The last couple months, in bullet points:

-Athena is now officially a mini-me. She got ear-tipped on Thursday because of a mole that had been growing on the very tip of her ear. The biopsy showed that it was indeed precancerous. She wore the Cone of Shame for a while, but she's been a good girl about not touching the ear, and she's absolutely miserable with it on, so she's free of it now.

The more worrisome thing at this point is her weight loss. She's lost a disturbing amount of weight in the last year or so, and the vet and I are going to figure out why as soon as she's healed from this.

-A week ago Friday, a school bus T-boned a sedan 500 feet from my bedroom window. All I know outside of the news reports is that the bus driver is at fault, the driver was in serious condition and expected to recover, and the kids were fine (though some of them went to the hospital for minor injuries). Not pleasant.

-OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG Warehouse 13 OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG. I love the first two episodes of season 3 with a passion. ( Spoilers for Warehouse 13 season 3 within. )

Serioiusly, I have so much to say that I'm kind of incoherent so I'm just going to shut up rather than risk hitting the character limit on this post.

- Speaking of incoherence, remember that rant I posted last year about Eureka's erasure of its autistic character? I've since broken up with the show over that, but I have found an antidote to its fail (as well as to the longing I feel during those last couple minutes of Eureka I see before Warehouse 13 comes on). Anti-autism fail, thy name is Alphas. The basic premise of the show (ordinary people with super powers) has been done before, but is approached in an original way that actually pays attention to the laws of physics and the logistical problems having superpowers would cause.

One of the characters (named Gary -- I wonder if he's named after Gary McKinnon, the NASA hacker?) is autistic. And the showrunners have obviously done their research. He's treated well as a character, he's treated realistically as a character, and his autism is part of who he is, rather than the sum of it. It isn't the downside (nor the cause) of his power, and the downside of his power ties in with his autism. Sometimes his autism is an asset, sometimes it's a liability. Sometimes it rules, sometimes it sucks. Sometimes it helps out the people he works with, sometimes it annoys them. Just like real life. And it's wonderful and refreshing and desperately needed to see people like me portrayed accurately.

-I finished the mate of that first sock I made (though it's a little smaller -- not bad for a first pair, though) and have made another. Working on its mate now.

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By population, 11.4% of the US now has marriage equality. Add California (soon!) and it becomes 23.4%. (Source: http://bit.ly/mJTOxo)

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OK, so I learned to knit... um... in December or January. I think January. Anybody who knows me well probably won't be surprised that the first "intermediate" pattern I chose to tackle is a pair of socks.

I just finished sock #1. Yes, it's 1:30 in the morning. Deal with it.

So, keeping in mind that a) I literally just finished it and haven't blocked it or sewn the ends in yet, b) It's slightly large for my foot because my feet are shaped weirdly and the next size down (either in the pattern or in the needles) would be too small, c) it's my first sock so there are naturally a couple of small cosmetic oopses, and d) it turns out to be really damn hard to get a decent picture of my foot from this angle, especially with my knee acting up, I bring you photographic evidence.

( Sock! )

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Two fannish items, one hockey item.

Fannish Item Number 1: Warehouse 13's Christmas episode. Awesome. Go watch it. Now. Seriously.

Fannish Item Number 2: This week's Oglaf. (As usual for Oglaf, extremely NSFW link.)

The comic itself is awesome and you should go read it and bask in its awesomeness as I am doing. But I'm posting because OMG I CALLED THIS ASPECT OF THE SNOW QUEEN'S NATURE IN AUGUST.

Behind the cut is an IRC log from August 24, 2010. $PERSON is the same person throughout, I just don't (yet) have permission to use names.

( Proof! With spoilers! )

So, uh, yeah. I called it. And this idea inspired my Yuletide request for Oglaf.

(I did this six years ago with One Hundred Years of Solitude too. The teacher asked what we thought would happen [we had about 100 pages left to go, iirc], and I pulled a "wouldn't it be cool if." I thought the look the teacher gave me was a "that's the stupidest idea ever" look when it was really "you read ahead when I told you not to, didn't you?".)

Semi-Fannish Item 1: I'm going with Tianna to the Avs/Canadiens game tonight. Eeee!

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"Andrew" and "Wakefield" the kidney stones got smashed into teeny tiny bits yesterday. They got one with the lithotripsy but the other little bastard settled back into my ureter while I wasn't looking so they had to get that one with a laser.

There's a nice paddle-shaped bruise on my right flank, and I feel like I've been punched in the kidney 2500 times (because essentially, I have been). I spent most of yesterday afternoon totally exhausted and feeling like yuck, but today was mostly better. I think I'll be spending a lot of time lying down for the next few days, though.

The next step: collecting samples of the stone fragments I pass (ick, but not really any more gross than scooping the cat box) for analysis (though the odds are like 90% that they were calcium oxalate stones, so a future 24-hour urine test will probably provide better answers as to why I'm a "stone former").

The good news: The surgeon who did this says that unless it's an uncommon type of stone I probably won't have to change my diet much (unless my diet was really unbalanced anyway). There are so many high-oxalate foods that to cut them all out would mean I'd likely end up with more than one severe deficiency. Though when I eat spinach, it should nearly always be with something acidic, which I usually do anyway, so no problems there. (My grandmother the dietician knew this and passed the knowledge on, but she never said exactly why.) (NTS: see if you can buy a bottle of lemon curry vinaigrette from Mad Greens.)

