Anyone else miss the days when Vanilla Ice used to team up with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? No? Me neither.
This lovely box art is from an actual game for the Atari. IGN posted a fantastic Top 25 breakdown of the worst video game box art ever. There are some gems on there and I'm not ashamed to say I owned more than a couple.
Over at Random Changes the zombie series is in full swing. Marvel Zombies #1 will be posted tonight.
In other news, my associate teacher from my first practicum called me to say that he got a call from the TDSB as they were checking my references. He gave a glowing report to the woman he was talking to, someone that he knows and has met before, and Scott says that every indication was given that I now have a spot on the coveted list.
I'm closer to a job than ever before.
This calls for a celebration of sorts. I'll be at my Dad's this weekend, but maybe I'll give Jer and call on Sunday when I get home to see if he wants to go out for a beer or something.
I'm still totally, completely, unbelievably FLOORED over the last 10 minutes of the season finale of Battlestar Galactica. If the season 2 ending raised a few eyebrows and got a couple of curses because of the months of waiting we were about to endure, it is NOTHING compared to the mind f*** that this episode just was.
I'm STILL reeling from it.
How can this show possibly get any better?!? It's impossible! There's no way to top it! A few of the episodes this season were a little slow, but this is UNREAL. For those of you who understand this point of reference, this is going to be HARDER to wait for than the Picard as a Borg cliffhanger.
Thank god it's already been picked up for a full 22 episodes next season.
AAAGGHHH!!! I can't wait a whole frakking 6 or 7 months for more!
Battlestar Galactica, what have you done to me?
Best. show. ever.
From The Office:
Dwight: "Are you watching Battlestar Galactica?" Man: "...no." Dwight: "Then you're an idiot."
My own confession is that it took me far longer than I expected to post all of the Civil War issues on Random Changes. However, at this point it's all done and while I may post some of the 'Fallen Son' storyline down the road, that marks the end of that series.
Tomorrow I'll post the first issue of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8, and then after that I'll move into a horror-theme with Ultimate Fantastic Four and Marvel Zombies. All told, I've got about 10 issues of that kind of stuff coming your way.
Otherwise, things are good. The practicum is nearly over and not only am I surviving but almost unexpectedly I seem to be thriving. It gets easier and easier. With as much modesty as I'm able to project, this seems to be a job that I'm damn good at. I just hope it stays that way.
My interview for the TDSB was earlier this week and I did well. I didn't mention adult aids of any kind so right away I put that in a win column. The only odd behaviour I showed was that I arrived nearly 2 hours early for my interview. I didn't want to be late, but I didn't want to show up THAT early. The receptionist woman was really nice about it and fawned over me the rest of the evening. I felt special.
So one week of that school left, then three weeks of university until it's done. I have a month-long internship to complete at that point, but all evaluations and proper schooling will be done.
I'm only slightly terrified of what happens after that. But I'm content as I know I've done the best I could. For the first time in years, I feel as though I'm truly coming into my own and becoming the sort of man I always hoped I'd be.
Like I said... I'm feeling modest today.
PS. I think Aaron's dead. I haven't heard from him in ages. Since nearly Christmas, it seems.
I love comics. YOU know I love comics. My closet knows that I love comics. Yet for all of this interest, I no longer tend to purchase any. I still read the news because I like to stay abrest of what's going on, but I'm not longer chained to the vicious cycle of consumer whoring.
Take the recent events in Captain America. It's a great story (and will be posted today or tomorrow on Random Changes) and it packs an emotional punch. Despite this, it feels like a hollow event.
For everyone who remembers the death of Superman back in the day, this was a shocking thing to have done. Who has the nerve to kill of a comic book icon? Now we bring ourselves up to speed by about 10 years and this kind of stunt no longer has any weight.
Still like Captain America? Good, because the series isn't ending. Want to read about him right now? Buy The Ultimates. What's that? There's a movie coming out in a year or two? Hmm. What are they going to do?
Oh, he'll be back soon enough.
Everyone knows it as well. It just doesn't mean much.
On the flip side, good story telling is good story telling. So it's worth a read. To honour Cap's actions, immediately after his 'death' I'll begin posting issues of Marvel Zombies, starting with their debut in Ultimate Fantastic Four. If you're sick and twisted (and I know you are), then you'll enjoy this series.
