Italian course, check. It was time. I’d engrained the habit and racked up points on Colorado mountain tops, while van traveling, late at night at home…
Maybe that’s why I considered keeping the streak going even though it wouldn’t benefit me anymore. A sign I was in a groove, but also that I was attached to the streak.
How many activities do we continue only because we’ve done them forever? A valuable question.
Twisting About, Edition 99 features:
-10% slower, 90% safer
-Mining, visualized
-Dreams around the world
-T rex's least favorite game
Onward!
Dakota
Moss on the top side means north is south, right? Toured a new trail system with my buddy Jesse this week. Spring riding is on!
Slower, safer, more fun?
I love to ride my mountain bike fast. Zipping through the trees with a friend on my tail is exhilarating and lights up my adrenaline junkie circuits. It’s one of my favorite things.
It’s also dangerous. I’m lucky to have escaped major crashes, but any mishaps surprised me when I was hanging it all out there.
What if dialing back the intensity juuuust a hair multiplied the safety factor without reducing the fun?
A few years ago, I started doing that. Instead of constantly ripping along at a breakneck pace on trails, I dropped my speed 10%.
An almost unnoticeable adjustment…that magically transformed a dangerous activity into one where I don’t risk breaking a collarbone on every dusty turn.
10% slower, 90% safer. AND the fun factor isn’t lower!
In fact, at slower speeds I spot new lines to ride and rocks to hop over. An expanded playground! It’s more fun in some ways, plus I’m not as tired after rides.
This feels so obvious in retrospect that I almost feel dumb. (Stop shaking your head at me, wise elders!) But hey, what is Traipsing About if not a repository of the mistakes of an evolving human?
Good reminder to think about why we're talking (and what we need) when we choose to open our mouths.
The side effects of mining
Paraphrasing famed investor Warren Buffett regarding his thoughts on gold: “You buy a bunch of metal. Years later, you have that chunk of metal. If you'd bought the same value in companies or cropland, you'd have all the stuff they produced!”
What Warren doesn't mention is how much mining tears up the earth, all for a rather small result. Luckily, there are artists likeDillon Marsh, who photoshopped the amount of metals extracted from various South African mines into photos of the actual mines. So much damage for so little...and the diamond mine is way worse!
West Rand Gold Field, 102 million troy ounces of gold
Your weird dreams are...normal
Think you dream differently than people? Maybe…I don’t know what kinda screwed up things float through your mind at night!
Thanks to an analysis of Google searches about dreams, I DO know the most common dream is about snakes. 2nd most common: teeth falling out (Northern countries frequently have this).
Then there’s Albania dreaming of breasts, Mexico with ex-relationships, and Greece with…hats??? Fascinating.
