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Day 45 Of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – The Need For Outdoor Exercise.
This aftrnoon reminded me of the need for outdoor exercise. I was feeling lazy and unmotivated to go outdoors. I thought that the rain would come back during my walk, as it did during my scooter ride, and as it did yesterday. I checked the weather app and I saw that we should have good weather until tomorrow so I took advantage to go for my walk.
This time I was light. I went with my AirPods, my phone, and money just in case. I walked the usual route but this time I think I saw farmers and their child, and plenty of people on bikes. It would be interesting to see how important a role physical exercise played in Switzerland managing to flatten the curve for now. With so much sunshine and exercise you’d expect the Swiss to be primed for coping with such a virus.
@richardazia
Day 1: Hiking from Gryon to Villars Sur Ollon.
First evening
This weekend I went on a two day hike. It was a combination of a Summit Foundation themed hike and a Wehike event. The hike was over two days and two nights. We arrived on Gryon on Friday night and stayed at the Chalet Martin. This is a nice relaxed backpacker hostel with a trampoline, bunkbed rooms, optional breakfast and more. It is located within easy walking distance of the train station and is easy to find. I slept well.
First Day
Gryon is an interesting village with some old chalets. Two of these Chalets are hundreds of years old and listed as national monuments. They are side by side with a short description explaining why they are significant. You hike through the village for a short distance before climbing through some woods before getting to a large parking. From the large parking you continue uphill towards Chaux Ronde. You walk along the road for part of the way with some segments where you walk to the side of ski pistes, through some woods and up some pistes. If this was done as a day hike it would be easy to moderate.
For about one to two hundred metres you walk along an Arête which some people might feel uncomfortable doing. You have a steep drop off on either side so being sure footed and self assured are useful.
This is the most exposed parts of the hike. If you want to continue prepare yourself for such moments. If you’re used to the Tour D’Aï or the Rocher de Naye this segment will be pleasant, especially since you can see the Tour D’Aï from here. This is one of my favourite aspects of this two day hikes.
This was one of the most beautiful passages of the hike. You have nice green fields with great potential for numerous flowers. You see Switzerland in all of it’s beauty. The path from this point on is easier going and offers some great views.
When we arrived at this portion of the hike both the clouds and the light were playing with the rock formations so I kept looking right and behind me to see how they had changed, waiting for some interesting lighting to take pictures. If you’re on a photowalk then I would recommend finding a good place to wait for the light to be just right for a nice image. In the wrong light they may look dull.
When the light and mountains play nicely together you get a real separation between the grassy meadows, the cliffs, the sky and more. You get a sense of scale and contour. The rest of the hike down was through trees and then along a road. As I was carrying enough equipment for two days I felt exhausted by the time we arrived in Villars where we had a good meal at a restaurant. Almost everyone had Röesti.
Summit Foundation
The primary focus of this hike was to pick up rubbish left by skiers, snowboarders and other sports enthusiasts over the winter months. We picked up plastic, cigarette butts, gloves and more. Some of us were less passionate about it. If you’re on a hike and you drop rubbish think of the effort that you’re making with a simple hike. By hiking and picking up rubbish the effort is greater. You bend down and get back up frequently. It’s an alternative to burpees.
Trevolution Ultralight Daypack – Thoughts After a Few Uses
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.
What’s Old Is New Again – Live Google Location Sharing
Almost two decades ago we had Google Latitude. Google Latitude allowed us to share real time location with friends and family 24 hours a day. We didn’t need to ask “Where are you” because there was already an app for that. Today I saw “Google’s real-time location is here: this is how it works” as a headline. I have to ask, do the writers study their history before writing their articles or is anything that wasn’t in their own lifetime brand new?
This is an old feature from the mid to late 2000s that was removed bit by bit because people worried about privacy complained. We went from being able to share our location 24 hours a day to it being on demand for a limited time, to having a lifetime history of locations to it being removed from new users.
I am grandfathered in to the original Google Latitude so I have location history spanning back to 2007-2008 or so. I love this, because it allows me to see when I travelled, and how fast I travelled. If I see that I got from Spain to Switzerland in an hour I know I went by plane. If I see that I went from Geneva to Frankfurt, and from Frankfurt to Romania or Poland then I know that was another flight. I can see where I was and when.
I can also see how much I cycled and walked, and how much I drove or took trains in a month. With iCloud you have live location sharing too, but it’s restricted to the people you want to share with, for example when you’re driving from A to B, or when you have family sharing enabled.
Years ago I said that I don’t mind Google or Apple, or other companies knowing where I am, because telecom providers have that information anyway, so if they have it, so should I. My fvourite use was to check “The car got a fine at this location on that day but at that time on that day I was at the gym so I wasn’t the one driving the car.
By sharing your location with Google latitude it gives you information about whether an event could have been you or not. I wasn’t worried about the fine, or paying it. I wanted to confirm that my drivers were not slipping back into the habit of getting fines again. At one time I drove so much that fines were no longer rare. I eventually saw phantom flashes and switched to always setting the limiter to the speed limit.
