Friday, July 22, 2011

Seriously, a Month?!

Seriously, it's been over a month.

I never thought I’d make it to the point where I was blogging once a freaking month. Believe me, I’ve considered blogging in the last four weeks, but I was never really motivated to. There was no paleo story that got me revved up, no gaming news that made me sweat, and here’s the other thing: I haven’t really drawn anything in just as long. So we begin today with a consideration that When Pigs Fly Returns might close up shop soon. Maybe it’s the aftermath of the brain infection, but I am just NOT feeling the writing bug anymore. I assume you have to work at it; drawing, too, but right now there is nothing I’d rather do less than sit down and type out something about Stegosaurus. I spent two weeks—I’m not kidding—writing and re-writing my Wonder Woman figure review over at Dirty Little Figures.

It’s a struggle. My question is whether this disinterest in the creative process is a REAL aftereffect of the brain injury, or merely a temporary setback that will edge its way back into my cranium? I really hope it’s the latter.

Second thing I want to talk about today is my progress. I am off all abscess-specific medications now, though the medications I am on also treat any lingering residuals of the abscess infection. Remember back in March when I had that respiratory infection and ended up with a PICCline IV that only lasted two weeks? Then a few weeks later I was in the ICU with a different PICCline in my (other) arm and that lasted well over a month? Well, funny story: while I was recovering from the abscess, the respiratory infection actually came raging back, faster than before, and now I’m on a third PICCline (in the original arm) that we’re treating with the same antibiotics as we did in March. Hopefully this won’t last more than two weeks, although I’m kind of hoping for three—maybe we didn’t totally kill it off in March/April.

But I definitely needed a re-do. My appetite had fallen off a cliff, I was slowly losing weight, my energy level was just above “lazy sea lion,” and best of all, my lung function tests were declining every week. So getting another IV was certainly A Good Thing. Best of all, the first respiratory infection and the brain abscess made me meet my Out of Pocket Maximum, so assuming there are no insurance kerfuffles (of course there will be), this one is basically free!

So that’s where I’m at. Now I’m going to force myself back into drawing so that I start getting back into the creative groove. My focus? I’m going back to mythological pin-ups. Remember way back when I did the Silk Succubus? That’s the well I’m going back to. I’d had many others planned, including a Harpy, Gorgon, and Siren. I just have to re-learn how to draw…

4 comments:

davidmaas said...

mythological pin-ups!
That sounds uniquely fun!

Look forward to 'em... wish you stamina and recovery.

traumador said...

On healthy stuff, sorry man. Wish you a speedy and pleasant recovery. To you I send a Green Mushroom ;)

On the blogging burn out I don't think it is the infection, I think it is your longtime run at it. I'm starting to hit writers block and apathy these days too. You'll notice Traumador has gone into hibernation. Same issue.

Good luck with it all yo. Stay in touch either way.

Brian said...

It's up to you to decide to stop and if you feel that it's the best thing to do, you should do it.
It does sadden me however, as I feel it's yet another of the palaeo blog community dying out.

Perhaps I've grown too demanding from the treat of being able to read excellent blogs on my favorite subjects, but I feel that overall the quality or at least quantity has declined considerably.


Blogs like Tanystropheus have gone into torpor.
The World We Don't Live In is gone completely.
SV-Pow! does not quite do its name and perhaps not even its fame justice anymore.
Archosaur Musings has become mostly tedious as far as I'm concerned.
Laelaps really doesn't do it more for me either anymore.(Perhaps I find Brian Switek to focus on style more than information these days.)
I think Tetrapod Zoology really is the only blog still standing strong...and I hate to say that I think its move to Scientific American has hurt it. I find that particularly sad for Darren Naish because I'm sure he was very happy with the move and may have been disappointed. Getting around the requirement of registration for commenters might fix that, though.

On the whole, I still appreciate what is there and the effort put into it by the bloggers, but it all just doesn't thrill and captivate me the way it used to do. I hope things will get better..or perhaps I should get less demanding.

Darren Naish said...

Seeing as I was mentioned above... yes, Tet Zoo ver 3 is (in my opinion) infinitely lamer than ver 2, but I didn't know it would be this way until I made the move (and, for various reasons, I had to make the move, sorry). Hopefully it won't affect the content though.