Anxiety, Mike Tyson and Work-ticket report

Anxiety is an emotion that God (or evolution, take your pick) put into us for reasons. In isolation, "anxiety" is a morally neutral quality.

It has been published that women between the ages of 18 and 30 have unprecedented levels of mental illness with women who identify as "Progressive" having levels that are higher (at statistically significant rates) than women who do not identify as Progressive.

What function does anxiety serve?

For herd-animals, anxiety serves to keep them in the safety of the herd. If a lamb or a calf starts to get left behind, their anxiety kicks-in and the burst of adrenaline turbo-charges their pursuit of the herd.

I think the anxiety and depression seen in young women is at least partially fueled by the internal contradiction between wanting to stay with the herd and recognizing that the herd is recklessly hurtling toward a cliff. The trend is exacerbated by the need to gain in-group status; low status animals trail the herd and gain little protective benefit from being members while high-status members get to eat grass that has not been trampled or soiled with urine or feces.

The less-Progressive women have the same instincts but are content to "attach" to a smaller group of other women. Some of it is purely by accident...who their parents are, who they roomed with in college...who they married. Some of it is intelligence and intentional. Those women exercised their ability to play the chess-pieces out a few moves and see where identity politics and the Karpman Drama Triangle pivot (to mention two things) inevitably ends up.

For me, anxiety pushes me to plant a garden in the spring, water the garden, sort-of keep it weeded. It pushes me to pick the apples. Doing those things calms my anxiety back to a very-low simmer level.

Other people deal with anxiety in less appropriate ways. They lash-out at other people. They drink or smoke weed. They binge-eat or watch Netflix or buy crap they cannot afford and do not need. This may be a manifestation of B.F. Skinner's "Superstitious Pigeons".

Mike Tyson

I was watching some boxing clips. One of his strengths was his ability to pull one hand out of a clinch and pop his opponent when he wasn't expecting it.

He was able to generate a huge amount of power even when throwing some unorthodox punches. Several of his opponents were much taller than he was. From a position of his forehead planted in the center of his opponent's chest, he was able to punch the side of his opponent's head (which was above-and-behind Tyson's head) with enough force to stagger his opponent.

It made me think of Doolittle's raid on Japan. The punch is completely unexpected and seemingly comes out of nowhere.

Work-ticket report

Three hours time-on-task.

The first hour was on a fun project and I almost didn't count it in the total.

I labeled this "planting tool". The distance between the vertical lines is NOT 1-1/2 inches.

Picture in your head a grumpy, old man who is finding less and less joy in stooping down to plant tiny seeds at ridiculously close intervals.

The divots on the board are 1-1/2" apart.

 

I made the divots with a 1/4" diameter drill just barely sunk until the fully diameter is slightly buried.

Now picture a 2-by-2 with shallow divots planted at those same close intervals.

I was dubious about these shallow divots being aggressive enough to hold round seeds. I loaded seven spinach seeds (Red Tabby hybrid) and then carried the tool the length of the driveway and back and then around our lumpy lawn for a total of 200 paces. Then I left it on our trash dumpster for a couple of hours to expose it to the breeze. All seven seeds were still there after the test. Conclusion: The divots are aggressive enough for spinach seeds.

Cable spools can be decorated if that is your inclination

I picture using this by loading it at a small table in the garden and then carrying it over to the furrow and rolling the 2-by-2 to plant up to 8' of row at a time. I have seen large wire spools used for that kind of table. They have the advantage of being sturdy and transportable.

Another hour was spent lugging water. The third hour was spent cutting and loading spruce into the truck and a few random chores.