The Panda Bear bids Au re·voir to her readers for the present.

The Panda Bear will be moving indefinitely to other blogging projects under her real name.   She needs to move in her life.

However, Panda Bear sees many other writers share the anger she has felt.  She encourages other humble bears to hold hands and help each other confront the elite oligarchy.

The Panfa Bear on her Return, Personal Life Update and the Great Recession and the Arts

The Panda Bear Blog will be resuming publication.   The Panda Bear Blog is a blog by written by a humble office worker who is writes against the oligarchy.

During the years of her blog, the Panda Bear has seen a rise in anger against those in power.   The Panda Bear is most proud of the defeat of the plan to hold the Olympics is Boston.   The leaders who opposed the building of the Olympics said this was an example of a grass-roots effort rising against a plan put forth the make the Oligarchy rich.   The Panda Bear was proud to contribute her small social media presence  in opposing the plans to build the Olympics.

On a personal note, the Panda Bear lost her job after having it for a year.   Readers of the Panda Bear Blog will remember that the Panda Bear did not like her previous to last job.   The job the Panda Bear just lost she liked better.   The Panda Bear worked very hard at it and vowed to be totally positive about the job for as long as she had it.    However, hard work and a positive attitude did not stop the Panda Bear from losing her job.

The Panda Bear thinks the economy is in a terrible state-much worse than is mentioned in the news media(maybe because most big news outlets are owned by big business).    However, the Panda Bear finds it interesting that the poor economy is not making much of an appearance in popular culture(i.e movies, TV, fiction).    The book Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn is the only book recent book the Panda Bear has come across where the economic downturn of 2008 plays a role.   The Panda Bear wonders why the entertainment/popular culture and the arts are so afraid to take on the current economic downturn.

The Panda Bear on Work Stress, Personal Stress and Blog Publication.

The Panda Bear Blog will be suspending publication for the summe.   The summer is always a bad time for the Panda Bear Blog.   With the nice days, the Panda Bear does not want write and blog but rather side outside and read(The Panda Bear knows this is a pitaful idea of summer fun).   In addition she faces a very busy job and several personal issues.   Therefore, the Panda Bear Blog will suspend publication until October 1, 2015,

The Panda Bear on the Democratic Loss, Unemployment and New Job

The Panda Bear is not at all surprised that the Democrats lost control of Congress.   The Democrats were defending in the position of defending a poor economy.   The Panda Bear would consider herself to be a progressive but she thinks the American Right has been more accurate recently about the state of the economy.  There is high unemployment and the lower nine-five percent’s income has dropped drastically in recent years.    People who have jobs are stressed out and feel discouraged by the lack of opportunity.   Probably many employees feel like indentured servants rather than free labor.

The Panda Bear knows first-hand about the high unemployment rate.   On October 10, she lost her job.   She went to several unemployment agencies where the staff said the unemployment rate was high in Massachusetts and people were having a hard time getting jobs (despite the Democrats asserting things were getting better).   However, the Panda Bear has heard Massachusetts is not as bad as other parts of the country.

The Panda Bear's period of unemployment will be short lived.   On November 17, the Panda Bear will starting and new a better job.   The Panda Bear will learning some new skills and earning more money in her new position. (The Panda Bear thinks it is a major problem for both employed workers who are getting stale in the jobs and for the unemployed who can’t get jobs that employers no longer want to train workers.  She can understand that training workers is a major expense for companies but lack of company training is creating problems for Americans). 

Of course, the Panda Bear would not have gotten a job so quickly if she had not been involved in an intensive job hunt since July 2013, when her old office banned plants at work.   In took the Panda Bear several years for her to work on her resume and she paid for a professional resume consultation.   (In the modern economy with jobs being so unstable the Panda Bear thinks everyone should be able to quickly produce a good resume.   Once when the Panda Bear was laid off very suddenly and unexpectedly, it slowed to her hob hunting process a lot that it took several months for her to develop a good working resume.)

For the jobs the Panda Bear's field of work, the internet is the prime source of jobs.   How, the job hunting world has changed from when the Panda Bear started in the working world!!  She remembers buying the Sunday paper (for the help wanted ads) and sending in resume and cover letter via snail mail.  However, even, the best job hunting web sites change.   In 2013, the Panda Bear was told that Monster and CareerBuilder were no longer the top job hunting websites; the best website to look for jobs was Indeed(in fact, this web site was where the Panda Bear found her new job).   However, in 2014, the Panda Bear heard that companies no longer liked Indeed but were recruiting from LinkedIn.   In fact, several employment counselors told the Panda Bear that companies were telling the State of Massachusetts that they wanted all employees on LinkedIn.

