Life Continues

Hello again! Welcome back everyone - it is great to see you. Believe it or not, it is time to start another week. Another opportunity to do stuff and see things and be alive. Yay!

First, let’s get caught up on the four biggest things I am working on. Here’s the latest exercise table.

I consider this a success. One of the changes from last week was adjusting my daily expectations. I have a history of attempting to fit everything I aspire to do into each and every day, and then burning out. The direction I am heading in lately has more to do with not flaming out. Of game development, exercise, and speedrunning, I am trying to do two each day. With Sunday still slotted as a day off, that means I should end up working on something 6 days * 2 things per day = 12 things per week. 12 Things divided across the 3 areas is 4 days per discipline. You follow?

Running 5ks in the cemetery has been fun lately. The weather is cool but not yet cold. The animals are out in full force; on yesterday’s run I passed a group of 8 deer chilling out on the grass. The day before that I passed a crew of around 10 turkeys doing turkey stuff. I restocked my collection of tights and long sleeved running shirts and other necessities for running though the winter. Let’s keep running!

Second up is game development. Here’s the updated game development table:

It was a good week of game development. While I worked on it for fewer days, the actual output was about the same, which is how I envision this whole ‘doing two of three things a day’ plan tending to go. I want to be fresher for the things I show up to work on in a day.

Last week I mostly worked on graphics. The latest visual is something I shared last week, but I’ll repost it here - the nighttime environment for what I want to be the introductory level.

To start this week, I plan to get away from graphics creation for a little bit. I want to learn more exact details on how the parallax background features of the game engine I use work. For example, it would be cool if the two planets moved across the screen at different rates while you move, making it feel like one is farther away than the other.

I’m not sure how long it will take to get the background to a point where I am happy with it. Maybe that will be the entire week. If not, I plan to continue building out the intro level. I need to make more outer space graphics like moon rocks to stand on. Game dev has some momentum, so let’s keep it up!

Switching gears to the weight loss front, here is the updated weight loss table.

This goal is the odd one out. The exercise, game development and speedrunning are all things in the same ‘pool’, so to speak. I am trying to do two of the three per day. They all kind of rotate amongst each other and play off each other. Weight loss however is on its own island. It’s also not very actionable. How was I supposed to lose weight this past week? I don’t know really…which is part of why it’s not happening. I fasted for a day at one point, I tracked calories a few days, and then I did nothing a few days.

Part of the benefit of consistently documenting the shortcomings of losing weight is it should force me to keep it in focus. To adapt and adjust and tackle the problem in a new way. To that end, this week I will try to make this goal more actionable. So, while weight loss is the main goal, the sub goal for next week is to track calories eaten every day of the week, and to always fall in the 1500 - 1900 range. Being closer to 1500 is like getting an A and being closer to 1900 is like getting a Pass in the pass / fail sense.

This new approach also implies that fasting is not allowed. I like fasting sometimes, but for right now I think keeping my fasting windows shorter than 24 hours is in my best interest. Let’s check in again next week and see if I’ve made any improvements here.

The fourth area is speedrunning - here’ the updated table.

This is good enough for me for now. Unfortunately, learning the very first level of Mega Man 4 has been very difficult. There are 16 total levels to learn, and I am thinking that this first level must be one of the toughest. That’s leaving me feeling like I am not making much progress, but this is how speedrunning goes at times. I just need to stick with it and try to enjoy the process. If it were easy, everyone would do it.

So that’s the week from a goal point of view. I’d say this past week was overall good. I still feel optimistic about these things and am ready for another good week to come. Staying positive is half the battle.

Other Stuff

Television has been tough lately. Erika and I are watching the Great British Baking Show and Rupaul’s Drag Race, the latest UK season. Non-reality television has been less successful though. We tried to watch the Netflix show Wayward, which is about a school in Vermont that is culty and abducting kids, but it didn’t really catch on with us. We bailed after three episodes.

Next we tried out The Paper, the new mockumentary made by the people who made The Office. Erika voted this show down after three episodes. It’s not like I was loving it, but I probably could have sat through the rest of the episodes. Oh well. Erika is out of town this week on a work trip, so maybe we’ll be able to reset and start a new show once she’s back.

I have been scuffling with reading a bit, too. I read about half of The Last House Guest, the third Megan Miranda book I’ve delved into in recent memory. I abandoned it though. The book isn’t that compelling to me, and I also feel like I need a break from the murder mystery genre. I recently read a book called The Last Party, which is basically this exact book. I need to cover some fresh ground.

With that in mind, I started reading a very strange book called Negative Space. It’s horror-ish, and very different. I am enjoying it so far; stay tuned for a recap in a future week.

In casual gaming, I’m still working through Sea of Stars. I’m enjoying it.

One thing I am excelling in right now is getting to things that have been on my to-do list forever. Two of these are purchases - I bought a surround sound system for my main television setup. Erika and I have been talking about upgrading our sound system for a good five years at this point.

I also invested in a sous vide machine, another bit of technology Erika and I have discussed several times over. We’ve already cooked two pork loins with it, and I have to say, I quite like it. It is very hands off. It cooks at low temperatures which tends to be healthier for you than high-temp roasts. I don’t love that you literally cook things in plastic bags, given how much plastic we’re already in contact with, but there’s only so much you can do, you know?

Another thing off the to-do list is setting up a meeting with an estate attorney to make wills for me and Erika. Our intro call is next week. I am glad to have finally started making moves on this.

Lastly, I made an appointment to start the process of permanent laser hair removal. This is another one that has been on my radar for multiple years at this point. Other than the hair on top of my head, I want all hair GONE. Shaving sucks, and I don’t want all this hair. I will feel much happier without it. I am happy I am making moves here as well.

The most recent movie night happened yesterday, and we watched The Surfer, a 2024 movie starring Nicolas Cage. Oh boy. There aren’t that many scenes available on Youtube, but the trailer is pretty solid if you want to get a sense of what the movie was like:

I showed the reviews toward the end of last week’s post, but if you missed it, the Google reviews are not kind

Whether you enjoy this movie or not is largely a matter of perspective. If you want it to be a legitimately good psychological thriller (which is how it’s billed), you might be disappointed. If you want it to be absurd and dramatic Nic Cage scenes, then you’ll love it. I was more in the latter camp. I definitely need to go back and watch more Nic Cage movies. This movie was Erika’s pick, and it was definitely very Erika. We got our copy from the library. Support your library people!

I think that’s about it for the weekly update. I’ll be editing this post throughout the week with some mini updates as has been all the rage lately. Right now it’s Sunday, 10:45am. Sunday is the designated off day, so I am probably about to go play some Sea of Stars. Erika is already gone on her work trip, so it’s just me and the fur bbs here at home.

Have a great week everyone! Life kind of sucks, but you can do it. There are pockets of happiness out there waiting to be uncovered. Go forth. I believe in you.