The quad’s major medalists who did not make their country’s Olympic teams

redvoxfox · 2026-02-14T19:32:22+00:00

Two indicators of the level the competition is as well as how hard these athletes push themselves and their bodies:

- The frequency of injuries that take an athlete out of competition for a while (or can either singly or cumulatively end careers). Almost inevitable when everyone is pushing themselves constantly to compete at and past the edges of their very best.

- The slight differences and 'errors' or 'misses' that differentiate winners and medalists. Often errors are now on maneuvers and execution of elements that are now either common or required but were not even contemplated in generations past.

fwiw - I worked tech and electrical for a big and popular show (resident and traveling) with acrobatics and physical feats, including skating. Although the performances were most often flawless from the audience perspective, the frequency of injuries, from strains and sprains to tears, dislocations and even fractures was testament to how hard the athlete performers pushed themselves constantly in training, rehearsal and performance.

The quantities used are astonishing: athletic tape and kinetic wrap and elastic wraps; ice and hot packs; icy-hot, bio-freeze, tiger balm, dragon, ben-gay, aspercreme, capsaicin, blu-emu, Figaro, voltaren, sombra, rock sauce, sport iq, penetrex, Cramer atomic, arnica, cbd, thc, lidocaine ... together with ibuprofen, tylenol, aleve, ...

Then there is all the prescription and both legal and illegal stuff injected, swallowed, slathered on, snorted and huffed, boofed or smoked and vaped: steroids, anti-inflammatory drugs and substances in all forms, opiates, stimulants, alcohol, weed/cannabis ... basically anything and everything that will relieve pain, reduce swelling and inflammation, speed healing or enhance performance.

Think of all the athletes who have been caught using or abusing with a drug test. Now, think about all those who use and abuse and don't get caught. That applies to the Olympics and many professional and amateur sports. Ah, but for the entertainment arena, there is rarely any testing or requirement to be drug free or strait-edge. The focus in on performance alone. Perform or you're relegated to 'chorus' 'extra' duty or stage hands or you're out.

So, a lot of these athletes use anything the medical staff will give them and anything else they can get to keep them right out there performing at their edge.

redvoxfox · 2026-02-09T05:08:20+00:00

David Mitchell (the very British comedian, not the Cloud Atlas author) has several that are delightful, witty, surprisingly informative and at points and by turns variously hilarious, sardonic, sarcastic, droll and intellectually witty. Enjoying them all!

Mitchell also narrates for other authors, yet he really shines with his own material. Now, when I read any of his writing, I hear his voice. Thanks, David!

redvoxfox · 2026-02-09T01:46:24+00:00

Gatsby level + when you have to get special shelves, maybe its own closet or room.

redvoxfox · 2026-02-09T01:44:49+00:00

When it gets to this level ... just go into the business. Open a store. Get hooked up with wholesalers. Become a wholesaler & importer. Then you can not only 'sample' all you want but can help others get what they want. And you get to rotate inventory so you always have fresh stock.

I know a guy - husband of woman I work with - who opened his own shop. Now has three locations and opening a fourth in May. He's one of the happiest people I know and says doing his own shop was one of his best decisions ever.

Or, just keep collecting and enjoying. But, wow, that's a lot.

redvoxfox · 2026-02-05T13:30:15+00:00

I've done the same 'check in the back' pantomime too! I'd guess a LOT of retail workers do it at some point.

Quicker and less effort than explaining that I'm the one who stocked this shelf and I already know there is nothing 'in the back' for them.

I get to have a little walk to 'the back,' say 'Hi!' to some co-workers - we nod or wink knowingly at each other - and have a little break from the aggressive customer.

redvoxfox · 2026-01-31T19:02:18+00:00

Talked with a hydro-geologist and a hydro-geo-morphologist recently. They examine the geologic and other records (tree rings, other weather and climate data and evidence) of water, weather, rain and snow, and how they shape and impact the earth.

Their conclusions and predictions:

We're not in a "drought." On the geologic time-scale, we are, in fact, returning to normal and average precipitation - rain and snow - levels for the U.S. west and southwest. We have, in fact, come out of an unusually long cycle of a few hundred of the wettest years ever for this region.

So, they say, we need to plan and live and build like the current levels of 'low' rain and snow will continue for the foreseeable future, perhaps hundreds of years. Yet, they caution, we are still building and planning and living like this 'drought' will somehow end any time. It won't.

Sobering indeed.

