Sunday Support Group: What's On TOP?

Got some feedback from a reader this morning: there have been no thoughtful essays on TOP recently, he said, and way too many gear articles. He reduced his Patreon donation by a dollar. Which is really indicative of how fundamentally decent and thoughtful TOP readers are; he could have cut it off altogether, but he didn't. He also took time to give me his feedback, which was considerate of him. I'll take readers like that.

Funny, though. I kinda thought we'd been talking recently about Bill Jay, artist's statements, and early-in-life accomplishments/setbacks. And not enough about gear.

You're aware that most sites are all about gear, right? There's a good reason for that. It's what draws eyes. People are hounds for gear talk. It's what fires the machine, what stokes the furnace. And what keeps this particular claptrap steamship afloat. Back in the heyday, I could track it: traffic was a reliable bellwether of it. A decline in the daily numbers meant: uh-oh, time to get back to talking about gear.

Ah, shoes!
Maybe I just haven't written anything about the gear that guy is interested in, is all. Gear talk is like advertisements. Ads are just a nuisance...unless you happen to be interested in what's being advertised. Then you're all over it.

The same thing goes for shopping in general, actually. I fell in love with a woman long ago who loved shoes. She had forty pairs of shoes to my three, well on her way to being Imelda Marcos*, and when we were out on the town we had to stop at every shop that carried shoes. This greatly surpassed my interest in the subject, which was H—>0**. So I'd go around saying that I hated shopping. But that wasn't true; all I meant was that I had to spend an inordinate amount of time standing around in shoe stores***. But cameras were another story. They bored her, but if I could tack on to the end of my life the amount of time I've spent shopping for cameras, it would be quite a bonus.

I hated ads on TV so much I got rid of my TV. Haven't had one for seven years now, a fact that my cable provider is completely incapable of comprehending. I resist ads on YouTube as best I can. But if there were commercials for pool tables, I gotta be honest, I'd be riveted. It all depends on what ignites your endorphins, right?

Hubris
So anyway, on the topic of TOP content, just a couple of warnings in advance: someday, I'm going to write an article about how to buy a pool table. This will have 97% of you rolling your eyes (a figure which I will endeavor to reduce to 92% by striving to be entertaining), but it's bound to happen so I'm just giving you fair warning. Sorry! I'm also going to write a post—one post—about the American election before it happens, because I have a thoughtful perspective to offer. That will not violate the rules of the website: the rule is "no gratuitous political provocations," not "no politics" at all. It's a long, well-established principle for the press to endorse political candidates in editorials, and I'm gonna latch on to that even though it's hubris to imply that my little blog is a part of "the press."

My dilemma on that score is that silence is irresponsible, from a civic participation perspective.

But don't worry...there will be only one post about the election, and only one about buying a pool table. And you've already been warned once that they're coming, and you'll be alerted again. Both posts will be well flagged, and both will be hidden behind a page break. You'll easily be able to skip them if you prefer. So neither will assault your eyes or your sensibilities against your will. No harm, no foul.

Oh, and by the way...two other readers increased their Patreon donations today (and thanks to them), so all is well. The claptrap steamboat steams on along down the river, for now.

In the end, a blog's a blog. Don't like something, skip it and wait...something new will always be along. And one thing does tend to lead to another. For instance, this post started out talking about complaints regarding our content, and is just about to end up at...the Bible. Take that, other photo sites.

Of course, there's nothing really new under the sun****, and the good thing that comes along will be broadly similar to what has come along before; it's like the weather that way, in that it changes in innumerable and varied ways and yet the changes are always broadly the same and the same sameness is always coming back around. Same as it ever was.

Enjoy your Sunday! Now then, back to gear.

Mike
(Thanks to David)

*Wife of a now-historical Philippines dictator who notoriously enriched himself from the public treasury. (A term for that is "kleptocrat," a cool word even though it describes a disreputable thing.) When they fled in disgrace the wife famously abandoned a vast wardrobe and 1,220 pairs of shoes, exaggerated in the public stories at the time to 3,000. My girlfriend could relate.

**I shouldn't use terms from calculus given that I'm innumerate. But I think what that means is that you take the distance of a point from zero, divide it in half, and then divide that in half, and keep on doing that an infinite number of times; what you end up with is very close to zero but never precisely zero. Thus, as close to zero as you can get. I learned this in a long-ago class called, no kidding, "Math for Poets," so of course I could be remembering it poetically and not mathematically. If so I'm sure I'll be corrected, which means I'll learn something today.

***And if that woman who liked shoes was still in my life I'd be counting my blessings every day, and I'd buy her a new pair of shoes every month. Every week if I could afford it. I'd squire her to the shoe store and stand around without complaint while she shopped, and even tell her she could take her time. With the passage of time comes gratitude. Not to mention regret.

