I am currently writing a gamelit web novel called Bane of the Old Guard which can be found on Royal Road.
I will be updating this blog with certain news about Bane of the Old Guard and with occasionally posts about fantasy stories I like and such.
Anyway, enjoy. It’s mostly (amateur) fitness advice on here, a couple stories, and some musings on fantasy fiction and life.
Bane of the Old Guard: LITRPG Chap 1: GAME OVER
(This is from my web novel which can be found on https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/70797/bane-of-the-old-guard. If anyone is interested you can find the next 90 chapters over there. Decided to try to post one or two on this blog to see if it will generate some traffic. May be posting a couple in the coming days just as…
If Looks Could Kill
If Looks Could Kill They call me The Wishmaster. Pilgrims of the world seek me far and wide. They scour the mountains and the forests and the glades. On a whisper they sail across the sea to foreign lands and lonely beaches. Rich men and Lords have lost their fortunes in pursuit of my talents.…
Royal Road Story
My description for Bane of the Old Guard: Spade the Thief is dead. In the world of Esem, where players are spawned with no memory of what came before, there is one guild which stands supreme. When one of their members dies mysteriously at sea, it is up to a newly spawned player to unearth…
Carnivore Diet: The Way to Go?
I love meat. I love how meat tastes, I love the texture, and especially cooking it. When a slab of beef is sizzling in a pan there is no better and more satisfying feeling in the world. That slab of meat means many things. First of all, that life cannot be that bad if you…
Training With an Injury
When summer began I had a fantastic five day split planned. My plans were that by the end of summer I would have burned fat and gained muscle. These are common plans, unfortunately they came screeching to a halt after I broke my hand. I went to the doctor and he said that the only…
My Perfect Week of Fitness
Fitness is not my career, merely my hobby and a topic of this blog. I have a full time job that is not related to working out and of course numerous other things in my life which demands my attention. Quite frankly, I do not have the time to do all the fitness related activities…
Size/Shred: 5 Methods of How to Eat
There are two main goals most people share when it comes to what to eat. People either want to get bigger or want to get smaller. Throughout my 12 years of fitness it seems that half the year I have been trying to grow my muscles and become larger and then the other half is…
10 Essential Exercises
The perfect workout likely does not exist, however, sometimes I like to write down a workout that could be perfect for me. I think the exercises I have included can be performed by most people and, barring advice from your doctor, are safe and effective. 1) Dips Basically a suspended pushup. I recently learned (courtesy…
How to Get Big Arms (3×8)
These days big arms are not my priority, but once upon a time I was a high school student whose only desire was to be big. I was going five days a week and lifting weights at our local gym and of course doing plenty of research on training and form. Many people do not…
Getting Back on the Wagon
The year is coming to an end and with the dawning of 2022 many people will be making New Years resolutions. The majority of these resolutions are all fitness based and since that has been the majority of my blog topics lately I have decided to provide some gentle guidance and/or thoughts on these annual…
Staying on the Wagon (New Years Resolution Fitness Advice)
A few days ago I wrote about why so many fail their New Years resolutions to get in shape. Today I thought it appropriate to write a post about an easily achievable and detailed method to get into shape and avoid the pitfalls which so often lead to failure. In my previous post I wrote…
Resistance Band Training: Shoulders
Yesterday I wrote about my favorite resistance band exercises for arms. Today I am tackling the worlds second favorite show muscle: Shoulders. What’s better than having those bowling ball shoulders that dreams are made of? Arms can be covered with sleeves, but nothing can stop a pair of large and powerful shoulders from being noticed.…
Resistance Band Training: Arms
Resistance bands are some of the most affordable, convenient, and effective pieces of workout equipment you can own. I have owned a set of four since the end of summer and I have found numerous times during the week to get in an extra workout. Resistance bands (to me) work best as a supplementary/maintaining device…
My Experience with Fasting and My Protocol to Lose Fat Fast
Five years ago the conventional wisdom was that any serious workout on an empty stomach was detrimental to your gains. Without food in your belly, your body would actually devour your muscles and you would never become strong. This sounded like quite the horror story to me and probably everyone else who heard it and…
How to (Not) Care: A Paradox
Instead of writing a long story, I just have an idea I would like to share. First, tell me whether this interaction sounds familiar: Friend: “That person who doesn’t like you is going to be at the party tonight.” You: “I don’t care.” How about this one?: Coworker: “Oh man, you better watch out for…
Review of “The Chronicles of Amber” by Roger Zelazny
The greatest strength of genre fiction is also its greatest failing. Genre provides a form and a precedent for a writer to explore and write a story or a poem or a play with a common set of conditions which the audience or the reader already understands. There are some people who look down on…
3 Facets of a Fulfilling Life
Life is a complex thing. We are born into this world with no instructions but what is encoded within our DNA. Science can tell us what those helix strands mean, but it us up to us as individuals to manifest our own unique signatures. This is not destiny, but a choice, and there are many…
Concentration In the Age of Information
Sauron from The Lord of the Rings was a villain with an unusual appearance. Though he had once possessed a body in Ages passed, Tolkien decided to give him an ethereal form. The titular character was a great, flaming eye and his gaze followed the Fellowship across middle earth. It was gigantic and could see…
Life in China During COVID-19
I came to China in March of 2019 to teach ESL at a training center. The city I chose was Shenzhen-the current technological hub of the world-and many good things happened in a year. I have learned about teaching, experienced another culture, dabbled with the language, met new friends, missed home, and got to explore…
The Dark Side of Empathy
Looking at oneself critically is a difficult task. It is not an ability I claim to have mastered so if this article comes across as holier-than-thou please excuse my tone. I am merely writing about an observation I have made as result of a common story in surface-level internet philosophy/self help. This is not to…
Resistance Bands: King of Home Workout Equipment?