And Finally
It boils down to one phrase. Live location sharing with Google is not new. It was removed because people worried about Google knowing too much about where they had been and where, and they wanted to remove location history. Now we are finally seeing the reverse coming back into being. Live location sharing, as well as location history is useful. I am happy to see that it is coming back.
Static Web Generators and CMSes
For weeks, or even months, by now I have been playing/experimenting with Hugo, 11ty and other solutions. I really like that with Hugo I can use FrontMatter as a CMS to create new posts, add the appropriate meta data, and keep track of what is published and what is in draft form. It allows me to create posts with the right metadata in seconds, rather than having to write the date, time, draft status and more by hand. It also generates the right file title for good archival practices.
Decap CMS
As I was looking for a CMS tool to make managing 11ty content easier I came across Decap CMS and it seemed interesting. I installed a version locally, and then I started to look at the code manually, rather than using the CMS tool. It felt complicated so I did some more research. Eventually I learned that in order to play with Decap CMS you need to setup a netlify account, a github account and then expose yourself to accidental charges when playing with a static website generator. I was struck by the paradox. Why would you use a CMS tool that requires you to commit to an external hosting tool? Why not use ClassicPress or WordPress and cut out the middle man. Of course the short answer is “because you still generate a static tool, but the interface is intuitive for non coders.
Yet Another Service
By requiring us to set things up via Netlify we’re forced to use yet another service, which is fine, when you’re using the service in the first place. I am not.
FrontMatter.Code
Within a few minutes frontmatter.codes could be setup locally do do what I want, to manage documents and frontmatter for an 11ty site. In so doing I keep development on the local machine, only connecting to the external server when I’m uploading site changes. I can use the same workflow as I have for Hugo, once I set it up.
ClassicPress and WordPress
It’s easier, for me to setup a ClassicPress or WordPress CMS and use that. ClassicPress feels very fast and I can use markdown or html for pages that I am creating, or that already exist. Within a short amount of time I can do what Decap CMS does, anywhere I want.
For WordPress you can use this method/tutorial or with the free playground option. Within seconds you can have a wordpress instance running on azure, up and ready for a new site and content.
In particular, while App Service F1 will not generate any cost, database usage is chargeable for “pay as you go” plans or when the usage limit of 750 hours per month for 12 months is exceeded. So, in order to ensure they will not pay for the WordPress playground, developers should monitor and track their database usage.
With this tool a wordpress instance is prepared for you, and for a month you can see what the cost would be, before jumping into a financial commitment.
And Finally
If I am experimenting with a Static website generator like Hugo or 11ty I want to have local versions to play with, rather than remote ones that may cost something if I am not careful. If I’m reading it correctly the basic plan I’m experimenting with is 3 CHF per month for a server in Northern Switzerland. With this “playground” I have the opportunity to experiment, and see whether that is the case.
The testing options are cheap, but for production Azure and other cloud solutions are expensive, which is why we use other cloud solutions, especially for personal sites. I will spend time experimenting with Frontmatter, set up for 11ty, following this learning experience.
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.
I ran by the side of a muddy field today to avoid more dogs. The thing about dogs is that they come up to you if they are not held on a leash and you have to fight with all of your will power not to lift your arms as that will trigger them to think you’re playing, when in reality you’re terrified.
Dog walkers think that we are strange for fearing dogs, but dog walkers don’t understand how to read that people are afraid of their dogs. They just allow their dogs to look at us, approach and more. I was once in the middle of a field, with a dog running towards me and I froze. I didn’t move until the owner called it back. On another route a dog threatened me two or three times. In the end I barked insults at me, for barking at me. That dog chased me into at least one field before I stopped walking that route.
If I finished a PhD In Finland I could walk around with a sword, since every PhD graduate gets a sword. Imagine if people saw me walking towards them with a sword. “Oh but you should not walk with a sword, it scares people”. “Fantastic, I’m glad you brought it up, I feel the same way about your dogs.”
Why should people who are afraid of dogs be forced to overcome their fear of being attacked by a dog on every walk. I stopped walking all of the routes where people do not control their dogs. I often take a third, and sometimes even a fourth alternative on a walk, to avoid walking by dogs. I fear dogs. I’d rather walk an extra kilometre than confront my fear every single day.
It isn’t fair to force people who are afraid of dogs to overcome their fear on every walk they do.
When you go for a walk you always see “Attention au chien”, or other such warnings. People on the one hand warn you about dangerous dogs when you’re near their home, but then if you’re walking they bark, snarl and threaten you and you’re meant to be happy and relaxed. Dogs are sadistic creatures. I much prefer cats, foxes, and other animals. Either a cat wants to be petted, or it sprints away. Foxes see you, and run away. Chamois and other animals see you and run, if you get too close.
Dogs threaten us, but we’re meant to know how to be around them. It’s the only animal I encounter on walks that threatens me. Dogs are the only animals that approach when they are afraid.
And Finally
There is a rule on plenty of paths that says “Dogs must be kept on their leads” and owners do not obey this rule. The result is that dogs run towards me and I have to overcome my fear. In some cases I yell, Dogs respond to yelling. So do the owners. If you yell at a dog it stops approaching. The owner then calls the dog back. I wish dog owners would be considerate of people with a fear of dogs.