Explain Something to Me

I'm interested in four kinds of books: Graphic novels, books about video games, art references, and science books. These are the three kinds of books that are often shrinkwrapped in Barnes & Nobel and Border's Books. Why? You rarely see Jane Austin or self-help books shrinkwrapped. Why can't I crack open a graphic novel to see if I like the art or not?

EDIT: Glendon has an interesting idea, but I have to knock it down. Two books (which I own) that were NOT shrinkwrapped: Playboy: The Complete Centerfolds and The Big Book of Breasts. I flipped through those suckers in the store. But Batman: Mad Love and Evolution are taboo?

Oh, the Stoopid. It does so burn.

Nature is red in tooth and claw. Lions kill antelope, ladybugs kill aphids. We should change that. Whether the stupid animals like it or not. Or, you know, the global ecosystem. Whatever. Peace, man.

Help a Brother Out!

Fellow bloggers, our friend Will Baird has a dream. It's a lofty one: our man wants to shoot a rocket to the goddamn moon. And he can make it happen, but he needs your help. Team Phoenicia can do it, but the X Prize Foundation's entry fee rocketted (sorry) from 1K bucks last year to a whopping 7K. The deadline is September 14th for entry. Donate, people! This is exciting stuff--it's science, for goddsake!

For more information on Team Phoenicia and who freaking awesome they are, click here. Or here. Since I don't know how to post the Donate button, Click here to visit Will's blog, where the "Donate button" is located.

If everyone who reads this donates like $20 (and who doesn't have $20?), Will's team can totally make it happen. You'll get your name on a lunar rocket! But in all seriousness, I heartily ask you all to participate somehow. Donate or blog about Will's cause. These are exciting times and exciting projects. Get involved!

Excuses, Excuses...

Maybe I should freaking post something. It's been like ten days. And I know, there aren't that many excuses aside from "I've been busy," but that sounds lame. I have, however, been unusually productive lately when it comes to art. A little backstory...

Remember that art show Scott & Raven & I put up a few weeks ago? Just scroll down, folks. My own contribution to the show involved drawing 49 skulls (actually more, I just left a bunch out), pasting them to black posterboard, sticking them to the wall, then running yarn around pins to show their relationships...which turned out to be pretty linear yet hard to make sense of. My intentions didn't match up with the reality of the situation for a number of reasons.

But I learned from it, which is what's ultimately important. Nick Gardner was right--the Crurotarsi side isn't well represented. For a future art show (perhaps exclusive to my own work), I want to beef up that side of the tree, but also toss in a bunch of dinosaur groups that I didn't include this time, like therizinosaurs, troodontids, Nigersaurus, etc. Anyway, the main area of effort will be on the Crurotarsi side of things, and I've already drawn about ten skulls, and as far as I can tell, they're all from different branches of the group. Here's an example:


It's Desmatosuchus haploceras! But that's not all. I've also done Neoaetosauroides engaeus, Erpetosuchus granti, Teratosaurus sileiacus, Arizonasaurus babbitti, Protosuchus richardsoni, Effigia okeeffeae, and Sarcosuchus imperator. That's in addition to the taxa I've already done: Isisfordia, Dakosaurus, and Pelagosaurus. I'm gonna need help coming up with more taxa, folks. A lot of my crurotarsian papers don't include skull reconstructions. I mean, there'll be a line drawing of the fossil itself, but not a picture of what the undistorted skull would look like (which is what I need). I'd like to include some crocs with mammalian dentition, too, but their papers are hard to find.

So help a brother out! I'll help get the word out about the strange, bizarre, and diverse crurotarsian side of the Archosauria! And hey, I take requests.

Transformers 2 Deconstructed

This is the funniest thing I've read in a looooong time. Don't read it if you haven't seen the movie (or plan to). Hat-tip to Trish for bringing it to my attention.

Why I don't blog about Cystic Fibrosis

Some of my readers might not even be aware that I have cystic fibrosis. I've only blogged about it once and I have virtually no motivation to write any more about it. Even when an interesting PLoS Biology paper released in July trumpeting a potential cure for mucus buildup in the lungs of CF patients, I didn't really bat an eye. Some of my readers might be curious as to why.

Truth is, I do my meds every day and cough and wheeze sometimes, but CF doesn't give me much trouble. I may be blessed with a minor case of the disease. I've known plenty of patients worse off than me at earlier ages who were stricter about their medications than I am, and they got sicker quicker and most of them died. Honestly, I do a pretty crappy job of keeping myself healthy: I don't always do my Albuterol before my Pulmozime and Tobi, I almost never do the Flutter, and there are meals where I simply space out and forget to take my pancreatic enzymes. Part of this is apathy, plain 'n' simple, but part of it is that I know I can get away with it. I feel like my CF has leveled off somewhat. My lung functions are good enough that my doctor doesn't even question me not doing the Flutter.

