Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Dusk

I like art. Particularly, I like to create art. I prefer traditional mediums to technological ones, for instance I'll always choose a pad of paper and ink over photoshop. But sometimes it's nice to just play around with digital mediums which is why I love art[dot]com's artpad feature.

When I get the taste for a little quick, clean, digital art I go there and paint without the clean up! It can be a strain though, I don't have a tablet so I do all the work with a regular mouse which sticks and jumps and makes me have to start over a lot.

Half the fun is the playback feature where you can watch the piece go from a blank canvas to a completed piece right before your eyes. Normally I'd just post that link for anyone who may want to peak at my mouse pad scribbles, but art[dot]com is broken today so I had to get screenshots instead.

Monday, August 20, 2007

Medicine is Icky II & A Carnival

The medication did not come in liquid form so I had to suffer through 10 days of extreme gross twice a day. Ew. But wait, there's more! I'm still sick so I've been put on another medication! At least this one is a liquid.

Now for something completely different!

I went to the local carnival last week with my nephews. They were really well behaved, little Bill walked around with us and we pushed Jaidar along in his stroller. Jaidar got scared of a ride we walked by and started crying so little Bill held his hand. I almost died from cute overdose.

There weren't a wide selection of games there this year but luckily one of the games that was there was the dart game. I used to play darts with my step dad and my uncles all The time growing up so I always peg this game and walk away with the loot. Despite the carnies' assumption that, as a woman I would automatically fail at throwing a dart, I won stuffed animals for both of my nephews. With my last dart I won a prize for myself as well. The carnie probably felt like a true dunce.

We then filled my nephews full of funnel cake, elephant ears and koolaid and dropped them off at my brother's house. ..

Insect Olympics

The Arena
Koi pond measuring 4'x3' filled with hungry fish!

       The Athlete
The Goal: To escape the imminent doom of being eaten by fish or drowning.

The Reward: Your life!

The Rules: All contestants must start on the side opposite the underwater pagoda (see orange roof in photo for reference). Once in the water you must swim to the other side and find a means to escape the icy grasp of Death.
  1. If you exit the pond before reaching the other end you are disqualified.
  2. If you get swallowed by a goldfish you are disqualified.
  3. If you sink to the bottom and drown you are disqualified.
The Action
Almost there, does he have what it takes?
We have a winner!
*All waiting and no service makes Inari a bored girl.
Disclaimer: no insects, fish or Inaris were injured in the making of this blog.
The cricket was already in the pond when I arrived. 

I tried scooping it out to safety but it kept swimming away from me. 
So I took its picture instead.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

I Am Livid

For the last several months I've had a family of sparrows living above the door at the shop. If you aren't aware, sparrows are my favorite bird and it's considered to be good luck if they nest near your home. So to have them nest right in front of the shop, I was delighted.

Every morning when we got to work I'd see daddy sparrow leave the nest to find food and you could hear mommy sparrow up there chirping to her babies and you could hear their tiny chirps back.

After a few weeks the babies would learn how to fly and then gradually leave the nest. Then we'd just have the parent sparrows hopping around the parking lot collecting new nesting material, little seeds and bugs, etc., until they laid more eggs and the cycle started over again.

They had raised three families in that nest.

I knew that one day the sparrows would need to be moved since the nest was near a light fixture, so we had planned on purchasing a cozy little birdhouse and mounting it on the storefront so the birds would find it more attractive and reconstruct their nest there. Because let's face it, man has interfered enough in nature's plan. The sparrows nest in buildings because we've cleared the forests for our stores, restraunts, and homes. They have to live somewhere and trees are becoming a little scarce in most cities. It's our fault, the least we could do is accommodate them.

Before we could put up the birdhouse the sparrows were evicted.

When I got to work this morning there was no chirping. Daddy sparrow was not sitting on the wire in front of the building. The light fixture had been gutted, all of the nesting material had been stripped out. The ground was littered with feathers and straw and the birds were gone.

...

Where did they go? What did they do with the baby birds? Yes, they did have chicks in the nest, hatched just a week or so ago... When the nest was cleared did they at least have the courtesy to take them to an animal shelter? I somehow doubt it.

The property owner can make up whatever justification he wants to help him sleep at night, but those birds had just as much right to be here as we do. I'm absolutely livid. The superiority complex most humans have over other creatures is disgusting.

Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Medicine is Icky

I'm still not completely better from my pneumonia several weeks ago and with lackluster test results from my blood work my doctor decided to put me on medication again (I apparently have a secondary infection).

Now, anyone who knows me knows that I cannot swallow pills. I'm physically incapable of it. My doctor is also aware of this and normally prescribes me a liquid based regimen. In the late 90's it was realized by drug manufacturers that the inability to swallow pills is actually pretty common. Thus everything began being created in two forms, pill and liquid. Whereas before liquid medications were only available in children's dosages. Very rarely do I wind up having to chew or crush pills these days.

This last week though I saw my doctor's associate, because my actual doctor was out of town. When she called in my prescription I ended up with pills. I've crushed and chewed pills before so I figured I'd just do the same again. Boy was I mistaken.

These pills are so disgusting I can't even think of another gross enough item to compare them to. I have never tasted anything this bad before, and I have chewed pills of all varieties! Up until this the worst tasting pill award belonged to Midol (which tastes suspiciously like acetone). This is at least 20x worse than that.

They are like little round spheres of icky death.

On top of that the side effects make me feel worse than I actually feel just being sick. Sick I'm fatigued and have some muscle aches and pains. When I take this medicine I have a headache, I am dizzy, my stomach hurts, I'm exhausted... What the hell, right? I'm usually pretty tolerant but this is pushing it.

Last night after I had taken the medication and it made me feel so bad that a friend took me -- at 1am -- to get a milk shake because it was the only thing anyone could think of that could possibly improve the situation.

I'll be talking to my doctor this afternoon and we're going to see if she can perscribe me something in a liquid. I mean, if I have to pony up and continue with these pills, I will, but I'd rather not have to. Either way, I'll just be happy when I'm not sick anymore!