Real Life and What's Happening...

Best Selling RPGs - Available Now @ DriveThruRPG.com
E E-Rocker Thanks man that was inspiring. The constant working and isolation without any tabletop gaming was starting to get to me. I haven't been to the gym since this covid-19 nonsense started and have been putting on weight. Your story motivated me to try and figure out a way to get back in the saddle again.

I prefer calisthenics to weights, isn't that weird? I never got the results I wanted from weights* but with an aggressive military-style calisthenics routine I get stronger really fucking fast. Not benching 300 strong obviously but closer to what I feel is my ideal "fighting weight" if that makes sense. Strong enough to hit hard yet remain light on my feet.

*I am willing to admit I was doing it wrong and in no way am I criticizing lifting or discouraging others from doing it. I just didn't get the results I wanted and was never able to bench the big numbers.

No problem, man, glad I could help!

And yeah, I don't think it's weird that you prefer calisthenics to weights. Everybody has their things they dig, much like we all have different RPG tastes.

Around 2014 or so, I had really good fitness results from working out religiously with a HIIT-workout DVD for a few months. then I fell off that wagon, hard...

More recently, I found myself needing more external motivation, which is why I hired the personal trainer. I never had too much trouble being motivated for cardio stuff, even at my heaviest: I like walking, and running, and bicycle riding, and hiking. But that alone wasn't doing the job, which is why I focus on strength and conditioning with the personal trainer.

For folks who know a lot about exercise & are able to self-motivate, a personal trainer would probably be a frivolous & excessive expense, but for me, it's worth every penny. I'm thinking of it as an investment in my health, and thus far, I'm quite happy with the ROI.
 
For folks who know a lot about exercise & are able to self-motivate, a personal trainer would probably be a frivolous & excessive expense, but for me, it's worth every penny. I'm thinking of it as an investment in my health, and thus far, I'm quite happy with the ROI.


It also gives you a built in training partner which can be very motivating. I've always been more regular with exercise when I had someone to work out with. When it is just you it is easy to blow it off, but it doesn't take much encouragement to go when there is another person involved.
 
It also gives you a built in training partner which can be very motivating. I've always been more regular with exercise when I had someone to work out with. When it is just you it is easy to blow it off, but it doesn't take much encouragement to go when there is another person involved.

Yeah, my best friend and I tried to be workout buddies for a little while, but it never quite worked out. Knowing that Abby (my trainer) is there waiting for me definitely gives me an extra kick in the pants to get out of bed and to the gym (well, it did, anyway, and it will again once the gym re-opens).
 
Yeah, my best friend and I tried to be workout buddies for a little while, but it never quite worked out. Knowing that Abby (my trainer) is there waiting for me definitely gives me an extra kick in the pants to get out of bed and to the gym (well, it did, anyway, and it will again once the gym re-opens).

True it doesn't work so well if you both need motivation.
 
I've become a big fan of qigong over the last year. It's been great for anxiety, sleep issues, etc. It's also something very easy to do by myself at home, no gym or special equipment needed.
 
10/10

Sublime. This shirt is everything. You have the robin's egg blue sea and sky, a splash of floral design, and prints of ships and islands, and if I'm not mistaken, the style is pure vintage. This shirt grabs you by both ears to scream "ALOHA!" in your sunburned face. To you I say "mahalo, sir." Mahalo indeed.
Day 9/Shirt 10:
9.5/10

The model would get more mileage from spacing these beauties out. Surely, this lurid sunset of reds and oranges would have scored a 10 if it didn't follow its predecessor. On any other day, this shirt is a grand slam. Now, however, it's merely the second-best Hawaiian shirt that I've seen today. It deserves better.
 
Around 2014 or so, I had really good fitness results from working out religiously with a HIIT-workout DVD for a few months. then I fell off that wagon, hard...
Oh, was it the Insanity workout? That workout really lives up to the name. I got into HIIT about a year earlier than that, and lost a ton of weight by going HAM on HIIT. But even at my top performance, I don't think I could complete a standard Insanity routine. It's...<Crazy Eddie voice> insaaaaaane!
 
While gardening and transplanting some flowers from my son's science project out of the small pot that would no longer suffice, the kids took the opportunity to rearrange some of the gnomes, squirrels, and other statuettes that lead to our front door. Or else they moved on their own. Took these photos a couple of hours apart since deep shadow obscures the south side and then the north side midday and early afternoon.
Webp.net-resizeimage.jpg
Webp.net-resizeimage (1).jpg
 
I've finally concluded that I need a social media strategy so I've taken the plunge and started writing articles on LinkedIn. I feel slightly dirty.
OTOH I like to think I have something to say that doesn't involve new age crap about how to be more productive or boost your sales funnel through big data. So at least I've got that going for me.
 
Last edited:
I've finally concluded that I may need a social media strategy so I've taken the plunge and started writing articles on LinkedIn. I feel slightly dirty.
OTOH I like to think I have something to say that doesn't involve new age crap about how to be more productive or boost your sales funnel through big data. So at least I've got that going for me.
You should spend a significant amount of time letting people know the dangers of geese. There's not enough talk about that in a professional setting.
 
Oh, was it the Insanity workout? That workout really lives up to the name. I got into HIIT about a year earlier than that, and lost a ton of weight by going HAM on HIIT. But even at my top performance, I don't think I could complete a standard Insanity routine. It's...<Crazy Eddie voice> insaaaaaane!

I don't actually recall specifically what it was, but I know it was not the Insanity workout. I came across it on the library shelf & thought, "eh, sure, I'll give this a shot."
 
I don't actually recall specifically what it was, but I know it was not the Insanity workout. I came across it on the library shelf & thought, "eh, sure, I'll give this a shot."
I started with the NYTimes seven-minute workout (note: actually eight minutes). I got to the point that I was doing four full circuits, which took out some of the appeal when the workout stretched to thirty-minutes long.

So I went looking for harder calisthenic moves to swap into the circuit so I could go back to exhausting myself in less than fifteen minutes. I ended up stealing a bunch of exercises from the Insanity Workout's basic fitness test. In other words, the workout that you use to gauge your progress in the Insanity program was incredibly intense even when I was comfortable with a full-bore 30 minute HIIT workout.
 
My wife gets in some physical workout using Ring Fit Adventure for the Nintendo Switch. She still hates exercising but this makes it sort of bearable.
 
Day 10/Shirt 11:
9/10

A soothing palate cleanser. After the fireworks of yesterday's shirts, my retinas need a break, and this bamboo-and-dragonfly print is just the ticket. A hammock in the shade between two palm trees at the edge of - you guessed it - a thicket of bamboo. Some kind of drink in a coconut shell. The distant sound of waves.
 
My wife gets in some physical workout using Ring Fit Adventure for the Nintendo Switch. She still hates exercising but this makes it sort of bearable.

My wife was using the Wii for exercise for awhile. She had some Ninja strippers vs Zombies (or some such game), it did the job, she would work up quite a sweat. Worked nicely for me as well because she would play in a bathing suit, so lots of fun wiggling and jiggling involved. Sadly before the era of ubiquitous video on cell phones so I have no record of it, just memories. :errr:
 
My wife gets in some physical workout using Ring Fit Adventure for the Nintendo Switch. She still hates exercising but this makes it sort of bearable.
I got a copy of that too, and it's a horrible game that makes me do awful things that hurt and I don't like doing. 10/10; it's certainly a good introduction to body weight fitness exercises, it's enjoyable enough that it's easy to stick with (Although it's definitely type 2 fun), and it feels like you've had a decent workout after a session. On it's own it's obviously limited, but as a habit-builder and lifestyle component, it could do a lot of good.

When it's cooler outside I'll start running again - I live very close to a decent, if dull, running route - because I actually enjoy it, but this will more than do for now.

Obviously tastes vary, but I think the truly absurd physiques tend to require an abusive regimen of drugs and exercise. If a person is getting stronger to the extent that is looks ridiculous while they are fully clothed, something is off.
For the people at the extreme end of the scale, I also wouldn't be surprised if they had some form of dysmorphia / body image disorder.
 
View attachment 19331

The reconstruction of Elasmotherium,A Siberian Bison or Unicorn Bison.

Shouldn't that be a woolly rhino? Pretty neat, I was a huge dinosaur geek as a kid (I guess that is an oxymoron as most kids are dinosaur geeks) and I didn't know such a beast existed. That would make a pretty fearsome mount, or get a pair of them to pull a giant war chariot.
 
Over the last year, I've watched lots of videos and browsed a bunch of wikipedia articles about prehistoric animals other than dinosaurs. Terror birds are a personal favorite, but plesiosaurs also fascinate me. There's really no end to it.

Whenever I discover a new (to me) animal from prehistory or even now, it can be kind of like seeing a new Star Wars alien. It should be the reverse, which in my opinion is the real genius of that world- it sometimes alienates the real world, endowing it with a fantastic quality. Does that make any sense?
 
Shouldn't that be a woolly rhino? Pretty neat, I was a huge dinosaur geek as a kid (I guess that is an oxymoron as most kids are dinosaur geeks) and I didn't know such a beast existed. That would make a pretty fearsome mount, or get a pair of them to pull a giant war chariot.
Apparently, there's two subfamilies, Rhinocerotinae and Elasmotheriinae, with Elasmotherium the only known member of the latter from after the Miocene, others becoming extinct with the expansion of savannas. Both woolly and bare-skinned reconstructions have been proposed, and different shapes and sizes of horns. Elasmotherium was much larger than its contemporary the woolly rhino.

Just going by the Wikipedia entry, mind you; I'm certainly no expert, but I too love prehistoric fauna.
 
Last edited:
Over the last year, I've watched lots of videos and browsed a bunch of wikipedia articles about prehistoric animals other than dinosaurs. Terror birds are a personal favorite, but plesiosaurs also fascinate me. There's really no end to it.

Whenever I discover a new (to me) animal from prehistory or even now, it can be kind of like seeing a new Star Wars alien. It should be the reverse, which in my opinion is the real genius of that world- it sometimes alienates the real world, endowing it with a fantastic quality. Does that make any sense?
I've always been partial to the genus Glyptodon, among others. Love it.
 
I got a copy of that too, and it's a horrible game that makes me do awful things that hurt and I don't like doing. 10/10; it's certainly a good introduction to body weight fitness exercises, it's enjoyable enough that it's easy to stick with (Although it's definitely type 2 fun), and it feels like you've had a decent workout after a session. On it's own it's obviously limited, but as a habit-builder and lifestyle component, it could do a lot of good.
My wife only uses it to counter weight gain when necessary. It is not something she enjoys doing. I have to admire her determination.

For the people at the extreme end of the scale, I also wouldn't be surprised if they had some form of dysmorphia / body image disorder.
Body dysmorphia is one among a couple of possible reasons for compulsive bodybuilding.

This guy at my work, though, seems obsessed with coming across as extremely confident and tough, and actually most people are quite convinced that he is. To me something seems off, though, like he's overcompensating, sometimes in an almost narcissistic way. In fact, I've witnessed behaviour from him in a number of cases that was downright narcissistic, where he was being very annoying and rude just to demonstrate supposed superiority.
 
I call bullshit. He's green screening it . No sane person has that many Hawaiian shirts.
It's all CGI. Hawaiian shirts don't exist. It's all just a hoax perpetuated by the New World Order. Wake up!
Kool-Aid Man would never be party to such a conspiracy. Next you'll claim he doesn't exist either.
1_Y-1h-g3EEETh3zoioExzQg.jpeg
 
This guy at my work, though, seems obsessed with coming across as extremely confident and tough, and actually most people are quite convinced that he is. To me something seems off, though, like he's overcompensating, sometimes in an almost narcissistic way. In fact, I've witnessed behaviour from him in a number of cases that was downright narcissistic, where he was being very annoying and rude just to demonstrate supposed superiority.
Could be steroids. A coworker at a previous position was open about his long time steroid use. Normal mode was offensively macho behavior* but it would be punctuated with histrionics, bizarre mood swings, overly emotional reactions, and sulking over perceived insults. It was like his body went into overdrive producing male AND female hormones.

*if I printed some of the stuff he said on the regular a mod would step in, it was bad
 
Last edited:
Could be steroids. A coworker at a previous position was open about his long time steroid use. Normal mode was offensively macho behavior* but it would be punctuated with histrionics, bizarre mood swings, overly emotional reactions, and sulking over perceived insults. It was like his body went into overdrive producing male AND female hormones.

*if I printed some of the stuff he said on the regular a mod would step in, it was bad
The only emotion he displays is this exaggerated tough-guy image, lol. I don't get why more people don't see how laughable it is. He was even acting all tough and boasting about his (now ex) gf giving birth, when it was extremely obvious he had internally been shitting his pants when it actually happened. There's this completely ridiculous inability/unwillingness to show any sign of normal human vulnerability.

Macho behaviour is mostly in the form of "jokes" and "funny behaviour" that are usually crude and often rude or even offensive, though not sexist. This happens only when he's acting tough in front of people he looks up to or people who look up to him. It's all about getting attention and he's completely oblivious to how this actually comes across.

His constant boasting and tough-guy behaviourt are extremely tiring and annoying and completley obfusgate any redeeming qualities he might actually have.
 
Last edited:
Banner: The best cosmic horror & Cthulhu Mythos @ DriveThruRPG.com
Back
Top