Not everyone is happy living in the real world.
An advert for Air New Zealand, Boeing 777-300, Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, horse riding, New Zealand’s landscape, the three or four passenger classes and of course bungee jumping.
Every Rocketdyne engine was fine tuned and perfected by hand, from plans, that were modified but not updated. This means that each engine was unique. It would take trial and error to build them again.
With GIT and other forms of version control the entire process could theoretically have been logged and preserved, not so, in this context. Interesting video.
Blogging one hundred and fifty-two days in a row is an interesting challenge. It encourages you to think of something daily, for months in a row. It also forces you to have the discipline to sit and attempt to write for one or two hours a day, whether inspiration is there or not. Often it isn’t. Add to this that most blog posts get zero views and you have a reason to stop and give up.
You don’t. One of the reasons to write a blog post a day is to train yourself to be disciplined, like with studying a new language, or a new skill. You sit down, you procrastinate, you look for ideas and inspirations. You start to write, and eventually, you’re left with a blog post.
Writing, video editing, web development, camera work, climbing, and plenty of things take consistent practice to improve. It is only by constant practice that we improve our skills, or get into bad habits, whichever comes first. Initially, I wanted to try journalling and I tried a few apps but eventually, I got tired of writing, what I felt was, useless drivel.
By writing a blog post I made the challenge harder because whatever I write can be read. Luckily, when you’re learning, people latch onto individual works, rather than the entire blog. I can get away with most of the writing being uninteresting. The challenge is to improve my writing and to find something more inspiring to write about. I need to find something that is niche enough for me to be one of the few writers, but broad enough to attract an audience.
An article about Genre theory did that, another about Suunto and climbing, and other articles had that unique relevance to attract readers. These articles are rare, because it is hard to write something unique during a pandemic when we are still self-isolating.
If and when the pandemic ends, and if I am still not too old to do things, then these blog posts will become interesting again, and I will have more writing practice. For now I am trying to find inspiration during pandemic self-isolation where from Monday to Sunday and from January to December nothing changes.
Writing a blog post a day forces me to have a spontaneous conversation with you, despite no conversations taking place in person for days, or even weeks in a row. Being single and solitary, during a pandemic, is a unique experience, that those that we hear, do not understand. If they did understand this they would do everything they could to get back to COVID-zero. I would then have no reason to write blog posts. I would be socialising, rather than self-isolating.
So what have I learned after 152 days of blogging? That the pandemic allows us to pick up habits that we would lose interest in if we were in a normal cycle of life. I still like to blog, and to read blogs. I am going to keep this habit up for as long as possible. I look forward to when we will be living more interesting lives, once the pandemic is over.
Happn is a location based dating app, at least in theory. I have had the app on my mobile phones for a year or more and have yet to meet a Happn user in person. In theory Happn shows you who you have crossed paths with and where. It also tells you how many times you have crossed paths with specific individuals.
One of the biggest limitations of this app is that for now users of the app are based in cities rather than the countryside. As a result I will cross path with dozens of people I go to Geneva or Lausanne but will cross paths with no one when I am up enjoying a via ferrata. I find this to be a shame. It is precisely when I am on a via ferrata that I want to find people to share the passion with.
A few days ago I was at the Plainpalais fanzone in Geneva as people queued up and waited to get in to watch France Versus Germany. I launched the app and saw that a lot of people at the event had the app active. I walked away from the fanzone and forgot about the app.
So far with this app I do not remember having any matches or making any real effort to meet people that I see come up. Some apps are fun for statistical analysis rather than face to face encounters. Two people I know have turned up on the app. I have enjoyed a few via ferratas with one of these people and worked on a number of interviews with the other. One is in Lausanne and the other in Geneva. We will see if I ever meet someone via the app. Knowing me it will happn (;-)) when I can be bothered.
Bulle is a city by a lake in the Canton De Gruyère in Switzerland. Last weekend they held their annual slowup event. A slowup is an event where roads are closed to motorised transport in favour of cyclists, roller bladers, skate boarders and other self propelling sports. The loop is around 26km long and there are ares to stop and enjoy food every few kilometres.
At this event you can also get your bike maintained for free except for parts that need replacing. It’s a great opportunity to take an old worn out bike and have it reconditioned. As I spent several days getting mine back in to condition I did not abuse of this opportunity.
[caption id="attachment_2432" align="aligncenter" width="300"] The first climb[/caption]The landscape around Bulle is nice. As you cycle you can see the Moléson mountains in the distance, and without clouds for a change. You can also enjoy a few climbs and descents. The gradients are not steep and the climbs are not long. A friend of mine was on rollerblade and it impresses me that she did around 30km.
[caption id="attachment_2433" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Father and child[/caption]The best feature of slowups is the ability to enjoy a wide road and cycle anywhere you like without the usual cars overtaking too close and too fast. As a result parents and their children can enjoy this beautiful landscape.
[caption id="attachment_2434" align="aligncenter" width="660"] BYOB, not bring your own bike or beer. Bring your own barbecue[/caption]It’s amusing to see someone take a cool box and barbecue for such an event. I didn’t see them stop and start preparing food though.