Rae Roy

Christmas was pretty low key this year, which is a good thing. No hospital visits and mostly relaxation. I received an ice cream maker, a tortilla press, bath stuff, and movies. A lot of Star Wars, which is fantastic! I got a few things on Boxing Day. I found Firefly on blue ray for $10. It's a great series and I've been wanting it. Usually it's triple the price! I also started collecting the Clone Wars series because I realized there's so much Star Wars canon I'm behind on. But Christmas has always been more about people for me. Seeing my honorary brother, hearing about my cousin's successful proposal to his girlfriend, spending quality time with my family, seeing old friends - these are the things that make my holiday. But there's always a limit. There's a point where I remember that living at my parent's house for more than a couple of days would drive me insane! I love them all though. On Sunday, I got to visit with old karate dojo teachers and s

So it was one week ago that I was told I have an autoimmune disease called Sjögren's Syndrome . What is that? Well, like all autoimmune diseases, it means my body is attacking itself. I guess something had to slow me down ;) Seriously though, autoimmune diseases commonly feature symptoms like chronic fatigue. My particular one also comes with joint pain and a high amount of dryness all over the body. The glands that produce saliva, tears, vaginal lubrication, etc are attacked. Eyes get so dry vision is affected and they hurt. Mouth is so dry that things with any bit of acid in them, sting or cause sores. Breathing can be difficult because the internal organs like lungs get dry inside too, causing symptoms of asthma. I don't know why the skin is dry too. Perhaps sweat glands? I need to read more about it. People with autoimmune diseases are also hyper-sensitive to chemical toxins. Interestingly, doctors say that all autoimmune diseases have triggers. Often an environmental toxin

I've been rather distracted as of late while waiting on medical test results. I was writing, but not very much. I'm not a New Years resolution type of person. I'm a goal-oriented type. So here's the writing plan for 2016: 1. Finish the second draft of The Blood Waitress Club. It is a tale of a team of roller derby girls who happen to be vampires. 2. Finish the first draft of Scion. This one is an alien conspiracy involving a particularly skilled boy. 3. Do whatever is needed to get The Page & The Magician to publication. It's my urban fantasy romance that's set in Ottawa. This one is currently in review by a publisher, but they could decide it isn't actually something they're into, or that it needs a lot more work. 4. Polish some of my short stories and send them out into the world. 5. Attend Ad Astra and Can-Con. That should keep me busy. Ciao, R~

My last post was a rather emotional one. Sorry for that. After seeing the rheumatologist, much weight has been lifted. The appointment was annoying though. It was for 10:20 and I didn't get to see her until nearly an hour after that. They overbooked. Then, when I finally see her she is going through the results in a painfully slow way. She mentioned that my white blood cells are low. So I'm freaking out in my head, wondering where she's going with this. Low white blood cells happen with Cancer, but also with autoimmune disorders. It's not Cancer! As she went through them, she said it's not Lupus either. It's also not Rheumatoid Arthritis. It's  probably Sjogren's Syndrome. Why probably? I've had problems with my salivary glands since I was 14 years old and dryness in other areas. Chronic dryness in the mouth that causes a high frequency of cavities. Now my eyes are often dry, but not gritty. Anyway, it causes joint pain also. Back to the probably. I

I'm writing this post two days before my second meeting with the rheumatologist. As I await news, I can't count the number of times I thought about mentioning it to friends. What would I say? "Hey guys, I'm going through this scary thing right now. I have no clue what I need right now, or really even what any of it means for my future, but just putting this out there." When you're waiting on this kind of news though, you really don't know what to say. With a high amount of inflammation in the body, they usually check for Cancer along with other things. I'm nervous. Anxious. I want to know, but I wonder if remaining ignorant has perks for my mental health. I feel like if it's not my worst fear, I can probably handle it. Regardless, life changes are ahead as some of the other possibilities include Rheumatoid Arthritis and Lupus. It's possible I have both. Aside from inflammation, my joints and tendons hurt. The joints ache, while the tendons feel

On Friday I traveled down to a friend's place in Oshawa, Ontario. We ate. I excitedly ran about giving her and her daughter gifts. Or tried to. New socks plus excitement led to me falling down some stairs. It wasn't something I needed. At least her daughter loved the gift. After that we climbed into the hot tub for some girl time and relaxation as Saturday was a big day for us. Early Saturday morning we left for Etobicoke. We arrived at the Olympium and lugged all our gear inside. The next step was finding out where we were going, which was much easier to find than the last time we traveled to a seminar together. The seminar was fantastic! I received some key tips that I think will help fix my grip once and for all. Hopefully I remember them. I wrote the most important ones down already, but I'm remembering some right now that I should scribble down. After the seminar, we hurriedly ate lunch and returned to the room for grading. During the seminar, I became quite sore, espe

