2024s
- daily sketching
- GIS 3D GPX project
- fix my web project
- desire lines project
- fix the house project
- python project
- trading system
- 🤔
Weighing up how I build the desire lines data schema and what makes the cut.
First one has become quite a heavily used locals track that skirts closer to the river than the main Twin Rivers Trail, giving access to the riverbank on occasion. It is walled by Buddleia for a good part of it which is beaut in flower and provides shade, however it is a pest plant.
The path is mapped in OpenStreetMap as a footway (red dash) and visible from the aerial imagery, however it is not captured in the Google Earth data or the local Council’s data (solid yellow).
This second one saves the day when there’s been a bit of rain.
I think I’ll keep both these in and just build the schema around what’s going on.
#DesireLine #DesirePath #psychogeography #walking #GIS
Not much happening being sick and all. Here’s some slightly chomped radishes that’ll make it into my belly today.
#GardeningNZ
A month of COVID
My first stint of COVID hit me on the 26th March 2024, now a month back. I’ve been lucky to have lasted this long without it. The first 10 days was horrid with throat and nasal issues, nausea, and coughing resulting in a crook neck. It was bad timing too (is it ever good timing?) with Dad and R visiting, lots of public holidays, my birthday, and things ramping up at work. I bunkered down that first period, tested negative on day 10, caught up with Dad and R just before they took off home and started the return to work.
I returned too early, feeling good in the morning thinking I’d be ok until the walk over the hill to the office from my car set off breathlessness and queasiness. The following week I worked from home, which helped, but by the afternoon my coughing would ramp up again and my focus would decline. Concerned I was now using my asthma puffer for the first time in 5 years I visited the doctor and they gave me 3 days of steroids to help reduce any chest inflammation. This helped my breathing which has been OK since.
This week I returned to work again on Tuesday, feeling better again, but I must have triggered it again because by lunch I started to go downhill with coughing and headaches. I took yesterday off and today is another public holiday I don’t get to enjoy. My headaches are bad and consistent now. I will take tomorrow off and have the weekend again to rest.
I guess this is long-COVID. I will visit the doctor again this coming week, and be more cautious. Although I was feeling ok on those returns to work, it was still clearly lingering and waiting for me to exert myself just a fraction enough to put me on my arse again.
I will put a hold on walking and gardening, but keep up my morning Pilates to keep my back and breathing in check. After my biggest year of running ever its going to take a while for me to get back to where I was. That’s OK. It was a good year.
#CovidRecovery
Sometimes just dumping it on a pad is the way.
#GTD
#WeblogPoMo2024 WeblogPoMo 2024 A daily blogging challenge for the month of May. I like these monthly challenges as motivators to get shit done. The Feb Aotearoa Bike Challenge got me riding to work again, and the habit stuck. @anniegreens suggests for WeblogPoMo to focus on a topic. Topic ideas:
Love this song.
#grunge
Brave souls take the right to join the mayhem of our busiest roundabout, and more direct route into town. Left is the formed path to the bus hub and (relative) safety of pedestrian islands.
This one now almost looking like a formed path, cuts straight across the Events Centre entrance. Cyclist about to hit it. Given its not formed you have to contend with a gutter, protruding pipe, stump of a hedge plant and puddles in the wet.
Other side. A couple years back I had to squeeze between those hedges.
Cones are for tree removals which is the kick off of the 4 year transport project affecting all the areas in the above photos, and likely the desire lines will be retired. Will new ones form, or will the new design funnel us onto the intended routes? 🤔
#DesireLine #DesirePath #psychogeography #walking
Weekend breakfast go-to. Chorizo, silverbeet, mushroom, tomato, spring onion, poached eggs and feta. Makes me audibly satisfied.
#food
Desire lines and psychogeography
Stumbled across the term “psychogeography” which Wikipedia describes as “the exploration of urban environments that emphasizes interpersonal connections to places and arbitrary routes.”
I’ve come to realise that I put a lot (maybe too much?) of thought into the routes I choose, be it for commuting, getting across town, or a lunchtime walk. Deciding the route can be driven by.. efficiency, spatial distribution of the destinations, what I need to drop off or pick up, mode of transport (which is again driven by a bunch of decisions)… yada yada..
Outside the urban environment, I plan my routes to another level when running in the mountains, often driven by risk vs reward, and often changing on the fly as difficult or enticing landscapes unfold, weather rolls in, or fatigue or energy kicks in.
I’ve decided to start a wee project and explore the urban side of psychogeography by capturing “desire lines” as I stumble across them. Desire lines are an interesting topic in itself which I feel aligns well to the concept of psychogeography. As part of the project I’ll take photos of the line and explore the reasoning behind them. I might eventually include some maps to get the wider picture.
I’ll kick off with today’s short 3km loop to the corner store.
This desire line sits on a street corner and descends from a bike pump track and playground. The bikes have rutted out the top and made it an obvious line of attack. At the top I walked across the pump track and the adjoining sports field to connect to a formed track.
A very common desire line cutting a corner. I doubt any bike rider would take the hard corner. Potentially walkers would on a wet day.
Two tiers here. Mountain biking is a big thing here and kids create these everywhere. I love seeing the kids wielding shovels and egging each other on to do the jumps. There is a wee jump at the top of the green patch here.
This is the top section. Convenient connector as the Council-maintained formed path adds some unnecessary distance. Looks fun for the kids too, especially when they hit the jump just to the right off screen.
Standard corner footpath desire line at a roundabout. Much quicker for the able-bodied and traffic-aware. Again bikes are forming this up well.
#DesireLine #DesirePath #psychogeography
Lunch walk. Native plantings, incoming flights, Autumn colours. Deer across the river have quietened down. Must’ve found their mates.
#walking #CovidRecovery