Originally published at An experimental life. You can comment here or there.

In my last essay on this topic, I discussed the futility of telling someone with a mood disorder to snap out of it. Eventually we'll get to treatments, coping, and other stuff for people with mood disorders like bipolar disorder and unipolar depression and their friends and family, but first, I want to talk about what it's like from the inside.

Originally published at An experimental life. You can comment here or there.

(This is the first part of what will eventually be a series of essays on bipolar and unipolar disorders, including treatments, both synthetic and homeopathic, and tips on coping with these illnesses for both sufferers and their friends and loved ones.)

Mental illness is often misunderstood and stigmatized, which is one reason I'm very open about having bipolar disorder (also called manic depression)--As long as people are ashamed of mental illness, the stigma will continue. Our illness does not define us, but it is a part of our daily lives, and those close to us (or who want to be close to us) need to understand our illness to deal with us, just as we need to understand and learn how to deal with them and the things that affect their lives.

Here is part one of what friends, family members, and loved ones need to know about mood disorders like bipolar disorder (manic depression) and unipolar depression.

Originally published at An experimental life. You can comment here or there.

(Although I am writing about the Netherlands here, much of this essay applies to other countries, as well--The United States, for instance")

"Tolerance" does not mean tolerating bigots, and some of the alleged "victims" of intolerance are among the worst offenders. This is not to say that there are no honest victims--but many seem confused about the meaning of the word, and their hollow claims of unfair discrimination cheapen and belittle the experience of those who live under genuine persecution.

Originally published at An experimental life. You can comment here or there.

So let's debunk some of the lies...

Local author Lane Robins will be signing copies of her novel Maledicte at the Lawrence, KS Border's at 7th and New (where the first order sold out in one day) Come out with us and lend her your support!

Publisher's Weekly says, "Lane Robins is a fantasist with a future."

"Highly recommended."
--Library Journal
 
"A strong-willed debute whose painstakingly developed characters and tortuous plots exert an undeniably intense, if grim, fascination."
Kirkus Reviews</strong>

You can see a brief excerpt from Maledicte at maledicte.com. (I think the lead-in paragraph for the excerpt is one of the worst in the book, and Lane keeps saying she's going to change it, but hey--Even the worst paragraph is pretty damn good.) You can view Lane's Livejournal here. The Lawrence Journal-World published an interview with Lane at this link.

Lane is one third of my local "writing cabal" that meets each week, so I got to read Maledicte before it came out in stores (nanny-nanny-boo-boo), and it rocks. As you can see from the above reviews, I'm not the only one singing her praises.

(x-posted)

Originally published at An experimental life. You can comment here or there.

I hear a lot of would-be fiction writers say they "don't believe" in studying writing, fearing that doing so will force them to write by some preset formula and destroy their "personal styles."

Nothing could be further from the truth. If you look at some of the greats--who have wildly divergent styles--you will find that they almost universally studied the craft. Until you begin studying the craft, you can't call call yourself a serious writer any more than you could call yourself a neurosurgeon without going to medical school...

For those who haven't seen it yet, this is the MacMonster that Shan and I made out of an old Mac Classic and some fake fur. It will soon be starring in the comic I'm launching Monday, Lords of the Living Room (Television worship, action figure sex, and no respect for your mama). So yeah--you get to see it before it gets semi-famous.

Enjoy. I have a whole story written about rescuing the little guy from an island on which Mac and monsters interbred.


Been working today with the guys who write Walrus (the update script we use for the comics) on the upcoming version (Walrus 3.0). I did the CSS conversion for the next release and am testing the current code at lotlr. Once it's done (in a week or two, after Kagashima finishes the XHTML conversion and a couple of potential bugs are worked out), it will be time to start on the site redesign for BCK. I'm pretty pleased they're letting me work on it and mentioning me in the credits. I was even able to point out a couple of problems with the PHP even though I wasn't competent to write the code to correct them.

I keep bugging Sunflower, but no word on the job yet. Good thing BCK is making money (not much, but some), and I expect lotlr to as well. Finally going to get Project: SyberFang, my post-apocalyptic science fiction vampire comic, going in a couple of months, too. I'm going to be working with a local artist who used to tutor Forest in Chinese.

Yay for projects! Yay for projects that make a little cash! I figure if the job market is gonna be such a bitch as far as things I can do in my gimpy state, I'll make my OWN damn jobs.
:-)