For years I have been scouring the internet for the most superlative piece of fitness equipment in the effective/efficient category. Kettlebells seemed to me to fit the bill nicely. They are small and, though heavy, compact enough that storing one in your car during a road trip is very manageable. Kettlebells have a vast array…
My Workout Regime for the Second Half of 2021
The summer is coming to an end and so that means my summer workout regime has been completed. I did not have a workout partner so I decided to opt for a body building protocol which, though I did enjoy, I am glad to be returning to a strength based program. For the next 5…
Walking (LISS) is the best fat loss exercise
My favorite fat loss exercise is short and painful. I love sprinting on a field or having a t-shirt drenching session on a stationary bike. I have written about HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) in the past and though I still believe that the duration and the high intensity is the best for me, I…
Solitary Fitness! Quarantine Edition
I have been in quarantine in China for the past couple months*. With my gym closed, I realized immediately that in order to stay in shape I would have to start a body weight regime in my apartment. Here is a list of the exercises which I decided were the most useful. *Written at the…
My Simple Kettlebell Workout
Google search “most valuable piece of gym equipment” and on nearly every list you will find the kettlebell. As home gym equipment they are effective and take up such a small storage space that many people even take them on trips when finding a gym can become a hassle. Several months ago I began to…
The Most Effective Garage Gym Setup
When I was in college I lived at home for my first two years. While in high school I had a gym membership, I convinced my dad to get a squat rack for the garage after I graduated. I cancelled my gym membership and from that point on my workouts were from 5-6AM Monday through…
My New HIIT Regime
For years I neglected cardio of any kind. I was satisfied with a general Low Intensity Steady State (LISS) incidental cardio which I would glean from walking around my neighborhood in a fasted state. Cardio to me was hell. Running of any kind made me feel terrible and I never wanted it in my life.…
My Apartment Gym Setup
Most people over the last year and half have had to forgo the gym and buy at home equipment. I did the same thing, and after a bit of study I found a few pieces which have served me well. I live in a small apartment and did not have the space nor the funds…
My Favorite (30kg) Sandbag Circuit
Under the category “most useful single piece of workout equipment” the sandbag is reigns supreme. Sandbags offer some of the heaviest and most versatile movements around. My sandbag is heavier than my kettlebell and I can do many of the same movements. The sand moves around in the bag and so creates an intense instability…
4 Reasons that the Lord of the Rings has never been surpassed
JRR Tolkien created the modern genre of high fantasy. This is undisputed. Though there were fantasy stories aplenty before The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings were published, none had gone quite so far into the realm of imagination as Tolkien’s novels. It has been over 70 years since the Lord of the Rings…
A Two Dumbbell Workout
Recently a friend of mine asked what kind of workout he could do with only two dumbbells. I could of course recommend buying some extra at home equipment such as this: (link) but the idea really stuck with me and so I decided to write this blog post. Not everyone has endless amounts of cash…
Lose Weight the Simple Way
I am not a doctor or a nutritionist. I know nothing about thyroid issues or gastric bypasses or cholesterol. At the end of the day, you really need to talk to your doctor about what is right for you. But, if you are already relatively healthy and would just like to shed some pounds, then…
5 Fantasy Series to Read Before You Die
5 Fantasy Series to read before you die Fantasy is a very big genre. Just like any genre there are one or two titles that hoard most of the attention of the casual reader. Though I love The Lord of the Rings and A Song of Ice and Fire, here is a list of four…
Top 5 Fantasy Standalone Novels to Read Before You Die
A year ago I wrote an article about what were my top 5 fantasy series that everyone should read before they die. In that article I wanted to introduce some books that some people might never have heard of before. In writing that list I decided that the standalone side of fantasy fiction also needed…
My New 5×5 Workout
My new 5×5 workout For the past two years I have been in a rut. My lifting session have been as follows: Day 1: Front squat, Leg press, sit-ups/lunges (superset), leg extensions, leg curls Day 2: Benchpress, incline flys/sit-ups, dips, over head press, side raises/tricep extensions Day 3: Deadlift, bent over row/pull-ups, curls/sit-ups, seated rows…
8 Very Good Reasons Never to Move to Asheville, NC
Everywhere I look is article after article extolling the wonders of Asheville. The great hiking, the craft beer, the folk music, the downtown scene etc. Well, as someone who was born and has lived for 25 years in this mountain town I feel there are a few things those articles are failing to mention. Here…
The Number One Exercise for Fat Loss
This will be short and sweet. High intensity interval training (HIIT) is the number one way to lose fat. Of course, having a low carb diet is more important for converting calories, when it comes to the burning process of annihilating that unwanted fat there is only one real process that I have found. You…
The iPad Air 4 is The Best Computer I Have Ever Owned
The iPad Air 4 Is the Best Computer I Have Ever Owned The dream of replacing my existing computer (a reliable MacBook Air from 2015) had been going strong since my original iPad, the iPad mini 2. Even five years ago, I and many others saw the potential of the iPad to be a full…
How I Mastered Leg Day
I have been lifting weights for over ten years. I am not an athlete, just an enthusiast. When I first began going to the gym it was not because I needed to be stronger for a sport or faster but because I wanted to look good and feel good. Because of my impure intentions, I…
“The Blunder” A Story of The Legendary Rock Wizard
Wizard legend has it that the most powerful wiz’ who ever lived turned himself into a rock 10,000 years ago. No one remembers his name and so history has dubbed him the Rock Wizard. He was powerful- the most powerful wizard ever if the stories are to be believed. One story tells how Rock (his…
SWF 