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Hey everyone, I apologise for my long silence, but I have been very ill. Early in October I caught a bad infection and was hospitalised. It turned out to be e. coli and it proved very resistant to treatment. They were forced to use an extremely strong antibiotic on me, and it sent me into a coma for thirteen days. When I woke up again I was so weak I could barely move. I spent another six weeks bedridden. I am finally starting to improve again and am gradually becoming more mobile. I can move with the aid of a walker (HUGE improvement on a wheelchair) and I am currently under retraining. My doctor is optimistic about my recovery. At one point my kidneys stopped working but they are recovering, too. I suspect the load from that hyper-antibiotic was more than they could handle. In any event, I am back and hoping to be at least somewhat active. I hope everybody here is well. Best regards, The Old Hack.

I like the middle one, hair color is better. The first one matches the scenario most, as Dan noted. The spell would make her pink to highlight the lowering of intelligence. The second is the "keep the palette" option. Is the second most obvious choice, and matches Nanase Craft when ignoring the lowering the intelligence. The third one ... well ... I think the work spend on color coordination is lost on me. I don't think it's better than either of the first two options, and see no reason why should the spell transform her this way. ... speaking about it, I think the spell would be supposed to make the swimsuit more sexy and/or less practical as well, but likely failed to find better option

Ok, complete tangent, but there's that CD-DVD burning software called Nero Burning Rom, and it just occurred to me that it's an e short of Nero Burning Rome, and it's embarrassing that I never made the connection before....

The remarkable thing is that less than a year ago, comic time, Grace was a controlled substance. Completely unavailable Over-The-Counter or Non-Prescription.

Berserker Nurses are frequently unionized. So you should only need to wait until the coffee break. Interns, on the other hand, are often desperate, overworked, sleep deprived, and malnourished. Most of them are not professional berserkers, they just get that way.

http://egscomics.com/comic/tsos-04 Even good movie could still leave lot to be discussed. At least some kind of movies. The "ok" movies might be worst in this regard ... if there are basically no obvious problems, but there is also nothing really interesting ... meanwhile, StarWars prequels are exact opposite. They have lot of problems, but it could've been great movies otherwise. (Meanwhile, Abrams Star Trek movies could be good movies, but they are not Star Trek. They are barely sci-fi, due to lack of the "sci" part. And Justin loves them for all sort of wrong reasons.) And yes, Sarah, you dated Grace and don't think readers will forget that.

Well, there goes another dream of mine. For someone who is chronically sleep deprived, spending two months in bed sounded like a good thing. I guess I was wrong. Hope you're back to form soon. There has been a notable lack of pedantic behavior recently in this forum.

She Whiffed? If I wanted to see someone fail to catch something, I'd watch the Lions.

I am now walking sans surgical boot! Huzzah!

I can't believe I missed that move. Check and mate, I concede.

Wait just one night. One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble.

Or, she could be preparing to use her (much weaker) abilities to levitate non-self items. This could be another case where she stumbles across a "no change" in the rules of magic.

Either way, I don't approve. Smart women shouldn't be made dumb.

Kinda like how Elliot used to be friends with Tony, though I doubt Elliot ever thought the same way as Tony, but Elliot might have tried to convince Tony to stop bullying Tedd, and then whatever happened that Elliot didn't want to talk about happened, and that was the last straw.

I wonder what happened to Nanase, either she shrunk as well, or she got bigger or otherwise transformed into something that could carry Sarah up to the switch or lever or whatever. If she shrunk, part of me expects her swimsuit to shrink with her, would further frustrate Sarah. "How did your swimsuit not stay the same size? Is it magical?" "No, this is actually the size on the hanger when I bought it, the material is really stretchy which comes in handy for these situations. Remind me to take you shopping when we're done here."

Yes. I had to battle a horde of berserker nurses and interns in order to make my escape. The warband near the elevators proved particularly troublesome but became easier to handle when I rammed them with one of the rolling beds.

You're in good company. My sister lost the tip of her pinkie toe to her lupus. It just turned black and eventually fell off. She said that if you're going to lose a body part, that's the one she'd pick. Then she made jokes about "....and this little piggie got beheaded!"

Welcome back! This scares me -- if you hadn't made it, we might never have known what happened. Maybe you should PM your real-world phone number to one or two of us, just in case. I'd be happy to exchange with you, I know you won't order too many pizzas in my name if I give you mine. ;-) And let us knowif there's anything we can do to help, real or virtual!

If that is true, should we not leave the judgment up to the dogs? (Who apparently disagree.)

We use red for heat because objects glow red first when heated. Glowing blue-hot was not a thing until we got access to flames that burned hotter than natural gas in air. Blue is used for cold meanwhile because ice and water are bluish. Also, a mammalian body (especially human) will tend toward a redder skin color when overheated and a bluer skin color with hypothermia due to changes in blood flow.

