ah ha ha ha. i had no idea. so the lecithin and oil and everything else is removed?

i'm not to fond of soy. it mimics estrogen. plus it's the most GMO & sprayed crop. i eat it with caution (small amounts).

but hey--maybe this is the only way that fast-food eaters get any fiber!


i was gonna say. i do buy gmo-free tofu though.

not to say that gmo-free is not sprayed. it's not guaranteed really. maybe it's sprayed with MORE than roundup-- know what i'm saying? scattershot spraying might mean more spraying.

nah man, i don't live in the brazilian rainforest. grass fed cows are my neighbors. you can taste the difference (grassfed meat is DRY).


Last Man? is that you?

--
ETA


that's awesome! proof that you were doomed to be a writer. you could bequeath the things to the gmku family museum.

eh, just snap a photo and blam. who needs paper??

Currently blasting my way through this. And so far, so interesting. I was very much one of those people who believed that certain people were set to be talented in their chosen path. This has pretty much turned it on it's head.

I'll say one thing, it's helped me big time with my rock climbing and the way I go about it.

took me a 2nd look but i just realized that's a lynda barry comic

she's great


i haven't read that book and i don't know exactly what it argues, but i think in terms of talent + interest + practice as the holy triangle or whatever.

"talent" will give you an ability to do something better with less practice than others, but without interest you just won't practice.

if you have interest in something, you will practice and experience the rewards of achieving something. you don't need massive natural ability, but if you have zero talent, it's going to be very hard.

for example, my eye-hand coordination is pretty shit, so i could never get mario to go past one or two levels. yes i could practice a ton but it was mega-frustrating because of mercury in my nervous system or something, ha ah hah ha. so i gave up on that shit.

on the other hand, i'm pretty great at strategy games like the various civs, so, guess what, i can get deep into it and not come out until i'm shivering cold, take a hot shower, and get back into it. practice yields more rewards because of talent, so i practice more. the virtuous circle (if you consider video games "virtuous" ha ha ha).

i practice cooking every day because i like eating. every day is a reward and every day i become a little better. however, if i wanted to become a professional chef, i don't know that i have the talent that would permit me to make progress fast enough to survive such a high-stakes high-pressure situation. i'm better eater at eating than cooking.

so i have enough cooking talent that i enjoy it in my everyday, but i think not enough that i'd feel so great toiling 16 hours a day in a kitchen in search of glory.

turns out i'm better with words and concepts than with my fucking clumsy hands. while my analytical/verbal iq scores rank pretty high, my eye-hand coordination has been estimated as "not retarded" lololol. there go my knife skills.

so my interest in ideas has waxed and waned thoughout life, and with that so has my practice in fields that involve them, but that's where "what comes naturally" has been most productive most consistently for me. of course it's not the only thing i enjoy, but that's where the talent/practice/interest converge for me most intensely.

don't get high on rocks though! it's bad for you.

See this is the whole point. This idea that you can become successful in anything just by not having to practice as much as others is a total myth. All the greats in sports, whether it be Roger Federer, Michael Jordan (remember that Nike advert he did about failing?), Tiger Woods, and all the greats in music and art etc. etc. didn't get to their position just by simply coasting.
And how many times do you hear these people being told how talented and gifted they are? What people aren't seeing is the hours upon hours upon hours of practice they did to get to their position.

And that's the point. This idea they these people had something unattainable to the average Joe simply isn't true.

it's the "10,000 hours" notion from malcom gladwell-- 10,000 hours of practice will make you an expert at anything. great book, and he makes an interesting analysis of the success of the beatles. the value of hard work, etc. which is crucial to any success.

i don't remember the michael jordan ad-- probably never seen it. i do seem to remember reading somewhere that jordan was a mediocre player in high school and he just practiced until he became great.

but see, i don't believe that he became the greatest player with sheer practice. maybe he was lazy before, and the practice unlocked his potential. both have to go hand-in-hand. without practice, you get "wasted talent". with practice you definitely get improvement but not necessarily "genius." I could practice basketball all day and all i'd get is tendinitis.

