Lurker > Seanchan

Unfortunately, I find there's not a linear progression to the reps versus increased weight. As I get near my weight limits the reps start to drop off quick.

Like the 13x @ 255 for deads extrapolates to an almost 390 max. My max for deads from a few years back, for a single, was 345. I didn't get a chance to really try pushing that further but my feeling was that, at most, maybe 355-360 was possible.

Wordle in 3 today, so with 4 being par I guess I got a birdie.

Dordle in 6.

As someone who's in the 145-150 lb range, 225 bench is my goal (1.5x body weight), so kudos to you! Goal for squats is 2x (300), deads 2.5x (375), and overhead 1x (150).

My best numbers at the end of last year were:

• Bench - 2x @ 205
• Squat - 6x @ 265
• Overhead - 1x @ 145
• Deads - 2x @ 320

Decent enough but plenty of room to improve. I drop my numbers down a bit to start the new year, so it'll be a while before I lift that heavy again.

My heavy deadlift set for today was 13x @ 255. I'm was pretty gassed trying to get those 1-2 extra reps.

Just going to do this early and nominate Elden Ring. Hopefully it gets lots of supports...

FFDragon posted...

Wordle 227 2/6




lmao

What was your first word? Only thing I could find (with a little internet help...) was ETHOS

Wordle in 4, Dordle in 7

This just shows how desperate companies are for content. 7 figures, really?!? Glad for the guy who made it though.

iiaattgg posted...

i can definitely see how swimming would do that. But I imagine it translates to great fitness overall.

I still struggle with the stretching thing. I literally plan to do it and write it in my workout but I get distracted by the shiny weights and do like a minute of foam rolling and a couple sets of band work instead of the actual amount I should do I wish I could change but I clearly cant

I typically only swim freestyle (i.e. front crawl) and, despite what you might think, it's the legs that are most affected. Squats and deads really go to shit during that time. But I love the feeling after a good, long swim of being both exhausted and invigorated at the same time. My weight stays pretty constant throughout the year but at the end of the summer is usually when it drops that few extra pounds.

With regards to the stretching, that's why I do it in the morning, separate from lifting. It gets the blood flowing early and genuinely makes me ready to tackle the day.

Before a workout I'll do maybe 5-10 minutes of warm ups (jumping jacks, push ups, body weight squats) but I don't go nuts. And I don't really do anything afterwards because usually at that point I'm just physically and mentally done.

It doesn't get any easier as you get older, that's for sure. I continue on my slow but steady routine.

Bench / Weighted Pullups
Squats / Abs
Overhead / Weighted Chinups
Deads / Abs

I do a lot of swimming over the summers, and that REALLY kills my numbers. Like just slice 10-15% right off as soon as I start swimming 5-6 times a week. Then it takes a cycle or two to get back to where I was again. And then it's the end of the year and the holidays muck everything up.

One big change I've made is to take 15-20 minutes to stretch first thing in the morning (i.e. within 30 minutes of getting up) every single day. It's been a major benefit to my flexibility and helps with the soreness.

Wordle in 4, Dordle in 6 today.

plasmabeam posted...

Side note: I wish Retro Studios would make a Donkey Kong Metroidvania.

Hmm...it would probably work. We already have different Kongs for different powers. And all sorts of doodads like DK coins and banana birds to collect.

Actually, now that I think about it, basically it would just be a 2D DK64...

Corrik7 posted...

She was hot.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natalia_Poklonskaya

I'm looking forward to this getting completely fucked up and Trump getting another appointee in 2025.

It's more like, the bridges, as built, allow for 5 ton vehicles. Decades go by with no repairs/improvements. Someone finally does an inspection and goes "this thing is half rusted through and there's huge gaps between the slabs". So they have to lower the max capacity vehicles to 2 tons to avoid a catastrophic collapse, meaning in essence no trucks.

They're just trying to get the bridges back to their originally designed limits.

IfGodCouldDie posted...

So apparently Secret Wars and What if...? Season 2 are no longer coming out this year.

Not the worst thing? 2022 seems packed already for the MCU, with 3 films (Dr Strange, Thor, and Black Panther) and with 4 shows (Moon Knight, She-Hulk, Ms. Marvel, Guardians Holiday Special).

