Walking around and painting the town

[bernorange 8385]

I suspect whoever recorded all that green did so in the early morning hours and/or on a weekend when there wasn't any traffic.

~~~

I went walking a new neighborhood this morning under the nearly new moon (just a slight crescent in the sky).  It was about 5:30am as I was approaching an intersection (walking on the sidewalk) and I became aware of a car approaching from behind.  The car slowed to a stop right behind me by the mailbox of the house on the corner.  The driver didn't kill the engine, get out or turn on any interior light on the car.  It seemed odd to me.  I proceeded to turn right at the intersection and another right one yard down.  I walked about one more yard down the street when I heard the car's engine approaching.  I got a bad feeling that there could be some fuckery afoot. I took a few steps up the nearest driveway (which thankfully was dark without illumination), held my phone to my chest and turned my back to the intersection to block any light from my phone.  The car drove past me and turned left at the cross street up ahead.  I continued walking and when I got to the cross street, I looked down the street to the left.  I saw the car coming back from a cross street to the cross street I was scrutinizing and it turned left (away from me).  It drove off and I didn't see it again.  It dawned on me later that this was probably someone delivering newspapers.  People still do that, right?

[bernorange 8385]

So I woke up late this morning and didn't start my walk until after 6am.  As a consequence, I chose to walk around the grounds of a nearby park that has a bunch of soccer fields that remained virgin hexagon territory.  When I got there and saw all that open field, I was thinking:

Anyway, even though it hasn't rained and the ground was dry and the fields were freshly cut to less than a quarter inch of grass, my socks and shoes were thoroughly soaked through after about 10 minutes of walking.  That tiny layer of grass really holds a lot of overnight/morning dew apparently.  Grassy areas really are better left to walking in the afternoon/evening hours.

Today I hit the 60k milestone for hexes discovered.  Huzzah!

 

[bernorange 8385]

Walked an older neighborhood this morning.  Saw some pretty cool looking mature trees.  I also saw a house that had a single Live Oak in the front yard.  The diameter of the trunk eyeballed a couple feet up from the ground was easily between four and five feet in diameter.  I'm no expert, but I'm guessing that tree was easily 60 to 80 years old or older.  My inner Lorax was crying though because every branch on the tree had been cleared of all foliage.  The ends of every branch had been cut off (topped) like the tree was a Crepe Myrtle.  I have never seen that done before on a Live Oak.

Also, I was walking along a sidewalk at dark thirty and came upon a stretch where the street lights weren't working and none of the houses had any lights on.  I tripped on an uneven section of pavement (that I couldn't see), stumbled forward and caught my balance (hands free) with my face/chin just inches above my knee.  I didn't even drop my phone.  Not bad for an old man.

I much prefer walking in the street to sidewalks before sunrise.  Sidewalks are trecherous.

[NorthLoop 14457]

4-5 foot diameter live oak should be more like 200-300 years old.

[bernorange 8385]

I would have taken a pic of the atrocity if there had been sufficient light. It's hard to describe how shocking it looked with mere words.

I was up early this morning and went for a long walk.  Found another one those "neighborhoods" with the brick wall signs that turned out to be a single street.  Roughly half way down this street, I found a two story house that looked like a cube/box.  The front of the house had a slight indentation for the front door area, but otherwise looked like a giant white cube.  I don't even remember seeing a roof but I might not have been paying enough attention.  The house was ugly enough already, but as I walked past the house and looked back, I saw a (roughly 10' x 10') platform jutting out from the wall between the first and second floor over the driveway.  It was clearly intended to be a carport cover, but it was too small.  It also was not supported by any columns or cross beams.  It was framed, but looked from the street like a large sheet of plywood jutting out of the side of the house.  It looked like the wood was very slightly warping under it's own weight.  Totally bizarre.  I might go back some time to snap a pic. 

[RDCanecutter 26869]

I lost my streak Sunday. We were at a large outdoor mall that was prime check-in territory as my wife hiked around earning Noise Coins for the household, but my tiny breakfast got me through tent and table set-up, then it was blood-sugar-dive collapse-in-chair until I was given a chicken sandwich and got my groove back. But then the people had shown up, and I extroverted enough of em into visiting my booth so I could break even.

