Prettying up the place

As you may have noticed, I’ve got a fancy new banner.  Several of them, in fact, thanks to the work of Alex Gabriel.

Screen Shot 2015-04-15 at 6.52.12 PM

He also made me some business card style square designs.

07 - v3EjX3v
10 - qsWlQTZ

09 - vLiIs54
08 - a0dOfxI
I know y’all are just impressed as all get out.  I am pleased, it’s much better than my previous logo.  I am especially pleased because it’s all based on my art — it’s a really lovely marriage of my maths brain and my arts brain.  I think he will give a better break down of the design process but these are the paintings I sent him from which he designed these.

lueuaHo
r5vPi4w
 
LjvHMJH
zC4Ts0q
 
hUgyE1J
tRF7wlD
There’s also a shiny new headshot with my old bio that I may get around to updating.  I’ve also got a fancy new donate button, because it was requested of me by a reader, Deepak Shetty, who was kind enough to actually give before I figured out how to set it up.  I’ve also got an Amazon carousel thing because I signed up for this Amazon thing and they yelled at me that they were shutting me down if no one bought anything from my linking to them, which is fair, as I’ve never linked through them.

In all cases, don’t feel obligated to donate or buy anything, I just put the donate button up because I was asked to, and I am deeply flattered, and the Amazon thing is really an experiment.  You can’t see it if you’ve got AdBlock anyway.  It’s mostly there to show you what ukulele I bought, what gender text book I’m in, and that I eat too many Rowntree’s.  Did my taxes today… my average monthly payment from FtB in 2014 was, you know, $14.13, so, you know.

Anyway, as you may or may not know, I was diagnosed with severe Vitamin D deficiency last week.  I’ve been sick since last July, and it didn’t occur to anyone to test for that because, as the Slymepit noted, I’m extremely pale and it takes very little sunlight for someone of my skin tone to make adequate Vitamin D. On top of that, I live in South Carolina, not the Arctic Circle, so someone like me developing a Vitamin D deficiency is approximately like someone on an orange farm developing scurvy, it just didn’t occur to anyone.  My deficiency is likely due to the fact that I work from home, am also writing a dissertation (theoretically), am allergic to most of the things that grow outside, and avoid sunlight because I burn so easily.  Then it became a bit of a runaway problem because Vitamin D deficiency makes you more susceptible to catching viruses, which meant that despite my pneumococcal and flu vaccines and being well out of age range, I got pneumonia in the summer, then the flu, and then, for Christmas, mono, all of which lasted a very long time and kept me indoors even more than normal.

I have only lately been gaining my energy back from the mono and am now being treated for the deficiency so I have some hope that the massive cloud of fatigue and never ending stream of illnesses I’ve been battling since last summer might finally lift in the next month or two, which is apparently how long it takes for supplements to kick in.

{advertisement}
Prettying up the place
{advertisement}

11 thoughts on “Prettying up the place

  1. 3

    Those paintings (and Alex’s adaptations of them for your banner) are marvellous. I think the question alleges that you’re the subject of all of the portraits. I approve of prettying up the place… but suspect you might also need to do a bit of disinfection.

  2. 4

    Well that… involves a lot of wrongness in understanding me and the concepts of race and gender identity that I don’t even know where to start, which is, I guess, why I didn’t understand it.

    @Apple Might I suggest using your next comment on my site to prove that you’re commenting in good faith because I’m having a rather hard time believing that at the moment.

  3. 5

    I knew a Navy man who had to get out of submarines because 60+ day continually submerged runs were giving him a vitamin D deficiency.

    Glad to hear that a cause of your general poor health has been identified and treated. Please get better soon.

  4. 6

    @Al Dente,
    Not that I’m doubting your veracity, but Vit. D was discovered in 1922. Certainly, a few nutritional deficiencies have been discovered at sea, notably scurvy, Vit. C deficiency, the origin of the infamous slur “limey” due to the British navy supplying itself with limes to forstal affliction. Perhaps there’s more to treating Vit. D deficiency than just popping a pill.

  5. 7

    They’ve put me on 50,000iu a week, plus a regular daily vitamin and “go outside more,” compared to a recommended dv of 400iu. Maybe without sunlight and at a low enough level, they just don’t know what the safe level of supplementation is without doing regular blood draws and they can’t in the sub?

  6. 8

    Hunt @6

    I’m fully aware that vitamin C deficiency, aka scurvy, is not the same as vitamin D deficiency, which at its worst is known as rickets. Here’s a little item that you’re probably ignorant about: The Royal Navy (that’s the British navy, if you were in doubt) issued lime juice to sailors rather than lemon or grapefruit juice, both of which have more vitamin C per volume than lime juice, for a very simple reason (I’m sure simple reasons appeal to you since you appear to be rather simple yourself). in the 18th and 19th Centuries lime juice was cheaper than other citrus juices.

    So, Hunt, was I pompous and condescending enough for you? If not, just let me know, I can throw even more pomposity and condescension at you.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *