YYC Adventures: Run For the Cure

Over the last weekend of September I took my first step in a series of successive physical challenges, on Sunday I took part in my first run. The event was a 5K run called “Run for the Cure” and the goal was to raise support for breast cancer research. In total it took me just over fifty minutes to complete the full run and I ran for a majority of the way, only having to walk for seven minutes or about a Kilometer. 

This was the first time that I had ever been at or even participated in any kind of event like this and boy was it exhilarating. The energy that flowed through the crowd was intoxicating with cheers and good nature all around. The runners and walkers alone made up eight thousand strong and that does not include all of the volunteers.

The day began with face painting and performances from a folk band and a acapella foursome with an outstanding baritone, I have never heard someone’s voice go that low. Then right before the race began we did a Zumba warm up, it always impresses me just how much energy those instructors have. To hype up the runners as they all awaited the start of the run the acapella group got everybody singing the song “walking on sunshine”.

And we were OFF

All along the route there were people cheering us on and it was a feeling like no other I have ever experienced. So many strangers all being supportive of each other with smiles on their faces and cheering till their voices grow rasp. There were bands playing on the sides of roads and houses adorned from foundation to roof in pink. Strings of all different shades of pink bras stretched from street light to street light and we runners ran under them.

The morning after when I woke up and tried to walk I discovered that my thighs and calves felt like they were filled with rocks. Ultimately however I am proud of myself for completing this commitment and taking the first step forward in my fitness challenges.

This Run is the kind of challenge that will help me to improve myself and I am including this towards my RPG IRL sheet. Completion of the run is the first challenge that I am putting on the character card and the first step forwards on that challenge. The “Run for the Cure” 5K counts as a 5% increase towards my dexterity ability and also and increase of 5% towards my next level.

The next run in my fitness challenge is an 8k in November just after my 23^rd birthday and I plan on running then partying. I am currently trying to convince my mother to do this run with me next year and instead of just paying a flat fee I am going to actually fundraise for it. Also I am contemplating running it next year while wearing a 40lb back pack but I will see how well the other challenges go before I commit to that.

Sincerely Urban Yeti

RPG IRL: The Beginning

Today is the start of a brand new month and I have decided that it was time for me to start an epic Quest. With each new month I like to reflect on the month that has just past and try to think of what it is that I need to do to get what I want our of life. As of the recent I have been using this reflection period for looking at this, my blog, and how I could go about to improve upon it. I have been using this blog as a means for me to set up many different goals that I want to achieve and as a means of sharing and expressing myself up until now the posts have seen kind of random.

Finally I figured out a way for all of my different interests that I post about to converge on one ultimate unifying purpose. For my future blog harmony I plan on using an element that I have derived from one of my many different geeky hobbies. The system I am foreshadowing about is that I have decided upon making a role-playing stat sheet based on me that will reflect who I am in a real life representation.

The project in question I have named the “Role-Playing Game In Real Life” and for it I was going to have to make my very own character sheet. For this project it required a little bit of research on my part of a few different types of role-playing games. To make the “Role-Playing Game In Real Life” (or RPG IRL for short) I came to the decision to use the D20 Modern character sheet as a starting point for my own.

Using one of the main ideas of character creation from Dungeons & Dragons the baseline stats for attributes are a ten. By using this baseline stat as a bases and taking into account what I have done in my life I came up with stats of my own.

The Attributes are as follows

Strength: Body Might and Brawn, A measure of how physically strong I am.

Dexterity: Agility, Reflexes and Quickness, A measure of how coordinated I am.

Constitution: Stamina, Endurance and Vitality, A measure of how resilient I am

Intelligence: Mind, Brains and Intellect, A measure of how knowledgeable I am

Willpower: Spirit, Wits and Psyche, A measure of how mentally resilient I am

Charisma: Presence, Charm and Social, A measure of how sociable I am

One thing that is a general constant among all of the Role-Playing Games is that on top of the character attributes the characters also have defined skill sets. While I was in the process of building a character sheet it dawned on me that I needed to pick a group of skills that were actually relevant to real-life. The challenge to picking these skills is that they had to be realistic and achievable, that means things like “spell casting” are a big fat no go.

The set of skills that I finally chose are mostly from the D20 Modern character sheet because it seemed to meet my purposes the best. I will not go through all of the different skills from that set and why I chose them nor will I list all those that I cut from the list.

The way that most Role-Playing games work is that as you play you gain experience and your stats then level up accordingly. As for how to go about leveling all of these stats up in real life I had to put a little bit of thought into how that would happen. After quite a bit of pondering I finally decided that the best way to accomplish this is with a completion bar method.

