#cannotimpeachmyvote

This impeachment is a badge of honor and Trump, instead of getting mad about it, should glory in it, much like people adopting Hillary's "deplorables" label and proudly proclaiming themselves members of that group.  I'd like to see a new hat or shirt with a new Trump slogan along the lines of "They can't impeach my vote."  

In fact, maybe that should be a new hashtag.  Hmm...

#theycan'timpeachmyvote

#theycannotimpeachmyvote

MTN 1.3 wide for a lightweight hammock

This bit is cross-posted from my review over at Ripstop by the Roll's website

My order of 4 yards of MTN 1.3 wide arrived in a timely manner. This is a light, slick fabric with just the right amount of stretch to be comfortable for my 155 pounds. To sew it, I used a teflon foot on the Singer Heavy Duty and that made the job much, much easier.

The finished product was exactly what I was aiming for. I wanted a hammock just a smidge under 11 feet, and it came out 10 feet 10 inches on the dot, which was perfect. Generous hemming gave me a width of 62.75 inches, within a quarter inch of the 63 I was aiming for. More skilled sewers could certainly use a smaller hem and make a wider hammock with this fabric if needed.

The finished product weighs exactly 10 ounces, including the two amsteel end loops and the zingit ridgeline. I'll make a stuff sack out of the left over material, so I expect the weight with stuff sack will be a few tenths over 10 ounces, which is outstanding for such a wide fabric.

notes on a possible topic

Just some notes to remind myself to write this out later

Practice Failure

When my wife had foot surgery and was forced to perambulate on one good leg using either a walker or a knee scooter for the injured one it suddenly struck me how scared she was of falling over while moving around.  My dad and I built a temporary ramp onto the back porch of my house to ease access for my wife while she was mobility challenged for the several months it took her to recover.  We had it completed some days before her initial surgery, and she practiced with the knee scooter prior to surgery, rolling up and down the ramp.  Her trips were slow, unsteady and trepidatious.  In contrast, I tried it a few times and it seemed like no big deal. 

Having thought about it, I think the difference in our approaches was partly because I wasn't too worried about falling while she was terrified of doing so.  I didn't much care about falling off the scooter because falling isn't a new experience for me.  I've practiced falling many times over the years as part of everything from learning to slide in little league baseball to performing breakfalls in various martial arts classes.  Having the ground suddenly tilt up and smack me, while it's not pleasant, is not a new sensation.  If me falling is a failure, then it's a practiced failure.

My wife looked at me like I was nuts when I told her she should practice falling.  To practice falling is to practice failure.  If you practice falling you no longer fear it.  Same goes for failures of other sorts.  Practice failing and you won't fear it as much.  Thomas Edison knew it.  Good cooks know it too.  Your first cake may come out flat or burned.  That's fine.  You took a risk and the outcome wasn't optimal, so try it again.  Edison failed to invent the lightbulb more than a hundred times.

Daily life is often unsatisfactory, I believe, because of the lack of identifiable risks.  That's what's so fun about backpacking.  It's not a completely comfortable and safe activity; there are some risks.  Maybe I'll be cold at night.  Maybe I'll get lost for a while, or at least be unsure that I'm still heading where I think I'm heading. That's okay.

[REM - need to think more about this risk versus danger stuff]

from USG survey responses

Those of us who have weathered cancer will never take the health of our bodies and minds for granted again.  Cancer forced its own suffering on me in its own terms.  In response, the self-sought suffering of backpacking on the trail is by my own conscious choice. Blistered feet, aching knees, cold-numbed fingers on a frosty morning are not hardships but proof that I'm alive and well after cancer. When backpacking I'm choosing my suffering, rubbing up against the callous, uncaring, indifferent attitude of the natural world and making a contest on my terms in my time. Every struggling mile uphill, all the camps by rivers or on mountain sides, and each night that I spend alone in the woods listening to the coyotes in the distance is my way of howling back at the disease that I hope I've left behind me forever.  Backpacking has deep meaning beyond simply an being an enjoyable leisure activity.  It's a defiant celebration of the joy of fitness and health.

Delete FaceBook

I'm fully aware of the irony of making this announcement on FaceBook itself, but there are one or two people here who may want to read this.

After a good bit of thought about it, I've decided to abandon FaceBook. That means about 48 hours from now I will delete my account here and never come back. I won't miss it. Not that I have ever been a particularly active participant, but for the few people with whom I interact here, you guys may want to note the following particulars:

You will not be able to reach me here. I won't see your photos and messages. You won't see my likes or thumbs up on your posts, not because I don't like you anymore, but because I'm not here to see them.

Why take this step?

More and more I've become disenchanted with FaceBook. Part of this is personal. Rather than bringing us closer, I now believe that FaceBook segregates and separates us, using its algorithms to create a competitive us versus them echo chamber in which we all try to one-up one another, either seeking to prove how happy we are, how beautiful are our surroundings or how accomplished we all are as compared to our friends.

Worse, our "friends" have value to us mainly as data points, to be collected and interacted with only in the most superficial on-line manner. We see each other in cyber space while avoiding one another out here in meat-space. While some online social activity is enjoyable, FaceBook encourages time wasting and deleterious boasting inside our circles while simultaneously bashing those outside our chosen groups, activities most of us would never do in person.

