It would seem that this will be the summer of barbecues because of the amount of meat leftover from last night. With a friend, we went over to France and bought four kilos of meat, a nice little quantity. Too much for two friends to eat in one sitting but that’s what happened last night.
Out of curiosity I wanted to see whether a Facebook invite to a barbecue would be enough, in Switzerland to have a party and it appears it wasn’t. As a result of this, I have a kilo of sausages and a kilo of chicken leftover to enjoy but there’s no way I’m going to get through that in one sitting so I’m going to have a series of barbecues over the next two or three days.
After a long but great day of work I came home to do The Twitter Vox show with Loudmouthman and two guests. We were joined by Goldie Katsu and Malburns. We discussed what it’s like to reach 3000 tweets and the conversation moved towards the advantages of using twitter when part of global communities like Second Life. We had some interesting insights and the conversation progressed well. It’s a good show and can be found here.
additionaly the show was featured on the front page of operator 11.
Yesterday I went for a bike ride. By my norms it was a relatively cool day, just 27 or so degrees, compared to the 30-37°c I have ridden in, in the past. I was comfortable on the bike, with a cool breeze to cool me down.
I went by the lake and I think other people were heat struck. They were lethargic and inattentive getting off buses. They were all by the lake side, sunbathing like marine iguanas. As I road by the lake it was sometimes frustrating to see that the bike lane was used by pedestrians, with no thought to cyclists. The same pedestrians who had driven to the lake side in a car.
Relaxing at the Broken Chair
As part of the bike ride I went towards Geneva. Initially I wanted a short bike ride because I wasn’t keen to cycle. I eventually chose to ride to the broken chair. I stopped, but this time didn’t take a shower in the fountains, like last time. Instead I relaxed, and watched tourists taking self-portraits and group photos. I watched a parent get surprised by a jet of water as it increased in intensity and wet his shoes.
For some reason I felt relaxed, so I just stood, and watched. I wasn’t in a rush to continue. I wasn’t so warm that I wanted a shower. I was comfortable.
I then cycled towards the ICRC before going by the ILO, WHO, UNICED and other organisations. I then cycled by the airport where I stopped again. I watched a Qatar airways flight take off for Doha and a flight from the Aeggean come in to land, before an Air Algérie and British Airways aircraft landed. I was reminded of how much I love the sound of aviation. If I had the sound of aviation rather than music festivals I would be very happy. The sound of planes still excites me to this day.
Very Quiet Ride through Versoix and Beyond
What struck me once I felt Geneva behind was how quiet the roads were. I hardly crossed any walkers, any cyclists, any families with children. I hardly even crossed dog walkers. When I realised this I thought “This is a fantastic time of year to cycle. It’s so nice to have the landscape to myself. Not to worry about dogs, not to be frustrated by normal people, being normal. I think that I would quite happily emigrate to somewhere less densely populated, especially now, during a pandemic with no end date.
The Cycling Paradox
For me, cycling has a paradox. The paradox is that for as long as you are cycling at 20 km/h or faster you have a nice breeze to keep you cool. The moment you stop, you feel a wall of heat envelope you. I felt cool, and comfortable but I drank three water bottles of water. I drank one on the way to Geneva, then refilled one at the water fountain near the Parc Ariana, before heading to the ICRC. I then drank two more water bottles of water before I got home.
I was warm, and I was thirsty, but I was always comfortable. I was right to have two bottles of water with me, and I was even more rational, by re-filling my primary water bottle when I had the chance. I probably would have suffered if I had not.
The Mistake of Others
Other people make the mistake of sitting in the sun, by the lake, getting dehydrated and cooked by the sun, like Marine iguanas. I appear crazy, for walking and cycling in the heat but I’m not the one drinking alcohol and exposing me to the full strength of the sun. I don’t need to get into a metal box, either a car, or a bus, at the end of my activity. I just take the lift, with my bike, and get back to my apartment. It usually feels cool, compared to being in direct sunlight.
My skin felt cool, when I got home, evidence that I was not suffering from the heat, unlike other people.
