For those who don't follow me on Twitter...

* I am back from another week-long visit to Minneapolis for work. Lots of project discussion and a two-day Scrum training class. My brain is now pudding.

* Just watched the new C&D movie. Yes, at first I vomited a little because the entire premise of the movie is complete garbage, but there are SO MANY fan jokes and industry satire in it I actually enjoyed it. Sorry.

* Newest house project done: painting my bedroom. I am REALLY loving the color (Russet Red)! I wanted something dark and earthy. Problem is now the sea foamy bedding and bookcase in there clash horribly with the new color. Currently searching for new bedding to address this but so far no luck.

* While re-watching Breaking Bad, S4Ep2, the scene where Mike beats the shit out of Walter... that scene was filmed at Louie's Pub!! That's my local hang! I'm there at least once a week! I knew they filmed at lots of local spots, which is why I'm re-watching the series. A lot of places around here *claim* they had scenes filmed at them but its wild to know one of the places personally.

[Battlebots blad] Yes, I was cheering for Blip. Being taken out by a technicality like that is utter BS but whatever. At least Witch Doctor didn't win. I hate that robot.

Okay. In other news (since I haven't posted in months), yes I do still come here daily for art. I haven't "fell off the planet". Was in Minneapolis again in January during the COLDEST week ever, and my flight home was cancelled so I had to stay an extra day during the COLDEST week ever. There hasn't been much else going on, so you haven't missed anything except my allergies. Still COVID free. I turned 48 this week. Chicken Boo is still important.

Hi, all. I'm back again. Been a busy 5 weeks or so. First was my business trip to Minneapolis. Then I flew to Orlando for a week-long Microsoft conference. Also, while there I went to Universal Studios with my boss and his family for an evening (which was fabulous!). First time I'd been in the actual park in 30 years. I miss Woody Woodpecker and how they use to have tons of merch of him but now there's NOTHING. Sucks big time.

Had three Thanksgivings: one with family, one at the GAC (German-American Club), and then flew out to Phoenix to spend time with my sister for the weekend. Saw the new Ghooniesbusters movie (Ghostbusters but with The Goonies--at least that's how it felt).

Wow, what a whirlwind. 10 flight segments in 5 weeks. I think I'll be staying home for a while--at least for the rest of the year

Oh--somewhere in there I got my annual eye exam. Turns out my prescription continues to get better over time. Down to +14.50. Since my glasses are +16.00 I think I'll actually buy new glasses for the first time in 20 years. Whoah.

That's all I can think of.

Back from a short (3-night) business trip to Minneapolis. Still, it totally burned my brain out with two days of high intensity discussions. Big things and big ideas. If it happens I'll be making a lot more trips to Minneapolis next year. There are some things you just can't do remotely.

I still check FA every day. I don't draw anymore but I love to see what everyone else is drawing. It's part of my routine. I don't feel right unless I check in and keep up.

...you start to look around and want to change things, so thanks to a year of COVID lockup, this spring is including several projects in and out of the house. I'll be painting my front room and hallway, replacing a dilapidated green timber wall along part of my property with block wall, putting some step stones in my back yard because I am tired of walking on xeriscape rocks with thin-soled shoes... that kind of stuff. Also need to plant my tomatoes, clean my zen garden ponds, and re-level the pool area.

No real news on the physical front. Just hope I don't fuck up my arm and neck again this spring which is when it always seems to happen.

Oh, and the US government says they are going to take my Medicare away in July because... no reason. Thanks, Sleepy Joe.

Things and stuff... my arm & nerve pain finally calmed down back in December. Been getting back into electronics to keep myself occupied during the cold, dark winter. Re-discovering the Z80 processor. Organizing and stocking up on TTL and CMOS chips. Really exciting stuff.

After 3 years of working to eliminate my TMJ disorder my dentist f-ed up and made an alteration to my de-programmer which sent me back a year and caused some of my initial symptoms to re-surface. So nice of him.

Oh, and my irregular heart rhythm (PVC's) also subsided back in December. Suspect they were due to my statin meds so doctor switched me from Lipitor to Crestor (which is like 6x as expensive for the generic).

Not much else to say. Just another season locked in a vacancy with a dictator holding the keys.

Been spending the summer cursing my neck nerve and muscle pain. The local German-American club, the first place that I was just starting to feel really comfortable/at home at and something I felt a real member of with friends and people, was forced to close back in March due to COVID and looks like it will never re-open, so.... that really sucks.

To fight the summer heat I ended up getting an 8 ft above ground pool and that has been GREAT to cool off in, though now pool season looks to be coming to an end. Been doing some 3D printing to keep occupied.

Still have my job and have been working steady all summer so no money worries. Went through most of my DVDs over the summer because nothing good has been on cable to watch. Hope something changes soon. With my nerve problems I can't sit in front of the computer and watch movies on NetFlix, etc.

