Daria S01E02 - The Invitation

In this episode, Daria is invited to a popular party, as a repayment for teaching Brittany about one point perspective in art class. This is another foundation episode, introducing Michael "Mac" Mackenzie, Jodie Landon and Charles "Upchuck" Ruttheimer the 3rd. The fashion club members are also shown at the party, some for the first time, but none of them are introduced with names. Also briefly introduced is Trent Lane, Jane's brother. He has a quick couple of lines, and Daria is very flustered by him. The general plot is Daria going to the party (and bringing Jane along) almost entirely to annoy her sister, Quinn. This is immensely successful, though Quinn doesn't seem too bothered by it at the end, as the three of them accept a ride home from Charles. Much of the episode takes place during the party, with the interaction between Daria and others taking up almost all of the screentime. Jane's personality trait of being considerably more flirty and outgoing than Daria is highlit with her interaction with "Bobby Big-Head" in the make-out room. It's also very apparent that without Jane, Daria is very much out of her element at the party, and would much rather be anywhere else. Overall, the episode is about on part with the first. I'd score it a B. Favourite Quote: "Just because people are cliquey and snotty is no reason not to like them." -- said at different times to different effect by both Quinn Morgandorrfer and Jane Lane.

Diets be hard, yo.

Yep. I am "dieting" in the sense that I'm limiting my total calories per day. That's not too difficult, but it does require me to keep a better awareness of what I'm eating exactly. Now, I'll have to admit that I'm not the most precise when it comes to counting calories. I am certainly in the set of people who under-report their total consumption. Not maliciously, but simply in the hopes of not wanting to look like I eat as much as I actually do. That's just compounded by the difficulties in estimating the portions of what I'm eating. Still, monitoring my intake is better than just going free range. I tend to eat and not pay much attention to things like being full or not being hungry in the first place. The overall restriction on my diet hasn't been too bad. I'm not cutting out anything or removing specific foods, so there's not craving for things I can't have. That certainly helps. I'll be weighing in tomorrow. If things are going the way I want, I'll be down around 125#. But, we'll see where I end up.

Workout and Games

That's just what happened today. First a Workout with K. We don't get to the gym together much, but it's nice when we do. I was following their program, since it was easier that way. My program is just cardio with a bit of strength stuff here and there, but mostly the cardio. They had a rather nice program put together by their trainer, so it was nice to do a bit of strength work. The workout covered bench and deadlifts and a couple supplemental exercises. My workout partner was starting to feel stuffed up and sick, so we called it off a bit early. I'd considered joining that gym when I switched from my old gym to my current gym. This time I went in as a guest, which isn't too bad. Their gym is smaller than mine, but still laid out fine, and the people there seem very focused on the workout thing. One thing I've noticed is the lack of New Year's Resolutionists. At least as far as I can tell, their numbers are really low. I don't know if that's just a trend of the particular gyms, or if Sunday just isn't popular. I had hoped to try out a terrible list for fun, but my opponent wanted me to keep focus on practising for the OTC. We've got to set lists in a couple of weeks. So, I tested one of my OTC potentials against his list. Didn't go as well as I would have liked, even if the game did swing my way at the end. I think the list will need a lot of testing to account for the adjustments after the last errata. Other than that, I've been thinking about my mini painting projects. I've got a full list I'm hoping to play once it's all painted (and not before), so I've been chipping away at it a little at a time. I finished off another unit today, which leaves just two more, and a couple solo models and the leader to do. So, really, it's getting close to done. About 16 models in total. As busy as I've been today, I still feel like I didn't accomplish as much as I could have done. I figure that's probably due to the painting time taking up quite a large chunk of the evening. Can't be helped, really. Projects like that take time, and I just need to think of them as also being productive things.

