This past weekend was the Easter holiday here in Berlin. Because Germany is a civilized society, we got Monday and Friday off of work, so I invested my time in what else: bicyling.
Somewhat disappointed with how out of shape I've become over the winter months. Its been too cold for leisurely bike rides around town and the countryside, so I've stayed in mostly. Then this past Saturday I went to a bike demo against the upcoming dismantling of the mobility laws in Berlin at the behest of the new CDU/SDP leadership, who would rather we build more parking for cars than give homes to humans.
It wasn't even that long of a ride, only an hour, at a slow pace. Not dissimilar and in fact including several of the same people from Critical Mass rides. Just, during the daytime. And a little less techno.
Inspired by my sore legs and lower body, I immediately went out for another, more real bike ride on Monday instead of writing this blog post in the morning.
Only 24km long and 184m of climb, my legs are still sore. But in the good way. THe kind of soreness you only get from having a real workout, getting blood flowing, riding the high of exercise-induced endorphins.
Afterwards I played a ton more Vault Hunters with K on our shared server. Good way to unwind after what was probably the most cardio my body has seen in over half a year. When I first moved to Berlin, I rode out through the Grunewald forest to try and make a video about going to the abandoned radar installations out there. I recorded a good deal of footage, but because I never actually got up to the installation, I let it all just sit and take up gigs and gigs of space on my video NAS.
I deleted all of it last month, after finally coming to terms with the fact that I wouldn't ever use the footage. So, now, I have the disk space to attempt this once again, and now with a more serious cycling setup than before. Previously I only had the "winter" jacket I brought with me from California; Now, however, I have some lighter, more athletic clothing to keep me warm and stylish without all the weight of a winter jacket. We shall make another attempt at some bike videos here soon.
Besides the cycling, I practiced Violin. I'm still trying to nail down the basic arm movements, but it is surprising how naturally the fingerings come to me after only a few hours total. Last night I practiced a Dmaj scale for a while, before getting inspired to fuck around in Bitwig with violin synths.
[The result is on my soundcloud.](https://soundcloud.com/tdfischer/stabby-violins-2023-04-11-2147?si=dc3ccb35973443a39bfd992b590a6fc1&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing)