Due to some personal issues that I'm trying to resolve, I'll be taking a break from this for a while.
Not that I think anyone checks it on a daily basis but I did think I'd try to have the courtesy to warn you!
Thanks, everyone.
23 January 2012
21 January 2012
Happy Squirrel Appreciation Day!
I appreciate them for sure! There are many that play tag outside my window to make me smile and there's a yellow-tinted one (I kid you not, it looks like someone dunked him in mustard-yellow dye) that lives in the park near here. I call him Rusty and he loves me.
Go visit http://squirrely.wordpress.com/ (I just discovered this website this morning and I love it) for squirrel pictures!
Go visit http://squirrely.wordpress.com/ (I just discovered this website this morning and I love it) for squirrel pictures!
17 January 2012
SOPA and PIPA and Congress
As many sites (including Wikipedia) black out today, I just wanted to point something out.
(And I don't know if anyone will read it but I do feel a need to say it.)
On the 24th of January Congress will be voting on SOPA and PIPA and many of them are in favour of it, as are most big media companies. The majority of Americans, however, are opposed to it in its current form.
Congress' current approval rating is around 11% -- the lowest it's ever been. (You know those "9 out of 10 dentists recommend ____" commercials? That tenth dentist is the one who approves of what Congress is doing, I think.)
Isn't Congress supposed to be representing the people? So...not just those who are giving money?
They better watch themselves. We (as a nation) have been grumpy this year.
This is where I would like to say something about the 99% and the Occupy movement but their current lack of publicity is making it difficult for me to get a certain stance on their thoughts, so I'll refrain. But keep in mind all of their fervour and what they were fighting for as well.
For more information, check out the text of the bills at the Library of Congress (SOPA and PIPA) and Strike against SOPA for more on the protest.
(And I don't know if anyone will read it but I do feel a need to say it.)
On the 24th of January Congress will be voting on SOPA and PIPA and many of them are in favour of it, as are most big media companies. The majority of Americans, however, are opposed to it in its current form.
Congress' current approval rating is around 11% -- the lowest it's ever been. (You know those "9 out of 10 dentists recommend ____" commercials? That tenth dentist is the one who approves of what Congress is doing, I think.)
Isn't Congress supposed to be representing the people? So...not just those who are giving money?
They better watch themselves. We (as a nation) have been grumpy this year.
This is where I would like to say something about the 99% and the Occupy movement but their current lack of publicity is making it difficult for me to get a certain stance on their thoughts, so I'll refrain. But keep in mind all of their fervour and what they were fighting for as well.
For more information, check out the text of the bills at the Library of Congress (SOPA and PIPA) and Strike against SOPA for more on the protest.
Rain
Now, don't get me wrong. I love rain as a concept (washing the world clean and making the flowers grow) and I enjoy it personally sometimes. Summer rains that alleviate the oppressive heat and lend themselves to dancing, for example.
Today is not one of those times.
I'm tired and not thrilled with the world to start with and it's one of those cold, windy rains where you need to be wearing a winter coat and your umbrella will turn itself inside out if you try to use it.
Now, I walk nearly everywhere. Most places I need to go are within a mile of where I live, so it's faster and easier to just walk and I do need the exercise.
This presents a few possible situations when I cross the road in the rain.
One, there may be no cars coming from either direction and I just cross.
Two, there are a few but there are gaps after them that I can clearly use to cross.
Three, there's a straight line of cars and someone makes eye contact and sees that I'm waiting and chooses to keep going anyway.
Four, there's a straight line of cars and someone makes eye contact and sees that I'm waiting and smiles and waves me through.
Five, something else (but this doesn't happen as often and/or I don't notice it as much and is not my point of discussion anyway).
Three and four are what I'm thinking about today. It's amazing, that one little decision can make a huge difference.
If someone sees me standing all miserably in the cold rain and chooses to ignore it, that makes me a bit grumpy and I've got that attitude as my lens for viewing the world for the rest of the day.
