Current sleep/pain/etc. checkin

Let’s see, where am I at right now…

  • Sleep: I got a weighted blanket on Meh. I’ve slept with it two nights. First night my sleep was aborted because of a… thing, second night I slept pretty well under it and woke up sore in the morning as if I’d been lifting weights for the last several hours. Interesting.

  • My new CPAP mask has been working pretty well for me. Although somehow I managed to not only take it off but take it apart in my sleep last night. Wat.

  • The… thing: I was feeling a mysterious pain in my left leg and hip starting on… Tuesday, I think? and it was getting worse and worse, and felt a lot like the DVT I had back in November 2017 which threw a clot and turned into a pulmonary embolism which wasn’t exactly a fun experience that I have any interest in repeating anytime soon. So I went to the ER to get it checked out, and it turned up… nothing. So, good news, no DVT. The doctor suggested I just take it easy for the next few days, which I am trying to do, and oddly enough I’m feeling a lot better, go figure. Also I’m glad I’m with Kaiser because the whole thing only cost me $15.

  • But it’s hard for me to take things easy because I want to get my home clean, because my birthday is coming up soon and I am intending to host a completely unrelated pizza party at my home. (Incidentally, if you are in the Seattle area and are interested in pizza and you think I know you well enough to let you into my home, let me know and I’ll maybe extend you an invitation to the party!) Fortunately a friend is coming over tomorrow to help me out with the cleaning stuff (for which I am incredibly grateful!) but I am oh so very tired. So I mean I’m taking things easy at the moment, but I’d rather not.

  • General pain levels are all over the map, but typically Bad. Like, 6-7 on the Mankoski scale most of the time. I’ve asked about getting a pay-per-use parking permit at work so I can drive on days when I’m pretty sure I’ll be low-spoons. I’ve also asked about the process of doing disability leave on an as-needed basis if things keep on this trajectory. I haven’t heard back about either thing yet, but to be fair I only submitted my inquiries on Thursday and the university is wrapping up the spring quarter so I’m sure those departments are very busy right now.

  • I used my impending uptime odometer rollover as an excuse to buy more music stuff I don’t really need; specifically I ordered a better portable MIDI keyboard (affiliate link) and a copy of NI Symphony Essentials (which is currently on massive sale and I qualified for a $150 “crossgrade” from Komplete 11).

  • Oh and I also have a song in this week’s Song Fight!, for the first time in nearly 3 years. Specifically “Freak Flag,” which will eventually be over yonder but while it’s on the front page I encourage you to listen to all the songs and vote for the ones you like. Also maybe post some reviews over on the forum.

  • I really want to work on comics right now but I really can’t. But I’ve been playing around with Affinity Photo as an alternative to Photoshop and while it’s still got a bunch of rough edges (and is still missing a few workflow things I need) it’s getting pretty close to usable, and is a lot faster/cleaner/more affordable than Photoshop. I can totally foresee switching to it as my main drawing program.

  • I might also try out their other programs, Designer and Publisher, to see if they’re actually usable, unlike the Adobe equivalents (Illustrator and InDesign, respectively). I could never wrap my head around Illustrator and sometimes I need vector art, and similarly every time I do a layout in InDesign I end up having to relearn it.

  • If I do this then I’ll probably switch back to Final Cut for video, because Final Cut does all the stuff I use Premiere for and the only reason I use Premiere is because I pay for Creative Cloud anyway so I’d might as well use the program I already have. (Also it turns out Apple has a Pro Apps for Education bundle I qualify for since I work at the university, and it includes a few other things I’ve been wanting to mess with and costs less in total than Final Cut on its own.)

  • In retrospect, a bulleted list was probably the wrong format for this entry.

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