The Grandpa Twins Redux
So I posted about The Grandpa Twins a while back, but now that we’ve got the tapes actually professionally pulled into digital format instead of me recording them with my camcorder by pointing it at the TV, here is an updated video with all of the episodes on it. Timestamps in the comments, for anyone who remotely cares.
Wacky Peter
Yo! So let’s continue the home movie marathon, shall we?
So around the time of my last year of high school, I came up with this Lego character I called “Wacky Peter.” He had all these misadventures and was always dying. Mr. Bill-type stuff.
During 12th grade and the summer between graduating and going to college, I made a whole bunch of stop-motion Wacky Peter videos. Just like when I was a kid, I LOVED recording stuff and making my own movies and the like, so this was sort of the end of that era of my life before I went to college.
(I did this instead of having friends, which is a pretty common pattern for me, haha.)
(I also had my Cape Cod Radio Mystery episodes playing in the background as I worked/filmed, so that’s what all the noise/talking is.)
So here are all the episodes condensed into one video. There are timestamps for each episode in the comments in case anyone actually cares.
Some People Need to Hear It
If every other post you make on Facebook is one asking people to Venmo you money because you can’t afford groceries for you and your gaggle of spawn…
…maybe you should stop making spawn?
Just a thought.
Guess what I did today?
I APPLIED FOR CANADIAN CITIZENSHIP!
I’m finally eligible and I finally got around to filling out the application, so now it’s on its way and I get to see how long this whole process takes now.
At least it was easier (and cheaper) than permanent residency.
r/place 2023
Because I posted a timelapse of last year’s.
Needs full screen mode.
Leeeeeeeeeg
I had my first physical therapy appointment today and my physical therapist came to the same conclusion that the clinic doctor did: I done botched up my sartorius muscle.
It sounds like it will take a decent amount of time for it to heal, but she also cleared me for running if I could deal with the pain, so that’s good at least.
Buh.
Uh…
Sorry, what?
CNN, your “you need to read more to get any sort of context” headlines are pretty great, not gonna lie.
Welcome to Hell!
In other words, welcome to several weeks of home videos and other nonsense that no one else cares about!
First up: Hamlet performed by Legos. I made this sometime in 12th grade and my 12th grade English teacher let me show it to the class near the end of the year. They freaking loved it and a bunch of people mentioned it when they signed my yearbook, haha.
It’s actually crap, but so is the taste of 12th graders, apparently.
Anyway.
*raucous excitement* THE HOME MOVIES ARE HERE
Well, they’re not really here yet…my mom is in the process of uploading them to a joint YouTube account so that I can download them, edit them (splice ‘em up and give ‘em names), and make them pretty.
So expect a lot of home movie garbage in the coming weeks. That’s all I’m going to say.
Waiter! There’s a Drawing in My Blog Post!
WHAT THE HELL, right?
I haven’t done a portrait drawing since *checks DeviantArt* 2011. So it’s been about 12 years since I picked up a pencil and drew someone with it. But I wanted to see if I could still pull of something that looked vaguely human, so here we are.
For those of you who are NOT obsessed with medical dramas like I am, this is Will Halstead from Chicago Med. Will is pretty hit or miss as a character, but the actor that plays him, Nick Gehlfuss, is great.
And he’s also WAY more attractive than this picture makes him out to be. (Also my scanner sucks.) Sorry, Nick.
Dumb Runner
So I don’t know how I’ve never run into these comics before (unintended pun), but they are absolutely hilarious and very relatable.
Favorites:
Relatable.
Also relatable.
This is why I’m scared of doing an in-person marathon.
A.I.merica
Ha, this is pretty great.
The best part is looking at all the weird little AI mistakes, like extra (fewer) fingers or misspelled stuff.
Like the “39” (?) on Michigan’s jacket.
Or Nevada’s little raptor left hand.
Ah yes, my favorite baseball team, the Cincinnati Redes!
I’m already homesick.
Ugh. How am I supposed to wait another year to go back to Moscow again?
I just want to be back there for another few days or so, that’s all.
Sad.
Claudia + Watercolors = ???
So when I was back in the States, I of course had to visit Walmart. The Walmart I used to go to here got “upgraded” over the worst pandemic years and now it’s horrible. Also, everything is so much more expensive here.
