Sebbylite

One of the members of Sockeye got married this past weekend. So what did I do? I took a bunch of pictures.

Actually, I can’t even claim that. I took some, and someone else took my camera and took a bunch more. I don’t know who, but I do know that I didn’t take half of these pictures. Oh well, enjoy!

…from Japan. That’s right, the trip that happened in February. What’s your point? You should just be happy that they got up at all…

Anyway, here they are. Enjoy!

Polo.

Yeah, I’ve been in my own little world lately. My bad.

So what has been keeping me from blogging over the past month and a half? Absolutely nothing. I’ve actually had more free time over the past three months than I usually do, so of course I’ve been using that free time to watch movies and stalk people on Facebook. You know, that important stuff that needs to get done every day.

I also went to Japan with Sockeye for the Dream Cup, which was a fun time. And since I took over 1200 pictures in the 5 days we were there, I’ve been editing those pictures in free time as well (here’s some), although not nearly at the pace I should be in order to post them.

Basically I’ve been doing a whole lot of nothing. It’s not often that I have so much time with so little to do, and it’s throwing me a bit. Plus I’m still recovering from the knee surgery last January. And by recovering, I mean that my knee feels good and I really want to start running around again, but with the 5 weeks off I seem to have gotten tendonitis in my achilles. Stupid tendonitis. But this should be easier to get rid of, and I’ll be back and ready to play soon.

But I will say that more posts are coming. Since the tournament part of Dream Cup was already covered by a bunch of people, I’ve been writing up the non-frisbee related parts to post. I’ve got Day 1 and 2 done, and will post those soon. Days 3, 4, and 5 are coming too.

So you’ll be hearing more from me soon, don’t worry.

I play a lot of pick-up basketball at the gym I go to, mostly because I can’t really see a game and not play in it. But also because I love playing basketball and I feel good during and after playing.

The gym I play at has a pretty good game too. Usually there are only 1-2 “chumps” out there at any given point in time, and everyone can at least catch the ball on a consistent basis. And of course there are also the guys that can actually play, and are usually the reason why a team wins and stays on the court for 5 games in a row. These are also the guys that I like to guard. Let’s face it, I’m not an offensive powerhouse on the court. But I realize this, so I do what I can do (rebound, make lay-ups, and play defense). The main thing I do is play defense, because that part is the most fun for me. It’s a challenge on a more personal level than the 5v5 game, it’s you against him, and it is your job to ensure that he doesn’t score. And I take that seriously, because it’s fun to beat guys who think that they are the hottest shit on the court since they first started making pumps.

Anyway, back before they switched ownership of the gym, there was a little bit different crowd that went to play. One guy in particular I always liked playing against, because he was good. Not only was he good, but he actually tried when he was out there, unlike a lot of guys who just dribble down the court and shoot from just past half-court because they are lazy. It was always a big challenge for me to play against him: he was strong, a good shot, quick, and didn’t lose the ball that easily. I’m sure that he didn’t give two rabbit farts about me, but I always knew that if he was there, it would be a good game.

Then I saw him outside of the gym about 2-3 weeks ago, and lost all respect for him. Why, you ask? Well, he was walking across the street while I was driving, and he was following behind this tiny pug with a pink jacket on. I could hardly keep myself from laughing out loud at him. Because even if it was his girlfriend’s dog and he was just taking the pug out for a walk, as soon as you get out of the house you take that damn jacket off and stash it in your pocket until you get back again.

Like I said, he hasn’t been back to the gym to play that I’ve seen since they changed ownership. But if he did come back, I’m not sure I could take him seriously anymore.

What can I say, I’m boring.

Or at least that is what almost all of my doctors and nurses told me today. I’m not allergic to anything, I don’t have any sort of medical history (other than getting my wisdom teeth out, which doesn’t count), I’m pretty healthy in general, I have a good heart and lungs, I don’t notice or squeam when they put the IV in or give me shots, I don’t get nauseous from being in general anesthesia, and I don’t even notice that I had surgery today other than the fact that I can’t move my leg much. Basically, boring.

