Being tired sucks.

Being tired just sucks. It really really sucks.

Sitting at work during ones 90 day eval period, and genuinely wanting to exceed expectations, but being to tired to move is where I am at right now.

Americans weren't always this tired though. There was a day and age when people got plenty of sleep, and the sleep they were getting wasn't equated with losing money. So what the hell happened? When did our sleep, just like our health and our families start taking a back seat to all the other things we just absolutely have to do?

Lets start off with a little bit about sleep itself.

Sleep is such a vital thing to the human being. Science has shown us what we already know. The less you get of it, the sooner you die, the sadder you are, you get less done.

• 35% of Americans say they never nap, as they are too busy.

• A lack of sleep has been linked to heart disease.

• A lack of sleep sleep has been linked to lower productivity.

• Sleep deprivation has been shown to reduce sexual desire, increase chances of obesity and weaken the immune system.
• 16% of Americans get 5 or fewer hours of sleep per night.
  
• One particular brand of sleep aid managed 1.5 BILLION in sales for 2008.
  

This list could go on and on and on, but it wont. How on earth did Americans get to have such rampant issues with sleep even though our own government claims that we are 2nd on earth for how well we sleep. How is it that independent surveys tell us that Americans have major problems with sleep, while the official sources tell us we're fine?

I think a better question is when did everything we do become more important than sleep?

We must give up two hours of sleep, even after countless studies have shown that this is a practice that is detrimental to our health, because if we don't we wont be able to buy things we didn't realize we wanted. Our cable might end up dropping below the 300 channel mark, our ringtone collection might stop climbing by the dozens, and god forbid, we might lose weight. That can't be the crux of it though.

Even just 20 years ago if a man or woman was working a job that was taking its toll on the persons health, family or social life the job was going to go, not the health,friends and family. year after year our bosses asked us to stay an extra five minutes, ten the next year. We worked an extra day here and there. We saw the neighbors work 2 overtime shifts and give in to the idea that as a good red blooded American, they weren't all that good until they sacrificed the fruits of their extra labor to buy that 70" flat screen T.V. Envious we ran out and did the same, ignoring the lonesome stares of our wives and children, the aches and pains of our bodies. A year later our bosses asked us to stay an hour and five minutes, and we did. Two weeks later we volunteer for more overtime and less sleep, because we filled our houses with things we couldn't afford.

You would think that being rational, sane beings we would have picked up on the pattern and stopped leaping deeper and deeper into debt. You would think that we would have noticed the toll it was taking on us and our families, while we spent more and more to make someone other than ourselves and our families richer and richer. I somehow doubt that sane, rational or thinking came into the equation at any given point in time.

So now we work more. So now we sleep less. We lose our families and get promoted. This is the slippery slope at its worst. It changes our valued and leaves us with no one to blame, all semblance of the road we walked to get here obscured in the fog of too little sleep and too much yearning for things we don't need. Employers and marketers aren't taking advantage of us on their own, we are willing participants in our own rape.

I do to some extent blame this on the growing American 'value' that profit comes before anything else. A value that is rapidly replacing the previously held values of sacrifice for family, country, neighbors and community. Plasma televisions, smart phones and take out have become more precious to Americans than their families.

Yes there is an arguable propagandist element at work, being driven both by elected officials and corporate entities. Ultimately however, it is John and Jane Doe, who choose to put hearth and home second to their account balances who are responsible. It is they, who when asked to lose sleep for the sake of profit, say yes.

Arguing that it is a matter of survival is ridiculous. There is not a single person in American who is going to die from cable or ringtone deprivation. In fact, spending less time at work to pay for those thing might save our families. Spending more time with our loved ones and less time with our jobs and T.V.s will undoubtedly make life a whole lot more flavorful. I guess I shouldn't say things like that though, it's un-American to suggest that money is less important than children.

I frequently make comments such as "The average American would set their own children on fire to double their salary, and not loose sleep over it."
The truth is we are already losing sleep and pouring the gas . We may not be lighting the match, but we're ignoring the smell of burnt flesh to stay late at the office. Not to worry though, if we're so tired that we overlook the stench, we can always cover it up with the sweet smell of a new car and an early grave.

