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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. The wind is so strong at the moment that as I tried to play the Harmonica as I walked into the wind I found that the wind itself was playing my harmonica. If I blew then I won, but if I drew then I was competing against the wind. Boring people get wind chimes. I think that people should get harmonicas instead of wind chimes. Wind chimes are audio kitsch. Harmonicas are not, because they’re rarer.
This recording is from yesterday’s walk in the wind rather than today’s. The audio was recorded from the airpods, I think. I wasn’t sure you would hear the harmonica over the sound of the wind but it worked.
The wind has to be going at, at least, 25km/h if I remember correctly for the reeds to resonate enough to make noise.
In other news I have read more than once that trawlers are now trawling for krill within superods of whales. I read a few days ago about how fishermen are hoovering the sea of krill to feed farmed salmon. Humans are destroying the sea to such a degree that they are now hoovering up krill, leading to whales and other mammals to starve. We should not be wasting money and fuel to farm something in a juvenile state. It’s bad enough that humans destroy other parts of the marine food chain but this is a step too far.
As a diver people always asked “But what is there to see when you dive” and the truth is “nothing, because of overfishing, in Swiss lakes and the mediterranean. The paradox is that with a marine reserve aquatic life comes back and thrives quite easily. People fly to Fiji and other locations to see plenty of fish but if Europeans, and others, worked to preserve their marine diversity, through marine parks then we would have more fish to see underwater. The marine eco-system needs us to leave it alone, to recover, so that fish reach maturity, so that we see large whales, fish and more.
Playing Wordle
I saw the little boxes, and then I saw that the New York Times had an article on the distraction so I read about it. It’s a game some people were playing via whatsapp during the lockdown, spread to friends, and then it spread wider and wider. Boiled down Wordle is hangman for people who no longer feel comfortable with capital punishment even in game form.
I read an article seasons, or even years ago about how schools were having to rethink the game of hangman because it no longer reflected the sensibilities of people of the current age. Wordle is a good solution.
At the same time I think that Wordle is an interesting way of practicing thinking of words by yourself, before playing scrabble with others. The faster you can find the word in Wordle, the better prepared you will be for playing wordle.
I anticipate that Wordle could become addictive for three reasons. The first is that you have one problem to resolve per 24 hours, and you only have five tries before you need to wait for another problem. I find it unpleasant, but in such a small dose, that I could go back daily, until I am addicted, like so many are.
There are more interesting challenges. Crosswords are one. At least with crosswords you are entertained for an hour or two, until you get better. If you learn a new language you could be entertained for 770 days in a row before finally finding the need to try something different. Finally, I think that learning to code, or reading books may be more enjoyable.
On the topic of coding, I would like to write an app, where if I give letters and their positions in a word, that it comes up with suggestions. I don’t want to cheat at scrabble or Wordle. I think it could be a way of designing crosswords, for example. The game is to find which word it is, by the letters that it has, and by their position. My aim would be to use that thought process, for a different context.
And Finally
I can see how Wordle would be a good game for children, writers, and people with five minutes spare. It is a quick and possibly entertaining word to expand one’s vocabulary and think laterally.
Day 58 of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – Writing For Future Generations Now.
I’m writing for future generations now. As I looked at the stats for the most recent posts i see that readership is low. I’m tempted to start writing about something else as a result. In two or three weeks if we’re still seeing low numbers of new cases I might.
The biggest change since two days ago is that when I went to the shops I saw that InterDiscount and other places are open. Restaurants are open too. I saw some people in these places but without counting.
Inspiration to write usually comes from meeting people and having conversations but it’s at least 58 days since I met someone new and had a different conversation so it’s hard to explore new ideas.
The CSS front page I’ve been working on for the past three or four days is almost ready to be shared. I still need to tweak three or four things. I’m happy about this. When I replaced the time I spent on social media with playing with CSS I gave myself a great opportunity to learn two or three new skills. I was afraid that I would be confused and lost but so far I’ve found the opposite to be true. I’ve found it relatively easy.
