Saturday News

Contents of This Week: Saturday News ▶︎ February 27th / 2016

• Definition: Webcomics

Webcomics (also known as online comics or Internet comics) are comics published on a website. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers or in books. Webcomics can be compared to self-published print comics in that almost anyone can create their own webcomic and publish it. Readership levels vary widely; many are read only by the creator's immediate friends and family, while some of the largest claim audiences well over one million readers. Webcomics range from traditional comic strips and graphic novels to avant garde comics, and cover many genres, styles and subjects. Only a select few are financially successful. A longer definition comes from Wikipedia. 

• Video: Webcomics
• Author(s)
• Webcomic Tips with Scott Johnson of ExtraLife
• HOW TO Start a Webcomic! -The Comic Paige
• You Should Make a Webcomic
• XKCD: Time
• Randall Munroe (XKCD): Comics That ask "What If?"
• Comics, Authors, Make It and Other Stuff
• Every Major's Terrible XKCD Sing-a-Long
• R. Stevens, Diesel Sweeties - XOXO Festival (2012)
• How To Go To Space (with XKCD!)
• Making A Softer World
• Sludgy Freelance
• No Girls Allowed
• Interview - The Book of Biff

• Headline Blog: Webcomics
• [XKCD] Comic Compilation #101 - 150
• Sweet Peas

• Weekly Columnists
• Musing: Medical Research - Stroke Rehab/Research Version
• Sunday Stroke Survival: Statements That Make Me Angry
• Caregiver: Visitors
• Jester: Pass the Pepper Please
• TED Talks - Scott McCloud: The Visual Magic of Comics

• Eclectic Stuff on Wednesday
• Disability Etiquette: Not Us. This Is For You, "Normals"!
• Off the Road
• Enriched Environments Help Recovery After Stroke
• Food for Thought
• Everything's Changing
• Nails Do Not Stop Growing After a Stroke
• Stupid Question: But Isn’t There Enough Green to go Around?
• Will a Stroke Patient Need a Mortgage Next?
• Apple vs the FBI - Who Wins?
• Rick Mercer Report: Beach Volleyball & Face to Face
• Laid-Back Admin: No Post This Week
• XKCD: Degrees

• Future Topics in SSTattler

     Saturday News | Future Topic
     --------------+---------------------------------------------

     Mar/26/2016   | Environmental Enrichment (Neural)
     Mar/19/2016   | Anomic Aphasia
     Mar/12/2016   | Speech Repetition
     Mar/05/2016   | Accessible Housing

Definition: Webcomics

Webcomic From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

SSTattler: Today and in the future, the topic is online: Comics a.k.a. Webcomics !!

See as well:

• Comics From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• Underground Comix From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• Alternative Comics From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Many webcomics like Diesel Sweeties
use non-traditional art styles.

Webcomics (also known as online comics or Internet comics) are comics published on a website. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers or in books.

Webcomics can be compared to self-published print comics in that almost anyone can create their own webcomic and publish it. Readership levels vary widely; many are read only by the creator's immediate friends and family, while some of the largest claim audiences well over one million readers. Webcomics range from traditional comic strips and graphic novels to avant garde comics, and cover many genres, styles and subjects. Only a select few are financially successful.

Medium

Video: Webcomics

Contents: 

• Author(s)
• Comics, Authors, Make It and Other Stuff

1. Author(s)

Webcomic Tips with Scott Johnson of ExtraLife

Uploaded on Apr 1, 2008

Following up from our interview with Stan Lee, the godfather of comics, we spoke to Scott Johnson of ExtraLife, a popular webcomic. Scott talks with Veronica about how to start, write, and publish a webcomic, and drops some useful tips that we're sure you'll find interesting.

