Because the brain was not working this morning I'm reprising a diary from 1 May 2009. I hope you enjoy it the second time around as much as you did the first time.
Wash your hands. I wash mine often, mostly because I wear contacts and may at any point have a finger in contact with an eye. Today there is more of a reason to wash your hands. It's a small thing to do and takes only seconds. In relation to that, if you're in public, use the paper towel you just dried your hands with to grab the handle of the door. The person ahead of you may not have washed their hands. If there was only electric hand driers in that public restroom, use your keys as a hook or another object to open the door.
If your are sick and have to cough, cough into your elbow if you have sleeves that reach that far. Otherwise carry a tissue or handkerchief to cough into. Think of others, they may not be as strong and healthy as you. Only go out if you have to go out.
Hygiene, refers to the set of practices associated with the preservation of health and healthy living. Hygiene is a concept related to medicine as well as to personal and professional care practices related to most aspects of living although it is most often associated with cleanliness and preventative measures. In medicine, hygiene practices are employed to reduce the incidence and spreading of disease. Other uses of the term hygiene appear in phrases including: personal hygiene, domestic hygiene, dental hygiene, and occupational hygiene and is frequently used in connection with public health. The term "hygiene" is derived from Hygieia, the Greek goddess of health, cleanliness and sanitation. Hygiene is also the name of the science that deals with the promotion and preservation of health, also called hygienics. Hygiene practices vary widely and what is considered acceptable in one culture might not be acceptable in another.
Our view of what is hygienic today hasn't always been the prevailing view. I hope your habits are closer to todays than those of the 18th and 19th centuries.
Hygiene in the earliest sense was not connected to cleanliness or personal grooming. Indeed popular attitudes in Western Europe and the US held that frequent bathing was dangerous to individual health. It upset the physical system, robbed the body of precious natural oils, and led to debilitating illness. Though individuals such as Benjamin Franklin urged cleanliness as a necessary component of healthful living, the plumbing technology required to make this easy was underdeveloped and expensive. Travellers in Europe and the US during the early nineteenth century frequently commented on the filthy conditions both of persons and households. One historian has suggested that, in a largely agricultural community, the dirt of honest labour was associated with both economic and physical well-being, an outlook that applied to both peasant cultures in Europe and yeoman farm life in the US.
Beginning in the early nineteenth century, the repeated onslaught of diseases such as cholera began to alter people's understanding of personal hygiene. Since orthodox medicine seemed powerless in response to these pandemics, a variety of alternative medicines gained popularity. Many of these alternatives emphasized disease prevention through healthful living, which included diet and clothing reform, daily cold water bathing, exercise, regulation of bowel movements, and abstinence from coffee, tea, alcohol, and sex. In their attack on heroic medicine, reformers emphasized personal and domestic responses to health crises.
I could gross you out with studies that will almost make it impossible to eat in public, I'll refrain. Those studies talk of fecal matter and urine particulates that you come in contact with every day. A lot of that within your own home. Just remember to wash your hands and encourage others to do the same. There is good cause for State Health Departments to post signs in public facilities reminding employees to wash their hands, so should you. Today with an increased risk due to possible contact with the swine flu virus it's time to establish some good hygienic habits.
Enjoy your lunch and have a great weekend.
On with the games!!
Mojo Friday Guidelines
1) If you comment you have to recommend all comments. (in order to receive mojo you have to give mojo. It's only good mojo manners.)
2) Everything you say may be taken as a joke (so if you ask a question, expect a silly answer)
3) You must recommend the diary (and pimp it unapologetically)
4) You don't have to comment to recommend.
5) You can't steal my idea (right, like that ain't goin' to happen)
6) Please, no pictures or YouTubes until after 300 comments. Now, after 300, use a little common courtesy and be responsible in the number.
7) Mojo mojo mojo mojo, mojo mojo mojo.
8) TexDem (that's me) is not bound by the guidelines. Heh
Mojo Friday Goals
A. At least 300 different commenters and 1000 comments by 1:30 PM EST and 1500 by 5:00 PM EST Friday Night that it's posted.
B. 100 recommends for each comment, at least.
C. Stay on Recommend List at least five hours (this requires some strategic planning by you guys, refer to guideline #3)
D. At least 200 diary recommends. 300 would be better, spread the word.
E. And always, fun fun fun.
F. Have at least 75% average participation rate as seen here in the Mojo Friday Postgame Show by Woodtick and bjedward.
G. (New) Have at least 30 kossacks over 90% participation (see here for some tips).
H. Overload the servers with recommends, not to mention dominate Top Comments Mojo list. (we do tend to mess with the site with all of our recommends at one time)(also, to dominate the Top Comments Top Mojo we need at least 50 comments with over 200 recommends, see guideline B)
I. That's enough for now. (Have a suggestion? Post it.)
MKinTN posted a diary to help everyone achieve greater success called How to Succeed at Mojo Friday Without Really Trying.
For those of you new to MF (Mojo Friday) we have our own lingo about a few things. Thank's to MF'er Jez (the link will explain) go to this diary for a little more fun and explanation. Official Mojo Friday Snecktionary.