Welcome back indeed, old friend. I'm extremely glad to see that you've pulled through. E.coli is a very nasty infection. You are lucky to have survived it. Avoid the Romaine lettuce at all costs.

Or else "everyone knows" that the order of changes is size first, clothing adjustment second, and so on, but you can always change the order with the dial. There used to be a little rhyme to remember the order.

I am making progress. I am nearly at the point where I can dispense with the walker. I am starting to feel a bit more optimistic about my retraining.

He can't. I have a copyright on that joke.

So. I and my work are in Cook County, just south of the border with Lake County. Saturday, they're giving blizzard warnings for Sunday night for Lake but not Cook. Sunday noon a little snow starts, turning to big wet flakes that turn into slush because the ground is still warm, which continues for a few hours -- a lot more snow in the air than actual accumulation because it keeps melting. But, the forecast is for much colder weather starting Monday mid-day or so. Meanwhile, all the snow in the air is getting blown around enough to be called a blizzard, even in Cook county by bedtime. The animal hospital normally opens at 7am, with Doctor appointments starting at 8:30am. Around 7:30am, I get a group text from the boss that the door locks are both frozen, front and back, and no one can get in, so don't hurry too much if you're still on your way. Obviously mostly meant for people who are actually supposed to be there at that hour, so I continue preparations to head for work, while wishing I didn't have to. I get outside much earlier than usual to clean all the snow off my car, and discover that my Court hasn't been plowed at all. (I live in a townhouse complex, with a main road in a sort of a figure-8, and short little roads called Courts with three to five buildings each that attach to the main road. I'm at the very end of my Court.) Boss texts about 8am that she's gotten into the hospital (Yay!). So, dog in car with heater on, clean off car, then shovel snow from around tires. Still no plow, although I can hear a backing-up beep from somewhere out of sight now. The snow is a few inches deep, and still has slush at the bottom that hasn't frozen yet. This makes it very heavy to shovel, but at least it's not ice that can't be shoveled! It's deep enough I could get stuck, but shallow enough I could go through it fine, and loose and warm enough I can shovel it easily. It now being 8:30am, meaning I'm late, I decide to try it. Back up out of my driveway into the Court okay, start going forward, get a few feet....get stuck. So, I get out, shovel snow from around all four tires, get back in, drive forward ten feet, get stuck again. Start-and-stop like this is clearly faster than trying to shovel a full clear path to the other end of the Court myself, plus a few other people have broken ground driving their vehicles out of their places up ahead, so I will likely be able to get out with maybe two or three more gos. And finally, at 9am (half an hour after work was supposed to start), a little Jeep shows up, with a little bitty Jeep-sized plow on the front. No wonder it's taking forever to plow our complex, if this is all that's plowing! But, it's good that it's small and maneuverable, because that means it's able to plow fairly close next to me, then in front of me, and I only have to shovel away the ridge of snow that always forms at the edge of where a plow plows. I'm finally able to drive over onto the little strip he'd plowed to my left and follow it to the central road, which is at least somewhat plowed although not very well. The main roads to get to work are better, but still clearly more snowy than they will be later. Luckily the road surface is still warm, so under all the snow is slush and pavement, not ice, and traction is pretty good. Final arrival at work, 9:22am. One of the receptionists who usually starts at 7am is only just arriving, too. The boss has gone to the breakfast place next door and brought back pancakes, french toast, eggs, etc. for everyone. The first appointment, with the other doctor on duty, is underway, but I haven't missed anything, as my first (non-cancelled) patient isn't until 10am. So, it all worked out in the end, and I got a bit of exercise and break in routine. Oh, and it looks like Mickey doesn't mind snow a bit, he goes charging out into it fearlessly! Pippin always hated snow, so this is a nice change. He had a little trouble getting close to the tree and balancing next to it, but figured things out in the end. :-)

Grace is showing an odd weakness when it comes to stuff, in retrospect. Clarification seconded. All popcorn kernels have are ears.

Now you've got it stuck in my head!

Clarification requested: Popcorn waved goodnight?

I'm adding this one to the "in canon reasons" for the great web of shipping.

Red and green are very close in spectrum. Humans are optimized to distinguish between them because blood is red and leaves are green, but for Geckos the UV is apparently more important. So yes, I would conclude that the pattern on walls is red-green and likely deliberately use shades which make it invisible for people under Gecko transformation. Question is: does she still see Sarah's blue clothes as being blue? Dan's got a poll going that might change things. I suppose the fact that I consider logical correctness of lizards not having mammalian glands to be more important than how sexy Nanase looks as lizard likely also puts me in minority. (Also, yes, she still looks sexy to me.)

And now she sells insurance Forgot to mention that while geckos do have very good vision overall, especially in low light, they are effectively red-blue colour blind. In humans, red-green colour blindness is not unknown. More common in males than females. Could the walls now be coloured red with only subtle changes in shade and texture creating the patterns Sarah mentioned? If so, Nanase would be effectively colour blind using her Lizard eyes. Still, it has been a long time since Amanda announced that "Lizards are Cool". We are long overdue for conformation.

