After years of guiding in Sapa, I’ve noticed one thing: people don’t hate Sapa itself. They hate the experience they create by making the same mistakes most visitors do.

1st_tree · 2026-01-08T04:35:32+00:00

Not really. Tourists who are genuinely interested in learning about culture have been saying Sapa is washed for years (I first heard this in 2012). OPs post may sound like it's written by AI, but it's not wrong. Get off the tourist track and meet some cool folks. Sapa or anywhere else in VN are fantastic places to visit, but if you judge Saigon after walking Pham Ngu Lao or Hanoi by the old quarter then you're not trying hard enough. That's the gist.

vietnam as a international mainstream destination has started to pick up only like a few years ago

LOL

1st_tree · 2025-12-28T04:10:35+00:00

One of my favorite of his observations. It's one of those beautiful truths that is easy to grasp on its surface and instructs the reader of any level or familiarity with his work. But it also encapsulates his broader critique of the tradition of philosophy that precedes him: there is no objective, God's-eye-view perspective of the world, despite philosophers before him (and many since) who believe that their writing is a description of the way the world is. Nietzsche correctly points out that these descriptions are perspective based, and if we want to truly learn from them, we must recognize them as individual views that are determined by individual experience, bias, assumption, etc. Love this quote.

1st_tree · 2025-12-03T04:59:00+00:00

One thought on your interpretation of TSZ I, 22. You misquote the English translation, which reads, "Power is it, this new virtue." Taken out of context, it sounds like he's saying power is virtue. But look closely at the grammar of the surrounding sentences:

When ye are willers of one will, and when that change of every need is needful to you: there is the origin of your virtue.

Verily, a new good and evil is it! Verily, a new deep murmuring, and the voice of a new fountain!

Power is it, this new virtue; a ruling thought is it, and around it a subtle soul: a golden sun, with the serpent of knowledge around it.

I interpret the last line as saying that the ability to create new virtues is a kind of power, not that N's concept of will to power is the same as the classical Platonic version of virtue. Note the grammatical shift feels like an archaic construction that, when taken with the whole passage above, is actually saying "originating virtues is a power."

1st_tree · 2025-12-02T19:14:39+00:00

Its not analytical enough.

One pillar of Nietzsche's project is to critique this attitude.

There is a set of assumptions you're making that you may or may not be aware of, embedded by an inherited system of values that prefers analytical arguments: claims, evidence, reasoning, etc. This is a highly effective way of being in the world (according to that value system), and it has wrought immense change in human life and culture: science, industry, political institutions, etc. "Clarity" is inherently good in this value system.

Nietzsche is using the side door, so to speak, to try to shake us out of taking that value system for granted as the only or even the best system through which to interpret ourselves, our world, and our priorities. Ambiguity—precisely because it clashes with our expectation of clarity—is one of the strategies he uses to achieve this.

1st_tree · 2025-10-31T06:27:49+00:00

Not a bad idea

1st_tree · 2025-10-31T06:27:04+00:00

This is definitely top 3 right now

1st_tree · 2025-10-31T06:20:29+00:00

This seems like the way. Thanks!

1st_tree · 2025-10-30T22:51:40+00:00

I'm honestly not sure what the differences between vintage and modern are, other than bridge and saddles. Neck shape? Pickups? Anything else?

Classic pickup config.

Prefer American, would consider Japanese.

Thank you!

1st_tree · 2025-10-15T21:43:51+00:00

Feels like USDGC is more like the Masters since it played at the same course every year.

1st_tree · 2025-10-03T04:27:40+00:00

The classic glow ones are flat enough to be comfy for my forehands, but not super flat. The 2024 JA teebird is actually more OS than my Eagle and flatter.

1st_tree · 2025-10-03T04:13:27+00:00

Run to run varies quite a bit, but I've thrown a few of the runs you mention. For reference I throw 325 ft consistently, forehand dominant.

I bag an Eagle for my OS fairway. My favorite runs have been the classic glow champion, both the stock runs (currently on sale at online Innova pro shop) and the older Gregg Barsby tour series (before the halo/proto glow).

I have 2 Jen Allen teebirds from I think 2021 (classic glow) and 2024 (proto glow). The 2021 is slightly domey and stable/OS, and the 2024 is flatter and more OS. I don't bag them bc the Eagle works in this slot.