Well I have a new Naturopath. The previous one I had in 2013 discovered my food allergies through blood tests. As an aside, I often refer to them as allergies, but they're technically sensitivities. The difference between the two is that true allergies bring about a reaction that is anaphylactic. A sensitivity is one step down from that and still gives major reactions like hives, rashes, difficulty breathing, headaches, etc. An intolerance is even lesser on the scale, though commonly results in mad cramps and diarrhea. Technically there's more to those delineations, but for my purpose I don't need to go into the deep scientific and medical details. Now I'm trying NAET. Nambudripad's Allergy Elimination Techniques is admittedly on the hokey side of treatments. It uses a lot of asian healing techniques like acupuncture. It also uses a test for muscle weakness in the presence of the allergy that can easily be faked by the practitioner. There's another test that use

Next Saturday I will be challenging the Shodan grading. This is also referred to as First Dan. It is the first black belt level in our martial art, Iaido. We don't have coloured belts and we don't actually wear our ranks around our waists. Our obis, or belts, are to help keep our hakama, or pleated pants, up and our sword where it should be when it is sheathed. Shodan is thought of more as the level where learning really begins. Previous to it one is learning, but it has mostly been fundamental things like where to stand and how to hold a sword. I don't know what learning comes next, but I'm hoping I'm ready for it. What I'm thinking about the most is Mae. Ippon-me Mae is the foundation of our art. It contains so much more than it appears to within it. Aside from the horizontal and vertical cuts, there are options to stab in case it isn't just a one-on-one situation after all. The cuts are used in many situations and crop up throughout kata in all of the set

Well I've been doing terrible at National Novel Writing Month this year. Why? Life has been busy. At the end of October, from the 30th to November 1, there was Can-Con. I successfully pitched my novel to one of the publishers, then spent two days touching up my manuscript before submitting it. I had gotten some outside feedback at Can-Con and wanted to apply it. So that took me to November 4th as a start date. Then I had to spend some time ensuring I had food to eat at the Iaido seminar on the 7th. The 6th and 8th were partially lost to travel. I didn't get much writing done in the first week. In week two when I could get some time to write, I was facing the challenges of full-time work, writing course, plus social life. I was also facing a challenge of, "Man, it's been so long since I looked at this manuscript. What's it about again?" Also, I had updated my Scrivener to the newest version and it moved some of the text files around, so I had to reorganize and

The vast amount of bombings and shootings that have happened recently,( Baghdad, Paris, Beirut ), have been affecting me. I have trouble dealing with problems that are unsolvable. Probably part of the reason I enjoyed House M.D. so much. I woke up on November 18, 2015 and realized that the problem isn't about any specific book. I believe it is, in part, about language. Not a specific one, but human language altogether. From what I understand, most holy books are guides to being good people. There is a fundamental problem in how they depart that knowledge. Those guiding principles are open to interpretation. People will interpret them how it makes sense to their lives rather than know explicitly what it means. Thou shall not kill. Orthodox Buddhists view this as anything. Don't kill humans, ants, ladybugs, mice, etc . They don't eat meat either. For the rest of us who do eat meat, we might wonder if we are already doomed to hell, yet our Creator made us omnivores. This may

Many people struggle with getting words onto the page, so I thought I'd share what I do. I've spoken about it before, but not given examples. I often write in layers, but sometimes I skip over several layers as I'll get inspired to write a scene. Getting started is often the hard part. Layer One Write the general idea of what you want to happen. Example: Dog bites girl. Layer Two Expand on that. What kind of dog? Example: The European boxer bit into the girl. Layer Three Spark the senses more. Example: The brindle-haired European boxer snarled as he tore into her flesh. Layer Four Why do we care about a dog bite? Is the girl important? Example: She never got over the attack. It followed her. There was always a dog at a house party, or even out on the sidewalk. Layer Five Have we been writing an inciting incident or has it actually been backstory? Probably backstory, but that doesn't mean we have to scrap it. Who is my character? Example: Suzy had been on the West Hampto

