The Power of Negative Blogging

A good friend and colleague sent this little news item to me. It is something I’ve always believed, since I’ve always had a hard time just shutting up and smiling. I never thought it was fair (to me or the idiot yelling at me) nor very productive to just suck it up. Being courteous and sincere is very, very important. But not being to share one’s opinions or feelings (good or bad) seemed unhealthy to me. From UPI:

A German scientist has proved that people forced to smile and take on-the-job insults suffer more and longer-lasting stress that may harm their health.

Dieter Zapf of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt studied 4,000 volunteers working in a fake call center. Half were allowed to respond in kind to abuse on the other end of the line while the other half had to suck it up, The Telegraph reports.

He found that those able to answer back had a brief increase in heart rate. Those who could not had stress symptoms that lasted much longer.

“Every time a person is forced to repress his true feelings there are negative consequences,” Zapf said. “We are all able to rein in our emotions but it becomes difficult to do this over a protracted period.”

In an interview with the German healthcare magazine Apotheken Umschau, Zapf suggested that people who must keep smiling on the job should get regular breaks to let it out.

Just remember there’s a time and place for everything, so don’t read this, walk into your boss’s office and explode. But don’t just shut up and take it either. It’s for your own good.

I hate reading reviews, I hate writing reviews. But I’ve talked enough about Indiana Jones here that I had to comment with something.

 Last night I realized something as I attended the midnight show for Indiana Jones IV. I, not nearly as much as Indy himself, am old. At least I was last night, when I was roughly the third oldest person in a 400 seat theater. The average age was 21 or so. Why? Who can go to a midnight show on a Wednesday? College kids and a guy with a flexible work schedule. Most of the audience wasn’t alive or we’re in diapers when the last movie came out. They seemed excited for the movie but it didn’t seem to resonate with them as much. I grew up with Indiana. We played with ropes as whips and toy guns, running around the woods pretending to be on a grand adventure. Throwing dirt clumps as grenades and killing imaginary Nazis. So for me, Indiana Jones is a trip back to my childhood. But last night, as they dimmed the lights, it didn’t get dark right away. The light from all the cell phones as the kids finished up their text messages took a few minutes to dissipate as the previews rolled. For them this was a cool event to go to. For me, it was a trip down memory lane…

The movie itself is just that. A great reunion with an old friend. You could see Harrison Ford really enjoyed himself and for the first time in awhile, didn’t phone it in. There were some great lines, a heck of an opening, one very stupid scene that reaffirms my hate of monkeys, some nasty critters and a lot of fun action. I smiled the whole show thinking “It’s good to see Indy again.” And it really was. It was good to see Marion again as well and to see Indiana’s face when he first sees Marion…priceless.

This is definitely more like the Last Crusade than anything else. It had its goofy moments, but good goofy. I didn’t walk in there expecting Schindler’s List. Nor did I expect Raiders of the Lost Ark. It was worth the groggy day I’ll have today. I think most people, if they go in without any expectations, will come out pleasantly surprised. I did get my money’s worth and I certainly didn’t feel I wasted my time going. Isn’t that what you want from your movies, especially with all the usual crap Hollywood tries to feed us?

It was good to see you again Indy. Glad you’re back.

Here’s a feel good story highlighting the negative thinking technique of preparing for the worst. From CNN:

When Yosuke the parrot flew out of his cage and got lost, he did exactly what he had been taught — recite his name and address to a stranger willing to help.

Police rescued the African grey parrot two weeks ago from a neighbor’s roof in the city of Nagareyama, near Tokyo. After spending a night at the station, he was transferred to a nearby veterinary hospital while police searched for clues, local policeman Shinjiro Uemura said.

He kept mum with the cops, but began chatting after a few days with the vet.

“I’m Mr. Yosuke Nakamura,” the bird told the veterinarian, according to Uemura. The parrot also provided his full home address, down to the street number, and even entertained the hospital staff by singing songs.

“We checked the address, and what do you know, a Nakamura family really lived there. So we told them we’ve found Yosuke,” Uemura said.

The Nakamura family told police they had been teaching the bird its name and address for about two years.

But Yosuke apparently wasn’t keen on opening up to police officials.

“I tried to be friendly and talked to him, but he completely ignored me,” Uemura said.

Okay, so he’s a little shy around the police.

This is why we have our dogs micro chipped. For the off chance they get lost or stolen, we’ve done something to be proactive in their return. We don’t assume everything is going to be peachy keen, we’ve got some safety measures in place.

This family made sure if Mr. Yosuke Nakamura (Our dogs have full names too – Otto Von Titsling Price and Gertrude Condoleezza Price) flew away, he’d be able to get himself home. Forget about cavemen, it’s so easy even a parrot can do it!

I know I’ve already blogged about this in my last post but this edit of Bill O’Reilly’s rant is not unlike my initial reaction. Thankfully I have my “Filter” which allows me to be in public and not say what I’m thinking. Plus they use the word “troglodyte”. From Barely Political:

One of the things I hear a lot from overly positive people is that we should forget the past and look toward the future. Unfortunately, our past actions create our present. A pattern of behavior in the past gives us understanding of how behavior will be in the present. We learn from our experiences (I hope). So keep the following video in mind as you go about your day. Are you acting or saying things that will embarrass and shame you in the future?

from www.comedycentral.co

Negative thinking allows us to see into the future a bit and allows us to pre-censor ourselves. We’re all accountable for what we say and do. And how we react to others. So please, think before you speak. Especially if you’re going to be taped!