I Just Read Robinson Crusoe — First Time in Twenty Years

My childhood nemesis, finally taken down!

When I was in 6th grade (around 11 years old), determined to expand my vocabulary, I inserted this book between my nonfiction extracurricular reading selections. (I was a total Hermoine type back then.) At my school at that time, students were able to earn bonus points of a sort for passing quizzes on whichever books from the school's vast library selection they elected to take on. Each book had a grade level rating from 1 to 12+, based on the approximate grade a student would likely need to be in to adequately comprehend it's material. Discovering Robinson Crusoe was a 12+, I was captivated. Nearly all the other 12+s I'd come across had been nonfiction.

I was well and truly out of my depth, but my relentless stubbornness wouldn't let me let it go. Despite Robinson Crusoe's old language, sailor's jargon, and geographical references I was entirely unfamiliar with, I refused to give up reading the damn thing. No joke, I had to read the freakin book THREE TIMES before scraping a pass on the quiz.

Over 20 years later, I've now come across the book again by chance, having recently found it cast away 😜 on the sidewalk in my neighborhood amongst a pile of carelessly discarded clothes and other unwanted items! Being the avid book reader I once was seems like a lifetime ago now, but I obviously had no choice but to take up the challenge the universe was so blatantly suggesting by placing this book at my feet after so long. There really seemed to be no other option but to take down my old foe — the author, Daniel Defoe — and thoroughly get to the bottom of exactly what he was trying to communicate here.

Though there was no final quiz this time, I couldn't not be sure to absorb every last drop of content possible within the pages' words, so I can't deny that the read did take me a short while and quite a few trips to Google and Google Maps, but I do feel like I've indisputably done it justice. Now, what more of a fitting ending for Robinson Crusoe than to be delivered from the destitute state it was in on the hot sidewalk down the road and find salvation, by my rescue, with me. 😂 I'm not sure I can imagine anything more appropriate.

Going forward, perhaps I'll aim to keep a book nearby for moments when anything more productive or enticing is out of reach or out of the question. 🤔

Note: Robinson Crusoe is an old book which, I've found, contains very dated and morally controversial views.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robinson_Crusoe

I Passed My First 21 on ITG - 10/20/20

I got one! 🎣  I'm just scraping my way into the 21s club with HAUNT Sampler Mix, but gotta start somewhere.

This was probably my longest set in a very long time. It unexpectedly ended up being over 4 hours because Sean Gee was out running what turned out to be over 20 miles at the time 😳, and I didn't want to feel like a lazy ass, so I just kept grinding. Some highlights:

-My first 21 pass, obviously

-39 Girls Coast Stamina songs, including:

-Crab Rave Marathon @190bpm (1.52x) - normally not noteworthy, but I was already incredibly tired by then and not ready for the drop back to 190

-Unexpected SDE on some really easy song toward the end of the set

Here's the video of Haunt:

[In The Groove] JOKR - HAUNT Sampler Mix [21] 77.63%
https://youtu.be/K0xS2pEJhP8

Cowboy Trails for the Army Ten Miler Virtual Race 10/11/20

I won a free entry to the Army Ten Miler virtual race! I wasn't about to go out and run ten miles on my own today though, so I summoned Sean and we went out to earn that finisher's medal together.

The race started today and could've been completed any time within the next week. We both woke up pretty exhausted today, but it wouldn't have seemed much like a real race if we just did it whenever we felt like it, so we found a hard trail from the horse riding place in the Red Rock area and started up.

I think the trail (or combination of trails?) was called Cowboy Trails and the pinnacle was a breathtaking view of Vegas in the distance from a flag (technically wind sock)-topped summit with a nearby picnic area complete with astroturf. On the trail and in the area, we spotted gypsum, a baby bearded dragon, lots of lizards and chipmunks, wild ass (roughly a dozen donkeys), and all the horses at the horse riding place near the car.

Huge thank you to Sean for taking me out and sticking with my slow ass for three long hours. ❤ We definitely both deserve a medal now. 🏅😄

Check out my activity on Strava: https://strava.app.link/9SlCmTZOvab

100 in 100 Days Challenge: Done!

10,000 sit ups plus 100 days of planks, arm circles, splits, and miles complete! 

Roughly 100 days ago, Sean came up with a challenge: to do 100 pull ups every day for 100 days. He invited me to choose my own 100 day challenge and join him. I opted for 100 sit ups per day each day. As an added challenge, we each did at least 1 mile on foot — walking or running — per day (yes, that's often more than usual for me). I also worked on planks, the splits, and arm circles every day and Sean did push ups, sit ups, and other work outs between pull ups. Other Facebook friends joined in with their own challenges as well. 

So, to wrap up our last day of the challenge the other day, Sean and I went to our gym for the first (and possibly last, due to the current state of the world) time since maybe spring or winter. For my last mile(s), I opted for a 30 minute, 3.5 mile treadmill run, including warm up and cool down time. 

