bolido_sentimental
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User ID: 205
I did NaNoWriMo for about ten years, and was the organizer of it in my city for two. When I started as a 20-year-old, I had no idea what it took to write a novel. By the end of my time doing it, I had "won" multiple times and knew that I could sustain big projects as long as it took to finish.
NaNoWriMo, as an exercise, is one of the best things I've ever done for my creative life. There's just no substitute for getting words on paper. 90% of it may be trash, but the 10% where you're really feeling it and it turns out well, it's extremely fulfilling and motivating.
I eventually concluded I had gotten all I could out of it. The community aspect of it is effectively moribund now. In 2020 and 2021, NaNoWriMo HQ forbade official in-person meetings, regardless of whatever local Covid regulations were. Additionally as you can imagine, as a San Francisco-based organization, their official messaging has become extremely woke in recent years. NaNoWriMo is the prime personal example from my own life of entryists making something much worse than it was at inception. Still, every city is different and you may meet some interesting people. A core aspect of NaNoWriMo is "write-ins," where you gather with other WriMos and grind out word count in a coffee shop or something. It's a nice accountability feature.
bolido_sentimental
3yr ago
I use dumbbells for presses! I can't get my friends to do it with me. It also has the added bonus that I probably won't be able to crush myself to death with them. It's great!
bolido_sentimental
3yr ago
For my birthday, a friend of mine got me a golf book, The Eternal Summer by Curt Sampson. It follows the majors in 1960, a transitional period in the professional game where Ben Hogan was waning, Arnold Palmer was at his peak, and Jack Nicklaus was just starting to emerge.
I'm not really expanding my mind with this, but reading about golf is relaxing to me. One thing it's got me wondering about, is why golfers often seem to peak much sooner than their physical abilities do; and then some mental factor makes them decline. The example in this story is Ben Hogan: dominant in the early 1950s, he was still able to strike the golf ball extremely well as he aged into his 40s, but somehow lost his ability to putt. Why does this happen? One would imagine you'd lose ball-striking first and putting last. It's one of the oldest questions in golf, and I don't know if it's ever been satisfactorily answered.
You also have players like Rory McIlroy, who burst onto the scene and won four majors very young, and has not been able to win another one since 2014. He remains an overpowering driver of the ball, and somehow the finesse areas of his game have declined; this, even though he's lost absolutely none of his physical ability. Why would a player of golf, a game which seems to reward incremental improvement over time, peak at age 24?
Someone in the Motte recently observed that people in creative areas are most productive from 25 to 40, and then the rate of new production drops off steeply. I wonder if there is some related phenomenon that happens in golf. Troubling as I hurtle towards 40 myself, lol.
bolido_sentimental
3yr ago
Working that shift is probably the thing I'm most nostalgic about from that phase of my life. I still went to bed right when I got home, and it was simply impossible to oversleep. And the sleep quality after eight hours of slinging boxes, it was magnificent. I've never slept so well since.
The way it worked for me was like this:
- You go to your local staffing agency in the nearby strip mall. Every town I've ever lived in has several of them.
- You fill out some forms they give you, which include what type of work you can do. For me this was just, "labor."
- They call you in a day or two and say "XYZ Corp. needs some material handlers starting this Tuesday. They're paying $14.50 an hour and there's mandatory overtime. The shift is 2:30 to 11:00 PM. Stop by here before then and we'll give you your badge and show you the safety video."
- You go and do that, and then on Tuesday you start working at XYZ Corp.
Depending on the company, they might hire you on to their own paper after 90 days or 6 months or whatever. Or you might stay on the staffing agency's paper indefinitely. I supported myself all through my early 20s doing jobs like this.
The actual work consisted of such tasks as:
- Taking boxes from a conveyor belt and loading them into a truck.
- Unloading things, from a truck, and placing them onto a conveyor belt.
- Taking objects from a conveyor belt, and putting them into boxes.
- Inspecting bottles of mouthwash on an assembly line, and doing weighing and cap tests once an hour.
- Digging holes.
- Watching a moving belt of electronics recycling stuff and picking out trash.
- Assembling books-on-tape packages.
- Loading big metal components (I genuinely don't know what they were) into this machine that would put a liquid coating on them.
