The good news is that my left arm is out of its splint, and I can actually type with both hands now.  Granted, not for extended periods of time, and trying to really use my arm/hand is such a bad idea still, but it is in better condition than it was. 

The long/short of the story is that I was toodling down a sidewalk at a relatively high rate of speed on my new Schwinn Mesa (nice bike, by the by), and I stopped paying attention just long enough for my front wheel to skip right off the edge of the sidewalk.  Normally, this would not be a problem, except that these walkways are not quite finished, and there is a two-three inch gap between the level of the sidewalk, and the level of the dirt beneath.  This surprised me a little, and I jerked way too hard trying to get the bicycle back on the road...  five seconds later, after a perfect lay-out, I was face down on the concrete, my head planted firmly in the bush next to the walkway, and my bicycle resting in front of me.  An inventory check later, in addition to an ER visit along the way, it turns out that I almost broke my elbow, bruised the unholy hell out of my left hand, and lost about three square inches of skin off the back of it.  Miscellaneous bruises and abrasions on my right shoulder and knee rounded out the damage.  Amazingly enough, my bicycle survived with a few scratches here and there, and a disjoint front handlebar/wheel (easy enough to fix, and I was able to jostle it back into place before I even left the scene).  I spent the days since Saturday wrapped up in ACE bandages and a fiberglass splint, and finally have de-swollen to the point where I can move my arm again without agonizing pain. 

In other news, vicodin, while being a rather effective pain killer, plays merry hob with your intestinal system.  And morphine is fun.  And you would have no idea how hard even the most common of things can be when you only have one hand with which to do them...  I was remarkably thankful I had a pair of slip-on Sketchers, otherwise I have no idea how I would have gotten my shoes on, or kept them on.  And do not even get me started on twist-top bottles/containers... 

As I mentioned previously, typing was definitely out of the question while splinted up, but I was not completely non-productive (though my apartment certainly does not show it).  In my recovery period, I actually took the time to upload all of the DoGA images I have stored on my computer, and put them in a nice little gallery. 

So, what is DoGA?  Well...  think of it as digital Legos - only they can be resized, warped, twisted, turned, colored, and textured however you like, and you have an infinite number of each of them.  To 3D artist purists, this program is the height of heathen-ness... it requires absolutely no pixel-pushing, or really a whole lot of skill at all to use.  Rather, you take pre-constructed shapes, slap them together in different ways, and away you go.  To those of us without the mental facilities for pure-bred pixel-pushing graphical-artistry programs (like 3ds Max, Wings, etc.), this thing is a godsend, and I have certainly had more than my fair share of fun with it. 

Most of the images in that gallery are rather old...  I have been modelling, yes, but I simply have not bothered generating up web-useful images for the creations I molded.  I will eventually get off my lazy duff and do so, but, for, the time being, poke around the gallery and let me know what you think of what you see.  Believe you me, I certainly have heard just about everything concerning my images (most of the more... colorful... comments have been from those "purist" types I mentioned earlier), so nothing you can say will hurt my feelings.  That much.  Also, be aware some of the images are quite old - possibly around four years - and made with an earlier version of the program that made it difficult to color/texture things at all. 

At any rate, if you would like to learn more about this nifty program, you can find additional information here, here, here, here, and here.  Or you could just leave a comment here, should you so desire.