From 6126f536cbf5952189a6d685e4879b9190aa166b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: lxf Date: Sun, 15 Sep 2024 15:00:03 -0500 Subject: changed walks to trks.txt --- scratch.txt | 13 +++++++++++++ trks.txt | 18 ++++++++++++++++++ used-stuff.txt | 11 ----------- walks.txt | 18 ------------------ 4 files changed, 31 insertions(+), 29 deletions(-) create mode 100644 trks.txt delete mode 100644 used-stuff.txt delete mode 100644 walks.txt diff --git a/scratch.txt b/scratch.txt index bc9fd32..c506283 100644 --- a/scratch.txt +++ b/scratch.txt @@ -1610,3 +1610,16 @@ I wouldn't want to be faster or greener than now if you were with me O you were the best of all my days +## Buy Used + +I very rarely buy new electronics. I can't recall the last time I bought something new. We almost always buy electronics used, mostly off eBay. We also rarely buy new books. We generally pick up books at used bookstores around the country, but when we can't find what we want we use Thriftbooks. + +Buying used has several advantages over buying new. The obvious one is that it's almost always cheaper. But beyond that there are other appealing aspects. Buying used means you're not contributing as much to the waste stream of modern economies, and you're (potentially) removing things from that waste stream by finding a use for them. Used items, especially electronics, tend to be functionally superior to new ones[^1] both because they are farther back on the curve of [diminishing returns](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/law%20of%20diminishing%20returns) and because they have stood the test of time. There are exceptions of course, but buy and large last year's model is as good, and sometimes better, than this year's model. + +Buying used also enables you to take advantage of little curiosities of time. For example all the really good low-noise sound recording devices seem to have been made between 2007-2016. Why? No idea. But everyone who needs low noise recording seems to agree, and high end recorders from that era sell for more than they did when they were new. Which is to say that buying used isn't always cheaper, but when it's not it generally means you're getting something superior. And not something that the manufacturer thinks is superior, but something the people using it the most think is superior. + +This is why the only affiliate links on luxagraf.net lead to either eBay or Thriftbooks, my two preferred marketplaces for buying used stuff. + +Anyone using affiliate links is trying to sell you something -- that includes me -- and you should always be suspicious about that. I know my motives are simple, to make some money to pay for this website and maybe some tea for myself, but you have every right to skeptical. Really though, I don't want you to buy anything you don't need. But if you do need something, please buy it used. And if you're going to buy something I've recommended based on my experiences with it, then the affiliate links will help support this website. + +[^1]: The odd mixture of capitalism and our culture's worship of "progress" means that new things must constantly be released, but the law of diminishing returns suggests that newer/bigger/better/faster eventually fails to deliver any meaningfully improvement. This is most obvious in software, where the most feared phrase in any software user's heart is "please restart to update", but this lack of improvement over previous versions is increasingly painfully obvious in hardware as well. diff --git a/trks.txt b/trks.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1c4ecf1 --- /dev/null +++ b/trks.txt @@ -0,0 +1,18 @@ +## Edisto 2021-02-24 +We spent Christmas as Edisto and every morning it didn't rain I walked this short loop in search of marsh birds. It cuts right through the marsh on wooden planks, which I always find troubling, disrupting an animal a thruway like a marsh all so we could get a closer look at it. At the same time, well, it is nice to get a closer look. + +I did this walk early in the morning, before breakfast. Usually right about dawn or a little before, using the birds around camp as my clue when to hit the trail. I came upon a pair of Hooded Mergansers twice rounding a bind corner, startling all of us. + +Every morning the same Belted Kingfisher was out in the middle the of the marsh squawking as it fished. The last day there was hardly any bird life about. When I stepped out on to the marsh walkway a shadow passed over. I instantly knew it was a bald eagle. Its presence was unmistakable long before I could get my binoculars on it to confirm the feeling. + +Aside from birding, I did the trail each morning to stretch my feet, which were hurting from long days spent walking in the soft sand near the shore. + +After the first day, when my heels began to hurt so bad it was difficult to finish up this sort walk, I started going barefoot. + +Walking barefoot made me completely understand the barefoot running shoe craze. You can feel so much more. Wearing shoes (or even flop flops) all the time we forget that the bottom of our feet can be a sensory input. Go for a walk barefoot and you'll remember -- possibly in a very painful way -- that the bottoms of your feet have something to tell you about the world. + +It's nice to feel the ground beneath you. It's strange to think that for however many hundreds of thousands of years we felt the ground beneath out feet. At most we might have had sandals or moccasins, fur-lined in the winter, but never padded. The bare earth was right there underfoot. The best shoes you could make were essentially barefoot shoes. + +And then in the span of a few dozen generations in the west, daily contact with the earth disappears. Even more striking, the notion of daily contact with the earth becomes so remote that we re-invent the idea with "barefoot" shoes. But really? Why stop at a thin-soled shoe? How about no shoe? It's easier. It's cheaper. + +Since this walk I've tried several barefoot shoes, but none feel quite a good as being barefoot. Something about ll the strange synthetic fabrics leaves my foot feeling sweaty and clammy at the same time. There are certainly trails that would be tough on bare feet, but whenever I find one that's not, I plan to leave my shoes at home. diff --git a/used-stuff.txt b/used-stuff.txt deleted file mode 100644 index fa4877e..0000000 --- a/used-stuff.