In England, Australia and Switzerland parents want to ban mobile phones from children beneath 14 years of age. In theory this is an excellent idea this is a fantastic and fabulous idea, because it means parents can avoid spending thousands of francs per year on mobile phones, and tech is seen as toxic. In practice parents are scapegoating the medium, rather than the source of the problem. Facebook, Zynga, Supercell and many other companies are deliberately targeting people to make their platforms addictive and compelling.

Usually I like to go out in the afternoon because that was often when I felt the need for a mental break. This morning, and yesterday, or a day or two I went out in the morning. Part of the reason for this is that summer temperatures are arriving. We are getting back to 30°c or more, and running in that temperature is not as pleasant. Noise and Comfort There was little noise pollution yesterday so I opened the balcony door in the morning, and a velux and I had a nice cooling draft in my apartment.

When you drive around Geneva or walk in the centre it is easy to see Geneva as an urban place with little to offer in terms of nature. If you get on a bike, and ride around you will find vineyards, fields, viticultural villages and more. Yesterday I led a meetup group as we did the reverse Rive Droite walk. My rational was that if it does start to rain it makes sense to be close to Geneva, rather than La Plaine.

This morning I woke at six with the intention of going for a group ride but I felt myself coughing and feeling low energy. When I checked Garmin Connect it said that I had a bad night of sleep and yet still recommended a 28 minute run or a half hour bike ride. I chose to go for a low intensity run and was done by eight in the morning.

Two or three weeks ago I wrote that I hate Caribana but I also wrote that I have enjoyed the event the past. I also shared a walking route that I could use to get there and back, without using the car. For saying that I hate Caribana I was called a hater, and then that person tried to have a fight, in private via DMs. I said I’m not interested in an argument.

Yesterday I went to a Ruby on Rails talkin Geneva. I headed to town early and had a walk from Cornavin to the UNHCR building before walking towards the WMO. I then turned towards the lake and headed to the parc. In the park I saw that people were in summer mode. Some were having barbecues whilst more were having siestas and more. Geneva has switched to summer mode. After passing by the Palais Wilson I headed back into the centre, towards Grottes, and that’s where I saw the Orchestre des Nation performing in the street.

For a few days I fled from the Caribana music festival because during this event it is impossible to sleep due to noise pollution. Switzerland, despite being so strict about other forms of noise pollution is lax about the noise pollution from music festivals. Most people plan holidays to flee it. I did too, but I still denounce it. Having said this I stayed in a small village half way up the Jura and was able to walk a short distance to recycle cardboard, cans and PET bottles.

Cycling around the Léman is a challenge that I could try with a group on Sunday. It would begin and end in Geneva. My maximum range so far is 180 kilometres, and a fast ride, for me, is twenty five kilometres per hour. The group set a goal of 27 kilometres per hour. Recently I have cycled with people at up to thirty kilometres per hour. That was on shorter rides.

I have a Mac Book Pro that is dormant at the moment. I retired it because it became slow and unreliable. It’s a 2016 Mac Book Pro. This was never a great machine. I bought it cheaply because my good machine was stolen. I replaced the battery a few years ago and I was going to do the same, until I saw that it was retired by Apple. Without updates I didn’t see much point in paying 200 CHF for a battery for a machine that will run Linux when I can get a machine for that price.

It often rains for the entire rain of Caribana and this makes me happy. It makes me happy because when I complained to them about their noise pollution two or three years ago they gave me a boiler plate answer instead of doing something about it. I am currently staying away from my home until Sunday morning because I know that to stay home would drive me nuts. From what I see the Caribana is an event with just 6000 patrons or so, and yet they play the music so loud that it is impossible for me to do anything without hearing it from 18:00 - 03:00 from Wednesday night to Sunday morning.