Ergo (tm)

Well, my WoW done broke again. My venerable iMac tends to get angry when Bliz patches the software, because it doesn't even meet the game's minimum requirements but somehow manages to play it anyway. Well, most of the time.

So I guess now's as good a time as any to tell you about a little tradition called Ergo (tm).

Summers are slow at my Old Office, where the workflow is at the mercy of the sports seasons. During the fall and spring, the workload is like the Colorado, and I and my coworkers metaphorically cling to a battered log, hoping not to get sucked under by the whitewater. But summers keep us sane by providing a respite: There's generally not much going on except for baseball, so the endless torrent of box scores, game stories and phone calls from coaches and disgruntled parents scales back to a few drips from a leaky faucet.

So each night for two hot months, the staff of the Old Office heads to the building's roof -- where there are two basketball hoops with marked half-courts -- for a tradition called Ergo, short for "Federally Mandated Ergonomic Break Brought to You by OSHA and the Department of Labor."

It all began several years ago at the tail-end of the interminable NBA season, when one of the Office's supervisors one night was disgusted with Shaquille O'Neal's free throw shooting performance. The supervisor challenged a deskmate to "beat Shaq"; that is, shoot better than Shaq at the line. As everyone knows, Shaq is notorious for being a horrible free-throw shooter, and on that particular night, Shaq shot about 40 percent of his free throws.

The two men took a 15-minute break from their desks to go upstairs to shoot 10 free throws each and take on the challenge, and Ergo was born. Each night thereafter, they would go up to the roof to see if they could beat Shaq. Soon, the entire desk staff was in on it.

Nowadays, sometimes upwards of 18 people show up on the roof. Several coworkers from neighboring departments often join in the contest. There's even an award for the free-throw high-scorer called The Brick -- literally, a broken brick fragment -- which is passed on each night from the previous night's high scorer. One coworker even maintains stats on each player (I'm shooting .356, by the way, so I am not beating Shaq. There are two staffers shooting .700, but one has only Ergoed twice (yes, it's a verb), so her (her!) stats are a bit skewed.

Ergo has evolved to include more than the best of 10 free throws. After we all shoot and determine a brick-winner, we shoot Ergo Trey, or three 3-pointers. Finally, there's Ergo Insanity (I don't make up these names!): A half-court shot. Believe it or not, someone almost always makes the "Insanity" shot.

We all look forward to it each night. Not only is it a great way to force us to stretch, let off some -- OK, a lot of -- steam, forget about work and step away from our computer terminals for 15 minutes or so, it's a tip of the hat to the supervisor -- whom we've dubbed The Commissioner -- who is probably one of the hardest working and most well-respected bosses in the Old Office. And, it's a great reminder not to take life too seriously.

So, as another season of Ergo at my Old Office winds down to its final days, I present you with images from the summer of 2006.

Freedom of 'choice'

This story from The Guardian interests me, because I'm always intrigued -- and often outraged -- by the way companies manipulate public perception. The latest propaganda from companies that shill disproportionately large or pretentious products is that they are merely providing the consumer with a choice. Because that's what America's all about, right? It would be un-American for the public not to have the choice of whether to commit suicide by ingesting their daily intake of fat in each and every meal, or to contribute to the melting of the planet's ice caps by driving a gigantic SUV that gets 8 miles per gallon. Personally, I find that attitude to be very selfish: Wouldn't one want to do what he or she could to be around to play with his or her grandkids? Or leave said grandkids with some natural wonders to marvel at?

The fact of the matter is that people are gullible and impressionable. They will, in general, consider whatever is presented to them to be appropriate, as the story points out. Or, in the case of the "Stack it high, tough guy" campaign, even the appropriate way to think: "Don't let those self-righteous critics rain on your parade again and tell you what's good for you. You can show them where to go by buying this." Companies are acutely aware of the portion-size bias. They have a well-compensated army of psychologists and sociologists at their disposal to tell them how the public thinks. They know what you want to buy before you buy it. Just don't buy into the "size it your way" mantra.

My sculling single

DSCF1310
Originally uploaded by audreahuff.

Yaaay! New pix of my refurbished sculling single, which is practically a new boat. Everyone who's seen it comments on how beautiful it is and the excellent job that the factory did on it. I've had it back from Canada for a couple of months now, but I'm just now getting around to updating with the "after" pictures. I know it's not thrilling to anyone but me, but as a competitive rower, this boat is one of my most prized possessions.

10 creepiest ad icons

http://www.yesbutnobutyes.com/archives/2006/08/ten_creepiest_i_1.html (If you can look past the horrible spelling)