I met many people whose entire working lives consisted of these jobs. I almost was one myself. I remember reading Slate Star Codex on my phone in the break rooms of these places, lol. There was never a resume involved. A lot of times these dudes also knew about casual work on the side. I still remember my buddy Luis, who every Saturday morning at like 5:00 AM would send me a text that was just an address and a work task. "8737 Maple Avenue. Fence posts. Eighty dollars." He would always be pissed off at me at our next actual work shift if I didn't show up.
I do concede that if, when you're at that level of the economic ladder, you decide to go and work for, e.g., Kroger or T.J. Maxx or some other significant corporation, yes, they may ask you for a resume. I actually remember consciously thinking about what the options were: you could work in a call center, you could go do fast food, you could work retail, or you could take a factory/labor job. I hated talking to people in a "customer service" kind of way, so for me the choice was always obvious.
bolido_sentimental
3yr ago
Strongly doubt it occurs to them. Almost definitionally, people in underclasses work in jobs that do not ask for resumes. I did a lot of those jobs when I was younger, and met a lot of people who, I am pretty sure, went their whole lives and will die having never made a resume.
This is one non-HBD reason that is often given for why big gaps persist across generations. Those people never meet or interact with anyone who can model the actions that result in middle- or higher class lives.
I have an extremely ordinary and common name, so much so that in my not-large high school graduating class there was a guy with the same (first and last) name as me. I have known people of multiple races with this same first + last name combination.
I often feel like this is kinda nice. Nobody can prejudge me very effectively from my name alone, they have to evaluate me on other traits. And I'm a little bit harder to Google, there are so many results which are not me.
It's so hard to judge because of the quality of his competition. He seems to have good power and good athleticism for his size; he does sometimes land his overhand right, and when he does, his opponents are hurt. However, his opponents are never good enough boxers to exploit his weaknesses in technique and inexperience.
You may find it instructive or interesting to watch an actual championship cruiserweight bout, such as this one from earlier this year between Chris Billam-Smith and Lawrence Okolie. Consider if Paul would be able to effectively mitigate Okolie's constant holding and spoiling, or whether he could withstand Billam-Smith's accurate, powerful punching. He's never had to face anything at this level, and I doubt that he'd be able to; but then, these are the best cruiserweights in the world. Okolie would certainly smother and overpower him, and I think there's no way he could prevent Billam-Smith from taking his head off.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=9JsWrAQnrTQ
(or just the highlights: https://youtube.com/watch?v=3G-DOtO6FJw&t=1s)
I'm prepared to believe that Paul could hang in there for a while against a fighter like Blake Caparello: fading former fringe contender, KOs less than 50% of his opponents, has lost when he's stepped to higher class. That would be the real test for Paul, and it's what every real boxing fan would like to see; but I guess there's no reason for him to ever do it.
bolido_sentimental
3yr ago
This is something I'm having a hard time with.
Up until about, say, the time of the pandemic, I was a fairly apolitical person. As a result I could, and did, date all kinds of girls. Since then, I've become honestly, genuinely conservative. But I still have a blue tribe-y background. I feel like I'm caught in an uncanny valley, where left-wing girls won't like me because I don't agree with them about virtually anything; but conservative girls don't like me because I came to it relatively late in life and am not a genuine, lifelong red-triber. Feels like all I can do is simply continue trying to become more attractive.
bolido_sentimental
3yr ago
We've already had this kind of kerfuffle in YA publishing.
I'm aware of this issue and have heard about it extensively from other people; but do you happen to know of any good write-ups about it?
bolido_sentimental
3yr ago
After bouncing around between many books for several days, I am now reading Laura by Vera Caspary. It's a mystery novel from the late 1930s or early 1940s, with an interesting perspective choice: the narrator is a fat, ineffectual middle-aged writer, who seems to have had an unrequited love for the unfortunate titular character. I like the writing style. This book was made into what was apparently a very good noir film starring Gene Tierney, which I have not seen.
Gene Tierney not to be confused with Gene Tunney. Love for Laura not to be confused with Love for Lydia.
bolido_sentimental
3yr ago
Really pushing it to call this news, but my local news did put it on the front page...
bolido_sentimental
3yr ago
1.) When I was younger, I would start bleeding from the belly button like once every few years. It would last for a week or two, and then stop. It wasn't painful and it didn't seem to be infected.
