Because spring weather is boring

(from howstuffworks)

Hello blog! I remember what this is for again! For things that aren't super silly and would depress my animal filled tumblelog.

Having never really lived through another recession, I can't be sure how much advertising has exploited the term and how much people talked about it. But all of a sudden, fuel efficiency and all things budget are awesome, car commercials will scream "recession!!!" at you and still try and convince you to drop tens of thousands of dollars, and instead of "oh this weather" people in line at the supermarket will just say "hey how about this recession?".

I guess I'm just entertained by the tangental things I hear. Being amongst the snarky young educated types (let's admit it), this seems to boil down to commentary about commentary.

• using terms like "oh this recession!" or "these are my recession shoes" in a sarcastic manner (though yes, all based in fact)
  
• one of my friends says that everyone's favorite thing to do (and by everyone, he meant young guys who are trying to out-intellectual the other) is to say what they think about the economy and the recession and it's usually just what was last said on This American Life
  
• another one of my friends likes to say that the economy and the recession has ousted talk of religion and God (I don't really get this one, but okay)
  

Anyway. I've got nothing more to say for now.
What prompted this post was an article in the NYTimes.
Recession Anxiety Seeps Into Everyday Lives
Apparently even those who still have jobs, and even children, are just suffering from general anxiety about the economic situation. I don't buy some of the stories, but I think it's an important thing to be aware of. Let's not let things that we can't control necessarily stress us out. Yes, being unemployed does suck, but other than working hard to prevent losing your job (and even that isn't always enough) there's not much to do! I feel like some people are suffering from some sort of post-traumatic stress syndrome, even though the recession is not a traumatic event by most definitions of the term, unless say, you actually did lose everything all at once.

But a few months ago, Ms. Hubbard, a graphic designer in Cambridge, Mass., began having panic attacks over the economy, struggling to breathe and seeing vivid visions of “losing everything,” she said.

She “could not stop reading every single economic report,” was so “sick to my stomach I lost 12 pounds” and “was unable to function,” said Ms. Hubbard, 52, who began, for the first time, taking psychiatric medication and getting therapy.

Madness. Stay afloat, kids.