Standard YouTube License @ mahalodotcom

Headline Blog: Webcomics

Definition: Blog (noun). Add new material to or regularly update to a blog. (≃1990s: blog shortening of weblog)

[XKCD] Comic Compilation #101 - 150

DarkSkeleton

Published on Oct 29, 2014

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Standard YouTube License @ Darkskeleton

Sweet Peas

Diana Smith
In Sync With The Universe

July 21, 2015

My snack, third and most productive gathering. I am not sure if they are dying off, time will tell.

I will make my goal of not going to the store or anywhere except to the post office until Wednesday. Tomorrow I will need to buy Ash food and I am going to trivia night. I hope I get enough work done around the house tonight and tomorrow to deserve it.

So far today, I watered the garden. Washed one load of clothes. Put a pole up and put cucumber vines up on it. Picked up the pieces of my broken clay pot. Cleaned up several disaster piles around the house. Looked helplessly for my lost food stamp card. Listed some arcade cards on Ebay. Called my sons. Messaged my mother. Got attacked by a rambunctious dog, meaning she threw her body weight on my while I was lying down. Thankfully she has been her usual calm and sleepy self the rest of the day.

Speaking of arcade cards, here is a poem circa 1948 that was on one:

Good Seat, Eh Wot?

“I’m thankful that the sun and moon,

are both hung up so high,

That no pretentious hand can stretch,

and pull them from the sky;

But if they were not I’d have no doubt,

that some reforming ass,

would recommend we take them down,

and light the world with gas.”

BTW, arcade cards were like a thin cardboard postcard prize you won at an arcade, you collected and traded them. They had pin-ups, comics, movies stars, western themes, etc.

See the original article:

Sweet Peas

in

In Sync With The Universe

Weekly Columnists

Definition: Columnist |ˈkäləmnist| (noun). A blogger or a journalist contributing regularly to a blog or newspaper

Musing: Medical Research - Stroke Rehab/Research Version

Dean Reinke
Deans' Stroke Musing

August 28, 2009




















I couldn't help but spread this around. My version would have added a line,

'Have you read any research articles since graduating?' 

'I didn't think so'

From The Chalkboard Manifesto....

See the original article:

Medical Research - Stroke Rehab/Research Version

in

Deans' Stroke Musing

Sunday Stroke Survival: Statements That Make Me Angry

Jo Murphey
The Murphey Saga

Sunday, February 21, 2016

There are few words or statements that make me red faced angry and want to scream at the person saying them. I'm usually a quiet fighter, and a behind the scenes type advocate, but sometimes I get my dandruff raised and it makes me yell from the rooftop at the stupidity of the person voicing the trite, too often said rhetoric that I read as "I can't be bothered to deal with you anymore." I'll become the champion on my white horse and gird my armor for battle. As with this case...

This case came to my attention a few weeks ago. A young woman (37) with two young children (under the age of five) had a stroke. She had a promising career as a teacher before her stroke. After she hit the post stroke prime, six-month window passed, she was told her recovery was as good as it will ever get. In fact, her insurance was now balking at paying for any other treatment pertaining to her stroke because of this one neurologist's charted note. I'm thankful her neurologist wasn't mine, but now she is a patient of my neurologist and is back in therapies (OT, PT, Speech). :o) Now that she has met the right people, me included, she is fighting the system. She's too young to start giving up. She has too much to live for and yet achieve.

Caregiver: Visitors

Diane
The Pink House On The Corner

Sunday, February 21, 2016

My dear friend, Sally, was here for a week and just left yesterday.  Sally and I go way back.  We used to work together and in the late 1980's, we both went through divorces, and rather bonded over that. And though we have kept in touch, I haven't seen her since around 1999, so we had 17 years of catching up to do!

Between catching up, we caught some sights including these manatees, lazing about in the bay:

The manatee in the forefront is rolling
over, you can see his flippers.

We also did some shopping, went to the beach and all around had a great time.

