Weird Cake - Treats from a Bipolar Mind

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U.S. death toll in Iraq conflict reaches 4,000
2008-03-24 07:13:00
What a festive headline from msnbc.com for Easter, I was thinking to myself earlier upon first spying it. My primary concern, however, was why the WAR is now being brushed off as merely a conflict.Of course, as anyone with half of a brain is fully aware, this designated casualty rate of 4,000 over the course of 5 years is actually bogus: it merely represents the number of troops actually killed on the ground, whilst those who are airlifted out of Iraq and THEN succumb to their various war-inflicted injuries or complications thereof are not included in the death tally.Festive, eh? I'm so proud of my country for fudging the numbers to "look good"...(not).
More About: Death , Conflict , Toll

Experts troubled by at-home bipolar gene tests
2008-03-23 22:27:00
SAN DIEGO - Dr. John Kelsoe has spent his career trying to identify the biological roots of bipolar disorder. In December, he announced he had discovered several gene mutations closely tied to the disease, also known as manic depression.Then Kelsoe, a prominent psychiatric geneticist at the University of California, San Diego, did something provocative for the buttoned-down world of academic medical research: He began selling bipolar genetic tests straight to the public over the Internet last month for $399.His company, La Jolla-based Psynomics, joins a legion of startups racing to exploit the boom in research connecting genetic variations to a host of health conditions. More than 1,000 at-home gene tests have burst onto the market in the past few years.(You can catch the full story here...)I don't know about you, but the sheer thought of a DNA test for bipolar disorder scares the crap out of me. As a scientist myself, I fully understand that either the presence or absence of poorl...
More About: Home , Experts , Bipolar , Troubled , Gene

More digital art from Calin...
2008-03-22 21:14:00
Y'all can indeed tell that I am TOTALLY geeked out by Calin's dabblings, otherwise I wouldn't be dedicating yet a second post to pimping out his stuff! :-) I am trying to encourage him to take everything he's done and start a photoblog showing before/after pics, as well as offer readers of the blog an opportunity to submit photos for him to play with in the manner he refers to as "smudge painting". The individual below is also a fellow member and dear online friend from Undernet #daedalus known as Phinny. Enjoy!!!
More About: Digital Art , Digital

Digital art :-)
2008-03-22 09:39:00
My buddy Calin (whom some of you know as channel owner Gorg from Undernet #daedalus) took an old photo of me from the blog, changed the colours (top), then transformed it in an incredibly beautiful fashion (bottom)...just how fuckin' cool is that?
More About: Digital Art , Digital

Way to go, Bill!!!
2008-03-21 23:38:00
I just got home from work and discovered while reading the news that Governor Bill Richardson (New Mexico) has officially endorsed Obama as his choice for the Democratic presidential nominee!

The experiment fuckin' WORKED!!!
2008-03-20 07:42:00
I'd like to thank everyone who has been leaving the supportive comments for me regarding my obviously agitated and work-centric state of mind lately; it means so much more to me than I can even begin to appropriately convey! I'd like to share with y'all that the major experiment I began on Saturday and completed Tuesday evening indeed worked out as I had hoped. YEE-HAW!!! Heh...I'm almost as thrilled as a kid visiting Willy Wonka's wonderful candy-filled world, except for the fact that I'm never fully satisfied and realize that I have a long way to go in order to properly address ALL of the goals I'd like to touch on before a major deadline in April.Having stated my feelings as such, it should be no surprise that I showed up at work today (referring to Wednesday, as I haven't gone to bed yet) feeling extremely stressed and unhappy despite the success of the day before. Indeed, the first 4 hours of my day could truly be defined as a classic "bipolar moment" as I held court wi...
More About: Experiment

Rain and sleeplessness...
2008-03-18 07:08:00
Howdy all (yet again: I realize that I have posted a LOT recently!). I can't get to sleep, which is slightly ironic considering the fact that I literally didn't go to sleep last night due to stressing out over the experiment which I'm wrapping up tomorrow (or I should say today since it's after midnight!). Indeed, I showed up to work so wiped out on Monday that my boss sent me home around 3:30pm...after I set up some purified monocyte cultures with IL-15 and GM-CSF for generating dendritic cells...to get some sleep, yet I still haven't managed to. Tuesday will be a long day culminating in an experiment that will either make or break what I have been working on for weeks, and I can't wait to see the results. For now, however, all I can do is listen to the pouring rain outside and hope for sleep; will it visit me tonight? I certainly hope that it does!
More About: Rain

Absolutely fucking ADORABLE!!!
2008-03-18 05:01:00
My mom included this picture in a card she mailed me recently (it's from some cat calendar she has); I thought it was absolutely priceless!!!
More About: Fucking , Adorable