11 reasons guys dump women.

This is just a fast and dirty list being put together about a few of the things that drive guys nuts. It will be expanded and updated as time goes on, reworded etc. They are not in hard (just roughly in order) , but I prefer numbered lists as they are easier to reference.

This whole list can be circumnavigated by simply saying men are alot more like women than most women realize. We are human, we hurt, we cry, we worry, we think and we have needs too. We love you deeply and fiercely; and just for who you are, not how well you fuck or how much you earn. We want to give you everything. All we ask in return is that you not forgot us when we need you.

11. Your insecurities. They suck, they contort your thinking, they make you crazy and wound us deep in our souls.

10. Unreliability. When a woman says I'll be here or there at this time or that, and shows up 90 minutes late it's not just a buzz kill, it can seriously ruin the couples ability to have out of the house time with other people.

9. Failing to take responsibility. Women make mistakes the same as men. The difference with many women is that they refuse to take responsibility and just admit they screwed up. Excuses
don't really fix anything, but they can cause his ability to respect you and view you as an adult to take a beating.

8. Not being realistic about what to worry about. If a man is going nuts and working two jobs to pay a hospital bill and a woman lays a trip on him about the fact that he hasn't taken her out for a fancy dinner, it kills everything. A fair number of women seem to think that cable t.v. and new shoes are more important than the bills. Bringing this up damages a mans provider ego, makes a woman look selfish and immature and makes him feel as though he is 100% alone in facing the real problems.

7. Acting like he is doing something wrong if he doesn't communicate the way you do. Relationships are about give and take. Try meeting a man half way. You think he is being emotionally unavailable, he thinks your torturing him by not supporting him and forcing an issue before he is ready to talk about it. Trying to force a man to emotionally divulge makes him feel emotionally unsafe, un-cared for and pressured.

6. Demonizing his sexuality. Women will badger and abuse their men if they catch them with porn, catch them masturbating, looking at another womans ass and about ten thousand other reasons. If he feels guilty or ashamed of penis, and he feels that the strongest because of you or when he is with you, he IS going to find outlets for his desires with a woman that doesn't make him want to apologize or commit suicide every time he gets an erection.

5. Acting like men are really stupid, simple creatures. See #2. It's a real wake up call for some women, for others you will just say DUH! If your one of the women who already know men are complicated creatures at their core and that #2 is obvious, spread the word amongst your sisters.

4. Trying to make him what you want him to be, based solely on what you want, rather than accepting and loving him just the way he is. Seriously, if he does that with you he's an asshole and can be convicted of domestic abuse in some places. You either love him or you don't. If you love who you can force him to be, then your using him and you should be left.

3. It's all about you. Women like to think that they are so much more selfless, they aren't. Women have needs. If a woman isn't getting any at home her needs aren't being met and virtually anything is justified. If a man isn't getting sex at home, too bad. It's not like he has needs, right? The same goes for all non-sec areas of a relationship. This is a big bad one, and one that 99% of women will never admit too. In fact the fastest way to make a woman go psycho is to tell her no when she wants it, especially if it becomes a habit. So why would you think that it is acceptable to do the same to the man you love? This isn't just about sex either, but sex is the biggest place where women tend to act like mens needs aren't real. A simple way to get this across is to compare the differences in personal ads. The guys ads are all about what they can offer, the womens ads are almost always about what they are demanding with no mention of what they offer. Loads of women will reply with 'It's obvious what we're offering'. Yes, the same thing any other woman can provide, or blow up doll, or hand, or talented gay man. Trying focusing on what you can give in return, you may actually get the best out him in return. And I don't mean sex. You can find alot of men who will say things like this "If it weren't for pussy I wouldn't even bother talking to women." Now, do you really want him to only be there for that? Try actually offering something else.

2. Trying to fix everything with sex. So you went without his permission and got keys to his place, or slept with his friend, or 'borrowed' $100 without asking. You can just sex the simple oaf up and he'll forget everything, right? Wrong. He'll still have sex with you, albeit less frequently with time. He won't however forgive or forget, after all it's not like you took responsibility or actually said "I was wrong and I'm sorry." Sooner or later, he will cheat, he will leave, and he won't care if you blame that on him too.