****If you've never read Ecclesiastes*****, you really should. Seriously. It's wonderful.

*****"Ecclesiastes" is a Latin transliteration of the Greek translation of the Hebrew word "Qoholeth," which means a speaker to the assembled throng, i.e., a preacher.

Original contents copyright 2020 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Bruce Appelbaum (partial comment): "In 1983, during the Marcos years, I spent some time in Manila for business. The joke going around at the time was:

Q. How did Imelda Marcos come by all her money?

A. Mining.

Q. Mining?

A. Yes, that's mine, that's mine, that's mine.... "

Bill Tyler: "So about calculus—and nothing to do with photography. You're talking about the notion of a limit—something you approach but never reach. Photographically, it's the perfect print—the one you are striving for, but can't quite ever reach. No matter how good the last one is, there's always something that could be better. The mathematical definition is a little subtle. The idea is that for any number you care to pick, no matter how small, as long as it's not exactly zero, the thing approaching the limit will get closer than that. There's a sort of relationship to fractions themselves. What's the next bigger fraction than 1/2? Is it 2/3? 3/5? 17/33? 63/128? 10000/20001? There is no next fraction. No matter what you pick, there's something else in between, closer to the goal."

Peter Wright: "I did a lot of calculus back when I was doing post graduate research. I developed sets of simultaneous non-linear integro-differential equations with six unknowns and time variant coefficients. Once I got the hang of it, solving them was quite straightforward. I didn't immediately recognize your calculus expression, but I knew you meant to say that your interest was asymptotically approaching zero. (When it comes to women's shoes mine does too.)

"Ecclesiastes is my favourite book of the Old Testament. My wife gets it mixed up with Ecclesiasticus (strictly speaking part of the apocryphal or deuterocanonical books that not all denominations acknowledge). But Ecclesiasticus is now renamed Sirach (no doubt to avoid confusing people like my wife). I endorse your suggestion to read Ecclesiastes; it is as relevant today as it was 2,500 years ago. For anyone looking for a good introduction, I suggest When All You've Ever Wanted Isn't Enough by Harold Kushner. (The author is more famous for When Bad Things Happen to Good People.) Kushner uses Ecclesiastes as the foundation for his book.

"That's what I love about TOP. It sometimes covers things close to my heart, that I normally never come across on the internet, least of all on a photography blog!"

Comments

[John Igel]

Keep doing what you're doing Mike! Increased my Patreon contribution by $1.

[fred]

In my opinion TOP has a very well balanced mix of subject matter but as in all things you can't please all people all the time.

[Steven Ralser]

I generally avoid ads as well, but one ad worth watching is the new Nike ad. Here’s one link to it. https://musebycl.io/sports/nikes-new-ad-editing-marvel-and-maybe-best-covid-spot-yet?fbclid=IwAR2OZIBrjti3qyECGoIH_iy-5whHy9bpuVKGYHJv9Xc2SMSG1SrQJa2Kt1E

For mike - the packers feature inn it.

[trecento]

Hi Mike,
I'm excited for the pool table buying post! Our family is in agreement that we want to buy one once this trying time is over.

[Xf Mj]

I.e. "infinitesimal." Wikipedia tells me that Archimedes thought hard about these "infinitely small" numbers and that Leibniz's treatment of calculus was built on calculating with them. Maybe your dislike for shoes was like one over infinity squared or even two to the minus infinity. You can *just hear* the total and utter displeasure in that phrasing, right?!?

Wikipedia also tells me that "Infinitesimals were the subject of political and religious controversies in 17th century Europe, including a ban on infinitesimals issued by clerics in Rome in 1632."

Well, TOP has always been a little provocative, even in an upset-a-1600s-pope kind of way. I bet Galileo played billiards, too..

[I'll bet Archimedes would have. --Mike]

[John Camp]

I just sold my cabin in Hayward, Wisconsin. When I built it 20 years ago, I put a good pool table in the basement, along with cues, cue rack, chalk, etc. I probably used it four times; maybe five, but I don't think so. I only bought it because I thought manly men would have a pool table in their cabins; or perhaps a poker table, but I *really* didn't need one of those. Gambling bores me more than pool. Anyway, the buyer asked that the pool table be included in the sale, which I was happy to do; it is as pristine as the day it was made, green felt, leather pockets. Balls of genuine elephant plastic. I do read your pool entries in the blog. As a five year veteran of Catholic elementary school, I offer the resultant suffering up to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

[Ari]

Muphry’s Law: The English transliteration of the Hebrew word קהלת should be “Qoheleth” (though “Kohelet” would be simpler, and probably more accurate.)

[David Dyer-Bennet]

Limit as H approaches 0? It's not really represented in straight text except in English as above, but it's drawn as:

It needs the little "lim" to clearly mean that.

[Chico Ruger]

Mike: I know you know that the post on the election will, undoubtedly, cost you some readers/patrons.

Just sayin’...

