2018 June Update

…and just like that I had not updated in forever. Aside from keeping up with the blog, I have been going slow and steady with the rest of it.

March/April/May Final Tallies:

Weight Loss Struggle: And it truly is a struggle. I’m living one of the definitions of insanity as I keep doing the same things and getting limited results. Three more months down and once again, could be better, could be worse.

March:17/27 

April: 21/26

May: 17/27

2018 Overall: 81/131

This gives me a 62% average. That’s passing at any school and .620 batting average is an All*Star, Hall of Famer, but for me the stomach is still about the same. My strength level doesn’t seem to go up very much either. The alternative is stopping, which I won’t do. For June I’m going to focus on diet and trying to hit that 100%. For those following my schedule, the rules I made up are to schedule myself only one day a week off. The remaining days make up the possible or expected workouts that I should get through in the month. I must do at least 30 minutes, but obviously the more I can do the better. I can do light exercise on my scheduled day off and actually the amount of weight that I work with is so low that it wouldn’t hurt no matter what routine I go with

RPG Update: The Ryuutama campaign finally went belly up. I say it’s on hiatus, but I doubt I’ll want to take up running it again. It’s a good system and I highly recommend it. I meant to give weekly recaps of the ongoing campaign as that is where I get the most views, but I couldn’t think of anything interesting to say. The group itself has joined me for my new “ish” at this point, Cyberpunk 2020 campaign. Currently only three players and myself. I’m missing three from the Ryuutama group, but one seems to have at least made a character, so that’s a good sign. I’ve always liked the Cyberpunk 2020 game system and the recent—5 years in development is recent?—announcement of Cyberpunk 2077 for the video game market and an accompanying new version of the tabletop game has given me more than enough inspiration to spend some time in Night City. The entire Cyberpunk genre is having a renaissance nowadays what with the recent Bladerunner sequel and Ghost in the Shell live action movies. Not to mention Mr.Robot heading into its 4^th season—and it’s got all the corporates, netrunners, drug abuse and gangs you’d ever want, even if it is light on actual robots and cyborgs.  

The D&D live table has really suffered. This past Sunday was the first time since Spring break that we all managed to get together. We’re planning on running an eight week campaign with multiple sessions each week until the end of the school year. After that we’ll be in the off season. We’ve been running for quite some time out here in the middle of the desert, but I’ll soon find myself as the last man standing of the original group, once our current DM heads out to the big city in Abu Dhabi. We will still have enough for a four player + DM for next year, so hopefully, we won’t need to go into recruit mode.

Bible Reading Update: Currently in the books of: Jeremiah, 1 Chronicles, Joshua, and Romans. Since the last update I’ve made it through: Deuteronomy, Ezra, Nehemiah, Ester, and Acts. The rules for this project which actually started in October of 2017 was to follow a reading plan that included Chapters from one book of the Old Testament, one book from the New Testament, and a short reading from Psalms and Proverbs. I have a hard time sticking to something if it feels like a slog, so I read more of Psalms and Proverbs than was scheduled resulting in my getting ahead. Instead of shortening my overall reading schedule, I decided to continue reading different Old Testament books to replace the P&P readings, so now I’m very much ahead. I think at long last my 44^th year will be the year wherein I finally finish the Bible.

So, my books of the Bible reviews? I always preface this by saying every book in the Bible is good. As others have said, it’s all written for us, but not necessarily to us…at least not specifically. A lot of the Old Testament readings have to do with law and sacrifices, which Jesus has now fulfilled. We’re all lucky to be living in the “Church Age” period of grace, that’s for sure—especially if you are an animal lover.  Deuteronomy: Sorry to report that it is a slog. Moses had a lot of good things to say that I did enjoy reading, but much of it was recapping what was already said. Also, even though I am reading through the “whole” Bible for the first time, I’ve either heard these stories preached or in Sunday School before. Ezra: about a group of exiles rebuilding the temple and some of the efforts to bring about a restoration in terms of following the rules of God. Particularly interesting was the end of the book wherein many of the Israelites having improper marriages with pagan wives, and having to put them away. There isn’t specific detail given as to what that entails. Hopefully, the men sent them, and the children they had together, back to their homelands and provided restitution for them, but ‘put away’ could mean a lot worse in the old days. It’s important that we don’t make 2018 judgement calls on ancient society. God wanted the worship pure and he wanted the people pure. We’d probably be better off now had we stuck to those rules. Nehemiah: The famous one about rebuilding the walls of Jericho. In many ways it was similar to Ezra, but I liked this one better. Ester: The famous book wherein in Ester marries the King and God uses her to save the Jewish people from destruction. One of the best parts here is where Modecai tells Ester that God would save the Jewish people one way or another, but that she may have been destined for “a time such as this” Acts: the only New Testament reading started off slow but got a lot better. The biggest thing here is the conversion of Paul (Saul) who went on to write many important parts of the Bible.  

 There are only so many projects that one can do with the time he has. My blogging suffers, I haven’t gotten back into drawing or writing like I want to, but overall half-way through the year, and I’m still going strong on the important things. 2018 so far so good.