1. Not talking and LISTENING to him. Men have thoughts, lots and lots of them. Men have feelings. Lots and lots of raging torrents of feelings. You just won't get to hear about them if your not in the habit of talking to him about things that are of no consequence, making his opinion as important as yours and not judging him. The #1 reason I have had men give me for cheating or leaving is this, "She doesn't love me anymore, we don't talk and I am so lonely.", not I haven't gotten a Blowjob lately.

pssst...advertisers. WE'RE NOT LISTENING!

I cannot for the life of me figure out why there are so many damned ads. For every single hour of television there are 15 - 24 minutes of commercials. Worst case scenario that is nearly half the hour of television show that I'm actually already paying for in the form of a monthly satellite bill. Most of the time they are repeats of the same lame ass car or cheeseburger ad I saw not ten minutes ago. The TV execs should figure this out. Nobody is paying attention anymore. There are too many commercials, and many of them are for things that no person in their right mind would buy based on a flashy ad. Others are for a product that is similar to the product that was advertised thirty seconds prior. Again, the repetition of the exact same commercial has gotten so bad that I often see the exact same ad twice in a row which is irritating. Lastly, the cost of commercials that aren't working in the first place drives up the cost of the actual product to the point where it sells far fewer units.
Let's just start off with volume. There are so many commercials that they have all blended together into an oceanic blob of irritating crap, encouraging potential consumers to zone out altogether. Kind of like the way the sound of a ceiling fan or ticking clock tends to fade away into nothingness as time goes on. If there were only 4-5 minutes of advertising per hour of television, and they didn't constantly repeat themselves, they MIGHT have some kind of impact. At this point though, it would take alot of time before people started even noticing ads again. How much attention do they expect people to pay when they are bombarded with the same thing until they are numb? Are they expecting people to give up and buy something just to shut them up? Doubtful. One may ask at this moment how else TV can remain free. Just charge more for fewer commercials. Thus, people won't channel surf so much, ratings will go up, ad costs would stay the same but they would impact revenue for a change.
Moving on to what is actually being advertised. Seriously, no one has EVER heard a loud ass, flashy car commercial and run out to spend $30,000 on a car because of an ad. In fact if that car company stopped running ads altogether the very same $30k car would cost a hell of a lot less, or it could cost the same and be far higher quality. Again, we're also numb and unaffected by these ads because they are so repetitive, obnoxious and frequent. It's like telemarketers of the 80's and 90's, only more invasive. This also relates to the next section which would be...
Seeing an ad for one type of soda 30 seconds after I see an add for their competitor. So if commercials really do work, then folks would be flooding out of their houses to buy both products? No, wait, they buy the product with the best ad, even if they think it's inferior quality? No, wait, these scenarios result in the ad having even less impact that the others in the torrent of commercials. It makes both products equally as unappealing. This is especially horrific when it comes to insurance ads and car commercials. Here is why, it makes both manufacturers look like liars. How can two trucks both have the most horsepower, the greatest ability to suck down gas while hauling items that 99% of the population will never lay eyes on, much less tow? How is that drivers switching from the creepy little lizard thing can save $1200, and 60 seconds later drivers from the other guys back to the lizard can save $1200? It's deceptive advertising. It is based on the customers that switched some prior year. It doesn't mention the fact that people don't tend to switch to the insurance provider that charges them more money. Again, in both scenarios if the company stopped advertising the cost of their premiums would plummet, they could provide better service, or god forbid pay more to their reps so that insurance people wouldn't be so damn pushy.
This is for the ad companies and the dicks that run their ads. fewer commercials makes us less numb to them. We buy cars based on these factors: price, appearance, quality based on personal experience, quality based on reputation, warranty. Stop running ads and bull-crap incentive programs. Americans, however stupid we may seem to you, aren't fooled. We buy food based on what we got for the money we payed lasts time we went into the restaurant. Odds are if we're going to buy that burger it's because we have eaten it before. Don't tell us about it unless there is something new on the menu, and don't remind me 38 times a day. We will watch alot more of the ads, if we know that the show really will be back on quickly enough that channel flipping could result in missing something other than more F*CKING COMMERCIALS!