Wikipedia has it listed as Secret Invasion, not Secret Wars. Not sure if that's a different thing in Marvel lore. I don't read comics, so all I really know about Secret Wars is a bit that involves Spider-man. And considering the post credits scene in No Way Home...well...

Maybe they've had to reconfigure things because of the Fox acquisition? I know they've got a lot of stuff planned well in advance, so maybe that's caused them to need to pivot to better onboard the Fantastic Four and X-Men characters.

Well that sounds pretty fucking tenuous and stupid but whatever (calling the knowledge sharing stupid, not you, btw).

I had done a rewatch of a couple of MCU movies beforehand. The first 2 MCU Spideys, Doctor Strange, and Captain Marvel. They all still hold up pretty well. Doctor Strange was my fav rewatch of the bunch. I forgot just how trippy and weird that movie is.

After that rewatch and No Way Home I'm really looking forward to Multiverse of Madness.

Ohh, and I forgot to mention how much I loved that Matt Murdock cameo! Was hoping maybe Daredevil would make an appearance given, you know, all the crazy shit going down in NYC but it was not too be.

Though I have to say all this multiverse stuff does have me a little concerned. Part of the reason the Infinity Saga worked so beautifully is because while it's long, it's ultimately not super complicated. Once you start getting multiple timelines and universes involved, it all threatens to get too comic-y (for lack of a better term).

Finally saw No Way Home. I thought it was good, or at least my feeling walking out of the theater was more positive than it was for the first 2 Spidey MCU movies. Obviously a lot of fan service-y stuff and I'm not sure the plot all made sense but it was a fun time.

Question about the first post credits scene...
I've not watched the 2nd Venom movie yet but how/why would Venom/Brock be pulled into the MCU world? I thought it was only supposed to be people who know that Peter = Spidey.

Moon Knight looks like it could be really cool! I'd literally never heard of the character before this. Didn't realize it was starring Oscar Isaac. He usually does a good job, so my hopes are now high.

plasmabeam posted...

Survived the first part of the ship area last night. What a rush. It was miracle (pun totally intended) that I made it to the save point. Those electric balls coupled with those impassable statues that take 1,279 hits to kill are indeed the worst part of the game so far.

Yeah, I tried to jump over and slide through those statues to no avail. And lets not forget the guys throwing those "homing" axes. And then you get animation locked attacking them and they roll right into you, knocking you off into the muck, where you move too slow and there's infinitely spawning guys that rush at you...

There are some Prayer Beads that give some electric protection which helped a little.

That area was apparently part of the recent free DLC, which explains a little why it's so goddamn hard and every enemy takes 4x the number of hits as anywhere else.

Just watched Eternals. It was...okay? Gotta say I've not loved any of the Phase 4 movies so far (haven't seen Spider-man yet). The Disney+ shows are bringing some good heat though!

BTW, what was the deal with the Eternals post credit scene? Who/what were they teasing? I'm assuming it's not something more casual Marvel fans would understand.

plasmabeam posted...

So far the only frustrating area was the snowy mountains. Lot of vertical platforming and those obnoxious "birdman with the bell" enemies.

Haha, oh yes, I remember that frustration. No, the ship area is worse. Those flying enemies get a little less annoying once you get some Mea Culpa upgrades so you're killing stuff in 1-2 hits instead of 3-4.

I'm assuming you haven't been to the ship area yet. That area is a major pain.

Knocked 3 more off the list. Blasphemous (a Metroidvania),140, and 6180 the moon (both very short music platformers). These are easy pickings but it's nice to finish a whole bunch of games.

plasmabeam posted...

I just beat the brother last night and got to the part in the library where the one NPC gives you a Rosary Bead for stopping the noise (it's the Rosary Bead that speeds up movement). I believe I'm close to another boss battle. We'll see.

Well, good news/bad news, since I'm not sure you'd read some of my spoiler blocks. I'm now 99% sure you can't get the true ending.

You likely haven't yet gotten one of the most useful Rosary Beads for me, which was the one that greatly speeds up fall recovery.

So I know I mentioned the game Dandara earlier in this topic. Turns out, it's on Apple Arcade. So if you've got that and a controller, it's free to play. (I suppose you could play using touch screen but that sounds like a disaster.)

KamikazePotato posted...

I looked up how to get the Blasphemous true ending out of curiosity, and according to the wiki it's not nearly that complicated.

