Chapter 7 - Sloth

Sometimes, sinning is just so easy. Ahh. Ahh, sloth. How can something so luxurious in its corruption have such deadly implications in its finality? While I might let those slow, sinful touches tickle me every now and again, when it comes to sloth, we're all just creatures of complacency. History is filled with great kingdoms, all toppled by inaction. The laid-back Seleucids fell to the fiery Maccabees. Apathy fueled the decline of Rome. And Marie Antoinette lays in her palace until the French Revolution literally knocked down her door, and chopped off her head. But when it comes to sloth, perhaps it's literature that draws a more perfect parable in forecasting our demise. After all, wasn't it inaction that caused Hamlet to falter? Or the lazy grasshopper to be outlasted by the hard-working ant? Yes, even the best of us have given in to our most idle urges. While most who believe sloth is a path to self-sabotage, for some, it's truly the key to salvation. All right so, this is the roll-fit. (man) Americans have become lazy and have really succumbed to becoming creatures of comfort. So it's pretty self-explanatory. When it comes down to losing weight, people do not have the willpower. They don't want to go through the old-fashioned way of just, portion control and exercise. You just sit on it and relax. If there is an easy way to do things, people are gonna do it. (man) In our business, we see a lot of patients that come in wanting a quick fix for their weight problems. Hi, how are you doing, my dear? Good, thank you. Everything all right? The tongue patch is easy. Go ahead and stick out your tongue for me. Perfect, all the stitches are holding. I take a piece of mesh, uh, stitch it to someone's tongue, and use that as a means of helping people lose weight. All right, give us a second. A lot of those patients basically just cannot seem do it on their own. I was a 1992 Olympic athlete. When I swam in the Olympic finals in Barcelona, I was 143 pounds. But, over the course of time, you know, I, I gained over 200 pounds. I tried, went on other diets, but, after like three or four days, I broke my diet. It's really hard. I think that's the beauty of it. It's the simplicity and ease of use. So, the procedure's pretty easy. You come in for about ten minutes. We numb up the tongue first. You can then put the mesh, which is about the size of a postage stamp, on the tongue. The way the tongue works, is the tongue basically scrapes across the roof of the mouth, uh, on its way to pushing that food bolus back into the oral pharynx. By putting that mesh on someone's tongue, it makes it uncomfortable to swallow something solid. We then secure that mesh with six sutures. So, if you can imagine having two barbs of that fishing line kinda poking up at the roof of your mouth, it hurts a heck of a lot. It really prevents you from enjoying the food that you normally used to eat. All right, let me have you stick out your tongue for me. Weight loss is a simple mathematics game. If you take in less, and you burn off more with exercise, that is how you're going to lose the weight. But, I think the big prohibitive thing these days is no one likes to exercise. (woman) Come this way. Open up, slowly get in. I think Americans finds all the excuses they can not to fit, uh, fitness into their lifestyles. Versa Fit equipment is for people who don't feel like putting too much effort into it. Vacupit is a treadmill enclosed in a capsule. And as you walking, you let the vacuum do the magic. And you gonna get a nice, beautiful, knee-opening skirt on you. We gonna basically make a vacuum. We are really recommending walking, but not very fast, to achieve the fat-burning zone. You really don't have to work that hard. I've never liked exercising because it's hard work. My former gym experiences were-- I wasn't getting the results I wanted, and so I dropped out. In the 30 minute a day, you can achieve the same results that you would achieve working out somewhere else for two, three hours. Row-Fit machine is one of the greatest little machine that is on the earth. You can sit down. (Kate) We have preset programs for every single body part. You will not see losing inches on your body. (woman) I want a flat stomach, higher ȧss and bȯȯbs. If I can manage that, I'd be really happy. Oh, and, um, more toned arms. It doesn't require much effort. So, for someone that's kind of lazy, it's perfect. It's the most relaxing workouts I ever had. You just gonna lay there, do nothing and, hey, I'm losing weight. Convenience is a huge part of people being able to get to their diet goals, exercise goals. I think if it's too complex and too difficult, people don't wanna do it. So far, so good? Yes. As far as the diet, you're sticking to the liquid diet? Yes. The Tongue Patch Diet came about as one of my dad's inventions, I guess. When I was traveling Latin America, I've seen how the procedure is done. But they did not have any kind of a structured diet plan for the patients. You're doing the three shakes a day? Yep. I like to seek that perfection in the work that I do. (Paul) During the