My friend in a "better" part of the mall grossed $3, and the person wanted to pay with a card. Breaking even did not seem so bad after that. That mall was a rocky place where our art could find no purchase.

About the streak, yeah I could have recovered it, but all I care about is the map, not the coins. So I guess I should have paid some coins to save the streak. I ain't no monument to rational thought.

The other day I took a tunnel under a street, and the app recorded it accurately. As opposed to when I walk under a parking deck, and it goes crazy.

Edited October 1 by RDCanecutter

[bernorange 8385]

I'm not even sure what you have to do to continue the streak.  Obviously initiating a recording and claiming it when you are done (even just a few seconds worth) counts, but I think you just need to load the app really.  I'm on day 91 of my current streak and I seem to remember days where I just loaded the app without recording anything.  But I am getting old and my memory isn't the steel trap that it used to be.

[RDCanecutter 26869]

Ain't nothin but a thang. If I keep walking steady, the streak will reappear.

[bernorange 8385]

Silencio says each hex covers 43.870 square meters.  Internet math page tells me a path through that hexagon is roughly 21-25 feet.  Sometime you paint hexagons without traveling through most of it (ie. you just clip it).  If I take the total number of hexes that I've walked and multiply by 15 feet (to account for clipped hexes) and divide by 5280, I've walked around 270 miles with Silencio over the last few months.

[RDCanecutter 26869]

Are you gonna catch a ride home, or just turn around and walk back?

[bernorange 8385]

[RDCanecutter 26869]

I got my walk on today. Plan was to hit a Hobby Lobby and walk every aisle N-S and E-W, make the map look like a giant crossword puzzle.

Instead, the satellites twerked my location so it looks like I noodled around half the store, snuck out back to play in the creek, vibrated through the wall to the gym next door, then ran around screaming all over the front parking lot.

Hexes is hexes.

[bernorange 8385]

Yesterday while walking I spotted a coin on the pavement.  I stopped to pick it up.  I used a proper squatting form with a straight back to reach it and it seemed like every fiber of muscle in my thighs (quads, hammys, etc.) screamed in complaint at the same time (I definitely need to do more stretching).  Still, I managed to claim my prize - a beaten up 1992 Washington quarter dollar worth ... $0.25.  Huzzah!

Today while walking I spotted another quarter on the ground.  I thought that was pretty lucky until some minutes later when I happened upon another shiny metal object on the side of the road.  I couldn't tell if this was a coin or a battery (the kind you find in garage door openers/clickers).  I picked it up and it was so rough from being run over on the pavement that it was like sandpaper with tiny glass shards embedded - every surface felt like it was going to cut my fingers.  It turned out to be a nickel though you can barely see any of the features that identify it as such.

So, if this keeps up, and I invest these treasures with a 3% APY compounding monthly, I should be massively wealthy in about 4 billion years.  So I got that going for me, which is nice.

Also, I posted a couple of pics from my walks in the CR as a joke.  Enjoy:

https://www.surlyhorns.com/board/topic/38242-happy-halloween-neighbors-yard-decorations/

 

[bernorange 8385]

The weather is turning quite nice for a before sunrise walk.  I got another early start this morning and actually walked a long street clear across my city into the next city this morning.  My legs feel a bit like jello today and I'm having to do some stretching exercises several times a day now that I'm walking so much.

I managed to make a detour this morning and snap a pic of that ugly cube house I mentioned previously:

I farmed that tree in the foreground with purpose to block the view of the house's street number and the two football shaped signs in the landscaping bed with their kids' names.

[NorthLoop 14457]

I'd bet good money that those kids' names are something like Aidyn and Macyn. 

[bernorange 8385]

haha... typo... I "framed", not "farmed" the tree in the pic.

[Ten Bears 2500]

I was all like "how fucking old is this bernorange dude?"

