Last week at physical therapy, my PT told me I was doing really well and that I should be looking to test my “LIMITS” to see what my back could do. Now this is sufficiently vague. I know this is to see the range of what physical limits I have. BUT! it could also be the “Limits” on how mentally stupid I could be too.

So I intend to list out some of the Physical and mental tests I have run myself through.

TEST 1
Forgetting to stretch at home for most of the week.
Analysis- This is both physical and mental. I have been clearing a nice spot in the basement which has now only served as a lovely cat bed for Taiko. I swear if she could talk she would be saying “thanks for this comfy exercise mat!” The physical side is more replacing the 45 minutes of straight crunchy, pilates, strechy workout with simple little stretches that I do throughout the day. Seems to be work.
The mental stupid part is getting stressed out about not stretching. Kinda counter intuitive.

TEST 2
Having to work Silver Screen Test
For those of you who are movie trivia buffs head on over to SILVER SCREEN TEST. This is one of the few shows I work anymore at Access Montgomery television station. I am the only one around who isn’t scared of the quiz show setup. It requires lights to be hung and a slightly intricate electronics to be pieced together.
The physical part was much more endurance. I did hang lights and it required going up and down a ladder. But I didn’t do any big lights or move any big set pieces. But it was a long morning.
The mental test was much more challenging for the day. I started the day by rounding up Sam and G plus Sam’s friend Hilda and her little brother Emma who is G’s friend. As you could imagine, that was more like gathering a flock of geese, or herding cats. Top that off with Sam’s attempt to make pancakes that filled the living room with smoke (results were black on the outside while liquid on the inside), and the morning was looking jim dandy already. The mental part was trying not to go insane after seeing Garrett running across the conference room table, Emma screaming, Sam pouting and Hilda on the phone. Add on to that working a TV show after being off for 4 months, and you soon learn why alcohol was such a BIG HIT.

But all in all I lived through the weekend. I just got back from PT today and the Therapist said again I was doing great. We ran through a bunch of Benchmarks and I am much more flexible that when I started. I rode my bike today for the first time in forever. No Pain. Therapist was happy with that and moved me down to one visit a week!!!! YAHOO! Now I need to remember to do the damned exercises.

To get back to the Bike fetish that I am running right now (Absinthe makes the heart…) I stopped at Revolution Cycles and now the Surly is run up against the TREK XO-1.

For those of you who have never heard of Cyclocross here is a little taste of the crazy stuff this bike is made for.

Now I am not saying I am going to jump out and do this but…

DID YOU SEE THE MUD?? Jumpin Baby Jesus on fresh laid tarmack!!!! Damn that looks fun!

Now as everyone who knows me will attest I am nothing if not a patient soul…

OK I cant even finish the sentence. No I will be good. I will not just run out and buy a cyclocross bike. Somehow I know that Hijalti is behind this I am not sure how…damn him.

Moving on. I know I wont be buying a bike soon because I will be paying off the Vet bills for the cat, who need ultrasound. We need to find out why she is so obsessive about food and loosing weight.

Oh well in the meantime while we fix our cat…Please enjoy NINJA CAT!

peace and muddy ninja cat grease

-gg

How can it be? There is a metric ton of internet goodness out there that needs to be commented on. I cannot make any political statements, as I am intentionally boycotting anything political. As a matter of fact that I have used the word “Political” now 3 times is pushing up against my limit of using the word political only 4 times in a blog. So I wont be saying…

I digress. Something I have been remiss at is pimping Red vs Blue. I think the newest series Red vs Blue: Reconstruction is an excellent story. I forgot to mention this last post.

They are up to episode 13 I believe (I did say I was remiss), so stop wasting time at work doing work and get on this thing.

The more I think about it, I think my son has a weird effect on electronics. In the vein of Jim Butcher‘s “The Dresden Files“, the character Harry Dresend lives a life of light bulbs burning out, computers crashing, and must drive the simplest car, a VW Beetle, all because wizards have a negative effect on technology. Magic and technology are polar opposites.

Why do I mention this? Because, once again, I have tried to record one of Garrett’s long discourses. Using the Blackberry voice note recorder, I started to record Garrett’s tale of how our house in the future would be 700 feet under water, and there would be metal mushrooms that were soft under but had metal tops …as a matter of fact he can out the door TWICE to continue telling me this very important story. I finally convinced him that he needed to go to class. Not sure but I think he turned, still talking about the story, and walked off talking.

Success! I would have an audio post for everyone to hear…or so I thought. When I got to work, I sync’d up the BB and to my surprise, there was no saved file of the discussion. It was still there, it was on the screen…then it just went away. Garrett must have the Wizardly antagonism of technology. I dont know if I can tell him it will mean not being able to build Weldon the Robot when he turns 18.

On to much more topical things. I am getting functionally much better. Doesnt hurt to exist any more. I say this while mentally looking over my shoulder waiting for the bastard with the big iron spike to drive it through my back again. But I am getting back to some level of normality. So normal, that Stac and I got to go see a movie. Finally got to see “The Dark Knight”. I thought it was great! Heath Ledger did the most amazing performance as the Joker. I will give nods to Jack Nicholson and Cesar Romero, but Heath Ledger was absolutely off the radar.

Before the movie though, the preview of “WATCHMEN” showed.

