This is something everyone should know. The following is an excerpt from a book entitled What You Can Change & What You Can't: The Complete Guide to Successful Self-Improvement by Martin E. P. Seligman, Ph.D.

"The advice to diet down to your 'ideal' weight in order to live longer is one myth of overweight. Here are some others:

Overweight people overeat. Wrong. Nineteen out of twenty studies show that obese people consume no more calories each day than non-obese people. In one remarkable experiment, a group of very obese people dieted down to only 60 percent overweight and stayed there. They needed one hundred fewer calories a day to stay 60 percent overweight than normal people needed to stay at normal weight. Telling a fat person that if she would change her eating habits and eat 'normally' she would lose weight is a lie. To lose weight and stay there, she will need to eat excruciatingly less than a normal person, probably for the rest of her life.

Overweight people have an overweight personality. Wrong. Extensive research on personality and fatness has proved little. Obese people do not differ in any major personality style from nonobese people. They are not, for example, more susceptible to external food cues (the fragrance of garlic bread, for example) than nonobese people.

Physical inactivity is a major cause of obesity. Probably not. Fat people are indeed less active than thin people, but the inactivity is probably cause more by the fatness than the other way around.

Overweight shows a lack of willpower. This is the granddaddy of all the myths. When I am defeated by that piece of carrot cake, I feel like a failure: I should be able to control myself, and there is something morally wrong with my if I give in. Fatness is seen as shameful because we hold people responsible for their weight. Being overweight equates with being a weak-willed slob. We believe this primarily because we have seen plenty of people decide to lose weight and do so in a matter of weeks.
But almost everyone returns to the old weight after shedding pounds. Your body has a natural weight that it defends vigorously against dieting. The more diets tried, the harder the body works to defeat the next diet. Weight is in large part genetic. All this gives the lie to the "weak-willed" interpretation of overweight. More accurately, dieting pits the conscious will of the individual against a deeper, more vigilant opponent: the species' biological defense against starvation. The conscious will can occasionally win battles - no carrot cake tonight, this month without carbohydrates - but it almost always loses the war."

This excerpt comes from an excellent book, which, though it does have its own (self-admitted) biases and is somewhat dated, cites sources (including for the conclusions listed above), performs case studies, and generally examines all aspects of self-improvement, from dieting to sexual performance, from anxiety to depression. It is an excellent book, and I thoroughly recommend it, though I also look forward to responses to the excerpt above.

Current Location: Work
Current Mood: curious

http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSTRE5815DX20090902

I wouldn't post so often, if I didn't get pissed so often.

So, in this article, someone, somewhere in London got pissed because they thought a model looked too young.

THEY. THOUGHT.

We are now WELL past truth having any meaning whatsoever. Things can now be banned because people think they're illegal, even though they aren't. All it takes is ignorance. Anyone can get anything they want, as long as they don't know better.

The model in question was not underage. The model in question WAS modeling in a risque fashion, but that's not what's being brought up. People aren't saying, "Seeing part of her nipple is inappropriate!" They're saying, "The fact that she looks young, even though she isn't, is inappropriate." The APPEARANCE of youth is now inappropriate.

Fuck's sake.

Current Location: Work
Current Mood: pissed off

http://www2.mcdowellnews.com/content/2009/sep/06/presidents-address-school-kids-sparks-controversy/

W?T?F?

Okay, I understand that some people in our country don't like President Barack Obama. Maybe they don't like his spending policies. Maybe they don't like his skin color. Maybe they don't like that he has a Y chromosome, or that he's a Democrat, or whatever. I don't know, and I don't care. If someone dislikes him, that's fine. They're welcome to do so.

But when the President of the United States of America gives an address specifically to the youth of America urging them to stay in school, how can you POSSIBLY see anything bad about this?

GAH! It brings to mind the stereotype of the uneducated redneck who hates "them college folk" because they're educated. When the FUCK did education become a bad thing? When the FUCK did we decide that personal opinions and agendas become more important than educating our country?

I'm so sick of people acting stupid. The President is not going to get on that screen and talk to students about being Christian or not, about being Democrats or not, about being BLACK or not... he's going to tell students to stay in school and learn! This CANNOT EVER BE A BAD THING. There is NO amount of learning, Lovecraft notwithstanding, that can hurt a person. Knowing more is just good. Always. Always. ALWAYS.

Jesus fucking Christ.

