Faceless Blog

I’ve been talking about this for a while, but I wanted to post something and make it official, so I actually have a real numbering scheme in place.

Reasons Why it’s Awesome to be a Double Amputee

1. Wet socks no longer bother you at ALL.
2. You’ll never stub your toe again…ever.
3. You don’t have to worry about breaking in new shoes.
4. Cold bathroom floors in the morning never bother you.
5. The Achilles tendon, fabled weak-spot?  You no longer have one.
6. You can wear shorts all year round if you want.
7. You get access to some sweet parking.
8. You’ll always win those “Who has the biggest scar?” contests.
9. Rattlesnakes striking at your legs?  No problem.
10. You can walk through puddles with impunity.
11. Stepping on a nail doesn’t matter nearly as much, rusty or not.
12. Awesome ice breaker at parties.
13. You can change your legs to match your mood/outfit.
14. Hot sand and stingrays can’t ruin your trips to the beach.
15. Don’t have to take your shoes off at the airport.  (I’m waiting to see if this one’s true, once I’m up and walking on my prosthetics.)
16. You never have to trim your toenails.
17. You’ll never have athlete’s foot again.
18. You never have to worry about ingrown toenails.
19. Stinky shoes and/or socks are a thing of the past.
20. Not enough legroom in the car?  Take off your (prosthetic) legs!  (NOTE:  This ONLY applies to the passenger seat.)
21.  

…I’m always adding things to this list, and I know I’m forgetting a lot right now.  If you want to add something, tweet it to me at @Facelesscog!  Seriously folks, there’s two ways to go through life…laughing or screaming.  If you can’t laugh at your problems, someone else will.  :)

Saturday at PAX East started with working the lines some more for the Cookie Brigade!  (I really tried to get as much time in as possible, and I think, by the end, Becca and I really had it down to a science.  Next year, the only thing we can do better is better cookie diversity and scheduling.)  After an hour or so of working the lines, it was time for the Make-A-Strip panel.

As with the Q&A panels, microphones are set up on the left and right side of the theater to allow fans to ask questions of the guys while Mike is drawing the comic.  As always, there was a combination of interesting questions, funny remarks and odd requests.  Like last year, there were a lot of people who were at PAX for the first time and, as always, they got a lot of cheers from the crowd.  Once again, it demonstrated so nicely the community of PAX (the best example of that to come tomorrow).   

I’d also like to take a moment to comment on my phone.  This is the first year that I’ve had a smartphone, and thus the first time I’ve had a smartphone at PAX.  So, having experienced both sides of the debate, I can honestly say that my phone (a Droid X) definitely improved my PAX experience.  Being able to constantly update and check Twitter (to announce where we’d be distributing cookies or keep up with friends) from using one of the PAX East apps available in the Marketplace, it just made all the difference.

Speaking of seeing things from two sides, I also met a girl on Saturday that reminds me of that topic.  (sorry, I don’t remember her name)  Her leg was in a temporary brace/cast, and a guy was pushing her in a wheelchair.  She had a medical badge on, of course.  When I saw this, it immediately occurred to me that, while she got to experience PAX this year behind the medical badge, next year would be entirely different.  After being able to get into every panel first, and being let on to the vendor floor an hour early, she’ll be stuck with the rest of PAX, waiting in some pretty intense lines.  Honestly, that medical badge is one of the few perks of the whole “no leg” thing.

In the afternoon, we went to the Females on Female Characters panel, partially because Becca wanted to see it and partially because Kathleen from Loading Ready Run was going to be on the panel.  It turned out to be a very intelligent and entirely too short discussion on the state of female characters across all the game genres, as well as the kind of female character that’s really needed right now.  All in all, we really enjoyed the panel and I was glad to be able to shake Kathleen’s hand afterwards.  Lisa Foiles, who was supposed to be on the panel, was strangely absent.  It’s a shame, I was hoping to meet her.

