How do we value ourselves? Some folk take pride in how well they have managed their investments or in the supposed value of their houses or in how far they have risen up the ladder in their careers. Students (and parents of students) compare their grades or their test scores.
Athletes are obsessive about numbers. Runners talk about their personal best at their favorite distance. Baseball players compare minute differences in batting averages or earned run averages. Golf players brag about their handicaps.
Elite sailors can look at their ISAF rankings, or their performances in the last big regatta, or how many world championships or Olympic medals they have won.
Numbers, numbers, numbers. We all want to keep score.
Even we puny winter-time Tacticat sailors like to see our names up there in the Top Ten. Someone even left a note on their blog today pointing out how well I was doing at that silly sailing game. My little chest puffed with pride.
This afternoon Tacticat had an announcement...
We all lost our rankings. Our numbers are gone. Our achievements are deleted.
We are VERY sorry to announce that due to a database corruption and our bad habit to forget to backup, ALL RESULTS OF LAST 15 DAYS ARE LOST. The responsible will suffer punishment and humiliation from the rest of Tacticat team.
How foolish we were to take pride in our scores, grades, rankings...
It's a reminder of what really matters in life. Health. Family. And the time to enjoy looking at the clouds.
Update: Thanks to soulsailor for the link to the Cloud Appreciation Society.
6 comments:
I have to say that's pretty bad form!
They should have a daily backup run automatically and surely anyone with the knowledge to create Tacticat should be able to do that!
Clouds 1 Tacticat 0. It's a total bugger but in the scheme of things however annoyed you and the other racers are, it's nothing compared to how bad the poor dope who wiped out the database is feeling. I have only ever won one sailing race and that was an end of flotilla race to get the boats home. It was me, the missus and my son in the smallest boat in the fleet (actually an advantage in the handicap). Although winning was rewarding it was nothing compared to the sheer joy of having fun as a family.
Bummer about the scores being wiped out. But that cloud site is awesome. If anybody ever accuses me of having my head in the clouds, I now have a website to refer them to, to show that having my head in the clouds is actually a good thing.
And now that the juniper are in full bloom here in Albuquerque, my sinuses are completely stuffed up, so it is much easier for me to stop to admire the clouds than to smell the flowers.
Nice post Tillerman, but hey,wheres the "cross post" to my post last night on clouds?
http://www.antonyclay.com/soulsailor/2007/02/cloudspotting.htm
Credit where some vague credit is due...
Really srry about your Tacticat score though, you and Litoraliss must be well bummed.. I feel for you... peace on...
Sorry Ant. I know that I broke the Blogger's Code. But as my friend Barbossa says, "the Code is more what you'd call "guidelines" than actual rules".
Seriously though I do have a problem with linking to posts on your site. I don't seem to be able to link to a specific post in your blog as the URL display window in my browser just has the URL of the blog itself even after I've clicked on a link to a specific post. So last night I just got lazy instead of finding a way round that.
So for all you millions of readers who like my mention of the Cloud Appreciation Society... ANT THOUGHT OF IT FIRST.
Thanks Mr.Tillerman.
To get the individual post link you have to look at the time the post was posted, right click, copy link:
http://www.antonyclay.com/soulsailor/2007/02/cloudspotting.htm
Just for reference for next time groover.
BTW your poerty was a nice touch to my original post, thanks.
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