2G18 - 7: Lent
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Lord Golbez
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2G18 - 7: Lent
Today marks the beginning of Lent and given the peculiar institution of non-religious participation in Lent at SG, this seems to be the appropriate topic of the day. So let's start off with do you participate in any Lenten abstentions or other challenges? If so, why? What are some of the things you're giving up or doing that you otherwise wouldn't if you care to share? In regard to the fasting days (today and Good Friday + to some extent every Friday in Lent), does anyone else participate in those at all? Did you have pancakes (or even crepes) on Pancake Tuesday? Will you have pancakes anyway during Lent so it doesn't matter?
Last edited by Lord Golbez on Wed Mar 28, 2018 6:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Copying and pasting my massive fucking list, so apologies if it's hard to digest.
This Lent's going to be a bit of a strange one, as I'm at my sister's wedding a month into it, then in Japan for the final 2 weeks, utilising The Barry Rule more than ever before and effectively ending Lent early for the first time ever. Regardless, here's what I'm planning on giving up between 14th February and 1st April (but really only until 17th March).
I)
Foods:
No Fast Food:
This includes food from all chicken shops, burger shops, kebab shops, burrito bars, street food, festival food, cinema kiosks, etc. Anything that's ready-prepared to serve, or made for you as you stand there, or that is logically classed as fast food.
It also extends to Subway, Gregg's, and other bakeries and pastie shops.
Nothing purchased, stolen or borrowed from any fast food place can be consumed by me during Lent. This means that I can't have a salad from McDonald's, a sachet of salsa from Taco Bell, or a pot of soup from a work canteen.
No Takeaways:
No pick-ups, no deliveries.
Even if it's leftovers.
Banned Foods:
The following is the list of banned foods this year.
Outright Banned:
- Burgers (veggie, chicken, lamb, alligator, etc)
- Chips (all kind of chips and fries, including sweet potato varieties, wedges and potato things with a face on them)
- Indian Food (includes all types of Indian food and curries, including home-made and microwave meals. No poppadums, samosas, chutney, or Punky and Tina Turner ice cream desserts)
- Chinese/Japanese/Thai (includes prawn crackers, spring rolls, sushi, sweet & sour sauce, and other types of Oriental cuisine)
- Pizza (posh thin crust, greasy shitty takeaway, pizza parading as “garlic bread” supermarket and homemade). I live dangerously near Domino's now, so this is a good one.
- Chocolate (Once again, I'll be giving up all chocolate and chocolate flavoured stuff. This includes drinks as well as foods)
No Biscuits/Cookies/Crackers:
Jammie Dodgers, Jaffa Cakes, Belvita and all other types of biscuit and cookie, be it cheesy, choccie, or doggie. This includes cakes with a biscuit layer and little pieces of biscuit hidden inside other things to throw you off!
No Doughnuts:
The very first and foremost rule here. Not broken for 17 consecutive years (despite the best efforts of office Krispy Kreme Satans)!
Tim Horton's, churros, 100-for-50p bags from Tesco, Fucking Diddy Doughnuts.
No Crisps:
No traditional crisps, or other packaged savoury snacks, including salted/seasoned nuts, tortilla chips (extended to nacho shells), pretzels, Twiglets, rice crackers, and shit like Monster Munch, Wotsits and Nik Naks.
No Easter Confectionery:
The chocolate rule kinda' covers the old Easter Egg rule, but this still extends to non-chocolate-based Easter confectionery. Anything bundled with an Easter Egg isn't allowed.
No Poons Food:
No food from Wetherspoons, from the hot dogs and desserts, down to the breakfasts and condiments.
No Sausage Rolls:
Includes all varieties, even lame vegetarian alternatives like cheese and onion rolls.
II)
Drinks:
No Alcohol:
No alcoholic drinks to be consumed during Lent. This extends to any drink with a small amount of alcohol (such as shandy, de-alcoholised lager), and any food that's prepared with alcohol. "The Barry Rule" applies here.