The biggest challenge is getting the content to be desktop and mobile-friendly so every experiment I run has to look good on both. So far this has been a good experience. It’s something that I haven’t done, possibly since social media came along, and distracted us. It’s a shame that social media didn’t grow in quality of conversations but it has benefited my drive to learn something new.
We have to keep upskilling, and upskilling by working on a website is good, because we learn skills that others can see and assess within seconds. The more time I spend tweaking the first page the better it will look, and the more knowledge I will come away with.
See you tomorrow for day 59. We’re just two days away from two months without being within two meters of another person.
Le Sentier des Toblerones
Le Sentier des Toblerones
from Mainvision on Vimeo.
Hidden among the trees in the Canton de Vaud you can find concrete blocks put there as a defensive line to slow down invading armies. The concrete blocks have a similar shape to chocolate Toblerones. There is a hiking trail that you can follow from Bassin down to the lake side. Along the way you can find concrete bunkers camouflaged as houses.
The March Walking Challenge
I’m on the Apple Activities March Walking Challenge this month. The app has decided that I must walk or run 298 kilometres. It’s an average of 9.6 kilometres a day. This is both easy and challenging at the same time. Walking 10 kilometres takes about two hours.
When I had a broken arm I walked more than two hours a day, because I had nothing else I could do. I also walked that much because I couldn’t bike, take the car or drive the scooter. As a result, I needed to walk for everything.
My arm isn’t broken anymore. I’m happy to do two hours of exercise a day. I like to devote some of that time to cycling. Cycling 300 kilometres for me would be around 10 bike rides. I would complete the challenge in 12 hours or less.
App Weaknesses
Last month the challenge was to reach 500 Calories per day for 28 days out of 29 and I would have reached that goal if it hadn’t been for making the mistake of uploading a workout from Strava to Garmin. By doing this the app decided that instead of burning 1200 calories according to the Apple Watch activity app I had done just 220. Instead of being angry or frustrated I simply decided to take it easy for the rest of the month (a whole two days left).
The problem with the Apple watch is that you have no way of saying “use this data, not that data. If you make a mistake you have no way of undoing it.
The weather
We just had two days of rain and today is sunny. When it’s raining the appeal of going for a walk is lower. Going for a walk involves dressing for the rain, not being able to see or hear as well as usual. It also involves feeling the cold wind. Luckily when I was facing into the wind for one leg of yesterday’s walk I was on the last stretch, and I was warm from walking.
I wore my hiking boots. The beauty of hiking boots is that they’re waterproof and you can walk through puddles and streams without getting wet. I did walk through streams and puddles. I enjoy it. I had walked through mud. My excuse for walking in the stream of water by the side of the road was that it would clear the mud off of them before I walked back into the apartment.
One of the paradoxes of apartment cleaning is that it’s always done on the day when you’re most likely to walk in the mud and bring some back in. When mud is wet it stays on the shoes. The next day, when you’re running down the stairs, as usual, you dump a nice trail of mud behind.
Routing (pronounced rooting, not grouting).
I considered changing my routes. I would walk through muddy bits at the beginning of my walks and the clean ones, on the way home. This minimises the quantity of mud on my shoes when I get home. The second option is to wear the hiking shoes I keep in the car, on muddy days. Bringing mud into the garage doesn’t matter.
Methods
- Ten kilometres a day – two hours of walking
- Ingress – either by completing missions or by participating in an event
- Peak days – walk 20 kilometers on some days
- Running – running the same distance takes less time, but impacts the knees
Walking ten kilometres a day can be achieved either by simply spending as little time sitting as possible. We easily walk ten kilometres a day during a conference. We’re even likely to walk the equivalent of twenty kilometers
Ingress Missions and days are a good way to stand, and walk for hours at a time. In both cases, you’re covering reasonable distances.
Peak days are those where you walk twenty to thirty kilometers on one day, and bank the distance, so that on other days you can devote time to other tasks, such as writing blog posts.
