The View From Drew

All right, in an effort to liven things up around here as I've been a bit of a downer lately, I revamped the look of my page. I'm also going to start my own days around here, ala popfiend.

Here's how it's going to work out:

Mondays - You Tube Monday. I'll post a You Tube video I'd like to share and then you must reply by posting a link to one yourself. We'll compare videos. Thanks psiqueue for the idea.

Tuesdays - Top Ten Tuesday. I'll post a top ten list and then we can debate the merits of it.

Wednesday - Wacky Meme Wednesday. I'll post a meme and tag a number of people who must reply here and in their own blog by tagging more.

Thursday - Who Said That Thursday. I'll place a quote from something, television, literature, news, etc. and you must tell me where the quote came from. The first person to get it right must then place a quote to challenge everyone else.

Friday - TGIF. Chime in with a song you'd like to hear. I'll try to track it down in my collection and put together a TGIF marathon of the first five songs to listen to over the weekend.

Also, I mentioned this a long time ago and I haven't forgotten it. I've just been a little preoccupied. (Sue is doing much better, BTW. I'll be posting an update in the morning.) I still would like to see about doing an LJ gathering in New York this summer. I'm thinking sometime in August. I'll also post more about this tomorrow.

So, think about this for tomorrow - Top ten beers.

Good night.

Hi.

Yeah, that's a good way to start.

Sorry, brain frazzled.  We're all here.  We're alright.  Just to give you the rundown of day to day so far:

Thursday - I returned to school, but left shortly after third period.  Sue had developed feelings of apathy and some hostility (as though they didn't belong there) towards the children.  She wanted to be admitted to a hospital.  I took her to the emergency room and she was seen through pretty quickly to the on-call psychiatrist.  He felt that she already had systems in place to help her (therapist, family, friends, medication, her own determination to heal) and that placing her in the psych ward would not help her get the rest she needed.  She would easily be interrupted by the other patients who would be calling out.  She returned home with me with two new medications - one to help her sleep and one to help with the anxiety as it takes two weeks for her Zoloft to really kick in.

Friday - After sleeping twelve hours uninterrupted, Sue said she was feeling better.  She spent some time with the kids under my supervision.  (Doctor's orders - She is not to be left alone with the kids or herself.)  I started getting a little frayed around the edges myself though.  I was having a hard time reconciling Mike's lack of sleeping during the daytime.  Mike takes catnaps and then wants you to hold him the rest of the time.  He only has any real quality sleep time when you are holding him during the day.  The night continues to be good with only one or two awakening times, but the daytimes are rough.  I got to the point where I was taking it personally.  To me, it's common sense.  You're hungry, you eat.  You're stomach rumbles, you go to the bathroom.  You're tired, you go to sleep.

He wasn't going to sleep.

Why was he trying to drive me crazy?

Eventually, he settled down with me and Sue on the couch bed in the basement where Sue is sleeping for now so she doesn't hear the baby at night.  He slept for four hours.  The night went by pretty easy too.  Sue's mother stayed with us and took the night shift, allowing me to sleep with Sue downstairs.

Saturday - Sue awoke and said she was not feeling as good today, which wasn't a terrible thing considering my sister Anna took the boys for the day.  She's not coming back until this evening and I'm going to take Sue to lunch and we're going to do some food shopping.  We'll then spend the rest of the afternoon at home as she sees fit.

She's going to have bad days and good days in the weeks ahead.  Fortunately, my school has been very understanding.  I've given them material to cover and the senior English teachers, who are done for the year, are covering my classes.  If I didn't return, I'd still have a job in the fall and I'm covered as I banked a number of days from last year.

My reports in will be intermittent, but rest assured, we're fine.  Thanks again to everyone for the kind words.  Be seeing you.

Anything and Everything DREWSHI - The Internet Show - Episode Ten - Right click to save. Two weeks in a row! And an anniversary episode to boot! (Hey! I made it to ten episodes, that's an anniversary in my book!) This week, in addition to offering a fair amount of Irish music in honor or St. Patrick's Day, I also celebrate the premiere of the new Doctor Who series on American television with a reading of a children's story by Christopher Eccleston as well as a documentary "Back in Time". In addition, there's some silly things I've found on the internet, the return of Weird News, and a special appearance by my son, Eddie. This is the one you don't want to miss! (Actually, you really shouldn't miss any of them. I leave them posted long enough as I never get around to making a new one.)

Anything and Everything DREWSHI - The Internet Show - Episode Nine - Right click to save. A brand new episode! This episode features my minor tribute to the television series The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman which includes a Peter Pan Records audio drama featuring the former. There is also a tribute to broadcaster Christopher Glenn and the usual silliness you've come to expect from me.

I've been terrible about updating my website. How terrible? Well, the Christmas decorations were still up. It really irritates me when I drive by homes with wreaths still on the door and here I have a huge, honking tree GIF sitting on my front page.

I noted the fact that I have been terrible about posting a new episode of Anything and Everything DREWSHI - The Radio Show and will do so this Sunday while leaving a link for the first episode of "The Time Brokers" which you can still download.

