A Touch of Whiplash

On Wednesday, kaiwoklaw and I participated in a chain reaction collision. The pickup truck in front of us stopped and waited to make a left turn, we stopped behind it, and a lumina sedan stopped behind us. Then a jeep crashed into the lumina, which hit us and pushed us into the truck. Since we sort of got pushed under the back of the truck, the hood of kaiwoklaw's car bent and her headlights were shoved out of position, but the overall frame of the car looks like it's okay. There's some damage to the back where the lumina hit us, too. Not sure how severe the damage is, but it got towed away and some of her friends were kind enough to come rescue us off the side of the street.

I was fine for several hours after the accident, but as more time goes by my neck has gotten really sore. What am I supposed to do for whiplash - heat or cold? Ow.

Oops - Gencon

At OGC, I asked established guest artist Jeff Menges if he had any advice for aspiring artists, and he recommended that I attend Gencon and show my work to people in person. I thought I'd missed this year's Gencon, and thought I might plan to follow that advice next year. Turns out that I'm deeply confused, though, and Gencon is later this month. A bit short notice for me to go galivanting off to it though, I think. Plane tickets, hotel reservations, and con registration itself would all cost more, and it's not like I've got a portfolio ready. It's tempting in some ways to try to throw things together and go this year, but I seriously doubt it.

Farewell to my car, and Gencon question revisited.

I took my car in for some repair work today, and they reviewed what else is wrong with it...and it's not worth doing the work they had planned to do. I might need a new transmission ($1800). I might need a new catalytic converter ($400). I definitely need $600 of ball joints, sensors, and other junk. The car is probably worth less than $2000, though, so it makes more sense to bid farewell to the Engine of Doom and get another car.

This puts new emphasis on the whole Gencon or Not question. Do I not go because it's several hundred dollars that I should save for a car, or do I scramble like a crazy person to assemble a porfolio of doom and head to Gencon because more than ever I need to get going on this Artist as a Career thing, and this is a useful step?

Also, this means I'm once again open to suggestions for a good, reliable car to replace my dying lump of garbage.