The Panda Bear on Shirley Chisholm, Longer Days, and Sucess

he Panda Bear was reviewing articles on the web and she came across a tribute to Shirley Chisholm who was a black congresswoman who ran for president in 1972 under the Democratic party.    The Panda Bear remembers Shirley Chisholm when she ran.   The Panda Bear admired her.   Here was a woman who had grown up disadvantaged and represented a poor community who was running for president.   She challenged the Democratic establishment.   Her motto was unbought and unbossed.   Contrast this to  some of women Democratic leaders now namely Hilary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi who grew up in comfortable circumstances and are very establishment.   

The Panda Bear sometimes gets nostalgic for the Democrats of old.   She recently read a book by someone who worked for the Truman administration who supported a bill guaranteeing full employment to all Americans who wanted a job.   Of course, the Panda Bear  realizes that this would be a practical impossibility.   However, since 2008 its seems that the Democrats have been very tolerant of high unemployment rates and have done very minimal to help people get jobs.   She is not surprised that they lost the election.

What inspired today's post was not politics but rather the longer days.   It used to get dark at 4:30.   Now it gets dark at the late time of 5:09.   The Panda Bear used to get so tired at 6:30.   It had been dark for two hours and it seemed like it was the middle of the night.    Now with longer days the Panda Bear can stay awake later.   Furthermore, it seems that one day it will stay light until 9:00.   Oh joyous day!!

Furthermore, the Panda Bear has lost five pounds since January 1(her goal is to lose another twenty-five pounds).   However, at times she still feels somewhat down.   Part of it is probably the winter blues.   The days are short.   It is harder to get out to see people.   Furthermore, the Panda Bear is developing cabin fever from being inside so much.

For some reason the Panda Bear has been thinking about the nature of success.   The Panda Bear defines success as obtaining a goal.   She thinks of a quote from Oscar Wilde that went something like this:   There are two tragedies  in life.   One is not getting what you want and the other is getting it.

The Panda Bear thinks there is a lot of truth to this statement.   She thinks the reality often is a disappointment compared to the dream.   Usually the reality is a lot more work and not is pretty nor as glamorous as the fantasy.   On the other hand, the Panda Bear thinks(she thinks she got this idea from Buddhism), that in the long run we are happier in reality free from our illusions.  Part of maturing is exchanging the fantasy for the reality.

The Panda Bear on Weight Loss, Inequality and New Years Resolutions

Like many living creatures, this year the Panda Bear is resolved to lose weight.   She has gained twenty-five points over the past twelve years.   In addition, the Panda Bear has over the past two years has developed knee pain; she has been told that reducing weight would lessen the knee pain (there would be less weight on her knees).

However, the subject of weight loss makes the Panda Bear aware of life's inequalities.   Men can eat more than women without gaining weight.   Tall and large boned people can eat more than short petite people.   Furthermore, as people get older their calorie needs decline.

As a small woman, the Panda Bear has always been a small eater.   Even when she was a child she had to go on diets.    However, the Panda Bear has discovered that dieting is harder as one gets older.  Furthermore, with knee arthritis she has some activity limitations.    Though for most people the cause of weight gain is the same (eating more calories than one needs), the absolute food calorie requirements of people are different.    It seems so unfair.

However, after raging about the nature's great injustice, the Panda Beat has lost five pounds during the holiday season no less.   The Panda Bear knows her downfall is that she eats too much after work/in the evening.   Slowly the Panda Bear is working on changing her eating habits.

Recently, the Panda Bear has heard of some weight loss strategies which she thinks has a downside.    Some people takes bets on who can lose the most amount of weight over a certain period time.    Another is to set a goal to of a certain number of pounds by a certain date.

The problem with both strategies is that they depend on things outside a person's control.  While one does have control about how many calories one eats, one does not have control of how much or how fast one loses the weight.    Some kinds of weight easier are to take off than others.   The Panda Bear has heard that the last ten pounds of weight loss can be slower and harder to take off than the first ten pounds.   Older people tend to lose weight more slowly than young people.

The problem the Panda Bear thinks with a lot of New Years resolutions (and other goal setting) is that their success depends on factors outside of one's control.    Instead it is probably easier and more rewarding to focus on developing certain behaviors that will enhance the changes of one's obtaining a goal.   Our behavior is in our control; often the outcome is not,

The Panda Bear Blog on the Fall, Relaxation, and Organizations in Distress

While the Panda Bear likes the autumn, she went into a panic in mid-September.   She felt overwhelmed with things to do.    She had a bit of a cold so she took a day off to relax.   Then she went into a crisis mode of trying to narrow down the many things she would like to do in her four hours of scheduled down time.   What she probably did sleep.

Finally her high anxiety broke.   She thinks what finally broke it was doing some dreaded household chores.  It probably was the exercise that was involved in doing the dreaded chores that relaxed the Panda Bear and the Panda Bear felt she was actually accomplishing something (Actually, the writing of the Panda Bear Blog has helped the Panda Bear in doing some of these chores.   She now can think of her blog posting while doing the chores.   While now her fellow workers complain about the amount of non-paid employment time these chores take, Panda Bear takes it with sense of stoicism). 

The Panda Bear has also used some to reduce her stress some stress management techniques.   Exercise is a good multi-purpose activity that also reduces makes people feel good.   As a relaxation technique she likes is called autogenics which is not well known where you make statements imaging heaviness and warmth in various parts of the body and you keep stating to yourself "I am calm".  The Panda Bear also practices what she calls the cat meditation where the Panda Bear tries to meditate by focusing her attention on her purring cat that is sitting on her stomach.   The Panda Bear is also trying to cut down the amount of caffeine she drinks which she heard can increase anxiety (The Panda Bear is a coffee lover.   She now uses coffee with half the caffeine taken out).

