Step Goal

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This post is part of a series of everyday posts for Blaugust. If you’d like to know more, click here.

I really enjoy having a fitness watch. Last November, I bought a Garmin watch and with the exception of showers (despite being waterproof), I never take it off. It felt weird at first but now it helps me keep track and stay balanced. Best of all, it has helped me stop gaining weight though it hasn’t really helped me with losing.

As of writing, I am on a 70 day streak of 10,000+ steps and 5+ floors climbed. Not a lot by any stretch but I have been working on consistency. When I first got the watch, I was doing 20,000 steps on most days with big breaks on the weekends. This way I always have to move.

Last April, I won the right in a bet to drink Mountain Dew Kickstart energy drinks whenever I want. That has led to an unhealthy habit of having one a day, but I couple it with the health habit of walking to the grocery store to buy it. Everyday at lunch, I walk nearly 3 miles in the round trip. I have also gotten tanner!

I really wish I could find ways to motivate myself more for strength training and gym visits overall. I had made a decent push into losing weight when I first got it, but things have trailed off or become routine. I keep intending to look for some sort of fitness program or classes but I feel embarrassed just thinking about it. Plus, I tend to get stuck working overtime so my schedule is all over the place.

I’d love to find a boxing gym. Ever since watching the anime Hajime no Ippo, I’ve wanted to try boxing for fitness. The closest thing we have is a MMA gym which seems even more intimidating!

I am at least grateful for the step counting and activity tracker. When I box at home on my Playstation VR, I can keep track of calories burned. Though you don’t need fancy technology to tell when I am out of breath from trying to box with a gentleman octopus.

 

Overcooked 2: Session 2

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This post is part of a series of everyday posts for Blaugust. If you’d like to know more, click here.

Between various wrestling matches and after everyone had eaten their portion of sous vide cheesecake (it was good), we got to played Overcooked 2 again. Here’s a reminder of the first time.

We are all still enjoying. None of the levels are on par with the end of the first world (where the level shifts dramatically Power Stone 2-style). I love the new mechanics though. We’re knee deep in the jungle and we are getting to deal with ground-based conveyor belts, wind, and tossing raw chicken across chasms.

It is awesome!

I will say that Overcooked 2 is definitely easier. I am looking forward to getting a fourth star added to chase after with the New Game+ mode they want to add in a future patch. On the levels we don’t get 2-stars, we’ve been able to go back almost immediately and get an easy 3-star. That’s a lot different from the first game where we genuinely struggled. I hope the challenge ramps up soon.

Even if it doesn’t, the game is still a ton of fun. I already know I would recommend it to anyone else and that’s still with much more to do. It is a shame our sessions are on Sundays where we all have to eventually go to bed for work the next day …

(No Spoilers) NXT Takeover, Not SummerSlam

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This post is part of a series of everyday posts for Blaugust. If you’d like to know more, click here.

I am currently avoiding all spoilers for tonight’s NXT Takeover. Up until earlier this week, I would’ve watched it tonight and WWE’s second biggest pay-per-view of the year, but I finally decided that my disgust with WWE’s current stories was too much to waste any more money on the WWE Network.

Thankfully NXT gets uploaded to Hulu!

Not that I have followed NXT any closer. The transition for some of my favorite wrestlers to the main roster has soured me on paying too much attention to what develops in “developmental”. Still, it is the better wrestling show and that more than makes up for the main show wasting my time. Every NXT Takeover I have ever watched has been fantastic and I am excited to have folks over to see it tomorrow rather than SummerSlam.

Here are a few reasons why I decided to skip SummerSlam this year:

Whether Roman Wins or Lose, I Lose

This whole Brock Lesnar story is tired. For a brief, fleeting moment they had my interest when they teased taking Paul Heyman from him. Then they threw that away for no reason at all.

Maybe it will payoff with something, but I am ready for Roman to win the title so we can move on entirely from the Brock Lesnar era. I am still in an “anyone but Roman” mood but even more than that I am in a “Less Lesnar, please” mood. The two of them are the weakest part of the weekly recaps I read for RAW and Smackdown.

Dean Too Soon

Similar to walking back the Lesnar/Heyman split, I thought having Dean Ambrose come back on the RAW before SummerSlam was a waste. I miss the surprises and unless he turns on Seth after helping him beat Dolph, then it looks like “more of the same” to me.

No Asuka

Asuka has been a household favorite of ours ever since she debuted on NXT. Having a bad ass hot Asian woman wrestling was a dream come true for all of us. She has been wasted in WWE though and nothing proves that more than leaving her off the SummerSlam card altogether.

Rusev On the Pre-Show

Rusev is perfect. He is also on the pre-show which costs nothing. Why waste money on SummerSlam when I can get someone like Rusev for free?

Why NXT instead if you don’t watch it?

The card is stacked with some incredibly entertaining wrestlers. While I may not be up to speed on the story, story in general matters less on NXT. Unlike the main roster, matches are rarely filler and are often the first time wrestlers get to really face one another. That makes everything feel fresh. It isn’t a month’s worth of tag matches and weak singles matches. It’s one really good match on the biggest show of the quarter.

