A year ago, we took our two year old cat, Hiphop, to the vet for his check up and they detected a heart murmur. They told us to take him to a cardiologist which we did .. at which point we got the really shitty news that he has HCM. My husband and I were crushed -- even though he was acting perfectly fine and some cats can live years before going into heart failure, HCM is a progressive disease and when it's diagnosed in cats as young as Hiphop, it usually progresses pretty quickly. But we wouldn't really know anything until we got him checked again in a year's time, assuming that he didn't become symptomatic before then.

Fast forward to tonight.

We took him back to the cardiologist for another EKG. The best we were hoping for was that there hadn't been any thickening of his heart but we were bracing for bad news (even though he still has been acting like his adorable, snuggly self). I even told my boss that I probably would have to work from home tomorrow because I would likely be too weepy because OMG HIPHOP WHHHY NOOOOOOOOOOOO.

But somehow? The measurement of his left ventricle had gone down from 8mm (last year) to 6.5mm, putting him in the mild category.

The doctor was surprised, a little confused but very pleased. Cats with this condition don't improve so the initial reading was just wrong for some reason -- granted, the measurement is thick enough that he still has the disease but it puts him in a much less dire place than he was before and it's unlikely that there was much change in his heart over the past year.

So we're all cautiously optimistic that Hiphop will be with us for a few (several?) more years. Which I RL love. I mean, just look at this stupid face:

MY HUSBAND WON TONIGHT!

We are going to retire on his $2.15 winnings.

So. SO.

I mentioned in the RL Things I Hate thread (or somewhere, I can't remember) how I get migraines. And I have sumatriptan injections to deal with them. And how they work FANTASTIC ... when I can get the injections to work. But out of the 12 shots I am allotted per month, I usually can only get, like, 3 or 4 of the autoinjectors to actually fire.

Well.

My pharmacy started to carrying a different brand of generic and they are so much better and I am actually going to be able to use all 12 shots that I get every month and not have to cry through migraines that I cannot treat. YES. FUCKING YES.

Oof. I mostly just lurk here so there is likely a collective 'huh? who?' at my post. But maybe an old friend will stumble across this and we can be like HEY! Or an old enemy and we can finally fight to the death. Or perhaps someone I unknowingly wronged and I can make things right.

-= CURRENTLY =-

Spirit Lake: Roo, Birdie

-= PAST =-

Arx: Caith, Maja, Mercedes, Petra
Fate's Harvest: Cressida, Agnes, Mireille, Lala, Elliot
Fallcoast: Lotje, Ruth, Cressida, Simone, Hullabaloo (staff)
The Reach: Cosima
Keep Austin Wyrd: Elinor
Firan: Lucile, Diamia, Tivana, Yasmina, probably a couple others, RoseBuilder/Beatrix (staff)
Aether: Thalia, Erianthe
Paris Fleur du Mal (or something like that): Soleil, a couple others I can't remember

I played on various WoD games: Metro, Crescent City but can't remember what my character names were. Mila, maybe? And some girl who was blind to the living world but could see the dead. I also played on this MU*/MUD hybrid way, way, waaaaay back in the day called Chomestru or something like that.

Good times.

Two years ago, I wrote to the Swedish embassy asking for a declaration of citizenship to find out whether or not I was still a Swedish citizen (surprise! I am).

A year ago, I submitted paperwork to get a coordination number (basically, it's me registering myself with the Swedish population) so I could apply for a Swedish passport. This is something that typical takes 10-12 weeks but .. didn't. I don't know why it took so long for me. It might have been because this is something that parents usually do for their minor children, not something that people do for themselves when they are old AF like me. Anyway. It finally came through.

Now I have an appointment with the Embassy in DC to get my Swedish passport/ID card which I am super excited about -- not just because this is finally happening but also because I will get to visit a friend of mine that I haven't seen in years in the process.

As an artist, I implore you: don't ask artists to devalue their work. I am sympathetic to the fact that you might not have a lot of cash right now but rather than asking for a discount, it would be better to scale back what you are asking for so it fits your budget.

What you are asking for sounds like a fairly big deal from a work standpoint. So many people -- sooooo many -- treat art as something artists just love to do and that they are fine taking on commissions for free/low cost because of that love. But work is work and when people don't pay what art is worth? It just reinforces the notion that art isn't worth much.

Also: giving the artist credit? That should not be a bonus or something to offer in lieu of payment. Giving them credit goes without saying.

