drool britannia rone 4/4 '19

Hey, Brexit's not going all right
Hey, Brexit's not going all right
What's that floating in the Thames fog?
It's that bellend, Jacob Rees-Mogg

I believe in Mr. Grieve
Bercow's yelling out, "ORDER!"
Northern Ireland's got no border

I believe in Mr. Grieve
Do we have another division? Yup
Do we have another division?

Lalalala, lalalala
Lalalala, lalalala
Got Gove, got Corbyn
Got even ol' Boris Johnson

I believe in Mr. Grieve
Do we have another division? Yup
Do we have another division?
Do we have another division?

May can cry, May can mope
But can she swing for a third vote?
Oh, I believe
In Mr. Grieve
Hey, Brexit's not going all right
Hey, Brexit's not going all right

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4/4 '19 1 Comment
Nice. I can hear Frank singing this version.
Kevin Schnitzius
 

Turns out... Sean M Puckett 4/3 '19

Enya's still making the same kinda music she made, what, 30 years ago. Not just song patterns, down to the same synth patches and chord changes. Pretty impressive. Most musicians evolve, but if you find a niche that makes bank it's kinda hard to abandon it. Especially when you own a castle.

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4/3 '19 9 Comments
Who can say where the road goes? Where the day flows? Only time. And a good solid business model.
Karen Kuhl
Crank, thud, crank, thud, crank, thud....
Sean M Puckett
I think when you're Enya, people just expect to get Enya on an Enya record... and if Enya gave them anything but Enya, there'd be worldwide revolt.

I don't know if I admire the hell out of her for being able to repackage the same breathy vocals and synth patches into "new"(?) ways for over 30 years, or if I feel bad.

What if she's a prog-head at heart?
Jill "xtingu" Knapp
As a starving artist myself, if I found a niche with a small gear shaft on it that I could apply a handle to, turn it once a day, and a bag of money would fall out of the wall, I would do it, though I would ALSO pursue other projects. I might get really tired of turning that crank but there's a lotta people who have to do much less pleasant things for their living.
Sean M Puckett
I wholeheartedly empathize. Maybe Enya has a secret band somewhere that plays hardcore feminist polka.
Lindsay Harris Friel
Yes, Orinoco Flow was 1989. We're OLD, people.
Sean M Puckett
I was on a catamaran snorkeling cruise in Key West in 1997. As we pulled away from the dock, the crew put on their fun-times-for-the-tourists music. Orinoco Flow came on, and was so abruptly cut off that everyone on the boat cracked up laughing.
Lindsay Harris Friel
Is Dark Sky Island the album we're talking about, or is she releasing something newer?
Robert Bryan
I listened to Dark Sky Island and had to check several times to see when it was made.
Sean M Puckett
 

20190402 Google Plus is No More Matt Lichtenwalner 4/2 '19

I know - most of you probably left that particular platform a long time ago. I was still poking my head in pretty regularly, and as it happens, I was on it today. I was checking out the pluthera of goodbye posts from others who were swearing that they would remain until Google kicked them out and barred the doors.

Then I hit refresh on my browser and got the screen above.

Well, it had plenty of problems, but I am genuinely sorry to see it go. I did pull all of my posts and upload them to MeWe, but it's not the same. What's more, some of the content (some images, etc) didn't translate over. So I'm cleaning up old posts that don't make sense anymore.

But with that said, I was a little surprised to see that I was on Google Plus for 8 years, and that ain't nuthin.

For any who are curious: mewe.com/i/mattlichtenwalner

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4/2 '19 4 Comments
It was, by an order of magnitude, my favorite social media platform, especially when it was still joined at the hip to Google Hangouts.
Brandes Stoddard
Yeah. There was definitely something about it. I’d no idea I had been on it for so long. I am also finding (as I look back through my posts there) that I posted there in a more diverse fashion than I do on most other sites. Just... interesting.
Matt Lichtenwalner
What does posting in a diverse fashion mean?
Anne Mollo
Variety of topics and even styles of post. Some of them were short 'this is how I'm feeling'. Some were longer and more in depth on some topic or other. (Though in honesty, those were pretty infrequent.) And some were just "here's the art I'm working on" stuff. Oh - and a LOT of cross posting and sharing stuff friends were working on either for fun or profit or both.