At Ease On The Bike
Activities: 33
Distance: 1,014.9 km
Elev Gain: 7,433 m
Time: 44h 27m
I have spent fourty four and a half hours on the bike, covering a thousand kilometres in that time. If I feel more comfortable, that’s why. Cycling is a good sport when the conditions are good. It’s also a way of being active, without the use of the car. As convenient as cars are, I think they’re horrible to deal with. Society would gain a lot by reducing its reliance on cars. I think cargo bikes and electric bikes are a better alternative.
And Finally
For the next week I don’t think I will cycle. I have already been crashed into by a car driver whilst riding my scooter during one music festival. I don’t want to be run over by a Paléo person during this festival week. I will also be sleep deprived due to being unable to sleep as a result of noise pollution, as the sound engineers they hire at music festivals are not the brightest of the profession. If they were bright music festivals would be seen, not heard.
Networking around Pokemon Go is less interesting now that everyone plays the game. I have heard non geeks talk about Pokemon Go. They spoke about the large crowds that are staring at their phones in places like Ouchy. The value of social movements is to be part of a small, passionate group of players where the community is large enough to be fun but not so large as to become mundane.
With a game like Ingress players were more sparsely distributed. When we met other players there was an immediate connection because we were few and far between. You would walk around certain cities and villages and you would not spot other players for hours of game play. When you met another player you wanted to meet, you wanted to interact.
Communities are fun when they are small. Pokemon Go has risen in popularity at such a rate that old social networks may be privilieged over new ones.
I was at the Chateau de Prangins a few days ago playing ingress for a short period of time raising the level of Ingress portals. During this time I saw at least 5-10 adolescent boys playing Pokemon Go, walking and running around the park.
Pokemon Go is like alcohol or snowboarding. As everyone plays the game the opportunity to create new social groups is reduced. Why mix with new people when your core group of friends is already playing?
The Facebook, telegram, slack and Google Hangout groups are alive and well this summer so people are connecting with new people. Although a new network of people is forming around this game I feel that it is hindered by the popularity of the game. Introverts can connect online via these groups, Meeting new people face to face may not be as comfortable due to the large crowds.
It’s great that a location based game is encouraging people to run around while staring at their phones. Phone screen replacement companies are very happy with the increase in demand for their skills and external battery sales are going up. Prices are going to go down and innovation is going to go up. If you’re an introvert, bad at small talk, then Pokemon Go has reached its peak usefulness and you can revert to other less popular activities. You can skip the craze.
Today I passed an order through the online apple store and within a number of weeks I should get one of the top of the range machines and I’m really looking forward to it. The Ram isn’t maxed out but that’s because I’m going to upgrade that from an other distributor from whom I can get it cheaper.
I’m also getting final cut studio 2 and that should be a great convenience for learning how to use all the software I need for professional purposes. I’m impatient for it now but it’s going to take time to come so I have to be patient… need to find something to distract me for a period.
I’ve had an editing system at home which started with Adobe premiere 4.5 and the miro dc30+ and a hi8 camera, upgraded to a PC7 camera for a trip to Tanzania in 2000. That’s when I was editing on the DHR 1000 editing deck where I learned a great deal about tape to tape editing. From there I upgraded to Premiere 5.0, 5.1 and on before giving up on Windows editing. In 2003-4 I upgraded to the Ibook with FCP which worked far better than anticipated. Now I’m waiting for my most recent editing system.
Over the years I’ve seen a great change in equipment and the price. As I was at school working on Hi8 it took several years before I was able to edit the footage I had shot. Editing systems could cost thirty thousand swiss francs per BetaSP decks. Now it’s gone down in price and people get a nice home setup.
During the FIFAD event I was invited by one of the people I was working alongside to try paragliding. This is a sport that I have thought about trying for more than a decade by now. Many years ago I bought a book about the theory of flying parapente and I have often watched them take off from places like the peaks near Lucerne, from St Hilaire du Touvet, land close to home and more.
I was invited the previous evening and the next day I went to the zone where they were landing and I watched them fly and then land. Some were novice fliers. Some of them were learning to land within a small circle and others were flying in tandem. I spoke to the person and he told me to come back at 1500 so I had two or three hours to occupy.
