Social Etiquette

This has happened to me a few times lately and I'm wondering what's socially correct:

You run into someone you know, you're both walking the same direction, but they're on their phone.

What do you do? I'm ok with waving or saying hi, but once you both get in stride, do you just walk with them awkwardly and listen to their conversation? Do you attempt to not get in stride with them and speed up? If you can prevent the situation, do you hang back and wait till they're off their phone? I've done the 'awkwardly walking with someone' and the 'speed up after the initial greeting'. Neither felt right. One possible solution is to call someone from your phone so you're at least talking to someone. Extra points if you call the person you're walking with.


There was an article in Men's Health that talked about this guy who had to try to hit a target by throwing hatchets at it. Initially, they gave him a bunch of hatchets and told him to take as much time as he needed to try to get it right in the center. When they did it again, they had a table of hatchets and told him to throw them as fast as he could. Surprisingly, he did better when he didn't think. It's cool that your brain has those 'auto-pilot' mechanisms that were needed at some point in evolution. It's like if you're throwing a ball to someone, you never think about the distance, you just know how hard to throw it naturally. Complex calculations like that happen all the time.
Recent example: We were playing beer pong before formal and I went to swat a bounced ball across the room as hard as I could. Right before I hit it (arm in full motion) I realized that I was going to hit Damali in the face with the ball. It wasn't a "I hope that doesn't hit her." It was more of a "Damali's going to be pissed that I smoked her in the face with a ping pong ball." There was no doubt that it was going to fly right into her face, but it was too late to stop my swing. She was fine, it only got her in the cheek...


I had a spam message the other day where the subject was "write me back, bastard". Not gonna lie, it got my attention. One day, go through your spam and read the subject lines, it'll be entertaining, I promise. Most of them are ridiculous, but others promise things that only exist in fantasy. Things so amazing that even the idea that they might be real screams that they're not. Like "angelina jolie scarlett johansson sex tape".


Wouldn't it be cool to have a certain disease for a day? Just to see how it is and what it feels like. I think it'd help our clinical understanding, but much moreso, some would just be fun to mess with. Imagine if you had asteriognosis, how cool would that be? I know it'd be frustrating beyond belief to have permanently, but just for a bit, it'd be kinda neat. Or some of the balance disorders? I guess this would be more fun at parties. Then again, isn't impairing your senses the point of most parties?