❮❮prevnext❯❯

I'm sometimes alarmed at my lack of recognition of bodily cause and effect. Sure, little in life is a variable-controlled scientific experiment, and often the feedback loops are long enough that seeing the cause and effect is tough -between "eating a lot" and "showing weight gain", for example - or even better, "exercising" and "seeing positive results". (Of course, the "panting and wheezing" feedback loop is much more immediate.)

Years ago, for example, I was surprised to realize that I got significantly better at a head-to-head block video game (Tetris Attack, I think, at my Aunt's) when the massage chair I was in finished its round of lumbar region magic. I'm sort of in denial about being at the mercy of the physical world I think - it's as if I think sheer willpower, or its lack, fully determines my skill in that kind of game, and in a bunch of other aspects of life. (Does my back ache? Should I maybe skip playing tuba for a bit? Nah, just muscle through! That's the Kirk-y way. My own discomfort can ONLY be considered if it outweighs a greater, possibly group, benefit to be had.)

[CW ahead:farts]

Anyway, the most recent example of the scales dropped from my eyes: perhaps the vast quantities of diet soda I enjoy on the regular is causing the gassiness that has been adding such comic delight to the soundscape at home for me and Melissa. (Luckily carbonation is relatively innocuous, so the smellscape is...well, not as bad as you might fear, at least.) So I'll be trying to cut back in general, stick with water and iced coffee and iced tea.