Because reasonable goals are boring

Those of you who know me in real life, or who've been around this blog for a while, might know that it's not unusual for me to decide I'm going to do something completely random and commit pretty fully to it.  Realistically if I were single, I'd prob be living somewhere they speak Spanish by now :).  However, since that's not an option (and - well - covid), I need an equivalent here.   For the moment, piano is filling that gap.

The Simply Piano app (which is not one I use) has an ad (which I see ALL THE TIME now - thanks algorithms); this ad (which I couldn't figure out how to share), shows an adult learning and being consistently shown up by his kids, and later his wife, who are enjoying the "cool game".   And honestly, while the app I've chosen isn't at all gamified, I do think that's what keeps me going.   I'm *so close* so I'll try "one more time" and an hour later, when I get it, it's that lovely dopamine boost ;).  Instant gratification for the win!

Anyways - I get SO excited and proud of myself when I get a section I've been struggling with.  And when you're a brand new beginner, there are a LOT of things to struggle with that are not actually hard, so lightbulb moments happen all the time ;-P.  I'm on the piano equivalent of Duolingo.

With that in mind, one of the YouTube people I'm learning from posted something about a version of Pirates of the Caribbean they were working on that they were finding super challenging.   So of course, I had to go see what it was.  And then promptly decided it'd be an *awesome* thing to be able to play ;)

I mean, seems plausible?

Right so, for perspective, right now I'm really struggling with the "fast part" of a simplified Cannon in D.  If you know the song at all, you'll know it's the opposite of fast.  So comparatively, this is - well - moving where they speak Spanish seems significantly more plausible even with restrictions of Covid and husband with a location-based job ;)

So I'm filing it under the "by the time I'm 50" goal.  Now, this has all kinds of challenges with it:

• I'm not emotionally ready to accept 50 is target on the horizon?!?!  Like that's very not okay.
• Most of the people who can play it well have been playing many more years than I have left between now and that completely arbitrary date.
• The ONLY things I've stuck with that number of years in my life have been writing and riding.   I'm still not convinced this will make the cut - I get that pit in my stomach feeling writing this.
• The original artist and composer (in the vid) is one of the best in the world, AND was a child prodigy.  So, you know, a totally reasonable standard for comparison.
• I looked up the sheet music (of course I did).  But I'm not even sure if the linked music is the whole thing cause it looks like there's 3 movements?!?!  I'm a little confused by that but okay.  Youtube suggests you need all 3.   Yikes.   Not just ONE impossible effort, but three.  Awesome.  The first page of each is available for preview.  Atm, I don't even slightly understand the very first note of the first movement.   So - yeah, ostentatious goal?  Slightly ;).   Maybe I should buy it now in hopes that it doesn't disappear by the time I'm good enough to play it?   (edited - looks like the original version was just the 3rd one - that's the one I saw first, so it's the *real* target.  He extended it a couple yrs ago to be all three - which is the video here, but Movement 3 is the one for me :).

I'm sorry, wtf?!?!  I have SO many questions here.
Ironically, the only thing I *do* understand is the bass clef lol ;-P

So yeah, may the odds be ever in my favour ;)

My DIY approach to learning piano

So still super-enjoying my pianoing (side note - autocorrect *really* doesn't like it when you make up words ;).  I'm at 2.5 months now.  I have average to low sense of rhythm and short stubby fingers.  lol not exactly set up for success, but enjoying it.  I'm currently averaging about an hour a day, six days a week, and it usually feels like about 10 minutes.  This post is all about the approach I'm taking to learning - so if that's not of interest (fair game!) there's a whole internet waiting for you :) 

Still lacking an actual teacher, but have two YouTube people I'm paying a lot of attention to - does that count?   lol and both have videos about risks/things to watch out for if you're learning without a teacher.  Both call out, repeatedly about technique and using the right fingers.   One of the things I *really* like about the app I'm using is that it shows fingers playing every note -- so you can see which figures you should use at any time.   While most (if not all) the apps will show the keys on the keyboard, this is the only one I know of that shows somebody playing.   I've started paying a lot of attention to it and it's definitely making a noticeable difference.   Also *ridiculously* hard to change for something I've been doing less than 3 days, so I see why it's identified as Really Important to get right.

