Routine Happiness

Routine Happiness

Byrichard

Today I’m going to write about happiness, and specifically about routine happiness. During the pandemic I noticed that people with children all looked happy. There is a simple reason for that. Children don’t understand what a pandemic is, so to give them a feeling of normality you distract yourself from the pandemic with children. The result is that all the parents I saw were in their own little happy world. I noticed that parents were laughing, happy, going to parties and more, ignoring the pandemic, despite having the most to lose.


I didn’t have children or a spouse, so I had to find happiness from another source. For months and months I was desperate for zero COVID to be reached but eventually the inhumane head of Switzerland decided to ignore common sense, and that the vaccine was enough. This act doomed me to solitude, because it meant that COVID zero would never be reached.


I value my health, so I still mask to this day, when I am indoors. It makes me both absurd and consistent. It makes me absurd because I’m surrounded by people who are happy to live in COVID denial. They are happy to ignore the inconvenient truth that COVID can result in Long COVID and long COVID can last a lifetime.


I really suffered when I saw that COVID was a new disease that people wanted to make endemic so I had to change where I got my happiness from. That’s when I learned to derive happiness from moving forward, of having a daily routine. My routine is that I write a blog post every single day. By doing this I spend an hour or two being mindful, thinking of topics, and taking the time to elaborate on them, as if I was having a conversation with someone.


The second part of that routine is the daily walk. It is almost always an hour and a half, whilst listening to podcasts or audio books. The third part is to spend an hour or two each day studying IT related topics. Recently I have been practising with the provisioning of Linux systems on raspberry pies. In theory once you’ve set up a system you know how to do it.


As I have learned, through playing with Nextcloud you provision the machine, you get it up and running, but then you find that it can only be accessed via one wifi hotspot, not the other. You find that the device overheats as you try to sync 19,000 pictures from a mobile phone. You also find that you need to adjust the folder permissions so that the phone app can create folders to organise the photographs you’re sending from your phone to your Nextcloud instance. Finally you find that it’s better to use your old mobile phone for these experiments because you can leave it plugged in for hours, or days as it syncs.


You also find the need to learn about cooling, how to plug a fan into a pie, and more. You also realise how noisy that fan is so eventually you turn off that Pi instance.


The point of routine, and working on projects, is that it helps you forget that you’re lonely and isolated, so you don’t feel lonely and isolated. This is an emotion that people with family lives never experienced for real. People who are not alone think they feel lonely, but they haven’t been alone during a pandemic, for months in a row. They will never understand.


Due to the pandemic requiring me to redefine my sources of happiness I derive happiness from reaching my daily goals, not seeing people. People put my personal goals on hold.


Back in 2006-2007 I was working on my dissertation for a few minutes a day, every single day, seven days a week, for months. If I didn’t spend five minutes every day on it, I couldn’t sleep. I needed to move forward with that goal. What amused me in this scenario is that I really enjoyed the process. Other people called it “The D Word” because they had not invested as much time, over as long, as I had, so they were panicked. I was happy.


The point is that I’m happy to see people, once I have reached my personal goals, either for that part of the day, or for the entire day. If I don’t work towards my projects because I’m with people, then I feel unhappy, until I have reached my daily goals.


Once I have reached my goals I am happy to be distracted by other things, but only once I have reached my goals, not before.


And Finally


If I see people spontaneously I am happy, but if my presence is required I am miserable. People love to say that we can always say no, but we can’t. We can’t say no. “I don’t want to” might be a valid reason for a child, but not for an adult. Mental health is a valid reason but I don’t want to play that card, despite it being the real reason for me not wanting to do something today. I will burn over an hour of petrol to see people who a few days ago said “don’t come over unannounced. That message is the reason I don’t want to do a chore today. I don’t like being told I’m unwelcome, and then told to go a few days later.


