I have been thinking

[Note: the thinking process has not brought on fits, high fever, sweating, or any other adverse effects until now. I should engage in this activity more often perhaps?]

I don't really like the idea of complicating life with lots of useless rules but I am starting to believe that 'good practices' really also do apply to batch files as simple as they may be, as they apply to more or less anything when it comes to sharing, reusing some nifty piece of code, or deciding to chuck it for now.

So, I may be coming up with some more generalist posts on this issue, although it may quickly get superseded by other pressing issues I would like to share with you.

One of these (and this is the true reason behind my short absence from the blogosphere) is that I am working on a personal website.

Why?

Well, firstly, I would like to provide a platform to download code which I have posted to this blog (for you ;-)).

Secondly, I would like to actually start working on a project of mine that's been simmering for some time: Anxcity, a website for English and French speaking anxiety disorder sufferers. And, hopefully, I can tag Dutch onto that too!

As you probably know anxiety disorders affect up to 18% of adult population at one time in their lives (according to U.S statistics). Which means about one in five people suffer from some form of anxiety. Which in turn means you are either a sufferer yourself or are close to someone who is, has been or will be.

So, let's recap some of the most common disorders: Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Panic Disorder (PD), Social Anxiety Disorder, Agoraphobia, Impulse Phobia, Specific Phobias, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and ... I have probably forgotten some.

For most people their disorders are only slight and therefore hardly debilitating, but for others anxiety plays a major, even central, role in their lives, preventing them from doing the most trivial things: food and clothes shopping, working, going out with friends or family, visiting places, traveling, ... you name it.

Of course, at this stage you have already betted a month's wages that I myself am a sufferer, and you were silly not to bet two :p. I have Panic Disorder with Agoraphobia and Social Anxiety Disorder. And finding 'help' has been quite a challenge by itself! The internet, with its vast pool of information and links and references and addresses, wasn't able to provide the answers I was looking for. Yup! Incredible but true. Things are slowly changing and I would like to help bring on that change. That is what the Anxcity project is all about: bringing on awareness, understanding and a common forum for sufferers to share experiences, and stories. And more importantly, a place to share answers to the most important question: where to get help.

So, that's what this project is about. And I hope to be getting it running shortly. Any suggestions, ideas, comments, questions, ... are welcome.

Just drop me a line at: elinor [DOT] hurst [AT] gmail [DOT] com.

Thoughts?