Monthly Archives: November 2006

Masks

One of the fun things about after Halloween is that masks are discounted to just a couple dollars. Last time I was at the pharmacy I told Nefarious she could pick one out… I had recommended one but she insisted it wasn't scary enough so she chose this one (her “real” outfit was a flying unicorn; this is just for fun).

Other than that, I have a pharmacy story to tell.

Last time I got my prescription filled (sleep medication), the pharmacy messed up and gave me a drug with a similar name but with a totally different purpose — some thyroid medication — and with the strength changed by an order of ten. So a fairly serious mistake I think. Mistakes like this if I remember right kill 50,000+ people a year.

I noticed of course that evening, and I had about two weeks left over from the previous batch anyway, so I wasn't particularly stressed… But at the same time, I easily could have taken it if I didn't pay closer attention. So I decided to use this opportunity to try and send a message. About two weeks later I went in and showed them the misprescription and asked them if it was a generic for my regular prescription, and that I'd looked it up on the internet and it didn't seem right.

Well, at this point I started to feel really bad because the pharmacist looked extremely shaken — I guess because she knows how dangerous these events are. She apologized profusely, and I emphasized that it wasn't her fault, because it was the owner that had filled my prescription, not her.

By law, this has been reported. The pharmacist told me she was extremely upset because she's been warning the owner for some time that this is a problem at their pharmacy… I guess the owner doesn't want to hire enough staff, so he rushes through filling the prescriptions at the end of the day, and makes mistakes in the process. I do feel like a bit of an asshole because all of this made some decent people upset over something they didn't do, but I think it's important to send a strong message to the owner that if he doesn't hire the help he needs, eventually someone will die.

(Original forum unavailable, sorry)*

Oh, it's the end of the day

Hmmm, I haven't seemed to post today. Outside of the everyday-work that I always do, I started a painting based on a picture of Martyna (no specific reason other than I liked the original picture) to get back into practice on something less abstract or simplistic.

I'm also playing with a ModBlog shirt based on a picture of Tinyfoam that was featured back in March.

Anyway. Other than that I'm watching Survivor and maybe posting a little more on ModBlog if I can find the time (tomorrow there's no school so my day's fuller).

Paintings Hung…

First, sorry for the temporary downtime. I'm looking into it now.

OK, last entry for today. The two paintings on the right are drawn by Nefarious but painted by me. I think I've posted them before. The painting on the left was to a large degree painted by Nefarious. I started it and she finished it.

I made the decision that any time I'm not happy with the way a painting is turning out, I'm just going to let her take over. To be perfectly honest, it seems to turn out better when I do that anyway! The white whale of a painting below (it's 3d — the paint comes out about an inch and a half) isn't getting better as I work on it so I think tomorrow after school, it will change hands.

I've done a series of simple, childish paintings lately, and I'm getting bored of it so I think next I'm going to paint some portraits, or maybe some pictures that I like from ModBlog as practice.

Body issues

OK, it totally mortifies me to post pictures like this, so I really appreciate people not saying mean stuff. I know I'm in bad shape, but I'm working to change that… To try and track how I'm doing I've been taking pictures regularly — at the beginning, after a month at the gym, and in this entry, about two months at the gym. A lot of the changes you can't see because they're transformations of layers of fat into layers of muscle. I'm pretty happy so far. I really hope that people understand that if I can do it after so much inactivity and sloth corroding me, you can do it too.

Alright, you can stop laughing now.

It's funny, I know I'm writing about stuff that most people did when they were in highschool or younger, but other than judo my physical activity at that age was all farmwork… So I'm pretty much totally unfamiliar with what's inside a gym… Today I used a speed bag for the first time in my life which was a lot of fun. Other than that, we've been doing more coordination work, and I've been trying to really focus on controlling my motions precisely, which is also helping me understand how and why I compensate for my knee in a lot of actions.

I actually just got a call from my doctor about my knee. They're pretty sure that it's a bone tumor (but they're not sure yet), which can be unpleasant to remove at this size but I'm told isn't really that intense of a procedure assuming there are no complications (and I guess mine is one that will probably have to be removed). I have an appointment with a surgeon coming up next I'm told but I don't have a date yet. We'll see whether the Canadian healthcare system works out for me, or if I get stuck in a queue.

Oh, and the curse of the stairs in this house finally caught up to me, and like Jon not long after we moved in, I took a tumble and feel like I broke my toe as well! Hahaha, not a big deal… I was hanging up some paintings and slipped while I was doing it. But it's good to get those paintings on the wall, because having a stack of paintings leaning up against my bookshelf was depressing.

Oh yeah, and I guess BMEfest 2005 (Mexico) was on the Discovery Channel today… As far as I can tell the show didn't air here in Canada — if anyone was able to record/capture it, drop me a line because I'd love to see it. Aparently there is some funny footage of me sunburned in a big straw hat or something…

(Original forum unavailable, sorry)*

Kerry needs a time machine

What good does it do to grow balls years too late? Seriously. This is as bad as the media finally criticizing aggressive (and ultimately self-destructive) militarism, only now, when it's so blatantly obvious even the uninformed public agrees, even though none of the facts have changed or even become more obvious…

Politicians and media have a responsibility to lead and to inform, rather than simply being windvanes to what they think their constituents believe. Seriously, this “get elected” way of thinking versus “do the right thing” way of thinking is extremely short-sighted, and I think really shows you the result of a lazy democracy. Maybe democracy in general is a good system, I don't know, but lazy democracy is probably the worst system, because it causes people to become completely oppressed by their own apathy, and by the time they realize it, they are so deeply imprisoned that nothing but a bloodbath of a revolution can free them from their self-imposed chains.

But I think people feel it. School shootings, which are becoming more and more common, are unguided knee-jerk reactions to an environment that systematically breaks down, dehumanizes, and enslaves its communities… Eventually kids are going to realize that gunning down their comrades — friend or bully — plays into the hands of their masters by weakening those who should be their allies, and they'll we'll see what happens next…

(Original forum unavailable, sorry)*