Category Archives: OBX

Are Your Feet Electric Enough?

Photo from iStock

Do you “ground” your feet enough? There are whole bunch of people out there that walk barefoot because they want to connect with the Earth and receive some sort of electric charge. It is also called “Earthing.” What I want to know is, can I charge my phone that way? Could I just leave it on the ground and get a charge?

Whoever’s feet these are, they need to see a dermatologist

You know me. I’m open enough that I’m willing to consider all kinds of paranormal stuff, so why not grounding? My first instinct was that this is all nonsense. So, I did a little research.

First I wanted to know if the Earth’s surface carries an electrical charge. Guess what? According to AI “the surface of the Earth is negatively charged relative to the upper atmosphere which carries a positive charge.”  

The barefooted gentleman above is Mack Hollins, a wide receiver for the Buffalo Bills American football team. (GO BILLS!). This past summer he made waves after joining the Bills because, unless he’s on the football field, where his feet could get crushed by some very large men wearing cleats, he goes au naturel. If he’s not playing football, he walks barefooted because he believes in grounding. Mack and the Bills are having a good season, so Mack, feel free to go barefoot anywhere you want. If you are familiar with Buffalo Bills fans, this is our kind of “grounding”.

But I digress. This is supposed to be all about getting our toes muddy.

Just because they made this little diagram, it doesn’t mean it’s true.

I’m sure it feels nice walking in the grass, but I remember getting stung by a bee when I was grounding as a kid. I was way ahead of my time and that bee sting hurt quite a bit. So, have I convinced you to walk barefoot and fancy-free? What is fancy free? I don’t think I’ve ever felt anything that I would describe as fancy free.

Apparently it must be true because there is a movie about it. That’s not true. There are plenty of movies that are complete and utter rubbish. In fact, I think most movies are completely made up. But if you want to know more about the real benefits of grounding/Earthing, HERE is an article from WebMd. If some real doctors endorse grounding, then it must be beneficial just like all those drugs doctors endorse in TV commercials. I’m not a doctor, but I play one on the internet.

I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on grounding/Earthing in the comments.

Have a great weekend and thanks for reading! ~Phil

The Junk on Your Trunk

Yes, it’s the holiday season and with all the festivities we’re all probably adding a little junk to our trunk. But that’s not the trunk I want to talk about. Not that your trunk isn’t worth talking about. I’m sure it’s delightful, but it’s the junk on your trunk I want to talk about. Many of you have the trunk of your car or SUV festooned with some decorative statement about who you are. 

First off, festooning is never good. Just using the word festoon impugns my manliness. And you know I don’t have enough manliness to go around impugning it all willy nilly. The fact that I just used “willy nilly” is evidence of the limits of my manliness. Sometimes based on the junk on your trunk I also wonder how much manliness, or sanity, you have.

OBX: You think that you’re telling us you’ve been to the Outer Banks region of North Carolina for vacation. What we see is someone who misspelled Box, which is 13 points in Words with Friends. 

13.1 or 26.2: You see these numbers frequently and some of you may have them on your trunk.. Apparently they indicate that the driver has run either a half-marathon (13.1) or full marathon (26.2). You know what? If your such a damn good runner, why don’t you just get out of your car and run wherever you’re going. You can have the numbers tattooed on your real trunk. And what’s with the decimals? This is the United States! Decimals are for Canadians and their new fangled metric system. Oooooh! What a big shot you are! Did you run a tenth or two tenths more than someone? Apparently you have to run the extra tenth or two to get the sticker because I’ve never seen  just a 13 or 26 sticker. I wonder if there are runners out there who feel like failures  because they could only make it 13 or 26 miles. I’m having a 20 sticker made. That’s the distance in feet from my couch to my refrigerator.

The Stick Figure Family: What is this supposed to tell us? Are you all anorexic, including your dog and cat? I once saw a car with the stick figure family but it was just the Dad and two kids and there was a space between the Dad and kids as if there had been a Mom stick figure and it was removed. Apparently she got that in the divorce settlement. Somewhere there’s a sad, lonely woman driving around with a stick figure of herself on her car. If you’re a single guy follow that car to the liquor store. She’s probably an easy mark right about now. And if you’re a single guy, I seriously do not want to see what that stick figure sticker is going to look like. 

The Ribbon Magnet: There are so many support ribbon magnets that they’ve become de-valued. You can support our troops, schleroderma, autism, and your favorite football team with a ribbon magnet for your car. If you’re a left handed, autistic, football player from West Point who has bad skin you can probably buy enough ribbon magnets to put a ring of them all the way around your car. In fact, I’m thinking of creating a ribbon magnet for people who feel left out because they have no reason to have a ribbon magnet. 

Yes, I know there isn’t much of a holiday theme to this one, but if you want to give the gift of The Phil Factor for Christmas, Hannukah or Kwanzaa just click the Facebook “Like” button below. The Phil Factor can also be delivered wirelessly to your Kindle wherever you are for just 99 cents a month. You can follow me on Twitter @ThePhilFactor and find me on Words with Friends as Phil2365.