A theme from this weekend's seminar was to think. Don't just flail the sword around in the approximate direction. Think about every cut, every motion. Think about where the tip is rather than where your hands are. Mindfulness is the buzzword for this. All too common in life we run on autopilot. We drive to work in a zombie-like state. No thought that we should tell others around us that we are going to do something that requires action on their part (braking, for example). I don't know what the statistics might be for how many people get through their work day without ever thinking about what they're doing, but I do know it happens. At my rank in iaido, a key focus is on respect. There are different thoughts on respect. One thought is that it must be earned. That's valid. Tell me who you are and what you've done that I should care about. Another thought is to give it freely until someone does something where they no longer deserve it. Both have advantages and di

I'm still alive! Things have been eventful though. Can-Con 2015 When I last posted, Can-Con had just begun. The rest of it went by in a blur. On Day 2 I attended a panel called, "Ask a Doctor Anything." I asked questions about amputation for my 2015 NaNoWriMo novel Scion, which I'm trying to finish this year. I can't recall what I did next, but I think it was change into my hakama and keiko gi to get ready for the panel I was part of. Or maybe that's when I went to the one on villains. I'm not going to lie, it felt damned cool to be a panelist. I enjoyed demonstrating some moves and the attendees got a chuckle when I did. They learned size doesn't matter as technique will prevail. I feel like we could have used 2 hours rather than one. One hour to talk and take questions and the other to demonstrate techniques and scenarios. I didn't get to talk much, but as it was my first panel, I'm all right with that. Almost immediately after that, I pitche

The workshop I went to was mediocre. Why? I felt like I was in a science class learning something from a text book. We looked at some individual neat creatures, but didn't relate them to other creatures in the same ecosystem. We learned about ecotones, like estuaries, and cooperative systems, like how the vampire bats will share with bats that don't get blood at feeding time, and then reciprocate. I learned there was some stuff I've naturally done in my alien conspiracy already. Next, I went to the dealers room and put my chap books out. I ate while guarding the table and met people. I got to practice my pitch multiple times. With the dealers room closed at 7, it was off to a villains panel that gave me ideas on my villains for The Page & The Magician. Then it was a Blue Pencil session with Matt Moore where he read some of my work and gave me tips on how to make it better. He also let me know which parts he loved. Some parts need to be axed entirely. After that, a man I

Working away at being ready for Can-Con. I couldn't get the booklets fully ready last night because I don't know enough about formatting. I sent the covers ahead to Staples, but have to fold those myself and bind them once I have the prefolded innards. Here they are: 6/130... Need to fold faster. Done: 1. Hallowe'en costume 2. Booklet writeup 3. Short horror story 4. Printed booklet covers Not Done: 1. Printed booklet innards 2. Pitch practice 3. Chapter for Blue Pencil Café 4. Folded covers 5. Cooking stuff Almost Done: 1. Notes for Sword Panel 2. Clothing selection Too much left and I'm working on dinner while folding covers. Ciao, R~

Ack! Book Cover design is nearly done. I JUST gave my designer the back cover text. Once he adds that and gives me the link, I can bring it to Staples and get some chap books printed to give out. But wait! I have to fix up the first chapter so it can be put into this little book. Before I can do that... Hallowe'en So at Can-Con, there's a Hallowe'en party. I've always loved Hallowe'en, so naturally I have to have a costume for it! I need to step out tonight to hopefully purchase the almost last thing I need. I'm currently dying a skirt to complete the costume. I need to find time to watch the movie, so I can portray the character accurately. If not, I'll just be cute and swear a lot. There's a mask, so no one will know it's me, right? Food While I can grab pho on Friday during the break between the workshop and the actual start of Can-Con, Saturday and Sunday I require food. This is always a challenge for me during things like this with my triple foo

Well I've missed some updates recently. I'm sorry for that, but things have been rather hectic. Health I'm in physio for my neck. I think it's helping put the discs back where they should be. I'm hopeful that there will come a day where I will be pain free. I haven't heard about the other stuff yet. Writing I'm feeling a conflict. The course I'm taking to improve my skills is taking up so much of my time that I'm not getting to work on my actual writing projects. As such, I've decided I won't be going for the certificate. I already have tons of things like that for my wall and don't need more. I'm going to pare down to just what I need to do in the course to improve my skills. I will comment on some of the posts, but 15 per week is too much. I'll continue doing the assignments as they force me to do things I wouldn't naturally do, so I think they're helpful for growth. I also like hearing the feedback from others. I'll

