[Wk23] Improving in Fitness, Gaming & Music

About this blog/diary:+ Show Spoiler +

I'm a professional musician and (very) amateur gamer.
Blogging about improving and sticking to a program is very effective for my overall progress!
Having been inspired by Haulvern, I hope this humble blog can motivate another someone in need of positive change.
Thanks for checking this out and feel free to leave any comments or suggestions!

Week preview: This week will recharge and refocus my efforts for the winter break. I will record myself this week and put it up for general perusal/critique in the next blog!

Goals for the Week

Fitness Goals:
4 Weight-lifting sessions (log)(program): [image loading]

(opt.) Running/Hills/Weighted walk sessions (log): [image loading]

Be <185b by Dec 20: + Show Spoiler +

Gaming Goals:
Log write-ups of my team's OCC Blood Bowl games (Current Standings): [image loading]

                  Log write-ups and session prep for my DND 5E Campaign (wiki):
                  Prep new TL and Fever Clan 5e Campaign:
                  Log games/practice for CSGO:

            Personal Goals:
                  Daily Mental Discipline sessions: ( [image loading]

)
Log daily food intake: (log) ( [image loading]

)
Quality challenge-seeking practice session: (

)(

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Weigh-in regularly (log): ( [image loading]

)

Previous Weeks: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22.

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Monday 12/8: [image loading]

Tuesday 12/9: [image loading]

+ Show Spoiler [Soundtrack for the Day] +

Yesterday was a dedicated relaxation day. Perhaps too relaxing as it turns out as my diet and general energy level just went out the window. Sadly, my gaming outings were less than stellar. Where to begin?

Blood bowl was indeed bloody today.... Though I was only facing High Elves without Mighty Blow or Claw, my AV 8 and 9 failed to protect me. I suffered multiple armor breaks throughout while only inflicted one Cas all game. Indeed until the last turn I only had 1 KO. My opponent was gracious about his good fortune and conciliatory about what I can do to improve (I always go into a game asking for feedback/suggestions about my play). Multiple times I made positioning errors that could've been avoided. I felt like I didn't make any game breaking mistakes though. I just suffered massively from the RNG machine, burning a total of 5 RRs on double downs.... I even lost an early turn to a double double-down. Boooo... Oh well. I also lost 2 Blitzes to the need 2+ Wild Animal rolls. Hurray.... I do feel like I have a better sense of what's needed for next week, but it's still frustrating to get so heavily punished this season... Perhaps a demotion is in my future :-(.

CSGO was quite frustrating throughout. I'm just not hitting shots like my teammates. Consistently I was at the mid- to lower-mid of the pack. At least I always bring good communication and a positive attitude to my games... I feel like that is carrying my results to be better than my aim warrants.... Oh well.

The bright spots of the day were spent with the wife in our new Direwolf20 Minecraft server. I'm in charge of organizing the sorting system and laying out our preliminary mining matrix while she takes care of other sundries. Finally we happened upon some Ardite and were able to craft our swords!

I also took the puppy on an average walk in afternoon before the rains came. For those walks, I'm now up to the full 50lb weight vest. While it is tiring and causes some shoulder tension (despite the custom foam shoulder pads I installed), it's much more fun than walking him without the extra resistance. The extra weight on my frame forces me to walk with good hiking form. No heel strikes, always keeping the weight above impact. Deviating from this practice will create little tweaks and twinges up and down the leg... no fun at all

.

Tonight's concert with a local student orchestra was the inspiration for today's soundtrack! Sibelius 2 is such a melancholy, autumnal and gently-paced work. I haven't performed it in years so reacquainting myself with the piece has been very nice. Enjoy!

Wednesday 12/10: [image loading]

Booo... I keep getting consistently manhandled in Blood Bowl this season. The latest outing was at the hands of a incredibly level-advanced human team with good bashing and great great passing! It was really awesome to watch. I didn't have the Tackle players necessary to counteract the split defence, nor the speed to chase down the carrier so it was into the trenches. Once again, I lost the KO war and played from behind most of the game. One turn 1 I failed to adequately prepare for a blitz and was punished by a turn 2 TD for the other team. The play continued and I evened it up near the end of the half, but he had two turns to score after my TD. Of course his inaccurate pass on turn 8 scatters DIRECTLY to the receiver who catches it. Uuugh... Half 2 was a bit more painful. My defense was better but I was slowly being destroyed by his team. My two MB/claw pieces couldn't get any KOs or breaks. In contrast, he scored 3 KOs 4 turns into the half. Winning the ground game and applying TZs to the deep receivers proved impossible then. Oh well... He was very complimentary and helpful. Again, I was easily on the wrong side of the die rolls, but I definitely had positional things to improve on and also rules to learn. Apparently "adjacent" for the handoff rules does not apply to diagonally adjacent... whoops... learned that the hard hard way. Oh well. Good stuff!

Thursday 12/11:

Today was fat and fun, but not particularly productive.... Most of the day was devoted to small sundry errands and my birthday celebration with my wife. It was good, stomach-filling fun! The Northeast sure does know how to make a good pizza slice. I thought once I left NYC (Brooklyn more specifically) I would miss coal-oven pizza but it turns out New Haven has continued and expounded upon the tradition. They do some pretty out-there but incredibly tasty stuff with pizza. Who knew mashed potato and clam pizza would work so spectacularly?

Friday 12/12:

Wooohoooo!! I'm back in the DMing saddle again. My IRL game is firing up and I can't wait to see where the group goes now. We left off after the group was decimated by a drow mage they inadvertently summoned through their own oversight. One Cone of Cold and all but two of the members were crushed. Now it's time to rescue the party from the lone mage in the outskirts ancient drow stronghold and see what they can see. My new Monster Manual is actually much more handy than I thought it would be. Having led 4e games for years after only purchasing the DMG (and pirating the rest...

) I've come to enjoy the feel of using books. Of course not having a digital play interface that was (crappy and buggy but) readily available limits us to pen and paper. 5e opens up more role-playing options for my players. The impression I gather is that they enjoy not having to juggle all the damn skills or abilities of different tiers. The get to open up and just play the game to their liking. Combat is more colorful and interactive than ever before while also being quicker (THANK GOD!). Expect the writeup for the session sometime tomorrow!

Saturday 12/13:

Sunday 12/14:

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CS:GO Reference Section: Loot Timer:

Original Nova 1 Account: Case

Nova 1 Alt Account:

12/8: 15min aim practice. L, L, W on Main. W, W on Alt.

12/9: 45min aim practice.

12/10: 30min aim practice. W, L, T on Main.

[Wk23] Improving in Fitness, Gaming & Music

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