ANYWAY.
Because I’m really good at “this thing looks cool, let’s buy it,” I bought this little travel watercolor set:
And finally got a chance to try it out today:
I know it sucks, but this is the first thing I’ve watercolored since Art Camp. And I was really just trying out the colors; a tree seemed the easiest thing to make.
I am an absolute garbage artist, but MAN it feels good to art.
OH GOD THAT WAS PAINFUL
So as I mentioned yesterday, today I decided to run for the first time since busting up my leg.
Super
SUPER
painful.
Especially at the start. Even after taking a few ibuprofens. It was like my whole upper leg was on fire for the first several miles, and that only diminished slightly as I kept running. And trying to run on any sort of uneven surface (like the back road in Bowness, which has a decently steep slant to it)? OH MY GOD PAIN.
But I was able to do it. I was able to run 16 miles.
Not sure how much pain I’ll be in tomorrow, but at least I was able to do it.
This is going to be a long, painful recovery.
Results
So for the first time since I went in for my PMLE issues in 2019, I went to see a doctor today because of my leg.
And the doctor, after a very thorough inspection, confirmed what I figured: an injury to my sartorius muscle.
(Pic from Wikipedia)
She recommended that I go see a manual therapist. Then I left without paying because THIS STUFF IS FREE IN CANADA
(Sorry, I’m still not over that. And yes, I know we do technically pay via taxes, shut up.)
Anyway, I looked up manual therapists and there’s actually a few that work in the physiotherapy place right across the street and the medical plaza, so I’m going to see if I can make an appointment with one of them soon.
The doctor also said that I could run without causing further damage, but that doing so will probably be very painful until things start to heal.
So I’m going to try to run tomorrow.
I Am Drawing
And OH MY GOD IT FEELS SO GOOD
All my creative energy since November 2020 has been dedicated to that year’s NaNoWrimo (and re-writing it), but I’m taking a little break from that so I can read/edit again with fresher eyes later.
SO IT’S DRAWIN’ TIME!
I forgot how utterly relaxing drawing is.
Writing is not relaxing, but drawing is.
iPad Time!
Guys, I finally got an iPad!
Here is my swag bag:
I got an iPad Air (in purple), a Magic Keyboard, and an Apple Pencil.
Here it is all set up:
I’m super excited! This will be good for meetings and for helping students if I ever do those Engineering Calculus courses again.
Plus, it’s cool.
Woo!
I did two things today!
Well, I did other stuff too, of course, but there were two BIG things.
One: I signed up for FRE 102, the first actual factual French course in the certificate program. I’m nervous about it because we’re actually graded in this course (rather than Complete/Incomplete), so that’ll be interesting.
Two: I also officially applied for the program to get a professional Certificate in French Language and Culture – FSL Foundations. I’ll get an actual parchment if I complete the whole program!
YAYZORZ
Prozzak Reprise
So remember a few days ago when I posted all those Prozzak songs and wondered how I’d never heard of the band before?
Well, I think I had heard of them, I just wasn’t consciously aware of it.
Why, you ask?
(Shut up, pretend you asked.)
Well, the band consists of two animated little dudes named Simon and Milo. Simon, I suppose, is a decently common name, but I wouldn’t say Milo is very common.
As I was walking this afternoon, for whatever reason I remembered a story I was writing several years back (2014?) about two researchers working at the McMurdo Station in Antarctica. Their names? Simon and Milo.
You can’t tell me I came up with that duo of names without prior influence. It’s an odd combination of names.
So yeah, I take that as evidence that somehow, somewhere, sometime I had been exposed to Prozzak and the names of the two band members was shoved somewhere deep in the folds of my memory.
The brain is odd, no?
The Protector Vanishes
So as we all know, that gnarly monstrosity that was my middle toenail fell off about a week ago.
I was unaware of how much protection that toenail was giving the two adjacent toes, because now we have these three amigos:
And they all hurt like hell.
So who knows how this is all going to turn out.
Back to Calgary
So for various reasons, I’m leaving Moscow several days early.
Because why should I get to stay here the full time I was hoping to stay here?
(Sorry, both of the main reasons I’m heading back are legit and important, but I’m feeling frustrated and bitter right now. I just want to hang out here with my mom, why is that so hard to do?)
Eigenblogger 