We finally got to have a real, sit-down dinner with a pretty big table of friends at the weird little lobby-restaurant in the Westin.  As always, I got to have some wonderful conversation with my friends, as well as laughing until I hurt.  What I didn’t count on was a surprise sneak attack.  It was my own fault, really.  Since I’ve gone through chemo, I’ve tried to limit my red meat intake.  It just doesn’t agree with me that much any more.  Well, I must have been feeling overconfident, or I got swept up in the PAX experience or something…because I ordered the TNT Burger.  It was a big, thick, red-meat burger with buffalo sauce and blue cheese.  Although mine seemed to come without the blue cheese (and we had no time to send it back and wait for a new one), what it did contain was a GIANT BEEF PATTY.  So…while it tasted great, (really, it did) it ultimately wrecked me.  More on that later.

After dinner, it was finally time for the Loading Ready Run panel.  I was anxiously waiting to see which LRR crew members had made the trip from the Moonbase (their headquarters, near Vancouver, Canada) this year.  Last year, for the first PAX East, nearly all of them had made the trip.  This year, money must have been a bigger issue.  We got to the panel to find out that Graham, Kathleen and Paul were the only ones who had been able to make the trip.  Fortunately, even these three are funny enough that it was still an excellent panel…or, it would have been an excellent panel, if my stomach hadn’t chosen this moment to start doing back-flips.  After several trips to the restroom, I made the call that I was done, and had to return to the room for the night.  

Sadly, that was how my Saturday night ended.  I took some stomach medicine and feel asleep on my side on the bed.  Oh well, at least it was the right bed.  So, I entirely missed the Loading Ready Run screening, complete with live commentary from the three present LRRites, which I was really looking forward to…but there’s always next year.  Steph (who was sharing our room) and Andrew also went to a nearby concert that night and had themselves a wonderful time…but if you want to read about that, read their blogs!  :)

Friday started out with the first Cookie Brigade meeting in the lobby of the Westin.  The Cookie Brigade, for those who don’t know, is a volunteer group that raises money for Child’s Play.  We bake and distribute cookies for free to people at PAX, then take a (strictly optional) donation to Child’s Play.  This year…spoiler…we raised $9,600.  Aside from just being generally amazing, this total also blew away last year’s total and even beat the total amount gathered at last year’s PAX Prime!  (where the Cookie Brigade was born)  After dropping off the Cookie Brigade flag that Becca and her mom made with VT, I picked up some supplies for the day, double checked my cookies and headed off to the convention center to start working some of the lines.  I got over to the convention center and, not being very familiar with it yet, actually ended up working the line for the Penny Arcade Merch booth.  Recognition of the Brigade was much higher this year, I’m sure partly due to the several shout-outs we received throughout the year, especially from the awesome folks at Loading Ready Run.  I was only able to work the line for an hour or so before I had to meet up with Becca and get to the Main theater for the Keynote address, but by the time I booked it up to the third floor, I had already raised over a hundred dollars, so that was a nice start.

I won’t spend too much time speaking about Jane McGonigal’s Keynote address, other than to say that it was incredible.  I’m sure that if it’s not already available on Youtube, then it will be shortly.  As soon as it is, I recommend that you watch it.  Her main theme, which was how games can be used to genuinely improve our lives, struck very close to home for Becca and I.  She went through a pretty serious head injury a few years ago, and to ease the mental trauma of her recovery, she made a game out of it.  Seriously, as soon as you can watch it, do it.  At one point, it even made the members of Team 9 all smile to ourselves simultaneously and text each other with comments of support.  (Since Becca and I had the medical badges and Steph and Andrew didn’t, we were in different parts of the theater.)  The Keynote also kicked off the three great conspiracies of PAX East.  

1. Make sure Becca cries at least once every day of PAX.
2. Make sure Jeff and Becca eat very poorly for the duration of PAX.
3. Make sure Jeff and Becca get not nearly enough sleep.

Becca got her tears out of the way early on Friday, crying a bit (several times) during the Keynote.  It was definitely a trend that would continue.

We stayed in the main theater after the Keynote for the first PA Q&A which was, as always, hysterical.  I have to say, I admire Mike and Jerry during these Q&A’s for being as patient as they are with some of their fans.  While most of the people that get to the microphones have legitimate questions or requests (sign this, sing a song, etc), there are some…shall we say…less mature fans.  Whether they’re actual kids or they just have a similar mentality, they feel the need to blast out some vulgar joke or request.  Mike and Jerry, to their credit, handle it all in stride, calmly brushing it off.  I tip my hat to you, gentlemen.  (and it’s a nice hat, too!)

