Monday, August 23, 2010

How we listen to music / Welcome back, Helm!


Hi. I'm back from vacation. I had a nice time, though ridden by minor injuries.
I wrote something for Illogical Contraption before I went off my merry vacations, I'm glad to see it's online. You can go read it over there.

It has to do about how we listen to music. I like this picture Shelby put on it so I'm using it here as well. This must be one of the few times in the last three years that I've used header art on the blog that isn't mine.

More news below the jump.
1. Somewhat ironically, due to swimming I got a clogged ear a week ago. I woke up and decided to poke at it with a q-tip (more like fifty of them) and made things worse. Drastically worse. You know that feeling where you're messing with something and you're only making it worse, the mounting panic? I apparently pushed in wax and compacted it so the ear was completely closed. I was deaf from the left side. Furthermore I felt *massive pressure* inside my brain. I don't want any of you readers to ever have that experience, it was pretty awful. I couldn't get used to it, either. And it really gets old to ask "say what??" every time someone speaks too. Helm learned a life lesson: living with even minor disabilities sucks. Cherish your eyes and ears and arms and legs, guys.

So we go to the doctor to unclog my ear. You don't want to see what comes out of your ears. The doctors that deal with the icky stuff are weird, I mean, why? Like orthodontists and ear, nose and throat doctors are the worst. Wait, no, proctologists. Anyway, now I'm fine. In fact, I'm better than ever, upgraded my firmware. I can hear frequencies I had apparently forgotten existed. Lots of high-end that makes everything - especially the Heavy Metal music of death I so enjoy - have extra bite. If you like listening to music then, I now append the top list with another item:

Clean your ears

Haha, yes I know that sounds just like a dad would say to their son when he heard the noise he calls music. "But dad, I want to clean my ears to enjoy the noise even more!"

The other injury was bumping into rocks-trapped-in-concrete (sloppy masonry, I hate you!) on my very first outing in the sea with my girlfriend. I took a slice off of my left big toe almost clean off, only it held on by a little bit of skin. I tried to basically duct-tape it together with the rest of the toe and pray it mends but it got all pus-ridden instead. Strangely it didn't hurt much, I guess toes are resilient, I even swam with it. Really icky sensation to try to swim with the legs and feel a bit of toe flapping against the currents! A few days after the skin underneath grew back and I snipped off the extra toe with clippers. Fun times!

But on the upside, I had a long vacation (can you tell?) that I really needed. I'm full of ideas for art and music and words, words, oh god so many words. You'll see, soon.

So how were your vacations, humans?

4 comments:

Shelby Cobras said...

I leave for Hawaii in 6 days (!). Glad you got a break, even though it sounds like you spent your time inducing heinous injuries. Alas, this seems to be par for the course... When Metalheads Go On Vacation!

Helm said...

It's like National Lampoon's Vacation! Enjoy Hawaii!

Nekromantis said...

Unfortunately vacation doesn't feel like vacation when you're always on vacation. :( So I haven't done much more fun wise than reading, meeting some friends once or twice a week and listening to music this summer. I've had a good time though so I'm not complaining.

Helm said...

Hah that's usually how I feel about Summers too Nekromantis. "What's the big deal, it's not like I do much different than usual". But this time, after the ZX comic and after some personal stuff, lots of mounting tension. I really needed to leave Athens, more or less. And now that I'm back, I'm getting these chest pains again, at various places, it's pretty clear to me now they're due to anxiety. I'll have to solve the issues that contribute to my anxiety and not run away from them, it seems.