January 10, 2009

Slight Setback Snowballing Into Suck, Subverted Swiftly

Feeling much better now. Still painful to do art because of the position it puts my body in, but I'm getting as much inking done as I can in little bursts, and trying to adjust my posture when I work on the computer.

I have these AWESOMETASTIC shoe inserts that were custom-molded from my very own foots. I've been breaking them in and enjoying the strange sensation of arch support. My podiatrist assures me that proper support will stop my toes from going numb when I jog or walk very fast. That's fantastic, because the pain distracts me from hitting my Zone, and frustration leaves me less willing to move my big fat ass, leading to depression and even further reduction of energy.

My schedule flipped again, for the first time in months. At the same time, my desire to get exercise, do housework and get my comic done utterly tanked. I've been flipping it back for the past four days or so, and everything's been kind of smeary and bright through a film of exhaustion. I couldn't sleep more than four hours at a time, and four hours after waking up I'd be drowsy and stupid again. My interest in cooking was reduced and I'd find myself standing in the kitchen in the middle of a blood sugar crash, staring helplessly at the ingredients and wondering exactly how I keep myself alive when nothing in there looks like food. So I'd eat sugary stuff that was ready-made, and then wonder why I felt like shit a few hours later, and eat more sugary stuff that was ready-made to drive away the headaches. It was a way to live, I guess.

Last night I put off sleep til 5. I spent the time playing 1500 Rupees worth of 5-Rupee Rollgoal on Twilight Princess. Then I slept, praying I could make it a full 8 hours. I had restful sleep until 1:30 this morning, and woke up feeling sparkly and alive again, with the urge to go for a night walk under the full moon blazing in my head. This after over a week of complete torpor and timeless confusion.

I had a big breakfast (1/3 of a frozen pizza instead of something home-cooked, but baby steps, you know?) and took my meds to bring on competent ADHD focus. I've been inking and answering emails since then and feeling generally energized.

The fact that this has only happened once since the onset of medication makes me feel very hopeful. Backsliding is to be expected, and compared to my previous situation of constant pendulum-swinging insanity, the setback I am getting over now wasn't such of a much anyway.

I'm reading tons of audiobooks while I go about my day. I made it through Christine, Gerald's Game and most of Insomnia just while playing Zelda. I think I spent 200 hours on that fucking game during my wacky spell, but I beat it the other day. I even whooped the Cave of Ordeals' ass! Hint: Stand on the ledge and drop bombs on the unseen cluster of Darknuts below, two or three at a time. Armor will shoot across the room on a regular basis, and after about 60 bombs, you should have at least two of them throwing away their heavy gear and going ninja. You'll still need to dodge their weapons from up there, but it levels the field nicely and is pretty fucking hilarious.

I found all 60 poe souls. There were 2 left and I was going insane, printing out all the location guides and crossing the completed ones off one by one until I was down to a list of 14 or so that I couldn't remember getting, but every single one of them was a wash. After three long and miserable days of this (during which I DREAMED about the little fuckers) I finally noticed that one of the areas marked as "already cleared" mentioned a hidden grotto between some trees and two poes inside. The tree configuration didn't sound familiar, and sure enough there they were. It was close to another dig spot and I guess I just conflated the two. WOWFASCINATINGLUKA.

Four great things about Twilight Princess:

1. Midna is the most adorable thing on the entire planet. I've been doodling little Midnas all day. I love her little fang, the pot-belly and shrunken legs. And her hair-hand. Holy crap, the hair-hand. She reminds me a lot of my early sketches of Cho, who was more feral and about the same size as Midna. Eventually Cho became much more humanoid-looking, but the personalities are still similar.

2. Link is a genuinely awesome hero. I actually bought the "farm boy hero" archetype for the first time playing this game. Something about how humble and determined he is, coupled with a certain lack of angst and spiky hair.

3. Twilight Princess managed to creep me out way more than Silent Hill ever did. Three words: NOT TAKE MIRROR!!!!!!

4. My ultimate OTP is now Yeto and Yeta. Even though they discuss eating Link right in front of him if he's in wolf form, and even though Yeta kicked my ass 9 times out of 10 at snowboarding, I forgive them. Because yeti wuv. Yeti wuv.

That's about it for now. I've got a bunch of comic to do and a dog who desperately needs exercise after my several-day hiatus from the real world. Better go get to it!

5 comments:

  1. Where was that area that you cleared? Because Goddammit I am missing ONE FREAKING POE and I can't find it anywhere! I went through those lists a million times too and I cannot find it! So maybe I did the opposite of you.

    Corenna

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  2. See? Bombs. Although, I tend to jump down there and hurl them, but I am certainly compelled to just drop them on them now. Hell yeah. I want to see Midna doodles!

    And yeti wuv! The hearts they spout kill me every time. Plus the music for the battle with Blizetta is so good. And the music for the beast Ganon fight. Agghh, now I have to play it over again. Followed by Wind Waker.

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  3. Corenna: It probably wouldn't have been the same area I missed, then :( That one had two of them attacking at once, so you can't miss one by accident. My suggestion is to go to every single-poe location on the list, one by one, including the ones that you're sure you got already. It's boring as hell but sometimes you just MUST HAS ITAM GORRAM IT.

    Oritzer: I enjoy dropping them off the ledge way more than running away in terror. The yelps and occasional peek of flailing arms make me cackle like nobody's business.

    Taking on the sword-wielding critters with dredlocks (moblins?) is also pretty easy using bombs. They hear the explosion and come RUNNING OVER to see what's going on, every damn time.

    My Link is the Evil Midnight Bomber What Bombs at Midnight, apparently.

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  4. Yeah, moblins, I think. I like stealing arrows from the archers.

    And, yeah, well, your Link is a badass. :D

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  5. Happens to the best of them... I'd assume anyway.

    I dunno exactly which Zelda game you're playing, but Ocarina of Time kicks an inordinate amount of ass. Such a good game.

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