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I love the very last sentence.
Tuesday, August 16. 2005Macon Craig
Don't you hate it when someone pulls you away from something that you want to do, and makes you work on something you should do? I do. It drives me nuts, especially when he uses a guilt trip to do it. I hate guilt trips. Hate them, hate them, hate them.
I was working on a model of a wooly mammoth. I've always wanted to hunt one, just to see what it would be like. The musculature was giving me a little bit of trouble. I based it on an an African elephant. Most everything worked, but there were a few small things that were giving me headaches. I was working on the skeleton, testing to see if everything would work better on a skeleton that was more similar to an Asian Elephant, when Brain_Stem messaged me. Brain_Stem[15:04]: I need a favor. Fair_Weather_Friend[15:06]: And I need a girlfriend. Too bad we don't always get what we need. Brain_Stem[15:06]: No, I'm serious. I'm sending you an image. I need you to build a realistic body based on that image, and send me the animation file for it by 4:00 tomorrow afternoon. Fair_Weather_Friend[15:07]: Keep dreaming. Do you know how hard it is to build a body based on an image? Brain_Stem[15:07]: Look, I'll send you a signed doctor's note to get out of school. This is important. Fair_Weather_Friend[15:08]: LOL What makes you think I need a doctor's note to get out of school? I skip all the time without one. Brain_Stem[15:08]: Is there anything I can do to convince you to do it for me? Fair_Weather_Friend[15:09]: Not that I can think of. I'm busy.
So then he started telling me the story. The kid in the picture? He's my age. He was born normal. He learned to talk, walk, read, and write just like everybody else. But about the time he turned eight, things started changing. It started with double vision in his left eye. Not very long after that, he started feeling, or not feeling, I guess, numbness in his hands. He started having some pretty severe muscle spasms, and before long, he couldn't write his name, coudn't read, couldn't walk without help, couldn't feed himself, and the list goes on and on. I said, "Look, that's a really sad story, but what does it have to do with me?" His reply was the worst. "I want to let him live in the environments for part of the day each day. There, he'll be able to get his life back, at least for part of the day." That wasn't too bad, but the kicker came when he continued. "But I can't do it without you're help. If you're not willing to help me, he'll be stuck in a wheelchair with no escape for the rest of his life." Now, I'm not like Brain_Stem. I'm no bleeding heart. I don't give money to every bum that tells me a sob story. But I could tell that he was telling me the truth, and as I thought about what it would mean to be stuck in a chair . . . Let's be honest. I don't move around a whole lot. My life wouldn't be ruined if I were stuck in a chair. But to be stuck in a chair, to not have a choice, that would really suck. So I saved the wooly mammoth, and began working on a body for the kid. I just hate it when what I should do gets in the way of what I want to do. Trackbacks
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