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,11 +0,0 @@ -I very rarely buy new electronics. I can't recall the last time I bought something new. We almost always buy electronics used, mostly off eBay. We also rarely buy new books. We generally pick up books at used bookstores around the country, but when we can't find what we want we use Thriftbooks. - -Buying used has several advantages over buying new. The obvious one is that it's almost always cheaper. But beyond that there are other appealing aspects. Buying used means you're not contributing as much to the waste stream of modern economies, and you're (potentially) removing things from that waste stream by finding a use for them. Used items, especially electronics, tend to be functionally superior to new ones[^1] both because they are farther back on the curve of [diminishing returns](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/law%20of%20diminishing%20returns) and because they have stood the test of time. There are exceptions of course, but buy and large last year's model is as good, and sometimes better, than this year's model. - -Buying used also enables you to take advantage of little curiosities of time. For example all the really good low-noise sound recording devices seem to have been made between 2007-2016. Why? No idea. But everyone who needs low noise recording seems to agree, and high end recorders from that era sell for more than they did when they were new. Which is to say that buying used isn't always cheaper, but when it's not it generally means you're getting something superior. And not something that the manufacturer thinks is superior, but something the people using it the most think is superior. - -This is why the only affiliate links on luxagraf.net lead to either eBay or Thriftbooks, my two preferred marketplaces for buying used stuff. - -Anyone using affiliate links is trying to sell you something -- that includes me -- and you should always be suspicious about that. I know my motives are simple, to make some money to pay for this website and maybe some tea for myself, but you have every right to skeptical. Really though, I don't want you to buy anything you don't need. But if you do need something, please buy it used. And if you're going to buy something I've recommended based on my experiences with it, then the affiliate links will help support this website. - -[^1]: The odd mixture of capitalism and our culture's worship of "progress" means that new things must constantly be released, but the law of diminishing returns suggests that newer/bigger/better/faster eventually fails to deliver any meaningfully improvement. This is most obvious in software, where the most feared phrase in any software user's heart is "please restart to update", but this lack of improvement over previous versions is increasingly painfully obvious in hardware as well. diff --git a/walks.txt b/walks.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 1c4ecf1..0000000 --- a/walks.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,18 +0,0 @@ -## Edisto 2021-02-24 -We spent Christmas as Edisto and every morning it didn't rain I walked this short loop in search of marsh birds. It cuts right through the marsh on wooden planks, which I always find troubling, disrupting an animal a thruway like a marsh all so we could get a closer look at it. At the same time, well, it is nice to get a closer look. - -I did this walk early in the morning, before breakfast. Usually right about dawn or a little before, using the birds around camp as my clue when to hit the trail. I came upon a pair of Hooded Mergansers twice rounding a bind corner, startling all of us. - -Every morning the same Belted Kingfisher was out in the middle the of the marsh squawking as it fished. The last day there was hardly any bird life about. When I stepped out on to the marsh walkway a shadow passed over. I instantly knew it was a bald eagle. Its presence was unmistakable long before I could get my binoculars on it to confirm the feeling. - -Aside from birding, I did the trail each morning to stretch my feet, which were hurting from long days spent walking in the soft sand near the shore. - -After the first day, when my heels began to hurt so bad it was difficult to finish up this sort walk, I started going barefoot. - -Walking barefoot made me completely understand the barefoot running shoe craze. You can feel so much more. Wearing shoes (or even flop flops) all the time we forget that the bottom of our feet can be a sensory input. Go for a walk barefoot and you'll remember -- possibly in a very painful way -- that the bottoms of your feet have something to tell you about the world. - -It's nice to feel the ground beneath you. It's strange to think that for however many hundreds of thousands of years we felt the ground beneath out feet. At most we might have had sandals or moccasins, fur-lined in the winter, but never padded. The bare earth was right there underfoot. The best shoes you could make were essentially barefoot shoes. - -And then in the span of a few dozen generations in the west, daily contact with the earth disappears. Even more striking, the notion of daily contact with the earth becomes so remote that we re-invent the idea with "barefoot" shoes. But really? Why stop at a thin-soled shoe? How about no shoe? It's easier. It's cheaper. - -Since this walk I've tried several barefoot shoes, but none feel quite a good as being barefoot. Something about ll the strange synthetic fabrics leaves my foot feeling sweaty and clammy at the same time. There are certainly trails that would be tough on bare feet, but whenever I find one that's not, I plan to leave my shoes at home. -- cgit v1.2.3-70-g09d2