If you take too long (like pausing to take a pic),
the orange instructions show up :)

The other thing the app really helps with is speed/rhythm.   I have sheet music for several songs I'd like to learn, but they're not the focus yet because trying to align to a metronome is an extra challenge I don't need yet.   In the app, it can play in "wait" mode - where it doesn't move till you hit the right note, or at 50%, 75%, or 100% - if you're hitting the notes when they say to, your rhythm is correct.   Super win.   Today was the first time I learned a scale that didn't have a lesson for it in the course -- I was surprised at how much extra effort it took; even though I did the exact same exercises as in the ap.  Definitely made me appreciate it.

Anyways - for the curious, here's what I'm using to learn for now:

YouTube Teachers:

• Zach Evans -- I *really* enjoy his videos, which is slightly surprising since they contain over the top enthusiasm and positivity which are not usually my thing ;).  They also have a bit of a used-car salesman feel to them, so again not usually my thing.   But somehow they work for me.  I also love that he includes training around current adult learning principles.   And I have to give a lot of credit in that he (or his social media people) actually took the time to answer an email I sent with random beginner questions, so that counts for a lot.
• Jazer Lee -- much calmer and more organized approach 😂.  Not that that's hard to do.   I use these videos less for how to play and more for what to practice and why.  Lots of stuff on what songs are good for beginners and what technical skills those songs teach.

Apps:

• Flowkey -- This is my primary learning.  Lots of songs I'm interested in, most offered at a variety of levels - but mostly overstated.  Beginner (this is me!), Intermediate (to put in perspective, this is *almost* me and will be within a couple months I expect; I'm learning one song at this level now), Advanced (to me "advanced" would be anyone who took a couple years of lessons as a kid after a week of review), and Pro (which I suspect, is anyone who actually *wanted* to take lessons as a kid and put some actual effort into them ;).     lol I could be way off, we'll see when I get to those other levels.  But that's my guess.   

It also has lessons and some basic music theory; I find the lessons frustrating once you get into them because they don't have the same features as the song practice and I'm not good enough to learn the songs quickly enough to pass the levels.   They need a practice mode.   Otherwise though, they're decent.

There are LOTS of other similar apps, but most of them are more gamified (think music hero), so you're not learning to read music, just hitting the falling dots on the screen.  Since someday I'd like to be able to play music NOT in the app, that didn't appeal to me.   Although I did wish this one had more stats and a few other options (like to stop playing if I mess up too much - which I found one app that does, but I didn't like any of the music choices, so that was a loss)

• Piano Notes -- This is just to learn to read music.  Has a few different modes, but is essentially flashcards.   I haven't used this recently and really should since I'm a long way from fluent, esp in bass clef.

• Piano Sight Reading -- I mean, as the name suggests, this is to improve sight reading.  But for one who isn't music literate to begin with, it's great for teaching the basics of reading music, understanding patterns and nuances, etc.  It uses UK terms though, which I don't know at all, so that's mildly frustrating but I figure will be helpful overall.  It's more of a testing than a teaching tool but I'm learning through the test questions ;)

Books:

• Accelerated Piano Adventures -- there are a ton of these, I'm working through the Theory, Technique, and Lesson books.   I'm about 3/4 of the way through the first level.   I don't love these, but I figure they're prob useful so I try to do about a unit / week.  These guys have a reasonable online community as well.

So that's about it.  If the world ever opens up again, I'll plausibly look into actual lessons, but that's not something I want to do virtually and I'm having fun on my own so all good :) 

Follow me down the rabbit hole ;)

Somewhere I've never needed directions to find ;)

So today I fell down the rabbit hole that is virtual reality YouTube.  Not watching VR-related vids on YouTube but rather in-headset virtual reality vid experiences.