I also updated the audio store. After discussing it with certain individuals, I have brought the prices down a little to make them more palatable for the new buyer. The Dome is now $6.00, while Meltdown and Star Traders are $8.00 and The Old Curiosity Shop and Justin Case episodes are $5.00 each.

Below are previews for each audio, something to whet your appetite. If you find anything that appeals to you, simply visit my audio store at http://www.drewshi.com/audiostore.html.

The Dome Preview
Meltdown Preview
Star Traders: Mission to Aranus Preview (in Real Audio)
Justin Case Preview (in Real Audio)
The Old Curiosity Shop Preview (in Real Audio)

So Sue has been finding herself out of breath more and more lately. We chalked it up to her being older and pregnant, but she went in for a checkup anyway. Turns out she has a leaky valve. On the surface, this is not a major problem, but it can be for the delivery. She's going to a specialist next Wednesday. We may have to go the c-section route, which Sue wants to avoid. When it comes to myself, I don't usually ask this, but for Sue, if you could send prayers, good vibes, whatever her way, I would appreciate it.

The police caught the bastards who robbed my sister's house. It seems the idiots hit about four other houses that day and picked up a credit card along the way which they used. Idiots!

All right, the audio drama page has now been updated with the holiday prices and there is finally a working sample of my very first audio drama, Meltdown. Take a walk on over to the page and check out the deals I've worked out. You can pick up some of my audios for as low as $5. If you are an audio drama fan or are looking for something new to give to the audio aficionado, my adventures of the imagination may just be what you're looking for.

DREWSHI's Audiostore

Well, it's taken a while, but the website is finally updated.

There's a new episode of Anything and Everything DREWSHI - The Radio Show (for the newbies, this was supposed to be a weekly internet show, but has fallen somewhat in its tracks. Take a listen.).

There's a link to my Doctor Who anthology for ordering. ;)

The audio drama page will be updated later today. I'm lowering the prices for ordering original audio dramas by myself for the audio enthusiast you know and love. There's a Paypal account to make your shopping easier.

Go check it out - Anything and Everything DREWSHI

I'm still here, I've just been pretty busy with a full week of school. We're wrapping up Beowulf with the juniors today. Next week they give their presentations on heroes and we begin Lord of the Flies. Meanwhile, the sophomores have begun The Crucible. While I will admit that my sophomore classes are much better behaved this year and that they actually do well in class, I'm kind of disappointed in the response to the play so far. Last year, the kids loved it, equating it to a soap opera. This year, there is no enthusiasm and I can't seem to reach them the way I did with the kids last year. They get it and they're reading it, it's just that there's no excitement. Last year, I'd have kids stopping me in the hall and discussing a section of the play like we were talking about last night's Lost. It was fun. The sophomores also have presentations next week. They are doing persuasive arguments. Let's see how that turns out.

Despite the fact that this school year is going well and fast, I'm very tired.

Went to the doctor yesterday as I was getting some shooting pains in the chest. Turns out I have developed some post operative swelling that will disappear. Aspirin and hot compresses are the prescription.

Speaking of Lost, I gave up on it. I simply do not have the energy or the patience to be dragged into another myth-type story, ala The X-Files. I feel I deserve more than what few answers I got for an entire season of watching and for some reason, I find I really don't care now what happens to these people. Maybe too much time passed. I don't know. Oh well, it frees up the night for my soon to be full slate of nostalgic television watching of the second seasons of Greatest American Hero, Babylon 5, and Quantum Leap. I've already begun watching Leap, but in my true geek fashion of watching them when they originally aired, the other two series will premiere the beginning of November. I so love TV on DVD.

The cover art for the Short Trips collection my story is in has been placed on the Big Finish website. You can pre-order the book now, which would make a wonderful gift for the Doctor Who fan in your life, by following this link.

So Eddie calls me over to look at a picture he's painting. He's used a series of light colors in a cloud-like pattern with a dark blue framing the whole image. It's very pretty and there is clearly some thought put into it. He then explains to me that it's an old man with blood coming out of him.

Who do you think will need thearapy first?

Checked in with my surgeon today. The breast mass was only inflamed and there is no cancer scare! Yeah!

He did warn me that the breast tissue might grow back. I might be the only heterosexual man on the face of the earth who can say at this moment, "I really don't like breasts!"

He also said that I may walk away from this with a minimal scar, but I'm working on my knife fight story in case I need to. Currently, it goes like this. "The scar? I got it in a knife fight, but you should see what I did to the guy who knifed me."

Of Anything and Everything DREWSHI - The Radio Show, that is. Feast your ears to music, weird news and part five of The Avengers - "The Morning After." Right click the link below to save. Enjoy.

Episode Seven

Thanks to yendi for pointing this out in his blog. It's this month's schedule of movies on TCM. It being October they've got a treasure trove of scary movies lined up, but I also would have missed the Marx Brothers movie marathon on Wednesday, October 12 starting at 11:30AM and going on all day until 8PM. At eight, they're showing Jaws.

Cool.

