The Paragon Path Towards An Epic Destiny

[Sólveig]

ADHD won. That's all I can say. Not only that, but winter days are finally here. After a long time, I am finally wearing a long sleeve for bed instead of going topless for months. Did I ever say there was one night where it was so ridiculously hot that I had to sleep on my birthday suit, otherwise I'd be cooking myself in my bed? I'm not really trying to say something inappropiate, but seriously, the heat was so bad that even having just underwear was too uncomfortable. I was drenched in sweat that night, and had a very hard time trying to sleep...

But yes, today was a very cold day, with some rain too. There was a birthday happening, so that took some time. Thankfully, Qi Gong was cancelled, though I wasn't really eager to go. The constant threat of rain from the cold kept me hesitating whether I should go or not, so the cancellation was good.

Anyway, ADHD won, so I didn't edit today, or at least I haven't. In fact, I was supposed to draw, but didn't do it until just about... five minutes ago, and took some time with it to actually finish it. I am seeing progress there, as the result was much better than the previous days. I'm starting to get back there. I can see it. I need to keep drawing, and I need to keep on drawing until the year is over. It's been four days now, but I sitll have three hundred and sixty one days left.

I'll try to edit right now, but I'm not sure I'll make it tonight. I mean, I hope to make it to at least tomorrow, because I want to send it tomorrow.

E: Yeah, it won't happen tonight.

February 8th, 2024
Kickboxing: Day 151

---

Morning Routine:
The Right Side + 10 Decline Push-ups
Sól Salutation - LVL I +EC
20-Seconds Legs
Daily Dare: 60 Seconds Supergirl Stretch Hold +EC
Count: 1379 - 1375 +EC

---

Night Routine:
Mani Salutation - 1 Set
Five Rites
Virasana Meditation
Daily Gratitude
Counting Victories

---

Programs:
Homebrew Training Plan (Valkyrie and Fighter combo inspired)
Bucket List:
Shadebound

---

Workouts:
150 Burpees +EC
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Seconds Side Splits
Glutes, Quads, Hamstrings & Calves
100/50 Strength
Pole Dance Stretches
DAREdice: 20 Squats
1 minute Uttanasana w/Toe Reach
2-Minute Elbow Plank
Daily Walk
Shuffle Dance! (#1, #2, #3, H.A.T.E.R.)
Belly Dance
Dancing Days: 18

---

Challenges:
Epic Cardio: Day 9 +No rest
Epic Abs: Day 9 +No rest
Drawing Pin-up Girls Every Day for a Year: Day 4/365
Bucket List:
Empty, for now

---

Writing progress:
Not tonight!
1500 Get!
Daily 1500

---

Reading progress:
The Colour of Magic - 62%

---

Other Victories:

 

[Sólveig]

Don't ask me how. All I can say is that I sprinted my edit, and it isn't done just yet. I still need to edit two more times, but I can do that in a single session tomorrow... and I still need to prepare for next Sunday, though I don't know whether to modify my prep or to do a dungeon where my players must rescue Rincewind, or something. I've been having that fun idea just to break the monotony and, since we are missing one player, I figured I could have them use their original characters at a lower level just to have fun. I'll be including our Pirate NPC; the best character out of all the sidekicks as a full Rogue just to help out. Of course, I require some time to do that, so I may have to randomly generate the dungeon because I can't find myself to do it right in the short time that I'll have tomorrow... I think.

I'll be drawing again tomorrow the same things I've drawn in the past three days, but this time I'll do all of them in a single sheet. Today was better, even if it was rushed. Like I said, don't even ask how I ended up doing all of this. ADHD won today again, but I won the night. I definitely won the night... though it feels more like a pyrrhic victory than anything else.

I'll be better tomorrow. I promised myself to be better tomorrow.

February 9th, 2024
Kickboxing: Day 152

---

Morning Routine:
The Right Side + 10 Decline Push-ups
Sól Salutation - LVL I +EC
20-Seconds Legs
Daily Dare: 40 Elbow Plank Arm Raises +EC
Count: 1380 - 1376 +EC

---

Night Routine:
Mani Salutation - 1 Set
Five Rites
Virasana Meditation
Daily Gratitude
Counting Victories

---

Programs:
Homebrew Training Plan (Valkyrie and Fighter combo inspired)
Bucket List:
Shadebound

---

Workouts:
150 Burpees +EC
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
WoD: Maximus - LVL III +EC +Rest between levels
Rowdy +EC
30 Seconds Side Splits
Glutes, Quads, Hamstrings & Calves
100/50 Strength
Pole Dance Stretches
DAREdice: 12 Push-ups
1 minute Uttanasana w/Toe Reach
2-Minute Elbow Plank
Daily Walk
Shuffle Dance! (#1, #2, #3, H.A.T.E.R.)
Belly Dance
Dancing Days: 18

---

Challenges:
Epic Cardio: Day 10 +No rest
Epic Abs: Day 10 +No rest
Drawing Pin-up Girls Every Day for a Year: Day 5/365
Bucket List:
Empty, for now

---

Writing progress:
Don't ask me how I got it. It was a sprint!
1500 Get!
Daily 1500

---

Reading progress:
The Colour of Magic - 73%

---

Other Victories:

 

[Sólveig]

Time vampires, man! I was not expecting to be invited to a birthday party right before I started to do my Burpees, but I did them and had to cut my training short until I came back. I compensated the lack of dancing to dance tonight, even though I didn't do it for as long as I wanted, but it was still very tiring. Also, I edited my work and sent it up. It took me the entire afternoon to do so, mostly because I was switching between entertainment and editing like every three or four paragraphs because, I don't know... I just felt overwhelmed and euphoric for some reason. All I know is that I found editing exciting... perhaps a bit too much. I ended up doing something far much more fun than it originally was, and did a good job. I think I did a good job anyway.

It was a difficult day. I did my drawing, and not only I did it in a rush, but also it was filled with so many mistakes. All I can say is that I can do much better than what I did, so I guess I'm taking this as my skills... not at my worst, and not at my lowest, but at least close to the lowest. It was pretty bad, but then again, it's one entire year of drawing pin-ups. If this one ends up bad, I don't have to fret too much about it. My girlfriend already reminded me the lesson to use it to know my mistakes. I can always make it again, and I hope I'll make it tomorrow, because I've been confirmed that we'll be having a game, and after the game, I have another commitment to attend to.

Send help. My time is getting all squeezed out with these last-minute commitments I can't say no to! I must do everything in the morning!

I was going to prepare a dungeon for tomorrow, but that won't be happening. I'll be going with what I did for Vigilante City then, and slash it off to two sessions instead of three... if we even get to have a next session.

February 10th, 2024
Kickboxing: Day 152

---

Morning Routine:
The Right Side + 10 Decline Push-ups
Sól Salutation - LVL I +EC
20-Seconds Legs
Daily Dare: 60 Squats +EC
Count: 1381 - 1377 +EC

---

Night Routine:
Mani Salutation - 1 Set
Five Rites
Virasana Meditation
Daily Gratitude
Counting Victories

---

Programs:
Homebrew Training Plan (Valkyrie and Fighter combo inspired)
Bucket List:
Shadebound

---

Workouts:
150 Burpees +EC
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
43 High Knees (Sprint) for @MadamMeow 's Birthday
30 Seconds Side Splits
Glutes, Quads, Hamstrings & Calves
100/50 Strength
Pole Dance Stretches
DAREdice: 10 Sit-ups
1 minute Uttanasana w/Toe Reach
2-Minute Elbow Plank
Daily Walk
Shuffle Dance! (#1, #2, #3, H.A.T.E.R.)
Belly Dance
Dancing Days: 19

---

Challenges:
Epic Cardio: Day 11 +No rest
Epic Abs: Day 11 +No rest
Drawing Pin-up Girls Every Day for a Year: Day 6/365
Bucket List:
Empty, for now

---

Writing progress:
Finished a story and sent it up!
1500 Get!
Daily 1500

---

Reading progress:
The Colour of Magic - 78%

---

Other Victories:

 

[Sólveig]

Alright, we played. It was fun. I also did everything that I needed.

The day just flew by... Nevertheless, I managed to draw, and also do some worldbuilding. I wanted to write more, but now it's late, and I have things to do tomorrow?

I don't know. There's a holiday tomorrow and on Tuesday, so I guess I can take a break and just not go tomorrow.

So, yeah. Even though it's just 578 words, I did some work today!

February 11th, 2024
Kickboxing: Day 152

---

Morning Routine:
The Right Side + 10 Decline Push-ups
Sól Salutation - LVL I +EC
20-Seconds Legs
Daily Dare: 30 Side-to-side Lunges with Toe Point +EC
Count: 1382 - 1378 +EC

---

Night Routine:
Mani Salutation - 1 Set
Five Rites
Virasana Meditation
Daily Gratitude
Counting Victories

---

Programs:
Homebrew Training Plan (Valkyrie and Fighter combo inspired)
Bucket List:
Shadebound

---

Workouts:
150 Burpees +EC
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Seconds Side Splits
Glutes, Quads, Hamstrings & Calves
100/50 Strength
Pole Dance Stretches
DAREdice: 16 Push-ups
1 minute Uttanasana w/Toe Reach
2-Minute Elbow Plank
Daily Walk
Shuffle Dance! (#1, #2, #3, H.A.T.E.R.)
Belly Dance
Dancing Days: 19

---

Challenges:
Epic Cardio: Day 12 +No rest
Epic Abs: Day 12 +No rest
Drawing Pin-up Girls Every Day for a Year: Day 7/365
Bucket List:
Empty, for now

---

Writing progress:
Did some worldbuilding. Task 2 from Gygax 75 finished, and now... time to create a dungeon.
1500 Get!
Daily 1500

---

Reading progress:
The Colour of Magic - 78%

---

Other Victories:

 

[Sólveig]

173 words. Take it or leave it. That's all I could do. Too many distractions, and my brain is in hyperdrive right now. I want to keep drawing, but I can't keep drawing. Nevertheless, I did my job for writing, and those 173 words got me out of the blank page anxiety. Astonishingly, if I fix that draft, it actually ends up as an incredible and intriguing piece of flash fiction. I think I should give myself more credit for my work. Besides, even though PewDiePie is from my generation, I'm not much of a follower of him, but seeing his progress from zero artistic skills and drawing every single day for 100 days it's very motivating. Watching his video where he takes us through his sketchbooks I could see the actual progress he made, and I'm seeing the same things over the last week where I've drawn pin-up girls. The fact that I decide to repeat the lesson if I did it badly (as it happened at the beginning, and the day before yesterday) makes it even more motivating, because I can see actual progress in spite of being like, what, 24 hours tops between them? It isn't minimal in my case.

I actually decided to draw the three basic poses it shows in the book for drawing pin-ups (I have it in Spanish) before taking us through the face, which is something that I've done a lot of times. I managed to do one of the three, and the other two are only at the composition of circles and polygons before I give them actual volume and turn them into pin-up babes. Ideas are starting to come to my head now, but I won't develop them until I finish the book. I am writing those ideas, though, otherwise I'll lose them, and I don't want to lose them.

So yeah, not much done today. Like I said, freaking distractions. I am grabbing a fresh notebook to continue journalling / scheduling. On the previous one I turned it into an RPG quest log by switching the name of the months with the ones from my D&D universe. On this notebook, now I replaced the name of the weekdays with the ones from Elder Scrolls, meaning that tomorrow is Tirdas.