As for me, I'm enjoying March break but I'm doing far too much lesson planning. This is good and bad. It's good because I don't have to do any work when I come home at night, but it's bad because I haven't played as much Nintendo or watched as many movies as I had hoped. That said, I did see Snakes on a Plane and enjoyed it more than I expected. 300 is worth a look as well, but Jer has a better breakdown than I do here.
Just so you know, I haven't abandoned Random Changes at all. Two new entries went up today in the ongoing Civil War saga that should be complete within the week.
As an added bonus, I'm going to let YOU decide what the next segment will be. I have an 8-issue Marvel Zombies series that is fantastic. How often do you get to see Spider-Man guilt-ridden over eating his own wife? I also have new issues of Astonishing X-Men, The Ultimates, The Dark Tower, and The Exiles that I can put up.
Comic books are fun.
Practicum is not. I only have two days left until March break which I am extremely thankful for. The whole practice teaching thing is going well, I suppose, I just don't like the process. I just finished making my first rubrics (a criteria-based sheet that lets students see how and what is being marked during their assignments/projects) and I didn't enjoy that much at all. Don't get me wrong, the things are extremely useful, but they aren't easy to make at this point.
I finally went to see Ghost Rider. It was NOT worth the wait. The effects were okay, but the acting was horrible. I never want to see Nicolas Cage utter the line "I'm going to be the Spirit of Vengenance" in a cheesy southern drawl ever again. At least not until I waste money on the DVD.
Borat came out, though. Lewd and crude, I'm going to rent it this weekend so Catherine can watch it. This is a movie that is so often wrong that it's just so good.
My feet hurt, my back is sore, I'm super-tired, and I'm in an amazing mood.
Knocked my lesson out of the park today, helped out at the school, and generally made myself into a good teacher today.
On top of that, I got home and there's a message from the Toronto District School Board and they want to set up an interview for me.
F***IN' AWESOME.
This is an extremely competitive board. More than 4000 applications are received and they interview around 900 for their eligible to hire list. 98% of the people who are interviewed make it onto the list and then they can be selected by individual high schools in the GTA for jobs at their schools. You MUST be on the list to get a job in Toronto.
This makes the slurpee I got on the way home all that much sweeter.
I called Scott, my associate teacher from Northview, who was just as excited and told me that he expected it to happen. He also mentioned that it looks like it's going to be a hiring year at Northview and that he's trying to pave the way for me to get a job there.
Now I can finally rest. I'm going to sleep well tonight!
Sometimes I forget that I have this blog. Other days I remember and can't be bothered to post. I must apologize, however, to the constant readers of Random Changes. I have begun to alter my erring ways by posting Civil War #4 for you all to enjoy.
I just started my second practicum. I'm not a huge fan of my associate teacher at this point as she is stingy on compliments and heavy on silence. All in all, it makes for an uncomfortable transition into a totally foreign place.
In the future, I'd like Nicole to be my associate teacher. She needs to get a job here in Toronto for a month so that I can work with her. We don't even have the same teachable subjects, but I'm sure she can adapt. After all, she lives successfully with Jamie.
In other news, I got nothing.
Not much is going on. I'm enjoying The Dark Tower comic book series, the last issue of Civil War (#7) came out (though you guys are a little while off from me posting that), and I've bought an action figure or two. Well, one really. Though my new Ultimate Iron Man is nice and shiny.
I still haven't seen Ghost Rider. Jer owes me a movie date. Maybe if he can find time, we can go this weekend.
I bought a Nintendo DS with Christmas money and then sold a few old games so that I could get some DS stuff. It's a much more addictive system than I would have thought and lately I'm spending more time with it than I am with the Wii. Though Catherine is getting Mario Party 8 in about a week, so I'm sure that'll change. I still need more controllers, though, as two really isn't enough for a good old Nintendo bash.
That's about it. I've got my lessons planned (for now) and a huge stress headache. I need more sleep than I'm getting.
Oh, and for anyone who cares, my feet are almost back to 100%. Still a little off here and there, but it's just stuff that needs more time to repair. God, you don't know how bad it was.
Aaron, I wrote you back, but then you didn't write me back. Is this revenge for my delinquence in the first place? Where's the love?
If I don't post again in the near future, it means I'm dead. The practicum will be chiefly to blame.
I just finished my first day of teaching at Riverdale. Not a bad school per se, but it just doesn't feel as good as Northview.