The hiring process can take a long time nowadays.   The Panda Bear applied for her job in as soon as it was advertised in July and she was offered the job on November 4.   Therefore, the Panda Bear thinks a person can be easily on unemployment for a year and be actively job hunting.

Of course, the Panda Bear getting her dream job and going to job heaven means that she will no longer be blogging about her current job.   The Panda Bear blogged about her old job more than was prudent but jobs are a big part of one's life and if one is unhappy with one’s job one can be unhappy with life.

Instead, the Panda Bear Blog will more focus on the problems of the world.   The Panda Bear recently read the Autobiography of John Stuart Mill, the famous nineteenth century philosopher.   She was inspired by John Stuart Mill's statement that his being an office worker contributed to his understanding of the world and enabled him to come up with ideas for critiquing and reforming the major institutions of his time.   He was also for expanding the power base of his time for which the Panda Bear admires him.

In the spirit of John Stuart Mill, the Panda Bear will continue to blog; a blog of an office worker who wants to improve the world and advocate for the lower 95 percent.

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 on the New Year, Vacation Stress and Unemployment Insurance

The Panda Bear wishes all the best to her readers for the coming year.   2013 was a good year for the Panda Bear Blog.   The Panda Bear Blog has just past over 20,000 pages views and has 315 Twitter followers.    The blog has subscribers in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, China and Japan.    The Panda Bear feels this is very good for a blog by a humble and lowly office worker who is a mere amateur writer.

Since the Panda Bear is a critique of the cult of extreme business, she thought in this time of resolutions for the coming year to share this resolution the Panda Bear found on a meditation s website by a Zen writer:

 "This year, I am determined to be more unproductive. My goal is to do less and less – to move slower and slower until everything stops. I and the whole world will come to a sweet and silent stillness. And in this stillness, a great shout of joy will arise. We will all be free..." From the Ox and Window, by 17th century Zen master Hakuin Ekaku.

The Panda Bear wondered if instead of asking each other what we were going to do on the weekend we should ask each other what we are not going to do.   Maybe we should feel sorry for people who are doing something and praise people for doing nothing.

The Panda Bear went on vacation for the a few days at the beginning on the month.   People asked what she did during the vacation and the Panda Bear had the pleasure of saying not much.    Why should people are busy morning to night for most of the 365 days of the year not have a few days of nothingness?   Why do even vacations in our culture have to be busy?    Of course going away was stressful.    There was the packing and preparing to leave the apartment.  Getting Mr. Panda to go anywhere is a chore.   He is a home body.   Mr. Panda Bear told the Panda Bear he will only go places if he knows  exactly where he is going.   The Panda Bear told Mr. Panda if everywhere was like him there would be no one to explore new places on earth or outer space.

The few days away were relaxing.   Then coming back home and back to work was very stressful.   All the home chores remained.   The Panda Bear has the type of job that if you are off for the day it takes you a day to catch up with back work.

The Panda Bear believes that many of her other coworkers are also stressed out.   The source of this stress the Panda Bear believes is that work is no longer slow during this time of year.  In the Panda Bear’s line of work and for many other US workers the period between Thanksgivings to mid-January use to be slow.   No major changes happened during this period.  There was a holiday slowness.   Now the prevailing mood of the workplace to be business as usual for the holiday period.    Workers now have heavy workloads as well as the additional chores for the holiday preparation.   No wonder people are feeling so cranky.

Even a few years ago there was not much hiring or layoffs happened between Thanksgiving and Mid-January because of the holiday period.   This slowness no longer seems to be true.   The Panda Bear knows of people who recently have gotten laid off during this time.    In the Panda Bear’s line of work a lot of new people are starting between Thanksgiving and February which is keeping the Panda Bear busy.

The Panda Bear has some friends that are have some luck at getting job interviews during this period.   One friend of the Panda Bear’s thinks she may get a new job right now.   The job was posted in mid-December.   If this friend was to get the job it would probably start in mid-February.

In many lines of work the hiring process from posting the job, interviewing candidates, and making a job offer can take the managers two to three months if not longer.   The Panda Bear hopes the Congress extends unemployment benefits.   The standard unemployment benefit of six months is nothing if one considers the length of the hiring process even if the person is lucky in the job process.

