• May 25-27 : ConQuest, Kansas City MO
• Jun 15-17 : AnthroCon, Pittsburgh PA
• Aug 24-26 : BuboniCon, Albuquerque NM
• Aug 31-Sep 3 : WorldCon, Chicago IL

And in there somewhere we’re going to Minneapolis MN for a wedding, and I’ll be visiting Bellevue WA a few more times. I’m going to try to drag Urs along to WA at least once more this year, so we can hang out with friends and she can go bird watching with the ever-awesome Tina.

Not pretty, right? Clinical depression brought on by stress and burnout. It took me another year to figure out that I had burned out, and probably two to get close to fully recovered. It was not easy, nor was it pretty at times. Meds helped, and so did the divorce, and some counseling, and the support of friends.

So when I took stock this last month, and saw what I now know are the early warning signs of burnout and depression, I did, as they say, the needful. Talked to Ursula to see what she thinks. Talked to my doctor about getting back on the meds[2]. Talked to my new manager[3] on how we can start to mitigate things and keep me from going back over the deep end.

So we’ll see how it goes. At least this time I know the signs, I know what I need to do, and I know how to get better[4]. And if things go a little pear-shaped, I also have a supportive environment to keep me from losing it completely.

This time.

[1] It would be two years for us to figure out it was not something that could be salvaged
[2] Hello Zoloft! It helped a LOT last time, and I’m not scared of it now.
[3] I’ve been without one for about 6 months, and man, is it nice to have one again.
[4] I hope.

After much thought, some mental anguish, and a review of the current settings, I re-opened an account there yesterday. But why? Why do such a thing given their track record?

Frankly, it was a combination of Mom & Dad, a local B&B, and the fact that, frankly, it’s become the news source for all my friends.

The first, and most confusing bit, was hearing all the family updates from Mom & Dad that they had been getting via Facebook. My cousin went into business for herself (whoo-hoo!). Another getting married. My own travel and excitements were being missed, because no one in that group looks at twitter. Stuff like that. I could wait until the monthly talk or dinner to find out, or I could cave in and re-open my Facebook account.

Second was Small Street B&B, a local cafe (and eventually a B&B). I ran into the owners at the local farmer’s market the other week, and said “Hey, is there an email list or page where you post the daily menus?” and the response was “Facebook, baby! Get with the times!”[1] Color me chastised.

And then the third. As the last two years have gone on, I’ve been getting more and more frustrated by the lack of events we would find out about. Email invites dried up. Hell, I almost missed a friend’s wedding, and if I hadn’t run into her and her fiance at a party two months prior, it would have gone by completely. Local events at Davenport & Winkleperry. Parties, gatherings, and more. All being organized, broadcast, and talked about on Facebook. And since I wasn’t on Facebook…

…this, my friends, is how they suck you in. And back in I go. Because no man is an island, and there is only so much one can isolate oneself in the current digital world.

So, given my initial complaints, how does it look now? Well, the privacy settings are better but not perfect. That’s to be expected – “When a service is free, you are the product,” and Facebook is really good at making you info the product. I’ve set it as best can be done, and will continue to tune it. We’ll see if on the next upgrade to their stuff if I have to reset it. So we’ll see.

I’m taking a MUCH tighter view on who I add and don’t add this time around. Mostly family, real-life local and distant friends, and businesses or events I’m interested in. I’m going to be more of a consumer on FB than a producer for a while, although I did link it to Twitter (my primary micro-blog platform) so that at least Mom & Dad can see when I drop an f-bomb and my depressingly (to them) liberal politics. That’s all I plan to link, app-wise, until I get a decent link to/from G+. [2]

I’ll probably end up making pages for KUEC and In The Evening in the next few weeks, once I get the hang of how it’s changed in the last two years. That makes sense, and might broaden the audience for both.

We’ll see how it goes this time. And in a few months, if I can’t take it anymore, or the information flood is too much to handle, I’ll just turn it back off. And try again when peer pressure or a lack of information drives me back in for a while.

[1] This from a pair of hippy, local-vore, small business owners in a mostly rural town to a slightly older, bald, tattooed, local-vore, mostly-goth tech worker. The SHAME.
[2] Google+ is still going to be it’s own thing, since it’s still lacking an API for me to link to. Frankly, I like their UI better, and I get a different set of content there than on Twitter and Facebook. And I suspect linking G+ to FB will be a long time coming, given how the two companies are now head-to-head competitors in the Social Network space.

