We're back on the air!

The Crazy Meds Talk forum is back on the air.

We have a good idea as to what happened, and are working on ways of preventing it. If all else fails I can restrict the forum so that only members can read it. I'd rather not have it like that, but at least I have a fallback position.

Still down

Still down. I'm working with Invision and the domain host. Turns out I had flood control on after all. Some idiot found a new and improved way to fuck things up or a spammer was trying to circumvent flood control.

Invision support just got back to me. There's no official way to prevent that sort of thing. I'm going to have to look through third party modifications. What fun.

Sorry the Crazy Meds Talk Forum is Still Down

There was a massive spambot attack around 4:00 a.m. Pacific time. I thought I had disabled the ability for someone to post more than once in X seconds, but I guess not. In any event the spambot had a shitload of topics open at the same time, posting all at once and that was using up more bandwidth and CPU processing than I pay for, so the domain host disabled the forum script.

After I figured out what happened and the vendor recommending making the change through the software, I explained everything in my ticket with the domain host, so I'm waiting for them host to re-enable the software so I can make the necessary changes. I already put the dick's IP address in the domain-level ban they have available. That was 2.5 hours ago, so I don't know what's taking so long.

Getting Out The Vote, Getting Rid of Spam

I've added a few things to the Obama Prayer Cards site.

There are now two cards for each selection. Why waste the paper? Keep one and give one away. There's a little mixing and matching.

I've also added a prayer for getting out the vote. It's not all that original, as I just kludged together three existing prayers, including one for community organizing. There was no saint acting as an intermediary for that one, even if it is a Catholic prayer.

Plus I've made a crappy banner for the get out the vote drive using my pill font:



Click on the above thumbnail for a full size .jpg There's also a version with a transparent background and .png (for printing) versions at the Obama Prayer Cards site.

As for the spam, we had a problem with that earlier this month at Crazy Meds. Someone developed a spambot that could get past the Captcha portion of registration. Fortunately an upgrade with the latest version of Captcha put an end to that.

Forum is back up

We're on the air again. With any luck something like this won't happen again.

HAH!

Back to my life sucking same amount of ass it was two days ago.

Sorry the Crazy Meds Talk Forum is Down

There was a hiccup in getting the regular upgrades from IPB paid for. As that slipped past me there was something in the older version that caused way too much processing time to get used on the domain host. Something along the lines of 32-33% of the CPU at one point. So they had to disable the forum software and I can't blame them. They even gave me a daily heads-up about something like that being possible starting a few days ago, but it took that long to straighten out the issue with IPB.

IPB has since been updated to the latest version and the forum should be available again soon.

As if my life didn't suck enough ass as it does already...

Saint Obama de Mo'Crats - Take 2

I've set up a website just for the Saint Obama prayer cards:

ObamaPrayerCards.com

They depict Senator Barack Obama as St. Martin de Porres and are part of my small effort to raise money for the Obama | Biden campaign. It's a fine Catholic tradition from the late Middle Ages & early Rennaissance to use political figures as the models for religious paintings. Venice and Florence are full of paintings, stained glass, sculptures, etc. of saints, angels, etc. with the faces of Borgias (and not just St. Francis Borgia), de'Medicis, etc.

It should be easier now to print & laminate / tape together the prayer cards.

Still More T-Shirts

It's the only thing I can get motivated to do lately. I'm going through a nasty period of demotivation. It's hard to give a rat's ass about doing much of anything.

I've been messing around with things, so perhaps they don't look as crappy as they did before. The original "fuck bipolar" and "bipolar sucks" etc. still look rather craptastic, but the more recent shirts should look better. I did enhance the Lab Rat shirt, as that is popular (i.e. some people have actually purchased that one). There's a new picture as well, although the old one is still available in all it's craptastic glory.

They are also available in different colors and shirt styles. Because freedom of choice is what we're all about, right?

Additionally there are new designs:

Crazy Meds: The Good, The Bad And The Funny (for those who have requested a shirt advertising the site)

Contents Under Pressure

Take As Directed

Another Lab Rat Taking Crazymeds

Feeling Like A Lab Rat Taking Crazymeds

Plus I've expanded the types of shirts and colors available. So in all there are 10 designs (in addition to the originals) available in 8 shirt styles with varying color options per style.

