First Rays of the New Rising Sun

Posted on 2018/05/05 by Chad Philip

In baseball, there exists an intangible called flow. It is imperceivable to many, but is the most important element of the game.

When flow is present, baseball’s majesty is revealed. Some people might say that this is when a team becomes greater than the collection of its individual players, and a game becomes greater than the two teams competing in it. (The whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts.)

When flow is with you, the experience is better than anything—win or lose. It represents the prospect of becoming an unstoppable force and creates within a person the most powerful drive to perform.

When flow is with your opponent more than it is with you, defeat is inevitable but you improve and still savor the fight.

Baseball without flow—or without the potential for it—is a broken down machine that can be very difficult or even impossible to fix. Yet some people still continue to play with the hope that it may come to exist again.

This is why baseball is life.

You Know You’re Nobody’s Fool

Posted on 2018/05/01 by Chad Philip

Welcome to the Machine (track 02 from the Wish You Were Here LP by Pink Floyd )

Welcome my son
Welcome to the machine

Where have you been?
It’s alright, we know where you’ve been

You’ve been in the pipeline, filling in time
Provided with toys and scouting for your boys

You bought a guitar to punish your ma
You didn’t like school, and you know you’re nobody’s fool

So welcome to the machine

Welcome my son
Welcome to the machine

What did you dream?
It’s alright, we told you what to dream

You dreamed of a big star:
“He played a mean guitar”
“He always ate in the Steak Bar”
“He loved to drive in his Jaguar”

So welcome to the machine

By Means of Convenient Environmentalism

Posted on 2018/04/29 by Chad Philip

This is a snapshot of a handy little web app on British Gas’s website that shows every country’s carbon footprint from the year 1992 up to the year 2014. Take a look and see what you think.

Here are my own takeaways from this data:

If you live in America, you are not an environmentalist. (I consider these terms to be mutually exclusive.) Anyone who has ever read anything about Americans’ lifestyle habits will already know how badly we over-consume compared to people of other countries.

If you live in China, you may or may not be an environmentalist. This is because there are still plenty of rural, nonindustrialized societies—at least for the time being—but holy shit… the industrialized societies are doing a tremendous amount of extra damage.

If you live in Ethiopia, you are likely an environmentalist, but you are so hungry you don’t even know, or care.

Right now, there are 7.45 billion people in the world and all of them want to consume like Americans do. There is no way this is possible, and it makes me wonder if World War III will be started over something ridiculous, like a coconut oil dispute.

I now feel obligated to point out that if you drive a Toyota Prius, wear Birkenstocks and think you are doing your part to save the planet, you are a serious asshole.

Word of the Day, Entry 2: Procrastination

Posted on 2018/04/28 by Chad Philip

procrastination
/prəˌkrastəˈnāSH(ə)n/
(noun)
     1. obtaining multiple points of knowledge or information that are of nearly equal relevance to a project or work and then waiting until the last minute of a deadline so as to afford the maximum amount of time to effectively determine those points which will produce results of a higher quality;
     2. a psychological condition in which a person consciously observes small but important components of life slip away on a routine basis and, in response, makes attempts to collect and restore as many of these components as possible to emerging moments;
     3. a behavior frequently misattributed to hard workers by less capable people having a limited purview or prone to conniving denigration;
     4. a word that cannot be said on television, especially children’s programming, because it rhymes with another word in the English language. Procrastination occurred all throughout the night until she finally felt something that resembled satisfaction.

Sooner or Later

(episode from Garfield and Friends

by Mark Evanier

)

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First Rays of the New Rising Sun

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You Know You’re Nobody’s Fool

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By Means of Convenient Environmentalism

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Word of the Day, Entry 2: Procrastination

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