Of course you'd say that if you look it up first! And yes, I wouldn't say it's complicated. It's more that there's 2 "points of no return" where if you haven't met the requirements you can't get that ending. And I think it's very easy to miss if you're just playing naturally.

Finished with Blasphemous! Really great Metroidvania, definitely worth playing.

One major issue I had is that you can very easily lock yourself out of the "true" ending. You need to NOT have fought the brother on the bridge...which I happened to do. But then, you need to beat the 2 optional bosses, and bring the eyes to this NPC, and beat all these combat trials, and equip a certain Heart...BEFORE you fight Cristana near the very end of the game. If you fail to do that, then you're fucked and have to use NewGame+ if you want to get the "true" ending. Or, you can watch it on YouTube because who the fuck has the time to play through the game again.

plasmabeam posted...

I just beat the first 3 bosses and am heading across the bridge now. Loving Blasphemous to death.

The SotN aesthetic drew me in, but the tight combat and cool gameplay mechanics are what won me over. I honestly don't have a problem with the controls, especially after getting the one Rosary Bead that lessens the lag time after a dodge.

Also love that the game allows you to explore without any "Go here" markers or environmental hints that suggest where to go first. I ended up beating first three bosses in a scrambled-up order.

On the bridge, did you have a fight with the brother or...not?

I've spent the last few hours cleaning up the map, getting the various collectibles, and trying to figure out what the heck is up with a lot of the weird rooms and NPCs. Had to look up a thing or two to avoid wasting some time but I'm having a lot of fun still.

I FINALLY got the power that lets you interact with the wooden vine things. So many spots that need that... Still haven't found something to let me jump higher in water/mud, though it's possible I have it and just don't know it.

I like how the death penalty is more annoying than anything else. You don't lose currency/souls, instead you just lose part of your (I'm going to call it) magic bar.

Seanchan posted...

And now at about 25% map coverage. Game seems pretty open, from what I can gather, unless I just managed to pick the "right" direction each time. The animation priority takes some getting used to as you can't just spam attacks and dodges. There's a lot of flowery language and needless esoteric-ness but I'd say I'm enjoying it so far!

Not finished yet, but 75ish% for the map and around 70% overall. I'm prepared to call Blasphemous a very good game. Yes, the controls aren't silky smooth and you really do need to keep the animation lag in mind, but I'm having a tremendous amount of fun exploring the map and seeing all the weird shit this game has on offer.

Seanchan posted...

I was doing a little winter cleaning of my backlog but I need to do another pass to remove the games I'm never going to play. As of now, there's 79 games I own that I haven't played and another 221 games I haven't bought yet. Not that it makes a huge difference, but if I could trim 10-15 games off those lists that'd be pretty nice.

Not that anyone cares but I weeded through my backlog lists and got it down to 66 games I own and 192 I haven't bought yet. I took 42 games off the backlog and now I'm down to a totally, definitely eventually doable 258 games!

Seanchan posted...

I started Blasphemous the other day. Not too far in but it sure is something stylistically.

And now at about 25% map coverage. Game seems pretty open, from what I can gather, unless I just managed to pick the "right" direction each time. The animation priority takes some getting used to as you can't just spam attacks and dodges. There's a lot of flowery language and needless esoteric-ness but I'd say I'm enjoying it so far!

I started Blasphemous the other day. Not too far in but it sure is something stylistically.

Finished 2 games in the past 2 days, Manifold Garden and Even the Ocean. Unfortunately, I'm the type that needs to see things through to the end unless a game is really, really terrible.

I was doing a little winter cleaning of my backlog but I need to do another pass to remove the games I'm never going to play. As of now, there's 79 games I own that I haven't played and another 221 games I haven't bought yet. Not that it makes a huge difference, but if I could trim 10-15 games off those lists that'd be pretty nice.

I've got something like 300 games on my backlog. If they average 20 hours to finish and I play 20 hours a week, it would take 6 years to clear the list.

Of course, that's missing 2 very key things:

• Games continue to come out
• I probably only average maybe 10-15 hours a week

All of which is to say that I'm NEVER getting through my backlog. Well, unless I win the lottery and don't have to work anymore. ...But then if that happened I'd probably find other ways to spend my time than sitting on my ass for 50 hours a week.

Xtlm posted...

Throwing out the old Castle In The Darkness recommendation again.

And I'll say Dandara again! It's different but fun.