Okay, here’s my blog post about my recent experience with cushions, volleyball, engineering, and wooden flooring:

So, the other day, I had this… project. It wasn’t exactly planned, more like a series of unfortunate events that led to some interesting discoveries. It all started with a volleyball game.

The Game

We were playing indoors, on this nice, shiny wooden floor. You know the type – looks great, sounds great when you bounce a ball. Anyway, things got a little heated. I’m not the most graceful person, and let’s just say I took a tumble. A pretty hard one.

The Fall

I landed right on my, uh, backside. It hurt. A lot. The wooden floor, while beautiful, offered zero cushioning. Zero! My tailbone was not happy. I was out of the game, obviously. This had me thinking, there has to be a better way.

The Idea (Born from Pain)

Sitting there, nursing my sore bum, I started thinking about cushions. Not just any cushions, but ones specifically designed for this kind of situation. I imagined volleyball players, or anyone playing sports on hard floors, having some kind of portable, maybe even wearable, cushioning system.

The Engineering Begins (Sort Of)

I’m no engineer, but I do like to tinker. I grabbed some old sofa cushions and started experimenting. First, I just tried sitting on them on the wooden floor. Big improvement, obviously. Then, I tried to figure out how to attach them to myself. This is where it got tricky. Straps? Velcro? I tried a bunch of different things, most of which were completely ridiculous.

• Attempt 1: Duct tape. Don’t ask. It did not work and removal was not fun.
• Attempt 2: Some old belts. Slightly better, but still super uncomfortable and not secure.
• Attempt 3: A complicated system of ropes and knots that made me look like I was ready for some kind of extreme sport, not casual volleyball.

The Realization

After a few hours of messing around, I realized I was way out of my depth. My “engineering” was more like “mess-making.” But the core idea still seemed good. I mean, there are cushions for bike seats, for office chairs, why not for protecting yourself during sports on hard surfaces?

The Conclusion (For Now)

My personal project ended in a pile of cushions, tape, and frustration. But it got me thinking. Maybe there’s a real opportunity here. Someone with actual engineering skills could probably design something amazing. Maybe I’ll look into it further, or maybe I’ll just stick to playing volleyball on grass from now on. My tailbone would definitely prefer the latter.

Anyway that is what I did today.