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Delayed gratification, spiders and bikinis

Elizabeth was watching a TV advertisement this morning with two children on it who were both offered a chocolate fish and told that if they waited a short while before eating it they could have another. It was the classic marshmallow experiment of delayed gratification except using chocolate fish instead of marshmallows.

Ben decided to ask Elizabeth what she would do. Would she eat the chocolate fish straight away or wait a little bit and get two of them? Her response: “I would go and get the packet and take another one out”. How’s that for resourcefulness and lateral thinking?

I am terrified of spiders and recently a daddy long legs decided to make the dash board of my car his home. This has been tolerable, just, because at least I can see him and he sticks to his web and daddy long legs are probably the least scary of all spiders. However occasionally he moves about and forces me to focus on him rather than the road so I thought it prudent to get Ben to remove him from the car altogether. Unfortunately though, in the process of removal, Ben somehow lost him and he (the spider) crawled behind the steering wheel. Now I can’t see him at all! I preferred it when he was on the dash in a web! I am now waiting for the moment when he crawls up onto my fingers…..

I didn’t notice any increase in my stats as a result of yesterday’s post. I don’t know what to make of this. Either there are no perverts in this world – and I really don’t believe that – or no-one is interested in seeing me in a bikini – and I should probably be offended if that’s the case – or maybe the world is becoming asexual.

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Rachel M

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Comments

23 responses to “Delayed gratification, spiders and bikinis”

  1. Victor Venema Avatar
    Victor Venema

    A vegan diet is the ultimate marshmallow test. 🙂 So is not clicking on a bikini trap, where is helps if your RSS reader shows you a thumbnail of a young girl stamping on her shadow.

    Reply
    1. Rachel Avatar
      Rachel

      Except that it wasn’t a trap….

      How is a vegan diet the ultimate marshmallow test? Vegan food is delicious and can be eaten in vast quantities without that sickly full feeling you get after meals with lots of animal fat.

      Reply
      1. Victor Venema Avatar
        Victor Venema

        A failed attempt at making a compliment. The marshmallow test is a good predictor for success in life.

        Let just say that from the perspective of a non-vegan, it is a test. If it would be seen as having only advantages there would be no non-vegans and it would be somewhat surprising that no vegan cultures exist.

      2. Rachel Avatar
        Rachel

        Oh ok, well thanks I think.

        There was a recent study of the marshmallow experiment which found that it’s not just an individual’s self control but also their environment which plays a part in whether they’ll eat the marshmallow straight away or not – Rational snacking: Young children’s decision-making on the marshmallow task is moderated by beliefs about environmental reliability.

      3. grahamatlinc Avatar
        grahamatlinc

        I hate those kind of tests with thier assumptions. It might be that a person does not want more than one or is hungry now with prospects of dinner soon.

      4. Rachel Avatar
        Rachel

        That’s true. Or maybe they don’t like marshmallows.

  2. Bronwyn Avatar
    Bronwyn

    Obviously, Elizabeth isn’t going to be held down by any silly marshmallow test. Did Daniel say what his strategy would be?

    As for the bikini trap, it was probably way too tame. If you find a reason to discuss pornography, I’m sure you’ll get more hits.

    You have my sympathy with the Daddy Long Legs. I’m very fond of them and have a lot in my house. However, phobias are no fun. If I was afraid of spiders, I’d have to camp outside. I certainly hope you manage to find and remove the unwelcome inhabitant in your car. Not really contributory to driving pleasure. Good luck!

    Reply
    1. Rachel Avatar
      Rachel

      Bronnie,

      I just got around to asking Daniel what he would do in the marshmallow test and he said he’d wait so that he could have two.

      The daddy long legs has just appeared back on my dash. Perhaps I’ll leave him there for company 🙂

      Reply
      1. Bronwyn Avatar
        Bronwyn

        Daniel must have good impulse control. I’m sure I would have gone for instant gratification. 🙂 Perhaps you should get Ben to make one last attempt to rehome Mr D Long Legs.

      2. Rachel Avatar
        Rachel

        When I turn the air-con up high the spider goes a bit nuts and starts moving around which I find very distracting.

  3. acetheist Avatar
    acetheist

    Why is this in the asexual tag?

    Reply
    1. Rachel Avatar
      Rachel

      Because I was speculating as to whether the world was becoming asexual. Perhaps I was a bit generous with my choice of tags.

      Reply
  4. grahamatlinc Avatar
    grahamatlinc

    err bikini = tame ~ not that I’m encouraging you to be delinquent. 🙂

    Reply
    1. Rachel Avatar
      Rachel

      Yes, all right, it’s tame but I’ve got to maintain some sort of respectability.

      Reply
      1. grahamatlinc Avatar
        grahamatlinc

        Your quite right, somebodies got to do it. I wouldn’t even go so far as to wear a bikini. 🙂

  5. Kit Carruthers Avatar
    Kit Carruthers

    Interesting, I would have thought you’d get a spike of hits! On my Flickr page, I get about 5-10 hits a day for this photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gingerfox/4008926481/ based on the search term “handjob” (Don’t worry, the photo is safe!)

    Reply
    1. Rachel Avatar
      Rachel

      Lol, that’s so funny. Obviously I needed to put “handjob” in the title instead.

      Reply
  6. belsbror Avatar
    belsbror

    Nope. The world is not becoming asexual. People watch their actions and words more closely lest they could be labelled such as so and so by anyone.
    I am reading from the most recent backwards.

    Reply
    1. Rachel Avatar
      Rachel

      Yes, I suspect you’re right, belsbror. I wasn’t really being serious when I said that but there is a certain amount of political correctness these days which probably makes the world seem more so.

      Reply
      1. belsbror Avatar
        belsbror

        Political correctness works sometimes. Otherwise, it is used to silence people. That’s sad.

  7. Sherri Avatar
    Sherri

    Elizabeth will go far, you can be sure of that 🙂 I’m not scared of spiders but terrified of wasps and when I had one in the car once I almost crashed it such was my desperation to get it out. I hope you won’t have that problem…!
    As for the bikini, I’m catching up with your posts backwards so am intrigued… 😉

    Reply
    1. Rachel Avatar
      Rachel

      Wasps are worse than spiders but for some reason I don’t have the same illogical response when I see them. With spiders I react before thinking, but most other creepy crawlies I can tolerate. I don’t even mind snakes. I’m glad you didn’t crash!

      Reply
      1. Sherri Avatar
        Sherri

        Me too 🙂

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