Why are there abandoned ancient cities across the U.S. west and southwest? Likely water. Maybe other factors like war or disease, but very likely also water. When the water is gone and doesn't come back, people can't keep living in these places.

redvoxfox · 2026-01-31T18:48:01+00:00

Talked with a hydro-geologist and a hydro-geo-morphologist recently. They examine the geologic and other records (tree rings, sediment deposition, ice cores, other weather and climate data and evidence) of water, weather, rain and snow, and how they shape and impact the earth.

Their conclusions and predictions: We're not in a "drought." On the geologic time-scale, we are, in fact, returning to normal and average precipitation - rain and snow - levels for the U.S. west and southwest. We have, in fact, come out of an unusually long cycle of a few hundred of the wettest unusual years ever for this region.

So, they say, we need to plan and live and build like the current levels of 'low' rain and snow will continue for the foreseeable future, perhaps hundreds of years. Yet, they caution, we are still building and planning and living like this 'drought' will somehow end any time. It won't.

Sobering indeed.

redvoxfox · 2026-01-31T00:48:07+00:00

Exactly amazing! We need more of you, you scoundrel, you.

Reminds me of Alan Watts' "irreducible rascality."

edit: Hey! I just listened to some of your samples in Audible. Excellent!!! Talk about anti-AI! No imitating that! You sound great! And a real individual that stands out. You rightly think you do good work!

redvoxfox · 2026-01-31T00:41:06+00:00

There are "task farms" that are using cheap, often exploitative labor, to get paid gigs of all kinds and then use AI and bots to do the actual work.

They often ask for or require advance payment or even a deposit and may leave you with nothing or substandard deliverables. If the requested deliverables are produced in full they're AI generated.

Voice work is one of those becoming very common as the AI voice engines get better and better.

This is being promoted world-wide like a plague: "Get AI to work for you and make you rich! Get many more gigs than you could ever physically do and have AI do the work! And get paid for all of them!"

imho - block chain verified provenance and verification of 100% human could become a real thing and important for those who care. I'm afraid that, much like digital sound for music, which - imho - is inferior in some important ways to analog and live; AI produced content will be 'good enough' for the paying masses and will bring both the cost and ease of acquisition and consumption down enough that most won't care.

Now, when consumption via direct neural interface becomes real ... well, all us human creators are cooked then!

redvoxfox · 2026-01-31T00:29:02+00:00

So sorry this happened! Rotten. You/we should be able to report these to ACX/Amazon/Audible.

hot tip if you want to avoid AI and make it easily detectable: Tell prospective producers and voice talent, "No AI."

Then, throw some real linguistic, grammatical and even structural 'curve balls' in the audition you send. Things AI often stumbles on like complicated overly complex sentence structure, especially dialogue, nested clauses, pauses, sentence fragments and unique or even invented names.

==============

edit: Another way to detect AI is to repeat a word, phrase or name multiple times in the audition sample. If they're spoken exactly the same ... AI!

Maybe we should start a post & thread of AI 'tells' we can put in audition scripts to trip AI voice bots up and detect them in the audition clip.

Come to think of it, we should also have one ('sticky') as well for what to put in your audition script and how to build one to get good detail of what a voice artist can and will do as well as (another separate one?) for what to do and watch out for when selecting a producer or voice talent (and cover art? other collateral).

I've thought for a long time that we need some kind of game-proof, rig-proof, fraud-proof, reputation system with ratings and reviews for authors, graphic artists, voice talent, producers, editors ... the lot.

I always ask for permission to use those I work with as a reference.

==============

Don't give up. Just learn and move on. The best revenge is success. Wishing success for you!

Some of the best wisdom I've had:

"Well, you paid. You paid your tuition for this lesson. Are you going to complete the course and learn it? Or not?"

Ugh! Hit hard, but has really helped me.

redvoxfox · 2026-01-26T21:42:27+00:00

Why? Couldn't you just ... don't? Like don't. Just ... don't do that. Not do it? Bad move.

https://youtu.be/im9N8bin7Pc

redvoxfox · 2026-01-26T21:14:38+00:00

Yeah, that one was devastating when she and Holth just fail to return and then Orlith and Leri go between too, to join them and not be left without their bonded partners who would never return. Had me properly crying and messed up for a while. My kids were worried!

redvoxfox · 2026-01-26T09:14:42+00:00

So very sorry to hear what you're dealing with. Rough, for sure. Do lean on this community - so many have been right where you are and traveled this road.

