For a few days now I’ve been looking through thousands of pictures to make sure that they’re synced from iCloud to the Photo app before they’re deleted. In so doing I noticed how far in front of a group I was hiking a few years ago. Instead of hiking with the group I was so far in front that I could get group shots without trying. Eventually, they did pose, as if it had been intentional rather than my walking habit.
What you see in the pictures is that I did stop and I was with the group a lot, waiting for people to catch up, take pictures as they did, and then go fast again. During a more recent hike I found that I was fast until 3000m and then I slowed down to become one of the slowest. I don’t know whether it was lack of energy, which it could be, or that I’m not used to being at altitude. This will be especially true this summer after two summers spent at low altitude.
If I was an extrovert I wouldn’t be walking at the front of the group taking pictures. I’d be in the middle having conversations, and if I was having conversations then, then I wouldn’t be writing so many blog posts now.
Normally I’d look at the images and I’d enjoy them, and that would be it. As tomorrow is the day for Valentine’s Day content I can squeeze this post in. It’s because I saw a woman smile at the camera in so many images that I wish I had been closer, rather than at a distance. I am thinking of the opportunity I had but didn’t consolidate.
It’s a cruel paradox of life that we will see the same individuals for years of sporting activities without fail and yet when we’re interested we only see them at three or four events. I often joke “everyone I appreciate leaves”.
Not that it isn’t fun to pretend that I care about Valentine’s day for the commercial reason I actually care about the day because back in 2003 I got my driving licence and that was the start of me having the freedom to drive myself without having a passenger. Yes, there is a pun in there. My first drive was to drink hot chocolate with a girlfriend and a best friend, who was also female. That day was special. The freedom of driving a car, the freedom of the open road, the freedom not to wait for a train or a bus. The freedom to have all of the adventures that I write about in this blog.
I could write more but I think it’s time for me to go for a virtual bike ride as it’s windy and rainy out in the real world.
I was in Pully this weekend for the fifty year celebrations of the City Club Cinema celebrating half a century of existence. There were a number of special events, from a silent film being screened with a live orchestra to a number of documentaries being screened as well.
I particularly enjoyed the documentary screenings because the documentary producers and some of those interviewed in those documentaries came to the screenings and presented their films before the film and answered some questions at the end.
The documentary the I enjoyed, or at least found most interesting was “La Citadelle Humanitaire”, a documentary by Frédéric Gonseth and Catherine Azad. It explored the work done by André Rochat when he worked for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Yemen in the 1960s. The documentary explored the interesting work carried out by these humanitarian workers and the challenges they faced. It was told as much by André rochat as those that worked with him.
It showed some of the challenges they faced, from where to situate the hospital to having more mobility, facilitating prisoner exchanges up to the point of hostage releases being negotiated successfully. It’s a great piece of documentary making and within the next few days a few of the Q&A questions should appear on this blog as well as my own.
A second documentary that I watched, but that did not appeal to me quite as much was La Reina del Condòn by Silvana Czeschi and Reto Stamm. It confused me. I couldn’t see why an East German would come to Cuba to speak about Sexual liberation in a machist country. I couldn’t see any of her motivations in carrying out such a project. If I had produced the documentary that’s what i would have concentrated on. I would have interviewed her more extensively, spent more time exploring the personality and the motivations behind what she did.
What we had instead was an exploration of three or four people’s views which did not make the documentary uninteresting so much as that famous “So what?” question that an English teacher used to always ask me to elaborate on. It’s the same with this film. I simply think the exposition could have been more researched.
Umare Te Wa Mita Keredo (Les Gosses de Tokyo) by Jasujiro Ozu is a 1930s film from Japan looking at two children at this specific moment in time. It’s a silent movie where the two main characters are Children and a few days out of their lives. What made this screening special was the live four piece orchestra playing live at the front of the Room.
