Monday, November 29, 2010

So much to update on!

I apologize for not updating in such a long time! It's been hard finding the time to gather my thoughts into a blog entry. So much has been going on lately....where to even begin? I guess I'll just open with the biggest news. I didn't want to jump the gun in posting about this, because I wanted to make sure that it was for real before I say anything. Here goes!

My back pain went away again. Just like the first time it happened, I really can't explain why. I hadn't been going to therapy for several days, and I hadn't even taken any medications for a few days prior. I woke up on Tuesday, November 23rd, and the pain was gone out of nowhere. Even the very night before it stopped, it had been hurting me badly. Nearly a week later, I'm still pain-free, so my life is returning back to normal for now. I even cancelled a doctor appointment I was supposed to have today, since it's no longer necessary.

I guess I shouldn't say I'm QUITE pain-free yet. Since I went nearly an entire month without using my lower back muscles to sit up, disuse atrophy kicked in pretty hard and those muscles are now extremely weak. This exact same thing happened the last time my back stopped hurting (except it was much worse then). I can sit up just fine for short periods, but I start feeling very worn out in my low back after extended periods. It's not completely intolerable, but it's definitely uncomfy, so I'm trying to slowly get my muscles back into shape without beating them up too much.

To everyone who wished me well and prayed for me during this time, I want to extend my deepest thanks to you from the bottom of my heart. I am a very spiritual person, and I believe that prayer can change lives. You all had a hand in making this happen, and I will forever be grateful to each and every one of you. Thanks to you, I can now live normally again, and this struggle has been a big reminder of all the things in my life I take for granted that I need to be thankful for. Right now, I am the happiest that I've been in a long time. Thank you, my friends.

Now, on to some other things...

My parents were in town for the last several days for Thanksgiving, and they just went home yesterday. We had a very nice visit, as usual, and I always enjoy spending time with them. They love going to see movies frequently, so we saw two while they were here, which were Tangled and Burlesque. I enjoyed both of them more than I expected to (Tangled especially). We also spent lots of time with other family members, and Thanksgiving itself was very nice. We had a fairly large gathering at my uncle's house, and since my grandma's birthday was the day before Thanksgiving, we also celebrated that. There was tons of yummy food, of course! I hope that my American readers out there also had a nice and enjoyable Thanksgiving! Here's a picture of my family from the gathering:


And a screw up...

Facepalm.

Since my roommates are going to be moving somewhere else in February, I am currently looking for a new place to live. I've been searching for a couple weeks now, and though I have found a couple of potential places available, I haven't managed to find anything that's perfect. Each place has had at least one or two things that bug me. Since I'm running out of time, I'll probably have to end up setting for one of those places, but I'll keep looking and looking while I still can!

One of the places is a really nice house. A lot of people live there, but they seem like a cool bunch that I would get along with well. They even met Kai and liked him! I'm pretty happy with almost everything about it, and the only thing that really bothers me is the location. It's a bit too far from where I work, and it would stink to have to either drive a long way or pay a bunch of tolls to get to work each day. My job doesn't pay enough for that kind of thing. I might end up going along with it if I don't find a place that works better, though.

Nerdy Show has been doing a lot of stuff lately. As far as things that I've taken part in, here are two Minisodes that were posted recently:



The first link in particular features a lot of talking by me (for once). There was one other thing we did recently that I took part in, which was this:

If you don't feel like clicking, the EarthBound Fanfest has been an ongoing event put on by Fangamer.com, which involves shipping a copy of EarthBound around to various people and groups all around the country and having each one play a designated part of the game while trying to complete some challenges. Nerdy Show participated in it, and I'm really happy I got to take part! It was a lot of fun.

You can watch a recording of the stream here, if you feel like it:
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/11033197
As usual, I didn't talk very much (mainly because my back was bothering me), but I still had a good time!

So, how about that Black Friday! Did any of you rush out into the crowds and get some sweet deals? I sure as heck didn't! I worked! That was my first time ever working on Black Friday, and it wasn't as crazy as I thought it would be! Though, part of the reason for that is because my store was open the night before from midnight to 3 AM, and a big crowd came in for that. When I worked the morning shift, we did have a nice, big crowd, but it was nothing too insane. It was actually pretty fun! I had a good time!

As far as buying stuff, I did get a new copy of the second Professor Layton game from my store for $17.50. Not the BIGGEST deal ever, but since those games never drop in value, I thought I should jump on it. I also bought a few things today so far for Cyber Monday. The strangest of those things was a pair of pearl earrings. The reason why it's strange is because I got them from....Newegg.com! Since when have they sold stuff like that?! They were a really nice price, though, so I got'em. I also purchased Monkey Island 2 Special Edition and Knights of the Old Republic 1 from Steam. It looks like Amazon is going to have a few games on sale later today that I'm interested in, but I probably won't be around for those sales. Oh well!

