Batfort

Style reveals substance

Month: July 2018 (page 2 of 4)

The Batfort Reader

2018-07-21 / / 0 Comments

Here’s an idea: instead of calling this posts “linkshame,” I’ll rebrand and share what has caught my attention long enough to want to capture. Positive and helping-focused instead of negative and self-focused.

Articles

» Signaling concern over industry funding, Congress presses for transparency at groups supporting NIH, CDC

» Another article on why Peer Review is Not Scientific

» The founder of Cut the Knot.org recently passed away, so I checked it out. Good way to learn math, if you want.

» You can now download printable zines of Catlin Johnson articles. I love this idea.

» A Brief Introduction to Meme Therapy: If the meme strike notes are good, looking at fifty will save you from reading half a dozen books. They might not equip you to defend or attack a position beyond that, but that isn’t the point. The point is either carving out a space for certain ideas to be heard, or closing off a space and booting certain ingroups or positions outside of the sphere of acceptable public discourse.
[Scott Adams would call this “directional truth” rather than “exact truth.” -eds.]

» I’m intrigued by SocialMatter. Gotta love a neoreactionary website with a dot net address.

» The Puritan Intellectual Tradition in America, Part 1: Nineteenth-Century Optimism and Utopian Idealism

» It’s interesting to read this after having been to NYC: The Death of New York City

» The Only 3 Things I Need in a Partner

» Putting a Funny Face on Crohn’s Disease

» Global Stocks Lost Over $10 Trillion In H1, Just Wait For The Second Half

» I dream of living in a community like this one day: The History of the Cotton District

» How to Reinvest your Money

» Lack of group-to-individual generalizability is a threat to human subjects research. This is a big deal, and a truth that you’ve probably encountered if you are an n=1 experimenter.

 

Books and Other Things to Buy (or Not)

 

 

Image of the week: last week’s news

2018-07-20 / / 0 Comments

I had a long day full of emotions, I’m tired, and this photo reminds me that there are still fighters in this world.

God bless America, and goodnight.

It’s done

2018-07-19 / / 0 Comments

Is it finished?

Yes.

Is it perfect?

Hardly.

Will I go back and fix some things?

Probably.

But it’s done.

 

In other news, I’m now interested in architectural drawing.

The Perfect Push Up

2018-07-18 / / 0 Comments

I’m throwing a party after I do my first unassisted pull-up.

Not even joking.

I’ve never done a pull-up in my life. Not even in elementary school, when I was a tiny little wisp of a girl. (With no muscle definition in my arms.)

When I first discovered leg-assist pull-ups, I was astounded to learn that my arms could even move like that.

So yeah. Pull-up party for sure.

To get there, I’m trying out Ted Naiman’s basic workout routine 3 times each week.. It’s pretty simple:

  • 5 mins intense cardio
  • Pull-ups to failure, then three more, then a slow-mo rep
  • Same deal with push ups, sit ups, pistol squats (or regular squats), and back extensions

Takes about 20 minutes, and so far it’s definitely felt like a workout. As I’m working to get in shape, I’m working up to 5 non-stop minutes of cardio (currently I go about 1:30 before I need a 15 second break), and I’m modifying pull-ups with leg assist and then a slow descent. My grip strength needs some work, too.

Anyway, all this led to me finding a most fascinating video on YouTube. I figure if I’m only doing one set of an exercise, I should try to execute each exercise properly.

I’m amazed at the expression of this man’s body. The way that you could watch the video without sound and still totally understand what to do, and not to do. The fluid and articulate way in which he moves, it’s mesmerizing.

Most of the guys I follow on twitter are gym bros, and their physiques show it. There’s nothing wrong with the “look at how much I can lift” look, but there’s something really appealing about the physiques of guys who do calisthenics. Like somehow they’re more svelte than the lifters. Beast mode vs Otter mode.

I certainly like the idea of spending 20 minutes a couple times a week much more than taking an hour in the gym. As much as I appreciate them, I still hate gyms.

Gym or no, I’m going to make it to a pull up.

“Mad City” Appreciation Post

2018-07-17 / / 0 Comments

It’s rough, but I love this track of Mark and Taeyong from the NCT crew.