I don't doubt that you'll be able to find someone, somewhere, who will be able to give you what you want for the amount you want to pay. Unfortunately, there is always someone out there who is willing to devalue themselves. But come on. Don't be that person. The reason that there is a 'starving artist' stereotype is because people don't pay artists what their art is worth.

Don't make artists starve.

@jinshei said in Social Awkwardness?:

... oh god, the forced social interactions.

FUCK OFFICE SOCIAL EVENTS. I SPEND AT LEAST NINE HOURS A DAY, FIVE DAYS A WEEK WITH YOU MOTHERFUCKERS. I CERTAINLY AM NOT GOING TO GIVE YOU SOME OF MY GODDAMN EVENING HOURS SO WE CAN STAND AROUND IN A CROWDED BAR DRINKING SHITTY BEER AND SCREAMING OVER MUSIC THAT IS TOO LOUD MAKING CONVERSATION THAT I COULDN'T GIVE A RAT'S ASS ABOUT. AND DON'T EVEN COME AT ME WITH AN INVITATION FOR A WEEKEND GO-CARTING EVENT BECAUSE THAT IS NOT FUCKING HAPPENING, BECKY, SO YOU CAN GO BACK TO YOUR GOD DAMN DESK AND LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE. I ALSO DON'T WANT TO HEAR YOU FUCKING COMPLAINING ABOUT HOW I 'NEVER DO ANYTHING WITH THE GROUP' BECAUSE, FOR FUCK'S SAKE, I WAS NOT HIRED TO BE YOUR FRIEND. I WAS HIRED TO BE A MOTHERFUCKING PROFESSIONAL.

Yeah, so. I don't like socializing with my co-workers outside of work.

I miss you.

Well.

***UGH***

@Arkandel No one would ever get mad about that! We're all mature adults here. Right?

@Aria said in Good TV:

Please excuse me while I ugly snot-cry at The Good Place finale.

Oh my god, that show was perfect from beginning to end. I can't believe it is over..

Okay, neither of these count as YouTubers but I love these videos and they're on YouTube so it sorta counts?

WIRED Expert Breakdowns -- my favorites in this series is when the dialect coach breaks down movie accents.

The Try Guys -- always a delight and educational too!

@Kestrel It took me a while to buy into his Fleabag character since my only exposure to him previously was as Moriarty on Sherlock. I kept waiting for the priest to do something really fucked up and evil.

I know I am super late to this but...

Fleabag was frickin' amazing.

Princess Caith Thrax, the Best Hugger in Arx*, and Maja Darling, apprentice to Whisper House!

*Definitely a better hugger than Sabella.

Everyone who doesn't put The Last Jedi at the top/near top of their ranking lists is wrong.

You can't fight universal truth so don't bother trying.

@Lotherio said in Good or New Movies Review:

@Sockmonkey said in Good or New Movies Review:

And since we are on the topic, here's my final ranking:

Ugh, this is not complete. Where is Caravan of Courage (this is the Ewok one with the random kid actors .. the marauders lose here before they show up in the Mandalorian, spoiler alert) or The Holiday Special.

The holiday special is on there! It is #8. Unless there is another holiday special that I am not aware of!

I forgot about the Ewok one. Hmm. Probably somewhere in the range of 'Star Wars kid in his garage' but above 'Cats'.

Alright, apparently I can't get the spoiler tags to work(??) so here's a link to my super super spoiler-filled Twitter rant on what I did not like TRoS:

https://twitter.com/ninae/status/1208145442799681536

And since we are on the topic, here's my final ranking:

1. Empire
2. New Hope
3. Last Jedi
4. Return
5. Rogue One
6. Force Awakens
7. (three-way tie) the prequels
8. The xmas Special
9. Star Wars kid in his garage
10. Every single scenario that I played out as a kid with my toys
11. Cats
12. Solo
    ...
    999,999,999. The Rise of SKywalker

I thought Rise of Skywalker was horrifically and absolutely terrible and I cannot think of one single moment, beyond the initial titles (but before the scroll) and fanfare, in the entire 2 hours 22 minutes that I enjoyed.

JFC.

@Wretched I kind of skimmed through Arrow out of necessity because I was drawing on an Arrow sketch card set once. I couldn't get into it; it really bugged me that that his facial scruff grew down his neck. Just .. shave, man. Shave that neck.