That I Would Be Good
2008-03-18 04:06:00
Today isn't St. Patrick's Day for me...instead, it is the 3 year anniversay of having last spoken to my dear pal Scott Zarek on the phone before he shot himself in the head on the 3rd of April. DAMN IT I MISS YOU, SCOTT! In the months immediately following your death, I contemplated suicide more than once myself, but this song (recommended to me by a caring friend) saved my life at the time. I only wish that I could have done more to spare yours.RIP, Scott, I miss you and hope to meet up with you when the time is right. I think I will. :-)
More About: Good

Abilene hail
2008-03-18 01:27:00
A fairly intense lil' thunderstorm just wrapped up (strong enough that it frightened my cat into hiding behind a toilet fixture and the electricity went out), and I thought I'd share with you some of the residue left on my balcony:

Easter card from the Mystery Lady
2008-03-17 23:29:00
I received this today and about pissed my pants when I read it...TOO FUNNY!
More About: Card , Easter , Lady , Mystery

The Swear Jar
2008-03-15 20:59:00
Yes, I am TOTALLY stealing this from Demon's blog, but considering how colouful my own language is, I can appreciate it...and think that you will, too. ;-) I'm at work by the way, and the experiment seems to be going well so far (fingers crossed!), though the final results will not be known until Tuesday.

Weird Cake Blog of the Week #43: "Demon's 2 cents"
2008-03-15 08:30:00
Despite being absolutely exhausted, I simply CANNOT get my ass to sleep (this weekend is going to involve a rather stressful experiment which I keep replaying in my head over and over again), so I've decided to go ahead and rectify the situation that pissed me off earlier about my former BOTW going private. Again, if you can't take the heat of the internet and the subsequent attention that it draws, then stay the fuck off of it! There now, I feel much better for having (yet again) vented my opinion of the matter. ;-)This week's Weird Cake honours go out for a second time to the incredibly funky dude I met via Blog Mad at some point last year; ladies and gents, please drop by "Demon's 2 cents" to visit someone who is real, raw, and doesn't give a flying fuck whether or not he pisses you off in the least. He's even got videos of himself chatting, and they are well worth a watch.Here's to ya, Demon...take care!!!
More About: Cents , Week

Quick! Take a look at the moon around 9:00pm CDT
2008-02-21 03:45:00
Have YOU ever witnessed a total lunar eclipse? Well, neither have I...but I have been keeping track of this one, and it is so sensual to see the full moon disappear slowly in the night sky; I look forward to seeing it roll over orange/red in approximately 15 minutes, when the whole face is obscured, and I think you should too! Quick , get your buns outside and look skyward when you can. Natural treats such as this are few and far between, and we should relish them. :-)
More About: Moon , The Moon

Uh oh, I just realized something:
2008-02-19 07:45:00
This evening before I left work, I loaned my laptop (a lovely black MacBook) to a technician in the company to use for awhile. So what, right? Well...in these early hours that I'm currently sleepless, I have begun to remember that the laptop has all sorts of stuff relating to this blog on it (not only links from all web browsers but back-up photo and template files as well). How exactly do I handle this? Well, it's a little late to do anything but hope that he hasn't stumbled across my information yet. In the event that he does, however, I suppose that there's not a hell of a lot I can do other than just be myself and act as though nothing has transpired, right? SHIT! Hehe, I guess i brought this upon myself, but it is irritating nonetheless. If you're reading this C., I hope you don't judge me too harshly for anything you might run across. :-)

Get stoned ;-)
2008-02-19 04:25:00
No, I'm NOT talking about drugs, Susan Wirth (hehe, she should rue the day that she pissed me off!), but rather the song of the same name by Hinder. Check it out at the bottom of this post!Not a bad day here overall: in fact, I actually got home by 6:00pm! That's amazing for me, but considering that the earliest I will be home for the rest of the week is 9:00pm, I think that calling it an early day for Monday was a good thingI spent about half an hour this afternoon talking to my boss about random crap and have come to realize that not only is this the best environment I have worked in over the past 5 years, he is also the best boss that I have had during the same timespan. No, scratch that: he may be the best person I have EVER worked for since my Ph.D. mentor, and that is saying a tremendous amount.
More About: Stoned

It's truly annoying when self-righteous asswipes try to ruin all the fun
2008-02-17 23:53:00
In response to my last post, some fucktard from Baltimore, Maryland (thank you StatCounter!) left the following rather rude comment:Hey,Why are you drinking, if you have Bipolar Disorder, and I assume, on medication? Or, do you not have this illness, and are just using the title of your blog to get people to come to your site?-- Susan WirthUh...hello, Susan? This goddamn blog is 3 years old as of yesterday, and if you bothered to pull your head out of your ass to read any of the archives, you would fully realize that I have been diagnosed longer than you even have. Yes, I did a little searching and found out that you are 57 years old, gay, and were diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2004. You also tend to be a bit of a holy-rolling Episcopalian, which doesn't bother me except for the fact that you somehow felt it necessary to visit my blog and be a total bitch with your comment.Try thinking before you type, if that is even possible in your case; you strike me as a bitter, heartless...
More About: Ruin , Annoying

