2014 has been The Year of Rinse and Repeat for me. Because I’m
learning Japanese, I replay certain things over and over again. Old TV shows,
old podcast lessons, old books that I’ve looked over but find new things when I
reread…….it’s not necessarily a bad thing, because I’m picking up on new
things, and reviewing things over and over again is a common method for
learning a new language, but it can become SO BORING. We as human being need
new things in our lives. We as human beings need new stimulus, things that excite
us. Whole industries and commercial enterprises feed off of that, whether it’s
new movies, new TV shows, new music, new cars, new phones (do we really need a
new version of a phone every 3 months? Seriously). Rinse and Repeat.
But sometimes, consider rewinding and going again. I never
get this idiom right, but “Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t.”
I know what I’m getting with a TV show or a movie, I know approximately what
entertainment value I get out of it, and sometimes, even, I get surprised and
see something new that I missed before. For fans of predictability and
reliability, that’s golden. For those that need spontaneity and exciting new
things (let’s be honest, we all need that once in a while), it’s probably not
one’s cup of tea.
Once I’ve had a food once, it loses some of its appeal. Once
I go to a new city or new vacation spot once, I’ve seen it, I don’t really need
to go again. Once I’ve done a certain roller coaster ride, I’ve experienced it;
repeat session not needed (although, I’m probably more scared of it than
anything). Once I’ve heard the same joke six times, it loses some of its humor.
The good thing about the world is, there are so many new things out there! You
don’t have to rinse and repeat!
Anyway, more about me. In 2014, I’ve often like I’m going
through the motions, bored. Part of is because at work I go through the same documents
all the time, I take the same path to work every day, I go to dodgeball at
least 3 times a week, I visit the same websites, I lift the same amount of
weights, I take the same running path all the time. Gotta mix it up, but it’s
expensive to mix it up: Taking vacations costs money and time. It’s a delicate
balance; I realize that some people follow the same routines for the rest of
their lives and don’t really complain about it. That’s not me, though. I think
if people could choose to live their life anyway, they would choose to do
something different, be somewhere different, almost every day (save some time
for being at a nostalgic place or at home, etc.) But always being on the move,
feeling alive, adapting to situations, feeling like the leaf in Forrest Gump:
that’d be the ultimate thrill for me.
Do you recycle fantasy players? I do. The good thing about
fantasy players, they never pitch the same game twice. They’ll look very much
the same, they’ll throw with the same hand, they’ll wear the same uniform, they’ll
play against the same team, but it’s not the same exact game that they’re
pitching/hitting. I find myself going back to the well time and time again for
certain players because unlike real baseball and real managing, fantasy
baseball is impersonal; you use the numbers, not the players. The players
themselves don’t know if they’re playing for your team or not……you’re just
predicting what those players do, and the more you know about a player (whether
from past experience or not), the better you can predict what they will do. The
Jered Weaver theory: I know Max does well at home, I know he doesn’t do so well
on the road. Rinse and repeat.
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
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