Month: December 2011

Sleep Remedies, Part II

~ Clarissa ~ 31 Comments

People who take prescription sleep medication put themselves and others into even greater danger. I’ve met two people who were on Ambien, which is a horrible, horrible drug.

One of them was my boyfriend. Once, when we were preparing to go to bed, he shared the following story with me.

“I kept noticing,” he said, “that even when I’d fill the tank of my car in the evening, on the next morning it would be half empty. I had no idea what was going on until one night I discovered myself driving down the highway at full speed at 4 am without having the slightest recollection of how I got into the car and where I thought I was going. I’m on Ambien and I hear that people sometimes do things they can’t remember while they are on it.”

As he finished the story, he took out some pills and prepared to take them.

“What are those?” I asked in horror.

“Well, I just told you, it’s my Ambien,” he said.

“OK, now you will drive me home and then take your Ambien,” I said. “There is no way I’m staying here while you are on those. What if you wake up at night and decide to stick a knife in me? You won’t even go to jail for that because you won’t remember anything.”

“I think I’ll still go to jail,” the boyfriend replied judiciously.

I didn’t feel very comforted by that, though.

I also had a friend who would take Ambien and then start calling classmates to invite them over for sex. Since she had no recollection of what happened, she would then be forced to approach people in class to ask them, “I’m sorry, did we have sex last night?”

Since then, I decided that the best remedies for sleep are natural. Take a walk in the fresh air, have some warm milk with honey, take a relaxing bath. And if none of these remedies work and I don’t fall asleep, then I just won’t sleep. I’ll write and schedule posts for the next week (like I’m doing right now, actually), read a book, explore new apps on my Kindle. Anything is better than giving my mind over to these horrible drugs.

Public Service Announcement

~ Clarissa ~ 27 Comments

Are you one of those people who can’t get enough of Pride and Prejudice? Do you have strong opinions on whether the BBC series is better than the movie because you have watched both numerous times? Are you mesmerized by the characters and just can’t let them go?

Well, I have good news for you. P.D. James, the grand dame of classical British mystery, has published a sequel to this great novel. It is titled Death Comes to Pemberley. Of course, P.D. James is no Jane Austen. Nobody can really compare to this brilliant, amazing, fantastic writer. (This is a cue to all haters of Jane Austen that this is not a blog for them). But among all of the sequels, prequels and rewritings of Pride and Prejudice, Death Comes to Pemberley is definitely the best.

December is a very harsh month, especially for academics. Finals, grading, finishing up the service requirements, submitting reams of paperwork – all this makes one incapable of processing any profound kind of reading. P.D. James’s novel has come out at a very propitious moment. It is a lot of fun to read about the Bennetts, Mr. Darcy and his sister Georgiana, the Bingleys, and the new people P.D. James introduces into the lives of these immortal characters.

P.D. James is 91 years old right now. I only wish we all preserve her sense of humour and her freshness of perception at that age.

Here is a video of P.D. James discussing her new novel and her love of Jane Austen. Ninety-one years old, people. She should publish a book on how to be so beautiful and alert at that age.

Are Palestinians an Invented People?

~ Clarissa ~ 33 Comments

I’m no fan of Newt Gingrich (to put it very, very mildly), but when he says that Palestinians are an invented people he is absolutely right.

Of course, they are. Every nation is an imagined community, a fictional construct with very little basis in reality. Every nation establishes a baseless claim to the land it inhabits, invents a shared glorious history, appropriates some figures who command unanimous respect (and who, in their wildest dreams, could not have imagined how their names would be used to support this invented construct), lashes out with hatred and violence against an equally invented Other, and employs a series of mechanisms to provoke an unthinking emotional attachment on the part of the people in order to get them to die enthusiastically and for free for a piece of painted fabric.

Palestinians are as invented a people as are Ukrainians, Spaniards, Germans, Americans, Australians, Pakistanis, etc. The rise of nationalism and the strategies it uses to convince us that nations have always existed and hence should continue to exist have been studied and analyzed probably more than any other political phenomenon. So let’s stop dumping on Newt and start educating ourselves.

Read books, people. Read many good books. Otherwise, you run the risk of looking stupid by Newt Gingrich’s side.

If anybody is interested in understanding how nationalism works, I can provide a list of readings from here to the Moon.

Sleep Remedies, Part I

~ Clarissa ~ 24 Comments

I always had huge issues with sleep, so I want to share my experiences with sleep remedies. When I was an undergrad, falling asleep became so difficult that I decided to experiment with over-the-counter sleep medication. Two attempts at taking it cured me of the desire ever to try again.

