I was thinking...

There's a giant difference between sadness and depression. Sadness is an emotional state, depression is a physiological condition. When you're really sad, you feel sad. Everyone has felt sad. Even dogs feels sadness, especially when you eat in front of them. Depression, however, is debilitating. It's something that makes you stay --stay in bed, stay at home, stay in a rut, etc. Without actual chemical intervention, there is no change. You can't laugh your way out of depression. Chances are you've been laughing all the way through depression, but it's a greater issue than tiny hits of endorphin (street name "smiles times"), the same biological drug that's released during extended periods of exercise. If that's all you're using to treat depression, you will remain rutted. So, here are three simple tips you've already been told about (tell your friends.) Take things one little step at a time Big Bird Knows The best a d

Whenever I look at the reports from various media sources in our country, I notice there’s a high  concentration of depravity and fear, which is nothing new. But, what we as the viewing public  are being targeted for is to fear not only the weather and the government, but each other. There  seems to be a growing percentage of the population who delves too deeply into this fear, creating seeds o f paranoia to be scattered throughout the nation. I think the calculated origin of these issues is reinforced by idle ignorance . It’s a common practice in the United States to love what is most convenient: i.e. fast food, high speed internet, fast cars, convenience stores with low prices, less working hours for more money, etc. This omnipresent attitude has lead to many things, some of which are very beneficial, and some that are very damaging. The benefits range from better access to greater amounts of information to avenues for a possible global community. The less beneficial consequen

In case you were worried, I believe there is a hierarchy of what we consider to be analogies in our language; Standard Analogy : A series of thoughts and comparisons which convey similarities between two seemingly unrelated ideas Parallel : A series of thoughts and comparisons which convey a distinct, direct relationship between two ideas Parable : A series of thoughts and comparisons which convey a greater truth from within the elements of the comparison With these in mind, I will share a standard analogy . A seed knows nothing more than being a seed. If it were to become sentient, then it would begin to detect its environment in order to gain further self-awareness. It might discover remarkable things, at least by its little standards, but it would still remain nothing more than a seed. Once a seed has been buried and has shed its hard, outer layer, it begins to take root. Eventually, it will rise above the surface. Over the course of a few weeks, it will begin t

I hate money--I hate money. The thing I hate most about money is that I need it to live. Yeah, I hear you: “You can just give all your money to me, then,” right? You’re hilarious. You can have all of it the moment I don’t need it to survive, anymore. And don’t tell me it’s a necessary evil. If money is a necessary evil, then all evil is a necessary evil, and money no longer needs the qualifier “necessary.” Meaning, it’s just evil. EVIL!!! The people whose lives are completely centered around money are the most intimidating and frightening people in the world. Anyone that devotes their short time on this planet to paper is willing to do anything for any reason. That’s just transitive reasoning. Also, the people usually in charge of organizations centered around money (which would be nearly every last ever-loving one of them), have the management skills of an infant. You wouldn’t trust these people to run their own digestive systems, let alone manage other people's job

I, Alex Lester English, in response to sexual harassment complaints from my associate, Mrs. Heather Barbeer, would like to respond to her specific complaints formally in this letter to clear things up: At the beginning of my shift, I was standing at the front desk of our office building (which will go unnamed) when my associate walked in. I noticed she was wearing a finely made pleated skirt (which the designer label will go unnamed, though I assumed it was Cambridge Classics™) and a button up blouse. I said plainly to her, “Do you shave yourself?” out of curiosity alone as I also noticed her legs appeared to be quite smooth in the morning light as I had never paid attention to previously.  An hour later, we were getting items from the company vending machines at the same time, purely by snack-happy coincidence. She purchased a soda (which brand name will go unnamed), and I a small bag of cracked peppercorn flavored corn chips. I lightly laughed to myself and she asked why;

I can’t speak for everyone, but when something scares me I obsess over it. I think to be afraid is to be defeated. There are those who share my attitude. These are the freaks and weirdos you have in your life. They're the same people you know who seem to go too far in private conversation, or share too much detail where others cringe to even think. So, for those who don't share this attitude, let me take you into our train of thought. Our natural instinct is to fight, and fighting the scary thing means thinking out a strategy--finding weaknesses within both ourselves and the thing that scares us so badly. What often ends up happening, though, is we can’t think of a way to defeat this tormentor because it’s truly harmless. Things that can’t do harm can’t be defeated because there’s no real conflict in the first place. When we come to this realization, we end up developing either an affinity for what makes us afraid, or an absolute distaste for it. One example is that I u

