Some Corona Update

I live and work in China. We're far from Wuhan but we've had cases pop up out here in our own apartment complex/town/down the block, but the entire community has never been put on the restrictions that I see and read about in the States. We've been dealing with a 'soft lockdown' situation since mid-January. As a teacher I'm able to work online, but most regular workers have been at their jobs for at least a month now. Places like McDonald's and 7-eleven never closed. We have yet to have any shortages of any kind and there was no panic buying. We knew that the States would both over and under react to the thing and it seems they have.

There have been instance where my "American Senses" started tingling. We are required to wear the masks, we are required to have our temperatures taken and the powers that be cancelled large gatherings when the outbreak first started. Overall though, we're generally left to our own devices. Who's to say if these precautions helped stop the spread of the virus or not, but nobody in my family has gotten sick.

The government didn't shut down restaurants or stores--some individuals who were sick kept their shops closed because they were ill, the movie theaters were and unfortunately still are closed, and our local shuttle busses were shut down for a while, but apart from Wuhan itself, nowhere near the level of what's happening in the States, and it shouldn't be a controversial statement to say we're living in a communist country where the thing originated. Why is the American government taking such extreme actions? I can only think of it as a power grab.

Local teachers are returning to the empty campus that is my school this Monday to prepare for a full return. International teachers--who are in country--and the students themselves may return on the week of the 27th pending the success of the trial run. Once this happens--if there are no snags or "second wave"-- I would say that we'll be almost completely back to normal. The only thing that would remain to be done is to open the borders back up to international visitors and to get the movie theaters running again. That's a Great Wall of Text just to say, "Hang in There". It's not quite the end of the world yet.

DDPY: Beginner Program Week 13

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm not the most disciplined blogger when it comes to doing these things, and they are as much for me as they are for my loyal 15-20 viewers that I normally get. Writing just helps me to focus my scatter brain--publishing it gives me some accountability, and no topic requires accountability more so than my weight loss journey.

For nearly a year I've been working on the DDPY program. I really like it and I think it's going to be the way I finally make it to my goals. This report documents my results from the current campaign which only began in January 2020 when I bought the app. I have been working consistently with the program using the old videos and the free work outs DDP broadcasts here and there since September 2019 and off and on since last spring. Before that I've tried all kinds of programs with limited success. At one point going through the Insanity program  I actually lost--to hear the scales tell it--between 70 and 80 pounds, but it never looked like the dramatic weight loss that it might sound like. I think I was what real body builders call "skinny fat". I've long since gained that back, I don't think I've gained any additional. My body seems to have a hard time changing for good or ill. I have had a pot belly for as long as I can remember no matter what exercise  program I'm doing or not doing. There's an old American presidential debate wherein one of the burns is "...it's the economy, stupid!" well in my case "...it's the food, stupid!" I can at least identify the issue, the problem is doing something about it.

There is one more issue--at least one--that I see as a block to my goals. That's the teaching lifestyle. I work normally in what I would call three to four month chunks throughout the year before having a longer than average holiday. For the most part we get a winter break, a spring break, and an extra long summer break. The point being I usually behave during my working time, but then it falls apart big time especially during the holidays and summer months--Spring is usually only a week for teachers, so I don't fall off the wagon as much, but you'd be surprised. The break wouldn't be so bad, but when you come back from the break it also takes time to get back on track--at times, it's taken up to a month for me to ramp things back up...you start doing good again....then, here comes another break. I don't know if you've noticed, but at least for me a month of down time will go by in the blink of an eye vs. one week of consistent exercise that drags by wherein I think I've achieved some wondrous goal...and I expect amazing results from it. Again, good to be able to identify the problem, but how to address it is the issue. BTW I haven't been a school teacher all my life, I've found my civilian job even more detrimental to a regular workout schedule. Maybe if you were independently wealthy the workouts would be easier, but I imagine then you'd always be out enjoying your money and would never come back from vacation mode.

Beginner Program is Thirteen Weeks:

My weight stayed a consistent 113-114 KG. If my stomach is completely empty I can get it down to 112. To keep you from having to convert--that's still on the right side of 250 pounds but just barely. I have been working out 76% of the time--that is 60 out of 79 calendar days. Keep in mind the programs do offer days off, so I'll probably never have 100% and that I count a day as being successful as long as I at least do the 'Wake-up'. I try to follow the prescribed workout for each day, but often I will work out a bit on the 'day off' and I also switch out the prescribed workout here and there. Diet has been horrible. With my self-assessment I rated it...28% eating properly. I will also confuse everyone here by pointing out this progress assessment is "homework" given at the beginning of week 13, so technically I still have a week to turn things around--I'm including the last couple of weeks from December to do the full 13 week stats.

