Rather exactly two years ago I left on a sick leave for 11 months due to depression, burnout, generalised anxiety, and stuff. About 13 months ago I returned to work full-time.

This summer vacation I never managed to get to the point where the vacation begins to give benefits. This autumn the normal worklife stresses have slowly been accumulating, ( Read more... )

A WHO survey published in the British medical journal The Lancet calls depression "a non-fatal disease".

I'm afraid not. Untreated depression leads unfortuntately often to death.

Luckily depression responds pretty well to treatment. If you suspect clinical depression, seek a medical professional. Mind is an organ, and it is as susceptible to ( Read more... )

The manager of our office lunch restaurant is a pretty good chef. But there are times when I doubt his language skills. Or perhaps his sense of humour is more subtle than I give him credit for.

Today in the menu we had "Chili con soup".

Reasonably tasty. And it had even the carne, not only the soup.

A one-eyed black cat with a white bib just knocked on the door.

Knocked. On the door.

I did not let him in, neither did I ask what he was offering me. I just looked from the window and waited till he walked off.

He walked to the back entrance and tried to pull it open.

Some people take role-playing too damn... I don't know, deeply?

Sam is preparing a smallish campaign. One of the clues is the laboratory notebook of a mad scientist who disappeared under mysterious circumstances.

Last night Sam had a nosebleed. He decided to put it into good use, and splattered the distressing (and distressed) notebook liberally ( Read more... )

Sam just recommended that I should get a Boong-Ga arcade game as part of my decor. (Certain Canadian lady and other persons of delicate sensibilities perhaps should not seek additional information on the subject.)

I wonder if he is trying to tell me something.

Now I have an authentic reproduction Cycladic Priapos statuette on my mantelpiece.

Perhaps it would feel more comfortable in a nice secluded corner out of sight.

The chemistry of polyester rosin is interesting.

Sam and his friends are preparing to cosplay at a con in August, and I was helping Sam to manufacture some of the weapon mock-ups. We chose to do some bits in fiberglas, which has polyester rosin filling.

As I mixed the hardener in the rosin base, the rosin changed colour from light green to darker ( Read more... )

xiphias continues the reporting of the recent European visit he did with his spouse.

[As] American liberals from perhaps the most liberal state in the United States, it does mean that we're more conservative than most of the people we were talking to[.]

I was profoundly satisfied in seeing this remark. It has bothered me considerably that whenever I see U ( Read more... )

John Morton, Pennsylvania. Often described as being of Swedish descent, which is technically correct. Finland at that time was a province of Sweden. Martti Marttinen, John's grandfather, was born deep in central Finland.