It never gets easier

Very early in my rediscovery of movement, someone said: What was once your workout, will one day be your warmup. It’s both motivating (simply do what you can, today, and the changes will come) and inspiring (it implies that the people far ahead, at one time, were here, where I am today). I can now see in hindsight that it is an expansive perspective: One will expand their capabilities as one expands one’s practice to bigger and better things.

Years later I realised that the answer to this question is: everything. There can be more articulation of the toes; rotation can be made more extreme; even that ineffable quality of artistry can be developed. It’s often thought that the greater your prowess, the easier your performance becomes. However, as I progressed upward through the ranks of the ballet world, I saw that this wasn’t the case.

~ Barbara Gail Montero from, Against flow

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Years into my rediscovery of movement, I realized it was truly a mastery practice. Something which can be done, forever, just for the process.

And just now, it’s occurred to me that this is also true: What was once my warmup, will always contain enough challenge to also be my workout.

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High-quality information

I get paid to read and comment on the news for a living, and I still wake up every morning completely overwhelmed by all that’s going on. I can feel my blood pressure go up as I try to figure out what to focus on first. The way I manage it is to remember that the world will go on if I don’t read everything. Newspapers will publish again the next day. I will always be better off consumg a smaller amount of high-quality information that trying to consume it all.

~ Tommy Vietor

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The primary cause

The numerous influences of the shoe heel on the foot and body column are not fully understood by most medical practitioners. The practi- tioner commonly speaks of “sensible” heels. Such a heel does not exist. Any elevated heel under a shoe automati- cally initiates an altered series of foot and body biomechanics.

~ William A. Rossi from, Footwear The Primary Cause of Foot Disorders

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And sometimes I use my blog as a personal out-brain data storage system. I’m trying to link to a more definitive source—but you’ll find that link is pay-walled, (and of no relation nor benefit to me.) It’s a short read, well-worth finding a copy of.

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Reflection: Day 52

AM I SELF-AWARE? — The first step in my journey was realizing I was unhappy. This realization — detecting it, understanding it, believing it, surrendering to it, and finally owning it — was the first piece of bedrock on which I started building.


It’s time for the student to become the teacher. What prompts and triggers are you going to create for yourself as you go through your life being your own teacher?

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Arrived in the middle? Visit the first post, Where to begin?
(The entire series is available to download as a PDF ebook.)

Practice practice practice

Depending on your own personal history, there isn’t necessarily a lot at stake in how you conduct yourself at a cash register. What I’m trying to get at with my idiosyncratic cashier-focused story is this: there’s a vast difference between the habit of getting by, and the habit of getting better, and you may, without realizing it, be free to choose between them.

~ David Cain from, The Difference Between Getting By and Getting Better

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I’ve not gone down the exact same rabbit hole as Cain. However, being intentional with my work on the podcast interviews is amazing—it’s the same iterative path of discovery as he’s describing.

I’ve done well over 100 interviews—indoors, outdoors, quiet spaces, noisy spaces, while healthy, while sick-ish, with shy people, with insanely energetic people, during the day, at night, across sunsets with natural light, English-speakers and English-as-second-language speakers, old-ish, young-ish, men, women, couples, teams, while working alone and with an assistant, sleep-deprived and well-rested, with the occasional tech problem, in comfy chairs with tea, in an unpadded folding chair for 12 interviews in a row, well-fed and ravenous, . . .

None of that matters.

The conversations are always amazing. Time after time, once we get into the flow state, it turns out that people are interesting— most of the time surprisingly interesting. The more I work at this, the more I’m coming to believe that the art of communication, and in particular conversation, is the single most important skill for a human to possess.

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How to win the Internet

The difficulty seems to be, not so much that we publish unduly in view of the extent and variety of present day interests, but rather that publication has been extended far beyond our present ability to make real use of the record. The summation of human experience is being expanded at a prodigious rate, and the means we use for threading through the consequent maze to the momentarily important item is the same as was used in the days of square-rigged ships.

~ Vannevar Bush from, As We May Think

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Over in the Movers Mindset community I’ve started a topic titled, How to win the Internet, where I’ve been trying to unpack all my processes and way-of-thinking around how I manage (or at least, attempt to manage) everything I learn.

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Instaspam is turning into Bookface

But I still don’t see ads in my Instagram feed. Literally none. This might be because I don’t have a Facebook account, or might be because my Instagram account is flagged in some sort of hidden way because of my prominence from here at Daring Fireball, or might be a bug. This has been a years-long mystery to me (that I probably shouldn’t complain about).

~ John Gruber from, Instagram is turning into Facebook

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I understand why Instagram is adopting Facebook features: They work. But for years I logged into Instagram and enjoyed it more than Facebook. I fear a day when I wake up, open my phone and can no longer tell the difference between the two.

~ Katherine Bindley from, Instagram Is Turning Into Facebook, and That’s Bad

Reminder: On social media, YOU are the product being sold to the advertisers.

I recently deleted my Instaspam account entirely. I used to enjoy posting and viewing, but it’s just a useless stream now (like Bookface.)

Meanwhile, way back in the beginning, I had the foresight — knowing Instaspam would get eaten, monetized and rot into junk — I used a plugin on my site which kept all my photography: They are still locatable here, with one of my favorite tags: #Instaspam

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Scaf 101: Introduction

(Part 1 of 13 in series, Scaf 101)

This series of posts (12 total, navigation is at the very bottom of each post) is intended to give you enough basic information to get started with scaf. I’m going to give you a specific list of things to buy — what I’m calling “The Set” — while trying to keep the cost as low as possible. I’m also going to show you a number of completely different things you can construct using the set.