It started with a boxing workout on the beach - now I had already finished both my workout AND a bonus workout by this point but clicked it purely out of curiosity.  It ended up being a short (5 min-ish?) mini-workout that was basic but decent; but mostly while I was doing it, I wanted to go sit on one of the lovely beach chairs and watch the ocean and soak up some sunshine instead of following the instructor lol

But then - after it ended, instead of sending me back home it went into the next video, which was the Yukon roller coaster at Canada’s Wonderland?!?  lol so random.  Yup never need to do that irl! And then, before I knew it, I was at Gringot’s (Harry Potter) Bank in the UK… and so on and so on.

So a - super interesting to me that these exist, but more interesting is how quickly I’ve become judgy about it.  If I felt like I was watching a vid, it was like the modern equivalent of a movie somebody shot filming the screen from the back of the theatre.  Conversely, if I felt I was really there - win.  One of these days, I'll seek some out on purpose and play a bit, but for today since it was just using its own algorithm to find me stuff, I stopped it pretty quickly.

Related note - after accidentally doing three workouts instead of one in VR, I'm currently sitting on the couch and my legs are already sore.   That being said, I'd like to get to the point where those workouts are ineffective again.   I feel like that's a reasonable spring goal.

Back to school?

Don't worry - no more degrees.  At least this year!   Nope - this time, I'm tackling middle school ;)

So a while back C had to take a math proficiency test which focused on curriculum up to grade 9.   Which is pretty basic, but when it’s been 20 years since you’ve done school math, you’re going to forget formulas etc.    I was one credit shy of a minor in math in uni (not by choice - they were all required as part of CS) and yet I wouldn’t expect I could pass HS math without at least a review.  So as a result he bought a book to review.   

I found said book the other day and flipped through it and was really quite amused by its teaching style.  As a result, I went to see if it were a series - I was hoping there might be a Spanish one.

Alas, while it IS a series, Spanish is not one of the topics.  However, I decided a review of middle school science might be in order and had Amazon ship me the science one, which arrived today.

So the first unit is all about scientific method - skip.  I’m pretty confident in my knowledge of that.  Next unit is Matter, Chemical Reactions, and Solutions.   Perfect - chemistry is the one of the “big three” that I never took in high school, much less uni.

The problem arose on the first page ;)

If you want to join me in middle school, the series is Big Fat Notebooks
 Link to the Science one here.

So - definition of matter, clear enough.  Middle or high school me would’ve memorized and moved on.  Adult me couldn’t get past the first definition: “anything that has mass and takes up space” - well wtf has mass and doesn’t take up space?   Or vise versa?!?!

Alas - middle school doesn’t answer that question.   Fortunately Google does ;).  Suffice to say I spent a while down that rabbit hole and now know about the existence of bosons which I really don't understand at all, but apparently are particles w mass that take no space.   Apparently things that don’t take up space but have mass is still a somewhat theoretical area of physics.  Suffice to say, I'd need a few more degrees to comprehend that rabbit hole ;).  But I now appreciate why the answer to the obvious question is not in the middle school textbook lol

So that killed a significant amount of time on the first page.  This may be more of a time commitment than I expected when I randomly ordered it as a 'quick refresher' ;).  But actually kinda looking forward to it.

Pianos are difficult to break into because they have a lot of keys.

Change comes through challenge but omg was painoing ever frustrating tonight.

So month 2 complete!   😂 -- it has certainly held my attention longer than Arial Silks did, although arguably not as good at combating the physical exercise requirement.   I am still enjoying it -- every time I start something new it's a new challenge -- this combination in this order seems mostly easy with some impossible thrown in for good luck, and the first time I get it is the same thrill and addiction as passing a hire level in Beat Saber (or whatever your video game of choice is ;)   Can I do it faster/easier/better?

While that is very much appealing, I'd also like to get to the point some day where "consistently repeatable" is an option ;).  lol I'm very much brilliance or disaster phase.  Which, lets be honest, is pretty much my approach to life so not convinced that's going to change.  😂.  My dressage coach used to strongly advice, time after time, that when I go in the ring I aim for average, since consistently average would get me better scores overall.   Whereas my tests could range from 2-9 in the same test (that actually happened, albeit only once ;) -- but what normally happened is I'd be right on the edge of awesome and blow it cause I pushed for that little bit more.   So I kinda feel the only way there's going to be consistency is to get good enough that at least some of it is easy *g*. And then be willing to do the easy stuff ;) 

Suffice to say that is not yet *sigh*.   That's where the frustration of tonight came in -- it was month two 'record for posterity' day - and while the first of the songs went well (although Tucker snoring is the backdrop for the first), two that have, at least lately, been fairly reliable (aka one or two takes at most) needed multiple tries to get acceptable.  Was pretty disappointed at that.

