about

I live on the East Coast of the USA. I now work in the movies (rigging electrician or grip), but hold a B.S. in Psychology and a B.S. in Biology From Virginia Commonwealty University.

I have traveled a great deal, inside of the states, and have had many unusual life experiences. I'm a 35 year old man, bored but happy!

advice

I have a question...I think I'm slightly bi-polar. Because I go through the day wiht emotions allll over the place. 2 classes, for example, I'll be sitting there just dozing off tired and not happy...the next class ill find something randomly hilarious. the next class ill be depressed about myself, adn by the end of the day im laughing agian. its really weird. its not serious, but its been like this for so long and i hate being depressed and not happy. half the time i dont even know why im so sad......please help? any suggestions?

Let me start off by answering your first question. You are not exhibiting the diagnostic features associated with BPD. To be diagnosed with BPD you would have to have the “manic” phase or the “depressive” phase for all or almost all of the day, for a week or more. This means either or, not both in the same day many times. Each of the phases also can only be diagnosed if they appear in conjunction with at least 5 other symptoms. I wont list the additional symptoms here, but they can be found in the DSM-IV or on a mental health related website.

Having said this, I do not want you to think that I am discounting your suffering. Just because you may have misdiagnosed your self does not mean that you are not having serious difficulties. If you are experiencing issues that are causing problems in your life (including large amounts of stress), or causing you to think about hurting yourself or someone else, I would highly recommend talking it over with someone. This can be your spiritual leader, school counselor, parent or family doctor. I know this sounds like a cookie cutter answer, but it really is almost always a good choice when you are overwhelmed with an issue.

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hi. well i have three budgies and decided to start training them. so today, i put my hand in the cage and i was holding millet spray. and after a while, they came and sat on my hand and ate away, and i was overjoyed, thinking that they were trained in just a few minutes. but then i decided to stop for the day. after 20 minutes maybe, i went to the cage and put my hand on the cage, and they go from one perch to another. why did they forget that they can trust me? is this normal or not? please answer ill rate 5's :)

I believe that the trust issue is more a hardwired survival instinct within your bird. They have evolved over many hundreds of thousands of years to distrust potential “predators”. It will take a little time to get through all of this instinctual drive and become friends with your Bungee. It sounds like you are off to a good start, lots of patience and respect will go a long way here. I also found a great web site that gives some pointers. I am going to copy and paste some of the first page, but you should go to the site and read some of the additional information there:

http://exoticpets.about.com/od/behavior/a/birdtraining.htm

Basic Training
Training pet parrots has benefits that extend well beyond the entertainment value of a parrot that can talk and do tricks. Training will strengthen the bond you have with your parrot, who will look forward to the one-on-one attention involved in training sessions, especially when success means lots of praise and attention along with favorite treats. In addition, teaching some simple commands will make handling your parrot easier.

Keep it Positive
The key to training your parrot is to keep the interaction positive. Three concepts provide the basis for parrot training:

1. Parrot does something good --> give a reward
2. Parrot does something undesirable --> ignore it
3. Never punish your parrot

Obviously, this is a bit simplistic, but your goal is to shape your bird's behavior into what you want by a giving a reward for good things and ignoring (no reward, no reaction) for bad things. The reward can be a favorite food treat, but simple praise or a play session with a treasured toy can be good motivation for some birds. If your bird is doing something undesirable, you must simply ignore the bird (your bird will not respond to punishment). A negative reaction can turn into a reward if your bird is looking for attention (negative attention is better than no attention), so you must be careful not to unintentionally cause some undesirable behaviors to increase due to your reaction. Ignoring behavior might first cause it to intensify, but eventually the undesirable behavior will most likely stop. How you approach training can help keep training positive:

* Train only when you are relaxed. Positive training does take patience!
* Pick a time when your bird is attentive and not distracted by eating, preening, or household activity.
* Frequent, but short, training sessions are generally more effective. A few minutes at a time, several times a day, works well.
* Pick a favorite reward (but don't overdo it if it is food).
* Once your bird catches on to something, don't give a treat every time (switch to praise part of the time) or your bird may only do the behavior if he/she knows you have a treat handy.
* End each session on a positive note. Wait for a successful attempt or at least a good try at whatever you are training, give a treat, and move on to something else.
* Keep training sessions upbeat and fun for your bird.