Listening to the rhythm of the falling (freezing!) rain...
2008-02-16 05:48:00
...is what I am doing right now. :-) Draped in a cozy blanket as I sip some pinot grigio, I can't think of a more perfect way to spend a Friday evening with such foul weather. I got home late again today, and I must admit that I somewhat overextended myself this entire week: sure, I got immense amounts of work done (hence the sparse posting here too!), but I think I need to pace things a little better in the weeks to follow. I think, however, the fact that I am so stimulated by my current employment makes it a little too easy to go off the deep end out of sheer enthusiasm from time to time, if that makes any kind of twisted sense. The ironic part as I type this is that I already know I am going to have troubles sleeping tonight due to the fact that I left an experiment unfinished that I plan to wrap up tomorrow...and not knowing the results RIGHT NOW is simply killing me! ;-) Addicted to work much? I guess you might say so.
More About: Rain , Rhythm , Listening

Pondering life over a Mr. Pibb
2008-02-12 07:49:00
Hello folks...it's going on 1:00am and I just crawled out of a nice, hot, oh-so-tasty lavender bath. :-) The initial plan was to crawl into bed pronto, but that just ain't happening, so here I sit sipping on an icy Mr. Pibb instead. Interesting contrast to the bath I must say! Needless to say, I have been quite busy for a Monday and dragged in from work late, feeling tired yet pleasantly delighted by the positive outcome of a month-long experiment which I successfully wrapped up tonight. Though I have admittedly begun to worry that some of my longtime friends may be somewhat put off by the hours that I am devoting to work lately (y'all know who you are!), there's really not much to be said other than that the job is demanding, yet I am determined to succeed at all costs. Hell, perhaps it's even the challenge itself that drives me to such extremes now: honestly, I don't think I've ever felt more delightfully challenged than I am now. It rocks my world.
More About: Life

Would this be considered porn?
2008-02-11 00:00:00
I checked my beloved Sea Monkey tank this morning, and (lo and behold) Bobby and Babette were mating. Well hell, they STILL are, so I hope they are thoroughly enjoying themselves! Have a look for yourself in the film clip below (Babette is the larger, darker Sea Monkey).

Weird Cake Blog of the Week #41: "Bulletproof Bracelets"
2008-02-10 08:36:00
Howdy there...I can't sleep, so I decided to go ahead and deal with Weird Cake honours at this ungodly hour! :-) This week's shout-out goes (yet again, as it's her second time to be slapped with the title) to D. Prince for her hilarious celebrity blog "Bulletproof Bracelets". If you're famous and have had ANY embarrasing photos taken in recent history, odds are that you will wind up gracing D. Prince's site. C'mon, you know you asked for it!
More About: Blog , Week

Bobby and Babette say "hello"!
2008-02-08 07:15:00
UGH...I have felt like utter SHIT for the past several days, hence my sporadic posting: flu/flu-like symptoms have dragged my sad-assed self down into the gutter, but I've still been kickin' and refuse to succumb! In any case, the most recent batch of Sea Monkeys has actually managed to yield 2 adults...a male and a female henceforth referred to as Bobby and Babette. Have a look at how happy they appear! :-)

HealthLat can kiss my fucking ass
2008-02-07 04:53:00
Despite having pimped shamelessly for HealthLat a few weeks ago, a venture that promised to cover the self-reported experiences of patients in addition to doctors findings, I received the following email from them this afternoon:Dear HealthLat member,As our business grows, HealthLat has changed to exclusively for physician members practicing in the United States. As part of the strategic changes, we regret to inform you that all existing non-physician accounts will be canceled. Please continue to use HealthLat, as you can still check health experiences, now reported by physicians, free of charge.You are not able to log in now. If you have any questions, please reply to this email in the next twenty (20) business days. After this period, your information stored in HealthLat will be deleted.Thank you for your support and understanding.HealthLat Teamwww.healthlat.com
More About: Kiss , Fucking

Sorry, but this is simply too cute to let pass by:
2008-02-05 04:27:00
I get SO TIRED of politicians posing with babies (especially the recent ones of Yomama, I mean Obama, and Clinton barely knowing how to hold one correctly), but this image of Mitt Romney made me smile. :-) It is quite clear from the manner in which he is holding and regarding the baby that he is, after all, an experienced father of 5 children himself.
More About: Cute , Simply , Pass

