Daily Loaf

Have you ever been rudely awakened at 3 a.m. when your bed mate takes all the covers or rolls on top of you? How about trying to fall asleep while your partner snores like an asthmatic hog? According to sleep specialist Dr. Neil Stanley, couples should sleep separately for the good of their health and their relationship.

Dr. Stanley is quick to point out that couples suffer 50% more sleep disturbances when they share a bed and that historically, people are not actually meant to sleep beside one another. Read the rest of this entry »

We have all been there.

If you’re a college football fan and you bleed your school’s colors, you’ve experienced it. You’ve painted your face. You’ve worn your lucky shirt, shorts and undergarments on game day. Your superstitions have become routine. You’ve tailgated from daybreak to sundown and beyond. You have eaten and drank excessively in celebration. You have hugged and high-fived your friends with every score. You have lived and died with your team. Your allegiance is unquestioned and unparalleled. You’ve celebrated the thrill of victory with your team so passionately, it was as if you were on the field in uniform.

And then it happens, sometimes when you least expect it. Everything is going great and then, suddenly… your team loses. What? How can this be? How could they do this? Gloom sets in. It overwhelms you. Your day, your week or perhaps even your entire season is ruined. There’s always next year.

You’ve given so much of your time and dedication, only to be let down like when that girl never called you back after you bought her dinner. What the heck? You even opened the car door and splurged for the tiramisu. How could they do this after all you’ve been through together? It doesn’t make any sense. You’ve waited all week for Saturday to roll around and this is how they treat you? You swear to yourself, you’ll never get so emotionally involved about a game again, but you know you’re just lying. Resistance is most definitely futile.

Whatever your allegiance, you’ve experienced defeat. It’s inevitable. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt. It always hurts. And the better your team is, the more painful the losses tend to be. Nobody’s perfect and everyone has a bad day. Read the rest of this entry »

According to the September 2009 edition of Playboy, watching porn boosts your testosterone levels as effectively as hormone therapy drugs.

Men lose and average of 1percent of their testosterone levels every year starting at age 30, and 5 million American men suffer from low testosterone. Among the array of detrimental effects this has on your penis, low hormone levels can cause you to shrink and become depressed. Read the rest of this entry »

For girls who read The Bell Jar in college, Sylvia Plath became part of our trifecta of female poets: Sylvia, Anne Sexton and Dorothy Parker. The dark heroine, Esther, a sort of female Holden Caulfield, seems to have everything going for her.  She’s smart, working as an apprentice writer at a magazine in New York, and has a handsome medical school student as a beau.  All this and her perfect outfits mask the depression that she is hiding until her suicide attempt leads her from the hospital, complete with electroshock treatments, to sanatorium to (almost) sanity.  Or at least acquires the skills at which to fake it.

The Bell Jar is labeled semi-autobiographical and was originally published under a pseudonym.  As Sylvia, played by Marcy J. Savastano (pictured), unfolds her life to the audience in Edge: The Story of Sylvia Plath at Studio@620, it seems a little less “semi” and more “names have been changed to protect the innocent”.

Read the rest of this entry »

After four months of unemployment, 97 resume submittals, 12 interviews, four networking events, an immeasurable amount of time searching job boards, lots of anti-anxiety medication, an abundance of tears, and serious consideration of psychiatric intervention, it is over!

I am no longer a prisoner of worry…worry about losing my home, worry about losing my skills, worry about losing my sanity.  In less than a week, I will re-enter the workforce.  I will retire my t-shirts and shorts for professional garments.  I will once again have reason to groom my eyebrows, nails and hair.  I will have educated dialogue with people, not just one-sided conversations with my dog.  I will look forward to the weekends, as they will no longer mirror the week.

Unemployment has been the most excruciating, humbling and enlightening experience of my life.  I’ve realized that I am not invincible and no amount of talent, dedication or effort can guarantee my job. I’ve learned the importance of pursuing my dreams and challenging my abilities.  If not for the unoccupied time, I would never have filled every wall in my home with my own paintings, begun training for a half-marathon or written for an audience.  I have learned to expect the unexpected and appreciate the opportunities to modify my “plan.”   I have learned that my family and friends are infinitely patient and supportive, for which I am especially grateful.

I hope that my story tenders solace to those of you reading this who remain a victim of unemployment and that you will continue to share your experience.   How has unemployment affected you, your relationships, your goals, your life?  What have you learned and what advice can you offer?

According to Scottish psychologist Stuart Brody, unprotected heterosexual sex is strongly correlated with increased levels of mental wellbeing in women and men. He also claims that those who engage in heterosexual sex with a condom are more likely to suffer from depression and stress.

Brody qualified his findings in terms of evolution, claiming that man is genetically programmed to have unprotected sex, as this increases the chances of reproduction. Read the rest of this entry »

Help me out Dream Momma. I am driving a purple car (a late 60s muscle car – Pontiac GTO? -with a black top) and as I go down the highway I pass under a standard green road sign that spans across the road – it has the word “Aristotle’” on it.

