Good for the Sole

I'm a fan of Cory Doctorow's book "Little Brother". It's a paranoiac novel out of my paranoid little heart (or the blackened organ that serves the same purpose in my chest cavity).

I have a point. Bear with me.

So the hero of the book has a particular brand of footwear he favors: Blundstone boots.

In light of my recent injury, I decided I needed footwear that would be less of a problem for my damaged toe.

And since I'm totally a sucker for certain types of advertising... well, long story short, I got a pair from Zappo's.

I'm wearing them now. I know you care.

They're damn comfy. I expect I'll have more to say in the future.

Credit Card-tastic

I love stuff like this (the Carzor razor).

(via various places on the web like Gizmodo and Uncrate, among others)

Having a Death Wish

Somewhat recently, I felt I absolutely had to try Death Wish Black Blood of the Earth.

The "strongest coffee in the world" coupled with the GLORY OF SCIENCE that is Herr Direktor's BBotE is something that I simply could not resist.

I got a bottle and have sparingly been working my way through it.

By "sparingly" I mean that I'm still drinking more caffeine than is healthy for any human being who expects to live a long life and avoid some kind of damage.

It has an unusual, but not unpleasant, flavor to it that sets it apart from the other versions of BBotE. And the caffeine. Sweet FSM, the caffeine.

This stuff is glorious.

I prefer the taste of the other BBotE versions, but this stuff does get the old ticker a thumpin' like mad.

I'm on a strong dose of the stuff right now, actually. Thanks to a... hiccup... in the alarm clock setting for my wristwatch, I've found myself a bit sleep-deprived today.

Well... until Death Wish BBotE. Now I just find myself levitating about ten inches off of the ground and can see new spectrums of color.

A Critic for the 21st Century

Seriously. This guy should review absolutely everything in the world exactly this way.

Weird Al gets it in one

I'm fully aware of the irony, btw.

Owie

I've never broken a bone before. At least not to my knowledge.

I expect I'd know if I had a broken bone, so I'm comfortable sticking with my first statement.

I think I broke my record last night (Har! I be funny!).

While working through throws in my class, I landed and took note that my pinky toe was not pointing in the right direction.

Yeah... that's not a good thing.

It didn't hurt, per se. It was just wrong. I reset it then opted to buddy-tape it to the next toe. I went back to doing the crazy martial arts stuff without much of a thought. As my class wrapped up, I could feel my toe starting to hurt and then wondered if I had indeed broken it.

Fast forward an hour later. I'm on the phone with the advice nurse and explaining what's going on. First thing he tells me is not to buddy-tape. No problem. That tape was gone as soon as I got home. I wanted to see if my toe was changing color or something equally disturbing.

Then came the other advice: ice it and pop pain-killers. Don't buddy tape and wear shoes with lots of toe room. Just suck it up and let the doctor's office know if things get worse.

That was pretty much what I'd expected, except the bit about buddy-taping. Apparently that causes complications. I learned something new.

The nurse advised me it's most likely the toe is dislocated, there's something torn in there, or it's broken. Not much to do but let it heal normally and not do stupid things to make it worse.

So that ends martial arts for me for a while.

And this morning, it hurts.

Here I was thinking I'm a pain-mocking badass 'cause I didn't feel any real pain yesterday. Oh silly me.

I still don't know if it's broken, sprained, or whatever. Guess it doesn't matter.

The Weekend of Nerd

My weekend accomplishments:

Cowboys and Aliens - a good movie to see with alcohol in the system.

"Ghost Story" by Jim Butcher - Not as "HOLY SHIT THAT IS INTENSE" awesome as his last book, "Changes". It's still a solid and - at times - intense story. The whodunnit caught me by surprise. The end didn't. And I'm okay with all that.

"Thundarr the Barbarian" - so apparently I've been misspelling "Thundarr" for... um... forever. Strangely enough, Western Civilization hasn't collapsed yet. I guess I have to step up my game.

In the meantime, I forgot how cheesetacular this show is. Ye gods.

Good, clean, fun. And that pretty much was my last free weekend for a long, long time.