October 3, 2022

D&F 10-2-22

D&F 10-2-22

It’s spooky season, can you believe it? Decorative gourds, giant skeletons, and candy stolen from kids under the auspice of health. The fall is my favorite time for weather and adventure, so I’m very excited it’s here again.

Today, if I’ve woken up and gotten ready in time, I am climbing my bike up Mount Diablo with my own two legs for two or so hours in the Mount Diablo Challenge. This will be my longest sustained climb ever, and nothing to scoff at with over 1000m (3000’) of vertical gain in a short 17km (10mi). My plan is to go my own pace, stay hydrated, and try to enjoy the views through the fog of sweat and lactic acid buildup I’ll be sure to accrue. My therapist asked this week what I wanted to work on emotionally that was a similar difficulty to this mountain, and I suggested: trust. I’ll leave the details of that discussion to our therapist/client confidentiality.

You might have heard recently about “effective altruism” or “longtermism” and wondered what they were all about. Knowing that someone as morally repugnant as Elon Musk is interested in them might be the first clue that they’re not good ideas, but if you want to dive in a bit more into the bizarre and shitty ideology of these white men, here’s a good discussion of longtermism, and another on the imperialism and racism inherent in effective altruism. I think it’s a good rule to interrogate any buzzy ideas against their foundations, and how they deal with a history of exploitation of the global south. Further, I think any system that perpetuates or ignores historical injustice is doomed, as it depends on a steady stream of inequality to continue. On a planet with limited resources, largely hoarded by the wealthy, we will either reevaluate the violent economics of capitalism or we will eventually end life on Earth in a misguided territorial global war. I’ve talked before about degrowth and also find a lot of solace in the idea of anarcho-communism, but both of these revolutions require a paradigm shift ideally from the ground up. That said, I’m hopeful we’ll soon collectively realize that billionaires have no clothes, and start working together for a better world.

The “free market” hates you. Ed Zitron is a perplexing fellow. He works in PR, but often has insightful and biting critiques of capitalism and tech. I don’t quite understand how these two things line up, but I enjoy the results and his challenge of a system that requires us to play-act at busyness and productivity..

I’ll end on a lighter (albeit louder) note to answer a question I’ve had since I was a kid: what does the ‘loudness’ button do on a stereo? If you’re like me, you’ve likely pushed the button and left it pushed indefinitely, but the linked article explains why it might make things sound better in our home or car.

Links

• Start a band with your dog:

• I’m reminded of a friend telling me about an orgy where the only rule was “must wear bottoms at the buffet”:

• If you know, you know:

• A pox on parents who name their kids something inscrutable or overly complex:

Closing

As you finish reading this, I’m ideally cruising down Mount Diablo to lunch, and grinning at my challenging accomplishment. I hope that version of myself wants to try this challenge again next year, and I’m proud of her for pushing and committing to fun, hard things.

As we begin the pumpkin-spiced Oktoberfest countdown to Halloween I hope you keep things spooky, and find an appropriately creepy film to watch under a blanket by candlelight this week. Japan’s borders reopen to visa-free travel in just over a week, and despite my continued fears of a very real pandemic, the omicron booster is getting out there and continuing to prevent serious illness.

Stay safe, stay spoopy, and toast the sun, space cowgirls~