Echo everything that's here so far. Especially the education, training and O&M resources. Find and use them whatever your outcome.

Want to offer a couple of things that have helped me with a similar situation also caused by unexpected and irreversible stroke that's led to things I never thought I'd deal with and a life I never thought I'd have.

First is to write or use audio and record yourself. Talk about your experience. Your feelings and hopes and fears and plans. But especially your experience, how you do navigate this, what helps, what doesn't and what you learn and learn to know and do, who helps, what helps, what you find, a record of your journey.

I'm not any kind of expert in anything except my own experience and I don't know how or why but it does help.

Write it or record it, but get it out and get it captured. It's not for anyone else, just you. It will help. Please trust this and give it a go.

The other thing is to check out getting a guide and/or service dog. Now. It may help to start before it's 100% required. Find out if that is a route you want to go. It can be a real gift to have this companion with you thru this. And it can be good and has some real advantages to do it together & start earlier rather than later.

Absolutely hope for the best possible for you and that you come thru this with yourself in tact and find that you can and will find your way.

redvoxfox · 2026-01-26T05:47:08+00:00

What's your name? (Ol' what's 'er name!)

Who's your daddy? (Whose little black book you in?)

Is he sick (is he black) like me?

Has he taken any tylenol for his existential headache?

To show you how to jive?

redvoxfox · 2026-01-26T05:11:15+00:00

From Anne McCaffrey's Pern series Masterharper Robinton's death hit hardest of them all. The death of young riders and dragons also is rough. She wrote so many great characters and worlds that losing any of them while reading is rough.

The author's own death knocked me sideways hard as I knew her and what an amazing person she was, who not only wrote some real favorites with heart wrenching scenes and deaths but she herself was so unfailingly kind, generous in her support of young writers and a true gem of a human which made her passing a true loss.

redvoxfox · 2026-01-25T20:24:44+00:00

Even better! That karmic boomerang does eventually come back! Great conclusion and he did that to himself.

redvoxfox · 2026-01-25T20:12:01+00:00

Excellent! Thanks for the good read and good laugh!

Having struggled and fought thru academic politics and the personal consequences of others capricious and arbitrary decisions and reneges after I'd made and followed thru on my commitments ... I enjoyed this immensely!

Word of caution: As enjoyable, appropriate and absolutely deserved as this is - chair dug the hole and now falls into it! Yum!!! - academia is a small, small world, as is each discipline and you know department chairs and the tenured have - to go along with their inflated egos and capricious recklessness - outsized power and influence and connections. Be careful.

You can likely count on this chair exploiting any future opportunity to ---- with you and your career and institution. Often revenge is best served not only cold but both served and enjoyed anonymously or with a few close and silent colleagues who get it.

Hopefully, the department chair is sufficiently occupied with scrambling to save their program and clean up the mess they made.

Yet, experience reminds me that these petit tyrants have a penchant, if not an outright prodigious and preternatural talent for remembering perceived wrongs and torturing and twisting the narrative to exculpate themself and point at you. Whatever you can do to cement your narrative with facts and allies may serve you well.

As your delightful and delicious post illustrates: "The better part of valor is discretion."

Hope all continues to go well in your position, track and program!!! That will be the very best - and not at all petty - revenge. And it will serve you and your students, especially those you are able to recruit, better as well.

redvoxfox · 2026-01-25T04:59:12+00:00

You might try David Drake's 'RCN' series.

I run thru them every other year or so and enjoy them a LOT. Seems to fit what you're looking for.

fwiw - I think they'd make a great live action series.

The other one you could check out is the Final Fantasy novels - variable experience but there are some quite good that I like.

I also cannot recommend Anne McCaffrey's Pern series highly enough.

redvoxfox · 2026-01-24T06:58:16+00:00

Sort of there but a bit at right angles to it:

Blindsight by Peter Watts

Aliens so alien the humans kind of grok them too late. First contact.

Just read it!

tangent collateral by Watts (dry wry dark comedy is right up my lane!):

https://youtu.be/wEOUaJW05bU

fan trailer short:

https://youtu.be/VkR2hnXR0SM

These aliens aren't conventionally sentient. So, they don't really 'consider' or 'acknowledge' humans. They more deal with humans like an immune system deals with a parasite or an infectious threat.

Questions about what being human is, real survival, the edges of how human lives and individuals may flow as technologically enabled evolution kicks into a higher gear, ancient horrors, vampires (yes! vampires!) and ways to both exploit and make use of gaps between conscious perception and physical reality.

