Stress, Meltdowns

 

Ashamed to admit – I had a monumental meltdown at work on Thursday. It was horrific. I lost control. I yelled, swore and slammed out of the building. I have not melted down like that in years. The culprit? Me. I have allowed stress to build up, build up until the inevitable happened and I exploded. It was a proverbial straw – someone who had screwed up and then lied about it. Something very common in an office environment and something, as a general rule, I am – sadly – used to seeing but for some reason, it was just one thing too much on Thursday.

I don’t deny when I screw up and I guess, I hope others will own up to their boo-boos as well. Hey, it’s a pie in the sky dream but mine own.

Looking at ways to deal with stress has been fruitless thus far – I’ve read the books, the articles, watched the videos and they all come across like crap to me. Obviously, considering Thursday – they don’t work. Oh, they may be all right for little stressors, like not finding a parking spot in front of the store entrance but for real life stressors – the stressors faced by most people these days, taking a walk isn’t going to cut it. Increasing fiber in the diet ain’t going to help either. No. Complete lifestyle change would do it but who can afford to do that? I know we can’t. I’d love to pick up and move, but to where? Subsistence agriculture? I would starve to death – I can’t grow things to, no pun intended, save my life. I would still need water, electricity and the ability to buy an aspirin when I need it.

When days are particularly bad, I’ll come home and play a computer game that involves blowing up little bubbles. This helps but it only serves to drive the stress underground or so I’ve learned.

I think politesse has a lot to do with this. We are raised, as women, (primarily, this is a female constraint) to be oh-so-polite and oh-so-nice, meanwhile our male counterparts can blow off steam and be seen as a MAN’S MAN whereas when a woman speaks her mind – she’s a bitch.

Perhaps it is time to throw off the vestiges of female subjugation and brainwashing – let a few of the people who are adding nothing but stress to my life, that is time for them to go. Buzz off – haunt some other woman’s house and leave my life to peace.

 

Electrify A Fence Around Worley and This Idiot

It hurts my intelligence to know that this woman is a member of my species – granted on the bottom rung but still…she’s apparently human.

In response to this Neo-Nazi, a gay man created a thought provoking video which serves as a reminder of what happens when good people do nothing in the face of evil.

You Asked For This Mr. Vic Toews

I have no sympathy for Toews; this is what he wants for us.  Here is it, mirrored back at him.

For the written transcript:  http://pastebin.com/JbEFyGGh

C-30 and Rights

The U.S. had its S.O.P.A/P.I.P.A and we, as Canadians are now battling government over Bill C-30.

At first, I just shrugged at it; I’m so used to being spied upon that this did not appear to be such a big deal.

My company uses a form of Net Nanny program, along with key logging and if you don’t already know that your employer can read your e-mail at any time, then you should not be allowed outside without a guide and a permit. You are simply that stupid.

We have black boxes in our vehicles, GPS systems in our cell phones, cookies that track our internet behaviours. There are security cameras everyone, in our homes, on the street, in the workplace. We are never, as individuals, alone. Someone is either watching or has the capacity to watch everything we do.

I’m a dull normal. I don’t cheat on my taxes, I don’t partake of illegal substances of any sort, I don’t drink and drive. I am not a subversive, I don’t donate to terrorist organizations and I’m not particularly active in any political arena as I consider it the original organized crime syndicate. In other words, I’m flipping boring from a surveillance perspective.

So, my point of view was, if someone found me interesting enough to be the subject of surveillance – well hell, that’s kind of flattering. In a Kafkaesque kind of way because I do relish my privacy, regardless of the fact that there is very little that isn’t common knowledge anyway. (I have kids.)

Back up a bit and check the tense of the previous paragraph – “So, my point of view WAS…” I no longer find this of no immediate consequence. It bothers me. If someone wants to read an e-mail or a text – they have but to ASK. Not sneak around but simply use common courtesy and ask. What really pushed me over the edge was the smoke and mirrors used by Vic Toews in pushing to have this bill made law; he claimed that if the bill was not supported then, the opposing opinions were siding with child pornographers….EXCUSE ME?

