Teach Me How to Play...

–Does this bother you while you're reading?

–No, it's fine. I actually like the sound of the pencil scratching on the paper.

–I'm a bit slow, so this will take a while.

Hey everyone,

It's Your Local Bardic entity, Gallus Rostromengalus of Bread Jesus and other Weird Tumblr Story Fame.

Despite my best efforts to mitigate mt Terrible English Dental DNA, today two of my teeth broke.

I don't even have a fun story about this, it's literally terrible genetics and stress-grinding my teeth in my sleep.

I just got back from emergency surgery to get the pieces pulled and the hole in my jaw closed so I don't get an infection, but a second reconstruction surgery to give me a bone graft and dental implants will be needed so I can actually chew and use my mouth for it's intended purposes.

I do not currently have dental insurance. I haven't talked about it here much, but my husband was unemployed after getting laid off for almost all of last year. He has a job again, but it pays like 2/3rds of his previous one and the benefits are crap. Like no dental insurance until he's worked there at least a year.

So I'm on the hook for the full cost of Today's emergency surgery, Medication, and the necessary follow-up reconstruction, which my dentist estimates will cost between $5000-$7000. Our dentist has given us every discount she can and we have a payment plan, but losing half our household income has left us with no savings and credit cards at their limits. Even though I only need to come up with $500 this month to go ahead with the reconstructive surgery, I do not have any money to spare. It will also be VASTLY cheaper overall to pay for everything up front rather than pay interest over the months with the payment plan, but literally anything will help me right now.

Link To My GoFundMe

Link To My Ko-Fi

Thank you all so much, Gallus

I'm glad Ryan was Ken because now we can have a screen accurate Ryland Grace face sculpt

I put the shirt fabric straight through the printer and for the jumpsuit patches i used transfer paper

Putting rocky outside to dry i was afraid someone would steal it so i took some pictures there, my hand for scale

sneakily putting them on the wife's desk while she naps

her finding it

Obviously I disagree with that assessment. She's been seriously depressed, anxious, injured (I said hospitalised but she didn't go for fear of the expense, she probably needed it though) after a suicide attempt though she says she actually wasn't trying to kill herself when she walked into traffic out of work from burnout... And more.

However I think that while we might not be able to immediately fix the homelessness issue, we can prevent the debt issue from spiralling into a bigger problem.

If you would like to help, I will pass on any donations directly to her, and I will tag her if I can wrangle permission out of her.

Permission Wrangled... @sufficient-tenacity, she's in a bit of a self sabotage thought loop. So please tell her here that she is deserving of help, and @sufficient-tenacity you're going to take it and not try to convince people that actually it's wasted on you. You deserve good things.

paypal.me/vardacassr

The first Lighthouse Doll prototype is a 1/4 scale young goat, inspired by dolls in my personal collection who raise goats.

The goat has 27 parts (+ a pair of alternative ears) and stands at around 14.5cm tall to the top of the head.  Progress is positive so far, though the back leg mechanisms will be reworked as they're too slippery in their current state.

i got inspired by antique furniture -> decided to try and make a wooden doll.

If you can keep passing the hat I'd appreciate it. Thanks.

If you have any good ones for people, add them!

Do you have unglazed baked tile floors, bricks, or those windows with a bunch of stacked tiles or baked unglazed pipe stacked in them to fill them up and let a breeze through? Are they in the SHADE? GET THEM WET. Yes it will dry up pretty quickly in the heat but you can sit near or against them. As terracotta or unglazed clay dries off very slowly it will cool the air around it.

If you can, get the top of your head wet. Air across wet hair has a cooling effect.

Unglazed clay pots, flowerpots, and even canvas bags can be soaked with water, set in the shade with good airflow, and used to try to keep some things cooler, like bottles of water or packages of food.

You can take turns using a fan, a big palm frond, or whatever you have to fan each other or an elder or baby to keep them cooler. Doing it in shifts means no one gets too tired or too hot. You will all be very cranky because of the heat, but it is harder on the sick, the elderly, or children and infants. Watch them closely!! They can overheat so much faster.

