I Made a Doodad That Ended Up Being Much Less Interesting Than I Thought It Would Be But Whatever
Hi.
So we all know I love walking, right? And stats. I love stats.
So I often like to put those two things together.
One thing I’ve been wanting to do is make one of those “racing totals” visuals where I see how quickly my mileage racks up for each year I’ve been walking up here in Calgary. I can do static visuals fine in something like R, but animated visuals are something that I’ve never really done on my own, so I’ve never been able to make such a visual.
However, I found an editable template of one on Flourish so I decided to give it a try.
The following visual shows my cumulative walking mileage for 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 as the year progresses from January 1 to December 31. The year 2014 was excluded because I only moved to Calgary in September of 2014, and the year 2020 was excluded because we’re only in June.
Pretty boring. More boring than I thought it’d be, actually. I thought 2017, 2018, and 2019 would at least skip around in largest total until, like, March or something. But nope. Only through January.
Haha, I like how 2019 was like, “I’m gonna catch you, 2017!” and then July happened.
(I only walked 2,523 miles in 2015 what the hell was wrong with me)
Q: What happens when they give the amateur architect the tallest building in Calgary’s Northwest quadrant?
A: This freaking thing.
The hell are those windows doing? Why don’t they line up? What in the fricking frack?
(I took this pic in April; there’s currently no snow on the ground, thank farts.)
Edit: apparently it’s bugging others, too.
Edit 2: apparently it’s supposed to look like that? Here’s the concept art of what it will look like eventually. I still don’t like it.
Edit 3: you can see this abomination from like everywhere in the northwest. Thanks, I hate it.
C-Train. C-Train run. Run, Train, Run.
If I have to take public transit, it’s usually the bus, just because I love the busses and some of them get me closer to home than any of the C-Train stations do. But when Nate and I have been out walking, we’ve taken our fair share of C-Train rides.
But ever since the pandemic hit, we’ve been really limited in our walks due to 1) no public bathrooms being open, 2) being afraid of malls, which were our primary stopping points, and 3) being wary of public transportation (even though, in my opinion, it’s probably safer now than it ever has been due to the fact that there are so few people utilizing it).
So we haven’t had a C-Train ride in a while.
But I just found these two videos of both the Red and Blue C-Train lines, so I shall use them to travel the city vicariously.
Enjoy.
Pout…pout…LET IT ALL OUT! This is the weather we complain about, come on…
I love how every other day this week has been sunny/warm/both, but today was cloudy/windy/cold. Because Nate and I wanted to walk together.
But we walked together anyway, because it feels like we’ve only gotten like three weekends to actually do that so far this week.
And then we came home and I found a very relevant little map:
I love how Calgary’s in its own personal hell in Alberta (it’s riiiight under the title in that pink region). “You bitches are going to get a snowy April and you’re going to like it.”
Edit: goddammit, Calgary!
CLOUDSKY
Y’all, look at this fantastic cloud boundary. So sharp.
I risked my fingers freezing off for this, too. It’s so freaking cold here right now, but it wasn’t cold enough to deter me from taking cool cloud pictures.
‘Cause that’s how I roll.
Lapsing (Again)
Calgary should use this as an official tourism video, seriously.
I know, I know. Another time-lapse. But this one is fantastic. The transitions are so smooth and beautiful, and that shot of The Bow building at 0:37 is stunning.
SO FREAKING COLD
Oh my god, Calgary, fucking why?
I hate this so much. And the whole week is going to be like this. Remember last February’s month-long deep freeze? This isn’t supposed to last as long, but it’s definitely going to be colder than last February.
Gross.
FREAKING BRRR
Yeah, it’s that cold here. -30 Celsius is -22 Fahrenheit for my ‘Murican bros.
Fun fact: I have always found “Celsius” way harder to spell than “Fahrenheit.”
Waiter! There’s some freezing over in my hell!
Me: Yay, it’s good to be back in Calgary. Hello, Calgary!
The temperature, as it tanks over the next few days:
Seriously, though, what is this madness?
That first line of temps contains the “highs” and the second line contains the “feels like” temperatures. And yes, those are in Fahrenheit.