[RDCanecutter 26869]

Down at the bottom of my street there are three houses almost in a row, they were fairly well-kept 1950s houses, but all 3 owners decided within a few years to rebuild and compete in the "Who looks the most like an inn full of hobbits drinking pints of proper 1420?" Think Olde English without the smell of shit.

[bernorange 8385]

1 hour ago, Ten Bears said:

I was all like "how fucking old is this bernorange dude?"

Sometimes the rock 'n roll *is* too loud.

[bernorange 8385]

Happy Halloween there neighbor!  Would you like to experience our home made haunted house?  It totally won't collapse on you if a strong gust of wind happens to blow...

[RDCanecutter 26869]

4 hours ago, bernorange said:

Happy Halloween there neighbor!  Would you like to experience our home made haunted house?  It totally won't collapse on you if a strong gust of wind happens to blow...

That's gotta be the main Karens of the block, anybody else and they'd be screeching about it.

But it brings back fond memories of when some Older Kids (probably the Toltecs) built multi-floor child-scale castles out of building supplies left in a field. We had fun exploring them until my Dad found them and disassembled them. He also destroyed a tunnel we had almost caved in on ourselves.

[bernorange 8385]

Watch out world!  I have achieved "Devil" rank...

[bernorange 8385]

Been finding a lot of shiny treasures on the pavement over the last week or so.  I try not to stop and pick up any coin that isn't worth at least one whole cent, but sometimes I get fooled.  My eyes are eagle eyed on finding the glint of metal in the moonlight, but without my reading glasses on, it's hard to discern exactly what I've found until I get home.  Here's a pic with two treasures found over the last couple of days:

It's really hard to tell because it's so beat up, but the coin on the right is actually a quarter that's been smushed, bent and scratched to hell.  I have no idea what the token/coin on the left actually is.  The obverse has an image of a guitar, but the reverse is so scratched/damaged that I can't make out what the design was supposed to be.

[bernorange 8385]

Token on the left appears to be a Chuck E Cheese token:

[RDCanecutter 26869]

5 hours ago, bernorange said:

Been finding a lot of shiny treasures on the pavement over the last week or so. 

Mrs. Canecutter has the eagle eye for lost jewelry. There are a couple of found earrings I still need to examine. In the past she has scooped up 18k gold hoops that we sold for 50 bucks. I run them through a specific gravity rig that I cobbled together way back when. It's not high-precision, but it'll sort the gold from the plated copper.

[bernorange 8385]

 

[dreonny66 1]

On 10/11/2024 at 10:16 AM, bernorange said:

Been finding a lot of shiny treasures on the pavement over the last week or so.  I try not to stop and pick up any coin that isn't worth at least one whole cent, but sometimes I get fooled.  My eyes are eagle eyed on finding the glint of metal in the moonlight, but without my reading glasses on, it's hard to discern exactly what I've found until I get home.  Here's a pic with two treasures found over the last couple of days:

It's really hard to tell because it's so beat up, but the coin on the right is actually a quarter that's been smushed, bent and scratched to hell.  I have no idea what the token/coin on the left actually is.  The obverse has an image of a guitar, but the reverse is so scratched/damaged that I can't make out what the design was supposed to be.

I wouldn’t have guessed that the token was from Chuck E. Cheese. It’s cool that people leave things behind like that.

[bernorange 8385]

Silencio rolled out v2 of their app yesterday.  This morning I used it quite a bit on my morning walk.  They totally revamped the UI for the app and as someone used to the old app, it took a bit of experimenting to figure out how to navigate the new system.  I've compiled a few thoughts about the new app:

The Good

• The live map display while recording works great and is very helpful for capturing hexes that I missed in previous sessions.  This is the best enhancement in the new app IMO.
• The display of the timer is now presented in high contrast black letters with a larger font and its much easier for me to read without a pair of reading glasses.  This might not matter to you younger folks whose near/reading vision is still sharp, but in my case, this is a huge quality of life issue.
• They expanded the number of "quests" (now called achievements) that you can earn.  It's a small thing, but it's nice to be rewarded for achieving occasional milestones.
