Cluestick
Marketing Gone Bad - Volume 1,392
Commercials that try to paint minivan ownership as a virtue to be envied by others.
.45 cal hollowpoint - the other antidepressant
In our increasingly medicated society, I can't help but wonder whether anyone that partakes of the host of increasingly popular anti-depressants on the market has stopped to think "maybe my pre-medicated state is the way life is supposed to feel and the way I feel on meds is a pure fantasy."
The commercials pretty much say it all when they say "The exact cause of depression is not clear. No one is sure why some people get depressed and others do not...Today, it is widely recognized that depression is a medical condition that may be associated with an imbalance in the delicate chemistry of the brain...It is thought that not having enough of a chemical called serotonin may play a role in depression." That sounds very good until you take a closer look. The words "may" and "it is thought" aren't real compelling unless you're desperate for a solution. I notice that these words leave plenty of room for an alternate cause like, "Depression MAY be caused by having a very small orangutan stuck up your ass."
Another thing I find fascinating is that these medications seem to pretty much apply to everyone for everything. I have little doubt that if everyone could afford them, doctors would be prescribing them to the majority of people in our country. If so many people are suffering from this not completely understood condition, wouldn't it be logical to assume that the condition is, by definition, the norm? Wouldn't it also be logical to assume that if not the norm, that the condition is a reflection of the demands of life in the world we have created around ourselves? People also take ecstasy because it makes them happier. In fact, most people turn to drugs because they make them feel less depressed and more themselves. But where did the definition of "more themselves" come from?
I've read journals of people who admit they've been depressed for their entire lives. Yet they refer to how much "more themselves" they feel when on Paxil or Zoloft. WTF? If they have been depressed their entire lives, there is no possible way they can have a baseline against which to consider less depressed as "normal". There have been plenty of times that I've had a bit more than my share of a bottle of wine and I'm suddenly not under the immense weight that I normally consider depression. I feel happier, but am I "more myself"? Does this mean that the wine corrected my chemical imbalance? Somehow I doubt it. It's an artificial state...just like the anti-depressant.
We've all probably had plenty of times that caused us to consider taking anti-depressants since, more often than not, there's something to feel completely miserable about. I've certainly had cause to consider it. Then I think about the way EVERY SINGLE person I know who's taken these medicines has completely lost the capability to cope with problems. In addition I think about how, without fail, they don't see it even though EVERY SINGLE person I know who's not on the medication does see it. Then I read about the side effects of both being on and trying to get off of the medication.
And the more I read, the more it sounds like an effective mechanism of dulling down our society to maintain our consumer culture. And it's enough to lead me to the decision that life is loaded with strife, depression is a part of it and medicated life is not for me EVERY SINGLE time. I'll have time without angst when I'm dead.
Happy Holidays...now go fuck yourself!
To all of you seeking support for your technology purchases over the holiday season, who:
- Think you are PC experts and that that expertise must mean you know more than the product support personnel
AND
- Feel you are special and deserve special support because you are...well...you
AND
- Think it's acceptable to verbally abuse support personnel because you're an impatient pain in the ass and feel the squeaky wheel approach is the best
FUCK YOURSELF!
A: Your expertise typically doesn't mean DICK when dealing with any single particular application (and you typically don't know half the shit you THINK you know). If I had a dime for every shithead like you, I would be broadcasting this message over nationwide TV instead of posting it in my blog.
A: Get the fuck over yourself. You have no damned idea what people are going through on the other end of the support line. A little understanding would go a long way toward removing you from the list of reasons summary executions might not be such a bad idea.
A: Go ahead and bitch away and complain your ass off. You just got your ass stuck in the "special" mailbox. The "specialized" attention your email now deserves will unfortunately create a delay in response to you. I hope you're proud of yourself. BTW: Get the fuck over yourself.
What is the lesson to be learned? Easy. Things are tough all over. In case you hadn't noticed, US business's response to your demands for nice, low prices has been to cut back on personnel and outsource to the cheapest possible solution - typically in India. This means that the person who is trying to assist you is doing the best they can with an overwhelming workload and your impatience and self-importance is not helping you get your issue resolved. Work WITH the support personnel, compliment them when possible and realize that your complaint is really with the shareholders and top decision makers of the organization you have chosen to do business with. If you want this resolved, stop seeking the lowest price on everything you purchase and instead reward corporations with higher purchase prices for better supported products. If you want your low prices, shut the hell up and get in line.
BTW: The same goes for product quality in general. Welcome to the USA.
It's back to work...and back to normal.
Today was back to work day after taking some time off from both jobs for the holidays. It was comforting in a strange way to have little annoying pain-in-the-ass problems at every turn today. Let's take a brief look at today's shitlist:
- Both employers
- Co-workers at both jobs
- The CEO's of both employers
- Two different shipping companies (UPS and Motor Cargo)
- Our local phone company
- Biogen
- Mother Nature
- Our local forecasters
That's all I remember right now, but not bad for the first day back.
I've come to the conclusion that I just hate work. Upon further examination, it seems clear that it doesn't matter WHAT work, it's really an issue of expending any effort at all related to filling anyone else's needs. I guess I'm just not much of a people person.
Happy New Year!
It's nice that sometimes you get a pleasant surprise. Admittedly, it doesn't happen often, but once in a while...
Last night, 30 minutes into 2004, I was already disillusioned with the new year and wanted to just skip ahead to 2005. I figured, how much room could there be for an upside? There are a lot of things that point to 2004 being an awful lot like 2003. I already felt the "been there done that blues".
This morning, I woke up to snow. Lots of snow. And it's been going all day long since then.
Ever since we had our current home built about 4 1/2 years ago, we've been wanting it to snow here and it's been denying us the entire time. We had given up hope that it would happen at all. This year, we have had one previous snow event and a second nearby that kind of missed us. But this one has been special.
We got snow two nights ago before New Years Eve, it let up just long enough to go out with friends last night and let them get home safely. Then early this morning it really cut loose and we've seen about 4-6 inches since then. Admittedly, this isn't a log to much of the country, but relative to what we typically get, it's a blizzard. And on a holiday as well with the day off. And with three more days off to come.
It's been a fantastic day and they're predicting snow on and off for the next four or five days. Go figure...now I feel optimistic about the coming year.
