DanielBenfield

Yes, I'm still alive.

Not much has happened with me over the past eight months, to be honest, aside from my birthday ($55 in Nintendo eShop cards, $40 cash, two subs from Subway, and a late surprise of a Third Doctor Sonic Screwdriver). Still haven't seen a doctor, and I know I should, although I've been using mouthwash at least once a day as part of my wakeup routine (albeit after some initial paralyzing fears that I'd ingest some).

I've also been able to get ahold of some Crystal Pepsi, and holy crap is it delicious. Seriously, I wanted to buy some from Pepsi directly (since it's a limited run, for no apparent reason), but they don't sell any online.

Several months ago, my computer began taking progressively longer to start up and would shut off suddenly without warning...and then one day, it wouldn't turn on at all. Turns out, the power supply had been failing (probably because I used to keep it on for days at a time, which I've stopped) and had died. Charles ordered a new power supply directly from Dell for about $10, and it got here and put in within a few days.

Speaking of crap, my Xbox 360 repeatedly shuts itself off from overheating (even though the vents are clean and the system's not on the floor) after about 30 minutes or so. Chuck bought a new power supply, since we thought that may have been an issue, and the 360 overheated again. Meh, I'm using my TV's YouTube app now.

On a brighter note, Japan Crate is still awesome as ever. Haven't tried the company's DokiDoki Crate or Umai Crate (cute stuff and Japanese noodles, respectively), but maybe I'll get 'em as a Christmas gift to myself.

Writing...I had a dream shortly before Christmas and wrote that down. Also, I was going to post a teaser for 2016 which I'd written on Christmas Day, but that never happened either. The big thing is that, while I was catching up on Funakounasoul's Journal posts, I noticed that one of her characters, Koyomiko, is turning 10 on November 1...and I was inspired to write a short story.

No, seriously, I got inspired to write something. That hasn't happened often over the past couple of years. Granted, I still need to get a bit more info on some of Koyomiko's many forms over the years and add a bit of polish, but it's otherwise finished and will hopefully be up in mid-October at the latest.

So that's the latest in the life of me. How have you folks been doing?

Good lord, has it really been over two years since I last made a Journal entry?

...Shows you how much goes on in my life.

In all seriousness, though, the last two years haven't been entirely unmemorable:
* Last year, for instance, I finally managed to get a 3DS for...I think it was $150? I have about a dozen games for it, plus a few I've downloaded via the eShop (I really got into Pokemon Rumble World, for instance). If you want to trade Friend Codes, let me know.

* The main thing, though, involves my bouts with depression: earlier this year, I finally saw my doctor's office about them. The first doctor I saw (there's three of 'em in this particular office) prescribed me three medications, none of which seemed to work. The second doctor I saw replaced them with one medication and added a muscle relaxer due to my back problems.
** A later visit was to do my bloodwork, and resulted in me downing a ton of Smart Water and sitting in a lab's waiting room for what felt like hours because only two people were on staff at this place (not the doctor's office). To my surprise, since I hadn't gotten it done in much longer than it should've been (at least a year, if I'm not mistaken), everything checked out fine there.

* On a more positive note, shortly after the above doctors' visits I started getting a couple of subscription boxes (namely, Japan Crate and 30 Days of Candy), partly to help me keep my mood up and to give me something to look forward to in the mail each month that wasn't a bank statement or something from my insurance provider.

* As for writing...I still do it sometimes, but after more than seven years I gotta wonder if the spark's still there. I sometimes write if an idea strikes me, or if I have a particularly interesting dream, each of which has happened within the past few months.

As for Christmas, we have a turkey ready to go for tomorrow, and my brother's not working that day so we'll have time to do stuff. Hopefully, your holidays are (or have been) going along well, too.

Other than contributing to the Wheel of Fortune History Wiki (wheeloffortunehistory.wikia.co…; for some reason, the "a href" code refuses to work for this link only)...not much. Back in June, I began uploading again to my YouTube channel, using my Twitter account to help promote it. (I can't believe I've spent nearly five years here and never plugged these. )

...Wow, I'm sorry about that last entry. That was at least 2-3 years of pent-up rage exploding at once, albeit mostly calmly.