Some important news for my patients

Sometime soon The doktor's office will be moving.

Recently I joined the ranks of countless Googlians and signed up for a Gmail account. Doktorsmith@gmail.com I am now in the process of switching over my blog to that account. Don't worry I will post links to the old blogs for easy clicking.
Why am I doing this you may ask. Well I just dont like having to sign in and out of stuff if I don't have to; this simplifies things.

The new blogs address is http://doksmith.blogspot.com/

In other news my finger continues to heal well. There is hardly any remnant of the incisions or the original wound aside from a small red spot and the obvious scars.

Tuesday marked four weeks since the surgery and I have begun exercises outside of the cast. In just two weeks I should be allowed out of the cast completely, unless Kathryn the hand specialist says otherwise.

Comics and digital flexion

I'm quite a fan of our tendency, here in America, to mash words together that you would never use in the same sentence in order to create a new and novel idea. For instance the words cock and block. So when I went into the local comic shop the other day and saw the words "battle" and "Pope" together I was immediately intrigued.
Imagine the pope as a womanizing cigar smoking guy from new jersey, who was trained in martial arts by Bruce Lee. Now imagine he and his sidekick Jesus fighting the minions of Hell to save humanity. It has potential.
I read the first four issues in TPB, that's trade paperback or graphic novel for the uninformed. I enjoyed it. It wasn't the best comic I've ever seen but it was good. It was filled with course humor and gore, always a plus, and it had a nice art and coloring style--something I think is essential in a good comic.
I loaned my copy of Battle Pope to Teh Squid and from there I imagine it will circulate through the flock. Also in her possession is the 1-6 TPB of "The Boys" a comic that has been said by critics to "out Preacher, Preacher." They weren't kidding folks, not even a little bit. It is my new favorite title.


In other news, my physical therapy is going well and I am now allowed to do active flexion--look it up--exercises. There have been confusing reports but from what I gather I will be allowed out of my cast sometime between 4 1/2 weeks and 6 weeks post surgery. Since the operation was on the 15th of may I am very near the four week mark. Some day very soon my urge to play videogames will be satisfied!

Here comes yet another health update regarding the left fifth phalanges of Doktor Smith. The last set of photos showed the icky red/blackness that seemed to be swallowing my finger. Well it got worse. The blackness covered most of my pinky in between the joint and the tip, by the time I had my appointment with Dr. Curnow. However, my fears were dashed almost as soon as the doctor walked in. Just to give you an idea of the kind of presence Dr. Curnow has, imagine a rounder Bill Clinton with longer hair who kinda fills up whatever room he's in with his upbeat attitude. This man came in to the check-up room sat down next to me and took one look at my hand and said, "well hey thats lookin pretty good." He said that there was healthy skin under the hard black stuff, that it would peel off soon and that it was pretty standard in this kind of surgery. He then told me that Connie--his head nurse--would come in and remove my stitches. She did, then she gave me the little scissors and tweezers because they usually just get thrown away. Then I was off on my merry way. Not 2 hours after got the stitches out I cracked open like a shrimp. Nearly all of the skin of my pinky peeled off and underneath was fresh pink skin. The only remnants of the wound are right along the incision line. They are covered with steri strips to keep the scab from cracking while I bend the finger. So 2 weeks post surgery and I'm looking pretty good. By six weeks I should be out of the cast more or less and well on my way to recovery.

No fucking way!!!

Every so often I come across a character in a book, movie, or web comic that instantly reminds me of a friend or colleague. They might not look like them or sound like them or even be the same sex, but it's the same person. I just ran into a 'Black' Pope persona in a new web comic I'm reading. If any of you doubt that this is truly Linus then you're just plain crazy. I mean look at him for chrissake! A huge man spouting nifty little theological tidbits wearing a kilt, an offensive--to the uninformed--shirt and huge boots.....he even has a pet bird for fucks sake. If Linus were black, this is what we'd see.

For those of you that don't already know, I'm a huge comic geek. I will admit I lean towards the marvel monthly books and web comics more but I love em all. I am really fond of hawk and ananth and their webcomic applegeeks. There is a short that they did for an anthology of robot comics called disposable parts. It's called SE7EN. The last bit of narrative has been surfacing in my mind now and again. "[He] wishes that he could have been more than the child of such small gods"

I was hurt in the past, so I don't want to get my hopes up too high again. I looked forward to 300 with such hope. So now the transformers movie is quickly approaching theatres. Like 300 the premise and the trailers are both impressive. I guess only time will tell if it was worth my wait.

makes sense....or not.

Your Superhero Profile

Your Superhero Name is The Forgotten Squid Your Superpower is Genetic engineering Your Weakness is Tummy Rubs Your Weapon is Your Plasma Knife Your Mode of Transportation is Catapult

What's your Superhero Name?