Although it seems that no one believes me when I say that my knee doesn’t hurt at all. The nurses kept asking if I wanted a wheelchair to get out of the Recovery Room. All my friends claim that it is just the leftover pain medication that is masking the knee pain (although if it was leftover pain medication, why would my throat hurt from having the breathing tube in and then removed, but not my knee?). And my dad just flat out doesn’t believe me (he had ACL surgery a long time ago, and it didn’t go good for him).

Not that I am going to tell any of this to my office. They hooked me up with a laptop so that I could work from home, and by golly I’m going to do just that for as long as I can. I should be able to push through until at least next Wednesday before I need to go back into the office, which is amazing.

I guess the best story I can tell about today is that the anesthesiologist who was working on me all morning was mildly attractive (not in scrubs, but her ID picture was pretty good), and that they gave me some vanilla pudding when I woke up. Of course we had to settle on vanilla pudding because they didn’t have what I originally asked for (bacon, eggs, waffles, and toast), but it was pretty good anyway.

Oh, and the fact that my dog hates me now. I lumber around after him, which he doesn’t really understand. And I don’t move very fast, so when I took him for a walk this afternoon, he kept looking back at me as if to say “What the hell, man?!? I move faster than this when I’m dragging my ass on the carpet at home. Let’s get a move on here!”. Maybe that is my imagination, but if I were him that’s definitely what I would be thinking.

Unless anything goes drastically bad or uncharacteristically good, this is probably the last I’m going to tell everyone about the whole process. For the most part, it was boring, and I’m not so much of an asshole that I’ll subject you to a hour by hour account of my recovery (I’m close, but I’m also lazy which is taking precedence right now). So this is me, hour 5, saying I’m bored of watching movies already, and I’m out.

As I sit here and read through my “Patient Education: About Your Surgery Experience”, I can’t help but laugh at how stupid people are. Honestly, does it really need to be said that if you have had a regional anesthetic, then that part of your body will be numb until it wears off? I guess it does.

But this one really got me:

Please do not do any of the following for 24 hours after anesthesia or sleeping medicine: drive, drink alcohol, travel alone, operate machinery, sign any legal papers, be responsible for another person such as a child.

Damn. I guess that will signing won’t get done this week. And that settlement for the class action suit? Not gonna happen. Oh, and those adoptions papers that I was going to sign? Well it looks like I’m just going to be put back to the bottom of the list. And I was going to close on my new house too, but oh well, that can wait for next Monday.

Ah, sarcasm. I love it.

I decided to go out hiking on Saturday, because it was the last weekend that I will have the full use of two legs for about a month and a half.

Yep, I’m going under the knife on Friday. What for, you may ask? Well, the “patellar tendonitis” that I’ve been dealing with for the past year has actually turned out to be a torn patellar tendon. And the options were 1) deal with it for the next 10-15 years until you give up playing sports altogether, or 2) have surgery and be back to 100% in about 5-6 months. Freakily, I chose the latter.

Back to the hike, which was awesome. Esky loves the snow, and as soon as we got out of the car he just started running around in it, stopping every once in a while to eat a mouthful just because. I also like the snow, but it makes taking pictures a little tough, especially since it was raining for the first part of the hike, until I got a little higher in elevation. But I got a couple good shots, some of which are added to the end of this post.

Basically the hike was straight uphill, which I wasn’t really looking for but it turned out to be good for me anyway. Esky ranged ahead the whole time, jumping in streams and digging up rocks, checking out different things off the trail, and generally having a grand old time. I was a little slower (since I only have two legs, and was carrying all my stuff), but still managed to go fast enough to keep him happy. After about a mile of uphill, we came to an overlook of I-90. The snow was really coming down at that time, which makes for bad pictures but an awesome view. You couldn’t really tell what was snow falling, what was snow on the ground, what was cloud, and what was freeway. Pretty neat. (Yeah, that’s right, I said “neat”, what are you going to do about it?)

