A handy giant set square

Perfect for trimming a huge piece of paper.

Stargate mental health

I've been writing this off and on for a loooong time. There's so much more I could add, and so many ways I could rewrite it to flow better. And if I publish it now, I won't be able to keep on and on improving it. Alea jacta est.

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The members of Stargate SG1 really have remarkably robust mental health.

All have had traumatic events in families and relationships: When they were children, Sam's mother and both of Daniel's parents were killed in accidents, and Teal'c's father was murdered.

Daniel lost his wife after three years of her being forcibly married to another man; 

Daniel & Sha're

Jack and Teal'c are both divorced - Teal'c without his wife telling him; every potential romance for Sam ends in the guy dead or presumed dead (except Jack, but that's a no-go as he's her commanding officer, a situation which both of them sometimes find difficult). Daniel was the victim of a serious sexual assault; Sam barely escaped at least one.

Jack's young son accidentally killed himself with Jack's gun (which did lead to him being suicidal for a while); 

Jack with Charlie

Teal'c's relationship with his own son is somewhat rocky, as is Sam's with her dad and brother. Daniel grew up in foster care as his grandfather didn't want him.

Teal'c had to leave his home and culture, and is considered a traitor by many of his people.

The work they do can be dangerous: All have been imprisoned and enslaved multiple times, and been in many other no-way-out situations. All have been near death, both on the battlefield and in hospital beds.

While the other three are military, Daniel is a civilian thrown into combat situations. They have lost close friends. All(?) have had to shoot or kill someone they care about (not to mention countless enemies).

Jack's time with black ops involved him in some 'damned distasteful things'; Teal'c can't forget the atrocities he commited when he served Apophis. 

Teal'c looking pensive

Even some of their well-intentioned actions have had disastrous, unforseen, consequences for people they were trying to help.

As if that wasn't enough, having met several alternative-reality versions of themselves, they have all seen how their lives could easily have been very different - in both positive and negative ways.

On top of all that, the Stargate programme is top secret, so nothing they do in their everyday jobs can be mentioned to friends or family.

Trying to convince her dad that her 'desk job' is way more exciting
than joining NASA and going to space.

And that's just the psychological stuff - there's also the physical assaults on their brains:

Daniel's grandfather lives in a psychiatric hospital - such things can have a genetic element.

Jack took drugs back in the 70s. [Possibly - I got this from a couple of things he said, but somewhere else he implied he didn't 🤷‍♀️]

Daniel was tricked into addiction to an alien device which altered his personality - and then had to come off it cold turkey. 

Another alien technology caused him to experience hallucinations, and brain scans showed signs of schizophrenia, which lead to him briefly being sectioned until they discovered the cause.

 

OK, the padded room was maybe a bit OTT. But the acting was great.

 

Sam's mind was taken over by an alien parasite, and she occasionally has flashbacks of its (sometimes very disturbing) memories.

Between them they have also experienced: minds swapped with someone else;  hallucinations; superpowers (combined with super stupidity); mind taken over by a computer; mind transferred into a computer; false memories, an alien language, or a depository of alien knowledge embedded in their mind; being stuck in a time loop; various mind-control drugs; brainwashing, rapid aging, regressing to a neanderthal state...

And, of course, there's the fact that several times a week their entire body - brain included - is disintegrated into molecules, sent many lightyears through a wormhole, and then reassembled again.

And after many years of this stuff, they're still considered fit for active duty. 

As I say, remarkably robust mental health!

Well, mostly...

Magical glowing trees

They were better in reality 

Adult colouring books for blind people

Work in progress...

Yes, believe it or not, this is a thing, but they're usually aimed at children.

 

So I'm working on designs which are clear and easy to understand for blind people, bold enough to colour with scented crayons if desired, but also more mature subjects than clowns and mermaids!

 

I'm not doing this on my own - I'm making prototypes and then passing them on to a blind friend to test. She didn't know what paisley pattern was like, or how big a peacock's tail is (and I've had to make it smaller than reality to fit in) before colouring these pictures!

 

 

In real life they will be professionally printed, and won't have all the uneven lines, spatters and smudges! But for now I'm using embossing powder, on lines drawn with refillable pens filled with a half & half mixture of non-waterproof indian ink and glycerine.