After getting rid of it for a few months, my cough has returned and has been getting worse. I haven't gotten anything definite from the doctors, but there are some suspicions of the underlying cause for my chronic bronchitis, and it's not very good news, to date. Being sick for such long periods of time and spending most of my waking hours feeling tired and exhausted is really wearing away at me. Thus far I'm considering it yet another heartwarming way for the world to say "fuck you" to me.

In other news I've been tying up various commissions, and might be taking on a new one. I've been offered the chance to do a title screen to a science fiction themed game. I have a few days to consider it before giving a reply.

Lately, I've been on SL, usually leaving it running while I'm doing homework, cleaning, etc.

The last few days, I've been on a lot more than usual, since I've not really been up much for going out.

Chronic bronchitis, with the associated fatigue, heavy coughing, and that annoying tickle that you get in your throat are all annoying. The weird changes to sleeping patterns are even more annoying.

Haven't been to the recording studio since I got sick, and I'm all hazy-headed and forget a few small details, such as turning off voice chat on SL when doing other things. As a result, I think that some people overheard me swearing in five different languages as I was taking apart an old, stubborn hard drive enclosure that's particularly stubborn, and particularly taken apart and tossed in the trash now, with the drive cannibalized and put to use elsewhere.

The grunting and such must've been hilarious to hear, given my shortness of breath. :D

In other news, some people have started, or rather, tried to start weird assed drama, but I've been too tired to care.

Good times.

In other news, I bought The Orange Box, and have played such on and off. Doesn't always work so well, what with the coughing fits and all. Still fun, though.

I should upload something, but... I'm too unfocused to do so, and keep forgetting.

The other day I had to play tour guide for a friend of mine and his family, who are from out of country. After wandering around and showing the various sights around the city, both well-known and a number of the assorted strange and hidden art pieces here and there. As a bonus, I managed to keep them from getting robbed, starving to death, etc.

At the end of all that I was given a Volito tablet, made by Wacom as thanks for having shown them around the city.

Unfortunately I already have a Volito2 tablet. The two tablets recognize one another's stylus, which is kind od neat. Given that each reportedly contains a unique RFID, I can likely do some interesting stuff with that.

my tablet works flawlessly under Linux now, although in Windows, it sometimes loses pressure sensitivity, which is really annoying.

My scanner works, although I need to refine the scanning procedure a lot. Under Windows, scanning with the TWAIN driver was sheer bloody murder, and almost impossible. Works quite a bit better under Linux, though. I should read the libUSB documentation so that I can enable scanning as regular users, and not just root. I'm lazy, so it won't likely happen anytime soon.

Of note, more and more people say my drawings are creepy, and some have stated that it makes them nauseous. I think I like that.

A customer got hurt at my workplace the other day.

While I was the only one on duty downstairs.

Again.

I'll try describing the wound.

A large, heavy, non-yielding object with an acute edge caused an uneven laceration roughly 2 cm in length running from the center of the fingertip roughly 30 degrees along the dorsal distal to roughly the center of the intermediate phalanx of the left digitus secundus, through the nail and cleaving from nail plate, lunula, past the eponychium, and at least half of a millimeter into the nail bed and underlying tissues, and across the distal interphalangeal joint. The would was open, causing slight blood loss. Following basic assessment of the wound, cleaning, sterilization of the wound, application of a sterile bandage and pressure, the male was sent to a nearby health center for definitive care.

More or less.

Go me.

I'm tired.

I had one of those weird moments associated with drawing the other day. One of the supervisors had her granddaughter at the workplace, and we ended up looking after her for a while.

Being that she was a child and it was a rather quiet day, things ended up with the child as things at an office often do. She was bored, and I ended up drawing stuff for her and together with her to help her pass the time and to help avoid her becoming a force of destruction, as children who get too bored end up doing.

I realized just how... weird it is, drawing stuff, and doing what you can not to mistakenly warp the little kid's mind. She happened to see the book I was reading, and she ended up flipping through it, and trying to draw the stuff that's in it, after having me explain what the pictures were.

I was reading 'The Mechanics of Microbiological Diseases', a medical textbook.

Fun for every boy and girl.

How do you explain pictures of gonorrhea, herpes, AIDS etc microbes invading cells and doing damage to a kid? :P I had a hard time keeping a straight face, and staying vague.

Nothing quite like watching a small child trying to copy a schematic of a gonorrhea bacteria out of a medical textbook. Or seeing that same little girl just moments later trying to draw the capsids of AIDS and genital wart causing viri, while she's not trying to doodle herpes bacteria amongst sketches of octopi, hamburgers with bug parts sticking out, and squid.

I think I messed her up for life. :D

This week was a bit odd.

A few of the highlights include a customer at my workplace accidentally cutting his scalp open and getting blood all over the place. None of the supervisors were available, since they all were on the phone when I tried getting in touch with them. Realistically speaking, from what I know of them, they were likely talking to their relatives on the phone. While the cut victim was being belligerent, I went straight for the first aid kit (despite being sleep deprived for the last three days due to neighbors who decide that 3 AM is the *perfect* time to start building and moving furniture). The thing was almost empty. No sterilizing agents of any kind, few bandages, and only a couple of sterile compresses. After some rummaging around, I gave up. I ended up using a paper towel and tap water to clean the wound, applied pressure, then scrounged some sterile gauze, applied a folded compress, and wrapped him in gauze to ensure that there'd be pressure on the wound, telling him to, despite what he'd want to do otherwise, to keep pressure on the injury site until he can get it properly looked at, sterilized, and tended. All the while being called useless, etc. and having to deal with the weird ass phone system at my workplace not allowing me to call any of the cab companies on an outside line. Fortunately, there was a medical center just around the corner, and after I got him to sit down, he was able to walk over there, since he wasn't badly injured, and seemed aware enough to find his way, lacking a concussion or the like. And yeah, I did an initial evaluation, like the books say I should. And wouldn't you know it, it was my very first shift there where I was the only one working.

A few days later, he returned and thanked me for helping, smiling quite a bit.

The lamination machine at work jammed up, and I spent hours taking the thing apart and putting it back together, accidentally burning my fingertips a little, and getting grease all over my hands. Turned out that someone put in the little laminated sheet through non-sealed side first, and had the heat turned up too high, causing the semi-molten plastic to stick to the rollers, unraveling, and then sticking to itself. Horrid mess, ended up cutting the plastic mess out with a knife.

Many of the customers are rather... dishonest, and constantly whine, trying to get cheaper prices from the ones posted.

Fortunately, when I ask my co-workers to help, they always do.

Emotionally, I've been a bit more affected by some things I've read. Notably, Zhuan Falun by Li Hongzhi, and Voyage From Yesteryear by James P. Hogan have left me feeling really odd and out of place. Strange books.

Today, I couldn't sleep. Noisy neighbors, lots more traffic outside than usual, and so on. Then my roommate insisting on all sorts of interruptions while I'm trying to draw and such, completely breaking my ability to focus on trying out a couple new shading methods I'm trying to get down, and making me lose all track of whatever online conversations I was having, resulting in me ending up a bit of a spaz.

I had the day off from work, though I couldn't enjoy it due to sleep deprivation, interruptions, and then not being able to fall back asleep.

What a waste.

I got sick of the default avatar icon, so I gimped up a quickie from an ancient robot doodle.

I'm considering animating it.

According to quite a few people, I've developed a 'style' in my drawing.

I have no idea what the hell that really means, though.

Well, for the first time in about 12 years, my hands aren't hurting and shaking uncontrollably, thus allowing me to draw. They finally healed. The inevitable question I get is "What happened to ur hands lol rofl phngluimglwnafhcthulhurlyehwgahnaglfhtagnlulz0r ?!?!?"

But for now, I've gotten my scanner out of mothballs, and I get some time at work when things are slow to doodle a little now and then, allowing me to slowly scrape lines onto whatever medium I'm using.

I suppose a brief explanation might be in order.

I began getting more feeling and mobility back roughly two years ago. At first, I was drawing cheesy 1930s to 1960s style sci-fi robots, and had lots of people making comments that I was a "robot artist", whatever that is.

It proved popular.

Next I started practicing with basic shapes, simple designs, and some architecture along with many things mechanical in nature. This was referred to as my 'fornicating mattresses' period, given the comments on some of the monolithic style architectural drawings I did while delirious with recurring fevers.

I became known for drawing strange things at this point, and began getting requests to continue drawing.

And now, having started with simple 'organic' shapes, I've chosen arthropods as a starting point. Drawing assorted simplistic biological odds and ends, occasionally infusing an element or two from the odd dream here and there, and trying out a few small odds and ends of shading here and there.

Now I get the word 'creepy' describing my artwork a lot.

Ahhh, if only I were willing to appease the masses, and return to drawing copulating furniture-buildings.

But I'm not.

And now, I've purchased a Wacom tablet, readying to make even more unpopular artwork!