 

 

 

The Panda Bear on her Glossary of Terms, Office Bathroom and Home Bathroom

The Panda Bear thinks series entertainment is an unnecessary source of stress in modern life.   The Panda Bear thinks one should be able to pick up a novel or watch a TV show without having read the previous book or seen the prior TV episode.

However, a blog is something like a ongoing series.   However, the Panda Bear is committed to try to make each blog post read as much of a stand alone piece as possible.   However, to make the blog more readable the Panda Bear has added two pages to her blog for the reader to reference.   The first page is her Cast of Characters where she lists her frequently repeating characters.    The second page is her Glossary of Terms where she explains many of her words that are unique to the blog.

The Panda Bear has unexpectedly this week has had three days paid days off from work this week due plumbing problems which lead to the toilet facilities not being able to be used.   Three unexpected paid days off from work!!!! This has not happened to the Panda Bear in her nearly thirty years of being in the workforce full-time.  Furthermore,  the Panda Bear has been working for past thirteen years for organizations that had a no close policy so the offices weren't closed even when many other businesses were shut down(i.e. for bad weather).   The Panda Bear has been too stunned to know what to do.   Should she do chores or have fun?   The Panda Bear has decided to try to do a mixture of both. 

The Panda Bear was told places of work had to provide bathroom facilities for the employees and the office had to have electricity to remain open.   What amazed the Panda Bear were not these laws but that her last employer did not follow them.  In the Panda Bear's last place of unemployment they kept the place open without bathrooms(workers had to go to nearby buildings).  Furthermore, once when they had problems with some workers not keeping the bathrooms clean, the organization closed the bathrooms on a temporary basis and to threaten permanently close them(the workers would have had to use the public restrooms in the building).   The organization also kept people working through power outages that last several hours. 

The Panda Bear's previous organization was not some puny small time organization but was affiliated with a large employer.    Its managers would be considered to be "nice" people and mainstream middle management.   However, not all of its actions appear to have been legal.  The Panda Bear wonders why Unions are having such problems today when there is widespread disgruntlement about the way employers treat workers.  

It is getting late.   The Panda Bear was going to give her readers an update on her bathroom.   The Panda Bear will violate her rule about not liking series and say stay tuned to the next installment of the Panda Bear Blog.

The Panda Bear on Mr, Panda's Leg, Afghanistan and Her New Computer

The Panda Bear's return to blogging has been fraught with obstactles, First computers were broken(but are in the process of being repaired now).  Then Mr, Panda came down with a cold and his leg had a mild infection.   He spent the week at home,  Fotunately, Mr, Panda is feeling much better.

What does this have to do with The Panda Bear Blog?    The Panda Bear writes her blog when she finishes her humble full time office position and Mr. Panda still at work,   Since Mr   Panda is at home is need for attention is depriving the Panda Bear of her moments contempletion and solitude needed to complete the blog,

The Panda Bear does not think time management experts leave enough slack for all the unexpected things that can go wrong,   Recently, the Panda Bear took a stress management test and found out she was overcommitted,   However, the problem is the Panda Bear finds that the part of her life that miht be seen as "overcommitted" is the part off her life that gives the Panda Bear her most satisfaction,
The Panda Bear finds her job routine and does not like home chores,   Shopping gives her no joy.

She will set up her computer which should give her more time to blog,   How much of our lives is just wasted on doing the same things over an over again!!   It seems like it was just yesterday the Panda Bear bought and set-up her last computer,   Then she has to figure out Windows 8,

Another time management problem the Panda Bear has with blogging is that how can she write about all the injustices in the United States in about two to four hours a week?   The Panda Bear has come to believe that power corrupts and there needs to be some activism such as was seen in the US during the 1960s,

Therefore, she has decided to push the political focus of her blog to ending the US involvement in foreign wars.   She does not think the US should be aiding Syrian rebels,  Recently, she came accross a petition asking Congress to immediately end the war Afghanistan.   The Panda Bear thinks the US should leave Afghanistan.   The US is falling apart and we are in no position to tell others what to do.

The Panda Bear on the Year Anniversary of Her Father's Death and Taking a Blogging Break.

The Panda Bear is very tired and she will be taking a temporary break from blogging.   It has been a year after the death of Father Panda.   The Panda Bear found the anniversary of his death very hard.   In addition, Mother Panda has been needing some help.