Here’s a couple shots I did get that turned out:

Snow berms before we got into them.

Did I mention that the dog likes snow?

Sounds like pretty solid advice. At least as far as signs are concerned…

My brother just sent me a text message, and I’m not sure if it is because it is my birthday soon or if there is an actual International Disadvantaged People Day, but this is what it said:

Today is International Disadvantaged People Day. Please send an encouraging message to a retarded friend just as I’ve done for you. Because I don’t care if you lick windows, screw farm animals, take the short bus, or occasionally shit on yourself. You hang in there Sunshine, you’re Special!

So consider this my forwarding of said text message. Because I know that the only people that actually find what I write amusing probably do ride the short bus. Or have to use sporks because they aren’t allowed to use forks for fear they might harm themselves. Or have to wear a helmet indoors to prevent injury. Or wear rec-specs when they play in athletic events. You know, Disadvantaged People.

On a side note, the 2009 Special Olympics World Winter Games will be held in Boise, and I’m pretty sure that my brother isn’t going to be able to take it. Because on the one hand, they are Olympians. But on the other hand, they are Special Olympians.

And now I’m pretty sure I’ve alienated half of my remaining readership (2 people). And I’m also pretty sure I’ll be going to Hell. So drop me a line sometime…

I wanted to write a quick post to let y’all know that I’m still around. Still alive and kickin’, still picking up what others are putting down, still smelling what I just stepped in, still here, just busy. Most of my blogging time has been taken up by the commute that I now have. Which is very unfortunate, since I still have quite a bit of stuff to write about, I just don’t write it.

And yes, I’ll try to get the comments fixed sometime soon. Tall mentioned that they aren’t accessible, which they shouldn’t be since I shut them off to keep from getting so much damn spam. Sadly enough, now that I’ve turned them off, no one can comment on my posts and yet I still get spam posts. How is that possible?

Finally, try to remember what the Holidays are about. No, not family and friends and good cheer, but consumerism. Wait, switch that last part around. The Holidays are about spending time with loved ones, friends, and even strangers in a forgiving and happy environment. So if that means you don’t flip off the guy at the mall that cut you off for that parking spot, so be it. If it means that you don’t mutter angrily under your breath as you are walking behind the 95 year old couple in the super market that they should be put in a home somewhere, so be it. And if it means that you skip that drink at the bar after work and go home to spend some time with the wife and kids, so be it.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Hanukkah, and enjoy every single other holiday that there is out there at this time of year.

Here’s a contest that sounds pretty cool. The X Prize Foundation is offering up a multi-million dollar prize amount to the company/group that can create a car that gets over 100 miles per gallon. I’m not sure how they are going to determine who gets the prize if more than one car hits that mark, as it already looks like quite a few have hit or exceeded that number, but it should be interesting to see what comes out of the contest.

Of course, the next contest will be the marketing contest, which offers a multi-million dollar prize to the company that can make people believe that they won’t be ridiculed for driving one of these cars. Technically I think that this second contest will be the tougher to complete. Read about the whole 100 mpg Car Contest here.

A flower that kills disease. Instead of spending millions/billions solving the symptoms, let’s just spend hundreds of thousands of dollars preventing the problem from occurring. Sounds like a bargain to me. It’s like spaying and neutering your pets instead of trying to find homes for all the puppies. Like using a condom instead of dropping out of school to get a job to pay for diapers. Like getting more sleep instead of relying on caffeine to get us through the day. Wait, not that last one…

The most common way of fighting diseases like malaria, dengue fever, and West Nile today is to try to wipe out the mosquitoes carrying them and treat those who have been infected. Now there’s an alternative on the horizon that promises to be safer and cheaper by zapping the germs while sparing the mosquitoes. The technology is hidden in an artificial flower designed to attract mosquitoes and treat them with pathogen-killing drugs that allow the insects to live and continue to perform important functions such as pollinating flowers and serving as food for animals and other insects.

Pretty interesting stuff, and exactly why I liked Biology in undergrad. Find the rest of the article here.