I wonder what people in unsafe neighbourhoods can do. My family didn't live in an unsafe neighbourhood. But one night, when going out on a walk with my dad, we got attacked by a bunch of kids with mace. It was totally set up. We walked by a kid, he yelled, "don't push me!" Then a bunch of his friends and him came to us and said, "hey, this guy says you pushed him." They surrounded us. One kid hit the back of my head, my dad saw that he was about to do something and yelled at him, then that kid sprayed my dad's face. I've never seen someone in so much agony. It was like my dad had lost all sense of reasoning.
This is a benefit of living in a nice area and should not be taken for granted.
The weirdest experience about all of that? Just a bunch of high school kids, I was bigger than all of them. If we came to blows, I'm pretty sure I could have taken them. But my mind was processing everything in super slow motion. I'm not sure if it was panic; maybe more like incredulous shock - I can't believe this is actually happening, deer in headlights kind of thing. And it was dark, so during the session when we were trying to identify the kids from photos the next day at the police station, I actually couldn't recognize anyone in the photos. Weird, because I thought I should have been able to do so.
That sucks. This slow motion perception is a typical fight or flight response. If you are interested in gaining more control over these sorts of situations (and I hope you won't need to) I would recommend taking up a martial art. You can do that with your dad!
Well, it was a few years ago, and I'm not at home anymore. As well, like I said, it's a safe neighbourhood in general. Yeah, I can see how a martial art will help. I bet it develops mental focus in that type of situation, as well as muscle memory as to what to do.
I should publish the code properly at some point, but it's all client side and not very complex, so if anyone wants to run their own local copy that is fine by me.
Accuracy or usefulness not guaranteed but it works well for the suburb where I live :)
I'd like to add a loop generator (find the endpoint, plot another random path back) but for the time being it assumes you walk to a place then walk directly back.
You can also specify the starting address in the URL, for making bookmarks or shortcuts for different starting addresses, e.g:
Yeah I just noticed. When I wrote this I lived a substantial distance from the ocean, however now running it against my current address (which is across the road from a marina) it advises I ought to take a ferry sometimes.
Not sure what I can do about this. I have a vague idea you might be able to flag the Google Maps API to avoid ferries.
My wife is Chinese; I'm Mediterranean. We do this every day as we always did before we met each other - it was an interesting meeting point of both our cultures.
For me it's an hour each way, but apart from the obvious health benefit it also serves as some sort of day markers. In the morning it's really good way to get you up to speed (increase heart rate, get some extra oxygen in), and in the evening it's perfect to finish and leave all the "work stuff" behind.
Added bonus - money saved on public transport, and no gym subscription required.
I bike to work in Japan, where we still have lame archaic office dress code requirements (the best I can do is Brooks Brothers chino pants and a tucked-in open-collar dress shirt with a belt).
It's an uphill ride to work, so I bought a mountain bike with one of those electric assist motors to help with the sweat thing. It makes riding up a moderate hill no more taxing than riding a regular bike on flat ground.
I thought it would be kinda lame for regular bike purposes, but it actually works out well. The law here says the motor has to cut out at 25kph (16mph). And when that happens, because it is really heavy with the huge battery and motor, it becomes extremely taxing to coax any more speed out of it. But riding around at max speed feels still gets my breathing and pulse up.
So the upshot is that I still get a lot of moderate exercise from the bike, and I can locomote around Tokyo at a pretty much constant 25kph, using either the road or the sidewalk depending on traffic/pedestrian conditions.
And, because I can take a pretty direct route to work, I get there in half the time it takes on the subway.
IME most workplaces have showers. It pays to ask; they can be well-hidden. Failing that, ride at an easy pace in the morning, wear breathable clothes etc. Cycling needn't be any harder than walking (unless you have huge hills or something).
Many companies here (though I guess I only really know larger corporations) ensure there's adequate shower facilities for washing down and changing in to business attire before work. In my new office's case, the office catering supplies fresh towels that you just throw in a bin after using and they look after it all.
We can also leave our details with someone here and they'll arrange for a bike service to be performed during the work day.
I've noticed a recent up-tick in companies (especially engineering firms - one of them sponsors the major cycling event in this country) embracing cycling as an activity and mode of transport. It's really good to see.
The building I'm working in (there are multiple companies and the building is managed) has showers, so it is quite convenient. The only annoying bit is that there are no lockers, so I pre-dry my sports gear with a heardryer (this is actually quite quick, takes two minutes to nearly completely dry three layers), and then keep it under my desk. Might look bit "unprofessional", but once everyone accepts the slightly "eccentric" behaviour ("did you really cycle in today? In the snow?! crazy.."), it's not that bad.
I blog and whenever I hit a lull, I find that a walk or run is what gets me back on track. The chaos in a normal work week, the number of meetings, the constant context-switching all leads to little chance of forming coherent string of thoughts that can be used to construct a blog post.
Walks and runs also help in uncovering new ways to look at things, asking new questions that previously lay just beneath the surface, and letting your mind wander till they serendipitously uncover these nuances - those are the reasons I find time to do it. Everyone needs those quiet hours - when your mind could be free of clutter, and you could take a strand of thought and examine it more closely than you could have - when there are a hundred things vying for your attention.
Walking or running definitely helps to take your mind off of things long enough for it to realign itself on track. Semi related, but it also peaked my curiosity for nature and I started taking more note of different species I would see while walking or running, such as birds, insects and mammals.
Now, I end up walking partially because I'm always looking forward to what surprise I might see while doing it. Granted, not everyone has access to parks or land farther outside of a city, but when you do, there's lots of small details one misses out on if not looking for them (either up in the trees or near the ground). I still walk and run to refresh my brain, but it also spurred my interest in learning something new at the same time. As a side effect, I end up googling all those random things I run across, so beware of that if one wants to avoid time killers.
Before I was studying CS I worked in a call center for customer support (I now have an internship, thank God). People are relentless thanks to the anonymous nature of the phone. I learned pretty quickly that if I took a walk on my breaks* that my mood would always improve.
To this day I now walk to school and work, and I like to think it's helped make me more creative and introspective. As always, I know that it helps keep my mood up. I really urge people to try to get outside and walk around a bit daily, it works wonders!
In a completely unrelated way I have found that a walk is a great way to work technical/business issues through. So rather than sitting in a office with a co-founder trying to talk through problems I have found we have more success doing it whilst walking...
I usually try to step out of the office and walk a few blocks around 3pm every day. It's maximum drowsiness time, and fresh air and a change of scenery does wonders for productivity. Obviously much easier to do in California.
I don't do this everyday, I do this when I get the blues, and it usually cheers me up. I like to walk in an unfamiliar road, go to a place I've never been before.
I think this is what I like about running - although as walking would be less physically demanding I'm sure your thoughts may wander a bit more (That being the goal here).
This is a benefit of living in a nice area and should not be taken for granted.
The weirdest experience about all of that? Just a bunch of high school kids, I was bigger than all of them. If we came to blows, I'm pretty sure I could have taken them. But my mind was processing everything in super slow motion. I'm not sure if it was panic; maybe more like incredulous shock - I can't believe this is actually happening, deer in headlights kind of thing. And it was dark, so during the session when we were trying to identify the kids from photos the next day at the police station, I actually couldn't recognize anyone in the photos. Weird, because I thought I should have been able to do so.