The Panda Bear used to think that affirmations were stupid but now she does find that there is something to saying “I am calm” when she is upset.   The Panda Bear admits she has a gloomy streak.   She is jealous of some bloggers who obtained many viewers with their expressions of gratitude and happiness.  However when she is down now she repeats this which is a paraphrase of from the book of Ecclesiastics from the Bible.  It goes something like this:

Life is unfair.   The race is not always won by the fastest.  The unjust prosper.   It is foolish to think the world is going to work according to your logic.  However, what can you do about it?  Nothing- so just enjoy yourself.

The Panda Bear feels that this gets a certain realistic gloom about the state of the world out of her system.   

One thing that strikes the Panda Bear as illogical is how little organizations nowadays reward loyalty.  The Panda Bear thinks for institutions/governments/organized crime groups to survive they both have punish behavior they don't like but they also reward behavior they like.  

There were benefits to being a member of the Communist, Nazi, and Fascist parties.  In at least novels, organized crime just does not kill people-they offer riches to their members and to those who cooperate with them.    Being nice to people and doing them favors gives you some power over people that just being mean does not.

The Panda Bear is old enough to remember the old fashioned company.   It controlled its employees by being nice to them in the way the new organization that are now strictly business cannot.    Organizations can exert a lot of pressure on people by threatening to withhold some of its favors.  The Panda Bear feels if companies would have a lot better morale and be a lot more efficient if they did more for people then their stated policies.   They could withhold certain privileges if employees complained.   Nowadays the Panda Bear sees complaining and "disloyalty" (i.e. getting other jobs) as being rewarded.     She thinks this no rewarding of good behavior is going to catch up to organizations.

However, what does the Panda Bear know?   She is just a humble office worker who is glad she is not part of the corrupt plutocracy that seems to be in charge right now.

The Panda Bear will Be Taking the Rest of the Summer Off. Publication to resume sometime in September

The Panda Bear Blog is about the importance of personal space in today's busy world.  Given that the blog is about the lack of rest and relaxation, the Panda Bear has decided to take the rest of the summer off from blogging.

She is exhausted.   Work has been busy.   Also surprisingly enough the Panda Bear has been getting a lot of job interviews.   Granted many of these jobs are at lower pay but the Panda Bear is getting hopeful that she may find a new position.   Though she is but a humble office worker, her skills seem to be in demand.

Even though getting job interviews is "good" it is making inroads in what little free time the Panda Bear has.  It is tiring and stressful.   It eats into the Panda Bear's "vacation" time as some of her time off is used for interviews.

The Panda Bear feels to enjoy her favorite summer activity of sitting outside and read.    She will return to blogging in the fall.

The Panda Bear on the Emperors Clothes and The Light in the Managers Office

The Panda Bear Blog seeks to expose the social truths that people experience but like the people in the Han Christian Anderson's fairy tale The Emperor's New Clothes are afraid to express for fear of seeming to be unfit.  The Panda Bear is a humble office worker who is unafraid of telling the truth as she experiences it.   Most of the time the Panda Bear thinks she has a valid point of view.  If the Panda Bear is wrong she hopes her readers will pity her and help her see the world in a clear fashion.

The offices where the Panda Bear works are full of falsehoods that the organizations' leaders create.   The untruth that the Panda Bear wishes to explore in this post is the light in the manager's office.   The Panda Bear has experienced this phenomenon in several organizations she was worked in with different supervisors so she thinks this is the way mangers are told to deal with their employees.

What the supervisor does, when he/she is out of the office for part of the day, the supervisor leaves the light on in the office so their employees think the manager is still around.   The Panda Bear admits she has been fooled by this maneuver more than one time.   However, usually another employee will blurt out to the Panda Bear that the manager does this when he/she is out.    Sometimes the Panda Bear herself has caught on that the light is on the manager's office when he/she is out.   Often supervisors will answer e-mails from home and not admit that he/she is not in the office.

The Panda Bear and her coworkers chuckle with each other.   Doesn't the management realize that we are on to them and know they are not in the office?  Do they think we are that stupid?  (The Panda Bear suspects the answer to the last question is yes). There are differing opinions on why our supervisors want to create the illusion that they are in the office when they are not in the office.  One of the Panda Bear's coworkers thinks it shows they don't trust us.   Another coworker thinks that the managers think the workers will fall apart if they are not there.

The Panda Bear privately rejects both theories on the grounds that it seems to take the management along while to go after supervisors who really do have problems being at work when they are supposed to be there; if was really that necessary for the supervisor to physically be there these problem supervisors should have been sooner told to leave.     Also many supervisors now can supervise remotely and from long distances with modern technology.  Thus, Panda Bear rejects the notion that upper management feels that workers need a supervisor to be physically present.

Instead, the Panda Bear thinks the management is on a different kind of schedule then the workers who are on some version of nine to five.   The Panda Bear is aware that many of her supervisors have worked nights and weekends and they may get some additional time off as compensation for the additional hours worked.    She also thinks the management has a much greater flexibility then the workers in terms of hours worked.   The Panda Bear thinks the managers don't want disclose that they are on a totally different type of work week then the workers they supervise.

However, the joke is often on the management.  Many workers are convinced when the managers aren't there during the day they are being delinquent in the job duties which they may not be.   To the Panda Bear it shows that supervisors can lie about small matters when they could be telling the truth.   Supervisors aren't to be trusted.

Of course this longstanding illusion that when the supervisors aren't at work, the workers don't realize it persists because workers are afraid to bring to the management's attention that they can see through this manipulation.   The management would discipline the workers.

However, outside the workplace in the presumably free United States, the Panda Bear thinks we should not be afraid of speaking out against untruths as we perceive them.