I have a fondness for the young, rough, unrefined bits in an artist’s career–when you can just see the first tendrils of talent unfolding but still being explored.

SM Entertainment has made a concerted effort to develop their rap talent, and has taken that seriously in pushing Mark and Taeyong (and I guess now Lucas) to develop and grow.

You can tell that this is a “challenge” song–somebody tasked them to write a song about what makes them angry. Young Nickel Creek used to record a lot of songs from these types of challenges, and I love how transparent they are.

For all its rough edges, I love this verse from Mark:

When I’m in the house, guess what happens at the end it
always turns out to be empty and demolished (I killed it)
I eventually always end up standing at the center of it
Always energetic still clenching a damn mic in my fist now (how)
Could this be possible? Am I that powerful?
Guess that’s why rumors around the world are saying that
“Mark is absolutely fully capable”
No more rules, just dial my number
If you’re ready to have your house blown

 

It me. I don’t rap, but I know this feeling. I know this capability. I know this bewilderment.

If I worked as hard as Mark Lee, I could make some things happen too.

Waiting

2018-07-16 / / 0 Comments

I feel like I owe someone an apology. This blog? The Google algorithm? You, dear reader?

Please view this rad photo of Julia Child (apparently after she dropped a plucked chicken down this staircase!) instead.

I like Julia Child. She accomplished things in her life. She married later in life, even though she was awkwardly tall and overly-intelligent. She infused her life with wit.

Anyway, I’m will be finishing up a project this week and then I hope to devote more time to making Batfort bouncing between three or four side projects great again. As usual I’m, but I’m putting them all on the back burner to grind this one out.

Cheers, and Happy Monday.

Sunday evening

2018-07-15 / / 0 Comments

I’m sitting on my porch.

It’s dark, but only just–the sky over the treeline still has that afterglow of the sunset fading up to a deep inky midnight blue. The crescent moon rises, poking out from behind a treetop.

I love summer evenings, when the air finally cools down but you know it’s been hot.

From this vantagepoint, I see the neon sign of an old theater glowing green and red and black and white. The theater is a church now, but it still looks like a theater. It’s a converged church, so maybe the overlap is appropriate.

There are Christmas lights in the trees of the town square, and streetlights. The motel up the hill shines a neon light as well. It says “motel.” Cars drive by, their taillights winking in the night.

So I guess it isn’t really dark after all. But the silhouette of the trees is so beautiful. Nothing is as black as trees silhouetted against the fading light.

I want to hang fairy lights out here, too. Even less dark.

The crickets chirp quickly, a record of the faded, hot day, while the gradual acceleration and deceleration of the cars paints a longer phrase over top. The sound of a small town in the summer.

One of the neon lights reflects onto the underside of the roof, a gradient of blue and red bending when the cars drive past. The glare from passing headlights reflect the shadows of trees over top, a lovely juxtaposition.

This porch reminds me that life is good. There is good in life. The creation that God made is good, it is the rest of it that is not.

Breathe the air, bathe in the sun, splash in the water, twirl in the wind.

The rest is the details, the paperwork. The tax.

But a cool summer night is forever.

The banality of nihilism

2018-07-14 / / 0 Comments

The Faceberg struck gold with this one:

Normies are the real nihilists. They believe in nothing and exist only to exist. They exhibit no passion, no emotion, no yearning for something beyond themselves. They are content to wallow in mud and gorge themselves on gluten free, non GMO, organic slop from the Content Farm.

I don’t mean to say I’m better than these people, but I work with several in their early 30s who are in the same role.

They’ve done nothing with their lives since college. They don’t want to do anything. They collect paychecks, pay rent, and complain.

They’re the walking dead.

And I don’t really care either how they choose to live their lives. If they want to live paycheck to paycheck, smoke weed everyday, and complain about everything…go ahead.

It’s just pitiful to eek out an existence like that without creating, without passion, without living.

I want everyone to create something. Doesn’t matter what it is; everyone has different talents.

Write a book. Make a film. Paint a painting. Build a piece of furniture. Engineer a new tool. Start a business. Compose a song. Develop software. Grow potatoes.