I know, I am such a dork, but what can I say? If I need to do more journaling than I thought back in 2015, I might as well have more fun with it. I don't plan to LARP my journal though, but giving it bits of fantasy and bits from TTRPGs makes it more fun. I'm not giving myself XP points or increasing my stats or anything lik-

Damnit, why do I have this moments of brilliance when I am writing? Sure, I am not a Character Sheet. I do not know what my attributes are like in a quantifiable form, and I feel that if I do that, I'm putting myself in an archetypical box, something that we people are not. XP points are useless... unless I use them as currency to claim some rewards, just like in the Storyteller system or GURPS, where experience (Character Points in GURPS) is exchanged for better attributes, but this time is for loot, kinda like using XP as actual currency, like, for instance, I can spend 50 XP to play a videogame, or something like that. I've already seen it before, and you must have seen it too!

But this is not why I'm stopping all of the sudden with my Eureka! moment. I'm actually thinking about Avatar Upgrade; that program has a character sheet built upon five stats: Armor, Combat, Endurance, Speed, and Flexibility. Each time you earn 200 Points from a specific Card, you add a Bar where the Card tells you to add it. I can do something like that for the skills that I'm learning, and even go deeper than that. Instead of just measuring my progress with bars, I can actually branch it out like a Skill Tree, similar to the Talent Trees that World of Warcraft used to have until Cataclysm. I mean, it is useless to make myself into a Character Sheet, but it does really help to actually see the progress, and if I add XP rewards to everything that I do, I can essentially trick my brain into doing things. Maybe the rewards shouldn't be something big like have a slice of cake, but something like "just write a couple of paragraphs, and then you can browse memes for five minutes."

I think I get it. I think I get what Tim Ferriss meant now.

I am also going to read again The Art of War. I definitely need it more now than ever. It has helped me before, and it will help me again.

E: This is relevant to this post

February 12th, 2024
Kickboxing: Day 152

---

Morning Routine:
The Right Side + 10 Decline Push-ups
Sól Salutation - LVL I +EC
20-Seconds Legs
Daily Dare: 40 Get-ups +EC
Count: 1383 - 1379 +EC

---

Night Routine:
Mani Salutation - 1 Set
Five Rites
Virasana Meditation
Daily Gratitude
Counting Victories

---

Programs:
Homebrew Training Plan (Valkyrie and Fighter combo inspired)
Bucket List:
Shadebound

---

Workouts:
150 Burpees +EC
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
Morndas +EC
30 Seconds Side Splits
Glutes, Quads, Hamstrings & Calves
100/50 Strength: 1 Round
Pole Dance Stretches
DAREdice: 16 Push-ups
1 minute Uttanasana w/Toe Reach
2-Minute Elbow Plank
Daily Walk
Shuffle Dance! (#1, #2, #3, H.A.T.E.R.)
Belly Dance
Dancing Days: 19

---

Challenges:
Epic Cardio: Day 13 +No rest
Epic Abs: Day 13 +No rest
Drawing Pin-up Girls Every Day for a Year: Day 8/365
Bucket List:
Empty, for now

---

Writing progress:
173 words, plus some journaling
1500 Get!
Daily 1500

---

Reading progress:
The Colour of Magic - 78%

---

Other Victories:

 

[Ereshkigal]

On this notebook, now I replaced the name of the weekdays with the ones from Elder Scrolls, meaning that tomorrow is Tirdas.

Oooh I love the idea!!!

 

[Sólveig]

Curse you ADHD, for you took over completely today! I found a new shiny thing, and got distracted by the new shiny thing for the entire day, to the point where I almost forgot to had lunch, dinner, work out, and even the fact that I had class!

This was very, very bad. Everything crashed today. I'll be better next time. I already gathered up everything, and decided to put all the things that I said yesterday in motion, starting tomorrow. Already an entry on my journal for it, and I want to tick it. Must not use shiny thing!

February 13th, 2024
Kickboxing: Day 152

---

Morning Routine:
The Right Side + 10 Decline Push-ups
Sól Salutation - LVL I +EC
20-Seconds Legs
Daily Dare: 30 Reverse Plank Kicks +EC
Count: 1384 - 1380 +EC

---

Night Routine:
Mani Salutation - 1 Set
Five Rites
Virasana Meditation
Daily Gratitude
Counting Victories

---

Programs:
Homebrew Training Plan (Valkyrie and Fighter combo inspired)
Bucket List:
Shadebound

---

Workouts:
150 Burpees +EC
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
WoD: Steamroller - LVL III +Megaset
30 Seconds Side Splits
Glutes, Quads, Hamstrings & Calves
100/50 Strength: 1 Round
Pole Dance Stretches
DAREdice: 20 Push-ups
1 minute Uttanasana w/Toe Reach
2-Minute Elbow Plank
Daily Walk
Shuffle Dance! (#1, #2, #3, H.A.T.E.R.)
Belly Dance
Dancing Days: 19

---

Challenges:
Epic Cardio: Day 14 +No rest
Epic Abs: Day 14 +No rest
Drawing Pin-up Girls Every Day for a Year: Day 9/365
Bucket List:
Empty, for now

---

Writing progress:
904 words! This is getting better now
1500 Get!
Daily 1500

---

Reading progress:
The Colour of Magic - 78%

---

Other Victories:

 

[Sólveig]

My writing is slowing down. Not because I don't know what to write about, but because I am forcing through everything, and I already made a very long intro before getting into the action. Nevertheless, I refuse to let go of the longest parts. Why I refuse to do so? Because they are actually very cool. Sure, I may use less words, but they are exciting. It's been a while since I've done a series, and I'm definitely showing more character traits here that ends up in a better story.

The day was long. I had a hard time sleeping last night, and woke up very late. Not only that, but there was a powercut that lasted for five hours. I spent part of them drawing, and part of them reading, so it wasn't like I didn't do anything. I did finish The Colour of Magic, and now I loaded up The Light Fantastic. Read a few pages before the power came back.

I haven't written much today, but I aim to do better tomorrow. I destroyed the shiny thing that kept me distracted, and now I am going to focus in my story. Why? Because I want to know how the hell it will end up as. My policy with it right now is to not delete anything, and I want to brute force my way through tomorrow until the end before I start editing and deliting plenty of stuff, or adding stuff to make the part before the action less boring and keep things interesting. There was some worldbuilding inside the story, and...

Well, let's just say that I'm learning to write more efficiently, or rather, to worldbuild more efficiently. See, Vigilante City does provide a good framework and a good example on how to worldbuild an entire city and map it out without going the way of the madman and try to get every single nook and cranny done. With only six regions, each of which with six terrain features, Vigilante City leave a lot of things open so that any group builds upon it and makes it richer. That's the problem that I have with worldbuilding, I want to do the world before the template, when it is the opposite way around. I work better by worldbuilding as I write my stories, but I can't work on a blank page. If the last 10 days of drawing taught me something is that it's nearly impossible to draw something with just a blank page, but if the page says "draw a pin-up babe," then the task starts to get easier.

That's why I am keeping my ideas for writing prompts, drawings, and more in a notebook now. All I have to do is to take the idea, write it on the document, develop the first paragraphs, and then delete it once it shows. Then again, sometimes I just take the idea, and build an outline as a flowchart, using Mythic (or not using Mythic). Why a flowchart? As I said before, it takes less time, and it helps just in case the outline derails. Lastly, the best way to write a story is to write what happens if the story events don't occur. Best example would be what happens if the heroes don't act and let the bad guy fulfill their plans. It can be as short as a sentence, or as long as two pages, but writing what will happen if the heroes don't act already shows you what you must follow. It's a principle for creating campaigns from scratch on the TTRPG world.

I didn't go to walk today. It rained. It rained very hard, and so suddenly too.

February 14th, 2024
Kickboxing: Day 153

---

Morning Routine:
The Right Side + 10 Decline Push-ups
Sól Salutation - LVL I +EC
20-Seconds Legs
Daily Dare: 30 Butterfly Sit-ups +EC
Count: 1385 - 1381 +EC

---

Night Routine:
Mani Salutation - 1 Set
Five Rites
Virasana Meditation
Daily Gratitude
Counting Victories

---

Programs:
Homebrew Training Plan (Valkyrie and Fighter combo inspired)
Bucket List:
Shadebound

---

Workouts:
150 Burpees +EC
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
One Kick (Side Kick) - LVL III +EC +Rest between levels
7 Full Burpees
30 Seconds Side Splits
Glutes, Quads, Hamstrings & Calves
100/50 Strength
Pole Dance Stretches
DAREdice: 16 Jumping Jacks
1 minute Uttanasana w/Toe Reach
2-Minute Elbow Plank
Daily Walk
Shuffle Dance! (#1, #2, #3, H.A.T.E.R.)
Belly Dance
Dancing Days: 19

---

Challenges:
Epic Cardio: Day 15 +No rest
Epic Abs: Day 15 +No rest
Drawing Pin-up Girls Every Day for a Year: Day 10/365
Bucket List:
Empty, for now

---

Writing progress:
757 words is not much, but at least I'm going somewhere
1500 Get!
Daily 1500

---

Reading progress:
The Colour of Magic - 100%
The Light Fantastic - 2%

---

Other Victories:

 

[Maegaranthelas]

Yay for making writing progress, keeping an ideas journal, and for finishing The Colour of Magic

 

[Sólveig]

I'm calling quits on writing.

Let's pause for the clickbait. Go ahead, take your time.

I'm not quitting. I'm just not writing today. My mind is completely scattered, and I need to organize myself. In fact, I think I need to improve my environment a little too. I am already going to try a new change tomorrow to see if I get to draw first before anything. I also noticed that I can trigger my hyperfocus while I draw when I am listening to people talking instead of music. The reason for this is simple: I took classes for drawing, and in those classes, I always talked with the others, and even exchanged opinions about our work. Our teacher always encouraged us to never be isolated and help each other, even if we were new, we did different things, or we were on different levels; it didn't matter. So, when I put videos that don't require to be watched (pretty much Podcasts with video), not only I focus solely on the paper, but I can also pay attention to the conversation as it happens. After ten years, I am noticing that today. And, you know what? I like it. It gives me an excuse to hunt for podcasts, and maybe to even listen to Live from the Night Vale, or Tim Ferriss' Show once and for all. And if there's no Internet, well, that's where radio comes in place. No matter how many podcasts come, it seems that radio will never be killed in Venezuela.

So yes, that's a thing... a nice thing too. I can't use it for writing, but it's nice to know that I have a trigger set up in my head, and I'll use it more often.

One of the changes that I'll make is to put my clipboard right on my desk, so that the first that I do once I wake up is to draw. Even if it is just a wire skeleton, or a bunch of geometric figures that make up a mannequin instead of a babe, as long as I'm scribbling stuff, I'm fine. I also took a break so that I can reset my brain, and maybe do a journaling exercise to empty my brain before reading my story, and start it all over if I need to, or create an outline for it. I don't know, but I know that I need to reset my brain before continuing, and the only way to do so is to take a break, and then dump every single thought that I have into a not-so-disposable Markdown or Writer document before I start putting more words too. I'm saying not-so-disposable because the last time I did this is when I found out that I had a dream that I couldn't chase. I still can't, but that dream, somehow, is pushing me further into keep writing, and I know that, eventually, I can make that dream come true.

I'm also thinking about using my skills to decorate my room with some pin-up babes that represent me, like... a GM babe? A writer? A teacher? A librarian? A future pole dancer? I don't know. But I do want to make some changes. I might need to invest into it some more because I need big pieces of paper, but that'll come later. What will come first is to finish the pin-up book. Once I am done with the book, I am free to do whatever I want, as long as it stays being pin-up girls. The challenge is not to finish that book, but to draw pin-up girls for an entire year, and I'm loving every single second of it.

I did my pin-up of the day, and it turned out great. So much so that my girlfriend was completely stunned. I wasn't really stunned, but I was happy with the result. And I'll say right now that that result was not my best. That result is what I used to produce back in the day. That result was my normal.

It's been... 11 days, and I'm already returning to the point where I used to be.

