Summer School

Scott McCloud is teaching a week-long seminar on the creation of comics at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in August. If it wasn’t for the whole can’t-draw-a-straight-line-or-any-line-for-that-matter thing, I might consider taking off work and signing up for the class. At least I’d be able to get someone to look at the script I wrote last fall. Maybe even get someone to illustrate it for me. Oh well. Maybe someday I’ll fly to England and show up on Warren Ellis’s doorstep and threaten to turn off my ventilator unless he reads it. He’d probably just fold his arms, shrug, and mutter something like “makes no fucking difference to me,” but it might be worth a try.
A friend of mine from work is out this week with pneumonia. Probably the same thing I had. She also has SMA and this is her second bout of pneumonia this year. I actually think that being on a ventilator has kept me healthier over the years. Before I was vented, I had pretty crappy lung capacity and a goldfish probably had a stronger cough than I did. Now, with the extra help of the vent and the occasional suctioning of my trachea, it’s a relatively easy matter of keeping my chest clear. When a lot of people hear “mechanical ventilation”, their reactions usually aren’t positive. I wasn’t too thrilled about it either at first, but hey, it beats the alternative.