ADDITION: Extra cool, there is also a marathon of submarine movies later that night. I loves submarine movies.

So I'm sitting on the couch, watching television when I feel something sticking out of my back. I reach behind me and feel something metal through my shirt. My first thought is, "Oh my God! What did they do to me?" I then realize it's one of the feeds still stuck to my back. The nurse must have missed that one when she was removing them from me. Hurt like hell pulling it off.

Got home yesterday, very tired and sore. The whole thing was a whirlwind experience. I got there on time and was immediately whisked into the ambulatory services area where I was informed that the person before me had canceled so I was being moved up. I quickly got undressed and put on the gown. I met the anesthesiologist who gave me an injection which he described as "having several glasses of wine" in me - which is not a bad thing. As I started to float, Sue stood beside me, but I don't remember saying good-bye or anything as everything faded to black.

I awoke in the recovery room some two hours later. The nurse there told me the operation went by quickly but it took me some time to come out from the anesthesia. I was moved back to ambulatory services where Sue was waiting for me with a roll and a cup of tea.

I was out of there in less than twenty minutes. I was amazed at how quickly it all went. I'm now taking Tylenol with codeine for the pain. It doesn't hurt much, but I can't lie on my left side. The sad part is I managed to do that just fine all night until I woke up this morning to a sharp pain as I rolled over on my left side.

I spent yesterday just catching up on some television, which was nice.

A few things of note:

Continuity goof on "The Enemy Within" on Star Trek. In the opening of the episode, both Kirk and his double are missing their insignia on the planet surface and when they first beam aboard. The insignia appears on both after the first commercial break. This is a great story, but it suffers from the problem of there being shuttlecraft and more than one transporter room, neither of which is mentioned in the episode.

On the Reboot episode, "When Worlds Collide", there is a portal device that looks and acts suspiciously like the Stargate. It allows one to go to other computers. It's a shame they never followed through with that idea. In later seasons Enzo and Andrea would travel to other computer systems, but not by this method.

You know, I'm finding Buck Rogers doesn't hold up as well all these years later. I find myself losing interest as I watch it. This week's episodes was "Vegas in Space." I didn't have this problem watching the original Battlestar Galactica last year.

I don't know why I had such a problem with Static Shock during its original run. I only caught a few episodes and found I didn't like it. In watching the first season now, I'm finding I'm really enjoying it. I've found the same thing with Babylon 5. The first season finale is coming up and I'm thinking I'm going to miss seeing Sinclair.

I'll be offline for a short time. How much time depends on my recovery. I'm leaving shortly for the hospital to have this gynacomastia taken care of. The procedure only lasts an hour-and-a-half, but it's the recovery time I'm concerned about. I won't be staying in the hospital, thank goodness.

Take care.

I'm one to remember quite a number of my dreams and I also place an emphasis on them, but last night's dreams were truly disturbing. I kept dreaming I was with an ex-girlfriend and the dream would always end with us breaking up. Each time I managed to get back to sleep, the dream would pick up and she'd get back with me. Now in reality, our relationship lasted much longer than it should have, if it ever should have been to begin with. I wasn't able to get much sleep though as the dreams were so vivid and the break-ups were so harsh.

Very, very weird.

1) First off, I want to welcome julioangelortiz to LJ. Julio is a writer whose name you may have seen grace a number of the Trek and Who boards on the net. We've both written for Everlasting Films/Infinite Imaginations Doctor Who audio dramas line. (Actually, Julio has new product coming from them soon.) He's an all around cool guy who one day we'll work it out and come up with something together.

2) Have been very bad about recording new Everything and Anything DREWSHI - the Radio Show. Once school starts I kind of lock myself into a teacher mode and it is hard to break. I'm hoping that next weekend might help.

3) Next weekend I'll be recovering from surgery to have the breast tissue removed. On the one hand, I'm scared, but the pain is driving me nuts. I can't wrestle with Eddie and he's been so good about not jumping on me. He stops in front of me and announces that he will leave me alone before walking off to do something else. Wrestling was a great way to burn some of his boundless energy. Afterwords, we'd sit and watch television or play a video game.

4) I love school this year. Today, I'll be having those few kids that don't take me seriously after school and calling their parents on their cell phones. I only have one sophomore failing currently and no juniors. Despite doing poorly on the summer reading, they have made up for it with their assignments, class participation and a fair outing on their first real test with me this past week. It's all the more fun as both classes have group guidance on separate days and that breaks the week up nicely. Can you believe it's already October? And now we move into the season of shortened school weeks. Next week, there is only one actual school day and three weeks after that there is only three. It's a scam, I tell ya!

5) Speaking of stuff, I've also pretty much put the new novel, Under a Rock, on standby as well. I need to get back into a discipline of writing. I write best in the morning and I do get up early every morning, but these days I spend most of the time tootling on-line rather than writing. It was easier back in the summer when I didn't have to worry about going to work. Evenings have never been good for me. I can't focus. Eddie's about and I want to spend time with him or there's housework to get done or there's just the little free time I spend with Sue. The early mornings work best and I need to start using it.