Positives:  (no-scalable) more flexible--although for a fat guy I was already pretty flexible, consistent exercise,  clothes fitting more loosely, overall better posture and focus. Stamina/Cardio seems better but it is inconsistent. Keeping my diet/exercise journal updated. Semi-regular accountability on Twitter--if not in the blog. One big thing was last Christmas we went to Disneyland HK and I fit on all of the rides. No walk of shame for me--which has happened at Six Flags a time or two.

Negatives: The scale. The dietary lapses. Sometimes I don't have common sense. I don't think too many people stop between work outs for a BBQ sandwich, but I have and more than once. I think it was French toast during a morning session. Very Bad. Drinking my calories.

To Do: Everything is about the big health picture with DDPY not just the scale. There are many things that I need to do. Redouble the dieting effort. DDP does no gluten and no dairy himself. Can't say I can do that, but I always wanted to try at least a month and see if it made a difference. I still need the heart monitor. I'm just going to get the Apple Watch, but I need to make sure it's in English so I can use it. Kind of risky buying in China. I listened to and read DDP's own suggested material during the beginner program, but there are several inspirational and informative movies that I haven't watched and I really need to do that for the emotional and mental game that goes along with the program.

Summary: I think it's a good start and when I go to intermediate for the next 13 weeks I really want to to focus on what I'm eating and drinking. I am keeping the food journal but I need to be deliberate with it and write these things down before I eat them. Just like you say out loud when you are formatting a hard drive, I need to say out loud--"I'm eating a Big Mac. This puts me further from my goal" and similar before I eat it. Even if I do eat the thing, at least I've fully thought it through and didn't just stick it in my mouth.

Onward and Upward--who knows when I'll blog again, but I'm consistently on Twitter. The next update on DDPY might not be for another 13 weeks.

Altered State--Cyberpunk 2020

I continue to waste away in Coronavirusville, but on the plus side, I was able to purchase and read through most of Altered States, a new Cyberpunk Supplement for Index Card Role Playing Game.  I think it will help to streamline the rules for "the world's greatest 'cyberpunk' roleplaying game"...or at least the most well-known one. I have run CP2020 campaigns on Roll 20 wherein I tried to incorporate a few ICRPG rules, but now we have something official. Rules-light CP for less than $10.00? Sign me up.  

At some point I might go all in on the AS setting which goes even further into the future than traditional CP, but I really am a sucker for the CP2020 ascetics. I like style over substance, and the 1980's feel, but to each his own. However, one thing I don't like about CP2020 is the bloated RAW and that's where AS helps. 

I am a GM/Referee who likes having a permanent NPC stay with the players. She's not a Mary Sue and mostly gives exposition without my having to come up with a cast of thousands. In my 2020 games, the concept is that the team works to put on a reality show about Edgerunners similar to COPS. My character is a media type that follows them around and records their exploits for broadcast. She's famous with people on the streets, but overlooked by the Network Corporate types. She has plot armor on, but she's about as useful as Dungeon Master in the D&D cartoon was for all intentions. She's also useful for testing out how to build characters, so here's a quick take on how I converted my media darling Coco Lopez into an AS character along with a couple of thoughts on other CP2020 issues that can be taken care of with AS:

-----This part is probably only useful for those with copies of Altered States and Cyberpunk 2020-----

The first bit is all from AS--in my mind the closest in character concept was to make her Truth Seeker Enhanced Human Shifter with the Good, Bad and Ugly tag. I chose Mnemonic Link and Shifter Graft from the enhancement which helps her to record the happenings of her team while remaining in "Embedded" in the group and not look like a somewhat famous TV personality. Equipment doesn't matter, I pick what I want, but I did choose the external augment so she could get cyberoptics that fit with the character. Weapons again doesn't matter much choose what you want, but I added from CP2020  Rate of Fire (ROF) information for how many rounds can be spent per turn along with capacity for firearms that don't show specifics in AS. Also, it does take one round to reload on all firearms--with specifics beating general as always. Coco has no psychic abilities but the option seems really straight forward if players wanted to use them. Links and Bonds again doesn't matter much--players could even use the life path from CP2020 if they are into that kind of thing. 

