I bought a yoga ball the other day, to replace my chair with. I had heard they are good for posture, core strength, and kind of fun. So I got it, and I noticed on the box it was labeled “Burst Resistant” and I simultaneously thought “Awesome” and “Fooey”. Because I have the ability to think many things at the same time, which does get a little confusing.???
So when I got home and inflated it with the handy dandy little air pump that came in the box, I was overcome with the smell of the thing. I mean, it didn’t smell bad or anything, but just weird mix of rubber, mothballs, and something else. I suspect the makers package it with the gym smell pre-imbedded, so people who buy them for installation in a workout area aren’t wierded out by something that doesn’t smell terrible. In short, it’s a blast to sit on when doing anything, and I recommend it to anyone who sits at a desk for an extended period of time. I never knew that sitting down could be so exhausting. You can bounce on it, roll around, topple off it hilariously and giggle in a heap afterward. I’m not saying I did that, but I can vouch that it’s possible.
Then, while rummaging around my closet the other day, I spied the box the ball came in. The “Burst Resistant” labeling stood out at me again, and as I stared at the box, for about 10 minutes (I can neither confirm nor deny mind altering substances were in use) I took it as a challenge. “Alright, Bally Total Fitness 75 centimeter exercise ball,” I muttered, “we’ll see about this.” I threw a book at it, which bounced back onto my foot, which hurt. It was a big book.
One of my tools to destroy the ball
And from there I began to whale on the damn thing. When before I would absently bounce up and down when watching TV or writing or surfing the Internets, now I began to bounce as high as I could. I began to use it as a large soccer ball. Incidentally, it’s amazing how far the ball bounces, and how much destruction it can cause. In a short time I had broken a light, a small terra cotta warrior, three glasses, and nearly knocked my TV off the box it sits on like eight times. I’ve thrown it out the window a couple times, but all that happened there was I hit a bird on the bounce, which was kind of impressive. I’ve contemplated poking it with stuff, but that feels like cheating, right? I feel like only concussive force can be used in this “science” quest. But the damn thing continues to not break. I am impressed with these Bally’s people. I must call their scientists, because this strangely scented polymer they’ve made the ball out of is seemingly invincible. Maybe a fat guy could help me.
I’ve tried rolling over sharp stuff, because that’s just incidental action when it comes to rolling around, but the thing is amazing in its resiliency. I even used it as a weapon against my little brother, but again its bounciness struck back at me, hitting me in the belly. Perhaps if I knew karate, I could chop it in half. But alas, I don’t have the time to spend years in the Orient learning from the Shaolin masters. I have a yoga ball to pop. I hit it with a hammer a couple times, but nothing. Really, I am at the end of my rope. I’ve been throwing playing cards at it the last couple hours in hopes paper cuts will wear away at it, but so far nothing. Maybe if we lived somewhere near trains, I could put it on a train track. But I have a sneaking suspicion it would just make the train derail, and I’d be back to square one. Maybe even square zero, because I’d have to deal with a derailed train.
If you have suggestions for me, email them to merritt@letspopthisfuckingyogaball.com. Together we can find success, and kick this stupid, core solidifying, good time creating, son of a bitch back to where it came from, or at least assert our dominance as human beings over it. I’ll not be stopped by this inanimate object. I’m better than that. Maybe I’ll try running it over with my car.
This report is especially enjoyable to post because we’ve reached a few notable benchmarks since the last report at 90 days. We’ve got 16 new contributors, our Alexa Traffic Rank has been steadily improving and the content on VibeThat has become even more engaging and intriguing as the seasons go by. As more and more people discover this website and begin to share with us, this place will even more resemble a fountain of valuable and quality content that’s ready to be discovered from anywhere on Earth.
