Dex 🔞

So, a friend asked me a question about my exercise routine, and I thought it might be helpful to put that down in more than 500 characters. (And apparently it's a writing day).

We used to follow at least the exercise component of The Hacker's Diet - getting in at least 15 mins a day in the morning, before work - before we changed jobs to one which required a commute that started a lot earlier. We never picked that back up, even as circumstances changed - but these roles required a decent amount of walking to and from the bus stop, every single day - and that was enough.

And then, March 2020 happened.
Our job became at home all the time (save a brief return to the office stint last year that upper management now seems to have completely forgotten about).
The only thing that kept us active, the only reason we left the house some days, was Pokémon Go.

In late 2022, a friend - an artist, a fantastic community creator and leader, and one of the most positive influences in our lives - announced her intentions to exercycle while streaming cartoons, three times a week, three episodes per session, to keep a consistent schedule and for those exercises to be accountable.

In June 2023, I started joining in with those streams more regularly as a viewer - as the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic episodes had finally got ahead of the point where I originally stopped watching the series. ¹

And in August, I bought the absolute cheapest garbage AS SEEN ON TV exercise bike that'd take our weight.
(We didn't initially know if we'd stick with it - something a little more expensive might have been better for a better saddle)

And we've stuck to that same schedule since; every Monday, Tuesday, and Friday, we do what we can.
Sometimes that's not much; we've overdone it on the Sunday, or bad leg is playing up after Monday's session. Sometimes that friend is unavailable and we'll stick to the schedule ourselves while they're busy.
We post our results after every session - but I never look back at the numbers; the goal here is more maintenance than muscle. The important part is just... trying - and then reporting on what was done.

It turns out there's a reason why the most common bit of exercise advice is to tell a friend that you're doing so.

1. If I have one regret with this whole thing apart from putting too much time and energy into Pokémon Go, it's not joining in sooner. Missed some very good series, and more importantly the conversations that would have come from them.

key impressions i'm getting from reviews i've seen so far

• in the ways this is ahead, it feels next generation
• the software is currently surprisingly janky, but it still puts the quest's UI and available non-game apps to shame
• various things are held back either by
  • apple's ambition (one strap is extra comfortable in back but has no top strap because it looks nicer - while the other strap has a top strap but is worse in back. there is no way to use both of them at the same time)
  • apple's avarice (i wonder if netflix would have been more willing to make an app if apple had not spent years demanding their pound of flesh. an indie dev had to make their own youtube app)
  • apple's desire for control (the face and eye tracking is really good, but is as far as I know unusable outside of the Persona feature - so VRChat can't take advantage when/if it gets ported)
  • flying too close to the sun (they might be best in class, but displays and cameras are still displays and cameras)

in a similar vein as the ipad 1 and the apple watch series 0, i'd expect a lot of these to be ironed out by the time there's a version of this that regular people should even think about. this is not that version, by any stretch

as for the current hardware, some of this can be fixed with software updates. some with accessories, whether apple makes them or third parties step up. but some of this can only be fixed if either it reaches the "too big to ignore" point or apple suddenly decides to be less of an asshole to devs, but given the response to the Digital Markets Act it's very clear that they'll do things in the most petulant way possible while kicking and screaming at every step, and they will absolutely deserve whatever piece of heavier legislation comes next

• a new era of glassholes is already upon us, and i give it a few days before someone is hit by a car while encountering dinosaurs or playing the version of synth riders they've got.
  if a version of pokemon go is released for this , then it could cause the kind of casualties it hasn't done since 2016/2017

and yet still. this is ambient, just having whatever you want around you. if you can get your work done with ipad apps and they're compatible, you can have a workspace pretty much anywhere. i can imagine things like a maps app overlay being useful for actually being able to see what important landmarks are close in a way just seeing on a 2D map might not be

• i wonder what the point will be where like airpods the switch will suddenly flip and it's just normal seeing these in public rather than a novelty - or if there even will be one given that even if they halved the price for a future "budget" version, that's still $1750

• both this review and marques's current final review mention that in the brief time they've owned it, they forgot some of the windows aren't real when interacting with others or after taking the headset off. i've done this before, but that was after some very long nights at furality

so, go fest 2023 happened

a reminder that sometimes this game, when it works (conceptually and technically) it works; it may never be what it was in 2016 but it can still bring people together

i have never seen so many people in one place looking down at their phones

possibly a longer write up once i'm back home

oh yeah, never did do the longer write up on this (i've been feeling not great since)

as i've said before, go is a game i have a love/hate relationship with

i love that it provided an incentive to go out and walk during parts of the pandemic where i would have otherwise stayed home
i love it as an excuse to go to different places for major events

i hate how hostile it can be to rural and disabled players
(and i'm increasingly finding myself more in that second category, having been in the first for a while)

and it's nice to have part of a weekend to explore part of a city i've not been to in years ¹
to meet up with friends i've only known from discord
to be around a whole lot of people genuinely excited for a thing
to experience "oh, this is what this game is like if played in a major metropolitan area rather than the outskirts of town"
to avoid being reminded of some of the bad decisions made, mostly

but also looking at it now i wonder how sustainable this is for niantic

i fall into the category of players who's spending dropped off a cliff following the changes made in march
i still spend around the game (bus tickets to go to strange new places, greggs)
but go fest is the first time in months i've given niantic any amount of cash higher than £2 per month
if there's a significant amount of others are in the same boat, i wonder how long niantic can make do with basically nothing for months and then something
(baring in mind the something also has to cover park rental, event staff, portaloos, props, etc.)

1. even as a city i generally do not like, but eh, i made some progress on burying the hatchet

so, go fest 2023 happened

a reminder that sometimes this game, when it works (conceptually and technically) it works; it may never be what it was in 2016 but it can still bring people together

i have never seen so many people in one place looking down at their phones

possibly a longer write up once i'm back home