Current Location: Work
Current Mood: pissed off

I don't know how familiar people are with the current events in Iran, but I'm keeping more than a half-interested eye on them. The Iranian election was a scam. Hand-counted ballots with a result returned in an hour? Bullshit. The subsequent protests and violent oppression of said protests is abominable. News is not allowed out of Iran. The borders are closed. Iranian censors are apparently scouring the internet for blogs and similar site with Iranian timestamps and closing them down.

This is oppression of the worst sort. It is astonishing. But the thing that caught my attention was this: http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/06/24/neda.iconic.images/index.html?eref=rss_latest

I am filled with self-righteous and overimportant rage. Anyone out there know how I can change my LJ timestamp to Iranian time to help fuck with these bastards?

Current Location: Work
Current Mood: enraged

I'm a consumer whore.

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David Eddings, author of the Belgariad, the Malloreon, and many, many other books, passed away today at the ripe old age of 77. He was my favorite author. His stories were never particularly unique, following as they did a Tolkeinien progression, but his characters were rich and entertaining even when the plots became rote. I have never quite loved characters like Belgarath the Sorcerer or Prince Kheldar before or since. He will be missed.

Rest in peace, Mr. Eddings. Know that your works live on.

Current Location: Work
Current Mood: sad

So, this is a new one.

A student comes in and asks if we provide golf clubs for our students in golf classes. I tell her no, she is expected to provide them. She asks me if golf courses rent them out, and I say no, I don't think so.

This is where the kicker happens.

She asks me, again, "So, JCCC doesn't rent golf clubs and neither do golf courses?" I reply, "No, we do not provide golf clubs, and neither do golf courses."

Wait for it.

She scowls at me and says, "I heard you the first time, sir, please don't repeat yourself."

...WTF?

Students are allowed (if discouraged) to get angry at me when I give them an answer they dislike. I wish they wouldn't, but I obviously can't stop that. However, students are NOT allowed to ask me a question and then get pissed BECAUSE I ANSWER. When you ask a question, I will answer it. You don't have to like the answer, but you do have to like THAT I answered the question YOU ASKED THE GUY SITTING AT THE INFORMATION PODIUM.

It's a Jack and Coke night.

Current Location: Work
Current Mood: grumpy

My grandmother passed away this morning. My last living grandparent has moved on. The funeral is on Saturday, and I'll be heading out there sometime Friday. She lived in Jefferson City, MO. She was kind, and gentle, and she will be very, very missed. My mother's not taking it well, obviously.

Current Location: Work
Current Mood: crushed

http://www.machall.com/view.php?date=2000-11-20

"Bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch."

Now that that's out of my system...

Today was the first day of Summer Credit enrollment here at work. Thousands of unprepared, ignorant, easily offended assholes descended in fucking FLOCKS onto my college, battling one another in televised death matches to scrabble for the few, precious seats in our summer schedule. I saw one girl get jacked in the face, and a young man pulled, shrieking, into the black abyss of another student's gaping maw, always hungry, always gnawing.

Competition was fierce, but fiercer still were the shrill cries emitted by the hideous, distended gobs of a hundred angry students, all trying to log on to their online accounts. Every single one of these pissy little yuppie larvae seemed to have forgotten how to long onto their e-mail accounts, and every one of them wanted ME to tell them their passwords (or, better yet, just sign them up for their classes).

Hint: I cannot do either of these things.

We are prohibited by FEDERAL LAW (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FERPA) from giving out a student's information over the phone. They have to come in person with a photo ID to get their login information. This is to prevent us from giving their SSN, financial information, address, phone number, and daily itinerary (read: class schedule) to any Joe Criminal who decides he should just call and get it.

This doesn't work for them. This inconveniences them. They live in LAWRENCE. Text cannot properly convey the whiny, nasal, long-suffering way students say this... or my incredulity when it is said exactly the same way EVERY SINGLE TIME WITHOUT POSSIBLE EXCEPTION. These students have to communicate with one another in advance, huddling together in dark basements lit only by flickering candles, speaking in hushed, conspiratorial voices about how they will ALL bitch about how far away FUCKING LAWRENCE is.

Fuck.

I'm going to drink whisky tonight.

Current Location: Work
Current Mood: pissed off

The next snotty, pampered, overindulged fuck-weasel that interrupts me while I'm trying to answer her question is going to get a 2"x4" lesson in manners applied liberally upside her vacant, bleached-blonde head until her Daddy's plastic surgery falls right off her snooty little face.

I swear to fucking Christ, I will kill them all and use their toes as jewelry.

Current Location: Work
Current Mood: aggravated