Living Faster, Dying Younger?

So apparently American women's life expectancy is declining. What a shock. There's this sense of shock that here, in America - one of the most developed countries in the world - women are dying younger than their grandparents.

News Flash: You didn't think that our health care system was really that adequate, did you? We spend more on healthcare than any other country, and yet our system sucks. (I should note here that yes, I did watch Sicko.) Americans are fat. Americans smoke. Americans eat crap. And wouldn't you know it, we're trying to infect the rest of the world with our crap. McDonalds in China. Now China's getting fat. When will it stop?? People all across Asia and Africa (including the Middle East) are dying from food shortages. Gee, whiz, I wonder where all that food went! Why don't we send some of our fattest fatties over there and tape a new show for the reality channels. We'll call it "Fast Fatties" and the contestants will all have to survive in the poorest villages without any money. See how fast they get slaughtered and roasted. Yum!

I apologize if I seem a little cynical, but it's somewhat disgusting that we're eating ourselves to death while half the world is starving to death. Go fig.

P.S. Arby's is buying Wendy's for more than $2M. Wendy's apparently has been struggling since the death of founder Dave Thomas in 2002. R.I.P. Dave. Damn I think I need a frosty now. *tear*

P.P.S. Costco and Sam's Club are rationing rice. I guess people are stocking up on rice. Like we're gonna starve when we run out of rice. I say stop buying rice altogether. Or buy some and send it to the Middle East. Just buy a big old bag of rice and pay the $100 in shipping and send it to some soldier in Iraq to give to some hungry family. That's what I would do. But I eat my rice. Yum.

Antidepressants, antideshmreshants

Have you seen the ads for that fibromyalgia pain medication? It mentions that "This medication is not an antidepressant." That makes me laugh.

In middle school I was depressed. Yea, I know, so was every other middle school kid who got tormented by their peers. I was in therapy from 7th grade all the way through college. I went through all the normal depression stuff - laziness, lack of motivation, ridiculous suicide attempts. Yes. I call it ridiculous, because in the throes of depression and angst (over, I believe, unrequired love) I wasn't exactly the brightest tool in the drawer. I won't go into details, but suffice it to say that I started with a handful of pills and ended up staying awake all night with extremely dry and clear sinuses. What? I was 14!

Antidepressants make me sick. No really, I was on one for awhile that made me throw up in the middle of study hall. But seriously, the thought of putting kids on them makes me get all twisted up inside. I'm not saying they don't work. I'm not saying that parents should never resort to pills. But it makes me sick when parents just throw pills at the problem.

I had a really good relationship with my parents. I mean, through all the teenage angst, I was really close with both my mom and my dad. That is probably the defining reason that I made it through the cloud. And I firmly believe that anyone can get through the cloud. But you can't just take pills and expect all your problems to go away. So many kids are just stuffed with pills, whether they want them or not, and nothing works. So their parents stuff them with more pills. I'm not a parent or anything, but I'm pretty sure that you gotta build some sort of relationship with your kids before you start relying on chemicals. Personal relationships are so underrated. How are you ever going to get to know your kids if you just put them in front of the tv all the time, or just shove a video game in their hands or let them glue a cell phone to their ear? Stop complaining about all this damn technology and get the fuck outside. The sun is the best antidepressant out there.

"My name is Domino Harvey. I am a bounty hunter."

Not that Domino Harvey would ever take the time to create a blog.

I don't kick ass, I don't take names. I'm not a model, nor a movie star. I'm not going to make an attempt to introduce myself. I don't need much of an introduction.

I come from a small family. Well, in numbers we're not that small. I have two aunts and about 4 or 5 uncles (I lost count years ago). I grew up with a brother and a sister, but they both left home before I even hit middle school, so it's been my parents and I since then.

My parents... In order to know my you have to know my parents. One word: hippies. I kid you not. Genuine, bonafide hippies. My dad had long hair, my mom had long hair. They met in a hippie commune. They hitchhiked across the country and back. They lived at Haight-Ashbury. They got busted for selling dope. My dad burned his draft card. They got married by a Unitarian minister wearing clothes that my mom made herself. There exists a picture of them, with another couple standing in front of - you guessed it - a VW Minibus painted with flowers.

My mom got a degree in microbiology. My dad dropped out of college and bummed around a bit before he managed to get a degree in physical anthropology. And then a masters and a Ph.D. and some other one. They adopted two kids, both of mixed race, and opened a bookstore. I was born a few weeks before it folded.

This is the family I come from. I'd like to tell you that I am my own person and that I am completely different. But I'm not. I'm totally progressive, dedicated to education, always looking for new ways to be creative, but constantly trying to strike that delicate balance between the left brain and the right brain. I played music all through middle and high school and then got my bachelor's in math.

Yes, math.

Yea, I know, you're probably not good at math. Or you think I'm crazy. Or you hate nerds. Don't get me started on how many people say that. I've actually considered telling people that I have an English degree, just so I don't have to explain myself.

I didn't do it to get a good job. I didn't do it because I'm a nerd. I did it because that's what I'm good at. I'm good at numbers. I'm not a nerd, I'm not a dork. I don't know anything about Star Trek - or Star Wars for that matter. You know what my favorite trilogy is? Back to the Future. Or Indiana Jones. That's the trilogy debate in my life. I love cheesy 80s movies.

I have no clue what I'm going to write about in this blog. Maybe work. Maybe movies. It is what it is, so stay tuned......