I always faced left when riding a skateboard back in the day, otherwise known in skater parlance as being "goofy-footed". Facing right felt as difficult as writing with my left hand. I always wondered whether that was just the way I first rode a skateboard and it stuck, but if that was the case, I would expect the distribution of which skateboarders face which way to be about even. But goofy-footed riders are in the minority. I'm right-handed as well. I wonder what's up with that.
I think this is probably related to which eye is more dominant for you. I've never skateboarded, but if I imagine myself doing it, it would also be facing left. And it's because my right eye is dominant and I would like that to be facing forward.
> I think this is probably related to which eye is more dominant for you.
I think it's more about a person's personal stability/biomechanics. The back foot is the stable one, forward is the "quick" lead. The preferred "plant" foot when kicking a ball is the stable one (though many people use both, so this is best used only when there is a strong preference), the one used to push off with when at the bottom of stairs or jumping is the stable one (the lead foot is the `quick` one). The best way I found to help determine footedness: have a person stand straight (feet together) walk around them (pretending to look at posture or something), once behind them push them forward (evenly with some force). Watch for which foot they catch themselves with. Thats the lead foot.
As for the eye dominance, in archery having the right eye dominant means your stance is regular (left foot forward). An archery open stance is near identical to a snowboard neutral stance (~ +15°, 0°). The 2 most important things to get right in (olympic recurve) archery is eye dominance and a proper open stance. As a goofy footed snowboarder and a right eye dominant archer, the archery stance took awhile for me to adapt too. It still feels weird.
Quick test to find out which is pick a point in the distance, make a triangle with thumbs and fingers to look through, and slowly bring it toward your face. Wherever it ends up is your dominant eye.
Me too, but on a snowboard. (I suppose I'd be the same on a skateboard) My second time snowboarding was quite a few years after my first, and I just could not get the hang of it, wondering how I was faring so much worse than before. It took me all day to remember I was "goofy", and once I switched it was much better.
Yeah, I went snowboarding once in my life (loved it but it was exhausting) and naturally rode goofy-footed. They only thing I really needed to learn was slowing myself down.
I'm right-handed, but I snowboard goofy. Coincidence (or not?) my left leg is dominant. I can kick a ball just fine with my left foot, but when I try to kick with my right foot I feel like I'm going to capsize. When I'm riding a bike and I have to stop, my right foot goes down. When I start again I use my left leg to muscle the crank through the first revolution or two.
I'm goofy footed as well - skate boarding with my left foot forward is like trying to throw a ball with my left hand. I also found that if I was rollerblading or ice-skating, turning to my left (counter clockwise) with a foot-over-foot action I can do super easy, but turning turning clockwise I always struggled with.
Here is an interesting experiment you can try - think about it more like "skate with the right foot back" then "skate with the left foot forward" and see if it gets any easier for you. It definitely does work for me.
Obviously it won't sudenly make you a perfect regular-stance skater though. :)
I skate/surf goofy (or used to... haven't done much of either lately :P) and prefer to hold a baseball bat or a golf club lefty, despite being right-handed. And I have an immediate family member who's left-handed but bats righty!
I’m the opposite… write lefty bit bat/swing (rackets and gol) righty. Not sure about surfing - I only paddle board and the stance is more straight-on (because you paddle both sides to avoid turning in a circle).
Of course, I’m terrible at baseball and my handwringing is atrocious, so maybe I’m just broken.
If I were to skateboard, I would face port. When I'm coming to a halt on a bicycle I prefer keeping my right foot on the pedal and landing on my left foot, so I believe I'd have the same preference when skateboarding.
"Of the 4,000 skaters in the Skatepark of Tampa Database, about half are goofy (44%) and half are regular (56%). But this near equality between skate stances doesn’t align with statistics on handedness. According to Scientific American, 90% of people are right-handed." ¹
"Out of the 610 professional skateboarders, 291 ride regular and 329 ride goofy. This means that 53% of skateboarders ride goofy and 47% ride regular! Way more skateboarders than expected ride goofy." ²
Plank's length is an ok answer, but coast line reaches a steady state way before that. Nature only has approximate fractals.
Way before plank length you'll get the surface and line energies of the material interfaces dominating the total energy. Those tend to force very smooth and very discreet lengths.
I love the world of music production. I started with Ableton Live six years or so ago and it's been a wonderful hobby. It has such a vibrant cottage industry of plugins (sampled instruments, synthesizers, effects, etc) thanks to the VST standard.
I work professionally with music, including using ableton. I do create but don't sell/adverise, I'm strictly 'backstage'. I love everything about creating music, less so for reading about music (reviews, critiques, dissecting) though there are occasional exceptions. Are you putting your creativity online publicly?
Do you put yours online? I enjoy listening to other musicians. People give soundcloud a lot of grief but I love the service and the musicians I have met there.
Thank you. Your music is enjoyable, I listened to a couple (twice, first track and the fast one) and skimmed (four times) through others (my listening time is packed). Each piece has a filmic quality. The most impressive part is that they are (more of less) finished, which is a feat in itself. Very good.
I am very backstage, I don't wish to be known professionally, except by clients, all of which came via word of mouth - I wouldn't know how to advertise and I'd probably mess it up/give the wrong impression/attract the 'wrong' clients.
I won't link here but I do use soundcloud, I would say it's just ok. Tend to go Faircamp, bandcamp, geocities. MySpace lost 12 tunes.
I'll make a note of our exchange and if I change my mind I'll let you know. Some of my music is not dissimilar to yours, which is often the case, and not a bad thing - like you, it's the act of creation that brings immense pleasure. Thanks again for sharing I enjoyed listening.
Thanks for listening. Feel free to reach out if you ever want to share. I create music strictly for my own enjoyment so I understand where you are coming from. Take care!
I've found LLMs to be extremely powerful in research projects. A lot of code related to research is very bespoke by its nature. Using Codex, I've been able to iterate on ideas that I would never had the time or courage to explore before. As for code quality/brevity, it doesn't really matter in this context as long as it works. And it's incredible to have this companion that understands broadly every aspect of tangential knowledge required to execute an idea. I do think it helps that I have over 25 years of experience in my domain (geospatial), which helps me guardrail my interactions and get good results in as few shots as possible.
I've had this internet handle since the last century. Most people in here are talking about Hyperion but Simmons was a fantastic cross-genre author. My favorites were his historical fiction that contained a fantastical bent:
Drood: Has Wilkie Collins as an unreliable narrator, depicting the last five or so years of Charles Dickens' life.
Crook Factory: An FBI agent is sent to Cuba to keep an eye on Ernest Hemingway, hijinks ensue.
The Fifth Heart: Henry James and Sherlock Holmes team up to solve a mystery.
The Terror: Tells the story of what happened to the HMS Terror that attempted to make the northwest passage. The Arctic is a character in itself in this amazing story. I thought the TV mini-series was fine.
Abominable and Black Hills: I haven't read these yet but look forward to doing so.
Honestly, I think Dan Simmons is my favorite author. I know his politics became unpalatable but I could never find it in myself to care. My heart sank when I saw this post.
It would make a perfect mini-series. Each episode or two could cover each pilgrim's story, with a finale two-parter to wrap up Fall of Hyperion. A lot from Fall could be trimmed down.
Alternative downloads exist. You can find torrents, and match checksums against the HF downloads, but there are also mirrors and clones right there in HF which you can download without even having to log in.