Well now, on my first try I am given a superpower that suits me and make sense!

On the subject of making sense though, you know what doesn't make any sense? The Fountain. Go rent it by all means, it is a pretty movie and the acting is really nice, but be warned you will end up screaming, "Where the hell did glowing floating Hugh Jackman guy come from?!"

So, today was my birthday. It was the most low key birthday I've ever had....I think I should make a habit of having those. All in all the day was pretty good, except I missed my follow up appointment with my surgeon. All that means is I've got to wait another week to get my stitches out, and they might not have been coming out today anyway. I had a nice dinner, large pieces of dead animal, pears with chocolate drizzle on them, and tater tots. After dinner I hung out with my gf, she's so sweet she made me cupcakes aw <3. then I came home and made some tea, and now I'm here infront of hal my little laptop friend.

Chronicles of ye o' gimpy one

For the past several days I have been sporting a plastic shell over me left hand as opposed to the makeshift plaster and gauze. You see it here with its lovely blue velcro straps.

The back piece is old news. The front portion of the shell, however, is brand spanking new. It also comes complete with its own pinky rubberband excersizer--Which I am to use ten times every hour.

If you don't recall why I'm wearing this bizzare little gettup I'll remind you. You see not too long ago the doktor was juggling knives and happened to slip on a bannana peel and nearly cut his pinky off. You see it here stitches and all.










Well that should be a good lesson to all of you....don't leave bannana peels lying about

on pinkies and penis rings

My fears were abated 8:30 on Tuesday. The left little finger of teh doktor shall remain intact. When I first showed up at the Gem City Bone and Joint Surgery Center, I was, I admit, very nervous. After a very short wait, Dr. Curnow--an excellent man and former hand specialist--came in and checked out my hand. To his surprise and relief he found that I had sliced open my finger in about the best way possible. The flexor habitus was still partially retained, meaning the tendon was not completely severed. This meant that I would not have to have my hand split open to look for the rest of my tendon, and the operation could be done with all local anesthetic. After meeting with the Dr. I went in for a few X-Rays and then they told me to come back about 11:00. Because of several cancellations I was able to have the procedure done that day. I came back and the nurses fitted me with a little gown, for those of you who care--yes they let me keep my underwear. They also informed me that the Dr. might be using an electro cauterizing tool, which meant I needed to remove all metal jewelry from my person. They looked at me and said 'But I guess you don't have any to worry about', because I didn't have my earrings in. I looked away and said that I would need the ziplock --for jewelry-- they gave me a confused look and handed me the baggy. I went into the bathroom and came out with my 1.25 inch long 10 guage barbell in the little baggy. They tried to hide the fact that their eyes bulged and wandered for a sec, but it was pretty noticeable. After that the Dr. came in and did the local anesthetic and I was taken into the surgery. I remember it was so cold in that room at first. They laid me out and hooked me up to the bp and heart rate monitor and put a paper blanket over me that blew warm air on me. Soon after the team came in and scrubbed down my arm with iodine, then they went to work. I didn't really watch all that much since I didn't want to be moving around, but what I did see of it was pretty sweet. They opened up my finger and marked all the important bits like tendon and nerve. Then they sutured them together with super-fine needles and suture. Then they closed me up wrapped up my finger and sent me to the recovery room. After that it was pretty much over. I just had to get dressed and make follow up appointments.

so thats it for now. it will be about 6-12 weeks before the cast can come off. after that it will still be a while before I'm 100% again but all in all not too much recovery time.

So, I don't think I'll be playing with knives for quite some time. I was sharpening my new knife and something fell. I sliced my left pinky to the bone. I had it stiched up in the emergency room but now I have to get it checked out again to see if they can repair the tendon or if they have to amputate the end of my finger off. bummer

well that's pretty upsetting.

I guess the moral of the story is you can't really trust anybody nowadays.

Just this moment

I find myself sitting in a ridiculously comfy, pink bathrobe, after having just taken a shower using a bar of wonderfully lemon/ginger scented soap, and sipping on earl grey style green tea.

I so wish I had a picture of this to share with you.

Astonishing revelations made through webcomics!

About a half an hour ago I began reading a new webcomic. It's very rudimentary in terms of drawings, mostly just stick figures, but with very witty content. It is much like Dinosaur comic, in that regard. While running through the four panel world of F8d I was stunned by a new fact.

To demonstrate to the average individual that drasticallly altering or harming the planet is not a far-fetched feat for humanity he used simple division.

The total land area of the earth is a little under 150 million square kilometers.

The population of humans on the earth is over 6 billion.

150,000,000
/
6,000,000,000
=
.025

So, divided equally there is about .025 square kilometers to every person. That is about the size of three standard soccer pitches.