During the wait I took some pictures of Parapente as they flew around and when I saw the paragliders flying where they are in the image above that is where I wanted to go. I saw them ascend and as their flights were lasting so long I thought that the wait would be longer than anticipated. They had found some rising air and were playing with the backdrop that you see in these images.
When it was finally time to get in to the minibus to go up I was worrying about how the motion of paragliding would affect me and I was thinking about whether I was scared or not. I seemed to be impatient rather than scared. I felt excited and happy to have such an opportunity. Two years ago when someone asked me whether I wanted to go ice diving as there was a space free I had said no, that I did not feel ready. That friend had said that there would always be next time. Before “next time came up he died on a professional dive”. It is for this very reason that I really wanted to grab this opportunity.
The image above shows the zone from which we took off. To the right you have the Tour D’Aï and to the left you have the Diablerets. The fields are near a farm where the farmer processes cow’s milk to make cheese and other products before bringing it down to the valley. At this point I asked about the safety briefing. It was short and to the point. As a climber the thing that surprised me is the notion that you are using a “seat” rather than a harness. You wear the seat without tightening it. You sit in that seat for the flight. I was also told to lean forward and to walk/run forward when I felt the sail go up.
When the sail went up I felt that we were pulled backwards a little before we started moving forward. Within just two or three steps we were flying. We banked right to try to find a thermal but as this failed we banked left towards Les Diablerets towards the trees near the Creux Du Champ to find ascending air. The feeling as you head towards the trees relatively close to the tree tops is a strange feeling. I also noticed that I felt motion sickness at one or two moments but I quickly made sure to look in the direction of travel rather than the other way.
As we flew I could hear some beeping from my right shoulder. I had my gps watch on my wrist tracking the flight out of curiousity but the device I could hear indicated whether we were gaining or loosing altitude. The faster it beeped the faster we were rising.
Finding ascending air was a challenge. The pockets were very small so we had to be patient, turning and travelling until we found the right pockets of air. Eventually we did rise quickly. That was an interesting feeling. You see the ground get further away and you feel as if you are not moving that fast. You look at the chalet and the cliffs. At one moment you are below them and two or three passes later you rise above them and then you see the chalet at eye level and then you are above them. We turn again and we catch another thermal and we rise to the half way point, a picnik table with a view over the Creux de Champ. Eventually we were at 1800m in altitude and I wished I had taken a thicker layer as it started to be colder up there. I didn’t want to interrupt the flight just because I was a little cold though.
Eventually it was time to head back to the landing zone and the festival, for another night of work. On the way back, above the village I was allowed to pilot for a bit. I tried a right turn and then a left turn and then I gave the controls back to the pilot. We did two corkscrews and pulled two and a half g’s. The feeling was fun.
We landed on our feet and it was soft, softer than when you jump. The flight lasted about 45 minutes. Not bad for a first flight. The GPS track from that flight is here. I want to fly again. I enjoyed the sensation. The people I flew with are from paraventure. Flights range in price from 120.- CHF for a discovery flight to 200.- CHF for a thermal flight. They also do via ferrata, canyoning and other sports.
From friendships and the people we meet so our knowledge of authors increases. It is through English literature classes that I learned to appreciate Milan Kundera. I read all his books over a period of years. Following a conversation with an Albanian friend I heard of Ismail Kadare. He originally wrote in Albanian and French, living in Paris for many years.
The two books I have read so far are Spiritus and Les Tambours de L’automne. Both of these books are interesting in their own right. Spiritus is interesting because it’s taking a look at the effect that being a listening spy can have on how you feel others perceive you. It’s an eye opening book into the world of spying that is not often discussed in books. Les Tambours de L’Automne is based on a key moment in Albanian history several centuries ago. It’s only near the end that you understand the title.
Now I’ve started to read L’Hiver de la Grande Solitude and so far I’m enjoying it. It was completed in the mid 1970’s and within the thirst few pages I found what I love. There is a description of a photographer and film developer who is about to retire. He was developing photographs of a personality and as he did so he noticed something different. Upon closer inspection he realised that the expression he read on the photographed person’s phase was one of concern.
Ismail Kadare reads better in French and finding his works can be a challenge so whenever I drop into a bookshop I look to see what they have available hoping to find one or two of his books. It’s a shame that his writings are not easier to find.
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