• They got rid of that sometimes frustrating "pick one of three multiplier rewards" system when finishing/claiming a recording session.  They now have a "Vegas one armed bandit slot machine style scrolling wheel".  I see that the wheel includes a 100x multiplier in it (which I missed by one tick once).
  

The Bad

• On my phone, the display of the overlay with the decibel levels clips into the "your current position" marker on the map so I can't see hexes behind me at all or to the sides (partially clipped).  They need to allow us to minimize that overlay to make the live map easier to use when you are going for unclaimed hexes in an area you've previously traversed.
• If you want to apply a bonus multiplier to your earned coins from a recording session now, you have to watch an ad first.  I suppose this could be a good thing in the long run for the health of the Silencio project, but it is annoying for someone that is trying to maximize their recording time and phone battery life.  I chose to watch ads several times and so far have seen a couple very short (~5s) ads for Kraken and a few longer ads (~15s) for "CTsomethingorother".
  

The Ugly

• I don't know if it's the app or my phone, but I'm unable to record a venue check-in presently.  When I select that option and then select the nearby venue, the app shows a screen with recording info (decibels, record time) and then freezes.  It doesn't record anything.  If I click to abort the session, I get a confirmation pop-up that has two options to cancel the abort, but no option to confirm the abort.  I have to close the app completely and restart to reset to the main screen.
• I thought this app was running more stable than the previous app.  I successfully recorded several sessions >20min each.  But on my way home, I had a recording that was running on 17min.  When I checked it again a minute or so later, the app had crashed and I lost the recording.  I had to restart the app several times as it would not start a new recording session - just gave me "something went wrong" error messages over and over - until it finally started working again.
  

[RDCanecutter 26869]

I haven't been able to use the app for two days now, keeps saying they are doing maintenance.

[bernorange 8385]

Open your phone's settings and go to the list of apps.  Click on the Silencio app and there should either be an option to update/upgrade or a button/link to open the app in the Google Play app/store where you will subsequently find an option to update/upgrade the app.

[sidis 10011]

just reading this thread.

you could have literally taken my (paid off) house and wife (also paid off) from me in a bet that bernorange, of all people on this planet, would install an app that activates his phone's microphone to soak up recordings of all the ambient noise in his daily life.

you think you know someone...

[bernorange 8385]

Lol.  If the NSA wants to listen, they dont need me to install an app.  Also, Silencio isn't actually saving audio recordings.  It's just saving the decibel level data.

[bernorange 8385]

Was walking before sunrise this morning in a new neighborhood when I spotted some sidewalk chalk writing on a driveway.  It was dark so I couldn't initially make out what it said.  It caught my eye though, so I stopped to take it in.  Written in very fluid cursive (looked like a female's handwriting), the words announced: "OU still sucks!"  I laughed.

[RDCanecutter 26869]

This new version of the app pisses me off. It made me create a new user name so my old stuff is lost.

[bernorange 8385]

??? You should be able to log in to your old/previous account.  Just do a password recovery if you don't remember it.  That's what I had to do.

[RDCanecutter 26869]

3 minutes ago, bernorange said:

??? You should be able to log in to your old/previous account.  Just do a password recovery if you don't remember it.  That's what I had to do.

Nope. It told me to pick a new user name. I entered my old one, it wouldn't let me use it. Used a new one, now I can't get rid of it even if I delete the app and reload it.

It is dead to me.

[bernorange 8385]

That's odd.  I logged in with my email address instead of username.  Maybe try contacting them for tech support?  They have a contact form on this page:

https://www.silencio.network/contact

[RDCanecutter 26869]

A'ight. Got my old ID back by deleting the app and the unwanted new ID, then reloaded through email and it knew me as rdcanecutter. We're back in business after hiking over Red Mountain by Vulcan, on an empty stomach.

[RDCanecutter 26869]

On Days of Sloth I'll turn on the app just to preserve my streak as I sit on my ass drinking coffee. Without me moving, it will give me credit for 4 or 5 hexes as it zones in on me. Sometimes I can stretch my arm out and claim yet another one. Exercise.

