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Uh, Grace? This is Dan you're talking to. Perhaps a more effective threat would be, "We won't playfully tickle Ellen until our demands are met!"

I should wrap this up by saying that Mrs. Prof did *not* just snack. She dug in heartily.

I just talked the EMSA crew out of taking me to the hospital. I went out to check my mail, had a dizzy spell while walking down the concrete steps to the mail boxes, so I sat down. Real fast and real hard. Then I lowered me to be horizontal. All this under control and without injury. That's what I do if I think I'm about to fall. 95% of the time, or more, it prevents any bad things from happening. As it happens, the postman saw me do this. He called 911, and they were here within a few minutes. Explained to the ambulance crew what was going on, had my blood pressure tested and lights flashed in my eyes, etc. The didn't put up much of a fight when I "refused transport," because I suspect they didn't see anything really needing a trip to the ER. Still doing better than Prof, not that it is a contest :-)

From Freefall, a favorite web comic: "There's a funny thing that happens when you know the correct answer. It throws you when you get a different answer that's not wrong." -Dr. Bowman

Run fur your life! /me is coming!

Does anyone else want to give Elliot a hug by the end of this comic?

5:21 p.m. CDT 20170619. I managed to shock a doctor today. My own primary care physician, no less. I told him the story of what happened to me over at UT Southwestern, including at their "Pain Clinic." He was absolutely stunned that anyone, much less THE premiere research medical hospital in the area, would want to use acupuncture and biofeedback on someone with my level of pain. Mrs. Prof, while looking up the name of the person we want me to be referred to, found a rating (1–5 stars) for the UTSW pain "doctor." It was two stars. The new person is rated at 4½ stars. Needless to say, my doctor agreed to the new referral. I shall not be returning to UT Southwestern. My PCP also looked at my right leg and agreed with the podiatrist's diagnosis of mild venous stasis. No need for Lasix this time around. Compression stockings will do. To wrap up for now, @The Old Hack: your gift of Parmesan-coated sausage arrived about 30 minutes ago! The picture and description were a bit deceptive—it showed a whole sausage, but they sent pre-sliced sausage—however, the amount they delivered was 4 ounces (113.4 grams), as advertised. (The description has since been updated.) The temperatures around here have been in the mid-90s (in the mid-30s in Celsius), so the frozen-paks were melted. The sausage is therefore chilling in the refrigerator until it comes down to a safer temperature (it's cured, so it's probably safe anyway). Regardless of all of the unusual aspects, I still appreciate your gift very much! I will be relaxing with some of it later tonight, as will Mrs. Prof as soon as she's finished a cycle of syringe-feeding the kittens.

I would have and think I did, bet scores of $Q that this chapter was going to end with all the feels. The feels are starting now. Either this is going to be over faster than I suspect The Dan is capable of doing :-) or the real end of the arc is going to make me VERY glad my anti-depression medication seems to be working way much better now.

You never know what the cats are brewing outside. Old Tabby 12 Years Old Cask Strength might be interesting.

Come visit my Monster Hunter Kickstarter! Help me reach my goal of 250.000 magical energy units. Regular monsters, then stretch goals of vampires at 300.000, werewolves at 350.000, diamond-created curse beasts at 400.000, demons at 450.000 and dragons at 500.000! If we reach 600.000 we may add the stretch goals of sociopathic lab monsters with Messianic complexes and Evil Overlords.

Mama Kistune may hate Mr. Raven, but she wants the best for Nanase, and Mr. Raven is one of the best teachers around (especially history, as he could technically be a first hand source for some of it). Mr. Raven is also highly protective of his students, as seen when Abraham attacked the school, so Mama Kitsune wouldn't have to worry as much if something bad happens at the school.

Yes, YouTube. I understand that you make money by ad revenue. Yes, I understand that the new Planet of the Apes movie is coming up. Yes, I understand that 15-second videos there's no point to being able to skip them since they're so short. No, I don't want to watch the exact same unskippable commercial for LITERALLY EVERY VIDEO I WATCH!

For many generations now, Immortals have mistakenly passed the belief on to their children that they cannot use the Extravagant Spellbreaker card from Magical Gatherings.