Now, the intelligent thing would've been to take that and call it, but brilliance or disaster - remember?  I decided that I'd record "just one more" -- which is in the category of I can usually get but is not solid yet and I'm still generally pretty excited when I pull off the "hard part" (Piano Man - of course!  😂.  Pretty sure it's a must do for any learner) -- yeah it took many more times than I wanted to admit.  Like as though I'd never gotten it before.  Super painful.  And worse - since it was for recording, that meant no headset, so my husband had to suffer through it too.

Yup, just like that.

So yeah, I'm still very much a beginner.   On the technical side I'm working through the "Piano Adventures" series of books - partially cause the name appealed to me and partially cause a friend who's also an adult beginner recommended them.  The theory interests me, the playing super-simple (yet sometimes disturbingly hard-to-me) beginner pieces I find both boring and frustrating -- it's not the best combination.  But I figure I'm probably learning something from it, so I'm targeting a chapter a week.  Between that and the scales / finger practice I figure I've got the homework part down.

I finished the 20 Day online course I was taking and while it didn't teach me what I'd expected, it did significantly increase my confidence and coordination, and I had fun with it.   I'm still working on some of the skills taught in the last couple lessons.

Otherwise, I'm really enjoying learning my beginner songs in the Flowkey app.  I took a quick look at the intermediate ones one day when I was feeling all cocky and quickly took my place back in the beginner world 😂.  lol similarly saw something cool on YouTube and looked it up - couldn't even manage the first measure.  Oops.  But some day.  The only thing I don't like is there isn't a huge selection.  Somebody needs to create an app that can do that with any sheet music.  Plausible that they have and I just haven't found it yet.  I do have one that can read it and stop/slow down/repeat -- but it still shows as sheets, so you still have to switch pages -- That's not reasonable ;-P.  And it also doesn't analyze if you're playing the correct notes, which is a feature I appreciate.

So yeah, the games continue.  We shall see :)

Cause why not?

So my wonderful papasan chair that I've had since my second apartment has finally succumbed to old age and one too many moves.   As a result, I've been looking since we moved for my next "comfy chair".  And I failed and failed to find it, but finally found one I liked at Ikea.  

I mean great right?   Ikea's accessible, they've got endless stock, and they're cheap.  All-round win.   Except that second part proved a fail.  This was about August and they were completely out of stock.  Booo.  But cool, I can wait - they'll come back...

Or maybe not?  I looked and I looked...  Not in stock anywhere within driving range.  Then not in stock in Canada.  And the closest Ikea started saying "not available" instead of out of stock.  Booo.  

Started the search again, but kept an eye on the website...  Consistent fail on both ends.   And then, magically, there were some in Ottawa.  I mean, ridiculous, but potentially doable?   Except that I was not about to drive all the way to Ottawa unless I was *sure* there was a couch there.   Website says no delivery but available for 'click and collect' -- SWEET!   Essentially that means I order and pay for it and then go pick it up.   

Except that when I went to do that, it wouldn't work?   Connected with their support and found out that the stock was too low -- they won't do it if there are less than five of an item in the store.  Booo.  

Except...  Chris has good friends in Ottawa.  Friends good enough that when C called and asked if they'd do a random Ikea trip for us, they were up to it.  An hour later - we had a pic of my couch in boxes in their car.  Woohoo!  Win.  

This was Wed night; by Thurs am, my couch was out of stock all over Canada again.   So Thurs and Fri were super busy at work, but Saturday C and I drove out to Ottawa (for non locals, that's about a 5.5h drive), driving directly past three other Ikeas and indirectly past one, to pick up the comfy couch.  Was a great day for a drive - weekend with everything closed thanks to the lovely global pandemic going on meant no traffic; it's winter, but no weather - sunny and dry the whole way.   Was great.

