just when I thought this year's nutty campaign couldn't get any more screwy,
you gave me the best laugh I've had during this entire horrible election season.

yes, this is about the naked Trump statues that popped up in five US cities Thursday.

no, you probably shouldn't look it up, unless you stick with the major news outlets' reporting. I particularly enjoyed the one by Wired, which featured some mighty groan-inducing punslinging.

other places may have brain-searing, explicit images that will require MILES of mental floss to dislodge.

this demo was made last year to run on a 1981 IBM PC with CGA graphics.

mind.

blown.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNRO7lno_DM

(YT tags are, for some reason, not working for me on FA anymore.)

PLEASE BACK IT.

this appears to be a quality shmup done by folks who want to make theirs play awesome,
in ultimate Cats vs. Dogs style!

https://www.kickstarter.com/project.....ecats-in-space

I apologize that this (dashcam) recording is blurry -- I had to zoom it in with editing software to show what happened!

watch carefully the truck ahead of mine in this video (you should probably full-screen it).

you'll see two geese scramble out from in front of it, heading to the right.

but then..

THEN...

ONE OF THEM TURNS BACK, and that one is UPSET TO EPIC DEGREES.

NASCAR has investigated this bizarre incident in Saturday's XFINITY Zippo 200 at The Glen:



YES, this was the result of a TIRE exploding. thank goodness Derrike Cope is OK!

I just did a 1.6-mile walkabout in the back forty of my local Pokémon GO Pokéstop.
it's at a church; most of the stops here are on church grounds. one of them even has two stops!

it turns out that doing a lap of this church's rear parking lot takes just about exactly as much time as the Pokéstop in the front yard needs to recover from my visit. SCORE for items AND incubation!

and exercise XD

a couple of years ago, I made a nice comment on a TotalBiscuit video about Droid Assault (a remake of Paradroid), a game I really liked, and put a few hundred hours into playing over the course of a couple of years because I kept coming back to it over and over to try topping the high-score table.

well, some dude with an anime icon (from Code Geass) randomly decided to comment "idiot wasting time playing video games" to that this morning, so I came right back with "Better than trolling on YouTube! :3".

bishi boy removed his comment about 30 minutes later.

GG, Prince Wienerschnitzel or whatever! :P

got myself a nice big double-cup of Twinings Lapsang Souchong, right here.

mmm, piney smokey awesomenoess~

maybe I should try mixing this up with a good piney IPA or heady stout sometime!

I am voting for Hillary, because she is a super trooper.

I am not voting against Trump, regardless of how many EXCELLENT reasons he gives for me to feel that way.

after all the horrible gridlock of recent years, I'd love to have someone in office -- and a corresponding shift in the legislature! --
who might have some chance of convincing agreement between conservatives and liberals.
two-party systems tend to suck hard when one party is as hellbent on obstructing the other
as Obama has suffered throughout his terms in office.

the change we need is to an agreement between Executive and Legislative branches...
but I'd be satisfied by at least another four years of liberal-ish leadership at the top,
if only to fend off any unwanted conservative BS.

the nerve damage affecting my drawing hand's forefinger is not going away anytime soon,
BUT I am able to ignore the pins-and-needles caused by typing and gaming, so I should be able to draw, too.

my hemoglobin A1c (a marker of blood-glucose control over the past few months) was 10.1 in January,
a pretty bad number even for a diabetic (7 or lower is the target).

I've managed to get that down to 5.8, just a couple tenths percent above the high end of non-diabetic range.

thyroid function and cholesterol/triglycerides are all in normal ranges.
blood pressure is still a bit high, but not terribad anymore.

oh, and the ED thing has somewhat reversed, along with improvements in health. <3

if I can just get this nerve thinger to zark off, I'd be a really happy camper. :P

the foot-long tuna salad sandwich I procured from your store in a local Walmart today
was amazingly delicious and has made me a very happy nook both this afternoon and this evening.

better yet, the lady who made it turned out to be someone to whom I've delivered pizza a number of times.
she only mentioned this after I gave her a 33% tip. ($2 on a $6 order). n.n

mah sammich came on untoasted wheat bread
with pepper Jack cheese, black olives, red onion, and green bell pepper,
for the finishing touch, I requested a nice dose of delicious sweet onion dressing.