Anyhow, that's pretty much it. I haven't noticed fur cons aren't going on because I stopped going to those years ago anyway

Shortly I will be going through and clearing out some very very old (2003-2004) sketchbooks. For posterity I will be uploading any old gift art I find in them to my alt FA account  AndyFoxArt.

November is going to be a very busy month for me and I'll be away a lot, so I probably will fall behind on checking FA and Twitter for periods of time.

Hey, all. Well, I've been offline here for a few days due to my PC's hard drive unexpectedly dying on me. This meant no FA, no FB, no Telegram, just Twitter.

On Sunday I noticed some of my Windows apps just freezing for periods of time for no apparent reason. Then the system completely re-booted and hung at the BIOS screen with a warning about the hard drive now marked as "Bad". It took nearly 20 minutes for it to boot to Windows again where upon I promptly started creating backups and disk images which took another day to finish as the software banged on the (now) bad sectors to get at the data. In the mean time I ordered two new drives (one exact model, one slightly newer). Another couple of spontaneous re-boots and I had gotten the images off and onto a backup drive.

Pulled a Windows 7 ISO from my MSDN (so I could use it's restore feature), put in the new drive, did an image restore on one partition, a file restore for the other partition, and boom! Back up and running. A little surprised the multi-partition imaging worked as the new drive I installed is a slightly different model. The only thing I lost was a tiny OEM-installed recovery partition on the original drive.

So, my nerve pain has calmed down after the injection. It hasn't gone away--it's calmed down. I'm on gabapentin for that. A couple of my teeth have been acting up due to my dentist shifting my jaw bite to get it to where it should be. Went in this morning to address that. So there that is--my nerve and jaw issues.

Not much else to speak of. Summer is winding down here in The Land of Enchantment. My Zen garden is doing well. The magic is good. Went to the State Fair a couple times just to kill an afternoon or two.

Latest fixations:
- Laser rangefinders
- tabletop water fountains
- More Atari games for the coming winter

Another visit to the Pain Clinic about my arm today. Last time I was there was in 2016 and they gave me an epidural injection. which may or may not have worked. Since then my arm have generally behaved and my doctor left. Then in May it flared up big time again.

Anyway, same story, different day: cervical radiculopathy, cervical spondylolysis, arthritis, age-related, degenerative, blah blah. He also said the "Tennis Elbow" I had this winter was more than likely just another side-effect of my neuropathy. The doctor did confirm however that all the things I've been trying but haven't worked (topical creams, high-dose Ibuprofen, hydrocodone, cyclobenzaprine, lidocaine, TENS device treatment) won't work for my kind of nerve pain, so at least he didn't recommend something I've already done and doesn't work.

He prescribed me some new meds specifically for nerve pain. Hope they works. Also good for seizures. Haha.

1 day or work left then it's 10 days of vacation for me!! Wooo! Had originally planned to go to Disneyland during it but family matters kinda f'ed that up, so I'll just be hanging around the good ol' state of New Mexico. Maybe I'll go wave at the migrants / illegal immigrants.

Then the day I come off vacation I have a dental surgery scheduled. Yay!

I've been offline for the past several days while spending time with my sister in Phoenix. Her husband died suddenly this past weekend and we have been helping her get through things. I probably won't be too active for a while either.

Beginning April 1st, Zazzle will be imposing a new "Non-Contributing Account Fee" for stores that don't have any activity in over 15 months. Since I haven't sold anything in over a year and don't plan on uploading any new designs I'm going to shut down my store at the end of the month. If anyone has been putting off buying one of my items you'd better do it now!

http://www.zazzle.com/AndyFox

Cheers!

The cold weather is finally dead here in Albuquerque which means time for yard work! Broke ground this weekend on my to-be Japanese / zen / meditation garden in my back yard.

I've been looking forward to doing this for a couple years now. I'll likely be working on it through summer. Am very excited/driven and getting lots of ideas in my head for its design including ponds, bamboo divides, meditation areas, and planters.

Those following me on Twitter have probably seen pics of my corn field from the past couple years. That's where the garden will be, but it will be expanded to take over the whole 21 x 14 foot area (corn field was only 14 x 14).

As I'm a bit overweight from the winter I'm looking forward to the exercise and work. Will likely post some pics on Twitter as it progresses.

I wish I had something other than medical updates to post here but unfortunately that's all that's been going on lately. It's a slow time of year.

So, after 5 weeks of Physical Therapy for Tennis Elbow my arm is a little better than it was. The main source of pain is now only coming from my brachioradialis muscle which seems to be very angry with me for some reason and PT has addressed everything else except it.

Lastly, a final visit with my heart doctor revealed that my heart palpitations were most likely vagus nerve-induced which can happen with low sodium or when things start pressing on the heart that don't normally. I actually (unintentionally) caused a PVC the other day when I was leanning forward and pressing on my chest in a specific way. That was weird.

Anyhow, that's all. Weather is warming up soon. Want to get to work on my Japanese Garden this year. Need to get zen.

I've finally gotten to the end of it. My final backlog of photos are now online at Flickr:

Anthrocon 2005 (what few pics I have):
https://flic.kr/s/aHsmz1mAuw

Ireland and Watership Down/England 2005:
https://flic.kr/s/aHsmt6se4Q

Also, can't remember if I posted a link to my MFF 2006 pics here, so...
https://www.flickr.com/gp/toonfox42/ac85DU

This concludes our trip down Memory Lane.

Hasn't been much going on here lately. The cold weather is setting in (high's in the mid 50's). Spending time clearing the yard of this year's plantings. Starting to look barren and lonely out there. Having the occasional bonfire. Entertaining myself by buying weird stuff like "antique" Edison light bulbs and my first animation cel in.... 10 years I think? Re-arranged my living room. Monitoring my blood pressure while switching medications. Real exciting stuff.

I feel I'm forgetting something. Hmmm.... meh.

After two more doctor visits, more blood tests, and two different prescriptions later..... I'm still having palpitations.

What we know:
* They are indeed PVCs (premature ventricular contractions), or possibly PACs (premature atrial contractions)
* They are NOT due to stress, heat, dehydration, caffeine or sugar intake, smoking, or a thyroid disorder
* They may have been exacerbated by a salt and/or protein deficiency
* I average at least 1 PVC a week, typically in the evening when at rest and my pulse is slow (below 60)

Metaprolol has not helped the situation (I started taking it again after Labor Day). In fact it is likely contributing to the issue by slowing my heart rate. My heart doctor recommended I discontinue it. Currently high blood pressure is the easiest way to combat this issue for now until we know more, so I'll be switching from the metaprolol to hydrochlorothiazide for blood pressure reduction. My heart doctor is having me monitor my blood pressure for the next two weeks during the switch and also suggested I take magnesium supplements. I have an EKG scheduled for November to check for hidden bad things that might be causing the PVCs.

Oh, and in other news, I had one of my 30+ year-old silver dental fillings replaced with the new porcelain kind yesterday. Still aches a bit. Dentist will replace the remaining ones next year as part of my ongoing jaw re-alignment (yes that is also still going on).

Continuing to dig out and post my old con pics....

AC 2007:
https://flic.kr/s/aHskCgHD1z

MFF 2006:
https://www.flickr.com/gp/toonfox42/D7k4Y0

Also pics from  seanc's and my trip to Kaua'i in 2008 are also online for those who are bored.

It's been a month since I posted about my emergency room visit so I thought I'd update:

I found a nice article explaining what I've been experiencing along with a picture of an EKG that shows it exactly:
https://www.quora.com/Is-there-a-me.....kipping-a-beat

I continue to have the occasional palpitation. Sometimes I'll go a week without having one, then I'll have 2 in a row. I talked to my boss about it and turns out he's had them for years! And started having them around the same age as I. He also went to his doctor and got the same exact "Don't worry about it," answer I did.

I'm still trying to figure out a pattern to them. I have an appointment in late September with an electrocariologist. My blood pressure and caffeine intake haven't changed in years. Could also be a thyroid issue. Could also be heat stress.

Anyhow, that's where that is.

For those who don't follow me on Twitter or want the complete story:

For the 4th of July week I decided to take the 5th and 6th off as well and have a nice long vacation from work and get stuff done around the house. Vacation was also to de-stress from an incident I had a couple weeks prior. It started out good. Spent the 4th harvesting veggies from my yard and celebrated that evening and the next morning with fireworks and movies with my parents.

I declared Friday a "Me" day. Just me putzing around the house working on stuff I don't get a chance to during the week or normal weekends. Cleaning the garage, fertilizing, stuff like that. Nothing physically stressful. I had planned to spend the evening watching a couple movies but instead I ended up in the emergency room at the city heart hospital due to heart palpitations (I self-drove; no ambulance).

I was there for a few hours for monitoring before I was discharged with new meds and a curt, "There's nothing wrong with you. It happens to everyone when they get older. Stop paying so much attention to your pulse. It's normal to have your heart skip beats or double-beat." The doctor then went to deal with a junkie who had injected himself with a non-sterile needle.

Well, The Web seems to agree with him. Unless you're having chest pain, shortness of breath or extreme dizziness there's nothing wrong with you. Great.

So I'm back home trying to do normal things, but my chill vacation has been completely turned upside-down and destroyed. Kinda lost track of days and normal rhythms. Thursday seems like a long time ago, and I've felt kinda "out of it" over this whole heart issue. I will be exercising more and eating better. Kinda fallen down on these of late.

Anyhow, that was my 4th of July vacation.

For those who are interested I finally have my pics from Ireland 2009 and 2015 up on Flickr:

2009 was a big two-week trip with  seanc and another friend. We hit Killarney, The Ring of Kerry, Dingle, Ventry, and Limerick.
https://flic.kr/s/aHsmfNCLzo

2015 was just a quick visit after ConFuzzled 2015. Not too many pics were taken as it was more of an unwinding time after ConFuzzled. We also got rained out a couple days and didn't see much.
https://flic.kr/s/aHsmbQrztW