The padding, it did nah-thing!

So, I rode to work and back yesterday and again today. Covered 63km in two days - not too bad for an old codger who hasn't done a bike ride longer than a few km since I was in my 20's!

However, I made a pretty big mistake yesterday setting up the bike - I didn't test!

I put the new seat on with the taller post, added an old t-short for padding and oiled the chain and gears. The bike ran better, the increased height helped but needed to be higher. Biggest issue? The new seat is smaller, narrower and worst of all - made of a harder compound than the original! I didn't realise because I didn't test yesterday, but I realised my mistake before I even reached the end of our driveway - and it's a short driveway! The t-shirt basically did nothing for me.

Rode in to work, scrounged around afterwards for anything else I could use for padding and wrapped it on with tape. It didn't help much, but was a slight improvement for the ride home.

Interestingly, my time kind of improved. Yesterday the ride there was 1 hour 11 minutes in the morning, then 1 hour 18 minutes on the way home (hotter, more humid and more traffic to deal with). Plus there is one nice long downhill stretch on the way to work, which translates into a horrible uphill stretch on the way home - so a longer time on the return journey is expected. The interesting part is today my time was 1 hour 14 minutes there (bit longer, with the harder and more uncomfortable seat, plus the wear on the body from not recovering from the previous day's ride) but my time home was also 1 hour 14 minutes. Which means that after three previous rides I was able to shave four minutes off my return journey, even with the uncomfortable seat.

After I got home I did another swap - kept the new taller post (and increased the height again), put the original wider seat back on and added two layers of foam padding, with a layer of plastic to try and keep the sweat off and help the foam last a bit longer. This time I took it for a test ride after completing the adjustments and it feels a lot better.

Not "good", but better. Might need to look into gel padded seats or something in the future, depending on what is available in my budget range. Tomorrow morning's ride should be enlightening. Is the new padding sufficient, or is it still too hard?

Giving up OGame, again

 I think my last "going to stop playing OGame" post was in about 2019. And I probably had a few more before that too. I'm not sure why I keep coming back to it, probably because I've invested about six years into my current account. I'm ranked #403 in the world (last time I checked) but that's probably more due to other people moving on rather than due to any great skill or effort on my part. I doubt I'll be able to get much higher or crack into the three hundreds due to the effort levels between each rank. I'm happy when I build a big mega-ship on each of my planets, but I've been attacked by players with fleets of thousands of mega ships (and that's fleets with an "s" - plural).

The downside (upside?) of the game mechanics is that when you get attacked, the attacker can destroy all your defenses, blow up all your ships and steal all your resources, but the resource generators on the planets are untouchable. So if you get totally wiped out, you can just rebuild. So long as you're willing to invest the time and effort, there is no lose condition. By that same metric, there is also no win condition either. You can only keep playing, or stop playing.

So I'm back to giving up, again, The current plan is to keep logging in every now and then in order to keep the account active so that others can raid the planets. I'll probably log in at some stage and see a pile of resources there and start rebuilding again, but for now I'll try and keep my hands off it.

Because when it comes to games like this, the line between time "invested" and time "wasted" is very thin. On the plus side, I never spent any money on it, so there's that.

Making puppets

 No idea why, but lately I've been watching a lot of videos on how to make puppets. All sorts of different types, ranging from the "cut up old shag carpet" muppets-style monsters, to foam latex insanely-complex articulated full-feature puppets to finger puppets and "kids can make it at home from old socks" style puppets.

It's a bit silly, because although I could just use the camera on my phone (or the actual video camera that I have) to record puppet shows for free, it would still need sets, backgrounds, lighting and who knows what else to put something halfway decent together. Great if there is plenty of spare cash lying around, not so good for my circumstances.

The biggest issue is that a single puppet doing on thing on the screen is inherently boring. So I'd need some fellow puppeteers in order to have two or more characters on the screen at one time. Or green screen it and try to do the puppets separately and then composite them together. That's something I can totally do, it's just a lot of extra work... and I don't have a green screen. I used to, but I sold it years ago along with my other camera gear.