It's been cold in Ottawa for the past few days. There has been rain, and snow. Today, the sun shines its light upon us. Coincidentally, it is the day after Canada has elected a new leader. Despite my election hangover, I am relieved that the dark days are over. At least they appear to be and I'm going to enjoy it until something happens that I need to be on guard for. I've been on guard for far too long. This is part of the problem with my neck, I believe. There was a time that I was with someone who constantly put me on edge. Life was about ensuring their happiness and sacrificing my own. I nearly lost myself. The sight of my purse strap across my body caused upset. I walked on egg shells much of the time. I felt suffocated. I was told that I shouldn't bother writing because I wasn't J.K. Rowling, who I idolize. I felt unsupported in nearly everything I did and unloved. I got out, but those scars take time to heal. How much time is different for each of us. The com

Writing I'm working away at The Blood Waitress Club in-between the coursework for the fiction writing course I'm taking. I'm enjoying the course, but not always the reading of other people's work. It's all first draft content and doesn't always make sense. I'm enjoying the other readings though. I'm taking my homework along with me on my family visit for Thanksgiving this weekend. With The Blood Waitress Club, I'm doing an editing experiment. I'm using The Hero's Journey as a guide to organize the first draft into a story. This is helping reduce the pain of editing so far. I'm unsure if there are other guides like The Hero's Journey out there, but I figure it's worth a try to see if it helps me up my quality and reduce the pain in producing it. Social I've been rather busy of late. Last weekend was the Geek Market. The boyfriend and I had gone through much of the market when we decided to do the scavenger hunt. It was a new ad

I've been a little grumpy today. I had a setback with my food reactions, but I figured it out. For a time, I thought that I was reacting to sugar, but that wasn't it. I had a reaction to raw apple today. Earlier this week I had no issues with cooked apple. What does that mean? Likely that I have trouble with certain proteins from the apple. Why? Because I'm allergic to trees and apples grow on trees. Annoying, but at least I figured it out. I hope. I know that sounds nutty. There's a thing that happens called Oral Allergy Syndrome. People with environmental allergies can become allergic to a part of a food that is similar to something they are already allergic to. That similarity is removed when the food is cooked. Raw isn't always better. I wonder if this is part of why I became sensitive to yeast as I have a penicillin allergy, which relates to mold and fungus. No idea on the dairy and egg sensitivity. I feel like that came from left field except for cheese and yo

I believe we all know someone that peaked in high school. Perhaps a track-and-field star that took up smoking and started “dancing” in a strip club. We’ve also known those who have turned out to be different people than we thought. That pretty dancer with the heroin addiction, for example. Something came to light today about a former football star from my hometown. Back when I was in the school and he was a senior, there were whisperings that he was involved with drugs in a big way. As far as I knew, he was a dealer. That’s not what the police arrested him for. Apparently he’s accused of engaging in sexual activity with girls younger than 16 years old!  The initial report is three, but many more are speaking out. When someone you once shared hallways with turns out to be a monster... well I don’t know what else to say about this. I'm not shocked he's been arrested for something, but I never thought he was *THAT* bad! It wasn't uncommon for kids at my high school to dabble i

Hi there! What have I been up to? Tons of stuff! Writer Stuff A friend and I have started a group to read books by Canadian authors with a special focus on local authors and review them on YouTube. It's harder for Indie authors to get the word out about their books and we're hoping to help make that a little easier. No one has to read every book every month. If someone hates sci-fi, it wouldn't make sense to force them to read a book on it and review it, would it? Want to know more? Comment on this post or send me a message via my contact page . There's also a Facebook group called Ottawa BookTubers . Also check my announcement page for a special announcement. I went to the quarterly reading event ChiSeries on Tuesday night. It was enjoyable as usual. I bought books consisting of the Grigori Legacy series written by Linda Poitevin  and I started collecting the Dead Kid Detective Agency series by Evan Munday . His reading was hilarious! The Blood Waitress Club I've

I'm finding the comic course mostly interesting. The current assignment involves looking at what the communist scares of the early 1950s had to do with comics. The thing is that it's all U.S. based and I'm in Canada. I don't know if Canada was worried about communism in those days. I don't remember covering that in history in high school. I skipped the last assignment entirely. It was asking why Jewish people are prevalent in the comics industry. I took the course to learn about comics, but not really to dissect the history of the industry. The first assignment on character origins was fantastic. Most of the others have disappointed me because they don't align with my goals of knowing more about characters and comic series. I'm just going to start reading comics online. I had an MRI on Friday evening, which I had shown up twelve hours early for in the morning. My neck still hurts from the days I did roller derby, so they're looking at it to see if there&