IF the big secret is NOT that half immortals can bear/sire children, then Dan is setting up the most epic misdirection narrative ever.

/* goes off to fetch brain bleach */ So much for my emotional health and sanity ... *

Maybe he is just fretting because of the trail camera. He probably decided that if he ever had to pose in front of it, he'd better be in perfect shape to impress all the ladies, so he started dieting.

Mrs. Prof took videos the other night instead of still shots. She then promptly deleted them without thinking about posting them to YouTube. I have admonished her appropriately and advised her to start her own YouTube channel. Her response was, "If I were so inclined." I'm thinking about going into the computer room and tilting her backwards, just to see if I can incline her in the proper direction.

Based on my observation, they'll be repeating the less-important points for at least a week, and the unsubstantiated rumors for at least a month, but never get around to mentioning the important points at all.

I'm installing Cygwin, Photoshop, Office 365, Dry Mud Pro, Daz3d and Eve on my new to me computer. All at the same time. Came with Chrome loaded so there is that. Looks like it is going to take about an hour. I have started a countdown to Linux. For every time the Windows Machine makes me yell at it, for a reason that my Linux and OS X machines don't, it gets a point. If it gets to 10 points, I make it into a grunty Linux box. I've shown it the flash stick already. It knows it better be good.

Prof, let me make a few things clear for you. It is NOT a matter of 'deserve' in any way or form. First, I am reading this because I want to support a friend in pain. Thus, I am doing this by choice. Next, you do not deserve this, either. Health problems happen and they are not subject to our control. And unfortunately some doctors are just not as supportive of their patients as they should be. I am very sorry to hear of your trouble with yours. I am still hoping to hear of improvement in your situation. If nothing else, your podiatrist seems competent and sensitive to your troubles. We will just have to see for the rest. Please give my regards to Mrs. Prof and tell her that we all appreciate her efforts. And take care of yourself, hard as it may be at times. This too shall pass.

I personally think that Sandy and Swampy are kind of unusual. In fact, they are the only heterosexuals I know of that keep themselves closeted.

So, a Pharaoh, a forum moderator and a Canuck walk into a bar. The judge calls for order and threatens to have the courtroom cleared if the audience will not stop laughing at the three stooges picking themselves up from the floor. Oh dear, you feel Burns?

Today is Memorial Day in America. If you know a veteran, ask them about missing friends and listen to them. If it is in your belief system, ask if you can pray for them. Don't thank the living veteran for their service any more than you would normally. Memorial Day is for the dead. Veteran's day is for all the veterans died or alive. The fact that November 11 is Memorial/Remberance day in most of the non-American Anglosphere causes some confusion in some places.

http://www.egscomics.com/?id=2352 I love how Elliot is just "Nobody's perfect" when defending "Box".

Ah, well, no. John Glenn was a Marine, which means he was in the Navy's army. But he was a pilot in the Navy's Army's Airforce.

This is a terrible plan. I can't wait to see Elliot begin to carry it into action.

Going off topic in an off topic thread, Mrs. Prof wanted me to post this as a thank you to whomever sent the cat toys from her Amazon Wish List. Our cat, Baker, loves them. Much obliged!

A couple of infrared photos from our colony tonight. First is an example of Cat Yoga: The second is dinner time. One of them is a bit finicky at the time of the picture: Mrs. Prof is still in the "getting accustomed to it" phase with the camera. Tonight it's in our greenhouse, which she's converted to an enclosed cat apartment complex. She'll eventually begin taking it out on trapping assignments. I'm guessing she's going to have to figure out some sort of financial deposit setup so that no one runs off with it. It's too valuable (thanks, tOH!).

I thought Coffee was more like breathing.

/me makes a notation on The List. mlooney says that not that bad.

What if Adrian is Tedd's father? He did say that he was responsible for Noriko leaving Edward. If Adrian and Noriko had an affair...

Nice theory. But fatally flawed. Cats are vain because they know they are purrfect. A little weight up or down doesn't change that.

