I have an important Public Service Announcement that should be read by all before a Thanksgiving feast:
Eating one large meal will not make you fat.
Also, eating a piece of pecan pie or pumpkin pie that you normally would skip will not make you fat. Obesity is a big problem (ahem), but it’s a lifestyle, not the result of one meal. And research backs this up.
A study showed that during the holiday season including Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years, the average weight gain was 0.8 pounds. That’s within standard deviation — i.e., you can gain that much in a day just from normal eating. It’s not a big deal.
So my point is, enjoy your holiday feast with family. Of course, if your doctor gives you specific nutritional instructions, follow that. (This is not medical advice.) Or if you have personal convictions that you should follow, then do that. But don’t let guilt or shame or some overreaching news article keep you from enjoying a piece of pie. Eat, drink, and be merry!
Let me add to that — this isn’t about eating a lot. Actually enjoy the feast if you get to partake in one. And enjoy the people around you. It won’t all be perfect — life never is — but be thankful for what you have. And don’t let shame or guilt keep you from enjoying a feast with family. This day is unique — you won’t pass this way again.
Greatest apologies for the lack of recent posts. It may seem like I’ve been away or neglecting the blog, but that is not the case at all. I’ve actually been right here! I’m still writing content, but just not finalizing it and publishing it. So it’s like there’s been an invisible barrier between us, where I’m writing but you cannot see me. I’m not actually invisible — just hidden behind some virtual barrier that doesn’t exist. (So here, virtual doesn’t mean being online or in the cyber realm, although it kinda is, but moreso means the essence of existing but not really existing. Does that make sense? Either way, there’s not an actual barrier, except it seems like there is. I suppose the “Publish” button is the demarcation between my world and the whole world.)
Rambling aside, here’s what happened. My last post here was about happiness and enjoying your life, which I’ve been thinking about and writing on lately. But this blog is not the ideal place for that. So it’ll be over at this page: How to find happiness, which will be updated as more related posts are added.
I’m tempted to give you a sneak peek of what’s to come, but then people searching for those things will find this random announcement and be disappointed. So just subscribe if you want an automated email when new stuff gets posted. (That’s all the emails you’ll get from me.) Regarding the upcoming posts, I’ll just say: “Trust me, I know what I’m doing.” (Bonus points if you know which TV show character is famous for that line. Leave a comment if you know.)
So we just had a leap day from this leap year. I suppose they’re important, to keep the calendar synced up with the seasons. Without leap day, Christmas would eventually be in the summer. (Obviously I’m writing this from the northern hemisphere, where a summer Christmas is unheard of, yet it happens in the southern hemisphere.)
What did you do with your extra day on February 29? Probably nothing special, since the world treats it like a normal day. But what if there was a better way? Why can’t we have a bonus day off every four years?
Have you ever looked at the calendar we use and wondered why it is like it is and if it could be better? The story behind why the months have varied numbers of days is beyond the scope of this article (long story short, blame the Romans), but there are potential solutions to improve it. I could think of some ideas, but actually J.R.R. Tolkien (who wrote The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings) has already created a better calendar system. He created separate calendars for the Hobbits, Elves, Men, and Numenoreans (Aragorn’s ancestors), among others. (Yeah, that’s nerdy, but consider that he created new languages for different people groups.)
Worth noting for this discussion is the Hobbit calendar. It’s based on the same 365 days per year with an occasional leap year, just like ours. However, their calendar had 12 months with exactly 30 days each, which is convenient, although that leaves 5 or 6 days out. So what did Hobbits do about that? Here’s where it gets really interesting. The bonus days were split between “Lithedays” near the summer solstice and “Yuledays” near the winter solstice. These bonus days were holidays that were not included in the calendar — they simply stopped counting days during these celebrations. Actually, these days counted as days of the week, but not days on the calendar. They would have days of feasting during that time, so it was like a mandatory party or vacation (for them, since Hobbits usually didn’t leave the Shire). Also, there was a day, Midyear’s Day, which did not count as a day of the week, so their year officially had 364 days.
That might seem more complicated, but in some ways it is simpler. Their calendar made dates always fall on the same weekday. Bilbo’s and Frodo’s birthday of September 22 was always on a Thursday. The year always began on the first day of the week and ended on the last day of the week. This calendar was designed to reinforce their culture, prioritizing routine, order, and convenience, along with emphasizing their love of feasting and partying. They even had an area of town called Party Field for dancing and feasting.
