Category: Well-being

Enjoying the Warm Weather With a Bicycle Ride

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Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4.5, 1/2900 sec, ISO200
 “Kites” Cedar Park, 2021

This afternoon I took advantage of the warm weather to go for a long bicycle ride along Brushy Creek Regional Trail. When I ride on this busy path, I wear my mask 95% of the time. Of course I want to be safe during this COVID-19 pandemic, but also, it helps with allergies (as my brother reminded me). Besides wearing my mask, I also held my breath most of the times I passed by people. By riding on the relatively busy trail, I’m taking a risk, but I think wearing a mask, wearing glasses (yes, there’s a study that says this helps with safety), keeping socially distant when possible, and also holding my breath when passing people, I think the chance of catching COVID-19 is very small.

That being said, it was nice to see a lot of bicycles on the trail, from little kids to older folks. I even saw some teens cosplaying and wearing elf ears! The weather was very nice: low 70s, cloudy, with a gentle breeze. It was really cool to see kites flying above the park! By the way, it wasn’t as ominous as the photo above looks – but it’s just too fun to play with the post-processing in Adobe Lightroom. 😄

I’m happy that I live close enough to this trail that I can bicycle from my house and be there in 10 minutes or so. But even if I didn’t live close, it’s easy to access the trail by car at many points along the route.

At the eastern terminus of the trail I took a photo with my bike. Several years ago, I took a photo at the same place, so I thought it might be nice to do so again.

Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4.5, 1/100 sec, ISO320
 “End of Trail” Cedar Park, 2021

I recorded this ride on my GoPro, so please join me (virtually) on the trail if you have time:

I hope you had a great day!

Slice of Life Blogging

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I like this post from artist and author Austin Kleon about how today’s mundane and boring items might become interesting in the future. It’s kind of how I’ve approached my blog for a while now. There’s nothing earth-shattering or click-worthy in my slice-of-life posts, but they may be of interest in the future, specifically to my descendants that I will never know.

Several years ago, I realized that I don’t know anything about my great grandparents besides their names, and it made sad. I would love to know how they lived… even reading some of their journal pages would be super-interesting to me! So perhaps one of my descendants would enjoy reading about our lives from the early 21st century.

What you think is boring now may be interesting in the future

In the spirit of this slice-of-life mindset, here’s a little video I made of my morning routine… putting away the dishes and making coffee in the company of our cat, Anko:

I hope you have a great day!

Silent Bicycling Videos

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“Bicycle Video” Cedar Park, 2021

こんばんは。How’s it going?

So, since getting my GoPro, I’ve been making little annotated videos of my bicycling or riding my motorcycle. It’s really fun to do, but I’m sure it’s super-boring to watch. In fact, I don’t even watch them after I’ve uploaded them. But not only are they fun to make in Premiere Pro, but they force me to think a little bit more about what I did, and maybe I can self-reflect on things while I’m at it. I guess my blog also serves this purpose as well as just simply documenting my daily life.

So without further ado, here’s today’s video:

If more of these videos interest you, here’s a link to my YouTube channel, where you can find the “Silent Bicycling” videos, as well as my time-lapses, etc.

Lunch Break Bicycle Ride

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Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/1900 sec, ISO200
 “Afternoon Bicycle Ride” Cedar Park, 2021

The weather was awesome today, so I decided to go on a bicycle ride on my lunch break. It was so nice to get some sun! I felt full of energy when I got back to work, just like Wall•E after recharging. 😄

I recorded my bicycle ride if you’d like to come along virtually:

I hope you had a great day! またね～

Writing by Hand

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Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4.5, 1/80 sec, ISO3200
 “Green” Cedar Park, 2021

Today’s snapshot if of my Pilot Kakuno and Iroshizuku Chiku-rin ink. I am really enjoying this combination!

For 2021 (and for the previous month) I’ve been writing and doodling in my Traveler’s Notebook. It’s a fun experience, and very different for digital note-taking and drawing for me. I think digital has many advantages over analog, but writing by hand is kind of… heartwarming? Good for the soul? A connection to reality? I can’t explain so well, but I think it adds something positive to my daily life and rounds out my well-being.