Mostly, these days, I do all of that on Twitter (sans the in depth stuff - just links to it) but I guess I'm just intriqued by the idea that Plus was kinda a "whatever I'm feeling" platform.

Partly, I think that was because it was very easy to break down who could see what on the site. OPW is pretty good about that, but with Plus being Google based, anyone with a GMail could see a post specific to them. That was... convenient.
Matt Lichtenwalner
 

Sixty-one Karen Kuhl 3/23 '19

I just ordered "Lost Connections" by Johann Hari. (Thank you, Leela, for the original referral). I get it Sunday. I'm looking forward to reading it. A real book. In my hands. Just because I miss it.

~~~~~~~~~~~

I did a thing on Thursday. I was sitting cross-legged on the floor, bending over to do some work, for about 10 minutes. I was pretty studious and not really paying attention. When I got up I suddenly felt that my legs were pretty solidly asleep. The right one slightly worse. At first I thought it was hilarious, in that way you pop out of bed to discover your foot is asleep and almost fall over. But this didn't dissipate real well, and now more than 24 hours later, it's still tingling away.

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3/23 '19 3 Comments
Well, yikes! Sounds like ya done pinched somethin'! (Thanks, Dr. Knapp.) Are both legs tingly? I know you said the right one was worse. Is it still like that? Eeeeeek!

Curious what Annie Mollo has to say about this. She's all smart n' knows bodies n' stuff.
Jill "xtingu" Knapp
I got nothin'. There are a million and one reasons for that tingling, and also not knowing anything about Karen's overall health/challenges...

Gentle supports for people who have neuropathy might generally include massage, warm epsom salt baths, and acupuncture.

And no matter what ails you, assessing your overall diet for adequate micro- and macro-nutrients is never a waste of time. Even tiny changes in your diet can have big positive effects—iodine is one example of that. Change your intake by mere micrograms and you can feel quite different. But if you're not a big bio sci nerd hobbyist like me, your best bet would be to find a registered dietician whose philosophy encompasses integrative and functional medicine. You could also see a nutritionist, but that title/profession isn't regulated in the same way (or sometimes at all) as a dietician. That said, one of the most brilliant practitioners who ever helped pull me out of a bad-health cesspool was a nutritionist. So YMMV.
Anne Mollo
Hey girls, sorry for the hit and run post! I'm back. :) I do appreciate the feedback! Yes, it's still tingling and in both legs, but maaaybe slightly improving? I bend over and get a sudden recurrence, and I've seemed to locate a major tingly spot in the groin-ish area?

I'm being uncharacteristically blase about this, I know. I think my recent back surgeries are connected and I'm in a bit of a bad place with that as well, just not feeling the improvements I was hoping for, and then being told the screws could be touching nerves really made me question the point of all of this. (I know I'll eventually settle down but it just makes me uncontrollably emotional right now and my response is to put it in a box until I can breathe).

I didn't get into all this in the post because sometimes I don't want to keep talking about The Stuff I Keep Talking About, but in the end it's really a big part of what is going on with me, so... yeah.

I did the nutritionist route waayyy back in the early days, but definitely need to revisit it. It's possible new information will result after a 10 year period. It's also never bad to eat good, yo. I believe in food as medicine, you are what you eat, etc, but I am often a lousy pharmacist. Thank you for the gentle reminder. <3

Oh, and hot baths are definitely a win! As are good supportive friends. XOXO

Karen Kuhl
 

Matt's Art is Wonderous Ursula Sadiq 3/22 '19

Matt Lichtenwalner made my kid a drawing

And it is wonderous. Just saying. 

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3/22 '19 8 Comments
Awww shucks! Thank you! I'm so glad everyone (save, perhaps, the cat) liked it! :)
Matt Lichtenwalner
It looks to me as if everyone liked it! The cat, the unicorn, the Golden Snitch, the Lego Nightmare Princess... (?)
nerdsholmferret
