Thinkin' Out Loud
August 2, 2012
I've got about 90 minutes left before I go on vacation. I suppose I should dig in on that white paper...
Instead, here I am.
Miscellaneous thoughts.
1. I recently went to a Sanchin-Ryu karate workshop called CGM's Dojo. CGM stands for Chief Grand Master, and in this case, that means CGM Robert Dearman, who developed Sanchin-Ryu. He was running the 4-day workshop. I made it to one day. I got a ton out of it, but one of the things he said was he doesn't think about having opponents or bad guys or enemies. He thinks of them as partners.
I think that's quite true in Sanchin-Ryu. But as I stood there, my mind did what it often does, it went on a trip. And that trip went political. Because I thought of a time when the Republicans and the Democrats (or even Federalists, if you go back long enough) referred to each other as the Honorable Opposition. Or perhaps Loyal Opposition.
In today's current climate of politics, I don't see that. It's "us" against "them" and it sucks. I suspect, actually, it's always been that way in American politics, it's just that the veneer of civility has been worn away (particularly in an election year). I sort of miss it. At least they were pretending to be on the side of the American public, even when it was really all about who gets their own way.
Of course, there's a lot to be said, I think, for British Parliament, where they shout and yell and boo. At least everybody knows where they stand, right? And in the Japanese Parliament fist-fights have been known to break out. I'd sort of like to see a little fistfight between Nancy Pelosi and John Boehner. And there are certainly some politicians I'd get a lot of satisfaction out of kicking in the balls.
2. The other day while walking the dog Leanne and I took Frodo down to a spot in one of the nearby lakes for him to splash around a bit. Two doors down was a woman I know who used to work at the gym I go to. An older woman, at least in her 50s somewhere (possibly 60s). She's always been an attractive woman. She was with a boyfriend and she was wearing black nylon high-cut shorts and a string bikini top and, frankly, from my perspective of 48 years, looked great.
I was reflecting, however, on the difference between "I want this guy to want to have sex with me" versus "I want to have sex with this guy." I suspect women of all ages often have the prior thought without necessarily having the second. Which explains a lot in modern culture and also why men are often so totally screwed up about women.
Of course, maybe I'm totally wrong about this. But I would suggest to women that, if doing the first but thinking the second, it's useful to know that men, pretty much all the time, are only thinking the second.
3. I discovered THE WORST thing about ebooks recently. I guess it falls under the broad umbrella of DRM, but here's what it is. I wanted to loan my wife Stephen King's 11/22/63 and found that it wasn't loanable on the Kindle. Some publishers just don't allow it. Period. You want someone in your family to read it, or let a friend read it, tough. Either loan them the entire Kindle or have them buy a copy of the book themselves.
Which makes me kind of actually think, "Well, fuck you, publishers!" We've got 3 kindles in the house and two of them use the same account. So what happened was Ian is reading a paper book, so he loaned Leanne his Kindle for the week so she could start reading it.
[and by the way, even if you can loan books, it's usually a one-time thing. If I understand what I'm doing with my own ebooks, they're DRM free, so you can do what you want to with them. To-date, I don't think they're being copied and sold by the millions in China. Stephen King's, maybe. What irks me most about it is that it's rather a joke. Bootleggers and large-scale pirates aren't going to be stopped by DRM. That's why God invented hackers. It's the rest of us who are inconvenienced.]
On occasions, I miss paper books. Except the smaller print. I have gotten sooooo used to a large font size with the Kindle.
I've got about 90 minutes left before I go on vacation. I suppose I should dig in on that white paper...
Instead, here I am.
Miscellaneous thoughts.
1. I recently went to a Sanchin-Ryu karate workshop called CGM's Dojo. CGM stands for Chief Grand Master, and in this case, that means CGM Robert Dearman, who developed Sanchin-Ryu. He was running the 4-day workshop. I made it to one day. I got a ton out of it, but one of the things he said was he doesn't think about having opponents or bad guys or enemies. He thinks of them as partners.
I think that's quite true in Sanchin-Ryu. But as I stood there, my mind did what it often does, it went on a trip. And that trip went political. Because I thought of a time when the Republicans and the Democrats (or even Federalists, if you go back long enough) referred to each other as the Honorable Opposition. Or perhaps Loyal Opposition.
In today's current climate of politics, I don't see that. It's "us" against "them" and it sucks. I suspect, actually, it's always been that way in American politics, it's just that the veneer of civility has been worn away (particularly in an election year). I sort of miss it. At least they were pretending to be on the side of the American public, even when it was really all about who gets their own way.
Of course, there's a lot to be said, I think, for British Parliament, where they shout and yell and boo. At least everybody knows where they stand, right? And in the Japanese Parliament fist-fights have been known to break out. I'd sort of like to see a little fistfight between Nancy Pelosi and John Boehner. And there are certainly some politicians I'd get a lot of satisfaction out of kicking in the balls.
2. The other day while walking the dog Leanne and I took Frodo down to a spot in one of the nearby lakes for him to splash around a bit. Two doors down was a woman I know who used to work at the gym I go to. An older woman, at least in her 50s somewhere (possibly 60s). She's always been an attractive woman. She was with a boyfriend and she was wearing black nylon high-cut shorts and a string bikini top and, frankly, from my perspective of 48 years, looked great.
I was reflecting, however, on the difference between "I want this guy to want to have sex with me" versus "I want to have sex with this guy." I suspect women of all ages often have the prior thought without necessarily having the second. Which explains a lot in modern culture and also why men are often so totally screwed up about women.
Of course, maybe I'm totally wrong about this. But I would suggest to women that, if doing the first but thinking the second, it's useful to know that men, pretty much all the time, are only thinking the second.
3. I discovered THE WORST thing about ebooks recently. I guess it falls under the broad umbrella of DRM, but here's what it is. I wanted to loan my wife Stephen King's 11/22/63 and found that it wasn't loanable on the Kindle. Some publishers just don't allow it. Period. You want someone in your family to read it, or let a friend read it, tough. Either loan them the entire Kindle or have them buy a copy of the book themselves.
Which makes me kind of actually think, "Well, fuck you, publishers!" We've got 3 kindles in the house and two of them use the same account. So what happened was Ian is reading a paper book, so he loaned Leanne his Kindle for the week so she could start reading it.
[and by the way, even if you can loan books, it's usually a one-time thing. If I understand what I'm doing with my own ebooks, they're DRM free, so you can do what you want to with them. To-date, I don't think they're being copied and sold by the millions in China. Stephen King's, maybe. What irks me most about it is that it's rather a joke. Bootleggers and large-scale pirates aren't going to be stopped by DRM. That's why God invented hackers. It's the rest of us who are inconvenienced.]
On occasions, I miss paper books. Except the smaller print. I have gotten sooooo used to a large font size with the Kindle.
posted by Mark Terry at 11:23 AM
3 Comments:
There have been times when politicians from both sides would compromise a little. Back then people bemoaned the wheeling and dealing and smoke filled rooms, but at least the politicians made a semblance of actually trying to govern and keep things running.
I agree with you. It seems worse. Election years really bring it out, too, but I think part of it is the Tea Party is yanking the GOP so far to the right and so far into Oz that they won't compromise on anything.
Its about winning, not actually accomplishing anything. That's hard.
Phil
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