Flesh Eating Bacteria On My FACE

That face.
That face.
That beautiful face.

A few weeks ago I got a bacterial infection of the skin on the right side of my face. It was so swollen, that it hurt to eat, smile, laugh and talk. This picture is when it was at it's worst. I went to the urgent-care doctor the previous day and got an antibacterial shot and a prescription for the "Mercedes" class antibiotic pills. I went to my doctor a couple days later and he said I could get the "Ferrari" class drugs if I wanted faster results. I said I was OK with Mercedes. (Always liked German cars better...) This type of infection is called "cellulitis" but can, if left untreated, evolve into the flesh eating bacterial infection. (Like this isn't scary enough already!) It starts out as superficial, but it can get to the deeper skin and then your skin just starts falling off.
NEATO!

Anyways - having this picture and an image editing program on hand, I made a couple "fun" but scary images of what I might look like with a few more pounds - or a few less.

Fattie-JASE

Anorexic-JASE
I am all better now, but that side is still a little more flushed than the other. Go ahead and poke fun at the pics - I won't wish a flesh eating bacterial infection on you... and karma won't cause it to happen to you either!

Los Gatos walk-about

Last weekend we went to Los Gatos to walk around town with Chu, Grace & Bryan. It was fun to get out on such a nice day. We got some gelato and window shopped a bit. Here you see Bryan enjoying being served in his stroller.

Los Gatos downtown is nice - if a little full of itself. I am always drawn to the Lamborghini shop, the Bentley shop and the Ferrari shop. I don't get into cars much (driving a VW bus is more about the "character" of the car for me) but one can't help enjoy the graceful lines of those extremely expensive automobiles.

Too bad they get such crappy gas-mileage!

Lotus: 24/29 mpg - not too shabby for this little speedster! (Pretty much what my '77 VW bus gets...)


Bentley: couldn't get close enough to see the tag.

There was a Rolls Royce as well, but that gets 13/19 mpg. BAH! I scoff at you from my Pius. I mean, Prius.

Anyways - that was last weekend. Automobile shape appreciation day... and gelato with friends. :)

Hellboy MUNNY

HEY - I'm back! It has been over a month since I posted last. I've been working a ton lately. I've got a few things to post about and this is the first... because it's the most exciting to me right at this moment.

Work has been down-shifting a bit now so I've been getting home a little earlier. I try to do something creative to unwind and this was my latest adventure. A Hellboy custom MUNNY.

I added clay to the MUNNY base model and then sanded it down. Then I primed it with gesso and sanded again. I painted the color with acrylics and put a matte varnish on top.

He has some minor issues, but overall I'm very happy with the way he turned out.

Jungle Mike & Laser Rain

Mike was hiding out stalking birds the other day. Cauliflower on the left, brussel sprouts on the right. He's too clumsy to actually catch a bird, but he tries.
It's starting to warm up a bit during the day. Maybe we can go hiking soon! It rained recently while staying sunny out. The sky was shooting laser beams. Then it turned to hail for a bit. I need a digital SLR because this little thing couldn't catch it.

Working for the Weekend

Or rather, working ON the weekend.
No posting for a while - sorry - working too much.
Working on the weekend even.
I shaved off my chops in protest.
I'll be OK.
Trying not to get sick like everyone else has been.
7,000 mg of vitamin C per day.
Who needs apples!
I shun you, doctor!

Things that get me through...

When work is beating you down, watch a video.

People send links to videos around to each other all the time lately. YouTube is so big Google bought them. It's like a viral marketing campaign - you never know what you're going to get. It might make you sick - it usually makes you laugh. People like to laugh. So watch and laugh if you will.

The first video is "Le Grande Content" - Turn up the volume a bit so you can hear the speaker's voice. I like the simple imagery with hidden meaning... like the toilet that pops up when talking about learning about death as a kid from your pet hamster.

The second is "Poodle Fitness" - One of a series of "fitness" videos made in Japan by Panasonic for the 2004 Athens Olympics. So in answer to your question - yeah, it's real. I think it's kids in costumes and maybe dog heads composited in there later. In my work-stupor I thought they might be real dogs or even CG dogs for about 30 seconds... but then I convinced myself that dogs don't have hips set up to work like that...

Monterey Bay Aquarium

This past Saturday we drove down to Monterey and went to the aquarium. I had to get out of the house and go do something that would totally occupy my mind and keep it off work - or else I might go crazy.

These seals (sealions?) were sunbathing on the beach along the walk to the aquarium. SWEET! It's neat to see sea life up close in an aquarium, though I don't think they enjoy swimming in circles all day long. A lot of the animals were rescued from oil slicks and starvation and stuff, so it seems like they're trying to do a good thing as well as teach people about the ocean. They tried really hard to inform people what fish are endangered and which are safer to eat in addition to trying to convince them not to pollute or litter in the oceans. The building and exhibits seemed kinda small for $25 each, but it is California coastal land space... I guess it was better than Boston's, but not as good as Shed's in Chicago.

Monterey Bay Aquarium LINK

Anyways, it was fun even though it was crowded. We really enjoyed the last hour when most of the people had cleared out to go eat. We went and found some clam chowder and fried oysters. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl = AWESOME. (I'm sure actually having it IN new england would have been better somehow...)