Tongue Patch Diet, there are shakes that we provide for liquid diet. Because a person can't cheat now with a solid diet, that's where you get the results of the tongue-patch diet. So, you're taking three shakes a day to maintain your diet? Yes. Sometimes, I'm cheating, sometimes. I'm drink, like, soup. Just remember, the more you add to it, the more calories Make sure that your calorie count is low. Okay, yeah. It's really hard, because you have to count the calories you eat. I did try to eat once. Some chopped up tuna and it really was uncomfortable. It's not a torture. It's not excruciating pain. It just very mild discomfort, that's all. Sometimes, uh, bleeding, and I have lot pain. The patients that seek out this procedure, to them, it's worth it, yes. My body, as is, is very lazy. And if it doesn't have to move, it doesn't wanna move. When you have a trainer here with you the whole time, you never alone. So, it's gonna to be easier to stay with it. We're always looking for convenience in everything. Everybody wants everything easy and fast. I'll admit, I'm just as guilty of the convenience and, you know, easy lifestyle as anyone else. Basically, you're back to, uh, work as normal. You'll continue doing your diet and exercise, and then obviously we'll see you then in one week. People just need a little bit of guidance, and if you can give them that guidance and make it quick and easy, people are much more likely to do it. I do not miss eating. And I'm really, really happy about that. Most will believe that sloth is the path to isolation. But for some, it truly is the key to seduction. Oh, yeah. (birds chirping) These days, people can do anything on the Internet. And it's really struck me as odd that technology has tiptoed around, making sėx something that can be a practical application of a global network. I first came up with the concept of Frixion, when my girlfriend was abroad for six months. Can you try turning on your vibration? (woman) Yep. (man) We had video chat sėx, but it just seemed like there should be a better way to do it. Why would we be able to perfect Amazon. com before we perfected remote sėx? (woman) It's on. (man) All right, okay, I'm going to try. Frixion is a new kind of social network that enables its users to have sėx using interactive sėx toys over the Internet. It was about a year ago, that we came across the F1. They were selling it as a game controller. We were able to write software for this game controller to convey this kind of push and pull. It was a very intuitive step to attach a dildo on one end and a masturbation sleeve on the other. You might not wanna necessarily have a physical interaction with your partner. (woman) Do you feel that? (man) I do. These devices act as proxies, even if you're in the same house. Harder? (man) Yeah, it's working. We're able to create a convincing illusion of physical connection over any distance. I'm Robert, 29 years old, and I'm currently studying physics. My typical days, I'll go to school for three or four hours. Chill a bit. Making music, I'll read a lot on the Internet, I'll play some games. I'm Zella, I'm 29, and I'm a mother of a four-year-old son. I bring my son to school and then I come back home and house clean. Zella and I have been together for a bit more than a year now. We mostly see each other only on the weekends, 'cause during the week, we're really busy. During the week, we don't have sėx. So, sometimes it's kind of frustrating. (camera clicking) We do a lot of web-camming. But Web-Cam sėx isn't everything. So, uh, if she lived next door it would be easier. (man) How far away from each other to you guys live? I think we live, like, a half an hour away from each other. I'm online a lot. I just talk with friends on Facebook. I'll order food online, shop online. I never liked going to the mall. There's too many people around. But, you don't have to do those things anymore. What the technology does, is that it makes a lot of things in life way easier. I do spend a lot of time at home. I like having my own time, being alone. Just do the things that I like doing. Frixion is the closest that you can get to real sėx, right now. (woman) It's the robot with the style of my boyfriend. So, it's more than a robot. It took the frustrations away. Technology is really on a point now that it can take over. We'll have more time to do things that we actually wanna do. (woman) It's a good thing now with the technology. You don't really have to go to somebody to have a nice conversation. I have a lot of different users visit me on my Web-Cam shows. I have a lot of vɨrġɨns on there. They're actually old, and also some young. The Quiro is a vibrator for the girl and it is kind of a sleeve for the guy. You don't have to use your hands, as a guy. You can put it on your ċȯċk, connect yourself to Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, and you're ready to go. Each movement, what she does with her mouth, with her hands, or with her pussƴ, he can totally feel it. So, if she is going slowly, the guy can feel it completely on his ċȯċk. If she squeeze it a little bit harder, he