Fast Food and Mental Health

Probably not what you are thinking from the title, but last night I went to Burger King and picked up "A QuickGuideTM to Depression" sponsored by http://www.myquickguides.com/. I was headed to an appointment, and was going to be unrealistically early, so I decided to stop for some food, but settled on Burger King instead (ZING!). The young fellow working the counter was very friendly. I was pleased with his customer service. As I was waiting for my food bag (just trying to make this report as classy as possible) I noticed a small display with about a dozen little pamphlets about various health issues. Some were about cancer, heart disease, quitting smoking; however, the one that caught my attention was the one about depression. As a student of psychology I find it interesting to see how mental health is treated in our society. From the drug commercials on television to the way that mental illness is portrayed in shows and movies, they don't always get it right.

I didn't have high expectations for the information provided by the Burger King counter pamphlet, but it was simple, provided a disclaimer and cited a valid reference for it's information. I thought it was good that the recommendation is to talk to a doctor, unfortunately, some doctors are quick to prescribe medicine without an accurate diagnosis. But, being that depression is real, going to see any legitimate doctor is a good idea. Psychologists are best, however, because they have the specific training and are better schooled in the current research, at least in comparison to psychiatrists and certainly more than a family physician, generally speaking.

Come On, Shoes!

I have spent the majority of the last 8 hours sitting at this table. I'd say dining room table, but I don't know that this area of the house where we have the table we dine on can really be classified as a room. It's more of a "way" than a "room." Perhaps a "space." I've been sitting at the dining space table all day. What have I been doing? Retying my shoes. Seriously, I've retied each shoe twice while sitting here. I can't even begin to understand how a shoe unties itself while on a foot that is just hanging around under a table while the owner of that foot types on a computer. If it was one retie I wouldn't give it any thought. Even if it was two reties on one shoe I might just dismiss it as an anomaly specific to the shoe, but two reties on each shoe? That's unreal. Especially since I always double-knot my shoes and I never have to retie my shoes while I'm out and about. But, an epiphany, the running round that would logically seem more likely to disengage a shoelace knot probably enacts forces on the laces which secure the knot, rather than loosen it. Those forces are not being applied in the same way as my feet rest restlessly under the table. Or maybe the dog keeps sneaking over and untying my sneakers.

One other thing, last night I was thinking about how people always complain about being at the end of their rope. I don't know why they complain, I was at the end of my rope and I found a kickin' tire swing.

Quote of the Day

The whole point of getting things done is knowing what to leave undone. - Oswald Chambers

I don't get it. That might come as a surprise to some of you, but I don't get a lot of abstract quotes. I don't know what makes a saying quotable. I assume it has to do with universal generalizability of the wisdom being shared, but then quotes like this one sneak by. The "point of getting things done," meaning, the end result of doing things, "is knowing what to leave undone." Why would I do things just for the sake of knowing what not to do? It plain doesn't make sense. I do things to get them done, not to know what not to do. I didn't go to school to learn what I didn't learn, I went to learn what I did learn. What do you think this quote means? Let me know. I'm lost on it.

Watch Out for Cats

A few weeks back my friend Bugsy was telling me about a pond nearby that is man-made and stocked with some fish. Apparently, putting fish in a water-filled hole in your backyard attracts heron. The heron that have come scoping out this new fish pond are from the other side of the tracks, or clouds, whatever the bad type of birds are on the other side of. These birds murder fish. The pond owners started finding their fish dead, stabbed right through. I'm not sure if they saw the birds doing it or not, but that's the story being relayed (I apologize for not checking my facts on this story, but given the possible danger, I think it best that I keep myself under the radar. You might wonder if it is good for me to be blogging about it then, but don't worry, birds don't read blogs). So the fish are dead. The birds are killing the fish and not eating them. This means that birds are murderers.
At this point in the story that Bugsy was giving me, I wondered out loud, "I thought humans were the only animals that murdered." We laughed and that was that. But then it wasn't that. It became a serious discussion about murderous animals. It seems on first consideration that animals typically only kill when they need to defend themselves or their young, or when they want to eat something. Humans kill for those reasons, but some, possibly defective ones, kill for other reasons, such as anger or injured pride. Based on the brain structure of animals, when compared to humans, it doesn't seem like they have injured pride, or even pride at all (have you ever seen them eat? or not wear clothes? no pride). So animals should only kill for "legitimate" reasons, right? Why are these birds killing fish then? It makes no sense. Especially since I've never seen heron around here before, they must be taking a long flight to get here, and then they just kill the fish and leave them lying around. Horrible. Anyway, we tried to come up with other animals that killed for more than just food or defense. Cats.
Cats will kill squirrels, birds, rodents, anything small and weak, like themselves. Then they will take the corpses and put them on your doorstep, kitchen table or bed. They almost seem like they are showing off. You might think, that's pride, cats kill out of pride, but I suggest that they don't kill out of pride, they kill for the pride. Cats have instincts to kill and eat. Domestication hasn't taken that out of them completely yet. The killing drive remains in tact in cats. Here's the catch, they don't need to kill because they are fed by their loving owners. Why kill and eat a nasty mouse when you have gnarly smelling cardboard cold cereal stuff? Exactly. Cats are well fed, but they feel the need to kill, so they do. They are programmed to kill and bring food back to their pride, their family, so that's why they put the dead mouse on your bed. You are their family. Cats and humans are the only animals that kill for the thrill, but really only humans, because cats are just doing what genetics tells them to do. That should suffice.
Given this overwhelming collection of facts (not facts) lets return to the fish-stabbing heron. If they don't have pride issues like humans, they must be being fed somewhere else, and therefore are not hungry, but feel the need to kill, like cats. It's gotta be one or the other, right? The real question now is this, where are the heron being fed? This is the investigation that I need to do. If I don't return, avenge my death.

