People are not taking care of their psychological health and then start flipping out all over the place. Just this morning I had to ban two commenters who went off the deep end for absolutely no reason. Two is a lot of people to go nuts all of a sudden on the same blog in a single morning. And they didn’t go off their rockers in response to a controversial post of any kind. They just started disintegrating because they heard that somebody is happy and content with their lives and couldn’t deal with the stress of that. (See here for yourself, if you like.)
This is why I want to remind everybody that in winter, when there isn’t enough sunlight and vitamins are harder to come by, people tend to find it harder to cope with their lives. It is crucial to take care of yourself and engage in psychological hygiene. And if the only method of blowing off steam that is available to you consists of attacking people anonymously, you will have to do it somewhere away from my blog.
Clarissa's Blog 
15 minutes of direct sunlight a day is even more critical in the winter months. Helps with Vitamin D and melatonin production, as well as keeping you sane.
Oh, and avoiding backlit screens about 30 minutes before bedtime is also a good thing for sleep quality. Books are helpful in that respect.
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This is a very interesting tip about backlit screens. Thank you, I will definitely try it.
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People flipping out sounds about right… the other TA for the giant class I’m TAing this quarter (8 hours of lab per week) walked out on me the night before we’re supposed to spend all day grading the finals, by accusing me of not doing as much work hours as she had (and she made a tally that completely ignored nearly 80 hours of my extra work, too) then telling me I had to do them all. 30 hours later, they were graded. But seriously, major flip out… Lots of nasty name calling and completely unprofessional behavior. On the plus side, the students exams are graded and ready to go back to them? It must be the season…
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I had a student flip out on me yesterday. For some reason, he decided he was failing the course (which he is most certainly not) and started attacking me by email. Weird.
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I must encourage physical activity in the dark months. Any skiing, snow-shoeing, walking the dog, or even working at the local soup kitchen. Get out, get cold, get moving! Then you will be ready for spring, and all that entails.
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Just had a look at the comments you mentioned and I see what you mean. Totally uncalled for, they added nothing to the subject.
We get a lot of sun here in Montpellier and it does make a huge difference to moral. I remember living through 3 months of rain and cloud in Bristol. It was very difficult to keep one’s pecker up (as they say). London has less rain but it’s often cloudy and people are very morose too. Going to work in winter was absolutely awful – dark, damp and everyone grumpy.
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I’m guessing you don’t mean Montpellier, Vermont. 🙂
“Keep one’s pecker up” sounds priceless.
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Wow. Some people are weird…
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Yes. Very. They keep their peace when controversial topics are discussed and then flip out for no reason whatsoever.
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Oh goodness. I don’t understand how someone can be so lacking in self-awareness as not to see the irony of attacking someone for supposed abrasiveness, essentially at random.
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I know. Funny, eh? 🙂 I never had any beef with this commenter so I have no idea why he flipped out for no reason.
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