web-goddess

• Smoking in Indiana: The ifs, ands & butts | The Indianapolis Star – My jaw actually dropped like 5 times reading this article. 43% of adults?! The lady who started smoking at 12?! The schools only went smoke-free in the past 10 years?! A SAWMILL only went smoke-free last year?!?!
• They’ll have to pry the buzzer out of my cold, dead hands
• Who Does The Housework In Gay Relationships? – An interesting study. My favorite part is the commenter who grouses about men not getting enough credit for “yard work.” WHERE’S MY PERGOLA, SNOOKUMS, HUH?

A few weeks ago I saw a MetaTalk post about forming a team for Health Month. I’d seen the site before when it was in private beta, but now anyone can sign up. I quickly joined the MetaFilter team. The site is all about promoting good habits and behaviours through social gaming. You create a number of rules (free accounts can have up to 3) that you then track each day. A rule might be “Eat leafy greens 3 times a week” or “Don’t smoke” or “Meditate for 10 minutes each day.” Then every day you visit the site and say whether you followed your rules or not. If you break enough rules, you lose a life point. If you follow enough rules, you earn fruit that can be used to heal yourself or others. There’s other fun stuff too, like random daily bonuses and check-ins with your “spirit animal” and stuff like that. I’ve been playing along for a couple weeks now, and I have to say, I think it’s working. The daily logging is quick enough and fun enough that I haven’t missed a day yet. Having simple, explicit rules means I don’t forget to follow them. And the best part is the social aspect happening on our Game Wall. Everyone has been great about posting comments and tips to support each other. More and more people in the health industry are realising that “most health solutions aren’t medical, they’re social.” Cool idea.

Anyway, I’m enjoying the “game” so much that I ponied up $5 for March. (If you’re a paid subscriber, you can have unlimited rules. You also get “sponsorship chips” you can give to others as well.) If you’ve been thinking about making some personal changes, I’d suggest trying it out!

So there’s a new Radiohead album. There’s also a video for one of the songs that features Thom Yorke dancing in a warehouse. Somebody has set his dancing to Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies.” It made my day.

• Meat-Only Diet = Crave Carbs. Meat + Egg: No Craving
• 10 Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me When I Was Starting Out As A BA
• Requirements infographic
• Saturday Night Special: Welcome To The Dollhouse – Oh my god. I too received a doll with glasses to “make me feel better” about getting them myself. At least I never got my picture taken with it.