  

The Panda Bear on the Boston Marathon , Large Crowds and the 3rd Blog Anniversary of her Blog

The Panda Bear wanted to take a moment to introduce her readers to a blog written by a friend of the Panda Bear,  saltyspring.   The address of the website is http://saltyspring.wordpress.com .   She writes on some similar topics to the Panda Bear.   However, unlike the Panda Bear she has lived many different countries.   The Panda Bear has led a very routine-some might say(including the Panda Bear) unexciting life.   

It is coming up on the year anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombing.   Just before sitting down to write this post the Panda Bear was near the finish line of the Boston Marathon.   Psychologically, September 11 was much harder on the Panda Bear than the Boston Marathon bombing probably because at the time of September 11 the Panda Bear was working near downtown Boston which some people felt  might be attacked that day.  After September 11, the Panda Bear felt that all large gatherings in urban areas were vulnerable to terrorist threats.  

The Panda Bear has heard there migh have been many more casualties and serious injuries during the Boston Marathon bombings had there not been a lot of medical personnel near the Boston Marathon finish line and the bombs went off near the time additional medical personnel were arriving because of there was going to be a change of shift.  

Now that the Panda Bear is in the area the Boston Marathon will finish she sees signs that the security is being tightened for this year's run and she sees more blockades and barriers than she has in the past   She has heard that more people will attend this year's Marathon than last year's to show we are Boston Strong.   Also there will be a baseball game that day which will also attract large crowds to the area.

While the Panda Bear is all for showing that Americans and Bostonians are strong and unafraid of terrorism that Panda Bear does not always feel that large crowds in urban areas show strength. Also in the case of the Boston Marathon bombing, it does not appear that there was a large terrorist network involved so there is no need prove courage to enemies..    Large crowds are hard to manage under the best of circumstances and can cause many problems.   Probably large crowds make it much harder to secure the area.

In addition many people have to go to work during the Boston Marathon.   The Boston Marathon occurs on a normal workday for most people.  Mr. Panda will have to go to work going  through the  Boston Marathon and he needs to carry some bags to go to work(bags will be checked for security reasons).   Both the baseball game and the Boston  Marathon can attract crowds that are a nuisance to people who don't go to these events.    To have two high crowd events on a normal working day plus it being the year anniversary of the Marathon bombing which may bring more people to Boston is too much for the city to  handle.   She wishes at least the Red Sox game could be cancelled.   The Panda Bear hopes a lot of people don't show up Monday.     Even without an terrorist threats, the Panda Bear worries there are going to be too many people in Boston one  day that and it is just going to make life difficult for people who live and work in the area.

This time of year is also approaching the third year anniversary of the Panda Bear Blog.   The Panda Bear Blog is a blog about a humble full time office worker who wants to challenge the corrupt American establishment.   The Panda Bear views one success she had this year was being a foot solider in the movement to prevent the US becoming militarily involved in Syria.   This movement appears to have been a success.    Next year the Panda Bear wants to push the US to do more to create jobs for Americans.   The Panda Bear believes the high unemployment is not hurting the rich so the politicians aren't putting enough emphasis on helping the economy.

Personally, the Panda Bear remains as humble as ever in her humble daytime office job.  Many people think that certain reforms don't happen in the US because people think they will be able to become part of the corrupt oligarchy.   The Panda Bear knows the oligarchy will not have her as member so therefore she will never be corrupted.

The Panda Bear on her Blogging, Cleanathon Failure, and Ukraine

Ever so often the Panda Bear gets asked by her fans about how she finds time to blog when she works full-time in her humble but stressful office job.  The short answer is that she has no life.   More specifically, she does not watch much television or see many movies.  Instead she reads and blogs.   Occasionally, people ask how they can help the Panda Bear.  The Panda Bear suggests sharing the blog with friends and posting comments on her site.

The Panda Bear Blog is in part about the overly stressed nature of modern life.  The past few weeks have been an example of the draining nature of the modern workplace.   Problems and prospects in the workplace have sapped all of the Panda Bear's time and commitment leaving her room for hardly any other interests.

This winter the Panda Bear had scheduled some time off to relax and clean her apartment which she has called the cleanathon.   However, her day job issues meant that her "vacation" time was spent on employment issues.   Furthermore, the Panda Bear has had bad colds and did not feel well.   In addition, since February she has been feeling very blue; the Panda Bear does not find cleaning an uplifting activity.     Thus, the cleanathon has been a total failure.   However, like all failed projects the Panda Bear needs to adjust her priorities and move on to the future.

The Panda Bear needs to get back to her exercise and diet routines which both the bad weather and the Panda Bear's colds and terrible winter in New England have interrupted.   Especially, exercise the Panda Bear has been told will improve her mood.    The warmer weather should enable the Panda Bear to take more walks which she likes to do.   While the Panda Bear likes time to relax, she feels too much free time can make her feel down.    Perhaps being busier will help improve the Panda Bear's moodl

During this difficult period of the Panda Bear's life Russia invaded the Crimea.    The Panda Bear has never liked or trusted Putin; she thinks there is no such thing as a good KGB agent.   The Panda Bear feels some sympathy for Ukraine and believes that many Ukrainians probably have believes and values more closely aligned to the West than many other countries that the US is now presently(and foolishly) is helping.

However, Russia and Ukraine of historic ties.  From the Russians and the Ukrainians the Panda Bear sees in the US, people seem to move between the two countries very easily and the people seem very interconnected with each other.   The Russians and the Ukrainians probably have disputes with each other that go back for centuries.

Conflicts in the Balkan area started the First World War.   The Panda Bear hopes that economic sanctions against Russia are enough.   She does not want a major war to start because of problems between Russian and Ukraine.    The Panda Bear also finds it amazing while there is no money to help Americans the US can come up with a billion dollars out of no where to help Ukraine.

