#the stroke

It's been forever since I've made a general update post like this.

Stroke Recovery update

In recent months, my ankle has been significantly strengthened. This has resulted in me being able to walk around my house without the aid of my support orthotic device (for foot drop).

It looks like next month I will finally get Botox injections...Medical Botox, that is. The worst lingering problem I have from the stroke is called spasticity. Basically, it's an unusually strong, involuntary muscle contraction; this has brought me to an impasse with my arm/hand therapy, seeing as I have to fight the contraction every step of the way, and the muscles are too weak to fight against it. My neurologist explained it to me like this: the brain damage from the stroke scrambled the message to my spinal cord, which normally sends the signals for motor function to my hand/limbs but since this signal has gone "haywire," it results in the "tight" spastic fingers and thus I cannot perform actions that require fine motor skills, like picking up small objects, typing, or playing video games, just to name a few. All the stuff I like to do, I kinda haven't been able to do since November 2022. "Kinda" because turn-based RPGs, my favorite genre, are ideal for playing one-handed. ASCII Japan knew this 30 years ago:

Only I play Final Fantasy, SMT, Clair Obscur, etc. using the accessibility feature on the PS4/5 that allows you to swap the function of the left and right control sticks, giving my right hand full control over both movement and the confirm and cancel buttons (and parrying in E33). So what does this have to do with botulinum toxin? The Botox will effectively kill the scrambled nerve signal causing the spasticity...but only for about 3 months before the nerves repair. But during this period the spasticy will be out of the picture, giving me a period where my muscles won't have to fight against themselves, hopefully allowing therapy to be especially effective.

Best Of Recent Posts

SMT4 HD!

Outdated Archaeology (This has continued to snowball with reblogs every couple weeks or so; I haven't had a post be this active in quite a long while)

Cthulhu, Penis Monster?

I'm Tired of Keeping Secrets

And now, the real reason I wanted to make this post. I've hinted at a secret project I've been working on that would release "soon"/"early in the year" In fact, the plan has been to release it a month from today, on March 19. It's something I've never done before but feel like I need to pivot towards as this 13-year-old blog crawls ever nearer to complete exhaustion of SMT-related topics. I'm long overdue for something new/different. So what will that be? It's a creative writing direction, something I've always wanted to do. And it's probably the worst time ever to start this, seeing as I can't even type with both hands. But I'm making do. I have so many stories I'd like to tell, but first up is the beginning of a series of short stories about every Goetia demon. That's right, 72 short stories about my favorite grouping of goofballs from "mythology." And I'm intending to write them sequentially, so that will give you a clue as to what's planned first. The problem has been that my prose has not manifested at the level I want it to be, so I've had to rewrite many sections and seek writing inspiration for how to tackle others. It's coming together one way or another, but this entire post is all to admit that if I don't think the quality is good enough by March 19, I'm going to work on it longer. I really like the first story and I think most of you will, too. Since it's the first one, it needs to be "right." I hope you understand. Even so, it may still be on schedule. I've never done something like this before, is the problem with setting a firmer date. I hate not knowing! Please look forward to it, and there will be much more than this when I'm ready to share it!

Please listen to this song--

Heard this for the first time in a long time, and have recontextualized/changed my interpretation