February 15th, 2024
Kickboxing: Day 153

---

Morning Routine:
The Right Side + 10 Decline Push-ups
Sól Salutation - LVL I +EC
20-Seconds Legs
Daily Dare: 60 Seconds Elbow Plank Hold +EC
Count: 1386 - 1382 +EC

---

Night Routine:
Mani Salutation - 1 Set
Five Rites
Virasana Meditation
Daily Gratitude
Counting Victories

---

Programs:
Homebrew Training Plan (Valkyrie and Fighter combo inspired)
Bucket List:
Shadebound

---

Workouts:
150 Burpees +EC
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Seconds Side Splits
Glutes, Quads, Hamstrings & Calves
100/50 Strength
Pole Dance Stretches
DAREdice: 16 Jumping Jacks
1 minute Uttanasana w/Toe Reach
2-Minute Elbow Plank
Daily Walk
Shuffle Dance! (#1, #2, #3, H.A.T.E.R.)
Belly Dance
Dancing Days: 19

---

Challenges:
Epic Cardio: Day 16 +No rest
Epic Abs: Day 16 +No rest
Drawing Pin-up Girls Every Day for a Year: Day 11/365
Bucket List:
Empty, for now

---

Writing progress:
I quit for the day
1500 Get!
Daily 1500

---

Reading progress:
The Light Fantastic - 3%

---

Other Victories:

 

[Sólveig]

Yeah, this is going to be a short hiatus. I'm saying short because I can take an immediate action to put some words right now, but... well, I'm not sure if I have to do it right now? See, I am waking up very late lately, and that's annoying me. In fact, I woke up today at 11:00 AM, right when the six-hour powercut started. That's not good for me, honestly. I haven't done much today, except to draw. That's the very first thing I did after breakfast, so I guess the minimal change I did worked. I am thinking now what else I can do to start similar things.

Not much of a day, though. It was boring. I tried to keep drawing more from the book during the powercut, but I just couldn't. I don't know why. I guess I need to vent more than I think, so writing everything in a Writer document will be useless. I need my diary for this, and I haven't done anything about it because... yeah, the power came back six hours after it was cut, and it is now midnight, so you now get the idea of the things that I had to do because I missed the morning.

Can I take an immediate action to fix things tonight? I don't know; maybe not. Can I get everything that is happening in my head out so that I can have things clear and start writing again? Very much so. Maybe I must do it by turning off the computer, and write on my bed instead, like a teenage girl. So maybe I can scratch that immediate action, which is fixing up my worlds. Yeah, the serialized shorts I've been doing? Turns out I need to have a basis for it, and much of that city is not written. I'm keeping things as simple as it is seen in Index Card RPG: only six districts; each one of them with six points of interest. That's only the start. I can use the Gygax 75 tasks to give more richness. I always forget that, when it comes to worldbuilding, I have to start small, and today I learned that the best way to start is to pick the location that gets your attention the most.

I don't want to be like Tolkien, and almost exclusively do worldbuilding, but I can't be like Pratchett and improvise everything on the spot. I just can't. That is my biggest flaw when it comes with creativity: the blank page freezes me. I can't see a blank page and start working; I'll end up either procrastinating or simply frozen in there. If you give me a set of instructions, then I can start working. That's the way I work. That's why I'm producing more now than before: because I have a bank of ideas that I can just pull them up, and if an idea strikes me in the moment I see a blank page, I write it in a sentence at the top of the document, and start working upon it before actually doing something.

Anyway, I'm going to write now. See you tomorrow.

E: Ok, I only wrote 83 words, which is just titles, but after putting it on my journal, I realized what was wrong almost instantly. It's the same thing I explained here: I don't want to work like Tolkien, but I can't work like Pratchett. I must have a balance between not doing just worldbuilding, but also not making everything on the spot. This is where the Gygax 75 Challenge and Index Card RPG will shine. I just closed up Manuskript. I opened it up and loaded that specific universe, went straight into Gygax 75's Week 2 folder, and created folders for all the regions, and enlisted them. I chose one of those regions, and wrote a single district of the city to work as a way to start. I chose that one in particular because it's the district that calls my attention the most. Then, I wrote a list of six settlements, which, funny enough, six settlements are the amount of settlements that Gygax suggests on the starting region. Of course, I'm pretending that I'll be playing this with theatre of the mind, so I don't need to use hexes. I only named a few of those settlements, but after putting those names, I noticed one thing immediately: I made them real. All of the sudden, the city stopped being a ghost town, a mirage in the middle of the sea, and its stories within stopped being legends. Suddenly, they became real.

I am not continuing because I am going to sleep now, but this was good. This was the thing that kept me down. Now, where does Index Card RPG fit into all of this? Well, Vigilante City, of course. The Vigilante City chapter begins with a map of the city that showcases all of its districts. Do you know how many are there? Six. Do you know how many points of interests are inside those districts? Six. Do you know which dice they suggest to use to generate random sessions? The six-sided one. Six is the magical number for worldbuilding. It's not the lowest die from the D20 set (that'll be the D4), but using six to begin is more than enough to start, and then get expand on things as the story progresses. ICRPG is also something that I use a lot because it keeps things short, and it leaves everything in the open so that me, as the GM, and the table as a whole, can add on things as our campaign progresses. Everything in it is both an example on how to do things the ICRPG way as well as ready-to-use worlds to start a campaign on either of them.

I know I should've learned this a long time ago, but my skull is very, very, very thick. There's a reason why I didn't get knocked out in high school when a bunch of bullies hit my head against the wall with enough force to knock me out, and instead, they only pissed me off. Nice job on breaking it, villains: you just made a barbarian rage.

February 16th, 2024
Kickboxing: Day 154

---

Morning Routine:
The Right Side + 10 Decline Push-ups
Sól Salutation - LVL I +EC
20-Seconds Legs
Daily Dare: 50 Side Plank Rotations +EC
Count: 1387 - 1383 +EC

---

Night Routine:
Mani Salutation - 1 Set
Five Rites
Virasana Meditation
Daily Gratitude
Counting Victories

---

Programs:
Homebrew Training Plan (Valkyrie and Fighter combo inspired)
Bucket List:
Shadebound

---

Workouts:
150 Burpees +EC
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
One Kick (Side Kick) - LVL III +EC +Rest between levels
30 Seconds Side Splits
Glutes, Quads, Hamstrings & Calves
100/50 Strength
Pole Dance Stretches
DAREdice: 10 Squats
1 minute Uttanasana w/Toe Reach
2-Minute Elbow Plank
Daily Walk
Shuffle Dance! (#1, #2, #3, H.A.T.E.R.)
Belly Dance
Dancing Days: 19

---

Challenges:
Epic Cardio: Day 17 +No rest
Epic Abs: Day 17 +No rest
Drawing Pin-up Girls Every Day for a Year: Day 12/365
Bucket List:
Empty, for now

---

Writing progress:
Journaling
1500 Get!
Daily 1500

---

Reading progress:
The Light Fantastic - 19%

---

Other Victories:

 

[Sólveig]

> Attempts to go to bed early because she's been waking up late.
> Gets out of bed three times because the discovery made her to fix the entire problem upon her worldbuilding.

Yeah, the narrator of my life is having a much better time about my antics than Discworld's narrator. I'm just going to add an addendum here about worldbuilding cities through D&D. See, when it comes to mapping, D&D uses different scales: Continental, which is the biggest one, Kingdom, and then Province or Regional. The thing is that I am making the city districts to have roughly the same size of a kingdom scale. Of course, each hex is not exactly the same measurement, but it's about the scale. And, as for neighborhoods, that'll be the province or regional scale. This is so in a way I can make a city district, and then put a bunch of neighborhoods in there, and in those neighborhoods I can make the six locations that the Gygax 75 says. Not only that, but we can actually use the polyhedrals to turn the districts as big or as small as we like. The smallest of the set would be the D4, so a small district would have 4 neighborhoods. The biggest one is the D12, so the biggest district would have 12 neighborhoods (unless you want to make an even bigger one that uses the D20 or, worse, the D100). The die sizes can actually give rough templates to begin the worldbuilding effort, and it can apply to anything. A city with 4 districts would be a small city, compared to one with 12.

This is what kept me up last night.

 

[Sólveig]

We're having a full table tomorrow, so I saved a lot of time for not preparing because I had that session prepared for a while.

Then, I used that time to do nothing.

Hiatus. At least I got an idea of what I could do for activities in the library. I've been journaling for a while, so I figured I could do something related to it. I'll be researching upon it before I make a proper program and pitch it to the non-profit. Aside from that, no writing today. Only drawing, which ended up a whole lot better than I anticipated. Next lesson is an easy one, but the one after has a specific drawing that I'm very afraid of. I did it before, and it was horrible. Then again, it is hard. Even my girlfriend acknowledges it, and she's way more pro than me, and never stopped drawing for a long period, like I have.

I think I'll do my worldbuilding efforts tomorrow. My head hurts a little, and I want to sleep. I couldn't stretch, but hey, I danced, and I'm considering to improve my dancing a little. To practice my steps, learn new steps, and maybe incorporate some pole moves that don't require a pole. I want to dip my toes into it, and there's only one good time to start.

February 17th, 2024
Kickboxing: Day 154

---

Morning Routine:
The Right Side + 10 Decline Push-ups
Sól Salutation - LVL I +EC
20-Seconds Legs
Daily Dare: 80 Knee Strikes +EC
Count: 1388 - 1384 +EC

---

Night Routine:
Mani Salutation - 1 Set
Five Rites
Virasana Meditation
Daily Gratitude
Counting Victories

---

Programs:
Homebrew Training Plan (Valkyrie and Fighter combo inspired)
Bucket List:
Shadebound

---

Workouts:
150 Burpees +EC
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Seconds Side Splits
Glutes, Quads, Hamstrings & Calves
100/50 Strength
Pole Dance Stretches
DAREdice: 10 Double Burpees w/Jump Knee-tuck
1 minute Uttanasana w/Toe Reach
2-Minute Elbow Plank
Daily Walk
Shuffle Dance! (#1, #2, #3, H.A.T.E.R.)
Belly Dance
Dancing Days: 20

---

Challenges:
Epic Cardio: Day 18 +No rest
Epic Abs: Day 18 +No rest
Drawing Pin-up Girls Every Day for a Year: Day 13/365
Bucket List:
Empty, for now

---

Writing progress:
Nope
1500 Get!
Daily 1500

---

Reading progress:
The Light Fantastic - 25%

---

Other Victories:

 

[Sólveig]

Finished. Our short Planescape campaign was over today, and now I can get back to the campaign I canned. I am completely intimidated by it because I still have a lot of things to do, but being off of one is a relief! The other GM is hyped about GMing next session, though I'm not sure if I'll be there or not because we've been invited to an exposition next Sunday, but the thing is that it's out of state. It depends whether we save up for it this week or not, plus if things get busy because I'm not going alone to an exposition that is way too far from town.

Anyway, the session had the players on the edge. They didn't really know what to do with the puzzle boss, so I had them to thinking off solutions, and finally relying on stuff that was on their character sheets. Of course, our Wizard was committed to play the game so much as Rincewind on an accident that he even said a very Discworld-esque quote about the gods that I don't remember right now, but it was very similar to gods bothering atheists. Yet it was the Fighter, the one who died on the first campaign, who managed to redeem himself and actually do his best. Not only he killed off the puzzle boss very easily, but also managed to help the Druid to get out of her Groundhog Day Loop, and finally give an actual ending that they all deserved.