This looks great! This might be one of my favorite things you've drawn. I've seen you use the format before to draw the guys that you always have hangin' around your psyche, and I dig it.

But yeah, what is Lego Nightmare Princess' real name? I doubt it's "ArachnaCubicula" which would be my first guess, which I am clearly inventing to be a dork. Never seen her before.
Jill "xtingu" Knapp
"the format before to draw the guys that you always have hangin' around your psyche" - Those are what inspired the request from Ursula, so I'm glad it shows through!

"ArachnaCubicula" - Well, I don't know the character's actual name, but Ursula gave me a list of topics and among them was "Roblox" (seems like a hybrid between Minecraft and Leggos) and a subset of that game "Grottypuff". I did a little image searching, and voila! I think they should use ArachnaCubicula if the character isn't already named.
Matt Lichtenwalner
I love this piece! I agree with Jillbot, it's one of my favorites ... though my FAVORITE piece of your art is the one on my back.

The expression on the cat's face is pure joy and very catlike ... when they love their people they look just like that.
Shelle Klein Houser
Thanks! The cat was a particular joy to me. Arguably for the first time, Google Image Search let me down. I kept trying to find reference pics for a cat rubbing up against their human. I finally found one that was vaguely what I was looking for and used it. Then I pretty much scrapped that and reworked the cat until the only thing remaining from the original was the two front legs. So I guess what I'm saying is - thanks - this particular cat really wanted to make its way to the digital page. :)
Matt Lichtenwalner
I love this so much.
Lindsay Harris Friel
Yay!
Matt Lichtenwalner
 

Sixty Karen Kuhl 3/20 '19

I run a very short list (just google calendar invites, actually) for lawn care applications each summer. It's basically a rough guideline for putting down what chemicals and when, if that's your bag, baby. (That's totally my bag, baby.) If you're interested in this, send me your gcal email (via "karona" at youknowwhere) and I'll invite ya. The time to start it is in the next week or two.

I'm a bit of a lawn geek*, so this had started as a hobby and a few folks asked to be alerted. Maybe it's time to admit I have a grass addiction. I make no gaurantees if you are outside of the Southeastern PA area. Actually, I make no gaurantees inside that area, either, accept that I also do what I'm advising you to do, and a bad lawn makes me very crabby*.

Okay, cheers.


*I may have signed up for soil temperature alerts this year.

**Crabgrass joke.

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3/20 '19 8 Comments
Can you send me an invite? I am fascinated.
Jill "xtingu" Knapp
Absolutely. I only have the first item up, there will be about a half dozen more from now til Octoberish.
Karen Kuhl
That's not a bad idea at all. If I had a lawn to take care of, I would absolutely sign up.
Matt Lichtenwalner
Aw, thx. Just something that kinda came about organically (more lawn jokes!)
Karen Kuhl
I have a very small patch of grass that desperately needs help. Can you send me the details?
Lindsay Harris Friel
I can send you the invite for the crabgrass prevention. It's really basic, just the name of the recommended lawn product and whether to put it down wet or dry. Maybe a blurb in the notes. I am not sure how many calendar "events" there will be this year, but last year there were about 8, spread out between April and October. I haven't set them all up yet, but if at any time you want to opt out, you can delete them. :)
Karen Kuhl
If it weren’t for crabgrass, I wouldn’t have any grass at all. (Rimshot)
Lindsay Harris Friel
Yep that was us growing up. And dog poo. Good times. ;)
Karen Kuhl
 

Friday, 3/15: Our first non-comedy gig in a long while tonight Jill "xtingu" Knapp 3/15 '19

Tonight (Friday) we'll be playing our first gig in a while. A band we love very much, The Honey Badgers, are having their album release show and asked us to open... and we were flattered since we're almost 20 years older than them. (We have this tired 'joke' about how they are the younger, more attractive acoustic duo who is also a couple with the band initials "HB.")  They played at our very first CD release show in 2013, so it'll be nice to return the favor.