Next is the CP2020 stuff. Since I want Coco to remain a Media--I just looked at her specific skills from CP2020 and connect them with the most appropriate stat to my way of thinking. Example: Streetwise--seems like a WIS skill to me, so +2 is added to Coco's streetwise checks. If for some reason she needed to make a streetwise attempt--although I'd probably stick with checks for something involving this skill, I'd let her go with D4 effort--possibly D6 if she researched the area ahead of time or used her optics in some way. Also, if the character is using a career skill the roll would be easy vs. DC, a chipped skill would be straight roll vs. DC, and a non-chipped non-career skill would be Hard vs. DC or maybe even impossible like a non-chipped runner trying to read a language he's never seen before. 

Netrunning--always a problem in CP2020--would be largely hand waved here. I would use the AS/ICRPG system all the way. I would let the Decker/Netrunner go into cyberspace but going into all the minutiae of deck building and which programs to load up has never been fun for anyone except the runner player and the GM from my experiences. You could resolve a hack really quickly and let the decker stay with his mates and fight.

It might be a while before I can try it, but I'm looking forward to giving it a go. As to the system I'd give it 4/5 because there's always room to improve, but for the cost? 5/5 you can skip a pizza and improve your cyberpunk game.

Chinese New Year--Year of the Rat

It is a tradition around Chinese New Year to give out red envelopes--usually with money inside of them--well, this past Thursday, I received a beige envelope--not with money inside--but, with a letter of intent. The letter consisted of my current employer's non-intent to renew my contract when it ends in July. To their credit, they did give me this much notice and didn't outright let me go before the break, but I can't say that it was pleasing nor a surprise to be honest. They should have never hired me for a position that I was not qualified for. I never pad my resume, so they knew what they were getting, I, on the other hand, feel a bit blindsided. At any rate, I still appreciate that they gave me a chance. I was undecided about going for another year in a position that was above my skill level anyway. My employer merely made the decision for me. Sticking with DDPY, you have to live 90%--nothing I can do about whether or not the employer likes me or what I do, I'm only responsible for my work ethic which they can say nothing negative about--and be truthful. Upward and onward I suppose, but I'm totally undecided about which direction this entails. It might be time to wrap up international travel and head back home.

So, on the DDPY front, I continue to be excellent in the workouts having gone maybe 17 or 18 days in a row as I'm typing. The diet is still more miss than hit. I have three weeks off for this Chinese New Year, so I'm going to try my hardest to get things in line while I'm away from distractions--here's the plan:

Two DDPY sessions per day.
No sugar.
No beer.
No fast food--hard to type that one.

Can't expect to do this beyond the three weeks, so I'm happy just to take the one session today, but if I can do this for three weeks, who knows what kind of amazing results I can get. 

2020--New Year...New Me?...maybe?

I just realized that I haven't posted a blog entry since before Halloween '19...and not you see by the clock on the wall that it's suddenly 2020. I guess the first update is that I did finish my DDPaDay workouts fairly strongly and have continued to work right along. It's been a solid four months.  Keep in mind--as mentioned in my earlier entries--looks to the contrary, there have been years--literal YEARS--where I was practically Mr. No Days Off, but nothing has really ever come of it. I hold food squarely accountable.

DDPY seems to be different. Nothing succeeds like success and although I'm far from the finish line, I can see myself getting stronger and my clothes are fitting better. I was always pretty flexible for a fat guy, but I'm even more flexible now. So, I imagine if I can do these things while still eating like a guy on his first day out of prison/last day before he goes back then what better results will I see when I start watching the diet?

So for January 2020--a mere 27 days before my 46th birthday as I'm typing this--I'm taking responsibility--if not outright control--over my diet. The journal--which I loathe to keep--will be hanging around my neck like an albatross. The way DDP suggests food accountability is to journal everything and if you eat something bad you write it in ALL CAPS. You also write it and therefore own it before you eat or drink it. It's like before you format a computer drive you must say out loud--I AM ERASING THIS AND I"M NOT GETTING IT BACK--for me I must say and write I AM CHOOSING TO EAT A DONUT RAT?HER THAN IMPROVE MYSELF.