One of the great things about blogging is that you can use it to keep track of progress on your goals. In doing so, you may inspire others. I hope my posts aren't full of nonsense and blathering. I hope when people read about my journey as a writer and a human that something strikes a chord with them. Maybe they'll be inspired to edit that manuscript that's collecting dust and go on to inspire others. Maybe they'll find the courage to keep fighting their demons. We all have challenges. I had a CT scan on Monday. Boy does iodine feel weird when they inject it. She told me I would feel like I was peeing myself. I decided to use the washroom beforehand to ensure I wouldn't actually pee myself despite her assurance that no one had ever actually done so. The warm feeling was interesting. I felt blanketed in warmth from the inside. It began in my tummy and radiated outward. Weird. I didn't feel like I had to pee or like I had a metal taste in my mouth, just that every

Thankfully it's the long weekend and even Monday isn't Monday. This does mean, however, that Tuesday becomes Monday and remains Tuesday. I haven't made nearly as much progress on cleaning my place this weekend as I was intending to. Is it laziness? The heat? Am I just tired? Maybe a little of all of those things. I have tomorrow too, right? I want to skip cleaning and just write. What do I want to write? I don't know yet. I'm thinking of playing around with The Blood Waitress Club. It's basically first drafted. I even have a cover already for it, though only an eBook and not a paperback one. I think I could get the rest done easily though. The back of the cover could just be black with high contrast text... I don't know about the spine, but I'm sure I'll figure it out. Perhaps a short story would be best first. Like a palette cleanser. I'm going to force myself to do some dishes first though. I have a doctor's appointment I better not forget

Seeing that picture of that tiny boy drowned upon the beach is upsetting. Hearing the Prime Minister use it as a reason to increase war efforts? Disgusting! Is there no one in this world without an agenda? Must everything someone does have an ulterior motive? We're all human beings. Maybe some are kinder, more considerate, and more empathic than others, but we're still human. It's things like this that make me worry for the future of the planet. How can we have voted in a leader so devoid of humanity? Canada has been long known as the country that helps out. We provide aid. We help the bullied fight back. Under his rule, our entire reputation is crumbling along with our oil-based economy. If we're going to make a significant change to our constitution, it should be to allow impeachment. Thankfully, I'm not a public service employee. Thoroughly disgusted, R~

Well, I finished draft two of The Page & The Magician . The day after, I awoke excited and went to finding beta readers. I'm looking for swaps of some sort rather than buying a service. I only want to pay for the final edit and cover design outside of the actual production expense of printed copies and whatever eBook expenses await me. It feels great to have moved on to the next stage! I'm now slowly working on cleaning my place. While I was living in the world of my book, I kind of ignored the real world. Oops. I'm cleaning it at a casual pace and catching up on some movies. I read a friend's new YA story. It's set in Ottawa, Ontario and man is it intense! Check out A Test of Loyalty by Laurie Stewart. The weekend came to a close too early for my liking. I suppose I should work on another project once my cleaning is under control. Maybe the roller derby story as it's already around 50,000 words and just needs a plan. I can outline what I want to do and reo

I'm sorry for not posting on Sunday. I was hungover. You see, Saturday was the annual dojo BBQ. I enjoyed vodka and cutting mats with a sharp sword, also known as Tameshigiri. I did my favorite kata, So Giri . It's number eleven in the Zen Ken Ren set. It's kind of flashy and you can't do it for grading unless you're asked to. There's 5 cuts in it. I did much better than last year. I was annoyed when the sword got stuck in the "body", but my sensei said the depth was decent, so that's cool. I'm trying to tie up all the loose ends in my book. It's going out with a bang. I've stumbled onto some bits where I can't remember what I was thinking. Some kind of lizard creature. Yes, that's about the extent of what I left myself. Hopefully I find a note explaining to myself what that was about. My next homework for the superheroes course is due in September, but I should get it done sooner. It looks like my food sensitivities may be a sy