OK the trailer is action, is dark, is in that line that trailers can be more than the film like the IRON MAN TRAILER. Maybe I am not the best consumer for this. Maybe I am too close to the story. I have issues with the statement ” The most celebrated graphic novel of all time” …OK using ‘celebrated’ is possibly the most obscure way to say ‘great’ or ‘popular’…sure now way to deny it. Using “OF ALL TIME” …um…a very strong statement…but also ‘graphic novel of all time’ ? Its like saying ‘the fastest personal computer OF ALL TIME!’…you still are only talking about a span of 30-40 years. In literature, man has been writing for approximately 5500 years. The term “Graphic Novel” just isnt that old. Will Eisner used the term to market his book “A Contract with God” back in the late ’70′s, it had been used before but still…we’re not talking 5500 years. Also the music is interesting. The Smashing Pumpkins “The End Is the Beginning Is the End” is a song written for “Batman and Robin” although they use the reprise for the Watchmen video. I like the Smashing Pumpkins but seems a little tried to use another movies song for your trailer.

I am truly excited about the movie but also nervous as hell. Hollywood sometimes can ruin the greatest story, because someone up in an office says “I don’t think the people will understand this…can we put in a fuzzy bunny…I love fuzzy bunnies”. The greatest story ever told… about fuzzy bunnies. Now mind you a trailer is just that. Knowing the story, the trailer has scenes that I know are single panel flash backs that fill in character details. All important but how is the Story, does the movie cover it? Is Zack Synder (director) going to butcher Alan Moore’s story? Will Zack Synder bend or will this be monumental like Ridley Scott and Blade Runner?

An interview “Foundations and Future of ‘Watchmen’ with Zack Snyder” done by Brad Brevet of “The Contenders” movie view site, had some positive things from the mouth of Zack Synder.

Well I think the knee jerk for everyone is to go, “Update it, make it contemporary, make it the war on terror or whatever,” and that’s all cool, but I don’t know. I don’t know if that’s cooler than making the book just the way it is. Is the metaphor clearer if you update it or is the metaphor clearer if you just render it the way it is, as a metaphor? That might be a better way to do it, I don’t know.

Also most important to me.

With “Watchmen” I don’t feel that way at all and I feel now, as the campaign starts to amp up for what the movie is, and with the help of you guys, I think that’s the process – you can’t take “Watchmen” to pop culture, you have to bring them to the movie. For instance, if I made a version of “Watchmen” which was easily understandable by mass culture it wouldn’t be the book, it wouldn’t be “Watchmen”. In that way, I think when people see it and they’re like, “What the fuck is that?” I think that’s right, that’s the right step.

OK I am not sure how it will turn out but the interview sounds like Synder respects the story. How that translates after the editors get hold of it, the marketers, the executives and the fluffy bunnies, only MARCH 2009 will tell.

OK onto other more surly things. And when I say surly, I actually mean SURLY. I am of course talking about my new voice in the back of my head. THE SURLY “LONG HAUL TRUCKER”

OK I may be swayed by the name, who can’t like a company named SURLY, it cuts right to the quick. They can be crappy to you on the phone…they have to be…the are SURLY!!!! Now that is not a verified fact. I have not talked to anyone from the company. Their website pimps bikes made by cyclists for cyclists. How did I miss these guys? They only came across my sites as I was following up a post by Hijalti over at Empathy Test and his new bike lust for a Salsa Fargo. That bike didn’t catch my eye nearly as much as the “Karate Monkey” it replaced. A bike with a name like Karate Monkey? How sweet is that? But I have been leaning toward a touring bike, for commuting and such. I just cant see myself on a razor thin road bike. There is too much grass and mud out there to be splashed through. I love my Trek, but with my back being sore and tired right now, I am thinking smoother is better. The Long Haul Trucker sure looks nice. Thanks again Hijalti!!

I missed the passing of Warren Zevon (again Hijalti) on Sept 7.

And last but most important for today is 9/11. Take a moment to remember those who passed on that day. Sad day, no one woke up that morning wanting to be a political martyr, except a couple dumb bastards, and not the ones who thought the plan up either. Chicken. Worthless.

peace and trucker grease

-GG

The Grumpy Gecko made it to YOUTUBE! I feel I made an impact on popular culture. Haven’t had a chance to watch it yet but I am sure it its Rant-o-lific.

peace and gecko grease

-GG

Yes, that was a quote from the boy. It was uttered just before school started. At the time I thought it funny but unremarkable, and so I didn’t remark on it. Its good to know that he can find joy in any little thing, legos, play doh, picka chu…it is also reassuring to know that I will step on said items in the middle of the night because he needs to leave them in the general lanes of traffic at the house. AH serendipity.

BUT really today does feel like the most awesome day. I got to sleep in, my back still hurts a bit but I haven’t had a flair up in 2 weeks. Its raining so I had to stay in and I got to clean up some of the downstairs…OK these last 2 really don’t sound like truly awesome things. I my own way they are, but something monumental has come about that makes the WHOLE WORLD A BETTER PLACE…

The RETURN OF FLINTLOCKE!!!

The original comic done based on the most generic group of MMO’ers ever was truly inspired. Speaking of the original comic it has been redone as…

The comic was created by Dave ‘Fargo’ Kosak over at Gamespy. He is creative director for the PlanetQuake/GameSpy network. He states “in a small company, you wear a lot of hats. It means I do some writing, I create content, I do much of our PR, I work with our hosting director to assemble teams and I help those teams create sites”. That was taken from an interview Loonygames, not our friend Andy but another gamer.

When asked the question.. “Fargo on PlanetQuake comes across as a very funny, upbeat, quirky, silly kinda fun guy. Would that description fit Dave Kosak?” he replied “No, the real Dave Kosak is actually a Goth who lives in the refrigerator of a local Subwaytm sandwich shop.”

I hope that gives some insight to the mind that created Flintlocke and now the new installment. The new comic comes at the world of Flintlocke from the Horde side.

All of this makes me forget the sore parts, the rain, the streesed out backlog at work, and any of lifes little problems, because at least Im not Flintlocke.

peace and “Chuck Shot” grease

-gg