There is nothing to gain, by saying no, because I have a favour to do nearby anyway, so it’s absurd to say no, but after today I will take a break from driving to that location. Last month I drove over six hundred and eighty kilometres, not for work, not for pleasure but for a favour.


Last time I went up I left the electric car, because I had no intention of going back up. I want my life to stop being absurd. The last five to six years have been absurd. I want my routine to stabilise once again, so that I reach my goal of feeling employable again, but I want to work remotely because I am not a friend of COVID.

A Good Run

A Good Run

Byrichard

It’s good to vary between walking, cycling and running. I even threw in skateboarding but I am not confident at that sport yet. The beauty of walking, cycling and running is that these are sports that you can do straight from home, without getting into a car, and without having to put up with other drivers. The one drawback is that dangerous drivers endanger you on every outing, but that’s another topic.

Comfortable

Although I was worried that I would regret running with barefoot shoes, after wearing them for over six hundred kilometres I can say that they were the right choice. The reason for which they were the right choice is that now, rather than run two kilometres before my knees hurt I can run for five kilometres and reach the goal I wanted to achieve. I wanted to be able to run five kilometres comfortably, and I can.

No Extra baggage

For this run I took no backpack, no lumbar bag or any other form of bag. I had my phone, some cars in case, and my house keys. I don’t usually run so light. I didn’t expect rain. I didn’t expect to feel thirsty, and I didn’t expect to need the external battery pack, to recharge the phone. I didn’t even take earphones.

The Route

Originally I was thinking of running the usual route, to avoid being near homicidal car drivers but I noticed that there was a village party, which I didn’t want to run through. I changed my routing and it had me run up a steep road for several hundred meters before turning left and heading down towards the lake, and then turning right along the motorway. That’s not really the point. The point is that I routed it perfectly, so that I stopped running just as I got to a busy road where I sometimes have to wait for cars to pass.

Quiet

It was quiet on this run. I saw one or two walkers and one runner. In a different age, and time, I might have said hello, but in this day and age it is better not to. She was doing interval running, but when she had a rest interval she took the rest part more seriously than I do. When I’m told to rest I walk at full speed. That is my rest pace.

It was busy with dogs and walkers on another route but I always avoid routes where I expect to meet dog walkers. I don’t want dogs to jump on me, and force me to overcome my desire to run away.

And Finally

Running allows you to experience the same route as you would walk, in half the time. It’s a way of enjoying the outdoors, without devoting the same amount of time. I would not replace walking with running, because I like taking the time to walk that route. By walking you can read a lot of audio books, but you also take a break from sitting and being indoors.

By running I am forced to look at where I’m going, as well as to think of how my feet are hitting the ground. I consider the route. Today I surprised a heron that hid behind some trees. It saw me and flew away.

The Pleasure of the Shave
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The Pleasure of the Shave

Byrichard

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. 

My Kindle Reading Streak

My Kindle Reading Streak

Byrichard

According to the Kindle app on my phone my longest Kindle Reading Streak was 126 days. I say “was”, because I lost it two days ago and now I am back to a one day reading streak. I hate that apps like Kindle count reading streaks as “days of reading in a row” because sometimes simply opening the app, and reading one page was enough to count it as a streak.


The information is meaningless. I would like a different way of counting streaks. Imagine if we could have streaks such as “Read at least one book a week” streaks. It would be nice to have more flexibility, and to have goals that have more meaning.


The paradox of losing that reading streak, on one app, is that I read from Audible almost every single day, and from the kindle almost every day. In effect I do read every day. I have been reading every day for years by now, so whether n app counts my reading or not doesn’t matter.


As i said a few days ago, by losing my streak it gives me the opportunity to read through the books I pick up on my daily walks, rather than electronic books. I need to read through the physical books because they take physical space, and either I need new shelves, or I need to read and put those books back into circulation.


Although called a “reading challenge” by GoodReads I prefer to think of it as a reading goal. The goal of reading 52 books in a single year, the goal of reading one book per week. Reading every day is easy, it is finishing books that is a challenge. I have a lot of unfinished books. My reading goal will help me work my way through the unfinished books. Once they’re finished I can drop them at one of the six or seven reading libraries I visit on my daily walks.


