Happy 70th Birthday

Bruce Lee - born 27 November 1940

Today would have been Bruce Lee's 70th birthday.

Nike 6.0 DeLorean Shoe

I want these.

Limited to 1000 pairs.

Limited edition shoe to be released on 26 November.  There will only be 1000 pairs available...which pretty much means I will not be getting a pair.  Will retail for about $100...look for it on eBay for about $500.  Meh, whatever.  I think the shoe is good, but not great.  The box, however, is a no-brainer. 

Gullwing box.  Limited edition of limited editions.

The gullwing box is limited to about 100 of the 1000 already limited run of shoes.  Well, this will not be the first time I spend $500 dollars on a pair of shoes on eBay, that I will never wear.  Maybe I will get lucky and find a pair.

Theoren Fleury and I Are Best Friends

Well, at least on twitter...okay, not really.  So what, he once totally ignored me when I was trying to get his autograph, he was in back of a moving car.

But today, today!  This happened...no really, it did:

Not too nerdy, is it?

I know I am pretty awesome at Photoshop, but that is an actual screen shot of the "conversation" I had with Theoren Fleury.  Yeah, I know it was only through twitter...baby steps.  This was the first time I got a response from a celebrity.  Unless you count Pat Steinberg, over a year ago.  What?  You know, Pat Steinberg from Fan 960.

FUCK YOU, STOP CALLING ME - November 2010

I realize that because of all these fucking assholes out there, this needs to be a monthly series.   Because of my situation, I get tired really fast. I have to take naps like a I am still in pre-school.  So, getting calls in the middle of the day fucks up my nap time.  Even if I did not have to take naps, it would interrupt my busy day at work.  Heck, I get calls on the weekends, even Sundays.  By the way, I did register for the "Do Not Call List" long ago...which I now see is a total fucking scam for these terrorists.

30 November 2010
   612-808-5589  MN, USA
   856-296-9638  NJ, USA

23 November 2010
   602-396-4344  Phoenix, AZ
   612-808-5589  MN, USA (if you Google this number, it leads you back here)

21 November 2010
   928-268-3060  Flagstaff, AZ 

19 Nobember 2010
   646-588-5627  NY, USA

18 November 2010
   928-268-3060  Flagstaff, AZ
   612-808-5589  MN, USA
   949-466-7139  Orange County, CA (via text  yeah, they fucking text, now)

16 November 2010
   404-891-6767  GA, USA

15 November 2010
    612-808-5589  MN, USA

14 November 2010

   928-268-3060  Flagstaff, AZ 

10 November 2010

   928-268-3060  Flagstaff, AZ

9 November 2010

   407-545-6413  FL, USA

   314-627-6661  MO, USA

   281-441-1952  Humble, TX

8 November 2010

   469-201-7025  Dallas, TX

6 November 2010

   928-268-3060  Flagstaff, AZ

4 November 2010

   469-201-7025  Dallas, TX

   469-201-7025  Dallas, TX

   469-201-7025  Dallas, TX (yeah, THREE TIMES in ONE DAY)

   314-627-6737  MO, USA 

3 November 2010

   646-558-6611  NY, USA

1 November 2010

   917-297-5533  NY, USA

Really?  Flagstaff, Arizona...I would consider this stalking.  I mean seriously, you are like a desperate thirteen year old girl.  We are through, get over it.   I never really liked you, I used you.  There are plenty of other people registered on the do not call list waiting for you to harass them, call one of them.

Random Thoughs III - And Update On Recovery

Went to the see Dr. Shin today, he said everything was fine.  I had concerns because of pain in the palm of my hand...and not much pain in the wrist area, where all the action took place.  Well, if the doctor says there is nothing to worry about, I am going with it.  To quote a great movie, "you're the doc, Doc".

The best part is, he prescribed me more painkillers (morphine) and sleeping pills (ambien).  Woo-hoo!  And, I only need to go to physical therapy two times a week, instead of three...but for six more weeks.  Even the physical therapist says my range of motion is coming back faster than expected.  Oh, one of the exercises I do at home is stick handling with a ball.  Never too early to start conditioning for the next season.