The Panda Bear needs to rest and enjoy the nice weather.   She will soon back to blogging.

The Panda Bear on the 2nd Anniversary of her Blog and the Lost Art of Day Dreaming

The Panda Bear Blog will be shortly celebrating its second anniversary.   It is a blog about a lowly, confused US office worker (who is the Panda Bear) dealing with the corrupt oligarchy that seems to control the United States.    The Panda Bear is intensely critical of the fast pace of modern life.   In addition she hates household chores.

 The Panda Bear’s wrote her first blog post on 4/11/2011.   Since that time, the Panda Bear Blog has had 13.310 page views with subscribers in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France and Germany.

Below is a listing of page views of The Panda Bear Blog broken down by country:

United States           8507
Germany                  861
Bulgaria                   855
Russia                     384
United Kingdom     297
Spain                      205
India                       153
Canada                   133
France                    96
Philippines             75

From this viewing statistics, it becomes apparent that the internet is really the World Wide Web.   The Panda Bear is surprised how high the page views are from countries for whom English is not a first language.   Canada is number 7 in terms of page views; the Panda Bear would have thought Canada would be number two or three in number of page views since it is near the US and shares a similar culture.

The Panda Bear Blog has also had its setbacks.   The most noticeable set back was that she was thrown out of the Google Adsense program for “invalid clicking activity” though the Panda Bear maintains she did not personally authorize any invalid clicking.   Google Adsense is a pay for click advertising program where the blogger makes money every time someone clicks on an advertisement.   The blogger is not supposed to click on advertisements on his/her own site or encourage other people to click on ads on his/her site because it is considered a form a fraud.   Fortunately there are competing ad networks the Panda Bear can join.   Competition is good in the economy because if one has problems with one organization/company/person there are alternatives available.

The Panda Bear personally had one major setback since starting her blog in that her father (Father Panda) died in June 2012 at the age of 89.  Otherwise the Panda Bear’s personal life has been as tedious and ordinary as ever.   The poor economy is making job change difficult.   The Panda Bear has to spend more of her personal time on dreaded home chores and repair.   The poor condition of her apartment is getting on the Panda Bear’s nerves and she is resolved to get things done at her apartment even if it eats into her highly limited time after work.   Is there more to living then sitting at a desk all day and do home chores at night?

The Panda Bear was trying to find ways to fight boredom without internet surfing the internet which can be rude and look bad at work.   Thirty years ago the Panda Bear had a higher tolerance for routine when there was no internet.    The Panda Bear many years ago had a rich inner life.    She was able to keep herself entertained with her thoughts.  The Panda Bear thinks she has lost some of this ability in this digital age.

When things are dull, the Panda Bear wants to be able to reconstruct her ability to go on autopilot and escape into the inner depths of her mind.    The Panda Bear thinks mental escapism is underrated in modern times.

 

 

 

The Panda Bear on Improving Working Conditions and Bathroomn Remolding

The Panda Bear Blog is a blog about the a stressed out average office worker and her observations on life.

The Panda Bear has not forgotten her dear and valued readers.   Her New Years resolution was to cultivate her inner hippie and embrace change and social improvements.    Therefore she has gotten involved in workplace reform.   She has volunteered to help with some groups that want to make laws to change some employment practices.

Though the Panda Bear is on a bottom level job in her office at meeting she very tactfully confronted the heads of her organization regarding improving health conditions where she works and making the office more exercise and diet friendly.    The heads said they would listen to her ideas.

All through this whirlwind of reform activity, the Panda Bear has continued with her hated household chores.    The Panda Bear and Mr. Panda have done some needed repairs.   There is still much work needed to be done.

The Panda Bear plans to start regularly blogging again.

The Panda Bear on Rousseau, Adsense, and Competition

The Panda Bear is starting this post during lunch in the office kitchen trying to look very important.   She is using her spiffy netbook which has impressed the IT department  at work.    As readers of the Panda Bear Blog already know, the Panda Bear is stalled in her daytime career.    Though she works for a large major organization, the Panda Bear now works in a small office of about thirty where she is one of the seven lowest level workers in a group of about thirty-five.  It is possible to tell who are the lower level workers by the red at lunch sign at their desks.

