There is an overhead associated with just START before rolling. There is also an inertia energy loss in first motion that regenerative braking can’t recover in short distances. The maximum efficiency is constant speed at the lowest acceptable speed. Bob Wilson
A rather long-winded one -- abandon hope, all ye who enter here, yadda-yadda --- Not sure how many here will be able to relate, so another layer to warning to those who cross the tape... --- Have loved a Japanese language TV series on NF, probably 10 - 11y now, called 'Midnight Diner', and its spinoff (also NF). Strange thing to be so enamored with a series, given lack of direct contact with storylines and culture, as a JA raised in HI. Takes place in defo urban Tokyo, of which I'd visited relatives only a few times in early childhood... usually passing thru to get to northern Japan -- which looks very little like the setting of the series. But like many things about the JDM, there're moments of 'clarity' felt intensely, watching this very-postwar-urban-Japanese set of self-contained stories... and have no idea what part of me resonates with them, or why. Have watched Japanese language TV, anime, films, and other media since '70s / '80s... so whils vocab's right-shite having no one to reinforce conversational skills... the rhythm of the language, even its change in lilt for the various dialects in Japan, hits some deep heart spot rarely felt elsewhere. Going back to Japan for the 1st time in 21y a decade back, was a literal flood of this very thing -- which unfortunately, could've paid more attention to family there than I did (don't feel bad -- they've plenty of poor and grating-for-an-American-qualities deserving, from past visits). Don't think my subconscious has been pinged w\ this strange longing more times (felt as a permeating, constant silent questioning) at any other time in life. Is it weird, for someone raised nearly entirely free of the systems and society so naturally encoded into everything in the series... yet feel a strong kinship for things I'd not personally experienced? Guess that's the dilemma of dual-cultured diaspora everywhere, really. Just in my case... would really like a glimpse into the stories and exps of my Japanese lineage, creating the conditions for this profound, almost disorienting sense of... not deja vu, not nostalgia either. But something in between, like my past is calling to finally meet me. A long lost brother on the other end of a non-existent, temporal call, wants to meet and fill me in, on a hidden branch of my tree... and another universe. What I like about Japanese storytelling of the kind in MD, is it's a classic- (and apparently cult- too for later gens) JDM way of telling a story, just with the period and characters swapped. And Japanese stories tend not to spare the audience the pain and loss and sadness of life... just not glorifying it with M60s and explosions, either. All the chars in MD are the totally-normal sorts of characters in any big city izakaya would attract in the wee hours, just a diner serving mild drinks, vs. a bar. And that interplay, at least to me, is engrossing and evocative of warmth and connection, none of my non-Japanese peers (excepting those who're exp'd w\ big-city Japan, like Sasebo / Yokosuka Navy vets, and Yokota / Iwakuni AF vets) would have any clue about, at least non-tangentially. So why is this novel in the Coincidences thread? Well, the only other Japanese production that's evoked such strong feelings I can't explain -- but for completely different reasons -- is a 2002 anime TV series called 'Haibane Renmei' (灰羽連盟, 'Ash-Wing Federation'). Looks cutesy on the cover, but a definitely-darker and more adult series, mark my word. Do like more overcast, somber stories for anime... but the reason this is a coincidence, is I began watching MD again on NF, after trying to find info online on HR, on a whim -- and it turns out, 'Midnight Diner' started out as a manga series that became a live-action one -- just like HR began as a manga before it became animated. But what's really weird... is the two creator's family name's the same: Abe. Yoshitoshi Abe for HR, Yarou Abe for MD. Someone with less baggage against Japanese culture (specifically its cuteness tropes, and the Western tendency to dismiss anime as glorified Saturday cartoons (some merit, but mostly unearned) might enjoy Haibane Renmei and its excellent storytelling, esp from a Western pov, actually... but for most, I'd say the less you know the better 以上です... どうも.