More to the point, though, I'm deeply distrustful of FaceBook as a corporate entity. I don't care about Mark Zuckerberg's politics. I do care about the business model of his main company. Facebook's business model seems designed to encourage the unexamined, careless sharing of personal data for which we receive no compensation. That personal data has great value to FaceBook and should have similar value to us. Yet FaceBook exists by taking our data and selling it, often without our knowledge, certainly without an equitable compensation, to entities unknown and unknowable. FaceBook seeks to take from us as much as possible while giving back to us next to nothing of real and lasting value. We have value to FaceBook; FaceBook has no comparable value to us. At its core this is an asymetric relationship. We are the product, not the customer.

But the incident that has crystalized my decision to leave this platform is the news that FaceBook has recently lost an appeal over their allegedly illegal use of facial recognition technology. The class action lawsuit alleges Facebook illegally collected and stored biometric data on millions of users without their consent, in violation of the rule of law. FaceBook, rather than comply with the laws, is fighting the suit in court.

Recently a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled 3-0 against FaceBook. The law is clear about the obligations surrounding facial recognition, especially implementing it without notification. Yet FaceBook allegedly did so and has fought all attempts to force them to comply with their legal obligations. Despite losing this appeal, a FaceBook representative said the company will appeal again. They apparently have no intention of ever following the law.

This is not the behavior of a benign corporate citizen. This is the arrogant and abusive behavior of a secretive and malicious organization, one which just last month paid a FIVE BILLION DOLLAR fine to the FTC over privacy violations and which now faces billions if not trillions more in this lawsuit over similar violations.

Consequently, I will no longer participate on their namesake platform. You may do what you want.

Comments on Evan's Backpacking video

The following is cross-posted from comments I made on a YouTube video by Evan of Evan's Backpacking.  The video can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8sU_JyWa2c

--------------begin cross-posted text-------------

The dinner conversation is the linchpin that holds this video together and makes it worth commenting on.  In no particular order, I'll impose on your comments section and do just that.
.
The observation you made that the first quarter of your thru-hike was fun, but by the halfway point it was beginning to wear on you - I wonder if that's somewhat a function of age? At our age, as you point out, we know who we are and what we like.  We're not trying to find ourselves, more test ourselves. I'm your same age, I believe, and despite watching hours and hours of hiking videos, have no real desire to thru-hike the AT.  But I wonder if doing the AT as a several year project of long (400-600 mile) section hikes might not be better?  Stretching a thru into several years seems like it would be enjoyable both physically and mentally.  The planning each year would be similar but different enough for novelty and learning.  The months long breaks would allow time to recuperate, but also allow time for the fun of anticipation.  You'd get the fun of the AT experience but come off trail before your body completely wore down, something that us 50-somethings can probably appreciate. 
.
The other part of the dinner talk that struck a chord with me was Liz's (and your) commentary about how social media tends to be only the highlights and presents a distorted view of day to day experiences.  It reminded me of a conversation I had with a friend about someone who was complaining bitterly about some family matter.  Before I could help myself I snapped out a sarcastic, "Tell her to live her FaceBook life," which was a nasty thing to say, but I was sick of hearing about the disconnect between what was posted and what was actually happening.  Honesty on social media, like the honesty in this video, would be more welcome.  I'll mention that on my own Instagram page I'll sometimes include the mundane or the uncomfortable.  There's a photo on there of me working on my dishwasher when it broke down, and there's at least two photos of medical procedures I underwent.  I like how you managed to make the mundane interesting in this video and I'll take it as a challenge to do the same in my own much more modest social media presence.

Book review: Pat Sanders, "I left my voice on the dining room table"

5 stars

Sanders has written an invaluable resource for cancer patients and those who support them. Her ordeal with two different cancers, one of which took her powers of speech in the early to mid 1990s, is dealt with in a clear eyed conversational way. Yet the sometimes horrific details are not glossed over. The bulk of the story and the most valuable part concerns her ongoing recovery with all the fierce struggles and unexpected help of newly formed online support groups in which she becomes very active. Cancer patients and caregivers should read this story and take hope from it. I certainly have.

unbalanced people accomplish more

"...work-life balance is bullshit. People who are trying to achieve greatness in their lives do not actually have balance. Do you need to have self care? Of course. Do you need to honor your loved ones and have priorities? Yes. But we only have 24 hours in the day. Do you think Beyoncé or Bill Gates have balance? No. I think we have to be very honest about this “balance” conversation. If your goal is to be home at night with your kids, that’s totally valid and you should go for it, knowing that it’s going to come at some expense. Similarly, training for a marathon is going to come with a sacrifice of time. You’re going to have to say “no” to social engagements. You’re going to have to prioritize the run."

True, so true.  Read the whole thing here:

https://elemental.medium.com/why-robin-arz%C3%B3n-pelotons-vp-of-fitness-thinks-balance-is-bullshit-ec90559e4086

cross-posted for my own thoughts

One month after I left, I slept with the first man who wasn’t my husband. I slept with him so I could burn my old life to the ground. So I could never look back.

from https://gay.medium.com/sex-after-jesus-b13e9f295d1d

by Lyz Lenz

generalists

http://www.arnoldkling.com/blog/what-im-reading-35/

Maybe I was a little ahead of my time in my educational choices?  While my job title has often included the word "specialist," my preference would be to consider myself a generalist.  I majored in English back in the early and mid-1980s at least in part because it was the widest ranging, most general major I could find.  It allowed me to dip into everything from accounting classes to journalism to computer science while drinking deeply in the large pool of English literature.  Generalism is probably a healthy stance to take.  I see it as being in a room with lots and lots of doors, none of them locked to me because I have a master key.

David Epstein's book, "Range" is on my list of things I want to read for this very reason.

Six word essay number thirteen

Dark rain, both inside and outside.

Six word essay number twelve

Someone else, but not me, why?

six word essay number eleven

Two years gone and I'm lucky