Birthday!!!

It was a good day. Thank's everybody.

My coworkers decorated my cubicle (oh yes I have a cubicle and it's awesome)

New Camera!

I've got a camera now! Prepare for pictures...

...

Just look how happy I am.

My Weekend *NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH*

So this weekend...in short I'll round it out to slow torture, but awesome!

Wednesday night...

(I was trying to focus on something beyond the camera and take the photograph at the

same time. The other ones just made me look crazy. I saw two of everything, and here I was focusing

on only one of the images, the muscle impairment is worse in that left eye.)

Saturday Afternoon...

(We went on a picnic and it was green, warm, and beautiful. The company couldn't have been better either. It was so much fun being with Jake, Becky, Ella and Eva.)

Saturday afternoon... later...

(We went to the air and space museum, and Dad was like a little kid on Christmas. He took a picture of every plane twice. It was a lot of fun, but really tiring on my poor eye muscles...plus, the prescription in these glasses isn't exactly up to par.)

Saturday evening...

We went on a drive-by through Washington, DC... and it was the agonizingly painful part of my weekend. If you focus really hard you might be able to see the whites of my eyes... NOT. We stopped to see the Lincoln Memorial, but that was about all that I really saw.

Sunday Morning...

(It may look like we're ganging up on her, but that's definitely not the case. Ella can definitely move faster than my eyes could follow.

Sunday night... after we'd made it back home.

Em took the pictures and it took a lot of effort to keep my eyes open this wide for more than a few seconds. I had to put some hideous goop in my eyes for the whole weekend, and it got everywhere.... and it turns out my skin was also mildly allergic to the ointment.

--But hey, now I see ONE of everything, and the pain and swelling is slowly starting to fade.

Thank you everybody for your prayers. It really made the difference.

New

Now I have no excuse. I spent the money, and now I have to exercise.

They're just too shiny not to use.

And... I've got a new setup. I'm just getting more and more technical...

which is why I have to exercise.

well, that and the giant jar of candy on the desk behind the monitor...

A Break...but Not.

This is what I do to relax without that feeling of being completely unproductive. I find map making cathartic especially when I can create it strait from my own imagination! I think all I need now is some color... and maybe some more detail, but it's the best I can do with a pencil, pen, ruler, scanner, and four computer programs.

Should I keep it (pending actual completion--considering it's good enough even to color)?

Random

So I don't really do much... now that I'm probably legally blind and I can't drive. I pretty much have to wait for Em or Alyssa to get back from school before I can go somewhere. We go to Walmart quite often, and this time they had another fabulous sale on weird t-shirts... If you know me, you know that I couldn't resist.

This one is a picture of the recent addition to my glasses... the glare is awful and it's rather difficult to focus... but at least the double vision is gone... I haven't been able to look at the stars in ages for more than 4 seconds at a time, but with the double vision gone they stay where they should.... Given the choice it's hard to say which I'd prefer the "Prism Patch" or double vision....

Time will tell...

Wow, I'm dumb!

It just occurred to me that when writing fiction, I can totally screw with the geography of existing places. I've set a vast majority of the action in Calgary, AB Canada and instead of staying true to the actual geography--which I have been trying to do--I'm going to make it a completely new city.

I've already screwed with the boundaries of North America...

Now I need to edit! Nobody ever told me that epiphanies require work.

Book Report

Hey everybody, and maybe nobody!

I live in a little world, but that's alright because I have a big imagination that stretches far beyond these walls. I'm now in the process of finishing off part II of Beyond White Walls, and the going is slow. I'm working my way through writer's block.

I've got Becca Black and Carrie working on feedback and occasional editing (generally pointing out little mistakes that I have missed)... and it will be due largely to their efforts when this is successfully completed. I really like to share, and you can read what I've got, but don't make me regret it--tell me what you really think!

Becca has been having fun with some artwork for me... the picture above is one of the things that she has done for me. I really like it...

Sorry I'm not keeping up with updates, ask me questions and I'll try to give you answers.

CB