No Energy Drinks:
No Red Bull, Lucozade, Powerade, Mountain Dew, Monster, Rockstar, Relentless, Blue Charge, Red Rooster, Sitting Bull, other cheap supermarket brands of high caffeine energy drinks, little horrible overpriced vile energy shot things.
No Coffee:
This includes cafetière coffee, instant coffee, vile coffee from vending machines and Frappuccinos/iced coffees, and things that are coffee flavoured.
It also means nothing at all from Starbucks, Costa, Caffe Nero, Coffee Republic, or the like.
III)
Exceptions:
Traditionally, Sundays are not included in Lent, but I don't see this potential weekly binging helping, so have shaped and refined my own pre-set rules over the years.
As with the previous four years, I will be allowing myself to break the alcohol rule on one day per week, starting from Ash Wednesday.
These days are referred to as "cards", and replace the Sundays during Lent. If after the first week a drinking card hasn't been used, it gets saved, and can be used later.
I'll be trying to keep as many cards as possible, and will try my utmost to not drink just because other people are and I have a spare card.
If I happen to be invited to a wedding at the last minute (it's happened), I'm allowed to borrow a drinking card from future me.
As I WILL be attending a wedding during Lent, I'm also writing in a rule that I can break other, unavoidable rules on that day. Hopefully I can stick to just the booze, but I may be served some food that's otherwise banned by these rules.
Finally, The Barry Rule, which states that if you're in an aeroplane, or another (non-UK) country, Lent doesn't count.
This means that while I'm in Japan, or if I wind up in Sweden or some random other country, I can eat all the Monster Munch and drink all the energy drinks I like.
I'll obviously keep some form of restraint, but The Barry Rule is now a sixteen year tradition that'd be sacrilege not to observe.
Outside of this fasting, I'll try to do a bit more fitness-related shit, like Just Dance and jogging/gym. I'll also start logging food and weight on My Fitness Pal again, after dropping off it around the time I moved.
No new things added this year, but as my wife's doing dairy-free, a lot of those restrictions are bound to filter through to what I'm cooking and eating. Feel a bit bad for doing a 2 week Barry Rule at the end of Lent, so I'll plan to do a two week mini Lent in May or June to make up for it.
This Lent's going to be a bit of a strange one, as I'm at my sister's wedding a month into it, then in Japan for the final 2 weeks, utilising The Barry Rule more than ever before and effectively ending Lent early for the first time ever. Regardless, here's what I'm planning on giving up between 14th February and 1st April (but really only until 17th March).
I)
Foods:
No Fast Food:
This includes food from all chicken shops, burger shops, kebab shops, burrito bars, street food, festival food, cinema kiosks, etc. Anything that's ready-prepared to serve, or made for you as you stand there, or that is logically classed as fast food.
It also extends to Subway, Gregg's, and other bakeries and pastie shops.
Nothing purchased, stolen or borrowed from any fast food place can be consumed by me during Lent. This means that I can't have a salad from McDonald's, a sachet of salsa from Taco Bell, or a pot of soup from a work canteen.
No Takeaways:
No pick-ups, no deliveries.
Even if it's leftovers.
Banned Foods:
The following is the list of banned foods this year.
Outright Banned:
- Burgers (veggie, chicken, lamb, alligator, etc)
- Chips (all kind of chips and fries, including sweet potato varieties, wedges and potato things with a face on them)
- Indian Food (includes all types of Indian food and curries, including home-made and microwave meals. No poppadums, samosas, chutney, or Punky and Tina Turner ice cream desserts)
- Chinese/Japanese/Thai (includes prawn crackers, spring rolls, sushi, sweet & sour sauce, and other types of Oriental cuisine)
- Pizza (posh thin crust, greasy shitty takeaway, pizza parading as “garlic bread” supermarket and homemade). I live dangerously near Domino's now, so this is a good one.
