You only live once, right?

A few months ago I read a web news article about sitting in a chair all day at work. It said that people who sit for long periods of time in a chair have the potential for their pelvis to shift in their body, making their belly protrude and giving the appearance of being five months pregnant. I was sitting in a chair at the time, and probably had been sitting down for several hours straight. The article suggested standing up regularly and walking around so that you don’t train the muscles or joints or tendons or whatever it was to get used to the seated position. I don’t know the science behind these claims, but I don’t want my pelvis to move and make me look pregnant, so I try to move around a bit at work.

Yesterday I ended up kneeling at the computer as part of my not sitting down all day effort. My supervisor asked if I had a problem with the chair, so I explained my paranoia about making my midsection shift. A coworker then said “You only live once, right? Might as well be comfortable.” I agreed, but didn’t stop thinking about the comment there. We often hear the question “You only live once, right?” but then the reason for saying it is somewhat varied. I can think of several reasons why that question might be asked. In the interest of doing something different, I have made a survey in order to find out how other people think about this question and how that might correlate with some other ideas.

If you want to take the survey, please click the link below. If you don't want to take the survey, please do not click the link below. I don't expect the survey to cause you any damage, but in the interest of insuring informed content I will say that by clicking this link you are absorbing and responsibility for damage which may or may not be incurred by you through the process of taking the survey. This disclaimer is standard fair for official surveys as part of psychologcial research. Those real studies have to be reviewed by an institutional review board. Luckily, I'm just a guy with a blog, so I don't think I have to follow those rules, but just to be sure, I'm putting the informed consent disclaimer in. So, complete the survey at your own risk, but if you do, and perhaps share this with your friends, then maybe I'll collect some neat data that I can analyze and make up some wild claims and accusations with and write a fun blog post about. Thank you.

Click here to take survey

Back to the Revolution

I haven't had Internet access for a few days, but now I do. The Internet man was supposed to come today between 8am and noon, so I figured I wouldn't see him and then I'd have to call and wait another week. But I was pleasantly surprised to see him at 9am, well within the boundaries of time they gave. Of course, he did come as soon as Taylor and I were about to sit down to eat breakfast (we slept in). I didn't mind the timing though as I was just happy to see him and be connected again so I could get today's assignment for school completed on time.

In other news, it has been a busy week and I have thought of a few things to write about, but I haven't written anything yet. I say this often. Usually a statement of this nature is followed by, "instead I'll just mention this." Today will be no different; I haven't written any of my recent ideas yet, so instead I'll just mention this. I walked into the bathroom earlier and there was a spider in the bathtub. It wasn't a menacing looking spider, so I didn't get scared. I watched him as he tried to climb up the wall of the tub.

The wall opposite the faucet is sloped up, a very steep slope, but less than 90 degrees. The spider was trying to climb up this wall, but kept sliding backwards. He would tentatively place his legs around in different places, trying to grab a good hold, then attempt to walk. Either he would slide backwards, or fall over backwards. He wasn't having much success. Until at one point he made it up a few inches. I thought he might get it, but then he slid all the way down. It didn't occur to me then, but it does now, maybe he was just playing. Sliding was the purpose of his climbing. Maybe.

After that long slide he walked in the other direction. He stopped and just stood there for a bit. Then one of his forward legs moved to his head, or where I assumed his head would be, if he had one, I don't know spider anatomy. It was as though the spider was raising a hand to his chin which he then rubbed pensively as he attended to his predicament. It was a long moment before his leg returned to the tub floor. He then continued to sit. Perhaps thinking that spot as good as any to simply wait for food to come by.

I don't know the fate of the spider, I could probably go check and see if he is still there, but I don't want to. I'm sure I'll cross paths with him again. It is a small apartment we live in. More importantly was the direction my thoughts then went in. Spider-man scales walls, right? Like a spider? I guess there are a lot of different spiders and the radioactive ones have better climbing abilities than the standard house ones. Either that or if you put Spider-man in a bathtub he is powerless to climb out. He still has his super power web slinging ability, so I guess he'd be okay, but it wouldn't be from climbing.

I just realized the title to this post implies reference to Back to the Future. I'm sorry to report that it doesn't.

Moving

We found an apartment and we are moving. I start a new job on Tuesday. It has been a busy week. I haven't been posting on here according to my desired schedule of Monday, Wednesday, and Friday this week. I think I got Monday, but missed the other two. Part of it has been finding the time, but another part of it has been lacking ideas to write about. I have had a few ideas, but I didn't take notes and they are subsequently lost forever, maybe. Also, I think I might be spending too much of my creative writing power and thought provoking opinions for my online Master's program discussion board. The current class is social and philosophical issues in education. I think that formal education and the education system in America is a joke and needs to be put to pasture, so I'm having a good time sharing my thoughts with the class. My class is getting the whimsical revolution and the whimsical revolution is getting forgotten.

As I said, we are in the process of moving. With work schedules, we aren't doing a one day move. Also, since we don't have to leave in one day from where we have been, we can do this over time. Hopefully this is cheaper than renting a big truck, but I don't know. Regardless, this is how it is going and it is fine, but it will be a few weeks before we can settle down again. This means it might be a few weeks before I get back to normalized posting on this blog. Maybe by then I'll have something to say.

For now, the best I can come up with is an amusing thing I saw a few days ago. Another road sign, but this time it wasn't what it said alone that made it funny, it was what it said and how it was displayed. The sign read "Hidden drive ahead," but you couldn't see it until you were passing it because some tree branches were blocking it. It was a classic.

This will most likely be it for at least the next week. I'll be at the new apartment and we won't have Internet access there until Saturday. Good luck.

Functional Fixedness

What are you sitting on? Is it a chair? Maybe it is a bed, a sofa, a crate, an inflated rubber ball, a hammock, a stool, a large rock, an overturned bucket, a television, a horse, pile of clothes, or something else. Whatever it is, it is effectively a chair, because that is what you are using it for. I once had a roommate who expressed surprise when I was eating cereal in the evening. “That’s a breakfast food!” he exclaimed. So what? You can only eat cereal in the first few hours after the sun comes up? Just as whatever you are sitting on becomes a sort of chair, you can eat whatever food you want at any time of the day, free of societal norms and associations. It interests me that some people would never think to eat breakfast in the evening, or would never think to use an overturned bucket as a chair. Some people are caught up in what is called functional fixedness, which is to be unable to see beyond the obvious function of an item...

The rest of this post can be found in the Ajax's Whimsical Revolution ebook for Amazon's Kindle. The book is a compilation of my favorite posts, 78 to be exact, of which this is one. If you don't have a Kindle e-reader you can download the free Amazon Kindle app for PC or Mac.