I am doing fine, and everything looks good.  Feeling is slowly return back to my numby thumby and index finger.  Tendons and nerves are healing and 'rebooting', that is sending signals as pain. So, the pain is a good thing, feeling pain is better than feeling nothing, as in damaged nerves.  And, I am going to have a very cool scar.

Yes, I have a Tauntaun sleeping bag.

 Thanks to everyone for your well wishes.

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I have lost eleven pounds so far since my injury.  Eleven pounds in five weeks, and I am not even trying.  Find me a diet plan that can achieve that...and throw in a piece of titanium.  

I am physically unable to grip anything with any real strength, so I am unable to drive.  I could drive one handed, but who are we kidding here, ahem..Asian driver.  This sucks, because the DeLorean is just sitting in the garage.  Sometimes, I will just sit in it and listen to my Back to the Future soundtrack.  I think I will start it up tomorrow, just to feel and hear the engine. Yeah, pretty sad.

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Okay, let us get one thing straight.  Speaking of Back to the Future...okay, I promise this is the last Back to the Future post for a long while...26 October is NOT the anniversary of the release of the movie.  People, this was a summer movie.  Last time I checked, October is not a summer month.  July is a summer month, the movie to be released on 3 July 1985.

So all you nerds out there thinking you were celebrating the 25th Anniversary last month, you were only celebrating the date when the Time Machine first traveled through time...in the movie.  Oh, and it was the Blu-Ray release date.  One more thing, notice what date and time I started this post...who is the nerd, now?

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X-ray of titanium plate and screws (also titanium)

One last thought.  I thought about getting a tattoo on my wrist of the silhouette of the titanium plate.  But, I am sort of a wuss.  Besides, I think I have had enough pain in that area.  And, it cost money.  Yeah, I know what is another hundred or two compared to the thousands already spent on that area?  Instead, I am going to somehow mark my hockey gloves of where my scars are.  Like with stitches or just marker it.  Maybe I should get a silhouette of the plate in vinyl and stick it on my car, like this Hot Wheels sticker I have on my door.

Hot Wheels decal on passenger door.  Only seen when door is open.

FUCK YOU, STOP CALLING ME - October 2010

I have been getting a lot of calls from telemarketers lately.  Here is a list of numbers that I have received calls since mid October...because that is how far my records go:

30 October 2010

   630-869-6612  IL, USA 

29 October 2010

   786-358-6691  FL, USA 

27 October 2010

   701-264-5658  Dickson, ND

   469-201-7025  Dallas, TX

25 October 2010

   314-627-6754  MO, USA

22 October 2010

   404-891-6662  GA, USA

21 October 2010

   949-505-2662  Orange County Area

15 October 2010

   302-394-6623  DE, USA

14 October 2010

   404-891-6711  GA, USA

   310-922-2569  Los Angeles Area

Unfortunately, I will be adding to this list.  I guess there are just that many assholes out there...and to all of you, FUCK YOU!

Broken, Fractured...and Dislocated - Part VIII

I have not had a good night sleep since my injury.  The pain from either swelling, numbness, pressure, healing...you name it, would wake me up.  I was getting about one to two hours of sleep before I wake up.  Walking around in the middle of the night helps the blood circulate.  This walking and pacing usually lasted about an hour before the pain subsided and I was able to go back to sleep.  On average, I would get about four hours sleep per night.  Of course, I would try to make it up the sleep hours during the day...but again, I would only get about ninety minutes at a time.

A few days later, I had a check up with Dr. Shin.  According to him, everything looked good.  I got to finally see the x-rays that showed the titanium plated the the seven titanium screws that secured the plate to the bone.  Awesome!  He also prescribed me some sleeping pills and more painkillers.  I need both to help me through the night.  I still wake up a few times in the middle of the night,but usually fall back asleep in about ten minutes.  On occasion, I need to walk off the pain.  Yeah, it sucks...but that is the price one pays for titanium.

Dr. Shin also 'prescribed' me six weeks of physical therapy.  When I started, I had limited movement in my wrist, and very little strength.  I am about half way through the six weeks, and movement and flexibility is at about 85%.  Strength?  Well, we are still working on that.  Doc says it will take time and I should have full movement and strength.  I still have numbness in the pad of the thumb and index finger.  They say that will take time, six months to a year, to see if it gets to 100%.  It is already better than a few weeks ago.  Yeah, six months...so when the playoffs start?