can feel that too. And, you also don't really have to have another girl on the other side. We can decode pȯrn movies, so every movement what the girl is doing, the guy can feel it. And it really feels like you're having sėx. I think this is a very good tool for people that never had sėx, or that they are shy, or it never gonna happen anyway. At least this sorta can get the feeling how like a real, warm pussƴ feels. You don't really have to go to somebody else to have the experience, right? Go ahead. All right, so we can go back and forth. Can you go little faster? Not that fast. Right now, the company is in a beta testing stage, because we still want to make sure that there is no unwanted movements. We want to perfect the act of sėx. Little bit to the right. There you go. You can feel the difference between left and right? Yeah. When we're having actual sėx, Seth gets tired after a while, and we stop and we wait. And sometimes there's no continuity in, in what I want, so if I give him actual directions in having sėx, he would get a little tired or he'd move me on top. What other position can you do? Like this? (chuckling) All right. Doggie-style? (Seth) Yeah, just like that. (laughing) With the robots, you have the mechanical advantage. It's a cloud-based, artificial intelligence personality, that can learn to have sėx, by reading the telemetry of real couples, and what works best. Do you want to try autopilot? Yeah. Okay, I'll stop. (woman) You can still put on autopilot. And I could keep going 'til I was done. I felt no pressure in having to move position. I think it could give you some satisfaction. Once you have a profile set up on Frixion, you'll be able to interact with a, a random user and experience real human touch with someone that you don't know anything about. It would be like a virtual glory-hole. This really opens up the door for some instant gratification. I don't think that technology really makes people lazy. It just gives you an opportunity to not do those things anymore that you don't like. I think it could do away with some social interactions. For some individuals, contact should be unnecessary. It could work as a replacement. Apathy, indifference. They say these are the ingredients to a wasteful life. But for some, it's just good business. This will be as fast as getting McDonald's. My husband started the Adams Funeral Home in 1974. He worked in a funeral home when he was 12 years old and he knew that he wanted to be a mortician. He lived, breathed, funeral business. We provide full service, as it relates to taking care of one's loved one. Just so you have a, a visual of the chapel, this seats like 175 people. We do graveside services, we do cremation services, which we call a direct cremation, also, a cremation with the service. This is our drive-through viewing, as I stated earlier. And we are the only mortuary in Southern California with a drive-through window. The drive-through option is totally included in every package. It's probably most convenient way to saying goodbye to your loved ones and paying respect. (metal rolling and clanking) (Peggy) It was 1986 that they erected the drive-through viewing. Concept came out of the idea of convenience. We're lazy, I'm one of 'em, okay, and, uh, knowing that, my husband came up with this idea of the drive-through viewing. A funeral home in the South had this drive-through viewing, where you can look into the viewing room on screen. Mr. Adams' idea was to expand on that. The drive-through viewings stay open from the hours of 8: 00 a . m. to 8:00 p. m. For anyone who comes in that day to view, you can drive around, pay your respect and keep going. When they don't have to worry about any certain time where they have to be here. They can come through on a lunch break or they can come after they get off of work. Somebody might be tired, or if it was raining hard and people didn't want to get out, they could drive-through and keep on going. So, it's easier, it's quicker. When you drive through, we have a stand with a guestbook outside where you can sign to let the family know that you have paid your respects. So, it's really no different as far as the viewing process. Whether it's drive-through or if it's in one of the reposing rooms. When I first came to the mortuary, and saw the drive-through, my first thoughts were, you know, ugh, pretty grotesque, you know? But once I was able to see it being used, it was a certain amount of serenity that came with that. (turn signal clicking) Swing low Sweet chariot It's a calling on my life to be able to make life easier for people to pay their respects to that, uh, to the loved one. Swing low Sweet chariot At the end of the day, we really help people at the worst time in their life, and that's what does it for me. Swing low Sweet, sweet chariot For He's coming For to carry me home (bell tolling) Sloth, a sin so disarming in its depravity, yet so lasting in its perversion. But perhaps that's the problem. After all, what other sin requires such little effort for such sedentary elation? But who am I to judge? Until next time. Mmm, perfect.