As for my AT, I can't tell you anything about her. She didn't show up. I got paired with a supply teacher who wasn't interested in teaching, so I taught my first full day today. I managed to memorize most of the students names. The librarians seemed to be impressed with me, so hopefully word gets back somehow.
My AT has six different courses that she teaches, alternating three each day. Two grade 9 applied, a grade 9 LD (lower than applied, which is in turn lower than academic), a grade 11 and a grade 12. I have no idea how much of these I'm going to teach.
This school is very strict and the English department doesn't seem overly friendly just yet. I can't wait to get back to Northview. I can honestly say that Northview is the kind of school I want to teach at with the kinds of kinds I want to teach.
All in all, this could have been a very stressful day, but for some reason it wasn't. I just went with the flow. Not once did I feel out of place at all. I had little to no anxiety before I went there (I even had a perfectly relaxed sleep last night) and still don't feel any. I wonder why that is? Perhaps because I've gotten the worst part of it out of my system and the school board should start calling people this week for interviews.
Hopefully.
Riverdale should be good, though. The kids are great (some of them are clones of kids at Northview) and I'm looking forward to the challenge. Then again, I also don't want to do another practicum. Just give me my certificate.
I went to karate to help out at a tournament for the little kids. It helps out the club even though I was brutally sore from the class the night before (my first in months because of my feet). But hey, I got a free lunch out of it.
A free lunch and an afternoon of frustration.
You see, I had left the source of my domestic bliss without my keys or wallet. Neither of these choices was intentional, but Catherine ushered me out the door and I didn't think about it at all. She mentioned casually about going to the gym, but that's about it.
I returned home three hours later only to discover she wasn't home. I couldn't even get in the building.
I had to wait in the vestibule for about 15 minutes until someone happened to be leaving. I went inside and tried to get the super to let me into the apartment but he was nowhere to be found.
I sat in a chair. It was 1pm.
Around 1:05 I was feeling quite agitated. I had bought some timbits for Catherine and I and I felt silly sitting in a chair in the lobby, with my karate uniform on concealed by my jacket, and just staring at the wall.
At 1:10 I knew I was in trouble because I really had to go to the bathroom. And it wasn't the #1 kind either.
.....
Time passes really slowly in an apartment building lobby.
At 1:45 I was frustrated because I didn't have my wallet with me which meant I couldn't go anywhere. I flirted with the idea of going to a movie until the bitter reality set in.
At 2:10 I decided to go to the dojo where I could at least go to the bathroom. Then it occurred to me that I was going to let myself in the dojo with my keys which were still hung up inside the apartment.
At 2:30 I headed out for Tim Horton's to use the bathroom and to call Catherine from a payphone. I barely made it to Tim's and felt silly asking for the bathroom key. To make myself feel better, I promised myself I would buy something when I was done. But the cashier wasn't there when I returned the key, so I left and saved the dollar I had on me for another time.
At 2:40 I tried calling Catherine. No answer. What's the point of having a phone if you don't answer it?!?
At 2:45 I resumed my post in the lobby. I tried the super again to no avail.
2:50. This is REALLY boring.
Between 2:50 and 3:45 I fight off falling asleep and jerk awake every time someone comes in or out. Each time I hope it's Catherine, but gradually hope is fading away. My body gets more and more stiff from the exercise I did the day before.
At 4:15, Catherine finally comes back. She looks surprised to see me. A little pleased as well, almost as though I have some sort of surprise to give her.
No surprise. Just bitterness.
She apologizes profusely and I let her off the hook so long as she promises to go out and buy me a present. She feels badly, which makes me happy, but doesn't change the fact that I spent nearly three and a half hours in the lobby of my building.
She bought me some cream eggs and bubble bath. I feel like such a girl.
I am a huge fan of Arcade Fire. The Montreal-based band is a critical success in Canada and a surprisingly big hit in the UK. One of their singles from their first album, Funeral, was used as the warm-up song before U2 took the stage during their last tour.
They have a raw power that I find incredibly appealing. For some reason, though I haven't discussed it with him, I think this band would also speak to Aaron quite well.
Their follow-up album, Neon Bible, isn't slated for release for at least another month but given the state of the technophiles these days, it should come as no surprise that it's already available for download via certain sites.
As I plan to buy this album when it comes out regardless, I downloaded a copy of it today.
It's amazing. I'm two songs in and already hopelessly hooked on it. The intro song, 'Black Mirror,' is part epic action movie song, part nursery rhyme, and part ballad. It's fantastic. The second song, 'Keep the Car Running', is a great Western-style song with an 80s twist.
Get this album when it comes out or else get a taste of it online.
In other news, Random Changes is still plugging along with regular updates. I'm going to start deleting posts off of that site soon so make sure you're caught up if you're reading it.
Also, I plan to buy a DS Lite tomorrow. I have some Christmas money that I've just recently gotten (I know Christmas was a month and a half ago, but sometimes that's just the way things happen) so I'm going to get this item. Do I need to get it? No. That's part of the fun in buying it.
Joss Whedon, my lord and master, posted this over at Whedonesque a short time ago: he's no longer doing the Wonder Woman movie.
For those of you who weren't aware that was the Buffy/Angel guy's next major project, this is doubly-news.
I'm actually pleased about this. It means that Joss can focus on things that he has created himself and hopefully he'll return to television sooner than later. I need his kind of TV because everything seems so dark and dreary these days (except maybe Veronica Mars, and even that's dipping a toe in ink).
Joss' post is quoted below, along with brief details of another project of his:
"You (hopefully) heard it here first: I'm no longer slated to make Wonder Woman. What? But how? My chest... so tight! Okay, stay calm and I'll explain as best I can. It's pretty complicated, so bear with me. I had a take on the film that, well, nobody liked. Hey, not that complicated.
Let me stress first that everybody at the studio and Silver Pictures were cool and professional. We just saw different movies, and at the price range this kind of movie hangs in, that's never gonna work. Non-sympatico. It happens all the time. I don't think any of us expected it to this time, but it did. Everybody knows how long I was taking, what a struggle that script was, and though I felt good about what I was coming up with, it was never gonna be a simple slam-dunk. I like to think it rolled around the rim a little bit, but others may have differing views.
The worst thing that can happen in this scenario is that the studio just keeps hammering out changes and the writer falls into a horrible limbo of development. These guys had the clarity and grace to skip that part. So I'm a free man.
Well, sorta. There is that Goners movie I can finally finish polishing, and plenty of other things in the hopper I've wanted to pursue. I'm as relieved as I am disappointed, and both of those things lead to drink, so that's a plus. Truly, you may be hearing some interesting things brewing in the coming months. But all potential jets therein will be visible.
But most importantly, I never have to answer THAT question again!!!! And you don't have to link to every rumor site! Finally and forever: I never had an actress picked out, or even a consistant front-runner. I didn't have time to waste on casting when I was so busy air-balling on the script. (No! Rim! There was rim!) That's the greatest relief of all. I can do interviews again!
Thanks for your time. You are the people who make the world go 'round. Or, no, science does that.
Don't go to the doctor. This is a pursuit wasted on those who don't have much chance of surviving anyway.
I went today after three failed visits to have something as simple as an in-grown toenail taken care of. One doctor even tried to get me to drop $350 on the procedure. I told my regular doctor today whose response was "you're shitting me."
I like my doctor.
At any rate, I went today to get the toenail taken care of. I got in to see the doctor immediately, an incredibly aged Asian man who scuffled around the office. I thought he was a patient at first. He asked if I could wait half an hour and he'd cut it out for me.
"Sure," I said.
So, I wait and then get brought in. I tell the nurse that my toe doesn't actually hurt anymore. She doesn't seem to care. The doctor comes in and as I'm lying on my back and he's swabbing my toe with iodine and preparing the biggest damn needle I've ever seen, I repeat that my toe doesn't hurt anymore and isn't oozing or anything.
He stops, looks closely, and says "really?"
"Really," I said.
"Oh, okay. Then we won't do anything. It seems to have healed on its own. If it hurts or oozes again come back and we'll fix it." Then he proceeds to wash the iodine off my toe.
The moral of the story is: let incomptent doctors try to schedule you in for a simple 20 minute procedure for more than two months while avoiding stupid sized fees as your toe goes about the business of fixing itself.
And people wonder why I can be cynical.
Up now at Random Changes: New Avengers #22 Civil War #3 Civil War Frontline #3
I find myself totally powerless when it comes to dealing with the Wii's online virtual console. The ability to download the games of yesteryear is proving too much like gaming crack to resist.
I'd previously picked up classics like Street Fighter II for the Super Nintendo along with Super Mario Bros. for the original Nintendo. Then the avalanche started. Last week it was Super Castlevania IV and now I've added Contra III: The Alien Wars and Mario Kart 64 to my growing list.
I just can't stop myself.
I think Catherine is infected with the bug as well. Though she could care less about Contra, she actually used the word 'exciting' when I told her I downloaded Mario Kart 64. I think she's becoming a Wii-zombie.
Add to the fact that a fun weekend at Paul and Vicky's new house (which is quite cool and the 70s basement is a must-keep) included a ton of Wii playing along with board games and it seems I just can't escape this thing.
That, and television. 24 is on tonight. Anyone else want to see Jack Bauer's murder another man with his mouth? That was some wild stuff.
I'm going to go play Contra. Then clean the apartment before Catherine gets home. But first, I must play. MUST.
PS. Up for consumption at Random Changes is Civil War Frontline #3. Look for a new part of Civil War to show up every day.
Here's the full checklist for what is available: Civil War #1 Civil War #2 Civil War Frontline #1 New Avengers #21 Amazing Spider-Man #533 Civil War Frontline #2 NEW: Civil War Frontline #3
I've often made a habit out of providing reading for my friends. Usually I lend paper versions, but I figured I might as well make things easier all around.
I have a beta-test blog that I use to track how potential changes to this template will look that I'm now using as a private storage bin for the likes of you. If you head over there, it essentially has the same look but now serves a singular purpose: comic books.
I don't talk about them in any way, simply provide you, my gentle readers, with ways to read them. I've started with Astonishing X-Men #16, with future issues to follow at a regular pace.
Click on the link or else check for 'Random Changes' in the sidebar.
I went to see another doctor (a follow-up visit) who for once made a good sound when she saw my feet. I can't tell you how frustrating it is to feel good about your progress but not have anyone else realize that the disaster on your feet is, in fact, looking less disastrous.
Anyway, I told her about the rip-off artist that was the ingrown toenail guy. Her eyebrows shot up in total surprise. She then said I should see the surgeon at the clinic who would do it for $25, all of which is covered by OHIP.
And people wonder why I hate doctors and fear hospitals so much.
This whole experience has taught me a lot. For years I would avoid doctors because of the awful experiences I had as a kid. As an adult, I tried to convince myself that these fears were groundless and that I should just grow and pair and go see one.
The truth is, no doctor that I, or any member of my family, including Truffle, have seen in the past few years has actually done much of anything. I think that the internet is much more useful.
Seriously, 12 doctor visits and to this day none of them know for sure what was going on with my feet? That seems horribly out of whack, especially considering some of them were specialists. Maybe if we paid out more money to our doctors we'd keep the good ones in Canada and live healthier lives on the whole. I never thought I'd envy the States and their private healthcare model.
Other than that, things are peachy. I'm going back to Northview (my first practice teaching school) in April for my internship. Not big news, but I had to sort out all the details myself which now means I can relax a little.
I don't know what to do anymore. I have totally and completely given up.
I went to see the foot doctor today about my ingrown toenail. This was supposed to be the day I had it fixed. I was told it would cost me $35.
My doctor left the room twice as he was trying to sell his house and kept getting phone calls. He comes back and tells me that he thinks it would be easy for my foot infection to come back and that I should have taken a month of pills instead of two weeks.
"Two weeks won't kill it off," he said.
Comforting. Also contradictory. Other doctors have said that was more than enough to kill it. Will the real expert please stand up? Then doctor #11 here tells me what he wants to do to my toe. It doesn't sound pleasant, but it will fix it. Then he says that he wouldn't do it today but he would do it at his own clinic. He said it would take an hour and cost $350 dollars. I told him that I was told it would be $35.
"I don't do anything for $35," he said. "$40 is the cost of this consultation."
What's wrong with my foot? He thinks eczema is likely as well but possibly fungal. What did he do? Gave me a cream.
As for my toe, he told me I could go to emergency and they'd remove the problem part of my toenail but that it might grow back and repeat the problem. He said that was the 'cheap fix'.
To make matters worse, I have two small blisters forming, one on each foot. Nothing big yet, but worrying. I have a dermatologist appointment next week and she wanted to do a scraping, so I won't take the old pills again. If I choose to do that, I have to take a month's worth. I went to see the people at Toronto General and they thought eczema as well and one doctor talked as though I wasn't there to two of his colleagues explaining how the lamisil pills may have functioned as a placebo. I wanted to punch him.
This is why I hate doctors. Months and more than a dozen visits and doctors and nothing has happened concretely. It's a cruel damn joke.
I just spent 15 minutes writing up an interesting blog entry and my computer crashes for the first time in ages. I even had a feeling that it was going to do this and still I delayed in hitting the 'publish' button on my blog.
Oh well, it wouldn't be so bad if I didn't update more often. I make the daily journey from my beg to this desk to meander about and check out the silly sites I like to visit and yet there doesn't seem to be enough time left over to write on this blog.
I'm in the throes and woes of vacation time. Catherine says that I should just relax and enjoy the spare time when I have it, but I'm all too often consumed by the horizon and needing to get everything on my plate taken care of. I'm starting to realize that this may be an impossible goal. One oddity of my surfing habits is that every day I always click on the link for my blog. I don't know why I do this because I know I haven't posted. Maybe I'm looking to see if someone has made a comment on an entry that's three weeks old. Sometimes I use it as a launching pad to check out what Jer and Josh are doing because I'm too stupidly lazy to call them and find out for myself. This is something I must rectifiy because they are too cool and I think they need my guidance. Especially Jer.
Christmas went well, overall. We left with a lot of gifts to take home and brought back even more. I don't think people understand that we live in a shoebox. Somehow we make it all work, but soon I think I'm going to have move Catherine and some of her things out onto the balcony.
Catherine got a new Wii game (Rayman Raving Rabbids) which is the most disgusting thing I've seen in a while. You have to trap bunnies in outhouses, fling cows, and generally abuse these stupid looking creatures. It's actually quite entertaining and Catherine loves it. She gets annoyed if I play it at all without her around because it's "her game."
We also got several DVDs between us. I got season 1 of The Office (US version) and Catherine got all three seasons of Arrested Development. We also saw a lot of movies. Casiono Royale, Night at the Museum, Little Miss Sunshine, even Flushed Away. It's been busy.
The new trailer for the Transformers movie looks pretty good and I'm encouraged to want to see it. I would have seen it anyway, but at least it's looking pretty nifty. Check out the trailer online if you haven't already. I'll wait for your opinions while I play with the Starscream figure Catherine got me for Christmas.
We got a new printer (so I no longer have to wait 10 minutes to print a single grainy page). This printer is unreal. It also scans, faxes, copies, and makes french fries. Really. Crinkle cut.
We had a good New Year's Eve. We went to see Blue Rodeo in Hamilton and enjoyed watching the drunk people around us.
Best of all, my foot appears to be healing. The crippling (and no, I'm not exaggerating) condition that my foot was in seems to have halted itself and my foot is actually repairing the massive damage it suffered. For a while I could barely walk and to date I've been to see more than 10 doctors. It's been stressful.
Other stressors include school. I know I'm on vacation and Catherine says I need to relax and enjoy it while I can, but I'm cursed with forever looking to the horizon for my next problem. I need to apply to get my license, then I need to apply to school boards, get my resume together and all sorts of other nonsense I feel not at all prepared to deal with.
But it's a new year and it's going to be full of interesting events. I hope to spend more time with Jer, Josh, Jamie, Nicole, Nate, Aaron, Chris and several others while working towards getting that first teaching job. Life could be much different by this time one year from now and I'm looking forward to seeing how it all plays out.
In the meantime, I think I'll get my drink on. Where's Jer, anyway? It's Friday night at 9:21pm and I'm blogging while Catherine is out with her friend, so where is mine? I'll pretend I called Jer and then yell at him tomorrow for not returning said ficticious call. I expect the ruse will work beyond my expectations.
It took me awhile, but I finally saw the video for the new U2 song, Window in the Skies. It's actually a pretty amazing video and to save you the trouble of looking for it (as I know you were all eager to do), I've linked to the youtube video below.
My feet are actually starting to heal. I can't believe it. It's been so long that I almost forgot what normal feet look like. They still look awful at this point, but I can walk on them again after nearly two weeks of having to hobble and shuffle. The pills I'm taking are doing a number on my stomach, but at least I'm getting better.
Nicole sent along pictures of little Izzy just a short time ago. I can't get over how much she looks like Jamie. She's getting bigger and her hands look eager to roll dice and pick up video game controllers. Like my own future children, this kid is going to be spoiled.
Aaron's blog is lacking all sorts of personal details these days (I haven't linked to his crime blog yet, I don't believe), so I'll fill in the blanks. He's doing well at The Ontarion and has finished up for the holidays. That's he's not only surviving his tenure as EIC but thriving should come as no surprise. He is king of editing.
Jer is the court jester. Jer gets the endurance award, however, for that conference of his.
Chris is doing fine. He just won a million dollars. Actually, I don't know what Chris is doing at all. I've been a bad friend. But seeing as how he's got a new house and a new family I'm sure he's plenty busy. I got him a Christmas present back in October but it now occurs to me that he's probably too busy to pay his annual visit to my Dad's house on Boxing Day.
I've got most of my shopping done at this point. A few odds and ends and then I'm set. At least in theory. There's going to be something more that I buy at least.
Something for myself, perhaps. I bought Thor-buster Iron Man, the latest Iron Man figure from the Marvel Legends series. I'm trying to stop, but these things are like plastic crack and I know, despite asking for them, that I won't get any for Christmas.
I've been missing my friends, though. I haven't seen Paul in too long, Jer's visits are to pick up gaming hardware, and I rarely see Josh. So many others are lost in limbo... Nate, Pushee, Chris. Oh well. I've got the Wii to comfort me until I try to actually make plans. Nate and Pushee will likely enter the scene again come baseball season. Though I'm scared to death to try to go to a game with Nathan. I've never been arrested before and this is likely to happen when you go out with Nate.
My feet are eating themselves. Especially the left foot which is ravenous.
I'm assuming I picked up some kind of infection when I was in China. Within a week of my return, I developed blisters on one of my feet. I chalked it up to switching shoes when I got home, but these were angry, angry blisters that left my feet swollen.
It kept getting worse. Over the course of FOUR doctor visits, the last being just yesterday, my foot condition spread from a few blisters to the near inability to walk. My left foot has lost so much skin on the bottom that there are raw red patches. It's not pleasant. When wet, it smells rotten.
The good news about all this is that the last doctor finally gave me an oral antibiotic. He described it as potent and the pharmacist echoed this sentiment. That's good, because it's slowly spreading to my hands.
If I die, Catherine gets the Wii. That's just the way it is.
But seriously, four months and four doctor visits and only NOW are they taking it seriously? What is wrong with our medical system? I arranged a dermatologist appointment and was told I'd have to wait a MONTH. This is actually impressive because my doctor said the wait could be months.
I'm all for public healthcare and I think it's a great system. It's times like this, however, when a private model could be brought in sparingly to help address immediate concerns such as this. If you saw my foot, you would see that there is a serious problem that needs to be addressed immediately, not months from now. As much as I appreciate seeing the doctor for free, I'd find it much more valuable to pay a couple of bucks and be treated now.
As it is, I can barely walk. I have bandages and creams to look forward to in my stocking this year (assuming I've been a good boy).
Most of my Christmas shopping is done. There are a few odds and ends, but what would Christmas be if you weren't trying to get something at the last minute?
Ninja rap!
I'm still totally, completely, unbelievably FLOORED over the last 10 minutes of the season finale of 
My own confession is that it took me far longer than I expected to post all of the 
Excuse my cynical nature.
Sometimes I forget that I have this blog. Other days I remember and can't be bothered to post. I must apologize, however, to the constant readers of Random Changes. I have begun to alter my erring ways by posting 
I just finished my first day of teaching at Riverdale. Not a bad school per se, but it just doesn't feel as good as Northview.
Today something horrible happened. 
I am a huge fan of 
I find myself totally powerless when it comes to dealing with the Wii's online virtual console. The ability to download the games of yesteryear is proving too much like gaming crack to resist.
I went to see another doctor (a follow-up visit) who for once made a good sound when she saw my feet. I can't tell you how frustrating it is to feel good about your progress but not have anyone else realize that the disaster on your feet is, in fact, looking less disastrous.
I don't know what to do anymore. I have totally and completely given up.
It figures.
It took me awhile, but I finally saw the video for the new U2 song, 
Something for myself, perhaps. I bought Thor-buster Iron Man, the latest Iron Man figure from the Marvel Legends series. I'm trying to stop, but these things are like plastic crack and I know, despite asking for them, that I won't get any for Christmas.
My feet are eating themselves. Especially the left foot which is ravenous.