The first time I took half a sleeping pill and got into bed, my sister was sitting in my room, chatting me with me. Suddenly, I felt that I was losing control of my limbs. “Get out of the room!” I told my sister. “I’m about to fall asleep!”

“What’s happening?” she asked.

“I took a pill! I’m about to drop off. Get out!” I yelled. What I was experiencing was so weird that I didn’t want my sister to witness it.

“Can you not do this any more?” the poor child asked me on the next day. “You really scared me.”

I decided to stop but then my insomnia got really bad. I had two midterms one day, and the night before I couldn’t get to sleep no matter what I tried. So I took another pill. It didn’t work. I took one more, but it didn’t work either. I gave up and spent the night reading.

On the next morning, I was on the bus, going to school when the pills kicked in. That was a nightmare, people. During the midterms, I could barely hold the pen in my hand. It kept falling out of my fingers. I found it extremely hard to control my limbs.

After those experiences, I never tried another sleeping pill.

(To be continued. . .)

Movie Theaters Are Stupid

~ Clarissa ~ 22 Comments

Finally, a movie I really really really want to watch. And here are the closest theaters showing it:

Our local theaters are showing all kind of stupid crap but a movie about the birth of psychoanalysis is nowhere to be found. I’m annoyed, people! Does anybody know whether it will ever reach our area?

Sunday Link Encyclopedia and Self-Promotion

~ Clarissa ~ 21 Comments

I’m not the only person to be appalled by the recent speech of the MLA’s new president.

Are you still celebrating the Arab spring? Look what it brought to Egypt. I don’t want to say “I told you so,” but really, folks, I told you so.

For my fellow introverts: “10 Myths About Introverts.”

Fashion in 1824. The pictures are beautiful.

Macy’s fires a transphobic employee who has the gall to pretend that her hatred of peaceful customers has something to do with Christianity. Good job, Macy’s! I hope this bigot doesn’t get employed for a position where she would come in contact with human beings.

Weird and creepy Christmas photos. Some of these are quite disturbing.

“Circumcision is Africa’s best weapon against AIDS.” Erm, seriously? Has anybody heard of this really cool thing called a condom? For how much longer will we be messing with people’s penises for fear of angering the barbaric Catholic Church?

A great easy recipe of how to make candied orange peel. I eat clementines and oranges in industrial quantities in winter, so it’s great to have some use for the peel.

Dear Abby believes that kids should never be left alone. A talented writer and a great mother responds to this stupid assertion.

A prof conducts an experiment on establishing a socialist system in the classroom. Try to predict the results before reading the post. Of course, it was easy for me to do, given that I was born in a society that was run just like this classroom.

Obama is trying to buy popularity from the fundamentalist fanatics by making really idiotic statements about the morning-after pill. Because this pandering to the crazies has worked so well for his Democratic predecessors. Oh, wait, it didn’t. Well, hope springs eternal. Seriously, is he trying to make himself unpalatable to every progressive voter in the country on purpose?

And here is a brilliant response to the above-mentioned stupid statement from President Obama: “Anyone who is more concerned about a pregnant child being hurt by contraceptives than they are about that child being raped, pregnant, and forced instead to undergo an abortion or a full-term pregnancy and delivery, is living in a silly, stupid, unserious bubble of self-deceit, and no one should listen to anything they have to say on the subject of reproductive rights ever again.” My thoughts exactly.

Obama is trying on a role of the benevolent patriarch. And that stinks.

A very interesting post on online dating in France.

Should the opponents of same-sex marriage have their children taken away?

McDonald’s tries to look non-racist and publishes an ad that makes it look extremely racist. No wonder these idiots can’t even get a hamburger right.

Dr. Mankiw offers a brilliant response to the students who walked out of his classroom because they didn’t like what they decided his ideology must be. I really admire his calmness and composure in response to this nasty prank.

An intersex mayor in Australia. I’m currently starting to do research on intersex gender identities (more on that later) and it’s really good to see how intersex folks can find acceptance and live good lives in some places.

How to offer support to a person who suffers from depression. This is really good, practical, insightful advice.

“The beginning of the decline of the American Empire began in  AD 2000, with the accession to office of a ‘free’ bread and circuses president. Wake up America, read the history books, and move swiftly to put an end to wealth-degrading popularity-buying by corrupt politicians.” Hear, hear!

In a world of intolerance. A great post from my colleague. See how smart we all are at my university?

Evidence of a caste system in the US.

Protests Are Good for a Country’s Reputation!

~ Clarissa ~ 2 Comments

This is an excerpt from the list of search terms that brought people to my blog the day before yesterday:

And here is how the search terms changed after the recent anti-government protests in Russia:

Now Russia is not all about prostitutes for people who do searches online. I think this is a very positive trend.