Not a bad day for a drive :)

Excessive?  Perhaps.  Out of character?  Not even slightly ;).  Fun, if long, road trip (we left the dogs w my parents).  Nice, albeit short, visit with friends.  And mission accomplished.   And accomplished without even bending current covid rules.

Sadly, said couch isn't nearly as comfy as the store one was :(.  It looks good, and I'm hoping when it's more broken in it'll be what I'd hoped for.  But it's def a great improvement over what was there - and big enough to enable my need for excessive amounts of pillows ;) 

Stupid should hurt ;-P

So one of my goals for this year was to finish the three stabbies I have in progress (2 that are large and challenging and 1 that's easy but grounded ;-P).  And if I were super ambitious, maybe start some of the patterns I've purchased and not come close to starting.   All good right?

In related news - I'm pretty good about checking the size of patterns and determining if I care *that much* about doing it.   Since the vast majority of my patterns end up in a drawer, I tend to go for small by default.  Quick wins are good for my mental health :) 

So what have I done?   Totally fallen in love with and purchased a new pattern without checking the size...  And you know, the fact that the options were large or extra large probably should've been a clue...   Alas, I have first day back at work brain and am now the proud owner of a pattern that when complete will be approximately 48cm x 76cm (~19"x30" for my US friends) -- and that's just the stitched portion (eg, doesn't incl space for framing etc.   

So yeah - a few years from now you might get to see this one.

It'll be awesome though.   Stay tuned ;-P

Week 3 of the piano adventure

Honestly I'm mostly writing this post to kill time till Chris is asleep enough to play my piano (with headphones on thankyouverymuch ;).  He won't hear me hitting the silent keys if he's asleep but it seems he does notice if I'm doing it while he's trying to fall asleep.  The sole reason this is worth mentioning is that I'm the lightest sleeper on the planet and this - and the light of my kindle - are the only two things I've ever seen that can interrupt his zzz's.   So mostly just amuses me.  But since I am a super light sleeper, I'll also respect the ask and wait till he's out enough to not notice.  It should take about 30 seconds or so ;-P. A skill I'll forever be envious of!

*had a great pic here of a dog sleeping through everything but a treat bag, 

but Blogger has apparently decided not to allow pictures today :(*

So interestingly, when I practice at night I play for longer and get better results.   BUT - I can’t do any of the classes (my headphones can only hear one source at a time) so slightly limiting.   I'm a few days "behind" in the 20 days as a result.  Not that that actually matters at all.  The bigger risk is that if I wait till night to play, the odds that I’ll decide I’m too tired are super high.  So most of the time I practice while C is watching the news, which I - and the dogs apparently - are quite happy to avoid.

When you’re teaching riding (and I imagine most sports, maybe most things in general) there’s a point where you accept less than perfect and don’t ask for “one more time” because you know horse or rider or both are past the point of improvement and will spiral down from that point.  Could be physical or could be mental, but the results are the same and a good coach will catch it and only push for more when there’s more to be gotten.  Well I’m learning the hard way that this applies to piano too.  And I’m sure nobody’s shocked that I push past that point and then get frustrated at how quickly things deteriorate.   Ah well - at least I’m learning the signs and since the bar is at least at ground level now there are a couple things I can actually do correctly so when I hit that point I do one of those to finish with something - anything - correct and move on.  But I’m a LOT happier and more pleased w myself when I manage to self regulate and stop on a legitimate high before I cross that line. But that doesn’t happen often ;).  It’s a fine line that’s v easy to trip over and for a complete beginner everything is hard so it’s a challenge to tell if it’s hard cause it’s new or if it’s hard cause I’m burnt.  A skill that’s *almost* transferable.