- Chocolate (Once again, I'll be giving up all chocolate and chocolate flavoured stuff. This includes drinks as well as foods)
No Biscuits/Cookies/Crackers:
Jammie Dodgers, Jaffa Cakes, Belvita and all other types of biscuit and cookie, be it cheesy, choccie, or doggie. This includes cakes with a biscuit layer and little pieces of biscuit hidden inside other things to throw you off!
No Doughnuts:
The very first and foremost rule here. Not broken for 17 consecutive years (despite the best efforts of office Krispy Kreme Satans)!
Tim Horton's, churros, 100-for-50p bags from Tesco, Fucking Diddy Doughnuts.
No Crisps:
No traditional crisps, or other packaged savoury snacks, including salted/seasoned nuts, tortilla chips (extended to nacho shells), pretzels, Twiglets, rice crackers, and shit like Monster Munch, Wotsits and Nik Naks.
No Easter Confectionery:
The chocolate rule kinda' covers the old Easter Egg rule, but this still extends to non-chocolate-based Easter confectionery. Anything bundled with an Easter Egg isn't allowed.
No Poons Food:
No food from Wetherspoons, from the hot dogs and desserts, down to the breakfasts and condiments.
No Sausage Rolls:
Includes all varieties, even lame vegetarian alternatives like cheese and onion rolls.
II)
Drinks:
No Alcohol:
No alcoholic drinks to be consumed during Lent. This extends to any drink with a small amount of alcohol (such as shandy, de-alcoholised lager), and any food that's prepared with alcohol. "The Barry Rule" applies here.
No Energy Drinks:
No Red Bull, Lucozade, Powerade, Mountain Dew, Monster, Rockstar, Relentless, Blue Charge, Red Rooster, Sitting Bull, other cheap supermarket brands of high caffeine energy drinks, little horrible overpriced vile energy shot things.
No Coffee:
This includes cafetière coffee, instant coffee, vile coffee from vending machines and Frappuccinos/iced coffees, and things that are coffee flavoured.
It also means nothing at all from Starbucks, Costa, Caffe Nero, Coffee Republic, or the like.
III)
Exceptions:
Traditionally, Sundays are not included in Lent, but I don't see this potential weekly binging helping, so have shaped and refined my own pre-set rules over the years.
As with the previous four years, I will be allowing myself to break the alcohol rule on one day per week, starting from Ash Wednesday.
These days are referred to as "cards", and replace the Sundays during Lent. If after the first week a drinking card hasn't been used, it gets saved, and can be used later.
I'll be trying to keep as many cards as possible, and will try my utmost to not drink just because other people are and I have a spare card.
If I happen to be invited to a wedding at the last minute (it's happened), I'm allowed to borrow a drinking card from future me.
As I WILL be attending a wedding during Lent, I'm also writing in a rule that I can break other, unavoidable rules on that day. Hopefully I can stick to just the booze, but I may be served some food that's otherwise banned by these rules.
Finally, The Barry Rule, which states that if you're in an aeroplane, or another (non-UK) country, Lent doesn't count.
This means that while I'm in Japan, or if I wind up in Sweden or some random other country, I can eat all the Monster Munch and drink all the energy drinks I like.
I'll obviously keep some form of restraint, but The Barry Rule is now a sixteen year tradition that'd be sacrilege not to observe.
Outside of this fasting, I'll try to do a bit more fitness-related shit, like Just Dance and jogging/gym. I'll also start logging food and weight on My Fitness Pal again, after dropping off it around the time I moved.
No new things added this year, but as my wife's doing dairy-free, a lot of those restrictions are bound to filter through to what I'm cooking and eating. Feel a bit bad for doing a 2 week Barry Rule at the end of Lent, so I'll plan to do a two week mini Lent in May or June to make up for it.
