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.

2018 March Update

I promised to keep up with the blog this year...among other resolutions. And two months in--sitting at the computer on the 1st of March--It's reflection time.

February Final Tally:

Weight Loss Struggle: Once again, could be better, could be worse. I'm still motivated for sure and February ended on a very good run. In the end I went 13/24--this assumes taking one scheduled recovery day a week--I improved from 48% to 54%. Proof positive on how the stats can "lie". February is a short month, so it was bound to look better--or worse than Jan. March on the other hand is a long one, and may be the month that defines this latest run at fitness. I stopped doing the military diet, but I think it did what it was supposed to...which was to get me pointed in the right direction. My portion sizes are still too large, but not as big as I'm accustomed to. I'm doing a fairly decent job of avoiding trigger foods. I can't remember if I had any fast-food this month at all. Not that all my home-cooked meals are healthy, but at least my wife can control the ingredients list. When I update next month, I'll need to really access the situation thoughtfully. Everyone wants fast results. In the past I've been too inconsistent to see if I'm really changing or not. If anybody could work out 26 times and turn around years of bad habits then everyone would do it. Still frustrating that you put so much work in for so little results. I have to focus on this being a long-term, permanent part of my life...and I don't know that I ever will.  

RPG Update: On to bigger and brighter things. This week I'm modifying some 7th Sea mass combat rules and letting the Ryuutama group give it a go. Scheduling issues are popping up again with the group. I have a lot of fun running for them, but sometimes I'd like to just pull the plug. In this system characters work their way up to level ten before going on a Legendary Journey which should end the campaign. My highest level players are at seven now. I'm torn between speeding up the process or letting them grown naturally. I really want to end the campaign as if I'm ending a story for once rather than the traditional way where everyone slowly gets scattered to the four winds. A very fun system this Ryuutama.

Bible Reading Update:Currently in the books of Leviticus, Job, Isaiah, and John. Leviticus has been a slog if there ever was one, but I'm likely to finish it up today. Unfortunately, as far as the Old Testament is concerned, I've read a lot from Numbers on different attempts at reading the Bible through and I'm afraid it isn't going to get much better for a little while. I finished off the Psalms and Luke in February. It's kind of like my working out, if I can see progress, I feel better about the whole project.





My other resolutions then have fallen to the wayside. I finally got my drawing figures which turned out to be about the same size and level of articulation as the Sailor Mercury figure that already had. I still haven't gotten around to taking up any of my drawing lessons though. If I can pull off good results from these three projects--plus the fourth which is keeping the blog updated--then I'll be doing alright.

There are 31 days in March...let's see what we can do with them.

2018: February Update

I promised to keep up with the blog this year...among other resolutions. And one month in--sitting at the computer technically just going into the 2nd of Feb--I'm trying to motivate myself to take in a late night/early morning workout. Probably won't happen this time, but at least I'm thinking about it.

January Final Tally:

Weight Loss Struggle: Could be worse. At turns I'm showing signs of improvement and being my lazy self. Always shocking how fast a week of not working out can add up while a week of actually working out properly drags. Anyhow for the month I ended up with a 13/27--this assumes taking one scheduled recovery day a week--for 48%. Hope to do better this month, but that's not too bad. I'm currently taking a modified "military diet" which is just calorie reduction based. I don't drink sodas and try to stay away from sweets in general. This one is three days on four days off, but these aren't four cheat days.

RPG Update: The group wound up getting back together on Roll 20 and we went 3/4 for an even better avg. than my workouts. I've managed to return to my live table group as well. Nothing of significance or humor to report though. I'm just glad to be back. Holidays are the bane of RPG groups so I'm glad we weathered that storm.

Bible Reading Update: Currently in the books of Leviticus, Psalms, Isaiah, and Luke. I've finished Genesis, Exodus, Proverbs, Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, Matthew, and Mark. I've tried many times to read through over the years, but this time I just might make it. Started this back in October technically, but I'm very far ahead of the plan because of it. Not going to lie, Exodus and Leviticus are slogs. The saying is true that every book of the Bible has been written for you, but not written to you. These books about the priests and the temple duties aren't all that exciting for me. Isaiah is pretty good and Luke is going okay, but he really did put a lot of detail into getting the facts down.

There's not much to say on my other topics. I haven't watched too many movies or done much with my other hobbies aside from the role playing. I started a WIX website, but I haven't finished it, and as to the deplorable things...it's been a relatively quiet month. There's some memo thing and a state of the union thing, but really I haven't been all that interested in it lately.

There's one monthly update down. I hope I have something more interesting to write about next month, but I'll just be glad if I can stay the course. 

Happy New Year: 2018

Hello folks...knocking the dust off of my blog--it's anemic and suffering since #RPG_a_Day ended this past summer. There was a D&D December that I heard about, but it didn't seem as appealing during the busy holiday season. I also stopped submitting to my paid blog and only just spent the last of the funds that it generated for me. It was fun while it lasted--money for nothing--as I enjoy writing anyway. I decided to get back into this blog for 2018 and we'll see how far it goes.