Rest in peace, Leslie Nielsen. You were a funny, funny man, and I shall try to remember you with laughter instead of sadness.

I think that covers most of the big things that have been going on lately. This is already a huge entry, so I shall bring it to a close. I'm a little torn at the moment, because I was planning on spending this afternoon/evening at Disney (Hollywood Studios, to be exact), but it started raining not long ago! I'm not sure if it's a good idea to go now. I guess I'll have to decide quick, because the day isn't getting any younger! I'm so anxious to get back to Disney, because I wasted a whole month of being able to use my seasonal pass, thanks to my back pain! I must make up for lost time. I was actually planning to go to Hollywood Studios right when my back pain started up again, so I had to cancel that visit. I basically postponed it for a month. EDIT: Didn't go to Disney. The weather was too crappy. Oh well! There's always next time.

Crap, I just realized I need a new poll. I'll make a new one later as soon as I think of one.

Thank you for reading all of this, folks! You're the best! Let's end this with a photo of my daddy and I:

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Uneventful

Hey folks, sorry for the lack of updates lately. I've had the last several days off from work, and not much has been going on. Since I'm trying to avoid driving as much as possible, I barely left the apartment at all, except to go to physical therapy.

I of course watched my Scott Pilgrim and Moulin Rouge blurays. I was very pleased with the quality of each of them. Scott Pilgrim features TONS of extras, so I spent nearly an entire day going through all of them. It was so awesome to see the deleted scenes and the pre-production stuff. They put an insane amount of effort into that movie. As for that original ending! I won't spoil it here, but man... if they had kept that, the movie would have probably received some serious backlash from the fans. I mean, I knew exactly what the original ending was going to be, since there are some things in the movie that lead up to it, but I guess they didn't have the time to go back and change those.

I haven't gone through any of the Moulin Rouge special features yet, but it's probably a lot of the same stuff from the original DVD release (which I have already gone through in the past). The movie looks absolutely gorgeous in HD, and I enjoyed this viewing more than ever before!


Last week, I abruptly purchased a game that I had been wanting for a long time. That game would be Katamari Forever! I've been a big fan of the series since the very first game was out, and I'm very happy to have a new one to play after so many years (I haven't played one since We Love Katamari came out). The only reason why I waited so long to buy it is because the price took forever to go down! However, when I checked it on Amazon last week, I was shocked at how cheap they were selling it. It's probably the cheapest you can find a sealed copy. I snatched it up immediately, and it arrived yesterday. I spent about 6 hours playing it yesterday, hehe. Though it isn't the most visually stunning PS3 game, it is definitely an improvement over the PS2 games. I never played the 360 one, so I have no basis for comparison there. The music is AWESOME! It features a bunch of remixes of the old songs, and they are RAD! It's such a fun game (like all the others), and I'm excited to play it some more!

As of the time of this posting, Skink Cam is back on. It's been really hard to have it on lately, because of the places where I have to lay down with my laptop. The USB cable for the cam doesn't quite reach my laptop in most places. I'll try to have it on when I can, though.

My back is doing a bit worse again. It had started to improve, but then it kind of plateaued off and reverted back. I guess I'll  have to try a different treatment method.

Well, after my long, unexpected and uneventful vacation, it's finally time to go back to work!

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Bluray purchases!

I just picked up two of my favorite movies on bluray! Eeeeeee so happy. One of them came out today, and I've been super duper excited for it:

Yesssssssssss! I got the last copy at the store!

If you haven't seen Scott Pilgrim yet, I insist that you watch it as soon as possible. You'll get extra bonus points if you read the comic as well! I was a big fan of the comic before the movie came out. It's such a fun series, and I'm pretty sure most gamers out there would love it. The film is a fantastic adaption of the story, and it does a great job of condensing the six volumes of the comic into less than two hours of screen time. It does have some differences from the source material, though, so I think it's best to experience both! I'm really looking forward to checking out all the special features on this bluray. I really hope that it has some good deleted scenes! I know that the ending to the movie was reworked pretty close to its release, so I want to see what the original ending was like.

When it was announced that Michael Cera was playing the role of Scott, I was not a happy camper! I was never fond of his other acting roles, and it always felt to me like he was just playing himself instead of actually acting. I feared that the movie's quality was going to suffer with him as the lead. However, when I actually saw the movie, my opinion changed. I think he did a great job as Scott, and although I still don't think he was the top choice for the role, his performance was quite good. The rest of the cast did a great job as well, and I think they're all really well suited to the characters that they portray.