Aaron C, who I’m pretty sure is the leader of the Special Forces branch of the Enforcers, informed us after the Q&A that if we were planning on attending the Blamimations Alive panel, we could just hang out here, as it had been moved to the main theater.  Aaron was just one of the many Enforcers who were just awesome throughout the whole event.  Scott and Kris, not surprisingly, arrived a little early for their panel.  Scott must have just bought a copy of Pokemon Black (or white, I’m not sure), and he openly invited anyone that wanted to trade Pokemon to come up to the stage and trade.  A line immediately formed, and didn’t completely dissipate until moments before the panel was to begin.  Kris did a good job of looking frustrated and left out, not being into Pokemon and having no one on his side of the stage.  Graham, of Loading Ready Run, was in the audience and must have felt bad for Kris.  He walked up on to his side of the stage, waited for him to turn around, then calmly talked to him for a minute or so, reassuring him, I can only believe.  After that, Kris leaned down to his mic and suggested that if anyone had any real stuff they’d like to give him rather than the…and I’m quoting here…”fake bullshit.”  Amusingly, a line started up on Kris’ side as well.  If you watch the videos of the panel (that feature the lines before it started, you can actually see Becca in line delivering Kris some cookies!)  Once both lines were dealt with, and the proper time rolled around, the panel actually started.  Scott and Kris were a little hesitant at first.  You can tell that, down inside, they’re still a bit insecure, and not sure whether or not they’ll meet everyone’s expectations.  As it turns out, there was ABSOLUTELY no need for that concern.  Their panel was possibly the funniest hour of PAX, absolute genius, through and through.  As I mentioned, the panel is already up on Youtube, I recommend that you go watch it, though I’m sure it won’t compare to the actual experience of being there.

The last panel that we ended up seeing on Friday was called “Gamers Doing Good,” and it was all about how gamers are combining their love of gaming and their desire to do charity work.  With our involvement in the Cookie Brigade, not to mention future plans to raise even more money for Child’s Play, we were very interested.  This one was slightly disappointing.  I think I was just expecting something different.  While I went in hoping for instructions on how to set up your own charity event, or tips and tricks on such a thing, this panel primarily just discussed charitable events that the two groups running the panel had already run.  It was useful, if only to get their contact info, but just not what I was expecting.

By the time we got out of that panel, it was 6:30 and we hadn’t had anything to eat since some pastries in the morning.  We met up with some friends for a quick dinner, then went back over to the convention hall to hit the lines again.  Cookie Brigade duty never stops!  Becca and I have a very effective distribution of duties for our Cookie Brigade work.  She is an incredible baker.  As many people can attest, she is a baking machine.  Not only can she crank out impressive numbers of cookies, she’ll show up with some pretty bizarre, yet strangely delicious recipes.  This year, unfortunately, we didn’t have quite as large a variety as last year, but we had more than enough cookies, and they were all damned tasty.  My job, on the other hand, is to be like the old time carnival barker.  As we walk up and down the line, I call out “Free cookie from the Cookie Brigade!  Chocolate Chip, Toffee Chip, all benefiting Child’s Play!” or something similar.  I’ve got it down to a science now.  I can spot the faces that look interested or curious, then target and convince them.  Once one person gets some cookies, the others around them begin to see that it’s for real, and two or three more people say that they’d like some.  Usually, we’d get one person in each bunch that didn’t even want any cookies, they just wanted to give some money to Child’s Play.  For them, we’d have one of the little buttons that VT had made, looking like an 8-bit cookie with a number eleven on it for PAX East 2011.  

When we had finally burned through our supply of cookies for the evening, we retired to our room at the Westin and invited our friends Stephen and his wife Tina over to the room to hang out, talk, laugh and generally experience the community high that is PAX.  We must have been up until 1:30 or 2:00 in the morning, laughing with friends that we don’t see nearly often enough.  As with every PAX, we agreed that we shouldn’t allow ourselves to only meet once a year, and I think that this year is the one when we’ll hold one (or more) “Mini-PAX’s,” either here or abroad, where we can laugh, chat and have fun with our extended PAX family.  