On the web, it’s a best practice and consistent recommendation of “web gurus” to specialize your web content and stick to few topics; to find a niche and park yourself there. But life is too multifaceted and people are too multidimensional to cut this idea off anywhere. The journey shouldn’t be limited to one or few idea streams. This website contains photos, nature, poetry, inspiration, love, success, stories, thoughts, ideas, events, quotes, videos, music, music videos, dancing, art, public figures, news, health, food, reviews, opinion and the variety is limitless. You can discover this website today, join the conversation tonight and have the entire VibeThat community enjoying what you’ve shared tomorrow. We’re still enjoying the transformation and continued evolution of this website from a pile of ideas into something quite greater. (more…)
This project is a continued inspiration; the immense effort to grow VibeThat these past few months has been astonishing to see and rewarding to be a part of. Each day provides a reaffirmation of why this website exists and why spreading love is the key. Thank you kindly for your support in spreading and helping to build this dream.
Some of the latest site upgrades:
Larger Author Gravatar’s (Profile Photos)
VibeThat.com now suggests “Related Posts” at the bottom of each article
“Shared Vibes” Counter beneath Author Profile Photo displays the Author’s total number of posts
Each Author has an Author Archive page with a listing of all their posts. A listing of all your posts within the VibeThat Community
The Get Started page clearly explains how to register to contribute, make posts, add your photo, edit your Bio, link to your website and more
Sweet new footer graphics and right column graphics
Alexa Traffic Rank is a measure of vibethat.com’s popularity. The rank is calculated using a combination of average daily visitors to vibethat.com and pageviews on vibethat.com over the past 3 months. The site with the highest combination of visitors and pageviews is ranked #1.
Alexa.com Global Traffic Rank over time
June 1, 2010: 794,898
June 9, 2010: 675,208
July 16, 2010: 403,679
Pageviews
Homepage Visits: 6,065
1,123 pages were viewed a total of 13,513 times
Pageviews: 13,513
Unique Pageviews: 8,141
Unique Visits: 4,171
Who’s Visiting VibeThat
Viewed in 65 Countries, 721 Cities and 44 U.S. States
Highest Traffic Countries / Territories
United States
Canada
United Kingdom
Puerto Rico
Traffic by State
Florida
New York
Connecticut
California
Massachusetts
Pennsylvania
New Jersey
North Carolina
Texas
Arizona
Top Viewed Posts
Lindsay White: 150 views
Eminem: No Recovery Mixtape: 55 views
Cosmic Soundwaves (posted by Nick): 49 views
George: A Story of Love, Loss and Redemption (posted by Merritt): 39 views
The Incline – Wait (posted by Jason): 37 views
VibeThat Authors: brand your posts! This video is short, simple and quickly explains exactly how to easily identify your VibeThat.com posts and comments using a “Gravatar” or Globally Recognized Avatar.
The result will brand all your posts on VibeThat.com as shown in this photo.
It’s cool, quick and easy and will help to promote and build your relationship with fellow VibeThat readers. It takes 2 minutes, go! http://www.gravatar.com
We’re proud to announce a bundle of updates recently put in place to enhance the VibeThat experience.
Attention Authors & VibeThat Contributors:
We love having you share with the VibeThat collective so we’re returning the love by branding your contributions! We’ve done this for a few reasons. To enhance your exposure, build a relationship between you and the VibeThat readers and provide an easily accessible thread of only your posts. You can link to it from your other websites, social networks, share it with friends and identify your contributions easily.
Now, whenever you add a post to VibeThat, the bottom of your post will indicate it was contributed by you, link to all your posts, show your photo (a globally recognized Gravatar) and display your Bio. It also includes a link to your website and will soon include a link to your Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, Facebook and other social media outlets to help promote you. In the future, this page can auto-update with your latest tweets, photos on Flickr and a whole variety of other fun features.
For now, here’s how to enhance your author credit.
From there, you can edit your Biographical Info, Website, Name Display and more.
Go to http://www.gravatar.com, create an account in 5 seconds and create your Gravatar (it is exceptionally easy). This image is globally recognized and the same image will be used to identify you across most websites. Make sure you use the same email you used with your VibeThat account to ensure the photo will show properly.
That’s it! Check out the bottom of this post to see what it should look like.
Upgraded the Contact Us page to make it easier for you to interact with us, ask questions and explore what VibeThat has to offer.
Signs of Progress
VibeThat.com is floating up the Alexa charts by thousands of positions each day thanks to all of you. Less than 2 months online and our global traffic rank has improved to 675,208 in the world — 56,542 in the US.