It’s supposed to warm up starting next weekend, but that’s exactly how last February was supposed to start. Instead, it was this madness all month.
I don’t know if I can do that again.
In This Blog: Claudia’s Jet-Setting Suitcase Says “Screw You” to Cold Temperatures and Goes to California Instead
Today, I went from Moscow/Pullman (PUW) to Seattle (SEA) to Calgary (YYC).
My suitcase, however, did not. It went from Moscow/Pullman (PUW) to Los Angeles (LAX) to Calgary (YYC).
????
Luckily, my nine-hour layover in Seattle meant that my suitcase still got to Calgary before I did, despite its little adventure.
I like Sea-Tac; I’ve spent a decent proportion of my life there. It’s a nice airport. Nine hours, though, is a little too long of a layover. At least I got a lot of semester prepping done and still had time to walk around a little bit.
Hoorah.
20,000 Miles!
Hello, nerd bombs! To everyone’s shock, today will be a walking-related blog.
Why? Because counting today’s walk, I have walked a total of 20,000 miles since living in Calgary!
Here are some stats (as always, haha):
Total walks: 1,610
Total distance: 20,002.96 miles
Total steps: 44,913,637
Total time: 307,098.13 minutes (that’s 5,118.30 hours, or 213.26 days, or 0.584 years)
Total calories burned: 1,341,926.0
The median* distance per walk was 15.02 miles; median steps per walk was 33,055; median time per walk was 214.98 minutes (3.583 hours).
Here are boxplots of distance by year. Notice how my walking distances become dramatically more consistent as we move from 2014 to 2019.
*Medians are used instead of means, as all of the distributions of the above variables are highly skewed
Oh, Canada…
Also, Calgary has a ton of walking/biking paths.
It’s one of the main reasons I love this city.
TIL having Reddit-based ScooterGangs makes a city more livable
Hi.
Every year, The Economist does an assessment of ~140 cities for their Global Livability Ranking. This year, Calgary ranked as the fifth most livable city in the world and the most livable city in North America. The rankings are based on the averagings of the results of five metrics: stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure.
So that’s kinda cool.
If you’re interested in the report, you can download it from here.
Oot and Aboot on the Scoot
I’ve mentioned the Bowness Scooter Gang on here before, but just in case anyone wants a fantastic read on the proliferation of Reddit-driven Scooter Gangs in Calgary, here y’all go:
This is the best thing to ever happen to the Calgary subreddit.
Aw Hail No!
Haha, so we got caught in a flash hailstorm on our way back from watching the new Spider Man movie. Observe:
We had just passed a bus stop when the hail started, otherwise we would have had to run a bit to find cover. The hail doesn’t look super big in the video, but some of them were probably dime-sized, I’d say. It sounds so loud ‘cause it was hitting the glass roof of the bus shelter.
I was yelling at Nate ‘cause that was the only way he could hear me.
TIME TO RETURN FROM THE CABIN
WHY IS EVERY MAJOR ROAD IN CALGARY UNDER CONSTRUCTION I MEAN SERIOUSLY IS THAT NECESSARY
It’s a long drive back from the cabin. I used to love long trips (whether they were in cars, planes, whatever), but now I’m not a big fan of them. I still really dig airports, though; not sure what that’s all about.
I also really liked staying in that hotel in Seattle when my layover was so long that they kicked me out of the airport.
Random hotel nostalgia time?
Anyway. This blog did not go where I thought it would, but I can’t remember what else I was going to say, so there you go.
Sorry, I’m stressed out about the upcoming semester and I already miss my mom.
Edit: IT’S ALLERGY SEASON! TIME TO SNOT LIKE THERE’S NO TOMORROW
Well, that’s great.
My mom’s here one night and someone broke into her van and stole a bunch of her stuff.
They smashed the window overnight and grabbed two of her backpacks full of stuff.
‘Cause people suck.
Adventures in the Rain
According to the forecast, today was supposed to involve brief periods of “trace amounts” of rain. Nate and I believed the forecast, so we went out for our usual weekend walk.
Nate and I are fools.