I was very happy that they all got a happy ending, even if the Wizard threw a Fireball on himself before teleporting out of the room they've been inside. He used Wish, and I homebrewed Wished in such a way that it works on him almost like a Monkey's Paw. This is because the Wizard, albeit is one that can cast spells, he is... well, let's say that if he was a mercenary, he'd be the cheapest Wizard gold could hire. Good rolls, but he really doesn't seem to have the INT score it has on his sheet. So yeah, it actually is a character trait of him that, even when another player decided to GM us a fight against the Tarrasque, the Wizard Wished for the Tarrasque to disappear. It did, but the fight kept coming. Five seconds later, he realized he turned the Tarrasque invisible. The player actually found a loophole around the Monkey's Paw, but he doesn't abuse it because he really finds it fun that Wish works awful on him. What's the loophole? He Wishes to have a clone, and then orders the clone to cast Wish and do the original wish he wanted, so that he is not affcted by the poor consequences. Obviously, it works like a Monkey's Paw, but he doesn't get the bad effects this time. I allow the loophole too because I just love the idea of him cloning himself through magic in order to get temporary selves that get dumber and dumber before he discards them. A good campaign idea would be his clones rebelling against him, but he dismisses every one of them... except one. There was one in which he used True Polymorph to turn into a Gold Dragon, and then made him the Count of one of the counties near the end of the campaign.

He still got soul trapped, and I just can't wait to continue his adventures. That Wizard is such a character...

So we tried Pathfinder. We liked it, and we'll use it again. For now, though, we'll go back to D&D. The next time we use Pathfinder it won't be as rushed, and I'll make a better Wild Magic table for the Wizard because, almost at the end of the first campaign, he read something he wasn't supposed to read and his magic turned unstable. You'd think he'd be concerned, but when he learned that he could make it less stable by letting it go, he turned the College of Magic upside down by letting himself go crazy with the magic. He even rolled a 1 on the Wild Surge table, which only took things up to 11. That night was a really bad night at the College, and the four Gods around the table couldn't help but laugh at the Wizard's antics, especially the one in control of him.

Just so you know, I'm using generic names. Is not really a Count, and is not really a College of Magic, but the function is the same.

Anyway, enough TTRPG, now I'm going into writing, and what's that? I had something done? Yes, I had 886 words of work today! It's all worldbuilding, but I have to say: I'm glad I did so. As I stated before, I don't want to be like J. R. R. Tolkien, and endlessly create a world without making stories about it, tweaking things and always go for the perfect world, but I can't be like Terry Pratchett, and make stuff up out of a blank page as I continue lying down the stonework of a long road. Believe me, I tried. Oh, I tried so hard, and got so far, but in the end, I ended up putting a roadblock. It is a city-state. I divided it into districts; a very small amount of districts because the previous amount I considered was too much, especially after realizing that I could make a District be the equivalent of a Kingdom, and a Neighborhood be the equivalent of a Region. The sizes of the hexes don't matter, even more so since I am using theatre of the mind, and any map I'd be doing would be only an aproximation. I'm not using this city-state to hexcrawl or anything similar, I'm using it as a template to develop my stories. Thus, I picked one district, and then picked one neighborhood. Then, I followed the instructions from Gygax 75's Week 2, and done: I made a large settlement, two small settlements, a terrain feature, a mysterious place, and a dungeon entrance. Six places, and I can simply roll a D6 if I want to make a story involving either of them.

I will develop the rest of the town later on, but I got into that neighborhood specifically because it's the one that drew my attention the most. What I have right now is good enough for me to start working, and I believe tomorrow I can pick things back up from where I left them off.

I "didn't" draw today. I actually did, but it wasn't the full lesson. It's eyes now, and I don't see them hard. Eyes aren't hard for me really, but my time really got squeezed out today. I ended up doing three out of nine, which isn't so bad. It's a third of them, and I'll get three more done tomorrow, and perhaps the other three in another piece of paper, because I'd like to do them on another sheet.

February 18th, 2024
Kickboxing: Day 154

---

Morning Routine:
The Right Side + 10 Decline Push-ups
Sól Salutation - LVL I +EC
20-Seconds Legs
Daily Dare: 50 Side Bends +EC
Count: 1389 - 1385 +EC

---

Night Routine:
Mani Salutation - 1 Set
Five Rites
Virasana Meditation
Daily Gratitude
Counting Victories

---

Programs:
Homebrew Training Plan (Valkyrie and Fighter combo inspired)
Bucket List:
Shadebound

---

Workouts:
150 Burpees +EC
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Seconds Side Splits
Glutes, Quads, Hamstrings & Calves
100/50 Strength
Pole Dance Stretches
DAREdice: 8 Double Burpees w/Jump Knee-tuck
1 minute Uttanasana w/Toe Reach
2-Minute Elbow Plank
Daily Walk
Shuffle Dance! (#1, #2, #3, H.A.T.E.R.)
Belly Dance
Dancing Days: 20

---

Challenges:
Epic Cardio: Day 19 +No rest
Epic Abs: Day 19 +No rest
Drawing Pin-up Girls Every Day for a Year: Day 14/365
Bucket List:
Empty, for now

---

Writing progress:
886 words of Worldbuilding.
1500 Get!
Daily 1500

---

Reading progress:
The Light Fantastic - 25%

---

Other Victories:

 

[Sólveig]

I bounced back. In many ways, I bounced back.

I spent some money that, part of me feels like I shouldn't, but this is actually a good spending. I mean, I spent like 5$, and part of it I'll recover it tomorrow, but this is good. I'll show you. Think of this as an answer to the Tim Ferriss' question "what is the thing that costed you lest than 100$ that changed your life, or it made a positive impact on your life in a good way." Normally, I would say the polyhedral set to play D20 systems, or a deck of cards, but there's one simple thing that I bought many years ago, and it really changed my life in many ways: a mechanical pencil. I started using mechanical pencils the year before I went to middle school. Many people told me that I shouldn't do it because it writes too light, I won't see what I'm writing, that I won't be able to use it, but after learning for a few days, I noticed many things: I started to spend less on pencils. Weekly, even to this day, I go over one entire pencil, even less if I'm drawing portraits. A mechanical pencil, though? I go over a pack of leads in a month. Of course, the packs that I'm getting now have even more leads. The one that I bought last time I got it late last year, and right now I still have four leads left from it. I've been drawing and writing with mechanical pencils ever since, and the best part not only was that a mechanical pencil is to pencils what an LED lightbulb is to incandescent bulbs. You know, LED bulbs last longer, leads last longer too. No, I'm talking about the fact that I don't need to sharpen the pencil every few sentences or every few strokes. And, while pencils have their place in art, I don't really like them compared with a mechanical pencil.

It wasn't until today that I decided to get a 0.7 mm mechanical pencil. All the time I used a 0.5 mm, and now I am noticing something different. I tried it with my handwriting first, and instantly saw there was a difference. It doesn't seem like there is on the naked eye, but I noticed immediately that my words seem to have been written with less hesitation. The hand shakes naturally, and with a 0.7 mm lead I found out that the shakes are completely deleted. I tried with a drawing, and not only my lines are clean, but the drawing itself was also cleaner. I've been stroking less lines too on the sketching phase, so I have to say, this was probably the best dollar and 37 cents I spent. I can easily make my money back, with a huge profit by drawing a B&W pin-up girl with it and selling it for 5$. It's a 685% profit, and I have two packets of leads for 0.7 mm: one has 24 leads, and the one I bought has 20 leads.

I also noticed that the book vendor near the non-profit had dictionaries for sale. Language dictionaries; two of them in my target languages, and one of which is a language that I studied two years ago for the entire year: Portuguese. So I got them: a Portuguese - English / English - Portuguese dictionary, and a Russian - English / English - Russian dictionary. The vendor is also someone from the neighborhood's commune, and is one of the caretakers of the community center. We're friends with him, and not only he got me a discount, but also gifted me a French - Spanish / Spanish - French dictionary of the same Collins Gem Dictionary series? I don't know what that is, but they are pocket sized, faux-leather bound, and packed with ton of info. Funny enough, French is also another target language, and while I already have a French - Spanish / Spanish - French dictionary, it isn't small. I took it because it was free, and now... they are right in front of me.

This is what I'm talking about. Just having them before me, at hand's reach, not only forces me to practice, but I also feel like I'm a polyglot, even though I can barely read the cyrillic alphabet, understand less than basic French, and have the fluency on Portuguese of a three-year old, but this is encouraging me to actually do my languages. So yeah, this was also a very cheap purchase that definitely changed my life. It doesn't seem like much of a change now, but once I start learning, practicing, and acquiring more fluency, the invested money will speak for itself. All it cost me was 3$ and being in good terms with the vendor, and now I feel like I can be better at languages than Xiaoma. Okay, I'm exaggerating, but you get the idea.

Other than that, it has been an amazing day, even though I cooked myself in my room after a successful writing session. 667 words on a 20-minute speedrun, then 862 words on another 20-minute speedrun. So that's a total of 1529 words, meaning that I got my daily quota done. I also continued my drawings today, compared my results with the 0.7 mm pencil, and decided to keep going with it because I'm doing things cleaner now. I feel very motivated to keep drawing, and writing. In fact, I even started a new Gygax 75 purely on paper. The pin-up babes got me thinking about a setting that revolves around it, so I decided to kill some downtime at the non-profit by opening a brand new notebook and starting to come up with ideas. Well, "brand new notebook" indeed; it's actually a planner from 1976 that's barely used, so pages were removed and now it's ready to be used. Not only that, but I'm also using Runehammer's way of ditching the pencil and instead using a pen. In the Circle Method video he mentioned that he recommends doing that because it's from the Osborn Method way of doing things, where during the beginning phase of a project, the creation phase, it is the worst time do remove ideas, so a pen will not remove them whatsoever. Bonus point: using ink also helps with perfectionism, so if I screw up, the screw up will remain there for everyone to see, and I like that.

So yeah, I'm doing a world following Gygax's article of 1975, and doing it in the same style of 1975: zero computers, to which I have to say I am down for it. I filled an entire notebook with the first part of a novel, I can definitely do this without the computer too.

So yes, while I did not do my to-do list completely, I actually got a lot of progress on my life. A new mechanical pencil just for drawing, three small dictionaries of my target languages, bounced back from my lack of world and managed to get to my 1.5K goal for writing, and even got an eureka moment into a short project that I'll do before releasing last year's NaNo. Yeah, a stopgap. I'm doing the stopgap because I require a lot more research than I thought, and I want to get my name further out there, so I figured doing something short will be good, as long as I put at least 30 minutes daily on it, I'll be fine with it.

I'm just trying to figure out an Ulysses Pact. I think I got it, but then I don't think I have. All I know is that I need that in order to actually do the thing. That's what's worked for me through my entire life, so I guess I have to keep using it.

In spite of some hiccups (like missing the Pole Dance stretches), I'll say it is a good day. I'm going to therapy tomorrow, and I'm actually happy that I got more things done too. I think I can talk about my therapist with my goals on getting with Pole Dancing. He's the one who suggested me to do Pull-ups anyway, and I guess I can find a way to not get my hands all messed up, or maybe to develop callous so that I can hold myself to the pole later on.

February 19th, 2024
Kickboxing: Day 154

---

Morning Routine:
The Right Side + 10 Decline Push-ups
Sól Salutation - LVL I +EC
20-Seconds Legs
Daily Dare: 5 Cross Tricep Extensions +EC
Count: 1390 - 1386 +EC

---

Night Routine:
Mani Salutation - 1 Set
Five Rites
Virasana Meditation
Daily Gratitude
Counting Victories

---

Programs:
Homebrew Training Plan (Valkyrie and Fighter combo inspired)
Bucket List:
Shadebound

---

Workouts:
150 Burpees +EC
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
WoD: The Cake is a Lie - LVL III +EC +Rest between levels
Monday +EC
30 Seconds Side Splits
Glutes, Quads, Hamstrings & Calves
100/50 Strength
Pole Dance Stretches
DAREdice: 8 Lunges
1 minute Uttanasana w/Toe Reach
2-Minute Elbow Plank
Daily Walk
Shuffle Dance! (#1, #2, #3, H.A.T.E.R.)
Belly Dance
Dancing Days: 20

---

Challenges:
Epic Cardio: Day 20 +No rest
Epic Abs: Day 20 +No rest
Drawing Pin-up Girls Every Day for a Year: Day 15/365
Bucket List:
Empty, for now

---

Writing progress:
I bounced back!
1500 Get!
Daily 1500

---

Reading progress:
The Light Fantastic - 27%

---

Other Victories:

 

[Sólveig]

It was a good session today. Not only I noticed that I'm healing compared to the way I was before, but I'm also more motivated, and driven. In fact, I told my therapist about my concerns for my WIP and my plans for a project, thus I ended up signing an Ulysses Pact with him. By the next session, I must have a 50K rough draft done about one of my written idea that came up in the middle of therapy, because it was related to my past, and solidifying my future.

