Glad You're Not Dead - Cheyenne Wright

Cheyenne Reports on his LiveJournal:

Hello my most surprising internet friends

As many of you may know, On Tues, February 23rd I became so ill that I was hospitalized. My feet legs and midsection were swelling with water. A nagging cough that had been hanging on for a month turned into a relentless dry hacking and I lost the ability to travel even short distances without needing to sit down to calm my breathing

after 3 days of observation I have been sent home with an Easter basket of medications. Looking over them all It's hard to say what they think I got. No doctor ever came forward and said "THIS one thing" was the culprit. We know my heart is big and floppy, possibly from years of stress deadlines and High Blood pressure, or just as likely for a guy my age - it's a virus. They don't know.

Now at home the swelling is down, but is still being controlled with "water pills" that are supposed to make me pee like a race horse. The Dry hacking cough has turned "flemmy" which I prefer -- get the stuff out of me I say -- but it's also more painful. I have a basket of Meds for Blood pressure, Cholesterol, Borderline Diabetes, and Antibotics, flu shots, N1H1. I got it all. Maybe one will do the trick -- if not back to the hospital I go. I guess.

<SOAP BOX>There is no union for a guy like me, A freelance artist. There is no easy 401K, no dental, no health care. All Eli and I have is our diligent scrimping and saving of every dime to plan for a future.

This one stumble could undo all of our hard work. Why? Because how the American system has chosen to take care of each other in this country is so fundamentally broken, it's like a Greek tragedy. Call/Write to your Senator or Congress Person and tell them that we can not continue to live this way. What is the United States of America if not the largest trade union on the planet? WE the people need that bargaining power. -- Universal Health Care - for all.</SOAP BOX>

NOW THAT'S OUT OF THE WAY....
What I wanted to talk about was you guys. Oh my god. the outpouring of love and support I have received in the past three days has me on the verge of tears. You are all such beautiful awesome people, and I can not thank you enough. Money has been coming in from the Donation Link that the Foglios set up. Which will go a long way to prevent my total financial collapse. I truly feel like George Baily at the end of "It's a Wonderful Life" surrounded by so many friends. It's a lonsome life as a freelance artist. And you seldom get a chance to see what kind of an effect you have on other peoples lives. Thank you all so much

Cheyenne

If you want to contribute to help Cheyenne avoid bankruptcy when the medical bills come, you can donate through Paypal at arcanetimes at gmail.com.

Update on Cheyenne Wright

From Kaja Foglio:

Update! They're letting Cheyenne out of the hospital tonight. The doctors are now pretty sure that even though what he's got OMG LOOKS JUST LIKE CONGESTIVE HEART FAILURE AAAUGH!… it's actually… a virus that mimics the symptoms. So we're all breathing a big sigh of relief. Until the bills come, then we'll all freak out again. We'll be running a couple of charity auctions and some wallpaper donations to help with the bills, so stay tuned. (I'd have it all ready, but frankly, I'm not at my best at the moment either. Then again, I'm not in the hospital. So I'm good.) --Kaja

Today's Walk

Today's walk was an interesting one. Now that I have a working GPS, I decided to contribute a little to OpenStreetMap. OpenStreetMap is an open source mapping project. See, the problem with most maps is that they are proprietary, owned by someone or another. And most of these proprietary maps even have intentional errors that prove if someone steals their data. The goal of OpenStreetMap is to collect real data and provide it free of charge to anyone who needs it.

What good is this? Well, the experienced mappers who have been working on this project for years jumped in when a couple of companies provided high quality satellite images of Haiti, and mapped the disaster area quickly with data good for the GPS units of rescue workers on the ground. The result was lives saved.

On a less dramatic level, mappers in Europe have put in local restaurants and other points of interest so that people can find their way around. Some places are so detailed that they even include the location of streetlights. Other people have mapped hiking trails and riding trails, giving people good information on where they can safely wander. In short, the maps are useful to lots of people, free to use, and can be quickly updated by users on the ground if there is a mistake.

