Obsidian Wings

Hobbies, practice, mastery

by JanieM

The original trigger for this post was the fact that I’ve taken up photography in a serious way in old age. (I’m 72. That my mother lived to be 96 skews how I calibrate “old” – but that’s a topic for another time. Let’s just say life is uncertain, and ever more clearly so, as I get older.)

I had jotted down some notes for a post and taken a break to work on pictures when Lightroom crashed, requiring some careful reconstruction that’s going to take a good chunk out of my evening. Which may be just as well, because a post on “Hobbies, Practice, Mastery” was promising to become as long as Ulysses.

So I’ll scale back and just try to give us a starting point for conversation.

I’ve spent most of my life as a dilettante, doing what has come easily: algebra, computer programming, writing, playing music. But I always stopped trying when I got to a plateau where I would have had to work through difficulty or, heaven forfend, face possible failure to keep getting better.

And for the most part I’ve enjoyed activities where there are clear answers. You can solve an equation, and a computer program has to work (the inevitability of bugs notwithstanding). With music and writing I’ve remained a reasonably competent amateur, never working hard enough to test myself in contexts where I might be shown up as the dabbler that I am.

Now I’m deeply immersed in loving and trying to get better at “art” -- a kind of activity with no clear answers. The path forward can be very murky to someone who likes solving equations and passing quizzes. To get better at taking pictures, I have to let go of a lot of my old habits (both photographic and psychological) and learn a bunch of new stuff that doesn’t necessarily come easily, even the parts that involve numbers!

What are sports for?

by JanieM

Borrowing wj's comment from Ugh's thread:

Good to know that the Ohio GOP is on the case when it comes to protecting girls involved in athletics.

https://digbysblog.net/2022/06/05/a-new-low-3/

Pfui!

Posted by: wj | June 05, 2022 at 03:46 PM

The Ohio bill is appalling (they're also working on arming teachers and school staff, by the way). The whole existence of trans people is being used in deeply malevolent ways by the usual suspects. But....

1. The bill hasn't passed yet, and it's not clear that DeWine will sign it if it does. See here.

2. The dad quoted in the Digby post rightfully posits a lot of less than noble motivations among the people involved in children's sports. Then he turns around and acts as innocent as a babe in the Garden of Eden when he writes this:

Is winning the most important part of high school sports? Because setting aside the incredible trauma and expense caused by this bill, at the end of the day, the message is that winning is what matters the most. That’s not the lesson I want my daughter to learn from sports.

If that's not the lesson he wants his daughter to learn from participating, he should probably keep her away from kids' sports. The time period I most regret in my life, in terms of how I handled it, is the ten years or so when my kids were involved in sports. There were some good aspects to their participation, for sure, but I think both they and I would make a bunch of different decisions if we had it to do over again.

ETA: What *are* sports for, anyhow?

ETA #2: Seriously do I need to say "open thread" out loud around here? I just thought I'd throw sports out as a starting point.

The Politics of Personal Projection

by Ugh

It continues to amaze me the lengths to which GOPers - whether politicians or their right wing media sycophants (or is it the other way around?) - engage in projection.  Like, anything they accuse Democrats of they have either (i) already done; (ii) are doing; and/or (iii) will do (anticipatory projection?).  

Particularly anything having to do with politics and elections.  It's maddening and, of course, likely a bit of trolling.

Anyway, they are suboptimal people, as at least one person in comments has noted (you know who you are!!!).

I'm off to Wrigley with the teenager this weekend.  Any particular food I need to try or is it all junk?

Open thread.  

More (or less)

by JanieM

[You know what, never mind. I'm closing comments on this thread, which was a bad idea in the first place...only leaving this remnant here in case anyone saw the thread and wonders where it went.]

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from...

by Ugh

...time to time with the blood of patriots and, uh *check notes* elementary school children.  And teachers.  My God.  

Get ur Canadian real estate before EOD November 5, 2024.

Fuck

Friday Open Thread

by JanieM

We could make GftNC blissful for longer than a nanosecond by talking about James Joyce and other glories of English literature. Or we could talk about books in general. As in, what's everyone reading these days?

*****

Or we could talk about politics for a change. A friend sent me the following, which is apparently behind a paywall on TPM, so I don't have a link and couldn't use it if I did. But I'm particularly interested in Michael Cain's take:

It was only a matter of time. A candidate for Governor in Colorado has a proposal: create an in-state electoral college that will systematically over-weight rural votes and thus make it almost impossible for a Republican not to win the governorship as well as other statewide offices. Basically, counties take the place of states and Colorado has a ton of rural counties where very few people live. From what I can tell, he’s not the most likely nominee. But he won the top spot on the primary ballot at the state convention. So he’s not some random gadfly either. In any case, Gov. Jared Polis is popular and seems like a shoe-in for reelection. But this seems like the leading edge of the broader trend.

I would also like Michael Cain's take on the municipal broadband some folks in my town are proposing, but that's going to require some actual research and preparation, so ... not today.

The Dead

by JanieM

Add more if you like.

Buffalo

Roberta Drury, 32
Margus Morrison, 52
Andre Mackneil, 53
Aaron Salter Jr., 55
Geraldine Talley, 62
Celestine Chaney, 65
Heyward Patterson, 67
Katherine Massey, 72
Pearl Young, 77
Ruth Whitfield, 86

Laguna Woods

Dr. John Cheng, 52

***

I went for a drive last Saturday and noticed a lot of flags flying at half-staff. The state website informed me that they were lowered in memory of the million-plus Americans who have died of covid-19. Too many to list...but if you would like to remember anyone here (whether they died of covid or something else), feel free.

Death is inevitable, but one could wish that it might be less unpreventable.

Would mandated kidney donations be Constitutional?

by Ugh

Suppose State X passes a law providing "all individuals meeting the living kidney donor criteria* shall donate one of their kidneys to any discovered matching recipient in need and any individual refusing to donate shall be subject to a sentence of no more than Y years in prison."

Such a law would be consistent with similar laws imposing a duty to act or suffer state imposed civil/criminal punishment: (i) conscription in the Army; (ii) registration for the Draft; and (iii) mandatory reporting for, e.g., teachers, school administrators, therapists (see also Butler v. Perry, 240 U.S. 328).  

What, if anything, in the Constitution would bar a State from passing and enforcing that law?  

*Other than being willing, of course

No Mo' Roe

by Ugh*

Are we the dog that caught the car or is it on to Griswold, Loving, Obergefell, Lawrence, Baker....

This seems most unfortunate.

*I've decided my best approach to post-2016 POTUS election life is to bury my head in the sand as much as possible, hence I've not been around much, if at all.  I hope everyone is well despite all the things.

Open Thread

by JanieM

Non-depressing topics especially encouraged.

Like, we could talk about the fact that IMHO this the most beautiful week of the year in my neck of the woods (ice gone, grass green and thick but not mowed yet, trees with the faintest of pale green buds) as long as we ignore the black flies, ticks, and pollen. :-)

Edited to add: