That's terrible Ash :(
I'm glad DD is somewhat of a refuge for you though.

Reminds me of my friend Bianka who I'm traveling with currently. Such a weird friendship… I could not STAND to be in a relationship with her.
We find each other SO infuriating and dense, she is such a self centred, narcissist with almost zero empathy or self reflection…

And yet we get on anyway. Even if it can be so painful at times. :)

Sorry to hear about that struggle, Ashtree - but you should be commended for doing the right thing for you, even though it must have been difficult.

*commended

Pulling back from social media makes a lot of sense, too. Four years is a long time, and taking a while to get your bearings sounds like a smart idea!

Silver lining to this cloud…more Steel & Manitou!

Hope you're doing all right

Thanks all! I appreciate it, especially right now. My ex has been sort of sending me.. not so nice things. He's usually the nicest guy and really sweet but I know he is angry and hurt right now. It's just adding to my stress. And YES!! DD is a refuge!! You guys are awesome! And more Steel and Manitou is on the way for sure!

Wow, Ash. I'm not sure what to feel (never been in any kind of relationship of that nature), but I wish the best for you. At least now you have the time to just concentrate on yourself for now.

All good choices Ashe. Hard choices, but in the long run necessary for where you want your life to go.

And I speak as the guy who was dumped once upon a time for all those reasons. Your ex needs to find the right person to grow with or someone who likes ruts without communication. (Sarcasm, but then there are lots of people who settle into those things and wonder why they are so unhappy, rather than taking any step they can to change their situation. Though once there are kids and mortgages it often becomes fiscally impossible. Glad you realized before it got to that point).

——


One eye down and one to go. The eye that was my weak eye for years now has decent mid range vision. However the glasses only work for distance with the other eye. I got an eyepatch for driving and next week is the surgery for the left eye.

It is really amazing for the first time in my life to see my face clearly in the mirror without the glasses. I really do look my age. Oh but so grizzled.

Ah, thank goodness your ex isn't on DD!


Speaking of DD. You guys want to do another big meet up? I feel we should have another go at it, in Google hangouts instead this time.

I've been craving a meet up. They really light up my Saturdays.

And of course you made sure to bring this up after I find out I no longer have weekends free.

I always figured coincidence was conspiring against me.

Good news about your eye, Bravo! Speaking as one who's had to deal with eye issues before (lasik eye surgery didn't go as well as I'd hoped)!!

For the first time in my life I can my own face clearly in the mirror. Think about what it means after a half century of blur to finally be able to see the back of you own hand without glasses.

What else haven't I seen clearly until just this moment? If something as clear as the nose on my face was so unclear till just now, what else didn't I see? How can I be so certain of anything if I am so blind as to not see what is right in front for me?

As a gag I invented the religion of Confusionism. It was a belief system based on being completely and utterly confused about everything at all times. Everything was an unknowable blur that left one in a perpetual state of confusion and that dizzy confusion was the true meaning of existence. In other words, the incomprehensible babble of all knowing philosophy was an end in itself. Of course I had not the first to come up with this. Professor Irwin Corey was an excellent practitioner. Look it up.

And this is why the sage laughs.

I an SO excited for Halloween tonight. I am going to be dressed as a Huntress when I go trick-or-treating. I finally have an excuse to walk around the neighborhood, which means no candy duty for me this year!

So I'm playing Starmade (think Minecraft in space, then combining with EVE Online when played in Multiplayer), and I was trying how to create a working version Dee's rocket from Hippie's comic. It could work, but I'd need a camera and a couple of gravity modules due to the way it's set up. Or it could be a permanent fixture or a functional control room for any space stations I want to build.

Anyone interested in trying it out can download the Starmade demo from Steam. It's literally the full version of the current game while it's still in its alpha stage of development (once the game goes beta the demo gets no more updates and you'd have to buy the game).

I am finally back home in Perth now, I have to decompress and sort through my experiences…

Welcome back, oz! Can't wait to hear tales of your adventures!

@bravo1102: your description of confusionism sounds remarkably similar to Zen.
@Ozoneocean: I'm looking forward to doing another meetup. My memories of Google hangout are that it was kind of buggy, but maybe it's improved since I last time I used it.

Been falling behind on my comic (and kind of everything really) because I can only work on it when I'm happy, and it's been a crazy couple of weeks. I'm adjusting to new anxiety meds and oh boy, my brain is super discombobulated. Right now I tend to feel really bad in the morning, better in late afternoon/evening, and 100% my normal self late in the evening. So that means I have to get everything done in a fairly short window of every day, because the rest of the day all I want to do is sulk and watch gentle comedies and political commentary shows.

Lonnehart wrote:
So I'm playing Starmade (think Minecraft in space, then combining with EVE Online when played in Multiplayer), and I was trying how to create a working version Dee's rocket from Hippie's comic. It could work, but I'd need a camera and a couple of gravity modules due to the way it's set up. Or it could be a permanent fixture or a functional control room for any space stations I want to build.

That's super cool, Lonne! You'll have to show me what you come up with!

ashtree house wrote:
It's just adding to my stress. And YES!! DD is a refuge!! You guys are awesome! And more Steel and Manitou is on the way for sure!