I didn't work on it today, actually. I spent most of the day walking, trying to find some better investments. I didn't get much. Just a notebook that I needed to study The Art of War, and htis time, to analyze it for ADHD instead of using it as a way to help myself to go through university the two times that I needed it the most. I am much wiser now, so The Art of War is a book that I truly need for life. I don't remember how much it costed me, but it's also one of those less-than-100$-investments that impacted my life in a positive way. It saved my ass twice, and I believe it can reshape my life.

I also got so many books to read now, as homework, for both the project, and therapy. It's going to be one heck of a chaotic month, but you know what? I like it to be chaotic. It feels very pressuring, yet I thrive on it. In fact, I'm going to make it a point to go to bed early once again, and see how much work I can get done in the morning. Seeing how the powercuts happen in the afternoon, it might be the best of ideas to sleep early, and I don't know... take a little siesta through the entire powercut? Sure, I can draw during the powercut, but comparing it for how long they last, I still have some time left during them.

My therapist congratulated me for replacing my pencil with a pen for writing out ideas, and even brainstorming. My goal is to not kill perfectionism, but to use it to my advantage instead of getting crippled by it. I can see it trying to poke through with drawing too. One of my drawings came out a bit bad today, but I didn't mind. I knew the mistake after a first look at it, but I didn't blame myself too much to it. It's a position that I'm not used to do close-ups, so I know that's not how I do it when I'm faced with it. Can I do it better next time? I'm not sure. Will I eventually do it better? Definite yes. I already saw that happen.

Thinking about bringing back my high fantasy / cyberpunk universe; the one that got me into writing in the first place. Turning it into ICRPG would work perfectly for it because it is an excellent fit for ICRPG. Not only that, but I'm also thinking about the many posters I made, showcasing the girls from that universe. There's one with this naked stripper posing on the pole; a major character in one story, and probably the character I simp the most. I'm thinking about making it again, but better... so much better than before...

I may not have written as much as I wanted (like I said, I walked a lot today), but I did some progress. Not my best progress, but I'm here to complete things, not to reach 100%. I'll reach 100% when it is time to reach 100%.

February 20th, 2024
Kickboxing: Day 154

---

Morning Routine:
The Right Side + 10 Decline Push-ups
Sól Salutation - LVL I +EC
20-Seconds Legs
Daily Dare: 30 Single Leg Bridges +EC
Count: 1391 - 1387 +EC

---

Night Routine:
Mani Salutation - 1 Set
Five Rites
Virasana Meditation
Daily Gratitude
Counting Victories

---

Programs:
Homebrew Training Plan (Valkyrie and Fighter combo inspired)
Bucket List:
Shadebound

---

Workouts:
150 Burpees +EC
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
7 Double Burpees w/Jump Knee-Tuck
30 Seconds Side Splits
Glutes, Quads, Hamstrings & Calves
100/50 Strength
Pole Dance Stretches
DAREdice: 4 Sit-ups
1 minute Uttanasana w/Toe Reach
2-Minute Elbow Plank
Daily Walk
Shuffle Dance! (#1, #2, #3, H.A.T.E.R.)
Belly Dance
Dancing Days: 20

---

Challenges:
Epic Cardio: Day 21 +No rest
Epic Abs: Day 21 +No rest
Drawing Pin-up Girls Every Day for a Year: Day 16/365
Bucket List:
Empty, for now

---

Writing progress:
685 Words.
1500 Get!
Daily 1500

---

Reading progress:
The Light Fantastic - 50%

---

Other Victories:

 

[Sólveig]

Nope. Not a good day, and I don't think the four days left from this week will be.

See, I woke up late. Then, after putting down 140 words, they cut the power early than usual. This alone screwed up my entire schedule, because I only had lunch five hours after they took the power (gas ran out a while ago, so we're using the electric stove until they finally decide to refill the cylinders), skipped my walk, got insulted due to my nationality, and then had to spend time doing nothing that was related to my goals. The only progress I mad was on the Pin-up challenge, and that I journalled a bit, but that was it.

No words written. Nothing at all. I almost skipped working out because I had lunch so freaking late, but I ended up working out late... even though I had to skip the stretches because, again, my time was running out! And then I had to get busy because... yeah, I am not free, and people depend on me.

The next four days will be busy too. My entire week got screwed up yesterday, and it wasn't because of therapy. It was because I had to rearrange the guitar class for tomorrow, and tomorrow is also Qi Gong day.

Man, people don't get it. I am busy. I may not look like it, I may look like I am just wasting a lot of time, but I am b u s y. I'm fully aware that I look like I do nothing, but I am b u s y... Stop depending on me! Bother someone else...

February 21st, 2024
Kickboxing: Day 155

---

Morning Routine:
The Right Side + 10 Decline Push-ups
Sól Salutation - LVL I +EC
20-Seconds Legs
Daily Dare: 30 Seconds Wall-sit +EC
Count: 1392 - 1388 +EC

---

Night Routine:
Mani Salutation - 1 Set
Five Rites
Virasana Meditation
Daily Gratitude
Counting Victories

---

Programs:
Homebrew Training Plan (Valkyrie and Fighter combo inspired)
Bucket List:
Shadebound

---

Workouts:
150 Burpees +EC
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
One Kick (Side Kick) - LVL III +No rest between sets
30 Seconds Side Splits
Glutes, Quads, Hamstrings & Calves
100/50 Strength
Pole Dance Stretches
DAREdice: 8 Jumping Jacks
1 minute Uttanasana w/Toe Reach
2-Minute Elbow Plank
Daily Walk
Shuffle Dance! (#1, #2, #3, H.A.T.E.R.)
Belly Dance
Dancing Days: 20

---

Challenges:
Epic Cardio: Day 22 +No rest
Epic Abs: Day 22 +No rest
Drawing Pin-up Girls Every Day for a Year: Day 17/365
Bucket List:
Empty, for now

---

Writing progress:
140 Words
1500 Get!
Daily 1500

---

Reading progress:
The Light Fantastic - 55%

---

Other Victories:

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

Man, people don't get it. I am busy. I may not look like it, I may look like I am just wasting a lot of time, but I am b u s y. I'm fully aware that I look like I do nothing, but I am b u s y... Stop depending on me! Bother someone else...

I feel your pain. People have a difficult time understanding that your work is important and your time is valuable when you work from home. Most of the writing I was able to get done over the past 15 years was either writing longhand while sitting under a tree in a park somewhere, or during the precious few hours when I was afforded quiet working space in my public library. (For the most part the libraries here are noisy social gathering places, not the quiet places they used to be in my youth.)

 

[Deadoks]

Nope. Not a good day, and I don't think the four days left from this week will be.

some positive vibes!

got insulted due to my nationality

WTF?!...

 

[Sólveig]

I feel your pain. People have a difficult time understanding that your work is important and your time is valuable when you work from home. Most of the writing I was able to get done over the past 15 years was either writing longhand while sitting under a tree in a park somewhere, or during the precious few hours when I was afforded quiet working space in my public library. (For the most part the libraries here are noisy social gathering places, not the quiet places they used to be in my youth.)

Noise is not much of a problem. Actually, silence is even more distracting than noise in my case. That's not the issue, though. The issue is people interrupting me whenever they like, so it is hard to even focus on anything, even when I have a timer running down. I could go to the community center, sure, but then I would need to work on my duties than actually write. Besides, I can't take my laptop anywhere anymore, or at least not until I get a new power brick because with this one is tricky to turn her on, so I leave it on the same place, really.

I have written in notebooks before, and that's fine, but my WIP is on the computer, so... I can't do the stuff that is at the top of the list outside. Unless I get a keyboard, I won't be transferring the file to my phone and write everything in Obsidian. There's nothing wrong with writing on the phone, but with these big hands and long fingers that sometimes trigger my dysphoria if I don't remind myself that they allow me to play the guitar pretty cool, it's annoying to write on the phone.

WTF?!...

It's a thing. Since the mass migration of Venezuelans began in 2016, the others from the rest of the continent started to discriminate us, even coming up with the word "veneco" as a slur. It didn't help that even the criminals left the country too (like I said somewhere here, the joke about someone being kidnapped and the kidnappers discussing how they were mugged while they were in the middle of a mug). To be completely honest with you, right now? I don't allow words to hurt me anymore. I have a very thick skull when it comes with people calling me names, as if I haven't heard those things before. I've been bullied relentlessly back when I was a teenager, and have been called many amounts of slurs for being overweight, having glasses, or even being shy, which is how the homosexual slurs begun without even me knowing I'm trans, but I digress. It was all fun and games, until my nationality came up again, and this time, there was a Colombian there. See, now, we can get along, I've seen it, but sometimes, there are some Colombians who are just complete and utter bigots against us, and they multiplied since 2016. This one, in particular, seemed like one of them.

They called me a rat, that I should come back to my country and stay inside my country and never leave, that their country is better, and... just imagine an entire patriotic rant from a very bigoted person from the United States. Of course, this is the Internet, and the more the years passed, the stronger it is Poe's Law. I wasn't going to pay attention to it at first, but after being called a rat, and that I should stay inside, I couldn't take it. No one in that server expected me to bite back, no one but my girlfriend. And when someone insults me, I don't fight honorably, no, I fight dirty, I'm always going for the low blows. I don't insult back, I humilliate. It got so bad that they had to apologize.

Apparently, it was all a joke, but I don't think a joke should start by calling me a literal rat, and saying that my entire family is made up entirely by rats.

See? This is why I don't want to stay in Latinamerica. All I want is to live in peace, and not have the need to fight back a bunch of people who should know better, regardless as to whether they're joking or not. Had my girlfriend not been there, I would've turned it for the worst.

E: Typos

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

Noise is not much of a problem. Actually, silence is even more distracting than noise in my case. That's not the issue, though. The issue is people interrupting me whenever they like,

Yes. I understand. That's what I was talking about. I had to leave my home to get any writing done, because the people I was living with (my parents) constantly interrupted me at home. My mother in particular could not remember for even 5 minutes that I'd asked her to please leave me alone so I could get some work done. She would come to my room and start giving me a blow-by-blow recounting of whatever she'd just watched on television, or whatever gossip she'd just heard on a phone call with her sister.

I would say, "Mum! Please! I'm trying to get some work done here!"

And she would reply, 'Oh, sorry." And then immediately--and I mean IMMEDIATELY, without even taking a breath--resume whatever narrative she was going on about, the relating of which she clearly thought was more important than anything I wanted to do with my time. She would never call my brother in the middle of his work day and expect him to listen to her re-telling of a 3+ hours-long tennis match. She wouldn't even call him in the middle of his work day to tell him something important. But if I was trying to get work done at home, I was fair game

My public library was no better most of the time, because I would sit down to work there, and total strangers would come up to me and interrupt me. I would be sitting there minding my own business, fingers on my keyboard, eyes on my screen, and people would walk up to me and treat me like I was library staff, as if it was my responsibility to drop whatever I was doing to serve them. On occasion I even had total strangers sit down across from me and start telling me personal, weepy stories about their sad lives!

