Just swear it, you'll feel much better

I feel a bit out of whack today. So pardon the rude entry.

To me, and I am pretty sure everyone of you out there, learning a new language is a daunting task. There's an easier way, of course. Start with swear words first. It's fun, easy to remember, and most of all, it makes you feel good/bad. Either way you feel a little lighter, if you are like me and understood one of my past lecturers who thinks that a joke is not effective unless it is vulgar. Or my favourite, "how can he talk if he ain't vulgar" from an unknown Hong Kong actor.

I didn't know why but suspect that our brains are wired in such a way as to make swearing evolutionary profitable? Now scientist thinks that swearing also eases pain and lessen stress.

I must admit that I had lost my sense of humour a few years ago. I think being Permanently head-Damaged has something to do with it. Anyway a few days ago, I had a whale of a time as I silently thought to myself about asking my guest if they wanted Dilmah tea ('tiu-mär-chä) and subsequently burst into laughter. It's nice to have a laugh once in a while. Sorry if you didn't get the joke. Perhaps if you speak Teochew you might get this one?

Our hormones and the economy

The drastic meltdown of the finance world is a subject which is being scrutinised under the microscope of not only economists but recently, scientists. Now, men are being blamed for this unfortunate worldwide event. Scientists who study traders in action found fluctuating levels of testosterone and cortisol. It was found that the levels of testosterone tended to correlate with the size of profit, while cortisol levels rose when the trader suffered increased volatility [1].

Such profound insight! Who would have thought that a couple of nanometer-sized molecules caused the collapse of global finance companies, bankrupt an entire country and make millions of people unemployed. Before we get too carried away with this failure attributed to hormone in men. Let's review the history of science, and scientists. The same hormones surely must have played its role during the defining moments for Archimedes, Newton, and Einstein.

So, while we may point the blaming finger on greedy men who gets a kick out of messing the economy of the entire world, we should keep things in perspective as these men are 99.9% similar in chemical composition to scientists whose contributions have helped advance human civilization.

[1] A. Wasley (Feb 2009), "Blame men for global meltdown," The Daily Telegraph, [Online]. Available: http://www.news.com.au"

Cortisol and Stress

I talked about my stress induced sickness sometime ago. And recently I just read about how stress can change ones brain literally. It seems that stressed-up people are not normal. OK, we all knew for a fact how our stressed-up spouse should not be called upon to sharpen that blunt kitchen knife. Or iron our favorite shirt. But how abnormal can stressed-up people be?

An article from Time magazine talks about stress and how it affects our body. It seems that stress causes a certain chemical (cortisol) imbalance in the bloodstream. And the higher the stress level, the higher is the amount of cortisol found in the blood. Our brain is equipped to handle a reasonable amount of stress. When the hippocampus part of the brain senses excessive cortisol level flooding into the cerebrum, it sends out signals to shut down that cortisol cascade. In other words, its our feedback control system to reduce stress. However, beyond a certain threshold level, damage-control should be the next course of action. Try a long-vacation, or a guilt-free trip to the masseur. One thing is for sure, constantly elevated cortisol levels can only mean one thing, bad mojo. Health related illnesses like accelerated aging (read: wrinkles), unresponsiveness, and withdrawal syndromes. So try to keep that stress level low. For me, some quick aerobic exercise like jogging helps.

Depression and Stress: A direct correlation?

I recently self-diagnose myself as suffering from mild depression. My symptom, a total lack of initiative to devote myself for social activities. I remembered it wasn't like that 4 years ago when I first came to Japan. Somehow, the situation slowly degraded and I am now just a pile of slime oozing out a sorry existence doing the absolutely minimum to survive. I am thinking that stress at work has plenty to do with this condition. And folks living and working in the city has plenty of that. Why is it that we hear people say that although staying close by in highly concentrated apartments, yet hardly know their neighbors. Is it an indication that these highly dense dwellings of convenience actually crosses the boundary threshold for comfortable living. Wait a minute, I think there is two issues here that are somewhat interconnected.

1. Depression from Stress.
2. Close-up living quarters from apartments.

People suffer from depression for a variety of reasons. I know that women who are taking care of their children constantly without reprieve do sometimes develop symptoms of depression and in the critical state, feel the urge to commit suicide. You hear stories about 'salarymen', school children, etc feeling depressed. I know there must be numerous studies by shrinks to diagnose and cure these people. I also heard somewhere that you can take medication for it. Wouldn't it be nice to take a pill, and then you feel that you can give a presidential speech the next day, join in 'gotong-royong', or perhaps be the star used-car salesman. I guess, depression is a disease of the mind. Somehow, the chemicals in the brain is not in equilibrium, or the wiring is screwed-up. The best way to beat it is perhaps to get a hold of the brain and tell it who's boss.

I am staying in an apartment in a huge living area called "danchi". Here in Japan, people respect each other's privacy so much that they end-up not talking too much to each other. I know when I was in Singapore and was staying in the HDB apartments. Things wasn't that bad. Of course, you can't throw a rock party and expect your neighbors not call 991, unless ofcourse if you're staying in the university dorm. But people open their doors at least and play their favorite Hokkien songs, Malay prayers, Indian songs what have you and people don't mind too much. Here, in the danchi apartments, you shouldn't talk too loudly, let the kids run around, turn up your TV volume, do repair work etc. And if you need to, you'll have to give prior notice to the entire block. Which explains the proliferation of love hotels. The walls have ears so to speak. So, there special places for people to 「作世界」.

I guess you noticed the lack of coherence in my blog. The reason for this is, I started this topic in February only to pick up the pieces now in October. Anyway, I would like to sum up by saying that, if you have the means, go and get a proper landed house. That will ease your stress having to deal with neighbors. And if you are stressed up from work, let somebody close to you know about it, talking does help to balance your brain. I know it helped me.