Breaking down science-fiction is not difficult, especially since I am not a scientific type of person. It doesn't take extensive knowledge of theories or studies to find gaps in sci-fi's hideously overstated world. It just takes a talent for pettiness. Which I have. One of the most common errors in science-fiction is the assumption that all interplanetary life-forms are similar to those found here on Earth, especially humans and humanoids. This assumption causes alien beings to generally have a method of spoken communication, either using their own faculties or making something speak for them. Bearing this fallacy in mind, English-speaking extraterrestrials with region-specific accents from Earth are appalling. Even cardinal sins in the entire fiction genre. In the immeasurable concept of universal time, thinking all alien-beings would pick a specific period of time, smaller than a pinpoint in the seas of eternity, is stupid. You, as a writer, can place any amount of know

When I hear the father of a young woman point out all the clichés about his daughter’s future with men, and how he’s going to threaten each and every one of these unfortunate sods--usually involving a shotgun--, I shut out the mere thought that he has a daughter. “Well, isn’t that kind of the point?” you italicize, “Isn’t he protecting his daughter from pansies, like you, that get easily threatened?” First of all, I’m not easily threatened. If a guy like that were to give me the same attitude for anything else, I’d do my best to make him feel like a thoughtless neanderthal that should go back to the woods or die, and leave civilized society better off without him. Even if he ended up shooting me, at least I wouldn’t have to be around the spiritual stench of his apehood, anymore. A father who goes to lengths to make sure his daughter’s companion feels less than he is, in any way, is a man who has become insecure to his very core. The real issue, it seems to me, is an issue of

I enjoy playing sports. I also enjoy watching sports, to a great extent. I’ll even go so far as to keep up with certain teams and individual players, with great interest, keeping tabs on statistics, trades, how certain players are getting along with the rest of their team and other teams, team/player rivalries both past and present, etc. With that being said, I do these things out of nothing more than distracted interest. Because I know what sports are, at their core: sports are a modified version of war. If one is to break down the elements of sports, it quickly becomes apparent that sports are nothing more than a succession of battles over territory, property and influence, just like war. First, there has to be a motive, a catalyst to incite the conflict. A lot of the time, this catalyst is nothing more than a synthetic item, such as a rubber ball or a leather disk. From that point, the objective boils down to one group saying, “You have something we want, so

As a male teacher, I have to be more careful when I’m teaching, in order to protect myself. It’s not fair, but it’s reality. Especially when it comes to dealing with children, as I have for the last few years. I can’t change it, but I have been able to work my way around it. So, allow me to share my experienced suggestions with any of the men out there who are aspiring to become teachers (bear in mind, I am not claiming to be an expert on any level): Never pay a compliment to a woman’s or a girl’s appearance. It’s far safer if you appreciate their attractiveness inside your head, because no one can file sexual harassment suits over unspoken thoughts. Plus, there are girls and women that will take the compliment too seriously, and that can only end with hurt feelings and broken relationships. Understand that there is a difference between thinking someone is attractive and being attracted to someone; it’s perfectly normal to think a student or co-worker is attractive , but i

Oftentimes, in the world of comic books, an ordinary person is imbued with superhuman abilities, usually through some exaggerated scientifically anomalous event. There’s something that happens within the person’s psyche at this same time, though, that intrigues me: on top of receiving superhuman abilities, they also suddenly assume a hyper-moral personal philosophy. Either they believe they are obligated to help everyone in need, or hurt everyone whether in need or not. Granted, there are those who don’t have any “special” abilities, but the world of comic books sees no moral gray area, however much they try to blur the illustrations of good-and-evil/black-and-white. The heroes or villain created in this world are always given to the conflict between the very worst in existence versus the very best in existence. And, you’re right, they’re not real. They only serve to entertain, right?  There’s truly no human with super abilities. There are only artists who create these people