With the completion bars idea this means that each ability stat gets a percent bar as well as the total level. As I accomplish different types of challenges the progress bars will go up accordingly in 5% increments until the bar is full and the level or stat goes up by one point. Each challenge that is completed will improve a related ability score as well as go into the overall level status bar.

For example let us say I do an obstacle course that would increase my strength by 5% and my dexterity by 5%, therefore my total level bar would go up by 10%.

I figured that because I have already achieved some things in my life that I would start myself at level two. On top of not starting off at level one I know that of the skills listed I have actually started learning some of them and due to past training I gave myself the Computer use and the repair skill. Also I know can speak English fairly well so I put that in the skills as well and I am actually hoping to one day fill the other two speak language slots.

On the sheet on this page I have included the completion bar increases from my recent 5k run for the cure that I will be posting about later today.

Now I think that I have explained this to the best of my ability and I cannot wait to begin increasing my personal scores. I am also looking for any suggestions that may help me to improve this system so leave them in the comments below. Also I welcome any and all questions about this that you may have and I will answer them to the best of my ability. 

Sincerely Urban Yeti

Tablespoon of Geek: Kitchen Products 1

Sorry folks this week there will not be a new recipe on Tablespoon of Geek due to the fact that there has been a lack of cooking for me. My schedule has been mighty hectic as of lately and I have not had the time to get in the kitchen and whip something up. I use to have a back log of things for a moment like this but while trying to back up my back log I lost it all.

I will not leave you high and dry however

There are some really cool kitchen gadgets that I have found online and am contemplating acquiring the. Some of the items I am about to show are not so much kitchen gadgets as they are dishes and means of serving meals.

The first item on my list of interesting food enhancers that I am going to share is a spray can travel mug. It is an insulated travel mug designed to look as if you are swigging down your hot beverage out of a spray paint can. Perfect gift for the little vandal deep inside all of us, and also imagine the disgusted faces of people who think you are drinking paint

Find it here: Spray Can Travel Mug

Now for a really remarkable kitchen item that would make the process of steaming vegetables ten times easier. It is a silicone vegetable steamer called the “Little Vebo Vegetable Cooking Basket” made by a company called Dreamfarm. The concept is relatively easy to execute you place water on the bottom of a pot, put this little device in the pot on top of the water and then place the veggies you want to steam in this. After you have boiled the water and the garden greens are soft and ready to eat you can use the convenient handles to remove the veggies and then serve them.

Find it here: Little Vebo Silicone Steamer

I don’t know about anyone else but my fridge is always covered in magnets, none are useful in the slightest but they always make a kitchen feel more lived in. well now finally there is a fridge magnet that has a secondary function other then adding personality, it is a kitchen timer. It is function going for it but it also has looks to go with it because by adding it to your fridge or freezer they will now look like they are a bank safe. That is right it is a Safe Lock Kitchen Timer Fridge Magnet, so if you choose you can pretend to be robbing a bank all while getting a snack.

Find It Here: Safe Lock Kitchen Timer Fridge Magnet

Thanksgiving this weekend and I may be learning how to make a Turkey from Wifey’s grandmother if I ask nicely. Hopefully next week I will actually have a recipe to post up here, I am a little sad one of my best received recipes was lost… oh well guess I have to redo it.

Sincerely Urban Yeti

Geekdom Crossover: Hipster Princess

Being born with male genitalia it was often socially frowned upon when I was a growing up to watch, let alone like any, of the Disney princess films. Now with that being said I didn’t happen to watch a whole bunch of these classic cartoon features during my younger years. My mother however will tell you otherwise and say that as a toddler Cinderella was my favorite film, and like most children was the one that I would watch over and over, I however don’t remember this.

This massive gender separation on this topic does not stop me, now that I am older, to enjoy all of these widely popular films. Actually I have come to believe that my Wifey enjoys the fact that she can educate me on this missing part of my childhood film repertoire. With Wifey in my life that means that just as there is all sorts of Star Wars merchandise around our shared abode there are pieces of princess paraphernalia lining the shelves.

As with a great many things the obsession of these iconic cartoons has evolved into a very publicly widespread geekdom. With every type of geekdom things will eventually evolve into something bigger, humor is born and numerous inside jokes begin to form. This has even happened to these fictional characters that all the little girls idealized growing up.

And Thusly the Hipster Princess were born

Then the Hipster Princesses concept went beyond just the internet memes that were making their way around the internet. One talented artist took all of the princesses and drew them dressed in the many common hipster fashions.

Check out her DA account: viria13

The Idea of the Hipster Princesses also grew bigger with the help of a very creatively savvy geek. While surfing the web I found this viral video about a hipster princess musical that was so well done it is just impressive.

Sorry that I have not posted in a couple of days I promise that I have not forgotten about my blog. More to come this week I promise just a small bump in the road.

Sincerely Urban Yeti