Last night I went to Kiki’s art class. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but this art academy out-of-somebody’s-home was very impressive. There were three or four classes running while I was there, one of which had adults in it making me feel guilty for considering myself an “artist.” They asked me what mediums I work in, and I told them “line art.” That sounds better than “comics,” right?

I sat next to her and whipped out Schlock Mercenary character portraits to add to the stack that has to go out with Sandra’s birthday thank-you notes. Each one took about 10 minutes. I finished five during Kiki’s one-hour class, and had time to walk around and look at stuff, too. Kiki’s instructor commented on how quickly I was going. “That’s the difference between art for art and art for money,” I told her. “Art for art can take its time. Art for money has to go FAST.”

And on that note, I’ve got some Schlock to crank out. This buffer won’t rebuild itself.

–Howard

The Academy is snubbing Michael Moore:

From CNN.com:

Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" -- ineligible for a best documentary nomination because the film was not submitted for that category -- was shut out across the board.

This is great on two counts:
1) Apparently whoever submits these things recognized that the picture wasn’t really a documentary, and shouldn’t try to compete as one.
2) The Academy doesn’t want to get any of whatever the picture IS on themselves.

There is current passing the contacts on the old clue-meter. The needle wiggled!

I’m happy.

–Howard

I’m feeling much better now.

My trick for getting through these things is as follows:

1) The minute I feel myself getting sick, I start the Vitamin C front-loading: 2000mg per hour, with at least 4oz (preferably 8oz) of water per hour. I do this every hour on day 1, or until my urine turns yellow-green. At that point I know I’m just peeing away the C, so I cut the dose in half.
2) Zinc. It’s a metal, so I don’t take lots. I just make sure I get about double the RDA for day 1.
3) Rest. I nap as I need to. Hang work, I need to get THROUGH this.
4) On Day 2, depending on how I feel, I take 1000 mg of C per hour. Again, the urine check tells me when to cut the dose.

Often this method will allow me to skate on the surface of the cold, feeling “like I’m getting sick” for two to three days without actually getting SICK sick. Sometimes it knocks the cold back so hard I feel perfectly well by Day 2. In this most recent case, I felt great by about midnight. I’d only taken (only!) about 10,000 mg of C, at the staggered doses so that my body could assimilate it JIT-style, and I forgot about Zinc altogether, because I forgot.

Anyway, I feel great today. I’ve had a little extra caffeine to make sure I stay perky (caffeine is a medication, not a food additive as far as I’m concerned. Anything with caffeine in it is to be treated like medicine) and I’ve gotten lots done with only a 30-minute power-nap at 3:00pm.

–Howard

Just yesterday I was talking about how the new lifestyle seems to be so much healthier for me than my old one.

This morning I woke to that scratchy, post-nasal-drip feeling that says “you need Vitamin C NOW,” and had chills all morning until we turned the heat up. Since my office is the warmest part of the house anyway (the addition of waste heat from the CPU, printer, and monitors in a small space is what does it) we knew something was wrong.

Oh, and I haven’t been able to get anything done. Fuzzy in the head, kind of. I mean, I can write THIS, but it’s not going to be clever, or funny, or anything. Just a journal entry.

I took a 90-minute nap and felt a little better. I’m packing the Vitamin C every hour. I’m taking it easy.

*sigh*

Working for yourself means nobody pays you when you’re sick. I WILL get better tomorrow, out of sheer economic necessity and force of will.

–Howard