If someone sees me standing all miserably and lets me go first, I feel such a sense of...joy isn't quite the right word, but it's the best I can get. That one little thing can make me smile and feel happy through the rest of my day.
That one little thing can make or kill someone's day and I don't think the driver of the car realizes that either way. It doesn't make a huge difference for me physically (I get a tiny bit more wet the first way but I have a long enough walk that it's not noticeable) or for them (I kind of dash across because I don't want to hold people up or get hit by a car) but it can change my point of view.
And I'm working really hard to keep that in mind when I do things. Because really, if you can make someone's day brighter, why on earth wouldn't you?
How about you? Is there a tiny thing someone can do that makes a real difference to you? And how do you feel about the rain?
Today is not one of those times.
I'm tired and not thrilled with the world to start with and it's one of those cold, windy rains where you need to be wearing a winter coat and your umbrella will turn itself inside out if you try to use it.
Now, I walk nearly everywhere. Most places I need to go are within a mile of where I live, so it's faster and easier to just walk and I do need the exercise.
This presents a few possible situations when I cross the road in the rain.
One, there may be no cars coming from either direction and I just cross.
Two, there are a few but there are gaps after them that I can clearly use to cross.
Three, there's a straight line of cars and someone makes eye contact and sees that I'm waiting and chooses to keep going anyway.
Four, there's a straight line of cars and someone makes eye contact and sees that I'm waiting and smiles and waves me through.
Five, something else (but this doesn't happen as often and/or I don't notice it as much and is not my point of discussion anyway).
Three and four are what I'm thinking about today. It's amazing, that one little decision can make a huge difference.
If someone sees me standing all miserably in the cold rain and chooses to ignore it, that makes me a bit grumpy and I've got that attitude as my lens for viewing the world for the rest of the day.
If someone sees me standing all miserably and lets me go first, I feel such a sense of...joy isn't quite the right word, but it's the best I can get. That one little thing can make me smile and feel happy through the rest of my day.
That one little thing can make or kill someone's day and I don't think the driver of the car realizes that either way. It doesn't make a huge difference for me physically (I get a tiny bit more wet the first way but I have a long enough walk that it's not noticeable) or for them (I kind of dash across because I don't want to hold people up or get hit by a car) but it can change my point of view.
And I'm working really hard to keep that in mind when I do things. Because really, if you can make someone's day brighter, why on earth wouldn't you?
How about you? Is there a tiny thing someone can do that makes a real difference to you? And how do you feel about the rain?
15 January 2012
Constitutional Amendment Pick-Up Lines
"Why are we doing this and why are we so good at it?!"
As I was sitting with some friends and my mother, the subject of constitutional amendments came up. Because of who we are and the mood we were in, pick-up lines started flowing to the point where we decided to make pick-up lines based on ALL of the amendments.
Some are a stretch, some focus on the piddling bits of the amendment rather than the overall theme, some parts have (many) more than one. Some are sleazy, some are cheesy, all are...well, interesting. We had fun, though, and I found myself wishing that I had this list available to me back in school when I had to memorise all of the amendments for exams.
Please do keep in mind that this is us being silly and having fun, not trying to be politically accurate or at all serious. Do comment with any more you dream up and feel free to ask questions about our line of thought!
So, without delay and with no further ado, I present to you pick-up lines of the U.S. Constitutional Amendments.
As I was sitting with some friends and my mother, the subject of constitutional amendments came up. Because of who we are and the mood we were in, pick-up lines started flowing to the point where we decided to make pick-up lines based on ALL of the amendments.
Some are a stretch, some focus on the piddling bits of the amendment rather than the overall theme, some parts have (many) more than one. Some are sleazy, some are cheesy, all are...well, interesting. We had fun, though, and I found myself wishing that I had this list available to me back in school when I had to memorise all of the amendments for exams.
Please do keep in mind that this is us being silly and having fun, not trying to be politically accurate or at all serious. Do comment with any more you dream up and feel free to ask questions about our line of thought!
So, without delay and with no further ado, I present to you pick-up lines of the U.S. Constitutional Amendments.
- I’m glad there’s freedom of religion ‘cause I worship you.
- Tonight I will be
exercising my freedom of assembly…outside your bedroom window.
- Let me press
myself against you, you can’t stop me…it’s my constitutional right.
- You have the right
to protest but I don’t think you’ll want to.
- I’ll have you exercising your right to free speech all night long
- The government gives you the right to bare
your arms but I give you the right to bare everything else.
- The gov’ment can quarter you in my house
any time, soldja’
- You don’t need a permit to search my pants
and seize whatever you find.
- If you ask me if I love you I’ll have to
plead the 5th. Don’t want
to incriminate myself.
- Because of my
rights related to eminent domain, you have to compensate me for stealing
my heart.
- The grand jury in
my pants is waiting to try you.
- You put my heart
in double jeopardy
- There’s too much
power in my pants that needs to be balanced. Will you help me release it?
- We’ll have a
balance on powers. You can be on top.
- I’ll do your
process.
- The powers of the
federal government aren’t the only things that need separated.
- Hey baby, are you ready for your
trial? I’m afraid it has to be a
speedy one.
- I’d try to give
you a fair trial but you have no peers.
- Wanna meet the foreman of my jury?
- I’m arresting you for breaking the 8th
amendment because you...are excessively fine!
- When we get back to my place I’m going to
do everything to you that your government can’t.
- The Constitution limits the powers of the
government but the powers of my pants are unlimited!
- If you declare me sovereign of your pants I
promise I can do no wrong.
- You can be my mate but we won’t be doing
any running. ;)
- I’ll be your slave, it’s okay, it’s not
involuntary.
- I’m a man without a country. Can I be a citizen of you?
- The 15th Amendment gives the
right to vote to anyone with a penis…I’ll loan you mine.
- You forgot to pay your income tax so I’m
coming to seize your ASSets.
- I’ve been directly elected to fill the
vacancy in your senate!
- They can prohibit my alcohol, you
intoxicate me enough.
- Now you don’t need a penis to vote…but you
can still borrow mine.
- The inauguration of the new president may
come quickly but I won’t!
- Hey the alcohol’s back! Now let’s get drunk and screw.
- Let’ put the screw
back in screwdriver.
- Whooo! Party like
it’s 1933!!!!
- Baby I can last for waaaayyyy more than 2
terms.
- I have a district that has been
underrepresented in Congress with you, but the 23rd Amendment
now says I need to be let in.
- You can pay the poll tax personally with
me.
- I wish I were the Speaker of the House and
you the President Pro Temp of the Senate so I could be above you in the
“order of succession.”
- You don’t have to
wait for succession, you’re first in line for me.
- If you’re
incapacitated can I have a list of you next 3 hottest friends?
- Well now at least
we know who’s above who.
- Do you have a
little sister?
- 18 year olds can exercise their rights in
government and on me!
- The government is
okay with 18 year olds and so am I!
- You don’t need to wait until the next session, you can give me a raise any time.
12 January 2012
I'm a psych major
...and as such, I've learned some things and gained a ton of pet peeves.
(And before you say anything else, I'm a psych major because it's what I want to do in my life, not just because it sounded cool. Yes, I plan on going to grad school, yes, I have schools picked out, and yes, I know I'm not going to be rich. I do not want to do research or clinical cases. Anything else?)
Let's look at some of these pet peeves, shall we?
Not all psychologists think Freud is the best thing ever ("We all love Freud. Best coke addict in history.") but not all hate him either. I fall somewhere in between. While he was a misogynistic twerp who took advantage of a lot of situations and whose theories don't quite pan out, he did do a lot for psychology as a field. This includes getting people to consider childhood important to mental development, understanding that each person is different, and even just getting psychology some much needed attention.
I personally think psychology is a science, at least in the research department. Psychologists follow the same scientific methods used in other fields (such as biology), often with even more rigor (because they really want to be taken seriously) but they get a lot of flack because they're studying behavior rather than chemical reactions. They use measurable facts (fMRIs, heart rate, skin conductance, etc.) but some people still think it's just a silly game of make believe.
Therapy is useful. So is medication. Both of them have separate effects but neither is a panacea and neither works instantaneously. You have to work with your mental health provider to get the right treatment for you. And not all therapy is just talking about your feelings, nor do all psychologists/psychiatrists use the Rorschach inkblot test or ask you about your dreams.
You won't necessarily get a diagnosis your first trip to the psychologist/psychiatrist even if you do have a mental disorder (many refuse to do so as a general rule). Keep this in mind when a five minute quiz, a well-meaning stranger, or some other person or thing indicates you have a mental illness.
If someone really does have a mental illness, telling them to suck it up or ignore it won't help (and can, in fact, make it worse). It's a real problem and it's not just going to go away or get better.
The internet is not the place to go if you want to know if you're mentally ill. Go to a psychologist, psychiatrist, or other mental health professional.
And on a related note, random mood swings are NOT always the same thing as bipolar disorder. Just because you were angry and hyper this morning but feel depressed now does not mean you necessarily need a diagnosis.
Similarly, having rituals that you do (not stepping on cracks, for example) does not always equal OCD. And what people tend to refer to as OCD is actually closer to OCPD.
While I'm on this chain, schizophrenia is not the same thing as multiple personality disorder/dissociative identity disorder.
Movies and TV shows are not (generally) accurate portrayals of mental illness or the treatment thereof. So please don't use them as evidence or arguments.
I'm a student. I cannot/will not tell you that you're mentally ill or give you real therapy. I am more than willing to sit and listen and support you in any way possible other than that. Also, I'm not in psych mode all the time. I can't read your mind, I'm not psychoanalyzing you as we speak (well, actually, now that you've brought it up...), I don't understand everything about you and why you act the way you do, and I'm not diagnosing you with disorders constantly. (Yes, these are comments I've actually gotten and yes, I'm tempted to have fun with it sometimes.)
Those facebook tests that try and tell you about your personality? They're fun, but please don't stress out about them. They're not scientific. They can't actually tell you anything for sure about your personality, nor can they diagnose or treat any illnesses.
No two cases are exactly the same. People with the same disorder may have completely different symptoms and behaviors. This means a ton of things. Treatments will be different, for one thing, and you can't use someone with a diagnosis to diagnose someone else for another.
Think I'm crazy? Have some pet peeves of your own? Have a psych-related question (other than "am I/my friend/my relative/etc. mentally ill?")? Speak up!
(And before you say anything else, I'm a psych major because it's what I want to do in my life, not just because it sounded cool. Yes, I plan on going to grad school, yes, I have schools picked out, and yes, I know I'm not going to be rich. I do not want to do research or clinical cases. Anything else?)
Let's look at some of these pet peeves, shall we?
Not all psychologists think Freud is the best thing ever ("We all love Freud. Best coke addict in history.") but not all hate him either. I fall somewhere in between. While he was a misogynistic twerp who took advantage of a lot of situations and whose theories don't quite pan out, he did do a lot for psychology as a field. This includes getting people to consider childhood important to mental development, understanding that each person is different, and even just getting psychology some much needed attention.
I personally think psychology is a science, at least in the research department. Psychologists follow the same scientific methods used in other fields (such as biology), often with even more rigor (because they really want to be taken seriously) but they get a lot of flack because they're studying behavior rather than chemical reactions. They use measurable facts (fMRIs, heart rate, skin conductance, etc.) but some people still think it's just a silly game of make believe.
Therapy is useful. So is medication. Both of them have separate effects but neither is a panacea and neither works instantaneously. You have to work with your mental health provider to get the right treatment for you. And not all therapy is just talking about your feelings, nor do all psychologists/psychiatrists use the Rorschach inkblot test or ask you about your dreams.
