Everyone's doing it

[ladyofastolat]

I've just caught up with a programme on last year's retail trends, a subject which I find very interesting, even though almost all of the trends have entirely passed me by. I found the programme simultaneously very interesting and very annoying, largely for its habit of making sweeping statements about how "we were ALL" doing something or other, when the figures quoted revealed that although there was indeed a note-worthy increase on last year, it was still very much a minority thing, no matter how much trendy media types might have written about it. They were very fond of saying that "a staggering £x million" was spent on such and such, when a quick bit of mental arithmetic on the likely price of the product and the adult population of the country revealed that this was actually a fairly unimpressive number. Sometimes they even made this easy for us. After one little piece about how "we were ALL" buying something or other, some trendy media type said that "it became more a case of who DIDN'T have one than who did." Yes, revealed the presenter, by the end of the year a staggering one household in 60 had one of these things. I expect there are things sneered at by the media as sad minority interests that are actually indulged in by individuals in more households than that.

We also had a use of one of the Standard Units of Measurement - in this case, the Olympic Swimming Pool. Last year, due to a massive explosion of beards that I had remained completely unaware of, enough beard trimmers were sold to fill three Olympic swimming pools. I never find the Olympic swimming pool / football pitch / London bus school of measurement remotely impressive. To me, it turns "Big Number!" into "something you can fit into a fairly small patch of ground that can be seen by one person without them even moving." "Big Number!" sounds impressive - at least if you don't think about it, and realise that it works out as only one per sixty households. Something that can fit under one roof sounds far less impressive to me, even if the roof is a big one, and each thing is very small.

As for me, the programme revealed that I have indulged in precisely two of this year's retail trends. Despite not being a huge fan of fizzy drinks - although I tolerate them more than I used to - I've bought Prosecco, since they kept plying us with free Prosecco when we were in Sorrento, and ever since then, the drink has reminded me of that holiday. I also have an adult colouring book. It's a Game of Thrones one, which I got for Christmas. I had no idea that such things promoted mindfulness! I've heard of mindfulness, but never really known what it was, or bothered to find out. I had no idea that when I spent quite a ridiculous amount of time colouring in a joust scene the other day that I was indulging in mindfulness. I thought I was just colouring in a picture.

I still have no Christmas jumper.

Comments

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I keep getting annoyed by these things, too.

And I don't have a Christmas jumper.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I believe that mindfulness is something one can do when colouring, but is not intrinsic to the process. As, for example, I could be using the powerful computer in front of me to solve Mighty Problems of Existence (if I knew how to do that, which tragically I do not), but in fact, I am using it to type livejournal comments. :-D

Re the staggering expenditure on beard trimmers, perhaps if you consider poor Ms Trim the Beard Trimmer Manufacturer, struggling to feed her huge bearded brood after being cruelly deserted by Mr Trim, seduced away om 2012 by the owner of a small craft brewery just outside Nottingham, you could summon up a greater feeling of awe at the amazing results achieved in 2015?

Probably Ms Trim does not use her computer for random frivolous LJ comments because she is using every inch of its processing power on designing new and better hair shortening apparatus. It sounds stressful. I hope she has a colouring book.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

Presumably Ms Trim is a whizz at marketing on social media, which is how she managed to persuade so many people to rush out and buy a beard trimmer, then descend as a flash mob on the nearest Olympic swimming pool to ritually cast it into the waters. (Where, I sincerely hope, at least one of them was claimed by a mystical hand that rose up, clad in white samite, and bore it away to the magical depths.)

[purplecat]

I tried mindfulness briefly - or at least the sitting-thinking-about-nothing exercises that are supposed to be a Vital First Step. I found it a) dull and b) realised I'm very bad at thinking about nothing. Since the point seems to be to help you concentrate and I really don't have any problem concentrating (possibly the opposite, at the same time I was trying to use pomodoro to stop myself getting too Engrossed in One Thing when I had lots of other things to do as well), I decided it probably wasn't worth worrying about.

I'm kind of dubious about the benefits on being of being able to think about nothing for extended periods - even it means you should get better at thinking about something for an extended period.

NB. You're not actually supposed to think about nothing, you're just supposed only to think about your own breathing. My own breathing is almost as dull as nothing, in my opinion.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

I'm puzzled as to how an adult colouring book can allow one to think about nothing. The one I've got, at least, is very intricate and detailed. When doing it, I'm constantly thinking, "what colours shall I use for the intricate patterning on the cuffs," or "Aargh, my pencil sharpener has disappeared AGAIN!" or "what on earth IS that bit: part of the horse (and if so, which bit) or part of the armour?" But maybe I'm missing the point...

[purplecat]

Well I suppose it covers the thinking-about-just-one-thing part of it, provided you concentrate only on the colouring and not, you know, on the conversation about you.

[leesa_perrie]

One in sixty households equals everyone is buying it? And it's easier to say who hasn't got one, than who has? Yeah, riiiight! *rolls eyes* They do like to big things up, don't they?!!

I think the adult colouring books could work for me if I was on holiday, away from the computer, and needed a break from reading. Of course, that's usually when the Kriss Kross puzzle books come out, but maybe I should try colouring in for a change.

I, also, don't have a Christmas jumper. Fortunately.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

The colouring book I've got takes AGES - 6 hours plus per picture, and there are 40 or so in the book. I found it a fun thing to do when away visiting at Christmas, since it occupied my hands while leaving me free to join in with conversation. I've tried doing it while watching DVDs, but it doesn't really work. While cross-stich allows you to look up from your work for half the time, you need to focus on the colouring all the time, so all you can do is listen. Good with the radio or audio books, I suppose...

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

I could do with a new beard trimmer. The built-in rechargeable battery on mine now barely holds enough charge for a single trim.

Decades before this modern trend for adult colouring books, there was an AD&D Colouring Book with text by Gary Gygax himself. It's quite collectable and rarely seen on this side of the Atlantic. We've never had one in the Shop. (It's also notable for revealing that a female ranger should be referred to as a "Rangeress", at least according to Gygax.)

I bought prosecco in 2015.

What were some of the other retail trends that we were all doing...?

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

Um... Spiralisers. Nutribullets. 70s fashion (especially skirts and furry jackets). Beard grooming. "Athleisurewear" - sports wear worn as a fashion statement, including very expensive trainers endorsed by celebrity rappers. An exercise DVD presented by some woman from Geordie Shore. Diamante handcuffs and similar, inspired by 50 Shades of Grey. Coconut milk. Probably some other things that I can't remember.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

I can tick off beard grooming, but not anything else on that list. The other things seem to be about fruit and vegetables, sexual deviancy or (in the case of the exercise DVD presented by some woman by Geordie Shore) both.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Whenever I see an attempt to impress by the sheer magnitude of the total activity of something done by a large number of people (e.g. "Americans spent $N million on X last year!"), I divide by the number of people involved. It's always less impressive.

Even generally respected people do this. For instance, John Oliver did a piece exclaiming on the greater activity of state legislatures than the US Congress. Congress passed only 185 laws in the 2014 session, whereas state legislatures passed more than 24,000. That sounds staggering, but if you divide by 50, it comes to 480+. That's more than 185, but not orders of magnitude more.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I saw an article, ooh, ages ago that said it was particularly stupid to use a football pitch as a standard unit of measurement; football pitches are not a uniform size.

And the Christmas issue of New Scientist highlighted a new standard unit; "The arctic skua weighs about 450g, or as much as a Christmas pudding."