Dog.

I am taking a C programming class this quarter at college. So far I haven’t been clicking everything into place, so to speak, but I did get a program I’m working on for solving quadratic equations to calculate and print the discriminate and roots.

The only thing In have to do left is figure out how to properly get it to print out the correct response if it’s a single, double, or complex number root.

My crafts group.

I struggle with shit, and my therapist hosts it. Ive been working on the same painting for three months, and I still don’t know what it is, or will be.

But anyway, a couple of us love history and last week I found volume 2 of an encyclopedia set, printed in 1875. I got it for $1. So I brought it in. I love how we all thought it was so cool.

Today has yet to impress. Yesterday, however… I was driving to work, when I heard news that the bridge I take to work was closed due to a multi-vehicle accident. I was literally at the intersection where I turn onto the street leading to the bridge when the traffic report came on. I ended up going through the intersection rather than turning. I took a half-hour detour along the same streets I cycle on in my free time, taking in the autumn colours and not worrying about traffic (there was none as it’s a reduced speed zone and people suck). Ended up going through our downtown, past all my old haunts, and eventually found my way to work. After all that, I was only three minutes late. My only regret is that I didn’t bring a coffee with me when I left the house.

Discovered that a record I thought I had listened to and not really liked, actually has a banger on it. Money not wasted after all!

I ordered a cheap set of in-ear earbuds. They arrived this morning and I have them charging now.

I have balls-scrunching anxiety.
So any kind of public speaking means I shit my pants.
I gave a presentation today & I only got scared shitless at the beginning. After those first 2mins, things went well.
Mind you, I had previously left mid-way from one such presentation with the same people, making a stupid excuse.
Felt nice.

Today’s my last day at this job before starting a new job on Monday. In addition to making the rounds and discovering how much people have appreciated my time and will miss me, one of my favorite people I deliver to gave me a painting she had made for me that will now be the first decoration at my new desk.

When I went outside to feed the forest friends this morning, a blue jay with injuries that I had been hanging out with that was missing for a few days showed up.

I’m going to ride that high all day.

Surgical tech here - the cases I was assigned to today were one of the ones done under local - numb the operative area, chop off some superficial stuff, stitch up, and move on. Patient is awake, not sedated, just numbed. Some patients really don’t like that even though general anesthesia would be WAY overkill for these procedures, and one of my patients was nervous as absolute fuck - dude was a wreck. Like probably the worst I’ve seen to date in his ability to cope with what we were about to do.

Worst was it’s a tedious case - Mohs procedures, so basically we take a specimen, send it to lab, wait for like 40 mins for confirmation that the wound edges are clear of cancer cells, then close.

So, while I was scrubbed in, I went full distraction mode - asked his favorite music, and played that through my cellphone while we were working; told every stupid dad joke under the sun, shared stories about silly shit I’ve encountered in the past, got him telling some of his own. Normally during that middle waiting-for-lab phase we’ll frog-hop cases into another room, or use that time to take our lunch or something - with this dude I just stayed in his room and bullshitted with him until his result came back (clear on the first pass, thankfully!). Last part for the closing is more of the same - just kept him talking. By the end of it he was actually laughing, and not just nervous but actually having a good time. We wrap things up, give him his discharge instructions, and send him on his way - he thanked everyone in the room, then pointed at me and gave me a shoutout, said I made the whole experience so much better than he was expecting / than it could have been.

Warm and fuzzies cranked up to 11!

99% of my cases involve general anesthesia, so I get pretty much zero interaction with my patients, cuz they roll into the OR, I barely have enough time to say hi before they get the sleepy drugs, and we get to work.

Was a real treat to have the opportunity to make that big a difference for someone!

I cleaned my desk today :D

A co-worker who I don’t really know too well had been pushing off something I needed them to do. They finally got around to doing it today. They were legitimately busy though, or at least it seemed so. It wasn’t urgent or anything since I have plenty of other work to do, but now I can start on their project.

They treated me to a coffee at a coffee shop for making wait so long, which I thought was a nice gesture. We had a nice chat and I got to know them a little more. It just felt like such a genuine human interaction.

1. Beautiful weather.
2. Reading a book.
3. Discovering art.
4. Being identified as the moth guy on Lemmy a moment ago.
5. Had a great meal today.
6. Tea plus snacks had the perfect vibe for the weather.
7. Classical music (Sufi) really scratched the itch today.
8. The little death.
9. Water was delicious.
10. Liked how little I had to interact with people.

My new album has hit 2000+ streams in 7 days. It’s not much, but it’s a lot for me.

My cat just fell asleep on my foot.

He’s so warm and happy.