Quite annoying!
2008-02-03 22:20:00
So I have been spending a bit of the afternoon playing Civilization IV online (yeah, I know, I have other stuff I should be doing instead but so be it!), and what bugs the everloving crap out of me is that people get on there and use cheat codes in order to kick my ass around the planet. Whatever happened to playing a fair game?
More About: Annoying

Concern mounts over rising troop suicides
2008-02-03 21:59:00
It is a sad, sad situation that is only going to continue to grow worse; people were not intended to become killing machines or dwell in constant chaos, and this is the consequence:WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Every day, five U.S. soldiers try to kill themselves. Before the Iraq war began, that figure was less than one suicide attempt a day.The dramatic increase is revealed in new U.S. Army figures, which show 2,100 soldiers tried to commit suicide in 2007."Suicide attempts are rising and have risen over the last five years," said Col. Elspeth Cameron-Ritchie, an Army psychiatrist.Concern over the rate of suicide attempts prompted Sen. Jim Webb, D-Virginia, to introduce legislation Thursday to improve the military's suicide-prevention programs."Our troops and their families are under unprecedented levels of stress due to the pace and frequency of more than five years of deployments," Webb said in a written statement.Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, took to the Senate floor Thursday, urging ...

Super fuckin' chili, the night before:
2008-02-03 07:01:00
I started my chili this evening! After all, you want to let it simmer for 4-5 hours, cool overnight, and simmer for half a day again to get the most robust flavour. ;-) My concoction was started by chopping up a green pepper, a large onion, and 5 cloves of garlic then cooking in a small quantity of butter until the onion was translucent. I then added 12 boiled/peeled tomatos, a chopped habanero pepper, 2 chopped jalapeno peppers, a can of tomato paste, and a volume of water equal to the can of tomato paste. After browning 2 lbs. of ground beef with 5 chopped-up cloves of garlic, plenty of cumin and chili powder, and smaller amounts of oregano, turmeric, paprika, cayenne pepper, salt, and black pepper, I dumped this in and am now going to let everything simmer for awhile. :-)
More About: Super , Night , Chili

Extra-late evening!
2008-02-02 10:31:00
I don't have to go in to work this weekend...WOO HOO! :-) As much as I adore what I do professionally, I am looking forward to sleeping in and not doing a goddamn thing worthy of much comment for the next couple of days. Then again, a sacred day is to be had on Sunday: the Super Bowl! I plan to celebrate by fixing some of my extra-spicy chili and watching the game...at least until the fucking Pats get a lead, at which point I may give up and rethink my televiewing options. I mean, is it just me, or is New England just downright tiring? Oh, and don't even get me started on the fact that about a jillion sportswriters waste their time blathering about how "studly" and "handsome" and "attractive" Tom Brady is. Holy FUCK! Just how gay are these writers anyway? I dunno about you, but it truly makes me wonder...
More About: Extra , Late , Evening

Random late-night tidbits
2008-02-01 07:54:00
YO, homeboys and homegirls, how goes life?I tried the sleep thing earlier, but it wasn't working out too well; hopefully after a little bit of chat I will be able to slip off to dreamland a tad more easily (or at least I hope so!).Wednesday was a long one: I worked from approximately 8:00am to 10:00pm, but you know what? An experiment that basically justified my existence in the laboratory for the past 2 months turned out quite well, so all is good. :-) Though the experiment was a success, I have, however, found myself splitting hairs in the perfectionistic way that I used to be notorious for (such as, "I observed antigen-specific T cell priming and expansion, but the percentage wasn't nearly as large as I would have preferred"). Yes, my friends, size DOES matter in a case like this!It appears that I'll be spending a bit of time in March traveling to San Jose, CA for in-depth training on the FACSCanto flow cytometer, an instrument that is integral to the work done here and wh...
More About: Random , Night , Tidbits , Late , Late Night

FDA warns of risks from epilepsy drugs
2008-02-01 05:05:00
I got a quite lovely email from Fallingleaf this afternoon bringing the following article to my attention, so I thought I'd share it here (especially since I spent nearly 6 years taking Lamictal, an anticonvulsant initially prescribed to me off-label for bipolar disorder): WASHINGTON - Epilepsy drugs used by millions of people may increase the risk of suicidal thoughts or behavior, the Food and Drug Administration warned Thursday in an alert to doctors.The FDA analyzed almost 200 studies of 11 anti-seizure drugs, some that have been on the market for decades. The studies tracked almost 28,000 people given the medications and another 16,000 given dummy pills.Very rarely were suicidal thoughts or behavior reported. Still, the FDA found drug-treated patients did face about twice the risk: 0.43 percent of drug-treated patients experienced suicidal thoughts or behavior, compared with 0.22 percent of placebo-takers.Overall, four people in the drug-treated groups committed suicide, and no...
More About: Drugs