Another visitor showed up in the early hours of dawn on Friday when I was startled awake, and saw my digital alarm clock flashing the time "12:43" a.m.  Now the thing was flashing, like it does when there is a power outage or power surge -- but when that happens it's always "00:00" that is flashing not "12:43".  So this is rather odd.  And odder still, I remember having woken earlier to see the time as "1:48" and falling back to sleep.  So basically the clock went backward in time and stopped and started flashing...  Odd, that.  I turned on my nightstand light and reset the clock to the right time, which was 5:48, and then I turned off the light, laid back down to try to catch some last minute sleep, when suddenly a lamp in the kitchen turned on.

Jester: Pass the Pepper Please

Jackie Poff
Stroke Survivors Tattler

A man and a woman were sitting beside each other in the first class section of an airplane.

The woman sneezed, took out a tissue, gently wiped her nose, then visibly shuddered for ten to fifteen seconds.

The man went back to his reading.  A few minutes later, the woman sneezed again, took a tissue, wiped her nose, then shuddered violently once more.

Assuming that the woman might have a cold, the man was still curious about the shuddering.  A few more minutes passed when the woman sneezed yet again. As before, she took a tissue, wiped her nose, her body shaking even more than before.

Unable to restrain his curiosity, the man turned to the woman and said, "I couldn't help but notice that you've sneezed three times, wiped your nose and then shuddered violently.  Are you OK?"

"I am sorry if I disturbed you, but I have a very rare medical condition; whenever I sneeze, I have an orgasm."

The man, more than a bit embarrassed, was still curious. "I have never heard of that condition before" he said.  "Are you taking anything for it?"

The woman nodded, "Pepper."

TED Talks - Scott McCloud: The Visual Magic of Comics

TED.com

Filmed February 2005 

In this unmissable look at the magic of comics, Scott McCloud bends the presentation format into a cartoon-like experience, where colorful diversions whiz through childhood fascinations and imagined futures that our eyes can hear and touch.


Filmed February 2005 at TED2005

Eclectic Stuff on Wednesday

Definition: Eclectic (noun). A person who derives ideas, style, or taste from a broad and diverse range of sources

Disability Etiquette: Not Us. This Is For You, "Normals"!

Joyce Hoffman
The Tales of a Stroke Patient

Feb 21, 2016

I use the transport chair when there's a lot of ground to cover, like Walmart or the grocery store. It's also the only chair my personal assistants could lift up. The only bad part: the transport chair is un-wheelable since its tiny wheels don't allow me to propel myself forward like a regular wheelchair.

Otherwise, I walk, getting as much exercise as possible, with my personal assistant trailing behind me with the transport chair in case fatigue sets in and I can't walk anymore. (I don't like caregiver, caretaker--which, by the way, is for a parcel of land, not a person, companion, or aide so I single-handedly upgraded the job to personal assistant, or PA).

There is an interesting phenomenon that I noticed for almost the past 7 years since my hemorrhagic stroke. I feel invisible while sitting in the chair while the people to whom I'm speaking always direct the conversation to my PA, like I'm talking funny or I'm mentally incapable of understanding them. Sometimes I say, "Talk to me when you're talking to me," which works for some people and, if they still persist in having the conversation with my PA, I'll stand up from my chair and say that line a little louder. That always works.

Off the Road

Barb Polan
Barb's Recovery

February 21, 2016

Tom, Turbo and I returned from a road-trip to Florida last night. There were several great reasons justifying it:

1. Last winter here in eastern Massachusetts was so miserable - meaning the people here were miserable – that I had a melt-down (pun intended) in April, when the torture was finally over. It consisted of: “Tom, I am NOT going to spend two months trapped inside our house every year for the next 20 years!” After suggesting we sell the house (which neither of us want to happen), Tom offered to spend a couple of weeks this winter looking for an acceptable place to spend a couple of months each winter.
2. We wanted to take our dog along with us, which made us opt to drive instead of fly. Turbo is an emotional support animal (ESA) we got when I couldn’t bear to stay home alone when it was time for Tom to go back to work after the stroke. Although Tom makes lots of jokes about Turbo needing more emotional support than he provides, he does his job extremely well. My psychotherapist wrote a letter confirming that Turbo is an ESA, so we purchased a little “vest” (more like a saddle) and an ID card with his picture and all to communicate that he must be allowed into any public facility.
3. We have lots of friends and family scattered along the East Coast, so we’d be able to see some of them; again, a reason to drive rather than fly.
4. My father, who lives in northern Florida, turned 90 in mid-February, and my siblings and I wanted to help him celebrate it.