Based on the muscle car image, I’m trusting you’re a guy so here goes: This dream is about a spiritual journey you are on. It may be conscious or unconscious but it definitely is there. How can I be so sure you ask? Read the rest of this entry »

This rant was prompted by a documentary I saw recently called “Patent for a Pig“. It is about Monsanto’s absolute unbridled greed and total lack of concern for basic human rights and simple fairness. The film is a few years old but it exposes one, of many, result of corporate controlled government. Being framed as I am, my first thought, only a few minutes into the film, was, “The collapse can’t come soon enough!” The nefarious behavior of Monsanto will not exist in the post-carbon world (Monsanto will not exist in the post-carbon world!). The greed driven society we have created in America will end when the energy leveraging ability of cheap oil ceases to enable the few to dominate their cattle (us). When the dust settles in a world made by hand we will be free to find our true selves through honest work and real friendships; unburdened by the invisible hand of oppression. (We all have dreams.)

This would be a good place for you to stop reading and watch the video if you have not. What I have to say may make more sense if we both had, at least, the same images and story line at hand.

One central point to this disgusting story involves some rather esoteric definitions of “intellectual property” and, yet again, the corporate controlled government. One of the Ten Commandments should have been that no life forms can be patented by “civilized” man. (Maybe it was on the tablet that got broken on the way down the mountain.) The question of who owns life forms seems like a non-brainer to me; no one does. Life is not an idea or thing. If somebody is able to re-engineer a life form by manipulating a gene or two they have not created life. It reminds me of Pierre Boulle’s discussion on creativity in Planet of the Apes. Aping someone’s creativity is not in itself a creative event no matter what lengths are taken to twist and manipulate any portion of an existing masterpiece. Read the rest of this entry »

If you’ve always wanted to watch someone beat the shit out of Will Ferrell with a baseball bat, have I got a movie for you …

• Finally, Karl Rove and Harriet Miers will testify on the record.
• Obama Administration fleshes out the details of the mortgage bailout plan.
• Chances the U.S. is headed for a Depression: One in five.
• Doctors now using waivers to prevent patients from posting about their visits online.
• Barbara Bush (the old one) goes under the knife.
• Tax laws get tougher for the wealthy, as the wealthy are now expected to pay taxes.
• Facebook battles Twitter in a fight you need your kids to explain.
• “Bucs Lose Buchanon To Lions.” Was 0-16 Detroit really a better option?
• Manny signs with L.A. for $45 million. I know I feel better now.

[Editor's Note: Jennifer Huntsman is a US Army Reserve Signal Captain stationed at MacDill Air Force Base with Joint Communication Support Element (JCSE). She is currently deployed in Qatar. Jenny will be writing for The Daily Loaf about life in the military.]

The happiest and most anticipated moment during a deployment, except when you out-process to go home, is when you get mail.  Everyone wants a letter, a post card, or a package showing that they are loved by somebody.  Anything from anyone is great!  I am very blessed to receive regular mail from my boyfriend, my friends from college, my family, and the Pontotoc Chapter DAR.  Every day I hold my breath for a package or a letter.  We all do; our little office stares at our mail guy when he comes back from the mail room.  I glare at those who receive packages when I don’t.  I shouldn’t act like such a brat; not everyone gets mail.

During my deployment I have a lot of time to reflect on my life and my relationships. Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s a compelling animation of the U.S. Airways Hudson River crash. Stay tuned for the end, where the passengers are revealed to be the cast of The Sims.

• Michael Steele apologizes to Rush, making Limbaugh the defacto leader of the Republican Party.
• R.I.P. The Dow Jones Industrial Average.
• Is this a Depression? What the hell is a “Depression,” anyway?
• How dangerous and out of control was the Bush Administration?
• Where in the world is Hillary Clinton?
• “Scientists make HIV strain that can infect monkeys.” What did the monkeys ever do to us?
• New iMacs today?
• The Bucs learn a thing or two about Karma.

Take a moment and study the graphic above, showing job losses during the last three recessions, 1990, 2001 and present day (represented by the green line).

The current period of job loss already exceeds by an order of magnitude anything anyone under the age of 70 has seen. No recession since the Great Depression has lasted even 600 days. But 400 or so days into this one, no one sees an end.

For a more thorough breakdown, click here.

At today’s opening bell, the stock market sits below where it was right before Bush took office in 2001. Lehman Bros. failed yesterday. Today it could be AIG or WaMu. The dollar is in the shitter. Wages are down. Chances are, you or someone you know lacks health insurance. Mortgages are getting tougher to come by. The real estate market is in total collapse. And now a message from John McCain:

• Everybody fucking panic!!!!!!
• Baby Bush: Sarah Palin stonewalls Alaska ethics violation investigation.
• From the Wall Street Journal: “Why Obama’s Health Plan is Better.”
• Coming soon: Sarah Palin’s big fade.
• When Karl “McCain has a black baby” Rove says McCain’s ads have crossed the line, you know we’re through the looking glass 0n election 2008.
• Be careful at the ATM, folks. The crooks are more clever than you think.
• Hackers battle al-Qaeda.
• The sinking Rays suck it up in game one against Boston. As added punishment, here is the Boston Globe’s account.

Hurricane Ike leaves thousands of morons who decided to stay behind in need of rescue after the storm devastated the Texas coast over the weekend.