 

 

YES.

 

Everyone except me is weird and crazy, and has strange priorities and dumb hobbies. I'm the only one I know who is even remotely close to being normal.

 

[WhiteGhost]

6 hours ago, Rooks said:

My ex-co-workers and current co-workesr are standard Americans (to be stereotypical). They want money. They buy shit they don't need because it's the hobby of the week.

Huh, and here I thought this was stereotypical Chinese...  Maybe this is just typical human behaviour and any of us who feel otherwise are the weird ones?  I sure feel like most of the people I know have only one hobby in life and that is getting money    I really struggle finding people who have the same interests as me, which is why I spend so much time here at NF.  I feel like here I have finally found a group of people I feel comfortable hanging around with

[Scaly Freak]

8 minutes ago, WhiteGhost said:

Huh, and here I thought this was stereotypical Chinese...  Maybe this is just typical human behaviour and any of us who feel otherwise are the weird ones?  I sure feel like most of the people I know have only one hobby in life and that is getting money    I really struggle finding people who have the same interests as me, which is why I spend so much time here at NF.  I feel like here I have finally found a group of people I feel comfortable hanging around with

 

That's actually better than if their main hobby is to spend money in order to show off how much of it they have...

 

I feel like we should all be grateful there is an internet now. Imagine how very lonely we'd have been, and how unhappy, if we had not been able to go online and find others who are like us?