Geocaching for Fitness.

I have recently taken up geocaching as a new hobby. For those of you who don't know what that is, to paraphrase the "There's cache in them there hills!" podcast, geocaching is using a multi-billion dollar satellite system to find a piece of tupperware in the woods. Although there is much more to the activity, that sums it up in a nutshell. For more information go to geocaching.com.

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The main reason I enjoy geocaching is because it gives me a reason to get out of the house more often, enjoy nature, and see new places. When I started I figured that geocaching would be an activity that would help me to get some exercise. The truth of the matter is that geocaching is what you make of it.

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Geocaching involves looking at maps and using a GPS regularly, and getting excercise really is all in the planning. A park and grab which is a mainstay of urban caching is the least likely to ensure you get any excercise as it entails parking as close to a geocache as possible and may not involve getting out of your vehicle at all. The geocacher also has to be stealthy when retrieving a cache and so pulling up, quickly signing the log, and replacing the cache becomes the ideal way of geocaching in an urban setting, especially on busy days where there are a lot of people. So obviously riding around in a vehicle all day requires little to no effort. The way to maximize an urban geocaching day is to park and walk the town.

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Trails are really the way to go, although it is unlikely that one can make this a daily habit and still find new geocaches. Once you have found the first three along a trail, the distance can become too great to handle in a 3 - 5 hour outing. However one can try to push themselves further and reach the fourth or fifth geocache in the same amount of time. The plus to geocaching along trails is that you can also bike in addition to hiking many trails to add some variety to the experience.

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My current geocaching habit consists of finding 1-3 geocaches during an outing. I like to find geocaches that have a hike involved, but to rely solely on geocaching as a form of exercise just isn't going to get many people in shape. I have found that hiding geocaches is just as fun and makes for a nice way to get some exercise as well. Scouting for a good location to hide a geocache takes time and quite a bit of effort. So the combination of scouting, and finding geocaches could be more productive toward a healthy life, and rewarding in many ways.

The Patapon Pace.

I recently got a PSP. I used it during GDC to show people my demo reel. I only used it three times, but one of the companies I showed it to was Valve, and that was a great experience. But, since I bought it, of course I had to go out and buy a ridiculous amount of games. One of the ones I bought recently was Patapon.

Just to inform those of you who haven't played it, there are a few things you should know. Patapon is a rhythm game, but nothing like DDR or Guitar Hero which have the scrolling indicators that let you know when to hit a button once the indicator reaches a designated point on the screen. In Patapon, you are essentially the god of a tribe. This tribe will react to the music depending on the combination of beats you use. There are three main types of commands, Guard, Attack and Advance.

The driving force that helps you keep the rhythm is the constant 1-2-3-4 of the tambourine. If you do well and hit exactly on beat with the tambourine you can tell by the sound of the drumbeat, if you're a little off, so is the sound of the drum. But if you do well enough you can send your tribesmen into a fever where they start jumping up and down and flinging enough arrows and spears to fill the sky. While playing you help the tribesmen hunt for food, defeat all kinds of large creatures, and fight other tribes. It's a good game!

Today, I decided to try taking a walk while playing Patapon, taking a step to each beat and it turned out to be a good walk! The persistent beat of the tambourine beckoned me to take each step at a faster pace than what I normally go. I actually worked up a sweat while walking today because of Patapon. It was very difficult to keep the rhythm with my thumbs without keeping rhythm with my feet, so there was a sort of synergy between my body and the game because of it.

Despite the fact that it was an enjoyable experience, there was a downside to playing the game. For one, I was horrible at the game while walking. I only came away with a handful of meals for my tribesmen after playing about 6 times (about a game per lap around my property). I lost the movement of my arms since I had to hold the PSP. Finally, it wasn't easy to see the screen because of the sunlight. But, I may do it again so that I can see if I can both keep walking with the beat and get my tribesmen into a fervor, because that would feel more like true synergy.

Exercise

I have been exercising. It makes me feel better but it surely isn't fun. My mp3 player is helpful in keeping my mind occupied and helps to take my mind off of the pain so I can do more than I normally would, which still isn't much. But I gotta say, I often feel like I'm a hamster in a wheel while using my exercise machines. I don't like it.

My job requires me to sit for 8 hours at a time in front of a computer. That's definitely not a job with any physical benefit. I don't mind it and I think I would rather do that than work in construction or something like that. But I do kind of wish that I could get something done while I workout. I do need to split some logs outside here, so that's something.

I'd like to take up hiking, trail biking, kayaking, snow boarding, play soccer, play field hockey, play ultimate frisbee. Which, there's no real productive value to those either, but at least they're much more fun. And it's more social as well. I read only enough of an article to get the point that people who play soccer burn more calories than those who run. And why is that? Because it's more fun, and the competition helps to drive you past the pain in a way that no Mp3 player can.

As if anyone would need to read this to fathom the idea, I mean it seemed pretty obvious to me upon reading the headline anyway, here is the article:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,297437,00.html