While I'm almost through the 20 day program and have gotten some stuff out of it for sure, but admittedly not as much as I'd hoped, I'm just finishing week 2 of the 20 week program.  And it's painful.  It will definitely be the "what you do before the fun stuff" part of playing.  However, I was moderately amused when I flipped back through the program materials to discover it's broken into phases.  They have proper names and real info to them but they’re also labeled: Fun, Not Fun, Fun, SUPER Fun (emphasis is theirs).    Lol and I totally get why as I’m right in the middle of not fun and can say it’s aptly labeled BUT said labels give me hope for sticking it out.

Alright - time to go play now ;).  

So... How long do I have to be a beginner for?

Okay so I'm now at two songs that I can play at full speed - sometimes.  You know, if the stars align and the moon's in Jupiter, and I'm home alone, and Sasha's not trying to get my attention, and, and, and...  lol. Except the list of songs I want to learn is piling up MUCH faster than my ability to learn them.  Let me tell you, it's a PAINFUL process.  Once I get to 50% speed, pretty much the next day is 75% and the following 100% -- but getting to that 50...  Ouch.

But anyways - I'm enjoying myself and prouder than I should be of my sincerely pathetic playing when, for some reason, I went into the app on my computer (aka web based) instead of on my iPad - which I play from.   Well this is all good, except of course none of my filters were set.  What filters? you may ask...  Well, the most important one is "BEGINNER" lol.   OMG.  My little two songs that I was oh so proud of....  Yeah, they also have intermediate, advanced, and PRO, versions.   And the pro versions sound AMAZING.  So much more texture and depth to them.  *sigh*.   Also, they're longer.  Lol I guess they realize beginners are going to be glad to get through anything -- they're not wrong ;-P.   Like kids don't start out reading War and Peace (I hope!).   

It turns out not all songs have all the levels - in fact most don't - but it seems that both my first two have all four.  SO, I've decided that in order to not be totally demoralised by this, I'm going to use it to track my progress.   At some point around the 30 day mark I will record the beginner version of each...   Then go away and learn a bunch of other things and some day when I'm ready for the intermediate version, I'll have a comparison...  Rinse and repeat ;). This is my new plan.

Oh WOW.  😂 so I went back and looked at the vids I took the day I found a plan to learn from and "officially" started (just checked - date stamped Nov 11) - I wanted to see if I had either of the songs (spoiler alert - I have 30 seconds of both) - suddenly I feel WAY better about where I've gotten to.  Which means if I ever get to the advanced level, these are going to be golden.  Right now they're just horrifying, but it already made me laugh, so that's a win. 

Also, I had a random classical song in my head that I had no idea what it was but decided I wanted to learn it.  lol well just clicking through the classics, I found it (for the curious - turned out to be Für Elise).  Alas, it does not have a beginner version.  Intermediate here I come ;).  Fortunately the other classic that I love (Cannon in D) IS available in beginner.  And every other level ;)  So there's that.   Alas, the only Christmas song I have any interest in playing is also a minimum of intermediate so you know - I'm sure that's reasonable between now and Christmas ;-P.  Brute force and stubbornness for the win?   We'll see.  

I do have hopes that eventually as I get better the learning curve for each song will be slightly less.  It'll also help if/when I get better at reading bass cleft.  Argh.  Still gets me every time.

In other news, I'm on day 14 of my 20 day course -- today was the first one I found really challenging.  I definitely took more than one try to get through parts of it and will likely have to repeat.   I'm actually pleased I made it this far without getting stuck.  While it's certainly not going to have me playing hundreds of pop songs, it DID make a lot of things click and make sense, so my "Super Easy Hit Songs" book that I purchased I actually CAN play a number of them.  Albeit slowly and painfully.  But it's fully credit to my 20 days of YouTube that I can even do that.  

Also - you read that right - I purchased sheet music?!?!  😂 that might be a first since I'm quite certain my parents and/or high school financed all of my flute music way back when.  I also purchased some online which is great cause in that app it'll play it for you so you can hear how it should sound and play along at different speeds.   The only down side is flipping pages.  Wtf?  How is this still a problem.   I mean it's getting there.  In that the app is still set up like pages of music, which it flips when you get to the appropriate note automatically, but you still have that gap where you can't be reading ahead to the next note.   I mean serious first world problems here ;-P. The learning app the music just scrolls constantly so you can always see what's next.   I feel like all the apps should do that.   As to the actual book with physical pages - it's beginner level and as aforementioned, beginner songs are shorter.  In this case - they all fit on two pages, so no flipping required.  Also it's so beginner level the chords are just printed on top and the treble notes even have the letters in each note 😂.  Does solve my inability to read music issue though.  There is clearly a market for beginner adults out there.    All kinds of opportunity for short term success.