Tomorrow should be an interesting day, with the Make-a-Strip panel and the Loading Ready Run extended Panel-o-rama!  Hope this is coming across as somewhat coherent.  There’s just a lot of data to share, here.  :)

Though PAX doesn’t officially start until Friday, there are some people who prefer to show up on Thursday.  Becca and I are, as you’d guess, among those people.  I always prefer to get my medical badge early, and this time, Becca had something to drop off with the Enforcers.

We found that the BCEC was much easier to get to than the convention center from last year.  Our driving instructions had us on main roads for the majority of the trip, with only a couple quick turns at the end to get us to the Westin.  Unfortunately, just as we started the last portion of our trip, where we’d have to pay closer attention to the turns, my buddy Andrew called.  This year, our first year with both Becca and I having Droid X’s, we were using the phone’s Navigation rather than the old GPS.  This was the first time I saw a problem with this idea, since I had to hit Ignore on Drew’s call in order to keep up with our turns.  As it turned out, he was calling to let us know that he was waiting for us at the hotel, which we found out moments later as we pulled into the valet parking area and found Drew waiting just outside the passenger door, waving happily.

PAX, from the outsider’s perspective, is about video games.  It’s easy to think that.  Games are everywhere, gaming references abound, you’ll frequently see people dressed as video game characters.  To say that PAX is about video games; however, is only partially true.  Just as much as it’s about gaming, if not more, PAX is about community.  I was reminded of that when we pulled in to the hotel lot and saw my good friend waiting for us there.  

As soon as we got the van unloaded, Becca went to check us in while Drew and I started to catch up.  The hotel was nice enough to store our luggage while our room was being prepared.  (We’d have to wait a few hours which, after talking to other guests of the hotel, ended up being pretty reasonable.)  This was just fine with us, as we had things to do anyways.  Becca grabbed the cooler with the Gobs (aka Whoopie Pies, Moon Pies, etc) and we headed over to the convention center.  As soon as we entered the building, it was obvious that the BCEC is much bigger than the convention center we used last year.  We had been hearing about it all year, but it really was a striking difference.  We headed over to the registration area and were immediately helped by the Enforcers, who happily and quickly provided my wife and I with medical badges.  (I’m a double amputee, and I get one extra badge for my wife.)  Just a quick note:  If you have any reason to need one, I highly recommend you take advantage of the medical badge.  It allows you (and your “plus one”) to be let in first to any panel, have front row seating at the concerts, and be let in an hour early to the show floor when it opens.  At PAX, I have friends who are paraplegic, quadriplegic, have nerve problems in their legs, etc.  The common thread is that we all deeply appreciate the medical badges.  It makes things much easier for us without making you feel singled out, or any less of a person.

After we retrieved our medical badges, we hopped over to the Info desk, where a lot of Enforcers were busy checking in and getting their initial assignments.  I wheeled up to the desk and announced our presence as Ambassadors of the Cookie Brigade.  Becca, wanting to show our appreciation for everything the Enforcers do, had baked close to 200 gobs to deliver to the Enforcers at PAX East this year.  They were thrilled when she opened the cooler and placed a box of gobs on the counter of the info desk.  They were surprised when she placed the second box there.  By the time she got to the fourth box, they had already called for some assistance to take the gobs to a secret location.  Throughout the weekend, we would then continue to run into Enforcers who would thank us for the Gobs.  (It seems that while not everyone got one, a lot of Enforcers did.)  

I also had one of the best things, and worst things of my weekend on Thursday.  On the bright side, we finally got to meet Steph in person, after becoming fast friends via Twitter.  The down side?  Due to the blister that I developed towards the end of in patient physical therapy, I wasn’t able to stand up to give her the hug that she deserves.  After talking, laughing and lots of hugs in our room for a while, we eventually made it downstairs for a nice, if overpriced dinner at one of the hotel restaurants.  We also got to really spend some time with Drew’s friend Adam.  We had met briefly last year, but hadn’t spent a lot of time together.  I’m glad we got the chance, this year, he’s a really funny guy.

After dinner, we retired to the room where we continued to catch up, laugh with each other and enjoy some of Becca’s delicious jello shots.  (The best ones were the Strawberry flavored with Strawberry rum in the shape of two bite sized brains.)  This is the one time a year that I drink, and considering that I’m also taking prescription painkillers, I barely drink, even then…but those jello shots are damned good.  

