I'm so excited to discover this blog. I don't have bipolar disorder, but I have a few friends that do and my son seems to have some tendencies towards depression.

I have a question and I think the best people to answer it are those who have lived through the cycle of depression and mania. I have a new friend who recently moved to our town. She's just starting a masters degree program. When she arrived (before we had met) she hit a manic stage and was hospitalized for awhile. (I don't really know the details.) When I saw her last week, she was clearly headed toward depression. She's been sleeping more and more, barely making it to classes and canceling or just not going to events where she'd have to interact with people. I want so badly to help pull her out of this but I don't know what to do. I don't want to do something that ends up making things worse.

I find the suggestion to get out and get exercise interesting. She's holed herself up in her apartment and her classes are only half a block away from where she lives. So even when she gets outside, it's not for long.

I'm wondering if it would be OK to go to her house and just sit with her, maybe watch a movie with her, or get her out for a walk. But I'd love feedback from anyone here that's been through depression. What do you wish people would do for you when you're in that state?

hmmm, i tend to think of local as being within 4 hours or so.

"It would be neat if NetNewsWire could automatically hide any articles that I’ve already visited based on my browser history." <-- that's brilliant. i hope someone uses that idea.

i found that twitter was getting overwhelming when i was using tweetdeck. i've since switched to nambu and all of twitter's usefulness has come back to me, plus some.

I'm with Chip. It would be interesting for the green dots to go red when the store was closed. Wal-Mart deliberately overlaps the reach of their stores until they've pushed out the competition. Then they close one of the stores. We've got an empty hulk of a store up here in Fort Collins just a few miles down the road from a brand new Wal-Mart that they're putting up by the highway.

congrats! it's great to see colorado startups doing well.

"However, from what I've seen and read, she's no more qualified to be one step from the Presidency than the average small town mayor or mid-level corporate manager."

lol! It would be like getting Laura Roslin (Battlestar Galactica) for president. nice.

If a short conversation I had on Facebook today is any indication, Palin doesn't HAVE to have anything specific to say. As long as she munges on about God and the Spirit and being a Christian, she's swaying people. Here's the convo.

Facebook User:
is wondering how ANY Christian can justify voting for Obama now that Palin is in the race...seriously...someone message me and let me know! 10:16am

My response:
How do you think Palin changes things?

His take:
Well....Palin brings a visible Christian ethic to the race. Obama claims to be a Christian yet has nothing to back that claim up, in fact he has a lot to discredit that claim. Biden....I wont waste either of our time....McCain...well he claims to be a Christian, doesnt have a lot to back that up with, but doesnt have a lot to discredit it either....much like Bush..... Palin....claims to be Christian, and has a TON in her short history to back that claim up!....not to mention a record of holding others to a strong Christian ethic and politic!.....With Palin as the VP candidate....gives women a real serious hope that a woman will likely be president in 2012 or 2016....either Palin or Hilary.....

Sarah's signal (as best I can figure):

I see that this was posted on YouTube yesterday. I'll assume that means this was filmed recently. The fact that she doesn't mention anything on a national scale (other than the fact that Track is in the military) puzzles me. As governor, I expect the Alaska rhetoric. As a possible VP, she should be reaching out a little further. It seems like she's either timid or confused about the VP idea.

Her "points" as best I can figure them out are:
1) Alaska has great resources and we're going to use them and (as a state) benefit from them.
2) Track is in the army which shows how patriotic their whole family is. But the tattoos go beyond that to show that they're not just patriots, but patriots with a Christian banner.
3) And the "I have a word" part was really just a way to rally Christian support without really saying much of anything coherent.

That's my take at least.

Pop tart blow torches was my first web experience and a great example of web "design" for 1994.

http://www.pmichaud.com/toast/

(and i love the note at the bottom that declares, "In October 1994 alone it's been accessed more than 2000 times. " lol!)

there are too many wonderful cafes out there that have not only free wifi, but better coffee and other drinks as well. i haven't stepped inside a starbucks in at least a decade. their changing to a free wifi service doesn't make the place any more appealing to me.