The Panda Bear Blog is a blog about a lowly office worker.    It is a blog about being a confused humble bear who is in the lower percentages of human society.    At work Panda Bear keeps thinking  of Rousseau’s saying that “Man was bore free but everywhere he is in chains.”   The Panda Bear feels like shouting from her cubicle “Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity.”   Then she remembers that this was from the FRENCH revolution and the Panda Bear is an American (also the French revolution came with a lot of violence against innocents unfortunately).

However, the American Revolution was founded on the idea of liberty and equality.   Where is it in the work place?   Most big organizations the Panda Bear has worked it has been quite clear that the well being of some individuals is worth more to the organization than others.     Also the American Revolution was founded on the principles of free speech and due process.   Most people don’t have these rights while at work unless they are covered by a union.  Most nonunionized large organizations in the United States are run like feudal empires

The Panda Bear thinks employees should be able to freely discuss the terms of employment, pay, and working conditions without free of repercussion especially outside of work and on the social media,.   The Panda Bear thinks transparent working conditions and pay would result in much better treatment of workers.   Truth should be a defense to the accusation that an employee is being negative.   Employers should be held accountable for their treatment of workers; if employers were justified in their actions they have nothing to be afraid of in making information on how they treat workers public.

Of course, the simplest solution for employers is to give workers more time off where  they are able to enjoy the freedoms of the United States.     The Panda Bear does not think giving the workers letting go early once or twice would undermine the US economy and would make people much more relaxed and happy.

Since the Panda Bear Blog is a blog about a little humble Panda Bear dealing with the powers that be, the Panda Bear regrets to report that she was thrown of the Google Adsense program.    The reason they gave was invalid click activity (Adsense pays out per click).   The Panda Bear did not knowingly violate Adsense policy.   She suspects that one of readers may have made some invalid clicks and her blog did not attract enough visitors to make Google Adsense feel that her blog was worth keeping in their network.   However, now the Panda Bear Blog has  banned from Adsense forever (she is told Google never changes its mind).

It is fortunate for the Panda Bear that there are competing ad networks which the Panda Bear could join.   Choice and options are the advantages are being in an economy where there are competing companies.

However, the Panda Bear plans to stay away from pay-for-click advertising and she joins different networks to boost blog readership.    She thinks the pay for click advertising is too easily open for fraudulent activity and she does not plan to pursue pay for click advertising until the blog is more established.

 

The Panda Bear on the Existential Question and the People’s Uprising

The Panda Bear Blog is about a lowly Panda Bear who works full-time an office and dislikes the fast pace of modern life.   The Panda Bear Blog is a blog being part of the lower percent.

This time of year with the days short becoming short and the end of the year approaching, the Panda Bear muses on the meaning of life.   The end of the year signifies the time signifies the time that the Panda Bear and Mr. Panda work on home repairs something that which Panda Bear detests.     Mr. Panda has more vacation time towards the end of the year so they have more available to work on repairs.   So far they have had some electric work done on their apartment and have had their heating unit fixed.   Now they must work on getting their bathroom floor fixed so the wood underneath does not rot.

The Panda Bear tries to congratulate herself on getting these jobs done.    However, positive thinking only goes so far.   The Panda Bear feels there must be more to life than consumerism.   She feels the powers that be have put her on a capitalist treadmill of working long and hard so that she can buy the consumer goods and pay for home repairs which keep the economy growing.   The Panda Bear feels there must be more to life than producing and consuming.  

The one good piece of news for the Panda Bear is that she posted her resume online and some recruiters have contacted her.   Readers of the Panda Bear Blog know that the Panda Bear has gotten bored with her dead-end job where she works in the less important section of the office.   The workload has increased because of some additional work being taken on by her section.   For the upper management this extra work means a promotion and title change while for the workers these additional duties are covered under that catchall section of job descriptions (other responsibilities as needed) The Panda Bear thinks it may be a long job hunt but at least people are reading her resume.   She knows in some ways she should be glad she is working but recently she moved to a small office and she is tired sitting at the same desk all day and seeing the same faces all the time.   America the land of the longest work hours in the world-is it treason to say one wants to do more with one’s life than sit  at a desk and work on a computer all day?  Of course if you are like the Panda Bear you will spend a lot of your free time looking at the computer but it is a completely different matter because it is voluntary.