I was really lucky with this movie! I managed to score some free screening passes to go see it a few weeks before it came out in theaters. It was so awesome! The theater was jam packed with people that were really into it, and they made it so much fun. I loved the movie so much that I went to go see it two more times after it came out.

Alright, this next movie is one that I doubt the majority of you have any interest in:


Ahhhh, Moulin Rouge. How I love thee. This bluray only came out a few weeks ago, and it already had a big price drop. When I was at the store tonight to buy Scott Pilgrim, I just couldn't resist picking up this one as well when I saw the price. I already have it on DVD, but this movie is definitely worth the upgrade to bluray.  I'm so so excited to see how this movie will look in spiffy HD.

For some reason, I wasn't that crazy about this movie the first time I saw it. I dunno what it was. When I saw it the second time, I LOVED it. Since then, I've loved it more and more with each viewing. I'm a big fan of musicals, so this movie is right up my alley. Instead of having its own original songs, this movie features interesting (and sometimes humorous) covers of popular music all throughout it. They're done very well, and Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor really shine in their roles (as does the rest of the cast). If you like musicals, watch it! If you don't, be open minded and watch it anyway!

I thankfully have the next several days off from work. Both of these blurays have a lot of special features, so I intend to spend that time going through all of them.

Mmmm, cookie dough ice cream.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

New Poll

The results of my last poll were pretty much what I expected. We've got a lot of youngins 'round these parts! I left that one up for so long because I had trouble thinking of something new. Well, I finally did! I'm quite curious about the ratio of male visitors to female visitors. Vote away!

My back is feeling a little better, thankfully. It's still too painful to sit up for more than a few seconds, but I can handle standing for longer periods now. I finished up my steroid pills that I was taking for it, so I hope it still continues to improve even without taking those.

The midnight release of Black Ops is tomorrow night. They have me working in the evening, though I'm not staying for the entire thing. We're having a huge event for it (like we did last year for Modern Warfare 2), so I'm expecting a super jam-packed store. So many Call of Duty fans! I might bring my webcam along and stream the event, so keep an eye out for that!

Random pic:

Friday, November 5, 2010

Therapy

Went to my first therapy session today. The people there were really nice! The therapist who worked with me was of course a gamer (like a good chunk of the people who live in this area are), and he identified me as one by my Sonic t-shirt, so he and I discussed games and other nerdy stuff throughout most of my session. I really hope physical therapy actually helps me this time, since it never did much good in the past.

I need to get into a new game. I'm not in the mood for playing any console stuff, since the places where I lay down make it kind of hard to see my TV. That leaves handhelds and PC. I'm leaning towards a PC game. Hmmm....what to play! I'll have to pick something from my immense library of unplayed games.

I can't believe how big Kai is getting! He can now almost reach the top of his tank when he presses himself against the side and stands up on his back legs. My little guy is growing up!

If I don't have a specific image/images to include with my posts, I guess I'll just do things Con-style and start including a random one that I find humorous or cool.

Random picture:

Thursday, November 4, 2010

You must watch these

These videos make me laugh every time I watch them, so I just had to share:




Watch this one after watching the first one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0PAgrm8nqg

I linked instead of embedding to not spoil it.

I dare you to watch these without laughing!

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Parents and such

My parents were in town for the last few days. It was nice to spend time with them, since I don't get to very often. We also spent time with my grandma. We went out to eat a whole bunch, like we always do when they're around. My favorite place we went to was HOOTERS!!!!! MAN I have been craving those wings lately. Now I have about five meals worth of leftovers in my fridge, since I can never eat an entire serving of anything from a restaurant.

I had my doctor appointment yesterday. The people at that office seem to really know their stuff. I think this is the best I've ever felt about any of my doctor appointments over the years since I've had this problem. I was put on to a treatment plan, so I'm doing that now, and if there's no improvement within a couple weeks, I'm to call them back and we'll try something else.

While I was at a store with my mom, I found this crazy clothing brand that I loved. My favorite piece out of everything was this weird coat that I want really badly. It's one of the weirdest things I've ever worn, and I absolutely love it.



Those photos aren't very good quality. You can't see how pretty the colors are. Here's a better one:


The problem, though, is the price. It's ridiculously expensive! However, I did find it online for about half the price. There's a problem with THAT, though. They only ship to Spain! Right now, I'm trying to find a person who lives in Spain who I can have purchase it and ship it to me. I must have that coat! I usually don't freak out over clothes. This is pretty unlike me.