Also, there’s a hot Asian pirate and a couple of follicly-enhanced handsome manbeasts. I can’t get that on SummerSlam, that’s for sure!

Commonplace Blog

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This post is part of a series of everyday posts for Blaugust. If you’d like to know more, click here.

I forget why I arrived at the Wikipedia entry for “Commonplace book”. I think it had something to do with a potential character name I was researching*. However it happened, I am glad I did because this is a new idea to me, despite having some very well-known authors listed. It also perfectly captures what this blog is slowly becoming throughout this year’s Blaugust event.

When I started blogging, my focus was on videogames and MMORPGs more specifically. Over time, I drifted away from that focus, but I still have this idea in my head that in order to capture a target audience I need to focus my content.

That’s probably true, but as I have said before, that’s not really why I am writing any of this.  And not that I needed the justification of a pre-established literary genre I had not heard of but I feel renewed and reinvigorated to share things with you in bits and pieces, as I go, and often as I think of them now that I know “this is a thing”.

Henceforth, this is now my “commonplace blog” with a little journaling mixed in as needed and reviews whenever I feel the need.

Let’s see how I write when I don’t limit myself to 800+ words at a time …

* I remembered at the very end of writing the above how I came to the idea of Commonplace books. I was researching French names for a Nightborne character in World of Warcraft and started reading about Montaigne, the Frenchman who popularized the essay.

World of Warcraft: I <3 Trolls, Mon

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This post is part of a series of everyday posts for Blaugust. If you’d like to know more, click here.

I have been waiting to meet King Rastakhan for years. My first and second characters were trolls. I often have at least one troll character that I actively play. Troll lore is the only lore I care about. TROLLLLLLLS!

wow_rasta.png

Hero Worship

I have barely played more than the opening of Battle for Azeroth and I am starting to get hyped all over again after realizing just how pivotal/important trolls are to this expansion.

No spoilers, okay?

Leave a comment if you love trolls too!

World of Warcraft: WAR Again

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This post is part of a series of everyday posts for Blaugust. If you’d like to know more, click here.

On a previous post this month, I mentioned being unsure what to play. I decided: Warrior again!

Here’s why:

  • I attempted to level the a Priest, but when it came to the two healing specs, I hated both of them.
  • Shadow Priest was fun but not “I could main this” fun.
  • Leveling a fourth Rogue got tired quick.
  • I decided to race change my Mage to something other than an Orc after briefly flirting with all three specs and not hating them.
  • Playing the Warrior – my main in Legion – was still fun, especially when I realized I’d rather have a tank for my group spec than be a healer.
  • Eventually switching my Warrior to a Z.Troll is REALLY appealing. I have always wanted a plate mail Troll that doesn’t look terrible.

My goal now is to level the Warrior and the Mage. After that, if I have any will or game time left, we’ll see. I could possibly do a Z.Troll Shaman when the time comes but outside of the class fantasy difference, I don’t see the point in Enhancement or Elemental when I have a Warrior and a Mage proper.

I also have a Dwarf Monk that I can level if I so choose. I may do that, though I wasn’t feeling the Monk as much as I had hoped.

I am still burnt out on Rogue and Druid.

That all assumes I play in the first place! I had forgotten the expansion was out altogether. Between two interviews at work, a number of special projects, and my regular duties, I have been far too busy to care.

Maybe this weekend!

Dumb Game Achievements

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This post is part of a series of everyday posts for Blaugust. If you’d like to know more, click here.

It is rare I chase achievements. If I do, it is only as a way to show off my love and dedication to playing a game I already love and am dedicated to playing. It is never for their own sake, at least not initially. Some of you may recall how much I loved playing Slay the Spire and that hasn’t changed (especially with some great updates), but I am really happy to finally be done with this stupid achievement:

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The Transient is a rare(ish) spawn in the latter stages of the game. He has a ton of HP (999), does a ton of damage unless you hit him a few times, and disappears after around five turns. In other words, he is a late stag DPS race that you cannot exactly plan for.

It was fun chasing beating him at first, but I quickly realized I was going to need to get lucky and get a series of cards/items that would allow me to burst him down rather quickly. There was no poison stacking or defense stacking. Burst or fail only.

That kind of idea mostly works for this kind of game, but it was always going to be a letdown achievement for me. It requires no thought or strategy. Building toward taking out The Transient is no different from “building a deck that will beat the last boss”. The only difference is the degree to how quickly it beats the last boss or, in this case, a five turn race.

Other than the achievement, there wasn’t even a reward. I had hoped there would be a unique item or card to go along with it but no. You unlock the achievement outside the game and then you move on to steamrolling the true final boss.

And now I am done or done enough. I am 20 hours shy of 500 total logged for the game. I am sure I will poke my head in from time to time to see what any new updates bring. Hopefully they bring more and better achievements. Something that requires strategy or cunning or a different kind of luck.

When it comes to game achievements, I just want them to be a bit more or at least fun in their own right. That’s rarely the case though. If they are too easy, then they are meaningless. If they are too hard, then they are usually too focused on luck or grinding. Beyond that, they are rarely worth looking at unless the game itself is truly special. That’s probably for the best since I hate collect-a-thons and I hate dumb achievements.

I have no patience to play lesser games to trivial ends.

 

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