Bill Brenner

Too Many Balloons in the Air

by Bill Brenner September 17, 2012 Mental health

A friend on Twitter asked what a person is to do when OCD, ADHD and other mental maladies produce the effect illustrated in this comic strip on xkcd.com: The illustration really hits home for me, having suffered from OCD and ADHD and having a son with ADHD (the alphabet soup alone is enough to short-circuit a person’s mind). All these conditions have one thing in common: the sufferer tries to keep track of everything going…  [Read More]

Lost In Brooklyn. Be Back Soon

by Bill Brenner September 10, 2012 Adventures in writing

I’ll be lost in work for the next couple days as I cover a security conference here in Brooklyn, NYC. I also have to do a lot of work on this blog’s resources sections. Therefore, no new posts until next week. [spotify:track:1PoDKV1zc35dfbMX0OWjjG] This trip began yesterday morning, with a five-hour drive to Amityville. I’m doing one of my slideshows on building security for the work site and needed a couple photos of the famous Amityville…  [Read More]

Is Humor Reinforcing the OCD Stigma?

by Bill Brenner September 7, 2012 OCD

I got an interesting response to some older posts about OCD gag gifts — particularly one about OCD hand sanitizer. The reader was worried these gifts and other brands of OCD humor would only reinforce the stigma monster that keeps people like us in the shadows. Mood music: [spotify:track:2TJRQj7XJvGBY4ZzIue2ei] Here’s the comment, from Arthur Lawrence: I can laugh at it, and so can you. We both have OCD. And laughing at the OCD “monster” does indeed…  [Read More]

The Song Remains Not the Same

by Bill Brenner September 6, 2012 Music therapy

My fingertips are sore and black because I’ve practiced my guitar playing every day since pulling it from its box on my birthday 11 days ago. They hurt like hell, but it’s a very satisfying pain. Mood music: [spotify:track:69GD80i2vo9xdHbxFw4USw] My technique is still all wrong because I haven’t had face-to-face lessons yet, though I’ve been using several lessons I found on YouTube. Despite my lack of proper chording so far, I’m finding that I can…  [Read More]

Welcome Back, Mrs. Silva

by Bill Brenner September 5, 2012 Children's issues

I rushed to the kids’ school this afternoon for a parent-teacher meeting and saw the most excellent sight: Eileen Silva, back in the mix, helping her fellow teachers sort through the usual chaos of afternoon dismissal. The first-grade teacher missed all last year due to illness, but she’s back, and it’s like she never left. Mood music: [spotify:track:0ZGLuduCPjgWY1n85ykgMe] We Brenners love Mrs. Silva for many of the same reasons other parents and students do: She’s a…  [Read More]

Most Days Are Like New England Weather

by Bill Brenner September 4, 2012 Gratitude

Last Friday started in a brutal fashion. I woke up more than an hour late after a lousy night’s sleep. As a result, I fell way behind with work. To top it all off, the kids had the day off and were making all kinds of noise. Mood music: [spotify:track:5H19HygtEjZJLdGtGdpSPR] For the first two hours of the day, my mood was bleak. My head pounded, I felt disoriented and I was convinced my day was…  [Read More]

Dad Update, Part 2

by Bill Brenner September 3, 2012 Family

Thanks for all your continued prayers and well wished for my father. I quick update: Though he does have cardiovascular disease — he has for years — that wasn’t the cause of his hospitalization after all. It turns out a stomach infection was the culprit behind his lungs filling with fluid. That’s the theory they’re working with for the moment. Either way, it was infection-related and not the result of a heart attack. I took…  [Read More]

Today’s Dumb Politics, Explained In A Star Wars Meme

by Bill Brenner September 3, 2012 Political discourse

I’ve spent a lot of time in this blog telling you why I’ve become more politically apathetic with age. Yesterday, someone on Facebook posted a Star Wars meme that captures my sentiments in a nutshell. It explains the state of today’s political discourse better than I ever could. Still, if you want to delve deeper into my perception of today’s politics, check these out: Bill Maher: Bomb Thrower from the Left Ann Coulter and the…  [Read More]

Get Well, Eddie Van Halen

by Bill Brenner August 31, 2012 Music therapy

Funny thing about life: Just when everything is humming along and all is right with the world, something devastating comes along and kicks your ass back to the stone age. So it seems to be with guitarist Edward Van Halen. Mood music: [spotify:track:3xMZrNrfyKUUqQVtoR13ml] Last winter, Van Halen released its “A Different Kind of Truth” album, easily its best effort since “1984,” in my opinion. The band then embarked on a massively successful tour and seemed…  [Read More]

The Five Colors of the Anxiety Rainbow

by Bill Brenner August 29, 2012 Fear and anxiety

I broke free from fear-based anxiety a long time ago. But I still have episodes of anxiety. We all do, and it’s usually when we have trouble sorting through our emotions. To get a better handle on it, I’ve been trying to label the different kinds of anxiousness based on the colors of a rainbow. I decided to use the first five colors of Newton’s primary color system because if I broke this down by all seven…  [Read More]

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