My mom's been pampering me today (yesterday too) and generally keeping an eye on me. She's even made me smoothies!

Also, there's new yarn. Yarn is always good.

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So, I've been having an adventure this week.

Wednesday morning, I woke up to find spots of blood on my bedsheet by my pillow. After the intitial WTFness I noticed several smallish puncture wounds on my left forearm and realized that overnight, I'd probably rolled over and whacked the cat, and she didn't take kindly to it. I don't remember waking up because of it or anything, though.

I point this out because it was the high point of my day.

( cut for length and TMI )

I've been referred to another nearby hospital that has a dedicated kidney stone center. After they have their people look at my charts and scans and other info, they'll call me (should be sometime between tomorrow and Wednesday). Provided I'm a good candidate (and I should be), the next step is extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy, where they use sound waves to break the stones up. (It works better while they're in or near the kidneys, thus the stent.) That's an outpatient procedure. After that, I can get the stent taken out (which is fairly simple, I've heard). After that, I get to do follow-ups with a bunch of different doctors.

Incidentally, I've named my kidney stones Andrew and Wakefield. The real Wakefield was in Boulder Wednesday night and I'd wanted to protest (though this obviously didn't happen). Other reasons for the naming, copied from a comment I made in fucking_meds:

-Neither the stones nor the person are doctors.
-They both cause more pain than they alleviate.
-They both want my money.
-And on a less funny note, a tenth baby died of pertussis in California while I was in the ER.

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Yes, I finally did it. I succumbed to the dark side and created endless_wonder, a DW comm for all things Warehouse 13. Just a heads-up for those of you who might be interested.

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So, just watched Eureka 4.01 "Founders Day." Loved it, right up until ( spoilers for Eureka through 4.01, and reference to a parallel situation in Diane Duane's 'A Wizard Alone' )

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So there's this guy named Neli Latson. He's 18 years old, and he was arrested recently for being black and autistic.

According to the post about Mr. Latson at Shakesville (all emphasis mine):

This call set in motion a cascading series of events in which police ordered eight schools locked down; Neli, who did not know police had been called, tired of his wait and moved on toward the nearby high school; he was confronted by a County Sheriff's deputy who also worked for the school district; and a physical struggle ensued between Neli and the deputy.

Neli says the officer threatened him; he tried to walk away, and the officer grabbed him from behind, choked him, and sprayed him with pepper spray. Neli took the pepper spray from the deputy and, according to the police report, sprayed him in return and fled. The deputy sustained a broken ankle which required surgery.

The police say Neli "attacked and assaulted the deputy for no apparent reason." That seems rather against the odds, given that Neli was not expecting any trouble, while the deputy was actively looking for a suspicious, possibly armed, person meeting Neli's description. Of the two, the one primed for aggression was the deputy. But perhaps, purely by coincidence, Neli "attacked and assaulted" the deputy "for no apparent reason."

The story gets worse from there. Neli was charged with malicious wounding of a law enforcement officer, assault and battery of a law enforcement officer, and knowingly disarming a police officer in performance of his official duties. When Neli's mother, Lisa Alexander, reported him missing several hours later, she learned he was in custody and being questioned.

Police would not tell her why, would not allow her to see her son, and seemed uninterested when told Neli is autistic. They held the young man in isolation for 11 days without bail, allowing his mother to visit him only once.

His condition has deteriorated considerably during his incarceration, according to his mother. He has been transferred to a state mental hospital for a 30-day evaluation period. Ms. Alexander has set up a web site, A Voice for Neli. There, his mother tells a bit of the story of Neli's life and of her and her husband's struggle to secure for him the services and educational support he needed.

Stories like this -- and this is, unfortunately, not the first such story -- always terrify me, for more reasons than I can name. This is why I react with fear every time I read about police/security officers learning ways to spot evildoers through "subtle behavioral cues." I walk funny. I avoid eye contact as much as humanly possible (because it can physically hurt). I act agitated in crowds, because I am agitated in crowds. This could be me -- there but for my skin color and gender go I.

More information about Neli's case, his story, and a page where you can donate to his legal defense, are at A Voice For Neli. Even if you can't donate, please sign the petition to raise awareness of his case. So far the only mainstream news stories have been one-sided -- they quote the police report and nothing else. Neli's mother plans to send the petition to news agencies in hopes that they decide his story is worth covering.

This young man was arrested for sitting under a tree in front of a library. There are so many levels of racism, ableism, and general fuckery at play here that I could puke.

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So, my boss gave me third-row seats to last night's Avs/Sharks game. The seats were as awesome as the game, and even though my Avs lost it was a great night.

Anyway, I took about 90 pictures before the batteries on my camera ran out (and I'd just replaced them on the way out the door!). The 36 of them that turned out at all decently are here.

Mostly I just stalked my favorite players, so it's heavy on the Anderson, Yip, Galiardi, O'Reilly, and Duchene. There's one of Rob Blake (he was RIGHT THERE) and a few "lots of people in the shot" pics, but other than that, not many Sharks.

My favorite of the bunch is behind the cut.

( Craig Anderson, crouching in wait -- be warned, it's big )

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