Choices, it's all about choices.

Straight Jacket T-Shirts. Tell the group how you really feel using real pills.

Who knows, maybe I'll be able to start working on Crazy Meds again.

New Shirts at Straight Jacket T-Shirts

At my Cafe Press store, Straight Jacket T-Shirts, I have some new, craptastic, overpriced short- and long-sleeved black shirts in Crazy Meds' singular Pill Font joining the existing craptastic, overpriced short- and long-sleeved black shirts in said font.

Now available are shirts reading:

Mentally Interesting
Medicated For Your Protection
Go Away!
Brain Cooties Aren't Contagious

and, inspired by a med-related Jonathan Coulton song:

I Feel Fantastic!
I Always Take My Medicine

Saint Obama de Mo'Crats

I haven't been doing much on Crazy Meds for a variety of reasons. Demotivation being the main one. I can't do much of anything in my life these days. I'm in a sort of Limbo as the days pass by and I'm waiting for something to fall from the sky to turn things around. I'm down to external forces at work. Everything else seems so pointless.

I keep on top of the forum as best I can, out of some sense of responsibility more than anything else.

All I can really do in the way of anything is get all political. I'd be volunteering to work for Senator Obama's campaign were it not for the crippling agoraphobia, social avoidance, random medication-induced lethargy that prevents me from doing much more than feeding the cats, the odd seizure and periods of depression. Other than that I'd be good to go.

So I thought of something stupid to raise money. Some people on the right have used the term "Saint Obama" in a disparaging way, in that the senator's supporters see him as not being able to do wrong, he'll solve all of our problems, and that speech he gave after securing the nomination with the bit about lowering the waters was right out of the book of Exodus.

Take a look at Saint Martin de Porres. He is the patron saint of: interracial relations, social justice, public education, public health service, people of mixed race, animal shelters, and Italian barbers and hairdressers. I get the barbers and hairdressers, as back in his day barbers did surgery and he was trained to do both. Why only Italian stylists get to claim his patronage is beyond me. And his feast day is November 3rd, the day before this year's election. One of the good luck charms Senator Obama carries around with him all the time is a St. Martin de Porres figure.

So it seemed fitting, or at least somewhere in that interzone of satire, sacred and sacrilege, to make up prayer cards depicting Senator Barack Obama as St. Martin de Porres. Actually it's not all that sacrilegious. Back in the good old days of the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance political figures were used as the models for religious icons all the freaking time in England, France, Spain and Italy. This is actually a fine old Catholic tradition.




And what prayer cards would be complete without some prayers to go on the back?

First a traditional prayer to St. Martin de Porres:

To you Saint Martin de Porres we prayerfully lift up our hearts filled with serene confidence and devotion. Mindful of your unbounded and helpful charity to all levels of society and also of your meekness and humility of heart, we offer our petitions to you. Pour out upon our families the precious gifts of your solicitous and generous intercession; show to the people of every race and every color the paths of unity and of justice; implore from our Father in heaven the coming of his kingdom, so that through mutual benevolence in God men may increase the fruits of grace and merit the rewards of eternal life. Amen.

Now a tongue-in-cheek prayer to St. Obama de Mo'Crats:

St. Obama, you always had sympathy for the poor and the young. I need your help and now ask for it with great confidence in your goodness, power and charisma. Please remember me after November. I turn to you in my sorrow and anxiety to seek your friendly protection. Please intercede for me with our merciful Father in heaven so that I may finally get health insurance and a real job. Ask that I might have something of your spirit of love, hope and change, and so be at all times be in God's and the bank's good graces. Oh heavenly Father, in the name of your Son and of His blessed Mother, and by the merits of your faithful servant Obama, help me in my trouble and do not forsake me. Amen.

You need only print the picture and prayer you desire, laminate them and you have your very own St. Obama card to keep you safe!

Of course it wouldn't be an official prayer card if money wasn't involved. Please donate what you can at my fundraising page. Donations are optional.

