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Swiss Kettlebell advert

Byrichard
Reading Time: < 1 minute

I find this swiss kettlebell advert amusing. It shows a cow peacefully grazing in a field until a woman starts ringing a cow bell.

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Seventy Kilometres Later – Adapting to Barefoot Shoes

Seventy Kilometres Later – Adapting to Barefoot Shoes

Byrichard

I walk from three to fie million steps per year. In doing so I wear through shoes and through socks every six months or less. It makes sense that I would experiment with barefoot shoes since I spend so much time walking. 


The Experience


Initially I tried the Vapor Glove 6 and I was able to walk my usual routes without trouble. I did find one surface where it felt as though the shoes were not adapted to the weathered road conditions and that’s part of the reason I decided to try others. I also found that with the Vapor Glove 6 I could feel my heel stomp onto the hard road surface and I really had to be attentive to changing my walking style overnight. 


Of course, changing from one walking style to another is a challenge. That’s where the Trail Glove 7 come into play. Their sole is 14mm or so, rather than six. This makes a huge difference with my walking style.  With the Trail Glove 7 I have already walked 51 kilometres with ease. Contrast this to 19 in the Vapor Glove 6. The Trail Glove 7 are well suited to my walking style. I’m a strider, and as a strider I use my heel a lot. 


Driving


As a little aside I have tried driving to the shops and back with both pairs of shoes but find that the Vapor Gloves are slightly too soft for driving. It’s better to wear Trail Gloves. I know that flip flops are not recommended for driving. I’m not sure about sandals.  


Walking Style and Pace


If I was walking with people walking at a normal pace, and for smaller distances then the Vapor Glove would be fine. The issue with the Vapor Glove is simply that it has no heel amortisation. The rubber, even with socks is too thin. I need to consciously think of every step. When you walk 12,000 steps it becomes a challenge.  With Trail Glove shoes adaptation is gradual, especially with 10km daily walks. I really like wearing Trail Glove shoes.  


Conclusion


Although I like the idea of wearing shoes that are as minimal as the Vapor Gloves I prefer the Trail Gloves, for now. They allow me to get used to the act of walking “barefoot” without destroying my heels. The biggest hurdle for me is to adapt my gait to be barefoot shoe friendly. I hope that the wear pattern on my normal shoes will change. 

Thirty Seven thousand Kilometres later

Thirty Seven thousand Kilometres later

Byrichard

I have had the same scooter for about 37,000 kilometres and yesterday I finally decided to sell it off, after years of frequent use. I sold it off because whereas the usual service was about 270 CHF the quote for the latest service was 500 CHF. 


The scooter near Nyon, with the Alps in the background


This wouldn’t be so bad as you don’t change brakes every year. It’s bad because the scooter is old. For at least two or three years I felt that it had less power than before. It accelerated more slowly, but this might be due to me gaining a little more weight. I think it has more to do with scooter age. 


This scooter was also crashed into, while I was on it, stopped at a pedestrian crossing. I was fine but the scooter needed the back to be fixed. I rode it for another 10,000 or more kilometres. 


I asked another garage if they would buy the scooter but a scooter is considered as worthless after 25,000 kilometres. If you want to sell a scooter do it before you reach 25,000 kilometres. 


The beauty of driving a scooter, compared to a car, is that you can park anywhere. In some cases you can park meters from where you want to be. The other advantage is that you can go through traffic without waiting with the cars. 


As an experiment when driving to Geneva I did behave like a car, and for a drive where I usually use a third of a fuel tank to go to Geneva and back, I used half a fuel tank, one way. Scooters are highly inefficient if you drive them like a car. I never did that again. 


I drove over 9000 kilometres on a single set of tyres and fell three times. I thought that it was due to my scooter driving skill declining but it was due to not changing the tires after 3000km as you’re meant to. I eventually did get the tyres changed and it felt like I was riding on a monorail compared to before. If you start to fall, change the tyres. It is a great experience, so it’s nice to feel the difference, but I advise you to change tyres every three thousand kilometres. 


Driving a scooter, compared to driving a car, is a lot of fun, because you lean into turns, you overtake, you feel the wind, you feel the weather, and you feel a certain amount of freedom that you don’t get with a car. If I replace the scooter I want to replace it either with an e-bike or with an electric scooter. The advantage of both is that their carbon footprint is low. The advantage of a bike over a scooter is range. A bike has an extended range, compared to a scooter, especially when used by a cyclist. My bike rides to Geneva are 50km and the range of a scooter is 37km. 


And Finally


If the scooter service had not been double the usual price I would have paid for it to be maintained and used it for another two years, but at twice the normal cost of a service I’d rather not fall into the cycle of normalised 500 CHF services. This isn’t a classic Vespa, this is a conventional scooter that is 17+ years old with 37,000 kilometres. It has served a long time, on borrowed time, since after the crash it could have been considered dead. It’s the second time that I have used a vehicle until it is “end of European life”. Last year I end of life a Mercedes A class, and this year it’s the scooter. 


The scooter will now head to Africa for a second life there. 

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Dirty Gold War screening at the Graduate Institute.

Byrichard

I went to watch Dirty Gold War at the Graduate Institute at lunch time today. The film is interesting because it makes you think about the environmental impact of gold mining. We’re familiar with the stories of gold mines in South Africa. We’re familiar with the stories of the gold rush. We don’t often think of the environmental impact of Gold mining in rain forests in Latin America. This documentary introduces the topic well.