That about wraps up Thursday.  Tomorrow, we’ll get in to actual PAX related content, I promise.  I apologize for the wordiness, but what can I say?  It was a busy weekend.

This past weekend was the amazingly cool and gigantic gaming convention known as PAX. For those of you who aren’t familiar, PAX stands for Penny Arcade eXpo. Gabe and Tycho, the creators of the webcomic Penny Arcade, decided a while back that there just wasn’t the kind of gaming convention that they wanted. The closest was E3 which, while cool, catered to the big companies rather than the actual players of games. So, they just decided to start their own! (The complete story is a bit more involved, but very interesting.) Just last year, the decision was made to make PAX a twice a year event, rather than just once, with the second PAX being held in Boston. PAX East was the result, and it’s quickly growing to be even bigger than PAX Prime!

Troughout my in patient PT, getting to PAX was one of the driving motivations. I hoped that I’d be able to be up on my feet, but really, getting there was the most important part. Last weekend, Becca and I made our road trip to Boston and realized the first of my post-PT goals. Our weekend was incredibly busy. I had originally intended to post to the blog every night, keeping everyone updated on everything we were doing. That plan failed completely, but in a good way. We were simply swamped with awesome activities, hanging out with friends (old and new), and attending panels that far surpassed my expectations. So, over the next few posts, I’m going to try to recap my PAX experience to you. Will I be able to properly explain just how awesome everything was? Probably not, but it’ll be fun to try!

Ok, the official title of this should be “The Year of Doing Stuff I’ve Always Wanted to Do.”  This year is a big year.  Really, I can’t even stress how big.  This year will mark the first year where I will have nothing new wrong with me.  Every day since January 16th, 2008, I have been fighting.  Some days, I fought for my life.  Some days, I fought for my legs.  Even on lesser days, I constantly fought infections, muscle fatigue,  pressure wounds, etc.  This year; however, once I heal up these final two wounds, will mark the beginning…well…the beginning of a new beginning.  I will finally be able to get back to living, rather than fighting.

As a part of this, I am celebrating by picking out some things I’ve always wanted to do, and do them.  If you’ve been following my blog, you’ve already seen my kick-butt new shoes.  These were the first example of my celebration.  For years, I was always the guy who, when his shoes wore out, would go to the mall and buy the exact same make and model, every time; same color, same everything.  So, when it came time to buy the new shoes to go with my new legs, I went completely outside of the box!  I designed, from scratch, my sneaks on the Converse web site.

Tomorrow, I head off to Cranberry for the second “Thing I’ve Always Wanted to Do.”  Becca and I will be heading down to her Aunt Sue’s hair salon and, in addition to a much needed haircut, I will be having my hair dyed…blue.  I am seriously excited about it.  Why blue?  Honestly, I have no idea, other than it’s a color I like.  I’ve always wanted to try a wild hair color, and tomorrow I will.  There’s a tremendous excitement to identifying something you’ve always wanted to do and simply doing it!

What’s next?  Well, ever since this whole nightmare started, I’ve wanted to get a tattoo to commemorate the battle.  In fact, the very first dream that I had, after my surgery back on 1/16/08, was of me getting several tattoos.   Most likely, it will end up being some form of “Progredi Semper” done around my biceps, possibly with some sort of decoration to go with it.  

At some point, I’ll probably end up making of a list of these things that I’ve always wanted to do…but for now, I’m just enjoying the ones that I’m already doing!  Really, I encourage anyone reading this to pick some time to do something similar.  Maybe not a whole year and maybe not everything you’ve ever wanted to do (I certainly won’t be doing everything I ever wanted to do!), but pick a few!  Later folks, I’ll post some pictures after the procedure tomorrow.  :)

Wow, sorry about that, everyone.  I got home and managed to fall off the face of the Earth, completely!  Let me catch you up on what’s going on with everything.

