a hiatus is a hard pill to swallow.
sunday, september 15th, 2024.
Earlier this month, I realized I was burning myself out pushing advocacy so hard. At the behest of my wife and organization cofounder, I decided it best to take a break from going hard in the paint. It's... going okay I guess?
Tonight (of course it's on a Sunday night), we're going to an IDLES concert at the Tabernacle. I'm ridiculously excited for the show. I tried to slide my sleep schedule a bit to the right by staying up a little later last night. Unfortunately, I still woke up around six in the morning! C'est la vie, I suppose. We're still gonna have a great time tonight! Honestly, I think one of the things I'm most excited about today is having the little one spend the day with her dad— we get to take a break from being parents for the day! 😅
One fun thing that I've done for myself recently: I snagged a copy of the "Ultimate Edition" of Forza Horizon 4 on Steam for $20 yesterday. I think this is probably the best $20 I've spent on gaming in a hot minute. Some years ago, I fell down the Forza Motorsport 4 rabbit hole on the Xbox 360. I even had a steering wheel peripheral and bought and read Ross Bentley's book on racing theory, Speed Secrets: Professional Race Driving Techniques. The muscle memory of what I learned about slip angles and the circle of forces has stuck with me— a bit like riding a bicycle.
So, despite the difference of playing on a gamepad instead of a proper steering wheel, I picked up Forza Horizon 4 quickly. Turned off all the racing assists, switched over to a manual transmission, bumped up the AI driver difficulty, and I was *ahem* off to the races. We got all our weekend errands done yesterday so that today we'd be free and clear to spend our day in Atlanta, and I still managed to clock over six hours of Forza Horizon 4 game time. I haven't been this dialed in and hyperfocused on a game in a long time.
A big part of the fun in the Forza series is picking out your cars, tuning them, and learning their ins and outs like a well-fitted glove. Personally, I favor cars with all-wheel drive— they grip the road very well, which makes racing 'em a dream. The low(-ish) end car I've focused on is the sixth generation Mitsubishi Galant VR-4, seen in the screenshot above. I've been having so much fun sending it around the dirt roads in the Scottish Highlands.
I keep volunteering myself for cycling and advocacy events, despite September being a self-imposed month of hiatus. Gaming has helped me recover from the burnout and spoon-spendin', but I can't seem to stay away from city council and pushing the needle, ever so slightly, in favor of transportation reform in our city. This past Thursday, I rubbed elbows with the folks running a well-established bike advocacy organization in a neighboring city and they gave us a lot of great advice. I also ordered a printed tablecloth so that we can represent our organization at a health expo next Saturday morning. It's black and white and proudly proclaims, in big bold letters, "BIKE LANES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA." Hopefully it grabs some good attention. We'll be handing out Bicyclist Pocket Guides from our friends at Georgia Bikes as well.
So, yeah— this hiatus is hardly a hiatus! That's okay, though. I am recharging, despite all appearances otherwise. As my cofounder and I like to repeat: "it's a marathon, not a sprint."
Until next time, be well! :)