Swivel Sweeper G2

I was thinking about doing a separate blog to do reviews and advertising through a place called blogadvertisingstore.com. I signed up for their program, but it doesn't seem to be working. Anyway, I created a separate blog and did this review as practice, but now I've decided to delete that page and just put reviews on here if I end up doing them. Why make it more complicated than I already do? And I'm not an advertiser, I'm a court jester. Well, here's a product review wrapped up in an anecdote. I hope you enjoy.
One morning I turned the TV on before ever getting out of bed. I saw an infomercial for this product, the Swivel Sweeper G2. It looked too good to be true. This little cordless vacuum was weaving effortlessly under and around furniture and picking up everything in its path. Nuts and bolts were no problem for the SSG2. Spilled cereal? Forget about it! This thing grabs it all. And emptying the dirt trap, well, let me tell you, simple as pie. I was enamored by the claims of the spokespeople. Perhaps it was the fact that I was hardly awake, or maybe the bright color of the sweeper along with the gentle hum of its motor hypnotized me, either way, I went to the website and ordered the product. I think what tipped the scales in favor of me making the purchase was the 2 for 1 deal at the end of the commercial. 4-quad-brush technology is good, but is it $40 good? It doesn't matter because I could have 2 x 4-quad-brush technology for the price of 1 x 4-quad-brush technology. That seems like an awfully inefficient way to say it, yet it has been said, no take backs now, unlike the 60-day money back guarantee (minus fees for shipping and processing) of the SSG2. I am now the owner of the SSG2, and I have used it. There are two questions that I wanted to answer with my purchase: does it do what the advertisements claim it does? does it do it well? I will first explain why I thought the product would be beneficial to me. My family has a dog, a black lab, a big guy with lots of hair that he leaves all over the floor, everywhere. I also have an autistic brother who tends to shred paper and advertising circulars that come in the mail. It is not uncommon to find the floor around the dining table covered with inch deep shredded paper strips. One last area of the house was on my mind when contemplating this product, the hallway just inside the back door. Jasper (the dog) uses that door to go in and out, with our help of course, he doesn't have hands. We also use that door to go in and out. Grass clippings get tracked in as the grass in the yard comes right up to the back step, there isn't any patio or deck buffer zone. So for a few days after the lawn is mowed there usually accumulates a good amount of grass clippings just inside the door. You might be asking why I can't just use a broom for these issues, why do I need a special little vacuum? Hang on to that question. The SSG2 arrived and I assembled it quickly with the included instructions, it was a basic task. I read through the user guide and charged the battery as directed. The next day I tried the product out. I was both pleased and displeased with it. Does it do what it claims? Sure, but does it do it well? I suppose. Is it worth the money, I say yes, if you get the 2 for 1 deal. I would part with $20 for the unit, but not $40.
Pros:
-works on hard floors and carpet
-picks up hair very well
-can pick up nuts and bolts
-swivels with the best of them, I'm talking moves like Fred Astaire
-maintains charge sufficiently long for going over floors
-light weight and easy to use
Cons:
-hair and strings get wrapped around the spinning brushes like nobody's business
-while it doesn't blow things around like a standard broom it does kick up a lot of dust
-can't pick up heavy flat things like pennies, I don't know if you'd want to, but if it can grab a bolt I think it ought to grab a penny
-it doesn't have enough power to pull things out of carpet fibers very well
What it comes down to is that the SSG2 can have a place in your cleaning arsenal. In my case, it won't replace a standard broom because it can't pick up shredded paper. It won't replace a standard vacuum because it doesn't have as much power on the carpets. I've never used a Swiffer Sweeper, but I assume that these two are going to be similar in function. The SSG2 gets points because it doesn't have a one-use pad that needs to be changed every time you want to sweep, but it loses those same points because of the film of dust and dirt that is covering it after you run it for a few minutes. Crumbs, pet hair and dust will get sucked up by the SSG2, and they are all easily disposed of with the pop-open trap door on the bottom. But with the amount of dust covering the unit after use I can only imagine how much more is going up my nose. Perhaps the Swiffer-types with their employment of static will send less particulates into the air, but they won't be able to pick up as much stuff without needing to replace the pad. All in all, I don't think the product is worth $40, nor do I think it adequately replaces a standard broom and vacuum. I like it for picking up dog hair, but I could do the same job with a hard floor vacuum, probably more efficiently. Too bad I didn't read my own review before I bought it, I might not have bought it. Interesting.