Hey guys. Been a bit, I didn't leave you for good. 2012 has been trying very hard to make me believe in that Mayan doomsday prophecy. In the past month and a half, more crap has happened than even someone as pessimistic as me could have been ready for.

What started out as a minor pain around Christmas turned into a herniated disc in my cervical spine (where the neck meets the shoulders) that is now applying pressure to the main nerves in my right arm. I'm in physical therapy for that, but it ain't pretty. There has not been a moment I have not been in physical pain since the year started. If it doesn't get better, I'm going to need surgery, or I chance the nerves becoming so inflamed that my entire right arm becomes un-useable. The good news is that it is getting slightly better - the bad news is that the pain should have dissipated already, which my therapist does not sound very positive about.

On New Years, a neighbor decided to drive home drunk and slammed into my car. They didn't have insurance, and my insurance (as it turns out) doesn't cover what happens if I am not IN my vehicle, so I had to pay out of pocket for the damages. That set me back a bit.

About three weeks ago, a power surge killed my tower. My surge protector was apparently rather old, and when my PSU went out, it took my mobo, RAM, and GPU out with it. I had ordered parts to build a new one (and in fact had been saving up to do just that) but I apparently got shipped a bad processor - the board I was using (Asus P8P67 <3) lit up the processor failure light as soon as I connected power and the machine failed to reach post. I'm currently waiting for the return to process so I can afford a new one. Right now I'm borrowing a tower from a friend for school, but it's not exactly up to par with my standards and won't run even the adobe suite I need for my classes or work. Plus it feels weird - like crashing on a friend's sofa for an extended period of time or taking the bus while your car is in the shop.

My hours have been increased at work, which puts me at about 50 hours a week right now while pilot programs go on for the courses I helped develop (I work in the virtual campus office of my college). The hours should be reduced to normal in about two weeks.

One of my old clients convinced me to take over as his webadmin again, so I'm essentially working 2 full time jobs and even with all that, I'm still attending as a full-time student this semester (taking mostly online classes or hybrid with lecture), so I've been trying to stay on top of those while the rest of this all goes on.

So, here's my apology for not being around, I'll come back one day at least to help out a bit and chat, but right now I really just don't have the time or patience for anything, busy busy busy trying to fix everything and get on top of my schedule.

I <3 you all, here's a picture of some corgis in a bathtub to cheer everyone up (I know it's hard when I'm not around).