The Panda Bear on Thanksgiving, Literature and Modern Repression

Next week is Thanksgiving Day which is a day where Americans are supposed to be grateful for what they have. The Panda Bear can accept that for one day in the year we can take time to appreciate what we have. However, there are some people who feel we should now have a gratitude month where we spend the month feeling grateful for what we have. The Panda Bear has tried to follow some Facebook pages which for everyday in November its followers are supposed to list something for which they are grateful. After a few days of these upbeat pages the Panda Bear will get impatient. Why can't people just admit that life is nasty, brutal and short? The Panda Bear starts feeling pressured to be happy which she rebels against. She will start feeling that it is her right to be grumpy
and gloomy if that is what she feels.

In a similar overly optimistic vein, the Panda Bear read an essay by a literary critic which stated that no more great novels could be written because we modern folks did not experience tragedy and repression like they did in the good old days. The Panda Bear was wondering what on what planet this critic lived. The United States right now experiencing war, random violence and high unemployment rates. Probably many people in the United States lack basic human necessities. Many people are in physical pain (Mr. Panda has had a toothache for the past three weeks and Mother Panda hurt her leg so the Panda Bear has recently been hearing of people complain about being pain all the time). People still die. There is much corruption in politics. In the United States do we have any privacy at all with the NSA spying on us all the time? We are still experiencing the stuff of great writing.

 However, the Panda Bear things one reason people like old books is because it is safer to experience the emotions that come with yesterday’s problems then come with today's problems. Our present chains are still invisible to usand to function we need to repress some of our conflicts with modern society. The Panda Bear knows what bothers her about modern society. She dislikes the constant rushing around; she wants more leisure to enjoy life. She thinks there must be more to life then jobs that have grown stale and chores that she dislikes to do. The Panda Bear wants to relaxed and creative rather than busy and organized.

The Panda Bear on Colds, Feeling Tired and the Federal Goverment Shut Down

Today at work the Panda Bear was feeling tired. A coworker said to the Panda Bear, "What is the matter with you-you are always complaining about being tired." The Panda Bear was upset; she did not think she had complained that much about being tired. True for the past couple of weeks the Panda Bear was more tired than usual. She found the time change difficult. The Panda Bear wishes there was daylight savings time all year. She would rather it stay light at the end of the day than have the extra light in the morning. The earlier it gets dark the earlier the Panda Bear feels sleepy. In addition, the Panda Bear had a cold over the weekend. She spent almost two days sleeping but is now feeling better. The Panda Bear used to have colds that lasted all winter.

The Panda Bear has learned to slow down when she has a cold; she does believe that this makes the colds shorter. The Panda Bear realizes that she is fortunate that she can take it easy for a couple of days. The Panda Bear Blog is about the right to be tired. It is a human and animal emotion. Recently, the Panda Bear has heard some hard working people complain that they have days that they feel tired and don't get much done. The Panda Bear feels everyone could use some down days from time to time. About ten years ago, the Panda Bear was feeling tired all the time and had colds that lasted a long time. She was working full-time at a stressful job and going to school at night among other activities. Finally, the Panda Bear realized she had to slow down. However, the sad thing is that no one told the Panda Bear to slow down. Indeed, the Panda Bear had to learn to say no to people. The Panda Bear never heard "Panda you work so hard-now just take some time off". The Panda Bear learned that the more you do the more people often expect from you. Now that the Panda Bear has slowed down she still feels tired SOME of the time which is better than being tired ALL of the time.

In some previous posts, the Panda Bear stated she had written to her US Representative and Obama requesting that the US immediately withdraw its military presence from Afghanistan. The Panda Bear received an e-mail back from her US representative stating he supported President Obama's policy. She has not received any acknowledgement from President Obama regarding her e-mail. The Panda Bear wishes to end this post by stating that she things the shutdown of the Federal Government was the greatest waste of government money ever. Many people don't realize that the Federal workers were paid in full for the period that they weren't working. Now as a taxpayer the Panda Bear the Panda Bear would much rather pay people to work then not to work. The Panda Bear thinks if the plan is for the Federal workers not to lose any pay, the US government should keep them working while it tries to resolve its budget problems.

The Panda Bear on Home Repairs and the Ecologicial Superiority of Cats

Above is a picture of the Panda Bear's cat Suzie.    She was recruited a year ago on the Panda Bear's War on Mice and Clutter(WOMAC).   WOMAC has been a success in that the Panda Bear has seen no mice since the Panda Bear adopted her cat from a shelter. .  Furthermore, it just seems that Suzie's presence in the apartment scared the mice away;  WOMAC appears to have had no mouse casualties.    Would all wars have such a bloodless victory.   The Panda Bear thinks the mice were smart enough to leave the apartment when the Panda Bear got the cat ( mice are much smarter then most people think in avoiding getting caught).

The Panda Bear has been stressed out about home repairs.   She and Mr. Panda are having an electrician come over tomorrow which involved intense negotiations between the Panda Bear, Mr. Panda and the electrician(subject for future posts).   The Panda Bear tells her cat Suzie how lucky she is that she does not have to do home repairs; the cat gets someone else to do it.   At work, the Panda Bear told her coworkers she wants to be reincarnated as a cat in the next life.

Perhaps, the Panda Bear has been reading to many books about cats who think they are superior to humans.   However, the Panda Bear thinks cats are ecologically superior than humans in terms of their impact on the environment.    Even for some very basic animal functions, humans are much more resource demanding in comparison to cats.

Granted, the Panda Bear thinks that cats do like having the shelter, food and medical  care that humans provide cats.   However, if humans used enough just enough resources take care of cats there would be significantly fewer environmental problems.

For example, cats don't need to bath; cats can groom themselves.   If you look closely at the picture, you can see that Suzie's hair is very neatly combed.   She does this herself using cat spit,   While it does look funny to see cats groom the private parts, it does not seem to harm the cat and the cats are clean.   Suzie's behind is always very clean and she does not smell.

In contrast humans need to bath in order not to smell which gets more water dirty and requires creating an infrastructure to obtain water; humans needs to bath creates a demand for plumbers.   Furthermore, humans need clothes which also need to be washed which causes more water to become dirty.

The cats' fur provide adequate warmth and decoration for them and they don't need to take some of the earth's resources to cover themselves.   Just think of all the materials, time and effort even the most primitive people's clothes require.   The Panda Bear thinks the cat's way of grooming and clothing is much dimplier, less stressful and more ecological than human personal care.

Cats have good night vision.   Just think how much energy human consume because they have poor night vision.   If humans could see at night they would not need artificial lighting.  Humans pride themselves on all their inventions but the reason humans need all these inventions is because they are physically inferior to cats.   Humans need tools to hunt, while cats are excellent hunters without tools.

Thus, for even their most basic needs such as grooming, hunting and seeing at night humans are physically inferior to cats and put more strain on the environment.      Humans are forced to create social institutions to meet these needs because of their poor physical design.   Humans put strain on the environment because of their poor ability to take care of their basic needs.

In terms of their amusements, cats are much more environmentally friendly than humans.   The Panda Bear's cat Suzie for fun likes such low carbon footprint and ecological activities such as looking out the window, sitting on a perch,  and swatting at sticks and at other things humans regard as trash.     In contrast think how much of the earth's resources are used in human recreation.   Most cats don't like to travel for fun; humans do which uses the earth's  resources.

Thus cats are indeed superior to humans in terms of the impact to the environment in terms of their basic survival needs and in terms of their recreational wants.   As Mark Twain said  " If man could be crossed with the cat it would improve man, but it would deteriorate the cat.".  Certainally this is true when it comes when when compares humans to cats in regards to their impact on the environment.

The Panda Bear on Simplicity, Blogging and Home Repairs

The Panda Bear believes there is much stress in life. Some of this stress comes from things we need to do to survive. Sources of stress can be illness of us or family members, money, and jobs. For the Panda Bear a necessary source of anxiety will be working with Mr. Panda on home repairs. The Panda Bear finds home projects stressful and working with Mr. Panda compounds these problems as he is a perfectionist in dealing with home repair people so much so the Panda Bear worries that nothing will get done.

However, we should not be stressing out about things that are supposed to give us pleasure (at least not stresses out too much). These things are friends, hobbies, parties, entertainment and relaxation. If these things stress us out too much, one has to ask oneself if they are worth doing. If we decide to do these things, we must do them and approach them in a way that gives pleasure to ourselves. Often simplifying the activity and cutting out certain things will make the activity less stressful

An example of an activity that exists for pleasure but can give the Panda Bear stress is blogging. In this busy world of ours she must make time for blogging. Her mind goes in a blogging mode-something will happen to the Panda Bear and she thinks would this make an interesting blog post? Sometimes the Panda Bear will have to take a break from posting to get of out this should-she-blog-about-this subject- mental looping. She needs to do things that are totally relaxing for her. The Panda Bear plans to refrain from some political blog posts (though it has helped the blog in some blog rankings) because everyone is feeling some political/election fatigue.

Instead her future posts will be about her and Mr. Panda’s blundering attempts at home repairs and improvements. Winter is always an intense time of home activity for the Panda Bear and Mr. Panda because there are a lot of winter holidays. This winter they will begin an intense program of home improvements.

The Panda Bear on Fair Weather Cats and the Lower Percentages

The Panda Bear has discovered that her cat is a fair weather cat.   She hides in the apartment from the Panda Bear and Mr. Panda during rainstorms.   The cat does not respond to the Panda Bear or Mr. Panda when they call for her when she is hiding.   The cat seems to have the philosophy that when disaster strikes one should save oneself first.   When the sun comes back out, the cat will come out from hiding and jump on the Panda Bear’s lap waiting to be hugged and petted.

One of the purposes of the Panda Bear Blog is to be a blog for the people of the lower percentage.   The Occupy Movement started a good trend in coming up with the concept of the ninety-nine percent.   However, the Panda Bear does not think the occupy movement went low enough in their percentage points.

The Panda Bear thinks the top twenty-five percent can be very snobby.   These are the people of the United States’ “upper middle class”.   The United States would like to see itself has a meritocracy so the top 25 percent can see itself has being quite the elite.   The Panda Bear would include in this group such people as college professors, MDs, upper management and journalists.   These people can regard themselves as a little “better” than other people ;  the Panda Bear has grown up close to this group and perhaps as had aspirations to this strata of society.

However, the Panda Bear has been a failure in this respect.   Economically, the Panda Bear is probably in the sixty-to seventy-five percent of the US; not poor but not part of the upper elite.

In the office the where the Panda Bear works, the Panda Bear is in the lower thirty percent of the office population.   Most of the office is considered “salaried” and therefore is not paid for overtime.   Their jobs are considered to be “professional”. The Panda Bear is of the lower thirty percent of her office who are paid for overtime; their jobs are considered less professional than the salaried workers.

The Panda Bear is in the lower ten percent in her housekeeping skills and ability to play games involving a ball.  (However, the Panda Bear has been more successful in her housekeeping tasks-subject for another blog posts).

The Panda Bear Blog is a blog for the lower percentages; a blog for people in the middle who are muddling through life.

The Panda Bear things the upper percentages should remember that they could not be in the upper percentages without people (or bears) like us in the lower percentages.     By definition not everyone can be in the top one percent; most people are in the average range and some people are even-gasp-below average.

During the past two weeks, the major political parties have had the conventions.   There has been much the US being a more partisan society.   Part of the reason for the deepening splits within the US is that the upper classes are increasingly socially insulated from those in the non-upper classes.   The US needs to embrace economic, political as well as cultural diversity.

The Panda Bear on Rumors, Obama and Columbia

The Panda Bear is very excited.   She an average everyday blogger gets to examine an untrue political rumor.

The Panda Bear numerous times of right-wing leaning radio programs has heard the rumor that Barack Obama never went to Columbia University.   Furthermore it is alleged that no one at Columbia remembers President Obama.

However, in the magazine of Columbia University, the Columbia Magazine, there are articles where people say they remember Obama at Columbia University.   The most recent article was in the summer edition of the magazine call Dreams of My Mater.   This article gives examples of people who remember Obama when he was a student at Columbia.

However, the Panda Bear finds it interesting that this untrue rumor has some distorted reality to it. (The Panda Bear finds many office rumors have this quality).  

First of all according to the article:

His classmate Wayne Root, the 2008 Libertarian Party vice presidential candidate, told the New York Times shortly before the election, “I’ve not only not met him, I’ve not met anybody who met him.”

So there were public figures that presumably had inside information that made this claim.   Whether they deliberately lied is hard to know.

Secondly according to the article, Obama himself has had a cool distant relationship with his Alma Mater.   From the article:

For those who know Obama not just as the leader of the free world but as a member of the Class of ’83, his appearance on South Lawn seemed improbable. It’s hardly a state secret that the president has never fully embraced Alma Mater.

“He felt no attachment to Columbia,” writes journalist David Maraniss in the newly published Barack Obama: The Story. Obama himself has acknowledged that as a transfer student from Occidental College, where he spent his first two undergraduate years, he wasn’t a man about campus.

“Mostly, my years at Columbia were an intense period of study,” he told Columbia College Today in 2005. “When I transferred, I decided to buckle down and get serious. I spent a lot of time in the library. I didn’t socialize that much. I was like a monk.”

The Panda Bear knows of many urban campus where the students live off-campus (as Obama did at Columbia) where the commuters are not a central part of college life and would not be well remembered at the school.

Of course, Obama contributes somewhat to the confusion around his schooling by refusing to have his school records released (or is this untrue rumor the Panda Bear has heard?).

So while it appears Obama in fact did go to Columbia he was not a well known name on the campus which makes it easier for this rumor to grow.

Thus, the example of the rumor that Obama did not attend Columbia University shows how under even false rumors there is a distorted truth.

The Panda Bear on Dysthymia and the Fusion of the Personal and Politcal

The Panda Bear will be continuing through what remains of the summer do short blog posts.   The Panda Bear works in an office all day and the evenings are too nice to side inside and write blog posts.

The hypothesis of the Panda Bear Blog is that we live in an overly busy society.  However, the Panda Bear also believes that in this fast paced society that does not give individuals much down time we have to learn to give ourselves breaks.   Therefore, the Panda Bear has to look at herself critically on when she herself contributes to her stress problem.

However, today the Panda Bear is feeling blue today because she has been told she suffers from low grade depression (Dysthymia) and anxiety.  (The Panda Bear always gets more depressed when she finds out she is depressed but does not realize it) The Panda Bear wonders if she did not have these problems would she have the energy to do it all.

Upon further reflection the Panda Bear decides life is not so clear-cut.   The Panda Bear can push herself too hard in a high pressured society.    Writers are often the canary in the coal mine.   Miners used to bring canaries down into the coal mine because canaries were more sensitive to bad air than humans.   If the canary died, it meant the air was not good and the coal miners would leave the mine.   Writers and artists are often the canaries of society.   They are more sensitive to the problems that all individuals face.

The Panda Bear Blog is about the fusion of the personal, political, and economic forces of stress.   It is a blog about an average, benign and fumbling human Panda Bear.

The Panda Bear on the Hunger Games, Wars and Emotional Decision Making

The Panda Bear has not read nor seen the movie the Hunger Games.   However, the Panda Bear believes the reason the story is so popular now among both teens and adults is because it touches a nerve for people today.    One does not read about a fictional dystopia to seen teenagers kill each other on television; it can be seen on television all the time both in reports of wars and shootings in the school.

The Panda Bear knows many people who think people have gotten more callous towards each other in recent years.   If this is true, the Panda Bear believes it is the result of people being exposed to the "virtual" and false brutality on television and on video games.    These technological images of brutality are real enough for people on some level to believe that they have experienced it so when these people actually encounter it their lives the violence does not seem unusual.

Of course where modern reality gets very close to the Hunger Games is in modern war.    In wars, adults are sending teens and young  adults into battles for conflicts which these young people did not start.   Also while there are affluent families with a proud military tradition, it is mostly people from the lower economic parts of society that enroll in the military.   While there is no draft in the US, many young people may feel "forced" financially to enroll in the military.

The Panda Bear recently read this very moving piece by David Freed in the Los Angles Times about how sad he felt about his son going to Afghanistan to serve in the Army.   While Mr. Freed's son was from the middle-class, David Freed stated that he felt most people were in the military were there because they needed a job and were not from affluent families.  

Another compliant that Mr. Freed has that while both Obama and Romney were talking tough about defense neither one of them served in the military.   He noted that very few children of Congress people served in the military.  Mr. Freed stated that because so many people in power were removed from the war they did not understand the emotional costs of the war. (The Panda Bear notes that it is not just Congress and presidential candidates that behave this way.   The Panda Bear knows of many people who favor the US's involvement in foreign wars for humanitarian reason but these people aren't experiencing any suffering for their beliefs.)

The Panda Bear has seen it happen other times that well-meaning upper class people get moralistic about something  but they are not suffering nor making the sacrifices for the cause ;it is people with less money are power that are doing the dirty work.   The well meaning upper class people will be totally oblivious to their hypocrisy and their pushing a morality that they don't practice on people who are less affluent.   It is an unspoken class divide in US politics that the Panda Bear will explore in a later post.

However, Mr. Freed's piece about his son going to war highlights another aspect human behavior.   As much as people want to think of themselves as rational and not influenced by emotions they are.    Things seem very different when it personally effects you.   It is impossible for humans to be totally rational; human decisions always have some emotional basis even if the people aren't aware of them.