Enriched Environments Help Recovery After Stroke

Peter G. Levine
Stronger After Stroke

Friday, February 12, 2016

Remember: SHE
Social interaction
Hands
Exercise

What is an enriched environment (EE)?

An EE is something that forces you to learn. Forced to learn. You have to be forced to learn. Learning can be forced by everything from curiosity to circumstance.

In fact, the brain will not learn (change) unless its forced. Why would your brain change if it is comfortable? What if the brain changes while you're comfortable? It may change to the point where you are no longer comfortable.

And a lack of comfort is icky.

Food for Thought

Sas Freeman

February 14, 2016

Purple Roes

To everyone out there who kindly reads my blogs, and especially all the stroke survivors amongst you, I wish you a happy valentines day and hope that the image of these delicate flowers, and their fabulous colour gives you the feeling of inspiration, hope and recovery. Remember to always believe in continuing recovery, even when it becomes slower. As if that image were not warming and encouraging enough, it is accompanied by the clever words of a friend Alan, and fellow stroke survivor. Please just click on the link below to open the pdf. I hope you enjoy his work and I wish you all, once again a happy, healthy valentines day.

Food for Thought _ Purple Roses

See the original article:

Food for Thought

in

Sas Freeman

Everything's Changing

Beth Sinfield
Beth's Story

Wednesday, 17 February 2016

I always thought that 2016 would somehow be a better year than the past three. I don't want to jinx it though but so far, it's been pretty great.

My confidence has definitely grown (even my teachers at college have noticed a big improvement), my walking has gotten faster and the quality even better. Never would I have imagined I could say that 3 and a half years after my stroke.

And finally, after years of waiting, I got an answer about my speech. For 3 months I am going to try a palatal lift again (for the third time- fingers crossed!). For those that don't know, it's a prosthetic that fits along the roof of your mouth that extends all the way back to the soft palate to lift it up. The aim of this is to stop my nasality, so the air escaping from my nose. I've already tried one twice and both times ended badly - basically it just didn't work and created way more problems for me. The cleft team at Addenbrooke's know my reservations about it and are very aware that it may not work out again. So if not, they will operate.

Nails Do Not Stop Growing After a Stroke

Rebecca Dutton
Home After a Stroke

February 14, 2016

CAUTION: 

CLIPPING NAILS REQUIRES GOOD SENSATION

AND COORDINATION

I live alone so I have to cut my nails. I cut the nails on my sound hand by operating an adapted nail clipper with my affected hand. I returned the small nail clipper shown on the bottom. The pointed end (see V-shape) dug into my palm when I pushed down. The short handle also meant I had to press hard to get enough force to cut my nail. I use the larger nail clipper shown on top. The end of the handle is square which is more comfortable. The longer handle gives me better leverage when I push down.

Stupid Question: But Isn’t There Enough Green to go Around?

Tim Seefeldt
Brain Food Cafe for the Mind

Posted February 16, 2016

With as many years on the planet as I’ve put in, this seems a silly – or even dumb – question.

And yet, as I read recent headlines and ponder the fate of a few new stroke victims whose stories have come my way, I wonder…

Life isn’t all about money, but oh what money can do for our lives.

Or at least pay the way to get important stuff done. It’s easy to say that money can’t buy happiness. But that depends what you mean. Chucking cash at status simples and questionable gizmos ‘guaranteed’ to stop the ravages of time may indeed fall short. But if the bucks go into research that can save or enrich lives, then I’d say that the money has paid for a few smiles.

Take stroke. Please. Badambum (that’s supposed to read like the sound of the three drum beats that follow a bad joke).