Lawnmower Man 2021

During the after-Christmas sales last year I managed to gab myself a virtual reality headset. Specifically, I got the shiny new Oculus Quest 2, an entirely self contained, wire free VR headset. No need for a beefy and expensive PC to process the games. Everything is done on board the headset itself. 

There are limits to this freedom. There is a curated storefront, so I can’t simply buy games on Steam to play on the Oculus right away, though with a link cable and a built in feature, you can use the Oculus as a pass through headset and play the greatest VR game ever made to date, Half Life: Alyx. But that would require the afore mentioned beefy and expensive PC, which I do not have. 

It’s also made by bookFace, and intrinsically tied in to the Facebleag infrastructure, requiring an active Facebukk account to log in and start using. 

However, although I only ever otherwise use it for messaging my local Pokémon Go friends, I do actually have an EffBee account. So, good to go, I did a little research. 

VR is a total body experience. Most games have you standing up, moving about, looking around, ducking, dodging, and swinging arms and hands about. This is a lot more than pressing joysticks and buttons on a traditional console. I have a full body tremor, mostly centred on my arms and legs. Would I be able to get into VR at all? 

It turns out VR, and VR exercise in particular, is really great for Parkinson’s. Basically something, something, something, distraction, something, blood flow, something, something, music, fun and tah-dah! It has been shown to have overall positive mood and health benefits. 

So I got in to the VR space focusing on that. All my first apps were fitness forward, such as the phenomenal boxing simulator Thrill of the Fight, and the rhythm action games Beat Sabre and Pistol Whip, my personnel preferred gmae in that genre. I really enjoyed playing all of these, but they were exercise games, and kinda started to become a chore to turn on. Over time, with a narrow focus on just those games, I lost interest in VR entirely. 

It didn’t help that I had no one to share the experience with, both in person and online. With Covid being very much an ever present threat, I couldn’t have friends over to show of my shiny tech to and share challenges with. And I made no effort to find friends online, largely because last year the Oculus was difficult to get hold of, so very few of my friends had one. 

But now a few of my Twitter buddies have one, and I’ve broaden my library thanks to discounts throughout the year, most recently the Black Friday sales. I now have a wonderfully fun, stunning looking, very real feeling mini-golf game, Walkabout Mini Golf. I’ve been having a lot of laughs with that one, and it allows online multiplayer with avatars and in game voice chat and sounds like a whole lot of future fun, because several of my friends already own it! 

Virtual Reality is here, now. Yes, unfortunately the cheapest, easiest entry, beginner friendly, expert featured machine is owned by a very, very evil mega corporation that willfully pushed lies and mistruths and corrupted millions of users opinions on governments, elections, science, vaccines and more. Sigh. But they really are the only horse in the race at this level. 

It is a thrilling experience to put on a wireless headset and discover you can freely move about within a generated environment, interacting naturally with objects and characters. It is equally thrilling to watch a friend try it for the first time and wave at a robot friend, then pick up a can and throw it at the robot, entirely without formal tutorials. 

I’m really enjoying my time in VR. My tremor rarely causes me any issues while I’m exploring my digital world. I can’t wait to see where this goes. 

I also can’t wait for the first time Ada and Connor try it themselves. There will be video. Dear Reader, I promise you, there will be video.

Float Like An Elephant, Sting Like A Letharic Butterfly

Last March a new boxing gym opened nearby. Boxing is apparently one of the great exercises for Parkinson’s, so I decided to join up right away.

I decided right away.

I actually joined about two months later.

I hadn’t really exercised properly since Ada was born. Before then I used to swim regularly. Since Ada arrived my exercise was running to stop her doing something stupid, or carrying her away from whatever stupid thing I couldn’t get to her in time to stop happening. Kids.

But I decided to try my fist at boxing, and fell completely in love with it. By the end of the first week I owned two pairs of my own wraps, and by the end of the first month I had my own gloves!

I joined Raincity Boxing around the start of May and after the first class I knew this was something special. The gym has an incredibly friendly and supportive athmosphere, lead by owner and head coach Sean Sung, who is just one of the nicest people I’ve had the pleasure of meeting. His classes are always fun and funny. This makes for a really inviting class, regardless of fitness level. All the other members are chatty and supportive, encouraging each other to throw just one more punch, or reach for one last push up. I heard another member describe it as a family, and couldn’t agree more.

My goal when I joined Raincity Boxing was just to get fit, but I quickly had to amend that to “get fitter”. My cardio improved almost over night. I started to notice that I was getting stronger, and Claire pointed out that I was developing a rather nice set of abs. All this, and I was having fun!

I’ve never been one for exercise. I was always slim and never really worried about my weight. When I swam, it was a chore, something I had to get up early to do on my way to work. I did it, but mostly because they already had my money, so I might as well use it. Even then, I only did the bare minimum, two dozen lengths and out. I never pushed myself to do better. I was onctent to just swim for 30 minutes and get out.

But this was different. My plan of just going once a week to start lasted less than the first week, and I was going at least twice a week right away. It wasn’t long until I managed to squeeze in a third class, and I was thrilled the first time I made it to four classes in one week! It had been a long time since I was this excited about something that didn’t involve pixels or tiny cardboard components. Even on the days I didn’t feel up to it, going anyway always felt great. As soon as I walked in that door, everyone was happy to see me and I was happy to see everyone.

I’m never going to be a boxer. My Parkinson’s means that my muscles don’t react as fast as I’d like them too, and with limited force. My coordination is poor, and I struggle to put together combos of four or five moves. I find it diffficult to perform the explosive, burst moves that boxing is known for. And I hate wearing contact lenses, so my experience in a ring with a sparing partner would be something along the lines of watching a fuzzy black blur hit me in the face over and over again.

But I don’t care. I’m having so much fun. I love every class. I love meeting new members and welcoming them in. I love getting just a little better every class, one more pull up, just a little faster than yesterday.

That’s all I need. Not a straight 100% improvement, just a whole bunch of 10% steps.