A year in Okinawa, 1972-3, I studied Japanese (B and C). I throughly enjoyed the Japanese even though I was not there voluntarily (Marines.) Too hot for me, a great place to party. The Northeast coast, so spiritually healing to me. Bob Wilson
Bob, Okinawa's defo another place in Japan, that for me carries very deep roots in Local plantation-worker-descendant culture... I've not yet stepped foot in Okinawa Prefecture... but can tell you from what I have seen on countless variety and NHK docs... the climate, flora, and most interestingly, the people, are so much like the Hawai'i I grew up in '70s - '80s, it's surreal to watch people walk around, and not think it's being filmed somewhere in the state. Only when you see the same faces, with the same tans and very similar everyday dress speak only Japanese (and with the older ones or village elders, Okinawan dialect), is where the fascinating disconnect happens. This is because Okinawan culture imprinted deeply in Hawai'i, early 20th century. Despite being heavily discriminated against by immigrant Yamato Japanese (mainland Japanese, as Okinawa used to be a separate kingdom prior to being annexed by Japan), they left their mark on Local culture indelibly -- esp with livestock and farming. Myself being descended from Yamato Japanese but growing up long after the problematic prejudices against them stopped being enforced in the Vietnam generation -- when we (my dad's gen) were all 'Local' serving in a sh*t war, not JDM vs. Ryukyu anymore -- these darker but compelling histories necessarily only crop up for me, seeing hard physical things made in that era, due to that prevailing prejudice. The way a Local neighborhood looks (at least up to about the late '90s), is due to many of the contractors making them, being Okinawan. So to see homes built the same way, 4700 mis away and 3 gens later... is a strange feeling
Here's a rather obscure one from this morning (and admittedly, lacking a bit of arse in the trousers, kwink-wise. Proceed at will) Per the other thread's log post, had need to stay in town and get some errands run, so skipped the mall for morning laps. Made it up by parking early at the bank, and making up my own 10-min walk, just to keep arsecheeks working and not inert cushion Going back to single-digit age... walking in the open on a hike, with no path to follow other than right in front of you, adhoc-ing where you're going... has an odd attraction to me. Not saying I'd like to mix it up with the absolute batshirt homeless the law lets traipse around here... but there's something sensory about being on two feet but figuring out your path through something, that's oddly... stimulating. Well... I do have a weird brain And spending last 15+ yrs working clients and developing sensitivity abt where my body (esp hands and feet) are in space from such... this discipline seems to translate into something walking -- esp having not done it regularly so long -- putting my head in a different place. Not narcotic or anywhere near as dangerous, strange or just silly... but the closest I can relate to it, is when I were roadtripping, specifically by motorcycle. As mentioned before... riding a moto well... takes a certain frame of mind. Having had lots of track time, that helps loads in being able to process scant information very quickly -- which for my particular brain, was a big wall to overcome. But having done so (being able to 'get my eyes', for those with roadracing exp), when I were there, my way of processing the world, in such violent and quick-changing realities at track speeds... went somewhere completely different than driving to the track, or being in thought reading a book on my couch, for example. As I'd felt little frayed edges of it on 4-wheeled roadtrips... figured it must be from moving through the world. On roadtrips, this sense of being in the here-and-now, no touchstones to crutch on, improvising ... was and is, golden to me (as long as I'm not being jacked or shot at or in wild weather of course)... Walking is of course, much slower and easier to process change in, than 100+ mph into Turn 1 at (now-defunct) Spokane Raceway, with 2 other competitors close enough to touch them. But we've also been walking as an unbroken chain of animal evolution hundreds of millions of years... going bipedal exclusively, about 2Ma ago. Two thousand millennia is a long time tho -- wouldn't be out of line to posit evolution favoured those members of our species who mutated a way to use the daily need to move, to thrive rather than just survive. The coincidence? Just told a client on Sat they needed to walk more, for this very reason -- what you don't do, you'll soon find you can't do. Why not give your body what you've starved it of, for whatever modern human reason we have the luxury to make excuses with? Fifteen thousand years ago, you didn't have a choice to lounge around, waiting for food to come to you, or sit in a reclining seat whilst a magic cage capable of deadly speeds, carted you around like a palanquin. Whilst for elderly people this may have less relevance than those my age or younger (at ~80yo your body's preparing to die, unless you're already well-past 80th-percentile for strenuous, cardio-challenging activity). Have met 90-yo windsurfers... but they lived their whole lives suchly, to presume to do this -- if and only if you do it, you can. Less that kind of dedication to your own body's self-determination to move... at 80 you're going downhill, chief / boss / cool-breeze... if not already there decades. My mentor's that age, and apparently will cease bodyworking this year -- esp for males, an 80-yo bodyworker takes more vital energy from the client than gives, which causes sessions to be much less effective. Didn't actually think they'd stop, until seen a couple of their passed-on clients on