Next time you're careening down the road on an evening bike ride, slowly take your hands off the bars and coast for a moment in the frigid air. Then, after you've got your balance down, tip your head back and stare straight up at the sky, the stars, heaven and beyond.

It's sort of like flying, and probably pretty dangerous.

But it's nice.

It's a different way to look at things, sort of like sleeping upside down in your bed.

I remember that when I was a child--and even through high school--I would reverse the orientation of my body once every few months, just to give me a different way of looking at my bed, my room, and at the way I slept.

When you do that, you'll wake up and want to get out of bed the opposite way, which, for me, meant trying to step out of bed into a wall.

But I'm pretty much done walking into walls, though I'm still all about changing my perspective, orientation, whatever.

I deleted my Facebook profile yesterday.

I was reading their privacy policy and realized that I just can't bring myself to be part of that perfect, shiny marketing machine that is every advertisers wet dream times 1,000.

From Facebook's own privacy pages, the fine print says it all:

Facebook also collects information about you from other sources, such as newspapers and instant messaging services.

We may provide information to service providers to help us bring you the services we offer. Specifically, we may use third parties to facilitate our business, such as to send email solicitations. In connection with these offerings and business operations, our service providers may have access to your personal information for use in connection with these business activities.

We may be required to disclose customer information pursuant to lawful requests, such as subpoenas or court orders, or in compliance with applicable laws. Additionally, we may share account or other information when we believe it is necessary to comply with law or to protect our interests or property. This may include sharing information with other companies, lawyers, agents or government agencies.

It's really become a cult.

I read a report yesterday that 85% of students at colleges where Facebook is available are registered on the site. It's just become too much for me; too invasive, too encompassing, too stalker-riffic.

The moment I realized that I couldn't delete my profile was the moment I realized that I had to delete my profile.

Isn't the Internet a terribly fascinating place?

Yes indeed.

Yesterday, while working out at the rec center, I was reading the same eating disorder poster that I had read one-hundred times over. It's right above the stretching mats, and my glance always happens to settle on it at one point or another during stretching, though it wasn't until yesterday that I really noticed it.

There's a little bullet point on it that goes something along the lines of, "Respect everyone else's body type and respect your own, because we each have different bodies." (Or something like that)

There's also a little comment reminding everyone that there is no perfect body weight, no ideal body type, and so on.

It just reminded me of the type of society we live in, and how so few people can look at a fat woman or man, and see their beauty, see them as a person; let alone look at themselves in the mirror and see their own beauty.

It goes back to perspective.

It's about sleeping upside down in your bed, just to get a different look at the ceiling... to look at someone with eyes that you normally don't, and see how you feel.

...

There's so many girls who wear makeup to go workout, and I have a feeling that none of them will ever be able to delete their Facebook accounts.

...

If I could have one wish it would be to step into your body for a day, and see the world through your eyes, because there couldn't be anything more revealing about you, but even beyond that, about me.

A new day is defined as the challenge of looking at things differently than the day before, ad infinitum.