Soulrev

Yes, holidays suck. For the past month or so I have tried to change a lot of aspects in my life. I've been pretty successful so far. I have started eating food that is better for me, and I feel better physically, which helps me feel better mentally, to give me the energy to deal with stress in a healthy way. I used to drink pop (I call it soda) all day every day. I cut that out completely. I know there are studies that link high fat, high sugar diets to depression and anxiety, and I found some truth in this, because I feel better as a whole now that I am eating right and exercising. It's not easy, it took a lot to get me motivated at first, but once you get moving, get busy, the rest falls away and soon what seemed like a downward spiral into oblivion is now a climbing stairway into serenity. Just saying, sometimes you can't just change one part of your life and expect the rest to be fine. Sometimes you have to go all the way. It's working for me, I know, everyone is different, but hopefully you find something useful from my advice. I know how you feel, believe me, I've been there. I've tried everything to deal with depression/stress/anxiety.. Including drugs (both legal and illegal) and found nothing that helped except what I am doing right now, trying to live an overall healthier lifestyle. I still smoke cigarettes, I'm not a health nut. I was never active, I always got an F in Gym for not participating.. I just got to a point where I literally could not take it one more second. I was on the verge of either killing myself or making a huge change in my life, I went with the latter, and it's working out fantastically.. I'm not saying all the stress in my life is gone, because it's FAR from it, but I find I can handle it a LOT better than before, and those are the things I did. Try it, maybe it will work for you!

Someone to talk to

You know that "making stress your friend" video Troy posted? - http://www.ted.com/talks/kelly_mcgonigal_how_to_make_stress_your_friend.html?utm_content=awesm-publisher&utm_medium=on.ted.com-static&utm_campaign=&utm_source=detroitgothic.net&awesm=on.ted.com_UpsideOfStress Someone else in a comment to that video posted a link to this, - http://www.ccl.org/leadership/pdf/research/WakeUp.pdf Together, I find those to be useful bits of info. I've been trying to keep these things in mind and it has been working pretty well for me, so far. I also try to keep in my mind that the things that stress me out, shouldn't stress me out as much as they do. It's not worth getting all worked up over 99% of the shit that happens in our lives because it does no good, all it does is take years off of your life and make you feel worn out all the time. Lately I've been trying to concentrate my energy in positive ways, like working out, staying busy, etc. It really makes a big difference if you can find something to keep your mind occupied. An idle mind is the devil's playground, after all.

A time machine.

I know, right? It's pretty bad when 40 degrees seems like a nice day. Lol

You know, I've come to realize as I get older that the whole idea that "I will never love someone as much as I loved (insert name here) again." or "I will never be as happy as I was when I was with (insert name here)" ... That's all bullshit. And a lot of people believe that. For me, I guess now I'm coming into the prime of my life. I'm 28, I feel and look better than I have since I was 12. The point I'm trying to make is lately I feel a lot more confident about myself, and I noticed women take more notice to me now than ever before. I used to think the same thing, after losing love, that I would never love again, or never love the same way again, but that's wrong. With that attitude, yeah, I probably won't. If I keep my head on straight and realize that there are always other fish in the sea, that can make all the difference in the world. I find keeping this in mind also helps deal with loss, greatly. It's easy to get hung up on the past, so much so that you pay no attention to the present, or the future, and it can be like being stuck between a rock and a hard place, with no hope of moving forward. It's hard to do, sometimes it can be physically taxing to perform simple tasks like going grocery shopping, because that loss can take so much out of you. But keeping your head on straight and moving forward is always the best strategy. I find with a positive, confident attitude, I come across more people every time I go out, that remind me, it's not so bad. There is definitely someone else out there for me, and they just may be better than the last. Even when that is hard to imagine, it is true.

Garth: "Nobody likes Benjamin. If Benjamin were an ice cream flavor, he'd be pralines, and dick." Sorry I hear that quote in my head every time someone mentions pralines :D

Yeah that is helpful information, thank you Troy! I sort of already knew some of what she was talking about. I learned in the Army to use my stress in a positive way, cuz, if I didn't, well I wasn't going to make it far. But to look at stress as a good thing, never thought of that.

Hey did my family read this post? Lol. So apparently our family Thanksgiving got canceled.. Nobody will tell me why, just "it's a long story" .. Lol, ok, cool, whatev.

An orbital jigsaw? I felt like such a newb when you said that, I had to look it up. Say, that's pretty cool!

Air sandwich with sky sauce.. I'm hungry. Somebody feed me.

Yeah I think I'm taking Option B as well.. Don't feel like dealing with their bullshit. Christmas will be just around the corner, and once a year is more than enough for me.

Lol, at first I thought you were going to pitch a commercial for an injury attorney

Agreed. Unless you have some other significant reason, I'd run.

Burger King "Big King" - The better version of a Big Mac :D NOM NOM NOM

Yeah, that does help a little. I like the oldschool thing, that's the way things should be. Things do move way too quickly these days. I've always said I was born in the wrong century.

Hey I noticed there isn't any way to leave comments on pictures in galleries anymore.. At least I'm not seeing any.

Why the fuck do I keep getting hurt? No matter what I do it seems like everything always ends up the same way. Nothing ever goes perfectly, I understand that. So why do I keep getting in these fucked up situations? Do I open my heart too easily? I thought I kept a pretty tight watch on it, but every fucking time I let my guard down, someone, somehow, shits all over it. Every relationship I've been in ended in me getting hurt, except one. Only one time in my life have I ever left someone that didn't hurt me first. I don't know if I can ever trust anyone again. The biggest scar was left by my soon to be ex wife. 5 years of marriage. Seemed happy, at least I thought we were. Then one day, poof. She doesn't want anything to do with me or our son anymore. A year and a half later.. A year and a half I won't soon forget. A year and a half of hell. I meet someone else, let her in my heart. Then some fucked up shit happened, and here I am, hurting again. This one is sort of my fault. Sort of. But she made decisions she could have made differently. I just want to know how someone can do something they know is hurting the one they supposedly "love"? How can they just go through life doing this to people? Even when the one they "love" has said that their actions are hurting said person.. How can they just keep doing it, like it's no big deal? And then, to make things worse, how can someone just talk about their actions, that they know is hurting the person, like talking about going to the store? Just casual, like, (for example) let's say your best friend stole your wallet from you. Came over to your house, told you they stole your wallet, and expects things to just be normal. That's a pretty shabby example of what I'm really talking about here, but bear with me. If this person supposedly loves the person they say they love, how can they continue on to hurt them? And when they are asked to stop, they come up with excuses, sentences that always start with "I". "Me". "My". Am I wasting my time here or what? I love this person, but with all I've been through, I don't know if I can trust her. Am I crazy for wanting to stick with someone, if they keep hurting me? Will she stop hurting me? Yes, I'm sure. Will she hurt me again? I don't know. I want to believe that she won't, but the way I've seen, what she's put other people through, who's to say she won't do the same to me? The story goes way deeper and there are many, many dirty details. I won't hijack this thread, but I could really use some input. I just don't know what to do anymore.

Lol! Umm, brilliant minds think alike?

I like how you can change the color scheme, too. For those who haven't noticed you can do that in the upper-right corner of the page; there is a color block where you can set it to whatever you like. I went with this

Eh? Hmm must be an administrator thing. Here's what I see -

Right on. Hey remember that photo slideshow error I was talking about? Here's an example. http://www.detroitgothic.net/index.php?app=gallery&image=398 It shows the thumbnail image in the slideshow, but when you click it, you are taken to that page instead of the image.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hk5e1yH7lM

Yeah that is good news, I noticed that months ago, all these random bots showing up out of nowhere.