[bernorange 8385]

If you want to get in shape, you probably need to set your goals higher than 5 hexes a day.  You've got to move it, move it...

[bernorange 8385]

Some random thoughts from my walk this morning:

- I don't like curved driveways.  Why do some developers insist on curving a driveway when it is possible to pave a straight line?  

- People who park vehicles on their driveways where the driveway overlaps the sidewalk path - especially when they have unused alternative space on the driveway to park - deserve a special place in hell.  Living at the end of a cul-de-sac does not exempt peeps either.

- When I was a kid, I could easily spend a day walking around residential home construction sites looking for treasures (soda bottles that could be returned to the store for a few cents, aluminum cans for recycling, etc.).  I walked by a lot of residential new home construction this morning and had zero desire to explore any of the floorplans for the homes that were framed and open, but that was mostly because it was dark and I didn't want to risk stepping on a nail or something.

- I saw a neighborhood where many of the homes had the same cookie cutter detached garage that looked like a big barn - a two car garage door with a large carport in front of the door.  The carport ceiling was the floor for a second story attic/loft that extended back down the length of the garage.  It looked like a barn that had half of the first floor side walls cut out to make a carport.  The roof was gambrel shaped just like you'd expect on a barn.  The ridiculous thing was, the homes that were related to these garages were often single story ranch houses so the garage was taller than the home or they were two story but with typical gable roofs so the garage roof and house roof looked odd right next to each other.

- As I entered one of these new subdivisions where most of the homes were still under construction, I saw a realtor's "for sale" sign in a yard for a home that was owned/occupied.  That poor bastard must have lived in that house for just a few months.  I wonder if there is a problem with the house, or if s/he's got to move because of work/job.  Either way, good luck to them selling their slightly used home when prospective homebuyers likely have several homes to choose from with the exact same floorplan that are still under construction and can be finished with their choice of flooring, etc.

 

[NorthLoop 14457]

2 minutes ago, bernorange said:

 

- People who park vehicles on their driveways where the driveway overlaps the sidewalk path - especially when they have unused alternative space on the driveway to park - deserve a special place in hell.  Living at the end of a cul-de-sac does not exempt peeps either.

 

 

They recently gave out a bunch of tickets for that in my hood last week. I also hate people who park on the street who have plenty of fucking room to park in their driveway. I've noticed the more WT the hood, the more people do this. I don't get it. 

[bernorange 8385]

Walked around before sunrise this morning.  I chose to walk a road that extends off of a major artery through the city.  I've driven past this road hundreds of times, but never traveled on it.  It's an old road without curb or shoulder.  It's also a cheap blacktop road that has many scars from buckling and pothole repairs.

The road was bordered on both sides by large properties (2+acres minimum) and few properties were actually fenced.  It felt like I was in the country walking this road.  The homes, from what I could see were mostly older ranch houses.

I was pretty far along this road when some dogs started yapping at me from a house up on the right.  It occurred to me that it might be possible that folks let their dogs run free out there, but thankfully the dogs must have been constrained as they never came within my sight.

I made it to the dead end of the road and heard some roosters crowing in the yard of house at the end of the street.  That tracks, I thought.

As I am heading back (on the other side of the street to get them hexagons of course), I see something crossing the road ahead of me.  Bigger than a cat.  Smaller than a dog. ... Seemed tall - is it a loose chicken/rooster? 

I get a bit closer and dread floods my body.  It's a skunk with it's tail raised.  I was pretty sure I was about to get sprayed, but the skunk shuttled off into some brush and left me alone.  Whew!  I did not want to smell that skunk shit for the hour plus walk home...

[bernorange 8385]

FWIW, Peaq has announced this morning that their token goes live (trading on exchanges) on Nov. 12.  Silencio has not yet announced a date for their SLC token airdrop, but I expect it will follow the Peaq release fairly quickly.  

[bernorange 8385]

So the good news is we got morning rain yesterday and today and it's in the forecast for the next few days after more than a month of drought.  Plants happy.