…OK, it’s not that much of a show, but still, come see us!

As many long-time readers may remember, I have been a supporter, in the past, of the Susan J. Komen foundation. My grandmother had breast cancer. I’ve participated in the local Race for the Cure in her memory. I’ve done fund raisers and made donations and encouraged other to donate.

This week, I have to stop all that. Because they’ve publicly stopped funding Planned Parenthood, for reasons that are superficial at best, and politics of the worst kind if we are honest with ourselves.

Look, I believe in the SJK mission. I think they’ve been a great organization over the years. But if they are going to step outside that mission to make a statement, to cut funding to the women who actually NEED the services they were funding, perhaps it’s time to find another breast cancer prevention and awareness charity. And when I do find one, I’ll share.

In the mean time, please help out Planned Parenthood. They do more for women and women’s health than damn near anyone else, and that’s a hell of a lot more important than politics.

Getting on the ground was probably the biggest adventure. See, we were flying right into the snowstorm that hit that weekend. The majority of the flight was uninteresting – I read a WH40K novel while the in-flight movie (Moneyball – not too bad) played in my new Skullcandy Hesh Headphones[2], but the landing into SEATAC, in the middle of a snowstorm – it was exciting. Exciting in the “re-evaluate your life and do you have anything you should have done before you died because, well, shit this might be it instrument landing roller-coaster with applause and cheers when we finally touched down” kind of landing.

It’s amazing what you think in that moment. And the fact that, life has been pretty good of late, and that maybe there is *ONE* thing you should have done, an it’ll be a lot of work, but hell, you can fix that and it’s not really that big a deal…

…except maybe it is, and oh my that’s going to take a lot of work, so you better get to it, my boy.

And then you’re on the ground and it’s all OK, and maybe, just maybe it wasn’t that big a deal.

Or was it?

[1] I’m REALLY sorry I/we didn’t have time to hang out with anyone this trip, but work and weather pretty much ate my life this trip.
[2] I’m a Skullcandy fanboy now. I bought a pair of Skullcandy Smokin’ Buds a few years back based purely on the logo design and my need for earbuds. I had no idea who they were, I just knew they were on sale and looked neat. It turned out that they sounded FANTASTIC. So I bought another set when I needed some iPhone earbuds that didn’t cost an arm and a leg, and when THOSE sounded fantastic, I was hooked.

• Jan 5-9 –  MagFest – National Harbor MD
• Feb 24-26 –  MystiCon – Roanoke, VA
• Apr 6-8 – UrsulaV Art Show Opening, B&N Event – Beaumont, TX
• May 25-27 – ConQuesT – Kansas City MO
•  Jun 13-18 – AnthroCon – Pittsburgh PA
• Aug 24-26 – Bubonicon – Albuquerque NM

There are a couple of other things on the radar, like a fan meet & greet at some point when we’re in Bellevue, WA, and a couple of other trips that we haven’t finalized yet. Looks like another busy year, and I know I’m excited to be heading out for our first con of the season tomorrow!

Edit : corrected the location of MystiCon. Also had to remove the Fan Meet & Greet date, since I was premature in scheduling that. Sorry!

- Pittsboro, NC (naturally)
- Williamsburg, VA
- New Orleans, LA
- Orlando, FL (two locations, one trip)
- Chicago, Il
- Pittsburgh, PA
- Bellevue, WA (three different trips)

Many thanks to the awesome people we got to meet and hang out with in all of those fine places. I’ll have a list of when and where Ursula (and I) will be in 2012 (that we know of so far) later today.

I’m pretty sure we have more of the same in store for 2012, so I’m cautiously optimistic about this one. Later this year will mark the 4the anniversary of Ursula and I starting to go out, followed by the fourth anniversary of her moving in. Four amazing years, all of which have their ups, downs, and wibbly-wobbly bits[1], but all have been on a generally “upward” trend. I couldn’t have done it without her – or you – my friends, readers, and listeners.

Here’s my wish for 2012 – that it is better than 2011, and that we all be able to find (more) happiness in it.

[1] I blame her for my new vocabulary.