[Philip Ramsden]

Hi Mike,
I have been a TOP reader for a long time and a Patreon supporter for less time because you manage to write interestingly about all things.
Some interest me passionately and some I find interesting because of you passion about them.
In Australia we get all kinds of political comment and news, but it wonderful to get local knowledge.
I lived in Baltimore for 6 years while working at Johns Hopkins Med school and survived 3 election cycles.
They are endlessly fascinating and so different from our way.
Keep writing about your passions, I love it.
Cheers
Philip

[Fred]

Hi Mike,
I am your other follower that is looking forward to your pool table post. I hope you include snooker tables when you write it.
Fred

[Well I'm really glad to know that you two are out there! That will inspire me. --Mike]

[Joe B]

Mike I like your mix of topics. A little of this a little of that and before you know it one good menu item.

I would love to shop camera stores, hifi shops but they are as rare these days as hens teeth. Now where did that saying come from?
Jb

[ANTHONY G RECZEK]

Funny, I tend to roll my eyes with the gear talk posts. But I've been pretty well situated, gear wise, for the past 6-7 years.

[Albert Smith]

Regarding the first asterisk item, that reminded me of Mark Knopfler's first post Dire Straits album in which he has a song called "Imelda"... he has transitioned to story telling narrative song, often based on real people. His song "Boom like that" about Ray Kroc of McDonald's fame inspired the movie the founder, starring Michael Keaton.

I was living in the Philippines when Marcos, uh, decided to leave the country. They opened many of his homes to the people to see the luxury they lived in on the backs of the population.

And yes, shoes were a big part of the obscene booty.

[Rich]

I hate ads too, which is why I have an HD video recorder. You can either use as a conventional video recorder or timeshift the program i.e. start recording a show and then start watching the recording after, say 15 to 20 minutes or so and still fast forward the ad breaks. Not too expensive either, around £150-£170 here in the UK.

[David Bateman]

I think many are still expecting the conclusion to your Panasonic GX9 review. You promised the final part 3 weeks ago.
The last part didn't end well, but promised a silver lining.

[I think I'll try to restart that on Tuesday. --Mike]

[Bear.]

Mmmm, footnotes.*

*Footnotes good. Must remember to increase Patreon donation.

[Kye Wood]

The balance of gear vs non-gear stories is perfect. As for the fallout (and there will be fallout) for the upcoming thoughtful, carefully couched piece on the upcoming election... there can be no world peace, until people on the whole, find inner peace. Somewhere, right now, there's a guy with a beard, who has the sharpest lens ever made and has never made an interesting photo in his life, just cocked, locked and loaded, waiting for you to dare to challenge his world view. You have been warned. Adieu!

[Bill Tyler]

Aargh - speaking of limits and imperfection ... In the comment where I defined a limit mathematically, I put in a bunch of incorrect fractions - they're all supposed to be greater than 1/2, but partway through I switched to less than ... And if I correct it, the correction is sure to have an error.

[Patrick]

Your second footnote is related to Zeno's Paradox, one of them that is. A person walking towards a point will never reach it. He goes half the distance, then half the remaining distance, etc, never quite getting the distance remaining down to zero.

https://www3.nd.edu/~jspeaks/courses/2009-10/20229/LECTURES/3-zeno.pdf

[JimK]

" I do read your pool entries in the blog. As a five year veteran of Catholic elementary school, I offer the resultant suffering up to the Blessed Virgin Mary."

Best. Comment. Ever.

Thanks JC, you made my morning!

[John Krumm]

If only every shoe store were next to a camera store! Problem solved. In Juneau AK the one decent camera store, Art Sutch Photography, was about five stores up from a good shoe store, and in between was a good book store, so that was about perfect. We could meet in the middle.

You can read about the recent fate of Art's store here.

[Bear.]

Isn't the whole point of calculus to assume that an asymptote does equal or exceed zero? I learned all that - um - stuff in High School. But the other day I was trying to calculate a certain maximum permutations of something or other and thought to myself, I'll just use calculus. I pulled out the trusty (virtual) Hewlett Packard - looked at it for about 2 minutes - and worked it out by trial and error. I have completely forgotten. Now inspired to go do an online old-person mathematics course...

[Jeremy Fagan]

I’m still here reading because of the lowish amount of gear posts. I was feeling lustful for a small Olympus until someone let me hold theirs - and I found that it was just much less comfortable than my Pentax K3. Coupled with a realisation that I have a (for me) complete set of decent lenses that I am familiar with, and that any move would cost actual money, I’ve stopped looking. Most importantly, I’ve realised that the equipment I have isn’t what is holding my photography back, but a lack of time to edit and process my photos. So I’m trying to photograph more thoughtfully and catch up with editing/processing. Your recent artist’s statement posts are superb. Reminds me of Brene Brown’s values exercise - she gives you a long list of possible values and makes you choose just two that matter the most to you. I thought it impossible, but I ended up with two. Off now to write an artist’s statement for myself.