About two and a half miles in, “trace amounts of rain” turned into “lol, better run, idiots, the sky is gonna drown you” and we had to take shelter under an overpass for a little bit before braving the strong rain to get to The Core downtown. By then, we were super soaking wet (I could wring out my coat) but only like five miles into the walk, so after trying to dry off a little in the mall, we managed to get a few more miles in by walking through the open portions of the Plus 15.
We also Plus 15-ed it to The Running Room for me to get shoes, then gunned it home to try to beat even more rain.
Fun, yo.
Na na naaaaa na…
Na na naaaaa na…
Hey, hey, hey…
What the fuck is this.
I Love Calgary
I really do. It’s a big enough city that you can get that big metro feel in certain parts of it, but it’s so spread out that there are a lot of places you can go and not feel like you’re in a big city at all.
And the river path. Holy gods, I love that river path. Miles and miles of uninterrupted walking with no threat of murderous cars? Give it here.
I love the weather, too, even though this past February made me want to throw myself into the sun (because at least then I’d be warm). I much prefer the temperature swings of Calgary (hot “near-90s” summers to cold “WHY ARE MY INSIDES FROZEN” winters) to the dreary rain of Vancouver.
I mean, I loved Vancouver too, but for totally different reasons and not with the same depth that I truly love Calgary.
(And I hated the rain. Ugh.)
Guys
It feels
SO
GOOD
to be able to walk outside and not fight hypothermia the whole way.
Seriously, if you ever hear me complain about any temperatures higher than -10 again, punch me in the face.
In This Blog: Claudia Complains About the Weather (Again)
I’m so sick of this freaking weather, yo.
Save for like three days, this whole month has been full of dangerously cold temps. Ambient temps in the negative teens (Fahrenheit), wind chills in the -20s or -30s (or even -40s). It’s gross, it hurts, and I’m so tired of feeling like I’m going to die of hypothermia on my walks. Where the shit is the “mild winter” we were supposed to get?
A -22 windchill seems to be my absolute lower limit, or at least the limit at which even my stubbornness won’t let me go below. I’m pretty sure I’ve had legit hypothermia on a decent number of my walks. Some of the signs of it include shivering, shallow breathing, clumsiness, confusion, and there have been a few points on my 15-mile walks (usually after I’ve been walking into the wind for five miles) where I really start to get into this hazy, confused mental state and start to lose a bit of coordination as I’m walking. There’s also been a few times where I go into the public bathrooms at mile 7 and have to shiver uncontrollably for about 15 minutes before I finally warm up enough to continue. Fun times!
Beats four hours on a treadmill, though.
THE COLD, IT BURNS
There are few things quite like the sweet, sweet pain of losing all feeling in your toes, fingers, lips, and nose while you’re out walking for four hours in weather that’s way too cold. But hey, -15 feels tropical compared to that -30s nonsense we’ve had for the past few days, so I took leave of whatever modicum of common sense I have this morning and braved the cold for an outside walk.
It hurt. It hurt good.
(Except for those 10 minutes I spent shivering uncontrollably in the bathroom by the side of the path which subsequently and unexpectedly turned into a panic attack? That wasn’t very fun. But when I was done with that nonsense, the sun had come out, so the rest of the walk was fine.)
Edit: ha, my Garmin picked up the panic attack. Heart rate spike around 1 hour 40 minutes or so.
Frostbite ALMOST
So today’s fun adventure was “let’s see if we can get from campus to home before frostbite sets in!”
No, seriously.
According to a “how long does it take to get frostbite?” calculator I found, an ambient temperature of -29℉ and a wind speed of 7 mph combine to give you 12 minutes of exposure before frostbite develops.
And it takes me about 14 minutes to get home from the closest indoor part of campus.
So, you know, fun.
Want Some Data?
Hello again, all.
So it occurred to me that I have thousands of data points in the form of my walking data that I haven’t shared in any form other than yearly summaries and graphs.
So I’ve decided to post a link to my entire Excel file of walking data since moving to Calgary. You know, for anyone who needs data or wants to analyze it or who just thinks I’m making it all up.*
So here ya go! Nerd it up.
*I’m not. Do you know how lazy I am? It would take a lot of effort to realistically fake that much data.
Eigenblogger 