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Friday, September 17, 2004 · posted at 2:08 PM

Twelve Step It

Obsessions are as defined by (1), (2), (3), and (4):

recurrent and persistent thoughts, impulses, or images … that cause marked anxiety or distress
the thoughts, impulses, or images are not simply excessive worries about real-life problems
the person attempts to ignore or suppress such thoughts, impulses, or images, or to neutralize them with some other thought or action

the person recognizes that the obsessional thoughts, impulses, or images are a product of his or her own mind…

According to the DSM-IV criteria, to have a diagnosis of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) one must have (A) obsessions and compulsions and (B) at some point during the course of the disorder, the person has recognized that the obsessions or compulsions are excessive or unreasonable… and (C) The obsessions or compulsions cause marked distress, are time consuming (take more than 1 hour a day), or significantly interfere with the person's normal routine, occupational (or academic) functioning, or usual activities or relationships.

My behavior today certainly meets those criteria.

I stayed up ridiculously late ~~yesterday~~ this morning working on a new blog template. I decided at 2 in the morning that it was time for a change and I'd convert my "ode to Target" blog into a "Megan McCafferty is my idol" blog.

Unfortunately without a host for my picture this time, I was relegated to creating the handy stripe pattern via coding… which I finished just as I heard my roommate's alarm for off. Who knew ten little stripes could cause so much grief?

I even created a fake site so that I could "test" my template before unveiling it for the public. All systems go – I swear.

Then I get an email saying that some of my entries have weird symbols. That's just crazy talk! I reply. Then I looked and lo and behold, horror of horrors… all my apostrophes and quotation marks had turned into gibberish looking like the love child of Wingdings and Tengwar.

The idea that someone could be, at that very moment, clicking on my site and finding junk (well indecipherable junk anyway) was UNACCEPTABLE! and thus dedicated the next five hours to finding whatever error was occurring.

57 one-line emails with the blog master later and 1 frantic AIM conversation with my brother later… the faulty line of code was uncovered and fixed. It was a freaking meta tag that copied and pasted that changed the encoding from Universal (UTF-8) into Western (ISO-8859-1).

Translating the geek speak – I brought it upon myself. (Lesson to be learned: never plagiarize or "borrow" code).

It was this tipping point that made me think… maybe I have a problem.

PlanetJanet released this list of signs you might be addicted to blogging.

There are ten signs that you might be addicted to blogging (read in a Dr. Phil voice) – I have 7 of them.

In addition, I am also exhibiting the following symptomatolgy:

Checking my site meter every 2 minutes to see if I've gotten new hits.

Changing my template to show more entries to assuage the fear that a reader might "miss one."

Feeling insulted when a referring site stays at my site for 0 minutes.

Religiously managing my comments to see if anyone has left a message of adulation

Setting myself up for really bad situations (e.g. clubbing) to use as blog fodder.

Refraining myself from sharing stories because "it'd make a good blog."

Blogging to "cure" my obsession with blogging.

Diagnosis anyone?



	Friday, September 17, 2004 · posted at 2:08 PM Twelve Step It Obsessions are as defined by (1), (2), (3), and (4): recurrent and persistent thoughts, impulses, or images … that cause marked anxiety or distress the thoughts, impulses, or images are not simply excessive worries about real-life problems the person attempts to ignore or suppress such thoughts, impulses, or images, or to neutralize them with some other thought or action the person recognizes that the obsessional thoughts, impulses, or images are a product of his or her own mind… According to the DSM-IV criteria, to have a diagnosis of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) one must have (A) obsessions and compulsions and (B) at some point during the course of the disorder, the person has recognized that the obsessions or compulsions are excessive or unreasonable… and (C) The obsessions or compulsions cause marked distress, are time consuming (take more than 1 hour a day), or significantly interfere with the person's normal routine, occupational (or academic) functioning, or usual activities or relationships. My behavior today certainly meets those criteria. I stayed up ridiculously late ~~yesterday~~ this morning working on a new blog template. I decided at 2 in the morning that it was time for a change and I'd convert my "ode to Target" blog into a "Megan McCafferty is my idol" blog. Unfortunately without a host for my picture this time, I was relegated to creating the handy stripe pattern via coding… which I finished just as I heard my roommate's alarm for off. Who knew ten little stripes could cause so much grief? I even created a fake site so that I could "test" my template before unveiling it for the public. All systems go – I swear. Then I get an email saying that some of my entries have weird symbols. That's just crazy talk! I reply. Then I looked and lo and behold, horror of horrors… all my apostrophes and quotation marks had turned into gibberish looking like the love child of Wingdings and Tengwar. The idea that someone could be, at that very moment, clicking on my site and finding junk (well indecipherable junk anyway) was UNACCEPTABLE! and thus dedicated the next five hours to finding whatever error was occurring. 57 one-line emails with the blog master later and 1 frantic AIM conversation with my brother later… the faulty line of code was uncovered and fixed. It was a freaking meta tag that copied and pasted that changed the encoding from Universal (UTF-8) into Western (ISO-8859-1). Translating the geek speak – I brought it upon myself. (Lesson to be learned: never plagiarize or "borrow" code). It was this tipping point that made me think… maybe I have a problem. PlanetJanet released this list of signs you might be addicted to blogging. There are ten signs that you might be addicted to blogging (read in a Dr. Phil voice) – I have 7 of them. In addition, I am also exhibiting the following symptomatolgy: Checking my site meter every 2 minutes to see if I've gotten new hits. Changing my template to show more entries to assuage the fear that a reader might "miss one." Feeling insulted when a referring site stays at my site for 0 minutes. Religiously managing my comments to see if anyone has left a message of adulation Setting myself up for really bad situations (e.g. clubbing) to use as blog fodder. Refraining myself from sharing stories because "it'd make a good blog." Blogging to "cure" my obsession with blogging. Diagnosis anyone?	Recent Posts I just registered for the GRE. Nerd as I am, I li... Psychoanalyze this. While I'm no fan of the icebr... In our world, where there are more and more faces,... Imitate not innovate. At what point do you resign... Trust fall? Trust fails. There are many differen... The Four-Star Follies Still, there's been a stead... The new Jason Mraz DVD is porn - without the neces... The bad beginning and the slippery slope. Contrar... Where there's a Will, there's a way. Last night, W... Bird's nest. I just got my hair cut for the first... Morning news babie goose ryan bluemouse daves son dawntaught desiree diorama emily escadawg galveric high entropy invisible cube jepgato kyellow lilly mhuang mogbert nudream starfish + coffee verbivore Archives March 2004 April 2004 May 2004 June 2004 July 2004 August 2004 September 2004 October 2004 November 2004 December 2004 January 2005 February 2005 March 2005 April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 January 2007 March 2007 April 2007 November 2008

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