Victory!

I just finished my first knitting project ever! It's the second project I've started, and it only took 2 days! It's a pretty, multi-colored scarf!

Uuuum... Pics to come. My tragically specialized cord for my camera is AWOL. Both of them. They must be lost in the sea of still-packed boxes that is my bedroom currently. But it's totally pretty and I'm totally proud of myself!

So new skills learned:

Casting On

Knit Stitching

Casting Off

I supplemented the learning I already did with tutorials from a website called videojug.com. It's a DIY/How To site. My favorite part about it is that the search bar says "I want to be good at..." before you click on it to enter your keywords.

Disneyland tomorrow! XD

Happy Holidays Everyone!

I love business cards. They make me so happy. They are the smallest, most circulated piece of advertising that a person can have. The reason I love them is because they are always a challenge. The amount of information on that 2"x3.5" piece of paper ranges from minimal to staggering depending on the card, and it is all, usually, very important. Tetrising all of it into the small rectangle is fun and exciting for me, and, apart from logo building, it is my favorite thing to design.

I'll put some examples here later.

I moved into my new dwelling a couple days ago. Much love and thanks to all who carried heavy things and spent gas and time on me this past Saturday. : )

Now I have internet again! So I'll update off the clock. ; )

The Verdict...

...is in.

The neurologist says that I have to keep the brace on until mid January. On the bright side, I'll be able to skip to the front of all the lines at Disneyland.

My trigger finger was helped, but not cured by the first shot. I suspect a second shot is needed. Not thrilled.

This week I'll see another doc about the nodule they found on my thyroid. Hopefully it's nothing. My Mom has one too so I'm not too worried.

I got moved into the big office at work! Now I'm in the room with all the other graphic designers. : ) It's not a promotion or anything like that, they just have room now.

Speaking of work, The Print Raven won Best of Flagstaff this year in the category of "Best Print Shop"! We didn't even advertise for the competition this year and we ended up winning. We rock.

Being back at work is hard on my neck, but I'm settling back into the routine again just fine. The doc told me to only work part time and not to do any lifting or bending. So I'm confined to my desk except for a few production tasks like binding, laminating and copies (as long as they're not heavy once they're done).

I'm looking forward to my move. Lots of painting space. And I have lots of new ideas for art, mostly involving Circus Bacchus publicity and print design. But paintings are coming to me as well. I know I've been complaining that I don't paint enough. I think all the painting space in the new house will fix that. They have a room with a south wall that is mostly windows looking out into a pretty back yard, perfect for natural light.

Lance Horton, the guy with the gallery in Winslow, will be picking up my Brain Babies for display on Wednesday. I can't wait for them to be up again! And I'm stoked that they'll be displayed in a tattoo parlor. That alone makes the distance worth while. The best part is that he's understanding about the car and willing to pick stuff up from me.

Onward and upward and toward the New Year!

Poop and Percoset

Some facts about feces:

• The human large intestine is about as long as one is tall and about the diameter of one's wrist.
• The large intestine can hold from 10 to 15 pounds of feces at any given time.
• Normal bowel movements often measure from 12" to 18" in length.
• The average, healthy person has a bowel movement 2 or 3 times, daily.

Some facts about opioid analgesics:

• Semi-synthetic varieties (those synthesized from resins of the opium poppy) include heroin, vicodin and percoset.
• Morphine and codeine are extracted directly from the opium resin.
• Despite the risk of dependancy and severity of withdrawl, they have been declared the "most effective" of pain-killers.
• The side effects of opioids include sedation, depressed respiration and constipation.

As you have all read, I have been on percoset for my injury for a good 10 days. I took a break for 12 hours one day because I hadn't had a bowel movement in 5 days. I ended up having two enormous bowel movements that day, and gave in to constipation again for the remainder of the time.

I am happy to announce that I am officially off of the pain-killers that impeded my potty! And I have lost 2 pounds today in poop! In the last 10 hours, I have pooped 3 (Update 9pm - Now 4!) times in various shades of green (which I believe to be the fault of the pills).

I hope this wasn't too graphic for you, dear readers. But I feel SO much better now. And sharing is caring.

Cheers!

Pics

Here's the car...

Here's a very medicated Christmas elf in a neck brace...

(this is the morning after the hospital visit)

I'm feeling better and better every day.

There have been tons of doctor's appointments.

And many failed attempts at bowel movements.

My opinion of opiates gets progressively more negative.

But they told me I can switch to ibuprofen now if I want.

Done and done.

Oops

I was in a car accident on the 29th. It was snowing and we hit a particularly treacherous curve in the road that was covered in slick snow. The road kept curving, but the car didn't and my girlfriend and I ended up crashing into a telephone pole at somewhere between 35 and 40 mph. There was a crunch, a sensation of hardness that I'd never felt before in my life, and puff of black smoke filled the cab. Laura fled the car, I managed my seat-belt and discovered my car door was stuck. She rushed around the other side of the car to help me but I used my adrenaline to climb over the seats and out her door. Then the pain hit me. My shoulders and neck felt like they'd been sledge hammered and my waste felt cold in a few places. I chalked it up to ice until later when I found out that my seat-belt had given me two burns on my iliac crests (better burned than comatose!).

After getting snowed on for a couple minutes, the paramedics arrived and put us in neck braces, then an anbulence took us to the hospital to be checked out. Laura came away with a bloody nose and a mild case of whiplash. My injuries were worse.