Very Basic Training: Step Up and Step Down
If you had to choose only two things to teach your parrot, these would be then ones to pick. This means training your parrot to step up onto your finger or wrist (or hand-held perch) on command, and then step back off again. These are relatively easy and extremely important skills to teach. Stepping up is quite a natural movement for a bird so it is generally easy to train this on command (stepping down is a bit trickier to teach). Getting your bird to step up and step down on command makes handling much easier and helps you to set some boundaries for your bird (for example, you can more easily remove your bird from areas of you home that are not bird-proofed, return a bird back to his or her playgym or cage, etc.). If you have a baby bird, he or she is probably pretty cooperative but starting early with the step up and step down commands is still a good idea. Not only does training a cooperative baby allows you to give lots of positive reinforcement, it sets a good foundation for training more skills to your bird in the future.

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my uncle's german shepered bit me and i have a big bruise do i have a rabies? cause my uncle said he got complete rabies shots so i dont have to worry but my friends and my PE teacher said that i have to go to the doctor im confused
and my mom doesnt know that my uncle's dog bit me
by the way the dog bit me in 05/9/2006 and
i washed my wound after he bit me it didnt break my skin that much and no blood at all.


If you are sure that the dog has been immunized against rabies, then I would not worry about contracting rabies from this animal. (Not totally impossible, but the odds are so extreme, it is not worth considering). A more real worry is infection at the site of the bite. Keep the wound clean and covered. When you change the bandage (several times a day) check for redness, swelling or pus formation. If you notice any of these things I would recommend seeing your family physician, just to be on the safe side.

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I'm 90 percent positive that my friend has feelings for me; but just needed someone elses opinion.
I'll let you be the judge. We were friends for about 2 years and then several months ago he had to move away for a job in another state. Before he moved he gave me his computer so we could stay in touch. I never asked for one or anything he just offered it to me which I thought was a really sweet gesture. We messenger each other whenever he's not at work and he always signs off by saying "chow bella" which means bye beautiful in italian. Just in the last two weeks he has done two really romantic things for me. The first was that he sang happy birthday to me on my voice mail for my birthday in a sweet voice and said he'd be mailing up a gift. The other thing was that when I told him that I caught the bridal bouqeut at my cousins wedding last week he said "hopefully you won't marry anyone from (the town I live in). Since he lives out of town I think he was hinting something. When we have our talks on the internet he flirts with me and says things like I'm funny and a great person to know and talk to. Sometimes we talk for more than a hour. He is pretty shy and likes to beat around the bush and hasnt actually said he loves me- but I think his actions show it.
What do you think?

Judging from the information here, he seems to be crazy about you. He has devoted a significant amount of energy and time to signal to you that he wants to be more than just friends with you. Along with being shy, I would guess that he may also be scared of damaging the relationship that you two share; if he tells you of his feelings and you are not feeling the same way.

I am not sure if you are a shy person also, but I would highly recommend having a heart to heart talk with him about what direction you both want the relationship to head. During one of your conversations it would be easy to lead the conversation in that direction without being too blunt, and possibly embarrassing one or both of you. I feel that if he had some sort of signal from you that you feel a romantic inclination (If you indeed do) then he would probably open up to you and let you know his feelings.

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Hey. Well, for anyone who lives in Maryland or has been there before, what do you guys think of Maryland because I live there, and I was wondering how other people (especially those in others states) feel about it. Like do they think it's fun or boring. Also, could you also tell me that people from other states say about Maryland?

I live in Virginia and have worked a great deal in Maryland. Mostly Baltimore, but I have worked in a few other areas also. In general I think that Maryland is a very nice state. The roads (outside of Baltimore) are in pretty good shape, the people are mostly friendly, and the cost of living, while a bit high, isn't unreasonable for that area. It is located in a very good area, with scenic West Virginia, Washington DC, Richmond VA, and NYC very close by.

