Daily Slow Chat

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1. I’m listening to a book whose title translates as ‘the biology of depression’. Having combined data from lots of sources, Markus J. Rantala has written the book from the main approach that since people come down with depression for different reasons, it should be treated based on reason more than symptoms.

   The latest factoid I came across, now I’m about half way through, is a study that was made with a group of about 70 people, each with medium or severe deprssion. They were split into two groups: one kept eating their regular diet but received “social support”. The other adopted a diet very close to the Mediterranean diet, plus the same social support. Of the group that kept eating as they were, 8% were cured* during a 12 week period, whereas for the latter group, the number was 35%.

   He also mentioned it kind of seems to work both ways: when depressed, it’s easier to make poor, craving-based choices in foods and drinks, thus digging the hole even further.

   *Reaching the status ‘cured’ meant having your BDI score drop to a level that does not reach a diagnosis of depression.

2. I went into a hardware shop today to replace a lightbulb. Now in general, every time I do this I marvel at how much technological progress has been made in lightbulb technology over the past 20 years or so from a laughably inefficient light-producing device that was basically just a heat filament that produced light as a secondary by-product, into something that’s actually designed primarily to produce light as its main purpose with a fraction of the same amount of energy. But the flipside of that is now like half the lightbulbs they sell have these added technological bells and whistles on top of being simple light-producing devices, simply because the manufacturers of said light bulbs have collectively decided, for whatever reason, that this is a thing that society needs and they can charge a premium for it.

   One of the bulbs they were selling had an in-built Bluetooth speaker, so that you could, if you so choose, play music out of your lightbulb that you can control from your phone. Why anyone would choose to do this, I couldn’t tell you. My guess is that, because Americans seem to have some kind of cultural aversion to ceiling lights in their living rooms for whatever reason (but why??? Why can’t you just at least install ceiling light fixtures for those of us who want them??? I don’t want to sit right next to a bedside lamp just to read a book without getting eye strain aaaargh), they end up having to buy a ton of standing lamps to light up each corner of the room instead. And I guess if you’re going to have to do that anyway, why not turn it into a surround sound system while you’re at it?

3. Last night I had to call 112 because some guy was walking on the ring road, which has vehicles driving at 100 km/h, in a place you would never walk unless you were planning to jump in front of a semi-truck or you were very drunk. It was late at night and raining too, so visibility was very poor. Weird thing is this is the second time in about a year I’ve called for somebody walking on the motorway, and both times were at this same spot. Weird.

   I drove past the same spot a couple of hours later in opposite direction and didn’t see any sings of there having been an accident, so I’m guessing he got off the motorway safe.

4. I heard someone in New York was infected with one of those (live) flesh eating screw worms. These terrifying insects lay their larvae on wounds and were endemic to the Southern part of North America as well as their South American range. Thanks to some scientists and engineers who figured out how to make huge quantities of sterile screwworms, they’ve been eradicated from North America, but it looks like there’s been reports of them showing up in Mexico recently.

   It’s a good thing they haven’t defunded that program yet. I guess saving farmers money isn’t woke (they were huge agriculturalpests).

5. I made Chinese scallion pancakes for breakfast. They’re very good and smell amazing. I thought I put too much onion, but it was just right.

   So, I would never begrudge my darling husband any happiness. But if there is one thing I am very very jealous of, it is that the mfer doesn’t understand a word of what my mom says.

   Yesterday we had a brief family visit. Now, my father-in-law is an old German man, and I try to ignore most of what he says because it’s more trouble than it’s worth. Yesterday he was talking about his adventures in the supermarketscape of his town.

   “I saw that electric kettles were on offer at the supermarket, so I drove there. But they didn’t have any! So I asked the employee, who was an Ausländer.” At this point he looks at me. “But he was very nice!!

   I’m like, it’s okay, I get it.

   “Then he says this is the shelf they’re supposed to be, but there isn’t any. He only speaks bad German, but he was nice!” again, looks at me. I get it. He was an Ausländer but still nice. It’s fine.

   “Then I say I can’t leave without a kettle. He says, he needs to check in the basement. I wait, and I wait, and I wait. Then he comes back, and he has my kettle! And then I go to buy some of this beer that’s on offer. But they don’t have it. Then I talk to the employee, who is an Ausländer. You know, we only Ausländer working nowadays. But he was nice!” again, looks at me, I FUCKING GET IT.

   People ask me if I face racism in Germany. The answer is, not in such big words. But shit like this, happens all the time.

6. Today I’m on a nice little island, not far from Gothenburg.Styrsö.

   Good hiking trails here,some forested areas,a little beach too (water is cold!) and some great traditional style houses,I love these old wooden and super-colourful places.