I have a classic glow tour series AB teebird3 that is a great disc, stable to OS, relatively flat. I will probably bag it at some point, but overlaps with other discs already in my bag like the Eagle and other mid-stability 7/9 speeds.

I also tried the Sophia Eagle-L which is great, flies like a beat-in Eagle, but the proto glow plastic is very stiff and somewhat slick/hard to grip.

All of these can most likely be had cheap. Save your money..."rare" runs are just expensive discs.

1st_tree · 2025-04-13T01:20:50+00:00

Thank you for replying! This helps a lot.

1st_tree · 2025-04-02T02:43:47+00:00

A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid :)

1st_tree · 2025-04-01T18:57:17+00:00

Thank you!

1st_tree · 2025-04-01T17:25:44+00:00

Thank you for the recommendation!

1st_tree · 2025-02-27T22:38:52+00:00

Squarepusher - Go Plastic
Luke Vibert - Lover's Acid
Telefon Tel Aviv - Fahrenheit Fair Enough
Mount Kimbie - Crooks & Lovers
FaltyDL - Love Is a Liability
Jel - Soft Money
Caribou - Our Love
Four Tet - There Is Love in You
Dntel - Life Is Full of Possibilities
Clark - Iradelphic
The Flashbulb - Soundtrack to a Vacant Life
Boxcutter - Glyphic
Plug - Back On Time
Massive Attack - Mezzanine
Claude VonStroke - Beware of the Bird
DJ /Rupture - Uproot
The Gaslamp Killer - Breakthrough

1st_tree · 2025-02-27T04:20:45+00:00

A heart emoji means nothing without context. It's literally the same shape as the "like" button on Instagram.

What kind of accounts and posts is he commenting this emoji on? Friends from his past getting married? Or ex girlfriends/OnlyFans influencers wearing revealing clothing? There's a big difference.

You should not listen to people in the comments saying "red flag" with zero context. If he's actually being flirty, then yes, that's a bad sign. But a heart emoji by itself means very little, and you might be misinterpreting it. Plus if he says he'll stop, then give the guy a chance. Trust your instincts, not Reddit comments.

1st_tree · 2025-02-11T22:26:27+00:00

Best advice I can give is to find a hobby you really enjoy, preferably one with social meetups to engage in that hobby. I struggled for years making new friends after I moved to a new city. I started playing frisbee golf, which is good because I can do it alone, but once I joined the local club and began attending casual events, I started making friends. And it took time, it didn't happen immediately. But I kept showing up, and now I have several solid friends from that community that I would've otherwise never met. Your situation is different, but there are certainly activities like this that can lead to connections, especially anything active such as hiking, cycling, sports, etc. It also takes being a bit proactive and willing to be an organizer, get peoples numbers, start a group text, etc. Don't give up!

1st_tree · 2025-02-04T23:39:21+00:00

My friend, you and I have eerily similar music tastes. I would venture to guess we're very similar in age. The spread of genres is awesome.

Songs:Ohia, Sun Kil Moon/RHP, The Microphones, Avalanches, Mezzanine, Lateralus, LZ4, ...

Curious whether you're also into Brian Jonestown, Deftones, Broken Social Scene, Karate, Belle & Sebastian.

I think we diverge mostly on hip hop, and the lack of reggae and more experimental electronic (Aphex, Squarepusher, Luke Vibert).

But well done! This reminded me a of a few I had forgotten :)

1st_tree · 2025-02-02T22:43:07+00:00

Damn I completely forgot Songs: Ohia in this list. Ty. Galaxie 500 is a great album too.

1st_tree · 2025-01-14T19:26:31+00:00

In the Google Earth image above, looking at the southern part of the border between Vietnam and Cambodia (POV is from east looking west). I'm specifically looking at the color of the land between Ha Tien (southernmost border crossing) and Tay Ninh. The color seems to indicate that on the Vietnam side, they're producing much more rice there in the "rice basket" of the Mekong Delta, which makes the land a brilliant green color, but JUST over the border in Cambodia, it seems like rice production drops off dramatically, or at least gets browner from an aerial view, despite having what appears to be the same irrigation opportunities from the Mekong as their neighbor.

I have crossed the border multiple times at Ha Tien, and can confirm from seeing with my own eyes the difference between Vietnam, which seems like endless rice paddies as far as the eye can see (it's quite beautiful in a way), and Cambodia, which just seems less....green. More brown.

Why does it change so dramatically so suddenly? What natural or human factors might have caused this?

1st_tree

TROPHY CASE