Nijitsu Seminar and April Diet Bet.

On Saturday despite the snow I attended a Ninjitsu Workshop by Jim at Bujinkan Reading (he also blogged about it here.)

We did a bunch of things with Bokken, both striking defending and stopping people from drawing their swords. As well as some more traditional Attacks and blocks. I also got talking to Dave one of the other Black Belts who is planning on starting a Womens Self Defence Class in Reading.

My Push-up bet for March is not going well, and as a result Last week I started Aprils Diet Bet early. before the end of April I will lose 10lbs. This time around I am joined by Lisa, Mark and Becky. Each of whom has their own targets. I have also escalated by cheating on the diet forfeit to adding £5 to the pot every time I break Diet. I currently Weigh 14st and 8lbs and will be under 14 stone before the end of Arpil.

Reading list and Diet update

This week I weigh 13st 8lbs, I’m a little lacking in post inspiration this week so here is a list of cool things I have been reading.

Cold Days Dresden Files
The New Dresden Files book releases next Tuesday and the first Four Chapters can be found on the Jim Butcher site.

Queen of Thorns
The most recent Dave Gross Pathfinder Novel featuring Varian and Radovan . Paizo have another short bridging story featuring them up on the web fiction section of their site. The 2nd book in this series Master of Devils heavily inspired Legend of the hungry Phoenix and is an awesome example of Wujia Fiction with a pathfinder twist.

4 Hour Chef
This only just turned up on Tuesday but I am already enjoying it. It’s a book about learning disguised as a cook book. It also has links to videos of how to throw knives which is pretty cool.

All the Iron Kingdoms Books and Fiction
Essentially to farm ideas for my new short Iron Kingdoms Campaign I have been re reading the old 3.5 Iron Kingdoms books and The Warmachine and Hordes Army Books. I also actually got to play Warma-Hordes against K8 last night.

Diet update and another reading List

This week I weigh 13 st and 8 lbs. I have lost a total of 20 Lbs. Taking a little bit longer to drop the binge day weight this week..

This weekend I am off to a Field in Derby for the LT Summer Moot. Then on Monday after the event I will be going to Alton Towers with several of my mates from the event.

As part of my Plan I am reading several books about getting better at things.

Here are a few of them:

Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? How to drive your career and create a remarkable future
This book is about becoming indispensable by applying emotional labor and making your work into art. I finished it on monday and am doing its advice in my day to day work.

Tribes: We need you to lead us
Another book by Seth Godin  This time it focusses on how We should all lead especially when it is as easy to connect communicate and share as it is now.

Ant recommends his book The Dip for people suffering from depression or pursuing difficult goals. The Dip: The extraordinary benefits of knowing when to quit (and when to stick)

A Complaint Free World: The 21-day challenge that will change your life
I picked this book up after being inspired by a post on Tim Ferris’ blog. The idea is a simple but powerful one. Go 21 days without complaining, bitching, moaning or gossiping. They use wrist-band things that you move when you catch yourself doing it. I have managed 3 days in a row so far. 

 Agatha H. and the Clockwork Princess (Girl Genius Novels) This is the fiction book I am reading before bed at the moment. It is based on the webcomic found here.

Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping
I haven't finished this one yet but it is a fascinating look at how people behave in shops. From when and how we look at signs to the route people take when they enter a store. Very interesting and I am looking forward to finishing it

Running, More Mobile Frame Zero and Diet update

First Blood to me in my MF0 game against Robin

This Week I weigh 13st 13lbs I have lost 15 lbs. I didn’t gain alot from my binge day this week but it seems to have come off sooner.  

This weekend I am heading back to a field in Derby to put the Larp Swordfighting tips I got into practice.

This week I also had a chance to play some Mobile Frame Zero and I managed to get a few snaps of the game here.

I have also started to do some short barefoot runs. I recived Born to Run for my birthday from Tracy after it was recommended to me by Ant and that aloing with some other stuff I had read has led me on to looking into running, both barefoot and in a way that makes it less likely that I will injure myself.

Reading List

These are some of the books I am reading at the moment.

4 Hour Body
This is the book I have taken my diet from. Full of useful ideas and emphasising the idea of the Minimum effective dose for making physical change.

4 Hour work week
By the same chap as the 4 Hour Body (Tim Ferris) this was his first book and has loads of ideas and tips to reduce your work week and improve your efficiency. The ideas in here led to me starting this blog.

Let’s Pretend This Never Happened by the Blogess
A mostly true memoirs of a very entertaining blogger.

The Sword Book
One of my goals this year is to become a better sword fighter, this book is one of the ways I am going to do it. It is written by Simon Wright who teaches fighting to Durham University students through the Northern Fight School.

Homicide a year on the killing streets
I got this after it was recommended in the 4th article of this series, after I ran a session of This is Thracia (my D&D Game) set in Constantinople. It is every bit as good as advertised and is written by one of the writers of The Wire.