Reading: Still catching up on The New Yorker
Music: Flatt & Scruggs
TV/Movie: Monty Python episodes
Link o' the Day: Questionable Content



I'm trying to decide how much patience I have for chronic whiners. It's not really an issue I have to put up with on a daily basis much anymore, but Margaret knows someone via one of the various social network sites online (not facebook) who has never, at any time in the past year, had something positive to say, and rarely neutral.

All she ever does is complain. Complain about unfair this is or that is. About issues that have absolutely nothing to do with her or her realm of experience. But there's a lot she does complain about that does as well. This person doesn't seem to have ever heard of the concept of "you get what you give" and is thus filling the universe with some kind of negative energy, but the doesn't want to be a part of that, so it's bouncing it right back at her.

I worry that I'm being unfair. This could be a symptom of depression, but she expends an awful lot of energy complaining. Am I wrong to just chalk her up as a bit of a jerk? Clinical depression is a terrible thing and I've blogged about it in the past, having personally known a few people who took their own lives because they had trouble treating it. So I'm not trying to make light of a serious mental condition. But I'm no doctor. What if they're just a jerk?

It's a tough call. I know a lot of creative types in my line of work and depression is an issue that crops up from time to time and it's good that it does. (See issues 180 and 181 of The SFWA Bulletin for a good two-part piece on writers and depression by Nancy Holder.)

So it seems this is my annual call for folks who worry that they may be suffering from clinical depression and other mood disorders, or know someone who might, to seek help. There are a lot of resources out there from your doctor to various books to websites such as The Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance.

But if you're just being a jerk...lighten up, willya? It could be worse.

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This has been a relatively light week. Mostly cleanup work and editing. More of the same today. The big book of Design Integration is back on my desk as are come book covers that need work and some TumbleTap stuff that really needs to get to the printer. Not a terrible day, though. And the week looks like another one that's going to hit on schedule although I've got another meeting with my accountant tomorrow. That's not a bad thing, but during work hours Margaret has the car which means I take the bus. I don't mind the bus. I'm a veteran of public transportation, but what would be a ten minute drive becomes a half-hour or more on two buses, then back again.



I comfort myself with the promise to treat myself to a nice bit of pastrami at this little cafe I know near the accountant's office. And the weather will be pleasant.

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Time suckers, that what they are. But I love them. I talk, of course, of my love of webcomics. A couple of days ago the link of the day was for the webcomic Least I Could Do of which I'm nearly finished getting through seven years of archives. Today I treat you to another webcomic link...likely one I've given before, but it's one of my favorites: Questionable Content by J. Jacques, updated Monday-Friday. It's set in the Northampton, MA region and features indie music types, destructive little robots, OCD, rednecks who write romance novels, and coffee. Coffee. Coffee. And a lot of characters who think they're very hip. (or is that hep?)

Cheers!