(This might interest) Maybe Just Me…

What Lurks in Its Soul?

you might need to register to view the article (or use a bugmenot), but more than the interesting google stuff, what picques my interest is the google life. the three free squares a day, the dental/medical center, the free time, the “fun” stuff, the wifi buses… it’s like the whole blackberry thing. is the world moving to a non-stop work environment? is there soon coming a time when people are never not working? is this a desirable thing? or do the blurring of the lines make it okay to work that much because you have perks to make it more tolerable? i don’t think, as much as i would love my dream job (whatever it is), i’d want to be tethered to it 90% of my day.

there’s also an article in the nytimes (i’ll post a link, if i bother to go back and find it) about how a lot of people are having meetings at the gym now (rather than dinner and drinks) because it’s healthier, etc, but it’s just another example of work encroaching on another personal time.

CNN.com - McDonald’s diet? Some say it works - Aug 12, 2005

it’s not that surprising. spurlock ate what mcdonald’s wants you to and he about pickled his liver. this lady cut calories (which can be done on any food) and lost weight. though i wonder what her liver, cholesterol, etc looked like after this.

Is 40 really the new 30? - Aging - MSNBC.com

too bad there’s no way to calculate quality life years. i mean great the average american is like 35 and can expect to live like 40 more years, how many of those are quality years? do we REALLY need that many old people? haha, i blame all the old people (and those without insurance like myself) for the rise in the cost of healthcare. i’m almost entirely wrong in that, but that’s where i place the blame. (=

For Men at the Gym, It’s Step, Step, Step, Panic! - New York Times

i’ve not done any aerobics classes in my life ever. but a few years ago i DID go to my first yoga class. i was one of only 3 guys there and the only one under 35 by a large margin. it was a little off-putting being the only young guy in a room with women of all ages (including some very attractive ones). but at the same time is was nice to have tons of eye candy, though discretion is obviously key. and admittedly i didn’t do much looking because (1) it’s a workout/meditation thing and you shouldn’t do anything to make people feel uncomfortable, (2) to me, workouts are not pick up opportunities (at least not yet); and (3) hard to concentrate on women when you are being contorted into various positions each more painful than the last.

but it wasn’t that bad. of course it was in a private yoga studio and not some big glass walled room in a gym.

The Treadmill Workstation - Engadget - www.engadget.com

ha engadget lists some activites to show the walking thing is just okay.

chopping wood (436 calories per hour) — hunting (360 cph) — sitting (76 cph) — sex-foreplay (104 cph) — sleeping (66 cph)

so sitting at your desk gives you 75% of the benefits of walking. i wonder if that is active sitting (proper posture, etc), maybe sitting on a swiss ball? haha, foreplay on gets you 4 more calories an hour than walking SLOWER THAN DIRT. is dirt slow?

btw, this is a neat little calculator for caloric burn
calculate what you burn in minutes doing various activities

Ronald McDonald made over as fitness guru for tots - Jun. 8, 2005

In a television commercial that hits airwaves on Friday, an animated Ronald will be seen encouraging kids to get up off the couch and join him in kicking a soccer ball, juggling fruits and vegetables, and riding a skateboard with basketball star and fellow McDonald’s spokesman Yao Ming

umm, animated ronald mcdonald playing basketball versus yao. i hope they have a scene where yao blocks the hell out of ronald. that would be funny. it should be like that scene in rushmore where bill murray’s character blocks the hell out of that little kid playing basketball. killer stuff.

Man sues for $10 million over exploding toilet - Peculiar Postings - MSNBC.com

do i even need to comment on this? umm, do you really need to light up a cig when doing your business? ewww.

C.D.C. Team Investigates an Outbreak of Obesity - New York Times

seriously, i’m all for being healthy. i made big changes to my lifestyle to get more healthy (not that it’s paying any dividends because of the unhealthy parts of my life that counterbalance any gains i’ve made), but this is stupid. obesity “outbreak” quit eating high-fat, high-sugar foods, exercise. wow, what a terribly hard formula! regardless of some people’s predisposition to obesity (can’t be that many people unless there’s some sort of evolutionary change where the species as a whole is becoming more obese, but since it’s just america, maybe we can be a subspecies) or addicitive behavior, those things don’t account for the entire upswing in obesity. this is probably the thing that bothers me most about health/science news, how obesity is treated and viewed. it’s no longer the obese person’s fault EVER. wtf with that? hey i know the mcdonald’s is cheaper, faster, and in a lot of ways tastier (at least to your brain which loves the high fat high sugar foods), but don’t eat it so much. where is personal responsibility gone?

