#commonwealthtok — Public Fediverse posts on home.social

Go Outside Today @[email protected] · 2025-03-16 · 23:02 UTC

A Bit More Sun – Inside and Out

Hey everyone – it’s the end of the weekend again so I have a bit of time for this. How was your week? Mine was actually pretty good. It almost feels like not only is there a bit more sun outside, there’s a bit more sun inside me as well. This week was a fine balance between keeping informed and being ‘over-informed’ to the point of anxiety. I also did add one algorithm back in and that was TikTok. This one, however, is something I’m excusing for a couple of reasons. The first is that I find the algorithm really responsive. If I get a video or two that is doom-laden, I simply click it and mark it as “Not interested”. Then I like the things that I find positive. This means that my feed now has lots of people happy about warmer cycling weather, some people sharing positive stories and saying nice things, and lately a TON of people from around the world via the hashtag #WorldTok, #EuroTok, and #CommonwealthTok just talking about what daily life is like in various countries in Africa, Scandinavia, and Asia. As one person on there described it, they are really loving having someone in Finland talking about what a typical breakfast is or sharing their dog navigating a deep snow and then a man in Thailand introducing us to his cows. Many people share their oddly niche interests like one woman sharing her love for the discontinued crayon colour “Dandelion” or another person who collects found grocery shopping lists. People share their homemade art and food. I think mostly what I see is a whole lot of peaceful and mundane day to day life happening in different ways around the world. In a lot of ways the community feels like here. Maybe I’ll start posting again soon when I get out on the road. Any interest here in video content from rides and the like?

The other reason that I’m back looking at TikTok is that this is one of our favourite things to do as a family – to watch funny, cute, touching or encouraging videos we share with each other. We took a while off when I pulled away from all social media but it actually has a positive effect on how we all feel so I’ve reinstated this.

Speaking of rides, Wednesday night I went to a Randonneurs Ontario new member event. I actually joined this back in 2020 and then the pandemic hit and everything went topsy-turvy and I didn’t do one ride. This time I joined again. This group does long non-competitive rides: 200, 300, and 400 km in a day the latter taking a nearly 24 sleepless hours for some. Longer rides go to 600 and even 1,200 kilometres though in that case riders do try to get a bit of sleep along the way. Sometimes that’s in hotels, other times on benches or ATMs as some at the event told us.

I’ve been intrigued since watching this person’s YouTube channel. His videos are what made me start trying to ride >200 km rides last summer. They capture what I love about riding. Here’s one for a 300 km ride which must be completed in 20 hours or less (including rest stops):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJXNY5JUMfU

It’s not all fun and games though. Sometimes bad weather can catch you off guard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbFe3d_LlrI

That reminds me of one of last summer’s really long rides when I rode out to Lake Erie and back – a bit over 200 km. It would’ve been much faster but when I reached the lake, a huge storm system hit. I got drenched there and then it quickly stopped. But once again it started up and luckily I made a decision to stop before a long stretch of no services. I ended up sheltering at a covered set of picnic tables outside a chip truck. I stayed warm and dry while buckets of rain came down and thunder and lightning rumbled. I did get a bit nervous because it didn’t look like the rain would stop for a while and I had another 80 kilometres to go before I would get to the train station where I could return home.

I was 100% on my own. But despite that – or maybe because of that I had a great time. In the end I made it even before the sun went down. I sat on the train, drank a pop and felt pleased with myself that I met my goal.

So it was nice to get together with folks of similar mind. The rules might be a little too rigid for me to do – for example you can only stop for food/water at specified checkpoints and many of the rides start far from home at 6AM making them not easy to get to.

But whether I ride with them or by myself I did take away one thing. I remembered how much fun and how satisfying it was to ride 200+ kilometres in a day under my own power.

Work’s also been pretty great. It’s been extremely busy as we reach a very critical point in our project timeline. At the same time I’ve moved offices. I’m now in a brand new building, with a huge 34″ monitor and possibly the biggest plus: huge windows with lots of sun. My cold was also better enough that i was able to ride to work again which is 20 minutes of time well spent. I always feel great when I do that.

And of course whether work or cycling meetups, one thing is becoming obvious. Seeing humans is really a great thing for my mood and state of mind.

So it’s been a pretty great week all things considered – and it’s looking better and better as the weather improves.

Good Things in the World:

There are some great churches in the world:

https://www.reddit.com/r/wholesome/comments/1jbcxdr/transwelcoming_church/

People like to disparage the youth but what I’m seeing is encouraging. For example, youth drinking is actually declining. I heard this anecdotally from Daegan but it’s not just him that’s noticing it. It’s a definite trend. And kids are not just glued to their phones, they’re looking for connection using the tools they have. (especially now when kids are often unable to visit each other because parents don’t allow them out alone). So kids in one Brazil school made an alternative. A “Paper Twitter” bulletin board. I enjoyed looking at the little details of it like several drawing photos of Snoopy. It reminds me of when I was in university and people used to have white boards on their door. Often it was a simple message board for “Hey, I stopped by but you weren’t here…” messages but sometimes people drew art or added quotes. It’s fun to see this again.

https://www.reddit.com/r/MadeMeSmile/comments/1j85z8w/cell_phones_got_banned_at_schools_in_brazil_so/

Also check this out. For the first time in history there are more women doctors than men in the UK!

Yes there is no doubt that lots of bad things are happening but people are still doing good things. Seeing and sharing these things gives me strength and hope for taking action and moving forward toward a better future.

#3GoodThings #CommonwealthTok #Cycling #EuroTok #GoodNews #Kindness #positivity #WorldTok