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Lord Golbez
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Lord Golbez
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Mitsurugi CP
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I was originally planning to do the annual event of giving up stuff so my Catholic friend and I can taunt each other for 40 days. For me, it's usually anything with red meat or alcohol. She always skips out on anything that has any added sugar to it (but her rules are pretty stringent, so it's harder to do than it sounds). Basically, each of us sending the other over-dramatic photos of us enjoying whatever thing the other gave up (indeed, she does love strawberry crepes and pancakes, so that's always on the list), and sometimes goes as far as sending gift cards or even novelty items like 1 pound Reese's cups or 1.5 L bottles of bourbon.
For reasons I won't expound upon now, I'm not going to be participating in this annual exchange of mocking taunts this year, save to say that it is unrelated to our friendship.
For reasons I won't expound upon now, I'm not going to be participating in this annual exchange of mocking taunts this year, save to say that it is unrelated to our friendship.
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Lord Golbez
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I'm giving up biscuits and also other overt sweets. If it counts at all as a desert I'll be avoiding it.
I'm also doing something I saw on RPGamer and giving up buying new games for Lent. That sounded pretty trivial to me at first, because it still allows you to play games, but I do have a hankering to buy Secret of Mana, so added to the sweets thing it counts for something. Does seem very small as a sole thing to give up though. I don't want to give up playing games at allthough, because I really want to finish Zelda (though maybe that should be a reason to do it). I might also give up watching any new tv shows (that's also kind of minor considering it lets me watch shows I've already been watching but at least it prevents me from getting stuck on another show, however likely/unlikely that might be - since it's midseason already, this probably only affects Netflix at most and honestly Lent is too short for this to have much effect, so maybe I should do this for a year or so).
And yes, I do participate in the fasting days, but not as rigorously as I used to. These days I can't really avoid eating altogether because it would make me unable to work and I somewhat worry it might impact health (although generally short fasting isn't bad for you). So I go more for the wimpy catholic two small and one regular size meals or even one small and one regular size, but not much less than that.
I didn't have pancakes on pancake day and it's unlikely I'll have them during Lent or any time soon. I don't know the last time I had pancakes.
I'm also doing something I saw on RPGamer and giving up buying new games for Lent. That sounded pretty trivial to me at first, because it still allows you to play games, but I do have a hankering to buy Secret of Mana, so added to the sweets thing it counts for something. Does seem very small as a sole thing to give up though. I don't want to give up playing games at allthough, because I really want to finish Zelda (though maybe that should be a reason to do it). I might also give up watching any new tv shows (that's also kind of minor considering it lets me watch shows I've already been watching but at least it prevents me from getting stuck on another show, however likely/unlikely that might be - since it's midseason already, this probably only affects Netflix at most and honestly Lent is too short for this to have much effect, so maybe I should do this for a year or so).
And yes, I do participate in the fasting days, but not as rigorously as I used to. These days I can't really avoid eating altogether because it would make me unable to work and I somewhat worry it might impact health (although generally short fasting isn't bad for you). So I go more for the wimpy catholic two small and one regular size meals or even one small and one regular size, but not much less than that.
I didn't have pancakes on pancake day and it's unlikely I'll have them during Lent or any time soon. I don't know the last time I had pancakes.
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Lord Golbez
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I'll get it, but not during Lent and I'll be more than happy to take advantage of any price drops/sales.Damien wrote:Secret of Mana will be pennies by the time Easter comes round. I’ll assume that most of the sales will be based on nostalgia (especially now it’s getting bad to mediocre reviews). If even YOU’re not getting it...
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Fei Ayanami
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Fei Ayanami
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Lord Golbez
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Lord Golbez
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Lord Golbez
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Lord Golbez
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It's Easter and Secret of Mana is still going for $40. Fake News!Damien wrote:Secret of Mana will be pennies by the time Easter comes round. I’ll assume that most of the sales will be based on nostalgia (especially now it’s getting bad to mediocre reviews). If even YOU’re not getting it...
Or long con April Fools joke?The TBB offers you tea and biscuits.
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