I will say that I was not at all happy with most of Baltimore. I was working on a movie which was shot mostly on the "Homicide Pier" (Where Homicide, life on the streets was filmed), and the area around that was pretty nice. However if you traveled a few blocks away from the water, it was like a demilitarized zone. We were not allowed to leave the set and travel to other locations without having a uniformed guard with us at all times. Also the rats were rampant.

As far as what is said about Maryland. Well for the most part I think that it is viewed as a good area for career opportunities that you may not get in other places (due to its proximity to Northern VA, DC, NYC etc, but not really the kind of place you would go out of your way to move to, if you were starting a family.

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What does the sideways peace sign mean? I see everyone use it in there pics and stuff and I want to know what it means.

After a good bit of research on the web, I have to agree that the sideways peace sign means the same thing as the normal one. It is just a more "hip" way of displaying it.

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Okay...
My friend had sex last wednesday and when she was done she went home and couldn't sleep. She felt sick, looked horrible, and even started bleeding (she didn't tell me when, though) so we skipped school on thursday to talk and see what was up. She tried to eat and she threw up. She's still bleeding, feeling sick, and everything she eats she throws back up again. Any idea of what's wrong?

There is no way for anyone on this site to advise her as to the possible cause. She should go see her gyn, or family physician ASAP. There is a spectrum of possible causes for the listed symptoms.

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I get angry a lot now...for many reasons...I scream at my dad. Like today, just now, I woke up late, which puts me off schedule, which made me mad, so I started screaming, then I cut myself on my wooden drawer, and I slammed my foot down so hard, that I now have a bruise on my heel. I am afraid I'll go off like this on my friends, and they'll all leave me. What I need is someone to love me unconditionally, and someone to help me stop getting angry; At least that's what I think. Please help! I feel embarrassed about this, and am afraid I embarrass my dad and maybe will embarrass my friends...

From what I read it is not clear if you are injuring yourself on purpose, or if it is an accidentally injury as a result of your anger. If you are self-injury on purpose, I would highly recommend talking it over with your parents, school counselor, or family doctor.

You are experiencing some difficulty with controlling your emotions. You did not state your age, but I am guessing somewhere between 13 and 16? Around this age you are going through massive hormonal and other physical / psychological changes. It is not at all uncommon for people going through this difficult time to experience issues just like you are describing. A few methods in anger control may help you get through this time in the short term. A very good link for this is: http://www.meaning.ca/articles/anger_management_april03.htm

On the web page listed above you will find several metods of dealing with anger. I am going to copy and paste some of it here, but I would recommend going to the page and read it in its entirety:
*“Most of the anger management techniques are designed to achieve one or more of the above four types of control. Here are some of the commonly known anger-control techniques:
· Relaxation - Breathing exercise, muscle relaxation, imagery, etc.
· Cognitive reframing - Changing the way we think about the situation
· Humor - Seeing the humorous side of a bad situation
· Talking to someone - Talking about your problem and feelings
· Redirecting your anger - Hitting a pillow or throwing darts
· Changing your situation - Changing your job or moving to a different place
· Assertive training - Learning to assert yourself and communicate your feelings
· Problem-solving - Trying to resolve the problem that makes you angry “

* Quoted from Paul T. P. Wong, Ph.D. in his artice on the above web site.



I would like for you to remember that this internal turmoil is not permanent, and probably not particularly long term. Don’t let it wreck your life with anxiety and fear of “what if” type scenarios.

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do i have to worry if my teen is emo--he quit swim team --does not like coach --"different"--don't "know him anymore"---artistic --freshman in large public high school--decent student --oldest child in family of 3 children, mom and dad

Just from the information that you provided, I do not see anything that should be troubling. It is important to maintain a good line of communication with your child, so making an issue of relatively innocuous things may cause more long term problems, due to a breakdown in trust.

Having said this, some of the warning signs of serious problems can be a radical change in behavior, attitudes and interests. Teenagers are well known for being fickle and rebellious. It is up to the parent to know their child well enough to be able to distinguish between the two, or recognize when professional assistance may be in order. As long as the child is not exhibiting behavior that is likely to cause himself or another person injury, I would advise letting the subject explore who he is, and how they want to interact with the world around them.

Give the child a loving, safe and open relationship with his caregivers and most of the small issues will work themselves out in a healthy way.

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