Finally Lars and the Real Girl was also screened. It was a strange topic to be explored but it made me think of the Film Parle Avec Elle to some extent, the role of online and offline relationships as well as dealing with people with certain characteristics. It’s a comedy and as a result you’ll spen some time laughing but at the same time it’s a reflective film into how we behave. I found the film to be quite interesting but another individual said that it was a little too slow so it’s hard to say whether you’d enjoy it.
Overall I enjoyed being at the City Club for their fiftieth anniversary, having interesting people to meet and good documentaries to watch.
Lifestreaming is not something the mainstream understand yet. they’re still getting to grips with the idea of lost anonimity on a place like facebook. This is visible through the creation of the facebook group to cry about the new facebook.
I’m an early adopter and I love new ways of connecting with people and that’s why I’m sitting in an appartment in Paris after spending a fun night with 20 friends from seesmic (or so). They’re all friends I met through social media. In particular I met them through Seesmic. Imagine posting a video that anyone and everyone can see. I like to describe it as video instant messaging. Record a video of yourself talking about something and wait for your friends to answer in video form
There area number of features on the new facebook that are similar to those of jaiku. These are rss integration, status updates (as in twitter) and commenting. They’re all things that I’ve been playing with for months now. It’s part of my daily life. I understand and embrace this change.
It will be interesting to see how long it takes for those I met in the physical world to start tweeting and seesmicing or using jaiku. Will it be a year or two? They did take a year to finally get to facebook after all.
It’s fun to walk fast and far, especially in the countryside where there are fewer people to avoid. I often walk for fourty minutes to an hour at the end of the day to think about the day and process all that’s happened. Recently though I realised one of the shorter walks is almost 3000 steps thanks to the N95 pedometer.
That’s because with the N95 you have a built in GPS and the ability to download applications. One of these is the sports tracker that allows you to track a number of variables across four to six screens. There’s the map view, map view with relevant details, co-ordinate view, speed view, pedometer and then three or four graphs, some for time in relation to speed, distance over time and height in relation to speed.
You can zoom in and out of the graphs as you’re walking. If you do this more than once it creates a series of tracks that you can easily translate to KML and importe to Google Earth so the world can see your walks. Of course keeping your privacy from some people may be desirable.
It’s a fun little addition to the n95 although the biggest drawback is you need to have it out in front of you to keep track of the satellites.
Last night I was thinking about the act of shaving and what a pleasure it is, For a long time I saw it as a daily chore, which is why I switched to an electric razor for years. Eventually the blades dulled so I looked for alternatives before deciding to try safety razor shaving, and I find it to be extremely pleasant.
Learning Process
Shaving requires a methodical approach. It requires wetting the face, lathering the soap, shaving one way, lathering again, shaving the second direction, lathering again, shaving the final direction. That methodical process is what makes safety razor shaving such a pleasure. It is ritualistic, like getting ready for a dive, or other potentially dangerous activities. The better your routine is, the safer you will be.
Finding the Right Razor
There is one caveat that I would like to add. I tried three razors, and three soaps, and I have two preferred soaps, and one preferred razor. With one razor I find that the blade is too lose, to free to move around as I shave. I don’t mean that it swings like a pendulum. I mean that the blade isn’t as protected with others, so if you nick yourself it’s deeper.
With the second razor I tried, I eventually grew used to it, and find it the best of the three. I like that it’s easy to load, and exposes the bare minimum of the blade, to be effective. It makes the experience of shaving more pleasant.
The third shaver, when I tried it for two shaves was less pleasant to use, because it felt that it was catching. I don’t know whether it was pinching hair but it just didn’t feel smooth. I’m glad I found a razor I like, and I’m happy that it’s the cheapest of the three.
A Luxurious Habit
By learning to cut my own hair I save 30 CHF per hair cut. By learning to shave with a safety razor, and eventually a straight razor I am giving myself an experience that people pay 30 CHF to 35 CHF to experience at the barber’s. The shave I give myself for “free” is worth 30-35 CHF, per shave.
And Finally
Once you get over the initial fear it does become more pleasant.