Would it be worth the hassle to change our modern calendar? Probably not. People like routine and don’t like change, plus it would be really difficult to change. (Remember the hullabaloo about Y2K? This would be much more difficult to change.) And having mandatory days off sounds good, but given our culture, it probably wouldn’t work. It would result in days of no open restaurants, grocery stores, hospitals, police, etc. I’m not sure our American society could safely handle mandatory days off work. (That’s a discussion for another day.)
But what if towns and cities had a place where they would have dancing and feasting? Is that doable? It might get too complicated and crowded in big cities to pull off, logistically, but it seems like a good idea on a smaller scale. Ideally our culture would accept this idea and make it happen. Imagine a recurring time where people enjoy being around each other, eating together and dancing and just enjoying life. Actually, this sounds like the Sabbath in Christianity, where we’re supposed to devote the seventh day of each week to honoring God, which includes not working, with an emphasis on spending time enjoying God and His creation and people. Many Americans struggle with this, even though it is built into our calendar already.
I suppose the point of all this rambling is that it’s good to slow down from normal life on a regular basis so you can enjoy your life and the people around you. Here in America we are really blessed financially and with freedom — even though many people complain, we still have more prosperity and freedom than perhaps any other country. Of course the system could be better and the wealth distributed more fairly. But regardless of your situation, it is what it is, and where you are right now is your actual life, so make the best of it. Find time each day to laugh, to dance, to marvel at something amazing (like nature, or technology, or how the human body works, etc.), and to enjoy the people around you. If it’s hard to integrate this into your daily life, just start somewhere. Set aside some time today to enjoy life for yourself (that is, without it being fed to you via TV or social media or the internet). Maybe go for a walk, or visit with a friend, or read a book…
Try to enjoy today’s portion of your life’s journey. You won’t pass this way again.
I have a business idea that someone needs to run with. This is not one that I plan to pursue, because my plate is full (running over, even), so I’m putting it out here for someone to take. Please do, because I would buy this.
Most houses have Wi-Fi now, and to get good coverage throughout the house you often need either an extender or a mesh network. (I just switched mine to an Amazon Eero mesh network.) The “problem” with all the solutions I’ve seen is that the hardware devices don’t look interesting. They’re plain and utilitarian. That’s not bad, per se, but it could be much better. I don’t care to see them around the house, although it’s not that big a deal to me. However, I’m married, so the WAF does need to be considered. (WAF = Wife Approval Factor.) My wife cares about the house being “presentable” and decorated. (Granted, I do too, but she does even more, so I often defer to her preferences, which seems to be common among men.)
So here’s the idea that improves the situation. Make Wi-Fi hardware points where you can snap decorative outer shells on them, which feature a pleasing design. By doing this, you can cater to multiple markets with the same base product. Here’s some ideas to help get you started:
fake plants — This may have the highest general WAF, so it definitely should be an option.
book-related — There are a lot of people who enjoy reading, or at least want to enjoy it if they had more free time. This could be a bookshelf insert like the one pictured, which is a street from the Harry Potter universe. You could also make bookends like the Argonath statues that came with the first deluxe DVD set of The Lord of the Rings. (I want that one, and my wife would probably tolerate it outside my home office.) Another idea is the Dr. Who TARDIS phonebooth.
movie-related — There are many options here, from figures to vehicles to buildings to logos. Of course there would be licensing to deal with, but a well-made Batman figure and/or the Batmobile would be worth it. Transformers figures (G1 style, preferably) would be awesome, too. (The WAF score sinks considerably with this one, but there’s a large audience of single guys who can decorate how they want. And Transformers figures definitely counted as decoration when I lived in the bachelor pad with college roommates.)
decorative frames with pithy inspiring quotes — People already buy this kind of thing. You could make it a frame with changeable inserts, so you could sell packs of more quotes. You might could even include a cheap subscription with new inserts arriving each month that match the season.
holiday decorations — You know if there was a way to make your Wi-Fi point look like a Christmas tree or an ornament instead of a chunk of boring plastic, people would buy this. These would sell like hotcakes during the Christmas shopping season (which gets longer every year). These could also have lights on them, since you already have power there.
I could go on, but you get the idea. There are MANY possibilities here for selling more, because if they all fit the same base units, people could buy multiple decorative pieces to change it out throughout the year. And when a new version of Wi-Fi comes out, make the base unit into the same shape so customers can use their current extensions. This encourages brand loyalty.
Hopefully this goes without saying, but make the actual hardware be quality. People will be paying more for this, so there will be expectations that it works well. If it looks impressive and works better than average, people will talk about it, which is free advertising.
To any entrepreneur willing to jump on this, the idea is free. If you’d be willing to send me a copy for review, I’d be glad to check it out. Have your people contact my people.
Buffet o' Blog 