Erin has a music degree in voice/violin, and her voice is like velvet. She cares so much about singing well, which I sooo appreciate, but she is also so effortless in it, which I am sooo jealous of. :-)  Her husband Michael is a science guy and a computer guy, and while not as musically-trained as Erin, he has such innate musicality and plays a zillion instruments, and their voices blend so, so, so well.  They play folk, but it's not sleepy folk. 

The show is upstairs at The Queen, but thankfully it's not a LiveNation show (it's just a rental) so tickets are not expensive because there aren't $73,938 in TicketMaster fees tacked on.  

Matt and I open the show at 8pm sharp, and we'll play a truncated set (35 mins). I'll also be singing lead on a Honey Badgers song during during their set, and then joining them on the final two tunes. 

We're looking forward to this show because we'll get to play two songs we don't get to play often at all... but since this is a folk/listening audience, we can bust out two songs that really reward the listener for paying attention to the lyrics. (Matt writes a great damn song. Playwright lyricists, man. Nomz.)

You can buy tix online only until 8am on the 15th (so 6 hours from now); otherwise you'll have to buy them at the door; there should be about 10 available at the door, I'm guessing.  The good news is that your ticket stub (or your ticket receipt if ya bought it online already) can be brought to the Stich House Brewery down the street on 8th and Market for 10% off your whole bill, before and/or after the show. Wheee!

Ok, going to bed. 


(PS: This is not me trying to convince anyone to go. We gauge our success on how many non-friends (organic fans) come to the show. I hate when bands make their money by guilting their friends into paying their rent, essentially. Not cool. Nobody owes me anything. 😊)


(PPS' My sleepy meds have just kicked in. I wanted to write about The Homey Awards that were tonight, and were fun. Will write more tomorrow.)

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3/15 '19 4 Comments
Is it still guilt if it's a guilty pleasure?

Some day SOME DAY, I will be kid free and in Delaware when you play and make one of your shows....what's the best way to see your schedule in advance?
Ursula Sadiq
There are two easy ways to keep up!

1) Our website:
http://hot-breakfast.com/shows/

2) Our Google calendar:
http://hot-breakfast.com/calendar/

We can also add you to our mailing list! We usually send things out quarterly/seasonally... but that requires people to kinda make a note about shows. Our marketing person is trying to get us to send out reminder emails closer to shows, but good lord I am so worried about over-emailing people.
Jill "xtingu" Knapp
Ooo now I know where to invite the gang after future shows
Thomas Boutell
The place is really great!
Jill "xtingu" Knapp
 

Verizon Cell Outage Jill "xtingu" Knapp 3/14 '19

Hi all!

Verizon had a huge cell outage earlier this week, and because of that, Matt and I aren't able to receive MMSes. (MMSes are fancy texts-- so any text with a photo or sound attachment, or text-only texts sent to multiple people at once.) 

We can still receive simple texts (SMSes)... meaning text-only texts sent to one person at a time, though. So at least that's something. 

I don't know when Verizon is going to have this fixed, but until it is... if you need to reach me, email is best.  If shooting off a text is easier, please just make sure you're only sending it to me, and it's not part of a group text.

Right now I have about 8 group and/or photo texts that have been saying "Downloading..." for over 2 days now.  The suspense is killing me!

Apologies. I know it's annoying. :-(

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3/14 '19 3 Comments
Verizon wants me to return their old router, but the label they sent me has one of those little broken-image "X" icons where the actual label information is supposed to go.
nerdsholmferret
I would love to see that. A bunch of us here love public BSODs and error messages, and that kinda image "X" icon thing is making me giddy just thinking about it.
Jill "xtingu" Knapp
Aw, darn. I think I just gave it away to the friendly UPS guy. Sorry.
nerdsholmferret
 

Post-surgery Ray Conrad 3/12 '19

