catch-up on discgolfing

after going to green bay, i went out to cable, WI, which is way north near canada again. they had the first tourney to be on next year's tour. almost NOBODY from the WI tour was there tho, it was a total minnesota crowd. nice ppl tho.

"the discraft fall open" was held at the telemark resort, a ski/golf/hiking lodge that's apparantly been there forever. old ppl were talking about having come there since kids. NICE place: great architecture, a good bar & resteraunt, and the price was right too! the tourney was on a ski hill, but i didn't like it as much as the two in green bay. it was bigger, but less steep. it seemed like 17/19 holes were uphill into the wind. 2/19 were huuuuge multiple-toss downhill shots. long holes, only one had trees.. it wasn't such great frolfin. but it was fun anyway. at night between days we had glowee-minigolf, bocce ball, and everyone was trashed. after that was done i went down to fiddler's creek in hayward WI and made the 6 hour trip back to milwaukee.

another weekend this month i went out to UW plattevile and dubuque Iowa and hit two courses that aren't near many others. platteville's an ok campus course, pretty damn nice as campus courses go. dubuque's REALLY nice. great elevation variance, challenging trees, lots of shot variety. only bad thing was that the teepads weren't very level, making it tough to get footing on a drive.

two weekends ago, people set up a temporary course up in Saukville WI for the last of the SADGE (saukville area disc golf enthusiasts) events. good time, small group of ppl familiar with each other and a buncha portable holes, we made up whatever holes we wanted.

and just this past weekend I went all the way out to LaCrosse WI and back, then down to freeport IL and back on sunday. hit 4 courses i hadn't on sat, Justin Trails resort is SWEET, very very pretty and awesome challenges. Pettibone park's pretty, but a little flat n boring. somewhat challenging. i hit two 9-holers west of madison on the way back playing in the dark. one of them, krouskop park, had wooden baskets which worked better than i thought they would. plus, for being in such a confined area amidst playgrounds, they somehow make for some darn fun holes. I meant to bring someone down to freeport with me on sunday; I called at 10:30 and asked "are you down?", he said yes, I went to go pick him up. I get nearby, phone, and he's not there. he left, don't know where. WTF. Just met this guy, and he happens to live in the exact same neighborhood as some ex-friends who i ditched for doing this exact same type of thing to me. =ppp thppt. so i called someone i knew in janesville, he was down, and we had a nice round. meant to play anna paige too, but i was too beat. lost a lot of disks this weekend.. =(

i took a camera with me this past weekend because i wanted to take some photos of my computer, and had all these extra shots to waste. so i'll get them scanned in sometime... still have to finish the roll.

i've now hit EVERY course in WI south of appleton, and a good many north. Hit a majority of northern IL.. I've probably covered a radius of about 200 miles around me.

more info on anatta (self-absence) and neurath's boat

There's a more accessible explanation of anatta in the story of Buddha's conversation with Kutadanta, wherein the comparison is made to a oil lamp that burns through the night: the flame is in some ways the same and some ways different from itself at the beginning of its' burning as its' end, regardless of whether it's been extinguished or not. I personally still find unclear in what capacity they regard the soul, though this seems more similar to the ancient greek's ideal of kleos, which is kind of a recognition that fame and rememberance (the degree you affect history) is about the only kind of immortality one can hope for.



"neurath's boat" is a useful analogy named after the originator, Otto Neurath. It basically compares logic, faith, and understanding to a boat floating alone in the sea. if any one plank is to be repaired, one must stand on its' bretheren to accomplish as much. Though the entirety of the boat can be replaced, it still depends on its' prescident. I'm not finding any good sources on neurath, only the next best thing, someone who is discussing him in some larger context:

"Neurath was able to keep his boat afloat only because, as a logical positivist, he still believed that analytical and synthetic propositions were logically distinct, and accordingly upheld the dichotomies of theory/observation and form/content. Quine's project of a naturalised epistemology arises precisely from his denial that any such logical distinctions can be made. Because of this denial, Quine can never keep Brown, Neurath or anyone else afloat.

When Neurath repaired his boat, he did so upon the foundational assumptions of certain laws of logic and physics; upon this foundation, he was able to test each part of the boat for seaworthiness, and replace it if defective. Upon this foundation, indeed, he was able to understand what would cause him to float or sink. For example, Neurath would assume the validity of modus ponens: "This plank has a hole in it. Holes cause boats to sink. Since I don't want the boat to sink, I must therefore replace this plank". And he would likewise assume the validity of the laws governing the behaviour of solid bodies upon the surface of liquids.

But Quine cannot accept these assumptions. For him, logical and physical laws are to be assumed no more trustworthy than any plank in the hull of the boat. That is to say, those assumptions which allowed Neurath to know how to approach the task of repairing the boat, must be denied any such privileged epistemological status when Quine takes over the task. But how are we to repair a boat if we not only harbour doubts about individual planks, but also about our reasons for replacing planks, and even about our understanding of what it means to sink or float?"

western philosophical approximations of buddhism

1700s German former theosophist, Arthur Schopenhauer developed his own philosophy very conservitavely and scientifically. "Philosophy... is a science, and as such has no articles of faith; accordingly, in it nothing can be assumed as existing except what is either positively given empirically, or demonstrated through indubitable conclusions." Later he discovered how similar what he had created was to buddhism.

"Schopenhauer's starting point was Kant's division of the universe into phenomenon and noumenon, claiming that the noumenon was the same as that in us which we call Will. It is the inner content and the driving force of the world. For Schopenhauer, human will had ontological primacy over the intellect; in other words, desire is understood to be prior to thought, and, in a parallel sense, will is said to be prior to being."



AUM or "ohhhmmmm" is a sacred syllable and first in many chants. "Essentially, all the cosmos stems from the vibration of the sound 'Aum' in Hindu cosmology" (compare this at your pleasure to christanity's world-creation at the voice of god or to the various subatomic models of existence and motion that science currently provides)



1700s English philosopher David Hume also developed a very discerning philosophy, valuing primarily causality, called bundle theory, basically saying one cannot separate/distinguish an object from its' properties, nor therefore can you find an inner essence beyond those properties. This turns out to be very similar to anatta, which is an absence of self.

This concept was particularly favored by the buddhists of the east where their faiths mixed with an already compatible taoism, and produced such philosophies as Takuan Soho's (he, by the way, was a teacher to Miyamoto Musashi and author of The Unfettered Mind - Writings of the Zen Master to the Sword Master.)

Natsugusa

Natsugusa (Summer grass) ya (O!)
Tsuwamonodomo ga (warriors)
Yume no (dream's) ato (afterwards)

-an untranslated haiku by Bashô after visiting an old battlefield, now grown over.

oh well

i can't help about the shape i'm in,
i can't sing, i ain't pretty, and my legs are thin.
but don't ask me what i think of you,
i might not give the answer that you want me to.
oh well.

now when i talk to god i know he understands
he says "sit by me and i'll be your god in hand."
"but don't ask me what i think of you,
i might not give the answer that you want me to."
oh well.

-peter green, as a member of the old fleetwood mac