We're one month into my last semester of seminary and all I can feel is tired - tired of always trying to get caught up; tired of not getting enough sleep; tired of not having enough time to do the things that I NEED to do, let alone the things that I WANT to do. I don't know how students that are also pastors and have families do it! It's gotten to the point where I find that I'm constantly re-evaluating my priorities to do the number one or two things on my list. Once those get done, I have to reorder the list, and once again do the most immediate things. I never get around to those "fun treats" that are supposed to be my rewards for getting everything else accimplished. Am I the only one who does this? I highly doubt it. I'm just tired of living my life like this. Every semester it feels this way, and now that I'm in my 8th semester of it, I'm tired of it. Graduation is just around the corner, graduation is just around the corner, graduation is just around the corner.....
While I'm at it, here are a few other things that I'm tired of:
- "news" stories about Anna Nicole Smith's fiasco and Britney Spears latest episode...
- the 2008 presidential election (and the campaigns haven't even really gotten going yet!)
- homophobic athletes
- the war in Iraq
- commercials for prescription drugs that we should all go ask our doctors for
- talk about who was wearing what designer to which awards show
- churches that talk about having "open doors" but who act intolerant to those who are different
for a variety of reasons (imagine what would happen if a homeless person walked into your
sanctuary one morning...)
- singing hymns in chapel or church at a tempo that is more like a funeral march than worship
Okay, now that the rant is out of my system, I'm going to try to be a little more upbeat and go finish my homework. :)
3 comments:
I heard the ConFighter is the father of Anna Nicole's baby.....
As for the drug commercials; they just keep naming off symptoms until you hear one that you have. Do you sleep too much, not enough, can't get it up, it won't go down, eat too much, red eyes, no tears, itch, burp, fart, are you alive, are you dead - you need these pills.
Oh Mandy hang in there. When I was in grad school, it was last semester that was the absolute hardest. By this final semester I was beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel and began to believe it may not be an oncoming train :))) I bet it picks up and this term will be done before you know it.
Ok, on to the drug commercials. Since I make my living in that line of work I certainly don't claim to be unbiased. I do however, think you need to separate them into lifestyle drugs- ED, weight loss, insomnia, etc. and life saving drugs- cardiovascular, mental illness, etc. My personal thought is first of all- the only reason drug companies advertise is because the commercials work, especially life style drugs. Lifesaving drug commercials can be important because they can bring awareness to life threatening issues and inform and generally not-so-informed public. For instance, people have a fear of cholesterol lowering drugs. The deaths from this group of drugs, statins, annually is in the single digits and MILLIONS take them. However, deaths from cardiovascular disease are catastrophic. Between you and me- one of us is going to die of cadiovascular disease- it's 1 out of 2 in America. For whatever reason, when they see Mandy Patinkin touting statins, the public feels safer about them. Physicians, most but not all, have been appreciative of some of these commercials because they increase compliance or patient adherence as it's now called, they bring awareness to a serious disease state and can help improve patient education and aid discussions in the exam room.
As for all of the rhetoric at the end of the commercials- the 8 minutes of possible side effects- well that's government regulated. It's called fair balance and those messages do in some cases make people more fearful of medication. In general however, the public response is more toward better compliance in my bird's eye world view. By the way- side effects for life saving drugs much more of a negative effect. Lifestyle dugs- different story. You tell someone on Viagra that they are in jeopardy of their right arm shriveling up and falling off- as long as it doesn't involve another part of their anatomy- no concerns :)) All the ailments Big Unit mentioned- lifestyle, other than possibly being dead, to which I know of no cure-all pill. So hate the commercials if you wish- but perhaps they don't all deserve to be painted w/ the same brush of detest.
I think it's interesting that you both posted about the drug commercials. Was that really the most controversial, thought provoking item on that list?
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