72 hours post carpal tunnel surgery. Pain was higher than advertised. I know this next comment is going to make me sound like a bastard, but I'm in pain. And thanks all you fuckwits who can't control your addictions. Because of you I can't be pain free after they cut on me.

So, carpal tunnel surgery increases the difficulty of doing anything by 100% and increases carpal tunnel pain by 100x. Even small movements are agonizing, with pain shooting up and down my arm. And this is only the left arm. I'm getting by, but I'm right handed, so next month is looking like a shit sandwich.

Getting old ain't for sissies.

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3/12 '19 6 Comments
Holy shit, I had no idea you just got chopped! I'm so sorry! Of course, had I known it was on your agenda, I would have told you "hey, it's easy peasy" because my dad's was... so I *really* wouldn't have been helpful at all. Shit. I'm so sorry you're having such an awful time right now. You're not a wuss. If you're hurting, you're HURTING.

Are you allowed to call your doc and tell them your pain is beyond what Ibuprofen/Tylenol/whatever they told you to do/prayer/meditation can control? They err on the side of caution by not just giving out a narcotic scrip my default, but my understanding is that they will prescribe a small amount if it's needed.


And yes-- I am with you a billion-fold: Eff the fentanyl-producing/dealing assholes who have now prevented even *cancer patients* from receiving pain meds for fear of a damn DEA raid. It is BULLSHIT. Being a hematology patient, I'm often lumped in with cancer patients, so I'm on a bunch of hematology/oncology listservs and message boards that both doctors and patients participate in. It's staggering to see how much fear and damage this "opioid-epidemic" has caused because politicians decided to tell doctors how to practice medicine and invented arbitrary dosage and prescription limits. Friggin' *cancer patients* are having their pain med prescriptions titrated down or terminated because of these hideous and inhumane rules.

We have a Chinese fentanyl problem, not a 5mg prescription vicodin post-surgery problem for fucksake.

I'm so, so sorry you're hurting, especially this much after 72 hours. Please let me know if we can go to the store for you, walk some doggos, etc.
Jill "xtingu" Knapp
Thanks. Pain is down a bunch, most pins and needles unless I forget and try to use the hand for balance. Hilariously, I'm relegated to wearing sweat shorts. Long pants cannot be pulled up and belts cannot be fastened like this. Glad the weather isn't 20 degrees any longer.

They pumped me full of IV antibiotics and slathered me down with antibiotic cream, but I have to leave the bandage undisturbed for 17 days. It's gonna be a real stink-o-rama by the time they take the bandage off and take out the stitches.

I have zero tolerance for these new drug rules. I can get tramadol for my dog easier than I can get a prescription for me. And tramadol is nowhere near vicodin or even tylenol-3 FFS!
Ray Conrad
Oh man. I just wrote this huge reply and I accidentally closed the browser window and it went kablooey. Anyway!

I'm really happy to hear things are subsiding a bit, painwise... but no dressing change for 17 days?! What the heck is that?

Anyway, it's so strange to compare your experience to my dad's. I was there in northern NJ with him for the whole thing, and some of the differences in approach seem funky to me.

Like, 30 mins after we got back from his surgery he was making himself an omelette with his new hand (cockily, thanks the anesthesia... which didn't last long, and he was appropriately babying it after the remaining local anesthesia wore off.) His pain was the worst (but definitely not crazy) on days 2-3, and after that it got markedly better quickly.

Pain-med-wise, they tried giving him to a 3-day vicodin scrip which he refused, to their puzzlement. He believes all of the opioid panic he reads and is convinced he'll go from taking one vicodin post-surgery to shooting up heroin in a walmart bathroom in 30 seconds. But he said he really didn't need anything beyond Advil/Tylenol, and one ancient Tylenol 3 he had laying around.

We went back to the doc's office 3 days later for a post-op visit so they could take the dressing off and check him out. They put on a different, lighter, looser, fresh dressing, and he could change the dressing whenever he wished. He could shower, and when the dressing got wet in the shower, he'd just put on dry one when he got out of the shower. It wasn't anything elaborate.

