Misc. Misc.

[jesse_the_k]

Yet again, meloukhia snags a large twisty fish on stormy seas: We're All Mad Here explores the imaginary bright line between the good crazies and the bad ones. I have to agree that people inch back a bit when learn my bipolar diagnosis, and since I am free to do it, I like to use this logo whenever even marginally relevant.

Amanda Boggs (aka Ballastexistenz) is side-stepping some writer's block with a new blog You Need a Cat:

begin quote And just because something’s small-scale doesn’t mean it’s unimportant. ”Important” doesn’t have to mean “big”. quote ends

Current events -- LJ's DDoS, Egypt's successful net shutdown, the hand-lettered signs in every yard which may have turned the tide in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race -- gave me new appreciation for this enlightening and amusing meditation on the abuses and best uses of the internet: Ethan Zuckerman's condensed presentation of The Cute Cat Theory Talk at Etech.

begin quote Blocking banal content on the internet is a self-defeating proposition. It teaches people how to become dissidents – they learn to find and use anonymous proxies, which happens to be a key first step in learning how to blog anonymously. Every time you force a government to block a web 2.0 site – cutting off people’s access to cute cats – you spend political capital. Our job as online advocates is to raise that cost of censorship as high as possible. quote ends

Comments

[kit_r_writing]

Fear of finding out I was "bad crazy" kept me from seeing a psychiatrist and getting my bipolar diagnosed. I suspected it -- pulling down a friend's wallpaper because she said it was ugly was my first clue -- but fear kept me in denial.

[jesse_the_k]

sorry for the late reply

Hurray for outrunning denial!

My older sister was hospitalized for two years, and I actually believed that I was "just neurotic" (since that meant I wouldn't be binned). I didn't seek any treatment until I was 35.

There's a lovely rant comm here fucking_meds where we complain, compare & conspire about the pills we take ... just in case you're interested.

[kit_r_writing]

Yeah, I was 35, too. In my case it was my mom who spent years in and out of the hospital for depression.

I'll definitely check out that comm, thanks!