Nate Beaty's Brainfag

All doped up and ready to draw

posted in Home Jabber on February 19, 2006

Excuse my silence. My body is currently digesting wonderful Western Medicine drugs that are subduing my body's attempt to destroy itself. Specifically, Prednisone (a steroid) is reducing the inflammation incurred from my Ulcerative Colitis. Albeit in low doses, the drugs are still making me a little woozy and stupid (or rather, more woozy and stupid than usual, ha!), and are keeping me from tip-tapping away on the computer keyboard with life details. Oo-ee.

I've decided to spend money on my body instead of my computer for once. A trip to a new naturopath, acupuncturist, and a v-day massage (professional help!) -- as well as fancy vitamins and powerful drugs. Goddamnit, I'm tired of being sick, and am hellbent on getting better, at whatever cost. Next up is a DENTIST to take care of my rotting teeth, which I'm sure have been keeping my immune system busy.

(And I can't help blurting out: taxes are coming, I should be choking up probably thousands of dollars on my almost-$10,000 income because I'm self-employed, while I can't afford healthcare, and our vice president is out drunk shooting people in the face, while we bomb Iraq, and blah blah blah. Right? Blah blah blah.)

The acupuncturist this time was incredibly painful. It ended up being the same fella that needled Soon Bok the times that I could hear her whimpering with pain. I thought I could handle it with a higher pain threshold, but he put a needle in my wrist that sent an electric shock of pain all along the left-hand side of my arm. The other side was painful, but not quite as bad. The kicker, however, was a needle dead-center in my chest, specifically aimed at unblocking my intestinal energy. Well, I think my intestinal energy wants to be left the hell alone. It was so excruciatingly painful, I couldn't breathe properly, and had to have him take it out a few minutes later. Not fun. I'm afraid experiences like this will keep me from going back for more needle-medicine. Then again, maybe I should stop trusting students to this science, and choke up some cash for an experienced, practicing acupuncturist. (All of my acupuncture has been at Outside In downtown, which is a donation-based clinic mostly geared torwards street youth, but has acupuncturists of wildly varying experience donating their time to the clinic.)

I've only been getting in about one page a day on the latest comic. Not fast enough. Like a dumb, unstoppable, blithering computer geek idiot, I've instead been doting over a recently craigslist-purchased Powerbook 3400 ($30!) trying to make it a usable wifi-enabled house internet machine. It's a really cool toy, but Nate? Pick up the brush, ok? Soon Bok is about to smash every computer in the house, and probably would if they didn't supply movies and email and music.

I've been blown away by new comics I've been reading. This doesn't happen often. In fact, it's been a long time since I really really got into a comic, and there's just been a ton of great stuff coming out, it seems. The new Ganges #1 put out by Fantagraphics / Coconino is so amazing. Kevin Huizenga is totally inspiring. And I finally bought the Isaac the Pirate books 1 and 2, by Christophe Blain, which are so well written and drawn, definitely worth checking out (you can find em in Portland at Counter Media). Also, I just got the Black Hole book, but I haven't had time to read it yet. Nor have I read the new Schizo by Ivan Brunetti, but I've seen most of it. What else? It seems like there was a bunch of new books to blather about.. I'll have to dig em up and edit my post tomorrow.

Because now? Sleep. Yes, sleep, something I need to get to a LOT earlier in order to get better. For some reason staying up late really fucks me up, and since Soon Bok works at the bar until 3-4am three nights out of the week, I've gotten back in the habit of working during those hours.

Oh, the new pdxzines.com is up. Clean new design for this year based on John Isaacson's 2006 poster.