Some People Suck and Some People Rock

Behold the light of Elendil, our most beloved star. May it be a light for you in dark places, when all other lights go out. [Galadriel - The Lord of the Rings]

I haven’t been feeling well for the past week. The weather changed so quickly here in Maryland that I caught a mild cold. Long before that happened, however, I had a member of my family tell me that my dream of having a home based business was stupid and that I needed to get a real job.

This came from someone who opinion I respected so of course it hurt my feelings. After feeling like pond scum for about two days, I shook it off determined to persist but a strange thing started to happen. Every time I would sit down to work, their words would come back to haunt me leaving me uninspired to do anything and I would end up aimlessly surfing the internet.

So I’m not getting any work done which is frustrating me and the frustration turns to a feeling of helplessness and the inevitable happens. I fall into a depression.

To help combat this, I decide to email my good friend, Katie, for an ego boost and as always she comes through for me (well, actually she and her husband). Therefore just for listening to my drama queen meltdown and assuring me that I have what it takes to be successful I give both Katie and Jim the best friend award.

For everyone else I offer you this advice. It doesn’t matter what your dreams are or what goals you are pursuing in life. You will always run into people who, for whatever reason, will attempt to be a roadblock on the path towards success. You job as the dreamer is two fold.

Life Hacks: Natural Ways to Alleviate Depression

I hate medication. I will suffer for hours with a headache before I’ll take anything for it. This is because I have this irrational fear that OTC (over the counter) drugs are gateway drugs and that once you start with those then it is only a matter of time before your doctor has you addicted to the legal stuff.

Ignoring that particular peculiarity, I feel that the human body was designed to heal itself. All we need to do is give it the right tools in order to do the job. Therefore I have compiled a list of things that I have done and others recommend doing to help alleviate depression.

(Note: I’m not a doctor or even associated with the medical profession. Depending on your health status, some of these may require approval by your doctor in order to do them. Use your head and consult one if necessary.)

Malignant Narcissism

I am fascinated by aberrant human behavior. I believe that abnormal, dysfunctional, strange and even curious behavior tells the truth about us as human beings. We have this terrible habit of whitewashing our negative traits, as individuals and as a collective, that it is almost necessary for us to be continuously reminded of our imperfections and what we could become if we are not careful.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder is a psychological disposition characterized by extreme self love. Now we are all narcissists to a degree. It is actually healthy to be concerned with ourselves and our well being because this is what inspires us to do things that ensure our survival. However in mentally stable people, this natural narcissism is balanced out by concern over the welfare of others. A person diagnosed with NPD, on the other hand, value their self above all others including those they claim to love. If they show concern for another person, it is only a ploy to try to fool the observer into thinking that they are “good people’.

The Scarlett Letter “P”

Do you think pedophiles and child molesters should be publicly branded?

I had an interesting discussion with a co-worker the other day about this idea. It was her opinion that pedophiles should be made to wear something that tells the public what they are.

On an emotional level, I agreed with her. I don’t have children but nieces and nephews and don’t ever want anyone to victimize them like that. People who commit sex crimes against children are the lowest form of scum in existence. In fact, it is an insult to scum to even call pedophiles that. I think these animals should be blasted off to another planet where aliens will molest them all day long.

Do You Believe in Second Chances?

In 2004, a man by the name of Willie Joe McAdams was put in jail for the attempted murder of Cedric Thomas. Because my search skills suck I was not able to find any information on the crime so I don’t know why McAdams wanted to kill Cedric but based on the little bit I did find, it may have had something to do with drugs (McAdams being on them rather than a drug deal gone wrong).

McAdams was sentenced to 40 years in prison but due to a clerical error was released on May 4, 2007 after serving only four years. (Yes, I know the math doesn’t work out quite right. The only thing I can think of is that the judge included time served.) However, that’s not the strange part. Instead of bolting off into the underground to avoid the law and perhaps make a new life for himself, McAdams hunts down his victim and…apologizes.