At the hospital, they got me out of my jacket and sweater and cut my shirt off. Then they put me in a gown and took my vitals and started me on an I.V. for pain killers which I initially refused. As the evening went on, they gave me a CAT scan and took some blood. I finally accepted morphine, and found it to be absolutely no fun, albeit effective. Then they pumped me full of anti nausea meds and atavan for the MRI. That was no fun either, even the anti anxiety meds didn't help, and they wore off in the middle of the scan. They found a bump on my thyroid. I have to get that checked out now.

The final diagnosis was that I have damage to my ligaments on C5 and C6 in my neck and need to remain in a neck brace until the neurologist says I can take it off without fear of paralysis.

The last week has been a percoset "soma holiday" and I've gotten a lot of knitting done. I see the neurologist on Wednesday, and hope to get my brace off. I am not allowed to lift anything, take the brace off, move my head, or much of anything. They said I could return to work on the 13th, but I'm going to play it by ear.

The injection for my trigger finger went well and it's feeling a lot better now. I almost punched the Doc out when the shot was delivered; it hurt like a mother...

Here are my thoughts on morphine. It sucks! Everyone I've ever talked to and read about opiate based drugs praises "the rush" and says it's the greatest thing in the world. In Trainspotting they say "Take the best orgasm you ever had, multiply it by a thousand and you're still nowhere near it." My ruling, horse-shit. They are so incredibly wrong. The nurse described "the rush" as "a blizzard in my brain" which is surprisingly accurate. It isn't pleasurable in the least, and neither is the high afterward. The rush gives you static, like a snowy TV screen, then it's like you're normal, but with a balloon for a head with 3D glasses on. Nothing special, nothing especially pleasurable, just normal-plus. I'd like to take the opportunity to judge opium enthusiasts as retarded and in need of better drugs. Opiates are crap. At least I know I'll never die a heroin addict!

Today I get to begin the process of packing my house for others to move. I can't lift anything, so I get to rely on the goodness of my circus friends to move and place my things in my new lodgings. And since I tend to micromanage my moving, this is going to take a lot out of me. But I am touched by the amount of people that volunteered to help right away. Thanks, everyone. It means a lot to me. And I promise, the food and drink I give you in return will be excellent.

Black Friday

I hope everybody's holiday feasts were as spectacular as mine was! I judge a feast by its gravy, and let me tell you... It was divine. That's right, divine gravy. I said it. ; )

Wikipedia says that the term "Black Friday" was coined in Philadelphia in 1966, in reference to the heavy pedestrian and vehicle traffic that the city experienced as a result of the beginning of the Christmas buying season. Since then, it's become the money slinging free-for-all that we know it as today.

I first heard the term in the early 2000's from a friend that worked in a camera store in the Tucson Mall. I had known that lots of people started shopping for Christmas gifts then, but I hadn't realized that it was a national phenomenon with so much notoriety.

Further research indicated that "Black Friday" and subsequent "Cyber Monday" are local phenomenon. They have spread to other english speaking countries (Canada, England, and Australia) slowly over the course of the last couple of decades with the expansion of websites like Amazon and Apple.

A newer interpretation of the term defines it as the shopping day that puts everyones profits back "in the black".

My impressions of the holiday are far from positive. To me Black Friday is the epitome of consumer gluttony and decadence. It represents a social sickness that infects western culture. It is an orgy for big business. Sneaky corporations and producers of defective goods cheating sheep-like, lemming-consumers out of their savings, wages and assets. A couple of years ago people were killed and sustained heavy injury as a result of this ridiculous display (look here and here). Is a day of discounted shopping spree really worth human lives?

To not be robbed, to not participate in this event, is to be a rebel and an outcast. To not participate is to declare oneself "poor" and stingy. The way this is expressed can vary. I've noticed that if one does not take advantage of the sales, one is labeled a frivolous spender, because clearly, not taking advantage of sales means that one can't manage one's finances. I think people should be praised for buying gifts throughout the year, when one can afford them. Why have your budget take a giant hit for Christmas when you can easily find more meaningful presents all year long for friends and family? Why is participating in a consumer mania far more important than money management and thoughtful gift giving? I can only guess; it makes no sense to me.

Of course, for me, gift giving happens all year long. I don't confine the act to birthdays and gift-heavy holidays. Usually if I find something I like for someone, and I can afford it, I'll buy it and give it to them right away. Sometimes I have the presence of mind to check on when their birthday is or consider an upcoming holiday, but I usually forgo it in favor of not forgetting that I have bought the item. I'll call it a belated birthday gift or and early Solstice present.

If I had my way, and there was less stigma attached to the forgoing of gifts, I'd give only a couple of gifts per year. The need never strikes me to get gifts for everyone I know. I may send a card or salutation or bag of cookies, but that's usually as far as it goes. I trust my friends to know that I love them, even though I skimp on presents. I'm not stingy, but I am financially decrepit and forgetful. Luckily I surround myself with people who consider those reasons adequate excuses, and are sensitive to them.

The point is, that the act of giving is cheapened by holidays and social events of this kind. If you want to give a gift, do it! Don't worry about cost and sales and holidays and brands and trends. If you find a thoughtful trinket that you feel displays your gratitude for someone's friendship and support, get it and give it. Simply. Better yet, make it yourself! Paint a painting, knit a scarf, crochet a hat, sew a plushie, sculpt a chochkey, bind a journal, put a piece of yourself into the gifts that you give and have it be a labor of love!

Happy holidays to all. I hope your gift giving is heartfelt and genuine and filled with the affection you feel towards the receiver. Love!