You won't necessarily get a diagnosis your first trip to the psychologist/psychiatrist even if you do have a mental disorder (many refuse to do so as a general rule). Keep this in mind when a five minute quiz, a well-meaning stranger, or some other person or thing indicates you have a mental illness.
If someone really does have a mental illness, telling them to suck it up or ignore it won't help (and can, in fact, make it worse). It's a real problem and it's not just going to go away or get better.
The internet is not the place to go if you want to know if you're mentally ill. Go to a psychologist, psychiatrist, or other mental health professional.
And on a related note, random mood swings are NOT always the same thing as bipolar disorder. Just because you were angry and hyper this morning but feel depressed now does not mean you necessarily need a diagnosis.
Similarly, having rituals that you do (not stepping on cracks, for example) does not always equal OCD. And what people tend to refer to as OCD is actually closer to OCPD.
While I'm on this chain, schizophrenia is not the same thing as multiple personality disorder/dissociative identity disorder.
Movies and TV shows are not (generally) accurate portrayals of mental illness or the treatment thereof. So please don't use them as evidence or arguments.
I'm a student. I cannot/will not tell you that you're mentally ill or give you real therapy. I am more than willing to sit and listen and support you in any way possible other than that. Also, I'm not in psych mode all the time. I can't read your mind, I'm not psychoanalyzing you as we speak (well, actually, now that you've brought it up...), I don't understand everything about you and why you act the way you do, and I'm not diagnosing you with disorders constantly. (Yes, these are comments I've actually gotten and yes, I'm tempted to have fun with it sometimes.)
Those facebook tests that try and tell you about your personality? They're fun, but please don't stress out about them. They're not scientific. They can't actually tell you anything for sure about your personality, nor can they diagnose or treat any illnesses.
No two cases are exactly the same. People with the same disorder may have completely different symptoms and behaviors. This means a ton of things. Treatments will be different, for one thing, and you can't use someone with a diagnosis to diagnose someone else for another.
Think I'm crazy? Have some pet peeves of your own? Have a psych-related question (other than "am I/my friend/my relative/etc. mentally ill?")? Speak up!
09 January 2012
The internet
Can be wonderful or horrid. It delivers news both good at bad, it can frustrate you or make you smile, it can suck you in and take your life or it can improve your day.
I've been feeling down for the last few days for a myriad of reasons and I popped onto the forums of a site that I read daily. Now, I comment on posts occasionally and had only been in the forum once or twice before but when I posted about feeling sad, there was an outpouring of both support and attempts to cheer me up. People talked about how they'd be in a similar situation and gotten through it, they told me to hang in there, they sent pictures of adorable animals and generally hilarious pictures and videos.
I had never really spoken to any of these people, I don't have a connection with them, necessarily but they were still there.
And that speaks a lot for the goodness of people, I think (and a major supporting point for the internet). We hear about kids getting bullied and the stereotype of internet commenters being rude to the point of cruelty, but that's not all that it is.
It's something much, much better.
I've been feeling down for the last few days for a myriad of reasons and I popped onto the forums of a site that I read daily. Now, I comment on posts occasionally and had only been in the forum once or twice before but when I posted about feeling sad, there was an outpouring of both support and attempts to cheer me up. People talked about how they'd be in a similar situation and gotten through it, they told me to hang in there, they sent pictures of adorable animals and generally hilarious pictures and videos.
I had never really spoken to any of these people, I don't have a connection with them, necessarily but they were still there.
And that speaks a lot for the goodness of people, I think (and a major supporting point for the internet). We hear about kids getting bullied and the stereotype of internet commenters being rude to the point of cruelty, but that's not all that it is.
It's something much, much better.
05 January 2012
I want to know...
What does Snookie keep in her hair?
It can't just stay that unnaturally high by itself. What keeps it so elevated?!
Cupcakes? Live squirrels? Ping pong balls?
I know those can't be right. Any better ideas?
It can't just stay that unnaturally high by itself. What keeps it so elevated?!
Cupcakes? Live squirrels? Ping pong balls?
I know those can't be right. Any better ideas?
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