Inspired by twitter happenings yesterday.
How was your day? Did anything fun or good happen? Or the contrary and was it awful?

Use this thread to talk about whatever you want to talk about that is happening in your life.


Even though my life has been pretty uneventful the last few months, I'll start. All I have been doing is pretty much just keeping active with the Japanese language. I have been doing this by reading Oshi no Ko in Japanese and also by playing the gacha games.
Also been doing a tiny bit of programming again, not much just updating some personal small project so it works again. Maybe one day I would like to do more of it again, but for now this doesn't seem likely because it still does not spark joy.
Recently regarding to judo, I have lost a lot of motivation. Biggest reason for this is probably not having a set target right now. Originally i planned to go for 2nd dan rank somewhere early 2020, but that was when corona happened so that had to be postponed. However now that everything is returning to normal, the person with who I used to train the most and prepare for the exam their schedule has changed immensely. Which really hinders our chances of training with this goal in mind together. Of course i can train with different people for this goal, but with the requirements for these exams being higher level than most other people training in the place where i train currently are, preparing this would take even more time.
This has me often considering if I even want to continue pursuing judo or just quit and completely start to focus on weightlifting and all things that go hand in hand with that.

my weekend wasn't as productive as i usually like them to be, but i spent a lot of it talking to a lot of different people around the area and it was very refreshing. a lot of times i get caught up in my work and i never feel like i'm working hard enough or getting enough done so it's nice to take some time to just sit around sipping coffee and talking. it's pleasant to know how many people i've met and how many friends i've made in the short time since moving here

lately i've been pushing myself too hard to the point of heavy fatigue and starvation from not stopping to eat due to not being able to afford milk, which is what i usually used to quickly make up for calories burnt while working. i thought i was familiar with the behavioral effects of starvation from the week-long fasts i've done, but it's a very different effect than weeks of working on a heavy calorie deficit. i don't think i've ever been as angry as i have been in the last few weeks after my body started eating away at the muscle tissue to make up for the lack of intake

i'm trying harder to make sure i'm eating enough but i absolutely hate stopping to eat or cook while i'm in the middle of working. this has mostly been pb&j, tuna and chicken salad sandwiches but even that is cost prohibitive given the quantity i have to eat. some soups and stews as well but i need to start keeping the sabbath again if i want to make them in enough quantity to last the week. balancing nutrition has also been difficult because i've noticed myself losing energy if i eat too much of the same thing too often. it's a lot to figure out and it's incredibly aggravating but i'm planning on working things out this winter so i have a proper plan going into next year

overall i'm excited for the day when a majority of the extremely demanding work is done and everything won't feel like such a mad dash to race and get it all done before winter hits. it'll be nice to appreciate the more subtle intricacies of the seasons and start establishing traditions around the plantings and harvests for preserving and etc. since i'll be taking my second job back on friday i'm going to start forcing myself to observe the sabbath on sundays again to make sure i don't exhaust myself and get sick again

Well well well my last week has been almost the same as the past 5 months. At work I am learning something new recently though, we are helping different departments get through their shortage of employees due to the fact they keep leaving after 5 months since the management is too shit and gatekeeps progress. Apparently its normal to find a job get hired and settled in and then immediately look for a new job or a promotion while only being there for like a month. I do not understand this mentality. Aside from work, Ive been doing some piano hanon exercises at home after work when I don't feel completely drained which is almost everyday. Trying to step my game up and play harder pieces now that I do have a better feel for finger placement. Drawings been a bit stale I do not have the energy to sit for hours and create something after constantly moving for 8 hours. I will regain this drive though I still yearn to work on the physique it will be good I promise. Aside from that I went to a concert yesterday it was a nice change of pace. Saw one of my favorite bands (One Republic) from when i was a kid and got some shirts to expand my wardrobe.

Eventful day today, reignited my love for judo again. Was at a big training today, 7 hours of just kata. Afterwards they asked me and my new partner (used to train with her before, but she was away for a long time) to demonstrate at the end of the training. This resulted in us being asked to train with the national team. So if all goes well there might be a chance of competing with kata on international level.

that's incredible to hear, i hope the both of you do well going forward. how is judo judged in these sorts of competitions? i don't know much about it

For kata competitions it's very different from normal competitions. You can compare this best to gymnastics or figure skating, but with a set routine you have to do instead of "free choice". So it is graded on all things like posture, realism (as in chokes, armlocks and controls are actually applied and not just very loosely for show), focus and many more of these factors. And then when every pair has done their run, results are based one who has highest score.

