TSC S01—E02: The Squeakquel Episode

Oh, you again? Welcome back! 👹

TSC delivers sneaky treats for that GORGEOUS noggin of yours. It’s the (almost) weekly newsletter about hobbies, fixations, and the love of curiosity.

Boy oh boy, 2024. What’s cooking in that brain kitchen of yours?
A new business idea?
A fresh hobby?
A hostile takeover of a competing mega-corporation?

Ohhhh we love to laugh here at THE SIDEQUEST CLUB.
Now get outta my face and look at these pretty links!

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📙 The Bookmarks

Things we saved “for later”…
… i.e. disappearing into the ether.

• Chronophotography is a super trippy method of conveying movement and passage of time in an image.

• Millenials are boomers now AND I DON’T LIKE IT OK? I DON’T CARE FOR IT AND IT MAKES ME FEEL BAD.

• Girl dinner got a fresh coat of paint.

• The Vectrex is the coolest video game console you’ve never heard of and if you have heard of it you’re a nerd or a liar or maybe both.

• Red Bull posted a TikTok of a kayaker zipping through an ice cave and off a glacier. It’s the kind of thing that makes you go “Oh man I should buy a GoPro!” But then you remember you haven’t been outside of your house since the Obama administration and you just save the video instead for your newsletter so people think you’re cool. #relatable

💎 Hobbies, Creators, and more! 🚴‍♀️

Let’s talk about cycling. (Alt title: DRIVE IT LYCRA STOLE IT)
More specifically…indoor cycling. It removes almost everything you love about outdoor cycling, and lets you sweat in your expensive little apartment!

In rainy, snowy, or very hot seasons it can be extremely difficult and stressful to get outside and put miles in. Since exercise is a major key to managing your mental health, this can be a problem.

Enter Zwift.

The world of smart trainers and Zwift is big. It can seem like it’s just a more complex alternative to a Peloton…or even riding outdoors—but it’s a whole new world of structured training and gamification! And it’s also very dumb and stupid and I like it and I also hate it.

Zwift lets you race against real people, yourself, or just the clock. It’s massively fun because just like other games, you level up, get new gear, custom bikes, as well as unlock new courses.

Getting hooked on riding your bike inside is a very fun winter rabbit hole indeed. This is pretty expensive as far as hobbies go. Enter at your own risk. Or not.

Let’s break it down! Here are some resources to get you noodling on indoor cycling as a potential new hobby.

• Well…you’ll need is a bike. We’ll breeze past this for now as we’ll assume you’re already interested in cycling. If not, make sure you check out /r/cycling you deadbeat!

• Dumb bikes need a SMART TRAINER, which is a device you mount your bike on that conveys riding information via bluetooth and lets you ride indoors. There’s a huge price range, and a good beginner trainer is distributed by Zwift themselves.

• The last slice of pie you’ll need to burn off is installing the ZWIFT app. They’re always running free trials, and if you use my link you’ll get a whole free month. If you buy your smart trainer from them, you’ll get a year for free!

• A great creator to check out to see how all of this works is Danny Enzo! He’s a popular Zwifter, a nice guy, and he regularly does rundowns of his gear.

📰 Article of the Week

Are you still here? Get a hobby or something.

Oh. That’s why you’re here. Anyway. The first two sections got a smidge wordy this week, so we’re leaving this article to speak for itself. Basically some doctors don’t think ur crazy if u like lots of stuff. Cool?

You’ve reached the end, and we can smell your tears through the screen. Don’t cry because it’s over; smile because we worked really hard on writing this and we’ll have a mental breakdown if you don’t.

We’d love your input to make this better as we go.
Got a hobby to recommend?
A website you’d love to see featured?
Interested in sponsoring an episode?
Hit us up.

Thanks for reading, and we can’t wait to slide into your inbox next week!

A Thousand Sweet Dreams and One Sour One,
THE SIDEQUEST CLUB
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