2022 DFR (Damn Fine Restraint)

I cannot recommend this technique

This takes restraint to the level of an actual disorder!    Hilarious, it reminds me of my dad's crappy shaving kit when I was growing up.  I wish I had pictures to help describe how truly crappy it was.  Talk about restraint.  He kept everything in a cheap vinyl dopp bag under the medicine cabinet.  He used a Gillette (probably a slim) razor and Wilkinson sword blades that he changed a couple of times a year, the dopp was all cracked, for a brush he had a boar bristle knot  - the one dyed to look like badger and when I say knot, thats all he had.  The handle had broken at some point I can't ever remember if I ever saw it but he just used the knot holding it at the plastic base that the bristles were glued to.  For soap he used a bar of J&J baby soap that he kept in a crappy little plastic soap travel container, just the bottom part and that little bar of soap probably lasted him a year or more.  He never used any kind of post shave product ever.  Just rinsed off with a wet washcloth.  He was extremely cheap.  Mom actually bought him a nice badger shaving brush but he never used it, preferring to squirrel it away - he eventually gave it to one of my brothers.  If he could have shaved with just a blade I'm sure he would have to save money on the razor.  Now that I think of it, this probably explains why dad always had a 5 o'clock shadow - crappy shaving kit = crappy shave.

I am so out! Good thing I went out earlier this month, but for the life of me I can't remember what did it. Soap, I think. I will scroll back and see.

But I have a Ti Vector inbound. I probably need to lock my PayPal account and hide the password for at least 2 months if not longer! Thanks to DFS member for enabling me . All will be shown in glorious living color once it is in hand.

But you got a VECTOR!

I am so out! Good thing I went out earlier this month, but for the life of me I can't remember what did it. Soap, I think. I will scroll back and see.

But I have a Ti Vector inbound. I probably need to lock my PayPal account and hide the password for at least 2 months if not longer! Thanks to DFS member for enabling me . All will be shown in glorious living color once it is in hand.

Congrats and hoping it's a winner for you Eric !

But you got a VECTOR!

I am so out! Good thing I went out earlier this month, but for the life of me I can't remember what did it. Soap, I think. I will scroll back and see.

But I have a Ti Vector inbound. I probably need to lock my PayPal account and hide the password for at least 2 months if not longer! Thanks to DFS member for enabling me . All will be shown in glorious living color once it is in hand.

Congrats and hoping it's a winner for you Eric !

Thanks, guys!

I am so out! Good thing I went out earlier this month, but for the life of me I can't remember what did it. Soap, I think. I will scroll back and see.

But I have a Ti Vector inbound. I probably need to lock my PayPal account and hide the password for at least 2 months if not longer! Thanks to DFS member for enabling me . All will be shown in glorious living color once it is in hand.

Reversion to the mean. It’s like in basketball. Not even the best shooters hit 100% of their shots. They may go for stretches where they hit 100% of their shots - in a quarter or even a half but eventually they will revert to their historical percentage. Same thing with buying shaving stuff. Despite taking a month off in January and feeling good about it, we’ll likely spend close to the same amount of money in 2022 that we did in 2021.

I am so out! Good thing I went out earlier this month, but for the life of me I can't remember what did it. Soap, I think. I will scroll back and see.

But I have a Ti Vector inbound. I probably need to lock my PayPal account and hide the password for at least 2 months if not longer! Thanks to DFS member for enabling me . All will be shown in glorious living color once it is in hand.

Reversion to the mean. It’s like in basketball. Not even the best shooters hit 100% of their shots. They may go for stretches where they hit 100% of their shots - in a quarter or even a half but eventually they will revert to their historical percentage. Same thing with buying shaving stuff. Despite taking a month off in January and feeling good about it, we’ll likely  spend close to the same amount of money in 2022 that we did in 2021.

SOAPBOX ALERT

(Personal opinions mixed with scattered thoughts)

I agree that typical past performance has predictive value, but I think life is long, and and there is more to the story than that.  Studies reported by the NIH an FDA, show that many people try many times before successfully quitting smoking, but people do succeed.  Here the stakes are higher than a shaving restraint - something in which lifetime success is not even the goal - and yet we sometimes seem to treat it as if lifetime success were the goal.  In a similar vein, it takes a lifetime to succeed in quitting alcohol, but it is possible to succeed for a month, or a year, and so on.  I agree with the FDA article, which suggests remembering that even small successes are wins.

There is a reason that the aphorism "if at first you don't succeed, try, try again" is part of the language.   OTOH I had a music teacher once who pointed out that practice does not make perfect.  Practice makes consistent.  If you are not careful, all your practice will do is guarantee that you repeat the same mistakes the same way. Accurate practice makes perfect.   But even accurate practice does not make perfect in the same way that instant coffee is made.  Accurate practice takes time, and the time is interspersed with failures.

My own view is that we are what we train ourselves to be, and visa versa.  We become increasingly what we practice being, and we do achieve many kinds of substantial and desirable growth over the course of our lives.   IMHO this lifetime growth is not limited by the same dynamics as best shooter averages, and it should not be viewed in the same way.  Personal growth happens, I believe, when intent and propitious circumstance combine (when the times are right), and it often has the jagged, two-steps-forward-one-step-back appearance of a sales chart. 

Of course, all this is just part of my own worldview.



  

Let's hear some good news for the lady.

She's coming out from far behind

And if she seems a little slow,

It only goes to show

That everything will grow in its own time

(Good News, Melissa Manchester)

HighSpeed i think your post is beautiful in it’s hopefulness and trust in the knowledge that we can change and be better despite repeated failures. I’m sorry if my post on basketball and reversion to the mean came across as hopelessness or why bother.  That wasn’t my intent, nor is it my life philosophy. I believe that no matter how many times you get knocked down or fail you have to get back up and keep in going. My patron saint is the inflatable Bozo the clown with the weighted base and the squeaky nose. No No matter how many times he got  knocked down he just bounced back up with that grin on his face ready for another one.

Marko and HighSpeed, thank you for the eloquent statements.

Marko, your last post reminded me of this song, with the oft repeated lyric, 
"I get knocked down, 
ButI get up again. 
You're never gonna keep me down." 

HighSpeed i think your post is beautiful in it’s hopefulness and trust in the knowledge that we can change and be better despite repeated failures. I’m sorry if my post on basketball and reversion to the mean came across as hopelessness or why bother.  That wasn’t my intent, nor is it my life philosophy. I believe that no matter how many times you get knocked down or fail you have to get back up and keep in going. My patron saint is the inflatable Bozo the clown with the weighted base and the squeaky nose. No No matter how many times he got  knocked down he just bounced back up with that grin on his face ready for another one.

Yes, I agree. You have a way with words, Mike, and I am pleased to read them!