Then Anonymous came along and dished out a little of what Vic Toews was trying to force feed to the Canadian people – invasion of his own privacy. Let me tell you, Mr. Toews doesn’t much like this taking his own medicine thing. Being one of the political elite – he has called in the RCMP to protect his privacy. The Canadian people, the taxpayers don’t have that option and I can tell you that having my tax money spent on an investigation of Toew’s perceived invasion of his privacy, which appears to be far more sacrosanct that that of you or I, pisses me off.

I would like to see Anonymous start blasting all the personal e-mails and private business of the Conservative party and anyone else who supports C-30.

This bill isn’t about protecting children and it is absolutely sickening to see the welfare of our kids being used in this manner. It is about control. Total control over a populace.

It is not about democracy, it isn’t about protecting Canadians, it is about a government that has lost sight of what they were elected to do. Snooping in the hard drives of the nation was not part of the Conservative platform. I voted for them to keep our economic heads above the tides of financial ruin flooding the U.S. and Europe.

If they can’t stick to their original game plan, the perhaps it’s time for a vote of non-confidence in their ability to lead this country.

Respect for Day Care Workers

   I read a particularly nasty blog recently; the poster concentrating on a recent strike by daycare workers. The individual, obviously,  oblivious to bargaining processes and vital role daycare workers play in our society, it was a very hard read and in all honesty, nauseating.  She referred to daycare workers as “glorified” babysitters; I find her disregard for the health, safety and security of children appalling. There is nothing more important than the security of the vulnerable in our society – children, the infirm and the elderly.

  To be fair to the blogger, the current set of demands are over the top, 6 weeks paid vacation is an unreasonable demand. The other demands may, at first glance, seem over the top but this is a bargaining process. Anyone with even the most remote knowledge of bargaining, collective or otherwise, understands the best to be demanded is presented first and then, the bargaining begins.

While the best choice for a child is to be home with one of his/her parents during the formative years, sometimes, this is simply not financially possible. For other parents, yes – selfishness and materialism play into rather skewered perspectives and ethics but I would hazard a guess and believe that most parents would prefer to have one of them be home during those early years.

These people who have chosen early childhood education as their career deserve the recognition for the jobs that they do. They serve as nurturers, teachers, and caregivers to the most important members of our future, the kids. They are not “glorified” babysitters. Caring for these young charges must be incredibly stressful; I know that I, for one, could not do it. Composure must be maintained at all times, patience always a watchword, dealing with the parents, who as any parent is wont to do, consider their child the most precious, even above all other children. In this day in our age of allergies, being on constant alert for anything that may be brought into the facility that may cause a potentially harmful situation.

This is a career of dedicated and caring individuals. They deserve more respect that has been afforded them to date. The trust of a parent’s most treasured and indeed, society’s most treasured possessions are placed in the hands of these people, for in excess of 8 hours a day. These people are entitled to certain special considerations because of the very nature of their jobs. It takes a very special type of soul to do what these people do, day in and day out.

If they need personal days, then I maintain they should be given those days, if only to maintain their personal stress levels. Realistically, who among us would be able to tolerate a room of 5 to 10 kids running about, doing what children do – making a mess, creating noise and chaos at every turn. I know, looking back at my own stay-at-home mom days, the option of a personal day would have been so very welcomed and these were my own children. I could not even imagine the stress inherent in the responsibility of a daycare worker.

These people need to be recognized for the vital role they play in our society, anything less is unacceptable and a reflection of a society that has lost its sense of what it means to BE a society. It takes a village to raise a child and our village relies on daycare workers to stand in when parents cannot.

American Idiots on Sodahead; Good-bye

I was a member of Sodahead. It is one of those sites that allows for commentary on anything that makes the news, regardless of how inane. Unfortunately the inanity extended to the vast majority of comments, particularly in the political forums.

The vast majority of commenters are, surprise /surprise, American. The site is also a haven for trolls; those particularly annoying people who feel the need to create discord for no other reason than to create discord. Nothing of value is said, just the usual name calling, racism and overwhelming political ignorance. They do not debate, in fact, I harbour a suspicion that most would be unable to spell the word without a spellcheck in place, that they are, blissfully, ignorant of the definition of debate is a given.