I understand what it's like to be plagued by near-constant interruptions!

it's annoying to write on the phone.

Goodness! Yeah. I would never do that. I write longhand when I'm writing outside. I either just remember where I'm at in the story and continue on from there. (Doesn't matter if I'm not exactly right. I can always fix any repetition or missed bits later when I do the type-in of the pages I wrote by hand.) Or I'll print out the last bit of what I wrote and bring that with me. Or convert everything to an e-pub and then take the entire WIP with me on my e-reader.

It's a thing.

I am sorry for the racism you have to experience where you are.

I also see (hear, mostly) a lot of racism where I live currently. But it's almost all white-nationalism. And I'm white. So I have to suffer hearing people say hideous, racist things, but those things aren't directed at me.

 

[Deadoks]

I just don't get racism... Why? This is so stupid...

 

[Maegaranthelas]

I just don't get racism... Why? This is so stupid...

A lot of the time it's people who don't have enough to feel safe, scared that someone else is going to take it away from them.
They shouldn't be scared of those people though, they should be working together to make sure everybody has enough :')

But yeah, racism is really weird, and also weirdly local. When I first moved to where I have lived for ages, I was called a lot of racial slurs.
I'm white, barely Mediterranean in tone, but not white enough for some xD. A few years ago I met a man who was the first ever black kid in my town, he had quite an experience :')

I'm sorry you had to deal with that, it's awful that people decide to hate based on characteristics you have no control over.
And that 'it was a joke' think is so tiring! I call it 'Schrödinger's Joke', after the thought experiment.
I've often had people make sex 'jokes' like that, where it's only a joke if I say no.
In this case, it sounds like it was only a joke because you stood up for yourself.
Big hugs, you deserve better

 

[Sólveig]

What a horrible day to suffer through gender dysphoria. The only person I can rely upon this is going through a depressing episode again, and I'm losing my patience. I can't watch her self-destruct, and I'm completely powerless to help, so much so that I think I should break up with her, but I don't want to break up with my girlfriend...

530 words in, and I got my time stolen. I didn't give any class today, so more time was taken away from me. I even went to Qi Gong, and it worked for nothing.

It was just a bad day. An awful one that poses a decision that I don't want to make, or maybe I already made, and I feel it's the worst decision.

Can't I just go back to the days before the shit hit the fan, please?

I had to force myself to work out...

I don't want to break up, but I don't want to watch her self-destruct... and I want us both to chase our dreams together...

February 22nd, 2024
Kickboxing: Day 155

---

Morning Routine:
The Right Side + 10 Decline Push-ups
Sól Salutation - LVL I +EC
20-Seconds Legs
Daily Dare: 15 Urdhva Mukha / Adho Mukha Shvanasana +EC
Count: 1393 - 1389 +EC

---

Night Routine:
Mani Salutation - 1 Set
Five Rites
Virasana Meditation
Daily Gratitude
Counting Victories

---

Programs:
Homebrew Training Plan (Valkyrie and Fighter combo inspired)
Bucket List:
Shadebound

---

Workouts:
150 Burpees +EC
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
Ba Han Sheng Qi Gong: The Courting Force of the Great; The Obedience of Life
Ideograms; Da Xu
30 Seconds Side Splits
Glutes, Quads, Hamstrings & Calves
100/50 Strength
Pole Dance Stretches
DAREdice: 8 Jumping Jacks
1 minute Uttanasana w/Toe Reach
2-Minute Elbow Plank
Daily Walk
Shuffle Dance! (#1, #2, #3, H.A.T.E.R.)
Belly Dance
Dancing Days: 20

---

Challenges:
Epic Cardio: Day 23 +No rest
Epic Abs: Day 23 +No rest
Drawing Pin-up Girls Every Day for a Year: Day 18/365
Bucket List:
Empty, for now

---

Writing progress:
530 Words
1500 Get!
Daily 1500

---

Reading progress:
The Light Fantastic - 55%

---

Other Victories:

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

I am sorry you are having to deal with all of that @Sólveig .
Wishing you strength and wisdom as you work your way through those challenges.

 

[Sólveig]

I don't know for how long I walked, but I walked for way too much.

First, it was a waste of time. There was a huge line at the bank, so I decided to not do anything. The line was because the government deposited the very expensive, incredible, and so damn great benefit of a monthly 3$ deposit for the elderly. Forgive me if my sarcasm offends you, but it is not aimed at your ignorance. See, the government always loves to talk about how good is their welfare state that people are able to get by with it alone, but yeah, you can't live with 3$/month alone, not even in a poorer country than this one. Don't ask me how is it that some people depend on those outstanding government packages, because no one has any idea how do we get by with less than a dollar on a daily basis.

So yeah, then I had to go out again to do some groceries, and as soon as I came back home... we forgot to buy something, so I had to go out... again... as I was getting undressed.

Kickboxing turned more into boxing, for my legs couldn't make it today. Right now, I have a nasty headache, and I should go to sleep as soon as I'm done posting. I barely drew a hand just to keep going with the challenge, but there were no words written today.

No words, a desire to play Vampire: The Masquerade that never came, and a whole lot of sadness.

I made my choice, and we talked. Suffice to say is that I'm not single. She felt better today, and was fully aware on how she couldn't control her emotions yesterday. I didn't blame her for it; I went through the same, and I had to learn to control it. Of course, I got mad at her, so we took a break from each other for the day, until approaching sunset, when we reconciled. I'm still pinning the option, but I won't take it yet. All I hope for is to remove that pin soon. I do not know what tomorrow will bring, wrote Pessoa, but I hope that tomorrow will bring us close again instead of keeping us apart. Judging by the fact that she's going out of a path of self-destruction, maybe that'll happen. It is a long road, and she needs all the support she can. I want to support her to, because I went through the same, and had no one to rely upon. If someone you know is struggling with depression, remember, they don't have to fight alone. If you can help them, help them, even if all you can do is listen to them. The smallest actions help a lot.

No writing. I'm not sure if that'll change tomorrow, but the fire is lit again.

Thank you for all the support. It really means a lot to me, because if I lose her, I'll be losing my north too, and I won't recover my north so easily either.

February 23rd, 2024
Kickboxing: Day 156

---

Morning Routine:
The Right Side + 10 Decline Push-ups
Sól Salutation - LVL I +EC
20-Seconds Legs
Daily Dare: 30 Seconds Knee-to-elbow +EC
Count: 1394 - 1390 +EC

---

Night Routine:
Mani Salutation - 1 Set
Five Rites
Virasana Meditation
Daily Gratitude
Counting Victories

---

Programs:
Homebrew Training Plan (Valkyrie and Fighter combo inspired)
Bucket List:
Shadebound

---

Workouts:
150 Burpees +EC
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
Pro Boxer - LVL II +EC
30 Seconds Side Splits
Glutes, Quads, Hamstrings & Calves
100/50 Strength
Pole Dance Stretches
DAREdice: 16 Sit-ups
1 minute Uttanasana w/Toe Reach
2-Minute Elbow Plank
Daily Walk
Shuffle Dance! (#1, #2, #3, H.A.T.E.R.)
Belly Dance
Dancing Days: 20

---

Challenges:
Epic Cardio: Day 24 +No rest
Epic Abs: Day 24 +No rest
Drawing Pin-up Girls Every Day for a Year: Day 19/365
Bucket List:
Empty, for now

---

Writing progress:
Nope
1500 Get!
Daily 1500

---

Reading progress:
The Light Fantastic - 55%

---

Other Victories:

 

[Sólveig]

Missed a training session. There was a meeting and a celebration at the non-profit, and then I pitched something that got approved for April.

I also forced myself to write, but this was more an effort to clear my whiteboard rather than actually writing. Worldbuilding. 444 words of worldbuilding. 90 words of progressing on my current story, and I'm still counting. I'll get to the full number once I'm done with it tonight. Hopefully, I'll be done with it, but if I don't, then it'll be tomorrow.

I only managed to do 150 Burpees today and that was it. I overslept because... yeah, I walked a lot yesterday. 3 sets of Viparita Karani helped, but that didn't stop my calves from feeling incredibly stiff today. Don't get me wrong, there were no DOMS, and there was no pain, but my calves in particular felt really stiff and tough. Since I'll be sitting down tomorrow for the entire day, I'll relax. Nevertheless, I'm shuffling tomorrow after D&D.

I'm not GMing tomorrow, so I didn't prepare anything. Not like I had time to prepare something anyway. This week was very tough, and I'm just glad it's almost over now. I'm only afraid that things can get worse. Part of me is not looking for D&D tomorrow, but another part of me feels like I deserve it.

Girlfriend seems to be in a better mood today, but that can be an illusion. I'll chill a bit though. There's not point in being anxious right now, but I'm not letting my guard down.

E: I still have a way to go, but I managed to get 1067 words onto my project! That means a count of 1511 words today! I'm back, baby!

February 24th, 2024
Kickboxing: Day 156

---

Morning Routine:
The Right Side + 10 Decline Push-ups
Sól Salutation - LVL I +EC
20-Seconds Legs
Daily Dare: 20 Jumping Lunges +EC
Count: 1395 - 1391 +EC

---

Night Routine:
Mani Salutation - 1 Set
Five Rites
Virasana Meditation
Daily Gratitude
Counting Victories

---

Programs:
Homebrew Training Plan (Valkyrie and Fighter combo inspired)
Bucket List:
Shadebound

---

Workouts:
150 Burpees +EC
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Seconds Side Splits
Glutes, Quads, Hamstrings & Calves
100/50 Strength
Pole Dance Stretches
DAREdice: 4 Squats
1 minute Uttanasana w/Toe Reach
2-Minute Elbow Plank
Daily Walk
Shuffle Dance! (#1, #2, #3, H.A.T.E.R.)
Belly Dance
Dancing Days: 20

---

Challenges:
Epic Cardio: Day 25 +No rest
Epic Abs: Day 25 +No rest
Drawing Pin-up Girls Every Day for a Year: Day 20/365
Bucket List:
Empty, for now

---

Writing progress:
1511 words. I'm back!
1500 Get!
Daily 1500

---

Reading progress:
The Light Fantastic - 63%

---

Other Victories:

 

[Sólveig]

I thought I'd do Burpees early today, then do the WoD, and then after D&D I'd be dancing and doing the actual stretches. Instead, I woke up late, didn't do anything other than the morning routine, and came back to do Burpees and the WoD.

I am still going to write though. So far I've written 477 words, but all of it was for ICRPG. I put my notes from the last session into the Manuskript document and rolled for the next one-shot, because I am not doing arcs. Judging by the way that game is going, I must do exclusively one-shots instead. Players are using the same characters too, and it doesn't help that I really want to see what's been up with Saraya since her return to wrestling, because I found out about it late last year, and I'm watching the moment she came back... One of my NPCs in that game is actually based upon her back on her WWE days, so it really is pushing me to keep writing Vigilante City.

It was D&D 5e day today though, and my Cleric became the MVP in today's session, something that not only I did not expect, but also got rewarded with. Her goals of becoming a goddess herself are actually getting closer, and we just leveled up to 10, which means Divine Intervation is available. She is still the crazy Chaotic Neutral, but I never played her as a Chaotic Stupid... except at the beginning, for I didn't know her that well. After seeing her development, and taking a lot of notes about her progress, I am figuring out that her actions are the ones of the goddess she aims to be. Betrayal is something that she frowns upon (as it is a constant theme in our games since we fought a god of betrayal at the end of our first campaign, AND our Planescape mini-campaign), and she is getting closer to know the person who saved her. In fact, today was so dramatic that even the DM almost cried after bringing back up NPCs from our first campaign. We had a beautiful moment where a kid his Fighter adopted came back as an adult, and almost instantly bonded with my Cleric for she knew who was the man who saved her life back when she was young (it was the Monk that replaced the Fighter after his death; is not much of a plot twist when I know it, but the quest to know about his fate is something that, inside character, I find intriguing, and outside character, it is fun). Not only I saved her life, but also rejoined her with her long lost brother, who is our current boss in this campaign. Our boss told us to kill her, but it was I who managed to hold hands with both, and convinced him to let go of his feelings and just hug his sister; it's been a long time.

