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A Rainy Day

I hate pandemic weekends because out of pandemic I would be free to do a lot. In pandemic I am not free to do those things. I will write longer posts when i regain my healthy solitude. Recently I have started forgetting my phone at home when I go out. I use it to take pictures and for the fitness apps but but not much more now that Twitter is gone and Mastodon and other alternatives are unpleasant.

Garmin Expedition Challenges

Garmin have had challenges for years. Most of them have been about distance, or vertical climbing. Now they have new Expedition challenges. Each expedition is named after an expedition or adventure by the same name. List of Garmin expedition challenges The Camino De Santiago challenge is a challenge to walk 784 kilometres. The Denali challenge is to climb 6190m. There are two Mont Blanc Challenges. The Mont Blanc challenge is to climb 4808 metres whilst the Mont Blanc Circular (Tour Du Mont Blanc is to walk 160 kilometres.

The Immature Coming of Age of Social Media

Around a decade and a half ago I grew tired of seeing blog headlines that said “The top ten blah blah”, “Three signs that …” and more. It grew tiring to see all those headlines, to a point where it generated the term clickbait. The idea of a headline being written to attract people to a click where there was no content behind it. Today I worry that the juvenile behaviour and attitude of social media, and to some degree mainstream media, is making it hard to have meaningful adult conversations.

Reading to Understand The Past

When I read books i read to be transported back to a different time and a different way of thinking. That’s why i read James Bond books, among others. The books are old-fashioned but it is that obsolescence that makes them interesting. They take us to a time before travel as we know it today. Imagine reading about being sun burned and sun oil. Imagine reading about speeding cars. Imagine reading about a time before road safety laws and speed limits.

Twenty One Thousand Five Hundred Steps and A Wind That Plays The Harmonica

Today I could have taken the scooter to some shops but I went for a walk. The result of that walk is that I reached twenty one thousand five hundred steps. I often take a lot of steps per day. I wish I was walking somewhere more interesting than in circles. According to Sports tracker my daily workouts saved 4.74 kilograms of CO2 this month. I was amused during this walk.

Walking With A Fear of Dogs

I walk every single day, whether it’s raining, windy, snowing, a heat wave and more. I like heatwaves because dog walkers usually stay in. We live in an age and society where fear of dogs is not respected. Yesterday I was on a walk and i saw two big dogs. One was on a leash and the second was free to roam. That freedom to roam encouraged me to divert my route to go through a muddy forest.

Garmin's Auto Goal

Garmin allows you to select the number of steps you want to take in a single day, or let it be set automatically. For a year or two I allowed the goal to set. The result is a step goal that fluctuated from 12,000 steps per day to 15,000 steps or more. This was fine, because I ignored it. A few days ago I decided to set it to a fixed ten thousand steps a day.

The Last Thing I learned

What is the last thing you learned? I am currently learning to run five kilometres again. I’m one week away from completing the training program. This isn’t learning in the conventional sense of the word. It’s about fitness and endurance. About pacing and stamina. I have run five k in half an hour in the past. I managed to run 10k and more. I stopped because my knees disliked my running.