Tag: videos

What I Listen to at the Gym

I’m a rock music person. I love classic rock, metal, what used to be called “alternative” in the 90s (am I dating myself?), indie rock, etc. Anything with a big, pounding beat that isn’t too fast or too slow, that isn’t tinny, muted, or delicate. I like the music that I can feel in my chest.

Sometime this year, I found The Hu. I’ve been listening to them at the gym and I’m hooked. Maybe it’s because of the 1% Mongolian in me, or maybe they’re just good and interesting and people just want to listen to something old(er) in a new way. Like, metal and throat singing? Those awesome stringed instrument I don’t know the name of plus electric guitar? I hope that this using-your-culture’s-traditional-instrument with modern music doesn’t stop, because the results sound so damn cool.

The workout videos I use

I workout based on my heart rate. That is, I watch my heart rate so that it doesn’t go beyond approximately 145-155 bpm, and when it’s close to that, I rest until it slows down. This way, I prevent asthma attacks yet still get sweaty. Some days, I feel like I can do more, and some days, less… some days, I just feel tired or sore or burnt out, so I go easier. In any case, I have to do mostly low impact movements (no jumping) to prevent asthma attacks. Just so you know, low impact doesn’t mean easy! If there’s jumping in a workout, I just take the jumps out. Here are a selection of workout videos I use on my full body days.

Gaming Vicariously

When I work, I watch YouTube, mainly because work can be rote and I cut and paste a lot. Once upon a time, I used to game; I remember pulling 15-hour days on Word of Warcraft 20 years ago or Final Fantasy almost 10 years ago. Doing that is just hard when I spend all day on the computer and the last thing I want is to spend more time on the computer. Sometimes, blogging doesn’t sound all that fun to me because it’s on a computer (hence why I take a couple of weeks off from here). However, this doesn’t mean I can’t watch other people play games. And one of the coolest games that came out recently has been Elden Ring. It’s one of those games that I wish I can start and finish, but it would take me years. One reason is that I don’t have a platform to play on at home and the only way I can play it is on Rob’s Xbox X, which narrows it down to weekends only, and since it’s spring, we almost never spend spring/summer/fall indoors. I would probably only give the game a few hours per week for a few weeks, and then not play it until it starts to be too cold to go outside. By then, the next iteration of the Xbox/PlayStation would be out, or the game would go VR, or something, which means that it would be a waste. The next best thing? Watching this streamer play. Or this one.

The reason why I like them? Neither of them have an annoying voice. There are many reasons why I like one person and not another, but I think those reasons are individual to viewers. Rob watches racing game and motor vehicle game streamers and I swear some of them are as histrionic as my 7- and 10-year-old nieces are when they learn they’re going to the bounce house place. So these are what I’ve been looking at the past couple of weeks.