The Panda Bear wants to join the people’s protest.   Though she is terrified of home contractors she is not afraid to take on the powers that be and tell them that they mistreat the masses.   The Panda Bear wants to be a nineteen sixties rebel.   She thinks the average people need to confront those in power.     The Panda Bear wants to be a modern hippie.  Only she does not know where to go or what to do.

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 Blogging, the Presidential Debate and Leadership.

The Panda Bear has found that blogging is cutting into her exercise schedule.   However, the Panda Bear hopes to rent a lock at the YMCA so she can take her computer with after work so she can do some blog posting between work and exercise.  The Panda Bear finds that she is a typical American in that to do more of one thing means doing less of another item.

The Panda Bear would like to comment on the terrible job Obama did on the debate.  Some of the time, he seemed like a two year old on the verge of a temper tantrum.  He seemed to resent the idea of having to debate a political opponent.   For shame Obama!!! This is what makes us a free society; incumbents have to defend their political record.

However, the Panda Bear thinks it is a very common problem that people in high position get spoiled and they lose their ability to hear criticism.  It is hard to convey unpleasant truths to people in power without fear of bad consequences for oneself.   The Panda Bear thinks it is a very rare quality in leaders that they are able to create safe environments were those under them can tell them things they don’t want to hear.

Several times the Panda Bear has tried to bring up disagreements with those who have authority over her.   Often the response is an unfriendly “Ms. Bear, maybe the problem is you.”  At this point the Panda Bear feels that discretion is the better part (quality) than valor and changes the subject.

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 Status of her Blog American Overwork and the Ill Health of Her Father

The Panda Bear wants to let her readers know that she has not abandoned her blog.   Her father has been critically ill for the past two weeks.   She plans to restart her blog once the health status of her father is resolved.

Her father who is 89 fell down the stairs and broke his pelvis and has sustained a brain injury.   While he is not brain dead, he has sustained a brain damage.   Yesterday, he appeared to be totally unconscious.

He is in the intensive care unit at The Massachusetts General Hospital.   The Panda Bear spent a couple of days with her father in the unit of the hospital.   She was impressed with the list of specialists that were working on her father to deal with his health.

Probably as a result of his fall, the Panda Bear's father has sustained a heart attack and brain seizure.   The brain seizure has set the Panda Bear's father back in terms of mental cognition.

The Panda Bear Blog is in part of blog about American overwork.  The Panda Bear gets very angry at supposed "experts" who aren't on the clock telling us average folk that we simply imagine that we are overworked.

It is the most stressful time of year in the Panda Bear's line of work.   The Panda Bear wants it noted that many American workers are going from work to personal stress.  While the Panda Bear's employer has been good about giving the Panda Bear time of from work, it should be noted that this is coming from the eighteen days from the Panda Bear's "Benefit Time" which is a combination of personal, sick and vacation time.

Nowadays, jobs are hard to get.   In life and death discussions with the physicians the Panda Bear will be waving company leave of absence forms so her job can be protected under the American Family Medical Leave Act.

The Panda Bear now must get ready for her tasks for the day and see her very ill father on the first holiday of the summer.

The Panda Bear on the Purpose of her Blog and Womac/House Update

The Panda Bear is taking a slight break from her promise to herself to get some rest after she came home from work.   However, she read this article from the Atlantic called "Is your job killing you?" and Panda Bear found one of the key themes of her blog.   This article states:

Welcome to the future of work: a world where everything moves faster, the hours are longer and steady jobs are harder to find. Work has always been central to our lives -- in the United States, the 40-hour workweek stretches back at least a century -- but now, technology and the pressure of competing in a global economy is threatening to turn back the clock, making our toil an all-consuming affair once again.

Studies show that we're more productive than ever...

The object of the Panda Bear Blog is to show that this involuntary increase in work hours is bad for Americans physically, psychologically, economically and morally.    She things some of this increase in work hours is actually counterproductive; we aren't really getting more done..   The Panda Bear things the ultimate measure of wealth is freedom to do the things we want to do rather than have to do.   In the spirit of the current populists uprisings the Panda Bear feels that American workers are not reaping the benefits of their productivity.   The top one percent throw as a few toys for all our sweat and blood.

Furthermore, this article states that Americans work some of the longest hours in the world:

In 2010, Americans each worked on average a total of 1,778 hours. That's not nearly as bad as South Korea (2,193 hours), but the United States still spends more time at work than many of its fellow developed nations, including Japan, Canada, Spain and the United Kingdom.