GET LOW! If your house has a cellar and it is safe to be in (like, ventilated and escapable in an emergency), get down into it or put at least the high risk or elderly and babies in it. The earth will keep it cooler down there than anywhere else.

CROSSBREEZE. If you open a window or door at one corner of the house, then do the same at an opposite corner, this will draw air through the house. Dampened lightweight cloth in the window or doorway or damp mosquito netting will cool that air as it flows.

If you normally sleep upstairs, now you do not. Get everybody down on mattresses or just on the ground, on the ground floor. Upper stories or rooftops are often no place to be in a time like this. Even laying there with your eyes shut will give you rest if not sleep. It will help.

Dampened cloth hung up in the windows, doorways, breezeways, will help cool you off. Spray a fine mist over mosquito netting around beds.

If you have linen, or even cotton or hemp cloths but linen works amazingly for this, dampen it and put it over people's heads (like a nun's wimple or a sari, face clear) or shoulders, or over part of a baby's bed (never leave a baby unattended in this kind of weather or when you put drapey stuff by their bed like this) Again, it's evaporation that will cool you off a little.

Stay in the shade as much as you can. It is silly because it is obvious but stay in the shade.

The hottest part of the day will be the afternoon. Do not do anything physical or outdoors if you can avoid it during that time. If you must, --and jobs I know have no pity but this is a time when they will get you killed so you might have to risk losing your job, but keep your life, I am not kidding, you can drop dead out there- If you must go out, do so in the earliest morning hours or just before dawn. This is the best time and it will be the coolest then.

Guess what, folks! It's summer! And it's gonna be a hot one, because they all are, recently :(

Did you know you can lose about a liter of water, a gram of sodium, and 300mg potassium in an hour of profuse sweating? If you're working outside in the heat, or even just existing in a very hot and humid environment, you're gonna want to replace the electrolytes you're losing, and you're gonna have to be purposeful about it.

But electrolyte drink mixes, while convenient, are surprisingly expensive for what they are. So I'm going to give you a top secret recipe that you can whip up for literal pennies that will replace what you're losing in sweat.

1 liter of water

1/2 tsp table salt (about 1g of sodium)

1/8 tsp potassium chloride salt substitute (about 350mg potassium. NuSalt is a popular brand, it's sold near the salt at the grocery store. If you don't have this, replace 6oz (180ml) of the water with orange juice or eat something high in potassium, like a banana, each hour you're sweating)

6-8 tsp of granulated sugar (you do actually need this and not a no calorie alternative- sugar helps speed up the absorption of electrolytes in the gut. You can omit if using orange juice for your potassium source, though!)

Lemon or lime juice for flavor, optional

Mix together and drink 1 liter for each hour you're profusely sweating. Adjust your intake so that your pee is light yellow.

If you want to make this mix ahead of time, put 1x the recipe of salt, sugar, and potassium, along with unsweetened Kool Aid powder or crystalized lemon or lime juice, in a small baggie. I do not recommend putting multiple servings worth in a baggie, as the ingredients settle differently and you might not get the right ratio.

NOTE: like any electrolyte drink, it works better if you sip it instead of chugging. If you chug it, you end up pooping out a lot of your electrolytes, even with the sugar.

Heat exhaustion is quite literally your body getting too hot and Exhausting itself to cope. Heatstroke is your body Failing To Cope.

Heat Exhaustion signs include:

You get a headache that Will Not Go Away

You feel confused and dizzy (balance who? Idk her)

You don't feel hungry but you feel sick as well (this sucks and happens a lot in high heat so try and snack regularly)

Sweating and clammy skin like the kind that has people go "you're freezing!" because you've sweated so much you literally end up with a chill on your skin

Cramps. Feckin cramps. Arms. Legs. Stomach. They suck ass.

