An Ailment and an Excuse: Crazy Mania!

Mental Illness in all its forms is a relatively new discovery within the last century. Before the APA and other such organizations, Mental Illness was the way to describe a "crazy" person who had no other way to describe their behavior and their mental capacity. What started out as locking people up for insanity transitioned into more pleasing, medical ways to deal with the troubles of the now defined psychological disorders. But even with list of psychological ailments, plethoras of different drugs for different cranial problems, and a therapy center on every street corner, we as the American people have catalogued a lot about what we really don't know about our own minds. I think we are playing with fire. I do not refute that people do have mental illness, but now I believe it has become a fad to be mentally ill. I mean this by way of depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, and psychizophrenia to name a few. Everyone I know takes some sort of pill and just about everyone has been to a therapist or a psychologist. But this just in. . .which we have known about even before all those diseases. . .LIFE IS HARD. I know it's a big shocker, but just because you have an abnormal thought doesn't mean you are crazy, just because you feel sad once in awhile doesn't mean you have depression. Depression is a chemical imbalance AND a mindset. I firmly believe that Depression and other such disorders exist, but I also think they become excuses for people not to fully live out their lives. The invention (and indeed it was that because someone put the label on at some point) of Depression is a loophole for really lazy people to get out of working. Feigning "crazy" with psychizophrenia is a reason to claim unemployment from the government. It's a reason to live in fear everyday and it's a reason to give yourself to stay in bed. It's a way to claim life when really you feel dead. Maybe you are depressed, but how do we pump you back up full of gumption? How do we weed out these imposters? We study the brain and its processes more. Eventually heat imbalances and brain waves will scientifically prove the depression of a person or maybe not, but in the mean time before you pop one of those happy pills prescribed because you filled out a questionaire about your happiness levels, maybe you'll want to try exercise, eating right, not doing other recreational forms of drugs, and setting some goals for yourself. Happiness means some form of movement in ones own life. Say no to crazy mania and being lazy. . .I fight it everyday. . .I don't always win, but I think you need more than just the thought you have depression. Don't find excuses. . .find answers. OR maybe I'm crazy.

Check your stub! Payroll Errors Abound!

I have not trusted my employer since I started working there. Neither should you. The employer -whether it be a private owner or a corporation- is out to make money. As a responsible person, you should keep track of your hours worked, your salaries, and all of the withholdings in your check. Humans work on these things and errors do abound. Today I discovered that I am perhaps being screwed on my paycheck and that my employer is taking away half of my wages. Don't let it happen to you!

Here are some helpful links:
Paycheck Article
Free Paycheck Calculator!

Culture of Bitterness

I am a firm believer if you draw smiley faces on everything, it makes everyone in the surrounding environment more happy. If not for the actual niceness of the gesture for the absurd factor. Please don't puke. It's true.

Are you bitter? If the answer to that is yes, what made you that way? Do you say harsh and cruel things that hurt other peoples feelings? -that slander other people's reputations?Subconsciously or Consciously? Think deep about it. I have met so many people in this world that are bitter to the core. I make a daily and concerted effort to ward off the bitterness disease. I know people talk about people. Gossip is natural and I don't condemn it, but when that gossip or talk directly affects someones personal life whether it be their job or their survival in a social setting, ask yourself why do you do it? What do you lack in your own life? Do you hate the person you are trash talking? If so, why? What makes you not like them? Is their lifestyle different than yours? I think just as love, hate is natural. We are not meant to like everyone, but in this day and age, why do you let yourself be absorbed by so much hatred, when there is so much to love. Where has all your motive for living gone? Is bitterness just as natural as old age?

Most of these are rhetorical questions, but the anger I have seen come out of some people in my life is quite frightening. They could be so much happier, if they just made an effort. But trying is too hard for some people. Maybe it's a brain thing. Maybe some people are born with it. Well when they find pleasure in hurting others, I hope something else makes them happier and eventually they will turn to it OR realize how impossible they are to others. I have been bitter before, I am not perfect, I think a little bit of bitterness is natural, but sometimes we have to find other things to find the harder emotions to obtain -like happiness. Search. Plan. Goal set. Match. Please.

Riding your bike pays off!

I have started riding my bike to work in these first months of summer. I realized a few simple things about this when I started. One you are more aware of the world in general when you ride your bike. You are experiencing the world first hand: the wind, the ground, the rain, the dust, the dirt. I don't mean to sound poetic, but riding your bike is a poetic experience. Second you are more aware of yourself. Your body reacts to certain conditions: your wet skin in the rain, your taught muscles as your legs work the pedals, and the sound of your breathing. This is what life is all about, I think -building endurance and working toward something simpler, perhaps more healthy while enjoying the planet. Lastly the bike is a simple machine that makes us conscious and responsible for our world and it does little damage to everything else. Think about all the money I save on gas, all the exhaust I do not leave behind polluting the atmosphere, and the workout I get in the process. It's not always easy riding your bike given the weather conditions or how we feel. Our bodies and minds are prone to get lazy, but we must keep pedaling towards something. Here is a story that might make you want to purchase a bike, if not for the health reasons, maybe for the greedy.

Pedaling Pays Off

After a long day at work, I began my trek from St. Paul into Minneapolis as the sun was setting. I ride my bike home on Franklin Ave. this long mountainous street that descends into Minneapolis' Seward neighborhood. This particular ride always makes me nervous given the three facts that I have not purchased a light for my bike, the neighborhood is a bit full of homeless people, and the mountain requires little pedaling and as I descend my road bike becomes a bit wobbly with speed and I fear I may go so fast that my body will fly over the handlebars. But the wind in my hair with light pressure on the brakes and all the neat things I get to look at makes up for it. One thing caught my eye. As I began my descent, passing a red car on the street, I noticed something that looked like a twenty dollar bill rolled up. I noticed it because I was watching for cracks in the road which could throw me from my bike. I pulled a U turn, straining the ascent back up the road and I pulled up. Indeed, a rolled up twenty dollar bill on the ground. Without a second thought about the owner of the money, I scooped it up and descended the mountain. I could try to find the owner, I rationalized, but ANYBODY is going to say they lost it -especially the owner of the red car. I decided in good conscience: Finders Keepers, Losers weepers. And I descended the mountain without a second glance or a look at the money clenched in my fist.

I arrived home and put my bike away and went into my room. I unrolled the money and discovered, no, not one, not two, not three, BUT four twenties rolled up. I just made eighty dollars for riding my bike. Nobody in a car would find a treasure that sweet unless a bird shit money into their open window or they were in an accident and got to sue the bastard that hit them. And when is that going to happen? Not likely and Not in good conscience.

It just goes to show that bike riding is affordable, healthy, economic, and makes one much luckier than those in automobiles. I say, if you can ride a bike and want to make a change for yourself, START NOW. Trust me, you'll feel better in the long run.

Uncovering the Strange #2: The Lion and the Banana T-shirt

Hi. I'm on a quest to find a certain T-shirt that was sold by Urban Outfitters either last season or the season before that. I have called the companies 1-800 number and I've been all over the website searching for banana and lion and tee etc. It is a grey shirt with a giant male lion's head on it AND in front of the open lion's mouth a slightly unpeeled banana. It appears that the lion is getting ready to chomp on the banana. I have no idea why I like this t-shirt so much. Maybe it is part of my quest to obtain subconsciously some sort of elite masculinity. I hope not, but I do like the shirt. I didn't buy it originally because it was very expensive and wanted to wait until it went down in price, but now it appears to have disappeared. I will call customer service later today in order to attempt to find it. But if anybody has any leads on where I can get this shirt, please bring it to my attention.

This picture has nothing to do with this post. I just think it's cute. Love, Me.