@The Old Hack, last night's Wurstfest was a smashing success. My son came over and cooked it up for us, due to my inability to stand for long. In short, the Bockwurst you bought us was great—I'm having leftovers for breakfast! In all, we had the Bockwurst, imported Nuremburg Bratwurst, Siegi's Weisswurst (for @mlooney's Currywurst, which my skeptical son wound up absolutely raving about afterward—I had to send home half a bottle of curry ketchup with him), and a German noodle dish with Polska Kielbasa that my son cooked up. Of course, there were the requisite sides: sauerkraut (which Mrs. Prof had to cook, since our son absolutely refused to touch the stuff—go figure) and fried sliced potatoes with onions. Wonderful stuff, with a very chaotic IndyCar race to go with it. Thank you again for helping to make this possible!

I think this has been covered before, but just in case it hasn't - make sure you tell the doctors about EVERYTHING you're taking regularly or semi-regularly for medicinal reasons. Prescription or OTC. Vitamins and herbs included. Also ask the doctor and/or pharmacist about interactions with foods. Grapefruit juice isn't the only food with lots of drug interactions.

Good! I hope the cars will live up to it. (I am still amused at the low-carb Hondas you told us about recently. At least, I am assuming that their carburators kept exploding because they were low-carb.) I am not much of a cook but I do know that good food is a great balm for the soul. Hope you will have a good weekend!

WRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY ! *applies steamroller offscreen* Also yes that will work but I have a few other alternatives, though this one will take a fair bit of legwork. The Aswang Project is an archiving website that focuses on pre-colonial mythology and folklore of the Philippines and has done extensive work in their research; they mix everything from word of mouth of native peoples, a backlog of historical documents written and produced by other archivists from decades of study, and applies geographic, anthropological, and historical context for these things. I'd like you to observe how they disseminate say, a Tikbalang for example. I really love how they do it because they do it in stages: 1. Preliminaries: Where they tell you what the creature is, it's physical traits, and its most well known mannerisms and attitudes 2. Contextualization: By studying the anthropological and historical background of the home country they begin to piece together the creature from bits and snippets from different time periods and watch it slowly evolve into the horseheaded man-beast that it is today 3. Modern usage: Some of the consultants are also authors of local literature and they give their own examples of how they used the creature in their stories 4. Summary: Where they basically evaluate the historical and cultural significance of it, talk about how modern writers are beginning to see the value of the beast, and what it means for the greater scope of Philippine, Asian, and World Literature as a whole moving forward I was lucky to come across the site and the links to it and I'm certain you'll find something similar to the site's equivalent for Chinese or Japanese lower mythology (which is what you should concentrate on if you're looking for beasts and monsters), and considering (especially for Japan) how well documented their mythology is, I think it'll be easier for you to track these down. As a matter of respect and I guess awareness I'd suggest you try to track down the cultural and historical backgrounds of the creatures you'll end up borrowing for your literature. Libraries and other sources are gold mines for this information so best start looking there. Also try to find modern interpretations of them in local media; which I admit will be considerably difficult since there are language barriers, but I'm certain they'll still be found. In fact considering how Japan uses its creatures and iconography so often in anime and manga, I think any of those interpretations will be suitable for the task at hand. In my own work in researching these things I've come to the conclusion that to borrow a mythical creature is to take a part of it's culture's identity and history; the Tikbalang wouldn't have a horse's head if not for Hindu influence; it wouldn't be demonized if not for the Spanish and the introduction of Christianity; it wouldn't have the common name of Tikbalang if not for the consolidation and homogenization of the creature in the early 20th century by anthropologists and historians; and nobody would probably care about it today if not for a shift towards indigenous stories and beliefs in the 90s which still resonates until today. You'll notice that those talking points I brought up are a very short summary of my country's history (Pre-Islamic/Pre-Colonial Era, Spanish Colonial Era, American Colonial Era, contemporary era) which is why some people can get understandably angry if these are misused; not only is the creature misrepresented, but also the culture it came from. Understandably this will take a lot of reading on your part if you're unfamiliar with the culture you're borrowing from, and your [reader's] millage may vary on how good or bad your interpretation is. I personally believe you don't need to have encyclopedic knowledge of the creature and it's background to talk about it but as a matter of respect and to generate real, tangible cultural enrichment, I'd highly advise at least bringing what you know about the creature and it's background up to acknowledge its roots.

