Ah I think I missed the language conversation. I'm interested in conlangs (I know Toki Pona and am learning Esperanto), and in languages in general. I'd love to be able to help this project!

I'm a rower on my school's team, so a bit of insight: the rowing machine is really for one thing, rowing. There are plenty of great workouts you can do, anything from long steady state to high intensity intervals. But if you're just starting out on the erg, you have to commit to learning the techniques and fundamentals of rowing. Not to turn you off from trying out the sport, but to tell you better what you're getting into.

If you're still interested, start by googling some tutorials on erg technique. You should be able to find some good videos from some respectable crew teams. For workouts, you can do anything from pick a preloaded workout on the machine, to googling "erg workouts" or something. I think concept 2 (the company that makes the machines) has some good exercises on their site.

PM me for rowing questions if you want, and welcome to the club!

PS I second nemo. If you want to get generally fit, do SL 5x5.

What do you play? Oh, I play the traffic-coneophone

There are some good crossfit-type circuits out there, with something like Row, squat, pushup, crunch, repeat in different amounts. Those'll beat hell out of you, not something to do every day. If you're looking for conditioning, make sure you integrate other exercises, particularly running. Rowers, kind of famously, can't run at all, so make sure you don't end up like us.

Lyrics:

I've caught a lot of different fish. I know the cool places.

Where there's a sea of girl's smiles. No effort's needed to catch something there.

But only you, are the fish of my dreams! Only you are the fish of my dreams!

But only you, are the fish of my dreams! Only you are the fish of my dreams!

After a bite then I can catch around fifty over night.

From Leningradka and to Kapotnya There are flocks of Tanyas and Katyas of all sorts.

But only you, are the fish of my dreams! Only you are the fish of my dreams!

But only you, are the fish of my dreams! Only you are the fish of my dreams!

I've fished a lot, I've fished quite often. I even caught piranhas.

And once a true crocodile with huge jaws was caught.

But only you, are the fish of my dreams! Only you are the fish of my dreams!

It almost seems as if there are too many fish in the sea... I don't speak Russian, so I don't know if that idiom exists there.

Yeah, I've been using a Midori Traveler passport size as a wallet/calendar/commonplace book for a while now. It's really helpful to have a place to keep track of everything that's going on, both in my head and in my life.