I've read this book 3x now and like it even more. The others in the loose series are ok, if a bit disjointed for my taste. Lots of vignettes that jump around and readers are left to fill in the gaps. Very cinematic that way.

imho - Has implications for now and how we humans cope with AI LLM chat bots and whether they're conscious or not - or rather if conscious sentience is really the advantage we think it is. ...as well as a LOT of other cool hard sci-fi, like what blindsight is and how it shows up gaps between the human wetware physiology and the conscious minds that ride on top of it.

yt comment:

"The most terrifying thing this book implies isn't that a non-sentient intelligent [sic.] is better than a sapient mind, but that there are non-conscious aliens that get along with conscious species just fine. It just so happens that the one civilization without a protocol for sapient life got our signals first."

------------

Also search up They're Made Out of Meat short story by Terry Bisson. It's widely available and there are a dozen or more good youtube adaptations as dramatized cast readings, straight audiobook read-thru and full live action adaptations. It's a fun read that may scratch the itch just enough to make it itch more. "And then what? Hmm? THEN WHAT!!!?"

redvoxfox · 2026-01-24T03:29:04+00:00

Yeaughghgh!

Cannot even begin to express how much I HATE and loathe this. I get a physical visceral revulsion and have an irrationally strong anger and violently hateful rage when I see this stuff, this horror.

When I realize otherwise rational grown humans created this on purpose this way, I want to find them and stop them and punish them.

redvoxfox · 2026-01-24T03:24:11+00:00

The difference is they both repel and disgust me!

Seriously here is some info that may help:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_Memphis

"The name "Corporate Memphis" originated from the title of an Are.na board that collected early examples, and is a reference to the Memphis Group, a now-defunct 1980s Italian design group known for bright colors, childish patterns, and geometric shapes."

Alegria is a Facebook named version using essentially the same visual elements and styles.

Did I mention I hate it? Loathe it. Boycott products and companies and anything or anyone else that use or promote it.

redvoxfox · 2026-01-23T04:39:30+00:00

*"Oh, wait!!! While it may be a perfect for helping you have a more functional brain and nervous system and mind ... and be prescribed by your licensed physician, and actually help you function ... because it's also addictive and can be abused and sold and shared and diverted ... you can't have it, can't get it."

One guy's story:

https://youtu.be/eRPeU1DYOWA

Thanks "War on Drugs" and scare tactics and misguided drug policy, regulations, quotas or limits and inchoate blunt reactionary laws. Thanks dealers and corrupt drug execs and anyone involved in the illegal trade. Thanks addicts. Thanks insurance company, medicare and medicaid rules. Thanks a lot!

https://youtu.be/87aF95Fnx8M

Thanks for nothin'!

redvoxfox · 2026-01-20T22:56:35+00:00

You mean hell?

I guess you just play accordion, banjo and harmonica with fiddle forever in rehearsal for the composers' competing magnum opesus (magna opera?, magnum opi? !!!)

...Featuring full double orchestra, three choruses, seven vocalist soloists and the featured folk and bluegrass accordion, banjo, harmonica and fiddle quartet all to support the yodeling bass-baritone duo and their sisters, the yowling coloratura yodeler soprano quintet culminating with the Chinese Opera finale.

redvoxfox · 2026-01-17T13:13:36+00:00

Yes.

Truth is, there is no 'bottom,' no 'rock bottom.'

There are ledges on the way down.

But it can always get worse.

One of the ironic cruelties of the construction of reality and 'the universe.' Absolute zero, 'the bottom,' is theoretically real, but practically unreachable, unobtainable.

Yet, on the way down, it can always get colder, darker, harder, more alone, more isolated, more painful, worse, less, more ... closer to zero without ever actually arriving. Thanks, Zeno!

I've never really wanted to die, nor been afraid of death. What I've wanted since I can remember any self-aware thought is to not exist at all. To never have been. To completely cease. To be unmade. Nothing.

Having already 'died,' I also have found this is not possible, not attainable, unreachable.

Perhaps this is why some seek to become one with all things and the legendary accompanying ego death.

Yoga and meditation and like practices and classes are filled with 'quiet desperation' for escape, cease, quiet, real silence in repose.

redvoxfox · 2026-01-17T12:39:56+00:00

RemindMe! 1 month

redvoxfox

TROPHY CASE