Shannon Larratt is Zentastic

 

As you may have noticed, Jon finished the server move this morning and we're back online. There's still some tweaking to do for performance and we're still catching up on the loose ends (yes, the IAM authorization module will be fixed very soon). Thanks to everyone who contributed we managed to post a huge 5,800 image megaupdate. Thanks also to the lovely and recently engaged Asurfael for the cover shot.

Starting with the least pleasant news first, the third (or first or second, depending on how you count) family member of my generation (as in me, my brothers and sisters, and my extended cousins) just committed suicide this weekend. I didn't really know him very well because we grew up far apart, but I think we had a lot of similarities and I'd just started talking to him again online over the last few years… An unfortunate decision I think.

I was watching some episode of Law and Order recently that tackled assisted suicide in the case of someone who was mentally ill (as in chronically depressed). I can't even begin to describe how uncomfortable that episode made me… While the libertarian part of me completely supports the right-to-die, I have to admit that allowing assistance to be legal in the case of people who are mentally ill is playing with fire and would result in hundreds of thousands of deaths a year. Other than people who are about to die (terminal illnesses in their final phase), I think suicide is almost universally wrong, and I say that as someone whose doctor specializes in suicidal behavior — and I only got that doctor after returning from a vacation to Hades.

In not-really-my-family's-news, Nefarious's godmother's aunt-in-law just died… She was about forty years old and in good health. Symptoms of a winter flu and sore throat came up, and it spiralled out of control instantly. When she got to the hospital her body was already shutting down and all they could ask her was “do you want us to keep you alive long enough to say goodbye to anyone?”

(Sometimes little things are fatal; their prediction was accurate and the funeral is in a couple days).

Anyway, in much more pleasant family news, check out this awesome tower of MegaBlocks that my daughter Nefarious and I built this morning. I could have gone all the way to the ceiling but I ran out of blocks… It's a simple square design with a spiralling brace that runs its entire height and is very strong!

And yes, I spend too much time in front of that TV.

Let's see what else I have to report… Blair came by today and we worked on getting his book closer to completion, and I also did some more publishing work with crippled Lane as well… I grabbed groceries too, and got lots of yummy things, but this was not one of them:

Seriously, could a digestive cookie have a less appealing name? I mean, really… even TurdAid™ would be better I figure.

Other than that, as you may know, my brother is one of the top unlimited class arm wrestlers in the world. There's a meet coming up this weekend (want to come?) so I've been roughing out ideas for a shirt for them. Here's the core concept. He's the one on the right:

That's just a rough sketch; I still have to redraw it and fix the hands, and decide if there's going to be text or if that'll just go on the back, and so on. I'm super proud of both his and my sister's accomplishments and talents so it's a real pleasure to be able to help out in little ways like this.

And now I'm gonna go watch The Simpsons!