The hardcore mappers all have GPS devices that connect to their computers and can upload tracks of their progress. My GPS doesn't connect, I can only get location information and enter it manually. But they've made it possible to enter information even if you can't upload, using a Flash application. The learning curve isn't exactly simple, but I played with it for awhile and figured it out. In fact, if I have one complaint about the project in general, it's that all the information is focused on people who have a GPS unit that can upload. But you don't need a GPS to contribute. Street name correction and adding of local points of interest is needed for just about every town. Just as long as you only add data you confirm, not information from other maps. If you have a GPS, you can contribute a lot more, including exact locations of roadways and intersections.

In the United States, there is a whole bunch of information already added. The data is from the Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing system (TIGER) which is used by the US Census Bureau to find homes. It's public domain, but it's also full of errors. So one of my tasks is to go through and check the TIGER data against what I see while walking around. The TIGER data is also a bit out-of-date, so I plan to add new roads. And adding the rest of the Stepford Neighborhood I live in was today's walk.

I walked zigzag through the streets of the newer half of Stepford Neighborhood, and the GPS tells me that I walked 1.18 miles with an average speed of 2.9 miles an hour. I suspect I actually walked faster than that, however, because I stopped repeatedly to take GPS coordinates and it takes a few seconds for the GPS to register that I've stopped. Gmaps Pedometer tells me that I walked 1.19 miles, which is close enough to the GPS data that I'm less worried. Tomorrow I plan on adding a pedestrian shortcut that I found but didn't mark on my walk today (because I didn't take it). And after that I'll try to find one piece of data to check or confirm each day.

It's a better goal than going to a store and spending money, particularly on food.

Cheyenne Wright

My friend Cheyenne Wright, who is the colorist on Girl Genius, is in the hospital. He's a freelance artist, so he has no health insurance. While the Foglios are going to run some special wallpapers to raise money, the need is probably going to be pretty high. If you've got a few bucks to spare, send them his way through Paypal at arcanetimes at gmail.com. Cheyenne was one of the first people to give me an Aquaman Sketch.

Walkies!

Awhile ago, hubby-Eric's father gave us a GPS to play with. He said it doesn't work indoors, or under trees, or when it's particularly overcast... which made it a bad fit for Seattle. But out here in Churchville there are almost no trees and the weather is generally nice. So today I went online and hunted up a user manual for the thing, and then took it along on my walk to find out how far it thinks I went versus what Gmaps Pedometer thinks.

I took a MUCH shorter walk today, figuring that after going over three miles in the last two days I should vary my routine just a little. So I went on a walk around the neighborhood that Gmaps Ped says is about 0.51 miles. That's half a mile, not bad.

The GPS told me that I was on a perfectly flat surface, that I was averaging 3 miles an hour, and that I went a total of 0.48 miles. Hrm. Not a horribly dramatic difference, but a difference nonetheless. I think I'll have to take the GPS along on some other walks and see what the difference is. I've been relying on Gmaps Ped for a long time and never expected it to be totally accurate. But if it's way off on the longer distances, I might end up a little concerned.

By the way, the GPS says that the elevation at the foot of my driveway is 692 ft. Fun.

Prepping For Emerald City Comicon

I have to get in shape after a very bad winter for me. I really let myself go, eating poorly and too much and not getting nearly enough exercise. I've gained nearly 10 pounds, which I'd like to re-lose (At least that's nowhere near the 120 pounds I've lost in the last few years...).

So I've set myself a goal of preparing for Emerald City Comicon by walking or biking every day in addition to at least one small Wii Fit workout. I plan to do this right up until Friday March 12th. Then after ECCC, I will transfer my goal to the Winkie Convention (Facebook page), which is July 23rd to July 25th, not including travel time.

Today is day one of the Pre-ECCC Training and Prep. This morning I did a Wii Fit workout, short but sweet. Then just before lunch today I walked to Ace Hardware and back (2.1 miles). It was a little longer walk than I had planned for my first solo jaunt, but I survived. My heartbeat took way too long to slow to normal, and I hurt a toe where my shoe jammed it into its neighbor's uncut nail. My toenails are now neatly trimmed, so that shouldn't happen again.