Running is a good way of covering bigger distances in the same amount of time. It requires the right surface and shoes.
The futile Challenge
At the end of the day, the challenge is futile. If I cycle thirty plus kilometers I’m challenging myself to climb up hills, I’m challenging myself to sprint as fast as cars through villages, and sometimes I keep up on 50 kilometer per hour sections. If the weather is good cycling makes more sense.
I should achieve the challenge quickly, and get back to cycling.
Films I Watched
For years I didn’t watch many films but recently the habit has returned.
Blood and Gold
I am used to watching English or French films about the First and Second World War but recently I watched Blood and Gold, in German, with English subtitles. It’s interesting to watch a German film rather than a European one, for a different perspective of the war.
The film is set right at the end of the War, days before the Allies liberate Germany. Apparently some gold was left behind and promised to a guard but other people hid it.
The story is well told and I enjoyed it.
All Quiet On the Western Front
This is another, recent German film, set on the First World War, rather than the second. It follows a soldier from conscription until he is on the front line fighting. Some of the scenes and imagery of this film are interesting and unique. I think it’s another film worth watching. I like the cellar scene. I also find other scenes quite interesting.
Fury
Fury is an American film showing the war from a tank crew’s perspective. A typist/clerk is signed up to be part of a tank crew and objects to this, as he doesn’t want to be involved in killing people. Eventually he changes his attitude.
If you watch just one scene of this film watch the scene in the apartment after a town has been liberated. It shows a glimpse into what life could have been like, during the Second World War.
If I was to be absurd about this film I would say it reminded me of Black Hawk Down, but with a tank rather than a Blackhawk helicopter.
And Finally
Twenty years ago I watched plenty of film genres but found that war films are my favourite genre and this holds true today. Every war film is a different story, and with war films you’re not envious of their lives. You feel empathy for their situation, and you feel compassion for moments like the one in the apartment, but at the same time, you don’t feel bad about your own life. That’s what I like about War Films. You don’t feel Fear Of Missing out, FOMO. For the most part you want people to get out alive, and without being traumatised, whenever possible.
In contrast, with normal films, and especially during lockdown, you’re jealous and envious of their lives, and miserable about what your own life is. During the depths of Lockdowns people living alone were completely isolated. We still are, but now it’s a moral and ethical choice, rather than no choice at all.
That I can watch films, even if they are just war films, shows that I have recovered from Pandemic solitude. I am getting the ability to watch television series, and even films again. That’s encouraging.
Parents and Solitary People
During the worst of lockdown, and even after it was decided that vaccines alone were good enough, and people decided to deny that Long COVID was a risk, we could see a massive difference between parents and people without children.
Although parents speak of the hardship of being trapped in apartments with their children unable to play outside, they had normal lives within the home. Feed, cook, play, work remotely, feed cook, play, work remotely. They were isolated, but within a family, within a social group.
Compare that to the complete solitude of people living alone, without children, without a lover, with nothing.
That solitude still hasn’t ended, and never will, for as long as the friends of COVID continue spreading COVID, and running the risk of Long COVID.
On Twitter, and to some degree the Fediverse, we see that some people still take the pandemic seriously, but they are few and far between. That’s why absurd people like me mask. I’m absurd because pretending the pandemic is over, like everyone else does, would be easy. It would take a mental switch and I would be normal. By normal I mean absurd.
When Camus wrote about the man is absurd for not feeling grief, he was speaking about the absurd individual. I think that today it is society that has become absurd, and the individual that has become rational. The rational wearer of a mask. The rational person who does not want to see the pandemic as over, only to get Long COVID, and regret it for the rest of his life.
I saw two articles in the last day or two, about how Long COVID is incurable for 75 percent of those who fall sick with it.
Conclusion
When I return to having a normal life, of flirting, doing things socially, and more, I will be able to watch normal things again. For now the war film genre fills a need I need, to feel empathy for others, without feeling sadness for myself.