Category: Injuries & Illnesses

In which our hero regains an enjoyable bit of his life, post-MBA

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Some friends and I played basketball tonight. It was my first time since…oh, since this happened. Actually, I did hurt my wrist again tonight…jammed it on somebody as he ran by. That’s all it is, though…jam or a minor sprain.

It felt good to play again, even if I was terribly out of sync & shape. Thankfully we all were.

One weird thing: in the schoolyard where we played there was this…I dunno, aerobics class or boot camp thing or something. Twenty girls doing push-ups and wind sprints and being barked at by some instructor while listening to the most horrible dance remixes of disco songs (surely the soundtrack in my personal hell), all right next to where we were playing ball. PC got a little distracted when they did stretches, but we persevered.

[tags]basketball, wrist injury[/tags]

That fresh-from-the-dentist's-needle feeling

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I guess I should have known this was coming: when Nellie was sick for five days, many of which were spent lying in bed and/or not going to work, it was only a matter of time before I got hit too. I felt it coming Thursday, started sneezing yesterday but managed to get through dinner at Fieramosca last night, and then finally got punched in the head this morning. Now I’m rifling through Kleenex and sucking cough drops that are making my entire tongue & mouth numb. Summer colds suck.

Luckily I don’t have that much to do today…maybe this is a good excuse to watch some of the movies clogging up the PVR.

[tags]summer cold[/tags]

With my feet in the air and my head on the ground

Dan Dickinson3 Comments

Sorry internet, I’ve been too busy to blog lately. Work is devouring most of my time, so it’s probably a good thing I’ve dropped any pretense of putting effort into the MBA. Also, daylight saving time is wreaking havoc on my brain-clock, making it hard to keep up with my usual distractions.  Thus, you shall get brief notes instead of piercing insights.*

  • I don’t really know how two Kara Keith songs ended up in my inbox, but I like the songs I’ve heard so far. I suspect I downloaded them via Chromewaves.
  • The last time Montreal was first in their conference this late in the season was 1993, which was also the last year they won the cup. I’m just sayin’. Weird thing about that year, though; they wound up finishing third in their division (let alone conference) behind Quebec and Boston, both of whom were powerhouses, and then won the cup.
  • Last night we took the cats to the vet (which I kind of enjoyed, ’cause it gave me an excuse to leave work at 5) and found out that Sonny, the one we refer to as “fatty”, “fat boy”, “sir fatness”, etc. has lost weight. He’s now a sleek, slim 17 lbs. I guess all those nights of threatening to kill him as he howled for food have paid off.
  • Thanks to ModernMod for sending me the Frames‘ cover of “Where Is My Mind.” I’ve been listening to it constantly.
  • My toe is…well, weird. It’s still the color of violent rage, but it’s not hurting. I ran two miles on it this morning, in brand new shoes, and hardly felt anything. This is my first broken pinky toe so I’m not really sure whether this is standard, and just ask me if I can be arsed to look anything up on WebMD.

* as if you ever get piercing insights here.

[tags]kara keith, montreal canadiens, fat cats, the frames, where is my mind, broken pinky toe[/tags]

"Because, brother, when you were good, you were the best we had."

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The Wire is dead. Long live The Wire.

I agree with the critics who say it was the best show on television during its run. Each of the first four seasons was the best show I’ve seen related to whatever topic they were portraying that year: police, blue collar workers, politics, schools.

If you haven’t watched it, I beg you to go rent season 1; by the time you finish watching season 4 the final season should be available on DVD.

.:.

So while my toe does appear to be broken — or at least really badly sprained, ’cause it’s the color of an angry plum right now — it’s more or less stopped hurting. I might actually try running on it tomorrow or Wednesday if I can get it into my new shoes without hurting.

.:.

If you have ten minutes and thirty-five seconds to spare, I recommend downloading and listening to “Ghost Blues” by Ladyhawk.

[tags]the wire, broken toe, saucony running shoes, ladyhawk, ghost blues[/tags]

"It would be Wolfmother instead of Wolf Parade, Darkness instead of Lightning Bolts"

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I like this recent development of traditional media linking out to local event sites for more in-depth coverage. It’s especially helpful in cases where user-generated content (like all the photos of this week’s fire on Queen Street) is better and/or more plentiful than the professionally-gathered stuff.

.:.

I don’t know what it says about the internet (or, erm, me) that, just by reading her blog at NPR, I’ve developed a crush on Carrie Brownstein, a gay woman I’ve never met. I sense this could be difficult relationship.

.:.

I can feel myself getting sick. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, since everyone around at work is sick, but c’mon…I was just sick. Super crazy mondo sick. Hell ass balls sick. I cannot be sick again, not with an assignment due Monday and work running somewhere north of murderous. I cannot. I shall not.

[coughs]

Goddammit.

[tags]blogto, toronto star, carrie brownstein, cold season[/tags]

I'm a real Torontonian now

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I’m a little sore right now.

This morning I had to take a cab to a meeting north of the city. As we drove east on Adelaide, moving at a pretty good clip, we approached the light at Parliament. I could see that it was red, but we were driving like it was green. I don’t think the cabbie clued in; around the time that I started to say, “Hey, that light…” a dump truck came into view, heading south into the same intersection that we were about to cruise into. The cabbie jammed on the brakes and tried to curl left around the truck, but he didn’t quite make it. The cab slammed into the truck’s rear tires.