The Panda Bear on Bad Habbits Hiding Sad Feelings

The Panda Bear wants to say she enjoys her cat Suzie.   Suzie is the Panda Bear's first "companion" pet(i.e dog or cat).  Growing up the Panda Bear had pet mice, rabbits and turtles.   By companion pet, the Panda Bear is referring to a pet that has a unique personality and can form a relationship with a human.   The Panda Bear as never had anyone purr, meow, jump on chairs, run super fast, jump on the bed and rub noses with her when the Panda Bear comes home.   It is real treat to have Suzie sit on the Panda Bear's lap and purr and knead(it is believed cats do this when they are happy).    The Panda Bear and Suzie play games where the Panda Bear gets Suzie to swat different objects.
However, recently the Panda Bear's health habits have been terrible.   She has never drunk so much coffee, ate so much junk food or exercised so little.   Granted the Panda Bear has been very busy but the Panda Bear felt her health habits have gotten unusually bad.   As the Panda Bear resolved to go back to her better habits, the Panda Bear become that she was feeling blue though she does not know why she feels so down.  

Then the Panda Bear had the realization that this is what many experts believe; badf habbits can be a way of masking or dealing with unacceptable/painful/emotions.   The problem is that these bad habbits don't in the long run help things but they make things worse. 



     

The Panda Bear on Self-Improvement Overload and Anxiety

The Panda Bear is right now in self-improvement overload.   She needs to loose ten pounds and cut back on coffee(physicians feel it makes her anxious) which she has not been successful in doing.   She has started to use Seasonal Affective Disorder Lamp.  She has started career coaching at work and has homework to do for this program.   In addition, she may start a new project which she will discuss if actually happens. 

However, what has stressed her out most is her home improvements.  Three weeks ago she announced to Mr. Panda the War on Mice and Clutter(WOMAC) when she saw a mouse in her apartment.   WOMAC is modeled after George Bush's War on Terror.   Mr. Panda likes to keep extra boxes, newspapers and old clothes in the apartment which the Panda Bear thinks are useful for mice to hide.    The Panda Bear told Mr. Panda that he was either for mice or against mice-there was no neutral position on the issue    Under the powers given to her under WOMAC, the Panda Bear threw out alot of stuff of Mr. Panda(and some of her clutter also to be totally honest).

So far there have been five mouse casualties under WOMAC but there have been no new mice caught for about a week and a half.   The Panda Bear thinks it was a mother mouse with her baby mice and they seem to have lived in the heating unit in her apartment.   She has stuffed up the space near the heat pipes which was open.   She has cleaned the house with peppermint soap; she read somewhere that mice did not like the smell of peppermint.   To the Panda Bear and Mr. Panda  the peppermint soap smells nice and if it helps keep out mice so much the better.
The Panda Bear read somewhere that it could be helpful to join a web program to help her fight clutter.   She joined the The Fly Lady.   While, the Panda Bear is sure this services of this website are probably quite useful the Panda Bear has not had time to read the FlyLady's daily updates. The Panda Bear feels like a total failure.   For some reason, home organization and projects are a major source of anxiety and fear for the Panda Bear.   The Panda Bear wonders is there some clinical term for extreme house project fear?   The Panda Bear has never understood why some people want excessively large places;they are more work to maintain.

The Panda Bear decided to table the The Fly Lady for now and take much tinier steps to organizing her place.   However, the Panda Bear wants her that she has found the book Household Hints for Dummies by Janet Sobesky to be quite a helpful.

 The Panda Bear feels that excessively high goals and standards lead to her being inert and not accomplishing anything.   Small minuscule even nano steps are what lead to successful change.   The Panda Bear told a psychologist that she thinks the term "head shrinking" for psychological help is that some people do have "shrink" their expectations and their mindset.

The Panda Bear on the Seasonal Affective Disorder and Rich Paying More Taxes

The Panda Bear has noticed the days are getting shorter. Now when she goes to work it is dark and when she leaves work it is dark. The Panda Bear notices she feels more tired. She thinks she may suffer from the Seasonal Affective Disorder(SAD).

However, the Panda Bear does not like the term SAD. She prefers calling it sensitivity to shorter days. The Panda Bear thinks that probably at one point in human history it probably was extremely beneficial to want to make the most use of daylight and sleep when it was dark.

Anyway, about a couple of years ago the Panda Bear bought a lightbox that is used for SAD but she never had the time at home to use it.  However, this week she had the brilliant idea to take it to work with her.   She will let her readers know if it helped her with SAD.

On the radio, the Panda Bear has kept on hearing debates on whether the rich should pay more taxes.   The Panda Bear thinks it is the patriotic duty of the rich to pay more taxes.  She thinks all Americans need to pitch in and help with the economy.  She thinks the rich need to prove that the are not laughing at the rest of us.

The Panda Bear on Preventative Measures

Life has returned pretty much back to normal after the hurricane scare in the Boston, Massachusetts area. The Panda Bear and her husband still have to take down the masking tape from their windows. The few people who don't have electricity are shortly expecting to have their power back.

However, on the radio in Boston many talk show hosts were making fun of the intense publicity surrounding the hurricanes and stating that it was politically motivated. Granted hurricanes hardly ever make it to Boston area and the Panda Bear has lived through several false hurricane alarms. However, the Panda Bear believes that it is better for government officials to err on the side of caution. To the people who lost the electricity everywhere as a result of the storm and to the people in New Jersey and Vermont where the flooding was heavy the tropical storm Irene was a crisis.

Many times steps are taken as a precautionary measure even if the chance of something actually happening are relatively small. The Panda Bear has lived and worked in buildings where the fire alarm would go off for trivial reasons a few times of month during certain time periods. It would get to the point where the Panda Bear would be tempted to ignore these fire alarms. When this happened the Panda Bear would tell herself that the one time she ignored the fire alarm would be the time the building would burn down.