I eventually went to a clinic about it. They said apparently I had a tendency to form little granulomas in there; that it would be possible to surgically remediate, but not really worthwhile.
I got into better physical shape, and haven't had a recurrence of this in nine years. I guess it just stopped. I theorize that maybe having lost a certain amount of weight, I eliminated any tendency for friction there. I was never actually so heavy, topping out at 220 at my very heaviest; but still, it seems logical. Everything really does get better as you increase fitness.
2.) I have a very short tongue. I have never known anyone with a shorter one. It is a little bit surprising that I can speak totally normally.
3.) In situations that lead to sweating, I sweat a ton. Huge volumes of sweat. I don't sweat at rest, and I don't have sweaty palms. But when I engage in athletic endeavors, I always out-sweat the competition.
bolido_sentimental
3yr ago
I'd be curious to know the distribution in other cities such as Charleroi or Ghent. Is there some other place where all the Belgian children are, or do they just not make them anywhere anymore?
bolido_sentimental
3yr ago
I donate to a "resource center" in my neighborhood that provides food, toiletries, clothes, and other necessities to local people in need. After I donated a couple times they offered to give me a tour, to see with my own eyes that it's legit.
It's not direct money but it's not far removed. Idk about national-level orgs that do that; I feel good about it being local, really.
bolido_sentimental
3yr ago
I spent >10 Novembers of my life doing NaNoWriMo. https://nanowrimo.org/
I started when I was much too young to have the discipline or, indeed, ability, to actually carry it through. But I was very determined, and kept it at year on year. Finally I did crack the 50k mark. After doing that twice, I now feel that I've gotten all I can out of NaNoWriMo, and I don't do it any more. (Semi-related: I also was the city organizer for this in my city in 2019. November 2019 was one of the better months of my life.)
From when I was a teenager, it was always my goal to get something actually published. I achieved this in late 2022 by having a non-fiction essay published in an anthology about my city. It's a real book, published by a real publisher. You can get it at Barnes & Noble, and the library has 20+ copies of it, and my name is in there. I was paid exactly $20.00 for it; I put the check in a little frame, which sits in my office on a bookcase now. I would like to publish a novel some day, but having now ticked the "get published" box, this isn't something that keeps up at night anymore.
With regards to the act of writing: there are long periods of pain, and relatively short periods where it feels amazing. For me - and note that I primarily write fiction - the really difficult part is going from the state of "I have no active project going" to "I have a project and I'm well into it." I go on all kinds of false starts and dead-end paths, and it's quite discouraging. Furthermore, as I've gotten older and reached a rather stable mid-career professional phase, I actually find myself a bit starved for ideas sometimes. This would have been unimaginable in my 20s. However, when I actually managed to get the ball rolling, there are few feelings to compare with finishing a passage after which you can think, "That says what I meant it to say. I've conveyed this perfectly." It's a lot like playing golf: you put up with all the shanks and hooks because of the occasional perfect strike.
As I once said to a writing buddy of mine: I've gone through periods where I've tried to stop. I recognize that there are other hobbies I can pursue which don't come with any frustration. There are things that I am better at, than at writing. I'm probably more talented at tennis; if I put as much time into tennis as I do writing, I could be winning the local wee amateur tournaments and things. But I always come back to it. I seem to have wired my brain into that mold over many years, and now I just feel bad about myself if I don't log a few hours at the desk every couple of days.
bolido_sentimental
3yr ago
Nice idea, I would actually do this too. I have a guest bedroom and everything. I guess the tricky part is that you'd have to disclose to everybody what city you're in, so they'd know if they're going to be passing through or not. I don't necessarily mind that but I see the trouble.
I wonder where such information could live, too. Posting in this FFT, it'll quickly be lost/forgotten.
bolido_sentimental
3yr ago
I can't believe today is not Sunday. I have the day off work, and I have to work tomorrow - surely today is Sunday, right? But it's not.
Happy Independence Day, American mottizens.