And Finally


Twitter wants to start revenue sharing with its users, but only those that buy in. I see this as a mistake. Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and many other networks lost value because they focused on encouraging spamming and clickbait rather than valuable content and conversations. If I didn’t think I would regret it, I would delete my account.

A Run And A Walk

A Run And A Walk

Byrichard

I am going for a run and a walk three times a week at the moment. The run is set by the Garmin Coach and the walk is set by the route I have chosen to use on that specific day. By running the first part of my daily walk I increase my fitness, according to Strava, Sports Tracker and one or two other apps.


At the same time by running, rather than walking these routes I am saving time. A walk that would usually take ten minutes per kilometre is cut down to seven, or less. The runs have gone from 1.6 km, to 2.4 to 3.2 and more. As the runs get longer so the distance I cover increases, and so the daily walk distance takes less time, as it is run instead. The aim is still to run 5km comfortably, not to increase the distance beyond 5k, for now.


Yesterday I found the run harder than on previous days. It might be due to running too soon after lunch, but also because I never take “rest” days. I will always walk from seven to ten kilometres a day, whatever the weather, whatever the mood. My body doesn’t get the opportunity to rest, that it might want. It could also be psychological.


Tomorrow the run jumps from being 2.4km to 3.22 kilometres long. After finding the last run harder I expect the same for the next one. If I wanted to make my life easier I could run by one of the lakes, either Divonne or Lac Léman. Both are relatively flat and both have the required distance to cover. One of the best features of that run would be that it is either downhill for the first two kilometres, to flat for the last part. One drawback is that I don’t like the last two kilometres for that loop. Too many couples and dog walkers… although I did find a track by the woods that I could use, rather than walk close to others.


And Finally


I struggled to find inspiration to write today, and I expect that I will struggle for the next week, to three weeks, as my routine is altered.

Blogging One Hundred And Fifty-Two Days In A Row

Blogging One Hundred And Fifty-Two Days In A Row

Byrichard

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.

Day Fifteen of ORCA in Switzerland – Pandemic Fatigue

Day Fifteen of ORCA in Switzerland – Pandemic Fatigue

Byrichard

Now that we’re in week 5 of self-isolation and Day fifteen of ORCA I am getting pandemic fatigue. As it’s Monday I could make the effort of going to the shops to get fresh food rather than deplete the reserves I have but my motivation is not there. It has come cold and windy and the rate of infection is still high. I expect that by the end of today Vaud will hit the three thousand case mark.


Yesterday I didn’t feel like watching television series, didn’t feel like listening to podcasts, didn’t feel like walking or studying German. It might just be because soup is the crappy lunch that I always thought it was. I will not be making the mistake of eating something so light.


It could also be due to walking 300 kilometres in a little less than a month. It was two or more hours of walking almost every day. Now I think being lazy is good, for my body to refresh and get ready for indoor cycling. At the beginning of the pandemic I wanted to cycle outdoors but as I broke my arm once I think it might not be worth the risk, however, low the probability is. Low temperatures and wind are good reasons to stay indoors.


In theory, Sunday was a rest day intellectually. I played more than two hours of Civ VI for the first time in months or even years. I did better this game, than I did in the last two or three attempts in precedent days. I managed to found a few cities and keep the barbarians under control.







Another reason for playing a computer game is that I don’t want to spend time on social media. A few days ago I thought that with the pandemic, and with people being trapped at home, people would return to socialising via Facebook and Twitter. Twitter and Facebook are still ghost towns where people share links as there are no conversations to join.


Although I titled this blog post Pandemic fatigue I do not believe that this is necessarily the case. I studied German in the morning, I wrote this blog post in the morning. I spent less time procrastinating than I did on other days and I looked for and applied to at least one job. By this notion, I’m making progress. I also thought about adding item six to my daily task list. Skim through at least ten Linkedin pages to see what opportunities exist.