Someone with no knowledge or experience with Americans could be forgiven for thinking the land is made up of people barely able to keep their knuckles off the ground. Thankfully, I do have friends and acquaintances who are Americans and I’m able to discern the American Idiot from the majority of the populace who do understand that the head has a higher purpose than as a place to keep their Budweiser hat.

I love debate. Intelligent debate. I love to learn new points of view. Let me qualify that – I love to learn new points of view that are based on intelligent observation. I suppose this is why I find watching anything to do with the current motley collection of Republican hopefuls so very, very hard to take.

Every morning I would head over to Sodahead, hoping to learn something regarding the American political system, to glean some sort of insight into the possible future leaders of the United States. It was an impossible task. If there were germs of intelligence hidden within posts and opinions, they were lost among the redneck diatribe of the obnoxious white sheeted Republican flag wavers. The barely concealed racism is stomach turning. It does not take much to imagine these people in brown shirts, sporting little black moustaches under their noses, even the women.

I love the concept of freedom of speech but I also love the concept of not having to subject myself to the poison dripping from the fingertips of these trolls and otherwise intellectually dead “contributors”.

And a quote from Thomas Jefferson, one of the American founding fathers, who were – by and large – completely against religion in government.

“On the dogmas of religion, as distinguished from moral principles, all mankind, from the beginning of the world to this day, have been quarreling, fighting, burning and torturing one another, for abstractions unintelligible to themselves and to all others, and absolutely beyond the comprehension of the human mind.”

212-777-3456 SCAM ALERT!

SCAM/FRAUD ALERT – DO NOT BOTHER ANSWERING ANY CALLS FROM 212-777-3456. They are scammers, probably using VOIP – they have a variety of pitches – Federal Financial – grant applications, Microsoft security technicians etc. They’ve called my mother twice today, trying to get access to her computer. Her “caller” had a heavy Indian accent and claimed to be a Windows security specialist. Do NOT answer calls from this number, unless you want to have a bit of fun at their expense, in which case, please let me know what you do and how it goes!

From the Files of WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?

First candidate would have to be JC Penney Corp. for this week’s prize.  Regardless of the blustering damage control the corporation is, currently, blowing out; “We donate millions to after-school education and programs!” & “This is not what JC Penney represents!”, the fact remains, this t-shirt WAS purchased by one of JC’s buyers and it WAS sold in their stores.
Somebody missed a memo somewhere.

And then there are the South Carolina Republicans…..

Also another example of “What were you thinking?!” I live 1742 km away from the state and even I know this man is the poster child for moral and ethical bankruptcy.

I was watching the news last night (I’m a sucker for punishment and have a secret Pepto-Bismol addiction.)
A gentleman, the noun is used in the loosest possible sense, was interviewed prior to vote and when asked who he had chosen, he replied, without hesitation, “Newt!”The interviewer went on to ask if the revelations regarding Gingrich’s moral character, vis a vis, his multiple marriages, did not give this “gentleman” pause for thought.  Without so much as a thought (obviously), this guy replies “No. I’m Christian and we forgive.”  I see. 

So one can break as many commandments as one chooses and one is always forgiven, in this man’s view. My own understanding of the commandments is that these are 10 rules that CANNOT be broken and forgiven.  Let’s face it, these are not all that tough to follow for a (cough, ahem, choke) Christian. I would have to say then that Gingrich is not, nor has he ever been, in his adult life, a Christian in anything but political hype.

Marriages can go wrong but when they go wrong for the reasons Newt’s went wrong? There is a definitive sign of a lack of morals, a lack of character. If something as important as marriage vows can be cast into Newt’s discard bin, then what hope is there for people or a country with whom Gingrich has no true emotional ties? Some people choose the open marriage concept but it is done as a couple.  Newt committed adultery and there is a very big difference.  The key being honesty. Gingrich is not honest and lacks the integrity to understand the difference between screwing around and an open marriage. If such a thing escapes him on so basic a level; what chance would the country have under his “leadership”?

Bad marriages happen.  Absolutely.  One can marry a bad choice but when the candidate IS the bad choice, you have to wonder at the combined IQ of the Republican registered voters in S.C. 

