I appreciate that these do not look like the same elephant – not even early in the day and late in the day – but I can assure you that they are the same dog!
P.S. Uploading from a mobile device so difficult for me to tell how big anything is. If the pictures don’t show BOTH elephant and dog, click on them, and they will appear in full. (I hope.)
One worries that art class may be difficult, even with the hat.
Blogging on Elliptical Machine
I’m at the gym right now, trying to write this blog post on the elliptical machine. One good thing about blogging on an elliptical machine is that it is far safer than blogging while actually jogging, especially at night.
We live in a multitasking world, especially those with Blackberries or iPhones. (Such devices are a bit like young children at the beach—you feel a strong need to keep at least one eye on them at all times.)
Human life has nearly always required an ability to juggle. Women in particular multi-tasked long before it was a word— carrying a baby while doing almost anything, watching toddlers while doing almost anything, soothing male egos while doing almost anything. (Okay, I’m sure traditional men multi-tasked too—trying to keep women subservient while doing almost anything.)
(Sorry. I guess I’m not in a great mood tonight. After all, I’m blogging on the elliptical machine.)
Certain types of multi-tasking feel quite natural: talking with your mouth full; thinking while scratching your head (or, if male, your…..) ; gorging while going on a diet. Some combinations are difficult–cleaning up while you cook, for example–but others can be achieved by just about everyone. (Gerald Ford really could walk while chewing gum, no matter what some historians say.)
Typically, tasks which combine well are performed in different quadrants of one’s being, such as the physical body and the mind, or two separate parts of the physical body (mouth and feet.)
But today’s multi-tasking often seems to involve doubling up in the same corporeal or mental space: talking on the phone while reading one’s email, constantly updating Facebook status while also doing homework, driving while texting.
In performing these new multi-tasks, people don’t use different quadrants of themselves, but different quadrants of reality—both the “right here now” reality and the virtual reality of the screen, satellite, busy distracted mind.
For many, virtual reality is more mentally compelling than “right here now”. Our physical bodies, however, are stuck in “right here now.”
And now I suddenly notice that I’ve been stopping my elliptical gait for whole sentences at a time. Which makes me think that, when the mind is trying to double-up in one quadrant of activity, it is often not true multi-tasking, but instead switching rapidly between tasks, turning off to one thing as it turns to the other. In other words, it’s a series of changing gears, each of which brings with it a kind of ellipsis. A blank of inattention to at least one of the tasks, and maybe to all of them.
On the road, in the street, in the real world, that can, of course, be very dangerous. But in the world of the gym, which is kind of a mechanized limbo between “right here now” and the virtual world, it’s actually seeming to work. I notice suddenly that the elliptical machine is really quite relaxing if you are only doing it in short bits. And this blog post, amazingly, is just about… done.
Bathtub Book
Even After the iPad; Reasons to Stick to Books.
1. You can take them into the bath.
2. You can drop them in the bath (and, if you don’t mind rumpled pages, read on, without being electrocuted.)
3. You can also drop them on the floor. (For example, at the side of your bed.)
4. You can spill tea on them.
5. Or pizza. (Though it’s not so easy to spill pizza, even on a book.)
6. They sometimes open to your favorite spots automatically. Othertimes they open to spots you hadn’t planned on, but are glad you found.
7. You can underline sentences or whole passages (if you’re kind of OCD.)
8. Or keep them absolutely pristine (if you’re really OCD.)
9. Sometimes you find things in their pages that you’d completely forgotten about—an unpaid bill, a letter from an old friend, a wilted buttercup, a spot of tea (or pizza).
10. Some books bear handwritten inscriptions, even just a name, perhaps your grandmother’s name. You might read these more closely than what’s in print.
PS – if you like elephants, check out 1 Mississippi by Karin Gustafson on home page or Amazon.
PPS- I am linking this to Bluebell Books Short Story Slam; the prompt was a girl in a bath–this may be a girl elephant.
Will It Be As Good As This?
Hmmm…..
(Disclosure: the illustrator is a fan of Apple and owns the stock.)
ManicDDaily 
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