Aug 28, 2013

the joy of dieting

"diet" wasn't my thing.  this left me out of or seriously bored with many conversations.
i assumed it all had to do with some body image problem.

recently i watched a super good PBS video Eat, Fast and Live Longer with Michael Mosley (available it says until 9/7) http://video.pbs.org/video/2363162206/ and decided to try it. (except i don't really want to live with michael mosley)

now i get it!  it's a way to organize your life.  instead of wandering aimlessly about in life, you are on a mission, a project.  you research, you devise menus, your brain has something to do when it needs distraction -- think up menus, plan new wardrobes, pat yourself on the back, plan how you'll get through a restaurant or party experience, all that kind of stuff.

Things People Organize Their Lives Around fascinates me since i quit my job.  it's kind of a sub-category of my lifelong interest in What People Should Do With Their Time, other than, that is, criticize everyone else for how they're spending THEIR time.

anyway, this 5:2 diet is great, because you only do it 2 days out of 5, and on the days you are eating very little, you can just reassure your tummy that tomorrow you will FEAST!

Aug 26, 2013

making sense of parties

something i read the other day has stuck in my mind.
an explanation of traits of introverts vs extroverts.
the part that stuck was about parties.
it said that introverts go to parties looking forward to spending time with people they know.
extroverts go to parties looking forward to meeting new people.

that stopped my mind.
going somewhere with the idea of looking forward to meeting new people. i cannot wrap my mind around that idea.
but looking back at the behavior of some of my friends, i can see it now!
it all makes sense!  they look forward to meeting new people.

is this obvious and i just missed it all these many years, that such a thing was common and not a weird affectation of a few people i knew?

i wonder what that's like?  i wonder if i could try it?

Aug 3, 2013

lightning strikes

NPR has a little map showing the last 18 months of lightning fatalities in the USA.  i clicked on one near my home, and it was the lightning death of a teenage boy. crazy, huh?

when i was a child my parents had some friends who had escaped the nazis and brought their two little kids to this country, where the kids, playing in a field with their metal wagon, were struck and killed by lightning.  i actually recently found this article about them online, with no date, but i think it was from 2001, as i also found his obituary from 2004.

that story stuck with me through my life, a profound example of something or other.

recently i asked my friend Vicki and her mom what they would do if they were out in a field and heard thunder, would they lie flat, would they squat, or would they (bad move) RUN.  

my friend's mom said "i wouldn't be out in a field.  i'd be at the mall."  is this why statistically mostly men are killed by lightning?