I was promised candy

When I was kid, my dad got me a toy that was a medical bag filled with stuff like a stethoscope, and a needle that turned red when you pulled the plunger back, and would “shoot” it into your patient when you depressed the plunger, and eye charts and a hammer to test reflexes, and bottles and bottles of “pills” and “elixers” that were all candy.

I’ma be real honest here, I was the Dr. Feelgood of the kindergarten set. And to be fair, this was encouraged by adults continuously refilling my “pills” with more candy. (I guess after I melted the paint off my dad’s car with my chemistry set, they decided maybe I should be a pill mill instead of a chemist.)

My point being this: I was promised a medical future filled with instant cures and candy-like medicine. There is no reason on goddess’s green earth for prednisone to taste this awful. It’s a tiny little pill, how do they fit that much horrible into a teeny little pill?

Picture of a vintage children's doctor's bag complete with vials, stethoscope, microscope, eye chart, and loads of other goodies.  GenX was the last generation to see a kit like this with candy medicine and pretend needles.

Ken Paxton, Christian Nationalism, and the moral failure of Texas

Ok y’all, speaking of #Texas, I have thoughts about #KenPaxton and the rise of the Christian Nationalists (hereby referred to as: XNats).

Texas does not have a law for changing #gender markers on a driver’s license. The process has been to request a court order for a change, which was then provided to the Texas Department of Public Safety (#DPS).

However, Ken Paxton instructed the DPS to send an internal email instructing staff to no longer change gender markers on #trans people’s driver’s licenses, even if they had a court order or an amended birth certificate.

As well, the DPS is now supposed to annotate the record of anyone requesting a gender change. (They’re making a list, and checking it twice.)

And they want to undo the gender marker corrections trans people have made in the past, stripping every transperson of a valid #ID.

This is real bad, y’all. Real bad.

https://www.texastribune.org/2024/08/21/transgender-texans-drivers-license-DPS

For the first day of #Artober, (like #inktober but with other media), I have used a cake knife, condiment bottles filled with paint, and a chain pull from an old ceiling fan. As you do. I give you: Jellyfish- V1. It’s still too wet to refine, and I may not anyway. I kinda dig it, mistakes and all. Because I mix my pigments with a binder that is white when wet, but dries clear, my dry paintings are always different than when they are wet. I hope this one isn’t too dark.

Cubic Camel

A camel composed of hundreds of stacked cubes. It is standing in front of a stacked cube skyline and dark sky with stars. The camera angle is from slightly below the camel, so the viewer is looking up towards his rather disdainful look. If a camel made of cubes can look disdainful, this one does.

I can’t figure out why alt text isn’t showing in this theme, so here is the alt text:
A camel composed of hundreds of stacked cubes. It is standing in front of a stacked cube skyline and dark sky with stars. The camera angle is from slightly below the camel, so the viewer is looking up towards his rather disdainful look. If a camel made of cubes can look disdainful, this one does.