Seriously, I teared up a bit when it happened, even more so knowing that the outcome was my doing. I became my character for that brief moment that we savored. We came out very pleased, and our DM loved the entire session completely, including the hijinks of my Cleric (such as being stopped by everyone before she sat on a throne she was not supposed to seat in, convert an NPC who is a big player in the story into her own religion, and even walk inside a town hall dressed up like she was going to walk in a catwalk), the Bard bullying our favorite punching bag NPC, and the Barbarian messing with his flies as he calls them (they are sprites that live around his caves), and getting excited and angry about we finally coming closer to completing his goals, but also his complete stoicism for any ambition of expanding his territory whenever we prompt it. That player is actually committed too. He got rewarded a mask that changed his race from Bearkin to Aarakocra, and he even started to speak like a bird when it happened the first time.

February 25th, 2024
Kickboxing: Day 156

---

Morning Routine:
The Right Side + 10 Decline Push-ups
Sól Salutation - LVL I +EC
20-Seconds Legs
Daily Dare: 60 Seconds Elbow Plank Hold +EC
Count: 1396 - 1392 +EC

---

Night Routine:
Mani Salutation - 1 Set
Five Rites
Virasana Meditation
Daily Gratitude
Counting Victories

---

Programs:
Homebrew Training Plan (Valkyrie and Fighter combo inspired)
Bucket List:
Shadebound

---

Workouts:
150 Burpees +EC
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
WoD: Splits +EC
30 Seconds Side Splits
Glutes, Quads, Hamstrings & Calves
100/50 Strength
Pole Dance Stretches
DAREdice: 16 Squats
1 minute Uttanasana w/Toe Reach
2-Minute Elbow Plank
Daily Walk
Shuffle Dance! (#1, #2, #3, H.A.T.E.R.)
Belly Dance
Dancing Days: 20

---

Challenges:
Epic Cardio: Day 26 +No rest
Epic Abs: Day 26 +No rest
Drawing Pin-up Girls Every Day for a Year: Day 21/365
Bucket List:
Empty, for now

---

Writing progress:
477, but not yet
1500 Get!
Daily 1500

---

Reading progress:
The Light Fantastic - 63%

---

Other Victories:

 

[Deadoks]

So cool your DnD sessions enjoy it at the most!

 

[Sólveig]

One speedrun of 582 words. After it, I kept going, and ended up with... a whopping total of 1831 words written in the chapter, thus finishing it for good! Now I have to tackle the last one, which will be less words, and more chaotic. As usual, I ended it up with a small cliffhanger just to get the interest brewing.

While it took me to sit down to write (powercut, drawing, the fact that I overslept because I'm still tired...), I managed to do it, and I am more keen to do more challenges too. Sadly, though, I didn't write on my novel, which I was supposed to do today, but it doesn't matter. I did good on putting 1.8K tonight. Besides, my workout got really long today. When I saw that WoD, I had to do it. Then I rolled 20 Basic Burpees on the DAREdice, and I wanted to even out my Burpees today to get 160 instead of 153, making my total for 180 Burpees. Why not? Why not do 20 more and make it to 200 today?

I know, I know: only I am crazy enough to do that... and perhaps David Goggins. The thing's that I can actually see myself doing 200 Burpees daily. Is not like I'm tired of doing 150, or better said, that I'm not getting tired enough from doing 150, but it's more like it is a plausible thing, even if I spread it out so that I do 50 at one point of the day, and then I do my workout with the usual 150 Burpees. Sure, I won't have the EC if I follow the challenge rules, but that would be if I name it 200 Burpees instead of 150 Burpees, yet I am not going through that loophole if I decided to do 200. Besides, it's only been almost two months since I started to do 150 Burpees, I don't think my stamina has improved so much to do 200 Burpees in a single workout, plus it takes more time. 100 Burpees take me around 10 minutes with our without rest. I know that my failure point of Burpees is 100, and I only reached hat point once, which is the day where I earned my badge, and it took me 10 whole minutes, but when I did just 100, it always took me 10 minutes even with the breaks, hence I have that time in place. I haven't measured with the 150 Burpees just yet, but there isn't much of an increase, so 200 Burpes would be 20 minutes or not... I'm not sure.

But yeah, there's that. Waking up late, powercuts, Burpees, long workout sessions, writing so many words, drawing... Man, I am killing it! The victories that I had today weren't the victories I thought I'd have, but I'm taking those!

February 26th, 2024
Kickboxing: Day 156

---

Morning Routine:
The Right Side + 10 Decline Push-ups
Sól Salutation - LVL I +EC
20-Seconds Legs
Daily Dare: 3 Minutes Shoulder Taps +EC
Count: 1397 - 1393 +EC

---

Night Routine:
Mani Salutation - 1 Set
Five Rites
Virasana Meditation
Daily Gratitude
Counting Victories

---

Programs:
Homebrew Training Plan (Valkyrie and Fighter combo inspired)
Bucket List:
Shadebound
Shadebound

---

Workouts:
150 Burpees +EC
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
WoD: Assassin's Workout - LVL III +EC
Monday +EC
Butt Lift +EC
27 Full Burpees
30 Seconds Side Splits
Glutes, Quads, Hamstrings & Calves
100/50 Strength
Pole Dance Stretches
DAREdice: 20 Full Burpees w/Jump Knee-Tuck
1 minute Uttanasana w/Toe Reach
2-Minute Elbow Plank
Daily Walk
Shuffle Dance! (#1, #2, #3, H.A.T.E.R.)
Belly Dance
Dancing Days: 20

---

Challenges:
Epic Cardio: Day 27 +No rest | Day 28 +No rest
Epic Abs: Day 27 +No rest | Day 28 +No rest
Drawing Pin-up Girls Every Day for a Year: Day 22/365
Bucket List:
Empty, for now

---

Writing progress:
1831 words and a chapter finished! Now it's time to edit and tackle the final one
1500 Get!
Daily 1500

---

Reading progress:
The Light Fantastic - 63%

---

Other Victories:

 

[Deadoks]

But yeah, there's that. Waking up late, powercuts, Burpees, long workout sessions, writing so many words, drawing... Man, I am killing it! The victories that I had today weren't the victories I thought I'd have, but I'm taking those!

I'm just impressed!

 

[Sólveig]

I took a break from writing. I wasn't planning on it, but I guess I need it? I just couldn't focus, and instead, spent most of the day drawing. I finally got out of the lesson on hands, so I'll be returning to the usual pin-up babes tomorrow. I actually decided to test out the new pen that I got. Suffice to say is that I need a lot of practice with it; the lines are very thin, but I can have a lot of uses to it. I'm thinking about making a map with it, since maps use the exact line exercises that I require, plus I hate to do exercises; it feels like I can do better stuff with my time. Making a map though, that's a whole different level. I checked out JP Coovert's video about map keys, so I'm thinking about making a mini campaign setting as an excuse to make a map. It keeps me writing, I guess.

So yeah, no writing today. Not a decision that I made on purpose, but with the drawings (that, honestly, didn't take much time), and the class, and me waking up late... and the fact that I have to do my errand tomorrow... Yeah, there's going to be a lot of walking tomorrow again; I might just come home and do the Pole Dance Stretches immediately.

You may have noticed that I did two days of the Epic challenges, and I did the same for today. Don't get me wrong, I liked the challenges, but I started to feel that it got progressively boring, and by the time I got to Day 17, I just didn't want to keep going because it was boring. I started to delay them from a part of my morning routine to something that I do before or during the workout, or even as part of my night routine. So I did them quick because it got dull, and quite frankly, I couldn't resist two more days. Already claimed the badges.

I also noticed that Miss Monique's sets work great for writing and drawing. I mean, I've listened to her for a long time now, but I just didn't realize how much her music helped me to focus until today. Three out of the four hands that I drew today were during one of her podcasts, and I had twenty minutes left that I just spent chilling, because my class was coming up soon. I drew the fourth and final hand later today, so I managed to finish all ten hands that Thierry Beaudenon put on his book. Like I said, tomorrow, there will be a pin-up babe.

As for the drawing with the pen, well, my girlfriend told me to use perspective to my advantage. Of course, I know what perspective is, I just don't know how to use it on very subtle angles. I used a selfie of a pole dancer that inspired me to take in the workouts for reference, and it actually looked like her, which is fine. I started up as a caricaturist, and I wasn't going for realism, but she's right about the perspective. The comic-book look that I put was cool, but I can do better. I'm surprised she didn't judge my lines, but I guess a 0.5 mm pen has its place in some places rather than the entire drawing.

More practice. There will be a powercut tomorrow, but I have my duties covered. I can both write and draw during the powercut too, because the only thing that I have to do electronically is either prepare my D&D session for Sunday or edit the story.

E: I just decided on my next challenge for March.

February 27th, 2024
Kickboxing: Day 156

---

Morning Routine:
The Right Side + 10 Decline Push-ups
Sól Salutation - LVL I +EC
20-Seconds Legs
Daily Dare: 30 Seconds Pacer Steps +EC
Count: 1398 - 1394 +EC

---

Night Routine:
Mani Salutation - 1 Set
Five Rites
Virasana Meditation
Daily Gratitude
Counting Victories

---

Programs:
Homebrew Training Plan (Valkyrie and Fighter combo inspired)
Bucket List:
Shadebound
Cardio & Abs

---

Workouts:
150 Burpees +EC
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
Sculptor +EC
30 Seconds Side Splits
Glutes, Quads, Hamstrings & Calves
100/50 Strength
Pole Dance Stretches
DAREdice: 10 Push-ups
1 minute Uttanasana w/Toe Reach
2-Minute Elbow Plank
Daily Walk
Shuffle Dance! (#1, #2, #3, H.A.T.E.R.)
Belly Dance
Dancing Days: 20

---

Challenges:
Epic Cardio: Day 29 +No rest | Day 30 +No rest
Epic Abs: Day 29 +No rest | Day 30 +No rest
Drawing Pin-up Girls Every Day for a Year: Day 23/365
Up Next: Indoor Cardio
Bucket List:
Empty, for now

---

Writing progress:
Brain reset
1500 Get!
Daily 1500

---

Reading progress:
The Light Fantastic - 68%

---

Other Victories:
Guitar class

 

[Nightg0ddess]

Congratulations on finishing the challenges!!

 

[Deadoks]

Congrats on the double challenge completion!

 

[Fremen]

Congrats

 

[Syrius]

Happy Double Badge Day!!!

 

[Sólveig]

@Nightg0ddess @Deadoks @Fremen @Syrius Thank you!

 

[Anek]

Happy double badge day!!

 

[Sólveig]

@Anek Thank you

 

[Sólveig]

I will edit right now. I got trapped in the algorithm, so I didn't do anything when I was supposed to.

I wasted my errand, so I must repeat it tomorrow. Apparently, I waited for too long, so I had to put in the request... again...

Thankfully, it's a quick thing. So there wasn't much time wasted. I also got my walk done, and I'll have it done tomorrow too, but tomorrow will be a Qi Gong day. On the other hand, I also screwed up my drawing today. Either that, or I'm too much of a perfectionism...

No, it's the first one. I did it on a rush. I wasn't focusing, and it felt more like a need to do it rather than a challenge I have to go through. I still count it as a day. Even the failures and the ugly ones must count. I'm doing this for a year, and it's been nearly a month. I guess having a lot of days focusing on the smaller parts really made me lose the practice, but then again, I am starting over. I set myself a limit: if I want to repeat a drawing from the book while I haven't finished it, I'll only do it twice. Then, I'll keep going, regardless of the result. I'll repeat it tomorrow, in a bigger piece of paper. I already know what went wrong, so I can do better. I must do better.

