Keeping It (Relatively) Short

Since this week is almost a direct continuation from the previous, and I don't want to bore anyone with redundancies from last week to this, I'm going to keep the post to a brief summary, aside from the journal entries I worked on for Cael, which will add to the overall length of the post.

Notable Accomplishments: Health & Fitness

• Built With Science

  • Still working with decreased weights & increased reps

    • Pull-ups, chin-ups, and push-ups are the hardest by far, but at least I managed the bare minimum without breaks or failing altogether

    • Aside from the aforementioned, I've been able to increase my reps by at least one; in some cases, I've been able to increase the weight for those exercises where I was hitting 30 reps consistently

  • Reached 10k+ steps Tues., Wed., & Thurs.

• Couch to 5k

  • Week 3 Day 1 was not kind to me

    • 2x: Jog 1:30 → Walk 1:30 → Jog 3:00 → Walk 3:00

    • Jogging pace was 6:24/km

      • It was incredibly humid even though the temperature was cooler

      • I'm used to jogging either on a fast or hours after I've eaten; Wednesday when I went, it was within an hour of having eaten

• Meal Planning

  • Hitting 121g of protein is still hit or miss, especially without going overboard on fat

Notable Accomplishments: Writing

• Wrote a flash fiction story for something based off of a prompt, but I'll withhold sharing until whether or not I receive confirmation

  • I, admittedly, had far more fun with it than I would have expected

• Finished & Posted Cael's journals for the 26th & 27th on our main Skies Over Aefala server; I'll share the 27th, since I shared the unedited 26th last week:

Year 5, Day 41
Oathday the 27th of Uros: Night

You’re a good nonnative, enter the city peacefully—even solved a looming threat for said city on your journey to said city!—show deference to the royalty there, respect the citizenry, make some friends, only do some mine(r) breaking and entering to kill some daemons that have been summoned, and how are you repaid? You’re arrested and stuffed into a tiny room for the evening!

I know what you’re thinking, Valen. I can see that aghast expression on your face! "How could they?"

How could they, indeed!

We should be receiving accolades for performing the exemplary service of thwarting a conspiracy. Involving the Order of the Black Ram no less! Ja, do you remember them Valen? The group that preyed on a man’s desperation to revive his wife and turned him into a necromancer that overran Cullfield with undead? Ja, that group.

“But Cael, how did the Order of the Black Ram infiltrate the city without anyone’s knowledge if they need passes to enter through the checkpoints?”

An astute question, Valen! There certainly wasn’t any entrance or exit in the fourth level of the mines themselves, which all but confirms that someone with significant influence granted them safe passage through the city and into the mines so they could cast their Ritual to summon two Leukodaemons from Abaddon to spread pestilence amongst Themfaruhm’s populace without hindrance. The question is why? What would motivate anyone to wish misfortune upon innocent people, especially if said perpetrator already holds a position of power? 

We have yet to meet the Mining General, but it seems oddly convenient to me that a small room was purposefully carved out for the members of the Black Ram to work. I have kept that suspicion close to my chest, however, in the event neither the Gear Master, the Guard Captain, nor the King can be trusted, and I’m skeptical that the latter two can be trusted. Best for them to believe I overlooked that particular detail. They’ll all draw their own conclusions anyhow, whether they’re co-conspirators or the opposition.

The guards weren’t needed in the mine itself until the plague began, but there seemed to be an unnecessary number of them present to wrangle the potentially afflicted. What are the infected miners going to do? Faint on them? Did the guards have nothing better to do with their time and numbers, or does Guard Captain Gorraer Oarheart have his hands tied? And yes, I mean that first statement facetiously, because obviously they could have been culling the Ankhrav breeding over their heads instead of allowing their tunnels to reach such disarray.

Someone convinced the King that digging further into the mines was a good idea because they wanted to forward their own plans. What said plans could be, I don’t know, and any postulations would just be conspiracy theories until we obtain proof. It could be anything from a desire to cull the population so that resources aren’t consumed as quickly to someone wanting to step in and play hero to push their own promotion somehow.

I suppose we’ll see within the coming days whether or not the King himself is complicit, but the fear tactics he has employed by quarantining anyone who spreads truthful rumors raises a red flag for me. For better or worse, Gear Master Fifrim Plateback has roped me into this political mess, and even though I do not intend on staying in the city for much longer, I want to make the life of whoever is responsible that much harder for their appalling disregard and disrespect of people’s lives. Their selfish ambitions deserved to be thwarted.

My apologies for the exasperated tone I’ve taken, Valen. It seems that you’ve truly instilled within me a deep respect for life, so to discover there are people or creatures out there who actively want to destroy it just… It’s the same feeling I experienced toward the Erinys when Hell attacked Shipton. I want to put a stop to it.

Unfortunately, we are at a disadvantage here. We are not Dwarves, we have few allies, and we are an easy scapegoat upon which to place the blame for the pestilence. Those who know the truth won’t speak against their King, not while they fear him, so I fear if we face trial, we will be found guilty. Should we face trial, I will make my voice heard.

How I’m feeling: Still digesting my conversation with Father Ambien earlier about using fear as a tool when the situation calls for it. I still do not agree with his methods for confronting that poor physician when other methods would have been equally viable and less…traumatizing, but I can see why he takes the approach he does, seeing as how he’s a vampire. It’s just that whenever I see the fear in others’ eyes, it reminds me of Matra. I don’t like that expression.

Regret. I don’t think I should have given Captain Oarheart that vial from the Leukodaemons. I should have followed my instincts and Prestidigitated one of my counteragents to look like the goop we collected and given that to him while saving the real vial for Fifrim, assuming we see him again before all this is said and done. Yes, it’s a small mistake, but who knows what catastrophe could be wrought with that sample. I should have known better.

Days since last Zoning: 3

Other Notable Accomplishments:

• Steinberg had their 40th anniversary sale; since Dorico was 50% off and I'd been using Sibelius 6 as my primary music notation software since I was in college over a decade ago, I decided to take advantage of the sale to get Elements 5

  • Now I just need to wipe off the rust on my composition skills....

• Spent time making some more financial decisions

  • Yay, adulting!

• Finally spent time filling out the "Values" section of Cal Newport's 4-month reinvention

  • The more I listen to him, the more I cannot help but consider how narrow his demographic lens is

  • Watching his videos also highlights the issue that I have with learning platforms and many content creators who try to teach: information regurgitation without examples or a step-by-step guide for implementation. The least he could provide is some examples or--better yet!--work through a hypothetical scenario with his audience

    • Actually, I may have to write up a full blog post about my qualms with online learning platforms sometime, even though that'll require more research and actual references to illustrate my points, which is more in-depth than I normally go with these, but education is an area that impassions me greatly

• Spent time clearing my C: drive since it was almost full

Questions for Contemplation & Discussion:

• Thinking back to the Dorico sale I mentioned above, how often have you regretted not purchasing something when there was a sale that was almost too good to pass up?

  • Or vice versa?

• Skillshare, MasterClass, creators on YouTube who post videos that are meant to teach, etc... do these platforms work for you, or do you find yourself wanting for videos into which you can really sink your teeth?

  • I'm asking this even as somebody who has used all of those platforms and more to try and learn particular skills

• For the runners out there, what's your best distance and pace?

This Week's Obligatory Cat Pic: Qiri