Blogenesis.

"seizethenite writes much better than you" observed S. as she browsed through my bookmarked blogs. I agreed.

"What's your blog about, anyway?" She asked, while reading a now de-posted post about a "Fox" character describing to his imaginary partner a devious scheme to create a mass market for highly profitable anti-depressant drugs in China.

I was going to answer with the well-worn Seinfeldism of it being about nothing, but replied with "Connections, its about interconnectivity" since the post she was reading was connected both to the Foxy theme and to the previous post. So I guess that is what it will be, if it hasn't so far been, about. After all, the site's logo is the molecular structure of dopamine, a neurotransmitter which enables one neuron to connect to the next.

The science blog started life as a means to an end, one not yet reached. It was intended as a forum through which to present pieces of science writing to potential publishers. Suffice to say my career as a science writer is still taxi-ing on the runway. However, if it didn't attain the goal of launching a new career, it did introduce me to the world of blogging. A few bloggers stumbled upon the blog and apparently liked it enough to leave comments, setting in motion the reciprocation/appreciation cycle.

Since my only means of "personal" blogging was through commenting on others' blogs, I decided to start another one and came up with the brilliant idea of a blog composed solely of lists. I labored under the delusion that this was a brilliant idea for a few days, posting my lists of most and least favorites in sport, music, cinema and so on, until I realized it was quite stupid and changed the blog title appropriately. These days I don't pay it much attention, but plan to at least post a list or two every now and then, if only for the one person who graces it (hehehe) by visiting.

After a while I realized that its pretty easy to create a new screen name and blog, and so could blog in a way that would not compromise my career goals. This blog began as a chronicle of my life with alcoholism. Not my "battle against alcoholism" or my "endless struggle with addiction" but more how I was (and am) trying to embrace it and convince it that it needs to moderate itself "a lil". I deleted those early posts, mainly because they were mostly written not only under the influence, but also at some very low points; it defeated the purpose. I think Super Kitty was the only person to see them. So I determined the blog would become more upbeat, focusing on the highs more than the lows.

And so it went. And one day, not so long ago, on a whim, I invented Fox and his foxy blog. It soon became apparent that having three screen names was more trouble than it was worth - leaving comments at others' blogs and having to decide who should be leaving them was just not worth it. So Fox joined Cali and here they are, apparently with an inspired agenda of interconnectiveness in mind.

Oh yeah, I shouldn't forget Pura Vida. This is where the novel that stirs and develops within me will some day find its stage. Until then its an empty blog - not sure which is most stupid.

Ohhh, that post about poor old Fox? I removed it because it was pretty stupid.

But when has that stopped me before?


"Hello, Scully? Look, can you get over to the National Institutes of Health as quickly as possible? I'd like you to find Dr. Riccardo Cerrione at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, he's an old friend."

"Well it looks like our friends have hatched up a new plan to increase their power base and we'll need Ricco's help in figuring out how to deal with it."

"Yes, I'm pretty certain he's behind it, but apparently he's using a nicorette patch these days."

"Okay, I'll explain. As you know, they've been buying up shares in high profit business sectors for a while now. Well, it looks like they've pretty much got a stranglehold on one of the highest profit sectors."

"Yeah, that's the one. And they're not wasting any time in using it."

"Okay. You may have seen a story on the wire about a new drug which can counter SARS infection."

"Yeah, Cinanserin. Like you say, its curious, but its not coincidental. Seems they've tweaked the SARS genome so that it produces a protease with an active site that accommodates a molecule of Cinanserin. We need Ricco to prove that this strain of SARS has been purposefully genetically engineered, and didn't just arise from random mutation."

"Well, as you know, Cinanserin was first introduced as an anti-schizophrenic. It blocks serotonin neurotransmission by acting as a 5HT-2 receptor antagonist."

"Exactly, just the opposite action of SSRI anti-depressants. Can you imagine the consequences of treating even a fraction of the Chinese population with a drug that may induce severe depression?"

"Well how would you treat it?"

"Exactly! With long term SSRI treatment. Bottom line? There's a SARS outbreak in China and overnight you've got the largest market the world's ever seen for a profitable psychoactive drug. And the Chinese Government pays for it! My source tells me they've already started ramping up production of Prozolaxil about a hundred-fold."

"Okay, great. While you and Ricco get to work on the virus' DNA I'm going to take a trip to Beijing - someone's getting ready to release a virus, and I plan to be there. Call me if you make any progress Scully.
Scully? Scully??"