The bad news is we got rain and I'm unable to get my morning walks in.  I was about to break into the top 500 - I got to rank 502, but I'm slipping now that I'm unable to get my walks in.

[bernorange 8385]

I've shared a few stories from my walking experiences but I don't think that I shared that for the last couple of months, I've been dealing with some herniated discs in my lower neck/upper back area with a large pain center in my upper back between my left side shoulder blade and spine.  I get transient issues with nerve tingling and numbness all up and down my left arm from my shoulder to my finger tips.  When the issue first flared up, it was pretty excruciating to the point that I could not lay flat on my bed and get a good night's sleep.  I was sleeping on my recliner/sofa with a pillow under my lower back.  It was not comfortable and I was only getting sleep in 2-3 hour pops.  This is part of the reason that I started going for walks at dark thirty in the morning.  Something about walking helped my posture and the swinging arm motion from my stride was like a gentle stretch on the muscles in the back that were so inflamed.  It would take a few minutes after I started a walk, but while I was in constant motion was about the only time that I was pain free (without taking any pain killer drugs which I eschew - I'm one of those people that do not like taking any drugs).

When the issue first flared up, I knew right away that it was a herniated disc.  I've had one in my lower back 10 years ago and I will never forget what it was like.  I first saw my chiro who gave me a couple of adjustments that loosed up the muscles in the neck dramatically, but did not resolve the pain.  Next I saw my GP who took X-Rays which didn't show anything.  I had to follow up with her to insist on an MRI.  Laying still for 20 minutes without moving for MRI was a hellish experience, but I managed to do it.  Of course, the MRI showed herniated discs.  Duh!  GP wanted to refer me for surgery, but I told her I wanted to try corticosteroid shot first as that cured the issue with my lower back 10 years ago.  So she referred me to pain management center, but earliest appointment was 1 month out.  At this time, I had already been dealing with shitty sleep and constant, unrelenting pain every waking moment (that I wasn't walking) for a little over a month.  Apparently the pain mgmt people are hella busy because there was no way to expedite my appointment.

I finally get to see the pain mgmt doc in September and his intern sees me first and does all the work in getting my history and running through their diagnostic procedures.  He tells me that most likely they won't be able to schedule me for the corticosteroid steroid shot until after I've done physical therapy (insurance generally doesn't pay for the shot otherwise).  I could rage a bit on the whole insanity of the insurance company dictating medical care in this case, but I won't.  The doc walks in and I'm a bit shocked.  Young guy (maybe early 30s) looks like he just arrived at the hospital from a photo shoot at GQ.  He's impeccably manicured and wearing some expensive boots and bling (wristwatch, rings, etc).  He literally spends less than 5 minutes in the room with me.  He just says, we'll schedule the shot and physical therapy together.  Then he walks out the door.  Intern asks me if I want to schedule the shot with sedation or not.  I ask him what's the difference?  He says the last patient he had just seen that scheduled a shot with sedation got the earliest slot in January next year.  He said if you schedule without sedation, there are more slots available (don't have to coordinate with sedation peeps) and I would likely get an earlier appointment (maybe in December he guessed).  We go to the ladies at the desk that schedule appointments and they were able to schedule me, without sedation, for Nov 1.  Intern was genuinely shocked that got the appointment "that early".

I went 3 times so far for physical therapy and we've been working on some stretches and gentle motions for my neck, shoulders and back and it's been very helpful.  Shortly after my first visit, I felt good enough to start sleeping in my bed again and I started getting sleep in 6-7 hour blocks again.  The nerve issues in the left arm became much less frequent and the constant pain in my back actually dwindled to unnoticeable unless I moved my left arm too far in the wrong direction (and wrong direction was never consistent - I'd know when I got shooting pain).  I thought maybe I didn't need the shot any more and gave consideration to cancelling the appointment.

But then it started raining.  Literally, after over a month of no rain and drought conditions, it started raining 3 days ago.  I didn't go on my walks.  The constant pain in my back started ticking back up.  The nerve issues in the left arm started occurring more frequently.  The physical therapy I've been doing has helped, but I think the walking that I've been doing with Silencio has made an even bigger difference.