So what's this diet going to look like. Well, for this month I'm just eliminating sweets--food and beverage--beer, fast food and other snacks. I'll try this up until my birthday. The next step would be to  get rid of the dairy or gluten. Final step would be to get rid of what remained--either dairy or gluten. I'll be doing it slowly and measuring each step to see if the reward is greater than the sacrifice.

Although I've managed to stick with exercise programs long term and even read through the Bible last year, I've never really given myself a real chance with a diet. I've never gone three consecutive months and I want to see what would happen. I'll also be continuing the DDPY exercise program, on which I'm somewhere between beginner and intermediate at the moment. 

#DDPaDay 19-24 out of 31

Alright...the month is wrapping up, so I'm sad to say that I'm not going to pull off the no-gluten/no-dairy in any significant way this month. :( I am however elated to say that we're only seven days outside of November when I can try that half of the experiment again. I can also state emphatically that I have more than stuck to the beginner program for DDPY as far as the exercising goes. I'm probably one of the more bendy fat guys you're likely to meet, but unfortunately still a fat guy at the moment.

One of the more challenging aspects of working and living in China is that I'm doin' a whole lot of the former and not nearly enough of the latter. I haven't taken a day off from DDPY since the last entry and at the very least I do the "wake up" and "energy" and/or "fat burner". "Red Hot Core" came in last week and the first "Below the Belt" comes in tomorrow. I also work the free on YouTube "Sweating and Swearing" whenever I can. You may notice that I have deviated from my usual format and have gone to an even looser summary of my exploits. This is only because my internet service is sporadic at best and it happens to be kickin' right now, but I don't have my work out calendar near me. I write each day exactly what I do, but I can't always update it.

Goals:

Get the DDPY App and Use it--should be doable by November as I am setting up a bank account that has a joint American branch. As it stands now I'm using the free trial.

Get Heart Rate Monitor--I'm probably going with the Apple Watch because it would synch with all my other devices

Detail the Food Journal--As much as I hate to, I have to write it down somewhere. Times like right now when I've let my regular journal slip result in my not remembering my foul-ups, fumbles and even the occasional successes.

So, next week my wife will be out of China to celebrate her big 40 in the Philippines--her birthplace--and she'll be taking the daughter with her, so for nine days I will have a chance to REAALLYYY hit that diet without any outside influencers. I'll let you guys know if it gets better or worse.

#DDPaDay 16-18 out of 31

Now we've passed the halfway mark for the month. Unless I fall off the wagon, this will be the most successful two months of DDPY that I've had so far. Consistency is the key. Unfortunately, the diet is still kicking my ass and holding me back from what I should be, but as far as the workouts go? I think I've got this down.

Wednesday the 16th--

Workouts:

Wake Up
Energy
Fat Burner
Red Hot Core--"New" workout for me. I have tried this one before back in June, I've only just now caught up to where I was back then.

Diet Screw-Ups:
Beer and Chips--I didn't go crazy with either, but Wednesdays are my D&D nights now and although I can mostly avoid refreshments at the game...afterwords my mind is racing. I have to drink a beer to settle my mind down or I'll never get to sleep. This is a problem I'll need to address as drinking is a no-no.

Thursday the 17th--

It's a day off for beginners and my set day off due to the business from late the night before. For those elite few who are following me, this should show you that the beginner's work schedule gives many days off. Most of the time I just workout anyway, but Thurs. I do take for myself.

Diet Screw-Ups:
Beer--some will sit and drink a six pack at one go, while I only have the one beer with dinner, unfortunately, if I do that every day--which thankfully, I do not--I'd drink seven beers in a week instead of the six.

Friday the 18th--

Workouts:

Wake Up
Sweating and Swearing--The free live workout from a couple of weeks back on YouTube is getting a lot of play from me these days. I really want to get the DDPY APP which has lots of different workouts. So far I haven't been able to get it going in China in the form of payment. I've still got about half a month left of beginner before I'll try to change it up a bit in November.

The good thing is that--so long as I'm above ground--I can reset every month when it comes to the no-dairy/no-gluten thing. I really want to try it. I just have to discipline myself enough to ditch the beer and noodles...as always easier said than done.

I had a profound, almost zin-like thought, while doing my DDPY--I'm using the moves to get rid of my stomach yet my stomach is preventing me from doing the moves...