Anyways - I think that's enough for tonight ;).  Thanks for joining me on the adventure!

My music room AND my reading room happen to also be Tucker's sleeping room.  
And he would really prefer it if I'd please turn the lights out now.

Getting stronger - tomorrow ;)

Google verifies the weight lifting stat; not sure about the donut part ;)

It's that time of year again when it's dark both when I start work and when I finish work.  AND it's cold and often miserable outside.  Which means all of my general activity level, motivation for fitness, and options for any form of fitness I might enjoy all plummet at exactly the same time.  And I wasn't as fit as I'd like to be when it hit.  

So to ensure my fitness actually improves rather than slides this winter, I am once again on the hunt for an activity to help (piano, while challenging, is not likely to give me Apollo arms or a booty that makes my husband happy when I wear leggings).   I've decided this will be a two-pronged approach.  So for Cardio, I'm using VR fitness again, but this time I'm trying a rowing app called Holofit.  It technically works with a bike, an elliptical (which I don't have), a rower, or freestyle.   But I haven't figured out how to make it switch between (admittedly I've put zero effort into discovering that at this point) and it was designed for the rower so that's what I'm doing atm.

So let's see...  So far - while I don't have the fancy rower with the bluetooth computer that apparently connects and works brilliantly, I haven't had any problems using my old school non-tech computer so that's good.   I love that the app doesn't require controllers to function -- that was one of the down sides of the cycling app I used last year.   This one is fully reliant on where you look for controls.   Which is both very cool in a new-to-me-tech kinda way, and also useful when your hands are both needed to keep the rower going.

I enjoy the "explore" mode best, where you go at whatever pace and collect things...  Really random things...  But I don't get much of a workout from it so I *really* wish they'd combine that with the "train" mode.  I find the training actually effective and helpful -- but I want my things!  lol.  Training has multiple levels (I've been working on medium and seems about right; probably will go up in the next week or two), and different approaches (cardio, hitt, etc).  Alternately there's race mode which is literally a race.  I definitely get the best workout there, although currently I only race AIs as I suspect I'm too slow to be competitive with real people.   There is also a mode where you can race shadows of your past self to try to best your former times -- I know that mode exists, but I haven't found it yet to actually try.

You can tell that the designers are listening to user feedback, because if you go in any of the first couple worlds they designed, you row backwards.  As per real life, but not much fun when the whole point of the app is to be able to look around at stuff that's not your basement.  They took that feedback seriously and in all the newer worlds, you row facing forward :)   I do wish the graphics were a little more mature.  I am enjoying it for sure, but they are not nearly as impressive as other VR environments I've been in.  Although I will admit I did enjoy rowing at night under the northern lights.  That was pretty awesome.

The biggest downside for me is that I struggle with motion sickness using this app.  There was a little when I first started with the cycling app too, but this one is more so - especially in the cityscapes (when you're "rowing" an odd bike/land boat of sorts).  I know most of the tricks to combat it, so trying that for now, but ultimately it might make it so this one gets shelved.   The other thing is that once I've found all the "things" in each world, I'm not sure it'll hold my attention.  I've never been one for repeating myself.  The bike app I could ride literally anywhere in the world.  So after a couple months, I may switch back to that one.

So that's cardio, the other aspect is strength.  I've signed up for a 30 day strength training program that starts tomorrow (this is not me procrastinating, it's actually not available till tomorrow).  I've done both their ab program and their flexibility program and been super impressed with both.  So I have hope for this one.  And if it goes well, abs are next up.

Anyways - I have 30 day plans for both, so lets see how it ends up :).  I suspect next week by about Wed, moving will be a challenge!  lol but hopefully by Christmas I'll be feeling a lot more like myself again.