I'm gonna have to order this one this way again. it was super duper delicious!

it's one of the most informative AND funny things I've seen in ages~

the moments of 6/9 August 1945 are masterfully presented,
in a particularly chilling manner appropriate to the subject,
in stark contrast to the dark humor of everything else in this work.

I think I'm as much better as I'm going to get without surgery of some sort!

the one real issue I'm continuing to have is that the forefinger of my drawing hand is partially numb.
it gives pins-and-needles sensations whenever I touch things with it.
I'm slowly learning to tolerate it, even though it's a SUPER icky feeling to me.

I hope I'll be able to get back into drawing sometime soon!
I have a new drawing tablet (a nice l'il HUION I picked up a month ago) that needs breaking in. :3

unpinch please

seriously, this has been going on for three weeks now.

I went to see my doctor today, but had to see a stand-in,
as my doc had to do an emergency surgery for another patient.

the stand-in told me to try different sleeping positions than I have been.
it does make sense, but damn, I wish I could've at least gotten a muscle relaxant out of the visit,

I'll try not doing the fetal sleeping position and see how that works. :P

in the meantime, I'm also trying a different PC setup, which seems to let me work a bit longer
before the pain really starts kicking in too much to bear.

unfortunately, this setup does not allow for drawing at all,
so all my art is on hold until I find a proper solution for what's ailing me.

I hope I'll have better news soon. this has been a really rough March for me. :/

it turned out that my problem was a shard of a hard candy that got jabbed into the backside of my soft palate. took 3 days for it to melt and/or work its way out.

so, THAT is all better, and I can actually do things like eat and drink and swallow without horrible pain! yay!

unfortunately, around the time that my throat was healing up,
the long periods in bed set off what's become a very very nasty round
of pinched-nerve trouble, a bit lower on my spine than before.

the two things that are causing me the most pain are driving and working at my PC;
there just is NO comfortable posture or position I can adopt to make either one of those
anything less than an exercise in muscle-spasming grating pain that can flare up
anywhere from right over the pinched nerve all the way down to that side's hand --
including bouts of numbness in my drawing hand.

because being on the keyboard for any length of time starts out painful and only gets worse,
I am going to be remaining mostly offline until further notice,

I'm doing everything I can to resolve this horrible, painful issue
so that I can get back to posting, chatting, and drawing as I really want to.

I miss you all, and hope this ill little storm will be blowing over very soon.

I had some weird, foul "sickness" tastes and smells going on yesterday during my shift at work, but felt no pain.

as I was returning home from the polling place this morning,
I noticed some pain in right side of throat, just behind the opening to the mouth.

it's gotten much more painful in just the few hours since then.
the pain spikes as though a knife-point is jabbing in there, every time I swallow,
and now the ear on that side is aching some, too.

time to break out the lozenges and warm salt water,
at least until I can get to the doctor (if that becomes necessary).

I will be avoiding any sort of IMs or other online social interaction
until this is over with, because the pain's making me extremely irritable and snappy.

got up, dressed, walked 3 minutes to polling place.

spent 3 minutes getting verified and getting my vote out.

walked 3 minutes back home and am now voting for more sleep. <3

I predict Candidate ZZZ is going to win in a landslide~

I honestly don't see the point in moping about this day if one doesn't currently have a lover.

why not be happy for your friends and family who do?

and remember...

candy will be half-off tomorrow, so it'll be sweet for everyone who can enjoy that!

the cellulitis is diminishing nicely, and itching like crazy as it heals.

my blood pressure has dropped dramatically with lisinopril, from ~180/110 last Thursday to 134/91 this morning.

a nook's blood glucose still needs lots of work, but Metformin does take a few weeks to kick in properly.
I saw a fasting level sub-150 mg/dL this morning, which is heartening,
considering it was MUCH higher when I came in last Thursday (~240 mg/dL, also fasting).

(also a plus: I've had no adverse GI effects from the Metformin, which is infamous for turning one's bum into Mt. Assuvius.)

we also got results back from my blood labs, taken before I started on the meds, and they were mostly good.

my kidney function was fine.

my thyroid is, amazingly enough, actually working properly.
the doc still has me on levothyroxine, but now at half the previous dosage.

electrolytes were good. yay no low-sodium diet, though I am cutting it back as much as possible!

cholesterol and triglycerides were high, but not egregiously so.

last, but certainly not least, there was the incredible surprise waiting in my liver numbers.
I was flabbergasted, considering how heavily I've abused alcohol the last three years,
rightly expecting to get horrible news about fatty liver and other issues, but this was even more shocking.

Doc: "your liver numbers look slightly elevated," and, after I mentioned I'd stopped drinking as of last Friday morning,
"good! this should clear up fairly quickly, now that you're not drinking alcohol any more."

holy wow! really?

I am grateful my liver apparently is a boss and survived 3 years of heavy alcohol abuse (10+ drinks/day) with flying colors.
I won't be abusing it further; it's been almost a week since I stopped, and there have been exactly zero ill effects from taking it out of my life.

---

okay, maybe one ill effect:
I wish non-alcoholic brews tasted a bit better. :P

(A-B) O'Doul's is tolerable (if still a bit sweet for my taste), and will be my go-to for as long as I keep drinking this stuff.

Coors NA would be my next option, if I couldn't get O'Doul's. I just don't like the taste quite as much.

Busch NA is like sex in a canoe, but at least it's not offensive, and it DOES taste like beer,
if you squinch your tongue up in just the right way!

(Miller) Sharp's is incredibly revolting to me, being sweet in a putrid manner.
consuming it feels almost like drinking filtered, unfermented beer wort. >.>

aaaand then we have Haake Beck (Beck's NA), which is full of nasty skunkitude and an unpleasant sort of bitterness.
if Haake Beck's ill aroma and taste weren't enough to put me off,
the fact that it has over 153 Cal/12 fl. oz., as opposed to the 60-70 of other NA brews, would turn me away.

(A-B cutely lists H-Beck as 43.3 Cal* -- the * leads to a note saying the serving size is 100 mL. there are 355 mL in a 12 fl. oz. bottle.)

http://www.anheuser-busch.com/s/upl.....nformation.pdf

I got my health insurance premium paid on time. <3

I'll get going on commissions in the morning,
because my lovely meds have plumb tuckered me out again.

it's so weird to me, going to bed at 11 PM instead of 7 AM. :P

I've loved y'all so much all these years.

now I'm feelin' really blue;
I must bid you adieu.

new meds don't play at all
with your lovely ethanol.

as a pair, you could deliver
a killing blow to nook's liver.

bye bye booze, bye bye brews!
I'm sure to gain from what I'll lose.

the swelling and pain of my left shin/calf is cellulitis.
it's now under treatment with oral antibiotics and an antibiotic ointment.

if you're feeling brave, take a gander:

(before visiting doctor this morning, comparing both shins)
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u.....128_071238.jpg

(taken around 1 pm)
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u.....128_125930.jpg

yeah, that hurts just as much as it appears to.
there's dull burning pain all over my shin and the sides of my calf,
with spikes of sharper pain from time to time in the general aching.

I'm also going back onto similar medications to what I was getting a few years ago,
when I lost access to the free clinic here in town after getting a job.

unfortunately I don't have the money for the other, non-antibiotic meds,
so I'm gonna open up a little commission drive so I can get them ASAP.
I'm still working out how I want to go about it, but I'll post something in a little while.

(edit: It turned out that my quarters bank and my smaller-change bank had $48 between them.
about $5.00 of that was pennies! yes, folks, they DO add up!])

(the meds are for diabetes, high blood pressure, low thyroid function,
and one other issue whose name I didn't quite catch, but apparently goes with the other three.
none of this is new news to me -- but I've gone far too long without proper treatment.

that ends now.)

I was very sad to read that  sesamebun passed away unexpectedly yesterday.

all of my condolences to  lucca,  unolup and his many other loved ones.

it appears I've got a deep skin infection on my left shin that might be cellulitis.

it's been spreading slowly since it first came to my attention late last week.

I need to get it resolved before it becomes something lots worse,
because it's definitely not getting better on its own.

Denver Broncos vs. Carolina Panthers!

I like both teams, especially their quarterbacks, so I'll be happy whichever one wins.

I'll admit to leaning more towards the Panthers, though,
since Cam Newton came up in my second-favorite college-football team (Auburn Tigers).

also, I'm a bit annoyed the NFL broke tradition and didn't market this as Super Bowl L!

I guess it didn't seem cool enough without the mass of Roman numerals this year!