I looked for a Spanish-language prayer to St. Martin de Porres, but couldn't find one that I was sure was for a prayer card. I know I couldn't find a Spanish translation of the one I used, based on specific key words, and I wasn't about to trust a software-based translation. So any pointers to such would be appreciated.

I also looked for a Catholicky prayer for the Obama family. Or at least Senator Obama. No luck either.

Had I a whit of artistic talent and Photoshop I could have made something better than just pasting a picture of Barrack Obama's face over the traditional images on popular prayer cards. I'm a writer and an idea guy. Anyone familiar with Poppin' Zits! knows that my "art" consisted of poorly-executed collages.

Hysterical over the Crazy

With the one year anniversary of the Virginia Tech event coming up, lazy reporters with nothing else to cover (e.g. the ongoing genocides in Darfur and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, rural pharmacies closing because of how Medicare Part D screws everyone except the drug companies, not enough celebutantes going on rampages, etc.) are not just focusing on the crazy for something that happened now, but are focusing on the crazy for something that happened a year ago.

In Hysterical over the Crazy I give you links to more studies than you had in study hall about how we don't commit more violent crimes than people who don't have brain cooties, yet we're portrayed as being the ones who are way more dangerous to be around. There are even bits about how we're way more likely to be the victims of violent crimes than the Pinks.

Updates to Crazy Meds 9 April 2008

• I added the Mental Health news feed from Dr. Grohol's site to the contents frame. So just keep scrolling down until you find it. Dr. Gohol's page opens in the contents frame, so just expand it to read. Deal with my crappy web design. A new page just for that feature didn't make any sense, and plugging it onto every page didn't either. I know I suck. Don't expect design improvements any time soon.


• I've added a translator gadget to a variety of .shtml pages, e.g. Invega. So you're no longer a slave to Anglo imperialism. I tried out the French version, as that's the one language that I have the best chance of reading all of the text and understanding at least 80% of what I read, and am pleased with the translation. Not too much franglais, and only a few things that were lost. Fortunately all of the technical stuff seems to make sense. It's my ranting around the real information that goes into Dada territory. Some other European languages don't look too bad. As for the languages in non-Roman scripts, you're on your own. If and when I update other pages I'll try to add this gadget to them as well. No promises.


• I'm working with Google to resolve the annoying problem where searches don't return results for www.crazymeds.us/ pages, just pages on the Crazy Meds Talk forum.
  

Updates to Crazy Meds Site

03/12/2008 -

• Do you know about that new analysis showing how antidepressants should be used only when people are truly, severely depressed, otherwise said antidepressants are no better than placeboes? You know, the sort of thing I've been writing about since this site began? Well guess what is being added all over the place? That's right, every time a page about an antidepressant (more-or-less) gets updated. And, of course, the page about antidepressants.
• As numerous people pointed out I had an bout of induction / inhibition dyslexia when I initially wrote the Luvox page. I thought I had corrected that. Apparently not. It's corrected now, along with foreign availability names (in the future to be listed toward the bottom of the page or on the How to Buy page for all meds as updated), prices and something else I'll try to add to med pages: which generics have been rated as being within the 20% range of bioequivalence / bioavailability.
• Updated Wellbutrin's overseas availability, added rated generics, but the pages bibliography back as it got clobbered at some point, updated sample costs, fixed the Korean font yet again, and copied the PI sheet locally as GSK Korea insists on moving it around.
• Updated the bibliography to include the tasty 2007 edition of Mosby's Drug Consult I'm now using.

Straight Jacket T-Shirts now open for business

It's been four years since Jef Pozkanzer of Acme Labs took the pictures of all of the pills that I arranged into the letters of the Pill Font. Not long after that I designed the first shirt - the lab rat shirt. At that time Cafe Press didn't do black long sleeve shirts, and, being the artiste that I am, well, I had to have the whole long sleeve thing. Why? Because of all the cutters out there, that's why!

In any event, now that my life is a complete train wreck, I figured I may as well try to bring in another $10 a month selling shirts.

Straight Jacket T-Shirts - where you can find all the overpriced, crapalicious shirts you'll never need that spell out things in letters comprised of actual pills, from Ativan to Zyprexa.

And if you want to spell out some stuff yourself, only in gray scale, use Jef's label maker and select the Pill Font.