The Week #147

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  • Last week I wrote about starting by walking instead of running. It worked. I closed all of my  rings for 7 days in a row! I've not noticed any real physical changes, but it's kept me positive. The main way I've been able to close them is a 2km walk in the afternoons. These walks have also given me good opportunity to think through work tasks without distraction (fidgeting to Slack), as an added bonus.
  • On the "lets close my rings" kick, I did a couple of body weight workouts on Apple Fitness+ and it reminded me how much I used to liked lifting weights. When I was working with a trainer, my favorites were the kettlebell. Kettlebells are nice as they're compact, only require one piece of equipment, and can be used to train your entire body.

    I looked at a local sports shop, but they didn't have any. Searching on Amazon, I couldn't quite decide. The reviews of the cheaper ones said they're welded together, so there's sharp(!) edges inside the handle. That'd be the absolute last thing you'd want when you swinging it / moving it about.

    Further searching around the internet I found Ito-gen, a small local manufacturer in a foundry town in Mie prefecture (check out their workshop). I ended up buying a 16kg bell from them via Amazon (they have their own store there). All of the reviews were great. I feel a bit bad for the delivery guy for when it's ready.
  • In an effort to read about something that's not tech or climate related, I bought 4 issues of Grow by Ginko. It's a magazine about "synthetic biology" and it's really good and bending my mind a bit. While it would be great if we could eat and only grow heirloom plants/vegetables, that's not always possible in a globally connected society. For example, the American chestnut tree got mostly wiped out because a fungus that was brought over to America on a Japanese chestnut tree. They've made an American chestnut tree that's resistant to the fungus by putting in a single gene from wheat, which will allow the American chestnut tree to survive and live on.
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