My phone bricked today. I'm out of town at my in-laws, so I have not been able to investigate what happened. It was a Nexus 5x running an alternate android build with very few apps on it. I found out I can get a used 5x replacement on ebay for ~$40 (US), super cool. It is a good phone, no need for anything newer.

Anyway, I have kind of stepped away from the computer a lot more lately. As the snows have melted and mostly stopped sticking when we do get a storm I have been trying to be outside hiking or at a park with my daughter more often. I have also, for the first time in my life, been sticking to an exercise routine. I am doing a calisthenics routine three days a week. It took some tweaking to work out rep/set counts and modifications for various exercises, but after an initial injury pretty quickly (lol) I have gotten going on something sustainable for me that should see me getting in better shape. I'm a tall thin guy, but not muscular at all... I'd like to improve my general physical condition and I think it is going well so far.

In addition to the exercise I have, along with my wife, been taking Wing Chun martial arts classes (online). We are about a month and a half in. They are going well. It is still early days and since it is a traditional style martial art it mostly starts out with form work and some partner exercises. But, unlike many Wing Chun branches, this branch encourages sparring with practitioners of other arts starting at the 1 year mark and sparring with others studying the same style of Wing Chun after a few months. So we should be getting to sparring soon. Which should be fun.

Once the pandemic situation feels safe enough I plan to take Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu as well. There is a place that seems pretty good on the mountain (where I live), so I wont even have to drive too far. So that is awesome. That will give me a bit of grapple and a bit of striking (not that I am planning on competitive fighting or anything - too old and honestly just not that guy - but I like the idea of trying a few different things). That is sort of a background to the exercise routine. The Wing Chun I can do in my current shape, but I think being in better shape will help with eventual BJJ. Once my daughter can get vaccinated or cases drop low enough to not worry about at all I'll go for it.

In the meantime I am having fun and trying to get outside as much as possible. We have been going on short hikes as often as I can convince her, my daughter, to go with me. She turns three in a few months, so we usually dont do more than 2 or 3 miles max (we dont do strollers or the like; we never did so she just understands she is expected to walk and it works out unless she is tired, in which case I'll intermittently carry her). There is a lot more water flowing in formerly dry creeks on the mountain and she loves seeing the water flowing and the life growing up around it. She has also taken a recent interest in animal tracks, so we have been talking about what different tracks are. I'm not always sure... but I can generally tell her if it is: dog, bird, deer, rabbit, or small mammal (squirrel, chipmunk, etc). I could also tell her a few other that we have yet to see.

We went to a small zoo near my Mom's house (down mountain) two days ago and had a great time. She liked the monkeys a bit, but mostly really loved petting goats, lol. I was happy that she was engaged and interested in general. She also rode a carousel for the first time, which was fun. She was so serious while riding but then wanted to do it again and kept talking about "riding an ostrich" (the carousel animal she rode). It is a fun, if defiant, age.

Anyway, I hope everyone out there in gopher/gemini space is doing well. Stay safe and get outside if you get a chance!

Does anyone else on here do martial arts stuff? Calisthenics? Hike? I mostly see tech talk... which is fun and interesting too... but I'd love to hear about out in the world stuff too! Reach out if you like [[sloum@rawtext.club]].