h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It should be, but I was offline at seven. It was probably around 5:30am actually. But, I was still up at seven.

Potholer! Didn't you read my above post about stereotyping and gender roles?! How dare you say that women don't enjoy physical activity as much as men! ( I am kidding, you know that right? )

That makes sense to me. But, if you're talking about car racing, (I don't know how things are where you live or in Austrailia {where Ozman lives}, but in the USA) more and more women are getting involved in it. I myself wouldn't want to drive really fast in circles, but I would like to be in a demolition derby. (I'm serious!)

jb, I was really starting to like you, but you had to go an apologize and show what a pansy you are.

(You know who's stupid? Me. When I first read that I thought, 'what's jb apologizing for?' Doh!)

In case you guys couldn't tell, I'm in a really good mood today. I don't know exactly why, but that doesn't really matter now does it?

GreyRose

lol

I like pansies. They remind me of me. ~smirk~

I have spent a large amount of time in my late high school/community college life avoiding any organized attempts to get me to engage in strenuous physical activity. It worked (of course, I don't have a degree, but who needs one anyway?).

-jb

Yeah! I just go to college because I want learn. If I get a degree, that's great, but I don't really care if I don't.

Speaking of avoiding physical activity, when I was a senior on high school I took weightlifting instead of gym for PE. And my best friend was in there and so was her little brother's best friend. At the beginning of the semsester, we tried to participate but it just wasn't in our hearts (I didn't take gym to avoid having to participate in games and such). So, we just sat in the hall during class. At the end of the semseter, we had recrutied (sp?) three other people from the class. So, we were the weightlifting crew (even though we almost never lifted weights ). That was a fun year.

GreyRose

PS Community college rules!

Senior year in high school we got to block out our gym class. This involved our participation in some physical activity outside of school, or in a sport in school. One sport a semester, or 12 hours outside school would count as a block. We needed five blocks to pass gym, which was required. I 'bowled'. This involved me altering documents slightly to make numbers appear different than they were originally supposed to be. I wonder if six straight hours of bowling hurts your fingers...

I turned in four blocks, but apparently they missed that, so I got out of forging yet another block.

-jb

OK, here's a cliche question: why won't guys put the toilet seat down?

Oh please. How cliche and general can you get?

I put the seat down. Every time. Even in my own apartment where I live by myself. It would be for me a conscious effort *not* to put it down, in most cases.

If it helps, do it under the guise of closing the lid. Put them both down, and it keeps things from falling in there, keeps pets from drinking out of it, etc.

I'm glad to say I've *never* had a pet that drank from the toilet. From the shower, yes, but not from the toilet. And I always put the seat down as well. I don't know where that cliched complaint comes from.

Okay, to try to catch up:

jb: I'm with you on the not apologising because of someone's expectations. I don't apologise I really feel I've done something wrong. As for bowling, I did it for school sport for a couple of years. It was the least physical one they offered. Then again, I also did squash, Aikido (self defence) and rowing so I've obviously got no great aversion to physical exertion.

GreyRose: Potholer is a potholer, hence the name. Potholing is a time-honoured recreational activity involving finding holes in the ground and jumping into them (according to my less-than-totally-dependable memory). It's not much of a spectator sport.

Concerning woman drivers, rallying in Australia is *very* male dominated. I only know of one woman rally driver in the whole country. I'm not surprised it's the same in motorsport the world over. Cars are very closely related to testosterone.

And I'm *so* glad you explained that you didn't actually *do* weightlifting, otherwise I'd have to reconsider my whole mental image of you

And finally: I can offer a reason for your good mood: you've finally subconsciously decided that you're better off without your cretin Boy

I think the entire "toilet lid" debate is stupid. If women are dumb enough to sit before looking, they get what they deserve. "It's a courtesy issue," they say, "it shows respect, or lack thereof." Come off it. It's a non-issue, and I refuse to ever make it one.

On apologies: when I screw up, I apologise. But I'm not one of those wuss-boys who apologises for everything in a relationship. If I screw up, I own up to my mistakes; if she screws up, I expect her to do the same.

I suppose potholing may be an abnormal activity in terms of male/female participation (as well as in most other ways). The university club in which I started potholing in earnest did have about a 6:1 male:female ratio of members, but being at an engineering & science college, the ratio among students as a whole was about 6:1 in those days.
I suspect the combination of exercise, lack of regular competition (though certainly no lack of personal challenges if desired), teamwork, scenery, deep friendships, mud, beer and black humour is pretty equal in appear to both sexes. (There's also an amount of playing around with equipment, which *is* probably slightly more of a guy-thing. )

How representative cavers are of society as a whole is another matter - I couldn't really point to *any* caving mates and say 'That person's entirely normal', but then, who the hell wants to be normal anyway?

