Do you read me?

Haven't seen you in ages. Oh where oh where could you be

Hope everything's going okay.

-- (cin@cin.cin), February 10, 2001

Answers

He's gotta make the East trip. I owe him.

-- Carlos (riffraff@cybertime.net), February 10, 2001.

Cin-

He posted a response only today, on the Tombstone thread, about 20 threads down. Looks like he has been spending most of his time in Silicon Valley.

-- Aunt Bee (Aunt__Bee@hotmail.com), February 10, 2001.

Hi Cin, Carlos, Pat, Aunt Bee, FS, and all you other great people!

Sorry you haven't heard much from me for so long. I've really had my nose to the grindstone since late June and am just finally managing to relax a bit and see about having a life again. The end results of my efforts are mostly good. Things like getting my wife on board to sell the Silicon Valley house (not an easy thing to do), and let me move her all her stuff to Northern AZ (a real accomplishment!) where we bought the house I was renting. Now all I need to do is find some work closer to the new home and she'll come over as well. Gosh, I haven't even been back to Las Vegas sense The Gathering. I usually try to get up there every 4-6 weeks, so am due for a well deserved visit before long.

I've been reading posts when time and energy permit, but believe it or not just didn't have enough psychic energy to join the fray. For what it's worth in hopes it may help someone else, I managed to wear myself out to the point that I was constantly forgetting things and was tired all the time, not sleeping very well, having headaches, etc. I finally decided to go to the doctor last week (an integrative medicine MD), and while awaiting test results he gave me some Wellbutrin which is apparently a non-SSRI antidepressant (Carlos you know doubt can enlighten us about this). I took some on Thursday and Friday and Voila, here I am! I'm not exactly swinging from the vines like Tarzan yet, but it has definitely made a difference. I bring this up because it's surprisingly easy to become depressed without even realizing it. I don't plan to stay on this stuff very long, but the important thing is that it suddenly gave me enough energy to become more active and to feel almost human again. If any of you know people who might have slipped into this mode, give them the word. Depression is a biochemical condition that causes your body and brain not to work right and some sort of intervention is needed, the earlier the better.

Although spirited disagreement is what makes this forum enjoyable, it is troubling to me to see some of us getting into personal attack mode as has happened recently. I have had the pleasure of meeting some of you personally and can attest that everyone I have met are fine, quality people. Some of the others I have grown to like and respect over a period of time by observing many interactions. I strongly suspect that most of the people who post here, even some of the more antagonistic ones, are decent people in real life. Please, let's try a little harder to keep our jousting to facts and informed opinion and not let things degenerate to personal attacks. Hopefully more of us wil be able to meet in the future, and I find that actually meeting someone in person sort of makes that person special in future communications and interactions.

Best Wishes...

-- Flash (nazflash@northlink.com), February 10, 2001.

Yay Flash. I'm so glad to hear you are feeling better and it's great to see you posting.

I have also recently been fighting off a bout of the blues. Doctor says overwhelming stress was making me physically ill. Very frightening that. But I am also beginning to feel better. Slept straight through the last two nights without having to get up and out of bed. The lack of sleep is what kills me whew.

Again, good to hear from you, Flash. Stay in touch, okay? =)

-- (cin@cin.cin), February 11, 2001.

Flash my friend,

As Patricia said at our Las Vegas dinner, "You know I will never be able to read your posts, without hearing your voices in my head!" How true it is!! Everytime I read a post from someone I have met IRL, I hear it in their voice, with their inflections-which is totally different from reading plain, straightforward text. The words become more personal, more shared, more important, because I understand a part of the person, and thus I have greater understanding of what they are trying to convey. Flash, I, like you, have found the vitriol on the board recently, as most disheartening, especially when I know that we are all better human beings IRL, and most of us would never verbally attack another, face to face, as some here, have done in the past few days. Facing the one you disagree with, watching their emotional reaction appear in their face, is so different, than putting cold words out there, getting it off your chest as it were, without considering their impact on another. While the debate may seem civil and logical to the poster at the time, on a re-read, most of us recognize some of the hostility we have felt over the issue we were debating, and understand it was not really meant to attack another. I have never been the debator in my family. I leave that to my brother who was captain of the debate team, and is now a lawyer--I am not, and never could be, either. I know for a fact, I never want to be so unfeeling or so unkind as to disregard another's feelings just to display my own in public. What purpose would that serve, other than to relieve myself of some hostility? I have a word processor for that, if need be. I am reminded of Rich's post of a few days ago, about the inadequacy of language, and our amazingly miraculous ability to even communicate the same similar thought, given all the outside influences, as well as the generic defintions provided by our language, as well as our personal definitions combined into our thinking. What is even more phenomenal to me is that some of you folks have known each other for years, and shared laughter and tears, and yet continue to verbally abuse each other. Why is this necessary? I do not understand it, unless it is a form of exhibitionism. I have no other clues, but I can be clueless (as some of you know)! Thanks Flash, for being so up front and honest- that is one of the things that makes you so appreciated!! So Flash, I second your thought, "Please, let's try a little harder to keep our jousting to facts and informed opinion and not let things degenerate to personal attacks." Well put my friend! And I hope to see you at the spring fling on the east coast!! Perhaps more of us getting together IRL, will smooth over the difficulties, in that we may spend more than a few lines spewing, and instead find time in reality, talking and attempting to understand each other. This is my hope for each and every one us in the future. What say you all?

-- Aunt Bee (Aunt__Bee@hotmail.com), February 11, 2001.

Hey Flash!!!

Sorry to hear you had the bummers,not cool,but hopefully your'e on the track to bein a happier camper and havin' a lil' FUN! Ya better be thankful you don't live in these colder climes,the "seasonal dysfunctional disease" is a bitch,too much gray no beta ray make capn a bit pissy. Do hope to see ya at the spring fling.

And in the words of Bill and Ted...."Be Most Excellent To Each Other" unless,youre dealin with an asshole,my comment.

-- capnfun (capnfun1@excite.com), February 11, 2001.

Hey there Flash,

I hope you don't mind if I hijack your thread, but I have a question for Carlos about Wellbutrin. Someone recently told me that it is prescribed under a different name to smokers who want to quit, because of the social stigma of depression and mental illness. What's the real skinny?

-- flora (***@__._), February 11, 2001.

It's great to hear from you again, Flash! Very nice points in your last paragraph, too. I hope things continue to get better for you and yours.

I'm sorry to hear of your depression, though. I went through three periods of extended, very deep clinical depression; came within a hair's breadth of suicide during two of those; hospitalized, as well.

If you want to talk, feel free to e-mail me. Maybe I can help some.

-- eve (eve_rebekah@yahoo.com), February 11, 2001.