I had plenty of warning; I clearly figured out that the red-light situation before the driver did. I had lots of time to brace, and we were probably only doing 30km/h or so by the time we hit the truck, but I still went into the seat belt pretty hard. Fortunately I didn’t hit my head on anything, and didn’t feel whiplash-y at all. It didn’t even freak me out all that much; I just angrily told the cabbie (who was fine, but clearly a little disoriented) to call dispatch and send me another cab. The front end was pretty much trashed. I crossed the street to the south side and talked to the truck driver. He was fine, obviously, and so was his truck. He was just annoyed at being held up with the accident report. Anyway, I still had to get to my meeting, so I climbed in the replacement taxi and headed north.

Midway through the day some soreness started to set in. No muscular pain or pinched-nerve feeling (which is something that would worry me), just some soreness through my shoulder and chest muscles. Really, it just feels like I lifted a whole bunch of weight all at once, from tensing up and bracing like that. My boss sent me home from the meeting early; I decided against a sitting in the chairs at a walk-in clinic (or even Advil) and just laid down for a while to straighten out. Felt fine after an hour. My back hurts a little now, but I actually think that’s ’cause I don’t have my new chair adjusted properly yet.

Anyway, I guess being in a minor accident makes me just a little more Torontonian, even if I wasn’t driving. Thanks, Beck Taxi #725.

[tags]beck taxi, accident, adelaide, parliament, dump truck[/tags]

Wouldn't a sky god prefer, I don't know, an ostrich or something?

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

I hereby declare tonight “the calm before the storm.”

.:.

Quechup sucks. I say that not because of their actual social networking site (ever tried it) but because of their dickish ways of spreading themselves around. They screwed my brother and several other friends, all of whom accidentally spammed every contact in their address book thanks to Quechup. A quick Technorati search finds lots of other pissed off victims too.

Quechup sucks. Spread the word.

.:.

Naomi Klein, author of No Logo, has a new book out called Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. There’s a short film that accompanies the book, directed by Alfonso Cuarón (who also directed the excellent Children Of Men). It’s only 6.30 in length, so I urge you to pop over to YouTube and spend a few minutes with it.

.:.

This story about Nepal’s state-run airline boggles the mind and turns the stomach:

Officials at Nepal’s state-run airline have sacrificed two goats to appease Akash Bhairab, the Hindu sky god, following technical problems with one of its Boeing 757 aircraft, the carrier said Tuesday.

I find it horrifying that any religion would call for animal sacrifice. I find it equally horrifying that a mechanic could believe strongly enough in the sky god that, just maybe, they skimp on the actual mechanical repairs ’cause they figure old SG has it covered.

Separation of church and aviation industry. You heard it here first.

[via Rick Segal]

.:.

I think Rick Rubin may have been possessed by the ghost of Johnny Cash when he tore a strip off his own record label, and trashed the music industry as a whole.

.:.

Injury update: my wrist is nearly healed. I’m about 99% pain-free, feeling twinges only when I jam my hand on something or flick it sharply (like when I’m making the bed and I snap the sheet). It’s still a little swollen, so I can’t push my hand into a right angle with my arm without pain, but for the most part it’s ok. My first broken bone, and I’d have to say I got off pretty easy.
[tags]quechup sucks, naomi klein, alfonso cuaron, shock doctrine, nepal, akash bhairab, rick rubin, broken wrist[/tags]

[Braveheart] Freedom!! [/Braveheart]

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

The cast came off around noon today. It feels good to have my opposable digit back. Simple things like being able to write and tie my own shoes feel like significant accomplishments. Best of all, there was no nasty odor as some people had predicted there would be. I have, however, scraped several layers of dead skin off my hand. Pretty.

My wrist is still pretty sore, as if I just sprained it yesterday. I don’t need rehab, but I think I’ll keep wrapping it for a while.

.:.

Today, while waiting to see the doctor, I finished The Tipping Point. I liked it a lot; I think I’ll just go straight to Blink next.

[tags]broken wrist, malcolm gladwell, tipping point, blink[/tags]

The waiting game

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Sitting in the fracture clinic waiting room. I’ve been here since 8:45, almost two hours. Last time it was much faster than this, and my CT scan earlier this morning was superfast. I guess I was due for a long hospital wait.

If they just glance at it and tell me I have to leave the cast on, I’m gonna punch somebody leftie-style.

[tags]broken wrist, st. mike’s hospital[/tags]

First rule of order: no more tuna

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No matter how shitty a day you have — and believe me, I had a shitty day — these two things can make it a little bit better:  “No Pussy Blues” by Grinderman and a little lolcat action.

.:.

Man alive, it’s hard to function without your thumb. Buttoning a shirt, signing your name, tying your freaking shoes…all nigh unto impossible. Seriously, I’m convinced that our development of opposable digits is the only thing that’s keeping us in control of the planet right now. If dolphins (or even Jack Russell terriers) ever get thumbs, we are in serious trouble.

I, for one, welcome our delphinine overlords.

.:.

Britain has asked Israel to re-open the case of James Miller, a reporter who was shot by an Israeli officer while filming in Gaza four years ago. I blogged about this three years ago after watching a documentary about Miller on the first anniversary of his death. It was one more tragic story from a region rife with them. This appeal will surely cause an outcry in Israel, but one has to admire Britain’s doggedness in seeking justice for one of her citizens.

[tags]grinderman, lolcat, opposable digits, james miller[/tags]