Just before I got sent home from PT, I developed a blister on the bottom of my left leg.  It opened a few days before I left, and by the time I got home, it had developed into a layer of escar, which is kind of like a hard scab over an existing wound.  I also still have the wound vac on the wound on my butt.  Well, when I went to wound care (at AGH) to have them check out the wound vac, they also looked at the wound on the bottom of my left leg, and concluded that they didn’t want me walking for now.  They’ve since removed the escar layer, allowing it to begin healing up normally.  It should probably be a couple of weeks before I’m allowed to be on my feet.  This means that the beginning of my out-patient PT has been delayed and, sadly, I won’t be able to get up on my feet at PAX.  Really though, it’s ok.  Things are healing up well, and that’s the most important part.

So, I’ve been doing a lot of reading on my new Nook (the Color version), a lot of movie watching on the Netflix Instant Queue and, starting today, I’m conditioning myself for PAX.  Yeah, I know I can’t walk at PAX, but I really need to be able to wear my legs for a decent amount of time at a stretch.  For one, and this is the most selfish reason, there are people there to whom I really want to show off my legs.  Second, and this is the more practical while slightly embarassing reason, is that I need my legs to be able to transfer on to a commode…which is something I plan on doing at least once while I’m there.  

So, while my wife is busy making some epic looking cookies for the Cookie Brigade, I’m getting ready in my own way, and we’ll be on our way to PAX soon!  Personally, I can’t wait.

While there remains a lot of work to be done yet in out-patient PT, not to mention exercising at home and the gym, my time at in-patient PT has come to an end.  I’m home!

I apologize for not updating for the past few days, but my schedule, which was hectic to begin with, became even more jam-packed with things to do to get ready to go home.  When today rolled around, the actual process of going home was pretty anti-climactic.  I was given some paperwork that explained my medications, signed on the x, then I was pretty much free to go.  Of course, I took advantage of one more free meal from the hospital, but then I said my goodbyes and we headed out to the truck.

As expected, there were no problems getting in to the truck.  With a little grunting and groaning, I got my legs up in there as well.  After twenty minutes or so of riding with my legs bent, the end of my left leg was starting to get pretty sore.  I tried to ride it out, but it eventually occurred to me that I have an advantage in cases like this…and simply took off the left leg.  I knew that I wouldn’t be able to put it back on while still in the truck, but I wouldn’t have to, either.  When we finally arrived back home, I opened my door and, while Becca was unloading the wheelchair, put the left leg back on.

Since then, I’ve been getting settled back in downstairs, greatly enjoying the new hardwood floors.  (Man, I can build up quite a bit of speed on this floor!)  I’m going to be getting back into the swing of things over the next week or so.  I’ll be heading back to the gym soon and starting up out-patient PT, too!  This blog will continue throughout the process of me getting back up on my feet, and I can’t wait to move on to the next step of this process with you all!

The countdown to my discharge date is well and truly on the way!  

Things started off pretty routinely today, at first.  I performed a skin check along with Nate and Jen (my physical therapists), then I put my prosthetics on and got ready to walk.  Today; however, we started with the crutch canes rather than the walker.  I got in a couple nice walks, about double the distance that I’ve walked with the crutch canes before.  I even managed to get a pretty smooth gait going for a little bit, though it didn’t last.  (My main goals, when walking with the crutch canes, are 1) Don’t fall.  2) Don’t constantly repeat “Crutch, opposite foot; crutch, opposite foot” over and over.  3) Seriously, don’t fall down.  I’m pleased to say that each goal is advancing nicely!

After the morning PT, I went through the normal routine, which basically consists of taking the legs off then performing a skin check on both sides.  This is done to make sure that no blisters, pressure sores, etc are forming.  Of course, sometimes, you actually find something!  Today, a blister showed up on the bottom of my left leg.  It looks worse than it really is.  Bjorn stopped by later in the morning to make some more adjustments to the left leg.  While he was here, we had him look at the blister.  He agreed that it’s not too big a deal, just keep an eye on it.  Unfortunately, the adjustments that the leg needed exceeded the capabilities of the tools Bjorn had with him, so he had to take the leg with him.  He should be returning it tomorrow, hopefully a perfect fit and with all problems solved.

Oh, I almost forgot!  When I was practicing with the crutch canes, for the very first time…I stood unassisted!  I figured out that I need to space the ends of them further apart, and place the tips more behind me.  This allowed me to use them to push my center of gravity over my feet, then my legs do the rest.

All in all, this day went very well, and the week’k only going to improve from here!