Yesterday hubby-Eric and I did a 1.3 mile walk, so I got a good start. But I'm relying on you, my dear readers, to help keep me honest with comments of encouragement here or on Facebook. Your help was vital in my previous weight loss efforts (every single comment meant the world to me), so I hope you all don't let me down in this effort.

Update: Someone just asked privately how I get my precise distance data, if I have a GPS or Pedometer. No, I use Gmaps Pedometer to check out my route when I get home. I can't say enough positive about this site, and I'm beginning to think I should support them somehow. Maybe I'll have to buy a shirt sometime.

SO Much to Talk About, Where Do I Start?

Well, there's been a few... developments... in the greater world that I feel I should address. So I'll ramble on a bit. Those of you who hate my opinions may as well stop reading now.

First up is Tiger Woods. I don't care. Period. That's all I have to say on the matter.

Next up is the Haiti incident with the doofus missionaries: They are idiots. The children being brought out of Haiti had, for the most part, been in the process of being adopted for YEARS before the Earthquake. Waltzing in and thinking you can just take children off the street was ridiculous, if not actually evil. There's a reason the process takes a long time, and those missionaries deserved the punishment they got and more, and should be glad they are getting off easy. Twits. Morons like them make it more difficult for the legitimate adoption agencies to work.

Education: Big Brother is Watching You. This story makes me see red. The school claims the cameras were only turned on if the laptop was reported stolen, but if that's the case, why was the kid disciplined for "improper behavior" in his own home and NOT for falsely reporting his laptop stolen? I'm afraid that every school administrator involved in this act of spying should go to jail for some time and be forbidden to ever work with children again.

UPDATE 2/20: This article defines the improper behavior, "an official mistook a piece of candy for a pill and thought he was selling drugs." How exactly does that relate to a stolen laptop? Meanwhile, the school defends itself by contradicting the parents. They also contradicted themselves. They first claimed that the software had never been activated, and now say it's been used in 42 cases of stolen laptops.

Politics: I'm not sure why anyone is listening to that quitter Palin, the Democratic party needs a spine immediately, the stimulus DID create jobs and lower the job loss rate, and if health care isn't overhauled within the next year or so the premature deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans will be one the hands of our congresscritters, who right now take so much money from the health insurance lobby that they might as well consider themselves paid assassins for health insurance. An aside: Republicans are great at winning elections, but lousy at actually running the country. Democrats are horrible at winning elections, but can't run the country without a supermajority. Ug.

Olympics: I don't care what anyone says, I love Curling. And the Simpsons got it so very wrong that I kind of wish they hadn't bothered (although the pin-collecting side plot was funny). I've also enjoyed watching the other sports, although the crashes have made me cringe and shudder more or less constantly. The weather conditions in Vancouver no more prove global climate change than the snow on the East Coast disproves it, but it sure is more evidence of something totally out of whack in our weather. I'm much more upset by NBC's decision to delay their coverage of the Games 3 hours for the West Coast, WHERE THE GAMES ARE HAPPENING, so we see all the results online before the events are shown on any local channel. NBC really screwed up this one.

Entertainment: I've got more to say about DC Comics than can fit in a summary, but I think the change in leadership is not a terrible thing, and will wait and see. I'm looking forward to Brightest Day because of the promised Aquaman content, but I expect to be disappointed. In other entertainment, can hardly wait for new Doctor Who to start up. And I'm still in training for Emerald City Comicon, which requires me to get lots of walking in.

I must give an annoyed shout out to Aaron Williams who directed me to this page of free downloads of the old Command and Conquer games. I'm utterly addicted to the original game, and I love just blowing up pixels. It's a lovely waste of time, but unfortunately I had more important things I should have been doing (if I'd had the brainpower to do them). Oh Aaron, you have hurt me so!

Um, that's all I can think of for now. I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff, but this is more like a real blog post than anything I've done in months, so I'm signing off.