tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7324668581389660209.post7569879108766814642..comments2023-11-03T03:28:15.852-05:00Comments on Jane the Actuary: Is Star Wars a waste of time? What about the NFL Draft? (now updated with commentary on pot!)Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7324668581389660209.post-43462503038688894332014-05-12T09:10:56.497-05:002014-05-12T09:10:56.497-05:00@y81 - for some people, marijuana helps manage chr...@y81 - for some people, marijuana helps manage chronic pain and anxiety like no other remedy. A while back I read an article written by a woman who found that the best way to manage her autistic son's anxiety was a hemp compound which she was able to get from a medicinal grower in CA (can't find it now, but it did appear on slate.com a few years back).Athena Carsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16954735773608707847noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7324668581389660209.post-35344505100981400242014-05-12T02:58:30.047-05:002014-05-12T02:58:30.047-05:00Or is the cause and effect reversed, and are they ...Or is the cause and effect reversed, and are they pursuing their hobbies because they don't have relationships<br /><br />I'm one of your lurkers that happens to be single with a geeky hobby. :-)<br /><br />Admittedly, some geeky hobbies are turn offs to a sizable number of women, and if you don't have any other redeeming qualities like being physically attractive or charming, women are likely to you for a partner. I've had plenty of women tell me that I'm "viable", yet none of them have dated men anywhere near as geeky as me. Mind you, I'd also argue that some of the geeky men are holding out for women that may never want them, while overlooking the few women that do find them attractive, and it's something that I'm certainly guilty of doing.<br /><br />In my case, I happen to be a railfan and a roadgeek, so for me, fun is basically getting into my car and just driving endlessly or using Google Street View to just look at highways and big green signs. I'll spend my free days riding trains and taking photos of them, something that can admittedly be a bit of a problem in our current climate. I ended up going to Germany nearly four years ago just to ride trains, and nearly all of my vacations have been oriented toward riding subways and light rail systems. It's certainly not really attractive to women, and being "lonely" just reinforces the choice to go on vacation to ride trains versus sitting on a beach.<br /><br />Not every guy happens to be that geeky, but a lot of young men have simply found it harder to attract and maintain female attention, so it's easier to just disappear into a world of video games or other hobbies to fill in the empty time. And a whole generation (including myself at 30), have grown up with porn so we're not exactly starving for sex either in a certain sense.David Alexandernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7324668581389660209.post-26160264171995001812014-05-10T12:26:22.946-05:002014-05-10T12:26:22.946-05:00A quote about motes and beams comes to mind every ...A quote about motes and beams comes to mind every time the topic of recreational drugs comes up...humans have been messing with their brain chemistry for tens of thousands of years; the Mrs. Grundy's of the world need to grow up and mind their own business.cthulhunoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7324668581389660209.post-18243970327419125962014-05-10T12:22:01.348-05:002014-05-10T12:22:01.348-05:00I'm as much in favor of "being productive...I'm as much in favor of "being productive" as the next person (for a while I was bothered by running games on computers because I didn't like the idea of all those clock cycles being wasted on a game!), but really...chill out. Everybody who spends a fair chunk of their time being productive deserves some down time with no judgements attached, whether it's following the NFL draft, watching reality TV, playing the guitar for fun, etc. If I were to believe in god (which I don't), I would not want to believe in a god that didn't recognize the healing power of spending some time every now and then just doing whatever the heck I want to do, as long as it's not to excess nor hurtful to the people I care about.cthulhunoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7324668581389660209.post-51398593465643537182014-05-10T05:56:20.640-05:002014-05-10T05:56:20.640-05:00But what is marijuana a treatment for? I'm no...But what is marijuana a treatment for? I'm not aware of any peer-reviewed double blind published studies that suggest that marijuana is the optimal treatment for any disease. (Give me citations if I'm wrong.) Without those studies, the FDA could never approve marijuana as a prescription drug.y81noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7324668581389660209.post-39868990495633582862014-05-09T16:49:14.243-05:002014-05-09T16:49:14.243-05:00Also, if you're looking for a read, I would re...Also, if you're looking for a read, I would recommend Josef Pieper's "Leisure, the Basis of Culture," which addresses the subject of your inquiry.