Category: Fourre-tout

So, how was it? you might ask. Well, the ground was a bit soggy but playable, especially for people who can plomber* properly.

In this so-called “Home and Home” tournament, 8 doublettes from Sonoma met 8 doublettes from Marin on the San Rafael court. On Saturday, February 2nd, the same Marin players will go to Sonoma to compete for the second half of this tournament.

The weather was cool in the morning, and partly sunny in the afternoon. Two games were played in the morning and two in the afternoon. One more time alas, the Sonoma youngsters bested the Marin old timers.

Feeling that the ground was a little too wet for my taste, I opted not to play and concentrated instead on photographing this event. For me, it is as much fun and as much challenging as playing.

Taking decent pictures is demanding, requires a lot of work, and nobody is more critical than the photographer himself. The light, the shooting angles, the shades, as well as the right moments, everything is important.

When I take pictures, it feels like using a submachine gun. I shoot in bursts, hoping that just like in a volley of bullets, one of my shots is going to hit the target properly.
And let’s face it, some subjects are definitely more photogenic than some others.

While playing, some competitors always remain cool and composed; those are not my favorite subjects. Besides good form, I am looking for passion, even some suffering. To me, a grimacing player is like the Mother Lode.

Yesterday, I liked the form of Erin McTaggart, the unorthodoxy of September Deignan, the passion of Steve Jones, the star quality of Jean-Michel and the composure of Bernard Passemar.
I also liked the photogenic form of Mark (Indiana) Shirkey. He always looks like he is giving it his best.

Everything was over by 4:00 pm and just about everybody left the field at that time.

I hope that you will like some of my pictures and let me know about it.

Alain

PS: Feel free to download any of my pictures, but when posting any of them on social media, please include photo credit (Photos by Alain Efron). Thank you.

*Plomber: To throw your boule high enough in the air to get it to fall close to the cochonnet, and making it stop through its heavy impact on the ground.

Frankly, the future scares me.
Very soon we will be surrounded by a multitude of robots that will carry out most of our regular tasks. But since many people are still unable to deal with remote control, managing bots might be problematic.

Of course, pipsqueaks will feel at ease with the humanoids and sneer at their elders… and that’s part of what scares me. I don’t want to be in the ignominious position of asking a first grader how to proceed. It would be like asking my cat how to make an omelet. The beast would lose the little respect it presently has for me.

This morning I visited my periodontist in order to get a dental implant. He told me that he had to take x-rays of my actual dentition in order to properly insert the implant.

A technician led me to a rather scary device looking like an electric chair. I sat down and he strapped my head with another Frankenstein looking apparatus. He covered my torso with a lead apron and ordered me to stand still.
Incidentally, he didn’t bother to ask me for my last request.

He left the room and suddenly something started to rotate silently around my head… with the obvious purpose of extracting my most inner thoughts… or how much money I had in my checking account. I tried to resist by conjuring a defensive shield, but the machine was too quick and too powerful.

This is the position we are going to be in, in just a few short years. Helpless and at the mercy of power-hungry machines.

Soon humankind will be a minority, treated with contempt by haughty androids. We might be subjected to random searches or arbitrary arrests. It would be a good idea to secure a lawyer ahead of time… an android lawyer of course, smarter than our regular mouthpieces.

Robots have already invaded many domains. They are numerous in government (yes), in manufacturing plants and even in operating rooms. Very soon a surgeon would not dream of doing a heart transplant without the assistance of a robot… preferably an attractive looking robot.

I don’t want to be alarmist, but it might be a good idea to establish defensive alliances with other human beings in order to counter the robot menace.

Artificial Intelligence is a dangerous thing.

“I’m increasingly inclined to think that there should be some regulatory oversight, maybe at the national and international level, just to make sure that we don’t do something very foolish. I mean with artificial intelligence we’re summoning the demon.” —Elon Musk 

I don’t want to be another Chamberlain. Don’t ever say that I didn’t warn you.

Alain

“The most difficult thing in any negotiation, almost, is making sure that you strip it of the emotion and deal with the facts.” – Howard Baker

Les Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Jackets) have been wreaking havoc (stinging hard) all over France for the last 2 months. Some have legitimate grievances and some, unable (as seen on French TV) to clearly vocalize their demands, just go along for the ride. Grumbling is part of the French national character and even when things are sitting pretty, the “ronchonneurs” will still have a go at it.

This is not to say that all is well in the land of Cognac and foie gras. It is not.

The biggest problem facing the world today is a glaring economic inequality. The disproportionate gap between haves and have not is endangering world peace; it brings the already boiling social kettle dangerously close to exploding.

As witnessed by the recent riots in France, many workers are chafing under difficult economic conditions and demand some reforms. But reform is a loaded word.

Every man is a reformer until reform tramps on his toes. Edgar Watson Howe

Yes, we want to protect the environment but we don’t want to pay for that. We want reduced taxes, better medical benefits, early retirement, increased social security but we don’t know and don’t care where the money is going to come from.
A balanced budget? Never heard of that.

Reforming a country’s habits and long-standing institutions is one of the most difficult things in the world. No matter what is being tried, some people will remain eternally dissatisfied.

Most of the people don’t mind making less money than the super-rich. What they want is being able to afford life’s basic necessities, plus a touch of luxury. They don’t care if somebody makes a million dollars an hour as long as they can live comfortably. This is not unreasonable.

What is unreasonable is a refusal to negotiate with a democratically elected government and senseless destruction (and looting) of property. There is a clear line between protesting and mindless destruction.
You can never get everything you want, but by negotiating you can at least secure 2 or 3 of your most important demands.

Les Gilets Jaunes are currently a bunch of disorganized lemmings (infiltrated by thugs) reveling in their newfound notoriety. But ultimately, they will need some leaders to represent them and negotiate on their behalf. A long stalemate will not play in their favor. In the long run, the man in the street is going to grow tired of the mayhem and turn against them.

Negotiation (and compromise) is the only way to get out of this impasse.

For everybody’s sake, negotiate. The sooner, the better.

Alain