Now, I'm pretty damn sure I could drastically alter three soccer pitches over the course of my lifetime.

Some things money can't buy and some things it can.

Today, I was given a rare opportunity. I had the pleasure of introducing someone to the band GWAR. Since no one can be "told" what GWAR is, they must be "shown". So I turned to youtube for a proper clip to show the young initiate. In the process of looking up video for the previously un-innoculated person I found a clip entitled "GWAR on Joan". Thinking that this may be a joke, but one with potential, I click on this clip. Lo and Behold, it's for real. Two of the members of GWAR in full gear have an interview on the Joan Rivers show. That ladies and gentlemen, is something truly priceless.

There are times when a movie, a song, a painting or some other piece of art reflects life. Here's one such case from my life. You see, my reality is reflected not only in the content of this work, but also in the media.....You'll see. This is what I feel like every single day.

random weirdness

Have you ever realized something about yourself, only by comparison to someone else? I like it when that happens. I don't know why, I just do. As an added bonus the fun little realization I just had came right after another, albeit less important, one.

First I realized the type of movie viewer I am. I'm picky. That may not sound important, but let me explain. I realized I have trouble picking movies to watch because I have to be in just the right mood for the movie. This little realization was the seed for a much more fun one. I realized that I don't refer to the movies as good or bad. I don't say that any particular style of movie is better than any other, I think of it in terms of whether or not I like certain things about the movie. I claim my opinion, and not just with movies. People, places, events, and anything like that. I think of it in terms of whether or not I like them or not. This kind of thinking only really has meaning when compared to it's counterpart. Let me give you an example of this counterpart style of thought.....That movie is stupid, the person who directed it is terrible, or That place is bad, nothing good comes from that place. In this style of thinking the responsibility for the opinion is shifted from the person to the object. Note how this style of thought doesn't even take into account that other opinions could exist about the object, almost like they are plain and simple facts--ones which everyone should accept. As another little bonus, when I reflected about my past and whether or not I had always had this style of thinking I realized that I have. Even when I think back to times when I've made statements the other way, the 'that thing is terrible' way, my thought is always, 'I think that thing is terrible'.

The fun part about realizing this silly little thing about myself is that it helped me understand why I have difficulties with the people who think the other way. I don't like the fact that they think of thier opinions as facts, and when people disagree with their opinions that means those people are wrong. To be fair I think of those people as closed minded, I think of them as ignorant and apathetic. Note the "I think" rather than "those people are....or.....you are"

I know full well that this little rant will mean absolutly zilch to everyone else, and I had thought about just puting it as a diary. However; whenever I get a notification that one of my blog subscriptions has updated only to find that it is private I think of the regretful seconds I will never get back. It feels much more satisfying to open up the blog and see the words, even if I find I'm not interrested in reading them all. So, for any likeminded people I left it public.

Have you ever watched a college or high school movie? Ya know, one with overly photogenic, mature and corny students surviving against the odds to the most exciting pop music of the time. Well I've been studying very hard to such greats as 'We Want Fun' 'City of Angels' 'The Art of Losing' and others. So, right now my life reminds me of one of those movies. Corny as it sounds, I kinda like it. The motivation, the feeling of struggle, and of righteousness.

I'm not sure where any of that came from but there it is.

On a related note, if I'm going to be learning all of this information about organic chemistry I should be doing something usefull with it. Now we all know that the best use of learning is EVIL, so why am I not out destroying the world yet??? I'll tell you why. What I'm learning has no real relevance, no real use. If it did the world would have many more smoking craters that used to be where my enemies stood.

I just went outside to grab a book from my car, and I saw the most beautiful thing I may ever see. First of all I love this time of night. It is so calm and still and quiet, plus it's always a little cooler than the daytime. Anyway, as I was walking out to my car I was thinking, 'man I love living here, you can see the stars to clearly'. At that moment I looked up to see what may have been the space station, or maybe a planet, but it was big and bright. Then I started to notice other shiny lights in the sky, and something remarkable struck me. They were sparkling. I've always heard people talk about how stars twinkle and all, but I always figured that meant getting brighter or dimmer. These were twinkling through myriad colors. And while I was standing there, getting cold to my bones watching the stars twinkle I thought, 'some days I get a reminder to keep on going.'

Ending one minute at a time.

This is your life.

This is your life and it's ending.

This is your life and it's ending one minute at a time.

This is your life and it's ending one minute at a time, and you never know which ones your last.

If our life is so finite why can't we choose the moments we have. Obviously it's not an ideal world that's why. But sometimes it just hurts...It hurts that we have to live through so many moments, without enjoying them. It hurts that they're the only moments we'll get, but we're glad they're gone. Isn't that a little fucked up?