Aw, I'm so glad DD is a refuge for you, Ashtree! It's often been a refuge for me as well.

Also yay for more Steel and Manitou!

fallopiancrusader wrote:
@bravo1102: your description of confusionism sounds remarkably similar to Zen.

There is a difference between being the moment and utter confusion every moment. ;D

HippieVan wrote:

Lonnehart wrote:
So I'm playing Starmade (think Minecraft in space, then combining with EVE Online when played in Multiplayer), and I was trying how to create a working version Dee's rocket from Hippie's comic. It could work, but I'd need a camera and a couple of gravity modules due to the way it's set up. Or it could be a permanent fixture or a functional control room for any space stations I want to build.

That's super cool, Lonne! You'll have to show me what you come up with!

Once my ship building skills get better I will make that attempt. I put a few (maybe a lot) of screenshots of the game on my facebook page. Never thought building with blocks would be so difficult…

Both eyes are done. Though my distance vision isn't great it is within the legal limit to drive, so I can drive without glasses. And do most other things without glasses.

Now I just have to grow the beard in and audition for those Dos Equis commercials.

You new eyeballs look fine to me




How about the 26th for out meetup hangout thing?

Maybe one day science will come out with tech that will allow the blind to see. Unless you were born blind in which case it may take longer to gain sight. I can only imagine how disorienting it would be to finally see when you were never able to see in the first place…

-edit-
Well… I finally have the new graphics card on order. Hopefully once it's in place (and I get another HyperX 8 Gigabyte memory stick for a total of 16GB) my computer will be futureproofed for a few more years. The graphics card will BARELY fit inside… I'll have a good half inch clearance from the drive bay once it's installed. And I apparently got the very last card at $219 because the price has now jumped to nearly $250. Anyways…

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01KIZUF7Y/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

They're definitely working on it http://time.com/4399255/mice-blindness-cure/

I think the harder part of all this is giving sight to those who never had it. The mechanisms that give us sight either never formed in those born blind, and even if they are there you'd have to “train” it to see…

I forgot my DD password today. Lucky I'm still logged on with my phone and it has my password remembered itself. :)

I'm fed up with the US and it's stupid voting public. Ugh!
I'm just going to go home and watch more Adventure Time and Steven Universe and draw.
I used to think those shows were nambi-pamby crap till Pitface strongly recommend them to me, then I was sick in Cambodia, watching them on Cartoon Network. I really like them now.

ozoneocean wrote:

I'm fed up with the US and it's stupid voting public. Ugh!
I'm just going to go home and watch more Adventure Time and Steven Universe and draw.

I wonder if it's too late for me to move to Canada… There's nothing I can do anyway as we territories aren't allowed to participate in any CONUS elections…

Lonnehart wrote:

ozoneocean wrote:

I'm fed up with the US and it's stupid voting public. Ugh!
I'm just going to go home and watch more Adventure Time and Steven Universe and draw.

I wonder if it's too late for me to move to Canada… There's nothing I can do anyway as we territories aren't allowed to participate in any CONUS elections…

You're better off, participation isn't all it's cracked up to be especially with the candidate choice we've had the past few elections. Even the local school board are a bunch of pay to play crooks giving out no bid contracts to their brother in law.

As for the Great.White North (koo-roo-koo-koo, koo-roo-koo-koo) Under their Healthcare my cataract surgery would have been scheduled for sometime in 2020 after my cataracts were fully mature.

Lonnehart wrote:
I think the harder part of all this is giving sight to those who never had it. The mechanisms that give us sight either never formed in those born blind, and even if they are there you'd have to “train” it to see…

Yeah, I heard stories about that too. Your brain has to be trained to see perspective and things like that. I wish I knew where I heard that story again, it was really interesting.

–

Now that I have time I've been getting active in webcomics communities again, and it feels kind of weird when someone says “Wait a minute, The Duck still exists? I didn't even know”

Whirlwynd wrote:

Lonnehart wrote:
I think the harder part of all this is giving sight to those who never had it. The mechanisms that give us sight either never formed in those born blind, and even if they are there you'd have to “train” it to see…

Yeah, I heard stories about that too. Your brain has to be trained to see perspective and things like that. I wish I knew where I heard that story again, it was really interesting.

Obviously not sure if this is where you heard that story originally, but Oliver Sacks' book An Anthropologist on Mars has at least one chapter about that.

If there's one thing I hate about buying things online… it's the WAIT! I guess there's a piece of my mind that's not willing to wait… It wants that graphics card here RIGHT NOW!!! How do I calm it down… or rip it out without dying? :)

Lonnehart wrote:
If there's one thing I hate about buying things online… it's the WAIT! I guess there's a piece of my mind that's not willing to wait… It wants that graphics card here RIGHT NOW!!! How do I calm it down… or rip it out without dying? :)

You want it done yesterday, well, you better learn to wait until the day after tomorrow.

I got over it by getting everything sent with a tracking number. I check that number multiple times a day to ease my impatience. At least I know where my package is.