Taking risks without flamethrowers

Last week, I took a little break from reading stories about space pirates to skim through a nonfiction book: Absinthe & flamethrowers: projects and ruminations on the art of living dangerously by William Gurstelle.

Gurstelle believes that most people would lead better lives if they took more risks. The book opens with chapters on why taking risks is a good thing and then moves to chapters on how to perform specific risky activities, like drinking absinthe, driving fast, using a bull whip and making flamethrowers. It was on the activity chapters that I started skimming. I bought into his idea that taking risks will enrich my life, but I suspect I can get that enrichment with activities that don't endanger to my health and the health of others.

For each of the risky activities there are detailed instructions about how to do the activity in the most safe way possible, for example, wear safety goggles if you're flicking a bull whip. Just the same, I'd be more comfortable if people I might come in contact with didn't find it necessary to drive fast or try out their homemade flamethrowers.

Since I don't like to point out a problem without proposing a solution, here are suggestions for anyone who would like to try something scary or risky that should actually make the world a better place.

1. Sing out loud in public
   • Women who are free on Tuesday nights: Did you know that Jody Benjamin is starting a new choir that is open to any woman who wants to join? No auditions, sight-reading ability not required, and those who think they cannot sing are especially encouraged to join.
   • Men and women who are free on Wednesday nights: I'm hearing good things about Folka Voca, the Ottawa Folklore Centre Choir)
   • Men: Except maybe for the Ottawa Gay Men's Chorus, every mixed choir in Ottawa is desperate for more male singers.
   • Everybody: There are a lot of choirs in this town.
2. Ride your bike on the street and not the sidewalk (Riding on the street is actually less risky, but it feels more risky. Read up on how to ride safely and then do it. It will make you feel tough.)
3. Try out a new art form
4. Talk to a stranger
5. Ask a dictator to stop torturing someone. (A starting point)
6. Learn something new Even if it's not that risky, it'll do you good.
7. Write a comment on a blog you've been lurking on (for example, you could comment here with other suggestions for things that people can do that feel risky but will actually make the world a better place.)

Of course, these things don't always work out the first time. Or the second time. I wrote a lot of letters to Botha in South Africa before Apartheid ended.

Here's a video that might inspire you to try a risky thing more than once:

If my ideas don't work for you, and you need to try something that is just plain dangerous, you might want to check out anvil launching. Just please don't do it around my house.

On Hallowe'en, it is okay to be a hobo

Having hosted many Hallowe'en parties, I have noticed that some of my friends have a serious problem at this time of year - costume anxiety. Costume anxiety seems to especially affect those with a reputation for creativity or artistic talent. They feel pressure to come up with a costume that will impress everyone.

How serious is this problem? Let's just say that far more than one person has confessed to me that they did not come to a Hallowe'en party because they couldn't come up with a "good" costume.

If you have costume anxiety: It's true, you can't go to a Hallowe'en party dressed like you normally dress, but all you have to do is put on a flannel shirt and a tuque. Your presence will be valued far more than your absence. People with elaborate or especially clever costumes will bask in your appreciation. And the other hobos and hosers will relax in your company.

I Need a New Host

I have a problem. In their continuing efforts to make themselves less valuable to me Rogers and Yahoo will no longer provide me with file hosting after October 26.

This means that I have to bring all the files that I put up on GeoCities somewhere else. For the pictures and html documents it is a hassle, but not a big deal.

The problem file is my Human Bingo Excel file. It is the most popular thing I've done and I am having a hard time finding a place to have it hosted where people can easily download it without having to go to wonky ad-filled sites.

It is 92 KB.

Any ideas?

Shreddy the Snowman

Two of my colleagues came along as I was snapping this picture.

"You have a fan," said one to the other.

"You're the artist?" I asked.

"I saw the bags there and they just cried out for snowmanification," she replied.

My Monkey Brain and a Trip to the Pool

Just after filling out my United Way pledge form, I overcame my inclination to sit at my desk through the lunch hour and instead walked to the swimming pool. I had a swim and then walked back to the office. Two thoughts pre-occupied me on the way there and back.

The first was: Keep your eyes peeled for engagement rings. XUP has found five while walking around and I have never found one.

The other thought was: What evil or weak thing am I going to wind up doing because I've exercised willpower and done this virtuous act of exercise? Apparently, we humans have some sort of conservation of morality principle and if we do a virtuous thing, we're more likely to do something that isn't virtuous. And also, each time we exercise willpower, we weaken the chances that we will be able to exercise willpower the next time it is called for. If this is true, it's the sort of thing I chalk up to the monkey brain inside us all.

It occurred to me that if I found an engagement ring, before keeping it, instead of putting up signs saying that I'd found it, maybe I would only do a cursory check to see if someone had lost it. But I didn't find a wedding ring. Even though I walked on the opposite sidewalks on my way back to the office.

However, at about 3:45, I discovered that I could not stop myself from slicing up a potato and microwaving it. And then after I'd eaten it with some of my delicious spicy peanut sauce, I couldn't stop myself from slicing up another potato and eating it with Barbados-style hot sauce. (I finished the peanut sauce with the first potato.)

The potatos are not supposed to be used for late afternoon snacks. They are for when I forget my lunch at home. Under my current regime, I am not supposed to eat snacks. If I am going to eat a snack, microwaved potatoes are more healthy and less expensive than either a Bavarian Creme donut from the Tim Horton's in the cafeteria or a Mars Bar from the candy machine.

I'm just hoping that the potatoes are the end of the payback for the swim. They may not be because I think I see my lunch hour excursion as two separate bouts of exercise - a swim and a walk. Maybe my monkey brain will see two potatoes as being sufficient.

But they were small potatoes.

Notes:

XUP finding stuff - Keepers, Weepers & Creepers

Conservation of morality principle

Buying green can be license for bad behavior, study finds:

Just being around green products can make us behave more altruistically, a new study to be published in a forthcoming issue of Psychological Science has found.

But buying those same products can have the opposite effect. Researchers found that buying green can lead people into less altruistic behaviour, and even make them more likely to steal and lie than after buying conventional products. Buying products that claim to be made with low environmental impact can set up "moral credentials" in people's minds that give license to selfish or questionable behavior.

Our moral thermostat - why being good can give people license to misbehave

Through three psychological experiments, Sonya Sachdeva from Northwestern University found that people who are primed to think well of themselves behave less altruistically than those whose moral identity is threatened. They donate less to charity and they become less likely to make decisions for the good of the environment.

Wearing out willpower:

Rough day at work? You won't feel like exercising

A new study, published today in Psychology and Health, reveals that if you use your willpower to do one task, it depletes you of the willpower to do an entirely different task.

"Cognitive tasks, as well as emotional tasks such as regulating your emotions, can deplete your self-regulatory capacity to exercise," says Kathleen Martin Ginis, associate professor of kinesiology at McMaster University, and lead author of the study.

Peanut butter spicy sauce recipe in Chinese Dumplings at Home