tissek

Europe's free speech is far more free than the US

But not Europes FREEZEPEACH(tm)! And freezepeach is all that matters

Not as much reading but I'm taking much of my cues regarding mythology from Red over at Overly Sarcastic Productions (https://www.youtube.com/@OverlySarcasticProductions).

Two related videos
Wrath of Demeter https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhhANZKerug
Hades and Persephone https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ac5ksZTvZN8

What I especially like about their content is that there is plenty of source critique. Things are seldom presented as "this is the exact truth". Mentioned in the video about Hades and Persephone is "we don't know the original myth" which I find telling of much of their mythology work.

Demeter is up there.

Her baby father (Zeus), aka the big douchebag, married away her daughter Persephone to his brother Hades. Patriarchy does what patriarchy does. The brothers were aware neither Persephone nor Demeter would approve of the deal so Hades had to kidnap Persephone and force the deal upon her.

So Persephone were abducted and her mother were beyond herself with worry about her absence. Once Demeter learnt about the deal she threw the hissy fit that all hissy fits are measured against. Plants stopped growing, livestock stopped giving birth and the world soon was in a cataclysmic state. Behold a mother's justified wrath and tremble.

Douchebag-in-chief was forced to negotiate but wouldn't anull the whole deal. Only that Persephone would spend half her time with her mother (spring, summer) and the other half with the husband forced upon her (autumn, winter).

I've got a new camping hammock that I want to go out and try out. With a bit of rain during the week the fire danger will drop because a little coze fire is awesome. Not sure how much it will drop but at least it will drop enough for the camping stove. I need my fresh coffee damn you.

And yes we have had a fire ban since last week. Probably lifted now after a good rainy day.

Don't have your mouth write checks your ass can't cover

Or

Under promise while over deliver

Wet lubes are notorious for attracting grime. Lube up, let rest overnight, wipe off excess day after and that grime still builds up quickly. And since the grime is stuck in the lube just washing it off isn't enough. Requires a good cleaning and then new lube.

Wax is a great option but all wax solutions I've encountered requires a very clean drivetrail. No oils, lubes, grease etc or the wax won't stick. More prep work but so worth it in the end.

I would love to go belt drive and there are high end internal hubs that offers similar range to 12spd mtb gears. Tech is there, tech is working but cost is still too high for me. More likely I'll go belt drive when (if) I get me a touring/bike packing bike.

That said this mechanical solution looks too engineered to get wide adaptation. 2-3spd gear hubs are tried and tested. That said again this combined with a moderatley priced 6-8spd hub could be cool. Cool in a frankenbike kind of way.

Still. Cool tech demo/proof of concept.

I enjoy it and the extra scrolling doesn't bother me. Well it bothers me much less that the information it provides.

On the fatigue part. (Jokingly) It will not get better, you just get faster. With that out of my system, it will get easier and soon you will find yourself more energetic. Because extra training.

When it comes to safety you are going at it the right way. You look for back roads, slower roads, residental roads etc when there aren't cycling infrastructure. But uf it is unsafe I would think twice/thrice if it is worth the risk. Luckily it sounds motorists are already used to safely overtaking slower two-wheeled vehicles.

Depending on your cycling community you can have great use of cycling/outdoor apps with heatmaps. Then you can see where others are travelling. Strava, Ride with GPS and Komoot are useful for me locally. Especially strava with the large community.

If you can afford to save then I highly recommend you to save up for classes. Not just for the exercise aspect but (primary) as a safety measure.

Floating around on ones back is seriously underrated. You just drift around a bit, relax and disconnect for a bit.

They are. But I cannot lusten long to them. Love listening but grow tired quick. Think my best description is that they fill their sound with too many sounds. Not sure if it makes sense.

Alestorm is seriously good. Keeps the theme, makes catchy tracks and expanding on the theme. Love their Last Saskatchewan Pirate from their latest EP.

And I'm excited for more Frøggë

Just straight up not being too serious about themselves while still being serious in the act I would recommend Alestorm, Brothers of Metal and Nanowar of Steel. The last one describes thenselves as Humor Metal. Very skilled musicians doing metal of various mainstream genres. Like Norwegian Reggaeton, heavy metal reggaeton about norwegian black metal.

If you go into power metal I can also recommend Gloryhammer (fantasy in space by the frontman from Alestorm), Grailknights (early 90's action figures, check out Pumping Iron Power for a great workout track) ang Wind Rose (dwarf metal with a great cover of Diggy Diggy Hole and just released Rock and Stone). Power Metal in general is just filled with thematic bands. Final recommendation would be Power Wolf (gothic symphonic metal, "catholic werewolves").