I've begun taking a course called, " The Rise of Superheroes and Their Impact on Pop Culture ." It's a free course put on by edX and Stan Lee often makes appearances. The first assignment has us taking three of our favourite superheroes and linking them to their mythological roots. As an example the teacher gave, Superman is basically a retelling of the story of Moses. As writers we know every story has been told before and that we need to put our own spin on whatever story we're telling. I'm thoroughly enjoying it. It was hard to choose my heroes as I didn't know many of them and I wanted to do female characters as they are more often overlooked. I spent the weekend watching superhero movies to help me choose. I've chosen Wonder Woman, Rogue, and Storm. After my X-Men marathon, I feel like Magneto is arguably one of the more reasonable villains. He acts in a way that makes sense considering the atrocities he has seen. I'm not saying his behaviour

There's a book I'm reading for work as part of my personal growth requirements. It's Nathaniel Branden's The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem . I find it well-written and it's the foremost work on self-esteem. As one might imagine, my self-esteem wasn't stellar after my divorce. Actually, it was pretty much non-existent. I spent a long time hearing how terrible I was at everything in life and how I shouldn't bother becoming a writer because I couldn't ever be as good as J.K. Rowling. Eventually I realized that was horseshit. I was skilled at managing projects. I could write well enough to convey information to different audiences. I had friends who cared about me despite not seeing them much over a period that lasted about a decade. It didn't help that my natural inclination is to want to help people. I have had to learn that I'm not responsible for the happiness of others. They are. And there's nothing wrong with helping others, so long as you are

I don't have much of a ROW80 update. I seem to be struggling through all of my remaining chapters and have no idea when I will be finished my second draft. I'm not sure why they are harder than the preceding ones were. Perhaps I did my worst writing at the end when I was rushing to meet the NaNoWriMo word count. There is something on my mind though. I thought what I put on my book cover was up to me. There's a movement afoot to have women authors publish under their full names. While I agree with the sentiment that women shouldn't be afraid to publish under their full, real names if they want to, I also believe we should have a choice free from judgment and disrespect. Women fought long and hard for the ability to be taken seriously in the boardroom and today women can become CEOs. This is fantastic! What isn't fantastic is that women who choose to become housewives and mothers today are often made to feel like they are lesser . All of these movements mean nothing i

I've declined the offer of extra employment. On Monday I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I had weird dreams that night involving the organization I'd be working for and Iaido. I was very happy during the Iaido segment. When I awoke, I knew what the right thing was for me. Of course, I didn't base the decision solely on a dream. I had been weighing the pros and cons since it came about. As interesting as it is, I don't believe it's what I need in my life. The largest reason for my decline is its misalignment with my future goals. Like the snake who sheds its skin, I intend to make writing my main job one day and have a part time job of some kind to ensure I can eat. This opportunity would have me taking days off without pay from my full time job, so I likely wouldn't make more money. It is in Gatineau, so I'd have part of my taxes in another province and they'll be more complicated this year already. Also parking would be an issue likely. I'd mor

Just a few. I couldn't make myself edit until today. I know all the Internet memes say keep writing every day no matter what. Instead of working on my novel, for a few days all I could do was journal. At least it was words being written somewhere. I'm still working on Chapter 19. I think I'm at the point where I again have to ask myself what the point of the chapter is. This is how I edit. What am I trying to say in this chapter? Have I accomplished that? Am I way off target? An opportunity is on the table with my day career. I have to decide if I want to take on more. It'll mean a hit to my writing and probably my other activities, but it could be an amazing experience. I have to discuss it with my boss. Perhaps that discussion will help me make the decision. If I don't take it, I'll register for guitar in the fall. I mainly spent the weekend playing Lego Harry Potter Years 1-4 until I beat it and going through paperwork. My place is a mess given my fruitless s

This week could be better. I lost a family member due to depression. I found out about my uncle on Monday evening. My DSLR camera has been misplaced or stolen. It's looking more like the latter. I discovered my missing camera issue yestereen (obsolete word for yesterday evening that I think should be brought back). I didn't know my uncle really well. The circumstances of his death have upset me though. Why isn't there more help for people with depression? We lost Robin Williams, now my uncle, and I bet countless others. How many have to die before they figure out how to stop it? I read an article recently that there is specific gut bacteria involved. How long will it be before the necessary probiotics are available to the general public? I bet they'll be too expensive for most people. I bet they'll also have ridiculous requirements for getting a prescription. Each day it seems brings a new cause in the headlines, the lion getting hunted down, Anonymous seeking venge