It brings our attention to the fact that when people buy luxury products like gold watches, bracelets and other objects they are buying objects that have no environmental or ethical credentials. It leads us to question when the luxury industries will be accountable to such considerations.

Mobile Phones, laptops, televisions and other devices all contain traces of gold. If that gold is sourced from environmentally unfriendly sources then we are contributing to the destruction of the rainforests and the poisoning of ecosystems. Fairphone and other companies with such goals benefit from such documentaries because we are shown why their goals are so important. It contextualises their mission and their reason for being. It also helps to put pressure on all electronics manufacturers to do more to reduce their impact on the environment.

Dirty Gold is a topic that does not get much attention. As I reach the conclusion of this blog post I find that Dirty gold points to a music album rather than gold mining. We need to raise awareness of this topic. People are wearing wedding wings, luxury products and using electronic devices that are in part for the degradation of the environment. As awareness of these issues grows so companies like Apple, Sony and others should work to ensure a clean product line, from raw material in the ground to the finished product.

Trevolution Ultralight Daypack – Thoughts After a Few Uses

Byrichard

If you want a bag that isn’t a bag until you need it to be a bag then the Trevolution Ultralight Daypack is a great option. I like that it folds into its bag and that it’s easy to have with you at all times. What I don’t like about the version I have is that it’s too flimsy for daily use and the top opening is not practical. It requires both hands to open and close the main compartment.


I don’t like its feel on my back during daily walks. All the wait shifts to the wrong place and the straps feel flimsy when used for one and a half to two hour daily walks. It is not for that niche.


The niches that it does fill:


  • A shopping bag for carrying your shopping to the car, instead of using plastic or paper bags
  • A book carrier, if like me you start a walk, see a lending library and pick up a book or two, but don’t want to carry them home in your hands
  • A spare bag, in the car, for when you drop into shops where you’re not allowed to go in with a bag. Decathlon in Paris, or Mediamarkt for example. (I write this more as a joke than as a serious comment).
  • Travel by plane or train. I like to travel with just a twenty five litre bag, which is great for the trip, but a pain to walk around with in a city. Having a small bag is great, because you don’t need to empty the main bag.
  • Museums and other cultural locations: In the past I have been to events where I am told that I need to check in my bag if I want to enter. I usually don’t want to. With this bag you can fold it away, into it’s carrying pouch and then you’re fine.
  • Conferences and events: It fits in your pocket, and if you pick things up you don’t need to pick up yet another tote bag.


For at least two or three years I used a stoke Bike 10 litre bag. I used it so often, for daily walks to the shops, my daily one and a half hour walks, and more, that the zip eventually gave in. Small bags are great because you can use them for a rain coat, water and external battery to charge the phone.


Conclusion


This is a backup or secondary bag. It is good to keep in the car, in the pocket of a traveling bag or a coat pocket. It is good for occasional use. If you want a bag that you can use for two hours a day on a daily basis then a proper bag is better. If I could I would swap it for the version with a zip, rather than the cord to store helmets or other bulkier items. The one with a zip is 9 CHF more. There is a Sea To Summit variant.

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A 360° cooking Show would be interesting to watch.

Byrichard

For a few weeks now I have been thinking about how you could make a 360° cooking show. For this video I would like to be able to see the process from an angle where I see the person cooking. I would also like to see all of the ingredients and the preparation of various stages of the recipe. For this you would need an open plan kitchen where preparation takes place in the middle of the room.

If it was to be filmed with just one camera then the camera should be lower than eye level but not by much. I would want to look straight ahead in to the eyes of the person preparing the meal and talking. As the person speaks about ingredients I would like to be able to look down and see all of the ingredients. You would need enough room for chopping and marinating. I would think about having a camera above the cooking surfaces so that we can see how the textures change from the start of cooking to when the mix becomes “saucy”. That’s how they describe it in recipes.

I want the 360 approach to be justified. I want to make it so that the viewer has a reason to wear VR goggles. The video above justifies a 360° video whereas the video below does not. The camera needs to be placed as close to the action as possible. It should be designed so that the viewer has to turn his head to see what is happening.

This video does not justify the 360 approach because the action happens in front of the camera and although you can look around the background is not relevant. The action is too small on screen. You can’t see what they are doing.

The camera operator and the producer should learn the recipe and identify what the stages of preparation are. They should have a shot list of every thing that is relevant and place the camera accordingly. Is an oven or a grill used? is sauce prepared? Is something timelapse friendly?

A few years ago we were up in a swiss chalet with a friend and we decided to cook a pizza with a log fire rather than an oven. We started the log fire and then we placed the pizza next to the fire. As the fire was only on one side we rotated the pizza to get it to cook in full. In watching the playback you see the pizza cook as well as the logs go from being logs to embers and “melt” downwards as they burn. If the camera can safely be placed close enough to the fire then you could look down at the pizza as the ingredients change appearance and look up to see the logs decrease in size.

I believe that 360° cooking shows have a future. In theory you need just one well placed camera and editing is cut down to a minimum. Instead of editing and vision mixing from two or three cameras you need just one. I believe that the programme should not be more than 5-10 minutes. People, for now, are still getting used to VR headsets and may find extended periods of time more tiring to watch.

How long will it take before someone like Jamie Oliver uses VR cooking simulations to teach people to cook in the real world. With enough time they could emulate real cooking times at different heats so that when you transition from VR to reality you have the right intuition to successfully cook for yourself and others.

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