Somehow I’m writing another one of these on a Monday afternoon, post-massage. My masseuse is always booked well in advance, but I saw one pop up today and booked it even though I just had a massage two weeks ago. I also have the afternoon off. I started taking off from work on days I have massages or other health related appointments as a little extra stress-free time.
This week I spent a lot of my free time catching up on my comics backlog. I’m all caught up on Doctor Strange and Black Cat, and I’ve started chipping away at nearly two years of Green Lantern. I removed the Doctor Strange comic from my pull list, mostly because the art wasn’t working for me. Sometimes a good story can get me art I don’t like (and vice-versa) but in this case neither were really working for me.
I’m also still working my way through “The Lord of the Rings” and have started reading “The Two Towers”. I’m reading along with the Shelved by Genre podcast, and they post an episode every two weeks. I’ve got a system where I do the LOTR reading in the days leading up to the new episode and read other things during the off weeks. It’s working so far.
I’ve been playing two different fighting games, one old, one brand new: “Guilty Gear: Strive” (GGST) and “Invincible VS”. I actually managed to rank up in GGST for the first time ever. It was just a promotion from the lowest tier to the next, but still. I can tell I’m learning and improving. Now when I lose I generally know why. My next steps are to add some more moves to the minimal combos I’ve been doing to up my damage output.
I had a moment while playing “Strive” last week where something finally clicked last week, and that’s one of my favorite things in video games, especially competitive games like fighters or shooters. What I realized is that fighting games are a lot like football: if you want to pass sometimes you have to run. Meaning you have to keep your opponent guessing else you become predictable. In a fighting game that’s known as a “mix-up”. It means starting your attack string similarly each time, but ending it differently. That way you keep your opponent guessing.
I’ve kept up my Peloton streak for another week. I managed three rides and mixed in some meditation and stretching like usual. I did get a notice that my average power has fallen by 10% over the last 14 days. That means I haven’t been doing as many “tougher” workouts as I’d like. I’ve been doing low intensity rides and endurance rides. This week I’ll get back in to full Power Zone rides or some HIIT rides instead. I’d also like to work in at least one body weight strength class.
Things I enjoyed this week
- We celebrated Sadie’s birthday by visiting Marc Heu Pâtisserie Paris. We had a carrot-cake croissant donut which was absolutely scrummy!
- An old friend came to town and we took her to dinner at Chimbarazo, an Ecuadorian restuarant. The food and company were great. I definitely want to go back and try the llapingachos.
- I’m cheating a bit with this one since I meant to share it last week and forgot, but Austin Walker, one of my favorite voices in gaming, joined one of my other favorite voices in gaming, Jeff Gerstmann, on Jeff’s podcast. They talked about Bungie’s Marathon, and Austin’s new TTRPG “Realis” which fully funded on Kickstarter a few days ago.