Anyway, I did go for the shot yesterday and managed to get a walk in this morning.  My left shoulder/back feels super stiff and tender right now.  I feel like I just need to follow that quintessential coaches' advice and just "walk it off".

Also - I did break the 500 rank barrier this morning (getting to 494).  I have to stay active to maintain or improve ranks now.  I am credited with 170k hexes measured currently!

 

[bernorange 8385]

Last night was daylight savings change - fall back.  I was aware of it when I went to bed (clocks auto-update).  I left for my walk this morning at 5am and was happy to see more or less clear skies even though weather forecasts had a decent chance for rain.  As I'm out walking, I notice the sun starting to come up about 5:40am and I got a bit disoriented.  I was used to having the sunrise occur at a certain timing within my walks and having it rise an hour earlier threw me even though I was aware of the time change.  I actually preferred having the later sunrise for more walking in the dark, but I guess that may change in a month or two if it ever cools off around here.

[bernorange 8385]

On 10/16/2024 at 9:34 AM, bernorange said:

Silencio rolled out v2 of their app yesterday.  ... I've compiled a few thoughts about the new app:

...

The Bad

• On my phone, the display of the overlay with the decibel levels clips into the "your current position" marker on the map so I can't see hexes behind me at all or to the sides (partially clipped).  They need to allow us to minimize that overlay to make the live map easier to use when you are going for unclaimed hexes in an area you've previously traversed.

...

The Ugly

• I don't know if it's the app or my phone, but I'm unable to record a venue check-in presently.  When I select that option and then select the nearby venue, the app shows a screen with recording info (decibels, record time) and then freezes.  It doesn't record anything.  If I click to abort the session, I get a confirmation pop-up that has two options to cancel the abort, but no option to confirm the abort.  I have to close the app completely and restart to reset to the main screen.
• I thought this app was running more stable than the previous app.  I successfully recorded several sessions >20min each.  But on my way home, I had a recording that was running on 17min.  When I checked it again a minute or so later, the app had crashed and I lost the recording.  I had to restart the app several times as it would not start a new recording session - just gave me "something went wrong" error messages over and over - until it finally started working again.

I've got more experience using the new app now and I think they also pushed out an update for it since the initial release.  In any event, some updated thoughts:

• My issue with the display was due to a display setting on my phone (to zoom in at max zoom).  I changed the display zoom and I can see the hexagons on the map all around the 'you are here' marker.
• Venue check ins are working now - I think this was due to an update to the app
• I have started rebooting my phone prior to going on a walking session and the app is a *lot* more stable now.  There are still occasional hiccups, but the power down and restart seems to have fixed 95% of the issues I was having.

[RDCanecutter 26869]

My walking paths are set in stone. I think I have covered every way to get anywhere within the half-mile square in which I dwell.

 

[bernorange 8385]

On 11/4/2024 at 7:21 PM, RDCanecutter said:

My walking paths are set in stone. I think I have covered every way to get anywhere within the half-mile square in which I dwell.

Suburbia: the pedestrian frontier
...

To explore strange new streets
To seek out new vistas and new hexagons
To boldly go where no Silencian has measured before!
 

I have to walk at least 45 minutes in any given direction to find some virgin hexagons (that are on a public pavement).  The area of the circle within that 45 minute radius has been well traveled already.

I went walking through an older neighborhood this morning and saw some funky sights (sorry, no pics):

• A house with a tree laying on the roof.  The tree was a 40 to 50' tall tree (not sure what type - I didn't look that closely - that was laying at a ~40deg angle to the ground and resting on the roof.  It looked like it had been blown over in a storm, but - and this is the funky part - not recently.  The trunk of the tree looked rooted into the next door neighbor's yard like it had grown that way for years.
• A house at the end of a cul-de-sac had a brand new, shiny truck parked in the front yard blocking the front door of the house.  There was plenty of room on the driveway for the truck, but for reasons that I cannot fathom, they parked it on the lawn pretty much exactly in the middle of the yard (a yard with no trees, shrubs or landscaping).  I was just glad they didn't park it so that it blocked the sidewalk.