Daria S01E01 - Esteemsters

So, Daria was on TV when I was attending University. The issues of shared campus TV and school schedules prevented me from ever seeing all of the seasons or episodes, but I loved the show. Enough to get interested in the fan-fiction, the episode transcriptions, and the status of the series coming eventually to DVD. There used to be a very large and very dedicated community around Daria, but it faded away as the memories of the show passed further and further into history. But, before it had faded too far, the community around Daria had managed to encourage MTV to produce the entire series as a single set of DVDs. And I bought and watched the whole thing in a very long marathon of episodes. Every year or so, I break out the discs and watch it all again. This year, I'm also going to write up a quick review of the episode, as practice in writing. With that all said, let's start with the first episode of the first season: Esteemsters. This episode introduces the title character, Daria Morgandorffer, her family (sister Quinn, mother Helen and father Jake), as well as nearly all of the other primary characters in the show. The other main character (and only non-Morgandorffer) to be introduced is Jane Lane, Daria's closest, and best friend. Almost every episode will have these five characters on-screen - though sometimes as little more than set dressing. The episode also show the key locations and settings for the first time. These are: The Morgandorffer home, Lawndale High, and Jane Lane's bedroom. These three settings make up the majority of the locales for the series as a whole, much like the main characters, these settings appear in nearly every episode. The show's secondary characters are shown very briefly, and several of the most recurrent characters appear only as background characters. Only a few are given names and lines. The rest are either silent, or aren't yet introduced with names. The lowest point of the show is probably during Daria's speech at assembly. This is because I honestly cannot stand Quinn's original paramours. I much prefer the Joey-Jeffy-Jamie trio. The assembly scene isn't a total loss, however. The part with Jane's speech is pretty good, and shows Daria has found a friend with the same off-side humour as herself. The plot is very thin, consisting entirely of the vehicle to get Daria and Jane to meet and be friends. Everything else is exposition, or showing the kind of person these characters are. It only gets a pass on the grounds that it is the intro episode - there has to be a fair amount of exposition happening between the characters to provide the setting, background and motivations for the characters and the series. So, the script isn't as robust as later episodes, but it isn't so loaded down with explanation that it loses entertainment value for me. One of the things I love about Daria is her acerbic wit, coupled with her astute observations of the absurdity that surrounds her. This leads to a number of one-liners that have stuck with me. I still quote Daria from time to time, but the reference is almost never caught. Overall, the episode rates a B. Favourite quote: "Well tell you, over and over that you're wonderful, and you just don't get it. What's wrong with you?" -- Helen Morgandorffer.

Sleep

It's an important thing. Weight loss and workouts require me to get even more of it than I already do. Which is occasionally difficult, because so much fun happens while I'm awake, and sleep means I miss out. But, I will have to make an effort. There's no reason I shouldn't be getting about 7 hours, and really, I should be shooting for getting 8 if I can. My sleep habits aren't great, but they are a relatively small thing which can be improved with minimal effort. I'm going to aim for ensuring those 7 hours as a minimum, and see about getting in more if I can arrange it. Today's workout was again simple cardio. I spent an hour on the stat recumbent, which I find is a bit easier on my legs as they don't fall asleep as easily. Until I lose some of this chub that presses on those nerves, I may have to stick with the recumbent. A couple of co=workers were discussing their own workouts and weight loss plans. They're looking to lose about 10# in the same timeframe as my goal. I'm going to try to not get competitive with them. Let them do their thing, I'm going to keep doing mine.

Let me just dust this off....