my table -- nothing like the work I'd feel in similar gifted clients 10y ago, not the same. Not incompetent, as they'd never stoop that low... but apparently those in the know say it's sunsetting of a (male) bodyworker's career, less some kind of intervention from someone with far more knowledge of these things than I or they know (a bodyworker's bodyworker... of which -- surprise -- there are few, none which I know still alive). So putting money where my pie hole is... found moving thru space at a more liesurely walking pace, really rejuvenating (not the same pace as the mall laps, which are faster and understandably more monotonous, as everything around's man-made). Not knowing where I was going and figuring it out along the way, is more like visiting Frankfurt or München 1st-time as a soldier -- exploring. Looking back, used to rollerblade far into MD from DC w/ buddies... and loved the parts where we'd have to figure out (with a paper map, remember those?) how to get to an eatery or bog or place to rest, with wheels on my feet -- like a video game, in a way. Just in reality, where such exploration belongs -- your whole body involved, just like it was 15 millennia ago, foraging or hunting. Walking my old arse around is of course not as intense as all that... but throw me a bone, I'm in mid 50s with a torn meniscus, btfu Did remind tho, negative feelings abt getting back out there into more physical activity, had more to do with where I were doing it, than the exercise itself. And it's not like walking is training for a marathon, where you have to endure gobs of pain and suffering in pursuit of higher performance. Everyone who can walk, should, just like every generation back 2Ma did. The pre-50yo body tries to gaslight you tho... 'nah, you can lounge all week and drink a 3L of Dew a day, eating nothing but Hot Pockets, nothing'll happen. This feels good anyway, right?'. Except things will happen, just your body's not tired of your shens yet. Wish you all well, those entering late 40s - early 50s with a typical indifferent American diet (despite, wish I could be 10y younger ). Because for males, when your body's fed up with your addictions and resulting gas, it'll start throwing some pretty startling codes. Don't act surprised, as with every calorie bomb we consume and don't burn off, deserved another step towards that fate. Can certainly attest, being a survivor of such cowardly nihilism
Been a while since posting about one of those YT coincidences -- Days w/o Coincidence: 0 Were just thinking about my non-athletic history in school... and whilst I were defo not up to getting my knees ruined for life in HS... was not sitting in front an Atari 2600 trying to beat a shite version of Pac-Man, either. Bicycled everywhere, played tennis and street tag football, and less my old Mongoose and pop's old 10-spd... hoofed it all over town as often as rode. D unnnnno -- the big 3 American scholastic sports just never appealed to me. American football were something I knew 1) were on Monday night when pops would drag me over to his friends' place to watch the game, or 2) SB, when it'd be the same but a lot more food. Otherwise... could never figure out why watching men smashing into themselves chasing a not-ball-shaped ball, should appeal to me. Mind you, didn't mind the food one weekend a year... but otherwise? Baller sports, meh. Racing, however... different universe (with the exception of NASCAR and exhibition rallying for different reasons). Started with the old AMA Camel Pro and later IMSA GT racing on CBS Sports Spectacular in '70s, and just never stopped liking silhouette / prototype and Grand Prix-level racing. But other racing series a lot more physical began to creep in since, despite still not being a baller fan. Well, had just got back from rifling thru memories of those old CSS vignettes of yore this morning... and what did I see pop up on my YT feed: Now, this is a lot more visceral for me than my other addicitons, MotoGP and WRC racing... since I'd done countless achingly-stupid stunts on that Mongoose, climbing up above the houses into the vertical cane road in Lahaina, barreling down 20%+ slopes filled with car-sized boulders and holes they came out of. Also, climbing said 20% slope to even pretend to do this... with one ratio and a chrome-moly, rear-only-braked, rigid frame that weighed easily dbl what smol kids are riding these days (unless they're EV'd, which doesn't count). This is much like the time my then-boss (near end of '90s who ran a downhill bicycle tour with me here), took us with two normal mountain bikes (rim brakes!!! elastomer suspension!!! ) and had his wife drive home to his place in Kula to meet us for lunch... whilst we took off from 10K ft, starting with what looked like a drop off a cliff down a red cinder upper half of the ride. The only directions? 'See if you can follow me'... Speeds were enough to make my eyes water, which was a little bit of a problem when your speed, on cinder, is reaching 50 mph (had no idea, so didn't bring eyepro). Transitioned to grass (Haleakala Dairy land -- which now doing the same stunt we pulled then, could get you jail time & huge fines), then asphalt down this winding, crumbling asphalt road which seemed made for idiots like us... then thru the forest, where we could really see how much skill I'd picked up, following him after work for months on these same trails. And that were only a fraction the length of the above trial. If the only thing your sport can muster for speed, is less than Olympic-level-50m times, then I'm generally disinterested. But man -- downhill is a rush to watch, even -- can't even imagine (as my 20-yo self, even) how in hell they get the conditioning to be that good in downhill. Lotta crashing, I suppose Two-wheeled gravity speed for the win, less motorised sport
