Friends

Also, splat. For the best reasons! tithenai came over (squeeee!) and yuki_onna and Dmitri came over for a wee while tooooo! :)
AlsoIfailedtotakemedsontimebutwho'scounting

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Originally posted by mitchell_hart at Through the Gate: Submissions Wanted!

http://bibsearch.blogspot.com/2012/05/news-of-knee.html

I saw the orthopedic surgeon yesterday, and he saw my leg. It has interesting green and purple bruises on the upper shin and on the sides of the knee, worst on the outside. The swelling is down. He won't know for a while whether there is ligament damage, but he said it's usually ligament or bone, not both.
I get to keep the immobilizer and the crutches for another 5 weeks, until I see him again June 28th. After 2 weeks I can take the immobilizer off at home for brief periods to gently flex and extend the leg.
But it remains important that I put no weight on the right leg until cleared. If I do, I risk worsening the fracture, buggering my knee, surgery, and all that. Which also means being very careful while crutching and not taking it for granted as it gets easier (I'm assuming it does get easier).
Overall, good news, with caveats.

My endurance of sitting up, whether in a chair or propped up in bed, still runs to an hour at most, and crutching to the washroom and back means a recuperative nap. On the other hand, I was suffering generalised aches and upper-body twitches from lack of exercise.  So Mark brought me a couple of 10 lb dumbbells, and I worked out with those, and did leg lifts with the good leg.
It wasn't quite as rejuvenating as my sponge bath, but it meant last night's sleep was much more comfortable than the night before.

Big achievement the first day of bed-rest:  figuring out how to lie on my side.
Big achievement yesterday:  working out how to wash my hair (still theoretical, test to be made today).

One unexpected benefit of clinic visits is how filling out the information forms makes me grateful for my good health. I'd never thought of myself as a terrifically healthy person (glasses, arthritis, always catching colds, not athletic) but being able to check the NO box for a massive list of chronic health conditions does remind me that I wasn't that much of a loser in the genetic lottery, even if I didn't win the 'tall, with prominent cheekbones' prize. 

Posted to anticiworkshop as well, apologies to those who've seen it twice.

Let me present a snippet of a dialog two of my authorial personas recently had:

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HUCKSTER [a terrifying creature with big hair wearing a realtor's jacket and a label reading, "HI! I'm an author". She carries a monstrous shoulder bag decorated with buttons and ribbons from writing conferences. She approaches a door guarded by EDITOR, who sits at an old school desk, reading Proust]: So, she's finished the first draft. About time. When did she originally promise it?

EDITOR [everybody's sophomore English teacher, who once published a story in her college literary magazine and never forgot it]: two months ago. But you know she doesn't have the best sense of time. If I didn't program reminders into her phone, she'd forget to feed the dog.

HUCKSTER: She needs to remember this is business, not art. There are opportunities that only exist for a blink. Trends that come and go. Today, gargoyle romance, tomorrow circus porn--although that one's kinda eternal, you know what I mean?

EDITOR: No. No I don't.

HUCKSTER: Liar. But back to our timid little friend. If she can't produce on schedule, like this [snaps fingers repeatedly] she might as well get out of the business.

EDITOR: We've had this discussion before. She can't produce on schedule. She's doing a bit better on her word count, but of course, the moment anyone notices how much--or how little--she's produced, she hides under a pile of leaves. I have to lure her out with the latest volume of Dengeki Daisy.
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you can continue reading at my blog

and if you like manga, I can seriously recommend Dengeki Daisy. It's shojo, romantic fluff, but the heroine is sweet, with a core of strength and honesty, not to mention constantly wishing baldness on the male lead :)

We just watched the latest (I think) episode of Legend of Korra, “The Aftermath.” I’m continuing to really enjoy this show for a number of reasons.

MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD

Pacing: One of the things that bugged me was the love triangle between Korra, Mako, and Asami. It felt, not necessarily cliche, but easy. It’s an oft-repeated trope, one that could push characters into more cardboard, stereotypical roles and — if other shows are any example — drag out for far too long.

Instead, Asami’s character quickly developed more depth and conflict. The plot moved along, changing her role in the story. The conflict between Korra and Asami progressed through conflict into understanding and sympathy. I loved the quiet moment at the end where Korra tells Mako, “She’s going to need you.”

I’ve seen that pacing elsewhere, and I appreciate that the show doesn’t seem to get bogged down. There’s always a sense of movement.

Lin Beifong continues to be awesome. In many ways, I think she’s my favorite character. Partly because she’s an older woman kicking all sorts of ass. Partly because she, more than anyone else I’ve seen, seems to take full advantage of her bending abilities. The firebenders throw fire. Earthbenders throw rocks. Beifong, on the other hand, manipulates metal cables like Spider-Man, grows blades from her armor to punch through mechs, and seems to push the “What else can I do with this?” angle.

Complexity: The scene with Tahno’s character really jumped out at me. This is a character who’s introduced as a full-on asshole. He’s arrogant, he cheats, and you really wanted Korra to kick his butt in the tournament. Instead, the White Falls Wolfbats won … and thus became the targets of an Equalist attack.

In the next episode, you see Tahno without his powers, and he’s utterly broken. Korra feels for him. She knows what he lost and how close she came to losing her own bending. It was a fairly short scene, but that’s all it took.

The relationship between Tenzin and Lin Beifong is another interesting example. Their history, the contrast of their apparent discomfort with how well they work together in a crisis … I have no idea where that’s going, but I like the dynamic, and at this point I’m trusting the show not to go somewhere overly cliche with it.

While there are certainly characters who seem flat-out Evil, at least at first, I appreciate that things generally aren’t presented in a simplistic black-and-white way. Neither people nor power are simple, and this show respects that fact.

The Animation: This is a very pretty show, particularly in the way it portrays movement and the grace of the different benders. I get done watching, and other cartoons suddenly seem clunkier.

Trusting the Viewers: I was trying to figure out how to phrase this last bit, and “trust” is the closest I can come. I’ve never seen a single episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender, but it hasn’t stopped me from enjoying Korra. It doesn’t surprise me that they wanted a show that could welcome new viewers as well as old, but it struck me that there just isn’t a lot of exposition or hand-holding, period. There’s no talking down, no assuming that things will be too complicated or difficult to understand. Elements are explained as they become relevant to the story.

I know there are things I’m missing from Avatar, but I can catch up on my own, and I like that they don’t slow down the story to spoon-feed information.

In Conclusion: Okay, I get it. I’m officially a fan, and I have added Avatar: TLA to my list of things to catch up on (when I find the time).

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.