But I do wonder sometimes. If I did do the Flutter every day, and I did do Albuterol before my morning routine, would my lung functions improve? There's never a day where the CF makes me feel crappy. I can take long walks, hike up mountains with my wife, and hit the gym with my friends. I never feel out of breath because of the CF, and if I do, it's because I'm really out of shape. Because of that, I'm not terribly motivated to increase my level of commitment to more meds and therapies. But then in the back of my head right now, my doctor is giving me that old mantra: "the goal is to keep your lung functions high for as long as possible." And it's true, there are certain low points that CF patients can't come back from. Once you lose a certain amount of lung capacity, you can't recover all the way anymore.

But I don't talk about it on the blog. Part of it is that I don't percieve it as interesting (it certainly doesn't interest me), but I also don't want to come off as whiny or self-centered (more than I do already). I equate yapping about my terminal illness with goth kids reading their weepy poetry to people. Now, if something I think is AWESOME (or really terrible) happens, like getting an I.V. or starting an experimental drug, you'll probably hear about it. But I'm not going to be giving updates. I won't let ya'll know what my latest FEV-1 rate is because it's not interesting. Same situation with my back. Getting a cortisone injection is wierd and cool, and like Glendon and Sean commented, it provides information to other people who might get that procedure in the future. It's informative.

I'm just not that CF Guy, and I can't do the subject justice. There are plenty of other people who can, though, like Ronnie Sharpe. And he does, often, and in a very engaging way. Check his blog out, seriously. He's a cool cat.

As for me, I'd rather drone on and on about dinosaurs and video games. If you readers out there in Readerland have any questions, leave them in the comments and I'll answer them as best I can.

Best DSi Software EVER Released Today

For those of you with DSi's, there is NO excuse not to download FlipNote Studio today. It's free, it takes up a mere 88 blocks of the DSi's memory, and it's animation software. In the near future, Nintendo will be releasing a patch that allows users to upload their animations onto a shared website, like YouTube for FlipNote Studio. This was my Game of Show at E3, and I can't believe it's here so soon.

Honestly, if you're a creative type like me, FlipNote Studio is worth the cost of a DSi alone. That's $180, but it's portable animation software. I'll be doing this all week.

Reforming Health Care is Pretty Simple

Every day on the radio, on the news, on the Daily Show, I hear about how President Obama is trying to renovate the health care system. You hear all sorts of scary words thrown around: Socialism, "death panels" (thanks, Sarah!), public plans, 60% taxation, etc. None of this would even be necessary if people in Congress would stand up to the private insurance companies and tell them to get their act together. We don't need regulated health care, we need regulated health insurance companies. The health care system in this country is broken because of insurance companies, who don't want to pay two dimes for your specialized perscription, especially if it's only doled out by a non-preferred provider.

That's one of my favorite terms in all of private health care. It's not my preferred provider (Providence hopsital); it's theirs (Alaska Regional hospital). One of those providers knows what CF is--in fact, they have a clinic. The other one doesn't. In fact, every time they see "CF culture" on my sputum labs, they actually send the sample to Providence. That's a rant for another day, though. My preferred mail-order pharmacy is CF Services Pharmacy (wonder why?), but if I order my specialized meds through CFSP, my insurance won't cover it because it's not their preferred mail-order pharmacy, which constantly gets my orders wrong or lose my prescriptions. If you have cystic fibrosis, Medco is not your best bet, kids.

So we don't need a public plan, and I don't really want one. My taxes would go up, and I wouldn't mind that if the public plan were only for people who tried to be healthy, but inevitably, the public plan would go to boozehounds and crack junkies who can't afford private insurance, and I don't want to pay one dime of my money to help them with their horrible life choices. Nobody who already has insurance through their employer is going to switch, because no matter how bad their plan is, it's cheaper (through their employer) than paying for it themself.

A public plan is not the answer. Our representatives in Washington need to come down hard on the policies of private insurance companies. Regulate them if need be, but get those f*ckers to play ball.

How I Spent My Friday

For those of you who haven't been reading this blog since its original inception (before the word "Returns" was tacked on), a little history: I have degenerative disk disease (and CF!). About seven years ago, my L5-S1 disk collapsed, and since then two more have collapsed.


Okay: science lesson time. Your vertebrae don't just sit on top of each other. They are cushioned by intervertebral disks--think of them as tough jelly donughts. The interior portion of the disk is called the nucleus pulposus and the thick outer layer is the annulus pulposus. Surrounding the disk is a layer of fatty tissue which my doctor calls dura matter. When you get a herniated disk, it's like squashing a jelly donught: the outer shell breaks, and some jelly squirts out. Every time you fall on your ass or hit a bump on a bike or slip on the ice, the force of that accident is absorbed by, basically, the annulus pulposus, which eventually cracks and breaks. In my case, the annulus pulposus broke real good, and gooey nucleus pulposus flowed out.

That's not so bad, right? Well, look at where the nucleus pulposus goes: right up against the spinal cord and/or nerve root. It's the latter in my case, which causes me pain down my right side (pelvis and lower). I have to be very careful not to further aggrevate the injury because the more jelly leaks out, the more pain I'm in. Well, I was sitting in my chair one day and coughed and BAM--that's all it took. Something slipped a little farther, and I was on the floor. My back doctor recommended a cortisone injection, which I'd never gotten before. He scheduled it for last Friday and that was basically the end of the discussion!

