10-15-25: Doctor Hell
Good morning! Happy middle of October! First and foremost I wanna mention that my annual Ghoul Gathering Collab is already underway for 2025. So please join! You can find all the details on that webpage. I'm going as Snufkin this year :)
Work is good! We're still super defunded so we're making up for it with a million shows. We just finished up a documentary for our local food bank to celebrate their 40th anniversary. It was a bit of a crunch at the end there, especially with how much I've been out sick the past month, but I really love how it turned out! The branding is on point and it just has a fresh, clean vibe. For the credits, we asked everyone we interviewed what their favorite food is and the way that everyone was laughing and smiling with their answers was really cute. And, out of 25 different interviews, no two people gave the same answer to that question!
We're currently working through our local political debates which are always fun. I live in a very conservative area right now so all of the elections are kind of a "How Far Right Are You" contest, which is frustrating to say the least. We had a real nut on last night running for mayor. We're also going to host a show next week about Civics that I think is also supposed to touch on civility in politics. Everyone keeps saying it's a good idea but honestly I'm not sure many people will tune in- certainly not the sort of people who probably need to hear it, lol. But it's worth a shot! Local campaigns in this small city have been getting pretty nasty, especially on social media. I'm talking Accusing Your Opponents of Literal Murder type nasty. Conspiracy nuts will never cease to amaze me...
Lately I've been having a problem with some swelling and redness in one leg. It doesn't hurt me but it looks pretty bad. I went to the doctor back in June, and since then I've spent easily $1-2k on followup appointments, tests, etc... Just yesterday I had (ANOTHER) venous ultrasound, and they found nothing AGAIN, and charged me $650 (after insurance). Now they're talking about referring me to a fourth doctor. I just about wanted to cry. I got a bonus last month at work and already the entire thing has gone towards catching up with medical bills. They're really threatening to overwhelm me- I don't know what to do besides just hope they find what's wrong before I hit my credit limit.
This is literally why people neglect their health. Like I said, this swelling isn't something that bothers me at all in terms of pain. It's a little unsightly, but I wear pants most days anyway. Do you know... How tempting it is to just ignore it instead of spending thousands to find out literally nothing? And these are relatively cheap bills! I can't imagine having like $12k bills! The thought makes me want to barfff.
The Spooky Star Wars Halloween Zine & OC Parade Zine bundle is now on sale! All proceeds go towards the Palestine Children's Relief Fund, so please consider checking it out!
The Star Trek Polyship Calendar also released and is available for free download! I had the pleasure of illustrating some McSpirk for the month of January, but the calendar has a lot more ships to offer, across all eras of trek! Give it a peek!
I've been accepted into the Star Trek Zine O'Biology Volume 2, so I'll be sure to give updates on that. I'm going to try being paired with a writer this time instead of just drawing solo. I've never drawn for a written work before, so I'm excited for the experience! I've also applied to help mod a House MD zine- I don't have a lot of zine modding experience, so I don't know if they'll ake me on the team for that, but I plan to reapply as just an artist if not.
I've felt a bit art blocked lately. I've managed a few good pieces but overall I'm struggling a little. I am self taught, but a lot of my friends are either in art school or graduated recently. They talk about their assignments and improving their work so much that it's making me wonder if I should set aside some time for studies- I just personally feel like I don't get much from unguided studies, but I'm sure there's some youtube videos or something that I could use. I'm also considering adding a little art critique area to my discord server, but I'm not sure it's active enough right now for something like that to be used. Hmmm!
I've temporarily removed the links to my server from my site. If you'd like to join, please feel free to message me on discord (sunpop) or shoot me an email! This is because I was getting a lot of hateful and offensive shouts and drawings on my homepage :(. I was sick the first few days that was happening so I am genuinely sorry to anyone who might have visited my page during that time and had to see all of that. I've been very diligent about removing them since, though. Thankfully the responsible parties finally seem to have left. To everyone who left nice messages and drawings trying to counteract the spam, I appreciate you! You're the best!!!
I think that's about all I have to say today. Thanks for reading and Happy Halloween!