BACKGROUND UPDATE: There have been a lot of changes since the summer break. Professionally my teaching gig, which is now 1/3 of the way through year number eight, has an entire new curriculum. Unfortunately, we have the same old students and administrators. It's their attitudes that make the difference. If you've read any of my non-RPG/right wing rhetoric entries, you'll know that 9/10 of those attitudes are poor, so SNAFU. As expatriate teachers we do the best we can with what we have, but not much going on there. My friend compares it to golden handcuffs as in we don't like the handcuffs, but we're glad that they are gold. My uncle compares it to holding a wolf by the ears, I don't really like what I have, but I'm afraid to let it go. From my end, I don't know when or if I'll ever give it up...maybe from my employer's end they'll get tired of this old, deplorable American and not renew his contract. In some ways they would probably be doing me a favor--in other ways my family likes being able to eat and they wouldn't like me losing my steady pay check. What can you do?

As to my personal life, my daughter made it to age 3 back in September. She's growing strong and healthy so far. My dreams of her eventually becoming a professional wrestler and/or corporate assassin remain optimistic. The wife remains healthy in her ongoing recovery from thyroid cancer, and I remain about as healthy as an aging, overweight guy can be. The blood pressure is high--so high that I currently can't find affordable life insurance--but I feel fine and up until the holiday relapse I was fighting to become healthy with fairly good results which leads us to...

Future Plans...or resolutions if you will: 
I've got some plans for this blog--even if I do top out at thirty readers normally--which I'll relate here: It ended up being a long one, so just read the headings if you aren't up for a wall of text and you'll get the gist of it.

Weight Loss Struggle: We all make this resolution on Jan 1st and are back to our old ways before spring. This time is a little different for me. I've actually been working on this project on and off again for a few years now making visible progress--but my stomach is still too big, and the progress way too slow, but, it isn't as if I'm starting back at square one. I had an excellent run during May and June...followed by a disastrous summer break July and August...I got back in the groove upon my return for September...but wishy-washy in October...even slower in November...and anemic last month. Holidays are horrible for me for working out and eating right. Hopefully, when I return to work tomorrow I'll also get back into my regular routine. It amazes me that one can work for years and really stick to it, but have such limited results that only a few people notice. Yet, you can lay out for two weeks--as I just have--and you can see right away that your're relapsing. Having a long break during the summer, as teachers are wont to do, makes it even worse.  In this blog I'm going to let my loyal readers know--at least monthly--how the battle is going. I've tried FitDay and Beachbody websites as well as keeping the old-fashioned, personal journal, but I always fall off. I hope that changes here and that I'll keep you guys posted about my progress or lack thereof since I have an audience to talk to. Of course it also works therapeutically even if I wind up with no readers for this thing--if you are a lurker and don't write for some reason, give it a try writing is almost as great as playing RPGs.

RPG Updates: Writing entries during RPGaDay is one of my favorite things to do. I currently run a Roll 20 'Ryuutama' game that we started back in September. I'm thinking that it might be somewhat interesting to tell you guys what's going on with the campaign and the "behind the scenes" stories of my time as GM. Of course if anyone reading my blogs happens to want to play in the game just let me know and I'll send you an invite. Before the break I ran a four player group consisting of three guys and one girl. We've had a lot of fun, but keeping the group together online is very tough and the holidays are the bane of all play groups. The next game is scheduled for the 6th of January. I've got my fingers crossed that everyone makes it back.

Bible Reading: Wha? Yes, for a lot of conservative, deplorables like myself, getting through the Bible in a year is a resolution that almost always fails by April. I've made several attempts and have read through many books of the Bible, but I've never completed the entire book. This is a strange thing as I love to read and have based my entire worldview on a book--which I believe to be the Word of God--that I've never fully read. Much like the weight loss thing, I have a head start this time having already read through Genesis, Matthew, Proverbs and parts of Exodus, Mark, the Psalms, and Ecclesiastes as a part of an online reading schedule that gets one through in one year that I started back in October. I don't know how many entries I'll devote to my reading, but when I see good stuff I'll let you know. For example, Ecclesiastes is very good and timely. It's a book that I've rarely heard preached from, but it's very interested hearing from one who has been called the richest and wisest king to have ever lived. It's almost like reading a blog from Solomon.

Hobby Discussions: I plan to include more reviews of movies, tv shows, video games, wrestling and whatnot that doesn't fall into the RPG discussion. I don't get to talk about these things all that much living as an expat in the UAE. I'm more likely to talk to my students about these things than colleagues my own age. I'm also planning on getting back into drawing. I'll post anything that I produce that seems to have merit.

Website: It's easy to make a website nowadays. I have every intention to create one for me. I'll still keep my blogs posted here--I like the way their page is set up--but I think my own website will be much better than using Facebook. If I get one up and running, I'll direct you guys to it or I'll at least tell you why the plans to make one fell through.

Deplorable Things: Of course I'll be posting entries about #winning, #MAGA, and #Trump_Train when appropriate. Keep in mind that I have friends of every political stripe and most of the time I try to keep my rants funny.

That's about it. If I manage to make good on half of what I want to do, then I'll be a better man for it. I wish everyone a Happy New Year and I hope to hear from you soon!