The road to recovery is long and slow...like a long and windy road, that leads to your door.  Dork!  I have been working half days, still pumping out product.  Told you I am a fucking bad ass.  I even went to the recent convention and participated in one of the events two days after the surgery.  So, you are all caught up in the events that kept me from updating my blog...other than my usual laziness.  Thanks for reading, and if you want to see some of the pictures of my injury, scar, incision, stitches, and progression, you can go here:

Warning:  Some pictures may be disturbing to some...yet totally awesome to others.  Click here.


I will be updating the photos every week to track the healing process.  I only wish I had better 'before' pictures.  So, am I going to play hockey when this is all healed?  Hell yeah!

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Go to Part I - Part II - Part III - Part IV - Part V - Part VI - Part VII

Broken, Fractured...and Dislocated - Part VII

Surgery was on Tuesday, 12 October.  That night I had no sleep because the pain kept me up.  Wednesday night was no different.  Daytime was not that fun, either.  Thursday morning, 14 October, at about 4AM, I woke up in indescribable pain.  Different than the fire pain, but same level of pain.  There was the pain of bones, muscle, and tendons...in addition to that, there was a swelling pain.  No, not a swell pain...a swelling pain.  I am talking over inflation of an inner tube, about to burst, kinda pain.  You know those little wrinkles and creases on the back for your hand and fingers?  Go ahead, take a look...yeah, those.  Well, my hand was so swollen, that those creases and wrinkles were not there.  That was the good part.

My fingers were going numb.  It started the night before with my thumb and index finger going numb.  I figured it was because of the surgery.  Actually, there is a nerve that runs down the thumb and across where my break was.  So, by that morning, the numbness had migrated to include my middle finger and starting to get to my ring finger.  Yeah, not good.

Wife called the 24 hour hotline.  The on-call doctor (Dr. Johnson, I think) suggested we unwrap and loosen the bandages.  I only got to the first layer of wrap when I realized there was a semi-cast, to protect the incision area, preventing further removal of wrapping.  We eventually got through to Dr.Shin and he suggested that we go in as soon as possible.  I like that idea.

Went to the office...in Beverly Hills...Dr. Shin removed the rest of the bandages.  Immediately, it felt a lot better.  Okay, let me go off on a tangent here.  That Beverly Hills office was awesome, it looked like a showroom.  There was valet parking (free for patients), marble flooring, washroom was really nice.  Heck, even the receptionist behind the counter had a Louis Vuitton purse.  Other than the staff that was dressed in scrubs, it did not look like a doctor's office.

So, bandages were off.  For the first time, I got to see where the incision was made.  This was the plan; remove the bandages and see if swelling goes down and feeling comes back in to fingers, if not Dr. Shin and his crew are ready to perform a carpal tunnel release...in other words, surgery number two.  I sat there in his office...well, more like captain's ready room...while he went on with his business.  He had six surgeries that morning, and he would check on me before and after each one.  Apparently carpal tunnel surgery is 'fast and easy, only 5-10 minutes'.

We waited a few hours to see if there was any improvement.  Also, since I ate a little that morning, I had to wait for the food (four crackers and a cheese stick) to digest before the surgery.  Apparently, one can vomit during an operation and the barf can come up, then down the wrong tube...like Jimi Hendricks.  So, I had to wait anyways...and gave us a chance to observe any progress.  Well, there was no progress.  I was going for surgery number two.  Keep in mind that I was in pain the whole time while waiting for my situation to improve.

Around 11:30, one of the nurses began to prep me for surgery.  He saw that I was in pain and hooked me up with some painkillers.  I had the usually tubes and wires hooked up to me...and I got heated blankets.  Man, I love those heated blankets.  Oh, since this was Beverly Hills, their hospital gowns were fancier than your typical gowns.  Hair net and booties were the same.  The painkillers relaxed me and I think I may have even dozed off for a few minutes.

Go time!  They wheel me in to the operating room.  Again, the room was very cold.  My teeth were chattering, pretty sure my nipples were hard and/or my penis shrunk...but you did not need to know that.  Too late, you already read it.  Ha!   The operating table was set up the same way, I would lay there with arms spread out.  They took a little longer to hook me up to the sedation juice so I had a chance to see some of their preparation.  I was given weird blanket.  I can only describe it as a row of parallel tubes, but fabric.  The tubes ran length wise, and was pumped with warm air.  Yep, another heated blanket.  These Beverly Hills guys spare no expenses.  At around 12:30, I was out.