If you get a chance, you should watch something funny. Idk what you like but Still Game is on Netflix. Or Azumanga Daioh or something. A good laugh may set you in the right direction. Maybe a nice chocolate bar from the drugstore too. It won't solve your problems but at least you'll have had a chocolate bar.
bolido_sentimental
3yr ago
You can do it. In fact I did this for a long time, setting my phone up on the far end of my room, and it helped my sleep quality tons.
Now I realize I put my phone charger back by my bed recently. Foolish! I'm gonna go move it back right now.
bolido_sentimental
3yr ago
Right, what you're describing here are major elements of the pro-HBD position. Most people on this forum, including myself, agree with you about this.
Be sure to consider as well the nature of the opposing viewpoint. Many people strongly value what they consider as fairness. The idea that some people are disadvantaged in life, through no fault of their own but only through an accident of their birth, strikes them as being unfair. I agree that it is unfair, though it's unfair on a sort of cosmic level, not in a way that should affect who becomes a neurosurgeon for instance.
But there is a worthwhile question to consider in it, one which I think Freddie DeBoer touches on at times: if there is a group of people who are natively less intelligent, does that mean they are destined to have worse lives? Is it right that they should have worse lives? It is important to bear in mind that intelligence is not equal to humanity. I can understand why, when you see one group of people having lives which appear to be worse in many areas, one would feel called upon to try and help that situation and correct it. But as you can see in the real world, when this desire is also motivated by false premises, it can lead to injustice too.
bolido_sentimental
3yr ago
A major implication of this is that, even if you are able to provide perfect equality of opportunity, groups will still have different outcomes because of their differing inherent ability. As a result, for example, cognitively-demanding (and high-status, high-compensation) professions will never reflect the distribution of groups in society; instead they would be occupied mostly by members of groups with higher ability. The alternative to this is to weigh the scales: to hire based on some attribute other than merit alone, which many find to be unfair.
And these "good" professions are just one example - you would expect to see this phenomenon in every area of human endeavor where ability comes into play.
bolido_sentimental
3yr ago
I was able to go there and register successfully. Indicated that I would receive a .zip file shortly with the information.
I'm reading A.J. Cronin's first novel, Hatter's Castle. The story of how he wrote this novel has stuck with me forever. From wikipedia:
"In 1930 Cronin was diagnosed with a chronic duodenal ulcer and told to take six months' complete rest in the country on a milk diet. At Dalchenna Farm by Loch Fyne he was finally able to indulge a lifelong desire to write a novel, having previously "written nothing but prescriptions and scientific papers." From Dalchenna Farm he travelled to Dumbarton to research the background of his first novel, using files from Dumbarton Library, which still has a letter from him requesting advice. He composed Hatter's Castle in the span of three months and quickly had it accepted by Gollancz, the only publisher to which he submitted it, apparently after his wife had randomly stuck a pin in a list of publishers. It was an immediate success and launched Cronin's career as a prolific author. He never returned to medicine."
Man I wish I could do that myself. And this coming year, I'll be the same age that Cronin was in 1930. So anything is possible I guess. I certainly wouldn't be surprised if I have an ulcer forming.
Anyway. I'm a big Cronin fan. Writing in 1930, he wrote like it was 1870 - he really comes off as quite ridiculous if you compare him with contemporaries like Fitzgerald or Hemingway, he's much closer to someone like Wilkie Collins - but you can get into the flow of his prose after a while. He was quite good at his very dated style. (And he did get much more modern later in his career.) The Judas Tree, Keys of the Kingdom, The Citadel, all are thrilling, moving, well-plotted books. And furthermore: while Cronin's novels share a ton of elements with each other - there's always a doctor, there are always Scots, there are usually Dickensian parental figures who you want to sock in the face the entire time - he does not recycle endings. Some end with pure tragedy, some end up with happiness for all involved. So this does make reading Hatter's Castle very exciting. The titular hatter, James Brodie, is one of the most unrelentingly evil people I've encountered in several years, so I'm looking forward to Cronin telling me how he got that way, and hopefully to seeing him get his richly deserved comeuppance at some point. But the terrible thing is, Cronin being Cronin, Brodie might win. If nothing else you know he's at least gonna take some of the nice characters down with him.
I regret to advise it really do be like that. All I can say is you do usually get a sprinkling of well-adjusted people amongst the shut-ins. I, for one, am full of physical vigor and fashion sense.
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