i had a friend in high school who tried to write poetry on the basis of sheer determination. we were encouraging and never mocked him, but man, he sucked. he just didn't have it. you'd read his stuff and all you'd see is the effort of following prescribed formulas. fortunately for all he quit and got into engineering and business. he always wanted money so that worked out for him. he could have written all day but he was not going to be the next pablo neruda.

anyway, practice is essential to any improvement but don't let people sell you myths that "if you can dream it you can do anything." i mean, the limits of human endurance and ability are not known to anyone yet, so if you enjoy or want something badly definitely give it your best. and if you like rock climbing then consistent practice will make you a better climber.

but know that there are no guarantees that you'll be the michael jordan of rock climbing. maybe you can, hard work does not guarantee it. in the end we can't all beat world records, so the journey should be its own reward-- getting as good as you can for your own enjoyment. you can't wait to enjoy yourself until you become a myth. otherwise it's a waste of life-- right?

my feelings on Harper Lee and Cormac McCarthy are sort of the same. Southern white people of a certain age are to be understood as having some racial issues that are no longer widely shared (thanks for that!)

i'm not going to read that book because i understand it was an aborted manuscript she never wanted to publish and it was stolen from under her after her sister died, wasn't it?

yes the cat is out of the bag but i like to respect an artist's wishes. fuck the publishing industry and all the leeches that exploit artists. and fuck rupert murdoch and everyone involved in that scam.

ps- you meant carson mccullers?

The first point is something pointed out in the book. Sure he could write all day and everyday but that doesn't mean anything. I spend all day packing boxes but that doesn't mean I'm gonna be a champion packer anytime. You've probably spent countless hours driving a car and you're not lining up to be the next F1 champion. What matters is how he's practising and who's teaching him.

A guy could spend all day on a driving range hitting balls then at the end of the end think "man, I've done well today". Not realising he wasn't being taught right. He wasn't pushing himself to do better. If your guy had actually spent more time reading the greats, understanding the way they used words and all that jazz then maybe he could have some decent stuff. There's more to it than that, but you got the point.

Hahaha don't worry, I've no qualms about becoming the next star of climbing. Being nearly 30 and having only just started 6 months ago puts paid to that idea. However, a kid who's started at 4 (with all the right factors) is gonna have a damn site better chance. What it was for me was I've been having massive problems with confidence and that I'd never be able to certain things climbing. Now I don't see that. If I keep going and accept failures, then there's reason why I can't keep improving all the time.

There are so many social factors that go into having that extra 'thing' that it is so much more than this idea of 'talent'.

This. She's hardly a picture of health mentally or physically these days. The scumbags saw that and exploited her.

Now reading The Pirates and the Mouse, about Disney Corp's fight against underground comic strip Air Pirates and it's creator.

Reading a doctoral thesis on the founding of the Syriac Oriental Orthodox Church during the Chalcedonian persecutions of Saint Severus of Antioch... learning all kinds of kick ass new shit about something i thought i already knew a lot about

I love my summer reading lists

Isn't that where the "holy hand grenade" came from?

Haha yes indeed..

However the Council of Chalcedon proved more devastating and incendiary

Nabokov in America: On the Road to Lolita (between issues of Howard the Duck)

I am obsessed with Joan Didion, once again.
last week I read The Year of Magical Thinking and Blue Nights. Yesterday I started The White Album.
Reading Didion or even just thinking about it excites me a lot. I also really want to reread Play It As It Lays. Too bad I can't find the film, cause I am also very interested in that since I LOVE the book.

I also read The End Of The Story by Lydia Davis last week. It was nice, but it kinda felt like a chore...

I attempted to read a few pages more of HtD last night in bed and the wife distracted me. Darn wives.

Nabokov in America: On the Road to Lolita by Robert Roper

Even though you and I know there's nothing at all wrong with reading Nabokov or about him, this is one of those books I'm a little nervous reading in parks or near parents of young girls. I took it to my medical appointment the other day and had to hand the book to the nurse for a moment. Her face reddened and she became very quiet.

https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto...27&oe=560E4A46

Matched with your sig this is fantastic.

Ha ha. Thank you, sir.