So, it's been a few years since I've used this thing. That's fine. It's here as a resource for me, more than it is for you. I'm going to use this space exactly as I always have. A bit of writing practice, a bit of talking about the games I love, and a bit of talking about my fitness plans and what I'm doing with them. So, all the same good things as always. I'm going to start out with the fitness stuff. I find myself beginning the year at a rather hale 228#. Some years ago, I was dreading the notion of being 200#, so, I've clearly not bothered enough with my own health in the last few years. There's lots of reasons for that, but the largest has become simply that I like eating the way I have been. It isn't healthy for me, though, never has been, and honestly, I'd like to actually do something about it. So I shall. I'm going way back to a notion I had a couple years ago. The year of Thor. Now, a flabby, out of shape, low stamina and frankly weak me is a far, far cry from being Thor the Mighty. But, I figure all of those things can be fixed with enough effort, sweat, and giving a fuck. That last one being the most difficult for me. The Thor thing stems from me really wanting to go and do either Thor, or some similar character this year for Halloween. So, there's 10 months of time to try to get at least some of the way there. And, I know it's possible to do - I just have to want it. With that comes the notion of defining what features make Thor. As far as fitness is concerned, well, Thor doesn't have a gut. Second, he's got some decent back and shoulders, with at least some definition in the arms. Depending on the artist (or movie), he's also got good legs. 10 months may not be enough time for me to get all of that in place. I figure, I can do something about the gut by losing some weight. And I should be able to do something about the shoulders, arms and back. The chest thing will have to sort itself out. I'm hopeful my tits will flatten out into something that I can dress up as pecs. I'm setting the first goals for 2 months. End of February, exactly. The 28th. I weigh myself weekly, on Tuesdays (to give the weekend indulgences time to settle on my ass), so that works fine. I weighed in at 228# on the 2nd Jan, which is if nothing else, the baseline. I'll be focused on cardio for the next 2 months, and changing my diet in what should be a complete overhaul. These two features combined should be enough to make significant changes. I'll also go back to calorie counting, with a nice goal of 1800 daily. I will have to look at my macros to be sure I'm not missing anything or over indulging in carbs (which is most likely). I'm going to try to work without too much of a net for this first bit. I feel like a nice conservative goal of 210# is good. That's marginally more than 2# per week. Attainable and also very safe. But, another part of me is reminded that I tend not to be extreme enough. Ultimately, I'd like to get down to somewhere between 180 and 190#. A nice 185# is a stable number for me, but I'd need to get there. That said, losing nearly 50# in 2 months is far too quick. 3# per week puts me at 204#, we can round that up to 205# and call it good. That's also possible, I think, but requires more effort. So, more effort it is. So, Feb 28th, I'm gonna be 205#. Afterwards, I've got 8 more months to go, and 20# more to lose to hit my ultimate goal weight, which, at the same pace would mean end of April to get down to 185. I have a feeling it may take me longer than that, so I'm not going to concern myself with that for now. The following 8 months, will have me put more strength work back into the program. Get work done on the arms and back and shoulders to get those up to where I want them. Add in some shape that's not marshmallow. Specifics will come as that date gets closer. Unlike some of the other times I've done this, I'm not going to go about with lots of other measurements. I will satisfy my data tracking urges with calorie counts, workouts logged and pounds on the scale. That said, I also want to start tracking more of what I'm doing as far as cardio is concerned - give me a bit of a timeline of sorts. I used to use Fitocracy for that, but it's been broken for me since 2011 or something, so whatever. I'll do it here. I was in the gym yesterday for 30 mins on the stat bike, and then 30 mins on the treadmill. Just looking to start getting back some stamina, and increase the total energy expenditure through the day. I'm looking to make this a 5+ day a week thing for the now. The year of Thor starts.

Inspired and other things

I haven't been blogging in a while.  That's fine, nobody reads this blog anyway.

Ghibli movies tend to inspire me.  At least, certain of the films do.  Whispers of the Heart, The Cat Returns, OnlyYesterday and even Porco Rosso to some degree.

The first three of these are really focused on a person who is coming to grips with who they are.  They take on the challenge of figuring out who they are and who they want to be, and while none of them really come to a true conclusion, all of them are moved along in their journey.  This is true even in Porco Rosso, though the impact is weighted more to the dual protagonist rather than the protagonist in that film.

So, I'm inspired.  I haven't been practicing guitar for a while (at least 6 weeks), and the itch is returning.  I'm not sure why I put it down.  Likely some combination of assorting other priorities around.

There's been a lot rumbling through my head lately.  A lot of nudges in the brain to get me doing more things. Stuff I haven't been doing.  I've resisted so far, because I'm really not wanting to overburden myself with too many things.  I'd rather just keep my free time mostly free, though I would like to maybe be doing something a bit more than I currently am.

A short list of potential activities are music, writing, yarn crafts, exercise, and language study.

I haven't done any active language study in a long time.  Even the largely passive Anki studies have gone by the wayside.  I have a lot of interest in language, but no real outlet for it.  German, I do have a bit of an outlet, but it's one of those things where I'd need to put in some effort first to get it started.

For writing, I know the simplest thing is just to set aside some time and start writing.  It's not like I'm short for ideas.

Then, with yarn, if I get the stuff I have going now finished, then I think I should be able to look at starting something new.  Until then, I really ought to be more focused on finishing what I've got started.

The music thing also shouldn't be too bad if I was to do something.  30 minutes a day should be easy enough, but I do know that it's hard enough to fit in my workouts most days.  I'd need to become very efficient about getting things done in my day.  That's an item of work all on its own.

So, that's where I am.  Inspired, but cautious about setting on anything which isn't my workouts right now.  Maybe I'll give the whole thing some serious thinking and see what I come up with.