Penguins with Hand Grenades Out Now!
A silly little story about a colony of penguins used nefariously by a sinister USSR general. What could go wrong? (Well, besides everything).
Check it out!
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T-Rex Arm
I’m officially vaccinated from COVID-19. *Stadium cheers*
One of the perks of working in education is being considered a first responder. Some teachers received the Pfizer vaccine and had very little symptoms afterwards. I received the Moderna vaccine. My first dose left me with a bruised shoulder so severe and unmovable that I described it to family and friends as “T-Rex Arm”. I could only move my arm from the elbow, making every grasp and reach look like a T-Rex was trying to grab a cup of coffee, fit a claw through the sleeve of a hoodie, or reach for a package of cookies atop the refrigerator, all in great agony. T-Rex roars and snarls came in tow, which was less a symptom of the pain, but was just the preferred cry of bereavement on my part.
This second dose of Moderna didn’t leave my injected shoulder so bruised. Instead, my immune system kicked in (which is a sign the vaccine is being taken in by the body) and I felt full-on aches and chills. It lasted only a day, but it was a trial. No “T-Rex Arm” this time around, which is a shame; in the month that passed from my first dose of Moderna, I’ve perfected my T-Rex snarl and roar.
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See You on the Other Side
A close friend of the family died this past week. I won’t say much else for privacy’s sake. However, the one detail of this person’s death (which came at the relatively young age of 62) that stuck out to me was that she was given three days to live. She had all her mental faculties and must have sensed a clock ticking down, which is a horrifying thought.
The closest I’ve come to experiencing anything like this was with a recent hernia surgery. After having an IV punctured into the top of my hand, I was wheeled down the sterile hallways of the surgery center to the operating room, which was cold and blasting country music from the tinny-sounding ceiling speakers. Before the nurse pumped anesthetic through my veins, I had a momentary panic, that grim understanding that should something go wrong, the dull, square-tiled ceiling of the O.R. was the last thing I was going to see.
I remember the blackness of injected sleep claw across my periphery. I didn’t try to fight it, just shifted my eyes back and forth to watch the oncoming darkness. Then, before it completely covered my vision, I was out. I woke up later as though nothing had happened, the surgery completed.
When I think of the sleep that befell this family friend, I only hope she awoke somewhere much the same, unaware of what took her there, but that she arrived on the other side of what was once considered her life.
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FFVII Remake Intergrade and More
What a big week for FFVII! The PS5 remaster is coming out soon, along with a new Yuffie expansion. A series of mobile games were announced, including the entire FFVII compendium of FFVII, Advent Children, Dirge of Cerberus, and Crisis Core. All games are remastered and to be released episodically on mobile.
I’m a big fan of Final Fantasy VII, as you can see from my previous website logo here:
Yeah, I’m extremely excited for all of it!
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Road Trip for Takeout
I drive 45 minutes for takeout Chinese food. The restaurant isn’t noteworthy (which is literally titled: China Buffet) other than to say the food is the best around. It sounds counterproductive to drive so far for takeout and then to drive another 45 minutes home, but I don’t think that’s the point. The drive, the food, all of it is an escape.
This week, I was walking with a colleague of mine in the hallway and said, “I feel exhausted, like I can’t shake it. Do you feel that way, too? Or is it just me?”
She said, “Oh, sure. I think it’s the weather.”
I stared for a moment and said, “What about the pandemic we’re in?”
“Oh yeah,” she said. “Could be that, too.”
For this, and thousands of other anecdotes like it, driving 45 minutes for takeout that hits the spot is the escape all of us are looking for.
I sincerely hope you’ve found your escape as well.
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Wishing everyone as well as they can be. You’re not alone out there,