Just make something.

The act of creation defies nihilism because it adds value to a world where value is increasingly abstracted and destroyed.

You as a creator will rise above you as a consumer. Instead of saying “I watched that, I ate that, etc.” you will say “I filmed that, I cooked that, etc.”

 

Do we just assume that other people are normies because we don’t ask about their hopes and dreams and their side gigs? Maybe.

Do we come across ourselves as normies by not leading with what we do in our off time? Perhaps. It’s also a survival strategy. Nobody at a corporate-type job really cares.

But I have talked with quite a few coworkers about what they do after hours, and what they want out of life. I have yet to encounter someone who is as motivated as I am. This goes for multiple jobs, in different circumstances (one in the city, one in a small town), different states, different people in different stages of life.

One described her ideal day as staying home, laying on the couch, and watching TV all day.

I couldn’t do that

I think about this bit from Mad Men a lot:

 

 

Video of the week: body language edition

2018-07-13 / / 0 Comments

It’s Friday, I’m drinking a Gin Pellegrino, and it’s time to post an image of the week.

I’m tempted to post the image of Trump sitting in Winston Churchill’s chair, but really any of the photos of Trump would be good this week.

However, another notable event happened in the form of Peter Strzok’s Congressional hearing. And if you took the time to view it in any form, you would have seen some…interesting…body language from him.

Fortunately for us, we have Mandy at Bombard’s Body Language to interpret. I particularly liked her video on Strzok. It covers not only him, but the FBI lawyer and some of the power squabbles amongst the congressmen.

Direct link

What struck me about Strzok’s body language is how much of his energy is sitting right behind his eyes, really forward in his head. He’s probably stressed out, and fully engaged, and trying to remember all of what the FBI has told him to lie about, but it’s a really weird look. He feels imbalanced somehow, like he’s only focused outwardly and not internally at all, like a normal person. Usually we’re somewhat balanced between inner and outer perception.

Anyway, this observation is what really caught my attention. Bombard began talking about the roles that the different congressmen were playing as they jockeyed for power.

“If you took out all of the crazy people then there wouldn’t be any crazy people.” No, that is not true. In any group, no matter the size, you’re going to have a leader, you’re going to have an enforcer, you’re going to have a believer, you’re going to have a clown, you’re going to have an idiot, and you’re going to have a crazy person. No matter what the size. You could take all those people out who stand out [in the crowd], and another leader would arise, another enforcer would arise, another idiot would arise, and so on. The only reason that they all don’t rise is because those with stronger minds suppress those who don’t have the strong minds.

This is why it’s important to have a strong mind–and to show it.

 

And yet, we still self-sabotage

2018-07-12 / / 0 Comments

Yesterday, I wrote about the vision of me, the best of me. Or at least one version of that.

Today, I’m struggling against self-sabotage.

All in the cycle of life, I suppose.

I really like starting things. New projects, new ideas, new adventures–they give me life. There’s a reason that spring is my favorite season and that my favorite color is the color of a newly budded leaf backlit by the sun.

The contrary of that is that I’m not a big fan of finishing things. There’s so much finality in it, when you make something unchangeable. You transmute all the potential of a new idea into something permanent. Obviously you have to do this to get anything done, but the creative possibilities are, at that point, gone. And depending on your level of craft and experience, the final product may or may not resemble the original idea.

I’m pushing myself to finish a personal project during the month of July. In fact, I’m trying to crash the project and get it done as fast as possible now. The finish line is in sight.

And thus the resistance begins. The self-sabotage. The willingness to be distracted by anything else but this project. The sudden backtrack of “I know it’s going to suck but I’m doing it anyway” with “But it needs to be good! What if this isn’t the right thing to do! You took the wrong angle!”

The doubt, the scattered focus. It’s like two magnets pushing against each other.

The real work has begun. One of the reasons that I’m doing this project in the first place is to push myself to finish something, and to force myself to do something that is not, in fact, perfect.

The point is to finish.

Proof of concept.

The more I fritter away the ending, the more I will be frustrated at “how long” endings take–even though most of it is my own making.

So I have to be smarter than myself.

It’s a fun game.

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