Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Change We Can Believe In?


Is this the most important sailing innovation since the Ollie Box? I'm not saying it is or it isn't. But isn't it fascinating that I am the only one asking this question? Why don't they want you to know the answer? The paradigm of trusting the wisdom of the original designer is over. It is over to these people. And this is what the real battle is all about. Those with power, those with money and those with influence will influence you to buy things that you don't necessarily want. And they are selecting the winners and the losers. I got news. I got news for you. Unless you want to sell your soul to the devil, in this system you will be a loser. I didn't think a bad tree could bear good fruit. I didn't know a good tree could bear bad fruit or bad trees bear good fruit. I didn't think that was possible. I've read that some place in some big thick book. And, you know, it is a straight and narrow path to success, and when you run down that road, there are so many little branches that you could run off on that doesn't seem like it would make any difference, but it will. And if you know what those roads are that you don't want to go down, when somebody is saying, "Go down this road, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick! We've got to go down this road," you'll know in advance and so you won't be panicked and you are like, "No, thanks, I know what goes down that road." And it is amazing to me how freeing it is in many ways to mentally prepare for the worst. I'm sorry, I just love my boat and I fear for it.

22 comments:

Litoralis said...

Presumably that's a newer and more expensive piece of plastic that will wear out less quickly than the older piece of plastic which will cause my even more expensive piece of reinforced foam to wear out even more quickly.

JP said...

Ah, I see that Tillerman is playing the classic 2-4-4 formation in football, very clever!

To post a comment on US politics alas I require a major $$$ donation.

Tillerman said...

Ahah - I see that Lito knows what this little gizmo is, and is also a student of the Law of Unintended Consequences. It's sad to see such cynicism in one so young. I have no idea where he gets it from.

The O'Sheas said...

I am like Howard Beale. When he came out of the rain and he was like, none of this makes any sense. I am that guy.

The O'Sheas said...

Remember, beneath every cynic there lies a romantic, and probably an injured one.

tillerman said...

Howard Beale is warm. Very warm.

Zen said...

I was having trouble sorting out, Pottery Tues, and Weds, now this...

I think I will just go back to Monday, no I'll skip a head ( that is a head as in forward not the loo head) to Thursday and ignore this post.

This line deleted on purpose.

yarg said...

Wow! I love a good rant. I think you should keep your little rubber part and never switch to the little plastic part! Maybe you should stock up on them for fear they will be taken off the market.
Do you think there’s a chance you’re being a tad anal retentive on this one? I think the class will survive this radical change. What did you think of the vang, outhaul, and cunningham change in 2000? It makes it a very different boat and changes racing a lot. I only started sailing lasers after the change, and having sailed a few times with the old rigging, my response was “who thought this old way was a good idea?” The change didn’t ruin the class: it made it better.
Maybe the little plastic thingie is a product of poor engineering, but I think you should save your ranting juices for non- class legal sails. That is what is going to ruin the class. I’m sure it’s doomed either way. Hunker down. And at least you have a good list or things you do when you’re not sailing.

bowsprite said...

what the @$&% is this? --this semmingly innocuous thing which draws parallels to bad fruit, lemmings, football and politics?!?

bowsprite said...

oops: "seemingly" --sorry.
(I know how you are about typos! As Seen On ODock!)

tillerman said...

The "thing" is a new centerboard friction pad for the Laser.

The words are not mine. They are the (only slightly edited) words of someone else.

This post is how I would imagine this person would react to this entirely sensible and helpful change if he were a Laser sailor. After making this speech he would probably have a good cry.

O Docker said...

I have no idea what these things are, but they must be evil.

They've got Tillerman so riled up that he's neglected his usual pacing and carefully measured paragraph breaks.

They've got him saying things like, "I got news for you," a grammatical lapse seldom seen here in Proper Course.

I sense that he is finger-shaking pissed. And, for a mild-mannered Englishman, that doesn't come easy.

O Docker said...

Bah!

Why do my posts always cross with your explanations?

I knew that didn't sound like you.

Tim Coleman said...

My advice: get a wooden one. They last longer, are easier to repair and look very nice into the bargin.

Whatever you do, Never - no never ever buy a plastic one. One ding and its a right-off. What a waste.

BeachComber said...

Glen Beck, I presume? I can't say for sure, because I try my damnedest to avoid Fox pundits. I have seen the picture with him crying captioned that he just loves his country.

I would have thought that in 40-odd years of this boat being around that the builders would have figured out that the brake belongs not at the trailing edge, but at the leading edge where drag on the board and the bungee put pressure on it.

tillerman said...

Right on BeachComber. Almost every sentence in that rant is taken verbatim from transcripts on Mr Beck's website of his paranoid utterings. I just had to change the odd word here and there where he was referring to some other similarly innocuous change that he was raving about. (Mr Beck doesn't like change much.)

Of course this post was written purely to try and help examine the vicious rumor that Glenn Beck is opposed to the introduction of the new Laser Centerboard Friction Brake. I don't claim to know the truth -- only that the rumour floating around saying that Glenn Beck is opposed to the introduction of the new Laser Centerboard Friction Brake should be discussed. So I'm going to do my part to try and help get to the bottom of this. Why won't Glenn Beck deny this allegation? I'm not accusing Glenn Beck of being opposed to the introduction of the new Laser Centerboard Friction Brake. In fact I don't think he is! But I can't help but wonder, since he has failed to deny this horrible allegation. Why won't he deny it?

The O'Sheas said...

This guy, this Glenn Beck, has exposed himself, I think, as a guy — over and over and over again — who has a deep-seated hatred for sailors or the sailing culture.

I’m not saying he doesn’t like sailor people, I’m saying he has a problem. This guy is, I believe, an anti-sailorite.

His new production assistant — the guy is, again, land-based liberation theology, a land-lubbing nationalist, who is also an avowed anti-swimmer. How many people with this kind of philosophy do you need to have in your life before we start to say, ‘Show me your friends and I’ll show you your future’?”

Joe said...

I'm so confused....it doesn't take much. Can we get back to our cocktails now?

Anonymous said...

Joe, make mine a double!

tillerman said...

Sorry to confuse the whole world except for Beachcomber and GregAndKris. I don't know what came over me. Must be the meds I'm taking for the Man Cold.

Normal service will be resumed on Thursday when we get back to Joe's favorite subject: Lasers.

Anonymous said...

Having read all the comments I am now guessing that my original and thorough research into who Glen Beck was wrong when it came to the conclusion he was the guy selling the American Constitution laser etched into marble?
Brian
AKA Poesje (how does this A/C thing work anyway?)

Tweezerman said...

And I thought this was a new writing assignment; who could load the most cliches, psychobabble, and incoherent biblical references into one post.

Actually my interest was piqued. I was over at APS picking up a fitting and asked one of the store attendants about a new Laser part. They correctly said it was the new DB bumper but it would be month before they had them in stock. Tillerman scoops the industry again!

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