You have a heckin fast pulse or you're hyperventilating like you've just had a Scare

Your body temp is over 38°c (because you're literally boiling like a lobster in a pot)

You are Beyond Thirsty and no matter what you drink it Does Not Abate

If you end up experiencing any of these symptoms, or multiple, and you're in a hot/warm environment, then sit your ass down in the shade, get something to drink, and get a damp cloth on your head or a change of clothes that are cool.

Basically, stop what you're doing and give your body a chance to Not Keep Boiling

Heat exhaustion is NOT THE SAME as a heatstroke.

Heatstroke is So Much Worse™.

Heatstroke signs include:

Still feeling like utter shite 30 minutes after you sat your ass down, rested in a cool place, and rehydrated

Not actually sweating even though you really do feel like a lobster in a pot that has the heat up High

Your body temp is 40°c+ (which is bad btw, that's temp for causing your to pass out etc)

Hyperventilating/fast breathing or actual shortness of breath (I struggle with this because asthma so I'm always like "idk if I got this oops)

Feeling confused but in a like "I don't know what's going on, I can't think, I have no idea about anything, someone help me please I'm crossing into traffic and don't even realise" way

Having a fit/seizure because your body temp is so high your brain is Actually Getting Boiled In Your Skull 🙃 [upside down smiley emoji]

Passing out and not actually responding or waking up from a brief fainting spell (this is the Serious™ kind of passing out that has doctors going "oh shit, we need an IV STAT!" or whatever it is they say when Shit Is Going Down)

Heatstroke can be really dangerous if it isn't treated quickly so please don't ignore these signs. Right now, I'm in a cool environs, with hydration, and am avoiding moving and am gonna have a nap because I'm going very dizzy, can't focus properly, have a headache, and am only coherent here because I'm HyperFocusing on this post. I can't even understand words being said to me right now hence nap, hydration, and cool environs.

Some additional hot weather tips

If you have low blood sugar, but are having a hard time eating because you feel crappy from the heat, try sucking on some hard candy

If possible, after you get out of the sun/heat drink Gatorade or something similar to replenish what you've been loosing from sweating

When drinking water or Gatorade (no matter what you have it is important to stay hydrated!) it is important to drink slowly, even if you are very thirsty, because if you drink too fast the water might come back up

In hot weather, bandanas are very useful, even as a preventative measure, because you can pour some water from you bottle (or anything else) on them, and then put them on your head (as mentioned above) or neck. A few other areas help as well, like armpits, but I would personally recommend your neck.

It is not recommended to use a fan at or above 99°f or 35°c, because they can actually start to make the heat worse. (I know these are different temps, the recommendations come from different governments, 35°c is around 95°f, but this also depends on conditions like humidity, so just use your best judgement with this info)

Most importantly, if you think you are getting heat stroke call 911 or your equivalent, heat stroke kills several people each year, even in my area, where it normally only gets to 100°f for a few days each year

For fahrenheit users,

38°c = 100.4°f

40°c = 104°f

It's why it's so important to rest and keep hydrated when it's warm. I hope you eventually felt better and maintained your hydration levels with water and other fluids.

I had three days of feeling the after effects of heat exhaustion myself and felt like I had a cold, a constant headache, and random chills all at the same time as having a dry throat, not sweating properly, dizziness, and even muscle cramps from the rapid dehydration I experienced.

In general, to anyone who sees or reblogs this:

It's really important to take care of yourself, both immediately after you recognise you've got heat exhaustion, and in the long term. It can affect you for days after.

Please take care of yourselves aka TAKER:

Take breaks

Avoid too much sun

Keep hydrated

Eat regularly

STAY IN SHADE.

HYDRATE.

EAT IN EARLY HOURS AND LATE EVENING.

NAP WHEN YOU GOTTA.

In the UK a good drink to replenish electrolytes and sugar is Lucozade. It's similar to Gatorade but it comes in both fizzy and still forms. I personally prefer the fizzy cherry flavoured Lucozade because it doesn't dry my throat like most drinks do.