Dr. Shin later explained what he did in the second surgery.  An incision was made at the base of my palm to do a carpal tunnel release.  This releases the pressure that was causing the nerve to be pinched.  He also had to re-open the first incision to clear out some blood clots, as the bone was bleeding.  That bleeding along with the 'regular' swelling caused my hand to balloon and have unwanted pressure on the nerve.  So, it was a good thing that we caught it early...and a good thing that he went in and 'cleaned up'.

I woke up in much the same way as the first surgery...meaning, I had to go pee really bad.  For some reason, I did not get any snacks this time.  Maybe because I was not scheduled to be there that day.  I was hoping that since it was Beverly Hills, I would get champagne wishes and caviar dreams.  Leaving the doctor's office and back home I go for some much needed rest.

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Go to Part I - Part II - Part III - Part IV - Part V - Part VI - Part VIII

Broken, Fractured...and Dislocated - Part VI

So, they wheel me in to the operating room. I notice that they have my x-rays on the light box thingy on the wall.  I guess they need some sort of map before they open me up.  The room was really cold, good thing they have heated blankets.

They park me next to the operating table and have me slide over.  First the nurse moves my left arm to the table extension.  Good thing she was in charge of relocating my arm, as I could not move it.  Actually, she had already moved it when they had me side over.  I thought my arm was still on my chest, only to look over during my bed transfer to see that my arm was already on the table.  Kinda freaky to have no control nor knowledge of one's appendage.  They place my right arm, the one with all the tubes, on another table extension.  I would lie there with my arms spread out...like I am flying.

The next thing I remember, I am waking up in the recovery room.  No countdown or mindless chit chat, nothing.  One minute, I am lying on the operating table, having my right arm placed on the table...the next minute, the doctor is showing me x-rays of the plate he just put in.  I recall going through the motions of Siu Lim Tao, first form of Wing Chun, with my right hand...I was still woozy at the time.  Dr. Shin asked me if I was meditating, and I remember saying, "no, Wing Chun"...or, it was all a dream.  For the next half hour, I would come in and out of conciseness.  Again, I did not notice the procedure was completed until I looked at my hand and was looking at a burrito.  Arm was still blocked, no pain or the ability to move. 

When I started to become more aware of my surroundings, one of the nurses gave me some crackers, cookies, and apple juice as a post operation treat.  Not as good as a toy, but I have not eaten anything since midnight, about fourteen hours.  Food and drink was a good idea.  Coming out of sedation is kinda fun, like being legally high.  I was kept in the recovery room for a while, I guess it takes about an hour for the sedation to wear off.

Once I was conscious enough to check out, the first thing I wanted/need to do was to pee.  Remember the drip?  I got to ride in a wheelchair for the first time.  I guess that is hospital policy to escort a patient via wheelchair so they do not get injure during transport to car.  Yeah, I was wheeled into the bathroom.  Then, wheeled to the special elevator and to the car.  Time to go home and rest.

Remember that block they put on my arm?  It is suppose to last twelve to eighteen hours.  For me, it lasted six.  I took some painkillers as soon as I felt a little tingling.  Did not do much...as the block wore off, the pain started coming, like a fucking runaway freight train. The nerves in along the incision woke up, as well as the 'feeling' in my bones.  I tell you, it was a new kinda of pain. 

Holy shit!  My bones felt like a car rolled over me and all the weight was on my arm, a crushing feeling.  The incision felt like it was on fucking fire.  I mean it really felt like it was burning.  Burning like the towers at the Saddledome after a power play goal by Mark Giordano.  Fuck me, this lasted about two hours before the painkillers kicked in.  Needless to say, I did not sleep well.

Note:  I am writing this four weeks after the day since my injury.  I have lost ten pounds in those four weeks due to loss of muscle mass.  I went from working out seven days a week to nothing.  But, at least I am losing weight, right?

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Go to Part I - Part II - Part III - Part IV - Part V - Part VII - Part VIII