The Panda Bear believes that what made the US great was our spirit of fun and adventure.    We are the country that gave the world Elvis Presley and  Walt Disney.  The Panda Bear remembers when she was a child there was a chant that went:

   (a Far Eastern Ethnic group) school has just begun
   no more laughing no more fun.

The Panda Bear things this describes the United States right now-endless work-no sense of play and adventure.   We have become a nation of drudges.   In the upcoming elections the Panda Bear plans to ask different political candidates what they plan to do to make us are more relaxed, friendly and leisured country.

The Panda Bear is not ashamed to admit she struggles to survive in this new tough American economy.   She works but can do not many other things that she would like to do.

This long works hours explains why the Panda Bear has not made some of the home improvements she expected to have completed.   Readers of the Panda Bear Blog know the thing she dislikes the most in the world are household chores.  This fall the Panda Bear saw some mice and launched the War on Mice and Clutter(WOMAC).  This war is modeled after George Bush's Global War on Terror(GWOT).   

The Panda Bear did manage to get rid of some clutter.   She also got a cat(Suzie-see above) whom she loves.   Since has the Panda Bear has gotten Suzie she has not seen any mice and she loves having a cat.   It is the first pet the Panda Bear has had.

While the Panda Bear has not been able to do half of what she has wanted to do with her apartment, she now does household chores with a new feeling of tranquility.   She has come to accept the fact that she will never be the world's best housekeeper.   When she has the energy to do her few hated home chores, she now does it with a spirit of peace, acceptance and love.

The world is far too fast paced for the Panda Bear.   She just wants to sit outside and lay on the grass and rest.

The Panda Bear on Her Layoff from a Major US Corporation

Due to the Panda Bear taking on some additional projects, the Panda Bear Blog will only be updated once a week.   When she was starting her blog she read somewhere that a blogger should post twice a week but the Panda Bear would rather have one good longer post.

The Panda Bear was having some problems with her Hewlett Packard Netbook tonight.   'She thought she might have to take it to be repaired but it started to work again.   She noticed it was made in China.   Why can't US companies make more in the US?   The Panda Bear realizes that the price of some goods may go up.   However, if there were more well-paying jobs in the US, Americans could pay more for goods.

The Panda Bear wants to extend her sympathy to the currently unemployed.   She wants them to know that she has been among their ranks.   During the years 1992-1993, the Panda Bear got laid off from a major US insurance company and was unemployed for about a year.   For that year she was actively job hunting(though she volunteered to keep busy) and would have accepted about any office job.   She probably she have gone through a short retraining program which could be done while on US unemployment insurance.    The company that Panda Bear had worked for did not use PCs and they were starting to come into widespread use in 1992-1993.   Also the industry that the Panda Bear had be working in(property and casualty insurance) was severely effected in that recession.

Companies and strategies have different ways of laying people off.   Indeed, there are people who make good salaries on instructing companies on how to lay people off.    Sometimes, the Panda Bear finds it interesting to hear about how different organizations lay people off.  One company had the laid off workers train their replacements.   Some organizations discuss layoffs but never actually do it.   Insurance companies and many private companies keep layoff plans very quiet because they want to keep the workforce placid.

The Panda Bear had been very happy working in the insurance company.   When she worked for it, the insurance companies were supposed to be stable places to work.  She had received several promotions but she was still a fairly low level worker.   ( Once someone that came from company headquarters said she had heard all about the Panda Bear and how she was a very smart human Panda and how she had gone to Harvard-actually the Panda Bear had gone to Mount Holyoke College.  The Panda Bear latter got passed over a group of promotions and now sometimes the Panda Bear wonders why they did not promote her if she was supposed to be so smart.   Obviously, something else besides brains was needed to get ahead in this Fortune 500 company).

Anyway, one winter there started to be rumors of lay offs.  Management denied the rumors of layoffs.   Some workers said these rumors are coming from somewhere and that the job of management was to keep things calm.  One day the Panda Bear was told to go into a conference room with a group of other employees.   The Panda Bear and the other workers were told they were laid off and to leave right away the building right away.  The management of the company had lied about not laying people off.   Some people later told Panda Bear that the management had probably known for a few months that they were going have lay offs.   The company told the workers that it was against company policy for the company to give any kind of reference for its former employees besides verifying dates of employment.