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7324668581389660209.post-86256880931822246712014-05-09T16:02:41.197-05:002014-05-09T16:02:41.197-05:00"And, not to go all "Men on Strike"..."And, not to go all "Men on Strike" on you, but do men have an obligation to society to do something Useful and Productive, whether it's marrying and starting a family, or Getting Involved in the Community in some other way?"<br /><br />The answer to your question is yes, men do have such an obligation, and those who waste their time with escapist hobbies like Star Wars and sports are shirking it. As Christians, you and I believe that the highest precept of the universal law is that we each love and serve God, and each love and serve our neighbor. When evaluating any particular past time, the first question needs to be whether or not it accomplishes these highest goals, and in the case of Star Wars, spectator sports and other escapist activities, the answer is that they don't. Playing or coaching sports can do that, creating culture can do that, tutoring children can do that, productive and expansive reading can do that, because all of these activities can be taken up, with personal enjoyment as a proximate goal, while service of God and neighbor are the ultimate goal. Self-directed hobbies like plane modeling, Star Wars and spectator sports cannot do that. They're a spiritual and cultural morass. <br /><br />From a Christian perspective, the only valid justification that one could make for these activities is that they give a Christian an opportunity to relate to someone they're trying to reach, but even in that case, the end goal has to be to lead the person out of that self-directed activity, and that doesn't seem to be your question.<br /><br />The defense of these kinds of activities usually turns into, "leave them alone, it's their life and they can decide what to do with it." This is a very un-Christian response. Remember, <br /><br />"You are not your own. You were bought with a price." -1 Corinthians 6:19.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7324668581389660209.post-3297873419903233812014-05-09T12:24:54.636-05:002014-05-09T12:24:54.636-05:00I used to be a Star Wars nut, back when I discover...I used to be a Star Wars nut, back when I discovered that the fictional universe of the films had been expanded into many dozens of novels by many sci-fi authors...<br /><br />As an aside about marijuana and mental illness...<br /><br />Clayton Cramer has gathered lots of data about mental illness, and occasionally summarized it on his blog. While he is better-known for historical research into gun laws and gun culture in the U.S., Cramer made research into mental health one of his hobbies. This partially sprang from his experiences with an elder brother who suffered from schizophrenia.<br /><br />http://claytonecramer.blogspot.com/2014/04/brain-structure-changes-casual.html<br /><br />http://claytonecramer.blogspot.com/2010/11/marijuana-and-mental-illness.html<br /><br />http://claytonecramer.blogspot.com/2013/12/new-study-out-on-marijuana-use-memory.html<br /><br />SJhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12043843405366080460noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7324668581389660209.post-47871993268957915652014-05-09T11:48:16.071-05:002014-05-09T11:48:16.071-05:00What I'm not sure about, with respect to pot, ...What I'm not sure about, with respect to pot, is whether the causation has been firmly established. But, in any event, you're correct that we need to treat this in the same way as prescription drugs -- and if we had, from the start, then the medical marijuana --> recreational pot might not have evolved the way it has.Jane the Actuaryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00899849681883954262noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7324668581389660209.post-52931582948261608862014-05-09T10:36:10.511-05:002014-05-09T10:36:10.511-05:00If something brings you enjoyment and relaxation, ...If something brings you enjoyment and relaxation, that's not a waste. Now, that's not to say that there are more productive things that could be done, and to the extent that you are neglecting things you NEED to do, then yes, I would argue that someone is "wasting" time.<br /><br />But just because something isn't tangibly productive doesn't mean there is nothing productive about it. The amount of information that someone has to absorb to make watching the NFL draft meaningful is surely an exercise for their brain. Same with something like World of Warcraft (before it got too easy) - group coordination, problem-solving, maximizing effort - those are skills, too.<br /><br />The pot connection is a bit of a stretch, I think. I thought that there actually was research that showed that pot DID cause neural damage, causing habitual, heavy users to become ... err ... less mentally agile and less motivated. So that changes the equation for me. I think we should treat pot as a prescription pain-killer rather than either: 1) a basically harmless recreational drug; or 2) completely illegal substance.Athena Carsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16954735773608707847noreply@blogger.com