I also didn't write today, but I can fix it. I'll do some editing tonight. Just five minutes of editing, or something. I feel like I'll get more work done tomorrow.

I don't know why my E key isn't working sometimes...

E: 318 words edited. I'm also finding out an unique voice that I never thought I'd have. I guess my writing is evolving.

February 28th, 2024
Kickboxing: Day 157

---

Morning Routine:
The Right Side + 10 Decline Push-ups
Sól Salutation - LVL I +EC
20-Seconds Legs
Daily Dare: 50 Toe Taps +EC
Count: 1399 - 1395 +EC

---

Night Routine:
Mani Salutation - 1 Set
Five Rites
Virasana Meditation
Daily Gratitude
Counting Victories

---

Programs:
Homebrew Training Plan (Valkyrie and Fighter combo inspired)
Bucket List:
Shadebound
Cardio & Abs

---

Workouts:
150 Burpees +EC
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
Combat Light +No rest between sets
30 Seconds Side Splits
Glutes, Quads, Hamstrings & Calves
100/50 Strength
Pole Dance Stretches
DAREdice: 10 Jumping Jacks
1 minute Uttanasana w/Toe Reach
2-Minute Elbow Plank
Daily Walk
Shuffle Dance! (#1, #2, #3, H.A.T.E.R.)
Belly Dance
Dancing Days: 20

---

Challenges:
Indoor Cardio: Awaiting March
Drawing Pin-up Girls Every Day for a Year: Day 24/365
Bucket List:
Empty, for now

---

Writing progress:
318 words edited. I could've gone for more, but I'm going to bed now
1500 Get!
Daily 1500

---

Reading progress:
The Light Fantastic - 68%

---

Other Victories:

 

[Sólveig]

I'm going to post again to share a couple of videos that helped me today.

One is from Runehammer's podcast RPG Mainframe. He talks about the benefits of using traditional tools for TTRPGs instead of relying on digital tools. He cites an interesting study that shows how you are able to retain information better when you take notes on paper instead of going digital, but the part that I find very interesting is when he mentions how everything gets messy on paper. Hankerin is a pen guy, he's more into pens than pencils, so I find it fascinating when he mentions paper character sheets and having their non-temporary numbers, like Ability Scores, struck off and replaced by other numbers, how the sheet gets dirty with every ink blob, messy because the ink didn't dry off properly, or the paper starts to get holes after modifying the hit points every single time, how whenever your character improves, you get new features, and then you get more items, lose items, the portrait changes and now there's an eyepatch (my first character acquired scares on her lips), everything until the character sheet is nothing but a piece of paper that is messy, with corners torn off, holes caused by the burns of the eraser, and a mess of ink. Then you see that sheet and all you can think of is "wow, that character has been through a lot!" And it's true! I've experienced it. The characters that go through a lot get their sheets ruined.

Listening to all of that rewired me as I started to use a pen more often to take notes. I already started to write my ideas on a notebook with a pen, but then I've practiced some brainstorming with a pen and a pen only, mostly to fight perfectionism, and now I see it through that lense. Is not really about TTRPGs anymore, but actually embracing those mistakes like the scars that you get throughout every lesson life throws at you. Again, it is focused on TTRPGs, but if you listen to it you may find it goes way beyond that.

The second video I'm sharing is yet another Struthless video that complimented the one that I'm following for the challenge. While I am not struggling to find my own style (is more about improving on it rather than finding it), I believe everyone would benefit from this lesson, even if you're not pursuing art. Fitness can be applied to this as well. I mean, we all have found ourselves in a plateau at least once.

 

[Maegaranthelas]

Belated Happy Badge Day!

 

[MadamMeow]

Another belated congrats for your double badges!!

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

Congratulations on completing Epic Cardio and Epic Abs @Sólveig !

 

[Sólveig]

@Maegaranthelas @MadamMeow @Laura Rainbow Dragon Thanks!

 

[Sólveig]

I did my errand quicker than yesterday. I edited for a bit... Most of my day was spent on drawing, and I just finished it. Things got really on the way too, because I had to go to Qi Gong...

I need to make a fix. I am slowing down with my goals... I journaled today and figured out that I had no choice but to actually put hours into my stuff, no matter what. The problem is that schedules, no matter how flexible I make them, I always end up forcing myself to be strict to them. Then again, I can change. I must.

Thinking about it as an TTRPG definitely helps. I guess I should frame it as a campaign rather than a strict schedule.

February 29th, 2024
Kickboxing: Day 157

---

Morning Routine:
The Right Side + 10 Decline Push-ups
Sól Salutation - LVL I +EC
20-Seconds Legs
Daily Dare: 30 Staggered Deadlifts +EC
Count: 1400 - 1396 +EC

---

Night Routine:
Mani Salutation - 1 Set
Five Rites
Virasana Meditation
Daily Gratitude
Counting Victories

---

Programs:
Homebrew Training Plan (Valkyrie and Fighter combo inspired)
Bucket List:
Shadebound
Cardio & Abs

---

Workouts:
150 Burpees +EC
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
Ba Han Sheng Qi Gong: The Courtship: The Call of Virtue
30 Seconds Side Splits
Glutes, Quads, Hamstrings & Calves
100/50 Strength
Pole Dance Stretches
DAREdice: 12 Double Burpees w/Jump Knee-tuck
1 minute Uttanasana w/Toe Reach
2-Minute Elbow Plank
Daily Walk
Shuffle Dance! (#1, #2, #3, H.A.T.E.R.)
Belly Dance
Dancing Days: 20

---

Challenges:
Indoor Cardio: Awaiting March
Drawing Pin-up Girls Every Day for a Year: Day 25/365
Bucket List:
Lower Body Blast

---

Writing progress:
583 words edited. There was no time
1500 Get!
Daily 1500

---

Reading progress:
The Light Fantastic - 68%

---

Other Victories:

 

[Sólveig]

Alright. I'm 30% (or more) done with my D&D session. I figured I should do a dungeon, for I still have a lot of things to recover, but I don't mind having my players bringing back their characters for good fun, and getting in touch with them too. I did three levels, one features a lot of combat and puzzles, the other one will be just exploration and puzzles, and the final one will be a gimmick puzzle and combat situation where they'll get to control Iron Golems like RC cars. I don't know, I thought it was a good idea to feature that gimmick instead of having them facing more enemies with their own characters, plus I have an arena with power-ups and a reason for them doing that written out. All I need to do is to put everything down, make it pretty, draw the dungeons (for me, because two out of those three levels require me to track their position), and make most of it on traditional tools. I have a lot of work to do tomorrow, which means only one pin-up girl, and probably editing only during the speedruns.

There was a powercut today too, which also gave me time to finish The Light Fantastic, do the pin-up, take a nap, and I still had time left in which I did nothing. I guess scheduling the thing works now. I am practicing my schedule, and probably by next Monday I'll have it written out and visible in my room... I think. I'm trying this out, and if it works, I'll stick to it. I should also add the reminder that I have to be flexible on myself, and that I won't be having perfect days everytime... Speaking about it, I'll start reading a book that my therapist recommended. It's already on the list below.

I broke two fingernails today. One happened while I was drawing the dungeon (the middle finger), and the other on happened just now, when my fan started to make a weird noice (the thumb). I guess I'll be having a hard time playing the guitar for a while now. The thumb nail flew away. It's only a matter of filing them back into shape, but it's really annoying.

March 1st, 2024
Kickboxing: Day 158

---

Morning Routine:
The Right Side + 10 Decline Push-ups
Sól Salutation - LVL I +EC
20-Seconds Legs
Daily Dare: 100 Side Leg Raises +EC
Count: 1401 - 1397 +EC

---

Night Routine:
Mani Salutation - 1 Set
Five Rites
Virasana Meditation
Daily Gratitude
Counting Victories

---

Programs:
Homebrew Training Plan (Valkyrie and Fighter combo inspired)
Bucket List:
Shadebound
Cardio & Abs

---

Workouts:
150 Burpees +EC
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
WoD: Better Than Running - LVL III +EC +Rest between levels
Rowdy +EC
30 Seconds Side Splits
Glutes, Quads, Hamstrings & Calves
100/50 Strength
Pole Dance Stretches
DAREdice: 20 Lunges
1 minute Uttanasana w/Toe Reach
2-Minute Elbow Plank
Daily Walk
Shuffle Dance! (#1, #2, #3, H.A.T.E.R.)
Belly Dance
Dancing Days: 20

---

Challenges:
Indoor Cardio: Day 1
Drawing Pin-up Girls Every Day for a Year: Day 26/365
Bucket List:
Lower Body Blast

---

Writing progress:
2001 words; the majority of them on my edit.
1500 Get!
Daily 1500

---

Reading progress:
The Light Fantastic - 100%
Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself - 0%

---

Other Victories:

 

[Mamatigerj]

Cheers for Epic Cardio & Epic Abs!!

 

[Sólveig]

@Mamatigerj Thanks!

 

[Sólveig]

3114 words. 315 for the very quick edit that I did on the morning (10 minutes only), and 2799 words of session prep; most of it was dungeon information. I still have more stuff to do, but I can do it before the session tomorrow because it's just putting stuff on paper. Stat blocks, and the like.

Turns out I can write quite a lot... provided that I also draw the maps as I brainstorm the things that must go inside. It took me the entire day to prep, and it wasn't because I was slow. It was that I had everything stacked against me today. I got busy, the router also acted up for the entire day, and did I mention I was also drawing the dungeons as I build them? I mean, I thought I'd get to edit, but I should go to bed right now.

I barely did my drawing, and I did it almost on a rush. It turned out good, but it was so dirty that I had to ink it and erase all the pencil marks because I couldn't see anything after the sketch. I remember PewDiePie got quite good from zero to day 30 around this mark before he dropped the quality until another two months. I'm not sure if that'll happen to me considering that I'm not coming from absolute zero, but I'm definitely doing things better than before. Faces at small scale are looking better, and so are the hands. I want to keep practicing them though, but I told myself to not branch out until I was done with the book.

Number 3 is done. I hope tomorrow I'll have the time to keep drawing. I'm actually looking forward to it too.

Damn, it was a busy and long day. Thankfully, I danced all my issues away. I just love whenever this shows up and, instead of shuffling, I just follow along. It was fun to work out today!

March 2nd, 2024
Kickboxing: Day 158

---

Morning Routine:
The Right Side + 10 Decline Push-ups
Sól Salutation - LVL I +EC
20-Seconds Legs
Daily Dare: 40 Lunge Punches +EC
Count: 1402 - 1398 +EC

---

Night Routine:
Mani Salutation - 1 Set
Five Rites
Virasana Meditation
Daily Gratitude
Counting Victories

---

Programs:
Homebrew Training Plan (Valkyrie and Fighter combo inspired)
Bucket List:
Shadebound
Cardio & Abs

---

Workouts:
150 Burpees +EC
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Full Burpees
30 Seconds Side Splits
Glutes, Quads, Hamstrings & Calves
100/50 Strength
Pole Dance Stretches
DAREdice: 20 Jumping Jacks
1 minute Uttanasana w/Toe Reach
2-Minute Elbow Plank
Daily Walk
Shuffle Dance! (#1, #2, #3, H.A.T.E.R.)
Belly Dance
Dancing Days: 21

---

Challenges:
Indoor Cardio: Day 2
Drawing Pin-up Girls Every Day for a Year: Day 27/365
Bucket List:
Lower Body Blast

---

Writing progress:
3114 words. 2799 for the session, and 315 for the edit. Turns out I can write quite a lot... provided that I spend the entire day on it.
1500 Get!
Daily 1500

---

Reading progress:
Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself - 0%

---

Other Victories: