I made two new icons recently, and I thought I'd share.

First, an icon to represent my photography:


And next, the third in the series that began with "Headdesk" and "Facepalm" ...


...I bring you:

A very big thank you to everyone who contributed to this.

For my birthday, I just got a brand new Martin OMC Cherry guitar. It's made from sustainable wood and sounds wonderful! It came with a custom pick guard with my logo on it and a wonderful leather and lambswool strap.



I'll be playing it at the show tomorrow! Come hear how it sounds! (Lestat's, 3343 Adams Avenue in Normal Heights, 6pm tomorrow night!)

My appointment yesterday to have my sutures removed went . . . poorly. She succeeded in removing about two-thirds of them, but the process was so painful, even when I was under the influence of nitrous, that I had to have her stop. I still have about a dozen left in my foot.

The reason for this has to do with the nature of scar tissue*. Scar tissue can heal in one of two ways: The first, and most common (as I understand it), is that the scar tissue is numb, with no sensation at all. The second way is that the scar tissue becomes hypersensitive, as if all the nerves were turned up to eleven.

For me, the latter is apparently the case. The scar tissue forming over the incision is very, very, very sensitive, and removing the sutures felt like she was ripping them out with pliers. I have an appointment next Monday to have the rest of them taken out, before which I will take an oral sedative and perhaps have a topical anaesthetic applied. Needless to say, I will have someone transport me to the appointment rather than driving there myself.

So . . . not quite all done, but not too far from it, either.

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*I kept wanting to type "scare tissue". Darn fingers... ;-)

Today at 4:30, I have an appointment with my surgeon to have my sutures removed. Hopefully, after they're out, the incision area will hurt less.

I found myself feeling very depressed earlier. I thought it was because I had a lot on my mind and a lot going on, and that may have been part of it.

But then I remembered that today is Mother's Day.

I miss you, Mom.

A blurb on Slashdot caught my sweetie's attention, and she passed it along to me. It is very interesting:

What Various Studies Really Reveal About File-Sharing

In this case, they're talking about file-sharing as it pertains to the distribution of music through peer-to-peer sites. While the RIAA claims that it costs millions of dollars every year in lost sales, the studies cited seem to paint a different picture.

If you're a recording artist, you probably already hate the RIAA, but this is just more reason to do so.

Go see it! Seriously, go! Now! Put down whatever you're doing and go buy a ticket! Because this movie is made of 100% pure, grade A, hammered awesome.

I dreamed that someone was explaining to me that the reason the magnetic north pole moves around was not geomagnetic instability ... but wormholes.

Sounded legit...

Some of my friends, most notably dragondancer515, need to see this:

A Seven-Foot-Long, Fire-Breathing, Jet-Engine RC Flying Dragon