The procedure involves sticking a giant needle directly into the dura matter surrounding the disk and injecting a bunch of steroids in crystaline form that degrade over a 6-month period and, ideally, shrink up the disk and ease pressure off the nerve root. The doctor who actually performed the procedure was hopeful that the shrinking would "stick," effectively curing my L5-S1 herniation, though for how long nobody knows. I sure as hell need to stop lifting heavy things.

It's an interesting experience. The doctor numbed up my back with an injected agent (oh the brief, but intense burning!), then took a CAT scan of the target area. Using that CAT scan as a guide, he stuck a long needle into my back (couldn't feel anything except pressure), then took a CAT scan, then renegotiated the needle's trajectory, then another CAT scan...ad nauseum. The whole time, I was just waiting for that needle to hit a nerve root (I'm a worrier) but nothing like that happened. The procedure was over before I knew it, and the only real discomfort was when the steroids were being pumped in, because it felt like my pelvis was being filled with something (it quickly dispursed). Then out came the needle and I was on my feet. Interestingly, when he got really close to the nerve root (necessarily), the areas where I normally experience pain felt tingley.

Side effects included ever so slight weakness in my feet, but I was otherwise fine. Walked out the door and went home. I even mowed the lawn even though I wasn't supposed to, and spent almost two hours hanging skulls on a cafe wall even though I probably wasn't supposed to. The pain gradually decreased over the weekend to the point where I'm fit as a fiddle today. Normally I'd be squirming in my chair right now but I'm in NO pain at all, which is kickass. It's hard to get used to--I keep feeling like I should be in pain, but I'm not.

Art Remains: Our Newest Art Show!

Hey, Alaska, check out the newest art show at Cafe Europa! It'll be there through August 30th. Scott and I spent the night there on First Friday and nobody came, which was disappointing, but hopefully things will improve as the month goes by. For all you none-Alaskan readers, here are some pictures from the show!


Clockwise, and in a spiral pattern: Nyctosaurus gracilis (Miller), Dimorphodon macronyx (Miller), Archosauria text (Elyard), Tyrannosaurus rex digital painting (Elyard), Archosauria text (Elyard & Miller), The Pterosauria text (Elyard & Miller), Tupandactylus (Amos).


Clockwise from Stomatosuchus (Elyard): Tarbosaurus (Elyard), Euparkeria oils (Elyard), Euparkeria text (Elyard), Gavial text (Elyard), Dinosauria digital trio (Elyard, Miller, Amos), Psittacosaurus sibiricus (Amos), The Dinosauria text (Miller, Elyard), Stomatosuchus text (Elyard).


From left to right: Gavial text (Elyard), Ghavial digital painting (Elyard), frog sketch (Elyard), Pachyrhinosaurus (Elyard).


From left to right: the show's title card (Elyard & Amos), "City of Science" comic book cover (Elyard), P. sibiricus original (Amos). On the bottom: "City of Science" colors (Elyard & Amos), artist bios (outdated).


From left to right: An anime dragon character, a dragon, and an orca (Amos).


My big contribution: a phylogenetic "roadmap" of the Dinosauria and its immediate outgroups. The skulls turned out great, but the yarn tree didn't. I originally wanted to do a bracket tree, but there wasn't enough wallspace. Scott later suggested a "Y" tree with diagonal lines going up toward a line of skulls, and I'm smacking myself for not thinking of that. This turned out poorly because so many strings imply direct descent. Oh well, a lesson learned for next time.


The extremely simplified relationships of the Crurotarsi. I expect Nick Gardner to straight up kill me next time he sees me. Next show, I promise, I'll give the group its due.


Betcha didn't know that ceratopsians evolved directly from Pachycephalosaurus. *sigh*


Some of the theropods. Some of these skulls were really fun to draw, like the abelisaurs and Monolophosaurus.


Now I'm gonna have Wedel coming after me. The Sauropoda is reduced to just four genera. Notice Plateosaurus' snout there on the left.


The base of the Ornithodira and the rest of the Ornithischia. Black bones represent unknown elements. See Rhamphorhynchus down there? He was my favorite skull to restore. Notice also that I chose Amurosaurus to represent the lambeosaurines: an animal whose crest is actually unknown. Good pick, Zach.

Lessons for next time: Measure out the yarn beforehand and make a scale model with the available wallspace; include a lot more genera, including crurotarsians, and; add some basal birds. It didn't go straight from Archaeopteryx to Columba.

I've Been Busy

Sorry, folks, for the lack of substantiative posts. I'm working quite hard on a wrap-up Horns 'n' Spikes post, but I'm also working like a dog on last-minute art show stuff. Oh, that's right, Scott Elyard, Raven Amos, and myself are prepping another art show. This one's called "Art Remains" and you can see it starting August 7th at Europa Bakery (on 36th Ave., near Arctic, in that strip mall). It's mostly old art; we didn't have the energy to create anything really new, but I'm doing an interesting piece with dinosaur skulls. Needless to say, I've been up to my neck in references, trying to improve the skulls I've already done and draw new skulls for the families that need to be included.

I do apologize for the delay, then, but rest assured, I will post photos of this art show when we put everything up! Huzzah!