In the initial posts, I’ll assume you know nothing and I’ll explain everything. As I show various setups, I’ll initially explain every step of assembly so you understand how to put things together without killing yourself (by working too hard, or by dropping pipe on your, or your friend’s, head). I do not recommend skipping to the end because the instructions on the later setups assume you understand what’s going on, and they only mention the “this is unusual or interesting” parts.

Once you spend some time building, and playing on, scaf, you’ll understand what is easy to build, what is hard to build, what is pretty stable and what is not. But how do you get started? The hard part is figuring out what should be the very first pile of stuff you buy. You want enough to have fun and options, but not more than you need, because scaf gets very expensive very quickly. VERY roughly, it’s almost $20 for every clamp, and almost $3 per foot of pipe.

This entire set is about $400 and will build you some really neat setups. There is a detailed parts list and buying instructions/links in the next post in this series.

Safety

Hey! Let’s get this out of the way now…

This sh*t is DANGEROUS. Seriously. You have been warned. I’m not being hyperbolic here.

The easy-to-get pipe used in this set comes with threads cut into the ends. The threads are razor-sharp. (The clamps cover the ends of the pipe.) I know what I’m doing, and still I’ve cut myself many times.

Steel pipe is heavy. If you lose control of even a seven-foot piece as you stand it on end, it will KILL someone if it falls on someone’s head. But what about pinched fingers and dropped-it-on toes? …I’ve had too many to count. Plus the old (not funny at all) slap-stick humor of carrying pipe, turning and striking someone with the end behind you. Steel pipe is heavy. There’s no “oops, sorry bro’,” just lacerations, crushed fingers, concussions and broken bones.

…and there’s the danger of the clamps working loose. You are planning to jump on, step on, swing from and generally use this NOT in the way the manufacturers intended. You have to learn how to align the pipe in the clamps, (or everything will wiggle loose even more quickly). You have to learn how tight to make the clamps, (so as not to break things, but tight enough to hold). You have to be smart enough to check and tighten things occassionally.

…and THEN there’s the danger of falling OFF the scaf. Or having it topple over ONTO you, or with you ON it. …or IN it.

Terminology

Back on day one of my Life With Scaf, this was very confusing and I wished someone had written a getting-started guide. So, here it is:

Kee Safety Klamps – This is a brand name of a type of pipe clamps. There is a whole collection of clamp types with neat names like “side outlet elbow”, “90 degree two socket tee”, etc. The set I describe in this series contains just three types of clamps that will get you started. As you buy more — and you will buy more because scaf is a highly addictive habit — you’ll have no problem figuring out what the other clamps are for.

kee_clamps_examples

Set screw – Each clamp has several screws (one screw for each pipe the clamp accepts) that are threaded into recesses in the body of the clamp. You will need an 8mm Allen wrench to tighten them. Clamps come with their set screws but there’s no wrench. This isn’t IKEA. (More on wrenches later.)

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Schedule 40 – You don’t really need to know this, but it’s common to encounter the terms “schedule 40”, and “schedule 80”, when talking about scaf pipe. A “schedule” is a giant table of specific details like exact dimensions, and strengths for each of the various sizes of pipe. It’s used when building engineered structures where they’re computing loading for realsies with math. What we need to know for this series is that you want “schedule 40” pipe. (If anyone should ask you, that is.) Schedule 80 is much heavier, and therefore stronger, but is the same EXTERIOR size. So it fits all the same clamps as schedule 40 pipe. Down the road, you might want to shell out for a special schedule 80 pipe or two if you’re doing a lot of gonzo bar precisions or something. Anyway. You’ll have a good understanding of schedule 40 pipe after you play with this set. The longest pieces in this set are 7-feet, and they’re going to feel pretty nearly “bomb proof”.

steel_pipe_schedule_40

1-1/4″ pipe – The least obvious thing about scaf is what size do you use? It turns out that this size is the best balance of weight, cost and strength. So the most commonly used size is “Size 7″. (For clarity: That is the seventh pipe size in schedule 40, also the seventh row in the table, and is known as 1-1/4″ or one and one-quarter inch.) Home Depot or other Big Box stores will just label it as 1-1/4”. Here’s the confusing part: There is NO dimension on 1-1/4″ pipe which is 1-1/4″. The interior diameter is close to 1-1/4″. Anyway. Just learn: “Size 7, otherwise known as 1-1/4″ pipe.” Kee Safety clamps have their size molded into their body; They have two numbers, like “20-7”, meaning clamp style 20, size 7. Again, after you play with this set, if you ever encounter a clamp that’s not size 7, it sticks out like a sore thumb. (I once received a pile of clamps in a box, and there was one number 8 incorrectly included… it was instantly obvious.)

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Galvanized steel – You want “galvanized steel pipe.” You will also find “black pipe” at your local Big Box store. Do not use “black pipe”. For one thing, it feels different to the bare hands, and I like it less. For another thing, it will rust if you have it outside. “Galvanized” means the steel is coated with some Zinc. The Zinc will corrode away before the steel rusts, and black pipe is NOT galvanized. For yet another thing, I have NO IDEA about the strength of “black pipe”. When you cut pipe, you expose steel which is not galvanized, and lo and behold! …it rusts. The pipe in the photo never got wet, that’s just good old humidity and oxygen doing their thing. (“Rust never sleeps!”)

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Summing up

We’re building this scaf set with size 7 Kee clamps, an 8mm Allen wrench, and schedule 40 galvanized steel pipe.

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