I imagine that if this piece of evidence of Gingrich’s lack of any sort of sign of character, with the exception of bad, escapes these people then his about-faces on such things as international affairs – Libya or the internet, are complete unknowns.

Examples?

Vladimir Putin

“Putin really is a generation beyond the first reformers of the post-Soviet era. He understands that the future of Russia is inside some kind of capitalist system. He understands that Russia is not going to be a global competitor. Now, he’s more authoritarian than I might like. But again, this is a country in dramatic transition. And when you look back 12 or 13 years, even his authoritarianism is remarkable, more open as a society than anything one could have dreamed as late as 1987 or 1988. So I think there you’re likely to see an emerging continuing American-Russian friendship.” – Feb. 28, 2002

“Putin represents a dictatorial approach that’s very violent, it was violent in the Chechnyan situation, it is violent in, for example, stealing investment money back from oil companies in the Soviet Union — Russia — the former Soviet Union. Putin was a KGB agent and he has a lot of KGB behaviors. They went out of their way in the last week to take on a small neighbor and crush that neighbor militarily. It’s a signal that he intends to assert authority around the periphery of Russia. – Aug. 16, 2008

WATERBOARDING

“I think it’s something we shouldn’t do…. Lawyers I respect a great deal say it is absolutely within the law. Other lawyers say it absolutely is not. I mean, this is a debatable area.” – April 26, 2009

“Waterboarding is, by every technical rule, not torture. Waterboarding is actually something we’ve done with our own pilots in order to get them used to the idea to what interrogation is like. It’s not — I’m not saying it’s not bad, and it’s not difficult, it’s not frightening. I’m just saying that under the normal rules internationally it’s not torture.” – Nov. 29, 2011

On Libya

“Exercise a no-fly zone this evening, communicate to the Libyan military that Qaddafi was gone and that the sooner they switch sides, the more like they were to survive, [and provide] help to the rebels to replace him…. This is a moment to get rid of him. Do it. Get it over with.” – March 7, 2011 (And a little more than 2 weeks later?)

“I would not have intervened. I think there were a lot of other ways to affect Qaddafi. I think there are a lot of other allies in the region we could have worked with. I would not have used American and European forces.” – March 23, 2011

Newt and Global Warming

“The weight of evidence [for global warming] over time [convinced me] that it’s something that you ought to be careful about…. How do you design a pro-science and pro-technology strategy that lowers the amount of damage the human race does to the planet?” – Feb. 15, 2007

“I actually don’t know whether global warming is occurring…. The earth’s temperatures go up and down over geologic times over and over again. As recently as 11,000 years ago the Gulf Stream quit for 600 years. And for 600 years you had an ice age in Europe because there was no warm water coming up. And then it started up again. Nobody knows why it quit, nobody knows why it started up. I’m agnostic.” – Nov. 9, 2011

And in 2006? Newt supported internet censorship and policing. He now stands in opposition of infringement on the freedom of the internet. In his place? Maybe he should re-think yet again as all his past indecisions, his moral corruption comes back to haunt him, via the internet.

I can only hope that the block-headed Republicans of S.C. are among the minority and if not?  Then President Obama should be in for another successful election.

Ch-ch-ch-Changes

I’m changing the visual format of the blog, so you may see older material first.

There is nothing new since the Rudolph/War on Christmas blog; I’ve been really busy with the silly season, work and life in general.

The Book of Incantations Was Useless. The Author Had Failed to Run a Spell Check.

   Apparently, according to WordPress, I should be updating my “About” page.

  Right, updating again.  New year is on the way.  Changes ahead, lifestyle changes for the most part – my mother has come to live with us and this is a good thing.  I don’t just love my Mom, I like her.

  Wondering about the employment front, whether or not my company/my job will still be around this time next year.  A question facing a lot of folks regardless of government hype and trumpets about improving economies.  I don’t believe it.

  Spending a lot of “brain” time on the philosophies of spirit and coming to a few conclusions.  When things are more coherent, I’ll probably blog.  It helps to create a coalescing of the thought processes.

  Need, for some strange reason, to contact me?  I can be found at wickedemerald@gmail.com

  I’m on Messenger as well but very, very rarely; darklillith@msn.com