As for challenge results, Sean and I will be getting progression videos up on YouTube eventually. In the meantime, I'll just say that I'm unquestionably feeling like a stronger and more flexible me than 100 days ago and I'm excited to push on going forward. :)

Thank you so much to those of you who joined us and huge congrats to those who stuck it out through this challenge. WE DID IT!!!

5 Hour Workout Yesterday: ITG, DDR, Running, and 100 Day Challenge

After work yesterday, Sean and I spent roughly 5 hours working out. Here are the details:

ITG: I decided to check out the Girls Coast Stamina 3 pack. With difficulties ranging from 9 to 19, I played two of the three 19s (including Dodgeball for the billionth time 😂), kept working on my footspeed with some easier stuff, and messed around with a few good-sounding songs to warm up and for breaks between harder ones. I still have the 222 bpm 19 to get another day. A lot of fantastic packs have come out recently too and SRPG4 is reopened, so that should help with dance game motivation for the next few months. 

Running: Relaxed 1.5 mile jog. Doggies came with me for the first part but got tired after a few minutes and started refusing to move, so I dropped them off halfway before jogging on a little more. Though this wasn't much, it was a nice way to break up the workout session and actually get out of the house for a few minutes today, plus the baby steps back into regular running feel good.

DDR Extreme Pro: Sean and I played a bunch of Oni and other 1x stuff — something it's taken me 17 years to come around to and appreciate. Our trips to the Mesquite, NV DDR Max 2 machine in recent months have me improving at old school DDR a little and finally finding a little enjoyment there again! (We've been spending ~4 days per month in Mesquite these past several months, and their old Max 2 is one of the best ways to exercise there when it's over 100 degrees outside.) Despite their worsening pad issues, I did Maxx Unlimited on extra stage and some challenging songs, such as Insertion, while playing Oni with Sean last visit. Back on my own pad last night, it was easier than ever before. I still can't do lots of stuff I try on Oni, I'm not good at DDR by any means, and I probably won't get into playing very regularly again, but I'm having fun dabbling when it's presented to me. :)

100 in 100 Days Challenge: I'm getting the left-foot-in-front side splits pretty regularly now. I'm still inconsistent with other splits, can't quite get on the floor other directions, and always feel sore. Not much else to report except that I feel a little healthier and stronger thanks to the daily miles and various exercises. With less than 2 weeks left in this challenge, it's time to start thinking of the next thing to keep my fitness goals on track! 

From my Maxx Unlimited extra stage pass in Mesquite. 😂:

East Coast Stamina 9 - Lower: 3rd Overall / 1st Female

Now that I'm getting back on my feet after East Coast Stamina 9, I guess it's about time I share the video of my set and post about how I did!

As for results, I placed:

-3rd out of 58 overall in Lower. (In reality, I'd say this means I was 21st place out of 76, as there were 18 people in Upper.)

-1st place female out of 14 in Lower. (Amy was the only female in Upper, so this should technically place me 2nd female out of 15.)

Video: JOKR - East Coast Stamina 9 - Raw Output (ITG ECS9) on YouTube https://youtu.be/5aKohk3jldY

My ECS9 set this past Saturday literally floored me. I gave it all I had, finishing my 7 song max/1 hour set with one 19 and six 18s. (I'm used to taking longer breaks between songs when I play, so this was as much as I could've demanded of myself.) Though the support I got from Sean Gee and friends in the Twitch chat and elsewhere was what really inspired me to push through the pain, my biggest achievement was unquestionably not quitting when times got tough, and ooohhhhhh did they ever! The FA (well, lack thereof) says it all. 😂 Anyway, MASSIVE thanks to Sean for playing coach and supporting me, Jean-Philippe Moal for the song recommendations when I needed them most, Ian Pyles and all the other contributers for making this all possible, and all the friends who messaged and joined in on Twitch to hang with us and cheer me on. Maybe if you guys cheer harder next year, I'll do a set of solid 20s or 21s. 😝❤

Stamina RPG 4: Final Results

While stamina is always in season 'round here, and ECS9 is now underway, SRPG4 is now done and dusted. I won't pretend that I achieved great things; in fact, I was relatively disappointed in my performance this year. I didn't make any huge gains or exceptional breakthroughs. What I did do, however, was give it my all every chance I got to play. Perhaps that all-or-nothing attitude — playing either hard or not at all — was actually what held me back, or maybe I'm just getting old and eating too many corn dogs. 😄 Either way, it seems I'll need a new strategy going forward, and I'm all ears for any suggestions and constructive criticism people have to offer! For now though, I'm just going to allow myself a moment to smile over the small wins — that I made some footspeed progress, that my stamina probably didn't get any worse, that I stayed in fairly decent shape amidst all the event cancellations and everything going on in the world, and that I stuck it out with you guys through SRPG4 from start to finish! I managed to pass a new 20 called Space Box For Business too. Thank you to everyone who participated for keeping me company in the rankings and to everyone else who cheered me on, despite how silly my dance pad shuffling must've looked to many of you. Now, on to ECS9!