I find it rather impressive how this form manages to look feminine while having a flat chest. I expect I'm in the minority, but I think it's a good look. (In fact, personally I like this form better than FV5 or any of the other big-breasted transformations Dan's drawn in the past.)

Geckos, by the way, have much better color vision than ours - but not the same as ours. In our retinas we have rods for black-and-white vision, including in very dim light, and cones for color vision but only in reasonably good light. Gecko retinas have only cones, but their cones are more than twice as light-sensitive as our rods (which are about 100 times as sensitive as our cones). And instead of having r-g-b cones, they have uv-g-b cones. So, Dan is definitely correct that Nanase losing color vision is something HE added.

I just bought a tin of Royal Dansk Butter Cookies. They are expensive, dry, stale, bland, crumbly, and dunking in milk or tea does nothing to improve their texture. If this is what the Danish Royals actually eat, I can only imagine it is to insure that they do not become too happy. But a friend of my parents always gave them a big tin of Royal Dansk every year around Christmas, and it wouldn't be right if I didn't bring at least one tin of sugar-coated-pressed-sawdust into the house between Halloween and New Year. So...Tradition?

Someone should tell Dan that his remote might have been stolen.

Had my pre-op visit on Friday. Everything was the usual stuff - blood/urine test, chest X-ray, and so on. At the end, they gave me a bottle of antiseptic soap with some odd instructions attached. I'm supposed to get a wet washcloth, squeeze some of it on there, then turn off the water and lather up from the neckline down, avoiding the genital area and any open wounds (e.g., my toe). If I do get it in either of those areas, I'm supposed to flush said area with a steady stream of water for 15 minutes. Otherwise, after I soap up, I'm supposed to stand there for a minute, then turn the water back on and rinse. I'm supposed to do this twice: once before I go to bed the night before the surgery, and once the morning of the surgery. Considering that I've got to be at the hospital at 5am for a 7am operation, that means I've got to get up around 3am to get ready to go. This is going to be a rough preparation for a nasty little surgery. As much as my toe hurts, I'm not looking forward to the process of having it removed.

DAMN IT DAMN IT DAMN IT DAMN IT DAMN IT DAMN IT DAMN IT DAMN IT The tip of the second toe on my left foot has become infected again. While I'm on Keflex to knock out the infection of my pinky toe. That does not bode well. I've got a back procedure (i.e., radio ablation of my lower back nerve endings) scheduled for the 14th, and now I'm going to have to reschedule it. AGAIN. I had to reschedule it when I had the bone infection back in August/September, since you can't have this procedure done while you have an active infection anywhere in your body. Hence all of the swearing at the top of this post. Another reason for swearing is that I may have to have another PICC line put in so I can have stronger IV antibiotics administered. The Keflex should be keeping any infections from sprouting, but it's not. There's not a lot stronger that comes in pill form. I'm going to have to get in to my podiatrist's office early and see what he recommends in the way of antibiotics. I'm not looking forward to that appointment. The alternative treatment, of course, is to amputate the toe. I'll consider it. It's already a hammer toe, and it hurts any time I step wrong on it. Maybe I don't need it.

I made my first foray outside without a walker in months just after I ripped my toe open - used a cane to get around. Ironic that I'd learn that same day about the injury.

... and now, my toe is swelling and oozing. It appears to be infected. I'm going to Care Now for urgent after-hours care later today.

This past week has been an emotional rollercoaster. It involves scrambling to pack as much as possible in a very short time frame. Yesterday this post would've been full of anger and worry and annoyance, but now I'm just...spent. I'm exhausted, physically and mentally, and it's like I used up all my energy raging yesterday that I don't have any today. Everything went wrong in such a short amount of time that I just... I don't know what to do. It's overwhelming, and I'm spent. I'm worried, but I'm spent.

Once again, I can't win for losing. As I was getting ready to go to an appointment to get an ultrasound done on my left leg (to diagnose swelling in my left foot/ankle), I caught my sock-enclosed pinky toe on the base of a cat scratching post at the end of the main hall of our house. It hurt, but not terribly. I noticed a bruise on the toe while I was showering and thought that I might have sprained it or possibly (at the extreme) broken it. However, when I got to the ultrasound appointment and removed my sock, I saw blood in it. I looked at my toe and saw that a good chunk of the nail was hanging by a thread of skin. I pulled the chunk off and examined it. Turns out that I'd caught my toenail and ripped both it and the entire nail bed out of my toe. I showed the chunk to the nurse doing the ultrasound and she concurred. I now have a gaping hole at the tip of my pinky toe, which has fortunately stopped bleeding now. I will never have a toenail on that toe again. I need steel-toed socks.