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[Srontgorrth]

LA would be one of my favorite cities ever if they just decided to do two things every city should do:

1. Make the streets (as in roads where the cars go) smaller
2. Put in a big, punctual, reliable train system or something similar

Streets in Hong Kong are half the width or less of streets in LA. Hell, the only real highways in HK are about the same width as some of the roads I was driven through in Santa Monica. This means a lot less people drive, and good amount of vehicles on the roads are taxis and buses. Taxis are used to get out of the more remote parts of the city that don't have MTR (the name of their train system) stations, and MTR is used to travel more quickly throughout the rest of the city.

Seriously, fuck everyone having a car in a city and making cities accomodate that. I could go from where I lived in HK (pretty much the most east side there) to the center of the city (which is on a different island than where I lived) in less time than it took to get out of LA when I was already on the highway and only a couple miles from the outside.

I've never been in a city with public transportation as good as Hong Kong. People thought I was crazy when I told them I walked about four miles to a McDonald's because I didn't want to pay for a bus. People walk a lot, but the public transportation is so cheap, quick, and effective that people rarely walk really big distances without getting on a bus, getting in a taxi, or going on the MTR in between.

LA would be a completely different place if it was just one large city with a downtown center, "narrow" streets etc. Part of what makes Los Angeles the way it is, is the fact that it is essentially a conglomeration of a bunch of smaller cities. Yeah, in terms of driving and traffic, it sucks, but it is what it is. The structure is just completely different, you can't compare apples and oranges.

 

[Vimana]

I can have a preference, though. I like apples more, if apples are cities like Hong Kong and oranges are cities like LA.

 

[Zephyrus]

So I was prescribed Prozac today.

 

[zabu of nΩd]

i'm planning to prescribe myself unemployment at the end of this month. job is getting me kind of depressed/crazy.

i asked my boss about a leave of absence today, and he said i had some options, but that waiting until the end of march would be "ideal". i think tomorrow i'm gonna insist on taking it from beginning of february through june.

 

[Zephyrus]

Come visit and we can go to Canada!

 

[zabu of nΩd]

Maybe when it's warmer, haha.

I'm planning to do a lot of travel during this leave of absence, or whatever it turns out to be.

 

[Dak]

i'm planning to prescribe myself unemployment at the end of this month. job is getting me kind of depressed/crazy.

i asked my boss about a leave of absence today, and he said i had some options, but that waiting until the end of march would be "ideal". i think tomorrow i'm gonna insist on taking it from beginning of february through june.

I hope to be in NC by June, maybe you can work out a visit.

 

[Vimana]

So I was prescribed Prozac today.

Do you actually need it? I think medicines are overprescribed for people with depression. Well, except for bipolar.

i'm planning to prescribe myself unemployment at the end of this month. job is getting me kind of depressed/crazy.

i asked my boss about a leave of absence today, and he said i had some options, but that waiting until the end of march would be "ideal". i think tomorrow i'm gonna insist on taking it from beginning of february through june.

What's so depressing about your job?

 

[Einherjar86]

Maybe when it's warmer, haha.

I'm planning to do a lot of travel during this leave of absence, or whatever it turns out to be.

You should plan on doing some writing as well. I seriously miss the mastery of poignant language that was your poetry.

 

[zabu of nΩd]

I hope to be in NC by June, maybe you can work out a visit.

That would be sweet, keep me posted!

Have you met with any UMers before? Trying to remember if you and Cythraul hung out once.

What's so depressing about your job?

It's stressful, and i'm tired of having to wake up at 7:30 AM 5 days a week and constantly have to show progress on a project i have no motivation to do. It makes it hard to enjoy my life without 'chemical additives', and i need freedom, like, bad man.

You should plan on doing some writing as well. I seriously miss the mastery of poignant language that was your poetry.

Thanks for the encouragement. I think i'd be at least as good if not better now than i was back in '09 when i was still writing a lot.

 

[Vimana]

It's stressful, and i'm tired of having to wake up at 7:30 AM 5 days a week and constantly have to show progress on a project i have no motivation to do. It makes it hard to enjoy my life without 'chemical additives', and i need freedom, like, bad man.

What's your job?

 

[zabu of nΩd]

I am a software development consultant. I work in a client's office doing production support work, which is monitoring the software that is in use by the business, analyzing/diagnosing bugs that come up, reporting/discussing the bugs with developers, and also looking through data that is sent between systems to make sure it doesn't become invalid over time or whatever.

No personality to the work environment whatsoever -- i dislike everyone i work with, and the corporate culture means there's a lot of pressure to be on good behavior all the time, so i don't socialize while i'm there, and that makes the work a lot grindier.

 

[Pessimism]

Everyone should hang out with me.

I rule.

 

[Vimana]

I am a software development consultant. I work in a client's office doing production support work, which is monitoring the software that is in use by the business, analyzing/diagnosing bugs that come up, reporting/discussing the bugs with developers, and also looking through data that is sent between systems to make sure it doesn't become invalid over time or whatever.

No personality to the work environment whatsoever -- i dislike everyone i work with, and the corporate culture means there's a lot of pressure to be on good behavior all the time, so i don't socialize while i'm there, and that makes the work a lot grindier.

Wow. Even my job washing dishes at Pizza Hut sounds a lot more fulfilling. Why'd you even get that job in the first place?

 

[Zephyrus]

Do you actually need it? I think medicines are overprescribed for people with depression.

Fuck knows if I need it. I've had anxiety issues for a while now and bits of OCD and depression (as in not being able to focus on things and lacking motivation). The Prozac is more for the two former bits than the latter (the way the doc described it, it almost sounded like a personal panacea). When I went to get a physical today at the UMaine clinic they had me fill out a personal health assessment, and when I got to the Psychological part I checked off a bunch of stuff and so they handed me one of those official OCD scoresheets, and I scored about middle range between perfectly fine and criminally ill, which is severe enough to treat with drugs. So I might as well take it and see what it does.

 

[zabu of nΩd]

Wow. Even my job washing dishes at Pizza Hut sounds a lot more fulfilling. Why'd you even get that job in the first place?

I majored in computer science and had an internship in college, so i came out with a decent resume that got noticed by the consulting company on Monster.com. I've been on 3 projects so far, the others involving testing and web development. I was really just looking for anything degree-related after college, and this is what came along.

 

[zabu of nΩd]

Fuck knows if I need it. I've had anxiety issues for a while now and bits of OCD and depression (as in not being able to focus on things and lacking motivation). The Prozac is more for the two former bits than the latter (the way the doc described it, it almost sounded like a personal panacea). When I went to get a physical today at the UMaine clinic they had me fill out a personal health assessment, and when I got to the Psychological part I checked off a bunch of stuff and so they handed me one of those official OCD scoresheets, and I scored about middle range between perfectly fine and criminally ill, which is severe enough to treat with drugs. So I might as well take it and see what it does.

Yeah certainly. It's not like you're gonna be on it forever. I took antidepressants for a few months in high school. I've probably done much worse things to my brain since then... like sleep deprivation.

 

[Vimana]

Fuck knows if I need it. I've had anxiety issues for a while now and bits of OCD and depression (as in not being able to focus on things and lacking motivation). The Prozac is more for the two former bits than the latter (the way the doc described it, it almost sounded like a personal panacea). When I went to get a physical today at the UMaine clinic they had me fill out a personal health assessment, and when I got to the Psychological part I checked off a bunch of stuff and so they handed me one of those official OCD scoresheets, and I scored about middle range between perfectly fine and criminally ill, which is severe enough to treat with drugs. So I might as well take it and see what it does.

I don't claim to know a lot about psychology, but I'd advise you to go into behavioral therapy. Judging by personal experience, the experience of friends, and some psych students I've met (as well as my mother who has a degree), it's better to go after the problem from a behavioral standpoint at first. Some people just develop neurotic, negative, or even OCD thinking habits, and medicine can help, but it's not guaranteed to get rid of the problem. Neither is CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy), but it doesn't have side-effects.

Honestly, I've met too many people who have been in a psych hospital multiple times for depression, anxiety, OCD, etc. who got the whole "what are your problems and what pills can I give you?" therapy that obviously hadn't worked. But pills can help with CBT anyway. I just wouldn't do just pills.

I've had issues with anxiety and depression for a few years now, and after years of pills and ending up in a psych hospital twice, CBT is what really helped me. I developed shitty thought habits that pretty much were the roots of all my issues. It was unbelievable how a little thing I never did that wasn't too hard to do actually fixed most things.

I majored in computer science and had an internship in college, so i came out with a decent resume that got noticed by the consulting company on Monster.com. I've been on 3 projects so far, the others involving testing and web development. I was really just looking for anything degree-related after college, and this is what came along.

But what if you can't find satisfying jobs in your field? Do you think you could?

 

[Zephyrus]

I don't claim to know a lot about psychology, but I'd advise you to go into behavioral therapy. Judging by personal experience, the experience of friends, and some psych students I've met (as well as my mother who has a degree), it's better to go after the problem from a behavioral standpoint at first. Some people just develop neurotic, negative, or even OCD thinking habits, and medicine can help, but it's not guaranteed to get rid of the problem. Neither is CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy), but it doesn't have side-effects.

Honestly, I've met too many people who have been in a psych hospital multiple times for depression, anxiety, OCD, etc. who got the whole "what are your problems and what pills can I give you?" therapy that obviously hadn't worked. But pills can help with CBT anyway. I just wouldn't do just pills.

I've had issues with anxiety and depression for a few years now, and after years of pills and ending up in a psych hospital twice, CBT is what really helped me. I developed shitty thought habits that pretty much were the roots of all my issues. It was unbelievable how a little thing I never did that wasn't too hard to do actually fixed most things.

See, that's the beauty of this whole situation. I've never paid an iota of thought to the idea of taking either drugs or therapy to deal with any apparent problems I have. And the reason is I interpret my problems philosophically rather than scientifically/medically and that I believe is the best way to address the issue (don't ask me to elaborate on this or you'll get me quoting Plato and Cicero ad nauseam).

But today I was especially in a crappy condition since I'm both physically sick with a cold and my girlfriend is apparently having some sort of issues she's not talking to me about, which most likely have jack shit to do with me, but too easily do I internalize everything and get paranoid that it's something to do with me. This all coincided just as I walked into the clinic today for a regular physical.

I might as well try the drugs and see if it does anything. Even if it does nothing, I'm a firm believer in the placebo effect and psychological "disorders" certainly can be mitigated psychosomatically more than other physiological maladies.

 

[zabu of nΩd]

But what if you can't find satisfying jobs in your field? Do you think you could?

Idk, possibly? I think the main thing for me is that there isn't much work to be done for others that i truly enjoy, and therefore i need a much lower work/life ratio than the average company allows. I'll probably settle into doing part-time for a while.