Cancer screenings are another example of precautionary measures. Women are advised to routinely have to have pap smears and after a certain age mammograms. There is a certain level of anxiety that is involved with these tests. There have been other times the Panda Bear has had have to have additional examinations and procedures done to make sure that whatever was wrong with the Panda Bear was not cancer(even though she was told the possibility of its being cancer was low).

These tests can be frustrating and stressful even though the Panda Bear is very glad that they are around and available to people. (Incidentally, the Panda Bear believes that African Americans still don't have the same access to health care access to health care as Caucasians. The Panda Bear knows of a few African Americans who were at a risk for cancer who did not get offered these extra tests that the Panda Bear who is Caucasian got offered and who was at a lower risk for cancer than these African Americans.).

The most annoying of these tests is the colonoscopy. As readers of the Panda Bear Blog may know the Panda Bear recently had a colonoscopy. The test itself is not bad but the prep is difficult. The Panda Bear had her first colonoscopy May of 2011. It could not be completed because the prep did not work. Therefore the Panda Bear had to have a second colonoscopy done which was done in August which had a more extensive preparation. For this preparation, the Panda Bear had to be both on a liquid diet for two days and take laxatives during those two days. On the second day of the liquid diet and taking this awful tasting laxative the Panda Bear was feeling that medical treatment had not made any progress from the Medieval times when they did purges and did amputations without anesthesia(Seriously, probably some cancer patients feel that their medical treatment is in some ways quite inhumane even if done in the modern medically correct manner).

Fortunately, the colonoscopy turned out well and and the best part is that the Panda Bear won't have to have another one for ten years. She even lost some weight that she wanted to loose. She thinks the weight loss from the gas they put in during the procedure which caused the Panda Bear to loose her appetite for a while.
This routine cancer preventions tests have caused the Panda Bear to take about five days sick leave. Fortunately, the Panda Bear does have work time to do this(in part because she never goes anywhere or does anything exciting).

The point is is the prevention can be an effort and perhaps is not always necessary in hindsight . However, the Panda Bear knows several people who died of colon and cervical cancer who had access to cancer screening but for what ever reason did not feel it was necessary to have them. Probably these some of these people and their families regret these people not taking these tests. The Panda Bear used to work in the insurance industry where there was a saying that insurance is a waste of money until you need it.

The nature of preventative measures is that one can't always judge ahead if they are needed. Often they may be a waste of time. However, if on the small chance something does happen one is glad to have done them.

The Panda Bear on Pandas and Anxiety

The Panda Bear apologizes to her readers.   She has not been able to keep with her blog posting schedule of Mondays and Thursdays.   She hopes to make her next posting on Friday.   The Panda Bear still plans on posting twice a week.  However, dear readers, please keep in mind that the Panda Bear is an average person who has to work and has many other commitments.

The human Panda Bear has done some research on the real Panda Bears.   Here is a link to the Panda Bear camera at the San Diego Zoo.   The real Pandas are so cute!!! They have unique personalities and they like eating bamboo shoots.   These gentle, harmless creatures are an endangered species because the forests where they live are being cut down(In Boston, we are having the problem that all these wild animals are coming into the city-all the forests are being cut down-there is no place for them to go).   The human Panda Bear has resolved that it is one of the goals of this blog will be to help her namesake, the Panda Bears.

The Panda Bear has been named an "anxiety" expert on http://www.selfgrowth.com.  However, since the Panda Bear is an non expert expert(in other words she has experienced anxiety but is not a mental health clinician) she will not use the term anxiety on this blog.   She feels the word does not convey what an ordinary person feels.   For the duration of the blog, instead of using the word "anxiety" she will use the words "nervousness", "timid", "fearful", "high strung" and "on edge.".

Many psychologists and other mental health clinicians have told they use clinical terms in part to get payments from the government and insurance agencies while they may not describe the actual. feelings involved   As in political terminology, the mental clinical terms are often at variance with they way words on used in common speech.   For example the term "depression" to a mental health professional describes a very specific set of symptoms while in common usage it can mean sad or blue.   The Panda Bear is committed to use technical terms the correct way.   Henceforth, the Panda Bear will describe feelings in the way a person experiences them rather than in misusing clinical terms..

As readers of the Panda Bear Blog know, the Panda Bear likes old books.   Recently, the Panda Bear was reading some posts and how it was a good idea to have time disconnected from technology(the Panda Bear dislikes the term "unplugged" because she does not like comparing humans to machines).   However, people in the nineteenth century found in hard to get away from technology.   Here is a passage from one of the Panda Bear's favorite books on stress was written in 1881 called American nervousness : its causes and consequences, a supplement to Nervous exhaustion (neurasthenia) (1881) written by neurologist called George Beard showing how clocks and watches made people of the time feel constantly on the edge.  Here is the quote:

The

perfection of clocks and the invention of

watches

have something to do with modern ner- 

vousness,

since they compel us to be on time, and

excite

the habit of looking to see the exact moment,

so

Before

in time,

as not to be late for trains or appointments.Before the general use of these instmments of precision there was a wider margin for all

appointments

prepared the

steamers or the needed

of a

wherein

; a longer period was required and for, especially in travelling coaches ofolden period were not expected to start like trains, on the instant men judged oftime by probabilities, by looking at the sun, an dnot, as a rule, to be nervous about the loss moment, and had incomparably fewer experiences a delay of a few moments might destroy the hopes of a lifetime. A nervous man cannot take out his watch and look at it when the of time for an appointment or train is near, without affecting his pulse, and the effect on that pulse, if we could but measure and weigh it, would be

found

system.

force

constant 

sleeping where as well as in waking hours, to get somewhere do something at some definate moment.

 

to be correlated to a loss to the nervous Punctuality is a greater thief of nervous than is procrastination of time. We are under strain, mostly unconscious, oftentimes iufll