When he had the stitches still in, they said "Use your hand as comfort allows, but the second you feel any tug on your stitches, you STOP." There were times he got cocky but then felt a tug on the stitches, which reminded him to take it easy and maybe not continue replacing his truck engine that week.

The stitches came out after 15 days (which seems fairly close to what you've been told) and he was told to continue to use his hand as his comfort allows, which he did.

Anyway, he said overall it was easy-peasy, though things were at maximum pain level at the 3-day mark and then got rapidly better.

I'm wondering if there's something drastically different in your diagnoses or medical histories that make your aftercare routines so different. (Not that I need to know.)

If you wanted to go to my dad's guy for your other hand, his name is Dr. Murphy at Skylands Orthopedics in Hackettstown NJ, but he works out of other places in NJ, too. He's awesome and funny. I'd be happy to help facilitate in whatever way I could be useful.
Jill "xtingu" Knapp
My doctor did my right rotator cuff surgery, so I'm pretty happy with him. Funny, just two years ago they didn't stint on the pain meds. This time I got Tylenol-3, which were not sufficient for the pain, either in strength, duration or size of prescription.

Yeah, the dressing being on for two weeks without changing is weird. I had to read my discharge instructions twice to make sure it wasn't an hallucination, but there it was.

Right out of surgery I was famished, so we went to the Metro Diner near Christiana hospital. The place is nice, I hope it lasts. But then we went back to my friend's house and the anesthesia was worn off. So I took a pain pill, my morning meds and went nappy bye for an hour or so. Lather, rinse and repeat for the rest of the weekend with ice off and on. I was of zero utility for the whole weekend. I couldn't even feed my dogs because I couldn't open the dog food can with one hand.

Typing was a dead letter issue. Couldn't happen with my surgery hand. On Wednesday I could type, but not fast and kept losing placement. Today is better. I'm not up to my close-your-eyes-and-type speed, but it's better.

Tomorrow is a week since surgery. I can close my hand into a loose fist and extend it flat. I can even carry light objects, like a cup of coffee. But my thumb still won't reach to touch my little finger. Not sure if it's swelling, or the bandage that's like putting a falsie in your palm. The worst is when I forget and reach out to put my hand palm -down on something. The pain makes me remember to DON'T DO THAT!
Ray Conrad
Your dad sounds a lot like my dad. My dad had a cocky pic of himself on a treadmill 4 days post hip-replacement. (He did not actually walk on it, though.)

As for this, "....convinced he'll go from taking one vicodin post-surgery to shooting up heroin in a walmart bathroom in 30 seconds." Yep, hear this a lot, and then often hear that the pain got out of control (right around day 3 is spot-on) and then it's a night of agony and even tears till it gets back under control. I tell folks not to try to be a hero, you don't get addicted after 3 days, hell you don't get addicted after 3 weeks if you're still tapering down from surgery. I don't have the information in front of me atm, but I believe the initial wave of addiction issues came with docs using a 3-month regimen with no plan in place for tapering off.

Ray, I hope you are feeling better by now. I'm sorry you had to go through all that recovery without adequate pain control. It's not just a matter of comfort, it can really affect the healing process, too.

We really need to get this "crisis" under control, and end the war on drugs.
Karen Kuhl
Things are much better. The pain is mostly gone, just occasional flares when I use the hand. I have been wearing long pants since Sunday. And boy, let me tell you, you miss long pants when you don't have them. Just today I can touch my thumb to my pinky finger. The bandage is getting a little grungy. Not ripe yet, but I can't wait for Monday afternoon to get it off and get the stitches out.
I'm going to wash it right away.
Ray Conrad
 
 
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