i can tell you, i don’t eat a lot of high fat high sugar foods anymore. the other day we had a big meeting at work, so they bought breakfast platters (fruit platter, pastries platter). i had some fruit and a cheese danish. i can say that the cheese danish, a regular cheese danish, was too sweet. never used to have a problem with cheese danish, but now too sweet and made me a little nauseated (ha, the correct use of the word, not nauseous, even though so much misuse that it’s acceptable now).

i don’t know, i know it’s more complex than that, but at the end of the day it’s basically calories in vs calories out. yes you want to watch fat and sugar etc, but it’s in versus out. just like the stock market. SO complex. what to buy, when, etc. but at the end of the day it’s really a matter of buy low sell high. hah.

okay, that’s not an entirely true statement because i know i think this. and as i’m starting to write, i know “things i think i think” is a list post title, and i don’t have a second item yet, but maybe i’ll think of one as i write.

1. one thing i KNOW i think: i DO NOT understand some people. well that completely obvious. but i catch every now and again the mtv show “i want a famous face.” okay beyond the obvious of some of these people aren’t willing to put in the hard work necessary to get the bodies they want, here’s what i don’t understand about some people. WHAT THE HELL ARE THESE PEOPLE THINKING?!?!?!? i mean seriously, these people don’t even look remotely similar to the celebs they are trying to look like. you would think if you are going to get plastic surgery to look like someone else, you’d at least pick someone you REMOTELY resemble! but no, these people are absolutely oblivious to reality! i don’t understand.

2. i just thought of one. everyone knows it, everyone says it, but i guess it’s not a real thing to them. celebs look like they do because (a) they have the good genetic makeup. (b) they have the financial ability to hire people to make them look that way (trainer, chefs, stylists, etc). (c) they can work out 4-5-6 hours a day if they want, they don’t have a 9-5 job for a majority of the year like most people. everyone knows it, everyone thinks it, but then people think just get the plastic surgery. or how about those people who get the lipo or whatever to get rid of a little bit of fat around X area? they say they work out all the time and diet etc, but to get rid of the last of the fat to look celeb-ish, it takes a little more than the average diet. it takes things like cutting all sugars for two weeks and crap like that. but you watch these shows about people who claim to do all this work but can’t lose the last bit as they eat a hamburger and drink a slurpee.

3. okay, i got nothing. not really a well thought out post/list. many apologies to my single digit readership.

Gothamist: Need to Go Basis

george didn’t need a list. he knew, at any given location (and i can only assume manhattan only, though NEVER underestimate george costanza. he is the one who came up with the master plan for the girlfriend/roommate switch), the best bathroom in the area. for the rest of us mere mortals, fill out the form, and bam you get the list. i haven’t bothered to fill it out yet, but perhaps i will at some point today if i’m bored and not busy. hmm, bored and not busy, if i need to fulfill both of those to fill it out, no chance i’m doing that anytime soon, though i suppose i could fill it out in lieu of blogging about it.

APA: First Graders’ Behavior Problems Linked to Caffeinated Cola - CME Teaching Brief - MedPage Today

hmm, other than the inattention is any of this really a surprise? and isn’t the inattention really a function of being on a caffeine buzz and being young? don’t other studies say that a bit of caffeine prior to an exam (of adults) help them remember things better and focus? so once you don’t use restless energy on anything and can learn to focus it, some caffeine can be beneficial.

besides, i drank tons of soda when i was a kid. granted probably not at school. i also watched a lot of tv. i came out okay. though i do think tv now is different than when i was a kid, so now i think tv has a huge role in add/adhd type behavior for kids. but whatever it’s like obesity. hey i know that there are genetic factors. i know some people are predisposed to addictive behaviors and weight gain. but i also think that CANNOT account for the sheer increase in obesity over the past few decades. yeah mcdonald’s is bad for you. don’t eat it every day. there is a basic lack of self control in this country, along with a lack of accountability. mcdonald’s is accountable, but so is the person who eats mcdonalds that much. i’m off topic now. so this ends. caffeine for kids! i’m ambivalent toward it.

New Weight-Loss Focus: The Lean and the Restless - New York Times

In his office he has a treadmill in place of a desk. He got it last year when he saw the data from the study comparing lean people and obese ones.

“My computer is stationed over the treadmill,” he said. “I work at 0.7 miles an hour.”

this is cool. i made the decision two years ago, that when i’m privileged enough to have my own office AND get to select my own furniture in said office, that i would get a standing desk. i’ll have a barstool height chair there in case too. i’d probably have a smaller table, maybe a couch (depending on office size), for meetings (don’t want to be standing over people in meetings, well most meetings). but this is a great idea too. i think maybe a standing desk and a treadmill desk.

regardless i think it’s good to move while you work. when i’m studying i tend to walk around with my notes while i study, it makes studying seem more active and i don’t get burned out quite so easily as when i’m just sitting at a desk staring at pages for hours.