僕らは皆意味不明

OP: How I created this visual magic (cr 阿梓蔗)

The problem is that nobody is going to do that because every attempt to do so is an attempt to compete with the superficial elements of what Pokemon is now, rather than following the how and why that led to Pokemon to become what it is. The objective they are chasing is how to compete with Pokemon, which is no objective at all. The only way to create a true competitor is to build the equivalent to Pokemon again from first principles.

The problem is that it's not trying to be a monster collecting game with guns, it's trying to be Pokemon with guns. If it had actually built up a unique set of monsters specifically to fit the tone, setting, and style of the gameplay ideas they were building off of, they could have made something really interesting. What they actually did by stealing Pokemon designs was communicate that the monsters in this game don't actually matter and could have been replaced by anything.

The hospital is really busy right now (major surgeries booking into October), including lots of big patients (some have been bigger than me!) and that means the space is at a premium even just for me to walk around.  But sometimes I need to do something other than sew and writing up the stories of patients is one of my happy procrastinations where I don’t feel too guilty for letting them sit.  So thank you for being a reader, and letting me procrastinate with a bit less guilt! 😊

I have two recent stories I really wanted to share, so here is the first, the story of a mouse.

Unlike the patients above, Mouser is actually fairly small. Not tiny, but about ten inches tall. His person first wrote back in 2020, when Mouser was 29 years old. He had had an unfortunate run-in with a dog. Here are the diagnosis photos from then:

She also sent a photo of a similar (though not quite the same) younger mouse as a comparison:

We all know how 2020 went, so Mouser didn't come in then, but six years later (he’d been kept in a safe space all that time) his person wrote back. She was finally ready to send him to the hospital.

We agreed that the best treatment would be:

Repair injured foot

Recover both footpads

Fix finger toe stitches

Repair muzzle with new nose

Two new ears

Repair arm with new hand pad

Repair tail attachment

Gentle spa

Of course, these were subject to change as treatment proceeded (and you’ll see they did a bit) but that was the plan.

He took a short flight down the coast from Washington and started his treatment with a gentle spa. Here he is in his bubble bath:

You can sort of see in the photo, he’s kind of a bluish gray, which I couldn’t match exactly for his new ears and back of his missing hand, so there were two choices for his human to choose from:

She chose the shorter fur and surgery proceeded. I had a really good match for his pawpads.

Here's his heart being made and installed with a bit of original stuffing:

And here were his initial chubbiness approval pics:

He still needed some new toes and fingers:

And new whiskers:

And then, he was ready to fly home! His person wrote: He looks amazing!

************

The killing of innocent people has not stopped. Violence is everywhere in Gaza.

No food. No clean water. No medicine. Just hunger, fear, and days that keep getting harder.

Families are exhausted. People are collapsing under the weight of everything.

We say it in every language, hoping someone, somewhere, will listen:

🇵🇸 غزة ليست بخير والناس تنهار

🇺🇸🇬🇧 Gaza is not okay and people are breaking

🇨🇦 Gaza is not okay and people are breaking

🇳🇱 Gaza is niet oké en mensen breken

🇫🇷 Gaza ne va pas bien et les gens s’effondrent

🇪🇸 Gaza no está bien y la gente se derrumba

🇩🇪 Gaza geht es nicht gut und die Menschen brechen zusammen

🇮🇹 Gaza non sta bene e le persone stanno crollando

🇷🇺 Газа не в порядке, люди ломаются

🇨🇳 加沙情况不好，人们正在崩溃

🇯🇵 ガザは大丈夫ではなく、人々は崩れている

🇰🇷 가자는 괜찮지 않고 사람들은 무너지고 있다

🇹🇷 Gazze iyi değil, insanlar çöküyor

🇮🇳 गाज़ा ठीक नहीं है, लोग टूट रहे हैं

🇧🇷 Gaza não está bem e as pessoas estão desmoronando

🇮🇩 Gaza tidak baik-baik saja dan orang-orang sedang runtuh

🇵🇰 غزہ ٹھیک نہیں ہے اور لوگ ٹوٹ رہے ہیں

🇮🇷 غزه حال خوبی ندارد و مردم در حال فروپاشی هستند

🇬🇷 Η Γάζα δεν είναι καλά και οι άνθρωποι καταρρέουν

🇸🇪 Gaza mår inte bra och människor bryter samman

People are still suffering in Gaza, and nothing has stopped.

My father’s life is also in danger without your support. We cannot afford to provide his daily medication, and without it, his condition could get worse at any moment.

The kid was picked up by an ambulance 30 minutes later.

Now as an adult working in security I get SO MANY folks- upper-middle aged mostly- coming to me to 'rat out' people they think are faking it.

I was once sent into a bathroom because a client demanded that the "fucker won't get out, so go drag them out"- I was NEVER going to do that, so I did a wellness check instead. You know who it was? A person recently released from the hospital after a car accident. They had a hole in their skull and major hearing loss. They couldn't answer the owner because they couldn't HEAR the owner.

Another time about a homeless man who got around town by kicking the ground from his wheelchair. "You know he doesn't actually need that thing, his legs work fine, it's just for pity points"- Oh, so he's not paralyzed, his wheelchair is performative? Funny story Dale, I actually know that guy, he was backed over by a truck and has chronic pain from his shattered pelvis. But sure, let's make him stand up and walk everywhere so nobody feels too bad for him and tries to help him or something.

"She doesn't need that scooter, I've seen her get out of it."

"Look how fat he is, because he just rides around and refuses to get up."

"She doesn't really need that cane- she comes here without it all the time"