In normal circumstances, this would be normal, but during a pandemic, where there is no timescale it is hard to plan for the future. We’re living a single day at a time. I saw a joke on Twitter about how March was long but that April will be even longer with an anime gif from groundhog day.


And now to get on with the post Meridien part of the day.

Day ten of Orca in Switzerland – The New Normal

Day ten of Orca in Switzerland – The New Normal

Byrichard

Today I’m getting to grips with the new normal. The new normal is queuing like people did before self-checkout and other technology. We also need to queue to get into shops and you either need to take a trolley or a shopping bag if you want to buy things. No more baskets as they are harder to disinfect and keep clean.


“Pardon me, miss, but you can’t use these trolleys, you need to use those trolleys. This is the column of trolleys that still need to be disinfected.” That’s the scene I saw when I went to the shops around lunchtime. That’s a mistake you only make once during a pandemic.


Normally I go to one shopping centre that I need to get to by scooter rather than by foot, to avoid food being out of the fridge for more than 15 minutes. As pandemic measures have been added I am now considering another shop that is smaller and with a smaller maze when getting into the shop for food.


There is a visible change in the streets and on the motorway. You see that traffic density is decreasing and that the number of people walking are lower. People are settling into a new routine, a new way of life, a new culture. Pandemics do force society to adapt to new cultural norms.



As you see from the Swiss weather app the level of air pollution has gone down as people go from a routine that required a car for almost everything to a routine that no longer requires the car. There is no need to commute to socialise and there is no need to commute for work. Train services have been reduced two or three times as demand declined, and then declined again.


We are going back to a “village” life. We are walking locally and people are discovering the routes that I have walked for two or three years by now. If Google or Strava show a heatmap of walking patterns I am sure that we would see that people are living within a six to ten kilometre radius of home, where leaving the house for walks in the sun is still allowed.


France, England and Spain are forcing people to stay home now, so life in those countries is going to shift in the next three or four days. There is a lag from the moment the restrictions are put in place and the moment when people have no opportunity to flout the rules.


Traffic did not decline in a single day. It took a few days. The motorbike groups that we saw during the first week have stopped and so have the columns of cars. Petrol stations now seem to be quiet. People are driving less, so refueling is less frequent.


I have walked 276km of the 298.8 kilometre walking challenge for this month and I’m tired. I’m happy that the goal is now just 3.1km a day. I can reach it by walking to the food shop, shopping and walking back. when the challenge is finished I will probably revert to using the indoor trainer.


At the start of quarantine, I thought that I would cycle a lot but advisories came out saying that people should avoid activities where they could be injured and I injured myself cycling last spring, so I’d rather avoid the same injury when there is a good chance that the wait in a hospital may be time-consuming.


I was wrong to think that this would be over quickly, and now that I see we are in it for a while I will adapt my goals accordingly. Things I thought I could get away with not doing will now be done. This includes looking for work again more than anything else. My other daily goals are going well. Writing a blog post is consistent, studying German is on day 197. My daily walk is still going and finally listening to podcasts in German is still going.


Quarantine is about developing habits and keeping to them, and then adding new goals as you go, so that despite life being strange (link to the game by that name unintentional) we continue moving forward. Who knows, we might even start to thrive.

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How PADI divers see an over-romanticised side of diving

Byrichard

 

Whilst it is true that divers are at the beach every weekend the location is not quite that nice. Some of us are or were in the mountains every Saturday and in the lakes every Sunday. We did have to wear shoes because the dive site is a lake. We don’t all drink beer and are not always salty. What you will have to get used to is that 6 or 7am wake up to be at the dive site by 8 or 9 in the morning. You will also need to get used to the bath being used to rinse off all of the diving equipment Sunday afternoons. You won’t need to get used to beer drinking because not every diver drinks beer.