It was the end of blind corporate loyalty for the Panda Bear.    The Panda Bear wants her readers to note several things about her layoff.   One is that when the Panda Bear and her coworkers were being laid off because the insurance company was not making a certain profit level, the CEO and heads of the company were making the most money in the history of insurance(the Panda Bear is being slightly sarcastic).

Secondly, layoff were done in order of worker status rather than what was necessarily most useful for the company.  

The Panda Bear on Suing the Town, #2, Sarah Palin, Blog Updae

The Panda Bear is getting sick of hearing about Sarah Palin when she is a  NOT a presidential candidate.   She heard from a reporter at NPR the reason the press is drooling over Sarah Palin is that they think if she ran for president it would make an interesting news story.   The Panda Bear also read in the book Game Change which was written by two NYT times reporters covering the 2008 elections that the news media does have favorites when  it covers elections. 

The press should feel ashamed of itself.   It should be objective and be reporting for the public good and not be so self promoting.(However, the Panda Bear is quite impressed about what she hears about reporters through  NPR covering the wars.  Some reports really do put their lives in danger to get the "true" story).

The Panda Bear is proud to report that many "experts" on blog writing are wrong when it comes to the readers of the Panda Bear Blog.  These experts say readers want something entertaining and and factual.  However, they are wrong when it comes to the ever discerning and intelligent readers of the Panda Bear Blog.   The Panda Bear Blog's most popular posts are reflective and moody   Therefore, the Panda Bear reverts to back her original idea of being being a general writer in the style of the great writers of the eighteenth and early nineteenth century who happens to use the twenty first century of means of communication of blogging.

As readers of the Panda Bear Blog know, the Panda Bear slipped and fell on the ice and broke her wrist.   Being a typical litigious American, the Panda Bear feels it must be be somone elses fault that she fell.  Furthermore,  She read John Grisham's The Appeal where the novel makes it seem that personal injury lawsuits are critical in preserving freedom and democracy as we know it. Besides there is a small change the Panda Bear might get some money from a lawsuit.    Therefore, she may be suing her town.

The place where the Panda Bear fell was maintained by the town where the Panda Bear lives and works.   It was not widely known that the town was supposed to maintain this area.    It is NEVER shoveled.    It is very slippery there and it is also near some schools, a park for children and public transportation.   Therefore, it is a widely trafficked area and one would think the town would want to have the palce safe for foot traffic.

It was a very bad winter this year.   There was a lot of snow.  The way the laws work in Massachusetts residents and businesses are responsible for shoveling the sidewalks in front of them.   Towns and cities are very heavy handed about enforcing these rules and fining citizens who don't clean there areas.   There have been some complaints by Massachusetts residents that they have cleaned there sidewalks and then the city comes in and throws some snow on their sidewalks and then these citizens are fined for not cleaning their snow.

The Panda Bear joins the world wide revolt against tyrannical government.   Why should towns and cities not follow the same laws and rules they impose on other people?  Don't they exist to protect the citizens that they are supposed to serve?  The Panda Bear has been that that municipalities are harder to sue than other organizations.    She once read once that the reason for this was a legacy of the divine right of kings.    The Panda Bear has increasingly begun to feel that the government can be arrogant and act privileged.

When the Panda Bear fell on the ice, she did not know who maintained the area nor did anyone else who walked over that hill though people constantly complained about it being slippery and dangerous.    As part of her suit, the Panda Bear needed to find out who was responsible for cleaning the area.   The town admitted that it was responsible for cleaning the area and that it was a dangerous section.    The Panda Bear also found in the town web site a section where people could comment about places that needed to have snow removed.

The Panda Bear was all excited when she found out this information.   She thought people who lived and worked in the area would could press the town to keep this area clear of snow and ice.   She mentioned to people who had to go over the hill that she fell areas that the town kept cleaner probably as a result of pressure from nearby institutions.

However, instead the Panda Bear felt she encountered apathy and ,of more concern to the Panda Bear, fear of confronting town authorities.    Here the US is right now fighting three wars to spread democracy and yet its residents of this of supposedly free nation are afraid of asking the town to maintain the public safety which is the one of its basic functions.   The Panda Bear is not afraid to confront the town and ask it to follow the rules that it imposes on other people.    The Panda Bear wants to mention that the town she lives in is not poor and the residents generally support the idea of government services.

A famous local politician said "all politics is local."  The Panda Bear will provide further posts on her efforts on her suit and her efforts to get the town to shovel the hill where she fell.