B U G G E R M E This makes me kinda sad, but also surprisingly hopeful. Last week I went to my psychiatrist and talked over a few things. I mostly organized it as a preamble for possible employment. Unfortunately because of the doctor's trip (and several other factors I'll not mention) I'll have to table that. Sadly, I've been diagnosed with severe anxiety, Social Interaction disorder, and I'm still waiting for the results that I got from a test, but I may be AD/HD if what I inferred from my doctor is correct. This is good and bad, bad because this obviously means i have to have extended therapy for a while according to her; good news is this gives me more time to write, and on top of that at least this means I finally understand my random spots of sadness; they were probably anxiety attacks, and since i know what they are now I can finally get treatment. Which is going to be a massive relief since those things have been the bane of my existence since I started college.

To the nine hells with boxing gloves. Go for one of these: Fig 34 looks like It might be a Good Thing. Of course, the spikes on 32 have their charm.

This would try the patience of several saints. I really do not blame you for being unhappy. I hope we can get some good news for a change soon!

It wasn't there again today I wish, I wish it'd go away.

Now, now, let's not let this turn into a domestic disturbance. (We had a hard enough time getting the cats turbed in the first place....)

Oh my God, he's got us by the shorthairs.

As my boss, a Marine from the Korean War, likes to say, "The Marines are a department of the Navy. The Men's department."

Don't tell anyone, but actually there are international agreements between paramedics of different armed forces on generating patients for one another so we can justify getting bigger budgets.

Quickly, Ellen. Talk your idiot brother down from this. He will regret all the things if you don't.

http://www.egscomics.com/egsnp.php?id=619 Commentary makes sense, I can see that the reason we haven't seen Ellen use any new spells or something would be because it didn't fit the story, although Dan probably could have had her do something new at Charlotte's while Nanase was showing off the fairy to Diane, but then Dan would probably feel obligated to have Ellen explain it or something in story which would have added another page or two to "So a Date". Also this confirms that Ellen isn't much better at reading her spell book than Elliot, but amusing that she's wrangled Nanase into reading it for her. Their dates must be like story time.

Well, there have been possums, raccoons, and lord knows how many species of birds. Pre-camera, I know that roving dog packs would pay it a visit. I don't know about local coyotes.

Had something surprisingly good last night, from Arby's. Yes, Arby's. Quit laughing, or quit barfing, whichever you're doing. This shocked the hell out of me, too. Their Pork Belly sandwich. Yes, I've looked at the nutritional info. I am unapologetic, since it's a limited-time offer and I probably won't be able to get it again. But damn, it was good. Best fast food I've had in a very, very long time.

Like I said, what Tedd's been researching up to this point might not be anything new to the Paranormal Division, it's probably why Edward's been ok with Tedd working on it, maybe Edward hopes that Tedd would one day work with the Paranormal Division and the stuff Tedd's researching has been part of the training program for ages so Tedd would essentially have a head start. Edward might not have been sure when he first let Tedd work on the TFG but later on he might have become hopeful. As far as the Magic change goes, Tedd himself doesn't know that he's a seer and that he may be the key to figuring out what the changes were, Edward doesn't seem to know either and it's likely that Pandora may want to keep Edward from finding out as well for the same reason she didn't want Sarah telling him about her spell. One can only imagine what things would be like if everyone lost the ability to cast spells and a select few knew that Tedd could help them get an early advantage. Edward may be powerless to do anything to keep Arthur or Leifeld from strongarming Tedd, or maybe Edward would agree that it's in everyone's best interest if the Paranormal Division regained the ability to use magic before some other group did. Wild theory, but somehow I get the feeling that a system change and an attempt to strongarm could have resulted in Lord Tedd, not sure exactly how General Shade Tail fits this scenario but considering Edward's infiltration of the organization that created Grace, I wouldn't doubt that Alternate Edward or the alternate universe's version of DGB had a connection to General Shade Tail.