Putin’s Addiction to Botox. . .

~ Clarissa ~ 9 Comments

. . . that has the entire Russia laughing at him is very visible in these recent photos:

How To Behave During a Protest

~ Clarissa ~ 9 Comments

The people of Russia are taking to the streets to protest the egregiously fraudulent elections to the Russian Parliament. I found a set of suggestions on how to organize a peaceful protest on one of the websites of the bloggers who will participate in the protests and decided to translate it. I think it contains some very useful tips for protesters. I adapted it somewhat, too, by getting rid of very specifically Russian realities:

  1. Always leave a space of a stretched arm between yourself and other protesters. Don’t move too close to each other. A crowd where people stand very closely to one another will not be able to maneuver itself as easily and will eventually become dangerous to the protesters.
  2. Protests are very demanding physically. If you have health issues, it is best to avoid slowing down other protesters with them. Stay at home and provide informational support through online activities from there.
  3. A crowd can easily become too engulfed in emotions. Remember that crowd enthusiasms are volatile, dangerous, and unproductive. Remain calm and in control of your emotions at all times. You will only be taken seriously by authorities if you don’t allow hysteria to overtake you. The point of the protest is not to unburden yourself psychologically. It is, rather, to demand change from the authorities.
  4. Think of those who are there with you. Take care of your fellow protesters.
  5. Think about how your behavior during the protests will look to others. Everything is recorded and televised nowadays. Remember that it will be very easy for hostile reporters to present you as unhinged and crazy if you offer them the smallest opportunity to do so.
  6. Avoid antagonizing the police officers. Doing so is always a losing strategy. Try being as friendly as you can with the representatives of the law. Remember that it is much harder to hit or pepper-spray a person with whom you’ve just been chatting about the weather or sharing a cigarette. If at all possible, talk to the police calmly. Try to attract the officers to your side.

    Today's Protests in Russia
  7. There are likely to be provocateurs at the protests. Their goal is to make protesters look like aggressive people who are set at disturbing the peaceful life of other citizens. If there are just two provocateurs with anti-Semitic slogans, they will most surely end up being filmed and will forever be associated with your protest. Make sure that your verbal disagreement with the provocateurs is as visible as possible.
  8. All of your demands should be legal and realistic. Avoid making threats aimed at specific individuals. Avoid calls to armed action.
  9. Civil freedoms take a long time to be gained and then need to be preserved by constant efforts. Don’t expect to achieve anything fast. This will be a very long journey.

And from me personally: the weather is getting colder. Remember to put on warm underpants. A long-sleeved warm shirt gets tucked into the underpants and the underpants should get tucked into warm socks.

I wish the Russian protesters the best of luck in their struggle. I hear that already over 800 people have been arrested in Moscow and St. Petersbourg for participating in the peaceful protests. As tragic as it is, this is also a good sign, a sign that the people of Russia have had enough of being lied to and treated like garbage by their authorities.

I hope that the peaceful Russian Revolution of 2011 succeeds in removing the Party of Crooks and Thieves (United Russia) from power. Russia is a great country whose people deserve better than being governed by this bunch of vile criminals.

P.S. 632305222316434 Those who know, know what I mean.

Through the Eyes of a Stranger: A Woman As a Syringe

~ Clarissa ~ 9 Comments

The carefree, happy-go-lucky, gulp-it-down-and-think-of-the-consequences-later attitude to medication on this continent is nothing short of shocking. Look what I just came across at a blog written by an educated, intelligent person:

A friend of mine has to give medicine to her month-old baby. The medicine is liquid, and apparently tastes disgusting. The poor baby HATES it and tries not to swallow it, making the whole thing an ordeal. What if the mother could take the medicine instead? Then she could nurse the baby as usual and the baby would get her medication without having to deal with the yucky taste.

The thought that the mother would be exposed to a drug that she absolutely does not need with God only knows what side-effects and with potentially dangerous consequences never even crosses this blogger’s mind.

Let’s forget for the moment that this is a woman writing about another woman as if her body were a sort of a giant syringe or a drug-dispensing device whose only role is to provide needed substances to a child. Let’s just concentrate on the ease with which the author suggests that a healthy person should take drugs because it’s convenient. To somebody else.

This is how the blogger in question justifies this atrocity:

I’m sure there are quite a few cases where the mother would rather take a bit of unnecessary medication herself than have to make her poor baby miserable several times a day.

Taking even seemingly necessary medication is a huge decision that should not be taken lightly. I’d suggest that even Tylenol be avoided as much as possible unless one is really in horrible pain and has exhausted every other option to get rid of it. But taking “a bit of unnecessary medication” cannot possibly ever even cross the mind of a psychologically balanced individual.