LOL Man you guys sure are sensitive about this seat thing.

I wasn't trying to make an issue out of it, I just thought it was time to ask another question and that's all I could think of. I always look before I sit (unless I'm too inebreiated). I myself, if I'm in an all male household and the seat is up when I go in there, I'll put it back. I'm just polite I guess. Actually, what bothers me more is when guys leave the seat down (if you know what I'm talking about). My ex used to do that all the time. Ugh.

I'm glad that all you guys are mature enough to admit when you're wrong. But if the people here weren't mature, I would have been very dissapointed.

Is really a recreational activity that involves finding holes in the ground and jumping into them? If there is, I want to know more about it. It sounds like fun. I'd like to try it, or is it a 'man's sport'?

At least as far as potholing is concerned - abseil, walk, stoop, wriggle, squeeze, crawl, climb, swim (dive?), perhaps, but hardly *ever* jump.
It certainly isn't just a man's sport (see my other posting). There isn't an ideal physique, as long as you're not excessively tall or wide. Brains and technique can usually win out over brute force and ignorance. (Lucky for me )

Not me that's for sure! But, I don't believe in normal, it's a myth.

So you're a spelunker! (sp?) Then I don't want to do that. I get claustrophobia in small spaces (who gets it in big places, that's what I'd like to know ). They way Ozman described it, made me think of just jumping in holes in the ground, which still sounds like fun to me. But, then again, me and my friends used to jump off my roof for fun.

I just thought of another question. My friend Josh will do anything you tell him to, if a girl is watching. Like one time, he rode his skateboard off of my roof. Now, why would a guy risk life and limb like that? Maybe Josh is a special case, but I'm willing to bet that there are others like him out there.

Mind that language - apparently 'spelunker' is now a term the caving community in the US isn't very fond of. From what I can gather, these days it's associated with teenagers going to caves to party, people leaving trash, spraypainting walls, removing stalactites, etc.
The mainstream caving community in the US is *very* strongly into preservation, and making minimal environmental impact, probably more so in general than us Europeans.
(We do take out our rubbish over here, and try to avoid breaking things, but are generally not averse to drilling a few bolt-holes in the rock so the ropes hang properly.)

On the claustrophobia front, lots of potential cavers say they're claustrophobic. However, a couple of trips is usually enough to convince most people that they're not. It's really not the same as most people imagine it.

Young guys will do lots of dumb things to 'prove their manhood'. Presumably, it must impress *some* women, or it would have been filtered from the gene pool by now.
I guess some of it is also down to the fact that until people have seen people their own age do similar things and mess up big-time, they do tend to feel somewhat immortal.
A friend of mine had some guys try to impress her by how long they could delay braking when riding a motorbike at a brick wall. One left it a little late, and lost his bike and several teeth in the process.

I think there *are* 'normal' people out there. I also think they're often the ones who end up having mid-life crises, and spending fortunes on therapy.

Yeah, but that's because they're weird; being normal makes them so.

I didn't know that about the term 'spelunker'. I've seen lots a vandlism to a lot of natural parks though, and it makes me sad.

I don't know about me getting over claustrophobia that easy. I've been in a few narrow caves and I get stiff and start hyperventilating and it's just awful. I do like caves though. I just like big ones where I don't have to go through tight places.

I don't care if guys don't put the toilet seat down, it's when they don't put it up in the first place that really makes steam come from my ears.

NO, they spend them on shiny red sports cars, anti-balding stuff, and twenty year old gold-diggers. And their normal wives generally have to excuse such 'behavior'.

HUH?

I can only assume it was a response to Potholer's statement about how men like to show off. I think. What were you thinking, P'hul? It was rather out of context... Could you elaborate?

Thanks.

-jb

I guess it was a probably in response to the '...mid life crisis..
..spending loads of money on therapy...' comment.

P'hul doesn't get to come on very much, she works a lot and doesn't have regular access to a computer. I'm pretty sure that Potholer is right about what she was talking about.

I went to the club thursday, and was fine the whole time. I didn't talk to the Stupid Boy. I'm not going to talk to him until I think I can w/o yelling at him.