I don't know how much of a puppet-making community in this town, but I don't see it being a huge hive of activity. We're not exactly known for creative endeavors. I've also had a look at fabric prices, and that stuff isn't in the "buy a bunch on a whim" range.

Maybe have a look at animation, again? I did have a bit of a go back in 2017 (and 2007 if we count my Lego stop-motion, but I no longer have the Lego and trying to do stop motion in a house with four cats is an exercise in futility!)

Poke-walk

 Did a first walk with the new account this morning. Went up a few levels, caught a few more pocket monsters and tagged a few pokey stops.

I've got some wooden nickels coming in, blank. And a bit of photopolymer sheet which I hope I'll be able to use to make some nice stamps for the wooden nickels. I have an idea for the design I want to do, but I want to make sure that it doesn't come across as advertising (which lets face it, it totally would be). Might need to put a bit more thought into the design.

I've also got loads of ideas for hides, but I need a workshop to build stuff in. Too many targets, never enough hours in the day (or enthusiasm in the tank)... :(

Missed out

Currently there's verge collection going on here and loads of rubbish is being put out for the council to take away. Mixed in are a few nice bits as well.

Walking the dogs this morning I found what looks like a garage cleanout. Which included heaps of bits of timber - boards, off cuts, scraps and lots of spare bits. And they pretty much looked all new! Would love to have grabbed the lot (or at least the bigher ones), but we don't really have the space for it. It'll probably be gone by the time I'd gotten back there anyway. Sad... maybe next year.

Latest hobby - cross stitch

Here I go again, off chasing a new dream.

After many years of looking for and trying out different creative outlets, I'm giving cross stitching a go. I've tried writing (I like the idea of it, but have no passion so all my writing comes out flat), drawing (also like the idea of it, but don't practice enough to improve), music (both digital and on physical instruments - digital came out extremely simple and synthetic, physical I don't practice enough to play properly), making stop-motion video (with LEGO - fun product but requires a lot of time and effort), actual video (I suck in front of the camera and suck at convincing others to get in front of the camera) and artisanal stuff (woodworking, metal working, a touch of painting - all have the same issue: not enough funds for tools / supplies and more importantly no work space).

So now I'm giving cross stitching a try. It's something that (so far) has been relatively easy for me, but it's time consuming and requires patience so it can look impressive to others. I've only completed two small projects so far (cheap little all-included beginner kits) and I had fun putting them together. I currently have five ideas that I'd like to put together, but we'll see how I go.

Went shopping today for supplies and bought a quantity of string (sorry, the proper term is "floss") in a few colours. I have some patterns saved that I used some free on-line tools to go from digital design to pattern (may need to print them out). Next step is getting a hold of some cloth, without breaking the budget.

Like most of my projects, I just need to focus on doing a few smaller things first to improve my skill and get better rather than trying to go all-in on an overly complex single piece and then not finishing it. We'll see how I go! 

Changed circumstances

Writing: for this years' NaNoWriMo, I'm giving myself every opportunity to meet the deadline by ... cheating? Sort of. Instead of doing it across one month, I'm pushing it out across the whole year. Slightly ahead right now, but it remains to be seem how much time will be available on the schedule. Budget: $0 - but all I need is my laptop anyway. Do snacks count? No matter, budget is still zero.

Photography: ditto for time, but this hobby is more relaxed and has no timeframes. Budget: $0 - though I could spend a few thousand every month on buying new gear if I had the money. Should spend less time online looking at lenses...

Guitar: in limbo, until the guitar arrives. Once it arrives, we'll see how much time I can devote to it. Fingers crossed the humidity up here doesn't kill the guitar. :( The key for me I think will be regular practice. Budget: $0 - but there are loads of great resources on line. A bonus; found out I can use bread tags (the little plastic thingy that keeps the bread bag closed) in lieu of a pick. But if I want to splurge, I can get 10 for $1 from eBay - including postage!