I will be going to do the Katame-No-Kata, which is all about ground controls instead of throws. Every different kata has its own category so it is fair to judge

had a very good day today after the week started off bad. found a fully intact straw bale on the highway when i was running to brainerd for the paper and picked it up, got my final w-2 required to file my taxes, and the repair bill on this sedan was significantly less than i was expecting. i also found this video which makes me happy

ran over a nail on the way to work the other day so i had to plug two of my brand new tires which really pissed me off and the portion i was required to pay for repairing the control arms that suddenly failed in gabe's sedan increased due to another problem springing up out of nowhere. felt like complete shit all weekend and i debated just spending all sunday laying in bed feeling bad for myself since i didn't have access to my truck to go to church but i woke up sunday feeling like a fucking freight train and i walked the ten miles into town following snowmobile trails which was actually really pleasant and made me feel much better

i was late for the service but didn't miss the sermon and got to take communion so i enjoyed it. there was also a tri-parish council meeting that i'm a voting member of which i completely forgot about and i met some really great folks from our sister church in bruce's crossing and got to eat some delicious food. the gal i was seeing from church talked me into going out to a bar afterwards which i was dubious about because of my resolution to avoid drinking except on new moons but i figured it would be fine since she was offering to pay so i went along with it. she kept really encouraging me to drink and was buying a bunch of drinks for me without me even asking then started coming on really strong when i was sitting in her truck while drunk off my ass but even while drunk i started getting really nervous about things getting out of hand so i said i had to walk home. she said she could drive me but i said i wanted to enjoy a nice evening walk alone and i got the fuck out there. i then proceeded to stumble home in the dark ten miles while drunk and at several points i took short naps in snow banks along the side of the trail until i eventually got home. i didn't bother looking at what time i got home and it was freezing cold but i was too drunk to start a fire in the stove so i just crawled in bed

the next morning i had to go with gabe and wife to pick up the sedan from bessemer and the bill ended up still being more than we could afford but i know the guy there real well and he's nice so i negotiated paying the rest later next week. i had thirty bucks to my name which i put into gas and a soda pop and went home and started doing my usual chores. i've been trying to get ahold of a guy that runs a woodworking shop in mercer but he's been sick and i didn't want to bother him too much but he finally answered when i called him at around one today and asked if i could head down there sometime this week to which i immediately said that i could head over there now which he was happy to hear. i drove down there and met a dude that's a taller, ten-year-older carbon copy of me essentially. builds all his shit himself, works on cash flow, really into simple living, even moved up here almost the exact same time as me. we hit it off famously and we shot the shit for like two hours straight and it got pretty personal despite me not knowing this dude from adam until i walked in the door so it was pretty fucking awesome and i can tell we're going to have a very effective professional relationship; unfortunately, however, i can't start until he gets back from a vacation with his family in like two weeks or something like that but he needs his website updated so i offered to work on that in the meantime for cash. usually i wouldn't offer something like that but i got along so well with this guy i made an exception

all in all i don't really know what the fuck is going on and i'm dirt poor but things are really looking the fuck up and i'm excited to quit these two shitty jobs in town and throw my all into working for this dude and getting huge piles of money set aside for this coming year. when i'm finally not a broke fuck i will be sending flash wave a lot of money for running my favorite web zone of all time and also for renewing aroltd while i was stuck with my thumb up my ass in january

every winter here carries a distinct personality, of this i am certain. if the cold does not kill with its prolonged intensity then the snow will cover the earth more and more as the air flirts with the freezing point. the desire for warmth is dampened by endless billows of white burying all things, the yearning for a clear, sunny day is tainted by a biting frost so fierce that even the beasts tremble. there is no such thing as a nice winter's day, only days which are less painful than others to endure. no avenue for change exists except by way of destruction or death. an honest time in which a man is confronted with his mortality every waking moment and can scarcely escape it even in his troubled, chilled sleep

this winter being warmer than the last has brought with it plenty of snow, so much that it seemed wholly impossible by the middle of april to imagine a world of bare earth and sprouting plants. the scant few paths we maintain through the whole winter were suspended four feet from the earth. only an idiot would walk off these paths without snow shoes

suddenly as if by some divine mercy there was a week of sunny days in the mid seventies fahrenheit. all snow save the tallest piles quickly dissolved back into the moist ground, the white scourge's five month domination of the whole earth carelessly shaken off like water from a dog's back. the grass in some places woke from a long slumber and some ambitious plants began to sprout amidst the frenzied flooding. animals were lively and the birds feverishly sang. frogs serenaded the coming of night as the sun departed along the western horizon

the sky never appeared today. all that can be seen is the brown of bark, the green needles of conifers, and endless white. two feet of snow buried all those things that only one day prior had been raising exaltations in the wake of its departure. the wind is laughing mercilessly. the bitter chill kisses all living. the white blur defiantly obscures the beauty of the heavens and presses in on all sides as if to suffocate what brief sparks of hope may ignite into a greater fire of ambition before there is scarcely a chance

winter never ends, it only waits.